Rip tilted his bubble back and stared upward at the constellation of the Twins. He said softly, “By Gemini!” For there, a half degree south of the star Alhena, was the clean line of a nuclear cruiser’s exhaust. The Sagittarius, out of Mercury, had arrived.
He cut the communicator off for a moment and spoke exultantly to his men. “Stand easy, you hairy Planeteers. Forget the Connie. He doesn’t know it, but he’s caught. He’s caught between the Archer and the Eagle!”
CHAPTER 18
Courtesy—With Claws
Sagittarius, constellation of the Archer, and Aquila, constellation of the Eagle, had given the two Federation patrol cruisers their names. The Eagle was commanded by a tough Scotsman, and the Archer by a Frenchman.
Commander MacFife spoke through the communicator. “Switch bands to universal, lad. Me’n Galliene are goin’ to talk this Connie into a braw mess. MacFife off.”
Rip guessed that the two cruiser commanders had been in communication while enroute to the asteroid and had cooked up some kind of plan. He turned the band switch to the universal frequency with which all long-range communicators were equipped. Each of the Earth groups had its own frequency, and so did the Martians and Jovians. But all could meet and talk on the universal band.
Special scrambling devices prevented eavesdropping on regular frequencies, so there was no danger that the Connie had overheard the plan. Rip wondered what it was. He knew the cruisers had to be careful not to cross the thin line that might lead to war.
The Sagittarius loomed closer, decelerating with a tremendous exhaust. The Connie couldn’t have failed to see it, Rip knew. He was right. The Consops cruiser suddenly blasted more heavily, rushing in the direction away from the Federation ship. The direction was toward the asteroid.
At the same moment, the Aquila flashed above the horizon, also decelerating. The Connie was caught squarely.
A suave voice spoke on the universal band. “This is Federation SCN Sagittarius, calling the Consolidation cruiser near the asteroid. Please reply.”
Rip waited anxiously. The Connie would hear, because every control room monitored the universal band.
A heavy, reluctant voice replied after a pause of over a minute.
“This is Consolidation cruiser Sixteen. You are breaking the law, Sagittarius. Your missile ports are open, and they are pointing at me. Close them at once, or I will report this.”
The suave voice, with its hint of French accent, replied, “Ah, my friend! Do not be alarmed. We have had a slight accident to our control circuit, and the ports are jammed open. We are trying to repair the situation. But I assure you that we have only the friendliest of intentions.”
Rip grinned. This was about the same as a man holding a cocked pistol at another man’s head and assuring him that it was nothing but a nervous arm that kept the gun so steady.
The Connie demanded, “What do you want?”
The two friendly cruisers were within a few miles of the Connie now, and their blasts were just strong enough to keep them edging closer, while still counteracting the sun’s pull.
The French spaceman spoke reassuringly. “My friend, we want only the courtesy of space to which the law entitles us. We have had an unfortunate accident to our astrogation instruments, and we wish to come aboard to compare them with yours.”
Rip laughed outright. Every cruiser carried at least four sets of instruments. There was as much chance of all of them being knocked off scale at once as there was of his biting a cruiser in half with bare teeth.
MacFife’s voice came on the air. “Foster, switch to Federation frequency.”
Rip did so. “This is Foster, Commander.”
“Lad, it’s a pity for ye to miss the show. I’m sending a boat for ye.”
“The sun will get it!” Rip exclaimed.
“Never fear, lad. It won’t get this one. Now, switch back to universal and listen in.”
Rip did so in time to catch the Connie commander’s voice. “…and I refuse to believe such a story! Great Cosmos, do you think I am a fool?”
“Of course not,” the Frenchman replied. “You are not such a fool as to refuse a simple request to check our instruments.”
The Sagittarius commander was right. Rip understood the strategy. Equipment sometimes did go out of operation in space, and Connies had no hesitation in asking Federation cruisers for help, or the other way around. Such help was always given, because no commander could be sure when he might need help himself.
“I agree,” the Connie commander said with obvious reluctance. “You may send a boat.”
