[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
simultaneously to both. Quillan already knew its purpose; the supposed other
cubicle was a camouflaged food locker, containing fifty-
pound slabs of sea beef, each of which represented a meal for the Hlat. The
recess made it possible to feed it without allowing it to be seen, or,
possibly, attempting to emerge. Kinmarten s nervousness, as reported by his
wife, seemed understandable. Any rest warden might get disturbed over such a
charge.
Quillan asked over his shoulder, Anyone find out yet why the things can t get
out of a closed rest cubicle?
Yeah, Baldy Perk said. Kinmarten says it s the cubicle s defense fields.
They could get through the material. They can t get through the field.
Someone think to energize the Executive Block s battle fields? Quillan
inquired.
Yeah. Velladon took care of that before he came screaming up to the third
level to argue with Cooms and Fluel.
So it can t slip out of the Block unless it shows itself down on the ground
level when the entry lock s open.
Yeah, Baldy muttered. But I dunno. Is that good?
Quillan looked at him. Well, we would like it back.
Why? There s fifty more coming in on the liner tonight
We don t have the fifty yet. If someone louses up that detail
Yawk! Baldy said faintly. There was a crash of sound as his riot gun went
off. Quillan spun about, hair bristling, gun out. What happened?
I ll swear, Baldy said, white-faced, I saw something moving along that
passage!
Quillan looked, saw nothing, slowly replaced the gun. Baldy, he said, if
you think you see it again, just say so.
That s an order! If it comes at us, we get out of this level fast. But we
don t shoot before we have to. If we kill it, it s no good to us. Got that?
Yeah, Baldy said. But I got an idea now, Bad News. He nodded at the other
cubicle. Let s leave that meat box open.
Why?
If it s hungry, Baldy explained simply, I d sooner it wrapped itself around
a few chunks of sea beef, an not around me.
Quillan punched him encouragingly in the shoulder. Baldy, he said, in your
own way, you have had an idea! But we won t leave the meat box open. When
Kinmarten wakes up, I want him to show me how to bait this cubicle with a
piece of sea beef, so it ll snap shut if the Hlat goes inside. Meanwhile it
won t hurt if it gets a little hungry.
That, said Baldy, isn t the way I feel about it.
There must be around a hundred and fifty people in the Executive Block at
present, Quillan said. Look at it that way!
Even if the thing keeps stuffing away, your odds are pretty good, Baldy.
Baldy shuddered.
Aside from a dark bruise high on his forehead, Brock Kinmarten showed no
Page 29
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
direct effects of having been knocked out.
However, his face was strained and his voice not entirely steady. It was
obvious that the young rest warden had never been in a similarly unnerving
situation before. But he was making a valiant effort not to appear frightened
and, at the same time, to indicate that he would co-operate to the best of his
ability with his captors.
He d regained consciousness by the time Quillan and Perk returned to the
fourth level, and Quillan suggested bringing him to Marras Cooms private
quarters for questioning. The Brotherhood chief agreed; he was primarily
interested in finding out how the Hlat-control device functioned.
Kinmarten shook his head. He knew nothing about the instrument, he said,
except that it was called a Hlat-talker. It was very unfortunate that Eltak
had been shot, because Eltak undoubtedly could have told them all they wanted
to know about it. If what he had told Kinmarten was true, Eltak had been
directly involved in the development of the device.
Was he some Federation scientist? Cooms asked, fiddling absently with the
mysterious cylindrical object.
No, sir, the young man said. But again if what he told me was the truth he
was the man who actually discovered these Hlats. At least, he was the first
man to discover them who wasn t immediately killed by them.
Cooms glanced thoughtfully at Quillan, then asked, And where was that?
Kinmarten shook his head again. He didn t tell me. And I didn t really want
to know. I was anxious to get our convoy to its destination, and then to be
relieved of the assignment. I . . . well, I ve been trained to act as Rest
Warden to human beings, after all, not to monstrosities! He produced an
uncertain smile, glancing from one to the other of his interrogators.
The smile promptly faded out again.
You ve no idea at all then about the place they came from? Cooms asked
expressionlessly.
Oh, yes, Kinmarten said hastily. Eltak talked a great deal about the Hlats,
and actually except for its location
gave me a fairly good picture of what the planet must be like. For one thing,
it s an uncolonized world, of course. It must
be terratype or very nearly so, because Eltak lived there for fifteen years
with apparently only a minimum of equipment.
The Hlats are confined to a single large island. He discovered them by
accident and
What was he doing there?
Well, sir, he came from Hyles-Frisian. He was a crim . . . he d been engaged
in some form of piracy, and when the authorities began looking for him, he
decided it would be best to get clean out of the Hub. He cracked up his ship
on this world and couldn t leave again. When he discovered the Hlats and
realized their peculiar ability, he kept out of their way and observed them.
He found out they had a means of communicating with each other, and that he
could duplicate it. That stopped them from harming him, and eventually, he
said, he was using them like hunting dogs. They were accustomed to
co-operating with one another, because when there was some animal around that
was too large for one of them to handle, they would attack it in a group . .
.
