The Hell Ship

twice.Schwenky put the Captain down, conked him with one massive fist to makesure he stayed out, then stood there, waiting. The Second came up out ofthe stairwell, turned and started toward them. Gene put his hand on thegun butt, waiting until he had to pull it. Schwenky said: "Come here,Mr. Perkins, sir. Look see what has happened!"

  The Englishman peered at the shapeless, hairy mass of the unconsciousCaptain. His face went white. Gene knew he was wondering if he couldkeep the crew from mutiny without the Captain present to cow them.Perkins straightened, his face a pallid mask in the dimness. "Whathappened, Schwenky?"

  "This, Mr. Perkins, sir--" said Schwenky. He slapped an open palmagainst the side of Perkins' head. Perkins sprawled full length on thesteel deck, but he wasn't out, which surprised Gene. He lay there,staring up at the gigantic Swede, his face half red from the terribleblow, the other half white with the fear in him. His hand was tugging athis side and Gene realized he was after his gun. Gene pulled out his ownweapon even as he leaped upon the slim body of the man on the floor. Hisfeet missed the moving arm, the hand came out with a snub-nosedautomatic in it. Gene grabbed it, bore down. But the gun went off, thebullet ricocheting off the wall-plates with a scream. Gene slugged theman across the head with the barrel of the Captain's gun. Perkins wentlimp. Maher came up now and grabbed Perkins' gun.

  "Lead on," said Gene. He picked Perkins up and put him over hisshoulder. Schwenky retrieved the slumbering Captain and they proceededon their way to the cell on the bottom deck.

  But the shot had been heard, and from above came the sound of runningfeet. Gene began to trot, almost fell down the last flight of stairs,went along the companionway at a run. At the cell door he droppedPerkins, tried four or five keys frantically. One fit. He pulled openthe door and Schwenky drove in, kicking the body of Perkins over thesill. The Captain dropped heavily to the deck and Schwenky was outagain. Gene was locking the door when he heard the shout from Symonds,running toward them.

  "What's going on there, men?"

  Schwenky started to amble toward the dark, wiry Second, his big facesmiling like that of a simpleton. "We haf little trouble, Mr. Symonds,sir. Maybe we should call you, but we did not haf time. Everything isall right now. You come see, we explain everything...."

  He made a grab for the little Second Mate's neck with one big paw. Butthe Second was wary, ducked quickly, was off. Gene and Maher sprangafter him. Gene shouted: "Stop or I'll fire, Symonds! You're all alonenow!"

  Gene let one shot angle off the wall, close beside the fleeing form, butthe man didn't stop. Instead he headed for the bridge. Gene realized hecould lock himself in, keep them from the ship controls. He could holdout there the rest of the voyage.

  "We've got to stop him!"

  Maher close behind, they ran up the stairs on the Second's heels. Up thecompanionway they pounded, the Second increasing his lead. A door openedahead of him and Ann O'Donnell appeared.

  Symonds cursed and tried to pass her. Ann deftly slid out one pretty legand the officer turned a somersault, and brought up against the wall atthe foot of the stairs to the upper deck and the bridge.

  But the Second was too frightened to let a little thing like a fall stophim. He went scrambling up the stairs on all fours. Gene was still toofar away, and Ann moved like a streak of light. She sailed through theair in a long dancer's leap and with two bounds was up the stair, aheadof the scrambling, fear-stricken officer.

  "Out of my way, bitch," and Symonds hurled himself toward Ann.

  Gene leaped forward, but he needn't have bothered. Ann lifted one of hereducated feet, caught the Second under the chin and he came down thestair like a sack of meal. Gene caught his full weight.

  The two men fell in a scramble of flailing arms and legs, knocking theprops out from under Maher, who had started out after them. Just how themixup might have turned out they were not to know, for just then thevast weight of Schwenky descended upon the three and Maher let out ascream of anguish. But Gene and Symonds were on the bottom, too crushedby this tactic to make a sound.

