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diff --git a/29272.txt b/29272.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a86a03 --- /dev/null +++ b/29272.txt @@ -0,0 +1,845 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of No Hiding Place, by Richard R. Smith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: No Hiding Place + +Author: Richard R. Smith + +Release Date: June 29, 2009 [EBook #29272] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NO HIDING PLACE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + _Turnabout may not always be fair play in the gulfs between the + stars. But so destructive and malicious are the Agronians of this + story that we can readily forgive Richard Smith for filling their + ship with an unexpected reversal of a victory technique almost too + ghastly to contemplate. We have no sympathy for them--and neither + has Mr. Smith. Still, we're rather glad he decided to make human + heroism the cornerstone of a most exciting tale of conflict in + space._ + + + no + hiding + place + + _by ... Richard R. Smith_ + + + The Earth was enveloped in atomic fire and the ship was + a prize of war. But disaster may make victory mandatory. + + +The ship leaped toward the stars, its engines roaring with a desperate +burst of energy and its bulkheads audibly protesting the tremendous +pressures. + +In the control room, Emmett Corbin listened to the screech of tormented +metal and shuddered. The heat was suffocating, and acrid fumes assailed +his nostrils and burned his eyes until he almost cried out in pain. + +Despite the agony, his gaze did not waver from the video set across the +room. In the screen, Earth was a rapidly diminishing orb, charred and +mottled with glowing atomic fires. + +_Everything_, a far corner of his mind whispered. _Everything on Earth +is dead!_ + +He was a carpenter and luckily, he had been working inside the +barricades of an Army spaceport when the news came that the enemy had +broken through the defense ring beyond Pluto. He had continued nailing +the cedar siding on the building, knowing that if he stopped his work +and waited, he would start screaming. + +An MP running by the building several minutes later had shouted at him, +urging him to board one of the ships on the landing field. In those last +hours, they had loaded the few remaining spaceships as quickly as +possible, ignoring the importance of the passengers. He reflected that +many millionaires and influential politicians were now dead simply +because they hadn't been close enough to the spaceports when the +unexpected news came. Watching the pilots as they sat tense before the +controls, he felt overcome with helplessness. + +The passenger on his right was a girl--red-haired and undeniably +attractive. He remembered her name. It was Gloria White, and she was the +daughter of Colonel White who had led the expedition to Venus. Her +father had died months before but his friends had used their influence +to establish her as a secretary on the spaceport where it was assumed +she would be comparatively safe. + +He had seen her frequently but almost always at a distance. She had been +friendly enough, but she had never exchanged more than a few casual +words with him. He had often paused in his work to admire her. But now, +aboard one of the last ships to leave Earth, he evaluated her only as +another passenger. + +The man on his left was dressed expensively. His general appearance +radiated prestige although his fleshy face was filled with disbelief as +if he were witnessing a fantastic nightmare. + +_Rinnnng! Rinnnng!_ Corbin's thoughts were interrupted by a clamoring +alarm bell declaring by its volume and insistence that the danger was +still acute. _That bell will ring until the ship is destroyed_, he +thought wildly. _It could very well mean that the ship will be +destroyed!_ + +The pilots leaped away from the controls as if they had abruptly become +white hot. "_Rocket_," one of them screamed. "Enemy rocket on our tail!" + +Corbin turned suddenly and ran across the room in sudden, blind panic. +"We can't shake it! Nobody can shake one!" Mumbling incoherently, he +grabbed a spacesuit and began to don it. + +The room was suddenly a seething mass of confusion. The pilots +distributed spacesuits and helped passengers into them while the cabin +continued to sway and lurch. Fear-crazed passengers ran aimlessly in +circles. Some fainted and others were shocked into immobility. + +Emmett had barely finished securing his helmet when the ship shook +violently and he was knocked to the floor. The lights fluttered, then +went out. + +When the trembling at last subsided, he struggled to his feet and looked +about the room. His eyes gradually adjusted to the faint light from the +luminous paint on the walls and he was able to make out two shadowy +figures moving hesitantly about the wreckage. + +He remained motionless as one of the two men approached him, reached out +and adjusted the dials on his spacesuit controls. The earphones in his +helmet blared with a familiar voice, "Are you all