_Flight_
It was to Hawk Carse that the news of imminent danger came first.
He had staggered from the laboratory into a sleeping room and, clad as
he was, fallen over into a berth. He would have wakened in a few
hours, such was his custom of years to four-hour watches on ships, but
he was permitted less than an hour of sleep. A hand pulled at him; a
voice kept calling his name. Awareness returned to him slowly as his
brain roused from the coma of sleep.
"Captain Carse! Captain Carse! Wake up, sir!"
It was one of Leithgow's assistants, a man named Thorpe. His tone was
excited and his manner distraught.
"Yes?" the Hawk muttered thickly. "What is it?"
"It's the asteroid, sir! I was instructed to watch it at intervals,
but I--I guess I fell asleep, and just now--"
Carse sat up. "Yes? What?"
"--when I looked, through the glasses--it was gone!"
"Gone? You're sure? Let me see."
Swiftly, Thorpe at his heels, Carse strode out from the room to a
cubby just off the laboratory, the watch-post, where observational
electelscopes and visi-screens provided a panorama of the surrounding
territory.
He gazed through the electelscope, which had been equipped with an
infra-red device and trained on the asteroid, and saw that now, where
the massive body of rock had been poised, there was nothing. Only the
brilliant light of mid-afternoon, the cloudless sky. Carse swept the
glass around. The search was fruitless. The heavens were bare. The
asteroid had gone.
In half a minute Carse had reasoned out the disappearance, saw the
consequences and made the inevitable decision. Gone was the torpor of
sleep, the weariness of the laboratory; this was a crisis, and this
was his work. During the operations, he had been able merely to obey
orders and do manual work. Now he assumed command.
"Your lapse has imperilled us all," he said curtly to Thorpe. "From
now on we're in great danger. Stay here and keep on watch, and sound
the alarm immediately if the asteroid reappears."
"Yes, sir. I--I'm sorry--"
The adventurer cut him off with a frigid nod and ran on silent, rapid
feet to the laboratory, where both Ban Wilson and Friday lay fast
asleep. Roughly Carse shook them into consciousness. Trained to
shipboard routine and the sudden emergencies of space, they needed but
little time to return to full wakefulness. In staccato sentences the
new situation was outlined to them.
"The asteroid's gone. That means danger to everything here. We will
have to evacuate. Ban, wake all the men, including Ku Sui and his
assistants, then come to me for further orders. Friday, see that
Leithgow's ship is ready for instant departure. Quick!"
Alarmed, but without questions, the two parted on their separate
errands. Carse went to the room where Eliot Leithgow lay asleep.
* * * * *
The pallor and weariness of the old scientist's face were emphasized
by the alarming news his friend brought him, but he took it with
spirit, and his voice was level and controlled as he asked:
"What does it mean, Carse? What must we do?"
"Leave, Eliot, and at once. We have no choice. Our danger while here
is immense. The asteroid, in the hands of enemies, could crush us like
a fly, simply by coming down on the top of the hill."
"But who could have taken it? There was no one on it, was there?"
The Hawk said wryly: "I thought not, but well, you remember the secret
panel in Dr. Ku's laboratory?"
"Through, which he escaped before? Yes."
"I suspected that he might have someone hidden behind it, and I
intended to question him when he was under the V-27, but in the
terrific rush of things it slipped my mind. Sheer carelessness, Eliot;
I'm very sorry. I should have known, for when we captured Ku Sui he
spoke some words in Chinese through his helmet-radio. Now I can see
that they must have gone to some man of his hidden there; and that
man, obeying instructions, simply lay low, heard all that passed in
Dr. Ku's laboratory, and then, at a suitable opportunity, took the
asteroid away in search of allies. He knows his master is a prisoner
here and unquestionably he will be back to release him. We must be out
of here and far away by the time he arrives."
"Yes," Leithgow nodded slowly. "As you say, there is no choice."
"But your work here is finished, Eliot," Carse went on. "If only we
can get to Earth safely, with Ku Sui and the brains in their new
bodies, we will have achieved everything we wanted to achieve. We have
proof of the crime done you, and we have Ku Sui, too. Your position
will be restored and the blame put where it belongs. But we must leave
for Earth at once! God knows how near the asteroid is, or who's on
it."
"All right, Carse." The scientist got up. "What are your
instructions?"
Ban Wilson appeared in the door, reporting that all the men had been
accounted for and awakened. Carse started the wheels moving.
