by Ray Cummings
VI
Captain Carter was grim. "So they've bought him off, have they? Gobring him in here, Gregg. We'll have it out with him now."
Snap, Dr. Frank, Balch, our first officer, and I were in the Captain'schart room. It was four P.M. Earth time. We were sixteen hours uponour voyage.
I found Johnson in his office in the lounge. "Captain wants to seeyou. Close up."
He closed his window upon an American woman passenger who wasdemanding the details of Martian currency, and followed me forward."What is it, Gregg?"
"I don't know."
Captain Carter banged the slide upon us. The chart room was insulated.The hum of the current was obvious. Johnson noticed it. He stared atthe hostile faces of the surgeon and Balch. And he tried to bluster.
"What's this? Something wrong?"
Carter wasted no words. "We have information, Johnson, that there'ssome undercover plot aboard. I want to know what it is. Suppose youtell us."
The purser looked blank. "What do you mean? We've gamblers aboard, ifthat's--"
"To hell with that," growled Balch. "You had a secret interview withthat Martian, _Set_ Miko, and with George Prince!"
Johnson scowled from under his heavy brows, and then raised them insurprise. "Did I? You mean changing their money? I don't like yourtone, Balch. I'm not your under-officer!"
"But you're under me!" roared the Captain. "By God, I'm master here!"
"Well, I'm not disputing that," said the purser mildly. "Thisfellow--"
"We're in no mood for argument," Dr. Frank cut in. "Clouding theissue...."
"I won't let it be clouded," the Captain exclaimed.
I had never seen Carter so choleric. He added:
"Johnson, you've been acting suspiciously. I don't give a damn whetherI've proof of it or not. Did you or did you not meet George Prince andthat Martian, last night?"
"No, I did not. And I don't mind telling you, Captain Carter, thatyour tone also is offensive!"
"Is it?" Carter seized him. They were both big men. Johnson's heavyface went purplish red.
"Take your hands--!" They were struggling. Carter's hands werefumbling at the purser's pockets. I leaped, flung an arm aroundJohnson's neck, pinning him.
"Easy there! We've got you, Johnson!"
Snap tried to help me. "Go on! Bang him on the head, Gregg. Now's yourchance!"
We searched him. A heat ray cylinder--that was legitimate. But wefound a small battery and eavesdropping device similar to the oneVenza had mentioned that Shac the gambler was carrying.
"What are you doing with that?" the Captain demanded.
"None of your business! Is it criminal? Carter, I'll have the lineofficials dismiss you for this! Take your hands off me--all of you!"
"Look at this!" exclaimed Dr. Frank.
From Johnson's breast pocket the surgeon drew a folded document. Itwas a scale drawing of the _Planetara_ interior corridors, the lowercontrol rooms and mechanisms. It was always kept in Johnson's safe.And with it, another document: the ship's clearance papers--the secretcode passwords for this voyage, to be used if we should be challengedby any Interplanetary Police ship.
Snap gasped, "My God, that was in my radio room strong box! I'm theonly one on this vessel except the Captain who's entitled to knowthose passwords!"
Out of the silence, Balch demanded, "Well, what about it, Johnson?"
The purser was still defiant. "I won't answer your questions, Balch.At the proper time, I'll explain--Gregg Haljan, you're choking me!"
I eased up. But I shook him. "You'd better talk."
He was exasperatingly silent.
"Enough!" exploded Carter. "He can explain when we get to port.Meanwhile I'll put him where he'll do no more harm. Gregg, lock him inthe cage."
We ignored his violent protestations. The cage--in the old days of seavessels on Earth, they called it the brig--was the ship's jail. Asteel-lined, windowless room located under the deck in the peak of thebow. I dragged the struggling Johnson there, with the amazed watcherlooking down from the observatory window at our lunging starlit forms.
"Shut up, Johnson! If you know what's good for you--"
He was making a fearful commotion. Behind us, where the deck narrowedat the superstructure, half a dozen passengers were gazing insurprise.
"I'll have you thrown out of the service, Gregg Haljan!"
I shut him up finally. And flung him down the ladder into the cage andsealed the deck trap door upon him. I was headed back for the chartroom when from the observatory came the lookout's voice:
"An asteroid, Haljan! Officer Blackstone wants you."
I hurried to the turret bridge. An asteroid was in sight. We hadnearly attained our maximum speed now. An asteroid was approaching, sodangerously close that our trajectory would have to be altered. Iheard Blackstone's signals ringing in the control rooms; and metCarter as he ran to the bridge with me.
"That scoundrel! We'll get more out of him, Gregg. By God, I'll putthe chemicals on him--torture him--illegal or not!"
We had no time for further discussion. The asteroid was rapidlyapproaching. Already, under the glass, it was a magnificent sight. Ihad never seen this tiny world before--asteroids are not numerousbetween the Earth and Mars, or in toward Venus.
At a speed of nearly a hundred miles a second the asteroid swept intoview. With the naked eye, at first it was a tiny speck of star-dustunnoticeable in the gem-strewn black velvet of space. A speck. Then agleaming dot, silver white, with the light of our Sun upon it.
I stood with Carter and Blackstone on the turret bridge. It wasobvious, that unless we altered our course, the asteroid would passtoo close for safety. Already we were feeling its attraction; from thecontrol rooms came the report that our trajectory was disturbed bythis new mass so near.
"Better make your calculations now, Gregg," Blackstone urged.
I cast up the rough elements from the observational instruments in theturret. When I had us upon our new course, with the attractive andrepulsive plates in the _Planetara's_ hull set in their alteredcombinations, I went to the bridge again.
The asteroid hung over our bow quarter. No more than twenty or thirtythousand miles away. A giant ball now, filling all that quadrant ofthe heavens. The configurations of its mountains, its land and waterareas, were plainly visible.
"Perfectly habitable," Blackstone said. "But I've searched all overthe hemisphere with the glass. No sign of human life--certainlynothing civilized--nothing in the fashion of cities."
A fair little world, by the look of it. A tiny globe, come from theregion beyond Neptune. We swept past the asteroid. The passengers wereall gathered to view the passing little world. I saw, not far from me,Anita, standing with her brother; and the giant figure of Miko withthem. Half an hour since this wandering little world had showeditself, it swiftly passed, began to dwindle behind us. A huge halfmoon. A thinner, smaller quadrant. A tiny crescent, like a silverbarpin to adorn some lady's breast. And then it was a dot, a point oflight indistinguishable among the myriad others hovering in this greatblack void.
The incident of the passing of the asteroid was over. I turned fromthe deck window. My heart leaped. The moment for which all day I hadbeen subconsciously longing was at hand. Anita was sitting in a deckchair, momentarily alone. Her gaze was on me as I glanced her way, andshe smiled an invitation for me to join her.