CHAPTER 18
Roger peered around the edge of the baffling shields. The power deck wasempty. He edged out and stood upright, eyes moving constantly for signsof Miles.
No longer needing the cumbersome space suit, he stripped it off andwalked across the deck to the ladder. He stopped to listen again butthere was only the sound of the rockets under emergency space drive. Aquick glance at the control panel told him that the ship was hurtlingthrough space at a fantastic speed. Satisfied that Miles was nowherenear, Roger gripped the rocketman's wrench tightly and began climbingslowly and cautiously.
When he reached the next deck, he raised his head through the hatchslowly. Then, in one quick movement, he pulled himself up on the deckand ran for cover behind a small locker to his right. Above him, throughthe open network of frames and girders, he could see the control deck,but Miles was nowhere in sight.
Something on the opposite side of the ship caught his eye. Miles' spacesuit hung on its rack, the heavy fish-bowllike space helmet beside it inits open locker. Roger's heart skipped a beat as he noticed the holsterfor a paralo-ray gun nearby. But the large flap was closed and he couldnot see if it held a gun.
_Slowly and cautiously he began climbing_]
The young cadet moved away from the protection of the locker and startedtoward the space suit. He moved slowly, watching the upper deck where hefigured Miles would be at the control board, operating the ship.
Suddenly Miles appeared above him, walking across the open control deckwith a clip board in his hand, making a standard check of the manyinstruments. Before Roger could find a hiding place, Miles saw thecadet. He drew his paralo-ray gun quickly, firing with the speed of apracticed hand. Roger dove toward the space suit and wrenched open theholster but found it empty. Miles was behind him now, running down theladder.
Roger spun around, darted to the ladder leading to the power deck, andjust missed being hit by Miles' second shot. He jumped the ten feet tothe power deck and darted behind the huge bank of atomic motors.
Miles came down the ladder slowly, gun leveled, eyes searching the deck.He stopped with his back to the rocket motors and called, "All right,Manning, come on out. If you come out without any trouble, I won'tfreeze you. I'll just tie you up again."
Roger was silent, gripping the wrench tightly and praying for a chanceto strike. Miles still remained in one position, protected by the motorhousing.
"I'm going to count five, Manning!" he shouted. "Then I'll hunt you downand freeze you solid."
Gripping the wrench tightly and raising it above his head, Roger easedout from his hiding place and slipped across the floor lightly. He waswithin four feet of Miles when the black-suited spaceman spun aroundand stepped back quickly. "Sucker," he snarled, and fired.
Roger stood motionless, his arm still raised, the wrench falling to thedeck. Miles stuck his face close to Roger's head and said, "I don't knowhow you got here, but it doesn't make any difference now. In a littlewhile you and your pal, Corbett, are going for a swim out in space."
Holding Roger by the arm, he tipped the boy over and lowered him to thedeck. Roger's arm stuck up like the branch of a tree. Miles stood overhim, flipped on the neutralizer charge of the gun, and fired again,releasing Roger from the paralyzing effect of the ray.
The young cadet began to shake violently and through his chatteringteeth he muttered a space oath. Miles only grinned.
"Just wanted you to make yourself comfortable, Manning," he said. Heflipped the gun to direct charge again and pointed it at the boy. Seeingit was useless to try and jump the burly spaceman, Roger relaxed andstretched out on the deck. Miles fired again calmly, and after testingthe effect of the ray with his toe, he turned to the ladder.
As the spaceman climbed back to the control deck, Roger, though in aparalyzed state, could hear the communicator loud-speaker paging Miles.
* * * * *
"Come in, Quent! This is Ross! Come in!"
Tom Corbett sat bound and gagged in the copilot's chair of the blackship, listening to Miles call again and again over the audioceiver. Thefact that Miles was identifying himself as Ross puzzled the young cadetand he wondered if it was an alias. Tom was even more puzzled whenMiles addressed the person he was calling as Quent.
