Cantrell's Comet
FAR out in space, Jupiter, a moon and its pin-points of light, Stevens to his with a grin.
"Well, Nadia, old golf-shootist, here's where we turn again. Hope you like it this time, I'm that we'll have to for a while." He slowly the of power, and the play over Nadia's in her purely personal against the by the decrease in their acceleration.
"I'm sorry as the dickens, sweetheart," he on, tenderly, and the disappeared. "Wish I take it for you, but...."
"But there are times when we've got to our own and our own dead," she interrupted, gamely. "Cut off the of that power! I'm not going to be sick—I won't be a—what do you call us earth-bound who can't weightlessness—weight-fiends, isn't it?"
"Yes; but you aren't...."
"I know I'm not, and I'm not going to be one, either! I'm all x, Steve—it's not so now, really. I myself together that time, anyway, and I now. Have you Cantrell's Comet yet? And why so sure all of a that they can't us? That power still us to Ganymede, doesn't it? Maybe they can it."
"At-a-girl, ace!" he cheered. "I'll tell the world you're no weight-fiend—you're a right. Most first-trippers, at this stage of the game, wouldn't be a or not, and here you're taking an in all of already. You'll do, girl of my heart—no fooling!"
"Maybe, and maybe you're trying to kid somebody," she returned, him intently. "Or maybe you just don't want to answer those questions I asked you a minute ago."
At the of a a of the wall
swung aside, the black mouth of a tunnel.
At upon its there into being almost invisible
points of light. Along that line of lights the life-boats their
way, into a cavern....
At the of a a of the aside, the black mouth of a tunnel. At upon its there into being almost points of light. Along that line of lights the life-boats their way, into a cavern....
"No, that's data, right on zero across the panel," he her. "And as for your questions, they're easy. No, I haven't looked for the yet, we'll have to for a of days we'll be near where I think it is. No, they can't us, there is now nothing to trace, unless they can the power we are using in our lights and so on—which possibility is small. Potentially, our still exists, but since we are no power, it has no present existence. See?"
"Uh-uh," she dissented. "I can't say that I can how a can and yet not be there actually to trace. Why, a thing has to be or not at all—you can't possibly have something that is nothing. It doesn't make sense. But off those of yours, please," as now with a slate-pencil, Stevens to a upon a four-foot of slate. "You know that your of is over my like a tent, so we'll let it lie. I'll take your word for it. Steve—if you're satisfied, it's all x with me."
"I think I can you out a little, by analogy. Here's a sketch of a cylinder, with and shadow. You've had geometry, of course, and so know that a shadow, being a of a material object upon a plane, is a two-dimensional thing—or rather, a two-dimensional concept. Now take the shade, which is, of course, this entire here, the the and the plane of projection. You that there is a point of light at your point of projection: it isn't there. The shade, then, of which I am a picture, has only a existence. You know where it is, you can it, you can it, it, and work with it—but still it doesn't exist; there is nothing to it from any other of air, and it cannot be by any physical or means. If, however, you place a light at the point of projection, the and can be optically. By a of the imagination, you might our to that shade. When we turn our power on, the is actual; it is a of force, and as such can be electrically. When our here are open, however, it only potentially. There is no motion in the ether, nothing to that a had actually there. With me?"
"Floundering badly, but I see it after a fashion. You are freaks—where we ordinary see actual, solid, objects, you see only empty space with a and around in it; and yet where we see only empty space, you can see 'potentially' that may at all. You'll be the death of me yet, Steve! But I'm a of time. What do we do now?"
"We on the big tube. You might warm up the and melt me that pot of glass, while I on the supports, plate brackets, and so on." Both to work with a will, and hours passed and almost silently, so was each upon his own tasks.
"All x, Steve." Nadia the long silence. "The pyrometer's on the red, and the oven's hot," and the man left his bench. Taking up a long and an longer blowpipe, he the melt to a surface and a bubble.
