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Title: The space visitors
Author: Edmond Hamilton
Release date: July 19, 2024 [eBook #74075]
Language: English
Original publication: New York, NY: Stellar Publishing Corporation, 1930
Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPACE VISITORS ***
The Space Visitors
By Edmond Hamilton
[Illustration: EDMOND HAMILTON]
_Illustration by Paul_
_Just as we look upon fish as inhabitants of the ocean, so some
beings from outer space may look upon us as being inhabitants at
the bottom of an atmospheric ocean._
_Such beings, possibly gigantic in size and power, coming in
the vicinity of our earth, may, for purposes of curiosity or
exploration, decide to discover what we queer beings are, and what
this little planet is that we inhabit._
_That such beings may have actually come near the earth, is
asserted forcibly by Charles Fort in his amazing book, "The Book of
the Damned," in which he brings forward evidence to show that over
a period of the past 150 years there has been evidence of strange
extra-terrestrial activity, presumably from sentient beings._
_As Mr. Hamilton so truthfully points out, we beings of the
earth are not at all isolated. Any day we may have plunged upon
us an enemy from space that would have no more regard for our
civilization than we have for those of the ants and other insects._
_How we may combat such enemies, Mr. Hamilton shows in quite a
remarkable story._
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Air Wonder Stories March 1930.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Because Dr. Howard has asked me to prepare a concise account of the
coming of the space-visitors, I, Stanley Ransome, have tried to write
a simple record of my own contacts with them. Such a record will
necessarily have errors enough; but it seems to me that the facts can
be most clearly presented in such a fashion.
It was late in June that I first learned of the affair, through
Dr. Howard himself. Dr. Jason Howard was holder of the chair of
Aeronautical Science in Gotham University, and his contributions to the
progress of aerial navigation had made him renowned in both scientific
and commercial circles. For two years I had been an instructor and
assistant in his department of the university.
Toward the end of that particular June afternoon he came into the
laboratory where I was testing the tensile strength of a new alloy, and
handed me a folded newspaper.
"You haven't seen this, Ransome?" he questioned. "They're shouting them
all over the city."
"I hope you haven't ruined a completely good test to call my attention
to the latest murder," I jested, as I unfolded the paper. But when my
eyes took in the import of its black headlines my smile vanished. They
shrieked their message in the tallest available type:
HUNDREDS SLAIN IN IOWA VILLAGE BY
CATACLYSM! MANNLERTOWN SCENE
OF MYSTERIOUS HORROR!
The story below the headlines described what was then known of
the catastrophe which had occurred just before dawn on that day.
Mannlertown, an agricultural center of considerable size in eastern
Iowa, had been awakened a short hour before daylight by a colossal
grinding and roaring sound coming from the east.
Before the startled, half-awakened people had been able to leap
from their beds, however, the thing was upon them. It was horror,
earthquake, annihilation, all in one, driving across the town with
immense speed. A terrific crashing of shattered buildings spread
through the community, and for an instant the gigantic grinding roar
seemed receding westward. Then it had stopped completely.
It was several minutes before anyone in the stunned city ventured
out into the streets, half-curious and half-terrified. But those
who finally did so were paralyzed by astonishment and terror. For a
colossal path of destruction had been cut straight across the city's
northern section.
It was like a gigantic trench or canal gouged out by a superhuman
instrument, being over a quarter of a mile in width and almost as great
in depth. It began in an open field three miles east of Mannlertown and
ended in a thinly-settled suburban section a mile westward.
Houses, people, trees, fences, roads--everything that had lain in the
track of the unknown destroyer had vanished as though it had been
whirled into space, and there lay open to the sun nothing but this vast
wound in the earth's surface! Hundreds of people, it was estimated, had
gone to death in the moment of the unparalleled cataclysm.
Doubt
It is not surprising that panic sent the people of Mannlertown fleeing
in all directions before the coming of the day. The newspaper stated
that federal and state authorities had taken every precaution to calm
them, and already many who had fled were returning to the stricken
town, it being apparent that no further disturbance was taking place.
But what had caused this one? Was it an earthquake or a volcanic action
of some unheard-of nature? No answer could be definitely made, but the
geologists and other scientists consulted regarding the thing were in
general agreement. It could only have been caused, they stated, by some
giant meteor that had grazed the earth's surface and gouged this great
scar across it in passing. More could be learned from examination of
the cut but it was certain that a meteor was the cause.
When I had finished reading I looked up at Dr. Howard, sobered by the
horror of what I had just read.
"A terrible thing, surely," I said, and he nodded somberly.
"Just how terrible, is not yet realized," he commented.
"Why, you don't doubt that it was a meteor's work, do you?" I asked.
"That great gouge--"
He shook his head. "Who can say? But if a meteor of giant size did
it, where is the meteor? They do not as a rule, graze earth and then
vanish, Ransome."
"Maybe not," I said doubtfully, "but in this case the scientists all
seem pretty sure. And after all, what other explanation for the thing
is there?"
To that he did not answer, though I could see that he was unconvinced.
So I was not surprised when Dr. Howard left for Mannlertown that night
by a fast Chicago rocket express. To me, as to others, he said only
that he wished to make a brief examination of the scene of the disaster
with certain ideas of his own in mind. I knew without his telling,
though, that his doubts persisted.
