The Beasts in the Void (2 page)

I was sitting in a chair and she came up behind me and it was very
unfortunate because I saw the blue dressing gown first. By sheer
chance it was almost exactly like the one Melody wore that first
night. I was thinking of Melody. Melody was all around me and inside
me. In my mind, in my heart, in all my aching regrets.

So when that dressing gown brushed me, something electric happened
inside and I got up and took Jane Kelvey in my arms. It wasn't more
than three or four seconds but in that time the gown had been brushed
aside. Then I came to my senses and pushed her away.

The dressing gown stayed parted. She stepped back, confused. She said,
"What's the matter? Are you scared?"

"I'm disgusted. Button your gown. Get out of here!"

"What are you? Not one of those noble creatures I hope—who wouldn't
touch a man's wife."

"I said get out! I wouldn't touch you regardless."

"But you just did."

"It was a mistake. I—"

"Look—I'm a woman. You're a man—I think. We're alone in space and
life is short. Let's have fun and then forget about it."

I slapped her across the mouth. A skipper can be jailed for life for
striking a passenger. Even with cause. But I slapped her and I'm
setting it down in the log....

Kennedy looked up from his reading. "Jane Kelvey—she is the dead
one?"

Mason nodded.

Kennedy looked at Holloway with marked severity. "Are you sure you
only slapped her?"

Mason exploded. "Good God, man. Did you see the body? You're not
implying he did that to her, are you?"

"I'm not implying anything," Kennedy said within a restrained grimness
that infuriated Mason.

"Why don't you finish the log before you start passing judgment?"

Kennedy leafed through the pages. "I—wait a minute! This log doesn't
cover the whole cruise! It breaks off in the middle of a sentence!"

"Read what's there, man! Read what's there."

"Very serious—very serious," Kennedy muttered. "Not completing a log.
No license should have been issued this man. Lax! Very lax." He sat
back to make himself more comfortable and prepared to go on with his
reading.

June 30th—3 hours

Course 29.341 by the Virgo angle. I think that's the course. The
instruments are acting funny. In fact a lot of things seem to be
wrong. Some of the constellations aren't in the right places anymore.

I began noticing these things a couple of days ago and spoke to Murdo.
I suggested we turn back. I told him it was my duty as a skipper to
look out for the welfare of my passengers. And that included not
continuing if vital instruments showed signs of failure.

He sneered at me and said, "I thought you were a big game hunter,
Holloway?"

I told him I'd hunted big game—yes.

"It doesn't sound like it. You sound like a timid old woman. So you've
made some miscalculations. The course is still right. It's on the
flight pattern in the automatic control board and I know it's correct
because I gave it to you."

"But if instruments fail nothing stays right."

"Okay—you're the skipper. If you've turned yellow and want to show
your tail I guess there's nothing I can do about it."

He almost got his jaw broken, but I was able to hold myself. Then,
suddenly, I didn't care. I didn't care whether Murdo stayed alive or
got killed. As to the others—they'd come on the cruise with their
eyes open. They deserved whatever they got. And I certainly didn't
give a damn about myself. Guess I wasn't cut out to skipper a ship. A
skipper should care. That's all he
should
do. Just care. I'd rather
dream about Melody.

I don't know what the date is. The chronometer stopped so I don't even
know what time it is. But what does it matter about the time if you
don't even know what day it is? We just go on and on.

Murdo—I can't figure out. Windbag or not—braggart or no—he has an
iron will. I think he's scared but he won't admit it. And some
stubborn streak inside him won't let him turn tail and run. He hides
his fear behind long accounts of his hunting trips. He describes the
vicious animals he's killed. He bores us with accounts of his skill as
a great hunter.

The rest listen because they have to. I go to my cabin and remember
Melody.

The rest are scared too, but they're too scared of Murdo to let him
know it. That's an odd one. Scared for your life but afraid to tell
the big man because he might kill you. Would Murdo kill in a fit of
rage? I don't know.

