The Onslaught from Rigel Part 28

From an alt.i.tude of 15,000 feet the _Monitor_ swept down in a long curve. As she dived Gloria swung the searchlight beam toward the green globe.

"Go!" shouted Sherman, and Ben threw the switch. There was a terrific explosion, the _Monitor_ pitched wildly, then, under control swung round and began to climb again. Through the thinning cloud of yellow smoke, they could see a long black scar across the globe's top, with lines running out from it, like the wrinkles on an old, old face.

"d.a.m.n!" said Sherman. "Only nicked him. They must have something good in the line of armor on that thing. Look how it stood up. Watch it, everybody, we're going to go again, Gloria!"

Again the searchlight beam swung out and down, sought the green monster.

But this time the La.s.san globe acted more quickly. The yellow ray lifted, probed for them, caught them in its beam. Instantly, the occupants of the _Monitor_ felt a racking pain in every joint; the camera-boxes of the gravity-beam trembled in their racks, the windows, set in solid steel though they were, shook in their frames, the whole body of the rocket-ship seemed about to fall apart.

Desperately Sherman strove with the controls; dived, dodged, then finally, with a raised hand to warn the rest, side-slipped and tumbled toward the earth, pulling out in a swinging curve with all power on--a curve that carried them a good ten miles away before the yellow ray could find them.

"Boy!" said Murray Lee, feeling of himself. "I feel as though every joint in my body were loose. What was that, anyway?"

"Infra-sound," replied Sherman. "You can't hear it, but it gets you just the same. Like a violinist and a gla.s.s. He can break it if he hits the right note. I told you those babies would get something hot. They must have found a way to turn that pure light of theirs into pure sound and vibrate it on every note of the scale all at once, beside a lot the scale never heard of. Well, now we know."

"And so do they," said Ben. "That bozo isn't going to hang around and take another chance on getting mashed with our gravity beam. Even if we did only tip him, I'll bet we hurt him plenty."

"All I've got to say," replied Sherman, "is that I'm glad we're made of metal instead of flesh and blood. If that infra-sound ray had hit us before, we'd be mashed potatoes in that field down there. No wonder the signal station went out so quick."

"Do we go back and take another whack at them?" asked Murray Lee.

"I don't like to do it with this ship," Sherman replied. "If we had the _Monitor II_ it would be easy. With that extra vacuum chamber around her, she'll take quite a lot of that infra-sound racket. Vacuum doesn't conduct sound you know, though we'd get some of it through the struts.

But this one--. Still I suppose we'll have to show them we mean business."

The _Monitor_ turned, pointed her lean prow back toward Newark, and bore down. In their flight from the infra-sound ray the Americans had dived behind a fluffy ma.s.s of low-hanging cloud; now they emerged from it, they could see the huge green ball, far up the river, retreating at its best speed.

"Aha," Sherman said. "He doesn't like gravity beams on the coco. Well, come on, giddyap horsey. Give her the gun, Murray."

Under the tremendous urge of the gravity-beam explosions at her tail, the _Monitor_ shot skyward, leaving a trail of orange puffs in her wake as the beam decomposed the air where it struck it. Sherman lifted her behind the clouds, held the course for a moment, called "Ready, Gloria?"

and then dropped.

Like a swooping hawk, the _Monitor_ plunged from her hiding place.

Sherman had guessed aright. The green ball was not five miles ahead of them, swinging over the summits of the Catskills to reach its home. As they plunged down the yellow ray came on, stabbed quickly, once, twice, thrice--caught them for a brief second of agonizing vibration, then lost them again as Sherman twisted the _Monitor_ round. Then Gloria's beam struck the huge globule fair and square, Ben Ruby threw the switch, and a terrific burst of orange flame swallowed the whole center of the La.s.san monster.

Prepared though they were for the shock, the force of the explosion threw the ship out of control. It gyrated frantically, spinning up, down and sidewise, as Sherman worked the stick. The Catskills reared up at them; shot past in a whirl of greenery; then with a splash they struck the surface of the Hudson.

Fortunately, the _Monitor's_ wings were extended, and took up most of the shock at the cost of being shattered against her sides. Through the beam-hole at the stern the water began to flow into the interior of the ship. "Give her the gun!" called Sherman frantically, working his useless controls. There was a report, a shock, a vivid cloud of steam, and dripping and coughing like a child that has swallowed water in haste, the _Monitor_ rose from the stream, her broken wings trailing behind her.

"I don't know--whether--I can fly--this crate or not," said Sherman, trying to make what was left of the controls work. "Shoot, Murray--if we put on enough power--we won't have to soar." There was a renewed roar of explosions from the _Monitor_. Desperately, swinging in a wide curve that carried her miles out of her way, she turned her nose southwards.

