“Oh well, we’ll see.” Zeleny said philosophically and went off to check the engines.
Toward evening the length of the tadprowlers reached three and a half meters. They were already finding it difficult to swim about the pool and they kept close to the bottom, swimming to the top only to munch on bunches of waterplants.
I found myself going to sleep that night with the heavy forboding that I would not be able to get the tadprowlers to the Zoo. The first of the animals had turned into a snow ball rolling down hill. Space was still filled with mysteries which a smiple terrestrial biologist just can’t sink his teeth into.
I made certain I got up before anyone else. I tiptoed down the corridors, remembering the nightmares that had run through my mind during the night. I had dreamed the tadprowlers had become longer than the Pegasus itself, crawled outside, and were now flying beside us in empty space and still trying to eat our ship.
I opened the door to the hold and stood for a moment on the threshold, looking around to make certain that a tadprowlers didn’t crawl out from around some corner.
But the hold remained silent. The water in the pool was unmoving. I walked closer. The shadows of the tadprowlers, now about four meters long, were black pools on the bottom.
My heart almost burst from my chest. I grabbed a mop and stuck one end into the water. Why weren’t the tadprowlers moving
The mop knocked against one of the tadprowlers and shoved it easily to one side, pushing one of its companions to the far side of the pool. That one did not move either.
“Expired.” I realized. “From hunger.”
“What’s up, papa?” Alice asked.
I turned. Alice was standing barefoot on the cold plastic surface of the hold, and instead of answering her I said:
“Go right back to our cabin and put something on your feet. You’ll catch a cold.”
Then the door opened and Poloskov came into the hold. Over his shoulder I could see Zeleny’s red beard.
“Well, what’s up?” The two spoke in chorus.
Alice ran off to put on her slippers, and I, not bothering to answer, tried to push one of the motionless tadprowlers to the side of the pool. His body felt like it was empty and drifted lightly around the pool. The eyes were closed.
“They kicked off.” Zeleny said sadly. “And after all our work transferring them to the pool yesterday. Well, I did warn you!”
I turned the tadprowlers over with the mop. That proved not at all difficult. The tadprowlers spotted belly was split open down the middle. All that remained in the pool were the creatures’ outer skins, which retained the form of their bodies because hard and thick scales covered them, not permitting the hides to collapse.
“O-ho!” Zeleny said, looking around the hold. “They’ve shed their skins!”
“Who?” Poloskov asked.
“If we’d only known!”
“Listen, Professor Seleznev.” Captain Poloskov turned to me in his official capacity, “judging from everything I suspect that unknown creatures are now aboard my ship, creatures which were hidden in the so called tadprowlers. Where are they?”
I turned the last of the tadprowlers over with the mop. It was empty as well.
“I don’t know.” I admitted honestly.
“And when you entered the hold, was the door shut or open?”
My mind was simply not working to well, and I answered:
“I don’t remember, Poloskov. Most likely it was closed.”
“Tarnation!” Poloskov said, and hurried toward the exit.
“Where are you going?” Zeleny asked.
“To search the ship!” Poloskov said. “And I advise you to search the engineering compartment. Just make certain you’re armed. We don’t know what’s come out of the tadprowlers. It could be dragons.”
They hurried out, but a few minutes later Poloskov returned running and handed me a blaster.
“This isn’t something to laugh at.” He said. “And I’d advise you to lock Alice in your cabin.”
“There’s really no need for any of this.” Alice said. “I have a theory…”
“I don’t want to hear your theory.” I said. “Off to the cabin.”
Alice fought back like a wildcat, but we finally succeeded in locking her into our cabin and began a search of the entire ship.
It is remarkable how many holds, bulkheads, corridors, accessways and simple spaces are hidden in a comparatively small research vessel. The three of us, covering each other, wasted three hours while we examined every cubic centimeter of the Pegasus.
Nowhere did we find monsters.
“That’s it.” I finally said. “Let’s have breakfast; then we can search the ship all over again. They had to have gotten somewhere?”
“I want to eat too.” Alice, who had been listening to our conversations over the internal com system, said. “Just get me out of this prison.”
We released Alice and proceeded to the crew’s lounge like soldiers on patrol.
Before we even sat down for breakfast we locked the door and placed the blasters beside us on the table.
“It’s a mystery!” Poloskov said, hunched over Soya-Bix. “Where could they be hiding. In the reactor? Could they have gotten outside.?
“Infernal monsters.” Zeleny said. “I just don’t like monsters. I didn’t like the tadprowlers right from the very start. Hand me the instacaf.”