The world at large did not share those doubts. There was wide-spread
horror over the Mannlertown catastrophe, but it was the rather
abstract horror aroused by some unprecedented accident of which the
very strangeness somehow dulls the edge of reality. And none seemed to
doubt the dictum of the scientists concerning the gigantic missile from
space that had shot into the earth's atmosphere grazing its surface and
then shooting out again. I know that, despite Dr. Howard's attitude, I
myself did not doubt it.
Dr. Howard returned from Mannlertown two days later. The only
information that he imparted was that his investigations had proved
satisfactory. He said nothing more and, assuming that his inspection
had disproved his doubts, I forbore mentioning the thing to him. It was
not until the second cataclysm, a day later, that I learned along with
the rest of the world, what his thoughts on the matter were.
This second cataclysm took place on the afternoon of July first, but,
because of the remoteness of its scene, word of it did not reach
most of the world until the next day. For the scene of the second
event was those bleak Finnish plains that lie east of the Baltic, and
particularly one barren valley far from the nearest telegraph.
News concerning what had happened was scanty enough. The central fact
was that upon one of that valley's slopes, something had gouged from
the grassy earth a tremendous trench like the one that had been cut
through Mannlertown. It was of the same general size--several miles in
length and a quarter-mile in depth and width; but in that remote place
it had done almost no damage to life or property.
The only damage to property, in fact, had been the destruction of a
herder's hut that had been in the path of the thing. The seven herders
who had occupied it, luckily for them, had been tending their flocks
on the slope of a neighboring valley. All had heard a gigantic roaring
and grinding sound, and had run up to the dividing ridge as the sound
ceased, to be confronted by the great gouge below. One of them,
however, had been on the ridge at the time and told an excited and
almost incomprehensible tale regarding it.
He said he had been gazing down over the slope in question when the
disaster had happened. First came a great flash of light in the air
above, the flash of some colossal glittering body swooping from above
to earth's surface. He could not describe what he claimed to have seen
of it in that lightning-like glimpse, and could describe it only as of
something huge and glittering, and roughly scoop-like in shape.
In the very second that he saw it, it had struck the slope, and then
with great speed had rushed forward, along it, half-burying itself
in the earth, emitting a loud, grinding roar. In an instant it had
streaked like light along the slope for several miles and then with an
upward flash was gone, the noise gradually ceasing.
This tale, even doubted by the man's companions, certainly received
small credit from the outside world. The paper that I read mentioned
the story only as an illusion, born of excitement, and went on to
point out that while the Mannlertown cataclysm had been repeated the
explanation accepted for it had not been disproved. It simply meant
that another giant meteor had grazed our globe, and it might well be
that the earth was passing through a swarm of them.
I will own, however, that to me the meteor explanation seemed rather
weakened by this so exact repetition of the first catastrophe, and I
could not see how this recurring catastrophe could be explained so
simply.
Howard's Theory
At the first news of the thing, I had sought Dr. Howard to learn his
own views of it, but he was not to be found at the university. And by
the time I had met him the next day I, along with most of the world,
had read the late editions of the newspaper in which he first startled
the nations with his astounding explanation of the two cataclysms.
He stated that he had studied closely the scene of the first cataclysm,
and had derived therefrom a theory as to its cause which he believed
was substantiated by the second occurrence.
"No one who has considered carefully the Mannlertown catastrophe,"
he stated, "can credit for a moment the idea that it was caused by a
meteor. Had a great meteor actually grazed the earth that night, the
sky for a thousand miles would have flamed with its passing, even had
it been able to pass out of earth's grip after entering it, which is an
incredible hypothesis.
"The cataclysm at Mannlertown was not caused by a meteor, but by some
vast scoop-like object that was drawn across several miles of the
earth's surface with immense speed and in that way gouged out the great
trench in the earth. This second cataclysm in Finland was obviously
caused in the same way, there being no appearance of a meteor in the
sky. The huge scoop of which I speak was actually seen in the second
case by the Finnish herder whose story has been little credited.
But the very wildness of which is almost a guarantee of its truth,
especially coming from such an unimaginative person.
"We must accept, then, the theory that on two different occasions
within the last few days a giant scoop of some sort has been lowered
from outer space, dragged across the earth's surface for several miles
with incredible speed, and then jerked upward again, taking with it
the matter it has cut from the earth! Just as we men sail over the
surface of our waters and let down trawls to drag along their beds far
below, so someone, something or things, exist on the surface of the
atmospheric ocean at the bottom of which we live, and is letting down
trawls to drag its bottom, the surface of the earth.
"This idea may seem fantastic to many. We human beings do not think of
ourselves as living at the bottom of an ocean; but a little reflection
will show that to be the case. The atmosphere is an ocean, fifty
to sixty miles in depth, covering all the earth. Our knowledge of
it indicates that, becoming more and more rarefied, it has a fairly
definite surface or limit a few score miles above us, beyond which lies
empty space.
