"Not a darned thing," said Fox. "Besides, I bet the sun has already
exploded. That's what I bet."
"That Sirian sounded like he meant what he said, didn't he?"
"Sure he meant it. We'd be like gods."
"Captain," said Lieutenant Washington. "There's no use arguing any
more. I'm going to stay here. To hell with Homo Sapiens!"
"To hell with Homo Sapiens!" repeated Fox.
The wine was still like hypnotic laughter in Captain Torkel's skull.
"I--I don't know. It'd be nice to stay--"
They came to an object lying in the soft green grass, not far from the
rocket.
"Hey, here's Van Gundy!" yelled Fox. "Van Gundy drank too much wine.
Van Gundy's drunk!" He laughed and coughed and swallowed and then held
his stomach and laughed again.
Lieutenant Washington began to sing:
What shall we do with a drunken spaceman,
What shall we do with--
"Shut up," said Captain Torkel, frowning. "Van Gundy wasn't with us.
He didn't drink any wine."
They stood over Van Gundy. The singing stopped and the laughter
stopped, and time, too, seemed to stop.
An ivory-handled knife was buried hilt-deep in Van Gundy's throat.
* * * * *
They carried the dead man to the shadow beneath the starboard side of
the _Star Queen_. Each was a capped jug of solemn silence.
Captain Torkel withdrew the knife. "Van Gundy's," he muttered. "Van
Gundy was killed with his own knife."
He knelt and wiped his blood-smeared hands on the grass. Then he saw
Garcia squatting on the deck in the rocket's open airlock. A fan-nosed
flame pistol dangled from the engineer's loose hand.
Captain Torkel walked up to him.
"Give me the pistol, Garcia."
Garcia didn't answer. His eyes were black pin-points in his hard,
tight-lipped face. He raised the gun, leveled the barrel at the
captain's chest.
"Give me the pistol. That's an order."
Garcia's face was a dark cloud of hatred and savagery.
"Garcia! I'm your captain! Give me the gun!"
The animal savagery faded from Garcia's face. He lowered the pistol and
extended it by the barrel.
Captain Torkel moved forward and seized it. Then he puffed out his
cheeks, blew breath from them, wiped sweat from his forehead.