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Updated: May 28, 2025
The Medic addressed the table top rather than the amateur cook. "It's a poison of some kind. Kosti went dirt-side Mura didn't. Yet Mura came down with it first. And we didn't ship any food from Sargol. Neither did he eat any while we were there. Unless he did and we didn't know about it. If I could just bring him to long enough to answer a couple of questions!"
And the portly Sinbad, before their landing on Sargol, had never presented any problem. He had done his duty of ridding the ship of unusual and usual pests and cargo despoilers with dispatch, neatness and energy. And when in port on alien worlds had never shown any inclination to go a-roving.
The harvesting of Koros stones was, as Dane and all those who had been briefed from Cam's records knew, a perilous job. Though the rule of the Salariki was undisputed on the land masses of Sargol, it was another matter in the watery world of the shallow seas.
Yet Traxt Cam had brought back his bag of gems somehow he had managed to secure them in trade. Van Rycke climbed the ramp, hurrying on into the Queen as if he would not get back to his records soon enough. But Dane paused and looked back at the grass jungle a little wistfully. To his mind these early morning hours were the best time on Sargol.
Consequently they had produced and forced upon the reluctant Van Rycke the Koros collection of their order, with instructions that it be sold on Terra and the price returned to them in the precious seeds and plants. In vain the Cargo-master and Captain had pointed out that Galactic trade was a chancy thing at the best, that accident might prevent return of the Queen to Sargol.
But the scents of Sargol had apparently intoxicated him, shearing away his solid dignity and middle-aged dependability.
They were not, after their late experiences so entranced with Terraport that they wanted to linger in its environs any longer than they had to. "We lose the Sargol contract " That did hurt. But they had resigned themselves to it since the hour when they had realized that they could not make it back to the perfumed planet. "To Inter-Solar?" Wilcox asked the important question.
Rip sat at the table, his long legs stuck out, his usually happy face very sober. "What's wrong?" Dane reached for a mug, then seeing no pot of drink, put it back in place. "Frank's sick " "What!" Dane turned. Illness such as they had run into on Sargol had a logical base. But illness on board ship was something else. "Tau has him isolated.
With Ali's help he shouldered aside the heavy sliding panel and they looked into the cargo space, now filled with the red wood from Sargol. The redwood! When he saw it Dane was struck with their stupidity. Aside from the Koros stones in the stone box, only the wood had come from the Salariki world.
"There was just the wood we stowed it according to chart." Van Rycke grunted once more. "Feeling top-layer again?" "Yes, sir. Any orders, sir?" "No. Blast-off's at six." "Yes, sir." Dane left the cabin, closing the panel carefully behind him. Would he or could he he thought drearily, get back in Van Rycke's profit column again? Sargol had been unlucky as far as he was concerned.
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