Chapter 16. _In Orbit Around Pluto_

There was a mad rush to action stations. Detmar, Ferrati and Oberfield,

who had been in their bunks, dashed to their posts while others tried to

pass them in both directions. Haines and Burl hastily climbed into their

space suits, while Ferrati and Boulton manned the inner defensive

controls.

Burl pulled the tight-fitting harness of his insulated space suit over

him. The shape of the Sun-tapper ship came into focus on the tiny screen

of the air lock viewer. It was approaching them at a frighteningly rapid

pace. He could see the broken framework of one of its two globes--the

one on which they had scored their hit. The other globe and the

connecting passages were strikingly clear. Tiny circles of windows were

visible in the passage section, which undoubtedly housed the operators

of the vessel. For a fleeting instant he realized that as yet none of

the Earthlings had any inkling of what these creatures looked like.

While he knew that the scene was telescopic, the ship was undoubtedly

approaching them fast; or rather, they were catching up to it at a

perilous pace! Whether the wrecked enemy had slowed down more than they

had, as it approached its Plutonian base, or whether some other surprise

lay ahead, they had no idea.

Burl felt the jarring impact as Lockhart cut the _Magellan's_ drive.

There was an instant of weightlessness, and then their weight reversed

as the A-G drive strove to slow down the ship. Within the air lock they

were outside the living space of the sphere, suspended beneath the drive

chamber. Burl could see the walls of the inner sphere whirl past him, a

foot away, as the living quarters rotated to shift with the

gravitational change. And at that very moment, while all those inside

were temporarily helpless, disaster struck.

Burl had just finished adjusting his airtight helmet, and Haines was

already on his way forward to the outer shell port and the rocket guns,

when there was a flash of lightning from the crippled enemy spaceship.

The foe was still capable of fighting--and it had fired

first--alarmingly close.

Within what seemed a split second after Burl's eyes had registered the

flash on the little viewplate, the _Magellan_ received the full force of

the mighty electronic discharge. To Burl it seemed as if a thunderclap

had sounded in his ears, and as if he had been plunged into a bath of

white flames. The walls of the passage sparked brilliantly, blinding

light filled the air, and Burl's body vibrated as it would to an

electric shock.

He reeled wildly, catching at the walls and almost falling. In a few

seconds his senses recovered, although his body was still humming from

the blow and his ears were ringing. The viewplate had gone black, the

lights in the air lock corridor were dark, and when he tried to gain his

feet he realized that the ship now had no gravity; it was falling free

without power.

Haines was slumped in the end of the corridor, with the port nearly

opened. Burl pushed his way over to him and helped the groggy explorer

to his feet. There was no sound, and Burl suddenly remembered that he

hadn't taken time to switch on his helmet phone. He did so and was

relieved to hear Harness voice asking if he was all right.

"I'm okay," Burl called. "Let's get this port open. Maybe we can hit

back at least once."

Together, they turned the bolts and pushed the thick outer shell door

open. Without the aid of telescopic sights they could see the shape of

the Sun-tapper vessel plainly, outlined against the curtain of distant

stars. Struggling not to think of what might be going on within the

_Magellan_--their earphones registered nothing except each other--they

unlimbered the long tube of the rocket launcher and aimed point-blank at

the foe. Haines reached into the ammunition locker vault alongside the

passageway and selected the biggest and wickedest of the available

shells. He twisted the dial in the warhead and, while Burl held the aim,

shoved in the rocket shell. With a press of the button, the missile

roared out of the tube, racing in an arc of fire directly toward the

faint vision of the other ship.

They watched with bated breath, counting the seconds, hoping not to see

another blast of electrical fire. But apparently the foe had exhausted

its limited resources, for the thin spidery line of rocket sparks

reached out, farther and farther, until it seemed to touch the surface

of the golden globe.

There was a great flare in the sky now, an outpouring of fire and hot

metal. When it cleared away, the sky was empty.

Haines wearily drew the outer port shut. "Now, let's see if we're

goners, too," he said quietly. They sealed the outer shell and made

their way along the dark passage.

Even as they were unlocking the toggles of the inner hatch, the corridor

lights started to flicker. They would light up dimly, and then flicker

out, light up again, flare for an instant, then die down. Someone was

alive within the ship.

They got the hatch open. In the central section of the living sphere,

the lights were also dim and in a few places they were completely out.

They emerged and closed the hatch behind them. Only after Haines had

tested the inner atmosphere and found it still pressurized, did they

open their helmets and climb stiffly out of the space suits, wincing at

bruises they had sustained but had not noticed until then.

The air pressure was all right, but there was a smell of burned rubber

and insulation in the air. Now that their helmets were off, they could

hear voices somewhere above. They found Oberfield lying unconscious,

thrown to the floor by the sudden shift of the ship. They climbed into

the control room. Lockhart was floating in the air near the open

hatchway leading to the engine room overhead. He was calling out orders

to someone who was within.

