Jack Williamson

“ He moved a dial, and looked expectantly out through the vitrolite panel.
Bill saw the green film run suddenly over the tiny blue globe floating among the stars. The azure sphere seemed to melt away, to dissolve into sparkling green radiance. In a moment, where the great blue ship had been, was only a spinning spiral of glistening viridescence.
"Look at Mars!" cried the Prince. "This is a challenge. If they want peace, they shall have it. If they want war, they shall feel the power of the vitomaton!"
Bill turned dazedly to look at the broad disk of the red planet. ”

“ Captain Brand eased the ship down, using the rays as little as possible, to cut down the danger of detection.
The Red Rover dropped silently to the center of a low, cliff-rimmed plateau that rose from the red, sandy desert. In the faint light of stars and hurtling moons, the ocherous waste lay flat in all directions—there are no high mountains on Mars. The air was clear, and so thin that the stars shone with hot brilliance, almost, Bill thought, as if the ship were still out in space. ”

“ I became the pirate of space. A pariah. Fighting against my own kind. Struggling desperately for power."
For a few moments he was moodily silent, slapping at the flies that buzzed around his bloody wounds.
"I gained power. And I learned of the dangers from Mars. First I was glad. Glad to see the race of man swept out. Parasites men seemed. Insects. Life—what is it but a kind of decay on a mote in space? Then I got a saner view, and built the City of Space, to save a few men. Then because the few seemed to have noble qualities, I resolved to try to save the world. ”

“ All the top of the red granite plateau—it was evidently the stone heart of an ancient mountain—was hidden from him. He could see nothing of the Red Rover or any of her crew. He could see no living thing.
The flat plain of red dust lay about him, curving below a near horizon. Loose dust sucked at his feet, rose about him in a suffocating saffron cloud. The sun, a little crimson globe in a blue-black sky, shone blisteringly. The sky was soberly dark, cold and hostile. In alarmed haste, he struggled toward the grim line of high, red cliffs. ”

“ That sapphire globe grew bright, with a strange luminosity. The thin mist of sparkling blue particles seemed to grow more dense about it.
"Our rays don't seem to be doing any good," Brand muttered, puzzled. "The blue about that globe must be some sort of vibratory screen."
Another purple spark, with the narrow white line of fire behind it, swept across to the flier from the opposite horn of the crescent, burst into a sheet of blinding red-violet light. Another ship was a twisted mass of metal.
"Seven no longer!" Brand called grimly to Bill. ”

“ Bill watched the enormous blue globe of Mars in fascinated horror, followed the huge, luminescent red-purple atomic bombs, that were hurtling out toward them, driven on broad white rays.
"An amazing amount of power in those atomic bombs," Dr. Trainor commented, his mild eyes bright with scientific enthusiasm. "I doubt that space itself is strong enough to hold up under their explosion. If they hit us, I imagine it will break down the continuum, blow us out of the universe altogether, out of space and time!" ”

“ On the red sand beside the silver sunship, they had set up a tripod on which was mounted a curious glistening device. There were lenses, prisms, condensers, mirrors. The core of it seemed to be a strange vacuum tube—which had an electrode of cerium, surrounded with a queer vitalium grid. A tiny filament was glowing in it; and the induction coil which powered the tube, fed by vitalium batteries, was buzzing incessantly.
"Better get aboard, and off!" Bill cried. "No use to lose our lives, our chance to save the world—just for a little mining machinery." ”

“ The slim silver ship came gliding down, and hung just beside the vitrolite dome while eager hands helped him through the air-lock. Beyond, he found the Prince waiting, with a question in his eyes.
"No luck," Bill grunted hopelessly. "Nobody believed it. And the town was getting too hot for me. Lucky I had a getaway."
The Prince smiled bitterly as the newspaperman told of his attempt to enlist the aid of humanity.
"About what I expected," he said. "Men will act like men. It might be better, in the history of the cosmos, to let the Martians have this old world. ”

“ Above them, the slender white cylinder of the Red Rover was driving out into star-gemmed space, dazzling opalescent rays shooting back at the dark mountain behind her.
"They go," Bill babbled. "They think we are dead. Have not time to wait. Go to fight for world."
He collapsed in a trembling heap upon the loose, frosty sand.
The Prince had suddenly laid Paula on the ground, was beside him.
"Lift the rocket," he gasped. "Aim. I will fire."
Bill raised the heavy tube mechanically, sighted through the telescope. His trembling was so violent that he could hardly hold it upon the rock. ”

“ Bill clutched his sleeve. "Wait! Think what you're doing, man! We're fighting to save the world. You can't run off that way! Anyhow, the sun is low. It is getting cool already. In two minutes after the sun goes down it will be cold as the devil! You'll die in the desert!"
The Prince tugged away. "Hang the world! If you knew the way I feel about Paula—Lord, what a fool I've been! To drive her to this!"
Agony was written on his dark face; he bit his thin lip until blood oozed out and mingled indistinguishably with the red grime on his face. "Anyhow, the vitomaton is finished. ”

“ Smith motioned Bill and Captain Brand into the richly upholstered body of the heliocar. Bill, gazing up at the end of the huge cylinder with a city inside it, caught sight, for the first time, of the exterior of the Red Rover, the ship that had brought them to the City of Space. It lay just beside the massive machinery of the air-lock, supported in a heavy metal cradle, with the elevator tube running straight from it to the building behind them.
"Look, Brand!" Bill gasped. "That isn't the blue globe. It isn't the ship we fought at all!" ”

“ We have mastered the secret of life. We have unlocked the mystery of the ages! A terrific force is at our command—a force great enough to sweep man to the millennium, or to wipe out a planet! But that force is useless without the apparatus to release it."
"We have the laboratory——" Trainor began.
"But we lack one essential thing. We must have a small amount of cerium, one of the rare earth metals. For the electrode, you know, inside the vitalium grid in our new vacuum tube. And there is not a gram of cerium in all our supplies." ”

“ It coiled itself about him; suction disks fastened themselves against his skin. For a time he writhed and struggled, fighting in agony against the squeezing green coils. Then he was still.
One of the things grasped the little gray object in the mother's arms. She fought to shield it, to cover it with her own body. It was torn away from her, hidden in the hideously writhing green coils.
The third of the monsters flung itself upon the mother, wrapping snake-like tentacles about her, dragging her struggling body down shuddering and writhing in agony while the blood of life was sucked from it. ”

“ But I feel sorry for my old pals of the Moon Patrol. Somebody is going to get hurt!"
"And it may be we," said Bill. "The Triton will be convoyed by several war-fliers, and she can fight with her own rays. It looks to me like a hard nut to crack."
"I used to dream about how I would take a ship if I were the Prince of Space," said Captain Brand. "I've just been talking our course of action over with him. We've agreed on a plan."
In an hour the Prince and Dr. Trainor entered the bridge. Paula appeared in a few moments. Her face was drawn and pale; unhappiness cast a shadow in her brown eyes. ”