He was in one of his exultant moods, but to a degree she had never seen before.
"Tan's luck—" she said before she thought.
He nodded vigorously. "Tan's luck! And it is goingto help us—help us win a whole world for man again!But they're coming—listen!"
She could hear Jacel's heavy breathing, and thensomething else, a light pattering. There was a gleamof light beyond the door, and those Tan expected arrived. Ayana gasped and shrank back.
These were not the furred creatures of the bridgewhich she had half expected, but something she instinctively found repulsive.
They scuttled on their hind feet, but they hadnaked tails at the ends of their spines. And they were small, the largest standing a little above her knee atits full height. Fur grew on them in ragged patches,with naked skin between. On some, the smaller, thatfur was a dirty gray; on the two largest it was white.Their heads had the long, narrow muzzles of animalsshowing sharp teeth. Against the domes of their skullstheir ears were pointed.
Ayana hated them on sight. She watched with frozen horror as Tan advanced to greet the tallest white furred one, which seemed to be their leader, squattingdown so that his head came closer to that of the creature.
Around its neck hung a small box. It reached withone paw—hand?—and touched that. Then it uttereda series of squeaks, but from the box came distortedbut still recognizable words.
"Chief-waits-hurry-hurry—"
"She is here." Tan nodded toward Ayana. "She isready."
"No!" Ayana cried. Not for all the knowledge, allthe treasure of this world heaped up before her, wouldshe go with these small horrors deeper into their burrows.
Tan, on his feet, came at her, and she could not getaway. She could not even slip along the wall out of hisreach.
"Little fool!" He caught her arm in so painful a gripthat she gasped. "Do you go with them on your owntwo feet, or do I inject you with a sleep-shot and let them carry you? No stupidity is going to wreck myplans now, do you understand?"
And she knew that he would do just that. If shewent, perhaps with an outward show of willingness,she could at least see the road they took, might evenbe able to escape. If he drugged her and they tookher—no, she had no choice.
"Try no tricks with them, they are not animals."Tan showed his teeth almost as if they were the fangsof the waiting squad. "Jacel discovered that. Now getgoing—"
He gave her a push, and she stumbled toward thedoor. Around her the creatures closed in.
Ayana stood looking about, first in bewilderment andthen with a growing excitement which drew her attention from those chittering things which had broughther here—and even from Tan, who had followed behind and with whom she had not spoken since thisnightmare began. For he had actually picked up andcarried the chief horror—that half bald, half white furred leader, exchanging speech with him. The girlhad pushed ahead to avoid that monstrous companionship. For monstrous her emotions told her it was!
But this place! She had studied in detail everyscrap of information having to do with medical knowledge that they had found in the looted tape banks ofthe First Ships. Ayana had had access in addition toall the combined learning, surmise, and speculation ofthose who had had more than a hundred years beforeher to study the same records.
So now she turned slowly about, surveying a vastand much better lighted chamber, cut by many partitions rising to her shoulder height or beyond, intobooths and cubicles. This was indeed a medical centersuch as her teachers had hardly dared dream existed on the parent world.
Some of the machines she recognized from old diagrams—diagnostic, operative, healing— For a moment,in her amazement and excitement, Ayana forgot hercompany and went forward confidently, pausing hereand there before an installation she did know, passingfor now those she could not understand. Why—withthese—if they still worked—one could cure a nation!
Ayana put out her hand, ran fingertips along theouter transparent wall of a healing cell. If they worked! But how long had it been since they had beenput to use? She might be able to work out the procedure for activating those she did know, always providing they were intact. But if their machinery was atfault, she had no way of knowing what a tech would do to put that right again.
She passed down one aisle between those partitionsand came into an open space. There before her—
That table—the smell-—the pools of—blood! Ayanarecoiled as she faced it. Amid the sterile disuseof the rest of the place, this was like a blow in theface, to bring her to the realization of how she hadcome here. The tangle of blood-stained instrumentsthrown in an ugly pile on one end of the table hintedmore of cruel butchery than of any desire to heal,What had they done here—these small monsters withwhom Tan seemed to have made some evil pact?
