Invaders from the InfiniteCampbell, John W., Jr. (John Wood)
Science
Invaders from the Infinite
Campbell, John W., Jr. (John Wood)
Science fiction
Zezdon Fentes' message was brief. He had discovered from the minds of
several who had been killed by the magnetic field Arcot had used, and
not destroyed, that they had a base in this universe. Thett's base was
somewhere near the center of the galaxy, on a system of unusually large
planets, circling a rather small star. But what star their minds had not
revealed.
"It's up to us then to locate said star," said Arcot, after listening to
Zezdon Fentes' account: "I think the easiest way will be to follow them
home. We can go to your world, Zezdon Fentes, and see what they are
doing there, and drive them off. Then to yours, Stel Felso. I place your
world second as it is far better able to defend itself than is Ortol. It
is agreeable?"
It was, and the ship which had been hanging in the atmosphere over New
York, where Zezdon Afthen, Fentes and Inthel had come to it in a
taxi-ship, signaled for the crowd to clear away above. The enormous bulk
of the shining machine, the savior of Earth, had attracted a very great
amount of attention, naturally, and thousands on thousands of hardy
souls had braved the cold of the fifteen mile height with altitude suits
or in small ships. Now they cleared away, and as the ship slowly rose,
the tremendous concentrated mental well-wishing of the thousands reached
the men within the ship. "That," observed Morley, "is one thing cosmium
won't stop. In some ways I wish it would--because the mental power that
could be wielded by any great number of those highly advanced Thessians,
if they know its possibilities, is not a thing to neglect."
"I can answer that, terrestrian," thought Zezdon Afthen. "Our
instruments show great mental powers, and great ability to concentrate
the will in mental processes, but they indicate a very slight
development of these abilities. Our race, despite the fact that our
mental powers are much less than those of such men as Arcot and
yourself, have done, and can do many things your greater minds cannot,
for we have learned the direction of the will. We need not fear the will
of the Thessians. I feel confident of that!"
The ship was in space now, and as Arcot directed it toward Ortol, far
far across the Island, he threw on, for the moment, the combined power
of space distortion and time fields. Instantly the sun vanished, and
when, less than a second later, he cut off the space field, and left
only the time, the constellations were instantly recognizable. They were
within a dozen light years of Ortol.
"Morey, may I ask what you call this machine?" asked Torlos.
"You may, but I can't answer," laughed Morey. "We were so anxious to get
it going that we didn't name it. Any suggestions?"
For a moment none of them made any suggestions, then slowly came Arcot's
thoughts, clear and sharp, the thoughts of carefully weighed decision.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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