Gold in the Sky

by Alan Edward Nourse

  11. The Haunted Ship

  They did not pause, even to catch their breath, for the first twentyminutes as Tom led them swiftly and silently down through the maze ofcorridors and chutes that made up the ventilation system of the hugeship. Greg lost his bearing completely in the first twenty seconds; eachtime his brother paused at a junction of tubes, he felt a wave of panicrise up in his throat ... suppose they lost themselves in here! He heardJohnny's trousers flapping behind him, saw Tom's figure flit pastanother grill up ahead, and plunged doggedly on.

  It was amazingly hard to move quietly. Even in stocking feet they made asoft thud with each footfall.

  But there was no sign of detection, no sound of alarm. Finally they cameout into a large shaft which allowed them to stand upright, and theystopped to catch their breath.

  "Main tube to the living quarters," Tom said when they had caught up tohim. "Joins with the lower-level tube by a series of chutes. We'veactually been circumnavigating the ship ... I wanted to get as far awayfrom that lounge compartment as possible, in case they check up on youright away."

  "We can't have much time," Johnny said. "That second guard must havebeen coming to relieve the other, and when the first one doesn't reportback, they'll smell something fishy."

  * * * * *

  They talked it over for a moment. Johnny had been careful to leave thehatchway into the corridor ajar before he climbed into the ventilatorshaft, and then he had pulled the shaft snugly into place behind him.Anyone who came would find two unconscious guards, a burnt-out hole inthe wall, and the door unlocked.

  "We'll hope that he takes things at face value, and assumes we're atlarge in the ship somewhere, for a while at least," Johnny said. "Thathole in the wall is going to set them back a couple of steps, too."

  "But they'll sound the alarm, at least," Tom said.

  "You bet they will! They'll have every man on the crew shaking down theship for us. But they may not think of the ventilators until they can'tfind us anywhere else."

  "But sooner or later they're bound to think of it."

  "That's true," Johnny said. "Unless they keep seeing us in the ship. Theway I figure it, this crew has been on battle stations plenty of times.They'll be able to search the whole ship in half an hour. We're justgoing to have to show ourselves ... at least enough to keep themsearching."

  "Well, what if they do think of the ventilators?" Greg said. "They'dstill have a time finding us."

  "Maybe, but don't underestimate Tawney. He might just mask up his crewand flood the tubes with cyanide."

  They thought about that for a minute. There was no sound here but theirown breathing, and the low chug-chug-chug of the pumps somewhere deep inthe ship. Momentarily they expected to hear the raucous clang of thealarm bell, as some crew member or another walked into the lounge andfound them gone. But so far there was no sign they had been discoveredmissing. "No," Johnny said finally, "if we just hide out in here, andhope for a chance at one of the scout ships, they'll find us eventually.But we've got three big advantages, if we can figure out how to usethem. That fancy gun, for one. A way to get around the ship, foranother ... and the fact that there's one more of us than they count on."He flipped on his pocket flash, began drawing lines on the dusty floor ofthe shaft. "My idea is to keep them so busy fighting little fires thatthey won't have a chance to worry about where the big one is."

  He drew a rough outline-sketch of the organization of the ship. "Thislook right to you, from what you've seen?" he asked Tom.

  "Pretty much," Tom said. "There are more connecting tubes."

  "All the better. We want to get the generators with our little toy herefirst. That'll darken the ship, and put the blowers out of commission incase they think of using gas. Also, it will cut out their computers andmissile-launching rigs, which might give us a chance to get a scout-shipaway in one piece if we could get aboard one."

  "All right, the generators are first," Tom said. "But then what? Thereare four hundred men on this ship. They'll have every airlock tripleguarded. They'll block us for sure."

  "Not when we get through, they won't," Johnny grinned. "We've got an oldfriend aboard who's going to help us."

  "_Friend?_"

  "Ever hear of panic?" Johnny said. "Just listen a minute."

