The Fire People Page 26

  CHAPTER XXVI.

  THE BATTLE.

  We swept out over the Great City, flying in the battle-formation we hadused many times before on our trips about the country. Mercer's platformand mine were some fifty feet apart, leading. Behind us, in a greatsemicircle, the girls spread out, fifty little groups of ten, each withits single leader in front. Below, a hundred feet perhaps, the fifty othergirls darted back and forth, keeping pace with us. The aspect of thesegirls, flying thus to battle, was truly extraordinary. The pink-whiteflesh of their bodies; their limbs incased in the black veiling; theirlong black or golden hair; and the vivid red or blue feathered wingsflashing behind those wide, fluttering, flimsy black shields--it was asight the like of which I never shall see again.

  There was almost no wind, for which I was thankful, as it made ourmaneuvers in the air considerably less difficult. When we reached theNarrow Sea our patrols reported that Tao's ships were still in the river,waiting for others from the Lone City to join them. We hastened on, for Iwished to meet them as near the Twilight shore as possible.

  We believed, from the reports our girls had brought us, that the enemywould have some twenty or thirty boats, most of them similar to that inwhich Mercer and Anina weathered the storm on the way to the Water City.

  We assumed that the men in the boats would be armed with the handlight-ray cylinders. These projected a beam not over four inches broad andhad an effective range of about five hundred feet. The boats probablywould carry large projectors also. They might be set up in the boats readyfor use, or they might not.

  What range they would have we could not estimate, though we hoped weshould encounter nothing more powerful than this one Miela and I had onthe platform. Its beam was about twenty inches wide, its effective radiussomething like a thousand feet.

  We did not expect to encounter the very large projectors. We had some inthe Great City with a range of something like ten miles, and others oflesser range that spread the ray out fan shape. But these were extremelyheavy, and we were confident it would not be practical to mount them inthe boats.

  We sighted the enemy in the Narrow Sea just before the Twilight shore wasreached. The first intimation we had was the sight of one of the narrowbeams of red-green light flashing about in the twilight. As we creptcloser, at an altitude of some two thousand feet, we saw the dim outlinesof the boats in the water below.

  There were, I made out, some ten or fifteen in sight. They were headingout into the sea in single file. Miela and I had carefully discussed thetactics we were to employ. Mercer understood our plans, and we had threeor four girls detailed to fly close to the platforms and carry our ordersabout to the leaders of the various little squads.

  We sighted the boats when we were about a mile away, and, as I have said,at an altitude of some two thousand feet. They must have seen us soonafterward, for many light-rays now began flashing up from them.

  So far as I could determine, each boat seemed armed only with one mountedprojector; these I believed to be of somewhat similar power to our own.Our first move was to poise directly over the enemy, rising to an altitudeof twenty-five hundred feet. The boats kept straight on their way, and wefollowed them, circling overhead in lengthening spirals, but keeping wellout of range.

  I had ordered that none of the rays be flashed at this time, and it musthave been difficult for the men in the boats below to see us in the dusk,shrouded as we were in black. They sent up a rocket once; it mounted aboveus in a slow flaming arc, hung poised an instant, and then descended,plunging into the sea a mile or so away. We heard distinctly the hiss ofits contact with the water, and saw, like a quickly dissipating mist, thecloud of steam that arose.

  We were not armed with these rockets, for to discharge them from theplatforms would have been impractical. But we did not fear them being usedagainst us. Even if true aim had been possible, we could easily avoidtheir slow flight.

  The protecting canopy below the sides of our platform made it difficult tosee what was going on below us. Miela and I lay prone, with our headsprojecting over its forward end. In this position we had an unobstructed,though somewhat limited, view. The girls carrying us could see nothing.They were guided by watching the other girls flying near them, and byMiela's constant directions.

  For some ten or fifteen minutes we circled about over the leading boat.The Twilight shore was now almost over the horizon. The boats showed aslittle black patches on the gray-black of the sea, but the lights flashingup from them were plainly visible.

  The boat that led the line was quite perceptibly drawing away from theothers. Already it was a thousand feet or more ahead of the nearest onefollowing. We waited through another period. This leading boat was nowbeyond range of the others, and, being isolated, I decided to attack it.

