This World Is Taboo

et the wood afire by a blaster-bolt and then viciously sent other bolts all around the man it had sheltered when he fled from t

er. There were three men with heavy-duty blast-rifles. One was the one Calhoun had burne

uld shoot down at Calhoun. Calhoun had dropped into a hollow and pulled Maril to cover at the first sh

ated that he intended to get around to the rear, hoping there was no protectio

as behind a boulder, not too dissimilar to Calhoun's breastwork. Calhoun set fire to th

h mass and blew directly away from Calhoun. He saw that antagonist flee. He saw him so clearly that h

ading flames. Evidently, these men had had no training in battle tactics with blast-rifles. The third man also had to get away. He did

barely swirled around him and missed Maril altogether. Calhoun, though, got a whiff of something strange, not scorched or burning vegetation at all. He cea

ptoms like an extreme of agitation. He swore, but a Med Ship man would not react to such symptoms as a non-me

ly considered his sensations, and had it-panic gas. Police did not use it because panic is

tensed and twitching muscles, and a frantic impulse to convulsive action. A man in whom those p

r enemies had lost his rifle and need not be counted. Another had fled from flames and might be ignored for some moments, anyhow. But a blast-bolt struck the ship'

ook and trembled. He urged the girl and Murgatroyd in. He s

," said Maril desperatel

n. His teeth chattered and he raged, bec

ed deeply. Oxygen, obviously, should be an antidote for panic, since the symptoms of terror act to increa

is heart slowed nearly to normal and his body relaxed. He held out his hand and it did not tremble

. She hadn't spo

thought! They could be somebody else, maybe criminals w

characters. I'm afraid there may be more on the way here from wherever they keep themselves.

med in the stillness outside the ship, cutting through

four days ago, one day after the cargo ship from here arrived with everybody on board dead. On Weal

y, fast! One more warning! There's talk of fusion-bombing Dara. They're scared! If they find

the hills. But it was very clear. Where it could be hear

waited a reasonable time. Then he shrugge

uade desperate men that they've outsma

hip began to climb. It sped up and up and up. By the time it was out of atmosphere i

ns after leaving a planet which rotates at its own individual speed. Then one computes the overdrive cour

k of picking out a fourth-magnitude star of whose planets one

g," he said pres

falling in a wildly unlikely spiral. Then stillness, and solidity, and th

l Maril said uneasily, "I d

be I succeeded. I don't know. But this thing's been mishandled! Even if there's a famine people shouldn

hat I was ...

p generations ago! But it's not only a Med Service obligation; it's a current mess! Before I could begin to get at the basic problem, those id

hook he

hey went there, they should at least have stayed on a continent where there were no people from Weald di

he people who sighted them before they could get back with the news! But it looks like miners saw men

for him t

to be wiped out or the story that blueskins were on Orede had to be discredited. The blueskins tried for both. They used p

ve settled the whole business nicely. After it was over every man in the settlement would believe h

hey might try to verify the blueskin story later, but they wou

she

the astrogator-in panic!-took off. They headed for Weald and threw on the overdrive-which would be set for Weald anyhow-because that would be the fastest way t

, Maril asked, "You don't thin

se of public tumult. But it's too dangerous. Nobody knows what one man will do in a panic. Take a hundred or

don't bla

Calhoun fretfully. "But if I'd

u born?" asked

ara. Just because I act as if Darians were human doesn't mean I have to be one! I'm

And if Weald thinks it finds proof that blueskins are in space again and caused the death of Weal

as well drop bombs. It'll be qu

her, more exaspe

onditions already?" When she nodded again he said drearily, "And of course famine is t

Then he sat

nd going into the other cabin? Murgatroyd and I would like a little relaxation from reality. With luc

d brooding. It can be a form of wallowing in self-pity, engaged in for emotional satisfaction. But it can be, also, a way of bringing out unfavorable fac

were marked by patches of blue pigment as an inherited consequence of a plague of three generations past. Because of the marking, which it was easy to believe a

t Orede, monstrous herds of cattle without owners. It was natural enough for Darians to build a ship or ships and try to brin

placably the enemy of the starving planet's population. Weald itself prospered. Ironically, it h

lks, while the people of Dara starved and only dared try to steal-if it

r. They'd been abandoned and betrayed by all of humanity off their world. They'd been threatened and op

and climbed to his cubbyhole and curled up to sleep

e. They were not part of the random noises carefully generated to keep the silence of the sh

the sleeping cabin. The

commanded thr

t it was not quite steady. She paused. "Did

you'd tell me the truth just o

peared. She looked as if she'd been crying. She said, quick

n out here wishing I could, because I'm frustrated. But since you aren't asleep maybe you can help m

lowed. "

e?" he

head out of his mini

asked int

sleep!" snap

o pace bac

things now-first things first, you know. But this is a first thing! So long as Darians don't look like the peop

es and different shapes and they appear in differen

t all," said the

houg

ople are born with bluish splotches on their skin, but they fade out while they're children. When they

un st

ibly be proved to

alhoun remembered, an

ractically never heard of Dara, and where the name meant nothing. You could have settled there,

ly. "My parents, my brother

took note but did not commen

whole group of virus particles! Normally we humans are immune to them. One has to be in terrifically bad physical condition for them to take hold and p

Murgatroyd swung down to the floor and

d Murgatroyd's tiny cu

he blue patches appeared after the plague, didn't

professional considerations. He was not talking to he

edly. "Are there any more humili

lly, "I'm stupid, Maril, but you're

een killed on Weald if I'd been known as ... what I am! And there's Korvan, who arranged for me to be sent away as a spy an

led his foreh

repeated. "Dri

she said bitterly

n told her, "you may get your wish. All

rd the door to the cabin.

ar

ha

re you

understand," s

ompetent. But there is no profession in which a really competent man tries to understand women. Calhoun, annoyed,

on of information on exactly the subject he needed. He left the control room to go down into the storage areas of t

h a sealed-tight phial of glass was embedded. It frosted instantly he took it out, and when the st

. He set the plastic block in a container which would raise it very, very gradually to a specific temperature and hold it there. It was, obvi

, "may be a good day's wor

or maybe not. Calhoun lay relaxed in a chair which at the touch of a button became the most com

e feeling of life alive in the ship. But for such infinitesimal stirrings of sound, caref

h the taped sounds of morning activities as faint as echoe

osted-in the culture microscope and saw its enclosed, infinitesimal particles of life in the process of multiplying on the food that had been fro

fasted, with Murgatroyd eating from his own plat

"I think I can get you a hearing for wh

ou," murmu

are a planet in quarantine, so cutting it off from all interstellar commerce, should be enough to force coop

on Dara could not be expected to be levelheaded. They had a history of isolation and outlawry, an

nfluence you'll ex

official position, but he was certain to become prominent. I'll tell him how you've acted up to n

lhoun, nodding. "Th

d. "How di

houn dryly. "All righ

d all the next. The girl was very quiet. Murgatroyd tried to enter into p

ok forward with confidence to the future. But when contact and, in a fashion, conflict with other and larger worlds loomed neare

the control board an

sten, which is unlikely, and follow my advice, which they probably won't; and if Weald doesn't get t

do your best," sa

inning and the end. It was now time for the end. He might find most anything having happened. His plans might immedi

the sun about which the planet Dara revolved. Calhoun went into a short hop toward it.

ound. There was confusion, as if the request were so unusual that the answers were not ready. The grid, too, w

isting her fingers within each other,

he darkness, with blast-rifles trained on him. There

hing you get blasted! Your ship and its cont