  Quickly then, he outlined his plan. Tom and Greg listened, watchedJohnny make marks with his finger in the dust. When he finished, Gregwhistled softly. "You missed your life work," he said. "You should havegone into crime."

  "If I'd had a ghost to help me, I might have," Johnny said.

  "It's perfect," Tom said, "if it works. But it all depends on onething ... keeping it rolling after we start...."

  For another five minutes they went over the details. Then Johnny clappedthem each on the shoulder. "It's up to you two," he said. "Let's go."

  They moved down the large shaft to the place where it broke into severalspurs. Johnny started down the chute toward the engine rooms; Tom andGreg headed in opposite directions toward the main body of the ship.Just as they broke up, they heard a muffled metallic sound from thenearest compartment grill.

  It was the _clang-clang-clang_ of the orbit-ship's general alarm.

  * * * * *

  Crewmen stopped with food halfway to their mouths, jerked away fromtables. Orders buzzed along a dozen wires, and section chiefs beganreporting their battle-stations alert and ready. Finally Tawney snappedon the general public address system speaker. "Now get this," he roared."I want every inch of this ship searched ... every corridor, everycompartment. I want a special crew standing by for missile launching.I want double guards at every airlock. If they get a ship away fromhere, the man who lets them through had better be dead when I findhim...." He broke off, clutching the speaker until his voice was undercontrol again. "All right, move. They're armed, but there's no place theycan go. Find them."

  A section-chief came back over the speaker. "Dead or alive, boss?"

  "Alive, you idiot! At least the Hunter brat. I'll take the other one anyway you can get him."

  He switched off, and waited, pacing the control cabin like a cagedanimal. Ten minutes later a buzzer sounded. "Hydroponics, boss. Allclear."

  "No sign of them?"

  "Nothing."

  Another buzz. "Number seven ore hold. Nothing here."

  Still another buzz. "Crew's quarters. Nothing, boss."

  One by one the reports came in. Fuming, Tawney checked off the sections,watched the net draw tighter throughout the ship. They were somewhere,they _had_ to be....

  But nobody seemed to find them.

  He was buzzing for his first mate when the power went off. The lightswent out, the speaker went dead in his hand. The computers sighedcontentedly and stopped computing. Abruptly the emergency circuits wentinto operation, flooding the darkness with harsh white lights. Theintercom started buzzing again.

  "Engine room, boss."

  "What happened down there?" Tawney roared.

  The man sounded like he'd just run the mile. "Generators," he panted."Blown out."

  "Well, get somebody in there to fix them. Have a crew seal off thearea...."

  "Can't, boss. Fix them, I mean."

  "Why not? What have we got electricians for?"

  "There's nothing left to fix. The generators aren't wrecked ... they'redemolished...."

  "Then get the pair that did it...."

  "They're not here. We've been sealed up tight. There's no way anybodycould have gotten in here...."

  After that, things began to get confusing.

  * * * * *

  For a while Merrill Tawney thought that his crew was going crazy ... andthen he began to wonder if he were the one who was losing his mind.

  Whatever the case, Merrill Tawney was certain of one thing. The thingsthat were happening on his orbit-ship could not possibly be happening.

  A guard in one of the outer shell storage holds called in with adisquieting rep
ort. Greg Hunter, it seemed, had just been spottedvanishing into one of the storage compartments from the main outer-shellcorridor. When the guard had broken through the jammed hatchway tocollar his trapped victim, there was no sign of the victim anywherearound.

  At the same moment, a report came in from a guard on the opposite sideof the ship. He had just spotted Greg Hunter _there_, it seemed, movingdown a spur corridor. The guard had held his fire (according to Tawney'sorders) and summoned help to corner the quarry ... but when helparrived, the quarry had vanished.

