CHAPTER 17
"What time is it, Astro?"
"Exactly eleven o'clock, sir."
"All set?"
"Yes, sir."
"You know what to do. Move out!"
Astro and Major Connel were crouched behind a pile of fuel drums pilednear the communications and radar building in the heart of theNationalists' base. Above them, the gigantic tree used as the radartower rose straight into the Venusian morning sky.
After helping Tom to escape, Astro had returned to the prison buildingfor Connel and was surprised to find the place surrounded by green-cladNationalist guards. Rather than attempt to release Connel then, Astrohid and waited for the time set to wreck the radar communications of theenemy. During the second day, he had successfully eluded the manypatrols looking for him. Once from a hiding place he overheard one ofthe men mention Connel. He took a daring chance and approached thepatrol openly. Speaking the Venusian dialect, he learned that Connel hadescaped. That news sent the cadet on a different game of hide-and-seekas he prowled around the base searching for the Solar Guard officer. Hehad found him hiding near the radar tower, and they spent the nightclose to the communications building waiting for the time to strike.
Their plan was simple. Astro would enter the building from the front,while Connel would enter from the rear. Astro would draw attention tohimself, and while the guards inside the building were busy dealing withhim, Connel would come upon them from behind, knock them out of action,and then destroy the radar equipment.
The two spacemen gave no thought to their own safety. They wereconcerned only with accomplishing their objective. Having no way ofknowing whether Tom had made it back to Venusport or whether theirdestruction of the communications center would be of any value, theynevertheless had to proceed on the assumption that Tom had gottenthrough.
Astro crawled behind the drums and stopped twenty feet from the door towait for several Nationalist officers to leave. They finally got into ajet car and roared away. Astro nodded to the major waiting to edgearound to the rear and then headed for the main entrance.
Connel saw Astro making his way to the front door and hurried around tocomplete his part of the mission. He waited exactly three minutes,gripped his shock rifle firmly, and then crossed over to the rear of thebuilding and stepped inside.
Once inside, the major found it difficult to keep from bursting intolaughter. The large ground-floor room was a frenzy of brawling, yelling,shouting Nationalist guards trying to capture the giant cadet. Astro wasstanding in the middle of the floor, swinging his great hamlike fistsmethodically, mowing down the guards like tenpins. Two of them were onhis back, trying to choke him, while others crowded in from all sides.But they could not bring the cadet down. Astro saw Connel, shookhimself, and stood free.
"Stand back!" roared Connel. "The first one of you green monkeys thatmakes a move will have his teeth knocked out! Now line up over thereagainst the wall--and I mean fast!"
The sudden attack from the rear startled the Nationalist guards, andthey milled around in confusion. There was no confusion, however, whenConnel fired a blast over their heads. Astro grabbed a paralo-ray gunand opened up on the guards. A second later the squad of Nationalistswere frozen in their tracks.
Once the men were no further danger to them, Connel and Astro locked thefront and rear doors and then raced up the stairs that led to the mainradar and communications rooms on the second floor.
"You start at that end of the hall, I'll start here!" shouted Connel."Smash everything you see!"
"Aye, aye, sir." Astro waved his hand and charged down the hall. Heexploded into a room, firing rapidly, and an electronics engineer frozein a startled pose in front of his worktable. The big cadet gleefullyswung a heavy chair across the table of delicate electronic instruments,and smashed shelves of vital parts, pausing only long enough to see ifhe had left anything unbroken. He rushed out into the hall again. At theother end he heard Connel in action in another room. Astro grinned. Itsounded as if the major was having a good time. "Well," thought the bigcadet, "I'm not having such a bad time myself!"
The next room he invaded contained the radar-control panel, and the bigcadet howled with glee as he smashed the butt of his paralo-ray gun intothe delicate vacuum tubes, and ripped wires and circuits loose.
Suddenly he stopped, conscious of someone behind him. He spun around,finger starting to squeeze the trigger of his gun, and then caughthimself just in time. Major Connel was leaning against the doorjamb, awide grin on his face.
"How're you doing?" he drawled.
"Not bad," said Astro casually. "Be a lot of work here, fixing thesethings, eh?" He grinned.
"What time is it?" asked Connel.
Astro looked at his watch. "Twenty to twelve."
"We'd better clear out of here and head for the jungle."
Astro hesitated. "You know, sir, I've been thinking."
"If you have an idea, spill it," said the major.
"How about releasing the prisoners, taking over a ship, and blastingoff?"
"And have the Solar Guard fleet blast us out of the skies? No, sir! Comeon, we've got to get moving!"
"We could still try to release Carson and the others," said Astrostoutly.
"We can try all right, but I don't think we'll be very successful."
The two spacemen returned to the first floor of the building and headedfor the rear door without so much as a look at the line of frozen guardsalong the wall. Once outside, they skirted the edge of the building,staying close to the hedge, and then struck out boldly across the canyonfloor toward the prison building. They were surprised to see that theirsmashing attack had gone unnoticed, and Connel reasoned that theconstant roar of activity in the canyon had covered the sounds of theirraid.
"We'll have to hurry, sir," said Astro as they turned into the laneleading to the prison. "Ten minutes to twelve."
"It's no good, Astro," said Connel, suddenly pulling the cadet back andpointing to the building. "Look at all the guards--at least a dozen ofthem."
Astro waited a second before saying grimly, "We could try, sir."
"Don't be a pigheaded idiot!" roared Connel. "Nothing will happen tothose men now, and in five minutes there'll be so much confusion aroundhere that we'll be able to walk over and open the door without firing ashot!"
Suddenly there was an explosive roar behind them and they spun around.On the opposite side of the canyon three rocket ships were hurtlingspaceward.
