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we are outdistancing her."
The swift staccato of rapid fire burst upon our ears. Our enemy had opened fire
upon us, and almost simultaneously, intermingling with the shots, we heard in
the distance the wail of other sirens apprising us of the fact that
reinforcements were closing in upon us.
The swift rush of the thin air of Mars along the sides of our ship attested our
terrific speed. The lights of the city faded swiftly behind us. The searchlights
of the patrol boats were rapidly diminishing bands of light across the starlit
sky.
I do not know how fast we were going but probably in the neighborhood of 1350
haads an hour.
We sped low above the ancient sea bottom that lies west of Zodanga; and then, in
a matter of about five minutes it could not have been much more our speed
slackened rapidly, and I saw a small flier floating idly in the still air just
ahead of us.
I knew that it must be the flier upon which Jat Or awaited me, and I directed
the brain to bring our ship alongside it and stop.
The response of the ship to my every thought direction was uncanny; and when
we
came alongside of Jat Or's craft and seemingly ghostly hands opened the door in
the side of our ship, I experienced a brief sensation of terror, as though I
were in the power of some soulless Frankenstein; and this notwithstanding the
fact that every move of the ship had been in response to my own direction.
Jat Or stood on the narrow deck of his small flier gazing in astonishment at the
strange craft that had drawn alongside.
"Had I not been expecting this," he said, "I should have been streaking it for
Helium by now. It is a sinister-looking affair with those great eyes giving it
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the appearance of some unworldly monster."
"You will find that impression intensified when you have been aboard her for a
while," I told him. "She is very 'unworldly' in many respects."
"Do you want me to come aboard now?" he asked.
"Yes," I replied, "after we make disposition of your flier."
"What shall we do with it?" he asked. "Are you going to abandon it?"
"Set your destination compass on Helium, and open your throttle to half speed.
When you are under way, we will come alongside again and take you aboard. One
of
the patrol boats at Helium will pick up the flier and return it to my hangar."
He did as I had bid, and I directed the brain to take us alongside of him after
he had gotten under way. A moment later he stepped into the cabin of Fal Sivas's
craft
"Comfortable," he commented; "the old boy must be something of a Sybarite."
"He believed in being comfortable," I replied, "but love of luxury has softened
his fibre to such an extent that he was afraid to venture abroad in his ship
after he had completed it."
Jat Or turned to look about the cabin, and it chanced that his eyes fell upon
the doors in the side of the ship just as I directed the brain to close them. He
voiced an ejaculation of astonishment.
"In the name of my first ancestor," he exclaimed, "who is closing those doors? I
don't see anyone, and you have not moved or touched any sort of operating
device
since I came aboard."
"Come forward into the control room," I said, "and you shall see the entire crew
of this craft reposing in a metal case not much larger than your fist."
As we entered the control room, Jat Or saw Zanda for the first time. I could see
his surprise reflected in his eyes, but he was too well bred to offer any
comment.
"This is Zanda, Jat Or," I said. "Fal Sivas was about to remove her skull in the
interests of science when I interrupted him this evening. The poor girl was
forced to choose between the lesser of two evils; that is why she is with me."
"That statement is a little misleading," said Zanda. "Even if my life had not
been in danger and I had been surrounded by every safeguard and luxury, I
would
still have chosen to go with Vandor, even to the end of the universe."
"You see, Jat Or," I remarked, with a smile, "the young lady does not know me
very well; when she does, she will very probably change her mind."
"Never," said Zanda.
"Wait and see," I cautioned her.
On our trip from Helium to Zodanga, I had explained to Jat Or the marvellous
mechanism that Fal Sivas called a mechanical brain; and I could see the young
padwar's eyes searching the interior of the control room for this marvellous
invention.
"There it is," I said, pointing at the metal sphere slightly above his head in
the nose of the craft.
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