"So there is a great air-ocean, and at its bottom we live. The pressure
at its bottom is tremendous, even as the ocean's pressure is tremendous
near its bottom. But like the creatures that live far down in the sea's
depths, we are so habituated to that pressure, and our bodies braced
internally against it, that we do not feel it. If we were to be taken
into empty space our bodies would explode as would fish taken from the
sea's depths. And in the same way, were creatures accustomed to empty
space to enter our atmospheric ocean they would undoubtedly be crushed
to death by its pressure.
"It is that which in my opinion, accounts for this trawling from above.
It may be that for centuries, while we have pondered on the planets
and stars, ships from those planets and stars have been coming and
going far above us, filled with creatures who have evolved in space as
we have evolved in air and fish have evolved in water. We would know
no more, dream no more, of the existence of those space-ships than
the creatures at the seas' bottoms know of the great liners going and
coming far above them.
"But suppose some of these beings, possessing space-ships, become
curious as to what lies at the bottom of this air-ocean of ours. They
could not venture down into it. What would they do? Would they not let
their ships cruise to and fro on the surface of the air-ocean, and let
down great trawls to drag the bottom far below, just as we men trawl an
ocean into whose depths we dare not descend.
"I believe that is what is now going on. Far above us, at the surface
of our atmospheric ocean, there are cruising ships or a ship, which we
cannot see, holding beings from some great planet of whose nature we
dare not guess. They cannot descend into our atmosphere but they are
letting down their great trawl from above to drag the bottom, which is
earth's surface, to see what lies upon it!
"And make no mistake! These beings, who may be infinitely beyond us in
intelligence and science, and who are undoubtedly completely different
from us in every respect, care naught for the wreck and ruin they may
be causing with their trawls. Any terror they might loose upon us would
mean nothing to them. For to them, high above, we at the air-ocean's
bottom are no more than the blind, strange creatures that we fish from
our own watery seas' depths are to us."
It seems unnecessary to describe the turmoil that was aroused by this
startling statement of Dr. Howard's. It is hard to expose the wilful
blindness of a world that now looks back upon that blindness with
something like terror.
Dr. Howard's theory became the target of every form and degree of
criticism during the ensuing days. His idea was susceptible to
ridicule, and the scientists whose meteor-theory he had questioned
seized the opportunity. _Did_ we live at the bottom of an ocean, an
atmospheric sea? _Were_ we merely crawling things upon earth's surface,
to be fished for and examined curiously by unimaginable beings and
vessels far above? The idea was too humorous. The public's indignation
dissolved into laughter.
The Third
A very conceivable fact was brought forward to demolish the
"ridiculous" theory. If space-ships were passing to and fro
constantly outside our atmosphere, why had they never been glimpsed by
astronomers? Dr. Howard replied promptly to this by giving a list of
unknown objects sighted by astronomers in space in the last decades, by
Sporer and Wartman and Grek and Ferguson and Loomis, and scores upon
scores of others, objects seen against the sun or moon or planets, and
which had never been identified.
There was no more criticism on that score, but a side-issue was raised.
Dr. Howard had stated that the atmospheric sea of earth had in all
probability a surface as definite as that of an ocean. Many attacked
this minor point, but were met by Dr. Howard with the cold data of
many tests, showing that while for a certain distance the air becomes
rarer with increased altitude, it seems thereafter to remain constant,
indicating that from that point up to its definite end or surface its
density is the same. There was no valid reason why an ocean of air
should not have as definite a surface as an ocean of water.
Each new critical attack brought forward in those few days met with
much the same treatment and the criticism on the part of Dr. Howard's
enemies began to change into bad temper and abuse.
I mentioned this to him on the night of July 5th, showing him an
account of the latest attack. From my first reading of his hypothesis,
it had seemed to me crystal-clear in truth, but conventional scientists
had found its startling presumptions upsetting.
"They wouldn't believe it, some of them, if they themselves were picked
up by a trawl from above and whirled around the earth," I said.
He shook his head thoughtfully. "I think that they will believe it
soon, Ransome," he said. "If these visitations from above continue--"
"You think they will continue?" I asked. "After all, why should they?
If beings out of space actually are trawling, they must have learned
enough from their two attempts to satisfy them about earth's surface."
"I don't think so. For all we know, Ransome, they may be searching
for minerals or ores or materials unknown to us, hoping to drag them
up from the bottom of this air-ocean. Or they may want living things,
for purposes of their own. Or it may be mere scientific curiosity. God
knows what motives sway them, but let us hope for one thing."
"And that--?"
"That they do not find whatever they are searching for. For if they
do; if they come to look on earth as a source of needed materials,
it means the end of our civilization. Imagine those gigantic trawls
descending in great numbers out of the skies day and night to gouge
earth's surface--imagine perhaps great air-submarines or hermetically
closed ships of some kind venturing down here to the surface--or
submarine mines, caissons of some strange sort here at the bottom of
the atmospheric ocean--creatures of dread--"
I shook myself clear of the horrors his words suggested. "After all," I
reminded him, "this is a rather baseless fear. There haven't been any
more cataclysms and it may well be that--"
Abruptly I halted. Through the open windows of the apartment came
the growing clamor of shouting voices. We ran to the window and at
the sight of the excited newsboys along the street I think that the
same foreboding gripped us both. Three minutes later we were looking
together at one of the newspaper extras, reading it in a horror-dazed
silence.
