The Tenth Planet Read Online Free PDF Page A

muscles had tightened. The man he held gave a despairing cry, a strangled cough. His face became red, then slowly turned blue. His head lolled, and Leo released the hold, letting him slide down unconscious.
    Leo looked at Orlando, who still held his man but had not inflicted any damage.
    “You going to put him to sleep, Orlando?”
    “I don’t think so, Leo. He’s had a bad time watching what you did to his friends.”
    Leo had smiled. “Orlando, that is your pleasure. It is my pleasure to speak him a few words.” He gazed into the terrified face of the survivor. “Boy, you have comment to make on the colour of my skin?”
    “No, sir.”
    “You think black is beautiful?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Leo laughed. “Boy, you are the most god-awful shit. Kindly remove your sleeping friends. Only one, I fear, needs hospital treatment. Unfortunately, they will all survive.”
    Orlando had looked at Leo with awe. “I thought you were a pacifist.”
    Oddly Leo had begun to shake. He glanced at the three devastated men. “That is why I am a pacifist. Now, for Christ’s sake, get me a large brandy.”
    When Orlando had finished telling the story, Idris laughed, knowing that Leo would have wanted him to laugh.
    But Suzy did not laugh. She raised her glass. “Black was indeed beautiful, was it not?”
    They responded to her toast.
    “He was a damn-awful engineer and a lousy, insubordinate Martian lay-about,” said Idris. “He was our brother. He tried to do for us and the
Dag
what he did for Orlando in the bar at Goddard Field … Rest you, Leo, in the deeps of space, where black is always beautiful.”
    “Our brother was a poet,” said Suzy. “Did you know that?”
    Neither of them did.
    She held a piece of paper. “Listen to something he wrote on this last trip to Earth. He called it
Thieves in the Night:
    “We have such pride. We do not hide
our arrogance. We, the new world-builders claim
that any Martian man is worth
ten of those who caused the death of Earth.
But now, hanging between two worlds
on a rope of darkness there is time to think,
to reflect on pride, on life and other transient things,
to know that we
are only grave-robbers
approaching the tomb of kings.”
    Idris raised his glass once more. “
Salud
, Leo. You were also a lousy poet. But we get the message … And having successfully robbed the tomb of kings, we must ensure that we get the loot safely down to Mars. We shall have to park in orbit, that is painfully clear. And, Orlando, we may have to bring those children and their teachers back to room temperature. I don’t think there is much joy in trying to transfer their life-support systems to the ferry rockets. Too hazardous. Also, we had better look at the manifest and work out a system of transfer priorities. The people first; but after them we will have to schedule the electron microscopes, the ingot platinum, the telescope lenses, the antibiotic cultures and what have you.”
    “If we have to resuscitate,” said Orlando, “and the very thought gives me nightmares, it will have to be delayed until the last moment. You know the
Dag’s
recycling capacity. With that lot breathing, we could have an oxygen crisis in less than thirty hours.”
    “I know. But, somehow, we are going to have to cope with the problem. And I want another internal search.”
    “Why?” demanded Suzy. “We have done two already. You are getting neurotic, Idris.”
    He shrugged. “I can’t tell you why. I don’t know why. I just know something is wrong. Prove to me that there isn’t, and I will be pathetically grateful. Meanwhile, we have about sixty hours before the first power manoeuvre. During that time there is a lot of talking to be done to Mars control, a lot of searching to be done and the resuscitation programme to be organised. Those kids are our most valuable cargo. They all have I.Q’s of two hundred plus. Mars needs them. Leo died for them. Let’s do every damn thing we can to ensure they touch down all