"I just love to talk at you when you've got your mouth full of a blowpipe." Nadia him and her her, as she was. "I've got you now—I can say anything I want to, and you can't talk back, your will its shape if you do. Oh, isn't that a beauty! I saw you anything that big before," and she silent, intently.
Slowly there was being from the pot a huge, of hot, glass, its cross-section at the surface as Stevens the of or the of air through the pipe. Soon that sharply. The glass-blower his hand and Nadia the with a wire, just above the surface of the in the pot. Pendant from the blowpipe, the was over the hot-bench, where Stevens, now begoggled, begloved, and with a torch, to into the still, almost plastic, necks, side-tubes, supports and other of pattern. Finally the assembled was in the oven, where it would at a high and temperature until its filaments, grids, and plates had been installed. Eventually, in that same oven, it would be allowed to slowly and over a period of days.
THUS were performed many other which are done either by or by in labor—for these two, upon their own resources, had long since learned how much may be by the most article. Whenever they needed a thing they did not have—which every day—they had either to make it or else, in that, to go and something that would them to the item. Such had so as to be as part of the day's work; they no longer or annoyance. For two days the two jacks-of-all-trades at many lines and with many materials Stevens called a halt.
"All x, Nadia. It's time for us to stop and turn into astronomers. We've been out for fifty I-P hours, and we'd looking around for our of metal," and, the girl at the plate and Stevens at their one small telescope, they to search the black, star-jeweled for Cantrell's Comet.
"According to my figures, it ought to be about four hours right ascension, and something like plus twenty declination. My aren't accurate, though, since I'm purely from memory, so we'd from Aldebaran to the Pleiades."
"But the will as we go along, won't they?"
"Not unless we pass it, we're nearly at it, I think."
"I don't see anything stars. Will it have much tail?"
"Very little—it's close to aphelion, you know, and a doesn't have much of a so away from the sun. Hope it's got some of its left, though, or we may miss it entirely."
Hours passed, which the two into their instruments, then Stevens left the and over to his slate.
"Looks bad, ace—we should have it this. Time to eat, too. You'd better...."
"Oh, look here, quick!" Nadia interrupted. "Here's something! Yes, it is a comet, and close—it's got a little of a tail."
Stevens to the plate, and, pressed close to brown, the two the image of the of the void.
"That's it, I just know it is!" Nadia declared. "Steve, as a computer, you're a and a report!"
"Yeah—missed it only about a or so," he replied, grinning, "and I'd fire a whole of I-P check for being four thousand off. However, I have done worse—I easily have all the data on it, of only of it." He a normal negative acceleration, and Nadia a of as her weight returned to her and her again by the ordinary and muscles.
"Guess I am a of a weight-fiend at that, Steve—this is much better!" she exclaimed.
"Nobody that weight is more at times; but you're a just the same—you'll like it after a while," he prophesied.
Stevens took upon the body, his sharply, then, after a time interval, again readings.
"That's it, all x," he announced, after his calculations, and he their negative by a third. "There—we'll be just about traveling with it when we there," he said. "Now, little K. P. of my bosom, our supper's been on time for hours. What say we shake it up?"
"I check you to decimals," and the two were soon the Ganymedean which Nadia had put in the many hours before.
"Should we go to sleep, Steve, or should one of us watch it?"
"Sleep, by all means. There's no out here, and we won't arrive ten o'clock tomorrow, I-P time," and, out by the events of the long day, man and their and into slumber.
While they slept, the "Forlorn Hope" on through the at a but velocity; and off to one side, along a line making a with their own course, there larger and larger the which up the of Cantrell's Comet.
Upon awakening, Stevens' was for the comet, and he it he Nadia, who into the room. Looming large in the range of the plate, their in its course, its only by the with which it past the of stars. Apparently it was a wild of fragments; a conglomerate, of and in size from of up to chunks, which upon Earth would have millions of tons. Pervading the whole nucleus, a slow, movement was perceptible—a and of and past and around each other as they all in to the law of gravitation.
