That box which had wrought our disaster was now safely gone; I had watched its outside disposal. But from this room flowed a sense of—'life' is the closest I could come to describing it. I might now be in the field of some invisible communication. There was not only the mental alert, but a corresponding tingle in my flesh. My fur was rippling as it might under the touch of a strong wind. I must have given forth a mind-call, for Krip's answer came quickly:
'Maelen! What is it?'
I tried to reply, but there was so little of which I could make a definite message. Yet what I offered was enough to summon them to me with speed—Krip, the captain, and Lidj.
'But the box is gone,' Captain Foss said. He stepped to one side as Lidj crowded past ta reopen the sealed hatch. 'Or— Can there be another?'
Krip's hand was on my head, smoothing that oddly ruffled fur. His face expressed his concern, not only for what danger might lurk here, but in a measure for me also. For he knew that I could not tell what lay behind the door, and my very ignorance was an additional source of danger. I was shaken now as I had never been in the past.
Lidj had the door open. And, with that, light flashed within. . There sat the Throne, facing us squarely. They had not recrated it as yet. Only the cavity in the back was closed again. The captain turned to me.
'Well, what is it?'
But in turn I looked to Krip. 'Do you feel it?'
He faced the Throne, his face now blank of expression, his dark Thassa eyes fixed. I saw his tongue pass over his lower lip.
'I feel—something—' But his puzzlement was strong.
Both the other Traders looked from one of us to the other. It was plain they did not share what we felt. Krip took a step forward—put his hand to the seat of the Throne.
I cried aloud my protest as a glassia growl. But too late. His finger tips touched the red metal. A visible shudder shook his body; he reeled back as if he had thrust his hand into open fire—reeled and fell against Lidj, who threw out an arm just in time to keep him from sliding to the floor. The captain rounded on me.
'What is it?' he demanded.
'Force—' I aimed mind-speech at him. 'Strong force. I have never met its like before.'
He jerked away from the Throne. Lidj, still supporting Krip, did the same.
'But why don't we also feel it?' the Captain asked, now eyeing the Throne as if he expected it to discharge raw energy into his very face.
'I do not know—perhaps because the Thassa are more attuned to what it exudes. But it is broadcasting force, and out there'—I swung my head to indicate the wall of the ship—'there is something which draws such a broadcast.'
The captain studied the artifact warily. Then he came to the only decision a man conditioned as a Free Trader could make. The safety of the
'We unload—not just the Throne, all this. We cache it until we learn what's behind it all.'
I heard Lidj suck in his breath sharply. 'To break contract—' he began, citing another part of the Traders' creed.
'No contract holds that a cargo of danger must be transported, the more so when that danger was not made plain at the acceptance of the bargain. The
So, despite the dark, floodlights were strung, and once more the robos were put to work. This time they trundled to the hatches all those crates, boxes, and bales which had been so carefully stowed there on Thoth. Several of the robos were swung to the ground and there set to plowing through the dunes, piling the cargo within such shelter as a ridge of rock afforded. And there last of all was put the Throne of Qur, its glittering beauty uncovered, since they did not wait to crate it again.
'Suppose'—Lidj stood checking off the pieces as the robos brought them along—'this is just what someone wants—that we dump it where it can be easily picked up?'
'We have alarms rigged. Nothing can approach without triggering those. And then we can defend it.' The captain spoke to me. 'You can guard?'
It was very seldom during the months since I had joined the ship that he had asked any direct service of me, though he acknowledged I had talents which his men did not possess. What I had I gave willingly, before it was asked. It would seem now that he hesitated a little, as if this was a thing for which I ought to be allowed to volunteer.
I answered that I could and would—though I did not want to come too close to that pile of cargo, especially the glittering Throne. So they rigged their alarms. But as they went into the ship again, Krip came down the ramp.
His adventure in the hold had so affected him that he had had to withdraw for a space to his cabin. Now he wore the thermo garments made for cold worlds, the hood pulled over his head, the mittens on his hands. And he carried a weapon I had seldom seen him use—a blaster.
'Where do you think you're—' the captain began when Krip interrupted.
'I stay with Maelen. Perhaps I do not have her power, but still I am closer to her than the rest of you are. I stay.'
At first the captain looked ready to protest, then he nodded. 'Well enough.'
When they had gone and the ramp was back in the ship, Krip waded through the drifting sand to look at the Throne—though he kept well away from it, I was glad to note.
