The Three Planeteers

CHAPTER V Secret Enemy

IN the queerly tense silence Thorn stared at Lana Cain. Then the silence was suddenly broken by the shuffling entrance of a grotesque, four-legged creature that had followed the pirate girl into the room. It stared at Thorn with blazing green eyes.

"It's a space dog, John!” exclaimed Sual Av wonderingly. “You've heard of them."

"I've heard of them,” Thorn muttered. “But this is the first one I've ever seen."

The space dog stood three feet high at the shoulder. Its body was of dusty, mineraline gray flesh that had an inorganic look. Its four legs ended in heavy digging paws, and its mouth was furnished with great grindingtusks. It had no nostrils, for the creature was not an air-breathing animal.

It was, in fact, one of a unique species. The early explorers who first visited the asteroid Ceres had been amazed to find these creatures living on that airless little world. They were the product of an evolution working without atmosphere, creatures able to assimilate the inorganic elements they dug from the ground, and consume them by a chemical process other than oxidization. They had dim telepathic powers by which their rudimentary minds communed.

"Ool will not hurt you,” said Lana Cain crisply to Thorn.

She glanced at the blazing-eyed creature, and it lay down at her feet as it received her telepathic command.

"Stilicho, you brought these three men here?” the girl asked the old Martian. “Who are they?"

"Yes, who are they?” squeaked Jenk Cheerly, the obese, beady-eyed Uranian. “What's all the mystery about them?"

Stilicho Keene's rheumy eyes glistened, and his wrinkled face quivered with excitement as he answered.

"Why, they're just three lads I picked off a wreck coming back, and fetched along to Turkoon,” he quavered. The old man paused to enjoy his coming triumph, then added, “Maybe you've heard of these three boys. They're called the Three Planeteers."

"The Three Planeteers!"

Brun Abo, the squat Jovian, uttered that startled cry. He and everyone else in the room stared at John Thorn and Sual Av and Gunner Welk in rigidly frozen amazement.

The beady eyes of Jenk Cheerly, the fat Uranian, were wide with astonishment. Kinnel King, the Earthman, stiffened. And Lana Cain's dark blue eyes narrowed incredulously as she stared at Thorn's dark face.

"It's them, all right,” muttered the Jovian in a moment. “I've seen their pictures on reward notices."

"Those pictures on the notices were poor likenesses,” said Sual Av, a grin on his froglike face. “They hardly did me justice, as you can see for yourselves."

"What do you Planeteers want here, if you are the Planeteers?” demanded Jenk Cheerly suspiciously.

Gunner Welk stiffened at the fat green pirate's question.

"We're not in the custom of asking anybody's leave for our coming and goings, Uranian!” he flared.

"Not even the Planeteers can talk to me like that!” squeaked Jenk Cheerly furiously, his hand dropping to his side.

"Draw that atom-pistol, and I'll shove it down your fat throat,” warned the towering Mercurian ominously.

"Quiet, Gunner,” snapped John Thorn. “I'll do the talking."

"Let them fight!” urged old Stilicho Keene with quavering eagerness, a ghoulish avidity in his rheumy eyes as he leaned forward. “There's nothing to warm the blood like the sight of two good men in a stand-up fight."

"There'll be no fighting here!” flared Lana Cain. “You all know my rules! If any of you doesn't like them he can get out of Turkoon and out of the Zone!"

The girl's voice cracked like a silver whip, and her dark blue eyes were stormy now with little lightnings. The space dog, Ool, had sprung to his feet, his great green eyes blazing.

Thorn sensed the electric force in this girl which had kept her the acknowledged leader of the wild Companions of Space. The others in the room were stricken to sullen silence by it.

Lana's stormy eyes swung back to Thorn.

"Jenk's question was a fair one, John Thorn,” she declared. “What are you Planeteers doing here? You’ never came into the Zone before — you always worked by yourselves."

