Chapter 3. _The Secret of A-G 17_

The Dennings did not have much time to speculate on the mystery of the

Sun-stealers. For just as they were discussing what should be their next

course of action, the problem was solved for them. There was a roaring

in the air, then a humming, and in a matter of a few more seconds, six

rocket helicopters popped into sight, hovered over the valley on

streaming jets, and settled down.

"They're U.S. planes!" gasped Burl, jumping to his feet and going to

meet them. "It must mean that they know we stopped the machines."

"Obviously," said his father, striding with him to greet the helmeted

man who was now stepping out of the lead machine. By this time the last

of the squad had landed, and the khaki-clad soldiers in them were

already disembarking. "I imagine that all over the world the sky turned

a little brighter. It must have been apparent at once."

The leader of the 'copter men reached them. He was a tall, bronzed man,

wearing the service coveralls and markings of a captain of the Air

Force. He stretched out his hand. "You must be the Dennings. I'm Captain

Saunders. I've been asked to bring you back with me right away so that

we can get a complete report on this affair. How fast can you get

ready?"

"Why," said Burl, "we're ready right now. As soon as we can dump our

packs aboard. But, gee, you mean go back--where?"

Saunders smiled grimly. "To California. We just left there. I have been

given urgent orders to waste no time. So will you oblige?"

The two Dennings looked at each other. This was important, all right.

They realized that these planes had flown on fast rockets the instant

the sky had cleared. Possibly there was still a crisis--one they had not

heard of.

They did not pause to ask further questions. Mark Denning asked the

captain to dispatch one of his 'copters to the camp beyond the mountains

to tell Gonzales to load up and start back for Lima. This order given,

the two Dennings climbed into the rocket 'copter, and Saunders took the

controls.

With a whoosh, the squat craft lifted on its rockets, its jet-driven fan

carried it up, folded, and the rocket engine took over. On upward into

the stratosphere they hurtled, across the Western Hemisphere, across

the face of jungle and isthmus, across the barren mountains of Mexico,

and in a matter of less than half an hour, settled down in the wide

green field of a U.S. Air Force base in southern California. It was all

so swift, so sudden, that to Burl it seemed like a dream. There had been

so many days in the field, in the peace and quiet of the high mountains

of the Andes. There had been the slow hunting around age-worn ruins; the

careful, deliberate sifting of tons of soil and sand for tiny shards;

then this: the urgent message, the trek, the weird building, the

strange, body-filling shock, and the control over the Sun-theft globes,

followed by the swift transition over thousands of miles.

Here he was in his home country--weeks sooner than he had expected--but

not to return to his home and school. No, for he felt that somehow an

adventure was beginning that could lead anywhere. Perhaps his adventure

had actually ended, but he saw now that he would be questioned, probed,

and asked to recount his story over and over.

Burl and his father were met at the port by a group of officers and

escorted rapidly to a room in a large building. Here there were half a

dozen men in civilian clothes. One by one, these men were introduced,

and as each one was named, Burl wondered more about what was to come.

There was a general from Army Intelligence. There was a high member of

the State Department. There were three noted astronomers--among them the

surprisingly young Russell Clyde and the elderly and famous Dr.

Merckmann. There was an aircraft manufacturer whose name graced a

thousand planes, and an engineer who had contributed to the conquest of

the Moon.

The general, Walton Shrove, asked them to sit down. He was in charge of

the affair. It turned out to be a careful questioning of their story. It

was not a hounding of questions as in a police quizzing, or a baiting

from newspapermen eager to get a scoop. Rather, their questions were

deliberate and intelligent. They drew out the full account of what Burl

and his father had seen in that valley, and of what the Sun-theft globes

appeared to be like in operation. They concentrated deeply on the

curious experience which had placed in Burl the charge that enabled him

to control the machines.

"Would you mind," the general asked Burl, "if we subject you to a series

of medical and electronic tests to determine whether this charge is

still with you?"

Burl shook his head. "I'll go along with anything you say."

"Very well," the general smiled. "We'll make our purposes clear to you

afterward. But we want to get this over as soon as we can."

Burl left the room in company with three technicians who had come in.

They took him to the medical office at the base and there he was given a

complete check. At the electronics lab, electrodes were attached to him

and careful readings were made of the natural electrical resistance of

his body, and of his apparent physical charge. After an hour of tests,

Burl was brought back to the main council room.

As he entered, he sensed he had interrupted something important. His

father looked at him, and Burl detected in his face a certain curious

mingling of pride and parental concern. What, the young man wondered,

were they all up to?

When he was seated, the company grew silent. The general pursed his

lips, looked directly at Burl, and said, "I think the time has come to

acquaint you with the problem our world is facing. We may ask you to

make a very personal decision, and we think you ought to know what may

hang on it."

He stopped. Every face at the table was grim. Mark Denning, too, was

sober, though Burl detected that he also did not quite know what was to

come.

"It is apparent that some race of beings, some species from outer space,

unknown to us, has begun a process of tapping the power and light of the

Sun for transmission elsewhere. The station on Earth, which you shut

down, was an important one. But ... it was not the only one. There are

others, operating in this solar system." He nodded to Merckmann.

