us.’.
“You understand the orders,-obey them or die!”
17 QUEDRIN RADNOR RETALIATES
Very near to Valeron, as space distances go, yet so far away in terms of miles that he
could take no active part whatever in the proceedings, Quedrin Radnor sat tense at his
controls, staring into his visiplate. Even before Klynor Siblin had lifted his rocket plane off
the ground, Radnor had opened his throttle wide. Then, his ship hurtling at full drive
toward home, everything done that he could do, he sat and watched.
Watched, a helpless spectator. Watched while Siblin made his futilely spectacular attack;
watched the gallant plane’s destruction; watched the capture of the brave but foolhardy
pilot; watched the rolling up and compression of the Chloran dome; watched in agony the
obliteration of everything, animate and inanimate, pertaining to the outlying village;
watched in horrified relief the departure of the invading space ship.
Screaming through the sir, her outer plating white hot from its friction, her forward rocket
tubes bellowing a vicious crescendo, Radnor braked his ship savagely to a landing in the
dock beside the machine shop in which she had been built. During that long return voyage
his mind had not been idle. Not only had he decided what to do, he had also made rough
sketches and working drawings of the changes which must be made in his peaceful
space ship to make of her a superdreadnought of the void.
Nor was this as difficult an undertaking as might be supposed. She already had power
enough and to spare, her generators and converters being able to supply, hundreds of
times over, her maximum present drain; and, because of the ever-present danger of
collision with meteorites, she was already amply equipped with repellor screens and with
automatically tripped zones of force. Therefore all that was necessary was the
installation of the required offensive armament-beam projectors, torpedo tubes, fields of
force, controls, and the like-the designing of which was a simple matter for the brain
which had tamed to man’s everyday use the ultimately violent explosiveness of intra-
atomic energy.
Radnor first made sure that the machine-shop superintendent, master mechanic, and
foreman understood the sketches fully and knew precisely what was to be done. Then,
confident that the new projectors would project and that the as yet nonexistent oxygen
bombs would explode with their theoretical violence, he hurried to the office of the
Bardyle. Already gathered there was a portentous group. Besides the coordinator there
were scientists, engineers, architects, and beam specialists, as well as artists, teachers,
and philosophers. The group, while not large, was thoroughly representative of Valeron’s
mental, intellectual, and scientific culture. Each member of the Council Extraordinary was
unwontedly serious of mien, for each knew well what horror his world was facing.
Warned by the utter, unreasoning wantonness of the destruction wrought by the
Chlorans, each knew that the high civilization of Valeron, so long attuned to the arts of
peace that strife had become almost unthinkable, must now devote its every effort to the
grim and hateful business of war.
“Greetings, Quedrin Radnor!” began the Bardyle. “Your plan for the defense of Valeron
has been adopted, with a few minor alterations and additions suggested by other
technical experts. It has been decided, however, that your proposed punitive visit to
Chlora cannot be approved. As matters now stand it can be only an expedition of
retaliation and vengeance, and as such can in no wise advance our cause.”
“Very well, Oh Bardylel It is . . .” Radnor, trained from infancy in cooperation, was
accepting the group decision as a matter of course when he was interrupted by an
emergency call from his own laboratory. An assistant, returning to the temporarily
deserted building, had found the message of Klynor Siblin and had known that it should
be given immediate attention.
“Please relay it to us here, at once,” Radnor instructed; and, when the message had
been delivered:
“Fellow councilors, I believe that this word from Klynor Siblin will operate to change your
decision against my proposed flight to Chlora. With these incomplete facts and data to
guide me I shall be able to study intelligently the systems of offense and of defense
employed by the enemy, and shall then be in position to strengthen immeasurably our
own armament. Furthermore, Siblin was alive within the hour-there may yet be some
slight chance of saving his life in spite of what he has said.”
The Bardyle glanced once around the circle of tense faces, reading in them the
consensus of opinion without having recourse to speech.
“Your point is well taken, Councilor Quedrin, and for the sake of acquiring knowledge
your flight is approved,” he said slowly. “Provided, however-and this is a most important
proviso-that you can convince us that there is a reasonable certainty of your safe return.
Klynor Siblin had, of course, no idea that he would be captured. Nevertheless, the
Chlorans took him, and his life is probably forfeit. You must also agree not to jeopardize
your life in any attempt to rescue your friend unless you have every reason to believe that
such an attempt will prove successful. We are insisting upon these assurances because
your scientific ability will be of inestimable value to Valeron in this forthcoming struggle,
and therefore your life must at all hazards be preserved.”
“To the best of my belief and ability my safe return is certain,” replied Radnor positively.
“Siblings plane, used only for low-speed atmospheric flying, had no defenses whatever
and so fell easy prey to the Chlorans’ attack. My ship, however, was built to navigate
space, in which it may meet at any time meteorites traveling at immensely high velocities,
and is protected accordingly. She already had four courses of high-powered repeller
screens, the inside course of which, upon being punctured, automatically throws around
her a zone of force.
“This zone, as most of you know, sets up a stasis in the ether itself, and thus is not only
absolutely impervious to and unaffected by any material substance, however applied, but
is also opaque to any vibration or wave-form propagated through the ether. In addition to
these defenses I am now installing screens capable of neutralizing any offensive force
with which I am familiar, as well as certain other armament, the plans of all of which are
already in your possession, to be employed in the general defense.
“I agree also to your second condition.”
“Such being the case your expedition is approved,” the Bardyle said, and Radnor made
his way back to the machine shop.
His first care was to tap Siblin’s beam, but his call elicited no response. Those
ultrainstruments were then lying neglected in a corner of an air-filled room upon far
Chlora, where the almost soundless voice of the tiny receiver went unheard. Setting upon
his receiver a relay alarm to inform him of any communication from Siblin, Radnor joined
the men who were smoothly and efficiently re-equipping his vessel.
In a short time the alterations were done, and, armed now to the teeth with vibratory and
with solid and gaseous destruction, he lifted his warship into the air, grimly determined to
take the war into the territory of the enemy.
He approached the inimical planet cautiously, knowing that their cities would not be
undefended, as were those of his own world, and fearing that they might have alarms
and detector screens of which he could know nothing. Poised high above the outermost
layer of that noxious atmosphere he studied for a long time every visible feature of the
world before him.
In this survey he employed an ordinary, old-fashioned telescope instead of his infinitely
more powerful and maneuverable visirays, because the use of the purely optical instru-
ment obviated the necessity of sending out forces which the Chlorans might be able to
detect. He found the diamond shaped ocean and the elliptical lake without difficulty, and
placed his vessel with care. He then cut off his every betraying force and his ship plunged
downward, falling freely under the influence of gravity.
Directly over the city Radnor actuated his braking rockets, and as they burst into their
staccato thunder his hands fairly flashed over his controls. Almost simultaneously he
scattered broadcast his cargo of bombs, threw out a vast hemisphere of force to confine
the gas they would release, activated his spy ray, and cut in the generators of his awful
offensive beams.
The bombs were simply large flasks of metal, so built as to shatter upon impact, and
they contained only oxygen under pressure-but what a pressure! Five thousand Vale-
ronian atmospheres those flasks contained. Well over seventy-five thousand pounds to
the square inch in our ordinary terms, that pressure was one handled upon Earth only in
high-pressure laboratories. Spreading widely to cover almost the whole circle of the city’s
expanse, those terrific canisters hurtled to the ground and exploded with all the
devastating might of the high-explosive shells which in effect they were.
But the havoc they wrought as demolition bombs was neither their only nor their greatest