Sabotage in Space Page 6

  CHAPTER 6

  Sabotage!

  Major Connel, Commander Walters, Captain Strong, Professor Hemmingwell,and Dave Barret stared unbelievingly at the tangle of wires and smashedtubes on the main deck of the sleek spaceship.

  "Get every man that has been in this hangar during the last twenty-fourhours and have him brought under guard to the laboratory forpsychographs." Commander Walters' face was grim as he snapped out theorder.

  Professor Hemmingwell and Barret got down on their hands and knees andexamined the wrecked firing device carefully. After a long period ofsilence, while Strong, Walters, and Connel watched them pawing throughthe tangle of wires and broken connections, Hemmingwell stood up.

  "It can be replaced in twelve hours," he announced. "I believe thatwhoever did this either didn't know what he was doing, or it was anaccident."

  "Explain that, will you, Professor?" asked Strong. "I don'tunderstand."

  "This is an important unit," Hemmingwell replied, indicating thewreckage, "but not the most important part of the whole unit. Anyone whoreally knew what he was doing and wanted to delay the project could havedone so much more easily by simply destroying this." Hemmingwell heldout a small metallic-looking cylinder.

  "What is that, Professor?" asked Barret.

  "Don't you know?" asked Connel.

  "No, he doesn't," snapped Professor Hemmingwell. "This is something Ideveloped that only the commander and myself know about."

  "So, if you and Commander Walters are the only ones that know about it,"said Steve Strong slowly, "then a saboteur would have thought itunimportant and concentrated on the rest of the mechanism."

  "Looks that way," mused Connel. "But there is still the possibility thatit was an accident, as the professor said."

  Strong looked at Connel questioningly and then back to the wreckage. Theunit had been hurled from the upper deck of the spaceship, down to themain deck, and it looked as if someone had trampled on its delicateworks.

  "I'll have a crew put right to work on this," said Hemmingwell.

  "Commander," Connel suddenly announced, "I'm going ahead with my trip toMars to inspect the testing receivers. I don't think this incident isserious enough for me to delay leaving, and if Professor Hemmingwell andhis men can get this unit back in operation in twelve hours, thenthere's very little time lost and we can go ahead with the tests onschedule."

  "All right, Lou," said Walters. "Do whatever you think best. I'll have aship made ready for you at the Academy spaceport any time you want toleave."

  Connel nodded his thanks. "I think I'll take the _Polaris_, with CadetCorbett along as second pilot," he said. "I'm getting too old to make asolo hop in a scout all the way to Mars. I need my rest." He grinnedslyly at Walters.

  "Rest," Walters snorted. "If I know you, Lou Connel, you'll be up allnight working out standard operational procedures for the spaceprojectiles." He turned to Strong. "He's so sure this will work thathe's already writing a preliminary handbook for the enlisted personnel."

  Strong turned and looked at the major, amazed. Every day he learned moreand more about the space-hardened veteran.

  Connel turned to Strong. "Will you give Corbett the order to be ready at0600 hours tomorrow morning, Steve?" he asked.

  "Certainly, Lou," replied Strong.

  As the major turned away, Walters called after him, "Take it easy."

  Leaving Hemmingwell and Barret to take care of clearing away thewreckage, Strong and Walters climbed out of the ship, left the hangar,and headed for the Academy.

  "Do you think it was sabotage, sir?" asked Strong, as they rode on theslidewalk.

  "I don't know, Steve," said the commander. "If that special unit ofHemmingwell's had been damaged, I would say it might have been anaccident. But the things that were damaged would have put the wholeworks out of commission if we didn't have that unit."

  "Yes, sir," said Strong grimly. "So the man who did it thought he wasdoing a complete job."

  "Right," said Walters. "Assuming that it was sabotage."

  "Anyone you suspect?"

  "Not a living soul," replied Walters. "Every man in that hangar has beencarefully screened by our Security Section. Background, history,everything. No, I think it really was an accident."

  "Yes, sir," replied Strong, but not with the conviction he would like tohave felt.

  * * * * *

  Pat Troy had been Professor Hemmingwell's foreman for nearly two years.It was his job to read the complicated blueprints and keep theconstruction and installation work proceeding on schedule. Troy lacked aformal education, but nevertheless he could read and interpret thecomplicated plans which the professor and his assistants drew up, andtransform their ideas into actual mechanical devices. ProfessorHemmingwell considered himself fortunate to have a man of Troy's abilitynot only as a co-worker, but as a close friend.

