CHAPTER XIX
The Unyielding Ground
Prince Machiavelli began to cry. He let Rick know he didn't like theheat in a series of sobbing yelps.
Rick glanced up, surprised at the sudden noise, and flashed his light onthe monk. The little animal was suffering from the heat, the fur of hishead matted and his eyes staring. Dangling from his little chest was thestethoscope Rick had ripped away to get the tape.
Rick stared at it. If only ...
He fought his body's tendency to fly to the top of the rocket and got afirm grip with one leg around the channel under the spacemonk, then hetook the stethoscope bell and began to tap in Morse code:
T-A-K-E C-O-N-T-R-O-L T-A-K-E C-O-N-T-R-O-L.
* * * * *
In the blockhouse, Charlie Kassick was watching the display with ananxious eye. Suddenly the straight line--a reading of zero--that hadbegun when the stethoscope quit functioning began to break up into aregular pattern.
Charlie couldn't read Morse code. He only knew there was somethingstrange going on. He let out a yell that brought John Gordon jumping tohis side.
Gordon studied the strange pattern, a square wave shape, a blank, then apeak followed by a square wave shape, a blank, then a square wave, peak,and square ...
* * * * *
Rick was still tapping when he heard the sudden whine of servomotors.The rocket tilted but continued its fall, rushing toward earth while itsnose swung slightly upward. Then the airfoils took hold and Pegasusbegan to climb once more.
Rick was flat on the floor, thrown there for a few seconds when gravitybecame normal. He climbed to his feet again, fighting pain and weakness.Jerry Lipton was flying Pegasus. It was a reprieve. The boy and themarmoset had a chance after all, if the heat didn't get them. Rick couldfeel his skin tighten, feel the moisture baking out of him.
He held on to the channel with one hand and found the stethoscope withthe other. Concentrating, he tapped out a message.
E-R-T-H-M-A-N I-N E-L-E-C-T-R-O-N-C G-R-P H-E O-N-E O-F L-S-T T-O E-N-T-R R-O-C-K-T.
He signed his initials.
The rocket was dipping toward earth again, in accordance with thelanding flight plan. It was traveling nearly ten thousand miles an hour.The speed had to be lost, and the only way to lose it was by frictionagainst the air. But uncontrolled friction would turn it into a meteor,so Jerry was letting the heat build up by diving the rocket, thenturning it upward again in a long glide, where it could cool in theouter fringes of atmosphere. Little by little it was losing its excessof kinetic energy.
Pegasus went into the atmosphere again in a long, shallow, turningglide. The heat built up until Rick's tense, weakened condition couldn'ttolerate it any longer. He slid to the floor, unconscious.
* * * * *
Jerry Lipton had flown everything from small private planes to thelatest jet. He had directed drone planes into atomic clouds and on trialbomb runs. But never in his career had he been faced with a piloting joblike Pegasus.
It had been difficult enough, with just the rocket to worry about. Butwith Rick's life in his hands . . .
John Gordon and Gee-Gee Gould were standing by, relaying information tothe pilot. Jerry watched the shape on the radar screen climb to higheraltitude and asked, "What's his velocity?"
Dr. Bond was doing the calculations, based on the rocket's travelthrough the radar beam.
"Just above five thousand miles an hour."
Jerry shook his head. "I can't keep him up there all day. How's thetemperature?"
Gee-Gee Gould consulted the temperature trace on the display.
"Cabin temperature is 105 Fahrenheit. The monk is in trouble, too. Skintemperature is just about the same as the cabin. That means Rick isrunning about the same."
"I'm going to cool 'em off." Jerry worked the controls and the angle ofascent steepened. He asked, without taking his eyes from the scope, "Howmuch can he stand?"
The base physician was standing by. He had been summoned hurriedly. "Itdepends on the time of exposure. He could take quite high temperaturesfor a very short time."
"I'm worried," Gordon said bluntly. "He hasn't sent a signal since thelast one. He must be badly hurt. According to Cliff's calculations, hepulled nearly thirteen G's on the ascent."
"He can't be in very good shape," the doctor agreed. "Can't you bringhim down any faster?"
