The World with a Thousand Moons

repair-materials that Kennistonwas bringing to repair Dark's ship. Can't we use that equipment?"

  The captain looked more hopeful. "Maybe we can. Bray and the crew andI ought to be able to do an emergency job of patching the bow andinstalling new rocket-tubes there. But we'll have to work fast to getaway before Dark's outfit learns we're here."

  He pointed vindicatively at Kenniston. "Better lock up that fellow andhis partner to make sure he doesn't signal somehow to hisfellow-pirates."

  Kenniston tried again to explain. "Will you all listen to me? I tellyou, I'm no pirate!"

  Murdock eyed him sternly. "Do you deny that John Dark sent you to Marsfor repair-equipment, and that you told us that lying treasure-storyto get the equipment here in our ship?"

  "No, I don't deny that," Kenniston admitted. "But I'm not one of JohnDark's crew--I never was! I was a prisoner on his ship, captured bythe pirates before they themselves were attacked by the Patrol."

  "Do you expect us to believe that?" Murdock said incredulously.

  "It's true!" Kenniston insisted. "My kid brother Ricky and I werecaptured by John Dark's outfit several weeks ago. We were prisoners onhis ship when it was wrecked by the Patrol. After the wreck driftedonto Vesta here, Dark wanted to send someone to Mars forrepair-equipment. He wouldn't send one of his own men in charge, forfear the man would double-cross him and never come back.

  "So he sent me, his prisoner, on that errand. Holk Or came along tohelp me navigate a ship back. And I had to obey Dark and get theequipment back here at any cost. For Dark kept my brother Rickyprisoner here with him, and told me that if I didn't bring back thatequipment, Ricky would be shot!"

  Holk Or spoke up. "It's true, what Kenniston's telling you," rumbledthe Jovian. "Me, I'm one of Dark's pirates and I don't care a cursewho knows it. But Kenniston did this only to save his brother."

  "I don't believe it," said Captain Walls flatly. "It's another of thesmooth lies this fellow Kenniston makes up so easily."

  * * * * *

  Gloria spoke to Kenniston, her dark eyes still accusing. "If what yousay is true and you're not a pirate, then you brought all of us intothis danger simply to save your own brother?"

  Kenniston looked at her miserably. "Yes, I did. I was willing to leadyou all into capture to save Ricky. But I had a reason--"

  "Sure, you had a reason," Murdock said bitterly. "What did the safetyof strangers like us mean to you, compared to your precious brother?"

  Captain Walls motioned Kenniston and Holk Or angrily toward the ship."Bray, take them in and lock them under guard in a cabin," he said.

  Holk Or suddenly yelled. "Look out! There's a Vestan!"

  Kenniston, his blood chilling with alarm, glanced where the Jovianpointed. At the west edge of the clearing, a small animal had suddenlyemerged from the dense green jungle.

  It was a six-legged, striped, catlike beast, not unordinary asinterplanetary animals go. But its head looked queer, seeming to havea bulbous gray mass attached behind its ears.

  Captain Walls uttered a scoffing exclamation. "That's only an ordinaryasteroid-cat."

  "That _is_ a Vestan!" Kenniston cried. "Shoot at its head--"

  His warning was too late. The catlike beast had launched itself in aspring toward their group.

  As its striped body shot through the air, Walls triggered hisatom-pistol. The crackling blast of force tore into the body of thecharging asteroid-cat, and the beast fell heavily a few yards away.

  But as it fell, the small gray mass upon its neck suddenly detacheditself from the dead animal and scuttled swiftly forward. It movedwith blurring speed toward Bray, the nearest to it of the group.

  The little gray creature was no bigger than a man's clenched fiststogether. It was a gray, wrinkled featureless thing, except forpinpoint eyes and the tiny clawlike legs upon which it scurried. Itreached Bray and ran swiftly up his legs and back as he sworestartledly.

  Kenniston, made reckless of danger by his horror, yelled and lungedtoward the pilot. Bray was swearing and trying to slap at the graything running up his back. But the little creature had now reached hisneck. Clinging there, it swiftly dug two tiny, needle-like antennaeinto the base of his neck.