  * * * * *

  Five minutes later the Hunter boy was discovered in the Hydroponicssection, busily reducing all the yeast vats to shambles with a curiousweapon that seemed to eat holes in things. It ate the deck out fromunder the guard's feet, sending him plunging through the floor into thegalley. By the time he had scrambled back again, the Hunter boy wasgone, and a rapid move to seal off the region failed to turn him upagain. The guard was upset; Tawney was a great deal more upset, becauseat the time Greg Hunter was (reportedly) playing havoc with theyeast-vats in Hydroponics he was also (reportedly) knocking guards downlike ten-pins in the main corridor off the engine room whilereinforcements tried to pin him down with a wide-beam stunner....

  Quite suddenly emergency circuits closed and lights flashed in thecontrol cabin, the special signal for a meteor-collision with the outershell in No. 3 hold. Tawney signalled for the section chief frantically."What's happening down there?"

  "I can't talk," the section chief gasped. "Gotta get into a suit, we'releaking in here...."

  "Well, plug up the hole!"

  "The hole's four feet wide, sir!" There was a fit of coughing and thecontact broke. The signals for No. 4 hold and No. 5 hold were flashingnow; while the crew members in the vicinity scrambled for pressure suitssomeone systematically proceeded to blow holes in No. 9, No. 10 and No.11 holds....

  It was impossible. The reports came in thick and fast. Greg Hunterwas in two places at once, and everywhere he went ... in bothplaces ... there was a trail of unbelievable destruction. Bulkheadsdemolished, gaping holes torn in the outer shell, the air-reconditioningunits smashed beyond repair.... Tawney buzzed for his first mate.

  An emergency switch cut into the line, with the frantic voice of asection chief. Johnny Coombs had been spotted disappearing into theventilator shaft in the engine sector. "Well, go in after him!" Tawneyscreamed. He got his first mate finally, and snarled orders into thespeaker. "They're in the ventilators. Get a crew in there and stopthem."

  But it was dark in the ventilator shafts. No emergency lights in there.Worse, the crewmen were hearing the things that were being whisperedaround the ship. The ventilator shafts yawned menacingly before them;they went in reluctantly. Once in the dark maze of tunnels,identification was difficult. Two guards met each other headlong in thedarkness, and put each other out of the fight in a flurry of nervousstunner-fire. While they searched more of the holds were broken open,leaking air through gaping rents in the hull....

  Tawney felt the panic spreading; he tried to curb it, and it spread inspite of him. The fugitives were appearing and disappearing likewraiths. Reports back to control cabin took on a frantic note, confusedand garbled. Now the second-level bulkheads were being attacked. Over athird of the compartments were leaking precious air into outer space.

  When a terrified section chief came through with a report that two GregHunters had been spotted by the same man at the same time, and that theguards in the sector were shooting at anything that moved, includingother guards, Tawney made his way to the radio cabin and put through afrantic signal to Jupiter Equilateral headquarters on Mars.

  The contact took forever, even with the ship's powerful emergencyboosters. By the time someone at headquarters was reading him, Tawney'sreport sounded confused. He was trying for the third time to explain,clearly and logically, how two men and a ghost were scuttling hisorbit-ship under his very feet when one wall of the cabin vanished in acrackle of blue fire, and he found himself staring at two Greg Huntersand a grim-faced Johnny Coombs.

  He made squeaky noises into the microphone and dropped it with a crash.He groped for a chair; Johnny jerked him to his feet again. "Ascout-ship," he said tersely. "Clear it for launching. We want one withplenty of fuel, and we don't want a single guard anywhere near theairlock." He picked up an intercom microphone and thrust it into thelittle fat man's trembling hand. "Now move! And you'd better be surethey understand you, because you're coming with us."

  Merrill Tawney stared first at Tom, then at Greg, and finally at themicrophone. Then he moved. The orders he gave to his section chiefs werevery clear and concise.

  He had never argued with a ghost before, and he didn't care to startnow.

  * * * * *

  It was over so quickly that it seemed to Tom it had just begun, and ifso much had not been at stake, it might have been fun.

