Invaders from the Infinite Read online

  Chapter VIII

  UNDEFEATABLE OR UNCONTROLLABLE?

  Fifteen minutes after they started, they came to Shesto. They wereforced to land, and explain, for their relux ship was decidedly not thepopular Talsonian idea of a life-saver.

  Shesto was defended by two of the machines, and each machine had beenequipped with two fully charged accumulators. Their four possible shotswere hoped to be sufficient protection, and, so far, had been. The cityhad been attacked twice, according to Tho Stan Drel, the Talsonian: onceby a single ship which had been instantly destroyed, and once by a fleetof six ships. The interval had permitted time to recharge the dischargedaccumulator, and the fleet had been badly treated. Of the six ships,four had been brought down in rapid succession, and the remaining twoships had fled.

  When the first city had been wiped out, with a loss of life well in thehundreds of thousands, the other cities had, to limit of theirabilities, set up the protective apparatus. Apparently the Thessianswere holding off for the present.

  "In a way," said Morey seriously, "it was distinctly fortunate that wewere attacked almost at once. Their instantaneous system of destructionwould have worked for the one shot needed to send the _Ancient Mariner_to eternal blazes." He laughed, but it was a slightly nervous laugh.

  The terrestrial ship landed in a great grassy court, and out of respectfor the parklike smoothness of the turf, Arcot left the ship on itspower units, suspended a bit above the surface. Then he, Morey and theTalsonian left the ship. Zezdon Afthen was left with the ship and withWade in charge, for if some difficulties were encountered, Wade would beable to help them with the ship, and Zezdon Afthen with the tremendouspower of his thought locating apparatus, was busy seeking out theThessian stronghold.

  A party of men of Talso met the terrestrians outside the ship.

  "Welcome, Men of another world, and to you go our thanks for thedestruction of one of our enemies." The clear thoughts of the spokesmanevinced his ability to concentrate.

  "And to your world must go our thanks for saving of our lives, and moreimportant, our ship," replied Arcot. "For the ship represents a thing ofenormous value to this entire star-system."

  "I see--understand--your--thoughts that you wish to learn more of thisweapon we use. You understand that it is a question among us as towhether it is undefeatable, uncontrollable or just un-understandable. Wehave had fair success with it. It is not a weapon, was not developed assuch; it was an experiment in the line of electric-waves. How it works,what it is, what happens--we do not know.

  "But men who can create so marvelous a ship as this of yours, capable ofdestroying a ship of the Thessians with their own weapons must certainlybe able to understand any machine we may make--and you have power?" hefinished eagerly.

  "Practically infinite power. I will throw into any power line yousuggest, all the direct current you wish." Arcot's thoughts were purereflection, but the Talsonian brightened at once.

  "I feared it might be alternating--but we can handle direct current. Allour transmission is done at high voltage direct current. What potentialdo you generate? Will we have to install changers?"

  "We generate D.C. at any voltage up to fifty million, any power up tothat needed to lift ten trillion men through their own height in thistime a second." The power represented approximately twenty trillionhorsepower.

  The Talsonian's face went blank with amazement as he looked at the ship."In that tiny thing you generate such power?" he asked in amazement.

  "In that tiny ship we generate more than one million times that power,"Arcot said.

  "Our power troubles are over," declared the military man emphatically.

  "Our troubles are not over," replied a civilian who had joined theparty, with equal emphasis. "As a matter of fact, they are worse thanever. More tantalizing. What he says means that we have a tremendouspower source, but it is in one spot. How are you going to transmit thepower? We can't possibly move any power anywhere near that amount. Wecouldn't touch it to our lines without having them all go up in oneinstantaneous blaze of glory.

  "We cannot drain such a lake of power through our tiny power pipes ofsilver."

  "This man is Stel Felso Theu," said Tho Stan Drel. "The greatest of ourscientists, the man who has invented this weapon which alone seems tooffer us hope. And I am afraid he is right. See, there is theUniversity. For the power requirements of their laboratories, a heavypower line has been installed, and it was hoped that you could carryleads into it." His face showed evident despair greater than ever.

  "We can always feed some power into the lines. Let us see just what hopethere is. I think that it would be wiser to investigate the power linesat once," suggested Morey.

  Ten minutes later, with but a single officer now accompanying them, ThoStan Drel, the terrestrial scientist, and the Talsonian scientist wereinspecting the power installation.

  They had entered a large stone building, into which led numerous veryheavy silver wires. The insulators were silicate glass. Their heightsuggested a voltage of well over one hundred thousand, and such heavycables suggested a very heavy amperage, so that a tremendous load wasexpected.

  Within the building were a series of gigantic glass tubes, their wallsfully three inches thick, and even so, braced with heavy platinum rods.Inside the tubes were tremendous elements such as the tiny tubes oftheir machine carried. Great cables led into them, and now their heatingcoils were glowing a somberly deep red.

