Part 3 (1/2)

Now I was back in the dank steam of the deserted planet, and that wreathed in scalding curls about me, so that I cried out in torment. Across seamed and stinking mud I ran, unable to sight my pursuers but knowing I was hunted. Once the mists parted and I saw them for an instant. They came laser in hand and all wore the same face, that of the medico Velos. But still I kept my stumbling feet and fled.

”They will kill- kill- kill-” The words rang across this evil world in a vast thundering. ”They will kill you- you- you!”

I was lying once more on my bunk, s.h.i.+vering again. But the mist had disappeared and my sight was clear. And not only my sight but my mind. There was a whistling whisper - it came from the wall - out of the wall. Once before I had heard words out of a wall or the air. But that had been on Tanth in the sanctuary. And I was not there - but in a cabin on a Free Trader. In me was a vast urgency, a need to hear more of that whispering.

As I pulled myself up my covering slipped away. I was no longer clothed and my body was covered with purple blotches which were dried in scabs. Hideous! I was lightheaded when I moved, but somehow I got to the wall and the com set there. The light below it was on - it was open - and somewhere in the s.h.i.+p people were talking, close enough to the mike so that some of their speech was broadcast, though slurred. I tried to hear ”-danger - seal up - cannot even s.p.a.ce him - seal door - set down on moon - burn out the cabin-”

”-deliver him to-”

”No chance.” The first speaker must have moved closer, for I heard him more clearly. ”He is dead, or near enough not to matter. We are lucky so far, and we can take no chance of the infection spreading. Get rid of the plague evidence before we planet on any port. Do you want to be proclaimed a plague s.h.i.+p?”

”-held responsible-”

”Return their fee. Show them the picture tape from the cabin; one look at that ought to convince them that he was of no use. As for searching him - do you want the plague?”

”-not people to be easily satisfied-”

”Show them the tapes!” It was the medico talking, I was sure now. ”Do not even open that cabin again until we can burn it out, and we go suited when we do that. On a dead moon where the infection cannot spread. Then we keep our mouths shut, and tightly. No one but those will be asking for him. As far as the rest, he is still back on Tanth, or dead there. And there will be no questions asked for some time anyway - if ever. Those will see that his trail is muddled. We cannot deliver him now - we have a body and a sealed cabin - plague-”

That they were discussing me I had no doubts. Now that I was on my feet, the first giddiness had gone and I could think. Velos termed me dead, or near so, but at the moment I felt very much alive. And I had no mind to fall victim to the fate the speakers had in mind for me. If Velos had his way my cabin door would be welded closed from the outside, not to be opened again for fear of contagion. They would shut off the ventilation, all outlets, to confine the disease, and I would have a hard and lingering death. On the other hand it would appear that I had not engineered my own escape from Tanth. Why had I not been suspicious at how easily it had worked? I had been taken to be delivered elsewhere. And I nursed no doubts as to the nature of those to whom I would have been presented as if I were a piece of cargo.

What escape was left me?

”Outside-”

I turned my head too quickly and had to clutch at the frame of the bunk as my vertigo returned. There was a small dark patch there and it moved. I stared stupidly for a moment, until I could focus on it.

The creature I had last seen curled by Valcyr hunched beside my pillow. Now it seemed twice the size it had been at birth. Its eyes were well open and it looked at me intently. Seeing me stare in return, it reared its head, its long neck moving with reptilian sinuosity.

”Outside.” Again that word formed in my mind, and I could only connect it with the animal. Somehow in my weak state of health such communication did not make me wonder.

”Outside, where?” I asked in a whisper, and then squeezed around to shut off the com. I had no desire to reveal my partial recovery to any possible listener.

”That-was-well-done. Outside-the-s.h.i.+p-” returned the thing backed against my rumpled pillow.

”That is open s.p.a.ce-” I continued to carry on the conversation, convinced now that it was part of my fever. Perhaps the other words I had heard over the mike were also fever dreams ”Not-so. You heard-they will kill-you. Smell their fear-it is a bad smell-all through this s.h.i.+p-” The narrow head raised higher and higher and I saw the nostrils expand as if the creature were indeed scenting the unusual in the flat air. ”Go outside-quick-before they seal-the door. Take a suit-”

Wear a s.p.a.ce suit-through the lock? I might live then as long as the air in the suit lasted. But that would only prolong life for a short time.

”They will search-not find-then come back-hide-” persisted my strange cabin mate.

A very wild plan with practically no chance of succeeding. But such is our clinging to life that I was ready to consider it. My cabin was not too far from the s.p.a.ce lock, and the cubby storing the suits. On the other hand, the opening of that compartment would be instantly signaled to the bridge - and suppose we were in hyper-?

”Not so,” cut in my companion. ”Feel-”

It was right. The hum of a s.h.i.+p in hyper was absent. Rather I felt the vibration of a s.h.i.+p cruising in normal s.p.a.ce.

”They seek-moon-dead world-to hide plague-or perhaps to meet others.”

I pulled open a storage compartment. A coverall hung inside and I jerked it out, put it on. Wherever the fabric touched my scaling blotches they itched, but that was a minor discomfort when I had so much else to worry about. As I sealed the front opening, the creature on the bunk hunched together, quivered, leaped - landing on a small railed shelf level with my shoulder. I flinched and blinked.

