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diff --git a/old/61845.txt b/old/61845.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a88ca09..0000000 --- a/old/61845.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2559 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Space-Liner X-87, by Ray Cummings - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Space-Liner X-87 - -Author: Ray Cummings - -Release Date: April 15, 2020 [EBook #61845] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPACE-LINER X-87 *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - SPACE-LINER X-87 - - By RAY CUMMINGS - - The X-87 was a red shambles. It roared the - starways, a renegade Venusian at the controls, - a swaggering Martian plotting the space-course. - And in an alumite cage, deep below-decks, lay - Penelle, crack Shadow Squadman--holding the - fate of three worlds in his manacled hands. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Summer 1940. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -I am sure that none of you have had the real details of the tragic -voyage of last year, which was officially designated as Earth-Moon -Flight 9. The diplomacy of Interplanetary relations is ticklish at -best. Earth diplomats especially seem afraid of their own shadows -if there is any chance of annoying the governments of Venus or -Mars, so that by Earth censorship most of the details of that -ill-fated voyage of the _X-87_ were either distorted, or wholly -suppressed. But the revolution at Grebhar is over now. If those Venus -Revolutionists--helped perhaps by Martian money and supplies--had -been successful, they would have been patriots. They lost, so they are -traitors, and I can say what I like. - -My name is Fred Penelle. I'm a Shadow Squadman, working in Great-New -York and vicinity. Ordinarily I deal with the tracking of comparatively -petty criminals. Being plunged into this affair of Interplanetary -piracy which threatened to involve three worlds, Heaven knows was -startling to me. I had never before even been on any flight into the -starways. But I did my best. - -My part in the thing began that August evening when an audiphoned call -came to my home. It was my superior, Peter Jamison, summoning me to -City Night-Desk 6. - -"I've a job for you," he said. "Get here in a hurry, Fred." The -audiphone grid showed his televised face; I had never seen it so grim. - -I live at the outskirts of Great-New York, in northern Westchester. I -caught an overhead monorail; then one of the high-speed, sixth level -rolling sidewalks and in half an hour was at the S.S. Building, in -mid-Manhattan. We S.S. men work in pairs. My partner, as it happened, -was ill. - -"You'll have to go in on this alone," Jamison told me. "And you haven't -much time, Fred. The _X-87_ sails at Trinight." - -"_X-87?_" I murmured. "What's that got to do with me?" - -Jamison's fat little figure was slumped at his desk, almost hidden by -the banks of instruments before him. Then he sat up abruptly, pushed a -lever and the insulating screens slid along the doors and windows to -protect us from any possible electric eavesdropping. - -"I can't tell you much," he said with lowered voice. "This comes -from the Department of Interplanetary Affairs. The _X-87_ launches at -Trinight tonight, for the Moon. They want me to have a man on it. An -observer." Jamison's face went even grimmer, and he lowered his voice -still further. "Just what they know, or suspect, they didn't tell even -me. But there's something queer going on--something we ought to know -about. Quite evidently there's some plot brewing against the Blake -Irite Corporation. They even hinted that it concerned perhaps both -Venus and Mars--" - - * * * * * - -You all know the general history of the Moon, of course; but still it -will do no harm to sketch it here. It was scarcely twenty years ago -when Georg Blake established the first permanent Moon Colony, erecting -the first practical glassite air-domes under which one might live and -work on the airless, barren surface of our satellite. Two years later, -it was the same Georg Blake who discovered the rich irite deposits on -the towering slopes of Mt. Archimedes. The Blake Irite Corporation -employs twenty thousand workers now. - -"Mars and Venus have no irite," Jamison was saying. "They import it -from us, for their inferior imitations of our gravity plates. And, -combined with the T-catalyst, it runs our modern atomic engines and -charges our newest long-range atomic guns. The Governments of Mars and -Venus are building imitations of those engines. You know about that, -Fred?" - -I nodded. I had heard quite a bit, of course, about the mysterious -T-catalyst. It is made only here on Earth--a guarded secret of the -Anglo-American Federation, developed by our Government chemists in -Great-London. Our War Department uses it for guns, of course. But its -use is forbidden elsewhere, save for commercial purposes. Venus and -Mars have been under strict guarantee, regarding its use. We have -supplied them from time to time with limited quantities, for commercial -purposes only. - -"Do not misunderstand me. I have no possible desire to anger -the present legal Governments of the Martian Union, nor the -Venus Free State, and thus project myself--just one unimportant -Earth-citizen--into a storm of Interplanetary complications. I am not -even hinting that Mars or Venus have ever broken, or ever would break, -their guarantees by using the T-catalyst for weapons of war. But in -Grebhar, a very sizable revolution against the Venus Free State had -broken out. That is something very different. A bandit Government. -Bandit army--under guarantees to no one." - -"What's all this got to do with me, and the _X-87_?" I suggested. - -Jamison flung a swift look around his shadowed, dimly tube-lit office, -as though he feared that someone might be lurking here. "The Blake -Irite Corporation, on the Moon, needs the T-catalyst for a thousand -things," he said slowly. "The engines of their air-renewers throughout -that huge network of domes. The engines of their mining equipment--" - -"You mean it's being stolen from them?" - -Jamison shrugged. "Maybe." He paused, and then he drew me toward him. -"Anyway, the _X-87_, on this Voyage 9 tonight, is taking the largest -supply of T-catalyst to the Moon which has ever been transported." -Jamison smiled wryly. "You and I, Fred, are among the very few people -who know of it. The _X-87_ is not being unduly guarded. That in itself -would look suspicious. Every possible precaution has been taken to keep -the thing a secret. But there have been queer things happen. Perhaps -only coincidences--" - -"Such as what?" - -"Well, Georg Blake died, quite mysteriously, a few days ago--" - -"Murdered?" - -Again Jamison shrugged. "The whole thing was censored. I don't know -any more about it than you do. He has a son and daughter--young Blake, -still under twenty--and Nina, his young daughter, who is only sixteen. -The management of the entire Moon industry devolves now upon them." - -I could envisage Interplanetary spies on the Moon--and with the -forceful Georg Blake now out of the way, a raid upon that supply of the -T-catalyst-- - -"Little Nina is going back to the Moon this voyage to take control of -the company," Jamison was adding. "Her father died--was murdered if you -like--here in Great-New York. And to make it still more mysterious, -young Blake--the girl's brother--seems to have vanished. There is only -Nina--" - -Queer indeed. And even worse, Jamison now told me that several members -of the _X-87's_ crew were ill, and one or two had recently died, so -that she was starting on her flight tonight with at least five new -men.... - - * * * * * - -The little space-ship was to sail at 3 a.m. I had my luggage aboard -an hour ahead; and at quarter of three I was loitering on the tube-lit -stage watching the passengers bidding good-bye to their friends and -then going up the long incline to where the _X-87_ was cradled forty -feet overhead. An S.S. Man, without too much equipment, can hide it -all pretty comfortably. Most of my small apparatus was tucked into -capacious pockets. And with my square-cut jacket buttoned over my -weapon belt, I imagine I looked like any ordinary citizen. I was -booked as a mathematics clerk, going to the Moon to take a position -in the bookkeeping department of the Blake Company. I'm smallish, and -dark--and not too handsome, my friends tell me. Just an unobtrusive -fellow whom nobody would particularly notice. I certainly hoped now -that that would prove to be so. - -"How many passengers this voyage?" I asked young Len Smith, who was -standing here on the landing shed beside me. He was a slim, handsome -fellow, the _X-87's_ radio-helio operator, ornate and exceedingly -dapper in his stiff white-and-gold uniform. - -"Damned if I know. Fifteen or twenty maybe. Usually are about that -many." - -A big seven-foot Martian stopped near us, directing the attendants who -were carrying his luggage. "Who's that?" I murmured to Len Smith. - -Dr. Frye, the _X-87's_ surgeon--a weazened little fellow with a grim, -saturnine face and scraggly iron-gray hair--had joined us. He answered -me. - -"Set Mokk, he calls himself." - -"Going to the Moon, for what?" I persisted. - -Dr. Frye shrugged. "Passengers aren't required to give their family -history. Set Mokk is a wealthy man in Ferrok-Shahn, I understand. An -enthusiastic Interplanetary traveler--" - -Len, the young helio operator, diverted my attention. "Have a look," he -murmured. "There comes Nina Blake. If she isn't a little beauty I'm a -sub-cellar track-sweeper." - -Now I'm not much for girls, but I don't mind stating thus publicly that -Nina Blake struck me then as the most strikingly beautiful girl of any -world whom I had ever seen. - -As she came past, I saw that four stalwart attendants of the _X-87_ -were carrying a long oblong box; one of her pieces of luggage. Quite -obviously she was particularly concerned over it; she followed it -closely, and signaled the men to precede her with it up the incline. - -I got away from Len Smith and Dr. Frye and was up the incline close -after Nina Blake. I saw the squat, square-rigged figure of Capt. -Mackensie come forward to greet the girl, his most distinguished -passenger. Instantly she spoke to the men carrying the oblong box, and -they set it on end beside her on the desk; and at her gesture, they -moved away. - - * * * * * - -Nobody noticed me as I got up to that box and stood in its shadow. I -had no particular motive, save perhaps my instinct as an S.S. Man to -probe anything that puzzles me. And suddenly I heard Nina say softly: - -"No. I'm not--too frightened, Captain. I'll be quite all right." - -That stiffened me. But a far greater shock came almost instantly -afterward. The girl was whispering now to Mackensie, their voices too -low for me to hear. She was leaning partly against the upright box, -and I saw her slim white hand furtively roving it, one of her fingers -pressing what might have been a hidden lever. The sleek, polished side -of the box was close to my head--and abruptly, from within it, I seemed -to hear a faint muffled, ticking sound! A mechanism in the huge box -which the girl's furtive hand had started! It was a slow, rhythmic -tick, and a faint swishing. - -"Oh, you, Penelle. Come here--I want you to meet Miss Blake." - -Captain Mackensie had noticed me, and his gesture brought me to join -them. For a moment we stood in a group as I was introduced. Nina's -hand had darted to the box again, perhaps to stop the ticking. - -"Your first flight, Penelle?" Mackensie was saying. His voice was -booming, hearty, loud enough to carry to any of the passengers and crew -who were near us here on the dim side-deck. Jamison had told me that -of everyone on the _X-87_, only Captain Mackensie would be aware of my -true identity and purpose. I caught his significant glance now as he -shot it at me from under his heavy gray-black brows. And then abruptly -he stepped nearer to me. - -"Never talk secretly to me," he murmured. "No insulation here. You take -care of Miss Blake. Say nothing--keep your eyes wide. When we get to -the Moon--" - -I stiffened, went cold, with my heart suddenly pounding. My hand darted -out, gripped the captain's arm. "Wait!" I murmured. - -On my chest, underneath my shirt, a flat, round little detector-grid -was abruptly glowing warm against my flesh. An interference current -was overcharging its low-pressure wires so that they were heating -and burning me. An eavesdropping current! No one save a Government -criminal-tracker may legally use an eavesdropping ray. But there was -one here, listening to us now! - -I murmured it to Mackensie; turned and darted away. A dim door oval -was nearby. I went