OFF THE MAP
Across the lock of the was the seal set in place by Van Rycke the had from Sargol. Under Dane's it no crack. To all the had not been opened since they left the planet. And yet the Hoobat was sure that the were within.
It took only a second for Dane to an act which, if he not it later, would him out of space. He off the official seal which should there while the was space borne.
With Ali's help he the and they looked into the space, now with the red from Sargol. The redwood! When he saw it Dane was with their stupidity. Aside from the Koros in the box, only the had come from the Salariki world. What if the had not been planted by I-S agents, but were of Sargol being in with the wood?
The men at the to allow the Hoobat in its hunt. And Sinbad them, and voice to a which was his negative opinion of the proceedings.
They were of an odor—the sharp, Dane had noticed the of the wood. It was not unpleasant—merely different. And it—or something—had an upon Queex. The with the of its to the top of the nearest of and there settled down. For a space it was the area about it.
Then it its and the which once had its out of hiding. Oddly that of had a upon Sinbad and Dane the of the as the cat moved, not toward escape, but to the of action, himself at last in the open panel, his upon the Hoobat with a stare.
Scrape-scrape—the noise into the ears of the men, at their nerves.
"Ahhh—" Ali his voice to a whisper, but his hand to their attention to the right at level. Dane saw that along a log. The was now the same color as the wood, until it moved, which how it had come on board.
But that was only the arrival. A second of movement and a third followed. Then the stationary, able to for a period the of Queex. The Hoobat an of indifference, of being so in its music that nothing else existed. Rip to Weeks:
"There's one to the left—on the very end of that log. Can you it?"
The small the through his hands. He around Ali, his on the of red upon red which was his quarry.
"—two—three—four—five—" Ali was under his but Dane not see that many. He was sure of only four, and those he had them move.
The were in the of where the Hoobat fiddled, and two had the toward their doom. Weeks on one knee, to his net, when Dane had his inspiration. He his sleep rod, it out of its holster, set the on "spray" and it at three of those humps.
Rip what he was doing, a hand on Weeks' shoulder, the in check. A moved, the of the into the narrow of two of wood. It quiet, a against the gray.
Then Weeks did move, his over it and the tight, at the same time the toward him over the deck. But, as it came, the of the thing's was fast to an pink and at last taking on a as as the metal on which it lay—the complete camouflage. Had they not had it they might have it altogether, so well did it now with the surface.
The other two in the path of the had not their upon the logs, and the men not to them up. Not while there were others not affected, free to into hiding. Weeks the about the and looked to Rip for orders.
"Deep freeze," the acting-commander of the Queen said succinctly. "Let me see it out of that!"
Surely the cold of the freeze, to the sleep ray, would keep the under until they had a to study it. But, as Weeks passed Sinbad on his errand, the cat was so to avoid him, that he up on his legs, almost a somersault, and until Weeks was up the to the next level. It was very that the ship's cat was having none of this pest.
They might have been and their non-existent as as Queex was concerned. For the Hoobat its concert. The more reckless, the to Queex's post in darts. Dane how the Hoobat four of the at once. For, although the other two which had been in the path of the had not moved, he now four climbing.
"Stand by to ray—" that was Rip.
But it would have been to see how Queex was prepared to the four. And, though Rip had the order to by, he had not ordered the to be used. Was he, too, in that?
The red was a of the Hoobat now and its had as if to allow it the of with the enemy. To all Queex did not see it, but when it with a of speed which would a human, the Hoobat was and its claws, their rasp, met around the wasp-thin of the pest, it in two. Only this time the Hoobat no move to and the victim. Instead it in silence, as as a tri-dee print.
The of the rolled the of to the and there to the of its background. None of its appeared to be in its fate. The two which had been in the path of the ray, to be on the wood, the others the Hoobat.
But Rip was to waste no more time. "Ray them!" he snapped.
All three of their sleep the pile, in the Hoobat. Queex's closed, but it no other of under the spell of the beam.
Certain that all the in were now harmless, the three approached the logs. But it was necessary to into they make out the of the things, so well did their them. Wearing Ali the little from their on the and put them for temporary safekeeping—during a transfer to the freeze—into the Hoobat's cage. Queex, they to where it was for a space, to and any which had been too to at the song. As as they tell the Hoobat was their only possible protection against the and to it in the center of was the course.
Having the now metal catch into the freeze, they a conference.
"No plague—" Weeks a of relief.
"No proof of that yet," Ali him up short. "We have to prove it past any doubt."
"And how are we going to do—?" Dane when he saw what the other had in from Tau's stores. A and the upper of the Queex had killed in the hold.
The pointed of the thing were up in its death and it was now a dirty white as if the ability to color had been it matched the on which it lay. With the Ali a away from the body. It was the liquid which they had on the one in the hydro.
"I have an idea," he said slowly, his on the than on his shipmates, "that we might have being they off from us. But if we were we might take it too. Remember those marks on the and of the rest? That might be the entry point of this poison—if it is—"
Dane see the end of that line of reasoning. Rip and Ali—they couldn't be spared. The knowledge they had would the Queen to earth. But a Cargo-master was when there was no for trade. It was his place to try out the truth of Ali's surmise.
But while he another acted. Weeks over and the out of Ali's fingers. Then, any of them move, he its point into the of his hand.
"Don't!"
Both Dane's and Rip's hand came too late. It had been done. And Weeks sat there, looking alone and frightened, studying the of blood which marked the of the surgeon's knife. But when he spoke his voice perfectly natural.
