Imagination Science Fiction – June 1958
(1958)*
Randall Garrett & Robert Silverberg
(as by Robert Randall)
Why would strangers abduct an insane girl from a psychiatric ward? Jim Lawrence found out that to answer this question he had to face a—Menace from Vega.
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THE TALL, DARKLY handsome man was grinning at Dr. James Lawrence from the wrong side of a gun.
"Don't do anything foolish," the stranger said.
The psychiatrist swallowed and looked at the muzzle of the weapon. The gun didn't look like any he had ever seen before, but he had no doubt that it was deadly.
"What do you want?" he asked. He had never faced a gun before, but he found, oddly enough, that he wasn't at all frightened. There was simply a tense expectancy, a feeling of what's-coming-next? and no more.
"You have a patient at this hospital named Bette Bauer?" It was half a question, half a statement.
Jim Lawrence looked at the intruder without answering. He knew Bette Bauer—a tall, beautiful brunette with deep grey-green eyes. There was nothing behind those eyes. She had been in St. Paul's Neuropsychiatric Hospital for three years—a schizophrenic catatonic, completely out of touch with the real world.
"You're behaving childishly," said the man with the odd-looking gun, softly. "All I have to do is look through your files. Where is she?"
Lawrence shrugged. "Ward 3, Room 4:. Why do you want to know?" He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was nearly midnight.
"It doesn't matter," the stranger said. "Come along. Lead us to where she is confined."
Outside the office, there were four men. They held their hands in their pockets as though there were guns there. Lawrence glanced from one to another. They all looked somewhat alike, all with that same dark slimness and hardness of feature.
"What do you want?" Lawrence demanded.
"Just take us to Bette Bauer," the leader said. "If you do not, you will be shot." He smiled.
It was the sight of that smile that made Jim Lawrence realize the cold dangerousness of the man.
"Very well," Jim said. "Come this way."
As he led them down the hall toward Ward 3, Jim wondered about these men. What interest could they have in Bette Bauer? She had once been a brilliant physicist, and had shown signs of actual genius. But something had happened to her shortly after she had received her doctor's degree in theoretical physics. Her mind had become unbalanced, and she had been committed to St. Paul's Hospital.
As Chief Psychiatrist, Dr. James Lawrence had worked with her regularly; he was deeply interested in the girl. But he had been completely unable to break the dazed, trancelike state that she had been in for the past three years.
What did these five men want with her? And who were they, anyway? There was something odd about them, even aside from the peculiar gun that the leader carried. Their clothes seemed wrong, as though they weren't used to wearing them; their speech was strange in some undefinable way.
When they reached Ward 3, Jim Lawrence took the keys from his pocket and unlocked the main door. A night nurse at the desk looked up and smiled.
"Good evening, Dr. Lawrence," she said sweetly. Then she saw the men behind him, and her eyebrows lifted.
"We want to see Bette Bauer," Jim said, keeping his voice even.
"Certainly, Doctor." She led the way down the corridor to Room 4.1. It was a padded cell; with Dr. Bette Bauer, naked to prevent her from harming herself with her clothing, lying on the floor, crooning mindlessly, her grey-green eyes staring out into nothingness.
The dark man said, "That's her. Pick her up."
As the four silent followers moved forward, Jim saw that the leader was watching them—he had taken his eyes off Jim himself.
Lawrence reached out and made a grab for the gun—but the dark man was a move ahead of him. He moved away smoothly, whirled, and brought the gun down stunningly on Jim's head.
Jim threw a wild, wobbly punch at the man, and then the other four moved in on him. He fought back blindly for a few moments, but then a fist raked across' his jaw, another smashed into his stomach, and the gun descended a second time. It caught him on the side of the head, and he sagged to the floor.
The thick padding was the last thing he felt before he blacked out.
THE PAIN OF AWAKENING was worse than the pain of the blow. Jim's head throbbed as though there were a motorcycle engine inside it.
When he opened his eyes, the pain became worse. A brilliant light was shining directly into his eyes. He winced and closed them again.
"Dim the light," said a softly slurred voice.
Jim opened his eyes again. This time, he saw what was standing over him, and he recoiled in horror.
The being looked vaguely reptilian, but there was a touch of the insect about it, too. It was green in color and covered with scales, like a fish. It stood on two legs, towering above him and gazing at him with bulging, faceted, insect-like eyes.
After the initial reaction of disgust came another thought: I've got to get out of here!
