Tales of Outer Space by Anthology

Author:Anthology [Anthology]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-07-01T15:27:41+00:00

PAGE stepped out of the jumper and strode across the garage toward Craig, his boot heels ringing on the floor.

From behind the space-suit visor, Craig regarded him angrily. “You disobeyed my orders,” he snapped. “You went out and caught some Candles.”

“Nothing to it, Captain Craig,” said Page. “Docile as so many kittens. Make splendid pets.”

He whistled sharply, and from the open door of the jumper rolled two Candles, a red one and a green one. They lay just outside the jumper, rolling back and forth.

Craig regarded them appraisingly.

“Cute little devils,” said Page good-naturedly.

“And just the right number,” said Craig.

Page started, but quickly regained his composure. “Yes, I think so, too. I’ll teach them a routine, of course, but I suppose the audience reactions will bust that all to hell once they get on the stage.”

Craig moved to the rack of oxygen tanks and snapped up the lid. “There’s just one tiling I can’t understand,” he said. “I warned you, you couldn’t get into this rack. And I warned you that without oxygen you’d die. And yet here you are.”

Page laughed. “I had some oxygen hid out, Captain. I anticipated something just like that.”

Craig lifted one of the tanks from the rack, held it in his arms. “You’re a liar, Page,” he said calmly. “You didn’t have any other oxygen. You didn’t need any. A man would die if he went out there without oxygen—die horribly. But you wouldn’t—because you aren’t a man!

Page stepped swiftly back, but Craig cried out warningly. Page stopped, as if frozen to the floor, his eyes on the oxygen tank. Craig’s finger grasped the valve control.

“One move out of you,” he warned grimly, “and I’ll let you have it. You know what it is, of course. Liquid oxygen, pressure of two hundred atmospheres. Colder than the hinges of space.”

Craig grinned ferociously. “A dose of that would play hell with your metabolism, wouldn’t it? Tough enough to keep going here in the dome. You Candles have lived out there on the surface too long. You need a lot of energy, and there isn’t much energy here. We have to screen it out or we would die ourselves. And there’s a damn sight less energy in liquid oxygen. You met your own environment, all right; you even spread that environment pretty wide, but there’s a limit to it.”

“You’d be talking a different tune,” Page declared bitterly, “if it weren’t for those space suits.”

“Sort of crossed you up, didn’t they,” said Craig. “Were wearing them because we were tracking down a pal of yours.

I think he’s in the refrigerator.”

“A pal of mine—in a refrigerator?”

“He’s the one that came back as Knut,” said Craig, “and he turned into Mathilde when he knew we were hunting for him. But he did the job too well. He was almost more Mathilde than he was Candle. So he sneaked into the refrigerator. And he doesn’t like it.”

Page’s shoulders sagged. For a moment his features seemed ‘ to blur, then snapped back into rigid lines again.

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