these orders are instructed to investigate that region with the utmost care. Go with
screens out and everything on the trips, and with automatic recorders set on me here. It
is not believed that the Patrol has anything to do with this, as ability has been shown
transcending anything it has been known to possess. As a working hypothesis it is
assumed that one of the solar systems, hitherto practically unexplored and unknown is
in reality the seat of a highly advanced race, which perhaps has taken offense at the
attitude or conduct of our first ship to visit them. Therefore proceed with extreme
caution, with a thorough spy-ray search at extreme range before approaching at all. If
you land, use tact and diplomacy instead of the customary tactics. Find out whether our
ships and crews have been destroyed, or are only being held, and remember,
automatic reporters on ma at all times. Helmuth speaking for Boskone-off !”
For minutes Kinnison manipulated his controls in vain -he could not get another
sound.
“What are you trying to get, Kim?” asked Thorndyke. ‘Wasn’t that enough?
“No, that’s only half of it,” Kinnison returned. “Helmuth’s nobody’s fool. He’s
certainly trying to plot the boundaries of our interference, and I want to see how he’s
coming out with it. But no dice. He’s so far away and his beam’s so hard I can’t work
him unless he happens to be talking almost directly toward us. Well, it won’t be long
now until we’ll give him some real interference to plot. Now let’s see what we can do
about those two other ships that are heading this way.”
Carefully as those two ships investigated, and sedulously as they sought to obey
Helmuth’s instructions, all their precautions amounted to exactly nothing. As ordered,
they began to spy-ray survey at extreme range, but even at that range Kinnison’s
tracers were effective and those pirates also ceased communicating in a blaze of
interference. Then recent history repeated itself. The details were changed somewhat,
since there were two vessels instead of one, but the pit was of ample size to
accommodate two ships, and the tractors could hold two as well and as rigidly as one.
The conflict was a little longer, the beaming a little hotter and more coruscate, but the
ending was the same. Scramblers and other special apparatus were installed and
Kinnison called his men together.
“We’re about ready to shove off again. Running away has worked twice so far
and should work once more, if we can ring in enough variations on the theme to keep
Helmuth guessing a while longer. Maybe, if the supply of pirateships holds up, we can
make Helmuth furnish us transportation clear back to Prime Base!
“Here’s the idea. We’ve got six ships, and enough Velantians have volunteered
to man them-in spite of the fact that they probably won’t get back. Six ships, of course,
isn’t enough of a task force to fight its way through Helmuth’s fleets, so we’ll spread out,
covering plenty of parsecs and broadcasting every watt of interference we can put out,
in as many different shapes and sizes as our generators can figure. We won’t be able
to talk to each other, but nobody else can talk, either, anywhere near us, and that ought
to give us a chance. Each ship will be on its own, like we were before, in the boats, the
big difference being that we’ll be in superdreadnaughts.
“Question-should we split up again or stick together? We’d better all go in one
ship, I think-with spools aboard the others, of course. What do you think?”
They agreed with him to a man and he directed a thought at the Velantian.
“Now, Worsel, about you fellows here-you probably won’t have it so easy, either.
Sooner or later-and sooner would be my guess-Helmuth’s boys will be coming to see
you. In force and cocked and primed and with blood in their eyes. It’ll be a battle, not a
slaughter.”
“Let them come, in whatever force they care to bring. The more who attack here,
the less there will be to halt your progress. This armament represents the best of that
possessed by both your Patrol and the pirates, with improvements developed by your
scientists and ours in full cooperation. We understand thoroughly its construction,
operation, and maintenance. You may rest assured that the pirates will never levy
tribute upon us, and that any pirate visiting this system will remain in it-permanently!”
“At-a-snake, Worse!-long may you wiggle!” Kinnison exclaimed. Then, more
seriously, “Maybe, after this is all over, I’ll see you again sometime. If not, goodbye.
Goodbye, all Velantia. All set, everybody? Clear ether-blast off!” Six ships, one pirate
craft, now vessels of the Galactic Patrol, hurled themselves into and through Velantian
air, into and through interplanetary space, out into the larger, wider, opener emptiness
of the interstellar void. Six ships, each broadcasting with prodigious power and volume
an all-inclusive interference through which not even a CRX tracer could be driven.
CHAPTER 9
Breakdown
Kimball Kinnison sat at the controls, smoking a rare festive cigarette and smiling, at
peace with the entire universe. For this new picture was in every element a different
one from the old. Instead of being in a pitifully weak and defenseless lifeboat, skulking
and hiding, he was in one of the most powerful battleships afloat, driving boldly at full
blast almost directly toward home. While the Patrolmen were so terribly few in number
that most of them had to work double shifts-Kinnison and Henderson had to do all the
piloting and navigating-they had under them a full crew of alert and highly-trained
Velantians. And the enemy, instead of being a close-knit group, keeping Helmuth
informed moment by moment of the situation and instantly responsive to his orders,
were now entirely out of communication with each other and with their headquarters,
groping helplessly. Literally as well as figuratively the pirates were in the dark, the
absolute blackness of interstellar space.
Thorndyke entered the room, frowning slightly. “You look like the fabled Cheshire
cat, Kim. I hate to spoil such perfect bliss, but I’m here to tell you that we ain’t out of the
woods yet, by seven thousand rows of big, green, peppermint trees.”
“Maybe not,” the Lensman returned blithely, “but compared to the jam we were
in a little while back we’re not only sitting on top of the world, we’re perched right on the
exact apex of the universe. They can’t send or receive reports or orders. and they can’t
communicate. Even their detectors are mighty lame-you know how far they can get on
electromagnetics and visual apparatus. Furthermore, there isn’t an identification
number, symbol, or name on the outside of this buzz-buggy. If it ever had one the
friction and attrition have worn it off, clear down to the armor. What can happen that we
can’t cope with?”
‘These engines can happen,” the technician responded, bluntly. “The
Bergenholm is developing a meter-jump that I don’t like a little bit.”
“Does she knock? Or even tick?” demanded Kinnison.
“Not yet,” Thorndyke confessed, reluctantly.
“How big a jump?”
“Pretty near two thousandths maximum. Average a thousandth and a half.”
“That’s hardly a wiggle on the recorder line. Drivers run for months with bigger
jumps than that.”
“Yeah-drivers. But of all the troubles anybody ever had with Bergenholms, a
meter-kick was never one of them, and that’s what’s got me guessing as to the
whichness of the why. I’m not trying to scare you-yet I’m just telling you.”
The machine referred to was the neutralizer of inertia, the sine qua non of
interstellar speed, and it was not to be, wondered at that the slightest irregularity in its
performance was to the technician a matter of grave concern. Day after day passed,
however, and the huge converter continued to function, taking in and sending out its
wonted torrents of power. It developed not even a tick, and the meter-jump did not grow
worse. And during those days they put an inconceivable distance behind them.
During all this time their visual instruments remained blank, to all optical
apparatus space was empty save for the normal tenancy of celestial bodies. From time
to time something invisible or beyond the range of vision registered upon one of the
electromagnet detectors, but so slow were these instruments that nothing came of their
signals. In fact, by the time the warnings were recorded, the objects causing the
disturbance were probably far astern.
One day, however, the Bergenholm quit-cold. There was no laboring, no
knocking, no heating up, no warning at all. One instant the ship was speeding along in
free flight, the next she was lying inert in space. Practically motionless, for any possible
velocity built up by inert acceleration is scarcely a crawl, as free space-speeds go.
Then the whole crew labored like mad. As soon as they had the massive covers
off, Thorndyke scanned the interior of the machine and turned to Kinnison.