by Robert Shea
get about it."
"Right," said Pandit.
Raj Shiva watched them a few moments longer, then drifted away with hisown partner. It took Pandit and Sria, sweating copiously in thetremendous heat, a few minutes less than half an hour to load one of thecrates aboard their jet. Three of the other ships were already airborne,whining away toward the spacefield.
Pandit looked at the crate. There were no markings on it anywhere. Thewood looked new, but that meant absolutely nothing. In the dry heat ofthe Empty Places, wood would last a century, a millennium. They couldnot tell how old it was.
* * * * *
"Ready?" Sria Krishna called from the controls.
Pandit had secured the crate in the cargo bay. "Ready," he responded.
Moments later acceleration thrust them back in the twin pilot seats.
Sria leveled the jet at twenty thousand and they sped at eight hundredmiles an hour toward the city and the spacefield just beyond it.
"Do you wonder about it?" Sria asked after a while.
"About what?"
"The cargo."
"We aren't supposed to."
"I know." Sria laughed. "I'm a woman, you see."
Pandit grinned at her. "Curiosity," he said. "A woman's trait on anyworld."
Sria got up from the pilot chair but Pandit placed his hand on hershoulder and gently shoved her down again. "They have a televid unitaboard," he said, "remember?"
Sria nodded. The jet sped on.
They landed at the spacefield. They were the fourth jet down and one ofthe other three had taken off on the return leg of the flight. ADenebian Pandit had never seen before was supervising the loin-clothgarbed laborers loading the crates aboard a Denebian spaceship. WithSria he delivered their crate on the trundle-sled, returned with thesled to their jet, and took off.
* * * * *
Just short of four hours from the time they started they returned to theEmpty Places. They had gained a little time and were the second teamdown. From the jet ahead of them, Raj Shiva led a puny, middle-agedco-pilot.
Orkap stood in the underground storage room. Looking at his wrist chronohe said to the four Ophiuchans who came down the ramp: "You made finetime." Raj Shiva's puny companion said something, but Raj Shiva grabbedhis arm and they began to load a second crate. Pandit and Sria loadedtheirs in silence.
They made their second round trip in four hours exactly. It wascompletely dark when they returned to the Empty Places. Sria was worriedthey would overshoot the cargo point, but Pandit brought the little jetdown within a few hundred yards of its takeoff point.
They could see nothing when they shut off the jet's running lights,except for the glow which came from the underground room. They reachedit and went down the ramp. Pandit judged that half the crates were gonenow. He took a quick tour of the dimly-lit room while Sria got thetrundle-sled into position against one of the crates.
"Nobody here," Pandit said in a whisper. "The Denebian must be sleepingin the sand-sled."
"Yes," Sria said a little breathlessly.
"I was thinking--"
"What?" Sria said. "Don't stop."
"If we wanted to examine one of the boxes, it would be suicide to openthe one we take. But we could open one of them down here, see what itis, take another for ourselves--"
"You would do this?" Sria asked him. "Why?"
Pandit shrugged. "I have eyes," he said. "Our gurus did not broadcastthe death-wish to outworlders until the Denebians came. Then theystarted. Have the Denebians sold them on the idea?"
"I don't know," Sria said.
"Well, let's assume they have. Why? Why would they do such a thing,Sria?"
* * * * *
"Let me get this straight, Pandit. First, you think the gurus actuallyare making the outworlders kill themselves?"
"Of course," Pandit said. "It's mental suggestion, on a scale only ourgurus are capable of. But don't you see, Sria, they wouldn't do it ontheir own. The gurus are dirty, careless about their bodies--butterribly arrogant. Left alone, they wouldn't think the outworldersimportant enough to be concerned over one way or another. They certainlywouldn't kill them."
"Go on," Sria urged.
