I was watching my windows; for at any moment, under the cover of talk,
I might be assailed.
Gravity came suddenly to the room. Miko's voice said: "We mean well by
you, Haljan. There is your normality. Join us. We need you to chart
our course."
"And a hundred pounds of gold leaf," urged Coniston. "Or more. Why,
this treasure--"
I could hear an oath from Miko. And then his ironic voice. "We will
not bother you, Haljan. There is no hurry. You will be hungry in good
time. And sleepy. Then we will come and get you. And a little acid
will help you to think differently about us...."
His vibrations died away. The pull of gravity in the room was normal.
I was alone in the dim silence, with the bodies of Carter and Johnson
huddled on the grid. I bent to examine them. Both were dead.
My isolation was not ruse this time. The outlaws made no further
attack. Half an hour passed. The deck outside, what I could see of it,
was vacant. Balch lay dead close outside the chart room door. The
bodies of Blackstone and the course master had been removed from the
turret window. As a forward lookout, one of Miko's men was on duty in
the nearby tower. Hahn was at the turret's controls. The ship was
under orderly handling, heading back upon a new course. For the Earth?
The Moon? It did not seem so.
I found, in the chart room, a Benson curve light projector which poor
Captain Carter had nearly assembled. I worked on it, trained it
through my rear window along the empty deck; bent it into the lounge
archway. Upon my grid the image of the lounge interior presently
focused. The passengers in the lounge were huddled in a group.
Disheveled, frightened, with Moa standing watching them. Stewards were
serving them with a meal.
Upon a bench, bodies were lying. Some were dead. I saw Rance Rankin.
Others were evidently only injured. Dr. Frank was moving among them,
attending them. Venza was there, unharmed. And I saw the gamblers,
Shac and Dud, sitting white-faced, whispering together. And Glutz's
little beribboned, becurled figure on a stool.
George Prince was there, standing against the wall, shrouded in his
mourning cloak, watching the scene with alert, roving eyes. And by the
opposite doorway, the huge towering figure of Miko stood on guard. But
Snap was missing.
A brief glimpse. Miko saw my Benson light. I could have equipped a
heat ray and fired along the curved Benson light into that lounge. But
Miko gave me no time.
He slid the lounge door closed, and Moa leaped to close the one on my
side. My grid showed only the blank deck and door.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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