CHAPTER IV
_The Hawk Prepares a Surprise_
Hawk Carse's icy poise in times of emotional stress never failed toamaze friends and enemies alike. Most of them swore he had no nerves,and that in that way he was not human. This estimate, of course, isfoolish; Carse was perhaps too human, as was proved by theall-consuming object of his life. It was rather, probably, an inwardvanity that made him stand composed as a statue while death wasgnawing near; that had, once, led him actually to file his nails whenapparently trapped and hotly besieged, with the wicked hiss ofray-guns all around.
And so he stood within his suit now--calm, quite collected, his facegraven, while the yellow tendrils carpeted the whole cabin, penetratedbetween the twin banks of instruments on each side and clouded the bowwindows, visi-screen and positionals until the two living men aboardthat ship of death were completely shut off from outside vision.Friday, his large white eyes never for a moment still, and waiting asthe Hawk was waiting to find whether or not their suits, too, harboredthe fungus, could quite easily have been scared into a state of panic;but the sight of the steely figure near him eased his nerves andbrought a vague kind of reassurance.
Minutes went by. Presently the Hawk said softly into his microphone:
"We're safe, now, I think. You'd better go aft and see what state theship's in. Come right back." And as Friday left, wading through theclinging growth, the trader went to the eye-piece of the electelscope.
He brushed the puffy covering of yellow silt away and adjusted theinstrument's controls as best he could, centering it on where Judd'scraft had last been. Then he peered through--and saw that which madehim start.
The _Star Devil_ was rolling round and round, like a ball!
* * * * *
Carse looked out on a star-studded panorama that was sweeping crazilyby. Now the cloudy globe of Iapetus, which had just before lain farbehind, came swinging into view, sliding rapidly from the bottom ofhis field of view to the top, and so out of sight again, to quicklygive place to the flaming, ringed sphere of Saturn, which in turnpassed away and left the star-spangled blackness of space. ThenIapetus once more. He snapped the electelscope off abruptly, andturned from it to see Friday come clumping back.
"Swept everything clean, suh," the negro reported gloomily. "Thatfungus's thick; cain't even see the men's bodies, it's so deep. It'sthat way, all over."
"It's down in the gravity propulsion plates too," Carse said shortly."Their adjustment's been ruined by it, and we're out of control,turning over and over. I couldn't possibly see Judd. Well, we've gotto go down to the plates and try and clean them."
It was a weird scene that faced him in the engine room. The complexinstruments and machinery were draped with straggling ferns of yellow;up above, a solid clump some ten feet thick hung on the platform wherethe engineer usually stood--a living tomb. The usual purr of themechanisms was muffled and hushed. So fecund was the fungus that thepath Friday had cleared in his passage aft was already filled, andCarse had to clear a new one. The growth was deep there, but stilldeeper in the next compartment.
It was practically a solid mass of yellow, for in it their invader hadfound food. It had fed well on the lockers of supplies and devouredall but the bones and clothing of the two men whom it hadcaught--radio-operator and cook. Carse fought on through this tough,clinging sea and came at last to the cargo hold, where, in the deck,was the man-hole that gave passage down to the 'tween-deckscompartment where the rows of gravity propulsion plates were located.
* * * * *
Friday raised the cover with a wrench: then, preceded by the rays oftheir hand-flashes, they climbed down and wormed forward as best theycould in their hampering suits, to the plates. They found they hadlost their customary glitter beneath powdery coatings of yellow,sufficient to disturb their faint electric currents andmicroscopically adjusted angles. On hands and knees--for thecompartment, though as wide as the ship's inner shell, was only threefeet in height--the Hawk stopped and said:
"We might be able to get some use out of these plates if we can keepthe fungus brushed off. It's thin: let's try it."
But the yellow growth's vitality baulked them. Sweating from theirawkward exertions inside the hot space-suits, they again and againbrushed clean the plates with pieces of waste--only to see thefeathery particles regather as quickly as they were cleared away.There wasn't more than an inch of the fungus, but that inch stuck.There was no removing it.
"No use, boss," gasped the negro, pausing breathless. "Cain't do it.Nothin' to do, I guess, but wait an' see what de Kite does. He'll surewant this ship and the horn."
