"Hey, Steve--snap out of it!" Kevin's voice, floating in thinly on the
intercom.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, Kevin. Sure. It's that fear, sort of gets you out
here. You can't help it."
"I know. A ship seems to cut it off to some extent, boy. But it's
around, lurking, waiting to get you."
"What do you mean, waiting to get you?"
"Well, not directly. But it makes you make mistakes. Men have died that
way--paying so much attention to the fear that they didn't pay enough
attention to whatever was happening."
"Kevin, do you know anything about how Charlie died you haven't told
me?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. It's kind of vague, boy. Teejay went out alone and
when she came back--why, she looked scared. That's common enough on
Ganymede--everyone looks scared. But Teejay looked puzzled and confused
also, and that's not like her. She wouldn't talk much for a time, and
when she did she just said she'd found Charlie Stedman, your brother,
dead."
"Where?"
"What do you mean, where? Out here on Ganymede, naturally."
"No, I mean exactly where. What was done with the body?"
"That I don't know," said Kevin, and Steve could picture him frowning
inside his helmet.
"Well--listen, Kevin! Do you hear something?"
"Hear something? How can you hear anything on Ganymede, with no air to
carry it? Except on the radio, of course. I hear you, but get a grip on
yourself, boy."
"No. I hear something. There it is, louder. My God, Kevin! My God--"
And clumsily in his vac-suit, Steve began running away across the
pumice.
"Hey, come back! Back here, you crazy fool--" Kevin charged after him,
taking long, ungainly strides in the light gravity. But Steve was
quicker and soon the distance between them increased and Kevin realized
he wouldn't be able to overtake Steve at all.
"Come back! What do you hear, boy? At least tell me that."
Steve told him, and ran on. Amazed, Kevin lumbered back toward the
_Gordak_.
"But what made him do it?" Teejay demanded, later.
"I told you all I know, Captain. He said he heard something and started
running. I chased after him, couldn't catch him. He told me what he
heard."
"What?"
"Well, you won't like this, because it doesn't make sense. But he said
he heard his brother--calling him. Charlie Stedman, calling."
"Charlie Stedman is dead." Suddenly, Teejay was curt, pre-emptory.
"That's what I thought, too."
"Forget it. It's the Ganymede-fear, Mac. Somehow it got to Stedman
stronger than it got to most people. Maybe his brother was hit that
way, too. Maybe, right now, Stedman is off his rocker, running out
across the pumice somewhere, shouting his brother's name into the
soundless void of space."
"We'll have to find him," said Kevin.
"How can we, Mac? He's got air for five or six hours, and Ganymede is
big."
"I'm going to take a set of shoulder-jets and go looking for him,
Captain. I hope you won't try to stop me. I'm going either way."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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