Maza of the Moon Page 14

  She watched the gate while the young officer selected the men who were to go with her. One by one they took up a position in a line behind her.

  Presently the gate opened, and she saw a man the size and build of Ted Dustin emerge there-from, followed by ten of P'an-ku's soldiers. She had last seen Ted attired in one of the insulated suits with glass helmet which her people wore for surface travel, and this man was so attired. Her heart leaped with joy, and as she went out expecting to meet the man she loved, followed by her ten soldiers, there was not the slightest doubt in her mind that this was really Ted Dustin.

  As she drew nearer to the man who was coming toward her, Maza felt that there was something about him which was not just as it should be. What is it? Ah, his gait. He did not walk with long, easy strides like those of the earth man, whose muscles, accustomed to a greater gravity pull, involuntarily carried him much further at each step than the stride of the most athletic of moon men. Besides, if he felt as she did, he would hurry to meet her, in which case she knew the mighty bounds through space of which he was capable.

  For a moment she paused, doubting. Then came the thought that Ted might be adapting his stride to suit that of his captors--might indeed be compelled to do so. Furthermore, the size, build and attire were correct.

  When within fifty feet of the man she strained her eyes to see his face in the glass helmet. The light from the luminous forest was quite dim at this point, and the yellow lights from the city were more of a hindrance than a help as they shone in her eyes from behind him without lighting his face.

  A distance of twenty feet was reached, and it seemed that if she could not recognize the man he, with the light in his favor, should be able to recognize her.

  Suddenly he called out:

  "Retreat Majesty, quickly! It is a trap!"

  The voice and face she recognized simultaneously. The man was one of her nak-kar scout officers she had believed slain in a battle with the flying globes.

  Instantly a green ray from the projector of one of the warriors behind him cut him down.

  Maza whipped out her own red ray projector and the man who had flashed his green ray disappeared in a sudden burst of flame. Not a second elapsed before her men were drawing their ray projectors, but the nine remaining warriors of P'an-ku were already on guard. The battle commenced with fencing, deadly as it was beautiful--green rays against red, red against green.

  Simultaneously, a barrage of green leaped out from the city walls and a barrage of red flashed out from the front rank of Maza's army. Where the rays met they neutralized each other, but enough green rays got through to form a triangle past which Maza and her little party could not retreat, while a similar triangle of red rays made it possible for the warriors of P'an-ku to retreat.

  One of Maza's men fell, crumpled to nothingness by a green ray, but as he fell he took with him his opponent in a brilliant flash of light. Then a ray from the wall, swinging unexpectedly into the little group, cut down three of the white warriors. This left seven red rays, counting Maza's, against eight green rays. With the odds in their favor, the yellow men redoubled their attack. The whites fought back furiously, and in a moment both parties were wiped out with the exceptions of Maza and one of P'an-ku's warriors.

  At ray-fencing, the Princess was the equal of any trained soldier in her army, but her opponent, she found, was the most skillful she had ever encountered. His tactics, however, were purely defensive except as he tried to destroy her projector. Evidently his orders had been to bring her in alive. He would feint, swinging his ray as if he meant to strike her down, but never in a direct line with her body. Noticing this, she resolved to stake everything on one long chance. Accordingly, she held her projector away from her--a tempting bait. He swung for the lure, leaving his guard open for but an instant. But in that instant her red ray struck him full in the chest, and he was no more.

  While this duel was in progress Maza's men were rushing to her rescue from behind. And P'an-ku's men were pouring out of the city gate to meet them. She was alone in the center of a terrific battle, unable to move more than twenty feet in any direction because of the double ray barrage which surrounded her.

  Through the network of rays encompassing her, she saw a detachment of her nak-kar cavalry flying swiftly above the heads of her foot soldiers, the riders aiming their ray projectors at the men on the walls and pouring through the gate. Here and there great sections of the wall disappeared in bursts of smoke as the red rays cut through the green barrage.

