Chapter 11

The naked man, running frantically down the side of the slope, disappeared momentarily under some taller growth, came out the other side of it still running. He leaped over a small ravine, stumbled, recovered himself, and disappeared again beneath a larger growth of trees. Below him, on his side of the ridge, there lay another valley with its own stream.

They caught one more fleeting glimpse, a mere flash of sunlight on tan skin. He was still heading downward in the direction of the stream. It was their last sight of him. They watched for a while longer, but he did not reappear under the green canopy of forest.

“Just a guess,” Cal said. He spoke matter-of-factly in the hope the casualness would wash the fear and awe from Louie’s eyes. “That’s probably one of the dissident men who broke away from the main colony and set up housekeeping in this adjacent valley. Apparently the same things have happened to him as happened to the main colony, whatever it was.

“I’d guess it came as pretty much of a shock and he’s just now worked up courage to scout the main valley. From that I’d say whatever happened wasn’t very long ago, not more than a week. Just a guess.”

None of the crew answered him. It was obviously not the case of a voyeur spying on others--not with the kind of excitement the running man had shown. Running away--that is.

“Let’s drop down into the atmosphere,” Cal suggested. “I’d assume it is breathable from the fact we’ve seen earth animals and a human being. Still we’d better make tests.”

“Yeah,” Louie said unexpectedly. “If the man isn’t making any footprints maybe he isn’t breathing, either.” He tried to make it a joke, to fight his fear with self-derision. He didn’t succeed. Nobody laughed. He swallowed hard and studied the charts again for no apparent reason.

Cal glanced quickly from Tom to Frank. A look at Norton’s face showed him Frank wasn’t very far behind Louie in the progress of shock. Perhaps, as with himself, it was Lynwood’s sense of responsibility for his crew that was helping the pilot to maintain a better control. But there was a white line around Lynwood’s mouth, running up the line of his jaw. Caused by clenching his teeth too tightly? Clenched, to keep them from chattering?

However experienced a man became, however dependable the reactions, one never knew how to predict reaction in the face of the completely unknown. Yet Cal knew that even if he asked any of the men if they feared to take him down it would be an insult never forgotten. It was their job to take an E where he wanted to go. It wouldn’t be the first time they had gambled their lives on the judgment of an E.

“Oh-oh,” Tom exclaimed. “We have company.” He pointed to an indicator on the panel.

They swept the space around them with the scanner, and hovering off to one side they picked up another ship. They watched it for a while, as it hovered there. It made no move to come closer, no move to communicate with them.

“From its markings,” Tom said at last, “I think that’s a special investigation ship from the attorney general’s office. Wonder what they’re doing here?”

“To make first-hand observation of my failure,” Cal said shortly. “Let’s get on with our work.”

Perhaps it helped the crew to realize they were not alone, that whatever might happen to them would not only be heard on the E.H.Q. channel back to Earth, but would also be seen by these special observers. Perhaps it bucked them up a little to know that they were being watched, that faltering uncertainty would be noted and scorned. Perhaps it was the mechanical routine of air sampling and testing as they lowered the ship by degrees.

Norton grew more relaxed, more sure of himself. Lynwood handled the ship on manual control with ease, almost with flourish. But Louie’s hands, gripping the edges of the chart table, still showed bloodless white at the knuckles. Perhaps because there was nothing for him to do at the moment, he alone wasn’t snapping out of it.

The tests showed normal atmosphere. It checked exactly with the readings for this altitude established by the surveying scientists. To complete the record, Cal repeated them aloud each time so the open communicator would carry the information back to Earth where, by now, not only McGinnis and Hayes would be listening, but probably a group of scientists as well. Perhaps their hands, too, gripped the edges of tables, showed bloodless at the knuckles?