Space 1889: Carnage on the Canals

While in Syrtis Major (the primary British city on Mars), the explorers receive a telegram from one of their old friends, Dr. Thaddeus Birmingham, a noted but elderly inventor. Birmingham exhorts the adventurers to visit him at his laboratory across the city. Supposedly, Birmingham has stumbled across a new innovation the explorers absolutely must see—a prototype for a miniaturized lightning cannon!