The Blue Dwarfs Page 5
• • •
Harper heard the humming and roaring of the motor as the helicopter entered the pass from the west.
"That's Mullon!" he cried to Glannon. "Take cover!" They crawled behind some boulders. The helicopter cruised over them at a low altitude. From his hiding place Harper recognized Mullon at the controls and Milligan next to him, holding a gun at ready. Neither of them seemed to see the two men in hiding.
After awhile the helicopter disappeared behind a sharp bend in the passway. The motor noise remained for a bit at the same level of intensity, then came back, growing increasingly louder. Harper noticed in surprise that the helicopter had ascended to a height of 200 yards in the meantime, moving along almost on a level with the upper edges of the pass walls. What was Mullon trying to do? Was he trying to get a better view this way?
Harper squeezed himself deeper into the boulder shadows and did not move. For what seemed like an eternity the helicopter hung motionless in the air, then suddenly began to descend.
They've spotted us! thought Harper fearfully. The helicopter landed a stone's throw from their hiding place. Harper realized that there was now only one man in the cabin: Mullon.
Harper was not interested in finding out where the second man had gone. The important thing was that he had before him the man he had been sent to kill. He saw that Mullon was still occupied, adjusting the runners beneath the helicopter so that it would not slip or slide.
Harper stood up from behind the boulders and took aim. At that moment, a hard voice behind him spoke: "Drop the gun and raise your hands!" Harper obeyed, paralyzed by fear. "You too!" ordered the voice. Some distance away, a second gun fell to the ground: Glannon's. Harper turned around. Behind him had been standing Milligan.
"Oh, you... !" growled Harper.
"Start walking toward the helicopter," ordered Milligan.
Trembling with rage, Harper obeyed.
Mullon waited for him with a serious face. In his left hand he held a few lengths of plastic rope. These he threw to Harper and ordered: "Tie up your buddy!"
Glannon had come along as well and let himself be bound by Harper without offering any resistance. Harper himself was tied up by Milligan. Then the two were led into the helicopter.
"Who sent you?" asked Mullon before he took off.
"No one," growled Harper.
Mullon looked at him earnestly. "It's alright with me," he said quietly, "if you want to stick with that story. But don't forget that there are people in Greenwich who know how to get the truth out of even the most obdurate."
• • •
Even before the day was over, the expedition broke camp. Mullon had reported the incident to Greenwich and had also announced that he was returning as quickly as possible so that the investigation of Harper and Glannon—they had revealed their names in the meantime—could be carried out without any delay.
The two prisoners continued to maintain that they had set out to kill Mullon quite on their own initiative, for they considered him a danger to the colony. The incident with Cislarczik they related more or less truthfully and Mullon had to admit that they had acted in self-defense.
Mullon was completely convinced that all three—Harper, Glannon and Cislarczik—had been recruited by Hollander. He said so to Harper and Glannon in just about as many words but they reacted only with mocking laughter.
Meanwhile Milligan and Freddy were busy trying to persuade a few of the Mungos to go with them. They succeeded after a tedious amount of dickering and five Mungos declared themselves ready to fly to Greenwich. The monkeys had been promised—and Freddy maintained that they had understood everything—that they would be brought back as soon as they asked.
The helicopter took off in the late afternoon. Mullon had had to leave a tent and some equipment behind to make room for the two prisoners in the helicopter. The tent could be picked up when the Mungos were brought back.
4/ THE MYSTERIOUS BLUE CLOTHS
Greenwich had its first great sensation. The news that someone secretly wanted to kill Mullon brought forth a wave of indignation but only with difficulty could one tell where the indignation was honest and where it was feigned. Certainly a good number of the settlers were Hollander's sympathizers and were indignant only because Mullon had comeback alive.
The People's Assembly tried the two would-be assassins even before it considered the other results of the expedition. As before, Harper and Glannon claimed that they had acted on their own initiative. O'Bannon, Mullon's friend of many years, asked that the Assembly not give any credence to the false confession but lock up the prisoners until they were ready to reveal the name of the man who had sent them out.
O'Bannon had to admit, however, that a suspicion alone was not enough to justify such a step. To make the farce perfect Hollander stood up and proposed that O'Bannon be censured. The prisoners had made a complete confession and there was not the slightest reason to continue the hearing. The only issue remaining to the Assembly now was agreeing on a verdict.
On Grautier, the People's Assembly had to fill all three functions of democratic government—legislature, executive and judiciary—for as yet there was no final constitution.
O'Bannon was not censured but the Assembly took the second part of Hollander's motion to heart and after several hours of debate sentenced Harper to five years and Glannon to three years of imprisonment.
The wreck of the Adventurous served as a prison for Harper and Glannon. They were brought by helicopter to a place that could be neither reached nor left by other means. The prisoners were supplied with enough water, food and other needs for several weeks, then left alone. They had also been given a distress signal which could be used if one of them became ill or had an accident.
For Mullon, the sentence was a disappointment. He had hoped to be able to tear the mask off Hollander's face. He had not succeeded. Moreover, he could well imagine that Harper and Glannon were far more agreeable to a long prison term than to admitting everything and thus being delivered to the vengeance of Hollander and his supporters.
• • •
The next day the People's Assembly turned its attention to the other results of the expedition. The most important matter by far was the discovery of the half-intelligent race of Mungos and, in connection with it, the finding of a medicine for the blue pustules.
The night before, Mullon had set the Mungos to preparing the leaves they had brought back in the usual fashion. The medicine thus produced was given to the sick colonists, whose number had meanwhile grown to 22, and the results came with them just as quickly as with Milligan three days before. Dr. Weeney declared that it would be possible for him to manufacture a serum just as soon as the composition of the Mungo Medicine was known. In any event, experimentation showed that leaves chewed by humans instead of Mungos possessed not the slightest healing power. Evidently there was some element in the spittle of the little monkeys that in concert with the components of the leaves produced the curing effect.
Something—which Mullon more hesitantly brought up than the other matters, because he was not very sure of it himself, concerned the parapsychological ability of the monkeys to detect dangers which none of the five human senses could perceive. Mullon spoke of the three occurrences which had brought him to the conclusion that the Mungos were parapsychologically gifted: Freddy's rescue from the snake, the manufacture of medicine for Milligan's sickness and the warning of the presence of Harper and Glannon.
The People's Assembly appointed a commission with no other task than to study the language of the Mungos.
The word 'khek', which the Mungo had used to warn of Harper and Glannon, seemed to mean 'danger' or 'bad' or 'enemy'. It was the first word that men learned from the Mungo language.
Otherwise, the People's Assembly was of the opinion that Mullon should proceed as quickly as possible to the second expedition since the first had had such surprising success.
There was one very compelling reason which encouraged haste: the men
on watch posted in a circle around Greenwich had observed giant herds of those grey giraffe and elephant-like monsters which came from the east and so far had passed the small town by fortunately safe distances. According to the estimates of the watchers, most herds numbered more than a thousand heads.
When one such herd headed straight for the town, Greenwich would be all but defenseless. For weapons the settlers had mostly rifles and pistols. Besides those, there were only the hand beamers and disintegrators that had belonged to the crew of the Adventurous. They were certainly effective but there were not enough of them.
Besides the exploration of the lowlands, Mullon's second expedition had the assignment of finding out where the vast herds came from and, if possible, discovering a way to keep the girafphants away from Greenwich.
After two days of rest, Mullon headed for the east. This time Hollander did not send an assassination squad after him. This time Hollander had taken care of the matter in a different way.
• • •
Mullon had chosen the same companions as he had for the first expedition: Freddy Mullon, his wife; Milligan; and Pashen. Mullon had decided not to take one of the Mungos with him, although the little monkey could perhaps have given valuable help. There was the possibility that the Mungo, a mountain dweller, could not have tolerated the sultry and damp climate of the lowlands.
The helicopter covered the 50 miles separating the western edge of the jungle from Greenwich in less than half an hour. Mullon set up the first camp just outside the impenetrable green wall of foliage. The first attempts to enter the jungle would be made from there; moreover, being outside the jungle they would have a chance of getting a good idea of the dangers lurking in the forest darkness before venturing in.
He noticed one thing in the first few minutes: if the stark blazing heat of the sun had been unbearable up in the mountains, it was all the worse in the sultry humidity here.
The only animals to be found that first day were insects, spiders and several varieties of worms.
The gnats were a plague. They invaded the camp in huge swarms and Mullon attempted a variety of unsuccessful means to repulse them. Then Milligan managed to repel the humming, singing hordes with the smoke of a green tree branch. His success was so enduring that the four explorers had a number of hours of peace thereafter.
They spent a long and peaceful night in the camp. Early the next morning they took off in the helicopter and flew at a low altitude eastward over the jungle.
The view offered to the four occupants of the helicopter was monotonous and impressive at once: as far as one could see there was nothing but the grey-green sunlit roof of the unbroken forest.
The helicopter flew over small rivers which snaked through the jungle in a more or less easterly direction. The streams drew closer to one another, however, and after meeting in a series of closely spaced mergers, combined into a huge river flowing onwards to the east. 30 miles farther on it flowed into another, just as broad, river. From there on the only word to describe it was 'riversea'. On the other side of the merger, the combined river was more than six miles wide.
The river was freely dotted with islands and towards noon Mullon landed the helicopter on one of them. The small island of sand and dried mud did not support a great deal of vegetation. There were only two tall trees—one at each end of the long narrow island—and in between grew bushes and grass.
Mullon had the tents put up, saying he wanted to use the place as his most forward camp. The small expedition was now more than 240 miles from Greenwich and close to 200 of those miles were covered with impenetrable jungle. Mullon didn't dare press any farther into the east; he remembered the first breakdown with the helicopter all too well. 200 miles of jungle—that was a distance healthy and well-armed people could cover if they had to on foot... and if they had enough time.
Freddy and Mullon searched the island thoroughly together while Milligan and Pashen were setting up the tents. They came to the conclusion that aside from a few frogs living in the thick grass along the river, there was no animal life on the island.
While Mullon went back to camp to help Milligan and Pashen in erecting the tents, Freddy occupied herself with the frogs, which had excited her enthusiastic attention. On the way, Mullon went past a bush bearing oddly shining, pale white blooms on the tips of its branches. Mullon was surprised that he had not noticed this apparition before. He stepped closer and tried to take one of the blossoms in his hand.
He felt a brief, almost painful, prickling in his hand when he attempted to close his fingers around the blossom. He wanted to try again but at that moment Milligan called out: "Look at this, Boss! The whole island is full of St. Elmo's Fire!"
Mullon looked around. He spotted the pale-white blossoms on the tips of the grass and bushes, too. When he raised his hands, tiny white flames formed on his fingertips, standing quietly in the still air and looking like blooms.
Mullon looked up into the sky. The heavens were cloudless and bluish white, showing no signs of any approaching storm or whatever else the appearance of St. Elmo's Fire might mean. However, Mullon felt his own hair crackling and standing on end. The air must be full of electricity—but where did it come from?
Mullon looked around again. In the neighborhood of the island on which they had landed there were a number of other sand and mud accumulations, some of which were also covered with grass and bushes. The small white flames of St. Elmo's Fire were conspicuous enough that Mullon would have seen them if there were any on the other is lands.
But the strange electrification of the air seemed to be limited to just the one island—the one they had landed on!
That was unnatural. St. Elmo's Fire that limited itself to an area of at most 100 square yards and was to be seen nowhere else was no natural phenomenon—it was artificial.
Mullon's thoughts raced. Someone had laid an electrostatic field over the island and out of it produced St. Elmo's Fire. Mullon shuddered in contemplation, for laying an electrostatic field somewhere in the open air required technical knowledge that made that of Earth's technicians look like nothing.
Where was the enemy? Or was it an enemy at all? And what purpose did he have?
Among Mullon's thoughts was one that began to stubbornly push all the others aside: the small fusion reactor aboard the helicopter required the energy from a little battery to start up. What had happened to the battery in the meantime? Had the electrical field affected it?
Mullon started to run. While he swung up into the helicopter cabin, he called Milligan and Pashen over. He squeezed into the pilot's seat and turned on the motors.
His worst fears were confirmed. The needle indicating battery current did not move. None of the many control lights lit up and the radio, when he switched it on, was mute.
Milligan called from outside: "The St. Elmo's Fire is disappearing, Boss! Now it's gone!"
Mullon leaned resignedly back into the seat. Too late, he thought. Much too late. The batteries are dead! In Greenwich there were any number of devices that could have recharged the batteries instantly but Greenwich was 240 miles away. There was not even the possibility of reporting the problem.
Mullon climbed out. Milligan saw by his downcast expression that something had happened. Mullon gave a brief explanation.
"And now what?" asked Milligan, at a loss.
Mullon shrugged. "No idea. My opinion is that we'd do best to stay here tonight. Perhaps the enemy will show up. Perhaps we could force him to repair the damage. But if nothing happens, we'll have to walk... "
With that he made a despondent gesture toward the river and beyond, to the high, impenetrable wall of the jungle.
Milligan looked across the river. "Do you think we can do it?"
"Yes, I think so. Most of all, we have to do it if we don't want to starve."
Freddy, concerned with the small frogs, had neither noticed the St. Elmo's Fire nor learned as yet what had happened to the helicopter batteries. In her eagerness she had crept right
up to the edge of the island and sat there, one of the slippery, dark brown frogs in her hand. Then the water in front of her began to churn.
Frightened, she leapt up, dropping the frog. Then she lost her footing in the soft, steeply descending ground and slid feet first into the water.
An ugly, wide-mouthed head rose from the dirty river water in front of her—the head of an alligator. Freddy saw the beast watching her closely, poising for one mighty spring to the river's edge and pouncing on its defenseless prey.
Freddy screamed, hoping to alert Mullon and the others.
Hearing the scream, the men raced to the shore but only Milligan had had the presence of mind to grab his gun, which had been lying on the ground by the helicopter.
While Mullon and Pashen tried to scare away the alligator with yelling and stone throwing—succeeding in at least drawing the beast's attention away from Freddy for a few seconds at a time—Milligan slipped cautiously along the river's edge, bent down on one knee behind a bush and aimed his gun carefully. The first shot would have to be the fatal one: the alligator's head was at most nine yards from Freddy.
Milligan's shot cracked unexpectedly. Mullon and Pashen gave a start and Freddy screamed.
Milligan had hit the animal in the left eye. The beast reared, coming six feet closer to the shore in the process. Then the long scaly body lay still in the slimy mud on the river's edge.
Freddy freed herself from the ooze into which she had sunk ankle-deep and climbed up on shore. She was trembling and pale but smiling. Mullon took her into his arms. "That was close," he murmured.
Freddy nodded. "And it's all my fault—I wasn't careful enough," she admitted. She turned and stared at the dead alligator. "Look how big he is!" she exclaimed. "Can you get him up on land for me? I'd like to examine him."
Mullon agreed, laughing. Milligan had already climbed down, grasped the animal by the pointed snout and was trying to pull it out of the water. He succeeded only when Pashen and Mullon came to help him. Freddy's thanks to Milligan were expressed tersely but fervently. Milligan seemed to be happy as Freddy pressed his hand.