Kenniston's fist smashed the space-sailor's chin and the man sagged limp and unconscious with no chance to utter the cry on his lips. Hastily, Kenniston took his atom-pistol and eased him to the floor.
He and Holk Or listened tensely. The single sharp crack of the snapping bolt had apparently aroused no one. The ship was silent. All aboard were sleeping exhaustedly.
"Come on," Kenniston murmured tensely to the Jovian. "We've got to hurry to get to Dark's camp before night is over."
Holk Or chuckled. "The chief will welcome us with open arms when he learns we've got the equipment here for him."
Kenniston gripped the atom-pistol as they stole through the dark ship and out of the space-door. Outside, they paused in the darkness.
The scene was one of magic, unearthly beauty. The metal bulk of the cruiser and the towering jungle around the clearing were washed by brilliant silver light that fell from the wonderful night sky of this World with a Thousand Moons.
A thousand moons indeed seemed blazing in the canopied heavens overhead! The whole dark sky was crowded by the shining moonlets that rushed ceaselessly across the firmament with the spinning of the meteor-swarm of which they were part. It was like the glorious vista of a world seen in dreams.
But Kenniston was familiar with the unearthly spectacle. He led the way rapidly toward the northern edge of the jungle.
"We'll just have to plunge in and head north," he told the Jovian. "If we reach that little lake, we can soon find Dark's camp."
They started into the dense jungle, a fairyland of silver beams sifting through the choking fronds. Something scurried close by.
"Kenniston, shoot!" cried Holk Or instantly.
Kenniston had already glimpsed the white beast scurrying toward them across a little patch of moonslight. It was one of the big meteor-rats. On its neck bunched one of the little gray masses, a Vestan.
The horror inspired by the hideous parasites tightened Kenniston's finger convulsively on the trigger of the atom-pistol. The crackling bolt of fire from the weapon ripped into the Vestan on the meteor-rat, and both parasite and animal victim were instantly a scorched, smoking heap.
"Hell, that's torn it!" cried the big Jovian. "We've roused the whole ship!"
Men awakened by the blast of the atom-gun were pouring out of the Sunsprite, rushing after the two escaped men. Kenniston heard Captain Walls shouting.
"They're in the jungle here! Spread out and surround them!" the officer was ordering.
Kenniston and the Jovian plunged forward, seeking to escape northward. But they had come up against an impenetrable abatis of brush.
Before they could find a way around it, they heard men crashing all around them. They were completely encircled.
"Kenniston, you and that Jovian walk back into the clearing with your hands raised or we'll blast every inch of the brush till we get you!" came the stentorian shout of the captain.
"The devil, they've got us boxed!" exclaimed Holk Or furiously. "We'll try to fight our way through."
"No!" Kenniston declared. "We couldn't make it anyway. And I'm not going to shoot innocent men."
Holk Or angrily grabbed for the atom-pistol, but Kenniston promptly threw it away. Not even in this last extremity could he bring himself to kill.
"You're a fool!" gritted the Jovian. "Now there's nothing for it but surrender."
With their hands raised, they walked out of the jungle into the brilliant silvery light of the clearing. Instantly they were surrounded by Captain Walls, Murdock and the other armed crew-men.
The girls and their scared chaperon, and young Lanning and Robbie Boone, were emerging in alarm from the Sunsprite. Kenniston did not look toward them.
Captain Walls' face was grim in the moonslight, as he and his men covered the two captured fugitives. "Kenniston, you and this Jovian were going to make your way to John Dark and tell him of our presence here, weren't you? You needn't deny it, it's plain enough."
"Sure we were!" exclaimed the angry Jovian. "We'd have made it, too, if a Vestan hadn't jumped us in the jungle."
"That would have meant capture of us all by Dark's pirates," said the captain grimly. "You two are a danger to us all, while you live. I'm going to remove that danger. As master of a space-ship, I have legal right to order summary execution of any space-pirates I capture. I'm going to order that now."
"You're going to kill them?" exclaimed Gloria. "Oh, no, you can't!"
"It's absolutely necessary, before they betray us to the pirates, Miss Loring," defended the captain. "They'd be sentenced to death by the courts if we took them back to Mars, anyway. But we daren't take a chance on keeping them prisoned that long."
"But just to shoot them down!" said Gloria horrifiedly. "I won't stand for that!"
Murdock took her by the arm. "It's space law, Gloria," he told her earnestly. "You'd better go back into the ship."
Kenniston stood silent in the moonslight, for he realized from the finality of Walls' voice that appeals would be utterly useless. There was no use trying again to explain why he'd been willing to betray them all to save Ricky. Even if they listened, they wouldn't understand.
He felt tired, crushed, old. He'd gone a long way in the last dozen years, but every mile of it had only led toward this ending. He was going to die here under the hurtling meteor-moons of Vesta, and that meant that Ricky and Ricky's dream were going to die soon too.
"I told you you were a fool to throw away that gun," Holk Or was muttering.
