In the semi-darkness of the armored cell, the wicket through which
the guard could watch the prisoner was a square of light. Only, there
was no guard. Only an atomic-welder could have pierced that tough
shell--unarmed, within the pirate cruiser, surrounded by armed guards
at every exit, Dennis hadn't the ghost of a chance. He sat up on the
cold metal floor, and strove to point his mind to the task ahead. And
the last midget speaker slipped from his pocket to roll across the
floor, coming to a stop at a corner of the wall. Dennis could not
suppress a smile.
Then he heard a voice he had thought never to hear again. A wave of
feeling engulfed him.
"Dennis ... Dennis, my dear!" Framed in the wicket, the lovely features
of Marla, smiling despite the brimming eyes, smiling at him in
encouragement. His heart leapt upwards as if it would leave his body,
as he rose in a single bound and was at the wicket, kissing hungrily
the exquisite lips. He could not speak, for seconds, that Marla was
alive was that his heart could wish. For a moment he was weak with the
tremendous reaction. "You're safe ... safe ... not hurt ... Marla," he
was incoherently repeating.
"Quick," Marla cautioned. "Take this!" She slipped a deadly atom-blast,
the smaller variety once carried by women into his hand. "They never
found it on me--being a woman I have prerogatives. I have been held
for ransom until now, and here on this deserted world, having no means
of escape I was allowed comparative freedom within the ship. But I
heard what you told Koerber, Dennis. Now that he knows untold wealth
is within reach of his hand, he may have another fate in store for me.
For the past few days he has been changing ... becoming amorous. I know
he's trying to win me, Dennis ... as only a woman can know!"
"Take this blaster back ... and use it!" Dennis said fiercely.
"No need," she smiled, her eyes luminous. "I have a better way. I'll
not be harmed, Dennis." She kissed him as if all her heart were in that
kiss, despite the vertical bars that divided them, then she was gone,
leaving behind the faint fragrance that she always wore, like a scent
in the garden ways, or an echo in the wind.
One last card remained to him. One last venture wherein his life would
hang from so slender a thread, and yet.
He began to scream and shout with a passion that raised reverberating
echoes in the enclosing metal cell. Almost immediately the metal door
opened with a bang, and the powerful figure of Koerber flanked by
guards with drawn atom-blasts was silhouetted in the light.
"Have you gone space-crazy, you rat?" Koerber growled through clenched
teeth. "What's the racket for?"
"You double-crosser," Dennis spat like an animal at bay, "if I have to
be caged like this, after telling you about my discovery, at least you
could let me have some air. You've got the air rectifiers shut off in
here, and it's worse than in the caves! Want me to choke?"
"Haw!" One of the guards guffawed. "That's real good, boss ... saves us
the trouble of shooting 'im!"
"Shut up!" Koerber rumbled. "Double-crosser, eh? What made you
think I'd cut you in on the discovery? But you've given me an idea!
Branche ... Jennings! Truss him up and carry him out to the cave.
The radio-active minerals'll take care of him better'n anything
else." His sadistic nature gloated on the thought of Dennis' gradual
disintegration as the powerful radio-active vibrations bombarded his
being.
Koerber's smile was like a feline caress, but his eyes were feral in
the ecstasy of his triple triumph. He had Marla, the wealth and power
of a new universe before him, and, his greatest enemy condemned to a
horrible death.
Thoroughly trussed, they carried Dennis to the entrance to the cave
system where the radio-active minerals were in greatest abundance. Then
they threw him carelessly on the rough, rocky ground.
"I can watch you from here," Koerber said silkily, "as you slowly rot
away. We'll be working on the spacer for at least four more hours
before we blast off, time enough for the effects of the radiations to
begin to show, eh Dennis?"
There was no doubt in Captain Brooke's mind what would happen to
Marla, and to the I.S.P. cruiser when Koerber was ready to leave. The
monstrous egotism of the man demanded a series of triumphs, for he
already saw himself as a supreme ruler. He watched the guards walk back
to the cruiser, where most of the crew were engaged in final repairs,
and he was glad, fiercely glad, so he could concentrate. All the fear
he felt for Marla, all the horror at the murder of his comrades and the
destruction of his cruiser, and the vast, awful vision of a universe
ruled by a sadistic madman, utterly evil, began to flood into his mind
as he willed himself to emotionally see these things realized.
Suddenly he was aware that through auto-suggestion, he was beginning
to feel fear, _real fear_! He thought of the luminous spheres ...
there was something monstrous about them ... the way they sucked the
life-energy from poor Randall. He continued to elaborate and build up a
crescendo of horror. A blast of thunder from Koerber's ship shook the
cave.
