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.
Back across the precarious catwalks staggered the helmeted pirates, laden with bales and cases, sacks of valuable minerals, bars of rare metals, crates of silks and wines and foods.
"Why can't we be in on this?” demanded Sual Av, twitching with excitement. “There's no fun to lying off here watching the others."
"It's Lana's orders,” reminded John Thorn. “And we Planeteers agreed to take her orders when we were in space."
Thorn looked sunward, and frowned. “Why the devil haven't those tankers run for it? The fools are blundering right on."
The forty tubby tankers that had been laboriously trailing the freighters in space were coming stupidly on the scene of the hold-up, as though unable to realize what was happening. They were now quite close.
Thorn's brain suddenly sounded an alarm, as he stared at the oncoming tankers. His eyes, trained by long naval experience, saw something queer about the lines of those dumpy ships, something—
He leaped to the audio. “Lana, those tankers are disguised naval cruisers!” he yelled. “They're—"
His warning was too late. At the very moment Thorn shouted, the forty “tankers” were unmasking.
Their bulging sides suddenly fell away. Those sides had been only a skin of thin metal plates. Their disappearance exposed the ships, not as tankers, but as sleek, grim-lined naval cruisers with batteries of heavy atomguns all along their sides, and with the four interlaced circles of the League of Cold Worlds on their bows.
Instantly the unmasked League cruisers shot forward. Their rocket-tubes burst fire, and from their batteries hailed a storm of deadly shells that burst in blinding lightning-flares among the startled pirate ships.
The trap had been perfectly sprung. The League cruisers, lagging behind in the guise of slow tankers, had waited until the pirate ships were hooked onto the freighters by grapples and catwalks, their crews engaged in looting. Then they had thrown off their disguise and leaped in on the Companions’ ships.
"Cut away!” cried Lana Cain's voice from the audio. “It's a trap! Cut loose and break for the Zone!"
Thorn saw her silvery cruiser leap forward to engage the rushing League battleships, to try to hold them back while the pirates engaged in looting could cut away from the freighters.
Loyally, old Stilicho Keene's long black cruiser, and four or five others dashed forward with the pirate girl's silver ship. And Thorn's cruiser was one of those that followed her, for Thorn had yelled the order to Sual Av.
Blinding, dazzling flares of bursting atom-shells from the League cruisers seared space around Thorn's ship, Sual Av was following Lana's lead right into the forefront of the formidable League battle-squadron.
"Drive in to cover Lana's ship!” Thorn cried to the Venusian. “If they get her, everything's ruined for us!"
He yelled into the interphone. “Let go with all batteries to starboard, Gunner!"
The Cauphul shook to the roar of its straining rocket-tubes and the thudding thunder of its atom-guns going off as Sual Av flung the ship in beside Lana's silvery cruiser.
The very madness of the wild counter-attack of the little handful of pirate ships, as they dashed fiercely at the League cruisers, seemed momentarily to disconcert the latter. Precious moments were gained in which the main body of the pirate fleet was hastily cutting away from the freighters they had grappled.
Thorn was wild with anxiety for Lana Cain. If anything happened to the girl, if the mysterious secret of Erebus died with her—
The League cruisers had not concentrated any fire upon her silver ship yet. They were pouring shells upon the other pirate craft, including Thorn's, but Lana's had escaped fire even though she had her batteries streaming shells forth.
Thorn was thrown from his feet as a salvo of blinding bursts rocked the Cauphul. He heard the scream of escaping air below, the slam of automatic doors as he staggered up.
"They've got Lana's ship!” Sual Av shouted hoarsely. “Look!"
Thorn's heart plummeted as he saw through the fight. A League cruiser had got its magnetic grapples onto Lana Cain's silver ship, and was drawing it closer. It had grappled her craft by its keel, so that she was unable to use her guns.
"They've got my ship, Companions!” stabbed the pirate girl's voice, clear and unafraid, from the audio. “You can't save me — break for the Zone while you have the chance!"
"If we don't do as she says,” cried Sual Av tensely, “we'll be gunned to a wreck. But if we leave her—"
"We can't leave her!” John Thorn exclaimed fiercely. “Our plan for the Alliance depends on her!"
CHAPTER VII
Shadow of the League
John Thorn's ship rocked wildly as another shell struck it. The shells of all atom-guns contained a charge of powdered metal whose atoms had been brought to a critical point of instability. When an electric charge stored in the shell was released, either by impact or a timer, it detonated the unstable atoms into a destroying flare of atomic energy. These deadly shells were fired from guns and pistols by the push of an electroisolenoid built into the barrel.
Red lights flashing on and off in the panel in front of him warned Thorn that already a half dozen compartments of the Cauphul had been holed and had lost their air. Down below, Gunner Welk was still keeping his crew batteries going, pouring shell out on the encircling League cruisers, but at any moment a hit on their rocket-tubes or power-chambers might disable them entirely.
Thorn's mind was crazy with worry for the fate of Lana Cain. The League cruiser that had hooked its magnetic grapples on the keel of her ship was still winching her helpless craft closer. The capture or killing of the pirate girl meant the collapse of his great plan, and the probable ruin of the four inner worlds.
"We've got to free Lana's ship!” he cried to Sual Av over the thudding of guns. “There's only one way — drive our ship between hers and the one that's hooked her — break the grapple-lines!"
Sual Av's green eyes widened startledly inside his glassite helmet. Then the bald Venusian laughed recklessly.
"All right — here goes, John! Hold tight!'!
"Cease firing!” Thorn yelled into the interphone to Gunner Welk at the same moment.
Sual Av's fingers smashed down on firing keys. The Cauphul jumped forward in space, a raving torrent of energy streaming from her stern tubes.
The Venusian drove the ship straight toward the two craft ahead, the League cruiser and the Lightning. The half-dozen grapple-lines had been now so far drawn in that there was not enough room for a third ship to pass between the two.
But Sual Av steered the hurtling Cauphul between the two, anyway. Space around them seemed blazing with continuous flares of bursting atom-shells.
Crash! The grinding shock that flung Thorn to the floor of the control-room seemed to him the end of everything. The Cauphul, rushing in between the Lightning and the League cruiser grappling it, sideswiped both ships with stunning force.