Empire

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Craven watched the Invincible gather speed and tear swiftly through the black, saw it grow tiny and then disappear entirely, either swallowed by the distance or snapping into the Strange super-space that existed beyond the speed of light.

He turned from the window, chuckling.

Stutsman snarled at him: “What's so funny?"

The scientist glared at the wolfish face and without speaking, walked to the desk and sat down. He reached for pencil and paper.

Chambers walked over to watch him.

"You've found something, Doctor,” he said quietly.

Craven laughed, throatily. “Yes, I have. I've found a lot. Manning thinks he can keep us out here, but he's wrong. We'll be in the Solar System less than a week after he gets there."

Chambers stifled a gasp, tried to speak calmly. “You mean, this?"

"Of course I mean it. I don't waste my time with foolish jokes."

"You have the secret of material energy?” “Not that,” the scientist growled, “but I have something else as valuable. I have the secret of Manning's drive: I know what it is that enables him to exceed the speed of light… to go ten thousand times as fast as light… the Lord knows how much faster if he wanted to."

"No ordinary drive would do that.” said Chambers. “It would take more than power to make a ship go that fast."

"You bet your life it would, and Manning is the boy who's got it. He uses a space field. I think I can duplicate it."

"And how long will it take you to do this work?"

"About a week,” Craven told him. “Perhaps a little longer, perhaps a little less. But once we go, we'll go as fast as Manning does. We'll be short on power, but I think I can do something about that, too."

Chambers took a chair beside the desk. “But do we know the way home?"

"We can find it,” said Craven.

"But there are no familiar constellations,” objected Chambers. “He dragged us out so far that there isn't a single star that any one of us can identify."

"I said I'd find the Solar System” Craven declared impatiently, “and I will. Manning started out for it, didn't he? I saw the way he went. The Sun is a type G star and all I'll do is look for a type G star."

"But there may be more than one type G star,” objected the financier.

"Probably are,” Craven agreed, “but there are other ways of finding the Sun and identifying it."

He volunteered no further information, went back to work with the pad and pencil. Chambers rose wearily from his chair.

"Tell me when you know what we can do,” he said.

"Sure,” Craven grunted.

"THAT'S the Sun,” said Craven. “That faint star between those two brighter ones."

"Are you sure of it?” demanded Stutsman.

"Of course. I don't make blunders."

"It's the only type G star in that direction,” suggested Chambers, helpfully.

"Not that, either,” declared Craven. “In fact, there are several type G stars. I examined them all and I know I'm right."

"How do you know?” challenged Stutsman.

"Spectroscopic examination. That collector field of ours gathers energy just like a burning glass. You've seen a burning glass, haven't you?"

He stared at Stutsman, directing the question at him. Stutsman shuffled awkwardly, unhappily.

"Well,” Craven went on, “I used that for a telescope. Gathered the light from the suns and analyzed it. Of course it didn't act like a real telescope, produce an image or anything like that, but it was ideal for spectroscopic work."

They waited for him to explain. Finally, he continued:

"All of the stars I examined were just type G stars, nothing else but there was a difference in one of them. First, the spectroscope showed lines of reflected light passing through oxygen and hydrogen, water vapor and carbon dioxide. Pure planetary phenomena, never found on a star itself. Also it showed that a certain per cent of the light was polarized. Now remember that I examined it for a long time and I found out something else from the length of observation which convinces me. The light varied with a periodic irregularity. The chronometers aren't working exactly right out here, so I can't give you any explanation in terms of hours. But I find a number of regularly recurring changes in light intensity and character… and that proves the presence of a number of planetary bodies circling the star. That's the only way one could explain the fluctuations for the G-type star is a steady type. It doesn't vary greatly and has no light fluctuations to speak of. Not like the Cephids and Mira types."

"And that proves it's our Sun?” asked Chambers.

Craven nodded. “Fairly definitely, I'd say."

"How far away is it?” Stutsman wanted to know.

Craven snorted. “You would ask something like that."

"But,” declared Stutsman, “there are ways of measuring how far a star is away from any point, measuring both the distance and the size of the star."

"Okay,” agreed Craven, “you find me something solid and within reach that's measurable. Something, preferably, about 200 million miles or so across. Then I'll tell you how far we are from the Sun. This ship is not in an orbit. It's not fixed in space. I have no accurate way of measuring distances and angles simultaneously and accurately. Especially angles as small as these would be."

Craven and Stutsman glared at one another.

"It's a long way however you look at it,” the financier said. “If we're going to get there, well have to start as soon as possible. How soon can we start, Doctor?"

"Very soon. I have the gravity concentration field developed and Manning left me just enough power to get a good start.” He chuckled, took off his glasses, wiped the lenses and put them back on again. “Imagine him giving me that power!"

"But after we use up that power, what are we going to do?” demanded Chambers. “This collector lens of yours won't furnish us enough to keep going."

"You're right,” Craven conceded, “but we'll be able to get more. We'll build up what speed we can and then we'll shut off the drive and let momentum carry us along. In the meantime our collector will gather power for us. We're advancing toward the source of radiation now, instead of away from it. Out here, where there's little gravity stress, fewer conflicting lines of gravitation, we'll be able to spread out the field, widen it, make it thousands of miles across. And the new photo-cells will be a help as well."

"How are the photo-cells coming?” asked Chambers.

Craven grinned. “We'll have a bank of them in within a few hours, and replace the others as fast as we can. I have practically the whole crew at work on them. Manning doesn't know it, but he found the limit of those photo-cells when he was heaving energy at us back in the Solar System. He blistered them. I wouldn't have thought it possible, but it was. You have to hand it to Manning and Page. They are a couple of smart men."

