“That,” said Glossip, “is one of the ships that set down here earlier. They never knew what hit them.”
They shot out over the sea, and on an island to one side and far below was another Centran ship with a pair of heavily-protected upright fins.
“Now,” said the general, “stay here, and watch closely.”
Towers hovered, as Glossip dropped toward the ship in a long glide, paused above it, and bellowed orders. Directly above the aft fin, Glossip slowly began a vertical descent. Below, the metal cages swung up and out. Glossip descended with elaborate caution, as if afraid he might somehow miss the hatch and get hung up on the spikes. When he was about twenty feet above that hatch, suddenly there appeared a ring of blue-green forms around the bristling fin. Their arms were uplifted, holding something. Before there was time to see what, there was a similar ring of blue-green forms above them, arms stretched up and out, where suddenly another blue-green ring materialized, completely surrounding Glossip.
Glossip blurred into motion, tore his way through the cage of bodies, slashed, kicked, punched, and left in a rapidly accelerating climb, clutching something in one hand.
Below, the blue-green figures vanished, then abruptly one appeared near Glossip, vanished, and reappeared, face twisted in pain, close beside Glossip, to scream savagely and reach out with a curved blue-white blade. This native was so close that, for the first time, Towers noticed that in place of ears there were oval membranes, now noticeably bulged out, at each side of the head.
The big muscles in the general’s arms and chest stood out under the fur. His fist smashed out like a mace.
The blue-green figure dropped, turning over and over, and growing smaller and smaller as it fell toward the sea. As it hit, the water shot out in an explosion.
Instantly, a writhing nest of rubbery arms reached up, and jerked the body under. A whitish stream of bubbles burst briefly to the surface, then disappeared.
Glossip swung up beside Towers, and now Towers could see what he was carrying was a brownish shell, roughly a foot across, and very thin along one edge, where a number of small oval bits apparently had been broken off.
Glossip glanced at Towers, “Did you see how they worked that? How they showed up one atop the other?”
“Yes. But I don’t see why.”
“They can go anywhere they’ve been before. But what does that mean? This planet is swinging around the sun, while turning on its axis. Its location is changing from moment to moment, and so is the location of everything on it. What these natives teleport to is, therefore, a familiar object. Unfortunately, the object doesn’t have to be very big.”
Towers looked at the shell. “That—”
Glossip nodded. “It’s big enough, or massive enough, so that they can sense its structural pattern, or whatever it is that they do. And then—they can go to it.”
The implications hit Towers like a combination of blows.
“When they teleport, they can carry things with them?”
Glossip smiled. “That’s it.”
“Each of them can go to any place he’s familiar with?”
“Right.”
“And if one has been to a particular place, there’s nothing to prevent him from going there carrying some object that others have become familiar with?”
“That’s standard procedure.”
“Therefore, wherever one can go, they all can go.”
“Exactly.”
“And one or more of them has learned the molecular pattern—or whatever they need to know—of some part of each of your ships?”
“Correct.”
For the first time, the situation seemed to fall into place. The Centrans had an entire invasion force cooped up in its ships by a population of teleports, the limits of whose power they didn’t know, and they couldn’t leave because wherever they went, the teleports might go, too.
Towers spent the evening on his headquarters ship. After making sure the state of affairs on the planet was explained to his own men, so they could adapt themselves to the incredible facts, he spent his time studying a selection of reports ferried up by one of Glossip’s landing-boats, and gingerly transferred by way of a charged container, in case the natives put in an appearance. Towers and Logan split the stack of reports, and started working their way through. They weren’t long in finding that, however bad the situation looked at any given moment, it looked worse after reading the next report.
