Ford McCormack

“ Yes, it was entirely possible that there might be one living occupant of the other ship—a madman.
Stokely, the burly, pink-haired chief engineer, was dressed for space, except for his head-globe, when Archer arrived at the lock. So were two others: Evans, a soft-spoken, sharp-faced member of the crew, and a tall and graying individual whom Will recognized as Dr. Hubert Grimwood, one of the more eminent of the scientists aboard. A sizable medical kit was slung from the doctor's middle. ”

“ Archer exhaled with vast relief. "Okay, you fellows," he announced, "we've all got it. Here goes my injection."
Watching Stokely carefully, he plucked the syringe from his belt with enormous caution, and forced his feeble right hand to drive the needle into his left forearm and press the plunger all the way. There was one slight advantage to the cold, after all—he hardly felt the perforation.
He dared not pull up his shirt as yet. It could very easily have the effect of making him fade partially from Stokely's view, and might provoke the big man into blazing away at him. ”

“ The radio operator looked surprised. "No. Why?"
"Stay on audio." The pilot pressed another key, and the buzzer began droning again. This time, it would be heard in all parts of the ship. Captain's call. After perhaps ten seconds, the broad, placid face of Captain Rogan appeared on the screen: "Will? What's the trouble?"
The captain rested his claim to respect on an amazing percentage of sound decisions, and held formality very lightly.
"Cap, a ship just crossed our course in what looked like a free fall to the planet—too fast for a landing. No signals of any kind." ”

“ But we do know this: synthesizing it would be tantamount to creating life."
"Don't look now," Will Archer interrupted calmly, "but there's a sizable planet breathing down our necks. So if you gentlemen would retire to your respective stations, I can guarantee to add considerable weight to the discussion."
"Not that the stuff is really alive, in any accepted sense," Dr. Grimwood went on a few minutes later, his breathing somewhat labored, but his enthusiasm not altogether squelched by three hundred and fifty added pounds. "But it certainly isn't jade at all, or anything similar. ”

“ Grimwood, "the antitoxin, where the infection has not occurred, is a deadly and swift poison."
The doctor paused, then spoke bitterly: "There is some reason for believing that the jade, or end-product, might be rendered non-toxic in itself—if it were obtainable for experimentation. But it's not. They'll inject the stuff in their own skins to save same—one wealthy woman even mixed herself a million-dollar martini in order to commit suicide—but when it comes to turning over the smallest fragment to a laboratory, even billionaire philanthropists are restrained by their wives. ”

“ Dr. Grimwood nodded. "Fabulously. There are only a few hundred pieces known to exist, and their combined value could purchase a fair-sized, habitable planet!"
Evans' normally wide, dark eyes were bulging myopically. "Do you think these guys stole it?"
"Hard to say," said the doctor. "But, putting two and two together, it looks more like they made a find somewhere back on the planet. If so, there should be more of the stuff around, or some information—" He felt about in the dead man's clothing, and presently pulled some papers from an inner pocket. ”

“ There are hypodermics in the medical kit, which is in the control room. The doctor put the one we found up there in it, and I'm pretty sure I noticed a couple of others. Perhaps you will trust Evans to go get it, and in the meantime, I'll trouble you for about 30 carats of jade."
"Thirty carats! That's enough for all three of us! We may not all be infected."
"No—as a matter of fact the odds work out to be only a little better than 50-50 that we all have it. But we've all got to have the means of doing something about it if we find out—otherwise the plan won't work. ”

“ The ring drifted on toward the center of the screen and seemed to hover there.
Will Archer looked back at the meters and shook his head. Too fast by far. And the negative acceleration was only a fraction of a G—wait a minute! He stared at the meter in question. Its reading was positive!
That meant the other ship, or whatever it might be, was approaching the planet in something resembling a free fall. A crash was not inevitable—there was plenty of time to apply sufficient lateral thrust to insure a miss—but why? Time and fuel would be wasted before a landing would become possible. ”

“ The inter compartment hatch, about three feet in diameter, was wide open. Stokely pointed at Archer's flashlight and made a fanlike motion with his hands. Archer nodded, reached out and aimed the light through the hole, full flood, while Stokely peered through the other side, gun in hand. The stratagem was simple—anyone firing at the light might hit Archer's arm, but probably not Stokely's less expendable head.
Nothing happened. After a tense moment, Archer moved the light about slowly, then Stokely turned his own over the edge.
"There are two men in there," he said slowly. ”

“ There seemed to be no place for him in Stokely's scheme, after locating the jade, except perhaps the storage compartment with the two prospectors. Once Stokely had disposed of the doctor, he would undoubtedly require less of an excuse to do the same with Archer—and eventually Evans, in all probability.
There was a chance, however, that if Stokely found himself stoutly opposed by both Dr. Grimwood and Archer, he might hesitate to kill them both out of hand, at least until he could be certain of finding the jade deposit. Double murder is a long step for a man with no previous criminal record. ”

“ He flipped a key, and Captain Rogan's face appeared on the video plate.
"Will, get into your suit and come to the lock. Berry will take the controls. You're to go over with Stokely and see what can be done. And—better bring your gun, just in case."
It was a notion that had already occurred to Archer, and he toyed with it further while donning his pressure-suit. People occasionally go berserk in space—its awesome immensity affects some minds that way—and a few had been fairly successful in liquidating their fellows wholesale. ”

