Latest / Through The Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll / Blue Behemoth - Leigh Douglass Brackett

Transcript

Blue Behemoth - Leigh Douglass Brackett · Through The Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section one of The Blue Behemoth. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: by Chris Fong. The Blue Behemoth by Lee Bracket. Bucky
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Shannon leaned forward across the little hexagonal table. He knocked
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: over the pitcher of thil but it didn't matter. The
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: pitcher was empty. He jabbed me in the breastbone with
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: his forefinger, not very hard, not hard enough to jar
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the ribs clean, loose, just enough to spring them oi.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: He said, Ah, broke. We are finished through, washed up
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: and down the drain, he added, as an afterthought, destitute.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I looked at him. I said, sourly, you're kidding, kidding.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Shannon put his elbows on the table and peered at
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: me through a curtain of very blonde hair that was
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: trying hard to be read. He says, I'm kidding with
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Shannon's Imperial Circus, the greatest show in space, plastered so
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: thick with attachments. It's no more plastered than you are.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I was sore because he'd been a lot quicker grabbing
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the pitcher. The greatest show in space fooey. I've wet
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: nursed Shannon's imperial circus around the triangle for eleven years,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: and I know it's lousy. It's mangy, it's broken down,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: nothing works from the ship to the roustabouts. In short,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: it stinks I must have had the picture oftener than
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I thought. Nobody insults buck Halter Shannon's burial circus to
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: buck Alter Shannon's face unless he's tired and wants a
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: long rest in the comfy fracture frame. Shannon got up.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: He got up slowly. I had plenty of time to
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: see his gray green eyes get sleepy, and hear the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: quarter earth blood Martian girl wailing about love over by
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: the battered piano, and watched the slanting cat eyes of
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the little dark people at the tables swing round toward us,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: pleased and kind of hungry. I had plenty of time
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: to think how I only weigh one thirty seven to
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Shannon's one seventy five, and how I'm not as young
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: as I used to be. I said, Bucky, hold on, fella,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I somebody said, excuse me, gentlemen, is one of you,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: mister buck Halta Shannon. Shannon put his hands down on
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: his belt. He closed his eyes and smiled pleasantly and said,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: very gently, would you be collecting for the feed bill
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: or the fuel. I shot a glance at the newcomer.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: He'd saved me from a beating, even if he was
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: a lousy bill collector, and I felt sorry for him.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Bucky Shannon settled his shoulders and hips like a dancer.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: The stranger was a little guy. He even made me
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: look big. He was dressed in dark green syntha silk,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: very conservative. There was a powdering of gray in his hair,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and his skin was pink soft and shaved painfully clean.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: He had the kind of a face that nice maiden
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: ladies will trust with their last dime. I looked for
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: his strong arm squad. There didn't seem to be any.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: The little guy looked at Shannon with pale blue eyes,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: like a baby, and his voice was softer than BUCkies.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: He said, I don't think you understand. I felt cold.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Suddenly between the shoulders, somebody scraped the chair back. It
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: sounded like he'd ripped the floor open. It was so quiet.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I got my brass he's on, and my hands were sweating.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Bucky Shan inside and let his fist start traveling a long,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: deceptive arc. Then I saw what the little guy was
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: holding in his hand. I yelled and knocked the table
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: over into Bucky. It made a lot of noise. It
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: knocked him sideways and down, and the little dark men
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: jumped up, quivering and showing their teeth. The Martian girl screamed, Bucky.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Heaved the table off his lap and cursed me. What's
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: eating you, Jig? I'm not going to hurt him. Shut up,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: I said, look what he's got there. Money. The little
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: guy looked at me. He hadn't turned a hair. Yes,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: he said, money, quite a lot of it. Would you, gentlemen,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: permit me to join you? Bucky? Shannon got up. He
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: grinned his pleasantest grin, delighted. I'm Shannon. This is Jig Bentley,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: my business manager. He looked down at the table. I'm
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: sorry about that mistaken identity. The little guy smiled. He
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: did it with his lips. The rest of his face
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: stayed placid and babyish, almost transparent. I realized with a
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: start that it wasn't transparent at all. It was the
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: most complete deadpan I ever met. And you couldn't see
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: into those innocent blue eyes any more than you could
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: see through sheet metal. I didn't like him, I didn't
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: like him at all, but he had money. I said, howdy,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: let's go find a booth. These marshies make me nervous,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: looking like hungry cats at a mouse hole. The little
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: guy nodded, excellent idea. My name is Beamish, Simon Beamish.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I wish to ah chawteo circus. I looked at Bucky.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: He looked hungrier than the marshies did. We didn't say
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: anything until we got Beamish into a curtained booth with
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: a fresh pitcher of pill on the table. Then I
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: cleared my throat. What exactly did you have in mind,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: mister Beamish. Beamish sipped his drink, made a polite face,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and put it down. I have independent means, gentlemen. It
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: has always been my desire to lighten the burden of
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: life for those less fortunate. Bucky got read around the
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: years just a minute, he murmured and started to get up.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: I kicked him under the table. Shut up, you lug
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: let mister Beamish finish. He sat down, looking like a
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: mean dog waiting for the postman. Beamish ignored him. He
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: went on quietly, I have always held that entertainment of
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the right sort is the most valuable aid humanity can
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: have in its search for the alleviation of toil and boredom.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I said, sure, sure, but what was your idea? There
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: are many towns along the Venusian frontiers where no entertainment
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: of the proper sort has been available. I proposed to
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: remedy that. I proposed to charter your circus, mister Shannon,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: to make a tour of several settlements along the Tahara Belt.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Bucky had relaxed. His gray green eyes began to gleam.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: He started to speak, and I kicked him again. That
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: would be expensive, mister Beamish, I said, we'd have to
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: cancel several engagements. He looked at me. I was lying,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: and he knew it, but he said, I quite understand
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: that I would be prepared. The curtains were yanked back.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Suddenly Beamish shut up. Bucky and I glared at the
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: head and shoulders poking in between the drapes. It was
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: gal our zoo men, a big ugly son of a
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: gun from a Terran colony on Mercury. I was there once.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Gao looked a lot like the scenery scowling, unapproachable and tough.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: His hands holding the curtains apart had thick black hair
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: on them and were not much larger than the hands
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: of a Venusian swamp rhino. He said, Boss Gertrude's acting
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: up again. Gertrude be blowed, growled, Bucky, can't you see
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I'm busy. GAO's black eyes were unpleasant. I'm telling you, Boss,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Gertrude ain't happy. She ain't had the right food. If
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: something I said, they'll be all taken care of. Gal
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: run along now. He looked at me like he was
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: thinking it wouldn't take much timber to fit me for
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: a coffin. Okay, but Gertrude's unhappy. She's lonesome sea, and
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: if she don't get happier pretty soon, I ain't sure
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: your tinpot ship will hold her. He pulled the curtains
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: too and departed. Bucky Shannon groaned. Beamish cleared his throat
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: and said, rather stiffly, Gertrude, Yeah, she's kind of temperamental.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Bucky took a quick drink I finished for him. She's
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: the star attraction of our show, mister Beamish, a real
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: blue swamp Venusian Cansen. The only other one on the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: triangle belongs to Savatt Brothers, and she's much smaller than Gertrude.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: She was also much younger, but I didn't go into that.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Gertrude may be a little creaky, but she's still pretty impressive.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: I only hoped she wouldn't die on us, because without
