CHAPTER VI
The "Wyoming Massacre"
"They're coming out of the ship." I spoke quietly, with my hand overmy mouth, for fear they might hear me. "One--two--three--four,five--six--seven--eight--nine. That seems to be all. Who knows howmany men a ship like that is likely to carry?"
"About ten, if there are no passengers," replied one of my men, probablyone of those on the hillside.
"How are they armed?" I asked.
"Just knives," came the reply. "They never permit hand-rays on theships. Afraid of accidents. Have a ruling against it."
"Leave them to us then," I said, for I had a hastily formed plan in mymind. "You, on the hillsides, take the ships above. Abandon the ringtarget. Divide up in training on those repellor rays. You, on thehilltops, all train on the repellors of the ships to the south. Shoot atthe word, but not before.
"Wilma, crawl over to your left where you can make a straight leap forthe door in that ship. These men are all walking around the wreck in abunch. When they're on the far side, I'll give the word and you leapthrough that door in one bound. I'll follow. Maybe we won't be seen.We'll overpower the guard inside, but don't shoot. We may escape beingseen by both this crew and ships above. They can't see over this wreck."
It was so easy that it seemed too good to be true. The Hans who hademerged from the ship walked round the wreckage lazily, talking inguttural tones, keenly interested in the wreck, but quite unsuspicious.
At last they were on the far side. In a moment they would be pickingtheir way into the wreck.
"Wilma, leap!" I almost whispered the order.
The distance between Wilma's hiding place and the door in the side ofthe Han ship was not more than fifteen feet. She was already crouchedwith her feet braced against a metal beam. Taking the lift of thatwonderful inertron belt into her calculation, she dove headforemost,like a green projectile, through the door. I followed in a split second,more clumsily, but no less speedily, bruising my shoulder painfully, asI ricocheted from the edge of the opening and brought up sliding againstthe unconscious girl; for she evidently had hit her head against thepartition within the ship into which she had crashed.
We had made some noise within the ship. Shuffling footsteps wereapproaching down a well lit gangway.
"Any signs we have been observed?" I asked my men on the hillsides.
"Not yet," I heard the Boss reply. "Ships overhead still standing. Nobeams have been broken out. Men on ground absorbed in wreck. Most ofthem have crawled into it out of sight."
"Good," I said quickly. "Deering hit her head. Knocked out. One or moremembers of the crew approaching. We're not discovered yet. I'll takecare of them. Stand a bit longer, but be ready."
I think my last words must have been heard by the man who wasapproaching, for he stopped suddenly.
I crouched at the far side of the compartment, motionless. I would notdraw my sword if there were only one of them. He would be a weakling, Ifigured, and I should easily overcome him with my bare hands.
Apparently reassured at the absence of any further sound, a man camearound a sort of bulkhead--and I leaped.
I swung my legs up in front of me as I did so, catching him full in thestomach and knocked him cold.
I ran forward along the keel gangway, searching for the control room. Ifound it well up in the nose of the ship. And it was deserted. Whatcould I do to jam the controls of the ships that would not register onthe recording instruments of the other ships? I gazed at the mass ofcontrols. Levers and wheels galore. In the center of the compartment, ona massively braced universal joint mounting, was what I took for therepellor generator. A dial on it glowed and a faint hum came from withinits shielding metallic case. But I had no time to study it.
Above all else, I was afraid that some automatic telephone apparatusexisted in the room, through which I might be heard on the other ships.The risk of trying to jam the controls was too great. I abandoned theidea and withdrew softly. I would have to take a chance that there wasno other member of the crew aboard.
I ran back to the entrance compartment. Wilma still lay where she hadslumped down. I heard the voices of the Hans approaching. It was time toact. The next few seconds would tell whether the ships in the air wouldtry or be able to melt us into nothingness. I spoke.
"Are you boys all ready?" I asked, creeping to a position opposite thedoor and drawing my hand-gun.
Again there was a chorus of assent.
"Then on the count of three, shoot up those repellor rays--all ofthem--and for God's sake, don't miss." And I counted.
I think my "three" was a bit weak. I know it took all the courage I hadto utter it.
For an agonizing instant nothing happened, except that the landing partyfrom the ship strolled into my range of vision.
Then startled, they turned their eyes upward. For an instant they stoodfrozen with horror at whatever they saw.