Only a few hours before, the terror from above had struck earth for the
third time, and this time with the most terrible results thus far.
For the victim had been Chicago! The colossal scoop which the excited
Finn had attempted to describe had descended lightning-like out of the
skies at dusk, and with incredible swiftness had cut a vast lane of
destruction through the city.
[Illustration: The colossal scoop had descended lightning-like out of
the skies at dusk, and with incredible swiftness had cut a vast lane of
destruction through the city. It glittered strangely as though composed
of an unknown metal.]
The giant thing had been seen more or less clearly by many thousands,
despite the swiftness of its action. It was colossal in size, much
like a steam-shovel's scoop in shape, glittering strangely, as though
composed of an unknown metal. Its top disappeared far above into the
night.
The thing had struck the city's southern acres and in a moment, with a
roar as of worlds splitting apart, had cut northward across the city
and for a mile or more out into the lake, then flashing up into the
dusk as swiftly as it had descended. Chicago was in uncontrollable
panic, Chaos of unnameable fear, and troops were on their way to quell
the lawless rioting and looting that had already begun.
When we read that, both Dr. Howard and I were silent for some time,
listening to the disturbed hum and roar of excitement that penetrated
the room from outside. And before either of us could speak, we were
sharply aroused by the coming of a telegram. Dr. Howard read the brief
message twice, then handed it to me, without comment.
An hour later saw us in a great army plane flying southward through the
night toward Washington.
A Conference
It was still night when our plane slanted out of the darkness into the
blazing landing-field lights. A powerful car awaited us, and as it sped
with reckless speed across the city which was as aroused, excited, and
horror-stricken as New York, we could distinguish now and then the
great dome of the Capitol, gleaming white in the light of dawn.
In a short time we were inside the Capitol, and were ushered into a
small panelled room where a dozen or more men seated around a table
awaited us.
I recognized at once the strong face of President Rogers, at the
table's end, and perceived, also, the well-known features of the
Secretaries of War and of the Navy. Beside them were the ambassadors of
Great Britain, Germany, France, and a half-dozen other great powers,
while secretaries and aides hovered in the background. It was the
group, representative of the world's governments, that the President
had gathered together at once after the Chicago cataclysm, and he had
summoned Dr. Howard to meet with it.
He greeted my superior and myself courteously; but the strain that he
was under showed as clearly in his face, as it did in the others about
the table. At once he plunged toward the point.
"Dr. Howard, some days ago you gave to the press a suggested
explanation of the Mannlertown and Finland cataclysms which was,
despite your scientific eminence, too startling to be accepted by the
world or by your fellow-scientists. That explanation has now been shown
by this catastrophe that has riven Chicago to have been irrefutably
true. We must accept, unprecedented as the situation is, the fact
that vessels of some sort from outer space are actually trawling the
earth's surface from above its atmosphere, that trawl having been seen
at Chicago by thousands, as it was seen in Finland. You alone among
scientists have comprehended the nature of this menace. We have called
you here to suggest some method of meeting it."
Dr. Howard was silent and thoughtful for a moment, gazing from one to
another of the anxious faces at the table, then the President spoke
again.
"You must be well aware of what the result of continued catastrophes of
this sort will be. Already the wildest panic has gripped the section
around Chicago, and the rest of the country. The whole world in fact is
trembling upon the brink of a similar panic. The very uncertainty of
these disasters encourages panic. None can say that the next blow will
not be in his city and cut away his home and his life. All are aware
now that your theory is correct, and that adds to the horror. For if a
vessel or vessels with alien beings of some sort in it actually hover
far above, none can say what greater horrors it may still loose upon
us. We must strike back in some way, must drive these beings, whatever
their nature, from the earth. Would there be any chance of doing so
with dirigibles or planes, in your opinion?"
"Not a chance, sir," Dr. Howard replied at once. "The rarity of the
atmosphere at its surface makes even an attempt impossible, for no ship
of ours could ever reach the surface of the atmosphere."
"But what are we to do? Is there no method by which we can combat this
menace? Must we lie supine and let whatever cataclysmic terror they
choose descend on us?"
All eyes were upon Dr. Howard as he gravely answered. "Since I first
comprehended what lay behind these catastrophes I have sought for some
method of halting them, some method of striking back at whatever ship
or ships from space are hovering over us. To find such a method I have
had recourse to the same analogy that has been made so terribly clear
to us, the analogy between ourselves at the bottom of our air-ocean and
the creatures at the sea's bottom.
"Suppose those creatures far within the sea's depths had some
intelligence and science, and suppose they wished to halt the trawling
of our ships whose great scoops sweep down now and again upon them. How
could they do so? They could not venture up to the ocean's surface. But
one thing they could do, and that would be to send up something that
would fight for them, that would make it impossible for the trawling
ships to cruise longer on the surface!
"They could, granted science and intelligence enough, construct great
mines in vast numbers. These, if attached to air-filled globes, would
be swept instantly up to the ocean's surface when released. They would
float there indefinitely, and any ships cruising to and fro would
sooner or later strike one and be destroyed, unless they were warned by
the previous destruction of one. In this way the creatures of the sea's
depths could prevent our cruising above and trawling for them.
