The Martian War by Kevin J. Anderson Read Free Book Online Page B

accomplishes everything he can imagine as swiftly as his concepts occur to him.”
    Cavor was a short, broad-shouldered man with thick eyebrows, a stout neck, and hairy forearms. He issued gruff orders, directing the installation of curved milky-white plates onto the armillary framework. The layers of translucent tile were attached like dragon scales to the spherical vessel.
    Cavor noticed the visitors and turned, clapping his meaty hands and shouting to his team. “You! Keep up the work while I meet with Professor Huxley.” The squat man jumped down from his raised podium. Like worker bees, the assistants continued without interruption. Cavor stumped toward them on short legs, his puffy eyes alight. His extraordinarily square chin forced his lower lip to protrude slightly, as if he were about to pout. “An inspection tour, Professor? I assure you, I shall have substantial news to announce for the symposium.”
    “Delighted to hear that, Selwyn. I am simply introducing a protege of mine, a student I taught back at the Normal School. He’ll be joining us for the meeting.”
    Wells reached out, and Cavor’s grease-stained grip was strong and calloused; he wasn’t afraid to do hands-on work himself.
    Glass-blowers pushed molding trays into orange furnaces thatmelted hard substances into a thick paste that was poured into shapes. He could not immediately identify the milky substance or its pearlish translucency; he had never seen a metal, glass, or porcelain with a similar construction. “Next you’re going to tell me that Dr. Cavor is creating invisible iron.”
    “Oh, not invisible,” Cavor said, “but extremely lightweight. I intend to manufacture an incredibly effective armor with sufficient density to stop projectiles, yet virtually without mass.”
    Huxley nodded toward squat Cavor. “Lighter than any substance known, Wells. Perhaps it can be made opaque to gravity itself.”
    Cavor’s brows beetled with deep concentration. “The material remains in an unstable equilibrium state. Its crystalline structure needs to be shocked with an appropriate energy pulse to drive it beyond the structural boundary to that next level.”
    Huxley continued, “With the doctor’s amazing ‘cavorite,’ the British Empire can manufacture feasible and effective ironclads for land or sea.”
    The workers in the manufacturing bay shouted to each other and barely averted disaster as a pulley chain slipped and a section of shaped cavorite swayed unsteadily. Cavor spun in alarm, calling brusquely to his visitors. “I apologize for being impatient, gentlemen, but the symposium approaches and we are on a deadline. My crews have been working around the clock to finish this demonstration sphere. I must get back to work.” He hurried off.
    Shaking his head as the professor led him out of the work room, Wells didn’t know whether to be filled with wonder or skepticism. “All of your people seem to have been reading too much of Monsieur Verne’s fiction.”
    Again Huxley remained serious. “I would not be surprised if the French themselves have an institution similar to this one, and no doubt their Jules Verne is an active part of it. However, Queen Victoria is more concerned with the Second Reich than with the French. That is why we must plan.”

CHAPTER FIVE
FOOTSTEPS IN THE CORRIDOR
    T hat night, Wells retired to his small but comfortable guest room in the secret wing of the Institute. He was no longer a penniless student living with A.V. Jennings in austere rented rooms; now he was a distinguished visitor of T.H. Huxley, accorded the hospitality of the Crown.
    Exhausted both physically and mentally from all he had seen, Wells sat at a small desk under the flickering gaslight glow. He sharpened one of his lead pencils, then got out a clean sheet of paper. His imagination was fired with images, ideas, speculations; he wanted to share them all with Jane, who loved to debate with him and imagine possibilities. What would she think