The Invasion

: The Skylark Of Space

The pulsating air and the chattering sounders were giving the same dire

warning, the alarm extraordinary of invasion, of imminent and

catastrophic danger from the air.



"Don't try to reach the palace. Everyone on the ground will have time

enough to hide in the deep, arenak-protected pits beneath the buildings,

and you would be killed by the invaders long before you could reach the

palace. If we can repel t e enemy and keep them from landing, the women

will be perfectly safe, even though the whole city is destroyed. If they

effect a landing we are lost."



"They'll not land, then," Seaton answered grimly, as he sprang into the

Skylark and took his place at the board. As Crane took out his wireless,

Seaton cautioned him.



"Send in English, and tell the girls not to answer, as these devils can

locate the calls within a foot and will be able to attack the right

spot. Just tell them we're safe in the Skylark. Tell them to sit tight

while we wipe out this gang that is coming, and that we'll call them,

once in a while, when we have time, during the battle."



Before Crane had finished sending the message the crescendo whine of

enormous propellers was heard. Simultaneously there was a deafening

concussion and one entire wing of the palace disappeared in a cloud of

dust, in the midst of which could be discerned a few flying fragments.

The air was filled with Mardonalian warships. They were huge vessels,

each mounting hundreds of guns, and the rain of high-explosive shells

was rapidly reducing the great city to a wide-spread heap of debris.



Seaton's hand was upon the lever which would hurl the Skylark upward

into the fray. Crane and DuQuesne, each hard of eye and grim of jaw,

were stationed at their machine-guns.



"Something's up!" exclaimed Seaton. "Look at the Kondal!"



Something had happened indeed. Dunark sat at the board, his hand upon

the power lever, and each of his crew was in place, grasping his weapon,

but every man was writhing in agony, unable to control his movements. As

they stared, momentarily spellbound, the entire crew ceased their

agonized struggles and hung, apparently lifeless, from their supports.



"They've got to 'em some way--let's go!" yelled Seaton.



As his hand tightened upon the lever, a succession of shells burst upon

the dock, wrecking it completely, all three men fancied that the world

had come to an end as the stream of high explosive was directed against

their vessel. But the four-foot shell of arenak was impregnable, and

Seaton shot the Skylark upward into the midst of the enemy fleet. The

two gunners fired as fast as they could sight their weapons, and with

each shot one of the great warships was blown into fragments. The

Mardonalians then concentrated the fire of their entire fleet upon their

tiny opponent.



From every point of the compass, from above and below, the enemy gunners

directed streams of shells against the dodging vessel. The noise was

more than deafening, it was one continuous, shattering explosion, and

the Earth-men were surrounded by such a blaze of fire from the exploding

shells that they could not see the enemy vessels. Seaton sought to dodge

the shells by a long dive toward one side, only to find that dozens of

new opponents had been launched against them--the deadly

airplane-torpedoes of Osnome. Steered by wireless and carrying no crews,

they were simply winged bombs carrying thousands of pounds of terrific

electrical explosive--enough to kill the men inside the vessel by the

concussion of the explosion, even should the arenak armor be strong

enough to withstand the blow. Though much faster than the Osnomian

vessels, they were slow beside the Skylark, and Seaton could have dodged

a few of them with ease. As he dodged, however, they followed

relentlessly, and in spite of those which were blown up by the gunners,

their number constantly increased until Seaton thought of the repellers.



"'Nobody Holme' is right!" he exclaimed, as he threw on the power

actuating the copper bands which encircled the hull in all directions.

Instantly the torpedoes were hurled backward, exploding as the force

struck them, and even the shells were ineffective, exploding harmlessly,

as they encountered the zone of force. The noise of the awful

detonations lessened markedly.



"Why the silence, I wonder?" asked Seaton, while the futile shells of

the enemy continued to waste their force some hundreds of feet distant

from their goal, and while Crane and DuQuesne were methodically

destroying the huge vessels as fast as they could aim and fire. At every

report one of the monster warships disappeared--its shattered fragments

and the bodies of its crew hurtling to the ground. His voice could not

be heard in even the lessened tumult, but he continued:



"It must be that our repellers have set up a partial vacuum by repelling

even the air!"



