"What about it?" asked Strong.
"I"d like to register that protest now."
"Now?" Steve looked at him, a frown on his face. "Why now?"
"For one thing, Brett couldn"t blast off until there was an investigation."
"You might have something there, Kit," replied Strong with a smile.
"_And_ since Brett won the race under such--er--mysterious circ.u.mstances, I"d suggest an investigation of the black ship as well, eh?"
Kit grinned. "Shall I make that a formal request?"
"Right now, if you like."
Kit turned to face Commander Walters. "Commander," he announced, "I would like to register a formal protest with regard to the race."
Walters glanced up. "Race?" he growled. "What the devil are you talking about, Kit?"
"Captain Barnard seems to think that Mr. Brett"s ship might have used equipment that was not standard, sir," Strong explained. "In addition, his own ship was sabotaged during the time trials."
Walters looked at Strong and then at Kit Barnard, unable to understand.
"What"s happened to you two? Bringing up a thing like that at this time.
Have you lost your senses?"
"No, sir," replied Kit. "But I believe that if a formal investigation was started, the Solar Guard would be within its legal rights to delay signing the contracts until such investigation was completed."
Walters grinned broadly. "Of course! Of course!"
Brett jumped up and stormed across the room. "You can"t get away with this, Walters!" he shouted. "I won this race fairly and squarely. You have to sign that contract."
"Mr. Brett," said Walters coldly, "under the circ.u.mstances, I don"t have to do a s.p.a.ce-blasted thing." He turned to Kit. "Is this a formal request for an investigation, Kit?" He was smiling.
"It is, sir."
"Very well," said Walters, turning to Brett. "Mr. Brett, in the presence of two witnesses, I refuse to sign the contracts as a result of serious charges brought against you by one of the partic.i.p.ating entrants. You will be notified of the time and place of the hearing on these charges."
Brett"s face turned livid. "You can"t do this to me!"
Walters turned to one of the enlisted guardsmen. "Escort Mr. Brett from the room," he ordered.
A tall, husky s.p.a.ceman unlimbered his paralo-ray rifle and nudged Brett from the room. "I"ll get even with you, Walters, if it"s the last thing I do," he screamed.
"You make another threat like that to a Solar Guard officer," growled the enlisted s.p.a.ceman, "and it"ll be the _last_ thing you do."
As the door closed, Walters, Strong, and Kit laughed out loud. A few seconds later, as the three men returned to their study of the report, there was a distant rumble, followed quickly by the shock wave of a tremendous explosion. Walters, Strong, and Kit and everyone in the room were thrown to the floor violently.
"By the craters of Luna," yelled Strong, "what was that?"
"One of the smaller screens has given way, sir!" yelled the chief electronic engineer after a quick glance at the giant control board.
"Number seven."
Walters struggled to his feet. "Where is it?" he demanded.
Strong and Kit got to their feet and crowded around the commander as the engineer pointed out the section on the huge map hanging on the wall.
"Here it is, sir," he said. "Sector twelve."
"Has that area been evacuated yet?" asked Strong.
"I don"t know, sir," replied the engineer. "Captain Howard was in charge of all evacuation operations."
Walters spun around. "Get Howard, Steve. Find out if that part of the city has been cleared," he ordered and then turned to Kit. "You, Kit, take the s.p.a.ce Marines and round up every spare oxygen mask you can find and get it over to that section right away. I"ll meet you here"--he placed his finger on the map--"with every jet car I can find. No telling how many people are still there and we have to get them out."
Almost immediately the wailing of emergency sirens could be heard spreading the alarm over the city. At the s.p.a.ceport, where the citizens were waiting to be taken off the satellite, small groups began to charge toward the loading ships in a frenzy of fear. Since t.i.tan had been colonized, there had never been a single occasion where the sirens had warned of the failure of the screens. There had been many tests, especially for the school-age children and the miners working far below the surface of the satellite, but this was the first time the sirens howled a real warning of danger and death.
Strong raced back to the control tower of the s.p.a.ceport in a jet car and burst into the room where the captain was still asleep on the couch.
Strong shook him violently.
"Wake up, Joe!" he cried. "Come on. Wake up."
"Uh--ahhh? What"s the--?" Howard sat up and blinked his eyes. "Steve, what"s going on?"
"The screen at sector twelve has collapsed. How many people are still in there?"
"Collapsed! Sector twelve?" Howard, still groggy with sleep, dumbly repeated what Strong had said.
Strong drew back his hand and slapped him across the face. "Come out of it, Joe!" he barked.
Howard reeled back and then sat up, fully awake.
"What--what did you say?" he stammered.
"Sector twelve has gone," Strong repeated. "How many people are left there?"
"We haven"t even begun operations there yet," Howard replied grimly.
"How long have I been asleep?"
"A couple of hours."
"Then there"s still time."
"What do you mean?"
"Just before I folded, I ordered the evacuation crews to start working on sector eleven. They should be finished now and just about starting on twelve. If they have, we have a good chance of saving everyone."
"Let"s go."
The two men raced out of the control tower to the jet car and roared through the desolate streets of the city. All around them commandeered jet cars raced toward the critical area. Commander Walters stood in the middle of an intersection on the main road to sector twelve, waving his arms and shouting orders to the enlisted guardsmen and volunteer miners that had raced back into the city to help. On the sidewalk, enlisted guardsmen handed out extra oxygen masks to the men who would search the area for anyone who might not have gotten out before the screen exploded. The main evacuation force that had been under Howard"s supervision had already moved in but there was still a large area to cover.