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[Illustration (Cover):DUEL OF THE COSMIC MAGICIANS
VOODOOPLANET
ANDRE NORTONComplete Novel]
CHALLENGE ME WITH MONSTERS!
"From between the two shuffling dancers padded something on four feet.The canine-feline creature was more than just a head; it was aloose-limbed, graceful body fully eight feet in length, and the red eyesin the prick-eared head were those of a killer.... Words issued frombetween those curved fangs, words which Dane might not understand....
"Dane slid his blade out surreptitiously, setting its point against thepalm of his hand and jabbing painfully; but the terrible creaturecontinued to advance.... There was no blurring of its lines...."
Dane Thorson of the space-ship _Solar Queen_ knew there was only one wayto win out over this hideous thing--a battle to the end between hisrational mind and the hypnotic witchcraft of Lumbrilo, the mental wizardof the planet Khatka.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Dane Thorson
He wanted to spend a short vacation on Khatka, not the rest of his life.
Medic Tau
Was he physician or magician--or a little bit of both?
Chief Ranger Asaki
Tracking the forests had taught him that mad animals--whether real orimaginary--were to be feared.
Captain Jellico
Would his knowledge of alien life-forms help him in his fight againstalien ghosts?
Nymani
Not even this pilot's most scientific skill could overcome a voodoocharm's ground-drag.
Lumbrilo
On his own planet he was a witch doctor; on Earth he'd have been amaster politician.
VOODOO PLANET
by
ANDRE NORTON
ACE BOOKS, INC.
23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N. Y.
VOODOO PLANET
Copyright (c), 1959, by Ace Books, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Printed in U. S. A.
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Transcriber's Note | | | | There is no evidence that the copyright on this publication | | was renewed. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
I
Talk of heat--or better not--on Xecho. This water-logged world combinedall the most unattractive features of a steam bath and one could onlydream of coolness, greenness--more land than a stingy string of islands.
The young man on the promontory above the crash of the waves wore thewinged cap of a spaceman with the insignia of a cargo-master and notmuch else, save a pair of very short shorts. He wiped one hand absentlyacross his bare chest and brought it away damp as he studied, throughprotective sun goggles, the treacherous promise of the bright sea. One_could_ swim--if he wanted to lose most of his skin. There were minuteorganisms in that liquid that smacked their lips--if they hadlips--every time they thought of a Terran.
Dane Thorson licked his own lips, tasting salt, and plodded back throughthe sand of the spaceport to the berth of the _Solar Queen_. This hadbeen a long day, and one with more snarl-ups than he cared to count,keeping him on a constant, dogged trot between the ship and the fittingyard where riggers labored with the slowest motions possible to thehuman body--or so it seemed to the exasperated acting-Cargo-Master ofthe Free Trader. Captain Jellico had long ago taken refuge in his cabinto preserve the remnants of his temper. Dane had been allowed no suchescape.
The _Queen_ had a schedule for refitting to serve as a mail ship, andthat time allowance did not allow for humidity playing the devil withthe innards of robot fitters. She _had_ to be ready to lift when theCombine ship now plying that run set down and formally signed off in herfavor. Luckily, most of the work was done and Dane had given a lastsearching inspection before signing the rigger's book and reporting tohis captain.
The air-conditioned interior of the _Queen_ comforted him as he climbedto his quarters. Ship air was flat, chemically pure but unappetizingstuff. Today it was a relief to breathe. Dane went on to the bather. Atleast there was no lack of water--with the local skinners filtered out.It was chill but relaxing on his gaunt young body.
He was sealing on his lightest tunic when the ramp buzzer sounded. Avisitor--oh, not the supervisor-rigger again! Dane went to answer withdragging feet. For the crew of the _Queen_ at the moment numberedexactly four, with himself for general errand boy. Captain Jellico wasin his quarters two levels above, Medic Tau was presumably overhaulinghis supplies, and Sindbad, ship's cat, asleep in some empty cabin.
Dane jerked his tunic into place, very much on his guard as he came tothe head of the ramp. But it was not the supervisor-rigger. Dane,thoroughly used to unusual-appearing strangers, both human and alien,was impressed by this visitor.
He was tall, this quiet man, his great height accented by a fitleanness, a narrowness of waist and hip, a length of leg and arm. Hismain article of clothing was the universal shorts of the Xecho settler.But, being fashioned of saffron yellow, they were the more brilliantbecause of his darkness of skin. For he was not the warm brown of theTerran Negroes Dane had served beside, though he shared their generalfeatures. His flesh was really black, black with an almost bluish sheen.Instead of shirt or tunic, his deep chest was crossed by two widestraps, the big medallion marking their intersection giving forthflashes of gem fire when he breathed. He wore at his belt not thestandard stun gun of a spaceman, but a weapon which resembled the moredeadly Patrol blaster, as well as a long knife housed in a jeweled andfringed sheath. To the eye he was an example of barbaric force tamedand trimmed to civilized efficiency.
He saluted, palm out, and spoke Galactic Basic with only a suggestion ofaccent.
"I am Kort Asaki. I believe Captain Jellico expects me."
