Planet of Dread Page 9

wasshivery. It was gleeful. "_Just in time for lunch!_"

  Moran went along the disoriented passages of the _Malabar_ to the lock.He turned off the beacon that had tried uselessly during six humangenerations to call for help for men now long dead. He went out thelock and closed it behind him. It was not likely that this planet wouldever become a home for men. If there were some strangeness in itsconstitution that made the descendents of insects placed upon it grow tobe giants, humans would not want to settle on it. And there were plentyof much more suitable worlds. So the wrecked space-ship would lie here,under deeper and ever deeper accumulations of the noisesome stuff thatpassed for soil. Perhaps millenia from now, the sturdy, resistant metalof the hull would finally rust through, and then--nothing. No man in alltime to come would ever see the _Malabar_ again.

  Shrugging, he went toward the _Nadine_. He walked through bedlam. Hecould see a quarter-mile in one direction, and a quarter-mile inanother. He could not see more than a little distance upward. The_Nadine_ had landed upon a world with tens of millions of square milesof surface, and nobody had moved more than a hundred yards from itslanding-place, and now it would leave and all wonders and all horrorsoutside this one quarter of a square mile would remain unknown....

  He went to the airlock and shed his suit. He opened the inner door.Hallet waited for him.

  "Everybody's at lunch," he said. "We'll join them."

  Moran eyed him sharply. Hallet grinned widely.

  "We're going to take off to find a place for you as soon as we'veeaten," he said.

  There was mockery in the tone. It occurred abruptly to Moran that Halletwas the kind of person who might, to be sure, plan complete disloyaltyto his companions for his own benefit. But he might also enjoy betrayalfor its own sake. He might, for example, find it amusing to make a manunder sentence of death or marooning believe that he would escape, soHallet could have the purely malicious pleasure of disappointing him. Hemight look for Moran to break when he learned that he was to die hereafter all.

  Moran clamped his lips tightly. Carol would be better off if that wasthe answer. He went toward the yacht's mess-room. Hallet followed closebehind. Moran pushed the door aside and entered. Burleigh and Harper andBrawn looked at him, Carol raised her eyes. They glistened with tears.

  Hallet said gleefully;

  "Here goes!"

  Standing behind Moran, he thrust a hand-blaster past Moran's body andpulled the trigger. He held the trigger down for continuous fire as hetraversed the weapon to wipe out everybody but Moran and himself.

  IV.

  Moran responded instantly. His hands flew to Hallet's throat, blind furymaking him unaware of any thought but a frantic lust to kill. It wasvery strange that Moran somehow noticed Hallet's hand insanely pullingthe trigger of the blast-pistol over and over and over without result.He remembered it later. Perhaps he shared Hallet's blank disbelief thatone could pull the trigger of a blaster and have nothing at all happenin consequence. But nothing did happen, and suddenly he dropped theweapon and clawed desperately at Moran's fingers about his throat. Butthat was too late.

  There was singularly little disturbance at the luncheon-table. The wholeevent was climax and anticlimax together. Hallet's intention was soappallingly murderous and his action so shockingly futile that the fourwho were to have been his victims tended to stare blankly while Moranthrottled him.

  Burleigh seemed to recover first. He tried to pull Moran's hands loosefrom Hallet's throat. Lacking success he called to the others. "Harper!Brawn! Help me!"

  It took all three of them to release Hallet. Then Moran stood panting,shaking, his eyes like flames.

  "He--he--" panted Moran. "He was going to kill Carol!"

  "I know," said Burleigh, distressedly. "He was going to kill all of us.You gave me an inkling, so while he was packing bessendium between thehulls, and had his space-suit hanging in the airlock, I doctored theblaster in the space-suit pocket." He looked down at Hallet. "Is hestill alive?"

  Brawn bent over Hallet. He nodded.

  "Put him in the airlock for the time being," said Burleigh. "And lockit. When he comes to, we'll decide what to do."

