The Road to the Rim - A. Bertram Chandler [29]
Grimes was standing hard against Baxter now. Their helmets were touching. He asked, "What . . . what is it?"
"I was hopin' you'd be able ter tell me, Admiral." Then, as Grimes extended a cautious hand into the case, "Careful! Don't touch nothin'!"
"Why not?"
" 'Cause this bloody lot was booby-trapped, that's why. See that busted spring? An' see that cylinder in the corner? That's a thermite bomb, or somethin' worse. Shoulda gone orf when I pried the lid up—but luckily I buggered the firin' mechanism with me bar when I stuck it inter just the right crack. But I think the bastard's deloused now."
"It looks as though it—whatever it is—is hooked up to one of the electrical circuits."
"Yair. An' it's not the lightin' circuit. Must be the airlock indicators."
"Must be." As a weapons expert, Grimes could see the thermite bomb—if that was what it was— had been rendered ineffective. It hadn't been an elaborate trap, merely a device that would destroy the—the thing if the case housing it were tampered with. Baxter had been lucky—and, presumably, those who had planted the—what the hell was it?—unlucky.
With a cautious finger he nudged the rotor.
It turned—and he was reminded of those other rotors, the ever-precessing gyroscopes of the Mannschenn Drive.
He remembered, then. He remembered a series of lectures at the Academy on future weapons and navigational devices. Having decided upon his specialty he had been really interested only in the weapons. But there had been talk of a man called Carlotti, who was trying to develop a device that would induce temporal precession in radio signals, so that instantaneous communications would be possible throughout the Galaxy without ships and shore stations having to rely upon the temperamental and unreliable telepaths. And beacons, employing the same principle, could be used for navigation by ships under interstellar drive . . . .
So this could be one of Signor Carlotti's gadgets. Perhaps the Empire of Waverley had offered him a higher price than had the Federation. But why the BELUGA CAVIAR? To deter and confuse industrial spies? But Epsilon Sextans possessed excellent strong rooms for the carriage of special cargo.
And why was the thing wired up?
Suddenly it was obvious. Somehow, the Duchy of Waldegren possessed Carlotti equipment. This . . . this beacon had been transmitting, unknown to anybody aboard the ship, during the voyage. The frigates had homed upon her. When, inadvertently, its power supply had been shut off the victim, using random precession, had been able to make her escape.
So, if the pirates were to make a second attack it would have to be reactivated.
"We'd better throw this lot on to the Old Man's plate," said Grimes.
CAPTAIN CRAVEN listened intently as Grimes and Baxter told their story. They feared that he was going to lose his temper when told of the engineer's cargo pillaging, but he only remarked, in a dry voice, "I guess that the consignees can afford to compensate us for our time and trouble. Even so, Mr. Baxter, I insist that this practice must cease forthwith." And then, when Grimes described the device, he said, "Yes, I have heard of Carlotti's work. But I didn't think that he'd got as far as a working model. But the thing could have been developed by Waldegrenese scientists from the data in his published papers."
"So you agree, sir, that it is some kind of beacon upon which the pirates can home?"
"What else can it be? Now, gentlemen, we find ourselves upon the horns of a dilemma. If we don't reactivate the bloody thing, the chances are that we shall deliver the ship and cargo intact, at no great risk to ourselves, and to the joy of the underwriters. If we do reactivate it—then the chances are that we shall have to fight our way through. And there's no guarantee that