right?" + +"Y-Yeah. Just a little shaken." + +The man walked toward the third passenger and presently Emmett heard a +quick, sobbing breath through the earphones. + +"Are you hurt?" the man asked. + +"No." Even under the abnormal conditions Gloria White's calm voice came +through clearly. + +They wandered aimlessly about the room, each engrossed in his private +mental turmoil. Finally the pilot broke the silence, "Since we're +probably the last ones alive on the ship, we should know each other. My +name is George Hartman." + +"Emmett Corbin." + +"Gloria ... Gloria White." + +The pilot said with grim urgency: "We've got to do something. There's no +sense in just standing here--waiting for the enemy to come." + +"Come?" Emmett inquired. "You mean that the Agronians will actually +board our ship?" + +"They always examine disabled ships. They are determined to learn as +much as they can about us." + +"Well, let's get some weapons and be ready. I'm no hero, understand. But +I agree with you that there's no sense in just waiting." + +The pilot said: "There are no hand weapons on the ship. Our only +possible course of action would be to _hide_." His emphasis conveyed to +the others how much he disliked the thought. + +"But where?" Gloria asked. "If they make a thorough search--" + +"We can't hide _in_ the ship," George said, with absolute conviction. +"Our reports indicate that they examine every square foot inside a +bombed vessel. We'll have to conceal ourselves outside." + +"_Outside?_" + +"We can use the magnetic shoes on our spacesuits to walk on the ship's +hull. If luck favors us they may never even think of searching the +forward section of the hull." + +Emmett shrugged his shoulders, not realizing that in the faint light no +one could see the gesture. Gloria said, "It's better than making no +attempt at all to save ourselves." + +George led the way from the control room, and across a passenger +compartment that was filled with the crumpled, lifeless forms of almost +a hundred men and women. + +"There were no spacesuits in this room," he explained simply. + +They operated the air lock by utilizing the emergency manual controls, +and were soon standing on the hull of the ship. For several seconds they +remained motionless and silent, grimly surveying their awesome +surroundings. The billions of stars above were terrifyingly vivid +against the dark emptiness of space. The ship's hull was fantastically +twisted and pitted, and the enemy ship--it hovered a few miles +distant--had been transformed into a brilliantly burning star by the +reflected sunlight. + +"We've got to find cover," George said quickly. "If they're watching the +ship with telescopes we'll stand out like fireflies in a dark room!" + +Cautiously sliding their feet across the hull, Gloria and Emmett +followed the pilot. Presently he pointed to a spot where a large section +of the hull had been twisted back upon itself, forming a deep pocket. +"This should be good enough," he said. + +They followed his example as he knelt and crawled through the small +opening. To Emmett it was like crawling into a sardine can. The space +was barely large enough to accommodate the three of them, and through +the spacesuit's tough fabric, he could feel faint, shifting pressures +that indicated he was leaning against someone's back and sitting on +someone's legs. They shuffled about in the total darkness until they +reached a fairly comfortable position and then crouched in silence until +light flashed all about them. + +"Look!" Gloria whispered. Emmett stared through a narrow gash in the +metal near his head and saw a group of Agronians approaching the ship. +The starlight, glittering on their strange spacesuits, transformed them +into weird apparitions. + +Emmett closed his eyes and breathed a silent prayer. When he opened them +again he could see only the unwinking stars and the enemy ship, which +was still hovering nearby like a huge glaring eye. + +"They're inside the ship analyzing our navigational instruments," George +said as if he could somehow see through the solid metal. "They're a very +thorough race. They probably know far more about us than we know about +them." + +"What are we going to do?" Gloria asked. "We can't just sit here until +breathing becomes a torment--" + +"What _can_ we do? There's no place to go!" Emmett's heart had begun a +furious pounding. His plight reminded him of how, in a recurrent +nightmare, he had often found himself standing frozen before an oncoming +truck, his legs immobile as he waited for death. He had always awakened +with his heart beating furiously and his body bathed in a cold sweat, +his mind filled with a sickening fear. + +And now it was as if the nightmare had become a reality. He was waiting +for death not in the form of a truck, but in the regular _swish_ of air +that tickled his ears as his oxygen supply was purified and replenished. +Eventually the sound would change its timbre as the purifying agents +became less efficient. The faint sound was not as impressive as the +sight of a truck. But he knew that in a short