Let 'Em Breathe Space! Page 5

Earth."

  "I cannot permit that, sir!"

  "Your permission for that was not requested, Dr. Pietro! Yes,Bullard?"

  The cook had been squirming and muttering to himself for minutes. Nowhe darted out toward Grundy, and his finger pointed to Lomax. "He doneit! I seen him. Killed the only friend I had, he did. They went by mygalley--and--and he grabbed my big knife, that one there. And hekilled Sam."

  * * * * *

  "You're sure it was Lomax?" Muller asked sharply.

  "Sure I'm sure. Sam, he was acting queer lately. He was worried. Toldme he saw something, and he was going to know for sure. He borrowed myswitch-blade knife that my wife gave me. And he went out looking forsomething. Then I heard him a-running, and I looked up, and there wasthis guy, chasing him. Sure, I seen him with my own eyes."

  Eve Nolan chuckled throatily, throwing her mannish-cut hair back fromher face. She was almost pretty with an expression on her countenance,even if it was amused disgust. "Captain Muller, that's a nice story.But Dr. Lomax was with me in my darkroom, working on somespectroanalysis slides. Bill Sanderson and Phil Riggs were waitingoutside for us. And Mr. Peters saw us come out together when we allran down here."

  Peters nodded. Muller stared at us for a second, and the hunting lustdied out of his eyes, leaving them blank and cold. He turned toBullard. "Bullard, an explanation might make me reduce yourpunishment. If you have anything to say, say it now!"

  The cook was gibbering and actually drooling with fear. He shook, andsweat popped out all over him. "My knife--I hadda say something. Theystole my knife. They wanted it to look like I done it. God, Captain,you'da done the same. Can't punish a man for trying to save his life.I'm a good man, I am. Can't whip a good man! Can't--"

  "Give him twenty-five lashes with the wire, Mr. Grundy," Muller saidflatly.

  Pietro let out a shriek on top of the cook's. He started forward, butI caught him. "Captain Muller's right," I told him. "On a spaceship,the full crew is needed. The brig is useless, so the space-enablingcharter recognizes flogging. Something is needed to maintaindiscipline."

  Pietro dropped back reluctantly, but Lomax faced the captain. "The manis a coward, hardly responsible, Captain Muller. I'm the woundedparty in this case, but it seems to me that hysteria isn't the samething as maliciousness. Suppose I ask for clemency?"

  "Thank you, Dr. Lomax," Muller said, and actually looked relieved."Make it ten lashes, Mr. Grundy. Apparently no real harm has beendone, and he will not testify in the future."

  Grundy began dragging Bullard out, muttering about damn foolgroundlubbers always sticking their noses in. The cook caught atLomax's hand on the way, literally slobbering over it. Lomax rubbedhis palm across his thigh, looking embarrassed.

  Muller turned back to us. "Very well. Mr. Peters will begininvestigating the expedition staff and quarters; Mr. Tremaine willhave free run over the rest of the ship. And if the murderer is notturned up in forty-eight hours, we head back to Earth!"

  Pietro started to protest again, but another scream ripped down thecorridor, jerking us all around. It was Jenny, running toward us. Shewas breathing hoarsely as she nearly crashed into Dr. Pietro.

  Her face was white and sick, and she had to try twice before she couldspeak.

  "The plants!" she gasped out. "Poison! They're dying!"

  III

  It was chromazone again. Muller had kept most of the gang from comingback to hydroponics, but he, Jenny, Pietro, Wilcox and myself wereenough to fill the room with the smell of sick fear. Now less thanhalf of the original space was filled with healthy plants. Some of thetanks held plants already dead, and others were dying as we watched;once beyond a certain stage, the stuff acted almost instantly--forhours there was only a slight indication of something wrong, and thensuddenly there were the dead, bleached plants.

  Wilcox was the first to speak. He still looked like some nattilydressed hero of a space serial, but his first words were ones thatcould never have gone out on a public broadcast. Then he shrugged."They must have been poisoned while we were all huddled over Sam'sbody. Who wasn't with us?"

  "Nonsense," Pietro denied. "This was done at least eighteen hours ago,maybe more. We'd have to find who was around then."

