Arthur K. Barnes

“ Gerry demanded. "This Kurtt fake has made two or three short trips to the Moon, or maybe Mars. On the strength of that, he loads his ship with a conglomeration of sickly beasts from some broken-down zoo. Then he goes hedge-hopping about the country, making one-night stands, collecting nickels and dimes from the yokels. He's just like an old-time medicine showman. He tries to sell copies of his ungrammatical book, which is a dreary account of what he thinks were dramatic incidents in his miserable existence." ”

“ I know it's boring, but you realize as well as I that we're up against a completely and unclassified unknown form of life. Most people, of course, think our job's done when we bag a specimen and get him into the ship. As a matter of fact, the hard part is yet to come. Catching 'em alive is much easier than keeping 'em alive and well."
"I know, I know." Strike knew the entire lecture by heart. "We must exactly duplicate in the hold of the Ark every feature of the animal's environment. ”

“ But he peeled back his lips in a fighting snarl and rushed with reckless fury, his two guns spitting deadly heat beams. For a minute the Gora seemed on the verge of overwhelming him. But just before they succeeded, they broke in confused panic before the advance of that terrible engine of destruction. They fled, hissing and squealing.
Strike and the others rejoined Gerry. Kranz still dangled over his shoulder. "Now's our chance," panted Strike, between draughts from his oxygen bottle. "Make our run for it while they're disorganized. Ready? What's the matter with you?" ”

“ They all scattered wildly as the mighty Ark eased into position beside Kurtt's rocket.
"Kurtt will be having conniptions about now," Gerry said. "He can't win the race unless he returns under his own power, and he can't do that unless he has someone bring him extra fuel. That, of course, would be contrary to the terms of the contest."
Deftly she maneuvered alongside the glassed-in hold. It was empty of life, animal or vegetable. She had been right about the appetite of the dermaphos. Presently Professor Kurtt himself appeared at one of the forward portholes. ”

“ Enraged monsters were erupting from unclosed holes and converging upon the source of the disturbance. Just as Gerry started to work upon the third of the Titanians, four of the beasts rushed through the doorway, hissing with fury.
Strike calmly picked up a huge table and with one hand scaled it across the room. The resulting carnage gave him a lot of pleasure. He sat upon the up-ended stool, still blocking the hole, and drew two guns.
"What was that yarn about the tailor's boy who killed seven with one blow? I'm not doing so badly myself." ”

“ As each cluster of rotors broke away, it hurtled with frightful speed clean through the double walls of the ship. The control panel was a jumble of wreckage, as if smashed by the blast of some cosmic shotgun. It was only a miracle that there were no casualties yet. ”

“ In the lull following perfunctory applause after Kurtt's speech, Gerry's clear voice rang out.
"Where's Von Zorn?"
Kurtt smiled a pathetic imitation of a smile.
"Er—I beg your pardon?"
"Don't evade me, Professor." She turned directly to the microphones. "Ladies and gentlemen, you are doubtless wondering who is really responsible for this race. There is only one man I know in the entire Solar System who has the shockingly bad taste to try to take my job. ”

“ The Titanians seemed delighted at the prospect of entertaining this bunch of overdressed, muscular, hairy guests. They listened with every evidence of profound interest as Gerry expounded the principles of the gadget she held in her hands.
"This is a thought helmet," she declared, with an air of defying anyone to contradict her. She held up one of the bowl-like metal things. "It's an invention of my cousin Elmer at Federal Tech. It has built-in headphones, and contains a compact power unit. Thought, of course, is a delicate electrical wave that's generated by the atoms of the brain. ”

“ As far as possible, we must learn of what he's composed, his habits, what he eats and drinks and breathes, and how much. Transporting a creature through millions of miles of free space into an alien environment is not a job for an amateur."
Gerry applauded clumsily with her bulky gauntlets.
"Bravo! Sometimes I really think you're learning something about this business. Coming along, my hero?" Strike made a wry face, but obediently turned to the empty suit standing within the air-lock. A moment later, properly dressed, he stepped with Gerry to the hard-packed soil of Saturn's lowlands. ”

“ In the near distance rose a towering column of dust in the breathless air, kicked up by hundreds of enraged Gora. The monsters stampeded along the trail to avenge the death of their kind and wipe out the intruders who threatened to upset their tight little economy. ”