“Phew!” said Logan, “Listen to this: ‘As there is no sign of local humanoid inhabitants on this planet, and as its climate is unsuitable, agricultural land severely limited, and any ore bodies apparently located at the bottom of an ocean populated by inimical forms of life, there appears to be no point in directing sizable forces to this world. We recommend that there be set up a signal-and-life-saving station on the planet, for use in the event of spaceship disasters. The climate might make the planet useful for disciplining troops, and as a punishment station for troublemakers in general. Conditions, though oppressive here, are so free from danger that the signal-and-aid-station might well be manned by a category of troops not suitable for more exacting duties.”
Towers blinked. “What report is that?”
” ‘Planet A6-3EJ4166B—A Summary.’ ”
“One of their initial reports?”
“Yes. And stuck to the bottom is another, titled, ‘Disappearance on A6-3EJ4166B.’ Listen to the last sentence: ‘No sign of any possible cause has been found. The garrison has disappeared without a trace. The only clue is that most of the portable weapons have also disappeared.’ ”
“That’s nice,” said Towers. “That adds a dimension that wasn’t there before. This report follows directly after the other one you read?”
“Right. The first recommends the signal-and-life-saving station. The next tells what happened to it.”
“What I’ve been reading is more recent. Here’s one titled ‘Troop Exercises After Dark.’ Apparently the Centrans started out thinking they had an unpopulated planet, but listen to what they’re up against now: ‘We conclude, therefore, that to prevent disciplinary problems, exercise in the open air is necessary. Since such exercise in daylight hours is precluded by the casualty rate, after-dark exercise becomes necessary. In summary, the correct procedure includes the following steps:
” ‘1) The armored tractors must thoroughly rake and stir the sand, discharging into the sea any object larger than a hand’s breadth. The tractor crews must look over the outside of the entry ports, and clear away any enemy hidden on the blind sides.
” ‘2) Occupy the hatch chambers. Swing up the gun mounts and searchlights.
” ‘3) Sweep adjacent land and water by searchlight, to blind natives in the vicinity.
” ‘4) Extend ladder and slat rests beyond the spike-bars.
” ‘5) Send out the slat-emplacement parties.
” ‘6) Sweep the area again with searchlights.
” ‘7) Send out the troops, by teams, opening and closing the bars for each party.
” ‘8) The scrub and other non-sand environs of the ship must be kept well trapped and mined. This must be checked daily.
” ‘9) For their own peace of mind, the troops must be armed. The guards, of course, must be heavily armed. The exercising troops, however, may be armed only with unloaded guns. Otherwise any disorder may result in heavy losses. Since darts are easily hidden, the only way to assure unloaded guns is to remove the bolts on exit, detailing a suitable officer and party to tag the bolts.
” ‘If these steps are properly carried out, night exercise becomes feasible, due to the enemy’s inferior night vision. But all precautions must be maintained, day and night.’ ”
Logan shook his head. “What a mess to get into on an apparently empty planet. It seems almost like a trap.”
“It doesn’t seem possible,” said Towers, “considering that local inhabitants were here first, and all the Centrans had to do was stay away. But—let’s try this one.” He picked up a report he’d briefly glanced at earlier, and opened it to the back. ” ‘In summary,’ ” he read, ” ‘the testimony obtained from this native, Goshal, who was found washed ashore severely wounded, and brought back to health by our medical team, clearly indicates that the locals are divided into clans or tribes, each of which is warlike and aggressive. The whole population is united only rarely, in times of emergency. Each tribe possesses a number of islands, located at intervals around the planet. Constant warfare follows from population pressure. The land area is small—only the chain of equatorial islands—while the enormous ocean is occupied by creatures of all degrees of ferocity. This leaves only the limited land space, and the shallow offshore waters thickly grown with krunga weed, and usually avoided by the open-sea life forms.
” ‘Because of the resulting competition for more territory, the local natives have become extremely cunning in the use of their limited array of weapons and their unusual power; but they are often frustrated by this weakness of their weapons and the enormous escape potentiality of the power. The native, Goshal, agreed, saying that the initial attack on our life-saving-station was for the main purpose of seizing weapons.’ “