Pariah Planet

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

-so Calhoun presently discovered-was working his way behind underbrush to a shelf from which he could shoot down at Calhoun. Calhoun had dropped into a hollow and pulled Maril to cover at the first shot. The second man happily planned to get to a point where he could sh

point at which the other man aimed. That, then, made his effort useless. Then Calhoun sent a dozen bolts at the other man's rocky shield. It heated up. Steam rose in a whitish mass and bl

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

he helped and urged Maril onward, he automatically considered his sensations, and had it. Panic gas! Police did not use it because panic is worse than rioting. Calhoun felt all the physical symptoms of fear and of gibbering terror. A man whose mind yields to

their 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 t

ok and trembled. He urged the girl and Murgatroyd in. He sla

," said Maril desperatel

n. His teeth chattered and he raged, bec

ce the symptoms of terror act to increase the oxygenation of the blood-stream and muscles, and to make superhuman exertion possible if necessary. Breathing ninety-five per

. She hadn't spoke

thought! They could be somebody else-maybe criminals wh

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

oomed in the stillness outside the ship, cutting t

On Weald they don't know how it happened, but they suspect blueskins. Sooner or later they'll search here. Get away! Cover up your tracks! Hide all signs that you've ever been here! Get the h

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

waited a reasonable time. Then he shrugge

ade desperate men that they've out-smar

. He busied himself with those astrogational chores which began with orienting oneself to galactic directions after leaving a planet which rotates at its own individual speed. Then one computes the overdrive course to another planet, from the respectiv

g," he said pres

ing in a wildly unlikely spiral. Then stillness, and solidity, and the blackn

le, the girl Mar

ow what you

to get going, fast. Maybe I succeeded. I don't know. But this thing's been misha

that I was-v

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

digging a mine and hunting cattle for sport on their off days! They could be spotted! I believe they were! And again, if it had been a long way from the mine installation, they could probably have wiped ou

for him t

e them crazy and they charged the settlement like the four-footed lunatics they are! And the blueskins used panic-gas on the settlement itself as the cattle went through. It should have settled the whole business nicely. After it was over every man in the settlement would believe he

So Calhoun said

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

a long interv

k the-Darians i

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

alhoun fretfully. "But if I'd b

u born?" asked

d his head ar

I think I should." His tone became exasperated. "Dammit, I'm supposed to deal with health situations, actual and possible causes of human deaths! And if Weald thinks it fi

said f

bombs. It'll be quicker t

her more exasper

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

Then he sat

d flatly. "I'd like

icked up a book and wen

he situation of the people of the planet Dara. Those people were marked by patches of blue pigment as an inherited consequence of a plag

esperately necessary enterprise had now roused Weald to a frenzy of apprehension. Weald was if possible more hysterically afraid of blueskins than ever before, and even more implacably the enemy of the starving planet's population. Weald itself throve and prospered. Ironically, it had such an ex

. They'd been abandoned and betrayed by all of humanity beyond their world. They'd been threatened and

oun pon

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

the sleeping-cabin. The

commanded thr

e. But it was not quite steady. She pa

t you'd tell me the truth oc

oor opened and Maril appeared. She looked

ueer, but it's bec

een out here wishing I could sleep, because I'm frustrated. But since you aren't asleep maybe you

swal

ll

e?" he

head out of his mini

asked int

sleep!" snap

o pace bac

is a first thing! So long as Darians don't look like the people of other worlds, they'll be considered different. If they look repulsive, they'll be thought of as

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

houn remembered, and st

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

ly. "My parents, my brother

ook note but did not comment on

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 pr

em. As usual, Murgatroyd swung dow

Chee!

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

er. Then he s

ut you're touchy. The

been 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 and

led his foreh

repeated, "Dri

she said bitterly

old her, "you may get your wish. All right

the door to the sleeping-cab

e called o

ha

re you

understand," s

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

orage areas of the Med Ship's hull. He found an ultra-frigid storage box, whose contents were kept at the temperature of liquid air. He donned thick gloves, used a special set of tongs, and extracted a tiny block o

. 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

he most comfortable of sleeping-places. Murgatroyd remained in his cubbyhole, his tail curled over his nose. There were comforting, unheard, easily dismissable murmurings now and again. T

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

with great reserve

"I think I can get you a hearing for-wh

Calhoun. "May I ask whos

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

lhoun, nodding. "Th

star

id you

houn drily. "All righ

biological lab all that ship-day and

and larger worlds loomed nearer, prospects seemed less bright. Calhoun had definite plans, now, but there were so many ways in which they could be frustrated! Weald's political leaders could not oppose hysterical demands for acti

the control-board an

I can make somebody on Dara listen and follow my advice and if Weald doesn't

do your best," sa

and the end. It was now time for the end. He might find that absolutely anything had happened while he made plans which would

de of the blazing yellow star. It took time to reach it. He called down, identifying himself and the ship and asking for co?rdinates so his ship could be brought to ground. There was confusion, as if th

isting her fingers within each other,

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

hing you get blasted! Your ship and its cont