New Lensman Part 19

'He's already contacted me,' the guard said. 'If you'll turn around slowly and lift your visor, I'd like to check.'

Larry did as he was ordered. The guard relaxed.

'Lt. McQueen. Glad to have you here,' he said. 'Sorry I seemed a little suspicious but...'

The rest of the guard's words were lost as the alarm on his communicator began to buzz. He keyed it and asked, 'What?'

Larry however Lensed a similar thought directly to Hanovich.

[Detectors in both the north and south pa.s.sageways have indicated V2, and are closing airtight doors. Where are you?] Hanovich asked.

[At the tube across the slot,] Larry answered.

[The door is the one directly south of you.]

Larry looked down the tunnel. A long way down it he could see a man looking at him from behind a transporter, and behind him the airtight door was closing across the two lane roadway.

Larry dropped his visor and sent out the thought, [Bratmon?]

[He caught me by surprise,] the officer answered. He was standing in front of a similar door in the south pa.s.sageway holding his communicator. [By the time I got up to the door, it was closed.]

[Open it, cut through it or do something,] Larry suggested. [I can't help, I'm busy.]

'Do you have a gas mask?' Larry asked the guard.

'No.'

'Then get out of here. You and the driver go up to the next door. If it starts to close, get on the other side of it, otherwise you'll get a lungful of V2. I'm going to try to capture the man down there. If I can't, and you've got time, try to kill him before you retreat,' Larry said, and smiled. 'QX?'

Larry turned and advanced on the man hiding behind the transporter. He heard the transporter that he'd arrived on leave.

The man fired at him when he was about four yards away.

The rock was removed from the door of the entombed creeper, and Harv had climbed a line out of the slide. Pete waved him toward his creeper.

Once inside Pete's moon creeper they removed their face plates. Pete came to the point immediately. 'What is going on around here?' he asked.

'Someone is apparently planning to invade us,' Harv answered.

'Who?' Pete asked.

'I don't know,' Harv said. 'I don't think Mayor Love knows either. Someone has been sending agents into Copernicus in an apparent attempt to either take over, or to destroy it!'

You don't have any idea then who they are, or where they come from?' Pete asked again, somewhat disappointed.

'No, remember the universe is a big place,' Harv answered. 'An invader who advertises where he came from before he takes a bite out of his victim is inviting a bite back.'

'How did you get involved?' Pete asked. 'You're just another prospector like me.'

'Yes, but for the last ten years my hobby has been looking for the pre-World War 3 moon base,'

Harv said. 'Some people Earthside found new information about its location. The Galactic Patrol pa.s.sed the information on to Mayor Love, who pa.s.sed it on to me with the directions to find it, and secure it.'

'Galactic Patrol? What Galactic Patrol?'

'You're just full of questions, aren't you? Have you been listening to the Earthside News?' Harv 6768

asked.

'No,' Pete shot back. 'Why?'

'About an hour ago there was an attempt on the Solarian Councillor's life,' Harv said. 'The Commissioner of Public Safety has ordered out the entire Solarian Patrol. It has been renamed the "Galactic Patrol", and is on emergency call-out drill. The Hill is closed, and the Grand Fleet is out waiting for someone to show up from deep s.p.a.ce. It looks like the skirmis.h.i.+ng between individuals is about to stop, and the curtain is going up on the real action.'

'OK, how fast can you get the Solar ... er ... Galactic Patrol here with weapons and armor?' Pete asked.

'I can't,' Harv answered seriously. 'They have their hands too full with the fleet operations to be bothered with a couple of prospectors and an obsolete moon base. Copernicus will probably be under attack shortly. If Copernicus is destroyed, and they control the moon base, they will be able to use it as an advance outpost for their next attack. It could be easily reduced right now, if the Galactic Patrol had the time, and knew where to look. It took me a week to find it even with all my information on the subject, and only Copernicus Control, and apparently the enemy, suspect that I've found it.'

'In other words, we're on our own to secure the moon base, and defend it with obsolete weapons and our own resources,' Pete said.

