“Eet-?”
The answer I hoped against hope to hear did not come. But what did was an awareness of another kind, a strange groping which could not touch minds as Eet did, but which noted my call. Not that it could trace it back to its source. Only it was alerted.
The X-Tee – could he have “heard” me somehow? My folly struck home as I teetered on the edge of a block, looking down for a possible bridge over the river. To attempt the drop with my dragging leg was more than I dared. I could be caught out there, helpless, vulnerable to any laser beam.
And so I betrayed myself. For as I hesitated I heard from behind:
“Hold it – right there!”
Basic, spoken with a human intonation. I turned slowly, holding on to a block for support, to face one of the humans from the ship. He was like any other crewman, save that in his hand was a laser pointing directly at me.
I knew then that I had thrown away one small advantage. Had I come out to greet the ship’s people in wild joy, as they would expect from one marooned, made up a plausible story, they might not have been suspicious. Of course, it would have been dangerous for me if they wanted to cover up their presence on this world. But I would have gained time. Now my own actions made me suspect. I still had a small trick I could play – I could accentuate my lameness, allow my captors to believe that I was far more handicapped than I really was.
So I waited for the other to approach, making a display of holding to my support as if to loose it for a moment would allow me to collapse. And I hoped my general disreputable appearance would add to my claim of injury. Perhaps I could even build upon those patches of new skin so apparent on my body, using a story of being set adrift in an LB when plague was feared. It would not be the first time such an incident had happened.
My captor did not come too close, though he could see both of my hands in plain sight on the stone and that I had no weapons. And his laser never wavered from its sighting on my chest.
“Who are you?” he demanded in Basic.
In those few moments I had determined on the role which might save me. I cowered away from him and shrieked, in the wildest and least sane voice I could counterfeit.
“No-no! Do not kill me! I am well, I tell you! The fever is gone – I am well-“
He halted and I thought I saw his eyes narrow as he studied my face intently. I trusted those pink patches were very visible.
“Where did you come from?” Was there a subtle alteration in his tone? Could I make him believe that I was a deportee from a plague ship, and that I expected to be burned down on sight for no other reason than that I had been cast adrift?
“A ship- Do not kill me! I tell you I am clean now – the fever is gone! Let me go – I will not come near you – your ship – just let me go!”
“Stand where you are!” His order was sharp. Now he cupped his free hand before his mouth and spoke into a com mike. The words he used were not Basic and I could not understand, save that he must be reporting to a superior. This was a dangerous game I played; a hair’s difference could mean life or death.
“You-“ He motioned with the laser. “Walk ahead-“
“No- I will go – I will not infect-“
“Walk!” A beam, cut to a finger’s breadth in diameter, clipped the stone not far from my left hand. Its heat was searing. I cried out as he expected me to do.
I saw him grin. “Touched you? Want another – closer this time? I said – walk! The Captain’s interested in you.
Walk I did, making a clumsy business of pulling myself along as if my bruised leg were hardly more than a dead weight.
“Got hurt?” my captor asked, viewing my very slow progress with impatience.
“There are natives- with clubs- they hunted me-‘ I mumbled.
“So? They have a liking for meat, and you would be that, as far as they are concerned. Not good – meeting with them.” He might have been remembering some earlier experience of his own.
I lurched along as slowly as I could, magnifying my limp. Once more I rounded the end of the wreck and now both the other human and the X-Tee came toward us. The X-Tee had holstered his lasers, but both those feather fronds inclined in my direction.
Whether my communication with Eet had sharpened any esper talent I might have had, though I was sure I was not talented at all, I could not tell. But I was aware of an impact from the alien which was not physical, but mental. Only, if he was trying to batter his way into my mind, he was not successful. There was no smooth meeting as I had known with Eet. And I hoped I could completely bar his probe. It was necessary that I remain what I seemed to be-
“So you flushed him,” the other human observed. “What was he trying to do – scramble?”
“Not with that leg. And be may have more wrong with him – take a good look at that face.”
So bidden, he did, with a searching stare. And his expression suggested be was not in favor of what be saw. I wondered just how bad my sloughing skin and the shiny new patching looked. It was no longer so noticeable on my hands or so I thought. But then I was used to seeing it and any fading from those violent purple splotches was an improvement as far as I was concerned.
“Perhaps you had better keep him well away,” was the newcomer’s verdict. “Tell the Captain about him.”
“Captain’s waiting – up there. March, you!”
There was someone standing on the ramp. A jerk of the laser sent me on. I stumbled along, hoping I was indeed a miserable object for anyone’s eyes to rest upon.
TWELVE
We came to the foot of the ramp and there they bid me stand, ringing me in, their weapons ready. The man awaiting us came several paces farther down to study me in slow appraisal.
He was from one of the old worlds, those first colonized. Generations living under alien conditions had given him differences of physique which were noticeable at more than the first glance. His body, under the coverall with the Captain’s shooting star on its standing collar, was thin and lank, his skin dark even beneath the space tan; but his eyes and hair were even more indicative of mutation from the parent stock. The hair, of necessity worn very short to accommodate a helmet, was more blue than gray, thick, and it grew in straight, short spikes. His eyes were a brilliant blue-green, larger than ordinary, and with double eyelids, one almost transparent against the ball, the other, heavier, fitting over it. He visibly lifted both to view me, but I think that the sunlight bothered him, as he quickly dropped the inner ones.
But – I knew him! Not by name, but from the past. Whether the recognition would be mutual, I did not know. I hoped not. This man had visited my father’s shop, had been one of those escorted into the inner room, exiting through the private door. He had not worn a Captain’s tunic then, nor aught to suggest he was a ship’s officer. In fact his hair had then been long enough to brush the outsized, wing-padded shoulders of his foppish tunic – the elegance of an inner-planet dandy.
That he was of the Guild I did not now doubt. But would he know me for Jern’s son? And if I were recognized, could such a relationship be useful to me?
I was not to be left long in doubt on either point. He advanced another step and then laughed, raised his hand to his mouth, and made a vee with his two fingers, through which he spat deliberately right and left.
“By the Lips and Limbs of Sorelle Herself! After this day will I burn farn leaves to Her in any shrine I see! That which was lost is found. And see, boys, that it be not lost again. Murdoc Jern – how did you get here? I will believe any tale you spin me after this.”
The three guarding me stirred and moved in, making very sure that I was not going to disappear – or even have a chance to attempt escape. I had only my role of late plague victim left. Aside from that, I would use as much of the truth as could be checked if later they set a scanner on me.