Russ was working over the navigation desk, a bandage around his head,

trying to figure out where they would be and where they were heading,

without having access to the still dark viewplates.

Lockhart twisted in the weightless air when he saw them. He seemed both

relieved and distressed. "I'm glad you're okay, but I had hoped you'd be

able to put in a blow for us."

Burl realized that inside the ship they had no way of knowing that

vengeance had been served. Hastily, he explained. His words cheered

everyone. Russ and Lockhart shouted joyously. Detmar poked his head down

the hatch and called the news back to his two fellows who were

struggling to get the A-G generators functioning.

The bolt of energy, whatever it may have been designed to do to a ship

of the Sun-tapper build, did not have the totally disastrous effect on

the _Magellan_ that it was intended to have. It had knocked out their

electrical system temporarily, burned out some of its parts and caused

the A-G system to fail, although the atomic piles were impervious to

such currents. Oberfield, Ferrati and Shea were badly hurt.

There now followed an anxious period during which more and more of the

electrical system began to function as the men labored to rig up

emergency wires, and to replace burned out bulbs and lines. There was a

general cheer when the viewplates flickered into life again, though not

all functioned. They again had access to the sky about them--even though

not all sectors were covered.

The humming in the engine room started up, rose and fell uneasily a

couple of times, and then they felt a surge of force. Lockhart fell

gently to the floor as the ship began to drive ahead, and then in a few

minutes the A-G drive was back on, and the _Magellan_ was again under

control.

"We took what they had to give, and it wasn't enough," exulted Haines.

"Now wait till we reach their main works. We'll show them!"

Lockhart shook his head wearily as he and Russ worked over the controls.

"Let's hope we don't have to show them soon. Our ship is running on

emergency rigging. Caton says he's going to have to rest the ship and

rewire a good part of the system. Meanwhile, we will be able to reach

Pluto safely enough."

Pluto was visible in the forward viewplates. They could see lighter and

darker patches on it, almost like the markings of continents and oceans,

but there was no evidence of an atmosphere, nor had they expected any.

Readings showed that the average surface temperature was about 200°

Fahrenheit below zero, even lower in many places. They searched the

surface for signs of their foe.

They found what they wanted on the north polar depression, a basin in

the oblate sphere of Pluto. There was no ringed station. There rose a

vast pile of dark masonry--a mighty structure covering at least a square

mile, a fortress building whose roofs bristled with an array of masts

and reflectors. And hanging on patrol over this polar basin were two

more of the dumbbell ships.

"We're in no position to come to grips with them," said Lockhart. "I'm

going to take the _Magellan_ into a low orbit around Pluto's equator.

We'll be out of their sight, yet near enough to do some probing and

exploring while we're making repairs."

This they proceeded to do, swinging the ship down to within a few

hundred miles of the Plutonian surface, setting on a fixed orbit around

the equator, exactly as the sputniks of years past had first circled the

bulk of the Earth. Staying far enough up to maintain orbit, they were

close enough to be below the planet's radiation belt.

Taking stock of the ship's condition showed that they dearly needed this

delay. Repairs would not be completed for several days. Practically

everyone had been bruised or shaken up; Oberfield had a fractured skull

and was in serious condition; Ferrati had broken his leg and pelvis;

Shea had a couple of cracked ribs. The men were given emergency medical

treatment and confined to quarters.

The _Magellan_ quietly circled Pluto once every hour and a half and the

ship tried to resume its normal life. Russ studied the surface beneath

them, Haines and Burl at his elbow. Then, after conferring, the three

approached Lockhart.

"We want permission to make a landing," Russ said. "If we take the

four-man rocket plane we can make the ground safely. We've got to

reconnoiter before we can figure out how to put this master Sun-tap

station out of business."

Lockhart agreed. "I was planning as much. Now that we're here, we can't

delay just because we're injured. Go ahead."

The three got ready quickly. They donned their space suits, loaded the

larger rocket plane with equipment, arms, and plenty of extra fuel. Just

before they left, Lockhart gave them a word of caution. "Do not attempt

to communicate with the _Magellan_ by radio. If Pluto is the

Sun-tappers' home world, you may find yourselves surrounded by enemies,

and overheard. Don't reveal our existence or position. If you have to

talk to us, do not expect a reply unless it's an absolute emergency."

Burl strapped himself into his seat within the rocket plane and glanced

through the thick window. Below them was a world the size of Earth--a

world which, if it had air and warmth, could most nearly be Earth's twin

of all the planets in the system. This rocket plane had touched on the

hot surface of Mercury, the first planet, In a little while it would set

down on the frigid surface of the last planet. They had come a long

way.