Page 148 - Astounding Pulp V2

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148 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION GRAY LE NSMAN 149
away. gimme a l..u~eak. can't you? I've
did those beams conie. Eight, ten, contact, and as he spoke all the tractors nison and the two of them were 111 the ot a couple of th111gs to do first-stuff
twelve at once they dung t o and de- and all the pressors were released. The ad1nirar s private office, splitting a bot- fo attend to. rviatbe a little ~.it some-
molished dreadnought after dreadnought ships of the Patrol were already free- tle of fayalin and discussing-apparently ·where. too. I don t know yet. .
of the Expeditionary Force. none had been inert since leaving J alte's -nothing at all. •·More important than Patrol busi-
''Narcotics ,has been yelling for you.''
Eich111il was well content. "'vVe can ex-planet-and thus could not be ness ?"-dryly.
hold them and we are burning them harmed by flying debris. I-l aynes finally got around to business. "U ntil it's cleaned up. yes." Kinni-
'· But they don ·t need you. to help them ·
down!" he gloated. " Let them loose The planets touched. .They coalesced, son's face burned scarlet and his eyes
their negative-matter bombs ! Get the squishing ly at first. the encircling war- clean up the zwilnik mess: they just revealed the mental effort necessary for
analysis of those beams-build them ! ships drifting lightly away before a cos- want to have the honor of having you him to make that statement. "T he most
work with them-so I told Ellington. as
They are burning out projectors, which mically violent blast of superheated at- diplomatically as possible. to take a swan important thing in the U niverse."' he
means that they cannot keep this up mospher e ; J arnevon burst open, all the finished. quietly but doggedly.
indefinitely. They will have to retire, way around, and spattered ; billions upon di\'e off of an asteroid. Hicks wants "\\'ell, of couf·~e I can·t give you or-
you. too : and Spencer and F relinghuy-
what there are left of them, for more billions of tons of, hot core-magma be- sen and thousands of others. See that ders-" Haynes· frown was distinct
munit ions; and when they come back ing hurled afar in gouts and streamers. basketful of stuff ? All requests for you. with disappointment.
we will blast them out of space !" The two planets, crashing through what to Le submitted to you for your consid- "Don't. chief- that hurts. I'll be
He was wrong. Grand Fleet did not had been a wodd, met, crunched, crusbe<l eration. I submit ·em, thus-into the back. honest. as soon as I possibly can.
stay there long enough so that even the together in all the unimaginable mo- wasteba ket. You see, there's some- and I'll do anythi1ig yott want me to-''
projectors of the E ich could destroy mentum of their masses and velocities. thing· really important- '' "That's enough. son.'' H aynes stood
more than a {ew thousands of ships. They subsided, crashingly. Not merely .. ;\iix.. chief. nix-jet back a minute. up and grasped Kinnison·s hands-hard
For even while the cylinder "vas form- mountains, but entire halves of worlds please !" Kinnison implored. "Unle:;s -in both his own. ''I know. Forgive
ing, Kinnison \Vas in rapid but careful disrupted and fell, in such Gargantuan it's something that's got to be done right me for taking you for this little. ride.
consultation with Thorndyke, checlcing paroxysms as the eye of man had never
intrinsic velocities, - directions, and elsewhere beheld. A nd every motion
speeds. generated heat. The kinetic energy of
''QX, Verne-m t!" he yelled. translation of two worlds became heat.
Two planets, one well within each Heat added to heat, piling up ragingly,
end of the combat cylinder, wetrt inert
frantically, unable to escape !
at the word ; resuming instantaneously
The masses, still falling upon and
their diametrically opposed intrinsic ve- through and past themselves and each
locities, each of .,some· thirty miles per
other, melted- boiled- vaporized incan-
second. And, it was these two very or- , descently. The entire mass, the mass of
(lina.ry, but utterly irresistible planets, ,?~.MEDICO
U1ree fused worlds, began to equilibrate;
instead of the negative-matter bombs
growing hotter and hotter as more and
with ·which the E ich were prepared to more of _ts terrific motion was converted PIPES, CIGARETT£ & CIGAR HOLDERS)
i
cope, which hurtled then along the axis
into pure heat. H otter! I-I otter! NLY 6Jter com~ining 66 b~ffle. interior .a~ cellOf
nf the immense tube of warships to- O plune exterior 1s greatest 1etenttfic smokini; m';en•,
HOT TER !
ward Jarnc:von. W hether or not the tion ever known. Keeps ·ruc9ttne,
And as the Grcind F leet of 1he Galac- •juices, flakes out of mouth. Breaks:
~ich could make their planet incrtialcss 1
tic Patrol blasted through intergalactic up hot smoke stream, thus preventing\
has never beeh found out. Free or in- \tongue bit~needs no breaking in ; 1
space toward the First Galaxy and ho!)1e, 1 REENl
ert, the end would have been the same. 'no wet heel, bad odor nor ftequent 1 lllOPHANE" EX
there glowed behi11d it a new, small, com- expectoration. Improves aroma(
"Every Yl4M officer of every ship
paratively cool, and p robahly short-lived of any tobacco in mild, ~ -
of the Patrol, attention !" Haynes or- MEDICO FILTERED SMOKING,
companion to an old and long-estab-
dered. "Don't get all lensed up. Tal5e lished star. 'Write for P11111plrltt H, S.11. FP.ANllCO.,lac.;,mFlmt AVE., N.T, c.,
it easy; there's lots of lime. Any time
XXV. •I IFtNEST BRIAllf ;
·
within a second after I give the word . ,MONEY CAN BUYJ
.
t ,,,
will be p-1-e-n+y o- f t +m-e- rn . , . TB~ U PRO~R of the landing of the
The two wodds n1shed logc-ther, 1 ellurtau contmgent was over · the cele- New Styles, most beautiful ever shown - can be CENUINE Flllll$
<loomed J arnevon squarely between bration of victory had not y~t hegnn. FOi MEDICO PIPE$
PIICIIED ONlY IN TIIIS
•
them. T faynrli snapped out his order as Haynes had, peculiarly enouo-h set a sold at $1 due only to tremendously increasing sales IED & llACK .. ox.
the three were within two seconds of definite tune for a conference ~vi;h Kin- . .