The sun rose high in the sky as the _Esperance_ returned to the wharf.
Davis and with Manila by
short-wave radio. The to the squid. _La
Rubia_ still to catch fish. All to toward
frustration.
When Terry walked over to see his at close range, he the
biologists by the size of the squid. There were
literally of of to be handled. Squid have no backbone,
but a is to for study. The
biologists wanted it. The needed to be examined, and their
position under the noted, and their counted. The
nervous of the must have its oddities. But the
actual of the was out of the question. The mere
handling of so large an object was an problem.
Terry the Capitán Saavedra, who was ready
to with as he nets, and fish he could
not capture. Squids were an article of commerce. Terry took the Capitán
to view this one. His would help the at the
scientifically items, and for they would have the rest
of the giant--more than they upon _La Rubia_. This would make
their profitable, and the Capitán would have the opportunity to
tell the most of his and killing of the giant.
With the he'd have, people might him.
Presently, the of _La Rubia_ over the monster, huge
knives at work under the direction of the men from Manila. There was
bitter with the station cook, who to the use
of his space to freeze material it was
sent to Manila by helicopter.
In mid-afternoon the _Esperance_ left the again. The
sonar-depth-finder the delicately. The objects in mid-sea,
it appeared, had been steadily. Their previous position had
averaged twenty-five hundred deep. They were now less than two
thousand down, and there were many of them. Unfortunately, the
_Esperance_ was not a for the instrument. But a
fairly was made, and if the objects
continued their at their present rate, they would surface not
long after sunrise. Then what?
Increasingly urgent came by short-wave, for Dr. Morton's
explanation of how he had the landing place and time of the
latest bolide. His was not disputed. But and
physicists wanted to be able to do it themselves. How had he done it?
Terry came upon him a cup of coffee in the
tracking station. Davis was there too.
"I wish I hadn't done it," Morton confided. "It's one of those things
that shouldn't happen. It's to have a to account
for. They tell me it's a new species, by the way. Never or even
described before. One of the _Pelorus_ men tells me it's an immature
specimen, too. It's not full-grown! What will a grown-up one be like?"
"I have a we'll out when those the
surface," said Davis unhappily.
Terry said, "The one we killed couldn't out of the water. I wonder
if the adult can walk over the land!"
Davis stared. "Should we send Deirdre to safety on the _Esperance_?"
"Safety?" asked Terry. "On a boat? When a of from undersea
could such a in the water that no ship stay
afloat? That's how one ship disappeared. It might be the _Esperance's_
turn next. Who knows?" Then he added, "There's no limit to the size of a
swimming creature!"
A bald-headed of the station staff walked in. He
carried an object of clear plastic. It was a and a long, about
six in diameter. There was an of metallic
parts in the plastic.
"I one of the making off with this," he said in a flat
voice. "It was to one of the squid's arms. The
fishermen didn't want to give it up. The it as
treasure-trove."
He put it on the table. Davis, Terry and Morton looked at it. Then
Morton his shoulders, almost up to his ears.
"The being that it," said Davis, "apparently came down
from the sky in a bolide. That's to than that a submarine
civilization of in the depths. But why would
anybody the of the sea to--anywhere else on earth? Where
would such a come from?"
Deirdre walked in and by the table, Terry's face. The
bald-headed man said, "I some things, but
you can't make me that a can intelligence
without of oxygen. There's not much free at the of
the sea."
"But there's something there," said Davis doggedly. "If
it has to have free oxygen, you've only the question of where it
gets it. Maybe it it."
Deirdre her head. "Foam," she said.
The four men at her. Then Terry said sharply, "That's it! On the
_Esperance_ there's a picture of a of on the sea. A ship
dropped right out of right into it. Deirdre the answer!
Something needs free oxygen. In quantity. Why not it from
the water? What to do with the that is left? Let it loose!
It'll come to the surface, make a foam-patch...."
Dr. Morton said with a of geniality, "I add a of
pure genius! Davis just asked what would be the of a creature
which the of the sea to any other place on earth.
What's to be there that's missing else? Cold? No.
Moisture? No. Just two things! Darkness and pressure! At the of
the Luzon Deep the pressure is over seven to the square inch.