"Well?" Tan's voice from behind made her start,"What do you think of this? Did I not tell you therewas more to be found than you could guess? Now240
“Oudu wants to know if you can use it to cure hischief."
She looked away from that blood-stained tablewith a shudder, tried to close her mind to it. And shewas able to find voice enough to croak:
"Some of this was on the tapes. The rest"—Ayanashook her head—"is new. And we do not know whether the power works."
"Oudu will know." He looked at that thing he carried, as if, Ayana thought, it was human!
"Some work—" The dry rustle of the words overlaythe shrill chittering as the box on the creature's chesttranslated. "There is material to try with—"
"Material?" Ayana could not force herself to lookdirectly at Oudu, nor address it—him. "What does hemean?"
"I believe they have been experimenting for themselves. They have taken prisoners from time to time,the animals roaming in here. They use them, just asour ancestors used to do. That's why those were herein the first place—they were lab animals."
"We—we were helpers of the Great Ones!" camethat other voice. "Workers here. The others, they wereused to try the machines upon—as we do now. Butmany escaped, many lie in wait—kill—destroy. Theydestroy the records, the knowledge. Soon all will begone if we do not stop them."
"See?" Tan demanded. "We have to stop such destruction—or we'll lose everything."
"Do not waste time!' Oudu cut in. "Shimog dies.Let this knowing female use her knowledge to makeShimog live again.'
Ayana swallowed. "I have to see-see—"
"Naturally. They have him down here." Tan passedthat ghastly table as if it did not exist, and she followed, glad to leave it. But she knew now that sheplayed a game, and it would not be Tan's. No alliancewith these things—she could not do it. Not for all theknowledge here!
Not even, asked something within her, if it meansthe success or failure of your mission? The life or deathof those on Elhorn? But Elhorn was far away, andhere—here was now, before her. She could only follow Tan's lead for a time, waiting for a chance, a plan,to wrest herself free of this nightmare.
They came to a cubicle at the end of the line, andthere was a gathering of the creatures, several onguard at the door, two by the cot within. Lying on thecot was one even larger than Oudu and even morescantily furred.
It—he—was swollen of paunch. And the skin, whereit showed, was dark, scaled with sores.
Breath cameand went in slow, heavy panting, -as if the effort tobreathe was almost too great. Its attendants drewback as Ayana forced herself on her knees close to thecreature.
She could not find any pity, even when the thingturned its head a fraction and looked at her. For theconsciousness within those eyes was coldly evil.Ayana recognized intelligence of a type so alien to all she believed in that it was like meeting black anddeadly hatred formed into a repulsive body.
There was no way of telling how or why Shimogsuffered. She could only guess that it was from somedisease. But that might be native to this planet, or tothe creature's own foul species. Certainly she hadnever seen such symptoms before.
"What can you do?" Tan demanded impatiently.What? She had no idea. Except one. She had seensomething out there she had recognized-—a renewalchamber. If this Shimog was in the least responsive towhat would act for humans, that might be the besthope.
"The renewal chamber. If the installation works—that might help."
"A machine?" Oudu demanded. "You can run thismachine?"
"I have seen directions for such," she answered,careful not to make any promises to these small devils. "I would have to try it, to make sure that it wasrunning properly, before we used it on your chief."
"To do so then you must have an animal?" camethe swift demand.
"But it will only work on one hurt—or ill.""We have what is needed."
Oudu did not add to that, but he might have givensome inaudible order, for most of those who had comewith them scurried away.
Troubled, Ayana arose. "I must see the renewer—"Free of that cubicle with its fetid odor, its aura ofdark hate, she ran back to the glass-walled booth withthe soft flooring. It was large enough to accommodatesome twenty beings of Shimog's size, perhaps five hu, mans.
She did not open the door, but went to the controls.I Since she could not set for any particular disease,well, it would be full treatment. Yes, here were thesymbols she had seen on the tapes. And a single finger-press brought an answering spark of lifeworked! At least the power was still on. And—
Ayana whirled—those sounds!
Toward her—she wanted to be sick. Those theywere dragging, crying, babbling. No—this was a deadly nightmare! Then her head rang as Tan slapped herhard across the face.