"Headache first, isn't it?"
Only Ali was by what the little man had just done. "Just be sure you have a one," he with what Dane privately callousness.
Weeks nodded. "Don't let my work," he answered shrewdly. "I know. It has to be real. How long do you suppose?"
"We don't know," Rip tired, beaten. "Meanwhile," he got to his feet, "we'd set a home—"
"Home," Weeks repeated. To him Terra was not his own home—he had been in the of Venus. But to All Solarians—no which had them—Terra was home.
"You," Rip's big hand on the little oiler's shoulder, "stay here with Thorson—"
"No," Weeks his head. "Unless I black out, I'm station in the engine room. Maybe the won't work on me anyway."
And he had done what he had done they not him the right to his station as long as he the hours to come.
Dane visited the once more. To be by an which him that Queex was again and on guard. Although the Hoobat was to give tongue, it still in its position on top of the and he did not try to it. Perhaps with Queex planted in the enemies' they would have nothing to from any not now in the freeze.
Rip set his for Terra—for that spot on their native world where they might out the Queen until they prove their point—that the was not a ship to be feared. He to the cabin, shifting only the Astrogator's and the pilot's station. Upon him alone rested the of in the ship along a which no well space where the Patrol might challenge them. Dane out the in the Com-tech's seat, in for the of danger—that they had been detected.
The of their list of was now news and off-ether. And from all he up, they were as as the were concerned. On the other hand, the Patrol might be as as its and the Queen was into a trap. Only they had no choice in the matter.
It was the ship's inter-com Ali's voice from the engine room which the in the cabin.
"Weeks' down!"
Rip into the mike. "How bad?"
"He hasn't out yet. The pains in his are and his hand is swelling—"
"He's us our proof. Tell him to report off—"
But the voice which answered that was Weeks'.
"I haven't got it as as the others. I'll this out."
Rip his head. But short-handed as they were he not argue Weeks away from his post if the man upon staying. He had other, and for the time being, more him.
How long they out that upon their native world Dane have testified. He only that hours must have passed, until he that he not a time he was not in the seat which had been Tang's, the pressing against his skull, his fatigue-drugged mind being with to the at hand.
Sometime that they their landing. He had a memory of Rip across the pilot's and then him also and the closed in. When he it was to look about a to one side. Rip was still in a posture, heavily. Dane out a word of of his own, and then on the visa-plate.
For a long moment he was sure that he was not yet awake. And then, as his mind names for what he saw, he that Rip had failed. Far from being in the center—or at least well the of the Big Burn—they must have in some park or national forest. For the green outside, the flowers, the bird he as a of wind color—those were not to be in the left by man's last attempt to his will upon his kind.
Well, it had been a good try, but there was no use luck to their all the way, and they had had more than their in the E-Stat affair. How long would it be the Law to them? Would they have time to their case?
The that they might him. He for the key and a second later the from his ears. The of he knew—and the which in upon the of in space—but this solid, was something totally new—new, and frightening.
And it was new and he not account for it, he to the on the with a more eye. The which in was green right enough, and Terra green into the bargain—there was no that. But—Dane at the of Com-unit for support. But—What was that liver-red which had just out to a small thing?
Feverishly he to the little natural history he knew. Sure that what he had just was unnatural—un-Terran—and to be suspect!
He started the on its slow in the Queen's nose, to a full picture of their surroundings. It was at an angle—apparently they had not a fin-point landing this time—and sometimes it slices of sky. But when it he saw to make him that the had set it was not on the Terra he knew.
Subconsciously he had the Big Burn to be land—curdled with of quartz, up through the of the by the action of the explosives. That was the way it had been on Limbo—on the other "burned-off" worlds they had where those who had into the Galaxy—the mysterious, long "Forerunners"—had their and totally wars.
But it would that the Big Burn was different—at least here it was. There was no of life outside—in there would appear to be too much life. What Dane on his limited of was a jungle. And the of that almost him their present circumstances. He was still at the screen when Rip muttered, his on his arms and opened his eyes:
"Did we make it?" he asked dully.
Dane, not taking his from that without, answered: "You us down. But I don't know where—"
"Unless our were 'way off, we're near to the of the Burn."
"Some heart!"
"What it look like?" Rip too to the and see for himself. "Barren as Limbo?"
"Hardly! Rip, did you see a as big as a melon—At least it looks like a tomato," Dane the as it upon this new phenomena.
"A what?" There was a note of in Shannon's voice. "What's the with you, Dane?"
"Come and see," Dane his place to Rip but he did not step out of range of the screen. Surely that did have the to a good, old earth-side tomato—but it was size and it from a which was close to a ten tree!
Rip across to into the Com-tech's place. But his of worry to one of as he saw that picture.
"Where are we?"
"You name it," Dane had had longer to adjust, the of an in his veins, fatigue. "It must be the Big Burn!"
"But," Rip his slowly as if with that to the his eyes, "that country's all rock. I've pictures—"
"Of the rim," Dane corrected, having already solved that problem for himself. "This must be in than any survey ship came. Great Spirit of Outer Space, what has here?"
Rip had to know how to part of the answer. He across the com, and was able to a with the very of his finger. Instantly the was with a so loud as to make an almost of sound.
Dane that signal, he didn't need Rip's to it for him.
"That's what's happened. This country is 'hot' out there!"
