Starman Jones Read online

  “I hope it poisons me so I can lie down and die. Max, I can’t go much farther.”

  “Chin up, kid. We’ll get out of this. I’ve been keeping track of where we’ve gone.” He hesitated, then drank also, being terribly thirsty. The centaur let them, then tugged them on.

  It was as far again to the rising ground and forest on the other side. They had thought that they were as tired as they could be before they started up hill; they were mistaken. The centaur was agile as a goat and seemed surprised that they found it difficult. Finally, Ellie collapsed and would not get up; the centaur came back and stirred her roughly with a three-toed hoof.

  Max struck him with both fists. The centaur made no move to retaliate but looked at him with that same stupid astonishment. Their rear guard came up and conversed with it, after which they waited for perhaps ten minutes. Max sat down beside Ellie and said anxiously, “Feeling any better?”

  “Don’t talk.”

  Presently, the guard edged between them and drove Max back by stepping on him, whereupon the other centaur tugged on Ellie’s leash. It contracted and she was forced to scramble to her feet. The centaurs let them rest twice after that. After an endless time, when the local sun was dropping low in the west, they came out on flat table and, still heavily wooded. They continued through trees for a distance which Max’s count of paces told him was under a mile but seemed like ten, then stopped.

  They were in a semi-clearing, a space carpeted with fallen needles. Their guard came up to the other centaur and took from him the end of Max’s leash, flipped it around the base of a tree, to which it clung. The other centaur did the same with Ellie’s leash to another tree about forty feet away. Having done so, they roughly urged the two together, while stopping to stroke their bonds until they were stretched out very thin. It allowed Max and Ellie enough slack that they might have passed each other.

  This did not seem to please the centaurs. One of them shifted Max’s leash farther back into the surrounding bushes, dragging him with it. This time at the extreme limit allowed by their bonds they were about six feet apart. “What are they doing?” asked Ellie.

  “Looks like they don’t want us to combine forces.”

  Finished, the centaurs trotted away. Ellie looked after them, began to sob, then cried openly, tears running down her dirty face and leaving tracks. “Stow it,” Max said harshly. “Sniffling will get us nowhere.”

  “I can’t help it,” she bawled. “I’ve been brave all day—at least I’ve tried to be. I…” She collapsed face down and let herself go.

  By getting down prone and stretching Max could just reach her head. He patted her tangled hair. “Take it easy, kid,” he said softly. “Cry it out, if you’ll feel better.”

  “Oh, Maxie! Tied up…like a dog.”

  “We’ll see about that.” He sat up and examined his tether.

  Whatever the ropelike leash was, it was not rope. It had a smooth shiny surface which reminded him more of a snake, though the part that wound around his ankle showed no features; it simply flowed around his ankle and merged back into itself.

  He lifted the bight and detected a faint throbbing. He stroked it as he had seen the centaurs do and it responded with flowing pulsations, but it neither shrank nor grew longer, nor did it loosen its grip. “Ellie,” he announced, “this thing is alive.”

  She lifted a woebegone face. “What thing?”

  “This rope.”

  “Oh, that! Of course.”

  “At least,” he went on, “if it isn’t, it’s not really dead.” He tried his knife again, there was no effect. “I’ll bet if I had a match I could make it cry ‘Uncle.’ Got an Everlite, Ellie?”

  “I don’t smoke.”

  “Neither do I. Well, maybe I can make a fire some other way. Rubbing two sticks together, or something.”

  “Do you know how?”

  “No.” He continued stroking and patting the living rope, but, though he always got a response in pulsations, he did not seem to have the right touch; the bond stayed as before. He was continuing this fruitless attempt when he heard his name called. “Max! Ellie!”

  Ellie sat up with a jerk. “Chipsie! Oh, Max, she followed us. Come here, darling!”

  The spider puppy was high above them in a tree. She looked carefully around, then scurried down, making the last ten feet a flying leap into Ellie’s arms. They cuddled and made soft noises, then Ellie straightened up, her eyes shining. “Max, I feel so much better.”

