Planet of Death Read online

  Swiftly three Vellirani policemen appeared. Like all the natives, they were small men who hardly came up to the middle of Crawford’s chest. But they were holding blast-guns in their many-fingered hands. Crawford wasn’t about to argue with three drawn blast-guns.

  “You’re under arrest,” one of the policemen said. “The charge is murder.”

  “It’s all a mistake!” Crawford shouted. “I’ve never killed anybody!”

  “The knife is in your hand, Earthman. You can’t deny that you’re guilty.”

  “But —”

  “Don’t resist arrest,” the policeman closest to Crawford warned him. “Come peacefully. It’s the best way.”

  Crawford shook his head slowly. He couldn’t believe that this was happening to him. He was no murderer. He was a successful yangskin hunter, on the way to the bank to make a deposit. Someone had framed him. That had to be it.

  But the bloody murder knife had been in his hand.

  A terrific surge of anger ran through him. Who had put him in this spot? And why? And how? He had blanked out just when the crime was committed. How come?

  A Vellirani policeman touched his elbow. Crawford pulled free.

  “Let go of me,” he snapped. “I’m not guilty! I didn’t do a thing!”

  The strange eyes of the Vellirani stared into his. The policemen looked very serious. But Crawford knew that when a Vellirani wore a solemn-looking expression, he was really laughing. The policemen were laughing at him. They thought it was funny that he would deny his guilt. After all, he had been caught with the bloody murder knife right in his hand!

  “Come along,” the nearest policeman said again.

  There was no use trying to resist arrest. That would only get him into worse trouble.

  Very puzzled, Crawford let himself be taken to jail.

  * * * *

  They put him up in a comfortable cell. Half an hour after he was arrested, Crawford had some visitors. Jeff Hallam came to see him. He brought along an Earthman named Brewster whose job it was to help any Earthman who got into trouble on Velliran. With Hallam and Brewster was a Vellirani native named Hork Kliskan. Hork Kliskan was a lawyer. Crawford would need a native lawyer to defend him against the charge of murder.

  “What’s this all about?” Brewster wanted to know.

  Crawford shrugged. “I don’t have the foggiest idea. I was on my way to the bank, and things went blank for a moment. Then there was a knife in my hand and a dead Vellirani on the sidewalk in front of me.”

  “You didn’t know the dead man?” Hork Kliskan asked.

  “Never saw him in my life.”

  “It sounds phony to me,” said Jeff Hallam. “There’s some trickery here. Someone’s out to get you.”

  “You bet,” Crawford said grimly. “But how can I prove it?”

  “We’ll try to get you a fair trial,” Brewster said. “Hork Kliskan is one of the best trial lawyers on this planet.”

  Crawford looked straight at the little blue-skinned being. “Can you do it? Can you get me free?”

  “I will do my best,” Hork Kliskan replied. His voice was a soft buzzing sound. “But it looks difficult. There are witnesses who say they saw you kill the man.”

  “They’re lying!” Crawford blazed.

  “Perhaps. Perhaps. I will do my best when the trial begins,” said the Vellirani lawyer.

  Crawford said, “Isn’t there some way I can get tried by my fellow Earthmen instead?”

  Brewster shook his head. “Any Earthmen accused of crimes here get tried in Vellirani courts. It’s the law. I’m sorry, Crawford.”

  “Besides,” Hallam said, “you’ve got a bad reputation among the Earthmen here. You’re a hothead. You knock people down when you don’t like things they do or say. It wouldn’t be hard for them to think you got angry enough to kill.”

  “You’ll get a fair trial this way,” Brewster said. “I promise you that. Vellirani justice is very fair.”

  Vellirani justice also moved very quickly. Crawford came to trial only three days later. On Earth, it might have taken months for the trial to begin.

  The trial was held in one of the government buildings. Under local law, there was no jury. A Vellirani judge would hear the case and decide if Roy was guilty.

  Crawford, Jeff Hallam, and Mr. Brewster were the only Earthmen in the court. The judge sat on a high seat; the prosecutor sat on his left, the defense lawyer on his right. Some Vellirani witnesses were in the back of the room.

