But Captain Hugh Warren's face had suddenly drained of color. Now his hands smashed open the ship's intercommunicating system, and he bawled, "We're caught in an enemy tractor beam! All hands at battle stations! Stand by to repel boarders!"
But overlapping his command came that of a second voice, one crisp and cool and pleasantly amused,
"I shouldn't if I were you, Captain. You see, we're already alongside, with our guns trained on you. It would be wiser to bow to the inevitable."
"But what ... who...?" gasped Dr. Bryant.
Hugh Warren turned from his controls with a shrug of resignation, and in a voice of gathering despair, "Troubles," he said, "never come singly. Now it's pirates."
Minutes later he was proven correct. There came the grating clamor of spacecraft in embrace, the hiss of opening airlocks, and into the Liberty strode a band of Earthmen, bulger-clad and armed to the teeth.
With the swift efficiency of long practice, these men dispersed throughout the ship to accomplish their marauding aims. Only their leader and a lieutenant refrained from piratical activity. These came to the bridge of the Liberty, and there with an ease and calmness Gary Lane found amazing under the circumstances, addressed themselves to the skipper of the invaded vessel.
"Greetings, Captain. No hard feelings, I hope? If you'll just toss your sidearms over into the corner—There, that's better. No reason we shouldn't enjoy a pleasant little chat until my men have completed their mission."
"Mission?" grated Warren savagely. "What mission? Damn your rascally hide, we're no merchantman. This is a cruiser of the Solar Space Patrol."