Science fiction; Space ships -- Fiction; Space warfare -- Fiction
"None." Radnor's voice was flat, his face and body alike were eloquent
of utter fatigue. He had driven himself to the point of collapse, and
all his labor had proved useless. "Without solid anchorages we cannot
hold them--as the ground is fused they give way. When the fused area
reaches the dome the end will come. The outlets of our absorbers will
also be fused, and with no possible method of dissipating the energy
being continuously radiated into the dome we shall all die, practically
instantaneously."
"But I judge you are trying something new, from the sudden cutting off
of nearly all our weight," stated another.
"Yes. I have closed the gravity band until only enough force can get
through to keep us in place on the planet, in a last attempt to block
their spy rays so that we can try one last resort--" He broke off as
an intense red light suddenly flared into being upon a panel. "No;
even that is useless. See that red light? That is the pilot light of
a detector upon the gravity band. The Chlorans are still watching us.
We can do nothing more, for if we close that band any tighter we shall
leave Valeron entirely and shall float away, to die in space."
As that bleak announcement was uttered the councilors sat back limply
in their seats. Nothing was said--what was there to say? After all, the
now seemingly unavoidable end was not unexpected. Not a man at that
table had really in his heart thought it possible for peaceful Valeron
to triumph against the superior war craftiness of Chlora.
They sat there, staring unseeing into empty air, when suddenly in that
air there materialized Seaton's projection. Since its reception has
already been related, nothing need be said of it except that it was the
Bardyle himself who was the recipient of that terrific wave of mental
force. As soon as the Terrestrial had made clear his intentions and his
desires, Radnor leaped to his feet, a man transformed.
"A laboratory of radiation!" he exclaimed, his really profound
exhaustion forgotten in a blaze of new hope. "Not only shall I lead him
to such a laboratory, but my associates and I shall be only too glad to
do his bidding in every possible way."
* * * * *
Followed closely by the visitor, Radnor hurried buoyantly along a
narrow hall and into a large room in which, stacked upon shelves, lying
upon benches and tables, and even piled indiscriminately upon the
floor, there was every conceivable type and kind of apparatus for the
generation and projection of etheric forces.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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