Reese returned to the colony expecting
a pleasant reunion; instead he found friends
ready to hunt him down like an alien beast....
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
October 1957
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Colony Eight on the Damballa was a huddle of low plastic domes setin a clearing of the jungle. It was also the most welcome sight JimReese had seen in a month—the month since he'd quarreled with Lois andstruck out into the jungle alone.
He had covered close to a thousand miles—all the way to Colony Seven,the nearest of the 10 colonies Earth had planted on the jungle world.Now he was returning, hoping his month's absence had healed the woundshe and Lois had caused each other. She had had time to think thingsover. So had he—and he still loved her.
He saw one of the natives straggling through the jungle toward him andgrinned. It was drunken old Kuhli, a native who had been accidentallymade a drug addict by a well-meaning Terran doctor. Kuhli lived in amurky fog and hung around Colony Eight because he had no place else togo.
Reese was happy to see a familiar face, even Kuhli's. He hailed thealien.
"Kuhli! Kuhli, you old devil! Where are you going?" He knew the nativerarely ventured into the jungle any more; his delicate sense ofdirection had long since been blunted by drugs.
The alien whirled uncertainly and fixed his bleary green eyes on Reese."Trouble, Earthman," he wheezed. "Go away. Away. Big trouble."
Reese frowned. "What are you talking about?"
Kuhli came near and rocked unsteadily on the pads of his seven-toedfeet. "Everyone crazy there. Not safe. Trouble, Earthman." He moanedsoftly to himself. "Sad things happening."
Reese glared at the alien; grasped him by his scaly shoulders and shookhim. "Speak up, Kuhli! Is this just another pipedream of yours or isthere something wrong in the Colony? I have to know!"
The alien whined piteously. "Don't hurt Kuhli. Don't hurt. Trouble,Earthman!"
Reese noticed a pack slung over the creature's back. "What's in here?"
"Mine! Mine! Don't touch!"
Curiosity impelled Reese to turn the alien around and peer in thebulging pack while the old man gibbered in fear.
Reese whistled. The pack was brim-full of ampoules ofbenzolurethrimine, the pain-killing drug to which Kuhli had been madean addict. The alien had stumbled into the colony one day, his chestslashed open by the talons of a khaljek-bird; the colony doctorhad administered the drug to ease his agony and only then discoveredbenzolurethrimine was a powerful narcotic for the aliens.
"Where'd you get all this stuff?" Reese demanded.
"Took it. Needed it. Not going back to Colony any more."
There was something doing there, all right. This was no pipedream ofKuhli's—not when he was willing to steal a supply of drugs and strikeout on his own into the treacherous jungle. Reese tightened his lipsand, started to run toward the nearby colony at a dead trot. He hopedLois was all right; he'd never forgive himself for leaving her ifanything had happened to her.
He entered the circle of domes. No one seemed to be around. That waspeculiar. There should always be a few idling colonists resting upbefore continuing their task of clearing the jungles.
Finally he spotted Lloyd Kramer, one of his best friends. He and Kramerhad decided together to join and had come out to Damballa on the sameship.
"Lloyd! Lloyd!" Reese ran toward the big man, who was stan