Air Wonder Stories, August 1929 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

Se eee ~ 1 eC Oe Seen ey » oe * derous and térrible forces. THE SILENT DESTROYER 105 where rested a row. of torpedo-like: ships, each some five hundred feet in length and fifty feet:in diameter. Addison, with his characteristic eye for details, counted twenty of the metallic, sky-blue shapes, Here and there crews of men worked silently about the monsters that towered high above them. The captain touched a but- ton and there sounded in the silence of the vast cavern the faint musical tinkle of a bell. The sound was fol- lowed by two short rings and Addison was amazed and awed to see one-of the huge monsters rise slightly and, like a sinister phantom, drift slowly and soundlessly through a great door into another room where it settled gently upon bunks built'on the floor. His scalp tightened as he watched this graceful display of pon- With the two officers, he followed the ship and the door closed silently behind them. They: walked. toward the center of the towering form where a door opened and a flight of steps slid to the ground. “Watch the roof,” said the captain. The light grew dim and Addison was astonished and terrified to see the roof of the cavern settle down for perhaps a hundred feet and then split through the center, but the lights were extinguished and he could sée no more until an opening appeared the length of the. ceiling and the stars shone through. Silently, like the parting of drifting clouds, the roof opened until the entire ceiling was gone. “A section of the woods is lowered, trees and all, and slid aside to let us out,” the captain explained. “Come, we must get aboard.” They climbed up the stairs:into'a small, dimly-lighted room where the captain closed a switch and the stairs rose soundiessly, disappearing between the walls. The door closed behind them. . But no sooner had the door shut, than the room burst into. the usual daylight brilliance. Addison felt the sensation of rising in an sheet and turned to the captain with a question on is lips. “Yes,” said the officer, “this-is an elevator. We are going to the third: floor where the control room is located.” : CHAPTER II A Silent Flight HEY stepped from the elevator into a narrow } corridor and then to a large, well-appointed room, where several officers sat at desks, one of them speaking slowly and distinctly. into microphones strapped to his chest. Others were operating tele- _ vision sets and radio apparatus, “To whom is that officer telephoning?” inquired - Addison after carefully surveying the room. “Fe isn’t,” Lieutenant Evenrude answered. “He is a stenographer. He speaks into the microphones and his voice operates:a silent typewriter in the filing room in another part of the ship. As fast as the sheets of paper ate typed the filing clerk binds them into books, constituting the ship’s log. But we must change shoes—here is a pair of magnetic shoes for you. You have to wear them when the gravity is nullified or you won't be able to walk about. While we are in the air nothing in the ship has weight so you understand the necessity for magnetic shoes to hold you to the deck.” Addison felt awkward in the shoes that clung to the carpet-covered steel floor. The others, however, seemed to weat them with the ease of long association. Sud- denly. a strange feeling came over him, his heart acted queerly and his blood rushed to his head, leaving him faint and grogey. Then he felt pulled against the floor. It relieved his heart and drew some of the blood from his head, but it was disconcerting never- theless. -The feeling that was being forced against the floor gradually lessened to be supplanted by a sensation of lightness that. left him giddy. He felt as though he were some plant on an ocean floor and that his body were waving gently in the water, With considerable difficulty Addison: tottered across the room to a chair into which he attempted to drop. But attempt to sit down ended in his merely folding up. Grasping the arms of the chair, however, he drew himself: into the easy depths of the thick cushions where he rested with a weightless feeling. He was able to remain so only by. clinging tightly to the. chair atms. There were straps. attached to one side of the chair and after buckling himself in he felt more secur While Addison struggled-to maneuver his: unwiel person about this strange place of. no gravity, Captain Gauthier was busy: at a desk where, Addison observed, he kept his fingers hovering over several banks of keys © similar to the old-fashioned. typewriter, Occasionally the captain pressed certain keys. while he watched a row of small gauges along the wall, back of the desk. “Evidently the controls,” thought Addison. He felt a sudden| pressure against the chair as though an unseen hand had shoved against his chest, but: this sensation gradually lessened and ceased alto- gether. At the same time, the lights were dimmed and soft glow flashed up on the four television screens before the control table. the screens, relinquished the controls to Lieutenant Evenrude with some brief instructions and then came over to the- distressed: visitor. “T suppose that the sensation of flying is rather unique for one who has not traveled in anything but the old gravity-defying type of ship,” he smiled. “Flying!” Addison: gasped. “Are we under way now! I have been waiting for the motors and pro- pellers to start!” The captain smiled. “We are now twenty miles above the earth's surface and have been traveling on our course at about a thousand miles an hour for several minutes. We nullified gravity and rose ver- tically. It was during this acceleration that you. felt pushed against the floor, and as we reached’ our level of flight the negative acceleration gave you the: feeling of lightness. While we were accelerating our forward speed you no doubt experienced a pressure against the back of your chair.” Addison turned this astonishing information over in his mind for a few moments. and then asked, “But how do you drive this ship without motors and pro- pellers, and what makes the vehicle so steady in the air currents ? “We have discovered a new force which we have harnessed for our needs. -Immortal in our history is a Hindoo scientist of the Steel Age who conducted the first experiments which led to this development. It is the same force which bursts the seed pod and pushes the frail dandelion through the pavement, although, ofcourse, we apply it on a much larger-scale, “We stabilize the ship with tiny, full-floating gyros- copes similar to those-used in the gyroscopic compass and. mounted in the bottom of the ship. in a. small gondola against which the gravity has not been nullified. When the ship changes its course slightly, or in other words, when the housing about the gyroscopic ap- paratus changes position slightly, the shafts on which The captain glanced over ~