Invaders from the Infinite | Page 7

us that here we
would find the three greatest students of Science of this Solar System.
So it was here we came for help.
"Our race has arisen," he continued, "as you have so surely determined
from the race you call canines. It was artificially produced by the
Ancient Masters when their hour of need had come. We have lost the
great science of the Ancient Ones. But we have developed a different
science, a science of the mind."
"Dogs are far more psychic than are men. They would naturally tend to
develop such a civilization," said Arcot judiciously.
Chapter III

A QUARTER OF A MILLION LIGHT YEARS
"Our civilization," continued Zezdon Afthen, "is built largely on the
knowledge of the mind. We cannot have criminals, for the man who
plots evil is surely found out by his thoughts. We cannot have lying
politicians and unjust rulers.
"It is a peaceful civilization. The Ancient Masters feared and hated War
with a mighty aversion. But they did not make our race cowards,
merely peaceful intelligence. Now we must fight for our homes, and
my race will fight mightily. But we need weapons.
"But my story has little to do with our race. I will tell the story of our
civilization and of the Ancient Ones later when the time is more
auspicious.
"Four months ago, our mental vibration instruments detected powerful
emanations from space. That could only mean that a new, highly
intelligent race had suddenly appeared within a billion miles of our
world. The directional devices quickly spotted it as emanating from the
third planet of our system. Zezdon Fentes, with my aid, set up some
special apparatus, which would pick up strong thoughts and make them
visible. We had used this before to see not only what an enemy looked
upon, but also what he saw in that curious thing, the eye of the mind,
the vision of the past and the future. But while the
thought-amplification device was powerful, the new emanations were
hard to separate from each other.
"It was done finally, when all but one man slept. That one we were
enable to tune sharply to. After that we could reach him at any time. He
was the commander. We saw him operate the ship, we saw the ship,
saw it glide over the barren, rocky surface of that world. We saw other
men come in and go out. They were strange men. Short, squat, bulky
men. Their arms were short and stocky. But their strength was
enormous, unbelievable. We saw them bend solid bars of steel as thick
as my arm. With perfect ease!
"Their brains were tremendously active, but they were evil, selfishly

evil. Nothing that did not benefit them counted. At one time our
instruments went dead, and we feared that the commander had detected
us, but we saw what happened a little later. The second in command
had killed him.
"We saw them examine the world, working their way across it, wearing
heavy suits, yet, for all the terrific gravity of that world, bouncing about
like rubber balls, leaping and jumping where they wanted. Their legs
would drive out like pistons, and they soared up and through the air.
"They were tired while they made those examinations, and slept
heavily at night.
"Then one night there was a conference. We saw then what they
intended. Before we had tried desperately to signal them. Now we were
glad that we had failed.
"We saw their ship rise (in the thoughts of the second in command) and
sail out into space, and rush toward our world. The world grew larger,
but it was imperfectly sketched in, for they did not know our world
well. Their telescopes did not have great power as your electric
telescopes have.
"We saw them investigate the planet. We saw them plan to destroy any
people they found with a ray which was as follows: 'the ray which
makes all parts move as one.' We could not understand and could not
interpret. Thoughts beyond our knowledge have, of course, no meaning,
even when our mental amplifiers get them, and bring them to us."
"The Molecular ray!" gasped Morey in surprise. "They will be an
enemy."
"You know it! It is familiar to you! You have it? You can fight it?"
asked Zezdon Afthen excitedly.
"We know it, and can fight it, if that is all they have."
"They have more--much more I fear," replied Zezdon Afthen. "At any

rate, we saw what they intended. If our world was inhabited, they
would destroy every one on it, and then other men of their race were to
float in on their great ships, and settle on that largest of our worlds.
"We had to stop them so we did what we could. We had powerful