The girl touched her white, six-pointed jewel.
“This contains a tiny, atom-powered achronic field-coil,” she told him.
“It is adjusted to create a spherical barrier zone, that the search and refractor fields of the geofractor cannot penetrate.
“It is all that has defended me, thus far, from Derron’s stolen power.
And he has tried more than once to take it from me—as when he sent that robot to the New Moon to attack me—though he bungled, that time, by killing his own monster too soon.”
Giles Habibula blinked and squinted at her.
“Now, lass,” he queried, “now that we know all this—what shall we do about it?
Derron is driving out with us toward some unknown object in Draco, and the fleet is pressing mortal close behind us.”
“That object,” said Stella Eleroid, “must be the geofractor.”
“Eh!” Giles Habibula started.
“But that was a small thing, Jay Kalam said. He said one man could carry it.”
“The model was, that Derron took,” the girl agreed.
“It would have had power enough to carry one man—and itself—away from the island where my father was testing it—the only wonder is that Derron didn’t escape with it then, himself, instead of attempting his stupid pretence of innocence.
“But it had far too little power for these recent feats.
A huge new machine must have been constructed—probably it was built on a planet of another star, possibly with the labor of such robots as the one sent to the New Moon.
The thief has had four years, remember, and the model itself solved all problems of transportation.”
“But, lass—” Giles Habibula shook his head, doubtfully. “If Derron was in the New Moon, and this evil machine ten billions of miles away, then how could he have been the Basilisk?”
“Remote control,” said Stella Eleroid.
“The device was perfected by my father.
Something small enough for a man to carry in one hand, but powerful enough to operate the geofractor from almost any distance, with tubular fields of achronic force.
Since those same fields can be adjusted to pick up energy, as easily as to transmit it, they can be used for observation as well as control, with no time-lag, and no pickup equipment required.”
She saw Giles Habibula’s puzzled scowl.
“That means Derron can operate the geofractor from almost anywhere,” she said.
“He’s loaded now with the remote-control apparatus—I felt the hidden wires in his sleeve.”
Her white face tightened.
“There on the New Moon, he must have felt like a god traveling incognito—able to spy on anybody in the system with no danger of detection, and ready with the geofractor to snatch away everybody who dared oppose his power-madness. Or almost everybody.”
Nervously, she touched the white jewel again.
“Then, lass, shall we just wait and keep you hidden?” Giles Habibula urged uneasily.
“Until Derron brings us to his fearful machine—”
Crash! Something splintered the cabin door behind them.
Slivers flew around them, and Chan Derron’s wide shouldered bulk was framed in the ragged opening.
One hand clutched the control spindle of his geopellor, and the other leveled the bright needle of a proton blaster.
The girl’s hand darted for her weapon.
But Chan’s fingers tightened on the spindle, and his big body came toward her with the fleetness of a shadow.
The nose of his blaster caught hers, and flung it against the bulkhead. A simultaneous kick sent Giles Habibula’s thick cane spinning.
The geopellor lifted Chan back to the shattered doorway.
“Some spare blasters in the chest,” he gasped.
“And I’m not quite deaf.”
His weapon covered them while he caught his breath.
His narrowed eyes swept the white, defiant beauty of the girl, and he smiled grimly.
“Listen,” he said softly. “Miss Stella Eleroid—I’m glad you’re not Luroa!
And Giles Habibula—I thought you had been a loyal Legionnaire too long to desert!
Listen—” His weapon gestured emphatically.
“I heard all you said.
And now we are going to be three together against the Basilisk.
For I am going to convince you that I didn’t murder Dr. Eleroid.”
A little shudder swept the girl’s taut body.
The savage hate in her eyes drove Chan a step backward.
“Think so?” her voice whipped at him.
“I don’t!”