Collector's Item Part 2

_They are unquestionably intelligent life-forms then?_

_After a fashion._ Jrann-Pttt yawned and rose. _But why are we sitting here? Let's start back to our camp. We will be able to converse more comfortably._

They made their way through the jungle--now walking, now wading where the mud became water. Small creatures with hardly any thoughts scurried before them as they went.

_The commandant may have already made contact with their rulers_, Dfar-Lll suggested, springing forward to illuminate the way. _In that case, we couldn't hope to remain undiscovered for long._

_Oh, these creatures are not Venusians. There's no intelligent life here. They hail from the third planet of this system and, according to their thoughts, this is the only vessel that was capable of traversing interplanetary s.p.a.ce. So we needn't worry about extradition treaties or any other official annoyances._

_If they're friendly, why didn't you spend the night in their ship? It certainly looks more comfortable than our collapsible moslak--which, by the way, collapsed while you were gone. I hope we'll be able to put it up again ourselves. I must say this for the lieutenant--he was good at that sort of thing._

Jrann-Pttt made a gesture of distaste. _He was unfortunately good at other things, too. But let's not discuss him. I'm not staying with the strangers because I want to pick up one or two little things--mostly some of our food to serve them. I used up all the supplies in my pack and I want them to think we're living off the land. They believe me to be a primitive and it's best that they should until I decide just how I'm going to make most efficient use of them. Besides, I didn't want to leave you alone._

The younger saurian sniffed skeptically.

"Honestly, Pitt," Mrs. Bernardi said, keeping to leeward of the tablecloth the lizard-man was efficiently shaking out of the airlock, "I've never had a--an employee as competent as you." But the word she had in mind, of course, was "servant." "I do wish you'd come back to Earth with us."

"Perhaps you would compel me to come?" he suggested, as Algol and the mosquito-bat entered into hot compet.i.tion to catch the crumbs before they sank into the purple ooze.

"Oh, no! We'd want you to come as our guest--our friend." _Naturally_, her thoughts ran, _a house guest would be expected to help with the washing up and lend a hand with the cooking--and, of course, we wouldn't have to pay him. Though my husband, I suppose, would requisition him as a specimen._

_I fully intend to go to Earth with them_, Jrann-Pttt mused, _but certainly not in that capacity. Nor would I care to be a specimen. I must formulate some concrete plan._

The captain was crawling on top of the s.p.a.ceship, sc.r.a.ping off the dried mud, brushing away the leaves and dust that marred its shining purity.

The hot, humid haze that poured down from the yellow clouds made the metal surface a little h.e.l.l. Yet it was hardly less warm on the other side of the clearing, where Miss Ans.p.a.cher tried desperately to write up her notes on a table that kept sinking into the spongy ground, and hindered by the thick wind that had arisen half an hour before and which kept blowing her papers off. The sweet odor of the flowers tucked in the open neck of her already grimy white blouse suddenly sickened her and she flung them into the mud.

"We won't be going back to Earth for a long time!" she called. Gathering up the purple-stained papers, she came toward the others, little puffs of mist rising at each step. "We like it here. Lovely country."

How could she think to please even the savage she fancied him to be by such an inanity, Jrann-Pttt wondered. No one could possibly like that fetid swamp. Or was it not so much that she was trying to please him as convince herself? Was there some reason the terrestrials had for needing to like Venus. It hovered on the edge of the women's minds. If only it would emerge completely, he could pick it up, but it lurked in the shadows of their subconscious, tantalizing him.

"I'd like to know when we're going to start putting up the shelters,"

Mrs. Bernardi said, pushing a streak of fog-yellow hair out of her eyes.

"I can't stand being cooped up for another night on that ship."

"You're planning to put up shelters--to live outside of the ship?" This would seem to confirm his darkest suspicions. Even a temporary settlement would leave them too open to visitation from the commandant.

