"Which could be decently cremated," Sheba said.
"No," Josh said. "I'm sorry."
"Captain," said Kirsty Girard's voice on the communicator, "can you come to Science and Navigation?"
"On my way, Kirsty," Josh said.
Both Angela and Sheba followed him to stand in the door to Kirsty's
"office" as Josh leaned over a monitor. They could both see a darkness in a field of white ice.
As Josh watched, the dark spot resolved itself into a square cube of metal. The drone was airborne, and was closing on the structure.
"Why didn't we spot this before?" Josh asked.
"Because up until about one hour ago it was covered by two hundred feet of ice," Kirsty said. "I had the area on camera, a wide view, when the ice began to melt. The computer alerted me to the change in image. It took only sixteen minutes for the ice cover to be removed."
Josh felt a prickle of alarm at the nape of his neck. She had phrased her words to indicate that she believed that the dull metal square had been deliberately revealed by someone or by something.
"Keep the drone at two miles distance," Josh ordered. "Readout?"
Kirsty was controlling the drone with eye and head movements inside a snug-fitting helmet. She hovered the drone and ordered use of all of its sensors.
"No emissions. No radiation. No heat," she said.
"Bring the drone home," Josh said.
"Wait," Kirsty said, with excitement in her voice. "The shell of that square is made of the same metal that was in the hull of the ship that attacked us. No wonder we're getting no readings. That stuff would keep heat or any emissions inside."
"Bring it home, Kirsty," Josh ordered calmly.
"Yes, sir," Kirsty said. She thought the order.
The drone moved swiftly, darting directly toward the metal cubeprotruding above the ice.
"Watch it," Josh said.
"Come back, damn you," Kirsty grated between her teeth as the drone settled onto the smooth top of the cube. She looked up at Josh, her eyes wide. "It's all right," she said. "There's no danger."
Josh felt a sense of relief. A great peace settled over him. "No," he said,
"there is no danger."
"We can get Ruth and David now," Sheba said.
For a moment Angela felt protest rising in her, but she, too, felt the great sense of peace and rightness. She smiled.
"Kirsty, send a drone down to the Fran Webster. Use the earth sampler scoop to gather up the two bodies. Seal them in a specimen bag."
"They'll be mixed together," Sheba said.
"They died together," Angela said.
"We can try to gather them in separately," Josh said.
Angela felt protest rising again, sensed that something was very wrong, tried to overcome the powerful sense of well-being that engulfed her. She moved toward the drone control panel, forcing each step. Her limbs were heavy. Her feet seemed to be anchored in thick, heavy mud. She lifted a control helmet.
"Better let Kirsty do it, Angel," Josh said. "She's more accustomed to the peculiarities of each drone."
"Yes, all right," Angela said.
Kirsty had switched away from the drone that rested atop the dark cube of metal on the other side of the world. She was directing one of the returning drones to reverse direction and go down to the surface again.
"I'll just monitor," Angela said, and her movements became more free.
She put out her hand and touched a switch and felt the control contact with the drone atop the cube. She braced herself and gave the order. Thedrone shifted position and on the screen a bright speck of fire appeared as it extended the nozzle of a molecular cutting torch and began to slice into the metal of the cube.
"Angela, what the hell—" Josh began. The rest of his question was cut off by a flare of light on the screen as the drone disintegrated.
Angela made one small sound as she toppled to the deck. Josh bent over her, removed the helmet. He cried out harshly, a painful, strained male scream. The beautiful emerald eyes had been exploded out of their sockets. Blood ran from her ears and her nose, and her skull, as he extended his hand and touched her, was soft. He withdrew his hand quickly and looked at his fingers. They were covered with blood and something else, a white paste. It was as if her brain had exploded inside her skull, shattering and pulping the bone, oozing out into her long, blonde hair.
Before either Kirsty or Sheba could react, Josh was at the console. He punched in a quick order, took weapons control, and within seconds a laser beam lanced downward, curved around the horizon. Kirsty, guessing what Josh intended, focused another viewer on the cube of metal on the far continent. She gasped as she saw that it was already almost hidden by ice.
The laser beam exploded on target. It was some time before the viewers could see through the resulting cloud of steam and fragments. When the view was clear, there was a large crater where the cube had been, and even as Josh and the others watched the ice began to melt and cover the crater with a swiftly forming lake of clear water.
Josh was searching out the next target. Once again the beam lanced down and there was another crater and an expanding area of melt as another cube was destroyed.
Kirsty put her arms around Josh and tried to pull his hands away from the console. "Captain," she said, "that's enough."
"They killed her," Josh said, his voice full of agony. "The bastards killed her."
"Captain, please," Kirsty begged, as another cube and the mass of ice surrounding it was vaporized. "You can't do this. You've got to stop it."
With great effort, Josh controlled his rage. He fell to his knees beside Angela. There was a great deal of blood on the deck.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
When the Watcher was alerted for the second time, the planet had made less than one orbit around its sun since the last trespass. A check of systems, the first priority from the day of the beginning, showed need for nourishment in distant ganglia. A healing flow of electrons swept outward to bring all extensions to full readiness within seconds.
The second intrusion was at the site of the first. Such exact positioning could not be accidental. The Watcher waited. Unlike the first one, the second intruder made no immediate attempt at penetration or exploration. There was time for a thorough study of the aliens and their craft. It only took a moment to determine that the occupants of the ship were the same as the first pair. The spaceship was more interesting. The propulsion system was of the same unknown type as that of the smaller ship. The drive, itself, was of simple construction, but it had taken a full concentration of reasoning power to determine that the plant utilized magnetic-radiative power, the energy of the stars. The small ship had been impressive. This second, large ship was even more advanced and required much study. A stream of observations flowed along lengthy ganglia and was stored.
The life-support systems of the two ships told the Watcher much about the physiology of the two life-forms even before a careful probe of thought patterns was initiated. The forces of creation had allowed prodigious latitude in the variety of life-forms but the basic mechanics of intelligent life were that the development of intelligence had not been confined to one planet more blessed than others, as it had once been believed. But then, the very existence of the Watcher and the necessity for eternal vigilance was conclusive testimony to the doctrine of parallel creation.