by Random, Alex
“You could be in trouble already, Rex!”
He stared at her, his face tense. In the background the music from the complex blared continually, and he felt a sudden urge to get out of it. He’d taken just about all he could handle. But he held his breath for a moment and fought it down, pinning it back where it belonged.
“Why do you say that?” He stared into her dark eyes, and knew she was in love with him. He could not help wondering what kind of a fool he was. He could be on top of everything here, but the man he was, his attitude and character, would not let him rest. He could not accept defeat, would not bow down to all the forces brought to bear against him. He knew only that he had to fight back, and he gritted his teeth and tried not to think of the consequences if he failed. He was obstinate, but the knowledge that he was innocent of the smuggling charge made all the difference to him. He could not quit! He would not sit down and let events go on by.
“Did Kiev tell you about the stranger who was here earlier, asking for you?”
“He mentioned him. What do you know about it?”
“I saw the man coming to the office. I’ve seen him before, Rex! He’s been in the company of Captain Graham.”
“So he could be a police spy!” Alston nodded. “Graham never gives up, does he? He’d like to pin something on me and see me shipped out to one of the penal stars.”
“But the stranger has recently come from Earth. I was talking to Allie Carpenter last night in the Cradle of Stars. She’s a stewardess on the Argus Freight and Passenger Line. She brought the stranger out from Earth on her last trip.”
“What was that?” Alston began to feel a sixth sense of premonition working through his mind.
“They landed last week; Tuesday, I think.”
“Any idea who the man is? Did you get a name, anything to go on?”
“No. I’m sorry, Rex. But it didn’t seem important about him until he was here asking for you this morning.”
“Well it doesn’t matter. Forget about it. I’ll probably see him again later today. I’ll get all the answers I want then.”
“Captain Graham came into the Cradle of Stars last evening and went to the stranger’s table. They talked for about fifteen minutes. What is happening, Rex?”
“I don’t know, yet.” He shook his head slowly. “But I intend to find out. I’ll let you know when I do get around to it.”
“Watch your step!” she warned, and her face showed her concern.
“I don’t have much to lose now,” he replied, shaking his head.
“Only your life!” She spoke sharply. “Doesn’t that mean anything to you any longer?”
“If I spend the next eleven years here as an exile I’ll be fifty when I’m entitled to leave. Sure, life expectancy is now one hundred and fifty years, but I’d never get back in the control cabin of a starship. That was the only life for me.” His tones grew bitter. He glanced down at his uniform. “There’s no gold braid on this outfit, no responsibility to make life worthwhile. I’d be better off dead, Helga!”
“Life is what you make it!” She looked down at the ground for a moment. “A good woman could make all the difference to you, Rex!”
“I’m not of a mind to settle down here for the rest of my life with any woman,” he said harshly. “For an intelligent girl you talk a lot of nonsense, Helga.”
“Sorry!” She shook her head and turned away. “I’ve made your second round for you, Rex. You don’t have to go out there and mix with the crowds.”
He watched her as she walked away, and when she had entered the office he went back into the house for his drink. He poured half a tumbler of whisky and sat down to drink it, although drinking spirits was strictly forbidden for Park Attendants on duty.
A curious mood was taking hold of him and he didn’t like it, although there seemed to be nothing he could do about it. He was disappointed over his review failure, but he realised that even if he had been paroled he could not have returned to the control cabin of a starship. They wouldn’t let him within a hundred feet of a starship after this!
It was the first time he had given consideration to that fact, and some of his tension fled instantly. In the back of his mind he had been expecting to return to duty as if nothing had ever happened, but that was not possible, and he felt his bitterness increase as he thought about it. The only way he could return to his old life was by clearing himself! That was an incontrovertible fact! But how could he manage to do that when he didn’t even know the name of anyone connected with his downfall?
But there was one link, still unknown to him at the moment, and he considered the man who had called to see him. Why had he arrived on Cyra at this time? Why had Captain Graham spoken to him? If the man was a stranger then how had Graham known him?
Alston thought about it as he finished his whisky. Was some kind of a trap being spread around him? He didn’t care about it because he was innocent, and if this was one of Graham’s secretive attempts to get information then he was doomed to failure before he commenced. But it could turn out to be dangerous Alston knew, and he paced the room for a few moments, trying to work out what to do for the best.
His instincts were to tax the man personally. He didn’t want Graham getting into it and probably spoiling any chance there might be to learn something constructive. He fought down his natural impulses and went to the videophone, putting through a call to Graham’s headquarters, and a sharp faced security guard answered, his features appearing on the small screen.
“I’m Rex Alston. I want to talk to Captain Graham.”
“The Captain isn’t here now. I’ll take a message.”
“All right. Tell him to call me here at the Play Complex.” Alston hung up instantly and the screen shimmered and became blank.
If Graham was trying something, then he wouldn’t get very far. A wry smile touched Alston lips as he left the house and went across to the office. He wasn’t taking any chances. He couldn’t afford to. He stared into Wallace’s face for a moment when he entered the office, and his colleague looked up at him.
“What’s on your mind, Rex?”
