There was the sickly taste of blood in my
mouth, a lack of clarity in my mind—
“Murdoc!”
I tried to raise my head. Under me, for I lay on a smooth
surface, a vibration reached into my body, bringing into life every
ache and pain I had. I rolled, brought up against a wall, clawed
above me for support, and at last got to my feet.
Fighting against dizziness, I stared slowly about. Eet still
clung to the edge of the control board. And drawing himself aloft,
even as I had done, was Hory, blood trickling from a gash along his
jaw, his movements discordant and fumbling.
I turned to Eet. “We upped ship?”
“After a fashion.” Seemingly he was not so affected
by the force of the take-off.
“Back on the sealed course again—” I could remember
better now.
Hory shook his head as if trying to clear it from some
bewildering fog. He looked at me, but in an unfocused way, as if he
did not really see me. Or, if he did, my presence had no meaning
for him. He put out a hand to catch at the pilot’s seat,
pulled himself laboriously into that, and relaxed in its
embrace.
“We are on course.” His voice was drained and weak.
“Back where we were. Next set down will be at the Patrol base—or do you want to reverse again?”
He did not turn his head to look at me as he spoke. If the
active combativeness had gone out of him, there was still a core of
determination to be read in his tone as his voice grew stronger and
steadied.
“The Guild are in control down there.” I did not
know what I wanted, save to keep from sudden and painful death, a
fate which had dogged me far too long. Perhaps some men savor such
spice in their lives, but it was not to my taste. I was so tired I
wanted nothing but peace. And a way out—with neither the Guild
nor the Patrol snapping at my heels. The only obstacle to that was
that neither organization was one to relinquish easily what it
desired. In that moment I damned the day I had first laid eyes on
the zero stone. Yet when I looked to Eet and saw he wore the ring
about his forelimb, something about it drew and held my eyes. And I
do not think I could have hurled it from me had it lain within my
grasp. I was as tied to it now as if I were bound by a tangle
cord.
“To no purpose—” That was Eet. For a moment I did
not understand him, so far had my thoughts ranged.
“Look—”
His paws moved and on the visa-screen appeared a picture.
“This registered as we took off,” he explained.
“It remained.”
I saw the platform of the heads approaching sharply, as if we
had crossed above it. And I remembered the ship had been slightly
aslant.
“The tail flames of the rockets”—Eet used his
instructor’s voice—“must have swept across it.”
He did not enlarge on that but I understood. The flames—could
they have resealed, or cleaned out the crypt? If sealed, then the
cache of the best stones was once more hidden. And we were the only
ones who knew of their existence! A bargaining point? The stones we
had seen in the room of the ruins had been close to exhaustion,
those in the vault fresh. They were probably the cream of those
owned by the ones who had established the tomb. If the Guild
depended upon those from the ruins, they could still be defeated by
whoever had the others.
I knew that Eet was reading my mind. But he remained silent, so
that Hory could not share my realization of that small superiority.
The mutant continued to watch the visa-screen until it went
blank.
“They are not going to find what they want,” he said
to Hory.
The Patrolman lay in the webbing as one exhausted. The blood on
his cheek was clotting. His eyes were half closed.
“You have not won either,” he said, his words
slurred.
“We never wanted to win anything,” I responded,
“except our own freedom.”
Then I felt a sudden strange sensation, a sharpening of contact—Eet’s thoughts? NO! For the first time I touched, not Eet, in
such communication, but another human brain directly.
I tried to break away. It had been hard at first to accept that
Eet could so invade my mind at will. But somehow I had been able to
stand it because he was alien. This was far different. I was being
pushed against my will into a raging torrent which whirled me on
and on. And even to this day I can find no proper words to express
what happened. I learned what—who—Hory really was—as no man
should ever know one of his fellows. It is too harsh a stripping,
that. And he must have learned the same of me. I knew that he meant
to bring me to his form of justice, that he looked upon me with
scorn because of my association with Eet. I could see—and see—and see—And that enforced sharing went on forever and ever. I saw
Hory not only as he was now, but as he had been back and back down
a trail of years—all of which had formed him into the man he now
was—just as he must also see me—
I fought vainly against the power which made me see so, for I
feared I would be utterly lost in that other mind, that Hory was
becoming me, and I Hory. And we would be so firmly welded together
in the end that there would be no Hory and Jern, but some unnatural
whirling mass fighting itself—trapped so—
Then I was released and flew out of the mind stream as if some
whirlpool had thrust me off and out. I lay retching on the floor,
aware again that I had a body, an identity of my own. I heard
noises from the pilot’s chair which suggested my sickness was
shared, even as we had shared other things—too many of them.
Somehow I got to my hands and knees and crawled to the wall
again, once more pulled myself up by holding to the equipment here.
I faced around slowly to stare at Hory, while he looked back at me,
dully, with a kind of shrinking.
Beyond him, on the floor, lay a small flaccid body—
Eet!
Keeping hold on the wall, for without that support I was now
helpless to move, I edged along until I passed Hory to stand above
the mutant. Then I let go, fell to the floor rather than knelt, to
gather up Eet’s body and hold it tight against me. That same
emotion which had moved me when Hory had tried to kill Eet in the
engine room flooded through me once more. It strengthened me,
shaking me completely out of my daze.