through it, into a narrow, tube-lit corridor of the -ship's superstructure. Momentarily no one was here; there was just the -dim, vaulted little arcade, gleaming pallidly silver from its fittings -and trim of alumite with rows of cabin doorways on each side. The -name-plates glowed with the names of the occupants for this voyage. All -the doors were closed; a few faint voices from passengers in the cabins -were vaguely audible. - - * * * * * - -At a cross-corridor I stopped. Was someone here able to watch me? -From my shirt I drew out the little detector-grid. It was cooling -now, but still its direction needle was swaying. The source of the -current seemed ahead of me in this cross corridor. How far, I could -not say--the distance gauge-point was swiftly dropping to zero. The -eavesdropping current had been snapped off. Wherever he was, this -listener knew now that we were aware of him. - -On my padded, felt-soled shoes I dashed ahead to where the corridor -widened into a tiny smoking lounge. - -"Oh, you Penelle? What's the matter? Can't you find your cubby?" - -It was Dr. Frye, the ship's surgeon. Fortunately, he did not see -the Banning heat-flash gun in my hand. He was sprawled here in a -chair, smoking. His thin face grinned up at me. "Ask the purser your -location," he added. His gesture waved me toward the purser's tiny -office-cubby down the opposite corridor. - -"Thanks," I agreed. - -The purser's cubby was unoccupied. I passed it, came to the stern end -where the superstructure stopped and the side decks converged into a -triangle of open deck under the dome at the pointed stern. There were -a few passengers lounging around and deckhands moving at their tasks -of uncradling the vessel which now was ready to take off. Over at a -glassite bull's-eye window in the side pressure-wall, the big Martian, -Set Mokk, was standing, gazing at the people on the lower stage. - -And suddenly, from the shadow of a cargo-shifter near at hand, a blob -of figure detached itself and moved away. In a moment the deck-light -gleamed on it; a member of the crew--squat, bent, misshapen gargoyle -shape; a hideous Earth-man hunchback, with dangling gorilla-like arms -that swayed as he walked. Then I saw his face; ghastly countenance, -lumped with disease, a mouth that seemed to leer and eyes with puckered -rims--eyes that seemed to glare at me with impish malevolence as he -shambled past me and vanished around the other side deck. - -In a few minutes more, with a blast of sirens, the little _X-87_ -trembled, lifted nose first from its cradle and was away, slanting up -into the night. The lights of the giant city dropped beneath us. I -stood at one of the side bull's-eyes watching them as they dwindled -into a blob, merged with other lights of other cities along the coast. - -I had been up into the stratosphere many times, of course, but this -was to be my first flight into Interplanetary Space. I could envisage -our gleaming silver vessel now, tiny little cylinder with pointed -ends, alumite keel-bottom and the great rounded glassite dome on top, -as we slid so swiftly up out of the atmosphere. A little world now to -ourselves. - -The little vessel pounded and quivered with the vibrations of its -disintegrating atomic rocket-streams at the stern. Then as we slid -into the upper reaches of the stratosphere, the rocket engines -were silenced; the gravity-plates were de-insulated, set with -Earth-repulsion as we swung toward the gleaming half-moon ahead and -over our bow. - -The ship was vibrationless now. All movement seemed detached from us. -Alone in Space we seemed hovering, poised. - -The voyage of doom had begun. - - * * * * * - -"Apparently you have not suffered from the miserable pressure -sickness," Ollog Torio said. "Or have you, Set Mokk?" - -"I have not. We Martians are made of sterner stuff. Is that not so, Dr. -Frye?" - -"Well," the saturnine little surgeon said, "well, for you, yes, Set -Mokk. But Martians are humans, like anybody else. I have seen them in -distress, upon occasion, when the pressure changes too fast, coming out -of the atmosphere." - -Four of us were sitting on the triangle of the _X-87's_ bow deck--the -towering, swaggering Martian Set Mokk, slumped in his chair, wrapped in -his great cloak with his hairy brown legs like huge pillars of strength -crossed beneath it, revealed by its flair; the weazened, morose-looking -Dr. Frye, and Ollog Torio. I had just met this Venusian. Like most of -them from our sister planet, Torio was slender, graceful, with the -characteristic finely chiseled features, grayish skin and heavy black -brows. He seemed a man of perhaps forty. Romantic in dress and bearing. -His hair was sleek and black, with gray streaks in it. His pointed -face, accentuated by a pointed, waxed beard, was pallid. His robe was -white and purple, with a white ruff at his slender throat. He was, I -understood, a wealthy man, a retired capitalist from Grebhar. - -It was now, by the established ship-time, what might be termed -mid-evening. The passengers had had two meals, and a normal time -of sleep. They were dispersed about the little vessel, gathered in -groups, gazing with a natural awe through the side bull's-eyes at the -wonders of the great dome of the Heavens, spread now around us. - -My first trip into Space. It would be out of place here for me to -describe that queer, awed, detached feeling everyone gets, especially -at his first view of the vast blackness of Interstellar Space with its -blazing white stars. Behind us, the Earth hung, a great dull red ball, -blurred and mottled with cloud-banks. The stern deck triangle gleamed -dull-red. But up here in the bow the Moon hung round and white. We were -still in the cone of the Earth's shadow. The moonlight here drenched -the deck like liquid silver. - -In romance, moonlight shimmers and sparkles to inspire a lover's smile. -But the reality of the Moon is cold, bleak and desolate. Even without -a telescope now, I could see the etched heights of the great lunar -mountains. Archimedes, Copernicus and Kepler lay in full sunlight. The -heights glared; the depths of the barren, empty seas were black pools -of inky shadow. The great Mare Imbrium was solid, mysterious darkness. - -I had been awed by the wonders of Space. But the feeling was past now, -engulfed by the sense of disaster which more than ever was upon me. The -Earth-light on our rear deck seemed to symbolize it. Red--as though -already that deck were bathed in blood. I found myself shuddering. -Somewhere on board--I had no idea where--a treasure of the precious -T-catalyst was hidden. Had that fact leaked out? Why was the beautiful -little Nina Blake so flooded with secret terror? What was the huge -coffin-like trunk, which sounded like a time-bomb? The box, I knew, had -been placed in her sleeping cubby.... And back in the S.S. Building my -superior, Jamison, had said something which damnably now hung in my -memory: "You keep your eyes and ears open, Fred. Things are not likely -to be what they seem, on that voyage." - -Accursed ineptitude of Earth's Interplanetary Relations Board, that -would let a condition such as this come to pass! I felt wholly alone -here, coping with God knows what. "Things are not likely to be what -they seem." I found myself tensely suspicious of everything, of -everybody. This swaggering Martian, Set Mokk--he was sitting now, -gazing at me as though appraisingly, his lips twitching in a half-smile -of sardonic humour. This Ollog Torio--was he what he seemed, just a -wealthy traveler? Even little Dr. Frye, the Ship's Surgeon--I could not -forget that when I had tried to nab that eavesdropper, it was Dr. Frye, -gazing at me from his seat alone in the ship's smoking lounge, whom I -had encountered. - - * * * * * - -"So you are going to the Moon to work for the Blake Company?" the Venus -man was saying. He spoke English with only a trace of the prim, precise -Venus accent. - -"Yes," I agreed. "Mathematics clerk. It will be a novel experience for -me, on the moon--" - -"Quite," Set Mokk said out of his reverie. "Quite novel." - -Did they really think I was a mathematics clerk? Someone here on board -suspected me; that eavesdropper had turned his ray upon me quickly -enough when I had stood talking to Captain Mackensie.... - -"You're having bad times in Grebhar," little Dr. Frye said presently to -Torio. "How is the revolution going? We hear so little by helio--and -most of it censored by your Venus Free State." - -The slim Torio shrugged. "The fighting was in the mountains only, when -I was there. I think those rebels will not make out too well." - -"Rebels," I said. "If they lose, they will be traitors, worthy of -death. But if they win, I expect you'll call them patriots?" - -That made the hulking Martian laugh. "Human behavior is practical, -never idealistic. The original right or wrong will be forgotten. It is -only results that count." - -"I pay little attention to it," Torio said blandly. "Venus should be -for love, for romance. I have no stomach for killing." - -"Speaking of romance," Dr. Frye interjected. "Here comes our Earth -version of it." - -We were all on our feet as the small, black and white clad, -trousered figure of Nina Blake emerged from the end corridor of the -superstructure. She hesitated; then took a seat among us. Her cloak -was off; the moonlight and starlight bathed her with its silver. Was -the terror still upon her? I could not at first tell. She was quiet, -composed. We men were all smoking little white arrant cylinders. She -told us smilingly to continue. But as she stretched herself in the -cushioned chair, between me and Torio, it seemed that the flash of her -gaze upon me carried relief--as though in me she had her only protector -here on the ship. - -"The little Earth-lady is very gracious," Torio commented with -Venus smoothness as he lighted one of the cylinders. "I have always -maintained that in the lush forests of Venus are the only really -beautiful women in the Universe. I shall have to revise that now, Miss -Blake." - -She flushed a little under the boldness of his gaze. And he laughed. -"That makes you even more beautiful. 'Flinging back a million -starglints, the depths of Space remind me of Thine eyes,'" he quoted. - -I am only an S.S. Man. Far be it from me now, so publicly to write -what might cause Miss Nina Blake any offense. I try to state only what -happened. There is no one, I feel sure, who could sit beside her and -not be stirred by her beauty in that drenching moonlight. But to Torio, -pretty speeches came with a laugh. Instinctive. It annoyed me. I might -as well admit it. - -For a time our little group chatted. Then, one by one, the men wandered -away. Was it that one of them wanted to observe Nina and me alone? I -could not help the thought as I leaned toward her. - -"Easy now. Quiet!" And then I said aloud, "That Venus man makes very -pretty speeches, Miss Blake. To us of Earth, they do not come so -naturally." - -Her startled gaze at my warning relaxed into a laugh--a laugh like -silver glints of moonlight on a mountain stream. - -"No woman can pretend that she dislikes them." - -"No. I suppose not." I guess I was really pretty earnest; unsmiling; -breathless. I was making conversation with the feeling that someone was -watching us trying to lip-read perhaps, not daring to use a ray. But my -talk was more than acting; I really meant it. - -"A Venus man needn't think he has a monopoly on pretty speeches," I -added. - -"Inspired by the moonlight?" - -"And you," I replied, smiling at her. - -Adorable little dimples showed in her cheeks as she grinned at me. -"Thank you, sir." Then she leaned closer. "You tell the Captain--Torio -and Mokk--in the corridor a while ago--" - -"Easy! Cover your mouth. You heard them?" - -"Yes. Whispering. Eight men--five in the crew--" - -"I'm only a mathematics clerk," I said. "But beauty like yours, Miss -Blake--it makes me wish I were King. King of the Universe." - -"That would be very nice," she laughed. - -"Yes. Wouldn't it? 