Planet Of No Return

“Listen, you darling big slab of muscle, you may be the best weightlifter in the galaxy — but you are also the worst liar. Something has happened. Something I don’t know about.”

Brion hesitated a moment, then nodded. “There’s someone close by, someone who hasn’t been here before. Someone bringing trouble.”

“I believe in your empathetic abilities, I’ve seen them at work. So I know that you can sense other peoples emotions. But we’re in deep space, moving between two suns light years apart — so how can there be anyone new aboard this ship …” She stopped and looked suddenly out at the stars. “A drop sphere, of course. This must be a rendezvous, not just a normal orientation. Is there another FTL ship out there? With someone transferring from it in a drop sphere?”

“Not coming — already arrived. He’s on board now. And he’s coming this way, towards us. I don’t like anything about this. I don’t like the man — or the message that he is bringing.”

With a single flowing motion Brion was on his feet, facing about, fists clenched. Although he was well over six feet tall and weighed nearly three-hundred pounds, he moved like a cat. Lea looked up at the solid mass of him towering over her and could almost feel the tension herself.

“You can’t be sure,” she said quietly. “Undoubtedly you are right about someone coming aboard. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that it has anything to do with us.

“One man dead, two men perhaps. And this one who is coming, he smells of death himself. He’s here now.”

Lea gasped as she heard the lounge door sliding open behind her. She looked over her shoulder fearfully, staring at the opening, not knowing what to expect. There was the shuffle of a soft footstep, then a thud. Shuffle, thud. Closer and louder. Then a man appeared in the open doorway, hesitated there as he looked about, blinking as though he had trouble seeing. It took a decided effort for Lea to conceal her instant feeling of repulsion; she had to force herself not to look away. The man’s single eye moved slowly past her to fix on Brion, Then he started forward again, his twisted foot dragging, the crutch coming down heavily with each step. Whatever force had injured his legs must have also torn away the right side of his face. It was bright pink where a new growth of skin; a patch covered the empty eye socket. His right arm was also missing, but an arm bud had been grafted to his clavicle and within a year he would have a complete, new arm. But right now it was only partly grown, a baby’s arm only about a foot long that dangled helplessly from his shoulder. He limped close, slight and twisted, to stand before Brion’s hulking form.

“I’m Carver,” he said, his name a frightful parody of his condition. “I’m here to see you, Brandd.”

“I know.” The tension drained from Brion’s body as suddenly as it had appeared. “Sit down and rest.”

Lea could not stop herself from moving aside as Carver dropped, sighing, onto the lounge beside her. She could hear his heavy breathing, see the perspiration standing out on his skin as he fumbled a capsule from his pocket and put it into his mouth. He looked sideways at her and nodded. “Doctor Lea Morees,” he said. “They want you too.”

“Culrel?” Brion asked. Carver nodded.

“The Cultural Relationships Foundation. I understand you have worked with us before?”

“We did. It was an emergency …”

“It’s always an emergency. Something very important has come up. I was sent to see you.”

“Why us? We’ve just come from a hell-hole of a planet named Dis. Lea has been ill. We were promised some more time before we would be contacted. We agreed to work for your people again, but not right now …”

“I told you — it’s always an emergency.” Carver’s voice was hoarse and he pressed his good hand between his knees to stop the trembling. It was pain or fatigue — or both — and he was not giving in to it. “I’ve just come from another one of these emergencies, as you can see, or I would be going myself. If it makes you feel any better I know what happened to you both on Dis so I offered to take care of this one myself. They laughed at me. I don’t think it was very funny. Are you both ready now?” He turned to face Brion as he said it.

“You can’t force Lea to go, not now. I’ll take care of it myself.” Carver shook his head.

“You’re to go as a team, the orders were specific about that. Shared talents, a synergistic union.

“I’m going with Brion,” Dea said. I’m feeling much better. By the time we get wherever we’re going I’ll be back to normal.”