“And for that we contaminated all the machine oil on the planet; the robots are all paralyzed, frozen unable to move.” The fat man said laughing so hard all his jello chins shook.
“We fixed the robots.” I said. “They’re doing quite well now.”
“What?”
“I said we were on that planet, and we cured the robots.”
“Damnation!” The fat man shouted.
“But the Blabberyap was unable to reach the Sol system with a metal wing, unfortunately,” I said, “It only just made it to its native planet.”
“W searched for it there.” The fat man admitted. “My friend and I.” He indicated Doctor Verkhovtseff.
“Traitor!” Zeleny said gloomily. “Wait ‘til I get my hands on you!”
“Silence!” Veselchak U threatened him with a finger. “My friend and I killed all the Blabberyap birds on the planet Blooke. We bought them, traded for them, stole them. At first we tried to destroy all the free oxygen on the planet…”
“With the worms? I asked.
“Of course with the worms. Alas, we were unsuccessful. And completely by accident the Blabberyap bird fell into these idiots’ hands.” The fat man said. “And they managed to get here. We did warn them. They have no one but themselves to blame for the consequences. But now you will have to suffer…”
“Don’t worry.” The Second Captain said “They won’t be able to do anything to you. They’re far too cowardly. All the pirates in the Galaxy were unable to defeat the Three Captains, and they’re not going to win over us one by one either.”
“No, we have!” The fat man shouted. “The Third Captain is dead already, and you’ve been sitting here our prisoner for four years, and as soon as we get the galaxion formula we’ll go after your First Captain as well.”
“You’ve really been confined to your ship for four years?” Poloskov asked.
“Yes.” The Second Captain answered. “I admit to being rather pig headed. I could have destroyed the formula, naturally, but that would have deprived the inhabitants of the galaxy of it and it is very important they get it; all planets will be a hundred times closer to each other in travel time. I knew that sooner or later help would arrive.”
“And this is what you got.” The fat man said. “Have you talked yourself out, Captain. Now you are going to have to part with the formula.”.
“I have another agreement with the First Captain,” the Second Captain said. “If he did not hear from me for more than four years he was to notify the Space Patrol and send them off in search of me. Now, if these people found me so soon, then the First Captain will have little trouble, something you well know.”
“Perhaps, and you’re done talking.” Doctor Verkhoovtseff said hollowly. “Begin; he’s just wasting time.”
Then one of the pirates came over to me and grabbed me roughly by my bound hands. I lost my balance and fell. He dragged me to the side. I tried to resist, but a second pirate joined the first and they had be by both arms and legs
The fat man pulled a long knife from his belt.
“You know, Captain,” he said, turning to the ship, “I do know how to joke; that’s what my name means in my own language. But many, many of my jokes produce tears.” He raised his knife.
Poloskov and Zeleny tried to get free and come to my aid, but Doctor Verkhovtseff, who had been watching us all very carefully, shot the two off with anesthetic gas from a dispenser that hung from his neck on a cord. My friends collapsed on the floor.
“Well?” Veselchak U said.
I could feel the cold, sharp knife edge touching my throat.
“Take off the lock.” The Second Captain said.
“Well, that’s settled..”
The Fat Man motioned to the other pirates who went up the metal steps to the Blue Gull’s airlock and removed the enormous lock. The pirates had placed it there long ago, as soon as the Blue Gull had fallen into the pit. If the Second Captain managed to keep them out of his ship, they certainly did not want him leaving the ship without their permission.
The pirate hurried down the gangway and stopped at some distance from the ship, aiming his pistol at the airlock. Verkhovtseff also raised his weapon. They wanted to take no risks. The four of them feared the single Captain, who had held them off for the last four years.
“Show yourself.” Verkhovtseff said. “No tricks or we’ll fire.”
The airlock suddenly swung wide; I could hardly get a glimpse of the Captain. He jumped down like blue lighting. Two shots were fired simultaneously, but the Captain was no longer there. He had jumped to one side, and the flashes from the pistols struck the stones by his head. Another second and the Captain was shielded by the Blue Gull’s wide landing struts.
The pirates scattered and hunkered down against the stone floor.
“Calmly,” Verkhovtseff’s voice carried to me. “He’s not going anywhere. Surround him.”
In answer shots came from the direction of the Blue Gull.
I could see that the Captain had no way out of his predicament. The pirates were slowly, crawling over the stones, moving to surround him.
“Don’t shoot!” The Fat Man shouted.
His voice came from close by; then I saw that he had the knife pressed beneath my throat again.
“Shoot and the Professor is done for.”
At that moment a voice came from the direction of our ship:
“Don’t move! You’re surrounded.”
The Fat Man’s hand with the knife froze. I pushed the knife away with my fist and it flew a few meters to one side.
“Are you listening?” Another voice came from the darkness at the end where the Blabberyap bird had headed. “Throw down your weapons.”
The pirates slowly got to their feet; their pistols clattered on the stones.
I raised my head and saw Doctor Verkhovtseff, in a space suit without a helmet on, come out from behind one of the landing struts.
In astonishment I turned back to the other side.
The second Doctor Verkhovtseff, in his hat, raised his hands and fell to us knees.
From the other side of the pirates came the First Captain. Just like he was in the monument on the Three Captain’s Planet, only alive, sunburned, and in the blue uniform of a captain of the Deep Space Fleet.
From out of nowhere flew the blabberyap bird and, fluttering its wings, it alighted on the Captain’s shoulder. Then, from out of the darkness, came Alice.
.
Chapter Twenty-One
At that time…
Alice had vanished at the very moment when we found ourselves to be captives, and what happened was that no one in the cave paid the slightest attention to her disappearance, not even me.
How she was able to accomplish this I only managed to learn later, however I am going to describe everything in order, what happened to Alice while we were captives, and how it was that the First Captain and Doctor Verkhovtseff (that second Doctor Verkhovtseff) found the entrance to the cave and were able to save us.
What had happened was this. Alice had been given as a gift an invisible hat while in the bazar in Palaputra. She was given it by the Dwarf who sold non-existent fish, the one who said they just could not be seen.
At first Alice decided that this was a joke the hat was so light that it weighed almost nothing at all. But when Alice returned to the ship she found herself alone in her room and began to examine the stamps that she had bought, and she found something in her bag. It was almost completely weightless and invisible. It was then that Alice remembered about the invisible hat and decided test it and so she put it on her head. And Alice became invisible.
At first Alice wanted to run to me or Poloskov and boast about the hat, but then she remembered that, in the view of science, invisibility is a fairy story, and she decided that if she told us that an invisibility hat really existed, we wouldn’t even want to look at it and would not believe her.
She put the invisible hat to one side until the return to Earth, because such a hat would really prove most useful in school. If you were late for a lesson then you could always enter the class and seat yourself at the right spot anyway because no on would see you. You could even take a peek into the best student in class’s notebook (Although Alice would certainly never have done any such thing.)