"I know," his captain answered slowly. "He'll want this ship, for it'sthe fastest in space--but I can't understand how he'll board us. I'mgoing up and see what I can find out. You stay here. Try cleaning theplates again."
Up through the man-hole he went, and forward to the control cabin.And, as before, the electelscope's eye-piece held a surprise for him.
Somehow, the _Star Devil's_ speed of wild tumbling had lessened. Amoment later the reason appeared. As her bow dipped down and down,there slid across the field of view, about a mile away, the lightedports of another ship; and, from this other ship's nose there winked aspot of green, the beginning of a ray-stream which stabbed across thegulf to impinge on the _Star Devil's_ bow. Carse could feel his craftsteady as it struck. It was a gravital ray, with strong magneticproperties, which Judd was using to stop her turnings so he and hismen could board!
* * * * *
Again and again the beam flashed across the Hawk's field of view, andhe knew it was raying its mark neatly each time her bow swung abeam,for soon she was hardly turning at all. Then Judd evidently wassatisfied. The port-lights of his ship veered aside; drew to aposition abreast of the other. The two cold gray eyes that watched sawthe outer port-lock door of the pirate open, revealing six figures,clad in space-suits and connected by a rope, that stepped out, pushed,and came floating towards the _Star Devil_.
Swiftly Carse moved. For many reasons it was useless, he rapidlydecided, to try and surprise them as they boarded; there was a betterand surer way. And, as always, he attended to every littledetail--details that to others might have seemed trivial--of thispreferred way.
With quick, strong fingers he removed the fungus-choked body ofHarkness from its space-suit, and threw the suit into a nearby locker.From another locker he selected a loop of yellow-encrusted rope.Holding this over one arm, he made his way back rapidly to the aftman-hole, closed it carefully behind him and crept forward to theanxious negro who was still futilely dusting the plates. He told whathe had seen, but nothing else.
Friday noted the rope, and he twisted his whole body to get a sight ofCarse's gray eyes, through the face-shield.
"What we do, then, suh?" he asked. "Try an surprise 'em?"
"Can't do that; we'd still be helpless, without a way to remove thisfungus. They probably know how to do it, and we've got to give them achance."
Puzzlement pricked the negro. "Then what you goin' to do with thatrope?"
"You'll soon see," snapped Hawk Carse.
* * * * *
They waited.
It was hot and stuffy down in the belly of the ship, and also utterlyblack, for the trader had flicked off his hand-flash. Friday wasunhappily possessed of an active curiosity; he wanted terribly to goon with his questions and ask Carse what his plan was; but he did notdare, for he knew very well from past experience that the Hawk wasimpatient of detailing his schemes in advance. So he sat in silence,and sweated, and stared gloomily into the darkness, thinking uneasythoughts.
True, he thought, Judd the Kite did not know that Carse and he werestill alive; on the contrary, he was probably convinced that they weredead; but what good did that do? Surely it would have been better tohave surprised the brigands when boarding, but Captain Carse wasagainst that. And they were hopelessly outnumbered.
r /> Friday remembered a tale told him once by a survivor of a trading shipJudd the Kite had destroyed. It wasn't a nice tale. The Kite, so thereport ran, was diabolically ingenious with a long peeling knife, andcould improvise with it for hours. Friday pursued the tack of thought, andthen suddenly began to sweat in earnest. He recalled--horrible!--that Juddpossessed a special dislike for colored gentlemen!...
"Oh, Lawd!" he groaned, unconsciously--to have a cold voice ring inhis earphones.
"Quiet!" it snapped. "They're entering."
The negro threw a switch on his helmet so he could catch outsidenoises. His body tensed. From above, unmistakably, had come the hissof the inner port-lock door opening. And again, moments later, thehiss echoed. Twice! The lock could hold three men at a time. Thatprobably meant that all six had boarded. Friday turned in the darknessand peered at Carse.
The adventurer without warning flicked on his hand-flash. The beamfell on the parallel planes of the yellow-covered gravity plates. Thenegro, every nerve in him jumping from impatience and suspense, gazedat them, and suddenly straightened. The mold-like fungus which hadprevented them from getting the ship into control was slowly meltingaway. It was dwindling into fine dust!
