The Onslaught from Rigel Part 29

"Look--the negative charges will do for our gravity beam just as well as the positive. They will create an excess of negative electrons instead of an excess of positive protons in the object we hit, and cause atomic disintegration. It's a gravity process just the same, but a different one. Now that gives us something else to do with the positives.

"You know what a Leyden jar is? One of those things you charge with electricity, then you touch the tip, and bang, you get a shock. Well, this arrangement will make a super-Leyden jar of the _Monitor_. Every time she fires the gravity-beam, the positive charges will be put into her hull, and she'll soon be able to load up with a charge that will knock your eye out when it's let loose."

"How's that? I know the outside of the _Monitor_ is covered with lead and so is the outside of a Leyden jar, but what's the connection?"

"Well, it's this way. When you load up a Leyden jar the charge is not located in the plating, but in the gla.s.s. Now the _Monitor_ has a lot of steel, which will take up the charge just as well as gla.s.s. As soon as she fires the gravity-beam, these filaments will load her up with the left-over positives till she grunts. See?"

"And since the earth is building up a lot of negative potential all the time, all you have to do is get your bird between you and the earth and then let go at him?"

"That's the idea. It'll make an enormous spark-gap, and whatever is between us and the earth will get the spark. Sock them with a flash of artificial lightning. We'll use the light-beam as a conductor just as with the gravity-beam."

"Sounds good, but I want to see the wheels go round. How much of a potential do you think you can build up in the _Monitor_?"

"Well, let's see. We've got two thicknesses of nine-inch steel ... volts to a cubic inch ... by cubic inches.... Holy smoke, look how this figures out--over eleven million volts! That's theory, of course.

There'll be some leakage in practice and we won't have time to build up that much negative potential every time we shoot, but if we only do half that well, we'll have a pretty thorough-going charge of lightning ...

Peterson, come over here. I want you to make some changes on this barge."

_Monitor II_ stood on the ramp that had once held her elder sister, her outer coating of lead glimmering dully in the morning sun. Here and there, along her shining sides, were placed the windows through which her crew would watch the progress of the battle. Her prow was occupied by the same type of searchlight the earlier _Monitor_ had borne. But this time the searchlight was surrounded by a hedge of shining silver points--the discharge mechanism for the lightning flash. At the stern, instead of the opening running right through into the ship, was a tight bulkhead, with the connections for the gravity-beam rocket-mechanism leading through it. As Sherman had pointed out, "If this lightning is going to do us any good, we've got to get above our opponent, and those La.s.sans have built machines that made interplanetary voyages. We've got to make this boat air-tight so that we can go right after them as far as Rigel if necessary."

It had been decided, in view of the other monitors that were building, to make the trial trip of the second rocket-cruiser also a training voyage, with Beeville and Yoshio replacing Murray Lee and Gloria in her crew. They climbed in; the spectators stood back, and with a thunderous rush of explosions and a cloud of yellow gas, the second _Monitor_ plunged into the blue.

"Where shall we go?" asked Sherman, as the ship swooped over the plains of New Jersey.

"How much speed is she making?" asked Ben Ruby.

"I don't know exactly. We didn't have time to invent and install a reliable speed gauge. But--" he glanced at the map before him, then down through the windows at the surrounding country. "I should say not far short of eight hundred an hour. That improved box sure steps up the speed. I'm not giving her all she'll stand, even yet."

"If you've got that much speed, why don't you visit Chicago?" asked Beeville. "The Australians have only pushed out as far as Ohio and there may be some people there."

"Bright thought," remarked Sherman, swinging the prow of the vessel westward. "No telling what we'll find, but it's worth a look, anyway."

For some time there was silence in the cabin as the rocket-ship, with alternate roar and swoop, pushed along. Yoshio was the first to speak:

"Ah, gentlemen," he remarked, "I observe beneath window trace of city of beer, formerly Cincinnati."

"Sure enough," said Ben, peering down. "There doesn't seem to be much beer there now, though."

The white city of the Ohio vanished beneath them, silent and deserted, no sign of motion in its dead streets.