  “So do I.” He added, “Though I don’t know why.”

  The spider puppy announced gravely, “Chipsie follow.”

  Max reached across and petted her. “Yes, Chipsie did. Good girl!”

  Ellie hugged the spider puppy. “I don’t feel deserted now, Max. Maybe everything will come out all right.”

  “Look, Ellie, we’re not in too bad a spot. Maybe I’ll find the combination to tickle these ropes or snakes or whatever so they’ll give up. If I do, we’ll sneak back tonight.”

  “How would we find our way?”

  “Don’t worry. I watched every foot of the way, every change of direction, every landmark.”

  “Even in the dark?”

  “Easier in the dark. I know these stars—I sure ought to. But suppose we don’t get loose; we still aren’t licked.”

  “Huh? I don’t relish spending my life tied to a tree.”

  “You won’t. Look—I think these things are just curious about us. They won’t eat us, that’s sure—they probably live on grass. Maybe they’ll get bored and turn us loose. But if they don’t, it’ll be rough on them.”

  “Huh? Why?”

  “Because of Mr. Walther and George Daigler—and Sam, Sam Anderson; that’s why. They’re probably beating the bushes for us right now. We are less than ten miles from the ship—five by a straight line. They’ll find us. Then if these silly-looking centaurs want to get tough, they’ll learn about modern weapons. They and their fool throwing ropes!”

  “It might take a long time to find us. Nobody knows where we went.”

  “Yes,” he admitted. “If I had a pocket radio. Or some way to signal. Or even a way to build a fire. But I don’t.”

  “I never thought. It just seemed like going for a stroll in the park.”

  Max thought darkly that he had tried to warn her. Why, even the hills around home weren’t safe if a body didn’t keep his eyes peeled…you could run into a mean old bobcat, or even a bear. Person like Ellie never ’ud had enough hard knocks to knock sense into her, that was her trouble.

  Presently, he admitted that he himself hadn’t looked for grief from anything as apparently chuckled-headed and harmless as these centaur things. Anyhow, as Sam would say, no use cryin’ over spilt milk when the horse was already stolen.

  “Ellie.”

  “Huh?”

  “Do you suppose Chipsie could find her way back?”

  “Why, I don’t know.”

  “If she could, we could send a message.”

  Chipsie looked up. “Back?” she inquired. “Please back. Go home.”

  Ellie frowned. “I’m afraid Chipsie doesn’t talk that well. She’d probably just hiccup and get incoherent.”

  “I don’t mean that. I know Chipsie is no mental giant. I…”

  “Chipsie is smart!”

  “Sure. But I want to send a written message and a map.” He fumbled in a pocket, pulled out a stylus. “Do you have any paper?”

  “I’ll see.” She found a folded paper in a dungaree pocket. “Oh, dear! I was supposed to take this to Mr. Giordano. Mr. Hornsby will be so vexed with me.”

  “What is it?”

  “A requisition for number-ten wire.”

  “It doesn’t matter now.” He took the paper, scratched out the memorandum, turned it over and began to draw, stopping to consult the pictures filed in his mind for distances, which way the local sun lay, contours, and other details.

  “Max?”

  “Quiet, can’t you?” He continued to s
ketch, then added: “URGENT—to First Officer Walther: Eldreth Coburn and self captured by centaurs. Be careful and watch out for their throwing ropes. Respectfully, M. Jones.” He handed it to Ellie. “That ought to do it. Is there any way to fasten it to her? I sure don’t want her to drop it.”

  “Mmm…let me see. Turn your back, Max.”

  “Why?”

  “Don’t be difficult. Turn your back.”

  He did so, shortly she said, “All right now.” He faced her and she handed him a ribbon. “How’s this?”

  “Swell!” They managed to tie the ribbon, with the note folded and firmly attached, around Mr. Chips’ waist, anchoring it to a middle limb…not too easy as the spider puppy seemed to think it was a game and was ticklish as well.

