The Star Kings

21: Mutiny in the Void

Gordon's mind rocked to disastrous realization. As he stared frozenly into Chan Corbulo's grim triumphant face, he understood what had happened.

As Commander of the Empire navy, Corbulo had received the report of the capture of Gordon and Lianna. The arch-traitor had known that he must not let Gordon return to Throon with what he knew. So he had swiftly come here and ordered the two captives brought aboard his own flagship to do away with them before they could tell what they knew.

Gordon looked wildly around the circle of officers. "You've got to believe me! I'm no traitor! It was Corbulo himself who murdered my father and who is betraying the Empire to Shorr Kan!"

He saw hard, cold unbelief and bitter hatred in the officers' faces. Then Gordon recognized one familiar face.

It was the craggy red face of Hull Burrel, the Antarian captain who had saved him from the Cloud-raiders on Earth. He remembered now that for that, Hull Burrel had been promoted aide to the Commander.

"Hull Burrell, you surely believe me!" Gordon appealed. "You know that Shorr Kan tried to have me kidnapped before."

The big Antarian scowled. "I thought then he did. I didn't know then you were secretly in league with him, that all that was just pretense."

"I tell you, it wasn't pretense!" Gordon cried. "You've all let Corbulo pull the wool over your eyes."

Lianna, her gray eyes blazing in her white face, added, "Zarth speaks the truth! Corbulo is the traitor!"

Chan Corbulo made a brusque gesture. "We've had enough of these wild lies. Captain Marlann, see that they are locked out into space at once. It's the most merciful manner of execution."

The guards stepped forward. And then, as Gordon felt the bitterness of despair, he glimpsed the satisfied smirk in Corbulo's eyes and it stung him to a final desperate effort.

"You're letting Corbulo make fools of you all!" he raged. "Why is he so set on executing us instantly, instead of taking us to Throon for trial! Because he wants to silence us! We know too much!"

At last, Gordon perceived that he had made a little impression on the officers. Hull Burrel and others looked a little doubtful.

The Antarian glanced questioningly at Corbulo. "Commander, I beg you will pardon me if I'm overstepping my position. But perhaps it would be more regular to take them to Throon for trial."

Val Marlann, the swarthy Arcturian captain of this battleship, supported Hull Burrel. "Zarth Arn is one of the royal family, after all. And the princess Lianna is a ruler in her own right."

Lianna said swiftly, "This execution means that Fomalhaut Kingdom will break its alliance with the Empire, remember!"

Chan Corbulo's square face stiffened in anger. He had been confident that Gordon and Lianna were on the brink of death, and this slight hitch irritated him.

His irritation made Corbulo do the wrong thing. He tried to ride roughshod over the objections just advanced.

"There is no need to take black traitors and assassins to Throon!" he snapped. "We will execute them at once. Obey my orders!"

Gordon seized on that opportunity to make a flaming appeal to the gathered officers.

"You see? Corbulo will never let us go to Throon to tell what we know! Has he even reported our capture to the Emperor?"

Hull Burrel, with gathering trouble on his craggy face, looked at a young Earth-man officer.

"You are communication-officer, Verlin. Has any report of Zarth Arn's capture been made to the Emperor!"

Corbulo exploded in rage. "Burrel, how dare you question my conduct? By God, I'll break you for this!"

The young Earthman, Verlin, looked uncertainly at the raging Commander. Then he hesitantly answered Hull Burrel's question.

"No report of any kind has been made to Throon. The Commander ordered me to make no mention of the capture yet."

Gordon's voice crackled. "Doesn't that at least make you doubt?" he cried to the frowning officers. "Why should Corbulo keep my capture secret from my brother? It's because he knows Jhal Arn would order us brought to Throon for judgment, and he doesn't want that!"

And Gordon added passionately, "We do not ask for any pardon, for any clemency. If I'm guilty, I deserve execution. All I ask is to be taken to Throon for trial. If Corbulo persists in refusing that, it can only be because he is the traitor I say he is!"

Faces changed expression. And Gordon knew that he had finally awakened deep doubt in their minds.

"You're throwing away the Empire fleet if you let this traitor command it!" he pressed, "He's in league with Shorr Kan. Unless you let me go to Throon to prove that, the fleet and Empire are doomed!"