"Oh, isn't that wonderful!" Nadia breathed. "Think of actually going to visit a comet! It of me, Steve—it's so and looking. We're close, aren't we?"
"Not so very. We'd have of time to eat breakfast. But just to be on the safe side, maybe I'd here at the board, and you me over something to eat."
"All x, Chief!" and Stevens ate, one upon the screen, closely the ever-increasing of the comet.
FOR many minutes he the Forlorn Hope in a wide the of metal and more nearly, then to the girl.
"Hold everything, Nadia—power's going off in a minute!" He off the beam; then, that they were traveling a than the comet, he a small to one projector. Darting the here and there, he so their that they were in relation to the comet. He then opened his switches, and the Forlorn Hope on. Apparently motionless, it was now a part of Cantrell's Comet, traveling in a stupendous, about the Master of our Solar System, the Sun.
"There, ace, who said anything about weight-fiends? I was you, and you a that time."
"Why, that's right—I about it—I was so studying that thing out there! I I've got used to it already?"
"Sure—you're one of us now. I you would be. Well, let's go places and do things! You'd put on a suit, too, so you can in the air-lock and the line."
They the insulated, suits, and Stevens the locking of the line into their upon the helmets.
"Hear me?" he asked. "Sound-disks all x?"
"All x."
"On the radio—all x?"
"All x."
"I your and heaters—they're all x. But you'll have to test...."
"I know the by heart, Steve. It's been in every in the country for the last year, but I didn't know you had to go through it every time you out-of-doors! Halves, number one all x, two all x, three all x...."
"Quit it!" he snapped. "You aren't those valves! That check-up is no joke, guy. These are affairs, and some parts are to out of order. You see, a thing to give you fresh air at normal pressure and to keep you warm in space can't be either or fool-proof. They've on them for years, but they're yet. They're tricky, and if one goes on you, out in space, it's just too bad—you're lucky to alive. A of men are still out there of the check-ups."
"'Scuse it, please—I'll be good," and the and of every part of the space-suits on.
Satisfied at last that the was spaceworthy, Stevens up the of drag-line, of a non-metallic which its and in the cold of space, and the girl into the air-lock.
"Heavens, Steve! It's perfectly stupendous, and around than the of the Arcturus was when I wouldn't let you climb up it—why, I were little, and at all!" the girl.
"This is little, to any regular or or to the asteroids. There's only a of there, and, as I said before, it's a comet. You know the game?"
"I've got it—and me, I'll you here a than you can jump over there if any one of those to on you! Is this line long enough?"
"Yes, I've got a hundred here, and it's only fifty over there to where I'm going. So long," and with a light of his feet, he across the space, a out ahead of him. Straight as a he toward his objective, a many yards in diameter, taking the of his landing by along the pike-handle as its the mass.
Then, his against one lump, he pushed against its neighbor, and under that pressure the moved and on moving, among their fellows. Over and around them Stevens sprang, always his line of as well as that of his advance, until his a of solid metal. Hooking the toward him, he with his and was reassured—that object was not only metal, but it was metal so hard that his pike-head of space-tempered did not make an upon its surface. Turning on his light he his but not off a small fragment.
"Found something, Steve?" Nadia's voice came in his ears.
"I'll say I have! A of solid, non-magnetic metal about the size of an office desk. I can't off any of it, so I we'll have to the whole chunk."
He the end of his around the nugget, sure that the would not slip, and then, as Nadia the line, he mightily.
"All x, Nadia, she's coming! Pull in my line as I said over there, and I'll help you land her."
Inside the Forlorn Hope the of metal was into the shop, where Stevens it to the floor, he took off his space-suit.
"Why, it's with snow, and the whole room is positively cold!" Nadia exclaimed.
