THE FIRST MOVE
The Ortolians were on a low, green-clad hill. Below them the green of the little rise, and after of the broad, of the Vermont hills.
"Man of Earth," said Zezdon Afthen, at last to Wade, who him. "It took us three months of at a speed unthinkable, through space with the of the Outer Dark, in red, and and orange, some of our course, others pinpoints of color. It was a of grandeur, but it was so in its scope, one was afraid, and his him as he looked at those alone in the of the of cold and darkness. One was awed, by their magnitude. A truly, but one no man love.
"Now we are at on a pinpoint of in a of a of an universe, and the and is gone. Only the of those as they in darkness, the soft of the little below, and the of leaves, the with a satisfying existence, while the of that great star, your sun, is in its of soft color, the of the clouds, and the of green hills.
"The of space is awe-inspiring in its magnitude. The of Earth is something man can love.
"Man of Earth, you have a home that you may well for with all the of your arms, all the of your brain, and all the of Space that you can call to you. It is a world." Silently he in the dusk, as Venus into being, then one by one the came into in the color of the sky.
"Space is wonderful; this is—lovable." He long at the of this world so strange, so to him, looking at the heavens, as star after star into the so familiar to and to those Venerians who had been above the clouds of Venus' shroud.
"But off there in space are other races, and the power of our to see is the star that is the sun of my world, and around it circles that little that is home to me. What is there now? Does it still exist? Are there people still on it? Oh, Man of Earth, let us that world quickly, you cannot the that attack me, for if it be destroyed, think—forever I am without home—without friends I knew. However your people may be to me, I would be lonely.
"I will not think of that—only it is time your ship was ready, is it not?"
"I think we had return," Wade softly, his English in his mind to the Ortolians.
The three rose in the air on the and toward the of the to the east, among still other green hills. Lights were in the great shop, where the Ancient Mariner was being with the ray-shields, and all possible weapons. Men through her were her with of foods, stocks of fuel, all the parts they into her stock rooms.
When the men from the hilltop, the work was done, and Wade up to Morey, off a list of items.
"Everything you ordered came through?" he asked.
"Yes—thanks to the of a two-billion private fortune. Who says credit-units don't have their value? This would have through, if it hadn't been for that.
"But we have the main space power bank, and the new full. Ten of lead for fuel. There's one thing we are of. If the enemy have a of that is able to more power than our last tube—we're sunk. These people that using more to a ray-power bank the last has to the entire of all the others, and it correctly. If the enemy has a tube—it will be too for us." Morey was worried.
"My end is all set, Morey. How soon will you be ready?" Arcot asked.
"'Bout ten-fifteen minutes." Morey a cigarette and as the last of the was aboard.
At last they were ready. The Ancient Mariner, originally for exploration, was in condition. New had been in it, as their had to improvements, and it was in condition, for a trip. Many to the nearer had already been made.
The ship was out from the now, and rested on the great landing field, its of and a great, in the of the field. They were waiting now for the of the Ortolian ship. Zezdon Afthen them it would be there in a minutes.
High in the sky, came the of an ship, at velocity. It came nearer the field, toward the ground at an of speed, at a speed of well over three thousand miles an hour, and, only in the last fifty with a deceleration. Even so it with a crash of two hundred miles of speed. Arcot at the terrible landing the pilot had made, to see the great somewhat, though of solid relux. And the would kill every man on board. Yet the did not by the crash, and the ground under the ship was but disturbed, though, at a of some thirty feet, the entire of was crushed, and by the impact of hundreds of thousands of with energy.
"Lord, it's a wonder they didn't kill themselves. I saw such a landing," Morey with disgust.
"Don't be too sure. I think they gently, and at very low speed. Notice how little the directly under them was dented?" Arcot, walking forward. "They have time control, as I suspected. Ask them. They in gently. Their time was up tremendously, so that what was hundreds of miles hour to us was minute to them. But come on, the to that up to the door—they are out."
One of the tall, kindly-faced people was in the now, the white light out around him into the night, a on the landing field, for all the lights in it.
Zezdon Afthen came up and spoke to the man in of the ship. The entire party into the ship, and the of their laboratory was in.
For hours Arcot, Morey and Wade at the in the ship, measuring, calculating, and magnetic and hook-ups of complexity. They were not trying to the exact method of construction, only the involved, so that they perform calculations of their own, and the results of the enemy. Thus they would be more familiar with the when done.
Little attention was paid to the plant, for it was a drive with the same type of lead-fuel they used in their own ship. The of the power bank were, however, a puzzle to them. They were of relux, so that it was to see the of the tube. To open one was to it, but calculations from of their that they were more efficient, and nearly again the that the best sustain. This meant the enemy send and screens.
But they returned to the Ancient Mariner, and as the Ortolian ship its way out to space, the Ancient Mariner started, and through the till it was in the night of space. Then the power was off. The ship to writhe, space was black and about them, then stars, all them. They were moving already. Almost the Ortolians what was happening, a dozen had past the ship, on now at than five light years in every second. At this speed, fourteen hours would be needed to Ortol.
"Now, Arcot, you will to me the of this ship," said Zezdon Afthen at last, from the great pilot's window, to Arcot seated in the pilot's chair. "I know that only the will be to me, for I not that ship we captured, after almost four months of study. Yet it through space with this ship. Certainly no ship this in a race!"
"As a of fact—watch!" Arcot pushed a little metal along a to the end. Again the ship to writhe. Space was no longer black, but gray, and them, on either side, two exact of their ship! Zezdon Afthen stared. But in another moment, were gone, and space was black, yet in but a moments a was showing, and light was appearing from all about, in intensity. For three Arcot thus, then he the metal the slide, and over another that he had to the second change. The were again them, their colors all at that speed. But the of the them had been familiar. Now an different set of showed.
