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diff --git a/43046-0.txt b/43046-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8652d2d --- /dev/null +++ b/43046-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2312 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43046 *** + + 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 THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43046 *** |