Skylark Three

st

inations of switching devices connected to electrical timers, and spent hours trying, with all his marvelous quickness of muscular control, to cut shorter and ever shorter the time between the opening and the clos

a recording observer on us. Even if they still have rays on us, they can't possibly neutralize our screens in that short an exposure. All right,

flashed in the black void for an

Margaret. "Right here-he cove

could, the exact position of the object

tographs to locate him. He hasn't a single ray on us, either. That bird's goose is cooked right now, folks, unless every man on watch has his h

, hands moving faster than the eye could follow-the left closing and opening the switch controlling the zone of force, the right swinging the steering controls to all points of the sphere. The mighty vessel staggered this way and that, jerking and straining terribly as the zone was thrown on and off, lurching sickening

even shorter than the other one-and a lot more decisive. Let'

nough to be navigable or dangerous and each was sharply cut, as though sheared from its neighbor by some gigantic

co-ordination and instantaneous timing under extreme

ved all our lives

art did most of it, you know. I'd have gummed up everything back t

around each other because of their mutual gravitational forces. Snapping on a searchlight, he swung its beam around, and as it settled upo

emarked regretfully. "However, it was either

or as he applied the power-for at a signal each of the hooded figures had l

Ray six, "the softener," was a band of frequencies extending from violet far up into the ultra-violet. When driven with sufficient power, this ray destroyed eyesight and nervous tissue, and its power increased still further, actually loosened the molecular structure of matter. Ray two-seven was operated in a range of frequencies far below the visible red. It was pure heat-under its action matter became hotter and hotter as long as it was applied, the upper limit being only the theoretical maximum of temperature. Ray fi

f men they were-literally vanished. One moment they were outlined starkly in the beam; there was a moment of searing, coruscating, blinding light-the next moment the beam bored on i

" Seaton remarked, as he shut off the force a

t the point where the force of those peculiar magnets was exactly balanced by the outward thrust of the repellers. By manipulating the attractor holding

o I guess I won't play with it much un

e?" asked Margaret. "What a

ind out how to build one exactly like it. This old can is now as obsolete as a 1920 flivver, and I'm going to make us

safe unless we have the most powerful and most efficient space-ship possible. However,

his brain until after we've read it, though, so there's no particular hurry about him. We'll leave him out there for a while,

t slowly through almost a semi-circle before anything was seen. Then there was revealed

s what is left of her, and most of

n flashes played upon the bag

but Dunark and Sitar got away-

ed the air into a pressure-tank, and opened the outside door. He threw a light line to the two figures and pushed himself lightly toward them. He then talked briefly to Dunark in the hand-l

ressure decrease gradually to that of the terrestrial

lives," Dunark began, gasping for breath, when S

o. We can stand yours all right, but you'd pretty nearly pass out on ours.

ased the power of the screens to the extreme limit and opened the zone for a moment to see how the screens would hold with the added power. That instant was enough. In that period a concentrated beam, such as I had no idea could ever be ge

wore them all the time as regular equipment, apparently. Next time we get into

draw us back to it. We just got back a few minutes ago. That air-blast is probably what saved us, as they destroyed our vessel with atomic bombs and hunted down the four men of our crew, who stayed comparatively close to the scene. They rayed you for about an hour with the most stupendous beams imaginable-no

nark. Well, Mart, what say we drag th

wer of the repellers. As he approached the lock various controls were actuated, and soon the stranger stood in the c

hould go somewhere e

lushed with excitement, stood near a door, with a heavy aut

ors and repellers he had bearing upon the prisoner, "Now let's get him out of that

was very short and immensely broad and thick. By means of hollow needles forced through the leather-like material of the suit

-eight pounds-about the same as ours is, now that we ha

high percentage of water vapor. He took up a pair of heavy shears and laid the suit open full length, on both sides, knowing that the powerful attractors w

is arms were as large as a strong man's thigh and hung almost to the floor. His astounding shoulders, fully a yard across, merged into and supported an enormo

cking, cold. Plainly to be read in those sinister depths were the untold wisdom of unthinkable age, sheer ruthlessness, mighty power, and ferocity unrelieved. His baleful gaze swept from one member of the party to another, and to meet the g

ick, I think Peggy and I will go upst

ing to be pretty to watch-or t

and I might be very ill. Goodbye," and heartless and bloodthirsty Osno

check a couple of ideas with you two. Don't you think it's

dded agreement. "Any race capable of developing such a vessel as this woul

, and all about it. Also, I'm going to get the plans, power, and armament of their most modern ships, if he knows them, so that your gang, Dunark, can build us one like them; because the next boat that tackle

motionless head the captive sneered in pure contempt, but when the case was opened and the array of tubes and transformers was revealed, that expression disappeared; and when he adde

ing to put him on the recorder and on the visualizer," Seaton continued as he connected spools of wire and tape, lamps, and lenses in an intricate system and donned a headset. "I'd hate to have much o

flashed, and the wires and tapes

to have it. It's got a lot of stuff in it that I can't und

ns and the captive spoke, in

will gain no information from me. That machine of y

ccord. If you don't, I'll put on enough voltage to burn your brain out. Remember, I can read your dead brain as well as though it were alive, but I want your thoughts, as well as your knowledge, and I'm going to have them. If y

ons in their countless myriads of races upon the numberless planets of the Universe as you are above the inert metal from which this, your ship, was built. The Universe is ours, and in due course we shall take it-just as in due course I shall take this vessel. Do your worst; I sha

