ahead.
* * * * *
Johnny Mayhem knew at what precise moment he had been discovered, forsuddenly the speed of _Mozart's Lady_ increased. Since this had occurredan hour and a half after Mayhem had first got a clear pip of the biggership on his radar, it meant he'd been spotted.
Prone with his hands stretched forward in the coffin-like experimentalship, Mayhem worked the controls, exactly matching speed with _Mozart'sLady_.
He tried to put himself in the position of the escaped convict. Whatwould he do? His best bet would be to swing in close around Pluto, asclose as he dared. Then, on the dark side of the planet, to change hisorbit abruptly and come loose of its gravitational field in a newdirection. It was a dangerous maneuver, but since the escaped convictnow knew for sure that the tiny ship could match the speed of _Mozart'sLady_, it was his only hope. The danger was grave: even a first-ratepilot would try it only as a last resort, for the gravitational pull ofPluto might upset _Mozart's Lady_'s orbit. If that happened, the bestthe convict could hope for was an emergency landing. More likely, adeath-crash would result.
Seconds later, Mayhem's thinking was confirmed. _Mozart's Lady_ executeda sharp turn in space and disappeared behind the white bulk of Pluto.
Mayhem swore and followed.
"He's trying to kill us all!"
"He doesn't know how to pilot a ship! We're helpless, helpless!"
"Do something, Mrs. Moriarity!"
"Now girls, whatever happens, you must keep calm. We can only assumethat Jane was right about what she saw, but since none of us can pilot aspaceship, we'll have to bide our time...."
"Bide our time!"
"We're all as good as dead!"
One of the girls began screaming.
Mrs. Moriarity slapped her. "I'm sorry, dear. I had to hit you. Yourbehavior bordered on the hysterical. And if we become hysterical we arelost, lost, do you understand?"
"Yes'm."
"Good. Then we wait and see what happens."
* * * * *
What was happening was an attempt at what test-pilots termplanet-swinging. Moving in the direction of Pluto's orbit, _Mozart'sLady_ swung in very close behind the planet. Then, as the rotation ofPluto on its axis hurled it forth again, as a sling-shot hurls a pellet,_Mozart's Lady_'s rockets would alter the expected direction of flight.Unless a pursuing ship followed exactly the same maneuver, it would beflung off into space at top-speed in the wrong direction. It might behours before the first ship's trail could be picked up again--if ever.
House Bartock, aware of all this--and one other factor--sat sweating itout at the controls.
The one other factor was closeness to Pluto. For if you got too close,and the difference was only a matter of miles covered in an elapsed timeof mili-seconds, Pluto might drag you into a landing orbit. If thathappened, traveling at tremendous speed, there'd be the double danger ofoverheating in the planet's atmosphere and coming down too hard. Eitherway the results could be fatal.
His hands sweating, Bartock struggled with the controls. Now already hecould see Pluto bulking, its night-side black and mysterious, in theviewport. Now he could hear the faint shrill scream of its atmosphere.Now....
Trying to time it perfectly, he slammed on full power.
A fraction of a mili-second too late.
_Mozart's Lady_ stood for an instant on its tail, shuddering as if itwere going to come apart and rain meteoric dust over Pluto's surface.That had happened too in such a maneuver, but it didn't happen now.
Instead, _Mozart's Lady_ went into a landing orbit.
But its speed was still terrific and, lowering, it whizzed twice aroundPluto's fifteen thousand mile circumference in twenty minutes.Atmosphere screamed, the heat siren shrilled, and a cursing HouseBartock applied the braking rockets as fast as he could.
Pluto's surface blurred in the viewport, coming closer at dizzyingspeed. Bartock stood _Mozart's Lady_ on its tail a second time, thistime on purpose.
The ship shuddered, and struck Pluto.
Bartock blacked out.
* * * * *
When Mayhem's radar screen informed him that _Mozart's Lady_ had failedto break free of Pluto's field of gravity, Mayhem immediately went towork. First he allowed the tiny scout-ship to complete its planet-swingsuccessfully, then he slowed down, turned around in deep space, and cameback, scanning Pluto with radar scopes and telescope until he locatedthe bigger ship. That might have taken hours or days ordinarily, buthaving seen _Mozart's Lady_ go in, and having recorded its position viaradar, Mayhem had a pretty good idea as to the landing orbit it wouldfollow.
