Astounding Stories of Super-Science September 1930

  CHAPTER XIX

  _Desolation_

  Stranger, more thrilling even than had been the flight of the Earthafter being forced out of its orbit, was the flight of those dozenaircars of the Moon, bearing the rebels of Dalis' Gens back to Earth.

  [Sidenote: Martian fire-balls and the terrific Moon-cubes wreaktremendous destruction on helpless Earth in the final death struggle ofthe warring worlds.]

  For the light which glowed from the bodies of the rebels, which had beengiven them by their passage through the white flames, was transmitted tothe cars themselves, so that they glowed as with an inner radiance oftheir own--like comets flashing across the night.

  Strange alchemy, which Sarka wondered about and, wondering, looked aheadto the time when he should be able, within his laboratory, to analyzethe force it embodied, and thus gain new scientific knowledge of untoldvalue to people of the Earth.

  As the cars raced across outer darkness, moving at top speed, greaterthan ever attained before by man, greater than even these mighty carshad traveled, Sarka looked ahead, and wondered about the fearful reporthis father had just given him.

  That there was an alliance between Mars and the Moon seemed almostunbelievable. How had they managed the first contact, the firstnegotiations leading to the compact between two such alien peoples? Hadthere been any flights exchanged by the two worlds, surely thescientists of Earth would have known about it. But there had not, thoughthere had been times and times when Sarka had peered closely enough atthe surface of both the Moon and of Mars to see the activities, or theresults of the activities, of the peoples of the two worlds.

  Somehow, however, communication, if Sarka the Second had guessedcorrectly, had been managed between Mars and the Moon; and now that theEarth was a free flying orb the two were in alliance against it, perhapsfor the same reason that the Earth had gone a-voyaging.

  * * * * *

  Side by side sat Sarka and Jaska, their eager eyes peering through theforward end of the flashing aircar toward the Earth, growing minute byminute larger. They were able, after some hours, to make out theoutlines of what had once been continents, to see the shadows in valleyswhich had once held the oceans of Earth....

  And always, as they stared and literally willed the cubes which pilotedand were the motive power of the aircars to speed and more speed, thatmarvelous display of interplanetary fireworks which had aroused theconcern of Sarka the Second.

  What were those lights? Whence did they emanate? Sarka the Second hadsaid that they came from Mars, yet Mars was invisible to those in thespeeding aircars, which argued that it was hidden behind the Earth.There was no way of knowing how close it was to the home of these rebelsof Dalis' Gens.

  And ever, as they flashed forward, Sarka was recalling that vague hinton the lips of Jaska, to the effect that Luar, for all her sovereigntyof the Moon, might be, nonetheless, a native of the Earth. But....

  How? Why? When? There were no answers to any of the questions yet. Ifshe were a native of Earth, how had she reached the Moon? When had shebeen sent there? Who was she? Her name, Luar, was a strange one, andSarka studied it for many minutes, rolling the odd syllables of it overhis tongue, wondering where, on the Earth, he had heard names, or words,similar to it. This produced no result, until he tried substitutingvarious letters; then, again, adding various letters. When he achieved acertain result at last, he gasped, and his brain was a-whirl.

  * * * * *

  Luar, by the addition of the letter _n_, between the _u_ and the _a_,became Lunar, meaning "of the Moon!" Yet Lunar was unmistakably a wordderived from the language of the Earth! It was possible, of course, thatthis was mere coincidence; but, taken in connection with the suspicionsof Jaska, and the incontrovertible fact that Luar resembled people ofthe Earth, Sarka did not believe in this particular whim of coincidence.

  Who was Luar?

  His mind went back to the clucking sounds which, among the Gnomes of theMoon, passed for speech. He pondered anew. He shaped his lips, as nearlyas possible, to make the clucking sounds he had heard, and discoveredthat it was very difficult to manage the letter _n_!

  The conclusion was inescapable: This woman, Luar, had once been _Lunar_,the _n_, down the centuries, being dropped because difficult for theGnomes to pronounce.

  "Yes, Jaska," he said suddenly, "somewhere on Earth, when we reach it,we may discover the secret of Luar--and know far more about Dalis thanwe have ever known before!"

  Jaska merely smiled her inscrutable smile, and did not answer. Byintuition, she already knew. Let Sarka arrive at her conclusion byscientific methods if he desired, and she would simply smile anew.