'If I were King, ah love, if I were King, the stars -would be your pearls upon a string; the world a ruby for your finger -ring; and you could have the sun and moon to wear--if I were King.'" - -And I meant it. Surely no man ever made love under such a handicap as -this! I bent closer over her, with the perfume of her intoxicating me; -and she whispered, - -"You tell him I'm afraid--tonight--at the next time of sleep--" - - * * * * * - -She suddenly checked herself, with a sharp sucking intake of her -breath as she stared down the deck. My gaze followed hers. From the -gloom beside the superstructure some twenty feet from us, a shadow had -detached itself--misshapen shadow; that hunchback, malevolent looking -member of the crew. He went shambling past us, with a coil of rope from -a cargo shifter in his hand. - -Did his sudden appearance strike terror into Nina? She was holding -herself tense; not speaking, nor glancing at me, but staring seemingly -fascinated by the man's gargoyle aspect. He perhaps did not notice us, -and yet I had the feeling that his little eyes under the lumpy forehead -had flung us a peering glance. - -When he had gone past and vanished, back toward the stem on the other -side deck, it seemed to me that the girl was shuddering. - -"What is it?" I whispered. - -"N-nothing." - -"You're afraid of that fellow, Nina?" - -"No! Oh no!" Her unnecessary vehemence seemed to belie her words. - -The thing had so startled me that I had relaxed my caution. I realized -it, as abruptly, from the ladder-steps which led up to the control -turret on the roof of the superstructure almost over us, a long, lanky, -white-uniformed figure was disclosed coming down. It was the ship's -First Officer, young William Wilson. He was a handsome young giant. He -smiled at us--mostly at Nina, and lounged into the chair beside her. - -I had no further chance to be with the girl alone. A light meal was -served us by one of the stewards, there on deck. The radio-helio -operator, young Len Smith, had joined us. The squat, heavy-faced James -Polter, ship's Purser, added himself to us; and then the fat, jolly, -moon-faced little Peter Green, Second Officer, came puffing down from -the chart room behind the control turret and drew up a chair. It was as -though the girl were a magnet. - -I left them presently. From back along the side-deck where I stood -apparently gazing through a bull's-eye at the vast wonders of the -glittering Heavens in which the little _X-87_ was hanging, I could -see the group of men around Nina on the fore-deck, a gay little party -in the moonlight. Why was Nina so terrified of that ugly hunchback? -I had inquired about him casually from young Len Smith. His name was -Durk; a new member of the crew, engaged to replace one of those so -mysteriously sick. This was his first voyage.... Five of the crew, Nina -had said. I was to tell the Captain about it. Vehemently now I wanted -a talk with Mackensie. We'd have to chance an eavesdropper; if I was -alert, my detector should warn me; and the promptness with which we -had discovered the eavesdropping ray before, I figured would warn the -fellow not to use it again. - -It would have been, by Earth-routine, perhaps eleven p.m. The -passengers were retiring to their sleeping cubbies. The decks now -were almost deserted. I went up one of the side ladders to the -superstructure roof. It glittered with starlight that came down -through the glassite pressure dome which arched close overhead here. -The superstructure roof was a rectangular deck space, a hundred feet -long perhaps, by thirty wide. A low railing surrounded it at which -one might look down upon the lower side decks. Chairs were scattered -about up here, all of them unoccupied. Amidships was the little kiosk -which housed the radio-helio equipment, with young Smith's sleeping -cubby adjacent to it. The place was closed and locked now. Aft of it -there was open deck space to where the roof-deck ended, with the stern -deck-triangle a level below, where the earth-light still was red like -blood. - -I turned forward. The chart room backed against the control turret. The -chart room was dark. In the control turret I could see Capt. Mackensie -at the controls, his squat, square figure etched by moonlight. Would -this be a good time to try and talk with him? - -I started forward. The party down on the forward deck was just -dispersing; I saw the boyish figure of Nina, starting for the -superstructure corridor, with the giant handsome William Wilson -escorting her. And then Dr. Frye came up the front ladder, went into -the control turret and joined Mackensie. I turned aft; it was no time -to see Mackensie now. - - * * * * * - -Suddenly I stopped, melted down into a black shadow near the helio -kiosk and flattened myself on the deck. An S.S. Man, so they say, -developes a sixth sense. Maybe so. Certainly I didn't see anything, -nor hear anything. But I was aware that someone, or something, was up -here on the silent deck with me. Perhaps it was a sense of smell; my -nostrils dilated with the impression that the faint drift of artificial -air up here had somehow changed its quality. Was there something -artificially invisible stalking here? The Groff magnetic cloaks, so -recently perfected, are closely held by Governmental orders. Even we -S.S. Men seldom use them. But it is a queer thing--no matter what -devices you use in crime-tracking, you may be pretty sure the criminal -has them to use against you. - -I tried my infra-red glasses. They disclosed nothing save the glowing -heat of the ventilators where the warm air was coming up. The nearest -I had to an eavesdropper was a pair of low-scale phones. In a second -or two I adjusted them; tuned them. The myriad blended tiny sounds of -the ship's interior gave me nothing that I could identify. And then it -seemed that there was a very faint hissing--something, quite near me, -which should not have been here. - -Banning heat-gun in hand, I prowled around to the other side of the -helio kiosk. How that lurking intruder got away, I don't know. To this -day I have no idea. Doubtless he heard or saw me, and slid along the -line of deck-shadows in a magnetic cloak, getting away so swiftly that -my infra-red glasses could not pick up the heat of his body or his -mechanism. - -At all events he was gone. There was nothing but a faint chemical -smell. And then, on the metal of the helio-room door, I saw a burned -spot near the lock where his heat-torch just for a second had started -its hissing; and then he had become aware of me and had taken flight. -Someone trying to break into Smith's helio room! - -That would have taken me to Captain Mackensie whether Dr. Frye was -there or not. But abruptly, again I went tense, so suddenly startled -that the blood seemed to chill in my veins. The low-scale magnifiers -were still in my ears, murmuring with a chaos of tiny, meaningless -sounds. My metal heel-tip by chance must have struck a metal cross-beam -of the deck. Abruptly I heard a voice, which at that second must have -been raised louder than it had been an instant before. - -"Oh please! Oh my God, no!" - -A girl's voice, gasping that fragment in an anguish of terror. Nina's -voice! - - * * * * * - -I frantically tuned the magnifiers, to clarify it; but I lost it and -could not get it back. Nina's voice, seemingly from her sleeping-cubby, -which I knew was just about under me in the superstructure. I went -down the side companion ladder with a rush; ducked into a nearby cross -corridor. It was dim, silent and empty. The name-plates glowed on the -doors. I came to hers, with its glowing greenish letters, _Nina Blake_. - -Without the earphones there was only silence here now. For a second I -stood, gun in hand, undecided. The door probably was locked; I did not -dare try it to see. With my heat-torch, or even with a flash of the -Banning gun, I could melt away the flimsy lock in a few seconds. But -would that be quick enough? If one of the villains were in there with -her now, and I blasted the door and startled him, his first move might -be to kill her.... - -Tick-tick ... tick-tick.... - -With naked ears I suddenly realized that I was hearing the ticking from -the big coffin-shaped box in her room.... Tick-tick ... tick-tick.... -Rhythmic ... gruesome.... I own that my fingers were trembling as I -crouched there by the door and adjusted my headphone.... The ticking -rose to hammering thuds. Or was it my own pounding heart?... The -hammering seemed to drown a tiny whisper of voices. Someone was in -there with her, unquestionably. - -I have no apologies for what an S.S. Man must do under stress. High -over the top of the door there was a small transom-like opening, -covered by a metal grillework. I could see faint tubelight glowing up -there from within her room. I backed across the corridor, adjusting -with hurried fingers my miniature projector of the Benson curve-ray. -In another second its faint violet stream leaped from my hand in a -crescent up to the grille. Curved light-rays, an arc through the grille -and down into her room, bringing me along its curved path a faint -distorted vista of the scene inside. - -And then I heard her low voice quivering with terror: - -"No! No, Jim--don't--" - -James Polter, the Purser? In that confused second I stared along the -Benson curve-light. Just an edge of the coffin-shaped box, which was -lying flat on the floor against one wall, was visible to me. In the -center of the dim room, Nina was standing--beautiful, slim little -figure in a pale-rose, filmy negligee, with her dark hair streaming -down over her pink-white shoulders. Her back was to me as she gazed at -the deck window. It was a dark oval, with the shadows of the side-deck -outside. - -And in that second the blob of a man was visible in the window. I -could only glimpse the hunched outline of him as he scrambled through, -dropped to the deck and fled. - - * * * * * - -There was a cross corridor here which led directly to the forward end -of that starboard side deck. I dashed its length; reached the deck. It -was empty. That was my first confused impression; then as I whirled -aft, I saw a blob on it, near the other end of the superstructure. A -blob which rhythmically moved, sidewise and back again. And in the -silence, there was the squish of water. - -It was the hunchback deckhand. He was swabbing the deck, with a mop and -a pail of water. I slowed my pace as I approached him, and dropped the -Banning gun into my pocket. Could he by any wild chance, have been the -figure I saw climb out of Nina's window? It seemed impossible. - -"Evening, Durk," I said. I stopped beside him. His lumpy, -disease-ridden face came up as he shot me a glance. - -"Even-sir," he muttered. - -His bulbous lips were parted, as though perhaps with a panting breath. -The idea turned me cold. What ghastly hold could this fellow have upon -Nina? I can't pretend to describe my emotions at that moment. Nina -wasn't screaming now to tell that a man had forced himself into her -room. She was willing to keep it secret. Or perhaps too terrorized to -do anything else. - -"What's your name?" I said pleasantly. I had stopped beside him; was -lighting an arrant cylinder. - -"You said my name, sir. It's Durk." His muttered voice was thick. The -sort of voice one might use to disguise its natural tone? Was it that? - -"Oh, yes. Durk," I agreed. "Jim Durk? You're a new man, aren't you?" - -"First voyage, yes sir. But my name's Pete Durk." - -Surely he was breathing too hard for a man scrubbing a deck--much more -like a man who had been running. - -"My first voyage too," I said. I started on; then turned back. "By the -way, have you seen Mr. Polter? I was looking for him." - -"The Purser, sir? I'm thinkin' he should be in his office." - -I nodded; turned the superstructure corner; went into the main -corridor. Polter's little office cubby had a light in it. He was -sitting there casting up his accounts. Jim Polter. I had heard half -a dozen people call him that. Nina's voice came echoing back into my -mind.... "No--no Jim, don't--" - -Was this the fellow who had climbed out of her window just a few -moments ago? His desk light illumined his squat, thick-set figure. He -was a man of perhaps forty. He glanced up at my step. - -"Hello, Mr. Penelle. You're up late." - -"Just going in," I said. - -Polter was smoking. The fragile ash on the little white paper cylinder -was nearly an inch long. - -I passed on. At Nina's door I briefly paused. There was no sound. The -ventilator grille overhead was dark now. Upon impulse I pressed her -buzzer. - -"Yes? Who is it?" - -"It's I. Fred Penelle." - -Her door opened an inch; the sheen of light in the corridor showed her -white face framed by the flowing black hair. A wave of her perfume came -out to me. - -"What--what is it?" she murmured. - -"Are you all right?" I whispered lamely. - -"Yes. Yes--of course." And she added still more softly, "You're -taking too much chance--here like this. The Captain--did you tell the -Captain--what I told you--" - -"I'm going there now." - -She closed the door. I stood with the sudden realization that I might -be going beyond my job as an S.S. Man; my personal interest in this -girl leading me to pry into her private affairs. But the feeling was -brief. The terror was still in her eyes; I could not miss it. I decided -then to go to Mackensie in the control turret. Someone had tried to -melt into the helio room. Mackensie must be told it. Heaven knows, -there never had been an S.S. Man who felt as helpless as I did at that -moment. I could not