Triplanetary

1948 (Magazine: 1934)

Gharlane, Second of Eddore, is sent to Earth to make sure that Earth's civilisation is squashed and moulded to the Eddorian norm. First Atlantis grows then is destroyed, then Rome rises and is forced under the feet of psychopathic emperors to die in it's turn. Next up is twentieth century Western Civilisation, to be brought down in it's turn in the flame of nuclear exchange. Thinking things secure, Gharlane retreats to Eddore where he attempts to deal with assumed treachery amongst his colleagues on the High Council.

But Earth is not finished! Guided by Arisians disguised as humans, Civilisation is soon recovering and spreading throughout the solar system. Under the leadership of Virgil Samms and Rod Kinnison, the Triplanetary patrol fights a desperate battle against pirates that threaten to hurl Earth back into yet another dark age. Particularly the pirate known as Black Roger who was supposed to have been a super criminal and who had weapons unheard of by the scientists of the patrol, but was really Gharlane, back from Eddore.

When the patrol finally corner his invisible headquarters they were about to destroy it when they discovered that he had the secret of superluminal travel. Fortunately, so did the patrol by now and their new ship is about to set off in pursuit when they are suddenly called back to deal with a new threat - aliens had arrived in Earth's system to take all the iron they could, whether or not it was already in use!

The Arisian presence in the Galaxy had been revealed to Gharlane and he abandons Earth to return to Eddore to attempt to build a defence against Eddore's true Enemy, revealed at long last! 

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Note that when this story was published in 1934, in magazine format, Doc Smith's Lensman universe was not really thought out and the base story was totally separate, and heavily revised in order to fit it into the overall arc. The bits about Atlantis and the three world wars in the twentieth century were written for the book. The part about WW2 was autobiographical.

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