MacFife’s Scotch burr broke in. “Federation SCN Aquila to Consolidation Sixteen. Mister, my instruments are off scale, too. I’ll just send them along to ye, and ye can check them while ye’re doing the Sagittarius!”
“I object!” the Connie bellowed.
“Come, now,” MacFife burred soothingly. “Checking a few instruments won’t hurt ye.”
A small rocket exhaust appeared, leaving the Aquila. The exhaust grew rapidly, more rapidly than that of any snapper-boat. Rip watched it, while keeping his ears tuned to the space conversation.
“Surely sending boats is too much of a nuisance,” the French commander said winningly. “We will come alongside.”
“It’s a trick,” the Connie growled. “You want me to open my valves, and then your men will board us and try to take over my ship!”
“My friend, you have a suspicious mind,” Galliene replied smoothly. “If you wish, arm your men. Ours will have no weapons. Train launchers on the valves, so our men will be annihilated before they can board if you see a single weapon.”
This was going a little far, Rip thought, but it was not his affair, and he didn’t know exactly what MacFife and Galliene had in mind.
The Aquila’s boat arrived with astonishing speed. Rip saw it flash in the sunlight and knew he had never seen one like it before. It was a perfect globe, about twenty feet in diameter. Blast holes covered the globe at intervals of six feet.
The boat settled to the asteroid, and a new voice called over the helmet circuit, “Where’s Foster? Show an exhaust! We’re in a rush.”
“Yes, sir.”
He hurried to the boat and stood there, bewildered. He didn’t know how to get in.
“Up here,” the voice called. He looked up and saw a hatch. He jumped, and a space-suited figure pulled him inside. The door shut, and the boat blasted off. Acceleration shoved him backward, but the spaceman snapped a line to his belt, then motioned him to a seat. Rip pulled himself up the line and got into the seat, snapping the harness in place.
“I’m Hawkins, senior space officer,” the spaceman said. “Welcome, Foster. We’ve been losing weight wondering if we’d get here in time.”
“I was never so glad to see spacemen in my life,” Rip said truthfully. “What kind of craft is this, sir?”
“Experimental,” the space officer answered. “It has a number, but we call it the ball-bat because it’s shaped like a ball and goes like a bat. We were about to take off for some test runs around the space platform when we got a hurry call to come here. The Aquila has two of these. If they prove out, they’ll replace the snapper-boats. More power, greater maneuverability, heavier weapons, and they carry more men.”
Rip looked out through the port and saw the two Federation cruisers closing in on the Connie. Apparently the Connie commander had agreed to let the cruisers come alongside.
The ball-bat blasted to the Aquila, paused at an open port, then slid inside. The valve was shut before Rip could unbuckle his harness. Air flooded into the chamber, and the lights flicked on. The space officer gave Rip a hand out of the harness, and the young Planeteer went through the hatch to the deck.
The inner valve opened, and a lean, sandy-haired officer in space blue, with the insignia of a commander, stepped through. Grinning, he hurried to Rip’s side and twisted his bubble, lifting it off.
“Hurry, lad,” he greeted Rip. “I’m MacFife. Get o
ut of that suit quick, because ye don’t want to miss what’s aboot to happen.” With his own hands he unlocked the complicated belt with its gadgets and equipment.
Rip slipped the upper part over his head and stepped out of the bottom. “Thanks, Commander. I’m one grateful Planeteer, believe me!”
“Come on. We’ll hurry right across ship to the opposite valve. Lad, I’ve a son in the Planeteers, and he’s just about your own age. He’s on Ganymede. He and the others will be proud of what ye’ve done.”
MacFife was pulling himself along rapidly by the convenient handholds. Rip followed, his breathing a little rapid in the heavier air of the ship. He followed the Scottish commander through the maze of passages that crossed the ship. They stopped at a valve where spacemen were waiting. With them was an officer who carried a big case.
“The instruments,” MacFife said, pointing. “We’ve tinkered with them a bit, just to make it look real.”
“But why do you want to board the Connie?”