"And this is the way we must use to fight the beings who now cruise
far above us! We must mine the air! We must send up thousands of great
mines constructed so that they will float up to the surface of earth's
atmospheric ocean and remain near that surface where, we know, the
ships of these space-beings are coming and going. With thousands of
mines floating about some of the invaders will inevitably be destroyed
by a collision with one of them."
The others were silent for a moment. Then the Secretary of War broke
out:
"Mine the air!" he repeated incredulously. "But how? How could any mine
be constructed to float up in that way, so light as to float on the
atmosphere's surface?"
By Means of _Steelite_
"There we have recourse again to our analogy," Dr. Howard declared. "If
a mine attached to a great hollow globe of air were released at the
sea's bottom it would rush up toward the surface and float there. In
the same way, a mine attached to a great globe in which is a complete
vacuum would rush up through our air-ocean!
"We can construct those globes of the strongest and lightest material
known--_steelite_. As you all know, _steelite_ is the recently devised
metal that has immensely greater strength than steel but the merest
fraction of its weight. The tensile strength of a substance, its
hardness and other qualities, depend directly upon the arrangement of
its molecules. By the recent discoveries of Browning we know that when
steelite is synthetically made the arrangement of the molecules is such
that it forms an extremely strong and rigid substance. This gives the
material unheard-of strength with unheard-of lightness.
"A forty-foot globe of _steelite_ can be made, with a charge of
explosives of terrific power attached to it that will detonate when the
globe is touched. This done, all air is exhausted from the hollow globe
by great pumps, until the vacuum inside it is almost complete. The
enormous strength of the steelite shell prevents its being crushed by
the atmosphere's pressure as an ordinary steel shell would be.
"Released, the vacuum globe with its deadly charge will shoot up
through the atmosphere with terrific speed. Its lightness for its
size will be such that it will not halt until it floats on the very
surface of our atmosphere. We will make these globes in countless
thousands, each with its charge, and release them. Each globe will have
a device that will repel any other, so that they do not detonate each
other. We will sow the surface of our atmosphere with these deadly
air-mines! Sooner or later the ship or ships cruising to and fro on
our atmosphere's surface will strike one and will be destroyed by its
detonating charge. In this way, and only in this way, can we fight back
against the beings from space who are releasing this horror on us!"
"But to make these globes or mines in such numbers will engross all the
earth's industrial activities!" the British ambassador exclaimed.
"It will," Dr. Howard agreed quietly. "But what of it? Have you not yet
realized that a world crisis is upon us? Have you not yet realized that
in this case there is no question of countries or races, of profits
or dividends, or expediencies, but that we, as men, are fighting for
the existence of man? That we are fighting against beings who may be
immeasurably more advanced in knowledge and power than ourselves?"
"Dr. Howard is right," said the President. "Gentlemen, this emergency
must be clear to you all, and I think that it is equally clear that
Dr. Howard's plan is the only one that affords any possibility of
combatting this terror from above. I place all the resources of the
United States of America at your command, Dr. Howard, and I know that
when the representatives of the other nations here have reported to
their governments they will do the same. The whole world's efforts must
concentrate upon the prevention of these terrible disorders."
"There is but one thing earth's peoples can do," Dr. Howard said. "Make
air-mines! Thousands, tens of thousands--they must be turned out in
ceaseless floods and released. For it is only with them that we can
repel the menace above us."
Make air-mines! It was the watchword of all earth's races within a few
hours of that momentous meeting. For the President and the heads of
the earth's other governments sent statements in which Dr. Howard's
suggested method of combatting the danger was stressed as the world's
one chance. Thousands of air-mines must be made at once and continue to
be turned out until the menace was repelled--scientists agreed, as one
man, that it was the one possible way of fighting these grim visitors
from space who were hovering in their enigmatic vessels at the surface
of our atmosphere.
Within a half day after the meeting Dr. Howard and I, aided by several
masters of aeronautical, chemical, and physical sciences had drawn up
the plans of the air-mines. Each was to be a hollow steelite globe
forty-two feet in outside diameter. This would give the globes a
gross lifting power of about five thousand pounds and net of about
twenty-five hundred. Attached in a special chamber at the side of each
was the charge, a load of the most modern explosives, small in bulk but
terrific in power, while striking-pins on the globe's sides made it
inevitable that the charge be exploded whenever the globe was struck.
Through the night of the 6th, hundreds of men were busy in Washington
turning out copies of the simple plans of the air-mine, and scores of
planes were flying throughout the world with copies for all nations. On
the 7th the manufacture of the great engines had already been begun in
a hundred cities.
But on the night of the 7th the terror struck again. This time it
was with small loss of life, but the psychological effects were far
greater. It was upon upper Malaysia that the giant, glittering trawl
descended, flashing down to rip a great trench of destruction through
the jungle and along the edge of a native village, then flashing up
again, leaving untold panic behind it.
The First Globe
As best they could, the governments of earth sought to dissipate the
panic, pointing out that few lives had been lost, and urging greater
efforts in the production of the air-mines. Already the first great
steelite globes were rolling out of the big factories, and were quickly
being fitted with the charge of explosives.