determine whether I should tell the Captain what I -had seen and heard in Nina's room, or not. How much Mackensie himself -knew of what might be going on, I could not guess. And there was not -another person on the _X-87_ whom I could trust! It was as though -I were wholly alone here, with lurking murderers in every shadow, -watching their chance--waiting perhaps for a predetermined time when -they would come into the open and strike. - - * * * * * - -I was part way along the corridor when without warning my body rose in -the air. Like a balloon I went to the low vaulted ceiling, struck it -gently, rebounded, and floated diagonally back to the floor, where I -landed in a heap! Heaven knows, it was startling. For those seconds -I had been weightless, the impulse of my last step wafting me up, and -my thud against the ceiling knocking me back again. The weird loss of -weight was gone at once; I was close to the floor when I felt myself -drop down to it. And I scrambled to my feet. My heart was thumping; I -knew what had happened. In the base of the ship, artificial gravity -controls gave us Earth's normal gravity on board. Without them, the -slight mass of the _X-87_ would give a gravity pull so negligible that -everything in its interior would be almost without weight. Len Smith, -the young helio operator, had taken me around the little vessel just -before the voyage began, explaining me its mechanisms. I remembered -the room of magnetic controls, where the _X-87's_ artificial gravity -was regulated. A young technician named Bentley had been there. I had -spoken to him a moment. He and his partner alternated on duty there -throughout all the voyage. - -And the artificial gravity controls now were being tampered with! For -just a second or two, this particular area of the corridor here had -been cut off, so that as I came to the de-magnetized area my step had -tossed me to the ceiling. The floor section was normal now; I stepped -out on it gingerly to test it. - -Why was Bentley experimenting with his controls? Surely that never -went wrong by accident. If I could catch Bentley at it--force him -to explain--Or was it someone else tampering with the complex -gravitational mechanisms down there?... - -I remembered the location of the little magnetic control room; rushed -to the nearest descending ladder. The lower level, down in the hull, -was a metal catwalk, with side aisles leading into suspended tiny -rooms. Freight storage compartments bow and stern; air renewal systems; -pressure mechanisms; heating and ventilating systems. Beneath me, -at the bottom of the hull, were the rooms of gravity plate-shifting -mechanisms--compressed air shifters of the huge hull gravity plates by -which the course of the ship through Space was controlled. I was not -concerned with them--merely with the magnetic artificial gravity of the -vessel's interior. The little magnet room was near it hand; its door -was open, with its blue tubelight streaming out. - -No one was in sight to see me, apparently, as I padded swiftly along -the catwalk. From the distant bow and stern mess-rooms I could hear the -faint blended murmuring voices of some of the crew who were off duty. -I came to the magnetic room doorway. The room seemingly was empty. -The banks of dials, switches and levers which governed the different -areas of the ship were ranged up one wall. They all seemed in normal -operation; none of the tiny warning trouble-lights were illumined. -Bentley's little table, with his pack of arrant cylinders and a scroll -book he had evidently been reading, was here with its empty chair -before it. - - * * * * * - -And then I saw him! He was lying sprawled, face down, over in a corner, -with a monstrous shadow from the table upon him, and just the faint -glow of the electronic flourescent tubes painting his dark worksuit so -that I noticed him. He was dead; I turned him over, stooping beside -him. His chest was drilled with a pencilray of heat, presumably from a -low-caliber Banning gun.... - -"Don't move, Penelle! I've got you!" - -I stiffened at the sound of the low, menacing voice in the dimness -behind me. - -"Leave that gun where it is. Put your hands up and turn around. By -God if you try anything funny, I'll drill you through. I've got you -covered." - -I was kneeling by the body of Bentley, with my gun on the floor-grid -beside me. With hands up, I slowly turned. The tall figure of William -Wilson, the ship's First Officer loomed over me with the tubelight -gleaming on his white and gold uniform. He was staring down grimly; he -held a small heat-gun at his hip, leveled at me. - -Out in the open at last. So this was one of the criminals; the fellow -who had tried to melt into the helio room? The eavesdropper? The man -who had been in Nina's room? Heaven knows, of all on board, I had least -suspected him. - -He thought, of course, he had me trapped. But you can't capture an S.S. -Man just by holding a gun on him and telling him to put up his hands. -Even with my hands up, and the Banning gun on the floor beside me,--I -could have pointed my left shoulder at him, drilled him with a stab of -heat from the heat-ray embedded in the padded shoulder of my jacket. My -right elbow was pressing my side to fire it, with all my body tensed -to try and drop under what might have been his answering shot. But I -didn't fire. His next words checked me. - -"So you're not just a mathematics clerk--a damned murderer here on -board! Get up! We're going up to Mackensie." - -I stared as his foot kicked at my gun, and he swiftly stooped and -picked it up. - -"Come on," he added with a rasp. "Climb to your feet, Penelle. We'll -see what the Captain has to say about this--" - -"That suits me," I murmured. I said nothing more. Docilly I let him -shove me in advance of him, up the ladder, along the dim main corridor, -up the companionway from the starlit bow deck triangle to the little -catwalk bridge in front of the turret. - - * * * * * - -Fortunately we encountered no one. At his telescope in the peak of -the bow, the forward lookout turned and gazed at us curiously. The -dim control turret was empty, eerie with the spots of fluorescent -light from its banks of instruments. The controls were locked for the -vessel's present course. The door oval to the adjacent chart room was -open. Mackensie was alone in there, plotting the _X-87's_ future course -on a chart. He stared blankly as the grim young Wilson shoved me in -upon him. - -"Caught this damned fellow in the magnet-room, Captain. He's killed -Bentley. By God--something queer's in the air this voyage. Bentley -murdered--" - -Mackensie's first stare of startled amusement as I was shoved captive -before him, faded into horror. His heavy, square jaw dropped. - -"Bentley murdered? Good Lord--why--what ..." - -"Somebody was tampering with the ship's gravity," I murmured swiftly. -"I felt it go off in a section of the main corridor--went down to the -magnet-room. Bentley's there dead--drilled through the chest--" - -"Bentley killed? Murder, here on my ship! Why, by the Gods of the -starways--" Big Mackensie was momentarily stupified, his eyes widened, -his heavy face mottled an apoplectic red with his rush of anger. - -"I caught this fellow Penelle--" young Wilson began. - -"Don't be an ass," Mackensie roared. "He's a Government -crime-tracker--stationed here on board this voyage--" - -My gesture tried to stop him. "Easy Captain. Listeners might be on us--" - -The chart room door, here beside us, which opened onto the -superstructure roof, was closed. But the small oval window beside it, -also facing sternward, was open. I dashed to it. The dim roof deck -seemed empty. I noticed a light in Len Smith's helio cubby. - -I drew down the metal shade of our window. Whirled back. The astonished -young Wilson stared at me in numbed amazement. "They're coming into the -open," I murmured. "Look here, Captain, we've got to plan--" - -"Why--why, good Lord--I thought we were guarding against a plot on the -Moon--" - -"Well, we're not. It's here--now--" I told him what Nina had said; five -of the crew. The new men, placed here on board. And how many of the -officers might be in it-- - -"Why--why good Lord--" Mackensie was completely stricken. For an -instant that floored me. I saw him now as a Captain of the old -school--bluff, roaring; the sort of fellow who on a surface vessel -would deal grimly and ruthlessly with mutineers. But he was frightened -now; frightened and confused. - -"Why--why Penelle--you mean to think that here on my ship--" - -"Ready to strike--now," I murmured. I told him about the burned place -on the helio room door. He could only stare, numbed. And now the murder -of Bentley--the first tangible attack our adversaries had made. Who -were they? Five of the crew--that would include the hunchback Durk ... -Mokk, the Martian? Ollog Torio, the pallid Venus man? Some of the other -passengers maybe? And of the ship's officers, whom could we trust? - -"Why--why all of them, by God," Mackensie murmured, as I voiced it. "I -wouldn't have traitors on my staff--" - -But this treasure of the T-catalyst--it might be worth a million -decimars to the Venus revolutionists. And money can buy men--even men -who have long been in honest service. The Second Officer--fat, jolly -little Peter Green--he perhaps could be trusted. James Polter, the -Purser? Of him I could not guess. Dr. Fyre, the Surgeon? Even with a -plugged, counterfeit thousandth part of a decimar, I wouldn't take my -eyes off him. - - * * * * * - -The handsome young giant, Wilson, stood gazing at us now in blank -horror. He was hardly more than a boy. Quite evidently he knew -completely nothing of what was going on. - -"But what are we going to do?" Mackensie was stammering. Then he -spluttered, "By the God's I won't have this sort of thing on my ship. -I'll muster them all up here--find out who this damned murderer is--" - -I seized him. "Easy Captain." Then I bent closer to him. "Captain -Mackensie--things I don't understand yet about this. That big box in -Miss Blake's room--" And on impulse I whispered: "Someone was climbing -out her window a while ago. She called him Jim. She's in terror of him. -Captain, see here, you've got to tell me everything about this." - -For an instant, his spluttering ineptitude left him. "I can't," he -murmured. "That--that isn't mine to tell. Don't ask it, Penelle." Then -he swung back to his own troubles. "What do you think we ought to do? -By heaven--I'll turn back to Earth. Turn the whole damn ship's company -over to the authorities." - -We were now some forty thousand miles from Earth--just about a sixth of -the way to the Moon. - -"And have them see us swing?" I murmured. "Wouldn't that precipitate -whatever it is they're planning to do?" - -Three of us here, in the control turret and chart room--and except for -Nina, down there alone in her cabin, so far as I really knew, everyone -else on the ship might be against us. Swiftly I questioned Mackensie. -The _X-87_ was not equipped with any long-range guns, and very few -side arms. What there were, we had now with us here in the chart room. -Mackensie gestured to the little arsenal-locker, here in one of the -walls beside us. - -"Are the crew members allowed to be armed?" I demanded. - -"Good Heavens, no!" - -"But they will be," young Wilson put in. "Mutineers will be armed--" - -There was no argument on that. And each of the officers normally -carried one small heat gun. Here in the chart room we had perhaps a -half dozen of the heat ray projectors; a few old-fashioned weapons of -explosion; powder rifles and automatic revolvers; a small collection of -miscellaneous glass bombs--loaded with gas; darkness bombs; a few of -the "fainting bombs," as they are popularly called--detonators, with -tiny shrapnel impregnated with acetylcholine, which, when introduced -into the blood stream by a fragment of shrapnel, instantly lowers -the blood pressure so that the victim faints but is not otherwise -damaged. And we had two or three small hand projectors of the Benson -curve-light, with a device by which we could project the heat ray in a -curve as well. - -"Well, if I don't turn back, then I'll helio my owners for -instructions," Mackensie was saying. - -It sounded futile. What could financiers back at their desks in -Great-New York have to do with us, embattled out here in Space, -barricaded in our little chart room? - -"Send a helio for the Interplanetary Patrol," I suggested. "A call for -help. If we could contact one of the roving police vessels--" - -"Not a one in telescopic sight," Mackensie murmured. "I had a routine -report on that a few hours ago." - -"Well, we might as well try anyway." Would the pirates be aware of our -efforts? Would it bring an attack from them? My only idea was to stall -the