Solar Assassins Read online

  Mullon was considerably puzzled by this.

  "Hollander is looking for a fight," he decided. "If I only knew what he's plotting!"

  • • •

  Mullon called together about 100 of the most influential True Democrats and went into a huddle with them concerning Hollander's two letters. As he expected, these then took sides with Mullon. But they were also unable to guess what Hollander had up his sleeve.

  • • •

  Commander Flagellan had decided to traverse the tremendous distance between Earth and Rigel in two transition jumps. When he reached the orbit of Uranus, he took the Adventurous through the first hypertrans stage and it emerged again somewhere halfway between the Earth and Rigel.

  Between the two transitions, Magellan allowed 20 minutes to pass. He wanted to be certain that the energy buildup in the field generators would be at maximum for the next jump into hyperspace. He was a careful commander who was very conscious of his responsibilities. He did not know, however, that this very cautiousness would bring disaster.

  • • •

  The assembly presented the first draft of the constitution that had been worked out by the committee. Mullon was pleased that of the 4000 True Democrats more than 3500 had answered the roll call in order to take part in the discussions and to cast their votes. Political interest was at a high peak and Mullon took this for an encouraging sign.

  After an hour or so of debate, a provisional constitution was ratified. All present were in agreement that it would serve no purpose to finalize this work as long as the Nature Philosophers persisted in going their own way. It would be necessary to wait and see whether or not Hollander was going to establish a separate state on Rigel 3.

  The provisional constitution provided that the destiny of the True Democrats would be decided in a national assembly consisting of 100 representatives who would be chosen by means of a general free election with secret ballots. The president of the national assembly, to be selected by the latter body, would serve simultaneously as the Chief of State. As Mullon pointed out in his closing remarks, the concept of a Chief of State might smack initially of something a bit ridiculous but, as expressed in his words, after their arrival in their new home such an after-taste would soon take care of itself.

  Freddy did not take part in the meeting. Mullon had advised her to remain in her cabin and to let nobody enter.

  A few of the men who were quartered in Mullon's area accompanied him. They discussed the results of the voting and, exclusive of Mullon, they were all quite certain that Mullon would be the first President of the National Assembly.

  Mullon warded off their flattering inference with a laugh and was about to point out a few things, which in his opinion, would automatically exclude him from this high position. But at that moment he saw the shadow of a man dart away from the passage intersection next to his cabin.

  Hollander's agent! This was his first thought.

  Without paying any attention to his dumbfounded companions, he rushed over to the door of his cabin and waited impatiently until it opened. There a terrible sight greeted him. Freddy was nowhere to be seen but it was evident that she had put up a brave struggle before she had permitted herself to be taken away.

  "Hollander's men have been here!" he shouted to his companions. "I just saw the last of them, he disappeared around the corner there. They have Freddy with them!"

  O'Bannon, who had been one of Mullon's closest coworkers, was the first to collect his wits. "We'll bring her back, Horace!" he called. "Come on, men! Hollander's quarters are in section 5. If we take this corridor back here we'll cut them off. It goes straight across but the Philosophers are following a circular route."

  There was no hesitation. They took the main passage until they reached the branch corridor that O'Bannon had indicated. However, O'Bannon did not run all the way through. At the intersection of the main passage three-quarters of the way through, he suddenly came to a stop.

  "I think," he gasped, "that your wife may be giving them a lot of trouble, Horace. So they won't be making headway as fast as we are. We would be awful stupid to show up right at Hollander's door. We'll turn right here and get to the other main passage ahead of them. We'll wait for them there!"

  Everybody agreed. Two minutes later they arrived at the new destination where two main passages made a brightly lit intersection. Both passages were completely empty. Initially none of Hollander's men were to be seen.

  Mullon evaluated his fighting forces. They were seven men.

  "They're coming!" O'Bannon cried and he drew back from the corner of the intersection.

  He lay flat on the deck and peeked around the comer. Then he signaled to those behind him with his open right hand: five fingers three times—followed by two fingers.

  Seventeen men, thought Mullon. This might be a tough battle. But the odds might not be all that bad, considering wild man O'Bannon, whom Mullon had seen in operation before.

  When Hollander's men approached, O'Bannon poised himself like a track runner ready to dash. Finally he raised an arm in a signal and yelled, "Go get 'em!" Whereupon he shot out into the passage.

  O'Bannon came across the 5-yard gap between himself and his completely surprised opponents like a high-caliber rocket, closely followed by Mullon and the others. Wild shouts rang out where his powerful fists found their targets and before Mullon and his companions could get fully into the fray O'Bannon had laid out six of the enemy. It was not an insurmountable task for Mullon's forces to overpower the remaining 11 men, especially since the latter were slow in recovering from the swiftness and confusion of the attack.

  Once released from the rough grasp of her abductor, Freddy leaned against the wall and sobbed. Mullon took her protectively into his arms and consoled her.

  "I knew you'd come!" she cried. "You men are wonderful—thank you! Thank you, O'Bannon!"

