Solar Assassins Read online

  "About 50."

  "Then they probably made light work of it."

  Milligan nodded sadly but Mullon seemed nevertheless to have regained his courage.

  "Under the circumstances it's clear what we have to do: we have to make up our minds that Hollander is master of the ship. Whether or not he has navigators among his men, or has taken prisoners from the crew that he can force bridge duty from in order to guide the ship where he pleases, we don't know at this time. But we'll soon find out.

  "Anyway, one thing we know: Hollander has weapons. Besides, he's completely unscrupulous. He'll try to put us under his heel. So I think we'd better get ourselves some weapons too."

  He looked around him. Everybody appeared to accept the logic of his argument but by their expressions it was obvious they thought that logic alone was not the whole prescription.

  "Where will we get them from?" O'Bannon wanted to know.

  "I'm sure Hollander hasn't managed to overpower every crew member on board. We have to find them and bring them here, along with their weapons."

  Suddenly Milligan had an idea. "Up on K-deck there's an astronomical observation station. There are four men there. That place isn't well known to ordinary laymen and it could be that Hollander's overlooked it."

  "Do you want to take a couple of men and go up there?" asked Mullon.

  Milligan nodded eagerly. "Sure! If we take the central gravshaft we'll get there fastest."

  There were more volunteers than Milligan could use but he chose O'Bannon and Wolley as his companions.

  Mullon remained behind and passed out his instructions. The first concern was for the women. They would have to be re-quartered and housed in an area that would not be in the main line of Hollander's presumed direction of attack. They had to be as far removed from the living quarters of the Nature Philosophers as possible.

  Of the 4000 True Democrats, approximately half were women, all in an age range between 20 and 30 years old. Mullon assigned Freddy the task of forming a committee and instructing them so that they'd help her to manage the mass move. Men could not be spared for such a task. Hollander's attack was expected at any time.

  Meanwhile, the full assembly was finally formed and Mullon outlined briefly what had happened. The people condemned Hollander's action in a hard-worded resolution and placed themselves on the side of the Commander—of whom it was not known whether he were even still alive—and they demanded that Hollander vacate the Control Central and turn the running of the ship over to those that were assigned to run it.

  Not very much was expected from his, resolution. Mullon instructed the messenger not to march into Hollander's battle camp but to hand the letter over to the first Nature Philosopher he saw. The True Democrats were holding three Nature Philosophers prisoner and no doubt Hollander would be unscrupulous enough to consider any messenger or middleman a welcome hostage.

  But the end result was that it didn't work out as planned. Just as the messenger was about to leave, a Nature Philosopher was brought in by some guards who had been standing outside the mess hall. He had a message from Hollander. Typical of Hollander's nature, the messenger was under orders not to wait for an answer but instead Mullon gave him the assembly's resolution, to take along.

  Hollander's letter was read aloud. It was exactly what everybody had expected after what Mullon had related to them.

  A fighting force of Nature Philosophers has succeeded in removing the ship's crew who were imposed upon us and in taking control of the bridge and the engine room.

  "The Council of the Free Settlers Anti-Socialists has designated Walter S. Hollander as the new Commander of the ship. The Commander declares that henceforth a state of emergency exists on board the ship, that all instructions will be issued solely and exclusively by the Commander and that all violations will be regarded as mutiny and will be punished accordingly."

  Mullon laid the letter down in front of him and looked out at the people in the assembly. "So now we know where we stand," he said calmly. "Hollander wants to bring us under his lash. Probably the next that we'll hear from him will be a bunch of orders that we won't be able to accept under any circumstances. So then he'll fall back on his state, of emergency proclamation and take us all prisoners."

  "If by that time we still don't have any weapons we'll have to hide out. However, I'm hoping that the rest of the former crew will join us. Then maybe we'll be able to throw a monkey wrench into his plans."

  The people were very pensive as they left the assembly hall. In accordance with Mullon's direction, loosely organized combat groups were formed on the spot.