"This is Ross! Acknowledge, Quent! Come in!"
Static spluttered over the loud-speaker and then a clear, harsh voicethat was a perfect imitation, answered, "I read you, Ross," it said."Where are you?"
Tom watched as Miles made a hasty check on the astrogation chart. "Spacequadrant four," he replied. "Chart C for Charley! Where are you?"
"Same space quadrant, but on chart B for Baker," came the reply. "Ithink we can make visual contact on radar in above five minutes. Makethe usual radar signal for identification. O.K.?"
"Good!" the _Space Knight_ pilot replied. "What course are you on?"
There was a pause and then the voice answered, "South southwest. Speed,emergency maximum."
"Very well. I will adjust course to meet you. But what's the hurry?"asked Tom's captor.
"Better get out of space as soon as possible."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
Tom listened intently. He closed his eyes and tried to visualize thecharts and space quadrants he had heard mentioned. He knew the quadrantsby heart, and knew that he was close to the asteroid belt. But eachquadrant had at least a dozen or more charts, each one taking in a hugearea of space.
"Is Brett with you?" asked the voice over the audioceiver.
"No. I'll tell you about it when we get together. All the rockets inspace broke loose up there on Titan for a while."
"What do you mean? Hey! I think I just picked you up on my radar!" saidthe voice over the loud-speaker. "Give me the identification signal."
Tom watched Miles go to the radarscope and make a minute adjustment. Thevoice came over the loud-speaker again. "That's you, all right. Cut backto minimum speed and I'll maneuver to your space lock."
"Very well," replied the spaceman on the _Space Knight_.
He cut the rockets and in a matter of minutes the ship was bumpedheavily as contact was made. The voice over the communicator announcedthe two space vessels had been coupled. "Open your air lock and comeaboard."
"You come aboard my ship," said Miles. "We've got the stuff here."
"O.K. But I have to go below and wake up that jerk, Manning."
"Wake him up?"
"Yeah. I got him frozen."
"All right, make it snappy."
Miles turned to look at Tom, a sneer on his face. "I'm giving you abreak, Corbett," he said. "You're going to swim with your cadet buddy.You'll have company!"
Gagged, Tom could only glare his hatred at the black-suited spaceman. Ina moment he heard the air lock open below and then footsteps clatteredup the ladder to the control deck.
The hatch opened and Roger stumbled inside. He saw Tom immediately andyelled, "Tom! What are--" Suddenly he stopped. He looked at the manstanding beside Tom and gasped in astonishment.
Tom watched the hatch as Roger's captor stepped inside. What he saw madehim twist around in his chair and stare at the man beside him, utterlybewildered.
"_Twins!_" cried Roger. "Identical twins."
The man stepped through the hatch and walked over to his brother. Theyshook hands and slapped each other on the back.
"What happened to Charley, Ross?" asked Quent Miles.
"Just a minute, Quent," replied his brother. He turned and grinned atTom and Roger. "Surprised, huh? Don't let it bother you. We've beendriving people crazy ever since we were born. Does this tell you how wewon the race?"
"T-t-twin pilots," stuttered Tom in amazement. "And twin ships?"
"Exactly." Ross laughed. "Pretty smart, eh?"
"Never mind them now," snarled Quent. "I've been sitting up there onthat asteroid rock talking to myself. What happened to Charley?"
"Take it easy, will you, Quent?" said Ross. "I want to have some fun."He turned to M
anning. "Untie Corbett and get on the other side of thedeck. Have yourselves a nice long talk before you take your last walk."
Roger slowly bent over to untie Tom, muttering a space oath under hisbreath. The two brothers retired to the opposite side of the controldeck and sat down. Ross kept his paralo-ray pistol in his hand and neveronce took his eyes off the two cadets.
"Well, what happened?" demanded Quent. "What are you doing here withCorbett and where in the blazes is Charley?"
