"Murray Leinster - Propagandist" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

relationships for the moving planetary projectors, so that the separate beams would reinforce instead of
partially canceling one another, was a matter of terrifying complexity. This weapon could destroy one
ship of known course and speed, or one ship on the ground, if enough time could be had for calculations.
But it would be useless against a fleet. Days or weeks were required for the adjustment of

the multitude of beams for a hit on a predetermined spot. Against ships of changing course and speed,
the weapon was useless. A message arrived at the Department of War.

SMALL SPACE CRAFT DETACHED ITSELF FROM INVADING VESSEL AT INSTANT OF
STRONG UNTUNED WAVE DISTURBANCE. SMALL CRAFT MAKING GUIDED FLIGHT
TOWARD PLANET FOUR. WILL LAND ON DARK SIDE NORTHERN AREA FIRST
CONTINENT. REQUEST ORDERS.

The Department of War was newly organized and had not time to acquire traditions of pomposity and
bureaucratic delay. Within minutes its orders went back:

EVACUATE ALL POPULATION FROM AREA IN QUESTION. HAVE GROUND VEHICLES
ATMOSPHERE FLIERS READY TO TEST ARMAMENT OF CRAFT. BROADCAST APPEAL FOR
VOLUNTEERS, GIVING DUE WARNING OF PROBABLE DEATH. NO SPACE CRAFT TO BE
USED. NO HINT OF ADEQUATE DEFENSES MUST BE GIVEN TO ENEMY UNTIL FULL-
SCALE OPERATION BY ENTIRE SYSTEM.

The population of the Masa Four had had one experience of invaders from beyond. Some twenty-five
million citizens began a swift, orderly evacuation— as a precaution against the landing of an unarmed
lifeboat.

Buck waked from an uneasy doze when the lifeboat descended to the planet's dark side. Every
observation device known to man was at work to gather information, but Buck was not interested in
technicalities. He yawned elaborately, even as scanner beams were noted. He stretched as the scanner
beams cut off abruptly. He shook himself comfortably as the analyzers reported the atmosphere to be
Earth-type, with a considerable excess of the inert gases but well inside the comfort range of oxygen-
nitrogen mixtures.

The lifeboat went down carefully, feeling for dangers. Infrared equipment reported the shore of a sea
and oddities that could be the equipment of a harbor. Maynard sheered the tiny craft away. He actually

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neared ground only a hundred-odd miles away. It was his job to get himself killed if the local population
could manage it, but it was not his job to make them. If they knew the seeming comet out in space was a
spaceship, they'd be on the alert. If they were the race that had murdered the Capellan colonists, they'd
try to keep him from getting back to his ship. If they weren't—

The lifeboat grounded with infinite caution in what the scanners declared was a jungle of feathery-
leaved vegetation. For long, long minutes Maynard sat tense, prepared to fling the little craft skyward at
any sign of action against it. Nothing happened. The outside microphones transmitted noises, to be sure,
but they were the random sounds of wild jungle life. After a long time Maynard cracked a port. Still
nothing.