The Mysterious Planet [Лестер Дель Рей] (fb2) читать постранично, страница - 32

same, I guess,” Juan answered. “Or so Simon guessed. He thought that the explosion was from a sudden, uncontrolled release of the energy of the beam—that it was not Intended to keep people from releasing the locks or examining the machine. They were not meant for war, really.”

Now Simon bent over and probed again. His face broke into a grin of satisfaction, and he picked up the device.

“All right,” he called out. “Now all of you keep back—well back. I’m going home.”

Winding the string up carefully as he went, he moved toward the lock of the Icarius. There, he opened the outer seal, placed the tractor-beam device Inside.

It had to be now or never, Bob decided. He broke out from under the tree and leaped toward the little ship. “Simon, wait!”

But either Jakes hadn’t heard him, or wasn’t interested. The little lock began closing before Bob was halfway there, and it snapped shut with a definite click, just as he reached it.

The guards who had been at the presidential chambers obviously considered it better to get in some action, and they also recognized Bob as someone they were to stop. With Simon inside the ship, it was time for them to do something.

The first bullet missed by several feet, but the second one was closer.

CHAPTER 19 Flight to Nowhere

BOB HIT THE LITTLE LOCK BUTTON with his fist, hoping that Jakes hadn’t yet had tune to seal it from inside. Then, just as Juan pounded up behind, it snapped open.

He leaped inside, with Juan at his heels, amazed at the poor marksmanship of the guards, which he didn’t want to test further, though, for bullets were still flying. His finger found the button that controlled the locks from inside, and they snapped closed behind him.

“Bob!” Jakes’s voice sounded happy. “Hey, doggone it, I was wishing you could have been here.”

He was already settling into the control seat, but now he relaxed a trifle. “Neat, the way I fooled those Thulians! Had a piece of string tied to the seat, and they thought I had it fixed to kill Emo. You should…”

For the first tune, he seemed to see Juan, and his face hardened. “What are you doing here?”

“He came to me, and I got him to come along,” Bob said quickly.

Simon nodded uncertainly. “Well… we’ll talk about that later. Grab seats, because here we go!”

He didn’t wait, but hit the throttle at once. Bob felt the acceleration begin to build up, and staggered to one of the seats, while Juan found another. Then Jakes moved over to full high-drive, and they were lifting from Thule.

And behind them almost at once would come the ships from Thule. The war was on, as of this minute.

“What happened to Emo?” Bob managed to ask.

“Back of you, in the fourth seat. I had him tied in while I freed the Icarius. Hey Emo, how you doing?” Jakes’s voice sounded completely confident now.

From in back of Bob, a high voice piped up. “I’m all right, but you’d better take me back, you had! When my father catches you, you’re going to be sorry!”

“You’ll like the Federation men, Emo,” Simon told him. Then bitterness crept into his voice.

“Did Juan tell you, Bob, that he tried to stop me? He actually started throwing his fists around, when he heard my plan. You’d think he’d sold out to the enemy!”

“He was right, Simon,” Bob told him. “You had no business in starting this. I told you about Emo’s position back there.”

“Sure. That’s why I took him. They can’t touch us now, and they won’t dare let us get in any trouble with that network of bombs and warnings they have.”

Juan sighed softly. “Maybe you were right, Simon. But I was afraid. That is why I wanted to stop you until I could see Bob.”

Simon cut the drive suddenly until the pressure on ‘ them was only a little more than the gravity of Earth. “Don’t know why I’m in such a hurry,” he told them. “We’re safe enough with Emo aboard. Hey, you know, you’re right, Juan. I guess I forgot about Bob. When I found those Thulians had switched papers on me, all I could think of was to get out of there fast. I guess maybe I was a bit too hasty. Okay, Juan, I’ll forget it if you will.”

“It is already forgotten,” Juan said. “But what shall we now do with Emo? We cannot bring war about, Simon. And as Bob has said, to keep him from his family of Thule means war.”

“We’ll keep him, all right. Maybe they switched papers on me, but I can remember what the originals said. I sure proved that when I got the old Icarius free, didn’t I? Anyhow, we always knew it had to be war. This just makes it come a little faster.”

“There doesn’t have to be war,” Bob told him. “Right now my father is down there with the president, talking peace. Or he was, before you ran out with Emo.”

It was partly true—talking peace and war. Bob felt suddenly sick as he wondered what was really happening now. If Thule decided to take it out on all the Federation people they had…

Some of the smugness went from Jakes then, but he stuck to his guns. “Aw, you can’t trust Thule. Sure, they’ll talk peace—and then, when they get us off guard, they’ll take over. And we can’t risk it.”

“So you want war?” Juan accused.

“No, I don’t want war! But I don’t want to see our side wiped out because a bunch of fools thought talking about peace was the same as protecting yourself. Hey, look at that!”

In the screen, a flight of the great ships of Thule showed up. There were hundreds of them, and they were spread on all sides of the Icarius, matching her speed and waiting.

Juan stared at it dully. “They will find some way,” he warned. “They have ways of freezing the air, of taking all the heat away at once. It would not kill Emo, but then they could catch us.”

Jakes looked doubtful, and then shook his head. “They’d have done it already if they could.

They can’t do that through the walls of another ship.”

“You hope they can’t,” Bob corrected him. “You don’t think you know all the science of Thule, do you?”

“All right,” Jakes suggested. “You bright guys have been raising enough objections to the one thing that’s saving your skins. Now suppose you tell me what you’d do?”

Juan shrugged. “I’d put Emo outside in a space suit Then the ships out there would stop to see whether he was still alive, and to return him to Thule. They might even let us go. But we would have time to get away, and even lose them.”

He had moved up to the screen beside Jakes. “It would give them something to do instead of chasing after us,” he finished.

Jakes snorted. “Yeah. That’s a right fine idea, Juan. There are a thousand ships there, and you think every one would stop, just sit still, and then go back to Thule, if they had the kid.

Nope! One would pick him up. And what was left of us would be dust—nothing but dust Look out there!”

He stood up to see through the port better. Juan hit him with a hard shoulder, knocking him from the control seat, and was in his place at once.

Under his hands, the throttle leaped, throwing more acceleration pressure against them.

Jakes slipped all the way to the floor, sprawling and moaning as the pressure hit him.

“I can raise it higher, Simon,” Juan warned him. “I can raise it until you can no longer stand it.

Or I can let you up to find a space suit for Emo and put him out.”

“You’ll get us killed,” Simon gasped.

Juan nodded. “Perhaps. I do not think so, but perhaps you are right. It is still better than the war would be. Will you do as I say?”

“Let me up,” Simon agreed reluctantly.

Some of the pressure slacked off, and the older boy crawled painfully to his feet.

“Patriotism!” he grunted. “You think you’re being a hero and a patriot. But you’re not. You’re just making us sitting ducks for Thule. And they’ll kill us before the kid is through the lock.”

He swayed as Juan applied more thrust. Then he nodded with difficulty, and turned toward the suit lockers as Juan let it up. For a second, he fumbled with the door of the locker.

Bob watched him, trying to think. He had no more use for Juan’s solution than Jakes had, and he was sure that Simon was correct; as soon as they had the boy, some of the Thule ships would exterminate those who had tried to kidnap him. But it might help to stop this crazy war that was now already started.

And he could think of nothing better at the moment.

Simon swung around suddenly, and there was a gun in his hand. “All right, sucker,” he ordered