  “There! Stop squirming, Chipsie, and listen. Ellie wants you to go home.”

  “Home.”

  “Yes, home. Go back to the ship.”

  “Ellie go home?”

  “Ellie can’t go home.”

  “No.”

  “Honey, you’ve got to.”

  “No.”

  “Look, Chipsie. You find Maggie and tell her Ellie said to give you some candy. You give Maggie this.” She tugged at the tied note.

  “Candy?”

  “Go home. Find Maggie. Maggie will give you candy.”

  “Ellie go home.”

  “Please, Chipsie.”

  “Ellie,” Max said urgently, “something is coming.”

  Eldreth looked up, saw a centaur coming through the trees. She pointed. “Look, Chipsie! They’re coming! They’ll catch Chipsie! Go home! Run!”

  The spider puppy squealed in terror and scurried for the trees. Once on a branch she looked back and whimpered. “Go home!” screamed Ellie. “Find Maggie!”

  Mr. Chips shot a glance at the centaur, then disappeared. They had no time to worry further, the centaur was almost up to them. He glanced at them and went on by; it was what followed the centaur that grabbed their attention. Ellie suppressed a shriek. “Max! They’ve caught everybody.”

  “No,” he corrected grimly. “Look again.” The gathering gloom had caused him to make the same mistake; it seemed that the entire ship’s company trotted after the centaur in single file, ankle leashed to ankle by living ropes. But only the first glance gave such an impression. These creatures were more than humanoid—but such degraded creatures had never sailed between the stars.

  They shuffled quickly along like well-trained animals. One or two looked at Ellie and Max in passing, but their stares were bovine, incurious. Small children not on leash trotted with their mothers, and once Max was startled to see a wrinkled little head peeping out of a pouch—these man-creatures were marsupials, too.

  Max controlled a desire to retch and as they passed out of sight he turned to Ellie. “Gosh!”

  “Max,” Eldreth said hoarsely, “do you suppose we’ve died and gone to our punishment?”

  “Huh? Don’t be silly. Things are bad enough.”

  “I mean it. That was something right out of Dante’s Inferno.”

  Max was swallowing uneasily and not feeling good-tempered. “Look, you can pretend you’re dead if you want to. Me, I’m alive and I mean to stay so. Those things weren’t men. Don’t let it throw you.”

  “But they were men. Men and women and children.”

  “No, they weren’t. Being shaped like us doesn’t make them men. Being a man is something else entirely.” He scowled. “Maybe the centaurs are ‘men.’”

  “Oh, no—”

  “Don’t be too sure. They seem to run things in this country.”

  The discussion was cut short by another arrival. It was almost dark and they did not see the centaur until he entered their clearing. He was followed by three of the—Max decided to call them ‘men’ though he resented the necessity—followed by three men. They were not on leashes. All three were bearing burdens. The centaur spoke to them; they distributed what they carried.

  One of them set down a large clay bowl filled with water in the space separating Max and Ellie. It was the first artifact that any human had seen on Charity and did not indicate a high level of mechanical culture, being crudely modeled and clearly not thrown on a potter’s wheel; it held water, no more could be said for it. A second porter dumped a double armful of small fruits beside the bowl. Two of them splashed into the bowl, he did not bother to fish them out.

  Max had to look twice to see what the third slave was carrying. It looked as if he had three large ovoid balls slung by ropes in each of his hands; second inspection showed them to be animals about the size of opossums which he carried by their tails. He went around the clearing, stopping every few feet and lifting one of his burdens to a lower branch. When he had finished they were surrounded by six small creatures, each hanging by its tail. The centaur followed the slave, Max saw him stroke each animal and press a spot on its neck. In each case the entire body of the little animal lit up, began to shine like a firefly with soft silvery light.

  The clearing was softly illuminated thereby—well enough, Max thought, to read large print. One of the hobgoblins balloons came sailing silently between trees and anchored to a point thirty feet above them; it seemed to settle down for the night.

