Telzey Amberdon by James H. Schmitz

“So Farous passes out on a kwil jag,” she said, “and he doesn’t even know they’re making a landing. When he comes to, the scout’s parked, the Number Three drive is smashed, the lock is open, and not another soul is aboard or in sight.

“Then he notices another wreck with its lock open, wanders over, sees a few bones and stuff lying around inside, picks up a star hyacinth, and learns from the ship’s records that down in the hold under sixty feet of water is a sealed compartment with a whole little crateful of the stones . . .”

“That’s the story,” Dasinger agreed.

“In the Fleets,” she remarked, “if we heard of a place where a couple of ship’s crews seemed to have vanished into thin air, we’d call it a spooked world. And usually we’d keep away from it.” She clamped her lower lip lightly between her teeth for a moment. “Do you think Dr. Egavine has considered the kwil angle?”

Dasinger nodded. “I’m sure of it. Of course it’s only a guess that the kwil made a difference for Farous. The stuff has no known medical value of any kind. But when the only known survivor of two crews happens to be a kwil-eater, the point has to be considered.”

“Nobody else on Handing’s Scout took kwil,” Duomart said. “I know that. There aren’t many in the Fleet who do.” She hesitated. “You know, Dasinger, perhaps I should try it again! Maybe if I took it straight from the injector this time . . .”

Dasinger shook his head. “If the little flake you nibbled made you feel drowsy, even a quarter of a standard shot would put you out cold for an hour or two. Kwil has that effect on a lot of people. Which is one reason it isn’t a very popular drug.”

“What effect does it have on you?” she asked.

“Depends to some extent on the size of the dose. Sometimes it slows me down physically and mentally. At other times there were no effects that I could tell until the kwil wore off. Then I’d have hallucinations for a while—that can be very distracting, of course, when there’s something you have to do. Those hangover hallucinations seem to be another fairly common reaction.”

He concluded, “Since you can’t take the drug and stay awake, you’ll simply remain inside the locked ship. It will be better anyway to keep the Mooncat well up in the air and ready to move most of the time we’re on the planet.”

“What about Taunus and Calat?” she asked.

“They come out with us, of course. If kwil is what it takes to stay healthy down there, I’ve enough to go around. And if it knocks them out, it will keep them out of trouble.”

* * *

“Looks like there’s a firemaker down there!” Duomart’s slim forefinger indicated a point on the ground-view plate. “Column of smoke starting to come up next to that big patch of trees! . . . Two point nine miles due north and uphill of the wrecks.”

From a wall screen Dr. Egavine’s voice repeated sharply “Smoke? Then Leed Farous was not the only survivor!”

Duomart gave him a cool glance. “Might be a native animal that knows how to make fire. They’re not so unusual.” She went on to Dasinger. “It would take a hand detector to spot us where we are, but it does look like a distress signal. If it’s men from one of the wrecks, why haven’t they used the scout’s other lifeboat?”

“Would the lifeboat still be intact?” Dasinger asked.

Duomart spun the ground-view plate back to the scout. “Look for yourself,” she said. “It couldn’t have been damaged in as light a crash as that one was. Those tubs are built to stand a really solid shaking up! And what else could have harmed it?”

“Farous may have put it out of commission before he left,” Dasinger said. “He wanted to come back from the Hub with an expedition to get the hyacinths, so he wouldn’t have cared for the idea of anyone else getting away from the planet meanwhile.” He looked over at the screen. “How about it, doctor? Did Farous make any mention of that?”

Dr. Egavine seemed to hesitate an instant. “As a matter of fact, he did. Farous was approximately a third of the way to the Hub when he realized he might have made a mistake in not rendering the second lifeboat unusable. But by then it was too late to turn back, and of course he was almost certain there were no other survivors.”

“So that lifeboat should still be in good condition?”

“It was in good condition when Farous left here.”

“Well, whoever’s down there simply may not know how to handle it.”

Duomart shook her blond head decidedly. “That’s out too!” she said. “Our Fleet lifeboats all came off an old Grand Commerce liner which was up for scrap eighty, ninety years ago. They’re designed so any fool can tell what to do, and the navigational settings are completely automatic. Of course if it is a native firemaker—with mighty keen eyesight—down there, that could be different! A creature like that mightn’t think of going near the scout. Should I start easing the Cat in towards the smoke, Dasinger?”

“Yes. We’ll have to find out what the signal means before we try to approach the wrecks. Doctor, are you satisfied now that Miss Mines’s outworld biotic check was correct?”

“The analysis appears to be fairly accurate,” Dr. Egavine acknowledged, “and all detectable trouble sources are covered by the selected Fleet serum.”

* * *

Dasinger said, “We’ll prepare for an immediate landing then. There’ll be less than an hour of daylight left on the ground, but the night’s so short we’ll disregard that factor.” He switched off the connection to Egavine’s cabin, turned to Duomart. “Now our communicators, you say, have a five mile range?”

“A little over five.”

“Then,” Dasinger said, “we’ll keep you and the Cat stationed at an exact five mile altitude ninety-five per cent of the time we spend on the planet. If the Spy arrives while you’re up there, how much time will we have to clear out?”

She shrugged. “That depends of course on how they arrive. My detectors can pick the Spy up in space before their detectors can make out the Cat against the planet. If we spot them as they’re heading in, we’ll have around fifteen minutes.

“But if they show up on the horizon in atmosphere, or surface her out of subspace, that’s something else. If I don’t move instantly then, they’ll have me bracketed . . . and BLOOIE!”

Dasinger said, “Then those are the possibilities you’ll have to watch for. Think you could draw the Spy far enough away in a chase to be able to come back for us?”

“They wouldn’t follow me that far,” Duomart said. “They know the Cat can outrun them easily once she’s really stretched out, so if they can’t nail her in the first few minutes they’ll come back to look around for what we were interested in here.” She added, “And if I don’t let the Cat go all out but just keep a little ahead of them, they’ll know that I’m trying to draw them away from something.”

Dasinger nodded. “In that case we’ll each be on our own, and your job will be to keep right on going and get the information as quickly as possible to the Kyth detective agency in Orado. The agency will take the matter from there.”

* * *

Miss Mines looked at him. “Aren’t you sort of likely to be dead before the agency can do anything about the situation?”

“I’ll try to avoid it,” Dasinger said. “Now, we’ve assumed the worst as far as the Spy is concerned. But things might also go wrong downstairs. Say I lose control of the group, or we all get hit down there by whatever hit the previous landing parties and it turns out that kwil’s no good for it. It’s understood that in any such event you again head the Cat immediately for the Hub and get the word to the agency. Right?”

Duomart nodded.

He brought a flat case of medical injectors out of his pocket, and opened it.

“Going to take your shot of kwil before we land?” Miss Mines asked.

“No. I want you to keep one of these injectors on hand, at least until we find out what the problem is. It’ll knock you out if you have to take it, but it might also keep you alive. I’m waiting myself to see if it’s necessary to go on kwil. The hallucinations I get from stuff afterwards could hit me while we’re in the middle of some critical activity or other, and that mightn’t be so good.” He closed the case again, put it away. “I think we’ve covered everything. If you’ll check the view plate, something—or somebody—has come out from under the trees near the column of smoke. And unless I’m mistaken it’s a human being.”

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