Well it was that the Lensman was concentrating upon that screened head; for when the screen weakened slightly and a thought began to seep through it toward an enigmatically sparkling ball of force, Kinnison was ready. He blanketed the thought savagely, before it could take form, and attacked the screen so viciously that Helmuth had either to restore full coverage instantly or die then and there. For the Lensman had studied that ball long and earnestly. It was the one thing about the whole base that he could not understand, the one thing, therefore, of which he had been uneasily afraid.
But he was afraid of it no longer. It was operated, he now knew, by thought; and, no matter how terrific its potentialities might be, it now was and would remain perfectly harmless; for if the pirate chief softened his screen enough to emit a thought, he would never think again.
Therefore, Kinnison rushed. At full blast he hurdled the rifle and crashed full against the armored figure behind it. Magnetic clamps locked and held; and, driving projectors furiously ablaze, he whirled around and forced the madly struggling Helmuth back, toward the line along which the bellowing rifle was still spewing forth a continuous storm of metal.
Helmuth's utmost efforts sufficed only to throw the Lensman out of balance, and both figures crashed to the floor. Now the madly fighting armored pair rolled over and over—straight into the line of fire.
First Kinnison—the bullets whining, shrieking off the armor of his personal battleship and crashing through or smashing ringingly against whatever happened to be in the ever-changing line of ricochet. Then Helmuth—and the fierce-driven metal slugs tore, in their multitudes, through his armor and through his body, riddling his every vital organ.
[1] In the "big teardrops"—cruisers and battleships—the driving force is always directed upward, along the geometrical axis of the ship, and the artificial gravity is always downward along that same line. Thus, throughout any possible maneuvering, free or inert, "down" and "up" have the same significance as within any Earthly structure.
These vessels are ordinarily landed only in special docks, but in emergencies can be landed almost anywhere, sharp stern down, as their immense weight drives them deep enough into even the hardest ground to keep them upright. They sink in water, but are readily maneuverable, even under water.
[2] Navigation. Each ship has a reference sphere held rigidly by gyroscopes so that its great circle of galactic longitude is always parallel to the galactic equator. Its line of zeros is always parallel to the line joining Centralia, the central solar system of the galaxy, with the system of Vandemar, which is on its very rim. Thus, courses are expressed in galactic longitude and latitude, from 0 to 360 degrees in each circle.