Planet of Death

Chapter 3 Outward Bound

Three days to leave the planet! And no way to depart!

Roy Crawford was dazed by it all. His life was in ruins. He had been walking down the street on a bright, sunny day, minding his own business. And then—first the murder, then the trial. Now he was a condemned man.

Leave Velliran forever—or go to jail for life!

Everything he had worked for now was crumbling.

He’d have to give up his yangskin business and start all over again on some other world. That is, if he could manage to leave at all. Starships didn’t blast off every day. Maybe the judge had known that. Maybe it was his idea of a joke. He had offered Crawford a second choice that was really impossible. That was no choice at all.

Crawford sat gloomily in his office, wondering what to do. A pair of Vellirani policemen stood downstairs in front. Two days from now, they would take him away and put him in jail—if he couldn’t think up some way of getting off the planet before then.

Mr. Brewster’s job was to help Earthmen in trouble, and he was doing his best. He had been making calls all day, trying to arrange for a ship to take Crawford away from Velliran. But so far he was having no luck.

Crawford didn’t want to leave. He liked it here. He wanted to stay right here and go on hunting yangs.

But if he stayed, he’d have to go to jail for the rest of his life. That meant he had to leave. But it wasn’t fair. It simply wasn’t fair.

There was a knock on the door, and Jeff Hallam came in. The short, thin scientist looked very pleased with himself. His face wore a broad smile.

Crawford gave him a sour look. “What are you so happy about?”

“Plenty. I’ve got everything fixed up, Roy.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve found a way to get you off Velliran by tomorrow night.”

Crawford sat up in surprise. “How? There’s no ship leaving for days!”

“There’s one,” said Hallam. “That Exploration Corps ship. The scientific expedition that’s been stopping here a few days. You’ll leave on that ship.”

“But the Exploration Corps doesn’t take passengers,” Crawford objected. “How am I going to get aboard?”

“Simple. You’ll go as a scientist.”

Crawford’s mouth opened wide in amazement. “A scientist? You’re joking!”

“I’m perfectly serious. It’s all arranged. You know why they stopped here in the first place?”

“Mostly because one of their men was sick,” Crawford said.

“Right. Well, the hospital decided that he’s too sick to go exploring. He’s being sent back to Earth. So the expedition is one man short.”

“But I’m not a—”

“Wait, will you?” Hallam said. “I happen to be friendly with the explorers. They told me their problem. They’ve asked for a new scientist to be sent to them. He’s coming from another planet near Velliran. He’s supposed to arrive tomorrow. Okay. When he gets here, I see to it that he doesn’t report to the expedition. You report instead. Simple?”

Crawford began to laugh in spite of himself. He had wanted so badly to go on that exploring trip! It was very funny, in a strange way.

Crawford said, “Who’s this scientist I’m supposed to be?”

“His name is Paul Markham. He’s an ecologist.”

“A what?”

“An ecologist,” Hallam repeated. “That’s a man who studies the way one living thing ties in with another. He looks at all the plants and animals in one place and sees how they get along with each other.”

Crawford knotted his hands together nervously. “If I don’t even know what an ecologist is, how can I pretend to be one?”

“Don’t worry about that. You don’t have to. All you need to do is get aboard that ship. If you can bluff your way until it blasts off, you’ll be all right.”

“Well, if you think so.”

“I’m sure of it. Look, you won’t be asked to do anything scientific until you reach the unexplored planet. By then it’ll be much too late for them to do anything about you. They won’t turn back once they’ve arrived.” Hallam grinned. “They’ll probably decide that a trained hunter like you is useful. They’ll put you to work.”

“Maybe so,” Crawford said. He was starting to like this deal. It was too bad he had to leave Velliran this way, as a convicted criminal. But as long as he was going, it was lucky that he could go with the expedition.

“So you see, it’ll work out pretty well,” said Hallam.

“How long will the expedition be out there?”

“A few months, I guess. Afterward you’ll have to go to live on some other planet, Roy. But you’ll be all right. You can start a new hunting business somewhere else.”

“Yeah,” Crawford said bitterly. “Just like that.” He stood up, towering high over his friend. “Listen, Jeff. While I’m gone, I want you to try to find out who really did murder that man. Get the real killer and clear my name.”

“I’ll try hard,” Hallam promised.

“And if you can’t—well, sell everything I own, then. Cash it all in and send the money to me on my new planet. I’ll be in touch with you.”

“Right.” Hallam smiled. “Things will work out, Roy. And be sure to get to the spaceport on time tomorrow night. Remember: from here on out, your name is Paul Markham. And you’re an ecologist for the Exploration Corps.”

The next evening, Hallam drove Crawford to the spaceport. It was a beautiful night. The three moons of Velliran were high in the sky. They cast a bright orange light over everything.

As the car passed through the gate of the spaceport, Crawford said, “Are you sure this is going to work?”

“Positive.”

“Won’t they know I’m not Paul Markham?”

“They’ve never seen Markham. He’s a stranger to them.”

“What if they recognize me as Roy Crawford, though?”

“How can they? None of them ever saw you,” Hallam said. “Relax. You’ll be all right.”