Keebler stays drunk so none of it bothers him. Keebler's wife, I
think, is in love with Murdo but it's a kind of little-girl love. She
never quite grew up. Kelvey glues himself to Murdo and sticks like a
plaster. He seems to consider Murdo a haven, as though Murdo's bulk
will make everything all right.

Jane Kelvey hasn't quit making passes at me but they're half-hearted.
She bothers me. I'm uneasy when she's around. I get the feeling that
any minute she might drop to her knees and beg. What do you do with a
woman on her knees before you, begging? Maybe before long her husband
will look good to her. Maybe she'll be able to get him away from
Murdo's side for a while.

I look at both these women and realize what I lost. Melody.

Jane Kelvey came to my cabin. It's hit her that things aren't right.
She's scared. She asked, "Why did you tell Murdo you wanted to turn
back?"

"Because I thought we'd come too far."

"Do you still think so?"

"Everything will be all right."

"The instruments—are they working again?"

I lied to her. "They're working."

"Do you think it's really as Murdo says—that there are animals out in
space?"

"I don't know."

She looked wan and forlorn and I was sorry for her. She said, "I've
only been on one hunting trip in my life."

"Is that so?"

"In India. A boy carried my gun for me. When the tiger came the boy
handed me the gun and told me where to point. I fired but I didn't hit
the tiger. Somebody else shot it."

"That was too bad."

"No, it was all right. He was such a big beautiful animal. So sleek
and powerful."

I saw her body tremble as she closed her eyes. I said, "You better get
some rest."

She passed a hand over her eyes and then gave me an odd wistful smile.
"Animals are smarter, I think. We
do
make awful messes out of our
lives, don't we?"

"I'm afraid we do."

"But is it our fault? God makes us this way. We can't help that."

"No, I guess we can't."

"Why did God make us like we are?"

"I don't know, Jane. Let's hope
He
does."

"Isn't that sacrilege or something? Doubting Him?"

"I guess it is."

She reached out suddenly and touched my face. "You're a nice guy. I
don't blame you for slapping me."

"I'm sorry. You're pretty nice yourself."

The smile faded. "I'm not," she said miserably, and left the cabin.

Poor kid. I forgot her and thought of Melody.

Something's gone wrong with everything. Not a very scientific
statement for a skipper to make but that's how it is. The stars have
disappeared. The instruments jumped around as though they had minds of
their own. The dial needles spin around like crazy.

And something else—something even worse. Space has
changed
. I mean
there's something out there in space. First I just felt it. A raw
uneasiness. Then I trained a light through the port and I could see
it. Stuff that looks like dust but isn't. It's hazy and yet it
sparkles and you have a sense of being on a ship that's pushing its
way through a fog so thick the friction holds you back. And there's
something more about this sparkling fog. You look out at it and it
seems to be looking back at you. Or maybe I'm losing my mind. Anyhow,
that's the way it seems. As though it's waiting for you to speak to
it—say hello or something.

I guess I'm going crazy.

The sparkling fog is affecting the others, too. They've all quieted
down and they slip along the bulkheads as though they were being
followed. Only Murdo blusters back. He says, what the hell? We
expected something different, didn't we? Well, this is sure different
enough, isn't it?

I'd turn back but I don't know how. I have nothing to go by. The
instruments make no sense.

I
am
going crazy. I looked out the port just now and saw a water
buffalo. It was standing right out there in space with its head down
looking at the ship! I had a light turned on it and suddenly it
charged and hit the port headon. It bounced off and went staggering
away and disappeared.

But it left a big white scratch on the quartz outside. At least I
think it did. Wait. I'll look again. Yes. A big white scratch. It's
still there. So how can I be mad? Maybe it's a new kind of madness....

Some of the sparkling fog has penetrated the ship. Turn out the light
and you can see it in the cabin. Not as thick as out in the void but
thick enough to see; thick enough to stand there and ask you to talk
to it.

Murdo is ready to turn back. He came to the control room and said, "I
saw it out there."

"You saw what?"

