The room was so large that it almost the entire of the building. It was a room, a hundred and fifty or more in diameter. The surface was with people. It was a huge, of a ball; and upon its surface a of the brown-shelled were gathered. They sat on low seats at the of the room, where we entered, and up the and upon the and the top, like in a globe, downward. There was no up or here; the little difference.
I up to where, a hundred and fifty above me, downward, the of were seated. These were clinging, of course; the pound-weight of each of them would them if they let loose. But it only a effort.
Between the tiers, there were narrow open at intervals. With Molo leading us, we up the of one of these aisles.
"Gregg! Good Lord, it's weird!" Snap said. "Where are we going to sit? Don't speak to the girls yet."
"Have you spoken to them?"
"Yes. A little, on the ship. They're for an opportunity but we have to be cautious. Gregg, I've got so much to tell you, but no chance. The can just about your thoughts."
We only a up the incline. There were seats for us. Our passage a among the figures. Some up and over us to a look. I that we were to the mound-like surface of a small half-globe. It us some ten above the floor. There were low seats with arms against the side-pull of gravity. I Anita close me. Her hand touched me, but she did not turn her or speak.
Molo was on my other side. I to see his feet. They were planted on the floor. He wide-soled shoes with pads, no doubt, which would enable[80] him, like the Wandlites, to walk and upon the upper of buildings.
As the moments when Snap and I on the landing esplanade, there was so much here that at I not it. But now I to other of the scene.
Poised in mid-air, almost in the center of the room, was a metal of some thirty in diameter. It was held, not by any solid girders, but by four narrow of light which to it from points of the room.
Upon the entire surface of this thirty-foot globe, a group of masters were seated, in little, cup-like seats upon stems. They and with movement. There to be and and thread-like of light current. Light-threads from the to the of the seated brains. All the were in operation; and upon this the attention of the audience was directed.
Molo over me. "The Great Intelligence soon will see you."
Snap, from the other of Molo, whispered: "What are they doing up there?"
The and of the were audible. I stared, trying to understand. Images, and sounds, and were being from across the millions of miles of space, and they were being the themselves. I saw that were upon the of the brains, upon which the light-beams the impinged.
These brains, "waves" of some unknown were, the of the brain-cell, transmuting, the into knowable. They were not seeing, not hearing, but what on millions of miles across space!
Again Molo over me. "They are about to this audience what is on the three worlds."
Upon the thirty-foot I saw now a dozen or so of about three-foot diameter. These had been dark and I had not noticed them. Now they glowing, not from[81] the current, but from the little hands of the them.
I at the brain nearest me. His little arm was extended; his hand touched the image-ball; gave it light and color, like a fortune-teller of Earth with a her.
Even though I was some sixty from it, I see the moving images clearly, and the scene. The Tappan Interplanetary Stage. Ships were rising; two of our mounting.
And all in an the blurred, took again. The red-green and of Ferrok-Shahn. The Central Canal like a across the foreground; the "Mushroom Mountains" were in a line upon the horizon. Three Martian space-flyers up while we watched.
And now Grebhar. The in all its beauty, where Venza was born. The on the river. A was in the sky over the forest.
Beyond Anita, I Venza murmuring, "Home! If only we were there."
I Anita move to her.
Molo was whispering: "They come. But we will be for them."
Another image: mid-space. The ships gathering, waiting for others to arrive. A group here of about ten of our ships from the three worlds: poised, waiting.
I was aware that upon the mound-like of the room-floor where we were sitting, a door was opening. It slid, or melted away. At our was an opening into the small of the mound.
Molo whispered, "The great Master. Sit quiet! He will talk to us."
Over us now a came with a hiss, a of insulation. The room faded. We were alone on the mound, Snap, Molo, myself, Anita, Venza and Meka upon the end of our bench. Behind us our single Wandlite guard, with a in his hand.
At our an opening into the mound-interior. It was a tiny, room. In a cup-like seat a brain was perched, just the level of our feet: the great Master Brain of Wandl. He was alone here. Not by retinue;[82] no and to us into his presence; no to mark him for a great ruler.
We down, and the great brain up at us, curious. His was a full four in diameter; the little sat in the cup, with legs. The were ornamented: there was a device on the chest.
He spoke with a rumble, in Martian. "You are Molo, of Ferrok-Shahn."
"Yes," said Molo.
"You must say, 'Yes, Great Master.'"
"Yes, Great Master."
"I know about you. I know that we trust you."
The next upon me. Then to Snap, and to me. The were English this time. "Men of Earth, are you decided, like the Martian, to join with us?"
I with to still my thoughts, or to them so that they lied. Fear upon me. Could this of mind here at my the of my thoughts? Could this Great Master of Wandl see into my mind?