Crawford tried hard to relax.

He saw the ship of the expedition up ahead. It was tall and slim and its sides were deep blue in color. The orange moonlight gleamed brightly along the metal. Crawford felt sadness come over him as he saw the ship.

Goodbye to Velliran, he thought.

Goodbye to all his friends. Goodbye to hunting yangs. Goodbye to the life he had made for himself on this planet.

It had all been so sudden, so unfair—the murder, the trial, the sentence. He still didn’t quite believe all that had happened.

But yet it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. At least he wasn’t going to jail. Thanks to Jeff Hallam, he was outward bound for adventure. Heading for a new world, a world that had never been explored.

Hallam parked the car. They walked out together onto the field. As they neared the ship, Hallam shook Crawford’s hand.

“Okay,” he said. “You should make it clear from here, Roy. I mean, Paul. Take it easy. I’ll wait to hear from you.”

“Thanks, for everything, Jeff.”

Hallam turned away. Crawford watched until he got in his car. Then Crawford walked slowly toward the ship.

It stood on its tail, pointing to the sky. There was a door at the ground level. Crawford entered it. An elevator took him to the crew compartment at the top end.

On the way up, he reminded himself that he had a new name. He was no longer Roy Crawford. Now he was Paul Markham, ecologist. The real Paul Markham had been kept from reaching the ship on time. Crawford felt a little sorry about that. But only a little.

His heart was pounding wildly. What if he didn’t fool the scientists? What if they saw through his bluff before the ship blasted off?

They would have him thrown off the ship. He would be sent to a Vellirani prison for the rest of his life. So everything depended on what happened in the next few hours. Either he blasted off for an unknown world, or he went to jail.

The elevator door opened. Crawford stepped out into the nose of the spaceship. There were nine men in there. The scientists, Crawford thought. The members of the exploration team. He took a deep breath.

“I’m Paul Markham,” he announced. “The new ecologist.”

Nobody seemed to think he was lying. At least, nobody came right out and said it. He had passed the first test.

A tall dark-haired man in a blue-and-gold uniform stepped forward. “Welcome aboard, Markham. I’m Captain Hendrin. We’re glad to have you.”

“I’m glad to be here, sir.”

“We were in a tight spot,” the Captain said. “We couldn’t very well blast off without an ecologist. What kind of survey expedition would that be? It was a lucky thing for us that you could join us on such short notice.”

Crawford laughed. “It was an even luckier thing for me, sir. Believe me, it was.”

Hendrin said, “As you may have heard already, this is going to be a regular six-month exploration trip. We’re going to work in the Andromeda galaxy. We’re beginning with World Seven of Star System Z-16. It’s a jungle world, and it may keep us busy for the full six months. If it doesn’t, we’ll move on to some other planet. Our orders are to survey and give names to as many planets as we can.”

Nodding, Crawford said, “It sounds fine to me.”

Hendrin pointed to the others. “These are the men you’ll be working with.” He introduced them, calling off their names quickly. They represented many sciences. A man named Lazenby was a biologist, Grover was a botanist, Chung a geologist, Dorwin a chemist, Bartlett an anthropologist, Murray a mapmaker, and Evans a radio-communications man. The ship’s doctor was named Fernandez.

Crawford didn’t catch all the names the first time around. But it didn’t matter. He’d be living with these men for the next six months. There would be plenty of time to get to know them.

Lazenby, the biologist, said, “Come with me, Markham. I’ll show you to your quarters.”

Crawford followed him down a ladder into the heart of the ship. Lazenby was a slim, stoop-shouldered man about forty years old. He had a soft voice and mild eyes that hid behind thick glasses. In many ways he reminded Crawford of Jeff Hallam.

“Here you are,” Lazenby said. “It’s not very large, but it ought to do. I guess you’re used to cabins like this one by now.”

“Oh—yes,” Crawford said. “Naturally.” He had to pretend he had been on lots of Exploration Corps ships. But of course this was the first time he had ever been aboard one.

Lazenby said, “How many expeditions have you made before this?”

Lazenby asked the question as a way of making friends, not as a trap. Crawford wasn’t sure what to say, though. So he simply grinned and said, “To tell you the truth, I’ve lost count.”

“I know what you mean,” said Lazenby. “One trip just blurs into the next. Well, I think we’re in for an interesting time this trip.”

“I hope so. I’m happy to be aboard. You don’t know how happy I am.”

Lazenby went up front again, leaving Crawford to get settled. He unpacked the few belongings he had brought with him. So far, so good, he thought. Nobody realized that he wasn’t Paul Markham. And in a little while it would be too late to do anything about it.

It seemed to him that a hundred years passed before blast-off time. Would the ship never leave? What were they waiting for?

But then at last came Captain Hendrin’s voice over the loudspeaker:

“We’re blasting off in five minutes. All hands strap down for blast-off.”

Crawford fastened his safety belts and waited for the last five minutes to tick away. The final signal came. He closed his eyes.

The ship lifted from the ground. The rockets roared. Up into the sky they zoomed.

He had made it! He was safely off Velliran! He would not go to prison!

He was outward bound!