EARTH'S MAGINOT LINE
by ROY PAETZKE
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Comet May 41.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Jimmy Lorre saw the Earth spinning away from under him. It was odd,this sensation of having nothing under you, nothing to keep you fromfalling back upon the world from which the sleek grey space ship hadlifted you. Lorre felt uneasy. He had traveled in rockets hundreds oftimes, of course; but this was his first flight into space.
Rockets had already been in use for nearly a century; but none had everbefore ventured into outer space since the first one had met a horribleend in the Heaviside Layer. As a result of that incident, small rocketshad been developed for flight between cities, and, unhappily, for war.
Finally a large space cruiser, equipped with the Lorrepolari-neutralizer, set out in a second attempt to pierce the H-layer.Appropriately named the New Hope, it had just left Earth on its wayto the Moon.
Lorre felt that some weird, alien menace confronted them. The detailsof the outcome of the first attempted flight to the moon lingered inhis mind. He had looked forward to this day with eagerness; yet nowhe wished that he hadn't come along. Crushed down into the pneumaticcushions by the acceleration, his vision was so restricted that hecould see nothing but the Earth falling away from the ship, down, down.
The Lorre polari-neutralizer had been designed to send out a powerfulfield of polarized force that neutralized the energy charge of theLayer, and so shield the ship from the raging storm of ions thatcompose the ionosphere. James "Jimmy" Lorre, the inventor, had madesure of that. But the ionoscreen, which was to keep cosmic rays andother harmful radiations from the vessel's occupants beyond the Layer,had been impossible to test. Math, however, had proved that it wouldfunction correctly.
"Dr. Lorre!"
The ship had stopped accelerating, so that the pilot might have thefullest co-operation from his reflexes while passing the ionosphere.
"Call me Jimmy," Lorre said succinctly. "Everybody does. What is it?"
The pilot motioned toward the complex mechanism that stood betweenthem and annihilation in the turbulent ionic sea they were swiftlyapproaching. "I wanted you to be on hand in case anything goes wrong.Even without the polari-neutralizer, the hull will stand up a fewminutes, in case a wire comes loose in your machine, or something."
Lorre nodded. The pilot, always a thorough man, was taking no chances.
Hammond, at the controls of the New Hope, watched the chronometerlike a hawk. If the shield were applied too soon, the power would notlast; if too late, the ship would be destroyed.
He signaled the physicist. Lorre flipped the switch, gainingsatisfaction from the humming drone that came from the generators. Aninstant later, they hit the Layer.
Livid sheets of flame danced outside the portholes as the surging ionsfought to break the shield that enveloped the ship with the intrepidband of spacefarers aboard. Could they cheat nature with their science?The hull began to grow hot. Lorre increased the power.
Lurid sheets of flame danced outside the portholes as the surging ions sought to break the shield.
Then they were through! The tremendous velocity gained beforecutting the acceleration had carried them thro