His face was pale and his hands twitched. "A boa-constrictor. Exactly
like the one I killed four years ago on the Amazon. It came to the
port and looked in at me."

"It must be your imagination."

"No. It was there. Let's turn back. Get out of this."

"I wish we could."

"You mean—?"

"I don't know where back is. We might just as well go as we are.
Changing course doesn't help if you don't know your directions. Our
only hope is to drive on out of this cloud. If I turned I might go
right back into it."

"Then one direction is as good as another?"

"That's right."

His mind wandered as he turned away. "I didn't know it would be like
this," he muttered. "I thought it would be fun—sport. I thought we'd
put on space suits and go out and make a kill. I thought—"

"The space suits are ready. Do you want to try it?"

He shuddered, his hanging jowls almost flapping. "You couldn't drag me out
there."

The stuff is getting thicker in the ship.

Jane came into my cabin. She had an odd look on her face. She said,
"There's a big tiger in the companionway."

I got up from my bunk and suddenly she seemed to realize what she'd
said. She repeated it. Then she fell down in a faint. I put her in my
bunk and looked out into the companionway. The sparkling fog glittered
but there was no tiger.

When she came to, she didn't seem to know where she was. Then she
smiled. "I must have been drinking too much," she said. Then she
realized where she was. "But look where it got me? Into your bunk."

"Do you feel all right now?"

"I guess so. I can get up now. I
do
have to get up, don't I?"

"I think you'd better."

After she left I did some thinking. The sparkling haze had been
outside the ship and I'd seen a water buffalo through the port. Murdo
had seen a boa-constrictor. Then the haze penetrated the hull and got
inside the ship. And Jane had seen a tiger in the companionway.

Were they phantoms? Was Jane's tiger a tiger of the mind? Murdo swore
his snake had been real and my buffalo left a mark on the port. I sat
there trying to think. With the sparkling fog drifting around me. It
seemed to be trying to tell me something.

Things grow worse. Today, at mess, Murdo was holding forth about a
Plutonian ice bear he'd killed. I think he was trying to cover the
gloom that has settled over us. Anyhow, he'd just got to the point
where the bear was charging down on him when we heard the roar of
thunder from outside. Maybe I'd better repeat that for the record.
We
heard a roaring through the walls of the space ship. In the void.
Nothing goes through the walls of a space ship in the void but we all
heard it and jumped to the port. And we all saw it.

An ice bear as big as ten of the largest that ever lived in the
Plutonian ice flows. A huge ravening beast that rushed through the
void at the ship and tried to tear the port out of its metal seat with
teeth as big as the height of a man.

The women fell back, screaming. Keebler, in his usual stupor stared
blankly as though not realizing what was going on. Kelvey looked to
Murdo for guidance. When none came he crouched behind a chair.

Murdo fell back slowly, step by step as though his eyes were fastened
to the quartz and it was hard to pull away. I don't remember what I
did. Murdo was saying "My God—my God—my God," as though chanting a
ritual. He tore his eyes from the sight and looked at me.

"You wanted big game, buster," I croaked. "There it is."

"But it can't be real. It
can't
!"

"Maybe not, but if that port gives I'll bet it won't be from vacuum
pressure."

"Vacuum draws. It doesn't press," Kelvey babbled inanely, but nobody
paid any attention to him.

The beast made two more charges on the ship, then drew back screaming
in rage from a snapped tooth. And all around us, there in the ship,
the sparkling fog glittered and tried to talk.

Two hours. The beast still rages in the void outside our ship.

Jane is dead. She was horribly mangled. I put her in her bunk and laid
a blanket over her and now the blanket is soaked in her blood.

No one could have helped her. It happened in the lounge. She was in
there alone. I was in the control room. I don't know where the rest
were.

I was working uselessly with the controls when I heard a terrible
scream mixed with a hideous snarling. I ran into the companionway and
stared toward the lounge. Murdo appeared from somewhere and we were
shouldering each other on the companion ladder. Murdo fell heavily.
Then we were both looking into the lounge.