Adventure stories; Extrasolar planets -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; Space pirates -- Fiction
Anne turned to Star. "Now I know why they call you 'Death Star' Blade,"
she said, and gestured toward the men who had surrendered, and the two
whom Starrett had shot down.
He mused there for a minute. Then Anne broke the silence with, "Star,
what are we going to do now? Garrett's men will be up here in a little
while. We can't get to a sub-space beam. What are we going to do when
they come up to investigate?"
Starrett Blade laughed. "Do? Well, we could turn them over to Commander
Weddel!"
"_What?_"
Grinning broadly, Star pointed, with a flourish, at the door. Anne
spun about, and found Commander Weddel grinning in the door from the
corridor.
"Very simple," said Star across the lounge to Anne. "When I smashed
the vision set with that dinner fork, I broke a small unit which is
included in all sets. You know, a direction finder doesn't work, except
in the liner-beam principle, in space, because of the diffusing effect
of unrestricted cosmic rays."
"Yes, I knew that," said Anne. "But how--"
Starrett grinned again. "A type of beam has been found which it is
impossible for cosmics to disturb. But you can't send messages on
it, so it is made in a little unit on every set. If that unit is
broken, the set automatically releases a signal beam. This is a
distress signal, and the location of the set that sent out the signal
is recorded at the Section Headquarters. When Commander Weddel saw
me throw something at the set, and it went dead, he looked at the
automatic record, and found out that a signal had been sent in from
a location on Alpha Cen's third planet. Then he had a high-velocity
cruiser brought out and dropped in, in time to pick up some pieces." He
stopped, and idly toyed with a sheaf of papers, then held them up. "See
these papers?"
"Uh-huh. What are they, Star?"
"They are the main plans of Devil Garrett's power plant, and they're
the one good thing he's ever done. These plans are going to bring the
barren, rocky Centauri planets to life!"
He got up, and paced to the window, and stood there, looking out, and
up through the plastic port. "The planets of Centauri!" he murmured
softly. "Seven circling Alpha alone. And all seven are barren, rocky,
level except for the thousands of lakes ... lakes that are going to be
the life of Centauri!"
* * * * *
He turned back to the window. "And all because a pirate named Devil
Garrett built a vast power plant to use to garner more power!"
"You know, Anne, as a mockery, and a warning, I think I'll propose that
this planet be officially named ... 'Garrett'!"
She looked up at him, and there was laughter bright in her eyes, and
tugging at her mouth. "Yes, there ought to be a reason," she murmured.
Star wavered. She was so darn close.
After a minute, she turned her head, and looked up at him. "Star, how
soon will there be those gardens and woods you described? I mean,
how long before Garrett can be turned into that kind of world you
described?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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