Part 46 (1/2)
x.x.xI
”Hurry, Anita!”
I feared that Potan might come up from the hull at any moment and stop us. The duty man over us gazed down, his huge head and shoulders blocking the small signal room window. Brotow called up in Martian, telling him to let us come. He scowled, but when we reached the trap in the room floor grid, we found him standing aside to admit us.
I flung a swift glance around. It was a metallic cubby, not much over fifteen feet square, with an eight foot arched ceiling. There were instrument panels. The range finder for the giant projector was here; its telescope with the trajectory apparatus and the firing switch were unmistakable. And the signaling apparatus was here! Not a Martian set, but a fully powerful Botz ultra-violet sender with its attendant receiving mirrors. The _Planetara_ had used the Botz system, so I was thoroughly familiar with it.
I saw too, what seemed to be weapons: a row of small fragile gla.s.s globes, hanging on clips along the wall--bombs, each the size of a man's fist. And a broad belt with bombs in its padded compartments.
My heart was pounding as my first quick glance took in these details.
I saw also that the room had four small oval window openings. They were breast high above the floor; from the deck below I knew that the angle of vision was such that the men down there could not see into this room except to glimpse its upper portion near the ceiling. And the helio set was banked on a low table near the floor.
In a corner of the room a small ladder led through a ceiling trap to the cubby roof. This upper trap was open. Four feet above the room's roof was the arch of the dome, with the entrance to the exit-lock directly above us. The weapons and the belt of bombs were near the ascending ladder, evidently placed here as equipment for use from the top of the dome.
I turned to the solitary duty man. I must gain his confidence at once.
Anita had laid her helmet aside. She spoke first.
”We were with _Set_ Miko,” she said smilingly, ”in the wreck of the _Planetara_. You heard of it? We know where the treasure is.”
This duty man was a full seven feet tall, and the most heavy-set Martian I had ever seen. A tremendous, beetle-browed, scowling fellow.
He stood with hands on his hips, his leather-garbed legs spread wide; and as I confronted him, I felt like a child.
He was silent, glaring down at me as I drew his attention from Anita.
”You speak English?” I asked. ”We are not skilled with Martian.”
I wondered if at the next time of sleep this fellow would be on duty here. I hoped not: it would not be easy to trick him and find an opportunity to flash a signal. But that task was some hours away as yet; I would worry about it when the time came. Just now I was concerned with Miko and his little band, who at any moment might arrive in sight. If we could persuade this duty man to turn the projector on them!
He answered me in ready English:
”You are the man Gregg Haljan? And this is the sister of George Prince--what do you want up here?”
”I am a navigator. Brotow wants me to pilot the s.h.i.+p when we advance to attack Grantline.”
”This is not the control room.”
”No, I know it isn't.”
I put my helmet carefully on the floor beside Anita's. I straightened to find the brigand gazing at her. He did not speak: he was still scowling. But in the dim blue glow of the cubby, I caught the look in his eyes.
I said hastily, ”Grantline knows your s.h.i.+p has landed here on Archimedes. His camp is off there on the Mare Imbrium. He sent up a signal--you saw it, didn't you?--just before Miss Prince and I came aboard. He was trying to pretend he was your Earth party, Miko and Coniston.”
”Why?”
The fellow turned his scowl on me, but Anita brought his gaze back to her. She put in quickly:
”Grantline, as brother always said, has no great cunning. I believe now he plans to creep up on us unawares, by pretending that he is Miko.”
”If he does that,” I said, ”we will turn this electronic projector on him and his party and annihilate them. You have its firing mechanism here.”