“I fear we may never resolve this mystery.” Poloskov said.
I nodded, agreeing with him.
“No, it’s simple.” Alice interjected.
“Now you be quiet and drink your tea.”
“I can’t be quiet. If you want, I can find them for you.”
Poloskov started to laugh. Then he laughed a long time, and sincerely.
“Three grown men searched the ship for three hours, and you want to find them on your own.”
“All the easier.” Alice answered. “Bet I can’t?”
“Of course I do.” Poloskov laughed again. “What do you want to bet?”
“A wish.” Alice said.
“Agreed.”
“Only I have to search for them alone.”
“Not on your life!” I said. “You are not going out there alone. Have you forgotten that there may be creatures of unknown capabilities and intentions roaming about the ship?”
I was furious at the Arcturus Minor researchers for their dangerous practical jokes. I was angry with myself as well for being asleep in bed and missing the moment when the tadprowlers’ outer coverings were discarded. And, I was angry with Alice and Poloskov who had taken such a serious moment to make a childish bet.
“Then we’re off.” Alice said, getting up from the table.
“First finish your tea.” I said severely.
Alice finished her tea and confidently headed for the hold where the aquarium stood. We followed after her, feeling ourselves to be fools. What reason, after all, did we have for listening to her?
Alice quickly looked over the section. She asked Poloskov to pull the cases off the wall. He complied with a smile. Then Alice returned to the pool and walked about it. The tadprowlers’ empty skins of the lay black on the bottom. On the surface of the water drifted uneaten waterplants.
“Here.” Alice said. “Pick them up. But be careful they can jump.”
And then we saw what was sitting on the green water plants in a row, three frogs. More precisely, not quite frogs, but three creatures very similar to frogs. Each about the size of a thimble.
We snatched at them and placed them in a can and then I, regretting my earlier obstinacy, asked Alice:
“Listen, kid, how did you guess?”
“That’s not the first time you’ve asked, papa,” She answered, covered with pride. “It’s all because you’re all grown up, all very wise and educated, and you think, as they say, logically. I’m not very wise and educated and I think about whatever pops into my head. I was thinking, that if the name of these tadprowlers comes from tadpoles then what they turn into is frogs. And young frogs are always smaller than tadpoles or prowlers. You went about the ship with pistols and hunted for giant monsters. Even I was afraid at the time. But I was sitting locked in the cabin and thinking that, you don’t always look up and search for something enormous. Maybe you should look in the corner and hunt for a really small frog. And I found them.”
“But why did frogs so small need such big skins?” Poloskov was curious.
“I wasn’t thinking about that.” Alice admitted. “I didn’t think about that at all. And if I had, then I would never have found the frogs.”
“And what do you say, Professor?” Poloskov asked me.
“What’s there to say? We have to study the tadprowlers outer covering. Evidently it’s some kind of fabric from feed and a complicated concentrate for the frogs. Or maybe the enormous size of the tadprowlers makes it easier for them to defend themselves from predators.”
“And don’t forget about my wish, Poloskov.” Alice said severely.
“I won’t forget about anything.” Our captain answered.
Chapter Five
The Advice of Doctor Verkhovtseff
While en route we sent a subspace message to Doctor Verkhovtseff: “Arriving on Saturday. Can you meet us?” Verkhovtseff answered immediately. That he would be delighted to meet with us and would lead us through the dangerous belt of asteroids that surrounded the Three Captains’ World in his own speedster.
At the appointed hour we slowed to a halt outside the asteroid belt. The thick roi of sone debris was like a cloud hiding the planet’s surface from us. For some reason we were all excited; it seemed likely the encounter with Doctor Verkhovtseff would lead to important and interesting events. Perhaps, Even to adventures.
The doctor’s space cruiser flashed like a silver arrowhead among the asteroids and then he was beside us.
“Pegasus, are you receiving me?” A muffled voice came from the speaker. “Follow my lead..”
“What does he find so interesting here? It must be boring to be on just one planet.” Alice said; she had taken her place on the bridge in the little acceleration chair that had been made specially for her.
No one answered her. Poloskov piloted the ship while I took the navigator’s position. Zeleny was not on the bridge; he remained in the engine room.
The Pegasus changed course, avoiding a jagged asteroid, and immediately obeyed Poloskov’s command to drop toward the surface.
Beneath us passed a desert at various points cut with gorges and dotted with the pockmarks of craters. The space yacht’s silver arrow flew in front of us, guiding us in.
We slowed noticeably. You could already make out cliffs and dried rivers. Then in front of us was the dark green circle of an oasis; arched over it was the dome of the base. The doctor’s yacht went into a curve and landed on flat ground. We followed his example.