The brain said, "You are uncertain. You do not want to die?"
"No Great Master," we answered.
"You shall not, unless you attempt to us trouble. Your are black." He Molo. "Have they been read?"
"No, Great Master."
"When opportunity comes, have them read." He added to Snap and me: "I plan to take prisoners. My Supreme Rulers, of a more powerful planet, which sent Wandl upon her mission of conquest, ordered it. When your worlds are of life, those who me will want some of you left alive to be studied. Your are very black, Earthman. I think when they are read you will prove no great to us."
There was in the voice, and upon the came the of a grin.
The on the brain's faded. His again to Molo. "That is your sister." The to Meka and back.[83]
"Yes, Great Master."
"She is for this Earth-girl and this girl from Venus?"
"Yes, Great Master. I am of them. I have plans."
"They are in your charge, Martian; I will not with you. But them well. I trust you and your sister. These others...."
"The Earth and the Venus girl can be of help to me, Great Master."
"How?"
"They men who were in the Spaceship Service. They can tell me the of men and on most of the which Earth will send against us."
Did Molo that? Probably not, but he wanted the girls with him. Again came that smile. "Let them not you, Martian. You have work to do. Listen carefully. There will be a battle. Earth, Mars, and Venus may have a hundred ships. I cannot upon those three worlds in a day. We soon will make with the light-beam you on Earth. That I will you. But the cannot be stopped at once. It will take time.
"The enemy ships might to come to Wandl, but I shall not wait for that. All my are very nearly ready. If there is to be a battle, it shall be from here, in the neighborhood of the enemy worlds. We are at this time about sixty-two of your miles from the Earth, a third less than that from Mars, and about a third more from Venus. I understand, Martian, that you are in space warfare."
The brain on, "I have you a to command. You will be to know its name: the Star-Streak."
Meka gasped, "But you it, Great Master!"
"Only it, Martian girl. It is repaired now. You, Molo—and your sister to help you—who it to more advantage? All your own weapons, and ours of Wandl have been added. You may select your crew. Is it to your liking?"
"Yes, Great Master."
"You will be in this city, Wor, in the dwelling-globe you before. Keep your with you, if you like."[84]
"These two Earthmen...." Molo, but he was interrupted.
"Settle that later. I do not want the annoyance."
I was of a great clanging, through the of which was over us.
The brain added, "Keep Wyk with you, to the prisoners; he will also your needs. In the battle, Martian, I great of you and your Star-Streak."
"Great Master, you will not be disappointed."
"And prisoners, but not too many. Bring me a like these, of Venus, Mars and the Earth. I want of the sexes, an equal number of each."
"Yes, Great Master."
"The is coming. You will now see our contact."
The light at our was fading. It last by the of the brain; the green, and as the light in the little mound-room there was in a moment nothing left but those green of the brain's eyes.
Then I was aware that the at our had closed. Over us, the was dissipating, and in to us. The ball-shaped room again visible, the audience its entire surface.
I Anita's at my sleeve.
"Gregg, darling, can you me?"
"Yes. Be careful."
But Molo was up over our heads. The was shifting, so that they all at their feet. A white radiance, to come from here near us, in a on a of the overhead. Molo was watching.
I whispered, "All right, Anita. Quick, what is it?"
"The great station is not from here. Venza and I have been trying to out where it is exactly."
She stopped, of Meka. Then she added:
"Gregg, we haven't been very closely; they're not of us."
"Later, Anita. Can't talk now."
"No. Watch our chance. Later."[85]
I toward Molo. "What's that up there?"
"The is opening the top of the globe."
The had stilled. The audience was and expectant. The white of light overhead spread until it all the top of the globe. The whole area was glowing. The people were white, shapes, transparent! And the top of the was transparent; I saw the night sky, with the stars.
It was, in a moment, as though we were up at a square window cut in the top of the room. A of sky and was visible. Across it, like a sword, was a narrow, beam.
"The Earth-beam which I planted," Molo triumphantly. "Our station will with it now. The contact!"
Earth was our of vision, but the from Greater New York, the sky with the Earth's rotation, was now close to Wandl.
There was an moment. Then into the sky another ray, narrow, green. It up from Wandl and into space. The hissing, from it as it through the Wandl was deafening. I saw it the Earth-beam, it with a of up there in the sky, clinging, against the of the Earth with a sixty miles long.
A moment of in the around us, and that of light in the sky. Then the stilled. The Wandl vanished.
The Earth-beam still the like a stiff, sword. But in that moment when Wandl it, the of the Earth had been a little. The was slowed. By a minutes, the day and the night on Earth were lengthened.
It was the of Earth's desolation.[86]
