Chapter 14: The Hawk Strikes

No surprise showed on the Hawk’s face, though the others were visibly shaken. He, at the helm, merely nodded and continued with further orders.

“Williams,” he said to one of Leithgow’s assistants, “get Thorpe and go and dose Ku Sui with V-27. Give him plenty. Then both of you station yourselves, ray guns in hand, outside his cabin. We’ll take no chances with him, gassed or not. Friday, open our radio receiver to the general band. Just the receiver, not the mike ... Our speed, Eliot?”

“Down to seven hundred, and falling steadily.”

Carse went to the electelscope, after giving the controls over to Ban.

Squarely behind the Sandra, and within twenty-five miles, the peanut-shaped body had come. It was an ominous and silent approach. The Sandra remained pinned by the purple ray for minutes while the Hawk studied her aggressor. As he watched the asteroid, the others watched him; Ban Wilson fidgety, Friday clenching and unclenching his big hands. Eliot Leithgow with whitened face and shoulders that seemed to have bowed a little.

The forward speed of the Sandra decreased to four hundred miles an hour, and still the Hawk studied the massive body behind...

A sputter sounded in the radio receiver. Carse turned away from the electelscope and listened to the heavy Venusian voice that was suddenly speaking to him from it.

“Carse, I’ve got you! You’ve seen our ray, of course, but have you looked at your speed-indicator? You’re caught--and this time you’re going to stay caught. You cannot possibly resist the magnetic ray I have on you, and in a few minutes you will be drawn right into me. I advise you to surrender peacefully. No tricks--though there’s no trick that could do you any good! Nothing! I have you this time!”

A frosty smile tightened the Hawk’s lips.

“I was right, Eliot,” he murmured. “The man behind the panel took the asteroid to Lar Tantril. He is our opponent.”

Those were his words, but he did nothing. He seemed content to stand with cold, intent face looking back through the infra-red electelscope. The Sandra’s speed sank to three hundred, two hundred and soon a hundred, and the asteroid, which was of course also decelerating, crept up remorselessly. Ban Wilson had every confidence in the Hawk, but finally the inaction grew too much for him to bear.

“Jumping Jupiter, Carse!” he sputtered. “--aren’t you going to do anything? Use our rays! Try maneuvering to the side! Damn it, we’re just letting them take us!”

The adventurer might not have heard, for all the sign he gave. The Earth-clock on the wall ticked on; seconds built minutes, and the minutes passed. The asteroid was only ten miles astern.

“Eliot,” said Carse quietly, “get me one of your infra-red glasses.”

He took over the controls again. Carefully he varied the forward repulsion and sent current to the side gravity-plates, and slowly the Sandra answered by rotating, longitudinally, reversing her position. Still maintaining a slight and dwindling speed toward Earth, her bow swung from that planet’s eye-filling panorama and came to face, instead, the invisible asteroid. When turned completely around, the men in her control cabin looked through the bow windows right into the brilliant cone of the purple ray.

Lar Tantril’s voice again boomed from the broadcasting shell, and this time it was harsh with anger.

“Try no tricks, Carse! I see what you intend. You plan to suddenly answer my ray, instead of continuing to resist it, and so drive right past me and escape. But I warn you I have terrific power, and if you move towards me of your own volition, I can burn you to a cinder in three seconds, and I’ll do it. You can’t escape! If I have to destroy Ku Sui, all right--but I’ll get you!”

The Hawk strapped over his eyes the infra-red glasses Leithgow now gave him.

Reversing the Sandra’s ends had neither increased nor decreased the rate at which the asteroid’s purple stream was bringing her closer. Obviously the magnetic stream was being varied. The space-ship’s forward momentum merely continued to drop normally until the moment came when she had no Earthward velocity at all; and then more quickly she moved toward the restraining asteroid.

With his infra-red glasses, through the bow windows, Carse could now see the massive body in full detail. There was the dome, a huge, gleaming cup of transparent stuff now showing wisps of blue, from the defensive web around it; and inside were the several buildings, and minute black dots which were the figures of men. There was a great number of them. The largest group was clustered inside one of the large ship-size port-locks in the dome. The lock’s outer door was open, and it was from there that the purple ray seemed to originate. Obviously the intention of the enemy was to draw the Sandra right in. Five miles now separated asteroid and ship.

Again the Venusian chief spoke.

“I warn you once more, Sparrow Hawk, try no tricks. You can see the men I have here, but you can’t see my ray projectors. They’re hidden, but they’re centered on you, every one, and my hand’s at the control that fires them. They have terrific power, Carse. Better not attempt anything!”

The Hawk switched on the extension microphone at his side. He said levelly into it:

“Lar Tantril, I’ll make a bargain with you: a favor for a favor.”

“What?” shot from the loudspeaker.

“I will agree to surrender peaceably when you’ve drawn my ship inside if, for your part, you promise to free Eliot Leithgow, who is aboard with me, and the five patients on whom Ku Sui operated. If you don’t grant me that, I will oppose you to the last pull of my finger on trigger.”

“But, Carse--” the Master Scientist began, horrified: but his expression of amazement faded when the slender man at the radio turned his head and half-closed one eye in a wink.

“You will agree to that--and no tricks?” Tantril’s voice repeated.

“I will agree to it. And as for tricks, what could I possibly try? Your rays could burn through the maximum power of my web in three seconds, as you say: I know it as well as you. I only wish there was a chance to get out of your range in time.”

“All right!” the Venusian replied decisively. “I agree. I’ll release Leithgow and the five patients. Keep away from the controls and I’ll draw you in.”

Carse switched off the microphone.

“A hell of a lot Tantril’s word is worth!” muttered Ban Wilson. Once more, surprisingly, the Hawk winked. Friday was grinning now. For once in his life he had guessed his master’s strategy before the others.

A mile and a half to the front lay the dome-end of the asteroid. Perhaps nine hundred miles to the rear lay the tremendous mottled curve of Earth with her dangerous upper layers of the stratosphere all too close. In the very face of Earth, all three on a line, the ship lay linked by a stream of purple to the great rough-hewn, errant asteroid. Half the bulk of all three lay sharply outlined against the black of space by the intense yellow light of the flaming distant sun.

The asteroid neared to a mile, then a half-mile. Hawk Carse said curtly:

“Ban, when I give the word, put all the power we’ve got into our defensive web. Load the generators; overload them; tax them to the limit. That web must be as tough as possible for five seconds.”

“Got you, Carse.”

“You’ve--a trick?” ventured Leithgow timidly.

“I think I have, Eliot. Lar Tantril might have caught on when I turned the ship, but unfortunately for him his brain is incapable of proceeding past a certain point ... All right, Ban.”