What his att.i.tude toward the aliens might be, Jrann-Pttt didn't know. He might consider them as specimens, as enemies or as potential allies.

What his att.i.tude toward Jrann-Pttt and his companion would be, however, the saurian knew only too well. Had they reported the lieutenant's demise immediately, it was possible the commandant might have been brought to believe it was an accident. Now he would unquestionably think Jrann-Pttt had killed Merglyt-Ruuu on purpose--which was not true; how was Jrann-Pttt to know that the mud into which he'd knocked the lieutenant was quicksand?

"Anything against putting up shelters?" Captain Greenfield growled from his perch.

"Monster!" the mosquito-bat shrieked at the cat. "Monster! Monster!"

There was a painfully embarra.s.sed silence.

"The creature is not intelligent," Jrann-Pttt explained, smiling. "It merely has vocal apparatus that can reproduce a frequently heard word, like--you have a bird, I believe, a--" he searched their minds for the word--"a parrot."

"Monster!" the mosquito-bat continued. "Monster! Monster!"

"Shut up or I'll wring your neck!" the captain snarled. The mosquito-bat obeyed sullenly, apparently recognizing the threat in his tone.

But the concept of "monster" hung heavily in the air between the terrestrials and the lizard-man. _They should not feel so bad about it_, he thought, _for they are the monsters themselves. But that would never occur to them and I can hardly rea.s.sure them by saying...._

"Don't worry," Professor Bernardi said smoothly. "To him, it's we who are the monsters."

A sudden gust of wind nearly whipped the tablecloth out of Jrann-Pttt's hands. He fought with it for a moment, glad of something tangible to contend with. "About the shelters," he said. "They might not stand up against a storm."

"So this is monsoon country," Bernardi observed thoughtfully. "Do you know when the storms usually come, Jrann-Pttt?" The other shook his head. "Peculiar. There usually is a season for that sort of thing."

"I ... come from another part of the planet."

"Storms here are bad, eh?" the captain commented, swinging himself down easily. "Frankly, that worries me. Ship's resting on mud as far as I can see, and if there's one thing I do know something about, it's mud. If it got any wetter, the ship might sink."

"Maybe we should leave," Mrs. Bernardi suggested. "Go to another part of the planet where it's drier, or--" she tried not to show the sudden surge of hope--"leave for home and come back after the rainy season."

There was a sudden silence, and Jrann-Pttt found himself able to pick up the answers to some of his questions from the alien minds. His worst fears were confirmed. Plan A was out. But something could still be done with these creatures.

"Doesn't she know?" the captain demanded accusingly. "You brought her here without telling her?"

Bernardi spread his hands wide in a futile gesture. "She should know; I've told her repeatedly. She just doesn't understand ... or doesn't want to."

"I know they'll forgive us," Mrs. Bernardi said stubbornly.

"We--you--haven't done anything really wrong, so how could they do anything terrible to us? After all, didn't they refuse you the funds because they said you couldn't--"

"Shhh, Louisa," her husband commanded.

Jrann-Pttt smiled to himself.

--"do it," she went on. "And you did. So they were wrong and they'll have to forgive us."

"Tcha!" Miss Ans.p.a.cher said. "Since when was there any fairness in justice?"

"On the other hand," Mrs. Bernardi continued, "we have no idea of how dangerous the storms here could be."

"Very dangerous," Jrann-Pttt said.

"For you, perhaps," the captain retorted. "Maybe not for us."

"Now that's silly," Miss Ans.p.a.cher said. "You can see that Jrann-Pttt is much more--" she blushed--"st.u.r.dily built than we are."

"I don't mean that we could face it without protection," the captain replied angrily. "Naturally I mean that our superior technology could cope with the effects of any storm."

"Well, Captain, we'll have to put that superior technology to use at once," the professor told him. "You'd better start blasting that rock."

Laden with equipment and malevolent thoughts, the captain trudged off into the murky jungle. The others would not even offer to help.