FOR A LONG time they rode in silence. The half-track had been waiting for them when they gathered their belongings from the Torms’ cabin, Tuck packing in despair, his father in white-faced anger. They had climbed in, with the Colonel at the steering bar, and the vehicle started out across the valley floor in the direction of the Rocket Landing.
Tuck had no idea what time it was, but he knew it was very late. Saturn had set now; the sky was pitch black, matching perfectly the black rocks of the tundra. There seemed to be no hurry; the Colonel eased the half-track along, searching out the path with the emergency lamp, frequently slowing to a stop to study the treacherous ground. Tuck sat huddled on the seat, his mind whirling with the sudden turn of events. For the first time in his life he felt himself utterly at a loss — there seemed to be no possible answer. He stared miserably out the front panel, saying over and over to himself that this was all wrong, that there had to be an answer — but he realized that his father still didn’t know about the Big Secret — whatever it was. And as he watched the Colonel, sitting stiffly, face still angry, Tuck knew he couldn’t tell him now. Several times he started to speak; each time it suddenly seemed ridiculous. There was nothing to say, as minute by minute they moved farther away from the colony.
Finally Tuck said, “There must be some way to stop them.”
“A trial for treason will stop them,” the Colonel snapped. “Of all the pigheaded, rebellious trash I ever saw in my life — ”
“You haven’t given them a chance — ”
The Colonel snorted, turning angry eyes to his son. “Yes, they seem to have you right along with them. I thought you had more sense than to swallow their nonsense.”
Tuck’s eyes widened. “What did I do?”
“You really gave me a helping hand, you did, getting yourself all chummy with that ninny of a son of his. That was fine. While I was doing everything I could to keep things on a negotiable basis, you had to pour fuel on Cortell’s little fire, to make the people think that a shady deal was going on. I wonder what kind of friends you picked back at school.”
Tuck’s ears turned red at the sarcasm. “I’m sorry, Dad. But you aren’t even trying to see their viewpoint at all — ”
“They have no viewpoint that makes any difference!” The Colonel burst out angrily. “You’d think they’d feel some sort of loyalty to the land that feeds them, and supports them and depends on them. Viewpoint, bah! First they try to blackmail me, and then they take my own son out and feed him a wild story that he doesn’t have brain enough to see through — ”
“That isn’t fair, and you know it!”
The Colonel looked at Tuck, and his face softened suddenly. The anger disappeared, and left behind it lines of weariness and defeat. “Oh, I suppose it isn’t. You didn’t know any better, and probably David didn’t realize what he was doing, either. I — I’m just tired, that’s all.” He sighed audibly. “This thing beats me, Tuck. It doesn’t make sense. I came up here to try to make a peaceable settlement, and I haven’t gotten to first base. Everything’s gone wrong right from the first, and now it looks like it’s going to be the end. We’ll be back to the penal colony stage, after all these years, and that’s a real defeat.” He shook his head wearily. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m getting old.”
Tuck sat in silence, his heart sinking. Then his father really didn’t realize what the true picture was. He still thought the whole business was a huge scheme to bluff him — with Torm and Cortell and David all working together. A flicker of doubt passed through his mind. Could it be possible that he had been fooled? That David had been used to foment violence against Torm and his father? Could it be that the Big Secret was actually ready, and that Torm himself was trying to breed an “incident” that would make it necessary to use it? Tuck shook his head. He just couldn’t believe that. Because there was no retreat for the colonists, no matter what plan they had. They could only go underground, into some vast subterranean vault, to lock themselves in, if they rebelled against Earth. Earth was too powerful, it spread too far. And once the die was cast, no Titan colonist would ever again be able to go anywhere in the Solar System. Their names would be the names of traitors against humanity, and they would have to stay in their hole and rot. So perhaps they would survive for twenty years or fifty years, or a hundred years — what good was survival that way?
No, David was right, and the Colonel was wrong. He could see that — his father couldn’t. The Colonel had brought a little more distrust, a little deeper prejudice, and a more bitter fund of experience with him. These were the things that blocked his father and blinded him. He couldn’t see what had been happening to the Titan colonists, he couldn’t realize what it meant to live in a tight, crowded, frozen colony for generation after generation, seeing their slender grip on freedom and their rights as men being torn from them bit by bit. He couldn’t understand how they could be as desperate as they really were. And if Tuck were to tell him about the Big Secret — the Colonel would probably laugh. Because unless he could see the colonists’ viewpoint, the Big Secret would be just another deceit, just another lie to use to blackmail him —
The half-track jounced through the gorge where the ambush had been laid. Tuck and his father peered out, but could see very little of the rubble that had fallen. Minutes passed — how long had they been gone? An hour? Two? Tuck knew he should be tired, but sleep was far from his mind. Slowly they rolled along, moving in a strange slow motion, a little black bug feeling its way across the wastes of an impossible planetoid to the last haven of humanity that still remained — the ship from Earth. Yet once they reached it, there would be no retreat. The colony would be lost. Because Torm would never be able to hold the colonists to his side after this last failure to settle peaceably with Earth.