He rose to a sitting position, swung out with a fist. But the creature ducked lithely away from the blow. Cold hands on his shoulders pressed him down again, and he knew it was futile to attempt to fight his way out. He closed his eyes again—hard.
"You are afraid of us," said the soft voice. "You fear me because of my appearance. Please do not. I—we—mean you no harm, Dr. Lawrence."
The thing was calling him by his own name. Lawrence shook his head to get the cobwebs out of it. What was going on?
It had been an ordinary, peaceful day. Then, five hoodlums kidnapping Bette Bauer, and that blow on the head—
And now this. Reptilian creatures with glittering eyes. Lawrence opened his eyes, again. The scene remained the same—but this time he could see three similar creatures in the background.
"Who—what are you?"
And then, as he saw more of his surroundings, he asked, "Where is this?"
The alien said: "You are aboard our spaceship, Dr. Lawrence. We are following the Vegan ship."
In spite of the alien's terrifying appearance, Jim sensed a curious friendliness in its voice. "I'm—I'm afraid I don't understand. Those men—"
The lizard-like being with the insect eyes sat down on a chair near the bunk. "Dr. Lawrence, I am Nestiv Illon. I am the captain of this ship, which is a war vessel in the Stellar Navy of Viagon.
"We are following the ship of Andsu Meero, the being who has kidnapped your Dr. Bette Bauer. We—"
Jim sat up in the bunk. "Just a minute," he said, holding up a hand. "I may be having a nightmare, but I still like to be sure of what's going on. The last I remember, I was trying to keep a bunch of gangsters from kidnapping one of my patients. Now I find myself here. Suppose you start from the beginning—"
"I see," the alien said. "I did not realize you were so unfamiliar with the situation. Those men who took the girl were working for Andsu Meero. He is attempting to gain control of the entire galaxy—a goal at which," the alien said, its voice dropping sadly, "at which he is unfortunately succeeding."
Lawrence blinked. "How?"
"His race is telepathic to a certain extent. They can read the minds of most other races, al-though they cannot read each other's minds."
"These are the Vegans?" Lawrence asked, trying to keep the story assembled into a coherent pattern.
"Yes. They are the Vegans—a warlike people who are now trying to overthrow the galactic government. Three years ago, Meero contacted the mind of a brilliant young Earth girl who had discovered a weapon of great significance—a death ray, to be precise."
"You mean Bette Bauer?"
"That was the girl's name. Meero discovered her shortly before we did. My race is telepathic too. We found that Dr. Bauer had discovered a system of mass annihilation that would enable any group to take over the galaxy—but Meero had her first. He focussed a mind-static generator on her and drove her insane. Naturally, he wanted the secret, so he came here to Earth to get it, as soon as he decided it was safe. By that time we, too, had found Earth, and followed."
"Only Meero had already grabbed the girl," Lawrence said.
"Exactly. We were too late. And now you understand the situation."
"Ah—yes," Lawrence said uneasily. "All but one thing. Why did you drag me into this?"
The alien paused for a moment and said, "We found you unconscious and decided to take you into protective custody."
"But why? The Vegans have no use for me."
"No," Nestiv Illon said gently. "But we do."
ANOTHER OF THE reptilian beings approached at that moment and inclined its head toward Illon.
"What is it?"
"We're approaching Vega IX, sir."
"Very good," Illon said. "Shift into transparency-warp and go into orbit."
"Yes, sir." The subordinate inclined his head once again and backed away. Illon turned to Jim Lawrence.
"We are within striking range of the Vegan home base now. Here's where you come in."
"What do you mean?" Lawrence asked.
The alien rose. "It is impossible, of course, for any of us to enter the Vegan base, since no disguise will conceal our fundamental physical appearance. But you—you are of the same general somatic type as the Vegans. A little eyeshadow, a bit of plastotek applied here and there to change the facial contours, and I think you could pass."
"You want me to slip into the Vegan base and rescue the girl? Is that it?"
"Yes," Illon said.
"All very nice—but then what? Do I hand the death-ray over to you and let you conquer the galaxy? No, thanks; I might as well let the Vegans do it."
Illon shook his head sadly. "We have no such plans, Jim Lawrence. We are only concerned with keeping the annihilating ray out of the hands of the Vegans, with placing it in the sane custody such a deadly weapon deserves."
"How can I trust you?"
"It will be necessary, I'm afraid. You must believe that we plan no aggression of our own. No—there is a way to prove it to you." He leaned down and spoke rapidly into a microphone.
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