“I’ve called Graham and he’ll be calling me back,”
Alston said. “I’ll make a round now. Get me as soon as
Graham comes on the wire, will you? “
“Sure! If it is about that stranger coming back to see you then I think you’re doing the right thing, Rex!”
“Perhaps!” Alston shook his head and departed.
He was thoughtful as he got into a hover-about and went off to check around the massive complex. The place was crowded although it was barely noon. The noise rose around him like a physical wall, and he gritted his teeth as he told himself that he couldn’t take much more of it. He had put in an endless number of applications for a transfer and each of them had been dropped unread into a waste paper basket. He fought down his chagrin and went on about his duty. But he knew he couldn’t take another eleven years of this. He would be better off dead!
When he spotted a crowd packed around a sideshow exhibiting freaks from the Universe he realised that it wasn’t an ordinary crowd intent upon fun and relaxation. It was silent and motionless, and Alston frowned as he sent his small craft whipping across to the sideshow, only a couple of feet above the ground.
He sounded his siren as he arrived, and set down quickly. Nobody moved for him and he cursed as he went into the crowd, using his weight and strength. He forced a passage through to the centre, and found the entrance to the sideshow packed with people. Nobody was giving ground and he shouted for them to move back.
“What’s going on in there?” he demanded furiously, pausing to wipe sweat from his broad forehead.
A man turned his head to peer at Alston, and his face relaxed a little when he recognised Alston’s uniform. He nodded slowly.
“There’s a dead man inside,” he said. “He got too close to the Tyrannusman from Colantu. They say his head was torn from his body.”
Alston we
nt to work then, activating the small alarm in his pocket, and the resultant emission of Ilium rays from the projectors situated in the vicinity, triggered by the alarm Alston was carrying, soon forced the crowd to disperse. In a few moments Alston was standing alone in the entrance to the sideshow, and the owner appeared in front of the curtain screening the doorway.
“Am I glad to see you!” he gasped, wiping his forehead. “I couldn’t get through the crowd to raise the alarm. We’ve got trouble here!”
“I heard about it,” Alston rapped, switching off the alarm. Although he was immune to the Ilium rays he could feel their intensity attacking him, and he sighed heavily as the system shut down. “Stay here and keep the crowd away. There’ll be help arriving in a moment. I’ll go in and take a look.”
The sideshow owner nodded. His face was pale and he looked as if he’d received the shock of his life. Alston lifted the curtain and went in through the doorway, tensing himself for the scene which awaited him, and he could not help thinking that this was coming at a most awkward time. He wondered, in the back of his mind, if it was in any way connected with all his other troubles, and he had the premonition that it was.
CHAPTER THREE
The cages in the sideshow contained specimens from some of the more remote planets where life forms had varied greatly from the normal course of evolution. There was a birdman from Pelator, now standing disconsolately on one ostrich-like leg, his leathery, bat-like wings rustling softly in the tense atmosphere; a Reptilian from Ungasa, seven feet tall, humanoid in appearance except for his crocodilian head and scaly shoulders, and a number of other creatures evolved by a quirk of Nature under circumstances and conditions far removed from those on Earth and Star Cluster Seven.
But Alston had no time for the freaks. He went to the large cage at the far end of the tent and saw the body of a man lying beside the bars. Inside the cage was the Tyrannusman from Colantu, a weird creature, half man half lizard, standing nine feet tall, possessing an amazing intelligence which it used only for predatory purposes. It was carnivorous and a fearsome killer. Now it was standing back from the bars, holding the head of the unfortunate holidaymaker, growling softly to itself and staring at Alston with red eyes that glowered and shone.
Alston realised there was nothing he could do, and went back to the entrance. The showman was waiting outside, his face still pale, his hands trembling.
“Dreadful,” he said jerkily. “Nothing ever happened like this before. That man got between the safety rail and the cage to take a picture of the Tyrannusman. I’m not to blame. There are notices up warning people against passing the safety rails.”
“All right, cool off,” Alston said. He stared at the crowd, and could see Wallace coming through it, pushing his way forward. Behind Wallace was the smart figure of Captain Graham, and Alston thinned his lips as he saw the Security Chief. It hadn’t taken Graham long to get the message. Perhaps he’d been expecting it.
Wallace was carrying a Blinder, and Alston followed his colleague into the sideshow once more. Graham followed them, instructing the guard accompanying him to disperse the crowd. Wallace pointed the Blinder at the watchful Tyrannusman and fired, and the creature went down heavily under the effects of the energy projector. A light with the intensity of a hundred suns had blinded the Tyrannusman temporarily and stunned it. The effects would wear off in an hour and the creature would be none the worse for its experience.
The showman was loudly explaining to Graham what had happened, and Wallace opened the cage door with his sonic key and fetched out the head of the unfortunate holidaymaker, locking the cage door once more and depositing the head beside the body. Alston stood by, watching incuriously, and he saw Wallace’s face turning green with nausea.
“I’ll go call for an ambulance,” Wallace said.
“Wait there for a moment,” Graham called, and came to look at the corpse. He squatted and took hold of the hair of the head and turned it around to look into the face. Alston watched the Captain, taut inside, fighting off his own sense of sickness. Graham looked up at him.
