CHAPTER VII
_To the Laboratory_
When the Negro returned, panting, with Ban Wilson, it was to discoverCarse in the control room of the asteroid. He was studying themultifarious devices and instruments: and they, seeing his face so setin concentration, did not disturb him, but went over to where Dr. KuSui sat in a chair, and posted themselves behind it.
The apparatus in the control room resembled that of any modernspace-ship of its time, except that there were extra pieces ofunguessed function. Directly in front of Carse was the directionalspace-stick above its complicated mechanism: above his eyes was thewide six-part visi-screen, which in space would record the whole"sphere" of the heavens: while to his right was the chief controlboard, a smooth black surface studded with squads of vari-coloredbuttons and lights, These were the essentials, familiar to any shipnavigator; but they were here awesome, for they controlled not the oneor two hundred feet of an ordinary craft, but twenty miles of thisspace-ship of rock.
"Yes ... yes...." Carse murmured presently out of his study, thenturned and for the first time appeared to notice Friday and Ban. Hegave orders.
"Eclipse, you see the radio over there? Get Master Leithgow on it forme--protected beam. Ban, you bind Dr. Ku Sui in that chair, please."
Wilson was surprised.
"Bind him? Isn't he going to run this thing?"
"No."
"_You're_ going to, Carse?"
"Yes. I don't quite trust Dr. Ku. The asteroid's controlled on thesame principles as a space-ship: I'll manage. Please hurry, Ban."
"Cap'n., suh! Already got the Master Scientist!" called Friday fromthe radio panel. The Hawk strode swiftly to it and clamped theindividual receivers over his ears.
"M. S.?" he asked into the microphone. "You're there?"
"Yes. Carse? What's happened?"
"All's well, but I'm in a tremendous hurry: I've only got time, now,to tell you we're on the asteroid with Dr. Ku prisoner, and that I'mundertaking to transplant the coordinated brains into living humanbodies.... What? Yes transplant them! Please, M. S.--not now:questions later. I'm calling primarily to learn whether you have anyV-27 on hand?"
Eliot Leithgow, in his distant laboratory, paused before replying.When his voice sounded in the receivers again, it was excited.
"I think I see, Carse! Good! Yes, I have a little--"
"We'll need a lot," the Hawk cut in tersely. "Will you instruct yourassistants to begin preparing as much as they can in the next hour? Yes.And your laboratory--clear it for the operations, and improvise fiveoperating tables. Powerful lights, too, M. S. Yes--_yes_--right--allaccessories. Have someone stand by your radio; I'll radio furtherdetails while we're on our way."
"Right, Carse. All understood."
The Hawk remembered something else. "Oh, yes, Eliot--is everythingsafe in your vicinity?"
"There's a small band of isuanacs foraging around somewhere in theneighborhood, but otherwise nothing. They're harmless--"
"But possibly observant," finished Carse. "All right--I'll clear themaway before descending to the lab. Until later, Eliot."
* * * * *
Carse switched off the microphone and turned to catch Friday's shockedexpression. Carse looked inquiringly at his dark satellite.
"What's wrong?"
"Lordy, suh," the Negro whispered, "Dr. Ku could hear all you said!He'll know where Master Leithgow's laboratory is!"
The Hawk smiled briefly. "No matter, Eclipse. I'm quite sure theinformation will avail him nothing. For this ride to the laboratorywill be his last ride but one." He turned. "We're starting at once.Ban, you've bound him well?"
"If he can get out of those knots," grinned Wilson, "I'll kiss him onthe mouth!"
The Eurasian's nostrils distended. "Then," he said. "I most certainlywill not try. But Captain Carse, may I have a cigarro before we starton this journey?"
Carse had gone over so the space-stick and his eyes were on thevisi-screen, but he now turned them to his old foe for a moment. "Notjust now, Dr. Ku," he said levelly. "For it might be that all but twopuffs of it would be wasted. Yes--later--if we survive these next fewminutes."
The remark did nothing to ease the tension of their leaving. BanWilson could not restrain a question.
"Carse, are you going to risk atmospheric friction all the way to thelaboratory?"
"No. Haven't time for that. Up and down--up into space, then down tothe lab--high acceleration and deceleration."
He grasped the space-stick, then in neutral, holding the asteroidmotionless in the valley. He glanced at the visi-screen again, checkedover the main controls and tightened his hand on the stick.
"Ready everyone," he said, and gently moved the stick up and forward.
