Plague Ship

by Andre Norton

  Chapter XII

  STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A HOOBAT

  "All right, so we think we know a little more," Ali added a moment later."Just what are we going to do? We can't stay in space forever--there'rethe small items of fuel and supplies and--"

  Rip had come to a decision. "We're not going to remain space borne," hestated with the confidence of one who now saw an open road before him.

  "Luna--" Weeks was plainly doubtful.

  "No. Not after that warn-off. Terra!"

  For a second or two the other three stared at Rip agape. The audacity anddanger of what he suggested was a little stunning. Since men had takenregularly to space no ship had made a direct landing on their homeplanet--all had passed through the quarantine on Luna. It was not onlyrisky--it was so unheard of that for some minutes they did not understandhim.

  "We try to set down at Terraport," Dane found his tongue first, "and theyflame us out--"

  Rip was smiling. "The trouble with you," he addressed them all, "is thatyou think of earth only in terms of Terraport--"

  "Well, there _is_ the Patrol field at Stella," Weeks agreed doubtfully."But we'd be right in the middle of trouble there--"

  "Did we have a regular port on Sargol--on Limbo--on fifty others I canname out of our log?" Rip wanted to know.

  Ali voiced a new objection. "So--we have the luck of Jones and we setdown somewhere out of sight. Then what do we do?"

  "We seal ship until we find the pest--then we bring in a Medic and get tothe bottom of the whole thing," Rip's confidence was contagious. Danealmost believed that it _could_ be done that way.

  "Did you ever think," Ali cut in, "what would happen if we were wrong--ifthe Queen really is a plague carrier?"

  "I said--we seal the ship--tight," countered Shannon. "And when we earthit'll be where we won't have visitors to infect--"

  "And that is where?" Ali, who knew the deserts of Mars better than he didthe greener planet from which his stock had sprung, pursued the question.

  "Right in the middle of the Big Burn!"

  Dane, Terra born and bred, realized first what Rip was planning and whatit meant. Sealed off was right--the Queen would be amply protected frominvestigation. Whether her crew would survive was another matter--whethershe could even make a landing there was also to be considered.

  The Big Burn was the horrible scar left by the last of the Atomic Wars--asection of radiation poisoned land comprising hundreds of squaremiles--land which generations had never dared to penetrate. Originallythe survivors of that war had shunned the whole continent which itdisfigured. It had been close to two centuries before men had gone intothe still wholesome land laying to the far west and the south. Andthrough the years, the avoidance of the Big Burn had become part of theirracial instinct as they shrank from it. It was a symbol of something noTerran wanted to remember.

  But Ali now had only one question to ask. "Can we do it?"

  "We'll never know until we try," was Rip's reply.

  "The Patrol'll be watching--" that was Weeks. With his Venusianbackground he had less respect for the dangers of the Big Burn than hedid for the forces of Law and order which ranged the star lanes.

  "They'll be watching the route lanes," Rip pointed out. "They won'texpect a ship to come in on that vector, steering away from the ports.Why should they? As far as I know it's never been tried since Terraportwas laid out. It'll be tricky--" And he himself would have to bear mostof the responsibility for it. "But I believe that it can be done. And wecan't just roam around out here. With I-S out for our blood and a Patrolwarn-off it won't do us any good to head for Luna--"

  None of his listeners could argue with that. And, Dane's spirits began torise, after all they knew so little about the Big Burn--it might affordthem just the temporary sanctuary they needed. In the end they agreed totry it, mainly because none of them could see any alternative, except thetoo dangerous one of trying to contact the authorities and beingsummarily treated as a plague ship before they could defend themselves.

  And their decision was ably endorsed not long afterwards by a sardonicwarning on the com--a warning which Ali who had been tending the machinepassed along to them.

  "Greetings, pirates--"

  "What do you mean?" Dane was heating broth to feed to Captain Jellico.

  "The word has gone out--our raid on the E-Stat is now a matter of historyand Patrol record--we've been Posted!"