  “Court is in order,” said the judge. “The charge is murder.”

  The prosecutor stood up. He was a very short, very fat Vellirani with deep purple skin. He had a big ring on each of his sixteen fingers. He walked up and down the room, looking very important. Then he began to speak.

  He described the crime. He produced the murder weapon and told how Crawford had been found with it in his hand. He showed photographs that the policemen had taken a few minutes after the murder. In the photos Crawford was seen gripping the knife and staring down at the body.

  The judge seemed to be smiling. That meant he was taking this very, very seriously. When a Vellirani turned the corners of his mouth up, it was a sign that he was unhappy.

  “Looks bad,” Jeff Hallam whispered.

  Crawford nodded. “But they’ve got to realize that it’s a frameup!”

  The prosecutor was still talking. Now he was speaking about Roy Crawford’s bad temper. Certainly he had done some homework in these three days, because he knew a lot about Crawford. He told of the fights that Crawford had been in. He discussed Crawford’s habit of trying to settle quarrels with his fists. He even knew that Crawford had knocked a hunter down on his last yangskin expedition. He painted Crawford as a terribly violent man who might stab a perfect stranger for getting in his way.

  “This man is guilty,” the prosecutor finished. “I demand the full punishment!”

  Then Hork Kliskan got up to speak in Crawford’s defense. He insisted that Crawford did not own such a knife and had never known the dead man. He denied that Crawford was the murderer. But that was about all that he could say. He said each thing three or four different ways, hoping to convince the judge. Then he sat down.

  Next the witnesses were called. They were Vellirani who had been in the street at the time of the murder. There were five of them. All five agreed that they had seen Crawford holding the bloody knife right after the murder. Two of them even thought they had seen him commit the crime. The other three were not so sure of that.

  The last witness was Crawford himself. He felt uneasy as he took the stand. Things were going badly for him. He began to wish he didn’t have a reputation for being a violent man. That reputation was hurting him now.

  He said, “I didn’t kill him. This is some kind of frameup. I blanked out for a second on the street, and someone must have put the knife in my hand.”

  The judge’s mouth-corners went even higher. It was certain that he didn’t believe Crawford’s story. Even Crawford had to admit that his tale didn’t sound very convincing. It was true, though. He was sure he hadn’t killed anyone.

  The two lawyers spoke again. The judge hardly seemed to be paying attention while Hork Kliskan summed up the defense.

  There was a long moment of silence.

  Then the judge looked at Crawford. “Defendant, this court finds you guilty of murder. You have killed a Vellirani in broad daylight.”

  “It isn’t true!” Crawford cried out.

  His lawyer poked him in the ribs. It wouldn’t do any good to yell at the judge, Crawford realized. The trial was over. Now he would be sentenced.

  He didn’t think that the sentence would be too serious. Velliran, like most civilized planets, didn’t put people to death for crimes. The worst that he could get would be a long time in jail.

  The judge said, “Do you have any explanation for your crime, before you are sentenced?”

  “None. I’m innocent, so how could there be any explanation?”

>   Letting that remark go, the judge went on, “I will now pronounce sentence. A man who has murdered another must not be allowed to stay in society. I sentence you to imprisonment for the rest of your life. You will be taken to Velliran Main Prison on the island of Tharkor.”

  Crawford’s heart sank. This was all like a bad dream — but now it was getting worse and worse. Life imprisonment? To rot for the rest of his life in a jail on a lonely island?

  Hork Kliskan was on his feet. The little lawyer waved his hands wildly in the air.

  “Your Honor, I object! The sentence is much too heavy! Even if he did kill the man, he doesn’t deserve life imprisonment. He —”

  The judge glared at Hork Kliskan. “I am not through pronouncing sentence,” he said in a frosty voice.

  Hork Kliskan sank back into his seat.

  The judge said, “Since the guilty man in not a native of our planet, I offer him another choice. Instead of going to jail, he can leave Velliran forever. He must be gone within three days and never set foot on this world again. Otherwise he must go to jail.”

