Barstow said slowly, “And you think this accounts for what happened to Ford?’
“I do. He met one, the one called Kreel, and it drove him crazy.”
“I take it,” said Schultz, “that it is your theory that any man exposed to this . . . this presence . . . would become psychotic?”
“Not exactly,” answered Lazarus. “What scares me a damn’ sight more is the fear that I might not go crazy!”
That same day the Jockaira withdrew all contact with the Earthmen. It was well that they did so, else there would have been violence. Fear hung over the city, fear of horror worse than death, fear of some terrible nameless thing, the mere knowledge of which would turn a man into a broken mindless animal. The Jockaira no longer seemed harmless friends, rather clownish despite their scientific attainments, but puppets, decoys, bait for the unseen potent beings who lurked in the “temples.”
There was no need to vote on it; with the single-mindedness of a crowd stampeding from a burning building the Earthmen wanted to leave this terrible place. Zaccur Barstow assumed command. “Get King on the screen. Tell him to send down every boat at once. We’ll get out of here as fast as we can.” He ran his fingers worriedly through his hair. “What’s the most we can load each trip, Lazarus? How long will the evacuation take?”
Lazarus muttered.
“What did you say?
“I said, ‘It ain’t a case of how long; it’s a case of will we be let.’ Those things in the temples may want more domestic animals-us!”
Lazarus was needed as a boat pilot but he was needed more urgently for his ability to manage a crowd. Zaccur Barstow was telling him to conscript a group of emergency police when Lazarus looked past Zaccur’s shoulder and exclaimed, “Oh oh! Hold it, Zack-school’s out.”
Zaccur turned his head quickly an4 saw, approaching with stately dignity across the council hail, Kreel Sarloo. No one got in his way.
They soon found out why. Zaccur moved forward to greet him, found himself stopped about ten feet from the Jockaira. No clue to the cause; just that-stopped.
“I greet you, unhappy brother,” Sarloo began.
“I greet you, Krecl Sarloo.”
“The gods have spoken. Your kind can never be civilized (?).You and your brothers are to leave this world.”
Lazarus let out a deep sigh of relief. –
“We are leaving, Kreel Sarloo,” Zaccur answered soberly.
“The gods require that you leave. Send your bother Libby to me.”
Zaccur sent for Libby, then turned back to Sarloo. But the Jockaira had nothing more to say to them; he seemed indifferent to their presence. They waited.
Libby arrived. Sarloo held him in a long conversation. Barstow and Lazarus were both in easy earshot and could see their lips move, but heard nothing. Lazarus found the circumstance very disquieting. Damn my eyes, he thought, I could figure several ways to pull that trick with the right equipment but I’ll bet none of ’em is the right answer-and I don’t see any equipment.
The silent discussion ended, Sarloo stalked off without farewell. Libby turned to the others and spoke; now his voice could be heard. “Sarloo tells me,” he began, brow wrinkled in puzzlement, “that we are to go to a planet, uh, over thirtytwo light-years from here. The gods have decided it.” He stopped and bit his lip.
“Don’t fret about it,” advised Lazarus. “Just be glad they want us to leave. My guess is that they could have squashed us flat just as easily. Once we’re out in space we’ll pick our. own destination.”
“I suppose so. But the thing that puzzles me is that he mentioned a time about three hours~away as being our departure from this system.”
“Why, that’s utterly unreasonable,” protested Barstow. “Impossible. We haven’t the boats to do it.”
Lazarus said nothing. He was ceasing to have opinions.
Zaccur changed his opinion quickly. Lazarus acquired one, born of experience. While urging his cousins toward the field where embarkation was proceeding, he found himself lifted up, free of the ground. He struggled, his arms and legs met no resistance but the ground dropped away. He closed his eyes, counted ten jets, opened them again. He was at least two miles in the air.