Astounding Stories of Super-Science, March 1930 Part 17

"It wasn't broken. The a.s.sailant opened it somehow, and a.s.saulted Miss Prince--shot her in the chest with a heat-ray. Her left lung."

"She is conscious?" Balch demanded.

"Yes. But she did not see who did it. Nor did Prince. Her scream awakened him, but the intruder evidently fled out the corridor door of A 22, the way he entered."

I stood weak and shaken at the chart-room entrance. "A little son, cast in the gentle image of his mother. But with the strength of his father...." But Anita--dying, perhaps; and all my dreams were fading into a memory of what might have been.

"You go to bed, Gregg--we don't need you."

I was glad enough to get away. I would lie down for an hour, and then go to Anita's stateroom. I'd demand that Dr. Frank let me see her, if only for a moment.

I went to the stern deck-s.p.a.ce where my cubby was located. My mind was confused, but some instinct within me made me verify the seals of my door and window. They were intact. I entered cautiously, switched on the dimmer of the tube-lights, and searched the room. It had only a bunk, my tiny desk, a chair and clothes robe.

There was no evidence of any intruder here. I set my door and window alarm. Then I audiphoned to the helio-room.

"Snap?"

"Yes."

I told him about Anita. Carter cut in on us from the chart-room. "Stop that, you fools!"

We cut off. Fully dressed, I flung myself on my bed. Anita might die....

I must have fallen into a tortured sleep. I was awakened by the sound of my alarm buzzer. Someone was tampering with my door! Then the buzzer ceased; the marauder outside must have found a way of silencing it. But it had done its work--awakened me.

I had switched off the light; my cubby was Stygian dark. A heat-cylinder was in the bunk-bracket over my head; I searched for it, pried it loose softly.

I was fully awake. Alert. I could hear a faint sizzling--someone outside trying to unseal the door. In the darkness, cylinder in hand, I crept from the bunk. Crouched at the door. This time I would capture or kill this night prowler.

The sizzling was faintly audible. My door-seal was breaking. Upon impulse I reached for the door, jerked it open.

No one there! The starlit segment of deck was empty. But I had leaped, and I struck a solid body, crouching in the doorway. A giant man. Miko!

His electronized metallic robe burned my hands. I lunged against him--I was almost as surprised as he. I shot, but the stab of heat evidently missed him.

The shock of my encounter close-circuited his robe; he materialized in the starlight. A brief, savage encounter. He struck the weapon from my hand. He had dropped his hydrogen torch, and tried to grip me. But I twisted away from his hold.

"So it's you!"

"Be quiet, Gregg Haljan! I only want to talk."

Without warning, a stab of radiance shot from a weapon in his hand. It caught me. Ran like ice through my veins. Seized and numbed my limbs.

I fell helpless to the deck. Nerves and muscles paralyzed. My tongue was thick and inert. I could not speak, nor move. But I could see Miko bending over me. And hear him:

"I don't want to kill you, Haljan. We need you."

He gathered me up like a bundle in his huge arms; carried me swiftly across the deserted deck.

Snap's helio-room in the network under the dome was diagonally overhead.

A white actinic light shot from it--caught us, bathed us. Snap had been awake; had heard the slight commotion of our encounter.

His voice rang shrilly: "Stop! I'll shoot!" His warning siren rang out to arouse the s.h.i.+p. His spotlight clung to us.

Miko ran with me a few steps. Then he cursed and dropped me, fled away.

I fell like a sack of carbide to the deck. My senses faded into blackness....

"He's all right now."

I was in the chart-room, with Captain Carter, Snap and Dr. Frank bending over me. The surgeon said,

"Can you speak now, Gregg?"

I tried it. My tongue was thick, but it would move. "Yes."

I was soon revived. I sat up, with Dr. Frank vigorously rubbing me.

"I'm all right." I told them what had happened.

Captain Carter said abruptly, "Yes, we know that. And it was Miko also who killed Anita Prince. She told us before she died."

"Died!..." I leaped to my feet. "She ... died...."

"Yes, Gregg. An hour ago, Miko got into her stateroom and tried to force his love on her. She repulsed him--he killed her."

It struck me blank. And then with a rush came the thought, "He says Miko killed her...."

I heard myself stammering, "Why--why we must get him!" I gathered my wits; a surge of hate swept me; a wild desire for vengeance.

"Why, by G.o.d, where is he? Why don't you go get him? I'll get him--I'll kill him, I tell you!"

"Easy, Gregg!" Dr. Frank gripped me.

The captain said gently, "We know how you feel, Gregg. She told us before she died."

"I'll bring him in here to you! But I'll kill him, I tell you!"

"No you won't, lad. You're hysterical now. We don't want him killed, not attacked even. Not yet. We'll explain later."

They sat me down, calming me.

Anita dead. The door of the s.h.i.+ning garden was closed. A brief glimpse, given to me and to her of what might have been. And now she was dead....