It was early on the morning of the 12th that the first air-mine was
finished and released. Dr. Howard and I superintended the process,
which took place outside one of the great Pittsburgh _steelite_ works
that was turning out the globes. Anchored securely to the ground, the
globe was slowly exhausted of its air by the giant air-pump that had
been equipped for the task.
The pump was disconnected. Then the globe was removed to a large open
field near-by and reanchored. We could see clearly that the mighty
globe, of incredible lightness, was straining upward with such force
against the anchoring chains that held it that it seemed they must
part. Dr. Howard reached forth and turned the lever that held the great
globe anchored. There was a whizzing sound, a puff of air in our faces,
and the great air-mine had vanished, rushing upward at such tremendous
speed that it had seemed to disappear before our eyes.
We all gazed up after it, as though to follow its course upward until
it floated at last on the surface of earth's atmosphere. I think that
the same thought held us all. This air-mine, this single globe we
had released--it seemed such a puny weapon to use against beings who
from mighty ships had let down the colossal trawl upon us. Was there
actually any hope for us in this method?
Perhaps this doubt was felt by many then, but there was no cessation
of the work, which after all held our only chance of striking back at
the great space invaders above. By the next day, here and there over
earth's surface, scores of the air-mines were being released, to rush
upward. In Germany and the English midlands, in Russia and Pennsylvania
and Indiana--everywhere on earth's surface where the air-mines could be
made and assembled--they were being released in groups.
The great industrial leaders of the world had gathered, under Dr.
Howard's heading, to devise plans for the quantity production of the
air-mines with the greatest possible speed. Already great factories
were being hastily equipped with special machinery, and the explosive
factories of the world as well as those producing the repelling devices
were working night and day to manufacture the needed materials.
By the 15th, scores of the globes were being released each hour, here
and there over the world, and their number was rapidly increasing.
Dr. Howard was sleeping but two hours out of twenty-four, it seemed,
remaining night and day at the Washington office that had become the
center of the world's activities. He estimated that within a week the
air-mines would be pouring forth at the rate of a thousand a day.
"The great danger," he said, "is that the next attack on us might hit
one of the great cities so hard that the inevitable panic will cause a
cessation on work on the air-mines."
"But how long is the work to go on in any case?" I asked. "There must
be thousands of globes floating already upon the atmosphere's surface."
"There need to be tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands," he said
solemnly. "They must be sent forth until these terrible trawlings from
above have entirely ceased."
I shook my head, for I could see that already many, tired of the
ceaseless work, were crying out that the scheme was a crazy one. Others
had begun to say that whatever space-visitors had been above had
already departed. But these statements were swiftly silenced on the
next morning, that of the 16th, by the fifth catastrophe.
This fifth blow took place at one of New York's residential suburbs,
Scarsdale, and while it took a toll of life exceeded only by that
of the Chicago horror, it was different from the others in one odd
respect. The great trawl seemed to descend and gouge along the earth
with somewhat smaller speed than in the other instances, and was seen
very plainly and even escaped from in time by some people in the
vicinity.
It was described as being very like the familiar steam-shovel scoop in
shape, but of a glittering metal that all agreed was not native to the
earth. The top of it, what supported it, ran up into the mists of the
morning sky. They were many shining strands, and very slender for the
colossal weight they supported. They gleamed with strange light and it
was the opinion of many that if they were of metal they had in some
unheard-of way been given supernatural strength.
At Scarsdale perhaps twelve hundred perished in the sweep of the giant
scoop, which seemed to make a smaller gash than usual. A few who had
heard the trawl crashing toward them had managed to flee from its path
in time to escape it.
Hope and Fear
This fifth catastrophe marked the beginning of the terror's last
period. Until then earth's peoples had hoped against hope that in some
unexplained way the whole business was the result of natural forces,
but now they could no longer doubt that far overhead were hovering
vessels or vehicles dragging their trawls here and there over the
earth's surface for their own unfathomable purposes. Dread was upon the
earth! At any moment of day or night the giant trawl might crash down
in terrible annihilation.
It was the sword of Damocles, suspended over a helpless world!
The days after the Scarsdale terror saw the world's activities at their
most intense pitch. Dr. Howard and I were occupied without end in the
direction of the manufacture and distribution of the air-mines. For
he was now having them released, not at the factories where they were
assembled, but at various points over the earth, so that they would
cover more uniformly the surface of the atmospheric ocean.
Day after day we sent them out. I know that to me those days were part
of a dream of nightmare activity and tension. Again the world was
waiting in dread for the coming of the great trawl. It did not come
again, for reasons which we shall never guess, until the 19th. That
interval of three days between trawlings was the longest that had yet
elapsed. We owe much to it. Perhaps our world.
For in those days the air-mines were whizzing upward in fast-increasing
numbers. By the 19th they were ascending at the rate of more than a
thousand a day. All of earth's peoples, in the industrial regions at
least, seemed toiling upon the one task of making the great globes. The
world's hopes were raised. We were winning, it seemed, by sowing the
atmosphere's surface thick with air-mines that sooner or later must
demolish all or part of the space invaders. We were exultant, even. And
then--
Shortly after dark on the 19th a trawl flashed down to gouge most of
the town of Martiana, in southern Norway, from the face of the earth.
