Empire

by Clifford D. Simak

  _CHAPTER FIFTEEN_

  John Moore Mallory sat on the single metal chair within his cell andpressed his face against the tiny vision port. For hours he had satthere, staring out into the blackness of space.

  There was bitterness in John Moore Mallory's soul, a terrible and futilebitterness. So long as he had remained within the Ranthoor prison, therehad always been a chance of escape. But now, aboard the penal ship,there was no hope. Nothing but the taunting reaches of space, themocking pinpoints of the stars, the hooting laughter of the engines.

  Sometimes he had thought he would go mad. The everlasting routine, themeaningless march of hours. The work period, the sleep period ... thework period, the sleep period ... endless monotony, an existence withouta purpose. Men buried alive in space.

  "John Moore Mallory," said a voice.

  Mallory heard, but he did not stir. An awful thought crossed his mind.Now he was hearing voices calling his name!

  "John Mallory," said the voice again.

  Mallory slowly turned about and as he turned he started from his chair.

  A man stood in the cell! A man he had never seen before, who had comesilently, for there had been no screech of opening door.

  "You are John Moore Mallory, aren't you?" asked the man.

  "Yes, I am Mallory. Who are you?"

  "Gregory Manning."

  "Gregory Manning," said Mallory wonderingly. "I've heard of you. You'rethe man who rescued the Pluto Expedition. But why are you here? How didyou get in?"

  "I came to take you away with me," said Greg. "Back to Callisto. Back toany place you want to go."

  Mallory flattened himself against the partition, his face white withdisbelief. "But I'm in a prison ship. I'm not free to go and come as Iplease."

  Greg chuckled. "You are free to go and come as you please from now on,"he said. "Even prison ships can't hold you."

  "You're mad," whispered Mallory. "Either you're mad or I am. You're adream. I'll wake up and find you gone."

  Manning stood in silence, looking at the man. Mallory bore the marks ofprison on him. His eyes were haunted and his rugged face was pinched andthin.

  "Listen closely, Mallory," said Greg softly. "You aren't going mad andI'm not mad. You aren't seeing things. You aren't hearing things. You'reactually talking to me."

  * * * * *

  There was no change in the other's face.

  "Mallory," Greg went on, "I have what you've always needed--means ofgenerating almost unlimited energy at almost no cost, the secret of theenergy of matter. A secret that will smash Interplanetary, that willfree the Solar System from Spencer Chambers. But I can't make thatsecret available to the people until Chambers is crushed, until I'm surethat he can't take it from me. And to do that I need your help."

  Mallory's face lost its expression of bewilderment, suddenly lightedwith realization. But his voice was harsh and bitter.

  "You came too late. I can't help you. Remember, I'm in a prison shipfrom which no one can escape. You have to do what you can ... you mustdo what you can. But I can't be with you."

  Manning strode forward. "You don't get the idea at all. I said I'd getyou out of here and I'm going to. I could pick up this ship and put itwherever I wanted. But I don't want to. I just want you."

  Mallory stared at him.

  "Just don't be startled," said Greg. "Something will happen soon. Getready for it."

  Feet drummed on the metal corridor outside.

  "Hey, you, pipe down!" yelled the voice of the guard. "You know there'sno talking allowed now. Go to sleep."

  "That's the guard," Mallory whispered fiercely. "They'll stop us."

  Greg grinned viciously. "No, they won't."

  * * * * *

  The guard came into view through the grilled door.

  "So it's you, Mallory ..." he began, stopping in amazement. "Hey, you!"he shouted at Greg. "Who are you? How did you get in that cell?"

  Greg flipped a hand in greeting. "Pleasant evening, isn't it?"

  The guard grabbed for the door, but he did not reach the bars. Someforce stopped him six inches away. It could not be seen, could not befelt, but his straining against it accomplished nothing.

  "Mallory and I are leaving," Greg told the guard. "We don't like ithere. Too stuffy."

  The guard lifted a whistle and blew a blast. Feet pounded outside. Aprisoner yelled from one of the cells. Another catcalled. Instantly theship was in an uproar. The convicts took up the yammering, shaking thebars on their doors.

  "Let's get started," Greg said to Mallory. "Hold tight."

  Blackness engulfed Mallory. He felt a peculiar twisting wrench. And thenhe was standing in the control room of a ship and Gregory Manning andanother man were smiling at him. White light poured down from a clusterof globes. Somewhere in the ship engines purred with the hum of power.The air was fresh and pure, making him realize how foul and stale theair of the prison ship had been.

  Greg held out his hand. "Welcome to our ship."

  Mallory gripped his hand, blinking in the light. "Where am I?"

  "You are on the _Invincible_, five million miles off Callisto."

