Ghost V by Robert Sheckley

Author:Robert Sheckley
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

THEN Gregor remembered and wondered how he could ever have forgotten. How many nights had he stayed up in fearful expectation of the Grabber? It had made bad report cards seem very unimportant.

“Is the solution boiling?” Arnold asked.

“Yes,” said Gregor, glancing obediently at the stove.

“What color is it?”

“A sort of greenish blue. No, it’s more blue than—”

“Right. You can pour it out. I want to run a few more tests, but I think we’ve got it licked.”

“Got what licked? Would you do a little explaining?”

“It’s obvious. The planet has no animal life. There are no ghosts, or, at least, none solid enough to kill off a party of armed men. Hallucination was the answer, so I looked for something that would produce it. I found plenty. Aside from all the drugs on Earth, there are about a dozen hallucination-forming gases in the Catalogue of Alien Trace Elements. There are depressants, stimulants, stuff that’ll make you feel like a genius or an earthworm or an eagle. This particular one corresponds to Longstead 42 in the catalogue. It’s a heavy, transparent, odorless gas, not harmful physically. It’s an imagination stimulant.”

“You mean I was just having hallucinations? I tell you—”

“Not quite that simple,” Arnold cut in. “Longstead 42 works directly on the subconscious. It releases your strongest subconscious fears, the childhood terrors you’ve been suppressing. It animates them. And that’s what you’ve been seeing.”

“Then there’s actually nothing here?” Gregor asked.

“Nothing physical. But the hallucinations are real enough to whoever is having them.”

Gregor reached over for another bottle of brandy. This called for a celebration.

“It won’t be hard to decontaminate Ghost V,” Arnold went on confidently. “We can cancel the Longstead 42 with no difficulty. And then—we’ll be rich, partner!”

Gregor suggested a toast, then thought of something disturbing. “If they’re just hallucinations, what happened to the settlers?”

Arnold was silent for a moment. “Well,” he said finally, “Longstead may have a tendency to stimulate the mortido—the death-instinct. The settlers must have gone crazy. Killed each other.”

“And no survivors?”

“Sure, why not? The last ones alive committed suicide or died of wounds. Don’t worry about it. I’m chartering a ship immediately and coming out to run those tests. Relax. I’ll pick you up in a day or two.”

Gregor signed off. He allowed himself the rest of the bottle of brandy that night. It seemed only fair. The mystery of Ghost V was solved and they were going to be rich. Soon he would be able to hire a man to land on strange planets for him, while he sat home and gave instructions over a radio.

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