  Although the flying cavalry was doing terrific execution, its casualties were exceedingly heavy. Soon a number of the great beasts were riderless, but more were struck down by the green rays, nak-kars and riders falling together on the heads of the soldiers below. These and the fragments of rock and huge stalactites which fell from the roof of the cavern far overhead whenever green or red rays were accidentally directed too vertically, constituted almost as much of a menace as the rays themselves.

  When the first flying detachment was wiped out, a second flew into the breach, and the fighting became doubly furious.

  With the assistance of her flying warriors, the foot soldiers were gaining ground when a score of huge flying globes suddenly sailed out from over the city walls. They flew in a V shaped formation, with green rays ten times as powerful as those used by the soldiers, shining from their diamond-shaped port holes.

  The nak-kar cavalry fought bravely, but unavailingly as this solid wall of deadly green light approached. In less than ten minutes the entire detachment was wiped out. The globes then suddenly descended groundward, their rays forming a solid, impenetrable wall, and cutting off the red barrage rays which had formerly shielded Maza.

  Another globe then shot out from over the gate, and before she was aware of its purpose, had dropped a huge net around the Princess which knocked her red ray projector from her hand and entangled her in its meshes. She was drawn swiftly up to the bridge and dragged through one of the diamond-shaped openings while the globe sped swiftly back over the gate. Then, while two warriors held her, an officer whose face was bandaged and whose left arm hung in a sling, took her sword from her and cut the meshes of the net.

  With a scarcely perceptible jar, the globe alighted on the ground before a huge building which she instantly recognized from its pictures and descriptions as the palace of P'an-ku. The bridge of the globe leaned against a jutting balcony which was almost on a level with it.

  Stepping out of the door, the officer vaulted the railing, alighting on the balcony, and ordered the two soldiers to follow him with the prisoner.

  Maza was lifted over the railing and hurried along a corridor which led to a great diamond-shaped door on each side of which two armed guards were posted.

  A major domo announced in a loud voice: "Her Royal Highness, Maza an Ultu," and the Princess marched into the throne room between her two guards.

  The officer who had captured her advanced and made profound obeisance.

  "Well done, Kwan Tsu Khan," said P'an-ku. "Take a place of honor, here on my right hand, and we will speak of your reward later."

  The officer bowed his thanks and took a position beside Dr. Wu at the right of the throne. Then P'an-ku raised his hand and the two guards brought the prisoner before the throne, after which each prostrated himself before the monarch and stepped back twenty paces.

  Standing there alone in the middle of the floor, surrounded by enemies, Maza looked up unflinchingly into the gloating eyes of the porcine monster on the throne.

  P'an-ku rose ponderously and bowed--a ceremony due visiting royalty.

  "Welcome to Peilong, Princess of Ultu," he said. "We are deeply grateful for the honor of this unexpected visit."

  "What have you done with Ted Dustin, treacherous monster?" she demanded.

  P'an-ku smiled evilly, while he deliberately consulted his chronometer.

  "By this time," he said, "the worm of Du Gong who calls himself a scientist is undoubtedly dead--that is unless his whit
e skin is so tough as to be impervious to boiling oil."

  The face of the Princess turned deathly pale. She swayed, and would have fallen to the floor had not the two guards behind her bounded forward and caught her by the arms.

  In a moment, however, she recovered her poise and shook herself free.

  "You have ordered the death of Ted Dustin," she said, "but in so doing you have pronounced the doom of Peilong and certified your own death warrant. When my army has finished with Peilong and with you, the dynasty of the P'an-kus will have ended forever. My grandfather made the mistake of granting your father freedom, and I am paying for his error, but the warriors of Ultu will take full vengeance."

  P'an-ku rose, and laughed sneeringly.

  "Your army will not long survive your lover," he said. "As for Ultu, a hundred of my globes left their hangars long before your clumsy attack on Peilong commenced, with commands to either capture or destroy the city. With their superior weapons and armament they cannot fail.