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: her we'd have a sicker looking circus than even I
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: could stand. Beamish looked impressed. A cansin well, well, the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: mystery surrounding the origin and species of the cansin is
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: a fascinating subject. The extreme rarity of the animal. We
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: were getting off the subject, I said tactfully, we'd have
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: to have at least a hundred uses. It was twice
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: what we had any right to ask. I was prepared
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: to digger. Beamish looked at me with that innocent dead pan.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: For a fraction of a second, I thought I saw
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: something back of his round blue eyes, and my stomach
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: jumped like it was shot. Beamish smiled sweetly, I'm not
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: much of a bargainer. One hundred universal credits will be
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: agreeable to me. He dragged out a roll as big
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: as my two fists, peeled off half a dozen credit
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: slips and laid them on the table by way of
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: a retainer. Gentlemen, my attorney and I will call on
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: you in the morning with a contract an itinerary. Good night,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: We said good night, trying not to drool. Beamish went away.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Bucky made grab for the money, but I beat him
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: to it. Scram I said, there are guys waiting for this,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: big guys with clubs here. I gave him a small
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: denomination slip. I'd been holding out. We can get lushed
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: enough on this. Shannon has a good vocabulary. He used
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: it when he got his breath back. He said, suddenly
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Beamish is pulling some kind of a game. Yeah. It
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: may be crooked, sure, and he may be screwball and
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: on the level. For Pete's sake, I yelled, you want
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: to sit here till we all dry up and blow away.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Shannon looked at me, kind of funny. He looked at
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the bulge in my tunic where the roll was. He
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: raked back his thick light hair. Yeah, he said, I
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: hope there'll be enough lift to brab the jury. He
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: poked his head outside. Eh, boy, more filled a tumb
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: It was pretty late when we got back to the
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: broken down spaceport, where Shannon's Imperial Circus was crouching beneath
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: its attachments. Late as it was, they were waiting for us,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: about twenty of them, sitting around and smoking and looking
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: very ugly. It was awfully lonesome out there with the desert,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: cold and restless under the two moons. There's a smell
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: to Mars, like something dead and dried, long past decay,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: but still waiting, an unhappy smell. The blown red dust
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: gritted in my teeth. Bucky Shannon walked out into the
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: glare of the light at the entrance to the roped
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: off space around the main lock. He was pretty steady
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: on his feet. He waved and said, aye, ye boys.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: They got up off the steps and the packing cases
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and came toward us. I grinned and got into my brasses.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: We felt we owed those boys a lot more than money.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: It grates on a man's pride to have to sneak
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: in and out of his own property through the sewage lock.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: This was the first time in weeks we'd come in
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: at the front door. I waved the money in their faces.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: That stopped them very solemnly. Bucky and I checked the
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: bills paid them and pocketed the receipts. Bucky yawned and
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: stretched sleepily. Now, he said, Now, I said, we had
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun. Some of the boys inside the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: ship came out to join in. We raised a lot
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: of dust, and nobody got killed quite We all went
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: home happy. They had their money and we had their blood.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: The news was all over the ship before we got inside.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: The freaks and the green girl from Tethys who could
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: roll herself like a hoop, and Zert, a muscleman from Jupiter,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: and all the other assorted geeks and kinksters and Joey's
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: that make up the usual corny Carney were doing nip
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: ups in the passageways and drooling over the thought of
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: steer and toppings. Bucky Shannon regarded them possessively, wiping blood
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: from his nose. They're good guys, jig swell people. They
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: stuck by me, and I've rewarded them, I said, sure,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: rather sourly. Bucky hiccoughed, let's go see Gertrude. I didn't
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: want to see Gertrude. I never got over feeling funny
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: going into the brute tank, especially at night or out
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: in space. I'm a city guy myself. The smell and
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: sound of wildness gives me goose bumps. But Bucky was
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: looking stubborn, so I shrugged, okay, but just for a minute.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Then we go. Betty By, you're a panel jief. This
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: little gan whirl. The fight had just put the topper
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: on him. I was afraid he'd fall down the ladder
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and break his neck. That's why I went along. If
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: I hadn't, oh, well, what's a few nightmares among friends.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: It was dark down there in the tank way off
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: at the other end, there was a dim glow. Goo
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: was evidently holding Gertrude's hand. We started down the long
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: passageway between the rows of cages and glassed in tanks
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: and compression units. Our footsteps sounded loud and empty on
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: the iron floor. I wasn't near as happy as Shannon,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: and my skin began to crawl a little. It's the smell,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I think, rank and sour and wild, and the sound
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: of them breathing and rustling in the dark, with the
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: patient hatred walled around them as strong as the cage bars.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Bucky Shannon lurched against me. Suddenly, I choked back a
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: yell and then wiped the sweat off my forehead and cursed.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: The scream came again, a high, ragged, whistling screech like
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: nothing this side of hell, ripping through the musty darkness.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Gertrude on the wailing wall. It had been quiet. Now
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: every brute in the place let go. At the same time,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: my stomach turned clear over. I called Gertrude every name
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I could think of, and I couldn't hear myself doing it. Presently,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: a great metallic clash nearly burst my ear drums, and
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the beasts shut up. Gow had them nicely conditioned to
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: that gong, but they didn't quiet down, not really. They
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: were uneasy. You can feel them inside you when they're uneasy.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: I think that's why I'm scared of them. They make
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: me feel like I'm not human, as I thought like,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: I wanted to put my back hair up and snarl. Yeah,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: they were uneasy. That night, All of a sudden, Goal
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: glared at us as we came up into the lantern light.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: She's getting worse, he said. She's lonesome. That's tough, said
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Bucky Shannon. His gray green eyes looked like an owl's.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: He swayed slightly. That's sure, tough, he sniffled. I looked
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: at Gertrude. Her cage is the biggest and strongest in
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: the tank, and even so she looked as though she
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: could break it open just taking a deep breath. I
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: don't know if you've ever seen a canson. There's only
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: two of them on the triangle. If you haven't, nothing
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I can say, well make much difference. They're what the
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: brain Gang calls an end of evolution. Seems old Dame
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Nature had an idea that didn't gel. The Cansons were
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: pretty successful for a while, it seems, but something gummed
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: up the works, and now there's only a few left
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: way in the deep swamp country where even the Venusians
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: hardly ever go living fossils. I wouldn't know, of course,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: but Gertrude looks to me like she got stuck someplace
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: between a dinosaur and a grizzly bear, with maybe a
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: little bird blood thrown in. Anyway, she's big. I couldn't
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: help feeling sorry for her. She was crouched in the
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: cage with her hands, yeah, hands hanging over her knees,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and her snaky head sunk into her shoulders, looking out,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: just looking, not at anything. Her eyes were way back
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: in deep horny pits, like cold green fire. The lantern
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: light was yellow on her blue black skin, but it
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: made the mane or crest of coarse wide scales that
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: ran from between her eyes clear down to her flat
