"It was. We won't need it."
"And all your instruments were smashed."
"We won't need them, either. Your father will tell them the planet's
location. There's not much else he can do. Then--we'll follow them."
"One of us is crazy," Doree said, weakly.
"No. McKee and Talbott were just badly informed. They have an
automatic ship and evidently don't know too much about it. You see,
the electroparalysis ray has one basic element around which it
functions--magnetism. The jolt they handed us was of such size that it
created a magnetic field around their ship. If they had been going
through an asteroid belt they would have been bombarded into oblivion.
As it is they'll still be bombarded in a sense--by us."
"You mean--"
"The field envelopes their ship and trails out behind it like an
invisible chain. They couldn't possibly have shoved us hard enough to
get us clear of it. So when they pulled out, the _Space Queen_ nosed
right around and followed them." Mike grinned. "We're on their tail
right now, just as surely as if they had us on a tow-rope."
"Then we can still help father!"
Mike sobered. "We don't know what we can do. We're still not out of
the woods. There's a little problem of landing a dead ship on that
planet after we come within range of its gravity. Then, too, heaven
only knows where we'll set down. If it's a big planet--"
Instead of wincing before this new peril, Doree stiffened against it.
"I'm sure you'll do all that any man could do."
"I'll do my best."
"And so long as the whole disaster was our fault--"
"Forget it." Mike conscious of a warmth rising within him, took his
eyes quickly from her face and went to check ship....
* * * * *
The slow passage of time was the most difficult factor to contend
with. Mike wracked his brain for a means of speeding up the _Space
Queen_. He was confident that the craft was moving straight and true
in the wake of the other ship and that unless drastic adjustments were
made in the course, she would continue to do so. But so slowly--so
very slowly. Acceleration caused by the magnetic field had long-since
reached its apex and now the _Space Queen_ moved at a steady
unchanging pace.
He achieved a little more speed by taking charges from three of the
primers, placing them in the pile head, and igniting with the fourth
primer. He picked up possibly two Gs before the power burned out.
He and Nicko donned space suits, magnetized themselves aft, and opened
the suit's drive plugs to the maximum. The resulting force smashed
them against the hull, almost breaking their ribs. Some additional
acceleration was achieved but pathetically little.
Who would have thought, Mike pondered bitterly, that I'd land out here
pushing my own ship through space? What a laugh the wits at Outer Port
would get when and if this little adventure was sounded around.
_If_--that was the big word that stuck in Mike's mind.
An important facet of the problem was keeping Doree's morale high.
Mike enjoyed this. He learned all about her and there came a sudden
dizzy moment when he found himself kissing her. After that he was more
careful.
Then, at the last came the great thrill--abruptly, as all such things
come. Mike was puttering with the radio when Nicko turned from the
port to say, "Indescribably beautiful land ho! Luscious round planet
dead ahead at five o'clock!"
Mike leaped to the port. Smaller than Terra and with different
continental markings, but in other respects, quite similar. Nicko
jumped up and down clapping his four hands. Mike grabbed him and
lifted him in a bear-hug, scratching himself unmercifully on the
little Martian's sharp scales. Then he bolted aft to tell Doree.
There was no restraint in his kiss this time and for a few moments the
ship and the landfall vanished from their minds. They did not know
where they were; nor did they care.
Then Mike jerked himself back to the business at hand and rushed to
the pilot cabin; the dangerous business ahead of them.
* * * * *
They were already in range, being gripped and dragged down by the
planet's pull. Mike ordered Nicko and Doree into straps and buckled
himself into the pilot's chair.
He surveyed the fast-greatening planet. There would be no choice of
landing fields. Mike could only hope to bring the _Space Queen_ down
on dry land rather than in the center of an ocean.
She was responding to her fins now and Mike put her into a long
glide. Below, the land and the water separated themselves and Mike
studied the gray expanse below. Ocean.
Mike leveled out and struggled for altitude. There was minor response
as the atmosphere outside clawed at the hull, dragging it down,
heating it a dull red.
All during the trip he had fought inertia. Now his problem was
reversed, rapid acceleration being the demon of the moment. A helpless
shell rocketing toward a solid obstacle.
Mike felt a surge of relief as the streaming gray below turned to
racing green. At least they would not finish up trapped in a
submarine. But the land could be as lethal as the sea and now the
moment was at hand.
Mike angled the fins to their maximum. He yelled. "Contact!" Then he
prayed.
There was a great crash--and oblivion.