Jerry Lipton shook his head. "The faster the descent, the higher theheat. If the boy's already badly hurt, running his temperature up won'thelp his condition any. I'm no doctor, all I can do is try to bring himdown in one piece, and that's tough enough for me. Decide, and I'll tryto follow your plan."
The doctor went into a consultation with John Gordon, Dr. Bond, andGee-Gee Gould.
"I see what Lipton means about bringing him down as slowly and smoothlyas possible," the doctor said. "True, he's probably in bad shape, bothphysically and mentally, but we've no reason to assume any conditionthat might be more dangerous than the high temperature."
John Gordon nodded. The Spindrift scientist wanted to assure himselfthat the boy was all right. But that wasn't reason for taking a chance."I agree," he said.
Bond and Gould nodded agreement, and John Gordon passed on theirdecision to Jerry Lipton.
"I think you're being wise," the pilot said. "Okay. Stand by, and I'lldo the best I can."
* * * * *
Rick returned to consciousness slowly. He shook his head to clear it,but the grogginess persisted. It was light inside the cabin. He couldsee reasonably clearly, and he thought dimly that something was wrong.Then he realized what it was. He was plastered against the side of thecabin!
He realized that Pegasus was no longer a rocket, but a glider, travelingin a horizontal position. One part of the wall had become the deck whenthe rocket changed from vertical to normal flight. He saw the marmoset,still upright, riding smoothly. The channel supporting the spacemonk'slittle chair had moved as it was supposed to, changing position as therocket's aspect changed.
The port window nearest Rick was within reach. He hauled himself up. Itwas like being in a plane. He looked down at the earth from an altitudeof about thirty thousand feet. He was almost there, and the rocket wasunder control!
A wave of relief swept through him, and he sat down. He was going tomake it! The cabin was hot, like a closed attic on a hot July day, butit was bearable. He got back to the port again and watched as Pegasusturned in lazy circles many miles in diameter. The earth was comingcloser at a pretty good clip. He was almost comfortable now, knowingthat Jerry Lipton had the rocket under control.
Rick closed his eyes, for just a moment. But the moment stretched aheadas his weakened body betrayed him. He didn't realize how much time hadpassed until he opened his eyes again just as Pegasus pulled up into abank that sent the blood from his head and almost caused him to blackout again. But in that instant he knew he was on the landing approach,and that his speed was far too great for comfort.
He had just enough sense left to take the proper precautions. Hestretched out on his stomach, feet to the nose of the rocket, andcushioned his head in his hands.
* * * * *
Pegasus flashed low over the hills at the end of Scarlet Lake andtouched earth at twelve hundred miles an hour. It bounced, then hitagain on the tricycle landing gear. The brakes were applied, gently atfirst, then with all the strength of the servomotors. The deadlyvelocity dropped off, but not fast enough. The runway was miles long,but the rocket went over it and into the desert beyond. There wasnothing anyone could do.
Rick vaguely felt the smooth runway change to rougher terrain. He feltthe impact when Pegasus struck a hummock and tore off the landing gear.He felt the rocket slow. Then it stopped--too fast! He went flyingforward, and he brought his arms up to cushion his head. He smashed withstunning impact into the bottom of the nose radar set, and dropped intoinfinite
blackness.
CHAPTER XX
The Earthman
Rick came back to life briefly. He saw a patch of something whiteoverhead, and after much staring decided it was a ceiling. He turned hishead an inch and saw a festoon of rubber tubes and hanging bottles.Thinking was too difficult. He closed his eyes and drifted off again.
When he again awoke the rubber tubes and bottles were gone. Grinningfaces were grouped around him. Some he recognized, others werestrangers. That was Scotty, and that was John Gordon, and that was TomPreston. The others were doctors and nurses.
Rick said, "So we got down in one piece."
"Not exactly one piece." John Gordon smiled.
Scotty asked anxiously, "How do you feel?"
Rick thought about it. He didn't really know how he felt. "Sort of ...light. I'm floating." Probably he had been asleep for some time. "Whattime is it?" he asked.
John Gordon gave a relieved chuckle. "Time sense returns. He'simproving. You should ask what _day_ it is, Rick. You've been asleep along time. Pegasus went up three days ago."
"I must have needed sleep," Rick said weakly. Questions crowded into hismind. He asked the most important ones first. "How's the spacemonk? Didyou get the Earthman?"
