CHAPTER 16
"... and you never picked up that static flash again, eh?" mused Strong,looking at Roger. "Well, the only reason I can think of is that someoneaboard the _Avenger_ must have discovered what was happening."
"That's the way I figure it, sir," replied Roger.
The Solar Guard captain studied the scanner that was now working inperfect order. "It's a tough break that we couldn't get that fix onCoxine's position. I was counting on it. But at least we found Tom.That's plenty to be thankful for."
"How is he, sir?" asked Roger.
"He'll be all right," replied the Solar Guard captain, his face showingthe strain of the past weeks. "We gave him pure oxygen and he came tolong enough to tell us what happened aboard the _Avenger_. Get meteleceiver contact with Space Academy as soon as possible. I've got tosend a report to Commander Walters."
"Right, sir."
"You've done a good job, Manning. Your work here on the radar bridge didas much toward saving Tom's life as anything."
"Thank you, sir. After what Tom did on the _Avenger_, though, I don'tfeel like I've done very much. It took real courage to go aboard thatship with Coxine."
Strong smiled wearily. "Well, the boy is safe now and we have a goodidea what part of the belt Coxine is operating in. With a little luckand a thorough fleet patrol, we might be able to get him before he cando any more harm."
Strong went below to the cadet's quarters where Astro was sittingquietly, watching Tom. The cadet was sound asleep. When Strong entered,Astro held a finger to his lips and met the captain at the door.
"How is he?" whispered Strong.
"He's been sleeping since he spoke to you, sir," said Astro. "He'spretty weak, but I don't think there's anything seriously wrong withhim. After a good rest, he'll be as good as new."
"Thank the universe for that," breathed Strong. He glanced at thesleeping cadet and then turned back to Astro. "Better take your station.He'll be all right now. I want to get back to the Academy as soon as Ican."
"Yes, sir."
"Attention, Captain Strong," Roger's voice crackled over the intercomloud-speaker. "I've made contact with Commander Walters at SpaceAcademy, sir. He's standing by for your report."
Strong returned to the control deck where he saw the sharp image of theSpace Academy commander waiting on the teleceiver screen.
He told the grim-faced senior officer of discovering the static Morsecode flashes sent out by Tom from the Avenger and the race to save Tom'slife. When he finished, the commander's face seemed to relax.
"When Corbett wakes up, give him my personal congratulations, Steve.That goes for Astro, Roger, and yourself, as well."
"Thank you, sir," said Strong. "Since Coxine seems to be operatingexclusively out of the asteroid belt, I think it would be a good idea toconcentrate the entire fleet of patrol ships in that area."
"Good idea! I'll set it up. But get back here as soon as possible,Steve. Coxine and that crew on the _Avenger_ aren't sitting still."
"What do you mean, sir?"
"In the last three days we've had reports from seven ships. Jet liners,passenger freighters, and supply ships. All were attacked by the_Avenger_ and stripped of everything those criminals could load on theirmurderous backs. Blasters, paralo-ray guns, whole and syntheticfoodstuffs, clothes, money, jewels, equipment. Everything under thestars that they could use. Any ship that even comes close to theasteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, unless escorted, is a dead spacebird. And if we did provide an escort, we wouldn't have enough shipsleft to carry on the search."
Strong listened to the news with rising anger.
"I'll blast back to the Academy as soon as I can, sir," said Strong.
"Fine!" said the commander. "End transmission!"
"End transmission!"
Strong turned off the teleceiver and called Roger onto the radar bridge.
"Have you got a course back to the Academy, Roger?"
"Yes, sir."
"All right, give it to Astro and let's get moving. Every minute wastednow is the difference between a ship looted and the future safety of thespace lanes. I have a feeling that Coxine is not just playing for thehauls he makes on those helpless jet liners."
"I don't get you, sir."
"Look at it this way, Roger," replied Strong with a grim smile. "A mansmart enough to do what he did while he was confined to a prisonasteroid might have bigger ideas now that he's free. Ideas about himselfand the whole Solar Alliance!"