  "Miela," I said, "tell them all to maintain this level. You and I will godown at that first boat. Have them all remain up here. Tell Mercer ifanything goes wrong with us to act as he thinks best."

  We waited while these commands were circulated about. Mercer's platformswept close over us, and he shouted: "We _won't_ stay up here."

  I persuaded him finally, and then we directed our girls to circle slowlydownward with our platform. I ordered a slow descent, for I was in no mindto rush blindly into range of their ray.

  We drooped down in a spiral, until at about fifteen hundred feet I orderedthe girls to descend no farther. So far as I could make out now, this boatwas protected from above by a broad overhanging canopy. Its sidesevidently were open, or nearly so, for we could see now the smaller raysflashing out horizontally.

  The large projector was mounted in the bow beyond the canopy. Its beamobviously could be directed into the air, for it was now swinging uptoward us. But in the horizontal position its range was limited to an arcin front of the boat. I saw then that our play was to attack from a lowlevel, since only in that way could we expect to reach a vulnerable spotin the boat's armor. And I believed that if we could keep behind it theycould not reach us with their larger projector.

  We swooped downward almost to the water level, and reached it a thousandfeet perhaps off to one side of the boat and partly behind it. The smallerprojectors flashed out at us, but we were beyond their range. Theprojector in the bow swung back and forth, and as we skimmed the surfaceof the water, heading toward the boat, it turned to face us.

  What followed happened so quickly I had no time to consult with Miela. Shedirected our flight. I turned the current into our projector and tried tobring its beam to bear on the boat. We approached within some eighthundred feet of it, darting back and forth, sometimes rising a hundredfeet or more, sometimes skimming the surface, but always keeping behindthe boat as it turned in an endeavor to face us.

  My light-ray beam hit the water frequently, with a great boiling andhissing, sending up clouds of steam that for a moment obscured the scene.Once or twice our opponent's beam flashed over us, but we were beyond itsarc before they could bring it directly to bear.

  I grew confused at the rapid turns we made. The dark outlines of the boat,with its twenty or thirty flashing red and green lights, seemed everywhereat once. I swung my projector about as best I could, but the swiftlyshifting target seemed too elusive. Once, as we dropped suddenly downward,I thought we should plunge into the hissing, roaring water below. Again,the opposing ray swung directly under us, as we darted upward to avoid it.

  "I can't make it, Miela," I said. "Hold steady toward them if you can."

  She did not answer, but kept her face over the platform's end and issuedher swift directions to the girls. Once, as we tilted sharply upward, Icaught a glimpse of a black-shape sweeping past, overhead. It was Mercer'splatform, flying unswervingly toward the boat, its red-green beam steadybefore it like a locomotive headlight. We turned to follow; my own lightswung dangerously near Mercer, and I turned the current off hastily.

  The wind of our forward flight whistled past my ears; Miela's directionsto the girls rose shrill above it. I caught a glimpse of the dartinglights of the boat a
head. Then, when we were hardly more than six hundredfeet away, Mercer's light picked it up. I saw the little lurid red circleit made as it struck the boat's canopy top, and roved along it end to end.Mercer's platform darted lower, and from that angle his light swept underthe canopy. A man's scream of agony came to us across the water. Thelights on the boat were extinguished; only the yellow glare of the flamesrising from its interior fittings remained.

  Then, a moment later, the boat's stern rose into the air, and it slidhissing into the water, leaving only a little wreckage and a fewstruggling forms on the swirling surface.

  We swung sharply upward. Again Mercer's platform--its light nowextinguished--swept directly over us. His exultant voice floated down.

  "We did it, Alan! We did it! Come on up!"

  We rose to the upper air, where the girls were still circling about. Theother boats were keeping on their course, spreading farther apart now tobe out of range of each other's projectors. I had hoped they would turnback with this catastrophe to their leader, but they did not.

  I consulted hastily with Miela, and then we gave the order for a generalattack, allowing each of the leading girls to act as she saw fit.

  Like a great flock of birds we swooped downward upon our prey, spreadingout to attack all the boats at once. The girls now turned on their handlights--a myriad tiny beams darting about in the semidarkness.

