Brigands of the Moon

by Ray Cummings

  VIII

  The rest of that afternoon and evening were a blank confusion to me.Anita's words, the touch of my hand on her arm, that vast realm ofwhat might be for us, like the glimpse of a magic land of happinesswhich I had seen in her eyes, and perhaps she had seen in mine--allthis surged within me.

  After wandering about the ship, I had a brief consultation withCaptain Carter. He was genuinely apprehensive now. The _Planetara_carried only a half-dozen of the heat-ray projectors, no long rangeweapons, a few side arms, and some old-fashioned, practicallyantiquated weapons of explosives, plus hand projectors with the newBenson curve light.

  The weapons were all in Carter's chart room, save the few we officersalways carried. Carter was afraid, but of what, he was not sure. Hehad not thought that our plan to stop at the Moon could affect thisoutward voyage. He had thought that any danger would occur on the wayback, and then the _Planetara_ would have been adequately guarded andmanned with police-soldiers.

  But now we were practically defenseless. I had a moment with Venza,but she had nothing new to communicate. And for half an hour I chattedwith George Prince. He seemed a gay, pleasant young man. I couldalmost have fancied I liked him. Or was it because he was Anita'sbrother? He told me how he looked forward to traveling with her onMars. No, he had never been there before, he said.

  He had a measure of Anita's earnest naive personality. Or was he avery clever scoundrel, with irony lurking in his soft voice, and achuckle that could so befool me?

  "Well talk again, Haljan. You interest me--I've enjoyed it."

  He sauntered away from me, joining the saturnine Ob Hahn, with whompresently I heard him discussing religion.

  The arrest of Johnson had caused considerable discussion among thepassengers. A few had seen me drag him forward to the cage. Theincident had been the subject of discussion all afternoon. CaptainCarter had posted a notice to the effect that Johnson's accounts hadbeen found in serious error, and that Dr. Frank for this voyage wouldact in his stead.

  * * * * *

  It was near midnight when Snap and I closed and sealed the radio roomand started for the chart room, where we were to meet with CaptainCarter and the other officers. The passengers had nearly all retired.A game was in progress in the smoking room, but the deck was almostdeserted.

  Snap and I were passing along one of the interior corridors. Thestateroom doors were all closed. The metal grid of the floor echoedour footsteps. Snap was in advance of me. His body suddenly rose inthe air. He went like a balloon to the ceiling, struck it gently, andall in a heap came floating down and landed on the floor!

  "What in the infernal--"

  He was laughing as he picked himself up. But it was a brief laugh. Weknew what had happened: the artificial gravity controls in the base ofthe ship, which by magnetic force gave us normality aboard, were beingtampered with! For just this instant, this particular small section ofthis corridor had been cut off. The slight bulk of the _Planetara_,floating in space, had no appreciable gravity pull on Snap's body, andthe impulse of his step as he came to the unmagnetized area of thecorridor had thrown him to the ceiling. The area was normal now. Snapand I tested it gingerly.

  He gripped me. "That never went wrong by accident, Gregg! Someone--"

  We rushed to the nearest descending ladder. In the deserted lower roomthe bank of dials stood neglected. A score of dials and switches werehere, governing the magnetism of different areas of the ship. Thereshould have been a night operator, but he was gone.

  Than we saw him lying nearby, sprawled, face down on the floor! In thesilence and dim, lurid glow of the fluorescent tubes, we stood holdingour breaths, peering and listening. No one here.

  The guard was not dead. He lay unconscious from a blow on the head. Abrawny fellow. We had him revived in a few moments. A broadcast flashof the call buzz brought Dr. Frank from the chart room.

  "What's the matter?"

  "Someone was here," I said hastily, "experimenting with the magneticswitches. Evidently unfamiliar with them--pulling one or another totest their workings and so see their reactions on the dials."

  We told him what had happened to Snap in the corridor; the guard herewas no worse off for the episode, save a lump on the head by aninvisible assailant. We left him nursing his head, sitting belligerentat his post, alert to any danger and armed now with my heat-raycylinder.

  "Strange doings this voyage," he told us. "All the crew knows it. I'llstick it out now, but when we get back home I'm done with this startravelin'. I belong on the sea anyway."

  We hurried back to the upper level. We would indeed have to plansomething at this chart room conference. This was the first tangibleattack our adversaries had made.

  We were on the passenger deck headed for the chart room when all threeof us stopped short, frozen with horror. Through the silent passengerquarters a scream rang out! A girl's shuddering, gasping scream.Terror in it. Horror. Or a scream of agony. In the silence of thedully vibrating ship it was utterly horrible.... It lasted aninstant--a single long scream; then was abruptly stilled.

  And with blood pounding my temples and rushing like ice through myveins, I recognized it.

  Anita!