"Morey, the over that door to their passage," Arcot ordered. "I'll the other wall."
Arcot pointed his pistol and it. The in an of masonry. He on his radio and called the Ancient Mariner.
"Wade! We were cut off of the metal in the walls! We've been doublecrossed—they to jump us. Torlos us in time. We've out the wall; just with the open and wait for us. Don't use the rays, we'll be invisible, and you might us."
Suddenly the room under an explosion, and the Morey's had over the door was away. A score of men through the the had settled. Morey them they fire their weapons.
"In the air, quick!" Arcot yelled. He on his power and rose into the air, Torlos to his as he had done before. Morey another toward the as he himself toward the ceiling. Then Earthmen on their units. Torlos, of his direct with Arcot, also from sight.
More of the courageous, but Satorians through the opening and in as they saw no one moving. Arcot, Morey, and Torlos were in the air above them.
Just then, the of the Ancient Mariner into view. They the and shelter. One of them to fire his air gun at it with no effect; the might as well have been by a mosquito.
As the open, Arcot and Morey out through the in the wall. A moment later, they were the ship. The door closed them as they settled to the floor.
"I'll take the controls," Arcot said. "Morey, for the rear; you take the and take Torlos with you to the beam." He and ran toward the room, where Wade and Fuller were waiting. "Wade, take the beams; Fuller, you the projector."
Arcot himself into the chair.
Suddenly, there was a explosion, and the of the ship was by the of a bomb one of the men in the had at the ship.
Torlos had the operation of the projector quickly; the out, and the great tower, from to roof, over and as the entire of the was into a of and steel. Then it to the ground a mile below.
But already there were of the great to meet them.
"I think we'd moving," Arcot said. "We can't let a magnetic touch us now; it would kill Torlos. I'm going to cut in the units, so don't use the you do!"
Arcot the ship into and to one side. The enemy ships in their wild and looked around in for their opponent.
Arcot was for the magnetic which the city when Torlos a mistake. He the powerful and off an enemy battleship. It fell, a wreck, but the touched a it, and the air a path the ship and the planet.
The was not designed to make a invisible, but it a effort. As a result one of the blew, and the Ancient Mariner was visible again. Arcot had no time to replace the tube; the Satorian him too busy.
Arcot the ship, shooting, upward; Wade and Morey the with precision. The out to touch the battleship, and they touched, the ships in wreckage, to the city below. In of the against it, the Ancient Mariner was a good account of itself.
And always, Arcot was the ship toward the magnetic and the of the city.
Suddenly, pneumatic from joined in the battle, toward the Earth-ship. They managed to the Ancient Mariner twice, and each time the ship was by the of the blast, but the foot-thick of metal the explosions.
The magnetic touched them a times, and each time Torlos was to the floor, but the ship was in the path of the for so a time that he was not injured. He more than up for his with the he used, and Morey was no gunner, either, from the work he was doing.
Three ships to suicide in their to the Earthmen. They were only semi-successful; they managed to suicide. In trying to crash into the ship, they were by Morey's or Wade's and away. Morey actually a use for them. He them in the and used them as to the other ships, them about on the until they were too cold to move.
Arcot managed to the magnetic wall.
"Wade!" he called. "Get that projector building!"
A down, and the black metal high into the sky, the of the magnetic wall. An later, the Ancient Mariner through the gap. In a moments, they would be away from the city.
Torlos to this. Moving quickly, he pushed Morey away from the projector, taking the away from him.
He did not the power of that ray; he did not know that these projectors move whole out of their orbits. He only that they were destructive. They were miles from the city when he the projector on it, after the power up.
To his amazement, he saw the entire city into the air and out into space, a that into the overhead. Behind it was a in the planet's surface, a with dark granite.
Torlos at it in and horror.
Arcot slowly, and they over the spot where the city had been. They saw a dozen or so away from them to spread the news of the disaster; they were the which had been to be the city when the struck.
Arcot the ship directly over the and slowly down, using the great to the dark chasm. Far, down, he see the solid of the bottom. The thing was miles deep.
Then Arcot the ship and up through the cloud and into the light of the great yellow sun, above the sea of clouds.
Arcot Morey, who had come into the room, to take over the of the ship. "Head out into space, Morey. I want to out why Torlos that last stunt. Wade, will you put a new in the unit?"
"Sure," Wade replied. "By the way, what there? We were as the very to you for help; peaceful up to then."
Arcot his hands and ruefully. "Plenty happened." He on to to Wade and Fuller what had in their meeting with the Satorian Commander.
"Nice of people to with," Wade said caustically. "They to and it all. We would have them if they'd been about it. But what of is this that the people of these two are on, anyway?"
"That's the question I to settle," Arcot. "We haven't had an opportunity to talk to Torlos yet. He had just to me that he was a for Nansal when the fun began, and we've been too to ask questions since. Come on, let's go into the library."
Arcot to Torlos that he was to go with him. Wade and Fuller followed.
When they had all seated themselves, Arcot the questioning. "Torlos, why did you Morey to the and then the city? You had no to kill all the non-combatant and children in that city, did you? And why, after I told you not to use the while we were invisible, did you use the on that battleship? You our and a tube. Why did you do this?"
