In the Orbit of Saturn Read online

* * * * *

  One day he seemed overcome by great weakness. Staggering, he held hishand to his sweat-dewed forehead. Erratically he waltzed across thefloor, to crumple in a heap where Quirl and the girl were sitting.Moved by compassion, Lenore composed his body in a more comfortableposition, and with a bit of handkerchief moistened the pirate'swrinkled, old-young face with some of Quirl's drinking water. Theguard looked on indifferently.

  "Guard!" Quirl shouted. "He's going to die. Come and take him to thelazaret."

  "Sez you!" returned the guard callously. "Me, I stay on post tillrelieved. Sorko'll be all right. He's been throwin' them fits rightregular."

  Sorko's lips moved feebly, and Lenore bent down to catch his words.They were barely audible:

  "I'm all right, lady. You done me a good turn when you made Gore putme down, and I'm doin' you one now. I wouldn't do this for no oneelse." He gasped.

  "Water!" Lenore exclaimed sharply, and Quirl handed her the rest ofhis cup.

  "Ain't water he wants," the amused guard observed. "The blighter'splayin' for a good chew of merclite!"[1]

  [Footnote 1: Merclite, a highly stimulating gum. It was prohibited byinterplanetary proclamation, but was always obtainable through thesurreptitious channels of a highly profitable traffic.]

  "I ain't as bad as I'm makin' out," Sorko whispered. "Got to do it totell you this, 'cause you was square with me. Gore is fixin' to have amut'ny. Kill captain, kill all these dubs here--this guy of yourn,too. He wants to take you for his--" the weazened little face twistedin unwonted shy delicacy--"take you for him, pretty lady. I don'twant him to. I'm not--a--bad feller--"

  "What the hell, Sorko!" the puzzled guard exclaimed over the delay."You bandy-legged rat, get up there, or I'll give you a jolt."

  Lenore looked up, indignant.

  "You heartless wretch! Would you let this man--"

  "Comin'!" Sorko scrambling to his feet, shuffling to the table, wherehe retrieved his bowl. Quirl and Lenore watched his painful progressup the ladder, until at last he disappeared into the passage.

  "Quirl," she murmured, as her hand sought his, "take this."

  He felt a small bit of metal, and looking at it cautiously, saw thathe had a rough key, filed out of a piece of flat metal.

  "The key to that hoop around your waist. He copied it from the one thecaptain has, I suppose."

  * * * * *

  His hopes high all at once, Quirl sought the compact little lock inthe small of his back. It took a long time to get the key in, and thenit would not turn. It had been unskillfully made, and was probably nota true reproduction. Nevertheless, by constant effort, he succeeded atlast in turning it, and was rewarded by hearing a faint click. Hetested the hoop, felt it slip, and knew that at any time he chose hecould free himself.

  "Lenore, dear," he told her. "Go with the other women now. We must donothing to make the guard suspicious. We don't know when this mutinyis to come off, but we are close to Saturn now; it can't be long. Gonow."

  "Good-by, dear. Be careful!"

  It seemed an eternity until the emanation disk became dim and went outand the prisoners made sleepy sounds. A relief guard took station,and the ship became silent, so that one could hear the rumbling of thepropelling rockets. As there were no ports in this hold, there was nolight whatever except the faint glow that came from the centralpassage above the platform. Against this the pirate was outlined as hesat on his stool. As Quirl's eyes became accustomed to the darkness hecould see the play of faint highlights on his muscular torso, and sohe waited.

  He thought over the situation. The safest and easiest course would beto create such a disturbance that Captain Strom would be attracted tothe scene. This would probably not involve anything more than a severebeating for himself, and he would then find opportunity to acquaintStrom with the projected mutiny somehow. That Strom would know how todeal with it he never doubted. Lenore might then still be forciblyimpressed as a citizen of Strom's new planet, but at least she wouldnot be exposed to the infinitely worse fate of becoming the playthingof Gore and his villainous crew.

  * * * * *

  The flaw of this plan was that Quirl himself would still be underpractical sentence of death. Strom would not let his gratitude carryhim so far as to release a man who knew as much as Quirl did, and whowould not promise to keep his secrets.