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: short tail burn all colors. She looked like old Marry Misery,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: herself from way back before time began. Goo said, softly,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: she wants a mate, and somebody better get her one.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Bucky Shannon sniffled again. I said, irritably, be reasonable, gal,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: nobody's ever seen a male Canson. There may not even
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: be any. Gertrude screamed again. She didn't move, not even
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: to raise her head. The sadness just built up inside
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: her until it had to come out that close. The
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: screech was deafening, and it turned me all limp and
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: cold inside. The loneliness, the sheer, stark, simple pain. Bucky
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Shannon began to cry. I snarled, you'll have to snap
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: her out of this gow. She's driving the rest of
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: them nuts. He hammered on his gong and things quieted
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: down again. Goo stood looking out over the tank, sniffing
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: a little like a hound. Then he turned to Gertrude.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I saved her life, he said, when we brought her
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: out of Hannock's wreck and everybody thought she was hurt
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: to live. I saved her. I know her. I can
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: do things with her. But this time he shrugged. He
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: was huge and tough and ugly, and his voice was
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: like a woman's talking about a sick child. This time
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: he said, I ain't sure. Well, for Pete's sake, do
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: what you can. We got a charter and we need her.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I took Shannon's arm, come to bed, Bucky Darling. He
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: draped himself over my shoulder and we went off. Gou
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: didn't look at us, Bucky, sobbed. You were right, Jig,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: he mumbled.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: Circus is no good. I know it, but it's all
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: I got. I love it, Jig, understand me. Like Goal
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: there with Gertrude. She's ugly and no good, but he
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: loves her. I love sure. Sure, I told him stop
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: crying down my neck. We were a long way from
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: the light. Then the cages and tanks loomed high and
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: black over us. It was still the secret, uneasy motion
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: all around us, and the scruffing of our feet only
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: made it stiller. Bucky was almost asleep on me. I
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: started to slap him, and then the mist rose up
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: out of the darkness in little lazy coils, sparkling faintly
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: with blue cold fire. I yelled, Gow, Gow the vapor snakes, Gow,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: for God's sake. I started to run back along the passageway.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Bucky weighed on me, limp and heavy. The noise burst
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: suddenly in a deafening hell of moans and roars and shrieks,
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: packed in tight by the metal walls, and above it
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: all I could hear Gertrude's lonely whittling scream. I thought, somebody's.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Down here, somebody let him out. Somebody wants to kill us.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I tried to yell again. It strangled my throat. I sobbed,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and the sweat was thick and cold on me one
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: a bucket. He's dragging stumbling feet got between mine. We fell.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: I rolled on top of him, covering his face, and
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: buried my own face in the hollow of his shoulder.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: The first snake touched me. It was like a live wire,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: sliding along the back of my neck. I screamed. It
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: came down along my cheek, hunting my mouth. There were
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: more of them burning me through my clothes. Bucky moaned
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: and kicked under me. I remember hanging on and thinking
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: this is it, this is it, and oh God, I'm scared.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Then I went out. End of section one, Section two
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: of The Blue Behemoth by Lee Bracket. This LibriVox recording
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Read by Chris Pong Kanza.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: The Martian Croke was bending over me when I woke up.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: His little brown face was crinkled with laughter. He'd lost
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: most of his teeth, and he gummed thackweed. It smelt
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: you pretty, miss jug. He giggled, you funny like hell.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: He slapped some cold, greasy stuff on my face. It hurt.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: I cursed him and said, where's Shannon? How is he?
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: Miss Bucky? O kell you save life? You big hero,
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: Miss jig, Miss Gal, come nick a time, get snakes
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: your hero. Huh you funny like hell?
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: I said yeah, and pushed him away and got up.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: I almost fell down a couple of times, but presently
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I made it to the mirror over the washstand. I
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: was in my own cell, and I saw what Kanza meant.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: The damned snakes had done a good job. I looked
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: like I was upholstered in Scotch plaid. I felt sick.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Bucky Shannon opened the door. He looked white and grim,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: and there was a big burn across his neck. He said,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Beamish is here with his lawyer. I picked up my
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: shirt right with you. Kanza went out, still giggling. Bucky
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: closed the door. Jig, he said, those vapor worms were
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: all right when we went in. Somebody followed us down
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: and let them out on purpose. I hurt all over.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: I growled with that brain Sun you should go far.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Nobody saw anything, of course, Bucky shook his head. Question ease, Jig,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: who wants to kill us? And why Beamish? He realizes
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: he's been jipped one hundred you sees, said Bucky softly,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: for a few lousy swamp age mining camps. It stinks, Jig,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: you think we should back out? I shrugged. You're the
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: boss man. I'm only the guy that beats off the creditors. Yeh,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Bucky said reflectively, And I hear starvation isn't a comfortable death. Okay, Jig,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: let's go. Sign. He put his hand on the latch
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: and looked at my feet and U jig ah, I
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: said skip it. The next time just don't trip me up,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: that's all. We had a nasty trip to Venus. Gertrude
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: kept the brute tank on edge and gal on the
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: rare occasions he came up for air, went around looking
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: like a disaster, hoping to happen to make it worse.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Zert the Jovian strong man got hurt during the takeoff,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: and the Mercurian cave cat had kittens. Nobody would have
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: minded that only one of them had only four legs.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: It lived just long enough to scare that bunch of
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: superstitious dopes out of their pants. Circus people are funny
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: that way. Shannon and I did a little quiet sleuthing,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: but it was a waste of time. Nobody in the
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: gang might have let those electric worms out on us.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: It didn't help any to know that somebody, maybe the
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: guy next to you at dinner, was busy thinking of
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: ways to kill you. By the time we hit Venus,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I was ready to do a brody out the refuse shoot.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Shannon set the crate down on the edge of Nauru,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: the first stop on our itinerary. I stood beside him,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: looking out the ports at the scenery. It was Venus,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: all right, Blue mud and thick green jungle and rain,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: and a bunch of ratty looking plastic shack huddling together
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: in the middle of it. Men in slickers were coming
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: out for a look. I saw Beamish's sleek yacht parked
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: on a cradle over to the left, and our routers
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: run about beside it. Bucky Shannon groaned, a blue one
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: jeeg a moorg if I ever saw one. I snarled,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: what do you want with this lousy dog and pony
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: show and went out. He followed. The gang was converging
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: on the lock, but they weren't happy. You get so
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: you can feel those things. The steamy venus heat was
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: already sneaking into the ship. While we passed the hatchway
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: to the brute tank, I could hear Gertrude screaming. The
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: canvas men were busy setting up the annex, slopping and
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: cursing in the mud. The Pace brigade was heading for
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: the shacks. Shannon and I stood with the hot rain
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: running off our slick looking. I heard a noise behind
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: me and looked around. Ahra, the Nahale woman was standing
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: in the mud with her arms up and her head
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: thrown back and her triangular mouth opened like a thirsty dog.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: She didn't have anything on but her blue green, hard
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: scaled hide, and she was chuckling. It didn't sound nice.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: You find a lot of Nahali people in side shows
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: doing tricks with the electric power they carry in their
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: own bodies. They're Venusian middle swampers. They're not human, and
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: they never forget it. Aarra opened her slitd red eyes
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: and looked at me and laughed with white reptilian teeth.