* * * * *
The distant sun was moving rapidly toward the horizon's rim, and the
swift settling twilight enhanced the spumes coming from the jets of the
black, pirate spacer. As the rumble of the warming rockets died to a
murmur, Dennis saw two guards leave the airlock of the pirate cruiser.
They were Jennings and Branche. They must be almost ready to leave,
he thought. The guards came to where he lay and roughly jerked him to
his feet then dragged him further inside the cave, where the deadly
radio-actives would really get to work on his body. Then they dropped
him unceremoniously as they turned with a start.
Like black magic, a stentorian voice had begun speaking, filling the
melancholy dusk of the eerie planetoid, as the thundering tones seemed
to come from everywhere. Ear-drums throbbing with the vibration, the
guards jerked Dennis back to the cave entrance, the binding cords that
tied Dennis becoming dangerously ragged with the dragging over the
rough ground he had endured twice.
"Bren Koerber! Attention! This is the I.S.P." The voice rolled and
echoed. "You're completely surrounded. Resistance will be futile! You
have just one minute to get your men together in front of your ship.
Throw your side-arms in a pile on the ground!"
Koerber appeared at the lock of the pirate spacer then he scrambled
down with surprising agility, followed by three of his men.
"Who in hell is playing jokes!" The pirate roared. "Come on!" He yelled
at the two guards now at the cave's entrance. "You ... Branche ...
Jennings! Who's getting funny? Somebody's going to get their heads
blasted off for this!"
But instantly on the heels of Koerber's tirade, came Scotty's voice,
magnified a hundred times:
"Your time's almost up, Koerber! Fifteen seconds more and _the newest,
most deadly weapon of the I.S.P._ will be released against you!"
Even though he was still concentrating on the spheres and the emotion
of fear, Dennis felt a sudden exaltation. But he brushed it aside and
continued to recreate the terrible fear that had begun to invade his
being under his relentless auto-hypnosis. Subconsciously he could hear
Scotty's sonorous voice describing the horrible, irresistible weapon
that was to be used. Scotty was doing a magnificent job of laying it
on, with variations!
Koerber gazed around in stupefaction, then spying the prone figure
at the mouth of the cave, he cursed at Dennis and then began to race
across to the trussed up figure of his enemy, but he was halted by a
hoarse shout from one of his guards:
"Boss, look! _There is_ something coming!" The guard yelled excitedly.
Still lying on the ground, where the guards had dropped him, Dennis
could barely see the top of the cliff behind him. Over the edge, high
above the plain, swept cluster after cluster of the glowing, gloriously
shimmering spheres. A myriad rain of lavender, greens, pulsing reds and
flamboyant blues, iridescent, flaming with inward fires and spinning
ever faster the spectral globes swept downwards in the deepening
twilight with dazzling speed.
"Get the gun working, you scum!" Koerber cursed, pointing to the
portable atom-ray still remaining outside the spacer. Two men jumped at
his order and the livid ray blasted skyward. Blasting fiercely for a
few seconds, the two outlaws hesitated. Astonishment then fear crossed
their stubbled faces. The deadly ray was merely expanding the globes,
which flared into incandescent light and, kept right on coming down!
Huge chunks out of the side of the cliff behind the zooming spheres
crashed to the plain. And still the glittering flood of glowing globes
kept flowing on. His men must have done a wonderful job of luring the
deadly spheres, Dennis thought with a part of his mind.
"Needle guns!" Koerber screamed, rushing over to the two men who
stopped firing. "Use your hand guns, men! Someone get atomite capsules,
we'll blast whatever these things are out of space!"
Picking up the heavy atom-ray, Koerber cradled it in his powerful arms,
sweeping the deadly projector in wide arcs through the approaching,
luminous mass. Suddenly, Koerber shouted again. One of the men
near the stern of the ship had dropped his weapon and was running,
horror-stricken, across the broken ground.
"Come back here, you rat!" Koerber shrieked, swinging the big atom-ray
around. But he had no need to fire, a glowing globe fully six feet
in diameter, already was pursuing the doomed, fear-maddened creature
with vertiginous speed. Koerber saw it suddenly descend and envelop
the running figure, and in seconds the outlaw was a shrunken mass that
dropped to the ground like a squeezed fruit.
[Illustration: _The spheres rolled down in a deadly wave._]
Koerber's eyes were blazing as he whirled around and screamed at his
men: "Fight ... fight you lousy rats!" Uncontrollable passion twisted
his features in a fiendish snarl at the thought of losing the supreme
power and unimaginable wealth he had thought to be within his grasp.
His voice rose piercingly above the concussions of the atomite capsules
that at his command had been brought into action.