During the weeks following, the activity of Bull Coxine and his piratecrew justified Captain Strong's fears. Repeatedly, ships were attackedon the fringe of the asteroid belt and stripped of armor, food supplies,and valuables. With the secret of the light-key, the vaults of the shipswere opened as easily as though there had been no lock at all. Thetotals had reached staggering amounts and the daring of the _Avenger_was more pronounced, as Coxine struck repeatedly, farther and fartheraway from the protection of the asteroid belt. It seemed as though hewere taunting the Solar Guard with his exploits.
All defense measures seemed to be futile. When the space freighters andjet liners were armed and tried to resist attack, Coxine blasted theminto helpless space junk at a frightful cost of life. When the shipswere escorted by powerful rocket cruisers, the pirate refused to attack,but the search squadrons were correspondingly depleted. The combinationsof the energy locks were changed every day, but with the adjustablelight-key, Coxine met every change easily. The entire Solar Alliance wasin an uproar, and the citizens of the planets were clamoring for action.
_All Solar Guard defense measures seemed to be futile_]
Finally, the commanding officers of the Solar Guard noticed a change inCoxine's operations. Instead of merely attacking spaceships andhijacking their cargoes, he now took over the vessel completely, sendingthe passengers and crews drifting helplessly in space in jet boats.Three large, fast space freighters of the same class as the _Avenger_were now in the pirates' hands.
Then, one morning, in his headquarters at Space Academy, Captain Strongreceived an electrifying report. Coxine had attacked a freighterescorted by a Solar Guard rocket scout. Outgunned, the scout had beendestroyed, but it had inflicted damage on the _Avenger_. The last reportfrom a dying communications officer on the scout was that the pirateship was drifting helplessly in space!
Strong, his face showing hope for the first time in weeks, burned theteleceivers, flashing orders to the various elements of the search fleetto converge on the disabled _Avenger_.
"Attention! All ships in quadrants C through M and Q through B-l!Proceed full thrust to quadrant A-2, section fifty-nine. On approachingtarget you will signal standard surrender message, and if not obeyed,you will open fire!"
Behind him, the three cadets of the _Polaris_ unit listened to thedecisive words of their commander and then let out an earsplitting yell.
"No time for celebrating," barked Strong. "We haven't caught him yet.He's the slickest thing to hit this system since the reptiles climbedout of the Venusian mud! It's going to be a case of our getting himbefore he can disappear into the asteroid belt, so let's hit the high,wide, and deep!"
Five minutes later, Strong and the boys were aboard their ship.
"Ready to blast off, sir," reported Tom. The curly-haired cadet's facewas still pale and drawn, showing the effects of his ordeal in space.
"Get me direct teleceiver contact with Captain Randolph on the rocketcruiser _Sirius_," ordered Strong.
"Yes, sir," replied Tom. He turned to flip on the teleceiver, and amoment later the captain's face appeared on the screen.
"Randolph here. What's up, Steve?"
"I've got Squadron Nineteen of the Martian reserve fleet heading for thelast reported position of the _Avenger_ now, Randy. I'll take the pointposition of your squadron and direct operations. I'll relay course toyou as soon as we're in space."
"O.K., Steve," replied Randolph. "I'm ready to raise ship."
"I'll go up first. Form up around me at about five tho
usand miles. Endtransmission!"
"End transmission!"
"All right, Tom," ordered Strong, "let's get out of here!"
The young cadet strapped himself into his acceleration chair, thenpicked up the control panel intercom and began calling out orderscrisply.
"Stand by to raise ship! All stations check in!"
"Power deck standing by!" replied Astro from below.
"Radar bridge standing by!" acknowledged Roger over the intercom.
"Energize the cooling pumps!"
The whine of the mighty pumps began to fill the ship almost as quicklyas Astro acknowledged the order.
"Feed reactant!" snapped Strong, strapping himself in beside Tom.
A low-muted hiss joined the sound of the whining pumps as Tom opened thevalves. "Reactant feeding at D-9 rate, sir," he reported.
"Roger," called Strong into the intercom, "do we have a cleartrajectory?"