Eet had done that—had made us free of one another’s
minds. And he had done it for a purpose. I cradled Eet’s
too-limp body, smoothing his wiry fur, trying to discover some
indication he still lived.
“You know,” I said to Hory, “why—”
“I know—” His words came with long pauses between
them. “Is—he—dead?”
I stroked and smoothed, tried to feel some light breathing, the
pound of a heartbeat, but to no purpose. Even so, I could not allow
myself to believe the worst.
However, I did not try to reach Eet’s mind. Now I shrank
painfully from such contact. I had wounds which must heal, the
strangest wounds any of my species may ever have borne.
“The—aid—kit—“ Hory’s right hand rose,
shaking badly. Yet he managed to point to a compartment in the far
wall. “A stimulant—”
Perhaps. But how well medication intended for our breed would
serve Eet I did not know. I worked up to my feet again, holding the
mutant tightly to me, and began that long journey around the cabin.
One-handed, I fumbled with the latch, snapped open the cubby. There
was a box—in it a capsule. And that was slippery between my
fingers, so I had to use care to bring it forth. One-handed, I
could not crush it.
Holding it and Eet, I retraced my steps, bracing myself erect by
one shoulder against the wall, back to Hory. I held out the
capsule. He took it from me with trembling fingers while I steadied
Eet’s body. Hory broke the capsule under that pointed nose,
released the fumes of the volatile gas. His hands fell back into
his lap, as if even that small exertion had completely exhausted
him.
Eet sneezed, gasped. His eyes opened and his head moved feebly
as it turned so he could see who held him. He did not try to leave
my hands.
Once more I gathered him close to me, so that the head, raised a
little as if to welcome such contact, now rested on my shoulder
close to my chin.
“He is alive,” Hory whispered. “But he—did—that—”
“Yes.”
“Because we must know—and knowing—” The Patrolman
hesitated until I prompted:
“And knowing—what? You are wedded to your purposes. But
you must know now that mine were not as you believed.”
“Yes. But—I have my duty.”
He gazed at me, but again as if he did not see me for what I
was, but rather beyond, into some future.
“We are not meant—” He continued after a pause,
“to know our own kind in that way. I do not want to see you
now, it makes me—sick—” His mouth worked as if he were
about to be physically ill.
My stomach churned in sympathy. He was right. To look at him and
remember—Man is not vile—most men—nor depraved, nor monstrous.
But neither is he meant to violate another as we had done. Having
Eet as a conductor between our minds was one thing; to be directly
joined—never again!
“It was meant that we might understand. Words can be
screens—we needed free minds,” I said. Were he to retreat
now into a denial, an attempt to be as we were before, he would
negate all Eet had done to save us. That I dared not allow.
“Yes. You—are—not as we thought.” He appeared to
make that concession against his will. “But—I have my
orders—”
“We can bargain.” I repeated Eet’s earlier
suggestion. “I have something to offer—a cache, untouched,
of the stones. Did you read that also?” That was my one fear.
That when my thoughts had been laid bare to him, he had uncovered
all I needed, for the sake of the future, to hide.
“Not that.” He turned his head away. Looking at me
bothered him. “But the Guild—”
“Does not know of this one. Nor shall they find it.”
I could not be sure of that, I could only hope. However, I thought
I had a right to argue.
“What do you want in return?”
I made my first offer as I did because there is no reason why
one should not begin at the highest point, as every trader knows.
“Freedom—to begin with. After that—well, I am a
masterless man with Vondar Ustle gone—in a way he died for this.
I want a ship—”
“Ship?” Hory repeated the word as if it were new to
him. “You—a ship—?”
“Because I am no pilot?” I chose thus to interpret
his surprise. “True, but pilots can be hired. I want payment—our freedom and credits enough to buy a ship. In return—the
position of the cache. It seems to me the price is low—”
“I am not authorized to make any such bargains—”
“No?” And then I repeated two words, drawing them
out of the time when we had been one.
He turned his head laboriously to look at me again, his face
very cold and set.
“True—you know that also. So—” He added nothing,
but closed his eyes.
I felt a soft bump against my chin as Eet moved his head, almost
as if he nodded approval. Eet had been suspicious of Hory. He had
reported a shield—had he suspected what might lie below that?
Known that this was no simple scout but a Double Star Commander,
sent on a special mission? Or had only suspicion been his before he
hurled us mind to mind?
A Double Star, one of those whose word could be accepted at once
in an agreement. If Hory did now so agree, we were safe.
“We get all the stones,” he said. “That ring
also.”
My fingers had found the ring on Eet’s limb; now they
closed about it tightly. Not that! But Eet’s head once more
bumped my chin. He dared not use mind reach intelligible to Hory,
but he was trying in this way to communicate. Without the ring—I
could not—
I saw Hory’s eyes glitter in rising triumph, and knew that
he believed he had found my weak point and would thus regain
control of the situation and us. In that moment I had the strength
for our last battle of wills.
