Skylark Three | Page 7

out all right after it happened, but hardly
ever beforehand--so I guess I can't blame you much, at that. But what I
want to know is, how'd you get here? It would take more than my
brains--you can't see our sun from anywhere near Osnome, even if you
knew exactly where to look for it."
"Easy. Remember those wrecked instruments you threw out of Skylark
I when we built Skylark II?" Having every minute detail of the
configuration of Seaton's brain engraved upon his own, Dunark spoke
English in Seaton's own characteristic careless fashion. Only when
thinking deeply or discussing abstruse matter did Seaton employ the
carefully selected and precise phrasing, which he knew so well how to
use. "Well, none of them was beyond repair and the juice was still on
most of them. One was an object-compass bearing on the Earth. We
simply fixed the bearings, put on some minor improvements, and here
we are."
"Let us all sit down and be comfortable," he continued, changing into
the Kondalian tongue without a break, "and I will explain why we have
come. We are in most desperate need of two things which you alone
can supply--salt, and that strange metal, 'X'. Salt I know you have in
great abundance, but I know that you have very little of the metal. You
have only the one compass upon that planet?"
"That's all--one is all we set on it. However, we've got close to half a
ton of the metal on hand--you can have all you want."
"Even if I took it all, which I would not like to do, that would be less
than half enough. We must have at least one of your tons, and two tons
would be better."
"Two tons! Holy cat! Are you going to plate a fleet of battle cruisers?"

"More than that. We must plate an area of copper of some ten thousand
square miles--in fact, the very life of our entire race depends upon it."
"It's this way," he continued, as the four earth-beings stared at him in
wonder. "Shortly after you left Osnome we were invaded by the
inhabitants of the third planet of our fourteenth sun. Luckily for us they
landed upon Mardonale, and in less than two days there was not a
single Osnomian left alive upon that half of the planet. They wiped out
our grand fleet in one brief engagement, and it was only the Kondal and
a few more like her that enabled us to keep them from crossing the
ocean. Even with our full force of these vessels, we cannot defeat them.
Our regular Kondalian weapons were useless. We shot explosive
copper charges against them of such size as to cause earthquakes all
over Osnome, without seriously crippling their defenses. Their
offensive weapons are almost irresistible--they have generators that
burn arenak as though it were so much paper, and a series of deadly
frequencies against which only a copper-driven ray screen is effective,
and even that does not stand up long."
"How come you lasted till now, then?" asked Seaton.
"They have nothing like the Skylark, and no knowledge of intra-atomic
energy. Therefore their space-ships are of the rocket type, and for that
reason they can cross only at the exact time of conjunction, or whatever
you call it--no, not conjunction, exactly, either, since the two planets do
not revolve around the same sun: but when they are closest together.
Our solar system is so complex, you know, that unless the trips are
timed exactly, to the hour, the vessels will not be able to land upon
Osnome, but will be drawn aside and be lost, if not actually drawn into
the vast central sun. Although it may not have occurred to you, a little
reflection will show that the inhabitants of all the central planets, such
as Osnome, must perforce be absolutely ignorant of astronomy, and of
all the wonders of outer space. Before your coming we knew nothing
beyond our own solar system, and very little of that. We knew of the
existence of only such of the closest planets as were brilliant enough to
be seen in our continuous sunlight, and they were few. Immediately
after your coming I gave your knowledge of astronomy to a group of

our foremost physicists and mathematicians, and they have been
working ceaselessly from space-ships--close enough so that
observations could be recalculated to Osnome, and yet far enough away
to afford perfect 'seeing,' as you call it."
"But I don't know any more about astronomy than a pig does about
Sunday," protested Seaton.
"Your knowledge of details is, of course, incomplete," conceded
Dunark, "but the detailed knowledge of the best of your Earthly
astronomers would not help us a great deal, since we are so far
removed from you