This arrangement, indeed, was of no late date, and was used by both European and Asiatic Federations as well as by ourselves; but as I gazed now about the great circular room I saw that within it were some new arrangements also. These consisted of a series of six great glass screens which were arranged in box-like form about the great air-city's controls at the room's center. And, while the First Air Chief swiftly explained to us their purpose and design, I saw that one sitting inside their box-form, with four on four sides, and one above and one below, could see in all those directions as though from the very top of the great power-tower. For they were in effect great electrical periscopes; four great similar screens had been set on four sides of the electrostatic tower's high tip, and another one above that tip, while the sixth had been set in the under-side of the great city's base. The views possible to those six screens were then transferred down to the six there about us; the light-vibrations that struck the screens above and beneath being transformed by television receivers into electrical vibrations and brought down to television reproducers behind our own six screens. Sitting there at the city's controls, amid those six screens and looking into them, one could see as clearly as though from the power-tower's tip in all directions. It was quite necessary, too, that this should be the case; since the man who operated the great air-city, from its six direction-controls and its single speed-control there, must see clearly in all directions, now that the great air-cities could rush at such tremendous speed through the air. When I said as much to the First Air Chief, who had turned now and was gazing intently at the great table-map upon which the eastern and western masses of circles were slowly creeping toward our own, he nodded, and contemplated me for a moment with a curious expression. "The man," he said finally, "who is to hold the controls of New York in the battle tomorrow, will be you, Brant!" "The honor is great," I said: "I've operated the city's controls, though never did I expect to take it into battle. But Macklin and Hilliard here--I want them to stay here for the time being--I want the hundred cruisers on the plaza outside to stay there during the battle." "You have a plan?" the First Air Chief asked, but I shook my head. "No more than an idea," I said: "An idea that may help us if the battle goes against us, if their attack is too strong for us. Even then it is too insane, perhaps, to be of any use, but it might help us--"