Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
Then hell broke out. A fire extinguisher came loose from its
fastenings and started flying around the room in complete defiance of
artificial gravity. Switches on the control board clicked on and off.
The ship bucked, shuddered and jumped. But the spin held. Redman,
crushed face down to the floor, couldn't see what he was doing.
Besides--he didn't know what he was doing--but he was trying. The fire
extinguisher came whizzing across the floor and cracked me on the
shin. A scream of pure agony left my lips as I felt the bone snap.
"Got you!" Redman grunted, as he lifted his head against the crushing
force and sighted at me like a gunner. The extinguisher reversed its
flight across the room and came hurtling at my head.
"Too late!" I gloated mentally. Then the world was filled with novae
and comets as the extinguisher struck. The cheerful thought that
Redman was trapped because he didn't--couldn't--know how to drive a
hypership was drowned in a rush of darkness.
* * * * *
When I came to, my leg was aching like a thousand devils and I was
lying on a rocky surface. Near--terribly near--was a jagged rock
horizon cutting the black of space dotted with the blazing lights of
stars. I groaned and rolled over, wincing at the double pain in leg
and head. Redman was standing over me, carrying a couple of oxygen
bottles and a black case. He looked odd, standing there with a load in
his arms that would have crushed him flat on Mars. And then I knew. I
was on an asteroid.
"But how did I get here?"
"Easy," Redman's voice came over my headphone. "Didn't anyone ever
tell you an unconscious mind is easier to read than a conscious one?"
He chuckled. "No," he continued, "I don't suppose they did--but it is.
Indeed it is." He laid the bottles down, and put the box beside them.
"I learned how to operate the ship, stopped the spin, and got her back
into negative inertia before the Patrol found me. Found this place
about an hour ago--and since you began to look like you'd live, I
figured you should have a chance. So I'm leaving you a communicator
and enough air to keep you alive until you can get help. But so help
me--you don't deserve it. After I played square with you, you try to
do this to me."
"Square!" I yelped. "Why you--" The rest of what I said was
unprintable.
Redman grinned at me, his face rosy behind the glassite of his
helmet--and turned away. I turned to watch him picking his way
carefully back to where the yacht rested lightly on the naked rock. At
the airlock he turned and waved at me. Then he squeezed inside. The
lock closed. There was a brief shimmer around the ship--a briefer
blast of heat, and the yacht vanished.
I turned on the communicator and called for help. I used the Patrol
band. "I'll keep the transmitter turned on so you can home in on me,"
I broad-casted, "but get that Earthman first! He's got my money and my
ship. Pick me up later, but get him now!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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