“I hope not,” Lianna murmured. She added with a flash of pride, “I will corroborate your story. And I am still princess of Fomalhaut Kingdom!”
Hours seemed to drag as the cruisers hurtled headlong out of Orion Nebula, and on westward through open space.
Lianna slept exhaustedly after a time. But Gordon could not sleep. His every nerve seemed taut as he sensed the approaching climax of the gigantic galactic game in which he had been but a pawn.
He must convince Jhal Arn of the truth of his story. And he must do so quickly, for as soon as Shorr Kan learned that he had escaped to tell the truth, the master of the Cloud would act swiftly.
Gordon's head ached. Where would it all end? Was there any real chance of his clearing up this great tangle and getting to Earth for the re-exchange of bodies with the real Zarth Arn?
Finally the cruisers decelerated. Orion Nebula was now a glow in the starry heavens far behind them. Close ahead lay the shining cluster of suns of the Pleiades. And near the Pleiades' famous beacon group there stretched a far-flung echelon of tiny sparks.
The sparks were ships. Warships of the Mid-Galactic Empire's great navy cruising here off the Pleiades, one of the many mighty squadrons watching and warding the Empire's boundaries.
Lianna had awakened. She looked out with him as the cruiser slowly moved past gigantic battleships, columns of grim cruisers, slim phantoms and destroyers and scouts.
“This is one of the main battle-fleets of the Empire,” she murmured.
“Why are we being kept here, instead of letting us give our warning?” sweated Gordon.
Their cruiser drew up alongside a giant battleship, the hulls grating together. They heard a rattle of machinery.
Then the cabin door opened and young Dar Carrul entered. “I have received orders to transfer you at once to our flagship, the Ethne.”
“But let us talk first by stereo to Throon, to the Emperor!” Gordon said. “Man, what we have to tell may save the whole Empire from disaster.”
Dar Carrul shook his head curtly. “My orders are that you are to send no messages but are to be transferred immediately. I presume that the Ethne will take you at once to Throon.”
Gordon stood, sick with disappointment and hope delayed. Lianna plucked his arm.
“It won't take long for that battleship to reach Throon, and then you'll be able to tell,” she encouraged.
The two went with guards around them down through the cruiser to a hatchway.
From it a short tubular gangway had been run to the battleship.
They went through it under guard of soldiers from the battleship. Once inside the bigger ship, the gangway was cast off and the airlock closed.
Gordon looked around the vestibule chamber at officers and guards. He saw the hatred in their faces as they looked at him. They too thought him assassin of his father, traitor to the Empire! “I demand to see the captain of this battleship immediately,” he rasped, to the lieutenant of guards.
“He is coming now,” answered the lieutenant icily, as a tramp of feet came from a corridor.
Gordon swung toward the newcomers, with on his lips a fiery request to be permitted to call Throon. He never uttered it.
For he was looking at a stocky, uniformed figure, a man whose grizzled, square face and bleak eyes he knew only too well.
“Corbulo!” he cried.
Commander Corbulo's bleak eyes did not waver as his harsh voice lashed out at Gordon.
“Yes, traitor, it is I. So you two have been caught at last?”
“You call me traitor!” Gordon choked. “You yourself, the greatest traitor in all history-”
Chan Corbulo turned coldly toward the tall, swarthy Arcturian captain who had entered with him and was glaring at Gordon.
“Captain Marlann, there is no need to take this assassin and his accomplice to Throon for trial. I saw them murder Arn Abbas. As Commander of the Empire fleet, I adjudge them guilty by space-law and order them executed immediately.”
Chapter XXI. Mutiny in the Void
GORDON'S mind rocked to disastrous “realization.” As he stared frozenly into Chan Corbulo's grim, triumphant face, he understood what had happened.
As Commander of the Empire navy, Corbulo had received the report of the capture of Gordon and Lianna. The arch traitor had known that he must not let Gordon return to Throon with what he knew. So he had swiftly come here and ordered the two captives brought aboard his own flagship, to do away with them before they could tell what they knew.
Gordon looked wildly around the circle of officers. “You've got to believe me. I'm no traitor. It was Corbulo himself who murdered my father and who is betraying the Empire to Shorr Kan!”
He saw hard, cold unbelief and bitter hatred in the officers' faces. Then Gordon recognized one familiar face.
It was the craggy red face of Hull Burrel, the Antarian captain who had saved him from the Cloud-raiders on Earth. He remembered now that for that, Hull Burrel had been promoted aide to the Commander.
“Hull Burrel, you surely believe me!” Gordon appealed. “You know that Shorr Kan tried to have me kidnapped before.”
The big Antarian scowled. “I thought then he did. I didn't know then you were secretly in league with him, that all that was just pretense.”
“I tell you, it wasn't pretense!” Gordon said. “You've all let Corbulo pull the wool over your eyes.”
Lianna, her gray eyes blazing in her white face, added, “Zarth speaks the truth. Corbulo is the traitor.”
Chan Corbulo made a brusque gesture. “We've had enough of these wild lies. Captain Marlann, see that they are locked out into space at once. It's the most merciful manner of execution.”
The guards stepped forward. And then, as Gordon felt the bitterness of despair, he glimpsed the satisfied smirk in Corbulo's eyes and it stung him to a final desperate effort.
“You're letting Corbulo make fools of you all!” he raged. “Why is he so set on executing us instantly, instead of taking us to Throon for trial? Because he wants to silence us. We know too much.”
At last, Gordon perceived that he had made a little impression on the officers, Hull Burrel and others looked a little doubtful.
The Antarian glanced questioningly at Corbulo. “Commander, I beg you will pardon me if I'm overstepping my position. But perhaps it would be more regular to take them to Throon for trial.”
Val Marlann, the swarthy Arcturian captain of this battleship, supported Hull Burrel. “Zarth Arn is one of the royal family, after all. And the princess Lianna is a ruler in her own right.”
Lianna said swiftly, “This execution means that Fomalhaut Kingdom will break its alliance with the Empire, remember.”
Chan Corbulo's square face stiffened in anger. He had been confident that Gordon and Lianna were on the brink of death, and this slight hitch irritated him.
His irritation made Corbulo do the wrong thing. He tried to ride roughshod over the objections just advanced.
“There is no need to take black traitors and assassins to Throon!” he snapped. “We will execute them at once. Obey my orders.”
Gordon seized on that opportunity to make a flaming appeal to the gathered officers.
“You see? Corbulo will never let us go to Throon to tell what we know. Has he even reported our capture to the Emperor?”
Hull Burrel, with gathering trouble on his craggy face, looked at the young Earthman officer.
“You are communication-officer, Verlin. Has any report of Zarth Arn's capture been made to the Emperor?”
Corbulo exploded in rage. “Burrel, how dare you question my conduct? By God, I'll break you for this.”
The young Earthman, Verlin, looked uncertainly at the raging Commander. Then he hesitantly answered Hull Burrel's question.
“No report of any kind has been made to Throon. The Commander ordered me to make no mention of the capture yet.”