The boys nodded.
“It’s incredible. Utterly incredible.”
Anson Torm’s blue eyes caught the Colonel’s, held them bravely. “It’s true. Every word of it.”
“You re telling me that this colony of men and women have been working in secret for over a century—to build this ship?”
“I’m telling you that.”
“At the risk of being caught at any time?”
Torm nodded. “They recognized that risk.”
The Colonel shook his head numbly. “But there is no interstellar drive.”
“Desperation and courage would be their interstellar drive.”
“It would take them centuries! They could never return—”
“It would be better than to stay here as slaves.”
“But not even knowing that they would find anything when they got there—”
“It would still be better.” Anson Torm’s voice trembled. “I fought against it—oh, how I fought against it. But I had to guard the secret, too. I couldn’t tell you about it. I dared not tell you.”
The Colonel shook his head like a man in a dream. “It’s incredible. And yet, it’s in the human tradition—to go to any length, if a chance of freedom lies at the end—”
He walked slowly across the room. Then he turned to Anson Torm, his eyes on the leader’s careworn face. “You colonists must be proud and brave men,” he said. He glanced at the boys, his eyes suddenly proud. “We’ve been fools—both of us. It’s taken them to show us what fools, but I’m beginning to see things now that I’d never have believed.” He looked up gravely at Anson Torm. “I—I just don’t know what to say. I’ve been so hidebound and devoted to authority that I’ve let it blind me. I’m truly sorry. Perhaps there’s still time to salvage something.” He held out his hand to the colony leader, “f 11 back you to a man, Anson. I’ll back this colony in every way I can. We’ll have to stop Cortell, if the boys can lead us to him, and try to break his plan right now. And then I think there’ll be some changes for the Titan colony. I don’t know how I can do it—I’m only one man; they may never believe me, but I’ll fight for all I’m worth. I’ll open their eyes, somehow, I’ll get your story before the legislative bodies back on Earth, get it to the ears where it will do some good. And there will be some changes made, if it’s the last thing I do. This time, Earth won’t let you down.”
Ten minutes later the four of them were bent excitedly over a huge map of the underground mining tunnel and a topographical map of the region which David had made. “This is the place where the entrance to the ship tunnel is,” Torm was saying. “It’s carefully concealed where it breaks from this main tunnel, and Cortell will have it guarded. And this—” he pointed beyond the area marked radioactives, “is the location of the ship.”
The Colonel studied the picture. “We should approach from both ends, in case they move faster than we anticipate,” he said. “You know the colony, Anson. Suppose you take David, get as many men as you can, and go in from the colony side. We’re closer to the ship right here, so Tuck and I can take the men from here and go in at that end.” He looked up, and Torm nodded approval. “And we want to take him alive, if we can,” the Colonel added. “We’ve got to get the support of the colony behind you again, and for good.”
David and his father left in the Snooper. The Colonel and Tuck and four crewmen from the Earth ship clambered into the half-track that stood on the ground below, and plunged up the rim of rocks along the route David had charted for them. The trip took almost an hour; Tuck sat forward, watching the compass, directing the driver of the ’track from time to time. He hardly dared to breathe as he peered ahead for the first sign of the ruined camouflage, seeking the bright glint of the star-ship’s pointed nose rising above the rocks. A thousand fears crept slyly through his mind—what if the ship had been sealed up already, so that they would have to stumble over it to find it? The cave-in would still be there, but even that would be invisible until they stumbled upon it. And what if Cortell changed his plans, tried a break with the ship before they arrived to stop him? The minutes passed, and tension mounted; then suddenly Tuck let out a shout, and pointed beyond the next ridge of rocks.
And they saw it—the pointed nose of the ship, gleaming in the sunlight, sticking up from the protecting rim of the crevice. The half-track moved cautiously, approaching within thirty yards of the crevice. Then the Colonel signaled to the driver to stop. “Better go on foot,” he said. “We’re sitting ducks in this thing.”
They clambered out of the vehicle—the four men from the crew armed with projectile guns, the Colonel with his own service automatic gripped in his suited hand. Tuck carried a small Barnet shocker, his finger curled against the release stud. Slowly the men fanned out, moving toward the crevice, their boots clanking on the rocks as they advanced over the coarse terrain—A shot rang out, and one of the men clutched his side, toppled forward on the rocks. “Cover!” the Colonel snapped, and they dived for the rocks as shots began raining on them from the ship. There were two men there, armed with the homemade automatics that Tuck had seen before, but these men were more deadly in their aim. The bullets whizzed by Tucks ears, striking the rocks around him as the men slowly slid forward toward the ship. Then the Colonel eased around a rock, let go four quick shots, and they heard one of the men groan and crash to the ground. Like a flash, two of the crewmen raced forward ten feet through a hail of fire, then dropped again, panting. A thought occurred to Tuck; he started for an outcropping of rock to the right as another volley of shots came from the ship. The gunman’s attention was held by the crewmen sneaking up on him, and he was too well-concealed for them to get in a shot. Tuck quickly moved in to flank the ship, then clambered slowly up on the high, jagged ridge that overhung the crevice. Far below he saw the glint of sunlight on a pressure helmet, and with all his strength he ripped off a huge chunk of rock, and hurled it downward—
The rock struck the helmet a crashing blow, and the man reeled, firing savagely up toward Tuck. Too late he realized that he had revealed himself; the Colonel’s gun chattered sharply, and the gunman gripped his side, trying to scramble back. For a long second he teetered; then his footing slipped, and he fell crashing into the crevice, down between the ship’s wall and the protecting rock, and struck with a sickening thud at the bottom—
The three crewmen and the Colonel met Tuck at the edge of the crevice. One of the crewmen was dispatched to care for the man who had been hit; the rest of them jumped for the ship’s scaffolding, and began to clamber down like monkeys. In a moment they were moving down the tunnel, over the rocks and debris that had been torn down by the Murexide explosion, and then into the blackness that led to Cortell’s hideout.
For a long while there was silence, broken only by the plodding of their feet, echoing and re-echoing weirdly from the rocky walls of the tunnel. Then up ahead they heard shots and shouts. At a signal from the Colonel they stopped, then moved forward cautiously. Quite suddenly, they saw a bobbing light up ahead, then another. The Colonel hissed, and they crouched along the walls, their own lights out, and waited, panting, as the frantic footfalls came closer. And then two figures materialized behind the bobbing lights; one of the crewmen pounced on the first man, and the lights went crashing to the ground. The second man made a break, tripped on an outstretched leg, and tumbled down, skidding on the ground. The tunnel exploded into a crashing uproar of scuffling and curses; then, like a knife, a bright light snapped on, a battle lamp one of the men had carried, and they saw their prizes, panting, caught like rats in a trap.