Star Cluster Seven

by Random, Alex

  In a matter of minutes Alston found his experience standing him in good stead. It was surprising how half-forgotten skills returned, especially under the pressures that attended him. But he discovered almost as quickly that it would be hopeless trying to prevent the explosion. There was just not enough time. He would need at least two hours to cut out the work the two experts had put in. Even stopping the main drive would not help. They would merely lose orbital speed and start falling into the atmosphere.

  Going back to the control room, Alston found Carmel still trying to make contact with her father’s palace. She looked at him as he appeared at her elbow, and when he saw the desperation on her face he realised that she had been unsuccessful. She shook her head as she got to her feet, and she was still angry despite her fear.

  “I can’t believe my father is behind this, Rex,” she said. “He wouldn’t knowingly send me to my death.”

  “Then why isn’t there a reply to the calls we’re making?” he demanded. “There’s always a man on duty at the palace, isn’t there?”

  She nodded slowly. “Is there any way you can check that the transmitter is working?” she asked.

  He tightened his lips as he stared at her for a moment, and then he fetched a tester and plugged it into the circuits. The registers failed to work, and when he looked into Carmel’s face again he saw that she had let her fears increase.

  “So we have not been transmitting,” she said. “It must be the work of Graham and his section. I don’t know what is going on, Rex, but it looks bad for us. Is there nothing we can do?”

  “I can’t think of anything offhand! I don’t know what Anders is making of this. He must be tracing our orbital flight. He will be in the control tower at the cosmodrome, waiting for you to detach in the lifeboat.”

  “And what can he do if he decides I’m not going to do that?”

  “The Space Patrol were supposed to have a ship in the area, weren’t they?” Alston tried to keep his tones steady. “Anders said a cruiser would be standing by in case one of the ships under Graham’s control attacked us.

  “That’s what he said, but we don’t know what to believe any more. Can you do anything about this transmitter?”

  He suppressed a sigh and began to test the various circuits, trying to run down the faults. He soon discovered why the transmitter wasn’t working. Two complete panels had been unhooked from the supply, and parts were missing from the boards. The sabotage had been skilfully carried out. There would not be enough spares aboard to effect any kind of repair.

  Alston shook his head when Carmel began to question him about their chances, and when she asked how much time was left to them he dared not make a guess.

  “I’m going to cut the main drive,” he said, coming to a sudden decision. “We can’t afford to leave orbit. If I reduce power, then we may have a slim chance. We’ll remain in orbit and be in a position for Anders to do something when he realises something has gone wrong.” Carmel remained at his side, and Alston smiled at her from time to time, trying to give her confidence. He went around the control room, killing power circuits, reducing power until all they had was a single light burning in the control cabin. Then they sat down and waited in silence and gloom, moving through the darkness on an orbit that was slowly reducing all the time. Alston had never felt so helpless in all his life, and he racked his brains for some solution, some action that might give them hope.

  He was jerked from his study by Carmel’s voice raised in a scream, and he looked around quickly in the direction she was pointing, to see the guard launching himself from the floor where he had been lying. Too late Alston tried to shout a warning of their true position. He was struck heavily on the head and blackness swooped in upon him instantly.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Alston came back to consciousness very gradually. When his brain began to record the fact that his senses were aware of his existence once more he found himself in a dreamy state, unable to move or think constructively. His memory was inanimate, and the pictures that seeped into his mind as he blinked his eyes were unarranged, without sequence or purpose. Then a quick movement caught his attention and he jerked mentally, blinking quickly. The action seemed to release a paralysis which held him prisoner, and he slowly became aware that he had a body and limbs. Pain stabbed down through the side of his skull where he had been struck, and he clenched his teeth as his memory began to return and operate.

  The movement had been Carmel’s hand coming down to touch his face. The next instant he saw her worried features, and his last vestiges of laxity vanished. He began to push himself into a sitting position, looking around quickly for the guard, and he was surprised to see the man seated on the bunk nearby, staring at him with disconsolate face.