  The centaur came over to Max and prodded him with a hoof, snorting inquiringly. Max listened carefully, then repeated the sound. The centaur answered and again Max mimicked. This useless exchange continued for a few phrases, then the centaur gave up and left, his train trotting after him.

  Ellie shivered. “Phew!” she exclaimed. “I’m glad they’re gone. I can stand the centaurs, a little, but those men…ugh!”

  He shared her disgust; they looked less human close up, having hair lines that started where their eyebrows should have been. They were so flat-headed that their ears stuck up above their skulls. But it was not this that had impressed Max. When the centaur had spoken to him Max had gotten his first good look into a centaur’s mouth. Those teeth were never meant for munching grain, they were more like the teeth of a tiger—or a shark.

  He decided not to mention this. “Say, wasn’t that the same one that was leading the herd that caught us?”

  “How would I know? They all look alike.”

  “But they don’t, any more than two horses look alike.”

  “Horses all look alike.”

  “But…” He stopped, baffled by a city viewpoint at which communication failed. “I think it was the same one.”

  “I can’t see that it matters.”

  “It might. I’m trying to learn their language.”

  “I heard you swallowing your tonsils. How did you do that?”

  “Oh, you just remember what a sound sounds like, then do it.” He threw his head back and made a very plaintive sound.

  “What was that?”

  “A shote stuck in a fence. Little shote by the name of Abner I had once.”

  “It sounds tragic.”

  “It was, until I helped him loose. Ellie, I think they’ve bedded us down for the night.” He gestured at the bowl and the fruit beside it. “Like feeding the hogs.”

  “Don’t put it that way. Room service. Room service and maid service and lights. Food and drink.” She picked up one of the fruits. It was about the size and shape of a cucumber. “Do you suppose this is fit to eat?”

  “I don’t think you ought to try it. Ellie, it would be smart not to eat or drink anything until we are rescued.”

  “Well, maybe we could go hungry but we certainly can’t go without water. You die of thirst in a day or two.”

  “But we may be rescued before morning.”

  “Maybe.” She peeled the fruit. “It smells good. Something like a banana.”

  He peeled one and sniffed it. “More like a pawpaw.”

  “Well?”

  “Mmm—Look here, I’ll eat one. If it hasn’t made me sick in a half hour, then you can try one.”

  “Yes, sir, boss man.” She bit into the one she held. “Mind the seeds.”<
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  “Ellie, you’re a juvenile delinquent.”

  She wrinkled her nose and smiled. “You say the sweetest things! I try to be.”

  Max bit into his. Not bad—not as much flavor as a pawpaw, but not bad. Some minutes later he was saying, “Maybe we should leave some for breakfast?”

  “All right. I’m full anyway.” Ellie leaned over and drank. Without words they had each concluded that the cloying meal required them to risk the water. “There, I feel better. At least we’ll die comfortably. Max? Do you think we dare sleep? I’m dead.”

  “I think they are through with us for the night. You sleep, I’ll sit up.”

  “No, that’s not fair. Honest, what good would it do to keep watch? We can’t get away.”

  “Well…here, take my knife. You can sleep with it in your hand.”

  “All right.” She reached across the bowl and accepted it. “Good night, Max. I’m going to count sheep.”

  “Good night.” He stretched out, shifted and got a tree cone out of his ribs, then tried to relax. Fatigue and a full stomach helped, the knowledge of their plight hindered—and that hobgoblin hanging up there. Maybe it was keeping watch—but not for their benefit.

  “Max? Are you asleep?”

  “No, Ellie.”

  “Hold my hand? I’m scared.”

  “I can’t reach it.”

  “Yes, you can. Swing around the other way.”

  He did so, and found that he could reach over his head past the water bowl and clasp her hand. “Thanks, Max. Good night some more.”

  He lay on his back and stared up through the trees. Despite the half fight given by the luminiferous animals, he could see stars and the numerous meteor trails crisscrossing the sky. To avoid thinking, he started counting them. Presently, they started exploding in his head and he was asleep.