  Sarka thought of the manner in which Jaska and he had been transportedto the Moon; of how much Dalis seemed to know of the secrets of thelaboratory of the Sarkas. Might he not have known, two centuries ago, ofthe Secret Exit Dome, and somehow managed to make use of it in someghastly experiment? And still the one question remained unanswered: Whowas Luar?

  * * * * *

  The Earth was now so close that details were plainly seen. The Himalayaswere out of sight, over the Earth, and by a mental command Sarka managedto change slightly the course of the dozen aircars. By passing over thecurve of the Earth at a high altitude, he hoped also to see from abovesomething of the result of the strange aerial bombardment of which hisfather had spoken.

  In their flight, which had been, to them a flight through the glories ofa super-heavenly Universe, they had lost all count of time. NeitherSarka nor Jaska, nor yet the people in those other aircars, could havetold how long they had been flying, when, coming over the curve of theEarth, at an elevation of something like three miles, they were able atlast to see into the area which had once housed the Gens of Dalis.

  A gasp of horror escaped the lips of Sarka and of Jaska.

  The Gens of Dalis had occupied all the territory northward to the Pole,from a line drawn east and west through the southernmost of what hadonce been the Hawaiian Islands. Upon this area had struck the strangeblue light from the deep Cone of the Moon.

  Here, however, the light was invisible, and Sarka flew on in fear thatsomehow his aircars would blunder into it, and be destroyed--for thatthe blue light was an agent of ghastly destruction became instantlyapparent.

  * * * * *

  The dwellings of the Gens of Dalis were broken and smashed into chaoticruins. Over all the area, and even into the area of the Gens southwardof that which had been Dalis, the blind gods of destruction hadpractically made a clean sweep. Sarka had opportunity to thank God that,at the time the blue column had struck the Earth, it had struck at thespot which had been almost emptied of people, and realized that blindchance had caused it. For, in order for the Gens of Dalis to be inposition to launch their attack against the Moon, he had managed, bymanipulating the speed of the Beryls, to bring that area into positiondirectly opposite the Moon.

  Had it been otherwise, the blue column might have struck anywhere, andwiped out millions of lives!

  "God, Jaska," murmured Sarka. "Look!"

  Think of a shoreline, once lined with mighty buildings, after thepassage of a tidal wave greater than ever before known to man. Thedevastation would be indescribable. Multiply that shoreline by the vastarea which had housed the Gens of Dalis, and the mental picture isalmost too big to grasp. Chaos, catastrophe, approaching an infinity ofdestruction.

  The materials of which the vast buildings, set close together, had beenmade, had been twisted into grotesque, nightmarish shapes, and the wholefused into a burned and gleaming mass--which covered half of what hadonce been a mighty ocean--as though a bomb larger and more devastatingthan ever imagined of man, a bomb large enough to rock the Earth, hadlanded in the midst of the area once occupied by the Gens of Dalis!

  Yet, Sarka knew, remembering the murmuring of the blue column as it cameout of the cone, all this devastation had been caused in almost absolutesilence. People
could have watched and seen these deserted buildingsslowly fuse together, run together as molten metal runs together, likethe lava from a volcano of long ago under the ponderous moving to andfro of some invisible, juggernautlike agency.

  * * * * *

  Sarka shuddered, trying to picture in his mind the massing of theminions of Mars, who thus saw a new country given into their hands--ifthey could take it. Had the Earth been taken by surprise? Had Sarka theSecond been able to prepare for the approaching catastrophe?

  "Father," he sent his thoughts racing on ahead of him, "are those lightswhich are striking the Earth causing any damage?"

  "Only," came back the instant answer, "in that they destroy the courageof the people of the Earth! The people, however, now know that Sarka isreturning, and their courage rises again! The flames are merely a hintof what faces us; but the people will rise and follow you wherever youlead!"

  So, as they raced across the area of devastation, the face of Sarkabecame calm again. On a chance, he sent a single sentence of strangemeaning to his father.

  "The ruler of the Moon is a woman called Luar, which seems a contractionof Lunar!"

  For many minutes Sarka the Second made no answer. When it came itstartled Sarka to the depths of him, despite the fact that he hadexpected to be startled.

  "There was a woman named Lunar!"