Page 39 - Astounding Pulp V2

MOON OF DELIRIUM 39
38 ASTOUNDING SCFENCE-FICTION
fi nally managed to touch the area in ques- rock-cleft. " f,'ood . . . come nearer
staring down at him, Norm experienced darted around him, like angry hornets. tion. a lump, the size of a walnut, had . . nearer.
a sudden foreboding. This was new The sound as they struck his hood g rew puffec.1 up there-a lump. and nothing A strange rapture seized E ric Norm.
work, in which he had, comparatively continuous-tap . . . tap . . . tap- more. The burr had drilled in, imbed- Food-that meant him! H e was food
little practice. He paused for an in- Despair entered Norm's heart. Noth- ding itself in the flesh almost at the base And this realization filled him with an
ing in his experience indicated w hat
stant to glance around. He must now of the brain. elation that ·was pure · madness. For
should be done -in a crisis of this sort,
be nearing the point from which McDill And, unknown to Norm, a tiny, fila- suddenly it seemed that the entire pur-
had last spoken. The sight was not but his alert mind groped for some sav- mentlike rootlet had penetrnted even pose of his existence lay in the fulfillment
ing expedient.
reassuring. For behind him now trailed deeper. contacting nerves of the spinal of a certain obligation to that hidden
· An answer came in the very nick of
a swarm of green burrs. cord. monstrosity now calling him.
The oxygen suit, inflated with a _pre~- time. He jerked the valve of his oxygen Norm struggled to his -feet. E ven And yet, his reasoning powers were
tank wide open.
sure considerably above that of Dione s slight exertion made him pant and apparently unimpaired. H e. rdalized
shallow atmosphere, kept these ~ar- Again he could breathe- after a fash- gasp for more oxygen. ·Then he noticed that he had be~n. trapped !)Y. one of the
bingers of death safely away from him ; ion. For even Dione's shallow atmos- that all those other greenish burrs had strange parasitic life-forms of Dione.
but now, during this brief pause, he phere offered a certain pressure, enough departed from him. as if-well, as if his The thing on his neck w as a decoy-sent
to inflate his lungs and keep the ox ygen.
could hear the tiny tapping sounds of fate had been squabbled over, deciclecl, out by that dreadful organism hiding
from dissipating immediately.
them against his hood. sealed. · in the rock-cleft to beguile and delude
Eyes straining sharply ahead for_ a He stood there for a moment, trem- And suddenly he noticed s_omething him.
bling, exhausted. ,
first glimpse of the unruly, but well-in- else. an utterly strange, i't1comprehensible But he didn't mind this delusion. No !
tentioned engineer, Norm raced on thing- he possessed a new sense ! Above all things he longed to answer
H oPE SPRANG up again as his lungs
again. The ground here W';-5 very absorbed oxygen. His breathing becam e A sixth sense-a sense in addition to that call.
broken and rocky, with large spaces. clear sig ht and hearing and the normal five Breathless. panting, he turned aside.
freer. He might possibly last long
of frost-mounds. He began sh_outmg- senses ; an alien. unfamiliar sense, and H ow long would his oxygen hold out ?
enough to return to the ship!
altbough fully aware tha~ a v?1ce could But what about McDill? with it he could now sense-li{e ! H e had only the vaguest idea. But
not travel far from the diaphragm, L ife all around him-an awareness of long enough now, in all likelihood, for
Norm groaned regretfully. E ven
s
through this thin atmosphere. Rives or Talbot would not be ex pected life as a form of radiant energy. Life him to accomplish his new purpo_e.
He had reached a point where, ac- The rock-cleft lay only a short dis-
to carry on in the face of such disaster. I that he couldn't see or hear-
cOJ·ding to his best judgment, he sl!ouli H e cast a last look around for the engi- " Lord," he muttered, "it's got me. tance to his right. H e staggered down
find Md:>rll when catastrophe overtoo neer. No human. shape was visible. I'm all-" a talus of frost-bound rocks, into the
' dl There was opening. Before him he could now
him. It came unexpecte Y· d f I- McDill would have to take his chances. He was going to say "crazy," but. he
0
iM n soun ,
h
a sudden so f t s-s-swoos ··~ £ • Gathering his feet together, Norm set see that it formed one of numerous- en-
· ' 11 o 1 11S didn't actually feel crazy, merely un- trances into a wide gully or ravi1:e.
lowed by the immediate co apse off in a Jong leap for the P egasus. Im-
• I familiar with himself. H e could sense Suddenly his new sense told 111111 that
oxygen -sutt . N m real- mediately, a stinging pain in the back life he1·e and there around him, but more McDill was dow11 there somewhere. al-
W ith stunning clearness, . or 1 f 11 >f his neck diverted his attention, brought
· , c1denta a particularly he could sense something though it didn't seem to ma~ter g reatly.
ized the cause. P erpn :,: ac e than him tumbling in a heap against a mound off to his rjght, something- a monstrous Directed against his rcasomng self, he
in this same suit had done n~or S me of brittle ice crystals. organism-that had its lair in a deep
0
·
·
damage the commumcat10n unit · d Dione, moon of delirium, was only cleft in the rocks ; something that was entered this ravine.
. k t have scrape • "Food . . . food . . . food!" W ith
sharp pomt of roe i:nus . . it al- just starting with him! calling. rising clearness radiated tha~ t!1ought-
11
along the tough fahnc, st rairu i the He endeavored to clap a hand to the H e realized that he was not himself voice ahead of him. almost shrieking now
most to the point of rupt_ure. foo~~long source of the pain, swearing in a breath- mentally. No longer could he go on ; no its eager commands. • " Nearer . .
suit had now split open 111 a less mumble, "Damn green burr- got in longer could he struggle to reach the nearer . . . nearer. .
t ..
gash across the shoulde:s· loss of through that hole." ~ gasus and thereby prolong his own This \vas the end. thought Enc Norm
e
Immediately succeeding that k But encumbered as he was by the de- ltfe. His mind seemed to. be divided vaguely. The P e_gasus would return to
, b n -to wor
pressure, Norm s lungs ega n flated suit, a moment passed while he agai~1st itself. Yet, with every atom Earth without him. Perhaps no one
. . as t 1 ,e u -
ovei:t,~me in labore~ ga,5ps . bitterly- struggled to reach the thing and tear it of his reason-his former self-he tried would ever learn exactly what had hap-
familiar scent of D10ne s thin, . · away. to fight against that compeling, insidious pened to him, here on this Erightful moon
1s
cold atmosphere entere d h . nostnls. · . Meanwhile, a purely local numbness, call. of Saturn.
t of pamc
.
And tending to add a no e like that produced by the injection of
. . ·t t· n that swarm " Food •. • • food food,'' But all this was misty and unim-
to this truly grim s1 ua to , dd cocaine, had succeeded that first ag~::m-. boomed that soundless voice from the portant.
. to su en,
of green burrs awo k e 111 izing twinge; and _by the time Norm
vicious activity. H ere an.d there they