"... shouldn"t come out here and spend a few hours once in a while, but they don"t. Too busy with their own business, they say. But while you are physically human, mentally you are not. You"re all too ... too ... I can"t put my thought exactly on it, but ... more as though you were human fighters, if such a thing could be possible."
"We are fighters. Where we come from, most human beings are fighters."
"Oh? I never heard of such a thing. Where can you be from?"
This took much explanation, since the Arpalone had never heard of inter-galactic travel. "You are willing, then, to fight side by side with us Arpalones against the enemies of humanity? You have actually done so, at times, and won?"
"We certainly have."
"I am glad. I am expecting a call for help any time now. Will you please give me enough of your mental pattern, Doctor Garlock, so that I can call you in case of need? Thank you."
"What makes you think you"re going to get an S.O.S. so soon? Where from?"
"Because these Ozobe invasions come in cycles, years apart, but there are always several planets attacked at very nearly the same time. We were the first, this time; so there will be one or two others very shortly."
"Do they always ... kill all the people?" Lola asked.
"Oh, no. Scarcely half of the time. Depends on how many fighters the planet has, and how much outside help can get there soon enough."
"Your call could come from any of the other solar systems in this neighborhood, then?" Garlock asked.
"Yes. There are fifteen inhabited planets within about six light-years of us, and we form a close-knit group."
"What are these Ozobes?"
"Animals. Warm-blooded, but egg-layers, not mammals. Like this," and the Inspector spread in their minds a picture of a creature somewhat like the flying tigers of Hodell, except that the color was black, shading off to iridescent green at the extremities. Also, it was armed with a short and heavy, but very sharp, sting.
"They say that they come from s.p.a.ce, but I don"t believe it," the old fellow went on. "What would a warm-blood be doing out in s.p.a.ce? Besides, they couldn"t find anybody to lay their eggs in out there. No, sir, I think they live right here on Groobe somewhere, maybe holed up in caves or something for ten or thirteen years ... but that wouldn"t make sense, either, would it? I just don"t know...."
Garlock finally broke away from the lonesome Inspector and the _Pleiades_ started down.
"That"s the most utterly _horrible_ thing I ever heard of in my life!"
Lola burst out. "Like wasps--only worse--_people_ aren"t bugs! Why don"t all the planets get together and develop something to kill every Ozobe in every system of the group?"
"That one has got too many bones in it for me to answer," James said.
"I"m going to get hold of that Engineer as soon as we land," Lola said, darkly, "and stick a pin into him."
They found the Engineering Office easily enough, in a snug camp well outside a large city. They grounded the starship and went out on foot; enjoying contact with solid ground. The Head Engineer was an Arpalone, too--Engineers were not a separate race, but dwellers on a planet of extremely high technology--but he did know anything about s.p.a.ce-drives.
His specialty was rehabilitation; he was top boss of a rehab crew....
Then Lola pushed Garlock aside. Yes, the Ozobes came from s.p.a.ce. He was sure of it. Yes, they laid eggs in human bodies. Yes, they probably stayed alive quite a while--or might, except for the rehab crew. No, he didn"t _know_ what would hatch out--he"d never let one live that long, but what the h.e.l.l else _could_ hatch except Ozobes? No, not one. Not one single d.a.m.n one. If just one ever did, on any world where he bossed the job, he"d lose his job as boss and go to the mines for half a year....
"Ridiculous!" Lola snapped. "If Ozobes hatched, they couldn"t possibly have come from s.p.a.ce. If they _did_ come from s.p.a.ce, the adult form would have to be something able to get back into s.p.a.ce, some way or other. _That_ is simple elementary biology. Don"t you see that?"
He didn"t see it. He didn"t give a d.a.m.n, either. It was none of his business; he was a rehab man.
Lola ran back to the ship in disgust.
"Something else is even more ridiculous, and _is_ your business," James told the Head Engineer. "Garlock and I are both engineers--top ones. We know definitely that a one-hundred-percent clean-up on such a job as this--millions--simply can"t be done. Ever. Under any conditions. Are you lying in your teeth or are you dumb enough to believe it yourself?"
"Neither one," the Engineer insisted, stubbornly. "I"ve wondered, myself, at how I could get "em all, but I always do--every time so far.
That"s why they give me the big job. I"m good at it."
"Oh--Lola"s right, Jim," Garlock said. "It"s the adult form that hatches; something so different they don"t even recognize it. Something able to get into s.p.a.ce. Enough survivors to produce the next generation."
"Sure. I"ll tell Brownie--she"ll be tickled."
"She"ll be more than tickled--she"ll want to hunt up somebody around here with three brain cells working and give "em an earful." Then, to the Engineer, "Do you know how they rehab a planet that"s been leveled flat by the golop?"
"You"ve _seen_ one? I never have, but of course I"ve studied it. Slow, but not too difficult. After killing, the stuff weathers down in a few years--wonderful soil it makes--what makes it slow is that you have to wait fifty or a hundred years for the mountains to get built up again and for the earthquakes to quit...."
"Excuse me, please--I"ve got a call--we have to leave, right now."
The call was from the Inspector. The nearest planet, Clamer, was being invaded by the Ozobes and needed all the help they could get.
In seconds the _Pleiades_ was at the Port of Entry.
"Where is this Clamer?" Garlock asked.
The Inspector pointed a thought; all four followed it.
"Let"s go, Jim. Maybe...."
"Just a minute!" Lola snapped. She was breathing hard, her eyes were almost shooting sparks as she turned to the old Arpalone and drove a thought so forcibly that he winced.
"Do you so-called "Guardians of Humanity" care at all about the humanity you"re supposed to be protecting?" she demanded viciously, the thought boring in and twisting, "or are you just loafing on the job and doing as little as you possibly can without getting fired?"
Belle and Garlock looked at each other and grinned. James was surprised and shocked. This woman blowing her top was no Brownie Montandon any of them knew.
"We do everything we possibly can," the Inspector was not only shocked, but injured and abused. "If there"s any one possible thing we haven"t done, even the tiniest...."
"There"s plenty!" she snapped. "Plain, dumb stupidity, then, it must be.
There must be _somebody_ around here who has been at least exposed to elementary biology! You should have exterminated these Ozobe vermin ages ago. All you have to do is find out what its life cycle is. How many stages and what they are. How the adults get into s.p.a.ce and where they go," and she went on, in flashing thoughts, to explain in full detail.
"Are you smart enough to understand that?"
"Oh, yes. Your thought may be the truth, at that."
"And are you interested enough to find out whose business it would be, and follow through on it?"
"Yes, of course. If it works, I"ll be quite famous for suggesting it.
I"ll give you part of the credit...."