There's no light--I repeat, none--below three hundred fathoms. Down at
the sea-bottom it's black, black, black! Now, where in the universe
could there be of here in a bolide, and in
need of an like that?"
Terry his head. He a book on the planets,
in the after-cabin of the _Esperance_. He hadn't read it. The others on
the must have.
"How about Jupiter?" asked Deirdre. "The gravity's four times the
earth's, and the is thousands of miles thick. The pressure at
the surface should be to the square inch."
Morton nodded. With the same false he added, "And there'll be
no light. Sunlight will through that thick atmosphere!
So we ourselves to be beings and that the
bolides come from Jupiter! But I must admit that the last was
headed toward the sun, and from the direction of Jupiter.
So-o-o-o, do we the world that from Jupiter are
descending in space ships and are settling under water, at a depth
of forty-five hundred fathoms? Like we do!"
He got up and walked away.
"I ..." said the bald-headed man, his incredulously, "will
put this away and go to some more squid."
"I'll talk to Manila," said Davis drearily. "Something is up from
below. There shouldn't be any ships allowed to come this way until we
find out what's happening."
Deirdre at Terry, now that they were alone.
"Have you anything very to do just now?"
He his head.
"If the that are up are--space ships, we can't them.
If they're anything else, they can't very well us. If we wanted to
attack something at the of the sea we'd have to at the
job. We wouldn't know where to begin. So maybe, if a power
wants to attack at the surface of the sea, it may it difficult,
too."
He frowned. Deirdre said, "Let's go look at the sea and think things
over!"
She very took his arm and they walked out. Presently, they
stood on the white beach on the shore, and talked. Terry's
mind came back, now and then, to how his previous guesses
about the had been. It now that the must
be much than he had imagined. But there were many he wanted
to say to Deirdre.
As they talked, they were disturbed. The helicopter, which had left
before with material for Manila, was
approaching again. It by the station. Then they were
alone again.
When night fell, they were at how time had passed.
They to the station. The was on the ground. The
biologists had stopped their work, but very by their
discovery of a new of squid, of which an specimen
measured eighty feet. It had offered phylogenic
material for the Cephalopoda in general. The they'd taken
were invaluable, from a scientific viewpoint.
The of _La Rubia_ had returned to their boat. The _Esperance_ had
been out the once more. The objects were still
rising. They had to less than a thousand from the surface,
well sundown. At this same of rise, they should the
surface some time after midnight. What would after that?
"What will depends," said Terry, "on how their
information about us is. It on their instruments, really. I
suspect their ideas about us are weird. I I haven't any ideas about
them."
At dinner, Davis said worriedly, "I talked to Manila. The mine layer
that was in the Bay left yesterday. The it up by
radio and they're going to come on here tomorrow. I had to talk
about the foam. They weren't impressed. The them, but
the foam--no. I hate," he said indignantly, "to try to people
of I couldn't possibly be of myself!"
They talked leisurely. Somebody mentioned _La Rubia_. It had been more
or less that her would turn up for drinks and
conversation again. But he hadn't. The to the
plastic objects. They might or might not up sounds. It was not
likely they'd respond to light. Certainly, complete images would be
meaningless to who had in and without a
sense of sight. They might respond to pressure-waves, such as are known
to be up by fish when something in the water, even
though man-made have not yet them. They might
furnish data of a that is meaningless to humans, as
pictures would be to Jovians. _If_ there were such things....
"Why argue only for Jupiter?" asked Deirdre. "Venus is to be
mostly ocean. There be life there."
The crew-cuts joined in the argument, but tentatively, there
were many present.
Midnight came. The open sea the nothing unusual. The
waves palely at their tips. There were little in the
water where an occasional surface fish darted. The shone. The moon
was not yet risen.
Two o'clock came. The _Esperance_ people were divided. Terry and Davis
were too to sleep. Deirdre'd gone to the yacht
to turn in. The crew-cuts slept peacefully, too. Davis said uneasily,
"I've got a that the ... objects are at the surface, or very
close to it, but that they aren't themselves. I think
they're in ambush. The that was killed must have had trouble
getting into the lagoon. They won't try to the big ones in.
They'll wait...."
Terry his head.
"We killed that little one--save the mark!--and its death was probably
reported in some fashion. So maybe they'll use the big ones on the
surface as for another of weapon. Foam, for example. We know
how a ship out of sight, as if into a hole."