"You two march over there to the edge of the clearing," Captain Walls ordered grimly, gesturing with his gun. "Anything you want to say first, Kenniston?"
"Nothing that you would listen to or understand, you people," Kenniston answered dully. "No, I've got nothing to say."
A crackling voice came out of the dark jungle at that moment.
"I have something to say! Drop those guns, every man of you, and get your hands up!"
Walls spun around with an oath, levelling his atom-pistol. But out of the jungle crashed a streak of fire that hit the captain's arm and sent him reeling.
One of the girls screamed. Another of the Sunsprite's crew had tried to aim his weapon and had been cut down by a second bolt of atomic fire that had hit his leg.
"I don't want to kill you unless you force me to," came that crisp voice from the darkness. "You have ten seconds to drop the guns."
"That's the chief, Kenniston!" yelled Holk Or excitedly. "It's John Dark himself!"
The dreaded name of the pirate, a synonym for cold ruthlessness, reinforced the threat from the darkness.
Murdock let his weapon fall and shouted, "Drop the atom-guns, men! If we try to fight, the women will be hurt!"
The Sunsprite's men dropped their atom-pistols. Instantly out into the brilliant light from the jungle rushed a score of armed pirates. Martians, Earthmen, Venusians and others, this horde represented the criminal under-world of every planet in the System.
In a moment they had those in the clearing completely disarmed and lined up against the ship. All except Holk Or, who was loudly greeting his pirate comrades.
Kenniston saw John Dark coming across the moonslit clearing toward them. The notorious pirate was a tall, bulky Earthman, but he walked with the lightfootedness of a cat in his moonshoes. His black hair was bare, and in the silver light his black-browed, intelligent face was coldly calm as his eyes searched the row of prisoners.
"So you finally got here, Kenniston. What about the repair-equipment?" he asked sharply.
Kenniston nodded toward the Sunsprite. "It's in the hold. We got everything you listed."
"Good!" Dark approved. "We saw your ship crash-landing today, and started this way at once. We've been beating through the jungle, fighting off the damned Vestans, until we heard the uproar going on here. What happened? Who are these people?"
Kenniston explained briefly how he had induced Gloria Loring's party to come on a pretended treasure-hunt. He was careful to stress the wealth of the party, and John
Dark reacted as he had expected.
"If they're that wealthy, their families can pay big ransoms. You've done very well, Kenniston."
"What about Ricky?" asked Kenniston tensely. "He's all right?"
"Sure he's all right, he's up at the camp," Dark answered.
Gloria said bitterly to Kenniston, "You can congratulate yourself. You've managed to save your brother."
John Dark addressed her. "Miss Loring, I presume you and your companions are willing to pay ransom for your crew also? I never take prisoners, unless they promise a good profit."
"Yes, of course we'll pay the ransom of the crew!" Gloria agreed hastily.
"Good!" said the pirate calmly. "You'll not find your captivity any more irksome than necessary."
Mrs. Milsom, the dumpy chaperon, was goggling at the notorious pirate in an extreme of terror. A sardonic gleam came into Dark's eyes as he glanced at her.
"You're a handsome wench," he told the plump dowager with mock admiration. "I've half a mind to keep you and let the ransom go."
"No, no!" shrieked the terrified woman.
Dark burst into a roar of laughter. "All right, my shrinking beauty, we'll accept ransom for you."
He turned and shot efficient orders to his subordinates, who by now had gathered behind him.
"Get that stuff out of the hold, rig up power-sledges, and start freighting it up to the camp. You'll have to cut a path through the jungle, use atom-blasters to burn one out."
One of the pirates, a hard-faced Martian, said uneasily, "That will make a racket that'll bring every Vestan on the asteroid down on us."
"You can keep the Vestans off if you keep your eyes open," Dark retorted. "Get to work, now! We've got to get the stuff up there and repair the Falcon at once. I'll take these prisoners up to camp."
Kenniston was grouped with the other prisoners. With a strong escort of armed pirates guarding them, and Dark and Holk Or ahead, they started through the jungle toward the pirate camp.
CHAPTER VI
Asteroid Horror
The pirate encampment was a big clearing hacked from the jungle a mile west of the little lake. In this space lay the long, looming black mass of the most dreaded corsair ship ever to sail the void. The Falcon had been righted to even keel, but its crippled condition was evident in the fused, wrecked condition of its tail rocket-tubes.
The whole camp was enclosed and protected by a shimmering blue dome of electric force. This emanated from a heavy copper cable that completely encircled the clearing, and which drew its power from insulated cables that led into the ship to generators driven by the few cyclotrons still functioning. This protective electric wall had been set up at John Dark's orders to keep out the dreaded Vestans.
John Dark raised his voice as he and his men with their prisoners approached the shimmering wall of the camp.
"Kin Ibo! Drop the wall for us!"
They saw the hard-looking Martian who was Dark's second-in-command dive into the ship to turn off the power of the electric barrier. It died, and Dark's party entered the clearing. Then the electric wall sprang into being again behind them.
