Latest / Galactic Patrol / 24 - Galactic Patrol by E. E. Smith

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24 - Galactic Patrol by E. E. Smith · Galactic Patrol

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four of Galactic Patrol by E. E. Smith.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Kinnison approached
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: star cluster AC two five seven four seven three six
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: warily as before, and as before, he insinuated his speedster
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: through the loose outer cordon of Guardian fortresses. This time, however,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: he did not steer even remotely near Helmuth's world. He
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: would be there too long. There was altogether too much
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: risk of electromagnetic detection to set his ship into any
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: kind of an orbit around that planet. Instead, he had
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: computed a long, narrow, elliptical orbit around its sun well
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: inside the zone guarded by the malers. He could compute
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: it only approximately, of course, since he did not know
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: exactly either the masses involved or the perturbing forces, but
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: he thought that he could find his ship again with
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: an electro If not, she would not be an irreplaceable loss.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: He set the speedster then into the outward leg of
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: that orbit and took off in his new armor. He
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: knew that there was a thought screen around Helmuth's planet,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and suspected that there might be other screens as well,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Therefore shutting off every wat of power, he dropped straight
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: down into the night side, well clear of the citadel's edge.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: His flares were, of course heavily baffled, but even so
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: he did not put on his brakes until it was
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: absolutely necessary. He landed heavily, then sprang away in long,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: free hops until he reached his previously selected destination, a
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: great cavern thickly shielded with iron, ore fully five thousand
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: miles from his point of descent. Deep within that cavern,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: he hid himself, then searched intently for any sign that
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: his approach had been observed. There was no such sign.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: So far, so good. But during his search he had perceived,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: with a slight shock that Helmuth had tightened his defenses
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: even more. Not only was every man in the dome
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: screened against thought, but also each was now wearing full armor.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Had he protected the dogs too, or killed them, no
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: real matter, if he had any kind of a pet
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: animal would do, or, in a pinch, even a wild
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: rock lizard. Nevertheless, he shot his perception into the particular
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: barracks he had noted so long before, and he found
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: with some relief that the dogs were still there, and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: that they were still unprotected. It had not occurred even
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  Speaker 1: to Helmuth's cautious mind that a dog could be a
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  Speaker 1: source of mental danger. With all due precautions against getting
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: even a single grain of the stuff into his own system,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Kinnison transferred his thighonite into the special container in which
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: it was to be used. Another day, sufficed to observe
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and to memorize the personnel of the gateway observers, their positions,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the sequence in which they took the boards. Then the lensmen,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: still almost a week ahead of schedule, settled down to
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: await the time when he should make his next move.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Nor was his waiting unduly irksome. Now that everything was ready,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: he could be as patient as a cat on duty
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: at a mouse hole. The time came to act, Kinnison
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: took over the mind of the dog, which at once
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: moved over to the bunk in which one particular observer
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: lay asleep. There would be no chance whatever of gaining
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: control of any observer while he was actually on the board.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: But here in barracks it was almost ridiculously easy. The
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: dog crept along on soundless paws, A long, slim nose
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: reached out and up sharp teeth closed delicately upon a
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: battery lead out came the plug, the thought screen went down,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: and instantly Kinnison was in charge of that fellow's mind.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: And when that observer went on duty, his first act
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  Speaker 1: was to admit Kimball Kinnison Gray Lensman to the grand
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: base of Bascon Low and fast. Kinnison flew while the
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: observer so placed his body as to shield from any
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: chance passerby the all too revealing surface of his visiplate.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: In a few minutes, the Lensman reached a portal of
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: the dome itself. Those doors also opened and closed behind him.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: He released the mind of the observer and watched briefly.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Nothing happened. All was still well. Then in every bad
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: derecks save one using whatever came to hand in the
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: way of dog or other unshielded animal, Kinnison wrought briefly
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: but effectively. He did not slay by mental force. He
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: did not have enough of that to spare. But the
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: mere turn of an inconspicuous valve would do just as well.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Some of those now idle men would probably live to
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: answer Helmeth's call to extra duty, but not too many,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: nor would those who obeyed that summons live long thereafter.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Down stairway after stairway, he dived down to the compartment
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: in which was housed the great air purifire. Now let
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: them come, even if they had a spy ray on him.