"I know!" said Davis drearily. "I told the about that. But I
don't think they it."
At two-thirty Davis and Terry to the yacht. They on the
deck. They watch by instinct. There was no activity anywhere.
Faint were from _La Rubia_. Maybe her was repacking
the of squid-flesh. The last-quarter moon rose at
long last, and upon the glassy-rippled water of the lagoon.
Star-images its reflection.
A little after three, abruptly, the Diesels of _La Rubia_ rumbled
and boomed. The dark of the ship across the lagoon
toward its opening. Terry swore.
"She her without making a noise," he said angrily. "Her
skipper wants to to Manila with his catch it spoils!
Damnation! I told him not to without warning. Anything be
waiting outside!"
He for the and the motorboat. Davis down
the and pelted after him. Terry had the in the water
by the time Davis arrived. He jumped in and the starter. The
motor caught.
The across the water. Its wake was a brilliant
bluish luminescence.
The of the Diesels louder. Capitán Saavedra he had
put over a fast one on _los americanos_, who had moved the fish from
where he them in and them in
a where his tore. They had him most of a monster
squid, true, but they had parts for themselves. They
were the most valuable parts. So when labor officially
ceased at sundown, _La Rubia's_ only to accept the
idea. In the last hour his had _La Rubia_
with squid. They'd been silent. They'd without
noise. Now _La Rubia_ for the entrance, in the water
but with about what needed to be dodged.
She had on a history had no for. Her skipper
expected to be with fame, as well as cash.
When the toward _La Rubia_, Capitán Saavedra
zestfully gave his full throttle. When the racketing, roaring
motorboat his ship, and Terry to him to stop, he
chuckled and on. In fact, he left _La Rubia's_ pilot-house to wave
cheerfully at the two men. They ran close and to him
above the rat-tat-tatting of their own and the of his
Diesels.
_La Rubia_ the entrance with the smaller close at
her side, and Terry still shouting.
But Capitán Saavedra did not believe. Maybe he did not understand.
Certainly he did not obey. Ocean and the motorboat.
It necessary to slow down, for safety. But _La Rubia_ went
grandly on, into the open sea.
"We can't him to stop," said Davis in a voice. "He
won't. I only we're wrong, and he through!"
The where it was, and it haphazardly. _La
Rubia_ on her lights. She to the
southward. She on, in size, as the of her Diesels
diminished in volume.
Looking back, Terry saw the _Esperance_ from the lagoon,
dark on her deck. Terry shouted, answered him, and the
_Esperance_ came to a stop as the alongside.
Terry and Davis to her while one of the crew-cuts the
smaller and it.
"We're safe here," Terry said bitterly, "and since you've come,
we can and watch if anything happens. If only she on
going...."
But _La Rubia_ did not. Her lights that she had course.
She again. Her light to from to
side. She in such a way that it was clear she was neither on
course in motion any longer.
Nobody gave orders, but the _Esperance's_ engine roared. The action from
this point on an and quick response to an emergency.
The schooner-yacht ahead at top speed. Terry on the
recorder and the projector. Davis over the
searchlight. Two of the crew-cuts the bazookas.
Suddenly, a off on _La Rubia's_ deck. Her and
spars bright. Screams came across the waves, even
above the of the and above the noise of the _Esperance's_
engine.
The through the air. It in a high parabola, in
the sky, and into the sea. Another was ignited.
The _Esperance's_ on. A long pencil of light reached
across the as she on. More were heard. Another
flare burned. It overside. The _Esperance_ on,
shouldering the of open water.
A half-mile. A quarter-mile. _La Rubia_ crazily, and more
shrieks came from her deck. Then the to swing.
Beyond her, a conical, and monster
emerged, a yards from her rail. Enormous in the
searchlight rays. A with a of innumerable
sucker-disks over the of _La Rubia_.
Another from the boat's in the direction of the
giant squid. It upon wetted, flesh. The jerked, and
_La Rubia_ was from to stern. Hurriedly, Terry pressed the
power-feed button, and the projector was on. Its was
instantaneous. The to convulsively. It was
gigantic. It was twice, three times the size of the in
the lagoon. Terry his own voice out, "Bazookas! Use 'em! Use
'em!"
