by WILLIAM MORRISON
_Colonizing Mars was hell, because of one
thing--large, hungry critters. They flew,
crawled, snarled, howled, burrowed up under
the floors, chewed at doors and windows. And
then, to make things worse, came the Monster...._
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories July 1951.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
There was a faint scratching at the door, so faint that Alice Kidd,
who had been listening fearfully for precisely that sound, was at first
not certain that she heard it. But, as she came close to the doorway,
it was no longer possible to doubt, and a chill went through her at
the thought of the creature panting eagerly on the other side. Now she
could hear it whine, and, despite her knowledge that the gesture was
an idle one, she could not help once more feeling the bolt behind the
door. Then she made sure that the shutters too were securely barred,
although these were usually in less danger; most of the animals could
not apply pressure very far above the ground.
Small was staring at her, not particularly frightened, but very much
interested. Her face, she thought, must be pale through the radiation
tan. Ordinarily, there was nothing timid or fragile about her, or she
would never have accompanied her husband to Mars; but all the same,
she felt weak and helpless before the danger that threatened. And she
shuddered as her five-year-old son asked, "Can it get in, Mommy?"
"I hope not, darling. Come, let's go into the other room and bolt the
connecting door. And then I'll call up Daddy."
"Does it want to eat us, Mommy?"
Alice shuddered again. "Don't talk about it," she said, and carried him
quickly into the next room. When the door was bolted, she pressed the
contact button, asked for Mr. Kidd, and almost at once was speaking to
Anthony.
He listened quietly, his dark face in the visor as grave as if he were
concerned with some problem of engineering, and then said in a tone
of reassurance, "Don't worry, it can't get in. Not under a couple of
hours, anyway. And even if it does, you have that gun."
"That explosive thing?"
"It'll do, if you keep your nerve. But I don't think you'll have to put
it to the test. I'm coming home now, anyway, and I'll take care of our
friend. Have any idea what it is?"
"I haven't seen it. It just whines a little, and keeps scratching, very
quietly."
"Probably a badgerine. Hope it doesn't try to tunnel under the floor.
All right, sugar, keep your shirt on, and the Mars Marines will be
there to the rescue."
"Take care of yourself."
"And how. Think I want you to be left with all that insurance money and
fall victim to some fortune-hunter who sees nothing in you but your
beautiful bank account?"
* * * * *
He hung up, and Alice waited, trembling. In the room where she was,
she could no longer hear the straining animal, but she knew that it
hadn't gone away. She tried to get interested in some of Small's
childish treasures. The blocks he had long outgrown, and they kept the
things only because there was no one to give them to, and it seemed
silly to throw anything away here. Besides, Alice had the idea that
her son might have a brother or a sister some day soon, if they ever
decided it was possible to raise a baby here, and toys were difficult
to import. As for Small's magic hypno-ray ring, his imitation teleport
bracelet, and his genuine imitation home teleset and similar objects,
all obtained either by sending away one quarter credit in stamps
plus a cereal box-top or by selling a special perfumed soap to his
neighbors--which in this case meant his parents--she had always found
it difficult to arouse any interest in them. She had, in fact, been
slightly annoyed at Anthony's indulgence of his son's desire to obtain
them. And it was impossible to simulate interest now, with that animal
at the door.
And then, suddenly, the animal wasn't there any longer. She didn't hear
any noise from Anthony's gun. It wasn't that kind. She felt simply
the shock of contact as the missile went through the creature's body
and shook the house. Then came a long, despairing chorus of yells,
and after that, for a moment, silence. She withdrew the bolt of the
connecting door, and then the buzzer sounded.
When Anthony came in, she fell into his arms. Small, however, wasn't
having any emotional excitement. He said, "What was it, Daddy? Was it
really a badgerine?"
"Not this time, son. Just an octerocap."
"As if the other wasn't bad enough," said Alice faintly. The octerocap
was an eight-headed wolf, and was as likely to kill newcomers by
the fright its appearance induced as much as by its numerous teeth.
"Anthony, you must simply get me another gun like yours."
"You can take mine if you really feel unsafe."
"You know I wouldn't take it. You need yours to get home with. And
there isn't so much danger as long as you're within calling range. But
in case of emergency--"
He nodded. "Do you think I don't realize that? I've been cabling that
idiot, Tapling, for another gun ever since we got here. Not a chance."
"But why? Does he think that the government sends engineers to Mars for
the purpose of having them killed and eaten by animals?"
"Tapling's is not to reason why, it's but to do according to
regulations and let others die. He says that Regulation L34XC3 of
Code 3 forbids it."
"The stupid fool!"
"Call him by his right name. That Idiot Tapling, or T. I. Tapling, as
we usually denote him at the office."
"Is he the same way to them?"
"And how! Operations have been dragging along at half of capacity
because he says we haven't filled out the necessary forms for those
spare parts we need. And we can't fill them out, because the forms have
to be countersigned by the vice-president in charge of Operation M54,
and that gentleman is vacationing somewhere in space with a new bride,
and can't be located. So you see, darling, you're cursing him in good
company."
Even at that, as Anthony might have pointed out, he was suppressing
a good part of what might have been said of Mr. Tapling. At the
mines where Anthony and his fellow engineers worked, everything was
completely automatic, and the dozen men were needed only for checking
and repairs. It was T. I. Tapling who had done his best to ruin their
lives.
* * * * *
The houses he had ordered built for them were not too bad. To be
reasonably invulnerable to the drill-toothed animals who abounded on
these wastes, the walls would have had to be about a dozen feet thick;
and Tapling had had no grounds for suspecting that fact, which had not
been in any of the reports he had read. But it was unquestionably his
fault that the houses were so widely scattered. Dealing with a planet
where the sunlight was weak and ultra-violet was obtained chiefly from
artificial radiation, a planet where the air was so cold that no one
went outdoors unless he had to, T. I. Tapling had been worried about
living space and had generously allotted to each engineer and his
family territory uninhabited for a couple of miles in every direction.
Possibly he expected them to grow vegetables next to their houses.
Apparently he had no suspicion that he was making things as easy as
possible for the predatory animals.
And of all locations, Anthony and Alice had the worst. Their house was
most isolated, was the most difficult to get to from the office, and
was in the part of the country most liable to attack. It was little
wonder that Alice said, as she had said so often before, "But we _must_
do something. Do you think we could have an electric barrier set up?"
"We could not. That's against regulation something or other too. Might
kill friendly animals."
"But there isn't a single animal that's friendly!"
"Tell that to regulations and their guardian, Mr. Tapling."