"The Prince is fine," John Gordon answered. "Yes, Rick, we got theEarthman. He gave himself away when we realized you were in the rocket.Now, no more questions. We'll be back again tomorrow and the doctor sayswe can talk more."
"Just one more question," Rick pleaded. He couldn't sleep withoutknowing. "Who is the Earthman?"
"Frank Miller."
And that was it, for the time being. Not until he was improved enoughfor Scotty and Gordon to spend most of the day with him did Rick get thewhole story. They brought the spacemonk. The little creature pettedRick, then snuggled down and went to sleep against his side.
The landing had been cruel misfortune. The brakes were not strong enoughto take the strain put on them. Worried because Rick had not signaledfor a second time, Jerry had brought the rocket in faster than planned.Pegasus had buried its nose in the foothills.
Rick had suffered an amazing variety of bruises, coupled with internaldamages, three broken ribs, and a dislocated right shoulder. On hisright arm he had a permanent scar as a memento of the landing. A metalprojection had given him a bad wound and cut an artery. He had lostconsiderable blood by the time the first-aid team was able to get himout and apply a tourniquet. He had also suffered concussion.
John Gordon described what had happened in the blockhouse.
"I just yelled your first message out loud. Jerry was staring at theradar screen at the time. He reached over and switched the equipmentback on, then took control. At first we didn't know who was in therocket. Then we took a quick nose count. You and two or three otherswere missing, but none of you had definite assignments, anyway. I waspretty sure it was you, knowing your ability for getting into trouble,but it wasn't until we got the message about the Earthman with yourinitials that we were really sure."
"When did you find out Frank Miller was the Earthman?" Rick asked.
"Then and there. He let out a sort of funny cry, grabbed his stomach,and fainted dead away. We brought him to, and he started crying that hehadn't meant to hurt anyone.
"Dr. Bond asked him bluntly if he was the Earthman, and he was so shakenI guess he didn't even think of trying to get out of it. He just nodded.Gee-Gee Gould had him by the throat in a minute, and I think he wouldhave strangled him. But we got him off Miller and persuaded him to letthe law take its course.
"After Dr. Bond and Miller finished putting the monk in place andstarted down, Miller said he had left his tool kit, and went back to getit. He must have changed the circuit then. I suppose in his excitementand fear of discovery he forgot the door. Later, he must have rememberedand went back to close it, not knowing you were inside. Dr. Bond blameshimself because he didn't stay with Miller."
Rick shook his head. "I can't understand it. Why would Miller do such athing?"
"Obviously, he isn't a normal human being, in our sense of the word."
"You mean he's insane?" Scotty asked.
"No. Not insane. He's what some people call a psychopath. He is notmorally responsible. In other words, he can't distinguish right fromwrong, as most people understand the terms."
"That explains why he was able to do those things," Rick agreed. "But itdoesn't explain why he became the Earthman and sabotaged rockets."
"We have a good explanation of that," John Gordon said. "It goes back tosome time ago when selection of personnel for the projects began. BothFrank Miller and Dick Earle were professionally qualified to beelectronics chief of Pegasus. But of course professional qualificationsaren't everything. Miller was not well liked. Earle was given theassignment because it was thought he could do a better job of gettingalong with the staff."
"And Miller resented it," Rick said.
"Yes. That was natural enough. But because of his warped personality, hewent from a natural reaction to a psychopathic one. He decided to takerevenge. We don't know why he decided to call himself the Earthman,except that he apparently saw himself as a shining knight in armor,setting to rights the earth's wrongs--of course he meant the wrongssupposedly done to him. Being a design engineer he was naturallysomething of an artist, although his record didn't show any specialtalent."
"But," Scotty objected, "if he doesn't know right from wrong, why shouldhe break up when he found Rick was in the rocket?"
Gordon shrugged. "Again, we can't be sure. My own opinion is that he hada shock reaction. The reaction was partly physical, and he was in poorphysical condition. For another thing, Rick spoiled his beautiful designfor destruction."
"Where is he now?" Rick asked.
"In custody at Nellis Air Force Base, awaiting trial."
There was still much Rick wanted to know, but his conversation withScotty and John Gordon was interrupted. Gee-Gee Gould, Dick Earle, Dr.Bond, and others from the project stopped by. Gee-Gee brought him amedal, which he presented with proper ceremony. The staff had made itfrom a scrap of ribbon and the name plate of Pegasus.
