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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/28832-h.zip b/28832-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b64f75f --- /dev/null +++ b/28832-h.zip diff --git a/28832-h/28832-h.htm b/28832-h/28832-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..907c44b --- /dev/null +++ b/28832-h/28832-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1672 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Sargasso Of Space, by Edmond Hamilton. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +<!-- +p { margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; text-indent: 1.25em; + line-height: 130%;} + + h1 {text-align: center; clear: both; font-size: 2.3em; + font-weight: normal;} + + hr { width: 50%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: 0.8em; text-align: right; + position: absolute; right: 2%; text-indent: 0em; + padding: 1px 1px; font-style: normal; font-family: garamond, serif; + font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; + color: #000; background-color: #CCFF66;} + + .center {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .noin {text-indent: 0em;} + .caps {text-transform: uppercase;} + .dcap {float: left; padding-right: 3px; font-size: 350%; line-height: 80%; + margin: auto;} + + .blockquot {margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 30%; font-size: 90%; + border: black solid 1px;} + .caption {font-weight: normal; text-indent: 0em; font-size: 90%;} + + .tn {background-color: #EEE; padding: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 1em;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} +--> + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sargasso of Space, by Edmond Hamilton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sargasso of Space + +Author: Edmond Hamilton + +Release Date: May 16, 2009 [EBook #28832] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SARGASSO OF SPACE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 370px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="370" height="529" alt="" title="Cover" /> +</div> +<hr /> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="500" height="592" alt="She was floating along the wreck-pack's edge." title="" /> +<span class="caption"><i>She was floating along the wreck-pack's edge.</i></span> +</div> + + + + +<h1>The Sargasso of Space</h1> + +<p class="center"><big><i>By Edmond Hamilton</i></big></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">Helpless, doomed, into the graveyard<br /> of space floats the wrecked<br /> +freighter <i>Pallas</i>. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">C</span><span class="caps">aptain Crain</span> faced his crew calmly. "We may as well face the facts, +men," he said. "The ship's fuel-tanks are empty and we are drifting +through space toward the dead-area."</p> + +<p>The twenty-odd officers and men gathered on the middle-deck of the +freighter <i>Pallas</i> made no answer, and Crain continued:</p> + +<p>"We left Jupiter with full tanks, more than enough fuel to take us to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span>Neptune. But the leaks in the starboard tanks lost us half our supply, +and we had used the other half before discovering that. Since the ship's +rocket-tubes cannot operate without fuel, we are simply drifting. We +would drift on to Neptune if the attraction of Uranus were not pulling +us to the right. That attraction alters our course so that in three +ship-days we shall drift into the dead-area."</p> + +<p>Rance Kent, first-officer of the <i>Pallas</i>, asked a question: "Couldn't +we, raise Neptune with the radio, sir, and have them send out a +fuel-ship in time to reach us?"</p> + +<p>"It's impossible, Mr. Kent," Crain answered. "Our main radio is dead +without fuel to run its dynamotors, and our auxiliary set hasn't the +power to reach Neptune."</p> + +<p>"Why not abandon ship in the space-suits," asked Liggett, the +second-officer, "and trust to the chance of some ship picking us up?"</p> + +<p>The captain shook his head. "It would be quite useless, for we'd simply +drift on through space with the ship into the dead-area."</p> + +<p>The score of members of the crew, bronzed space-sailors out of every +port in the solar system, had listened mutely. Now, one of them, a tall +tube-man, stepped forward a little.</p> + +<p>"Just what is this dead-area, sir?" he asked. "I've heard of it, but as +this is my first outer-planet voyage, I know nothing about it."</p> + +<p>"I'll admit I know little more," said Liggett, "save that a good many +disabled ships have drifted into it and have never come out."</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">"T</span><span class="caps">he</span> dead area," Crain told them, "is a region of space ninety thousand +miles across within Neptune's orbit, in which the ordinary gravitational +attractions of the solar system are dead. This is because in that region +the pulls of the sun and the outer planets exactly balance each other. +Because of that, anything in the dead-area, will stay in there until +time ends, unless it has power of its own. Many wrecked space-ships have +drifted into it at one time or another, none ever emerging; and it's +believed that there is a great mass of wrecks somewhere in the area, +drawn and held together by mutual attraction."</p> + +<p>"And we're drifting in to join them," Kent said. "Some prospect!"</p> + +<p>"Then there's really no chance for us?" asked Liggett keenly.</p> + +<p>Captain Crain thought. "As I see it, very little," he admitted. "If our +auxiliary radio can reach some nearby ship before the <i>Pallas</i> enters +the dead-area, we'll have a chance. But it seems a remote one."</p> + +<p>He addressed himself to the men: "I have laid the situation frankly +before you because I consider you entitled to the truth. You must +remember, however, that while there is life there is hope.</p> + +<p>"There will be no change in ship routine, and the customary watches will +be kept. Half-rations of food and water will be the rule from now on, +though. That is all."</p> + +<p>As the men moved silently off, the captain looked after them with +something of pride.</p> + +<p>"They're taking it like men," he told Kent and Liggett. "It's a pity +there's no way out for them and us."</p> + +<p>"If the <i>Pallas</i> does enter the dead-area and join the wreck-pack," +Liggett said, "how long will we be able to live?"</p> + +<p>"Probably for some months on our present condensed air and food +supplies," Crain answered. "I would prefer, myself, a quicker end."</p> + +<p>"So would I," said Kent. "Well, there's nothing left but to pray for +some kind of ship to cross our path in the next day or two."</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">K</span><span class="caps">ent's</span> prayers were not answered in the next ship-day, nor in the next. +For, though one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> the <i>Pallas'</i> radio-operators was constantly at the +instruments under Captain Crain's orders, the weak calls of the +auxiliary set raised no response.</p> + +<p>Had they been on the Venus or Mars run, Kent told himself, there would +be some chance, but out here in the vast spaces, between the outer +planets, ships were fewer and farther between. The big, cigar-shaped +freighter drifted helplessly on in a broad curve toward the dreaded +area, the green light-speck of Neptune swinging to their left.</p> + +<p>On the third ship-day Kent and Captain Crain stood in the pilot-house +behind Liggett, who sat at the now useless rocket-tube controls. Their +eyes were on the big glass screen of the gravograph. The black dot on it +that represented their ship was crawling steadily toward the bright red +circle that stood for the dead-area....</p> + +<p>They watched silently until the dot had crawled over the circle's red +line, heading toward its center.</p> + +<p>"Well, we're in at last," Kent commented. "There seems to be no change +in anything, either."</p> + +<p>Crain pointed to the instrument-panel. "Look at the gravitometers."</p> + +<p>Kent did. "All dead! No gravitational pull from any direction—no, that +one shows a slight attraction from ahead!"</p> + +<p>"Then gravitational attraction of some sort does exist in the dead-area +after all!" Liggett exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"You don't understand," said Crain. "That attraction from ahead is the +pull of the wreck-pack at the dead-area's center."</p> + +<p>"And it's pulling the <i>Pallas</i> toward it?" Kent exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Crain nodded. "We'll probably reach the wreck-pack in two more +ship-days."</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">T</span><span class="caps">he</span> next two ship-days seemed to Kent drawn out endlessly. A moody +silence had grown upon the officers and men of the ship. All seemed +oppressed by the strange forces of fate that had seized the ship and +were carrying it, smoothly and soundlessly, into this region of +irrevocable doom.</p> + +<p>The radio-operators' vain calls had ceased. The <i>Pallas</i> drifted on into +the dreaded area like some dumb ship laden with damned souls. It drifted +on, Kent told himself, as many a wrecked and disabled ship had done +before it, with the ordinary activities and life of the solar system +forever behind it, and mystery and death ahead.</p> + +<p>It was toward the end of the second of those two ship-days that +Liggett's voice came down from the pilot-house:</p> + +<p>"Wreck-pack in sight ahead!"</p> + +<p>"We've arrived, anyway!" Kent cried, as he and Crain hastened up into +the pilot house. The crew was running to the deck-windows.</p> + +<p>"Right ahead there, about fifteen degrees left," Liggett told Kent and +Crain, pointing. "Do you see it?"</p> + +<p>Kent stared; nodded. The wreck-pack was a distant, disk-like mass +against the star-flecked heavens, a mass that glinted here and there in +the feeble sunlight of space. It did not seem large, but, as they +drifted steadily closer in the next hours, they saw that in reality the +wreck-pack was tremendous, measuring at least fifty miles across.</p> + +<p>Its huge mass was a heterogeneous heap, composed mostly of countless +cigar-like space-ships in all stages of wreckage. Some appeared smashed +almost out of all recognizable shape, while others were, to all +appearances unharmed. They floated together in this dense mass in space, +crowded against one another by their mutual attraction.</p> + +<p>There seemed to be among them every type of ship known in the solar +system, from small, swift mail-boats to big freighters. And,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> as they +drifted nearer, the three in the pilot-house could see that around and +between the ships of the wreck-pack floated much other matter—fragments +of wreckage, meteors, small and large, and space-debris of every sort.</p> + +<p>The <i>Pallas</i> was drifting, not straight toward the wreck-pack, but in a +course that promised to take the ship past it.</p> + +<p>"We're not heading into the wreck-pack!" Liggett exclaimed. "Maybe we'll +drift past it, and on out the dead-area's other side!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">C</span><span class="caps">aptain Crain</span> smiled mirthlessly. "You're forgetting your +space-mechanics, Liggett. We will drift along the wreck-pack's edge, and +then will curve in and go round it in a closing spiral until we reach +its edge."</p> + +<p>"Lord, who'd have thought there were so many wrecks here!" Kent +marvelled. "There must be thousands of them!"</p> + +<p>"They've been collecting here ever since the first interplanetary +rocket-ships went forth," Crain reminded him. "Not only meteor-wrecked +ships, but ships whose mechanisms went wrong—or that ran out of fuel +like ours—or that were captured and sacked, and then set adrift by +space-pirates."</p> + +<p>The <i>Pallas</i> by then was drifting along the wreck-pack's rim at a +half-mile distance, and Kent's eyes were running over the mass.</p> + +<p>"Some of those ships look entirely undamaged. Why couldn't we find one +that has fuel in its tanks, transfer it to our own tanks, and get away?" +he asked.</p> + +<p>Crain's eyes lit. "Kent, that's a real chance! There must be some ships +in that pack with fuel in them, and we can use the space-suits to +explore for them!"</p> + +<p>"Look, we're beginning to curve in around the pack now!" Liggett +exclaimed.</p> + +<p>The <i>Pallas</i>, as though loath to pass the wreck-pack, was curving +inward to follow its rim. In the next hours it continued to sail slowly +around the great pack, approaching closer and closer to its edge.</p> + +<p>In those hours Kent and Crain and all in the ship watched with a +fascinated interest that even knowledge of their own peril could not +kill. They could see swift-lined passenger-ships of the Pluto and +Neptune runs shouldering against small space-yachts with the insignia of +Mars or Venus on their bows. Wrecked freighters from Saturn or Earth +floated beside rotund grain-boats from Jupiter.</p> + +<p>The debris among the pack's wrecks was just as varied, holding fragments +of metal, dark meteors of differing size—and many human bodies. Among +these were some clad in the insulated space-suits, with their +transparent glassite helmets. Kent wondered what wreck they had +abandoned hastily in those suits, only to be swept with it into the +dead-area, to die in their suits.</p> + +<p>By the end of that ship-day, the <i>Pallas</i>, having floated almost +completely around the wreck-pack, finally struck the wrecks at its edge +with a jarring shock; then bobbed for a while and lay still. From +pilot-house and deck windows the men looked eagerly forth.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">T</span><span class="caps">heir</span> ship floated at the wreck-pack's edge. Directly to its right +floated a sleek, shining Uranus-Jupiter passenger-ship whose bows had +been smashed in by a meteor. On their left bobbed an unmarked freighter +of the old type with projecting rocket-tubes, apparently intact. Beyond +them in the wreck-pack lay another Uranus craft, a freighter, and, +beyond it, stretched the countless other wrecks.