The Mysterious Planet: читать книгу онлайн полностью и бесплатно

Jakes face sobered quickly. “You mean just because it’s expensive? You won’t be obligated—Navy pride, all that.” He shrugged. “Okay, I was afraid of that. Though why, when you know I’m filthy with the stuff…”

“No, I didn’t mean that,” Bob told him quickly. It had been on his mind, but Jakes’s obvious hurt made the excuse impossible; anyhow, the expense hadn’t meant much, and the spirit of the gift seemed genuine. “I mean, I’m already right up to the limit on weight.”

The smile came back. “Oh that!” Jakes dragged out another parcel quickly. “Yeah, I thought of that. Here. I had the whole thing checked for weight, and this saves enough over your regulation set to make it come out even.”

He opened it to show a set of de luxe toilet fittings inside a special case. It was another of the expensive things which was nonregulation, but officially approved for those who wanted to buy them out of their own funds.

Bob gave up, and hastily opened his bag to exchange the toilet set for the heavier regulation one he had packed. He tried to thank Jakes, but the other would have none of it, seeming genuinely happy that his gift had been accepted. Then the checker tapped Bob on the shoulder, and Simon Jakes stuck out his hand.

“See you on Outpost,” he said quickly, and was gone.

The checker ran his eyes up Bob’s uniform to see if everything had been removed from his pockets for the weighing, and then stamped his permit. He stepped up the little ramp and into the Lance of Deimos, an accredited member of the crew.

“Take-off in seven minutes,” the little radio said into his ear. “Officers will report to the control room.”

Bob stowed his luggage in the tiny bunk room he would occupy, and made for the control room on the double. Technically, while he had few duties beyond serving as a runner for his father, he was one of the officers and subject to all such general calls. Engineers, and other officers concerned with the mechanical end of the ship, were listed as reporting when they were at their own stations, and had their intercommunication phones switched on. Actually, only the dour Dutch navigator, Hoeck, and the Senior Leftenant, Anderson, would be there, together with his father. Griffith believed in operating with the minimum number of officers permitted.

The others were already in their seats when Bob came in. His father blinked in surprise at the sight of the radio in Bob’s ear, but he gave no other notice. Bob dropped into the seat that would normally have been occupied by a Junior Leftenant. Then the radio began buzzing with Griffith’s voice as the time ran out and the ships reported in. Outside the field was cleared and the green flag was going up.

Commander Griffith put down the little microphone and reached for the instrument board.

The Lance of Deimos let out a thundering growl, and Bob was forced down in the chair as acceleration hit. It was old stuff to him, after the training at the Academy—and yet, it was completely new. He had never been on a real ship, on a genuine mission of importance, before. This gave a flavor to the mission that set his heart pounding heavily, while the Lance picked up speed and grew quiet as they left the thin atmosphere behind.

The acceleration picked up then. This was no passenger liner, filled with worldlubbers, but a Navy ship with a trained crew. Every man on board could stand an acceleration pressure that was equal to three times their Earth weight for days. Nobody ever learned to like feeling such “weight,” as they did the feeling of weightlessness during times when the ship was just coasting; but the human body was seemingly capable of adapting to almost anything.

Griffith and Hoeck compared notes, and the Commander set the controls. Then he swung his chair around, leaving the ship on its automatic pilot. He faced the others, holding a spacegram in his hand.

“We’ve had a flash on Planet X,” he announced. “It’s not for general release yet, without more checking. But it may interest you to know that the Pluto observatory caught something that might have been a radio signal from Planet X. Pluto’s a long way off on her orbit, and no other planet got it. But now Outpost claims that they have spotted flashes of light. We’ll have to be prepared to face the possibility that there is intelligent life on X!”

Bob caught his breath. It couldn’t be human life— and men had never found any other forms of intelligent life on the planets. This might be the most important mission in all history…

“Bunk, I’d say,” Anderson was stating. “That planet’s frozen colder than Pluto—where it’s been it would get no heat at all from the sun.”

Hoeck shrugged. “Pirates!”

“Maybe,” Griffith admitted. “The pirate idea may be possible, though it’s a little farfetched.

But I have to agree with you, Anderson—no alien life could exist in that frozen a climate. Anyhow, we’re not being told there is life—just to be prepared for such an eventuality.” He faced Bob then.

“Cadet, tell the Chief Gunner I want to see him.”

Bob went out on legs that felt weak in the high pressure of acceleration. He knew his father could have called on the intercom, but it was standard tradition to keep a novice spaceman on the run as much as possible, until he completely hardened. He was glad of the chance to get away, before the excitement in his face could show that he hadn’t dismissed the idea of life on Planet X. After all, even if it were only a pirate base, it would still be something to experience!

Bob didn’t have much time to think about it, though. The ship drove on at a steady three gravities of acceleration, adding five million miles an hour to its speed every day. They were more than sixty million miles beyond Mars at the end of twenty-four hours, and nearly a quarter of a billion at the end of the second day. Jupiter’s orbit was getting close, though the big planet itself was on the other side of the sun.

Usually the ships took it somewhat more leisurely, but this was a special mission.

The first few hours of moving about under the pressure weren’t too bad. Actually, while his body now seemed to weigh over four hundred and fifty pounds, it wasn’t the same thing as trying to carry an additional three-hundred-pound load. Here, the increase in apparent weight was spread evenly over his whole body, and in complete balance. But it was still bad enough.

Then his legs began to scream with fatigue at each step. When he went down from the control room toward the tail, it was all right, but fighting back up was sheer torture. He gritted his teeth and bore it in silence. Finally, while his father ate his dinner, he sent Bob off to his bunk, to lie down; he fell into a sodden slumber without any dreams.

Getting up after his sleep was worse than anything else. The first few hours, while his legs seemed to be afire, nearly drove him to the unforgivable sin of asking for a break. Then numbness set in, and it was better. Somehow, he got through the second day, and he knew that the worst was past. It would be easier from now on, since his strength had already been developed, and he only needed to harden into the continuous grind.

He was asleep when they crossed the orbit of Jupiter and went beading out toward the orbit of Saturn, which would lie far off to the side.

They were five hundred million miles out from Mars when the heavy acceleration suddenly ceased, leaving only enough to give them a seeming weight equal to that on Earth. The change caught Bob in mid-stride, and he bounced up a bit before he could catch himself, wondering whether anything had happened to the rocket engines.

Then the tiny radio buzzed. “Take a break, men. We’ll loaf along like this for an hour. Get a bite to eat, if you like. We’re on automatic, so you can go off duty until next call. Bob, come on up, if you want to.”