"Otis Adelbert Kline - Man from the Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kline Otis Adelbert)

imperial apology from Lido Kan, complete colonies and attacking our fleet. Now they are
punishment of the perpetrators of the crime, and determined to eliminate us entirely from the solar
indemnity for relatives of all the massacred people. system. At this very hour they are preparing to use
Lido Kan delayed his reply for several days, but their most terrific weapon of all against us.
was eventually swayed by the jingoists of his тАЬWhat weapon is that, O my father?тАЭ I asked.
realm, and replied that he would neither apologize, тАЬCome with me, my son, and I will show
pay indemnity, nor punish any of his subjects, as you.тАЭ
my father had received fair and timely warning. He led me up to the great observatory on top
While my father debated what to do in this crisis тАУ of his palace. We passed through the general
for he had always been a man of peace тАУ word observation room, where a hundred enormous
came that an army of Martians had completely telescopes were in constant use тАУ a thousand
wiped out our colonies on that planet. trained men observing, recording, and
A short time thereafter, the commander of one manipulating the instruments. Going into his
of our large interplanetary passenger ships ether- private observation room, my father himself
waved me that the Martians would not permit him trained his huge telescope on a distant object. Then
to leave port, and that several hundred of our ships he called me to look. I saw what appeared to be a
were being held in a similar fashion. I immediately huge spiral of nebulous matter forming near Mars,
left Magong with a fleet of battleships, intending to
7
Otis Adelbert Kline Man from the Moon Amazing Stories, October, 1930

тАЬThey are clearing the interplanetary lanes for can learn here at present. I will show you the only
the passage of a huge fleet,тАЭ I said. тАЬSee, they are efficient aggressive weapon to which I can turn at
collecting all the meteoric bodies for millions of present. By this, and by the remaining
miles in all directions.тАЭ interplanetary fleets under your command, the
тАЬThey are doing more than that, my son,тАЭ my question of our very existence will be determined.тАЭ
father replied. тАЬThat matter-condensing and We descended to the main floor and entered a
projecting apparatus which they formerly used to compression tube car, in which we were shot to
clear the way for peaceful ships is going to be used one of the numerous physics laboratory stations of
for a horribly deadly purpose. Have you noticed Magong. My father presented Wang Ho, the
where they are condensing the meteoric mass?тАЭ venerable chief scientist of the institution.
тАЬIt seems to be on a line between Magong and тАЬWang Ho,тАЭ he said. тАЬIs the atmosphere
Mars,тАЭ I replied. disintegration ray ready?
тАЬIt is. Have they ever condensed material in тАЬIt is ready, your majesty,тАЭ was the reply.
that position before? You know full well they have тАЬThen train it on Mars. They insist on war, so
not. They have always concentrated it in a position we will give it to them in earnest. They are
where it could be projected out into space without determined to destroy the face of our planet,
harm to anyone.тАЭ therefore let us remove the atmosphere from
тАЬWhy, Father, what do you mean?тАЭ theirs.тАЭ
тАЬI mean that as soon as that synthetic nebula тАЬYour majesty is aware, I hope, that a
reaches a sufficient degree of cohesion and solidity continuous use of this ray will be suicidal. For
it will be projected at us!тАЭ every ten cubic parsads of their atmosphere we
тАЬWhat will it do? Will it burst our planet send out into space, we also send out one cubic
asunder? Will everyone be killed?тАЭ parsad of our own. If your majesty would wait, and
тАЬNo. It is not large enough for that, but it can have a number of these ray projectors made in
do incalculable damage, and if their aim is good portable size, they could be fastened to ether ships
and they are not stopped in some way, they can and used without destroying our own atmosphere.тАЭ
collect enough of such matter from the meteoric тАЬUnfortunately,тАЭ replied my father, тАЬwe
belts of the solar system to depopulate this planet.тАЭ cannot wait. The war is on. It may be decided in a
тАЬCanтАЩt we dodge them? What about the new few days. Several weeks would be required to fit