Hull Burrel looked around his fellow officers, and then at Chan Corbulo. "Commander, we mean no disrespect. But Zarth Arn's demand for a trial is reasonable. He should be taken to Throon."

A low chorus of supporting voices came from the other officers. Deep ingrained as was their discipline, deeper still was the doubt and the fear for the Empire that Gordon had awakened.

Corbulo's face flared dull red with fury. "Burrel, you're under arrest! By God, you'll take the spacewalk with these two for your insubordination! Guards, seize him!"

Tall, swarthy Captain Val Marlann stepped forward and intervened.

"Wait, guards! Commander Corbulo, you are supreme officer of the Empire fleet but I am captain of the Ethne. And I agree with Burrel that we cannot summarily execute these prisoners."

"Marlann, you're captain of the Ethne no longer!" raged Corbulo. "I hereby remove you and take personal command of this ship."

Val Marlann stiffened in open defiance as he rasped an answer.

"Commander, if I'm wrong I'm willing to take the consequences. But by God, something about all this does smell to Heaven! We're going to Throon and find out what it is!"

Gordon heard the mutter of agreement from the other officers. And Chan Corbulo heard it also.

The baffled rage on his grizzled face deepened, and he uttered a curse.

"Very well, then-to Throon! And when I get through with you at the courts-martial there, you'll wish you'd remembered your discipline. Insubordination in high space! Just wait!"

And Corbulo turned angrily and shouldered out of the room, going forward along a corridor.

Burrel and the other officers looked soberly at each other. Then Val Marlann spoke grimly to Gordon.

"Prince Zarth, you'll get the trial at Throon you asked for. And if you've not told the truth, it's our necks."

"It must be the truth!" Hull Burrel declared, "I never could understand why Zarth Arn should murder his own father! And why would Corbulo be so wild to execute them if the commander had nothing to hide?"

At that moment, from the annunciators throughout the ship, broke a loud voice.

"Commander Corbulo, to all hands! Mutiny has broken out on the Ethne! Captain Val Marlann and his chief officers, my aide Hull Burrel, and Prince Zarth and Princess Lianna are the ringleaders! All loyal men arm and seize the mutineers!"

Hull Burrel's blue eyes flashed an arctic light. "He's raising the ship against us! Val, get to the annunciators and call off the men! You can convince them!"

The officers plunged for the corridors leading up into the interior of the mighty battleship.

Gordon cried, "Lianna, wait here! There may be fighting!"

Then, as he ran with Hull Burrel and the others through the corridors, they heard a growing uproar somewhere ahead.

The great battleship was suddenly in chaos, alarm bells ringing, voices yelling from the annunciators, feet pounding through the corridors.

The spacemen who had rushed to obey the supreme commander's order were now bewildered by a clash of authority. Some, who tried to obey and arrest Val Marlann and his officers, were instantly attacked by those of their own comrades who remained loyal to the ship's captain.

In most of the ship, the crew had not had time to arm. Improvised metal clubs and fists took the place of atom-pistols. Battle joined and raged swiftly in crewrooms, in gun-galleries, in corridors.

Gordon and Hull Burrel found themselves with Val Marlann in the midst of a seething, battling mob in the main mid-deck corridor.

"I've got to get through to an annunciator switchboard!" cried Val Marlann. "Help me crash through them!"

Gordon and the big Antarian, with Verlin, the young communication officer, joined him and plunged into the crazy fight.

They got through, but left big Hull Burrel battling a knot of spacemen back in the mob.

Val Marlann yelled into the annunciator switchboard. "Captain Marlann to all hands! Cease fighting! The announcement of mutiny was a fake, a trick! Obey me!"

Verlin grabbed Gordon's arm as a distant whine of power reached their ears over the din.

"That's the stereo-transmitter going!" the young communication officer cried to Gordon. "Corbulo must be calling for help from the other ships of the fleet!"

"We've got to stop that!" Gordon cried. "Lead the way!"

They raced forward along a corridor, then cross-ship and up a companionway to the top deck.

Val Marlann's orders thundering from the annunciators seemed to be rapidly quieting the uproar in the ship. Its crew knew his voice better than any other. Long habit brought them to obey.

Verlin and Gordon plunged into a big, crowded stereo-room whose tubes and motor-generators were humming. Two bewildered-looking technicians were at the control panel.

Chan Corbulo, an atom-pistol gripped in his hand, stood on the transmitter-plate speaking loudly and rapidly.

