Deepfreeze Part 4

The feline pushed down a k.n.o.bbed lever and the steel clamps slid from Dollard's trussed form. His relief matched only by his quickened awareness of the need for caution in dealing further with his rescuers, Dollard took advantage of his release to stretch his aching muscles.

Standing erect caused him a moment's dizziness, which he could not account for until he recalled that the alcohol he had drunk thousands (or was it millions?) of years previously still remained in his bloodstream.

Although the interior of the Tegurian s.h.i.+p was suffocatingly warm, yet Dollard felt the lack of clothing with what amounted to discomfort. He described his feeling to s.h.i.+r K'han who told him his apparel had also been found in the circling s.p.a.ce yacht. Equally well-preserved by the cold of interplanetary s.p.a.ce, the clothes would be brought to him immediately.

After garbing himself, Dollard strolled about the Tegurian vessel. Its alien constructure seemed to defy all the architectural principles familiar to a human's primate mind. Catwalks, especially, lived up fully to their name, appearing as mere unsupported ribbons that stretched across banks of throbbing molecular engines. Mechanics traversed these walks over fuel pits with graceful skill, despite the lack of handholds. Everywhere, Dollard noticed that members of the crew, when relieved of their tasks, immediately dropped off to slumber without need of intervening recreation.

Slightly less than six hours after he was awakened, Edwin Dollard heard whistles scream through the length of the vessel announcing planetfall would take place in only a few minutes.

s.h.i.+r K'han padded up to his side and informed him that he would have to rest in a padded cell while the landing took place. The muscles of his human body would not be up to the shock of deceleration--a magnified strain to which feline muscles had long been accustomed.

Dollard obeyed. By now he was weary of his confinement aboard. He was anxious to get aground where he should meet the true leaders of Tegur.

He could impress _them_ with his superior abilities. Of course, it would seem strange to find Terra ruled by another species, but after all that was a contingency he had fully considered when he voluntarily undertook the deepfreeze. Little by little, the first shock of encountering an alien culture seemed to be wearing off--yet he knew there were still many mind-twisting problems to face.

Shortly after he had braced himself against the sponge-lined bulkheads, a great shock travelled transversely through the s.h.i.+p, followed by a dozen or more lesser shudders. Metal groaned and creaked all about him, and the room temperature noticeably increased.

Left to himself, Dollard immediately began to formulate new plans.

Searching his garments, he was relieved to find a pocket still contained the bag of glittering Syrtis diamonds with which he had hoped long ago to bribe Venusian officials. The gems might prove equally useful now in cementing his position with the Tegurians. He was angered however to find his flame pistols and stunner had been taken away from him.

He decided that immediately after his presentation to the leaders, he would ask for the privilege of inspecting their factories and other technological facilities. There had never been erected an industrial plant yet, whose efficiency couldn't in some way be improved, Dollard knew.

By making himself practicably useful, Dollard knew that in time he could build up a personal organization that eventually would result in the acquisition of a new financial empire.

All of course hinged upon the very vital conference with the upper echelon of Tegurian rulers.

But, at least it could be said that Edwin Dollard had proved himself capable of dealing with fortune on its toughest terms. Now, he was in the home stretch of his new career.

Seconds after, the Tegurian s.h.i.+p landed with a thunderous jolt. The engine throb died away and silence reigned along the corridors.

Dollard found his breath painfully short as renewed anxiety gripped him. This was the crucial moment.

A panel slid open and s.h.i.+r K'han appeared. "Come," he said. "The leaders have been notified and are waiting at the banquet hall."

"Splendid," said Dollard, rubbing his hands together. "If things work out to advantage for me, I'll remember you, s.h.i.+r K'han."

The Tegurian's yellow eyes blinked as if he had not heard.

Outside, Dollard's lungs expanded to draw in deep gulps of the luxuriant tropical air that characterized a warmer Terra. At a considerable distance from the nearly deserted s.p.a.ceport, he saw that a brilliant city of high towers capped by narrow gla.s.s spires raised its s.h.i.+ning structures to the sky. The sharp-pointed buildings could be seen to be interlaced with countless spidery cables and glistening bridges.

For Dollard's observing eyes, the vista of the metropolis evoked--by some indefinable ancient suggestiveness--a buried Terran memory of a giant banyan tree pierced by lean striped bamboos.