“The ring also—after an agreement is taped.”
Hory hitched himself up, reached to the control board. He used
his forefinger to release a print seal, bring out a treaty com.
There was no mistaking its white and gold casing. And its very
presence here told me of his importance among his command.
Now he held it to his lips. But he wet those with the tip of his
tongue and hesitated a long moment before he began to dictate:
“In the name of the Council, the Four Confederacies, the
Twelve Systems, the Inner and Outer Planets,” he recited
formally, as he must have done many times before, it came so easily
to him, “this agreement shall hold by planet law and star
law.” He added figures which held no meaning for me but must
have been an identification code. Once more he switched to
words:
“Murdoc Jern, status, assistant, gem buyer, late
apprentice to Vondar Ustle, deceased, is hereby declared free of
all charges made against him—”
“Erroneously,” I prompted as he paused for
breath.
“Erroneously,” he agreed, not looking at me, but at
the com in his hand. “In addition, free of all charges is one
Eet, an alien mutant, now in association with Jern.”
So now it was officially recognized that Eet was no animal but
an intelligent entity coming under the protection of laws made for
the defense of such.
“In return, Murdoc Jern agrees to release to the custody
of the Patrol certain information, classified”—once more he
rattled off a series of code numbers—“which is his.
Accepted, sealed, coded by—” and he unemotionally gave that
name which was not Hory, and certainly not on a roster of
scouts.
“You have forgotten,” I broke in sharply. “The
bargain is also for compensation—”
For a moment I thought he would refuse even now. His eyes caught
mine and I read in them a cold enmity which I knew would exist on
his side for all time. He had been humbled here as he thought I had
not, or rather he felt a humbling, though I had not in any way
triumphed over him. For our embroilment had been mutual and if he
felt invaded, was I any the less violated? Now I added:
“Was it any worse for you than for me?”
“Yes!” He made of that an oath. “I am who I
am.”
I supposed he meant his Double Star, his training, the fact that
in the service he was above and beyond some regulations. But if he
was a man who had climbed to that post, and the Patrol was as
incorruptible as it claimed to be, then also he must be a man of
some breadth of mind. I hoped that was true.
Yes, he had said, but now his eyes changed. There was still
hatred for me in them, but perhaps he was a bigger man than he had
been only moments earlier.
“No—perhaps it was not—” He was just.
“And there was to be compensation.” I pressed my
point. “After all whether you accept it or not, we have been
battle comrades—”
“To save yourselves!” was his quick retort.
“No more than yourself.”
“Very well.” Once more he raised the treaty com.
“Murdoc Jern is to receive compensation in connection with
his information, this to be set by a star court, not to fall below
ten thousand credits, nor rise above fifteen.”
Ten thousand credits—enough for a small ship of the older
type. Again Eet’s head moved. My comrade found that
acceptable.
“Agreed to by Murdoc Jern.” He held out the com and
I bent my head to speak into it.
“I, Murdoc Jern, accept and agree—”
“The alien, Eet—” For the first time during this
ceremony Hory was at a loss. How could a creature without vocal
communication agree on an oral recording?
Eet moved. He swung his head toward the com and from his lips
issued a weird sound, part the mew of a cat, yet holding some of
the Basic “yes.”
“So be it recorded.” Hory’s tone had the
solemnity of a thumb seal pressed by some planet ruler before his
court.
“Now”—he reached for another taper, taken from the
same recess as the treaty com—“to your part.”
I held it before my lips. “I, Murdoc Jern, do hereby
surrender”—might as well get the worst done first—“into the hands of a duly registered member of the Patrol a
ring set with an unknown stone, the gem having unusual and as yet
unexplored possibilities. In addition I do hereby state that there
are two caches of similar stones on a planet unknown to me by name.
These can be found as follows—” And I launched into
descriptions of the cache in the ruins and that of the vault.
The knowledge that he had been so close to both and had not
realized it must have been bitter to Hory. But he did not reveal
his feelings. Now that his true identity was known he was a
different man, one lacking the more emotional reactions of Hory the
scout. When I had described both caches and their locations to the
best of my ability, I handed the tape mike back. He took it from me
as if he feared to touch my fingers, as if I were unclean.
“There is a passenger cabin to the left of the
galley,” he said remotely, not ordering me to it, but making
his desire plain. And I wanted his company no more than he wanted
mine.
I descended the ladder wearily, Eet riding in his old place on
my shoulders. But before we had gone the mutant had shaken the ring
loose, to leave it lying on the edge of the control board. I did
not want to look at it again. Perhaps Hory locked it away with the
tapes—I did not want to know.
The passenger cabin was small and bare. I lay down on the bunk.
But though my body ached for rest I could not quiet my mind. I had
given up the ring, the small knowledge I had of the caches. In
return I had our freedom and enough to buy a ship—
Buy a ship? Why—why had I asked for that? I was no pilot, I
had no reason to want a ship of my own. But ten thousand credits
could be used—
“To buy a ship!” Eet answered.
“But I do not want—or need—and cannot use a
ship!”
“You will—all three.” His reply was assured.
