Citizen in Spase. Stories / Гражданин в Космосе. Рассказы. Книга для чтения на английском языке

“You think the alien’ll give it back?” Victor asked.

“Sure he will,” Barnett said, “if he’s not dead. He’ll be pretty anxious to get his own ship back. And he has to leave our ship to get in his.”

“Sure. But once he gets back in this ship…”

“We’ll gimmick the controls,” Barnett said. “That’ll slow him down.”

“For a little while,” Agee pointed out. “But he’ll get into the air sooner or later, with blood in his eye. We’ll never outrun him.”

“We won’t have to,” Barnett said. “All we have to do is get into the air first. He’s got a strong hull, but I don’t think it’ll take three atomic bombs.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Agee said, smiling faintly.

“Only logical move,” Barnett said complacently. “The alloys in the hull will still be worth something. Now, get us back without frying us, if you can.”

Agee turned the engines on. He swung the ship around in a tight curve, piling on all the Gs they could stand. The servos clicked on, and the temperature shot rapidly up. Once the curve was rounded, Agee pointed Endeavor II in the right direction and shut off the engines.

They coasted most of the way. But when they reached the planet, Agee had to leave the engines on, to bring them around the deceleration spiral and into the landing.

They were barely able to get out of the ship. Their skins were blistered and their shoes burned through. There was no time to gimmick the controls.

They retreated to the woods and waited. “Perhaps he’s dead,” Agee said hopefully.

They saw a small figure emerge from Endeavor I. The alien was moving slowly, but he was moving.

They watched. “Suppose,” Victor said, “he’s made a weapon of some kind. Suppose he comes after us.”

“Suppose you shut up,” Barnett said.

The alien walked directly to his own ship. He went inside and shut the locks.

“All right,” Barnett said, standing up. “We’d better blast off in a hurry. Agee, you take the controls. I’ll connect the piles. Victor, you secure the locks. Let’s go!”

They sprinted across the plain and, in a matter of seconds, had reached the open airlock of Endeavor I.

Even if he had wanted to hurry, Kalen didn’t have the necessary strength to pilot his ship. But he knew that he was safe, once inside. No alien was going to walk through those sealed ports.

He found a spare air tank in the rear and opened it. His ship filled with rich, life-giving yellow air. For long minutes, Kalen just breathed it.

Then he lugged three of the biggest kerla nuts he could find to the galley and let the Cracker open them.

After eating, he felt much better. He let the Changer take off his outer hide. The second layer was dead, too, and the Changer cut that off him, but stopped at the third, living layer.

He was almost as good as new when he slipped into the pilot’s room.

It was apparent to him now that the aliens had been temporarily insane. There was no other way to explain why they had come back and returned his ship.

Therefore, he would find their authorities and report the location of the planet. They could be found and cured, once and for all.

Kalen felt very happy. He had not deviated from the Mabogian ethic, and that was the important thing. He could so easily have left the thetnite bomb in their ship, all set and timed. He could have wrecked their engines. And there had been a temptation.

But he had not. He had done nothing at all.

All he had done was construct a few minimum essentials for the preservation of life.

Kalen activated his controls and found that everything was in perfect working order. The acceleration fluid poured in as he turned on the piles.

Victor reached the airlock first and dashed in. Instantly, he was hurled back.

“What happened?” Barnett asked.

“Something hit me,” Victor said.

Cautiously, they looked inside.

It was a very neat death trap. Wires from the storage batteries had been hooked in series and rigged across the port.

If Victor had been touching the side of the ship, he would have been electrocuted instantly.

They shorted out the system and entered the ship.

It was a mess. Everything movable had been ripped up and strewn around. There was a bent steel bar in a corner. Their high-potency acid had been spilled over the deck and had eaten through in several places. The Endeavor’s old hull was holed.

“I never thought he’d gimmick us!” Agee said.

They explored further. Toward the rear was another booby trap. The cargo hold door had been cunningly rigged to the small starter motor. If anyone touched it, the door would be slammed against the wall. A man caught between would be crushed.

There were other hookups that gave no hint of their purpose.

“Can we fix it?” Barnett asked.

Agee shrugged his shoulders. “Most of our tools are still on board Endeavor II. I suppose we can get her patched up inside of a year. But even then, I don’t know if the hull will hold.”

They walked outside. The alien ship blasted off.

“What a monster!” Barnett said, looking at the acid-eaten hull of his ship.

“You can never tell what an alien will do,” Agee answered.