Collected Short Fiction, page 549
Slater cautiously extended his head in the doorway. What he saw nearly made him gasp with shock.
Four giants lay sleeping on rough heaps of straw. Up till that moment Slater had never seriously considered the dimensions of a human being eleven feet tall. But now he saw them as they slept, naked, like savages.
He saw legs like tree trunks, an outstretched hand big enough to palm an Earthman’s skull like a softball, a foot the size of an anvil, with toes like thick cigars. One of the four was a giantess who looked like the embodiment of all womanhood. with her watermelon-sized breasts and vast hips.
Even the size of the doorway was enough to cow an Earthman: it was at least fifteen feet high, while the roof of the hut was almost thirty feet above the ground. Everything was on a frighteningly huge scale in the hut.
“Well?” Colville whispered.
“You need a man and a woman, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And I need two young men. So we’ve got three out of our four right here.”
Colville nodded. The couple would do just fine for Mr. Annebale’s zoo. The other two seemed to be children—an adolescent boy, and a younger one who was a mere seven feet or so in length.
SLATER stepped inside. The hut had a peculiarly musky smell. Gripping the stunner-gun tightly, he pressed the trigger-bulb and held the beam steady on the largest of the giants, giving the native a triple dose because of his size.
“Easy there,” Colville murmured. “An overdose could kill him.”
“And an underdose could kill us, if he wakes up,” Slater rejoined. He shifted the beam to the woman, then to the older of the two boys. Just as he finished, the younger one came awake. Eyes wide, the young giant rose unsteadily, muttering alien words.
“Slater! Over here! The young one’s awake!”
Swinging round hastily, Slater applied the stunner-gun beam to the boy-giant. The brain-freezing beam took immediate effect. As the ponderous native started to collapse, Slater and Colville ran to catch him, and eased him down to the bed of straw.
“Whew!” Colville exclaimed. “If we’d let him drop the thump would have awakened the whole village!”
“Don’t waste time,” Slater advised. “Let’s find another hut and get our fourth catch.”
Five natives slept in the adjoining hut—two mature ones and three more youthful specimens. Of the latter, two were girls just barely ripening into womanhood, the third a young man of about the same age as the one already asleep in the first hut.
Slater nodded approvingly. This would be just what Reynard would want: a pair of three-quarter-grown boys, big enough to be impressive (Slater estimated their height as between nine and ten feet) and still young enough to be taught the skills of boxing. Quickly, before any of them could awake, he stunned the entire lot.
He turned to see Colville staring in open hunger at the younger of the two girls. The little rabbitty man’s face had a look of naked lust, even though it was obvious from her size—no more than six feet—and her small breasts that the alien girl was barely more than a child.
The expression on Colville’s face was unutterably perverse, as though he were seriously considering flinging himself down on the body of the unconscious young giantess and making love to her.
Slater scowled disgustedly. “Stop making eyes at that kid, Colville. Let’s get the haul hoisted aboard the sled.”
That part of the job proved to be far more easily said than done. The sled was perhaps thirty feet away. But the two giant boys weighed better than three hundred pounds apiece, the woman perhaps four hundred, and the man, an eleven-footer, weighed at least five hundred pounds.
It took nearly half an hour for Slater and Colville to lug the four immense bodies out of the huts and onto the sled, and by the end of that time both were nearly at the point of collapse.
At last it was done, though—all four stowed on the sled and strapped down. Slater took a last look around the village. Despite everything, no one had awakened.
Colville got behind the wheel of the rocket-sled. For an instant Slater was tempted, as he stared at Slater’s back, to stun the smaller man and leave him here. But Slater decided against it. It would be pleasant to leave Annebale’s man behind holding the bag, but there was no getting away from the fact that he needed Colville to help him load the ship.
They drove back to the Terran camp in silence. Only about an hour had elapsed since their departure. The sentry still slumbered where Slater’s stunner-beam had carried him.
