trol board now. There were no buttons now, or visible
controls; all was mental.

A tiny sphere of artificial matter formed, and shot toward the control
board of the time machine outside. It depressed the main switch, and
space about them shifted, twisted, and returned to normal. The time
apparatus was off for the first time in six weeks.

"Can't fuse that, and we can't crush it. It's made of cosmium, and
trying to crush it against the rock would just drive it into it. We'll
see what we can do though," muttered Arcot. A plane of artificial matter
formed just beneath it, and sheared it from its bed on the planetoid,
cutting through the heavy cosmium anchors. The framework lifted, and the
apparatus with it. A series of planes, a gigantic honeycomb formed, and
the apparatus was cut across again and again, till only small fragments
were left of it. Then these were rolled into a ball, and crushed by a
sphere of artificial matter beyond all repair. The enemy would never
learn their secret.

A huge cylinder of artificial matter cut a great gouge from the plane
that was left where the apparatus had been, and a clamp of the same
material picked up the _Ancient Mariner_, deposited it there, then
covered it with rubble and broken rock. A cosmic flashed on the rock for
an instant, and it was glowing, incandescent lava. The _Ancient Mariner_
was buried under a hundred feet of rapidly solidifying rock, but rock
which could be fused away from its infusible walls when the time came.

"We're ready to go now--get to work with the radio, Morey, when we get
to Earth."

The gravity seemed normal here as they walked about, no accelerations
affected them as the ship darted forward, for all its inconceivably
great mass, like an arrow, then flashed forward under time control. The
sun was far distant now, for six weeks they had been traveling with the
section of Eros under time control. But with their tremendous time
control plant, and the space control, they reached the solar system in
very little time.

It seemed impossible to them that that battle could still be waging, but
it was. The ships of Earth and Venus, battling now as a last, hopeless
stand, over Chicago, were attempting to stop the press of a great
Thessian fleet. Thin, long Negrian, or Sirian ships had joined them in
the hour of Earth time that the men had been working. Still, despite the
reinforcements, they were falling back.

Chapter XIX

THE BATTLE OF EARTH