Read Ebook: Softie by Loomis Noel M Napoli Vincent Illustrator

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Ebook has 143 lines and 7702 words, and 3 pages

"Aye, sir," said the ordnance officer.

Gorthy hesitated. "I don't like to blast a strange ship when I have no idea what in the galaxy she's carrying. Wait until you're close enough to fuse a couple of her port jets. Then throw a pressor beam and spin her around. Let's show them we mean business." He frowned. "I don't like it. There's more going on here than you can see."

Five minutes later the captain of ordnance announced, "The ship is revolving, sir. She's in an erratic course about half a million miles off our starboard bow."

Gorthy grunted. "Watch her."

They saw her name then, printed in strange characters that no one could read. "I'd say she's from the Third Universe," said the junior admiral. "But what's she doing away over here?"

"She could be off course," said the captain of ordnance.

"Not a hundred thousand light-years off course," growled Gorthy. "You're the semantics expert, Lt. Braniff. What do you make of her name?"

"I don't know, sir," said Braniff. "The only guess I can make is that those symbols have a mathematical origin, but they're definitely not the symbols of the Triangle-men of Theta Cygni."

Gorthy grunted.

"I think she's getting ready to make for land, sir," said the junior admiral.

"Where--oh, Inscription Rock. Sure. Where is it now?"

"Half an a.u. to the left, sir, minus twenty degrees."

"Okay. Follow him in."

"What is Inscription Rock?" asked the junior officer of ordnance.

"Inscription Rock is the graveyard of military ambitions," Gorthy said gruffly. "It's an orphaned planet from some solar system that nobody can remember. It has wandered around in the Pass for a million years, and nobody has ever claimed it because it has nothing on it of value, and it's too vulnerable to be worth defending as a base. As long as it has been in the Pass it has been used by conquering admirals and defeated admirals to stop and repair their ships and gather their fleets. That planet has seen more intergalactic warfare than any other piece of solid matter in the Fourth Universe."

Gorthy did not take his eyes from the plate. "Lieutenant Braniff!"

"Yes, sir." Braniff drew up, with his heart pounding.

"Take the Number Four fighter with a crew of four. Arrest the captain and crew of that ship and confiscate ship and cargo in the name of the Galactic Federation."

"Yes, sir."

"You will be backed by Lt. Stevens in Number Two. If there is any resistance whatever, use the omega-ray."

"Yes, sir." Lt. Braniff was thrilled. That was a drastic order; the omega-ray was a disintegrator at short range. It meant that Gorthy was alarmed. Lt. Braniff exulted momentarily. Perhaps if he turned in a good job on this, he would rate a promotion.

"If you can identify the captain as Zhute, the renegade robot, kill him without mercy. We can't stand on ceremony, when a wrong move might plunge a hundred billion solar systems into conflict. We'll stand by up here--but be careful!"

"Yes, sir."

Five minutes later Braniff and his crew cast off in No. 4 fighter. The lieutenant was taut, alert. This was his chance. The strange ship landed rather heavily. Braniff circled her at ten miles, with his searchlight on her. Presently there was movement. A port opened. A white flag signaled. Lt. Braniff landed his fighter. There wasn't any sun for this world. It was dead black. He got out in his bubble and flexible suit and went toward the ship warily, careful to stay in the light.

He was remembering what Gorthy had said about starting an intergalactic war. That meant the first thing to do was establish the identity of the ship and find out its cargo. He signaled his three men to follow him. They stalked up to the strange ship. A door opened and a ladder rolled down. Lt. Braniff went up.

When he got through the strange round airlock he found himself confronted by a round-bodied, three-legged creature like an octopus with ten arms. He waited for his companions, then he signaled to the creature. It moved off. They followed.

In an odd-shaped room fitted with instruments and control levers that all ended in slender tips to suit the tentacles of the creature that led them, Lt. Braniff found half a dozen more of them, and finally in the light that was almost blackness, he saw a different form--a bigger form.

"Steady!" he said to his men, and turned on his infra-light. Through his filter-lenses he saw a gigantic robot, ten feet high, as wide as a barrel. Its steel plates were dull from long lack of polishing, but its hands swung like steel pistons at the end of its long arms.

"You can turn it off," the robot said abruptly. "You've had a good look at me."

Lt. Braniff felt queer, but he remembered his job. "Are you Zhute?"

"Yes, I'm Zhute. You forced me down against intergalactic law. I was minding my own business." The robot's metallic voice sounded bitter.

"You didn't identify yourself."

The robot's head lifted as if in surprise. "You did not signal."

"We did," said Lt. Braniff. "What ship is this?"

"That's not in the Two Supergalaxy," Lt. Braniff observed. "Are these members of your crew from that planet?"

"They are."

"Where are you from?"

"From the Deeps." The robot laughed.

"What's your cargo?"

"See for yourself."

At that moment Braniff heard in his intership phone: "I have orders to follow you inside in fifteen minutes. This is Lt. Stevens."

"We are okay," said Braniff, "but stay close."

To tell the truth, Lt. Braniff was living ten lives at once. He was in an alien ship, surrounded by alien entities, talking to a giant robot. And besides that, they were practically in the dark. These creatures did not need much light. Lt. Braniff was scared to death.

"Lead the way," he said.

He took one man with him and left two to watch the robot. They followed a three-legged octopus down a low-ceilinged tunnel. It came to a door, worked a combination, apparently, and threw the door open. It was lined with a foot's thickness of lead, and Lt. Braniff shuddered at the strength in those heavy tentacles. He motioned the creature to go inside.

The Phaddian waddled in. A moment later it backed out, bearing a heavy lead box. Lt. Braniff observed the Geiger reading and straightened up. Hard radiation--plenty hard. If they hadn't been wearing shielded suits they couldn't have lived through that. He made some quick tests, then he went back to the robot.

"You will go with us," he said, and held his breath.

The robot shrugged. He turned and led the way out. Lt. Braniff exhaled and breathed deeply.

He felt still better when they were outside under the searchlights. Lt. Stevens was there in his bubble. The great robot stood at its full height. It looked around at the men, at the ships, at the contact boat floating overhead, with light pouring from its port-holes.

Lt. Braniff knew that this might mean a promotion and it might mean that he would get a chance to stay home after this trip. He was happy and elated, but as he looked at Zhute, he felt sorry for the big robot. It looked a little bewildered. Lt. Braniff thought its shoulders slumped a trifle.

Then suddenly Zhute turned and ran, its great steel legs taking immense strides over the granite rock.

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