situation here, whatever it might be. That, and summon help. Then -I had another thought: young Len Smith, the helio man--could he be -trusted? - -"Why--I suppose so," Mackensie stammered. And then he jerked himself -out of his terror; his huge hamlike fist banged down on the chart room -table, making his calipers and compasses jump. "Damnation, I'll find -out quick enough which of my men are loyal. We'll fight this thing -through. Penelle, you go tell Smith to get off a distress call. Blast -the ether with it--call Interplanetary police. Tell Smith to keep at -it till he raises one. You stay with him and see, by God, that he does -it. You, Wilson, open up that cupboard--get out the weapons. I'll have -my damned officers up here." - - * * * * * - -As I started for the door I gripped him, whispered: "Captain--where -have you got the T-catalyst hidden?" - -It startled him. For a second I saw that he was wondering if he could -even trust me with the knowledge. Then he gestured. "Over there," he -murmured with his lips against my ear. "Little safe hidden in that -wall-panel. You press a spring at the left molding. The catalyst is in -a small lead cylinder--Gamma-ray insulated." - -I nodded. - -"Only one other man on board knows that," he whispered. "If anything -happens to me--or him--" - -Him? Who? I had no time to ask. Mackensie had flung open the door; -shoved me out onto the deck. It still seemed deserted; dim with -starlight from the glassite dome overhead. Amidships, some forty feet -from me, the light in Smith's little helio cubby showed faintly eerie -in one of his windows. - -I ran there. "Smith. Len Smith...." I called it softly. "Len Smith--" - -There was only the faint echo of my voice, coming back at me from the -steel cubby wall. The door was ajar. I shoved at it, burst in and stood -stricken, transfixed, with so great a horror flooding me that the eerie -scene in the helio cubby swam before my gaze. At his instrument table -the white-uniformed figure of young Smith lay sprawled, a white figure -crimsoned ghastly with blood. A knife handle protruded from his back. -Horribly his head dangled sidewise, with grisly severed neck. - -And as I rushed forward, my movement jostled the body. It slumped, fell -from the stool, hitting the floor with a thud. The blow broke the neck -vertebrae; the head--ghastly little ball--rolled across the room and -stopped at the wall, gruesomely right side up, with Smith's dead eyes -staring at me--eyes with the agony of death frozen in them. - -Then I saw the wreckage of the instrument table. All our -communications smashed, wrecked beyond repair! For another second I -numbly stared. Then, from some distant point of the ship's interior, -a strident little electric whistle sounded. A signal! From another -section I heard it answered. And then a shot! The barking explosion -of a powder-gun ... the hiss of a stabbing heat-ray ... a commotion -in the lower corridors--shouts of startled passengers ... a turmoil -everywhere.... - -The attack had begun! - - * * * * * - -The turmoil that all in those seconds was spreading about the ship -like fire in prairie grass released me from my numbness. I whirled; -dashed back through the helio cubby door to the roof deck. It was still -unoccupied. Back on the stern deck triangle, where just the stern tip -of it showed from here, with the dull-red Earth-light upon it, there -was the sizzling flash of a heat-gun. I saw the stern lookout collapse -back from his telescope; fall to the deck. - -Toward the bow, through the chart-room window where the shade now was -up, Wilson was staring out. "Penelle!" - -His voice reached me. Beyond the kiosk of chart room and control -turret, a figure appeared coming up the little catwalk ladder from the -bow deck. It seemed to be the bow lookout, but whether friend or foe I -had no way of guessing. - -"Watch yourself, Wilson," I shouted. "Watch the turret--" I was dashing -for the side companionway. Whatever transpired up here, there was only -one thing in my mind in the chaos of that moment. Nina.... She was -alone down in her cabin. I must get her up here.... - -I leaped down the last half of that little side ladder. On the dim side -deck ten feet away, two men were fighting, one in white gold uniform, -the other a deckhand. They rolled on the deck. A knife flashed.... -Another man came suddenly from the smoking lounge doorway. He plunged -at me, whirling an iron bar. My Banning flash met him head on; I jumped -aside as his dead body catapulted to the deck. There was another flash. -One of the rolling, fighting men on the deck went limp. The other rose. -It was the fat little Peter Green, Second Officer. He was panting; his -face streaked with blood. - -"Get to your room," he gasped as he saw me. "All passengers stay in -your cubbies. Piracy!" - -The passengers were shouting now; from a nearby corridor entrance women -were screaming. Then from up at the turret, Mackensie turned on the -vessel's distress siren. Its shrill, dismal electrical whine sounded -above the turmoil. - -"Go up to the control turret," I shouted at Green. I dashed into the -corridor. Passengers scattered to right and left before me. - -"Get into your rooms," I shouted. "Everybody stay in. Barricade--" - -An Earth-woman screamed; somebody shouted, "That big -Martian--murderer--I saw him killing--" Two little Lunites, mine -workers, a young man and a girl, stood with arms around each other -in one of the doorways. Pallid little people, confused, helpless, -cringing. I shoved them back into their room and banged their door. - -Then I turned into the main corridor, ran aft along it, came to the -next cross passage. Nina! I saw her, ahead of me in the corridor, close -by her smashed door. She was struggling, fighting with the snaky Venus -man Ollog Torio; his arms lifted her up as he tried to carry her. I -shouted an oath; I did not dare fire. And at the sound of my voice he -dropped her, made off through the end door so quickly that I had no -time to drill him. - -"Nina! Nina!" - -I gathered her up, frail little thing in her negligee with her -luxuriant black hair streaming down. - -"Nina, did he hurt you?" - -"No! No, I'm all right." - -She was breathless; pallid; her dark eyes were pools of terror. -"Oh, dear God!" she gasped. "It's come." She clutched at me. "That -hunchback--that fellow Durk--have you seen him?" - -"No, I haven't." Her question sent a shudder through me. I set her on -her feet. "We've got to get up to the control turret. The captain--his -loyal officers up there." - -"Oh--Oh, Lord!" With a new anguish of terror upon her face she jerked -away from me, ran for her doorway. I saw where Torio had melted through -its lock with a heat blast. I dashed through it after her, and caught -her in the center of her room. - -"Nina, what's the matter?" - - * * * * * - -The oblong coffin box! It lay flat on the floor, over by the wall of -the dim room. In a sudden lull of the ship's chaos the rhythmic ticking -was audible. And now there were other sounds from within the box! A -thumping! A low, mumbling man's voice! - -A rasping voice in the cabin doorway sounded behind me. Gun in hand, I -whirled. One of the huge deckhands stood there, murder on his face, a -blood-stained knife between his teeth so that he looked like an ancient -picture of a surface vessel pirate. He lunged in at us. My flash caught -him full in the face; horribly his features blackened as he went down. - -"Oh--Oh, I had no chance to let you out!" Nina was half sobbing it -as she flung herself down over the box. The ship's alarm siren had -suddenly died. Did that mean that the captain and the others in the -control turret had been killed? The thought stabbed at me. Distant -shots were still sounding. The oaths of fighting men were audible--the -loyal members of the crew, fighting those traitors who had so suddenly -set upon them. Footsteps were thudding on the roof-deck overhead. - -"No chance to let you out!" The pallid girl with trembling fingers was -fumbling at the box. Its lid rose up, with the head and shoulders of a -man appearing beneath; a man entombed, hiding in there, breathing with -the air-renewers of the ticking mechanism. A stalwart man of iron-gray -hair. Georg Blake! Nina's father. I recognized him from the many -pictures I had seen. He leaped out of the box, stared at me. - -"A Government man," Nina gasped. "Here to help us." - -The report of Blake's death--his possible murder--all that had been -Blake's own doing. He gripped me now; murmured it swiftly. A giant, -dominant fellow, he towered over me. Nina was unpacking his weapons -from the box as he told me. He had believed there was a plot on the -Moon against him; was smuggling himself to the Moon, where in secret, -with the villains thinking him dead and only his young daughter to -cope with, he expected to expose them. And most of the voyage he had -been hidden in the box, afraid of eavesdroppers or some prying Benson -curve-ray. - -"Give me those guns, Nina. These damnable murderers--" Then he swung at -me; lowered his voice: "Mackensie has the catalyst?" - -"Yes," I murmured. - -"Good! I know where. By Heaven, they can kill us both and still they -won't find it." He was buckling his weapons to his huge belt. - -"The captain's in the control turret," I said. "Making a stand up -there. We should go to him." - -"Yes. You're right. Come on." - -We ran. I put my arm around the girl as she sagged like a terrified -child against me. Bow and stern, the sounds of the fighting seemed -somewhat to have slackened. The passengers still were screaming; I -shoved them back in their doorways as we dashed past. And suddenly, -reaching the side deck, I realized that the towering Blake was not -with us. The deck here was wet with blood. Three or four bodies lay -nearby. An Earth-woman lay writhing, her white throat slashed with -crimson. There was nothing I could do to help her. My gun ranged the -deck; there was nothing to shoot at. Off at the stern, I saw a running -man leap high in the air and go down. Then the red Earth-light back -there momentarily darkened. Someone had thrown a darkness bomb; its -light-absorbing gas came spreading along the deck toward us. - -"This way, Nina--climb. I'll follow." - -We went up the little ladder. Near the top I held her back, poking -my head cautiously up, in advance of her. The dimly starlit deck was -blurred with gas and heat fumes. We were mid-forward, perhaps halfway -between the helio cubby and the chart room. In a patch here on the -deck, darkness gas hung in a layer, a black shroud nearly waist deep. -Light still showed in the window of the helio room, where the grewsome -body of Len Smith lay sprawled. The chart room was dark, its door -closed; but the steel shutter of its window, facing this way, was up a -few inches. I thought I saw the muzzle of a gun protruding. - -Good enough. Mackensie, Wilson and perhaps others were in -there--barricaded, still holding out. I shouted, "I'm Penelle. Don't -fire!" - -"Come ahead," Mackensie's great voice roared. - - * * * * * - -Life, or death, can hang upon such a little thing. Directly across -the thirty-foot roof deck from me the top of the other side-ladder -was visible above the layer of darkness. A man's head and shoulders -suddenly appeared there. My weapon leveled; but then I saw that it was -Nina's father. He saw me at the same instant, waved at me and jumped -from the ladder, wading through the waist-high darkness toward the -chart room. - -I do feel that there was nothing I could have done. Heaven knows I -would give anything now if only I had had some flash of intuition. - -But I was thinking only of Nina. I turned to gaze down at her, where -she stood a step or two below me on the ladder. "Come on, it's all -safe." - -Safe? I turned back just in time to see a hand and arm come up out of -the layer of darkness. Weird, as though detached from its body, it -swung; the fingers loosed a little globe. It was only a few feet behind -Blake. The globe hurtled at his head, struck it--an explosive bomb. -It burst with a sharp report and a little puff of yellow-red light. -Perhaps I caught a glimpse of the ghastly scattered fragments of what -had been a human head. There was only a grewsome gory neck-stump as the -giant body of Blake toppled down into the layer of darkness. - -I fired into the darkness gas. The stab of heat dispelled it a little. -I hit nothing. Then, as I jumped from the ladder, forgetful of Nina, -from the chart-room window Mackensie was wildly firing from two -weapons. One of the sizzling heat-rays barely missed me. And then -someone behind him, Wilson perhaps, tossed a light-bomb. Its blinding -actinic glare momentarily dispelled the gloom. At the other side -companion-ladder we caught a vague glimpse of the massive head and -shoulders of Mokk as he leaped down to the lower deck. His triumphant -laugh floated up after him. - -"You, Penelle, bring the girl in here," Mackensie was roaring. "Hurry -now." - -I all but carried the half-fainting Nina. The darkness gas was floating -away; but I thanked God that enough remained to shroud the fallen -headless body of her father as we passed it. The door of the chart room -opened; I dashed in with her; hands banged the steel door closed and -bolted it. - -"I guess we're all here," Mackensie said. The _X-87_ captain was grim, -his thick face puffed with the choleric blood swelling it. His left -arm hung almost limp at his side; I saw where his white uniform was -burned with the scorching edge of a heat-stab. Young Wilson was here, -disheveled, wild-eyed. The little oval to the control turret was open; -I could see the fat little Peter Green and James Polter, the purser, in -there, crouched at a slit of the forward visor window, weapons in hand. -I went in to them. - -"Just us," I murmured. "Where's Dr. Frye?" - -Polter grimly gestured. "Down there--see him? Damned traitor. I drilled -him. See him?" - -The _X-87_ was still on her course. The forward deck triangle was still -bathed in moonlight, save that gases blurred it. The forward lookout's -telescope lay in a wreck, with his body upon it. Other motionless forms -were strewn about; chairs were overturned--those same chairs where Nina -and the rest of us had gathered in the moonlight so short a time ago. -Dr. Frye's thin body lay huddled down there. - -I was aware now that all the fighting had ceased; there was only the -distant murmurs of the terrified passengers, in their cabins beneath -us. The mutineers everywhere had won; I could not doubt it. The thing -was a swift massacre. Those crew members who had tried to be loyal -were all dead. I stared, from the tiny hatch-opening in the bow, which -led down to the forward messroom, a hand cautiously appeared. There -was a stab of flame; a report; an old-fashioned leaden slug thudded -harmlessly against a corner of the catwalk bridge, only a few feet from -the slit at which we were peering. And in the silence, the sniper's -chuckle sounded. - -At my elbow, suddenly there was a buzzing. Green turned his head -slightly. "Call--coming from the main gravity plate room," he -murmured. "Answer it, Penelle." - -I moved toward the little mouthpiece. But Mackensie had heard it and -came running in from the adjacent chart room. "I'll take it. Keep at -your lookouts, everybody--this may be a ruse to catch us off guard." - -I could hear the tiny voice coming from the receiver as Mackensie -clapped it to his ear. - -"This is Torio," the voice said suavely. "Have you had enough, Captain?" - -"You go to hell," Mackensie roared. - -"That would be very nice, Captain, but it's more likely to be your own -destination." I could picture the sleek, ironically smiling Venus man -down there at the speaking tube. "We demand your surrender now--if you -do not wish to die." - -"To hell with you--" - -"All you have to do is come out of the turret, with your hands up. -You'll be treated--like the passengers. Fair treatment, I do assure -you." - -"I'll have all you pirates in the detention pen before this is ended," -Mackensie roared. - -"All we want is your surrender. And to have you tell us where you've -hidden that little leaden cylinder." - -"By Heaven, you'll never find it. Dead or alive." - -"Dead, if you say so," Torio's voice snapped. And then his irony -returned. "We'll give you five minutes to decide." - -"I want nothing from you. By the gods, I'm still Master here!" - -"Empty title, Captain." - -"I'm steering us back to Earth," the captain rasped. "The -Interplanetary Patrol is coming for us." - -That made the Venus man chuckle. "If only it were. But it isn't." - -"We'll be back on Earth in eighteen hours," the choleric Mackensie -asserted. "You can all go to hell--you murderers--bandits--" - -"Back to Earth?" Torio sneered. "Watch us turn, Captain. Not back -to Earth. It's Venus we're going to head for. Venus--where the new -triumphant Government will be needing that treasure you've hidden. Up -there with you in the turret, isn't it?" - -"To hell with you--" - -"Watch us turn, Captain." - - * * * * * - -I was aware of the glittering Heavens up through the glassite pressure -dome as they made a dizzying swoop. The little _X-87_, with her gravity -plates abruptly shifted by the manual controls in the hull room, was -turning over. - -"See it, Captain?" - -"You damned fools," Mackensie roared. "Disconnect my controls if you -like. What the hell of it? You can't chart a course down there. You -haven't the instruments or the skill." - -"Quite true, Captain. That's why we want you to surrender. We'd really -rather not kill you. And if we go falling through Space this way, -unguided, we might eventually hit something. Your five minutes are -almost up. What do you say?" - -My nostrils abruptly were dilating. What was this? Suddenly I was aware -of a queer acrid smell here. And my head gave a swoop. Here in the -turret Green and Polter were at the forward window. I saw them fling me -a startled glance. Both of them staggered to their feet. And Mackensie, -still gripping the receiver, was swaying. - -"What's the matter, Captain?" Torio's suave ironic voice was demanding. -"Do you smell it already? You're so silent." - -William Wilson, with Nina, was alone on guard in the adjacent chart -room. He gave a sudden startled cry. "Come quick! Something's the -matter with me." - -Poisonous gas here! We realized it abruptly; gas pouring in through the -ventilators from below. - -"Close those vents!" Mackensie gasped. "Poisoned air--" His hand was -clutching at his throat. With his thick neck, full-blooded body, he -felt it worse than any of us. His face was purpling; his eyes abruptly -bulging. In that second he staggered and fell, ripping the receiver -connection out as he went down, where still the ironic voice of Torio -was jibing at us. - -The rest of us sprang to the grid vents. There was no way of shutting -the poisoned air off! The hinges of the multiple little visors were -melted away! - -"That--that damned Dr. Frye," Polter gasped. "He was up here a while -ago. I wondered--" - -A scream from Nina, mingled with a sizzling flash in the other room, -transfixed us. With all the weird scene swaying before me, I dashed -through the oval. Young Wilson was lying sprawling, dead from a bolt, -with his head and shoulders on the window ledge. Nina was crouching in -a corner, gasping, staring in terror. I started toward her. My ears -were roaring as though with a thousand Niagaras. A titan hand seemed -compressing my chest with a band of steel as I gasped for breath. - -"Nina--Nina--" My own voice, so futile, sounded far away. Then I heard -the steel shutter of the chart room window snap up to the top. Into the -opening, a man came climbing. Mokk, with a patch of chemical fabric -binding his nose and mouth like a mask. My gun sizzled at him, but the -stab went wild as I staggered. Then he came leaping at me. - -From the turret I was aware of other shots; a scream of agony from -Polter as he was struck; thudding blows as the visor pane was crashed. -And then a scream from little Green. The end! On the chart room floor -grid I found myself wildly grappling the hulking Martian. My gun had -clattered away as his three hundred-pound weight crashed me down. -Dimly I realized that this sudden wild attack upon us was because the -bandits, for their own sakes, had no desire to have any great amount of -the poisoned air circulating about the little ship. - -"You damned little Earth-fool," Mokk was growling. "Don't you see I'd -rather not kill you?" - -My puny little blows into his face only made him rasp with anger. I -was trying to twist from under him. I almost made it. But abruptly he -seized me around the middle, rose up and hurled me. Like a child I -hurtled across the room, crashing against the alumite inner wall. The -world went up into a blinding roar of light as my head struck. Dimly -I was aware of dropping back to the floor. There was only blinding, -roaring light, and Nina's choked scream of terror as my senses faded -and I slid into the soundless abyss of unconsciousness. - - * * * * * - -I was at last aware that I was not dead, by the dim feeling that my -head was throbbing. I was lying on something soft. Voices were here; -the muffled, blended murmur of men's voices. At first they seemed very -faint and far away. Then, as my returning senses clarified a little -more, I knew that the voices were close to me. - -I opened my eyes at last to find myself lying on a blanket on the -chart room floor. In a chair Nina was huddled, mutely staring with -wide, terrified eyes to where at his chart-table Captain Mackensie was -slumped, sullenly staring at the celestial diagrams spread before him. -The sleek, ironic figure of Torio was beside him, his slim gray hand -gesturing at the charts. - -"We are now just about here, Captain?" - -"Yes," Mackensie growled. - -"Then we want a computation of the swiftest course, from here to Venus. -You will figure it out. Tell us the gravity plate combination." - -I could feel that blood was stiffly matting the hair at the back of my -head, a ragged scalp wound there. I was bathed in cold sweat; weak, so -dizzy still that the eerie chart room swam before me. But my strength -slowly was returning. How much time had passed? Considerable, I judged, -from that blood so stiffly dry in my hair. With a fumbling hand I felt -of my clothes. All my instruments and weapons had been taken. - -Then I saw, in another chair, the huge slumped figure of Mokk, his -massive legs crossed at ease. On his knees his hand held a gun alert. -The room light fell on his heavy face. It bore an expression of grim -irony, as his dark eyes, watchful, roved the room. - -"The segment of a parabola, Captain," the soft voice of Torio was -saying. "Would that be most swift? Remember, as we turn in past the -Earth, we go no closer than forty thousand miles." - -"You're fools," Mackensie muttered. "This voyage will take a month or -more." - -"Why not?" - -"The alarm will be out for us. The Interplanetary Patrol will pick us -up." - -"Let us hope not, Captain. You and Miss Nina would be the first -to die. But there is not too much danger, I think. The modern -electro-telescopes are very wonderful, but there is none, at forty -thousand miles, powerful enough to pick up so small a speck of floating -dust as the _X-87_. Or at least, not to identify it." - -"I wouldn't be too sure, Torio. And at best, your food will give out." - -"We will hope not," Torio smiled. His voice turned brisk. "Chart your -course, Captain. Remember, we kept you alive just for this duty." - -Nina said suddenly, "This silence everywhere about the ship--where are -the passengers?" - -Torio turned smilingly to her. "Why, little lady, didn't you know? We -gave them pressure suits and put them out the keel porte. Have no fear, -they'll drift down safely. Some of the suits are powered. If they're -clever they'll get back to Earth." - -As though this were an old-fashioned surface vessel--giving the -passengers life preservers and tossing them into the middle of an ocean. - -"Penelle seems to have recovered his wits," Mokk said suddenly. "See -what he knows, Torio." - -It turned all their gazes upon me. I was up on one elbow. "What I know -about what?" I said. - - * * * * * - -Torio leaped to his feet and stood bending over me. "Now then, you -damned crime-tracker. Where is the T-catalyst? It's hidden around here -somewhere. Where is it?" - -"Catalyst," I mumbled. "I don't know what you mean." - -Torio's foot kicked savagely at me. I tensed; the giant Mokk shifted -his weapon to level down at me. I saw Mackensie flash me a glance. - -"So you're going to try that too?" Torio rasped. - -I stared. "He doesn't know any more about it than I do," Mackensie -growled. "Nobody knew except Georg Blake, and you killed him. Find it -for yourself. My guess it that Blake cast it adrift when the attack -came." - -"You talk without sense," Mokk put in. "Maybe the girl knows." He -chuckled. "If you leave me alone with her, Torio, I can think of ways -to make her tell." - -"I know nothing about it," Nina gasped. - -"Well, some one of you does," Torio said grimly. "We'll start with this -damn crime-tracker." He leaped across the room, came back with a length -of wire. My gaze strayed to the opposite wall; the treasure was there, -back of a secret panel. - -"Bare your chest, Penelle." Torio stooped to where I was backed -against the wall, on the floor. He tore at my shirt, exposing the flesh -of my chest. "Are you going to tell?" - -"I can't. I don't know." - -Beyond his slim shoulder I saw Nina's face, pallid, her dark