Part 13 (1/2)

Hory's face flushed; his lips were tight-set. I wished at that moment I could read his thoughts as well as Eet did. If Eet found them threatening, he did not comment on that, but now struck off on another track.

”If my species is to survive, and I think that a necessary thing, steps must be taken here and now. You are probably right, Hory, in believing that this s.h.i.+p cannot be turned from its present course. But are you so sure that that cannot be reversed?”

I saw the startled expression on Hory's face. His mind must have been easy for Eet to read.

”Thank you.” Satisfaction was plain in Eet's reply. ”So that is the way of it!” He leaped again to the edge of the control board and flexed his hand-paws over its surface as one might do preparatory to making some delicate and demanding adjustments on a complicated piece of machinery.

”No!” Hory lunged for him, but he came up against me and did not reach the board. I struck once with the edge of my hand, one of the tricks of personal combat which I had been taught. He went down and out an instant after the blow landed.

I dragged him to the pa.s.senger's seat, heaved him up, and buckled him in. Then I turned back to Eet, who was still studying the board, his head darting from side to side, his paws above but not yet touching any of the b.u.t.tons or levers.

”A pretty problem,” he observed. ”The result will be complicated by the booster power of the stone. It can be reversed, yes. I read that in his mind when I startled him by such a suggestion. Such a shock will often uncover necessary information. But at our present speed, we shall probably not land near where we took off.”

”And what can we gain by returning? Oh,” I said, answering my own question, ”we cannot alter course until we land again. But I am no pilot. I cannot lift this s.h.i.+p off planet even if we are able to set a second course.”

”A fact to consider later, when the time comes to put it to test,” was Eet's comment. ”But have you any wish to continue this present voyage under the circ.u.mstances?”

”What about the Guild s.h.i.+p? It could be on our trail again if we return-”

”Consider the facts - will they be expecting our return? I do not believe that anyone, even someone as shrewd as Captain Nact.i.tl, might foresee that. And if we can set down some distance from their camp, we shall win time. Time is the weapon we need most.”

Eet was right, as he always was: I did not want to finish out the voyage on Hory's tape. Even if I were not already under charges, taking over this s.h.i.+p would place me so deeply in the ill graces of the Patrol that I could have small defense.

”Thus and thus and thus-” Having completed his study of the board, Eet made his choices with lightning rapidity. And I was not s.h.i.+pwise enough to know if he had chosen successfully. I watched lights change, fade, others take their places, and hoped fervently that Eet knew what he was doing.

”Now what?” I asked as he scrambled from the edge of the board back into the pilot's seat.

”Since we have only waiting left, I would suggest food - drink-”

He was so right. Now that he mentioned it, the E-ration I had consumed in the tunnel was long behind me and I had nothing but an aching and empty void for a middle. I inspected Hory's las.h.i.+ngs. He was still unconscious, but his breathing was regular. Then I went below, accompanied by Eet, who could take the ladder with far more speed than I could. We found a small galley with - to me - a luxurious supply of rations, and had a feast. At that moment it was equal to a Llalation banquet and I savored every mouthful with relish.

Eet shared my food, even if it were not the end product of a hunt. It was when we were both full that I turned again to consider the future.

”I cannot pilot us off world,” I said again. ”We may be planet-bound on a world which certainly would not be my choice to colonize. If the Guild s.h.i.+p follows us in, they will be able to mark our landing and will be after us. And I do not know enough about this s.h.i.+p to use its weapons. Though I suppose, if it is a matter of his destruction, we could trust Hory enough to man the defenses, whatever they may be.”

”Especially, you are thinking, since I can keep reading his mind and will be alert for the moment when he may try to turn those same weapons against us.” Eet carefully washed each finger with a dark-red tongue, holding it well out from its fellows to be lapped around. ”They will not be expecting us. As for getting off world again, that will come in due time. Do not seek out shadows in the future; you will discover oftentimes that the sun of tomorrow will dispatch them. I would suggest sleep now. That eases the body, rests the brain, and one awakes better prepared to face the inevitable.”

He jumped from the swing table and pattered to the door.

”This way - to a bunk-” Pointing with his nose, he indicated a door directly across the level landing. ”Do not worry - there is an alarm which will rouse you when we do enter atmosphere once more.”

I pushed the door aside. There was a bunk and I threw myself on it, suddenly as tired as I had been hungry. I felt Eet leap to my side and curl up with his head on my shoulder. But his mind was sealed and his eyes closed. There was nothing to do but yield to the demands of my overtired body and follow him into slumber.

I was jerked out of that blissful state by a strident buzzing far too close to my ear. When I looked blearily around I saw Eet sitting up, combing his whiskers between his fingers.

”Re-entry alarm,” he informed me.

”Are you sure?” I sat up on the bunk and ran my hands through my hair, but not with the neat results of Eet's personal grooming. It had been far too long since I had had a change of clothing, a bath, a chance to feel really clean. On my hands and body, the pink patches of new skin were fading. It should not be long before my piebald state was past and I would bear none of the stigma of the disease which had taken me from the Vestris.

”Back where we started from, yes.” Eet did sound sure, though I could not share his complete confidence, and would not until I was able to look outside.