  "You are hopelessly beaten, O Princess, yet I am not the savage and relentless victor you seem to think me. True, I am a conqueror, and conquerors must be ruthless with their enemies. In the conquest of Ma Gong I have only begun to extend my domination. Next will come Du Gong, then Lu Gong, and finally all the inhabited and inhabitable planets that circle the great Lord Sun. I will be the greatest conqueror of all time-not merely a conqueror of nations, but a conqueror of worlds.

  "But with all this, I have a kind and generous heart. I could take vengeance on you, order your torture and death, or make you my slave, yet so magnanimously am I disposed toward you that I offer you the honor of becoming my queen--of ruling with me, the mightiest empire that has ever come under the control of one man."

  "And thus," replied Maza, scornfully, "heap insult upon injury. Give me death--by torture if you will, in preference to that."

  "You speak hastily," said P'an-ku, apparently unperturbed, "and in the heat of anger. Like most women you are temperamental. But I do not demand your answer now. You shall have time to think it over. And in the meantime, I have something to show you that will make you forget the relatively insignificant conquest of your people. Come with me and I will show you, even at this moment, the beginning of my conquest of a world."

  He signed to the two guards, who closed in on each side of the Princess once more. She was then compelled to follow P'an-ku out of the throne room and down a hallway which led to a large, bullet-shaped elevator. Into this they stepped, and were shot swiftly upward.

  XXI. EARTH'S OFFENSIVE

  WITH BEVANS at the helm and Roger Sanders in command, the mighty interplanetary battleship which was the child of Ted Dustin's fertile brain, took off from Chicago just four days after Roger's radio conversation with Maza, and one day before his appointment with her in Peilong.

  Buildings, housetops and thoroughfares were packed with millions of people with every conceivable eye-aid from opera glasses to telescopes, tensely awaiting the departure of the "Luna"--for such she had been christened.

  She was only two hundred feet in length-smaller than the mighty aerial battleships of the United States Navy. But despite her relative smallness, she could easily have wiped out, in a few minutes, the entire fleet of a hundred great aerial battleships which formed a cordon around Ted's plant, to see her off, and to fire parting salvos. The air about this mighty fleet swarmed with every conceivable type of air craft from the small helicopter taxicabs to huge passenger ships.

  Escorted by this stupendous array of air craft, the Luna soared gracefully upward to a height of ten miles-the utmost distance to which any of the other craft could follow her-then shot toward the zenith which such speed that in less than a minute she was lost to the view of the beholders.

  Built for warfare of a type never previously contemplated by men of earth, she was a marvel of mechanical perfection and offensive and defensive efficiency. Her powerful atomotor could send her through space at a speed far greater than that attained by any of the planets in circling the sun--a speed so swift that no human eye could follow her movements.

  She had two sets of degravitors--one for offensive and the other for defensive purposes. Each of the four central turrets above deck mounted four cannon-like degravitors that would disintegrate the toughest steel up to a distance of twenty-five thousand miles, and other substances at lesser or greater distances according to their various cohesive powers. The two end turrets, fore and aft, each mounted six degravitors of the same size and power as the others, and midway between keel and rail each side of the craft bristled with twelve more of these potent projectors of destruction, which were in movable, ball-in-socket mounts, capable of being pointed in any direction.

  The defensive degravitors were much smaller and shorter than those to be used for offense, and instead of being pointed at the ends had short barrels and flaring blunderbuss-like muzzles. Instead of projecting their anode and cathode rays in nearly parallel lines, these weapons shot them out at widely diverging angles--scattered them so much that, placed as they were, their various rays united to form an invisible screen about the craft, impervious either to matter, light rays, or energy rays. When they were turned on the craft could have passed through a rapidly moving planetoid or even a planet without great shock, or danger either from heat, cold, or gravitational force. Sunlight, when striking them, was neither reflected nor absorbed, but converted into a white, innocuous luminescence, electrically and magnetically neutral, yet visible and transparent--a physical paradox that seemed like a ghost of real light.

