I had the range. I flung the firing switch.
At the deck window the giant projector spat its deadly electronic stream. The men down there leaped away from it with surprise. I heard Potan"s voice, his shout of protest and anger.
But down in the Earthglow at the crater-base, Miko"s lights had not vanished! I had missed! An error in the range? Abruptly I knew it was not that. Miko"s lights were still there. His signals still coming.
And I remarked now a faint distortion about them, the glow of his little group of hand-lights faintly distorted and vaguely shot with a greenish cast. Benson curve-lights! I realized it.
My thoughts whirled in the few seconds while I stood there at the tower window. Miko had feared he might summarily be fired upon. He had gone back to his camp, equipped all his lights with the Benson curve.
He was somewhere at the crater-base now. But not where I thought I saw him! The Benson curve-light changed the path of the light-rays traveling from him to me--I could not even approximate his true position!
Anita was plucking at me. "Gregg, come."
"I can"t hit him!" I gasped.
Should I try the flash-signal to Earth? Did we dare linger here? I stood another few seconds fascinated at the window. I saw Potan down in the confusion of the deck, training a telescope. He had shouted up violently at his duty-man here not to fire again.
And now he suddenly let out a roar. "I can see them! It"s Miko! By the Almighty--his giant stature--Brotow, look! That"s not an Earthman!"
He flung aside his little telescope finder. "Disconnect that projector! It"s Miko down there! This Haljan is a trickster! Where is he? Braile--Braile, you accursed fool! Are Haljan and the girl up there with you?"
But the duty-man lay weltering in his blood at our feet.
I had dropped back from the window. Anita and I crouched for an instant in confusion, fumbling with our helmets.
The ship rang with the alarm. And amid the turmoil we could hear the shouts of the infuriated brigands swarming up the tower ladder after us!
CHAPTER x.x.xII
_A Speck Amid the Stars_
I was only inactive a moment. I had thought Anita would have on her helmet. But she was reluctant, or confused.
"Gregg."
"We"ve got to get out of here! Up through the overhead locks to the dome."
"Yes--" She fumbled with the helmet. Under the floor-grid the climbing men on the ladder were audible. They were already nearing the top. The trap door was closed: Anita and I were crouching on it. There was a thick metal bar set in a depressed groove of the grid. I slid it in place--it would seal the trap for a time, at any rate.
A degree of confidence came to me. We had a few moments before there could be any hand-to-hand conflict. That giant electronic projector would eventually be used against Grantline: it was the brigands" most powerful weapon. Its controls were here--by Heaven, I would smash them! That at least I could do!
I jumped for the window. Miko"s signals had stopped, but I caught a glimpse of his distant moving curve-lights.
A flash came up at me, as in the window I became visible to the brigands on the ship"s deck. It was a small hand-projector, hastily fired, for it went wide of the window. It was followed by a rain of small beams, but I was warned and I dropped my head beneath the high sill. The rays flashed diagonally upward through the oval opening, hissed against our vaulted roof. The air snapped and tingled with a shower of blue-red sparks, and the acrid odor of the released gases settled down upon me.
The trajectory controls of the projector were beside me. I seized them, ripped and tore at them. There was a roar down on the deck. The projector had exploded. A man"s agonized scream split the confusion of sounds.
It silenced the brigands on the deck. Under our floor-grid those on the ladder had been pounding at the trap-door. They stopped, evidently to see what had happened. The bombardment of our windows ceased momentarily.
I cautiously peered out the window again. In the wreck of the projector three men were lying. One of them was screaming horribly.
The dome-side was damaged. Potan and other men were frantically investigating to see if the ship"s air were hissing out.
A triumph swept me. They had not found me so meek and inoffensive as they might have thought!
Anita clutched at me. She still had not donned her helmet.
"Put it on!"
"But Gregg--"
"Put it on!"
"I--I don"t want to put it on until you put yours on."
"I"ve smashed the projector! We"ve stopped them coming up for a while."
But they were still on the ladder under our floor. They heard our voices; they began thumping again. Then pounding. They seemed now to have some heavy implement. They rammed with it against the trap.
But the floor seemed holding. The square of metal grid trembled, yielded a little. But it was good for a few minutes longer.
I called down, "The first one who comes through will be shot." My words mingled with their oaths. There was a moment"s pause, then the ramming went on. The dying man on the deck was still screaming.
I whispered, "I"ll try an Earth-signal."
She nodded. Pale, tense, but calm. "Yes, Gregg. And I was thinking--"
"It won"t take a minute. Have your helmet ready."
"I was thinking--"
She hurried across the room. I swung on the Botz signaling apparatus.
It was connected. Within a moment I had it humming. The fluorescent tubes lighted with their lurid glare; they painted purple the body of the giant duty-man who lay sprawled at my feet. I drew on all the ship"s power. The tube-lights in the room quivered and went dim.
I would have to hurry. Potan could shut this off from the main hull control room. I could see, through the room"s upper trap, the primary sending mirror mounted in the peak of the dome. It was quivering, radiant with its light-energy. I sent the flash.
The flattened, past-full Earth was up there. I knew that the western hemisphere faced the Moon at this hour. I flashed in English, with the open Universal Earth-code:
"_Help! Grantline._"
And again: "_Send help! Archimedes region near Apennines. Attacked by brigands. Send help at once! Grantline!_"
If only it would be received! I flung off the current. Anita stood watching me intently. "Gregg, look!"
She had taken some of the gla.s.s globe-bombs which lay by the foot of the ascending ladder. She held some of them now.
"Gregg. I threw some."