(eng) Murray Leinster by Checkpoint Lambda

Author:Checkpoint Lambda [Lambda, Checkpoint]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

There was another small whining sound from a tape reel on the control room wall. A passing ship had picked up the mechanical checkpoint call and had sent its taped log for Lambda to record and the Space Patrol to examine in case of need. That ship had gone back into overdrive and away before its broadcast reached the buoy. Such recordings were useful because, if that ship were to fail to reach its destination, an examination of its log to the last checkpoint might reveal the reason for its vanishing and help prevent another case of the same kind. But the system had other virtues, too. At least one meteor stream spanning the distance between two stars had been guessed at from such records. It had been hunted for and found, and was now a charted space-hazard which all ships avoided. And at least one totally disabled ship was found against all probability when its overdrive blew. But its log revealed some questionable instrument-readings and most of its crew was still alive when a Patrol ship found it.

But there was no record anywhere off Lambda of what might be the trouble there, now. If Lambda disappeared, the liner that had delivered Scott to it would report some irregularities. If the Golconda Ship picked up Scott's message--which it might, or it might not--there would be more information. But there would still be too little to amount to definite knowledge. The reord would show only that Lieutenant Scott, Space Patrol, had gone aboard Lambda to take command. It was his first command. And Lambda had vanished shortly afterward, like two robot checkpoints before it. Therefore it would be considered wise to avoid the Canis Lambda system, where two checkpoints and a manned buoy had vanished. So six space lanes would be shifted because it was not practical to avoid the dangers of this solar system -- or perhaps because Lieutenant Scott was incompetent. There'd be no evidence for any other conclusion except the possibly garbled message to the Golconda Ship.

Scott didn't like the idea. As a professional spaceman and an officer in the Patrol he felt that any disaster to anything he commanded should be reported and explained so it need never happen again. But as a man he considered that there were circumstances overriding even that obligation.

It was now time to act for the preservation of the space buoy. It no longer had any operating space drive, of course. Not even a hopelessly inadequate solar system drive unit. Used early enough, even that could have taken care of the comet problem. It should have been used. But Lieutenant Thrums had been murdered six days before Scott's arrival and before it was time to use it. Now it was too late. The rest of the buoy's crew had been murdered at the same time, so they couldn't tell Chenery or Bugsy of the coming need to drive ten to twenty thousand miles out of orbit--even thirty thousand--to avoid the comet-crossing. When Scott came aboard it was quite too late for any such commonsense proceeding.

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