"Oh, Gregg!"
There was horror in Anita's voice. Snap had broken away. At the open
deck-port he stood, as though undecided what to do. The deck was
almost black around him; he was silhouetted against the outside
starlight. From almost at his side, in the darkness, a tiny bolt spat
upward at his head. His arms went wildly out; he tumbled backward. At
the top of the boarding incline his body seemed spasmodically to kick,
and the thrust whirled it down into the darkness.
The end of Snap! A pang went through me. Snap, my best friend!
Molo cursed the unknown man of his crew who had fired the shot. But
none would admit who did it.
"Get to your posts," Molo roared in Martian. "Enough of you are here.
Lash up the prisoners; we're launching away now." He thumped his
brawny sister as she passed him. "Well played, Meka!"
These wily Martians! Molo had planned that Meka was to gather the crew
and wait here at the ship for him and Wyk. If they returned with us as
captives, it would be here that they would come. But if by chance
things went adversely, Molo reasoned we would act just as we did; and
Meka and her men were lurking here in ambush, waiting for us.
All the many various ports swung shut. Anita, Venza, and I, with arms
and legs bound, were taken by Molo to the forward observation and
control room.
The ship was resounding with signals. The interior controls in the
hull-base raised the gravity-pull within the vessel to a strength
comparable to that of Earth. Within a few minutes the _Star-Streak_
lifted from the stage. Strange, weird Wandl fell away from us. We
slid upward through the atmosphere, following one of the globular
Wandl vessels, and headed into space toward the point where, a few
million miles distant, the ships of allied Earth, Venus, and Mars were
gathering.
17
"They are visible." Molo turned from the eyepiece of his
electro-telescope. "Do you want to see them, Gregg Haljan?"
We were in the forward control and observation turret of the
_Star-Streak_, Molo and his sister Meka, Venza, Anita and myself.
Unobtrusively squatting on the floor was a small, gray, rat-faced
fellow, put there, weapon in hand, to watch us. He was a ruffian from
the underworld of Grebhar, a member of the _Star-Streak's_ pirate
crew.
We were some ten hours out from Wandl. A group of four of the globular
Wandl ships were with us, strung in a line some ten thousand miles to
our left. We had been heading diagonally toward Mars. Some fifteen
other Wandl vessels were ahead and others following.
We were no more than fifteen million miles from Mars when Molo sighted
the allied ships. "Will you observe them, Gregg Haljan?"
I moved to take his place at the 'scope-grid, with the gaze of Anita
and Venza upon me. They sat huddled together on a low bench against
the back curve of the circular turret.
It was dim here, with little spots of instrument lights, and the
radiance coming in the glassite plates of the encircling dome. The
loss of Snap had put a grim look upon the girls. They were dispirited,
docile with Meka. They had hardly had a word with me. I think that all
of us had about given up hope during those hours. Molo had consulted
me several times with his policies of navigation.
But I saw no chance to trick him. He was indeed, far more experienced
than I, and more skillful, in celestial mechanics. I worked with him.
I learned the operation and the handling of the _Star-Streak_, which
was not greatly different from the _Cometara_ or the _Planetara_.
Poor Snap! He and I had planned to capture and navigate this
_Star-Streak_. We could have handled her. There were, I gathered, some
fifteen men aboard her now, but no more than two or three were engaged
at the navigating mechanisms. Even they could be dispensed with at
times, for the ship's controls were all automatic, handled directly
from the forward turret.
I learned too, something, though not much, of the _Star-Streak's_
weapons. They were similar to those of the allied ships, since Molo in
equipping his pirate craft had seized upon all the best he could find
of the three worlds.
The _Star-Streak_, during this flight toward Mars, was in close
communication with the Wandl craft. There was a giant vessel, the Wor,
off to our left now. It carried the brain master in command of the
Wandl forces. Molo took his orders from the Wor, but since his
equipment and his weapons were so wholly different, the _Star-Streak_
was set apart.
"I can do what I like," Molo told me. "With my own judgement I can
act; you shall see."
"You've had plenty of experience, Molo."
"Have I not! The terror of the starways, your world called me." He
chuckled vaingloriously. "I must justify it now."
"Act, do not talk," Meka commented sourly. "Children with toys make
speeches like that, and then the toys get broken."
"Fear not, sister. Never again will the _Star-Streak_ come to grief."
And now I gazed through the 'scope at the waiting allied ships. They
were lying some eight million miles off Mars. I gazed and saw the
poised little group. There were perhaps fifty of them. The majority
were Martian, long, low and very sharp-ended, and dull red in color.
The wider Earth and Venus ships were silvery and drab. I could
distinguish the several different types of craft in this hastily
assembled fleet: many converted commercials like my ill-starred
_Cometara_; a few rakish police ships; and about a dozen of the long,
narrow supermodern warships. It was their first voyage into battle.
They had only been built these past few years, by peaceful governments
that protested there never again would be another war!
The little fleet was lying waiting for us. It was being augmented by
occasional other ships from Mars. They saw us coming now. The radiance
of a Benson curve-light enveloped them, with a shaft toward us. The
image of them shifted over a million miles to one side.
Molo laughed when he saw it. "Protecting themselves already! But we
are not going to attack them there."
The first tactics of the Wandl commanders surprised me. We swung away
from the course to Mars and headed diagonally toward Earth and Venus.
Earth was the nearer to us, with Venus some forty million miles beyond
her. For hours we turned in that sweeping curve. Then with our Wandl
convoy following, we headed for Earth. I could not help admiring the
way the _Star-Streak_ was handled. She turned more sharply than the
Wandl craft; and before our next meal, we were leading them all.