Flaring toward the giant. Davis one of the
hand he'd manufactured. The on toward the
clutched, half-sunk boat. The hand against the
monster's flesh. Simultaneously, the bazooka-missiles their target
and living, into the creature's body.
Those would melt steel. They into the squid, and
they were more than bullets.
The from the water, as of its exploded. It
was a from the sea. As it leaped, it had
squirted the which is the squid's of
defense. But, small squid, this of the squirted
phosphorescent ink.
The into the sea, and the of its swept
over the of _La Rubia_. The nearly capsized. But the
monster had not the of its wounds. It the injured
spots as though an enemy still there. It was a madness
in the sea.
The _Esperance_ to approach the half-sunken trawler, and Terry
kept the on the turmoil. The panic. It was
wounded, and the is not a place where the weak or can long
survive. Its would be coming....
They did. Something moved under the sea toward the
wounded monster. It be by the phosphorescence its motion
created, as it approached the surface. There was a jar, a jolt. Some
part of it actually touched the _Esperance's_ keel. The monster
moved ahead, but a up to what it had touched a
moment before.
The over the yacht's rail. The rail shattered. The
forecastle was out. The which
dangled from the rigging.
The _Esperance_ at this contact. Nick a
bazooka-shell, but it missed. Holding fast, Davis a grenade. It
detonated uselessly. It was then that Deirdre screamed.
Terry for an instant. There had been no time for him to
think that Deirdre might be aboard. It was inexcusable, but nothing
could be done now.
Tony had been by the of the with the
giant, and was trying to the and climb
back on board. Terry the about. He Tony,
splashing. The _Esperance_ in her own length while Terry the
searchlight focused. More came from _La Rubia_. Davis threw
a rope and Tony it. They him aboard, and the _Esperance_
turned again to away the trawler's crewmen.
There were off to port. Terry the
lightbeam in that direction. It upon conflict. The
monster that had passed under the now the squid.
They on the surface, horribly. A of tentacles
glistened in the light, and their appeared now and
again as the to protect itself, and the other
to devour. Other came to the scene. They flung
themselves into the fight, at the and at
each other. There were still others on the way....
The sea with sounds.
The _Esperance_ against _La Rubia_. Frantic, hysterically
frightened men up from the of the to the
yacht. As soon as they were they their to head
for land, immediately.
"Get 'em all off!" Terry, in by of having
clear ideas of what had to be done. "Get 'em all off!"
The of _La Rubia_ jumped over the yacht's rail. Without
orders, the yacht's engine bellowed. The _Esperance_ toward the
shore, which now very away.
Something to starboard. The sea all around it. Terry
poured the pain-sound in that direction. The into
convulsions. The away to keep its distance. She on,
past the spot where the its about. It
mooed.
The _Esperance_ at full speed toward the island. About a mile
ahead, the and on the almost awash.
Back at the of the of monsters, there was a in
the conflict. One of the free. It may have been the
one the _Esperance_ had attacked; it was another, which
might have been while still fighting.
In any case, one of them and fled, with the pack
after it. It is the of squids, if injured, to try to some
submarine in which to hide. The dived, and the others
pursued it. There was no opening in the barrier--not underwater.
But there was an opening on the surface. The had to find
a refuge, or be to bits. It may have been by instinct, or
perhaps the into or out of the the
clue. In any case, the into the channel
used by the _Esperance_ for passage. For a little way, it proceeded
underwater. Then it itself. Hopelessly.
And the pack arrived.
The from the _Esperance's_ was out of the worst
possible nightmare. Glistening and flailed
the seas. They the to froth. The had flung
themselves upon the one. The in the was
closed by the giants. They slavered. They gripped. They tore.
They rent each other....
Terry saw a as thick as a which had been half
through and as its still to fight.
And more came. Terry shouted, and the _Esperance_ turned. He
could see large of phosphorescence under the surface. And
suddenly, he noticed that a of them had toward the
_Esperance_. As they approached the sound-horn them. They went
into struggling, as the played upon them, and they
passed the _Esperance_ by.
Davis Terry the sound-weapon's the sea
with intensity.
"Listen," said Davis fiercely, "we're out at sea and we can't back
into the lagoon! We'd away from here!"
"Across water?" Terry. "That can come up
from water, but maybe not from water. We've got to stay
close to the until the comes and these creatures--if
it will come!"