  I cannot attempt to describe the scene that followed. It can be imagined,perhaps, but not told in words. As we swept within range of the lightsthat swung up from below to meet us, I saw a girl, flying alone, passdirectly through one of the red beams. It seemed to strike her sidewise.In an instant she had passed beyond it. I saw the dim outlines of her formas she fluttered onward, wavering and aimless like a wounded bird. Andthen she fell, turning over and over as with one wing she strove vainly tosupport herself, until at last, wrapped in the sable shroud of her shield,she plunged with a great splash into the sea.

  The flashing light-rays all about us now seemed mingled in inextricableconfusion. The girls must have passed through them frequently, protectedby their shields; and I know our platform was several times struck by themfrom below. The absence of sound was uncanny. Only the whistling wind ofour flight, the flapping of the girl's wings, and the hissing of steam asour rays struck the water, accompanied this inferno of light.

  We swept beyond the boat we had singled out, passing five or six hundredfeet above it, and in the effort to avoid its ray turning so that I wasunable to bring mine upon it. As we rose again, beyond it, I saw a boatoff to the left in flames. A dozen girls had rushed upon it, darting inamong its smaller rays to where their own would be effective. But therewas only one girl above it now, struggling brokenly to maintain herself inflight. The boat sank with the roar of an explosion of some kind, but inthe sudden darkness about I could still see this lone wounded girlfluttering onward.

  We were not far away; I pointed her out to Miela, and instead of swingingback we kept on toward her. We contrived to pass close under her, and shefell abruptly almost into my arms. I stretched her out gently on theplatform and turned back to Miela, who was kneeling behind our projector.

  We were now nearly half a mile from the nearest of the boats. Several ofthem evidently had been sunk, and two or three others were sinking. One Icould make out heading back for the Twilight shore; above it the lights ofour girls following showed vivid against the dark-gray sky. Where Mercer'splatform was I could not tell.

  Miela gripped my shoulder.

  "See, Alan--there!" She pointed off to one side. "One of the boats triesto escape."

  We were now some five hundred feet above the water. Half a mile beyond us,all its lights out, one of the boats was scurrying away, on across towardthe Light Country. For some reason none of our girls seemed following it.

  Miela issued a sharp command; we swooped downward at lightning speed and,barely skimming the surface, flew after this escaping enemy. Whether itslarger projector had been rendered inoperative, or many of its crewkilled, or whether it thought merely to escape us and make a landing inthe Light Country, I did not know.

  Whatever the reason, no lights showed from this boat as we drew after it.I had our own light out. When we came close within range I flashed it onsuddenly. We were flying steadily, and I picked up the boat withoutdifficulty, raking it through from stern to stem under its protectingcanopy. I could see the canopy drop as its supporting metal frameworkfused in the heat of the ray; flames rose from the interior woodenfittings; the boat's stern seemed to melt away as the thin metal wasrendered molten; the water about it boiled under the heat. A cloud ofsteam then rose up, obscuring it completely from my sight.

  I switched off the light. We continued on, rising a little. The steamdissipated. Directly below us on the bubbling, swirling water a fewtwisted black forms bobbed about. We were so close now I could see themplainly. I looked away hastily.

  We swung back toward the Twilight shore, rising sharply. There seemed nowonly one boat afloat. Far above it I saw a tiny black oblong that I knewwas Mercer's platform. A swarm of other dots, with the tiny pencils of redlight flashing from them, showed where the cloud of girls were swoopingdown to the attack. Now that we were out of the action, I had opportunityto watch what was going on more closely.

  This last engagement seemed to last less than a minute. The girls dartedfearlessly downward among the rays that swung up from the boat. Scores ofthem were hit; I could see their forms illuminated for an instant by thelurid red and green light. Some passed through it safely; many fell. Butthose who got within range hit the boat without difficulty. Its lightswent out suddenly and a moment later it sank. The girls' lights flashedoff, and they rose again into the air--tiny black shapes circling aboutMercer's platform.

  The scene now seemed suddenly very dark, peaceful and still. A greatweight lifted from my heart, though it still remained heavy with what Ihad seen. I turned to Miela; her face was white and drawn.

  "We have won, my girl," I said.

  She smiled wanly.

  "We have won. But, oh, Alan, that women should have to do such deeds!"

  Her eyes shone with the light of a soul in sorrow.

  "Pray to your God now, my husband, that this war may be the last, for alltime, in all the universe."