Maza of the Moon (19 page)

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

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

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

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

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

The fleet of P'an-ku was easily slated for a quick victory before the Luna suddenly entered the lists. Then the degravitors went into action, and the menacing globes began dropping right and left, emitting lurid flashes of light where the invisible rays struck them. Before a green ray could even be trained toward the Luna half of the magnificent war fleet of P'an-ku had been destroyed. Then the green rays carne thick and fast, but Roger did not mind them, for his degravitor barrage made them as harmless as sunlight.

Not more than a dozen of the globes remained when the commander of the fleet evidently discovered that his rays could not harm the strange craft from earth, and that his only chance for safety would be in flight. These remaining globes shot swiftly upward--so swiftly that it was difficult for the eye to note their progress, but the Luna was after them in an instant, and kept them well in range while her marksmen used the degravitors with deadly effect. Soon but one lone globe remained. It seemed to have an especially clever helmsman, who dodged hither and thither with such speed and in such unexpected ways that he had been able to elude the Luna's gunners. He suddenly set out in a zigzag course toward Copernicus, with the Luna in swift pursuit. A degravitor ray brought him down inside the crater just after he had crossed the rim and was ready to drop to safety.

Bevans was unable to instantly check the forward flight of the Luna, and her momentum carried her ten miles past the crater rim and only a little over fifteen miles from the nearest central peak. Hundreds of powerful green rays instantly flashed up at the invader, and giant globes swarmed upward from the yawning mouths of mighty shafts, to attack. The globes were cut down by Roger's marksmen almost as fast as they emerged, and the green rays did no damage.

Then there suddenly flashed from the second peak of the central group, a mighty green ray so powerful it would easily have made a thousand of the smaller defensive rays. It was pointed straight upward at the earth hanging in the heavens above them, and the spot where it struck--apparently some five hundred miles in diameter, plainly showed as a great greenish-white area in the Pacific Ocean when, a moment later, the ray winked out.

The operators evidently had stopped for a moment to note its effect--perhaps to send a radio message to earth demanding instant surrender or threatening annihilation.

"Turn the degravitors on the peak of that mountain," ordered Roger. "The globes can wait. We'll get them later."

Before his instructions could be carried out it seemed that the ray operator had anticipated them, for the huge green ray flashed out once more, but this time it did not strike the earth. Instead, its powerful, deadly green light enveloped the Luna.

Although the earth-craft was insulated against the cold of absolute zero, and was, in addition, protected by her aura of degravitor rays, she could not help feeling the tremendous power of the terrific de-energizing rays. In an instant her interior temperature, which had been kept comfortably warm at 70 degrees Fahrenheit, dropped to the freezing point and rapidly went lower.

"Up," ordered Roger, and Bevans shot the craft upward, temporarily escaping the paralyzing effect of the great ray. But the projector could be turned swiftly, and in a moment it was trained on them again. It was now the turn of the Luna to do some zig-zagging and dodging. As for her offensive tactics, Roger found that his degravitor rays were rendered harmless when in conflict with the rays from the great projector, and only took effect at times when they could, for a moment, elude the huge green beam which came from the mountain top.

"We can't keep this up," said Roger, as the cabin grew colder and colder. "Try diving toward the base of the mountain, then up beneath the projector. I don't believe it can be pointed towards its own base, and P'an-ku will destroy his own city if he points it downward too far."

Bevans instantly dropped the craft to within a hundred feet of the crater floor, then shot toward the base of the peak on which the ray was mounted. The mighty green ray followed them down so far it clipped a great valley through the crater wall behind them, but it could go no further.

"Now!" said Roger, "Let them have it!"

The degravitors were instantly trained on the mountain peak while the craft shot swiftly upward.

WITH TZIEN KHAN and his four painted torturers confronting him in his dungeon cell, Ted Dustin tried frantically to reach his pistol degravitor through the hole he had scraped in his insulating armor, but his efforts were of no avail. The hole was too small. He quickly dropped his hand to his side in order that his attempt to reach the weapon might not be detected.

Tzien Khan took a key from his belt pouch, and said:

"Bend down your head, O spawn of a maggot, that I may remove your collar. And if you have a god, pray to him, for you have but a short time to live."

Ted bent over as directed, and as he did so he heard a tearing sound that filled his heart with hope. While Tzien Khan fumbled with his collar lock his hand stole to his right hip and confirmed his hopes. The act of stooping over had completed the work of the past few days, and his fingers closed over the butt of his degravitor.

As the collar dropped from about his neck, Tzien Khan ordered him to straighten up. He obeyed, but as he did so, whipped out his degravitor, pressed the trigger, and swung it in a narrow arc. The Khan and his four torturers were wiped out before one of them had an opportunity to use a weapon.

"Well done, Ted Dustin!" called Shen Ho from the opposite cell. "I had given you up for dead."

With the aid of his degravitor, Ted quickly got rid of his clumsy suit of insulating armor and appeared before the astonished Shen Ho in the rich garments of black and gold he had worn in Maza's court. Then he released his fellow prisoner by the simple expedient of flashing the degravitor rays for an instant on the collar lock.

As soon as he was freed from his metal collar, Shen Ho armed himself with the weapons of Tzien Khan, belting the richly jeweled sword and ray projector about his waist. Then he took the weapons of the others, made them into a bundle bound together with one of the belts, and strapping the head lamp of Tzien Khan to his forehead, said:

"Come, Ted Dustin. Help me release my brothers, and I will help you find, and, if the great Lord Sun wills, to slay the cruel tyrant who disgraces the great name of P'an-ku."