"You know," said Sherman, "sometimes when I see these cities and think of all the La.s.sans have wrecked, it gives me an ache. I think I'd do almost anything to knock them out. What right did they have to come to this country or this earth, anyway? We were letting them alone."

"Same right wolf obtains when hungry," said Yoshio. "Wolf is larger than rabbit--end of rabbit."

"Correct," agreed Beeville. "They were the strongest. It's a case of hit or be hit in this universe. Our only out is to give them better than they give us."

"Oh, I don't know," said Ben Ruby, "it may be a good thing for the old world at that. You never heard of all the governments of the world cooperating before as they are now did you? There are still people alive you know. Civilization hasn't been killed off by a long shot. And the lousy blue coloring that affected all the people who didn't get metallized isn't going to be permanent. The babies that are being born there now are normal, I hear. In a few generations the earth will be back to where it was, except for us. I don't know of any way to reverse this metal evolution."

"Neither do I," said Beeville, "unless we can get another dose of the 'substance of life' as the La.s.sans call it, and we won't get that unless they decide to leave the earth in a hurry."

"Look," said Sherman, "there's Chicago now. But what's that? No, there, along the lake front."

Following the direction of his pointing finger they saw something moving vaguely along Lake Sh.o.r.e Boulevard; something that might be a car--or a man!

"Let's go down and see," offered Ben.

"O. K. chief, but we've got to pick a good landing place for this tub. I don't want to get her marooned in Chicago."

The explosions were cut off, the wings extended, and Sherman spiralled carefully downward to the spot where they had seen the moving object.

With the nicety of a magician, he brought the ship to a gliding stop along the park gra.s.s, and followed by the rest, Ben Ruby leaped out. The edge of the drive was a few yards away. As they emerged from the ship no one was visible, but as they walked across the gra.s.s, a figure, metallic like themselves, and with a gun in one hand, stepped from behind a tree.

"Stand back!" it warned suspiciously. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"Conversation with sweet-looking gentleman," said Yoshio politely, with a bow.

"Why, we're members of the American air force," said Ben, "cooperating with the federated armies against the La.s.sans, and we were on an exploring expedition to see if we could find any more Americans."

"Oh," said the figure, with evident relief. "All right, then. Come on out, boys."

From behind other trees in the little park, a group of metallic figures, all armed, rose into sight.

"My name's Ben Ruby," said Ben, extending his hand, "at present General commanding what there is of the American army."

"Mine's Salsinger. I suppose you could call me Mayor of Chicago since those birds got Lindstrom. So you're fighting the La.s.sans, eh? Good.

We'd like to take a few pokes at them ourselves, but that light-ray they have is too much for us. All we can do is pot the birds."

"Oh," said Ben, "we've got that beat and a lot of other stuff, too. How many of you are there?"

"Eight, including Jones, who isn't here now. Where are you from, anyway?

St. Louis?"

"No, New York. Is anybody alive in St. Louis or the other western cities?"

"There was. We had one man here from St. Paul, and Gresham was from St.

Louis. The birds got him and carried him off to the joint the La.s.sans have in the Black Hills, but he got away."

"Have they a headquarters in the Black Hills, too? They have one in the Catskills. That's where we've been fighting them."

The explanations went on. It appeared that Chicago, St. Louis and other western cities had been overwhelmed as had New York--the same rush of light from the great comet, the same unconsciousness on every side, the same awakening and final gathering together of the few individuals who had been fortunate enough to attract the attentions of the La.s.sans'

birds and so be sent to their cities for transformation into robots.

Since that time the birds had raided Chicago and the other western cities unceasingly, and had reduced the original company of some thirty-odd to the eight individuals whom Ben had encountered. Before the birds had attacked them, however, they had managed to get a telegraph wire in operation and learn that people were alive at Los Angeles--whether mechanized or not they were uncertain, but they thought not.

Once, several weeks before, a La.s.san fighting-machine had pa.s.sed through the city, wrecked a few buildings with the light-ray, and disappeared westward as rapidly as it had come.

With some difficulty and a good deal of crowding the eight Chicagoans were gotten into the _Monitor II_ for the return journey. They were a most welcome reinforcement and would furnish enough Americans to man all five of the extra rocket-cruisers.