  • • •

  It was five hours before Milligan returned. With him were O'Bannon, who had a black eye, Wolley with severe face bruises and the four men from the astronomical observation station.

  O'Bannon was in high spirits. "Did we let them have it!" he enthused. "Some of Hollander's men tried to stop us when we were about to enter the main lift. Only one of them was armed and he was the first to catch my fist, before he could fire. Just looky here at the pretty little cannon I looted from him!" He took the weapon out of his pocket and held it for all to see. It was one of the micro-rayguns that were carried by the ship's officers.

  Milligan made a report to Mullon: "There's considerable activity going on in E, F and G but beyond that things are quiet. Up above there are only the storage holds and apparently they don't interest Hollander. As I figured, he hadn't thought about the observation station. These four men were in a real tizzy when they heard what happened and I had a hard time convincing them."

  "Did you run across any of Hollander's men on your way back here?"

  Milligan shook his head. "No. Sector three is the farthest they've dared to penetrate so far. But I found out something else."

  "And?"

  "We've got seven more crewmen! They were up in the storage holds making a routine inventory. We put them wise and they were ready right away to come down here and join us. But O'Bannon thought it best for us to remain split up because a large group would be more conspicuous than small ones. Anyway, they'll be here any time now."

  "All together that makes 12 weapons!" beamed Mullon. "With those we should be able to make life a bit more difficult for Hollander. Did you find out anything about the fate of the rest of the crew?"

  Milligan nodded. His expression suddenly became grave. "Ask O'Bannon. He's better informed."

  Mullon raised a brow at O'Bannon. "Alright—give!"

  "Well, it was like I said," began O'Bannon. "They got in our way when we wanted to use the main lift. Like I told you, only one of them was armed and I hit him first. In fact, we had quite a go-round. At first he didn't want to be reasonable but there are various ways to convince people.

  "Well, anyway: Flagellan and three of his technical officers are dead. They refused to surrender as long as they held their guns in their hands—so Hollander made short work of them. Otherwise the takeover was surprisingly bloodless, as a result of the trick Hollander used."

  "At the time of the raid on the bridge there were only 20 crewmen in the Control Central. About 50 men were down in the engine room and maybe 10 more in other parts of the ship. That left 60 men off duty in the crew quarters and wardrooms. When they heard the alarms and received no other instructions, they lit out for the bridge."

  "Hollander knew what main passage they would use so he posted his men there and with their weapons they could make an easy sweep of the corridor. The off-duty personnel were hard pressed for it and they tried to get to the Control Central from another side. They took the shortest route, which was through the chart room. Hollander had one of the hatch doors bolted shut and placed his men there behind the chart and micro-slide cabinets. As soon as the mice were in the trap, the other hatch was locked... and so that portion of the crew couldn't do anything else but surrender."

  "In the engine room there was a heck of a scuffle but there were only two who were badly wounded. The rest of them gave up since they saw n
o help coming to them and the situation seemed to be hopeless. That's about it."

  At this moment there was a disturbance among the men. They opened a path for the entry of seven uniformed crewmen into their midst. They stopped in front of Mullon and looked about them testily but when they saw Milligan and the four men from the observation station they appeared to be relieved.

  "Don't worry," Mullon addressed them. "Nobody's going to do you in: Instead, we're offering you a hideout. Hollander has a pretty sharp eye out for anybody in uniform or carrying weapons. Do you wish to stay with us?"

  One of the men was a sergeant and he became the spokesman. "I know Milligan," he said. "If he says he saw Hollander take over the bridge, that's good enough for me. Besides, Milligan also tells us that the Democrats are enemies of the Nature Philosophers, so we'd be glad to stay here and help you."

  Mullon was satisfied. "Good. I think we can make good use of you. First of all, your knowledge of the ship, its equipment and cargo; and secondly because of your weapons. The question is: are you willing to place your weapons at the disposal of our group, for general use, or do you prefer to keep them on you and give us armed support against Hollander every time he shows his hand?"