"They must have spotted our fleet coming in," said Connel, a puzzledfrown on his face.
"But how could they?" asked Astro. "We knocked out their radar!"
Connel slammed his fist into the palm of his hand. "By the stars, Astro,we forgot about their monitoring spaceship above the tower! When weknocked out the main station here in the canyon, it took over and warnedthe base of the attack!"
From all sides the canyon reverberated with the roaring blasts of theNationalist fleet blasting off. Around them, the green-clad rebels wererunning to their defense posts. Officers shouted frantic orders andworkers dropped tools to pick up guns. The building that held Carson andthe other planters was suddenly left alone as the guards hurried toships and battle stations.
Connel counted the number of ships blasting off and smiled. "They don'tstand a chance! They're sending up only two heavy cruisers, fourdestroyers, and about twenty scouts. The Solar Guard fleet will blastthem into space dust."
Astro jumped up and started to run.
"Hey, Astro! Where are you going?" shouted Connel.
"To find Roger!" Astro shouted in reply. "I'll meet you back here!"
"Right!" shouted Connel, settling back into concealment. There was noneed to release the planters in the guardhouse now. Connel was satisfiedthat in a few moments the rebellion against the Solar Alliance would bedefeated. He smiled in prospect of seeing a good fight.
* * * * *
"Bandit at three o'clock--range twenty miles!" Aboard the command shipof t
he first group of attacking Solar Guard squadrons, Captain Strongstood in the middle of the control deck and watched the outline of anapproaching Nationalist cruiser on the radar scanner. The voice of therange finder droned over the ship's intercom.
"Change course three degrees starboard, one degree down on eclipticplane," ordered Strong calmly.
"Aye, aye, sir," replied Tom at the controls.
"Main battery, stand by to fire." Strong watched the enemy ship closely.
"Aye, aye!" came the answer over the intercom.
"Approaching target!" called the range finder. "Closing to fiftythousand yards--forty thousand--"
"_Pleiades_ and _Regulus_," Strong called the other two ships of hissquadron. "Cut in on port and starboard flanks. Squadron B, stand by!"
Abrupt acknowledgment came over the audioceiver as the cruisers deployedfor the attack.
"Twenty-three thousand yards, holding course." The range-finder's voicewas a steady monotone.
"Stand by to fire!" snapped Strong.
"Two bandits at nine o'clock on level plane of ecliptic!" came thewarning from the radar bridge.
Before Strong could issue an order countering the enemy move, the voiceof the commander of the _Pleiades_ came in over the audioceiver, "Ourmeat, Strong, you take care of the big baby!"
On the scanner screen Strong saw the trails of two space torpedoes eruptfrom the side of the _Pleiades_, followed immediately by two more fromits flanking ship, the _Regulus_. The four missiles hurtled toward thetwo enemy destroyers, and a second later two brilliant flashes of lightappeared on the scanner. Direct hits on the two destroyers!
"Range--ten thousand feet," came the calm voice over the intercom,reminding Strong of the enemy cruiser.
"Arm war heads!" snapped Strong over the intercom, and, on the gun deck,men twirled the delicate fuses on the noses of the space torpedoes andstepped back.
"On target!" called the range finder.
"Full salvo--fire!" called Strong, and turned to Tom quickly."Ninety-degree turn--five degrees up!"
The Solar Guard cruiser quivered under the recoil of the salvo and thenbucked under the sudden change of course to elude the torpedoes fired bythe enemy a split second later.
As the Solar Guard cruiser roared up in a long arc, eluding the enemytorpedoes, the Nationalist ship maneuvered frantically to evade thesalvo of war heads, but Strong had fired a deadly pattern. In a fewseconds the enemy ship was reduced to space junk.
Concentrating on the control panel, Tom had been too busy maneuveringthe giant ship to see the entire engagement, but he heard the loudexulting cries of the gun crew over the intercom. He looked up atStrong, and the Solar Guard captain winked. "One down!"
"Here come squadrons C, D, and E, sir," said Tom, indicating the radar."Right on time." He glanced at the astral chronometer over his head."Two minutes after twelve."
"It doesn't look as if we'll need them, Tom," said Strong. "TheNationalists got only two cruisers and four destroyers off the ground.We've already knocked out one of their cruisers and two destroyers, andSquadron B is taking on the second cruiser and its destroyer escortsnow!" He turned to the radar scanner and saw the white evenly spacedblips that represented Squadron B enveloping the three enemy ships. Thebulky converted cruiser was maneuvering frantically to get away. Butthere was no escape. In a perfectly co-ordinated action the Solar Guardships fired their space torpedoes simultaneously. The three Nationalistships exploded in a deadly flash of fire.
"Don't tell me that's all they've got!" exclaimed Strong. "Why, westill have the rest of the fleet coming in at 1205!"
Suddenly Tom froze in his seat. Before him on the radar scanner he saw anew cluster of white blips, seemingly coming from nowhere. They wereenemy ships, hurtling spaceward to meet the Solar Guard fleet. "CaptainStrong! Look! More of them. From secret ramps in the jungle!"
"By the craters of Luna!" roared the Solar Guard captain. "Attention!Attention! All ships--all ships!" he called into the fleet intercom."This is Strong aboard command ship. Bandit formation closing fast.Regroup! Take tight defensive pattern!"
As the Solar Guard squadrons deployed to meet this new attack, Tom felta chill run down his spine. The mass of ships blasting to meet themoutnumbered them by almost three to one. And there were more shipsblasting off from the secret ramps in the jungle! He had led the SolarGuard into a trap!
The Revolt on Venus Page 17