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  Speaker 1: Now it would be too late to do them a
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  Speaker 1: bit of good. And now, by all the gods of space,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: that fleet had better be out there, getting ready to blast.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: It was from all over the galaxy that Grand Fleet
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: had been assembled. Every patrol base had been stripped of
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: almost everything mobile that could throw a beam. Every vessel
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: carried either a lensman or some other highly trusted officer,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: and each such officer had two detect nullifiers, one upon
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: his person and the other in his locker, either one
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: of which would protect his whole ship from detection. In
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: long lines, singly and at intervals, those untold thousands of
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: ships had crept between the vessels guarding Grand Base. Nor
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: were the outpost crews to blame. They'd been on duty
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: for months, and not even an asteroid had relieved the monotony.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Nothing had happened, or would they watched their plates steadily enough?
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: And if they did nothing more, why should they? And
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: what could they have done? How could they suspect that
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: such a thing as a detector nullifier had even been invented.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: The Patrol's grand fleet then was already massing over its
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: primary objectives, each vessel in a rigidly assigned position. The pilots, captains,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: and navigators were chatting among themselves jerkily and in low tones,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: as though even to raise their voices might reveal prematurely
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: to the enemy. The concentration of the patrol forces. The
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: firing officers were already at their boards, eyeing hungrily the
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: small switches which they could not throw for so many
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: long minutes. Yet, and far below beside the pirate's air purifire,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Kinnison released the locking toggles of his armor and leapt
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: out to burn a hole into the primary duct. Took
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: only a second to drop into that duct its container
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: of thionite, to drench that container with the reagent, which
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: would in sixty seconds dissolve completely that container's substance without
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: effecting either its contents or the metal of the duct.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: To slap a flexible adhesive patch over the hole in
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: the duct, and to leap back into his armor. All
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: these things required only a trifle over one minute eleven
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: minutes to go Qax. Then, in the last barracks. Even
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: while the lensman was arrowing up the stairways, a dog
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: again deprived the sleeping man of his thoughts screen. That man, however,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: instead of going to work, took up a pair of
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: pliers and proceeded to cut the battery leads of every
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: sleeper in the barracks, severing them so close that no
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: connection could be made without removing the armor. As those
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: leads were severed, men woke up and dashed into the dome.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Along catwalk after catwalk they raced, and apparently that was
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: all that they were doing. But each runner, as he
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: passed a man on duty, flicked a battery plug out
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: of its socket, and that observer at Kinnisson's command, opened
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the face plate of his armor and breathed deeply of
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: the now drug laden atmosphere. Thionite, as has been intimated,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: is perhaps the worst of all known habit forming drugs.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: In almost infinitesimal doses, it gives rise to a state
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  Speaker 1: in which the victim seems actually to experience the gratification
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  Speaker 1: of his every desire, whatever that desire may be. The
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: larger the dose, the more intense the sensation, until and
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: very quickly the dosage is reached, at which he passes
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  Speaker 1: into such an ecstatic stupor that not a single nerve
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: can force a stimulus into his frenzied brain, and in
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: this stage he dies. Thus there was no alarm, no outcry,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: no warning. Each observer sat or stood entranced, holding exactly
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the pose he had been in at the instant of
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: opening his face plate. But now instead of paying attention
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: to his duty, he was plunging deeper and deeper into
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the paroxysmally ecstatic profundity of a thionide debauch, from which
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: there was to be no awakening. Therefore, half of that
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: mighty dome was unmanned before Helmuth even realized that anything
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: at all out of order was going on. As soon
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: as he realized that something was amiss, however, he sounded
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the all hands on duty alarm and wrapped out instructions
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  Speaker 1: to the officers and the barracks. But the cloud of
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: death had arrived there first, and to his consternation, not
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: one quarter of those officers responded. Quite a number of
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: men did get into the dome, but every one of
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: them collapsed before reaching the catwalks, and three fourths of
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: his working force were urd de combat before he located
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Kinnison's speeding messengers. Blast them down, Helmuth shrieked, pointing, gesticulating madly,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: blast whomdown. Dominions of the lensmen were themselves blasting away
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: now right and left, shouting contradictory but supposedly authoritative orders.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Blast those men not on duty. Helmuth's raging voice now
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  Speaker 1: filled the dome.
