Empire Part 24

Sometimes he had thought he would go mad. The everlasting routine, the meaningless march of hours. The work period, the sleep period ... the work period, the sleep period ... endless monotony, an existence without a purpose. Men buried alive in s.p.a.ce.

"John Moore Mallory," said a voice.

Mallory heard, but he did not stir. An awful thought crossed his mind.

Now he was hearing voices calling his name!

"John Mallory," said the voice again.

Mallory slowly turned about and as he turned he started from his chair.

A man stood in the cell! A man he had never seen before, who had come silently, for there had been no screech of opening door.

"You are John Moore Mallory, aren't you?" asked the man.

"Yes, I am Mallory. Who are you?"

"Gregory Manning."

"Gregory Manning," said Mallory wonderingly. "I've heard of you. You're the man who rescued the Pluto Expedition. But why are you here? How did you get in?"

"I came to take you away with me," said Greg. "Back to Callisto. Back to any place you want to go."

Mallory flattened himself against the part.i.tion, his face white with disbelief. "But I'm in a prison s.h.i.+p. I'm not free to go and come as I please."

Greg chuckled. "You are free to go and come as you please from now on,"

he said. "Even prison s.h.i.+ps can't hold you."

"You're mad," whispered Mallory. "Either you're mad or I am. You're a dream. I'll wake up and find you gone."

Manning stood in silence, looking at the man. Mallory bore the marks of prison on him. His eyes were haunted and his rugged face was pinched and thin.

"Listen closely, Mallory," said Greg softly. "You aren't going mad and I'm not mad. You aren't seeing things. You aren't hearing things. You're actually talking to me."

There was no change in the other's face.

"Mallory," Greg went on, "I have what you've always needed--means of generating almost unlimited energy at almost no cost, the secret of the energy of matter. A secret that will smash Interplanetary, that will free the Solar System from Spencer Chambers. But I can't make that secret available to the people until Chambers is crushed, until I'm sure that he can't take it from me. And to do that I need your help."

Mallory's face lost its expression of bewilderment, suddenly lighted with realization. But his voice was harsh and bitter.

"You came too late. I can't help you. Remember, I'm in a prison s.h.i.+p from which no one can escape. You have to do what you can ... you must do what you can. But I can't be with you."

Manning strode forward. "You don't get the idea at all. I said I'd get you out of here and I'm going to. I could pick up this s.h.i.+p and put it wherever I wanted. But I don't want to. I just want you."

Mallory stared at him.

"Just don't be startled," said Greg. "Something will happen soon. Get ready for it."

Feet drummed on the metal corridor outside.

"Hey, you, pipe down!" yelled the voice of the guard. "You know there's no talking allowed now. Go to sleep."

"That's the guard," Mallory whispered fiercely. "They'll stop us."

Greg grinned viciously. "No, they won't."

The guard came into view through the grilled door.

"So it's you, Mallory ..." he began, stopping in amazement. "Hey, you!"

he shouted at Greg. "Who are you? How did you get in that cell?"

Greg flipped a hand in greeting. "Pleasant evening, isn't it?"

The guard grabbed for the door, but he did not reach the bars. Some force stopped him six inches away. It could not be seen, could not be felt, but his straining against it accomplished nothing.

"Mallory and I are leaving," Greg told the guard. "We don't like it here. Too stuffy."

The guard lifted a whistle and blew a blast. Feet pounded outside. A prisoner yelled from one of the cells. Another catcalled. Instantly the s.h.i.+p was in an uproar. The convicts took up the yammering, shaking the bars on their doors.

"Let's get started," Greg said to Mallory. "Hold tight."

Blackness engulfed Mallory. He felt a peculiar twisting wrench. And then he was standing in the control room of a s.h.i.+p and Gregory Manning and another man were smiling at him. White light poured down from a cl.u.s.ter of globes. Somewhere in the s.h.i.+p engines purred with the hum of power.

The air was fresh and pure, making him realize how foul and stale the air of the prison s.h.i.+p had been.

Greg held out his hand. "Welcome to our s.h.i.+p."

Mallory gripped his hand, blinking in the light. "Where am I?"

"You are on the _Invincible_, five million miles off Callisto."

"But were you here all the time?" asked Mallory. "Were you in my cell back there or weren't you?"

"I was really in your cell," Greg a.s.sured him. "I could have just thrown my image there, but I went there personally to get you. Russ Page, here, sent me out. When I gave him the signal, he brought both of us back."

"I'm glad you're with us," Russ said. "Perhaps you'd like a cup of coffee, something to eat."

Mallory stammered. "Why, I really would." He laughed. "Rations weren't too good in the prison s.h.i.+p."

They sat down while Russ rang the galley for coffee and sandwiches.

Crisply, Greg informed Mallory of the situation.

"We want to start manufacturing these engines as soon as possible," he explained, "but I haven't even dared to patent them. Chambers would simply buy out the officials if I tried it on Earth, delay the patent for a few days and then send through papers copied from ours. You know what he'd do with it if he got the patent rights. He'd sc.r.a.p it and the old acc.u.mulator business would go on as always. If I tried it on any other world, with any other government, he'd see that laws were pa.s.sed to block us. He'd probably instruct the courts to rule against the manufacture of the engines on the grounds that they were dangerous."

Mallory's face was grave. "There's only one answer," he said. "With the situation on the worlds, with this purge you told me about, there's only one thing to do. We have to act at once. Every minute we wait gives Stutsman just that much longer to tighten his hold."