Revolt on Alpha C Page 9

  President Harrison started to say something conciliatory, but the captain ignored it.

  “Cadet Stark: I order you to tell me everything you know about this revolution.”

  Larry faced the captain and gritted his teeth. An order was an order.

  “They—they plan to seize all of us—and you—and hold us for hostages, sir.”

  There; it was out. He had betrayed them all now, Harl and O’Hare and Carter and all the others. He wondered what his father would say of all this: he had been trapped into a maze of lies and counter-lies, of evasions and betrayals and humiliations. He had sold everybody out now, and had nothing to show for it.

  “I hoped this would never happen,” President Harrison said. “It means a long, bloody struggle, and no one will profit. We could have settled this peacefully.”

  “Peaceful settlements are temporary ones,” Captain Reinhardt said coldly. “There’s but one way to end revolutions.”

  He sat down at a desk and began writing.

  “How many people are there at London Colony, President Harrison?” asked Captain Reinhardt, as he wrote.

  “Over two thousand, Captain Reinhardt,” Harrison said.

  “Hmmm. I hope it won’t be necessary to wipe them all out,” he said. “Excuse me, President Harrison. Come with me, Larry.”

  “Where to, sir?”

  “Back to the ship. President Harrison, will you circulate the word that the crew of the Carden is to move back aboard ship immediately?”

  “Are you leaving then?” he asked.

  “Not yet. But I feel we have stayed long enough within the walls.”

  The crowd was in the streets as the men of the Carden moved back to their ship, and they jeered and cursed sullenly as the Earthmen passed through them.

  There were banners hung in the streets of Chicago Colony now—the ones Larry had seen at London Colony, and some new ones.

  Go Home, Earthmen

  We Don’t Want You Here!

  Down With Harrison

  Larry feared that the mob might attack them as they went through the streets, but they kept their distance, milling aimlessly about.

  It was comforting finally to reach the wall, cross the clearing, and climb the catwalk that lead into the ship. Larry’s bunk aboard ship was strangely empty; he thought of Harl, wearing the green uniform of the revolutionaries, and Heitor, languishing somewhere in that dark London Colony prison.

  Captain Reinhardt sent for him as soon as they had re-established themselves aboard ship.

  There’s a third-order Patrol fleet somewhere in this sector,” he said. “I want you to transmit this message to them at once.” He handed Larry the sheet of paper he had been writing on earlier.

  Larry saluted and headed for the radio room. While the instruments warmed up he read the note.

  “Lao-tze Reinhardt to Space Patrol Commander Carr, emerg X4. Revolution brewing on Alpha C IV; plan to take all Earth supporters hostage. Come with armed force immediately, prepared to quell rebellion. Suggested punitive measure: partial or total destruction of London Colony, originator of rebellion.”

  Larry looked at the message several times. Suggested punitive measure: partial or total destruction of London Colony.

  Partial or total destruction.

  Partial or total destruction.

  He could not do it. Calling the Patrol now would mean the death of O’Hare, of Hail, even of poor Heitor who had nothing to do with it. It would mean turning Alpha C IV into another Jupiter—a rebellious colony crushed by the armed might of Earth. Sending the message would end all hopes of liberty for Alpha C.

  Automatically his fingers flew over the controls of the machine, setting up contacts, sending the beam out into space, searching for the Patrol fleet.

  “Fleet X16532, Centauri Section,” came a voice in his ears. “Who is this, please?”

  Larry stared at the message. Partial or total destruction. He started to crumple the sheet, but realized that that was no solution.

  Who is this, please?” the metallic voice repeated. Larry smoothed out the crumpled comer of the message, and looked at the words, in Captain Reinhardt’s stiff up and down handwriting, until they ceased to have meaning and became just a collection of individual letters.

  He could not do it. He broke the connection in the midst of an exasperated “Who is this?” from the fleet operator, and walked out into the corridor.

  “Have you transmitted it yet?” said Captain Reinhardt from further up the corridor.

