Space-Lane of No-Return

Now Mike stores it away in the outer hull with the rest, Nord thought glumly, and the whole weary routine starts over again. Three days it took to find this last one--three days of monotonous search just above the Belt!

He forced his slim, wiry body erect, and straightened his shoulders. "They're getting scarcer, Mike. Before long, the System Federation can lower the safe traffic lanes down to here--that's the closest to the Belt that'll ever be practical. Maybe the next batch of Patrol College grads will get a different initiation."

"Sure," grumbled Mike, watching the ascending magnet. "Maybe the Federation'll have the Patrol go all out after that pirate, Kadine. He's got the only ship in space that can navigate the Asteroid Belt! Get his secret--and liners can go right through the Belt without bothering about asteroids or fragments!

"If they'd tried that before, Nord, we wouldn't waste our Patrol career with this blasted 'asteroid fishing'."

"The secret's in the steel hull of his ship," Holber agreed, firm jaw tightening. Dhain Kadine, he remembered, had been a brilliant physicist before he turned to space piracy. Now his ship, the only steel-hulled vessel in an age of plastics, operated from a base deep within the Asteroid Belt itself--sailing untouched where other daring craft had been battered to wreckage!

"We can't go in after him," Nord added, "and he picks his own time and place to come out. But--"

The visaphone on the instrument panel before him jangled a sudden warning. His grey eyes widened. A glowing disk indicated general communications wavelength, but the jangling meant a rider that stamped the communication; urgent!

He snapped the instrument on, and tuned in the length. The screen glowed, and blurred, vague images appeared. Broken, unintelligible words poured out.

Mike Doren glared at the instrument savagely, and glanced quickly to the lower view screen. The asteroid fragment was still a few feet below. "Static from the cable," he growled. "Wait! We don't want to lose this thing."

"That's a Patrol Officer on the screen," Holber said doubtfully, and smiled. "But I can't make out enough to tell his rank, so it's not insubordination if we wait."

The current flowing through the cable to the magnet was the same high frequency used in the ship itself--there was no space in a compact Patrol vessel for unnecessary converters. But, inside, the current was screened against interference with visaphone reception; while outside, pulsing through the cable, it set up an interference field.

In a matter of seconds, the magnet and its captive were inside the hull, and the bay doors closed. Mike jabbed off the magnetizing current, and the two heard the heartening thump of the asteroid fragment against the outer hull.

They heard, too, the voice from the visaphone, suddenly clear and imperative against the still jangling alarm: "... Kadine. Repeating:..."

Mike's jaw dropped. "Ring of Saturn! Talk about the devil!"

On the visaphone screen was a Colonel of the Inter-Planetary Patrol. Behind him could be seen a spacious control room--the nerve center of a luxury space liner. The Colonel's square, rugged face was white with anger. His words were clipped.

"Repeating! All Patrol ships in vicinity of Space Lane 6, be on lookout for Dhain Kadine, who has halted and robbed Earth Liner, Jovian Nymph!"

The words swept the weariness from Nord's face, and brought flame leaping from the depths of his grey eyes! Space Lane 6 was almost directly above their position. He saw Mike's features light with eagerness. Dhain Kadine had struck out from the wild Belt that was his impregnable stronghold; and now Nord Holber and Mike Doren, hugging the upper fringe of the Belt, were between the outlaw and safety!

"It's our chance!" Mike shouted. "Promotion--the end of this rookie fishing business--if we get him! We--"

In the visaphone, the Colonel went on, his voice bitter with chagrin; "Valuable scientific documents have been taken under threat of destruction to an unarmed passenger ship.

"Kadine traveling in direction of the Eos Family. Imperative that the Patrol intercept and destroy Dhain Kadine!" He paused, and added grimly; "_Jovian Nymph_ standing by."

Mike Doren whistled. "Must be some important papers! Why weren't they sent by Patrol ship then?"

Nord's eyes were speculative. "The Patrol's busy off Jupiter's moons. There's trouble brewing with the underground Jovian League trying to agitate the moons out of the System Federation. It's ticklish business, Mike--dynamite, in fact, with the System Congress expecting violence!

"Kadine's supposed to be in that business up to his ears, so somebody thought he'd be too busy to intercept a liner."

The other nodded. "So they send a Patrol Officer with the papers on a regular liner--and Jovian League spies tip off Kadine to come back from Jupiter and intercept them over the Belt, where he can jump to safety into the Asteroids!"

Nord was already searching the view screens. "Better get below and stow that fragment away, Mike," he ordered, quietly, asserting his nominal command for the first time since the two started their initial assignment. "And check pressure in your suit oxygen tank. The Eos Family is right below us in the Belt--and this is where Kadine's heading!"

His partner grinned. "Yes, sir!" He clambered through the inner airlock, and squirmed through the narrow space between the hulls. His voice came back over the suit communication unit: "Aren't you going to acknowledge the orders?"