"Clear as space, skipper!" was Roger's breezy answer.
"All right, Tom," said Strong, "cut in take-off gyros."
The cadet closed the master switch on the control panel and the noisefrom the power deck below began to build to an unbearable crescendo!
Watching the sweeping second hand of the chronometer, Tom called out,"Blast off minus five--four--three--two--one--_zero_!"
With a mighty roar, all main rockets of the spaceship exploded intolife. Shuddering under the sudden surge of power, the ship rose from theground, accelerated at the rate of seven miles per second, and arrowedinto the sky, space-borne!
On the Academy spaceport, ships of Squadron L began to blast off one byone behind the _Polaris_ at ten-second intervals. Three rocket cruisers,six destroyers, and twelve rocket scouts. The explosive blast of onehardly rolling away across the surrounding hills before anotherdeafening blast lifted the next space vessel away from Earth.
Aboard the _Polaris_, Roger was busy over the chart table plotting thecourse when Strong appeared at his side.
"Have that course for you in a minute, sir," said Roger. He turned tothe astrogation prism and made careful observations of Regulus, thefixed star always used in astrogation. He jotted several numbers down ona piece of paper, rechecked them against a table of relative values andhanded the papers to Strong.
The captain immediately opened the teleceiver and relayed theinformation to other ships of the squadron. After the _Polaris_ had madethe course change, the ships followed, taking positions all around thelead vessel.
Like fingers of a giant hand, the Solar Guard squadrons converged on thereported position of the disabled _Avenger_. From every ship, radarscanners probed the space ahead with invisible electronic fingers forcontact with the target. On the _Polaris_, Strong, his nimble brainfiguring Coxine's possibilities of escape, hunched over the chart tableand worked at plotting alternate courses on which he could send pursuitsquadrons on a moment's notice. One thing worried Strong, and that wasif Coxine should repair his ship and make the security of the asteroidbelt before they could reach him, it would be almost impossible to trackhim through that tortuous maze of space junk.
Squadron Ten was the first to sight the enemy spaceship, though it wastoo far away to attack. The commander reported his finding to Strongimmediately.
"We still have quite a way to go before we reach him, Strong. But if ourluck holds out, we might be able to pin him down in a wide circle."
Strong studied the chart and marked the position of the _Avenger_ justreported. He compared the position to that of the other fleet ships anddecided that they were still too far away to tighten a ring of armoraround the pirate. Strong was well aware that if the Solar Guard couldspot Coxine, he in turn could spot them. Luck, mused Strong to himself,was what they needed now. A little luck to keep the pirate fromrepairing his ship and disappearing into the asteroid belt. He grabbedthe intercom and bawled orders.
"Power deck, emergency space speed. Control deck, relay that order toevery ship converging on the _Avenger's_ position!"
"What's up, sir?" asked Tom from below.
"One of the ships has spotted Coxine. He's apparently still out ofcommission, but we're too far away to hail him."
Strong began to pace the deck of the radar bridge, and with each turn,he glanced at the radar scanner where Roger was waiting anxiously forthe telltale blip of the _Avenger_ to appear.
Suddenly the blond-haired cadet stiffened. He peered at the scannerscreen, then cried, "There he is, sir!" His finger pointed to a whiteoutline on the scanner.
Strong took a quick look at the pirate's position and compared it to thepositions of the converging fleet. He turned to the teleceiver andsignaled for the immediate attention of all ships.
"This is Strong aboard the flagship _Polaris_! All ships will proceedaccording to attack plan seventeen--code nine. Use full power! Emergencythrust!"
As the minutes passed and the Solar Guard fleet plunged forward, theships forged a solid wall of guns around the drifting pirate vessel.From above, below, and almost every compass point on the plan of theecliptic, they closed in, deadly blasters aimed, gunners ready to fire.
"We've got him, sir!" breathed Roger. "He can't escape now! Not in amillion light years!"
Captain Strong didn't reply. Eyes were glued to the scanner, watchingthe target and the Solar Guard squadrons, searching for every possibleloophole in the trap. Suddenly he spoke into the teleceiver.