  Dane felt a cold finger drawn along his backbone. Now they were fair gamefor the whole system. Any Patrol ship that wanted could shoot them downwith no questions asked. Of course that had always been a possibilityfrom the first after their raid on the E-Stat. But to realize that it wasnow true was a different matter altogether. This was one occasion whenrealization was worse than anticipation. He tried to keep his voice levelas he answered:

  "Let us hope we can pull off Rip's plan--"

  "We'd better. What about the Big Burn anyway, Thorson? Is it as tough asthe stories say?"

  "We don't know what it's like. It's never been explored--or at leastthose who tried to explore its interior never reported in afterwards. Asfar as I know it's left strictly alone."

  "Is it still all 'hot'?"

  "Parts of it must be. But all--we don't know."

  With the bottle of soup in his hand Dane climbed to Jellico's cabin. Andhe was so occupied with the problem at hand that at first he did not seewhat was happening in the small room. He had braced the Captain up into ahalf-sitting position and was patiently ladling the liquid into hismouth a spoonful at a time when a thin squeak drew his attention to thetop of Jellico's desk.

  From the half open lid of a microtape compartment something long and darkprojected, beating the air feebly. Dane, easing the Captain back on thebunk, was going to investigate when the Hoobat broke its unnatural quietof the past few days with an ear-splitting screech of fury. Dane struckat the bottom of its cage--the move its master always used to silenceit--But this time the results were spectacular.

  The cage bounced up and down on the spring which secured it to theceiling of the cabin and the blue feathered horror slammed against thewires. Either its clawing had weakened them, or some fault had developed,for they parted and the Hoobat came through them to land with a sullenplop on the desk. Its screams stopped as suddenly as they had begun andit scuttled on its spider-toad legs to the microtape compartment, actingwith purposeful dispatch and paying no attention to Dane.

  Its claws shot out and with ease it extracted from the compartment acreature as weird as itself--one which came fighting and of which Danecould not get a very clear idea. Struggling they battled across thesurface of the desk and flopped to the floor. There the hunted brokeloose from the hunter and fled with fantastic speed into the corridor.And before Dane could move the Hoobat was after it.

  He gained the passage just in time to see Queex disappear down theladder, clinging with the aid of its pincher claws, apparently grimlydetermined to catch up with the thing it pursued. And Dane went afterthem.

  There was no sign of the creature who fled on the next level. But Danemade no move to recapture the blue hunter who squatted at the foot of theladder staring unblinkingly into space. Dane waited, afraid to disturbthe Hoobat. He had not had a good look at the thing which had run fromQueex--but he knew it was something which had no business aboard theQueen. And it might be the disturbing factor they were searching for. Ifthe Hoobat would only lead him to it--

  The Hoobat moved, rearing up on the tips of its six legs, its necklesshead slowly revolving on its puffy shoulders. Along the ridge of itsbackbone its blue feathers were rising into a crest much as Sinbad's furrose when the cat was afraid or angry. Then, without any sign of haste,it crawled over and began descending the ladder once more, heading towardthe lower section which housed the Hydro.

  Dane remained where he was until it had almost reached the deck of thenext level and then he followed, one step at a time. He was sure that theHoobat's peculiar construction of body prevented it from lookingup--unless it turned
upon its back--but he did not want to do anythingwhich would alarm it or deter Queex from what he was sure was amethodical chase.

  Queex stopped again at the foot of the second descent and sat in its toadstance, apparently brooding, a round blue blot. Dane clung to the ladderand prayed that no one would happen along to frighten it. Then, just ashe was beginning to wonder if it had lost contact with its prey, oncemore it arose and with the same speed it had displayed in the Captain'scabin it shot along the corridor to the hydro.

  To Dane's knowledge the door of the garden was not only shut but sealed.And how either the stranger or Queex could get through it he did not see.

  "What the--?" Ali clattered down the ladder to halt abruptly as Dane wavedat him.

  "Queex," the Cargo-apprentice kept his voice to a half whisper, "it gotloose and chased something out of the Old Man's cabin down here."

  "Queex--!" Ali began and then shut his mouth, moving noiselessly up tojoin Dane.