"If you will help me to find and destroy the big green ray he is going to use against the earth I'll go anywhere with you," answered Ted.

"That I promise to do, also, or give my life in the attempt," replied Shen Ho as they hurried along the passageway.

When they arrived in the circular room at the base of the spiral ramp, Shen Ho turned into the first passageway at his right. Other than bones and dead bodies, he found only four half dead wretches, none of whom he recognized.

Hurrying out of this passageway, he entered the next, and to his delight found Fen Ho, his youngest brother, alive and able to travel. After the young inventor of the projectiles and firing mechanism had been released and armed, the three men hurried out to the central room and back to the other passageways, one at a time, to search for Wen Ho. They found the inventor of the flying globe in the last passageway, sick, and barely able to talk. Shen Ho took a small phial of medicine from the belt pouch of Tzien Khan, a little of which he dropped on his brother's tongue. Fen Ho, meanwhile, busied himself with cutting the collar from his brother's neck with his green ray projector, and belting a sword and projector about his waist.

The medicine, it appeared, had marvelous stimulating qualities, for Wen Ho quickly recovered his strength, and not only was able to travel with sword and projector belted to him, but insisted on carrying one of the long spears with a buzz saw-like head, which the torturers of Tzien Khan had dropped, and which Shen Ho had brought in his bundle.

"Now," said Shen Ho, "we must pass through the torture chambers in order to get to the upper rooms of the palace. Every man must have his weapons ready as the torturers of Tzien Khan are armed, and quick to draw."

Ted, with a degravitor in each hand, now insisted on taking the lead as they mounted the spiral ramp. On the way up, he met a guard, whose head instantly vanished from the man's neck before a leveled degravitor, and whose weapons were appropriated by the Ho brothers.

Shen Ho extinguished his head lamp, now no longer necessary because of the yellow rays from small globes of luminous liquid, and enjoined absolute silence. As they mounted higher, however, this precaution was made unnecessary by the agonized shrieks of the tortured victims above them.

When they reached the door of the torture chamber, Ted, with both degravitors ready for action, led a quick rush into the room. Twenty painted torturers, taken by surprise, reached for their weapons, but not one reached in time. Then Ted and Fen Ho plunged into the series of smaller chambers on the right, while Shen Ho and Wen Ho took those on the left.

One after another, painted torturers went down before the degravitors of Ted or the green ray projectors of Fen Ho. Presently they reached the last chamber of the series and found no torturer present. It was occupied by but one victim, and Ted cried out in surprise as he recognized him.

"Professor Ederson!" he exclaimed, "and I thought you safe in Chicago!"

A flash of his degravitor cut the heavy cable which held the cylinder of water that was straining the professor's neck cords, and it crashed to the floor. Then, while Fen Ho swiftly released the savant's hands and feet, Ted removed the helmet and chin clamp.

The professor attempted to speak, but his voice failed him, and he suddenly fainted, toppling into the arms of his young friend.

"I'll carry him to the main torture chamber," said Ted. "You find Shen Ho and get that little bottle of medicine that revived Wen Ho. It may work on my friend."

"It will," replied Fen Ho, speeding away.

When Ted reached the central chamber with the slight form of the professor drooping in his arms, he found the three Ho brothers awaiting him.

"Every torturer has been slain," said Shen Ho as he dropped some medicine on the tongue of the professor, "and no alarm has been given as yet, but we must work swiftly."

The professor regained consciousness and the power of speech with remarkable speed, while Fen Ho and Wen Ho busied themselves with releasing such torture victims as were not yet mortally injured and mercifully dispatching the others. These men were armed with the weapons of the torturers and instructed to hold the chambers against all comers.

"Thank you, Ted," said the professor, "and these friends of yours for saving my life. I had reached the end of my rope both literally and figuratively. A few more drops of water in that cylinder would have snapped my cervical vertebrae."

Ted introduced the three brothers to his old friend, and in a few moments the professor declared himself able not only to walk unaided, but to bear weapons. He declined one of the pistol degravitors when it was proffered him, but took a green ray projector, sword, and buzz-saw spear.

"Now for that big projector of P'an-ku's," said Ted.

"It will be in the second peak," answered Shen Ho. "Follow me, and I'll get you there in the shortest possible time."

He led them along a narrow, winding passageway in which two palace attendants were met and summarily dispatched, to the base of a cylindrical shaft in which there was a diamond-shaped door. Shen Ho pulled once, then twice, then once again, on a tasseled cord that hung down from the center door, and the clang of a gong within answered each pull. Then there was a humming sound from behind the door, and it slid upward, revealing the interior of a large, bullet-shaped car with a lone operator who was attired in armor of brown metal and wore a sword and ray projector in his belt.

No sooner did he see the five men in the passageway, than he reached for the control lever with one hand and his ray projector with the other. He had no chance to use either, however, for Wen Ho, anticipating this, swiftly thrust with his buzz-saw spear for the neck of the operator. As he thrust, he pressed a button in the side of the shaft which started the blade whirling and Ted, for the first time, saw the terrible efficiency of this weapon, the teeth of which cut through the armor plate as if it had been cheese, instantly shearing the head of the guard from his body.

Then body and head were tossed from the car, and the five men, with Shen Ho at the controls, shot upward.

Through the small diamond-shaped windows of the car, Ted saw that they presently shot above the roof of the palace, swiftly climbing a slender cable which extended up into the stalactite covered vault above. Just beyond the distant city walls, in every direction, he could see the flashing of green and red rays which told him that Maza was attacking the city, though he did not suspect that she had been taken prisoner.