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: Death. She whispered, death and trouble. The jungle tells me.
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: I can smell it in the swamp wind.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: The hot rain sluiced over her. She shivered, and the
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: pale skin under her jaw pulsed like a toad's, and
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: her eyes went red. The deep swamps are angry, she whispered,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: something has been taken. They are angry, And I smelled
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: death in the wind. She turned away, laughing, and I
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: cursed her, and my stomach was tight and cold. Bucky said,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: let's eat if they have a bar in this dump.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: We weren't halfway across the mud puddle that passed on
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: a landing field when a man came out of a
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: shack on the edge of the settlement. We could see
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: him plainly because he was off to one side of
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: the crowd. He fell on his knees in the mud,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: making noises. It took him three or four tries to
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: get our names out clear enough to understand. Bucky said, Jig,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: it's Sam Camper. We started to run. The crowd. Mostly big,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: unshaken miners wheeled around to see what was happening. People
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: began to close in on them. Man who crawled and
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: whimpered in the mud, Sam Capper was a hunter, supplying
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: animals to zoos and circuses and carnivals. He'd given us
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: good deals a couple of times when we weren't too
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: broke and we were pretty friendly. I hadn't seen him
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: for three seasons. I remembered him as a bronzed, hard
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: bitten guy, lean and tough as a twist of tongue wire.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: I felt sick looking down at him. Bucky started to
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: help him up. Capper was crying, and he jerked all
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: over like animals I've seen that were scared to death.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Some guy leaned over and put a cigarette in his
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: mouth and lighted it for him. I was thinking about
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Capper then, and I didn't pay much attention. I only
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: caught a glimpse of the man's face as he straightened up.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize until later that he looked familiar. We
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: got Capper inside the shack. It turned out to be
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: a cheap with a couple of curtained booths at the back.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: We got him into one and pulled the curtain in
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of curious faces. Capper dragged hard on the cigarette.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: The man that gave it to him was gone. Bucky
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: said gently, Okay, Sam, relax, what's the trouble. Kaeper tried
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: to straighten up. He hadn't shaved. The lean hard lines
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: of his face had gone slack, and his eyes were bloodshot.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: He was covered with mud, and his mouth twitched like
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: a sick old man's. He said thickly. I found it.
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: I said I'd do it, and I did. I found
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: it and brought it out.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: The cigarette stuff fell out of his mouth. He didn't
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: notice it. Help me, he said, simply.
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: I'm scared.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: His mouth drooled.
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: I got it hidden. They want to find out, but
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: I will tell him. It's got to go back back
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: where I found it. I tried to take it, but
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: they wouldn't let me, and I was afraid they'd find it.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: He reached suddenly and grabbed the edge of the table.
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: I don't know how they found out about it, but
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: they did. I've got to get it back. I've got to.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Bucky looked at me. Capper was blue around the mouth.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: I was scared. Suddenly, I said, get what back where?
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Bucky got up. I'll get a doctor. He said, stick
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: with him. Caeper grabbed his wrist. Capper's nails were blue,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: and the cords in his hand stood out like guy wires.
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: Don't leave me. Got to tell you where it is.
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: Got to take it back. Promise you'll take it back.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: He gasped and struggled over his breathing. Sure, said Buggy, Sure,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: we'll take it back. What is it? Capeper's face was horrible.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I felt sick listening to him fight for air. I
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: wanted to go for a doctor anyway, but somehow I
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: knew it was no use. Capper whispered, cansing mail, only
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: one you don't know, take him back?
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: Where is it? Sam?
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: I reached across Bucky suddenly and jerked the curtain back.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Beamish was standing there, Beamish bent over with his ear cocked.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Capper made a harsh, strangling noise and fell across the table.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Beamish never changed expression. He didn't move, while Bucky felt
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Capper's pulse. Bucky didn't need to say anything. We knew, hot,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: said Beamish. Finally, yee, said Bucky. He looked as bad
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: as I felt, poor Sam. I looked at the cigarette
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: stub smoldering on the table. I looked at Beamish with
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: his round, dead baby face. I climbed over Shannon and
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: pushed Beamish suddenly down into his lap. Keep this guy
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: here till I get back, I said. Shannon stared at me.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: Beamish started to get indignant. Shut up, I told him
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: we got a contract. I yanked the curtain shut and
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: walked over to the bar. I began to notice something.
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: Then.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: There were quite a lot of men in the place.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: At first glance, they looked okay, a hard faced, muscular
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: bunch of miners in dirty shirts and high boots. Then
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: I looked at their hands. They were dirty enough, but
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: they never did any work in a mine on Venus
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: or anywhere else. The place was awfully quiet for that
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: kind of a place. The bartender was a big, potbellied,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: swampedger with pale eyes and thick white hair coiled up
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: on top of his bullet head. He was not happy.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I leaned on the bar l hack. I said. He
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: poured it sullenly out of a green bottle. I reached
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: for it casually. That guy we brought in, I said,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: he sure has a skinful passed out cold. What's he
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: been spiking his drinks with? Selak, said a voice in
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: my ear, as if you didn't know. I turned. The
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: man who had given Capper the cigarette was standing behind me,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: and I remembered him. Then circus people get around a lot,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: and the law supplies us with wonted sheets. I remembered
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: this from the last batch they handed us on Mars
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Melak Thompson was his name, and he had a reputation.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: He had a face you wouldn't forget, dark and kind
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: of handsome, with the drylander blood showing in the heavy
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: bones and the tilted green eyes. His mouth was smiling
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: and brutal. He nodded at the booth. Let's take a walk,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: he said. We took a walk. The men sitting at
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: the dirty tables were still silent and still not miners.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: I began to sweat. The booth was a little crowded
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: with us all in there. I sat jammed up against
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Sam Kapper's body. Bucky Shannon's gray green eyes were sleepy
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: and there was a vein beating on his forehead. Beamish
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: said to Melak, caps dead dead without talking. That's tough.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Melak shook his dark head. We was gentle with him, yeah,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: I said. Kaeper had been a good guy, and I
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: was mad. Feed anybody enough, Selak and you can afford
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: to be It's a dirty death. Selac's made from a
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Venusian half cousin of henbane, which is what scopolamine comes from.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: It has a terrific effect on the heart. And Kaeper
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: had simply torn himself apart trying to keep from talking
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: while he was under the influence Bucki Shannon made a slow,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: ugly move to get up. Beamish said, sit down. There
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: was something in his voice and his bland blue eyes.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Shannon sat down. Melak was looking at Beamish, still grinning. Well.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: He said, I guess your idea was pretty good. After all,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: I had a sudden inspiration. The burns were still sore
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: on my body, and Rapper's tortured face was close to mine,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: and I took a wild shot at something I wasn't
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: even sure I saw. Yeah, I said, a swell idea,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: why did you try so hard to budget Melak? He
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: stopped grinning. Beamish looked forward a little. My tongue stuck
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: in my mouth, but I managed to say, you get it,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Bucky a male canson, Capper said, the only one in captivity,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: maybe even on Venus, worth its weight in credit's lips.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: That's why Beamish was so happy to overpay us to
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: get us out here, because he thought Gertrude could find
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: her boyfriend fast even if Capper didn't talk. I turned
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: to Melak again, a swell idea, why did you have
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: those vapor snakes turned loose on us? Did you think
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: Capper was enough? He struck me pretty hard across the mouth.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: My had banged back against the booth wall, and for
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: a minute I couldn't see anything but spangles of fire
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: shooting around. I heard Beamish say, from a great distance,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: how about it, Melac. It was awfully still in the booth.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: I swallowed some blood and blinked my eyes clear enough
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: to see Bucky Shannon poised across the table like a
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: bow starting to unbend, and suddenly, somewhere far off, over
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: the drum of rain on the flimsy roof, there began
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: to be noises. I hadn't been comfortable up till then.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: I'm no superman, nor one of those guys you read
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: about who can stare death in the eye and shatter
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: him with a light laugh. But all of a sudden
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: I was afraid, afraid so that all the fear i'd
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: felt before was nothing. And it was funny too. I
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: didn't know what it was then, but I knew what
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: it wasn't. It wasn't Beamish or Melak, or those hard
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: guys beyond the curtains, or even Kapper's body pressed up
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: against me. I didn't know what it was, but I
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: wanted to get down on the floor and hide myself
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: in a crack like a cockroach. The others felt it too.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: I remember the sweat standing out on Bucky Shannon's forehead,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: and the sudden tightening of Beamish's jaw, and the glitter
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: in Melak's green eyes. Beyond the curtains, there was an
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: uneasy stirring of feet. The confused, distant noise grew louder. Somewhere,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: not very far away, a woman began to scream Beamish
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: said softly, you dirty double crossing rat. His face was
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: still deadpan, only now it was like something beaten out
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: of iron. His hands were out of sight under the table.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Melak smiled. I could feel his body shift and tents
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: beside me. Sure, he said, I double crossed you. Why not?