  With these rays turned on, projectiles fired at the craft would be disintegrated before they could reach it. Concentrated rays of either contraction or dispersion, cold or hot, would be rendered harmless, even though they might be admitted in the form of mild, ghostly light.

  Sitting in the control cabin in the front of the craft, Roger watched the earth swiftly receding while Bevans, seated before a bewildering array of levers and buttons sent the craft hurtling swiftly toward the moon. The thick glass panels afforded a view upward, downward, straight ahead, and to either side, and mirrors connected with periscopes gave a clear view to the rear.

  "This baby sure can step," remarked Roger, glancing at his speedometer. "Thirty-five miles per second on the head at this instant."

  "She can that, sir," replied Bevans, "and I haven't opened her up all the way, either."

  "A hundred and twenty-six thousand miles per hour." calculated Roger, "and still accelerating. Why man, we'll be there in a couple of hours at this rate--a day ahead of time! It's all right, though. We can hide out in some crater, do a little exploring, get accustomed to the lunar gravity and have target practice with the degravitors. We'll need it if P'an-ku sends a bunch of those fighting globes of his after us."

  Presently Roger looked out the forward window, then said:

  "We're getting pretty close to the moon, now. Start easing her down while I decide on a landing place. Better not go too close to Copernicus today. Too near the scene of activities. We might get into a scrap before our allies get there. On the other hand, if we land at Tycho we may be mistaken for enemies and have to fight Maza's guards. I think the wise thing to do will be to land on the central peak of the crater, Pitatus. It's sort of in line between Tycho and Copernicus, and far enough from the latter so we would not be involved in a battle before we're ready. We can keep a sharp lookout, and duck down into that deep valley between Pitatus and Hesiodus if we don't care to fight an approaching enemy."

  Bevans, who had memorized the outstanding features of the moon, instantly pointed the craft toward Pitatus while he gradually slowed her headway with blasts from the forward exhaust arms of the atomotor.

  In less than two hours after they left Chicago, they landed in a slight depression on the sharp central peak of Pitatus.

  The rest of the day was spent in degravitor practice, and in preparation for the morrow's battle. So far as light was concerned, the night was exactly like the day, nevertheless, offic
ers and crew took their turns at sleeping and watching.

  It was nearly noon of the next day by their earthly chronometers when Roger, who was about to give orders for the flight to Copernicus, was startled by a call from a lookout in one of the turrets. The voice of the man came from a small electric speaker at his elbow.

  "A big fleet of globes coming from the northeast, sir."

  Roger took up his binoculars and trained them toward the northeast.

  "Must be at least a hundred of them," he said to Bevans, "and they're coming at quite a lively clip. Too late to try and dodge out of sight now. I think the best plan is to keep perfectly still. Moving objects catch the eye much quicker than stationary ones."

  "I don't believe they'll notice us here, at all, sir," answered

  Bevans, using his own glasses. "Looks as if they are going to pass right over the center of Hesiodus, in which case they'll miss us by about forty-five miles."

  The globes were traveling with such speed that it took but a minute for them to confirm Bevans' assertion, which they did, almost to a mile, continuing on toward the southwest.

  "Wonder what they're up to," mused Roger. "They seem to be heading straight toward Tycho. Why, it's plain as day. They're sneaking over to attack Maza's capital from above ground while she's attacking theirs from below. Mighty clever of old P'an-ku. Well, here's where our little Luna gets busy."

  He gave a few brief orders, and the Luna gently rose from her resting place and set out after the menacing fleet. As soon as he got near enough to Tycho to use his binoculars, Roger saw that the battle was already in progress. Red rays were flashing out at the invaders from the crater walls and central peaks, and nak-kar riders swarmed upward from the underground shafts like bees from a hive. The raiders had formed in a huge circle sixty miles in diameter, just outside the crater rim, and were pouring their powerful green rays in on the defenders with deadly effect. Roger saw two of the globes burst into flames and fall, but during that time more than a score of the stationary rays were put out of business, and hundreds of nak-kar riders were wiped out.