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  Speaker 2: You at board four seventy nine, Blast that man on
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  Speaker 2: catwalk twenty eight at board four ninety five. With such
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  Speaker 2: detailed instructions, Kinnison's agents one by one ceased to be
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  Speaker 2: But as one was beamed down, another took his place,
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  Speaker 2: and soon every one of the few remaining living pirates
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  Speaker 2: in the dome was blasting indiscriminately at every other one.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: And then to cap the.
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  Speaker 1: Saturnalian climax came the zero second. The grand Fleet of
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  Speaker 1: the Galactic Patrol had assembled. Every cruiser, every battleship, every
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: mauler hung poised above its assigned target. Every vessel was
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: stripped for action. Every accumulator cell was full to its
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: ultimate walk. Every generator and every arm was tuned and
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: peaked to its highest attainable efficiency. Every firing officer upon
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: every ship, sat tensely at his board, his hand hovering
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  Speaker 1: near but not touching, his firing keys, his eyes fixed
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: glaringly upon the second hand of his synchronized electric timer,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: his ears scarcely hearing the droning, soothing voice of port
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  Speaker 1: Admiral Haines, for the old man had insisted upon giving
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the firing order him and he sat now at the
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: master timer, speaking into the master microphone. Beside him sat
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: von Hollndorf, the grand old commandant of Cadets. Both of
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: these veterans had thought long since that they were done
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: with space war forever, but only in order of the
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: full Galactic Council could have kept either of them at home.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: They were grimly determined that they were going to be
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: in at the death, even though they were not at
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: all certain whose death it was to be. If it
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: should turn out that it was to be Helmouth's, all
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: well and good, everything would be on the green. If,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, young Kinnison had to go, they
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: would in all probability have to go too, And so
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: be it. Now. Remember, boys, keep your hands off those
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: keys until I give you the word. Haines's soothing voice
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: droned on, giving no hint of the terrific strain he
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: was himself under. I'll give you lots of warning. I'm
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: going to count the last five seconds for you. I
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: know that you all want to shoot the first bolt,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: but remember that I personally will strangle any and every
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: one of you who beats my signal by a thousandth
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: of a second. It won't be long. Now the second
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: hand is starting round on its last lap. Keep your
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: hands off those keys. Keep away from them, I tell you,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: or I'll smack you down. Fifteen seconds yet, stay away, boys,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: let them alone. Going to start counting now. His voice
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: dropped lower and lower. Five four, three, two, one fire,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: he yelled. Perhaps some of the boys did beat the
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: gun a trifle, but not many or much. To all
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: intents and purposes, it was one simultaneous blast of destruction
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: that flashed down from a hundred thousand projectors, each delivering
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: the maximum blast of which it was capable. There was
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: no thought now of service life, of equipment, or of
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: holding anything back for a later effort. They had to
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: hold that blast for only fifteen minutes, and if the
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: task ahead of them could not be done in those
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, it probably could not be done at all. Therefore,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: it is entirely useless even to attempt to describe what
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: happened then, or to portray the spectacle that ensued when
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: beam met screen. Y tried to describe high Sea to
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: a man born death. Suffice it to say that those
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: patrol beams bored down, and that Helmuth's automatic screens resisted
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: to the limit of their ability. Nor was that resistant small.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: It was of such power that, years later astronomers observed
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: and recorded a peculiarly behaving nova in star cluster AC
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: two fifty seven four seven three six. Had Helmuth's customary
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: staff of keen eyed, quick witted lieutenants been at their
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: posts to reinforce those primary screens with the practically unlimited
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: power which could have been put behind them, his defenses
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: would not have failed even under the unimaginable force of
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: that Titanic thrust. But those lieutenants were not at their posts.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: The screens of the twenty six primary objectives failed, and
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the twenty six stupendous flotillas moved slowly, grandly, voraciously along
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: each line designated. Every alarm in Helmuth's dome had burst
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: into frantic warning, as the massed might of the Galactic
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Patrol was first hurled against the twenty six vital points
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: of Grand Base, but those alarms clamored in vain. No
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: hands were raised to the switches, whose closing would unleash
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: the hellish energies of Boscone's irresistible projectors. No eyes were
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: upon the sighting devices which would align them against the
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: attacking ships of war. Only Helmuth, in his inner shielded
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: control compartment was left. And Helmuth was the directing intelligence,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the master mind, and not a mere operator, And now