Davis a gesture. Terry said crisply, "Get the 'copter to
hang over the and report on the there. Tell it to report
to the flattop. They may not us, but they may send a plane
anyway. And if the ships come, they'll have to about the foam!
Tell them to for it underwater. They've got gear."
Davis away. Presently, the dark of Nick himself
through what had been the hatch. Davis him.
Deirdre came over to Terry.
"Terry ..."
"I'm going to in the heads," said Terry, "of those who came
after your father and me without you on the first!"
"They'd have time," said Deirdre calmly. "I wouldn't
have let them. Do you think I want to be when you ..."
There was the of of the to the east. Terry said
grimly, "I'm going to try to a passage through the surf, to you
ashore. I'm the _Esperance_ in water--inside the
hundred-fathom line--but I don't trust it. Certainly I don't trust a
ship to make you safer!"
"It's going to be soon," she protested. "Then...."
"Then we won't be able to see what goes on underwater," he told her.
"Those ... are smart!"
There was a racketing, from the island. A light rose above
the tree-tops. Presently a parachute-flare up. Then there was
another, as if the men in the did not what they saw
the time.
"Terry," said Deirdre shakily, "I'm ... we each other, no
matter what happens...."
Davis came up from below.
"The flattop's only a miles away. They're now at top
speed. The mine layer's following. They'll be here by sunrise."
* * * * *
Far away to the east, some entered into the of the
sky. A drab, light spread over the sea. The was a dark,
slate blue. Swells about a quarter-mile away. Terry
aimed the sound-weapon and pressed the button. Something gigantic
started up, and the top of a squid's the surface.
The convulsively, high above the water, save for trailing
tentacles. It was larger than a whale. It into the sea with a
loud splash, and moved away quickly.
Color came into the sky. The sun's upper appeared. Flecks of gold
spread upon the sea.
Far, away at the a dark appeared. As the sun climbed
up over the of the world, the golden. There was a mist
of above it. A plane took off from the ship. Another plane
followed.
Fighter toward the island. One of them sharply,
like a bird at something it has below. It and
came over that spot. There was the of a machine gun.
Something like a up and again. And now more
planes appeared.
Sunrise was complete. Terry out over the sea. And he
could not his eyes, as he was to the unlikely,
now. Giant were at the surface. He saw one here, and
another there, and another, and another.... They were by tens,
by scores.
"They've been sent up," said Terry very grimly, "by an that
didn't on the earth. They're ... domesticated, in a way. They're
watchdogs for in that in the Luzon Deep.
They are the for the circle of sea from which thousands
of of fish were into the abyss. The
creatures--the ... _ellos_ who to what fish and fishermen
say--they keep these as animals. And they have to feed
them. Those were the ... of these waiting to be
fed. Try to that, Deirdre! In the of the pit, in the
abyss at the of the sea...."
A surface. Terry the sound-beam. A reared
above the waves. A bazooka-shell it. Something and and
monstrous the thing that it....
Davis approached.
"These," he said absurdly, "aren't the who the plastic
objects. Maybe we ought to try to open with their masters.
Why should we fight? If we prove we can ourselves...."
"I suspect," said Terry, "that all beings think the same
way, intelligently. If we on another planet, on some part of that
planet that the didn't use but we could, it wouldn't be sensible
for those to welcome us! Trade with us, perhaps. But let us
settle down, no!"
There was a bomb out at sea. A plane had a
hundred-pound bomb on a at the surface. The was now
distinct. Golden, almost upon it. Off to the
west a plane steeply, something from it, and the plane
levelled off. A three-hundred-foot from the surface.
Then there came proof that all this. It
was not intelligence, to be sure. Men are tool-using creatures
nowadays. They for fighting, and they make them,
but many centuries ago men to try to use animals as in
war.
The under the sea had not. They'd send up to do
battle with men, as men once sent against the Macedonian army.
It was naïve. But the generals, the tacticians, the of the
Deep did not to the one weapon. Already, they saw that
beasts be by men. So their of changed.
