Nomad by Wesley Long - HTML preview

XXIII.

Turnover came, inevitably. Maynard's fleet flashed up to the "fix" in space and began the end-swapping job. Solarians watched, gloating. Maynard was going to turnover! The gap closed. Terra and Ertene alerted for action, and the entire personnel of the combined fleets went on double-watch. No one knew how much stuff Maynard's men had developed.

Vortex projectors sowed toroids that floated with Guy's ships. In and about the pirate fleet, the huge vortexes of energy roamed, covering the fleet by sheer number.

Torpedoes directed against the toroids prematured. MacMillan fire entered them, and added to their total energy. Other toroids flung into them merely added to their number.

And the very number of them made operations in the combined fleets difficult. The space pattern was never intended to fight into a massed effect. Ertene and Terra spread slightly, opening up a hole. Through this hole flowed the toroid-covered Mephistan fleet, and Maynard's men were behind. Turnover was completed, and with the indifference to the Solarian fleet that was maddening, Maynard gave the order to decelerate for landing on Mephisto.

Solarians fell behind—below, now, for they were dropping onto Mephisto, the deceleration creating a false gravity.

They crammed on the deceleration too; not to do so would have put them far beyond Mephisto. They crammed on all they had, and it was just enough to stay below Maynard's fleet—

Just outside of range.

The men in the combined fleets of Ertene and Terra writhed in hatred. Mars, unable to keep up with the man-killing gravities, laughed nastily—she thought that the fun would have been over before her slower ships could join.

But though amused, Mars was none the less angry. Her men in her ships were killing themselves to keep from arriving too late. They knew now that the big fight would be around Mephisto.

It takes but a minute to tell, but it was days and days in the action. Men slept and changed watches and went through the tiresome routines of space travel across the System. And ever before them was the specter of Maynard's fleet, just out of range. It maddened them, and it made them sacrifice a few fighter ships that tried to run ahead, into the other fleet. They were lost, every time, without doing any damage.

And the temper of the men increased by the minute—and days and days with hours full of minutes went by with not one bit of action to salve their hatred.

Mephisto loomed in the sky below, eventually, and the fleets swept down to Mephisto, and the Solarian fleet spread wide and passed the planet. They did not like the idea of being between a fighting fleet and its home base. Maynard landed easily, and was able to consolidate his force on the ground before the combined Ertinian and Terran fleets circled and returned.

"Just hold 'em off," said Guy.

And again there passed the maddening job of not being able to do anything to the enemy. They patrolled the planet, but it was unsatisfactory patrol. Any ship that came too low was fired upon and collected by Guy's planet-mounted projectors. Solarians thought that they knew how to arm a planet, but Mephisto was well-nigh impregnable. Toroids stopped, torpedoes prematured, and MacMillans flashed in the sky, dissipating the energy with no harm save the blown fuses in the ships.

"How long?" asked Neville.

"Wait for Mars," smiled Monogon. "I insist that Mars be not left out. What's good enough for them is good enough for my world, too."

"He's right," said Guy. "We'll wait."

And finally Mars arrived on the scene, and the fleets went high to discuss the problem of extinguishing this menace. Guy followed their conference—and they suspected that he did. Their plan was bold. A power play, and it came in a down-thrust of the ships of three worlds. They drove toroids before them, filled the air with torpedoes, and interlaced the sky with MacMillans.

"Now?" asked Neville.

"Now," smiled Guy. His smile was bitter and hard. He stepped to the vast instrument and put the helmet over his head. His left hand turned the switch and the right hand adjusted the intensity. "Cease fire!"

The fighting stopped.

"Land!"

The inrushing of fighting ships continued, and they landed quietly, one after the other. Immediately, doors opened in three of them and three men emerged. Stiffly they walked to Maynard's headquarters where they were greeted and taken to Guy's room.

"You can not touch me," said Guy in a hard, cool voice. "I am impregnable. You will never be able to touch me!"

"You stinker," snarled Space Marshal Mantley.

Guy faced Thomakein next. "Have you anything to say?" he snapped.

"We are defeated," said Thomakein. "What would you have me say?"

Guy turned to the Martian. "Marshal Ilinoran, any comment?"

"We are defeated—but we need take no insult! What have you in mind?"

"At the present time, the carriers of your fleets are being packed with your men. Some of them will remain, of course. But I like the size of your fleet, gentlemen. I'm keeping most of it for my own. I have prepared a little proclamation which you may take back to your respective governments. I, gentlemen, proclaim myself the Emperor of Sol!"

