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@@ -1,36 +1,4 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Planet of Dread, by Murray Leinster - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Planet of Dread - -Author: Murray Leinster - -Release Date: June 27, 2013 [EBook #43046] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANET OF DREAD *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43046 *** PLANET of DREAD @@ -1179,7 +1147,7 @@ not have changed. Burleigh sat in the control-room with a double handful of purple crystals before him. -"This," he said when Moran and Carol reentered, "this is bessendium past +"This," he said when Moran and Carol reëntered, "this is bessendium past question. I've been thinking what it means." "Money," said Moran drily. "You'll all be rich. You'll probably retire @@ -2341,364 +2309,4 @@ THE END End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Planet of Dread, by Murray Leinster -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANET OF DREAD *** - -***** This file should be named 43046.txt or 43046.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/0/4/43046/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Planet of Dread - -Author: Murray Leinster - -Release Date: June 27, 2013 [EBook #43046] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANET OF DREAD *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - PLANET of DREAD - - By MURRAY LEINSTER - - Illustrator ADKINS - - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Fantastic Stories - of Imagination May 1962. Extensive research did not uncover any - evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - _Moran cut apart the yard-long monstrosity with a slash of flame. - The thing presumably died, but it continued to writhe senselessly. - He turned to see other horrors crawling toward him. Then he knew he - was being marooned on a planet of endless terrors._ - - -I. - -Moran, naturally, did not mean to help in the carrying out of the plans -which would mean his destruction one way or another. The plans were -thrashed out very painstakingly, in formal conference on the space-yacht -_Nadine_, with Moran present and allowed to take part in the discussion. -From the viewpoint of the _Nadine's_ ship's company, it was simply -necessary to get rid of Moran. In their predicament he might have come -to the same conclusion; but he was not at all enthusiastic about their -decision. He would die of it. - -The _Nadine_ was out of overdrive and all the uncountable suns of the -galaxy shone steadily, remotely, as infinitesimal specks of light of -every color of the rainbow. Two hours since, the sun of this solar -system had been a vast glaring disk off to port, with streamers and -prominences erupting about its edges. Now it lay astern, and Moran -could see the planet that had been chosen for his marooning. It was a -cloudy world. There were some dim markings near one lighted limb, but -nowhere else. There was an ice-cap in view. The rest was--clouds. - - * * * * * - -The ice-cap, by its existence and circular shape, proved that the planet -rotated at a not unreasonable rate. The fact that it was water-ice told -much. A water-ice ice-cap said that there were no poisonous gases in the -planet's atmosphere. Sulfur dioxide or chlorine, for example, would not -allow the formation of water-ice. It would have to be sulphuric-acid or -hydrochloric-acid ice. But the ice-cap was simple snow. Its size, too, -told about temperature-distribution on the planet. A large cap would -have meant a large area with arctic and sub-arctic temperatures, with -small temperate and tropical climate-belts. A small one like this meant -wide tropical and sub-tropical zones. The fact was verified by the -thick, dense cloud-masses which covered most of the surface,--all the -surface, in fact, outside the ice-cap. But since there were ice-caps -there would be temperate regions. In short, the ice-cap proved that a -man could endure the air and temperature conditions he would find. - - * * * * * - -Moran observed these things from the control-room of the _Nadine_, then -approaching the world on planetary drive. He was to be left here, with -no reason ever to expect rescue. Two of the _Nadine's_ four-man crew -watched out the same ports as the planet seemed to approach. Burleigh -said encouragingly; - -"It doesn't look too bad, Moran!" - -Moran disagreed, but he did not answer. He cocked an ear instead. He -heard something. It was a thin, wabbling, keening whine. No natural -radiation sounds like that. Moran nodded toward the all-band speaker. - -"Do you hear what I do?" he asked sardonically. - -Burleigh listened. A distinctly artificial signal came out of the -speaker. It wasn't a voice-signal. It wasn't an identification beacon, -such as are placed on certain worlds for the convenience of interstellar -skippers who need to check their courses on extremely long runs. This -was something else. - -Burleigh said: - -"Hm ... Call the others, Harper." - -Harper, prudently with him in the control-room, put his head into the -passage leading away. He called. But Moran observed with grudging -respect that he didn't give him a chance to do anything drastic. These -people on the _Nadine_ were capable. They'd managed to recapture the -_Nadine_ from him, but they were matter-of-fact about it. They didn't -seem to resent what he'd tried to do, or that he'd brought them an -indefinite distance in an indefinite direction from their last -landing-point, and they had still to re-locate themselves. - - * * * * * - -They'd been on Coryus Three and they'd gotten departure clearance from -its space-port. With clearance-papers in order, they could land -unquestioned at any other space-port and take off again--provided the -other space-port was one they had clearance for. Without rigid control -of space-travel, any criminal anywhere could escape the consequences of -any crime simply by buying a ticket to another world. Moran couldn't -have bought a ticket, but he'd tried to get off the planet Coryus on the -_Nadine_. The trouble was that the _Nadine_ had clearance papers -covering five persons aboard--four men and a girl Carol. Moran made six. -Wherever the yacht landed, such a disparity between its documents and -its crew would spark an investigation. A lengthy, incredibly minute -investigation. Moran, at least, would be picked out as a fugitive from -Coryus Three. The others were fugitives too, from some unnamed world -Moran did not know. They might be sent back where they came from. In -effect, with six people on board instead of five, the _Nadine_ could not -land anywhere for supplies. With five on board, as her papers declared, -she could. And Moran was the extra man whose presence would rouse -space-port officials' suspicion of the rest. So he had to be dumped. - -He couldn't blame them. He'd made another difficulty, too. Blaster in -hand, he'd made the _Nadine_ take off from Coryus III with a trip-tape -picked at random for guidance. But the trip-tape had been computed for -another starting-point, and when the yacht came out of overdrive it was -because the drive had been dismantled in the engine-room. So the ship's -location was in doubt. It could have travelled at almost any speed in -practically any direction for a length of time that was at least -indefinite. A liner could re-locate itself without trouble. It had -elaborate observational equipment and tri-di star-charts. But smaller -craft had to depend on the Galactic Directory. The process would be to -find a planet and check its climate and relationship to other planets, -and its flora and fauna against descriptions in the Directory. That was -the way to find out where one was, when one's position became doubtful. -The _Nadine_ needed to make a planet-fall for this. - -The rest of the ship's company came into the control-room. Burleigh -waved his hand at the speaker. - -"Listen!" - - * * * * * - -They heard it. All of them. It was a trilling, whining sound among the -innumerable random noises to be heard in supposedly empty space. - -"That's a marker," Carol announced. "I saw a costume-story tape once -that had that sound in it. It marked a first-landing spot on some planet -or other, so the people could find that spot again. It was supposed to -be a long time ago, though." - -"It's weak," observed Burleigh. "We'll try answering it." - -Moran stirred, and he knew that every one of the others was conscious of -the movement. But they didn't watch him suspiciously. They were alert by -long habit. Burleigh said they'd been Underground people, fighting the -government of their native world, and they'd gotten away to make it seem -the revolt had collapsed. They'd go back later when they weren't -expected, and start it up again. Moran considered the story probable. -Only people accustomed to desperate actions would have remained so calm -when Moran had used desperate measures against them. - -Burleigh picked up the transmitter-microphone. - -"Calling ground," he said briskly. "Calling ground! We pick up your -signal. Please reply." - -He repeated the call, over and over and over. There was no answer. -Cracklings and hissings came out of the speaker as before, and the thin -and reedy wabbling whine continued. The _Nadine_ went on toward the -enlarging cloudy mass ahead. - -Burleigh said; - -"Well?" - -"I think," said Carol, "that we should land. People have been here. If -they left a beacon, they may have left an identification of the planet. -Then we'd know where we are and how to get to Loris." - -Burleigh nodded. The _Nadine_ had cleared for Loris. That was where it -should make its next landing. The little yacht went on. All five of its -proper company watched as the planet's surface enlarged. The ice-cap -went out of sight around the bulge of the globe, but no markings -appeared. There were cloud-banks everywhere, probably low down in the -atmosphere. The darker vague areas previously seen might have been -highlands. - -"I think," said Carol, to Moran, "that if it's too tropical where this -signal's coming from, we'll take you somewhere near enough to the -ice-cap to have an endurable climate. I've been figuring on food, too. -That will depend on where we are from Loris because we have to keep -enough for ourselves. But we can spare some. We'll give you the -emergency-kit, anyhow." - - * * * * * - -The emergency-kit contained antiseptics, seeds, and a weapon or two, -with elaborate advice to castaways. If somebody were wrecked on an even -possibly habitable planet, the especially developed seed-strains would -provide food in a minimum of time. It was not an encouraging thought, -though, and Moran grimaced. - -She hadn't said anything about being sorry that he had to be marooned. -Maybe she was, but rebels learn to be practical or they don't live long. -Moran wondered, momentarily, what sort of world they came from and why -they had revolted, and what sort of set-back to the revolt had sent the -five off in what they considered a strategic retreat but their -government would think defeat. Moran's own situation was perfectly -clear. - -He'd killed a man on Coryus III. His victim would not be mourned by -anybody, and somebody formerly in very great danger would now be safe, -which was the reason for what Moran had done. But the dead man had been -very important, and the fact that Moran had forced him to fight and -killed him in fair combat made no difference. Moran had needed to get -off-planet, and fast. But space-travel regulations are especially -designed to prevent such escapes. - -He'd made a pretty good try, at that. One of the controls on -space-traffic required a ship on landing to deposit its fuel-block in -the space-port's vaults. The fuel-block was not returned until clearance -for departure had been granted. But Moran had waylaid the messenger -carrying the _Nadine's_ fuel-block back to that space-yacht. He'd -knocked the messenger cold and presented himself at the yacht with the -fuel. He was admitted. He put the block in the engine's gate. He duly -took the plastic receipt-token the engine only then released, and he -drew a blaster. He'd locked two of the _Nadine's_ crew in the -engine-room, rushed to the control-room without encountering the others, -dogged the door shut, and threaded in the first trip-tape to come to -hand. He punched the take-off button and only seconds later the -overdrive. Then the yacht--and Moran--was away. But his present -companions got the drive dismantled two days later and once the yacht -was out of overdrive they efficiently gave him his choice of -surrendering or else. He surrendered, stipulating that he wouldn't be -landed back on Coryus; he still clung to hope of avoiding return--which -was almost certain anyhow. Because nobody would want to go back to a -planet from which they'd carried away a criminal, even though they'd -done it unwillingly. Investigation of such a matter might last for -months. - -Now the space-yacht moved toward a vast mass of fleecy whiteness without -any visible features. Harper stayed with the direction-finder. From time -to time he gave readings requiring minute changes of course. The -wabbling, whining signal was louder now. It became louder than all the -rest of the space-noises together. - - * * * * * - -The yacht touched atmosphere and Burleigh said; - -"Watch our height, Carol." - -She stood by the echometer. Sixty miles. Fifty. Thirty. A correction of -course. Fifteen miles to surface below. Ten. Five. At twenty-five -thousand feet there were clouds, which would be particles of ice so -small that they floated even so high. Then clear air, then lower clouds, -and lower ones still. It was not until six thousand feet above the -surface that the planet-wide cloud-level seemed to begin. From there on -down it was pure opacity. Anything could exist in that dense, almost -palpable grayness. There could be jagged peaks. - -The _Nadine_ went down and down. At fifteen hundred feet above the -unseen surface, the clouds ended. Below, there was only haze. One could -see the ground, at least, but there was no horizon. There was only an -end to visibility. The yacht descended as if in the center of a sphere -in which one could see clearly nearby, less clearly at a little -distance, and