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impassively watching the screens.
Jaxmal nodded, and the telepath shot mentally downward to the scoutcraft.
Suddenly he screamed horribly, then collapsed and rolled onto the floor.
Two crew members ran over to him and picked him up. One called for water,
which was already forthcoming.
In the background, the screens showed no change in the scout, except that the
pilot was slowing to land in a cleared space below. The nose camera showed the
features of the terrain: lush, tropical jungle like that which extended over
three-fifths of the land surface of the planet.
The old one moaned, and seemed to come to. Horror was written on his face.
"You -- you must destroy them -- and the scout," he gasped. "They --
they are not -- not men. Not anymore. Not any -- Ach! It's trying to get at
me! It's clawing at my mind! Destroy the scout and flee while you can! Do it
before-- Oh, gods! It's killing me!"
He seemed to collapse into a tiny heap, his blinkless eyes no longer seeing
anything at all. He was dead.
Captain Eurosan wasted no time. He had served too long and survived too much
to ignore a warning from a ship's telepath.
"Bridge!" he shouted into the intercom.
"Aye, Captain!" came a crisp reply.
"Arm one of our bean missiles and, upon receiving automatic sequencing
instructions from the computers, destroy Scout 1."
"But Captain!"
"That is an order, sir! Get to it!" snapped the captain.
"Aye, sir! Armed and primed, sir!"
"Direct complete destruct before touchdown!"
"Aye, sir. Say -- by the three moons of Kiabius! It's not landing! It's
heading back toward us!"
"Hit it!" the captain almost screamed.
The ship gave an instant shudder. A moment later, the screens showed a bright
flash of light, then went completely dark.
Eurosan breathed again, and reached once more for the intercom.
"Science!"
"Aye, sir?" a different voice rang in.
"Master Exmiril, assemble your staff. I suppose you saw?"
"Aye, sir." The tone was dry and flat, without emotion.
"I want to know what happened to those two men -- and what killed
Jaxmal."
"Jaxmal Is dead, sir?" Incredulity was in the tone.
"It was his order -- his dying order -- to destruct. Now you have your orders,
Master!"
Science Master Uen Exmiril stood at the head of the wardroom conference table
on which he had installed a small projector. His staff flanked him on both
sides. The captain and deck officers and department heads crowded around.
"You asked me, sir, to come up with a quick explanation to the problem,"
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Exmiril began. "That I cannot do. But what I can offer are some films and some
facts based on extremely old data -- so old that it's in a book, published
centuries ago. Then, I can guess. But this will be an explanation of the
problem only, sir -- solutions I leave to you."
"Go on," the captain urged.
"First, I recommend that you order this ship away with all speed before we
even begin. I will explain why in due course."
"I'll accept your recommendation on that," replied Eurosan, and he gave the
appropriate order.
Within seconds, they felt the engines kick in and they slid out of orbit.
"First," Exmiril said, "let's present the facts.
"One, this is a jungle world inhabited primarily by predators. The dominant
species seems to be a large, orange-colored cat, having like all animal life
on this world, six limbs. It appears to be intelligent, and can use its
forward limbs in centauroid fashion to make and use simple tools. The forepaws
show some evidence of crude prehensibility.
"It's a deathworld down there: every living plant and animal seems to eat each
other and its own kind. But our automated probes showed that the cat seems
lord and master -- its only natural enemy seems to be itself. We first
believed that this was simply a high state of savagery, but we were wrong. We
believe what's going on down there is a full-scale and nasty war."
There were astonished mutterings around at this. One young officer, a
signalsman, asked, "Then they are sentient to a high degree?"
"Quite," Exmiril affirmed. "What we have here is the second recorded case of
telepathic absolutism. By that high-sounding term I mean that we have a
sentient race -- quite unprecedented in form, I assure you -- with the curse
of telepathy."
"Curse?" put in another officer. "Telepathy is in our own people, you know.
And other races are even more adept. Jaxmal--"
"Was, like almost all known telepaths, quite limited. You see, he could read
only surface thoughts -- and could shut them out at will. These cats read
everything -- and have no way of shutting down."
"You mean, then, that these cats broadcast and receive all of everyone's
thoughts?" the young signalsman asked incredulously.
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