* * * * *
Pain brought back Mike's consciousness. Without opening his eyes, he
analyzed the pain. It was in his shoulder. He tried the muscles
gingerly and decided it wasn't broken. If that was the case the others
could have come through also. The results of crashes of this kind were
usually extreme one way or another. Either the passengers came through
unhurt or they were mangled into stew meat. Mike opened his eyes.
All was quiet. Both Nicko and Doree lay motionless under their straps;
still unconscious but with no visible injuries. But there was
something else there in the center of the cabin floor; something
Mike's dazed mind had difficulty in accepting.
A snake.
It was coiled lazily, its green and gold body the thickness of a man's
arm. It had a flat, triangular head with deadliness written all over
it and its eyes were upon the only moving thing in the room--Doree's
rising and falling breast.
The chill that went through Mike almost paralyzed him. In hypnotized
fascination he watched the sinuous uncoiling of the serpent; the
gliding movement in Doree's direction.
Then the girl's eyes opened.
"Don't move!" Mike snapped. "Everything is all right. We got down. But
you must stop breathing--hold your breath. Don't even move your eyes!
Stare straight at the ceiling."
Doree obeyed, and thus did not see the snake. But her fright was
apparent. Mike moved a slow hand toward the buckle on his chest. The
serpent's head flicked around at the movement. Mike's cold hand
gripped the buckle. He knew the snake's length was such that it could
reach him in a single long strike. He could only hope the serpent
would hesitate for a few seconds. The snake's head came around, then
drew back.
At that moment a voice broke the silence. "You--beautiful serpent.
Gorgeous green and gold clothes line. Over this way. Here I am."
Nicko's voice and with it the little Martian unbuckled his strap and
put his feet on the floor.
A hiss. The snake struck. Doree turned her eyes downward and screamed.
The snake's great head slammed against Nicko's leg. The Martian
laughed.
The snake ricocheted backward, dazed from the contact, two of its
fangs broken off on Nicko's steel-hard scales. Nicko got up and walked
over and put his heel on the serpent's head and crushed it. As the
long body lashed and writhed, Nicko looked down at it with a kind of
compassion. "Good-bye, little sister." Nicko looked over at Mike in
assumed surprise. "Was my pretty cousin bothering you? She only wanted
to say hello."
"All right," Mike barked. "You've had your little joke. Let's find out
where we are."
"In a jungle I guess--from the nature of the welcoming committee."
Mike helped Doree from her couch. She had sustained no injuries other
than a slightly sprained wrist. Mike got a rifle from the gun cabinet,
gave another to Nicko and armed Doree with a small pistol which she
tried to refuse.
Investigation showed the hull to be intact but two of the hatches had
been torn off their hinges and were nowhere in sight.
"A beautiful glide," Nicko commented, looking back at the broad furrow
that gave evidence of how the _Space Queen_ had come in. It was a good
thing for them.
* * * * *
"A lucky one," Mike replied. He scanned the thick tropical vegetation
on every side.
"We could be down in the green jungles of Terra," Nicko said.
"We could at that. There is a river around here somewhere."
"How do you know?"
"I got a flash of a river as we glided in. Thought we were going to
hit it. Then we went over. It ought to be in that direction. Let's
go."
Doree, still stunned by the episode of the snake, was mute and pale as
she followed close behind Mike. Nicko brought up the rear. The going
was hard until Mike broke through into a comparatively open area. He
pointed. "There it is."
A silent, ominous river, dark under the hot rays of a high sun. Around
them, nothing moved; only the black waters of the river rushing onward
toward some distant rendezvous with the sea. Doree shuddered.
* * * * *
Mike drew her into the circle of his arm. "Don't be afraid. This is a
break--just what we wanted. All rivers go somewhere and this one saves
us from fighting our way through the jungle an inch at a time."
"But we have no boat."
"We can make a boat." Nicko said. "The rubber mattresses and cushions
from the ship. I'll bet no one on this planet has ever seen such a
boat as we'll have."
Mike and Nicko struggled back and forth from the river bank to the
ship, bringing what was needed. Doree, fearing to remain alone,
trailed with them until she was exhausted, whereupon Mike began
building the raft, leaving the rest of the trips to the indestructible
Nicko. Mike bound the mattresses and cushions to a base of woven
reeds. The reeds grew in abundance in a nearby swamp. Doree helped
with the braiding and the work went swiftly.
Nicko made a half dozen more trips and returned from the last one with
several scales knocked off his back. "Somebody threw a brick at me,"
he said.