“The onset was sudden,” Conway said doubtfully. “They were in the process of
fleeing their ship, according to the Captain. Hibernation usually occurs in a
place of safety, not when the being concerned is in immediate physical danger.”
“I was thinking of an involuntary form of hibernation,” Murchison said, “perhaps
induced by their injuries, which enables them to survive until help
arrives—What was thatT
That was a loud, metallic screeching noise which came from the wreck. It lasted
for a few seconds, then there was a moment’s silence before it was repeated.
They could hear heavy breathing in their suit phones so it had to be coming from
Fletcher.
“Captain,” Murchison said, “are you all right?”
“No trouble, ma’am,” Fletcher replied at once. “I’ve found a hatch in what
appears to be a cargo hold. It is, or was, a simple hermetically sealed door
rather than an airlock. When the ship tipped over the door couldn’t open fully
because the outer edge dug into the sand, which I’ve now cleared away. The hatch
opens freely now but the hinges were warped in the crash, as you probably heard.
Two of the occupants were trying to escape, but couldn’t squeeze through the
narrow opening. They are one of the large- and one of the medium-sized types,
both with amputation wounds, neither of them moving. Shall I bring them to you?”
“I’d better look at them first,” Conway said. “Give me a few minutes to finish
with this one.”
As they were placing the last casualty inside its makeshift oxygen tent,
Murchison said, “Have you found any trace of the criminal, Captain?”
“Other than the wounding on these two, no ma’am,” Fletcher replied. “My sensors
pick up no trace of bodily movement inside the ship, nothing but a few quiet,
intermittent sounds suggesting settling debris. I’m pretty sure it is outside
the ship somewhere.”
“In that case,” she said, looking at Conway, “I’ll go with you.”
The wind died and the sand settled as they neared the wreck
so that they could see clearly the black rectangular opening in the hull just at
ground level, and the arm of the Captain waving at them from inside it. There
were so many other openings caused by sprung plating and access hatches that
without Fletcher’s signal they would not have known which gap was the right
one. From outside it looked as if the ship was ready to fall apart, but when
they crawled through the opening and stood up their helmet lights showed little
evidence of internal damage.
“How did the others get out?” Conway asked. He knelt and began running his
scanner over the larger of the two casualties. There was evidence of a traumatic
amputation of a major limb but the other injuries were superficial.
“There is a large personnel hatch on the upper surface of the hull forward,”
Fletcher replied. “At least it was on the upper side after the ship toppled.
Presumably they had to slide down the curve of the hull and jump to the ground,
or move along the ship to the prow, which isn’t very far from the ground, and
jump from there. These two were unlucky.”
“One of them was very unlucky,” Murchison said. “The DCOJ is dead. Its injuries
were not as severe as the other cases I’ve seen, but there is evidence of lung
damage by a corrosive gas of some kind, according to my analyzer. What about
your DCMH?”
“This one is alive,” Conway said. “Similar general condition, including the
lung damage. Probably it is simply a much tougher life-form than the other two.”
“I wonder about this DCOJ life-form,” Murchison said thoughtfully. “Is it
intelligent at all? The small DCLG and the DCMH almost certainly are: The limb
extremities terminate in specialized manipulators, and the former seems to have
developed six hands and no feet. But the big DCOJ has four feet and two clawed
forward appendages, and is otherwise made up of teeth and a large system of
stomachs.”
“Which is empty,” Conway said. After a moment he added, “All of the cases I’ve
examined so far had empty stomachs.”
“Mine as well,” Murchison said. They stared at each other for a moment, then