* * * * *



Suddenly the shelling ceased and the Skylark was enveloped by a blinding

glare from hundreds of great reflectors; an intense, searching,

bluish-violet light that burned the flesh and seared through eyelids and

eyeballs into the very brain.



"Ultra-violet!" yelled Seaton at the first glimpse of the light, as he

threw on the power. "Shut your eyes! Turn your heads down!"



Out in space, far beyond reach of the deadly rays, the men held a short

conference, then donned heavy leather-and-canvas suits, which they

smeared liberally with thick red paint, and replaced the plain glasses

of their helmets with heavy lenses of deep ruby glass.



"This'll stop any ultra-violet ray ever produced," exulted Seaton, as he

again threw the vessel into the Mardonalian fleet. A score of the great

vessels met their fate before the Skylark was located, and, although the

terrible rays were again focused upon the intruder in all their

intensity, the carnage continued.



In a few minutes, however, the men heard, or rather felt, a low, intense

vibration, like a silent wave of sound--a vibration which smote upon the

eardrums as no possible sound could smite, a vibration which racked the

joints and tortured the nerves as though the whole body were

disintegrating. So sudden and terrible was the effect that Seaton

uttered an involuntary yelp of surprise and pain as he once more fled

into the safety of space.



"What the devil was that?" demanded DuQuesne. "Was it infra-sound? I

didn't suppose such waves could be produced."



"Infra-sound is right. They produce most anything here," replied Seaton,

and Crane added:



"Well, about three fur suits apiece, with cotton in our ears, ought to

kill any wave propagated through air."



The fur suits were donned forthwith, Seaton whispering in Crane's ear:



"I've found out something else, too. The repellers repel even the air.

I'm going to shoot enough juice through them to set up a perfect vacuum

outside. That'll kill those air-waves."



Scarcely were they back within range of the fleet when DuQuesne,

reaching for his gun to fire the first shot, leaped backward with a

yell.



"Beat it!"



Once more at a safe distance, DuQuesne explained.



"It's lucky I'm so used to handling hot stuff that from force of habit I

never make close contact with anything at the first touch. That gun

carried thousands of volts, with lots of amperage behind them, and if I

had had a good hold on it I couldn't have let go. We'll block that game

quick enough, though. Thick, dry gloves covered with rubber are all that

is necessary. It's a good thing for all of us that you have those fancy

condensite handles on your levers, Seaton."



"That was how they got Dunark, undoubtedly," said Crane, as he sent a

brief message to the girls, assuring them that all was well, as he had

been doing at every respite. "But why were we not overcome at the same

time?"



"They must have had the current tuned to iridium, and had to experiment

until they found the right wave for steel," Seaton explained.



"I should think our bar would have exploded, with all that current. They

must have hit the copper range, too?"



Seaton frowned in thought before he answered.



"Maybe because it's induced current, and not a steady battery impulse.

Anyway, it didn't. Let's go!"



"Just a minute," put in Crane. "What are they going to do next, Dick?"



"Search me. I'm not used to my new Osnomian mind yet. I recognize things

all right after they happen, but I can't seem to figure ahead--it's like

a dimly-remembered something that flashes up as soon as mentioned. I get

too many and too new ideas at once. I know, though, that the Osnomians

have defenses against all these things except this last stunt of the

charged guns. That must be the new one that Mardonale stole from Kondal.

The defenses are, however, purely Osnomian in character and material. As

we haven't got the stuff to set them up as the Osnomians do, we'll have

to do it our own way. We may be able to dope out the next one, though.

Let's see, what have they given us so far?"



"We've got to hand it to them," responded DuQuesne, admiringly. "They're

giving us the whole range of wave-lengths, one at a time. They've given

us light, both ultra-violet and visible, sound, infra-sound, and

electricity--I don't know what's left unless they give us a new kind of

X-rays, or Hertzian, or infra-red heat waves, or...."



"That's it, heat!" exclaimed Seaton. "They produce heat by means of

powerful wave-generators and by setting up heavy induced currents in the

armor. They can melt arenak that way."



"Do you suppose we can handle the heat with our refrigerators?" asked

Crane.



"Probably. We have a lot of power, and the new arenak cylinders of our

compressors will stand anything. The only trouble will be in cooling the

condensers. We'll run as long as we have any water in our tanks, then go

dive into the ocean to cool off. We'll try it a whirl, anyway."