'And if we don't, they'll wipe us out because we know too much,' Harv added with a sad smile and a shrug.

Pete paused for a moment and then shrugged back. 'OK, that's the way it is,' he said. 'What do we do first?'

'Copernicus Control should be real busy right now with Galactic Patrol work, which means that after we report that I'm OK, we'll be ignored. Whoever subst.i.tuted that character for Tolliver will expect him to report to them shortly, so we better start for the west peak p.r.o.nto.'

'I'll install a remote-control unit on the mining blasters to cover our rear, and on your tender, so you can take it along,' Pete said. 'You go on ahead in my moon creeper, and I'll catch up with you in Tolliver's Mooncar. Where do you think the entrance to the moon base is?'

'On the other side,' Harv answered. 'At least that's where I plan to look for it.'

'OK,' Pete said. 'Creeper, take the fighting unit and the tenders, and follow Harv's orders. The blasters will be on auxiliary channels six and eight. Harv's tender will be on channel nine. See you, Harv.' Pete grabbed up an armload of control units and left.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

FIRST LENSMAN - EVIL MONSTER?.

A fight between an armed man and an armored man is not as unequal as it might at first appear. The armed man has mobility and offensive power. The armored man has less mobility and must use what he has to 'come to grips' with his opponent so he can use his superior weight. Larry McQueen had weapons and could have ended the fight in short order but he needed information desperately and was willing to a.s.sume a considerable risk in attempting to gain it.

The shot was fired at Larry's left leg. The impact of the heavy calibre bullet knocked it out from under him. Larry went down and his opponent jumped out from his cover behind the transporter and ran toward him.

This form of attack was expected. It was cla.s.sic even in Roman times, although obviously the exact details were not. Attack the legs, the weakest point armored and the keystone to mobility.

Larry went into a side roll. His hands. .h.i.t the ground in a line with his right foot. He rolled over on his right shoulder, across the back and slapped the ground, coming up on his left hand and leg. He rose into a T-defense to meet his opponent's attack.

Larry's opponent leaped through the air toward him and lashed out with the side of his foot to Larry's right knee, attempting to knock him down again. Larry retreated and turned his knees sideways to the direction of the kick.

As the man landed, Larry lashed out with his hand to hit a painful blow in the side just below the ribs. The man tried to retreat. Larry aimed a high diversionary blow at the man's face. The man blocked and Larry swiftly hooked his foot around the man's, kicking forward. Larry's opponent stumbled backward and somehow recovered before Larry could get around for a take down.

The flexibility of the suit of armor had slowed the coordination of his attack. Larry closed in on him. His opponent retreated backwards to consider his next attack. He fired two shots at Larry's legs and missed. The transporter prodded him in the back and he moved around it with Larry keeping close. He reached in the back of the transporter, fumbled a moment and came out with a solid bar of metal about half a meter long. He held it by one end so the other end was at eye level. He went into a Horse stance with the stick extended toward Larry. It was similar to the fencer's stance 6869

except the knees weren't as bent.

Larry smiled, and copied the man. It seemed like a foolish thing for the man to do. His opponent lunged and the metal bar slid harmlessly off Larry's arm, missing the neck clamps of his helmet that the opponent had tried for. Larry flicked his armored glove at the man's hand, and missed.

Both men went into an on-guard position. Larry dropped his hand in a v motion under the bar and tapped it lightly on either side to see if he could sucker his opponent into parrying it enough to move out of position. Close. He started a pattern of taps on the bar, one side and then the other.

Got him used to moving back and forth to parry. Back and forth, a little wider now, and then ...

Lunge !

Larry's attack was inside the bar but he aimed not for the man's chest or head but for over his shoulder. His opponent tried automatically to parry and succeed in bringing Larry's glove against the side of his head with a bone crus.h.i.+ng thud.

The man went down. Larry probed. He was still half-conscious and trying to suicide. Larry reached down and put his fingers on both sides of the man's nose and pulled down. Out popped two nose filters and a lot of blood. The man struggled for a moment, took a breath and then lay still.

