The Star Hyacinths Read online

shut-off, or what?"

  Graylock listened to the question, said, "We had taken kwil. The effectswere still very unpleasant, but they could be tolerated."

  There was a pause of a few seconds. Dr. Egavine cleared his throat. "Itappears, Dasinger," he remarked, "that we have failed to consider avery important clue!"

  Dasinger nodded. "And an obvious one," he said drily. "Keep it movingalong, doctor. How much kwil did they take? How long had they beentaking it before the raid?"

  Dr. Egavine glanced over at him, repeated the questions.

  Graylock said Hovig had begun conditioning the crew to kwil a week ortwo before the Antares slipped out of Aruaque for the strike on thestation. In each case the dosage had been built up gradually to thequantity the man in question required to remain immune to thegenerators. Individual variations had been wide and unpredictable.

  Dasinger passed his tongue over his lips, nodded. "Ask him ..."

  * * * * *

  He checked himself at a soft, purring noise, a shadowy fluttering in theair. Graylock's animal flew past him, settled on its master's shoulder,turned to stare at Dasinger and Egavine. Dasinger looked at the yellowowl-eyes, the odd little tube of a mouth, continued to Egavine, "Ask himwhere the haul was stored in the ship."

  Graylock confirmed Leed Farous's statement of what he had seen in theAntares's records. All but a few of the star hyacinths had been placedin a vault-like compartment in the storage, and the compartment wassealed. Explosives would be required to open it. Hovig kept out half adozen of the larger stones, perhaps as an antidote to boredom during thelong voyage ahead. Graylock had found one of them just before Hovig'sinfernal instrument went into action.

  "And where is that one now?" Dr. Egavine asked.

  "I still have it."

  "On your person?"

  "Yes."

  Dr. Egavine held out his hand, palm upward. "You no longer want it,Graylock. Give it to me."

  Graylock looked bewildered; for a moment he appeared about to weep. Thenhe brought a knotted piece of leather from his pocket, unwrapped it,took out the gem and placed it in Egavine's hand. Egavine picked it upbetween thumb and forefinger of his other hand, held it out before him.

  There was silence for some seconds while the star hyacinth burned in theevening air and the three men and the small winged animal stared at it.Then Dr. Egavine exhaled slowly.

  "Ah, now!" he said, his voice a trifle unsteady. "Men might kill andkill for that one beauty alone, that is true!... Will you keep it fornow, Dasinger? Or shall I?"

  Dasinger looked at him thoughtfully.

  "You keep it, doctor," he said.

  * * * * *

  "Dasinger," Dr. Egavine observed a few minutes later, "I have beenthinking...."

  "Yes?"

  "Graylock's attempted description of his experience indicates that themachine on the Antares does not actually broadcast the emotion ofterror, as he believes. The picture presented is that of a mind in whichboth the natural and the acquired barriers of compartmentalization aretemporarily nullified, resulting in an explosion of compounded insanityto an extent which would be inconceivable without such an outside agent.As we saw in Graylock, the condition is in fact impossible to describeor imagine! A diabolical device...."

  He frowned. "Why the drug kwil counteracts such an effect remainsunclear. But since we now know that it does, I may have a solution tothe problem confronting us."

  Dasinger nodded. "Let's hear it."

  "Have Miss Mines bring the ship down immediately," Egavine instructedhim. "There is a definite probability that among my medical supplieswill be an effective substitute for kwil, for this particular purpose. Afew hours of experimentation, and ..."

  "Doctor," Dasinger interrupted, "hold it right there! So far there'sbeen no real harm in sparring around. But we're in a different situationnow ... we may be running out of time very quickly. Let's quit playinggames."

  Dr. Egavine glanced sharply across at him. "What do you mean?"

  "I mean that we both have kwil, of course. There's no reason toexperiment. But the fact that we have it is no guarantee that we'll beable to get near that generator. Leed Farous's tissues were soaked withthe drug. Graylock's outfit had weeks to determine how much each of themneeded to be able to operate within range of the machines and stay sane.We're likely to have trouble enough without trying to jockey eachother."

  Dr. Egavine cleared his throat. "But I ..."

  Dasinger interrupted again. "Your reluctance to tell me everything youknew or had guessed is understandable. You had no more reason to trustme completely than I had to trust you. So before you say anything elseI'd like you to look at these credentials. You're familiar with theFederation seal, I think."

  Dr. Egavine took the proffered identification case, glanced at Dasingeragain, then opened the case.

  "So," he said presently. "You're a detective working for the DoseyAsteroids Company...." His voice was even. "That alters the situation,of course. Why didn't you tell me this?"

  "That should be obvious," Dasinger said. "If you're an honest man, thefact can make no difference. The company remains legally bound to payout the salvage fee for the star hyacinths. They have no objection tothat. What they didn't like was the possibility of having the gemsstolen for the second time. If that's what you had in mind, youwouldn't, of course, have led an agent of the company here. In otherwords, doctor, in cooperating with me you're running no risk of beingcheated out of your half of the salvage rights."

  Dasinger patted the gun in his coat pocket. "And of course," he added,"if I happened to be a bandit in spite of the credentials, I'd beeliminating you from the partnership right now instead of talking toyou! The fact that I'm not doing it should be a sufficient guaranteethat I don't intend to do it."

  Dr. Egavine nodded. "I'm aware of the point."

  "Then let's get on with the salvage," Dasinger said. "For your furtherinformation, there's an armed Fleet ship hunting for us with piraticalintentions, and the probability is that it will find us in a matter ofhours...."

  * * * * *

  He described the situation briefly, concluded, "You've carried out yourpart of the contract by directing us here. You can, if you wish,minimize further personal risks by using the Fleet scout's lifeboat toget yourself and Quist off the planet, providing kwil will get you tothe scout. Set a normspace course for Orado then, and we'll pick you upafter we've finished the job."

  Dr. Egavine shook his head. "Thank you, but I'm staying. It's in myinterest to give you what assistance I can ... and, as you've surmised,I do have a supply of kwil. What is your plan?"

  "Getting Hovig's generator shut off is the first step," Dasinger said."And since we don't know what dosage of the drug is required for each ofus, we'd be asking for trouble by approaching the Antares in the ship.Miss Mines happens to be a kwil-sensitive, in any case. So it's going totake hiking, and I'll start down immediately now. Would Graylock and theFleetmen obey hypnotic orders to the extent of helping out dependably inthe salvage work?"

  Egavine nodded. "There is no question of that."

  "Then you might start conditioning them to the idea now. From the outerappearance of the Antares, it may be a real job to cut through insideher to get to the star hyacinths. We have the three salvage suits. If Ican make it to the generator, shut it off, and it turns out then that Ineed some hypnotized brawn down there, Miss Mines will fly over theshelter as a signal to start marching the men down."

  "Why march? At that point, Miss Mines could take us to the wreck withinseconds."

  Dasinger shook his head. "Sorry, doctor. Nobody but Miss Mines or myselfgoes aboard the Mooncat until we either wind up the job or are forced toclear out and run. I'm afraid that's one precaution I'll have to take.When you get to the Antares we'll give each of the boys a full shot ofkwil. The ones that don't go limp on it can start helping."

  Dr. Egavine said reflectively, "You feel the drug would sti
ll be arequirement?"

  "Well," Dasinger said, "Hovig appears to have been a man who tookprecautions, too. We know he had three generators and that he set offone of them. The question is where the other two are. It wouldn't be sovery surprising, would it, if one or both of them turned out to bewaiting for intruders in the vault where he sealed away the loot?"

  * * * * *

  The night was cool. Wind rustled in the ground vegetation and theoccasional patches of