“Do you think I went close to ending my being to earn us
anything else? We shall have a ship—”
I was too tired to argue. “To what purpose?”
“That shall be discussed at the proper time.”
“But—who is to pilot it?”
“Do not dwell so much on the skills you have not; consider
rather those you have. There is something else—look within the
inner pocket where you carry what is left of your gems.”
It had been so long since I had thought of that poor store, a
most meager base for the future, that I could not guess what he
meant. I fingered that inner pouch and the stones in it moved under
my touch. I loosed the seal to turn out the sorry collection. Among
them was—I snatched at it and between thumb and forefinger I held
a zero stone in its lifeless phase.
“But—!”
Eet read my thought. “You have broken no oath. You
surrendered exactly what you promised—the ring and the location
of the caches. If another has seen to a better bargain for you—accept it without question.”
Hory—above—could he tune in on our exchange? Would he now
know what I had?
Eet was plainly alert to the same danger. “He sleeps. He
was close to the end of his strength though he did not reveal that
to you. But do not mention this again. Not until we are
free.”
I dropped the stone among the others—all the bits from my
wanderings. To the uninitiated it would certainly seem worth no
more than, perhaps not as much as, the rest. Eet’s cleverness
needed no comment.
Then I, too, surrendered to sleep. And sleep I did, off and on
for much of the rest of the voyage. But at times Eet and I talked
together. Not of the stones, but rather of other worlds, and I
reviewed my gem knowledge. I had none of Vondar’s prestige,
but I knew his methods of trade. And were I to have a ship, there
was no reason why I could not continue on my own. Eet encouraged me
in such speculations, leading me on to discuss my chances. I was
glad to turn my thoughts from the past, and perhaps it gave me some
pleasure to play the informant and instructor. For this was one
field in which Eet lagged behind.
But there came a time when I was interrupted by a sharp order
over the ship’s com. We were nearing the base port, it was
necessary to strap down for landing. And Hory continued, saying
that I would find my cabin a temporary prison until he could make
the proper arrangements. I would have protested, but Eet’s
head counseled discretion.
The mutant had a listening attitude after we set down. And I
heard the clang of boot plates on the ladder, passing my cabin. Eet
became communicative when their echoes died away.
“He is out of the ship. And he will carry out his part of
the bargain. He takes with him the ring, to put it in safekeeping—as I had hoped. Now it will not betray you should you pass near it
with the other stone.”
“Why did it not do that in the cabin?”
“It did. But at that time you were too occupied otherwise
to notice. Get free of these Patrolmen as fast as you can. Then we
shall be about our own business—”
“That being?”
Eet was amused. “Gem hunting—what else? I told you that
world was not the source of the stones. The Guild and the Patrol
will believe so for some time. They will search, they will mine.
But they shall not find what they seek. We have only sniffed out
the first few steps on a long cold trail. But we have what will
serve us as a guide.”
“You mean—we are to keep on hunting the zero stones? But
how? Space is very wide—there are many worlds—”
“Which makes our quest only the more worth the trying. I
tell you—we are meant to do this thing.”
“Eet—who—what are you? Did you—were you of the people
who owned the stones?”
“I am Eet,” he replied with his old arrogance.
“That is all that means aught in this life. But if it
troubles you—no, I was not of those who used the
stones.”
“But you know much of them—”
He interrupted me. “The Patrolman is returning; he brings
others. They are angry, but they will hold by Hory’s bargain.
However, walk softly. They would be only too pleased to have some
reason to pull you down.”
I faced the door as it opened. Hory stood there, with him
another, wearing a uniform with signs of high rank. Both men
watched me with cold and wary eyes, their antagonism like a blow.
Eet was very right, they would like nothing better than to get me
by some infraction. I must walk as warily as in a quaking
swamp.
“You will come with us. The bargain will be kept.”
The officer with Hory spoke as if it hurt him. “But for your
own protection you will be in maximum security while you are
here.”
There was a spark in Hory’s eyes. “We can keep you
safe. The arm of the Guild is long, it can reach far, but not into
a Patrol base.”
So he made clear his thoughts. I had had two enemies. I might
have now dealt successfully with one, but there was still the
second. My hand wanted to cup over the stones in my inner pocket.
Would the zero stone only lead me further and further into danger?
I remembered my father and Vondar—and the legendary might of the
Guild.
However, who may seize upon time and hold it fast, not allowing
the moments to slip by him? I had said I was not a gambler. But
Fortune appeared determined to make me one. With Eet warm and heavy
about my shoulders, and the future, misty and threatened as it was,
before me, I left the cabin to walk into a new slice of life.
Perhaps I went better armed and armored than I had once been;
the sum of a man’s knowledge may change from day to day, and
experience is both sword and buckler. As long as Eet and I walked
the same road, free under the stars, then could the present be
savored, and let the future take care for itself—After all, what
man can influence that knowingly?
I found it enough to have this hour, this day, this small
moment, as a victory over odds which I now marveled at our facing.
Perhaps I was true son to Hywel Jern in spirit if not body. And
still I could cup hand at my will across a zero stone. The door of
the cabin was open. So was that of life, and I had not yet found
its limit.
