by Random, Alex
Alston swung his right fist and struck the Captain on the jaw. It was a lucky punch, for Graham relaxed instantly, and his eyes closed. Alston disentangled himself from the inert figure and began to slither upwards across the sloping floor, intent upon getting to the controls. He stared at the screens as he moved slowly, fighting for each breath, but the screens were blank and dark, and he had no idea where they were now in relation to the planet. He lowered his head until his face was almost touching the floor, and he forced himself to go on against the pressures being exerted against him.
Before he was halfway across the floor to the control console, Alston caught the flicker of movement at the door, and he turned his head to peer at the doorway. A man’s head and shoulders were visible, and Alston was surprised to recognise Doane. The guard stared around, saw Graham’s inert figure at the lower end of the room, and slithered in through the doorway. He came scuttling across the floor to Alston’s side, his face taut with fear, his eyes showing that he was aware of their danger.
“Must cut the main drive!” Alston said breathlessly.
Doane nodded and helped Alston along. They reached the bunks and grabbed at them, using their arms to help their forward motion, and Alston dragged himself to his feet, reaching out like a drunken man for the next handhold. It was impossible to move fast, and even the slightest movement required tremendous effort. Doane pushed at Alston from behind, trying to thrust him forward, but despite their combined efforts they made slow progress.
Desperation began to seep into Alston’s mind. He knew they must be blasting out of orbit now, and he feared the explosion that had been planned. Clenching his teeth, he made a final effort, and lurched forward to grasp at the console, throwing out his right hand to kill the power to the main drive. He noticed that all the registers had their needles quivering in the red-shaded areas, denoting danger levels, and he depressed switched and fingered buttons, clinging to the console with one hand.
Suddenly the tremendous force that was pulling at him seemingly from the stern of the ship cut off, and he straightened, breathing heavily. Doane was getting up from the floor, and the big guard was grinning now, although his face was still pale.
Alston looked towards Graham, who was moving again. “Get Graham, Doane,” he ordered. “I’ll take care of him. He’s caused enough trouble. I’ll check on the rest of the crew he brought aboard.”
“I dealt with some of them in the corridor,” the guard replied, tapping the handle of the Blinder in his belt. “Most of them are out for an hour at least.”
“I’ll need to work out our position and see if we can get back to orbit around Cyra! But the guards must all be disarmed first.”
“What about that salvage ship that locked on to us? Do you figure it took the pressures of our jump out of orbit?”
“I’ll look into that as well.” Alston started for the door. “But whatever happens, you stick with Graham and keep him out of my hair.”
Doane nodded and turned to where Graham was trying to sit up. Alston glanced at the Captain, saw he was still dazed, and smiled tightly as he passed through the doorway to the corridor. He paused and looked back at Doane. “What’s happened to Carmel?” he called.
Doane turned to look at him. “I told her to lock herself in the living quarters. She’ll be safe enough there. I came out as you were fighting off Graham’s men. I took a hand in the end of it, and nailed some who could have got you from behind.”
“Thanks!” Alston turned and went on his way. He was in the corridor, intent upon getting a Blinder from one of the men stretched out unconscious, when he heard Doane shout urgently in the control room. The man’s voice trailed off into a hoarse yell of fear, then a screech of agony that cut off ominously quickly.
Alston turned like a cat and leaped back to the doorway. He peered into the control room and saw Doane writhing on the floor. Graham was in the act of getting to his feet, and there was a small energy pistol in his hand — a lethal weapon that killed instantly.
Gritting his teeth, Alston twisted away again, watching Graham out of the corner of his eye. Graham was looking towards him, still apparently dazed, and the deadly weapon in his hand came swinging up to level at Alston.
Alston threw himself bodily away from the doorway, and fell sprawling on the floor of the corridor, rolling over quickly to regain his feet. He heard a minor explosion and saw molten steel bubbling around the doorway where the energy bolt from Graham’s weapon had struck. He pushed himself to his feet and started running along the corridor, looking for a place in which to hide. He was unarmed and no match for a man armed with such a powerful weapon.