On the morning of the 20th another trawl, or the same one, descended
and gouged the bed of the Mediterranean just off Capri and in full
sight of its shore.
A little before noon on the 21st a trawl was glimpsed plowing a vast
wound in the Sudan desert near a British outpost. And three hours later
a trawl cut a terrific trail of annihilation squarely across the city
of Algiers.
Earth and the races of the earth rocked beneath those fearful
cataclysms, striking in such swift succession. With them the activities
upon which our races of man had been so fearfully bent--the manufacture
of the air-mines--began to dwindle. By the 20th the number of air-mines
released had fallen off a little, and after the catastrophes of that
and the next day it was even smaller. Dr. Howard's reports showed that
on the 22nd but four hundred air-mines had been released in comparison
with the twelve hundred released but three days before.
Mankind was giving up the battle in despair!
Panic was breaking loose over the earth, a panic and dread that nothing
could restrain. Toiling thousands quit their work upon the manufacture
of air-mines in hopeless despair. Mobs began to appear in the streets
of London, New York, Shanghai, and Sydney, and rioting became general.
The world was going mad with fear!
Dr. Howard strove above all else to keep the manufacture of the
air-mines going. Under his urgent pleadings the governments of earth
used their troops to protect and continue that manufacture as well as
might be, instead of using them to suppress the growing riots. The
production of the globes leaped again to almost a thousand a day. Each
day saw them whizzing up to join the thousands upon thousands already
floating at the surface of earth's atmosphere.
And yet it seemed all so futile. It was not like striking back at a
visible enemy, this frantic manufacture and release of the mines. Men
would have been happier by far, I think, had they faced more terrible
enemies in the plain light of day. I know that in those last days of an
apparently disintegrating world I would have been easier in mind.
"It's a race against time now, Ransome," said Dr. Howard. "We cannot
continue the production of air-mines much longer--and civilization is
crashing now!"
"But is there no other way?" I cried. "My God, Howard, these air-mines
are useless--we've sent up tens of thousands and they can be no more
than a sprinkling in the vast extent of the atmosphere's surface. To
try some other way--"
"There is no other!" he exclaimed. "Ransome, we must fight it out to
the end! The air-mines--they're our one chance!"
"But we can't send up many more," I said. "The rioting in Germany has
become so bad that all the factories save two that were making mines
there have quit. We've no more than a dozen factories left in Europe
and hardly more than that in America!"
"As long as we can release one mine we'll do so!" he declared. "Man's
crisis is here--and he's got to have the courage now to fight in the
dark against an unknown foe for his existence!"
Somehow Dr. Howard's indomitable will held together in those last days
the thread of organization between the factories and their sources of
supply, despite the wide-spread outbreaks that were going on. Fewer and
fewer were becoming the air-mines released, but still they were being
made and sent whizzing upward.
But on the 25th it became apparent to all that our last efforts were
flickering out. Then late on that day came news of the tenth trawl. It
had descended a hundred miles south of Rio de Janeiro to crash across a
plantation with the loss of a score of lives. And hardly had that dread
news spread around the earth than came word that the trawl had again
flashed down a few hours later to gouge a terrific scar from the side
of one of the peaks of the Peruvian Andes.
The end! With the spreading of those two reports it seemed so. For they
so deepened the blind and unreasoning fear that had gripped mankind
that the production of air-mines all but ceased on that day, only a few
dozens continuing to be assembled and released. Panic-mad mobs caused
chaos in the greater cities. Every organization of civilization seemed
breaking down, and troops called to suppress wild outbreaks fought
pitched battles with the mobs.
On the night of the 26th came the crisis for mankind. For it was known
that all man's efforts to halt the menace from above had failed, that
mankind lay defenseless beneath the grim and terrible invaders from
beyond, who might at any time loose even greater horrors upon us. Man
had fought an enemy he had never even seen and had lost! He had fought
an enemy who apparently cared no more for the wrecking of mankind far
beneath than we do of the insects beneath our feet!
Victory?
Through the hours of that dread night I sat with Dr. Howard and with
the last of our remaining organization in the Washington office.
Outside, to the east the sky was red with the glow of flames, where a
mob had set fire to looted buildings. From afar we heard the crackle
of shots, the rumble of hurrying tanks, and the wild uproar of cries
as troops sought to bring order out of the chaos of a dissolving
civilization. We were silent, in a silence that made each minute
age-long. And it was there, silent, almost toward morning, that the
last messenger of mankind's hope found us.
He was a dishevelled young radio operator and it was some moments
before we comprehended what he was babbling frantically forth to us.
When we did, twenty minutes saw us in the air and speeding southward
through the night with an army aviator.
Over the fear-mad, riot-blazing city and through the night out over
other cities we sped, at the plane's utmost velocity, Dr. Howard
peering ahead with face set, I gripping the cockpit's rim with nervous,
trembling fingers. We were still speechless as our plane raced
southward. It was not until dawn was streaking the sky eastward that
the plane bumped down into a field a few miles from a little Georgia
village.
We found men awaiting us, in uniform and civilian clothes, and all were
half-hopeful, half-awed. Swiftly they told us what had happened.
