"this, roughly, is the situation," began barling, pacing back and forth, speaking out of swollen lips and averting the right side of his face with its puffy cheek and blackened eye. "we are all in this together, and—"
"you hypocrite!" cried teejay. "six hours ago, you wanted to kill us. now, because something unexpected pops up, you change your mind. temporarily, for as long as you can use us, is that it?"
"no. if we can get out of this i'll forget about killing, provided you forget about kidnapping."
"well...."
"you haven't any other choice, captain moore."
"he's right," kevin admitted. "but what's the trouble we're in, mr. barling?"
"six hours ago you three jumped us and almost made your escape. but the frank buck took off; suddenly, without warning. none of my men was at the controls."
"that doesn't make sense," steve objected.
"i didn't think so, either. i almost don't know how to explain it, what i've seen with my own eyes after my men held you in detention here in the lounge."
"why don't you begin at the beginning?" teejay said, and yawned.
"don't be funny. somehow, the anthrovacs escaped from their bubbles and—"
"what?" this was steve, more than slightly incredulous. "anthrovacs are mild creatures and unless they're attacked they won't do anything violent."
"that's what i thought, stedman. i don't know what to think now. the anthrovacs escaped—and freed all the other animals. we've been out longer than the gordak, we have a couple of dozen prize specimens. lead by the anthrovacs, they've taken over the ship."
"now you're joking," teejay told him. "they're all brainless, those creatures, except for the anthrovacs."
"they were brainless, captain moore. but not now. now they behave logically, with a purpose, and they've taken over the frank buck from stem to stern—all except those animals that need a special sort of atmosphere to breathe, and they've remained in their bubbles.
"otherwise, the animals took over. and i suppose you can imagine—the crew was too astounded to resist, especially since the anthrovacs had gotten hold of neutron guns and seemed to know how to use them. result—we've all been disarmed, we're prisoners aboard our own ship, and bound for i don't know where."
"sounds crazy to me," teejay said, and stalked toward the door.
steve took a quick step after her, but barling held him back. "let her find out for herself, stedman. then maybe we can talk sense."
teejay opened the door, stepped out into the corridor. tensely, steve waited, ready to bolt after her at the first indications of trouble. but what he heard was a yelp of surprise from the woman, and then she came running back into the lounge, slamming the door behind her.
"a martian desert cat!" she cried. "it didn't do anything; it just stood there, all ten feet of it, looking at me!"
"then you believe me?" barling demanded. "as i see it, we must have been struck by some cosmic radiation which mutated the animals, and—"
"no," steve told him bluntly. "that's impossible. first place, any such change would have to be selective. all the animals wouldn't be affected. and more important, mutation takes generations to manifest itself. you never see the change at all in the original creature. look at earth, way back in the early years of atomics. genes were mutated at those two island cities—nagasaki and, umm-mm, i forget the name of the other. anyway, genes were mutated, but it took over two hundred years for those mutations to become apparent. see what i mean?"
"i do," said barling. "and that's precisely why i think we ought to fight this thing together. i had an idea, you helped me with it. we can continue like that."
"well," steve nodded, "we have a first-class problem on our hands. we can't do anything about it until we know what's going on—only the mystery's a little deeper than you think. first, i heard a voice out on ganymede. my brother's voice."
"your brother's?" barling scratched his head. "oh, wait a minute! you must mean charlie stedman who was killed out here a few years back?"
"yeah, charlie. you can't hear voices on ganymede, but i heard them, inside my head. also, don't forget the ganymede-fear. i'd say the three things will fit together when we begin to learn what's going on."
"provided we can find out," teejay told him. "you can keep your scientific mysteries for a while, steve. what i want to know is this: where are we going, and why?"
"ask your desert cat out there." kevin's laughter was sour.
"what we need is a good turncoat," teejay assured him. "someone who can go out among the animals and ask questions. i'm joking, of course, but if anyone could do it, it would be that rat, leclarc."
steve frowned. "that's not as funny as it sounds. has anyone seen leclarc since the fight?"
"no!" kevin slammed fist against palm.
steve was about to answer, but quite suddenly the lights blinked out. somewhere outside, a dozen animals roared their fear. within the lounge, kevin commenced cursing lustily and an involuntary moan escaped barling's lips.
the darkness was the bleak, utter black of deep space. further, steve realized, the steady humming of the fission engines had ceased.
minutes later, impossible pain gripped him and flung him, sobbing to the floor. he'd never felt anything like it, a gripping, grinding, twisting torment which tried to turn him inside out. he heard the others dimly, reeling about the lounge and falling to the floor, and in the darkness someone fell near him.
"steve? steve, is that you?" teejay....
"yeah." the pain seemed to come in waves, and steve gritted his teeth when the second turned out to be worse than the first. he reached out with his hand, found teejay's and squeezed it. "hold on, kid. it can't last forever."
"it better—not."
when her hand tensed in his, then relaxed, steve knew she'd fainted. and soon after that, his own senses reeled and deserted him.