There was the sickly taste of blood in my
mouth, a lack of clarity in my mind—
“Murdoc!”
I tried to raise my head. Under me, for I lay on a smooth
surface, a vibration reached into my body, bringing into life every
ache and pain I had. I rolled, brought up against a wall, clawed
above me for support, and at last got to my feet.
Fighting against dizziness, I stared slowly about. Eet still
clung to the edge of the control board. And drawing himself aloft,
even as I had done, was Hory, blood trickling from a gash along his
jaw, his movements discordant and fumbling.
I turned to Eet. “We upped ship?”
“After a fashion.” Seemingly he was not so affected
by the force of the take-off.
“Back on the sealed course again—” I could remember
better now.
Hory shook his head as if trying to clear it from some
bewildering fog. He looked at me, but in an unfocused way, as if he
did not really see me. Or, if he did, my presence had no meaning
for him. He put out a hand to catch at the pilot’s seat,
pulled himself laboriously into that, and relaxed in its
embrace.
“We are on course.” His voice was drained and weak.
“Back where we were. Next set down will be at the Patrol base—or do you want to reverse again?”
He did not turn his head to look at me as he spoke. If the
active combativeness had gone out of him, there was still a core of
determination to be read in his tone as his voice grew stronger and
steadied.
“The Guild are in control down there.” I did not
know what I wanted, save to keep from sudden and painful death, a
fate which had dogged me far too long. Perhaps some men savor such
spice in their lives, but it was not to my taste. I was so tired I
wanted nothing but peace. And a way out—with neither the Guild
nor the Patrol snapping at my heels. The only obstacle to that was
that neither organization was one to relinquish easily what it
desired. In that moment I damned the day I had first laid eyes on
the zero stone. Yet when I looked to Eet and saw he wore the ring
about his forelimb, something about it drew and held my eyes. And I
do not think I could have hurled it from me had it lain within my
grasp. I was as tied to it now as if I were bound by a tangle
cord.
“To no purpose—” That was Eet. For a moment I did
not understand him, so far had my thoughts ranged.
“Look—”
His paws moved and on the visa-screen appeared a picture.
“This registered as we took off,” he explained.
“It remained.”
I saw the platform of the heads approaching sharply, as if we
had crossed above it. And I remembered the ship had been slightly
aslant.
“The tail flames of the rockets”—Eet used his
instructor’s voice—“must have swept across it.”
He did not enlarge on that but I understood. The flames—could
they have resealed, or cleaned out the crypt? If sealed, then the
cache of the best stones was once more hidden. And we were the only
ones who knew of their existence! A bargaining point? The stones we
had seen in the room of the ruins had been close to exhaustion,
those in the vault fresh. They were probably the cream of those
owned by the ones who had established the tomb. If the Guild
depended upon those from the ruins, they could still be defeated by
whoever had the others.
I knew that Eet was reading my mind. But he remained silent, so
that Hory could not share my realization of that small superiority.
The mutant continued to watch the visa-screen until it went
blank.
“They are not going to find what they want,” he said
to Hory.
The Patrolman lay in the webbing as one exhausted. The blood on
his cheek was clotting. His eyes were half closed.
“You have not won either,” he said, his words
slurred.
“We never wanted to win anything,” I responded,
“except our own freedom.”
Then I felt a sudden strange sensation, a sharpening of contact—Eet’s thoughts? NO! For the first time I touched, not Eet, in
such communication, but another human brain directly.
I tried to break away. It had been hard at first to accept that
Eet could so invade my mind at will. But somehow I had been able to
stand it because he was alien. This was far different. I was being
pushed against my will into a raging torrent which whirled me on
and on. And even to this day I can find no proper words to express
what happened. I learned what—who—Hory really was—as no man
should ever know one of his fellows. It is too harsh a stripping,
that. And he must have learned the same of me. I knew that he meant
to bring me to his form of justice, that he looked upon me with
scorn because of my association with Eet. I could see—and see—and see—And that enforced sharing went on forever and ever. I saw
Hory not only as he was now, but as he had been back and back down
a trail of years—all of which had formed him into the man he now
was—just as he must also see me—
I fought vainly against the power which made me see so, for I
feared I would be utterly lost in that other mind, that Hory was
becoming me, and I Hory. And we would be so firmly welded together
in the end that there would be no Hory and Jern, but some unnatural
whirling mass fighting itself—trapped so—
Then I was released and flew out of the mind stream as if some
whirlpool had thrust me off and out. I lay retching on the floor,
aware again that I had a body, an identity of my own. I heard
noises from the pilot’s chair which suggested my sickness was
shared, even as we had shared other things—too many of them.
Somehow I got to my hands and knees and crawled to the wall
again, once more pulled myself up by holding to the equipment here.
I faced around slowly to stare at Hory, while he looked back at me,
dully, with a kind of shrinking.
Beyond him, on the floor, lay a small flaccid body—
Eet!
Keeping hold on the wall, for without that support I was now
helpless to move, I edged along until I passed Hory to stand above
the mutant. Then I let go, fell to the floor rather than knelt, to
gather up Eet’s body and hold it tight against me. That same
emotion which had moved me when Hory had tried to kill Eet in the
engine room flooded through me once more. It strengthened me,
shaking me completely out of my daze.