</p> + +<p>Captain Crain summoned the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> crew together again on the middle-deck.</p> + +<p>"Men, we've reached the wreck-pack at the dead-area's center, and here +we'll stay until the end of time unless we get out under our own power. +Mr. Kent has suggested a possible way of doing so, which I consider +highly feasible.</p> + +<p>"He has suggested that in some of the ships in the wreck-pack may be +found enough fuel to enable us to escape from the dead-area, once it is +transferred to this ship. I am going to permit him to explore the +wreck-pack with a party in space suits, and I am asking for volunteers +for this service."</p> + +<p>The entire crew stepped quickly forward. Crain smiled. "Twelve of you +will be enough," he told them. "The eight tube-men and four of the +cargo-men will go, therefore, with Mr. Kent and Mr. Liggett as leaders. +Mr. Kent, you may address the men if you wish."</p> + +<p>"Get down to the lower airlock and into your space-suits at once, then," +Kent told them. "Mr. Liggett, will you supervise that?"</p> + +<p>As Liggett and the men trooped down to the airlock, Kent turned back +toward his superior.</p> + +<p>"There's a very real chance of your becoming lost in this huge +wreck-pack, Kent," Crain told him: "so be very careful to keep your +bearings at all times. I know I can depend on you."</p> + +<p>"I'll do my best," Kent was saying, when Liggett's excited face +reappeared suddenly at the stair.</p> + +<p>"There are men coming toward the <i>Pallas</i> along the wreck-pack's edge!" +he reported—"a half-dozen men in space-suits!"</p> + +<p>"You must be mistaken, Liggett!" exclaimed Crain. "They must be some of +the bodies in space-suits we saw in the pack."</p> + +<p>"No, they're living men!" Liggett cried. "They're coming straight toward +us—come down and see!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">C</span><span class="caps">rain</span> and Kent followed Liggett quickly down to the airlock room, where +the men who had started donning their space-suits were now peering +excitedly from the windows. Crain and Kent looked where Liggett pointed, +along the wreck-pack's edge to the ship's right.</p> + +<p>Six floating shapes, men in space-suits, were approaching along the +pack's border. They floated smoothly through space, reaching the wrecked +passenger-ship beside the <i>Pallas</i>. They braced their feet against its +side and propelled themselves on through the void like swimmers under +water, toward the <i>Pallas</i>.</p> + +<p>"They must be survivors from some wreck that drifted in here as we did!" +Kent exclaimed. "Maybe they've lived here for months!"</p> + +<p>"It's evident that they saw the <i>Pallas</i> drift into the pack, and have +come to investigate," Crain estimated. "Open the airlock for them, men, +for they'll want to come inside."</p> + +<p>Two of the men spun the wheels that slid aside the airlock's outer door. +In a moment the half-dozen men outside had reached the ship's side, and +had pulled themselves down inside the airlock.</p> + +<p>When all were in, the outer door was closed, and air hissed in to fill +the lock. The airlock's inner door then slid open and the newcomers +stepped into the ship's interior, unscrewing their transparent helmets +as they did so. For a few moments the visitors silently surveyed their +new surroundings.</p> + +<p>Their leader was a swarthy individual with sardonic black eyes who, on +noticing Crain's captain-insignia, came toward him with outstretched +hand. His followers seemed to be cargo-men or deck-men, looking hardly +intelligent enough to Kent's eyes to be tube-men.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">"W</span><span class="caps">elcome</span> to our city!" their leader exclaimed as he shook Crain's hand. +"We saw your ship drift in, but hardly expected to find anyone living in +it."</p> + +<p>"I'll confess that we're surprised ourselves to find any life here," +Crain told him. "You're living on one of the wrecks?"</p> + +<p>The other nodded. "Yes, on the <i>Martian Queen</i>, a quarter-mile along the +pack's edge. It was a Saturn-Neptune passenger ship, and about a month +ago we were at this cursed dead-area's edge, when half our rocket-tubes +exploded. Eighteen of us escaped the explosion, the ship's walls still +being tight; and we drifted into the pack here, and have been living +here ever since."</p> + +<p>"My name's Krell," he added, "and I was a tube-man on the ship. I and +another of the tube-men, named Jandron, were the highest in rank left, +all the officers and other tube-men having been killed, so we took +charge and have been keeping order."</p> + +<p>"What about your passengers?" Liggett asked.</p> + +<p>"All killed but one," Krell answered. "When the tubes let go they +smashed up the whole lower two decks."</p> + +<p>Crain briefly explained to him the <i>Pallas'</i> predicament. "Mr. Kent and +Mr. Liggett were on the point of starting a search of the wreck-pack for +fuel when you arrived," he said, "With enough fuel we can get clear of +the dead-area."</p> + +<p>Krell's eyes lit up. "That would mean a getaway for all of us! It surely +ought to be possible!"</p> + +<p>"Do you know whether there are any ships in the pack with fuel in their +tanks?" Kent asked. Krell shook his head.</p> + +<p>"We've searched through the wreck-pack a good bit, but never bothered +about fuel, it being no good to us. But there ought to be some, at +least: there's enough wrecks in this cursed place to make it possible +to find almost anything.</p> + +<p>"You'd better not start exploring, though," he added, "without some of +us along as guides, for I'm here to tell you that you can lose yourself +in this wreck-pack without knowing it. If you wait until to-morrow, I'll +come over myself and go with you."</p> + +<p>"I think that would be wise," Crain said to Kent. "There is plenty of +time."</p> + +<p>"Time is the one thing there's plenty of in this damned place," Krell +agreed. "We'll be getting back to the <i>Martian Queen</i> now and give the +good news to Jandron and the rest."</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't mind if Liggett and I came along, would you?" Kent asked. "I'd +like to see how your ship's fixed—that is, if it's all right with you, +sir," he added to his superior.</p> + +<p>Crain nodded. "All right if you don't stay long," he said. But, to +Kent's surprise Krell seemed reluctant to endorse his proposal.</p> + +<p>"I guess it'll be all right," he said slowly, "though there's nothing +much on the <i>Martian Queen</i> to see."</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">K</span><span class="caps">rell</span> and his followers replaced their helmets and returned into the +airlock. Liggett followed them, and, as Kent struggled hastily into a +space-suit, he found Captain Crain at his side.</p> + +<p>"Kent, look sharp when you get over on that ship," Crain told him. "I +don't like the look of this Krell, and his story about all the officers +being killed in the explosion sounds fishy to me."</p> + +<p>"To me, too," Kent agreed. "But Liggett and I will have the suit-phones +in our space-suits and can call you from there in case of need."</p> + +<p>Crain nodded, and Kent with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> space-suit on and transparent helmet +screwed tight, stepped into the airlock with the rest. The airlock's +inner door closed, the outer one opened, and as the air puffed out into +space, Kent and Krell and Liggett leapt out into the void, the others +following.</p> + +<p>It was no novelty to Kent to float in a space-suit in the empty void. He +and the others now floated as smoothly as though under water toward a +wrecked liner at the <i>Pallas'</i> right. They reached it, pulled themselves +around it, and, with feet braced against its side, propelled themselves +on through space along the border of the wreck-pack.</p> + +<p>They passed a half-dozen wrecks thus, before coming to the <i>Martian +Queen</i>. It was a silvery, glistening ship whose stern and lower walls +were bulging and strained, but not cracked. Kent told himself that Krell +had spoken truth about the exploding rocket-tubes, at least.</p> + +<p>They struck the <i>Martian Queen's</i> side and entered the upper-airlock +open for them. Once through the airlock they found themselves on the +ship's upper-deck. And when Kent and Liggett removed their helmets with +the others they found a full dozen men confronting them, a brutal-faced +group who exhibited some surprise at sight of them.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">F</span><span class="caps">oremost</span> among them stood a tall, heavy individual who regarded Kent and +Liggett with the cold, suspicious eyes of an animal.</p> + +<p>"My comrade and fellow-ruler here, Wald Jandron," said Krell. To Jandron +he explained rapidly. "The whole crew of the <i>Pallas</i> is alive, and they +say if they can find fuel in the wreck-pack their ship can get out of +here."</p> + +<p>"Good," grunted Jandron. "The sooner they can do it, the better it will +be for us."</p> + +<p>Kent saw Liggett flush angrily, but he ignored Jandron and spoke to +Krell. "You said one of your passengers had escaped the explosion?"</p> + +<p>To Kent's amazement a girl stepped from behind the group of men, a slim +girl with pale face and steady, dark eyes. "I'm the passenger," she told +him. "My name's Marta Mallen."</p> + +<p>Kent and Liggett stared, astounded. "Good Lord!" Kent exclaimed. "A girl +like you on this ship!"</p> + +<p>"Miss Mallen happened to be on the upper-deck at the time of the +explosion and, so, escaped when the other passengers were killed," Krell +explained smoothly. "Isn't that so, Miss Mallen?"</p> + +<p>The girl's eyes had not left Kent's, but at Krell's words she nodded. +"Yes, that is so," she said mechanically.</p> + +<p>Kent collected his whirling thoughts. "But wouldn't you rather go back +to the <i>Pallas</i> with us?" he asked. "I'm sure you'd be more comfortable +there."</p> + +<p>"She doesn't go," grunted Jandron. Kent turned in quick wrath toward +him, but Krell intervened.</p> + +<p>"Jandron only means that Miss Mallen is much more comfortable on this +passenger-ship than she'd be in your freighter." He shot a glance at the +girl as he spoke, and Kent saw her wince.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid that's so," she said; "but I thank you for the offer, Mr. +Kent."</p> + +<p>Kent could have sworn that there was an appeal in her eyes, and he stood +for a moment, indecisive, Jandron's stare upon him. After a moment's +thought he turned to Krell.</p> + +<p>"You were going to show me the damage the exploding tubes did," he said, +and Krell nodded quickly.</p> + +<p>"Of course; you can see from the head of the stair back in the +after-deck."</p> + +<p>He led the way along a corridor,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> Jandron and the girl and two of the +men coming with them. Kent's thoughts were still chaotic as he walked +between Krell and Liggett. What was this girl doing amid the men of the +<i>Martian Queen</i>? What had her eyes tried to tell him?</p> + +<p>Liggett nudged his side in the dim corridor, and Kent, looking down, saw +dark splotches on its metal floor. Blood-stains! His suspicions +strengthened. They might be from the bleeding of those wounded in the +tube-explosions. But were they?</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">T</span><span class="caps">hey</span> reached the after-deck whose stair's head gave a view of the +wrecked tube-rooms beneath. The lower decks had been smashed by terrific +forces. Kent's practiced eyes ran rapidly over the shattered +rocket-tubes.</p> + +<p>"They've back-blasted from being fired too fast," he said. "Who was +controlling the ship when this happened?"</p> + +<p>"Galling, our second-officer," answered Krell. "He had found us routed +too close to the dead-area's edge and was trying to get away from it in +a hurry, when he used the tubes too fast, and half of them +back-blasted."</p> + +<p>"If Galling was at the controls in the pilot-house, how did the +explosion kill him?" asked Liggett skeptically. Krell turned quickly.</p> + +<p>"The shock threw him against the pilot-house wall and fractured his +skull—he died in an hour," he said. Liggett was silent.</p> + +<p>"Well, this ship will never move again," Kent said. "It's too bad that +the explosion blew out your tanks, but we ought to find fuel somewhere +in the wreck-pack for the <i>Pallas</i>. And now we'd best get back."</p> + +<p>As they returned up the dim corridor Kent managed to walk beside Marta +Mallen, and, without being seen, he contrived to detach his +suit-phone—the compact little radiophone case inside his space-suit's +neck—and slip it into the girl's grasp. He dared utter no word of +explanation, but apparently she understood, for she had concealed the +suit-phone by the time they reached the upper-deck.</p> + +<p>Kent and Liggett prepared to don their space-helmets, and before +entering the airlock, Kent turned to Krell.</p> + +<p>"We'll expect you at the <i>Pallas</i> first hour to-morrow, and we'll start +searching the wreck-pack with a dozen of our men," he said.</p> + +<p>He then extended his hand to the girl. "Good-by, Miss Mallen. I hope we +can have a talk soon."</p> + +<p>He had said the words with double meaning, and saw understanding in her +eyes. "I hope we can, too," she said.</p> + +<p>Kent's nod to Jandron went unanswered, and he and Liggett adjusted their +helmets and entered the airlock.</p> + +<p>Once out of it, they kicked rapidly away from the <i>Martian Queen</i>, +floating along with the wreck-pack's huge mass to their right, and only +the star-flecked emptiness of infinity to their left. In a few minutes +they reached the airlock of the <i>Pallas</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">T</span><span class="caps">hey</span> found Captain Crain awaiting them anxiously. Briefly Kent reported +everything.