The Sinister Bonanza
: Gold In The SkyThey were taken to a small, drab internment room. A half hour passed and
still no word from the Major. From the moment the Patrol crew had
boarded them, everything had seemed like a bad dream. The shock of the
arrest, the realization that the Captain had been serious when he reeled
off the charges lodged against them ... they had been certain it was
some kind of ill-planned joke until they saw the delegation of Jupiter
man returned from the dead. They had watched Tawney climb into the sleek
company car and drive off toward the gate, while the Captain had
escorted them without a word down to the internment rooms.
The door clicked, and the Captain looked in. "All right, come along
now," he said.
"Is the Major here?" Tom said.
"You'll see the Major soon enough." The Captain herded them into another
room, where a clerk efficiently fingerprinted them. Then they went down
a ramp to a jitney-platform, and boarded a U.N. official car. The trip
into the city was slow; rush-hour traffic from the port was heavy. When
they reached U.N. headquarters, there was another wait in an upper
level ante-room. The Captain stood stiffly with his hands behind his
back and ignored them.
"Look, this is ridiculous," Greg burst out finally. "We haven't done
anything. You haven't even let us make a statement."
"Make your statement to the Major. It's his headache, not mine, I'm
happy to say."
"But you let that man walk out of there scot free...."
The Captain looked at him. "If I were you," he said, "I'd stop
complaining and start worrying. If I had Jupiter Equilateral at my
throat, I'd worry plenty, because once they start they don't stop."
A signal light blinked, and he took them downstairs. Major Briarton was
behind his desk; his eyes tired, his face grim. He dismissed the
Captain, and motioned them to seats. "All right, let's have the story,"
he said, "and by the ten moons of Saturn it had better be convincing,
because I've about had my fill of you three."
He listened without interruption as Tom told the story, with Greg and
Johnny adding details from time to time. Tom told him everything, from
the moment they had blasted off for Roger Hunter's claim to the moment
the Patrol ship had boarded them, except for a single detail.
He didn't mention the remarkable gun from Roger Hunter's gun case. The
gun was still in the spacer's pack he had slung over his shoulder; he
had not mentioned it when the Patrolmen had taken their stunners away.
Now as he talked, he felt a twinge of guilt in not mentioning it....
But he had a reason. Dad had died to keep that gun secret. It seemed
only right to keep the secret a little longer. When he came to the part
about their weapons, he simply spoke of "Dad's gun" and omitted any
details.
And through the story, the Major listened intently, interrupting only
occasionally, pulling at his lip and scowling.
"So we decided that the best way to convince you that we had the
evidence you wanted was to bring Tawney back with us," Tom concluded.
"A brilliant maneuver," the Major said dryly. "A real stroke of genius."
"But then the Patrol ship intercepted us and told us we were under
arrest. And when we landed, they let Tawney drive off without even
questioning him."
"The least we could do, under the circumstances," the Major said.
"Well, I'd like to know why," Greg broke in bitterly. "Why pick on us?
We've just been telling you...."
"Yes, yes, I heard every word of it," the Major sighed. "If you knew the
trouble ... oh, what's the use? I've spent the last three solid hours
talking myself hoarse, throwing in every bit of authority I could
muster and jeopardizing my position as Coordinator here, for the sole
purpose of keeping you three idiots out of jail for a few hours."
"Jail!"
"That's what I said. The brig. The place they put people when they don't
behave. You three are sitting on a nice, big powder keg right now, and
when it blows I don't know how much of you is going to be left."
"Do you think we're lying?" Greg said.
"Do you know what you're charged with?" the Major snapped back.
"Some sort of nonsense about piracy...."
"Plus kidnapping. Plus murder. To say nothing of totally disabling a
seventeen-million-dollar orbit-ship and placing the lives of four
hundred crewmen in jeopardy." The Major picked up a sheet of paper from
his desk. "According to Merrill Tawney's statement, the three of you
hijacked a company scout-ship that chanced to be scouting in the
vicinity of your father's claim. Your attack was unprovoked and violent.