“ The life-boats disgorged their human cargo as if eight weird eggs were hatching out. After a brief period of leg-stretching and adjusting to temperature and adjustment to temperature and weak gravity, Gerry immediately organized her forces to cope with their grave predicament. ”

“ The Titanian's answering thoughts were evasive, regretfully negative. With a great show of deprecating hand-waving, he indicated that this would be a technical violation of their pact with the Gora. No amount of urging or offers of barter could move him.
Strike suddenly leaned over and snapped off the switch on Gerry's helmet.
"Before you start losing your temper," he urged, "and alienate them for good— Look. It's obvious they're scared stiff of what the Gora might do in retaliation. The stuff about violating their pact is just a pretext. And if they're scared, there's no persuading 'em. ”

“ But it was the fact of life on Titan that motivated her final decision. The Ark needed metals for repair, and they were to be had on Titan. As a last resort, the inhabitants might conceivably be able to help. The girl weighed this possibility carefully against the undeniable fact that if any other rocket ships were to enter the Saturnian system, they would land only on the two outer satellites, never on Titan. Confident in her own self-reliance and the ability of her crew, though, Gerry made her choice. ”

“ It seemed that the inhabitants of Titan were few in number and difficult to communicate with, though quite friendly.
The fact that highly evolved life existed on the satellite was not startling. Advanced civilizations had been discovered in at least three other places in the System. If any nomadic tribe, gifted with the ability to work in metals, had wandered in from outer space and decided to locate in the Solar System, it was only natural for them to select Titan and its wealth of ores.
Gerry was not interested in making any social contacts at the moment. ”

“ If it breaks, after your interesting but impolite and boastful remarks, we're washed up. Completely. And Kurtt isn't acting like a man who's convinced he can't win."
Gerry smiled with complete aplomb. "Masculine intuition, my love?" she taunted. "I know I acted like a cat just now, but I simply couldn't help it. Anyhow, I'll be a good girl and attend to business from now on. So you needn't worry about who's going to win this race. That, my brave worrier, is in the bag."
"I wonder," said Strike thoughtfully, as the rocket tubes of Kurtt's ship began to rumble mightily. ”

“ There were still traces of oxygen on the planet. Being heavier than the other gases on the planet, the oxygen had gathered in "pools" in the low spots. Since animal life was dependent upon oxygen even on that miserable planet, the result was that small "islands" of life were distributed over Saturn existing only where sufficient oxygen remained. Naturally that helped Gerry's search considerably. The Ark simply hopped from valley to valley till they found a spot with one or more specimens of the dermaphos they were seeking. ”

“ Doubtless Titan received heat from Saturn and the Sun, almost undiminished by any absorbent atmospheric layers. Gravity on a body only a few thousand miles in diameter would be relatively weak, less than half normal Earth gravity.
With understandable pride, for the value of her incredible thoroughness had proved itself again, Gerry finally contacted all the life-boats.
"We're perfectly safe, men. Dress warmly. Carry a bottle of oxygen with a tube, and take a breath of it every minute or so in order to prevent blood bubbles from forming. Hand weapons, of course, just in case. ”

“ As if the danger were not serious enough, the rear-guard leader injected another menace into the situation.
"Our heat ray guns, Miss Carlyle," he gasped. "They're running low. The beams are weak. Have any spares?"
A quick check-up showed that no one had any spares, and the guns of the main party were also found to be nearly exhausted. Strike shifted the burden of Kranz from one shoulder to the other.
"Well, Gerry, what do you do in that orange orchard of yours when the ants get as bad as this?" he asked. ”

“ Prof. Kurtt suggested that the planet Saturn would afford sufficient difficulties to test the mettle of the contestants.
Speculation was rife. . . .
The news item was switched off sharply, coincident with a sound suspiciously like a feminine snort. Claude Weatherby, public relations director for the London Interplanetary Zoo, mopped his brow furtively. He felt that he would rather contend with the tantrums of any of the world's greatest collection of planetary monstrosities than with Gerry Carlyle's famous temperament. ”

“ I know the construction of the type of ship Kurtt uses. Between the hold and the fuel hoppers, there's only a light door. The dermaphos, growing more active under stimulus of the sunshine, can easily smash it. It doesn't take much Two-thirty-five to operate a rocket ship, so the dermaphos finished it off in a few mouthfuls.
"Kurtt is left with just the fuel remaining in the firing chambers and feeder tubes, not enough to decelerate for a landing on Earth. The best he can possibly do is fall into a braking orbit around the Moon, ultimately swinging around it as a satellite." ”