* * * * *



Soon the Skylark was again dealing out death and destruction in the

thick of the enemy vessels, who again turned from the devastation of the

helpless city to destroy this troublesome antagonist. But in spite of

the utmost efforts of light-waves, sound-waves, and high-tension

electricity, the space-car continued to take its terrible toll. As

Seaton had foretold, the armor of the Skylark began to grow hot, and he

turned on the full power of the refrigerating system. In spite of the

cooling apparatus, however, the outer walls finally began to glow redly,

and, although the interior was comfortably cool, the ends of the

rifle-barrels, which were set flush with the surface of the revolving

arenak globes which held them, softened, rendering the guns useless. The

copper repellers melted and dripped off in flaming balls of molten

metal, so that shells once more began to crash against the armor.

DuQuesne, with no thought of quitting apparent in voice or manner, said

calmly:



"Well, it looks as though they had us stopped for a few minutes. Let's

go back into space and dope out something else."



Seaton, thinking intensely, saw a vast fleet of enemy reinforcements

approaching, and at the same time received a wireless call directed to

Dunark. It was from the grand fleet of Kondal, hastening from the

bordering ocean to the defense of the city. Using Dunark's private code,

Seaton told the Karbix, who was in charge of the fleet, that the enemy

had a new invention which would wipe them out utterly without a chance

to fight, and that he and his vessel were in control of the situation;

and ordered him to see that no Kondalian ship came within battle range

of a Mardonalian. He then turned to Crane and DuQuesne, his face grim

and his fighting jaw set.



"I've got it doped right now. Give the Lark speed enough and she's some

bullet herself. We've got four feet of arenak, they've got only an inch,

and arenak doesn't even begin to soften until far above a blinding white

temperature. Strap yourselves in solid, for it's going to be a rough

party from now on."



They buckled their belts firmly, and Seaton, holding the bar toward

their nearest antagonist, applied twenty notches of power. The Skylark

darted forward and crashed completely through the great airship. Torn

wide open by the forty-foot projectile, its engines wrecked and its

helicopter-screws and propellers completely disabled, the helpless hulk

plunged through two miles of empty air, a mass of wreckage.




the great airship.... She was an embodied thunderbolt; a huge,

irresistible, indestructible projectile, directed by a keen brain

inside....]



Darting hither and thither, the space-car tore through vessel after

vessel of the Mardonalian fleet. She was an embodied thunderbolt; a

huge, irresistible, indestructible projectile, directed by a keen brain

inside it--the brain of Richard Seaton, roused to his highest fighting

pitch and fighting for everything that man holds dear. Tortured by the

terrible silent waves, which, now that the protecting vacuum had been

destroyed, were only partially stopped by the fur suits; shaken and

battered by the terrific impacts and the even greater shocks occurring

every second as the direction of the vessel was changed; made sick and

dizzy by the nauseating swings and lurches as the Skylark spun about the

central chamber; Seaton's wonderful physique and his nerves of steel

stood him in good stead in this, the supreme battle of his life, as with

teeth tight-locked and eyes gray and hard as the fracture of high-carbon

steel, he urged the Skylark on to greater and greater efforts.



Though it was impossible for the eye to follow the flight of the

space-car, the mechanical sighting devices of the Mardonalian vessels

kept her in as perfect focus as though she were stationary, and the

great generators continued to hurl into her the full power of their

death-dealing waves. The enemy guns were still spitting forth their

streams of high-explosive shells, but unlike the waves, the shells moved

so slowly compared to their target that only a few found their mark, and

many of the vessels fell to the ground, riddled by the shells of their

sister-ships.



* * * * *



With anxious eyes Seaton watched the hull of his animated cannon-ball

change in color. From dull red it became cherry, and as the cherry red

gave place to bright red heat, Seaton threw even more power into the bar

as he muttered through his set teeth:



"Well, Seaton, old top, you've got to cut out this loafing on the job

and get busy!"



