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Read Ebook: Reminiscences of Peace and War by Pryor Sara Agnes Rice
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Ebook has 134 lines and 5194 words, and 3 pages
"Get down to the lower airlock and into your space-suits at once, then," Kent told them. "Mr. Liggett, will you supervise that?"
As Liggett and the men trooped down to the airlock, Kent turned back toward his superior.
"There's a very real chance of your becoming lost in this huge wreck-pack, Kent," Crain told him: "so be very careful to keep your bearings at all times. I know I can depend on you."
"I'll do my best," Kent was saying, when Liggett's excited face reappeared suddenly at the stair.
"You must be mistaken, Liggett!" exclaimed Crain. "They must be some of the bodies in space-suits we saw in the pack."
"No, they're living men!" Liggett cried. "They're coming straight toward us--come down and see!"
Crain and Kent followed Liggett quickly down to the airlock room, where the men who had started donning their space-suits were now peering excitedly from the windows. Crain and Kent looked where Liggett pointed, along the wreck-pack's edge to the ship's right.
"They must be survivors from some wreck that drifted in here as we did!" Kent exclaimed. "Maybe they've lived here for months!"
Two of the men spun the wheels that slid aside the airlock's outer door. In a moment the half-dozen men outside had reached the ship's side, and had pulled themselves down inside the airlock.
When all were in, the outer door was closed, and air hissed in to fill the lock. The airlock's inner door then slid open and the newcomers stepped into the ship's interior, unscrewing their transparent helmets as they did so. For a few moments the visitors silently surveyed their new surroundings.
Their leader was a swarthy individual with sardonic black eyes who, on noticing Crain's captain-insignia, came toward him with outstretched hand. His followers seemed to be cargo-men or deck-men, looking hardly intelligent enough to Kent's eyes to be tube-men.
"Welcome to our city!" their leader exclaimed as he shook Crain's hand. "We saw your ship drift in, but hardly expected to find anyone living in it."
"I'll confess that we're surprised ourselves to find any life here," Crain told him. "You're living on one of the wrecks?"
"My name's Krell," he added, "and I was a tube-man on the ship. I and another of the tube-men, named Jandron, were the highest in rank left, all the officers and other tube-men having been killed, so we took charge and have been keeping order."
"What about your passengers?" Liggett asked.
"All killed but one," Krell answered. "When the tubes let go they smashed up the whole lower two decks."
Krell's eyes lit up. "That would mean a getaway for all of us! It surely ought to be possible!"
"Do you know whether there are any ships in the pack with fuel in their tanks?" Kent asked. Krell shook his head.
"We've searched through the wreck-pack a good bit, but never bothered about fuel, it being no good to us. But there ought to be some, at least: there's enough wrecks in this cursed place to make it possible to find almost anything.
"You'd better not start exploring, though," he added, "without some of us along as guides, for I'm here to tell you that you can lose yourself in this wreck-pack without knowing it. If you wait until to-morrow, I'll come over myself and go with you."
"I think that would be wise," Crain said to Kent. "There is plenty of time."
"Wouldn't mind if Liggett and I came along, would you?" Kent asked. "I'd like to see how your ship's fixed--that is, if it's all right with you, sir," he added to his superior.
Crain nodded. "All right if you don't stay long," he said. But, to Kent's surprise Krell seemed reluctant to endorse his proposal.
Krell and his followers replaced their helmets and returned into the airlock. Liggett followed them, and, as Kent struggled hastily into a space-suit, he found Captain Crain at his side.
"Kent, look sharp when you get over on that ship," Crain told him. "I don't like the look of this Krell, and his story about all the officers being killed in the explosion sounds fishy to me."
"To me, too," Kent agreed. "But Liggett and I will have the suit-phones in our space-suits and can call you from there in case of need."
Crain nodded, and Kent with space-suit on and transparent helmet screwed tight, stepped into the airlock with the rest. The airlock's inner door closed, the outer one opened, and as the air puffed out into space, Kent and Krell and Liggett leapt out into the void, the others following.
Foremost among them stood a tall, heavy individual who regarded Kent and Liggett with the cold, suspicious eyes of an animal.
"Good," grunted Jandron. "The sooner they can do it, the better it will be for us."
Kent saw Liggett flush angrily, but he ignored Jandron and spoke to Krell. "You said one of your passengers had escaped the explosion?"
To Kent's amazement a girl stepped from behind the group of men, a slim girl with pale face and steady, dark eyes. "I'm the passenger," she told him. "My name's Marta Mallen."
Kent and Liggett stared, astounded. "Good Lord!" Kent exclaimed. "A girl like you on this ship!"
"Miss Mallen happened to be on the upper-deck at the time of the explosion and, so, escaped when the other passengers were killed," Krell explained smoothly. "Isn't that so, Miss Mallen?"
The girl's eyes had not left Kent's, but at Krell's words she nodded. "Yes, that is so," she said mechanically.
"She doesn't go," grunted Jandron. Kent turned in quick wrath toward him, but Krell intervened.
"Jandron only means that Miss Mallen is much more comfortable on this passenger-ship than she'd be in your freighter." He shot a glance at the girl as he spoke, and Kent saw her wince.
"I'm afraid that's so," she said; "but I thank you for the offer, Mr. Kent."
Kent could have sworn that there was an appeal in her eyes, and he stood for a moment, indecisive, Jandron's stare upon him. After a moment's thought he turned to Krell.
"You were going to show me the damage the exploding tubes did," he said, and Krell nodded quickly.
"Of course; you can see from the head of the stair back in the after-deck."
Liggett nudged his side in the dim corridor, and Kent, looking down, saw dark splotches on its metal floor. Blood-stains! His suspicions strengthened. They might be from the bleeding of those wounded in the tube-explosions. But were they?
They reached the after-deck whose stair's head gave a view of the wrecked tube-rooms beneath. The lower decks had been smashed by terrific forces. Kent's practiced eyes ran rapidly over the shattered rocket-tubes.
"They've back-blasted from being fired too fast," he said. "Who was controlling the ship when this happened?"
"Galling, our second-officer," answered Krell. "He had found us routed too close to the dead-area's edge and was trying to get away from it in a hurry, when he used the tubes too fast, and half of them back-blasted."
"If Galling was at the controls in the pilot-house, how did the explosion kill him?" asked Liggett skeptically. Krell turned quickly.
"The shock threw him against the pilot-house wall and fractured his skull--he died in an hour," he said. Liggett was silent.
As they returned up the dim corridor Kent managed to walk beside Marta Mallen, and, without being seen, he contrived to detach his suit-phone--the compact little radiophone case inside his space-suit's neck--and slip it into the girl's grasp. He dared utter no word of explanation, but apparently she understood, for she had concealed the suit-phone by the time they reached the upper-deck.
Kent and Liggett prepared to don their space-helmets, and before entering the airlock, Kent turned to Krell.
He then extended his hand to the girl. "Good-by, Miss Mallen. I hope we can have a talk soon."
He had said the words with double meaning, and saw understanding in her eyes. "I hope we can, too," she said.
Kent's nod to Jandron went unanswered, and he and Liggett adjusted their helmets and entered the airlock.
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