"Bengul, our capital," s.h.i.+r K'han told him. "This way, now." He pointed to a waiting air vehicle on the lonely drome. "In there--and you'll only have five more minutes." The feline nostrils wrinkled.

"Five more minutes?" said Dollard. "Aren't you going?"

"No, I wasn't invited."

"I'm to go alone?"

"Yes," s.h.i.+r K'han replied. The prolonged effort of speaking in a strange tongue was reflected in his increasingly roughened tones.

"I've been ordered to put you in the cage-flier. Then, my job is done.

The cage will transfer you to the leaders' quarters--where all else will be done. Farewell, primate. It has been interesting. I could almost swear that...."

He paused.

"Something troubling you?" said Dollard, who didn't usually concern himself with other persons' inner disturbances. He wondered now what instinct prompted this particular inquiry of solicitude on his part.

"You trouble me," replied s.h.i.+r K'han. "I would almost swear you had ... a high intelligence ... and a soul worthy of a Tegurian. But, of course, I know that isn't so."

"That's not what I meant," Dollard said, fretfully. "There's something else--" For a moment, he felt like screaming, "--something you haven't told me."

"Would you really like to know?" said s.h.i.+r K'han. "I had thought it was better you didn't. But, then I have often been accused of strange sympathies for a Tegurian--"

"I demand to know."

"Then, I must hurry. Only a few minutes remain. Let me try to draw you a mental picture, primate. Your race, like ours, was carnivorous. You feasted on many delicacies--on species extinct like the steer, the pheasant, the squirrel. It was your very nature, your undeniable primal instincts, that made you enjoy the rending and devouring of flesh--"

"True," admitted Dollard. His body was now trembling.

"I remember," continued s.h.i.+r K'han, "one of our archeologists translated an account of how the primates of your time unearthed the body of a mastodon, buried in the glacial ice. The mastodon flesh, a delicacy, was so well-preserved that it was still edible. And so, it was eaten."

"I--I don't think I understand what you're getting at," declared Dollard.

He looked anxiously about him, but the flat plain bore no shelter--or for that matter, no other objects save the waiting air vehicle and the recently-landed s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p on the drome. Lights began to glow in the far-off city.

"The point is," said the feline interpreter, "that it would have made no difference to the primates had the mastodon been intelligent. They would have eaten him anyway. In your epoch, primates ate many domestic animals who differed less in intelligence quotient from them than differ civilized Tegurians from human primates like yourself ... the gap today is much greater...."

"Then, you--"

"Not me. Only the leaders of my world, shall I say. By virtue of their exalted rank, they have the right to the choicest of foods. Since the dawn of our history, the flesh of primates has been our greatest delicacy--but it has grown scarcer and scarcer, until now it is virtually non-existent. And such specimens, as are trapped, are stringy and barely edible."

Dollard looked down guiltily at his own plump body. His face bore the flushed expression of one suddenly conscious of sin.

"But you," continued s.h.i.+r K'han, "your body is fat and well-preserved. When we found you on your derelict s.h.i.+p, our commander communicated with the rulers of Tegur immediately. He was ordered to change course and bring you to Bengul--"

The feline's speech broke off. Edwin Dollard had suddenly commenced to run from the horror of this alien world, recognition of his fate having burst like a rocket in his panic-stricken mind. His heart was pounding.

But loping easily along as his ancestors might have pursued a baboon or antelope, s.h.i.+r K'han overtook the screaming human. He seized his obese bulk by the waist and lifted him high above his head. While Dollard kicked and moaned, the feline bore him back to the air vehicle and deposited him in a wire mesh cage in the flying craft's c.o.c.kpit. A tangle of the sticky ropes descended from the cage's roof, further entangling the trapped industrialist and serving to reduce him to helplessness.

s.h.i.+r K'han adjusted k.n.o.bs and switches on the vehicle's control board, until he had produced the desired setting. Then, he stepped back.

"As I said before," he declared "this vehicle will automatically transport you to the leaders' banquet hall--to arrive in five minutes.

There, you will be prepared and presented to our rulers. I hope you please them. The reward for our commander and his crew will be great."

"Then, all along, what you've been trying to tell me is ... is that ...

I'm to be--"