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electric jolt, for some of it was transmitted through the creature to him, making his
skin tingle. He hadn't lost his flashlight, but by now it was exceedingly dim, and shed
only a feeble circle of light. Far ahead of him, where the mouth was to open, was
blackness.
"No luck, Captain?"
"No luck, Doctor. We'll try again."
"Don't. You just make things worse."
"Larry, were you hurt? Larry "
"Don't bother me now, Maida," he said roughly. "I have to figure out a way to get
out."
A faint hiss came from the oxygen line. A leak. Time was growing short.
The tadpole creatures were swimming around faster now. They too must have
been upset by the shock. One of them darted ahead of him, and wriggled ahead until
it was lost in blackness.
That seems to be trying to get out too, he told himself. Maybe we can work this
together. There must be some way, something to get this creature to open its mouth.
Maybe the Captain can't do it from outside, but I'm in here, where the beast's most
sensitive. I can hit it, slash at it, tickle it
There's a thought. Tickle it. It's a monster, and it'll take some monstrous tickling,
but sooner or later, something should affect it.
He stamped hard with his foot. No effect. He took his large lancet from his pocket
and slashed viciously with it. A shudder ran through the flesh, but that was all.
And then he had an idea. That green liquid undoubtedly contained hormones.
Hormones, enzymes, co-enzymes, antibiotics, biological chemicals of all kinds. Stuff
to which some tissues would be adapted and some would not. And those that
weren't would react violently.
He turned back, filled his hypodermic syringe with the greenish liquid, and ran
forward again. The light was almost gone by now, and the hissing from the oxygen
line was growing ominously, but he climbed forward as far as he could before
plunging the hypodermic in and injecting its contents.
The creature heaved. He dropped hypodermic, light, and clamps, and let the huge
shuddering take him where it would. First it lifted him high. Then it let him fall
suddenly not backwards, but in the same place. Two of the tadpole beasts were
thrown against him. Then he was lifted way up again, and this time forward. A huge
cavern opened before him. Light bathed the gray surface and he was vomited out.
The light begun to flicker, and he had time for one last thought. Oxygen lack, he
told himself. My suit's ripped, the lines have finally torn.
And then blackness.
When he came to, Maida was at his side. He could see that she had been crying.
The Captain stood a little fur-ther off, his face drawn, but relieved.
"Larry, dear, are you all right? We thought you'd never get out."
"
I'm fine." He sat up and saw his two children, standing anxious and awestricken
on the other side of the bed. Their silence showed how strongly they had been
affected. "I hope you kids didn't worry too much about me."
"Of course I didn't worry," said Jerry bravely. "I knew you were smart, Dad. I
knew you'd think of a way to get out."
"While we're on the subject," interposed the Captain, "What was the way out?"
"
I'll tell you later. How's the patient?"
"Doing fine. Seems to have recovered completely."
"How many of the tadpoles came out with me?"
"
About six. We're keeping them in the same low-oxygen atmosphere as the
creature itself. We're going to study them. We figure that if they're parasites "
"They're not parasites. I finally came to a conclusion about them. They're the
young."
"What?"
"The young. If you take good care of them, they'll eventually grow to be as big as
the mother-monster you've got in the ship."
"Good God, where will we keep them?"
"That's your worry. Maybe you'd better expand that zoo you're preparing. What
you'll do for money to feed them, though, I don't know."
"But what "
"The trouble with that monster its `illness' was merely that it was gravid."
"Gravid?"
"That means pregnant," exclaimed Jerry.
"I know what it means." The Captain flushed. "Look, do we have to have these
kids in here while we discuss this?"
"Why not? They're a doctor's children. They know what it's all about. They've
seen calves and other animals being born."
"Lots of times," said Martia.
"
Confined as it was on the ship, your beast couldn't get the exercise it needed.
And the young couldn't get themselves born."
"But that was the digestive tract you went down "
"What of it? Are all animals born the same way? Ask the average kid where a baby
grows, and he'll tell you that it's in the stomach."
"
Some kids are dopes," said Jerry.
"
They wouldn't be in this case. What better place to get a chance at the food the
mother eats, in all stages from raw to completely digested? All that beast needed to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]