Eet had done that—had made us free of one another’s
minds. And he had done it for a purpose. I cradled Eet’s
too-limp body, smoothing his wiry fur, trying to discover some
indication he still lived.
“You know,” I said to Hory, “why—”
“I know—” His words came with long pauses between
them. “Is—he—dead?”
I stroked and smoothed, tried to feel some light breathing, the
pound of a heartbeat, but to no purpose. Even so, I could not allow
myself to believe the worst.
However, I did not try to reach Eet’s mind. Now I shrank
painfully from such contact. I had wounds which must heal, the
strangest wounds any of my species may ever have borne.
“The—aid—kit—“ Hory’s right hand rose,
shaking badly. Yet he managed to point to a compartment in the far
wall. “A stimulant—”
Perhaps. But how well medication intended for our breed would
serve Eet I did not know. I worked up to my feet again, holding the
mutant tightly to me, and began that long journey around the cabin.
One-handed, I fumbled with the latch, snapped open the cubby. There
was a box—in it a capsule. And that was slippery between my
fingers, so I had to use care to bring it forth. One-handed, I
could not crush it.
Holding it and Eet, I retraced my steps, bracing myself erect by
one shoulder against the wall, back to Hory. I held out the
capsule. He took it from me with trembling fingers while I steadied
Eet’s body. Hory broke the capsule under that pointed nose,
released the fumes of the volatile gas. His hands fell back into
his lap, as if even that small exertion had completely exhausted
him.
Eet sneezed, gasped. His eyes opened and his head moved feebly
as it turned so he could see who held him. He did not try to leave
my hands.
Once more I gathered him close to me, so that the head, raised a
little as if to welcome such contact, now rested on my shoulder
close to my chin.
“He is alive,” Hory whispered. “But he—did—that—”
“Yes.”
“Because we must know—and knowing—” The Patrolman
hesitated until I prompted:
“And knowing—what? You are wedded to your purposes. But
you must know now that mine were not as you believed.”
“Yes. But—I have my duty.”
He gazed at me, but again as if he did not see me for what I
was, but rather beyond, into some future.
“We are not meant—” He continued after a pause,
“to know our own kind in that way. I do not want to see you
now, it makes me—sick—” His mouth worked as if he were
about to be physically ill.
My stomach churned in sympathy. He was right. To look at him and
remember—Man is not vile—most men—nor depraved, nor monstrous.
But neither is he meant to violate another as we had done. Having
Eet as a conductor between our minds was one thing; to be directly
joined—never again!
“It was meant that we might understand. Words can be
screens—we needed free minds,” I said. Were he to retreat
now into a denial, an attempt to be as we were before, he would
negate all Eet had done to save us. That I dared not allow.
“Yes. You—are—not as we thought.” He appeared to
make that concession against his will. “But—I have my
orders—”
“We can bargain.” I repeated Eet’s earlier
suggestion. “I have something to offer—a cache, untouched,
of the stones. Did you read that also?” That was my one fear.
That when my thoughts had been laid bare to him, he had uncovered
all I needed, for the sake of the future, to hide.
“Not that.” He turned his head away. Looking at me
bothered him. “But the Guild—”
“Does not know of this one. Nor shall they find it.”
I could not be sure of that, I could only hope. However, I thought
I had a right to argue.
“What do you want in return?”
I made my first offer as I did because there is no reason why
one should not begin at the highest point, as every trader knows.
“Freedom—to begin with. After that—well, I am a
masterless man with Vondar Ustle gone—in a way he died for this.
I want a ship—”
“Ship?” Hory repeated the word as if it were new to
him. “You—a ship—?”
“Because I am no pilot?” I chose thus to interpret
his surprise. “True, but pilots can be hired. I want payment—our freedom and credits enough to buy a ship. In return—the
position of the cache. It seems to me the price is low—”
“I am not authorized to make any such bargains—”
“No?” And then I repeated two words, drawing them
out of the time when we had been one.
He turned his head laboriously to look at me again, his face
very cold and set.
“True—you know that also. So—” He added nothing,
but closed his eyes.
I felt a soft bump against my chin as Eet moved his head, almost
as if he nodded approval. Eet had been suspicious of Hory. He had
reported a shield—had he suspected what might lie below that?
Known that this was no simple scout but a Double Star Commander,
sent on a special mission? Or had only suspicion been his before he
hurled us mind to mind?
A Double Star, one of those whose word could be accepted at once
in an agreement. If Hory did now so agree, we were safe.
“We get all the stones,” he said. “That ring
also.”
My fingers had found the ring on Eet’s limb; now they
closed about it tightly. Not that! But Eet’s head once more
bumped my chin. He dared not use mind reach intelligible to Hory,
but he was trying in this way to communicate. Without the ring—I
could not—
I saw Hory’s eyes glitter in rising triumph, and knew that
he believed he had found my weak point and would thus regain
control of the situation and us. In that moment I had the strength
for our last battle of wills.