</p> + +<p>"I'm certain there has been foul play aboard the <i>Martian Queen</i>," he +said. "Krell you saw for yourself, Jandron is pure brute, and their men +seem capable of anything.</p> + +<p>"I gave the suit-phone to the girl, however, and if she can call us with +it, we can get the truth from her. She dared not tell me anything there +in the presence of Krell and Jandron."</p> + +<p>Crain nodded, his face grave. "We'll see whether or not she calls," he +said.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span></p><p>Kent took a suit-phone from one of their space-suits and rapidly, tuned +it to match the one he had left with Marta Mallen. Almost at once they +heard her voice from it, and Kent answered rapidly.</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad I got you!" she exclaimed. "Mr. Kent, I dared not tell you +the truth about this ship when you were here, or Krell and the rest +would have killed you at once."</p> + +<p>"I thought that was it, and that's why I left the suit-phone for you," +Kent said. "Just what is the truth?"</p> + +<p>"Krell and Jandron and these men of theirs are the ones who killed the +officers and passengers of the <i>Martian Queen</i>! What they told you about +the explosion was true enough, for the explosion did happen that way, +and because of it, the ship drifted into the dead-area. But the only +ones killed by it were some of the tube-men and three passengers.</p> + +<p>"Then, while the ship was drifting into the dead-area, Krell told the +men that the fewer aboard, the longer they could live on the ship's food +and air. Krell and Jandron led the men in a surprise attack and killed +all the officers and passengers, and threw their bodies out into space. +I was the only passenger they spared, because both Krell and +Jandron—want me!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">T</span><span class="caps">here</span> was a silence, and Kent felt a red anger rising in him. "Have they +dared harm you?" he asked after a moment.</p> + +<p>"No, for Krell and Jandron are too jealous of each other to permit the +other to touch me. But it's been terrible living with them in this awful +place."</p> + +<p>"Ask her if she knows what their plans are in regard to us," Crain told +Kent.</p> + +<p>Marta had apparently overheard the question. "I don't know that, for +they shut me in my cabin as soon as you left," she said. "I've heard +them talking and arguing excitedly, though. I know that if you do find +fuel, they'll try to kill you all and escape from here in your ship."</p> + +<p>"Pleasant prospect," Kent commented. "Do you think they plan an attack +on us now?"</p> + +<p>"No; I think that they'll wait until you've refueled your ship, if you +are able to do that, and then try treachery."</p> + +<p>"Well, they'll find us ready. Miss Mallen, you have the suit-phone: keep +it hidden in your cabin and I'll call you first thing to-morrow. We're +going to get you out of there, but we don't want to break with Krell +until we're ready. Will you be all right until then?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I will," she answered. "There's another thing, though. My +name isn't Miss Mallen—it's Marta."</p> + +<p>"Mine's Rance," said Kent, smiling. "Good-by until to-morrow, then, +Marta."</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Rance."</p> + +<p>Kent rose from the instrument with the smile still in his eyes, but with +his lips compressed. "Damn it, there's the bravest and finest girl in +the solar system!" he exclaimed. "Over there with those brutes!"</p> + +<p>"We'll have her out, never fear," Crain reassured him. "The main thing +is to determine our course toward Krell and Jandron."</p> + +<p>Kent thought. "As I see it, Krell can help us immeasurably in our search +through the wreck-pack for fuel," he said. "I think it would be best to +keep on good terms with him until we've found fuel and have it in our +tanks. Then we can turn the tables on them before they can do anything."</p> + +<p>Crain nodded thoughtfully. "I think you're right. Then you and Liggett +and Krell can head our search-party to-morrow."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span></p><p>Crain established watches on a new schedule, and Kent and Liggett and +the dozen men chosen for the exploring party of the next day ate a +scanty meal and turned in for some sleep.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">W</span><span class="caps">hen</span> Kent woke and glimpsed the massed wrecks through the window he was +for the moment amazed, but rapidly remembered. He and Liggett were +finishing their morning ration when Crain pointed to a window.</p> + +<p>"There comes Krell now," he said, indicating the single space-suited +figure approaching along the wreck-pack's edge.</p> + +<p>"I'll call Marta before he gets here," said Kent hastily.</p> + +<p>The girl answered on the suit-phone immediately, and it occurred to Kent +that she must have spent the night without sleeping. "Krell left a few +minutes ago," she said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he's coming now. You heard nothing of their plans?"</p> + +<p>"No; they've kept me shut in my cabin. However, I did hear Krell giving +Jandron and the rest directions. I'm sure they're plotting something."</p> + +<p>"We're prepared for them," Kent assured her. "If all goes well, before +you realize it, you'll be sailing out of here with us in the <i>Pallas</i>."</p> + +<p>"I hope so," she said. "Rance, be careful with Krell in the wreck-pack. +He's dangerous."</p> + +<p>"I'll be watching him," he promised. "Good-by, Marta."</p> + +<p>Kent reached the lower-deck just as Krell entered from the airlock, his +swarthy face smiling as he removed his helmet. He carried a pointed +steel bar. Liggett and the others were donning their suits.</p> + +<p>"All ready to go, Kent?" Krell asked.</p> + +<p>Kent nodded. "All ready," he said shortly. Since hearing Marta's story +he found it hard to dissimulate with Krell.</p> + +<p>"You'll want bars like mine," Krell continued, "for they're damned +handy when you get jammed between wreckage masses. Exploring this +wreck-pack is no soft job: I can tell you from experience."</p> + +<p>Liggett and the rest had their suits adjusted, and with bars in their +grasp, followed Krell into the airlock. Kent hung back for a last word +with Crain, who, with his half-dozen remaining men, was watching.</p> + +<p>"Marta just told me that Krell and Jandron have been plotting +something," he told the captain; "so I'd keep a close watch outside."</p> + +<p>"Don't worry, Kent. We'll let no one inside the <i>Pallas</i> until you and +Liggett and the men get back."</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">I</span><span class="caps">n</span> a few minutes they were out of the ship, with Krell and Kent and +Liggett leading, and the twelve members of the <i>Pallas'</i> crew following +closely.</p> + +<p>The three leaders climbed up on the Uranus-Jupiter passenger-ship that +lay beside the <i>Pallas</i>, the others moving on and exploring the +neighboring wrecks in parties of two and three. From the top of the +passenger-ship, when they gained it, Kent and his two companions could +look far out over the wreck-pack. It was an extraordinary spectacle, +this stupendous mass of dead ships floating motionless in the depths of +space, with the burning stars above and below them.</p> + +<p>His companions and the other men clambering over the neighboring wrecks +seemed weird figures in their bulky suits and transparent helmets. Kent +looked back at the <i>Pallas</i>, and then along the wreck-pack's edge to +where he could glimpse the silvery side of the <i>Martian Queen</i>. But now +Krell and Liggett were descending into the ship's interior through the +great opening smashed in its bows, and Kent followed.</p> + +<p>They found themselves in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> liner's upper navigation-rooms. Officers +and men lay about, frozen to death at the instant the meteor-struck +vessel's air had rushed out, and the cold of space had entered. Krell +led the way on, down into the ship's lower decks, where they found the +bodies of the crew and passengers lying in the same silent death.</p> + +<p>The salons held beautifully-dressed women, distinguished-looking men, +lying about as the meteor's shock had hurled them. One group lay around +a card-table, their game interrupted. A woman still held a small child, +both seemingly asleep. Kent tried to shake off the oppression he felt as +he and Krell and Liggett continued down to the tank-rooms.</p> + +<p>They found their quest there useless, for the tanks had been strained by +the meteor's shock, and were empty. Kent felt Liggett grasp his hand and +heard him speak, the sound-vibrations coming through their contacting +suits.</p> + +<p>"Nothing here; and we'll find it much the same through all these wrecks, +if I'm not wrong. Tanks always give at a shock."</p> + +<p>"There must be some ships with fuel still in them among all these," Kent +answered.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">T</span><span class="caps">hey</span> climbed back, up to the ship's top, and leapt off it toward a +Jupiter freighter lying a little farther inside the pack. As they +floated toward it, Kent saw their men moving on with them from ship to +ship, progressing inward into the pack. Both Kent and Liggett kept Krell +always ahead of them, knowing that a blow from his bar, shattering their +glassite helmets, meant instant death. But Krell seemed quite intent on +the search for fuel.</p> + +<p>The big Jupiter freighter seemed intact from above, but, when they +penetrated into it, they found its whole under-side blown away, +apparently by an explosion of its tanks. They moved on to the next ship, +a private space-yacht, small in size, but luxurious in fittings. It had +been abandoned in space, its rocket-tubes burst and tanks strained.</p> + +<p>They went on, working deeper into the wreck-pack. Kent almost forgot the +paramount importance of their search in the fascination of it. They +explored almost every known type of ship—freighters, liners, +cold-storage boats, and grain-boats. Once Kent's hopes ran high at sight +of a fuel-ship, but it proved to be in ballast, its cargo-tanks empty +and its own tanks and tubes apparently blown simultaneously.</p> + +<p>Kent's muscles ached from the arduous work of climbing over and +exploring the wrecks. He and Liggett had become accustomed to the sight +of frozen, motionless bodies.</p> + +<p>As they worked deeper into the pack, they noticed that the ships were of +increasingly older types, and at last Krell signalled a halt. "We're +almost a mile in," he told them, gripping their hands. "We'd better work +back out, taking a different section of the pack as we do."</p> + +<p>Kent nodded. "It may change our luck," he said.</p> + +<p>It did; for when they had gone not more than a half-mile back, they +glimpsed one of their men waving excitedly from the top of a Pluto +liner.</p> + +<p>They hastened at once toward him, the other men gathering also; and when +Kent grasped the man's hand he heard his excited voice.</p> + +<p>"Fuel-tanks here are more than half-full, sir!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">T</span><span class="caps">hey</span> descended quickly into the liner, finding that though its whole +stern had been sheared away by a meteor, its tanks had remained +miraculously unstrained.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span></p><p>"Enough fuel here to take the <i>Pallas</i> to Neptune!" Kent exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"How will you get it over to your ship?" Krell asked. Kent pointed to +great reels of flexible metal tubing hanging near the tanks.</p> + +<p>"We'll pump it over. The <i>Pallas</i> has tubing like this ship's, for +taking on fuel in space, and, by joining its tubing to this, we'll have +a tube-line between the two ships. It's hardly more than a +quarter-mile."</p> + +<p>"Let's get back and let them know about it," Liggett urged, and they +climbed back out of the liner.</p> + +<p>They worked their way out of the wreck-pack with much greater speed than +that with which they had entered, needing only an occasional brace +against a ship's side to send them floating over the wrecks. They came +to the wreck-pack's edge at a little distance from the <i>Pallas</i>, and +hastened toward it.</p> + +<p>They found the outer door of the <i>Pallas'</i> airlock open, and entered, +Krell remaining with them. As the outer door closed and air hissed into +the lock, Kent and the rest removed their helmets. The inner door slid +open as they were doing this, and from inside almost a score of men +leapt upon them!</p> + +<p>Kent, stunned for a moment, saw Jandron among their attackers, bellowing +orders to them, and even as he struck out furiously he comprehended. +Jandron and the men of the <i>Martian Queen</i> had somehow captured the +<i>Pallas</i> from Crain and had been awaiting their return!</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">T</span><span class="caps">he</span> struggle was almost instantly over, for, outnumbered and hampered as +they were by their heavy space-suits, Kent and Liggett and their +followers had no chance. Their hands, still in the suits, were bound +quickly behind them at Jandron's orders.</p> + +<p>Kent heard an exclamation, and saw Marta starting toward him from +behind Jandron's men. But a sweep of Jandron's arm brushed her rudely +back. Kent strained madly at his bonds. Krell's face had a triumphant +look.</p> + +<p>"Did it all work as I told you it would, Jandron?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"It worked," Jandron answered impassively. "When they saw fifteen of us +coming from the wreck-pack in space-suits, they opened right up to us."</p> + +<p>Kent understood, and cursed Krell's cunning. Crain, seeing the fifteen +figures approaching from the wreck-pack, had naturally thought they were +Kent's party, and had let them enter to overwhelm his half-dozen men.</p> + +<p>"We put Crain and his men over in the <i>Martian Queen</i>," Jandron +continued, "and took all their helmets so they can't escape. The girl we +brought over here. Did you find a wreck with fuel?"