The Moon Destroyers

By MONROE K. RUCH

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Wonder Stories Quarterly Winter 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

The tremendous speed of the dive brought them so close that they could see the skeletons of wrecked ships piled up at the base of the precipice.

MONROE K. RUCH

The moon is not only the most prominent object in our heavens, but also an integral part of the earth. We are, so to speak, an astronomical unit, and we affect each other for better or for worse.

We know that the gravitational attraction of the moon causes our tides, and tends to slow up the earth in her daily rotation. It has also been deemed responsible for earthquakes, causing untold suffering among earth's people.

But so far the effect of the moon has been rather an inhuman affair. No man has gone to the moon to see just what conditions are there, and to observe accurately the influence that the moon and earth exercise over each other. But when interplanetary travel does come, when commerce between moon and earth may possibly assume importance in our lives, the influence of the moon upon us may be more accurately determined. And when it is, the amazing series of incidents, pictured in this story, may yet come true.

Professor Erickson, head of the International Seismographical Institute, sat with bowed head and pale face, watching the stylus of the instrument before him trace its path on the slowly revolving drum. The laboratory, situated high in the Himalayas, trembled slightly as mid-winter storms roared and whistled around it, but something quite different, and infinitely more sinister, was causing the needle to wander from its ordinarily straight path.

Suddenly, with horrible certainty, it jumped, wavered back and forth, and then moved rapidly to the right, until its black ink no longer traced a line on the white paper.

"Holden," shouted Erickson to his assistant, "what does the direction and distance finder tell us? The stylus has run clear off the graph."

Young Jack Holden was working feverishly over the dials and levers of the panel before him. Slender yet strong, he looked like a long-bow of stout old yew as he bent to the task. His steel gray eyes focused intently on the verniers, taking the readings. The muscles in his tanned cheeks were tight as he turned toward his superior. For a moment the very storm seemed to hush, awaiting the words. Then he spoke.

"It's the Laurentian fault!"

For a moment both men stared at each other, stunned and helpless.

"That means," Holden managed to say, "that New York is a mass of ruins."

Pictures were forming in his mind; he saw the huge steel and glass towers of the city, tossed and torn by the convulsive writhings of the earth beneath. Great engineers had said that the city was safe, that no tremors would ever disturb it, but they knew nothing of the terrific force of such a shock as this. Those massive buildings, thousands of feet high, would now be mere heaps of twisted junk. Holden closed his eyes to shut out the picture, but to no avail. His sister! God! She was probably one of the millions who now lay, crushed, bleeding and helpless beneath the wreckage of the too-proud metropolis.

"My boy," the professor was speaking, "we must stay with our work, no matter what happens." His voice was low; his entire family had been wiped out, without doubt, but Science must be served.

For hours the two sat before their instruments, as shock after shock was recorded. Jones came down from the television room above, and his report confirmed their observations in horrible detail.

"All communications from the city itself are cut off, but an airliner from England, which was about to dock, has broadcast the scene. Aid is being rushed from all over the world, but at a conservative estimate ten million are already dead, and millions more will probably die, buried and hidden as they are beneath the wreckage."

At last, nearly five hours after the first shock, the Professor stood up.

"I think that is all. My prophecies have come true, and at last my theories will be needed. But the cost of it all, the horrible cost!"

Two weeks later a group of men were seated around the conference table in the spacious offices of the Department of Public Safety of the World Union. All faces were turned toward the stooped figure of Professor Erickson, who was speaking from the head of the table.

"Gentlemen, I have outlined to you, only too briefly, the damage caused by the quake a few days ago. I now state that a repetition of such a disaster is imminent. Great faults have formed in the basic granites throughout the entire globe. Observations recorded during five centuries since the first conception of the idea by Dr. Maxwell Allen in 1931, show conclusively that Earth-tides, set up by the attraction of the moon, cause a sweeping series of stresses and strains. These, coming to a fault, produce earthquakes. Now that there are huge faults in the basic rock, these quakes will be of a tremendous force and range which the most modern structures will be unable to resist."

"Professor," spoke John Dorman, Secretary of Public Safety, "if all this is true, and we are assured that it is, what on earth can be done about it?"

"Gentlemen, during nearly seventy years I have studied that problem, and I have come to only one conclusion. Nothing on earth can be done about it, if you permit the remark, but men from earth can do something. Destroy the moon!"

A gasp went up from the great men assembled there. Erickson's colleagues nodded in helpless agreement.

"But how?" The question came from all sides. Famous engineers looked at each other questioningly.

"Gentlemen." This was a new voice, young and full of energy.

"Mr. Holden," responded the chairman.

"Professor Erickson was so kind as to confide in me several years ago, and since then I have been at work on this problem. I have solved it."

Eager interest shone on all faces. Jack Holden was known and liked by many of these men, despite his youth. His discovery of hexoxen, the chemical which turned solid matter into almost intangible vapor, had created quite a stir in scientific circles.

He now continued his address.

"If all the resources of Earth are made use of, it would be possible to produce hundreds of tons of hexoxen and sufficient amounts of the element Europium to act as a catalyst. That would be plenty to reduce the moon to a gaseous state. The clouds of gas could then be penetrated by anti-gravitational screens, which would cause the smaller pieces to drift off into space, where they will do no harm whatsoever."

Several distinguished engineers nodded their heads. One of them spoke.

"Mr. Secretary, the plan is entirely feasible. I move that Mr. Holden be given permission to make use of all the necessary resources to carry out his plan, and that he be placed in sole charge, assisted by an advisory board of which Professor Erickson shall be chairman."

The motion was carried, the papers drawn up, and the meeting adjourned.

Holden grasped Professor Erickson firmly by the arm and hurried him to the elevator.

"We've got just five minutes to get to the port. We're catching the first airliner for San Francisco. There are three of the latest model Mars-Earth freighters there, which we will use for our expedition. We will also be near the best source