Invaders from the Infinite | Page 3

seemed to be happening to the last of the I's. It crumpled
suddenly, rolled in on itself and disappeared.
"She's there, and on time," grinned Russ happily.
He tried more magnification. Could he--
He was tired, terribly, suddenly tired. He took his hands from the
viewplate controls, relaxed, and dropped off to sleep.
"What made me so tired--wonder--GOD!" He straightened with a jerk,
and his hands flew to the controls. The view on the machine suddenly
retreated, flew back with a velocity inconceivable. Earth dropped away
from the ship with an apparent velocity a thousand times that of light; it
was a tiny ball, a pinpoint, gone, the sun--a minute disc--gone--then the

apparatus was flashing views into focus from the other side of the ship.
The assistant did not reply. Evans' hands were growing ineffably heavy,
his whole body yearned for sleep. Slowly, clumsily he pawed for a little
stud. Somehow his hand found it, and the ship reeled suddenly, little
jerks, as the code message was flung out in a beam of such tremendous
power that the sheer radiation pressure made it noticeable. Earth would
be notified. The system would be warned. But light, slow crawling
thing, would take hours to cross the gulf of space, and radio travels no
faster.
Half conscious, fighting for his faculties with all his will, the pilot
turned to the screen. A ship! A strange, glistening thing streamlined to
the nth degree, every spare corner rounded till the resistance was at the
irreducible minimum. But, in the great pilotport of the stranger, the
patrol pilot saw faces, and gasped in surprise as he saw them! Terrible
faces, blotched, contorted. Patches of white skin, patches of brown,
patches of black, blotched and twisted across the faces. Long, lean
faces, great wide flat foreheads above, skulls strangely squared, more
box-like than man's rounded skull. The ears were large, pointed tips at
the top. Their hair was a silky mane that extended low over the
forehead, and ran back, spreading above the ears, and down the neck.
Then, as that emotion of surprise and astonishment weakened his will
momentarily, oblivion came, with what seemed a fleeting instant of
memories. His life seemed to flash before his mind in serried rank, a
file of events, his childhood, his life, his marriage, his wife, an image of
smiling comfort, then the years, images of great and near great men, his
knowledge of history, pictures of great war of 2074, pictures of the
attackers of the Black Star--then calm oblivion, quiet blankness.
The long, silent ship that had hovered near him turned, and pointed
toward the pinhead of matter that glowed brilliantly in the flaming
jewel box of the heavens. It was gone in an instant, rushing toward Sun
and Earth at a speed that outraced the flying radio message, leaving the
ship of the Guard Patrol behind, and leaving the Pilot as he leaves our
story.

Chapter II
CANINE PEOPLE
"And that," said Arcot between puffs, "will certainly be a great boon to
the Rocket Patrol, you must admit. They don't like dueling with these
space-pirates using the molecular rays, and since molecular rays have
such a tremendous commercial value, we can't prohibit the sale of ray
apparatus. Now, if you will come into the 'workshop,' Fuller, I'll give a
demonstration with friend Morey's help."
The four friends rose, Morey, Wade and Fuller following Arcot into his
laboratory on the thirty-seventh floor of the Arcot Research Building.
As they went, Arcot explained to Fuller the results and principles of the
latest product of the ingenuity of the "Triumvirate," as Arcot, Morey
and Wade had come to be called in the news dispatches.
"As you know, the molecular rays make all the molecules of any piece
of matter they are turned upon move in the desired direction. Since they
supply no new energy, but make the body they are turned upon supply
its own, using the energy of its own random molecular motion of heat,
they are practically impossible to stop. The energy necessary for
molecular rays to take effect is so small that the usual type of filter lets
enough of it pass. A ship equipped with filters is no better off when
attacked than one without. The rays simply drove the front end into the
rear, or vice versa, or tore it to pieces as the pirates desired. The Rocket
Patrol could kill off the pirates, but they lost so many men in the
process, it was a Phyrric victory.
"For some time Morey and I have been working on something to stop
the rays. Obviously it can't be by means of any of the usual metallic
energy absorption screens.
"We finally found a combination of rays, better frequencies, that did
what we wanted. I have such an apparatus