Read Online Guardsmen of Tomorrow by Martin H. & Segriff Greenberg, Larry Segriff - Free Book Online

entitled to their beliefs. But we’ve got a problem. The Via Dolorosa launched from Earth fifteen years ago, well before we knew about the Kaxfen. It’s carrying a complement of five thousand New Hope congregationalists all in deep sleep to a new m-class planet in System 2X-185. Their course skirts right across the edge of Burnham space.”
    Dawes frowned as he leaped ahead of Straf’s slow explanations. “Like most ice-wagons, the Via Dolorosa is operating only on computers. It’s also totally defenseless. You want me to save some fundamentalist butt.”
    There was more than a hint of indignation in Straf’s response. “My parents are on the Via Dolorosa” he answered. “I’ve pulled strings to give you back the Sabre , Chil. And if that’s not enough incentive, I’ve got another trick up my sleeve.”
    A brittle click as Straf thumbed an intercom switch on his desk. A moment later the door opened. By the whiff of lavender perfume and a soft tread, Dawes guessed that a young woman had entered the room. Donovan gave a low, appreciative whistle.
    “You’d like the look of her, Chil,” he said.
    A tiny scrape of metal; a barely audible creak as of a lid opening. A stronger whiff of lavender as the woman bent close. A soft weight settled on Chilson Dawes’
    shoulder. For a moment, he sat tense, expectant. Then, he felt a creepy scuttling sensation near his neck. He gave a startled cry and lunged from his chair to encounter cool glass-the window-under his palms. “What are you!…”
    Whatever the thing was, it clung to him. Scores of small caterpillar feet clutched his collar, prickled over his bare neck.
    He shot out a hand for Donovan. “Get it off! Get it-” Gripping the Irishman’s arm, he caught his breath suddenly and froze.
    Like a black mist, the darkness that had filled his eyes for three years dissolved.
    Through the reflected glare of his own face in the glass, he saw the freighters and gleaming starships in the port yards, beyond those the dark Martian mountains and escarpments, and above the glimmering stars in the night sky with Phobos high as Deimos sank in the west.
    Chilson Dawes forgot where he was, forgot the others in the room, the creature on his shoulder. He covered his eyes with his fists, then looked again. Tears began to stream on his cheeks; he wept like a child, confused, shaking. Donovan had hold of him on one side, and Straf on the other. He was barely aware of them as he stared outward at that awesome vista.
    Unexpectedly, the room seemed to rotate. Without turning, he saw Straf’s worried face, older than he’d remembered, then another face, very feminine and quite amused. The creature on his shoulder began to purr softly.
    Dawes regained a measure of self-control. Donovan hadn’t lied. The woman was indeed something to see, even in her shapeless lab coat. The creature seemed to like her, too, though Dawes wasn’t sure quite how he knew that. He reached cautiously up to touch the thing on his shoulder. His first impression had been right; it was much like a caterpillar, lightly furred, but nearly twelve inches long.
    “I don’t understand,” Dawes said, half afraid the miracle would end. He stroked the creature with a forefinger; it nuzzled against his ear, and its purring increased.
    The woman laughed lightly. “Neither do we,” she said. “A team of explorers found it and its kin on a little mud-ball planet in the Mintaka system. They don’t seem to be intelligent, but we’re not sure. They do have a weird form of tactile telepathy-a defense mechanism, we think, against the numerous predators on their world. As long as you’re in physical contact, you can share sight, hearing, sensation. It doesn’t seem to have a sense of smell, though. And when you feed it…” She laughed again.
    “I’d put it down if I were you and put up with a few moments of blindness.”
    Dawes looked at Donovan, then back to the woman. “I only have black-and-white vision.”
    She