Read Ebook: Voyage to Procyon by Silverberg Robert

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Ebook has 114 lines and 6636 words, and 3 pages

"I'm afraid we'll have to kill them," Kent said flatly.

"But why? Once you turn the ship around and start back, there won't be anything they can do."

"Not to the ship," said Kent. "But they could have us killed anyway. And, after all, the main reason for this mutiny is to make sure that we see Earth before we die."

Kent signalled to two of the men. "Take him back and lock him up in the cell. Watch him while the rest of us finish the job."

He gestured behind himself. The Executive Officer was the law-enforcement officer aboard the ship, and behind his office the detention cells were located.

Conroy felt the two men grab his arms and push him through the open door into a cell.

One of his captors pressed a vibro-key against the locking plate, and the magnetic field came on, clamping the door tight against the frame.

"That ought to hold you," the man said hoarsely, and with his companion returned to the Exec Officer's cabin, leaving Conroy alone.

Conroy sat down heavily on the metal bench along the side of the cell and strained his ears for voices from without. He couldn't hear anything. Evidently Kent and his henchmen had set about their mutinous work.

Of course, it might be possible to figure a way out in ten years. And even if he didn't, he could leave a message in the navigation log for the officials on Earth to decode. But what good would that do, really? If this expedition failed to reach Procyon, a century of human effort would have been wasted.

Conroy decided he'd have to take his chances now. This was the time to act.

He had one asset: the stun gun. They hadn't bothered to search him, and so he had been left with one weapon, of sorts.

The trouble with a stun gun was that it wasn't deadly. He couldn't simply point it at the guard who had the vibro-key and force his way out. All the guard had to do was to refuse to hand the key over. If Conroy stunned him, he wouldn't be any better off than before. He had to think up some alternate plan.

The guard came over to the door of the cell and peered downward suspiciously. "Don't pull any phony sickness with me, Conroy. I'm not going to come into that cell."

Conroy hadn't expected him to. Only a fool would fall for that ancient gambit--but it served Conroy's purpose to have the guard come close to the door.

With one smooth motion, he pulled out the stunner and fired. The guard looked astonished for a bare instant, then dropped senseless.

Quickly, Conroy ran over, put his arm through the bars, took the key, and applied it to the plate. As the field shut off, he heard a voice.

"Hey! What's going on down there?"

Conroy swore silently. It was the other guard!

He straightened up and surreptitiously pocketed the vibro-key, remaining inside the cell with the door open. He waited for the other guard to approach.

"What happened here?" the guard said, running up with a drawn pistol.

"I didn't do anything," Conroy said. "He just keeled over like that." He shrugged innocently.

The second guard frowned and reholstered his pistol in order to bend over his fallen companion. That was just what Conroy had been waiting for. He jerked up the stun gun and fired.

And nothing happened.

The gun's charge was gone!

"Hey!" At the sound of the click, the second guard snapped his head up and went for his gun.

Conroy hurled the useless stunner straight between the bars of the cell. The butt of the gun struck the guard between the eyes, and he dropped to the floor on top of his companion.

Acting quickly, Conroy threw open the door of the cell and scooped up the ray pistols of the two guards. Then, shoving them both within the cell, he locked them in with the vibro-key. He smiled. So far, so good. He turned to run back toward the Exec's office.

There was no one there. He eased the outer door, gun in hand. Everything looked normal enough, in the outer office. Hiding the ray pistol in his tunic, he strode boldly out.

The blonde at the desk said: "Why, yes, sir. The Captain and the other main officers left here several minutes ago."

"Was anyone with them?"

"Ah--yes, there was," she said. "Lieutenant Bayliss Kent and some other junior officers."

Conroy nodded. That was as expected. "Did they say where they were going?"

"There seems to be something wrong with the atomic furnace at Number Nineteen Thrust Tube. I heard them say they were going down to check it."

"Thanks."

He had no time to call anyone, no time to explain. He had to move fast if he was going to save the Captain and the others. Somehow, the thought of Kent's murdering the Captain was inconceivable. The old man had been on the ship half a century; he was the last survivor of the original crew, and was as much a part of the great starship by now as the drive engines and the navigator's turret.

Conroy could see the whole fiendish plan. Bayliss Kent had forced the ship's officers down to Number Nineteen Thrust Tube, one of the huge projectors that drove the mighty ship through space. All Kent needed to do would be to kill them with ray pistols and claim that something had gone wrong with the atomic furnace. It would be impossible to disprove.

And then Bayliss Kent would be Captain.

Unless Peter Conroy could stop him.

He raced through the gleaming, twisting corridors of the giant ship, running frantically down and down toward Number Nineteen Thrust Tube. He pushed his way past surprised crew members, circled into the lower levels of the ship, made his way through the network of passageways that led to the blast tubes. Finally he reached Power Section.

The guard at the door was one of Kent's men. He looked up, startled, as Conroy appeared.

"Where are you--?"

Before the man could do anything, Conroy cut him down with a shot from his ray pistol. This was war--civil war--and there was no time for subtlety.

He stepped over the body and flung open the door of Number Nineteen.

He took in the situation in a glance. The Staff Officers, including the Captain, were lined up against one wall, and four of Kent's men were aiming their ray pistols.

Kent was saying: "Ready--aim--"

But the last word never was uttered. Kent was beginning to form it when Conroy got both his guns out and started to fire.

His first bolt smashed down the nearest executioner; a fraction of a second later, the man next to him dropped. Their attention deflected from the victims to Conroy, the other two and Kent whirled to face the newcomer.

Two more bolts blasted out--the first dropping one of the remaining gunmen, the second singeing Bayliss Kent's shoulder. Conroy hit the floor as a buzzing blaster bolt from the third man ripped over his head and splattered into the wall behind him.

Firing from the floor, he put a bolt through Kent's remaining man--a moment after the gunman had raked the officers with his blaster. Some of them were dead; Conroy had no way of telling which ones. He had a more urgent problem.

Bayliss Kent was coming toward him--and the blaster needed recharging.

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