Colville and Slater took turns loading their ships, to avoid any possibility of trickery. First Colville lowered his cargo hoist and he and Slater dragged the giant man aboard and strapped him down in the caged area inside. Then, one of Slater’s boxers was taken aboard the other ship. The loading job took the better part of an hour. Finally it was done, though, with the giant couple safely imprisoned on Colville’s ship and the two boys similarly caged on Slater’s. When the effects of the stunner-beam wore off, they would not be in any danger from the captive aliens.
Colville and Slater met for the last time in the area between their ships. Colville grinned. “I guess I owe you some thanks, Slater. I couldn’t have managed without you.”
“Skip the sentiment. I wouldn’t have teamed up with you if I thought there was any way of getting the aliens on board my ship.”
Slater fingered the stunner-gun in his pocket. One quick blast, and Colville would lie here unconscious, to be found by Burke in the morning, while he got away with his cargo—
But Colville said, “Okay, I’ll skip the sentiment. Suppose we just back toward our ships and get aboard. That way you can’t try anything fancy on me.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“I never have,” Colville said evenly.
Slater shrugged. It had been a good idea, anyway. Well, Reynard would have to be satisfied with having half of Earth’s supply of giants, that was all. He backed toward his ship, keeping a wary eye on Colville; ascending the cat-walk, he dogged shut the hatch and prepared the ship for blastoff.
Space regulations provided that he was supposed to obtain blastoff permission before leaving. But there was no one awake to give it to him, and, in any event, he had no interest in tipping his hand to Burke. He jammed down on the blastoff lever.
His ship rose on a pillar of flame. An instant later, so did Colville’s.
THE double thunder of the departing ships penetrated the dreams of the slumbering Commander Burke. He rolled over on his cot, thinking that the giants must be bowling. Then he came fully awake. That sound could only have been the blasting-off of spaceships.
Now? In the middle of the night? Without official clearance?
Burke rushed to the window and stared out. He saw twin flares of light high above the spacefield, dwindling rapidly, vanishing completely.
Colville and Slater were gone. Why? Burke’s throat went dry. What had made them suddenly decide to leave, together, at this odd hour?
He dressed hurriedly. The camp was coming awake; lights were on all over the place, and men were rushing out into the compound, asking each other questions no one could answer.
“Quiet!” Burke snapped, silencing the hubbub. He picked out a man. “Lieutenant Herbert, what happened just now?”
“The—the spaceships,” Herbert stammered. “Those two little ships from Earth. They both just blasted off.”
“Did anybody see Colville and Slater after taps tonight?”
No one answered. Burke scowled. The first streaks of dawn were beginning to appear behind the distant mountains. “Who was tonight’s sentry?”
Captain McGuire, who made up the sentry-go rotation, said, “Corporal Norris.”
“Find me Norris,” Burke ordered.
It took a few moments for the command to be fulfilled. Two men finally discovered the unhappy sentry lying sprawled unconscious in the tall grass near the gate of the compound, his eyes wide and glassy.
Grim-faced, Burke and Dr. Wylie, the camp’s medic, inspected the sleeping sentry.
“What do you think it is, Doctor?”
Wylie shrugged. “There’s only one thing it could possibly be. See the pattern of broken capillaries in the whites of his eyes? This man was rayed down with a stunner-gun, Commander.”
Burke looked up slowly. He was completely wide awake now. But he still did not understand why Colville and Slater had chosen the middle of the night in which to make their unannounced departure. And why stun the sentry? Something peculiar had happened here—but—what was it? What had Colville and Slater done? He had to know.
As the Commander stood indecisively over the sleeping form of the sentry, one of the younger noncoms came running up breathlessly.
“Sir—sir—”
“What is it, Mr. Holman?”
“I was just down the road a little way—looking to see if there was anything suspicious down there—and—and—” Holman gasped for breath. “The natives, sir. The giants.”
“What about them?” Burke demanded irritably. “Spit it out, boy!”
