Lester del Rey - The Mysterious Planet

The tradition of keeping him running errands had been dropped, probably because the Commander was too busy trying to think things through and make his report on Outpost carry the weight he felt it should. At present he was refusing to radio problems of the situation ahead, on the grounds that information might be picked up by people outside the Fleet, which would lead to a panic that could only cause harm.

Bob spent most of the time with Juan Roman. The boy seemed to have buried his grief somewhere deep inside himself, and to be resigned to whatever happened. He was strangely serious and naive, with little of the gaiety for which his people were famed. This may have been partly due to his recent tragedy, but Bob had the feeling that much of Juan’s seriousness was basic to his character.

He obviously didn’t want to talk about his past, and Bob and the others respected his wishes. With a somewhat reluctant permission from Bob’s father, they wandered about the ship. There Juan showed an amazing ability to pick up details quickly. He admitted that he had wanted to be an engineer and that he had spent most of his time as a boy hanging around the shops where the big freighters were repaired.

But Navy ships were different, and he absorbed everything he saw.

Ten days after taking off from Mars they landed on the little moon of Neptune known as Outpost. Scarcely two hundred miles in diameter, it circled the big planet at a distance of five million miles. It was the farthest port of the Space Navy, more than two and one-half thousand million miles from the sun, and usually staffed with the minimum number of men and ships. But now, with the expedition to Planet X scheduled from there, and with the pirates active throughout the outer planets, it was filled.

The big dome of the landing field opened for Wing Nine, and they found hangar space reserved for them, as well as a celebration, which Griffith at first started to cancel, but changed his mind. Stopping it would cause more comment than anything else, while a few wild tales of a remarkable pirate from the crews would be put down to nothing more than their imaginations.

Housing for the officers was provided at the edge of the field, just beyond the dome that covered it. Here there was no air, of course, and any air would have frozen solid, in any event. Plastic domes covered everything, with passages connecting them together into a sprawling city of bubbles.

Commander Griffith installed Juan and Bob in their quarters in his apartment and then disappeared on the official report he had been sweating out during the trip. He was hardly gone before Simon Jakes knocked on their door. He looked tired and drawn, but about as close to being happy as Bob had ever seen him. To Bob, remembering the gruelling drive at top cruising acceleration, he looked like an illusion; he couldn’t possibly be on Outpost.

“Surprised to see me?” he asked needlessly. “I told you the Icarius had heels. Got here yesterday, and been waiting for you. Hey, who’s he?”

Bob introduced Juan, with a quick and careful account of how he happened to be along. Simon shook his head and Juan’s hand. For his part, Juan seemed to see nothing ridiculous in the appearance of Jakes. Simon must have sensed it, for he softened and relaxed a little in the general introductory conversation, while Bob’s curiosity continued to grow.

Finally, Jakes grinned again, and got back to the subject. “I came at a straight four gravities, except for a few rest hours. I brought a letter from your mother, too. Never thought I could take that kind of pressure, did you?”

“I still don’t,” Bob answered flatly. Then something flashed into his mind from their few talks while Jakes had been at the Academy. “Your liquid cushion!”

Simon swelled out more than ever, nodding vigorously. Pride made him look more foolish than ever, but at that moment he didn’t mind his appearance. “That’s it. I got it—a seat made of a new elastic and filled with salt water, just about the same density as my body. When the pressure builds up, I sink into it—except that I wear a mask that lets me see out. Liquid equalizes pressure in all directions. And I can really pile on the pressure. Your precious Navy’s already radioed Outpost—after I had Dad give them the dope and they checked my time—and they want my invention. And I’ll bet now they let me go along to Planet X!”

Bob didn’t have the heart to disillusion him about his present chances of reaching Planet X.

If Simon had finally done what no one had succeeded in doing—even with the help of a new plastic elastic—he deserved a little boasting. Bob couldn’t help wondering, though, how many experts had been hired by the Jakes family to do the real work on the problem.

Tired as he was, he went along to inspect the new seat, with Juan trailing them. It was simple enough in principle. By sinking down into the elastic-covered liquid, the pressure was equalized on all sides, instead of merely trying to force a man’s stomach flat against his backbone. But the metal framework and suspension that made the chair possible was a mechanical marvel, as was placing of the controls so that they could slide back with the hands.

“How about a demonstration?” Jakes wanted to know. He brushed aside the protests that Bob started, and switched on the radio to the field control. “Jakes in the Icarius,” he announced. “I’m going on a test run.”

The monitor’s voice was polite but firm. “Sorry, Mr. Jakes. Outpost Field is quarantined—full security blanket. You are not to leave the field without the permission of Commander Jergens and Commander Griffith! Repeat. Don’t leave the field! Violations will be punished as acts of treason!”

Jakes sputtered, but the radio went dead. He shook his head and finally gave up, trailing the other two as they moved off the field. Bob knew that it meant his father had convinced Outpost Commander Jergens of the origin and meaning of the black ship. By now the ether must be burning with a carefully coded account going back to Mars and to Earth. Naturally, though, it would be kept from the public as long as possible, and no one would be permitted to leave Outpost, where the secret might leak out.

“Come on, Si,” Bob volunteered. “Might as well go back to my place and I’ll treat you to dinner. Dad won’t be home until late, I suppose.”

In that he was wrong. His father was sitting in the little living room, with another man, whom Bob recognized as Commander Jergens. The man looked older, thinner, and more uncertain than ever. His sandy hair and mustache went with a drooping expression that made him look like something out of one of the old British comedies—the absent-minded, doddering Lord Somesuch-or-Other.

Commander Griffith spotted Bob and Juan first, and waved them in. “Here are the boys. We can go ahead, though—they know as much as I do, and they can keep their mouths shut.”

Then he saw Jakes, and frowned slightly.

But Jergens motioned Jakes in quickly. “Simon Jakes—son of my old friend Roger Jakes.

Brilliant mind. Made a big contribution, you know, the seat they’re installing on the Fleet at Mars. Went to the Academy, before he took up inventing. Very high recommendations from Earth.”

Commander Griffith stuck out his hand. “Hello, Simon. Quite a trip you made; it beats the record. We’ve met before, you see, Commander.”

“Oh!” Jergens seemed somewhat disappointed, but he rallied quickly. “Well, small universe, as I always say. But you know, you can’t very well exclude him now—not if your boy and this other know. Not after all Mr. Jakes has done for the Navy.”

Griffith’s mouth twitched faintly, but he nodded. “If I know boys, he already has enough information to find out the rest; as soon as a boy finds there’s a secret, he has to ferret it out.