On the Trail of the Space Pirates

by Carey Rockwell

  CHAPTER 6

  "Easy, Astro," said Strong, standing behind the big cadet. "Pull thatline up slowly and gently."

  "Yes, sir," gasped Astro. He didn't have to be told to pull the ropewith caution. He knew only too well that the slightest jar or bumpagainst the side of the shaft might dislodge Roger's unconscious bodyfrom the tangle of line, causing him to fall to the bottom of the shaft.How far down the shaft went, none of the anxious spacemen around thehole in the splintered floor knew. And they didn't want to use Roger'sbody to find out!

  "I'll give you a hand, Astro," said Commissioner Hawks. He reached forthe line, but the big cadet warned him away.

  "That's all right, sir," he said. "He's almost up now."

  Astro pulled gently, hand over hand, until Roger's limp body was a merefoot from the edge.

  "Grab him, quick!" he panted.

  Immediately Strong and Hawks were down on their knees at the edge of thehole. Each taking an arm, they pulled Roger out and laid him gently onthe floor of the shack. They crouched over him and began a quickexamination.

  "How is he, sir?" asked Tom, hovering anxiously over the still form ofhis friend. "Will he be all right?"

  Strong didn't answer for a moment, continuing his hurried, thoughcareful check. Then he sat back on his heels and sighed in relief. "Afew bruises but no broken bones, thank the universe. He's just sufferingfrom shock. A day or so in sick bay and he'll be good as new."

  "I'll take him over there right away, Steve," offered Hawks.

  "Thanks, Mike," replied Strong. Then as he and the commissioner liftedthe still form of the cadet and started to carry him out of the shack,he turned to Astro. "Blast over to the _Polaris_ and call Solar Guardheadquarters in Venusport. Tell them to send an emergency crew down hereright away."

  "Aye, aye, sir," snapped the big Venusian and dashed out of the shack.

  Turning back to Hawks, Strong said, "Corbett and I will stay here andtry to find out where that shaft leads."

  "All right, Steve," nodded the commissioner. "Too bad we had to find outwhere that dirt came from the hard way."

  Reaching the jet car, the two men placed Roger in the back seat, andHawks slid in under the wheel to start the powerful jets. Just thenAstro, racing back from the _Polaris_, pulled up breathlessly.

  "Solar Guard crew is on the way, sir," he reported. He glanced anxiouslyinto the back seat of the jet car.

  "All right, Astro," said Strong gently, "take care of Roger." Stronggestured to the back seat and without a word Astro leaped in beside hisfriend. Hawks stepped on the accelerator and the car shot away in a roarof blasting jets.

  Tom and Captain Strong watched the car disappear and then turned back tothe shack. Each felt the same emotion, an unspoken determination to seethat Wallace and Simms paid dearly for causing the accident.

  Re-entering the shack, they began a careful examination of the shaft.Strong played his emergency light down the sides, but the beampenetrated only a short distance.

  "We'll leave a note for the emergency crew," said Strong. "Our beltcommunicators might not work so far underground."

  "You're going down, sir?" asked Tom.

  Strong nodded. "If necessary. Tie that valve on the end of the ropeAstro used and lower it into the shaft. If we can touch bottom with it,we'll climb down and see what Wallace and Simms were after."

  "Yes, sir," said Tom. He took the length of rope, tied the heavy metalvalve to the end, and began lowering it into the shaft. Strong continuedto play the light down the shaft until the valve disappeared into thedarkness.

  "Rope's getting short, sir," warned Tom. "Only have about two hundredfeet left."

  Strong glanced at the remaining coils of line on the floor. "I'll getmore from the _Polaris_, if we need it," he said. "How long was thatline to begin with?"

  "It's a regulation space line, sir," said Tom. "Astro took it out of theemergency locker. It's about twelve hundred feet."

  By this time the line, hanging straight down the shaft, had becomeincreasingly heavy. Suddenly it grew slack.

  "I think I've hit bottom, sir," cried the cadet. "But I can't pull thevalve back up again to make sure."

  Strong grabbed the end of the line and helped the cadet pull it back upa short distance. Then they dropped the line again and felt a distinctslackening of weight.

  "That's bottom all right," said Strong. "Take this end of the line, runit out of the window on your right, and back through the one on yourleft. Then make it fast."

  "Yes, sir," said Tom. He jumped out of the window, trailing the ropeafter him, and reappeared almost immediately through the other window totie a loop in the line. After checking the knot and testing the line bythrowing his full weight against it, Strong stripped off his jacket andwrapped it about the line to prevent rope burns. Then, hooking theemergency light on his belt, he stepped off into the shaft. Tom watchedhis skipper lower himself until nothing but the light, a wavering pinpoint in the dark hole, could be seen. At last the light stopped movingand Tom knew Strong had reached the bottom.

