15. The Final Move
"I realize I'm much earlier than you expected, Major. You did a veryneat job of camouflaging your takeoff ... we were almost fooled ... andno doubt the dummy ship you sent off later got full fanfare. I supposethere will be a dozen Patrol ships converging on this spot in a fewhours, expecting to surprise a Jupiter Equilateral ship making adesperate attempt to hijack your little treasure here."
The little fat man laughed cheerfully. "Unfortunately for you," headded, "we have many friends on Mars ... including a man in the Maproom ... and I'm afraid your little trap isn't going to work after all."
The Major's face was gray. "How did you get here?"
"By hitch-hiking. How else? Most uncomfortable, back there, even with apile of pressure suits for padding, but your pilot was really veryskillful."
Johnny Coombs turned on the Major. "What does he mean, a trap? I don'tget this...."
The Major sighed wearily. "I had to try to force his hand. Even if wefound what we were looking for, we had no case that could stand upagainst them. We needed _proof_ ... and I thought that with this as baitwe could trap them. He's right about the Patrol ships ... but they won'tbe near for hours."
"And that will be a little late to help," Tawney said pleasantly.
The Major glared at him. "Maybe so ... but you've gone too far thistime. This is an official U.N. ship. You'll never be able to go back toMars."
"Really?" the fat man said. "And why not? Officially I'm on Mars rightnow, with plenty of people to swear to the fact." He chuckled. "You seemto forget that little matter of proof, Major. When your Patrol shipsfind a gutted ship and five corpses, they may suspect that somethingmore than an accident was involved, but what can they prove? Nothingmore than they could prove in the case of Roger Hunter's accident.Scout-ships have been known to explode before."
He ran his hand over the metal cylinder. "And as for this ... it'sreally a surprise. Of course when we failed to find any evidence ofmining activity, we were certain that Roger Hunter's bonanza wassomething more than a vein of ore, but _this_! You can be certain thatwe will exploit the secret of a star-drive to the very fullest."
"How do you think you can get away with it?" the Major said. "Turning upwith something like that right after a whole series of suspiciousaccidents in space?"
"Oh, we aren't as impatient as some people. We wouldn't be so foolish asto break the news now. Five years from now, maybe ten years, one of ourorbit-ships will happen upon a silvery capsule on one of our asteroidclaims, that's all. I wouldn't be surprised if a non-company observermight be on board at the time, maybe even a visiting Senator from Earth.For something this big, we can afford to be patient."
There was silence in the little scout-ship cabin. The end seemedinevitable. This was a desperate move on Tawney's part. He was gamblingeverything on it; he would not take the chance of letting any of themreturn to Mars or anywhere else to testify.
Greg caught Tom's eye, saw the hopelessness on his brother's face. Heclenched his fists angrily at his side. If it were not for Tom, Dad'sbonanza might have gone on circling the sun for centuries, maybeforever, wedged in its hiding place on the rocky surface of theeccentric asteroid.
But it had been found. Earth needed a star-drive badly; a few moreyears, and the need would be desperate. And if a group of power-hungrymen could control a star-drive and hold it for profit, they couldblackmail an entire planet for centuries, and build an empire in spacethat could never be broken.
He knew that it must not happen that way. Dad had died to prevent it.Now it was up to them.
* * * * *
Greg glanced quickly around the cabin, searching for some way out,something that might give them a chance. His eyes stopped on the controlpanel, and he sucked in his breath, his heart pounding. Apossibility....
It would require a swift, sure move, and someone to help, someone withfast reflexes. It was dangerous; they might all be killed. But if histraining at Star-jump was good for anything, it might work.
He caught Johnny Coombs' eye, winked cautiously. A frown creasedJohnny's forehead. He shot a quick look at Tawney, then lowered hiseyelid a fraction of an inch. Greg could see the muscles of hisshoulders tightening.
Greg took quick stock of the cabin again. Then he took a deep breath andbellowed, "Johnny ... _duck_!"
Almost by reflex, Johnny Coombs hurled himself to the floor. Tawneyswung the gun around. There was an ugly ripping sound as the stunnerfired ... but Greg was moving by then. In two bounds he was at thecontrol panel. He hooked an arm around a shock bar, and slammed thedrive switch on full.
There was a roar from below as the engines fired. Greg felt a jolt ofpain as the accelleration jerked at his arm. Tom and the Major wereslammed back against a bulkhead, then fell in a heap on top of Johnnyand the Lieutenant as the awful force of the accelleration dragged themback. Across the cabin Tawney sprawled on the floor. The stunner flewfrom his hand and crashed against the rear bulkhead.
On the panel Greg could see the accelleration gauge climbingswiftly ... past four g's, up to five, to six. The ship was movingwildly; there was no pilot, no course.
With all the strength he could muster Greg tightened his arm on theshock bar, lifting his other arm slowly toward the cut-off switch. Hehad spent many hours in the accelleration centrifuge at Star-Jump,learning to withstand and handle the enormous forces of accellerationfor brief periods, but the needle was still climbing and he knew hecould not hold on long. His fingers touched the control panel. Hestrained, inching them up toward the switch....
His fingers closed on the stud, and he pulled. The engine roar ceased.On the floor behind him Tawney moved sluggishly, trying to sit up. Bloodwas dripping from his nose. He was still too stunned to know what hadhappened.
Greg leaped across the room, caught up the stunner, and then sank to thefloor panting. "All right," he said as his breath came back, "that'sall. Your ship may have trouble finding us now ... but I bet our pilotcan get us back to Mars."
* * * * *
When they left the Sun Lake City infirmary it was almost noon, and thered sun was gleaming down from overhead. Walking slowly, the Huntertwins moved along the surface street toward the U.N. building.
"He'll recover without any trouble," the doctor had assured them. "Hecaught the stunner beam in the shoulder, and it will be a while beforehe can use it, but Johnny Coombs will be hard to keep down."
They had promised Johnny to return later. They had had check-upsthemselves. Both Tom's eyes were surrounded by purple splotches, and hisbroken left arm was in a sling. Greg's arms and legs were so stiff hecould hardly move them. The Major and the Lieutenant had been sore butuninjured.
Now the boys walked without talking. Already a U.N. linguist was at workon the record tapes from the metal cylinder, and a mathematician wasdoing a preliminary survey on the math symbols on the metal block.
"I hope there's no trouble reading them," Greg said.
"There won't be. It'll take time, but the records are decipherable. AndDr. Raymond was certain that the engineering can be figured out. Earthis going to get her star-ship, all right."
"And we've got work to do."
"You mean the trial? I guess. The Major says that Jupiter Equilateral istrying to pin the whole thing on Tawney now. They won't get away withit, but it may be nasty just the same."
"Well, one thing's sure ... there'll be some changes made, with the U.N.moving out into the Belt," Greg said.
Somewhere in the distance the twins heard the rumble of engines. Theystopped and watched as a great silvery cargo ship lifted from the spaceport and headed up into the dark blue sky. They watched it until itdisappeared from sight.
They were both thinking the same thing.
An Earth-bound ship, powerful and beautiful, but limited now to the sunand nine planets, unable to reach farther out.
But someday soon a different kind of ship would rise.
THE END
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