“I’m trying to tell you, sir. They’re coming up the road. The whole bunch of them marching here. And they look angry, sir. They look like they’re spoiling for a fight!”
THE natives reached the camp a few minutes later. They were an impressive, even terrifying sight. Never before had more than a handful come to the camp at any one time. Now there were more than fifty, clustering in thick knots and buzzing angrily to each other in their harsh, gutteral language. Many of them had not bothered to dress at all, while a few wore only the loincloths that were their daily clothes.
In the front of the group was the mountainous alien Burke had come to recognize as chief of the loosely-organized tribe. He was about twelve feet high and weighed close to seven hundred fifty pounds, but right now his dimensions seemed twice that.
Burke looked around. His men were pale and tense. The bulky natives dwarfed the entire compound, since their heads were nearly as high as the roofs of the one-story huts. The big creatures milled around, grunting in what looked quite clearly like rage. It was the first time Burke had seen them in any other emotional state than their normal placidity, and it was alarming to watch them grow steadily more angry.
Burke stepped forward to face the enraged alien chief, taking with him the expedition’s head linguistics expert, Bryson. Bryson had studied the alien language and knew it as well as any of the Earthmen in the camp.
The Commander felt like an absurd pygmy before the aliens. He was accustomed to looking up to other people, but not usually this far up. On Dunhill V, life had simply developed on a different scale from the rest of the galaxy.
The natives were eleven-footers; the trees towered hundreds of feet into the air; the cattle were the size of bull elephants. And now, for the first time, these monstrous people seemed to be angry—angry enough to march into the Terran camp several hours before dawn.
The alien chief rumbled out a booming complaint, far above their heads. Commander Burke said to the linguist, “Find out what he’s yelling about.”
Bryson said something to the alien, who became silent a moment, then poured out a flood of accusations and protests. In the middle of the outburst, Bryson turned to the Commander and said, “It seems four o? his people are missing, and some others are asleep and won’t wake up. Noises were heard in the village and when the aliens investigated they found the empty beds. They think we kidnapped the missing ones.”
“Tell them we’re not responsible,” Burke said. “Tell them that we’re going to do everything in our power to help find the missing ones.”
Bryson craned his neck and shouted a few sentences to the enraged alien chief. The reply did not seem to satisfy the giant. He stamped his foot, snarled, turned in a complete circle to signify his displeasure.
“What did he say?” Burke demanded.
The linguist’s shoulders slumped. “He thinks we took the missing people to make experiments on, the way we’ve taken other local life-forms. Should I tell him about Colville and Slater?”
“No. That won’t do any good. Just tell him again that we didn’t kidnap his people, and we’ll help all we can to locate them.”
Bryson passed the message along. But the alien chief did not seem to be interested in listening. He grunted out a lengthy reply, spun on his heel, and strode away with groundshaking tread. Barking commands at his people, he shepherded the entire lot of giants out of the compound and onto the road leading back to their village.
“What was all that about?” Burke asked.
“It was an ultimatum. Either we restore the missing tribes-people by sunrise tomorrow, or he and his people will destroy our camp.”
Burke had a sudden vivid mental picture of fifty or sixty massive aliens smashing and crashing their way through the buildings of the compound like bulls in a china shop. He closed his eyes for a moment, tightening his jaws.
“You think it was Colville and Slater, sir?” the linguist asked.
“Of course. Those two reptiles must have buddied up and gone to the native village together. We’ll have to send out a general wide-band alarm to the Space Police—maybe they can be caught and brought back in time to head off the native ultimatum.”
“If not—?”
Burke shrugged heavily. “I’d prefer not to think about the alternative possibilities, Major.”
He turned and headed rapidly across the compound toward the radio shack.
THE alarm went out on ultraband to all Space Police ships that might be within a fifty light-year radius of Dunhill V. Burke’s message described the two ships in detail, explained the nature of the crime, and stressed the importance of detecting the fleeing Colville and Slater and bringing the kidnapped alien giants back to Dunhill V.