"Attention all ships! Maintain present range, reduce speed, and takeenglobement formation!"
In reply, the elements of the fleet smoothly reformed until they formeda giant wheel in space with the pirate ship as the hub. Around andaround they flew, all inboard guns trained on the enemy.
As the command ship, the _Polaris_ flew high over the formation. Strongchecked the formation carefully on the scanner and nodded hissatisfaction.
"I think we've done it now, Manning," he sighed. "Coxine doesn't have achance of breaking through."
Roger looked unhappy. "Ah, it was too easy, sir," he grumbled. "I wascounting on having some fun."
"After all these weeks of heartache, I'll skip the fun if you don'tmind," said Strong wryly and turned to the intercom. "Tom, check in!"
"Aye, aye, sir!"
"Head for the _Avenger_. Close in!"
"You mean we're going to lead the attack, sir?" Tom shouted in a suddenburst of enthusiasm.
"From the looks of things, I don't believe an attack will be necessary,"replied Strong. "We're going alongside to accept Coxine's surrender.Start blasting!"
"Aye, aye, _sir_!"
As Tom's voice was heard over the intercom speaker, issuing orders toAstro for change of course, Strong turned back to Roger.
"Open up the audioceiver to all-wave transmission!"
"You going to talk to Coxine, sir?"
"Yes. And I hope he'll listen. If he doesn't, I'll do my talking withsix-inch blasters!"
Roger quickly adjusted the settings on the audioceiver and then turnedto his skipper.
"She's all yours, sir. Give it to him good!"
Strong smiled thinly and picked up the microphone.
"Attention, Bull Coxine! Attention, Bull Coxine!" Strong's voice wascold and hard. "This is Captain Strong of the Solar Guard! You'resurrounded. You haven't a chance of escape. I demand your unconditionalsurrender! Acknowledge immediately!"
Strong flipped the key to open the receiver and waited for the reply.Roger moved closer, his eyes glued to the image of the pirate shiplooming larger and larger on the scanner.
Fifteen seconds passed. Thirty. There was no sound over the receiver.Sweat began to bead Strong's forehead and he opened the transmitter keyagain.
"Listen, Coxine! I know you can hear me! I'll only talk to you oncemore! Surrender or you'll be blasted into protons! I'll give you exactlythirty seconds to make up your mind!"
Again Strong opened the receiver key and waited, but as the secondsticked by, there was no answer.
"Sir, do you think he's sucking us into a trap?" Roger whispered.
"Maybe," replied Strong grimly. "But he knows what would happen to himif he opened fire."
"Captain Strong! Captain Strong!" Tom's voice suddenly blared over theship's intercom.
"Don't bother me now, Corbett," replied Strong irritably.
"But, sir," Tom persisted, "that isn't the _Avenger_!"
"What!" Strong was thunderstruck.
"No, sir," continued the young cadet. "I'm looking at her right now onmy control-deck scanner. It's the same model ship as the _Avenger_, butit isn't Coxine's!"
"Are you sure?"
"Positive, sir. I was on her long enough to know."
"Blast it! Then what--?"
Roger suddenly interrupted Strong. "Sir, look at her over themagnascope! She's been abandoned!"
The Solar Guard captain quickly turned to the magnascope screen. Therehe saw a close-up view of the target. It was a helpless derelict. Allemergency ports were open and the jet-boat locks were empty.
Strong's face grew pale and he slumped back in his chair.
"What--what do you suppose happened, sir?" asked Roger hesitantly.
"It's easy enough to figure," Strong replied, his voice dull andlifeless. "Coxine is using more than one ship now. And when this one wasdamaged, he simply transferred to another one. He's outfoxed us again!"
Slowly, with wooden legs, he walked over to the teleceiver.
"Attention all ships! Resume former search stations. All we've caughthere is a red herring!"
And as the powerful engines of the _Polaris_ picked up speed, Strongimagined he could hear Gargantuan laughter echoing in space around him.
On the Trail of the Space Pirates Page 16