Astonishingly, Steg reversed the blaster and handed it to Kurt. "Then do so."
Kurt raised the blaster, levelling it between Steg"s eyes.
"Do it now," said Steg. "If you have the courage. You can certainly kill me." He nodded towards Vorn, who had drawn his blaster and was aiming it at Kurt. "Perhaps, if you are lucky, you can even kill Lieutenant Vorn before he kills you.
Then you will have two blasters, and only a few leaderless troopers to deal with."
Everyone in the crewroom seemed frozen and the silence was endless.
"Well," said Steg. "Why don"t you shoot?"
Kurt stared into the burning red eyes. He lowered the blaster.
"I don"t like the odds."
"But I do!" shouted Nikos. Burning to redeem himself, he sprang forward, s.n.a.t.c.hed the blaster from Kurt"s hand, aimed point-blank at Steg and fired.
Nothing happened.
Nikos stood there, staring in shock at Steg, who stepped forward and took the blaster from his hand.
"There is a concealed safety-control in the b.u.t.t. Touch it and the weapon will not fire. Touch it again and it will," Steg raised the blaster and shot Nikos down.
The close-range blast to the heart smashed Nikos to the floor, killing him instantly.
Mari ran to the body, and threw herself down beside it. She looked up in horror. "He"s dead," she sobbed. "He"s dead..."
Steg gave Kurt a contemptuous glance. "In every group of prisoners, there is one who is dangerous, one who may have to be killed. I did not think it was you." He holstered the blaster and looked down at the dead Nikos. "He at least had courage."
"He died a glorious death," said Vorn admiringly.
Mari"s sobbing became a hysterical shriek. "You killed him, you monstrous b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you killed him!"
She hurled herself bodily at Steg, who flicked her casually aside. She collapsed by Nikos"s body, screaming and sobbing.
"Can this female be quieted?" asked Steg wearily. "Or must I kill her?" Clearly, it was a perfectly serious question.
Lisa ran to a medical locker, extracted an instant hypo, knelt by Mari and touched it to her arm. Mari slumped back, instantly unconscious.
"Move her!" snapped Lisa.
Kurt picked up Mari"s limp body and carried her over to a bunk. Zorelle followed him, settling Mari in the bunk and covering her with a metal-foil blanket.
Returning, Kurt went over to Nikos, hoisted the body over his shoulder, and carried it to a bunk in the inner sleeping area, as far from Mari as possible. Closing the connecting door, he rejoined the others.
"We have wasted enough time," said Steg. "We must set to work to find the Rutan even though our forces are now reduced."
"You reduced them!" said Lisa Deranne.
Steg"s forces were about to be reduced still further. In the dimly lit engine room, a solitary Sontaran trooper stood on guard over the power drive. The body of another trooper, the one found inside the power unit, still lay in the corner.
A faint blur of light drifted into the engine room, and sank into the body of the dead trooper. The dead Sontaran glowed faintly. After a moment, he stirred and rose stiffly to his feet.
The dead trooper lurched across the engine room towards the sentry. In a ghastly, croaking voice he said, "Go! I will stand watch."
"My orders are to stay on guard."
"Go!" repeated the other trooper.
The stiff movements, the strange voice and the faint glow were enough to alert even a Sontaran. He peered at the advancing trooper, and suddenly recognized him. "No! You are dead! You are dead!"
The second trooper lurched forwards and clamped his hands on the other"s shoulders. "Yes. And so are you."
There was a sudden crackle of energy. The bodies of both troopers glowed for a moment and then fell to the ground.
After a moment a glowing sphere arose from their bodies and floated towards the power drive.
In the crewroom, Steg was telling his human volunteers about the enemy they faced.
"The Rutan is a polymorph a shapeshifter. It can take on the form of its victims. It feeds directly on energy. If its power is low, it may simply reanimate a corpse. But at full strength it can take on the shape of the ent.i.ty it has destroyed at least for a time."
Zorelle gave him a horrified look. "Wait a minute. Are you telling me this thing can look like anyone? Like one of us?"
"Only if it has destroyed the original. It must kill to copy."
Lisa looked uneasily at her companions. "But how do we tell if someone"s a copy or not?"
"If you encounter the Rutan disguised as one of you you will know."
"How?" asked Zorelle uneasily.
"It will kill you."