"I opened the ship out to her maximum speed for a moment. I was able to see any large star 2000 light years in our path, and there were none. Small do not us as I will explain. When I put on full power of the main power coils, I the ship up to a speed of 30 light years a second. When I in the full power of the as well I the power, and the speed was by eight. The result was that in the four of racing, we 1000 light years!"
Zezdon Afthen gasped. "Two hundred and light years second"! He paused in bewilderment. "Suppose we had a small sun, a dark star, a at that speed? What would have been the result?"
Arcot smiled. "The are excellent that we through more than one meteor, more than one dark star, and more than one small sun.
"But this is the secret: the ship the speed only by going out of space. Nothing in space can the speed of light, save radiation. Nothing in normal space. But, we space, make space along patterns we choose, and so it that the natural speed of is greater. In fact, we so space that nothing can go slower than a speed we fix.
"Morey—show Afthen the coils, and it all to him. I've got to here."
Morey rose, and through the ship, to the power room, Zezdon Afthen following. Here, five high were in close packed rows. The "pots" designed energy, the energy of four of lead, in the only that energy may be stored, as a strain, or in space. These only the space themselves, making a closed themselves. But in the exact center of the of a ship was a single high of different design that space around it as well as the space it. This, as Morey explained, was the that the of space to suit. The were charged, and the energy stored. Their energy be into the big coil, and then, when the ship to normal space, be to them. The energy, as well as any energy needed for the be by three power generators.
"These energy-producers," Morey explained, "work on a for hundreds of years on Earth. Lead, when to a temperature zero as closely as, for instance, liquid helium, has no resistance. In other words, no how great a is sent through it, there is no resistance, and no is produced to the temperature. What we do is to send a powerful through a lead wire. The wire has a so that the are destroyed, and the protons and into pure energy. Relux, under the of a magnetic field, this directly into potential. Electricity we can to the in the power coils, and thus the ship is driven." Morey pointed out the power overhead, where the main power drive was in the center of the ship, or as near as the great space would permit.
The smaller power for lift, and for steering, were in the walls, under of relux.
"The projectors for and are on the of course. Both of these projectors are protected. The of the ship are of an of metal, a between, and an of relux. The is than relux, and is therefore used for an shell. The of will any and to the in the ship, since a perfect is a perfect non-radiator. The is to protect the of the ship against any heat. If we should the of a sun, it would be if the physical of were permitted, for though the will turn out any heat, it is a of heat, and we would almost instantly. These are and non-volatile. The ship has actually been in the of a star than your sun or mine.
"Now you see why it is we need not a with a small sun, or such like. Since we are in our own, space, we are alone, and there is nothing in space to into. But, if we enter a sun, the of the of would be to the energy of our away from us. That actually the time we our exploration. But it is almost to into a large star—they are too brilliant. We won't be about it," Morey.
"But how did the ship we operate?" asked Zezdon Afthen.
"It was a very system, very closely related to ours, really.
"We space and the characteristics; in other words, we the of motion through of normal space. The Thessian ships work on the of the of progress through time of through space.
"Velocity is 'units of travel through space unit of travel through time.' Now if we make the time unit twice as great, and the through space are not changed, the is twice as great. That is, if we are moving five light years second, make the second twice as long and we are moving ten light years double-second. Make it ten thousand times as long, and we are traveling fifty thousand light years ten-thousand-seconds. This is the principle—but there is a drawback. We might the by time passage, that is, if it takes me a year for one heartbeat, two years to my arm thus, and six months to turn, my head, if all my are in this way, I will be able to live a length of time, and though it takes me two hundred years to go from one star to another, so low is my time that the two hundred years will but a minutes. I can then make a to a star—one five light years distant, let us say, in three minutes to me. I then will say, looking at my (which has been slowed) 'I have gone five light years in three minutes, or five light years minute. I have the speed of light.'
"But people on Earth would say, he has taken two hundred years to go five light years, therefore he has gone at a speed one of that of light, which would be true—for their time rate.
"But I can also speed up time. That is, I can live a year in a minute or two. Then else will be slow. The thing would be to these two effects, that space about your ship will have a very time rate, ten thousand times that of normal space. Then the speed of through that space will be 1,860,000,000 miles second, and a speed of 1,000,000,000 miles second would be possible, but still you, too, will be affected, so that though the people home will say you are going than light, you will say 'No, I am going only 100,000 miles second.'
"But now that your ship and space for one mile is at a time 10,000 times normal, and you, in a space of one hundred your ship, are by a time 1/10,000 that, or normal, to a second, field. The two will not fight, or be antagonistic; they will their effects. Result: you will agree that you are the speed of light!
"Do you understand? That is the on which your ship operated. There were two time-fields, time-fields. Remember the terrible speed with which your ship landed, and yet there was no according to the men? The answer of was, that their time had been enough, to the that one had been off, the other had not.
"That is the principle. The is so complex, naturally, that we have not yet learned the method of the process. We must do a great of mathematical and physical research.
"Wish we had it done—we use it now," the terrestrian.
"We have some other weapons, none as important, of course, as the and the ray. Or none that have been. But, if the enemy have shields, then these others also will be important. There are motion guns, metal tubes, with at one end. A metal is the power on, and the out at a speed of about ten miles second—since it has been super-heated—and is very aimed, as there is no of to be taken up by the gun.
"But a more weapon, if these men are as I them to be, will be a magnetic device, which will project a magnetic as a for a mile or more. How useful it will be—I don't know. We don't know what the enemy will turn against us!"
