Mercury (Planet) -- Fiction; Mystery fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
Grimes didn't know exactly what he was doing, but he did it effectively
just the same. He shot a right cross that caught Ramsey on the jaw and
knocked him senseless. Then he knelt beside his chief engineer.
"Who did it, boy? What did it? You've got to tell me. Do you
understand--you've got to talk."
Manson tried. When he opened his mouth Grimes could see the blood
gathering and it nearly made him sick. He thought his own insides would
burst with each convulsion of the younger man's body.
"It was ... I think it was...."
The voice trailed off in a new spasm that ended in a violent kicking of
his arms and legs as if he were fighting off an attacking animal. Then
he vomited hideously and slowly relaxed.
Grimes looked at the doctor and beyond him could see the men still
glowering at him accusingly.
"It's too late now," Dr. Johnson shook his head.
"I guess we don't know any more than we did," Grimes said weakly. "Make
it easy for him if you can."
He spun around and concentrated on the radar map with no real interest.
A crash of something fragile caused him to turn again toward the figure
on the floor. Bill Manson had knocked the needle from the doctor's hand
and was struggling to speak.
Grimes leaped to his side instantly and cradled the boy's head in his
hands. "Speak up, Bill."
"It was ... the pill. I'm sure it was the pill," Manson said. He shook
his head and the glaze partly left his eyes. "I only took half a pill,
like I used to on Mars; I couldn't help it.... I was getting sick. I
felt it almost at once, then it really hit me after about two minutes."
"What pill? The Uneasy pill?" Grimes couldn't believe in so simple an
explanation. "They've been checked at home for years."
"Must be a slip somewhere. They weren't designed for Primus. I'll bet
my life it was the pill."
"Never mind betting your life any more now. You get some rest."
He snapped to his feet. "Give him something," he told the doctor. "And
take care of him. We'll analyze those pills ourselves. There's going to
be hell to pay if he's right, and just this minute I'm betting that he
is."
"Betting your life, Captain?"
Grimes spun to find Lieutenant Ramsey rubbing his jaw and eyeing him
bitterly.
"Yes, Lieutenant, betting my life." He ran to a wall cabinet and jerked
out a Mars kit and suit. He tore open the kit and threw out the Uneasy
pills, then he hurriedly donned the suit. Maybe that was the answer
after all, he mused grimly. Something in the atmosphere reacted with
the pill. They had never been declared official for Primus. No time to
worry about that now however.
He dropped to the surface of the planet and ran to the UN building. He
flung himself inside and ran wildly up and down the stair, shouting
like a vacation-crazed schoolboy. From the first building he went on to
the others, and then into the city, stopping to be sick when he felt
the urge and actually enjoying the pain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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