The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

constellations made the patterns they knew. They were out—and they couldn’t be too far off the course Wilcox had plotted. There was still the system run to make—but snap-out was behind them. Rip gave a deep sigh and buried his head in his hands.
    With a throb of fear Dane unhooked his safety belt and hurried over tohim. When he clutched at Shannon’s shoulder the Astrogator-apprentice’s head rolled limply. Was Rip down with the illness too? But the other muttered and opened his eyes.
    “Does your head ache?” Dane shook him.
    “Head? No—” Rip’s words came drowsily. “Jus’ sleepy—so sleepy—”
    He did not seem to be in pain. But Dane’s hands were shaking as he hoisted the other out of his seat and half carried-half led him to his cabin, praying as he went that it was only fatigue and not the disease. The ship was on auto now until Jellico as pilot set a course—
    Dane got Rip down on the bunk and stripped off his tunic. The fine-drawn face of the sleeper looked wan against the foam rest, and he snuggled into the softness like a child as he turned over and curled up. But his skin was clear—it was real sleep and not the plague which had claimed him.
    Impulse sent Dane back to the control cabin. He was not an experienced pilot officer, but there might be some assistance he could offer the Captain now that Rip was washed out, perhaps for hours.
    Jellico hunched before the smaller computer, feeding pilot tape into its slot. His face was a skull under a thin coating of skin, the bones marking it sharply at jaw, nose and eye socket.
    “Shannon down?” His voice was a mere whisper of its powerful self, he did not turn his head.
    “He’s just worn out, sir,” Dane hastened to give reassurance. “The marks aren’t on him.”
    “When he comes around tell him the co-ords are in,” Jellico murmured. “See he checks course in ten hours—”
    “But, sir—” Dane’s protest failed as he watched the Captain struggle to his feet, pulling himself up with shaking hands. As Thorson reached forward to steady the other, one of those hands tore at tunic collar, ripping loose the sealing—
    There was no need for explanation—the red splotch signaled from Jellico’s sweating throat. He kept his feet, holding out against the waves of pain by sheer will power. Then Dane had a grip on him, got him away from the computer, hoping he could keep him going until they reached Jellico’s cabin.
    Somehow they made that journey, being greeted with raucous screams from the Hoobat. Furiously Dane slapped the cage, setting it to swinging and so silencing the creature which stared at him with round, malignant eyes as he got the Captain to bed.
    Only four of them on their feet now, Dane thought bleakly as he left the cabin. If Rip came out of it in time they could land—Dane’s breath caught as he made himself face up to the fact that Shannon might be ill, that it might be up to him to bring the Queen in for a landing. And in where? The Terra quarantine was Luna City on the Moon. But let them signal for a set-down there—let them describe what had happened and they might face death as a plague ship.
    Wearily he climbed down to the mess cabin to discover Weeks and Ali there before him. They did not look up as he entered.
    “Old Man’s got it,” he reported.
    “Rip?” was Ali’s crossing question.
    “Asleep. He passed out—”
    “What!” Weeks swung around.
    “Worn out,” Dane amended. “Captain fed in a pilot tape before he gave up.”
    “So—now we are three,” was Ali’s comment. “Where do we set down—Luna City?”
    “If they let us,” Dane hinted at the worst.
    “But they’ve got to let us!” Weeks exclaimed. “We can’t just wander around out here—”
    “It’s been done,” Ali reminded them brutally and that silenced Weeks.
    “Did the Old Man set Luna?” After a long pause Ali inquired.
    “I didn’t check,” Dane confessed. “He was giving out and I had to get him to his bunk.”
    “It might be well to know.” The Engineer-apprentice got up, his movements lacking much of the elastic spring which was normally his. When he climbed to control both the others followed him.
    Ali’s slender fingers played across a set of keys and in the small screen mounting on the computer a set of figures appeared. Dane took up the master course book, read the connotation and blinked.
    “Not Luna?” Ali asked.
    “No. But I don’t understand. This must be for somewhere in the