</p> + +<p>Krell nodded. "A Pluto liner a quarter-mile back, and we can pump the +fuel over here by connecting tube-lines. What the devil—"</p> + +<p>Jandron had made a signal at which three of his men had leapt forward on +Krell, securing his hands like those of the others.</p> + +<p>"Have you gone crazy, Jandron?" cried Krell, his face red with anger and +surprise.</p> + +<p>"No," Jandron replied impassively; "but the men are as tired as I am of +your bossing ways, and have chosen me as their sole leader."</p> + +<p>"You dirty double-crosser!" Krell raged. "Are you men going to let him +get away with this?"</p> + +<p>The men paid no attention, and Jandron motioned to the airlock. "Take +them over to the <i>Martian Queen</i> too," he ordered, "and make sure +there's no space-helmet left there. Then get back at once, for we've got +to get the fuel into this ship and make a getaway."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">T</span><span class="caps">he</span> helmets of Kent and Krell and the other helpless prisoners were put +upon them, and, with hands still bound, they were herded into the +airlock by eight of Jandron's men attired in space-suits also. The +prisoners were then joined one to another by a strand of metal cable.</p> + +<p>Kent, glancing back into the ship as the airlock's inner door closed, +saw Jandron giving rapid orders to his followers, and noticed Marta held +back from the airlock by one of them. Krell's eyes glittered venomously +through his helmet. The outer door opened, and their guards jerked them +forth into space by the connecting cable.</p> + +<p>They were towed helplessly along the wreck-pack's rim toward the +<i>Martian Queen</i>. Once inside its airlock, Jandron's men removed the +prisoners' space-helmets and then used the duplicate-control inside the +airlock itself to open the inner door. Through this opening they thrust +the captives, those inside the ship not daring to enter the airlock. +Jandron's men then closed the inner door, re-opened the outer one, and +started back toward the <i>Pallas</i> with the helmets of Kent and his +companions.</p> + +<p>Kent and the others soon found Crain and his half-dozen men who rapidly +undid their bonds. Crain's men still wore their space-suits, but, like +Kent's companions, were without space-helmets.</p> + +<p>"Kent, I was afraid they'd get you and your men too!" Crain exclaimed. +"It's all my fault, for when I saw Jandron and his men coming from the +wreck-pack I never doubted but that it was you."</p> + +<p>"It's no one's fault," Kent told him. "It's just something that we +couldn't foresee."</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">C</span><span class="caps">rain's</span> eyes fell on Krell. "But what's he doing here?" he exclaimed. +Kent briefly explained Jandron's treachery toward Krell, and Crain's +brows drew ominously together.</p> + +<p>"So Jandron put you here with us! Krell, I am a commissioned captain of +a space-ship, and as such can legally try you and sentence you to death +here without further formalities."</p> + +<p>Krell did not answer, but Kent intervened. "There's hardly time for that +now, sir," he said. "I'm as anxious to settle with Krell as anyone, but +right now our main enemy is Jandron, and Krell hates Jandron worse than +we do, if I'm not mistaken."</p> + +<p>"You're not," said Krell grimly. "All I want right now is to get within +reach of Jandron."</p> + +<p>"There's small chance of any of us doing that," Crain told them. +"There's not a single space-helmet on the <i>Martian Queen</i>."</p> + +<p>"You've searched?" Liggett asked.</p> + +<p>"Every cubic inch of the ship," Crain told him. "No, Jandron's men made +sure there were no helmets left here, and without helmets this ship is +an inescapable prison."</p> + +<p>"Damn it, there must be some way out!" Kent exclaimed. "Why, Jandron and +his men must be starting to pump that fuel into the <i>Pallas</i> by now! +They'll be sailing off as soon as they do it!"</p> + +<p>Crain's face was sad. "I'm afraid this is the end, Kent. Without +helmets, the space between the <i>Martian Queen</i> and the <i>Pallas</i> is a +greater barrier to us than a mile-thick wall of steel. In this ship +we'll stay, until the air and food give out, and death releases us."</p> + +<p>"Damn it, I'm not thinking of myself!" Kent cried. "I'm thinking of +Marta! The <i>Pallas</i> will sail out of here with her in Jandron's power!"</p> + +<p>"The girl!" Liggett exclaimed. "If she could bring us over space-helmets +from the <i>Pallas</i> we could get out of here!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span></p><p>Kent was thoughtful. "If we could talk to her—she must still have that +suit-phone I gave her. Where's another?"</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">C</span><span class="caps">rain</span> quickly detached the compact suit-phone from inside the neck of +his own space-suit, and Kent rapidly tuned it to the one he had given +Marta Mallen. His heart leapt as her voice came instantly from it:</p> + +<p>"Rance! Rance Kent—"</p> + +<p>"Marta—this is Rance!" he cried.</p> + +<p>He heard a sob of relief. "I've been calling you for minutes! I was +hoping that you'd remember to listen!</p> + +<p>"Jandron and ten of the others have gone to that wreck in which you +found the fuel," she added swiftly. "They unreeled a tube-line behind +them as they went, and I can hear them pumping in the fuel now."</p> + +<p>"Are the others guarding you?" Kent asked quickly.</p> + +<p>"They're down in the lower deck at the tanks and airlocks. They won't +allow me down on that deck. I'm up here in the middle-deck, absolutely +alone.</p> + +<p>"Jandron told me that we'd start out of here as soon as the fuel was +in," she added, "and he and the men were laughing about Krell."</p> + +<p>"Marta, could you in any way get space-helmets and get out to bring them +over here to us?" Kent asked eagerly.</p> + +<p>"There's a lot of space-suits and helmets here," she answered, "but I +couldn't get out with them, Rance! I couldn't get to the airlocks with +Jandron's seven or eight men down there guarding them!"</p> + +<p>Kent felt despair; then as an idea suddenly flamed in him, he almost +shouted into the instrument:</p> + +<p>"Marta, unless you can get over here with helmets for us, we're all +lost. I want you to put on a space-suit and helmet at once!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">T</span><span class="caps">here</span> was a short silence, and then her voice came, a little muffled. +"I've got the suit and helmet on, Rance. I'm wearing the suit-phone +inside it."</p> + +<p>"Good! Now, can you get up to the pilot-house? There's no one guarding +it or the upper-deck? Hurry up there, then, at once."</p> + +<p>Crain and the rest were staring at Kent. "Kent, what are you going to +have her do?" Crain exclaimed. "It'll do no good for her to start the +<i>Pallas</i>: those guards will be up there in a minute!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to have her start the <i>Pallas</i>," said Kent grimly. +"Marta, you're in the pilot-house? Do you see the heavy little steel +door in the wall beside the instrument-panel?"</p> + +<p>"I'm at it, but it's locked with a combination-lock," she said.</p> + +<p>"The combination is 6–34–77–81," Kent told her swiftly. "Open it as +quickly as you can."</p> + +<p>"Good God, Kent!" cried Crain. "You're going to have her—?"</p> + +<p>"Get out of there the only way she can!" Kent finished fiercely. "You +have the door open, Marta?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; there are six or seven control-wheels inside."</p> + +<p>"Those wheels control the <i>Pallas'</i> exhaust-valves," Kent told her. +"Each wheel opens the valves of one of the ship's decks or compartments +and allows its air to escape into space. They're used for testing leaks +in the different deck and compartment divisions. Marta, you must turn +all those wheels as far as you can to the right."</p> + +<p>"But all the ship's air will rush out; the guards below have no suits +on, and they'll be—" she was exclaiming. Kent interrupted.</p> + +<p>"It's the only chance for you, for all of us. Turn them!"</p> + +<p>There was a moment of silence, and Kent was going to repeat the order +when her voice came, lower in tone, a little strange:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span></p><p>"I understand, Rance. I'm going to turn them."</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">T</span><span class="caps">here</span> was silence again, and Kent and the men grouped round him were +tense. All were envisioning the same thing—the air rushing out of the +<i>Pallas'</i> valves, and the unsuspecting guards in its lower deck smitten +suddenly by an instantaneous death.</p> + +<p>Then Marta's voice, almost a sob: "I turned them, Rance. The air puffed +out all around me."</p> + +<p>"Your space-suit is working all right?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly," she said.</p> + +<p>"Then go down and tie together as many space-helmets as you can manage, +get out of the airlock, and try to get over here to the <i>Martian Queen</i> +with them. Do you think you can do that, Marta?"</p> + +<p>"I'm going to try," she said steadily. "But I'll have to pass those men +in the lower-deck I just—killed. Don't be anxious if I don't talk for a +little."</p> + +<p>Yet her voice came again almost immediately. "Rance, the pumping has +stopped! They must have pumped all the fuel into the <i>Pallas</i>!"</p> + +<p>"Then Jandron and the rest will be coming back to the <i>Pallas</i> at once!" +Kent cried. "Hurry, Marta!"</p> + +<p>The suit-phone was silent; and Kent and the rest, their faces closely +pressed against the deck-windows, peered intently along the wreck-pack's +edge. The <i>Pallas</i> was hidden from their view by the wrecks between, and +there was no sign as yet of the girl.</p> + +<p>Kent felt his heart beating rapidly. Crain and Liggett pressed beside +him, the men around them; Krell's face was a mask as he too gazed. Kent +was rapidly becoming convinced that some mischance had overtaken the +girl when an exclamation came from Liggett. He pointed excitedly.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">S</span><span class="caps">he</span> was in sight, unrecognizable in space-suit and helmet, floating +along the wreck-pack's edge toward them. A mass of the glassite +space-helmets tied together was in her grasp. She climbed bravely over +the stern of a projecting wreck and shot on toward the <i>Martian Queen</i>.</p> + +<p>The airlock's door was open for her, and, when she was inside it, the +outer door closed and air hissed into the lock. In a moment she was in +among them, still clinging to the helmets. Kent grasped her swaying +figure and removed her helmet.</p> + +<p>"Marta, you're all right?" he cried. She nodded a little weakly.</p> + +<p>"I'm all right. It was just that I had to go over those guards that were +all frozen.... Terrible!"</p> + +<p>"Get these helmets on!" Crain was crying. "There's a dozen of them, and +twelve of us can stop Jandron's men if we get back in time!"</p> + +<p>Kent and Liggett and the nearer of their men were swiftly donning the +helmets. Krell grasped one and Crain sought to snatch it.</p> + +<p>"Let that go! We'll not have you with us when we haven't enough helmets +for our own men!"</p> + +<p>"You'll have me or kill me here!" Krell cried, his eyes hate-mad. "I've +got my own account to settle with Jandron!"</p> + +<p>"Let him have it!" Liggett cried. "We've no time now to argue!"</p> + +<p>Kent reached toward the girl. "Marta, give one of the men your helmet," +he ordered; but she shook her head.</p> + +<p>"I'm going with you!" Before Kent could dispute she had the helmet on +again, and Crain was pushing them into the airlock. The nine or ten left +inside without helmets hastily thrust steel bars into the men's hands +before the inner door closed. The outer one opened and they leapt forth +into space, floating smoothly along the wreck-pack's border with bars in +their grasp, thirteen strong.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span></p><p>Kent found the slowness with which they floated forward torturing. He +glimpsed Crain and Liggett ahead, Marta beside him, Krell floating +behind him to the left. They reached the projecting freighters, climbed +over and around them, braced against them and shot on. They sighted the +<i>Pallas</i> ahead now. Suddenly they discerned another group of eleven +figures in space-suits approaching it from the wreck-pack's interior, +rolling up the tube-line that led from the <i>Pallas</i> as they did so. +Jandron's party!</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">J</span><span class="caps">andron</span> and his men had seen them and were suddenly making greater +efforts to reach the <i>Pallas</i>. Kent and his companions, propelling +themselves frenziedly on from another wreck, reached the ship's side at +the same time as Jandron's men. The two groups mixed and mingled, +twisted and turned in a mad space-combat.</p> + +<p>Kent had been grasped by one of Jandron's men and raised his bar to +crack the other's glassite helmet. His opponent caught the bar, and they +struggled, twisting and turning over and over far up in space amid a +half-score similar struggles. Kent wrenched his bar free at last from +the other's grasp and brought it down on his helmet. The glassite +cracked, and he caught a glimpse of the man's hate-distorted face frozen +instantly in death.</p> + +<p>Kent released him and propelled himself toward a struggling trio nearby. +As he floated toward them, he saw Jandron beyond them making wild +gestures of command and saw Krell approaching Jandron with upraised bar. +Kent, on reaching the three combatants, found them to be two of +Jandron's men overcoming Crain. He shattered one's helmet as he reached +them, but saw the other's bar go up for a blow.</p> + +<p>Kent twisted frantically, uselessly, to escape it, but before the blow +could descend a bar shattered his opponent's helmet from behind. As the +man froze in instant death Kent saw that it was Marta who had struck him +from behind. He jerked her to his side. The struggles in space around +them seemed to be ending.</p> + +<p>Six of Jandron's party had been slain, and three of Kent's companions. +Jandron's four other followers were giving up the combat, floating off +into the wreck-pack in clumsy, hasty flight. Someone grasped Kent's arm, +and he turned to find it was Liggett.</p> + +<p>"They're beaten!" Liggett's voice came to him! "They're all killed but +those four!"</p> + +<p>"What about Jandron himself?" Kent cried. Liggett pointed to two +space-suited bodies twisting together in space, with bars still in their +lifeless grasp.</p> + +<p>Kent saw through their shattered helmets the stiffened faces of Jandron +and Krell, their helmets having apparently been broken by each other's +simultaneous blows.</p> + +<p>Crain had gripped Kent's arm also. "Kent, it's over!" he was exclaiming. +"Liggett and I will close the <i>Pallas'</i> exhaust-valves and release new +air in it. You take over helmets for the rest of our men in the <i>Martian +Queen</i>."</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p class="noin"><span class="dcap">I</span><span class="caps">n</span> several minutes Kent was back with the men from the <i>Martian Queen</i>. +The <i>Pallas</i> was ready, with Liggett in its pilot-house, the men taking +their stations, and Crain and Marta awaiting Kent.</p> + +<p>"We've enough fuel to take us out of the dead-area and to Neptune +without trouble!" Crain declared. "But what about those four of +Jandron's men that got away?"</p> + +<p>"The best we can do is leave them here," Kent told him. "Best for them, +too, for at Neptune they'd be executed, while they can live indefinitely +in the wreck-pack."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span></p><p>"I've seen so many men killed on the <i>Martian Queen</i> and here," pleaded +Marta. "Please don't take them to Neptune."</p> + +<p>"All right, we'll leave them," Crain agreed, "though the scoundrels +ought to meet justice." He hastened up to the pilot-house after Liggett.</p> + +<p>In a moment came the familiar blast of the rocket-tubes, and the +<i>Pallas</i> shot out cleanly from the wreck-pack's edge. A scattered cheer +came from the crew. With gathering speed the ship arrowed out, its +rocket-tubes blasting now in steady succession.</p> + +<p>Kent, with his arm across Marta's shoulders, watched the wreck-pack grow +smaller behind. It lay as when he first had seen it, a strange great +mass, floating forever motionless among the brilliant stars. He felt the +girl beside him shiver, and swung her quickly around.</p> + +<p>"Let's not look back or remember now, Marta!" he said. "Let's look +ahead."</p> + +<p>She nestled closer inside his arm. "Yes, Rance. Let's look ahead."</p> + +<hr /> +<div class="tn"> +<p class="center"><big><b>Transcriber’s Note</b></big></p> +<p class="noin">This etext was produced from Astounding Stories September 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the +U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Sargasso of Space, by Edmond Hamilton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SARGASSO OF SPACE *** + +***** This file should be named 28832-h.htm or 28832-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/8/3/28832/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/28832-h/images/cover.jpg b/28832-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b2757b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/28832-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/28832-h/images/frontis.jpg b/28832-h/images/frontis.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..89a785d --- /dev/null +++ b/28832-h/images/frontis.jpg diff --git a/28832.txt b/28832.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c462d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/28832.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1591 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sargasso of Space, by Edmond Hamilton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sargasso of Space + +Author: Edmond Hamilton + +Release Date: May 16, 2009 [EBook #28832] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SARGASSO OF SPACE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note + + This etext was produced from Astounding Stories September 1931. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright + on this publication was renewed. + +[Illustration: She was floating along the wreck-pack's edge.] + + + + +The Sargasso of Space + +_By Edmond Hamilton_ + + Helpless, doomed, into the graveyard of space floats the wrecked + freighter _Pallas_. + + +Captain Crain faced his crew calmly. "We may as well face the facts, +men," he said. "The ship's fuel-tanks are empty and we are drifting +through space toward the dead-area." + +The twenty-odd officers and men gathered on the middle-deck of the +freighter _Pallas_ made no answer, and Crain continued: + +"We left Jupiter with full tanks, more than enough fuel to take us to +Neptune. But the leaks in the starboard tanks lost us half our supply, +and we had used the other half before discovering that. Since the ship's +rocket-tubes cannot operate without fuel, we are simply drifting. We +would drift on to Neptune if the attraction of Uranus were not pulling +us to the right. That attraction alters our course so that in three +ship-days we shall drift into the dead-area." + +Rance Kent, first-officer of the _Pallas_, asked a question: "Couldn't +we, raise Neptune with the radio, sir, and have them send out a +fuel-ship in time to reach us?" + +"It's impossible, Mr. Kent," Crain answered. "Our main radio is dead +without fuel to run its dynamotors, and our auxiliary set hasn't the +power to reach Neptune." + +"Why not abandon ship in the space-suits," asked Liggett, the +second-officer, "and trust to the chance of some ship picking us up?" + +The captain shook his head. "It would be quite useless, for we'd simply +drift on through space with the ship into the dead-area." + +The score of members of the crew, bronzed space-sailors out of every +port in the solar system, had listened mutely. Now, one of them, a tall +tube-man, stepped forward a little. + +"Just what is this dead-area, sir?" he asked. "I've heard of it, but as +this is my first outer-planet voyage, I know nothing about it." + +"I'll admit I know little more," said Liggett, "save that a good many +disabled ships have drifted into it and have never come out." + + * * * * * + +"The dead area," Crain told them, "is a region of space ninety thousand +miles across within Neptune's orbit, in which the ordinary gravitational +attractions of the solar system are dead. This is because in that region +the pulls of the sun and the outer planets exactly balance each other. +Because of that, anything in the dead-area, will stay in there until +time ends, unless it has power of its own. Many wrecked space-ships have +drifted into it at one time or another, none ever emerging; and it's +believed that there is a great mass of wrecks somewhere in the area, +drawn and held together by mutual attraction." + +"And we're drifting in to join them," Kent said. "Some prospect!" + +"Then there's really no chance for us?" asked Liggett keenly. + +Captain Crain thought. "As I see it, very little," he admitted. "If our +auxiliary radio can reach some nearby ship before the _Pallas_ enters +the dead-area, we'll have a chance. But it seems a remote one." + +He addressed himself to the men: "I have laid the situation frankly +before you because I consider you entitled to the truth. You must +remember, however, that while there is life there is hope. + +"There will be no change in ship routine, and the customary watches will +be kept. Half-rations of food and water will be the rule from now on, +though. That is all." + +As the men moved silently off, the captain looked after them with +something of pride. + +"They're taking it like men," he told Kent and Liggett. "It's a pity +there's no way out for them and us." + +"If the _Pallas_ does enter the dead-area and join the wreck-pack," +Liggett said, "how long will we be able to live?" + +"Probably for some months on our present condensed air and food +supplies," Crain answered. "I would prefer, myself, a quicker end." + +"So would I," said Kent. "Well, there's nothing left but to pray for +some kind of ship to cross our path in the next day or two." + + * * * * * + +Kent's prayers were not answered in the next ship-day, nor in the next. +For, though one of the _Pallas'_ radio-operators was constantly at the +instruments under Captain Crain's orders, the weak calls of the +auxiliary set raised no response. + +Had they been on the Venus or Mars run, Kent told himself, there would +be some chance, but out here in the vast spaces, between the outer +planets, ships were fewer and farther between. The big, cigar-shaped +freighter drifted helplessly on in a broad curve toward the dreaded +area, the green light-speck of Neptune swinging to their left. + +On the third ship-day Kent and Captain Crain stood in the pilot-house +behind Liggett, who sat at the now useless rocket-tube controls. Their +eyes were on the big glass screen of the gravograph. The black dot on it +that represented their ship was crawling steadily toward the bright red +circle that stood for the dead-area.... + +They watched silently until the dot had crawled over the circle's red +line, heading toward its center. + +"Well, we're in at last," Kent commented. "There seems to be no change +in anything, either." + +Crain pointed to the instrument-panel. "Look at the gravitometers." + +Kent did. "All dead! No gravitational pull from any direction--no, that +one shows a slight attraction from ahead!" + +"Then gravitational attraction of some sort does exist in the dead-area +after all!" Liggett exclaimed. + +"You don't understand," said Crain. "That attraction from ahead is the +pull of the wreck-pack at the dead-area's center." + +"And it's pulling the _Pallas_ toward it?" Kent exclaimed. + +Crain nodded. "We'll probably reach the wreck-pack in two more +ship-days." + + * * * * * + +The next two ship-days seemed to Kent drawn out endlessly. A moody +silence had grown upon the officers and men of the ship. All seemed +oppressed by the strange forces of fate that had seized the ship and +were carrying it, smoothly and soundlessly, into this region of +irrevocable doom. + +The radio-operators' vain calls had ceased. The _Pallas_ drifted on into +the dreaded area like some dumb ship laden with damned souls. It drifted +on, Kent told himself, as many a wrecked and disabled ship had done +before it, with the ordinary activities and life of the solar system +forever behind it, and mystery and death ahead. + +It was toward the end of the second of those two ship-days that +Liggett's voice came down from the pilot-house: + +"Wreck-pack in sight ahead!" + +"We've arrived, anyway!" Kent cried, as he and Crain hastened up into +the pilot house. The crew was running to the deck-windows. + +"Right ahead there, about fifteen degrees left," Liggett told Kent and +Crain, pointing. "Do you see it?" + +Kent stared; nodded. The wreck-pack was a distant, disk-like mass +against the star-flecked heavens, a mass that glinted here and there in +the feeble sunlight of space. It did not seem large, but, as they +drifted steadily closer in the next hours, they saw that in reality the +wreck-pack was tremendous, measuring at least fifty miles across. + +Its huge mass was a heterogeneous heap, composed mostly of countless +cigar-like space-ships in all stages of wreckage. Some appeared smashed +almost out of all recognizable shape, while others were, to all +appearances unharmed. They floated together in this dense mass in space, +crowded against one another by their mutual attraction. + +There seemed to be among them every type of ship known in the solar +system, from small, swift mail-boats to big freighters. And, as they +drifted nearer, the three in the pilot-house could see that around and +between the ships of the wreck-pack floated much other matter--fragments +of wreckage, meteors, small and large, and space-debris of every sort. + +The _Pallas_ was drifting, not straight toward the wreck-pack, but in a +course that promised to take the ship past it. + +"We're not heading into the wreck-pack!" Liggett exclaimed. "Maybe we'll +drift past it, and on out the dead-area's other side!" + + * * * * * + +Captain Crain smiled mirthlessly. "You're forgetting your +space-mechanics, Liggett. We will drift along the wreck-pack's edge, and +then will curve in and go round it in a closing spiral until we reach +its edge." + +"Lord, who'd have thought there were so many wrecks here!" Kent +marvelled. "There must be thousands of them!" + +"They've been collecting here ever since the first interplanetary +rocket-ships went forth," Crain reminded him. "Not only meteor-wrecked +ships, but ships whose mechanisms went wrong--or that ran out of fuel +like ours--or that were captured and sacked, and then set adrift by +space-pirates." + +The _Pallas_ by then was drifting along the wreck-pack's rim at a +half-mile distance, and Kent's eyes were running over the mass. + +"Some of those ships look entirely undamaged. Why couldn't we find one +that has fuel in its tanks, transfer it to our own tanks, and get away?" +he asked. + +Crain's eyes lit. "Kent, that's a real chance! There must be some ships +in that pack with fuel in them, and we can use the space-suits to +explore for them!" + +"Look, we're beginning to curve in around the pack now!" Liggett +exclaimed. + +The _Pallas_, as though loath to pass the wreck-pack, was curving +inward to follow its rim. In the next hours it continued to sail slowly +around the great pack, approaching closer and closer to its edge. + +In those hours Kent and Crain and all in the ship watched with a +fascinated interest that even knowledge of their own peril could not +kill. They could see swift-lined passenger-ships of the Pluto and +Neptune runs shouldering against small space-yachts with the insignia of +Mars or Venus on their bows. Wrecked freighters from Saturn or Earth +floated beside rotund grain-boats