"We're going to pass it," I told him, "at a distance of only ten
million miles. Figure it out for yourself." And I hung up.
Then Doug Enderby called from the mess-hall. I gave him a dose of the
same medicine. Then Harkness. He screamed like a stuck pig, and began
demanding a change of trajectory. I told him, "Don't squawk to _me_
about it; tell Gilchrist. He laid the course."
And I had just blanked the screen when in raced Gilchrist himself,
followed by Cap Hanson, Diane, and Dick Todd.
"All right, Sparks!" bellowed the efficiency expert, "What are you up
to _now_? I'll see that you get busted out of the service for this!
Rank disobedience, conspiracy to break shipboard morale, plotting with
an imprisoned officer, deliberate sabotage--"
Yeah--Biggs was right! Major Horatio Gilchrist was a nice guy, in a
repulsive sort of way. I glared at him.
"Just a moment, Major!" I said boldly. "If you mean this heat, you'd
better hunt yourself up another victim. You know perfectly well Lt.
Biggs is in durance vile. And as for _my_ having done anything,
why--how could I? You assumed complete control of all electrical
equipment."
Gilchrist raged, "But--but this _heat_! Somebody has made the ship
unbearably hot again--"
"Some_body_?" I asked him shrewdly, "or some _thing_? I guess you've
forgotten, Major, that our real peril--of which Mr. Biggs warned
you--is our proximity to the Sun."
"Nonsense, sir! The Sun--"
"Is getting closer," I finished, "every minute. You have undoubtedly
looked at the ship's hull to make sure there are no wires or coils on
it?"
Some of Major Gilchrist's cockiness had oozed out of him. He said
uncertainly, "Y-yes, I did. The entire hull is thickly coated with some
glutinous substance--"
* * * * *
Oh, golly! That was one thing which hadn't occurred to me. I had just
sort of taken it for granted that the fuel I had dumped would have
whipped away into space. Silly logic on my part, for I've run the
spaceways long enough to realize that nothing ever floats away in the
void; anything you chuck from a spacevessel shares your velocity and
hangs right along by your side. But I made the finest dramatic act of
my life; gasped, and clutched at my forehead wildly.
"The oil! Migod, the oil-tanks have burst! Captain Hanson, we're
doomed!"
And the skipper, too, came through nobly. He moaned and raced to the
wall thermo, whirled from it frantically.
"A hundred an' two!" he bleated, "an' gettin' hotter every minute!
We'll be stewed like peas in a pot!"
Gilchrist's lips turned a sickly bistre. He ran his tongue over them
and faltered, "But my computations--"
"Were wrong!" I told him. "Dead wrong! Take a look at these other
figures. Lancelot Biggs' figures!"
And as I thrust the sheet of paper into his fingers, I reached out
and elbowed the audio button that establishes a complete circuit of
every chamber aboard ship. Instantly the babel of angry, frightened,
complaining voices burst upon our ears. The cries of hot and terrified
men demanding help from the bridge.
"--can't stand it a moment longer," came the cry of Enderby. "Change
course, Skipper!" And from the engine-room the roaring blast of Chief
Garrity: "Ye've no richt t' drive us t' death like this, Captain.
Change coorrse, sirrr, or by the saints, there'll be _moootiny_!"
And that did it! Major Gilchrist's nerve collapsed. His self-assurance
slipped from him like a robe from a strip-teaser's torso, and all of a
sudden he was no longer a tough, gimlet-eyed, hard-boiled efficiency
expert, but a nervous and very frightened Earth-lubber caught in the
grip of forces too strong for him.
"Into the Sun!" he babbled wildly. "The _Sun_? Oh, I mustn't die like
this! Do something, somebody! Captain, you must change the course. Use
the other set of co-ordinates. I was wrong--"
That was all I waited to hear. I shoved the new set of figures into
Todd's hands, shoved him toward the door.
"Get going, Dick! There's no time to waste! We--"
But before I could even finish, there came an interruption that turned
my spinal column to a slow trickle of icy water. The plates beneath my
feet seemed to sag momentarily, then rise and hurl themselves forward.
