“So that rumor has spread satisfactorily!”
Coffee slopped over the brim of Tau’s mug and Dane dropped the packet of steak concentrate he was about to feed into the cooker. Chief Ranger Asaki loomed in the doorway of the mess as suddenly as if he had been teleported to that point.
The medic arose to his feet and smiled politely at the visitor.
”Do I detect in that observation, sir, the suggestion that the tales I have heard were deliberately set to blast where they would do the most good as deterrents?”
A fleeting grin broke the impassive somberness of the black face.
“I was informed you are a man skilled in ‘magic,’ Medic. You certainly display the traditional sorcerer’s quickness of wit. But this rumor is also truth.” The quirk of good humor had gone again, and there was an edge in the Chief Ranger’s voice which cut. “Poachers on Khatka would welcome the Patrol in place of the attention they now receive.”
He came into the mess cabin, Jellico behind him, and Dane pulled down two of the snap seats. He was holding a mug under the spout of the coffee dispenser as the captain made introductions.
“Thorson-our acting-cargo-master.”
“Thorson,” the Khatkan acknowledged with a grave nod of his head, and then glanced down to floor level with a look of surprise. Weaving a pattern about his legs, purring loudly, Sinbad was offering an unusually fervent welcome of his own. The Ranger went down on one knee, his hand out for Sinbad’s inquiring sniff. Then the cat butted that dark palm, batted at it playfully with claw-sheathed paw.
“A Terran cat! It is of the lion family?”
“Far removed,” Jellico supplied. “You’d have to add a lot of bulk to Sinbad to promote him to the lion class.”
“We have only the old tales.” Asaki sounded almost wistful as the cat jumped to his knee and clawed for a hold on his chest belts. “But I do not believe that lions were ever so friendly toward my ancestors.”
Dane would have removed the cat, but the Khatkan arose with Sinbad, still purring loudly, resting in the crook of his arm. The Ranger was smiling with a gentleness which changed the whole arrogant cast of his countenance.
“Do not bring this one to Khatka with you, Captain, or you will never take him away again. Those who dwell in the inner courts would not let him vanish from their sight. Ah, so this pleases you, small lion?” He rubbed Sinbad gently under the throat and the cat stretched his neck, his yellow eyes half closed in bliss.
“Thorson,” the Captain turned to Dane, “that arrival report on my desk was the final one from Combine?”
“Yes, sir. There’s no hope of the Rover setting down here before that date.”
Asaki sat down, still holding the cat. “So you see, Captain, fortune has arranged it all. You have two tens of days. Four days to go in my cruiser, four days for your return here, and the rest to explore the preserve. We could not ask for better luck, for I do not know when our paths may cross again. In the normal course of events I will not have another mission to Xecho for a year, perhaps longer. Also-” He hesitated and then spoke to Tau. “Medic, Captain Jellico has informed me that you have made a study of magic on many worlds.”
“That is so, sir.”
“Do you then believe that it is real force, or that it is only a superstition for child-people who set up demons to howl petitions to when some darkness falls upon them?”
“Some of the magic I have seen is trickery, some of it founded upon an inner knowledge of men and their ways which a shrewd witch doctor can use to his advantage. There always remains” -Tau put down his mug, “-there always remains a small residue of happenings and results for which we have not yet found any logical explanations-”
“And I believe,” Asaki interrupted, “it is also true that a race can be conditioned from birth to be sensitive to forms of magic so that men of that blood are particularly susceptible.” That was more of a statement than a question, but Tau answered it.
“That is very true. A Lamorian, for example, can be ‘sung’ to death. I have witnessed such a case. But upon a Terran or another off-world man the same suggestion would have no effect.”
“Those who settled Khatka brought such magic with them.” The Chief Ranger’s fingers still moved about Sinbad’s jaw and throat soothingly, but his tone was chill, the coldest thing in the cramped space of the mess cabin.
“Yes, a highly developed form of it,” Tau agreed.
“More highly developed perhaps than even you can believe, Medic!” That came in a hiss of cold rage. “I think that its present manifestation-death by a beast that is not a beast-could be worth your detailed study.”
“Why?” Tau came bluntly to the point.
“Because it is a killing magic and it is being carefully used to rid my world of key men, men we need badly. If there is a weak point in this cloudy attack shaping against us, we must learn it, and soon!”
It was Jellico who added the rest. “We are invited to visit Khatka and survey a new hunting range as Chief Ranger Asaki’s personal term guests.”
Dane drew a deep breath of wonder. Guest rights on Khatka were jealously guarded-they were too valuable to their owners to waste. Whole families lived on the income from the yearly rental of even half a one. But the Rangers, by right of office, had several which they could grant to visiting scientists or men from other worlds holding positions similar to their own. To have such an opportunity offered to an ordinary Trader was almost incredible.
His wonder was matched by Tau’s and must have been plain to read for the Chief Ranger smiled.
“For a long time Captain Jellico and I have exchanged biological data on alien life-forms-his skill in photographing such, his knowledge as an xenobiologist are widely recognized. And so I have permission for him to visit the new Zoboru preserve, not yet officially opened. And you, Medic Tau, your help, or at least your diagnosis, we need in another direction. So, one expert comes openly, another not so openly. Though, Medic, your task is approved by my superiors. And” -he glanced at Dane- “perhaps to muddle the trail for the suspicious, shall we not ask this young man also?”
Dane’s eyes went to the captain. Jellico was always fair and his crew would have snapped into action on his word alone-even if they were fronting a rain of Thorkian death darts and that order was to advance. But, on the other hand, Dane would never have asked a favor, and the best he hoped for was to be able to perform his duties without unfavorable comment upon their commission. He had no reason to believe Jellico was willing to agree to this.
“You have two weeks’ planet-side leave coming, Thorson. If you want to spend it on Khatka . . . ” Jellico actually grinned then. “I take it that you do. When do we up-ship, sir?”
“You said that you must wait for the return of your other crew members-shall we say mid-afternoon tomorrow?” The Chief Ranger stood up and put Sinbad down though the cat protested with several sharp meows.
“Small lion,” the tall Khatkan spoke to the cat as to an equal, “this is your jungle, and mine lies elsewhere. But should you ever grow tired of traveling the stars, there is always a home for you in my courts.”
When the Chief Ranger went out the door, Sinbad did not try to follow, but he uttered one mournful little cry of protest and loss.
“So he wants a troubleshooter, does he?” Tau asked. “All right, I’ll try to hunt out his goblins for him; it’ll be worth that to visit Khatka!”
Dane, remembering the hot glare of the Xecho spaceport, the sea one could not swim in, contrasted that with the tri-dees he had seen of the green hunters’ paradise on the next planet of the system. “Yes, sir!” he echoed and made a haphazard choice for the cooker.
“Don’t be too lighthearted,” Tau warned. “I’ll say that any stew which was too hot for that Ranger to handle might give us burned fingers-and quick. When we land on Khatka, walk softly and look over your shoulder, and be prepared for the worst.”
II
LIGHTNING PLAYED along the black ridges above them, and below was a sheer drop to a river which was only a silver thread. Under their boots, man-made and yet dominating the wildness of jungle and mountain, was a platform of rock slabs, fused to support a palace of towering yellow-white walls and curved cups of domes, a palace which was also half fortress, half frontier post.