Part 10 (1/2)

To the east of us there was a distant line of metal structures surmounting the mid-Westchester hills; above them, in the brightening sky of dawn, Venus was just rising. Mars had already set at our longitude. Venus, fairly close to the Earth now, was the ”Morning Star.”; it mounted now above that line of metal stages in the distance.

And as Grantline gestured, I saw from Venus the same sword-like beam streaming off almost to cross our own.

Grantline and I, with a mutual thought, ran around the balcony and gazed to where Mars had set. A narrow radiance was streaming up among the stars off there.

Three swinging swords of light in the sky! With the rotation of the planets, they swept the firmament. The mysterious enemy had planted them--but why? What was coming next?

And as though to answer us, from far to the south, over mid-Jersey, came a new manifestation. We saw a speck rising, a distant mounting speck of something dark, with streamers of tiny radiance flowing from it.

”A s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, Gregg.”

It seemed so. It came slowly from above the maze of distant structures, gathered speed, and in a moment was gone.

But others, better equipped, had observed it. It was a cylindrical projectile, with stream-fluorescence propelling it upward, an unusual form of s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. Telescopically it was seen until well after dawn.

Speeding out in the direction of the Moon.

Molo and his weird allies had escaped, I thought. With their work done here on Earth, they were off to rejoin the hovering enemy s.h.i.+p 200,000 miles out.

I stood gripping Grantline on that balcony, and gazed with sinking heart. Were Anita and Venza prisoners on that mounting s.h.i.+p? And Snap: I prayed he was there with the girls to lend them the protection I had failed to give.

”Haljan and Grantline wanted below.”

The voice of a mechanic on the balcony behind us roused us from our thoughts. We went down through the busy building.

The workshops of Tappan Interplanetary Headquarters had for hours been ringing with busy activity. The _Cometara_ rested upon her departure stage outside, with a score of workmen conditioning her.

Newly-installed additional armament was aboard, ready to be a.s.sembled after the start. The men to handle it were embarked. My half dozen officers and the ten members of the crew I had already briefly met.

They were waiting for me.

”On we go, Gregg. Let's wish ourselves luck.” From grim, silent abstraction, Grantline had now sprung into his familiar dynamic self.

There was a solemn group of officers and a hundred or so workmen here; they stopped their fevered labors now to watch the _Cometara_ get away, first of Earth's s.h.i.+ps speeding into s.p.a.ce to confront this nameless enemy. Grantline and I went past them with silent handshakes and murmured good-bys. I saw the towering figure of Brayley. He raised an arm for a farewell gesture to us.

We mounted the incline to the _Cometara_. She rested upon her stage, a great, sleek bronze s.h.i.+p, low and rakish, with pointed ends and a flattened, arched turtle-back dome of gla.s.site covering the superstructure and the decks from bow to stern. She lay quiescent, gleaming in the glow of the departure beacons; but there was an aspect of latent power upon her.

My s.h.i.+p! My first command! As we went through the opened port of the domeside and I touched foot upon the deck, I prayed that I might justify the faith reposed in me.

Men crowded the narrow, covered deck. I saw the s.p.a.ce-guns at the deck pressure-ports, partly a.s.sembled. My chief officer, a young fellow named Drac Davidson, who with his twin brother had been in the Interplanetary Freight Service, rushed up to me.

”We're ready, sir.”

”Very good, Drac.”

He hurried me to the turret control room. Grantline instantly had plunged into details of a.s.sembling the weapons.

”Her ports are all closed,” said Drac. He spoke calmly, but his thin face was pale and his dark eyes glowed with excitement. ”The interior pressure is set at fifteen pounds. You can ring us up at once.”

No formalities to this departure! With pounding heart I entered the small circular turret and mounted its tiny spiral stairs to the upper control room. But as I touched the levers, calmness came to me with these familiar tasks at which I was skilled.