"For this disobedience, Bill Drake will have twenty extra tours of
duty in the next twenty days," said Spartan. "For wasting time, Morrie
Grover will have ten extra tours. We need two men in the control room
now, so each of you will take his extra turns in company with another
member of the crew."
Five hours later, when Gail came through the cabin to relieve Axel at
the controls, I was just regaining use of my muscles. Morrie explained
to her what had happened.
"Get some antiseptic," she said, examining my wound.
"No need," I said hoarsely. "Ship's been sterilized. No germs aboard."
She examined the wound. "It's sort of deep," she said. "The beast! He
just wanted to throw his weight around."
"He'll be tough to get along with from now on, Gail," I said. "Mind if
I take my extra duty with you?"
Morrie scowled and said nothing.
"No, Bill. Some of the time anyhow. Part of the watch I'll share with
Morrie." I heard him release his breath. "Now listen, Bill. I know
you're angry with Spartan, but you've got to be careful. I think you
understand why. We've got to keep him from doing anything more rash
than this."
I was able to nod my head. I had to get along with the bastard. Not
only my life, but her safety depended on it.
_Chapter 6_
In the end, Spartan himself arranged a schedule for Morrie and me, so
we had no choice when we would serve our extra shifts. However, I spent
equal time with Gail, Axel and Joel, as did Morrie.
Gail and I had no opportunity to talk over our personal
problems--concerning, mainly, Dr. Spartan--because he was always
joining us in the control cabin. Axel was always engaged in radio
astronomy, or trying to intercept terrestrial broadcasts, which were
growing more feeble each day. Joel was uneasy in my presence.
"I'm sorry about causing you all this trouble," he said. "But if I
hadn't reported that infraction of rules to Dr. Spartan, he might have
punished me."
"Axel didn't report it and he wasn't punished," I said.
"Dr. Spartan didn't suspect that Axel knew anything about it." Joel
sighed. "I'm afraid my act has made me very unpopular with the rest of
you."
"Forget it," I said, "a trip to Mars isn't a popularity contest. If we
return with good results, it won't matter. We'll all be fair-haired
boys."
But the incident had helped me decide that Joel would not be
trustworthy if it came to a showdown against Spartan. On the other
hand, it also helped prove that Axel was not a confidential aide to our
chief.
On the fourth extra tour of duty, I was in the control room with Axel.
He was concentrating on the sounds he was picking up with our ultrahigh
frequency receiver. Finally he ran the sounds he was getting through an
oscilloscope.
"Look at that, Bill!" he exclaimed, pointing to the strange wave
pattern.
"Pretty," I commented. All I saw was that it was something different.
"That signal," said Axel, "was made by intelligent beings. It's not a
natural radio pattern--the kind you'd get from a star or a nebula."
I took my eyes off the instruments and looked at the pattern again.
"Are you trying to tell me the Russians have invented a new kind of
radio?"
"The signal's coming from Mars," said Axel.
"You're space crazy," I said. "There's nothing intelligent on Mars.
Just a few plants."
"We don't really know," said Axel. "I've been picking up these
signals for several days. They're traveling twice the distance of the
terrestrial signals. And the volume is greater. That would mean at
least four or more times the power."
"You've reported it to Spartan?" I asked.
"I've entered it in the log book," said Axel. "I've also made a
recording. It's not a voice signal, but it has an artificial wave
pattern. It's some kind of radar wave--"
"The Martians have spotted us?" I couldn't quite believe it. "They're
gonna send out a fleet of spaceships and blast us before we land."
"If they had spaceships they would have visited the earth," said Axel.
"Then we're more advanced than they are. And if they're intelligent,
we've nothing to fear. We'll probably get the keys to all the Martian
cities."
"We may not be ahead of them," said Axel. "And even if they're
intelligent, we might have things to fear. How would we receive
Martians if they landed on the earth?"
"We'd probably give 'em television contracts," I said.
"Not at first," said Axel. "We'd take pains to contain them
somehow--prevent them from causing us any harm. We'd make sure they
had come to the earth with peaceful intent. And we'd be pretty slow to
trust them even if they came unarmed."
"Martians may be different," I said. "Why don't you tell Spartan? You
know how he is. If he thought we held out anything on him, he might use
his popgun on us."
"That's what I've been going to do," said Axel. "But I wanted to make
sure these signals came from Mars. Now I'm positive." He touched the
buzzer signal on the big globe in the center of the room where all the
ship's controls were located.