CHAPTER XXXVI
_City of Ice Besieged_
We were not greatly harmed by this surprise attack; the power house wassuperficially damaged, but soon repaired. That night--I call it thatthough the constant weak daylight made the term incongruous--activityshowed in the City of Ice.
It came with a vertical spray of light rising from the ice wall whichencircled the city. Spreading light beams rising from points a hundredfeet apart along the wall. The beams spread fan-shape, so that withinfifty feet above their source they met and merged into a thin sheet ofeffulgence rising into the sky. Tarrano's barrage.
It seemed then that beyond suicidal sorties of the kind we had justrepulsed, Tarrano was planning to stand purely on the defensive. It wasour own plan to surround the city with our towers; even those on thefurther side would be within range of our power house; and with the citythus beleaguered, we would attack the wall from every side at once.
We tested now this barrage Tarrano had thrown up. Sprays of itsinsulated area came down to protect the wall in front; and protectedalso the triangular spaces between the sources of the main beams.Tentatively one of our towers approached within range; but our rays onlybeat into the barrage with the hiss of molten metal plunged into water,and with a burst of interference sparks. Even at a horizontal thousandfeet we could do nothing. Then we tried altitude. Our projectors,mounted individually on small platforms automatically controlled to flywithout human pilot, went up and we strove to get them over the barrage.
At five thousand feet one went over safely. But the electronic bomb itdropped into the city was an easy mark for Tarrano's watchful defenserays. He exploded it harmlessly when it was still high above him.
After the next time of sleep we invested the city. Our towers were setin a ring about it, two thousand feet from the wall. They were mobileunits, ready to sail forward or back or upward at any moment. Georgstayed in command of the instrument room. It was never placed, butsailed continuously in slow circular flight around the city above ourline. The power house remained in its place, with our largest projectormounted on the cliff beside it in order to frustrate any furtherattacks.
They were solemn moments as we broke our encampment. The girls, far moreagile in the air than men, were lightly dressed, with the supportingmechanism strapped to them. The heating units enveloped them in aninvisible cloak of warm air. To their left arms a strapped cylinder gaveoff a fan-shape area of insulation--an almost invisible shield ofprotective barrage some five feet long. It showed as a faint glow oflight; and in flight their left arms could swing it like a shield toprotect their bodies. They had telephonic ear-pieces available; a tinymirror fastened to their chests to face them, upon which Georg orGeno-Rhaalton could project images; a mouthpiece for talking to Georg;and a belt of offensive weapons, useful within a range of five hundredfeet but no further.
Very alert and agile, twisting and turning in the air were these girls.We men were similarly equipped, but our movements in the air wereheavier, clumsier. Elza and I had practiced with the others for days;and with our harmless duelling rays I had found that I could never hopeto hit her while she dealt me mortal blows.
Elza, commanding a squad of twenty girls, was assigned to a portion ofthe line some helans from me. My own place, with a hundred men under me,was near a tower almost on the opposite side from the power house.
It was a solemn parting from Elza. I wrapped her in my arms, tried tosmile. "Be very--careful, Elza."
She kissed me, clung to me; then cast me off and was gone.
With the city invested, we rested idly for another time of sleep.Occasionally we made a tentative tower attack which came to nothing.Tarrano waited; his barrage remained the same. We tried to provoke amove from him, but could not.
The snow-plain where I was stationed here was similar to the other side,save that there were no mountains. From the power house to Tarrano'swall there was a dip, so that the wall stood upon higher ground. On myside, however, the reverse was true. The wall lay in a hollow in oneplace, with a steady upward slope back from it to uplands behind us, asthough in some better day a broad watercourse had flowed down here, nowlong since buried in solid ice and snow.
I mention this topography because it had a vital bearing upon what sosoon was to transpire.
Rhaalton desired that Tarrano come out and attack us; but Tarrano wouldnot. We thought perhaps that his offense was inadequate and the one movethat he made strengthened that belief. From the city beside the palace,a rectangle of black metal some fifty feet square, rose slowly up. Inaspect it was a square, windowless room--a room without a ceiling, openat the top. It rose to a height of five hundred feet and hung level. Andfrom it depended dangling power cables connecting it with the ground.
It was the presence of these cables that made us feel Tarrano wasoffensively weak. He could not aerially transport his power; hence, foroffense he could only rely upon individual batteries which, unlesspermanently stationed within the city, we knew would have a short rangeat best. We watched this thing in the air for hours. It did not move; itwas soundless. What was its purpose? We could not guess.
And then at last, Geno-Rhaalton ordered us all to the attack.