Everybody on Mars knows you were convinced that Jupiter Equilateral was
responsible for your father's death." He looked up. "In the absence of
any evidence, I might add, although I did my best to tell you that." He
rattled the report-sheet. "All right. You took the scout-ship by force,
with the pilot at gunpoint, and made him home in on his orbit-ship. Then
you proceeded to reduce that orbit-ship to a leaking wreck, although
Tawney tried to reason with you and even offered you amnesty if you
would desist. By the time the crew stopped shooting each other in the
dark ... fifteen of them subsequently expired, it says here ... you had
stolen another scout-ship and kidnapped Tawney for the purpose of
extorting a confession out of Jupiter Equilateral, threatening him with
torture if he did not comply...." The Major dropped the paper to the
desk.
Johnny Coombs picked it up, looked at it owlishly, and put it back
again. "Pretty large operation for three men, Major," he said.
The Major shrugged. "You were armed. That orbit-ship was registered as a
commercial vessel. It had no reason to expect a surprise attack, and had
no way to defend itself."
"They were armed to the teeth," Greg said disgustedly. "Why don't you
send somebody out to look?"
"Oh, I could, but why waste the time and fuel? There wouldn't be any
weapons aboard."
"Then how do they explain the fact that the Scavenger was blown to
bits and Dad's orbit-ship ripped apart from top to bottom?"
"Details," the Major said. "Mere details. I'm sure that the company's
lawyers can muddy the waters quite enough so that little details like
that are overlooked. Particularly with a sympathetic jury and a judge
that plays along."
He stood up and ran his hand through his hair. "All right, granted I'm
painting the worst picture possible ... but I'm afraid that's the way
it's going to be. I believe your story, don't worry about that. I know
why you went out there to the Belt and I can't really blame you, I
suppose. But you were asking for trouble, and that's what you got.
Frankly, I am amazed that you ever returned to Mars, and how you managed
to make rubble of an orbit-ship with a crew of four hundred men trying
to stop you is more than I can comprehend. But you did it. All right,
fine. You were justified; they attacked you, held you prisoner,
threatened you. Fine. They'd have cut your throats in another few hours,
perhaps. Fine. I believe you. But there's one big question that you
can't answer, and unless you can no court in the Solar System will
listen to you."
"What question?" Tom said.
"The question of motives," the Major replied. "You had plenty of motive
for doing what Tawney says you did. But what motive did Jupiter
Equilateral have, if your story is true?"
"They wanted to get what Dad found, out in the Belt."
"Ah, yes, that mysterious bonanza that Roger Hunter found. I was afraid
that was what you'd say. And it's the reason that Jupiter Equilateral is
going to win this fight, and you're going to lose it."
"I don't think I understand," Tom said slowly.
"I mean that I'm going to have to testify against you," the Major said.
"Because your father didn't find a thing in the Asteroid Belt, and I
happen to know it."
* * * * *
"It's been a war," the Major said later, "a dirty vicious war with no
holds barred and no quarter given. Not a shooting war, of course,
nothing out in the open ... but a war just the same, with the highest
stakes of any war in history.
"It didn't look like a war, at first," the Major went on. "Back when the
colonies were being built, nobody really believed that anything of value
would come of them ... scientific outposts, perhaps, places for
laboratories and observatories, not much more. The colonies were placed
under United Nations control. Nobody argued about it.
"And then things began to change. There was wealth out here ... and
opportunities for power. With the overpopulation at home, Earth was
looking more and more to Mars and Venus for a place to move ... not tiny
colonies, but places for millions of people. And as Mars grew, Jupiter
Equilateral grew."
"But it was just a mining company," Tom said.
"At first it was, but then its interests began to expand. The company
accumulated wealth, unbelievable wealth, and it developed many friends.
Very soon it had friends back on Earth fighting for it, and the United
Nations found itself fighting to stay on Mars."
"I don't see why," Tom said. "The company already has half the mining
claims in the Belt...."
"They aren't interested in the mining," the Major said. "They have a
much longer-range goal than that. The men behind Jupiter Equilateral are
looking ahead. They know that someday Earthmen are going to have to go
to the stars for colonies ... it won't be a matter of choice after a
while, they'll have to go. Well, Jupiter Equilateral's terms are very
simple. They're perfectly willing to let the United Nations control
things on Earth. All they want is control of everything else. Mars, if
they can drive us out. Venus too, if it ever proves up for colonies. And
if they can gain control of the ships that leave our Solar System for
the stars, they can build an empire, and they know it."
They were silent for a moment. Then Johnny Coombs said, "Doesn't anybody
on Earth know about this?"
"There are some who know ... but they don't see the danger. They think
of Jupiter Equilateral as just another big company. So far U.N. control
of Mars and Venus has held up, even though the pressure on the
legislators back on Earth has been getting heavier and heavier. Jupiter
Equilateral won the greatest fight in its history when they limited U.N.
jurisdiction to Mars, and kept us out of the Belt. And now they hope to
convince the lawmakers that we're incompetent to administer the Martian
colonies and keep peace out here. If they succeed, we'll be called home
in nothing flat; we've had to fight just to stay."
The Major spread his hands helplessly. "Like I said, it's been a war.
Our only hope was to prove that the company was using piracy and murder
to gain control of the asteroids. We had to find a way to smash the
picture they've been painting of themselves back on Earth as a big,
benevolent organization interested only in the best for Earth colonists
on the planets. We had to expose them before they had the Earth in
chains ... not now, maybe not even a century from now, but sometime,
years from now, when the breakthrough to the stars comes and Earthmen
discover that if they want to leave Earth they have to pay toll...."
"They could never do that!" Greg protested.
"They're doing it, son. And they're winning. We have been searching
desperately for a way to fight back, and that was where your father came
in. He could see the handwriting, he knew what was happening. That was
why he broke with the company and tried to organize a competing force
before it was too late. And it was why he died in the Belt. He knew I
couldn't send an agent out there without unquestionable evidence of
major crime of some sort or another. But a private citizen could go out
there, and if he happened to be working with the U.N. hand in glove,
nobody could do anything about it."
"Then Dad was a U.N. agent?"
"Oh, not officially. There's not a word in the records. If I were forced
to testify under oath, I would have to deny any connection. But
unofficially, he went out there to lay a trap."
The Major told them then. It had been an incredible risk that Roger
Hunter had taken, but the decision had been his. The plan was simple: to
involve Jupiter Equilateral in a case of claim-jumping and piracy that
would hold up in court, pressed by a man who would not be intimidated
and could not be bought out. Roger Hunter had made a trip to the Belt
and come back with stories ... very carefully planted in just the right
ears ... of a fabulous strike. He knew that Jupiter Equilateral had
jumped a hundred rich claims in the past, forcing the independent miners
to agree, frightening them into silence or disposing of them with
"accidents."
But this was one claim they were not going to jump. The U.N. cooperated,
helping him spread the story of his Big Strike until they were certain
that Jupiter Equilateral would go for the bait. Then Roger Hunter had
returned to the Belt, with a U.N. Patrol ship close by in case he needed
help.
"We thought it would be enough," the Major said unhappily. "We were
wrong, of course. At first nothing happened ... not a sign of a company
ship, nothing. Your father contacted me finally. He was ready to give
up. Somehow they must have learned that it was a trap. But they had just
been careful, was all. They waited until our guard was down, and then
moved in fast and hit hard."
He sank down in his seat behind the desk, regarding the Hunter twins
sadly. "You know the rest. Perhaps you can see now why I tried to keep
you from going out there. There was no proof to uncover and no bonanza
lode for you to find. There never was a bonanza lode."
The twins looked at each other, and then at the Major. "Why didn't you
tell us?" Greg said.
"Would you have listened? Would telling you have kept you from going out
there? There was no point to telling you, I knew you would have to find
out for yourselves, however painfully. But what I'm telling you now is
the truth."
"As far as it goes," Tom Hunter said. "But if this is really the truth,
there's one thing that doesn't fit into the picture."
Slowly Tom pulled the gun case from his pack and set it down on the
Major's desk. "It doesn't explain what Dad was doing with this."
More
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Another week came and went, during which I spent a great deal of my time about the Pit mouth. I had come to the conclusion a few days earlier, that the arched hole, in the angle of the great rift, was the place through which the Swine-things had mad... The Success Machine
Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one. But the blamed thing almost put them out of business. Why? It had no tact. It insisted upon telling the truth! The Personnelovac winked, chit... The Super-ship Is Launched
After weeks of ceaseless work, during which was lavished upon her every resource of mind and material afforded by three planets, the Boise was ready for her maiden flight. As nearly ready, that is, as the thought and labor of man could make her. R... The Swine-things
It was evening, a week later. My sister sat in the garden, knitting. I was walking up and down, reading. My gun leant up against the wall of the house; for, since the advent of that strange thing in the gardens, I had deemed it wise to take precauti...