Now that it was closer I could see it in detail. And it was indeed a weird mixture. Its fur was still the wiry black fuzz. The paws were naked skin. They were gray, white on the undersurfaces, and the fore ones were very like tiny hands. The head was reminiscent of a feline's, as was the body, except the limbs were too short in comparison with the length of the frame. Stiff whiskers bristled from the upper lip, but the ears were smaller than a cat's. The eyes were also out of proportion, being large and showing no pupils at all, only dark, slightly protruding orbs.

The whiplike tail was furred for its length in a ridge along the upper surface, but the tip and underparts were bare. Strange as it looked, it was not in any way repulsive, only different.

It stepped from the shelf to my body, settling itself around my neck, its hand-paws clinging to my right shoulder, so that its head was not far from my ear, its hind claws driven into the fabric over my upper left arm.

”Go-they come.”

It was as sharp as an order and I found myself obeying. But before I left the cabin I received one more instruction.

”The air duct-feel inside.”

The screen across it gave way easily to my first tug. I was so bemused now I followed instructions without question. Inside I found my safe-belt, which had been laid in the center of that tube, concealed from without. Automatically I searched its pockets by touch. My small resources were still mine.

”Quick!” That was reinforced with a sharp pinch from the hind claws.

I inched open the cabin door. The faint glow of the pa.s.sage showed me it was empty. But I could hear the ring of boot plates on a ladder not too far away. I lurched for the suit locker. Suddenly it seemed my very thin chance was better than no chance at all!

The dreamlike quality of my actions continued to hold. I no longer, even with a small part of my brain, questioned the need to flee the interior of the s.h.i.+p, or whether any of this wild plan was feasible.

I regained a measure of strength and the more I walked the steadier I became. There was a fleeting satisfaction in disappointing Velos, who claimed I was dead or close to it.

The latch of the suit locker yielded to my tug and I slipped inside, pulling the door shut behind me. In one way I was favored, I saw as I glanced around that dim interior. The Vestris followed the general pattern of an exploring vessel - which was only logical, since a Free Trader often did discover new worlds.

There was another opening at the end of this s.p.a.ce, giving entrance directly to the lock, saving time when one must suit or unsuit in leaving or entering the s.h.i.+p. I ran my hand along the rack of suits, striving to find one enough my size to be, if not comfortable, usable. Free Traders are now of a general physical type, slight of build. Had I not myself been thin and under height, I could not have squeezed into their protective covering. As it was, I was going to have a tight fit - a very tight one - so much so that I could not even buckle the safe-belt about my middle. Well, perhaps it could go over, if not under, the suit.

When we entered the locker my small companion swung down from its perch on my shoulders, and seemed almost to flow across the floor. It stopped before a clear-sided box and sat up on its haunches, using those hand-paws to feel along one edge in a way which argued intelligent purpose. Then the front of the box sprang open and it flashed in, to curl up. Mystified, I watched.

”Close this!” The imperative command ringing in my head brought me down on one knee, the suit making me clumsy.

I was not quite sure what the box was. Its clear front, metal sides and back were both protective and designed to give one visibility of the contents. There were hooks at the back, as if it were meant to hang from a support. I guessed that it had been fas.h.i.+oned to bring back specimens from a new-found world.

”Close it-hurry-they come! You will take me-so!”

The bright eyes turned up to mine, willing me. Yes, I could feel the force of the will. Again I obeyed.

My safe-belt could not be hooked over the suit. I hurriedly unsealed its pockets and shoveled their contents into a belt pouch - all save the s.p.a.ce ring. That wide band of metal had once fitted over a s.p.a.ce glove; perhaps it could again. And it did - snugly.

I strapped on the rest of the equipment, dimly aware of the suicidal folly of my plan. But the fact remained that were I to appear now anywhere in the s.h.i.+p I would probably be burned down without mercy. There is no fear quite like that of plague. With the carrying case containing my self-appointed company under my arm, I opened the door into the lock. My issuing out of the s.h.i.+p would activate alarms. But would they immediately believe that their quarry was seeking such a way out? Velos had reported me comotose. And I hoped they would cling to that thought.

The door of the hatch rolled back into place and I dogged it shut. Why not stay just where I was? Because there were inner controls and that door could still be opened from the corridor. They need only open it and beam a hole in my protective suit, then thrust me into s.p.a.ce. A clean death as far as they were concerned, with little chance of my contaminating my slayers.

Even as I thought all this my hands were busy thumbing the release of the outer hatch, almost as if they worked independently of my orders. Then the warn light flashed and there was a rus.h.i.+ng of air. I edged through, planting the magnetic plates of my boots on the surface skin of the s.h.i.+p.

I had traveled s.p.a.cers for years. However, my acquaintance with such had been limited to the activities of a pa.s.senger. But now I had sense enough to keep my eyes on the s.h.i.+p under my feet, resolutely away from the void it sailed. I had fastened the box by a safety cord to my harness and that swung out, tugging at me, but not with force enough to break my magnetic hold on the s.h.i.+p.