He went on for another minute or two on the subject. The Hlats the word meant
rock lion in one of the Hyles-
Frisian dialects, describing a carnivorous animal which had some superficial
resemblance to the creatures Eltak had happened on frequented the seacoast and
submerged themselves in sand, rocks and debris, whipping up out of it to seize [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl wyciskamy.pev.pl
simultaneously to both. Quillan already knew its purpose; the supposed other
cubicle was a camouflaged food locker, containing fifty-
pound slabs of sea beef, each of which represented a meal for the Hlat. The
recess made it possible to feed it without allowing it to be seen, or,
possibly, attempting to emerge. Kinmarten s nervousness, as reported by his
wife, seemed understandable. Any rest warden might get disturbed over such a
charge.
Quillan asked over his shoulder, Anyone find out yet why the things can t get
out of a closed rest cubicle?
Yeah, Baldy Perk said. Kinmarten says it s the cubicle s defense fields.
They could get through the material. They can t get through the field.
Someone think to energize the Executive Block s battle fields? Quillan
inquired.
Yeah. Velladon took care of that before he came screaming up to the third
level to argue with Cooms and Fluel.
So it can t slip out of the Block unless it shows itself down on the ground
level when the entry lock s open.
Yeah, Baldy muttered. But I dunno. Is that good?
Quillan looked at him. Well, we would like it back.
Why? There s fifty more coming in on the liner tonight
We don t have the fifty yet. If someone louses up that detail
Yawk! Baldy said faintly. There was a crash of sound as his riot gun went
off. Quillan spun about, hair bristling, gun out. What happened?
I ll swear, Baldy said, white-faced, I saw something moving along that
passage!
Quillan looked, saw nothing, slowly replaced the gun. Baldy, he said, if
you think you see it again, just say so.
That s an order! If it comes at us, we get out of this level fast. But we
don t shoot before we have to. If we kill it, it s no good to us. Got that?
Yeah, Baldy said. But I got an idea now, Bad News. He nodded at the other
cubicle. Let s leave that meat box open.
Why?
If it s hungry, Baldy explained simply, I d sooner it wrapped itself around
a few chunks of sea beef, an not around me.
Quillan punched him encouragingly in the shoulder. Baldy, he said, in your
own way, you have had an idea! But we won t leave the meat box open. When
Kinmarten wakes up, I want him to show me how to bait this cubicle with a
piece of sea beef, so it ll snap shut if the Hlat goes inside. Meanwhile it
won t hurt if it gets a little hungry.
That, said Baldy, isn t the way I feel about it.
There must be around a hundred and fifty people in the Executive Block at
present, Quillan said. Look at it that way!
Even if the thing keeps stuffing away, your odds are pretty good, Baldy.
Baldy shuddered.
Aside from a dark bruise high on his forehead, Brock Kinmarten showed no
Page 29
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
direct effects of having been knocked out.
However, his face was strained and his voice not entirely steady. It was
obvious that the young rest warden had never been in a similarly unnerving
situation before. But he was making a valiant effort not to appear frightened
and, at the same time, to indicate that he would co-operate to the best of his
ability with his captors.
He d regained consciousness by the time Quillan and Perk returned to the
fourth level, and Quillan suggested bringing him to Marras Cooms private
quarters for questioning. The Brotherhood chief agreed; he was primarily
interested in finding out how the Hlat-control device functioned.
Kinmarten shook his head. He knew nothing about the instrument, he said,
except that it was called a Hlat-talker. It was very unfortunate that Eltak
had been shot, because Eltak undoubtedly could have told them all they wanted
to know about it. If what he had told Kinmarten was true, Eltak had been
directly involved in the development of the device.
Was he some Federation scientist? Cooms asked, fiddling absently with the
mysterious cylindrical object.
No, sir, the young man said. But again if what he told me was the truth he
was the man who actually discovered these Hlats. At least, he was the first
man to discover them who wasn t immediately killed by them.
Cooms glanced thoughtfully at Quillan, then asked, And where was that?
Kinmarten shook his head again. He didn t tell me. And I didn t really want
to know. I was anxious to get our convoy to its destination, and then to be
relieved of the assignment. I . . . well, I ve been trained to act as Rest
Warden to human beings, after all, not to monstrosities! He produced an
uncertain smile, glancing from one to the other of his interrogators.
The smile promptly faded out again.
You ve no idea at all then about the place they came from? Cooms asked
expressionlessly.
Oh, yes, Kinmarten said hastily. Eltak talked a great deal about the Hlats,
and actually except for its location
gave me a fairly good picture of what the planet must be like. For one thing,
it s an uncolonized world, of course. It must
be terratype or very nearly so, because Eltak lived there for fifteen years
with apparently only a minimum of equipment.
The Hlats are confined to a single large island. He discovered them by
accident and
What was he doing there?
Well, sir, he came from Hyles-Frisian. He was a crim . . . he d been engaged
in some form of piracy, and when the authorities began looking for him, he
decided it would be best to get clean out of the Hub. He cracked up his ship
on this world and couldn t leave again. When he discovered the Hlats and
realized their peculiar ability, he kept out of their way and observed them.
He found out they had a means of communicating with each other, and that he
could duplicate it. That stopped them from harming him, and eventually, he
said, he was using them like hunting dogs. They were accustomed to
co-operating with one another, because when there was some animal around that
was too large for one of them to handle, they would attack it in a group . .
.
He went on for another minute or two on the subject. The Hlats the word meant
rock lion in one of the Hyles-
Frisian dialects, describing a carnivorous animal which had some superficial
resemblance to the creatures Eltak had happened on frequented the seacoast and
submerged themselves in sand, rocks and debris, whipping up out of it to seize [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]