“Papa, don’t argue.” Alice said. “The Captain isn’t going to speak an untruth.”
“No.” The Captain burst into laughter. “We always tell the truth. Even to enemies.” His eyes bore into Veselchak U, who immediately turned and pretended to be examining the walls of the cave.
“Now then,” The First Captain finished his tale, “I unexpectedly received a message that Doctor Verkhovtseff, our old friend, was arriving. He came and told me he was worried about the fate of the Second Captain. When he told me everything put in for leave and left Venus the same day. I’ll let the Doctor continue.”
“Oh, fiddlesticks!!” Doctor Verkhovtseff suddenly growned, stopped foreward, and began to blink. “I didnd’t do anything in particular at all, really nothing… In general, you people on the Pegasus were just the last straw that broke the camel’s back, the final drop that filled the cup of my suspicions.”
“Now that’s a ‘thank you.’“ Zeleny said; he had been handing out cheese sandwiches. “You were the one who was behaving peculiar.”
“But at the time I really didn’t no anything, or rather, I didn’t know anything about you.”
Verkhovtseff was shifting his weight from one foot to the other and back, and looking at the emoticator, who had become quite blue from curiosity.
“From the start I never believed the story that the brave and resourceful Second Captain had just vanished without a trace. I knew his Blue Gull as well and understood there was hardly any power or force in the Galaxy capable of destroying the Second Captain.”
“Thank you for the compliment.” The Second Captain said.
“Thank’s aren’t necessary. The compliment was nothing more than a simple and precise scientific calculation.”
“He’s just like my math teacher.” Alice whispered to me.
“While preparing the Three Captain’s Museum I had a chance to study their biographies, as well as numerous opportunities to confer with the First Captain who never hesitated to provide me with photos and notes and to correct details. But when I shared my doubts about the Second Captain’s fate with him, his answer was very evasive. Som evasive that I suspected the Captain knew far more about the Blue Gull than he wanted to tell.”
“I didn’t know anything in particular.” The First Captain interrupted. “All there was was our agreement unless the Blabberyap arrived I was to wait for four years before investigating, but after Verkhovtseff’s letter I became very worried, but I didn’t know the details.
“And I did not know about the Captain’s agreement,” Verkhovtseff continued, “nor did I know the Second Captain was preparing to fly off to meet the Third. What set me on my gaurd was something else; all of the documents I had seen said that the Captain’s had completely eliminated the threat of space pirates from the Galaxy. But, judging from the information I was getting, that was not the case. The information I had indicated that the pirates still existed, and that they were still attacking ships. Also, among the pirates seen and identified was this particular fat man.”
“I had nothing to do with that.” Veselchak U said indignantly. “That was all Krys’s doing. He had a number of masks; he had a mask of me too. When he robbed the other ships it was with my face.”
“Pardon us if we do not believe you.” Doctor Verkhovtseff said. “Because we do not believe you. But on one occasion, when I was absent from the Three Captain’s world, someone stopped by the museum. The museum was given a very through search, but nothing of importance was taken other than some photographs of the Blue Gull. ‘A-ha!’ I thought to myself then, someone needs this information. Then I suddenly found out that one of the miscreants aboard the pirate ship that robbed the passenger liner from Fyxx looked so much like me that if I had not happened to be a guest of that planet’s president at the very time the piracy occurred who knows what would have happened to me. And then the Pegasus arrived on the planet, with people who told me they were hunting for animals but who started to ask me questions about the Three Captains. I was somewhat surprised. And perhaps I wold have forgotten about this that the heroic accomplishments of the Captains should have interested them was not at all remarkable, when suddenly they tell me that I, it seems, had visited the researchers on Arcturus Minor and asked them for the plans to the Blue Gull.”
“But that is what happened.” I said. “It was just the false Doctor.”
“Now such a shameful fact calls forth no doubts,” Verkhovotseff said, “but at the time I was completely taken aback. When the Pegasus departed I immediately sent to visit the researchers, and they confirmed: ‘Yes, it was you Doctor Verkhovtseff; you came here a month ago searching for plans to the Blue Gull. At that point i understood that the Second Captain was in grave danger. And, most likely, at the hands of pirates I immediately set off for Venus.”
“He arrived extremely agitated.” The First Captain said. “At first I had trouble understanding him. One Verkhovtseff, then a second… But when he explained I understood we should have to hurry. But where to? We suspected that the Pegasus was a pirate ship aand decided to follow after you. We went to Palaputra; there Krabakas of Barakass told us how you had bought a Blabberyap bird, as well as how someone had tried to kill all the Blabberyap birds on the planet. We also found the Audity who had sold you the bird, and I realized it was the same bird that had been with the Second Captain. Along the way we were almost thrown into jail because of the false Doctor’s sale of atmosphere destroying worms; we just barely convinced the Local police of the real doctor’s innocence. Ratty can expect the appropriate punishment for the attempt to kill all the Blabberyap birds and destroy the planet’s air. The Audities have never had to think of any such appropriate punishment before, but I am certain they will come up with something.”
“Oh! The cry came from the fat man.
“…asked all traffic bouys in the Galaxy and they advised us that the Pegasus was on course for the Medusa system. And on the robot planet we learned that you had spent time there and cured the robots by replacing their oil. And then we came here, almost too late.”
“And when did you realize that we weren’t pirates?” Alice asked.
“Back at Palaputra. And after that we encountered a ship filled with archaeologists. Gromozeka was aboard and he raised such a fuss defending the Professor that we had to believe him. Then we began to worry that you were in danger and wouldn’t be able to deal with the pirates.”
“We couldn’t.” Poloskov sighed. “Next time we’ll be wiser.”
“There will be no next time.” The First Captain said.
He walked over to the fat man who was sitting on the stone floor and said:
“Your time has run out, Veselchak U. You either open the cavern entrance, or our conversation comes to aan end. Let me count to ten: One, two, three…”
“I’ll tell you everything!” The fat man said quickly. “I’ve wanted to tell you everything from the first, no do sodroganiya boyalsya Krysa. I’m afraid of him even now. He’ll take revenge on me. His revenge is unavoidable. It’s best if you kill him. Please, kill him!”
“But he really is your friend.” Verkhovtseff said. “How could you possibly want the death of a friend with whom you have committed so many crimes for so many years?”
“He’s no friend of mine!” Then fat man screamed. “He’s my worst enemy! I’m an honest pirate, not a bandit or a traitor!”
“Stop wasting time.” The Second Captain said. “Open the cavern.”
Then fat man got to his feet. He was a sorry looking sight. His legs could hardly support him, he bent down, and his belly quivered like jello. He pressed to the wall and, going up on tiptoes, pressed a knob invisible to everyone else. A part of the wall moved aside and they could see a small control panel.