Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 8, 2025
"Three weeks isn't very long, Ole." "No. Maybe not." From across the room somebody was saying, "If the Comet hadn't smashed on us, damn me but I'd ask the Commander to let some of us take her back." "Shut up, Billy. She is smashed." "You all agreed to things as they are," Johnny said shortly. "We all took the same chances voluntarily." A dynamic little fellow, this Johnny Grantline.
I could see it amidships of the deck. It was already in place. Potan was there now, superintending the men who were connecting it. The most powerful weapon on the ship. It had, Potan said, an effective range of some ten miles. I wondered what it would do to a Grantline building! The Erentz double walls would withstand it for a time, I was sure.
We gazed down our searchlight which clung to the dome of the distant enemy vessel. We could see movement there. "The telescope," Grantline ordered. The dynamos hummed. The telescope finder glowed and clarified. On the deck of the ship we saw the brigands working with the assembling of tiny ore carts. A deck landing port was open.
At one end of the cliff the mining equipment lay piled in a litter. There was a heap of discarded ore where Grantline had carted and dumped it after his first crude refining process had yielded it as waste. The ore slag lay like gray powder flakes strewn down the cliff.
I learned now the reason why the Planetara, upon each of her last voyages, had managed to pass fairly close to the Moon. It had been arranged with Grantline that if he wanted help or had any important message, he was to flash it locally to our passing ship. And this Snap knew, and had never mentioned it, even to me. Halsey was saying, "Well, apparently we can't blame you: but the secret is out."
How skilled at mathematics were these brigands? Miko, Coniston, Hahn could I fool them? If I could learn Grantline's location on the Moon, and keep the Planetara away from it. A pretended error of charting. Time lost and perhaps Snap could find an opportunity to signal Earth, get help. Miko answered my question as bluntly as I asked it. "I don't know where Grantline is located.
You shall treat me like a man and give me my share of gold leaf." He had already demanded the reason for the signal from the Mare Imbrium. Miko's signal! It had not come again, though any moment I feared it. I told him that Grantline doubtless had repaired his damaged ports and sallied out to assail me in reprisal.
There has been disaster to Miko. A small light beam came down from the brink of the overhead cliff beside the ship. Continue. I went steadily on: Disaster the Planetara is wrecked. All killed but me and Prince's sister. We want to join you. I flashed off my light. The answer came: Where is the Grantline Camp? Near here. The Mare Imbrium.
"It's probably their most powerful single weapon, Gregg," said Grantline. I nodded, "Yes, I think so." I had smashed the real giant, with its ten mile range. The ship was only two miles from us, but it seemed as though this projector were exerted to its distance limit. I had noticed on the deck only one of this type. The others, paralyzing rays and heat rays, were less deadly.
But the Grantline beam spelled another message: Brigand ship is coming. It will be here before we can get out to you. No lights. We will try and hide our location. And the signal beam brought a last appeal: Miko and his men will divulge where we are unless you can stop them. The beam vanished. The lights of the Grantline camp made a faint glow that showed above the crater edge.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking