Captain Future 13 - The Face of the Deep (Winter 1943) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Neptunian engineer on duty. He was automatically popping a dried prune into his mouth, as his spectacled eyes blinked at them amazedly.
    “Wh-what’s going on?” he stammered. “Orluk says that he h-h-heard shooting —”
    “The cursed convicts have grabbed the bridge-room and upper decks!” answered Ezra Gurney, his faded eyes still raging.
     
    CAPTAIN FUTURE was snapping orders.
    “Grag, you and Rih Quili lock the fore door and watch it. Otho, take the aft door.”
    “You’re not h-hurt, are you, M-m-miss Randall?” the prune-loving engineer was asking anxiously of Joan.
    “I’m all right,” she said. “But I’ve failed in my duty. This is the first time there has ever been a break on the Vulcan.”
    “It’s more my fault than yours or Ezra’s,” Curt said bitterly. “I felt all along that that desperate bunch might try something. That’s why I came along and took all the precautions I could. But they somehow outsmarted me.”
    There was a loud hammering at the fore and aft doors of the cyc-room. The mutineers had apparently discovered the whereabouts of the group.
    “They can’t break in here,” Ezra muttered hopefully. “They know if they do, we’ll blast ‘em down as fast as they come through the door.”
    Curt was searching the crowded cyc-room with intent gray eyes. “Are there any space-suits down here?” he asked McClinton.
    “N-n-no,” stuttered the lanky engineer wonderingly. “Suits aren’t ever k-kept down here, for there’s n-n-no need for them here.”
    “We’ll need them pretty quickly, if my guess is right,” Curt exclaimed. He pointed at two big valves inset in niches in the thick wall of the cyc-room. “Those are air-exhaust valves, controlled from the bridge-room. They’re part of the valve system designed to make possible the exhaustion of air from any section of the ship.”
    “Good God, I forgot all ‘bout those exhausts!” cried Ezra, aghast. “They were intended to enable the ship’s commander to quell any convict mutiny in any part of the ship. If the convicts learn about ‘em and turn ‘em against us —”
    “They will, and quickly,” Curt snapped. “That Kim Ivan seems to know all about this ship. Can we fix those valves to keep them from being opened?”
    “There’s n-n-no way!” answered McClinton, paling. “Operation of the v-v-valves is all by r-r-remote control through w-wires in the w-walls.”
    “Then we’ve got to weld metal patches over the valve-niches — and quickly!” Captain Future cried. “You’ve got atomic welding-torches here? Get them out, and bring some sheet metal stock.”
    As they started to work with the sputtering atomic torches to cut metal patches that would seal the exhaust-valve openings, the hammering on the doors ceased.
    Grag, Otho, Rih Quili and Ezra remained on guard inside those doors while Curt and McClinton worked hastily.
    Before they had even cut out the first metal patch, a loud voice bellowed through the cyc-room. It came from the interphone that connected with the bridge.
    “Captain Future!” it bellowed.
    “This is Kim Ivan talking. We’ve taken the whole ship except the cyc-room. You haven’t a chance. Unless you open the fore door and toss out your atom-guns, I’m going to open the cyc-room exhaust-valves.”
    “That Martian devil!” gritted Ezra Gurney furiously. “He knew about the valve-system, all right.”
    “What about it, Future?” bellowed the Martian’s voice. “I’m going to give you two minutes. Unless you agree by then, the valves open!”
    Stricken by the threat, the others looked at Curt. His bronzed-face was a taut mask as he assessed their hopeless situation.
     
    THEY could not seal the deadly valves in two minutes. That job would take a half hour, at least. Long before they finished it, the valves would be opened and the air would puff out of the cyc-room, slaying them all.
    “They’ve got the doors locked on the other side now, chief!” Otho reported.
    “So