Life on other planets -- Fiction; Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Science fiction
Still holding the cylinder in his hand, Phor Tak stepped to a shallow
cabinet against the wall and opening it revealed an elaborate equipment
of switches, levers and push buttons. "Now watch the miniature flier
suspended from the track near the ceiling," he directed, at the same
time closing a switch. Immediately the flier commenced to travel along
the track at considerable speed. Now Phor Tak pressed a button upon
the top of the cylinder, which immediately sped from his extended
palm, turned quickly in the air and rushed straight for the speeding
flier. Slowly the distance between the two closed; the cylinder,
curving gradually into the line of flight of the flier, was now
trailing directly behind it, its pointed nose but a few feet from the
stern of the miniature ship. Then Phor Tak pulled a tiny lever upon
his switchboard and the flier leaped forward at accelerated speed.
Instantly the speed of the cylinder increased and I could see that it
was gaining in velocity much more rapidly than the flier. Half way
around the room again its nose struck the stern of the fleeing craft
with sufficient severity to cause the ship to tremble from stem to
stern; then the cylinder fell away and floated gently toward the floor.
Phor Tak opened a switch that stopped the flier in its flight and then,
running forward, caught the descending cylinder in his hand.
"This model," he explained, as he returned to where we stood, "is
so constructed that when it makes contact with the flier it will
float gently downward to the floor, but as you have doubtless fully
realized ere this, the finished product in practical use will explode
upon contact with the ship. Note these tiny buttons with which it is
covered. When any one of these comes in contact with an object the
model stops and descends, whereas the full sized device, properly
equipped, will explode, absolutely demolishing whatever it may have
come in contact with. As you are aware every substance in the universe
has its own fixed vibratory rate. This mechanism can be so attuned as
to be attracted by the vibratory rate of any substance. The model, for
example, is attracted by the blue protective paint with which the flier
is covered. Imagine a fleet of Jaharian warships moving majestically
through the air in battle formation. From an enemy ship or from the
ground and at a distance so far as to be unobservable by the ships of
Jahar, I release as many of these devices as there are ships in the
fleet, allowing a few moments to elapse between launchings. The first
torpedo rushes toward the fleet and destroys the nearest ship. All
the torpedoes in the rear, strung out in line, are attracted by the
combined masses of all the blue protecting coverings of the entire
fleet. The first ship is falling to the ground and though all of its
paint may not have been destroyed, it has not the power to deflect any
of the succeeding torpedoes, which one by one destroy the nearest of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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