  “But that isn’t fair either!” Crawford muttered. “There aren’t any starships due to leave Velliran in the next three days! How can I possibly —”

  “The sentence has been given,” said the judge. “The trial is over! Court is adjourned!”

  CHAPTER 3

  OUTWARD BOUND

  Three days to leave the planet! And no way to depart!

  Roy Crawford was dazed by it all. His life was in ruins. He had been walking down the street on a bright, sunny day, minding his own business. And then — first the murder, then the trial. Now he was a condemned man.

  Leave Velliran forever — or go to jail for life!

  Everything he had worked for now was crumbling.

  He’d have to give up his yangskin business and start all over again on some other world. That is, if he could manage to leave at all. Starships didn’t blast off every day. Maybe the judge had known that. Maybe it was his idea of a joke. He had offered Crawford a second choice that was really impossible. That was no choice at all.

  Crawford sat gloomily in his office, wondering what to do. A pair of Vellirani policemen stood downstairs in front. Two days from now, they would take him away and put him in jail — if he couldn’t think up some way of getting off the planet before then.

  Mr. Brewster’s job was to help Earthmen in trouble, and he was doing his best. He had been making calls all day, trying to arrange for a ship to take Crawford away from Velliran. But so far he was having no luck.

  Crawford didn’t want to leave. He liked it here. He wanted to stay right here and go on hunting yangs.

  But if he stayed, he’d have to go to jail for the rest of his life. That meant he had to leave. But it wasn’t fair. It simply wasn’t fair.

  There was a knock on the door, and Jeff Hallam came in. The short, thin scientist looked very pleased with himself. His face wore a broad smile.

  Crawford gave him a sour look. “What are you so happy about?”

  “Plenty. I’ve got everything fixed up, Roy.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve found a way to get you off Velliran by tomorrow night.”

  Crawford sat up in surprise. “How? There’s no ship leaving for days!”

  “There’s one,” said Hallam. “That Exploration Corps ship. The scientific expedition that’s been stopping here a few days. You’ll leave on that ship.”

  “But the Exploration Corps doesn’t take passengers,” Crawford objected. “How am I going to get aboard?”

  “Simple. You’ll go as a scientist.”

  Crawford’s mouth opened wide in amazement. “A scientist? You’re joking!”

  “I’m perfectly serious. It’s all arranged. You know why they stopped here in the first place?”

  “Mostly because one of their men was sick,” Crawford said.

  “Right. Well, the hospital decided that he’s too sick to go exploring. He’s being sent back to Earth. So the expedition is one man short.”

  “But I’m not a —”

  “Wait, will you?” Hallam said. “I happen to be friendly with the explorers. They told me their problem. They’ve asked for a new scientist to be sent to them. He’s coming from another planet near Velliran. He’s supposed to arrive tomorrow. Okay. When he gets here, I see to it that he doesn’t report to the expedition. You report instead. Simple?”

  Crawford began to laugh in spite of himself. He had wanted so badly to go on that exploring trip! It was very funny, in a strange way.

  Crawford said, “Who’s this scientist I’m supposed to be?”

  “His name is Paul Markham. He’s an ecologist.”

  “A what?”

  “An ecologist,” Hallam repeated. “That’s a man who studies the way one living thing ties in with another. He looks at all the plants and animals in one place and sees how they get along with each other.”

  Crawford knotted his hands together nervously. “If I don’t even know what an ecologist is, how can I pretend to be one?”

  “Don’t worry about that. You don’t have to. All you need to do is get aboard that ship. If you can bluff your way until it blasts off, you’ll be all right.”

  “Well, if you think so.”

  “I’m sure of it. Look, you won’t be asked to do anything scientific until you reach the unexplored planet. By then it’ll be much too late for them to do anything about you. They won’t turn back once they’ve arrived.” Hallam grinned. “They’ll probably decide that a trained hunter like you is useful. They’ll put you to work.”

