For hours now he had restlessly awaited the signal to release this energy in answer to the Whispering Death. For hours the stunned planet had awaited the moment of decision. When he would release all this pent up energy that Niagara, Victoria, and countless other water falls and many great steam power plants that had been harnessed for man's use, the carefully pre-calculated voltage would hurl an electron stream at a target, the desired wave length would be omitted by the target, and would automatically heterodyne itself on the invading field. This frightful stream of energy would blast its generators into atoms, but it must suffice. It was earth's dying stroke.
A bell tinkled and eagerly John Cortland rushed to answer. A quiet voice said.
"We are ready. The potential has reached maximum."
The zero hour had arrived. Nervously John Cortland looked around the room, at the familiar articles, and once out the window at the sunlight and then back in.
He threw the switch.
Phor, great leader of the once powerful Murians, gazed through the matter shield across space to the planet hanging in the heavens. A great green disk outlined in pearly light with green continents and bluish-green seas pointed clearly to its nearness. The artificial satellite that housed the observatory was circling this planet with incredible velocity. This was just what they had been looking for, an habitable planet with intelligent beings on it to aid them in their problems. Long ages ago they had left their planet just before their sun had become a nova and had exploded. Only a few of their peoples had been saved and at the thought the great goggle eyes filmed in sorrow. The great journey through space had tried them all, generations had been born and some had died. By necessity they had kept their population down until they could come to a system which might support them. They not only needed a habitable planet but an intelligent people on this planet so that they could rebuild their civilization quickly. They were friendly and had no wish to harm the dwellers on this planet.
He did not entirely agree with the council that they should get into communication with these peoples before landing. Phor thought they were wasting time to encircle this beautiful world while attempting to communicate with them. Their atmosphere analysis had shown them small quantities of ozone and they were bombarding the ozone with a controlled radiation. This caused them to act as receivers and converters so that intelligent communication could be set up. It was just like a radio without a receiving set. The ozone molecules did it all just before decomposing. To one side he could see the huge transformers and generators of the tiny moonlet's driving plant and ray generators. The actual projector hung like a huge mushroom some distance from the generating plant. The inclined buildings, due to the high radius of curvature of the moonlet, looked as if they were falling down all the time. Tiny figures of Murians ceaselessly worked about the great machines that had cared for them for ages.
For days now they had been keeping up the barrage, hoping to get a response. Their electro-telescopes had shown them that this planet housed a people as intelligent as their own. Their great cities, ships, and power stations made them long to be with the planet's peoples. Together they could do wonders and here they were waiting in space. Why this waste of time? Of course the Council was right in believing that the sudden appearance of unfamiliar beings might start an interplanetary war, and they could not fight a war. Their resources were practically exhausted, their peoples few, and they had no desire to cause trouble. They only wanted peace and a place to live. He shrugged his scaly shoulders and cocked his vertical eye at the meters covering the walls. No response to their messages yet. What could be the matter? Of course the planet had a denser atmosphere than that they had been accustomed to, but no matter. They could adjust themselves to it. Strange about the messages though. They had been exactly within the audibility range of the Murians and their antennae had no difficulty in reading them. Of course the planet's men would receive them just the same. Still the prediction of Tum-tak that the denser atmosphere would increase the pitch of the ozone molecules had to be considered. However this increased pitch should not harm the inhabitants. Their antennae received them very well tests demonstrated. They had not tested them for an effect on an inner ear structure, for they had never possessed them. Their sound transmission had been direct.
If they did not get a response within a few more revolutions about the planet they would be compelled to go down into the atmosphere. Wonder what that unusual activity about the power plants and the great crystal globes on one of the major continents meant anyway? Perhaps they were preparing to answer their calls. But why so much power as they seemed to be accumulating? What a peculiar field! That was unknown to them. Why these peoples had pumped more power into that one field than the Murians had developed for ages. Great peoples these inhabitants of the third planet. Well, he would take one more glance at the great crystal globes before turning over his place to his aide. There it was now. The crystal globes were surrounded in crimson flame, they disappeared in blinding incandescence, and horrors, simultaneously their projector had been surrounded by a halo of radiation that arced across to the generators. These exploded showering molten metal on the frightened Murians. Phor did not see the full charge arrive, blasting the moonlet into incandescence and destroying the last of the Murians.