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: I planted a guy in the circus hammer gang, and
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: he crawled in the seawage lock and tried to get
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: these punks. I'm glad now he bungled it. Capper had guts.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: Beamish whispered, You're fool. You don't know what you're playing with.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: I've done research and I do too bad.
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: You wasted the time.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Said Milak, because you're through. He threw himself suddenly aside,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: lifting the table hard into Beamish. The curtains ripped away,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: and he rolled in them, twisting like a snake. I
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: yelled to Bucky and dropped flat. Beamish had drawn a
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: gun under the table. The blast of it seared my face.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: The next second, four heavy blasters spoke at once. Beamish's
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: gun dropped on the floor. Then it was quiet again,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: and I could hear the woman screaming outside in the
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: beating rain. Melak got up. Sure, I double crossed you,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: he said, softly. Why should I split with anybody? Nobody
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: knows about it but us. Camper couldn't send word from
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: the swamps when he caught it, and he couldn't send
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: word from here because he wasn't let that critter'll bring anything.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: I ask of it. Why should I split with you?
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: Beamish didn't answer. I don't think Melak thought he would.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: The noise from outside was getting louder. Buck he groaned,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: it's coming from the pitch jig trouble.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: We've got to.
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: The table was yanked from over us. We got up
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: off our knees. Melak looked dead us. He was shaking
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: a little, and his green eyes were mean. I don't
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: think he said, I really need you guys around either.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: He jerked his head suddenly.
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: Cripes.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: I wish that dame would shut up. It was getting
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: on my nerves too, that monotonous sawing screech. Melak stepped aside.
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: Get 'em boys.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: I don't want him dragging their outfit down on our necks.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: Four blaster barrels came up. My insides came up with them.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: I was way beyond anything then even panic gal burst
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: in through the doorway. He was soaked in the skin, tattered,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: bleeding and wild eyed. He yelled, Boss Gertrude. Then he
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: saw the guns and stopped. It was very still in
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: the place outside. There was sound rising like a sullen
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: tide against the walls. The woman screaming became something not
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: human and then stopped short. Gou said, almost absently, Gertrude
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: went nuts. We'd brought her cage up from the tank
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: for the show, and she broke out. There wasn't nothing
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: we could do. She busted a lot of cages and
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: then disappeared. Milak snarled something I don't know what. The
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: wall behind Gou jarred, buckled and split open around the doorway.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: Bamboo fragments clattered on the floor. Somebody yelled, and a
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: blaster went off. Gertrude stood in the splintered opening. She
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: looked at us with cold, mad green eyes, towering huge
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: and blue against the low roof, her hands swinging and
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: her crest erect. She let go one wild whistling screech
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: and came straight toward the booth. Bucky Shannon touched my
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: arm clamb into your brassias, kid, He muttered, here's a
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: chance I caught his shoulder. He followed the line of
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: my pointing, and I felt him tremble. Gertrude was coming
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: at us like a rocket express. Behind her, wet and
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: glistening from the hot rain, came three more just like her.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: End of section two Section three of The Blue Behemoth
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: by Lee Brackett. This LibriVox recording is in the public
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: domain read by Chris Fong. We scattered all of us
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: hunting for a way out. There was only one door
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: leading to the back, and it was stopper tight, with
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: men cursing and fighting to get through. Goo wasouched in
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: a corner by the splintered wall. I pulled Bucky along,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: thinking we might get in back of the Cansons and
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: sneak out. I wondered what they wanted, and I wondered
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: where in heck you could hide a thing as big
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: as Gertrude and keep anybody from finding out. Somebody screamed briefly,
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: I saw one of the strange Cansons tossed the bartender
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: aside like a dry twig. Goo rose up in front
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: of me with a queer, staring look in his eyes.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: Something's wrong, he said, all wrong? Aye. His mouth twitched
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: He turned sharply and started to scramble through the wrecked hall.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: Bucky and I were right on his heels. I think
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Melak and some of his lobby goals were crowding us,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: but nobody was thinking about things like that anymore. I
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: knew what was eating Goal, the fear that had looked
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: out of Kaeper's eyes, the fear that was riding me,
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: fear that had nothing to do with anything physical. Bucky
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: cursed and stumbled beside me, and suddenly the four Cansons
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: let go a tremendous, thundering scream. The hair rose on
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: my neck, and I turned to look. I just had to.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: Gertrude had turned away from the booth. They stood, the
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: four of them, their huge black shoulders touching their crests
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: like rows of petrified flame, staring at what Gertrude held
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: in her arms. It was Kaeper's body. Slowly, with infinite gentleness,
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: she began to strip him. He hung loose in the
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: cradle of one great arm, his flesh showing blue white
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: against her blueness. Her free hand ripped his clothes away
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: like things made of paper. I don't know why nobody
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: tried to shoot the beasts. After the first second sheer panic.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: I guess we could have killed them all then, but
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: we just stood looking, fascinated by the slow intent bearing
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: of Kapeper's body and the strange fear it was on
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: us all. Capper lay naked in her black arms. She
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: raised him slowly over her head, her eyes blind green
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: fires deep under bony brows. The others drew closer, shivering,
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: and I could hear them whimper, strangers from the deep swamps,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: with no stink of man on them. I thought of
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: the Nahale woman laughing in the hot rain, death from
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: the deep swamps because something had been taken and they
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: were angry. There was a little black box strapped to
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: Capper's thin white belly. Gertrude shifted her hands a little.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: The blood hammered in my ears. I was sick. I
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: didn't want to look anymore. I couldn't help it. Bucky
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: Shannon caught a hard, sobbing breath. Try Rude broke Sam
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Kaeper's body in two I can still hear the noise
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: it made. The blood ran dark and sluggish down her arms.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: It worried me that Kapper's face didn't change expression. The
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: little black box on his belly split with the rest
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: of him. Something rose out of it, something no bigger
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: than my forefinger that carried a cold green blaze around it,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: like a ball of Saint Elmo's fire. Gertrude threw Capper away.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: I heard the two flopping thuds of him hitting the floor.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: Some guy was down to his knees close to me.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: His lips moved. I don't know if he could remember
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: his prayers. Something else was vomiting hard. I wanted to,
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: but my stomach felt frozen. The cold green fire had
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: a shape inside it. I couldn't make it out clearly,
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: except that it looked horribly human. It put out four
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: thin green films. Don't ask me if they were physical
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: things like tentacles, or just beams of light or maybe thought.