"Sure. Anything that comes in from space is cold, if it's been out only a minutes, and that of has been out for nobody how many years. It didn't much from the sun at perihelion, you know, so it's around two hundred and sixty now. I'll have to a on it for an hour we can touch it. And since this is more or less new to you, I'll you—don't try to touch anything that has just come in. That or would freeze your hand instantly, though they've been out only a little while. Before you touch anything, on it, like this, see? If your solid on it, like that, don't touch it—it's cold."
UNDER the infra-beams of the heater, the of the metal was to room temperature and Stevens it with his machine tools. Bit by the material was from the lump. Through he the in a crucible, in the of the furnace.
"What do you think you've got—what you want?"
"I don't know. It wasn't iron—it wouldn't a magnet. It's metal of some kind, I think. Base mostly melt at around fifteen hundred, and that is still as a at than seventeen."
"How are you going to out the and the others you want from the ones that you don't want?"
"I'm that I'm not going to, very well," Stevens, with a grimace. "What I don't know about would a library, and I'm the world's chemist. However, by a series of liquations, I to out that I can use. Platinum melts around seventeen-fifty, about twenty-nine hundred, and not until 'way up around thirty-three, or four hundred—and that, by the way, means of grief. Of course, each will be an of one or another, but I think maybe I'll be able to make them do."
"But mayn't that whole be a pure metal?"
"It's conceivable, but not probable. There, she's to at just eighteen hundred! Platinum group out now, I think—platinum, rhodium, iridium, and that gang, you know. While I'm doing this, you might be those five into exact resonance, if you want to."
"Sure I want to," and Nadia her way across to the short-wave and set to work.
After an hour or so, over her task, she to uneasily, then her impatiently.
"What's the idea of at me so?" she out suddenly. "How do you me to these up if you...." She stopped abruptly, mouth open in amazement, as she toward Stevens. He had not been looking at her, but he a from his own at the of her voice. "Excuse me, please, Steve. I don't know what's the with me—must be jumpy, I guess."
"I wish that was all, but it isn't!" Face and hard, Stevens to the plate and the out into space. "There's an answer, but that isn't it. You're a fine-tuned yourself, ace, and you've something.... I so! There's the answer—the guy that was looking at you!"
Plainly there was upon the plate a small, space-ship, very like the one that had and the Arcturus. After Nadia had taken one at it, Stevens off the power and out into the shop. He closed all the doors and air-break openings, then closed and the door of the in which they had their headquarters. Then, after they had again put on the space-suits they had taken off such a time before, he all the lights and the screen he again to out into the void.
"If I had a brain in my head, of the of bean I've got up there, we'd have these when they cut up the Arcturus, and saved us a of wear and tear," he remarked. "They were right there in the all the time, and I it!"
"Well, we got away, anyway. You couldn't be to think of at once. We didn't have much time, you know."
"No, but I should have of anything as as that, anyway. Wonder how they us? Did they us, or did they come out to this after metal, same as we did, and us accidentally? However, it all out the same—they're out to us. I'm this is going to be a whole like a at a man with a gun; but we'll sure try to us off a while they're a square ... here they come!"
The enemy its plane of force, and the Forlorn Hope in every plate and as its was under the impact. Instantly Stevens his only weapons. Flaming ultra-violet and infra-red, the out; but their was of moment to the power the enemy screens. Two of red in space were the only results of Stevens' attack, and the next cut away the two and, incidentally, a full of the fifty-inch of the leading edge.
"Then we're out now?" Nadia asked quietly, as the man's hands from his controls. "I'm than I can say, lover. But at least, I'm that I can go out with you," and her were with tears.
"Maybe, but out of it, girl—our are still beating! We're not yet, and maybe we won't be. Perhaps they want to us alive, as they did before; if so, we may be able to out on them and off another escape. Things don't look very bright, I know, but we're not out until our numbers are actually up!"