"Yes, sir!" Dane snapped to attention. So this was the Chief Ranger fromfabulous Khatka, Xecho's sister planet.
The other ascended the cat ladder easily, missing no detail of theship's interior as he passed. His expression was still one of politeinterest as his guide rapped on the panel door of Jellico's cabin. And ahorrible screech from Queex, the captain's pet hoobat, drowned out anyimmediate answer. Then followed that automatic thump on the floor of theblue-feathered, crab-parrot-toad's cage, announcing that its master wasin residence.
Since the captain's cordial welcome extended only to his guest, Daneregretfully descended to the mess cabin to make unskilled preparationsfor supper--though there was not much you could do to foul upconcentrates in an automatic cooker.
"Company?" Tau sat beyond the cooking unit nursing a mug of Terrancoffee. "And do you _have_ to serve music with the meals, especiallythat particular selection?"
Dane flushed, stopped whistling in mid-note. "Terra Bound" _was_ oldand pretty well worn out; he didn't know why he always unconsciouslysounded off with that.
"A Chief Ranger from Khatka just came on board," he reported, carefullyoffhand, as he busied himself reading labels. He knew better than toserve fish or any of its derivatives in disguise again.
"Khatka!" Tau sat up straighter. "Now there's a planet worth visiting."
"Not on a Free Trader's pay," commented Dane.
"You can always hope to make a big strike, boy. But what I wouldn't giveto lift ship for there!"
"Why? You're no hunter. How come you want to heat jets for that port?"
"Oh, I don't care about the game preserves, though they're worth seeing,too. It's the people themselves--"
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"But they're Terran settlers, or at least from Terran stock, aren'tthey?"
"Sure," Tau sipped his coffee slowly. "But there are settlers andsettlers, son. And a lot depends upon when they left Terra and why, andwho they were--also what happened to them after they landed out here."
"And Khatkans are really special?"
"Well, they have an amazing history. The colony was founded by escapedprisoners--and just one racial stock. They took off from Earth close tothe end of the Second Atomic War. That was a race war, remember? Whichmade it doubly ugly." Tau's mouth twisted in disgust. "As if the colorof a man's skin makes any difference in what lies under it! One side inthat line-up tried to take over Africa--herded most of the natives intoa giant concentration camp and practiced genocide on a grand scale. Thenthey were cracked themselves, hard and heavy. During the confusion somesurvivors in the camp staged a revolt, helped by the enemy. Theycaptured an experimental station hidden in the center of the camp andmade a break into space in two ships which had been built there. Thatvoyage must have been a nightmare, but they were desperate. Somehow theymade it out here to the rim and set down on Khatka without power enoughto take off again--and by then most of them were dead.
"But we humans, no matter what our race, are a tough breed. The refugeesdiscovered that climatically their new world was not too different fromAfrica, a lucky chance which might happen only once in a thousand times.So they thrived, the handful who survived. But the white techniciansthey had kidnaped to run the ships didn't. For they set up a color barin reverse. The lighter your skin, the lower you were in the socialscale. By that kind of selective breeding the present Khatkans are verydark indeed.
"They reverted to the primitive for survival. Then, about two hundredyears ago, long before the first Survey Scout discovered them, somethinghappened. Either the parent race mutated, or, as sometimes occurs, aline of people of superior gifts emerged--not in a few isolated births,but with surprising regularity in five family clans. There was a shortperiod of power struggle until they realized the foolishness of civilwar and formed an oligarchy, heading a loose tribal organization. Withthe Five Families to push and lead, a new civilization developed, andwhen Survey came to call they were no longer savages. Combine bought thetrade rights about seventy-five years ago. Then the Company and the FiveFamilies got together and marketed a luxury item to the galaxy. You knowhow every super-jet big shot on twenty-five planets wants to say he'shunted on Khatka. And if he can point out a graz head on his wall, orwear a tail bracelet, he's able to strut with the best. To holiday onKhatka is both fabulous and fashionable--and very, very profitable forthe natives and for Combine who sells transportation to the travelers."
"I hear they have poachers, too," Dane remarked.
"Yes, that naturally follows. You know what a glam skin brings on themarket. Wherever you have a rigidly controlled export you're going tohave poachers and smugglers. But the Patrol doesn't go to Khatka. Thenatives handle their own criminals. Personally, I'd cheerfully take aninety-nine-year sentence in the Lunar mines in place of what theKhatkans dish out to a poacher they net!"
"So that rumor has spread satisfactorily!"
Coffee slopped over the brim of Tau's mug and Dane dropped the packet ofsteak concentrate he was about to feed into the cooker. Chief RangerAsaki loomed in the doorway of the mess as suddenly as if he had beenteleported to that point.
The medic arose to his feet and smiled politely at the visitor.
"Do I detect in that observation, sir, the suggestion that the tales Ihave heard were deliberately set to blast where they would do the mostgood as deterrents?"
A fleeting grin broke the impassive somberness of the black face.
"I was informed you are a man skilled in 'magic,' Medic. You certainlydisplay the traditional sorcerer's quickness of wit. But this rumor isalso truth." The quirk of good humor had gone again, and there was anedge in the Chief Ranger's voice which cut. "Poachers on Khatka wouldwelcome the Patrol in place of the attention they now receive."