By the time Burke had finished dictating the message, the sun was beginning to rise. He remained in the radio shack, watching Lieutenant Hastings code the message and feed it into the transmitters.
“How long should I send it, sir?” Hastings asked.
“Put it on a looped tape and send it out indefinitely,” Burke replied. “But let one of your assistants take care of that job. I want you to set up a subradio contact for me with the home office on Earth.”
“Yes, sir.”
It took twenty minutes to make contact across the light-years. There was no visual, of course; the audio signal between Dunhill V and Earth was bent by hyperspace and travelled instantly between the two planets, while conventional radio transmission would have taken years in each direction.
Burke spoke to Brigadier General Cauldwell of the Terran Extraterrestrial Development Corps. It was most unusual for an expedition to make a direct report back to Earth, and Cauldwell said so.
“These are unusual circumstances, General Cauldwell,” Burke explained. “We had a couple of visitors from Earth last night.”
“Visitors? What kind of visitors?”
“One man who was recruiting for Harris Reynard’s boxing exhibitions, and another trying to collect specimens for W. H. Annebale’s interstellar zoo. They got here in a neck-and-neck race and asked my permission to let them have a few of the aliens to take back. I refused it, of course.”
“Dunhill V—that’s the planet with the giants, isn’t it?” Cauldwell asked.
“Yes, sir. After I refused permission, they both claimed the right of Overnight Stay on me. There wasn’t anything I could do about that. And during the night, while everybody was asleep, they stunner-gunned my sentry, sneaked out of camp and into the alien village, and kidnapped four of the aliens. They blasted off without giving notice for clearance.”
“Have you notified the Space Police?”
“Of course, sir,” Burke said. “But just in case these two slip through the interception net, I think they ought to be nabbed when they reach Earth. It’s a flat violation of the law to kidnap intelligent alien beings like that, of course.”
“You needn’t point that out to me,” General Cauldwell said stiffly. “How are the natives reacting?”
“They’re hopping mad. They threaten to destroy the camp if we don’t get the missing natives back here by sunrise tomorrow.”
“What are your plans in case they attack?”
Burke said, “Evacuation, sir. I can’t risk the lives of a hundred fifty men, and I don’t want to have to kill aliens. We’ll pull out if we’re faced with any real danger.”
“All right, Burke. Report to me again in twelve hours and let me know how the situation stands.”
The contact broke. Burke walked scowling out of the radio shack. He had a good idea of what was going on inside Brigadier General Cauldwell’s mind.
Cauldwell was probably uncomfortable about the prospect of arresting anybody belonging to either Reynard or Annebale. Those two had money and they had influence. They could make or break anybody in the entire Corps, just by pulling a few high-level strings. Assuming Colville and Slater reached Earth, Cauldwell would think twice about arresting them, law or no law.
Leaving the radio shack, Burke called together his senior officers and ordered them to begin evacuation procedure. All scientific research was to be halted and everything to be packed and placed aboard the ships. The ships were to be made ready for immediate blastoff on a moment’s notice.
It was the only thing to do. Although the colony was well enough armed to fight off an alien attack, it was suicidally foolish to do so. Bloodshed would only lead to further bloodshed. A hundred fifty Earthmen could not fight off an entire planet of giant humanoids, primitive though they were.
The sensible thing to do was to retreat without striking a defensive blow. Then, perhaps, later it would be possible to renew friendly relations with the giants. Once blood was shed, Earth would have to forget all about this planet as a possible colony, for enmity would have sprung up as a result of battle.
THE first reports from the Space Police ships began coming in toward noon. A dozen ships had joined the search for Colville and Slater. They had fanned out over a wide area of space and were scanning the region with mass detectors. As yet, there was no sign of the ships, but they could not be far from Dunhill V, since less than half a day had passed since their departure.
