Triplanetary

Bois

happened after that inertialess,

space-ship, his hands grasping the gleaming, ebonite handles of two double-throw switch

ace. The Boise is taking off, under full neutra

d also was constitutionally unable to voi

. His brain was a writhing, convulsive mass of torment indescribable; expanding, exploding, swelling out with an unendurable pressure against its confining skull. Fiery spirals, laced with streaming, darting lances of black and green, flamed inside his bursting eyeballs. The Universe spun and whirled in mad gyrations about him as he reeled drunkenly to his feet, staggering and sprawling. He fell. He realized that he wa

nightmare incarnate of hellish torture he fought his way back to the control board. Hooking one leg around a standard, he made a seemingly enormous effort and drove the two switches back into their original positions; then fell flat u

iently to speak, then leaped to his feet. "Snap it up, Fre

he constellations, even though they are all pretty badly distorted. That means that we can't be more than a couple of light-years or so away from the Solar System. Of course, since we had so little thrust on, practical

e making mil ... Oh, I see!" Cleveland exclaimed in d

ust have attained one hundred percent neutralization, which we didn't quite expect, and therefore we must have stopped instantaneously when our inertia

e ten minutes ago, then? That's possible, of course, maybe probable: there's been a lot of discussion

as going to throw the switches over and back, but you know what happened. However, there's one good thing about i

on our ultra-wave: enough to reach Tellus, I think.

we'll have something to report. Out here's a fi

ke to find out whether I'm two yea

ble vertigo could be endured, perhaps in time even conquered as space-sickness could be conquered, by a strong will in a sound body; and that their new conveyance had possibilities of which e

tance about two point two light years. It will take six banks of tubes on your tightest beam, LSV3, to reach us. Barring a touch of an unusually severe type of space-sickness, everything

wer, turned to Rod

oes as fast as we did coming out it's certainly moving. I'l

of their chief appeared sharp and clear upon their

s, and forty-one seconds, but never mind about abstract theorizing. Get back here, to Pittsburgh, as fast as you c

o atmosphere, four from atmosphere down to the Hill, and three to cool off. Notify the full four-shif

t? Think you can do it?" Cleveland asked, as Rodebush

all coming out, and I'm not using very much going back," the physicist explai

yet attained, as are the ether-borne rays of light. Converted into light only at the plate, it showed their progress as truly as though they had been traveling at a pace to be expressed in the ordinary terms of miles per hour. The yellow star that was the sun detached itself from the firmament and

hold it! Way 'nu

on as we touch atmosphere, long before she can even begin to hea

alt in the outermost, most tenuous layer of the earth's atmosphere. Her halt was but momentary. Inertia restored and gravitation allowed again to affect her mass, she dropped at a sharp angle downwa

p dove, and even before they could close over her, furious geysers of steam and boiling water erupted as the stubborn alloy gave up its heat to the cooling liquid. Endlessly the three necessary minutes dragged their slow way into time, but finally the water ceased boiling and Ro

ng to keep her from doing much more damage until you can get there. How about your take-off?

, nor that they wouldn't act simultaneously. We'll take her out on the projectors this time, though, the same as we brought her in--she handles like

being the view of the events transpiring above that doomed city. "The dock is empty and sealed a

rd into the stratosphere. Through the tenuous atmosphere the huge ship rushed with ever-mounting speed, and while the hope of Triplanetary drove eastward Rodebush st

he invaders as the earth's only possible source of trouble. Thus the departure of the Boise had not gone unnoticed, and the fact, that, not even with his most penetrant rays could he see into her interior, h

ough no projector had slackened its effort. Cleveland, eyes upon interferometer grating and spec

an ultra-band pusher. C4V63L29.

