Plague Ship

Wilcox had plotted a course which would cut that flight time to a minimum. But this voyage there was little relaxation once they were in Hyper. No matter when Dane dropped into the mess cabin, w

had to absorb before he could take his place as an equal with such a trader as Van Rycke-if he had the stuff which would raise him in time to that exalted level. While he had still had his superior's favor he had dared to treat him as an instructor, going to him with perplexing problems of stowage or barter. But now he had no des

r his work with old records, to discover no Mura busy in the galley beyond, no brew steaming on

or a mug, then seeing no pot o

k's s

ad run into on Sargol had a logical base. B

headache and he blacked out when he

"Could be som

d he didn't eat anything from outside, he swore that to

eward had not been at the feast, had not sampled native food products, wi

e doorway. "He said yesterday that he had

topped short as the implications of

d Kamil and was answering for himself. "Wh

" Rip replied bluntly. "Did he do anything

No. And he wasn't dirt-side to any extent either. So Tau's running tests-"

He shoved the tape back in its case and pulled out the next one. Sinbad was there, not in his own private hammock, but sprawled out on the Cargo-master's bunk. He watched Dane la

ver to scratch under a furry chin raised for the benefi

tead he reached out and fingered the label of the tape Dane had just chosen. After a glance at the identifying symbol he took it out of his assistant's hand, plopped it back i

back as if some weight had been lifted from them. The old easiness was still lac

ane went back to his own cabin, snapped the tape into his reade

first two moves, when he opened his eyes to see Ali at the door panel. The Engine

s question lacke

lp." Ali was terse.

ropped his feet to the de

The giant jetman was almost double his size. "We mu

ued good health meant the most to the Queen. If some infection were aboard it would be better for Ali and himself to

is own cubby. He had been making for his quarters when the seizure had taken him. And by the time

to his bunk where he collapsed again, dead weight

au

Ali was jerking at the thigh strap

to the next section and threaded the narrow side ha

ed out, deep lines of weariness bracket

ad news quickly. "He's collap

f surprise. His hand

ded an order. "Stay in your quarters until

onment, but inwardly rebelling against it. Rather than sit idle he snapped on the reader-but, although facts and figures were dun

he Free Trader it was the extra and invisible crewman on every ship that raised. But there were deaths and deaths-And Dane could no

d" lights on at its nose-a ship which through five centuries had been sighted only by a spacer in similar distress. Such stories were numerous. There were other tales of "plague" ships wandering free with their dead crews, or discovered and shot into some sun by

Tau. At the Medic's orders he stripped for one of the most complete examinations he had ever undergone outside a quarantine port.

ow any signs yet," he amended his first stateme

e you loo

d two places on the back of his neck and under his shoulder blades. "Kosti and Mura both have red eruptions here. It's as if they have been gi

t M

other hand you are all right so far and you were off ship. And Ali's clean and he was with you on the hunt. We'll just have to wai

course for Terra-but-and that but must have loomed large in all their minds-once there would they be allowed to land? Could they even hope for a hearing? Plague ship-Tau m

rsing and Tau, unable to be in two places at once, finally pic

in charge of the galley and, while he did not have Mura's deft hand at disguising the monotonous concentrates to the point they resembled fresh f

ss showed on new members of the crew. It became routine to parade before Tau stripped to the wai

the patients lapsed into a semi-conscious state as if they were under sedation of some type. They would eat, if the food

diseases, trying to find the reason for their attacks. But as yet his discoveries were exactly nothing. He had come ou

ame 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

e. He did not have the heart to shake Tau into wakefulness-let the poor devil get a

s back, leaping up on Dane's knee. He did not curl up, but rubbed against the young man's arm, finally reach

second a wild surmise came into his mind. Sinbad had been planet-side on Sargol as much as he could,

time in their cabins-not Kosti. The cat, as far as he knew, had never shown any particular fondness for the jetman and certainly did

common, they were not even of the same race. Frank Mura was one of the few descendants of a mysterious (or now mysterious) people who had had their home on a series of islands in one of Terra's seas, islands which almost a hundred years before had been swallowed up in a series of world-rending quakes-Japan was the

air and assumed a measure of alertness. Dane dropped the now purring cat in the Medic

drank thirstily from the mug Dane gave him for the second time.

atly as Mura kept them. He didn't have much faith in the Si

s day Dane was not greatly concerned. But he was alerted t

ything o

e lab," Dan

protested. "And Weeks says he has

s Tau on the trail of a discovery which had kept him chained to th

e he isn't

ay he had come, with Dane on his heels, an unwelcome explanation for that silence in both their minds. And their fears were rein

e as if he were trying to quiet some agony. Dane stripped down the Medic's under tunic. There was no

abin. "Did Sinbad get out past you

n't seen h

d the panel before they carried Tau to his bunk. The Medic had blacked out again, passed into the lethargic sec

as he made his report directl

d him, he slept on your bunk. Yet you and Van are all right. I don't understan

ed men who listened. With Tau-their one hope of fighti

rding of choice items of commerce. To his vast surprise Sinbad began fighting wildly as he opened the hatch, kicking and then slashing with ready claws. The cat seemed to go mad and Dane had all he could do to shut him in. When he snapped the panel he heard Sinbad l

too familiar to the crew of the Solar Queen. And Dane knew that when he looked