in their museums, but the idea was original with
them. It was a beam of electrical oscillatory waves, projected with
tremendous energy, and it would be absorbed by any conductor. They could
melt a ship with this!

And thus that great field had been filled with Giants of Space! And in
each of these thousand great warships there nestled three thousand tiny
one-man ships.

Here was a sight to inspire any race!

Taj Lamor watched as the last of the working machines dragged its slow
way out of the great ships. They were finished! The men were already in
them, waiting to start, and now there was an enthusiasm and an activity
that had not been before; now the men were anxious to get that long
journey completed and to be there, in that other system!

Taj Lamor entered his little special car and shot swiftly down to the
giant cruisers. He stepped out of his little craft and walked over to
the tube conveyor ready for the trip to the nose of the great vessel.
Behind him attendants quickly moved his car to a locked cradle berth
beside long rows of similar vehicles.

A short while later those who were to remain on the dark planet saw the
first of the monsters of space rise slowly from the ground and leap
swiftly forward; then as methodically as though released by automatic
machinery, the others leaped in swift pursuit, rushing across half a
world to the tremendous space lock that would let them out into the
void. In a long, swift column they rushed on. Then one at a time they
passed out into the mighty sea of space. In space they quickly formed
and set out.

As though by magic, far to the left of their flight, there suddenly
appeared a similar flight of giant ships, and then to the right, and
above them, another seemed to leap out of nothingness as the ships of
other planets came into sight. Quickly they formed a vast cone about
their leader's ship, a protecting screen, yet a powerful offensive
formation.

Endlessly, it seemed, they sped on through the darkness. Then as the
yellow star flamed brighter and brighter before them, they slowed their
ships till the small fliers could safely be released into space.

Like a swarm of insects flying about giant birds of space the little
ships circled the mighty masses of the battle cruisers. So huge were
they, that in the combined mass of the fleet there rested sufficient
gravitational attraction to force the little fliers to form orbits about
them. And so they sped on through the