"This way," she said and led him through dissecting tables, past
shelves of fantastic creatures preserved in some liquid, and into a
small office-like room at the side.
Spread out on a shelf were the contents of Jupiter's pack: the medicine
chest, emergency rations, spare ammunition, testing apparatus,
prospecting tools, his light carbine, the electroscope and geiger
counter. It was all there.
Tabak's violet-blue eyes glittered with excitement.
"There are your weapons, Wanderer-from-Beyond! Now you can drive the
Anolyn back into the sea!"
Jupiter's face didn't betray his consternation. The carbine was
pitifully inadequate. In fact, so long as the horrible little parasite
was fastened to his spinal cord, he knew that he would be incapable of
using it against the Anolyn.
If he could only rid himself of the parasite, though, and get to his
ship with even a chunk of that idol....
He narrowed his eyes as a new thought struck him.
"Tabak, we must get rid of these spinal parasites first. I--" He nearly
said, "I think," but realized that he mustn't show any doubt. "I can do
it. But I'll need your cooperation."
"Can you?" she cried in excitement and seized his hands, peering into
his eyes. "Can you really? You _are_ the Wanderer then!"
He looked quickly away. He didn't dare let her glimpse what was in his
thoughts.
"Yes."
"Let me come into your mind; let me be sure," she pleaded.
"Tabak, you'll have to trust me."
"Why?" her blue eyes clouded in suspicion. She released his hands,
backed away. "What is it you want to do to me? What are you hiding?
What are you afraid I'll see?"
He swore under his breath. There wasn't time to argue, even if he could
overcome the girl's suspicions, which he doubted was possible unless he
opened his mind to her.
Without the slightest warning he jumped for Tabak, grabbed her and
swung her off her feet.
The girl screamed, twisted, kicked and bit, wild with terror. The thick
walls confined her cries. She was soft and tiny like a small white
kitten in his hands. A spitting, scratching, squalling kitten.
He imprisoned her arms and legs, carried her out into the main
laboratory.
The Anolyn possessed no anaesthesia. The dissecting tables were
equipped instead with straps to hold their victims motionless while
they operated. Jupiter buckled the girl face-down on one of the tables.
"Please!" she begged hysterically. "Please!"
"I'm not going to hurt you," he growled and left her to get his
medicine kit from the other room.
The kit had been devised to handle almost any emergency that might
befall one of the Galactic Colonization Board's special corpsmen.
Jupiter found the hypodermic syringe, sterilized it and filled it with
exsrocain. The drug was the latest development in a spinal anaesthetic
that deadened the nerves of the entire body, inducing a temporary state
of suspended animation.
It was a delicate operation, but he inserted the needle between two of
the girl's vertebrae, felt her flinch away from him. She lay on the
hard slab, quiescent, crying silently.
"Won't hurt," he grunted, and ejected the exsrocain directly into the
spinal fluid. Under his breath he counted: "One--two--three--four."
He felt for her pulse, but there was no sign of a heart beat. He found
the mirror in the kit, held it before her nostrils. The mirror didn't
cloud.
Sweat stood out on Jupiter's forehead. He wiped his palms on his
thighs, lifted Tabak's wheat-blonde locks, exposing the small purple
protuberance. It looked like a sea shell fastened to the back of her
neck.
His hand was trembling. He had to pause and get a grip on himself. Then
he grasped the Anolyn, pulled it gently but firmly away from the girl's
skin.
For a moment he thought it was going to stick, then it slid free, the
tentacles dangling like short, fine threads.
He examined the creature minutely to make sure no faintest spark of
consciousness remained.
He felt weak with relief. The spinal anaesthesia had worked, putting
the Anolyn into a state of suspended animation at the same time that it
had the girl.
Suddenly he could contain himself no longer. He hurled the creature
down on the hard floor with all his strength, smashed it into a
shapeless blob, ground it into paste with the butt of his carbine.