Lodar was one of them. Cashiered from the Earth Fleet, an ex-officer,
he was well trained to outmaneuver the patrols. It was he who offered
Ray his first job in months.
"Get in on the gravy," he urged. "They already made you a goat, and no
one else will employ you!"
After all, it wasn't criminal. They were only doing what the Company
had done for years. There was a thrill of adventure in the risky
smuggling, a sense of getting even with those who had disgraced him
unjustly.
Yes, Ray was curious to see these Mutes who were at the base of his
trouble.
He followed Lodar along the central corridor to the mid-section well,
and down to the lower deck. The surging hum of the converters wafted on
the warm air as they passed the engine room.
In the after hold Jenkins and his Number Two Gang were bracing a large
metal cage. Entering behind Lodar, Ray stared with mingled feelings at
the captives behind the bars.
"Why, they look like humans!" he gasped. No wonder so many people
objected to the trade!
They were slightly smaller than humans, with paler skin, and their hair
was blond, almost ashen. They regarded their captors with large blue
eyes, but the rustling of grass and skins in which they were dressed
was the only sound they made.
"Like our earliest type of man, perhaps," Lodar admitted. "But of a
different evolution. No vocal cords."
"Just dummies." Jenkins spoke up from behind Ray.
"That's a lie!" The indignant voice was a woman's.
Gripping the bars, she stared angrily out at them. She had the small
figure of a Mute, but her bare arms were bronzed, and her hair was
dark, in long curls.
"They can talk." She shook the bars vigorously. "Release us, you
sinners!"
Lodar suddenly scowled. "You're no Venus Mute!" He grabbed her hand and
twisted it over. The palm was small and pink, not the bluish white of a
Mute.
"Turn us loose, you heathen!" she raged, her large brown eyes aflame.
"The Great Zipher will pour his wrath on you!"
"A missionary!" Lodar snorted savagely. He whirled on Jenkins. "Who
brought her in here?" he bellowed in sudden fury.
Jenkins backed away, blinking his short-sighted eyes. "I--I don't know.
I never seen her before."
The captain turned back to Ray. "Help me get her out," he growled.
Ray silently guarded the door while Lodar entered the cage and dragged
the protesting girl outside. She refused to leave without the others,
but Lodar grimly hauled her out and threw her clear of the door.
"I ought to throw you off in space!" He eyed the girl viciously.
Ray locked the door uneasily. Kidnaping a missionary would mean plenty
of investigation. Earth zealously protected all its numerous and varied
religious workers. This one, he knew, belonged to a very small sect--a
cult founded in dim antiquity.
"Wait till my father learns of this!" The girl was rubbing her elbows.
"He'll call down the wrath of the Great Zipher on this--this ark of
abominations! The grave will open to swallow you. Death and oblivion
shall come, and everlasting torment--"
"Shut up!" Lodar pushed the girl away. "Why you people waste your time
on Mutes--"
"They're not mute!" she stormed. "Woe to you, you--"
"Shut up!" Lodar bawled.
"Very well." She drew herself up to a full five feet, one. "I'll show
you!" She went to the bars. "Emu! Emu! Tell this heathen what the Great
Zipher says."
One of the Mutes shuffled forward, a man with blank face. He drew a
breath and recited in singsong tones.
"The Great Zipher say, come unto me all ye who look for work, and I
give."
"See!" The girl turned imperiously. "Now, let them loose!"
"A parrot!" Lodar snapped. "Come on above or do I drag you?"
For a moment she looked rebellious, then she shrugged the skin cloak
about her slender shoulders and turned with them to the well stairs.
McVane was leaning curiously out the engine room door, his loose jacket
flapping in the pulsing of warm air.
"A gurrl, eh?" He shook his graying head. "That's a bad business,
Lodar." His pale blue eyes blinked owlishly.
"Don't get ideas," Lodar snapped. "It wasn't my doing."
"Nah?" McVane teetered solemnly as he leaned forward. "What's your
name, girlie?"
"Ellenor." She stared at the engineer.