And the Big Secret? There was the question mark, the key to the whole problem. It kept thrusting itself upon Tuck’s mind, insistently, and he reviewed what David had said about it. It seemed incredible that a plan could have been prepared in absolute secrecy for over a hundred years — and what could possibly take so long? What kind of plan could possibly offer the colony any sort of hope whatsoever?
Slowly, as they bounced along, things began to line themselves up in Tuck’s mind, like the outlines he had made in school. When you have a problem, write down everything you know about it — all the facts in one column, all the unknowns in another column, all possible solutions in another. Then eliminate.
All right. Problem:
The Big Secret —
A plan, a last-ditch plan, an escape, a way out that the colonists could use if they were driven against the wall. Check.
A plan that was guided by a very few people, kept in strict secrecy from the rest. Check again.
A plan that had taken over a hundred years to set in readiness. Check.
A plan that would take care of all five hundred people in the colony, a plan that would allow them to blow up the mines and the colony they had been living in. Check.
Hold it. Slow now. Something was missing there — Tuck shifted his weight as the half-track slid down a grade, then hit the bottom and lurched up again with a roar. A plan, a last-ditch plan, a way out —
A way out that Anson Torm thought was suicide, and risked being branded a traitor to oppose. But Cortell was eager to set it in motion —
A difference of opinion, then. Odd? Very odd. A last-ditch plan that was hazardous, terribly hazardous, but which might work. That made sense! There was great risk involved. It might be a way out, or it might be death. Cortell was willing to gamble; Torm was not —
But that meant that it might be a permanent way out for the colonists, if it worked. A way out in utter defiance of Earth —
Tuck chewed his lip. An underground station? Could that possibly, even conceivably, be a permanent way out?
Never. It just didn’t add up.
But what else? A ship to escape in? To escape where? What kind of a ship would carry five hundred people and let them hide out in a Solar System teeming with Security Patrol ships, a ship that would be hunted down to the bitter end. Possible? Even conceivable?
Never. There could be no escape off the planetoid itself. There was no place to go, no place to hide.
But what? Open war against Earth? Even more ridiculous. There were big enough ruthenium stores on Earth to last for several weeks. The colonists would be wiped out, utterly massacred.
Then what was the Big Secret?
It was something big, and something desperate beyond belief.
It was something on Titan.
Therefore — it was something that could be found.
Tuck stared at his father, an impossible plan forming in his mind. His father wouldn’t listen to reason now, he wouldn’t believe anything the colonists told him. Nothing would change his father’s attitude at this point but facts — cold, clear, unarguable facts. And there was only one fact that would make much difference. The plan, the true nature of the Big Secret. If Tuck could get back to the colony, somehow, contact David there, there might still be time. Time to find the Big Secret, wherever it was, whatever it was, and bring back the facts to lay before the two men.
Tuck’s heart pounded, and he tensed against the gripping bar, the plan crystallizing in his mind. Carefully he began watching his father drive the half-track. He’d never driven it before, but he seemed to be doing all right, and Tuck had watched David drive it. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. There wasn’t any other vehicle at the ship that could travel over this kind of ground. If it were possible —
After a long, unbearable time, the ‘track mounted the last rise, and tumbled over the rim, down into the shallow crater where the Earth ship stood, tall and shiny. Already there was a brightening on the horizon — the night was short, and it was almost dawn. Weird shadows were creeping out of the blacks and grays, showing the surface of the valley in more detail.
“We’ll need some sleep,” the Colonel was saying, “and I think we’d better get it while the getting is good. We’ll have the men alerted as soon as anything pops, and have them radio for a troopship from Ganymede right now — it can’t be too soon.” He glanced over at Tuck. “And I think you’d better stay on the ship, no matter what happens. I’ve had no right to drag you into this in the first place, particularly since I’ve made such a nice mess of things. And don’t worry too much about your young friend — I’ve a notion he’ll make out all right.”