In spite of his utmost exertions and in spite of the powerful ammonia

plant, now exerting its full capacity, but sadly handicapped by the fact

that its cooling-water was now boiling, Seaton saw the arenak shell

continue to heat. The bright red was succeeded by orange, which slowly

changed, first to yellow, then to light yellow, and finally to a

dazzling white; through which, with the aid of his heavy red lenses, he

could still see the enemy ships. After a time he noted that the color

had gone down to yellow and he thrilled with exultation, knowing that he

had so reduced the numbers of the enemy fleet that their wave-generators

could no longer overcome his refrigerators. After a few minutes more of

the awful carnage there remained only a small fraction of the proud

fleet which, thousands strong, had invaded Kondal--a remnant that sought

safety in flight. But even in flight, they still fought with all their

weapons, and the streams of bombs dropped from their keel-batteries upon

the country beneath marked the path of their retreat with a wide swath

of destruction. Half inclined to let the few remaining vessels escape,

Seaton's mind changed instantly as he saw the bombs spreading

devastation upon the countryside, and not until the last of the

Mardonalian vessels had been destroyed did he drop the Skylark into the

area of ruins which had once been the palace grounds, beside the Kondal,

which was still lying as it had fallen.



After several attempts to steady their whirling senses, the three men

finally were able to walk, and, opening a door, they leaped out through

the opening in the still glowing wall. Seaton's first act was to

wireless the news to Dorothy, who replied that they were coming as fast

as they could. The men then removed their helmets, revealing faces pale

and drawn, and turned to the helpless space-car.



"There's no way of getting into this thing from the outside...." Seaton

began, when he saw that the Kofedix and his party were beginning to

revive. Soon Dunark opened the door and stumbled out.



"I have to thank you for more than my life this time," he said, his

voice shaken by uncontrollable emotion as he grasped the hands of all

three men. "Though unable to move, I was conscious and saw all that

happened--you kept them so busy that they didn't have a chance to give

us enough to kill us outright. You have saved the lives of millions of

our nation and have saved Kondal itself from annihilation."



"Oh, it's not that bad," answered Seaton, uncomfortably. "Both nations

have been invaded before."



"Yes--once when we developed the ultra-violet ray, once when Mardonale

perfected the machine for producing the silent sound-wave, and again

when we harnessed the heat-wave. But this would have been the most

complete disaster in history. The other inventions were not so deadly as

was this one, and there were terrible battles, from which the victors

emerged so crippled that they could not completely exterminate the

vanquished, who were able to re-establish themselves in the course of

time. If it had not been for you, this would have been the end, as not a

Kondalian soldier could move--any person touching iridium was helpless

and would have been killed."



He ceased speaking and saluted as the Karfedix and his party rounded a

heap of boulders. Dorothy and Margaret screamed in unison as they saw

the haggard faces of their husbands, and saw their suits, dripping with

a thick substance which they knew to be red, in spite of its

purplish-black color. Seaton dodged nimbly as Dorothy sought to take him

in her arms, and tore off his suit.



"Nothing but red paint to stop their light-rays," he reassured her as he

lifted her clear from the ground in a soul-satisfying embrace. Out of

the corner of his eye he saw the Kondalians staring in open-mouthed

amazement at the Skylark. Wheeling swiftly, he laughed as he saw a

gigantic ball of frost and snow! Again donning his fur suit, he shut off

the refrigerators and returned to his party, where the Karfedix gave him

thanks in measured terms. As he fell silent, Dunark added:



"Thanks to you, the Mardonalian forces, instead of wiping us out, are

themselves destroyed, while only a handful of our vessels have been

lost, since the grand fleet could not arrive until the battle was over,

and since the vessels that would have thrown themselves away were saved

by your orders, which I heard. Thanks to you, we are not even crippled,

though our capital is destroyed and the lives of some unfortunates, who

could not reach the pits in time, have probably been lost.



"Thanks to you," he continued in a ringing voice, "and to the salt and

the new source of power you have given us, Mardonale shall now be

destroyed utterly!"



After sending out ships to relieve the suffering of the few wounded and

the many homeless, Dunark summoned a corps of mechanics, who banded on

new repellers and repaired the fused barrels of the machine-guns, all

that was necessary to restore the Skylark to perfect condition.



* * * * *



Facing the party from Earth, the Karfedix stood in the ruins of his

magnificent palace. Back of him were the nobles of Kondal, and still

further back, in order of rank, stood a multitude of people.



"Is it permitted, oh noble Karfedo, that I reward your captive for his

share in the victory?" he asked.