"Those are only animals, experimental animals, doyou understand? Sure, the Rattons don't play prettywith their enemies but neither do the animals withRattons!"
Ayana caught her tongue between her teeth, bit onit. Tan—was this Tan? Not her Tan but the one whohad come alive since they had landed on this cursedworld. For cursed it had to be!
The nightmare crew pulled, rolled those torn andmangled bodies into the renewal chamber, slammedthe door. "Get to it!" Tan's hands on her shoulders broughther about before the controls. "Prove it, one way orthe other."
She could not think straight—but she must. Thosepoor wrecks, perhaps she could give them merciful unconsciousness, death. Ayana sent the machine intohumming life. She did not look into the chamber asshe jerked the lever up to full power, hoping thatwould kill mercifully, quickly. Now she was disciplining her thoughts into some kind of coherent order.
She would never join Tan in his alliance with theseRattons—not ever! There was a point past which nothought of gain could carry one. And Ayana wasthere. Therefore, if she was to get out of this venture, she would have to move before the Rattons realized that she was not their ally.
Tan had taken her stunner, but she had somethingelse in her kit which could be a weapon. If she couldget that in hand—
"This will take time." She kept her voice level."And Shimog—a sedative might help."
"Give it to him then."
Still not looking into the chamber, Ayana wentback to the ailing leader. She brought out openly what she needed, charged it. Luckily Tan knew nomore than the necessary medic first aid. Correct dosage of this meant nothing to him.
"I will give your leader"—she would not look toOudu—"sleep that he may rest until the machine isproven."
"Not so!" Oudu's harsh protest shook her, thoughshe hoped not to open betrayal. "Prove no harm—Mog!"
One of the guards came forward.
"Prove on Mog."
"Very well." She held the injector to the Ratton'sforearm, pressed the plunger.
He blinked, gave a little sigh, and crumpled to thefloor. Oudu bent over him for a moment.
"Truth. Mog sleeps. Let Shimog also sleep."
Ayana bent to that task. The easiest part of herplan was over. She screwed at the cap of the injectoras if closing it. But instead she opened it to full. Nowshe held a weapon of a sort, one meant to handle perhaps even more than one difficult patient at a time,ones who could not be closely approached.
What she had used on Mog and Shimog had been but a small portion of the dosage with which she hadcharged this. The trouble now was the difference inheight between her enemies—Tan so much the taller.
Because of his superior height and strength, she decided he must go first. Ayana arose, still watchingShimog, as if she wished to be sure of his condition.Then she turned swiftly, the injector ready.
Straight into Tan's face went that subduing spray.She had no time to see its efficacy as she went on toaim at the Rattons.
"You—you!" Tan's hands came at her. His fingersactually closed on her arm, then loosened as he wentdown. Around him the Rattons, bewildered by her attack, also wilted.
Ayana caught up her kit. She did not know howlong they would be unconscious. By the time they recovered, she must be well away from here—perhapseven back to the ship, if that were possible.
But before she left she had one more duty, to make surethose poor things in the chamber were safely dead,their suffering over.
Down one aisle, up the next, then she was at thechamber where the motor purred on. She looked in—
It was not possible!
With both hands flat against the glass Ayanawatched something out of a wild dream. Lost, mangled limbs, mutilated bodies—they could not regrow—heal—in this fashion! She had turned the power tofull force. Had she, in hopes for a swift death for thewreckage the Rattons had dragged there, done justthe opposite—given them not only life, but healedsuch hurts as she had thought no living thing couldlong survive?
If—if this was happening as her eyes reported-—then she could not go and leave them. Once the Rattons recovered, knew she was gone, then the vengeance they would take on these—! She would havecondemned them to far worse torment.
But the changes, the healing, although alreadyspectacular, would have to be complete, and how longdared she wait?
Ayana opened her kit. She had one more charge ofthe sedative, but it was less than the full one she hadjust used. Her only chance would be to keep watch onthose she had left with Shimog. What if others came?Shimog was their leader. Would there not be visitors,a changing of guard?