Tulan Read online

satellites. We can do a lot inthat time."

  Kliu shrugged. "A few thousand people, and who knows what will happen tothem afterward? It's going to be a long time before the System'sinhabitable again, if ever."

  "Ships ... people can live a long time in ships."

  "Not that long."

  "There must be something! The power we've got, and this hyperspacething."

  Kliu shook his head. "I can guess what you're thinking; we've been allover it. There's no way to get to the stars, and no way to move a planetout of its orbit. Don't think we haven't been pounding our skulls, butthe figures are hopeless."

  Tulan stared at the ulcerous image on the screen, built up by infra-redprobing through the opaque atmosphere. "She looks ready to fall apartright now. How much of her could you blast off?"

  Kliu smiled wearily and without humor. "We've worked that idea to thebone, too. If you could build a big enough projector, and mount it on aninfinitely solid base, you could push something deep enough andaccurately enough to throw off stuff at escape velocity, but it's amatter of energy and we can't handle one percent of what we'd need. Evenif you could generate it fast enough, your conduits would melt under thecurrent." He got up and walked a few steps, then sat down again."Ironic, isn't it? All we can do is destroy ourselves."

  Tulan's mind couldn't accept it; he was used to thinking that any amountof energy could be handled some way. "There must be something," herepeated, feeling foolish as he said it.

  He went over the figures he knew so well; the acceleration and the totalenergy necessary to drive a ship to the nearest stars. Even a ship'sPulsors, pouring energy out steadily, were pitiful compared to that job.Schoolboys knew the figures; mankind had dreamed for generations ...

  He sat up abruptly. "This hyperspace; didn't you tell me there were suchthings as velocity and momentum in it?"

  Kliu's eyes focussed. "Yes; why?"

  "And that a projector could be built to put an entire ship intohyperspace?"

  Kliu stared at him for a second. "Kinetic energy! Built up gradually!"He jumped to his feet. "Come on! Let's get to the computers!"

  * * * * *

  Several hundred hours later Tulan lay watching the pinpoint on hisviewscreen that represented Sennech. He'd been building up speed for along time; he ached from the steady double-gravity. The ship, vastlybeefed up, was moving at a good fraction of the speed of light. Itwouldn't be much longer.

  The cargo of carefully chosen matter, shifting into hyperspace at theright instant, would be taken deep into Sennech by the momentum he'daccumulated in normal space. If the calculations were right, theresulting blast would knock a chunk completely out of the planet. Eachof the thousands of other ships tied to him by robot controls would takeits own bite at the right time and place. Providing the plan worked.

  The Solar System would have a few hot moments, and would be full of junkfor a long time, but the threatening fissionables inside Sennech wouldbe hurled far apart, to dribble away their potence gradually. Kliuadmitted no one could calculate for sure even how much, if any, ofSennech would remain as a planet, but Teyr, at least, with her thickatmosphere, should withstand the rain of debris.

  He wondered about his family, and Jezef. Kliu had tried to get word, butthe tragically few refugees were scattered.

  He smiled, recalling how severely he'd had to order his staff to abandonhim. He was proud to remember that much of the fleet would have comealong, if he'd let them; but live men were going to be at more of apremium on Teyr than heroic atoms drifting in space. Machines couldhandle this assault. He himself had not had to touch a single control.

  The indicators began to flash, and, sweating with the effort, he hauledhimself erect to attention. It was good to be winding up here in his owncommand room, where he'd lived his moments of triumph. Still, as the redlight winked on, he couldn't help thinking how very quiet and lonely itwas without Jezef and the staff.

  THE END

  Transcriber's Note:

  This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ June 1960. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.

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