THE CATERPILLARS QUESTION

Then he lifted two extensions and shot the guards with a ray from each. The green beams cut off the heads of the guards, and these clanged on the floor and rolled a few inches. Their bodies remained upright; their arms still gripped the barrels of their weapons.

Garth opened the door to the control room, revealing to Tappy's eyes (thus Jack's) an airlock chamber. Then the Gaol entered it, and the door closed behind him.

Tappy was probably in shock because of Garth's unexpected and deadly attack. Jack did not know about that. The hatchling did not transmit emotional feelings. Not in this situation, anyway.

She looked around. None of the operators in the room behind her nor in the control center had paid any attention to the killing. They may not have seen it, but the operators outside the control center must have heard the noise of the fallen heads.

"What's going on?" Jack said. He had expected any action by Tappy and Garth to be subtle and, in essence, pacifistic. But-. . .

but what? Ah! The hatchling could not enter the control room to transmit empathy to those within. The gases the Gaol breathed would kill it. If it stayed outside the room, its empathic effect would be eventually felt by the control center crew. But Garth had to take immediate action. He had decided that there was only one way to seize control of the ship. It must have been his idea since Tappy could communicate with him only through gestures.

Also, he probably knew that Tappy, so full of empathy-soaked with it, in fact-would draw back from use of violence. Garth had been affected by the empathy transmitted to him, but he was still more governed by logic than feeling. A good thing, too, Jack thought.

Tappy went back to the window and looked around the side of the wall into the control room. By then, Garth had cut every Gaol operator in there and was rolling up the ramp. The captain was standing up on his four doglike legs, his arms waving, the flap over his whistling nostril going up and down. His "face" was incapable of expressing anything but ferocity, but his hands said that Garth would be sorry indeed that he had attacked the captain.

It was, of course, bravado. The captain carried no weapons.

Whatever it was saying in its whistling speech, it did not impress Garth. He wheeled onto the rotating disk, grabbed the

' 's head with two suddenly extruded hands, and tore the captain head off from the fat neck. A dark reddish-blue blood shot out of the open neck. But Garth had rolled back out of the way of the spurt quickly enough to avoid most of it. The captain's legs gave way under him. His bottom plate struck the disk surface. The legs and arms flailed for a few seconds. then were still. The coppery skin of th sac became bluish.

Garth threw the head across the room and against a wall. with that savage gesture, he had shown that the lower-class Gaol did resent and hate their lords.

Tappy had turned away to avoid seeing more of the carnage.

A moment later, Jack could see nothing through her eyes. The transmission had been cut off.

Ten minutes later, a loud clang throughout the ship told Jack that Tappy and Garth were back. Airlocks opened and closed. And Tappy, sobbing, ran "into his arms.

An hour later, they were eating at a small table in a corner of the main room. She had calmed down enough to have a good appetite and to be optimistic. But Jack did not entirely share her bubbling outlook, though it was difficult to resist it. He knew that iP the empathy that had enabled them to conquer the monitor she was a weapon with limits. Actually, empathy alone had not done . Violence had also been necessary. He worried that the empathy might become so strong in Tappy, himself, and Garth that they would be unable to use force against their enenly.

Too much of anything, no matter how good it was, could be a bad thing.

Just now, he and Tappy were 'n the isolation ship. which was inside the monitor ship, which was now orbiting a huge gaseous planet of a G-type star. The crew was under the of the empathy. Undoubtedly, the Gaol were aware that both vessels had disappeared along with the Imago host. They would be furious but, at the same time, frightened. They would be even more disturbed, Jack thought, if they knew what had actually happened.

Garth rolled through an airlock. He halted by the table. Candy said, "Garth wishes to report."

"'Tell him to report," Jack said.

When Garth had quit whistling, Candy said. "He reports that the sensors indicate that the Gaol probes will probably locate the general location of this vessel within an hour. Once that is done, the Gaol won't take more than an hour to pinpoint its location."

"Tell him thanks," Jack said, though he felt it was wasting time to inform a Gaol of his gratitude. But maybe it wasn't.

Who knew how deep the empathy effect went? He turned to the girl.

"Tappy, I've been thinking about where we should go next.

It's useless to just keep on dodging and ducking. We should go back to the honker planet. I have a hunch that there is where we'll find the key to defeating the Gaol, if there 's a key. Anyway, the honkers'll help us. They probably have a lot of information we need. For instance, the honker who sneaked in at night and deposited the egg in you. What does he know? Who ordered him to do that? Would he and others help us hide someplace where the Gaol can't detect us, "f such a place exists. What do you think?"

She did not hesitate. "It seems to me it's the only way we can go. I was just waiting for you to suggest it."

"Fine! But don't defer to me from now on. Don't wait for me to suggest something. If you've got a good idea, spill it."

She embodied, literally, the greatest force in the world of sentient beings. Yet, she looked up to him as her leader. This would have flattered him if he had not felt so puny and helpless. But he was not going to let her know that. She needed someone she could depend upon. Or thought that she could.

She was under enough stress without having to assume leadership. But she should think of herself as a junior partner for now.

He reached across the table and squeezed her warm hand.

"We've kept ahead of the ratcages so far," he said. "But until now, we've mostly just been ru

"Candy, tell Garth we're returning to the honker planet. I know he's never been there, but he'll find it in his star charts, and he'll get us there toot sweet."

"Toot sweet?"

"Immediately. Now, the exact spot where we'll land and what we'll do after that . . ."

Having finished the instructions, he rose from his chair went to Tappy, lifted her up, and held her tightly. The hatchling, which he was also now calling the Imaget, moved fromher shoulder to hell' hair. It changed color as it did so and became practically invisible.

Jack did not worry about accidentally crushing it with his hand or stepping on it. It was so quick that it seemed to anticipate any movement threatening it. Which, indeed, it could be doing. Its telepathic powers could include more than transmission of the thoughts of others.

JACK, Tappy, Candy, and Garth stood on the floor of the crater. About ten miles away, the gigantic icons and symbols on the crater wall moved very slowly in their never-ending parade.

Now that Jack was close to the wall, he could see that the figures were on a smooth band made of some kind of material-certainly not of stone. The band or ring was set halfway up the wall. Its lower edge was at least three thousand feet above the crater floor.

Its upper edge was about five thousand feet from the floor. Thus, the ring was two thousand feet broad. Above this, the crater wall extended upward for an estimated three thousand feet.