“The ring also—after an agreement is taped.”
Hory hitched himself up, reached to the control board. He used
his forefinger to release a print seal, bring out a treaty com.
There was no mistaking its white and gold casing. And its very
presence here told me of his importance among his command.
Now he held it to his lips. But he wet those with the tip of his
tongue and hesitated a long moment before he began to dictate:
“In the name of the Council, the Four Confederacies, the
Twelve Systems, the Inner and Outer Planets,” he recited
formally, as he must have done many times before, it came so easily
to him, “this agreement shall hold by planet law and star
law.” He added figures which held no meaning for me but must
have been an identification code. Once more he switched to
words:
“Murdoc Jern, status, assistant, gem buyer, late
apprentice to Vondar Ustle, deceased, is hereby declared free of
all charges made against him—”
“Erroneously,” I prompted as he paused for
breath.
“Erroneously,” he agreed, not looking at me, but at
the com in his hand. “In addition, free of all charges is one
Eet, an alien mutant, now in association with Jern.”
So now it was officially recognized that Eet was no animal but
an intelligent entity coming under the protection of laws made for
the defense of such.
“In return, Murdoc Jern agrees to release to the custody
of the Patrol certain information, classified”—once more he
rattled off a series of code numbers—“which is his.
Accepted, sealed, coded by—” and he unemotionally gave that
name which was not Hory, and certainly not on a roster of
scouts.
“You have forgotten,” I broke in sharply. “The
bargain is also for compensation—”
For a moment I thought he would refuse even now. His eyes caught
mine and I read in them a cold enmity which I knew would exist on
his side for all time. He had been humbled here as he thought I had
not, or rather he felt a humbling, though I had not in any way
triumphed over him. For our embroilment had been mutual and if he
felt invaded, was I any the less violated? Now I added:
“Was it any worse for you than for me?”
“Yes!” He made of that an oath. “I am who I
am.”
I supposed he meant his Double Star, his training, the fact that
in the service he was above and beyond some regulations. But if he
was a man who had climbed to that post, and the Patrol was as
incorruptible as it claimed to be, then also he must be a man of
some breadth of mind. I hoped that was true.
Yes, he had said, but now his eyes changed. There was still
hatred for me in them, but perhaps he was a bigger man than he had
been only moments earlier.
“No—perhaps it was not—” He was just.
“And there was to be compensation.” I pressed my
point. “After all whether you accept it or not, we have been
battle comrades—”
“To save yourselves!” was his quick retort.
“No more than yourself.”
“Very well.” Once more he raised the treaty com.
“Murdoc Jern is to receive compensation in connection with
his information, this to be set by a star court, not to fall below
ten thousand credits, nor rise above fifteen.”
Ten thousand credits—enough for a small ship of the older
type. Again Eet’s head moved. My comrade found that
acceptable.
“Agreed to by Murdoc Jern.” He held out the com and
I bent my head to speak into it.
“I, Murdoc Jern, accept and agree—”
“The alien, Eet—” For the first time during this
ceremony Hory was at a loss. How could a creature without vocal
communication agree on an oral recording?
Eet moved. He swung his head toward the com and from his lips
issued a weird sound, part the mew of a cat, yet holding some of
the Basic “yes.”
“So be it recorded.” Hory’s tone had the
solemnity of a thumb seal pressed by some planet ruler before his
court.
“Now”—he reached for another taper, taken from the
same recess as the treaty com—“to your part.”
I held it before my lips. “I, Murdoc Jern, do hereby
surrender”—might as well get the worst done first—“into the hands of a duly registered member of the Patrol a
ring set with an unknown stone, the gem having unusual and as yet
unexplored possibilities. In addition I do hereby state that there
are two caches of similar stones on a planet unknown to me by name.
These can be found as follows—” And I launched into
descriptions of the cache in the ruins and that of the vault.
The knowledge that he had been so close to both and had not
realized it must have been bitter to Hory. But he did not reveal
his feelings. Now that his true identity was known he was a
different man, one lacking the more emotional reactions of Hory the
scout. When I had described both caches and their locations to the
best of my ability, I handed the tape mike back. He took it from me
as if he feared to touch my fingers, as if I were unclean.
“There is a passenger cabin to the left of the
galley,” he said remotely, not ordering me to it, but making
his desire plain. And I wanted his company no more than he wanted
mine.
I descended the ladder wearily, Eet riding in his old place on
my shoulders. But before we had gone the mutant had shaken the ring
loose, to leave it lying on the edge of the control board. I did
not want to look at it again. Perhaps Hory locked it away with the
tapes—I did not want to know.
The passenger cabin was small and bare. I lay down on the bunk.
But though my body ached for rest I could not quiet my mind. I had
given up the ring, the small knowledge I had of the caches. In
return I had our freedom and enough to buy a ship—
Buy a ship? Why—why had I asked for that? I was no pilot, I
had no reason to want a ship of my own. But ten thousand credits
could be used—
“To buy a ship!” Eet answered.
“But I do not want—or need—and cannot use a
ship!”
“You will—all three.” His reply was assured.