He thought of the inspection shaft where Doane and Carmel had hidden, and hurled himself towards it, glancing back over his shoulder for sight of Graham. But the Captain did not emerge from the cabin, and Alston kept going, bending to snatch up a Blinder from one of the unconscious guards. He turned then, ready to fight for his life, but there was no sign of Graham.
Alston went on, passing through a doorway and entering the living quarters. He called for Carmel, and the girl replied from behind a steel door. The door opened a crack and her tense face peered out at him. She opened the door fully when she saw him.
“Rex, what happened?” she demanded.
“I want you to stay here and keep out of it,” he retorted. “It isn’t over yet. Graham is still in command of the control room, and I’ve got to get him out of there.”
“The acceleration!” she gasped. “What happened? Did we leave Cyra obit?”
“I’m afraid we did, and I’m surprised the ship hasn’t exploded. But Graham will try to do the same thing again, except that when I cut the power I put a couple of minor circuits out of control just in case he overpowered me. He’s intent upon destroying himself and us with him, Carmel, so I’ve got to go and take him.”
“I’ll get a Blinder and come and help you,” she said.
“No, stay here and I’ll handle it.”
“Where is Doane?”
“Dead, I’m afraid.” Alston shook his head. “I’m going into the engine room through the inspection shaft. I’ll need just one shot at Graham to put an end to this.”
“And the guards he brought aboard with him?” she asked.
“All under the effects of Blinder rays. They should be out for some considerable time.”
“Be careful, Rex! I don’t know what’s happening, but it looked to me as if we’ll never get out of this mess! Why hasn’t Frank Anders done something?”
“I’m wondering about that myself,” Alston said, patting her arm. “Now lock yourself in that cabin and don’t open the door for anyone.”
She nodded and closed the door, and Alston waited for a moment before turning away. He went along the corridor and descended to the lower level, entering the engine room and pausing for a moment to look around. The fact that Graham had not come in pursuit warned him that the Captain had tried to put the ship into overdrive again and failed, and now he was tracing the faulty circuits, no doubt intending to commit suicide in the complete destruction of the ship.
Alston didn’t need to be an engineer to sabotage the engines. He’d had considerable practical experience in this department before becoming a captain in Star Fleet. Now he went to the control panels and ripped out circuits and switched off lines. In a matter of seconds he was certain nothing Graham could do would enable the ship to move under main power. Satisfied, he started back the way he had come. There was just one thing more to be done, and that was to take care of Graham himself.
When he ascended to the upper level he heard Graham’s voice yelling at Carmel, and Alston went forward silently, the Blinder ready in his hand. He heard Graham demanding entrance to the girl’s cabin, threatening to burn through the door if she refused to open it. Alston reached a corner and peered around it, aware that if Graham got hold of the girl he would be able to force the issues. It was a situation Alston had no intention of facing.
He saw Graham at
the door of the girl’s quarters, but the Captain was taking no chances, and he saw Alston in the same instant. The weapon in his hand lifted, and Alston sprang back from the corner, falling over backwards in his haste and rolling quickly. Part of the steel corner disintegrated under the hammerblow of the energy bolt, and Alston flattened himself on his stomach and waited for Graham to stick his head around the corner, the Blinder ready in his hand. But Graham was playing safe. He fired again, striking the corner and sending sprays of molten steel across the corridor. Alston flinched and lowered his head, but he was not touched, and he gritted his teeth and started crawling forward, keeping low, intent upon getting just one shot at Graham.
By the time he reached the corner and peered around it, at floor level, Graham was gone, and Alston wiped sweat from his forehead as he tried to figure out where the Captain could be. There were several doors leading off the corridor on either side, some going into living quarters and others giving access to other parts of the ship. Alston considered for a moment. He felt he would be safer in the control room, if he could lock the damaged door, and he eased off the floor and called to Carmel, urging the girl to join him.