“ Weatherby crimsoned and began to splutter. Gerry stopped him short with an imperiously unpraised hand.
"Here are the facts. The planetary hunters, of whom I am one, can be counted on your fingers. Another two or three, Claude, and you'd have to take off your shoes to count them. We form probably the most exclusive little coterie anywhere in the Solar System. The chance of anyone's possessing all the qualifications to become a successful trapper of monsters is literally one in millions.
"Now this fellow Kurtt—he's no more a professor than you are—is definitely not one of us. ”

“ Starting her career as a girl still in her teens, Gerry Carlyle had fought her way to the top of the most exacting of all professions. Success was not won by resort to feminine stratagem, nor by use of her amazing beauty. Gerry scorned such wiles. In a man's world, she competed with men on their own terms. ”

“ Digging continued, with men lugging sacks of the heavy ore back to the Ark. The light gravity enabled them to handle what would have been hundreds of pounds on Earth. Presently a muffled, whirring sound came from inside the tunnel, and the workmen popped out in a hurry. Gerry, heat ray in hand, set herself at the tunnel mouth. ”

“ Strike considered. The dermaphos' hide was much too thick for any sort of injection of local anesthetics, though it could be gassed into temporary unconsciousness. But that would be the means to be used for the actual capture, and Gerry disliked to give her prospective victims any advance hint of what was in store for them. Some of the planetary life-forms were amazingly adaptable. After one shot of anesthetic, they could develop immunity to it.
"Big reptiles are always sluggish," said Tommy jauntily. "I'll bet I can whack off a piece before he even realizes what's happened." ”

“ Can you get it?"
"That's why I wanted to get you away from there before explaining my plan, Gerry," Strike said. "I was afraid the Titanian might read your thoughts while I told you what I intend to do. We'll have to scrape together every hypodermic syringe in the Ark, improvise some if we can't find enough. Then back we go tomorrow. When the Time of Offering comes again, we enter and help ourselves.
"It must be done without the Titanians' knowledge, of course. They're too scared of their 'inferior' neighbors to risk any violation of their pact. ”

“ But Titan, largest of all, had both blue and red crosses, indicating habitability plus mineral wealth.
Gerry was faced with the need of making a vital decision. Moreover, there would be no changing that decision once it was made. Of that handful of satellites, they could manage a lucky landing on only one. After they made their choice, there would be no getting away again unless and until the Ark was repaired. The tiny, short-range life-boats would be useless for cosmic distances. ”

“ Instead of settling down to wait, Strike unhooked his binoculars for a long look at the city's inhabitants.
"They're nothing to be afraid of," he decided. "They're less than five feet tall, slender, delicately built. Besides, didn't Murray say they were friendly? They'll probably recognize us as humans, just like Murray. Come on. Let's pay 'em a visit now."
Gerry dubiously agreed, so the trio moved back toward the city. ”

“ Once captured, a Titanian was rarely seen again live. He was doomed to a ghastly slavery far underground, a living death.
"We, in our turn, fought back with powerful weapons. Poison gases were released in the burrows of the Gora. Traps were set. But in the end, superior intelligence solved the terrible problem. To end the futile, destructive warfare, we as the dominant race made a pact with the inferior Gora. After all, the glandular secretion was of no particular importance to us. So we agreed that twice every planetary revolution we would set aside a brief period. ”

“ The first concerned the planet itself. Apparently Saturn, locally at least, was quite rich in uranium. That fact would have been worth a fortune a few years ago. Since the discovery of vast uranium deposits on the Moon, however, uranium on as distant a planet as Saturn was interesting, but of no particular value.
More to the point was the fact that some of the plant life, particularly the cabbagelike favorite of the dermaphos, seemed to utilize uranium as Earthly plants utilize sulphur and other minerals. Deposits of uranium salts had been found in the foliage. ”

“ It just oxidizes away. We need a flux, and it can't be made."
After everything had been going so well, for this apparently unsurmountable obstacle to arise was almost enough to drive even a Gerry Carlyle to tears. Had she finally made the fatal mistake that all adventurers sooner or later commit?
When she had chosen Titan to land upon, rather than the outer satellites, she had made a gamble. By going to Iapetus or Phoebe, it might have been possible to cram the life-boats with rocket fuel, leaving room for only one person to pilot. ”