Tesla's Signal (44 page)

Lost
. He drifted in unutterable loneliness. What did all of his new-found knowledge avail him? He would die here, without ever having saved Earth, or even said goodbye to...

At the thought of her name, he began to sense a call like a faint ship's beacon.

 

He reached for her with joy like a blazing supernova.

 

He sensed her as one human figure fixed into position, silhouetted by the turning glory of the Starsea. <
Niko! Come back!>
 

His spirit followed her direction and it took him back toward home: he saw his blue-white Earth, with its shimmering ionosphere. And there above the radiant planet, he saw an ominous hovering shape, which reminded him vaguely of a prehistoric insectoid. Segmented, worm-like...
trilobite,
his brain supplied the word. It radiated currents which grated on Niko's senses, and its back apertures glowed with an energy source unknown to him.

The U'jaan Fleet Ship,
Niko realized. He could not tell its distance or size, or its power source. This had to be the main battle dreadnought responsible for the earthquakes and other devastations.

Now he knew what he was up against. Now he had seen the Enemy.

As he watched, a smaller, lozenge-shaped vessel emerged from the fleet ship's belly and dropped steeply toward Earth. Followed by another, and another.

It could only mean one thing.
They are launching an attack
.

***

“Niko?”

A voice had been calling him for some time. For awhile he just listened to it, relaxed: at peace. He had been to the end of the Universe: what could scare him now? He opened his eyes and saw a woman silhouetted against bright sunlight.

“Clara.” He smiled. He wished he could embrace her, but he didn't have the strength. “How did you find me?”

“I tuned in to your frequency, just like you taught me. I saw you in a strange crystalline place, with creatures like Alouette. Did you travel to the realm of the Serafim?”

“Glorious ones,” he whispered. “Beings of light.”

“How wonderful.” She did not laugh at him or call him mad. “I've seen them too—the Serafim of legend.”

“Where are we?”

“On top of a mountain, a million miles from nowhere. Why'd you go wandering off?” She rubbed his face and hands, trying to get the circulation back. “You keep going crazy and almost dying on me,” she said, with tears running down her cheeks.

“And...you keep saving me.
Ljubavi moja,”
he whispered.

25: Twin Dragons

“Attack squad,” said K'viin. “Locate targets and destroy!”

The battle cruisers dropped steeply toward the Earth below, and clustered around several military installations in Virginia. Their fiery rays engulfed barracks, warehouses, stockpiles of ammunition, cannon and artillery. Leaving flames and chaos in their wake, they headed on to another base in Maryland. Before the US Army and Navy knew what had hit them, a major portion of their armaments had gone up in smoke.   

A frantic officer sent a telegraph message to Major General Whitcomb, Chief of Staff.
Urgent! Attacked by sky ships. Major bases destroyed!
 

Whitcomb crumpled the message. “It's of no consequence,” he told his subordinates. “We won't be needing weapons of war anymore.”

Word came to members of the US Congress that America might be under attack. The congressmen dismissed the reports, muttering with irritation at having been interrupted during important meetings.
An exaggeration. Mere rumors, meant to cause a panic. They say it was alien spaceships? Were there little green men in them? You know who's really responsible for this, don't you? Why haven't those useless military men captured the real culprit who threatens this country—Nikola Tesla?
 

And the Congressmen returned their attention to more immediate concerns: a private soirée for the nation's elite, hosted by representatives from the famous Silver Chamber Corporation.

***

“Niko, I have an idea. I used mirror-phase jamming to escape from the Orb in New York. So why can't we build a device to disrupt
all
of their communications?”

Niko stared at her. “Why, I was thinking the same thing!” A smile bloomed on his lips. “Navigation, radio, weapons.” He bent over the main control panel. “And we'll reset the frequency on the Tussey power network.”

“Put it out of phase,” Clara said, “so they can't locate them.
”
 

They spoke of their oscillators and frequencies with a passion that others reserved for declarations of love. She bent beside him as they worked, so close that he could feel her breathing. It didn't even bother him. Clara had gotten past his barriers. They had become soul-bound.

“But listen to this, Clara.” He touched her arm in excitement. “I had an insight.”

Since his visit with the Aon, he had had insights almost continually. He could scarcely keep up with the flow of ideas. “If it is possible to modulate electrical and sound frequencies...then what about light?”

They stared at each other. “You mean...invisibility?”

“That's right. Bending the light waves around an object, say...the Roadster, or the Sky Flivver. All the observer would see is a sort of blur.”

Lacking wine glasses to clink together, they touched fingertips in a toast to success.

Niko put his hands on his forehead. “We would need to determine the frequency of the object. Metal, stone...” he shut his eyes, pondering. But his meditations were interrupted by a series of beeps from the pulse-screen panel.

Clara ran to get the panel, and stared at the circular glass screen. Under the glass, a grid of small bulbs would light up in response to a signal bounced back from a far-away object. Now the lights on the lower right corner lit up, indicating objects somewhere to the southeast. “It looks like the bastards are on the move,” she muttered. “Wonder what they're destroying now?”

Niko consulted his mental map. “Hmm. Perhaps something in Maryland.” He clenched a fist. “If only the Sky Flivver was ready for battle.” He cracked open the case of the largest oscillator. “Let's get a few of these running and see if we can jam their communications.”

He put on his goggles and picked up a soldering iron. Clara began twirling dials. For half an hour they worked with steady, intense concentration. Few words were needed as they spliced wires, checked connections, and passed tools back and forth with the smoothness of a surgical team. They scarcely noticed when a summer storm passed by and it began to rain heavily. Their fingers flew over their instruments and tools until Niko checked the pulse screen again.