from Jupiter. + +The debris among the pack's wrecks was just as varied, holding fragments +of metal, dark meteors of differing size--and many human bodies. Among +these were some clad in the insulated space-suits, with their +transparent glassite helmets. Kent wondered what wreck they had +abandoned hastily in those suits, only to be swept with it into the +dead-area, to die in their suits. + +By the end of that ship-day, the _Pallas_, having floated almost +completely around the wreck-pack, finally struck the wrecks at its edge +with a jarring shock; then bobbed for a while and lay still. From +pilot-house and deck windows the men looked eagerly forth. + + * * * * * + +Their ship floated at the wreck-pack's edge. Directly to its right +floated a sleek, shining Uranus-Jupiter passenger-ship whose bows had +been smashed in by a meteor. On their left bobbed an unmarked freighter +of the old type with projecting rocket-tubes, apparently intact. Beyond +them in the wreck-pack lay another Uranus craft, a freighter, and, +beyond it, stretched the countless other wrecks. + +Captain Crain summoned the crew together again on the middle-deck. + +"Men, we've reached the wreck-pack at the dead-area's center, and here +we'll stay until the end of time unless we get out under our own power. +Mr. Kent has suggested a possible way of doing so, which I consider +highly feasible. + +"He has suggested that in some of the ships in the wreck-pack may be +found enough fuel to enable us to escape from the dead-area, once it is +transferred to this ship. I am going to permit him to explore the +wreck-pack with a party in space suits, and I am asking for volunteers +for this service." + +The entire crew stepped quickly forward. Crain smiled. "Twelve of you +will be enough," he told them. "The eight tube-men and four of the +cargo-men will go, therefore, with Mr. Kent and Mr. Liggett as leaders. +Mr. Kent, you may address the men if you wish." + +"Get down to the lower airlock and into your space-suits at once, then," +Kent told them. "Mr. Liggett, will you supervise that?" + +As Liggett and the men trooped down to the airlock, Kent turned back +toward his superior. + +"There's a very real chance of your becoming lost in this huge +wreck-pack, Kent," Crain told him: "so be very careful to keep your +bearings at all times. I know I can depend on you." + +"I'll do my best," Kent was saying, when Liggett's excited face +reappeared suddenly at the stair. + +"There are men coming toward the _Pallas_ along the wreck-pack's edge!" +he reported--"a half-dozen men in space-suits!" + +"You must be mistaken, Liggett!" exclaimed Crain. "They must be some of +the bodies in space-suits we saw in the pack." + +"No, they're living men!" Liggett cried. "They're coming straight toward +us--come down and see!" + + * * * * * + +Crain and Kent followed Liggett quickly down to the airlock room, where +the men who had started donning their space-suits were now peering +excitedly from the windows. Crain and Kent looked where Liggett pointed, +along the wreck-pack's edge to the ship's right. + +Six floating shapes, men in space-suits, were approaching along the +pack's border. They floated smoothly through space, reaching the wrecked +passenger-ship beside the _Pallas_. They braced their feet against its +side and propelled themselves on through the void like swimmers under +water, toward the _Pallas_. + +"They must be survivors from some wreck that drifted in here as we did!" +Kent exclaimed. "Maybe they've lived here for months!" + +"It's evident that they saw the _Pallas_ drift into the pack, and have +come to investigate," Crain estimated. "Open the airlock for them, men, +for they'll want to come inside." + +Two of the men spun the wheels that slid aside the airlock's outer door. +In a moment the half-dozen men outside had reached the ship's side, and +had pulled themselves down inside the airlock. + +When all were in, the outer door was closed, and air hissed in to fill +the lock. The airlock's inner door then slid open and the newcomers +stepped into the ship's interior, unscrewing their transparent helmets +as they did so. For a few moments the visitors silently surveyed their +new surroundings. + +Their leader was a swarthy individual with sardonic black eyes who, on +noticing Crain's captain-insignia, came toward him with outstretched +hand. His followers seemed to be cargo-men or deck-men, looking hardly +intelligent enough to Kent's eyes to be tube-men. + + * * * * * + +"Welcome to our city!" their leader exclaimed as he shook Crain's hand. +"We saw your ship drift in, but hardly expected to find anyone living in +it." + +"I'll confess that we're surprised ourselves to find any life here," +Crain told him. "You're living on one of the wrecks?" + +The other nodded. "Yes, on the _Martian Queen_, a quarter-mile along the +pack's edge. It was a Saturn-Neptune passenger ship, and about a month +ago we were at this cursed dead-area's edge, when half our rocket-tubes +exploded. Eighteen of us escaped the explosion, the ship's walls still +being tight; and we drifted into the pack here, and have been living +here ever since." + +"My name's Krell," he added, "and I was a tube-man on the ship. I and +another of the tube-men, named Jandron, were the highest in rank left, +all the officers and other tube-men having been killed, so we took +charge and have been keeping order." + +"What about your passengers?" Liggett asked. + +"All killed but one," Krell answered. "When the tubes let go they +smashed up the whole lower two decks." + +Crain briefly explained to him the _Pallas'_ predicament. "Mr. Kent and +Mr. Liggett were on the point of starting a search of the wreck-pack for +fuel when you arrived," he said, "With enough fuel we can get clear of +the dead-area." + +Krell's eyes lit up. "That would mean a getaway for all of us! It surely +ought to be possible!" + +"Do you know whether there are any ships in the pack with fuel in their +tanks?" Kent asked. Krell shook his head. + +"We've searched through the wreck-pack a good bit, but never bothered +about fuel, it being no good to us. But there ought to be some, at +least: there's enough wrecks in this cursed place to make it possible +to find almost anything. + +"You'd better not start exploring, though," he added, "without some of +us along as guides, for I'm here to tell you that you can lose yourself +in this wreck-pack without knowing it. If you wait until to-morrow, I'll +come over myself and go with you." + +"I think that would be wise," Crain said to Kent. "There is plenty of +time." + +"Time is the one thing there's plenty of in this damned place," Krell +agreed. "We'll be getting back to the _Martian Queen_ now and give the +good news to Jandron and the rest." + +"Wouldn't mind if Liggett and I came along, would you?" Kent asked. "I'd +like to see how your ship's fixed--that is, if it's all right with you, +sir," he added to his superior. + +Crain nodded. "All right if you don't stay long," he said. But, to +Kent's surprise Krell seemed reluctant to endorse his proposal. + +"I guess it'll be all right," he said slowly, "though there's nothing +much on the _Martian Queen_ to see." + + * * * * * + +Krell and his followers replaced their helmets and returned into the +airlock. Liggett followed them, and, as Kent struggled hastily into a +space-suit, he found Captain Crain at his side. + +"Kent, look sharp when you get over on that ship," Crain told him. "I +don't like the look of this Krell, and his story about all the officers +being killed in the explosion sounds fishy to me." + +"To me, too," Kent agreed. "But Liggett and I will have the suit-phones +in our space-suits and can call you from there in case of need." + +Crain nodded, and Kent with space-suit on and transparent helmet +screwed tight, stepped into the airlock with the rest. The airlock's +inner door closed, the outer one opened, and as the air puffed out into +space, Kent and Krell and Liggett leapt out into the void, the others +following. + +It was no novelty to Kent to float in a space-suit in the empty void. He +and the others now floated as smoothly as though under water toward a +wrecked liner at the _Pallas'_ right. They reached it, pulled themselves +around it, and, with feet braced against its side, propelled themselves +on through space along the border of the wreck-pack. + +They passed a half-dozen wrecks thus, before coming to the _Martian +Queen_. It was a silvery, glistening ship whose stern and lower walls +were bulging and strained, but not cracked. Kent told himself that Krell +had spoken truth about the exploding rocket-tubes, at least. + +They struck the _Martian Queen's_ side and entered the upper-airlock +open for them. Once through the airlock they found themselves on the +ship's upper-deck. And when Kent and Liggett removed their helmets with +the others they found a full dozen men confronting them, a brutal-faced +group who exhibited some surprise at sight of them. + + * * * * * + +Foremost among them stood a tall, heavy individual who regarded Kent and +Liggett with the cold, suspicious eyes of an animal. + +"My comrade and fellow-ruler here, Wald Jandron," said Krell. To Jandron +he explained rapidly. "The whole crew of the _Pallas_ is alive, and they +say if they can find fuel in the wreck-pack their ship can get out of +here." + +"Good," grunted Jandron. "The sooner they can do it, the better it will +be for us." + +Kent saw Liggett flush angrily, but he ignored Jandron and spoke to +Krell. "You said one of your passengers had escaped the explosion?" + +To Kent's amazement a girl stepped from behind the group of men, a slim +girl with pale face and steady, dark eyes. "I'm the passenger," she told +him. "My name's Marta Mallen." + +Kent and Liggett stared, astounded. "Good Lord!" Kent exclaimed. "A girl +like you on this ship!" + +"Miss Mallen happened to be on the upper-deck at the time of the +explosion and, so, escaped when the other passengers were killed," Krell +explained smoothly. "Isn't that so, Miss Mallen?" + +The girl's eyes had not left Kent's, but at Krell's words she nodded. +"Yes, that is so," she said mechanically. + +Kent collected his whirling thoughts. "But wouldn't you rather go back +to the _Pallas_ with us?" he asked. "I'm sure you'd be more comfortable +there." + +"She doesn't go," grunted Jandron. Kent turned in quick wrath toward +him, but Krell intervened. + +"Jandron only means that Miss Mallen is much more comfortable on this +passenger-ship than she'd be in your freighter." He shot a glance at the +girl as he spoke, and Kent saw her wince. + +"I'm afraid that's so," she said; "but I thank you for the offer, Mr. +Kent." + +Kent could have sworn that there was an appeal in her eyes, and he stood +for a moment, indecisive, Jandron's stare upon him. After a moment's +thought he turned to Krell. + +"You were going to show me the damage the exploding tubes did," he said, +and Krell nodded quickly. + +"Of course; you can see from the head of the stair back in the +after-deck." + +He led the way along a corridor, Jandron and the girl and two of the +men coming with them. Kent's thoughts were still chaotic as he walked +between Krell and Liggett. What was this girl doing amid the men of the +_Martian Queen_? What had her eyes tried to tell him? + +Liggett nudged his side in the dim corridor, and Kent, looking down, saw +dark splotches on its metal floor. Blood-stains! His suspicions +strengthened. They might be from the bleeding of those wounded in the +tube-explosions. But were they? + + * * * * * + +They reached the after-deck whose stair's head gave a view of the +wrecked tube-rooms beneath. The lower decks had been smashed by terrific +forces. Kent's practiced eyes ran rapidly over the shattered +rocket-tubes. + +"They've back-blasted from being fired too fast," he said. "Who was +controlling the ship when this happened?" + +"Galling, our second-officer," answered Krell. "He had found us routed +too close to the dead-area's edge and was trying to get away from it in +a hurry, when he used the tubes too fast, and half of them +back-blasted." + +"If Galling was at the controls in the pilot-house, how did the +explosion kill him?" asked Liggett skeptically. Krell turned quickly. + +"The shock threw him against the pilot-house wall and fractured his +skull--he died in an hour," he said. Liggett was silent. + +"Well, this ship will never move again," Kent said. "It's too bad that +the explosion blew out your tanks, but we ought to find fuel somewhere +in the wreck-pack for the _Pallas_. And now we'd best get back." + +As they returned up the dim corridor Kent managed to walk beside Marta +Mallen, and, without being seen, he contrived to detach his +suit-phone--the compact little radiophone case inside his space-suit's +neck--and slip it into the girl's grasp. He dared utter no word of +explanation, but apparently she understood, for she had concealed the +suit-phone by the time they reached the upper-deck. + +Kent and Liggett prepared to don their space-helmets, and before +entering the airlock, Kent turned to Krell. + +"We'll expect you at the _Pallas_ first hour to-morrow, and we'll start +searching the wreck-pack with a dozen of our men," he said. + +He then extended his hand to the girl. "Good-by, Miss Mallen. I hope we +can have a talk soon." + +He had said the words with double meaning, and saw understanding in her +eyes. "I hope we can, too," she said. + +Kent's nod to Jandron went unanswered, and he and Liggett adjusted their +helmets and entered the airlock. + +Once out of it, they kicked rapidly away from the _Martian Queen_, +floating along with the wreck-pack's huge mass to their right, and only +the star-flecked emptiness of infinity to their left. In a few minutes +they reached the airlock of the _Pallas_. + + * * * * * + +They found Captain Crain awaiting them anxiously. Briefly Kent reported +everything. + +"I'm certain there has been foul play aboard the _Martian Queen_," he +said. "Krell you saw for yourself, Jandron is pure brute, and their men +seem capable of anything. + +"I gave the suit-phone to the girl, however, and if she can call us with +it, we can get the truth