Triplanetary

E >> Edward Elmer Smith >> Triplanetary

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"No, that," pointing out a hemispherical dome which, redly translucent,
surrounded a group of buildings towering high above their neighbors.
"Neither those high towers nor those screens were there the last time I
was in this town. They're stalling for time down there, that's all those
fireballs are for. Good sign, too--maybe they aren't ready for us yet.
If not, you'd better take 'em while the taking's good; and if they _are_
ready for us, we'd better get out of here while we're all in one piece."

And in fact Nerado had been in touch with the scientists of his city;
had been instructing them in the construction of converters and
generators of such weight and power that they could crush even the
defenses of the super-ship. They were not, however, quite done; the
entirely unsuspected possibilities of speed inherent in absolute
inertialessness had not entered into Nerado's calculations.

"Better drop a few cans down on that dome, fellows, before they make
trouble for us," suggested Rodebush to his gunners.

"We can't," came Adlington's instant reply. "We've been trying it, but
that's a polycyclic screen. Can you drill it? If you can, I've got a
real bomb here--that special we built--that will do the trick if you can
protect it from their beams until it gets down into the water."

"I'll try it," Cleveland answered, at a nod from the physicist. "I
couldn't drill Nerado's polycyclics, but I couldn't use any momentum on
him. Couldn't ram him--he fell back with my thrust. But that screen down
there can't back off, so maybe I can work on it. Get your special ready,
and hang on, everybody!"

The _Boise_ looped upward, and from an altitude of miles dove downward
through a storm of force-balls, rays, and shells; a dive checked
abruptly as the hollow tube of energy, which was Cleveland's drill,
snarled savagely down ahead of her and struck the shielding hemisphere
with a grinding, lightning-splitting shock. As it struck, backed by all
the enormous momentum of the plunging space-ship and driven by the full
power of her mightiest generators, it bored in, clawing and gouging
viciously through the tissue of that rigid and unyielding barrier of
pure energy. Then, mighty drill and plunging mass against iron-driven
wall, eye-tearing and furiously spectacular warfare was waged. Well it
was for Triplanetary, that day, that its super ship carried ample supply
of allotropic iron; well it was that her originally Gargantuan
converters and generators had been doubled and quadrupled in power on
the long Nevian way! For that oven-girdled fortress was powered to
withstand any conceivable assault; but the _Boise_'s power and momentum
were now inconceivable, and every watt and every dyne was solidly behind
that hellishly flaming, that voraciously tearing, that irresistibly
ravening cylinder of energy incredible!

Through the Nevian shield that cylinder gnawed its frightful way, and
down its protecting length there drove Adlington's "Special" bomb.
"Special" it was indeed; so great of girth that it could barely pass
through the central orifice of Ten's mighty projector, so heavily
charged with sensitized atomic iron that its detonation upon any planet
would not have been considered for an instant if that planet's integrity
meant anything to its attackers. Down the shielding pipe of force the
"Special" screamed under full propulsion, and beneath the surface of
Nevia's ocean it plunged.

"Cut!" yelled Adlington, and as the scintillating drill expired, the
bomber snapped his detonating switch.

For a moment the effect of the explosion seemed unimportant. A dull, low
rumble was all that was to be heard of a concussion that jarred red
Nevia to her very center; and all that could be seen was a slow heaving
of the water. But that heaving did not cease. Slowly, _so_ slowly it
seemed to the observers now high in the heavens, the waters rose up and
parted; revealing a vast chasm blown deep into the ocean's rocky bed.
Higher and higher the lazy, mountains of water reared; effortlessly to
pick up, to smash, to grind into fragments, and finally to toss aside
every building, every structure, every scrap of material substance
pertaining to the whole Nevian city.

Flattened out, driven backward for miles the tortured waters were urged,
leaving exposed bare ground and broken rock where once had been the
ocean's busy floor; while tremendous blasts of incandescent gas raved
upward, buffeting even the enormous masses of the two space-ships,
poised by their breathless crews so high above the site of the
explosion. Then the displaced millions of tons of water rushed back into
that newly rived pit, seeming to seek in that mad rush to make even more
complete the already total destruction of the city. The raging torrents
poured into that yawning cavern, filled it, and piled mountainously
above it; receding and piling up, again and again, causing tidal waves
which swept a full half of Nevia's mighty, watery globe.