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Whatever they were, they worked. They connected
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: with the four black, snaky heads of the female cansons.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: I felt the shock of them connecting with my own nerves,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: and it was like something had welded those four brutes
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: together into one. They had been four separate with hard outlines.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: Now they were one, one single, interlocking entity. I guess
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: it was just my being so scared and sick, but
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: I thought I saw their outlines blur. A little gou
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: spoke suddenly. His voice was pretty loud and calm. That
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: was it, he said, as though it was the only
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: thing in the world that mattered. They ain't complete by themselves,
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: like the Zurats back home on Mercury. They got a
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: community brain, no wonder. Gertrude was lonesome. His voice broke
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: the spell. Somebody screamed, and everybody started to move at once,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: clawing in blind panic for the openings. And we all
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: knew then what we were afraid of. We were afraid
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: of the little thing in the black box, the thing
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: in a cloak of fire that had risen from the
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: ruins of Kapper's body, and the power that lived in it.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: I suppose we thought we were going to fight it,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: all right, but outside where we could breathe, not in here,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: with the hugeness of the female smothering us, penned in
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: with the last male Canson in creation. I knew then
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: why Capper had broken, and why he hadn't told in
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: spite of the selak. The thing hadn't led him, and
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: it had called to its kind from the deep swamps
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: and buck Halter Shannon's Imperial circus. The deep indig night
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: of Venus had settled down in the smell of mud
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: and jungle, and the hot rain. Lights flared crazily here
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: and there out of open doorways. People were yelling, the
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: tight animal mob yell of fear. There was no place
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: to run in Nauru. The jungle held it, the thick
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: green jungle, built on quicksand, and crawling with death. Behind us.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: The four Cansons raised a wild whistling screech. It was
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: answered out of the hot night, between the little shacks
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: of Nauru, brute voices singing their hate. Suddenly I remembered
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: what Gao had said. She busted a lot of cages.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: God knew what was loose in that town. Bucky Shannon
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: spoke beside me. We were still running, slipping and floundering
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: in the mud, making toward the ship with sheer instinct.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: He gasped, we got to get those babies rounded up.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: Oh Goo, you hear me, We got to get him back.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: GAO's voice came sullenly, I hear you, Boss. We slowed down.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: It was suddenly important to hear what more Gao had
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: to say. Don't you get it? He asked? Slowly, Gertrude
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: led him out. She wanted him to help her. They
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: know it, They ain't going back. Somewhere behind us, a
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: plastic shack cracked open like an eggshell. Human cries were
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: drowned in a whistling screech. Off to the right, the
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: Mercurian cave cat began to laugh like a crazy woman. Slow,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: patient animal hate walled around them, waiting the feel and
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: smell of hate in the brute tank. I could feel
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: and smell it now in Nauru. Only it wasn't patient
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: and waiting anymore. The time it had waited for was here.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: Gertrude had set it free. Shannon said, very softly, Mother,
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: Oh God, what are we going to do? Get back
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: to the ship, Get back and get out of here.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: I jumped. It was Melak's voice, sounding hard and ugly.
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: Light spilling out of a sagging door made a faint
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: silhouette of him in the rain. He held a blaster
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: in his hand. Shannon snarled, take off, with half my
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: gang stranded here, you go to hell. Rockets blasted Suddenly
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: out on the landing field. Somebody had made it to
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: Beamish's yacht and gone. The runabout followed it. The circus
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: ship was still there, and the only one in Nauru.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: I said, we can't go, not with a couple hundred
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: credits worth of animals running loose in the town. Get
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: on to the ship, said Melak. Cripes, if I knew
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: how to fly, i'd leave you here.
• 57:59
  Speaker 4: Now move.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Shannon was almost crying. He started to rush Melak. I
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: caught him and said, sure, sure, we'll move, all of us.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: Look behind you. I was weaned on that one. Move well.
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: It was his funeral. It was almost ours too. Ganymedean
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: puffballs moved fast. They had come out from between two shacks,
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: skimming over the mud on their long white cilia. There
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: were three of them, rolled up in balls about the
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: size of my head. They didn't make any noise. They
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: came up behind Melak. Two of them unrolled, suddenly whipping
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: out into lean, fuzzy ropes about five feet long. They
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: went around the Martian breed. The third one came straight
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: at me. Melak made a noise that wasn't human, and
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: went down. The puffballs tightened around him, pulsing a little
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: with the pleasure of digest Gau was on the other
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: side of Melak, too far away. And unarmed. I jumped
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: and the mud tripped me. Shannon fell the other way.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: The puffball strung out now like a fuzzy snake, paused
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: a moment, not three inches from my face. I lay
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: still on my belly, choking on my heart. Shannon moved
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: and it whipped down across his legs. He screamed. I
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: could feel the poison from the thing eating into him.
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: I got to my knees and he cursed me and
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: raised something out of the mud. It was Melak's blaster.
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: He fired between his feet. The puffball shriveled to a
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: little stinking wire and dropped away. Bucky said evenly. That
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: pays me off. Now it's all your party, jig. He fainted,
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: his legs were already swelling. Gau bent over him. He's good.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: Have the croaker quick. You take him to the ship
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: goal if you can get there me. I'm the zoo man.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: Iotta do. I look like Superman to carry that big lug.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: I didn't know why it was so hard to talk.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: Get him there. Then round up everybody left at the ship,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: get guns and ropes and torches, and come back quick.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: He nodded and got Buggy across his shoulders. I gave
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: him the blaster, then I turned back. I knew where
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: most of the circus gang would be, spread out among
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: the bars. It was a lot darker because now all
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: the doors were closed, except two or three where the
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: people hadn't lived to close them. It was quieter, too,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: because there's a limit to the noise a human throat
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: can make. There was just the hot rain and the
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: soft jungle undertone of things padding and slithering in the mud,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: hunting up the street. Somewhere the canson screamed and another
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: shack split open. Instantly, the brute clamor went up from
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: the dark alleys, answering animal legions from five different planets,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: led by a tiny creature in a cloak of green fire,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: and man was the common enemy. A pair of Martian
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: sand tigers shot out into the street ahead of me.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: They were frolicking like kittens, playing with something dark and tattered.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: Then they saw me and dropped it and came sliding
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: on their bellies, their six powerful legs sucking in the mud.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: There was no place to go. I don't remember being
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: particularly scared, but that wasn't because I was brave. It
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: was sheer exhaustion, A guy can only take so much.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: I was just walking around, seeing and hearing, but not
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: feeling anything inside, like a guy that's coked to the
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: ears or punchy from a beating. I picked up a
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: double handful of mud and slung it in their snarling pusses,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: and threw my head back and yelled, hey rube. A
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: door at my left opened three inches, daggering the rain
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: with yellow light. A voice said, for gos six, get
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: in here. I picked up another handful of mud. The
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: Martian cats were pawing the last load out of their eyes.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: I gave them more to play with. I guess they
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: weren't very hungry. Just then I said, I'm going to
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: get the cansons just like that. I told you I
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: was out of my feet clean nuts. The guy in
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: the doorway thought, so too. Will you come in before
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: you're too dead and wait around for those big apes
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: to crack the house open over my head? The hell
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: with that. More mud sploshed in the cat's faces. They
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: were beginning to get sore. The rest of the critters
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: are just following the cansons, sort of a mopping up brigade.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: Stop the cansons and we can round up the others. Easy,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: Oh sure, said the man, any time before breakfast? Are
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: you coming, pal? Or do I shut this door again?
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know how it would have turned out. Probably
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: I'd have wound up inside the cats. But one of
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: em let out a shrill, nasty wail, the kind they
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: give the trainer when they're challenging him to a finish fight,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: and somebody came shouldering out past the man in the doorway.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: The door swung wide so that there was plenty of light.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: The six inch fangs on the Martian kiddies were a beautiful,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: shining white. The newcomer said something to the cats in
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: a level undertone, and came to me. It was Jarn,
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: the titan who works the cats. He's about half my height,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: metallic green in color, and faster on his feet than
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: a rummy, grabbing the first to drink. He looks like
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: a walking barrel when he's folded up, and like nothing
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: on earth when he isn't. He was unfolded. Then he
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: went up to the cats, light and dainty in the mud.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: They were crouching uneasily, coughing and snarling, wanting to rush him,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: and not quite daring to the male sprang end of
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: section three Section four of The Blue Behemoth by Lee Bracket.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: Chris Phong. All I could see was a green blur
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: in the rain. I heard the crisp wicked smacks of
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: of Jaren's tentacles on the tiger. It flopped over in midair,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: buried its face in the mud, and came up yowling
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: like your Aunt Minnie's cat when you stepped on its tail.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: It went away from there fast, with its mate right
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: behind it. Jaren chuckled softly about the Cansons. He hissed,
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: you had an idea. Somewhere quite close to us, there
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: was the familiar sound of a plastic shack going to pieces.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: I remembered hearing blasters rip occasionally, but only Melek's hoods
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: were armed with anything heavy enough to do any good,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: and I guessed most of them had beat it to
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: Beamish's yacht. A canson has a hell of a tough hide,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: and their vitality is something you wouldn't believe if you
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: hadn't seen it. The familiar whistling screech went up, and
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: the babble of human screams and the brute corn from
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: the rainy alleys. I think right then, I began to
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: get scared. The fear began to seep through my dopey palm,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: like pain in a new wound. I shuddered and said, no,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: no ideas. There was a soft step in the mud
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: behind me. I spun around, sweating. Arah than a holly woman,
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: stood there, red eyed and laughing.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 4: You are frightened, she whispered.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: I didn't deny it.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 4: I can help you stop the cansons.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: Her eyes glittered like wet rubies, and her teeth were
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: white and sharp.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 4: It may not work, and you may die. Will you
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 4: try it?
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: She was daring me. She was hardly more human than
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: the brutes themselves, and she belonged with the rain and
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: the hot indigo night. I said, you don't want to
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: help me, Ara, you want us to die. I could
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: see the pale skin throbbing under her bony jaw. She laughed,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: soft alien laughter that made my back hair stir and prickle.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: You humans, she whispered, trampling and spoiling the middle swamps
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: have suffered you greedy with oil and plums, and die.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: But you we can fight. She jerked her round, glistening
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: head toward the sound of destruction, the.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 4: Death from the deep swamps. No, you deserve to die,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 4: you humans. You went meddling with something too big even
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 4: for your bride. But because the Cansons killed my mate
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 4: and our first.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: Young, she hunched up. I thought she was going to
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: flop on her belly like a cayman in the mud.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: Her teeth gleamed, sharp and savage.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 4: Legend says the Cansons were once the wisest race on Venus.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 4: They were worshiped as gods by the little prehuman creatures
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 4: of the swamp Edges. They were going to be the
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 4: reasoning lords of a planet. But nature made a mistake,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 4: perhaps some mutation that couldn't be stopped. I don't know. Anyway,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 4: the females grew until their one thought was to find
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 4: enough food. The males tried to balance this. Most of
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 4: their strength was in their minds anyway, but they couldn't.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 4: The Cansons took to eating their worshippers. At the same time,
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 4: the number of eggs they laid grew smaller and smaller. Finally,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 4: the swamp Edges drove them out back.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: Into the deep swamps.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 4: They've been there ever since, going farther and farther on
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 4: the path of evolution, dwindling in numbers, always hungry and
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 4: hating the humans who rob them of their future. Even
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 4: us they hate because we go erect and have a speech.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 4: The females are not independent. The male controls the community mind.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 4: They must have unity to exist at all. If you
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 4: could control the male.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: I thought of the little creature in the ball of
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: green fire. I shivered and the pit of my stomach
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: pinched up. I said, yeah, how, she chuckled at me.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 4: It may mean death. Will you risk it?
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: I didn't have to. I could beat it back to
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: the ship, maybe even rescue some of the gang with
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: Jaron's help. Then I thought about Bucky and the way
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: he cried down my neck that night in the tank,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: and what would happen to us if we didn't get
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: the animals rounded up? I thought, Oh, hell, why does
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: a guy ever do anything? I don't know. Maybe I
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: thought I'd never get across the field to the ship anyhow,
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: I said, spill it you, she snake. What do I do?
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: Get quern she said, and went off through the hot
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: rain back into the plastic shack. The door slammed shut.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: Jarin and I were alone in the dark. I said,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: will you help me?
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 4: Of a course?