  "Hallooooooo!" The captain's voice echoed faintly up the dark shaft."The belt communicators don't work!" he yelled. "Come on down!"

  "Be right with you, sir!" yelled Tom. He scratched a message on thewooden floor of the shack for the emergency crew. Then he stripped offhis jacket, wrapped it around the rope, secured the light to his belt,and stepped off into the darkness.

  Slowly, his hands tight around the rope through his jacket, Tom slippeddown the deep shaft. He kept his eyes averted from the black holebeneath him, looking instead at the sides of the shaft. Once, when hethought he had gone about seven hundred feet, he saw that he was passingthrough a stratum of thick clay and could see the preserved bones oflong-dead mammals, protruding from the side of the shaft.

  Finally Tom's feet touched solid ground and he released the rope. It wascold in the bottom of the shaft and he hastily put his jacket back on.

  "Captain Strong?" he called. There was no answer. Tom flashed the lightaround and saw a low, narrow tunnel leading off to his left.

  He walked slowly, and the newly dug sides of the tunnel seemed to closein on him menacingly. It was quiet. Not the blank silence of space thatTom was used to, but the deathlike stillness of a tomb. It sent chillsup and down his spine. Finally he stepped around a sharp bend andstopped abruptly.

  "Captain Strong!"

  The Solar Guard officer was stooping over, his light resting on theground, reading something he held in his hand. He looked up at Tom andjerked his thumb back over his shoulder. Tom flashed his light in thatdirection.

  "By the rings of Saturn!" exclaimed Tom. There in front of him, rippedopen like a can of sardines, was the gleaming metal skin of the timecapsule! The dirt floor of the tunnel around Strong and beside thecapsule was littered with audio spools, sound disks, micropapers, andstereo slides.

  Tom kneeled down beside his skipper and stammered, "What--what does itmean, sir?"

  "It means," answered Strong slowly, "that we're dealing with two of thecleverest men in the universe! If they've stolen what I think they have,the entire Solar Guard, Solar Alliance, and just about everyone in theuniverse is at their mercy!"

  * * * * *

  "How do you feel, Roger?" asked Astro.

  The blond-haired cadet sat up in bed, dangled his feet over the side,and rubbed his neck. He groaned as he moved. "I don't think I'm going todance much this month, if that answers your question. I feel like everybone in my body was broken!"

  "They very nearly were, Cadet Manning," said the medical officer,standing near by.

  "What happened, Manning?" asked Commissioner Hawks.

  "I really don't know, sir," replied Roger. "I was moving the junk out ofthe corner of the shack so I could examine it. I was piling it up in themiddle of the floor when--wham--something gave way and I took a headerinto nowhere!" He looked at Astro. "Now suppose _you_ tell me whathappened!"

  Astro told Roger about finding him dangling at th
e end of the tangledfeed lines. Then he said, "Tom and Captain Strong are out there now,waiting for one of the Solar Guard emergency crews."

  "Well, what are we hanging around here for?" asked Roger, and hopped offthe bed. He groaned, staggered, and then straightened up. "Nothing toworry about," he said, as Astro rushed to his side. "I'm as good asnew!"

  "What do you say, Doctor?" asked Hawks.

  The doctor hesitated a moment and then smiled. "Well, Commissioner,Cadet Manning has several strained muscles in his back, but the besttreatment for that is exercise."

  Hawks nodded and signed a release slip which the doctor gave him. Astrohelped Roger put on his space boots, and five minutes later they werespeeding back to the exposition grounds in the commissioner's jet car.As they sped through the streets, the two cadets speculated on what theywould find at the bottom of the shaft. Arriving at the shack, they wereimmediately challenged by an enlisted Solar Guardsman.

  "Halt!" said the guard gruffly. "Advance slowly for recognition!"

  With Commissioner Hawks leading the way, Roger and Astro walked up tothe guard.

  "Say," said Roger, nudging Astro, "look at what's going on around here!"

  "Yeah," agreed Astro, wide-eyed. "Something must be plenty hot to haveguards posted!"

  Hawks was immediately recognized by the guard, but he still stubbornlydemanded proof of their identity. Hawks, Roger, and Astro hauled outtheir Solar Guard identification disks, small metal plates with theirimages engraved in the shiny metal. On the other side was a detaileddescription of the bearer.

  "Very well, sir," said the guard and let them pass.