"Make Philly," cried Sherman cryptically, above the sound of the explosions that were driving their craft through the air at over six hundred miles an hour. Almost as he said it, they saw the airport beneath them. The _Monitor_ swerved erratically; the explosions ceased; she dived, plunged and slithered to a racking stop across the foresh.o.r.e of the seaplane port, ending up with a crash against a float, and pitched all four occupants from their seats onto the floor.

"Well, that's one for you and one for me," said Sherman as he surveyed the wreckage ruefully. "We used up that green ball all right, but the old _Monitor_ will never pop another one. Did anyone notice whether there were any pieces left, by the way?"

"I did," said Gloria. "As we came up out of the water I could see a few hunks lying around on the hill."

"Mmm," remarked Sherman, "they must be built pretty solid. Wish I knew what was in them; that's one thing I never did get through that thought-helmet. Probably something they just figured out. You gave her all the power we had, didn't you?"

"There's something else I'd like to know," said Ben. "And that's whether they had time to warn the rest of the La.s.sans what they were up against.

If they did, we stand a chance. The way I have these guys figured is that they're good, but they have a yellow streak, or maybe they're just lazy, and they don't like to fight unless they're sure of winning. If I'm right we'll have time to get _Monitor II_ into commission and before they come out again, we'll be ready for them. If I'm wrong we might as well find a nice hole somewhere and pull it in after us."

"Yes, and on the other hand, if they did have time to warn them, they'll sit down and dope out some new trick. Though I have a hunch they won't find an answer to that gravity-beam so easily. There isn't any that I know of."

"Well, anyway," said Murray Lee, "nothing to do till tomorrow. What are you two rummies up to now?"

"Run up and push them along on _Monitor II_ if we can," replied Ben. "I think I'll round up the rest of the mechanical Americans and put you all to work on it. We can work day and night and get it done a lot quicker."

"Me," said Sherman, "I'm going to figure out some way to install radio on that new bus or bust a b.u.t.ton. That's one thing we ought not to do without. If we'd known the position of that green lemon before we saw it, we could have dived out of the clouds on it and made it the first shot before we got all racked up with that yellow ray."

CHAPTER XXI

Reinforcements

The little group separated, going about their several tasks. From whatever cause, Ben proved to be right about the La.s.san green spheres.

After that one brief incursion, in which they had wrecked the greater part of Newark and most of the artillery the Australians had established to bear on the door of the La.s.san city, they seemed to have returned to their underground home, realizing that the earth-men still had weapons the equal of anything the creatures of Rigel could produce.

For a whole week there was no sign of them. Meanwhile, the federated army dug itself in and prepared for the attack that was now believed certain. The success of the first _Monitor_ had been great enough, it was decided to warrant the construction of more than one of the second edition. General Grierson wished to turn the whole resource of the Allied armies to building an enormous number, but under Ben's persuasion he consented to concentrate on only five.

For, as Ben pointed out to the general, the training of flesh and blood men for these craft would be labor lost.

"They couldn't stand the acceleration that will be necessary, for one thing. With _Monitor II_ we expect to be able to work up swiftly to over a thousand miles an hour, and the most acceleration a flesh and blood man can stand won't give us that speed quickly enough. Of course, we could make 'em so they worked up speed slowly, but then they wouldn't be able to cut down fast enough to maneuver. And for another thing this infra-sound ray the La.s.sans project would kill a flesh-and-blood man the first time it hit him. What we need for this kind of war, is supermen in the physical sense. I don't want to make any such snooty statement as that Americans are better than other people, but we happen to be the only ones who have undergone this mechanical operation and we're the only people in the world who can stand the gaff. You'll just have to let us make out the best we can. In fact, it might be better for you to re-embark the army and leave us to fight it out all alone. The more women we have here, the more we'll have to protect."

The general had been forced to agree to the first part of this statement, but he gallantly refused to abandon the Americans, though he did send away men, troops and guns which had become useless in this new brand of warfare. But he insisted on retaining a force to run the factories that supplied the Americans with their materials and on personally remaining with it.

Even as it stood, there were only fourteen of the mechanical Americans remaining--enough to man three of the Monitors.

But one day, as _Monitor II_, shining with newness, stood on her ramp having the searchlights installed, Herbert Sherman came dashing across the flying field, waving a sheet of paper.

"I've got it," he cried, "I've got it! I knew I got something from those La.s.sans about electricity that I hadn't known before, and now I know what it is. Look!"

"Radio?" queried Ben.

"No, read it," said Sherman. "Radio's out. But this is a thousand times better."

He extended the sheet to Ben, who examined the maze of figures gravely for a moment.

"Now suppose you interpret," he said. "I can't read Chinese."

"Sap. This is the formula for the electrical device I was talking about."

"Yeh. Well, go on, spill it."

"Well, I suppose I'll have to explain so even your limited intelligence will grasp the point.... In our black box, we've been breaking up the atoms of lead into positive and negative charges. We've been using the positive, and then just turning the negative loose. This thing will make use of both, and give us a swell new weapon all at once.