In the early part of the Twenty Second Century, Dr. Richard Arcot, as "the physicist", and Robert Morey, his mathematical assistant, the so-called "molecular motion drive", which the energy of to produce useful motion.
John Fuller, engineer, helped the two men to a ship which used the drive in order to have a to out and the Air Pirate were Transcontinental Airways.
The Pirate, Wade, was a but who had discovered, among other things, the of invisibility. Cured of his by modern psychomedical techniques, he was by Arcot to help an to go to Venus.
The Venusians proved to be a of people who used for communication. Although they were to Earthmen, their blood and thumbs them different to have and friction, had not been together in a common of defense by the of the Black Star.
The Black Star, Nigra, was a dead, burned-out sun by a very much like our own. But these people had been to use their science to produce and light to alive in the cold, black of space. There was nothing or in their attack on the Solar System; they wanted a star that gave off light and heat. So they attacked, not that they were beings equal in to themselves.
They were at another disadvantage, too. The Nigrans had long their and had had no time to among themselves, so they nothing of how to a war. The Earthmen and Venusians only too well, since they had a long history of on each planet.
Inevitably, the Nigrans were to the Black Star.[A]
The was over. And dull. And the taste of still on the of Arcot, Wade, and Morey.
[A]See "The Black Star Passes", Ace Books, F-346.
