Air Wonder Stories, August 1929 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

[ > preneee ade ieee oe Pare ; THE SILENT DESTROYER table, Addison watched this preparation apprehensively but those on the ship continued their routine duties as though nothing had happened. The captain sat at his desk constantly punching figures on the calculating ma- chine and comparing the answers with positions on maps spread out before him. Addison grew nervous. They. were evidently in enemy territory and all was in readiness for combat. He wondered how it would seem to find himself plunging toward the earth in half of this ship of steel, : “We are over the territory of the enemy now,” said Evenrude without taking his eyes from the dials and screens. “If you will-strap yourself into the chair . between this and the firing table you can see what is going on.” : The visitor strapped himself into: the chair indicated and found it, like everything else in the craft, securely. fastened. From this point of vantage he watched the two tables. with their alert operators. He noticed a slightly different color on the screens and asked the cause, “We have changed from infra-red to ultra-violet searchlights, or in fact; a band.even shorter than ultra- violet,” Evenrude said without turning his head. “We hope that the enemy is not equipped with this latest invention. If our supposition is correct, our lights will not show up on their screens and thus give us the advantage.” CHAPTER V Battle! T first he saw nothing to indicate a ship, but presently he noticed a spot on the second screen that was slightly different in color than the rest. “Number two, section twelve,” Evenrude spoke to the gunner, and'then to Addison, “That is the light of their infra-red searchlights, Probably a. scout puard- ing the factory. I'll maneuver to get the craft in the screen and on the cross-hairs.” As he watched, Addison saw the light become brighter and more concentrated and felt a slight pres- sure this way and that asthe ship was being maneu- vered. Presently the enemy ship, appearing only half an inch long, entered the screen from the edge. It looked like a tiny fish with many searchlights reaching out and groping in the darkness, As Evenrude brought the ship closer, the image grew to an inch in length. “Intersection twelve-two,” Evenrude said quietly to the-gunner. “Ready.” Addison watched in fascination. Evidently Even- rude had cut out the:gyroscopic control for his fingers now danced over the keyboard-as though he were type- writing a letter in haste. The image of the enemy danced and bobbed unsteadily inthe little square but persistantly edged toward the intersection. Suddenly there was a blinding glare of white light where the ship: had been. Addison blinked away the glaring after-image and looked again. The enemy now ap- peared nearer the center of the screen, while at the bottom of: the picture he saw an object for an instant just as it left the field of vision. He looked closer at the ship and gasped. The nose of the monster had been cut completely off! “Tntersection eleven-eight,” said Evenrude as though nothing had happened. “We have them on the de- fensive,” The stricken ship was now twisting and turning to throw off the aim of its pursuer and Evenrude found it difficult to get it into the intersection. For an instant, 111 Addison saw it approach the intersection and the screen was. enveloped: in another flash of confusing light. When he could again see the enemy appeared un- touched, but: it suddenly changed course and a huge shavirig from the top left the vessel and continued on the original course: for a moment and then tipped downward and dropped faster and faster out of the field of view. Addison gasped. They had cut off a slice as though the monster were a carrot! “Finish him on nine-thirteen intersection,” -said Evenrude in matter-of-fact tones. Again the struggle to get the enemy into range began, a blinding flare that covered the entire screen made Addison’s eyes swim, and all-was over. When he again could see, he was astonished to. behold two objects tumbling end over end toward the earth. The ship had been divided through the center from prow to. stern! Addison sat for a moment spellbound. A five hundred foot ship had been cut into pieces and hurled to earth with-its crew of two hundred men, yet the routine in the control room of the victor had scarcely been disturbed. He looked about again and saw the captain calmly working over his maps and the stenographer voicing the happenings for the record in the ship’s log. A man entered, laid several sheets. of red paper on the commander’s desk-and departed. The officer read one of the pages and then gave one to the stenographer, one to the television operator and one to each of the men at the control and: gunmer’s tables. “That was good work,” he commented and praised his men. “We destroyed the enemy without much damage to ourselves.” Addison thought for:a moment and then the signi- ficance of the officer’s last remark dawned. “Without much damage to ourselves’. You don’t mean that we were damaged?” he asked incredulously. The captain smiled grimly. “We caught the enemy unaware but after the first attack they were: active. They cut a slice from the bottom of our ship near the stern. We lost about two hundred tons of our mass, sixteen of the crew are gone and seyen wounded. They cut off most of the machine shop and all of the crew’s quarters. The head surgeon in the hospital says that all of the wounded will recover but-it will require much care in two of the cases.” Addison was aghast! To think that sixteen of their own.tmen had phinged to the ground in-a shaving cut from the steel monster beneath his very: feet, and yet he had known nothing of it until now! He recovered from the horror and shock of this news and was thoughtful for several minutes, “Why don’t you insulate your ships with the material used in the construction of the box in the machine shop—that ‘lifeless atomic insulation’ —to guard against the atomic disrupting apparatus-of the enemy ?” he asked the captain. “Tt is only recently that we have discovered the means-of holding the dead atoms together, but our new ships, which are now under construction, are. so in- sulated. But there were none yet in commission when we left.” The captain returned to his desk while Evenrude put the ship on her course again. “We .are almost over the valley we are seeking,” said the lieutenant. “I imagine that they know of our coming and we may see some real action soon. They . may send a fleet of ships after us or they may use LS ee Comichooks.con = en