Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930

"That means," said Sarka the Elder in a dead voice, "that by forcing Dalis to go out at the head of his Gens...." "We have," interrupted Sarka the Younger, "placed a new weapon of treason in his hands! Dalis, at the very moment of contact with the aircars, loaded with Moon-men, broke in on their signals--they must have had some means of signalling one another--and communicated with them in their own way! Do you think it possible that, with all his Gens, he may go over to the Moon-men, form an alliance with them?" For many moments no one dared to answer the question; yet, from what the Sarkas knew of him, it was not impossible at all. For Dalis was the master egotist always, and never overlooked opportunity to gain something for himself. It was Jaska who broke the silence. "Did you note carefully," she said, "those aircars which were partially destroyed by our ray directors and atom-disintegrators?" The Sarkas nodded. "Did you note that no men, formed like our own, no creatures of any sort whatever, fell from the cars?" Again the awesome silence, and the keen brains of the Sarkas wrestled with this vague hint of the uncanny. "You mean, Jaska ... you mean...." "That the occupants of aircars are part of the cars, but--Beings of the Moon! That they are either metal monsters endowed with brains or tiny creatures irrevocably attached to the cars themselves!" "But how," said Sarka at last, "are we to be sure? I can understand what Dalis might do if the Moon-men granted his wish for an alliance with them. It is easy to understand why his Gens would follow his lead, for with the Moon forced outward from the Earth faster than his Gens could retreat, there is but one direction for his Gens to go--toward the Moon! They would go to the Moon as captives and trust the keen brain of Dalis to gain the mastery, sooner or later, over the Moon-men. And then...."