  “Not yet, sir,” Larry said, controlling his voice. “Mechanical difficulties; it’ll take a moment or two to make contact.”

  “Hurry it up, then. We have to get them here before anything serious starts here

  “Yes, sir.”

  Larry turned back into the radio room and let the machine warm up again. There was no escaping it: the message would have to be transmitted. But Larry would not let himself be the agent of London Colony’s destruction.

  “Fleet X16532,” the voice said. “Who is this, please?”

  “Lao-tze Reinhardt to Space Patrol Commander Carr,” Larry began in a weak voice.

  “I’ll connect you with the commander” the fleet operator responded.

  Larry stared at the complex machine in front of him. In a moment he would be giving his message to Commander Carr and setting in motion the wheels that would crush Alpha Centauri IV. No. He could not do it.

  He opened the door of the radio room and looked out. Coming down the corridor was Paolo Campbell, a tall, gangling cadet he had known vaguely at the Academy and had had next to no contact with on the voyage so far.

  “Commander Carr speaking~ the radio said. “Go ahead.”

  “Paolo,” Larry whispered.

  Paolo kept moving. “Paolo!”

  “Eh? What is it, Larry?”

  “Come in here, will you?”

  Larry looked at the message in his hand.

  “Go ahead, please,” Commander Carr said. “We are awaiting your message.”

  “I want you to transmit an order for me, Paolo.”

  “Why can’t you do it? It’s your job!”

  Is there something wrong with the connection? Do you hear me? Answer, please.”

  Beads of sweat rolled down Larry’s face. If only Captain Reinhardt would not appear and add to the confusion—

  “Never mind that. Just do it for me.”

  “I don’t know how to, Larry,” Paolo said.

  “All you have to do is read it from this slip of paper,” Larry said, exasperated, “You can read, can’t you’”

  “All right, if it’s that important. Give me your message.

  There was the sound of a click, as Commander Carr broke the connection.

  “Just a second. Let me make the connection again.” Larry manipulated the dials. After a moment’s silence the fleet operator came on again.

  “What’s going on, please? Is this a joke?”

  “Sit down here,” Larry urged, pushing Paolo into the seat. “Just read this.”

  He handed the paper, now folded and crumpled, to Paolo. As Paolo began to unfold the paper, Larry left the room, unable to listen.

  CHAPTER 16

  HE PAUSED AT the door, turned, and went back in. Paolo was just beginning the message.

  “Hold it, Paolo,” he said. “I’ll do it myself.”

  Paolo looked around, mystified and angry. “What’s going on, Larry? You playing games?”

  “Shut up,” Larry snapped. “I said I’d send it.” He felt clammy with sweat, and knew that Paolo might very well report his puzzling conduct to the captain. “If you say so,” Paolo said. “Feeling all right?”

  “Proceed with message,” the radio said.

  Paolo left. Larry sat down at the radio and stared at the piece of paper.

  “Proceed with message. What is going on, please?” Larry opened his mouth as if to say something, and then let it slowly close. He reached over and turned off the set, interrupting a
puzzled protest from the other end. He sat there quietly watching the quiescent radio.

  Larry tried to balance everything. The message could not be sent. O’Hare, Harl, Heitor, the whole revolution, against Larry Stark. Larry Stark, he knew% “was not big enough to outweigh all the others. The scales tipped relentlessly.

  Carefully he ripped Captain Reinhardt’s message into halves, then quarters, then eighths, and let the pieces trickle to the floor. He reached inside the cooling set and carefully unclipped the central power tube—the irreplaceable central tube. He looked meditatively at the tube for a moment and put it in his pocket.

  Commander Stark would never approve, he thought. But maybe he would. With a quick motion of his hand he reached inside the set and ripped apart the delicate wires which formed its circuits. He surveyed the wreckage for a brief instant, touched the tube in his pocket to make sure it was safe, looked at the fragments of the message on the floor, and left.

  “Did you take care of the message?” Captain Reinhardt asked him.

