<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></SPAN>CHAPTER IV<br/> Han Electrono-Ray Science</h2>
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">At</span> this period the Hans of Nu-Yok
had only one airship
equipped with their new armored
repeller ray, their latest defense
against our tactics of shooting
rockets into the repeller rays
and letting the latter hurl them
up against the ships. They had
developed a new steel alloy of
tremendous strength, which
passed their <i>rep</i> ray with ease,
but was virtually impervious to
our most powerful explosives.
Their supplies of this alloy were
limited, for it could be produced
only in the Lo-Tan shops, for it
was only there that they could
develop the degree of electronic
power necessary for its manufacture.</p>
<p>This ship shot out toward our
lines just as the last of the
groundships turned turtle and
was blown to pieces. As it approached,
the rockets of our invisible
and widely scattered gunners
in the forest below began to
explode beneath its <i>rep</i> ray
plates. The explosions caused the
great ship to plunge and roll
mightily, but otherwise did it no
serious harm that I could see,
for it was very heavily armored.</p>
<p>Occasionally rockets fired directly
at the ship would find their
mark and tear gashes in its side
and bottom plates, but these hits
were few. The ship was high in
the air, and a far more difficult
target than were its <i>rep</i> ray columns.
To hit the latter, our gunners
had only to gauge their aim
vertically. Range could be practically
ignored, since the <i>rep</i> ray
at any point above two-thirds the
distance from the earth to the
ship would automatically hurl
the rocket upward against the
<i>rep</i> ray plate.</p>
<p>As the ship sped toward us,
rocking, plunging and recovering,
it began to beam the forest
below. It was equipped with a
superbeam too, which cut a
swathe nearly a hundred feet
wide wherever it played.</p>
<p>With visions of many a life
snuffed out below me, I surrendered
to the impulse to stage a
single-handed attack on this
ship, feeling quite secure in my
floating shell of inertron. I nosed
up vertically, and rocketed for a
position above the ship. Then as
I climbed upward, as yet unobserved
in my tiny craft that was
scarcely larger than myself, I
trained my telultroscope on the
Han ship, focussing through to
a view of its interior.</p>
<p>Much as I had imbibed of this
generation's hatred for the Hans,
I was forced to admire them for
the completeness and efficiency
of this marvelous craft of theirs.</p>
<p>Constantly twirling the controls
of my scope to hold the focus,
I examined its interior from
nose to stern.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">It</span> may be of interest at this
point to give the reader a layman's
explanation of the electronic
or ionic machinery of these
ships, and of their general construction,
for today the general
public knows little of the particular
application of the electronic
laws which the Hans used, although
the practical application
of ultronics are well understood.</p>
<p>Back in the Twentieth Century
I had, like literally millions of
others, dabbled a bit in "radio"
as we called it then; the science
of the Hans was simply the superdevelopment
of "electricity,"
"radio," and "broadcasting."</p>
<p>It must be understood that this
explanation of mine is not technically
accurate, but only what
might be termed an illustrative
approximation.</p>
<p>The Hans' power-stations used
to broadcast three distinct "<i>powers</i>"
simultaneously. Our engineers
called them the "<i>starter</i>,"
the "<i>pullee</i>" and the "<i>sub-disintegrator</i>."
The last named had
nothing to do with the operation
of the ships, but was exclusively
the powerizer of the disintegrator
generators.</p>
<p>The "<i>starter</i>" was not unlike
the "radio" broadcasts of the
Twentieth Century. It went out
at a frequency of about 1,000
kilocycles, had an amperage of
approximately zero, but a voltage
of two billion. Properly amplified
by the use of <i>inductostatic</i>
batteries (a development
of the principle underlying the
earth induction compass applied
to the control of static) this current
energized the <i>"A" ionomagnetic</i>
coils on the airships, large
and sturdy affairs, which operated
the <i>Attractoreflex Receivers</i>,
which in turn "pulled in"
the second broadcast power
known as the "<i>pullee</i>," absorbing
it from every direction, literally
exhausting it from surrounding
space. The "<i>pullee</i>" came in at
about a half-billion volts, but in
very heavy amperage, proportional
to the capacity of the receiver,
and on a long wave—at audio
frequency in fact. About half of
this power reception ultimately
actuated the <i>repeller ray</i> generators.
The other half was used to
energize the <i>"B" ionomagnetic</i>
coils, peculiarly wound affairs,
whose magnetic fields constituted
the only means of insulating and
controlling the circuits of the
three "powers."</p>
<p>The repeller ray generators,
operating on this current, and in
conjunction with "twin synchronizers"
in the power broadcast
plant, developed two rhythmically
variable ether-ground circuits of
opposite polarity. In the "X" circuit,
the negative was grounded
along an ultraviolet beam from
the ship's repeller-ray generator.
The positive connection was
through the ether to the "X synchronizer"
in the power plant,
whose opposite pole was grounded.
The "Y" circuit travelled the
same course, but in the opposite
direction.</p>
<p>The rhythmic variables of
these two opposing circuits, as
nearly as I can understand it, in
heterodyning, created a powerful
material "push" from the
earth, up along the violet ray
beam against the <i>rep</i> ray generator
and against the two synchronizers
at the power plant.</p>
<p>This push developed molecularly
from the earth-mass-resultant
to the generator; and at the
same fractional distance from
the <i>rep</i> ray generator to the power
plant.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> force exerted upward
against the ship was, of
course, highly concentrated, being
confined to the path of the
ultraviolet beam. Air or any material
substance, coming within
the indicated section of the beam,
was thrown violently upward.
The ships actually rode on columns
of air thus forcefully up-thrown.
Their "home berths"
and "stations" were constructed
with air pits beneath. When they
rose from ordinary ground in
open country, there was a vast
upheaval of earth beneath their
generators at the instant of take-off;
this ceased as they got well
above ground level.</p>
<p>Equal pressure to the lifting
power of the generator was exerted
against the synchronizers
at the power plant, but this force,
not being concentrated directionally
along an ultraviolet beam,
involved a practical problem only
at points relatively close to the
synchronizers.</p>
<p>Of course the synchronizers
were automatically controlled by
the operation of the generators,
and only the two were needed
for any number of ships drawing
power from the station, providing
their protection was
rugged enough to stand the
strain.</p>
<p>Actually, they were isolated in
vast spherical steel chambers
with thick walls, so that nothing
but air pressure would be hurled
against them, and this, of course,
would be self-neutralizing, coming
as it did from all directions.</p>
<p>The "sub-disintegrator power"
reached the ships as an ordinary
broadcast reception at a negligible
amperage, but from one to
500 "quints" (quintillions) voltage,
controllable only by the
fields of the <i>"B" ionomagnetic</i>
coils. It had a wave-length of
about ten meters. In the <i>dis</i> ray
generator, this wave-length was
broken up into an almost unbelievably
high frequency, and became
a directionally controlled
wave of an infinitesimal fraction
of an inch. This wave-length, actually
identical with the diameter
of an electron, that is to say,
being accurately "tuned" to an
electron, disrupted the orbital
paths and balanced pulsations of
the electrons within the atom, so
desynchronizing them as to destroy
polarity balance of the
atom and causing it to cease to
exist as an atom. It was in this
way that the ray reduced matter
to "nothingness."</p>
<p>This destruction of the atom,
and a limited power for its reconstruction
under certain conditions,
marked the utmost progress
of the Han science.</p>
<hr class="mj" />
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />