_The Murder in A 22_
"Good God, what was that?" Dr. Frank's face had gone white in the
starlight. Snap stood like a statue of horror.
The deck here was patched as always, silver radiance from the deck
ports. The empty deck chairs stood about. The scream was stilled, but
now we heard a commotion inside--the rasp of opening cabin doors;
questions from frightened passengers; the scurry of feet.
I found my voice. "Anita! Anita Prince!"
"Come on!" shouted Snap. "Was it the Prince girl? I thought so too! In
her stateroom, A 22!" He was dashing for the lounge archway.
Dr. Frank and I followed. I realized that we passed the deck door and
window of A 22. But they were dark, and evidently sealed on the inside.
The dim lounge was in a turmoil; passengers standing at their cabin
doors. I heard Sir Arthur Coniston:
"I say, what was that?"
"Over there," said another man. "Come back inside, Martha." He shoved
his wife back. "Mr. Haljan!" He plucked at me as I went past.
I shouted, "Go back to your rooms! We want order here--keep back!"
We came to the twin doors of A 22 and A 20. Both were closed. Dr. Frank
was in advance of Snap and me. He paused at the sound of Captain
Carter's voice behind us.
"Was it from in there? Wait a moment!"
Carter dashed up; he had a large heat-ray projector in his hand. He
shoved us aside. "Let me in first. Is the door sealed? Gregg, keep those
passengers back!"
* * * * *
The door was not sealed. Carter burst into the room. I heard him gasp,
"Good God!"
Snap and I shoved back three or four crowding passengers, and in that
instant Dr. Frank had been in the room and out again.
"There's been an accident! Get back, Gregg! Snap, help him keep the
crowd away." He shoved me forcibly.
From within, Carter was shouting, "Keep them out! Where are you, Frank?
Come back here! Send a flash for Balch--I want Balch!"
Dr. Frank went back into the room and banged the cabin door upon Snap
and me. I was unarmed--I had loaned my cylinder to the guard in the
lower corridor. Weapon in hand, Snap forced the panic-stricken
passengers back to their rooms.
"It's all right! An accident! Miss Prince is hurt."
Snap reassured them glibly; but he knew no more about it than I. Moa,
with a night-robe drawn tight around her thin, tall figure, edged up to
me.
"What has happened, Set Haljan?"
I gazed around for her brother Miko, but did not see him.
"An accident," I said shortly. "Go back to your room. Captain's
orders."
She eyed me and then retreated. Snap was threatening everybody with his
cylinder. Balch dashed up. "What in the hell? Where's Carter?"
"In there." I pounded on A 22. It opened cautiously. I could see only
Carter, but I heard the murmuring voice of Dr. Frank through the
interior connecting door to A 20.
* * * * *
The captain rasped, "Get out, Haljan! Oh, is that you, Balch? Come in."
He admitted the older officer and slammed the door again upon me. And
immediately reopened it.
"Gregg, keep the passengers quiet. Tell them everything's all right.
Miss Prince got frightened, that's all. Then go up to the turret. Tell
Blackstone what's happened."
"But I don't know what's happened," I protested miserably.
Carter was grim and white. He whispered, "I think it may turn out to be
murder, Gregg! No, not dead yet--Dr. Frank is trying--Don't stand there
like an ass, man! Get to the turret! Verify our trajectory--no--wait--"
The captain was almost incoherent. "Wait a minute, I don't mean that!
Tell Snap to watch his helio-room. Gregg, you and Blackstone stay in the
chart-room. Arm yourselves and guard our weapons. By God, this murderer,
whoever he is--"
I stammered, "If--if she dies--will you flash us word?"
He stared at me strangely. "I'll be there presently, Gregg."
He slammed the door upon me.
I followed his orders, but it was like a dream of horror. The turmoil of
the ship gradually quieted. Snap went to the helio-room; Blackstone and
I sat in the tiny steel chart-room. How much time passed, I do not
know. I was confused. Anita hurt! She might die.... Murdered.... But
why? By whom? Had George Prince been in his own room when the attack
came? I thought now I recalled hearing the low murmur of his voice in
there with Dr. Frank and Carter.
Where was Miko? It stabbed at me. I had not seen him among the
passengers in the lounge.
* * * * *
Carter came into the chart-room. "Gregg, you get to bed--you look like a
ghost!"
"But--"
"She's not dead--she may live. Dr. Frank and her brother are with her.
They're doing all they can." He told us what had happened. Anita and
George Prince had both been asleep, each in their respective rooms.
Someone unknown had opened Anita's corridor door.
"Wasn't it sealed?" I demanded.
"Yes. But the intruder opened it."
"Burst it? I didn't think it was broken."
"It wasn't broken. The assailant opened it somehow, and assaulted Miss
Prince--shot her in the chest with a heat-ray. Her left lung."
"She is conscious?" Balch demanded.
"Yes. But she did not see who did it. Nor did Prince. Her scream
awakened him, but the intruder evidently fled out the corridor door of
A 22, the way he entered."
I stood weak and shaken at the chart-room entrance. "A little son, cast
in the gentle image of his mother. But with the strength of his
father...." But Anita--dying, perhaps; and all my dreams were fading
into a memory of what might have been.
"You go to bed, Gregg--we don't need you."
I was glad enough to get away. I would lie down for an hour, and then go
to Anita's stateroom. I'd demand that Dr. Frank let me see her, if only
for a moment.
* * * * *
I went to the stern deck-space where my cubby was located. My mind was
confused, but some instinct within me made me verify the seals of my
door and window. They were intact. I entered cautiously, switched on the
dimmer of the tube-lights, and searched the room. It had only a bunk, my
tiny desk, a chair and clothes robe.
There was no evidence of any intruder here. I set my door and window
alarm. Then I audiphoned to the helio-room.
"Snap?"
"Yes."
I told him about Anita. Carter cut in on us from the chart-room. "Stop
that, you fools!"
We cut off. Fully dressed, I flung myself on my bed. Anita might
die....
I must have fallen into a tortured sleep. I was awakened by the sound of
my alarm buzzer. Someone was tampering with my door! Then the buzzer
ceased; the marauder outside must have found a way of silencing it. But
it had done its work--awakened me.
I had switched off the light; my cubby was Stygian dark. A heat-cylinder
was in the bunk-bracket over my head; I searched for it, pried it loose
softly.
I was fully awake. Alert. I could hear a faint sizzling--someone outside
trying to unseal the door. In the darkness, cylinder in hand, I crept
from the bunk. Crouched at the door. This time I would capture or kill
this night prowler.
* * * * *
The sizzling was faintly audible. My door-seal was breaking. Upon
impulse I reached for the door, jerked it open.
No one there! The starlit segment of deck was empty. But I had leaped,
and I struck a solid body, crouching in the doorway. A giant man. Miko!
His electronized metallic robe burned my hands. I lunged against him--I
was almost as surprised as he. I shot, but the stab of heat evidently
missed him.
The shock of my encounter close-circuited his robe; he materialized in
the starlight. A brief, savage encounter. He struck the weapon from my
hand. He had dropped his hydrogen torch, and tried to grip me. But I
twisted away from his hold.
"So it's you!"
"Be quiet, Gregg Haljan! I only want to talk."
Without warning, a stab of radiance shot from a weapon in his hand. It
caught me. Ran like ice through my veins. Seized and numbed my limbs.
I fell helpless to the deck. Nerves and muscles paralyzed. My tongue was
thick and inert. I could not speak, nor move. But I could see Miko
bending over me. And hear him:
"I don't want to kill you, Haljan. We need you."
He gathered me up like a bundle in his huge arms; carried me swiftly
across the deserted deck.
Snap's helio-room in the network under the dome was diagonally overhead.
A white actinic light shot from it--caught us, bathed us. Snap had been
awake; had heard the slight commotion of our encounter.
His voice rang shrilly: "Stop! I'll shoot!" His warning siren rang out
to arouse the ship. His spotlight clung to us.
Miko ran with me a few steps. Then he cursed and dropped me, fled away.
I fell like a sack of carbide to the deck. My senses faded into
blackness....
* * * * *
"He's all right now."
I was in the chart-room, with Captain Carter, Snap and Dr. Frank bending
over me. The surgeon said,
"Can you speak now, Gregg?"
I tried it. My tongue was thick, but it would move. "Yes."
I was soon revived. I sat up, with Dr. Frank vigorously rubbing me.
"I'm all right." I told them what had happened.
Captain Carter said abruptly, "Yes, we know that. And it was Miko also
who killed Anita Prince. She told us before she died."
"Died!..." I leaped to my feet. "She ... died...."
"Yes, Gregg. An hour ago, Miko got into her stateroom and tried to force
his love on her. She repulsed him--he killed her."
It struck me blank. And then with a rush came the thought, "He says Miko
killed her...."
I heard myself stammering, "Why--why we must get him!" I gathered my
wits; a surge of hate swept me; a wild desire for vengeance.
"Why, by God, where is he? Why don't you go get him? I'll get him--I'll
kill him, I tell you!"
"Easy, Gregg!" Dr. Frank gripped me.
The captain said gently, "We know how you feel, Gregg. She told us
before she died."
"I'll bring him in here to you! But I'll kill him, I tell you!"
"No you won't, lad. You're hysterical now. We don't want him killed, not
attacked even. Not yet. We'll explain later."
They sat me down, calming me.
Anita dead. The door of the shining garden was closed. A brief glimpse,
given to me and to her of what might have been. And now she was
dead....