The Pirate Planet
PART TWO OF A FOUR-PART NOVEL
By Charles W. Diffin
WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE
A flash of light on Venus!—and at Maricopa Flying Field Lieutenant McGuire and Captain Blake laugh at its possible meaning until the radio’s weird call and the sight of a giant ship in the night sky prove their wildest thoughts are facts. “Big as an ocean liner,” it hangs in midair, then turns and shoots upward at incredible speed until it disappears entirely, in space!
It is war. Interplanetary war. And on far distant Venus two fighting Earthlings stand up against a whole planet run amuck.
McGuire goes to Mount Lawson observatory, and there he sees the flash on Venus repeated. Professor Sykes, who had observed the first flash, confirms it and sees still more. He sees 311 the enveloping clouds of Venus torn asunder, and beneath them an identifying mark, a continent shaped like the letter “L.”