The World with a Thousand Moons Read online

power-hoist to jackthe wreck out of the mud. Holk Or and I have got that all figuredout."

  Murdock frowned as though still unconvinced, but dropped the subject.When he had gone off to join the others, Holk Or glared after him.

  "That fellow's too smart for his own good," muttered the Jovian. "He'ssuspicious. Maybe I'd better see that he meets with an accident."

  "No, let him alone," warned Kenniston. "If anything happened to himnow, the others would want to turn back. And we're almost to Vestanow."

  But worry remained as a shadow in the back of Kenniston's own mind. Itstill oppressed him hours later when the arbitrary ship's-time hadbrought the 'night.' Sitting down in the luxurious passenger-cabinover highballs with the others, he wondered where Hugh Murdock was.

  The rest of Gloria's party were all here, listening with fascinatedinterest to Holk Or's colorful yarns of adventures on the wildasteroids. But Murdock was missing. Kenniston wondered worriedly ifthe fellow was looking over that equipment in the hold again.

  * * * * *

  A young Earth space-man--one of the _Sunsprite's_ small crew--cameinto the cabin and approached Kenniston.

  "Captain Walls' compliments, sir, and would you come up to the bridge?He'd like your advice about the course again."

  "I'll go with you," Gloria said as Kenniston rose. "I like it up inthe bridge best of any place on the ship."

  As they climbed past the little telaudio transmitter-room, they sawHugh Murdock standing in there by the operator. He smiled at Gloria.

  "I've been trying to get some messages through to Earth, but it seemswe're almost out of range," he said ruefully.

  "Can't you ever forget business, Hugh?" the girl said exasperatedly."You're about as adventurous as a fat radium-broker of fifty."

  Kenniston, however, felt relieved that Murdock had apparentlyforgotten about the oddness of the equipment below. His spirits werelighter when they entered the glassite-enclosed bridge.

  Captain Walls turned from where he stood beside Bray, the chief pilot.The plump, cheerful master touched his cap to Gloria Loring.

  "Sorry to bother you again, Mr. Kenniston," he apologized. "But we'regetting pretty near Vesta, and you know this devilish region of spacebetter than I do. The charts are so vague they're useless."

  Kenniston glanced at the instrument-panel with a practiced eye andthen squinted at the void ahead. The _Sunsprite_ was now throbbingsteadily through a starry immensity whose hosts of glittering pointsof light would have made a bewildering panorama to laymen's eyes.

  They seemed near none of those blazing sparks. Yet every few minutes,red lights blinked and buzzers sounded on the instrument panel. Ateach such warning of the meteorometers, the pilot glanced quickly attheir direction-dials and then touched the rocket-throttles to changecourse slightly. The cruiser was threading a way through unseen buthighly perilous swarms of rushing meteors and scores of thunderingasteroids.

  Vesta was now a bright, pale-green disk like a little moon. It was notdirectly ahead, but lay well to the left. The cruiser was following anindirect course that had been laid to detour it well around one of thebigger meteor-swarms that was spinning rapidly toward Mars.

  "What about it, Mr. Kenniston--is it safe to turn toward Vesta now?"Captain Walls asked anxiously. "The chart doesn't show any more swarmsthat should be in this region now, by my calculations."

  Kenniston snorted. "Charts are all made by planet-lubbers. There's asmall swarm that tags after that big No. 480 mess we just detouredaround. Let me have the 'scopes and I'll try to locate it."

  Using the meteorscopes whose sensitive electromagnetic beams couldprobe far out through space, to be reflected by any matter, Kennistonsearched carefully. He finally straightened from the task.

  "It's all right--the tag-swarm is on the far side of No. 480," hereported. "It should be safe to blast straight toward Vesta now."

  The captain's anxiety was only partly assuaged. "But when we reach theasteroid, what then? How do we get through the satellite-swarm aroundit?"

  "I can pilot you through that," Kenniston assured him. "There's aperiodic break in that swarm, due to gravitational perturbations ofthe spinning meteor-moons. I know how to find it."

