Page 147 - Astounding Pulp V2

146 ASTOUNDING SCTENCE-FICTION GRAY LENSMAN 147

they were being englobed until long together, .rim to rim. The sphere be- projector that could be brought to bear could render their Rlanet inertialess, but
after it was done. They could, how- gan inexorably to contract. Each ship hurled bolt aftci: bolt, as fast as the now it made no dit\erence. Planet and
ever. globe up inside us-" put out a red K6T screen as a combined burned~out shells could be replaced, into fleet were for the time being· one rigid
"Yes-and that would give them the battle flag and identification, and the the ragmgly incandescent inferno which system.
tactical advantage of pos1tion," the ad- greatest naval engagement ~£ the age that sphere ·s interior instantly became. "Sixty-two-blast!" A nd against the
miral admitted. "We probably have, was on. For two hundred million discharo-es such world-girdling battlements of J arnevon
however, enough superiority in firing It soon be.came evident that the Bos- as those will conYert even a ve~y larg·e there flamed out in all their appalling
power, if not in actual tonnage, to make konians could not maneuver their' forces ~olume_ of space into something utterly might the dreadful beams against which
up the difference. Also, we have speed efficiently. Their fleet was too huge, m1poss1ble to describe. the defensive webs of battleships and of
enough, I think, so that we could retire too unwieldy for their operations offi- . The r~ving torrents of energy sub- mobile citadels alike had been so piti-
in good• order. But you are assuming cers to handle. Against an equally un- sided and keen-eyed obsen·ers swept the fully inadequate.
that t hey can maneuver as rapidly and controllable mo!:> of battle craft it would scene of action. "Nothing was there ex- But these which they were attacking
as surely as we can, a condition which have made a showing, but against the cept jumbled and tumbling white-hot now ,t ere not the limited installa tions of
I do not consider at all probable. If carefully planned, chronometer-timed at- wre~kage. A few vessels ,had escaped a mobile structure. T he Eich had at
as I believe much more likely, they hav~ tack of the Patrol individual action, how- durmg the closing in of the sphere, but their command all the resources of a
no better Grand Fleet Operations than ever courageous or however desperate, none inside it had survived this climactic galaxy. Their generators and conduc-
we had in H elmuth ·s · star cluster-if was useless. action-not one in five thousand of Bos- tors could be of any desired number and
they haven·t the equivalent of you and Each red-sheathed destroyer hurtled kone·s massed fleet made its way back , size. Hence Eichmil, in view of prior
Worse! and this supertank here-then along a definite course at a definite force to dark Jarnevon. happenings, had strengthened t he de-
whal ?" of drive for a definite length of t ime. "Ma1teuver fi{ty-eight-hipe !" and fenses of his planet to a point which cer-
"In that case it'd be just too bad Orders were strict ; no ship was to be Gra11d Fleet shot away. There was no tain of his fellows derided as being be-
Just like pushing baby chicks into ~ lured from course, pace, or time. They waiting, no hesitation. Every course yond the bounds of sanity or reason.
pond.·' Kinnison -saw the possibilities could, however, fight en passant w ith and time had been calculated and as- Now those unthinkably powerful
cle~rly enough after they had been ex- their every weapon if occasion arose ; signed. screens were being tested to the utmost.
plamed to him. and occasion did arise, some thousands Into the Second Galaxy the scarcely Bolt after bolt of quasi-solid lig-htning
"How long will it take y·ou ?" di111inished armada of the Patrol hur--
of times. The units of G rand F leet struck against them, spitting mile-long
'.t
. "vv· 1 1 Worse I and both full crews of flashed inward, lashing out with their tled-to J arnevon's· solar system- sparks in baffied fury as they raged to
R1gell1ans I . would guess it at about terrible primaries at everything in space around it. Once again the crimson ground. Plain and incased in Q-type
ten hours-eight to compute and ass· 1gn not wearing the crimson robe of civili- sheathing of civilization's messengers helices they came ; biting, tearing, goug-
. .
poSitions and two to get there." zation. And whatever those beams almost disappeared in blinding corus- ing. Often and often, under the thrust
"F • ast enough-faster than I would cance as . the outlying fortresses un-
struck did not need striking again. of half a dozen at once, local failures
have. thought possible. Oil up your cal- The warships of Boskone fought back. leashed their mighty weapons; once appeared; but th.ese were only mo-
culat111g machines and Simplexes and Many of the Patrol's defensive screens again a few ships, subjected to such mentary, and not even the newly de-
get ready." concentrations of force as to overload vised shells of the projectors could stand
blazed hot enough almost to mask the
their equipment, were lost; but this con-
scarlet beacons ; some of them went flict, although savage in its intensity, t he load long enough to penetrate ef-
t IN DUE Tl ME the enemy fleet was de- down. A few Patrol ships were en- was brief. Nothing mobile cmdd en- fectively Boskone·s indescribably capa-
,;-tted and detection was con.firmed. The globed by the concerted action of two ble defenses. Nor were the enemies'
dure for long the utterly hellish ener-
~e_a~e Blasting'' signal was sent out or three sub.fleet commanders more co- offensive weapons less capable.
Civil t" , · gies of the primaries, and soon the ar- Rods, cones, planes, and shears of
d iza ion_ s prodigious fleet stopped operative or more farsighted than the mored planetoids, too, ceased to be.
i :ad. hanging_ motionless in space w ith rest, and were blasted out of existence "Maneuver filty-nine- hipe !" and pure force bored, cut, staqbed, a.nd
tf dnearest. ~nits at the tantalizing limit by an overwhelming concentration of slashed. Bombs and dirigible torpedoes
Grand Fleet closed in upon somber Jar-
? electability from the warships await- power. But even those vessels took toll charged to the skin w ith duodec sought
nevon itself.
th 111
;? ~ • For eight hours two hundred with their primaries as they went out; "Six.ty !"' It rolled in space, forming out the red-cloaked s!1ips. Beams,
igell1ans stood at whirring calculators few, indeed, were the Boskonians who an immense cylinder; tlic doomed planet sheathed against atmosphere in Q -type
each solving course-and-distance prob~ escaped through holes thus made. the midpoint of its axis. · helices, crashed again,st and through
!ems at the rale of leu per minule. Two At a predetermined instant eaclt " Sixly-011e !'' T ractors and pressors their armor-beams of an intensity al-
:◊~~s or les~ of ~r~e flighl. and Haynes dreadnought stopped, to find herself one le~pcd out, from ship to ship and from most to rival that of the Patrol's pri-
eJoiced audibly 111 the perfection of the nut of an immense, red-flaming hollow mary weapons and of a hut1d red times
two red hemispheres shown in his re- sphere o[ ships packed almost screen to sl11p to shore. The Patrol did not know their effective aperture. And not s.ingly
duc~r. The two imme11se bowls flashed scree11. And upon sig11al every primary whether or nol the scientists of the Eich
AST- 10