Chapter 4

The Lotus came out of the usual sequence of arrival-hops no more than six light-seconds from Earth. A million miles, more or less; perhaps four times the distance of the Moon. Nolan examined the planet’s sunlit face and said steadily:

“Nothing’s happened yet.”

There was almost agonized relief. Only the skipper did not seem to relax. He went stolidly to the control-room and got out the scrambler card that matched just one other scrambler card in the world. He put it in the communicator. To speak to Earth by scrambler would be an offense. It would be protested by the Coms. They would insist that a survey ship should have nothing secret to report and that anything secret must be inimical to the Com Association of Nations.

The skipper formally reported in, in the clear, and then insisted on completing his report by scrambler. He did complete it, over the agitated protest of the ground. Then there was silence. He mopped his forehead.

“Nolan, better get down to the eyepiece. The Coms could send something up to blast us. I’ll get the detectors out. You be ready! You’re sure you can handle things?”

“This is a little bit late to raise the question,” said Nolan. “I think I can do it, though.”

He went down into the hold. He turned on the eyepiece. He saw the distinct, luminous disk which was Earth in the not-at-all-believable field of the impossible instrument. He saw points--not dots--of extremely vivid light. Obviously the size of a radioactive object did not determine the brightness of its report to the weapon from Planet Five of Fanuel Alpha. Something else controlled the brilliance.

He saw the groupings of many dimensionless points of light. There were the patterns which meant the silos holding the monster atomic missiles of the West. He could distinguish them from the much more concentrated firing-points of the Com nations. The oceans had few or no bright points at all. There were only so many atomic-powered ocean-going vessels. Nolan could tell well enough which were the Western accumulations of radioactives for defense purposes, and which were the Com stores of warheads.

His throat went dry as he realized the power in his hands. Neither he or anyone else could make one blade of grass grow, but he could turn the third planet of this sun into a desert and a dreariness like the third planet of another sun far, far away.

The skipper came into the hold. He locked the entrance door behind him.

“I got to the Coordinator,” he said in a shaking voice. “I started enough trouble by reporting by scrambler. He talked to me. I showed him pictures. He’s telling the Coms most of what I reported, saying that if they like they can try to blast us. If they try, and don’t succeed, we can try to figure out what to do next.”

The Com premiership was in some ways the equivalent of the office of Coordinator of the Western Defense Alliance. But the men who held the two posts were quite unlike and the amount of authority they could exercise was vastly different. The Com premier read, again, the newly arrived message from the Coordinator. The high officials he’d sent for came streaming into the room. Most of them had flimsies of the message in their hands. The Premier beamed at them.

“You have the news,” he said humorously. “The WDA Coordinator first threatened to make all Earth’s air radioactive if we attacked the--ah--leading member of the WDA and destroyed it. He has evidently decided that this threat is not strong enough. So he assures us that a Western survey ship has come back from an exploring voyage with a cargo of artifacts from a non-human civilization. Among the artifacts there is what he says is the absolute weapon. He says that the skipper who has brought it back claims that it can end the tension between the WDA and us--by ending us!” The Premier chuckled. “He invites us to verify the skipper’s claim by attempting to blast the survey ship, whose coordinates of position he gives us. I think he has made a rather substantial error of judgment.”

His eyes twinkled as he looked from one to another of the high officials he had summoned.

“We accepted the invitation,” said the Premier. “Naturally! General?”

He looked at a tall general officer with twin silver rockets in his lapels. The general said proudly:

“Yes, Excellency! Our space-radar located an object at the survey ship’s stated position. We sent six rockets with atomic warheads at it. We used satellite-placing rockets for maximum acceleration. They are well on their way now. Of course they can be disarmed or destroyed as well as maneuvered to intercept this survey ship if it attempts to flee. They will reach the target area in just under three hours.”