Treachery in Outer Space | Page 5

the high, wide, and deep again. And that was
all they asked of life. To be in space, a spaceman's only real home!
CHAPTER 2

"Gentlemen, please!"
Commander Walters, the commandant of Space Academy, stood
behind his desk and slammed his fist down sharply on its plastic top. "I
must insist that you control your tempers and refrain from these
repeated outbursts," he growled.
The angry voices that had filled the room began to subside, but Walters
did not continue his address. He stood, arms folded across his chest,
glaring at the assembled group of men until, one by one, they stopped
talking and shifted nervously in their chairs. When the room was finally
still, the commander glanced significantly at Captain Steve Strong,
standing at the side of the desk, smiled grimly, and then resumed in a
calm, conversational tone of voice.
"I am quite aware that we have departed from standard operational
procedure in this case," he said slowly. "Heretofore, the Solar Guard
has always granted interplanetary shipping contracts to private
companies on the basis of sealed bids, the most reasonable bid winning
the job. However, for the job of hauling Titan crystal to Earth, we have
found that method unsatisfactory. Therefore, we have devised this new
plan to select the right company. And let me repeat"--Walters leaned
forward over his desk and spoke in a firm, decisive voice--"this
decision was reached in a special executive session of the Council of
the Solar Alliance last night."
A short, wiry man suddenly rose from his chair in the front row, his
face clearly showing his displeasure. "All right, get on with it,
Walters!" he snapped, deliberately omitting the courtesy of addressing
the commander by his title. "Don't waste our time with that 'official'
hogwash. It might work on your cadets and your tin soldiers, but not on
us!"
There was a murmur of agreement from the assembled group of men.
Present were some of the wealthiest and most powerful shipping
magnates in the entire Solar Alliance--men who controlled vast fleets
of commercial spaceships and whose actions and decisions carried a
great deal of weight. Each hoped to win the Solar Guard contract to

transport Titan crystal from the mines on the tiny satellite back to Earth.
Combining steellike strength and durability with its great natural
beauty, the crystal was replacing metal in all construction work and the
demand was enormous. The shipping company that got the job would
have a guaranteed income for years to come, and each of the men
present was fighting with every weapon at his command to win the
contract.
Heartened by the reaction of the men around him, the speaker pressed
his advantage. "We've all hauled cargo for the Solar Guard before, and
the sealed-bid system was perfectly satisfactory then!" he shouted.
"Why isn't it satisfactory now? What's all this nonsense about a space
race?"
Again, the murmur filled the room and the men glared accusingly at
Walters. But the commander refused to knuckle down to any show of
arrogance. He fixed a cold, stony eye on the short man. "Mr. Brett," he
snapped in a biting voice, "you have been invited to this meeting as a
guest, not by any right you think you have as the owner of a shipping
company. A guest, I said, and I ask that you conduct yourself with that
social obligation in mind!"
Before Brett could reply, Walters turned away from him and addressed
the others calmly. "Despite Mr. Brett's outburst, his question is a good
one. And the answer is quite simple. The bids submitted by your
companies were not satisfactory in this case because we believe that
they were made in bad faith!"
For once, there was silence in the room as the men stared at Walters in
shocked disbelief. "There are fourteen shipping companies represented
in this room, some of them the most respected in the Solar Alliance,"
he continued, his voice edged with knifelike sarcasm. "I cannot find it
in my conscience to accuse all of you of complicity in this affair, but
nevertheless we are faced with one of the most startling coincidences I
have ever seen."
Walters paused and looked around the room, measuring the effect of
his words. Satisfied, he went on grimly, "There isn't enough difference

between the bids of each of you, not five credits' worth of difference, to
award the contract to any single company!"
The men in the room gasped in amazement.
"The bids were exactly alike. The only differences we found were in
operational procedure. But the cost to the Solar Guard amounted to, in
the end, exactly the same thing from each of you! The inference is clear,
I believe," he added mockingly. "Someone stole the minimum
specifications and circulated them among you."
In the shocked quiet that