Would the allied ships follow us? It was immediately apparent they
were coming; but from their poised position, hours of attaining
velocity would be needed. The other allied vessels approaching from
Venus and Earth checked their flight and turned after us. We passed
within five or six hundred thousand miles of several of them.
I found now that some twenty other Wandl ships, leaving Wandl after
us, had headed directly for Earth. We were all together presently, the
_Star-Streak_ and nearly fifty Wandl ships, gathered close to one side
of the Moon. The allies, about a hundred of them, were strung through
space, scattered, with varying velocities and flight direction, but
most of them endeavoring to get between the Moon and Earth.
This was the day! I call it that: a routine of meals which Meka grimly
served us in the turret, and a little sleep when she took the girls
below and I lay on the turret floor. I wondered who was in command of
this allied force, and did not learn until afterward that it was
Grantline. The _Cometara_ had fallen upon the Moon Apennines, not very
far from where my old _Planetara_ still lay, near the base of
Archimedes. But Grantline and a few of his companions, with their
powered suits, had struggled free from the gravity pull of the
wreckage; and a few hours later, a ship out from Earth picked them
up.
Grantline, on one of the Earth police ships, commanded the fleet now,
and he afterward told me in detail how he endeavored to conduct his
forces in the battle, thus enabling me to describe it from both
viewpoints. He had been cruising toward Mars when he saw us make the
turn. He thought a landing upon Earth might be planned and hastened
all his ships into the area between the Moon and Earth to cut us off.
But that was what Wandl wanted. The Wandl ships, with the
_Star-Streak_ among them, made a complete slow circuit of the Moon. It
took another day. Molo said very little to me in explanation of the
Wandl tactics, but I could see that the object was to lure Grantline
into following. A few of the allied ships did follow us around, but
not many. The rest stayed carefully guarding the line between the Moon
and Earth.
There had been no encounter yet between the hostile ships. The huge
distances involved in the engagement must be kept in mind. The gravity
rays from the Wandl ships were only a slight disturbing element at
such a long distance; Grantline's Zed-rays and Benson curve-lights
were defensive only. For offence, Grantline's electronic guns and
other weapons were of varying range, but none for such distances as
these.
Wandl seemed unwilling to begin the battle, and Grantline was cautious
as well. He did not know what weapons these strange globular vessels
would use; his only experience had been our encounter with the
whirling discs.
Then, at the end of the second day, came the first clash. The
_Star-Streak_, and all the Wandl ships, were again clustered on the
Earth side of the Moon; they were hovering perhaps twenty thousand
miles above its surface. Grantline's force was a hundred thousand
miles off, toward Earth. One of the Wandl ships came tentatively
forward, and Grantline sent one of the new-style warships to meet it.
They encircled each other. Both were cautious, but there was a passing
within fifty miles. The Earth ship fired her bolts. The insulated
barrage of the Wandl ship withstood them. There was a shower of ether
sparks close to the ship, and a reddening of the hull, but nothing
more. It seemed that the electro-barrages of the Wandl and allied
ships were very similar in nature, an aura of electro-magnetism,
enclosing the ship like a curtain fifty feet away, absorbed the
electronic stream of the enemy bolt. The Wandl ship flung no bolts;
she loosed a score of the whirling discs during the passing. They were
of varying sizes, but similar to those which cut and wrecked the
_Cometara_; in this instance, the Grantline ship was able to destroy
each of them as it came close.
This was the first encounter. The Earth warship went back to its
squadron and the Wandl vessel rejoined its fellows. It had fired no
bolts. Grantline suspected now what afterward proved to be the fact:
these Wandl vessels were not equipped with long-range electronic guns.
The Wandl defensive tactics were necessary; they feared a widespread
encounter. They were hovering in a compact group, covering a five
hundred mile area, over the Moon surface. Their purpose was not yet
apparent, but Grantline saw now that one of the Wandl ships was
dropping down and landing on the Moon. It skimmed the Apennines and
landed not far from Archimedes.
What was that for? Grantline noticed that the lowering,
closely-gathered Wandl fleet tried to mask the landing. And their
gravity-rays, with repulsive force, darted out to impede the Grantline
vessels should they try to advance.
This Earthward hemisphere of the Moon was now largely in shadow, but
Grantline's Zed-ray magnifiers showed the vessel on the Moon.
Apparatus was being unloaded. It seemed, down there on the rocky Moon
plain in the foothills of the Apennines, that some extensive,
elaborate base was being prepared.
It was for this the hovering Wandl fleet was waiting, holding off from
conflict until this Moon base was ready. When Grantline reached that
conclusion, he ordered all his vessels forward to a general attack.
18
During this time, on the _Star-Streak_, as we and the Wandl fleet made
that preliminary circuit of the Moon, an incident occurred which
changed everything for me. I had noticed several times as we gathered
in the _Star-Streak's_ forward turret, that Venza and Anita were eying
me. Their expressions were furtive, but I realized that they were
trying to attract my attention.
We had no opportunity to speak secretly. Molo or Meka, or that
rat-faced guard, were always too near us; and Molo kept me busy with
computations of our course.
We rounded the Moon. We gathered with the Wandl fleet some twenty
thousand miles above the lunar surface, and I watched that ship
descend and land. Like Grantline, I wondered what for. Molo gave me no
hint. I saw, through his 'scope, bloated figures in pressure suits
unloading mechanisms. They seemed to be placing huge contact-discs in
a circle on the lunar rocks. It was reminiscent of the Wandl gravity
station, and the contact-beam which Molo had planted in Great-New
York.
Then at last the girls had an opportunity to whisper to me. A swift
phrase came from Anita. "Gregg! Snap is alive. Hiding on board."