"Sure. No visible reason at all why the scout should have settled hard
enough to buckle a drive. Handing was a good pilot."
"Hm-m-m." Dasinger rubbed his chin. "Well, I've been wondering. The
Dosey Asteroids raiders are supposed to have used an unknown type of
antipersonnel weapon in their attack on the station, you know. Nothing
in sight on their wreck that might be, say, an automatic gun but ...
well, just move in carefully and stay ready to haul away very fast at
the first hint of trouble!"
* * * * *
The Mooncat slid slowly down through the air near the point where the
man stood in open ground, a hundred yards from the clump of trees out of
which smoke still billowed thickly upwards. The man watched the
speedboat's descent quietly, making no further attempt to attract the
attention of those on board to himself.
Duomart had said that the man was not a member of Handing's lost crew
but a stranger. He was therefore one of the Dosey Asteroids raiders.
Putting down her two land legs, the Mooncat touched the open hillside a
little over a quarter of a mile from the woods, stood straddled and
rakish, nose high. The storeroom lock opened, and a slender ramp slid
out. Quist showed in the lock, dumped two portable shelters to the
ground, came scrambling nimbly down the ramp. Dr. Egavine followed, more
cautiously, the two handcuffed Fleetmen behind him. Dasinger came out
last, glancing over at the castaway who had started across the slope
towards the ship.
"Everyone's out," he told his wrist communicator. "Take her up."
The ramp snaked soundlessly back into the lock, the lock snapped shut
and the Mooncat lifted smoothly and quickly from the ground. Liu Taunus
glanced after the rising speedboat, looked at Calat, and spoke loudly
and emphatically in Fleetlingue for a few seconds, his broad face
without expression. Dasinger said, "All right, Quist, break out the
shelter."
When the shelter was assembled, Dasinger motioned the Fleetmen towards
the door with his thumb. "Inside, boys!" he said. "Quist, lock the
shelter behind them and stay on guard here. Come on, doctor. We'll meet
our friend halfway...."
* * * * *
The castaway approached unhurriedly, walking with a long, easy stride,
the bird thing on his shoulder craning its neck to peer at the strangers
with round yellow eyes. The man was big and rangy, probably less heavy
by thirty pounds than Liu Taunus, but in perfect physical condition. The
face was strong and intelligent, smiling elatedly now.
"I'd nearly stopped hoping this day would arrive!" he said in
translingue. "May I ask who you are?"
"An exploration group." Dasinger gripped the extended hand, shook it, as
Dr. Egavine's right hand went casually to his coat lapel. "We noticed
the two wrecked ships down by the lake," Dasinger explained, "then saw
your smoke signal. Your name?"
"Graylock. Once chief engineer of the Antares, out of Vanadia on
Aruaque." Graylock turned, still smiling, towards Egavine.
Egavine smiled as pleasantly.
"Graylock," he observed, "you feel, and will continue to feel, that this
is the conversation you planned to conduct with us, that everything is
going exactly in accordance with your wishes." He turned his head to
Dasinger, inquired, "Would you prefer to question him yourself,
Dasinger?"
Dasinger hesitated, startled; but Graylock's expression did not change.
Dasinger shook his head. "Very smooth, doctor!" he commented. "No, go
ahead. You're obviously the expert here."
"Very well ... Graylock," Dr. Egavine resumed, "you will cooperate with
me fully and to the best of your ability now, knowing that I am both
your master and friend. Are any of the other men who came here on those
two ships down by the water still alive?"
There was complete stillness for a second or two. Then Graylock's face
began to work unpleasantly, all color draining from it. He said harshly,
"No. But I ... I don't ..." He stammered incomprehensibly, went silent
again, his expression wooden and set.
"Graylock," Egavine continued to probe, "you can remember everything
now, and you are not afraid. Tell me what happened to the other men."
Sweat covered the castaway's ashen face. His mouth twisted in agonized,
silent grimaces again. The bird thing leaped from his shoulder with a
small purring sound, fluttered softly away.
Dr. Egavine repeated, "You are not afraid. You can remember. What
happened to them? How did they die?"
And abruptly the big man's face smoothed out. He looked from Egavine to
Dasinger and back with an air of brief puzzlement, then explained
conversationally, "Why, Hovig's generator killed many of us as we ran
away from the Antares. Some reached the edges of the circle with me, and
I killed them later."
Dr. Egavine flicked another glance towards Dasinger but did not pause.
"And the crew of the second ship?" he asked.
"Those two. They had things I needed, and naturally I didn't want them
alive here."
"Is Hovig's generator still on the Antares?"
"Yes."
"How does the generator kill?"
Sweat suddenly started out on Graylock's face again, but now he seemed
unaware of any accompanying emotions. He said, "It kills by fear, of
course...."
* * * * *
The story of the Dosey Asteroids raider and of Hovig's fear generators
unfolded quickly from there. Hovig had developed his machines for the
single purpose of robbing the Dosey Asteroids Shipping Station. The plan
then had been to have the Antares cruise in uncharted space with the
looted star hyacinths for at least two years, finally to approach the
area of the Federation from a sector far removed from the Dosey system.
That precaution resulted in disaster for Hovig. Chief Engineer Graylock
had time to consider that his share in the profits of the raid would be
relatively insignificant, and that there was a possibility of increasing
it.
Graylock and his friends attacked their shipmates as the raider was
touching down to the surface of an uncharted world to replenish its
water supply. The attack succeeded but Hovig, fatally wounded, took a
terrible revenge on the mutineers. He contrived to set off one of his
grisly devices, and to all intents and purposes everyone still alive on
board the Antares immediately went insane with fear. The ship crashed
out of control at the edge of a lake. Somebody had opened a lock and a
number of the frantic crew plunged from the ramp and fell to their death
on the rocks below. Those who reached the foot of the ramp fled
frenziedly from the wreck, the effects of Hovig's machine pursuing them
but weakening gradually as they widened the distance between themselves
and the Antares. Finally, almost three miles away, the fear impulses
faded out completely....
But thereafter the wreck was unapproachable. The fear generator did not
run out of power, might not run out of power for years.
Dasinger said, "Doctor, let's hurry this up! Ask him why they weren't
affected by their murder machines when they robbed Dosey Asteroids. Do
the generators have a beam-operated shut-off, or what?"
Graylock listened to the question, said, "We had taken kwil. The effects
were still very unpleasant, but they could be tolerated."
There was a pause of a few seconds. Dr. Egavine cleared his throat. "It
appears, Dasinger," he remarked, "that we have failed to consider a
very important clue!"
Dasinger nodded. "And an obvious one," he said drily. "Keep it moving
along, doctor. How much kwil did they take? How long had they been
taking it before the raid?"
Dr. Egavine glanced over at him, repeated the questions.
Graylock said Hovig had begun conditioning the crew to kwil a week or
two before the Antares slipped out of Aruaque for the strike on the
station. In each case the dosage had been built up gradually to the
quantity the man in question required to remain immune to the
generators. Individual variations had been wide and unpredictable.