"We salute you, young Brant," Gee-Gee proclaimed. "You will be foreverrecorded in our annals as the first, involuntary spaceman."
"Involuntary is right," Rick said, grinning.
"But, nevertheless, the first. Young Brant, we wish to bestow this smalltoken of our esteem. We regret only that the world can never cheer youwith us, on account of this being a classified project."
Dr. Bond shook hands with him. "Now that our hearts have come down outof our throats, Rick, we're pretty proud of you."
Dick Earle shook hands, too. "You certainly saved the project, Rick,even if by accident. If you hadn't been locked in, and able to get thecontrol operating, Pegasus would have crashed."
Later, when he had a chance to talk with Scotty alone, Rick asked, "Howabout Mac and Pancho? Was anything stolen?"
"Mac and Pancho are still at large. Tom Preston hasn't let them knowthey're in any way under suspicion. And, yes, stuff was stolen. Thistime it was ionization chambers and photon counters."
Scotty had stayed in his position in the maintenance shop, where hecould watch the warehouses. Luis Hermosa had also watched, from thefirehouse. The janitor, Dusty Rhoads, had wandered casually into awarehouse, pushing his cart. On orders from Preston the clerks were onthe job, instead of watching the shoot.
Then, fire had suddenly broken out in a small tool shed across from thewarehouse area. Luis had to abandon the watch to go to the fire, and theclerks had all run out at the sound of the sirens. Whereupon, withScotty watching, Dusty Rhoads had emerged, pushing his cleanup cart infront of him. He had even stopped to watch the fire being put out.
Scotty followed him, and watched Rhoads unload the stolen instrumentsfrom his cart and dump them into the base rubbish pile. The janitorcovered them with other, noninflammable junk and went on about hisbusiness.
"So you got the stuff back," Rick commented.
"Nope." Sc
otty shook his head. "It's still there."
"What?"
"Under day and night guard. From a distance, of course. Rhoads doesn'tknow he was seen. Now Tom Preston is waiting for the next step."
"What's that?"
"Project Cetus shoots in two days."
The light dawned. "And you expect Mac and Pancho will get the stuff!"
"On the nose. Think you'll be around for it?"
"I wouldn't miss it," Rick said firmly.
He didn't miss it, although he was still too weak to be a participant.Instead, with arm in sling and ribs still taped, he was allowed tolisten to the action in Tom Preston's office.
It started when Mac and Pancho picked up their radar unit in themaintenance shed. They drove to a dark area behind the shed where DustyRhoads was waiting with his cart. The stolen material was quicklytransferred, and hidden behind the equipment racks in the truck. ThenMac and Pancho drove off, en route to Careless Mesa.
Dusty Rhoads put his cart away and started back to his barracks.Security officers fell in step on either side of him. Dusty wasfinished.
The gate reported by phone when Mac and Pancho went through, then therewas a long wait. Tom Preston, John Gordon, and Rick had an earlybreakfast in the security chief's office. Just as they finishedbreakfast, the communications outfit on Preston's desk buzzed.
"Playboy One to Playboy Base. Come in."
Preston thumbed his microphone. "This is Playboy Base. Go ahead."
"Deadrock here, Tom. They're coming up the mountain."
"Roger. Keep us advised."
The waiting again, then Deadrock called once more, excitement in hisvoice. "Tom, there's another vehicle of some kind coming in fromSteamboat."
"Good! How are you fixed?"
"We can handle a regiment. Scotty is going down around the mesa to cutthem off in case they try to run for it. Hank is going down on the baseside. How important is it for Careless Mesa to track the shoot?"
John Gordon gave Preston the answer. "Not important enough to risk notcatching all of them. The other stations are tracking."
"Get 'em," Preston ordered.
"Right. Soon as it's a little lighter. We don't want one wriggling awayin the dark."
Rick looked outside. Dawn was just breaking. It would be light enough inten minutes. The ten minutes took an hour to pass. Then he had to waitten more, until Deadrock came back on the air.
"They're all yours, Tom. I fired a shot and they looked up. Then Scottyand Hank fired over their heads from each side and they saw they weretrapped. They upped hands, polite as you please, and we moved in to putthe cuffs on."