"Megalomaniac!"

"As Emperor of Sol, I will tell you," continued Guy, indifferent to the snarl, "how and when to collect the yearly tribute from each and every Terran, Martian, and Ertinian. You may suit yourselves to any other arrangements. Mephisto is mine, and will stay mine. But I shall require money, merchandise, and supplies to stock the planet.

"And if you think differently, you may try to defeat me! And I hope you try!"

"We'll pay nothing—"

"I hope you try that, too," snapped Maynard. "You have no idea of how tough a real tyrant can get! A single lesson might convince you. A super-toroid hurled into the Manhattan area—?"

"You're a fiend!"

Guy nodded. "Never make me prove it," he said quietly. "Now, gentlemen, you will receive your instructions as you leave, if you prefer to leave. I offer you the chance to join me—but remember that I can read your mind and find out how true you intend to be. I intend to be very harsh with spies."

"I'm leaving—but I'll be back!" promised Mantley. He tried to sound ominous, but his position was not firm to carry it away. He knew that he sounded flat and it enraged him.

"We'll both be back, together!" snapped Ilinoran.

"Ertene will be back, too!" added Thomakein. "You wouldn't permit us to leave, and I know it!"

Guy nodded. "I'll be waiting. But don't forget that I am still master of you all. And I'm going to stay master. I've spent ten years being pushed around, and now I'm going to do some pushing myself! I have very little affection for any of you; Terra disowned me, Ertene did not want my offer of fidelity; Mars wanted to torture me and did, partly. Had any one of you taken me for what I had to offer, this would never have happened."

Mantley and Ilinoran left. But Thomakein came forward and put out a hand.

Guy looked at the hand and then at Thomakein. "Why?" he said sharply.

"You did it!"

"I did it, all right. But look at me. And what have you to offer?"

"You still do not know. Guy, forgive me. I tried, myself, and failed. Your plan is superior to mine—yours works."

"Plan? Know?"

"I forced you into this."

"Yes, but you had no plan except a sort of self-aggrandizement."

Thomakein shook his head. "You didn't read my mind deep enough, Guy. The instrument you carried was never perfect and deep-seated concepts are often hidden because of the more powerful surface thoughts. I thought of conquest—and realized that sleepy, lazy Ertene couldn't conquer the Solar System and keep it conquered. What Sol needed was a man with drive and ability. No one wanted you, Guy, because you were continually torn between your own promises. I was responsible for that, I fear. I took you because of your latent ability, those long years ago, and planned well."

"And so you forced me into this place?"

"Yes," smiled Thomakein. "But the only way that you'll hold this sun full of cross-purposes together is to provide a common menace. Terra hates you more than she hates Mars, and Mars will co-operate with Ertene to get you. Ertene, burning mad because her desire to wander is curtailed by you, will throw in with both of them. Perhaps they will get used to co-operation after a bit, but never forget that competition will make advances far quicker than complete co-operation.

"Yes," said Thomakein, "I tried. I plotted and tried, and then knew that Ertene did not have the drive, the ambition. You, Guy, had the ambition, and all you needed was to get the killer-instinct, so to speak. You had to be driven to it. You did it. Can you hold it once someone finds the key to the mental-gadget?"

Guy grinned. "They never will. Mephisto is the only world with normal temperatures low enough to make key more than a feeble-order effect. Upon Mephisto, it becomes evident in the third decimal place; on any other world it is several decimal places beyond the experimental error. Besides," Guy said with a hardening of the jaw muscles, "I've got the whole System under coverage. I'll permit no experiments along those lines!"

"I see what you mean. Well, Guy, you're the Emperor. For the love of God, stay that way! The first time you abdicate, hell will break loose all over the System. You are the common menace that will hold us together."

Guy smiled wryly. "So you drove me to it. It was necessary. I know. But it was a dirty trick to play on any man. It goes deeper than that. Joan and I can't see raising a kid in this mess."

"Your children must be raised absolutely incognito. I owe you more than life, Guy. May I help, please?"

Maynard took Thomakein's outstretched hand.

"Finished," said Thomakein, shaking the hand hard.

"Not finished—nor will it be. I have a lifetime job of making myself more hated than any traditional enemy."

Thomakein nodded. He stepped back and saluted.

"Farewell, Guy Maynard—Ruler of The Solar Worlds!”

THE END.