The Revolt of the Star Men Part 5

The Race Through s.p.a.ce

Immediately the Earthman set himself to the task of examining everything in his prison. But as he had expected, there was little or nothing to discover. The walls which his tether permitted him to reach were all perfectly smooth and solid. He realized with a sheepish grin that it had been foolish of him to even dare to hope that they would be otherwise.

The chain fastened to the fetter was quite adequate to hold him. The window, even if it might have been used as an avenue of escape, was securely fastened with bolts, so that it would have taken a man equipped with a heavy set of wrenches, an hour to remove it. To shatter the flexible pane was next to an impossibility. The table was firmly welded to the floor. Beyond the table, Shelby could not go, for the chain prevented him. But he was quite sure that there was nothing movable in the entire room ma.s.sive enough to be used as a tool or weapon.

He slumped down on his bunk, and let one hand rest on a small power-pipe which ran along the wall and up to the illumination globe above. For a minute dejection almost got a firm grip on him. But he fought it off.

This was no time to give up. Why, the struggle hadn't even started yet!

Shelby felt a faint vibration of the power-pipe under his hand. For a considerable time the impressions had been coming to him, but they had scarcely penetrated into his consciousness. They seemed no more significant than the hundred and one little noises and disturbances that go with the running of any s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p. Presently however, the regular sequence of the pulsations attracted his attention. Something made him think of the almost obsolete Morse code. Then the realization came to him. Someone in another room on he s.h.i.+p was tapping on the power-pipe--signaling--signaling him! He spelled the word out--A-u-s-t-i-n, repeated over and over again.

His first thought was of Jan. It must be she who was calling him for there was no one else.

Quickly, with his heavy signet ring, he tapped out an answer: "It is I, Jan, A. S. shoot--"

With tensed muscles, and with fingers firmly clutching the power-pipe that he might not miss a single signal, Shelby crouched, receiving the message. Somehow there was an urgency, an insistence, an appeal about those hurried pulsations that no human voice could have conveyed. It was fantastically like communicating with one who is buried alive.

"We must escape not later than five hours from now," the tapping spelled. "You have been unconscious for a long time--drugged. In five hours we land on Mars. Then escape will be impossible.

"Hekki has told me much, and I have seen much. The horrors that are Selba's henchmen--three times some of them came to the s.h.i.+p, once in a band of over a hundred. Hekki is worried. He has not troubled me yet.

Too busy I suppose. I have tried to make believe that I agree to his plans. I thought I could control him that way. But he has been taking the Elar drug.

"We must escape, Austin. We must! Can't you think of a way? I will help!

If they get you to the concentration base in the Taraal they will torture you. And we must remember our homeland!"

The hurrying vibrations ceased, and then, almost before he knew what he was doing, Shelby was tapping out an answer promising the impossible.

"Never fear, dearest," he signaled. "Just let me think for a few minutes." A moment later this phrase almost made him laugh. The sap hero of a comedy which had recently been broadcast over the radio-view had said almost these exact words. Think? Of what? Escape within five hours?

How? But Jan's appeal sent in such an odd way had an almost magical effect on him, and made his brain work harder almost than ever before.

And then the ghost of an idea came. There was a chance that it would work. He signaled to Jan, and then for half an hour, they put their heads together--planning.

Somewhat nervous, Shelby walked to the door and hammered loudly upon it.

A thin-faced slave whose hide was burned by desert suns to the color of mahogany, appeared almost immediately.

Shelby answered his inquiring look briefly: "I would speak to your master," he said in Pagari--"right away." The slave nodded and reclosed the door.

In excited impatience the Earthman waited. Now and then he tapped short messages of encouragement to Jan. Would Hekalu never come? The strain of suspense was not exactly pleasant. Finally, unable to contain himself any longer, he rose from the bunk where he had been reclining in readiness for the first move of the coup he was planning, and began to pace the floor.

He chanced to glance out of the window. On the railed walk beyond, a man clad in s.p.a.ce armor was bending over a small portable case which was supported on a tripod. Shelby surmised correctly that this man was Hekalu Selba.

Beside him, paying close attention to whatever the Martian was doing, stood the black Alkebar. The Earthman frowned in puzzlement, almost in awe. For Hekki's weird companion wore nothing that would be of the least help in protecting him from interplanetary cold and lack of air pressure. Not even an oxygen helmet! And yet, as the monster examined interestedly, every dial and switch that Hekalu touched, he showed not the slightest hint of discomfort. The airless emptiness of s.p.a.ce seemed home to him. How could such things be? A strange thrill tingled and vibrated along Shelby's spine when he realized how alien was Alkebar.

There was no kins.h.i.+p between him and the creatures of either Earth or Mars.

Presently Hekki looked up, and as though moved by some intuitive realization that he was being watched, turned awkwardly in his c.u.mbersome attire, and glanced along the row of portholes in the side of the vessel. He saw the Earthman and smiled at him. Shelby felt that it was the kind of smile which a tolerant father might show to his youngest son. Hekalu waved his hand, and his lips, behind the glazed front of the helmet, formed several words which Shelby could not interpret. Then the Martian returned his attention to his apparatus.

When Selba entered his prisoner's room some moments later, he found him lounging on the bunk.

The Martian looked enquiringly at Shelby. "You have reached some conclusion, my friend?" he asked.

Without changing his position on the bunk the young man nodded. There was an expression of dejection and sullen resignation on his face which he was trying hard, above the intense excitement which possessed him, to make realistic. Still acting the part he spoke: "Yes, Akar Hekalu," he said between teeth that were apparently gritted with rage, "I have decided to reveal to you the secret of the Atomic Ray."

