Second stage Lensman Read Online Free PDF Page B

never could understand why you soft-headed,
    soft-hearted, soft-bodied human beings are so reluctant to kill your enemies. What good
    does it do merely to stun them?"
         "QX—skip it" Thorndyke knew that it was hopeless to attempt to convince the
    utterly unhuman Worsel of the fundamental lightness of human ethics. "But nothing has
    ever been designed small enough to project such a wave."
         "I realize that. Its design and construction will challenge your inventive ability. Its
    small ness is its great advantage. He could wear it in a ring, in the bracelet of his Lens;
    or, since it will be actuated, controlled, and directed by thought, even imbedded
    surgically beneath his skin."
         "How about backfires?" Thorndyke actually shuddered. "Projection . . . shielding .
    . ."
         "Details—mere details," Worsel assured him, with an airy flip of his scimitared
    tail.
         "That's nothing to be running around loose," the man argued. "Nobody could tell
    what killed them, could they?"
         "Probably not." Worsel pondered briefly. "No. Certainly not. The substance must
    decompose in the instant of death, from any cause. And it would not be 'loose', as you
    think; it should not become known, even. You would make only the one, of course."
         "Oh. You don't want one, then?"
         "Certainly not. What do I need of such a thing? Kinnison only—and only for his
    protection."
         "Kim can handle it . . . but he's the only being this side of Arisia that I'd trust with
    one . . . QX, give me the dope on the frequency, wave-form, and so on, and I'll see what
    I can do."
     
    CHAPTER 2
    Invasion Via Tube
     
         Port Admiral Haynes, newly chosen president of the Galactic Council and by
    virtue of his double office the most powerful entity of Civilization, set instantly into
    motion the vast machinery which would make Tellus safe against any possible attack.
    He first called together his Board of Strategy; the same keen-minded tacticians who had
    helped him plan the invasion of the Second Galaxy and the eminently successful attack
    upon Jarnevon. Should Grand Fleet, many of whose component fleets had not yet
    reached their home planets, be recalled? Not yet—lots of time for that. Let them go
    home for a while first. The enemy would have to rebuild before they could attack, and
    there were many more pressing matters.
         Scouting was most important. The planets near the galactic rim could take care
    of that. In fact, they should concentrate upon it, to the exclusion of everything else of
    warfare's activities. Every approach to the galaxy—yes, the space between the two
    galaxies and as far into the Second Galaxy as it was safe to penetrate—should be
    covered as with a blanket. That way, they could not be surprised.
         Kinnison, when he heard that, became vaguely uneasy. He did not really have a
    thought; it was as though he should have had one, but didn't. Deep down, far off, just
    barely above the threshold of perception an indefinite, formless something obtruded
    itself upon his consciousness. Tug and haul at it as he would, he could not get the drift.
    There was something he ought to be thinking of, but what in all the iridescent hells from
    Vandemar to Alsakan was it? So, instead of flitting about upon his declared business,
    he stuck around; helping the General Staff—and thinking.
          And Defense Plan BBT went from the idea men to the draftsmen, then to the
    engineers. This was to be, primarily, a war of planets. Ships could battle ships, fleets
    fleets; but, postulating good tactics upon the other side, no fleet, however armed and
    powered, could stop a planet. That had been proved. A planet had a mass of the order
    of magnitude of one times ten to the twenty fifth kilograms, and an intrinsic velocity of
    somewhere around forty kilometers per second. A hundred probably, relative to Tellus,
    if the planet came from the Second Galaxy. Kinetic energy,