The spinning sphere formation of the Sirians had been almost invulnerable, and an exceedingly destructive formation. The Solarians had chosen several thousand of their crack pilots to practice this maneuver, but despite almost constant practice during the entire ten days, it was a miserable failure as soon as they tried to progress. Standing motionless it was a very effective procedure, but the spinning column was decided on as more effective as long as they had no ship to protect. There were twenty groups that practiced that maneuver.
And then Waterson announced that an associate of his, working in his laboratory, had developed a method for using a triple electrical field to direct the Dis ray, making possible a ray with a range of over sixty miles. This would be absolutely fatal to the spinning sphere system of the Sirians. The Sirians very evidently did not know how to project the Dis ray any further than twenty-five miles. The ability to stand off and hit them would break down the sphere of Dis rays very quickly. There was only one objection. The rays were very powerful, so powerful that they required triple power generators, but the special field of electrical force was the worst problem. The field could not be made sufficiently strong if a single layer of the force was used, but the invention of a method to back up the first with two other layers of equal voltage, thus getting nearly three times the effect without exceeding the capacity of the insulation, had made the new machine possible. This special field was produced by circularly moving cathode rays, or exceedingly high velocity electrons, and therefore could be produced only by atomic methods. This meant ten thousand times the amount of fuel a similarly powered material engine would have required, but material energy of course yields only wave motions of the transient or unstatic type, a type that cannot stand still. Atomic energy can yield static-waves as well as unstatic; the electron can stand still, and is a perfect example of the stationary wave.
These limitations, in turn, meant that a tremendous weight of equipment was needed. And a corresponding great volume of space was required. In the end they had to use specially reinforced freighters to carry the great projectors, each of which could carry but two projectors. Due to their long range, however, the ships were at least self-protecting. There was not time to make and equip more than twenty-eight of these ships before the fleet was scheduled to start. They were completed ahead of time. Some of their trial trips more than fulfilled the best hopes of the inventor. Dr. William Carson, the physicist who developed it insisted that it was really Dr. Waterson's suggestions that made the thing possible.
We had learned something of spatial warfare formations from the Sirians. Now we were to learn a bit of the strategy of spatial warfare.
The Solarian fleet sailed for Mars on the fifteenth of August, 1961. They were a scant twenty million miles from their goal when a report came from a scout that something was happening down in the Sirian camp. Almost immediately after that the Sirians flooded our entire system with so terrific a barrage of radio frequency static that communication was impossible. They could not transmit from Earth to Venus, and the communication was very poor even from one side of Earth to the other, despite the fact that over a half billion kilowatts were used. So intense was this barrage, that if two of the torpedo-ships near the sending apparatus came within twenty or thirty feet of each other, great crashing sparks leapt across, and instantly they were fused. Scouts saw this happen twice.
The Solarian fleet continued on for Mars. They should cover the remaining distance—twenty million miles—in five hours by pressing the ships a little, although higher speeds made the rate of approach of asteroids so great that they frequently could not be detected before they collided with the ships.
Only two and a half hours later a scout came into sight at terrific speed. He must have been doing over two thousand a second, an exceedingly dangerous rate—but his acceleration neutralizer enabled him to slow down safely. He reported that the entire Sirian fleet had risen from Mars, leaving a very few machines behind—this time taking the sphere with them—and had set out for Earth! Earth was on the other side of the Sun—a long two hundred and twenty million miles to go! The Sirians had a lead of three hours. They had as great a speed as the Solarians and would reach Earth before the Solarians. But they would at least be delayed by the two hundred thousand ships—more now, for the steady production would have built the quota up to over six hundred thousand, or a million by the time they could return. The Sirian fleet had been built up to nearly three million though, which could easily crush the fleet of a million, and the second million later—separately. The trip would take them sixty-two hours. Scouts had been sent ahead to Earth at a dangerously high speed to communicate the news, and the entire fleet had increased its speed to a rate that was considerably higher than safety warranted, but a continuous play of Dis rays was considered sufficient safety at fifteen hundred miles a second. The Sirian fleet had been reported to be making thirteen hundred and fifty, so the Solarians should pass them, or meet them, just shy of the Earth, where the other fleet would be waiting. They should have no difficulty to crush the Invaders with the two million ships.
The radio interference was being maintained by a ship anchored somewhere in space. It was no doubt well protected, and to attack it successfully would have meant the loss of a large number of ships, for the time spent in the attack would delay them irreparably. They must continue to Earth.
There were no scouts from the Sirian fleet—yet there should have been, for over a thousand ships had been following them, far behind. None ever reached Earth to warn the fleet. Every one of them was destroyed. But when the Sirian fleet was well on its way—it turned—and headed for Venus! They had purposely let that one scout reach the Solarian fleet with the news that the fleet was headed for Earth—then they redirected their course. The scouts from the Solarian fleet did reach Earth—but soon after the last of the scouts following the Sirian fleet had been destroyed, their radio barrage was lifted. All the ships on Venus were concentrated on Earth, and Venus was left unprotected.