50 in 50

"The same.” he said, "but let's keep the introductions until later. When they brought me in here I saw a good bit of the layout. The most important thing is a central control room. Everything operates from there — even their power plant is right next to it. And they have communication equipment."

"I'm with you," Bron said. "If we take that, we can cut out all the power and make them work in the dark. My boars will like that. They'll cruise around and keep things stirred up until the militia arrives. We'll call the town from there."

Huw Davies pointed at the laser rifle Haydin held. "I'd like to borrow that for a while, Governor, if you would let me. I have a few scores I want to settle."

"It's all yours. Now show us the way."

The battle for the control room was a brief one — the boars saw to that. Most of the furniture was smashed up, but the controls appeared still to be in working order.

"You stand guard at the entrance, Huw," Bron said, "since I read Sulbani script and you probably don't." He mumbled to himself over the phonetic symbols, then smiled with satisfaction. " 'Lighting circuit'—that's all that can mean."

He stabbed at a button, and all the lights went out.

"I hope that it's dark all over, not just here," Lea said weakly in the black depths of the room.

"Everywhere.” Bron told her. "Now, the emergency lighting circuit for this room should be here." Blue bulbs, scattered over the ceiling, flickered and came to life. Lea sighed audibly. "I've really had just about enough excitement.” she said.

The two boars were looking expectantly at Bron, a wicked red gleam in their eyes. "Go to it, boys," he said. "Just don't get hurt."

"Little chance of that," Huw said as the great beasts exploded out the doorway and vanished with a rapid thud of hooves. "I've seen how they operate, and I'm glad I'm not on the receiving end." A distant- crashing and thin screams echoed his sentiments.

Governor Haydin looked around at the banks of instruments and controls. "Now," he said, "that the excitement and immediate danger are over for the moment, will someone please tell me what is happening here and what all this is about?"

"A mine," Huw said, pointing towards a tunnel diagram on the far wall of the room. "A uranium mine — all in secret, and it has been running for years. I don't know how they're getting the metal out, but they mine and partially refine it here, all with automatic machinery. Then powder the slag and dump it into the river out there."

"I'll tell you what happens then," Bron said. "When they have a cargo, it's lifted off by spacer. The Sulbani have very big ideas about moving out of their area and controlling a bigger portion of space. But they are short of power metals, and Earth has been working hard to keep it that way. One of the reasons this planet was settled was that it is near the Sulbani sector and, while we didn't need the uranium, we didn't want it falling into the Sulbani's hands. The Patrol had no idea that they were getting their uranium from Trowbri — though they knew it was coming from somewhere — but it was a possibility. When the governor here sent in his request for aid, it became an even stronger possibility."

"I still don't understand it," Haydin said. "We would have detected any ships coming to the planet; our radar functions well."

"I'm sure it functions fine — but these creatures have at least one human accomplice who sees to it that the landings are concealed."

"Human. .!" Haydin gasped. Then he knotted his fists at the thought. "It's not possible. A traitor to the human race. Who could it be?"

"That's obvious," Bron said, "now that you have been eliminated as a possibility."

"Me!"

"You were a good suspect — in the perfect position to cover things up_; that's why I was less than frank with you. But you knew nothing about the hovercraft raid and would have been killed if I hadn't pulled you down, so that took you off the list of suspects. Leaving the obvious man: Reymon — the radio operator."

"That's right.” Lea said. "He let me talk to Huw on the phone— and then he made me call you or he said he would have Huw killed. He didn't say why he wanted to see you, I didn't know…"

"You couldn't have." Bron smiled at her. "He isn't much of a killer and must have been following Sulbani instructions to get rid of me. He really earned his money by not seeing their ships on radar. And by making sure that the radio communication with Huw's party was cut off when the Sulbani attacked. He probably recorded the signals and gave the murderers an hour or two to do their work before he broadcast the radio's cutting off. That would have helped the mystery. And now, Governor, I hope you'll give a favorable report about this P.I.G. operation."

"The absolute best," Hay din said. He looked down at Jasmine, who had tracked them down and now lay curled up at his feet, chewing on a bar of Sulbani rations. "In fact, I'm almost ready to swear off eating pork for the rest of my life."

Space Rats of the CCC