  But Dave Barret did not like Troy, and he made this dislike obvious bygiving Troy as much work as possible, mainly tasks that were beneath hisability, claiming he only trusted the trained scientists. Barret put theprofessor in the position of having to defend one to the other. Heneeded both men, both being excellent in their respective fields, andfound it more and more difficult to maintain any kind of peacefulrelationship between them. Barret, as Hemmingwell's chief assistant andsupervisor of the project, was naturally superior in rank to Troy, andmade the most of it. A placid, easy-going man, Troy took Barret's gibesand caustic comments in silence, doing his work and getting it finishedon time. But occasionally he had difficulty in controlling hisresentment.

  The day after the accident, or sabotage attempt on the firing unit, thehangar was quiet, most of the workers still being psychographed. Troy,one of the first to be graphed, had been detained by the technicianslonger than usual, but was now back at his bench, working on the unit.This incident gave Barret the opportunity he was looking for, and as heand Professor Hemmingwell strode through the hangar, he commentedcasually, "I hate to say this, sir, but I don't like the way Troy hasbeen acting lately."

  "What do you mean, Dave?" asked Hemmingwell.

  "I depend a great deal on instinct," replied Barret. "And as good asTroy's work has been, I feel the man is hiding something."

  "Come now, Dave," snorted the professor. "I've known him a long time. Ithink you're being a little harsh."

  As Barret shrugged and didn't reply, a troubled expression crossedHemmingwell's face. "But at the same time," he said slowly, "if you haveany reservations, I don't suppose it would hurt to keep an eye on him."

  "Yes!" agreed Barret eagerly. "That's just what I was thinking."

  They reached the workbench where Troy, a small man with powerful armsand shoulders, was working on a complicated array of wires and vacuumtubes. He looked up, nodded casually at the two men, and indicated theinstrument.

  "Here it is, Professor," he said. "All ready to go. But I had a littletrouble fitting that coil where the blueprints called for it."

  "Why?" Barret demanded. "I designed that coil myself. Isn't it a littleodd that a coil I designed, and the professor O.K.'d, should not fit?"

  "I don't care who designed it," said Troy easily. "It didn't fit wherethe blueprint indicated. I had to redesign it."

  "Now, now," said Professor Hemmingwell, sensing trouble. "Take it easy,boys."

  "Professor," Barret exploded, "I insist that you fire this man!"

  "Fire me!" exclaimed Troy angrily. "Why, you space crawler, you're theone who should be fired. I saw you come back to the hangar the othernight alone and...."

  "Of course I did!" snapped Barret. "I was sent down here to getinformation about--" He stopped suddenly and eyed Troy. "Wait a minute.How could you see me down here? What were you doing here?"

  "Why--I--" Troy hesitated. "I came down to check over some equipment."

  "Why were you detained at the psychograph tests this morning?" demandedBarret.

  "None of your business!" shouted Troy. "I was doing my job. That's all."


  "I'll bet," snapped Barret. "Professor, here is your sabotage agent. Whoare you working for, Troy?"

  "None of your business," stammered Troy, seemingly confused. "I mean,I'm not working for anyone."

  "There! You see, Professor!" shouted Barret.

  "I think you'd better explain yourself, Pat," said the professor,looking troubled and suspicious. "Why were you detained so long thismorning?"

  "They were asking me questions."

  "What kind of questions?" demanded Barret.

  "I'm not allowed to tell you."

  "What were you doing here the other night?" pursued Barret. "The nightyou saw me here."

  "I came down to check our supplies. I knew that we were running short oncertain equipment."

  "What kind of things?" demanded the professor.

  "Well, the timers on the oscillators," Troy replied. "I knew we wouldneed them for the new units you and Commander Walters were planning."

  "Guard!" shouted Barret suddenly. "Guard!" He turned and called to Rogerand Astro, who were standing guard at the doors. They both came runningup, their blasters held at ready.

  "What is it?" demanded Astro. "What's going on here?"

  "Arrest that man!" shouted Barret. Astro and Roger looked questioninglyat Troy. They did not know him personally but had seen him around thehangar and knew that he worked closely with the professor and Barret.

  Still vaguely distrustful of Barret's behavior, Astro turned toHemmingwell. "How about it, Professor?" he asked. "Do we haul this guyin?"

  Hemmingwell looked at Troy steadily. "Pat, you knew about that new unitI was building?"

  "Yes, sir," replied Troy forthrightly. "I accidentally overheard you andCommander Walters discussing it. From what you said about it, I knew youwould need new timers for the oscillators--"

  Roger and Astro had heard about the vital unit that had not beendestroyed, and realized that Troy was admitting to knowledge heshouldn't have had. Roger raised the blaster menacingly. "All right,buster!" he growled. "Move this way and move slowly."

  "Professor," exclaimed Troy, "you're not going to let them--!"