  "Twenty hours, or as little as twelve," Jenny amended. "It depends onthe amount of the dosage, to some extent. And...." She almost managedto blush. "Well, there have been a lot of people around. I can't evenremember. Mr. Grundy and one of the men, Mr. Wilcox, Dr. Napier--oh, Idon't know!"

  Muller shook his head in heavy agreement. "Naturally. We had a lot ofwork to do here. After word got around about Hendrix, we didn't try toconceal much. It might have happened when someone else was watching,too. The important thing, gentlemen, is that now we don't have reserveenough to carry us to Saturn. The plants remaining can't handle theair for all of us. And while we ship some reserve oxygen...."

  He let it die in a distasteful shrug. "At least this settles onething. We have no choice now but to return to Earth!"

  "Captain Muller," Pietro bristled quickly, "that's getting to be amonomania with you. I agree we are in grave danger. I don't relish theprospect of dying any more than you do--perhaps less, in view ofcertain peculiarities! But it's now further back to Earth than it isto Saturn. And before we can reach either, we'll have new plants--orwe'll be dead!"

  "Some of us will be dead, Dr. Pietro," Wilcox amended it. "There areenough plants left to keep some of us breathing indefinitely."

  Pietro nodded. "And I suppose, in our captain's mind, that means thepersonnel of the ship can survive. Captain Muller, I must regard yourconstant attempt to return to Earth as highly suspicious in view ofthis recurrent sabotage of the expedition. Someone here is apparentlyeither a complete madman or so determined to get back that he'llresort to anything to accomplish his end. And you have been harping onreturning over and over again!"

  Muller bristled, and big heavy fist tightened. Then he drew himself upto his full dumpy height. "Dr. Pietro," he said stiffly, "I am asresponsible to my duties as any man here--and my duties involveprotecting the life of every man and woman on board; if you wish toreturn, I shall be _most_ happy to submit this to a formal board ofinquiry. I--"

  "Just a minute," I told them. "You two are forgetting that we've got aproblem here. Damn it, I'm sick of this fighting among ourselves.We're a bunch of men in a jam, not two camps at war now. I can't seeany reason why Captain Muller would want to return that badly."

  Muller nodded slightly. "Thank you, Mr. Tremaine. However, for therecord, and to save you trouble investigating there is a good reason.My company is now building a super-liner; if I were to return withinthe next six months, they'd promote me to captain of that ship--aconsiderable promotion, too."

  For a moment, his honesty seemed to soften Pietro. The scientistmumbled some sort of apology, and turned to the plants. But itbothered me; if Muller had pulled something, the smartest thing hecould have done would be to have said just what he did.

  Besides, knowing that Pietro's injunction had robbed him of a chancelike that was enough to rankle in any man's guts and make him work upsomething pretty close to insanity. I marked it down in my mentalfiles for the investigation I was supposed to make, but let it go forthe moment.

  Muller stood for a minute longer, thinking darkly about the wholesituation. Then he moved toward the entrance to hydroponics and pulledout the ship speaker mike. "All hands and passengers will assemble inhydroponics within five minutes," he announced. He swung towardPietro. "With your permission, Doctor," he said caustically.

  The company assembled later looked as sick as the plants. This time,Muller was hiding nothing. He outlined the situation fully; maybe heshaded it a bit to throw suspicion on our group, but in no way wecould pin down. Finally he stated flatly that the situation meantalmost certain death for at least some of those aboard.

  "From now on, there'll be a watch kept. This is closed to everyoneexcept myself, Dr. Pietro, Mr. Peters, and Dr. Jenny Sanderson. Atleast one of
us will be here at all times, equipped with gas guns.Anyone else is to be killed on setting foot inside this door!" Heswung his eyes over the group. "Any objections?"

  * * * * *

  Grundy stirred uncomfortably. "I don't go for them science guys up here.Takes a crazy man to do a thing like this, and everybody knows...."

  Eve Nolan laughed roughly. "Everybody knows you've been swearing youwon't go the whole way, Grundy. These jungle tactics should be rightup your alley."

  "That's enough," Muller cut