  “I’ve explained to the guard what kind of mess we’re in, Rex,” Carmel said. “He’s sorry he hit you!”

  “I’m sorry he hit me,” Alston retorted, gingerly feeling the area of impact. He got slowly to his feet, and

  Carmel took some of his weight by thrusting her shoulder into his right armpit. “What can you tell me about this business?” he demanded, lurching towards the guard, who lifted the Blinder quickly. “Don’t be a fool,” he continued contemptuously. “We’re all in the same boat now. Time is running out and I need to know what has been going on. You’re not going to be able to get us out of this, but if I have all the details at my fingertips I might be able to do something.”

  “What do you want to know?” The guard was surly but scared. “I checked your story about the lifeboat not being there, and it’s the truth.”

  “Didn’t you check it was there before the ship took off?” Alston demanded.

  “I was told it was there and I took the word of my superior.” There was a sullen note in the guard’s voice which Alston did not miss.

  “So someone lied to you and now you’re going to die with us. If you’ve got any wish to live, then you’ll tell me the rest of it. Who was the superior who ordered you aboard and gave you the instructions to take Miss Paine out in the lifeboat?”

  “Captain Graham!” The guard spoke reluctantly. “I wouldn’t tell you anything but for the fact that I’ve been left to die. What can we do?”

  “Nothing! You were here while the two experts prepared the trap. Why did Graham put you aboard with orders you couldn’t possibly obey? Why weren’t we permitted to go off and die without being aware of the trap?”

  “Captain Graham hates you more than he hates anyone else,” came the terse reply. “I was to tell you at the moment of leaving that Captain Graham had arranged this for you, that he was the cause of your disgrace.”

  “He told you to tell me that?” Alston demanded, his brow furrowing in surprise.

  “That’s right. He briefed me personally, and saw me aboard this ship so I didn’t get the chance to talk to anyone else even if I’d wanted to.”

  “That’s why you’re in here with us,” Alston said, nodding. “Just to give Graham the satisfaction of knowing I would know everything during my last moments. But he’s going to discover that something has gone wrong with his plans when this ship doesn’t blast out of orbit.”

  “Lieutenant Anders will be watching also,” Carmel said hopefully. “He’ll be alert. He’ll be expecting to see the lifeboat leave. When it doesn’t he’ll come after us in another ship. I feel certain. I know Anders! He’s so efficient.”

  “All we can do is wait,” Alston said. “It wouldn’t be so bad if there was something we could do, but we can only sit and wait.”

  “If you could repair the transmitter!” the guard said.

  “Not a chance. Your experts seemed to know what they were doing. But while we’re waiting, tell me some more about Graham. What did he tell you to say and do?”

  “You were framed with that smuggling charge. I planted that stuff aboard your ship, Captain!” The guard looked sheepish for a moment. “I guess that is why Graham is getting rid of me now! I know too much about his past.”

/>   “How could you have planted that contraband?” Alston demanded. “It happened nearly five years ago!”

  “I was transferred to your ship. It was only for your last trip. You wouldn’t have remembered me. There were four hundred crew members aboard. I planted the stuff and you were court martialled. But I was acting on Graham’s instructions. As soon as you were jailed and exiled Graham began to make progress. He needed you out of the way. Your star shone too bright for him.”

  “If only I could have talked to you before this trip started,” Alston said. “You could have cleared me completely.”

  “I wouldn’t have talked then,” the man said sullenly. “I thought I was on a good thing. Graham took good care of me since you went.”

  “But he decided to clean up the past by getting rid of me and sending you to your death as well! Would you talk if we did get out of this?”

  “I don’t know about that!” The guard shook his head slowly. “I’d go to prison, probably one of the hell stars, if my part in it came out.”

  “But Graham would have to kill you if you survived this! He’s gone too far to hold back now!”

  “This is all so pointless!” Carmel said worriedly. “We are going to die in a matter of minutes, and all you can do is try to find out what happened in the past.”

