Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition), April 1944 — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

RECOIL and seventy thousand miles per—and their mass will be something fierce. That again will help to murder Murdoch; increasing mass will help to keep the electrons from being deflected, since it takes more to turn a heavy mass—et cetera; see Newton’s laws of inertia, for complete statement. Have ’em jerk the D plates out of the cyc and bring the magnet frame down here—to the turret, I mean—and set ’em up on the vertical. We'll use that to run the beam up and down, we can’t possibly get one hundred and eighty degree deflection, of course, but we can run the deflection over considerable range. It should be enough to catch a spaceship that is circling the Station. For the horizontal deflection, what have we got?” “Nothing. But the cyc magnet is a double pole affair. We could break the frame at the D plates and set one winding sidewise to the other and use half on each direction.” “Sure. Have one of Warren’s gang fit - the busted pole pieces up with a return- magnetic frame so that the field will be complete. He can weld some girders on and around in an hour. That gives us complete deflection properties left and right; up and down. We should be able to cover a ninety- degree cone from your turret.” “That'll cover all of Murdoch’s ships,” said Walt. “Too bad we haven't got some Ug,, to use. I'd like to plate up one of his ships with some positive ions of U,s5, and then change the beam to slow neutrons. That might deter him from his life of crime.” “Variations, he wants,’ said Arden. “You're going to impale one ship on a beam of electrons, one ship on a beam of U.3s ions; and what will you have on the third?” : “Tl think of something,” said Channing. “A: couple of pounds of U,,, should make things hum, though.” “More like making them disappear,” said Franks. “Swoosh! No ship. Just an incandescent mass falling into the Sun. I’m glad we haven’t got U,,, in any quantity out here. We catch a few slow neutrons now and then, and I wouldn’t be able to sleep nights. The things just sort of wander right through the Station as though it weren't here at all; they stop just long enough to register on the counter upstairs and then they’re gone.” “Well, to work, people. We’ve got a job to do in the next three and a half days.” Those days were filled with activity Hauling the heavy parts down to the turret - nonspectacular, 15 was no small job, but it was accomplishea after a lot of hard work and quite a bit of tinkering with a cutting torch. The parts were installed in the outer skin, and the crew with the torch went back over their trail and replaced the gaping holes they left in the walls and floors of Venus Equi- lateral. The engineering department went to work, and for some hours the place was silent save for the clash of pencil on paper and the scratching of scalps. The most popular «book in the Station became a volume on nuclear physics, and the second most popular book was a table of integrals. The stenographic force went to work comb- ing the library for information pertaining to electronic velocities, and a junior engi- neer was placed in as buffer between the eager stenographers and the harried en- gineering department. This was necessary because the stenographers got to the point where they’d send anything at all that said either “electrons” or “velocity,” and one of the engineers read halfway through a text on atomic structure before he realized that he had been sold a bill of goods. Wire went by the mile down to the turret, and men proceeded to blow out half of the meters in the Station with the high-powered beam. Luckily, the thing was completely or Murdoch might have gained an inkling of their activities. The working crew manipulated constants and made haywire circuits, and finally an- nounced that the beam would deflect—if the calculations were correct. “They'd better be,” said Channing. He was weary. His eyes were puffed from lack of sleep, and he hadn’t had his clothing off in three days. “They are,” said Franks. better shape than Don. “They'd better be right,” said Channing ominously. “We’re asking for a kick in the teeth. The first bundle of stuff that leaves our gun will energize Murdoch’s meteor He was in no spotter by shear electrostatic force. His: gun mounts, which you tell me are coupled to the meteor detector for aiming, will swivel to cover the turret out here. Then he’ll let us have it right in the betatron. If we don’t get him first, hell get us second.” “Don,” said Walt in a worried voice. “How are we going to replace the charge on the Station? Like the bird who was tossing baseballs out of the train—he quit when he ran out of them. Our gun will quit cold when we run out of electrons— comiclooks CO