He a hand under her as the came closer, and and ready. The plane cut through one end of their room, and Stevens with his toward the new-made opening; while the air into space and their with the in pressure differential. While they were in midflight, the of its way through the and through the spot upon which they had been a moment before. As they passed the edge, en into open spare, Stevens a metal and there, every nerve taut.
"Something here, Nadia," he said after a little, in a low tone. "They should have one more cut, to make us and helpless. As it is, they've off all our projectors, so we can't move, but I think we've got the whole of number two untouched. If so, we can look around, anyway. Let's go!"
Floating without from to fragment, they their way toward the of their as yet undamaged. They an in order, and were soon in the second lifeboat, where Stevens on a and out into space.
"There they are! There's another out there, too. They're with her, now—that's why they didn't us off." Steel-braced, touching, the two Terrestrials spell-bound into the plate; while the the its every to upon another and larger which was now so close as to be visible. Like a of this second appeared—its and highly-polished surface one enormous, perfect, mirror. Watching tensely, they saw out that plane of energy, with the of which they were all too familiar, and saw it full upon the ball.
"This is awful, ace!" Stevens groaned. "They haven't got ray-screens, either, and without them they don't a chance. No possible can up under that beam. When they done and turn to us, we'll have to to where we were."
BUT that was not as as Stevens had supposed. The plane of and clung, but not it. Broken up into of of light, intersecting, multi-colored rays, and of energy, the was reflected, back, away on all into space in coruscating, torrents. And neither was the inoffensive. The saw a port open suddenly, a flame-erupting something, and close as as it had opened. That something was a projectile, its aflame; as as its mother-ship and as to the of the common foe. Detected almost as it was, it the full power of the attack. The plane of upon it; ultra-violet, infra-red, and it; there were against it all the to the scientific minds that sphere.
Finally, only a hundreds of yards from its goal, the was and the of high let go, with a silent, but terrific, detonation. But now another was on its way, and another, and another; on toward the smaller sphere. Fighting three and the globe, the enemy dodging, and with a acceleration; but the not be off. At every and turn, into activity and the nearer. Knowing that she had at last a force, the in flight; but, as was her acceleration, the were and all three of them her at once. There an space-racking in its intensity; a of that to all space, into a of which, glowing, about and itself to Cantrell's Comet. And in the space where had been the enemy sphere, there was nothing.
A slow-creeping of out from the great sphere, touched the of the Forlorn Hope, and pulled; gently, but with power.
"Tractor again!" Stevens, still at the plate. "Everybody's got 'em but us, it seems."
"And we can't a any more, can we?"
"Not a chance—bows and wouldn't do us much good. However, we may not need 'em. Since they that other crew, and haven't us up, they aren't active of ours, and may be friendly. I haven't any idea who or what they are, since our can't through that mirror, but it looks as though our best is to act and see if we can't talk to them in some way. Right?"
"Right." They out into the airlock, from which they saw that the great had only a yards from them, and that an in an open door, to them an to enter the vessel.
"Shall we, Steve?"
"Might as well. They've got us foul, and can take us if they want us. Anyway, we'll need at least a week to us up any of power, so we can't run—and we couldn't away from those if we had all our power. They haven't us up, and they have done it easily enough. Besides, they act friendly, so we'd meet them way. Dive!"
Floating toward the open doorway, they were met by another of force, into the airlock, and supported the being who had them to visit him. Apparently an empty space-suit there; a peculiarly-fitted of some transparent, flexible, glass-like material; a over the of the tall Terrestrial. Closer inspection, however, that there was something that suit—a shadowy, weirdly-transparent being, at them with large, black eyes. The door them; they the of air, and the door opened; but their almost as as ever. They the their feet, and a little weight was them as the space-ship got under way. Stevens his arms at the stranger, pointing toward where he their own to be. The an arm reassuringly, pressed a contact, and a of the transparent. Through it Stevens saw with that the Forlorn Hope was not being abandoned; in the of powerful beams, every of the was close them in their through space.
