Brad and Lnng sloshed through the knee-deep water back to the longhouse. The roaring wind was so strong it was difficult to stay on their feet, and they had to dodge wind-blown debris that sailed through the rain like unguided missiles.
He just let the cats kill him, Brad kept thinking. Drrm committed suicide rather than change his way of living. He sacrificed himself, for what? For his sense of right and wrong? For his morality? His religion?
Lnng also stayed silent as they made their painful way back. He must be thinking about Drrm, too, Brad told himself. Maybe he’s wondering if he should let the cats get him. Maybe he’s thinking they should all surrender to the cats.
As if he could read Brad’s mind, Lnng shouted over the howling wind, “Are you truly sent to us by the Sky Masters, Brrd?”
For several heartbeats Brad remained silent, thinking, Don’t make claims that can come back to haunt you. People who are willing to die for their beliefs can be more than willing to kill a stranger for their beliefs.
“My village is in the sky, Lnng. My people made this gun,” he held up the pistol, “so that I can kill the monsters.”
Lnng fell silent. Trying to digest what I’ve told him, Brad knew. Trying to assimilate new information that contradicts everything he’s known all his life.
As he slogged through the rain and wind and knee-deep water, Brad thought, I’m in real trouble with Kosoff. I’ve broken all the rules about first contact with an alien species.
But what else could I do? he asked himself. Stand by and watch the cats slaughter them? Let the monsters kill me, too?
As they approached the longhouse, Brad realized that Kosoff hadn’t called him for some time. Much more than the usual three-minute lag from Alpha. Well, what’s he going to say to me? That he’s pissed off with what I’ve been doing? That he’s taking me off the contact assignment? Not much he can say, not right now.
They reached the building at last. Lnng banged on the door, shouting, “Let us in!”
The door swung open. Brad saw that it was Mnnx who opened it. They stepped inside and Mnnx pushed it shut again. Several dozen Gammans stood huddled behind him, most of them carrying their pitiful little hunting sticks.
“Where is Drrm?” asked Mnnx.
“Dead,” answered Lnng. “The cats got him.”
“Dead?”
“There were five of them,” Lnng said. Even in the computer’s translation, the words sounded excited. “Five! Brrd killed them all. But before he could get the last two, they killed Drrm.”
The Gammans fell silent.
Then Lnng went on, “Drrm went to the cats willingly.”
“That is the right thing to do,” one of the others said.
“No!” Lnng snapped. “The right thing to do is to save ourselves, to kill the monsters from Beta, to—”
A roar from the unshielded window silenced the Gamman. Brad saw one of the cats squeezing its bulk through the window, snarling at them.
The Gammans stood and stared. Several of them dropped their hunting sticks. They simply stood in the knee-deep water and watched their deaths wriggling through the window to get at them.
Icily calm, Brad drew his pistol, extended his arm and aimed, then pulled the trigger. The brilliant red laser beam lanced through the darkness and hit the cat slightly behind his head. Brad whipsawed the beam, searching for the animal’s spine. The beam found it and the cat collapsed as if a switch in its body had turned off. It hung in the window frame, halfway inside the building.
“Leave it there,” Brad said. “It blocks the window. It will keep other cats from getting through.”
Then he noticed that not one of the Gammans had made a move toward the beast, even though it was quite obviously dead.
Brad felt weary, but he said, “I’d better go upstairs, in case another monster makes it to the roof.”
“I will go with you,” said Lnng.
“I too,” Mnnx said.
While the others stayed on the ground floor, out of the rain, and climbed up on furniture to get out of the water, the three of them trudged up the stairs.
Mnnx asked, “Brrd, how do you kill the monsters?”
Brad hesitated, thinking, Put it in terms they can understand. No magic, no mythology.
Raising his pistol, Brad answered, “The red beam cuts like a scythe.”
“It must be very strong.”
“It is.”
As they stepped across the upper floor, Brad thought that the rain seemed to have slackened a bit. Wishful thinking, he told himself. The deluge still poured through the shattered roof. Looking up into it, though, Brad thought the sky seemed a bit brighter than it had earlier.
Of course, he realized. It must be close to noon by now.
Mnnx crawled beneath one of the tables. “There is room here for all three of us,” he said.
Lnng ducked in beside him. Brad did, too, although he stayed near the table’s end, where he could keep an eye on the roofline.
“Keep watch on the roofline,” he told his two companions.
“The rain will be stopping soon,” said Mnnx.
“Yes,” Lnng agreed.
Trying to sound optimistic, Brad thought. With an inner sigh, he told himself, Well, if Kosoff won’t call you, you’d better call him. Bring him up to date.
But when Brad switched to the comm channel, all he got was a hiss of static.
What’s happened? he wondered.
“Emcee,” he called. “What’s wrong?”
No answer. Sudden panic flared inside him. Brad realized he was entirely on his own on planet Gamma.