Carmel opened her door and emerged, running to his side. Alston was wary, the Blinder ready in his hand. Sweat was running down his face. He saw that Carmel was afraid, and he took her hand and started back along the corridor, making for the control room. They moved quickly, and he was ready to throw himself flat and take the girl with him at the first sign of trouble. But they reached the control room, and Alston flattened himself against the wall and risked a quick look inside. He darted inside when he found the room empty, and Carmel joined him.
The door of the control room closed and locked, but there was a narrow gap halfway down one side where the effects of Graham’s blaster had stripped away solid steel in a molten slice. Alston went across to Doane, finding the man dead, and his eyes were bright with determination as he took the Blinder from Doane’s stiffening hand. He handed the weapon to Carmel, instructing her to watch the gap in the door and to use the Blinder the instant she saw movement.
Carmel was afraid, and the Blinder shook in her hand, but she was grimly determined, and took up a position where she could watch the loophole in their defences.
“What are you going to do, Rex?” she demanded. “How can you get Graham if you hole up in here?”
“You’re forgetting that I once commanded a spacecraft,” he said tightly, moving across to the control consoles. He studied the panels of instruments for long moments, his lips thin against his teeth. “If only I knew where Graham is exactly.”
“The internal communications should be working. They run off a low-power auxiliary circuit.”
“You know as much about this ship as I do,” Alston commented, and looked around for the communicator. He flipped a couple of switches, heard a speaker begin to hum, and moistened his lips. “Graham,” he said steadily, “This is Alston. I’m forted up in the control room and you’re in trouble. Go to the nearest communication point and speak to me. Perhaps we can come to some arrangement over this situation.”
He switched off as Carmel spoke, and there was hopelessness in the girl’s tones.
“You know you can’t trust him, Rex! He’s got the upper hand. He doesn’t care if he dies now, while we have everything to live for. Don’t let him take you by surprise and overpower you. I wouldn’t want to fall into his hands!”
Alston nodded, and after waiting some moments he switched on again and repeated his message. He fancied Graham would talk to him, probably with the intention of trying to surprise him in some way and regain the initiative. But there was no reply, and Alston began to get worried. He sensed that Graham was up to something, and he had to find out.
He suddenly thought of the inspection shaft that he had planned to use to get into the control room unawares, and he tightened his lips as he looked around for the panel covering it. Carmel was still watching the door, and Alston went across to the far wall and undipped the panel. He was tense and cautious as he opened the panel, and he peered into the shaft, which was lighted at intervals, breathing a sigh of relief when he found it deserted.
Then the internal communicator became activated, and as he heard the hum in the speaker, Alston hurried back to the console.
“This is Graham. There can be no deal, Alston. I want you dead, and I’m prepared to die to get you.”
“But you can’t destroy the ship!” Alston rapped. “I’ve taken care of that.”
“I’m going to jam open the inner airlock door, then open the outer one,” Graham said easily. “You know what that means, don’t you?”
“We can talk this over,” Alston said. “You haven’t gone to all the trouble you’ve taken to nail me just to throw everything away now. I don’t want to die, and there’s no reason why you should. Let’s talk, Graham!”
As he spoke, Alston was picturing the corridor around the airlock. There was a communication point just beside the airlock door, and he figured Graham was using it.
“There’s nothing to talk over,” Graham retorted. “I stuck my neck out to get you, and I failed. I’m not going to face the consequences. I’m ready to die out here in Space.”
Alston was reaching out an unsteady hand, determined to stake everything on a desperate gamble. Only the main drive circuits were out of action. The panel to his left controlled a number of airtight doors that could be used to seal off certain sections of the ship, and there was a diagram above the panel, illustrating the positions of the door and the button numbers operating them. There were doors at either end of the section of corridor where the airlock was situated, and Alston read the button numbers and then pressed the requisite buttons. Lights flashed on a small screen and a buzzer sounded continually.