not at all beyond a quarter-mile or so. - -There was a shaded, shadowless twilight under the cloud-bank. The ground -looked like no ground ever seen before by anyone. Off to the right a -rivulet ran between improbable-seeming banks. There were a few very -small hills of most unlikely appearance. It was the ground, the matter -on which one would walk, which was strangest. It had color, but the -color was not green. Much of it was a pallid, dirty-yellowish white. But -there were patches of blue, and curious veinings of black, and here and -there were other colors, all of them unlike the normal color of -vegetation on a planet with a sol-type sun. - -Harper spoke from the direction-finder; - -"The signal's coming from that mound, yonder." - -There was a hillock of elongated shape directly in line with the -_Nadine's_ course in descent. Except for the patches of color, it was -the only considerable landmark within the half-mile circle in which -anything could be seen at all. - -The _Nadine_ checked her downward motion. Interplanetary drive is rugged -and sure, but it does not respond to fine adjustment. Burleigh used -rockets, issuing great bellowings of flame, to make actual contact. The -yacht hovered, and as the rocket-flames diminished slowly she sat down -with practically no impact at all. But around her there was a monstrous -tumult of smoke and steam. When the rockets went off, she lay in a -burned-out hollow some three or four feet deep with a bottom of solid -stone. The walls of the hollow were black and scorched. It seemed that -at some places they quivered persistently. - -There was silence in the control-room save for the whining noise which -now was almost deafening. Harper snapped off the switch. Then there was -true silence. The space-yacht had come to rest possibly a hundred yards -from the mound which was the source of the space-signal. That mound -shared the peculiarity of the ground as far as they could see through -the haze. It was not vegetation in any ordinary sense. Certainly it was -no mineral surface! The landing-pockets had burned away three or four -feet of it, and the edge of the burned area smoked noisesomely, and -somehow it looked as if it would reek. And there were places where it -stirred. - -Burleigh blinked and stared. Then he reached up and flicked on the -outside microphones. Instantly there was bedlam. If the landscape was -strange, here, the sounds that came from it were unbelievable. - - * * * * * - -There were grunting noises. There were clickings, uncountable clickings -that made a background for all the rest. There were discordant howls and -honkings. From time to time some thing unknown made a cry that sounded -very much like a small boy trailing a stick against a picket fence, only -much louder. Something hooted, maintaining the noise for an impossibly -long time. And persistently, sounding as if they came from far away, -there were booming noises, unspeakably deep-bass, made by something -alive. And something shrieked in lunatic fashion and something else -still moaned from time to time with the volume of a steam-whistle.... - -"This sounds and looks like a nice place to live," said Moran with fine -irony. - -Burleigh did not answer. He turned down the outside sound. - -"What's that stuff there, the ground?" he demanded. "We burned it away -in landing. I've seen something like it somewhere, but never taking the -place of grass!" - -"That," said Moran as if brightly, "that's what I'm to make a garden in. -Of evenings I'll stroll among my thrifty plantings and listen to the -delightful sounds of nature." - -Burleigh scowled. Harper flicked off the direction-finder. - -"The signal still comes from that hillock yonder," he said with -finality. - -Moran said bitingly; - -"That ain't no hillock, that's my home!" - -Then, instantly he'd said it, he recognized that it could be true. The -mound was not a fold in the ground. It was not an up-cropping of the -ash-covered stone on which the _Nadine_ rested. The enigmatic, -dirty-yellow-dirty-red-dirty-blue-and-dirty-black ground-cover hid -something. It blurred the shape it covered, very much as enormous -cobwebs made solid and opaque would have done. But when one looked -carefully at the mound, there was a landing-fin sticking up toward the -leaden skies. It was attached to a large cylindrical object of which the -fore part was crushed in. The other landing-fins could be traced. - -"It's a ship," said Moran curtly. "It crash-landed and its crew set up a -signal to call for help. None came, or they'd have turned the beacon -off. Maybe they got the lifeboats to work and got away. Maybe they lived -as I'm expected to live until they died as I'm expected to die." - -Burleigh said angrily; - -"You'd do what we are doing if you were in our shoes!" - -"Sure," said Moran, "but a man can gripe, can't he?" - -"You won't have to live here," said Burleigh. "We'll take you somewhere -up by the ice-cap. As Carol said, we'll give you everything we can -spare. And meanwhile we'll take a look at that wreck yonder. There might -be an indication in it of what solar system this is. There could be -something in it of use to you, too. You'd better come along when we -explore." - -"Aye, aye, sir," said Moran with irony. "Very kind of you, sir. You'll -go armed, sir?" - -Burleigh growled; - -"Naturally!" - -"Then since I can't be trusted with a weapon," said Moran, "I suggest -that I take a torch. We may have to burn through that loathesome stuff -to get in the ship." - -"Right," growled Burleigh again. "Brawn and Carol, you'll keep ship. The -rest of us wear suits. We don't know what that stuff is outside." - - * * * * * - -Moran silently went to the space-suit rack and began to get into a -suit. Modern space-suits weren't like the ancient crudities with bulging -metal casings and enormous globular helmets. Non-stretch fabrics took -the place of metal, and constant-volume joints were really practical -nowadays. A man could move about in a late-model space-suit almost as -easily as in ship-clothing. The others of the landing-party donned their -special garments with the brisk absence of fumbling that these people -displayed in every action. - -"If there's a lifeboat left," said Carol suddenly, "Moran might be able -to do something with it." - -"Ah, yes!" said Moran. "It's very likely that the ship hit hard enough -to kill everybody aboard, but not smash the boats!" - -"Somebody survived the crash," said Burleigh, "because they set up a -beacon. I wouldn't count on a boat, Moran." - -"I don't!" snapped Moran. - -He flipped the fastener of his suit. He felt all the openings catch. He -saw the others complete their equipment. They took arms. So far they had -seen no moving thing outside, but arms were simple sanity on an unknown -world. Moran, though, would not be permitted a weapon. He picked up a -torch. They filed into the airlock. The inner door closed. The outer -door opened. It was not necessary to check the air specifically. The -suits would take care of that. Anyhow the ice-cap said there were no -water-soluble gases in the atmosphere, and a gas can't be an active -poison if it can't dissolve. - -They filed out of the airlock. They stood on ash-covered stone, only -slightly eroded by the processes which made life possible on this -planet. They looked dubiously at the scorched, indefinite substance -which had been ground before the _Nadine_ landed. Moran moved scornfully -forward. He kicked at the burnt stuff. His foot went through the char. -The hole exposed a cheesy mass of soft matter which seemed riddled with -small holes. - -Something black came squirming frantically out of one of the openings. -It was eight or ten inches long. It had a head, a thorax, and an -abdomen. It had wing-cases. It had six legs. It toppled down to the -stone on which the _Nadine_ rested. Agitatedly, it spread its -wing-covers and flew away, droning loudly. The four men heard the sound -above even the monstrous cacophony of cries and boomings and grunts and -squeaks which seemed to fill the air. - -"What the devil--." - -Moran kicked again. More holes. More openings. More small tunnels in the -cheese-like, curd-like stuff. More black things squirming to view in -obvious panic. They popped out everywhere. It was suddenly apparent -that the top of the soil, here, was a thick and blanket-like sheet over -the whitish stuff. The black creatures lived and thrived in tunnels -under it. - - * * * * * - -Carol's voice came over the helmet-phones. - -"_They're--bugs!_" she said incredulously. "_They're beetles! They're -twenty times the size of the beetles we humans have been carrying around -the galaxy, but that's what they are!_" - -Moran grunted. Distastefully, he saw his predicament made worse. He knew -what had happened here. He could begin to guess at other things to be -discovered. It had not been practical for men to move onto new planets -and subsist upon the flora and fauna they found there. On some new -planets life had never gotten started. On such worlds a highly complex -operation was necessary before humanity could move in. A complete -ecological complex had to be built up; microbes to break down the rock -for soil, bacteria to fix nitrogen to make the soil fertile; plants to -grow in the new-made dirt and insects to fertilize the plants so they -would multiply, and animals and birds to carry the seeds planet-wide. On -most planets, to be sure, there were local, aboriginal plants and -animals. But still terrestrial creatures had to be introduced if a -colony was to feed itself. Alien plants did not supply satisfactory -food. So an elaborate adaptation job had to be done on every planet -before native and terrestrial living things settled down together. It -wasn't impossible that the scuttling things were truly beetles, grown -large and monstrous under the conditions of a new planet. And the -ground.... - -"This ground stuff," said Moran distastefully, "is yeast or some sort of -toadstool growth. This is a seedling world. It didn't have any life on -it, so somebody dumped germs and spores and bugs to make it ready for -plants and animals eventually. But nobody's come back to finish up the -job." - -Burleigh grunted a somehow surprised assent. But it wasn't surprising; -not wholly so. Once one mentioned yeasts and toadstools and fungi -generally, the weird landscape became less than incredible. But it -remained actively unpleasant to think of being marooned on it. - -"Suppose we go look at the ship?" said Moran unpleasantly. "Maybe you -can find out where you are, and I can find out what's ahead of me." - -He climbed up on the unscorched surface. It was elastic. The -parchment-like top skin yielded. It was like walking on a mass of -springs. - -"We'd better spread out," added Moran, "or else we'll break through that -skin and be floundering in this mess." - -"I'm giving the orders, Moran!" said Burleigh shortly. "But what you say -does make sense." - - * * * * * - -He and the others joined Moran on the yielding surface. Their footing -was uncertain, as on a trampoline. They staggered. They moved toward the -hillock which was a covered-over wrecked ship. - -The ground was not as level as it appeared from the _Nadine's_ -control-room. There were undulations. But they could not see more than a -quarter-mile in any direction. Beyond that was mist. But Burleigh, at -one end of the uneven line of advancing men, suddenly halted and stood -staring down at something he had not seen before. The others halted. - -Something moved. It came out from behind a very minor spire of whitish -stuff that looked like a dirty sheet stretched over a tall stone. The -thing that appeared was very peculiar indeed. It was a--worm. But it was -a foot thick and ten feet long, and it had a group of stumpy legs at its -fore end--where there were eyes hidden behind bristling hair-like -growths--and another set of feet at its tail end. It progressed sedately -by reaching forward with its fore-part, securing a foothold, and then -arching its middle portion like a cat arching its back, to bring its -hind part forward. Then it reached forward again. It was of a dark olive -color from one end to the other. Its manner of walking was insane but -somehow sedate. - -Moran heard muffled noises in his helmet-phone as the others tried to -speak. Carol's voice came anxiously; - -"_What's the matter? What do you see?