Corsairs of the Cosmos

6. The Blur Unmasked!

The Interplanet Lines freighter Uranus Gal paused briefly at Titan to take aboard a large shipment of semi-precious metal ore in purified ingot form, before breaking orbit and directing its flight to Callisto.

The only persons aboard who were not either officers or crewmen were two company officials, a secretary in the employment of Interplanet and one of the Interplanet scientists, who had been studying radionic energy waves in the gulfs beyond Saturn.

The purser, however, was a new man, unknown to the crew. He had curly red hair, mischievous green eyes, an impish grin, and had found it remarkably easy to make friends aboard ship.

In the course of time, the Uranus Gal arrived in parking orbit around Callisto, and the Captain, a yellowskinned Uranian called Quolk, prepared to instruct his communications officer to call up the tugs which would carry down to the surface of the jungle moon his cargo of semiprecious metals.

There occurred, however, an interruption in these plans. In the form of the muzzle of a proton needle, thrust against the spine of Captain Quolk by a hand unseen.

A cold voice whispered in his ear: "This is The Blur speaking. Place your weapon on the console and instruct your officers to similarly disarm themselves, and I will guarantee to you that none of your people will be hurt. Disobey, and I refuse to become responsible for the consequences."

Quolk stiffened, glared, then subsided, grumbling. He plucked his proton needle from its holster and placed it atop the control console. Then, just as he was about to raise his voice and instruct the others on the bridge to do the same, an unexpected voice spoke from the rear.

"This, friend Blur, is the pressure of a proton needle planted in your own back," the voice said pleasantly. "Now, unless you would enjoy having a sizeable portion of your backbone reduced to drifting atoms—which I really do not think you would enjoy at all—I suggest that you drop your needier on the floor. And if you happen to bear any other weapon, drop that one, too. Because, in the ancient turn of phrase, Blur, the jig is up."

There ensued a few moments of utter silence. Then there came to the ears of all in the vicinity the thud of a handgun dropped to the flooring. Moments later, the weapon melted into visibility.

With one foot. Star Pirate kicked it well away from where he stood behind The Blur.

He twisted the vernier on the power unit he wore, this way and that, until suddenly sparks sizzled and a shadowy figure came slowly into view, standing between him and the Uranian, Captain Quolk. It was slight, bent, and draped in a veil of dark cloth.

"Star Pirate, I believe," whispered the veiled figure, with a slight bow of the head.

Star nodded slightly—not for one moment relaxing the pressure of the proton needle he held firmly against the spine of The Blur.

"Professor Jonas Pertinax, I believe," he said, and it was observed by Captain Quolk and one or another of the officers on the bridge that the dark-veiled figure, now fully visible, flinched violently.

"How did you ... know my name?" hissed the veiled one. Star Pirate laughed, and reached out and twitched away the veil, revealing a balding, elderly Earthling with rheumy blue eyes, a large nose, and not much chin.

"You were listed as present on several of the trips made by Interplanet freighters when they were raided by The Blur," he said. "And your speciality is in the field of electromagnetic radiation. It did not take very much detective work to discover that on three different occasions you contested in court Interplanet's claim to certain patents resulting from your work—"

"For which I was inadequately paid," hissed the balding scientist in venomous tones. "I decided to use my genius—which they valued so little!—to reduce Interplanet to beggary. The which I would have done, had not you come meddling into affairs which have naught to do with you—"

"Captain Quolk, an unmarked cruiser is suddenly in the vicinity, and is closing upon us with magnetic grappling beams," cried an ensign.

"Quite all right," declared the yellow-skinned Uranian. "Bosun, conduct Professor Pertinax to the brig, and lock him up. But first I want the prisoner subjected to a strip-search, in case he has any of his nasty little gadgets on him!"

Star laughed and slapped Pertinax between the shoulders, where he appeared to have a natural hump. "Oh, I doubt if you'll find anything other than this—it's the instrument which made him seem invisible to us."

"Is it really?" asked the Uranian, curiously. "How does the thing work?"

"Quite simply, really," said the Pirate. "it broadcasts a jamming frequency in the same wavelengths as visible light, but in a globular and heterodyning field, which in effect bends light around the figure wearing it, so that it vanishes to our sight. Clever, but not all that mysterious."

Stripped of his invisibility projector, The Blur was led off between burly men-at-arms. Quolk turned to his "purser" with rare good humor in his beaming smile.

"And what will we do about yonder black wolf?" he boomed, gesturing at the corsair ship.

"Nothing. When the airlocks do not open, The Blur's men will guess something has gone wrong, and will flee to their base," said Star. "What they will not guess, is that my own ship is waiting—and that I already know where they are going!"

The Uranian bent upon the redhaired youth a stern but admiring gaze. "You are quite a remarkable young man," he said softly.

"Not at all, actually," grinned Star. "Callisto is famous and unique for more than one reason. One of these is that it is the only moon in the System—actually, it's big enough to be considered a planet, and would be, if, like Mercury, it circled the Sun and not another planet—the only moon in the System, I say, that has a moon of its own. This miniature moonlet is known as Callisto-Alpha. It's less than half a mile wide, and nobody ever remembers it's there ... except for a certain old Martian scientist I happen to know. Well, that's the site of the secret base of The Blur's raiders. It has to be: there's nowhere else to go; if you don't land on Callisto, or go off into deep space, you have to land on Callisto-Alpha, to unload your ingots of rhodium and vanadium and—"

"Why did The Blur concentrate on metals like that, anyway, I wonder?" muttered Captain Quolk. Star Pirate grinned again.

"I can even answer that one, too, I think! He wanted to get a sufficiency of non-ferrous metals to build an indetectable space-cruiser that wouldn't show up on a magno-detector! This would give The Blur and his gang of outlaws the freedom to roam the spaceways at will, leaving the Space Patrol helpless to pursue them. They could have preyed upon the shipping of world after world, bringing Interplanet Lines to its knees. And when we investigate The Blur's base on Callisto-Alpha, I'll bet you fifty credits we find a space-cruiser made of noble metals, and about half-built!"

Captain Quolk heaved a hearty sigh of relief.

"Young fellow, you are a remarkable person. And if you don't mind accompanying me to my quarters, I have been hoarding a cask of century-old Martian fire-brandy for just such an occasion as this one has proved to be ..."

"Lead the way, sir," said Star Pirate, with a smile.