MacFife’s eye closed in a wink. “Ye’ll see.”
There was a slight bump as the cruiser touched the Connie. The waiting group recovered balance and faced the valve. Rip knew that spacemen in the inner lock were making fast to the Connie, setting up the airtight seal.
It wasn’t long before a bell sounded, and a spaceman opened the inner valve. Two men in space suits were waiting, and beyond them the outer valve was joined by a tube to the outer valve of the Connie ship. Rip stared at the Connie spacemen in their red tunics and gray trousers. One, an officer with two pistols in his belt, stepped forward.
Rip noted that the other Connies were heavy with weapons, too. None of his group had any.
“I’m the commander,” the scowling Connie said. “Bring your instruments in. We’ll check them; then you get out.”
“Ye’re no verra friendly,” MacFife said, his burr even more pronounced. He led Rip and the officer with the instruments into the Connie ship.
A handsome Federation spaceman with a moustache, the first Rip had ever seen, stepped into the room from a passageway on the opposite side. The spaceman bowed with exquisite grace. “I have the honor of making myself known,” he proclaimed. “Commander Rémy Galliene of the Sagittarius.”
The Connie commander grunted. He was afraid, Rip realized. The Connie suspected a trick, and he had no idea what it might be.
Galliene saw Rip’s black uniform and hurried to shake his hand. “So this is the young lieutenant who is responsible! Lieutenant, today the spacemen honor the Planeteers because of you. Most days we fight each other, but today we fight together, eh? I am glad to meet you!”
“And I’m glad to meet you, sir,” Rip returned. He liked the twinkle in the Frenchman’s eye. He would have given a lot to know what scheme Galliene and MacFife had cooked up.
The Connie had overheard Galliene’s greeting. He glared at Rip. The Frenchman saw the look and smiled happily. “Ah, you do not know each other? Commander, I have the honor to make known Lieutenant Foster of the Federation Special Order Squadrons. He is in command on the asteroid.”
The Connie blurted, “So! I send boats to help you, and you fire on them!”
So that was to be the Consops story! Rip thought quickly, then held up his hand in a shocked gesture that would have done credit to the Frenchman. “Oh, no, Commander! You misunderstand. We had no way of communicating by radio, so I did the only thing we could do. I fired rockets as a warning. We didn’t want your boats to get caught in a nuclear explosion.”
He shrugged. “It was very unlucky for us that the sun threw my gunner’s aim off and he hit your boats—quite by accident.”
MacFife coughed to cover up a chuckle. Galliene hid a smile by stroking his moustache.
The Connie commander growled, “And I suppose it was accident that you took my men prisoner?”
“Prisoner?” Rip looked bewildered. “We took no prisoners. When your boats arrived, the men asked if they might not join us. They claimed refuge, which we had to give them under interplanetary law.”
“I will take them back,” the Connie stated.
“You will not,” Galliene replied with equal positiveness. “The law is very clear, my friend. Your men may return willingly, but you cannot force them. When we reach Terra we will give them a choice. Those who wish to return to the Consolidation will be given transportation to the nearest border.”
The Connie commander motioned to a heavily armed officer. “Take their instruments. Check them quickly.” He put his lips together in a straight line and stared at the Federation men. They stared back with equal coldness.
The minutes ticked by. Rip wondered again what kind of plan MacFife and Galliene had.
Additional minutes passed, and the officer returned with the cases. Wordlessly he handed them to Galliene and MacFife. The Connie commander snapped, “There. Now get out of my ship.”
Galliene bowed. “You have been a most courteous and gracious host,” he said. “Your conversation has been stimulating, inspiring, and informative. Our profound thanks.”
He shook hands with Rip and MacFife, bowed to the Connie commander again, and went out the way he had come. There wasn’t anything to say after the Frenchman’s sarcastic farewell speech. MacFife, Rip, and the officer with the instruments went back through the valves into their own ship.
Once inside, MacFife called, “Come with me. Hurry.” He led the way through passages and up ladders, to the very top of the ship, to the hatch where the astrogators took their star sights. The protective shield of nuclite had been rolled back, and they could see into space through the clear-vision port.