”Might as well strap down right here,” he continued.

”But the s.h.i.+p-”

”Is on full automatic. And what could you do if it were not?”

Eet was right, but I would have felt less shaky had Hory been riding in the pilot's seat. It is very true that the autopilots have been refined and refined until they probably are more reliable than humans. But there is always the unusual emergency when a human reflex may save what a machine cannot. And, though the engines of a s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p practically run themselves, no s.h.i.+p ever lifts without pilot, engineer, and those other crewmen whose duties in the past once kept their hands ever hovering over controls.

”You fear your machines, do you not?” As I buckled down on the bunk Eet stretched out beside me. He seemed prepared to carry on a conversation at a time when I was in no mood for light talk.

”Why, I suppose some of us do. I am no techneer. Machines are mysteries as far as I am concerned.” Too much of a mystery. I wished I had had some instruction in s.p.a.cing.

But my thoughts and Eet's answer, if he made one, were blanked out in the discomfort of orbiting before planet-fall. And I found that to be twice as great as what I had experienced before. My estimation of Hory arose. If he had constantly to take this sort of thing he was indeed tough. My last stab of fear concerned our actual touch-down. What if the automatic controls did not pick a suitable spot on which to fin in and we were swallowed up in some lake, or tipped over at set-down. Not that there was one thing I could do to prevent either that or any other catastrophe which might arise.

Then I opened my eyes, with the thumping pain of a sun-sized headache behind them, felt the grip of planetside gravity, and knew that we had made it. Since the floor of the cabin appeared to be level, we had had a suitable landing, too.

Eet crawled out from beneath the strap which had gone across my chest and his body. His quick recovery from the strains which always held me in thrall was irritating. I had thought him dead after that violent blow he had taken from the rod. But from the time he had turned to bite the hand which held him, he had shown no sign of nursing even a bruise.

”-see where we are-” He was already going out the cabin door. And in the silent s.h.i.+p I could hear the sc.r.a.ping of his claws as he climbed the ladder. I followed at a far more moderate pace, stopping on the way to pick up a tube of restorative from the rack in the gallery. Hory would need that and we would need him - at least until we learned more about where we were and what might be ahead of us.

The Patrolman's eyes were open, fixed on Eet in a stare which suggested he did not in the least want to see the mutant. And Eet was in Hory's lawful place, the pilot's seat. For the first time since I had known him, my companion appeared truly baffled.

As always the control board was rigged with an outside visa-screen. But the b.u.t.ton which activated that was now well above Eet's reach, meant to be close to the hand of a human pilot reclining in that swing chair.

Eet had scrambled up as high as he could climb, his neck stretched to an amazing length. But his nose was still not within touching distance of that b.u.t.ton. I crossed over to push it.

The screen produced a picture. We seemed to be facing a cliff - and it was too close to have rea.s.sured me had I seen it before we landed. Insofar as I could compare it in memory, it was of the same yellow-gray shade as that which had been tunneled by the long-ago miners. But this had no breaks in its surface.

For the first time Hory spoke. ”Put on the sweep - that lever there.” Bound as he was, he had to indicate with his chin, using it as a pointer. I dutifully pressed that second b.u.t.ton.

The cliff face now appeared to travel past us at a slow rate. Then we saw what must lie to the left, open sky with only the tops of greenery showing.

”Depress,” ordered Hory almost savagely. ”Depress the lever. We want ground level.”

There was almost a sensation of falling as our field of vision descended rapidly. The tops of the growth became visible as the crowns of large bushes. There was the usual smoke and fumes left by the deter rockets, a strip of seared ground between the s.h.i.+p and that shriveled wall of green. Nowhere did I see the giant trees which had caught the LB in for the forest.

Neither were there any ruins, nor the wreckage of the ancient s.h.i.+p, nor, what I had dreaded the most, the spire of the Guild vessel. As the visa-screen continued to reveal the land about us, it looked very much as if we were in a wilderness. And how far we were from the mining camp was anyone's guess.

”Not too far.” Eet climbed up on the webbing to watch the sweep across the countryside. ”There are ways of locating a s.h.i.+p, especially on a planet where there is no interference in the way of ordinary electronic broadcasting. He has already thought of that-” The mutant indicated Hory.

I turned to the Patrolman. ”What about it? We are back on that planet, I know this vegetation. Can you discover the Guild s.h.i.+p or camp for us?”

”Why should I?” He was not struggling against his bonds, but lying at his ease, as if action was no concern of his. ”Why should I put myself into your friends' hands? You have a problem now, have you not, Jern? Take off on the tape set in the autopilot and you will reach my base. Stay here - and sooner or later your friends will come. Then you had better try to make a deal. Perhaps you can use me as a bargaining point.”

”You have given me little reason to want to do anything else,” I retorted. ”But those are not my friends, and I am not about to make any bargain with them.” Almost I was tempted to let him believe that his supposition was the truth. But why play murky games when I might well need his cooperation in the future? The s.h.i.+p would take off on a tape, without the need for a human pilot. But whether he had a supply of such tapes on board, whether I could affix and use another, whether I could be sure my choice would not merely take me to another Patrol post, that I must find out. And time to learn might be running out - they might already be tracing us.