Page 141 - Astounding Pulp V2

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140 1-41
" ~hy, I • • . I'll give you the vice GRAY LEN SM AN
admiral. sir-"
~S -tHE "N 0 tune! T ell your vice admiral about tactics, compared to you? You've and needles of force, under the impact
.
of which the defensiv& screens of Jalte's
~~· * -r.O ~ha.t one more such break will put him got to be the brains. That's why we had guardian citadels flamed into terrible re-
the boys rig up the original working
Ill ,~ro:~s. Land at once ! GF0----0ff !"
I '
fulgence. Duodec bombs were hm:Jed-
\,\ 1th around a million fleets to han-
"WHAT * dle . • ~ve can't spend much time on any- model there, for a reducer. On that you, tight-beam-directed monsters of destruc-
can watch and figure out the gross de-
tion which, swinging around in huge
velopments and tell us in general terms
one, he thought at W orse!. '"but after
\:·c get them t.ine~ up and get our R igel-
* !Jans broken 111. it won ·r be so bad." what to do. K nowinrr that we will circles to attain the highest possible
measure of momentum, flung themselves
I
b
I mow who ouaht to do what from the
* TO GIVE clefimte and meaningful orders flew orders. a long." against Boskone's defenses in Herculean
1
big tank here~ and we will pass your
T l:e breaking in did not take tong; ,
attempts to smash them down. They
exploded; each as it burst filling all
faster and faster along the tiny. but stecl-
"S ay, that will work, at that!" and
~FOR ha;,~ bean~s-of the communicators. Haynes brightened visibly. "Looks as nearby space with blindingly intense vio-
let light and ,rith flying scraps of metal.
. false off . . .. Increase drive four
~hough a couple of those reds are go-
Q-type helices, driven with all the
po~nt five. . . . D ecrease drive two
pomt s~ven . ... Change course to- •· mg to knock our star out of the tank ' frightful kilowattage possible to Me-
doesn't it?"
insulation,
donian
•and
conductors
* * £HRISTMAS?" .after day. space- less than three parsecs." screwed in, biting, gouging, tearing in
and so 1t went. hour after hour and day
''It'll be close in that reducer. T hey'll -
probably touch, Close enough in real '-
wild abandon.
Shear planes, hellish
And with the passage of time came
order out .. of c.haos. The reel light& The zero hour came and the Tellurian . knives of force beside which Telluria11
s;eet & Smith, publishers for 84 years, is fonne? a g1gant~cally sweeping. curving . arn'.ada, of eighty-one sleek destroyers lightning is pale and wan, struck and
struck and struck again-fiendishly,
~ ering a limited number of books that swept wall. 1.ts almost imperceptible crawl rep- - e1 g.hty superdreadnoughts and the Di-·
crunchingly.
t e country in Dad's day. These books, thirty resentmg an actual velocity of almost J rectnx-spurned Earth and took its But those grimly stolid fortresses
~nd more years aid, are in splendid condi- one hundred parsecs an hour. Behind place in that hurtling wall of crimson. could take it. They had been repow-
tion and are just the gift for Dad. that wall blazed a sea. of amber, threaded Solar system after solar system was ered ; their defenses stiffened to such
·throughout with the brillfant filaments passed; fleet after fleet leaped into the
15 BOOKS FOR $1.00 • which were the Ryerson lights. Ahead ether an.cl fitted itself into the smoothly might as to defy, in the opinion of Bos-
3 BOOKS FOR 25c of it lay a sparkling. almost solid blaze geon~etncal pattern which GFO was kone's e-xperts, any .-projector~ capable
of being m0unted upon mobile bases.
They 't'ill recall many pleasant days of his oE green. Closer and closer the wall nu:smg along so carefully. And not only could they take it- those
crept toward the bright white star. Through the Galaxy the formation
Y~uth and will give you and your friends a formidably armed and armored plan-
And in the " reducer"-the standard, swept, and out of it, toward a star clus-
c once 1o get acquainted with the novels he etoids could dish it out as well. The
ten-foot tank in the lower well- the en- ter. It slowed its mad pace ; the cen-
used to read. screens of the Patrol ships flared high
•
ti re spectacle ,-vas reproduced in minia- ter I 1ang111g back, the edges advancinrr into the spectrum under the crushing
~ese novels, written by Oliver Optic, Nick ture. It was plainer there, clearer and and folclina in . "' force of sheer enemy power. Not a few
"S
b
arter, Bertha M. Clay and others, will be much more readily seen ; but it was so urround t he cluster and close in " of those defenses were battered down,
sent to you packed three in an attractive crowded that details v,ere inclisting uish- th ~ admiral directed ; and, under tl~e clear to the wall shields, before the un-
Ch· abk. · g.m.d~nce now of two hm1dred Rigellians, imaginable ferocity of th~ Boskonian
ristmos box as soon as your order is re-
H aynes stood beside Kn inison's pad- civilization's vast Grand F leet closed
ceived. projectors could be neutralized.
~led chair one day, staring u1'> into the smoothly in and went inert. D rivers
Don't miss the opportunity of giving Dad this 1111111ense lens and shaking his head. He ~~r~d :,vhite as they fought to match the AND at this spectacularly .fr ightful
unusual Xmas gift! went clown the flight of stairs to t he mt,~in~ic velocity of the cluster. deep-space engage_ment J alte, ~osko~1e's
* * MERRY CHRISTMAS COUPON * * reducer, studied t hat, a11d a gain shock _Y1 ce admirals of all fleets, attention! aalactic director, and through 111111 E 1ch-
.
his head . • Usmg secondaries onJy, fire at will upon ~1iJ F irst of Boskone itself, stared in
7
I
J A
.
Street & S • h p b . licaho ns, nc. D ept. • " This is very pretty. hut it doesn't any enemy object co111ino- within range.
mit
u
9 · Se11enth Avenue, New York, N. Y. Engage outlying struct~res a11c1 such stu~ned surprise.
mean a thing," he t hought at ·K inni,-on. "It is insane !" J alte gloated. "The
lnclosed find $ for ~ .... sets of ~i~le cr?(t as may appear. Keep as- fools judged our strength by that of
3 books .,c h to ~j~,; my Xmas problems. " It· be~ins Lo look as though I'm going
0 5 to e~ distance from planet and stiffen H elmuth ; 11ot considering that we, as
a long JUSt for t.he ride. Y ou- or you cosiffn 1c; screens to maximum. Haynes
Name ......................................................................... . ~nd \i\fors~l-w11l have to do the fight- - o 1 . ' well as they, would be both learnino-
rng. too. Im afraid." From untold millions of projectors a11d doing during the intervening tim:.
Adtlren ····································································~ "Uh-huh." Kinnison demurred. there raved out gigantic rods, knives, They have a myriad of ships, but mere
" \,\7hat do we-or anyone else-know
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