  “It’s all taken care of,” Larry said calmly. He saluted and walked on, down the corridor and out to the catwalk, and down the catwalk to the ground, thinking of his father, of the Patrol, of Earth, of Harl and O’Hare and the revolution, and crossed the clearing and headed for Chicago Colony.

  The man he had to find now was Jon Browne.

  The hotel seemed as good a place to start as any. When he approached he saw it had been taken over by the revolutionaries and was being used as a headquarters.

  “Is Browne here?” he asked a guard at the door. “I have to see him. At once.”

  “What do you want with him?” the guard said coldly.

  “I have to see him,” Larry said.

  “Suppose he doesn’t want to see you?”

  “I don’t have time to play guessing games,” Larry said. He forced his way past the guard and into the hotel. The guard followed, shouting.

  “Grab him!”

  In an instant he was surrounded by guards, and he was struggling and kicking and fighting to break free.

  “What’s going on here?” said a new voice. Immediately the struggle ceased. Larry, held by two burly colonists, looked up, and saw Jon Browne standing there.

  “Quite a fighter, aren’t you?” Browne said. “You’re a better fighter than you are a pilot, anyway. I’ve heard about your trip to Bombay Colony.”

  “I’m sorry I knocked you down, Browne,” Larry said. “I needed your copter.”

  “I gathered that. What’s been happening here?”

  “I have to get to London Colony immediately. To warn them. You have to let me go.”

  “To warn them? I understand you went there once, supposedly to join them. Now you want to go again?”

  “I mean it this time,” Larry said. “Let me go!” He struggled with his captors and succeeded in freeing one arm.

  “Let go of him,” Browne said. They did and he moved away from them.

  Now: am I to understand you’ve changed sides? You re the most changeable young man I’ve ever encountered. But luckily I have to go to London Colony myself this afternoon, and I suppose I can take a passenger. You can warn them all you like when you get there. Tie him up,” he said.

  The colonists converged on him again, and this time, without struggling, he let them tie him. He was unceremoniously dumped into the back of a copter; Browne clambered into the pilot’s seat, and they took off.

  They came down in a great square in the heart of London Colony. Brown got out and waved to someone in the distance. In a moment Carter and a group of green-clad revolutionaries appeared.

  “I’ve brought you back your guest,” Browne said. The one who didn’t like your hospitality.” He pointed inside the copter.

  They let Larry out and untied him.

  “How’d you recapture him?”

  “We didn’t,” Browne said. “He walked right into our headquarters, demanding to be brought here. We didn’t argue with him.”

  “If you’d only listen—” Larry began.

  O’Hare loomed up in the distance. He blinked in amazement when he saw Larry.

  “Put him back in the cell,” Carter directed. “We can’t put off building the camp any longer.”

  “You’re definitely going ahead with it?” Browne asked.

  “Yes,” said Carter. “The entire army’s leaving London Colony in about half an hour. We’ll march till midnight and build the first camp there, and go on to build the second at dawn. We ought to be ready to march on Chicago Colony tomorrow night and grab the Earthmen and then we’ll have to make a quick disappearance.”

  Two soldiers began to lead Larry away. Harl appeared from somewhere and ran along with them.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked. “Why’d you come back?”

  “If you’d only listen,” Larry said. “Reinhardt gave me a message to transmit. He asked the Space Patrol to destroy London Colony as a punitive measure.”

  “Holy! We’ve got to tell Carter! He’ll have to evacuate immediately.”

  “No rush,” Larry said. “Tell one of these guys to let go of me and I’ll show you something interesting.”

  “Cover him,” Harl directed. Let’s see what he has to show us.”

  The colonists released Larry and drew their guns. “Don’t shoot. Harl, reach into my pocket here—I’m afraid these fellows may get trigger-happy if I do—and take out what you find there.”

  “Careful, Ellison,” said one of the colonists.

  Harl gingerly reached into Larry s pocket. His fingers closed on the radio tube and he drew it out.

