s cut off, to render possible
a thorough study of the two halves of the spherical warship of the
enemy. Scientists donned space-suits and studied every feature of
the strange vessel, while mechanics dismantled and transferred to the
_Sirius_ every device and instrument of interest. One or two novel and
useful applications of rays and forces were found, their visirays and
communicators in particular being of a high degree of efficiency; but
upon the whole the science of the hexans was found to be inferior to
that now known to the scientists of Interplanetary's flying laboratory.
Brandon studied the hexan power-system most carefully, and, everything
in readiness and after a long talk with Westfall, he called a general
conference in the control-room.

"Gentlemen, we have done about everything we can do for the time being.
By combining the best features of the visirays and communicators of
the hexans with our own newly-perfected devices, we now have a really
excellent system of communication. Our friends from Mars and Venus
have so altered and enlarged our force-controls that our offensive
and defensive fields, rays, and screens leave little to be desired.
In power we are far ahead of the enemy. They apparently know nothing
of the possibilities of cosmic radiation, but depend upon tight-beam
transmission from their own power-plants--which transmission they have
perfected to a point far beyond anything reached by us of the three
planets. They do not use accumulators, and therefore their dissipation
is limited to their maximum reception, which is about seventy thousand
kilofranks. Since we can dissipate ten times that amount of energy, we
could withstand, for a short time, the simultaneous attacks of ten of
their vessels. Eleven or more of them, however, would be able to crush
our defensive screens--and Captain Czuv has seen as many as a hundred of
their space-ships in one formation. Furthermore, since they have several
times our maximum acceleration, they could concentrate quickly upon any
desired point. We could not escape them by flight if they really set out
to overtake us, which they certainly will do if we again venture into
their territory. Therefore it is clear that we cannot subject ourselves
to any attack in force and it follows that we cannot do much of anything
until the police fleet of some five hundred vessels can be re-armed and
can join us near Callisto. This will require several months at best.
As you already