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: that he had no operators to direct, he was utterly helpless.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: He could see the stupendous fleet of the Patrol, he
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: could understand fully its dire menace, but he could neither
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: stiffen his screens nor energize a single beam. He could
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: only sit grinding his teeth in helpless fury and watch
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: the destruction of the armament, which, if it only could
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: have been in operation, would have blasted those battleships and
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: maulers from the sky as though they'd been so many
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: fluffy bits of thistle down. Time after time, he leaped
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: to his feet, as if about to dash across to
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: one of the control stations, but each time he sank
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: back into his seat at the desk, one firing station
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: would be little, if any, better than none at all.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Besides that, a cursed Lensman was back of this. He
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: was must be right here in the dome somewhere. He
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: wanted him to leave his desk. That was what he
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: was waiting for. As long as he stayed at the desk,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: he himself was safe. For that matter, this whole dome
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: was safe. The projector had never been mounted that could
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: break down those screens. No, no matter what happened, he
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: would stay at his desk. Kinnison watching, marveled at his fortitude.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: He himself could not have stayed there, he knew. He
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: also knew now that Helmuth was going to stay. Time
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: was flying. Five of the fifteen minutes were gone. He
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: had hoped that Helmuth would leave that well protected inner
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: sanctum with its unknown potentialities. But if the pirate would
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: not come out, the Lensman would go in the Storming
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: of that inner stronghold was what his new armor had
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: been designed for. In he went, but he did not
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: catch Helmuth napping. Even before he crashed the screens, his
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: own defensive zones burst into furiously coruscond activity, and through
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: that flame there came tearing the metallic slugs of a
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: high caliber machine rifle. Ha, there was a rifle, even
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: though he had not been able to find it. Clever guy,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: that Helmuth, And what a break that he had taken
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: time to learn how to hold this suit up against
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: the trickiest kind of machine rifle fire. Kinnison's screens were
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: almost those of a battleship, his armor almost relatively as strong,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and he could hold that armor upright. Therefore, through the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: raging beam of the semi portable projector he plowed, and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: straight up that torrent of raging steel he drove his way.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: And now from his own mighty projector against Helmuth's armor,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: there raved out a beam scarcely less potent than that
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: of a semi portable. The Lensman's armour did not mount
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: a water cooled machine rifle. There was a limit to
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: what even that powerful structure could carry. But grimly, with
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: every faculty of his newly enlarged mind concentrated upon that
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: thought screened armored head behind the belching gun, Kinnison held
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: his line and forged a head. Well, it was that
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the Lensman was concentrating upon that screened head. For when
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: the screen weakened slightly and a thought began to seep
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: through it toward an enigmatically sparkling ball of force, Kinnison
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: was ready. He blanketed the thought savagely before it could
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: take form, and he attacked the screen so viciously that
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Helmth had either to restore full coverage instantly or die
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: then and there. For the lensman had studied that ball
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: long and earnestly. It was the one thing about the
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: whole base that he could not understand, the one thing
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: therefore of which he had been uneasily afraid. But he
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: was afraid of it no longer it was operated, he
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: now knew by thought, and no matter how terrific its
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: potentialities might be, it now was and would remain perfectly harmless.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: For if the pirate chief softened his screen enough to
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: emit a thought, he would never think again. Therefore Kinnison
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: rushed at full blast. He hurtled the rifle and crashed
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: full against the armored figure behind it, magnetic clamps locked
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: and held and driving projectors furiously ablaze. He whirled round
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: and forced the madly struggling Helmuth back toward the line
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: along which the bellowing rifle was still spewing forth a
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: continuous storm of metal. Helmuth's utmost efforts sufficed only to
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: throw the Lensmen out of balance, and both figures crashed
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: to the floor. And now the madly fighting armored pair
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: rolled over and over, straight into the line of fire.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: First Kinnison, the bullets whining, shrieking off the armor of
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: his personal battleship, crashing through or smashing ringingly against whatever
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: happened to be in the ever changing line of ricochet.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: And then Helmuth and the fierce driven metal slugs tore
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: in their multitudes through his armor and through his body,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: riddling his every vital organ. End of Galactic Patrol by E. E.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Smith