“Do you think I went close to ending my being to earn us
anything else? We shall have a ship—”
I was too tired to argue. “To what purpose?”
“That shall be discussed at the proper time.”
“But—who is to pilot it?”
“Do not dwell so much on the skills you have not; consider
rather those you have. There is something else—look within the
inner pocket where you carry what is left of your gems.”
It had been so long since I had thought of that poor store, a
most meager base for the future, that I could not guess what he
meant. I fingered that inner pouch and the stones in it moved under
my touch. I loosed the seal to turn out the sorry collection. Among
them was—I snatched at it and between thumb and forefinger I held
a zero stone in its lifeless phase.
“But—!”
Eet read my thought. “You have broken no oath. You
surrendered exactly what you promised—the ring and the location
of the caches. If another has seen to a better bargain for you—accept it without question.”
Hory—above—could he tune in on our exchange? Would he now
know what I had?
Eet was plainly alert to the same danger. “He sleeps. He
was close to the end of his strength though he did not reveal that
to you. But do not mention this again. Not until we are
free.”
I dropped the stone among the others—all the bits from my
wanderings. To the uninitiated it would certainly seem worth no
more than, perhaps not as much as, the rest. Eet’s cleverness
needed no comment.
Then I, too, surrendered to sleep. And sleep I did, off and on
for much of the rest of the voyage. But at times Eet and I talked
together. Not of the stones, but rather of other worlds, and I
reviewed my gem knowledge. I had none of Vondar’s prestige,
but I knew his methods of trade. And were I to have a ship, there
was no reason why I could not continue on my own. Eet encouraged me
in such speculations, leading me on to discuss my chances. I was
glad to turn my thoughts from the past, and perhaps it gave me some
pleasure to play the informant and instructor. For this was one
field in which Eet lagged behind.
But there came a time when I was interrupted by a sharp order
over the ship’s com. We were nearing the base port, it was
necessary to strap down for landing. And Hory continued, saying
that I would find my cabin a temporary prison until he could make
the proper arrangements. I would have protested, but Eet’s
head counseled discretion.
The mutant had a listening attitude after we set down. And I
heard the clang of boot plates on the ladder, passing my cabin. Eet
became communicative when their echoes died away.
“He is out of the ship. And he will carry out his part of
the bargain. He takes with him the ring, to put it in safekeeping—as I had hoped. Now it will not betray you should you pass near it
with the other stone.”
“Why did it not do that in the cabin?”
“It did. But at that time you were too occupied otherwise
to notice. Get free of these Patrolmen as fast as you can. Then we
shall be about our own business—”
“That being?”
Eet was amused. “Gem hunting—what else? I told you that
world was not the source of the stones. The Guild and the Patrol
will believe so for some time. They will search, they will mine.
But they shall not find what they seek. We have only sniffed out
the first few steps on a long cold trail. But we have what will
serve us as a guide.”
“You mean—we are to keep on hunting the zero stones? But
how? Space is very wide—there are many worlds—”
“Which makes our quest only the more worth the trying. I
tell you—we are meant to do this thing.”
“Eet—who—what are you? Did you—were you of the people
who owned the stones?”
“I am Eet,” he replied with his old arrogance.
“That is all that means aught in this life. But if it
troubles you—no, I was not of those who used the
stones.”
“But you know much of them—”
He interrupted me. “The Patrolman is returning; he brings
others. They are angry, but they will hold by Hory’s bargain.
However, walk softly. They would be only too pleased to have some
reason to pull you down.”
I faced the door as it opened. Hory stood there, with him
another, wearing a uniform with signs of high rank. Both men
watched me with cold and wary eyes, their antagonism like a blow.
Eet was very right, they would like nothing better than to get me
by some infraction. I must walk as warily as in a quaking
swamp.
“You will come with us. The bargain will be kept.”
The officer with Hory spoke as if it hurt him. “But for your
own protection you will be in maximum security while you are
here.”
There was a spark in Hory’s eyes. “We can keep you
safe. The arm of the Guild is long, it can reach far, but not into
a Patrol base.”
So he made clear his thoughts. I had had two enemies. I might
have now dealt successfully with one, but there was still the
second. My hand wanted to cup over the stones in my inner pocket.
Would the zero stone only lead me further and further into danger?
I remembered my father and Vondar—and the legendary might of the
Guild.
However, who may seize upon time and hold it fast, not allowing
the moments to slip by him? I had said I was not a gambler. But
Fortune appeared determined to make me one. With Eet warm and heavy
about my shoulders, and the future, misty and threatened as it was,
before me, I left the cabin to walk into a new slice of life.
Perhaps I went better armed and armored than I had once been;
the sum of a man’s knowledge may change from day to day, and
experience is both sword and buckler. As long as Eet and I walked
the same road, free under the stars, then could the present be
savored, and let the future take care for itself—After all, what
man can influence that knowingly?
I found it enough to have this hour, this day, this small
moment, as a victory over odds which I now marveled at our facing.
Perhaps I was true son to Hywel Jern in spirit if not body. And
still I could cup hand at my will across a zero stone. The door of
the cabin was open. So was that of life, and I had not yet found
its limit.