  The sergeant shrugged. "If you're saying it's okay for your men to go around carrying weapons, then we don't mind handing them over to you."

  "Thanks. On your way down here, did you bump into any of Hollander's bunch?"

  "We saw a few of them from a distance but since Milligan had warned us we were careful. I don't think they noticed us."

  "Where was that?"

  "F-deck, Sector 1."

  Mullon whistled faintly through his teeth. "'That's right above us. You couldn't see what they were doing there...?"

  "No, sir."

  "But I think I can guess," interjected Milligan. "One of them probably found out that an average-sized man can get through the airshaft. Maybe they want to climb down and attack us from behind."

  Mullon became excited. "Where did you see these men exactly?"

  The sergeant couldn't recall any further details but one of his men still remembered: zone F-I-14, section G. So that would be the 14th cabin section of F-deck, about two-thirds of the distance from the centre of the spherical vessel to its periphery.

  "I don't think that Hollander will attack us unless we give him provocation," said Mullon. "Of course he'll probably soon force us to give him a reason. Then all his men have to do is break out of that shaft and we'll be caught between two fires."

  O'Bannon suggested that some of them should go up to F-deck and hit Hollander's crew from behind but Mullon objected to this. He didn't want to be the one to start the hostilities.

  A short while later another messenger arrived from the Nature Philosophers and demanded with a short note that the three prisoners connected with Freddy's abduction be handed over at once—also, Freddy herself and, above all, Horace O. Mullon, the instigator of all the trouble, according to Hollander's description.

  The messenger was sent on his way with a chorus of scornful laughter.

  Milligan watched the man's departure as though he were a strange phenomenon. "Good Lord!" he groaned. "This ship is equipped with an intercom system that can reach every last corner! Why doesn't Hollander just pick up a microphone and tell you over the intercom what he wants?"

  Thus far Mullon had not concerned himself with this factor. But now he realized that if Hollander were in possession of all the intercom equipment and all other means of communication on board, and if in spite of this he still used messengers, then either he hadn't yet learned how to make use of the complicated communications gear or else the central intercom controls had been put out of commission during the fight on the bridge.

  Moreover, he didn't think this point was significant. More important was the fact that Hollander would consider the negative answer received by his messenger to be mutiny and he would attack immediately.

  So it was that O'Bannon finally did receive instructions to take 4-armed men with him up to F-deck and to stand guard in area 14, Sector 1, section G.

  Six other armed men concealed themselves in the main mess hall. Hidden behind the material of the wall, the wide airshaft rose vertically behind the centre of the back wall. At this place the outlet for the fresh air was through the porosity of the wall itself so no ventilator crawl hole was available. Undoubtedly when Hollander's men received a signal to attack they would carve out an exit for themselves by using their disintegrators.

  In addition, Mullon decided to try a chess play of his own. It was based on the assumption that Hollander still believed the Democrats to be unarmed. By Mullon's evaluation he could not know that almost half of the remaining crewmembers had joined the Democrats. So if the Nature Philosophers came to the false conclusion that they were secure from danger, that was the time to strike. Whereas as soon as there was an attack they would see that the Democrats had weapons, at least to some extent, and then Hollander would be tipped off and would set up guards at a strategic posts.

  The idea for this move actually came from Milligan who, although in no sense an officer, had nevertheless proven himself to be quite a strategist as time went on. According to him, the most vulnerable part of the ship was the engine room. This had an especial bearing on whatever plans Hollander might have for the Adventurous. Whoever had control of the engine room could decide whether or not the commands from the bridge should be transmitted to the power and drive equipment.