Scotty elaborated later. Deadrock had waited until some of the stolengoods had changed hands before firing his warning shot. That was forpurposes of evidence.
Pancho and Mac maintained a stony silence, but Dusty Rhoads was eager totalk. The other two had threatened to kill him, he claimed, and hadforced him to steal. No one believed this, but Dusty's tale at leastshowed the connection between Miller and the thefts.
Pancho had stumbled across evidence that Miller was the Earthman, Dustysaid. Dusty didn't know what the evidence was, and Pancho refused totell him. But when Big Mac heard about it, he accused Miller, andpromised to keep silent in exchange for co-operation. He demanded to betold when a shoot was to be sabotaged. Miller agreed, in exchange forpart of the profits. Mac, Pancho, and Dusty had not participated in anyway in the sabotage.
The other men, who had captured Rick and Scotty at Steamboat, proved tobe well-known thieves with prison records. One admitted they haddepended on Mac and Pancho to tip them off to any trap that might bewaiting, but of course Preston had made sure no inkling reached Mac andPancho that they were under suspicion. For that reason, the thieves haddriven without hesitation to Careless Mesa to pick up the latest batchof stolen equipment--and had received the shock of their lives.
Rick thought that the trail of the Earthman had been a pretty deviousone, complicated as it was by a gang of thieves as well as the saboteurhimself.
He wondered briefly if Miller's identity would ever have come to lightif he hadn't been trapped in the rocket. But the next moment he realizedit would have, eventually, because the thieves were known, and at leastthe janitor would have talked.
Rick and Scotty still had their jobs. Both had done well in theirassigned work, and could have stayed on indefinitely. But in spite ofthe temptation to remain for a while, the call of Spindrift was strong.
As Rick said, "It's nice to travel, but one thing that makes it nice isthat we can go back home."
A letter from Barby had made him a little homesick. Everyone was fine.Dismal was lonesome. Jan Miller was back, with her parents. Dad wasworried because he hadn't heard from Tony Briotti and Howard Shannon,but that was probably just the slowness of mail. Barby urged them tohurry back and hoped they were finding life dull enough so they would.She and Jan needed instruction in sailing, because they had just boughta new Comet-class sailboat.
The boys said farewell to their friends at Scarlet Lake, not forgettingPrince Machiavelli, and returned to Spindrift two days after thesuccessful Cetus shoot.
Back at Spindrift they spent their time instructing the girls in propersailing technique, but Rick still had to avoid exertion, and he couldn'tswim because his arm was still bandaged. Then, one day the Brants'family doctor announced that he was fine, and a bandage was no longerneeded.
Barby looked at the scar on Rick's forearm and her eyes opened wide."Rick! That was a terrible cut! How on earth did you get it?"
He couldn't tell her the real story. He had been instructed by hisfather not to mention it, even to Barby. "It was pretty exciting," hesaid. "It happened when they let me fire a rocket."
"You fired a rocket?" Barby gasped.
"Sort of," Rick said. "I lit the fuse. I didn't jump back far enough,though. The tail fin clipped me as it went by."
For a long while Barby wasn't sure whether Rick's story was true or not.She didn't know whether the big rockets had fuses. When she found out byquestioning Dr. Zircon, she asked Scotty to remind her not to talk toRick for twenty-four hours.
But before the day was over, Rick was packing, in company with Scottyand Dr. Zircon, for an emergency trip to the Sulu Sea. Their mission:find two missing Spindrift scientists!
What happened during the search will be told in the next exciting bookof Rick's adventures: THE PIRATES OF SHAN.
_The_ RICK BRANT SCIENCE-ADVENTURE _Stories_
BY JOHN BLAINE
THE ROCKET'S SHADOW
THE LOST CITY
SEA GOLD
100 FATHOMS UNDER
THE WHISPERING BOX MYSTERY
THE PHANTOM SHARK
SMUGGLERS' REEF
THE CAVES OF FEAR
STAIRWAY TO DANGER
THE GOLDEN SKULL
THE WAILING OCTOPUS
THE ELECTRONIC MIND READER
THE SCARLET LAKE MYSTERY
The Scarlet Lake Mystery: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story Page 19