"Gas," came a soft whisper to him. "As I expected, Judd's cleaning itout with some sort of gas. But the plates won't work yet--not untilthey're polished bright." Unthinking, Friday raised his hand to hishelmet fastenings. "Keep your face-shield shut!" he was orderedcrisply. "The gas would be as fatal as the fungus."
* * * * *
Silence rested tensely over the two men, to be broken at last by theclump of feet proceeding aft on the deck above.
Carse switched off the light. His voice was but faintly audible.
"Coming down to clean off the dust. He'll have a flash. Hide behindthe truss-work at your side, and when he gets here seize him by theneck. I'll be with you right away. I want no noise."
Friday saw a great light, and grinned in the confidence it broughthim. Of course! That explained the rope. The plan was so simple it hadescaped him. Already he felt cheerful. It was only mental worries, andnever physical hazards, that unsettled him. He angled around thetruss-work and shrank into as small a space as possible--which wasn'tvery small, as he still wore his bulky, clumsy suit.
The clump-clump of feet had died: now there came the sound of theman-hole aft being raised. A white beam pronged down into thedarkness, felt around and flicked off. Boots clanged on the connectingladder; reached the bottom. The light appeared again, lower now, andcame slowly forward. Limned faintly against the reflected light wasthe outline of a crouching man's body.
He went to hands and knees and progressed carefully, his flash dartingto left and right. Suddenly, in a certain light, the two who awaitedhis coming saw a swarthy, black-stubbled face in profile. He wore nospace-suit! That meant, Friday reflected, that the brigands hadcleared the ship of the gas in some way. It meant that they could getout of their own suits.
But they could not possibly do so at the moment. They heard the nearbypirate's breathing, a harsh oath as he stubbed a toe. The negrotightened his giant arms and held himself ready, his eyes steady onthe black outline which signified his quarry. Then the pirate wasclose enough.
It was over in seconds. Rounding the truss, Friday caught the man inthe armored crook of his arm. A startled croak preluded the thump oftwo bodies on the hull; there was the tinkle of a falling hand-flashand a slight squirming which was quickly stopped by a belting punch.
* * * * *
Then Carse was there in the darkness, looping his rope around thepirate's arms and legs--a difficult job when wearing a bulkyspace-suit in such cramped quarters. He used a bunch of waste for agag and then hauled the captive to a girder farther forward and boundhim sitting to it. By the time he had finished, Friday was out of hisspace-suit and asking:
"Shall I rub him out, suh? Best make sure of him."
"Never in cold blood," said the Hawk acidly. "You should know thatwell enough by now!
"Now, there should be five left above, and I think they'll sendanother down. We must get him, too. Get back where you were."
He took off his space-suit also: then, after minutes of silence, theyheard voices upraised in argument coming from the control cabin. Oncemore came the sound of feet overhead; another flash bit down throughthe man-hole, and another man wriggled into the compartment. He wasobviously uneasy and suspicious. He called:
"Jake! Hey, Jake! You there? Where the hell are you?"
Mumbling oaths, he advanced, his light ray weaving over every inchbefore him.
"What you doing, Jake? Where are you?"
Friday gathered his muscles, unhampered now by the restricting suit.But light must have been reflected by the round whites of his eyes,for the pirate suddenly stopped and called in sharp alarm:
"What's that? What's that there? You, Jake? Hey! I'll ray you--"
And that was all he said. Friday was too far away to reach him intime, but the Hawk was closer; he approached behind the brigand,crouched on silent cat's feet. Two powerful arms reached out andtightened in a strangle hold--and two minutes later the second man wasbound and gagged.
Carse loosened his ray-gun in its holster.
"Now we attack," he whispered. "Four to two are fair odds, I think.You go aft and wait by the man-hole; wait till you hear me call. Don'tbe seen--wait. And when I call, come at once."
"Yes, suh. You goin' forward 'tween the hulls?"
A curt nod answered him.
"Then up through that--"
"Don't ask so many questions!" the Hawk rasped crisply.
They separated.