Science fiction; Space ships -- Fiction; War stories
"The rest was just a repetition of the atom blasts of the first
Martian War and the earlier wars on Terra. The only difference was
the size of the bomb. The cyclotrons set off the chain reaction in
the plutonium ... the plutonium set off the reaction in the U-235 ...
common enough on a world made practically all of pitchblende and other
Uranium compounds. The same thing could happen to ... say Terra ... if
we ever started a chain reaction in one of the commoner elements such
as iron, or carbon. Or even one of the commoner gases. Anyway there are
only three satellites in the Uranian System now ... and eight less Cat
cruisers and one less superdreadnaught. I suspect the Cats can hardly
afford to lose them, too. Wouldn't surprise me to hear that Mars has
been feeling around for an armistice even by the time we get home. The
very fact that they have no idea how their fleet was destroyed will
tickle them in the right place, I suppose."
Scott spoke in surprised tones. "So they blew themselves up with their
own fancy cannon."
Hartnett nodded reflectively. "Um ... that's about it. Of course we had
to set up the proper conditions." He grinned at the younger man. "Or,
you might say, the 'Booby Trap'...."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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