Stillman cleared his throat and said, “On Etla that tree belongs to a rare and, in spite of its lethal fruit, protected species. This one is very old and slow-growing and at most is only a few meters taller than when the young Hewlitt fell from it, and this is a deep and dangerous ravine. If he had climbed to the topmost branches, eaten even a single mouthful of that fruit, and then fallen down here, he would have been dead. Twice.
“I have no wish to offend you,” he went on, looking straight at Hewlitt. “My explanation at the time was that you had been overtined, hungry, and thirsty after playing for many hours in the sun. The sight of the fruit at the top made you try to climb the tree, but gave up the attempt and slid down the slope rather than falling to the bottom. The condition of your clothing at the time, plus the fact that there was not a single scratch or a bruise on you, supports this theory. After trying to climb the tree and seeing what you thought was a cluster of edible fruit at the top, you fell asleep so that your memory of the event was a mixture of dreams and reality.
“Sorry,” he ended. “You may not be aware of lying, but neither can you be telling the truth.”
For several minutes the medical team maintained a diplomatic silence while busying themselves with the collection of plant and insect specimens at Murchison’s direction. Hewlitt was well used to the polite disbelief of others, and Stillman was just another doctor who had decided that an overactive imagination was all that ailed him, so his feelings were of irritation and disappointment rather than anger. That was why he was surprised when Pnilicla’s flying showed signs of instability-he knew that it was not his own emotional radiation that was the cause-and less surprised when the empath answered the question before anyone could ask it.
“Friend Fletcher,” it said. “You are radiating high levels of curiosity and excitement. Why?”
The captain was kneeling beside a thick, torpedo-shaped object that was almost hidden by undergrowth and soil washed down from the slopes by rain. Fletcher opened his equipment pack and withdrew what looked like a high-penetration scanner.
“There is evidence of foreign technology here,” he said. “This object is structurally more sophisticated than the other wreckage hereabouts. I’ll be able to tell you more after I’ve had a closer look at the interior.”
“It might not be important,” said Stillman, “but Hewlitt was found sleeping beside that thing. At the time I was too interested in his condition to bother looking at another piece of wreckage.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” said Murchison, moving quickly to join Fletcher. “Danalta, Naydrad, until we know what this means, forget about the bug and plant specimens.”
Still trembling from the emotional radiation of the others as well as its own excitement, Pnilicla alighted on the ground beside them. “Ml recorders are on, friend Fletcher,” it said. “When you are ready.”
The captain’s words and actions were precise and unhurried as he described aloud what he saw, thought, and did at every stage of his examination, so much so that Hewlitt wondered if the other was talking for posterity in case the thing blew up in his face. Pnilida, with whom cowardice was a prime survival characteristic, and everyone else were standing or hovering as close to Fletcher as possible without getting in his way and seemed not to be worried. Hewlitt moved closer to join them.
According to Fletcher, the object was just a hollow cylinder under three meters long and half a meter in diameter, with two sets of four triangular stabilizers projecting from the midsection and tail. The outer surface of the casing was pitted and discolored and showed evidence of surface melting that suggested it had been subjected to a brief period of ultra-high temperature. There was also a trace of radioactivity, very faint and harmless, indicating that it might have been briefly exposed to an external source of intense radiation as well as heat. Propulsion was by a single, integral chemical booster that occupied three-quarters of the volume. From the analysis of the burnt residue and a rough estimate of the vehicle’s weight, he judged the range to be about sixty to seventy miles.
There were two small, recessed compartments with opened, hinged flaps spaced about one meter apart along the longitudinal axis, equidistant from the vehicle’s center of gravity. The remains of four rotted strands of cable sprouted from the openings, suggesting that the vehicle was intended to be soft-landed in the horizontal position by twin parachutes. There was no sign of the parachute fabric because, Fletcher said, it was either biodegradable or it had been torn off by branches on the way down.
“The first ten inches of the nose section hinges downward,” Fletcher went on. “It probably fell open on landing and was later covered by soil and grass. Apart from the latch mechanism it seems to be filled with dense padding that has not rotted. The forward quarter of the vehicle, where normally I would expect to find the warhead, is filled with the same padding except for a cylindrical space five inches in diameter running along the longitudinal axis for a distance of three-quarters of a meter. Inside the hollow there is a five-inch circle of plastic, thickly padded on the forward face and with the other side attached to a short bar and… and what looks like a piston mechanism designed to expel a cylindrical container of some kind from the hollow interior. But, owing possibly to a malfunction or a rough landing, the piston traveled only halfway along its track so that the container was not completely expelled and, an unknown time later, it was shattered.”
The gloves he was wearing were like a tough, transparent second skin, combining sensitivity of touch with maximum protection. Fletcher kept his eyes on the scanner display as he moved his free hand into the opening.
“As well as about a million insects nesting in the padding,” he continued, “there are small pieces of glasslike material inside and, yes, I can see more of them partially buried in the grass and soil around the hinged nose cone. They appear to be highly polished on one side and covered with a dark brown, matte coating on the other. I expect you will want specimens?”
Murchison dropped onto her hands and knees beside him and said, “Yes!”
Hewlitt could not remember ever hearing a word spoken with such vehemence and suppressed excitement. Fletcher gave her one of the fragments, which she placed in the portable analyzer hanging from her equipment harness. Everyone waited for her to speak.
“Our analyzers agree,” she said to Fletcher. “It is a thin, brittle, very strong glasslike plastic. The degree of curvature indicates that it is a fragment of a cylindrical flask. Apart from a few small traces of insect excrement, the outer surface is clean and highly polished. The opaque coating on the inner surface appears to be a synthetic nutrient, probably in solution, that has since dried out. I will need more specimens and a lengthy session with the ship’s analyzer to tell you the form of life it was meant to feed. Ml I can say now is that the vehicle contained an organism or organisms that needed to be kept alive.”
Fletcher was about to hand her another one of the fragments when he stopped to look at Stillman.
“Doctor,” he said, “did the Etlans ever use chemical or biological weapons?”
CHAPTER 20
Hewlitt took an instinctive step backward, his body breaking into a sweat that was not due to the warmth of the sun, but nobody else moved. Either they were all lacking in imagination, which was unlikely, or there was no danger in the situation. He took another step backward anyway.
“Not to our knowledge, Captain,” Stillman replied. “There is no historical record of them ever being used in Etlan planetary wars, and they would be pretty ineffective in a space battle. Besides, this world was sick enough already. They could have been developed secretly by the emperor’s scientists, and toward the end of the rebellion he might have been desperate enough to use everything he had, but I would say not. The casualty lists of the period mention traumatic injuries resulting from explosions, shrapnel, and gunshot wounds, not disease.”
He paused long enough for Fletcher to pass Murchison three more fragments before going on. “In any case, chemical or biological weapons are designed to burst on impact or in the air above the target. This one was soft- landed by parachute, the expulsion mechanism malfunctioned, and it didn’t break open until it was struck by something.”
“Or someone,” said Prilicla.
One by one they turned to stare at Hewlitt, as surprised by the empath’s words as he was himself. It was Stillman who spoke first.
He said, “If you mean that it was the Hewlitt child who fell onto this thing, smashed it, and released whatever was inside, I can’t help you. He was lying beside it, but it was dark and I was too busy examining him to notice whether there was any broken glass lying around. Besides, Etlan pathogens cannot affect anyone from off- planet. We all know that. And, well, he looks as if he hasn’t had a day’s illness in his life.”