One hurled his knife at me. It grazed my cheek. Then a couple of themmade a break for the doorway. The rest followed. But I fired pointblankwith my hand-gun, pressing the button as fast as I could and aiming attheir feet to make sure my explosive rockets would make contact and dotheir work.
The detonations of my rockets were deafening. The spot on which the Hansstood flashed into a blinding glare. Then there was nothing there excepttheir torn and mutilated corpses. They had been fairly bunched, and Igot them all.
I ran to the door, expecting any instant to be hurled into infinity bythe sweep of a disintegrator ray.
Some eighth of a mile away I saw one of the ships crash to earth. Adisintegrator ray came into my line of vision, wavered uncertainly for amoment and then began to sweep directly toward the ship in which Istood. But it never reached it. Suddenly, like a light switched off, itshot to one side, and a moment later another vast hulk crashed to earth.I looked out, then stepped out on the ground.
The only Han ships in the sky were two of the scouts to the south whichwere hanging perpendicularly, and sagging slowly down. The others musthave crashed down while I was deafened by the sound of the explosion ofmy own rockets.
Somebody hit the other repellor ray of one of the two remaining shipsand it fell out of sight beyond a hilltop. The other, farther away,drifted down diagonally, its disintegrator ray playing viciously overthe ground below it.
I shouted with exultation and relief.
"Take back the command, Boss!" I yelled.
His commands, sending out jumpers in pursuit of the descending ship,rang in my ears, but I paid no attention to them. I leaped back into thecompartment of the Han ship and knelt beside my Wilma. Her padded helmethad absorbed much of the blow, I thought; otherwise, her skull mighthave been fractured.
"Oh, my head!" she groaned, coming to as I lifted her gently in my armsand strode out in the open with her. "We must have won, dearest, didwe?"
"We most certainly did," I reassured her. "All but one crashed and thatone is drifting down toward the south; we've captured this one we're inintact. There was only one member of the crew aboard when we dove in."
As the American leaped, he swung his legs up in front ofhim, catching the Han full in the stomach.]
Less than an hour afterward the Big Boss ordered the outfit to tune inultrophones on three-twenty-three to pick up a translated broadcast ofthe Han intelligence office in Nu-yok from the Susquanna station. Itwas in the form of a public warning and news item, and read as follows:
"This is Public Intelligence Office, Nu-yok, broadcasting warning tonavigators of private ships, and news of public interest. The squadronof seven ships, which left Nu-yok this morning to investigate the recentdestruction of the GK-984 in the Wyoming Valley, has been destroyed by aseries of mysterious explosions similar to those which wrecked theGK-984.
"The phones, viewplates, and all other signaling devices of five of theseven ships ceased operating suddenly at approximately the same moment,about seven-four-nine." (According to the Han system of reckoning time,seven and forty-nine one hundredths after midnight.) "Af
ter violentdisturbances the location finders went out of operation. Electroactivityregisters applied to the territory of the Wyoming Valley remain dead.
"The Intelligence Office has no indication of the kind of disaster whichovertook the squadron except certain evidences of explosive phenomenasimilar to those in the case of the GK-984, which recently went deadwhile beaming the valley in a systematic effort to wipe out the worksand camps of the tribesmen. The Office considers, as obvious, thededuction that the tribesmen have developed a new, and as yetundetermined, technique of attack on airships, and has recommended tothe Heaven-Born that immediate and unlimited authority be given theNavigation Intelligence Division to make an investigation of thistechnique and develop a defense against it.
"In the meantime it urges that private navigators avoid this territoryin particular, and in general hold as closely as possible to theofficial inter-city routes, which now are being patrolled by the entireforce of the Military Office, which is beaming the routes generously toa width of ten miles. The Military Office reports that it is at presentconsidering no retaliatory raids against the tribesmen. With theNavigation Intelligence Division, it holds that unless further evidenceof the nature of the disaster is developed in the near future, thepublic interest will be better served, and at smaller cost of life, by ascientific research than by attempts at retaliation, which may bringdestruction on all ships engaging therein. So unless further evidenceactually is developed, or the Heaven-Born orders to the contrary, theMilitary will hold to a defensive policy.
"Unofficial intimations from Lo-Tan are to the effect that theHeaven-Council has the matter under consideration.