  The short corridor ended at the hydro entrance. And Dane had been right,there they found the Hoobat, crouched at the closed panel, its clawsclicking against the metal as it picked away useless at the portal whichwould not admit it.

  "Whatever it's after must be in there," Dane said softly.

  And the hydro, stripped of its luxuriance of plant life, occupied now bythe tanks of green scum, would not afford too many hiding places. Theyhad only to let Queex in and keep watch.

  As they came up the Hoobat flattened to the floor and shrilled its warcry, spitting at their boots and then flashing claws against the stoutmetal enforced hide. However, though it was prepared to fight them, itshowed no signs of wishing to retreat, and for that Dane was thankful. Hequickly pressed the release and tugged open the panel.

  At the first crack of its opening Queex turned with one of those burstsof astounding speed and clawed for admittance, its protest against themen forgotten. And it squeezed through a space Dane would have thoughttoo narrow to accommodate its bloated body. Both men slipped around thedoor behind it and closed the panel tight.

  The air was not as fresh as it had been when the plants were there. Andthe vats which had taken the places of the banked greenery were certainlynothing to look at. Queex humped itself into a clod of blue, immovable,halfway down the aisle.

  Dane tried to subdue his breathing, to listen. The Hoobat's actionscertainly argued that the alien thing had taken refuge here, though howit had gotten through--? But if it were in the hydro it was well hidden.

  He had just begun to wonder how long they must wait when Queex again wentinto action. Its clawed front legs upraised, it brought the pinchersdeliberately together and sawed one across the other, producing a raspingsound which was almost a vibration in the air. Back and forth, back andforth, moved the claws. Watching them produced almost a hypnotic effect,and the reason for such a maneuver was totally beyond the human watchers.

  But Queex knew what it was doing all right, Ali's fingers closed onDane's arm in a pincher grip as painful as if he had been equipped withthe horny armament of the Hoobat.

  Something, a flitting shadow, had rounded one vat and was that muchcloser to the industrious fiddler on the floor. By some weird magic ofits own the Hoobat was calling its prey to it.

  Scrape, scrape--the unmusical performance continued with monotonousregularity. Again the shadow flashed--one vat closer. The Hoobat nowpresented the appearance of one charmed by its own art--sunk in alethargy of weird music making.

  At last the enchanted came into full view, though lingering at the roundside of a container, very apparently longing to flee again, but undersome compulsion to approach its enchanter. Dane blinked, not quite surethat his eyes were not playing tricks on him. He had seen the almosttransparent globe "bogies" of Limbo, had been fascinated by the weird andugly pictures in Captain Jellico's collection of tri-dee prints. But thiscreature was as impossible in its way as the horrific blue thing draggingit out of concealment.

  It walked erect on two threads of legs, with four knobby joints easilydetected. A bulging abdomen sheathed in the horny substance of a beetle'sshell ended in a sharp point. Two pairs of small legs, folded close tothe much smaller upper portion of its body, were equipped with thornshack terminations. The head, which constantly turned back and forth onthe armor plated shoulders, was long and narrow and split for half itslength by a mouth above which were deep pits which must harbor eyes,though actual organs were not visible to the watching men. It was apalish gray in color--which surprised Dane a little. His memory of thefew seconds he had seen it on the Captain's desk had suggested that itwas much darker. And erect as it was, it stood about eighteen incheshigh.

  With head turning rapidly, it still hesitated by the side of the vat, sonearly the color of the metal that unless it moved it was difficult todistinguish. As far as Dane could see the Hoobat was paying it noattention. Queex might be lost in a happy dream, the result of its ownfiddling. Nor did the rhythm of that scraping vary.

  The nightmare thing made the last foot in a rush of speed which reducedit to a blur, coming to a halt before the Hoobat. Its front legs whippedout to strike at its enemy. But Queex was no longer dreaming. This wasthe moment the Hoobat had been awaiting. One of the sawing claws openedand closed, separating the head of the lurker from its body. And beforeeither of the men could interfere Queex had dismembered the prey withdispatch.

  "Look there!" Dane pointed.

  The Hoobat held close the body of the stranger and where the ashy corpsecame into contact with Queex's blue feathered skin it was slowly changinghue--as if some of the color of its hunter had rubbed off it.

