The Project Gutenberg EBook of Irresistible Weapon, by Horace Brown Fyfe

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Title: Irresistible Weapon

Author: Horace Brown Fyfe

Illustrator: Ed Emshwiller

Release Date: September 15, 2009 [EBook #29994]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration]

_There's no such thing as a weapon too horrible
to use; weapons will continue to become bigger,
and deadlier. Like other things that can't be
stopped...._

IRRESISTIBLE WEAPON

By H. B. Fyfe

Illustrated by ED EMSH

In the special observation dome of the colossal command ship just beyond
Pluto, every nervous clearing of a throat rasped through the silence.
Telescopes were available but most of the scientists and high officials
preferred the view on the huge telescreen.

This showed, from a distance of several million miles, one of the small
moons of the frigid planet, so insignificant that it had not been
discovered until man had pushed the boundaries of space exploration past
the asteroids. The satellite was about to become spectacularly
significant, however, as the first target of man's newest, most
destructive weapon.

"I need not remind you, gentlemen," white-haired Co-ordinator Evora of
Mars had said, "that if we have actually succeeded in this race against
our former Centaurian colonies, it may well prevent the imminent
conflict entirely. In a few moments we shall know whether our scientists
have developed a truly irresistible weapon."

Of all the officials, soldiers, and scientists present, Arnold Gibson
was perhaps the least excited. For one thing, he had labored hard to
make the new horror succeed and felt reasonably confident that it would.
The project had been given the attention of every first-class scientific
mind in the Solar System; for the great fear was that the new states on
the Centaurian planets might win the race of discovery and ...

_And bring a little order into this old-fashioned, inefficient fumbling
toward progress_, Gibson thought contemptuously. _