  The preferable, though far more dangerous course was to strike beforethe mutineers could. Quirl knew something about the structure of theship. It was built around the tubular passage, and every hold or groupof rooms opened on this well, from the bow where the navigators wereto the stern where the rockets were located. Somewhere there would bea generating room where the invisibility field was being produced. Ifhe could find this and wreck the generators one of the I.F.P. shipswith which this part of space doubtless swarmed, would sight them, andafter that everything was in the hands of fate.

  Quirl nervously waited for the guard to nod. At any moment he expectedto hear a hellish bedlam break loose--the beginning of the mutiny. Andthe guard seemed alert. There was nothing to do but take a chance.

  Quirl sighed as if he were turning in his sleep, so that the clink ofthe released chain would not seem out of place. The guard did notstir. Slowly, very slowly, Quirl crept across the floor. He had beenrobbed of all his clothing except his torn silk trousers; and hisboots were gone, so he was able to move as quietly as a cat.

  With tense silence he ascended the ladder, praying that his weightwould not send up a warning vibration. But his luck held. He wasnearly at the top before it broke.

  "Take him off! Take him off!" It was an eery, strangled shriek fromone of the male prisoners in the throes of a nightmare. With astartled curse the guard thudded to his feet, peered tensely into thedarkness, his weapon sending twin milky beams of the powerful ionizingray toward the source of the sound.

  * * * * *

  The dreamer had awakened, still gasping in the grip of fear, and otherdisturbed sleepers were grumbling.

  "Better go easy, you fools," the pirate warned them. "Yer just in luckthat I didn't let loose a couple bolts on ye. Got a good notion to doit, anyway." He played the dangerous little spots of light around,amused as the prisoners scrambled for safety, but with no realintention of releasing the deadly electric charge along the pathsprovided for it. This cruel pleasure cost him his life. As he turnedhis back Quirl leaped. His iron-hard forearm rose and fell, and theedge of his hand came down on the back of the pirate's thick neck.There was a muffled crack and he slumped to the platform grating.

  Quickly the officer stripped off the man's harness and buckled itaround his own naked chest. The electrogun had been uninjured, andhooked to the belt was also the riot club, a truly appalling thing atclose quarters. Quirl carried the body down, laid it prone in thecorner he had occupied, snapped on the waistlock, and threw a raggedold blanket over the hairy legs. In the forthcoming disturbance, ifanyone looked in, he would think the inert form a sleeping prisoner,and that the guard had deserted post.

  Quirl had feared an outbreak among the prisoners, but they were soapathetic that they paid little attention. Perhaps they thought it wasQuirl who had been killed, and he did not dare even a whisperedfarewell to the girl he knew was watching somewhere in the darkness.

  Much to Quirl's delight, the long, tubular passage was deserted. Herethe centrifugal gravity was less than it had been in the hold. A weirdplace, this central tube, where every direction was down, and a mancould walk on his ceiling, his floor, his walls with equal facility.No top nor bottom--just a long, smooth tube with numerous enigmaticdoors leading to--where?

  At least it was easy to tell where the bow of the ship was. A lightshone through a transom over the door to the navigating room. Shouldhe try to hold up the navigating officer? He decided against that.There would be at least three men in there, and it was the custom tokeep those quarters locked.

  "If only I knew whe
re they generate the invisibility field!" hemuttered, as he stood irresolute.

  * * * * *

  Opportunity came at that moment. A crack of light appeared along thepassage. A door was opening there. A moment later a head andshoulders showed. Someone was climbing up. Swiftly the officer ran tothe place. The pirate did not even suspect anything wrong until hefelt the spots of milky light on his face. He showed his terrorplainly.

  "Get up!" Quirl hissed. The man obeyed with alacrity. Quirl glanceddown. He saw tiers of bunks, evidently one of the crew's dormitories.

  He now turned to the cowering pirate.

  "I'd as soon kill you as not!" Quirl snarled.

  "You got me wrong,