He smiled.
Alex helped lay me back on my bed in the tree house. He looked down
at me and grinned. It wasn't a pleasant grin. It reminded me of a
crocodile.
* * * * *
Naked, I was standing on an endless sandy plain. Off in the distance
the _Two Two Four_ stood on her landing jacks, a tall, needle-pointed
tower of burnished silver metal. The sun beat down from a cobalt sky
burning my bare back as I trudged painfully across the hot shifting
sand. My feet, scorched and blistered, sent agony racing through me
with every step I took toward the tall silver column that seemed to
recede from me as fast as I approached. My throat was choked with dust
and my mind filled with fear and pain.
I had to reach the ship. I _had_ to. Yet I knew with dreadful certainty
that I would not.
He came at me from a hollow in the sandy ground, a huge, furry
Lyranian--bigger than any I had seen. His white tusks glittered in the
sunlight as he leaped at me.
Twisting, I avoided him and turned to run. To fight that mountain of
fanged flesh was futile. He could rip me apart with one hand. But I
moved with viscid slowness, stumbling through the shifting sands.
In a moment he was upon me, clutching with his huge hands, snapping at
my throat with his tusked mouth. Fear pumped adrenalin into my system
and I fought as I had never fought before, breaking his holds, throwing
jarring punches into his fanged face as he clawed and bit at me.
With a violent effort I broke away and ran again toward the safety of
the distant ship. For a moment I left him behind as he scrambled to
regain his feet and came running after me. He was on me again, hands
reaching for my throat. I couldn't get away. And again we fought,
battering and clawing at each other, using fists, feet and teeth,
biting and gouging. His strength was terrible and his hot, fetid breath
was rank in my nostrils. With a grunt of triumph he tripped me and I
fell on my back on the blazing sand. I screamed as my back struck the
searing surface, but he held me helpless and immovable, pinned beneath
his massive, crushing weight.
And then he began to eat me!
I felt his sharp fangs sink into my shoulder muscles and meet in my
flesh. With a rush of frantic strength I threw him off again and again,
ran stumbling across the plain. Once more he caught me and again we
fought.
It went on endlessly--the fight, the temporary breakaway, the flight,
the pursuit, and the recapture. I wondered dully why no one on the
ship had seen us. Perhaps they were looking in the wrong direction,
or perhaps they weren't even looking. If I survived this and found
that they hadn't been on watch--I snarled and slammed my fist into the
Lyranian's face.
Both of us were covered with blood, but he was visibly weaker. It was
no longer a fight; we were too exhausted for that. We pawed at each
other feebly, and I could detect something oddly like fear in him now.
He couldn't hold me--but neither could I finish him.
I gathered my last remaining strength into one last blow. My torn fist
smashed into his bloody face. He toppled to the ground and I fell
beside him, too spent to move. I lay there panting, watching him.
He rose to his hands and knees and came crawling toward me, trembling
with weakness. I felt his smothering weight pinning me as he fell
across me. He twisted slowly, his fanged mouth gaping to bite again.
His jaws closed on my arm. I was done--beaten--too weary and bruised to
care. He had won. But his teeth couldn't break my skin. Like me, he was
finished.
We lay there as the sun beat down, glaring at each other with fear and
hate. And suddenly--over us--loomed the familiar faces of my crew and
the tall tower of the _Two Two Four_.
Somehow I had reached the ship and safety!
* * * * *
I awoke. I was bathed with sweat. My muscles were aching and my head
was a ball of fire. I looked around. Everything seemed normal. My
menticom was on my head and I was lying on the bed in the tree house.
Painfully I rose to my feet and staggered into the main room.
"My God! Skipper, you look awful!" Allardyce's voice was sharp with
concern. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know," I muttered. "My head's splitting."
"Here, sit down. Let me take a look at you." Allardyce produced a
thermometer and stuck it in my mouth. "Mmmm," he said worriedly.
"You've got fever."
"I feel like I've been through the mill," I said.
"We'd better get back to the ship. Doc should have a look at you."
I wanted nothing more than the familiar safety of the ship, away
from these odd natives and exotic diseases that struck despite
omnivaccination. And we should get back before the others fell sick.
"All right, Pat," I said. "Contact Dan. Have him send the big 'copter.
We'll leave at once." I discounted the experience of last night as
delirium, but just to make sure, I checked with Allardyce and Barger
when they came in.
"Obviously fever," Barger said. "Nothing happened to me like you
describe."
"Nor to me," Allardyce said.
I nodded. They were right, of course, unless the Lyranian in _their_
dreams had eaten and absorbed them. Then--but that was sheer nonsense.
I was being a suspicious fool. But that dream--all of it--had been
damnably real.
We made our excuses to K'wan as the 'copter fluttered down into a
nearby clearing.
"I'm sorry about this," K'wan said apologetically, "but I never
thought of the possibility of diseases. We are all immune. We do have
some biological skill, as you've surely guessed, but our engineering
technology is far inferior to yours. We thought it would be better not
to let you know about us until we had a chance to observe you. But you
undoubtedly have seen enough to deduce our culture." He grinned--a
ferocious grimace that exposed his long tusks. "I suppose we are rather
bad liars. But then we're not accustomed to deception."
"I understand," I said. "You had no way of knowing what we were really
like. We could have been the advance guard of a conquering space
armada. You showed great courage to open relations with us."
"Not as great as yours. We had the opportunity of examining your man
Alex. You had only his untried opinions to go by."
The 'copter came down with a flutter of rotor blades, and I shook
hands with K'wan. For a moment I was tempted to call Dan and tell him
to turn our hostages loose, but on second thought decided that could
wait. I slipped my menticom off. There was no point in broadcasting my
thoughts, and without the gadget K'wan couldn't intercept them unless
they were directed. After all, we were a minority on this world and
Earth didn't even know where we were yet. A ship can cross hyper-space
far more easily and quickly than the most powerful transmitter can
broadcast across normal space. It would be a thousand years before
Earth could hear from us by radio, even if they could distinguish our
messages from stellar interference. While I felt oddly friendly, there
was no reason to take chances, especially if there was any truth in
that dream.
"You will be leaving soon?" K'wan asked. "You and the ship?"
"Yes," I said. "We have done all we can do here."
I looked up at him. He was standing there--_holding_ the menticom in
his _hand_--yet I understood him!
I didn't let the astonishment show on my face, nor the shock that
coursed through my mind _when the Lyranian in my brain tried vainly to
scream a warning_! Instead I took the circlet and turned to go.
"Remember what you are to do; the others will help," K'wan said.
"I will remember," I replied. _You're damn well right I'll remember_,
I thought grimly.
The Lyranian was supposed to wreck the ship.
* * * * *
He waved farewell as I turned to enter the 'copter. "Our thoughts go
with you for your success," he said.
The Lyranian in my brain screamed and struggled, but I held him easily.
I was his master, not he mine. There would be no sabotage on the _Two
Two Four_. He wouldn't wreck my ship.
"Dan," I said as we went into orbit, "did Alex come aboard?"
"Of course."
"Where is he?"
"Down in the engine room, I suppose, or in his bunk. It's not his
watch."
"Maybe you'd better check. But before you do--"
He waited for me to continue, and finally I was able to.
"Put Allardyce, Barger, and myself in the brig," I said. "Set a guard
over us with instructions to shoot if we try to make a break. Then get
Alex, if he's aboard. Frankly, I don't think you'll find him. They
didn't need a ship's commander, a sociologist or a biologist, but they
did need an engineer. Now get going. This is an order!"