Thorn shrugged. “We didn't come here by choice. Perhaps you heard of the trouble we got into at Earth?"

"We heard of your attempt to kidnap the Chairman there,” Lana nodded curtly. “Go on."

"We bungled the job and had to run for it with half the Earth Navy on our tail,” Thorn continued coolly. “We tried to lose them in a swarm and got wrecked. The old Martian there picked us up and brought us here to Turkoon. It's not a place we'd have picked voluntarily.” Lana stiffened, and asked dangerously, “You don't think much then of we Companions and our ways?"

"Not much,” Thorn answered coolly. “I've no doubt your followers are good fighters, but they look like rather an undisciplined rabble."

Thorn was playing his part to the hilt. He knew well that for the famous Planeteers to seem too friendly on first acquaintance, too eager to join the pirates, would quickly arouse suspicion.

"But, boy, I was hoping that you three would join’ up with us!” quavered old Stilicho Keene dismayedly.

"The Planeteers work alone,” Thorn declared frowningly. Then he appeared to hesitate, and added, “It's true that we're stranded here now without a ship—"

Sual Av instantly played up to him. “Yes, John, we need a ship and equipment. Maybe we could work with these people for a while, and take a new cruiser as our share of loot."

"You haven't been asked to join the Companions yet,” flared Lana Cain. “You Planeteers are just three men here. I could order you gunned down and it would be done."

John Thorn looked at her steadily with cool black eyes. “Would you do that?"

"No, I wouldn't,” she admitted after a moment. “Turkoon is a refuge for every outlaw who comes into the Zone, as long as he obeys my rules. And I don't countenance killing here."

Thorn smiled. “After all, we Planeteers are in no position to be choosers. We need a ship. We'll join up with you for a while, if you're agreeable, and take a ship as our share of spoil, and then be on our way. What do you say?"

Lana frowned in thought, her anger gone. “We do need captains,” she murmured.

"And where will you find better ones than the Planeteers?” cried old Stilicho Keene with shrill eagerness. “Take them in, lass — it's heaven sent them here to help us in the big new foray we've planned."

"We can pull that job without their help,” squeaked Jenk Cheerly, his pig-like eyes malignant. “What do we need with the Planeteers?"

Brun Abo, the squat Jovian, nodded sullen agreement. But Kinnel King, the handsome Earthman, turned on the obese Uranian.

"After all, Jenk,” said Kinnel King silkily, “you yourself are still a newcomer in our midst. We don't need advice from you on this."

"No brawling!” Lana ordered imperiously. She continued, “John Thorn, I'm taking you three into the Companions. But understand one thing. When we blast off Turkoon, everyone is under my command, even the Planeteers."

Thorn frowned, though inwardly his heart was pounding with elation.

"We're not used to being under orders of anyone,” he declared.

"Take it or leave it!” Lana flashed. “There can only be one leader when ships go into action."

Thorn finally shrugged. “Well, as I said, we're not in a position to be choosers. We follow your orders in space."

"That's settled, then,” Lana said curtly. Her slender figure swung round to Stilicho Keene. “Now what about your reconnaissance, Stilicho? Did you find out anything at Jupiter about those scheduled freighters?"

The old Martian nodded his white head vigorously. “Sure did. We slipped in to Jupiter without bein’ spotted, and landed secretly in that big marsh near Vosek. Me and one of my boys went into the city in disguise and hung around the docks. We saw rich cargo bein’ loaded in them freighters — thirty of ‘em. We waited till they took off, a bunch of tankers with ‘em. They're blasting along without any naval convoy. I figger them to cross under the Zone tomorrow, on their way to Saturn."

"Didn't I tell you they'd sail without convoy?” squeaked Jenk Cheerly, the obese Uranian's eyes glistening. “Wasn't my tip right? This'll be a rich haul, and without even a fight."

Lana Cain turned to Thorn and his two comrades and explained crisply.