  Undoubtedly Hollander was also aware of these things. Certainly the engine room would be occupied by a considerable number of his men. But the very fact that Hollander had chosen the engine room as his second target after taking the Control Central seemed to point out, that he did not assign the importance to it that it deserved. Milligan estimated that there would of course be guards down there but perhaps not too many. Given the lack of visibility in the giant room, due to all the machinery, he maintained that two good and determined armed men might have a chance there.

  Mullon allowed himself to be persuaded. Moreover, he himself took command of the small group that pushed out for the engine room. The force consisted of three men: Mullon, Milligan and Sgt. Brennan. Brennan was armed with a disintegrator. Milligan and Mullon carried micro-rayguns.

  Mullon worried over the fact that he would be out of touch with his people during this attack on the engine room. Milligan had attempted to make a partial setup of the intercom system but it didn't work. Mullon placed the destiny of the True Democrats in Wolley's hands, making him his deputy, and he assured him that he would be back as soon as possible.

  He was not able to say goodbye to Freddy. She was occupied with the task of resettling the women in an outlying section of the ship.

  7/ A HAZARDOUS PLAN

  O'Bannon guided his men through the hubbub of the women who were changing their quarters and brought them out to Section K where he permitted them to use an auxiliary lift shaft which reached a few deck sections above and below.

  He himself went into the shaft first. The gentle tug of the antigrav field carried him upward. His men followed him.

  It occurred to O'Bannon for the first time what a precious gift a good memory was. Ever since he had joined the Union of True Democrats he had worked closely with Mullon in the front line of action. By this means he had come to know very many people and because he had a good memory he hardly forgot any of them.

  He knew the whole 4,000 who had been sentenced in Terrania—men as well as women—and for that he was thankful. Otherwise how easy it would have been for him to get into a situation where he couldn't decide whether the man confronting him was a Democrat or a Nature Philosopher.

  He decided he'd try to push the idea of everyone carrying an ID badge of some kind. Not everybody could have as good a memory as he did.

  One after the other, O'Bannon and his men passed deck zone 1 of E-deck and deck zone 15 of F-deck. Each of the larger ship decks was divided into 15 zones and each of them was 18 feet high
so that there would be room for two decks to be built between them. The zones were numbered from top to bottom so that the equilibrium of the ship could be controlled on the landing field as well as when under the influence of artificial gravity fields while in flight.

  O'Bannon glided out of the shaft in deck zone 15. He ordered his men to wait for him while he sneaked along the passage from the lift shaft until he was on the edge of Section 1. The rooms lying along the passage to the right and to the left were storage holds. When he learned that nobody was present in this area, he turned back to his men. He checked the shaft carefully. It was brightly lit and offered clear surveillance up to zone 5. It was reassuring to find it empty.

  Section K in zone 14 was also empty. O'Bannon pressed on without hindrance through sections I and H to the edge of section G. Up to that point he had not seen a single one of Hollander's men.

  He conducted his search thoroughly. He knew that section G was 150 feet long and had an average width of 600 feet. This approximately 10,000 square-yard area, cut into two separate floors, was interspersed with many passages and corridors and behind each hallway comer a Nature Philosopher might appear. O'Bannon advised his men to keep their weapons in fire-ready position. In case of an encounter, the enemy must be blocked from revealing O'Bannon's actions.

  He figured he had already searched through about half of the area when he heard a strange noise up ahead. He had two of his men remain behind and he crept forward with the other two. They directed themselves toward the noise and finally turned into a side passage in which the sound was most audible.

  Farther along, the corridor appeared to be filled with a kind of mist. O'Bannon sniffed and soon determined that the mist was nothing other than ordinary smoke.

  A few moments later he discerned also the opening from which the smoke was coming. It was an open hatchway. Between two of the strangely piercing sounds, coughing and shouting was to be heard.

  O'Bannon couldn't imagine what was going on inside the hatchway. When he saw that the smoke was getting thicker in the corridor and was impairing the visibility, he took a chance and pressed forward to the hatchway so that he could look through. Through the pall of fumes he saw the silhouettes of two figures moving about by the opposite wall.