  In the pale light of dawn, feverish activity could be seen taking placearound the shack. Two huge jet vans, filled with every possible piece ofemergency equipment, were parked near by. The _Polaris_ had been takenover as a temporary headquarters and the area was crowded withscarlet-clad enlisted men. Astro could hear the hum of generators on the_Polaris_ and immediately felt concern for his power deck.

  Proceeding to the shack they were again challenged by a guard and againhad to produce their identification disks before entering. Once inside,they were amazed at the transformation. An aluminum tripod, ten feettall, had been erected over the hole in the floor, and several steelcables, connected to a motor-driven steel drum, were looped over theapex of the tripod, one hanging straight down into the shaft. A thickplastic hose hung over the edge of the shaft, jerking spasmodically asair was pumped into the dark hole.

  "By the craters of Luna," cried Hawks, "what's going on here?"

  A young lieutenant stepped up to the commissioner and saluted sharply."Lieutenant Silvers, sir. Second-in-command to Captain Allison of theemergency crew."

  Hawks returned the salute and Lieutenant Silvers continued.

  "Captain Strong, Cadet Corbett, and Captain Allison are at the bottom ofthe shaft, sir. The cage will be up in a moment and you may go down ifyou care to."

  "Thank you, Lieutenant," said Hawks.

  "Congratulations, Cadet Manning," said Silvers. "I understand you had aclose call in the shaft."

  "I did, sir," said Roger. "It was _very_ close."

  A light suddenly flashed on and the four spacemen turned to watch alarge wire cage rise out of the shaft. It was built in three sections,each seven feet high. A ladder on one side of the cage gave easy accessto the higher and lower levels. Astro climbed to the top section whileHawks took the lower. Roger stepped into the center section to avoid aclimb. An enlisted man secured the gates and turned on the motor. Thecage dropped through the shaft with sickening speed.

  A minute later it began to brake slowly, finally coming to a dead stopat the bottom of the shaft. They were met by a Solar Guardsman whodirected them into the tunnel, now illuminated by a row of flowing,self-powered emergency lights. Silently, but with rising excitement, thetwo cadets followed Hawks through the brightly lighted shaft, a thousandfeet below the surface of the planet.

  Turning the last corner in the tunnel they came upon Strong, Tom, andCaptain Allison huddled near the torn side of the time capsule. Theycould hear Strong talking to Tom.

  "There is a vault on every spaceship in the Solar Alliance, Tom," Strongwas explaining. "The vault is locked before blast-off and opened afterlanding by a light-key operated only by a trusted spaceport securityofficer. This key flashes a series of light vibrations, in sequence,into the electromagnetic lock on the vault. It's really nothing morethan a highly developed flashlight except that it flashes multiplecombinations of lights, each containing certain electronic vibrations.The electromagnetic lock can only be opened with the proper combinationsof colors and vibrations flashed by the light-key. Of course each shiphas a different code of colors and vibrations, but the code itselfwouldn't be hard to crack. The big thing would be to have an adjustablelight-key, so that if one combination of colors and light vibrations donot work, you can try another. In that way you could open any energylock on any vault in the system."

  "And Wallace and Simms--" Tom hesitated.

  "Yes, Corbett," said Strong grimly. "Wallace and Simms stole aninformation sound spool from the capsule. On that spool was a detaileddescription of the energy lock and the adjustable light-key. There wereonly seven keys in the system up to now. If we don't catch Wallace andSimms, there'll be eight."

  "Great galaxy," Commissioner Hawks broke in. "This will ruin theexposition! The Alliance will close it after--"

  Strong waved a calming hand at Hawks. "I've already spoken to CommanderWalters at Space Academy, Mike," he said. "He wants this to remain asecret. No one knows about it besides us, and no one will. I'm takingyour oaths, your spaceman's word, that it will remain a secret. There'sno use in starting a panic. You'll keep the exposition going as ifnothing had happened."

  "But what can the Solar Guard do, sir?" asked Tom.

  "We'll start the greatest search the system has ever seen," repliedStrong calmly. "But the order for their arrest will be issued for someother violation." The Solar Guard officer suddenly noticed Roger for thefirst time.

  "Oh, Manning!" he said, smiling. "Good to see you. How do you feel?"

  "O.K., sir," replied Roger. "But I'd feel a lot better if those spacecrawlers didn't have the combination to every safe and vault in theuniverse!"

  Strong nodded. "This is one of the cleverest crimes in history. And insearching for Wallace and Simms, we'll have to be twice as smart as theyare!"

  "Yes, sir," said Tom. "First we have to figure out what they will do,and then figure out how we're going to beat them!"

  "That's right, Tom," nodded Strong. "And by the stars, if we don't beatthem, the only safe place left for the credits and securities of thepeople in the system will be behind rows of paralo-ray guns!"