  “Maybe so,” Crawford said. He was starting to like this deal. It was too bad he had to leave Velliran this way, as a convicted criminal. But as long as he was going, it was lucky that he could go with the expedition.

  “So you see, it’ll work out pretty well,” said Hallam.

  “How long will the expedition be out there?”

  “A few months, I guess. Afterward you’ll have to go to live on some other planet, Roy. But you’ll be all right. You can start a new hunting business somewhere else.”

  “Yeah,” Crawford said bitterly. “Just like that.” He stood up, towering high over his friend. “Listen, Jeff. While I’m gone, I want you to try to find out who really did murder that man. Get the real killer and clear my name.”

  “I’ll try hard,” Hallam promised.

  “And if you can’t — well, sell everything I own, then. Cash it all in and send the money to me on my new planet. I’ll be in touch with you.”

  “Right.” Hallam smiled. “Things will work out, Roy. And be sure to get to the spaceport on time tomorrow night. Remember: from here on out, your name is Paul Markham. And you’re an ecologist for the Exploration Corps.”

  * * * *

  The next evening, Hallam drove Crawford to the spaceport. It was a beautiful night. The three moons of Velliran were high in the sky. They cast a bright orange light over everything.

  As the car passed through the gate of the spaceport, Crawford said, “Are you sure this is going to work?”

  “Positive.”

  “Won’t they know I’m not Paul Markham?”

  “They’ve never seen Markham. He’s a stranger to them.”

  “What if they recognize me as Roy Crawford, though?”

  “How can they? None of them ever saw you,” Hallam said. “Relax. You’ll be all right.”

  Crawford tried hard to relax.

  He saw the ship of the expedition up ahead. It was tall and slim and its sides were deep blue in color. The orange moonlight gleamed brightly along the metal. Crawford felt sadness come over him as he saw the ship.

  Goodbye to Velliran, he thought.

  Goodbye to all his friends. Goodbye to hunting yangs. Goodbye to the life he had made for himself on this planet.

  It had all been so sudden, so unfair — the murder, the trial, the sentence. He still didn’t quite believe all that had happened.

  But ye
t it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. At least he wasn’t going to jail. Thanks to Jeff Hallam, he was outward bound for adventure. Heading for a new world, a world that had never been explored.

  Hallam parked the car. They walked out together onto the field. As they neared the ship, Hallam shook Crawford’s hand.

  “Okay,” he said. “You should make it clear from here, Roy. I mean, Paul. Take it easy. I’ll wait to hear from you.”

  “Thanks, for everything, Jeff.”

  Hallam turned away. Crawford watched until he got in his car. Then Crawford walked slowly toward the ship.

  It stood on its tail, pointing to the sky. There was a door at the ground level. Crawford entered it. An elevator took him to the crew compartment at the top end.

  On the way up, he reminded himself that he had a new name. He was no longer Roy Crawford. Now he was Paul Markham, ecologist. The real Paul Markham had been kept from reaching the ship on time. Crawford felt a little sorry about that. But only a little.

  His heart was pounding wildly. What if he didn’t fool the scientists? What if they saw through his bluff before the ship blasted off?

  They would have him thrown off the ship. He would be sent to a Vellirani prison for the rest of his life. So everything depended on what happened in the next few hours. Either he blasted off for an unknown world, or he went to jail.

  The elevator door opened. Crawford stepped out into the nose of the spaceship. There were nine men in there. The scientists, Crawford thought. The members of the exploration team. He took a deep breath.

  “I’m Paul Markham,” he announced. “The new ecologist.”

  Nobody seemed to think he was lying. At least, nobody came right out and said it. He had passed the first test.

  A tall dark-haired man in a blue-and-gold uniform stepped forward. “Welcome aboard, Markham. I’m Captain Hendrin. We’re glad to have you.”

  “I’m glad to be here, sir.”

  “We were in a tight spot,” the Captain said. “We couldn’t very well blast off without an ecologist. What kind of survey expedition would that be? It was a lucky thing for us that you could join us on such short notice.”

  Crawford laughed. “It was an even luckier thing for me, sir. Believe me, it was.”