"It"s Miko! And they are answering him! Get your helmet: I"ll try firing the projector."
Or would I instead try and send a brief flash signal to Earth? There would be no time to do both: we must escape out of here. The route up through the dome was the only feasible one now.
This range mechanism of the projector was reasonably familiar, and I felt that I could operate it. The range-finder and the switch were on a ledge at one of the windows. I rushed to it. As I swung the telescope, training it down on Miko"s lights, I could see the huge projector on the deck swinging similarly. Its movement surprised the men who were attending it. One of them called up to me, but I ignored him.
Then Potan looked up and saw me. He shouted in Martian at the duty man, whom he doubtless thought was behind me: "Be ready! We may fire on them. I"ll give you the word."
The signals were proceeding. It had only been a moment. I caught something like, "_Haljan is imposter_."
I was aiming the projector. I was aware of Anita at my elbow. I pushed her back.
"Put on your helmet!"
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 in surprise. I heard Potan"s voice, his shout of protest and anger.
But down in the Earth glow 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 noticed 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!
My thoughts whirled in the few seconds while I stood there at the tower window. Miko had feared he might be summarily fired on. 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 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 let out a roar. "I can see them! It"s Miko! By the Almighty--his giant stature--Brotow, look! That"s not an Earth man!"
He flung aside his 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 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!
x.x.xII
I was only inactive a moment. I had thought Anita would have on her helmet. But she was reluctant, or confused.
"Anita, we"ve got to get out of here! Up through the overhead locks to the dome."
"Yes." She fumbled with her helmet. 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 for the grid. I slid it in place; it would seal the trap for a short time.
A degree of confidence came to me. We had a few moments before there could be any hand-to-hand conflict. The 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 dropped my head beneath the sill.
The rays flashed dangerously 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 us.
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 agonizing 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 stopped 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 was hissing out.
A triumph swept over me. They had not found me so meek and inoffensive as they might have thought!
Anita clutched me. She still had not donned her helmet.
"Put on your helmet!"
"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 heavy implements. They rammed against the trap.
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.