A triumphant gleam came into the Martian's eyes. "Ah, my friend," he said, "you at last see the light. I knew that you would. But what has been the cause for this sudden change in att.i.tude? The torture chamber, perhaps?" There was an undercurrent of suspicion in Hekalu's voice.

Shelby turned his head sullenly away, feigning shame. He said nothing. A minute pa.s.sed during which time Hekalu stared at his captive, a sardonic smirk of contempt curling his thin coral lips.

Finally he said, "I will have Koo Faya bring you writing materials, and you will describe in writing every detail of the manufacture of the missing element."

"No," replied Shelby, turning his face toward the Martian, "I haven't the ability to do that. It will be necessary for you to take me to the laboratory of the s.h.i.+p where I can demonstrate the process to you. It is much too delicate and complicated."

The n.o.ble's eyes wavered slightly. "Once," he said, "you tried to trick me, but I warn you that I am on guard now so do not attempt it again."

He signed to Alkebar who had been standing silently beside the open door. The giant drew a key from a pouch at his side, and kneeling, unlocked the fetter fastened about Shelby's ankle. It rattled to the floor. And at the same time the Earthian, leaning back on the bunk with arms stretching over his head, tapped sharply three times with his signet ring on the power-pipe. It seemed to be only an unconscious gesture--nervousness perhaps.

Immediately there was a terrific crash from down the pa.s.sage way, followed by an agonized scream. Another crash. More screams.

Hekalu started, and then making a hurried gesture to Alkebar which indicated that he was to guard the inventor of the Atomic Ray, he drew his automatic and dashed down the corridor to investigate the disturbance. The Earthman however, was in no mood to be guarded. No longer shackled, he leaped to his feet and over to the center of the room. The great voiceless beast from the stars stood before the doorway with his long arms outstretched. He was not trying to capture the Earthman--only seeking to block his path.

But Shelby had no time to waste. Gathering himself together, he hurtled straight for the ankles of his opponent. The fact that the artificial gravity of the s.h.i.+p was of the same strength as that of Mars--only a trifle more than one-third that of Earth--added to the effectiveness of his plunge. The mighty-muscled Alkebar, puzzled by the unheard-of tactics of his agile though vastly weaker foe, suddenly found himself in a sprawling heap on the floor. Shelby leaped over him through the door, slammed it, and raced precipitately down the corridor.

In the meantime Hekalu Selba had reached Janice Darell's room, but when he had unlocked it and had thrust his head inside to see what the matter was, a heavy urn, deftly aimed, had crashed full into his face. Shelby saw him sprawling in the pa.s.sage badly dazed, and a split second later Jan dashed from her cabin. She looked around, and when she saw Shelby coming swiftly toward her she flashed him a quick smile of triumph.

But Alkebar had wrenched the portal of the Earthman's recent prison open, and was in hot pursuit. He was tugging frantically at the pistol in his belt.

"Run, Jan, quick!--To the control room!" Austin shouted.

He caught up Hekki's automatic which had dropped from the Martian's grasp when he had fallen, and wheeling, fired at the black colossus. The bullet struck Alkebar's right hand with which he was raising his pistol.

The tough natural armor which covered the monster from head to foot prevented it from doing any serious damage, but it must have stung badly, for his weapon clattered to the floor. While he was stooping to recover it, Shelby hurried forward to catch up with Jan. It was but a few yards to the control room. If they could get there, overcome whoever was in charge and barricade themselves in, they could master the s.h.i.+p!

Their luck had been good, but it was not destined to be as good as that.

They caught but a brief glimpse of the bewildering array of switches, dials and levers, that const.i.tuted the brain-center of the craft.

Standing on guard before his instrument panels was the mahogany-colored slave Koo Faya. He was half crouching, at bay. There was a murderous light in his eyes, and he held leveled in his hands a light machine gun. Shelby's automatic was leveled too, and he pressed his trigger an instant before the Martian. Four bullets whizzed into the control room, splattering close about the thin mummy-like body of Koo Faya. A gla.s.s globe that glowed redly on the top of a complicated mechanism, was struck and burst with a popping sound. A rose-colored vapor floated ceiling-ward.

Simultaneously Koo Faya's weapon began to whir. Then, even as Shelby jerked Jan back out of danger, the wild shriek of an alarm siren mingled with the discordant clas.h.i.+ng jangle of ungoverned machinery running amuck, rang through the s.h.i.+p, and the huge metal cigar pitched and careened like a frightened thing.

Alkebar, having recovered his pistol, was staggering down the pa.s.sage shooting rapidly. But owing to the crazy motion of the s.p.a.ce flier his missiles were momentarily not taking effect.

Austin and Jan knew that Koo Faya was leaping to a position where he could shoot his poisoned darts at them again. What now? Cornered? No!

Janice Darell wrenched open a door in the side of the pa.s.sage and shoved Shelby into the tiny room beyond.

In the opposite wall of the closet was a round dark opening. "The emergency flier," Jan shouted. "Into it!"

As quickly as they could they climbed through into the submarine-like interior beyond. Fighting to keep themselves erect, they slammed the heavy duralumin portal to and fastened it. Alkebar was already groping on the opposite side. But he was too late.

Shelby leaped to the control panel and cut the electric current from the magnets that held the emergency flier anch.o.r.ed to its mother s.h.i.+p. It floated, free from the careening hulk. Its rocket motors roared into life.

The occupants of the tiny craft looked back at the _Selba_. It had ceased its mad motions now, and was hanging quietly in s.p.a.ce. Evidently Koo Faya had succeeded in righting matters to some slight extent at least. Would he be able to patch things up entirely? The red globe could be replaced in half an hour. It would be that length of time at least before the _Selba_ could engage in pursuit.