James H. Schmitz The Witches of Karres

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Come in& "
The captain went in, drew the door shut behind him. A light was on over a
table against the wall on the left;
various papers lay about the table. The big packing crate rather crowded the
far end of the room, but nothing approaching the bulk of a horse could
possibly have been concealed in that. "I trust I'm not disturbing you," the
captain said.
"Not at all, Captain Aron." Laes Yango nodded at the table, smiled
deprecatingly. "Paper work ... It seems a businessman never quite catches up
with that. What was on your mind, sir? "
"A matter of ship security," the captain told him, casually drawing the gun
from his pocket, holding it pointed at the floor between them. The trader's
gaze shifted to the gun, then up to the captain s face. He looked mildly
puzzled, perhaps a little startled.
"Ship security?" he repeated.
"Yes," said the captain. He lifted the gun muzzle an inch or two. "Would you
hand me your gun, Mr. Yango?
Carefully, please!"
The trader stared at him a moment. Then his smile returned. "Ah, well," he
said softly. "You have the advantage of me, sir! The gun, of course, if you
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feel that's necessary!" His hand went slowly under his jacket, slowly brought
out a gun, barrel held between thumb and finger, extended it to the captain.
"Here you are, sir!"
The captain placed the gun in his left coat pocket.
"Thank you," he said. He indicated the packing crate. "You told me, I believe,
Mr. Yango, that you had some very valuable and delicate hyperelectronic
equipment in that box."
"That's correct, sir."
"I see you have it locked," said the captain. "I'll have to take a look
inside. Would you unlock it, please?"
Laes Yango chewed his lip thoughtfully. "You insist on that?" he inquired.
"I'm afraid I do," said the captain.
"Very well, sir. I know the law, on a risk run any question of ship security
overrides all other considerations, at the captain's discretion. I shall open
the lock, though not without protest against this invasion of my business
privacy."
"I'm sorry," said the captain. "Open it, please."
He waited while the trader produced two sizable keys, inserted them in turn
into a lock on the case, twisted them back and forth in a practiced series of
motions and withdrew them. Then Yango stepped back from the case. Its top
section was swinging slowly open, snapped into position, leaving the interior
of the case exposed.
The captain moved up, half his attention on the trader, until he could glance
into it....
"It looked like a big, folded robe made of animal fur, long, coarse brown fur,
streaked here and there with black tiger markings. The Captain reached
cautiously into the case, poked the fur, then grasped the hide through it and
lifted. It came up with a kind of heavy, resilient looseness& He let it down
again. The whole box might be filled with the stuff.
"This," he asked Yango, "is valuable hyperelectronic equipment?"
Yango nodded. "Indeed it is, sir! Indeed, it is! Extremely valuable, almost
priceless. Very old and in perfect condition. A disassembled Sheem robot....
The great artist who created it died over three hundred years ago."
"A disassembled Sheem robot," said the captain. "I see& Have you had it
assembled recently, Mr. Yango? "
"That is possible," Yango said stiffly.
The captain took hold of one end of the thick fold of furred material, drew it
back& The head lay just beneath it, bedded in more brown fur.
It didn't appear to be a head so much as the flattened out bristly mask of
one& But the eyes looked alive.
Hulik do Eldel had described them accurately, a row of five smallish, round
eyes of fiery yellow. They stared up out of the case at the ceiling of the
stateroom. Near the other end of the head was a wide dark mouth-slit. A
double pair of curved black tusks was thrust out at the sides of the mouth. It
was a big head, big enough to go with a horse-sized body. And a thoroughly
hideous one.
The captain pulled the folded fur back across it again.
"The Sheem Spider!" Laes Yango said. "A unique item, Captain Aron. The Sheem
Robots were modeled after living animals of various worlds, and the Spider is
considered to have been the most perfect creation of them all. This is the
last specimen still in existence. You asked whether I had assembled it
recently.... Yes, I have. It's a most simple process. With your permission& "
The captain swung the gun up, pointed it at Yango's chest.
"What are you hiding in your left hand?" he asked.
"Why, the activating mechanism." Yango frowned puzzledly. "I understood you
wished to see it assembled.
You see, the Sheem Robots assemble themselves when the signal to do it is
registered by them& "
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The captain glanced aside into the case. The folded fur in there was shifting,
sliding aside, beginning to heave up towards the top of the case.
"You have," he said, his voice fairly steady, "two seconds to deactivate it
again! Then I'll shoot, and not for the shoulder."
There was the faintest of clicks from Laes Yango's closed left fist. The
stirring mass in the case settled slowly back down into it and lay quiet. "It
is deactivated, sir!" Yango said, eyeing the gun.
"Then I'll take that device," the captain told him. "And after you've locked
up the case, I'll take the keys& .
And then perhaps you'll let me know what this Sheem Robot is for, where you're
taking it, and why you had it assembled and walking around on this ship
without warning anybody about it."
Yango's expression had become surly but he offered no further protest. He
relocked the case, turned over the keys and the activating mechanism. He'd
been commissioned, he said, to obtain the Sheem Robot for the prince consort
of Swancee, a world to Galactic North of Emris. Wuesselen was the possessor of
a fabulous mechanical menagerie, and the standing price he'd offered for a
Sheem Spider was fabulous. How or where Yango had obtained the robot he
declined to say; that was a business secret. Above and beyond the price, he'd
been promised a bonus if he could deliver it in time to have it exhibited by
Wuesselen at the next summer festivals of northern Swancee; and the bonus was
large enough to have made it seem worthwhile to take his chances with the
Chaladoor passage.
"For obvious reasons," he said, "I have not wanted any of this to become [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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