McVane blinked. He scratched his whiskery chin. "Well, Ellenor, ye can
have my cabin for the while," he offered.
"Come on, up you go!" Her dark eyes were bright with anger, but she
climbed to the upper deck without further trouble.
They locked her in McVane's cabin.
"Funny, Mac giving up his room for her," Ray remarked as they headed
forward to the control room.
"Because he's a no-good drunk?" Lodar sneered. "While some of us could
be little gentlemen?" His face turned somber. "McVane is goofy. Had
a wife and two kids. They were on that spaceship, _Jeena_, that was
lost a few years back. If I didn't let him drink he wouldn't be worth
jetting!"
So that explained the captain's easy going attitude toward the little
engineer. At least Lodar had some feelings!
"Why not take this girl back to Venus?" Ray suggested.
"And run into a patrol? Earth Fleet or Company ship, it makes no
difference. If we're caught it means life!"
They were operating outside the law, and no one would listen to their
excuses. Ray felt suddenly cold as he thought that over. Unease
dampened his admiration for the captain. Lodar was too smart to be
captured, his ruthless ability would see the _Vulcan_ through all
right. But he was quite capable of murdering the girl, if necessary, as
a last resort in getting rid of her!
Scowling, Ray followed the captain. In the control room they found
Campora studying the magnaflux. He looked nervous as Lodar headed
straight for him.
"What about this girl we got aboard?" the captain demanded harshly.
"Girl?" Campora looked innocent.
"You led the raid, didn't you?" Lodar's dark eyes were dangerous.
"Maybe you were looking for some more fun?" He stepped close to the
mate. "Or are you just blind?"
"There was a whole bunch of captives." Campora backed away. "We was in
a hurry, and--"
"You damned liar!" Lodar seized his tunic. "You brainless idiot!" His
free hand whipped up to slash across Campora's face.
With an oath Campora jerked free and reached for his belt.
Before he could free his gun Lodar's heavy fist smashed into his jaw.
The mate slammed against the wall, then sagged to the floor. "Dirty
rat!" Lodar took his gun, then kicked him till he stirred.
"Next time you draw on me," he grated, "you go out the disposal chute!"
"That didn't solve anything." Ray stooped to help Campora up.
* * * * *
Probably Campora had brought the girl aboard, perhaps her presence
would hang them, but the captain could have used more proper means of
discipline. Instead he had deliberately goaded Campora to action. It
was as if Lodar had to give physical vent to his rage like a caged
animal slashing at the bars.
Then, as Lodar turned briefly his way, Ray thought he saw an appeal for
understanding in the dark eyes that slowly lost their angry glare. A
fleeting look of the trapped lion, but it was gone in an instant.
"Mind your own business," the captain said sourly. He turned to Campora
and growled, "Go wash your face!"
Ray's lips tightened helplessly. After all, Lodar's word was law. It
was the only way to run a spaceship on its vast journeying through
emptiness. It was the only insurance against hysteria from taut nerves,
the fear of space rays, and claustrophobia in the little metal world.
With a long breath he turned to the magnaflux and swung the detector
beams. The magnatoid field would instantly react to anything within
five units. There was no time lapse as with radar, a vital point when
riding on a Benson Drive.
There was no sign of patrols. Only the dim globe of Venus behind and
the smaller points of Mars and Earth ahead. Except for the haze of star
dust space was empty of threat.
Lodar was again pacing back and forth. Ray could hear his heavy step on
the metal plates.
Tramp--tramp--tramp. Then, to his relief, Lodar halted.
"You're a handsome young buck." At the captain's light tone Ray turned,
surprised, but there was no sign of mockery on the other's heavy face.
"You go talk to that blasted girl. Calm her down. If she'll keep her
mouth shut promise her we'll drop her off on Earth."
Ray felt his anger dissipate under a surge of relief. So Lodar was
going to take a chance on the girl's silence. He was willing to protect
her from the crew and deliver her right side up. After all, it would
have been simple to drop her off in space. The crew would never blab.
In fact the crew would have urged it.
Under his hard surface Lodar was all right!
