Arthur Zagat - The Golden Age of Science Fiction Volume IX

All this flashed through my mind in an instant as I dragged myself toward Correy. Dragged myself because my head was throbbing so that I dared not stand up, and one shoulder, my left, was numb.

For an instant I thought that Correy was dead. Then, as I bent over him, I saw a pulse leaping just under the angle of his jaw.

“Correy, old man!” I whispered. “Do you hear me?” All the formality of the Service was forgotten for the time. “Are you hurt badly?”

His eyelids flickered, and he sighed; then, suddenly, he looked up at me—and smiled!

“We’re still here, sir?”

“After a fashion. Look around; see what’s happened?”

He glanced about curiously, frowning. His wits were not all with him yet.

“We’re in a mess, aren’t we?” he grinned. “What’s the matter?”

I told him what I thought, and he nodded slowly, feeling his head tenderly.

“How long ago did it happen?” he asked. “The blooming clock’s upside down; can you read it?”

I could—with an effort.

“Over twenty minutes,” I said. “I wonder how the rest of the men are?”

With an effort, I got to my feet and peered into the operating room. Several of the men were moving about, dazedly, and as I signalled to them, reassuringly, a voice hailed us from the doorway:

“Any orders, sir?”

It was Kincaide. He was peering over what had been the top of the doorway, and he was probably the most disreputable-looking officer who had ever worn the blue-and-silver uniform of the Service. His nose was bloody and swollen to twice its normal size. Both eyes were blackened, and his hair, matted with blood, was plastered in ragged swirls across his forehead.

“Yes, Mr. Kincaide; plenty of them. Round up enough of the men to locate the trouble with the gravity pads; there’s a reversed connection somewhere. But don’t let them make the repairs until the signal is given. Otherwise, we’ll all fall on our heads again. Mr. Correy and I will take care of the injured.”

The next half hour was a trying one. Two men had been killed outright, and another died before we could do anything to save him. Every man in the crew was shaken up and bruised, but by the time the check was completed, we had a good half of our personnel on duty.

Returning at last to the navigating room, I pressed the attention signal for Kincaide, and got his answer immediately.

“Located the trouble yet, Mr. Kincaide?” I asked anxiously.

“Yes, sir! Mr. Hendricks has been working with a group of men and has just made his report. They are ready when you are.”

“Good!” I drew a sigh of relief. It had been easier than I thought. Pressing the general attention signal, I broadcasted the warning, giving particular instructions to the men in charge of the injured. Then I issued orders to Hendricks:

“Reverse the current in five seconds, Mr. Hendricks, and stand by for further instructions.”

Hastily, then, Correy and I followed the orders we had given the men. Briefly we stood on our heads against the wall, feeling very foolish, and dreading the fall we knew was coming.

It came. We slid down the wall and lit heavily on our feet, while the litter that had been on the ceiling with us fell all around us. Miraculously, the ship seemed to have righted herself. Correy and I picked ourselves up and looked around.

“We’re still operating smoothly,” I commented with a sweeping glance at the instruments over the operating table. “Everything seems in order.”

“Did you notice the speed indicator, sir?” asked Correy grimly. “When he fell, one of the men in the operating room must have pulled the speed lever all the way over. We’re at maximum space speed, sir, and have been for nearly an hour, with no one at the controls.”

We stared at each other dully. Nearly an hour, at maximum space speed—a speed seldom used except in case of great emergency. With no one at the controls, and the ship set at maximum deflection from her course.

That meant that for nearly an hour we had been sweeping into infinite space in a great arc, at a speed I disliked to think about.

“I’ll work out our position at once,” I said, “and in the meantime, reduce speed to normal as quickly as possible. We must get back on our course at the earliest possible moment.”

We hurried across to the charts that were our most important aides in proper navigation. By comparing the groups of stars there with our space charts of the universe, the working out of our position was ordinarily, a simple matter.

But now, instead of milky rectangles, ruled with fine black lines, with a fiery red speck in the center and the bodies of the universe grouped around in green points of light, there were only nearly blank rectangles, shot through with vague, flickering lights that revealed nothing except the presence of disaster.

“The meteoric fragment wiped out some of our plates, I imagine,” said Correy slowly. “The thing’s useless.”

I nodded, staring down at the crawling lights on the charts.

“We’ll have to set down for repairs, Mr. Correy. If,” I added, “we can find a place.”

Correy glanced up at the attraction meter.

“I’ll take a look in the big disc,” he suggested. “There’s a sizeable body off to port. Perhaps our luck’s changed.”

He bent his head under the big hood, adjusting the controls until he located the source of the registered attraction.

“Right!” he said, after a moment’s careful scrutiny. “She’s as big as Earth, I’d venture, and I believe I can detect clouds, so there should be atmosphere. Shall we try it, sir?”

“Yes. We’re helpless until we make repairs. As big as Earth, you said? Is she familiar?”

Correy studied the image under the hood again, long and carefully.

“No, sir,” he said, looking up and shaking his head. “She’s a new one on me.”

Conning the ship first by means of the television disc, and navigating visually as we neared the strange sphere, we were soon close enough to make out the physical characteristics of this unknown world.

Our spectroscopic tests had revealed the presence of atmosphere suitable for breathing, although strongly laden with mineral fumes which, while possibly objectionable, would probably not be dangerous.

So far as we could see, there was but one continent, somewhat north of the equator, roughly triangular in shape, with its northernmost point reaching nearly to the Pole.

“It’s an unexplored world, sir. I’m certain of that,” said Correy. “I am sure I would have remembered that single, triangular continent had I seen it on any of our charts.” In those days, of course, the Universe was by no means so well mapped as it is today.

“If not unknown, it is at least uncharted,” I replied. “Rough looking country, isn’t it? No sign of life, either, that the disc will reveal.”

“That’s as well, sir. Better no people than wild natives who might interfere with our work. Any choice in the matter of a spot on which to set her down?”

I inspected the great, triangular continent carefully. Towards the north it was a mass of snow covered mountains, some of them, from their craters, dead volcanoes. Long spurs of these ranges reached southward, with green and apparently fertile valleys between. The southern edge was covered with dense tropical vegetation; a veritable jungle.

“At the base of that central spur there seems to be a sort of plateau,” I suggested. “I believe that would be a likely spot.”

“Very well, sir,” replied Correy, and the old Ertak, reduced to atmospheric speed, swiftly swept toward the indicated position, while Correy kept a wary eye on the surface temperature gauge, and I swept the terrain for any sign of intelligent life.