Chapter 2
There was an exultation in Jon's heart that deadened the hunger and washed away the nausea.
At last he knew what the hemlock was.
He sat on the pallet adjusting the little power-pack radio. The SP ship should now be within range of the set. The space patrol was notorious for its accuracy in keeping to schedule. Seconds counted like years. They had to be on the nose, or it meant disaster or death.
He sent out the call letters.
"AX to SP-101 ... AX to SP-101 ... AX to SP-101 ..."
Three times he sent the call, then began sending his message, hoping that his signal was reaching the ship. He couldn't know if they answered. Though the power pack could get out a message over a vast distance, it could not pick up messages even when backed by an SP ship's power unless the ship was only a few hundred miles away.
The power pack was strictly a distress signal.
He didn't know how long he'd been sending, nor how many times his weary voice had repeated the short but desperate message.
He kept watching the heavens and hoping.
Abruptly he knew the SP ship was coming, for the blue ship of the Steel-Blues was rising silently from the asteroid.
Up and up it rose, then flames flickered in a circle about its curious shape. The ship disappeared, suddenly accelerating.
Jon Karyl strained his eyes.
Finally he looked away from the heavens to the two Steel-Blues who stood negligently outside the goldfish bowl.
Once more, Jon used the stubray pistol. He marched out of the plastic igloo and ran toward the service station.
He didn't know how weak he was until he stumbled and fell only a few feet from his prison.
The Steel-Blues just watched him.
He crawled on, around the circular pit in the sward of the asteroid where one Steel-Blue had shown him the power of his weapon.
He'd been crawling through a nightmare for years when the quiet voice penetrated his dulled mind.
"Take it easy, Karyl. You're among friends."
He pried open his eyes with his will. He saw the blue and gold of a space guard's uniform. He sighed and drifted into unconsciousness.
* * * * *
He was still weak days later when Capt. Ron Small of SP-101 said,
"Yes, Karyl, it's ironical. They fed you what they thought was sure death, and it's the only thing that kept you going long enough to warn us."
"I was dumb for a long time," Karyl said. "I thought that it was the acid, almost to the very last. But when I drank that last glass, I knew they didn't have a chance.
"They were metal monsters. No wonder they feared that liquid. It would rust their joints, short their wiring, and kill them. No wonder they stared when I kept alive after drinking enough to completely annihilate a half-dozen of them.
"But what happened when you met the ship?"
The space captain grinned.
"Not much. Our crew was busy creating a hollow shell filled with _water_ to be shot out of a rocket tube converted into a projectile thrower.
"These Steel-Blues, as you call them, put traction beams on us and started tugging us toward the asteroid. We tried a couple of atomic shots but when they just glanced off, we gave up.
"They weren't expecting the shell of water. When it hit that blue ship, you could almost see it oxidize before your eyes.
"I guess they knew what was wrong right away. They let go the traction beams and tried to get away. They forgot about the force field, so we just poured atomic fire into the weakening ship. It just melted away."
Jon Karyl got up from the divan where he'd been lying. "They thought I was a metal creature, too. But where do you suppose they came from?"
The captain shrugged. "Who knows?"
Jon set two glasses on the table.
"Have a drink of the best damn water in the solar system?" He asked Capt. Small.
"Don't mind if I do."
The water twinkled in the two glasses, winking as if it knew just what it had done.
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from _Planet Stories_ July 1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.