In more cheerful frame of mind Ray quit the control room. As he headed
along the main corridor a sudden gale of laughter echoed from the well.
There was an unpleasant tone to it that drew him, frowning, to the
lower deck.
Several of the crew were in the after hold. They were grouped around
the cage of Mutes and one of them held a long rod. The tableau was
obvious, Ray strode in angrily.
"That'll be all of that!" he snapped.
Jenkins' glasses glinted as he turned, still grinning. "Captain told us
to stand guard, Sir."
His short-sighted squint measured the young navigator.
"Get out!" Ray clenched his fist. "All of you, except Williams, get
out!" He waited as they filed past him with sullen looks, then he
turned into the engine room.
McVane was sitting at his little desk, drowsing in the warm, oily air.
He roused at Ray's tread and absently closed a lower drawer before he
turned. Hiding his bottle! The man would drink himself to death!
"The girl is in your cabin," Ray said shortly.
"Good." McVane's eyes were bleary and, for a moment, pity closed in on
Ray. After all, he had no right to condemn the little engineer for his
weakness--his whole family wiped out.
"What do you know about these Mutes?" he asked more gently.
"They can't talk." McVane drew into himself. "Go ask the girl if you
want to know!" His hand trembled toward the lower drawer.
Disgusted, Ray turned away. The whole crew wore an armor plate
of callous indifference! It was like no ship Ray had ever flown.
Muttering, he climbed back to the main deck, to McVane's cabin.
The girl was sitting on a bunk, combing her hair with angry sweeps. She
gave him one hot glance, then ignored him completely.
"Look," he began, "I'm as anxious to get you out of here as you are. I
don't want to see you--hurt--"
"The Great Zipher will guard me," she snapped. "He gives peace and
security in our times."
"Sure, sure." Ray frowned impatiently. "But the rest of us want peace
and security, too. If you make trouble--"
"Why is a young man like you consorting with these sinners?" She looked
at him with sudden curiosity. "You don't belong here!"
Ray stared at her. What was her name? Oh, yes, Ellenor.
"If you repent in time--"
He laughed harshly. "Nothing doing. This may be no healthy job, maybe
I'll quit after this, but don't get ideas. What I came to--"
"I know what you came to beg," she said scornfully. "I will make no
deal with evil. You can't harm me. You will all slay yourselves. The
ship is doomed!"
She spoke with such certainty that for a moment Ray wondered if
she might know something. Perhaps she was aware of coming rescue.
Still, that was ridiculous. She had been caged with the rest. She was
bluffing, perhaps to allay her own fears.
He tried another tack. Sympathy. He asked her about herself.
She was a missionary's daughter, born on Venus, and had grown up among
the words of the Great Zipher.
"And who is the Great Zipher?" Ray demanded, amused. There were
countless little religions flourishing under free thought.
"No one knows. We know he saved the world from the last great plague of
Depression. People were affected by a great Gloom and saw no purpose in
life. They shrunk inside and suffered mental disease. The Great Zipher
said--only believe that ye have plenty, and spend your substance in
good things, and these shall come to pass."
"And did they?" he prodded.
"Are there any more plagues of Depression?" she asked tartly.
It sounded like a cheerful religion, but Ray declined to argue. He
reverted back to his main purpose.
"Being religious, you shouldn't demand vengeance on us," he pointed
out. "Suppose we turn you loose if you promise to keep that little
mouth shut?"
"Your own sins will betray you anyway."
"There's nothing wrong in capturing these Mutes," he snapped. "They're
not human. We don't mistreat them!"
"How long do they live in captivity?" she demanded bitterly. "A few
months, a year or two, and then they die. On strange planets, cut off
from all their kind, they die miserably."
He gave it up.
When Lodar heard of this he shook his head and guffawed.
"You're too easy, Burk. Perhaps Campora can do better."
"She'll come to her senses in time," Ray urged. Above all, he didn't
want Campora turned loose on the girl. "Give me time."
"Yea." Lodar's smile was grimly mocking. "In time she'll make a
complete sucker of you! But it might be diverting. Go ahead!"