* * * * *
There was, to the men in the control room, little consciousness ofpower unleashed: only the visi-screen and the bank of positionalinstruments told what had happened with that first, delicate movementof the space-stick. It was an experiment, a feeler. The indicators ofthe positionals quivered a little and altered, and in the visi-screenthe hills of the valley, that a moment before had been quite close andlarge, had diminished to purple-green mounds below.
Then the accelerating sensations began. Carse had the "feel" of theasteroidal ship and his controlling hand grew bolder. The steadypressure on the space-stick increased, it went up farther and farther,and the whole mighty mass of the asteroid streaked out at a tangentthrough the atmosphere of Satellite III toward the gulf beyond.
With dangerous acceleration the gigantic body rose, and from outsidethere grew a moaning which was quickly a shrieking--a terrible,maddened sound as of a Titan dying in agony--the sound of the clovenatmosphere. Twenty miles of rock were hurled out by the firm hand onthe space-stick, and that hand only increased its driving pressurewhen the screaming of the air died away in the depthless silence ofouter space.
In one special visi-screen lay mirrored the craggy back-stretch of theasteroid, half of it clear-cut and hard in Jupiter's flood of light,the other half lost in the encompassing blackness of space. Over thisshadowed portion a faint, unearthly glow clung close, the result ofthe terrific friction of the ascent. In miniature, in the regularscreens, was Satellite III, but a distorted miniature, for itshalf-face appeared concave in shape, and dusted with the haze of itsatmosphere.
* * * * *
The Hawk was visibly relieved. He turned to the silent Ku Sui.
"I must congratulate you, Dr. Ku," he said, "on the operation of theasteroid. It's as smooth as any ship. And now, your cigarro. Ban, haveyou one?"
Wilson produced a small metal case from which he extracted one of thelong black cylinders.
"You will have to put it in my lips, please," murmured Dr. Ku. "Thankyou. And a light? Again thanks. Ah...." He drew in the smoke, exhaleda fine stream of it from his delicately carved nostrils. "Good." Thenhe looked up pleasantly at the Hawk.
"And my congratulations to you, Captain. Not only on your expertmaneuvering of my asteroid, but on everything: your resourcefulness,your decision, your caution. I have long admired these qualities inyou, and the events of to-day, though for me perhaps unfortunate,increase my admiration. My own weak resistance, my attempt tofrustrate your plans in connection with the brains--how miserable incomparison! It would seem, Captain, that you cannot fail, and that youwill indeed succeed in giving the brains new life, so swiftly do youmove. Yes, my congratulations!"
He drew at the cigarro, and the smoke wreathed gently around hisascetic saffron face. A faint, queer glint was visible under the longlashes that half-veiled his eyes as he continued:
"But I have a question, Captain. A mere nothing, but still--"
"Yes, Dr. Ku?"
"The living bodies into which you propose to transplant thebrains--where are they?"
Hawk Carse's face was stern and his voice frigid as he answered:
"Fortunately, those bodies are right here on t
he asteroid."
"Here on the asteroid, Captain? I don't understand. What bodies arehere?"
"The bodies of your four white assistants, whom I have safelyconfined, and one of your robot-coolies, also confined. I did notintend to use these five, but, because you put a premium on time byyour attempted destruction of the brains, it cannot be helped."
* * * * *
Dr. Ku Sui's impassive demeanor did not change. He did not seem in theleast surprised. He puffed quietly at the cigarro and nodded.
"Of course, of course. You have five bodies right here on theasteroid. Yes."
"At least," continued Carse levelly, "I do not regret having to usethe bodies of your men. They are no longer human: they are not men:they are in effect but machines of your making, Dr. Ku."
"Quite. Quite."
"I suppose you find it an unpleasant thought, to have to be the meansof re-making them into whole, normal human beings?"
"On the contrary," breathed the Eurasian, "you inspire a very pleasantthought in my brain, Captain Carse--though I must confess it is notexactly the thought you mention." A smile, veiled by the smoke of thecigarro, appeared on his lips.
The Hawk looked at him closely: the words had a hidden meaning, and itwas clear he was not intended to miss the implied threat. But what wasKu Sui's thought? Back in his mind an anxiety grew, indefinite, vagueand devilish.
And that vague anxiety was still with him when, fifty-seven minuteslater, the asteroid returned from its inverted U-flight, slowed in itshurtling drop from space and hovered directly over the secret, hiddenlaboratory of Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow.