Chapter 3

I awoke from partial estivation with Ven’s projection vibrating my antennae. “Eu! Come quickly! They’re awake!”

I groaned. What did she expect? But it might be interesting to see how they behaved. And if they panicked, someone should be there to assume control.

I checked the chronometer. I had rested for eight satts which should be enough. I felt as well as could be expected, so with only a few choice Low-Thalassic expletives to help me, I managed to clamber out of the tank and stagger into the control room. Ven already had one of the helmets on. I picked up the other and flicked the switch to “on.” It was the male’s--and he was talking. The words were gibberish, but the thoughts behind them were easy to read.

I was part of an entity called Donald G. Carlton, a male mammal of the human species. He was a “writer” and was mated to the female, who was called Edith and who worked in “motion pictures.” They lived in a place called Hollywood, in a family unit structure faintly similar to a children’s creche. Custom on this world dictated that the female take one name of her mate, which indicated that the sex was even more subservient than female Thalassans. The male’s body ached, but not as badly as I would have expected. And, as I expected, there was no sensitivity in the brain.

“Hey! Edith!” Donald said. “Get up!”

“Leave me alone, Don. I’m miserable,” a lighter voice answered from the lumpy sack beside him. “I had the most awful dream.”

“It must be the mountain air,” he replied. “I did too.”

“Whatever made me think this would be fun!” Edith said. “You and your meteor-hunting!” The sack heaved and twisted and her head appeared at one end. “I feel like I’ve been worked over with a baseball bat. Oh! My legs!”

“You’re not alone,” he said. “I guess it’s the hard ground and these strait-jackets they laughingly call sleeping bags.”

“About that dream,” Edith said. “It was horrible. There was this little green and yellow thing that looked like a cross between a lizard and a human being. It was sitting on my shoulders and I was naked--carrying it around, doing what it wanted me to do! I wanted to throw it off and stamp on it but I couldn’t. I just ran and ran and all the time that little monster sat with its legs around my neck, hooting like an owl. Now, wasn’t that something?”

Donald was very quiet. “You know,” he said slowly, “essentially that was the same dream I had.”

“But that can’t be! People don’t have the same nightmares.”

“We did.”

“Then maybe--maybe it wasn’t a nightmare!”

“Nonsense. We’re here. We’re all right. But I think perhaps we’d better get out of here--oh, Keerist! I’m one solid bruise.” He twisted around until he found the fastenings and opened the bag. With a groan he stood up.

Edith looked at him, her eyes wide with sudden terror. “Don,” she said in a brittle voice, “didn’t you wear pajamas when you went to bed last night?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you’re not wearing them now.” An expression of horror crossed her face. “And neither am I,” she added in a small voice.

I could feel the shock in Donald’s brain as he looked down at himself. “That’s not all I’m not wearing,” he said dully. “I’m shaved!”

There was a brief flurry inside the other sleeping bag. “So am I!” Edith’s voice was a whisper of fright. “That was no dream! I remember this. The lizard gave me something that I rubbed all over myself--and my hair came off. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help myself.” Her hands went to her head and she sighed, “Well, that’s all there. For a moment I thought--”

“My skin is different,” Donald interrupted thoughtfully as he inspected himself. “It feels thicker. And I don’t feel cold, although I’ll bet it’s nearly freezing outside.”

“Don! Don’t you understand? That dream was real!” Edith said.

“Of course it was, --unless this is a dream. We could be having a nightmare about a nightmare...”

I looked at Ven.

“Just what did you do to them?” I asked.

She glowed guiltily. “I didn’t know it would take their hair off,” she said. “I was worried about their scratches, and the insects were biting them. So I made them rub on some of our skin conditioner.”

I raised my digits toward the sky. “There is an Authority that looks over fools and Thalassan females,” I said. “What made you so sure our conditioner would work on them? It might have been poisonous.”

“I tried it on the male first,” Ven said.

“Genius,” I breathed with icy sarcasm, “sheer genius!”

“Well,” she said, “it worked!” The eternal pragmatist had applied her sole criterion. “And what’s more they looked and smelled lots better after they used it.”

I shrugged, gave it up and turned my attention back to the mammals.

Edith had emerged from her sack and was standing before the male.

“Do I look like a nightmare?” she demanded.

“No. More like a skinned rabbit--ouch! What did you do that for?” He rubbed his face where she struck him with her digits.

“There!” Edith said. “Now do you think it’s a dream?”

“I never did,” he replied mildly. “I’ve never dreamed in my life. I was just breaking it to you easy. It was real enough--even the blank spaces. I wonder--”

“You wonder what?”

“What their reason was for capturing us and then letting us go. It doesn’t make sense. They wouldn’t grab us just for fun. They’re obviously intelligent, and probably thought we would be useful to them. But they turned us loose. So we couldn’t be useful except maybe for amusement--but that doesn’t jell. No. They’ve done something to us. They’ve let us go for a reason.”

“Stop analyzing!” Edith said. “Why don’t you just get scared, like I am!”

“I am,” he said, “but I like to figure things out. If I know what frightens me, it doesn’t bother me so much.”

“Do that while we’re on the way home. Get your clothes on and let’s get out of here! Right away!”

“We have to pack.”

“Oh, leave it! Let’s get out while we can!”

“I don’t think we’re in any danger,” he said.

“Well--I don’t want to stay here a minute longer!”

“All right. We’ll go. But we’ll pack first. Look at it logically. They had us cold. We didn’t escape. We were let go. So why, if they didn’t want us then, should they want us now?”

“Unless they can get us any time they want us.”

“You have a point there, but if that’s the case, they can get us anyway. So let’s pack.”

“You can pack if you want to. I’m leaving!” Edith pulled the opening to the tent and slipped out.

“Edith!” Donald cried. “Wait!”

I touched Ven. “Stop her,” I said.

Edith’s voice came from outside. “Don!” she called in a tight voice. “Don! Help me! I can’t move!“

“Try coming back here and see what happens,” Donald said slowly.

Edith’s head appeared in the entrance. “I’m back,” she said in a small voice.

“I thought you would be. Now let’s pack and perhaps they’ll let us go. It’s obvious that we can’t run away.”

“But why? What’s happened to us?“

“If I told you, you’d think I’m crazy.”

“Tell me anyway. It can’t be any worse than this.”

“I think,” Donald said slowly as he began to roll up his sleeping bag, “that we were kidnapped by extraterrestrials.”

“Martians?”

“Not necessarily,” he said. “But if I remember my nightmare correctly, they aren’t human--and they are obviously smart. So they aren’t of this earth. We don’t have intelligent reptiles here. And with their ability to control our actions, I’d say that they were from a considerably higher culture than ours. They’ve done things to us--but I don’t think they did them just for fun. They want us to do something.”