  "Hold him!" Kenniston shouted hoarsely. "The Vestan has got him!"

  Bray had undergone a sudden metamorphosis as the gray creature dug itsantennae into his neck. His face stiffened, became masklike.

  The pilot turned and began to run stiffly toward the jungle.Kenniston's leap almost caught him, but Bray lashed out a fist thatsent Kenniston sprawling.

  "Don't let him get away!" Kenniston yelled, scrambling up.

  But the others were too stricken by amazement and horror to interferein time. Bray had already plunged into the jungle and was gone.

  "My God, what happened?" Captain Walls exclaimed dazedly. "Bray wentclean crazy!"

  His gun was pointing at Kenniston and Holk Or as though he held themresponsible for what had occurred.

  "He didn't go crazy, but he's lost now," Kenniston said heavily. "Thatlittle gray creature was one of the Vestans."

  "But what did it _do_ to him? That thing wasn't big enough to harmanybody."

  "That's all you know about it," said Holk Or ominously. "Those littleVestans are the most dangerous creatures in the System."

  "The Vestans," Kenniston added dully, "are semi-intelligent_parasites_. The live by attaching themselves to and taking control ofsome other creature's body. They do it by jabbing in those tiny,needle-like antennae to contact the victim's nervous system.Thereafter, the Vestan controls the victim's body absolutely. When thevictim dies or is hurt, the Vestan simply detaches himself and fastensupon a new victim."

  * * * * *

  Horror was on the white faces of the others. Murdock gulped and asked,"Then Bray--"

  "Bray is beyond saving now," Kenniston said. "The Vestan parasite willcontrol his body till he dies. The Vestans always like to attachthemselves to human beings--they know that a man's body is moreversatile in its capabilities than an animal's."

  Twilight was beginning to descend upon the little clearing in thejungle, for the sun had gone down during the last few minutes. In thegathering dusk, the jungle loomed dark and brooding about them.

  Overhead, the sky of this World with a Thousand Moons was burgeoninginto its full glory. The hundreds of meteor-moons that spun across theheavens were shining brighter and brighter in the deepening dusk.

  Captain Walls broke the spell of horror and dread. "We'd better getback inside the ship for tonight," he said nervously. "We can't doanything about repairs until tomorrow, anyway. By then we'll havefigured out some way to deal with those devilish creatures."

  Murdock said bitterly to Kenniston, "Bray's end is your fault,Kenniston. You brought him and us and these women into this place, allfor the sake of that brother of yours."

  "He'll stand trial for that when we get back to Mars," the captainvowed. "Even if he wasn't one of Dark's crew originally, by helpingthem he's made himself a space-pirate, liable to execution."

  Kenniston made no attempt to defend himself. He knew they wouldn'tunderstand why he had sacrificed them for Ricky's sake, even if hetold them.

  He and Holk Or were locked in one of the little cabins, after it hadbeen carefully searched. The crewman Thorpe was stationed as a guardoutside their bolted door.

  Holk Or, who had bandaged his burned arm, looked around the darklittle cabin disgustedly. "This is a devil of a fix to get into!"swore the Jovian. "Here we've reached Vesta with the stuff, but can'tlet the chief know."

  Kenniston asked him earnestly, "Holk, would John Dark really shootRicky if I didn't deliver the equipment? He said he would, but youknow he needs Ricky."

  Kenniston was clinging to this last shred of hope for his brother.John Dark and his pirates did need Ricky. For Ricky was aphysician--Doctor Richard Kenniston of the Institute of PlanetaryMedicine.

  That was why John Dark had spared the lives of the two brothe
rs whenhe had captured them in the freighter in which they were returning toEarth from Saturn. Ordinarily, the pirate leader would have ruthlesslykilled them as he killed all prisoners who were not rich enough to payransom.

  But the fact that Ricky was a physician had saved them. The piratesneeded a doctor. They had kept the two brothers prisoner on their shipfor that reason. Kenniston and Ricky had still been on the _Falcon_ asprisoners, when the Patrol had finally caught up to it and wrecked it.

  "Dark knows that Ricky is a fine doctor and he needs a