Spacehounds of IPC

urn to

ountain, talking with Stevens, who, dressed in his bulging space-suit, stood near an airlock of the Forlorn Hope. "It seems a

ut even their fields, dense as they are, can't hold an ultra-beam together much farther than about six astronomical units. So you see we can't possibly reach our friends from here with this tube; and your system of beam transmission won't hold anything together even that far, and won't work on any wave shor

pon Tellus because of your high temperature. It is nothing but nitrogen-twenty-six

ystalline, pentavalent nitro

r, but I am afraid that it would prove of little value

e life-boats are insulated from the structure proper, and the inner and outer walls of the structure are insulated f

o, and therefore may be attached to the outer wall of your

ere dumped boxes and barrels of dry ingredients and many cans of sparkling liquid. The resultant paste was pumped upon the steel plating in a sluggish, viscid stream, which spread out into a thick and uniform coating beneath the flying rollers of the s

ere it is very hot, for it will explode and demolish your vessel. If you do not use them, destroy them before you descend into the hot atmosphere of Ganymede. The mirror will v

need any more built, be sure to let us know-you can come close enough to the inner planets now on your own beam to talk to us on the ult

Forlorn Hope into the blue-green sky of Titan, accompanied by an escort of the mirrored globes. Well clear of the atmosphere of the satellite, the terrestria

e're off-on a l

e pee-lo," Nadia agreed. "Sure

r we want to draw, we won't need to touch our batteries or tap our own beam until we're almost to Jupiter. To cap the climax, what it takes to make big me

is it goin

p days," and the two wanderers from far-distant Earth set

flew into the black-and-brilliant depths of interplanetary space. Saturn was an ever-diminishing disk beneath them: above them was Jupiter's thin crescent, growing e

e various compartments of the Forlorn Hope there were sundry small motors, blowers, coils, condensers, force-field generators, and other items which Stevens could use with little or no alteration; but for the most part he had to bu

power to hold our acceleration at normal-think I'll cut now, while we're still drawing enough to let the Titanians know we're off their beam. We've g

me we get there. Shall I detour, or put on a little mor

r away we stay from Jupiter and t

etter start standing watches,

yway. We probably won't know they're within a million kilometers until they put a beam on us. Barkovis says that this mirror will reflect any beam they can use, and I've already got a set of photo-cells in circuit to ring an alarm at the first flash off of our mirror plating. I'd like to get in the first l

structure. There he attacked the inner wall of their vessel, and the carefully established inter-wa

he had re-entered the control room. "Now you

s, and only one enemy was dealing it out. We can stand more than they could, of course, but the mirror itself won't stand much more heat than it was absorbing then. But with air in those spaces instead of vacuum, and with the whole mass of the Hope, except this one lifeboat, as co

at point-blank range! One was already playing a beam of force upon the Forlorn Hope, and the other five went into action immediately upon feeling the detector impulses and perceiving that the weapon of their sister ship had encountered an unusual resistance in the material of that peculiarly mirrored wedge. As those terrific forces struck

bs after discovering that their beams were useless against the unknown protective covering of those mirrored shells. There were four practically simultaneous detonations-silent, but terrific explosions as the pent-up internal energy of solid pentavalent nitrogen was instantaneously released-and the four insensately murderous spheres disappeared into jagged fragments of wreckage, flying wildly away from the centers of explosion. One great mass of riven and twisted metal was blown directly upon the fifth globe, and Nadia stare

n of the void. "I've had a lot of curiosity to know just what kind of unnatural monstrosities can possibly have such fiendish dispositions as they've got-but beasts, men or devils, they'll find they've grabbed something this time

ppling slicing beams instead of its more deadly weapons of total destruction; and so fierce and hard had been Stevens' counter-attack that five of its numbers had been destroyed before they realized what powerful ar

ser and closer Stevens drove the fourfold menace of his frightful dirigible bombs. Pressor beams beat upon them in vain. Hard driven as those pushers were, they could find no footing, but were reflected at many angles by that untouchable mirror and their utmost force scarcely impeded the progress of the rocket-propelled missiles. Comparative

nd exploded. So close were the other three bombs, that they also let go at the shock; and the warlike sphere, hemmed in by four centers of explosions, flew apart-literally pulverized. Its projectile, so barely discharged, did not explode-it was loaded with material which could be detonated only by the warhead upon impact or by a radio signal. It was, however, deflec

