anything thisdepressing. The small group of squat buildings beneath him looked liketiny objects adrift in a vast, terrible gray sea.
A man appeared at the door of the central building and Ward felt anidiotic sensation of relief at the sight of a human, moving figure inthat dead, silent, gray terrain.
The man waved to Ward and walked from the doorway toward the base of themooring tower.
Ward descended to the ground in the small cage of the tower elevator. Hestepped out onto the soft, flaky soil of Mars as the man he had seenfrom above came up to the tower.
"Lieutenant Harrison reporting for duty, sir," he said. He saluted andnoticed with a certain satisfaction the other's embarrassment at thismilitary recognition which he didn't deserve.
"My name is Halliday," the man said, after a short awkward pause. Heextended his hand. "I'm certainly glad to have you here, Lieutenant."
As Ward shook hands, he appraised the man carefully, and found nothingin his examination to change his previously acquired opinion.
Thomas Halliday was small and stooped, with sallow features andnervously shifting eyes, which looked startlingly large behind thickstrong glasses. His hair was thin and faded brown in color. There was apeculiar tight look about his mouth and jaw, as if he were in acontinual state of faint exasperation.
This, thought Ward, was the man who had been holding up the developmentof this area for three years. And, looking at him, it was easy to seewhy.
Ward had his bag in his hand. Halliday, noticing it, asked, "Did youbring any arms with you?"
Ward patted the raytube in the smart military holster at his hip.
"Just this," he said. He added drily, "Expecting trouble?"
"No," Halliday answered. His eyes shifted from Ward's and swept about ina long inspection of the vast, sprawling, deserted terrain thatstretched away on all four sides like a boundless ocean.
"But," he added, "it's when you're not expecting trouble that you'remost likely to run into it."
* * * * *
Ward smiled to himself as he followed Halliday's thin stooped figure tothe main building, a squat solid structure of heavy _duralloy_ steel,with only one door and no windows at all.
The man was obviously a neurotic mass of nerves, or else he wasindulging in a bit of melodrama to impress his new assistant.
Halliday stepped aside at the door and Ward preceded him into the hot,sparsely furnished room. Halliday followed him, closing the door behindhim and setting the mechanism of a powerful automatic lock beforeturning to Ward with an apologetic little smile.
"You'll find it rather cramped at first," he said. "I'll sleep out hereand you can use the storeroom as a bedroom. That's all the livingquarters we have, excepting the kitchen, but I'm sure we'll manage."
Ward set his grip down and glanced about at the chart-covered walls, theplain, badly scuffed furniture and he was not particularly enthused atthe prospect of being cooped up in this hot little oven of a room withHalliday.
"What about the other buildings?" he asked. "Surely there'd be roomthere for me to bunk."
"We use those building for equipment," Halliday said. "And besides, thisbuilding is safer."
Ward glanced at the little man with a faint, ironic smile.
"Is there something here to be afraid of?" His tone was blandly polite,but he could not completely conceal an undercurrent of contempt.
"I don't mean to alarm you, Lieutenant," Halliday said, "but this areaof Mars is not quite the safest place in the universe." He removed histhick glasses with a nervous little gesture and smiled uncertainly atWard. "I really think it wiser for you to sleep here."
"Unless that's an order," Ward said, "I'd rather sleep in comfort in oneof the other buildings and take my chances on your bogy-men catchingme."
Halliday replaced his glasses. He was no longer smiling.
"I'm afraid, Lieutenant, you must consider it as an order."
He turned slowly and re-checked the huge gleaming lock on the door, thenwalked to a littered, dusty desk in one corner of the room and sat down.It was obvious that the discussion was ended.
Ward shrugged and carried his grip into a small windowless storeroomthat was directly off the main room of the small structure. There werebales of supplies, a cot and a stool. A vague musty odor permeated theair. He tossed his grip onto the cot, stripped off his tunic and walkedback into the room where Halliday was seated at his desk.
Halliday looked up with a smile and removed his glasses with acharacteristic nervous movement of his thin hands.
"Not exactly the choicest accommodations, eh?" he said, in an attempt atheartiness, which struck Ward as being almost pathetic.
"I'll get by," Ward said. He loosened the collar of his shirt andglanced at the massive steel door, closed and tightly locked. "Anyobjection to letting in a little air?" he asked. "It's pretty close inhere."
* * * * *
Halliday smiled and his eyes flicked to the closed door. He put hisglasses on again and spent quite a time adjusting them to his thin nose.
"I'm afraid we'll have to put up with the closeness," he said.
Ward sighed and sat down in a chair facing Halliday.
"You're afraid of something," he said bluntly. "Supposing you tell meabout it."
"As a matter of fact, I was meaning to," Halliday said. "You see, onthis section we're pretty well isolated from the rest of the Earthstations on Mars. We receive all supplies and mail by a directmaterialization unit. No space craft puts in here. We're here all aloneand if anything happened to us all the data and work that has beencompiled might be lost."
As Halliday removed his glasses again with a quick aimless gesture, Wardthought, "A lot you care about the records and data. It's your skin youwant to save."
Halliday coughed and replaced his glasses.
"This area is inhabited by a species of creature which I do not believehas been classified. I do not know if they are human or if they possessintelligence. I do not even know if they are 'alive' in the sense thatwe speak of life. Possibly their energy is of electrical orcarboniferous origin, or it could be even vegetable in nature. As yousee I know little enough about these neighbors of ours, but I do knowthat they are dangerous. They resent the work that is being done here."Halliday frowned and twisted a pencil in his hands. "I'm not even sureof that. Possibly they are without rational motivation at all. It may bethat they are merely moved to action by the sight of another object inmotion. But whatever their reason, they have been very troublesome.That, really, is all I know about them. And that is the reason that Iexercise such care. I have a small periscope installed on the roof andbefore I unlock the door I study the entire surrounding terrain to besure there are no Raspers in sight."
"Why do you call them Raspers?" Ward asked.
"Because of a peculiar sound that seems to emanate from them," Hallidayexplained. "My former assistant and I had to call them something andRaspers seemed as logical as anything else."
"Have you ever seen one of these--er--Raspers?" Ward asked.
"I'm not sure," Halliday said thoughtfully. He removed his glassesagain. "I've had two brushes with them, but I'm not sure that I saw themdistinctly either time. Possibly the picture that came to my mind,later, was supplied by my imagination. But I know that there issomething very repellent and fearsome about them. I _felt_ that much."
Ward crossed his legs and lit a cigarette casually.
"Can these things be killed?" he asked.
"I don't know," Halliday answered. "The two chances I had I was tooscared to find out."
Ward felt a cold anger against this man growing in him. This man hadbeen entrusted with the task of surveying the atmospheric conditions ofthis area--a vital, desperately necessary job--and he was dawdlingalong, timidly hugging the cover of this fortress because of a stupid,half-imaginary fear of the natives of the area. He felt his cheeksgrowing hot.
"We can't stay cooped up here indefinitely," he said. "How about th
ework we're supposed to be doing. Or does that bother you?"
* * * * *
Halliday looked at him queerly and then dropped his eyes. He fiddlednervously with his glasses.
Ward suddenly found the gesture maddening.
"For Pete's sake!" he exploded. "Leave 'em on, or leave 'em off, one orthe other. That's apparently your only job here, taking those damnglasses off and putting them back on again."
"I'm sorry," Halliday said quickly, apologetically. "It's just a habit Iguess. It's a little something to break the