There have been fourteen deaths from wounds and poisoning. We’ll have to enforce the rules for insect lotion at all times. And, I suppose, build some kind of perimeter defense to keep the larger beasts out of the camp.”
“This is a beginning,” Jason said. “At least now we are aware of the real nature of the battle we’re engaged in. It doesn’t make Pyrrus any easier to handle, or make the life forms less dangerous, to know that they were once better disposed toward mankind. All this does is point the way. Something took the peaceful life forms, shook them up, and turned this planet into one big deathtrap for mankind. That something is what I want to uncover.”
12
Further reading of the log produced no new evidence. There was a good deal more information about the early animal and plant life and how deadly they were, as well as the first defenses against them. Interesting historically, but of no use whatsoever in countering the menace. The captain apparently never thought that life forms were altering on Pyrrus, believing instead that dangerous beasts were being discovered. He never lived to change his mind. The last entry in the log, less than two months after the first attack, was very brief. And in a different handwriting.
Captain Kurkowski died today, of poisoning following an insect bite. His death is greatly mourned.
The “why” of the planetary revulsion had yet to be uncovered.
“Kerk must see this book,” Jason said. “He should have some idea of the progress being made. Can we get transportation-or do we walk to city hall?”
“Walk, of course,” Meta said.
“Then you bring the book. At two-G’s I find it very hard to be a gentleman and carry the packages.”
They had just entered Kerk’s outer office when a shiill screaming burst out of the phone screen. It took Jason a moment to realize that it was a mechanical signal, not a human voice.
“What is it?” he asked.
Kerk burst through the door and headed for the street entrance. Everyone else in the office was going the same way. Meta looked confused, leaning toward the door, then looking back at Jason.
“What does it mean? Can’t you tell me?” He shook her arm.
“Sector alarm. A major breakthrough of some kind at the perimeter. Everyone but other perimeter guards has to answer.”
“Well go then,” he said. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be all right.”
His words acted like a trigger release. Meta’s gun was in her hand and she was gone before he had finished speaking. Jason sat down wearily in the deserted office.
The unnatural silence in the building began to get on his nerves. He shifted his chair over to the phone screen and switched it on to receive. The screen exploded with color and sound. At first Jason could make no sense of it at all. Just a confused jumble of faces and voices. It was a multichannel set designed for military use. A number of images were carried on the screen at one time, rows of heads or hazy backgrounds where the user had left the field of view. Many of the heads were talking at the same time and the babble of their voices made no sense whatsoever.
After examining the controls and making a few experiments, Jason began to understand the operation. Though all stations were on the screen at all times, their audio channels could be controlled. In that way two, three or more stations could be hooked together in a linkup. They would be in round-robin communication with each other, yet never out of contact with the other stations.
Identification between voice and sound was automatic. Whenever one of the pictured images spoke, the image would glow red. By trial and error, Jason brought in the audio for the stations he wanted and tried to follow the course of the attack.
Very quickly he realized this was something out of the ordinary. In some way, no one made it clear, a section of the perimeter had been broken through and emergency defenses had to be thrown up to encapsulate it. Kerk seemed to be in charge, at least he was the only one with an override transmitter. He used it for general commands. The many, tiny images faded and his face appeared on top of them, filling the entire screen.