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In its vast hulk lay such energies as intelligence had never before controlled; within it he knew there were locked the powers of the sun itself. What could the Solarite do against it? "Oh, I almost forgot to mention it." Arcot spoke slowly, dejectedly. "In the heat of the attack back there it went practically unnoticed. Our only weapon beside the gas is useless now.
When they were ready, the Solarite would stand small chance. They must capture one of the giants and learn its secrets, and then, if possible, with the weapons and knowledge of two worlds, defeat them. A large order! Their opportunity came sooner than they had hoped for or wanted. It was about three o'clock in the morning when the telephone warning hummed loudly through the ship. Arcot answered.
The sky about them was growing dark they were going into space! At last they reached the absolute ceiling of the smaller ship, and it hung there while the Solarite went a few miles higher; then slowly, but ever faster and faster they were plunging ahead, gathering speed.
There was a full mile between them when he released the sustaining force of the Solarite and let it drop, straight toward the source of the battle falling freely, ever more and more rapidly. They were rushing at the mighty plane below at a pace that made their hearts seem to pause then suddenly Arcot cried out, "Hold on here we stop!"
Perhaps we can find something that will release all that energy though honestly, I doubt it." Arcot seemed depressed, overawed perhaps, by the sheer magnitude of the force that lay bound up in the Kaxorian ship. It seemed inconceivable that the little Solarite could in any way be effective against the incredible machine.
It was to destroy itself; the Solarite would merely be the detonator to set it off! While the physicists were busy on this, Fuller was designing the mechanical details of the projector. It must be able to turn through a spherical angle of 180 degrees, and was necessarily controlled electrically from the inside.
Yet the mighty blades continued whirling as smoothly as ever! What could the Solarite do against the giant monoplane? Evidently Arcot had a plan. Under his touch their machine darted high into the sky above the great plane.
As quickly as possible Arcot outlined to the two who had stayed with the Solarite, the things they had seen, and the layout of the great ship. "I think I can understand the secret of all that power, and it's not so different from the Solarite, at that. It, too, draws its power from the sun, though in a different way, and it stores it within itself, which the Solarite does not try to do.
Out of the darkness came a ghostly beam, for an instant of time so short that before the explosive shells of the other could be trained on it, the Solarite had moved. Under that touch the mighty plane began crumbling, then it splintered beneath the driving blow of the great wing, as it shot toward the main body of the plane at several miles a second driving into and through it!
Even then there was a bit more room for the atomic hydrogen that was simultaneously formed, although twice as much hydrogen as oxygen was produced. Its task completed, the Solarite rose again and sped toward the distant city.
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