DESTRUCTION
Some time later, Arcot spoke. "I have just a message from Zezdon Fentes that he has an to make, so I will go to New York of to Chicago, if you do not mind. Morey will take you to Chicago in the tender, and I can Zezdon Fentes."
Zezdon Fentes' message was brief. He had from the minds of who had been killed by the magnetic Arcot had used, and not destroyed, that they had a in this universe. Thett's was near the center of the galaxy, on a of large planets, a small star. But what star their minds had not revealed.
"It's up to us then to said star," said Arcot, after to Zezdon Fentes' account: "I think the way will be to them home. We can go to your world, Zezdon Fentes, and see what they are doing there, and drive them off. Then to yours, Stel Felso. I place your world second as it is able to itself than is Ortol. It is agreeable?"
It was, and the ship which had been in the over New York, where Zezdon Afthen, Fentes and Inthel had come to it in a taxi-ship, for the to clear away above. The of the machine, the of Earth, had a very great amount of attention, naturally, and thousands on thousands of had the cold of the fifteen mile with or in small ships. Now they away, and as the ship slowly rose, the well-wishing of the thousands the men the ship. "That," Morley, "is one thing won't stop. In some I wish it would—because the power that be by any great number of those Thessians, if they know its possibilities, is not a thing to neglect."
"I can answer that, terrestrian," Zezdon Afthen. "Our great powers, and great ability to the will in processes, but they a very of these abilities. Our race, despite the that our powers are much less than those of such men as Arcot and yourself, have done, and can do many your minds cannot, for we have learned the direction of the will. We need not the will of the Thessians. I of that!"
The ship was in space now, and as Arcot it toward Ortol, far across the Island, he on, for the moment, the power of space and time fields. Instantly the sun vanished, and when, less than a second later, he cut off the space field, and left only the time, the were recognizable. They were a dozen light years of Ortol.
"Morey, may I ask what you call this machine?" asked Torlos.
"You may, but I can't answer," laughed Morey. "We were so to it going that we didn't name it. Any suggestions?"
For a moment none of them any suggestions, then slowly came Arcot's thoughts, clear and sharp, the of decision.
"The thing that was thought! The most thing, thought, for nothing can stop its progress. The most thing, thought. Thought, the constructor, the destroyer, the product of mind, and of powers, the of powers. Thought is by the mind. Let us call it Thought!"
"Excellent, Arcot, excellent. The Thought, the of the powers of the cosmos!" Morey.
"But the Thought has not been christened, save in battle, and then it had no name. Let us its name on it now," Wade.
Stopping their motion through space, but a time that permitted them to work without time, Arcot some more cosmium, but now he it to a special type of field, and into the cosmium, he some light photons, bound, free. The he into the letters, and on the of the ship, and on its sides. Thought, it in ten high, of clear cosmium, and the light photons, in it, the slowly metal, would those to for with the light they now had.
The Thought on now, and as they their progress for Ortol, they saw that of Thett had arrived. The here too had been to the ground, and now they were over the largest city of Ortol. Their were on the great screen that had set up, protecting the city, as Earth had been protected. But the that was small, and was being destroyed. A free, and at last for the screen. Its a thousand colors as the energy of the ray-screen them—but it was through!
A for the city—and stopped in a of light and energy. Yet there was none of the of the screen. Merely light.
The was still downward. Then it stopped, and the in like the of a can some one has on, and it came to against an invisible, barrier. A from in space, the screen of Ortol, which the Thessians had for hours, and the screen into brilliance, and disappeared. The the Thessian fort, and the into opalescence, while the the had was a great of light. In less than a second the was gone, the shuddered, and out of the planet's atmosphere, a of now, and to the moleculars. And that that had died and painlessly.
The which had been preparing to the leading was stopped; it indecisively.
Then the Thought visible as its great suddenly, up from space. Every ship and on it. The from the walls, and from the that protected the eyes. The did not affect either, but the that the Thought was in the Ortolian as it the rebounds.
The Thought into action. The which was the point of attack. The had its on the ship with the result that, as before, the slowly into of rays. The to out, suddenly, then was gone. Arcot put up a of to test the effect. The right through the matter, without so much as it. He a of pure energy, an electro-magnetic energy of power. The to one side. But in a moment the Thessians had it.
"It's a photonic stream, but of some type that doesn't affect ordinary matter, but only such as lux, relux, or cosmium. If the would only it, I'd be all right." The through Arcot's mind the others.
A of light energy to the the that a Thessian had against the that the ship. Arcot was the Thessian from to now, and twice succeeded in it so that it the enemy machines.
The Thought sent out its of magnetic energy. The was killed, and the on. Its was dead. The out, and as the magnetic field, the and the interacted, the great was blue-white—then a that an blast of air.
From the Thought a great of went, a visible, wall, that forward, and itself around the Thessian ships with a motion of speed, yet deceptive, for it to and flow.
A Thessian to it away—and into strength. The ship to a of relux.
The part of the Thessian had already fled, but there a hundred great battleships. And now, a miles of the planet, there a so that who not it.
From the Thought, where it the wall, a Thing came.
The Thessian ships had now that the that them in was impenetrable, and their were off, for none they now had would it. The were gone.
But the Thing that came the Thought was a ship, a little ship of the same white, and it into, and through the wall, and was their prison. The Thessian ships their toward it, and waited. What was this thing?
The ship which so slowly toward them to jerk, and from it pseudopods! An on a scale! It its way purposefully toward the nearest ship, and while that ship waited, a pseudopod out, and through the four armor! A second pseudopod with rapidity, and in an the ship had been from end to end!
Now a hundred were toward the thing, and the into fire and of light, blackened, pseudopods to from the thing and it from the enclosure, once more through the that stopped their rays.
But another Thing came. It was enormous, a mile long, a great, thing, a dragon, and on its was an enormous, head, with great nose and nostrils. It was a Thessian head! The mouth, fifty across, into an grin, and broken, teeth of iron in the mouth. Great upraised, it rent the that them, and its length in. The of its to come to the watchers, as it after a great pilot in terror. Faster than the the Thing it in that through solid relux. Scratching, enormous, blood-red wings, the away great of relux, sending them into space.
Again at it. Cosmic and with of light. For now in the close space of the Wall was an atmosphere, the air of two great warships, and though the space was great, the air in the ships was dense.
The its face. The into light, and black, up, as the thing and horribly, out. Then it was free, and the was away, and a grinning, bleeding, half-cooked and in anger at them. It at the nearest ship, and out that that it—and into death. It quivered, then into mist, a haze, and was gone!
A last thing—a thing they had not noticed as all that Thing—was by the rent in the Sphere now, the Thessian, with leering, jaws, enormous, limbs, the and toes, and the of his race, at them. In one hand was a thing—and his munched. Thett's men in as they that thing in his hand—a Thessian body! He and for a battleship—a him. He howled, and into their midst.
Then the Thessians mad. All fought, and they each other, of all sorts, their and their cosmics, while in their the Giant his glee, and laughed and laughed—
Eventually it was over, and the last Thessian ship itself against the of its last enemy. And only was left.
"Lord, Arcot! Why in the Universe did you do that—and how did you those horrors?" asked Morey, more than a little at the Arcot had displayed.
Arcot himself, and his controls. "Why—why I don't know. I don't know what me do that, I'm sure. I anything like that thing—how did—"
His themselves on Zezdon Fentes, and their power the of the Ortolian's mind. Arcot's mind opened for the others the of Zezdon Fentes.
He had as a medium the minds of the Thessians, and Arcot. Taking the horror-ideas of the Thessians, he had them on Arcot's mind while Arcot was at work with the controls. In Arcot's mind, they had as had the ideas that night on Earth, only here the had been to the limit, and the ideas were to the utmost. The Thessians, minds though they were, were not and they had broken. The Allies, with their different horror-ideas, had been but affected.
"We will you on Ortol, Zezdon Fentes. We know you have done much, and your own mind has a bit. We you recover. I think you agree with me, Zezdon Afthen and Inthel?" Arcot.
"We do, heartily, and are sorry that one of our has in this way. Let us to Talso, as soon as possible. You might send Fentes in a of matter," Zezdon Afthen.
"Which," said Arcot, after this had been done, and they were on their way to Talso, "shows the of a Thought!"