  "I'm sorry, Pat," said the professor, a dejected look in his eyes. "Ihave nothing to do with it now. You should have told me that you knewabout the new unit. And the fact that you were here the night it wasdestroyed, well--" He shrugged meaningfully and turned away.

  "All right, buster," growled Astro, "do you move or do I move you? Itmakes no difference to me."

  Troy took a look at the blasters leveled at him and silently walkedbetween them to the hangar door. Barret and Professor Hemmingwellremained at the workbench, following the trio with their eyes.

  Later, after Troy had been safely locked in the Academy brig, FirehouseTim Rush sat at his desk in the small security shack taking down the twocadets' reports.

  "... And upon the orders of Dave Barret and Professor Hummingbird--"Roger was saying.

  "Hemmingwell," snapped Firehouse. "_Hemmingwell_."

  "--Hemmingwell"--nodded Roger with a wink at Astro--"we brought thesuspect to the officer of the guard, Firehouse Tim Rush."

  "Can that Firehouse, ya squirt!" growled Rush. "Only my friends can callme that. And you two are not in that classification."

  "O.K., Fireman," said Roger. "I can call you Fireman, can't I? Afterall, you are a pretty hot rocket, and--"

  "Get back to your posts!" roared Firehouse Tim in his loudest voice.

  Roger and Astro grinned and hurried out of the small building. Beforeresuming their posts in the hangar, the two cadets stopped at anautomatic soda dispenser. As they drank slowly, they looked around thehangar. The project was back in full operation now. The workers thathad been cleared had heard about the arrest of their foreman, and thereseemed to be more talk than work.

  Dave Barret walked over to Roger and Astro. Nodding in a surprisinglyfriendly fashion, he said, "I want to commend you two boys on your goodwork a while ago. I think that traitor would have tried anything if youhadn't been there. He might even have tried to kill me or theprofessor."

  Roger and Astro mumbled curt thanks for the compliment.

  Barret looked at them quizzically. "No need for us to be angry with eachother," he said smoothly. "I realize that when we had our two littlerun-ins you were carrying out your duties, and I apologize for behavingthe way I did. How about it? Can we shake and forget it?" He held outhis hand. Astro and Roger looked at each other and shrugged, each inturn, taking the young man's hand.

  "You know," said Barret, "I've heard a lot about you three cadets of the_Polaris_ unit. Especially you, Manning. I understand that you knowalmost as much about electronics as your instructor at the Academy."

  Roger grinned shyly. "I like my work."

  "Well, blast my jets!" roared Astro. "That's the first time I have everheard Manning accept a compliment gracefully." The big Venusian turnedto Barret. "He is not only the finest astrogator in the whole high,wide, and deep," he said sincerely, "but he could have had a wonderfulcareer in electronics if he didn't want to be a rocket jockey with meand Corbett."

  "Is that so?" murmured Barret politely. "Well, Manning, you must havesome ideas about the work that's going on here."

  "I sure have," said Roger. "And I see a lot of things here that could bedone a lot easier."

  "Hum," mused Barret. "You know something. I think I might be able torelieve you two of guard duty. After all, if Corbett can get out of it,I don't see why I can't put your talents to work for us here. How aboutit?"

  Both boys almost jumped straight up in the air.

  "That would be terrific, Mr. Barret!" exclaimed Astro.

  "Call me Dave, Astro. We're friends now, remember?"

  "Sure, Dave," stuttered Astro. "But listen, we'd do anything to be takenoff this detail and get Firehouse off our necks."

  Barret smiled. "All right. I'll see what I can do." He turned and walkedoff, giving them a friendly wave in parting.

  Astro and Roger could hardly believe their luck. They returned to theirposts and took up guard duty again with light hearts.

  In his small private office, Barret watched them through the open doorto the hangar and then turned to his desk, to pick up the recentlyinstalled private audioceiver. He asked for a private number in a smallcity on Mars, and then admonished the operator, "This is a securitycall, miss. Disconnect your circuit and do not listen in. Failure tocomply will result in your immediate dismissal and possible criminalprosecution."

  "Yes, sir," replied the operator respectfully.

  There was a distinct click and Barret heard a gruff voice.

  "Hello?"

  "This is Barret," the young designer whispered. "Everything's going finedown here. I just had the foreman arrested to throw them off the track,and I have a plan to get rid of two of these nosy cadets." Barretlistened a minute and then continued. "Connel and the other cadet,Corbett, have gone to Mars to inspect the receivers. Don't worry about athing. This ship will never get off the ground. And if it does, it willnever fire a projectile."

  Barret hung up and returned to the open door. He waved at Roger andAstro on the other side of the hangar and the two cadets waved back.

  "Like lambs to the slaughter," he said to himself.