_In the Tower Cubby_
"Hurry, Anita!"
I feared that Potan might come up from the hull at any moment and stop
us. The duty-man over us gazed down, his huge head and shoulders
blocking the small signal room window. Brotow called up in Martian,
telling him to let us come. He scowled, but when we reached the trap
in the room floor-grid, we found him standing aside to admit us.
I flung a swift glance around. It was a metallic cubby, not much over
fifteen feet square, with an eight-foot arched ceiling. There were
instrument panels. The range-finder for the giant projector was here;
its little telescope with the trajectory apparatus and the firing
switch were unmistakable. And the signalling apparatus was here! Not a
Martian set, but a fully powerful Botz ultra-violet helio sender with
its attendant receiving mirrors. The _Planetara_ had used the Botz
system, so I was thoroughly familiar with it. I saw, too, what seemed
to be weapons: a row of small fragile glass globes, hanging on clips
along the wall--bombs, each the size of a man's fist. And a broad belt
with bombs in its padded compartments.
My heart was pounding as my first quick glance took in these details.
I saw also that the room had four small oval window openings. They
were breast-high above the floor; from the deck below I knew that the
angle of vision was such that the men down there could not see into
this room except to glimpse its upper portion near the ceiling. And
the helio set was banked on a low table near the floor.
In a corner of the room a small ladder led through a ceiling trap to
the cubby roof. This upper trap was open. Four feet above the
room-roof was the arch of the dome, with the entrance to the upper
exit-lock directly above us. The weapons and the belt of bombs were
near this ascending ladder, evidently placed here as equipment for use
from the top of the dome.
* * * * *
I turned to the solitary duty-man. I must gain his confidence at once.
Anita had laid her helmet aside. She spoke first.
"We were with Set Miko," she said smilingly, "in the wreck of the
_Planetara_. You heard of it? We know where the treasure is."
This duty-man was a full seven feet tall, and the most heavy-set
Martian I had ever seen. A tremendous, beetling-browed, scowling
fellow. He stood with hands on his hips, his leather-garbed legs
spread wide; and as I fronted him I felt like a child. He was silent,
glaring down at me as I drew his attention from Anita.
"You speak English? We are not skilled with Martian."
I wondered if at the next time of sleep this fellow would be on duty
here. I hoped not; it would not be easy to trick him and find an
opportunity to flash a signal. But that task was some hours away as
yet; I would worry about it when the time came. Just now I was
concerned with Miko and his little band, who at any moment might
arrive in sight. If we could persuade this scowling duty-man to turn
the projector on them....
He answered me in ready English:
"You are the man Gregg Haljan? And this is the sister of George
Prince--what do you want up here?"
"I am a navigator. Brotow wants me to pilot the ship when we advance
to attack Grantline."
"This is not the control room."
"No, I know it isn't."
I put my helmet carefully on the floor-grid beside Anita's. I
straightened to find the brigand gazing at her. He did not speak; he
was still scowling. But in the dim blue glow of the cubby I caught the
look in his eyes.
* * * * *
I said hastily, "Grantline knows your ship has landed here on
Archimedes. His camp is off there on the Mare Imbrium. He sent up a
signal--you saw it, didn't you?--just before Miss Prince and I came
aboard. He was trying to pretend that he was your Earth-party, Miko
and Coniston."
"Why?"
The fellow turned his scowl on me, but Anita brought his gaze back to
her. She put in quickly:
"Grantline, as Brother always said, has no great cunning. I believe
he's planning now to creep up on us, catch us unaware by pretending
that he is Miko."
"If he does that," I said, "we will turn this electronic projector on
him and annihilate him. You have its firing mechanism here."
"Who told you so?" he shot at me.
I gestured. "I see it here. It's obvious. I'm skilled at
trajectory-firing. If Grantline appears down there now, I'll help
you--"
"Is it connected?" Anita demanded boldly.
"Yes," he said. "You have on your Erentz suits: are you going to the
dome-roof? Then go."
But that was what we did not want to do. Anita's glance seemed to tell
me to let her handle this. I turned toward one of the cubby windows;
she said sweetly:
"Are you in charge of this room? Show me how that projector is
operated; it will be invincible against the Grantline camp."
"Yes."
* * * * *
I had my back to them for a moment. Through the breast-high oval I
could see down across the deck-space and out through the side dome
windows. And my heart suddenly leaped into my throat. It seemed that
down there in the Earthlit shadows, where the spreading base of the
giant crater joined the plains, a light was bobbing. I gazed,
stricken. Miko's lights? Was he advancing, preparing to signal? I
tried to gauge the distance; it was not over two miles from here.
Or was it not a light at all? With the naked eye, I could not be sure.
Perhaps there was a telescopic finder here in the cubby....
I was subconsciously aware of the voices of Anita and the duty-man
behind me. Then abruptly I heard Anita's low cry. I whirled around.