Kenniston looked swiftly around. There were a score more of the motley pirates here in the camp. Also, near the side of the looming black Falcon, were the small, rough log huts that Dark's men had constructed.
Dark's black eyes were triumphant as he told his Martian lieutenant, "Kenniston and Holk Or brought back the equipment all right, and also brought some people who'll bring big ransom. Their wrecked ship is a few miles south. You go down there with half the men here and help the others bring up the equipment."
Kin Ibo, looking a little apprehensively out at the jungle, obeyed. Dark motioned Kenniston and the other captives toward one of the huts by the big ship.
"That hut will be your quarters until we get the Falcon repaired," declared the pirate leader. "Any of you who try to leave it will be shot at sight. I hope you'll not be foolish enough to attempt escape."
"That's right, folks, you wouldn't have a chance," Holk Or told them earnestly. "Even if you could get out through the electric wall, the Vestans would get you. They're thick in the jungle around here."
They silently entered the hut. Its broad open windows admitted enough of the dazzling moonslight to brighten its interior.
A dark, eager-looking young Earthman sprang up as they entered, and rushed to pump Kenniston's hand.
"Lance, you got back safely!" he exclaimed. "Thank the Lord, I've been worrying myself almost crazy about you."
"How about you, Ricky?" Kenniston asked his young brother anxiously. "You're all right?"
Ricky Kenniston nodded quickly. "Sure, I'm okay. But things haven't been so good here, Lance. The Vestans have got a half-dozen pirates who ventured outside the wall in the last few days. These creatures literally haunt the jungles around here now, I think they've been drawn here from all over the asteroid."
Ricky looked wonderingly at Gloria and the others who were entering the hut. "Lance, who are all these people? Are they prisoners of Dark too?"
"Yes, we're prisoners," Hugh Murdock told him bitterly, with a savage glance at Kenniston. "We're prisoners because your brother sacrificed us all to get back here and save your neck."
"Lance, you didn't do that?" Ricky exclaimed in distress.
"I had to, Ricky," Kenniston protested. "It meant your life if I didn't."
"Of course," Murdock agreed ironically. "What importance are we, compared to saving your young brother's life?"
Kenniston spoke slowly, to Murdock and Gloria and the others. "It wasn't merely Ricky's life at stake that made me sacrifice you all. It was more than that. I tried to tell you before, but you wouldn't listen."
Kenniston went across the hut and brought back the square black medicine-case of his young physician-brother. He opened it, and out of the vials and instruments inside he took a square bottle of milky fluid.
"This is what I sacrificed everything to save," Kenniston said simply.
They all stared. "What is it?" Gloria asked, puzzled.
"It's Ricky's discovery," Kenniston said. "It's a preventative and cure for gravitation-paralysis."
Captain Walls, himself an old-time space-man, was first of the group to appreciate the significance of the statement. The captain gasped.
"A preventative for gravitation-paralysis? Kenniston, are you sure?"
Kenniston nodded gravely. "Yes. Ricky had been working on the problem a long time, back in the Institute of Planetary Medicine. He thought he'd found a way to prevent gravitation-paralysis, the most awful scourge of all the outer System, the thing that's doomed so many space-men. But his formula required rare elements found only in the outer planets.
"Ricky and I," he continued, "went out there and secured those elements. He made up this formula, and tried it on a gravitation-paralysis case, a space-man who's lain paralyzed for years. The formula was designed to strengthen the human nervous system against the shock of varying gravitations, to re-establish an already damaged nerve-web. And it worked."
Kenniston's voice was husky as he concluded. "It worked, and that living log became a man again. The formula was a success. Ricky and I started back for Earth, where he intended to announce the discovery and arrange for its manufacture on a big scale. But, on the way back, Dark's pirates captured us."
Kenniston flung out his hand in a tortured gesture. "That's why I went to any lengths to save Ricky's life! It's because Ricky is the only person who knows the intricate formula of this serum. If he were to die, the secret of the cure would die with him. And that would mean that thousands on thousands more of space-men would be stricken into living death by gravitation-paralysis in the future, just as so many thousands of old friends and shipmates of mine have been stricken in the past!"
Captain Walls was the first to speak. Quietly, the plump master of the Sunsprite extended his hand.
"Kenniston, will you shake hands with me? And will you forgive me for everything? You did absolutely right.
I'm an old space-man and I know what gravitation-paralysis is."
Gloria's dark eyes were glimmering with tears. "If we'd only known," she murmured to Kenniston. "No one could blame you for sacrificing a lot of worthless idlers like us, for a thing like this."
"But you're going to be all right, all of you," Kenniston assured her. "John Dark will make you pay a big ransom, but you can afford that and you'll get back safely to Earth."
"Thank Heaven for that!" exclaimed Mrs. Milsom. "I can't understand all this scientific talk of yours, but I do know that that pirate chief means no good to me. Didn't you see the lustful looks he gave me?"
The Short Stories of Edmond Hamilton: Volume I Page 14