"Charley is back on Titan, and probably dead," replied Ross easily. "Hewouldn't pay any attention to us when we suggested plugging up the oldtunnels when we started mining that uranium, so the oxygen which we weresucking off from the main screen supply took too much. The screensstarted to go. Practically the whole city is flooded with ammonia gasand it's being abandoned."
Roger and Tom stood quietly, listening, and when Roger heard the news heturned to Tom with a questioning look on his face. Tom merely noddedgrimly.
"But what are you doing here with this load of pitchblende?" Quentpersisted.
"Everything would have been all right, even with the screens lettinggo," explained Ross, "if it hadn't been for Corbett and that big jerkAstro. They followed me out to the warehouse and down into the mine.Good thing we caught them, or we'd be on our way to a prison asteroidright now."
Quent glared over at Tom. "And Charley spilled the beans about the wholething, eh?"
"Not exactly, but the Solar Guard knows enough to be suspicious,"replied Ross. "We had some trouble with the radiation-detection gear andwanted to haul it out to the hide-out for Manning to check. We decidedto bring out as much of the stuff as we had mined, and when we caughtCorbett and Astro snooping around, we made them load the ship. Corbett,here, got smart and Astro escaped. In the fight, Charley fell out of theship. I don't know if he got away or not."
"Do we have a whole shipload of the stuff?" asked Quent.
Ross grinned. "About two million credits' worth."
Quent rubbed his hands together. "We're in clover." He laughed andslapped his brother on the back. "Well, I suppose the Solar Guard islooking for us by now?"
Ross grinned. "Right. So we pull the old trick, eh? We have two verylikely prospects right there." He pointed to Roger and Tom.
"What is that supposed to mean?" snapped Roger.
"You'll find out, squirt," sneered Quent Miles.
"Wait a minute, Quent," said Ross. "I just thought of something. No oneknows there are two of us, except these two punks here. We can't workthe old gag. We can only use one of them."
"How do you mean?"
"Simple. The Solar Guard thinks Manning took it on the lam fromGanymede, right?"
Quent nodded.
"Well, we take Manning, dress him up in one of our outfits and stick himaboard the empty ship alongside. The ship blows up, and should they findanything of Manning, he'll be dressed like you, or me, and that will endthe situation right there. Later, we can dump Corbett out in a spacesuit with a little oxygen, and write a note, sticking it in his glove.When they find him, they'll think he got away from Quent Miles, and whenhis oxygen gave out, wrote the note giving all the details. And who cansay No, since Quent Miles, as such, will be dead?"
"End to the affair!" shouted Quent. "That's perfect."
The audioceiver behind them crackled into life, and there was a clear,piercing signal, a sign that an emergency transmission was taking overall channels. The signal continued until the clear, strong voice ofCommander Walters flooded the control deck of the ship.
"Attention! Attention! This is Commander Walters of the Solar Guard!Attention all Solar Guard units in space quadrants one throughseven--repeat, all ships in quadrants one through seven. This isemergency alert for the rocket ship _Space Knight_, believed to beheading for the asteroid belt. All ships are to institute an immediatesearch of quadrants one through seven for the _Space Knight_ and arrestany and all persons aboard. Repeat. All ships...."
Ross Miles rose up and snapped off the audioceiver. "Come on. We've gotto get out of here!"
"What about them?" asked Quent, pointing to Roger and Tom. "Will we havetime to--?"
"Plenty of time," said Ross coldly. "Blast 'em now."
"With pleasure," replied Quent Miles, taking his gun from his holster.
"Jump, Roger!" shouted Tom.
Both boys threw themselves sideways as Miles leveled his gun.
Tom plunged headlong through the hatch door and scrambled down theladder. Roger tried to follow, but Quent fired as Roger started to jumpfeet first through the hatch. His body became rigid as he tumbledthrough the hatch. Tom looked up just in time to break his unit mate'sfall, but seeing that it would be useless to stay with him, left him onthe deck and turned to flee through the depths of the black ship.