The giant Martian had gathered her into his huge arms, his
heavy-jowled gray face with a leering grin close to hers!
He saw me coming. He held her with one arm: his other flung at me,
caught me, knocked me backward. He rasped:
"Get out of here! Go up to the dome, leave us."
Anita was silently struggling with her little hands at his thick
throat. His blow flung me against a settle. But I held my feet. I was
partly behind him. I leaped again, and as he tried to disengage
himself from Anita to front me, her clutching fingers impeded him.
My bullet projector was in my hand. But in that second as I leaped, I
had the sense to realize I should not fire it and with its noise alarm
the ship. I grasped its barrel, reached upward and struck with its
heavy metal butt. The blow caught the Martian on the skull, and
simultaneously my body struck him.
We went down together, falling partly upon Anita. But the giant had
not cried out, and as I gripped him now, I felt his body limp. I lay
panting. Anita squirmed silently from under us. Blood from the giant's
head was welling out, hot and sticky against my face as I lay sprawled
on him.
* * * * *
I cast him off. He was dead, his fragile Martian skull split open by
my blow.
There had been no alarm. The slight noise we made had not been heard
down on the busy deck. Anita and I crouched by the floor. From the
deck all this part of the room could not be seen.
"Dead!"
"Oh, Gregg--"
It forced our hand. I could not wait now for Miko to come. But I could
flash the Earth signal now, and then we would have to make our run to
escape.
Abruptly I remembered that light down at the crater-base! I kept Anita
out of sight on the floor and went cautiously to a window. The deck
was in turmoil with brigands moving about excitedly. Not because of
what had happened in our tower signal room; they were unaware of that.
Miko's signals were showing! I could see them now plainly, down at the
crater-base. A group of hand-lights and a small waving helio-beam.
And they were being answered from the ship! Potan was on the deck--a
babble of voices, above which his rose with roars of command. At one
of the dome windows a brigand with a hand search-beam was sending its
answering light. And I saw that Potan was working over a deck
telescope-finder.
It had all come so suddenly that I was stunned. But I did not wait to
read the signals. I swung back at Anita.
"It's Miko! And they are answering him! Get your helmet; I'll try
firing the projector."
Or would I instead try to send a brief flash-signal to Earth? There
would be no time to do both: we must escape out of here. The route up
through the dome was the only feasible one now.
This range mechanism of the projector was reasonably familiar, and I
felt that I could operate it. The range-finder and switch were on a
ledge at one of the windows. I rushed to it. As I swung the little
telescope, training it down on Miko's lights, I could see the huge
projector on the deck swinging similarly. Its movement surprised the
men who were attending it. One of them called up to me, but I ignored
him.
* * * * *
Then Potan looked up and saw me. He shouted in Martian at the
duty-man, whom he doubtless thought was behind me: "Be ready! We may
fire on them, whoever they are. I'll give you the word."
The signals were proceeding. It had only been a moment. I caught
something like, "_Haljan is impostor._"
I was aiming the projector. I was aware of Anita at my elbow. I pushed
her back.
"Put on your helmet!"
I had the range. I flung the firing switch.
At the deck window the giant projector spat its deadly electronic
stream. The men down there leaped away from it with surprise. I heard
Potan's voice, his shout of protest and anger.
But down in the Earthglow at the crater-base, Miko's lights had not
vanished! I had missed! An error in the range? Abruptly I knew it was
not that. Miko's lights were still there. His signals still coming.
And I remarked now a faint distortion about them, the glow of his
little group of hand-lights faintly distorted and vaguely shot with a
greenish cast. Benson curve-lights! I realized it.
My thoughts whirled in the few seconds while I stood there at the
tower window. Miko had feared he might summarily be fired upon. He had
gone back to his camp, equipped all his lights with the Benson curve.
He was somewhere at the crater-base now. But not where I thought I saw
him! The Benson curve-light changed the path of the light-rays
traveling from him to me--I could not even approximate his true
position!
Anita was plucking at me. "Gregg, come."
"I can't hit him!" I gasped.
Should I try the flash-signal to Earth? Did we dare linger here? I
stood another few seconds fascinated at the window. I saw Potan down
in the confusion of the deck, training a telescope. He had shouted up
violently at his duty-man here not to fire again.
And now he suddenly let out a roar. "I can see them! It's Miko! By the
Almighty--his giant stature--Brotow, look! That's not an Earthman!"
He flung aside his little telescope finder. "Disconnect that
projector! It's Miko down there! This Haljan is a trickster! Where is
he? Braile--Braile, you accursed fool! Are Haljan and the girl up
there with you?"
But the duty-man lay weltering in his blood at our feet.
I had dropped back from the window. Anita and I crouched for an
instant in confusion, fumbling with our helmets.
The ship rang with the alarm. And amid the turmoil we could hear the
shouts of the infuriated brigands swarming up the tower ladder after
us!