eyes -glistening with horror, her lips compressed as though to stifle a -scream. Torio had a small cylinder in his hand, with the naked length -of wire connected to it. The wire was glowing now--red, orange, white, -then violet hot. - -"A few lashes with this," Torio hissed at me. "Whatever you know will -come out then." His pale face was blazing. - -"He will talk even more quickly if you try that on the girl," Mokk -growled. - -"No!" I burst out. "No, damn you! We don't know where it is! I can't -tell what I don't know." - -"We'll see," Torio muttered. He dangled the wire at my face. The violet -light of it was blinding; the heat scorched my skin. - -"Stop! Oh, stop it! I'll tell you!" Nina's anguished cry rang out. The -light and heat receded from my face. - -"Oh, so you're the one who's willing to tell?" Torio swung on her; -snapped off the current in his wire and flung it away. "All right, -where is it? But remember, by the gods, if we don't find it where you -say--" - -"It's there." She gestured to the wall. "My father told me it's there." - -"I hope so," the giant Mokk growled. "For your sake, I hope so, little -lady." - -I held my breath. If by some mischance it should not be there-- - -Then Torio found the pressure-clip and slid the panel. With a cry of -triumph as he saw the hidden little safe; he did not wait to question -us on how to open it, but seized a heat-torch; melted its lock in a -moment. The foot-long leaden cylinder was disclosed. There could be no -question of the authenticity of its contents--its contents-dial glowed -with the Gamma rays bombarding it from within. The pointer trembled at -the figures indicating the strength and character of the bombardment. - -"All goes well," Mokk chuckled. "We have no problems now, friend Torio. -You and I can trust each other, eh? Put it back in the safe. That is as -good a place as any." The giant Martian stood up, yawning. "You work -out our course with the captain. For me, I shall go down and take some -rest." He grinned. "The little Earth-girl fascinates you, eh, Torio? -I must leave her up here with you. Very well. I would not be one to -quarrel over so small a thing. The girls of Mars please me better." - -Torio, too, was smiling. They were highly pleased with themselves, -these triumphant villains. "Take Penelle with you," Torio said -contemptuously. "Lock him up in one of the cubbies. Have one of the men -feed him." - -I caught Torio's flashing, significant look, and one of grinning irony -with which the Martian answered it. And Nina saw it also. A cry burst -from her and she leaped up. - -"You--you don't mean that! You're going to kill him, now that you -haven't anything more to get out of him! Oh--Oh, please--" - -Her slim little hands gripped Torio by the shoulders. I saw him tense; -he stared; and then he laughed softly. "Well, my dear--when you ask me -in such a way as this--" - -"Oh, I do. I do." - -"Then I will keep him alive." - -"Don't--don't take him down there." - -"You do not trust me?" His voice sounded hurt. He swung on Mokk. "Bind -him and lock him up. Do not harm him. If you do, you will answer to me -for it. I mean it now." - -"Quite correct," Mokk agreed with a grin. "If that is your form of -love-making, it is your own affair. Let us hope she will give you her -favor, since you do this for her." - -"Take him away," Torio commanded. "Come, Captain--let us get this -course charted." - - * * * * * - -I stood up as Mokk prodded me with his weapon and he shoved me from the -room. Was he going to kill me now out of hand? I had that feeling, and -it wasn't pleasant. But he only shoved me along the starlit and moonlit -roof deck. We had turned partly over. The huge ball of Earth was -directly under us now; the Moon was high overhead, blurred through the -glassite pressure dome. I saw, distantly, a man or two of the crew, -watching us as we came down the side ladder. How many of the mutineers -were there? I had no way of guessing. As Mokk shoved me from the side -deck into the cross corridor, down the deck near the stern triangle, I -caught a glimpse of the hunchback, Durk, staring silently at us. - -Part way along the corridor the Martian shoved me into one of the -passenger sleeping-cubbies. He lighted one of its tiny hooded wall -lights. Then he produced lengths of wire; bound my ankles; lashed my -wrists, crossed behind me. - -"I'll put you into the bunk for greater comfort," he chuckled. - -"Thanks." - -"Oh, I do it for friend Torio, and his little lady, not for you. Are -you hungry?" - -"No." - -"Well, I'll send you food later." - -He left me, closing the door softly after him. I lay in the shadowed -bunk, listening to the silence of the vibrationless little vessel. -Across the small sleeping room, the window oval was visible, its -alumite shutter halfway down. The open segment was very faintly -starlit. Perhaps I had been dozing; my head throbbed; the dank sweat of -weakness was still upon me. Then suddenly I was snapped into alertness; -it seemed that I had heard a sound on the side deck outside my window. - -And abruptly there was a shadow there in the half-oval window opening. -Someone looking in? My heart pounded as I stared; and in a second the -soundless shadow withdrew. A minute passed. Again I tensed at the sound -of a faint creak. My door was opening! Beyond the bunk bottom I could -see the door as very slowly, quietly it swung inward. Then the sheen -of light from the corridor darkened; a blob slipped into the room; the -door softly closed. The blob, hunched, stealthy, came slowly toward me. - -Whatever outcry I might have made froze on my lips with my sudden rush -of horror. Twitching, I strained at my bonds, but the damnable wire -held and merely dug into my flesh from the effort. The hunchback! He -came shambling. In one of his dangling hands he held a knife; the -hooded light here in the cubby glinted on its naked blade. And in that -second the light-sheen caught his face--ghastly, lumped, twisted -countenance, with bulbous parted lips as he sucked in his breath. - -"Penelle--" - -"Get away from me," I rasped. "You'll answer to Torio for this. By -Heaven, he'll flay you alive." - -"Not so loud! Easy there, I'm not here to hurt you." - -What was this? Not a guttural, illiterate voice. I recalled my fleeting -impression before that this Durk had the sort of voice one uses for -disguise. He was beside me now; and as the light, its hood here within -a foot or two, brightly illumined his face, realization came to me. -Wax, embedded under the skin, by the Glotz-process of disguise. We of -the Shadow Squad sometimes use it, though I must confess I had never -seen it so cleverly done as here. - -"Who are you?" I muttered. - -He whispered, "I'm Jim--Jim Blake." - - * * * * * - -Nina's brother! My S.S. boss had mentioned him; mysteriously he had -disappeared. He was loosening the wires which bound me; and his swift -whispers told me: Like his father, he had wanted to get secretly to -the Moon. Throughout all the mutiny he had had no opportunity of doing -anything which seemed better than posing as one of the villains. Only -once had he had any chance to communicate with Nina--that time when he -had gone to her room, telling her that he was going to try and kill -Mokk and Torio before the attack started, and thus ward it off. And -that he had not been able to do. - -He was only a boy really, barely twenty; he was trembling with -eagerness and excitement now as he cast me loose and I rose up out of -the bunk and stood beside him. - -"You armed?" I whispered. - -"No; only this knife. I've tried to get something else but can't." - -"Any of the crew with weapons?" - -"No, I don't think so. Knives, machinery bars and things like that. -Mokk and Torio seemed to have everything." - -"How many in the crew?" - -"Five, and me. One got killed in the fight. Another wounded. There were -two or three others planted among the passengers. Maybe more. They got -killed, too. Oh, what shall we do? All I could think of was to get -here and release you." - -"And I damn well thank you, Jim." I clapped him on the back. "Look -here, you keep the knife. Heaven knows you may need it." - -"What are we going to do?" he whispered eagerly. "Is--is Nina all -right?" - -"Yes, I guess so. Up in the turret. Have you seen Mokk?" - -"That Martian? No. What can we do?" - -Certainly I had no very clear idea. Five men, and Mokk and Torio. They -were not very many to be dispersed about the ship, and we had a fair -chance of cautiously moving around without encountering any of them. -Torio, I figured, was still in the chart room, with Nina and Mackensie. -Mokk, perhaps, was asleep somewhere. Young Blake had no very clear idea -of where the other five might be. - -"Come on," I whispered. "Let's take a look at the chart room." If by -any wild chance we could overcome Torio and get the electric weapons-- - -We got up to the roof deck without encounter. From one of the midships -ladders I stared forward to the chart room. I could see Torio and -Mackensie still in there, at the table with the charts. And now, beside -the chart room, where he could command its door and also the control -turret, a huge blob was lurking. Was it Mokk? - -It wasn't. I made the figure out more clearly as he moved a trifle. - -"That's one of the crew," Blake whispered. "Look--he's got a ray-gun." - -I could see it. I turned back. "Got to try something else. The midships -keel pressure porte," I whispered. "Ever been down there, Jim?" - -He stared. "No. What's your idea? Pressure porte?" - -"There's also a pressure porte in the dome, just over the control -turret. If we can get some Erentz pressure suits down in the keel--" - -Whether he understood me or not, I didn't stop to find out. I had still -only a very vague idea myself, just the glimmer of a desperate plan -which might work out. - -"You better lead," I suggested. "I'll direct you. Len Smith showed me -down there. If we run into anybody you can fool them long enough for me -to jump them." - -Unless it might be the Martian, with his belt bristling with electronic -guns. Vehemently I prayed we could keep clear of him. Silently, -furtively, we padded into the lower corridor. No sound. With young -Blake close ahead of me, we went down onto the mid-level catwalk. Still -there was nothing save eerie lights and deserted rooms. Nothing? A -ghastly reek came through a doorway at me. I glanced in. - -"The dead," Blake whispered with a shudder. "Said they were going to -cast them out a porte, but they didn't yet." - - * * * * * - -The dead. That catwalk room was a reeking, ghastly charnel house. A -good thirty bodies--men, women and children of three worlds, piled in a -horrible litter. I gasped. All the passengers were here. There had been -no disembarking of passengers, as Torio had ironically described to -Nina. - -We went on. Descended another level. We were in the keel now. Suddenly -footsteps sounded on the catwalk above us. One of the crew passed along -it. Fortunately he did not look down through the grid. - -"Got by that by a margin," I whispered. "Straight ahead, Jim. Then half -a flight down." - -From one of the storehouse rooms just ahead of us a man suddenly -emerged. I shrank against the dark corridor wall. - -"Oh, you, Durk," the man said softly. "Lookit what I found in -here--cask of alcoholite. Good drinkin', Durk." - -Jim Blake is only a boy, but he didn't shrink from his job. I was -tensed to leap past him upon the man in the doorway. The fellow -abruptly saw me. He squealed, "Look, behind you--" - -That's all he ever did say. Blake went at him like a little springing -leopard. The knife flashed; the man went down with only a choked gurgle -of blood in his throat. - -"Got him," Blake murmured. - -"Good enough. Come on." - -The emergency pressure porte was to one side of the corridor, an oblong -compartment, with one tiny segment of the tubelight up in its ceiling -sending down a faint pallid sheen. The inner door here was open so that -normal air pressure was in the porte. - -"Luck better be with us now," I murmured. "Let's see what they've left -in the emergency equipment room." - -It was here on the other side the corridor. My heart pounded with -triumph. There were plenty of Erentz suits and helmets here. Both young -Blake and I had used the familiar Carpley suit and helmet for outer -stratosphere flying. These were not so very different, save that the -electronic current in the double shell of the fabric circulated faster, -for the more speedy absorption of the interior pressure within the -suit, when worn in the vacuum of Space. - -We had them on in a moment, with the huge goggling helmets buckled at -the throat. Through my glassite bull's-eye I could see young Blake's -weirdly disguised face. He was trying to smile; but he was probably -pretty