_" - -Moran said with savage precision; - -"We're looking at an inch-worm, grown up like the beetles only more so. -It's not an inch-worm any longer. It's a yard-worm." Then he said -harshly to the men with him; "It's not a hunting creature on worlds -where it's smaller. It's not likely to have turned deadly here. Come -on!" - -He went forward over the singularly bouncy ground. The others followed. -It was to be noted that Hallet the engineer, avoided the huge harmless -creature more widely than most. - - * * * * * - -They reached the mound which was the ship. Moran unlimbered his torch. -He said sardonically; - -"This ship won't do anybody any good. It's old-style. That thick belt -around its middle was dropped a hundred years ago, and more." There was -an abrupt thickening of the cylindrical hull at the middle. There was an -equally abrupt thinning, again, toward the landing-fins. The sharpness -of the change was blurred over by the revolting ground-stuff growing -everywhere. "We're going to find that this wreck has been here a century -at least!" - -Without orders, he turned on the torch. A four-foot flame of pure -blue-white leaped out. He touched its tip to the fungoid soil. Steam -leaped up. He used the flame like a gigantic scalpel, cutting a square a -yard deep in the whitish stuff, and then cutting it across and across to -destroy it. Thick fumes arose, and quiverings and shakings began. Black -creatures in their labyrinths of tunnels began to panic. Off to the -right the blanket-like surface ripped and they poured out. They scuttled -crazily here and there. Some took to wing. By instinct the other -men--the armed ones--moved back from the smoke. They wore space-helmets -but they felt that there should be an intolerable smell. - -Moran slashed and slashed angrily with the big flame, cutting a way to -the metal hull that had fallen here before his grandfather was born. -Sometimes the flame cut across things that writhed, and he was sickened. -But above all he raged because he was to be marooned here. He could not -altogether blame the others. They couldn't land at any colonized world -with him on board without his being detected as an extra member of the -crew. His fate would then be sealed. But they also would be -investigated. Official queries would go across this whole sector of the -galaxy, naming five persons of such-and-such description and -such-and-such fingerprints, voyaging in a space-yacht of such-and-such -size and registration. The world they came from would claim them as -fugitives. They would be returned to it. They'd be executed. - -Then Carol's voice came in his helmet-phone. She cried out; - -"_Look out! It's coming! Kill it! Kill it--._" - -He heard blast-rifles firing. He heard Burleigh pant commands. He was on -his way out of the hollow he'd carved when he heard Harper cry out -horribly. - -He got clear of the newly burned-away stuff. There was still much smoke -and stream. But he saw Harper. More, he saw the thing that had Harper. - -It occurred to him instantly that if Harper died, there would not be too -many people on the _Nadine_. They need not maroon him. In fact, they -wouldn't dare. - -A ship that came in to port with two few on board would be investigated -as thoroughly as one that had too many. Perhaps more thoroughly. So if -Harper were killed, Moran would be needed to take his place. He'd go on -from here in the _Nadine_, necessarily accepted as a member of her crew. - -Then he rushed, the flame-torch making a roaring sound. - - -II. - -They went back to the _Nadine_ for weapons more adequate for -encountering the local fauna when it was over. Blast-rifles were not -effective against such creatures as these. Torches were contact weapons -but they killed. Blast-rifles did not. And Harper needed to pull himself -together again, too. Also, neither Moran nor any of the others wanted to -go back to the still un-entered wreck while the skinny, somehow -disgusting legs of the thing still kicked spasmodically--quite -separate--on the whitish ground-stuff. Moran had disliked such creatures -in miniature form on other worlds. Enlarged like this. - -It seemed insane that such creatures, even in miniature, should -painstakingly be brought across light-years of space to the new worlds -men settled on. But it had been found to be necessary. The ecological -system in which human beings belonged had turned out to be infinitely -complicated. It had turned out, in fact, to be the ecological system of -Earth, and unless all parts of the complex were present, the total was -subtly or glaringly wrong. So mankind distastefully ferried pests as -well as useful creatures to its new worlds as they were made ready for -settlement. Mosquitos throve on the inhabited globes of the Rim Stars. -Roaches twitched nervous antennae on the settled planets of the -Coal-sack. Dogs on Antares had fleas, and scratched their bites, and -humanity spread through the galaxy with an attendant train of insects -and annoyances. If they left their pests behind, the total system of -checks and balances which make life practical would get lopsided. It -would not maintain itself. The vagaries that could result were admirably -illustrated in and on the landscape outside the _Nadine_. Something had -been left out of the seeding of this planet. The element--which might be -a bacterium or a virus or almost anything at all--the element that kept -creatures at the size called "normal" was either missing or inoperable -here. The results were not desirable. - - * * * * * - -Harper drank thirstily. Carol had watched from the control-room. She was -still pale. She looked strangely at Moran. - -"You're sure it didn't get through your suit?" Burleigh asked -insistently of Harper. - -Moran said sourly; - -"The creatures have changed size. There's no proof they've changed -anything else. Beetles live in tunnels they make in fungus growths. The -beetles and the tunnels are larger, but that's all. Inchworms travel as -they always did. They move yards instead of inches, but that's all. -Centipedes--" - -"It was--" said Carol unsteadily. "It was thirty feet long!" - -"Centipedes," repeated Moran, "catch prey with their legs. They always -did. Some of them trail poison from their feet. We can play a blowtorch -over Harper's suit and any poison will be burned away. You can't burn a -space-suit!" - -"We certainly can't leave Moran here!" said Burleigh uneasily. - -"He kept Harper from being killed!" said Carol. "Your blast-rifles -weren't any good. The--creatures are hard to kill." - -"Very hard to kill," agreed Moran. "But I'm not supposed to kill them. -I'm supposed to live with them! I wonder how we can make them understand -they're not supposed to kill me either?" - -"I'll admit," said Burleigh, "that if you'd let Harper get killed, we'd -have been forced to let you take his identity and not be marooned, to -avoid questions at the space-port on Loris. Not many men would have done -what you did." - -"Oh, I'm a hero," said Moran. "Noble Moran, that's me! What the hell -would you want me to do? I didn't think! I won't do it again. I -promise!" - -The last statement was almost true. Moran felt a squeamish horror at the -memory of what he'd been through over by the wrecked ship. He'd come -running out of the excavation he'd made. He had for weapon a four-foot -blue-white flame, and there was a monstrous creature running directly -toward him, with Harper lifted off the ground and clutched in two -gigantic, spidery legs. It was no less than thirty feet long, but it was -a centipede. It travelled swiftly on grisly, skinny, pipe-thin legs. It -loomed over Moran as he reached the surface and he automatically thrust -the flame at it. The result was shocking. But the nervous systems of -insects are primitive. It is questionable that they feel pain. It is -certain that separated parts of them act as if they had independent -life. Legs--horrible things--sheared off in the flame of the torch, but -the grisly furry thing rushed on until Moran slashed across its body -with the blue-white fire. Then it collapsed. But Harper was still held -firmly and half the monster struggled mindlessly to run on while -another part was dead. Moran fought it almost hysterically, slicing off -legs and wanting to be sick when their stumps continued to move as if -purposefully, and the legs themselves kicked and writhed rhythmically. -But he bored in and cut at the body and ultimately dragged Harper clear. - -Afterward, sickened, he completed cutting it to bits with the torch. But -each part continued nauseatingly to move. He went back with the others -to the _Nadine_. The blast-rifles had been almost completely without -effect upon the creature because of its insensitive nervous system. - - * * * * * - -"I think," said Burleigh, "that it is only fair for us to lift from here -and find a better part of this world to land Moran in." - -"Why not another planet?" asked Carol. - -"It could take weeks," said Burleigh harassedly. "We left Coryus three -days ago. We ought to land on Loris before too long. There'd be -questions asked if we turned up weeks late! We can't afford that! The -space-port police would suspect us of all sorts of things. They might -decide to check back on us where we came from. We can't take the time to -hunt another planet!" - -"Then your best bet," said Moran caustically, "is to find out where we -are. You may be so far from Loris that you can't make port without -raising questions anyhow. But you might be almost on course. I don't -know! But let's see if that wreck can tell us. I'll go by myself if you -like." - -He went into the airlock, where his suit and the others had been sprayed -with a corrosive solution while the outside air was pumped out and new -air from inside the yacht admitted. He got into the suit. Harper joined -him. - -"I'm going with you," he said shortly. "Two will be safer than -one,--both with torches." - -"Too, too true!" said Moran sardonically. - -He bundled the other suits out of the airlock and into the ship. He -checked his torch. He closed the inner lock door and started the pump. -Harper said; - -"I'm not going to try to thank you--." - -"Because," Moran snapped, "you wouldn't have been on this planet to be -in danger if I hadn't tried to capture the yacht. I know it!" - -"That wasn't what I meant to say!" protested Harper. - -Moran snarled at him. The lock-pump stopped and the ready-for exit light -glowed. They pushed open the outer door and emerged. Again there was the -discordant, almost intolerable din. It made no sense. The cries and -calls and stridulations they now knew to be those of insects had no -significance. The unseen huge creatures made them without purpose. -Insects do not challenge each other like birds or make mating-calls like -animals. They make noises because it is their nature. The noises have no -meaning. The two men started toward the wreck to which Moran had partly -burned a passageway. There were clickings from underfoot all around -them. Moran said abruptly; - -"Those clicks come from the beetles in their tunnels underfoot. They're -practically a foot long. How big do you suppose bugs grow here,--and -why?" - - * * * * * - -Harper did not answer. He carried a flame-torch like the one Moran had -used before. They went unsteadily over the elastic, yielding stuff -underfoot. Harper halted, to look behind. Carol's voice came in the -helmet-phones. - -"_We're watching out for you. We'll try to warn you if--anything shows -up._" - -"Better watch me!" snapped Moran. "If I should kill Harper after all, -you might have to pass me for him presently!" - -He heard a small, inarticulate sound, as if Carol protested. Then he -heard an angry shrill whine. He'd turned aside from the direct line to -the wreck. Something black, the size of a fair-sized dog, faced him -belligerently. Multiple lensed eyes, five inches across, seemed to -regard him in a peculiarly daunting fashion. The creature had a narrow, -unearthly, triangular face, with mandibles that worked from side to side -instead of up and down like an animal's jaws. The head was utterly -unlike any animal such as breed and raise their young and will fight for -them. There was a small thorax, from which six spiny, glistening legs -sprang. There was a bulbous abdomen. - -"This," said Moran coldly, "is an ant. I've stepped on them for no -reason, and killed them. I've probably killed many times as many without -knowing it. But this could kill me." - -The almost yard-long enormity standing two and a half feet high, was in -the act of carrying away a section of one of the legs of the giant -centipede Moran had killed earlier. It still moved. The leg was many -times the size of the ant. Moran moved toward it. It made a louder -buzzing sound, threatening him. - -Moran cut it apart with a slashing sweep of the flame that a -finger-touch sent leaping from his torch. The thing presumably died, but -it continued to writhe senselessly. - -"I killed this one," said Moran savagely, "because I remembered -something from my childhood. When one ant finds something to eat and -can't carry it all away, it brings back its friends to get the rest. -The big thing I killed would be such an item. How'd you like to have a -horde of these things about us? Come on!" - -Through his helmet-phone he heard Harper breathing harshly. He led the -way once more toward the wreck. - - * * * * * - -Black beetles swarmed about when he entered the cut in the mould-yeast -soil. They popped out of tunnels as if in astonishment that what had -been subterranean passages suddenly opened to the air. Harper stepped on -one, and it did not crush. It struggled frantically and he almost fell. -He gasped. Two of the creatures crawled swiftly up the legs of Moran's -suit, and he knocked them savagely away. He found himself grinding his -teeth in invincible revulsion. - -They reached the end of the cut he'd made in the fungus-stuff. Metal -showed past burned-away soil. Moran growled; - -"You keep watch. I'll finish the cut." - -The flame leaped out. Dense clouds of smoke and steam poured out and up. -With the intolerably bright light of the torch overwhelming the -perpetual grayness under the clouds and playing upon curling vapors, the -two space-suited men looked like figures in some sort of inferno. - -Carol's voice came anxiously into Moran's helmet-phone; - -"_Are you all right?_" - -"So far, both of us," said Moran sourly. "I've just uncovered the crack -of an airlock door." - -He swept the flame around again. A mass of undercut fungus toppled -toward him. He burned it and went on. He swept the flame more widely. -There was carbonized matter from the previously burned stuff on the -metal, but he cleared all the metal. Carol's voice again; - -"_There's something flying.... It's huge! It's a wasp! -It's--monstrous!_" - -Moran growled; - -"Harper, we're in a sort of trench. If it hovers, you'll burn it as it -comes down. Cut through its waist. It won't crawl toward us along the -trench. It'd have to back toward us to use its sting." - -He burned and burned, white light glaring upon a mass of steam and smoke -which curled upward and looked as if lightning-flashes played within it. - -Carol's voice; - -"_It--went on past.... It was as big as a cow!_" - - * * * * * - -Moran wrenched at the port-door. It partly revolved. He pulled. It fell -outward. The wreck was not standing upright on its fins. It lay on its -side. The lock inside the toppled-out port was choked with a horrible -mass of thread-like fungi. Moran swept the flame in. The fungus -shriveled and was not. He opened the inner lock-door. There was pure -blackness within. He held the torch for light. - -For an instant everything was confusion, because the wreck was lying on -its side instead of standing in a normal position. Then he saw a sheet -of metal, propped up to be seen instantly by anyone entering the wrecked -space-vessel. - -Letters burned into the metal gave a date a century and a half old. -Straggly torch-writing said baldly; - - "_This ship the Malabar crashed here on Tethys II a week ago. We - cannot repair. We are going on to Candida III in the boats. We are - carrying what bessendium we can with us. We resign salvage rights - in this ship to its finders, but we have more bessendium with us. - We will give that to our rescuers._ - - "_Jos. White, Captain._" - -Moran made a peculiar, sardonic sound like a bark. - -"Calling the _Nadine_!" he said in mirthless amusement. "This planet is -Tethys Two. Do you read me? Tethys II! Look it up!" - -A pause. Then Carol's voice, relieved; - -"_Tethys is in the Directory! That's good!