The Greatest Works of E. E. Smith. E. E. Smith

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СКАЧАТЬ She was, and had been for a long time, practically ready to sail.

      As the base commander and Matthews sat in the office, shortly before the scheduled time of departure, Kinnison arrived—or, more correctly, let them know that he was there. He invited them both into the control-room of his speedster; and invitations from Gray Lensmen were accepted without question or demur.

      “I suppose you are wondering what this is all about,” he began. “I’ll make it as short as I can. I asked you in here because this is the only convenient place in which I know that what we say will not be overheard. There are lots of spy-rays around here, whether you know it or not. The Prometheus is to be allowed to go to Alsakan, because that is where pirates seem to be most numerous, and we do not want to waste time hunting all over space to find one. Your vessel was selected, Mr. Matthews, for three reasons, and in spite of the attempts you have been making to obtain special privileges, not because of them. First, because there is no necessary or semi-necessary freight waiting for clearance into that region. Second, because we do not want your firm to fail. We do not know of any other large shipping line in such a shaky position as yours, nor of any firm anywhere to which one single cargo would make such an immense financial difference.”

      “You are certainly right there, Lensman!” Matthews agreed, whole-heartedly. “It means bankruptcy on the one hand and a fortune on the other.”

      “Here’s what is to happen. The ship and the mauler blast off on schedule, fourteen minutes from now. They get about to Valeria, when they are both recalled—urgent orders for the mauler to go on rescue work. The mauler comes back, but your captain will, in all probability, keep on going, saying that he started out for Alsakan and that’s where he’s going .”

      “But he wouldn’t—he wouldn’t dare!” gasped the ship-owner.

      “Sure he would,” Kinnison insisted, cheerfully enough. “That is the third good reason your vessel is being allowed to set out, because it certainly will be attacked. You didn’t know it until now, but your captain and over half of your crew are pirates themselves, and are going to .”

      “What? Pirates!” Matthews bellowed. “I’ll go down there and .”

      “You’ll do nothing whatever, Mr. Matthews, except watch things, and you will do that from here. The situation is under control.”

      “But my ship! My cargo!” the shipper wailed. “We’ll be ruined if they .”

      “Let me finish, please,” the Lensman interrupted. “As soon as the mauler turns back it is practically certain that your captain will send out a message, letting the pirates know that he is easy prey. Within a minute after sending that message, he dies. So does every other pirate aboard. Your ship lands on Valeria and takes on a crew of space-fighting wildcats, headed by Peter vanBuskirk. Then it goes on toward Alsakan, and when the pirates board that ship, after its pre-arranged half-hearted resistance and easy surrender, they are going to think that all hell’s out for noon. Especially since the mauler, back from her ’rescue work,’ will be tagging along, not too far away.”

      “Then my ship will really go to Alsakan, and back, safely?” Matthews was almost dazed. Matters were entirely out of his hands, and things had moved so rapidly that he hardly knew what to think. “But if my own crews are pirates, some of them may . but I can of course get police protection if necessary.”

      “Unless something entirely unforeseen happens, the Prometheus will make the round trip in safety, cargoes and all—under mauler escort all the way. You will of course have to take the other matter up with your local police.”

      “When is the attack to take place, sir?” asked the base commander.

      “That’s what the mauler skipper wanted to know when I told him what was ahead of him,” Kinnison grinned. “He wanted to sneak up a little closer about that time. I’d like to know, myself, but unfortunately that will have to be decided by the pirates after they get the signal. It will be on the way out, though, because the cargo she has aboard now is a lot more valuable to Boskone than a load of Alsakanite cigarettes would be.”

      “But do you think you can take the pirate ship that way?” asked the commander, dubiously.

      “No, but we will cut down his personnel to such an extent that he will have to head back for his base.”

      “And that’s what you want—the base. I see.”

      He did not see—quite—but the Lensman did not enlighten him further.

      There was a brilliant double flare as freighter and mauler lifted into the air, and Kinnison showed the ship-owner out.

      “Hadn’t I better be going, too?” asked the commander. “Those orders, you know.”

      “A couple of minutes yet. I have another message for you—official. Matthews won’t need a police escort long—if any. When that ship is attacked it is to be the signal for cleaning out every pirate in Greater New York—the worst pirate hot-bed on Tellus. Neither you nor your force will be in on it directly, but you might pass the word around, so that our own men will be informed ahead of the Telenews outfits.”

      “Good! That has needed doing for a long time.”

      “Yes, but you know it takes a long time to line up every man in such a big organization. They want to get them all, without getting any innocent bystanders.”

      “Who’s doing it—Prime Base?”

      “Yes. Enough men will be thrown in here to do the whole job in an hour.”

      “That is good news—clear ether, Lensman!” and the base commander went back to his post.

      As the air-lock toggles rammed home, sealing the exit behind the departing visitor, Kinnison eased his speedster into the air and headed for Valeria. Since the two vessels ahead of him had left atmosphere inertialess, as would he, and since several hundred seconds had elapsed since their take-off, he was of course some ten thousand miles off their line as well as being uncounted millions of miles behind them. But the larger distance meant no more than the smaller, and neither of them meant anything at all to the Patrol’s finest speedster. Kinnison, on easy touring blast, caught up with them in minutes. Closing up to less than one light-year, he slowed his pace to match theirs and held his distance.

      Any ordinary ship would have been detected long since, but Kinnison rode no ordinary ship. His speedster was immune to all detection save electromagnetic or visual, and therefore, even at that close range—the travel of half a minute for even a slow space-ship in open space—he was safe. For electromagnetics are useless at that distance: and visual apparatus, even with sub-ether converters, is reliable only up to a few mere thousands of miles, unless the observer knows exactly what to look for and where to look for it.

      Kinnison, then, closed up and followed the Prometheus and her mauler escort; and as they approached the Valerian solar system the recall message came booming in. Also, as had been expected, the renegade captain of the freighter sent his defiant answer and his message to the pirate high command. The mauler turned back, the merchantman kept on. Suddenly, however, she stopped, inert, and from her ports were ejected discrete bits of matter—probably the bodies of the Boskonian members of her crew. Then the Prometheus, again inertialess, flashed directly toward the planet Valeria.

      An inertialess landing is, of course, highly irregular, and is made only when the ship is to take off again immediately. It saves all the time ordinarily lost in spiraling and deceleration, СКАЧАТЬ