Edward Elmer Smith

The Vortex Blaster Edward Elmer Smith

Book Excerpt: t gets me, what the hell? The quicker it does, the better--the sooner I'll be with Jo.""You believe that?""Implicitly.""The vortices are as good as gone, then. They haven't got any more chance than Boskone has of licking the Patrol.""I'm afraid so," almost glumly. "The only way for it to get me is for me to make a mistake, and I don't feel any coming on.""But what's your angle?" the Lensman asked, interest lighting his eyes. "You can't use the customary attack; your time will be too short.""Like this," and, taking down a sheet of drafting paper, Cloud sketched rapidly. "This is the crater, here, with the vortex at the bottom, there. From the observers' instruments or from a shielded set-up of my own I get my data on mass, emission, maxima, minima, and so on. Then I have them make me three duodec bombs--one on the mark of the activity I'm figuring on shooting at, and one each five percent over and under that figure--cased in neocarballoy of exactly the computed tRead More