time it would be just as +deadly. And, as in the nightmare, he was powerless ... + + * * * * * + +A long silence followed--broken only by the _swish_ of Emmett's +oxygen-rejuvenating machinery. He listened intently and the _swish_ grew +in volume until it became a roar in his ears--a sound more thunderous +than that of a thousand trucks. + +"There is a place where we'd be completely safe," Gloria exclaimed, her +voice suddenly loud in his ears. "I don't know how we could get there. +But if a way could be found--" + +"Venus?" George inquired. "The colony your father started?" + +"Yes. There are only a few colonists there--not more than twenty-five. +The war with the Agronians started just after the settlement was +established and the government never had a chance to send out more +colonists. Father showed me the approximate location--" + +"The Agronians have probably destroyed the base by now," Emmett said. +But his senses were tingling with new hope. + +Gloria shook her head. "I don't think so. The enemy has studied the +remains of our warships but there's a good chance that the information +never fell into their hands." + +"How do we get there? We haven't got a ship, and _we can't walk_!" + +"We haven't got a ship," George agreed. "But we can try to get one." + +Emmett felt suddenly cold when he realized what the pilot had in mind. +"The enemy ship?" he asked. + +George nodded. "During the skirmish at Arcturus, we managed to capture +one of their ships and I was a member of a group that studied it. I'm +sure I can fly one of their vessels, for the controls are far simpler +than ours. Most of the Agronians have left their ship to study ours, and +that leaves only a skeleton crew on board. We can use our spacesuit jets +to cross the distance. As you can see, it isn't too far." + +"And precisely what happens when we reach their ship?" + +"Who knows? Maybe we'll get killed. But getting killed in a struggle for +survival is better than just waiting to die." + +Gloria shuddered. "It looks so cold out there. We'll get +separated--hopelessly lost. I don't even know how to operate the +spacesuit's rockets!" + +"I don't either," Emmett admitted. + +"It's simple." George carefully explained the operation of the rockets +in detail and ended by instructing them, "We'll get separated on the +way. But when we reach the ship, we'll try to meet at the air lock. It +resembles the air lock of an Earth ship." + + * * * * * + +Floating through space toward the enemy ship, Emmett felt overcome with +an absurd sensation of freedom. Completely surrounded by billions of +motionless, pin-point stars and securely hidden by the vast blackness of +space, the aliens and the problem of survival seemed dream-like and +unreal. + +A sharp pain stabbed at his left arm and he heard a brief hissing sound. +Oxygen was escaping from his spacesuit. The sound abruptly stopped when +the suit automatically sealed the puncture. And yet the throbbing pain +remained and he felt the wetness of blood against his flesh, seeping +slowly down his leg. + +_A meteor!_ People usually visualized meteors as tons of metal hurtling +through space. But there were small ones as well, and perhaps this one +had been no larger than a grain of sand. He dismissed it from his mind, +and after what seemed an eternity, his feet touched the hull of the +enemy ship. Quickly he activated the magnetic boots. + +A distant figure gestured as George's voice came loudly over the +intercom system, "This way. Here's the air lock!" + +_You should whisper_, he thought. _It would be more fitting._ + +He shuffled in the indicated direction. His legs were rubbery beneath +him and there was a growing tingling sensation in his left arm. It was +just barely possible that he was bleeding to death. And encased as he +was in the spacesuit, it would be impossible for him to treat the wound. + +_If_ they reached the colony on Venus he would receive medical +attention, of course. But they must first overpower the ship's crew, and +it would take approximately two hours to reach the colony. Could he hold +out that long? + +He didn't know. + +George knelt and carefully examined the rectangular outline in the metal +beneath their feet. "It's only a sort of button," he said. "It could be +a device that opens the lock by means of a code sequence--or it could be +a signal to notify those inside to open the lock." + +"What should we do?" Gloria asked nervously. + +Instead of replying, George pushed the button firmly. The section of +hull beneath them instantly dropped several feet. Emmett looked up in +time to see an outer air-lock panel swiftly blot out the stars. + +Brief seconds later, the compartment was filled with a brilliant light +and tiny nozzles in the ceiling sprayed a bluish gas about them. + +Gloria leapt quickly to one side. "What's that?" she asked, in alarm. + +"It's the Agronian atmosphere," George said. "Although their locks are +mechanically different, the principle behind them is the same as ours." + +"It's a strange-looking atmosphere," Emmett remarked. The pain in his +arm and the numbness that was gradually spreading throughout his body +had relaxed his mind. He felt so physically detached from his +surroundings that he could look at the fog-like gas that swirled about +them with interest rather than concern. + +"It's poisonous," George said. "We managed to analyze some. One breath +is enough to kill a human--" + +An inner door abruptly glided to one side and George leaped into the +room beyond. Emmett followed as quickly as possible, although he felt +sleepy and his every action seemed a study in slow motion. + +Except for the level expanse of the floor, the room before them was +entirely alien. The thick atmosphere swirled eerily. The control board +was recognizable as such, but being adapted for tentacles instead of +human hands, it appeared to be a meaningless maze of equipment. Strange, +angular devices lined the walls and hung from the low ceiling on thin +wires. As Emmett scanned the odd artifacts, he could understand only +one--a group of web-like hammocks that were obviously used by the aliens +to sleep in. + +Two Agronians stood before the large control board at the far side of +the room. It was the first time Emmett had seen the enemy other than in +pictures and the sight of the thousands of snakelike, wriggling antennae +nauseated him. + +George hesitated briefly and then ran toward the Agronians. Again Emmett +followed the pilot's lead. One of the creatures aimed a weapon before +George had crossed half the distance and Gloria's shrill scream of +warning brought him up short. But before the weapon could be discharged, +the other Agronian viciously flung a tentacle and sent it spinning from +his companion's clasp. + +George leaped at the nearest Agronian but the creature easily eluded +him. He made another attempt and failed again. + +The man and the alien cautiously surveyed each other. + +"They're too fast for us," George admitted. His voice was filled with +the bitterness of defeat and his shoulders sagged visibly. + +"_Do something!_" Gloria screamed. "Do something before the others come +back!" + +Emmett glanced apprehensively at the air lock. She was right. At the +moment they outnumbered the enemy, but when the others returned the +Agronians could overpower them by sheer weight of number. And they could +return without warning, at any instant. + +"Why did one prevent the other from killing us?" George asked. + +"He may have been afraid the other would miss and damage the ship," +Emmett said. "Or possibly--" + +"No. They're trained from birth to be soldiers. They're expert marksmen +and their weapons are foolproof. They can adjust the blast from a weapon +to travel any distance." + +"Why should one enemy prevent another from killing us?" Emmett repeated +wonderingly. He remembered another question that had nagged at his mind: +_Why had the Agronians totally destroyed Earth?_ Why hadn't they +eliminated Earthmen and preserved the planet for exploitation--as a +colony, a military base, any one of a thousand uses? + +There was only one possible answer. A race might destroy a planet if it +was useless. Earthmen had discovered useless planets, planets with +poisonous atmospheres. Was Earth's atmosphere poisonous to the +Agronians? + +One Agronian had prevented another from killing them with a viciousness +and an urgency that indicated it had been a life-and-death necessity. + +Why? What would happen if they were to die? + +Something clicked in his mind and a startling certainty occurred to him. +_Oxygen was poisonous to the Agronians!_ + +That was why his life had been spared. And the pilot's--and Gloria's. +Their spacesuits would have been punctured and their oxygen supply would +have spread with deadly rapidity throughout the room. + +Without hesitation he removed his helmet and adjusted the controls of +his oxygenating machine until it was discharging oxygen at maximum +capacity. + +With a shrill outcry the two aliens darted toward him. But a thin, +ghostly vapor of oxygen spread rapidly through the fog-like atmosphere, +and halted them in their tracks. + +"You deserve to die," Emmett whispered. + +The enemy collapsed at his feet and writhed helplessly on the floor. +Their bodies quivered spasmodically and were still. + + * * * * * + +Gloria's hysterical, joyous laughter rang in his ears like triumphant +bells, and through the Agronian atmosphere that burned his face and +smarted his eyes he dimly saw George's image as he rushed to the control +board. He held his breath but realized that his death was certain. He +could never hold his breath long enough to replace the helmet and wait +for the purifying agents to cleanse the poison that now filled his +spacesuit. + +When he could hold his breath no longer, he inhaled quickly and deeply. + +It was like inhaling a warm, comforting darkness.... + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _Fantastic Universe_ November 1956. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and + typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of No Hiding Place, by Richard R. 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