The Space Patrol Megapack
Page 13
“No…not…Ganymede! This…” The telepathic mumble was blurred and Jon was left in the dark. Then: “Saw…ship…land. Must…kill…you…Space Policeman!”
“Why?” Jon choked. “Are you a criminal?”
The Silent One shook his head and beckoned. Jon followed. They came to a rude shack in the swampland. Inside, Jon stared in astonishment. It was equipped like a laboratory. In the center stood a huge gleaming cylinder that somehow looked like a bomb.
“It…is…a…bomb!” came the mental vibrations of the alien. “To…destroy…this world!”
“Destroy this world?” Jon snapped. “But why? What’s all this crazy business about? You left your own world, Ganymede, and came here. For revenge, is that it?”
The alien nodded. “This…enemy…world. Will…blow…it…up. Bomb…make…chain…reaction.”
Jon was horrified. A chain-reaction bomb, long outlawed for any scientist to create, at pain of death. It had the power to make all nearby atoms explode, and then those further along, and so on, till a whole world would be blown to bits!
Jon snatched for the ray gun at his hip. But not fast enough. A shot came from the alien’s weapon and seared Jon’s wrist. Frantically, Jon upset a bench at the alien, before it could fire again, and then dove out of an open window.
Scrambling to his feet, he pelted into the swamplands. But after him came a gloating mental chuckle. “You…will…die…there! Swamp…beasts…”
Jon stumbled on. His foot caught in loose sand, and a frightful suction nearly dragged him in, but he flung himself backwards. Quicksand—he must avoid it. Jon trembled. But now he was lost. Where was the lake and his ship? Maybe he could get the radio to work…
* * * *
He stumbled around for what seemed hours. He seemed to be going it circles. Hadn’t he seen those rocks before? And that custer of Venusian trees?
He had lost track of time, but suddenly, tiny faces peered from behind trees, all around him. And then a pack of yelling dark-skinned men swarmed about him, taking him prisoner. They were pygmy people!
A clue to the world he was on? Jon shook his head. Pygmy races had been discovered on a dozen different bodies. He gave up hope and sank to his knees as the tiny men came at him, yelling, brandishing spears. He might shoot a few, but the end would be inevitable.
But the biggest surprise of all came then. The pygmy men broke out in grins, and Jon realized they were welcoming him. The leader bowed before Jon, and spoke in a garbled pidgin that Jon readily understood.
Jon was informed that any Space Policeman was their friend. They had witnessed his escape and followed him. If he needed their help, he had but to ask.
“Yes!” said Jon. “I do need your help to attack the Silent One! He is going to blow up this world. Lead me to his shack. Hurry!”
* * * *
As they walked, the leader of the pygmy men told Jon that they hated and feared the alien intruder. He had landed some months before in his spaceship to set up his laboratory. Ever since then, he had ruthlessly shot at any snooping pygmies.
Nearing the shack, Jon gave instructions. Obediently, like ghosts, the pygmy men crept to the shack and waited outside the open windows.
Jon rushed the door and burst through. The alien whirled, aiming his tube-gun at Jon, but a pygmy spear thrown through the window knocked the weapon from his hand.
The alien leaped to his fearsome bomb and tried to snap the fuse, but Jon’s crushing fist knocked him half-way across the room.
He had returned just in time. The alien was ready to set the fuse and leave in his ship, to watch this enemy world blow to shreds behind him!
The pygmies swarmed into the hut, shouting in triumph and brandishing their spears. They would have killed the Silent One at once, but Jon restrained them.
“He needs to stand trial,” he said. “Tie him up. I will take him with me.”
As the pygmies bound the alien, he glared in silent rage. If looks could kill, they would all have died a thousand times over.
Jon took the fuse cap out of the bomb with infinite care. One false move and all was lost. Then, breathing easier, he used an oxy-torch and cut the bomb open, destroying its interior mechanism. Last of all, Jon took a capsule of fissionable metal out and flung it into the quicksand, where it could do no further harm.
* * * *
Bidding the pygmies good-by, Jon powered up the alien’s rocketship and took off with the Silent One as prisoner.
“Your race has always been evil,” Jon said grimly. “A century ago, when Earthmen arrived at your world to set up trade in all friendliness, you murdered them all! As a result, we had to send armed forces and keep you under military rule. Well, I’ll take you to Earth now for fair trial.”
Jon somehow felt the alien was laughing at him.
When the ship reached open space and Jon looked back, he knew why. There, floating in the void, was a familiar world of green continents and sparkling blue oceans.
“Great Jupiter!” breathed Jon, stunned, turning the ship back. “We came up from the swamplands of Africa! The strange world I was on all the time, and which you wanted to destroy, was…”
“Earth!” came the mocking mental voice of the alien.