_" There was the sound of -murmurings in the control-room behind her. "_Yes!... Oh,--wonderful! -It's not far off the course we should have followed! We won't be -suspiciously late at Loris! Wonderful!_" - -"I share your joy," said Moran sarcastically. "More information! The -ship's name was the _Malabar_. She carried bessendium among her cargo. -Her crew went on to Candida III a hundred and fifty years ago, leaving a -promise to pay in more bessendium whoever should rescue them. More -bessendium! Which suggests that some bessendium was left behind." - -Silence. The bald memorandum left behind the vanished crew was, of -course, pure tragedy. A ship's lifeboat could travel four light-years, -or possibly even six. But there were limits. A castaway crew had left -this world on a desperate journey to another in the hope that life there -would be tolerable. If they arrived, they waited for some other ship to -cross the illimitable emptiness and discover either the beacon here or -one they'd set up on the other world. The likelihood was small, at best. -It had worked out zero. If the lifeboats made Candida III, their crews -stayed there because they could go no farther. They'd died there, -because if they'd been found this ship would have been visited and its -cargo salvaged. - - * * * * * - -Moran went inside. He climbed through the compartments of the toppled -craft, using his torch for light. He found where the cargo-hold had been -opened from the living part of the ship. He saw the cargo. There were -small, obviously heavy boxes in one part of the hold. Some had been -broken open. He found scraps of purple bessendium ore dropped while -being carried to the lifeboats. A century and a half ago it had not -seemed worth while to pick them up, though bessendium was the most -precious material in the galaxy. It couldn't be synthesized. It had to -be made by some natural process not yet understood, but involving -long-continued pressures of megatons to the square inch with -temperatures in the millions of degrees. It was purple. It was -crystalline. Fractions of it in blocks of other metals made the -fuel-blocks that carried liners winging through the void. But here were -pounds of it dropped carelessly.... - -Moran gathered a double handful. He slipped it in a pocket of his -space-suit. He went clambering back to the lock. - -He heard the roaring of a flame-torch. He found Harper playing it -squeamishly on the wriggling fragments of another yard-long ant. It had -explored the trench burned out of the fungus soil and down to the rock. -Harper'd killed it as it neared him. - -"That's three of them I've killed," said Harper in a dogged voice. -"There seem to be more." - -"Did you hear my news?" asked Moran sardonically. - -"Yes," said Harper. "How'll we get back to the _Nadine_?" - -"Oh, we'll fight our way through," said Moran, as sardonically as -before. "We'll practice splendid heroism, giving battle to ants who -think we're other ants trying to rob them of some fragments of an -over-sized dead centipede. A splendid cause to fight for, Harper!" - -He felt an almost overpowering sense of irony. The quantity of -bessendium he'd seen was riches incalculable. The mere pocketfull of -crystals in his pocket would make any man wealthy if he could get to a -settled planet and sell them. And there was much, much more back in the -cargo-hold of the wreck. He'd seen it. - -But his own situation was unchanged. Bessendium could be hidden -somehow,--perhaps between the inner and outer hulls of the _Nadine_. But -it was not possible to land the _Nadine_ at any space-port with an extra -man aboard her. In a sense, Moran might be one of the richest men in the -galaxy in his salvagers' right to the treasure in the wrecked -_Malabar's_ hold. But he could not use that treasure to buy his way to -a landing on a colonized world. - -Carol's voice; she was frightened. - -"_Something's coming! It's--terribly big! It's coming out of the mist!_" - - * * * * * - -Moran pushed past Harper in the trench that ended at the wreck's -lock-door. He moved on until he could see over the edge of that trench -as it shallowed. Now there were not less than forty of the giant ants -about the remnants of the monstrous centipede Moran had killed. They -moved about in great agitation. There was squabbling. Angry, whining -stridulations filled the air beneath the louder and more gruesome sounds -from fartheraway places. It appeared that scouts and foragers from two -different ant-cities had come upon the treasure of dead--if -twitching--meat of Moran's providing. They differed about where the -noisesome booty should be taken. Some ants pulled angrily against each -other, whining shrilly. He saw individual ants running frantically away -in two different directions. They would be couriers, carrying news of -what amounted to a frontier incident in the city-state civilization of -the ants. - -Then Moran saw the giant thing of which Carol spoke. It was truly huge, -and it had a gross, rounded body, and a ridiculously small thorax, and -its head was tiny and utterly mild in expression. It walked with an -enormous, dainty deliberation, placing small spiked feet at the end of -fifteen-foot legs very delicately in place as it moved. Its eyes were -multiple and huge, and its forelegs though used so deftly for walking -had a horrifying set of murderous, needle-sharp saw-teeth along their -edges. - -It looked at the squabbling ants with its gigantic eyes that somehow -appeared like dark glasses worn by a monstrosity. It moved primly, -precisely toward them. Two small black creatures tugged at a hairy -section of a giant centipede's leg. The great pale-green creature--a -mantis; a praying mantis twenty feet tall in its giraffe-like walking -position--the great creature loomed over them, looking down as through -sunglasses. A foreleg moved like lightning. An ant weighing nearly as -much as a man stridulated shrilly, terribly, as it was borne aloft. The -mantis closed its arm-like forelegs upon it, holding it as if piously -and benignly contemplating it. Then it ate it, very much as a man might -eat an apple, without regard to the convulsive writhings of its victim. - - * * * * * - -It moved on toward the denser fracas among the ants. Suddenly it raised -its ghastly saw-toothed forelegs in an extraordinary gesture. It was the -mantis's spectral attitude, which seemed a pose of holding out its arms -in benediction. But its eyes remained blind-seeming and -enigmatic,--again like dark glasses. - -Then it struck. Daintily, it dined upon an ant. Upon another. Upon -another and another and another. - -From one direction parties of agitated and hurrying black objects -appeared at the edge of the mist. They were ants of a special -caste,--warrior-ants with huge mandibles designed for fighting in -defense of their city and its social system and its claim to fragments -of dead centipedes. From another direction other parties of no less -truculent warriors moved with the swiftness and celerity of a striking -task-force. All the air was filled with the deep-bass notes of something -huge, booming beyond visibility, and the noises as of sticks trailed -against picket fences, and hootings which were produced by the rubbing -of serrated leg-joints against chitinous diaphragms. But now a new -tumult arose. - -From forty disputatious _formicidae_, whining angrily at each other over -the stinking remains of the monster Moran had killed, the number of ants -involved in the quarrel became hundreds. But more and more arrived. The -special caste of warriors bred for warfare was not numerous enough to -take care of the provocative behavior of foreign foragers. There was a -general mobilization in both unseen ant-city states. They became nations -in arms. Their populations rushed to the scene of conflict. The burrows -and dormitories and eating-chambers of the underground nations were -swept clean of occupants. Only the nurseries retained a skeleton staff -of nurses--the nurseries and the excavated palace occupied by the -ant-queen and her staff of servants and administrators. All the -resources of two populous ant-nations were flung into the fray. - - * * * * * - -From a space of a hundred yards or less, containing mere dozens of -belligerent squabblers, the dirty-white ground of the fungus-plain -became occupied by hundreds of snapping, biting combatants. They -covered--they fought over--the half of an acre. There were contending -battalions fighting as masses in the center, while wings of fighting -creatures to right and left were less solidly arranged. But -reinforcements poured out of the mist from two directions, and momently -the situation changed. Presently the battle covered an acre. Groups of -fresh fighters arriving from the city to the right uttered shrill -stridulations and charged upon the flank of their enemies. -Simultaneously, reinforcements from the city to the left flung -themselves into the fighting-line near the center. - -Formations broke up. The battle disintegrated into an indefinite number -of lesser combats; troops or regiments fighting together often moved -ahead with an appearance of invincibility, but suddenly they broke and -broke again until there was only a complete confusion of unorganized -single combats in which the fighters rolled over and over, struggling -ferociously with mandible and claw to destroy each other. Presently the -battle raged over five acres. Ten. Thousands upon thousands of black, -glistening, stinking creatures tore at each other in murderous ferocity. -Whining, squealing battle-cries arose and almost drowned out the deeper -notes of larger but invisible creatures off in the mist. - -Moran and Harper got back to the _Nadine_ by a wide detour past warriors -preoccupied with each other just before the battle reached its most -savage stage. In that stage, the space-yacht was included in the -battleground. Fights went on about its landing-fins. Horrifying duels -could be followed by scrapings and bumpings against its hull. From the -yacht's ports the fighting ants looked like infuriated machines, engaged -in each other's destruction. One might see a warrior of unidentified -allegiance with its own abdomen ripped open, furiously rending an enemy -without regard to its own mortal wound. There were those who had -literally been torn in half, so that only head and thorax remained, but -they fought on no less valiantly than the rest. - - * * * * * - -At the edges of the fighting such cripples were more numerous. Ants with -antenna shorn off or broken, with legs missing, utterly doomed,--they -sometimes wandered forlornly beyond the fighting, the battle seemingly -forgotten. But even such dazed and incapacitated casualties came upon -each other. If they smelled alike, they ignored each other. Every -ant-city has its particular smell which its inhabitants share. -Possession of the national odor is at once a certificate of citizenship -in peacetime and a uniform in war. When such victims of the battle came -upon enemy walking wounded, they fought. - -And the giant praying mantis remained placidly and invulnerably still. -It plucked single fighters from the battle and dined upon them while -they struggled, and plucked other fighters, and consumed them. It -ignored the battle and the high purpose and self-sacrificing patriotism -of the ants. Immune to them and disregarded by them, it fed on them -while the battle raged. - -Presently the gray light overhead turned faintly pink, and became a -deeper tint and then crimson. In time there was darkness. The noise of -battle ended. The sounds of the day diminished and ceased, and other -monstrous outcries took their place. - -There were bellowings in the blackness without the _Nadine_. There were -chirpings become baritone, and senseless uproars which might be -unbelievable modifications of once-shrill and once-tranquil night-sounds -of other worlds. And there came a peculiar, steady, unrhythmic pattering -sound. It seemed like something falling upon the blanket-like upper -surface of the soil. - -Moran opened the airlock door and thrust out a torch to see. Its -intolerably bright glare showed the battlefield abandoned. Most of the -dead and wounded had been carried away. Which, of course, was not -solicitude for the wounded or reverence for the dead heroes. Dead ants, -like dead centipedes, were booty of the only kind the creatures of this -world could know. The dead were meat. The wounded were dead before they -were carried away. - -Moran peered out, with Carol looking affrightedly over his shoulder. The -air seemed to shine slightly in the glare of the torch. The pattering -sound was abruptly explained. Large, slow, widely-separated raindrops -fell heavily and steadily from the cloud-banks overhead. Moran could see -them strike. Each spot of wetness glistened briefly. Then the rain-drop -was absorbed by the ground. - -But there were other noises than the ceaseless tumult on the ground. -There were sounds in the air; the beating of enormous wings. Moran -looked up, squinting against the light. There were things moving about -the black sky. Gigantic things. - -Something moved, too, across the diminishingly lighted surface about the -yacht. There were glitterings. Shining armor. Multi-faceted eyes. A -gigantic, horny, spiked object crawled toward the torch-glare, -fascinated by it. Something else dived insanely. It splashed upon the -flexible white surface twenty yards away, and struggled upward and took -crazily off again. It careened blindly. - - * * * * * - -It hit the yacht, a quarter-ton of night-flying beetle. The air seemed -filled with flying things. There were moths with twenty-foot wings and -eyes which glowed like rubies in the torch's light. There were beetles -of all sizes from tiny six-inch things