"It is," acquiesced Seaton and Crane, and Roban stepped up to DuQuesne

and placed in his hand a weighty leather bag. He then fastened about his

left wrist the Order of Kondal, the highest order of the nation.



He then clasped about Crane's wrist a heavily-jeweled,

peculiarly-ornamented disk wrought of a deep ruby-red metal, supported

by a heavy bracelet of the same material, the most precious metal of

Osnome. At sight of the disk the nobles saluted and Seaton barely

concealed a start of surprise, for it bore the royal emblem and

delegated to its bearer power second only to that of the Karfedix

himself.



"I bestow upon you this symbol, Karfedix Crane, in recognition of what

you have this day done for Kondal. Wherever you may be upon Kondalian

Osnome, which from this day henceforth shall be all Osnome, you have

power as my personal representative, as my eldest son."



He drew forth a second bracelet, similar to the first except that it

bore seven disks, each differently designed, which he snapped upon

Seaton's wrist as the nobles knelt and the people back of them threw

themselves upon their faces.



"No language spoken by man possesses words sufficiently weighty to

express our indebtedness to you, Karfedix Seaton, our guest and our

savior. The First Cause has willed that you should be the instrument

through which Kondal is this day made supreme upon Osnome.



In small and partial recognition of that instrumentality, I bestow upon

you these symbols, which proclaim you our overlord, the ultimate

authority of Osnome.



While this is not the way in which I had thought to bid you farewell,

the obligations which you have heaped upon us render all smaller things

insignificant. When you return, as I hope and trust you soon will, the

city shall be built anew and we can welcome you as befits your station."



Lifting both arms above his head he continued:



"May the great First Cause smile upon you in all your endeavors until

you solve the Mystery: may your descendants soon reach the Ultimate

Goal. Goodbye."



Seaton uttered a few heartfelt words in response and the party stepped

backward toward the Skylark. As they reached the vessel the standing

Karfedix and the ranks of kneeling nobles snapped into the double

salute--truly a rare demonstration in Kondal.



"What'll we do now?" whispered Seaton.



"Bow, of course," answered Dorothy.



They bowed, deeply and slowly, and entered their vessel. As the Skylark

shot into the air with the greatest acceleration that would permit its

passengers to move about, the grand fleet of Kondalian warship fired a

deafening salute.



* * * * *



It had been planned before the start that each person was to work

sixteen hours out of the twenty-four. Seaton was to drive the vessel

during the first two eight-hour periods of each day. Crane was to

observe the stars during the second and to drive during the third.

DuQuesne was to act as observer during the first and third periods.

Margaret had volunteered to assist the observer in taking his notes

during her waking hours, and Dorothy appointed herself cook and

household manager.



As soon as the Skylark had left Osnome, Crane told DuQuesne that he and

his wife would work in the observation room until four o'clock in the

afternoon, at which time the prearranged system of relief would begin,

and DuQuesne retired to his room.



Crane and Margaret made their way to the darkened room which housed the

instruments and seated themselves, watching intently and making no

effort to conceal their emotion as first the persons beneath them, then

the giant war-vessels, and finally the ruined city itself, were lost to

view. Osnome slowly assumed the proportions of a large moon, grew

smaller, and as it disappeared Crane began to take notes. For a few

hours the seventeen suns of this strange solar system shone upon the

flying space-car, after which they assumed the aspect of a

widely-separated cluster of enormous stars, slowly growing smaller and

smaller and shrinking closer and closer together.



At four o'clock in the afternoon, Washington time, DuQuesne relieved

Crane, who made his way to the engine room.



"It is time to change shifts, Dick. You have not had your sixteen hours,

but everything will be regular from now on. You two had better get some

rest."



"All right," replied Seaton, as he relinquished the controls to Crane,

and after bidding the new helmsman goodnight he and Dorothy went below

to their cabin.



Standing at a window with their arms around each other they stared down

with misty eyes at the very faint green star, which was rapidly

decreasing in brilliance as the Skylark increased its already

inconceivable velocity. Finally, as it disappeared altogether, Seaton

turned to his wife and tenderly, lovingly, took her in his arms.



"Littlest Girl.... Sweetheart...." he whispered, and paused, overcome by

the intensity of his feelings.



"I know, husband mine," she answered, while tears dimmed her glorious

eyes. "It is too deep. With nothing but words, we can't say a single

thing."