Plague Ship

bather while Rip Shannon, assistant Astrogator and his senior in the Service of Trade by some four years, applied gobs of highly scented paste

g Terran who ever set boot on Sargol's soil," h

ed to estimate progr

According to Van those Salariki can talk your ears right off your head and say nothing worth hearing. And we have to sit and listen until we get a straight answe

warned, "don't you go talking against this venture. We got

laxy of 'ifs' in this Sargol proposition. All very well for you to rest easy on your fins-you don't hav

to. There are some I can think of-There," he ended his massage with a stinging slap. "You're all evenly greased. Good thing you don't have Van's bulk

ing which might be contaminated by contact with organisms inimical to

e nostrils of the Salariki. He supposed he would get used to this process. After all this was the first time he had undergone the ritual. But he couldn't lose the secret conviction that it was all very silly. Only what Rip had pointed out was the truth-one adju

ineer, screwed his too regular features into an expression

ngered, waiting for Van Rycke, the Cargo-master of the spacer and his immediate superior. It was early morning and now that he was out of the confinement

rvation ports, one could watch the constant ripple of the grass so that the planet appeared to be largely clothed in a shimmering, flowing carpet. To the west were the seas-stretches of

rting from the scented planet some of its most fragrant products. But once on Sargol he had discovered the Koros stones-gems of a new type-a handful of which offered across the board in one of the inner planet trading

n, the crew of the Solar Queen had claimed as their reward the trading rights of Traxt Cam in default of legal heirs. And so here they w

ion from hidden eyes, but he tried to show no sign that he guessed it. The adult Salariki maintained at all times an attitude of aloof and complete indifference towar

, wary, and completely detached. But Cam had gotten to them somehow-or he would not have returned from his first trip with that pouch of Koros stones. Only, among his records, salvaged on Limbo, he had left absolutely no clue as t

neck in unaccustomed trimness, his cap on his blond head, strode down the ramp, broadcasting waves of

all greased

tain coming

atience-" He led the way through a thin screen of the grass on the o

mune, taboo, and the trading stations were set up under the white diamond shield of peace, a peace guaranteed on blood oath by every clan chieftain in the district. Even i

the red soil crushed by their boots arose a pungent odor which fought with the scent they carried with them. Dane swallowed three or four times and hoped that his superior officer had not noticed that sign of discomfort. Though Van Rycke, in spite of his general air of sl

an equ

et it bother him. He swallowed the tiny pellet Medic Tau had prepared for just such trials and tried to occupy his mind with the work to come. If there w

wail, half arrogant warning, so

at heralding fanfare for a clan chieftain. And he continued to keep to the exact center

ung power was accompanied now by the hollow drum of many feet. The Terrans n

dence unless you wanted at once to acknowledge your inferiority-and if you did that by some slip of

end in the road to catch sight of the two Traders oblivious of it. Dane longed to be a

vy thud-thud of feet was slacking. The clan party had seen them

poise had its affect upon those behind. The pound of feet slowed to a walk, a walk which would keep a careful distance behind the two Terrans. It had worked-the Salariki-or these Salariki-were accepting them at their own valuation-a good o

fore they came out in the clearing containing the roofless, circular erection which served the Salariki of the district as a market place and a common meeting ground for truce talks and the mending of private clan alliances. Erect on a pole in the middle, towe

ors, and younger relatives of at least four or five clan chieftains. But, Dane noted at once, there was not a single curtained litter or riding orgel to be seen. None

ariki, marched straight on to the door of the enclosure. Two or three of the younger warriors got to their feet, their brilliant cloaks f

f plushy fur, extended down his backbone and along the outside of his well muscled arms and legs, and was tawny-yellow, blue-gray or white. To Terran eyes the broad faces, now all turned in their direction, lacked readable expression. The eyes were large and set slightly aslant in the skull, being startlingly orange-red or a brilliant turquoise green-blue. They

or-and odor. The chieftains were installed on the wooden stools, each with a small table before him on which rested a goblet bearing his own clan sign, a fo

efore his superior he set out a plastic pocket flask, its color as alive in the sunlight as the crudely cut gems which the Salariki sported, a fine silk handkerchief, and, last of all, a bottle of Terran smelling salts provided by Medic Tau as a necessary restorativ

it was Fashdor-another piece of luck-since that clan was a small one and the chieftain had l

the sea coast territory and there were seven chieftains here-indicative of the importance of this meeting since some of these clans beyond the radius of the shield peace, must be fightin

Unless-behind a face Dane strove to keep as impassive as Van's his thoughts raced. Traxt Cam as a Free Trader had bid for the right to exploit Sargol when its sole exportable product was deemed to be perfume-a small, unimportant trade as far as the Companies were concerned. And then the Koros stones had been found and the importance of Sargol must have boomed as far as the big boys could see. They probably knew of Traxt Cam's death as soon as the Patrol report on Limbo had been

y on that unoccupied stool, and a younger man in I-S uniform was putting before him the same type of equipment Dane had pro

en in combat, came into the enclosure carrying a jug in both hands. Preceded by Paft's son he made the rounds of the assembly pouring a purple liquid from his jug into the goblet before each chieftain, a goblet which Paft's heirs tasted ceremoniously before it was presented to the visiting cla

tongue of his race he repeated a formula so archaic that few of the Salariki could

and whose dusky yellow cloak and sash made a subdued note amid the splendor of his fellows

ome two tongues to speak where once there was but one father of a clan. Tell us, outlanders, w

tared across the circle at the Company man. Dane wa

and custom there should only be one. But this is a matter which can be decided between us. Give us leave to withdraw from yo

in before Halfer's s

o us. Go then until the shadow of the shield is not, then return hit

chief's possessions. With the same superiority to his surroundings he had shown upon entering, the Cargo-master left the enclosure, the Eysi

the Eysie Cargo-master was beginning whe

ou say it at the Queen and to Captain J

em as if to forcibly restrain an answer he longed to make. For a second he hesitated and then he vanished down

right up the rockets! By the Spiked Tail of Exol, this is certainly n