fairly frightened. For which I don't blame him; I was myself. -The baggy, still deflated suits hung on us in great grotesque folds. I -touched my metal-tipped glove to the metal plate on his shoulder for -audiphone contact. - -"Think you can work it all right?" I murmured. - -"Yes. Yes, sure." - -"Keep with me when we get outside," I cautioned. - -"Yes. I'll--I'll try." - -I was in an agony of apprehension that someone would come and catch us -here before we could get the porte closed. But no one did. Our pressure -suits caused no trouble. The Erentz mechanism controls, renewal of the -interior air, and the pressure-absorbing current, are simple enough -to work. Within a minute our suits were bloated, huge. And then as we -stepped into the pressure room, I saw what clarified and altered all -my vague plans. A complete get-away! It was possible now, for here on -a rack of the pressure room floor lay a little volplane--emergency -Space-sled, its canoe-like hull some twenty feet long, its wings for -air gliding folded against its sides. It was provisioned with emergency -food and water. I bent over it with hurried, triumphant examination. -The stern had a tiny outboard rocket engine; and in the bow were small -manually controlled gravity plates. It was ready; the descent to Earth -in it could be made, with fair safety, and perhaps in a week. - - * * * * * - -We slid the inner pressure door closed. An exit out of a pressure room -can be swiftly made. We opened the small vents of the outer panels. The -air of the room started hissing out into the vacuum outside. - -"Easy," I murmured. "Not too fast. We don't want to get blown out." - -Within a minute we could open the outer door; the last escaping air -went with a thin hissing rush. At the threshold before us yawned the -vast abyss of Space. I stood for a second gazing down at the great -mottled reddish ball of Earth. Forty thousand miles down to it. There -was a little launching rack out here to hold the volplane. We slid it -out; locked it into position. I had told Blake now what I was going to -try and do. He demurred at waiting here in the volplane, but I forced -him. - -"You can see up from here," I murmured. "Somebody has to launch it. -When I give you the signal, shove it off. You can pick us up." - -"If we have luck," I murmured it to myself. - -He nodded comprehension. - -Then, cautiously, I stepped from the threshold, out into Space. An -empty abyss of forty thousand miles, down to the Earth's surface -beneath me. Though I knew very well what would happen to me, of course, -I must say that I had to steel myself grimly, to step off from the -brink of that threshold. It made my senses momentarily reel. But the -weird sensation was gone in a moment. - -It was like a diver taking a step under water. I did not fall. I had -let myself off the brink gingerly; and I felt my body sluggishly moving -out a foot or two, with all the universe slowly, dizzily turning over. -I am no skilled mathematician. Given the gross tonnage of the little -_X-87_, doubtless astronomers could figure the relation of its gravity -pull upon me, so close, compared to the giant bulk of the Earth, so far -away. Perhaps even at forty thousand miles, and against the pull of the -Moon, some two hundred thousand miles above me, and the _X-87_ only a -foot or two--the Earth would slowly have drawn me down. But I knew that -there was an aura of the vessel's artificial interior gravity out here. -Len Smith had told me of many tests which had been made between the -Earth and the Moon. - -At all events, I drifted downward a few feet, like a waterlogged chunk -of wood slowly turning over. Then slowly I came back; landed in a -clumsy, struggling heap against the ship's glistening alumite side. To -each of us, himself is the center of the Universe. Cautiously I stood -up. At once the vessel seemed my little world, lying flat on its side -under me, with the reddish giant Earth to my right, the round white -Moon to the left; and over my head, the great glittering vault of the -Heavens, star-strewn upon a background of black velvet. - -I seemed to weigh perhaps a pound or two. Like a fly, gingerly I -crawled along the vessel's bulging side. Then I came to the dome. The -roof deck within was grotesquely tilted on end. The vision of it was -blurred by the glassite pressure plates, but it seemed unoccupied, -slowly righting itself as I crawled up the bulge, cautiously clinging -to avoid having my own efforts cast me off. - -Then at last I came to the top, with the little _X-87_ right side -up under my feet and the Moon above me. I knew that from the roof -deck I could be seen up here as a distorted, shadowy blob. My heart -was pounding with the fear that an alarm would come, but none did. -I reached, at last, the little pressure porte in the dome over the -control turret and chart room. I had two deflated Erentz suits and -helmets lashed to me. The emergency panel was here, like a trap door -under me. Through its transparent bull's-eye I could see into the -small, dim compartment under me. The lower panel was open, but there -was a lever out here by which I could slide it closed. Would it make -any sound and alarm Torio in the chart room under it? I held my breath -as it slid. There was no commotion. - - * * * * * - -It took only a minute to let the air out of the little scaled pressure -room. Then cautiously I dropped down into it, with the interior -gravity gripping me so that suddenly I was my normal weight once more. -Breathless, tense, I lay flat, with my suit deflating as I stared down -into the chart room. Nina and Torio were there. I could see them, but -not hear them. She was in a chair, with him standing before her. -And then I caught my breath. What was this? An angle of the control -turret also was within my line of vision. A crimsoned figure lay there; -the body of Captain Mackensie. He had finished his work; charted the -course--and this was his reward. - -A little of the outside of the turret also was visible. It did not seem -that the guard was out there now. Had he been sent away, so that Torio -now might be alone with Nina? Fervently I hoped so. - -There was no alarm as I cautiously slid the trap in the chart room -ceiling. - -"Oh--Oh, please--let me alone!" - -"But, my dear little lady, do you want me to kill Penelle? Surely -you--" The snaky Torio got no further than that. I was some fifteen -feet directly above him. Perhaps he was aware of my hurtling body but -he had no chance to avoid it as I crashed down upon him. The work-knife -in my gloved, metal-fingered hand stabbed. He went limp under me, with -blood gushing from his chest where the knife had gone to its hilt. - -My helmet was up in the pressure room. "Nina, climb up!" I slid the -little wall ladder into position for her. "Quick, now! Get into the -pressure suit up there. Inflate it, and wait for me." - -White and grim, she obeyed wordlessly. I started her up the ladder, -swung for the hidden wall safe. Would the leaden cylinder of the -catalyst still be here? It was. I strapped it quickly to my belt. - -Then I dashed for the instrument cubby. A little explosive -time-bomb.... I found one; and hurried with it into the control -turret, where I placed it against the mechanisms of the Erentz -current--that huge electronic stream which circulated throughout all -the double-shelled plates of the vessel to absorb the inner pressure. -Ten minutes? Would that give us time enough? - -Nina was in the pressure suit when in a minute more I reached the upper -room. - -"Good enough, Nina. Now, the helmet! Your brother Jim is outside--safe." - -My heart leaped with triumph at her gasp of joy. "Oh, Fred--" - -"Come on, hurry." - -We were garbed, ready and through the outer porte in another minute or -two. My hand clung to Nina's metal shoulder. - -"Careful, there's no gravity. Don't shove yourself off." - -We were like two crawling flies on the smooth outer surface of the -pressure dome. Still there was no alarm. We got part way down the side. -Young Blake, in the poised little volplane farther down, saw us. I -waved my arm, and he shoved his tiny craft off. Like a log in water it -floated out twenty feet or so, turned and came drifting diagonally back. - -"We'll dive for it," I murmured. "He'll pick us up." - - * * * * * - - -I did not see the emerging figure, here beside us in the starlight; I -did not even know that there was a tiny pressure porte here on the side -deck at one of the bull's-eyes. But suddenly a panel slid wide. Upon a -rush of air, a huge bloated figure came out; struck against me, with -its arms gripping me. - -Mokk! I could see his heavy, snarling face through the visor pane. His -body and mine, as we gripped each other, toppled off into emptiness. -Amazing, weightless combat. The whole Universe was turning over as we -floated out, kicking, flailing, floundering. He was trying to reach -the knife at his belt. He got it, but somehow my mailed fist was able -to strike it away. It went floating off. The thing to me was a weird -chaos. I tried to kick away, but he clung, his great hands with metal -fingers gouging at the fabric of my suit to rip it. Once, his hand -clapped to my shoulder. With sudden audiphone contact I heard his -rasping voice: - -"The end of you, Earth-man." - -But, thank God, it wasn't. Abruptly, by some fortunate chance I was -able to snatch my knife from its belt-sheath. It ripped into Mokk's -fabric. I was aware of a little flash of deranged electricity; his suit -deflated. Ghastly human explosion--every tiny cell of his body bursting -with its inner pressure. The rush of released, dissipating expanding -air from his suit sprayed bursting gore upon me. Gore, and the noisome -pink-white foam which had been his flesh. - -I shoved the ghastly thing away; saw myself now seemingly upon my back, -grotesquely struggling to turn erect with the _X-87_ hanging diagonally -some twenty feet away. Nina was still clinging to its side, with the -volplane gliding near her. She dove, and Blake hauled her aboard. And -then he shoved to me; gripped me at last. - -"All right," I gasped. "Good enough, Jim--you sit here with Nina--" - -At the bow of our fragile little craft, I set the gravity plates for -an intensification of Earth's attraction. I set them to the fullest of -their power. For a moment we slowly turned over, with all the Heavens, -the Moon, Earth and the little _X-87_ in a dizzying swing. Then we -steadied, with the Earth ahead of us. - -Clinging, I shoved myself back in the canoe-like volplane, to Nina and -Blake. Touched them. "We're starting. See the ship?" - -The little vessel, close behind and above us, was slowly receding. - -"But they'll discover us!" young Blake murmured. "They have -telescopes--they'll discover us--and the _X-87_ can catch us easily." - -"Maybe," I muttered. "Maybe not--" - - * * * * * - -Then it came! - -It was a weird, soundless explosion. We saw a jagged little series of -flashes as the Erentz current burst out. Then, with a puff of light, -soundlessly the vessel flew apart ... a million fragments of bursting -ship and bursting human bodies. All about us was the glistening, -starlit shimmer of them, like a fountain spray of pyrotechnic beauty. -Then there was just emptiness of Interplanetary Space where the ship -had been. But a cloud of shimmering particles hung there, like myriad -specks of stardust to mark where a tiny world had exploded. After a -time their little gravity drew them together into a loose ball of -shattered Matter hanging balanced by the myriad Celestial forces. Some -of the larger pieces were starting around it, little satellites with -the inertia of their velocity balancing the gravity of the central -mass. A new tiny System, here in the vast Heavens. It drifted off, -finding its new orbit--drifted as we dropped away from it until at last -it was only a shining speck among the billions of giant worlds. And -then we could no longer see it. - - * * * * * - -I have little to add. You all know the details of our long but safe -descent, with the Interplanetary patrol picking us up before we reached -the stratosphere. And now, as a postscript, I may say that Miss -Nina Blake has allowed me to announce that very presently she will -be applying for the publication of her marriage. And she will name -Frederick Penelle, of the Great-New York Shadow Squad. - -Earth-Moon Flight 9 certainly was not star-crossed, for me. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Space-Liner X-87, by Ray Cummings - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPACE-LINER X-87 *** - -***** This file should be named 61845.txt or 61845.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/8/4/61845/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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