But unknown to him, stealthily, a growing fear was creeping into
his brain as all his efforts and the deadly fire of atom-blasts,
atom-ray and atomite capsules failed to even destroy a single globe.
The unearthly, macabre appearance of the luminous globes was already
playing havoc with the men's minds, and one by one the outlaws fled
shrieking into the darkness, to be consumed by the glowing spheres.
* * * * *
In the impenetrable blackness of the cave, Dennis Brooke had stopped
building the emotion of fear. With part of his mind he sought to
dispel the stubborn auto-hypnosis, and slowly, he was able to regain a
measure of normalcy. The thought of Marla helped, as with the growing
destruction of Koerber's men, he deliberately forced himself to see
her safe, in his arms. And slowly he came back out of the abyss of
fear into which he had purposely pushed his courageous mind. It took
patience, infinite patience and time, but time was growing short. He
rubbed the frayed bonds that bound his arms back of him, against the
jagged outcroppings of radio-active rock, until he burst them with
herculean strength, then it took a matter of seconds to free his legs.
Painfully he stood up, and let the blood course with exquisite torture
through his semi-paralyzed limbs. Then he sought the tiny atom-blast
Marla had given him to conceal.
The space in front of the black spacer was milling with men battling
spheres, a vortex of flaring illumination that hungrily enveloped the
maddened crew. Now and then, another man sank to the ground a lifeless
hulk. Suddenly one of the spheres came floating into the cave, curious,
attracted by the remnants of the fear vibrations and approached Dennis.
The Captain saw it enter and illuminate the impenetrable darkness,
he laughed. A few moments ago it would have meant his life, but now
he contemptuously bent down and picking a glittering specimen of
radio-active mineral flung it unerringly at the gently spinning globe.
As if the sphere weren't even there, the I.S.P. Captain strode out of
the cave. It was then he saw his own crew, space-suited, exultant,
spewing green death from their atom-blasts at the milling remnants of
what had been the scourge of the space-lanes. Far to one side he spied
Koerber, now a demoniac figure still firing the few remaining charges
left in the atom-ray. Saw him finally drop the useless weapon and turn
to fend off the swooping spheres. In a few bounds Dennis was beside him.
At the sight of Dennis, the scowling face went black with fury. He
sprang forward with both arms jabbing like pistons. Dennis swerved and
again planted a terrific left to Koerber's solar-plexus, it almost
doubled the pirate over, but Koerber was not through. He knew death was
very close, but he meant to take with him the one man he blamed for his
defeat. He came in with a fury that swept all before him, impervious
of the rain of blows that Dennis aimed at his face, and unleashing a
right to Dennis' jaw, he put every ounce of remaining power behind
it. But the I.S.P. Captain moved slightly, letting the blow whiz past
his face, then flat-footed, he let his right ride with the power of a
sledge-hammer. Koerber's face lost contour, a gout of dark, welling
blood flooded over it and he sank to the ground.
Suddenly Dennis' own men saw him, and came running to where he stood
planted over what remained of Koerber, pirate of the space lanes. His
chest heaving, clothes torn, he heard them as if in a dream, as they
shouted in joy at the complete victory they had achieved. It was only
when cool hands touched his face, and a remembered fragrance was in
his nostrils, that he came out of his daze. A voice was whispering the
simple words, "_my dear ... my very dear!_" Slowly he gathered Marla
in his arms and kissed her tenderly, while around him, the hovering
spheres sensed another emotion, greater even than fear--but of another
kind--that greatest of all emotions, Love.
* * * * *
Captain Dennis chewed the end of his stylus. After a moment he began to
write again in the large metallic book:
_B-XA-321_
_2400 SCT_
_The plan outlined in the previous entry was carried out. Operation
successful. Bren Koerber is being brought back a prisoner. All
members of his crew are dead. Koerber's cruiser is being towed to
Ceres Base. Full report on radio-active mineral discovery has been
radioed I.S.P. Headquarters, Terra. No luminous spheres captured.
Suggest scientific expedition be sent._
_Casualties suffered: One. Junior Lieutenant George Randall killed
in performance of duty by one of the spheres. Recommend heroism be
recognized by posthumous honors. Suggest Antares Cross._
Dennis Brooke, paused for a moment, uncertain whether or not to enter
in the official log book the one burning desire that dominated his
thoughts, at last he smiled and with a flourish he added:
_Leave of absence for two months requested. Reason: Marriage. Miss
Marla Starland has consented to honor me by becoming my wife._
Distantly he heard the muffled roar of the warming rockets. The great
cruiser was ready to leave the fateful Planetoid. He sighed in vast
contentment as he unplugged the stylus and gently closed the book.