"'It must have unusual mass for its size — probably a core of neutronium or other super-heavy elements,” Thorn guessed. “Otherwise, the escape of its air molecules would be inevitable, and it wouldn't be able to hold an atmosphere."
"Let's hope that nothing holds us here, once we get what we're after,” muttered Gunner Welk.
Thorn was taut with the same thought. Down in this hell's nest of pirates was a girl with a secret that would save four worlds from conquest — if they could get it from her.
Turkoon widened beneath them, a little world blanketed by thick green fern-jungles. Directly underneath was a raw brown oval, a big clearing that had been blasted from the jungle. At one end of it gleamed the straggling chromaloy buildings of a town of considerable size, while parked ships covered the rest of the field.
The Venture landed with a roar of brake-blasts and a bumping jar beside the scores of parked ships. The door ports were rapidly unscrewed, and warm, heavy air hit the Planeteers’ faces as they followed old Stilicho Keene out of the ship.
"We'll go right up to the Council House. Martin Cain's house, it was, and Lana lives there now,” the old pirate told the three. His rheumy eyes glistened. “I want to see the faces of some of these young milksop captains when they learn that I've brought in the Three Planeteers!"
They went with Stilicho Keene across the field and through the main street of the straggling pirate town.
Turkoon Town sprawled, unkempt and somnolent, in the pale wash of light from the shrunken, setting sun. The looming dark green wall of the jungle was only rods from the outermost metal cabins.
Solemn, green and dark towered the fifty-foot jungle all around. Colossal ferns crowded each other, the space between their huge trunks choked with underbrush. Here and there in the tangle, blindly writhed “crawler vines,” parasitic fungoid creepers that wandered with their peculiar power of self-locomotion, searching for a host. Through the upper jungle and out over the town drifted “floating flowers,” white blooms that drank sunlight and water vapor from the air, and never touched ground after they budded free.
Thorn and his two comrades were eyed without interest by the motley population of the town — a population as varied in origin as the pirate crew they had already met. The men were from every inhabited world in the system. And there were also many women here — hot-eyed red Martian girls, languid white Venusian women, tall, awkward green girls from Saturn, brazen-faced Earth girls. All were clad in incongruously rich tunics and jewels-pirate loot.
Children, hybrids of a half dozen different peoples, fought and chased each other along the dusty brown street. And there was an astounding variety of animals from all planets, some chained, others running free. Solemn-eyed, furry Martian vardaks, green Venusian swamp pups, a big, hopping uniped from Io, and many others-all of them brought home here by the far-ranging pirate crews.
The crew of the Venture was stumping into town behind them, caning loudly to let all know they had returned. But by now, Stilicho Keene had brought the Planeteers to the long, low chromaloy building that faced the end of the main street.
The snow-haired old pirate painfully climbed the steps, and led them into a big, low-ceilinged, dusky room.
A small group of men stood in it, all wearing atom pistols.
"Where's Lana?” demanded the old pirate as this little group turned toward him.
"We're waiting for her. She'll be out in a moment,” answered a squat, scarred-faced Jovian who was one of the group. “So you finally got back, Stilicho!"
"Yes, I'm back,” shrilled the ancient Martian. “And a cursed strange thing it is that old Stilicho Keene has to go out on reconnaissance while you younger men rest your bones."
The old pirate spat real juice viciously out the open door and then turned to Thorn and his two comrades.
"Boy, I hate to admit it, but these are the captains of the Companions now,” he told Thorn. “Aye, these; the worthless lot who call themselves pirates in these degenerate days. Yon ox of a Jovian is Brun Abo. The pretty fellow beside him is Kinnel King, and the fat hog yonder is Jenk Cheerly, the latest to join our ranks."
Thorn's black eyes swept the pirate leaders. The man beside the Jovian, the man called Kinnel King, was an Earthman, middle-aged, with a very handsome face and brooding eyes.
Jenk Cheerly, the third pirate captain, was a Uranian of incredible obesity. His fat, puffy body seemed about to burst his jacket, and his pale-green, rotund face was featureless except for two bright, pig-like little eyes.
The obese Uranian stared at Thorn and his two comrades with those little eyes, and then spoke in an incongruously high and squeaky voice to old Stilicho Keene.
"Where did you pick up these three?” he asked. “And why did you bring them here?"
Stilicho Keene cackled, his rheumy eyes glistening.
"You'll find out who they are in a minute, Jenk,” he shrilled. “It's going to be a surprise for you, and all you other louts who call yourselves pirates."
A door in the rear of the room suddenly opened, and a girl in white silk jacket and trousers entered the room.
"You're back, Stilicho?” she exclaimed eagerly as she saw the old Martian. “What did you learn at Jupiter?"
Thorn's gaze riveted on the girl. He heard a low whisper from Sual Av behind him.
"So that's Lana Cain,” whispered the Venusian.
Lana Cain's eyes looked past the old Martian into Thorn's face. He felt the impact of her challenging stare as though it were a tangible shock.
The pirate girl was a slender, imperious figure in her silk garments. Her proud, graceful form seemed somehow vibrant with force. The bronze-gold hair that hung to her shoulders was like a casque of dull gold flame around her face, catching the glints of sunlight in its strands.
Her face was white, dynamic, with hardness in the straight red mouth and in the stubborn set of her small chin. Her dark blue eyes, as they stared into Thorn's face, were growing slowly darker, as though storm were gathering in them, tiny lightnings seeming to flash in their depths.
Thorn was momentarily bewildered, badly startled. He had expected some blowsy, barbaric, aging wench, whom he could, without difficulty, trick out of the secret he wanted. But this girl was as beautiful-and as dangerous-looking-as a sword blade.
CHAPTER V
Secret Enemy
IN the queerly tense silence Thorn stared at Lana Cain. Then the silence was suddenly broken by the shuffling entrance of a grotesque, four-legged creature that had followed the pirate girl into the room. It stared at Thorn with blazing green eyes.
"It's a space dog, John!” exclaimed Sual Av wonderingly. “You've heard of them."
"I've heard of them,” Thorn muttered. “But this is the first one I've ever seen."
The space dog stood three feet high at the shoulder. Its body was of dusty, mineraline gray flesh that had an inorganic look. Its four legs ended in heavy digging paws, and its mouth was furnished with great grindingtusks. It had no nostrils, for the creature was not an air-breathing animal.
It was, in fact, one of a unique species. The early explorers who first visited the asteroid Ceres had been amazed to find these creatures living on that airless little world. They were the product of an evolution working without atmosphere, creatures able to assimilate the inorganic elements they dug from the ground, and consume them by a chemical process other than oxidization. They had dim telepathic powers by which their rudimentary minds communed.
"Ool will not hurt you,” said Lana Cain crisply to Thorn.