There was a moment of thoughtful silence.
Then Lisa said, "If we do find this thing disguised or not what do we do?"
"Retreat towards either the engine room or the airlock, drawing the Rutan after you."
"Terrific," muttered Kurt. "Live bait!"
"Why those places?" asked Lisa.
"That is where my remaining troopers will be concentrated.
We shall wait in ambush to destroy the Rutan."
There was a crackle from the com-unit on Steg"s neck-ring and he heard Vorn"s voice. "Commander, there is a message from the trooper sent to relieve the guard on the power units.
He found two dead troopers. Nothing else."
"The creature has re-energized," snapped Steg. "We must double the guard upon the airlock. It will try to steal our a.s.sault craft and escape." He turned to the others. "The Rutan is at its strongest and most dangerous. We must find and destroy it without delay. Come!"
Lisa glanced across at Mari, lying motionless beneath her blanket. "What about her?"
Kurt shrugged. "Leave her here. She"ll be safer than we will!"
Lisa nodded. "I"ll lock the door."
They followed Steg out. Lisa went last, closing the door behind her and locking it from the outside.
On her bunk, Mari slept peacefully.
Steg led Vorn, a Sontaran trooper, and Lisa, Kurt and Zorelle to a corridor junction in the centre of the ship. Lit only by dim working lights, the corridors were filled with sinister shadows.
"Lieutenant Vorn will mount guard on the power drive. I shall join the guard at the airlock. These are the two danger points. The Rutan needs power and it needs to escape. The rest of you will search your a.s.signed sectors."
Steg went off in one direction, Vorn and the trooper the other. Lisa, Kurt and Zorelle watched them go.
When they were out of sight, Lisa turned angrily to Zorelle.
"If we survive this, I"ll deal with you later."
"Leave it," said Kurt wearily.
"All right," said Lisa. "Let"s go."
They moved away.
Surfacing a little from the narcotic, Mari moaned and stirred in her bunk. A faint glow oozed under the locked door and flowed across the room. It moved across to the door that led to the sleeping area and slid beneath it.
For a moment all was silent. Then the connecting door sprang open revealing Nikos, his face faintly glowing. He stalked across the room, knelt beside Mari"s bunk, and bent to kiss her lips. A pulse of light flashed between them and Nikos disappeared.
Mari lay back in her bunk, staring into s.p.a.ce, her face and body glowing.
Moving along the dimly lit metal corridors, Lisa, Kurt and Zorelle reached another, larger junction.
Lisa looked round, getting her bearings. "We"re supposed to split up here."
Suddenly Zorelle said, "Look, I"m sorry, I can"t take any more of this, I really can"t. You can go on with this monster hunt if you like. I"m going back to the crewroom. I can look after Mari, she really shouldn"t be left."
Lisa looked hard at her. Zorelle was clearly terrified, and she wouldn"t be much use in Lisa"s future plans.
"All right. Here, you"ll need this." She handed Zorelle the key-card for the crewroom door.
Zorelle took the card and hurried back the way they had come.
Kurt looked at Lisa. "Well, do we split up?"
She grinned fiercely at him. "Do we h.e.l.l."
"You don"t buy Steg"s deal?"
Lisa shook her head. "About as much as you do."
"We"re not going to hunt the Rutan?"
"Hunt it?" said Lisa. "We"re going to help it!"
Lisa had been over every inch of the ship during its conversion. She knew every connecting ladder, every hatch, every pa.s.sageway. She moved to a nearby hatch and lifted it, revealing a metal ladder leading downwards.
Kurt followed her along a maze of corridors and walkways and then through another hatchway into a large, darkened area.
"Where are we?" whispered Kurt.
"Back of the engine room. Wait here."
She slipped silently along the wall until she reached a large control-wheel. Not far away, past the banks of machinery, she could see Lieutenant Vorn and a trooper guarding the power units. She spun the control-wheel to maximum, and hurried back to Kurt. "Come on!"
"Come where?"
"The front door."
"What front door?"
"Just come on!" hissed Lisa fiercely, and pushed him back through the hatch.
In the crewroom, Zorelle had changed back into her silvery ball-gown, put on a more than usually elaborate make-up, and was finishing the third of three very large drinks.
Tipsily she toasted her image in the mirror. "If I"m gonna die, then at least I"ll do it in style."