"This will be the place to land, Gregg Haljan."
We were upon a region of crags, dark, rock-masses, and tumbled, as though by some great of nature. Mountains upon the Moon not be more of aspect.
We on the rocks. The here had a purple-red from the starlight. We had of the storm; and it here. Rocks were in drifts; showed, where the pebbles, and had been away by the wind.
Snap and the girls us. We spoke softly. None of us, not Molo, how would in this air.
"Where is the place from here?" Snap demanded.
"Off there."
Molo spoke with docile, softness. He with his and shoulder. A of a mile away, over these uplands, the land in a depression.
"It is there. I think from here we should go on the ground. There is no guard, and I think is anyone on top."
"If I help you now, if we should the controls, then Wandl will be to space, or to with the of Earth, Mars and Venus. The worlds might then the Wandl ships in battle. If that happened, your governments, of my help here, would what my Star-Streak has done."
"Your piracy?" I said.
"Yes. I am outlawed. I might be if you would speak the good for me."[111]
"Maybe."
"Maybe they would me. You think so, Gregg Haljan?"
He wanted to be on the side; this us. "Let's try it and see, Molo. I'll speak of good for you."
Now, as we on the uplands, he said, "You will do best to free my hands."
"Oh, no!" Snap declared.
"But I am a good fighter. Something might come."
"Too good a fighter," I said. "We trust you we have to, Molo, but no more than is necessary."
A small in the was near us. We put Molo there, with his hands bound, and with Anita and Venza to him. Venza the gun; she how to fire it. The girls in a about twenty away. They see Molo plainly; if he moved, a of the gun would kill him. He that.
The girls at us as we were to start. "Good-by, Gregg. Good-by, Snap. Good luck!"
"We won't be long. Sit where you are." Snap touched Venza's for his good-by. "Listen, Venza: Molo has already told us to us to the ship. If he anything, kill him."
"Right," she said.
We left them. A minute or two, ourselves along the rocks, and we were there. The was about two hundred and fifty deep; an bowl. The on it, and there were of small light. We saw a group of small metal buildings, very low and squat, like down, in a disc-shape; them were towers.
The towers, twice the of a man, were spread at in a hundred-foot circle, with a group of three or four in the center. There some twenty of them. Taut their tops, each tower with every other, so that the were a above the small buildings. The of the towers were with contacts, and every tower had a ground with each other by means of cables.[112]
Far to one side, across the bowl from us, was a single globe-dwelling with windows. From its ground doorway, a narrow metal like a on the ground, and among the towers and discs.
This was the of the Wandl station. It and dark, save for the and the little lights on the towers. No of humans. Then we saw movement in the globe-dwelling. A man came to the doorway, at the sky and back.
I whispered, "Which is the best entrance to the rooms?"
We saw where, at points, the in low, dome-like kiosks, downward. One was on our of the cauldron. "That's the one we'll try," Snap murmured.
He stopped suddenly. The top of the globe-dwelling was glowing. A little there was radiant, like a window. A was from inside. The this were the sky, upon it, no doubt.
And now we saw in the sky the third of those sword-like beams. It had been visible there for some time but we had not noticed it. "That's Venus," I murmured.
It so. A star, red in this atmosphere, was close above the horizon. The light-beam out from it, up to the zenith.
The station here was about to make with the Venus beam. We a siren, a from the rooms. The into all these and towers and twenty-foot ground discs. The and of it was audible. The and towers were glowing; red at first, then violet. Then that milky, white. The overhead wire-aerials were with a of jumping sparks.
I saw now that the top of each tower was a of wires, a six-foot with a close it and a series of and just above. It all in a moment, a glare.
Then the tower were swinging. The lights from them had the of an beam, and the were to focus the inward. The focal[113] point about a thousand overhead. All the there; and by the towers directly underneath, a single was into the sky.
The entire was now a of light. We see nothing but the milk-white of glare. It painted the up here on the so that we back, our and into the sky. And from the cauldron, the and the of the current, the of sparks, were all in a wild turmoil.
Overhead, we saw the Wandl from Venus.
Apparently this station had two functions: the of the planet's movements, its and its flight, and its ability to apply to other bodies.
Wandl was her own movements by force, and repulsion, to all the starfield; and also by the against the like streams. In this respect, I realized, the was not one of our familiar spaceships. In effect, it was itself a vehicle. Later I learned that it was that Wandl's be at will, with a resulting of the natural light-ray from her into space. This have the of the image of Wandl when viewed from other worlds.
Again, for a moment of the contact, there was that light in the sky.
The with the Venus a minute or two. Snap and I, on the rim, were in the of light and the wild of sound. Then presently the subsided. The in the sky was broken. The tow-rope of Venus itself away. But on the next Venus it would be again.
Another minutes passed. The little us was and as we had it. Figures were moving the structure. From of the came up, the ten-foot insect-like of workers. Three or four of the came up, moving along the ground catwalk[114] with little leaps. All the entered the main house. The was over.
"Probably anyone left below," Snap whispered. "Now's our chance."
"If we can into that opening without being seen," I said.
"Shadows, the to the left. Damnation, Gregg, we can make it in one calculated leap."
"I'll try it first. I'll in and wait for you."
"Right."
We each had a at our and a ray-gun in our hand. The of the was here, starlit; it was a steep, and descent, fifty to the little dome-like which marked the nearest entrance. I it with a swoop, in a the and into it. Instinct me a guard, but told me none would be here; there was only the of someone up.
I was at the top of a winding, passage, a step-terraced floor; there were occasional lights in the ceiling. In a moment Snap joined me. "Got here! I wonder how it goes?"
I him. "Snap, no what happens, do it with a rush. Keep with me. And if I to out...."
"We go out with a rush!"
"Yes. Back to the girls. Use your ray-gun and the in to them and away without me, if I fall."
"Same for you, Gregg."
We the passage. We had had in movement on Wandl now; we ourselves more deftly. We hundred feet. The passage branched, but there always a main tunnel.
It was all deserted. There were distant, dimly-lighted, rooms. Were these of the of Wandl used? Some were in operation. A from them. Workers moved about.
We stopped to consult. The girls, and Molo himself, had what we would find: a main leading to the room where the which operated[115] all this were centralized, the nerve center of Wandl. It that we were that main route.
A came with a past us. We into a at a intersection, and he by.
"Lord, Snap," I muttered, "that was too close for comfort."
Again we advanced. The sharply. Down a slope, a room was disclosed, with two or three moving it.
The main room! We not it. Molo, in his enthusiasm, had once it to the girls, its great of little thread-like spread upon the walls, the with the small surface under the of thread-wire, the and on the tables: they were features.
"There it is, Snap," I in his ear. "In that rack. Those rods, see them? Anita told us they used them to the discs. Watch out for the current."
"But it's off now, Gregg!"
"There's still in it, and you'd short-circuit somewhere. Keep your hands off. Use the rods."
"The operators...."
He got no further. A into us from behind, a worker! His largest into my shoulder; his resounded. The of the room came with at us.
There was a moment of wild confusion. Light, almost against us. Arms us, but they were flimsy. The body-shells as we with our solid fists.
A moment of passed. No were fired. The were here in the narrow of the tunnel. Panting, more by our against the than by our adversaries, we our wild lunges. We did not look at the scattered, and now to the floor.
"Now, Snap! Hurry! Others may come."
We into the room, the long from the rack. They had a grateful[116] of weight. I one up, jumped with a twenty to the wall.
The came like under my blows; the little off as though they were growth. Sparks around us. Shafts of out. The was over all its length as I up and it. The of wire like on the floor; then crumpled, and black.
I that wall-segment with haste, around and started another way. Across the room I saw Snap doing the same. A of was around us, deafening, and the was blinding. A belt-shaft from the under my rod. It my left arm. My off; the arm and at my side. I stopped to it; in a moment came to its muscles.
Snap was like a great bird gone amok. Through the green of which were the room I saw him at the tables, them. They like thin as they the metal floor.
I with the wall. There was a twenty-foot square piece of metal apparatus, and intricate; I it over upon its side. A thousand little and prisms, from it, came out in a deluge.
I was aware of Snap with a brown-shelled figure. Then he was free of it. I saw it and at his as I past, in the to the length of a great which was still glowing. My it over; it with a of light and the of an as air into its vacuum.
I Snap me, to me in mid-air. The was around us; the was lessening. We were in the chemical of the released, half-burned gases. Turgid was to the room, with little through it.
"Enough, Gregg! Listen! Up overhead...."
A great from up there was into the night.
Snap panted, "Got to out of here. Can't breathe."
Together we for the by which we had[117] entered. I a moment, upon the and room.
The nerve-center of Wandl. Heavy green-black in it; and closed down.
