Edmond Hamilton The Three Planeteers (v1 0) [html]

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repairs.
Thorn and Sual Av put on their own suits and helmets. Then they waited in silence, their ship floating
beside the others. Lana Cain had strictly forbidden use of the audio between ships until the attack
opened, lest the freighters be given the alarm.
Thorn peered through the eyepiece of the telescope built into the wall between the broad windows. He
could see no sign of the freighters sunward, and his eyes tired.
A little later, Sual Av gripped his arm and pointed ahead at Lana's ship.
"The signal, John! They're coming!"
Lana's silvery cruiser had emitted three short flashes of fire from its bow and stern tubes, the agreed
signal.
Thorn peered again through the scope. Now he saw the coming freighters, far down and sunward. They
were coming straight on, and would pass the Zone directly underneath the pirates.
There were thirty big freighters, and lagging after them came forty tankers of the type used for
transporting liquefied gases, broad-beamed and very dumpy ships, Thorn's keen eyes searched space for
sign of a naval convoy, but found none.
"Those are the dumpiest tankers I've ever seen, he muttered. It's a wonder that freighters running
without convoy would take such old tubs along to hold their speed down."
Sual Av shrugged. The League worlds are pressing every old ship they've got into service, in their
preparation for war. Anyway, he grinned, these pirates aren't going to bother the tankers."
The merchantmen came steadily on, and now the freighters that led were directly underneath the part of
the Zone in which the pirate fleet hovered. Thorn knew the aura-charts of the freighters would show the
pirate ships only as part of the great meteor swarm they were lying near. That was why Lana had chosen
the position.
Thorn's nerves tensed as the Jovian freighters came directly underneath, a little flock of gleaming specks
swimming on through black space toward distant Saturn, the slow tankers still lagging behind. Sual Av
was leaning tensely over his bank of keys, and there was no sound in the ship except the throb of its
power chambers.
Abruptly from the audio-speaker flared Lana Cain's silver voice.
"Attack! Dive on them!"
Forty pirate ships streamed blasting white fire from their stern tubes, forty grim torpedo-like shapes
roared down through the spatial vault toward the thirty hapless freighters.
As they swooped, the forty corsair craft split into five divisions of eight ships each. The eight led by the
flashing cruiser of the Three Planeteers headed toward the sunwise end of the freighters. Jenk Cheerly
and his division headed for the counter-sunwise end. Kinnel King for the sunward and Brun Abo for the
outward sides. Lana Cain herself, with Stilicho Keene's ship and six others, cometed down below the
merchantmen.
John Thorn saw that the swift maneuver had succeeded. The freighters were boxed" hemmed in on
every side except the upward one, which was closed by the dreaded Zone. The pirates had not included
the worthless, lagging tankers in their trap, and those dumpy ships were still coming bewilderedly on.
The freighters, as the corsairs swooped down around them, milled confusedly with blasts from their
bow-tubes braking them, seeking to find a way out of the trap. The few atom-guns with which they were
armed spat shells frantically, that exploded in blinding flares of atomic energy.
"Ahoy, freighters" rang Lana's silvery voice from the audio. Cease firing or we'll gun you out of space!
Surrender and nobody will be harmed!"
"How do we know you'll keep your promise? came the hoarse, fear-laden voice of the freight squadron
commander.
"This is Lana Cain speaking! answered the girl's voice instantly. I keep my promises."
A moment's silence. The scattered fire from the trapped freighters suddenly stopped.
The freight commander's answer came. You've the reputation of not killing. We'll surrender."
Sual Av, his green eyes gleaming with excitement through his helmet, glanced swiftly at John Thorn.
"The girl's policy of mercy does pay dividends, John, he muttered.
"Stand by to board the freighters! crackled Lana's voice to her pirate followers. Two ships in each
division stand off to keep watch. Hurry, men!"
Like sharks eager for prey, thirty of the forty pirate cruisers one to each victim, dashed in at the helpless
freighters. The lead-ship of each division, with one other, stood by ready to turn its guns on any freighter
that might resist the boarding.
Thorn's cruiser, the Cauphul, was one of those that stood off to keep watch. He saw the pirate ships
already hooking onto the freighters by means of the magnetic grapples they shot forth. The grapple-lines
were winched in swiftly, the pirate and merchant ships were drawn close together, and the flexible metal
catwalks run swiftly out between them by the corsairs. Then the space-suited pirate horde was pouring
across the short, swaying catwalks, hammering at the doors of the freighters until they opened. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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