The city forever silenced, Rodebush again directed his weapons upon
Nerado's vessel, but the Nevian was no longer fighting. For the first
time in that long and bitter engagement, not a Nevian beam was in
operation. His screens, however, were as capable as ever, and after a
few fruitless attempts to make an impression upon them, Rodebush cut off
his own offensive and turned to Costigan.

"What do you make of it, Conway? You know these people better than we
do; what are they up to?"

"I wish to talk to you," Nerado's voice came from the speaker, "and I
could not do so while the beams were operating. You are, I now perceive,
a much higher form of life than any of us had thought possible; a form
perhaps as high in evolution as our own. It is a pity that we did not
meet you when we first neared your planet, so that much life, both
Tellurian and Nevian, might have been spared. But what is past cannot be
recalled. As reasoning beings, however, you will see the futility of
continuing a contest in which neither of us is capable of injuring the
other. You may, of course, destroy more of our Nevian cities, in which
case I should be compelled to go and destroy similarly upon your earth;
but, to reasoning minds, such a course of procedure is sheerest folly."

Rodebush cut the communicator beam.

"Does he mean it?" he demanded of Costigan. "It sounds reasonable,
but...."

"But fishy," broke in Cleveland. "Altogether too reasonable for a...."

"Yes, he means it; every word of it," interrupted Costigan in turn.
"That's the way they are. Reasonable, passionless. Funny--they lack a
lot of things we have, but they've got a lot of things that I wish more
of us Tellurians had too. Give me the plate--I'll talk for
Triplanetary," and the beam was restored.

"Captain Nerado." he greeted the Nevian commander. "Having been with you
and among your people, I know that you mean what you say and that you
speak for your race. Similarly, I believe that I can speak for the
Triplanetary Council--the government of three of the planets of our
solar system--in saying that there need be no more conflict between our
peoples. I also was compelled by circumstances to do certain things
which I now wish could be undone; but as you have said, the past is
past. Our two races have much to gain from each other by friendly
exchanges of materials and of ideas, while we can expect nothing except
mutual extermination, if we elect to continue this warfare. I offer you
the friendship of Triplanetary. Will you release your screens and come
aboard to sign a treaty?"

"I will come; my screens are down." Rodebush likewise cut off his power,
although somewhat apprehensively, and a Nevian lifeboat entered the main
airlock of the _Boise_.

* * * * *

Then, at a table in the control room of Triplanetary's first super-ship,
there was written the first Inter-Systemic Treaty. Upon one side the
three Nevians; amphibious, cone-headed, loop-necked, scale-bodies,
four-legged things to us monstrosities: upon the other the three humans,
air-breathing, rounded-headed, shortnecked, smooth-bodied, two-legged
creatures equally monstrous to the fastidious Nevians. Yet each of these
representatives, of two races so different, felt respect for the other
race increase within him minute by minute as the conversation went on.

The Nevians had destroyed Pittsburgh, but Adlington's bomb had blown an
equally populous Nevian city out of existence. One Nevian vessel had
wiped out an entire unit of Triplanetary's fleet; but Costigan,
practically unaided, had depopulated one Nevian city and had seriously
damaged another. He had also beamed down many Nevian ships. Therefore
loss of life and material could be balanced. The Solarian system was
rich in iron, to which the Nevians were welcome; red Nevia possessed
abundant stores of substances which upon earth were extremely rare and
of vital importance. Therefore commerce was to be encouraged. The
Nevians had knowledges and skills unknown to earthly science, but were
entirely ignorant of many things, to us commonplace. Therefore
interchange of students and of books was highly desirable. And so on.

Thus was signed the Triplanetario-Nevian Treaty of Eternal Peace. Nerado
and his two companions were escorted ceremoniously to their vessel, and
the _Boise_ took off in an inertialess dash toward earth, bearing the
good news that the Nevian menace was no more.

Clio, now a hardened space-flea, immune even to the horrible nausea of
inertialessness, wriggled lithely in the curve of Costigan's arm and
laughed up at him.

"You can talk all you want to, Conway, but I don't like them a bit. They
give me the purple jitters! I suppose that they are really estimable
folks; talented, cultured, and everything; but just the same I'll bet
that it will be a long, long time before anybody on earth will really,
truly _like_ them!"

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