To the eye there was only one slight difference between the old cells and the new ones. The new type cell, when on no load, appeared milky white, whereas the old cells on no load were silvery. The granular surface of the new units was responsible for the difference in appearance, for each minute section of the surface was covered with even more minute metallic hexagonal pyramids and prisms.

"Just a little matter of variation in the alloy,” Craven explained. “Crystalization of the alloy, forming those little prisms and pyramids. As a result, you get a surface thousands of times greater than in the old type. Helps you absorb every bit of the energy."

The Interplanetarian arrowed swiftly starward, driving ahead with terrific momentum while the collector lens, sweeping up the oncoming radiations, charged the great banks of accumulators. The G-type star toward which they were heading was still pale, but the two brighter stars to either side blazed like fiery jewels against the black of space.

"You say we'll be only a week or so behind Manning?” asked Chambers.

Craven looked at the financier, his eyes narrowed behind the heavy lenses. He sucked in his loose lips and turned once again to the control board.

"Perhaps a little longer,” he admitted finally. “We're losing time, having to go along on momentum in order to collect power. But the nearer we get to those stars, the more power we'll have and we'll be able to move faster."

Chambers drummed idly on the arm of his chair, thinking.

"Perhaps there's time yet,” he said, half to himself. “With the power we'll have within the Solar System, we can stop Manning and the revolution. We can gain control again."

Craven was silent, watching the dials.

"Manning might even pass us on the way back to look for us,” Chambers went on. “He thinks we're still out there. He wouldn't expect to find us where we are, light years from where we started."

Craven shot him a curious look. “I wouldn't be too sure of that. Manning has a string of some sort tied to us. He's got us tagged… good and proper. He's always been able to find us again, no matter where we were. I have a hunch he'll find us again, even way out here."

Chambers shrugged his shoulders. “It really doesn't matter. Just so we get close enough to the Sun so we can load those accumulators and jam the photo-cells full. With a load like that we can beat him hands down."

The financier fell into a silence. He stared out of the vision plate, watching the stars. Still far away, but so much nearer than they had been.

His brain hummed with dreams. Old dreams, revived again, old dreams of conquest and of empire, dreams of a power that held a solar system in its grip.

Craven broke his chain of thoughts. “Where's our friend Stutsman? I haven't seen him around lately."

Chambers chuckled good-naturedly. “He's sulking. He seems to have gotten the idea neither one of us likes him. He's been spending most of his time back in the engine room with the crew."

"Were you talking about me?” asked a silky voice.

They spun around to see Stutsman standing in the doorway of the control room. His face was twisted into a wolfish grin and in his right hand he held a heat gun.

Chambers’ voice was sharp, like the note of a clanging bell. “What's this?"

Stutsman's face twisted into an even more exaggerated grin. “This,” he said, “is mutiny. I'm taking over!” He laughed at them.

"No use calling the crew. They're with me."

"Damn you!” shouted Chambers, taking a step forward. He halted as Stutsman jerked the pistol up.

"Forget it, Chambers. You're just second man from now on. Maybe not even second man. You tried out this dictator business and you bungled it. You went soft. You're taking orders from me from now on. No questions, no back talk. You do as I say and maybe you won't get hurt."

"You're mad, Stutsman!” cried Chambers. “You can't get away with this."

Stutsman barked out a brittle laugh. “Who is going to stop me?"

"The people,” Chambers shouted at him. “The people will. They won't allow this. When you get back to the Solar System…"

Stutsman growled, stepping toward Chambers, pistol leveled. “The people won't have anything to say about this. I'll rule the Solar System the way I want to. There won't be anyone else who'll have a thing to say about it. So you dreamed of empire, did you? You dreamed of a solar dictatorship. Well, watch me! I'll build a real empire. But I'll be the head of it… not you."

Craven sat down in his chair, crossed his knees. “Just what do you plan to do, Dictator Stutsman?"

Stutsman fairly foamed at the mouth over the insolence of Craven's voice. “I'll smash Manning first. I'll wipe him out. This ship will do it. You said yourself it would. You have ten times the power he has. And then…"

Craven raised a hand and waved him into silence. “So you plan to reach the Solar System, do you?” You plan to meet Manning, and destroy his ship. Nice plan."

"What's wrong with it?” challenged Stutsman.

"Nothing,” said Craven calmly. “Absolutely nothing at all… except that we may never reach the Solar System!"

Stutsman seemed to sag. The wolfish snarl on his lips drooped. His eyes stared. Then with an effort he braced himself.

"What do you mean? Why can't we?” He gestured toward the vision plate, toward the tiny yellow star between the two brighter stars.

"That,” said Craven, “isn't our Sun. It has planets, but it isn't out Sun."

Chambers stepped quickly to Craven, reached out a hand and hoisted him from the chair, shook him.

"You must be joking! That has to be the Sun!"

Craven shrugged free of Chambers’ clutch, spoke in an even voice. “I never joke. We made a mistake, that's all. I hadn't meant to tell you yet. I had intended to get in close to the star and take on a full load of power and then try to locate our Sun. But I'm afraid it's a hopeless task."

"A hopeless task?” shrieked Stutsman. “You are trying to trick me. This is put up between the two of you. That's the Sun over there. I know it is!"

"It isn't,” said Craven. “Manning tricked us. He started off in the wrong direction. He made us think he was going straight back to the Solar System, but he didn't. He circled and went in some other direction."

The scientist eyed Stutsman calmly. Stutsman's knuckles were white with the grip he had upon the gun.

"We're lost,” Craven told him, looking squarely at him. “We may never find the Solar System!"