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: I looked down the street toward the landing field. I
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: felt tired, suddenly gone in the knees and weak and
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: sick to vomiting with fear. Here comes gu I said,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: he's got seven or eight guys with guns. Just keep
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: the critters off us until we get through with the Cansons,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: and try not to kill any more than you can help.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: Good old Jig thinking about money even then gou came up.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: We talked am in it, just the things that had
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: to be said, and then I asked anybody have any
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: idea where Quaern might be? Yea said goal slowly. He
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: was in the gin mill next to the one we
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: was in, drunk. I heard him singing when I went by.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: I think the big apes wrecked it. We started off
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: up the muddy street, more as though we'd been wound
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: up to go somewhere and couldn't stop. Then, like men
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: with a purpose, the Cantons were close, awful close. You
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: could hear them sucking and slopping in the muck. The
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: rain fell straight down, almost solid, and the air was
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: thick and hot, We did a lot of shouting. Some
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: men came out of the shacks to join us, but
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: nobody had seen Quairn since the trouble started. We had
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: trouble with the animals in the streets. The vapor snakes
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: got one man, and an Ionian Haru poisoned one guy
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: so bad he died. The next day we had to
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: kill a couple of big babies that wouldn't scare off,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: and we found the gin mill. Gow was right. It
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: was wrecked and there were things scattered around amongst the splinters.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: I was glad it was dark. Well, I said, that's that.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: We'll just have to do what we can with the blasters.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: It wouldn't be much. We didn't carry any heavy artillery.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: And a canson is awfully hard to stop. And you
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: guys want to scram do it now, the rest of
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: you come on. I took a step. Something squirmed under
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: my foot, squeaked and began to curse in a voice
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: like a caddy Did's my god, I said, it's Quern.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: I picked him up. His rubbery little body was slick
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: with mud. He spat and hiccoughed and snarled. Of course,
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: it's Quern. Fine thing leaving me in the mud like that,
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: I might have drowned. He started cursing again in low Martian,
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: which is his native tongue. He's a Darin from the
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: sea bottom pits of Shoon. Somebody laughed. It sounded hysterical,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: the little lush. He don't even know what happened, And
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: he didn't. The Cansons hadn't even seen him. He'd just
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: been tromped into the mud and left there unharmed. Gal
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: caught his breath suddenly, and somebody whimpered. I looked up.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: I couldn't see much in the rain and the indigo dark,
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: but I didn't have to see. I knew what was coming.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: A little vicious splotch of living green against the darkness,
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: and underneath it four huge shadows, trampling knee deep in mud,
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: making toward a plastic cut filled with human beings. I
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: said softly, Quern, I never thought you were such a
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: hell of a wonderful hypnotist. He twinged in my hand.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: His anger almost burned me. He started to speak, but
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: I stopped him. Here's your chance to prove it. Chum,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: see that little green light floating there, Well go to it, Quaern,
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: And it had better be good, or it's curtains for
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: Nauru and all of us. I walked over toward the Kansons,
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: holding Quaern in my hands. The brutes must have sensed us.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: They stopped and wheeled around. Quaern shivered. He was beginning
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: to understand things. He snarled, how do you expect me
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: to do my act? No platform, nothing, you're crazy, jig.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: Let's get out of here. I shook him. Put that
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: baby to sleep, Make him and his harem go out
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: of town. North, there's quicksand there.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 4: Go on.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: Damn you, he cursed me. You could smell the fear
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: rising hot from us. All I heard feet running behind me,
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: and then more going away. Quaern said, all right, you
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: crazy fool, raise me up, hold your hands flat. I
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: made a platform out of my palms, and the Cansons
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: started our way. Gal whispered, don't shoot, don't anybody shoot.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: I don't think he knew then that there wasn't anybody
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: left to shoot but himself and Jarn. The Cansons were
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: huge and solid, behemoths, carved from the night. They towered
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: over us, and the green light pulsed. My jaw hung open,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: and I couldn't breathe, and I'd have run, only my
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: joints were all water. Quaern went into his act. He
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: began to show color out of nothing. His body started
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: to glow from inside. You could see the round, blurred
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: shape of him, and the phosphorescence of his guts showing through,
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: first red savage as a punch in the face, and
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: then all the rest of the spectrum, sometimes one color,
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: sometimes a swirl of them. His body changed shape. I
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: could feel the queer, rubbery movement of it on my hands.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: I remembered the rubes I'd seen standing around Quern's platform,
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: their eyes drawn half out of their heads by the
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: shifting lines and colors. It worked with them, but not here.
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: The cantons came on. The green light flared a little brighter,
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: and that was all. Habit and control were so strong
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: that not even the females paid much attention to Quaern.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: I could see the reins smoking off their huge black shoulders.
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: They were right on top of us. Quaern gasped, I
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: can't do it. His glow deadened. I shook him, I yelled,
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: I knew you were a phony, you two bit Yensir Jern.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: Slow him down, can't you? Quaern? Began to shimmer again.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: Jaron faded in, hardly visible in the darkness. I heard
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: his tentacles whiplashing across hard fletch. One of the Cansons screamed.
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: The green light did a sharp dip and swirl, and
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: I yelled, Gow, speak to Gertrude. The terrifying forward march
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: slowed a little. Quern was churning colors out of his guts,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: as though his life depended on it, which it did.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: Gu stepped forward a little, Gertrude. He said, Gutrude, you
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: ugly slab beside it left handed. He cursed her affectionately.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: I never heard anything like his voice. I wanted to cry.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: In Quern's faint hypnotic glow, I saw the green eyes
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: of the nearest female watching, looking wide and queer. The
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: male was angry, now, angry and scared. You could tell
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: by the vicious brightness of him. We decided afterward that
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: his light was the same kind a glow worm carries around,
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: only stronger. He was fighting, fighting to hold those four
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: minds against the attraction of Quern's shifting glow. He'd have
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: done it too, if it hadn't been for Gau. Gau
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: standing in the hot rain and cursing Gertrude with tears
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: in his voice. Gertrude screamed suddenly, for no reason, a strange,
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: uncertain cry. She moved, a sort of shudder ran through
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: the other three. It was a little like a wall cracking.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: The male burned savagely. The females were watching Quern. Now
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: Gertrude had made the breach. Now the community mind was
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: fastened on the hypnotic little Martian. I could see their
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: green eyes wide and glassy, their snaky heads nodding a little,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: trying to follow the flowing outlines. The male began to
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: dim He shivered and lurched a couple of times, still
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: trying to fight. Gal's voice went on hoarsely, and Gertrude whimpered.
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: The male floated a little closer. I could see suddenly
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: what kept him up. Wings like a hummingbird's, blurred with motion.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: They slowed, and the green light dimmed. He began to
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: bob a little in the hot rain, watching Quaern. Quaern
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: shivered there under, he sighed, thereunder, send them out north
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: to the quicksands. My arms and shoulders ached, and I
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: was swaying on my feet. I hardly heard Quern's thin,
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: dreamy voice. I did hear the slow, obedient noise of
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: their great feet slogging away. The last male canson a
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: dull green moat above them, and I heard Gal crying.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: We got the last of the animals back by noon
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: of the next day. We did what we could for Nauru.
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: Thank god our own beasts hadn't done much damage. We
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: left a lot of Beamish's credits to help out and
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: took the old tub off away from there. BUCKI Shannon
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: recovered nicely. I'm still hurting his imperial wash out around
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: the triangle. We're not doing so hot without Gertrude, but
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: what the hell. We're used to the sewage luck. And
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: if anyone has a canson he wants to sell, thanks chum,
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: but we're not in the market now or ever. I
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: sometimes wonder if there are any more of them in
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: the deep swamps, waiting for their mate to come back.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: End of the Blue Behemoth by Lee Bracket