The Black Star Passes

ard the point on the border, where the plane had been seen crossing.

the dull gray of the clouds, a mile or so above them. It seemed some monstrous black bat flying there against the sky, but down to the

ne. It was going over a mile a second now-a speed that demanded only that it move its own length in

its propellers below coming up to them as a mighty wave of sound that made their own craft trem

gas. There was a low hiss from the power room, barely detectable despite the vacuum that shut them off from the roar of the Kaxorian plane. The microphone had long since been disconnected. Out of the gas vent streamed a cloud of purplish

ic plane wobbled! There was a sudden swerve that ended

arted to climb, its incalculable mass rapidly absorbing its kinetic energy. Down from its seven mile height it glided, controlling itself p

ad! Nearer and nearer drew the barrier while Arcot and the others watched with rigid attention. It might skim above those low hills at that-just barely escaping.... The watchers cringed as head on, at nearly two thou

the hundreds of thousands of tons crushing the rocky precipice, grinding it to powder, and shaking the entire hill. The cliff seemed to buckle and crack. In moments the plane had been brought to rest, but it had plowed through twenty feet of rock fo

ould not reproduce. From the rock on which rested the fused mass of metal that they knew had been the wing, rose a great cloud of dust. Still the motors on the other side of the ship continued roaring and the giant propellers turned. As the blast of air blew the dust away, the Terrestrians stared in unbounded amazement. Up from the gaping, broken wing lanced a mighty beam of light of such dazzling intensity that Arcot swiftly restored t

seemed to reach out into space. The Solarite was hurled back end over end, tumbling, falling. Even the heavy gyroscopes could not hold it for an instant, but quickly the straining motors brought them to rest in air that whirled and whined about them.

g carries! No wonder they could support it in the air! B

ight-into the kindly darkness once more. His v

ever before seen! An entire hill fused to molten, incandescent rock

ilent as the panorama of hills glided by at a slow two-hundred miles an hour. Abruptly Arcot exclaimed,

enus, for this world had known no such violent upheaval as the making of a moon. The men were lost in t

in the control ro

e microphone-an

ver swiftly and snapped the switch of the microphone. There burst in upon them the familiar roaring drone

. We'll get this one!" Arcot worked swiftly at his switches. "Wade-str

titanic wave of rushing sound engulfed them-then again came the little hiss of the gas. Now there were no hills in sight, as far as

ns turned in wonderment to see that he was partially visible! The Solarite, too, had become a misty ghost ship about them; they were becoming visible! Then in an instant it was gone-and they saw that the huge black bulk behind them was wavering, turning; the thu

cot breathed his relief as it made a perfect landing, the long series of rollers on the base of the gigantic hull absorbing the shock of the landing. There were small strea

beside it, to be lost in the vast

had given him directions on how to tune in on the Solarite. Now he sent a message to him, tel

ooling suits, they stepped from the Solarite, each carrying, for emergency use, a small hand torch,

them hundreds of feet straight up, it seemed impossible that this mighty thing could fly,

ddenly Wade stopped short and exclaimed: "Arcot, this is senseless-we can't do this! The machine is so big that i

giant, the Solarite landed-its great weight having no slightest effect on the Kaxorian craft. They found a trap-door leading down insi

. The low rumble of the idling engines was ba

hey entered directly into a vast hall that extended for a quarter of a mile back through the great hull, and completely across the fuselage. To the extreme nose it ran,

great machines they had been operating were humming softly, almost inaudibly. There were two long rows of them, extending to the end of the great hall. They suggested mighty generators twenty feet high. From the

row had the tubes leading to the floor below, but had no tubes jutting into the ceiling. Instead, there were many slender rods connected with a vast switchboard that covered all of one side of the gre

hed awe. They seemed impossibly huge; it was inconceiva

ring escalator. Despite the motionless figures everywhere, they felt no fear of

t space was taken by one single, titanic coil that stretched from wall to wall! Into it, and from it there led two gigantic c

sing, glowing fires, that changed and maneuvered and died out over all its surface and through all its volume. The motor was but five feet in diameter and a scant seven feet long, yet obviously it was driving the great machine, for there came from it a constant low hum, a deep pitch

rom the floor above joined, coalesced, and

ed down still further, for this floor contained individual sleeping bunks,

gain the bunks, the l

ed smaller ones, each of these leading into some strange mechanism. There were sighting devi

On the third level they came at last to the control room. Here were switchboards, control panels, and dozens of officers, sleeping now, beside their instruments.

coronium plates in which were set masses of fused quartz that were nearly as strong as the metal itsel

They came to a small room, another bunk room. There were great numbers of these down both sides of the long corridor, and along the two parallel co

o a small room, whence issued the low hum of one of the motors

o bigger than the trunk of a man's body. Yet a battery of

same conditions. At the end of the hall there was an escalator that led one level higher, into

rcot spent a long time looking over the many inst

engines, start them, then accelerate them till the ship rolls a bit!" Arcot stepped q

hen I ask you to, please turn on that control-no, th

"All right, Arcot-just as you say-but when I think of the p

they had been on board, they had been aware of the barely inaudible whine

id it without blowing the ship up after all!

re him, he heard the tens of thousands of horsepower spring into life-and suddenly the whine was a low roar-the mi

heir way again up through the ship, up through the room of the tremendous cylinder coil, and

ff the biggest machine of

and if it did have, I wouldn't use it. I will

Here and there they now saw the ends of those quartz cylinders. Once more they ente

o who had stayed with the Solarite, the things

from the Solarite, at that. It, too, draws its power from the sun, though in a dif

f protons and electrons will attract other protons and electrons, and hold them near-as in a stone, or in a solar system. The new idea here is that the photons will attract each other ever more and more powerfully,

wer storage tank. That was full of gaseous light-energy held toge

ite a little! I'll bet that thing ha

ndensed there-so why worry about a little thing like a mill

y focus it on those tubes on the roof there, and they, like all quartz tubes, conduct the light down into the condensers where it i

er conducts electricity-those are b

rgy thrown out by that projector mechanism we saw. When they hit anything, the object

it blew up? That was the motor connection, broken, and discharging free energy. That would ordinarily

tational attraction of the photons wasn't enough, without its influence to hold them

r and think over this problem. Perhaps we can find something

e that lay bound up in the Kaxorian ship. It seemed inconceivable that the l

to a chair, gazing moodily into emptiness, his thoughts on the mighty giant, stricken now, but only sleeping. In its vast hulk lay such energies as

lity, and now they can neutralize it. They began using it a bit too late this time, but they had located the radio-produced interference caused by the ship's invisibility apparatus, and they were sending a beam of interfering radio energy at us. We are invisible only by reason of the vibration of the molecules in response to the radio impressed oscillations. The molecules vibrate in tune, at terrific frequency, and the light can pass perfectly. What will happen, however, if

them a chance to combat the Kaxorians. His three companions, equally depre

we can start back for Sonor-and maybe we had better head fo

ust before he left. Arcot showed him which one-it would drain out the power of the great storage tank, throwing it harmlessly against the clouds above. The Kaxorians might destroy the machine if they wanted