Arthur K. Barnes

“ Gerry and Strike traded glances.
"Good as could be expected," Strike said. "Naturally the gravity would hold a substantial atmospheric envelope. Shall we stroll about the yard and meet the neighbors?"
They drew lots for the six space-suits, and presently the winners poured out upon the surface of Triton like school children at recess. McCray and Kranz promptly staggered tipsily and fell down. Strike and the other men lurched and scrambled and finally remained upright in very weird positions, as if leaning against a gale. ”

“ Hopelessness was a knot in Strike's stomach. The plot was really ironclad. But even now Gerry seemed unshaken. She looked around the group of thieves and murderers as if memorizing their faces for future reference. Then she saw McCray, hiding shamefacedly in the rear. Her eyebrows raised.
"You, too, 'Champ'? I'm disappointed."
The pugilist crimsoned.
"The 'Champ' had a silly idea that he could remain neutral in this game," Dacres explained easily. "We can use a muscular man, so we gave him his choice. He chose to live, with us." ”

“ Dacres declared in an amused voice, "isn't so good with the foot-work this morning."
"Overtrained, perhaps," offered Gerry.
There was more gaiety.
"Well, we can't put back to Mars, of course," Strike said then. "Better put him to work."
Actually, Strike was not at all sorry. McCray was probably in for some amusingly rough and humiliating hours. He would be assigned to the most menial tasks. He would be referred to derisively as "the Champ." He would have to learn that Space Law dealt ruthlessly with men with too-ready fists. ”

“ She still did not see the point, nor did any of the others except Kranz, and Strike found perverse delight in that fact. Gerry had kept still about Triton's peculiar balance of centrifugal and gravitational forces while she wasn't sure.
He, too, would have his little mystery till he knew whether his experiment was going to pan out.
The fact was, within a few hours, or days, Dacres would be returning to see if his murder plot had worked, and to set the stage for the rescue parties. The castaways would have one chance—and one only—to fight for their lives. It had to be good. ”

“ Strike shook himself like a big dog. "The electric potential of this room must be terrific. Think I'll go outside and ground myself. I've never seen a fellow so completely right every time he opens his mouth. Most disconcerting."
And Tommy Strike gave out with a roar of accumulated laughter.
Lawrence Dacres seemed to have been in error once, however, when he predicted a journey without incident. Just before reaching Mars, five of The Ark's crew became violently ill after dinner.
"Food poisoning," was the verdict in the Martian hospital. ”

“ The crew men were weeping in their joy.
"The champ's off form today!" the guffawing Monk yelled. "He ain't so good in the light gravity!"
Strike thought it about time to intervene, so he stepped into the room. There was a sudden silence of frozen attitudes and wary eyes.
"Oh, Captain Strike," Dacres said, relaxing. "Glad you're here. If you overheard what's been going on, you realize that we have a stowaway aboard with some peculiar notions in his head."
"I understand, Dacres." Strike tried to look sternly at the groggy, clown-faced McCray. "Just how did you get on the ship?" ”

“ Gerry found it hard to answer that one. She had tried unsuccessfully to answer it ever since Dacres had first spoken to her. The blond man knew this, and pursued his advantage.
"While we argue here," he pointed out, "my brother and his crew may be dying—slowly being crushed flat by the terrible gravity. He weighed two hundred on Earth. Up there, he'd weigh five hundred. The human heart simply cannot stand that kind of punishment. It'll quit." ”

“ Dacres smiled hypocritically. "You and your crew will be packed into a lifeboat and marooned on Triton. Another regrettable accident to another would-be explorer of the 'siren satellite'."
"That's murder!" Strike lashed out. "We'll die there, horribly, crushed flat by that gravity."
Dacres warned Strike back with his gun.
"Tut, tut, Captain," he said. "You didn't think we could afford to leave you alive, to carry tales to any possible rescue parties, did you? It's all part of my scheme. Everything must appear accidental." ”

“ He remembered, too, the conversation he'd overheard the day McCray had awakened on the ship. The exact words escaped him, but hadn't Dacres been speaking as if to long-time acquaintances? The sudden silence, the suspicious looks when he shoved open the door and entered the room—had they meant anything?
Feeling very foolish, Strike dropped down to talk with Baumstark, the chief engineer, and was quickly reassured.
"It's working out fine, sir," the engineer said. "The new fellows are really topnotch engine men, especially that Monk. Not much to look at, but always asking questions. ”

“ We actually arranged for a ship to leave Mars a few months ago under my charter, in case you checked on it."
"Swine!" Gerry Carlyle spat the word, and swung her right fist in a haymaker that caromed off Dacres' nose. Holstering his gun, he wiped his watering eyes and started for Gerry.
At that instant, something happened to McCray. It seemed to Strike that the man's natural instincts as a fighter and sportsman got tangled up with his admiration for a beautiful girl. At any rate, moving expertly now on his clogs, he slid before Gerry.
"Look, lady," he said. "Always hit straight, not roundhouse. ”