to monsters in whom Moran did not -believe even when he saw them. All were drawn by the light which should -not exist under the cloud-bank. They droned and fluttered and performed -lunatic evolutions, coming always closer to the flame. - -Moran cut off the torch and closed the lock-door from the inside. - -"We don't load bessendium tonight," he said with some grimness. "To have -no light, with what crawls about in the darkness, would be suicide. But -to use lights would be worse. If you people are going to salvage the -stuff in that wreck, you'll have to wait for daylight. At least then you -can see what's coming after you." - -They went into the yacht proper. There was no longer any question about -the planet's air. If insects which were descendents of terrestrial forms -could breathe it, so could men. When the first insect-eggs were brought -here, the air had to be fit for them if they were to survive. It would -not have changed. - -Burleigh sat in the control-room with a double handful of purple -crystals before him. - -"This," he said when Moran and Carol reëntered, "this is bessendium past -question. I've been thinking what it means." - -"Money," said Moran drily. "You'll all be rich. You'll probably retire -from politics." - -"That wasn't exactly what I had in mind," said Burleigh distastefully. -"You've gotten us into the devil of a mess, Moran!" - -"For which," said Moran with ironic politeness, "there is a perfect -solution. You kill me, either directly or by leaving me marooned here." - -Burleigh scowled. - -"We have to land at space-ports for supplies. We can't hope to hide you, -it's required that landed ships be sterilized against infections from -off-planet. We can't pass you as a normal passenger. You're not on the -ship's papers and they're alteration-proof. Nobody's ever been able to -change a ship's papers and not be caught! We could land and tell the -truth, that you hijacked the ship and we finally overpowered you. But -there are reasons against that." - -"Naturally!" agreed Moran. "I'd be killed anyhow and you'd be subject to -intensive investigation. And you're fugitives as much as I am." - -"Just so," admitted Burleigh. - -Moran shrugged. - -"Which leaves just one answer. You maroon me and go on your way." - - * * * * * - -Burleigh said painfully; - -"There's this bessendium. If there's more--especially if there's -more--we can leave you here with part of it. When we get far enough -away, we charter a ship to come and get you. It'll be arranged. -Somebody will be listed as of that ship's company, but he'll slip away -from the space-port and not be on board at all. Then you're picked up -and landed using his name." - -"If," said Moran ironically, "I am alive when the ship gets here. If I'm -not, the crew of the chartered ship will be in trouble, short one man on -return to port. You'll have trouble getting anybody to run that risk!" - -"We're trying to work out a way to save you!" insisted Burleigh angrily. -"Harper would have been killed but for you. And--this bessendium will -finance the underground work that will presently make a success of our -revolution. We're grateful! We're trying to help you!" - -"So you maroon me," said Moran. Then he said; "But you've skipped the -real problem! If anything goes wrong, Carol's in it! There's no way to -do anything without risk for her! That's the problem! I could kill all -you characters, land somewhere on a colonized planet exactly as you -landed here, and be gone from the yacht on foot before anybody could -find me! But I have a slight aversion to getting a girl killed or -killing her just for my own convenience. It's settled. I stay here. You -can try to arrange the other business if you like. But it's a bad -gamble." - -Carol was very pale. Burleigh stood up. - -"You said that, I didn't. But I don't think we should leave you here. Up -near the ice-cap should be infinitely better for you. We'll load the -rest of the bessendium tomorrow, find you a place, leave you a beacon, -and go." - -He went out. Carol turned a white face to Moran. - -"Is that--is that the real trouble? Do you really--" - -Moran looked at her stonily. - -"I like to make heroic gestures," he told her. "Actually, Burleigh's a -very noble sort of character himself. He proposes to leave me with -treasure that he could take. Even more remarkably, he proposes to divide -up what you take, instead of applying it all to further his political -ideals. Most men like him would take it all for the revolution!" - -"But--but--." - -Carol's expression was pure misery. Moran walked deliberately across the -control-room. He glanced out of a port. A face looked in. It filled the -transparent opening. It was unthinkable. It was furry. There were -glistening chitinous areas. There was a proboscis like an elephant's -trunk, curled horribly. The eyes were multiple and mad. - -It looked in, drawn and hypnotized by the light shining out on this -nightmare world from the control-room ports. - -Moran touched the button that closed the shutters. - - -III. - -When morning came, its arrival was the exact reversal of the coming of -night. In the beginning there was darkness, and in the darkness there -was horror. - -The creatures of the night untiringly filled the air with sound, and the -sounds were discordant and gruesome and revolting. The creatures of this -planet were gigantic. They should have adopted new customs appropriate -to the dignity of their increased size. But they hadn't. The manners and -customs of insects are immutable. They feed upon specific prey--spiders -are an exception, but they are not insects at all--and they lay their -eggs in specific fashion in specific places, and they behave according -to instincts which are so detailed as to leave them no choice at all in -their actions. They move blindly about, reacting like automata of -infinite complexity which are capable of nothing not built into them -from the beginning. Centuries and millenia do not change them. Travel -across star-clusters leaves them with exactly the capacities for -reaction that their remotest ancestors had, before men lifted off -ancient Earth's green surface. - -The first sign of dawn was deep, deep, deepest red in the cloud-bank no -more than fifteen hundred feet overhead. The red became brighter, and -presently was as brilliant as dried blood. Again presently it was -crimson over all the half-mile circle that human eyes could penetrate. -Later still--but briefly--it was pink. Then the sky became gray. From -that color it did not change again. - -Moran joined Burleigh in a survey of the landscape from the -control-room. The battlefield was empty now. Of the thousands upon -thousands of stinking combatants who'd rent and torn each other the -evening before, there remained hardly a trace. Here and there, to be -sure, a severed saw-toothed leg remained. There were perhaps as many as -four relatively intact corpses not yet salvaged. But something was being -done about them. - -There were tiny, brightly-banded beetles hardly a foot long which -labored industriously over such frayed objects. They worked agitatedly -in the yeasty stuff which on this world took the place of soil. They -excavated, beneath the bodies of the dead ants, hollows into which those -carcasses could descend. They pushed the yeasty, curdy stuff up and -around the sides of those to-be-desired objects. The dead warriors sank -little by little toward oblivion as the process went on. The up-thrust, -dug-out material collapsed upon them as they descended. In a very -little while they would be buried where no larger carrion-eater would -discover them, and then the brightly-colored sexton beetles would begin -a banquet to last until only fragments of chitinous armor remained. - - * * * * * - -But Moran and Burleigh, in the _Nadine's_ control-room, could hardly -note such details. - -"You saw the cargo," said Burleigh, frowning. "How's it packed? The -bessendium, I mean." - -"It's in small boxes too heavy to be handled easily," said Moran. -"Anyhow the _Malabar's_ crew broke some of them open to load the stuff -on their lifeboats." - -"The lifeboats are all gone?" - -"Naturally," said Moran. "At a guess they'd have used all of them even -if they didn't need them for the crew. They could carry extra food and -weapons and such." - -"How much bessendium is left?" - -"Probably twenty boxes unopened," said Moran. "I can't guess at the -weight, but it's a lot. They opened six boxes." He paused. "I have a -suggestion." - -"What?" - -"When you've supplied yourselves," said Moran, "leave some space-port -somewhere with papers saying you're going to hunt for minerals on some -plausible planet. You can get such a clearance. Then you can return with -bessendium coming out of the _Nadine's_ waste-pipes and people will be -surprised but not suspicious. You'll file for mineral rights, and cash -your cargo. Everybody will get busy trying to grab off the mineral -rights for themselves. You can clear out and let them try to find the -bessendium lode. You'll be allowed to go, all right, and you can settle -down somewhere rich and highly respected." - -"Hmmm," said Burleigh. Then he said uncomfortably; "One wonders about -the original owners of the stuff." - -"After a hundred and fifty years," said Moran, "who'd you divide with? -The insurance company that paid for the lost ship? The heirs of the -crew? How'd you find them?" Then he added amusedly, "Only revolutionists -and enemies of governments would be honest enough to worry about that!" - -Brawn came into the control-room. He said broodingly that breakfast was -ready. Moran had never heard him speak in a normally cheerful voice. -When he went out, Moran said; - -"I don't suppose he'll be so gloomy when he's rich!" - -"His family was wiped out," said Burleigh curtly, "by the government we -were fighting. The girl he was going to marry, too." - -"Then I take back what I said," said Moran ruefully. - - * * * * * - -They went down to breakfast. Carol served it. She did not look well. Her -eyes seemed to show that she'd been crying. But she treated Moran -exactly like anyone else. Harper was very quiet, too. He took very -seriously the fact that Moran had saved his life at the risk of his on -the day before. Brawn breakfasted in a subdued, moody fashion. Only -Hallet seemed to have reacted to the discovery of a salvageable shipment -of bessendium that should make everybody rich,--everybody but Moran, who -was ultimately responsible for the find. - -"Burleigh," said Hallet expansively, "says the stuff you brought back -from the wreck is worth fifty thousand credits, at least. What's the -whole shipment worth?" - -"I've no idea," said Moran. "It would certainly pay for a fleet of -space-liners, and I'd give all of it for a ticket on one of them." - -"But how much is there in bulk?" insisted Hallet. - -"I saw that half a dozen boxes had been broken open and emptied for the -lifeboat voyagers," Moran told him. "I didn't count the balance, but -there were several times as many untouched. If they're all full of the -same stuff, you can guess almost any sum you please." - -"Millions, eh?" said Hallet. His eyes glistened. "Billions? Plenty for -everybody?" - -"There's never plenty for more than one," said Moran mildly. "That's the -way we seem to be made." - -Burleigh said suddenly; - -"I'm worried about getting the stuff aboard. We can't afford to lose -anybody, and if we have to fight the creatures here and every time we -kill one its carcass draws others." - -Moran took a piece of bread. He said; - -"I've been thinking about survival-tactics for myself as a castaway. I -think a torch is the answer. In any emergency on the yeast surface, I -can burn a hole and drop down in it. The monsters are stupid. In most -cases they'll go away because they stop seeing me. In the others, -they'll come to the hole and I'll burn them. It won't be pleasant, but -it may be practical." - -Burleigh considered it. - -"It may be," he admitted. "It may be." - -Hallet said; - -"I want to see that work before I trust the idea." - -"Somebody has to try it," agreed Moran. "Anyhow my life's going to -depend on it." - -Carol left the room. Moran looked after her as the door closed. - -"She doesn't like the idea of our leaving you behind," said Burleigh. -"None of us do." - -"I'm touched." - -"We'll try to get a ship to come for you, quickly," said Burleigh. - -"I'm sure you will," said Moran politely. - - * * * * * - -But he was not confident. The laws governing space-travel were very -strict indeed, and enforced with all the rigor possible. On their -enforcement, indeed, depended the law and order of the planets. -Criminals had to know that they could not escape to space whenever -matters got too hot for them aground. For a spaceman to trifle with -interstellar-traffic laws meant at the least that they were grounded for -life. But the probabilities were much worse than that. It was most -likely that Burleigh or any of the others would be reported to -space-port police instantly they attempted to charter a ship for any -kind of illegal activity. Moran made a mental note to warn Burleigh -about it. - -By now, though, he was aware of a very deep irritation at the idea of -being killed, whether by monsters on this planet or men sent to pick him -up for due process of law. When he made the grand gesture of seizing the -_Nadine_, he'd known nothing about the people on board, and he hadn't -really expected to succeed. His real hope was to be killed without -preliminary scientific questioning. Modern techniques of interrogation -were not torture, but they stripped away all concealments of motive and -to a great degree revealed anybody who'd helped one. Moran had killed a -man in a fair fight the other man did not want to engage in. If he were -caught on Coryus or returned to it, his motivation could be read from -his mind. And if that was done the killing--and the sacrifice of his own -future and life--would have been useless. But he'd been prepared to be -killed. Even now he'd prefer to die here on Tethys than in the strictly -painless manner of executions on Coryus. But he was now deeply resistant -to the idea of dying at all. There was Carol.... - -He thrust such thoughts aside. - - * * * * * - -Morning was well begun when