  O'Bannon's big face beamed as he broke into a laugh.

  14 of Hollander's men were either unconscious or out of commission, whereas three of them were still able to stand on their feet. These were taken in custody. Mullon considered them useful in the first place as hostages to be used as leverage against Hollander and secondly he thought he might bring them to Magellan, the Commander, as witnesses of the fact that it was Hollander who was stirring up the trouble.

  He sent one of his men, named Wolley, down to C-deck in order to report what had happened to Magellan.

  O'Bannon remarked: "Maybe the skipper will think he's too high class to be interested in us exiles."

  • • •

  The three prisoners were brought into one of the smaller recreation wardrooms and placed under close guard. Wolley did not come back for a long time and when he finally did reappear he came with a hangdog expression on his face and in the company of two heavily armed ship's crewmen in uniform.

  "Are you Mr. Mullon?" asked one of the two MPs ominously.

  "Yes. What's the matter?"

  "You'll find out. Commander Flagellan wants you to come to the bridge."

  Somewhat impatiently, Mullon looked from the MPs to Wolley. "What's going on, Wolley?" he asked.

  Wolley shrugged helplessly. "Hollander's pulled a real lousy trick, Chief! You'd better go along and let Flagellan explain it to you..."

  Mullon looked around and saw O'Bannon, who stood nearby and had heard the whole thing. As if he knew what was on Mullon's mind, he nodded reassuringly.

  "Relax, Horace! I'm blocking Freddy's door personally so that nobody will try to take her away again."

  • • •

  Mullon had never seen the Control Central of a spaceship before but he couldn't have imagined that under normal circumstances the place would be so jam-packed with armed troops as it was at this moment.

  Magellan came toward him threateningly and shouted at him almost through his teeth: "You are the one who planned to take over this ship by force so that you could escape execution of your sentence!You are behind the plot to overpower my crew and place the
Adventurous under your own control!"

  In spite of the astonishing magnitude of the accusation, Mullon remained outwardly calm. When Flagellan paused momentarily, he shook his head in denial. "Sir, I don't know who has played this hoax on you but nevertheless it's a hoax. Not one of us has ever had such a thought."

  Without taking his eyes from Mullon, Magellan signaled behind him and shouted: "Bring the prisoners here!"

  Mullon saw a door slide open in one of the walls and four handcuffed men were shoved into view.

  "Do you know these men?" asked Magellan.

  Mullon had never seen them before. "No," he answered.

  "Is that so!" snapped Flagellan. "Well, what would you say if I told you that they know you very well!"

  "Nothing," replied Mullon dryly. "For example, all your own noncoms and CPOs know you but you don't know every one of them ."

  Words failed Flagellan for a moment. Then he turned to the manacled prisoners. "What group do you belong to?" he asked loudly. "True Democrats or Nature Philosophers?"

  "True Democrats," replied the four men in a chorus.

  "Why have you been hanging around in the vicinity of the Control Central?"

  One of the men said: "We were supposed to find out how strongly the bridge was manned when you changed the guards and from which side the Control Central could best be entered."

  "And for what purpose were you seeking this information?"

  "Because Mullon had worked out a plan to take over the ship."

  Flagellan turned triumphantly back to Mullon. "What do you have to say to that!"

  "That it's just an act," Mullon answered quietly. "Why don't you ask around among my people and then you'll find out that these men here are not True Democrats."

  "Oh sure!" laughed Magellan maliciously. "They've all memorized the script—why not?"

  Mullon struggled to hold his temper. "I'm sorry, sir," he said, "that you didn't follow the details of the trial that resulted in our being exiled. Otherwise you'd know which of our two organizations is regarded as the most dangerous. From the very beginning the Nature Philosophers have tried to deceive and bamboozle us and apparently they have found in you the person who makes it possible for them to succeed."

  "I have to put you in the brig, Mr. Mullon," said Flagellan stiffly. "I assure you that every precaution will be taken to protect whatever rights you may have in this matter—if any. Your case will be investigated and if it is determined that you have been the victim of an injustice I will personally ask your pardon. But you must understand that I'm concerned with the safety of the ship and I have to place you under security until your innocence has been established.

  Mullon nodded. "Do whatever you have to," he mumbled.

  Mullon was placed in a cabin that was very similar to the one he and Freddy had been sharing.

  A man named Milligan locked Mullon in and posted himself by the door. "If you need anything," he said, "knock on the door and I'll do whatever I can."

  Mullon thanked him. Then the door closed and the prisoner was left to his own devices. He was determined to ponder over Hollander's trickery and to probe into the meaning behind it all...

  6/ THE DESTINY OF THE TD'S

  Mullon spent a number of hours in his cell occupied with boring and useless cogitation. Finally he began to wonder when Magellan was going to let him know the results of his investigation and he was about to knock on the door to call Milligan when he heard a strange sound outside.