"Everything of value here must be transported aboard the ship. Eliot,
you know better than I what to take, so you'll assume charge of the
loading. Ban, you and all the men save two of Eliot's assistants will
help. I'll need them to move the bodies. Send them to me in the
laboratory. But first, be sure Ku Sui and his four men are safely
confined. All right; let's go."
Within half an hour the general evacuation was finished and the ship
loaded.
* * * * *
The _Sandra_, Leithgow's ship, bearing his daughter's name, was a
sturdy vessel designed more for comfort and utility than speed, and so
her appointments, including offensive and defensive weapons, though
modern were limited. Her commodious cargo-holds were easily capable of
accommodating all of the Master Scientist's laboratory instruments and
devices, the volumes of his extensive library, his great mass of
personal papers and more intimate effects; all the more important
stores of the place, too, and its furnishings. The laboratory and its
surrounding rooms were pretty well stripped.
The largest of the _Sandra's_ cabins was transformed under the
direction of Leithgow into a hospital bay, and the five cots bearing
the prostrate, unconscious bodies of the patients put there. Though
hastily improvised, this hospital was complete, as fully equipped and
nearly as efficient as if it were on Earth and not in the belly of a
space-ship. The chances of the patients for complete recovery were not
diminished in any way by the sudden necessity for flight.
In a second, much smaller cabin, Dr. Ku Sui was confined by himself.
Its walls, of course, were of metal, and there was no possible means
of exit from it save by the door, which bore double locks. The
Eurasian, silent and drugged and stupid, immediately stretched his
tall form out on the single berth and in seconds was again sound
asleep. A third cabin was made over to his four assistants.
With everything completed, the underground refuge bare of articles of
value and the _Sandra_ stored and made ready for the long trip, the
inner door of the exit tube swung open, and the ship slid slowly out
of her cradle and into the water chamber for the last time. Her flight
to Earth had begun.
Eliot Leithgow stood near the Hawk in the control cabin, and his old
face was made sad by many memories. For years, this place that he was
now leaving had been his only home, his one sure haven. How carefully,
long ago, had he and Carse planned it and built it! How many times had
they met there, often when danger was close and enemies near, and
cemented still more firmly the bonds between them! To Leithgow, the
hill symbolized safety and friendship and his beloved work. Dangerous,
weary years, those he had spent in the hill, but priceless
nevertheless, warmed as they were by his achievements and the
friendship of Hawk Carse.
Now he was leaving it and going back to Earth. The outlaw years, it
seemed, were ended: Ku Sui was a prisoner, and the proof of his great
crime, which had been laid to Leithgow, was aboard. Earth--green
Earth! Separate, distinct, peerless in the universe; home of men, of
his kind! He had loved and worked and known honor and respect on
Earth; it held the grave of his wife, and the fresh, warm young love
of his wife reincarnate, his daughter Sandra. He was at last going
home to Earth from his exile on this desolate, raw frontier post.
There was a choking in Eliot Leithgow's throat at leaving the hill,
and he turned away, afraid at that moment of being observed by the
steel-gray eyes of his friend, Hawk Carse....
* * * * *
The _Sandra_ swam up through the lake's muddy tide and launched
herself, dripping, into the warm air of afternoon. Her generators
hummed with life given them by the firm hand at the controls, and
swiftly she arrowed forth into the blue. With a few words as to the
visual course, Carse handed the space-stick over to Friday, and
devoted himself to the matter of the watches.
Satellite III dropped swiftly to concavity, as the _Sandra_ was
expertly jockeyed through the rare outer layer of the stratosphere,
became a true globe again. The Negro reported:
"Through the atmosphere, suh. Orders?"
"Full acceleration. Continue visually for the present. I'll work out
the true course in a few minutes."
"Yes, suh!"
The hum of the generators deepened. In a matter of ten minutes,
shipboard routine was arranged, Carse, Friday and Ban splitting the
watches. The Hawk, as was his custom, took the first. Friday was
relieved of the space-stick and immediately went back for sleep, as
did Wilson. Eliot Leithgow did not retire right away, however.
He watched Carse snap on the automatic control and go to an
electelscope which had been equipped with an infra-red device. He
directed it rearward on Satellite III, back along the course the
_Sandra_ had described, and peered through its eyepiece for several
minutes. Then he turned to the old scientist.
"Nothing," he said. "No sign of the asteroid as yet. We'll have to
keep careful watch. The visi-screen's useless against the invisibility
of the asteroid; and the high magnification of this scope, with its
resulting small field of view, will require us continually and
methodically to search through a wide circle behind, in the attempt to
pick up the asteroid, should it appear. A tedious job, with chances of
sighting it about even.... At any rate, we'll have some sort of a
head-start," he finished.
* * * * *
This was the opportunity Leithgow had waited for; he wanted a few
frank words with his friend.
"Carse," he said slowly, "I wonder just where that man concealed
behind the secret panel would take the asteroid?"
"I've thought about that too," replied the Hawk. "We may be sure that
he went for allies: Dr. Ku has several on Satellite III. Of them all,
I think he would go for Lar Tantril."
"Tantril?"
"Yes, I think so. Lar Tantril, the Venusian. A fellow of much
self-confidence and one of Ku Sui's chief agents, and who at
present"--he smiled faintly--"nurses a special bitterness against me.
I told you how I tricked him on his ranch. He'd be very eager to
pursue us in the asteroid simply for the opportunity of repaying me
for that trick." The adventurer's left hand rose to the bangs of
flaxen hair combing down over his forehead, and he murmured, musingly:
"I rather hope it _is_ Lar Tantril...."
"You hope so?" Leithgow repeated, surprised. "When he hates you so?
And would be on the lookout for tricks? Why?"
"I would guess, Eliot, that Lar Tantril is not notable for intellect.
Blustering, domineering--pretty much of a braggart, you know.
Certainly he is not a model of caution; and he is not acquainted with
Dr. Ku's asteroid, for he did not even know it existed. He will be
able to run it, of course, with the advice of this hidden man, but
surely he will not have the perception to discern the weakness in it.
Yes, I hope it is he."
Leithgow went on to the main thing on his mind.
"I'm a little unsettled, Carse," he admitted. "I've been imagining
this as the end of my outlaw years, and the beginning of my
re-establishment on Earth. But this ship is slow, and I see now that
if the asteroid does pursue us and capture us.... What do you really
think of our chances?"
* * * * *
The Hawk pursed his lips slightly, and for a little while he looked
away and did not answer. When his voice came, it was tinged with
bitterness.
"Eliot," he said, "I've been trying to find an excuse for my lapse.
But there is none. It was the blunder of a novice, my not remembering
to question Ku Sui about that secret panel. That was the cardinal
point, yet it slipped my mind, in my preoccupation with the
emergencies connected with the restoration of the brains.
"Our chances are only fair, Eliot; I'm telling you frankly how it
appears to me. I believe we'll be pursued, and if we are the odds are
greatly against us. The asteroid's far more powerful than we. And
Jupiter only knows what new offensive resources Ku Sui may have given
it: I had no time to study the several strange mechanisms I saw in its
control room. Then, no nearby patrol ship would help us if we were
attacked, for to them our enemy would be invisible, and they'd think
us crazy."
He paused. But seeing the somber expression on the other's face, he
smiled and cuffed him on the back.
"But maybe we won't even be pursued, Eliot! Maybe we'll be too far
ahead for them to catch us! No doubt I've made it look too serious, so
cheer up! We're alive, we've got everything we wanted, and we're
hitting at full speed for Earth! And you know the luck of that
space-adventurer they call the Hawk!"
Leithgow smiled gently in answer, then left the cabin for the sleep he
needed so badly. Hawk Carse was left alone on watch in the fleeing
_Sandra_.
A lonely, intent figure, he stood over the chart-table, working out
their best course to Earth. Presently, however, he went back to the
infra-red electelscope and swept it over the leagues behind. Carse
could not detect any sign of the asteroid, but he remained for a
little while at the eyepiece, staring at Satellite III. There it lay,
a diminishing globe, three-quarters of it gleaming in the light flung
by Jupiter. Dark patches mottled it: they would be the jungles. And
there was the scintillant sheet that was the Great Briney Lake, with
Port o' Porno nearby. On the other side of the little world, now, lay
the hill containing Leithgow's laboratory. All going ... going ...
falling swiftly behind. Satellite III, scene of so many clashes, plots
and counter-plots, where so many times he and Eliot Leithgow had
fought off the reaching hand of Ku Sui--soon it would be a million
miles away. What adventures would he have before he saw it again?...
A little sound came from the Hawk, a half-sigh. Abruptly he called one
of the men on his watch and stationed him at the 'scope, and then he
returned to the chart-table and the work of calculating their course
to Earth.