from her. She dared not tell me anything there +in the presence of Krell and Jandron." + +Crain nodded, his face grave. "We'll see whether or not she calls," he +said. + +Kent took a suit-phone from one of their space-suits and rapidly, tuned +it to match the one he had left with Marta Mallen. Almost at once they +heard her voice from it, and Kent answered rapidly. + +"I'm so glad I got you!" she exclaimed. "Mr. Kent, I dared not tell you +the truth about this ship when you were here, or Krell and the rest +would have killed you at once." + +"I thought that was it, and that's why I left the suit-phone for you," +Kent said. "Just what is the truth?" + +"Krell and Jandron and these men of theirs are the ones who killed the +officers and passengers of the _Martian Queen_! What they told you about +the explosion was true enough, for the explosion did happen that way, +and because of it, the ship drifted into the dead-area. But the only +ones killed by it were some of the tube-men and three passengers. + +"Then, while the ship was drifting into the dead-area, Krell told the +men that the fewer aboard, the longer they could live on the ship's food +and air. Krell and Jandron led the men in a surprise attack and killed +all the officers and passengers, and threw their bodies out into space. +I was the only passenger they spared, because both Krell and +Jandron--want me!" + + * * * * * + +There was a silence, and Kent felt a red anger rising in him. "Have they +dared harm you?" he asked after a moment. + +"No, for Krell and Jandron are too jealous of each other to permit the +other to touch me. But it's been terrible living with them in this awful +place." + +"Ask her if she knows what their plans are in regard to us," Crain told +Kent. + +Marta had apparently overheard the question. "I don't know that, for +they shut me in my cabin as soon as you left," she said. "I've heard +them talking and arguing excitedly, though. I know that if you do find +fuel, they'll try to kill you all and escape from here in your ship." + +"Pleasant prospect," Kent commented. "Do you think they plan an attack +on us now?" + +"No; I think that they'll wait until you've refueled your ship, if you +are able to do that, and then try treachery." + +"Well, they'll find us ready. Miss Mallen, you have the suit-phone: keep +it hidden in your cabin and I'll call you first thing to-morrow. We're +going to get you out of there, but we don't want to break with Krell +until we're ready. Will you be all right until then?" + +"Of course I will," she answered. "There's another thing, though. My +name isn't Miss Mallen--it's Marta." + +"Mine's Rance," said Kent, smiling. "Good-by until to-morrow, then, +Marta." + +"Good-by, Rance." + +Kent rose from the instrument with the smile still in his eyes, but with +his lips compressed. "Damn it, there's the bravest and finest girl in +the solar system!" he exclaimed. "Over there with those brutes!" + +"We'll have her out, never fear," Crain reassured him. "The main thing +is to determine our course toward Krell and Jandron." + +Kent thought. "As I see it, Krell can help us immeasurably in our search +through the wreck-pack for fuel," he said. "I think it would be best to +keep on good terms with him until we've found fuel and have it in our +tanks. Then we can turn the tables on them before they can do anything." + +Crain nodded thoughtfully. "I think you're right. Then you and Liggett +and Krell can head our search-party to-morrow." + +Crain established watches on a new schedule, and Kent and Liggett and +the dozen men chosen for the exploring party of the next day ate a +scanty meal and turned in for some sleep. + + * * * * * + +When Kent woke and glimpsed the massed wrecks through the window he was +for the moment amazed, but rapidly remembered. He and Liggett were +finishing their morning ration when Crain pointed to a window. + +"There comes Krell now," he said, indicating the single space-suited +figure approaching along the wreck-pack's edge. + +"I'll call Marta before he gets here," said Kent hastily. + +The girl answered on the suit-phone immediately, and it occurred to Kent +that she must have spent the night without sleeping. "Krell left a few +minutes ago," she said. + +"Yes, he's coming now. You heard nothing of their plans?" + +"No; they've kept me shut in my cabin. However, I did hear Krell giving +Jandron and the rest directions. I'm sure they're plotting something." + +"We're prepared for them," Kent assured her. "If all goes well, before +you realize it, you'll be sailing out of here with us in the _Pallas_." + +"I hope so," she said. "Rance, be careful with Krell in the wreck-pack. +He's dangerous." + +"I'll be watching him," he promised. "Good-by, Marta." + +Kent reached the lower-deck just as Krell entered from the airlock, his +swarthy face smiling as he removed his helmet. He carried a pointed +steel bar. Liggett and the others were donning their suits. + +"All ready to go, Kent?" Krell asked. + +Kent nodded. "All ready," he said shortly. Since hearing Marta's story +he found it hard to dissimulate with Krell. + +"You'll want bars like mine," Krell continued, "for they're damned +handy when you get jammed between wreckage masses. Exploring this +wreck-pack is no soft job: I can tell you from experience." + +Liggett and the rest had their suits adjusted, and with bars in their +grasp, followed Krell into the airlock. Kent hung back for a last word +with Crain, who, with his half-dozen remaining men, was watching. + +"Marta just told me that Krell and Jandron have been plotting +something," he told the captain; "so I'd keep a close watch outside." + +"Don't worry, Kent. We'll let no one inside the _Pallas_ until you and +Liggett and the men get back." + + * * * * * + +In a few minutes they were out of the ship, with Krell and Kent and +Liggett leading, and the twelve members of the _Pallas'_ crew following +closely. + +The three leaders climbed up on the Uranus-Jupiter passenger-ship that +lay beside the _Pallas_, the others moving on and exploring the +neighboring wrecks in parties of two and three. From the top of the +passenger-ship, when they gained it, Kent and his two companions could +look far out over the wreck-pack. It was an extraordinary spectacle, +this stupendous mass of dead ships floating motionless in the depths of +space, with the burning stars above and below them. + +His companions and the other men clambering over the neighboring wrecks +seemed weird figures in their bulky suits and transparent helmets. Kent +looked back at the _Pallas_, and then along the wreck-pack's edge to +where he could glimpse the silvery side of the _Martian Queen_. But now +Krell and Liggett were descending into the ship's interior through the +great opening smashed in its bows, and Kent followed. + +They found themselves in the liner's upper navigation-rooms. Officers +and men lay about, frozen to death at the instant the meteor-struck +vessel's air had rushed out, and the cold of space had entered. Krell +led the way on, down into the ship's lower decks, where they found the +bodies of the crew and passengers lying in the same silent death. + +The salons held beautifully-dressed women, distinguished-looking men, +lying about as the meteor's shock had hurled them. One group lay around +a card-table, their game interrupted. A woman still held a small child, +both seemingly asleep. Kent tried to shake off the oppression he felt as +he and Krell and Liggett continued down to the tank-rooms. + +They found their quest there useless, for the tanks had been strained by +the meteor's shock, and were empty. Kent felt Liggett grasp his hand and +heard him speak, the sound-vibrations coming through their contacting +suits. + +"Nothing here; and we'll find it much the same through all these wrecks, +if I'm not wrong. Tanks always give at a shock." + +"There must be some ships with fuel still in them among all these," Kent +answered. + + * * * * * + +They climbed back, up to the ship's top, and leapt off it toward a +Jupiter freighter lying a little farther inside the pack. As they +floated toward it, Kent saw their men moving on with them from ship to +ship, progressing inward into the pack. Both Kent and Liggett kept Krell +always ahead of them, knowing that a blow from his bar, shattering their +glassite helmets, meant instant death. But Krell seemed quite intent on +the search for fuel. + +The big Jupiter freighter seemed intact from above, but, when they +penetrated into it, they found its whole under-side blown away, +apparently by an explosion of its tanks. They moved on to the next ship, +a private space-yacht, small in size, but luxurious in fittings. It had +been abandoned in space, its rocket-tubes burst and tanks strained. + +They went on, working deeper into the wreck-pack. Kent almost forgot the +paramount importance of their search in the fascination of it. They +explored almost every known type of ship--freighters, liners, +cold-storage boats, and grain-boats. Once Kent's hopes ran high at sight +of a fuel-ship, but it proved to be in ballast, its cargo-tanks empty +and its own tanks and tubes apparently blown simultaneously. + +Kent's muscles ached from the arduous work of climbing over and +exploring the wrecks. He and Liggett had become accustomed to the sight +of frozen, motionless bodies. + +As they worked deeper into the pack, they noticed that the ships were of +increasingly older types, and at last Krell signalled a halt. "We're +almost a mile in," he told them, gripping their hands. "We'd better work +back out, taking a different section of the pack as we do." + +Kent nodded. "It may change our luck," he said. + +It did; for when they had gone not more than a half-mile back, they +glimpsed one of their men waving excitedly from the top of a Pluto +liner. + +They hastened at once toward him, the other men gathering also; and when +Kent grasped the man's hand he heard his excited voice. + +"Fuel-tanks here are more than half-full, sir!" + + * * * * * + +They descended quickly into the liner, finding that though its whole +stern had been sheared away by a meteor, its tanks had remained +miraculously unstrained. + +"Enough fuel here to take the _Pallas_ to Neptune!" Kent exclaimed. + +"How will you get it over to your ship?" Krell asked. Kent pointed to +great reels of flexible metal tubing hanging near the tanks. + +"We'll pump it over. The _Pallas_ has tubing like this ship's, for +taking on fuel in space, and, by joining its tubing to this, we'll have +a tube-line between the two ships. It's hardly more than a +quarter-mile." + +"Let's get back and let them know about it," Liggett urged, and they +climbed back out of the liner. + +They worked their way out of the wreck-pack with much greater speed than +that with which they had entered, needing only an occasional brace +against a ship's side to send them floating over the wrecks. They came +to the wreck-pack's edge at a little distance from the _Pallas_, and +hastened toward it. + +They found the outer door of the _Pallas'_ airlock open, and entered, +Krell remaining with them. As the outer door closed and air hissed into +the lock, Kent and the rest removed their helmets. The inner door slid +open as they were doing this, and from inside almost a score of men +leapt upon them! + +Kent, stunned for a moment, saw Jandron among their attackers, bellowing +orders to them, and even as he struck out furiously he comprehended. +Jandron and the men of the _Martian Queen_ had somehow captured the +_Pallas_ from Crain and had been awaiting their return! + + * * * * * + +The struggle was almost instantly over, for, outnumbered and hampered as +they were by their heavy space-suits, Kent and Liggett and their +followers had no chance. Their hands, still in the suits, were bound +quickly behind them at Jandron's orders. + +Kent heard an exclamation, and saw Marta starting toward him from +behind Jandron's men. But a sweep of Jandron's arm brushed her rudely +back. Kent strained madly at his bonds. Krell's face had a triumphant +look. + +"Did it all work as I told you it would, Jandron?" he asked. + +"It worked," Jandron answered impassively. "When they saw fifteen of us +coming from the wreck-pack in space-suits, they opened right up to us." + +Kent understood, and cursed Krell's cunning. Crain, seeing the fifteen +figures approaching from the wreck-pack, had naturally thought they were +Kent's party, and had let them enter to overwhelm his half-dozen men. + +"We put Crain and his men over in the _Martian Queen_," Jandron +continued, "and took all their helmets so they can't escape. The girl we +brought over here. Did you find a wreck with fuel?" + +Krell nodded. "A Pluto liner a quarter-mile back, and we can pump the +fuel over here by connecting tube-lines. What the devil--" + +Jandron had made a signal at which three of his men had leapt forward on +Krell, securing his hands like those of the others. + +"Have you gone crazy, Jandron?" cried Krell, his face red with anger and +surprise. + +"No," Jandron replied impassively; "but the men are as tired as I am of +your bossing ways, and have chosen me as their sole leader." + +"You dirty double-crosser!" Krell raged. "Are you men going to let him +get away with this?" + +The men paid no attention, and Jandron motioned to the airlock. "Take +them over to the _Martian Queen_ too," he ordered, "and make sure +there's no space-helmet left there. Then get back at once, for we've got +to get the fuel into this ship and make a getaway." + + * * * * * + +The helmets of Kent and Krell and the other helpless prisoners were put +upon them, and, with hands still bound, they were herded into the +airlock by eight of Jandron's men attired in space-suits also. The +prisoners were then joined one to another by a strand of metal cable. + +Kent, glancing back into the ship as the airlock's inner door closed, +saw Jandron giving rapid orders to his followers, and noticed Marta held +back from the airlock by one of them. Krell's eyes glittered venomously +through his helmet. The outer door opened, and their guards jerked them +forth into space by the connecting cable. + +They were towed helplessly along the wreck-pack's