Islands of Space John W. Campbell (best ereader for manga .txt) đ
- Author: John W. Campbell
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âAll right, you win,â agreed Morey. âNow letâs see if we can find the other nations on this world more friendly.â
Arcot looked at the sun. âWeâre now well north of the equator. Weâll go up where the air is thin, put on some speed, and go into the south temperate zone. Weâll see if we canât find some people there who are more peaceably inclined.â
Arcot cut off the invisibility tubes. Instantly, all the enemy ships in the neighborhood turned and darted toward them at top speed. But the shining Ancient Mariner darted into the deep blue vault of the sky, and a moment later was lost to their view.
âThey had a lot of courage,â said Arcot, looking down at the city as it sank out of sight. âIt doesnât take one-quarter as much courage to fight a known enemy, no matter how deadly, as it does to fight an unknown enemy forceâ âsomething that can tear down mountains and throw their forts into the air like toys.â
âOh, they had courage, all right,â Morey conceded, âbut I wish they hadnât been quite so anxious to display it!â
They were high above the ground now, accelerating with a force of one gravity. Arcot cut the acceleration down until there was just enough to overcome the air resistance, which, at the height they were flying, was very low. The sky was black above them, and the stars were showing around the blazing sun. They were unfamiliar stars in unfamiliar constellationsâ âthe stars of another universe.
In a very short time, the ship was dropping rapidly downward again, the horizontal power off. The air resistance slowed them rapidly. They drifted high over the south temperate zone. Below them stretched the seemingly endless expanse of a great blue-green ocean.
âThey donât lack for water, do they?â Wade commented.
âWe could pretty well figure on large oceans,â Arcot said. âThe land is green, and there are plenty of clouds.â
Far ahead, a low mass of solid land appeared above the blue of the horizon. It soon became obvious that it was not a continent they were approaching, but a large island, stretching hundreds of miles north and south.
Arcot dropped the ship lower; the mountainous terrain had become so broken that it would be impossible to detect a city from thirty miles up.
The green defiles of the great mountains not only provided good camouflage, but kept any great number of ships from attacking the sides, where the ray stations were. The cities were certainly located with an eye for war! Arcot wondered what sort of conflict had lasted so long that cities were designed for perpetual war. Had they never had peace?
âLook!â Fuller called. âThereâs another city!â Below them, situated in a little natural bowl in the mountains, was another of the cone cities.
Wade and Fuller manned the ray projectors again; Arcot dropped the ship toward the city, one hand on the reverse switch in case the inhabitants tried to use the magnetic beam again.
At last, they had come quite low. There were no ships in the air, and no people in sight.
Suddenly, the outside microphone picked up a low, humming sound. A long, cigar-shaped object was heading toward the ship at high speed. It had been painted a dark, mottled green, and was nearly invisible against background of foliage beneath the ship.
âWade! Catch that on the ray!â Arcot commanded sharply, moving the ship to one side at the same time. Instantly, the guided missile turned and kept coming toward them.
Wade triggered the molecular beam, and the missile was suddenly dashing toward the ground with terrific speed. There was a terrific flash of flame and a shock wave of concussion. A great hole gaped in the ground.
âThey sure know their chemistry,â remarked Wade, looking down at the great hole the explosion had torn in the ground. âThat wasnât atomic, but on the other hand, it wasnât dynamite or T.N.T., either! Iâd like to know what they use!â
âPersonally,â said Arcot angrily, âI think that was more or less a gentle hint to move on!â He didnât like the way they were being received; he had wanted to meet these people. Of course, the other planet might be inhabited, but if it wasnâtâ â
âI wonderâ ââ said Morey thoughtfully. âArcot, those people were obviously warned against our attackâ âprobably by that other city. Now, weâve come nearly halfway around this world; certainly we couldnât have gone much farther away and still be on the planet. And we find this city in league with the other! Since this league goes halfway around the world, and they expected us to do the same, isnât it fair to assume, just on the basis of geographical location, that all this world is in one league?â
âHmmmâ âan interplanetary war,â mused Arcot. âThat would certainly prove that one of the other planets is inhabited. The question isâ âwhich one?â
âThe most probable one is the next inner planet, Aphrodite,â replied Morey.
Arcot fired the ship into the sky. âIf your conclusions are correctâ âand I think they areâ âI see no reason to stay on this planet. Letâs go see if their neighbors are less aggressive!â
With that, he shot the ship straight up, rotating the axis until it was pointing straight away from the planet. He increased the acceleration until, as they left the outer fringes of the atmosphere, the ship was hitting a full four gravities.
âIâm going to shorten things up and use the space control,â Arcot said. âThe gravitational field of the sun will drain a lot of our energy out, but so what? Lead is cheap, and before weâre through, weâll have plenty or Iâll know the reason why!â
Dr. Richard Arcot was angryâ âboiling all the way through!
XVThere was the familiar tension in the air as the space field built up and they were hurled suddenly forward; the starlike dot
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