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The Ultimate Weapon

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Title: The Ultimate Weapon

Author: Jr. John W. Campbell

 
Release date: December 10, 2007 [eBook #23790]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23790

Credits: Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
 Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ULTIMATE WEAPON ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

 [Cover Illustration:
 JOHN W. CAMPBELL
 THE ULTIMATE WEAPON

 When star fights star,
 is chaos the best defense?]

RED SUN RISING

The star Mira was unpredictably variable. Sometimes it was blazing,
brilliant and hot. Other times it was oddly dim, cool, shedding little
warmth on its many planets. Gresth Gkae, leader of the Mirans, was
seeking a better star, one to which his "people" could migrate. That
star had to be steady, reliable, with a good planetary system. And in
his astronomical searching, he found Sol.

With hundreds of ships, each larger than whole Terrestrial spaceports,
and traveling faster than the speed of light, the Mirans set out to move
in to Solar regions and take over.

And on Earth there was nothing which would be capable of beating off
this incredible armada--until Buck Kendall stumbled upon THE ULTIMATE
WEAPON.

JOHN W. CAMPBELL first started writing in 1930 when his first short
story, _When the Atoms Failed_, was accepted by a science-fiction
magazine. At that time he was twenty years old and still a student at
college. As the title of the story indicates, he was even at that time
occupied with the significance of atomic energy and nuclear physics.

For the next seven years, Campbell, bolstered by a scientific background
that ran from childhood experiments, to study at Duke University and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote and sold science-fiction,
achieving for himself an enviable reputation in the field.

In 1937 he became the editor of _Astounding Stories_ magazine and
applied himself at once to the task of bettering the magazine and the
field of s-f writing in general. His influence on science-fiction since
then has been great. Today he still remains as the editor of that
magazine's evolved and redesigned successor, _Analog_.

 _THE
 ULTIMATE
 WEAPON_

 by
 JOHN W. CAMPBELL

 ACE BOOKS, INC.
 1120 Avenue of the Americas
 New York, N.Y. 10036

THE ULTIMATE WEAPON

Copyright, 1936, by John W. Campbell

Originally published as a serial in _Amazing Stories_ under the title of
_Uncertainty_.

All Rights Reserved

_Cover by Gerald McConnell_

Printed in U.S.A.

Transcriber's Note:

 Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
 copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
 typographical errors have been corrected without note. Subscript
 characters are shown within {braces}. The mathematical symbol pi is
 shown as [pi].

[Illustration]

I

Patrol Cruiser "IP-T 247" circling out toward Pluto on leisurely
inspection tour to visit the outpost miners there, was in no hurry at
all as she loafed along. Her six-man crew was taking it very easy, and
easy meant two-man watches, and low speed, to watch for the instrument
panel and attend ship into the bargain.

She was about thirty million miles off Pluto, just beginning to get in
touch with some of the larger mining stations out there, when Buck
Kendall's turn at the controls came along. Buck Kendall was one of
life's little jokes. When Nature made him, she was absentminded. Buck
stood six feet two in his stocking feet, with his usual slight stoop in
operation. When he forgot, and stood up straight, he loomed about two
inches higher. He had the body and muscles of a dock navvy, which Nature
started out to make. Then she forgot and added something of the same
stuff she put in Sir Francis Drake. Maybe that made Old Nature nervous,
and she started adding different things. At any rate, Kendall, as
finally turned out, had a brain that put him in the first rank of
scientists--when he felt like it--the general constitution of an ostrich
and a flair for gambling.

The present position was due to such a gamble. An IP man, a friend of
his, had made the mistake of betting him a thousand dollars he wouldn't
get beyond a Captain's bars in the Patrol. Kendall had liked the idea
anyway, and adding a bit of a bet to it made it irresistible. So, being
a very particular kind of a fool, the glorious kind which old Nature
turns out now and then, he left a five million dollar estate on Long
Island, Terra, that same evening, and joined up in the Patrol. The Sir
Francis Drake strain had immediately come forth--and Kendall was having
the time of his life. In a six-man cruiser, his real work in the
Interplanetary Patrol had started. He was still in it--but it was his
command now, and a blue circle on his left sleeve gave his lieutenant's
rank.

Buck Kendall had immediately proceeded to enlist in his command the IP
man who had made the mistaken bet, and Rad Cole was on duty with him
now. Cole was the technician of the T-247. His rank as Technical
Engineer was practically equivalent to Kendall's circle-rank, which made
the two more comfortable together.

Cole was listening carefully to the signals coming through from Pluto.
"That," he decided, "sounds like Tad Nichols' fist. You can recognize
that broken-down truck-horse trot of his on the key as far away as you
can hear it."

"Is that what it is?" sighed Buck. "I thought it was static mushing him
at first. What's he like?"

"Like all the other damn fools who come out two billion miles to scratch
rock, as if there weren't enough already on the inner planets. He's got
a rich platinum property. Sells ninety percent of his output to buy his
power, and the other eleven percent for his clothes and food."

"He must be an efficient miner," suggested Kendall, "to maintain 101%
production like that."

"No, but his bank account is. He's figured out that's the most economic
level of production. If he produces less, he won't be able to pay for
his heating power, and if he produces more, his operation power will
burn up his bank account too fast."

"Hmmm--sensible way to figure. A man after my own heart. How does he
plan to restock his bank account?"

"By mining on Mercury. He does it regularly--sort of a commuter. Out
here his power bills eat it up. On Mercury he goes in for potassium, and
sells the power he collects in cooling his dome, of course. He's a good
miner, and the old fo

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