Triumphant, Larry stood up. He had his man, alive. He looked around. The doorway beyond the tube had closed while they were fighting. The whole area must be full of V2. He heard a faint noise from the back of the transporter and found a cylinder of liquid there: the V2. He closed the valve in the end.

[Got a gift for you, Hanovich,] he Lensed the Director of Security. [How about opening this can so I can bring it out to you?]

[You're going to be stuck in that can for awhile until the air clears,] Hanovich answered.

[Meanwhile, we've got other problems.] He explained that they couldn't clear the air in Copernicus Control of V2, even though the air coming in was pure. Maintenance was bringing in a portable detector to try to find the source. The power substation would be out until the transformers could be replaced but Copernicus Control would be on the air as soon as they could get the next s.h.i.+ft inside. The emergency generators were now on-line.

[How's Bratmon doing?] Larry asked.

[He and two other officers are cutting their way in with a semi-portable,] Hanovich answered.

[Did you get the guy who made the visiphone calls?]

[No. But he only made two calls,] Hanovich answered. [So he's the only one unaccounted for.]

Larry McQueen cooled his heels for half an hour until the level of V2 dropped low enough that the airtight doors opened. New guards were waiting outside when they did. He and the transporter driver who had brought him to the tube returned to the hospital prison ward with their prisoner.

It was a little after 2 o'clock in the morning according to Lensman Larry McQueen's wrist watch as he watched a doctor check the man strapped to the bed.

'When did you make the injections?' the doctor asked.

'About five minutes after he was exposed,' Larry said. 'I used the vials stored in my armor.'

'Then he should be coming out of it shortly,' the doctor said. As the man slowly recovered from the effects of the gas, Larry sat beside the bed and probed. He spoke directly to the man's mind, trying to get images or remembrances of his background through word a.s.sociation.

What he got was a series of images and isolated events a.s.sociated with pain or unconsciousness such as when a ball had hit him in the side of the head; being thrown to a mat too hard; a spanking by his mother. There was also a Pain-Fear-Love sequence. The events changed and faded into each other like watching a merry-go-round through a kaleidoscope. Many events didn't make sense.

The man was hot and he tried to wipe his forehead. A word from Larry brought a cold cloth and Larry wiped his brow.

An ego, a personal viewpoint, began to emerge in the events. Very cautiously Larry tried projecting the emotion of fear. The reaction he got came through forcefully and out of proportion to the stimulus.

He was a child, drifting, exploring, excited, in a field of weeds on the side of a hill. There were friends around him. Other children he enjoyed. They were excited, having fun. The sun was bright and warm and they were happy.

A black spot appeared in the blue of the sky. He stopped to watch it.

It grew larger. He seemed to be the only one who saw it.

It grew larger. It was the face of a man.

It grew larger. And clearer as the lines separated.

It grew larger. The horrid, leering face of a man.

It grew larger. The lines of the face broke apart and became s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps, black, evil, foreboding.

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It grew larger. Filling the sky above the children, darkening it. They stopped and looked up in sudden dread and antic.i.p.ation.

'D I E !' a voice said, and there flooded down from the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps beams of red destruction and fire. They touched the field and, where they touched, the field turned black. They touched his friends and they cried out in pain and shriveled before his eyes. He ran, and a beam followed him and touched him and he screamed in agony.

And screamed.

And screamed.

The leering face had been that of a man Larry knew. The face of Virgil Samms, the First Lensman, and Head of the Solarian Council. Larry was a little shaken by the raw hate shown coming from Samms. He had expected a reaction to his suggestion but nothing like this. He had expected some resistance. It was like having tried to cool some water and having instead produced a crystal in a super-cooled solution. He tried to undo what he had started and in a few minutes a child no longer writhed in screaming agony in the mind of the still, silent form on the bed.

Larry tried to be infinitely more careful and patient as he projected the next emotion.

[ h a t e ]

The mind of the man seized it and it became HATE!!.

Blackness.

Drawing back, the blackness was an up-close view of The s.p.a.ce black-with-silver piping of a uniform of A Solarian Patrolman.