During this time, on the Star-Streak, as we and the Wandl that of the Moon, an incident[127] which for me. I had noticed times as we in the Star-Streak's turret, that Venza and Anita were me. Their were furtive, but I that they were trying to my attention.
We had no opportunity to speak secretly. Molo or Meka, or that rat-faced guard, were always too near us; and Molo me with of our course.
We the Moon. We with the Wandl some twenty thousand miles above the surface, and I that ship and land. Like Grantline, I what for. Molo gave me no hint. I saw, through his 'scope, in pressure mechanisms. They to be contact-discs in a circle on the rocks. It was of the Wandl station, and the contact-beam which Molo had planted in Great-New York.
Then at last the girls had an opportunity to to me. A phrase came from Anita. "Gregg! Snap is alive. Hiding on board."
I gasped. Snap alive?
"Planning to us. You and he can the Star-Streak!"
"Anita! Tell me how."
"No more now! Our room below—he's near it. He spoke to us."
No more. She moved away from me. But it was enough. Snap alive! I that when he the ship, no one had to go after the body, and at that time the hull-ports were open.
After a time Meka took the girls below. I sat with Molo, at the dark and surface of the Moon. I had the mathematical work Molo had me. My were with Anita and Venza, in their now with Meka. Perhaps now Snap was joining them.
I Molo's low, curses, as he set his for a of our slow among the Wandl fleet. "That at my gravity-shifts like a nitwit. He has them disarranged."
It me to alertness. "Something wrong, Molo? Nonsense!"[128]
"These men of my answer my too slowly. They should jump when my come."
The plates normally, but there had been an of delay. Molo was puzzled and annoyed. My as I if he would investigate. But he did not.
"You had sleep, Haljan. Take now; we shall have action presently. Did you our curve?"
I my across the table to him. "There."
"You are quick, Haljan."
"We should from the Moon's in about two hours."
"But I will not that course. We're close near here with the other vessels, but I want some always. Take your sleep, Haljan."
I on the narrow mattress. The was silent.
I was from a by Molo's in the turret. The girls and Meka were still below. The ever-silent Venusian, in the corner, still had his gun upon me.
I saw that Grantline's ships, over a wide fan-shaped spread, were advancing.
And presently we were in the of battle. I cannot relate more than fragments, I saw and experienced, six or more hours of light and of in that spread of area the Moon-shadow. It was a of lights, ships a thousand miles apart, with great curves; each other in a second; a thousand miles again; and back. A hundred engagements.
The Star-Streak was very fast, very mobile, and, all the other Wandl ships, had the allies' own to use against them. I saw now why they called Molo the terror of the starways!
We into the area. Over all its thousand-mile spread were the Wandl gravity-beams, and the of Grantline's ships. There was the of rockets, like little comets, soundless, by the Wandl craft, and the[129] of the rocket-streams which all the were using now for close maneuvering; the of Grantline's and his white search-beams to the which the of his must out and destroy. A of light, here and there with Grantline's bombs, of limited local range which in space and which, for a minutes duration, all light-rays, a temporary of darkness.
And then wreckage! Broken, Wandl at close range had been by Grantline's guns; and ships, by the comet-projectiles and the discs; hulks, and which no longer a ship at all but only a plate or a of dome. And little blobs, the in pressure who had from the wreckage; little ignored, away or as by the gravity-beams upon them; derelicts, until the Moon's and them down, or a cut through them, or the of a them to a death.
It was a three-dimensional, thousand-mile spread of infernal. Out of it, after an hour or two, a of every manner of was upon the Moon. The to blur. A like star-dust, or the from a comet's tail, was a mist, blurring, the scene. This was the and the of the space and projectiles, which in the and Earthlight.
The Star-Streak had plunged, those six or eight hours, through the area. Our were all by the Star-Streak's flexibility, her speed, mobility, and Molo's skill. We came through unscathed. There is a for the man who not to for his own life. But there was an encounter, the last one as it chanced, just we out of the and ourselves no more than a thousand miles above the Moon's surface, where our was and only Molo's skill saved us.[130]
We came upon a Venus police ship. We plunged, as though a collision, and the Venus ship was willing. For a moment of chaos, against the of bolts. Then we rolled over and from the of the rockets. The must have been feet, not miles; and in that second, Molo a to at the enemy bottom. It through their barrage. Behind us, a second later, there was only of the ship, so that it a radiance, like moonlight on a little of fog.
"Not too bad?" Molo around for appreciation. "Not bad, Gregg Haljan? Molo is not too unskillful?"
We now close above the Moon's surface, with the area over us. Out of the up there came the wreckage; and now the Wandl ships were down, one by one. Not so many of them now; no more than ten of them emerged.
Grantline did not follow. His ships the other way. The dispersed. Grantline now take stock of the battle; he had been victorious. One might call it that, since his of strength, numerically, was now than when the began. Ten Wandl ships, and the had about twenty-five.
Another hour passed. Grantline's twenty-five ships were in a close group, ten thousand miles above the Moon's surface. Under them, the ten Wandl and the Star-Streak in a five hundred mile circle. Down through it, on the of the Moon in the of the Apennines, the there into action.
It was a gravity-beam. Of power than any Wandl generate, it out its spreading, ray.
So this had been the purpose of all the Wandl tactics, to Grantline into his present position. This gravity-beam, though smaller, was to the one used by the Wandl station. A against a mass, Wandl, and here, the Moon were necessary to give the its power. No ship such a ray, so the Wandlites this where they themselves upon our Moon.[131]
The had about a hundred at its on the rocks; it passed through the circle of Wandl and its spread all of Grantline's ships at once. An beam, so powerful that the ships were helpless; against all their they were and downward. A at first, but with a acceleration.
Within an hour they were hurtling, together as they the of the beam. The ten thousand miles, their above the Moon, was cut to five thousand. The Wandl ships aside, well out of range to let them pass; in another thirty minutes they would crash against the rocks.
I in from the Star-Streak's turret. We were to the of the beam. Grantline's ships were together now into almost a fifty-mile group. They all askew, pinned, some broadside, some upended. The movement of their was so that with the it was apparent.
"Got them now," Molo chuckled. "This is the end for them, Gregg Haljan."
There were only three of us in the turret: Molo and I, and my watchful, who sat cross-legged, with a ray-gun pointed at me.
Meka and the two girls were all the engagement.
It was over now.
During this Molo had sent the men from the gun to their quarters. Our were empty now; the and up here had no occupants. The Star-Streak had little velocity, only a slow toward the Moon's surface, which now was only a hundred miles us.
The was a great dark spread of desolation, with only the the limb. And from under us, to the side, was the of the gravity-beam. Over us were the watch-Wandl vessels, and, still higher, the of Grantline's ships down.
"Got them now," Molo repeated. "In another...."
He finished. From the open of the a rose up. Snap! His aspect, more than his appear[132]ance, me. Snap, with his torn; and with blood; his and gaunt, with hollow, eyes. And above it, the of red hair. In one hand he a ray-gun, and in the other a blood-stained knife!
My on the floor, half-turned. Snap's met him he his weapon. He almost at my feet. And with the of the was Snap's at the Molo.
"Into the corner, you! Back up, you traitor, else I'll kill you as I've killed else on this ship!"