"Jenk just joined us two weeks ago. He came with his ship from Jupiter, where he had a secret base on one of the outer moons. He brought advance notice of these rich Jovian freighters scheduled to transit across the inner orbits of the system to reach Saturn which is now approaching opposition.

"They're without convoy,” the pirate girl continued rapidly, “because the League of Cold Worlds is concentrating all its cruisers at Saturn right now, preparing for the great attack they're going to make on the Alliance. I sent Stilicho to check their sailing and make sure they had rich cargo. We'll surprise them tomorrow when they pass under the Zone."

"Yes, and fine loot there'll be to divide,” squeaked the obese Uranian gloatingly. “We'll gun them to a wreck, and gut them of every scrap of spoil, and leave not a man alive on them to take the tale to Saturn."

"No!” exclaimed Lana hotly. “No massacre! I told you my rules when you joined us, Jenk. The Companions willfully spill no blood as long as I lead them!"

"My rule has always been to leave nobody alive to testify against me in a space-court,” grumbled the fat Uranian shrilly. “This tenderheartedness—"

"It isn't just tenderheartedness; it's good strategy!” flashed Lana Cain, her blue eyes determined. “When freighter-men know they're going to be massacred if they surrender, they fight to the last man. But when they know that only their cargo will be taken, and their lives spared, they surrender a lot more quickly. Further, the hunt against us is never so bitter. It was my father's rule to take no life, and it's mine, and it's paid returns to the Companions."

"That it has!” declared Brun Abo, the Jovian, “It's saved us many a bitter fight-and possibly extermination."

The girl looked around them as he gave her orders.

"Our chief spatial navigator will check their course against Saturn's and ours. We'll blast off tomorrow dawn, with forty ships. That'll give us time enough to be waiting in the Zone, and when the Jovian freighters pass underneath, we'll swoop down on them."

"What about Gunner and Sual Av and me?” John Thorn asked her. “We have no ship, remember."

"You'll be furnished one, and a crew to go with it,” Lana answered crisply. “From what I've heard of you Planeteers, you'll be able to handle your part."

She ran her hand a little tiredly through her mop of dull-gold hair.

"That's all, men. See that your ships and men are ready to blast off at dawn. And not too much drinking tonight!"

As the pirate captains started to troop out, the girl added to the old Martian, “Stilicho, find a cabin for the Planeteers."

Thorn was starting out with his two comrades after the old pirate, when Lana's voice halted him.

"Wait, John Thorn. There's something I want to ask you."

Thorn turned, surprised. The girl was looking at him with a queerly thoughtful expression in her blue eyes, her small hand idly patting the space dog that had risen beside her.

"You were in the Earth Navy before you became an outlaw, weren't you?” she asked him.

Thorn nodded. “Until I deserted,” he admitted curtly.

Lana pointed up to a picture on the wall, a portrait of a hard-faced, middle-aged man with piercing eyes.

"My father, Martin Cain, was officer in the Earth Navy, too, before he became an outlaw,” she said slowly. “Do they ever speak of my father on Earth? What do they say of him?"

Thorn told her the truth. “They speak of him only as notorious pirate. Few remember he was ever a naval man."

"But he was, and one of their best officers,” Lana said bitterly. “It was the jealousy of other officers over his promotions that formed a cabal which had him dishonorably discharge. That was the reward of Earth for all the service he'd given his native planet."

"You don't think much of Earth, eh?” Thorn said curiously. “Yet, after all, it's really your native world."

"The Zone is my world — I was born here. I hate Earth for what it did to my father!” the girl flashed. “I'll be glad to see the League smash the inner worlds, for though I hate the League and its dictator, I've an even greater hate for Earth!"

Thorn felt a faint hope he had cherished until now, die within him. He had hoped that the pirate girl might be induced to save Earth from conquest by telling him the secret of Erebus. But he saw how futile had been that slight hope. This girl had only bitter hatred for the world she deemed to have wronged her father.