they prepared to transfer the wreck's -treasure to the _Nadine_. Moran went first. At fifteen-foot intervals he -burned holes in the curd-like, elastic ground-cover. Some of the holes -went down only four feet to the stone beneath it. Some went down six. -But a man who jumped down one of them would be safe against attack -except from directly overhead, which was an unlikely direction for -attack by an insect. Carol had seen a wasp fly past the day before. She -said it was as big as a cow. A sting from such a monster would instantly -be fatal. But no wasp would have the intelligence to use its sting on -something it had not seized. A man should be safe in such a fox-hole. If -a creature did try to investigate the opening, a torch could come into -play. It was the most practical possible way for a man to defend himself -on this world. - -Moran made more than a dozen such holes of refuge in the line between -the _Nadine_ and the wreck. Carol watched with passionate solicitude -from a control-room port as he progressed. He entered the wreck through -the lock-doors he'd uncovered. Harper followed doggedly, not less than -two fox-holes behind. Carol's voice reassured them, the while, that -within the half-mile circle of visibility no monster walked or flew. - -Inside the wreck, Moran placed emergency-lanterns to light the dark -interior. He placed them along the particularly inconvenient passageways -of a ship lying on its side instead of standing upright. He was at work -breaking open a box of bessendium when Harper joined him. Harper said -heavily; - -"I've brought a bag. It was a pillow. Carol took the foam out." - -"We'll fill it," said Moran. "Not too full. The stuff's heavy." - -Harper watched while Moran poured purple crystals into it from his -cupped hands. - -"There you are," said Moran. "Take it away." - -"Look!" said Harper. "I owe you plenty--." - -"Then pay me," said Moran, exasperatedly, "by shutting up! By making -Burleigh damned careful about who he tries to hire to come after me! And -by getting this cargo-shifting business in operation! The _Nadine's_ -almost due on Loris. You don't want to have the space-port police get -suspicions. Get moving!" - - * * * * * - -Harper clambered over the side of doorways. He disappeared. Moran was -alone in the ship. He explored. He found that the crew that had -abandoned the _Malabar_ had been guilty of a singular oversight for a -crew abandoning ship. But, of course, they'd been distracted not only by -their predicament but by the decision to carry part of the ship's -precious cargo with them, so they could make it a profitable enterprise -to rescue them. They hadn't taken the trouble to follow all the rules -laid down for a crew taking to the boats. - -Moran made good their omission. He was back in the cargo-hold when Brawn -arrived. Burleigh came next. Then Harper again. Hallet came last of the -four men of the yacht. They did not make a continuous chain of men -moving back and forth between the two ships. Three men came, and loaded -up, and went back. Then three men came again, one by one. There could -never be a moment when a single refuge-hole in the soil could be needed -by two men at the same time. - -Within the first hour of work at transferring treasure, the bolt-holes -came into use. Carol called anxiously that a gigantic beetle neared the -ship and would apparently pass between it and the yacht. At the time, -Brawn and Harper were moving from the _Malabar_ toward the _Nadine_, and -Hallet was about to leave the wreck's lock. - -He watched with wide eyes. The beetle was truly a monster, the size of a -hippopotamus as pictured in the culture-books about early human history. -Its jaws, pronged like antlers, projected two yards before its huge, -faceted eyes. It seemed to drag itself effortfully over the elastic -surface of the ground. It passed a place where red, foleated fungus grew -in a fantastic absence of pattern on the surface of the ground. It went -through a streak of dusty-blue mould, which it stirred into a cloud of -spores as it passed. It crawled on and on. Harper popped down into the -nearest bolt-hole, his torch held ready. Brawn stood beside another -refuge, sixty feet away. - -Carol's voice came to their helmet-phones, anxious and exact. Hallet, in -the lock-door, heard her tell Harper that the beetle would pass very -close to him and to stay still. It moved on and on. It would be very -close indeed. Carol gasped in horror. - -The monster passed partly over the hole in which Harper crouched. One of -its clawed feet slipped down into the opening. But the beetle went on, -unaware of Harper. It crawled toward the encircling mist upon some -errand of its own. It was mindless. It was like a complex and highly -decorated piece of machinery which did what it was wound up to do, and -nothing else. - -Harper came out of the bolt-hole when Carol, her voice shaky with -relief, told him it was safe. He went doggedly on to the _Nadine_, -carrying his bag of purple crystals. Brawn followed, moodily. - - * * * * * - -Hallet, with a singularly exultant look upon his face, ventured out of -the airlock and moved across the fungoid world. He carried a king's -ransom to be added to the riches already transferred to the yacht. - -Moving the bessendium was a tedious task. One plastic box in the -cargo-hold held a quantity of crystals that three men took two trips -each to carry. In mid-morning the bag in Hallet's hand seemed to slip -just when Moran completed filling it. It toppled and spilled half its -contents on the cargo-hold floor, which had been a sidewall. He began -painstakingly to gather up the precious stuff and get it back in the -bag. The others went on to the _Nadine_. Hallet turned off his -helmet-phone and gestured to Moran to remove his helmet. Moran, his -eyebrows raised, obeyed the suggestion. - -"How anxious," asked Hallet abruptly, gathering up the dropped crystals, -"how anxious are you to be left behind here?" - -"I'm not anxious at all," said Moran. - -"Would you like to make a deal to go along when the _Nadine_ -lifts?--_If_ there's a way to get past the space-port police?" - -"Probably," said Moran. "Certainly! But there's no way to do it." - -"There is," said Hallet. "I know it. Is it a deal?" - -"What is the deal?" - -"You do as I say," said Hallet significantly. "Just as I say! Then ..." - -The lock-door opened, some distance away. Hallet stood up and said in a -commanding tone; - -"Keep your mouth shut. I'll tell you what to do and when." - -He put on his helmet and turned on the phone once more. He went toward -the lock-door. Moran heard him exchange words with Harper and Brawn, -back with empty bags to fill with crystals worth many times the price of -diamonds. But diamonds were made in half-ton lots, nowadays. - -Moran followed their bags. He was frowning. As Harper was about to -follow Brawn, Moran almost duplicated Hallet's gestures to have him -remove his helmet. - -"I want Burleigh to come next trip," he told Harper, "and make some -excuse to stay behind a moment and talk to me without the helmet-phones -picking up everything I say to him. Understand?" - -Harper nodded. But Burleigh did not come on the next trip. It was not -until near midday that he came to carry a load of treasure to the yacht. - -When he did come, though, he took off his helmet and turned off the -phone without the need of a suggestion. - -"I've been arranging storage for this stuff," he said. "I've opened -plates between the hulls to dump it in. I've told Carol, too, that we've -got to do a perfect job of cleaning up. There must be no stray crystals -on the floor." - -"Better search the bunks, too," said Moran drily, "so nobody will put -aside a particularly pretty crystal to gloat over. Listen!" - -He told Burleigh exactly what Hallet had said and what he'd answered. -Burleigh looked acutely unhappy. - -"Hallet isn't dedicated like the rest of us were," he said distressedly. -"We brought him along partly out of fear that if he were captured he'd -break down and reveal what he knows of the Underground we led, and much -of which we had to leave behind. But I'll be able to finance a real -revolt, now!" - - * * * * * - -Moran regarded him with irony. Burleigh was a capable man and a -conscientious one. It would be very easy to trust him, and it is -all-important to an Underground that its leaders be trusted. But it is -also important that they be capable of flint-like hardness on occasion. -To Moran, it seemed that Burleigh had not quite the adamantine -resolution required for leadership in a conspiracy which was to become a -successful revolt. He was--and to Moran it seemed regrettable--capable -of the virtue of charity. - -"I've told you," he said evenly. "Maybe you'll think it's a scheme on my -part to get Hallet dumped and myself elected to take his identity. But -what happens from now on is your business. Beginning this moment, I'm -taking care of my own skin. I've gotten reconciled to the idea of dying, -but I'd hate for it not to do anybody any good." - -"Carol," said Burleigh unhappily, "is much distressed." - -"That's very kind," said Moran sarcastically. "Now take your bag of -stuff and get going." - -Burleigh obeyed. Moran went back to the business of breaking open the -strong plastic boxes of bessendium so their contents could be carried in -forty-pound lots to the _Nadine_. - -Thinking of Carol, he did not like the way things seemed to be going. -Since the discovery of the bessendium, Hallet had been developing ideas. -They did not look as if they meant good fortune for Moran without -corresponding bad fortune for the others. Obviously, Moran couldn't be -hidden on the _Nadine_ during the space-port sterilization of the ship -which prevented plagues from being carried from world to world. Hallet -could have no reason to promise such a thing. Before landing here, he'd -urged that Moran simply be dumped out the airlock. This proposal to save -his life.... - -Moran considered the situation grimly while the business of ferrying -treasure to the yacht went on almost monotonously. It had stopped once -during the forenoon while a giant beetle went by. Later, it stopped -again because a gigantic flying thing hovered overhead. Carol did not -know what it was, but its bulging abdomen ended in an organ which -appeared to be a sting. It was plainly hunting. There was no point in -fighting it. Presently it went away, and just before it disappeared in -the circular wall of mist it dived headlong to the ground. A little -later it rose slowly into the air, carrying something almost as large as -itself. It went away into the mist. - -Again, once a green-and-yellow caterpillar marched past upon some -mysterious enterprise. It was covered with incredibly long fur, and it -moved with an undulating motion of all its segments, one after another. -It seemed well over ten yards in length, and its body appeared -impossibly massive. But a large part of the bulk would be the -two-foot-long or longer hairs which stuck out stiffly in all directions. -It, too, went away. - -But continually and constantly there was a bedlam of noises. From -underneath the yielding skin of the yeast-ground, there came clickings. -Sometimes there were quiverings of the surface as if it were alive, but -they would be the activities of ten and twelve-inch beetles who lived in -subterranean tunnels in it. There were those preposterous noises like -someone rattling a stick along a picket fence--only deafening--and there -were baritone chirpings and deep bass boomings from somewhere far away. -Moran guessed that the last might be frogs, but if so they were vastly -larger than men. - - * * * * * - -Shortly after what was probably midday, Moran brushed off his hands. The -bessendium part of the cargo of the wrecked _Malabar_ had been salvaged. -It was hidden between the twin hulls of the yacht. Moran had, quite -privately, attended to a matter the wreck's long-dead crew should have -done when they left it. Now, in theory, the _Nadine_ should lift off and -take Moran to some hastily scouted spot not too far from the ice-cap. It -should leave him there with what food could be spared, and the kit of -seeds that might feed him after it was gone, and weapons that might but -probably wouldn't enable him to defend himself, and with a radio-beacon -to try to have hope in. Then,--that would be that. - -"Calling," said Moran sardonically into his helmet-phone. "Everything's -cleaned up here. What next?" - -"_You can come along_," said Hallet's voice from the ship. It was -shivery. It was gleeful. "_Just in time for lunch!