A Conference
It was still night when our plane slanted out of the darkness into the blazing landing-field lights. A powerful car awaited us, and as it sped with reckless speed across the city which was as aroused, excited, and horror-stricken as New York, we could distinguish now and then the great dome of the Capitol, gleaming white in the light of dawn.
In a short time we were inside the Capitol, and were ushered into a small panelled room where a dozen or more men seated around a table awaited us.
I recognized at once the strong face of President Rogers, at the table’s end, and perceived, also, the well-known features of the Secretaries of War and of the Navy. Beside them were the ambassadors of Great Britain, Germany, France, and a half-dozen other great powers, while secretaries and aides hovered in the background. It was the group, representative of the world’s governments, that the President had gathered together at once after the Chicago cataclysm, and he had summoned Dr. Howard to meet with it.
He greeted my superior and myself courteously; but the strain that he was under showed as clearly in his face, as it did in the others about the table. At once he plunged toward the point.
“Dr. Howard, some days ago you gave to the press a suggested explanation of the Mannlertown and Finland cataclysms which was, despite your scientific eminence, too startling to be accepted by the world or by your fellow-scientists. That explanation has now been shown by this catastrophe that has riven Chicago to have been irrefutably true. We must accept, unprecedented as the situation is, the fact that vessels of some sort from outer space are actually trawling the earth’s surface from above its atmosphere, that trawl having been seen at Chicago by thousands, as it was seen in Finland. You alone among scientists have comprehended the nature of this menace. We have called you here to suggest some method of meeting it.”
Dr. Howard was silent and thoughtful for a moment, gazing from one to another of the anxious faces at the table, then the President spoke again.
“You must be well aware of what the result of continued catastrophes of this sort will be. Already the wildest panic has gripped the section around Chicago, and the rest of the country. The whole world in fact is trembling upon the brink of a similar panic. The very uncertainty of these disasters encourages panic. None can say that the next blow will not be in his city and cut away his home and his life. All are aware now that your theory is correct, and that adds to the horror. For if a vessel or vessels with alien beings of some sort in it actually hover far above, none can say what greater horrors it may still loose upon us. We must strike back in some way, must drive these beings, whatever their nature, from the earth. Would there be any chance of doing so with dirigibles or planes, in your opinion?”
“Not a chance, sir,” Dr. Howard replied at once. “The rarity of the atmosphere at its surface makes even an attempt impossible, for no ship of ours could ever reach the surface of the atmosphere.”
“But what are we to do? Is there no method by which we can combat this menace? Must we lie supine and let whatever cataclysmic terror they choose descend on us?”
All eyes were upon Dr. Howard as he gravely answered. “Since I first comprehended what lay behind these catastrophes I have sought for some method of halting them, some method of striking back at whatever ship or ships from space are hovering over us. To find such a method I have had recourse to the same analogy that has been made so terribly clear to us, the analogy between ourselves at the bottom of our air-ocean and the creatures at the sea’s bottom.
“Suppose those creatures far within the sea’s depths had some intelligence and science, and suppose they wished to halt the trawling of our ships whose great scoops sweep down now and again upon them. How could they do so? They could not venture up to the ocean’s surface. But one thing they could do, and that would be to send up something that would fight for them, that would make it impossible for the trawling ships to cruise longer on the surface!
“They could, granted science and intelligence enough, construct great mines in vast numbers. These, if attached to air-filled globes, would be swept instantly up to the ocean’s surface when released. They would float there indefinitely, and any ships cruising to and fro would sooner or later strike one and be destroyed, unless they were warned by the previous destruction of one. In this way the creatures of the sea’s depths could prevent our cruising above and trawling for them.
“And this is the way we must use to fight the beings who now cruise far above us! We must mine the air! We must send up thousands of great mines constructed so that they will float up to the surface of earth’s atmospheric ocean and remain near that surface where, we know, the ships of these space-beings are coming and going. With thousands of mines floating about some of the invaders will inevitably be destroyed by a collision with one of them.”
The others were silent for a moment. Then the Secretary of War broke out:
“Mine the air!” he repeated incredulously. “But how? How could any mine be constructed to float up in that way, so light as to float on the atmosphere’s surface?”