Finally, I led my friend into a very spherical chamber. I called it the processing plant, because all our test vehicles were run through every kind of endurance test we had devised in this space.

Wells and I stopped behind a large silvered glass window, which had a metallic tint to it. Wells touched it. A slight tingling greeted his finger tip and he jerked it away. “What’s that?” He exclaimed.

“A slight charge. The whole window is nothing more than an elaborate optical illusion; it is actually a very finely tuned force field that keeps everything above the atomic level out, and if need be, even the subatomic level.”

Wells frowned. “Subatomic?”

I blew on the fake window and a slight mist covered it. I drew what could have been interpreted as the design of our solar system, but it wasn’t. “This is what Tesla and Einstein with the help of Madame Curie have figured out, with a bit of input from yours truly of course.”

Wells laughed. “My dear friend, I do believe your ego is threatening to break this glacier.”

“Ah, were it only so powerful.” I sighed, and then pointed to the sun shape. “The atom, and these planetary shapes, subatomic particles. They are the offshoot of the atom, and just like our sun, the atom flings portions of itself outward to form miniature orbits.”

“I see.” Wells said, his eyebrows threatening to break off his forehead. “In other word it’s like wheels within wheels.”

“Exactly!” I said happily, pounding him enthusiastically on his back. “I knew I did the right thing by showing you this. I think that together we can overcome any kind of physical obstacle these Invaders have thrown against us.”

“In time.” Wells added.

I sobered at those words. “Sometimes a very long time.” I smiled again. “But time is on our side. It’s our planet. Not theirs. They have to live in their artificial shells to survive, we do not.”

Wells frowned at me. “I suspect you have overlooked something, Jules.”