_" - -Moran went along the disoriented passages of the _Malabar_ to the lock. -He turned off the beacon that had tried uselessly during six human -generations to call for help for men now long dead. He went out the -lock and closed it behind him. It was not likely that this planet would -ever become a home for men. If there were some strangeness in its -constitution that made the descendents of insects placed upon it grow to -be giants, humans would not want to settle on it. And there were plenty -of much more suitable worlds. So the wrecked space-ship would lie here, -under deeper and ever deeper accumulations of the noisesome stuff that -passed for soil. Perhaps millenia from now, the sturdy, resistant metal -of the hull would finally rust through, and then--nothing. No man in all -time to come would ever see the _Malabar_ again. - -Shrugging, he went toward the _Nadine_. He walked through bedlam. He -could see a quarter-mile in one direction, and a quarter-mile in -another. He could not see more than a little distance upward. The -_Nadine_ had landed upon a world with tens of millions of square miles -of surface, and nobody had moved more than a hundred yards from its -landing-place, and now it would leave and all wonders and all horrors -outside this one quarter of a square mile would remain unknown.... - -He went to the airlock and shed his suit. He opened the inner door. -Hallet waited for him. - -"Everybody's at lunch," he said. "We'll join them." - -Moran eyed him sharply. Hallet grinned widely. - -"We're going to take off to find a place for you as soon as we've -eaten," he said. - -There was mockery in the tone. It occurred abruptly to Moran that Hallet -was the kind of person who might, to be sure, plan complete disloyalty -to his companions for his own benefit. But he might also enjoy betrayal -for its own sake. He might, for example, find it amusing to make a man -under sentence of death or marooning believe that he would escape, so -Hallet could have the purely malicious pleasure of disappointing him. He -might look for Moran to break when he learned that he was to die here -after all. - -Moran clamped his lips tightly. Carol would be better off if that was -the answer. He went toward the yacht's mess-room. Hallet followed close -behind. Moran pushed the door aside and entered. Burleigh and Harper and -Brawn looked at him, Carol raised her eyes. They glistened with tears. - -Hallet said gleefully; - -"Here goes!" - -Standing behind Moran, he thrust a hand-blaster past Moran's body and -pulled the trigger. He held the trigger down for continuous fire as he -traversed the weapon to wipe out everybody but Moran and himself. - - -IV. - -Moran responded instantly. His hands flew to Hallet's throat, blind fury -making him unaware of any thought but a frantic lust to kill. It was -very strange that Moran somehow noticed Hallet's hand insanely pulling -the trigger of the blast-pistol over and over and over without result. -He remembered it later. Perhaps he shared Hallet's blank disbelief that -one could pull the trigger of a blaster and have nothing at all happen -in consequence. But nothing did happen, and suddenly he dropped the -weapon and clawed desperately at Moran's fingers about his throat. But -that was too late. - -There was singularly little disturbance at the luncheon-table. The whole -event was climax and anticlimax together. Hallet's intention was so -appallingly murderous and his action so shockingly futile that the four -who were to have been his victims tended to stare blankly while Moran -throttled him. - -Burleigh seemed to recover first. He tried to pull Moran's hands loose -from Hallet's throat. Lacking success he called to the others. "Harper! -Brawn! Help me!" - -It took all three of them to release Hallet. Then Moran stood panting, -shaking, his eyes like flames. - -"He--he--" panted Moran. "He was going to kill Carol!" - -"I know," said Burleigh, distressedly. "He was going to kill all of us. -You gave me an inkling, so while he was packing bessendium between the -hulls, and had his space-suit hanging in the airlock, I doctored the -blaster in the space-suit pocket." He looked down at Hallet. "Is he -still alive?" - -Brawn bent over Hallet. He nodded. - -"Put him in the airlock for the time being," said Burleigh. "And lock -it. When he comes to, we'll decide what to do." - - * * * * * - -Harper and Brawn took Hallet by the arms and hauled him along the -passageway. The inner door of the lock clanged shut on him. - -"We'll give him a hearing, of course," said Burleigh conscientiously. -"But we should survey the situation first." - -To Moran the situation required no survey, but he viewed it from a -violently personal viewpoint which would neither require or allow -discussion. He knew what he meant to do about Hallet. He said harshly; - -"Go ahead. When you're through I'll tell you what will be done." - - * * * * * - -He went away. To the control-room. There he paced up and down, trying to -beat back the fury which rose afresh at intervals of less than minutes. -He did not think of his own situation, just then. There are more -important things than survival. - -He struggled for coolness, with the action before him known. He didn't -glance out the ports at the half-mile circle in which vision was -possible. Beyond the mist there might be anything; an ocean, swarming -metropoli of giant insects, a mountain-range. Nobody on the _Nadine_ had -explored. But Moran did not think of such matters now. Hallet had tried -to murder Carol, and Moran meant to take action, and there were matters -which might result from it. The matter the crew of the _Malabar_ had -forgotten to attend to--. - -He searched for paper and a pen. He found both in a drawer for the -yacht's hand-written log. He wrote. He placed a small object in the -drawer. He had barely closed it when Carol was at the control-room door. -She said in a small voice; - -"They want to talk to you." - -He held up the paper. - -"Read this later. Not now," he said curtly. He opened and closed the -drawer again, this time putting the paper in it. "I want you to read -this after the Hallet business is settled. I'm afraid that I'm not going -to look well in your eyes." - -She swallowed and did not speak. He went to where the others sat in -official council. Burleigh said heavily; - -"We've come to a decision. We shall call Hallet and hear what he has to -say, but we had to consider various courses of action and decide which -were possible and which were not." - -Moran nodded grimly. He had made his own decision. It was not too much -unlike the one that, carried out, had made him seize the _Nadine_ for -escape from Coryus. But he'd listen. Harper looked doggedly resolved. -Brawn seemed moody as usual. - -"I'm listening," said Moran. - -"Hallet," said Burleigh regretfully, "intended to murder all of us and -with your help take the _Nadine_ to some place where he could hope to -land without space-port inspection." - -Moran observed; - -"He didn't discuss that part of his plans. He only asked if I'd make a -deal to escape being marooned." - -"Yes," said Burleigh, nodding. "I'm sure--" - -"My own idea," said Moran, "when I tried to seize the _Nadine_, was to -try to reach one of several newly-settled planets where things aren't -too well organized. I'd memos of some such planets. I hoped to get to -ground somewhere in a wilderness on one of them and work my way on foot -to a new settlement. There I'd explain that I'd been hunting or -prospecting or something of the sort. On a settled planet that would be -impossible. On a brand-new one people are less fussy and I might have -been accepted quite casually." - -"Hallet may have had some such idea in his mind," agreed Burleigh. "With -a few bessendium crystals to show, he would seem a successful -prospector. He'd be envied but not suspected. To be sure!" - -"But," said Moran drily, "he'd be best off alone. So if he had that sort -of idea, he intended to murder me too." - - * * * * * - -Burleigh nodded. "Undoubtedly. But to come to our decision. We can keep -him on board under watch--as we did you--and leave you here. This has -disadvantages. We owe you much. There would be risk of his taking -someone unawares and fighting for his life. Even if all went as we -wished, and we landed and dispersed, he could inform the space-port -officials anonymously of what had happened, leading to investigation and -the ruin of any plans for the future revival of our underground. Also, -it would destroy any hope for your rescue." - -Moran smiled wryly. He hadn't much hope of that, if he were marooned. - -"We could leave him here," said Burleigh unhappily, "with you taking his -identity for purposes of landing. But I do not think it would be wise to -send a ship after him. He would be resentful. If rescued, he would do -everything possible to spoil all our future lives, and we are -fugitives." - -"Ah, yes!" said Moran, still more wryly amused. - -"I am afraid," said Burleigh reluctantly, "that we can only offer him -his choice of being marooned or going out the airlock. I cannot think of -any other alternative." - -"I can," said Moran. "I'm going to kill him." - -Burleigh blinked. Harper looked up sharply. - -"We fight," said Moran grimly. "Armed exactly alike. He can try to kill -me. I'll give him the same chance I have. But I'll kill him. They used -to call it a duel, and they came to consider it a very immoral business. -But that's beside the point. I won't agree to marooning him here. That's -murder. I won't agree to throwing him out the airlock. That's murder, -too. But I have the right to kill him if it's in fair fight. That's -justice! You can bring him in and let him decide if he wants to be -marooned or fight me. I think he's just raging enough to want to do all -the damage he can, now that his plans have gone sour." - -Burleigh fidgeted. He looked at Harper. Harper nodded grudgingly. He -looked at Brawn. Brawn nodded moodily. - -Burleigh said fretfully. "Very well ... Harper, you and Brawn bring him -here. We'll see what he says. Be careful!" - -Harper and Brawn went down the passageway. Moran saw them take out the -blasters they'd worn since he took over the ship. They were ready. They -unlocked and opened the inner airlock door. - -There was silence. Harper looked shocked. He went in the airlock while -Brawn stared, for once startled out of moodiness. - -Harper came out. - -"He's gone," he said in a flat voice. "Out the airlock." - - * * * * * - -All the rest went instantly to look. The airlock was empty. By the most -natural and inevitable of oversights, when Hallet was put in it for a -temporary cell, no one had thought of locking the outer door. There was -no point in it. It only led out to the nightmare world. And out there -Hallet would be in monstrous danger; he'd have no food. At most his only -weapon would be the torch Moran had carried to the _Malabar_ and brought -back again. He could have no hope of any kind. He could feel only -despair unthinkable and horror undiluted. - -There was a buzzing sound in the airlock. A space-suit hung there. The -helmet-phone was turned on. Hallet's voice came out, flat and metallic -and desperate and filled with hate: - -"_What're you going to do now? You'd better think of a bargain to offer -me! You can't lift off! I took the fuel-block so Moran couldn't afford -to kill me after the rest of you were dead. You can't lift off the -ground! Now give me a guarantee I can believe in or you stay here with -me!_" - -Harper bolted for the engine-room. He came back, his face ashen. "He's -right. It's gone. He took it." - -Moran stirred. Burleigh wrung his hands. Moran reached down the -space-suit from whose helmet the voice came tinnily. He began to put it -on. Carol opened her lips to speak, and he covered the microphone with -his palm. - -"I'm going to go out and kill him," said Moran very quietly. "Somebody -else had better come along just in case. But you can't make a bargain -with him. He can't believe in any promise, because he wouldn't keep -any." - -Harper went away again. He came back, struggling into a space-suit. -Brawn moved quickly. Burleigh suddenly stirred and went for a suit. - -"We want torches," said Moran evenly, "for our own safety, and blasters -because they'll drop Hallet. Carol, you monitor what goes on. When we -need to come back, you can use the direction-finder and talk us back to -the yacht." - -"But--but--" - -"_What are you going to do?_" rasped the voice shrilly. "_You've got to -make a bargain! I've got the fuel-block! You can't lift off without the -fuel-block! You've got to make a deal._" - - * * * * * - -The other men came back. With the microphone still muffled by his hand, -Moran said sharply, "He has to keep talking until we answer, but he -won't know we're on his trail until we do. We keep quiet when we get the -helmets on. Understand?" Then he said evenly to Carol. "Look at that -paper I showed you if--if anything happens. Don't forget! Ready?" - -Carol's hands were clenched. She was terribly pale. She tried to speak, -and could not. Moran, with the microphone still covered by the palm of -his hand, repeated urgently; - -"Remember, no talking! He'll pick up anything we say. Use gestures. -Let's go!" - -He swung out of the airlock. The others followed. The one certain thing -about the direction Hallet would have taken was that it must be away -from the wreck. And he'd have been in a panic to get out of sight from -the yacht. - -Moran saw his starting-point at once. Landing, the _Nadine_ had used -rockets for easing to ground because it is not possible to make delicate -adjustments of interplanetary drive. A take-off, yes. But to land even -at a space-port one uses rockets to cushion what otherwise might be a -sharp impact. The _Nadine's_ rockets had burned away the yeasty soil -when she came to ground. There was a burnt-away depression down to -bed-rock in the stuff all around her. But Hallet had broken the -scorched, crusty edge of the hollow as he climbed up to the blanket-like -surface-skin. - -Moran led the way after him. He moved with confidence. The -springy, sickeningly uncertain stuff underfoot was basically -white-that-had-been-soiled. Between the _Nadine's_ landing-spot and the -now-gutted wreck, it happened that only that one color showed. But, -scattered at random in other places, there were patches of red mould and -blue mould and black dusty rust and greenish surface-fungi. Twenty yards -from the depression in which the _Nadine_ lay, Hallet's footprints were -clearly marked in a patch of orange-yellow ground-cover which gave off -impalpable yellow spores when touched. Moran gestured for attention and -pointed out the trail. He gestured again for the others to spread out. - -Hallet's voice came again. He'd left the _Nadine's_ lock because he -could make no bargain for his life while in the hands of his companions. -He could only bargain for his life if they could not find him or the -precious fuel-block without which the _Nadine_ must remain here forever. -But from the beginning he knew such terror that he could not contrive, -himself, a bargain that could possibly be made. - -He chattered agitatedly, not yet sure that his escape had been -discovered. At times he seemed almost hysterical. Moran and the others -could hear him pant, sometimes, as a fancied movement aroused his panic. -Once they heard the noise of his torch as he burned a safety-hole in the -ground. But he did not use it. He hastened on. He talked desperately. -Sometimes he boasted, and sometimes he tried cunningly to be reasonable. -But he hadn't been prepared for the absolute failure of what should have -been the simplest and surest form of multiple murder. Now in a last -ditch stand, he hysterically abused them for taking so long to realize -that they had to make a deal. - - * * * * * - -His four pursuers went grimly over the elastic surface of this world -upon his