Triplanetary | Page 4

tore through his armor and exploded. Costigan shut off his beam,
and, with not the slightest softening of one hard lineament, stared
around the air-room; making sure that no serious damage had been
done to the vital machinery of the air-purifier--the very lungs of the
great space-ship.
Dismounting the Standish, he lugged it back up to the main saloon,
replaced it in its safe and again set the combination lock. Thence to the
lifeboat, where Clio cried out in relief as she saw that he was unhurt.

"Oh, Conway, I've been so afraid something would happen to you!" she
exclaimed, as he led her rapidly upward toward the control room. "Of
course you...." she paused.
"Sure," he replied, laconically. "Nothing to it. How do you feel--about
back to normal?"
"All right, I think, except for being scared to death and just about out of
control. I don't suppose that I'll be good for anything, but whatever I
can do, count me in on."
"Fine--you may be needed, at that. Everybody's out, apparently, except
those who, like me, had a warning and could hold their breath until
they got to their suits."
"But how did you know what it was? You can't see it, nor smell it, nor
anything."
"You inhaled a second before I did, and I saw your eyes. I've been in it
before--and when you see a man get a jolt of that stuff just once, you
never forget it. The engineers down below got it first, of course--it must
have wiped them out. Then we got it in the saloon. Your passing out
warned me, and luckily I had enough breath left to give the word. Quite
a few of the fellows up above should have had time to get away--we'll
see 'em all in the control room."
"I suppose that was why you revived me--in payment for so kindly
warning you of the gas attack?" The girl laughed; shaky, but game.
"Something like that, probably," he answered, lightly. "Here we
are--now we'll soon find out what's going to happen next."
In the control room they saw at least a dozen armored figures; not now
rushing about, but seated at their instruments, tense and ready.
Fortunate it was that Costigan--veteran of space as he was, though
young in years--had been down in the saloon; fortunate that he had
been familiar with that horrible outlawed gas; fortunate that he had had
the presence of mind enough and sheer physical stamina enough to

send his warning without allowing one paralyzing trace to enter his
own lungs. Captain Bradley, the men on watch, and several other
officers in their quarters or in the wardrooms--space-hardened veterans
all--had obeyed instantly and without question the amplifiers' gasped
command to "get tight." Exhaling or inhaling, their air-passages had
snapped as that dread "Vee-Two" was heard, and they had literally
jumped into their armored suits of space--flushing them out with
volume after volume of unquestionable air; holding their breath to the
last possible second, until their straining lungs could endure no more.
Costigan waved the girl to a vacant bench, cautiously changed into his
own armor from the emergency suit he had been wearing, and
approached the captain.
"Anything in sight, sir?" he asked, saluting. "They should have started
something before this."
"They've started, but we can't locate them. We tried to send out a
general sector alarm, but that had hardly started when they blanketed
our wave. Look at that!"
Following the captain's eyes, Costigan stared at the high powered set of
the ship's operator. Upon the plate, instead of a moving, living,
three-dimensional picture, there was a flashing glare of blinding white
light; from the speaker, instead of intelligible speech, was issuing a
roaring, crackling stream of noise.
"It's impossible!" Bradley burst out, violently. "There's not a gram of
metal inside the fourth zone--within a hundred thousand
kilometers--and yet they must be close to send such a wave as that. But
the Second thinks not--what do you think, Costigan?" The bluff
commander, reactionary and of the old school as was his breed, was
furious--baffled, raging inwardly to come to grips with the invisible
and undetectable foe. Face to face with the inexplicable, however, he
listened to the younger men with unusual tolerance.
"It's not only possible; it's quite evident that they've got something we
haven't." Costigan's voice was bitter. "But why shouldn't they have?

Service ships never get anything until it's been experimented with for
years, but pirates and such always get the new stuff as soon as it's
discovered. The only good thing I can see is that we got part of a
message away, and the scouts can trace that interference out there. But
the pirates know that, too--it won't be long now," he concluded, grimly.
He spoke truly. Before another word was spoken