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Da da da da.... Voices took up the thud-thud of the drums, the heads of the squatting men moved in a slow swing from side to side. Tau's hand closed about Dane's wrist and the younger man looked around, startled, to see that the medic's eyes were alight, that he was watching the assembly with the alertness of Sindbad approaching prey. "Calculate the stowage space in Number One hold!"
For a moment, fearing himself under physical attack, he struck out convulsively, and then as the face withdrew he sat up slowly. He was slightly nauseous; very dizzy; and his instincts told him that he needed a gallon of coffee as soon as he could get it. Then the medic's voice penetrated. "Please, sir, you must rest. No excitement." Almost, he was persuaded.
Ringg added. "You know that Mentorian the young one, the medic's assistant?" "I've seen her. Her name's Meta, I think." Suddenly, Bart wished the Mentorian girl were with him here. It would be nice to hear a human voice. "Oh, is it a female? Mentorians all look alike to me," Ringg said, while Bart controlled his face with an effort.
"Get Hovan under cover," he ordered. "I'm going to crash the tower door!" Hasty movements answered that as the Medic's limp body was thrust under the cover offered by the upper framework of the crawler. Luckily the machine had been built for heavy duty on rugged worlds where roadways were unknown.
But Dane was there first, catching the medic before he slumped to the ground; but he was dragged with that dead weight until he sat with the medic's head on his shoulder, the other's body resting heavily against him. For one horror-filled moment Dane feared that he did indeed hold a dead man, that one of the outlaw Hunters must have struck a last blow for his discredited leader.
As it was, he drew his ray and aimed it at that shambling thing. Tau struck up the barrel. The medic's face was livid; there was the same horror in his eyes. But he moved out to front that monster. A spot of shadow coalesced on the ground, deepened in hue, took on substance.
Glad for the task Dane sped up the ladder to the next section and threaded the narrow side hall to the Medic's cabin where he knocked on the panel. There was a pause before Craig Tau looked out, deep lines of weariness bracketing his mouth, etched between his eyes. "Kosti, sir," Dane gave his bad news quickly. "He's collapsed. We got him to his cabin " Tau showed no sign of surprise.
Then he took his hands away and stared up-slope. Dane watched the medic's eyelids blink slowly. "Nothing but black or brown?" Tau pressed. "No." Jellico supported his injured arm upon his knees, leaning forward, as intent upon the designated rock as if he expected it to assume some far more startling appearance. "Queer," Tau said to himself, and then added briskly, "You're right, of course.
No, all the way along the two victims had only very general meeting points they both shipped on the Solar Queen and they were both of Terran birth. Tau stirred and sat up, blinking bemusedly at Dane, then pushed back his wiry black hair and assumed a measure of alertness. Dane dropped the now purring cat in the Medic's lap and in a few sentences outlined his suspicion.
His hands were at his head which rolled from side to side as if he were trying to quiet some agony. Dane stripped down the Medic's under tunic. There was no need to make a careful examination, in the hollow of Craig Tau's throat was the tell-tale red blotch. "Sinbad!" Dane glanced about the cabin. "Did Sinbad get out past you?" he demanded of the puzzled Ali. "No I haven't seen him all day "
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