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The Secretary called in a group of guards, who escorted the small package of priceless metal to the
space-ship. Before the massive door was sealed the friends bade each other farewell.
. . . I will keep in touch with you on the ultra-wave, the Captain concluded.
After all, I do not blame the Council for refusing to allow the other ship to go out. Ten pounds of iron
will be a fearful loss to the world. If we should find iron, however, see to it that she loses no time in
following us.
No fear of that! If you find iron she will set out at once, and all space will soon be full of vessels.
Good-bye.
The last opening was sealed and Nerado shot the great vessel into the air. Up and up, out beyond the
last tenuous trace of atmosphere, on and on through space it flew with ever-increasing velocity until
Nevia s gigantic blue sun had been left so far behind that it became a splendid blue-white star. Then,
projectors cut off to save the precious iron whose disintegration furnished them power, for week after
week Captain Nerado and his venturesome crew of scientists drifted idly through the illimitable void.
There is no need to describe in detail Nerado s tremendous voyage. Suffice it to say that he found a
G-type dwarf star possessing planets - not one planet only, but six .
. . seven . . . eight . . . yes, at least nine! And most of those worlds were themselves centers of attraction
around which were circling one or more worldlets! Nerado thrilled with joy as he applied a full retarding
force, and every creature aboard that great vessel had to peer into a plate or through a telescope before
he could believe that planets other than Nevia did in reality exist!
Velocity checked to the merest crawl, as space-speeds go, and with electro- magnetic detector screens
full out, the Nevian vessel crept toward our sun. Finally the detectors encountered an obstacle, a
conductive substance which the patterns showed conclusively to be practically pure iron. Iron - an
enormous mass of it - floating alone out in space! Without waiting to investigate the nature, appearance,
or structure of the precious mass, Nerado ordered power into the converters and drove an enormous
softening field of force upon the object - a force of such a nature that it would condense the metallic iron
into an allotropic modification of much smaller bulk; a red, viscous, extremely dense and heavy liquid
which could be stored conveniently in his tanks.
No sooner had the precious fluid been stored away than the detectors again broke into an uproar. In
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one direction was an enormous mass of iron, scarcely detectable; in another a great number of smaller
masses; in a third an isolated mass, comparatively small in size. Space seemed to be full of iron, and
Nerado drove his most powerful beam toward distant Nevia and sent an exultant message.
We have found iron - easily obtained and in unthinkable quantity - not in fractions of milligrams, but in
millions upon unmeasured millions of tons! Send our sister ship here at once!
Nerado! The captain was called to one of the observation plates as soon as he had opened his key. I
have been investigating the mass of iron now nearest us, the small one. It is an artificial structure, a small
space-boat, and there are three creatures in it - monstrosities certainly, but they must possess some
intelligence or they could not be navigating space.
What? Impossible! exclaimed the chief explorer. Probably, then, the other was but no matter, we had
to have the iron. Bring the boat in without converting it, so that we may study at our leisure both the
beings and their mechanisms, and Nerado swung his own visiray beam into the emergency boat, seeing
there the armored figures of Clio Marsden and the two Triplanetary officers., They are indeed
intelligent, Nerado commented, as he detected and silenced Costigan s ultra-beam communicator.,
Not, however, as intelligent as I had supposed, he went on, after studying the peculiar creatures and
their tiny spaceship more in detail.
They have immense stores of iron, yet use it for nothing other than building material.
They make little and inefficient use of atomic energy. They apparently have a rudimentary knowledge of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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The Secretary called in a group of guards, who escorted the small package of priceless metal to the
space-ship. Before the massive door was sealed the friends bade each other farewell.
. . . I will keep in touch with you on the ultra-wave, the Captain concluded.
After all, I do not blame the Council for refusing to allow the other ship to go out. Ten pounds of iron
will be a fearful loss to the world. If we should find iron, however, see to it that she loses no time in
following us.
No fear of that! If you find iron she will set out at once, and all space will soon be full of vessels.
Good-bye.
The last opening was sealed and Nerado shot the great vessel into the air. Up and up, out beyond the
last tenuous trace of atmosphere, on and on through space it flew with ever-increasing velocity until
Nevia s gigantic blue sun had been left so far behind that it became a splendid blue-white star. Then,
projectors cut off to save the precious iron whose disintegration furnished them power, for week after
week Captain Nerado and his venturesome crew of scientists drifted idly through the illimitable void.
There is no need to describe in detail Nerado s tremendous voyage. Suffice it to say that he found a
G-type dwarf star possessing planets - not one planet only, but six .
. . seven . . . eight . . . yes, at least nine! And most of those worlds were themselves centers of attraction
around which were circling one or more worldlets! Nerado thrilled with joy as he applied a full retarding
force, and every creature aboard that great vessel had to peer into a plate or through a telescope before
he could believe that planets other than Nevia did in reality exist!
Velocity checked to the merest crawl, as space-speeds go, and with electro- magnetic detector screens
full out, the Nevian vessel crept toward our sun. Finally the detectors encountered an obstacle, a
conductive substance which the patterns showed conclusively to be practically pure iron. Iron - an
enormous mass of it - floating alone out in space! Without waiting to investigate the nature, appearance,
or structure of the precious mass, Nerado ordered power into the converters and drove an enormous
softening field of force upon the object - a force of such a nature that it would condense the metallic iron
into an allotropic modification of much smaller bulk; a red, viscous, extremely dense and heavy liquid
which could be stored conveniently in his tanks.
No sooner had the precious fluid been stored away than the detectors again broke into an uproar. In
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one direction was an enormous mass of iron, scarcely detectable; in another a great number of smaller
masses; in a third an isolated mass, comparatively small in size. Space seemed to be full of iron, and
Nerado drove his most powerful beam toward distant Nevia and sent an exultant message.
We have found iron - easily obtained and in unthinkable quantity - not in fractions of milligrams, but in
millions upon unmeasured millions of tons! Send our sister ship here at once!
Nerado! The captain was called to one of the observation plates as soon as he had opened his key. I
have been investigating the mass of iron now nearest us, the small one. It is an artificial structure, a small
space-boat, and there are three creatures in it - monstrosities certainly, but they must possess some
intelligence or they could not be navigating space.
What? Impossible! exclaimed the chief explorer. Probably, then, the other was but no matter, we had
to have the iron. Bring the boat in without converting it, so that we may study at our leisure both the
beings and their mechanisms, and Nerado swung his own visiray beam into the emergency boat, seeing
there the armored figures of Clio Marsden and the two Triplanetary officers., They are indeed
intelligent, Nerado commented, as he detected and silenced Costigan s ultra-beam communicator.,
Not, however, as intelligent as I had supposed, he went on, after studying the peculiar creatures and
their tiny spaceship more in detail.
They have immense stores of iron, yet use it for nothing other than building material.
They make little and inefficient use of atomic energy. They apparently have a rudimentary knowledge of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]