Doubtless, orders were given, and five miles under the sea
something--something men not have duplicated--began the
transformation of into gas, in past imagining. Tiny,
tiny were produced by some engine, and rose toward
the surface, in a stream. At the they were under a
pressure of to the square inch. But the pressure as they
rose, and as they rose they swelled. A which was pinhead-size at
the sea-bed to be the size of a a half-mile up, and
would have been the size of a house a mile up, that then it
separated into smaller ones. They rose and rose and and
separated. Five miles up from their origin, at little more than
atmospheric pressure, they a of insubstantiality. At
the surface they foam. But under the there was more foam,
and under that still more. A ship from normal water into
such would like a into the miles-long of
semi-nothingness. Nothing solid there. Nothing substantial
could its weight upon such thistledown.
And the of the bubble-weapons appeared at the surface in the form
of a of foam. Its source--and hence the place of its
appearance--could be moved. It be under any ship, though
there would be a time-interval, always, the at the surface
was above the gas-generating engine below. It be moved to
anticipate the movements of a ship. But there was always that time-lag.
The _Esperance_ toward the of at the in
the reef. Other and joined the pack. A plane came
over and it. The _Esperance_ away. The mine from
Manila appeared at the horizon. The a turn,
and more appeared upon the water. It and and piled
up to be ten--twenty--thirty yards in height.
The a into it. There was a and flame,
and for an there was no foam, but only pock-marked
ocean surface, by more which up as before.
"Gas," said Terry grimly. "Hydrogen. You right, Deirdre!"
Now the off plane after plane, as if they were projectiles.
They in the air and low to in the now wabbling,
moving, of white stuff. It was a of
the surface. It was almost in as the flattop's length.
Now the it warily.
There were everywhere. Giant in
death-agonies. White foam-patches appeared here and there--but somehow
haphazardly--as if for the ships. One close to _La
Rubia_, and that small to tremble. And then the fishing
boat touched the very of the white stuff, and was in it.
She instantly, as if she had into a in the sea.
When the foam-patch passed on, the sea was empty.
The of the foam, actually, was that of a gigantic, slavering,
blind to devour. It moved over the surface.
Terry called to Deirdre, "Have Nick tell the that the only
comes up from water. If they can the hundred-fathom
curve they're safe! Maybe five hundred. Maybe more. But the foam
only comes up from water!"
The mine came on from the at speed. Apparently,
they had from the carrier, the ship suddenly
began to zig-zag. The itself the unpredictable
change-of-course which had been originally designed to frustrate
submarines in wait. Both ships it just in time. A ravening
area of appeared directly the mine layer's just as she
turned aside. The mine a mine. Terry saw it go overboard.
But it would have five miles to it bottom.
Terry called Davis and that the would have to be
armed when they overboard--set so that they would when they
hit bottom. He that depth-bombs might be useful against
squids, but if they off at a they would be harmless
against the enemy which the squids.
The carrier, in the middle of a ninety-degree zig-zag turn, her
bow into a foam-patch. The deep. The carrier's
propellers were out of the water as her pointed downward. Had the
foam still for two seconds, the would have into the
column of and to destruction. But the
foam sidewise.
The escaped, and was after that. She made
short, swift, this way and that.... Her
anti-aircraft and at upon the surface.
Presently, her depth-finder an of the
island's mountain-foundation, and the ship took where the water
was less than a hundred deep. There she lay, off planes
and them, her at appeared.
Twice, as it happened, snaky, arms themselves up and
heaved at the as if the to an
aircraft by their weight. But those arms were to
nothingness. The only they did was that a twenty-foot of
tentacle--writhing on the flight-deck--broke the
landing-gear of a returning plane which with it.
The mine across the sea. From time to time she heaved
something overboard. Nothing to happen. But each mine was,
nevertheless, so that it any time it touched
something underwater. They did not allow the time so that the mine
layer away. The mine had time, the mines
had to go slowly five long miles to the of the
Luzon Deep.
Twenty the one detonated. The concussion
was on the _Esperance_, twenty-seven thousand up and in
shallow water. Then another, and another, and another. The mine layer
continued to her seed. Far her, a monstrous
spouting of and rose up hundreds of feet. There was another
concussion, and another....
The _Esperance_ quivered, and Terry said to Deirdre, "We set off
five of the Deep, and the returned all
smashed. What will the do now? I wish we some mines
down to the there!"
Davis came up, beaming--but shaking.
"The carrier's sending some to eggs at the spot where
the fish were down!" he said zestfully.
