Kaspar's Box

"The stones. We can use them like communicators. They grow here. Millions of them, probably. Too many around and they'll drive you insane, but you can handle a few. Large population of us on Balshazzar. We can talk through these. For God's sake, if you can come and get us, please do so! Don't try Balshazzar. Something will let you land but won't let you leave."

"Names," Maslovic hissed. "We need names!"

"Just who are ye, then? Kinda hard to make out when you're hearin' yourself this way."

"I am Doctor Randi Queson, sort of science jack-of-all-trades. With me are engineer Jerry Nagel, shuttle pilot Gail Cross, and team leader An Li. Li suffered a breakdown or seizure or something partly due to the stones and hasn't been anything but childlike since. We have minimal food we've been able to gather, too much water, no supplies."

Murphy thought a moment. "You say somethin' keeps folks from leavin' Balshazzar? What about where you are?"

"Should not be a problem. We went back and forth to the Stanley. My head is killing me now. This only works for short periods. Got to stop or I'll pass out."

"Wait! Is there any way we could locate you? That's a mighty big world down there!"

"We have nothing. Lost everything now in the storms and quakes and always moving. Big oceans, lots of dust and islands. Oh, God! This close! I don't know how…"

"Do you think you could link up with me girls here again via these alien stones?"

"I dunno! Got to quit! I-"

It was clear from the total slack in the faces of the three young women that there was no longer any contact.

Darch threw his arms up in a gesture of helplessness. "Damn! If we had a conventional signal, anything, I could trace it, but sending and receiving via the brains of morons helps not a bit! How do I find four humans who could be anywhere on a world bigger than the one we left not long ago? It's impossible!"

"We have time, I think," Maslovic said. "They've survived this long, they can make it another couple of days, and we have a valuable heads-up on Balshazzar. The prettiest one's always the biggest trap. That's probably why all the humans are there. Weird, though, that these stones would be formed on a hellhole like Melchior." He sighed. "Okay, people! We got a couple of days to work out a way to locate these folks. No question we can use some locals aboard, particularly if they're adults who can use these things without us having to go into chanting rituals and who don't think everything is magic."

"Of course, we hav'ta make sure that they're actually rescued, too," Murphy noted. "Just gettin' 'em off there ain't gonna do much good if we wind up stuck someplace else."

Murphy looked over at the still-entranced girls. "So what do we do with them for now?"

"I'm not going to sit around and wait for somebody to wake up out there, notice them, and try and take this ship," Maslovic commented. "I think we get some of the squad up here and strip those stones off them again. That should break the circle."

But before he could even call down via the ship's intercom, the trio, as one, suddenly swayed, let go of one another, and collapsed in a heap on the deck.

Maslovic and Broz were there before Murphy could even move a step, quickly taking the necklaces holding the stones off their necks. That done, Maslovic called down for Rosen and Sanchez to come up and take the girls back to their quarters, carrying them if need be. Sanchez still wasn't a hundred percent back, but she was more than up to this sort of thing.

Now they could settle back and try and figure out how to locate and extract four humans from a moon almost fifty-six thousand kilometers around at the equator and teeming with hundreds of thousands of representatives of unknown alien life-forms.

* * *

"Why do you still serve this man, Joshua?" Maslovic asked the big bodyguard who had chosen to come with them of his own free will.

"I have sworn a blood oath," Joshua replied. "I shall follow him into Hell if need be."

"You might not be far from doing just that," Maslovic pointed out. "But why? What kind of oath would hold a man like you?"

Joshua turned and looked straight at the intelligence man. "What, precisely, is 'a man like me'? Do you think I am nothing but a pirate? That I have no honor?"

"It is difficult to tell someone's innermost self at the best of times. In your case, the only way I have of judging your sincerity and honor is by the company you keep. Tell me this, then: do you believe what he believes? Is that a part of it as well? That is, do you believe that there are actually demons out there, and that we are moving towards them?"

"I believe in evil," the big man responded without hesitation. "Who commits it or who has it is the only question. I also believe in good. In an evil universe that is crumbling around us all, honor is the only thing one can cling to. That is my code and I cannot vary it. To do so would leave me with nothing at all."