Mutiny in Space Read Free

do too much at once…. You and I must have a gam, Mister First, when you are feeling better.”
    The setting sun was red and large. A surf beat, somewhere far out of sight. The men walked unsteadily, sat down one by one on the sand dunes. He could hear them breathing deeply, noisily; he followed their example. The air was more than clean and sweet — it was, well it was exciting. There seemed more ozone in it, for one thing, than he was used to. And the salt-water smell had an extra overtone, which he thought might be seaweed. There were vegetation smells — trees and leaf-mold and flowers — a touch of smoke, perhaps, and a lightning-struck tree. Lightning would account for the ozone, too. The air rose and fell and pushed softly but firmly against him, like the body of a young woman, cool and clean and somewhat wet from the water.
    “What the fuel possibilities are here, I confess I have no idea.” Captain Rond had joined Jory on the log he’d picked for his seat. “With the special equipment I was able to obtain from our captors, we should be able to refine any petroleum we find. Alcohol will be no problem, almost anything that grows can be distilled, one way or another, I suppose. But if there’s no petroleum, well, then we’ll have to look around for an exotic. Which might take us longer, but it can’t be helped.”
    He made no mention of the narrow strait before them, or the opposite wooded shore. The air evidently did not smell exciting to him, it just smelled like air.
    “This is a nice place, Captain,” Jory said.
    “Why, yes. I suppose it is.” Rond seemed mildly surprised. “But don’t get too fond of it. We won’t be here long.”
    Mars, who had been a steward, had something in his hand — a tube of paste food. They each took a squeeze. Jory’s stomach sprang to life again, but this time with hunger instead of nausea. He looked around, but there was nothing resembling fruit on any of the trees. The bark was curiously marked, with round swellings embossed with tinier ones. There was a blue tint to the leaves.
    “I wonder if there’s fish, or anything else edible, in that water.”
    “Duston’s taking care of that now, First. I gave him the equipment from the emergency stores … Well, you
do
want to know what we are doing here on Valentine’s Planet which is in G-27, instead of our being back in C-3, don’t you?”
    Jory licked the last drop of paste food from his palate. “Why, yes, sir. I do. But I didn’t suppose that you intended to conceal it from me.”
    Rond drew in the sand with a stick. “You’re a saucy fellow, Mr. Cane. But a loyal one.
Well
. It was intended by those rogues in the junta that we should make for C-3, where the Second Academy’s Guild has a Spotting Station, of course. But I’m afraid that wouldn’t do. No, sir, it wouldn’t do at all.”
    The cool wind was like a long drink of clean water. Cane thought of clean water, water that hadn’t been used, reused, refined, distilled, redistilled, aerated — the works — a hundred times. There might be a spring somewhere. Or, he could dig in the sand and see if — but not now. He was tired, suddenly. Infinitely tired. But not too tired to wonder how they could have made a journey of such an impossible length.
G-27!
How could they conceivably have made it to such a distant sector?
    “Why not, sir?”
    There were many reasons, Rond explained, still drawing in the sand. For one thing, as his first officer must know, relations between their own Guild and the Second Academy’s Guild weren’t too good at the present time. Their Guild wouldn’t like its men to have to appeal to the other one for assistance. Furthermore, the Spotting Station was on a Dead World, and had a complement of only three men. An additional eight would have made it impossible for them to hold out till Relief — they would have to appeal for immediate supplies, and this, of course, would be embarrassing….
    And so, rather than be