The Empress of Mars by Ross Rocklynne

Author:Ross Rocklynne [Rocklynne, Ross]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-30T21:00:00+00:00

When he entered the galley, the man sitting at the tiny mess table raised his disheveled head, looking first at Reg, then at the gun.

“I go, cop,” he said throatily. “You get no fight from me. I been waiting for this. I think maybe you have a cup of coffee?”

“No, Aarn,” Reg said gently. “We better go now.”

“We go now. That’s oil right. I yust t’ink I go back and own up to everything. Then maybe that rat Hudson get what’s coming to him for turning on me, eh?” He rolled bloodshot eyes at Reg pleadingly.

“Aarn,” Reg said determinedly, “I can’t make any promises for you. Either you give up now or you don’t.”

“I give up now, don’t worry, Mason,” rumbled Aarn, twisting his red lips into a grin, but only succeeding in grimacing because his broad face was so dirty and full of beard, and his teeth blackened by chewing tobacco. He wiped the back of his hair-matted hand across his mouth, the loose sleeves of his shirt dragging through the saucer he had been drinking hot coffee from. He was a round short man. His shirt was open and his chest was furred like a mountain sheep. He noticed the way Reg was looking at him and made an impudent gesture.

“Many t’ings happen to me, young man,” he said heavily. “I get so I don’t care. This is not the life for me on this mountain-top. The other life in space—that wasn’t for me. I am not a bad man. I yust a poor Danska, and I should be back on the cattle ranch. We go now, eh?”

He arose with a heavy, vague sigh, and with many puffings pulled his coveralls around him, leaving his head uncovered.

“Bring your own airsuit with you, Aarn,” commanded Reg. He only had one on board his own ship—Elise was using the other.

Aarn Logan draped the suit over his short arm and led the way. He paused beside the tiny engine room for a moment, looked inside as if considering something deeply. Then he shrugged his shoulders.

Outside, he saw the rope and shook his head.

“We go around by a path, Mason.”

He took hold of the rope and jerked it so a wave of the rope traveled up along the cliff face. The upper end of the rope came free. Aarn coiled it with a series of dexterous movements around his left arm. He went ahead again, leading Mason along a precipitous path. They got to the ship in fifteen minutes. In less time than that, Aarn was comfortably seated in the control room, but he was locked to the guide rails. He sat there, his expressive, red-rimmed eyes dismal and unhappy.

Reg took his time about lifting the ship. Rules dictated that he complete his mission in the smallest possible amount of time, but in this case he felt as if a little rebellion would be good for his soul. Only the stars knew that when he finally delivered Aarn to Hudson the unjustness of the deal would keep him awake more than one night.

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