The Trap
Forty pirate ships throbbed steadily through the wilderness of the Zone. Their course through the jungle of swarms and debris was sunwise. The six basic directions in space navigation are sunwise and counter-sunwise — that is, in the same direction as the rotation of the sun or in an opposite direction; sunward and outward — that is, toward or away from the sun; and up or down, from the equatorial plane of the Solar System as plotted by the fixed stars.
The pirate fleet moved in a close formation of short columns. In the lead was Lana Cain's silvery cruiser, the Lightning. The ship that had been given the Planeteers to command, the Cauphul, was close behind her. On one side of them sailed old Stilicho Keene's cruiser, and on the other the ship of Jenk Cheerly, which was marked on the bows with an ominous, painted black skull.
John Thorn stared through the glassite window of the control-room, as they throbbed on. In the pilot's chair beside him sat Sual Av.
"I don't like this raid,” the Venusian was saying, his ugly face troubled. “An attack on peaceful freighters is out of our line, John."
"Nobody on those freighters will be killed,” Thorn reassured him. “You heard Lana's orders. And we've got to help rob those ships, to keep up the part we're playing here. We've got to do anything until we get that secret out of the girl. And they are not Alliance craft."
"I still can't see how we can get it from her,” muttered Sual Av, his green eyes thoughtful. “We can't use force, when she's surrounded by hundreds of her men all the time. She doesn't look the kind who can be tricked. And from what’ you said, she'll never tell it to you of her own free will."
"We'll find a way,” Thorn declared tightly. “But I wish I knew who planted that Ear on me, and what his game is."
Thorn watched the wilderness of meteor swarms, cross-orbiting planetoids, and occasional stray comets past which they sailed. There was no need for navigating by the wave-code, with Lana's cruiser leading the way.
Finally the silvery torpedo-shape of the Lightning slowed down and stopped. At once all the other pirate ships responded with a blast of fire from their bow tubes, braking themselves.
Thorn looked out. They were lying low in the Zone, close by a meteor swarm whose myriad masses of stone showed very near their ships in the aura-chart. They had reached the point under which the Jovian freighters would soon pass, when they detoured downward under the Zone as all ordinary shipping did.
Thorn spoke into the interphone connecting the ship's divisions.
"Gunner, are you cleared for action down there?"
Gunner Welk's rumbling voice came through the instrument from the gun-decks where the mighty Mercurian had taken command.
"All ready! Every man's at his post."
"On space-suits, everybody,” Thorn ordered sharply. “Then stand by."
It was customary before an action in space for all the crew of a ship to don their suits, so that in case their hull was torn open they could continue to work and fight the ship until there was time to make repairs.
Thorn and Sual Av put on their own suits and helmets. Then they waited in silence, their ship floating beside the others. Lana Cain had strictly forbidden use of the audio between ships until the attack opened, lest the freighters be given the alarm.
Thorn peered through the eyepiece of the telescope built into the wall between the broad windows. He could see no sign of the freighters sunward, and his eyes tired.
A little later, Sual Av gripped his arm and pointed ahead at Lana's ship.
"The signal, John! They're coming!"
Lana's silvery cruiser had emitted three short flashes of fire from its bow and stern tubes, the agreed signal.
Thorn peered again through the scope. Now he saw the coming freighters, far down and sunward. They were coming straight on, and would pass the Zone directly underneath the pirates.
There were thirty big freighters, and lagging after them came forty tankers of the type used for transporting liquefied gases, broad-beamed and very dumpy ships, Thorn's keen eyes searched space for sign of a naval convoy, but found none.
"Those are the dumpiest tankers I've ever seen,” he muttered. “It's a wonder that freighters running without convoy would take such old tubs along to hold their speed down."
Sual Av shrugged. “The League worlds are pressing every old ship they've got into service, in their preparation for war. Anyway,” he grinned, “these pirates aren't going to bother the tankers."
The merchantmen came steadily on, and now the freighters that led were directly underneath the part of the Zone in which the pirate fleet hovered. Thorn knew the aura-charts of the freighters would show the pirate ships only as part of the great meteor swarm they were lying near. That was why Lana had chosen the position.
Thorn's nerves tensed as the Jovian freighters came directly underneath, a little flock of gleaming specks swimming on through black space toward distant Saturn, the slow tankers still lagging behind. Sual Av was leaning tensely over his bank of keys, and there was no sound in the ship except the throb of its power chambers.
Abruptly from the audio-speaker flared Lana Cain's silver voice.
"Attack! Dive on them!"
Forty pirate ships streamed blasting white fire from their stern tubes, forty grim torpedo-like shapes roared down through the spatial vault toward the thirty hapless freighters.
As they swooped, the forty corsair craft split into five divisions of eight ships each. The eight led by the flashing cruiser of the Three Planeteers headed toward the sunwise end of the freighters. Jenk Cheerly and his division headed for the counter-sunwise end. Kinnel King for the sunward and Brun Abo for the outward sides. Lana Cain herself, with Stilicho Keene's ship and six others, cometed down below the merchantmen.
John Thorn saw that the swift maneuver had succeeded. The freighters were “boxed" — hemmed in on every side except the upward one, which was closed by the dreaded Zone. The pirates had not included the worthless, lagging tankers in their trap, and those dumpy ships were still coming bewilderedly on.
The freighters, as the corsairs swooped down around them, milled confusedly with blasts from their bow-tubes braking them, seeking to find a way out of the trap. The few atom-guns with which they were armed spat shells frantically, that exploded in blinding flares of atomic energy.