"Your father was an extraordinary man,” Thorn mused, looking up at the portrait. “A great fighter and organizer, a wonderful navigator. They say that he even visited Erebus, the tenth world, though I suppose that's just a baseless legend."

"It's the truth!” Lana declared proudly. “My father was on Erebus two weeks, and came back safely — the only man in the whole history of the Solar System that ever did so."

John Thorn stared incredulously. “How did he do it? How did he avoid whatever peril there has swallowed so many men?—"

"I can't tell you that,” the girl A said slowly. “I've never told anybody what my father told me about Erebus."

"Then,” Thorn said wonderingly, “you're the only person in the whole system who knows anything about that mystery world? The only person who knows how it might be visited safely?"

The girl nodded slowly. A queer expression, one of somber, haunting memory, had come into her vital blue eyes.

"Yes, I'm the only one who knows the secret of Erebus,” she admitted. “And nobody will ever learn it from me. I have reasons for keeping silence about that world!"

She trembled slightly. Thorn, watching her tautly, felt a queer chill as of a cold, alien breath in the room.

"But I do not know why I am talking of Erebus,” she said impatiently. “I am tired. I shall see you tomorrow at dawn, before our ships blast off."

Thus dismissed, Thorn left the Council House and walked slowly, deep in thought, down the street of Turkoon Town. The sun was setting, and from the little crimson disk a flood of pale red light uncannily illuminated the dark, surrounding fern jungle, the raw field and parked ships, and the straggling metal town.

He found the metal cabin assigned them. Gunner Welk and Sual Av sprang up eagerly as he entered.

"We've made it so far, John!” exclaimed the bald Venusian excitedly. “We're in with the pirates now, at least. Did you find out anything about Erebus from the girl?"

Thorn shook his head. “She won't talk about Erebus — she seems almost afraid to. I didn't dare press questions."

"We can't wait forever to get the secret out of her,” rumbled Gunner Welk warningly. “Even when we get it, it'll take a lot of time to get out to Erebus and lift the radite, remember."

"I know,” Thorn muttered. “But well ruin all our chances if we're too rash now."

He fished in his pocket for a rial cigarette.

"It's possible,” he said, “that whatever her father told her about Erebus—"

Thorn stopped speaking. His face froze as he pulled out the thing he had felt in his pocket. It was a tiny metal sphere, only a half-inch in diameter, With a minute aperture in it.

"An Ear,” exclaimed Sual Av appalledly.

Thorn dropped the thing like a poisonous snake and ground it under his heel. His dark face was grim as he looked down at the shattered fragments of the Ear.

The thing was a super-compact and super-sensitive audio transmitter. It picked up all sound in its immediate vicinity and broadcast it electro-magnetically, for a short range. Both police and criminals of the system used Ears for eavesdropping at a distance.

"Someone slipped it into my pocket in the Council House!” Thorn rapped. “See if there are any more."

But a swift search of their clothing and of the cabin disclosed no more Ears.

"Whoever put that Ear in my pocket suspects us!” Thorn said grimly. “And whoever it is knows now from our talk that we came here after the secret of Erebus, that we're after the radite!

"Thank heaven,” he added tightly, “that we didn't give away the fact that we want the radite for Earth, that we're Earth agents."

"This is bad, John,” said Sual Av, his ugly face sober. “Who do you think suspects us? Lana Cain herself?"

"If it were she, or someone loyal to her,” rumbled Gunner Welk, “she'd have sent men here to seize us by now!"

"Gunner's right — it can't be Lana,” muttered Thorn. “Someone here is playing a deep game of his own. And whoever it is doesn't like us, and knows now just what we're here for."

"John, our hidden enemy will have a fine chance to gun us tomorrow in the confusion of this attack on the Jovian freighters,” warned Sual Av.

Thorn's brown face hardened. “I know. But we have to keep right on playing our part here, until we get the secret. We've got to take our part in the foray, and keep looking out for trouble."