  "Then I'll wake you up early tomorrow 'morning' before we reachVesta," vowed Captain Walls. "I've no hankering to run that swarmmyself."

  "We'll be there in the morning?" exclaimed Gloria with eager delight."How long then will it take us to find the pirate wreck?"

  Kenniston uncomfortably evaded the question. "I don't know--itshouldn't take long. We can land in the jungle near the wreck."

  His feeling of guilt was increased by her enthusiastic excitement. Ifshe and the others only knew what the morrow was to bring them!

  * * * * *

  He did not feel like facing the rest of them now, and lingered on thedark deck when they went back down from the bridge. Gloria remainedbeside him instead of going on to the cabin.

  She stood, with the starlight from the transparent deck-wall fallingupon her youthful face as she looked up at him.

  "You _are_ a moody creature, you know," she told Kenniston lightly."Sometimes you're almost human--then you get all dark and grim again."

  Kenniston grinned despite himself. Her voice came in mock surprise."Why, it can actually smile! I can't believe my eyes."

  Her clear young face was provocatively close, the faint perfume of herdark hair in his nostrils. He knew that she was deliberately flirtingwith him, perhaps mostly out of curiosity.

  She expected him to kiss her, he knew. Damn it, he _would_ kiss her!He did so, half ironically. But the ironic amusement faded out of hismind somehow at the oddly shy contact of her soft lips.

  "Why, you're just a kid," he muttered. "A little kid masquerading as abored, sophisticated young lady."

  Gloria stiffened with anger. "Don't be silly! I've kissed men before.I just wanted to find out what you were really like."

  "Well, what did you find out?"

  Her voice softened. "I found out that you're not as grim as you look.I think you're just lonely."

  The truth of that made Kenniston wince. Yes, he was lonely enough, hethought somberly. All his old space-mates, passing one by one--

  "Don't you have anyone?" Gloria was asking him wonderingly.

  "No family, except my kid brother Ricky," he answered heavily. "Andmost of my old space-partners are either dead or else worse--lying inthe grip of gravitation-paralysis."

  Memory of those old partners re-established Kenniston's waveringresolution. He mustn't let them down! He must go through withdelivering this cruiser's cargo to John Dark, no matter what theconsequences.

  He thrust the girl almost roughly from him. "It's getting late. You'dbetter turn in like the others."

  But later, in his bunk in the little cabin he shared with Holk Or,Kenniston found memory of Gloria a barrier to sleep. The shy touch ofher lips refused to be forgotten. What would she think of him bytomorrow?

  He slept, finally. When he awakened, it was to realization thatsomeone had just sharply spoken his name. He knew drowsily it was'morning' and thought at first that Captain Walls had sent someone toawaken him.

  Then he stiffened as he saw who had awakened him. It was Hugh Murdock.The young businessman's sober face was grim now, and he stood in thedoorway of the cabin with a heavy atom-pistol in his hand.

  "Get up and dress, Kenniston," Murdock said sternly. "And wake up yourfellow-pirate, too. If you make a wrong move I'll kill you both."

  CHAPTER III

  Through the Meteor-Moons

  Kenniston went cold with dismay. He told himself numbly that it wasimpossible Hugh Murdock could have discovered the truth. But the grimexpression on Murdock's face and the naked hate in his eyes wereexplainable on no other grounds.

  The young businessman's finger was tense on the trigger of theatom-pistol. Resistance would be senseless. Mechanically, Kennistonslipped from his bunk and threw on his slacks an
d space-jacket. HolkOr was doing the same, the big Jovian's battered green face almostludicrous in astonishment.

  "Now perhaps you'll tell us what this means," Kenniston said harshly,his mind racing. "Have you lost your senses?"

  "I've just come to them, Kenniston," rapped Murdock. "What fools weall were, not to guess that you two belong to Dark's pirates!"

  Kenniston's lips tightened. It was clear now that Murdock had actuallydiscovered something. From Holk Or came an angry roar.

  "Devils of Pluto, I'm no