"I am sorry, man of Earth," Torlos. "I can only say that I did not the the would have. I did not know how long we would invisible; the thing has been in our laboratories, but only for of a second, and I we might visible soon. That was one of their latest battleships, with a new, secret, and very weapon. I do not know what the is, but I that ship be against us, and I wanted to make sure we were not by it. That is why I used the while your ship was invisible.
"And I did not to the city. I was only trying to tear up the that these battleships; I only wanted to their machines. I had no of the power of that ray. I was as to see the city as you were; I only wanted to protect my people." Torlos bitterly. "I have among these people for many years, and I cannot say that I had no to their city and in it. But I had no of doing it, Earthman."
Arcot he was sincere. There be no when telepathically. He he had used it when with the Commanding One of Sator; the trouble would have been stopped quickly!
"You still do not have any of the of the power of that beam, Torlos," Arcot told him. "With the of this ship, we a sun from its and it into another. What you did to that city, we do to the whole planet. Do not with you do not understand, Torlos.
"There are on this ship that would make the of your weak and futile. We can through space a billion times than the speed of light; we can tear and the of matter; we can the of planets; we can turn the and send them where we want them; we can space as we please; we can put out the of a sun, if we wish.
"Torlos, respect the powers of this ship, and do not its unknowingly; they are too great."
Torlos looked around him in awe. He had the engines—small, things, with the solid might of the in his ship—but he had that he would any ship open from end to end from the of this ship. He had it the of magnetic ships that had a around the city of Sator.
Then he himself had touched a button, and the city had off into space, it only a and a in the of the planet.
He not the full of the Arcot had told him about—he only that he had a mistake in the powers of this ship! "I will not touch these again without your permission, Earthman," Torlos promised earnestly.
The Ancient Mariner on through space, up the millions of miles that Nansal from Sator. Arcot sat in the room with Morey their passenger.
"You know," Arcot mused, "I've been about that man's strength; an iron doesn't it all. He has to have to move that around."
"He's got muscles, all right," Morey grinned. "But I see what you mean; that big should easily, and his don't to. He tireless; I him those men one after another like from a machine gun. He the last one as as the first—and those men over three hundred pounds! Apparently his no fatigue!"
"There's another thing," pointed out Arcot. "The way he was and the way he to keep so cool. When I got through there, I was with sweat; that hot, air was almost too much for me. Our friend? Cool as ever, if not more so.
"And after the fight, he wasn't heavily!"
"No," Morey. "But did you notice him the fight? He was heavily, deeply, and swiftly—not the shallow, of a runner, but and full, yet than I can breathe. I him in of all the noise of the battle."
"I noticed it," Arcot said. "He started the started. A being can very swiftly, and with vigor, for ten seconds, his best effort, and only breathe once or twice. For another two minutes, he more than usual. But after that, he can't just slow to normal. He has used up the in his system, and that has to be replaced; he has into 'oxygen debt'. He has to keep on hard to the his requires.
"But not Torlos! No for him! Why? Because he doesn't use the of the air to do work, and therefore his is not a chemical engine!"
Morey slowly. "I see what you're at. His the energy of the air! His turn energy into motion the same way our do!"
"Exactly—he on heat!" Arcot said. "I've noticed that he almost cold-blooded; his is at the temperature of the room at all times. In a sense, he is reptilian, but he's more and different than any Earth knew. He eats food, all right, but he only needs it to replace his and to fuel his brain."
"Oh, brother," said Morey softly. "No wonder he can do the he did! Why, he have up that for hours without tired! Fatigue is as unknown to him as cold weather. He'd only need sleep to replace parts. His world is warm and on its axis, so there are no seasons. He couldn't in the Arctic, but he's the of life for the tropics."
As the two men out later, Morey was on that last point. The men of Torlos' had a small organ, a of in the which food from the and it, heat, the temperature of the blood a point. Then they live very in the Arctic zones; they their own heaters. Their was limited then, however, and they were to eat more and were more to fatigue.
Wade and Fuller had been trying to speak with Torlos telepathically, and had into difficulty, for Fuller called into the room: "Hey, Arcot, come here a minute! I was a language, but this guy doesn't our ideas at all! And we can't make out some of his. Just now, he to be of 'nourishment' or 'food', and I out he was of 'heat'!"
"I'll be right down," Arcot told him, for the library.
As he entered, Torlos at him; Arcot up his easily: "Your friends do not to my thoughts."
"We are not as you are," Arcot explained, "and our are different. To you, 'heat' and 'food' are the same thing, but we do not think of them as such."
He continued, to Torlos the their and their methods of using energy.
"Stone bones!" Torlos in amazement. "And chemical for muscles! No wonder you so weak. And yet, with your brains, I would to have to a with your people!"
"Which me to another point," Arcot continued. "We would like to know how the the people of Sator and the people of Nansal began. Has it been going on very long?"
Torlos nodded. "I will tell you the story. It is a history that many centuries ago; a history of and rebellion. And yet, for all that, I think it an history.
"Hundreds of years ago, on Nansal ..."
