The Dennings did not have much time to speculate on the mystery of the
Sun-stealers. For just as they were discussing what should be their next
course of action, the problem was solved for them. There was a roaring
in the air, then a humming, and in a matter of a few more seconds, six
rocket helicopters popped into sight, hovered over the valley on
streaming jets, and settled down.
“They’re U.S. planes!” gasped Burl, jumping to his feet and going to
meet them. “It must mean that they know we stopped the machines.”
“Obviously,” said his father, striding with him to greet the helmeted
man who was now stepping out of the lead machine. By this time the last
of the squad had landed, and the khaki-clad soldiers in them were
already disembarking. “I imagine that all over the world the sky turned
a little brighter. It must have been apparent at once.”
The leader of the ‘copter men reached them. He was a tall, bronzed man,
wearing the service coveralls and markings of a captain of the Air
Force. He stretched out his hand. “You must be the Dennings. I’m Captain
Saunders. I’ve been asked to bring you back with me right away so that
we can get a complete report on this affair. How fast can you get
ready?”
“Why,” said Burl, “we’re ready right now. As soon as we can dump our
packs aboard. But, gee, you mean go back–where?”
Saunders smiled grimly. “To California. We just left there. I have been
given urgent orders to waste no time. So will you oblige?”
The two Dennings looked at each other. This was important, all right.
They realized that these planes had flown on fast rockets the instant
the sky had cleared. Possibly there was still a crisis–one they had not
heard of.
They did not pause to ask further questions. Mark Denning asked the
captain to dispatch one of his ‘copters to the camp beyond the mountains
to tell Gonzales to load up and start back for Lima. This order given,
the two Dennings climbed into the rocket ‘copter, and Saunders took the
controls.
With a whoosh, the squat craft lifted on its rockets, its jet-driven fan
carried it up, folded, and the rocket engine took over. On upward into
the stratosphere they hurtled, across the Western Hemisphere, across
the face of jungle and isthmus, across the barren mountains of Mexico,
and in a matter of less than half an hour, settled down in the wide
green field of a U.S. Air Force base in southern California. It was all
so swift, so sudden, that to Burl it seemed like a dream. There had been
so many days in the field, in the peace and quiet of the high mountains
of the Andes. There had been the slow hunting around age-worn ruins; the
careful, deliberate sifting of tons of soil and sand for tiny shards;
then this: the urgent message, the trek, the weird building, the
strange, body-filling shock, and the control over the Sun-theft globes,
followed by the swift transition over thousands of miles.
Here he was in his home country–weeks sooner than he had expected–but
not to return to his home and school. No, for he felt that somehow an
adventure was beginning that could lead anywhere. Perhaps his adventure
had actually ended, but he saw now that he would be questioned, probed,
and asked to recount his story over and over.
Burl and his father were met at the port by a group of officers and
escorted rapidly to a room in a large building. Here there were half a
dozen men in civilian clothes. One by one, these men were introduced,
and as each one was named, Burl wondered more about what was to come.
There was a general from Army Intelligence. There was a high member of
the State Department. There were three noted astronomers–among them the
surprisingly young Russell Clyde and the elderly and famous Dr.
Merckmann. There was an aircraft manufacturer whose name graced a
thousand planes, and an engineer who had contributed to the conquest of
the Moon.
The general, Walton Shrove, asked them to sit down. He was in charge of
the affair. It turned out to be a careful questioning of their story. It
was not a hounding of questions as in a police quizzing, or a baiting
from newspapermen eager to get a scoop. Rather, their questions were
deliberate and intelligent. They drew out the full account of what Burl
and his father had seen in that valley, and of what the Sun-theft globes
appeared to be like in operation. They concentrated deeply on the
curious experience which had placed in Burl the charge that enabled him
to control the machines.
“Would you mind,” the general asked Burl, “if we subject you to a series
of medical and electronic tests to determine whether this charge is
still with you?”
Burl shook his head. “I’ll go along with anything you say.”
“Very well,” the general smiled. “We’ll make our purposes clear to you
afterward. But we want to get this over as soon as we can.”
Burl left the room in company with three technicians who had come in.
They took him to the medical office at the base and there he was given a
complete check. At the electronics lab, electrodes were attached to him
and careful readings were made of the natural electrical resistance of
his body, and of his apparent physical charge. After an hour of tests,
Burl was brought back to the main council room.
As he entered, he sensed he had interrupted something important. His
father looked at him, and Burl detected in his face a certain curious
mingling of pride and parental concern. What, the young man wondered,
were they all up to?
When he was seated, the company grew silent. The general pursed his
lips, looked directly at Burl, and said, “I think the time has come to
acquaint you with the problem our world is facing. We may ask you to
make a very personal decision, and we think you ought to know what may
hang on it.”
He stopped. Every face at the table was grim. Mark Denning, too, was
sober, though Burl detected that he also did not quite know what was to
come.
“It is apparent that some race of beings, some species from outer space,
unknown to us, has begun a process of tapping the power and light of the
Sun for transmission elsewhere. The station on Earth, which you shut
down, was an important one. But … it was not the only one. There are
others, operating in this solar system.” He nodded to Merckmann.