“It looks like they're coming upstate...following the Susquehanna River. I wonder what their target is. Coal mines; river traffic? Railroad depots?”

She wiped sweat off her forehead with her arm. “Or maybe they've discovered
us.”
 

“Maybe,” he said, keeping his voice level. “Someone may have betrayed us. One of those grad students, perhaps. Or...someone in that little town. Oak Hall.”

Clara stood up. “We should pack everything and get out of here.”

“Yes. Load it all into the Roadster,” Niko said.

They sprang into action. In the last few months their devices had become progressively smaller and more portable, thanks to Clara's ability to build powerful batteries and tiny, portable circuitry. Oscillators and coil assemblies could be dismantled, the parts nested inside each other. When they had packed most of their equipment, Niko checked the pulse screen again. “They're crossing the mountains now,” he said, checking the Pennsylvania map. “Definitely headed for us.”

“Let's get moving—”

“No.” He made a sudden decision. “We're not leaving.” He clenched both hands into fists. “No more running away. It's time to fight back.”

Clara looked into his eyes. “Nikola! You're not afraid anymore...are you?”

“No.” He realized it was true. “I burned out all my fear the day that they...almost took you.”

“But...are we really ready to take them on? Shouldn't we wait till we're in a better position to fight?”

He spread his hands. “When will we be in a better position? They're getting more powerful all the time. And
our
position is getting more risky. It's now or never.”

“But...once we confront them, we'll give away our location.”

“Sure, but on the other hand...” he paced, stroking his mustache. “Once we give them a fight, they may lose confidence. I learned about them from the Aon. They're cowards—afraid of a real battle. They only pick on worlds that can't fight back.”

“Well then, we'll scare 'em back to their miserable space hideout.” She met his steely glance with one of her own. “But let's hide the Roadster. We'll need it for a quick escape.”

They parked the motorcar a short distance off, concealed under a thick stand of hemlocks. That done, they dashed back and returned to their preparations.

Niko checked the suitcase-sized oscillator. “Good, good...it's putting out a steady jamming frequency. If they find their way here, they'll still be lost, and blind.”

He opened a large crate and admired the two Teleforce particle-beam guns nestled within. “Ah...my twin dragons,” he said, inspecting the silver-gray metal circled by bands of brass and copper. “I've been waiting a long time to wake you. Now we shall feed you some fiery electric fuel.”

Grinning, he flipped a bank of switches connected with the tower network, raising the output to its maximum. As the voltage built up, he could feel the lines of power vibrating in the air and earth. It raised the hair on his arms.   

“So what's our battle plan?” Clara was suiting up with a pair of goggles, leather cap, and a belt full of capacitors.

“Battle plan? Wait for them to come close, and let them feel the wrath of Zeus.”  

“Suppose they destroy all the towers?”

“Oh, don't worry I've a trick up my sleeve. We'll charge everything to maximum...including the mega-capacitors...but when they get close, we power the network down. We'll just leave it on standby power.”

“Standby
power,” Clara muttered, closing her eyes to calculate. “Hope that's enough. And...” she turned back. “Suppose they catch on to your trick? They must know there's something up on this mountain...” she paced, then turned back. “I know!” Her eyes danced with mischief. “We could leave a few for them to find, as decoys. A kind of sacrifice!”

“Decoys!
I like how you think, Ma'am. You're a born general.”

“No...just a former gangster girl.”

“And I'm a former poker player. We're quite the pair of rogues,” he muttered, while studying the pulse screen. Three evil-looking green blips were now converging on the Tussey Mountain Station. “They're coming for us, all right. Here, why don't we put this in a safe spot...” He wedged the frequency-jamming mask oscillator in the crook of a tree trunk. “There you go, little one,” he said to the device. “Put out a nice confusing signal for them.”

Turning to Clara, he picked up one of the Teleforce beam weapons and placed it in her waiting arms. “And this, Ma'am, is for you.”  

“Thank you, Nikola.” Her dark eyes held his. “Uh...just so you know...I'm not really a soldier. My grandfather deserted from the Russian Army.”

“I'm a deserter too. I hid in the mountains of Croatia to avoid conscription. But there's no place left to run now.” His hands tightened around the Teleforce gun. “All right...I'll take a position near the mountaintop. You can take cover on the other side of the cabin. We'll use the signal watches. One pulse—don't fire. Two pulses...we aim together.”

“You got it.”

“One other thing—whatever happens, I won't be taken alive. If...if something happens, you must kill me before I fall into their hands.
Swear it,
Clara.”

“Y-yes, Nikola.” She held his glance with deep, intense eyes. “I swear...by my mother's holy memory.”

They touched fingertips one last time and Clara went off to hide beneath a tangle of branches, where a mighty oak had come down.

He picked up the Teleforce gun, hefted it onto his shoulder and climbed toward the mountaintop. There, he crouched amid a stand of hemlock trees and took cover behind a fallen trunk. He set the weapon on its small tripod frame, with its aperture pointed up at the sky, and began calibrating the aiming mechanism. An arrangement of small lenses and mirrors gave him some precision capability. A dial allowed him to control the aperture and the force, and he dialed them to maximum.

As he settled down to wait, every detail came into sharp focus. The forest seemed to breathe like a living thing. Insects buzzed, leaves stirred gently; water dripped from the leaves after the recent storm. Well, yes...Earth, and the universe, were a living organism, weren't they? That was what he had learned on his journey.
If our bodies are destroyed, a part of us will still travel along the Starry Path.