  Along the walls were the switchboards, dozens of them, all sizes, alltypes of instruments, strange to the eyes of the terrestrians, and inpractically all the light-beam indicator system was used, no metallicpointers, but tiny mirrors directing a very fine line of brilliant lightacted as a needle. The system thus had practically no inertia.

  "Are these the changers?" asked Arcot gazing at the gigantic tubes.

  "They are; each tube will handle up to a hundred thousand volts," saidStel Felso Theu.

  "But I fear, Stel Felso Theu, that these tubes will carry power only oneway; that is, it would be impossible for power to be pumped from hereinto the power house, though the process can be reversed," pointed outArcot. "Radio tubes work only one way, which is why they can act asrectifiers. The same was true of these tubes. They could carry power oneway only."

  "True, of tubes in general," replied the Talsonian, "and I see by thatthat you know the entire theory of our tubes, which is rather abstruse."

  "We use them on the ship, in special form," interrupted Arcot.

  "Then I will only say that the college here has a very complete electricpower plant of its own. On special occasions, the power generated hereis needed by the city, and so we arranged the tubes with switches whichcould reverse the flow. At present they are operating to pour power intothe city.

  "If your ship can generate such tremendous power, I suspect that itwould be wiser to eliminate the tubes from the circuit, for they putcertain restrictions on the line. The main power plant in the city hastube banks capable of handling anything the line would. I suggest thatyour voltage be set at the maximum that the line will carry withoutbreakdown, and the amperage can be made as high as possible without heatloss."

  "Good enough. The line to the city power will stand what pressure?"

  "It is good for the maximum of these tubes," replied the Talsonian.

  "Then get into communication with the city plant and tell them toprepare for every work-unit they can carry. I'll get the generator."Arcot turned, and flew on his power suit to the ship.

  In a few moments he was back, a molecular pistol in one hand, andsuspended in front of him on nothing but a ray of ionized air, to allappearances, a cylindrical apparatus, with a small cubical base.

  The cylinder was about four feet long, and the cubical box abouteighteen inches on a side.

  "What is that, and what supports it?" asked the Talsonian scientists insurprise.

  "The thing is supported by a ray which directs the molecules of a smallbar in the top clamp, driving it up," explained Morey, "and t
hat is thegenerator."

  "That! Why it is hardly as big as a man!" exclaimed the Talsonian.

  "Nevertheless, it can generate a billion horsepower. But you couldn'tget the power away if you did generate it." He turned toward Arcot, andcalled to him.

  "Arcot--set it down and let her rip on about half a million horsepowerfor a second or so. Air arc. Won't hurt it--she's made of lux andrelux."

  Arcot grinned, and set it on the ground. "Make an awful hole in theground."

  "Oh--go ahead. It will satisfy this fellow, I think," replied Morey.

  Arcot pulled a very thin lux metal cord from his pocket, and attachedone end of a long loop to one tiny switch, and the other to a second.Then he adjusted three small dials. The wire in hand, he retreated to adistance of nearly two hundred feet, while Morey warned the Talsoniansback. Arcot pulled one end of his cord.

  Instantly a terrific roar nearly deafened the men, a solid sheet ofblinding flame reached in a flaming cone into the air for nearly fiftyfeet. The screeching roar continued for a moment, then the heat was sointense that Arcot could stand no more, and pulled the cord. The flamedied instantly, though a slight ionization clung briefly. In a moment ithad cooled to white, and was cooling slowly through orange--reddeep--red--

  The grass for thirty feet about was gone, the soil for ten feet aboutwas molten, boiling. The machine itself was in a little crater, halfsunk in boiling rock. The Talsonians stared in amazement. Then a sort ofsigh escaped them and they started forward. Arcot raised his molecularpistol, a blue green ray reached out, and the rock suddenly was black.It settled swiftly down, and a slight depression was the only evidenceof the terrific action.

  Arcot walked over the now cool rock, cooled by the action of themolecular ray. In driving the molecules downward, the work was done bythe heat of these molecules. The machine was frozen in the solid lava.

  "Brilliant idea, Morey," said Arcot disgustedly. "It'll be a nice jobbreaking it loose."

  Morey stuck the lux metal bar in the top clamp, walked off somedistance, and snapped on the power. The rock immediately about themachine was molten again. A touch of the molecular pistol to the luxmetal bar, and the machine jumped free of the molten rock.

  Morey shut off the power. The machine was perfectly clean, and extremelyhot.

  "And your ship is made of that stuff!" exclaimed the Talsonianscientist. "What will destroy it?"

  "Your weapon will, apparently."

  "But do you believe that we have power enough?" asked Morey with asmile.

  "No--it's entirely too much. Can you tone that condensed lightning boltdown to a workable level?"