Tuck nodded, his conscience jabbing him sharply. It was a desperate decision, a desperate chance to take, yet he knew he had to take it. It would mean disobeying his father — but there would be no answer but violence and death if he didn’t do it. And they could find the answer, if only there were time —
The half-track stopped thirty yards from the crane, and the top sprang open with a hiss. The Colonel clambered out, stepping down to the frigid ground. Tuck leaned over the back seat, as though hunting for something in the storage space, his heart beating in his throat, moving as slowly as he dared, until he saw his father start walking away from the half-track. Then, like lightning, Tuck snapped the switch that slammed the hood back down; in the same motion he started the pump at top speed, its motor roaring in his ears. For the briefest instant he caught a glimpse of his father’s face, startled, realization dawning; then he revved up the motor, jerked back on the steering bar, threw the gear into reverse, and felt the vehicle lurch back thirty feet from his father. The Colonel started running toward the vehicle, shouting, and Tuck desperately snapped on the emergency lamp, catching the Colonel full in the face, blinding him for an instant. Then, with a roar, the half-track pivoted, started rolling crazily away from the ship again, headed up the path that led to the colony. Through the back of the hood he saw his father’s tiny figure, running after the half-track for a few steps, then stopping, standing still, just staring. And then Tuck wrenched his mind away, forcibly thrust his betrayal out of his mind, concentrated on guiding the lumbering vehicle.
It slipped and slid, jouncing him out of the seat time after time, banging his head on the top, throwing him almost over on his face. It was speed now that counted, speed more than anything else, and he urged the car forward recklessly. A dismal red line was forming on the horizon; dawn was not far away, but the light only confused the picture before him as the half-track hurtled up the grade and over the rim, leaving the Earth ship far behind. Tuck hung on for dear life, praying that the machine would stay upright, and not run into any of the treacherous gullies and crevices that lay on either side.
The Snooper was in working order. If he could get to the colony and get David, they could go for the little ship. He had no more idea than the man in the moon what they would be looking for — but something existed, the Big Secret was somewhere — and if it existed, it could be found — A squeal of jet engines cut through to his ears, and he braked down the half-track, staring. Like a streak, he saw the little jet swoop down over him, arc up high, and loop over to come in again. Tuck’s heart skipped a beat. David had had the same idea! He slowed the ‘track to a stop, threw open the hood, and crawled out, running down the grade to the place where the Snooper had jetted in.
David waved, and moved aside in the cockpit, motioning Tuck in beside him. “I thought I was going to have to storm the ship single-handed to get you out,” he exclaimed. “Your dad really fixed things! I had to sneak out — sent the air-lock guard on a wild-goose chase and copped his half-track to get out to the Snooper — ”
“But why?”
“I’ve been thinking, dad got control of things in the meeting finally — but only because of the fight with the Colonel.” He grinned. “Cortell’s boys were having trouble explaining why they would be fighting if they were really in cahoots. But there’s only one thing that will bring any sort of solution now.” He looked up at Tuck, his face eager. “It means selling out my dad and the colony, but it’s the only thing.”
“You mean the plan,” Tuck said eagerly.
“Exactly. Wherever it is, we’ve got to find it, and spring it wide-open to everybody. If that won’t get dad and the Colonel together, nothing will.”
Tuck nodded. “It will. It can’t help but do it. But where do we start?”
David chewed his lip for a moment. “Wherever it is, it’s connected with the colony,” he said. “I mean by tunnel. I don’t have any idea where. The easiest thing would be to go in through the colony, but I’m afraid that’s out. Cortell would have the tunnel guarded, whichever one it was — ”
Tuck blinked. “That would tip us off to the right one — ”
“If we ever did find it. But there may be another way in.”
“From the outside?”
“Right. If it’s a vault, or a battle station, it’s big — it would have to be to take five hundred people. There are lots of abandoned shafts that might let us in to the mines. And once inside, we’ll have to make use of every break we can.” He snapped on the primer switch of the jet. “Hang on, boy,” he said softly. “We’ve got a lot of hunting to do, and we haven’t got much time.”
Tuck sat back, hardly able to breathe, the excited whine of the engines driving all thoughts out of his mind. The little scooter jerked, bumped a time or two, and then suddenly they were swooping out into the clear, thin atmosphere, rising higher and higher, until they could see the edge of the morning sun. Time was passing even now, precious minutes that could mean success or failure. With time closing in on them, it seemed an almost impossible chance —
But somewhere below them the planet held a secret, a secret that had been kept inviolate for a hundred years. And in a few short hours, somehow, the secret had to be found —