THE SECOND MOVE
"What to him, though?" asked Wade, bewildered. "I haven't yet it out. He in a heap, and he didn't have any power. Of course, if he had his power he have out again. He just melt and all the off, and he would be all set. But his all dead. And why the explosion?"
"The magnetic is the answer. In our we have shielded, of the magnetic set up by the from the to the main coil. But—with so many with current, what would have if they had not been shielded?
"If a across a magnetic field, a is developed. What do you when the magnetic of the and the in the of their power-board were opposed?"
"Lord, it must have away in the ship. It'd tear the wires!" Wade in amazement.
"But if all the power of the ship was in this way, how was it that one of their was as they fell?" asked Zezdon Afthen.
"Each is a power plant in itself," Arcot, "and so it was able to function. I do not know the of the explosion, though it might well have been that they had light-bombs such as the Kaxorians of Venus have," he added, thoughtfully.
They landed, at Zezdon's advice, in the city that their had been able to save. This was Ortol's largest city, and their capital. Here, too, was the University at which Afthen taught.
They landed, and Arcot, Morey and Wade, with the of Zezdon Afthen and Zezdon Fentes for two of their days of fifty hours each, teaching men how to make and use the ships, and the and screens, beams, and relux. But Arcot promised that when he returned he would have some that would them and easy salvation. In the meantime other would him.
They left the of their third day on the planet. A had come to them on their way as they left, but it was the "silent cheer" of Ortol, a well-wishing.
"Now," said Arcot as their ship left the behind, "we will have to make the next move. It looks as though that next move would be to the still-unknown that on world 3769-37, 478, 326, 894-6. Evidently we will have to have some they haven't, and I think that I know what it will be. Thanks to our out to the Islands of Space."
"Shall we go?"
"I think it would be wise," Morey.
"And I," said Wade. The Ortolians agreed, and so, with the of the photographic copies of the Thessian that Arcot had made, they started for world 3769-37, 478, 326, 894-6.
"It will take twenty-two hours, and as we have been off our sleep with drugs, I think that we had catch up. Wade, I wish you'd take the ship again, while Morey and I do a little sleeping. We have by no means that calculation, and I'd very much like to. We'll you in five hours."
Wade took the ship, and the Arcot out, they through the at the safe speed. Wade had only to watch the view-screen carefully, and if a star as rapidly, it was proof that they were near, and rapidly. If large, a touch of a switch, and they to one side, if small, they were into an of as they through it, in a different space, yet to it by radiation, not light, that were permitted in.
Zezdon Afthen had elected to with him, which gave him an opportunity he had been waiting for. "If it's none of my business, just say so," he began. "But that city we saw the Thessians destroy—it was Zezdon Fentes' home, wasn't it? Did he have a family?"
The as he said them, but there was no way out, once he had started. And Zezdon Afthen took the question with complete calm.
"Fentes had and children," he said quietly. "His was great."
Wade on the screen for a moment, trying to the shock. Then, Zezdon Afthen might his silence, he on. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't you were polygamous—most people on Earth aren't, but some groups are. It's a good way to the race. But ... Blast it, what me is that Zezdon Fentes to from the so quickly! From a race, I'd more affection, more loyalty, more...."
He stopped in dismay. But Zezdon Afthen unperturbed. "More emotion?" he asked. "No. Affection and we have—they are of our race. But and should not be applied. To and children—that would be to their memory. But to them with of health and would also be insulting—not only to their memory, but to the entire race.
"No, we have a way. Fentes, my very good friend, has not forgotten, no more than you have the death of your mother, you loved. But you no longer her death with a and of that natural thing, the Eternal Sleep. Time has the pain.
"If we can do the same in five minutes of five years, is it not better? That is why Fentes has forgotten".
"Then you have his memory of that event?" asked Wade in surprise.
"That is one way of it," Zezdon Afthen seriously.
Wade was for a while, this. But he not his completely. Well, to with it, he decided. Conventional manners and don't have much meaning two different races. "Are you—married?" he asked.
"Only three times," Zezdon Afthen told him blandly. "And to your next question—no, our not create problems. At least, not those you're of. I know my have had the I see in your mind pictures."
"It isn't safe around you," laughed Wade. "Just the same, all of this has me more in the 'Ancient Masters' you keep mentioning. Who were they?"
"The Ancient Ones," Zezdon Afthen slowly, "were men such as you are. They from a very closely related to your race. Evidently the of on any is the same with conditions.
"The as a branch for 1,500,000 of your years any was developed. Then it for a total of 1,525,000 years extinction. With and learning they such means of killing themselves that in twenty-five thousand years they succeeded perfectly. Ten thousand years of culture—I need not relate it to you, five thousand years of the culture, then five thousand years of science culture.
"They learned to through space and nearly three worlds; two were populated, one was still under when the great out. An is not a long out struggle. The science of any people so as to have lines is too to permit any long of war. Selto war, and the move. They and the largest city of Ortol of that time. Ortolian ships them off, and in turn Selto's largest city. Twenty intelligences, twenty lives, each with its aims, its hopes, its loves and its strivings—gone in four days.
"The to more and more hateful, till it that neither would be till the other was totally subjugated. So each his plans, and them to out the entire world of the other.
"Ortol a of light that not happen," Zezdon Afthen, his his own uncertainty.
"'A of light that not happen,'" Wade curiously. "A ray, which things, which to stop—The Negrian Death Ray!" he as he recognized, in this and of its powers, the Negrian of anti-catalysis, a which to stop the of life's and instant, painless death.
"Ah, you know it, too?" asked the Ortolian eagerly. "Then you will what happened. The was on Selto, and as the under it, every square of it was clean of every thing, from Welsthan to Ascoptel, and every man, woman and child was killed, painlessly, but instantly.
"Then Thenten under it, and all were killed, but many who had the were still safe—many?—a thousand.
"The day that Thenten under that ray, men of Ortol to complain of disease—men by the thousands, hundreds of thousands. Every man, every woman, every child was in some way. The did not all the same. Some died of a of the lungs, some insane, some were paralyzed, and inactive. But most of them were afflicted, for it was virulent, and the normal were helpless. Before any quantity of new was made, all but a had died, either of through paralysis, none being left to for them, or from the itself, while thousands who had gone were painlessly killed.
"The Seltonians came to Ortol, and the Ortolians, with their aid, to the civilization. But what a sorry thing! The were gigantic, stinking, plague-ridden morgues. And the among those people. The Ortolians had done in their power with the serums—but too late. The Seltonians had been protected with it on landing—but that was not enough. Again the wild of that out.
"Since those men had from their forebears, they had their friends were the dogs, and to them they in their last extremity, them for intelligence, hairlessness, and to themselves. The Deathless ones alone after three of my people, but with the of rays, the of lead for a distance, and most other for distances." X-rays, Wade. "Great had been wrought. Already they had intelligence, and were able to the of their Masters. Their and hands were being rapidly, and their was changing. Their shortened, their developed, the nose retreated.
"Generation after the on, while the Deathless Ancient Ones with their helpers, for soon my was a helping organization.
"But it was done. The successful of true love-emotion followed, and the days were gone. Quickly followed. In five thousand years the new had the Ancient Masters, and they passed, voluntarily, joining in the millions who had died before.
"Since then our own has risen, it has been but a thousand years, a thousand years of work, and hope, and for us, on which we can look, and a to which we look with heads, and faces.
"Then our died, as this came. Do you see what you and your world was meant to us, Man of Earth?" Zezdon Afthen his dark to the with a look in their that Wade that Thet and all Thessians should be to that of where they belonged.