  "But were you here all the time?" asked Mallory. "Were you in my cellback there or weren't you?"

  "I was really in your cell," Greg assured him. "I could have just thrownmy image there, but I went there personally to get you. Russ Page, here,sent me out. When I gave him the signal, he brought both of us back."

  "I'm glad you're with us," Russ said. "Perhaps you'd like a cup ofcoffee, something to eat."

  Mallory stammered. "Why, I really would." He laughed. "Rations weren'ttoo good in the prison ship."

  They sat down while Russ rang the galley for coffee and sandwiches.

  Crisply, Greg informed Mallory of the situation.

  "We want to start manufacturing these engines as soon as possible," heexplained, "but I haven't even dared to patent them. Chambers wouldsimply buy out the officials if I tried it on Earth, delay the patentfor a few days and then send through papers copied from ours. You knowwhat he'd do with it if he got the patent rights. He'd scrap it and theold accumulator business would go on as always. If I tried it on anyother world, with any other government, he'd see that laws were passedto block us. He'd probably instruct the courts to rule against themanufacture of the engines on the grounds that they were dangerous."

  Mallory's face was grave. "There's only one answer," he said. "With thesituation on the worlds, with this purge you told me about, there's onlyone thing to do. We have to act at once. Every minute we wait givesStutsman just that much longer to tighten his hold."

  "And that answer?" asked Russ.

  "Revolution," said Mallory. "Simultaneous revolution in the Jovianconfederacy, on Mars and Venus. Once free, the planets will stay freewith your material energy engines. Spencer Chambers and his idea ofSolar System domination will be too late."

  * * * * *

  Greg's forehead was wrinkled in thought, his facial muscles tensed.

  "First thing to do," he said, "is to contact all the men we can find ...men we can rely on to help us carry out our plans. We'll need moretelevisor machines, more teleport machines, some for use on Mars andVenus, others for the Jovian moons. We will have to bring the men hereto learn to operate them. It'll take a few days. We'll get some men towork on new machines right away."

  He started to rise from his chair, but at that moment the coffee andsandwiches arrived.

  Greg grinned. "We may as well eat first."

  Mallory looked grateful and tried to keep from wolfing the food. Theothers pretended not to notice.

  * * * * *

  Grim hours followed, an unrelenting search over two planets and fourmoons for men whom Mallory considered loyal to his cause--men willing torisk their lives to throw off the yoke of Interplanetary.

  They were hard to find. Many of them were dead, victims of the purge.The
others were in hiding and word of them was difficult to get.

  But slowly, one by one, they were ferreted out, the plan explained tothem, and then, by means of the tele-transport, they were brought to the_Invincible_.

  Hour after hour men worked, stripped to their waists, in the glaringinferno of terrible force fields, fashioning new television units. Asfast as the sets were constructed, they were placed in operation.

  The work went faster than could be expected, yet it was maddeninglyslow.

  For with the passing of each hour, Stutsman clamped tighter his irongrip on the planets. Concentration camps were filled to overflowing.Buildings were bombed and burned. Murders and executions were becomingtoo common to be news.

  Then suddenly there was a new development.

  "Greg, Craven has found something!" Russ cried. "I can't get him!"

  Supervising the installation of a new televisor set, Greg spun around."What's that?"

  "Craven! I can't reach him. He's blocking me out!"

  Greg helped, but the apparatus was unable to enter the Interplanetarybuilding in New York. Certain other portions of the city adjacent to thebuilding also were blanketed out. In all the Solar System, theInterplanetary building was the only place they could not enter, exceptthe Sun itself.

  Craven had developed a field from which their field shied off. Thetelevisor seemed to roll off it like a drop of mercury. That definitelyended all spying on Craven and Chambers.

  Russ mopped his brow, sucked at his dead pipe.

  "Light penetrates it," he said. "Matter penetrates it, electricity, allordinary forces. But this field won't. It's ... well, whatever Cravenhas is similarly dissimilar. The same thing of opposite nature. Itrepels our field, but doesn't affect anything else. That means he hasanalyzed our fields. We have Wilson to thank for this."

  Greg nodded gravely. "There's just one thing to be thankful for," hedeclared. "He probably isn't any nearer our energy than he was before.But now we can't watch him. And that field of his shows that he hastremendous power of some sort."

  "We can't watch him, but we can follow him," corrected Russ. "He can'tshake us. None of them can. The mechanical shadow will take care ofthat. I have one for Craven with a bit of 'bait' off his spectacles andhe'll keep those spectacles, never fear. He's blind as a bat withoutthem. And we can track Chambers with his ring."

  "That's right," agreed Greg, "but we've got to speed up. Craven isgetting under way now. If he does this, he can do something else.Something that will really hurt us. The man's clever ... too damnclever."