It took him three-quarters of an hour to locate the bigger ship. When hefinally had located it, he brought it into close-up with the morepowerful of the two telescopes aboard the scout.
_Mozart's Lady_ lay on its side in a snow-tundra. It had been damaged,but not severely. Part of the visible side was caved in, but the shiphad not fallen apart. Still, chances were that without extensive repairsit would not be able to leave Pluto.
There was no way, Mayhem knew, of making extensive repairs on Pluto._Mozart's Lady_ was there to stay.
The safe thing to do would be to inform Neptune and wait in space untilthe police cruisers came for House Bartock. The alternative was toplanetfall near _Mozart's Lady_, take the convict into custody, and thennotify Neptune.
If Bartock were alone the choice would have been an easy one. ButBartock was not alone. He had a hundred girls with him. He wasdesperate. He might try anything.
Mayhem had to go down after him.
* * * * *
The trouble was, though, that of all the worlds in the galaxy--notmerely in Sol System--Pluto was the one most dangerous to Johnny Mayhem.He had been pursuing House Bartock for three days. Which meant he hadtwo days left before it was imperative that he leave his current body.This would mean notifying the hub of the Galaxy by sub-space radio topull out his _elan_, but Pluto's heavyside layer was the strongest inthe solar system, so strong that sub-space radio couldn't penetrate it.
And that was not the only thing wrong with Pluto. It was, in fact, anincredible anomaly of a world. Almost four billion miles from the sun atits widest swing, it still was not too cold to support life. Apparentlyradioactive heat in its core kept it warm. It even had an Earth-typeatmosphere, although the oxygen-content was somewhat too rich and apt tomake you giddy. And it was a slow world.
Time moved slowly on Pluto. Too slowly. When you first landed, accordingto the few explorers who had attempted it, the native fauna seemed likestatues. Their movement was too slow for the eye to register. That waslucky, for the fauna tended to be enormous and deadly. But after awhile--how long a while Mayhem didn't know--the fauna, subjectively,seemed to speed up. The animals commenced moving slowly, then a bitfaster, then normally. That, Mayhem knew, was entirely subjective. Theanimals of Pluto were not changing their rate of living: the visitor toPluto was slowing down to match their laggard pace.
* * * * *
Two days, thought Mayhem. That was all he had. And, hours after helanded, he'd start to slow down. There was absolutely no way of tellinghow much time elapsed once that happened, for the only clocks that didnot go haywire on Pluto were spring-wind clocks, and there hadn't been aspring-wind clock in the solar system for a hundred and fifty years.
Result? On Pluto Mayhem would slow down. Once he reached Pluto's normaltime rate it might take him, say, ten minutes to run--top-speed--frompoint A to point B, fifteen yards apart. Subjectively, a split-second oftime would have gone by in that period.
Two days would seem like less than an hour, and Mayhem would have no wayof judging how much less.
If he didn't get off Pluto in two days he would die.
If he didn't land, House Bartock, growing desperate and trying to scarehim off or trying to keep control of the hundred girls while he made adesperate and probably futile at
tempt to repair the damaged _Mozart'sLady_, might become violent.
Mayhem called Neptune, and said: "Bartock crash-landed on Pluto,geographical coordinates north latitude thirty-three degrees fourminutes, west longitude eighteen degrees even. I'm going down. That'sall."
He didn't wait for an answer.
He brought the space-bound coffin down a scant three miles from_Mozart's Lady_. Here, though, the tundra of Pluto was buckled andconvoluted, so that two low jagged ranges of snow-clad hills separatedthe ships.
Again Mayhem didn't wait. He went outside, took a breath ofnear-freezing air, and stalked up the first range of hills. He carried ablaster buckled to his belt.
* * * * *
When he saw the scout-ship come down, Bartock didn't wait either. Hemight have waited had he known anything about what Pluto did to