orce a close-up. We've got plenty of mass. See wh

ce was again checked, and both scientists read the reason upon their plates. The enemy had put down re-enforcing rods of tremendous power. Three compression members spread out fanwise behind

ng tractors as well. "Strap yourselves in solid, everybody!" he sounded a general warn

eding the tractors, pushers, and projectors was raised to its inconceivable maximum, the vessel of the enemy was hurled upward, backward; and that of earth shot ahead with a bounding le

of falling rock was burying the countryside, Cleveland snap

the immense mass of humanity's hope in its spreading cloud of redly impenetrable murk. But not for long. Triplanetary's super-ship boasted no ordinary Terrestrial defense, but was sheathed in screen after screen of ultra-vibrations: imponderable walls, it is true, but b

ing warships of the Fleet--its most powerful units--were hurling themselves forward, to plunge into that red destruction. "None of you will last a second in this red field.

tward from the super-ship as a center, its advancing surface of seething energy consumed the crimson murk as a billow of blast-furnace heat consumes a cloud of snowflakes in the air above its shaft. Nor was the red death-mist all that was consum

rom all space as the violet tide engulfed the enemy vessel; but the flying fish did not disappear. Her triple screens flashed into furiously incandescent splend

ays, and rods of Titanic power smote cracklingly against ultra-screens equally capable. Time after time each contestant ran the gamut o

er. "Ready? Can't touch him on the ultra, so I'm going onto the macro-ba

ible armor-piercing projectiles, and Dutton his shatterable flasks of the quintessence of corrosion--a sticky, tacky liquid of such dire potency that only one rare Solarian element could contain it. Ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred were thrown as fast as automatic machinery could launch them; and the Nevians found themselves adversaries not to be despised. Size for size, their screens were quite as capable as those of the Boise. The Nevians' destructive rays glanced

h power and velocity that they were biting into the very walls of the enemy vessel before the amphibians knew their defensive shells of force had been puncture

isappeared from the communicator plates of Radio Center, back in the Hill, when she was launched. But though the plates in the control room could not hold the Nevian, she did not vanish beyond the ken of Randolph, now Communications Officer in the super-ship. For, warned and humiliated by his losing one speeding vessel from his plates in Radio Center, he was now ready for any emergency. Therefore as the Nevian fled, Randolph

hought he would be," Cleveland

with all our own stuff and most of theirs besides, we should be able to take them. They must have neutralization, to

s trying," Cleveland declared, grimly. "Are you fellows down there

th their freights of death and destruction. And again the Nevian shear-plane of force slashed at the Terrestrial's tractor beam; but this time the mighty puller did not give way. Sparkling and spitting high-tension sparks, the plane bit deeply into the stubborn rod of energy. Brighter, thicker, and longer grew the discharges as the gnawing plane drew more and more power; but in

cking or running?" Rodebush demanded. He w

ing--

haps, but get thei

er

re gone--that was one of

it in the tube; it would need about that much time to explode. Good thing it didn't go off any sooner, or none of us wo

s are dead and I don't know what else. When the G-4's went out the fusion must have shorted the neutralizers. They would ma

oy armor had been blown away by the awful force of the explosion. Jagged plates hung awry; bent, twisted, and broken. The great torpedo tube, with all its intricate automati

finally, through his transmitter, "Let's go s

lubricant, insulation, and metal; its floor was half covered by a semi-molten mass of what had once been vital machinery. For with the burning out of the generator bars the energy of the disintegra

erlooked," Rodebush mused. "The electricians can rebuild this st

st all her spherical strength--anchoring a tractor with this ship now would t

ong enough to get there. We can't travel inertialess until the repairs are ma

care about atmosphere, or about anything but mass. I can stiffen her up in three or four days if I can sit down on something heavy enough to hold our jacks and

lanets. I was just getting ready to dodge them when we cut the neutralizers, so they should be fairly close somewhere--yes, there's the sun, right

herefore fed to the driving projectors, and each scientist, electrician, and mechanic bent to the task of repairing the ruined generators; rebuilding them to handle any load which the convert

even in its short daytime, it supported a luxuriant but outlandish vegetation. Its atmosphere, while rich enou

ing for chemical analysis of the air, the space-suited mechanics leaped to their tasks; and in only a little more tim

word. "You might try her out with a fast hop ar

ngineers sought in vain for any sign of weakness. The strange planet half girdled and the severest tests passed flawlessly, Rodebush reached for his n

n exploring beam along the detector line an

building his plane