“ Gerry interposed suddenly. "Mr. Dacres has forgotten one thing—mathematics. Just take it quietly, men. Our inning may yet come."
Tommy Strike and the others stared at her, forlorn hope fighting with despair. He couldn't see any value in calculus when a man suddenly found himself crushed to the ground by a weight of four hundred and fifty pounds. It would be a task even to pick up a pencil. ”

“ Gerry finally gasped. "Someone'll slip, or dodge a little too late. And if we retreat into the ship, it'll just mean a siege. If that blasted Dacres had only left us a weapon—"
She might have been a lady Aladdin, speaking the magic formula, for the lifeboat opened and Barrows, grinning uncertainly, tossed an improvised contraption to Strike. ”

“ Strike wound a coil of light rope around himself as an abdominal support. It afforded some relief, but nothing could take the terrible strain from his heart, as it laboriously fought to pump the sluggishly heavy blood through pinched veins. He speculated dispassionately on how long a heart would hold up.
He glanced at Gerry. She lay with her face hidden in her arms, breathing asthmatically. Slowly, her head raised, as if it weighed a ton.
"Tommy," she spoke thickly, with a tongue that would not obey. "I'm going to—pass out. Head toward—equator—"
She slumped. ”

“ Without even slowing, McCray let drive with a frightful blow, a concentrate of days of fear and hunger and hate.
The blow caught the man squarely in the pit of the stomach, and through a momentary thinning of the smoke, the astonished castaways saw Monk go sailing clear through the air-lock and across the corridor to smash sickeningly against the far wall.
The truth dawned instantly. The piratical gang had adjusted their clogs to handle two-and-a-half Gs. Consequently, they were only flyweights now, not having had time to discover the facts of the gravitational situation. ”

“ Everyone gathered round Strike and his trophy.
"Funny stuff," Kranz said, pointing to the great puddle of vital fluid, as yet unaffected by the temperature. "Wonder what it is?"
"Must be anti-freeze," Gerry hazarded.
"Be interesting to examine the beast," Strike said slowly.
He and Kranz exchanged a long look and, by common consent, seized the shrunken carcass and bore it into the lifeboat. They could rig up a rough laboratory there, putter around for hours with the smelly corpse, and be quite happy. ”

“ McCray nodded eagerly. "It won't take long. Just one knockdown, strictly friendly. You won't hardly feel it, Mr. Strike."
"Okay." Strike's fists came up, and they squared off.
McCray bobbed and weaved, bored in after the retreating Strike—and suddenly the pugilist's feet slid into a weird tangle and he sat down hard. He leaned forward to clutch his ankle and howled in anguish.
Strike, who hadn't landed a blow, and the amazed spectators gathered around. McCray's ankle was visibly swelling—a bad sprain. The bout was over. "What on earth happened?" ”

“ Gerry concluded triumphantly. "We weigh only a few more pounds at the equator here than we do on Earth, despite the high gravity. The closer we move to the poles, the more we'll weigh. Of course, I have only a five-inch slide-rule, and the figures may be correct only to two significant figures, but you get the idea." ”

“ He lashed Monk verbally, took the gun from him.
"It's the officers' duty to take care of the arsenal aboard this ship. No weapons are ever permitted in the men's quarters."
Monk scuffed his feet, made a handsome apology, and he and McCray went back to work. Strike watched them pensively, recalling past events, wondering if there were a pattern. On impulse, he searched the belongings of Dacres' recruits, and found exactly nothing out-of-the-way. Sheepishly, he returned to the flight deck, resolved not to bother Gerry with his unworthy suspicions. ”

“ The only reason my fiancé has not knocked you down is because he feels I sometimes think too highly of myself, and that a dressing down does me good. However, your brother's peril and your own machinations force me to accept your proposition. Come back in an hour with your checkbook and your attorney. Our contract will be ready for you. We can leave at dawn."
Dacres bowed again, very tall and ever so slightly triumphant. ”

“ Queen of the space-rovers, in her mighty ship, The Ark, this slim girl covered nearly the entire Solar System in her quest for exotic and weird life-forms to be returned alive for the edification and astonishment of the public at the London Interplanetary Zoo. ”

“ Retrograde motion. Gravity, two and a half times that of Earth—Oh, yeah. That's why they call it the 'siren satellite.' It lures the unwary space-traveller close, then hauls him in with the unexpected gravity.... Mmm. Composed of matter not native to the Solar System—hence the terrific mass. Believed to be a wanderer from space trapped by Neptune. That would explain the retrograde motion."
Brisk, muffled footsteps sounded along the corridor, followed by an impatient knock on the pilot room door.
"That'll be friend Dacres now." Gerry grimaced. "Come in!" ”