"Ahoy, freighters"’ rang Lana's silvery voice from the audio. “Cease firing or we'll gun you out of space! Surrender and nobody will be harmed!"
"How do we know you'll keep your promise?” came the hoarse, fear-laden voice of the freight squadron commander.
"This is Lana Cain speaking!” answered the girl's voice instantly. “I keep my promises."
A moment's silence. The scattered fire from the trapped freighters suddenly stopped.
The freight commander's answer came. “You've the reputation of not killing. We'll surrender."
Sual Av, his green eyes gleaming with excitement through his helmet, glanced swiftly at John Thorn.
"The girl's policy of mercy does pay dividends, John,” he muttered.
"Stand by to board the freighters!” crackled Lana's voice to her pirate followers. “Two ships in each division stand off to keep watch. Hurry, men!"
Like sharks eager for prey, thirty of the forty pirate cruisers one to each victim, dashed in at the helpless freighters. The lead-ship of each division, with one other, stood by ready to turn its guns on any freighter that might resist the boarding.
Thorn's cruiser, the Cauphul, was one of those that stood off to keep watch. He saw the pirate ships already hooking onto the freighters by means of the magnetic grapples they shot forth. The grapple-lines were winched in swiftly, the pirate and merchant ships were drawn close together, and the flexible metal catwalks run swiftly out between them by the corsairs. Then the space-suited pirate horde was pouring across the short, swaying catwalks, hammering at the doors of the freighters until they opened.
Back across the precarious catwalks staggered the helmeted pirates, laden with bales and cases, sacks of valuable minerals, bars of rare metals, crates of silks and wines and foods.
"Why can't we be in on this?” demanded Sual Av, twitching with excitement. “There's no fun to lying off here watching the others."
"It's Lana's orders,” reminded John Thorn. “And we Planeteers agreed to take her orders when we were in space."
Thorn looked sunward, and frowned. “Why the devil haven't those tankers run for it? The fools are blundering right on."
The forty tubby tankers that had been laboriously trailing the freighters in space were coming stupidly on the scene of the hold-up, as though unable to realize what was happening. They were now quite close.
Thorn's brain suddenly sounded an alarm, as he stared at the oncoming tankers. His eyes, trained by long naval experience, saw something queer about the lines of those dumpy ships, something—
He leaped to the audio. “Lana, those tankers are disguised naval cruisers!” he yelled. “They're—"
His warning was too late. At the very moment Thorn shouted, the forty “tankers” were unmasking.
Their bulging sides suddenly fell away. Those sides had been only a skin of thin metal plates. Their disappearance exposed the ships, not as tankers, but as sleek, grim-lined naval cruisers with batteries of heavy atomguns all along their sides, and with the four interlaced circles of the League of Cold Worlds on their bows.
Instantly the unmasked League cruisers shot forward. Their rocket-tubes burst fire, and from their batteries hailed a storm of deadly shells that burst in blinding lightning-flares among the startled pirate ships.
* * *
The trap had been perfectly sprung. The League cruisers, lagging behind in the guise of slow tankers, had waited until the pirate ships were hooked onto the freighters by grapples and catwalks, their crews engaged in looting. Then they had thrown off their disguise and leaped in on the Companions’ ships.
"Cut away!” cried Lana Cain's voice from the audio. “It's a trap! Cut loose and break for the Zone!"
Thorn saw her silvery cruiser leap forward to engage the rushing League battleships, to try to hold them back while the pirates engaged in looting could cut away from the freighters.
Loyally, old Stilicho Keene's long black cruiser, and four or five others dashed forward with the pirate girl's silver ship. And Thorn's cruiser was one of those that followed her, for Thorn had yelled the order to Sual Av.
Blinding, dazzling flares of bursting atom-shells from the League cruisers seared space around Thorn's ship, Sual Av was following Lana's lead right into the forefront of the formidable League battle-squadron.
"Drive in to cover Lana's ship!” Thorn cried to the Venusian. “If they get her, everything's ruined for us!"
He yelled into the interphone. “Let go with all batteries to starboard, Gunner!"
The Cauphul shook to the roar of its straining rocket-tubes and the thudding thunder of its atom-guns going off as Sual Av flung the ship in beside Lana's silvery cruiser.
The very madness of the wild counter-attack of the little handful of pirate ships, as they dashed fiercely at the League cruisers, seemed momentarily to disconcert the latter. Precious moments were gained in which the main body of the pirate fleet was hastily cutting away from the freighters they had grappled.
Thorn was wild with anxiety for Lana Cain. If anything happened to the girl, if the mysterious secret of Erebus died with her—
The League cruisers had not concentrated any fire upon her silver ship yet. They were pouring shells upon the other pirate craft, including Thorn's, but Lana's had escaped fire even though she had her batteries streaming shells forth.
Thorn was thrown from his feet as a salvo of blinding bursts rocked the Cauphul. He heard the scream of escaping air below, the slam of automatic doors as he staggered up.
"They've got Lana's ship!” Sual Av shouted hoarsely. “Look!"
Thorn's heart plummeted as he saw through the fight. A League cruiser had got its magnetic grapples onto Lana Cain's silver ship, and was drawing it closer. It had grappled her craft by its keel, so that she was unable to use her guns.
"They've got my ship, Companions!” stabbed the pirate girl's voice, clear and unafraid, from the audio. “You can't save me — break for the Zone while you have the chance!"
"If we don't do as she says,” cried Sual Av tensely, “we'll be gunned to a wreck. But if we leave her—"
"We can't leave her!” John Thorn exclaimed fiercely. “Our plan for the Alliance depends on her!"