The Galaxy Primes by E.E. Smith

Author:E.E. Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Ozymandias Press

* * *

Garlock and Belle were already bombing; James and Lola began. Slow and awkward at first, Lola soon picked up the technique and was firing blast for blast with the others. No more loaded transport vessels left the moon. No empty one, returning toward the moon, reached there. In much less than the three hours Garlock had mentioned, every Ozobian transport craft had been destroyed.

“And now the real job begins,” Garlock said, as James dropped the starship down to within a few miles of the moon’s surface.

That surface was cratered and jagged, exactly like that of the half always facing Clamer. No sign of activity could be seen by eye, nor anything unusual. Even the immense trap-doors, all closed now, matched exactly their surroundings. Underground, however, activity was violently intense; and, now, confused in the extreme.

“Why, there isn’t a single adult anywhere!” Lola exclaimed. “I thought the whole place would be full of ‘em!”

“So did I,” Belle said. “However, by hindsight, it’s plain enough. Their job done, they were killed and eaten. Last meal, perhaps.”

“I’m afraid so. Whatever they were, they had hands and brains. Just look at those shops and machines!”

“What do we do, boss?” James asked. “Run a search pattern first?”

“We’ll have to, I guess, before we can lay the job out.”

It was run and Garlock frowned in thought. “Almost half the moon covered—honeycombed. We’ll have to fine-tooth it. Around the periphery first, then spiral into the center. This moon isn’t very big, but even so this is going to be a hell of a long job. Any suggestions, anybody? Jim?”

“The only way, I guess. You can’t do it hit-or-miss. I’m damn glad we’ve got plenty of stuff in our Op field and plenty of hydride for the engines. The horses will all know they’ve been at work before they get the field filled up again.”

“So will you, Junior, believe me.... Ready, all? Start blasting.”

Then, for three hours, the Pleiades moved slowly—for her—along a plotted and automatically-controlled course. It was very easy to tell where she had been; the sharply-cut, evenly-spaced, symmetrical pits left by the Galaxian’s full-conversion blasts were entirely different from the irregularly-cratered, ages-old original surface.

“Knock off, Brownie,” Garlock said then. “Go eat all you can hold and get some sleep. Come back in three hours. Jim, cut our speed to seventy-five percent.”

Lola shed her scanner, heaved a tremendous sigh of relief, and disappeared.

Three silent hours later—all three were too intensely busy to think of anything except the work in hand—Lola came back.

“Take Belle’s swath, Brownie. Okay, Belle, you can lay off. Three hours.”

“I’ll stay,” Belle declared. “Go yourself; or send Jim.”

“Don’t be any more of a damn fool than you have to. I said beat it.”

“And I said I wouldn’t. I’m just as good....”

“Chop it off!” Garlock snapped. “It isn’t a case of being just as good as. It’s a matter of physical reserves. Jim and I have more to draw on for the long shifts than you have. So get the hell out of here or I’ll stop the ship and slap you even sillier than you are now.

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