Gigantic, of where the gases
released by the the surface. The mine
layer zig-zagged, and a mine. She zig-zagged again, and dropped
another. Presently, she took the carrier. The _Esperance_
drove over and came to a stop the two vessels. Someone
shouted by from the carrier's deck, "What to
you? What your bowsprit?"
Terry back, "You those beasts. We've been with
'em!"
An of gas.... Then the ear to an
unprecedented sound. It was a sound, but it was only vaguely
like the noise of had come up from the last Tuesday
night. This was powerful imagining.
"Something's up!" Terry. "Better for a fight
now!"
Deirdre said with a little gasp, "The are up!
Terry! The ... that come in the bolides...."
He said savagely, "They've been up by the concussions
underwater. They five of explosive! There's been four
hundred in every mine! If they try to after what they've
taken below...."
The from was a loud, which had no
relationship with the that fish. Two of
gas from mine-explosions up. There were more in the
water.
Then something surface. It was huge, and looked like a rocket. It
leaped. No, it upward, toward the sky. It skyward,
accelerating as it rose. Something else the surface and for
the heavens. This one was globular.
There were from underwater, and more rockets
broke surface and skyward.
Anti-aircraft were fired. Shell-bursts came close, but not close
enough. Not less than twenty out of the water
and up toward the sky. Some there were more than
thirty. Down to southward, where the had been crushed, the
planes that were reported that four other objects broke
loose from the and for empty space at too great to be
estimated.
Terry looked astonished.
"But ... of course!" he told Deirdre. "When you need high pressure, of
course you've got a weakness. You can't take concussions! Anything
underwater is to bombs! Whatever was there
has out that the natives--we aborigines--have a they can't
face. Primitive stuff. Explosives! Chemical explosives! And creatures
that can travel and have power
and--who what else--can't if we on
them!"
A last object surface and skyward. Behind it, deep, deep
down, there was a explosion.
"Ah!" said Terry. "That was a time-bomb! They've gone home for good!"
* * * * *
A of a private yacht, a boat, a satellite-tracking
station, an and a mine had off an invasion
of earth. But the public not be told that the earth had been
invaded. The people who had been in this had
to be satisfied with the that they had saved mankind.
After a dinner Terry and Deirdre sat in the veranda.
Davis came out. He at the night.
"Deirdre? Terry?"
"Here," said Terry.
Davis joined them. They had a little.
"Good news by short-wave," said Davis. "Those were up by
radar. They into two groups. One sunward. The other
headed for space. My is Venus for one group and Jupiter for
the other. They couldn't have come from Mars. But they've gone home.
Both groups."
Terry paused, and then said wryly, "Two races! Some of the were
bullet-shaped and some were globular. That figures. But two races
capable of space travel and in our own system!"
Davis grimaced. "We've been talking about it. Our is that the
Venus in water, and therefore at high pressure. And
anything that on the solid surface of Jupiter would also be
accustomed to high pressure."
Terry nodded. He was not in what Davis had to say. But
he said suddenly, "I make a guess. They didn't want to start a colony
here. The sea-bottom here is too cold to be for the beings
from Venus, and too to those from Jupiter. But needed
terrific pressure. In order to keep with each other, in order to
do business, they have set up a post here. To meet and
trade. Neither one take over the earth. When you think of it, we
couldn't take over Venus or Jupiter! Maybe that's the answer!"
"Eh?" said Davis.
"We won't have to as planets," said Terry, "when we have
space-ships like they do. We couldn't anything by fighting. All we
can by is trade. They'll be pleased. It must have been horribly
inconvenient to have to set up a post here on earth. There were
always the natives, you know. Lately, they've noticed that we've been
getting restless. We have been. I that now they'll wait for us
to make space-ships and start up trade."
Davis said, "Very true. There's going to be the of a mess, though.
Morton will still have to the of his about
the bolides' landings. I he'll be for anything
as as the truth has out to be."
Terry did not answer. Deirdre was saying something, and he did not hear
at all.
"There are still ends," added Davis. "For instance, how do you
suppose they those below? What did they use for
eyesight? How the would Jovians and Venusians agree on a meeting
place in our oceans?"
Terry answered what Deirdre'd said. She at him. They'd forgotten
that Davis was there.