Shortly after midnight citizens near the village had heard a faint,
almost inaudible but clear sound of detonation, coming as though from
far above. Almost in the next instant had come another detonating
sound, as faint as the first, and then silence. But a few instants
later, coming from the west of the village, they heard in quick
succession two terrific prolonged crashings as of some thing or things
falling from an immense height.
They had thought the trawl was descending on them, at first, and had
fled from it for some distance. But after moments of hesitation they
had made their way to the scene of the crashes, and what they found had
made them get word quickly to the soldiers in a near-by town, whose
first act had been to radio Dr. Howard.
The captain, who was the commanding officer, told this much to Dr.
Howard; together we went across the grassy fields. Before us, as we
rose over a slope, there loomed a great column of steam going up
into the sparkling light of day. We went very near to it before we
halted. So near that we could see even through its veiling mists great
shattered masses of glittering metal, buried almost completely in the
soft earth, from which they had smashed a huge crater in striking. We
stared at it for a time, not daring to go nearer for the heat that had
caused the steam still radiated intensely from the shattered metal. Not
far across the fields was a thinner steam-column, and they told us that
the colossal metal mass that caused it was buried even deeper in the
earth, so deep that hardly any part of it could be distinguished.
Dr. Howard and I stared at the two giant geysers of white vapor. It
was victory, we knew. Victory, whether partial or complete, over the
space-visitors who had held earth beneath such a spell of terror. Far
above, cruising on the surface of earth's atmosphere, two of their
mighty vessels had struck a field of the air-mines we had released, had
crashed in shattering annihilation through the dark night!
Victory! Yet it was not as I had dreamed the victory would be. I had
thought of a wild climax after a terrific battle. It was so strange, so
different. Just Dr. Howard and I and the khaki-clad soldiers and the
wondering villagers, standing there in the soft light of the Georgia
dawn, in the quiet fields with only the sound of birds about us, gazing
so quietly toward those twin gigantic steam-columns. Then realization
of what it meant struck through to my terror-numbed heart. Victory,
whether partial or complete--it meant the dissolution of the spell
of horror that had gripped earth, the gathering of earth's forces to
carry on the struggle, if need be, against foes whom we now knew were
not invincible. Victory, and in a few moments the word of it would be
flashing out around the earth....
Our victory proved complete after all, at least in so far as it marked
the end of the terrible trawlings. Whether the two huge space-ships
that had met their end over Georgia were the only ones to come to
earth, or whether there were others that were forced to flee by this
destruction of their fellows, we cannot say. We know only that after
the fall of those two through the night, the colossal trawls did not
descend again. But for days, weeks, and months, the world waited in
anxious dread for their reappearance.
"We Have Come of Age"
Even now that dread has not disappeared, wholly. For never again will
earth seem to us the isolated globe that it once was. We know now that
there are ships that come and go out there in the great void, ships
from some near or far planet. They came once to visit the earth, to
trawl in its air-ocean with their giant scoops, and they may come
again. We cannot say that they will not. We can but pray that they will
not.
Of their nature we know no more than before. Dr. Howard and the
greatest scientists of the world have examined with the utmost
minuteness the two great metal wrecks in Georgia, but have been able to
learn comparatively little from them, so fused into molten metal were
they by their plunge down through the atmosphere. The glittering metal
of which they were constructed has proved quite strange and impossible
to produce on earth. There have been found half-melted instruments or
mechanisms in small number, whose purpose we cannot as yet understand.
What of the beings who manned those mighty ships? That is perhaps
the greatest question of all, and the most insoluble. A thin coat of
strange glistening slime was found on a few parts of the two wrecks
not melted. Whether that is all that remains of the space-visitors of
those ships, whether their bodies were solid or liquid or even gaseous
or merely force emanations, we can offer only theories.
The world has recovered fully from those days of horror, and in
recovering has given to Dr. Howard the honors due him. He is beyond all
question the greatest figure in the world today and even on myself, as
his companion and assistant, some of his fame has fallen. For he is
the hero not of any single group or nation or race of men, but of all
mankind.
He has used the tremendous influence that is his alone to urge
preparation upon the world, preparation for emergencies of a similar
nature that may again arise.
"Out of the unknown came these dread space-visitors to earth," he
warns in an article, "and who knows but that somewhere in the unknown
even today other grim vessels are winging through the void toward the
earth? It may even be that our present peace is only a respite and
that we have repelled the first attack of these unknown beings only to
have them coming again upon us in infinitely greater numbers. Sometime
in the future, I think, man will have advanced in knowledge to the
point where he too will venture into the void, will be able to meet
his attackers face to face. But until then the air-mines are our only
protection.
"I want to see vast fields of them floating on the surface of earth's
atmosphere, fields through which no invading space-ships from the
void outside can make their way. For Providence may not again aid our
efforts. Man is probably but one being among the universe's countless
races of living creatures, and he can only hold his planet against
others by his own wisdom and strength. Never again can he feel the
false security that was ours before these space-visitors came."
This warning, surely, we are heeding; yet even with the loss of that
old false security, we do not face the future with fear. Whatever
beings of power the universe holds, we realize now that we too are
beings of power. We have fought for our planet against the space
visitors and have held it. As a race we have come of age.
THE END
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