I slipped and fell to my hands and knees--and found it hard to rise
again! A dull weight fastened itself upon me. Nor was I the only person
so stricken. Diane had tumbled, too, and Cap Hanson was holding onto an
upright stanchion for dear life. Gilchrist lay prone on his puss, his
face a mask of terror. And the audio rasped with an ominous cry from
the bridge.
"Captain Hanson! Captain Hanson, sir, come quickly! We've been caught
by Sol's gravs!"
* * * * *
Well, it was about that time my heart began pounding the hell out of
my shoelaces. Up to now I had been disgusted and sore and fretful, but
not in the least worried. In spite of Gilchrist's pork-patedness, I had
felt a serene confidence that before danger actually threatened Lance
Biggs would find some way to wangle us out of our difficulties. But
now--
But now we were in a sorry mess indeed! Caught in a gravitational grip
thousands of times greater than Jupiter's; a million times more deadly.
Once, from afar, I had been the unwilling but horror-fascinated witness
of the fate of a ship gripped by Sol's terrific attraction. A dark
mote struggling futilely against the brazen magnet that beckoned ...
a moment's brief and hopeless essay to escape ... then a tiny, ochre
flame glinting wanly....
Such a vision must have been flashing, also, through the mind of Major
Gilchrist. For from his prostrate vantagepoint he loosed a howl of
sheer panic.
"Oh, no!" he screamed. "Oh, no! No! No! No!"
How long that monotonous denial would have continued there is no way
of guessing. But Cap Hanson, who despite all his faults has little
use for a fool and _no_ use for a coward, put an abrupt end to it.
Straining against the pressure that half-immobilized us, he lurched to
Gilchrist's side, bent and silenced the efficiency expert's wailing
with a sense-rousing slap across the cheek.
"Stop that, you damn fool!" he roared. "The audio's open! Do you want
to panic every man aboard this ship?" And as Gilchrist relapsed into
whimpering silence, he swiveled to me heavily. "Sparks, there's only
one chance. The velocity-intensifier. Tell Garrity--"
The velocity-intensifier, or V-I unit to give it its more common
name, was that device invented by Biggs which enables a spaceship to
increase its normal cruising speed to an incredible 186,000 mps--the
speed of light! I could see the Old Man's idea. Attain that velocity
and we might break free of Sol's hold. I said, "Aye, sir!" and was just
about to cry the necessary orders to the engine-room when:
"_No!_" The familiar voice of Lt. Lancelot Biggs rang through the
turret. "No, Sparks! Don't do that! It is sure death! As our speed
increases, so does our mass! We'll only accelerate our fall into the
Sun!"
* * * * *
I remembered, then, that every cabin was hooked into a round-robin
circuit, _via_ telaudio. So though it would have been humanly
impossible for Lancelot Biggs to come up to this turret now, he was as
truly with us as if he stood beside us. I cried back answer.
"But what _can_ we do, Mr. Biggs?"
And--most stunning surprise of all!--my words were echoed by the
groveling goon on the floor! Major Gilchrist, his voice cracked and
fearful, bleated, "What can we do? You must help me, Mr. Biggs! Save
me--"
[Illustration: Biggs was yelling into the speaker while Gilchrist
babbled in terror.]
Maybe I was mistaken, but I thought I could detect a ghost of a chuckle
in my gawky pal's voice. He said, "Major, according to Space Practice
Law No. 3, section _viii_, 'A space officer convicted of malfeasance,
or confined under suspicion thereof pending trial and conviction,
may not offer, suggest, or cause to be given any orders, commands or
directions which may affect his ship's course or trajectory--'"
"You're free, Mr. Biggs!" screamed Gilchrist. "Free to come and go as
you please! I was wrong! You're not under arrest any longer! But save
me! Save me--"
This time Biggs _did_ chuckle. I heard him do it. So did every man,
mouse and mess-boy aboard the _Saturn_. And--
"Very well, Major," he said. "Thank you! Todd, set the ship on the new
trajectory."