  * * * * *

  It was minutes later when Gene came back to consciousness, finding hishead resting in Ann O'Donnell's lap while her swift hands prodded himhere and there, looking for broken bones.

  "I'm dead for sure," groaned Gene.

  "You've just had the wind knocked out of you. You'll be all right," andAnn let his head fall from her grasp with a thump. She stood up, alittle abashed at the going over she'd been giving him.

  "Where're my mutineers?" Gene asked.

  "Went to lock Symonds with the others. What is going to happen now? I'mnot sure I like this development, now it's happened."

  "You should have thought of that before you tripped Symonds," said Gene."But I'll admit there are problems. For instance, with all the officersin the brig, how can we be sure we can keep this atomic junk heap headedin the right direction?"

  "What _is_ the correct direction?" asked Ann, squatting down beside him.

  "I don't know. We'll have to figure it out, then see if we can point herthat way."

  "Let's get up to the bridge," she said.

  Schwenky and Maher found them brooding over the series of levers andbuttons which comprised the control board. Schwenky noted their baffledfrowns. His big face took on a worried look. "You fix!" he said. "Yougood fellow, Gene. We run ship, let officers go to hell. Yah!"

  Maher scratched one patch of greying hair over his left eye. The rest ofhis skull was covered with brown bumps like fungus growths. "It's justpossible we'll wreck the ship, let the air out of her or something, ifwe experiment," he warned.

  "Go get MacNamara," said Gene. "He's been on the ship longer than any ofus. Maybe he'll know."

  He didn't. "All I know is grease cups," he reminded Gene.

  Hours later eighteen men and four women gathered together in therecreation room to discuss a plan of action. Everyone had his or herideas, but after an hour of wrangling, they got nowhere. Finally Geneheld up a hand and shouted for silence.

  "Let's decide who's boss, then follow orders," he said. "If I may be sobold, how about me?"

  "Yah!" said Schwenky. "I do what you say. I like you!"

  Old MacNamara grumbled to himself. "Do nothing, I say. We ought to stickto our duty, and save the lives of those who would have to take ourplaces...." The unguarded pile had given MacNamara a martyr complex.

  Maher looked over at him. "Your idea of sacrifice is all very fine,MacNamara. But we're not all anxious to die. You know what would happennow if we gave up!"

  Gene spoke up again. "Let me summarize the position we're in--maybe thenwe can make a better decision."

  "Go ahead," said Ann. The others nodded and fell silent, waiting.

  Gene cleared his throat. "The way it looks to me, we've had a luckyaccident in getting control of the ship. So far, we've not contacted thepassengers. They know nothing of the change that's taken place. As itis, I see no point in contacting them. It might force us to face anothermutiny, that of the passengers, who would regard us as what we are,mutineers, and when they found we weren't going to our destination,they'd certainly not all take it lying down. Point number one, then, isto ignore the passengers, keep the knowledge of a mutiny from them.

  "Now, our real purpose in this mutiny is to expose this whole vicioussecret slavery, tell Earth of the danger of the unshielded piles inspace ships, destroy the Company's monopoly, and bring about newresearch which I'm sure would eventually overcome the difficulty. Justhow are we going to do that? The answer is simple--we must get back toEarth, and we must get back in a way the Company will not be able tointercept us. As I understand it, this won't be easy. The Company is incomplete control of space travel, and they have the ships to knock usout of space before we can get near Earth. Somehow we've got to winthrough. Can we do it by a direct return to Earth? I doubt it. However,say we do it. Then where do we go? The government might look upon us asmutineers and thus give the Company a chance to quash the whole affair.

  "So
we've got to go directly to the people, who, once they _see_ us, andrealize what space travel with these piles means, will demand anexplanation with such public feeling even the government can't avoid ashowdown. It's the secrecy we must break. Thus, we must land on Earthwith the biggest possible splurge of publicity. We've got to do it so noCompany ship can prevent it.

  "Then there's this to consider. Most of you would find it a difficultthing to take up a life on Earth. I know that many of you want to takeoff for some remote world, and try to live out your lives by yourselves.I say that would be a cowardly thing to do. So,