George O. Smith

“ Two days later, Hellion Murdoch flashed a signal into Venus Equilateral and asked for Channing.
"Hello, Hellion," answered Channing. "Haven't you learned to keep out of our way?"
"Not at all," answered Murdoch. "You won't try that betatron on me again. This ship is coated with four tenths of an inch of lithium metal, which according to the books will produce the maximum quantity of electrons under secondary emission. If not the absolute maximum, it is high enough to prevent your action."
"No," agreed Channing. "We won't try the betatron again. But, Murdoch, there are other things." ”

“ Space travel is a matter of waiting for days in the confines of a small bubble of steel. Just waiting. For the scenery is unchanging all the way from Sol to Pluto—and is the same scenery that can be seen from the viewports of Venus Equilateral. Walt enjoyed his waiting time by tinkering; having nothing to do would have bored him, and so he took with him enough to keep him busy during the trip.
At two Terran gravities, the velocity of the Relay Girl built up bit by bit and mile by mile until they were going just shy of one thousand miles per second. ”

“ And Murdoch's poised finger came down on the last switch, closing the final circuit.
Meters leaped up across their scales as the intangible beam of solar energy came silently in and went as silently out. It passed across the intervening miles with the velocity of light squared, and hit the asteroid. A second later the asteroid glowed and melted under the terrific bombardment of solar energy directed in a tight beam.
"It's O.K.," said Hellion. "But have the gang build us three larger tubes to be mounted turretwise. Then we can cope with society." ”

“ Stalemate, Murdoch!'
"You're bluffing!" stormed Murdoch.
"Are you afraid to squirt that beam this way?" asked Channing tauntingly. "Or do you know it will not work?"
"Why are you so anxious to get killed?"
"We're very practical, out here on Venus Equilateral," said Don. "There's no use in working further if you have something that is really good. We'd like to know our chances before we expend more effort along another line." ”

“ We shall demand one dollar solarian for every gross ton that lifts from any planet and reaches the planetary limit."
"How do you establish that limit?" asked Kingman interestedly.
"Ironically, we'll use the Channing Layer," said Murdoch with dark humor. "Since the Channing Layer describes the boundary below which our solar beam will not work. Our reign of terror will be identified with Channing because of that; it will take some of the praise out of people's minds when they think of Channing and Interplanetary Communications." ”

“ Then, Kingman, we'll use Terran Electric to ruin Venus Equilateral."
"Terran Electric isn't too good a company now," admitted Kingman. "The public stays away in huge droves since we bucked Interplanetary Communications. That bunch of electronic screwballs has the public acclaim. They're now in solid since they opened person-to-person phone on the driver frequencies. You can talk to someone in the Palanortis Country of Venus with the same quality and speak-ability that you get in making a call from here to the house across the street."
"Terran Electric is about finished," said Murdoch flatly. ”

“ Remember, we stand out there like a sore thumb. We are as vulnerable as a half pound of butter at a banquet for starving Armenians. The next screwball that wants to control the system will have to control Venus Equilateral first. And the best things we can concoct to date include projectile-tossing guns at velocities of less than the speed of our ships, and an electron-shooter that can be overcome by coating the ship with any of the metal-salts that enhance secondary emission. ”

“ Those tubes are huge enough to excite comment, and there will be squibs in all the papers telling of the giant going to Venus Equilateral, and the Sunday Supplements will all break out in wild guesses as to the reason why Venus Equilateral wants a two hundred megawatt tube. Too bad you couldn't keep your escape a longer secret."
"I suppose so. But it was bound to be out sooner or later anyway. A good general, Kingman, is one whose plans may be changed on a moment's notice without sacrificing. We'll win through."
The days wore on, and the big turret on the top of the Black Widow took shape. ”

“ Their total velocity of two thousand miles did not register just because of that rarity with which ships pass within detector range, while meteors are encountered often.
Had Channing been thinking about the subject in earnest, he would have known—for it is only man, with all too little time, who uses such velocities. The universe, with eternity in which to work her miracle, seldom moves in velocities greater than forty or fifty miles per second. ”

“ What you need is some sort of projectile, I think."
"But what kind of projectile would do damage to a spaceship?"
"Obviously the normal kinds are useless. Fragmentation shells would pelt the exterior of the ship with metallic rain—if and providing you could get them that close. Armor-piercing would work, possibly, but their damage would be negligible since hitting a spacecraft with a shell is impossible if the ship is moving at anything like the usual velocities. Detonation shells are a waste of energy, since there is no atmosphere to expand and contract. ”

“ If He hears me at all, He's too busy to bother with things that the human race classifies as 'One.'"
"How do you classify resistance, current, and voltage?" asked Channing, manipulating the tube on its gimbals and watching the effect.
"One million volts across ten megohms equals one hundred thousand microamperes. That's according to Ohm's Law."
"He's got the zero-madness too," chuckled Walt. "It obtains from thinking in astronomical distances, with interplanetary coverages in watts, and celestial input, and stuff like that. Don, this thing may be handy, some day. I'd like to develop it." ”

“ We can get better velocity with a constant-acceleration drive. I say torpedoes!"
"Naturally. But the aiming? Remember, even though we crank up the drive to 50-G, it takes time to get to several thousand miles per second. The integration of a course would be hard enough, but add to it the desire of men to evade torpedoes—and the aiming job is impossible."
"We may be able to aim them with a device similar to the one Charley Thomas is working with. Murdoch said his hull was made of lithium?"
"Coated with," said Channing. ”

