Triplanetary

gainst

ed stolidly through interplanetary vacuum. For five long weeks she had patrolled her allotted volume of space. In another week she would report back to the city whose name she bore,

ting for the unauthorized vessels of whatever power or planet it was, that had not only defied the Triplanetary League, but were evidently attempting to overthrow it; attempting to plunge the Three Planets back into the ghastly sink of bloodshed and destruction from which they had

anged brazenly the furious signals of the sector alarm. Simultane

on gassed with Vee-Two. Nothin

iner disappeared in widely spreading flashes of the same high-powered interference. Observers, navigators, and control officers were alike dumfounded. Even the captain, in the shell-proof, shock-proof, and

at widespread interference he drove a solid beam, reporting concisely to G. H. Q. Almost instantly the emergency call-out came roaring in--every v

e Quartermaster's Department, deep down below the generator rooms, no thought was given to such minor matters as the disappearance of a

ng voice broke off short in the middle of a word and the private stood rigid, in the act of reac

cond commanded, but was silenced by

Oh, all right.... Oh, that's it.... Uh-huh.... I see.... Yes, I've

he strode over to the desk of the officer in charge. That officer also stared as the hitherto easy-going a

ntense--"but they came from 'way, 'way up. I'm to join the brass hats in the Center. You'll k

d him there without question. But when he approached the sacred precincts of the Captain's own and inv

rest immediately!" the O. D. concl

ble, but it seems that I can't. Well, I've been ordered by Virgil Samms to report to the Captain, at once. See this? Touch it!" He held out a

involuntarily as there shot through his whole body a thrilling surge of power, shouting into his very bones an unpronounceable syllable--the passw

-striper touched the golden meteor lightly, then drove his piercing gaze deep into the unflinching eyes of the

lowly Q. M. clerk, "to make Samms uncover his whole organization." He turn

a base, and have ships better than our best. Base and ships cannot be seen nor detected by any ether wave. However, the Service has been experimenting for years with a new type of communicator beam; and, while pretty crude yet, it was given to us when t

waved his hand and the o

nd out red K4 screens. Vessels so marked will act as temporary flagships. Unmarked vessels will proceed at maximum to the nearest flagship, grouping about it in regulation squadron cone in order of arrival. Squadrons most distant from objective point designated by flagship observers will proceed toward it at maximum; squadrons nearest it will decelerate or reverse velocity--that po

ringed about with red. Toward those crimson markers the pilots of the unmarked vessels directed their courses at their utmost power; and while the white lights upon the lookout plates moved slowly

were unable to make contact with the invisible planetoid for which they were seeking. In the captain's sanctum of the Chicago, the oper

to try to find them?"

rol. I'm trying to think ... maybe ... say, Captain, will you please

d with doubtful questions; the one with sure knowledge at least of what he was trying to do. Finally the thing was done, the crude but efficient graduated circles were set, and the tubes glowed redly as their solidly massed output was driving into a tight beam of u

out of the room, the captain turned

ea that any one man could possibly do, on the spur of the moment, wha

ligibly at intervals; then swung the visiray beam toward the earth. Soon

erk was Lyman Cleveland himself, probably the greatest living expert in beam transmission! "I knew that you'd do somethi

, made of gunny-sacks and hay-wire. I'm holding it together by main stren

it up for p

st a minute--ye

a lot of stuff that none of our agents has even suspected," and he recounted briefly what Costigan had reported to him, concluding: "Then there was a burst of interference--on the ultra-band, mind you--and I've heard nothing fr

liste

is that machine you have just developed. If the fleet wins, nothing will be lost. If the fleet loses--and I am not half as confident of success as the Admiral is--the Chicago doesn't carry

ng news, but the grizzled Captain, veteran of the

ut of space, Mr. S

attack be withheld until after a thorough investigation is made, but the Admiralty will not lis

beam snapped off. "Mr. Cleveland, I don't like the idea of running awa

n't--that's why y

the plate and, upon being recognized, he received the exact orders which had been req

limiting range of the ultra-cameras upon which Cleveland and his highly trained assistants were furiously and unremittingly at work. And during all this time the forces of the seven sectors had been concentrating. The pilot vessels, with their flaming red screens,

ing the Jovian Wars while the forces of the Three Planets were fighting in space for their very civilization

ips. At the apex of the cone, protected by all the other vessels of the formation and in best position to direct the battle, was the flagship. In this formation every vessel was free to use her every weapon, with a minimum of danger to her sister ships; and yet,

g known. He was wrong. The foremost globes were allowed actually to enter the mouth of that conical trap before an offensive move was made. Then the vice-admiral in command of the fleet touched a button, and simultaneously every generator in every Triplanetary vessel burst into furious activity. Instantly the hollow volume of the immense cone became a coruscating hell of resistless energy, an inferno which, with the velocity of light, extended itself into a far-reaching cylinder of rapacious destruction. Ether-waves they were, it is true, but vibrations driven with such fierce intensity that the scre

ary war vessel could attack with full efficiency. Magnesium flares and star-shells illuminated space for a thousand miles, and from every unit of both fleets was being hurled every item of solid, explosive, and vibratory destruction known to the highly scientific warfare of that age. Offensive beams, rods and daggers of frightful power struck and were neutralized by defensive screens equally capable; the lon

harged under the awful drain of the battle, and vessel after vessel of the Triplanetary fleet was hurled into nothingness by the concentrated blasts of the pirates' rays. But the Triplanetary forces had one great advantag

en it went, and under the terrific blast of its detonation one entire panel of the stricken battleship vanished, crumpled and broken. It should have been out, cold--but, to the amazement of the observers, it kept on fighting with scarcely lessened power! Three more of the frightful space-bombs had to be exploded in it--it had to be reduced to junk--before its terrible rays

ashing to its own destruction, but in that destruction insuring the loss of one of the heaviest vessels of the enemy. Thus passed the Fearless, and twenty of the finest space-ships of the fleet as well. But the ranking officer assumed command, the war-cone was re-formed, and, yawning maw to the fore, the great formation s

almost imperceptible, red. A vessel of unheard-of armament and power, hailing from a distant solar system of the Galaxy, had come to rest in that space. For months her commander had been investigating sun after sun