"The Navigation Intelligence Office permits the broadcast of thefollowing condensation of its detailed observations:
"The squadron proceeded to a position above the Wyoming Valley wherethe wreck of the GK-984 was known to be, from the record of its locationfinder before it went dead recently. There the bottom projectoscoperelays of all ships registered the wreck of the GK-984. Teleprojectoscopeviews of the wreck and the bowl of the valley showed no evidence of thepresence of tribesmen. Neither ship registers nor base registers showedany indication of electroactivity except from the squadron itself. Onorders from the Base Squadron Commander, the LD-248, LK-745 and LG-25scouted southward at 3,000 feet. The GK-43, GK-981 and GK-220 stoodabove at 2,500 feet, and the GK-18 landed to permit personal inspectionof the wreck by the science committee. The party debarked, leaving oneman on board in the control cabin. He set all projectoscopes atuniversal focus except RB-3," (this meant the third projectoscope fromthe bow of the ship, on the right-hand side of the lower deck) "withwhich he followed the landing group as it walked around the wreck.
"The first abnormal phenomenon recorded by any of the instruments atBase was that relayed automatically from projectoscope RB-4 of theGK-18, which as the party disappeared from view in back of the wreck,recorded two green missiles of roughly cylindrical shape, projected fromthe wreckage into the landing compartment of the ship. At such closerange these were not clearly defined, owing to the universal focus atwhich the projectoscope was set. The Base Captain of GK-18 at onceordered the man in the control room to investigate, and saw him leavethe control room in compliance with this order. An instant laterconfused sounds reached the control-room electrophone, such as might bemade by a man falling heavily, and footsteps reapproached the controlroom, a figure entering and leaving the control room hurriedly. The BaseCaptain now believes, and the stills of the photorecord support hisbelief, that this was not the crew member who had been left in thecontrol room. Before the Base Captain could speak to him he left theroom, nor was any response given to the attention signal the Captainflashed throughout the ship.
"At this point projectoscope RB-3 of the ship now out of focus control,dimly showed the landing party walking back toward the ship. RB-4 showedit more clearly. Then on both these instruments, a number of blindingexplosives in rapid succession were seen and the electrophone relaysregistered terrific concussions; the ship's electronic apparatus andprojectoscopes apparatus went dead.
"Reports of the other ships' Base Observers and Executives, backed bythe photorecords, show the explosions as taking place in the midst ofthe landing party as it returned, evidently unsuspicious, to the ship.Then in rapid succession they indicate that terrific explosions occurredinside and outside the three ships standing above close to their rep-raygenerators, and all signals from these ships thereupon went dead.
"Of the three ships scouting to the south, the LD-248 suffered anidentical fate, at the same moment. Its records add little to theknowledge of the disaster. But with the LK-745 and the LG-25 it wasdifferent.
"The relay instruments of the LK-745 indicated the destruction by anexplosion of the rear rep-ray generator, and that the ship hung sterndown for a short space, swinging like a pendulum. The forward viewplatesand indicators did not cease functioning, but their records are chaotic,except for one projectoscope still, which shows the bowl of the valley,and the GK-981 falling, but no visible evidence of tribesmen. Thecontrol-room viewplate is also a chaotic record of the ship's crewtumbling and falling to the rear wall. Then the forward rep-raygenerator exploded, and all signals went dead.
"The fate of the LG-25 was somewhat similar, except that this ship hungnose down, and drifted on the wind southward as it slowly descended outof control.
"As its control room was shattered, verbal report from its ActionCaptain was precluded. The record of the interior rear viewplate showsmembers of the crew climbing toward the rear rep-ray generator in anattempt to establish manual control of it, and increase the lift. Theprojectoscope relays, swinging in wide arcs, recorded little of valueexcept at the ends of their swings. One of these, from a machine whichhappened to be set in telescopic focus, shows several views of greatvalue in picturing the falls of the other ships, and all of the rearprojectoscope records enable the reconstruction in detail of thependulum and torsional movements of the ship, and its sag toward theearth. But none of the views showing the forest below contain anyindication of tribesmen's presence. A final explosion put this ship outof commission at a height of 1,000 feet, and at a point four miles S. byE. of the center of the valley."
The message ended with a repetition of the warning to other airmen toavoid the valley.