“ We'll try no frontal attack. Storming a citadel like Venus Equilateral is no child's play, Kingman. As you know, they're prepared for anything either legal or technical. I have a great respect for the combined abilities of Channing and Franks. I made my first mistake by giving them three days to make up their minds. In that time, they devised, tested, and approved an electron weapon of some power. ”

“ The Titan station went off the ether with a roar, and the theorists believed that Murdoch's gang had been augmented by four hundred and nineteen of the Solar System's most vicious criminals.
"That rips it wide open," said Channing. "Better get the folks to prepare to withstand a siege. I don't think they can take us." ”

“ But the coating accepted the terrific charge and prevented the normal urge of electrons to leave by secondary emission—"
"What is secondary emission?"
"When an electron hits at any velocity, it drives from one to as high as fifty electrons from the substance it hits. The quantity depends upon the velocity of the original electron, the charges on cathode and anode, the material from which the target is made, and so on. We soaked 'em in like a sponge and took it bad. But the next time, we'll coat the ship with the opposite stuff. We'll take a bit of Venus Equilateral for ourselves." ”

“ The Black Widow turned and streaked from Venus Equilateral as Don Channing mopped his forehead. "Walt," he said, "that's once I was scared to death."
"Me, too. Well, we got a respite. Now what?"
"We start thinking."
"Right. But of what?"
"Ways and—Hello, Wes. What's the matter?"
Farrell entered and said: "They broke up my job. I had to set it up again, and I'm temporarily free. Anything I can do to help?"
"Can you dream up a space-gun?"
Farrell laughed. "That's problematical. Energy guns are something strange. Their output can be trapped and used to good advantage. ”

“ Between us we'll have the system over a barrel. Space craft are still run without weapons, and no weapons are suited for space fighting. But the new field opened up by the driver radiation energy may exhibit something new in weapons. That's what I want Terran Electric to work on."
"We'll have to plan a bit more," said Kingman thoughtfully. "I'll cover you up, and eventually we'll buy you out. Meanwhile we'll go to work on the market and get control of Terran Electric. And plan, too. It'll have to be foolproof."
"It will be," said Murdoch. "We'll plan it that way." ”

“ We're roaring along at five and will pass Mars at better than four thousand miles per second. I think we'll catch and pass the Black Widow at the quarter-point, and Murdoch will be going at about nine hundred miles per. We'll zoom past, and set the finder on him, and then continue until we're safely away. If he gets tough, we'll absorb his output, though he's stepped it up to the point where a spacecraft can't take too much concentrated input. ”

“ One hundred and thirty farads, charged to ten thousand volts, touched the lithium-coated, aluminum side of Murdoch's Black Widow. Thirteen billion joules of electrical energy; thirty-six hundred kilowatt hours went against two inches of aluminum. At the three thousand miles per second relative velocity of the torpedo, contact was immediate and perfect. The aluminum hull vaporized under the million upon million of kilovolt-amperes of the discharge. The vaporized hull tried to explode, but was hit by the unthinkable velocity of the torpedo's warhead. ”

“ Launch 'em!"
"Freddy, drop two of the torpedoes and half of the interferers. Send 'em out at 10-G. We'll not put all our eggs in one basket," Channing said to Walt. "There might be a slip-up."
"It'll sort of spoil the effect," said Don, "But we're not here for effect."
"What effect?"
"That explosive will be as useless as a slab of soap," said Don. "Explosive depends for its action upon velocity—brother, there ain't no explosive built that will propagate at the velocity of our torpedo against Murdoch." ”

“ He returned with a tray full of laboratory glassware, all wired into a maze of electronic equipment.
Channing went white. "You, too?" he yelled.
"Take it easy, sport. This charges only to a hundred volts. We get thirteen hundred microfarads at one hundred volts. Then we drain off the dielectric fluid, and get one billion three hundred million volts charge in a condenser of only one hundred micro-microfarads. It's an idea for the nuclear physics boys. I think it may tend to solidify some of the uncontrollables in the present system of developing high electron velocities." ”

“ The real research will be conducted in a secret laboratory. The one in the Melanortis Country. Selected men will work there, and the Terran Electric fleet of cargo-carriers will carry the material needed. My main failure was not to have provided a means of knowing what the worlds were doing. I'll have that now, and I shall not be defeated again."
"We'll say that one together!" said Kingman. He flipped open a large book and set the autopilot from a set of figures. The Black Widow turned gently and started to run for Terra at 2-G.
Walt Franks frowned at the memorandum in his hand. ”

“ Set the alloy-selectivity disk to pure lithium, and use the output to steer the torpedo right down to the bitter end."
"Fine. Now the armor-piercing qualities."
"Can we drill?"
"Nope. At those velocities, impact would cause detonation, the combined velocities would look like a detonation wave to the explosive. After all, darned few explosives can stand shock waves that propagate through them at a few thousand miles per second."
"O.K. How do we drill?"
"We might drill electrically," suggested Farrell. "Put a beam in front?"
"Not a chance," grinned Channing. ”

“ The trouble is, darn it, that we'll have to spend a month just building a large copy of my miniature set-up."
"A month is not too much time," agreed Channing. "And Murdoch will take a swing at us as soon as he gets ready to reach. We can have Charley start building the big tubes immediately, can't we?"
"Just one will be needed. We'll use one of the standard solar intake tubes that we're running the Station from. There's spare equipment aplenty. But the transmitter-terminal tube will take some building."
"Can we buy one from Terran Electric?" ”

“ But there is other carbon, there will be other governmental introductions and reforms, and there may some day be the rebirth of the dinosaur—on some planet there may be carboniferous ages now. Any phenomena that is a true phenomena—and your detector was definite, not a misinterpretation of effect—can be repeated. ”