The old astronomer took the cue. “The observatories of the Earth, aided
by the lunar observers, have definitely determined that there is still a
certain amount of light being shifted from the faces of other planets
and diverted. We have detected by telescopic and telethermic
measurements that there are areas of Sun-disturbances on the surfaces of
the planets Mercury and Mars. We suspect the existence of one on Venus.
We believe that this may prove to be true on other planets as well, but
we have no doubt of the first two.
“Measurements of the amount of Sun power being piped away, and of the
effect of the magnetic disturbances used to create and maintain these
stations, have shown that they will have a definite effect on the
structure of the Sun itself. We have not yet completed all our
calculations, but preliminary studies indicate that if this type of
solar interference is not stopped, it may cause our Sun to nova in
somewhere between two and three years time.”
He stopped, but the thirty-year-old prodigy, Russell Clyde, took up the
story. “By nova, we mean that the Sun will literally explode. It will
flame up, burst to many times its present size. Such an explosion will
burn Earth to cinders, render all the planets inside the orbit of
Jupiter uninhabitable, scorch their atmospheres, dissolve their waters
into steam, and make them lifeless flaming deserts. We have seen other
stars turn nova. We have measured their explosions. We know just about
what age and stability inside a sun is necessary to cause this. And we
fear that the danger of our own Sun doing so is great–if the
Sun-tapping is not stopped.”
Everyone at the table was silent. Burl was stunned. Finally he caught
his breath. “But how can we stop it? We can’t get to all the planets in
time. Our rockets are not ready–and rocketships would be too slow. Why
it would take two years for rocketships to reach Mars, if the expedition
were ready now … and I understand that it will be another ten years
before Operation Mars is even attempted.”
General Shrove nodded. “That is correct. Our rocket engineering is not
yet advanced enough to allow us to take such emergency action. We are
still only just over the doorstep of interplanetary flight–and our
enemies, whoever they may be, are obviously far advanced. But, as you
will see, we are not entirely without hope. Colonel Lockhart, will you
tell them about Project A-G?”
All eyes turned to Lockhart, who was a short, stocky man in civilian
clothes. Burl realized that this man had been a colonel at one time, but
remembered now that he had taken a post with one of the largest aviation
companies after leaving the service. Lockhart turned cold gray eyes
directly to Burl.
“We have in my company’s experimental grounds one virtually untested
vessel which may be able to make a flight to Mars, or any other planet,
in the time allowed. This is the craft we refer to as A-G 17, the
seventeenth such experiment, and the first to succeed. It is powered by
an entirely new method of flight, the force of anti-gravity.”
Burl hung breathlessly on his next words. “You probably know that work
on the scientific negation of gravity has been going on since the early
1950’s. It was known shortly after experiments had been conducted on
atomic and subatomic particles that grounds had at last been found by
means of which a counteraction to gravity might be set up. Early
subatomic studies showed that such a force was not only theoretically
possible, but that certain subparticles actually displayed such
tendencies. On the basis of these first discoveries, work has been going
on in the development of negative gravitational drive for at least
twenty years. As early as 1956, there were not less than fourteen such
projects under way in virtually all the leading aircraft industries of
the United States, not to mention the rest of the world. In the last few
years, at the direction of the Air Force, these projects have been
consolidated, placed under one main roof, and brought to its present
status, which is, we believe, the one of final triumph.”
He glanced at General Shrove, who returned the glance unsmilingly.
“After the successful testing of several models, a full-sized craft has
been built which utilizes the new method of space drive. One such craft
has been built, and only one. This ship, if it works, is at this time
the only means by which humanity can hope to make the trips to the other
places in the solar system from which the Sun-stealers are working. It
is with this one vessel only that we can put their Sun-tap stations out
of commission.
“But I emphasize again the experimental nature of this ship. What its
capacities are and how well it will work is still a matter of
planning-book conjecture. We can prepare the ship to take off in one
week’s time. I do not think, judging from what Merckmann and Clyde have
said, that we can afford to wait any longer. Another such ship cannot be
built in less than a year.”
General Shrove spoke then. “It is already arranged that this A-G 17
spaceship is going to go. A volunteer crew has been selected; several of
them are in this room.” He nodded briefly to Clyde and to Lockhart. “But
although these volunteers are among the best men in their fields, there
isn’t one of them who couldn’t be replaced by someone equally skilled in
the same field. But there is one person on Earth right now who may just
possibly be unique. This person may hold, by virtue of an experience not
shared by any other human being, a special key that will render easier
the task that this spaceship must fulfill.”
He turned to Burl, who sat tingling with suspense. “You, Burl Denning,
are apparently still carrying some sort of electronic or subelectronic
charge which is attuned to the controls of the Sun-tap station. We feel
that you should be along on this expedition. It will be long and
dangerous, it will involve landings on worlds no man has ever visited or
expected to visit for hundreds of years. There is an enemy in the sky
who will certainly try to stop our single ship. To be bluntly honest,
the voyagers on this ship face such dangers as explorers have not faced
since the days of Magellan and Cook. Its chances of return are probably
remote. But with the permission of your father, which he has already
given, I would like to ask that you volunteer to join its crew.”
Burl felt dizzy, his heart thumping painfully within his chest. He took
a deep breath, and then carefully, trying to keep his voice from
quivering, he said, “Yes, I’ll go.”
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