Free Calvin M. Knox by The Plot Against Earth Page A

blast off out of here before we
get killed!"
    Catton started to protest.
There were only eight people in the lifeship—nine, giving the Arenaddin double
credit for his bulk. There was room for three or four more passengers, as many
as ten if need be. It was grossly unfair to blast off half full.
    But
as he moved forward, one of the Morilaru women stepped in. front of him and
blocked his path. The male Morilaru hastily dogged the hatch shut and yanked
down on the red-handled lever that released the lifeship from its fastenings.
    A hatch in the side of the wounded mother
ship opened as the lifeship glided down its passageway and into space. Instants
later, a gigantic explosion split the Silver Spear apart.
The lifeship, with its eight occupants, rocked and tossed in the shock wave
caused by the explosion—and then righted itself and sped off into space.
     
     
     
     
    IX.
     
    A lifeship has only rudimentary
controls. There was a view-screen, a plot-tank, a simplified course-computer,
and a book of instructions, trilingual. As Catton thought back over it, half an
hour after the explosion, he was grateful that a crewman had come along.
    But the
crewman was unhappy about it. His name was Nyaruik Sadhig, and he brooded
loudly about his plight. "If I ever survive this, 111 be sacked," he muttered. "Think of it—a crewman entering a lifeship and
letting passengers remain behindl"
    "You
were coerced," Catton pointed out. "They can't hold that against
you."
    "Yes," said one of the Morilaru
women who had dragged him aboard. She produced a tiny woman-size blaster from
her carryall. "I'll testify that I forced you into the ship at
gunpoint," she said. "That ought to count in your favor, won't
it?"
    "No,"
said Sadhig bleakly. "According to the law, I'm supposed to resist such
'coercion'—even at the cost of my life. I'm ruined, damn it! Why did you have
to pull me aboard your accursed lifeship?"
    "Because,"
remarked the other Morilaru female sweetly, "we wanted to live. And we
weren't sure we could pilot this ship ourselves."
    "How far are we from
civilization?" Royce asked.
    Sadhig shrugged. "It's impossible to
tell until I've had a go with the computer."
    "But
we can't be very far," objected one of the Morilaru women. "It was
still the first night of the trip. We should still be close to Morilar."
    Sadhig
shook his head. "I'm afraid you don't understand how the nulldrive works.
The ship's generators thrust us into a fivespace continuum, and when the
computer says so we return to normal space. But points in nullspace don't have
a one-to-one correlation with points in normal space. There's no matching
referent. We might be a billion light-years from Morilar—or we might be just
next door."
    The
explanation flew over the heads of the women. They merely looked dazed.
    Royce
said, "Very well, young man. Suppose, as you seem to be
the only spaceman among us, you find out just where we are, then."
    The Morilaru rose and made his way through
the crowded single cabin to the control section up front. Catton, sitting in
the farthest corner of the cabin, scowled darkly at the floor. Lifeships were
all well and good, but this business of traveling in nullspace did have its
drawbacks. He had heard of lifeship survivors beached on the far shores of the
universe, returning to civilization only in extreme old age.
    Suddenly the problems of Skorg, Morilar, and
Arenadd seemed very unimportant to him. If they emerged from the warp continuum
far enough away, he would be stranded long enough so that the current crisis
became so much galactic ancient history.
    The
cabin was silent while the Morilaru made his computations; the only sound was
the steady rasping breathing of the Arenaddin. The bulky creature did not enjoy
the artificially sustained gravity of the lifeship, which was set for
Skorg-norm, or about 1.7 times the pull on Arenadd. Carton was mildly
discomforted by the gravity—it was also 1.4 Earthnorm, too. The difference
added some seventy