Aliens Alien Harvest - By Robert Sheckley Page 0,64

sure the job is getting done."

"I hope it is. It could come in handy. Don't you think so, Julie?"

"Sure, Stan," Julie concurred. "But I don't understand why you're sending Norbert in there. We've already got what we came for."

"You mean the harvester full of royal jelly? Yes, that was the purpose of our mission, and we have accomplished it. But we still have some time on our hands until Captain Hoban gets back into communication. So why not choose this moment for the advancement of science? It will profit all of mankind to know what the inside of a hive really looks like."

"That's true enough, Stan," Julie said. "I didn't know you cared that much about science, though."

"Julie, there's a lot I care for that I don't put into words. You ought to know that."

"I guess I do, Stan. You're not really interested in getting rich from this mission, are you?"

"Not as interested as you, my dear. But that is be cause I may not have much tiempo para gastarlo, as the Spanish say. But doing this is better than staying home trying to argue the doctors into giving me a better prognosis. At least here I can be with you, and I can't tell you how much that means to me."

Stan coughed, self conscious for a moment, then glanced again at the screen. "Norbert is getting deeper into the hive and we still haven't heard from Captain Hoban. I think this might be a good moment for me to take a brief nap." Without further ado, he got up and went to the cot in the lander's rearmost living area.

Julie and Gill watched for a while in silence as Norbert, on the screen, continued to penetrate deeper into the hive. At last Julie said, "What did it mean, that thing he said in Spanish?"

"Tiempo para gastarlo," said Gill. "It means time to enjoy it.'"

Julie shook her head. "Stan's got a lot of knowledge."

"Yes," Gill said. "But perhaps not much time."

There were four crew members with Red Badger as he set up his next plan. Walter Glint was there, of course, and Connie Mindanao, limping from a beamer scorch in the side, and Andy Groggins and Min Dwin, both unwounded. That was a pretty good force to match against the five or six loyal men Captain Hoban probably had available.

That was the good news. On the bad side, they had been forced back to a rear area of the ship. It would be difficult to mount an attack through the corridors, with Hoban and his officers now armed and ready for them. And probably the rest of the crew would come in on Hoban's side, now that the first attempt at a takeover had failed. Things might have been different if Hoban hadn't responded so quickly. Badger, who had thought the captain to be a burned out case, had to reevaluate the situation now.

Red was annoyed that his first plan hadn't succeeded. His people hadn't moved fast enough, and Hoban had been unexpectedly decisive. Now the best move was to get off the Dolomite and plan to contact Potter on the Lancet. Trouble was, getting off the ship wasn't going to be quite as simple as he'd like it to be.

There was just one lander left, the backup, now that Myakovsky and his people had gone to the surface of AR 32. It was sure to be guarded. Captain Hoban would have radioed the crew guarding the rear facilities, putting them on the alert. How many were there? Two or three, including the sergeant of the guards? Badger knew they'd have to get around or through them somehow.

"When we reach the storage bay, no firing until I say so," Badger told the others. "I've got a little plan that just might work."

"Whatever you say, Red," said Glint.

Badger led them down the gleaming aluminum corridor, over deep piled carpeting that seemed to soak up sound, past flickering lighting fixtures. The everpresent hum of the ship's machinery sounded in the walls like somnolent wasps. The only thing that told of the recent action was a faint smell of propellant and burned insulation in the otherwise antiseptic air, that and the labored sound of Connie Mindanao's breathing as she waited for the antipain shot to take effect.

At last they reached the transverse corridor that led to the pod bay. A faint hum warned Badger that all was not well here. He looked carefully and noted the violet edged nimbus that extended from the