  It had been the gun ... the remarkable gun that Roger Hunter had left ashis legacy ... that had been the key. It ate through steel and aluminumalloy like putty. Whatever its power source, however it worked, bywhatever means it had been built, there had been no match for it on theorbit-ship.

  It had _worked_ ... and that was all that mattered right then.

  With it, and with the advantage of a ghost that walked like aman ... Tom Hunter, to be exact ... they had reduced the JupiterEquilateral orbit-ship to a smoking wreck in something less than thirtyminutes.

  The signal came back that a scout-ship was ready, unguarded. Johnnyprodded Tawney with the stunner. "You first," he said.

  "But where are you taking me?"

  "You'll see," Johnny said.

  "It was a trick," Tawney said, glaring at Tom. "They told me they shotyour ship to pieces...."

  "The ship, yes," Tom said. "Not me."

  "Well ... well, that's good, that's good," Tawney said quickly. Heturned to Greg. "You don't have to take me back ... the bargain is stillgood...."

  "Move," Johnny Coombs said.

  With Tawney between them, Greg and Tom marched down the corridor towardthe airlock, with Johnny bringing up the rear. No one stopped them. Noone even came near them. One crewman stumbled on them in the corridor;he saw Tawney with a gun in his back, and fled in terror.

  They found the scout-ship, and strapped Tawney down to an accellerationbunk, binding his hands and feet so he couldn't move. Greg checked thecontrols while Tom and Johnny strapped down. A moment later the enginesfired, and the leaking wreck of the orbit-ship fell away, dwindling anddisappearing in the blackness of space.

  It was a quiet journey. The red dot that was Mars grew larger everyhour. One of the three stayed awake at all times to watch Tawney whilethe others slept. During the second rest period, Tom woke up while Gregwas on duty.

  "How's our prisoner doing?" Tom asked.

  "No problem there, he can barely move. I almost wish he'd try something,he's too quiet."

  It was true. Tawney had recovered from his shock ... but rather thangrow more worried as Mars grew large on the screen, he seemed to becomemore cheerful by the minute. "He doesn't seem very worried, does he?"Tom said.

  "No, and it doesn't quite add. We've got enough on him to get JupiterEquilateral pushed right out of the Belt."

  "I'd still feel better if we had the whole picture for the Major," Tomsaid. "We still don't know what Dad found, or where he hid it...."

  The uneasiness grew. Tawney ignored them, staring at the image of thered planet on the viewscreen almost eagerly. Then, eight hours out ofSun Lake City a U.N. Patrol ship appeared, moving toward them swiftly."Intercepting orbit," Greg said. "Looks like they were waiting for us."

  They watched as the big ship moved in to tangential orbit, matching itsspeed to theirs. Then Greg snapped the communicator switch. "Sound off,"he said cheerfully. "We've got a prize for you."

  "Stand by, we're boarding you," the Patrol sent back. "And put yourweapons aside."

  Four scooters broke from the s
ide of the Patrol ship. Greg activated theairlock. Five minutes later a man in Patrol uniform with captain's barsstepped into the control cabin, a stunner on ready in his hand. ThreePatrolmen came in behind him.

  The captain looked around the cabin, then saw Tawney, and took a deepbreath. "Well, thank the stars you're safe at any rate. Pete, Jimmy,take the controls."

  "Hold on," Greg said. "We don't need a pilot."

  The Captain looked at him. "Sorry, but we're taking you in. There won'tbe any trouble unless you make it. You three are under arrest, and I'mauthorized to make it stick if I have to. I suggest you just cooperate."

  They stared at him. Then Johnny said, "What are the charges?"

  "You ought to know," the Captain said. "We have a formal complaint fromthe main offices of Jupiter Equilateral, charging you with piracy,murder, kidnapping of a company official, and totally wrecking a companyorbit ship. I don't quite see how you managed it, but we're going tofind out in short order."

  There was a stunned silence in the cabin, and then a sound came from therear of the cabin.

  Merrill Tawney was laughing.