After a while, Ekstrohm stopped panting and faced Nogol and the captain
who was now sitting, rubbing his jaw. "Okay," he said, "now you'll
listen or I'll beat your skulls in. I know what's behind all of this on
this planet."
"Yeah? What do you think it is, Stormy?" Ryan asked.
"First of all, I think there's a basic difference between this world and
any other the ExPe has investigated."
"Now what could that be?" Nogol wanted to know with a tiny smile.
"These worlds are _close_. The gravity is low. You wouldn't need much
more than a jet plane to get from one of these planetoids to another.
Some animals have developed with the power to travel from one of these
planetoids to another--like a squid jetting out water. They harnessed
some natural power system."
"What does that prove?" Ryan wanted to know.
"It proves that this world and others in this belt are _prepared_ for
interplanetary travel. It's probably a part of their basic evolutional
structure, unlike that of heavy, independent planets. This false 'dying'
is part of their preparation for interplanetary visitors."
"Why would these aliens want others to think that they were dead?" Ryan
asked.
"Correction, captain. They want visitors to believe that they _can_
die."
* * * * *