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Updated: June 8, 2025
The ray struck some twenty feet away from us. "Harmless!" The men shouted it with derision. But Grantline swung on them: "Don't get that idea!" An interior signal panel was beside Grantline. He called the duty men in the instrument room. "It's over. What are your readings?"
Halsey smiled at us gravely. Captain Carter spoke with an ominous calmness: "Sit down, lads." We took the seats. There was an alarming solemnity about this. If I had been guilty of anything that I could think of, it would have been frightening. But Halsey's words reassured me. "It's about the Grantline Moon Expedition. In spite of our secrecy, the news has gotten out. We want to know how.
But with another brigand ship, fully manned and armed, coming from Mars, the condition would be immeasurably worse. Grantline had some twenty men, and his camp, I knew, would be reasonably fortified. I knew too, that Johnny Grantline would fight to his last man. Moa was saying, "I would like to tell you our plans, Gregg." Her gaze was on my face.
I held her arm so that we had audiphone contact. "Anita, mine." "Gregg dear one!" Murmured nothings which mean so much to lovers! As we stood in the fantastic gloom of Lunar desolation, with the blessed Earthlight on us, I sent up a prayer of thankfulness. Not that the enormous treasure was saved. Not that the attack upon Grantline had been averted. But only that Anita was given back to me.
It was unlike him to be incautious; yet now with no thought save that some unforeseen and pleasing circumstance had brought the Planetara ahead of time; incautious, Grantline certainly was! "Raise the barrage." "I'll go. My suit is here." A willing volunteer rushed out to the shed. "Can you send, Peter?" Grantline demanded. "Yes. With more power." "Use it."
On this tumbled plain, between Archimedes and the mountains, one small crater amid the million of its fellows was distinguished this night by the presence of humans. The Grantline camp! It huddled in the deepest purple shadows on the side of a bowl-like pit, a crudely circular orifice with a scant two miles across its rippling rim.
I went cold. This was serious damage. The rarefied Erentz air would seep out. It was leaking now: we could see the magnetic radiance of it all up the length of the ten foot crack. The leak would change the pressure of the Erentz system, constantly lower it, demanding steady renewal. The Erentz motors would overheat; some might go bad from the strain. Grantline stood gripping me. "Damn bad." "Yes.
He stood before us, towering over me. I saw a group of nearby workers stop to regard us. In a moment we would be causing a commotion, and it was the last thing I desired. I said in Martian, "Commander Potan told me, what I wish I can do. From the dome we look around to see where is the Grantline camp from here. I am pilot of this ship to go there."
"I won't answer them," Grantline declared. "Our game is to sit defensive. Conserve everything. Let them make the leading moves." We waited half an hour; but no other shot came. The valley floor was patched with Earthlight and shadow. We could see the vague outline of the brigand ship backed up at the foot of the opposite crater wall.
My mind flung ahead. Grantline with his treasure, unsuspecting this brigand ship. And suddenly, beyond all thought of Grantline, there came to me a fear for Anita. In God's truth I had been, so far, a very stumbling, inept champion, doomed to failure with everything I tried. Why had I not contrived to have Anita desert at the asteroid?
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