"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 telescope with the trajectory apparatus and the firing switch were
unmistakable. And the signaling apparatus was here! Not a Martian set,
but a fully powerful Botz ultra-violet 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's
roof was the arch of the dome, with the entrance to the exit-lock
directly above us. The weapons and the belt of bombs were near the
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, beetle-browed, scowling fellow.
He stood with hands on his hips, his leather-garbed legs spread wide;
and as I confronted him, I felt like a child.
He was silent, glaring down at me as I drew his attention from Anita.
"You speak English?" I asked. "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 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 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 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
now he plans to creep up on us unawares, by pretending that he is
Miko."
"If he does that," I said, "we will turn this electronic projector on
him and his party and annihilate them. 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 the
projector is operated. I know it will be invincible against the
Grantline camp."
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 telescope 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--"
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 projector was in my hand. But in that second as I leaped, I had the
sense to realize I should not fire it because its noise would 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 go 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.
Then I remembered that light down by the base! I kept Anita out of
sight down 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 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 searchbeam 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, who stared helplessly at me.
"It's Miko! And they are answering him! Get your helmet: I'll try
firing the projector."
Or would I instead try and 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 the switch were on
a ledge at one of the windows. I rushed to it. As I swung the
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. I'll give you the word."
The signals were proceeding. It had only been a moment. I caught
something like, "_Haljan is imposter_."
I was aiming the projector. I was aware of Anita at my elbow. I pushed
her back.
"Put on your helmet!"