  "Chameleon!" Ali went down on one knee the better to view the grislyfeast now in progress. "Watch out!" he added sharply as Dane came to joinhim.

  One of the thin upper limbs lay where Queex had discarded it. And fromthe needle tip was oozing some colorless drops of fluid. Poison?

  Dane looked around for something which he could use to pick up the stilljerking appendage. But before he could find anything Queex hadappropriated it. And in the end they had to allow the Hoobat its victimin its entirety. But once Queex had consumed its prey it lapsed into itsusual hunched immobility. Dane went for the cage and working gingerly heand Ali got the creature back in captivity. But all the evidence now leftwere some smears on the floor of the hydro, smears which Ali blotted upfor future research in the lab.

  An hour later the four who now comprised the crew of the Queen gatheredin the mess for a conference. Queex was in its cage on the table beforethem, asleep after all its untoward activity.

  "There must be more than just one," Weeks said. "But how are we going tohunt them down? With Sinbad?"

  Dane shook his head. Once the Hoobat had been caged and the moreprominent evidence of the battle scraped from the floor, he had broughtthe cat into the hydro and forced him to sniff at the site of theengagement. The result was that Sinbad had gone raving mad and Dane'shands were now covered with claw tears which ran viciously deep. It wasplain that the ship's cat was having none of the intruders, alive ordead. He had fled to Dane's cabin where he had taken refuge on the bunkand snarled wild eyed when anyone looked in from the corridor.

  "Queex has to do it," Rip said. "But will it hunt unless it is hungry?"

  He surveyed the now comatose creature skeptically. They had never seenthe Captain's pet eat anything except some pellets which Jellico kept inhis desk, and they were aware that the intervals between such feedingswere quite lengthy. If they had to wait the usual time for Queex to feelhunger pangs once more, they might have to wait a long time.

  "We should catch one alive," Ali remarked thoughtfully. "If we could getQueex to fiddle it out to where we could net it--"

  Weeks nodded eagerly. "A small net like those the Salariki use. Drop itover the thing--"

  While Queex still drowsed in its cage, Weeks went to work with fine cord.Holding the color changing abilities of the enemy in mind they could nottell how many of the creatures might be roaming the ship. It could onlybe proved wher
e they weren't by where Sinbad would consent to stay. Sothey made plans which included both the cat and the Hoobat.

  Sinbad, much against his will, was buckled into an improvised harness bywhich he could be controlled without the handler losing too much valuableskin.

  And then the hunt started at the top of the ship, proceeding downwardsection by section. Sinbad raised no protest in the control cabin, nor inthe private cabins of the officers' thereabouts. If they could interprethis reactions the center section was free of the invaders. So with Danein control of the cat and Ali carrying the caged Hoobat, they descendedonce more to the level which housed the hydro galley, steward's quartersand ship's sick bay.

  Sinbad proceeded on his own four feet into the galley and the mess. Hewas not uneasy in the sick bay, nor in Mura's cabin, and this time heeven paced the hydro without being dragged--much to their surprise asthey had thought that the headquarters of the stowaways.

  "Could there only have been one?" Weeks wanted to know as he stood byready with the net in his hands.

  "Either that--or else we're wrong about the hydro being their mainhideout. If they're afraid of Queex now they may have withdrawn to theplace they feel the safest," Rip said.

  It was when they were on the ladder leading to the cargo level thatSinbad balked. He planted himself firmly and yowled against furtherprogress until Dane, with the harness, pulled him along.

  "Look at Queex!"

  They followed Weeks' order. The Hoobat was no longer lethargic. It wasraising itself, leaning forward to clasp the bars of its cage, and now ituttered one of its screams of rage. And as Ali went on down the ladder itrattled the bars in a determined effort for freedom. Sinbad, spitting andyowling refused to walk. Rip nodded to Ali.

  "Let it out."

  Tipped out of its cage the Hoobat scuttled forward, straight for thepanel which opened on the large cargo space and there waited, as if forthem to open the portal and admit the hunter to its hunting territory.