“ That means, according to our late friend, the doctor, that in ten to 12 minutes from now—perhaps a few minutes longer—one or more of us should show the symptomatic aura.
"Now there's the point: one or more of us. There's an excellent chance we won't all show it. Allowing an adequate margin, the next 20 minutes should reveal who has the infection and who hasn't. I propose that at the end of that time each of us in turn announces, not which of the others shows it but simply whether he sees the aura at all. ”

“ You're forgetting that in this case, a false cure is just as deadly as the disease. I don't know just how full of the virus the air is hereabouts, but as far as either of us can tell, you may be cutting down your chances of getting infected. Evans' chance, and mine, with full exposure, will be four out of five. That means if we can't find out for sure whether we have it, we can take an injection and be 80 percent sure of being right. ”

“ Archer returned calmly, "we'll have to use other means. My plan will give each of us an equal chance, at least. I'll tell you the first part now: we take all the jade we can find around here, before dark if possible, and go back to the ship. I'll tell you the next step when we get there. If that isn't good enough—or if an 80 percent chance is—you can shoot and be damned!"
It was nearly three hours later, very dark and very cold, when they returned to the ship. Archer and Evans carried Dr. Grimwood's body, consigned to the same storage compartment as the dead prospector's. ”

“ With nobody looking for us on IX, it'll be a cinch to get out of the system from the interstellar base.
"After that—we can go buy that nice planet the doctor was talking about."
Archer scarcely heard the latter part of Stokely's speech, except to visualize briefly the ironic situation in which a pilot named Archer would change ships in mid-space—or start to. The important question was whether there was anything to be gained by pretending to throw in with the conspirators. Stokely, like most people who find it difficult to appreciate a different viewpoint, should be easy enough to deceive. ”

“ The fellow who was later killed must have developed the aura and been told about it in good faith, because I saw the needle-mark on his arm. Then came trouble. The other fellow happened to be one of the 20 percent minority who are immune. He failed to show the symptom, but suspected his colleague of lying about it. He probably kept him covered with his gun while he cut the power so that even the control lights would be out. Then he tried to tell by the reflection of his naked torso in the observation ports whether he had the fatal glow. ”

“ Archer stooped again, without taking his eyes off Evans, and laid his gun on the ground. He took the kit of jade from Stokely's belt and pocketed it, then picked up the gun again and stepped back a few paces.
"You can fasten his arms with his own belt," he told Evans, "and his legs with yours. He should sleep for hours, but there's no use taking chances." ”

“ Evidently the detector-system thought otherwise, or a red light would be flashing instead of a yellow one, an all-quarters alarm-bell would be sounding instead of a buzzer, and the controls would have operated automatically to deflect the ship by a safe margin—or to the limit of its occupants' capacity to absorb shock. Fortunately, such instances were vanishingly rare: space is incredibly roomy. ”

“ Grimwood. "Although if you're exposed to it, which means stumbling across one of the rare and unpredictable localities where the jade is found, the chances are about four out of five that you will be infected. The fifth person, for some inexcusably unknown reason, seems to be immune. But there is one symptom that occurs with some punctuality three and a half hours after exposure, and about 15 minutes before the convulsions: it's a bodily glow, or aura, due to some bioluminescent substance saturating the tissues. ”

“ I think that is the explanation of the fact that we found all the lights out when we boarded this ship."
"You mean," said Archer, with some alarm, "that fellow might have died of the virus infection—in this chair?"
Dr. Grimwood smiled slightly. "Don't worry. In the first place, he didn't have it—he only thought he did. And if he had, you couldn't catch it, even minus your pressure-suit. The malady is not transmissible among humans. ”

“ He thought of the dead man they had found in the pilot's seat. There were no limits to the fallacy of human vision, under emotional stress.
Four minutes. If the original 20-minute period happened to be over and the others were aware of it, they made no sign. That would not be strange. Having agreed that Archer would make the first report, they would hesitate to venture any comment, for fear of dropping some kind of hint.
Five minutes. Archer fumbled awkwardly for his watch. If all his estimates, pieced together, were correct, there should still be a minute to go. ”

“ Captain Rogan shrugged. "There's no other medical doctor aboard, as I told you. All you can do is your best."
The captain took up his position at the observation port next to the lock. "Are you ready, gentlemen?"
With the others, Archer slipped on his radio headset, placed his head-globe in its rubber gasket and tightened the four clamps that held it. He cracked the compressed-air valve just enough to inflate the suit gently, and turned on the regulator unit. ”

“ Wryly, he thought of one of the more abhorrent of the local fauna, a lizard-like creature which attacked any animal which had the single qualification of being within a considerable jumping range. The beastie combined the least intelligence with the most virulent poison in several star-systems. ”

“ His right hand loosely held a hypodermic syringe, and a pistol was stuck in his belt.
Stokely gave a brief description, and added: "He looks dead, all right. Maybe he tried to give himself an anti-tetanus injection, but was too late."
"Dr. Grimwood will please go in immediately," said Captain Rogan. "In the meantime, Stokely and Archer will look at the tail compartment."
The tail, or engine, compartment contained nothing of abnormal interest, as it turned out. The ship appeared to be in running order, with adequate fuel. ”