The Invaders Plan

They fired their guns all at once!

Mile-long, eighth-mile wide bands of sustained flame, the kind that lasts a minute glaring in the daylight, and then throws out white clouds, blasted across the sky. It said: GOOD LUCK, JET!

And then the concussion wave hit while the sign flamed!

It was loud enough to be heard by every person in every one of the five cities!

And even the ground was lit up by the glaring light of those letters!

Although I was feeling almost as high as those letters, something nagged at me that this was not quite all right for a secret mission! I couldn't put my finger on it. It just didn't seem fitting somehow. Then I realized what it was. Those pilots and crews up there were missing the party! Flying around up there, they wouldn't get any tup or cakes.

I was about to call this to someone's attention when down they came and, with new blasts, they landed in an open field nearby and out poured the pilots and crews and over they came to the party. So that was handled.

I was feeling a little sorry for the Homeview crews. They were working so hard and yet, really, they weren't getting anything newsworthy. The stuff would never be used. They had lots of films of dancing girls and tup trucks. Why would they show any more? So it was all right. The secrecy of the mission was still intact.

I was gazing down upon what now must be ten thousand Fleet and Apparatus people and had just about decided it was pretty well over when I heard a yell.

Somebody was pointing up and then a lot of people were pointing up and here came a white and gold air limousine. It was an unmistakable vehicle. It had been built as a present from billions of fans on a hundred and ten planets!

The din of the crowd hurt the ears! "It's Hightee Heller!" They chanted her name so loud it almost took the hangar roof off! "Hightee Heller! Hightee Heller! Hightee Heller!" I smiled. I understood now what Jet had meant. A family affair. Of course. How nice of her to come!

The Homeview crane was swooping down.

Hightee Heller danced out of the limousine, throwing kisses. She was dressed as an angel!

Of course. For the christening!

Well, we'd get the christening over and leave. Nothing else of interest could happen.

All five bands and choruses began to sing and play her favorite song.

A special effects truck was drawn up below the review platform and its crew, waving canisters of tup the while, were setting up.

Hightee came dancing up the platform steps. She kissed Heller lightly on the cheek and the crowd screamed "Hightee and Jet!"

"Hightee and Jet!" Then here went the christening!

A great white cloud, by three-dimensional electronic projection, appeared in the sky above. An angel seemed to step out of it – but of course it was just Hightee on the platform furnishing the physical pattern which was projected on the sky.

The crowd screamed with delight!

The white cloud settled over the ship, billowing and curling.

Hightee leaned over on the platform and the three-dimensional image of her, a hundred and fifty feet tall, made an elegant motion over the ship with both hands.

All five bands struck a dramatic chord. Both choruses sang a prolonged note.

The angel cried, "Little ship, I give thee life!" The bands and choruses went silent.

The angel seemed to bend over and kiss the ship upon the nose.

The bands and choruses sounded another chord which ended with a cymbal crash.

Then the angel again spread her hands and cried out, "THY NAME IS NOW PRINCE CAUCALSIA!"The bands and choruses sang with joy.

The crowd went mad!

The Homeview crews got it all!

Some good sense seemed to penetrate my fog. Because it was Hightee Heller here, those Homeview pictures just could get viewed on every screen in a hundred and ten planets. And worse, all you had to do was put that name, "Prince Caucalsia,"on any office or school or museum computer keyboard and you'd get "Folk Legend 894M" and that would point directly to the mission destination, Blito-P3!

Oh, it was a good thing I was powerful enough even to work with such crass amateurs! Superhuman feat, but I could do it.

Besides, Hightee had probably christened other ships. That wouldn't guarantee they would use the pictures. It would take more than that.

The fireworks truck was busy again. The christening had ended with a wild display of daylight fireworks in all colors, visible for miles. And then there was a supernova! It must have been started earlier because now, twenty miles up at least, it burst with a flash that lit up all five cities already brilliantly lit by Voltar's sun. Spectacular!

About a minute later the shattering crash of it made even the ground shake!

Everybody, all the thousands, had drinks in their hands and they were shouting good luck to the Prince Caucalsia.

Hightee flew off to get back to the studio. Well, I guessed it was pretty well over and we'd be leaving. No real damage done, I told myself. The Homeview crew would never use those pictures.

A bunch of mountain dancing bears was performing now.

I was heartened by the fact that Bugs Bu

The dancing bears didn't go away and the crowd loved them.

Suddenly, in the cleared space below, Snelz, my dear friend Snelz, appeared with his company. Good man, Snelz.

His whole company was uniformed splendidly in black. They were wearing their visored combat helmets and carrying blastrifles. A band, accompanied by the Fleet chorus, began to play and sing a march, and to its time, Snelz's company began to go through the most complex set of geometric infantry figures I have ever seen. Squares and crosses and interthreading lines. Then doing it with blastrifles spi

The crowd was impressed. They cheered the conclusion of each difficult pattern.

Then the blastrifles seemed to fire. At the end of a difficult swirl, each time, the blastrifles all banged off a reduced charge. Maneuver, Bang!Maneuver, Bang!On and on. Impressive.

Then suddenly all the rifles seemed to shoot out a flag. And the most difficult patterns of marching yet seen were accompanied by a manual of arms that made floating blurs of color the while.

Then with one final bang, the rifles fired flitter up into the sky. With the whole company going to a knee-present-arms to the ship, the flitter began to float down in sparking bits over the tug.

The crowd went absolutely crazy! They had never before seen drilling like that!

The cheering died when Snelz told his company, "Dismiss!" There was a moment's silence. And through it cut the voice of an Apparatus officer, addressed to the Fleet fliers, "Yeah, yeah! So you Fleet guys think the Apparatus troops can't drill!" There was a silent, electric tension, like a blanket going over the whole crowd.

Then a Fleet pilot said, real loud, "That drill captain is an ex-Fleet marine! He ain't no 'drunk'!" An Apparatus man hit him!

A Fleet pilot hit an Apparatus man!

Twenty Apparatus men hit twenty Fleet men!

A hundred Fleet men hit a hundred Apparatus men!

The fight was on!

The Homeview crews got it all and continued to get it!

Screams sounded!

Canisters flew!

Fleet military police spacers present leaped in to try to stop the fight.

Apparatus military police guards sprang up and tried to stop the fight.