“Carmel, come over here,” Alston said thinly, and the girl hurried to his side. “Switch on the vision screens.” The girl did so, and Alston eased to his left and depressed a control button that brought inspection cameras into operation. Tiny projecting tripods, which were the ship’s eyes, pivoted under control and relayed to the screens what they recorded along the length of the ship’s hull. Every square foot of the outer hull could be inspected from the control room without the operator moving from the control panel. Alston ran through a line of operating buttons, bringing pictures of sections of the hull to the various screens. When he saw the outer airlock door looming up on one screen he paused, then opened the line to Graham.
“Are you still there, Graham?” he demanded.
“I’ve finished with talk,” Graham retorted. “I’m going to destroy you, Alston. When I open the outer door of the airlock the inside of the ship will be sucked out into space. Nothing can save you now.”
“What’s going to happen, Rex?” the girl demanded, moving closer to him. “Are we going to die?”
“I hope not,” he retorted, and his face was set in grim lines. He put an arm around her shoulder. “But if we are then at least we shall go together. If the two emergency doors I’ve just closed operate satisfactorily we should survive. But if they give way under the pressure that will be created then there’s no hope for us. This is the only way we can beat Graham.”
He stared at the screen showing the outer airlock door, and when he saw movement of the door he pulled the girl closed to him. The next instant the airlock door was slammed wide open as if an invisible fist had punched it. Alston saw a stream of small articles go whirling out through the doorway, and Carmel gasped when they saw a man’s figure quite plainly, whisked away into dark space. Before it vanished on the instant, Alston recognised it as Graham’s.
He could imagine the pressure dragging at the emergency doors, and Alston uttered a. silent prayer as he held his breath, waiting out the tense seconds that would decide if they lived or spent the rest of eternity floating through space. Then he reached the emergency control panel, where red lights were flashing to indicate the danger of blow-out. The pressure inside the ship was building up against t
he two doors sealing off the airlock and the short section of corridor that had been depressurised by the opening of outer and inner airlock doors.
Alston stabbed his finger at remote control buttons that operated both airlock doors, and he stared at the small screen, waiting for visible signs that the door on the screen was closing. It didn’t appear to be working, and Alston sensed that it might have been damaged when it was burst open under pressure. He fingered the button several times, and Carmel uttered a gasp as the screen showed the door slowly closing.
“Are we safe?” the girl demanded breathlessly.
Alston switched on an air pump, and the thin whine of the motor was the most pleasant sound he had ever heard. A gauge showed that the vacuum in the airlock and section of corridor was being pressurised once more, and the pump cut out automatically when the correct pressure was reached. Alston opened the two emergency doors, and then he turned to face the girl, his forehead beaded with sweat.
“I’ll try and repair the damage I did to the ship, then we’ll move back to Cyra orbit. With Graham gone we’re in no immediate danger, but I’m afraid my future is still uncertain, Carmel. Doane is dead, and he’s the only man who could have cleared me. Now I’ll never be able to prove that Graham was the man who framed me.”
“But Doane recorded a statement on the recorder in my living quarters,” Carmel said. “We didn’t stay in the inspection shaft as you said. As soon as you went into the control cabin before Graham and his men boarded us we went to my cabin and I made Doane make a statement of what he’d told us. It’s on record, Rex. That, and the evidence I can give on your behalf, should clear you.”
Alston stared into the girl’s blue eyes, and he grinned at her. “You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to ensure that I do marry you,” he said softly. “If you love me this much then I can’t stand around and see you get disappointed. I’ll get us back to Cyra as quickly as possible, and do you know the first thing we are going to do?”
She looked into his eyes for a moment, then nodded slowly. The next moment she pushed herself into his arms. “I want to get back home as urgently as you do,” she said quietly, “but we can spare a few moments up here in the solitude of Space. Afterwards you can fix the ship, and I’ll make sure our prisoners don’t recover and make a nuisance of themselves. When we land, Rex, there will be no looking back, no regrets. But there will be my father and people. So let’s make the most of this situation.”