"All right. The gurus have great knowledge of the mystical, butexternally they're naive. Let's suppose someone came along--theDenebians in this case--and found something they wanted very badly onOphiuchus. These crates here, Sria. What would they do? They'd go to thegurus and convince them--it wouldn't be difficult--that any intercoursewith outworlders would be harmful to Ophiuchus, that the outworlderswant to colonize and exploit our world, that sort of thing. While thegurus are stewing it over, the Denebians could have prepared thisshipment here--whatever it is--for departure. But the gurus, too wellconvinced by them, could have acted sooner than they expected, making itall but impossible for the small handful of outworlders, the Denebiansamong them, to go abroad without fear of taking their own lives. Perhapsa few, like Orkap and that other Denebian, are not at all suicide-prone.Perhaps a few can withstand it. As for the rest, it's indoors and awayfrom the mental influence of the gurus, or off Ophiuchus entirely. Whichwould leave the Denebians with a problem they hadn't thought of." Hiswords made sense.
"Yes!" cried Sria excitedly. "Now that they have their valuable cargoready to go, how can they get it off Ophiuchus without help?"
"We," said Pandit softly, "are that help."
Sria asked: "What are you going to do about it?"
"I don't know. I honestly don't. I never had anything against theoutworlders. How could I? We're all progeny of outworlders who came herealmost five hundred years ago from a place called India on Earth. Butthe gurus--"
"--have been deceived. You said so yourself."
Pandit was sweating, and it was more than the heat which made him sweat.He paced up to the crates, then back again, then to the crates. Suddenlyhe said, "All right. All right, I'll do it. Someone's got to find outwhat the Denebians want here."
And Pandit began to pry at one of the boxes with a knife he carried inhis loin cloth. Sria said, "I'll keep watch. You call me when it'sopened."
"Maybe you ought to get out of here. In case anything happens, I don'twant to get you involved."
But Sria went up the ramp and crouched there, waiting, watching. Thedesert was very quiet, entirely windless, and hot even at night. Starssprinkled the sky overhead and far off she thought she heard the distantwhine of a jet. "Hurry," she called. From below she heard the sound ofwood being pried away from wood. She heard, or imagined she heard, thejet coming closer. "Hurry!" she called softly.
Finally three words drifted up to her. "Come here, Sria." She felt alittle relieved. Now that he'd finished.
* * * * *
She listened for the jet. Now she heard nothing. She went swiftly downthe ramp.
Pandit stood before one of the crates, perspiring freely. He had priedloose one of the side walls and a smooth metal surface with stenciledlettering on it was exposed.
He said: "I can't read that. It's a language I never saw before."
Sria bent closer and looked at the stenciled lettering. A voice, notPandit's, said:
"I thought it would be you two.... No, don't move!"
A big muscular figure silhouetted against the starlight, and a smaller,puny, thin-legged figure. Raj Shiva and his co-pilot.
"A hundred credits each, Handus," Raj Shiva said as he ran down theramp. "Can you keep the girl from getting away?"
Handus rushed down at his heels.
Pandit met Raj Shiva at the foot of the ramp. Pandit was a big man byOphiuchan standards, but Raj Shiva was bigger. "Run, Sria!" Panditcried, and met the giant with his knife.
Raj Shiva parried the blow with his forearm, then his big hands movedswiftly and the knife clattered to the floor. Sria ran for the ramp, herbare feet padding swiftly against the stone floor. Handus was waitingfor her at the foot of the ramp in an awkward cro
uch. She had a glimpseof Raj Shiva and Pandit straining together, then Handus struck her withhis balled fist. It was a puny blow, but Sria staggered back, her jawnumb. Laughing shrilly, Handus leaped at her. She was shoved back,tripped over something, and fell. For a moment all the lights blinkedout inside her head.
Inside--no! Raj Shiva and Pandit stumbled about the room, strucksomething, there was a loud popping sound, a tinkling, and the lights inthe storage room went out.
"Where is she?" Handus called. "I can't find her!"
She heard him groping about, heard the others struggling together. Shegot to her
