Nison shook his shining head, sadly. “That cannot be. We would be death to you. The radiation from our bodies would slay you, in time, and would disintegrate your ship."
"But you can't stay here, wandering this hellish world forever!” Thorn cried. “You, one of the greatest of men in the system's history, you whom Earth would welcome with joy."
Clymer Nison's haunted, shining eyes looked past them, far away into tragic memory.
"To Earth I am dead, now,” he said slowly. “And the Earth I knew nine centuries ago, is dead, too. It must remain that way. But one thing you can do for us."
"Anything you mean!” Thorn exclaimed.
"You can give us poor damned souls upon this world, us radioactive men, the boon of real death,” Nison said.
"If scientists of Earth came here with the needed mechanisms, they could end the game of unhuman life within us by using forces to transmute the radioactive atoms of our bodies into pure energy, dissipating our atomic structure, our life and consciousness, forever. That is the greatest gift you could give us — the peace of death."
Thorn felt a hard lump in his throat. It was moments before he could answer,
"It shall be done,” he choked. “A party of scientists will be sent here to do what you ask."
He turned toward the awe-stricken group behind him who were staring in deep silence at the tragic, glowing men.
"We must start,” Thorn said unsteadily. ‘Into the ship!"
Inside the Venture, the Planeteers climbed again with Lana and Stilicho to the control-room, while the door was ground shut. They removed their space-suits, and then Stilicho nervously gave the order into the interphone.
"Power-chambers on!"
All stiffened, as from below came the soft, rising roar of the chambers, growing rapidly to a thunderous throbbing that shook the whole fabric of the cruiser. The radioactive fuel, being broken down in the power chambers, was yielding such unprecedented torrents of energy as to threaten a new explosion.
"Blast off!” Thorn told the old pirate.
Stilicho's thin hands descended on the firing-keys. With a raving roar of released titanic energy, a spuming plume of fire from their rocket-tubes, the Venture shot skyward.
Up from the domed metal mountain, up from the shimmering blue hazes of Erebus, the cruiser arrowed; picking up speed with appalling acceleration. Air screamed briefly outside, then faded away.
Night black space, starred with the bright yellow speck of the far-distant sun, lay ahead. Rocketing faster and faster, shuddering and creaking to the thrust of its tubes, the Venture flashed on,
Sual Av was hanging tensely over the instrument panel, and the Venusian's green eyes flashed at he turned.
"Instruments are operating again!” he reported. “But our audio was permanently wrecked by the radiation of Erebus."
"Lay a course straight for Saturn,” Thorn ordered Stilicho. “Cheerly will be making straight for that world, and we'll be following him directly."
Gunner Welk grunted.
"And if we catch up to him,” he gritted, “I've got plans for what I'll do to that Uranian."
"Shall I cut some of the tubes now?” the old pirate asked nervously. “We're shaking now like we're fit to come apart."
"No! Leave all stern tubes on for utmost acceleration!” Thorn rapped, his haggard, worn, brown face stiff with desperate determination. ‘We'll either wreck this ship by back-blasting, or we'll overtake Cheerly — one of the two!"
Lana came silently to Thorn's side, looked up at him with a deep anxiety in her blue eyes.
"John, you must sleep a little,” she begged. “For days you've been toiling and worrying. You'll collapse unless you rest."
"Rest? How can I rest when the radite we've come through hell to get is millions of miles ahead of us!” Thorn said rawly.
As the next hours passed, the rocket-tubes of the Venture continued to roar unceasingly, the ship quivering and creaking sickeningly. Their speed was mounting to momentous heights — already they were traveling faster than the fastest ship in the system's history.
And still the stern tubes roared, the Venture's velocity accelerated. Erebus faded to a dim speck behind them, vanished. The sun-star was brighter and bigger ahead, and the yellow spark of Saturn was largening dead, ahead.
Time passed, slow, tense hours that dragged into a full day, and then another. The exhausted Planeteers and pirates took turns sleeping and watching. They could not know how fast they were traveling now — the instruments were not calibrated for such tremendous velocity — but knew their speed must be an appalling one.
They neared the orbit of Uranus, and by now Saturn presented a perceptible disk ahead. Thorn haggardly watched the little glowing sphere of the aura-chart.
"Cheerly's ship can't be far ahead of us now,” he estimated. “The highest speed the Gargol could attain would bring it about this far by now."
Lana stood with her gold head by his shoulder, watching as tensely as he.
"There, John!” she cried in a moment, pointing.
In the fore of the aura-chart a red speck had appeared, a ship a million miles ahead of the Venture.
"That's the Gargol—it must be!” Thorn cried. “Cut the stern tubes, Gunner!"
Gunner Welk, standing turn at the firing-keys, obeyed instantly. But the aura-chart showed they were still rushing after their quarry with such speed that they would flash past it. Thorn ordered the bow-tubes fired for the purpose of slowing them down.
As the ship rocked and quivered to the blasting brake-thrust of the tubes, Sual Av came up into the control-room, sleepily rubbing his eyes. Old Stilicho's anxious face was behind him.
"We'll come up to Cheerly soon,” Thorn rapped. “That means a fight. He'll never give up that radite willingly."
"The Gargol has heavier batteries than we do, and a bigger crew,” reminded Stilicho Keene.
"But we can outmaneuver them!” Lana said. She cried into the interphone to the pirate crew, “On suits and prepare for action, men!"
"Go down and take command of our batteries, Gunner,” Thorn ordered. “I'll take the controls. Suits on, everyone!"
In a few moments Thorn, in his space-suit now like the others, was poised over the firing-keys. Sual Av tautly watched the aura-chart, while Lana and old Stilicho peered ahead.
"We're close,” muttered the Venusian, his eyes on the chart.
"There's the Gargol!" Lana cried suddenly, pointing ahead through the glassite window. “And they've spotted us!"
Thorn saw the Saturnian cruiser in the black, starry vault ahead-a long torpedo-like shape pluming white fire from its rocket-tubes as it put on all possible speed to escape. Jenk Cheerly obviously had no desire to risk battle.
But the Venture, imbued with its unprecedented potential speed, swiftly came up on the tail of the naval cruiser. Now atom-shells began to burst in blinding flares near Thorn's ship as the Gargol cut loose with its stern guns.
"I'm going to run up under their keel!” Thorn called into the inter-phone. “Try to score a hit on their stern tubes, Gunner!"
The Gargol veered around suddenly ahead, to bring its broadside batteries into play. The heavily-gunned cruiser loosed a brief hail of shells in the direction of the Venture.
But the pirate ship shot clear like lightning as Thorn smashed down a key. Swiftly, it veered after the Saturnian ship, seeking to run beneath its keel.
The Gargol rolled, to keep presenting its guns toward its enemy. For a brief moment the two ships rushed side by side through space, their rocket-tubes flaming and their guns pouring shell at each other.