rim toward the +_Martian Queen_. Once inside its airlock, Jandron's men removed the +prisoners' space-helmets and then used the duplicate-control inside the +airlock itself to open the inner door. Through this opening they thrust +the captives, those inside the ship not daring to enter the airlock. +Jandron's men then closed the inner door, re-opened the outer one, and +started back toward the _Pallas_ with the helmets of Kent and his +companions. + +Kent and the others soon found Crain and his half-dozen men who rapidly +undid their bonds. Crain's men still wore their space-suits, but, like +Kent's companions, were without space-helmets. + +"Kent, I was afraid they'd get you and your men too!" Crain exclaimed. +"It's all my fault, for when I saw Jandron and his men coming from the +wreck-pack I never doubted but that it was you." + +"It's no one's fault," Kent told him. "It's just something that we +couldn't foresee." + + * * * * * + +Crain's eyes fell on Krell. "But what's he doing here?" he exclaimed. +Kent briefly explained Jandron's treachery toward Krell, and Crain's +brows drew ominously together. + +"So Jandron put you here with us! Krell, I am a commissioned captain of +a space-ship, and as such can legally try you and sentence you to death +here without further formalities." + +Krell did not answer, but Kent intervened. "There's hardly time for that +now, sir," he said. "I'm as anxious to settle with Krell as anyone, but +right now our main enemy is Jandron, and Krell hates Jandron worse than +we do, if I'm not mistaken." + +"You're not," said Krell grimly. "All I want right now is to get within +reach of Jandron." + +"There's small chance of any of us doing that," Crain told them. +"There's not a single space-helmet on the _Martian Queen_." + +"You've searched?" Liggett asked. + +"Every cubic inch of the ship," Crain told him. "No, Jandron's men made +sure there were no helmets left here, and without helmets this ship is +an inescapable prison." + +"Damn it, there must be some way out!" Kent exclaimed. "Why, Jandron and +his men must be starting to pump that fuel into the _Pallas_ by now! +They'll be sailing off as soon as they do it!" + +Crain's face was sad. "I'm afraid this is the end, Kent. Without +helmets, the space between the _Martian Queen_ and the _Pallas_ is a +greater barrier to us than a mile-thick wall of steel. In this ship +we'll stay, until the air and food give out, and death releases us." + +"Damn it, I'm not thinking of myself!" Kent cried. "I'm thinking of +Marta! The _Pallas_ will sail out of here with her in Jandron's power!" + +"The girl!" Liggett exclaimed. "If she could bring us over space-helmets +from the _Pallas_ we could get out of here!" + +Kent was thoughtful. "If we could talk to her--she must still have that +suit-phone I gave her. Where's another?" + + * * * * * + +Crain quickly detached the compact suit-phone from inside the neck of +his own space-suit, and Kent rapidly tuned it to the one he had given +Marta Mallen. His heart leapt as her voice came instantly from it: + +"Rance! Rance Kent--" + +"Marta--this is Rance!" he cried. + +He heard a sob of relief. "I've been calling you for minutes! I was +hoping that you'd remember to listen! + +"Jandron and ten of the others have gone to that wreck in which you +found the fuel," she added swiftly. "They unreeled a tube-line behind +them as they went, and I can hear them pumping in the fuel now." + +"Are the others guarding you?" Kent asked quickly. + +"They're down in the lower deck at the tanks and airlocks. They won't +allow me down on that deck. I'm up here in the middle-deck, absolutely +alone. + +"Jandron told me that we'd start out of here as soon as the fuel was +in," she added, "and he and the men were laughing about Krell." + +"Marta, could you in any way get space-helmets and get out to bring them +over here to us?" Kent asked eagerly. + +"There's a lot of space-suits and helmets here," she answered, "but I +couldn't get out with them, Rance! I couldn't get to the airlocks with +Jandron's seven or eight men down there guarding them!" + +Kent felt despair; then as an idea suddenly flamed in him, he almost +shouted into the instrument: + +"Marta, unless you can get over here with helmets for us, we're all +lost. I want you to put on a space-suit and helmet at once!" + + * * * * * + +There was a short silence, and then her voice came, a little muffled. +"I've got the suit and helmet on, Rance. I'm wearing the suit-phone +inside it." + +"Good! Now, can you get up to the pilot-house? There's no one guarding +it or the upper-deck? Hurry up there, then, at once." + +Crain and the rest were staring at Kent. "Kent, what are you going to +have her do?" Crain exclaimed. "It'll do no good for her to start the +_Pallas_: those guards will be up there in a minute!" + +"I'm not going to have her start the _Pallas_," said Kent grimly. +"Marta, you're in the pilot-house? Do you see the heavy little steel +door in the wall beside the instrument-panel?" + +"I'm at it, but it's locked with a combination-lock," she said. + +"The combination is 6-34-77-81," Kent told her swiftly. "Open it as +quickly as you can." + +"Good God, Kent!" cried Crain. "You're going to have her--?" + +"Get out of there the only way she can!" Kent finished fiercely. "You +have the door open, Marta?" + +"Yes; there are six or seven control-wheels inside." + +"Those wheels control the _Pallas'_ exhaust-valves," Kent told her. +"Each wheel opens the valves of one of the ship's decks or compartments +and allows its air to escape into space. They're used for testing leaks +in the different deck and compartment divisions. Marta, you must turn +all those wheels as far as you can to the right." + +"But all the ship's air will rush out; the guards below have no suits +on, and they'll be--" she was exclaiming. Kent interrupted. + +"It's the only chance for you, for all of us. Turn them!" + +There was a moment of silence, and Kent was going to repeat the order +when her voice came, lower in tone, a little strange: + +"I understand, Rance. I'm going to turn them." + + * * * * * + +There was silence again, and Kent and the men grouped round him were +tense. All were envisioning the same thing--the air rushing out of the +_Pallas'_ valves, and the unsuspecting guards in its lower deck smitten +suddenly by an instantaneous death. + +Then Marta's voice, almost a sob: "I turned them, Rance. The air puffed +out all around me." + +"Your space-suit is working all right?" + +"Perfectly," she said. + +"Then go down and tie together as many space-helmets as you can manage, +get out of the airlock, and try to get over here to the _Martian Queen_ +with them. Do you think you can do that, Marta?" + +"I'm going to try," she said steadily. "But I'll have to pass those men +in the lower-deck I just--killed. Don't be anxious if I don't talk for a +little." + +Yet her voice came again almost immediately. "Rance, the pumping has +stopped! They must have pumped all the fuel into the _Pallas_!" + +"Then Jandron and the rest will be coming back to the _Pallas_ at once!" +Kent cried. "Hurry, Marta!" + +The suit-phone was silent; and Kent and the rest, their faces closely +pressed against the deck-windows, peered intently along the wreck-pack's +edge. The _Pallas_ was hidden from their view by the wrecks between, and +there was no sign as yet of the girl. + +Kent felt his heart beating rapidly. Crain and Liggett pressed beside +him, the men around them; Krell's face was a mask as he too gazed. Kent +was rapidly becoming convinced that some mischance had overtaken the +girl when an exclamation came from Liggett. He pointed excitedly. + + * * * * * + +She was in sight, unrecognizable in space-suit and helmet, floating +along the wreck-pack's edge toward them. A mass of the glassite +space-helmets tied together was in her grasp. She climbed bravely over +the stern of a projecting wreck and shot on toward the _Martian Queen_. + +The airlock's door was open for her, and, when she was inside it, the +outer door closed and air hissed into the lock. In a moment she was in +among them, still clinging to the helmets. Kent grasped her swaying +figure and removed her helmet. + +"Marta, you're all right?" he cried. She nodded a little weakly. + +"I'm all right. It was just that I had to go over those guards that were +all frozen.... Terrible!" + +"Get these helmets on!" Crain was crying. "There's a dozen of them, and +twelve of us can stop Jandron's men if we get back in time!" + +Kent and Liggett and the nearer of their men were swiftly donning the +helmets. Krell grasped one and Crain sought to snatch it. + +"Let that go! We'll not have you with us when we haven't enough helmets +for our own men!" + +"You'll have me or kill me here!" Krell cried, his eyes hate-mad. "I've +got my own account to settle with Jandron!" + +"Let him have it!" Liggett cried. "We've no time now to argue!" + +Kent reached toward the girl. "Marta, give one of the men your helmet," +he ordered; but she shook her head. + +"I'm going with you!" Before Kent could dispute she had the helmet on +again, and Crain was pushing them into the airlock. The nine or ten left +inside without helmets hastily thrust steel bars into the men's hands +before the inner door closed. The outer one opened and they leapt forth +into space, floating smoothly along the wreck-pack's border with bars in +their grasp, thirteen strong. + +Kent found the slowness with which they floated forward torturing. He +glimpsed Crain and Liggett ahead, Marta beside him, Krell floating +behind him to the left. They reached the projecting freighters, climbed +over and around them, braced against them and shot on. They sighted the +_Pallas_ ahead now. Suddenly they discerned another group of eleven +figures in space-suits approaching it from the wreck-pack's interior, +rolling up the tube-line that led from the _Pallas_ as they did so. +Jandron's party! + + * * * * * + +Jandron and his men had seen them and were suddenly making greater +efforts to reach the _Pallas_. Kent and his companions, propelling +themselves frenziedly on from another wreck, reached the ship's side at +the same time as Jandron's men. The two groups mixed and mingled, +twisted and turned in a mad space-combat. + +Kent had been grasped by one of Jandron's men and raised his bar to +crack the other's glassite helmet. His opponent caught the bar, and they +struggled, twisting and turning over and over far up in space amid a +half-score similar struggles. Kent wrenched his bar free at last from +the other's grasp and brought it down on his helmet. The glassite +cracked, and he caught a glimpse of the man's hate-distorted face frozen +instantly in death. + +Kent released him and propelled himself toward a struggling trio nearby. +As he floated toward them, he saw Jandron beyond them making wild +gestures of command and saw Krell approaching Jandron with upraised bar. +Kent, on reaching the three combatants, found them to be two of +Jandron's men overcoming Crain. He shattered one's helmet as he reached +them, but saw the other's bar go up for a blow. + +Kent twisted frantically, uselessly, to escape it, but before the blow +could descend a bar shattered his opponent's helmet from behind. As the +man froze in instant death Kent saw that it was Marta who had struck him +from behind. He jerked her to his side. The struggles in space around +them seemed to be ending. + +Six of Jandron's party had been slain, and three of Kent's companions. +Jandron's four other followers were giving up the combat, floating off +into the wreck-pack in clumsy, hasty flight. Someone grasped Kent's arm, +and he turned to find it was Liggett. + +"They're beaten!" Liggett's voice came to him! "They're all killed but +those four!" + +"What about Jandron himself?" Kent cried. Liggett pointed to two +space-suited bodies twisting together in space, with bars still in their +lifeless grasp. + +Kent saw through their shattered helmets the stiffened faces of Jandron +and Krell, their helmets having apparently been broken by each other's +simultaneous blows. + +Crain had gripped Kent's arm also. "Kent, it's over!" he was exclaiming. +"Liggett and I will close the _Pallas'_ exhaust-valves and release new +air in it. You take over helmets for the rest of our men in the _Martian +Queen_." + + * * * * * + +In several minutes Kent was back with the men from the _Martian Queen_. +The _Pallas_ was ready, with Liggett in its pilot-house, the men taking +their stations, and Crain and Marta awaiting Kent. + +"We've enough fuel to take us out of the dead-area and to Neptune +without trouble!" Crain declared. "But what about those four of +Jandron's men that got away?" + +"The best we can do is leave them here," Kent told him. "Best for them, +too, for at Neptune they'd be executed, while they can live indefinitely +in the wreck-pack." + +"I've seen so many men killed on the _Martian Queen_ and here," pleaded +Marta. "Please don't take them to Neptune." + +"All right, we'll leave them," Crain agreed, "though the scoundrels +ought to meet justice." He hastened up to the pilot-house after Liggett. + +In a moment came the familiar blast of the rocket-tubes, and the +_Pallas_ shot out cleanly from the wreck-pack's edge. A scattered cheer +came from the crew. With gathering speed the ship arrowed out, its +rocket-tubes blasting now in steady succession. + +Kent, with his arm across Marta's shoulders, watched the wreck-pack grow +smaller behind. It lay as when he first had seen it, a strange great +mass, floating forever motionless among the brilliant stars. He felt the +girl beside him shiver, and swung her quickly around. + +"Let's not look back or remember now, Marta!" he said. "Let's look +ahead." + +She nestled closer inside his arm. "Yes, Rance. Let's look ahead." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Sargasso of Space, by Edmond Hamilton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SARGASSO OF SPACE *** + +***** This file should be named 28832.txt or 28832.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/8/3/28832/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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