Anita turned to seal my door; within my faintly humming cloak I stood beside her. Was I invisible in this light? Almost directly over us, close under the dome, the look-out sat in his little tower. He gazed down at Anita.
Amidships, high over the cabin superstructure, the helio-room hung dark and silent. The guard on its bridge was visible. He, too, looked down.
A tense instant. Then I breathed again. There was no alarm. The two guards answered Anita"s gesture.
Anita said aloud into my empty cubby: "Miko will come for you presently, Haljan. He told me to tell you that he wants you at the turret controls to land us on the asteroid."
She finished sealing my door and turned away; started forward along the deck. I followed. My steps were soundless in my elastic-bottomed shoes.
Anita swaggered with a noisy tread. Near the door of the smoking room a small incline pa.s.sage led downward. We went into it.
The pa.s.sage was dimly blue-lit. We descended its length, came to the main corridor, which ran the length of the hull. A vaulted metal pa.s.sage, with doors to the control rooms opening from it. Dim lights showed at intervals.
The humming of the ship was more apparent here. It drowned the slight humming of my cloak. I crept after Anita; my hand under the cloak clutched the ray weapon.
A steward pa.s.sed us. I shrank aside to avoid him.
Anita spoke to him. "Where is Miko, Ellis?"
"In the ventilator-room, Mr. Prince. There was difficulty with the air renewal."
Anita nodded, and moved on. I could have felled that steward as he pa.s.sed me. Oh, if I only had, how different things might have been!
But it seemed needless. I let him go, and he turned into a nearby door which led to the galley.
Anita moved forward. If we could come upon Miko alone. Abruptly she turned, and whispered, "Gregg, if other men are with him, I"ll draw him away. You watch your chance."
What little things may overthrow one"s careful plans! Anita had not realized how close to her I was following. And her turning so unexpectedly caused me to collide with her sharply.
"Oh!" She exclaimed it involuntarily. Her outflung hand had unwittingly gripped my wrist, caught the electrode there. The touch burned her, and close-circuited my robe. There was a hiss. My current burned out the tiny fuses.
My invisibility was gone! I stood, a tall black-hooded figure, revealed to the gaze of anyone who might be near!
The futile plans of humans! We had planned so carefully! Our calculations, our hopes of what we could do, came clattering now in a sudden wreckage around us.
"Anita, run!"
If I were seen with her, then her own disguise would probably be discovered. That above everything would be disaster!
"Anita, get away from me! I must try it alone!"
I could hide somewhere, repair the cloak perhaps. Or, since now I was armed, why could I not boldly start an a.s.sault?
"Gregg, we must get you back to your cubby!" She was clinging to me in a panic.
"No! You run! Get away from me! Don"t you understand? George Prince has no business here with me! They"d kill you!"
Or worse--- Miko would discover it was Anita, not George Prince.
"Gregg, let"s get back to the deck."
I pushed at her. Both of us in sudden confusion.
From behind me there came a shout. That accursed steward! He had returned, to investigate perhaps what George Prince was doing in this corridor. He heard our voices; his shout in the silence of the ship sounded horribly loud. The white-clothed shape of him was in the nearby doorway. He stood stricken in surprise at seeing me. And then turned to run.
I fired my paralyzing cylinder through my cloak. Got him! He fell. I shoved Anita violently.
"Run! Tell Miko to come--tell him you heard a shout! He won"t suspect you!"
"But Gregg--"
"You mustn"t be found out! You"re our only hope, Anita! I"ll hide, fix the cloak, or get back to my cubby. We"ll try it again."
It decided her. She scurried down the corridor. I whirled the other way.
The steward"s shout might not have been heard.
Then realization flashed to me. That steward would be revived. He was one of Miko"s men: for two voyages he had been a spy upon the _Planetara_. He would be revived and tell what he had seen and heard.
Anita"s disguise would be revealed.
A cold-blooded killing I do protest went against me. But it was necessary. I flung myself upon him. I beat his skull with the metal of my cylinder.
I stood up. My hood had fallen back from my head. I wiped my b.l.o.o.d.y hands on my useless cloak. I had smashed the cylinder.
"Haljan!"
Anita"s voice! A sharp note of horror and warning. I became aware that in the corridor, forty feet down its dim length, Miko had appeared, with Anita behind him. His rifle-bullet-projector was leveled. It spat at me.
But Anita had pulled at his arm.
The explosive report was sharply deafening in the confined s.p.a.ce of the corridor. With a spurt of flame the leaden pellet struck over my head against the vaulted ceiling.
Miko was struggling with Anita. "Prince, you idiot!"
"Miko, don"t! It"s Haljan! Don"t kill him--"
The turmoil brought members of the crew. From the shadowed oval near me they came running. I flung the useless cylinder at them. But I was trapped in the narrow pa.s.sage.
I might have fought my way out. Or Miko might have shot me. But there was the danger that, in her horror, Anita would betray herself.
I backed against the wall. "Don"t kill me! See, I will not fight!"
I flung up my arms. And the crew, emboldened, and courageous under Miko"s gaze, leaped on me and bore me down.
The futile plans of humans! Anita and I had planned so carefully, and in a few brief minutes of action it had come only to this!