  He rubbed his fingers on it gently. “A radio tube?”

  “Yes,” Larry said. “The central power tube from the Carden’s radio.”

  “The central power tube from the Carden?” Harl repeated.

  “Yes.”

  Harl looked at Larry—looked up at his eyes. “Larry—did you remove this before or after—I mean, was Reinhardt’s message ever sent?”

  “I never sent it. I pulled the circuits loose and took the tube.”

  “Larry!”

  Carter drew near. “Why isn’t he being taken away?” he asked. “Ellison, what’s happening?”

  “Reinhardt is asking the Patrol to wipe out London Colony. Or—he wanted to ask them. But Stark here sabotaged the radio.”

  Larry winced. He still could not stand the thought of what he had done.

  “Is this true?”

  “There’s the tube.” He reached out and took it back from Harl. “They could fix the circuit, I suppose, but there’s no way they could replace this.”

  “That means—if we march on them now, we’ll have them. Do they know what you’ve done?”

  “Not unless they’ve tried to use the radio since I left. I reported that the message had been taken care of.”

  “In that case—”

  Carter dashed away. Harl pounded Larry on the arm and then followed Carter, leaving Larry alone in the deserted London Colony street as the afternoon shadows began to gather.

  CHAPTER 17

  LARRY STOOD ALONE in the street amid the lengthening shadows of late afternoon, breathing the air of Alpha C deeply.

  He thought of everything he was leaving behind: Earth, his father, the Patrol, everything. He stood there, still, in the quiet street.

  Then he remembered Heitor. Was the pudgy little cadet still somewhere in that dungeon? They couldn’t leave him behind when they evacuated London Colony.

  He had to find that prison building. But all he knew was that it was somewhere near the wall. He began to trot through the empty streets.

  After ten minutes’ fruitless search he found an old man sitting on a bench, seemingly oblivious to whatever might be happening around him.

  He rushed up to him. “Can you tell me where the capitol building is? The one where they have the dungeons?”

  ‘Why are you still here, boy? The others have left.”

  “Come on, come on, answe
r me!

  The old man pointed patiently to his left. Larry began to dash frantically, and finally reached the building. He raced up the steps and through the open door.

  “Heitor!” he shouted. “Heitor!” He rushed to the door that led to the cells. “Heitooooooor!”

  “You don’t need to shout, lad,” said a quiet voice behind him. “Heitor’s not been forgotten. They took him with them.”

  Larry whirled. “O’Hare!”

  “Just locking up, that’s all. Carter thought it might be a good idea to protect the capitol building. Let’s go outside.”

  The massive O’Hare led him outside and locked the main door.

  “There. Now all’s safe.”

  He turned to go.

  “Wait, O’Hare.”

  “Sorry, Larry. I can’t. They expect me up front. I’ll see you there.”

  He ambled down the steps and headed off into the growing dimness of the twilight. A trumpet call sounded in the distance.

  Larry watched him go. The trumpet call was repeated, louder.

  “Attention. Attention.” Carter’s voice came over a loudspeaker from somewhere.

  “Attention. We are now readying for the evacuation. Listen carefully. At the next trumpet call we are to assemble at the East Gate. Repeat: East Gate. We will proceed in orderly fashion according to the plans previously circulated.

  “We will march through the jungle, protected by arms. There will be no danger from the animals, who will run away from our lights. The five hundred people so designated will remain at Camp 1, which is to be established at a distance of twenty miles from London Colony. They will fortify this camp as per plan.

  “The remainder will proceed at dawn to Camp 2, which will be located fifty miles from London Colony. Five hundred designated colonists will be left there. The rest will be ferried on to Camp 3, which is ten miles outside Chicago Colony. There they will join with forces from Henrikstown and march on Chicago Colony to seize the Earth spaceship.

  “Be ready to move at the next trumpet call.”

  Night was beginning to fall in earnest now. Larry pondered the events of the past few days. He had been catapulted into a position of great importance to the colonies, and, he felt, he had redeemed himself.