trail. The _Nadine_ faded into the mist. Off to the right a -clump of toadstools grew. They were taller than any of the men, and -their pulpy stalks were more than a foot thick. Hallet's trail in the -colored surface-moulds went on. The giant toadstools were left behind. -The trail led straight toward an enormous object the height of a -three-storey house. When first glimpsed through the mist, it looked -artificial. But as they drew near they saw that it was a cabbage; -gigantic, with leaves impossibly huge and thick. There was a spike in -its middle on which grew cruciform faded flowers four feet across. - -Then Hallet screamed. They heard it in their helmet-phones. He screamed -again. Then for a space he was silent, gasping, and then he uttered -shrieks of pure horror. But they were cries of horror, not of pain. - -Moran found himself running, which was probably ridiculous. The others -hastened after him. And suddenly the mistiness ahead took on a new -appearance. The ground fell away. It became evident that the _Nadine_ -had landed upon a plateau with levels below it and very possibly -mountains rising above. But here the slightly rolling plateau fell sheer -away. There was a place where the yeasty soil--but here it was tinted -with a purplish overcast of foleate fungus--where the soil had given -way. Something had fallen, here. - -It would have been Hallet. He'd gone too close to a precipice, moving -agitatedly in search of a hiding-place in which to conceal himself until -the people of the _Nadine_ made a deal he could no longer believe in. - -His cries still came over the helmet-phones. Moran went grimly to look. -He found himself gazing down into a crossvalley perhaps two hundred feet -deep. At the bottom there was the incredible, green growing things. But -they were not trees. They were some flabby weed with thick reddish -stalks and enormous pinnate leaves. It grew here to the height of oaks. -But Hallet had not dropped so far. - -From anchorages on bare rock, great glistening cables reached downward -to other anchorages on the valley floor. The cables crossed each other -with highly artificial precision at a central point. They formed the -foundation for a web of geometrically accurate design and unthinkable -size. Crosscables of sticky stuff went round and round the center of the -enormous snare, following a logarithmic spiral with absolute exactitude. -It was a spider's web whose cables stretched hundreds of feet; whose -bird-limed ropes would trap and hold even the monster insects of this -world. And Hallet was caught in it. - - * * * * * - -He'd tumbled from the cliff-edge as fungoid soil gave way under him. -He'd bounced against a sloping, fungus-covered rocky wall and with -fragments of curdy stuff about him had been flung out and into the -snare. He was caught as firmly as any of the other creatures on which -the snare's owner fed. - -His shrieks of horror began when he realized his situation. He -struggled, setting up insane vibrations in the fabric of the web. He -shrieked again, trying to break the bonds of cordage that clung the more -horribly as he struggled to break free. And the struggling was most -unwise. - -"We want to cut the cables with torches," said Moran sharply. "If we can -make the web drop we'll be all right. Webspiders don't hunt on the -ground. Go ahead! Make it fast!" - -Burleigh and the others hastened to what looked like a nearly -practicable place by which to descend. Moran moved swiftly to where one -cable of the web was made fast at the top. It was simple sanity to break -down the web--by degrees, of course--to get at Hallet. But Hallet did -not cooperate. He writhed and struggled and shrieked. - -His outcry, of course, counted for nothing in the satanic cacophony that -filled the air. All the monsters of all the planet seemed to make -discordant noises. Hallet could add nothing. But his struggles in the -web had meaning to the owner of the trap. - -They sent tiny tremblings down the web-cables. And this was the fine -mathematical creation of what was quaintly called a "garden spider" on -other worlds. _Epeira fasciata._ She was not in it. She sat sluggishly -in a sheltered place, remote from her snare. But a line, a cord, a -signal-cable went from the center of the web to the spider's retreat. -She waited with implacable patience, one foreleg--sheathed in ragged and -somehow revolting fur--resting delicately upon the line. Hallet's -frantic struggles shook the web. Faintly, to be sure, but distinctively. -The vibrations were wholly unlike the violent, thrashing struggles of a -heavy beetle or a giant cricket. They were equally unlike those -flirtatious, seductive pluckings of a web-cable which would mean that an -amorous male of her own species sought the grisly creature's affection. - -Hallet made the web quiver as small prey would shake it. The spider -would have responded instantly to bigger game, if only to secure it -before the vast snare was damaged by frenzied plungings. Still, though -there was no haste, the giant rose and in leisurely fashion traversed -the long cable to the web's center. Moran saw it. - -"Hallet!" he barked into his helmet-phone, "Hallet! Hold still! Don't -move!" - -He raced desperately along the edge of the cliff, risking a fall more -immediately fatal than Hallet's. It was idiotic to make such an attempt -at rescue. It was sheer folly. But there are instincts one has to obey -against all reason. Moran did not think of the fuel-block. Typically, -Hallet did. - -"_I've got the fuel-block_," he gasped between screams. "_If you don't -help me--_" - -But then the main cable nearest him moved in a manner not the result of -his own struggles. It was the enormous weight of the owner of the web, -moving leisurely on her own snare, which made the web shake now. And -Hallet lost even the coherence of hysteria and simply shrieked. - - * * * * * - -Moran came to a place where a main anchor-cable reached bed-rock. It ran -under yeasty ground-cover to an anchorage. He thrust his torch deep, -feeling for the cable. It seared through. The web jerked wildly as one -of its principal supports parted. The giant spider turned aside to -investigate the event. Such a thing should happen only when one of the -most enormous of possible victims became entangled. - -Moran went racing for another cable-anchorage. But when he found where -the strong line fastened, it was simply and starkly impossible to climb -down to it. He swore and looked desperately for Burleigh and Brawn and -Harper. They were far away, hurrying to descend but not yet where they -could bring the web toppling down by cutting other cables. - -The yellow-banded monster came to the cut end of the line. It swung -down. It climbed up again. Hallet shrieked and kicked. - -The spider moved toward him. Of all nightmarish creatures on this -nightmare of a planet, a giant spider with a body eight feet long and -legs to span as many yards was most revolting. Its abdomen was obscenely -swollen. As it moved, its spinnerets paid out newly-formed cord behind -it. Its eyes were monstrous and murderously intent. The ghastly, -needle-sharp mandibles beside its mouth seemed to move lustfully with a -life of their own. And it was somehow ten times more horrible because of -its beastly fur. Tufts of black hairiness, half-yards in length, -streamed out as its legs moved. - -There was another cable still. Moran made for it. He reached it where it -stretched down like a slanting tight-rope. He jerked out his torch to -sever it,--and saw that to cut it would be to drop the spider almost -upon Hallet. It would seize him then because of his writhings. But not -to cut it-- - -He tried his blaster. He fired again and again. The blaster-bolts hurt. -The spider reacted with fury. The blaster would have killed a man at -this distance, though it would have been ignored by a chitin-armored -beetle. But against the spider the bolts were like bites. They made -small wounds, but not serious ones. The spider made a bubbling sound -which was more daunting than any cry would have been. It flung its legs -about, fumbling for the thing that it believed attacked it. It continued -the bubbling sounds. Its mandibles clashed and gnashed against each -other. They were small noises in the din which was the norm on this mad -world, but they were more horrible than any other sounds Moran had ever -heard. - - * * * * * - -The spider suddenly began to move purposefully toward the spot where -Hallet jerked insanely and shrieked in heart-rending horror. - -Moran found himself attempting the impossible. He knew it was -impossible. The blast-pistol hurt but did not injure the giant because -the range was too long. So--it was totally unjustifiable--he found -himself slung below the downward-slanting cable and sliding down its -slope. He was going to where the range would be short enough for his -blast-pistol to be effective. He slid to a cross-cable, and avoided it -and went on. - -Burleigh and Brawn and Harper were tiny figures, very far away. Moran -hung by one hand and used his free hand to fire the blaster once more. -It hurt more seriously, now. The spider made bubbling noises of infinite -ferocity. And it moved with incredible agility toward the one object it -could imagine as meaning attack. - -It reached Hallet. It seized him. - -Moran's blast-pistol could not kill it. It had to be killed. Now! He -drew out his torch and pressed the continuous-flame stud. Raging, he -threw it at the spider. - -It spun in the air, a strange blue-white pinwheel in the gray light of -this planet's day. It cut through a cable that might have deflected it. -It reached the spider, now reared high and pulling Hallet from the -sticky stuff that had captured him. - -The spinning torch hit. The flame burned deep. The torch actually sank -into the spider's body. - -And there was a titanic flame and an incredible blast and Moran knew -nothing. - - * * * * * - -A long time later he knew that he ached. He became aware that he hurt. -Still later he realized that Burleigh and Brawn and Harper stood around -him. He'd splashed in some enormous thickness of the yeasty soil, grown -and fallen from the cliff-edge, and it was not solid enough to break his -bones. Harper, doubtless, had been most resolute in digging down to him -and pulling him out. - -He sat up, and growled at innumerable unpleasant sensations. - -"That," he said painfully, "was a very bad business." - -"It's all bad business," said Burleigh in a flat and somehow exhausted -tone. "The fuel-block burned. There's nothing left of it or Hallet or -the spider." - -Moran moved an arm. A leg. The other arm and leg. He got unsteadily to -his feet. - -"It was bessendium and uranium," added Burleigh hopelessly. "And the -uranium burned. It wasn't an atomic explosion, it just burned like -sodium or potassium would do. But it burned fast! The torch-flame must -have reached it." He added absurdly. "Hallet died instantly, of course. -Which is better fortune than we are likely to have." - -"Oh, that ..." said Moran. "We're all right. I said I was going to kill -him. I wasn't trying to at the moment, but I did. By accident." He -paused, and said dizzily; "I think he should feel obliged to me. I was -distinctly charitable to him!" - -Harper said grimly; - -"But we can't lift off. We're all marooned here now." - -Moran took an experimental step. He hurt, but he was sound. - -"Nonsense!" he said. "The crew of the _Malabar_ went off without taking -the fuel-block from the wreck's engines. It's in a drawer in the -_Nadine's_ control-room with a note to Carol that I asked her to read -should something happen to me. We may have to machine it a little to -make it fit the _Nadine's_ engines. But we're all right!" - -Carol's voice came in his helmet-phone. It was shaky and desperately -glad. - -"_You're--all right? Quite all right? Please hurry back?_" - -"We're on the way," said Moran. - - * * * * * - -He was pleased with Carol's reaction. He also realized that now there -would be the right number of people on the _Nadine_; they would take off -from this world and arrive reasonably near due-time at Loris without -arousing the curiosity of space-port officials. - -He looked about him. The way the others had come down was a perfectly -good way to climb up again. On the surface, above, their trail would be -clear on the multi-colored surface rusts. There were four men together, -all with blast-pistols and three with torches. They should be safe. - -Moran talked cheerfully, climbing to the plateau on which the _Nadine_ -had landed, trudging with the others across a world on which it was -impossible to see more than a quarter-mile in any direction. But the way -was plain. Beyond the mist Carol waited. - - -THE END - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Planet of Dread, by Murray Leinster - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANET OF DREAD *** - -***** This file should be named 43046-8.txt or 43046-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/0/4/43046/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Planet of Dread - -Author: Murray Leinster - -Release Date: June 27, 2013 [EBook #43046] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANET OF DREAD *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43046 ***</div> <div class="figleft"> <img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> @@ -1376,7 +1340,7 @@ not have changed.</p> <p>Burleigh sat in the control-room with a double handful of purple crystals before him.</p> -<p>"This," he said when Moran and Carol reëntered, "this is bessendium past +<p>"This," he said when Moran and Carol reëntered, "this is bessendium past question. I've been thinking what it means."</p> <p>"Money," said Moran drily. "You'll all be rich. You'll probably retire @@ -2532,385 +2496,6 @@ was plain. Beyond the mist Carol waited.</p> <h3>THE END</h3> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Planet of Dread, by Murray Leinster - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANET OF DREAD *** - -***** This file should be named 43046-h.htm or 43046-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/0/4/43046/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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