“This is a nasty business,” he said, straightening. “All right, Wallace, go arrange for an ambulance to call.” He waited until Wallace hurried thankfully away, then directed his attention to the showman. “You said this man got through the safety barrier to take a picture of the Tyrannusman.”
“That’s right, sir!”
“Did you see him doing it?”
“No, sir! If I’d seen him I would have stopped him. Someone in the crowd told me.”
Graham nodded and looked at Alston, who straightened and took a deep breath.
“You called my office, saying you wanted to talk to me. What was on your mind? I saw you barely an hour ago.”
“Someone called here to see me while I was at the Governor’s,” Alston said, and repeated what Wallace had told him. “I thought I’d better report it. My first instinct was to meet the man, find out if he was connected with those smugglers, and if he was to force some information out of him.”
“Take a look at this face!” Graham bent and picked up the head by its hair, turning the ghastly face towards Alston. “Have you ever seen this man before?”
Alston tightened his lips as he looked at the stiff features. Then he shook his head. He shifted his gaze to Graham’s taut face, and the Captain dropped the head beside the body.
“This is the man who came to see you!” Graham’s voice was sharp and incisive. “I don’t like this at all, Alston. I think you had something to do with this business.”
“This man is the one who saw Wallace, asking for me?” Alston demanded, shocked out of his calm manner.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know it is!”
“I never saw him before in my life, and if I had and he is connected with the smugglers then I wouldn’t want him dead. I should think it’s obvious that’s the last thing I’d want.”
“Perhaps you talked to him and couldn’t get anything out of him,” Graham suggested. “You could have been trying to force him to talk by placing him in danger with this creature in the cage.”
“In front of all the holidaymakers?” Alston smiled thinly. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
“It could have been arranged! A hypno tablet could have been placed in a cup of coffee. A subconscious suggestion might have been used.”
“I don’t think this man was connected with the smugglers,” Alston snapped. He was calling to mind what Helga had told him about this stranger. Allie Carpenter had seen him in the Cradle of Stars bar, and Graham had gone there to talk to the man!
“Tell me what you think,” Graham said in smooth tones.
There was a noise at the entrance to the tent and Alston glanced over his shoulder. The guard Graham had brought with him was entering.
“You know who this man is,” Alston rapped, and there was anger starting up inside him because he fancied Graham had been out to trick him in some way.
“I?” Graham shook his head. “How would I know him?”
“You went into the Cradle of Stars last evening and spoke to him!”
Graham’s lips tightened and his blue eyes narrowed and took on a glitter. He thrust out his jaw slightly, and when he spoke his tones were harsh.
“How would you know that, Alston?” he demanded.
“You’re not the only one with a network of spies,” Alston retorted with a tight grin.
“I think you’d better come along to my headquarters with me,” Graham snapped. “If you’ve been foolish and got yourself mixed up in something that shouldn’t concern you then in a very short time you’ll find yourself on one of the Penal Stars, dying by inches.”
“What are you up to?” Alston countered. “Who is this man and what is your connection with him? Why did he want to see me? Is this your sneaky way of trying to get at the evidence you think I possess? How many times do I have to tell you that I was not guilty of smuggling and that I don’t know any of the smugglers?”
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nbsp; The guard paused at Alston’s side. He was holding a Blinder in his hands. He looked at Alston, then transferred his attention to Graham.
“I’ve dispersed the crowd, Captain. Any further orders?”
“Yes stay here with the body and don’t let anyone touch it. I’m going back to headquarters with this man. There are some more questions I need to ask him. I’m not satisfied with his answers so far!”
Alston tightened his lips and a pang stabbed through him. He stared down at the dead man for a few moments, and a surge of frustration hit him hard, making him clench his hands.
“I’ve been framed once, Graham!” he said through his teeth. “You’re not going to put anything over on me this time. If you’re arresting me then it had better be for something!” He swung his right fist in a short arc, intent upon smashing Graham on the jaw. But the guard was more alert than he appeared to be and the energy projector in his hands flared quickly.
Alston leaped under the hammerblow he was dealt, and his eyes blacked out immediately. He staggered and half turned to the entrance, but before he could move a full pace his sense of balance was gone and he slumped to the ground. His senses receded until he knew nothing at all …
When he opened his eyes, Alston found himself in a small cell, which was windowless. A single light burned brilliantly in the ceiling, and there were no shadows in the tiny room. Alston sat up, and looked around to find there was no furniture in the room. He was on a hard metal floor, and the pains in his limbs and hips warned him that he must have been lying there for quite a considerable time. He knew the intensity of the Blinder could be regulated, and he suspected that he had taken a much larger than normal dose.
Getting to his feet he staggered to the nearest wall and leaned against it. There was a trembling inside him, and his head seemed as if it had been stuffed with cotton. His mouth was dry and his sight was jumpy, his eyelids flickering convulsively. Slowly the symptoms of the energy blow he had been dealt began to wear off, and his uncertainty was replaced with anger. He went to the door and kicked it savagely, hurting his foot but ignoring the pain. He wouldn’t stand for another injustice.