The Pegasus had hardly stopped rocking when Poloskov stood up from his acceleration couch and said, “That’s it.” Out the port, between the green oasis and our ship, I could see three stone statues.
It was the Three Captains. Their monument had been erected on a very tall base; even from far away you could make out that two of them were human beings. The third was a spindly, three legged Fyxxian.
“We’ve landed.” Alice said. “Can we go out.”
“Wait a moment.” I answered. “We don’t know the composition of the atmosphere or the temperature. Which space suit are you planning to wear?”
“None of them.” Alice answered. She pointed out the port. A man had exited the silver space yacht; he wore an ordinary, if very old fashioned grey business suit and had a floppy grey hat on his head. He raised his hand and waved to us.
Poloskov turned on the outside speakers and asked:
“I take it the atmosphere is suitable for breathing?”
The man in the hat quickly started to nod: Come on out, there’s nothing to fear!
We let down our gangplank; he met us at the bottom.
“Welcome to the base!” He said and bowed. “We so rarely see guests here!”
His manner of speech was very old fashioned; it went with his clothing.
Doctor Verkhovtseff appeared to be about sixty. He was short and skinny, but in general looked like a pleasant late middle aged mam with a face covered with tiny wrinkles who spent most of his time squinting or laughing, and when from time to time the skin of his face was stretched the wrinkles became white and very broad. Doctor Verkhovtseff had long, thin fingers. He shook our hands and invited us to visit the base.
We followed the doctor the green trees of the oasis.
“Why is there an oxygen atmosphere here?” I asked. “The rest of the planet appears to be sheer desert.”
“The atmosphere is artificial.” The Doctor said. “It was made when they erected the monuments. Several years from now they will be erecting a large museum dedicated to the heroes of space. They will be bringing in ships that have outlived their usefulness and all sorts of trees and wildlife from distant planets, a whole ecosystem.”
The doctor stopped in front of a stone block. Carved into it were these words in InterGal:
SPACE MUSEUM TO BE ERECTED HERE SOON
“As you can see,” Verkhovtseff said, “The museum will be the joint venture of some seventy different planets. In the mean time, as a beginning, an enormous atmosphere reactor was built in the center of the planet to separate out oxygen from ores. At the moment the atmosphere here isn’t the best, but by the time the museum opens it will be the best in the Galaxy.”
As we spoke we approached the base of the monument.
The monument was enormous, at least as high as a twenty story building. We stopped, bent our heads back as far as they could go, and looked over the Three Captains.
The first captain appeared to be young, broad shouldered and muscular. He had an almost up-turned nose and a broad face. The captain was laughing. On his shoulder sat a strange bird with two claws and a beautiful crown of stone feathers.
The second captain was taller than the first. He had the very wide chest and thin legs of those people who had been adapted to live on Mars. The Second Captain’s face was sharp and lean.
The Third Captain was a Fyxxian in a stiff space suit with helmet open and thrown over his back, leaning with one hand on the branch of a stone bush.
“They’re not at all old.” Alice said.
“You are correct, little girl.” Doctor Verkhovtseff answered. “They had already won fame and glory when they were quite young.”
We entered the shadows of the trees and walked down the broad path that led to the base. The base turned out to be an enormous establishment but mostly fille with cases, containers, and instruments.
“They’ve started to send the in the museum exhibits already.” The doctor said, as though apologizing for the clutter. “Come with me to my den.”
“It looks just like the Pegasus at the start of our voyage!” Alice exclaimed.
And in fact the passage through the base to Doctor Verkhovtseff’s living quarters was in some ways like walking though our ship when it had been filled with packages, cargo, and all sorts of equipment.
Doctor Verkhovtseff’s sleeping and working quarters turned out to be in a small store room between containers, filled with books and microfilms; there was scarcely room to place a folding cot which was covered with papers and films.
“Sit down, why don’t you; make yourselves at home.” The doctor said.
Other than to the occupant it was completely clear that there was nowhere here to find a place to sit. Verkhovtseff brushed a pile of papers onto the floor. The pages flew end over end, and Alice bent down to gather them up.
“You’re writing a novel?” Poloskov asked.
“Why would I write a novel? Oh, yes, of course, the lives of the Three Captains are far more interesting than any novel. It would be worth while in order to describe them as examples for future generations. But I have absolutely no literary gifts whatsoever.”
I thought that Doctor Verkhovtseff was just being modest. After all, it had been he who flew to the researchers on Arcturus Minor in order to find the plans of one of the Captains’ ships.