  * * * * *

  Harper and Brawn took Hallet by the arms and hauled him along thepassageway. The inner door of the lock clanged shut on him.

  "We'll give him a hearing, of course," said Burleigh conscientiously."But we should survey the situation first."

  To Moran the situation required no survey, but he viewed it from aviolently personal viewpoint which would neither require or allowdiscussion. He knew what he meant to do about Hallet. He said harshly;

  "Go ahead. When you're through I'll tell you what will be done."

  * * * * *

  He went away. To the control-room. There he paced up and down, trying tobeat back the fury which rose afresh at intervals of less than minutes.He did not think of his own situation, just then. There are moreimportant things than survival.

  He struggled for coolness, with the action before him known. He didn'tglance out the ports at the half-mile circle in which vision waspossible. Beyond the mist there might be anything; an ocean, swarmingmetropoli of giant insects, a mountain-range. Nobody on the _Nadine_ hadexplored. But Moran did not think of such matters now. Hallet had triedto murder Carol, and Moran meant to take action, and there were matterswhich might result from it. The matter the crew of the _Malabar_ hadforgotten to attend to--.

  He searched for paper and a pen. He found both in a drawer for theyacht's hand-written log. He wrote. He placed a small object in thedrawer. He had barely closed it when Carol was at the control-room door.She said in a small voice;

  "They want to talk to you."

  He held up the paper.

  "Read this later. Not now," he said curtly. He opened and closed thedrawer again, this time putting the paper in it. "I want you to readthis after the Hallet business is settled. I'm afraid that I'm not goingto look well in your eyes."

  She swallowed and did not speak. He went to where the others sat inofficial council. Burleigh said heavily;

  "We've come to a decision. We shall call Hallet and hear what he has tosay, but we had to consider various courses of action and decide whichwere possible and which were not."

  Moran nodded grimly. He had made his own decision. It was not too muchunlike the one that, carried out, had made him seize the _Nadine_ forescape from Coryus. But he'd listen. Harper looked doggedly resolved.Brawn seemed moody as usual.

  "I'm listening," said Moran.

  "Hallet," said Burleigh regretfully, "intended to murder all of us andwith your help take the _Nadine_ to some place where he could hope toland without space-port inspection."

  Moran observed;

  "He didn't discuss that part of his plans. He only asked if I'd make adeal to escape being marooned."

  "Yes," said Burleigh, nodding. "I'm sure--"

  "My own idea," said Moran, "when I tried to seize the _Nadine_, was totry to reach one of several newly-settled planets where things aren'ttoo well organized. I'd memos of some such planets. I hoped to get toground somewhere in a wilderness on one of them and work my way on footto a new settlement. There I'd explain that I'd been hunting orprospecting or something of the sort. On a settled planet that would beimpossible. On a brand-new one people are less fussy and I might havebeen accepted quite casually."

  "Hallet may have had some such idea in his mind," agreed Burleigh. "Witha few bessendium crystals to show, he would seem a successfulprospector. He'd be envied but not suspected. To be sure!"

  "But," said Moran drily, "he'd be best off alone. So if he had that sortof idea, he intended to murder me too."

  * * * * *

  Burleigh nodded. "Undoubtedly. But to come to our decision. We can keephim on board under watch--as we did you--and leave you here. This hasdisadvantages. We owe you much. There would be risk of his takingsomeone unawares and fighting for his life. Even if all went as wew
ished, and we landed and dispersed, he could inform the space-portofficials anonymously of what had happened, leading to investigation andthe ruin of any plans for the future revival of our underground. Also,it would destroy any hope for your rescue."

  Moran smiled wryly. He hadn't much hope of that, if he were marooned.

  "We could leave him here," said Burleigh unhappily, "with you taking hisidentity for purposes of landing. But I do not think it would be wise tosend a ship after him. He would be resentful. If rescued, he would doeverything possible to spoil all our future lives, and we arefugitives."

  "Ah, yes!" said Moran, still more wryly amused.

  "I am afraid," said