  “Don’t despair,” Alston said, moving to her side and putting an arm around her shoulder. “I expect help is on the way up now. Your father wouldn’t let you take off without making some effort to safeguard you. I think we can safely assume now that the Governor was not mixed up in this. Anders was acting in good faith!”

  “Let’s hope so. But there must be something you can do, Rex! We’re just sitting here waiting to die.”

  “I can’t make repairs without spares,” he retorted.

  “There is no point me trying to prevent the reactors exploding. I’d be wasting my time. I can’t do anything about the communicator because they’ve done too good a job on it.” He paused and considered for a moment. “I think we could do with some food, Carmel. Why don’t you go along to the kitchen and start preparing something? It will take your mind off all this.”

  “I couldn’t eat anything,” she said, shaking her head. “If we’re going to die within the next hour then I’d rather not waste the remaining minutes.”

  “There must be something we can do,” the guard said, getting to his feet and crossing to the control consoles. “Put on the power again, but insufficient of it to send us out of orbit. Then try to send any kind of a signal. The communicators are out of action, but there’s the beacon distress signal. Won’t that work?”

  Alston stared at the man for a moment, then went towards the control consoles. He reversed all the switches he had operated before, and power came back through the circuits. But he was careful not to increase speed. So long as they remained in orbit they might stave off the explosion. There was no guarantee, but that was a chance they had to take.

  “If they wrecked the beacon distress system then we don’t have a prayer,” Alston said. He sat down and studied the controls, unfamiliar with this type of craft but with sufficient experience to know what to look for. He felt easier with power flowing through the ship once more, and when he located the button he wanted he paused with his index finger quivering in front of it. “Hit it,” the guard said anxiously.

  Alston took a deep breath and stabbed his finger against the button. For a moment there was silence, and he began to feel that the two experts had done their job too well. Then a speaker crackled nearby, and the next instant a metallic voice began to transmit.

  “Mayday! Mayday! Spaceship Seven calls for help!” The urgent distress signal was repeated monotonously.

  Alston looked at the guard, then glanced at Carmel, and he felt the relief he could see in their faces.

  “We’re in luck,” he said. “They overlooked the beacon. But we’d better stand by for trouble! Anders will be quick off the mark, but if Graham is listening and watching for us then he’ll be ready to move in. Graham has the advantage remember. He’s expecting something to happen to this ship! All Anders will be looking for is the detachment of the lifeboat.”

  “We’ll cover the airlock,” the guard retorted. “I can handle that Blinder, Captain. Let me have it and I’ll stand by the airlock and hold it if any of Graham’s people arrive first.”

  “You know you have no alternative but to work in with me?” Alston demanded.

  “I know that. I expect you to put in a good word for me with the Governor if we get out of this and we can expose Graham. But whatever I get from the Authorities, it will be better than death at the hands of Graham. I could tell you a lot about him and his ruthless methods.”

  “All right. Take the Blinder and stand by the airlock. But be sure they are Graham’s men if you start resisting anyone.”

  The guard nodded and departed with the Blinder in his hands. Alston looked at Carmel, and saw she was still stiff with fear.

  “We’ve got a chance now,” he said. “Don’t think about it, Carmel.”

  “I feel secure with you handling the situation and trying to do something about it,” she replied. “It’s when you’re sitting around doing nothing that I get worried! We’re together, no matter what happens, and that’s how it should be, Rex.”

  He nodded slowly. “I wish there was something else I could do, but we mustn’t forget there is supposed to be a Space Patrol cruiser around here somewhere. They should reach us first if they are in orbit.”

  “Anders said he arranged for it. I think we’ll be all right, Rex!” The girl’s tones were filled with hope.

  “It wouldn’t be so bad if the scanners were working. At least we’d be able to see if anyone was sneaking up on us. But we’re travelling blind, and I suspect we are already beginning to drop out of orbit. I daren’t increase our speed for fear that I may put on too much and take us out of orbit. It’s going to be very close, Carmel.”