-breaks, and compartment after compartment of accumulator cells. These had borne the brunt of the explosion, so that

urt, Steve-can we m

studying with him the pictures of destruction there portraye

ant, I think. You see, we're drifting straight for where Ganymede will be, and we'd better cut out every bit of power we're using, even the heaters, until we get there. This lifeboat will hold heat for qui

anyway? They may have se

obably think we're meteoric, since we'll be dead to their other instruments. Luckily we've got lots of air, so the chemical purifiers can handle it without power. I'll shut off everything and we'll

r what you told me about their possible visir

atmosphere of Ganymede, will you?" He opened all the power switches, and, every source of e

take an observation upon Ganymede. Several such brief glimpses were taken; then, after a warning word to his companion, he sent out and exploded the nitrogen bombs. He then threw on the power, and the vessel leaped toward t

's that falls, our power plant, the catapults, 'n' everything. Now, unless somethin

ou got to do before y

of our teeth, I'll begin to wish that we had started out at first to drift it back to Tellus in the Hope. Let's see how much time we've got. We should start shooting one day after an eclipse, so that we'll have five days to send. You

g star now; you can't

e's never there for more than a week or two at a stretch. They'

ou possibly hop

ually stay within a couple of million kilometers or so of the Ecliptic, so we'll start at the sun and shoot our beam in a spiral to cover that

lanning on telegraphing st

urse-I'll have an automatic s

ts which he had built during the long journey from Titan to Ganymede. Therefore, at sunrise of the designated day, he was ready, and, with Nadia hang

lessly the message was poured out into the ether, carried by a tight beam of ultra-vibrations a

t say? I can

brief message, but Nadi

It isn't addressed to anybody, it isn't signed-

t it all while the beam's on 'em-it isn't as though we were broadcasting. It doesn't need any address, because nobody but the Sirius can receive it-except possibly the Jovians. Th

hat even if they don't live here, that they can find our beam some way? Or suppose that Brandon hasn't got his machine built ye

ainly didn't land on this satellite. As you suggest, however, it is conceivable that they may have detector screens delicate enough to locate our beam at a distance; but since in all probability that means a distance of hundreds of thousands of kilometers, I think it highly improbable. We've got to take the same risk anyway, no matter what we do, whenever we start to use any kind of driving power, so

ere on the Arcturus, of course-and they knew that if you were alive you'd manage in some way to get in touch with them. And you, away out here

thing complimentary to himself in her remark. "Wait until you meet them. They're men, Nadia-real men.

et his steadily. "You didn't mean t

rt! But knowing myself a

nstead of you, or both of them together, we'd have been here f

r turn to bac

to equal you in some things. Brandon says himself that he a

Neither of them will admit that he knows anyth

the other planets to study-to Mars, where they had to live in space-suits all the time, and to Venus, where they had to take ultra-violet treatments every day to keep alive. How they learned everything that everybody else

than I am, and he weighs close to a hundred kilograms-and no lard, either. He's wild, impetuous, always jumping at conclusions and working out theories that seem absolutely ridiculous, but they're usually sound

those two-I'd lots rather rave about you, and with m

they are, so that even if they got the first one and answered it instantly, it would be eighty minutes before we

ndeed, very little work was done t

but they felt no desire to sleep. Instead, they went out in front of the steel wall, where Stevens built a small campfire.

c relays on Tellus, to save me the trouble of hunting for them, but like an idiot I never thought of it until

ite a job,

y a few

one enough for one day-maybe yo

g Jupiter, an enormous moon some

a prodigious moon! Look at the stripes,

. The ultra-receiver had come to life and the sounder was chattering insanely-s

s style anywhere," Stevens shouted

says, quick, Stev

is hand was flying over the paper, racin

th going tellus first send full data spreading beam to cover circle fifteen forty quince suggests possibility this message intercepted and translat

ptly and stared at t

ten-keep on writin

e sense. It sounds intelligent-it's made up of real symbols

ng mush on purpose. R

with no perceptible break the si

are better scholars than we are sig

they were both incoherent for a minute-Nadia glorifying the exploits of her lover, Stevens crediting the girl herself and his two fellow-scientists with whatever success had

t be even more penetrating than Roeser's Rays, to have such a range,

rth order-but they're very much shorter, and hence more penetrating. In fact, they're t

t there somewhere that intercepts our b

l. It isn't like hitting the Sirius, because we knew within pretty narrow limits where to look for her, and even at that we had to hunt for her for half a day before we hit her. We're probably s

of perfume, a barrel of powder, and a carload of Delray's Fantasie chocola

nd I want some

nged and detailed scientific discussion of the enemy and their offensive and defensive weapons. He dwelt precisely and at length upon the functioning of everything he had seen. Though during the long months of their isolation he

medicine. Call us occasionally, to keep us informed as to when to expect you, but don't call too often. We don't want them

fee while he sat at the key; and it was almost daylight when he finally shut off the power and a

. Nothing to do now but wait, and study up on our own account on those Jovians' rays. This ha