The old astronomer took the cue. "The observatories of the Earth, aided

by the lunar observers, have definitely determined that there is still a

certain amount of light being shifted from the faces of other planets

and diverted. We have detected by telescopic and telethermic

measurements that there are areas of Sun-disturbances on the surfaces of

the planets Mercury and Mars. We suspect the existence of one on Venus.

We believe that this may prove to be true on other planets as well, but

we have no doubt of the first two.

"Measurements of the amount of Sun power being piped away, and of the

effect of the magnetic disturbances used to create and maintain these

stations, have shown that they will have a definite effect on the

structure of the Sun itself. We have not yet completed all our

calculations, but preliminary studies indicate that if this type of

solar interference is not stopped, it may cause our Sun to nova in

somewhere between two and three years time."

He stopped, but the thirty-year-old prodigy, Russell Clyde, took up the

story. "By nova, we mean that the Sun will literally explode. It will

flame up, burst to many times its present size. Such an explosion will

burn Earth to cinders, render all the planets inside the orbit of

Jupiter uninhabitable, scorch their atmospheres, dissolve their waters

into steam, and make them lifeless flaming deserts. We have seen other

stars turn nova. We have measured their explosions. We know just about

what age and stability inside a sun is necessary to cause this. And we

fear that the danger of our own Sun doing so is great--if the

Sun-tapping is not stopped."

Everyone at the table was silent. Burl was stunned. Finally he caught

his breath. "But how can we stop it? We can't get to all the planets in

time. Our rockets are not ready--and rocketships would be too slow. Why

it would take two years for rocketships to reach Mars, if the expedition

were ready now ... and I understand that it will be another ten years

before Operation Mars is even attempted."

General Shrove nodded. "That is correct. Our rocket engineering is not

yet advanced enough to allow us to take such emergency action. We are

still only just over the doorstep of interplanetary flight--and our

enemies, whoever they may be, are obviously far advanced. But, as you

will see, we are not entirely without hope. Colonel Lockhart, will you

tell them about Project A-G?"

All eyes turned to Lockhart, who was a short, stocky man in civilian

clothes. Burl realized that this man had been a colonel at one time, but

remembered now that he had taken a post with one of the largest aviation

companies after leaving the service. Lockhart turned cold gray eyes

directly to Burl.

"We have in my company's experimental grounds one virtually untested

vessel which may be able to make a flight to Mars, or any other planet,

in the time allowed. This is the craft we refer to as A-G 17, the

seventeenth such experiment, and the first to succeed. It is powered by

an entirely new method of flight, the force of anti-gravity."

Burl hung breathlessly on his next words. "You probably know that work

on the scientific negation of gravity has been going on since the early

1950's. It was known shortly after experiments had been conducted on

atomic and subatomic particles that grounds had at last been found by

means of which a counteraction to gravity might be set up. Early

subatomic studies showed that such a force was not only theoretically

possible, but that certain subparticles actually displayed such

tendencies. On the basis of these first discoveries, work has been going

on in the development of negative gravitational drive for at least

twenty years. As early as 1956, there were not less than fourteen such

projects under way in virtually all the leading aircraft industries of

the United States, not to mention the rest of the world. In the last few

years, at the direction of the Air Force, these projects have been

consolidated, placed under one main roof, and brought to its present

status, which is, we believe, the one of final triumph."

He glanced at General Shrove, who returned the glance unsmilingly.

"After the successful testing of several models, a full-sized craft has

been built which utilizes the new method of space drive. One such craft

has been built, and only one. This ship, if it works, is at this time

the only means by which humanity can hope to make the trips to the other

places in the solar system from which the Sun-stealers are working. It

is with this one vessel only that we can put their Sun-tap stations out

of commission.

"But I emphasize again the experimental nature of this ship. What its

capacities are and how well it will work is still a matter of

planning-book conjecture. We can prepare the ship to take off in one

week's time. I do not think, judging from what Merckmann and Clyde have

said, that we can afford to wait any longer. Another such ship cannot be

built in less than a year."

General Shrove spoke then. "It is already arranged that this A-G 17

spaceship is going to go. A volunteer crew has been selected; several of

them are in this room." He nodded briefly to Clyde and to Lockhart. "But

although these volunteers are among the best men in their fields, there

isn't one of them who couldn't be replaced by someone equally skilled in

the same field. But there is one person on Earth right now who may just

possibly be unique. This person may hold, by virtue of an experience not

shared by any other human being, a special key that will render easier

the task that this spaceship must fulfill."

He turned to Burl, who sat tingling with suspense. "You, Burl Denning,

are apparently still carrying some sort of electronic or subelectronic

charge which is attuned to the controls of the Sun-tap station. We feel

that you should be along on this expedition. It will be long and

dangerous, it will involve landings on worlds no man has ever visited or

expected to visit for hundreds of years. There is an enemy in the sky

who will certainly try to stop our single ship. To be bluntly honest,

the voyagers on this ship face such dangers as explorers have not faced

since the days of Magellan and Cook. Its chances of return are probably

remote. But with the permission of your father, which he has already

given, I would like to ask that you volunteer to join its crew."

Burl felt dizzy, his heart thumping painfully within his chest. He took

a deep breath, and then carefully, trying to keep his voice from

quivering, he said, "Yes, I'll go."