Rip and MacFife hurried to the side where they were connected to the Connie. Rip looked down along the length of the ship. The valve connection was in the middle of each ship, at the point of greatest diameter. From that point each ship grew more slender.
MacFife pointed to the Connie’s nose. Projecting from it like great horns were the ship’s steering tubes. Unlike the Federation cruiser, which blasted steam through internal tubes that did not project, the Connie used chemical fuel.
“Watch,” MacFife said.
There were similar tubes on the Connie’s stern, Rip knew. He wondered what they had to do with the plan.
MacFife walked to a wall communicator. “Follow instructions.”
He turned to Rip. “Remember, lad, the Sagittarius is on the other side of the Connie, about to do the same thing.”
Rip waited in silence, wondering.
Then the voice horn called. “Valve closed!”
A second voice yelled, “Blast!”
A tremor jarred its way through the entire ship, making the deck throb under Rip’s feet. He saw that the ship’s nose had swung away from the Connie. What in space—
“Blast!”
The nose swung into the Connie again, with a jar that sent Rip sliding into the clear plastic of the astrodome. His nose jammed into the plastic, but he didn’t even wince, because he saw the Connie cruiser’s steering tubes buckle under the Aquila’s sudden shove.
And suddenly the picture was clear. The two Federation cruisers hadn’t cared about getting into the Connie ship. They had only wanted an excuse to tie up to it so they could do what had just been done.
They had sheared off the enemy’s steering tubes, first at the stern, then at the bow, leaving him helpless, able to go only forward or back in the direction in which he happened to be pointing!
MacFife had a broad grin on his face. As Rip started to speak, he held up his hand and pointed at a wall speaker.
The Connie commander came on the circuit. He screamed, “You planned that! You—you—”
Galliene’s voice spoke soothingly. “But my dear commander! How can I apologize? Believe me, the man responsible will be reward—I mean, the man responsible will be disciplined. You may rest assured of it. How unfortunate! I am overcome with shame.”
MacFife picked up a microphone. “Same here, Connie. A terrible accident. Aye, the man w
ho did it will hear from me.”
“It was no accident,” the Connie screamed.
“Ah,” Galliene replied, “but you cannot prove otherwise. Commander, do you realize what this means? You are helpless. Interplanetary law says that a helpless space ship must be salvaged and taken in tow by the nearest cruiser, no matter what its nationality. We will do this jointly, the Aquila and the Sagittarius. We will take turns towing you, my friend. We will haul you to Terra—like any other piece of space junk.”
MacFife could remain quiet no longer. “Yes, mister. And that’s no’ the end o’ it. We will collect the salvage fee. One half the value of the salvaged vessel. Aye! My men will like that, since we share and share alike on salvage. Now, put out a cable from your nose tube. I’ll take ye in tow first.”
He cut the communicator off and met Rip’s grin.
The two spacemen had figured out the one way to repay the Connie for his attempts on the asteroid. They couldn’t fire on him, but they could fake an accident that would cripple him and cost Consops millions of dollars in salvage fees.
Nor would Consops refuse to pay. Salvage law was clear. Whoever performed the salvage was not required to turn the ship back to its owners until the fee had been paid.
And there was another angle. The cruisers would tow the Connie into the Federation spaceport in New Mexico. If past experience was any indication, the Connie would lose about half its crew, perhaps more. They would claim sanctuary in the Federation.
Rip shook hands solemnly with the grinning Scotchman. It would be a long time before Consops tried piracy again.
“We’ll be back at our family fight again tomorrow,” MacFife said, “but today we celebrate together. Ah, lad, this is pure joy to me. I’ve had a score to settle with yon Connies for years. Now I’ve done it.”
He put an arm around Rip’s shoulders. “While I’m in a givin’ mood, which is not the way of us Scots, is there anything ye’d like?”
The Tom Corbett Space Cadet Megapack: 10 Classic Young Adult Sci-Fi Novels Page 130