ards and spades in certain other lines which I am about to demonstrate. Being superman didn't keep the rest of your men from going out in my ray, and being a superman isn't going to save your brain. I am not depending upon

wer, merely glared de

own brain recorder, which projected a three-dimensional picture into the "viewing-area" or dark space of the cabinet. Crane and Dunark, tense and silent, looked on in strained suspense as, minute after minute, the silent battle of wills raged. Upon one side was a horrible and gi

upon the very innermost recesses of his mind. Crane and Dunark scarcely breathed as the three-dimensional picture in the visualizer varied from a blank to the hazy outlines of a giant space-cruiser. It faded out as the unknown exerted himself to withstand that poignant inquisition, only to come back in, clearer than before, as Seaton advanced the potentiometer still farther. Finally, flesh and blood could no

to an observatory far out in space for perfect seeing, and portrayed a reflecting telescope with a mirror five miles in diameter, capable of penetrating unimaginable myriads of light-years into space, "have tabulated all the suns, planets, and satellites belonging to this Galaxy, and each of you has been given a complete chart and assigned a certain area which he is to explore. Remember, gentlemen, that this first major expedition is to be purely one of exploration; the one

ok his station at an immense control board and the warship shot off insta

truction, its power-plant, its controls-every minute detail of structure, operation, a

the captain read the brain of one of Dunark's crew, gleaning from it all the facts concerning the two space-ships, and thought with him that the two absentees from the Kondal would drift back in a few hours, and would be disposed of in due course. They learned that these things were automatically impressed upon the torpedo next to issue, as was every detail of everything that happened in and around the vessel. They watched him impres

n, after a time skipped over by the mind under examination. "Cease raying-no use wasting powe

ge. Making his way to the fragment of his vessel containing the torpedo port, he released the messenger, which flew, with eve

ance a parsec is, since it is purely a mathematical concept; and you must have a watch or some similar instrument with which we can translate your years into ours. I don't

u shall learn no more. This is the most important of a

sand parsecs to go and that it would take two-tenths of a year to make the journey; that the warships which would come in answer to the message were as fast as the torpedo; that he did indeed have in his suit a wa

um suit and searched out the peculiar timepiece. They noted the exact time co

ere-longer than I'd dared hope. We've got to fight, too, not run. They figure on getting the Skylark, then volatilizing our world. Well, we can take time en

cator, turned on the power, and

tfully. "However that makes it easy to get what we want, and we'd have had to

mile after mile of tape sped between the magnets as Seaton e

gleaned and recorded upon the flying tape, he removed the body of the Fena

precious chemical. "You are already crowded, and Sitar and I will crowd you still more. You have no ro

ake time to get another vessel. I'd like to drag in the pieces of t

y drawing it behind us until such a velocity has been attained that it will reach there at

any length of time. While we're figuring this out you'd better hop over there and bring over enough to last you two

et, still in the Carboniferous Age, which possessed at least one solid ledge of metallic "X," the rarest of all earthly metals. As the automatic controls held the cruiser upon her course, the six wanderers sat long in discussion as

the Third Planet doesn't get him the Fenachrone will, and the Third Planet is the more pressing d

herever we'll be by that time, Dick?" asked D

inking about. They've got to be stopped, and stopped cold-and we've got only six months to do it in..

ing is in your d

l, of course, do anything I can. But you prob

y've got a lot of stuff we don't know about, of course, since I took only one man's mind. While he was a very able man, he didn't know all that all the rest of them do, any more than any one man has all the earthly science known. Absolutely our only chance is to control that

ill be only too

read their minds. Then do the same, visiting every other highly advanced planet we can locate. There is a good chance that, by c

edo to destroy their entire

hey would ray it. With a zone of force that would get through their screens, that would be the first

directly in their path. It was "X," and enough negative a

g off two tons of that metal and fighting away

, just as I took that bite out of our field. The rotation of the planet will throw us

hat well-remembered ledge of metal to

ed before," Margaret commented

at ate the dinosaur or whatever it was.

vorous trees-and they must grow awfully fast, too. As to its being t

, vividly green, was motionless in the still, hot, heavy air; the living nightmares inhabiting that primitive wor

your little friends again? If you do, I'

f I never see them again, that

b us a piece of this

it, and threw on the zone of force. Almost immediately he released the zone, pointe

" asked Dunark in amazement. "I

probably of the order of magnitude of half a million tons, since the stuff weighs more than half a ton to the cubic foot. However, we can

rue to schedule, as they were approaching the green system, and at

the salt; and we'll be able to hold some of the most important of the other stuff. But a lot of it is bound to get away from us-and the Lord help anybody

is belt, and in the general code notified the city of their arrival and warned everyone to keep away from the parade ground. He then sent several messages in the official code, conclud

ttractors. I need about twelve hands to keep

the resistance of the air seriously affected the trajectory of many of the irregularly shaped smaller masses of metal, and all three men were kept busy flicking attractors right and left; capturing those strays which threatened to veer off into the streets or upon the buildings of the Kondalian capital city, and shifting from one piece to another so that none should fall f

d numberless aircraft of all descriptions and sizes. The space below them was carefully avoided, but on all sides and above them the air was so full that it seemed marvelous that no collision occurred. Tiny one-man helicopters, little more than single chairs flying about; beautiful pleasure-pla

e roof, where the royal family and many nobles were waiting, in full panoply of glittering harness. Dunark and

would make us forego the pleasure of a brief rest beneath your roof-the Kofedix will presently give yo

profit from your companionship. For what you have done, we thank you.