  She nodded. “I think I’ll go make some more coffee,” she said. “I’ll do some sandwiches if you are hungry, but there won’t be time to cook a meal.”

  Alston sighed a little in relief when she departed, and there was a frown on his face as he turned back to the controls. He tried the scanners, then went to the circuit panels beneath them, opening them and looking for faults. He soon found that little damage had been done. Certain leads had merely been removed, and he replaced them and went back to the controls.

  When the half dozen screens flickered and became animated, showing him clear views of the dark space around the ship, he felt more comfortable. There were no other craft in their vicinity, and he checked a larger screen for the planet itself. But the larger screen was still out of action and he busied himself with checking their position and the height of their orbital course.

  The distress call went out unchecked, repeating itself endlessly. Time passed, and Alston was absorbed in what he was doing. He used the computer frequently, until he gained a picture of their state. Then he carried out a watch on their speed and orbit, discovering that they were slowly falling in towards the planet. But they had an hour before the situation would become critical.

  Suddenly Alston spotted a small glitter in one of the vision screens, and he flicked the magnification up, bringing into prominence a blob that looked like a star, but was a great deal nearer than the stars in the background.

  Alston’s lips tightened. There was a ship, and it was ahead of them. They were gaining on it slowly but surely, and he waited tensely to make an identification. He guessed the ship would be calling them up now, but there was no way he could reply, and he fought down his sense of helplessness as he watched.

  He went to the door of the control room and peered along the corridor, spotting the guard waiting about halfway along its length, facing the airlock entrance, the Blinder in his hands. Alston called to him and the man came at a run.

  “I’ve picked up a ship on the scanners,” Alston said. “Come and take a look! See if y
ou can identify it when we get closer. I’m not so well up in recognition these days.”

  They went back to the screens, and Alston saw the bright glitter beginning to take on the characteristics of a spaceship. He knew it wasn’t a Space Patrol ship, and some of his hopes faded. But it could be a ship that Anders had commandeered to get into orbit, and he waited tensely for the guard to make his identification.

  “It looks like the ship that Graham uses on his official flights to the stars in the cluster,” the guard said at length. “I’d better get back to the airlock. If it is Graham’s ship then we’ll have to fight off a boarding party.”

  “The simplest way to avoid them, and the method I would adopt if I had all the power at hand, would be to slip into overdrive for a few moments as they came up alongside,” Alston said. “But with the trouble we have aboard I daren’t increase speed. We’d shoot out of orbit and disintegrate into ten million pieces.”

  “So I’ll stand by to resist them in the old-fashioned way,” the guard said.

  “You’re certain you want to remain on my side?” Alston demanded.

  “I don’t have to think about it,” came the steady reply. “I know the alternative, and I couldn’t possibly trust Graham after this.”

  “Tell me your name before you go,” Alston said. “We may not get the chance to talk later.”

  “I’m Bamaby Doane! I hope we do get the chance to talk later. But if we don’t then I want you to know I’m sorry for the part I played in your downfall. It won’t help you now, I know, but if we do get clear then it will give me great pleasure to clear you with my evidence and put Graham where he belongs, on a hell star!”

  “Don’t let us look too far ahead,” Alston retorted. “I’m going to make a search of the ship for arms. But if Graham is aboard that ship and decides to finish us off with his heavy weapons then we won’t have a chance. They could blow us to pieces without coming nearer.”

  Doane went back to his post by the inner airlock door, and Alston went around on a hunt for weapons. He found nothing, and went back to the control room, peering at the view screens and tightening his lips when he saw the ship ahead of them all too clearly. He guessed the newcomer was firing retro-rockets to decrease speed, and soon both ships would be together. Alston began to breathe heavily as he considered. He needed a weapon, but there was none to be had, and he toyed with the idea of waiting until the last possible moment then hitting full power. But the odds against success were astronomical and he discarded the idea. It would have to be a fight at close quarters.