"I command all nearby battleships to send boarding parties aboard the Ethne at once to restore order! You will arrest-"

Corbulo, from the tail of his eye, saw the two men burst into the room. He swung swiftly around and triggered his pistol.

The pellet that flew from it was aimed at Gordon. But Verlin, plunging ahead, took it full in his breast.

Gordon tripped headlong over the falling body of the young Earthman. That stumble made Corbulo's quick second shot flick just over Gordon's head.

As he fell, Gordon had hurled himself forward. He tackled Corbulo's knees and brought him crashing to the floor.

The two technicians ran forward and hauled Gordon off the Commander. But their grip on him relaxed when they glimpsed his face.

"Good God, it's Prince Zarth Arn!" one of them cried.

Instinctive respect for the ruling house of the Empire confused the two men. Gordon wrenched free from them and grabbed for the pistol in Verlin's holster.

Corbulo had regained his feet, on the other side of the room. He was again raising his weapon.

"You'll never go to Throon!" he roared. "By-"

Gordon shot, from where he crouched on the floor. The atomic pellet, loosed more by guess than by aim, hit Corbulo's neck and exploded. It flung him backwards as though a giant hand had hit him.

Val Marlann and Hull Burrel came bursting into the stereo-room with other officers. The whole great ship seemed suddenly quiet.

Marlann bent over Corbulo's blasted body. "Dead!"

Hull Burrell, panting, his face flaming, told Gordon grimly, "We've killed our Commander. God help us if your story is not true, Prince Zarth!"

"It's true-and Corbulo was only one of a score of traitors in Shorr Kan's hire," Gordon husked, shaken with reaction. "I'll prove it all at Throon."

The image of a dark, towering Centaurian battleship captain suddenly appeared on the receiver-plate of the stereo.

"Vice-Commander Ron Giron calling from the Shaar! What the devil is going on aboard the Ethne? We're coming alongside to board you as Commander Corbulo ordered."

"No one will board this ship!" Val Marlann answered swiftly. "We're going at once to Throon."

"What does this mean?" roared the vice-commander. "Let me speak to Commander Corbulo himself!"

"You can't-he's dead," clipped Hull Burrel. "He was betraying the fleet to the Cloud. At Throon, we'll prove that."

"It is mutiny, then?" cried Ron Giron. "You'll stand by for boarding parties and consider yourselves under arrest, or we'll open fire!"

"If you fire on the Ethne, you'll destroy the Empire's only chance to foil Shorr Kan's plot!" cried Val Marlann. "We've staked our lives on the truth of what Prince Zarth Arn has told us, and we're taking him to Throon."

John Gordon himself stepped forward to make an appeal to the glaring vice-commander.

"Commander Giron, they're telling you the truth! Give us this chance to save the Empire from disaster!"

Giron hesitated. "This is all insane! Corbulo dead and accused of treachery, Zarth Arn returned-"

He seemed to reach decision. "It's beyond me but they can sift it at Throon. To make sure that you go there, four battleships will escort the Ethne. They'll have orders to blast you if you try to go anywhere but Throon!"

"That's all we ask!" Gordon cried. "One more word of warning! A League attack may come at any time now. I know it is coming, and soon."

Commander Giron's towering figure stiffened. "The devil you say! But we've already taken all possible dispositions. I'll call the Emperor and report all this to him."

The image disappeared. Through the portholes, they saw four big battleships move up and take positions on either side of the Ethne.

"We start for Throon at once," Val Marlann said swiftly. "I'll give the orders."

As the officer hurried out, and annunciators and bells started buzzing through the ship, Gordon asked a question.

"Am I to consider myself still a prisoner?"

"Blazes, no!" Hull Burrel exclaimed. "If you've told us the truth, there's no reason to keep you a prisoner. If you haven't told the truth, then we're due for court-martial and execution anyway!"

Gordon found Lianna in the corridor, hurrying in search of him. He told her rapidly what had happened.

"Corbulo dead? One great danger removed!" she exclaimed. "But Zarth, now our lives and the Empire's fate depend on whether we can prove to your brother that our story is true!"

At that moment the mighty Ethne began to move ponderously through the void, as its great turbines roared loud.

In a few minutes, the big battleship and its four grim escorts were hurtling headlong across the starry spaces toward Throon.