  The noise sounded like a mixture of whistling and clattering. Since he had never before seen a spaceship from inside, Mullon didn't know that the walls and doors of every cabin were excellent sound insulators. He didn't know that what came to his ears so strangely muffled in volume was actually the ear-splitting howl of alarm sirens. He only became aware of this when the door rolled to one side.

  "Come with me!" shouted Milligan over the noise of the sirens. "All hell's breaking loose on the bridge. I have to get there!"

  Mullon trotted obediently behind him.

  The corridor they ran through opened on a circular passage, the opposite wall of which consisted of many doors leading into the Control Central. All doors were wide open and what was going on in there could be seen at first glance.

  The circular passage and the Control Central were swarming with men who had no business being here, according to ship regulations. On the far side of the Central a battle was waging. Mullon recognized the brilliant flashes of thermo-weapons and heard the cry of the wounded.

  Apparently Milligan's only thought was to jump head over heels into the general confusion. But as he was about to leave the shelter of the side corridor, after having watched the action in the Control Central with his prisoner for some time, Mullon grabbed his arm.

  "Stay here, you fool!" he whispered. "Can't you see that you're too late?"

  Milligan brandished his raygun. "Are those your people?" he growled angrily.

  Mullon shook his head. "No, those are the Nature Philosophers. And from where I am standing it seems that they've just about captured the whole bridge."

  Milligan cursed but came back into the side corridor.

  Mullon made an attempt to estimate the number of Nature Philosophers who were engaged in the assault and arrived at a guess of around 500 men. The total ship's personnel consisted of 150 men—so from what he could make out apparently about three-fourths of them were on duty outside of the bridge area. Hollander must have succeeded in getting his whole striking force to the Control Central without being discovered. After that, he hadn't had too much difficulty.

  Mullon saw a group of about 100 Nature Philosophers, armed with captured weapons, leaving the Central and entering a main passage that led off from the peripheral corridor. The rest started to clean up the Control Central—that is, they dragged out the wounded and laid them out in the circular hallway. Mullon noticed that there were at least four wounded Nature Philosophers for every wounded crewman. Apparently Magellan's men had given a good accounting of themselves.

  Strangely there didn't seem to be any dead men. Maybe the assault had actually been carried out without any full casualties—something he didn't really believe, because it was more likely the Nature Philosophers had disposed of the bodies in another exit way in order not to advertise the extent of the damage they had caused.

  In any case, they had achieved their objective: the bridge was in their hands.

  Mullon felt it was time to go back to his own people. He tapped Milligan on the shoulder and whispered to him: "Let's get out of here! There's nothing we can contribute here."

  Milligan rose from a crouching position and trotted off ahead of Mullon back down the corridor. The two men reached the next main passage without hindrance and they conferred briefly in front of the antigrav shaft as to where they should go from there.

  "Come and join us," suggested Mullon. "There you will be the safest."

  Milligan was in agreement. Together they soared up the shaft.

  Mullon reconstructed Hollander's strategy and arrived at the following results: Hollander had sent four of his men to the Control Central and instructed them to be as conspicuous as possible. The four had been promptly arrested. Under questioning, and probably with pretended reluctance, they admitted that they were True Democrats and that they'd been sent to spy out the best means of getting into the Central. Flagellan had had no reason to disbelieve their statements so he had sent for Mullon and put him in the brig.

  That had been Hollander's psychological trick. From the moment that Mullon had been locked up, Flagellan had considered the plot to be squashed and felt that the Control Central was secure.

  At the moment when the security coverage was most relaxed, Hollander had made his strike with the 500 men. There still remained the question as to how he had been able to get that far with such a large contingency without being discovered. But that he had managed to do so was no longer in doubt—nor was there any doubt now that the Nature Philosophers were in possession of a
ll the complicated control equipment that was used in navigating the ship.

  Mullon regretted that this clarification had not occurred to him sooner.

  When he got back he ordered a full assembly of his people. Since he figured the majority of them would take too long getting there, he mustered out about 15 of the most important men and gave them a report.

  Summarizing his impressions, he said: "I would say that for the moment there's nothing we can do. The most important thing is to get an overall picture of what's going on. From what I know about our friend Hollander, he'll soon be sending us the word. He's not a man to hide his light under a bushel for long."

  "That may be so," admitted O'Bannon, "but what about the ship? Milligan, you can answer that: whoever has control of the bridge—does that give him control over the whole ship?"

  Milligan shook his head. "No. You see it's like this: all control functions are activated from the Control Central. The Commander presses a button and down in the engine room some piece of equipment starts to operate. The engine room and the bridge are mutually dependent upon one another; neither can function without the other. But—"

  O'Bannon nodded sombrely. "But you believe," he said, completing the thought, "that Hollander knows this as well as you do and he's cased the engine room the same way he did the bridge. Right?"

  "You took the words out of my mouth," confirmed Milligan.

  Mullon suddenly let out a groan. "Good Lord, Milligan! Remember those 100 armed men we saw leaving the Control Central?"

  Milligan remembered.

  "You can bet that Hollander has sent them to the engine room. How much of a crew is down there?"