STEVENS and Nadia their along a corridor, through doors, and into a large room, which at empty, but in which of the people of the were about upon cushions. They were human—but what humans! Tall and they were, with chests, by which, though large, appeared of the and of the huge, sail-like, ears. Their skins were a strikingly, livid, blue, of hair; and their eyes, without a of iris, were in their of enormous, black and ghastly, eyeball.
As the two Terrestrials entered the room, the beings to their and away. Soon one of them returned, in an suit, and three sets of harnesses, by to a large box which he upon the floor. He the to the officer, who in turn two of them at the of the Terrestrials, to them that they were to his example in them upon their heads, the helmets. They did so, and through the almost perfect insulation, and in of the powerful of their suits, they a touch of cold. The a dial, and the two from Earth were in full with Barkovis, the of a space-ship of Titan, the of Saturn!
"Well, I'll be ... say, what is this, anyway?" Steve involuntarily, and Nadia as Barkovis answered with a thought, than any spoken words.
"It is a thought-exchanger. I do not know its mechanism, since we did not it and since I have had little time to study it. The apparatus, as you see it here, was but a time ago, in a small, rocket-propelled space-ship which we some of the of Jupiter. Its of power had been by the cold of space, but re-powering it was, of course, a small matter. The of the were all dead. They were, however, of stock, and of a type for life upon a satellite. I deduce, from your structure, your pressure, and your, to us, high temperature, that you must be planet-dwellers. I that you are of Jupiter?"
"Not quite." Stevens had in a measure from his surprise. "We are from Tellus, the third planet," and he the events leading up to their present situation, concluding: "The people in the other were, we believe, of Jupiter or of one of the satellites. We know nothing of them, since we not look through their screens. You us from them; do you not know them?"
"No. Our also were stopped by their screens of force—screens to our science. This is the time that any from our Saturnian has succeeded in the neighborhood of Jupiter. We came in peace, but they us at and we were to them. Now we must to Titan, for two reasons. First, we are already at the limit of our power range and Jupiter is and away from Saturn. Second our mirrors, which we had perfect of all possible of generation, are not perfect. Enough of those came through the to our crew, and in a minutes more none of us would have been left alive. Why, in some places our very almost to melt water! If another of those should attack us, in all we should all be lost. Therefore we are as as is possible."
"You are taking the pieces of our ship along—we do not want to you."
"It is no encumbrance, since we have of power. In fact, we are now the we Titanians can for any length of time."
Stevens long, that his were plain as print to the Titanian commander. Thank Heaven these had to be friendly—all should be friends, for advancement. But it was a long to Saturn and this wasn't so much. How long would it take to there? Could they back? Wouldn't they save time by themselves adrift, making the repairs most urgently needed, and going to Ganymede under their own power? But would they have power left in the to that far? And how about the big tube? He was by an from Barkovis.
"You will save time, Stevens, by with us to Titan. There we shall you in repairing your and in your tube, in which we shall be interested. Our power plants shall supply you with energy for your return until you are close to Jupiter to your own beam. You are tired. I would that you rest—that you sleep long and peacefully."
"You to be the Forlorn Hope without any trouble—the pieces aren't at all. We'd live there, hadn't we?"
"Yes that would be best, for all of us. You not live a minute here without your suits; and, as those are, yet your temperature makes our rooms hot—so that any of us must wear a space-suit while in the same room with you, to avoid being to death."
"The hot" Terrestrials were into the open of their upon a of force, and soon had prepared a long supper, over which Stevens his infectious, at Nadia.
"Sweetheart, you are a 'warm number,' and you have often that I 'burn you up.' Nevertheless I think that we were to that we are actually to to be in the same room with us!"
"You're funny, Steve—like a crutch," she him, but back, an playing in one cheek. "Looking right through is too for words, but I think they're perfectly all x, anyway, in of their being so and so cold-blooded!"