He came into the mess cabin, Jellico behind him, and Dane pulled downtwo of the snap seats. He was holding a mug under the spout of thecoffee dispenser as the captain made introductions.
"Thorson--our acting-cargo-master."
"Thorson," the Khatkan acknowledged with a grave nod of his head, andthen glanced down to floor level with a look of surprise. Weaving apattern about his legs, purring loudly, Sindbad was offering anunusually fervent welcome of his own. The Ranger went down on one knee,his hand out for Sindbad's inquiring sniff. Then the cat butted thatdark palm, batted at it playfully with claw-sheathed paw.
"A Terran cat! It is of the lion family?"
"Far removed," Jellico supplied. "You'd have to add a lot of bulk toSindbad to promote him to the lion class."
"We have only the old tales." Asaki sounded almost wistful as the catjumped to his knee and clawed for a hold on his chest belts. "But I donot believe that lions were ever so friendly toward my ancestors."
Dane would have removed the cat, but the Khatkan arose with Sindbad,still purring loudly, resting in the crook of his arm. The Ranger wassmiling with a gentleness which changed the whole arrogant cast of hiscountenance.
"Do not bring this one to Khatka with you, Captain, or you will nevertake him away again. Those who dwell in the inner courts would not lethim vanish from their sight. Ah, so this pleases you, small lion?" Herubbed Sindbad gently under the throat and the cat stretched his neck,his yellow eyes half closed in bliss.
"Thorson," the Captain turned to Dane, "that arrival report on my deskwas the final one from Combine?"
"Yes, sir. There's no hope of the _Rover_ setting down here before thatdate."
Asaki sat down, still holding the cat. "So you see, Captain, fortune hasarranged it all. You have two tens of days. Four days to go in mycruiser, four days for your return here, and the rest to explore thepreserve. We could not ask for better luck, for I do not know when ourpaths may cross again. In the normal course of events I will not haveanother mission to Xecho for a year, perhaps longer. Also--" Hehesitated and then spoke to Tau. "Medic, Captain Jellico has informed methat you have made a study of magic on many worlds."
"That is so, sir."
"Do you then believe that it is real force, or that it is only asuperstition for child-people who set up demons to howl petitions towhen some darkness falls upon them?"
"Some of the magic I have seen is trickery, some of it founded upon aninner knowledge of men and their ways which a shrewd witch doctor canuse to his advantage. There always remains"--Tau put down his mug,"--there always remains a small residue of happenings and results forwhich we have not yet found any logical explanations--"
"And I believe," Asaki interrupted, "it is also true that a race can beconditioned from birth to be sensitive to forms of magic so that men ofthat blood are particularly susceptible." That was more of a statementthan a question, but Tau answered it.
"That is very true. A Lamorian, for example, can be 'sung' to death. Ihave witnessed such a case. But upon a Terran or another off-world manthe same suggestion would have no effect."
"Those who settled Khatka brought such magic with them." The ChiefRanger's fingers still moved about Sindbad's jaw and throat soothingly,but his tone was chill, the coldest thing in the cramped space of themess cabin.
"Yes, a highly developed form of it," Tau agreed.
"More highly developed perhaps than even you can believe, Medic!"That came in a hiss of cold rage. "I think that its presentmanifestation--death by a beast that is not a beast--could be worthyour detailed study."
"Why?" Tau came bluntly to the point.
"Because it is a killing magic and it is being carefully used to rid myworld of key men, men we need badly. If there is a weak point in thiscloudy attack shaping against us, we must learn it, and soon!"
It was Jellico who added the rest. "We are invited to visit Khatka andsurvey a new hunting range as Chief Ranger Asaki's personal termguests."
Dan
e drew a deep breath of wonder. Guest rights on Khatka were jealouslyguarded--they were too valuable to their owners to waste. Whole familieslived on the income from the yearly rental of even half a one. But theRangers, by right of office, had several which they could grant tovisiting scientists or men from other worlds holding positions similarto their own. To have such an opportunity offered to an ordinary Traderwas almost incredible.
His wonder was matched by Tau's and must have been plain to read for theChief Ranger smiled.
"For a long time Captain Jellico and I have exchanged biological data onalien life-forms--his skill in photographing such, his knowledge as anxenobiologist are widely recognized. And so I have permission for him tovisit the new Zoboru preserve, not yet officially opened. And you, MedicTau, your help, or at least your diagnosis, we need in anotherdirection. So, one expert comes openly, another not so openly. Though,Medic, your task is approved by my superiors. And"--he glanced atDane--"perhaps to muddle the trail for the suspicious, shall we not askthis young man also?"
Dane's eyes went to the captain. Jellico was always fair and his crewwould have snapped into action on his word alone--even if they werefronting a rain of Thorkian death darts and that order was to advance.But, on the other hand, Dane would never have asked a favor, and thebest he hoped for was to be able to perform his duties withoutunfavorable comment upon their commission. He had no reason to believeJellico was willing to agree to this.
"You have two weeks' planet-side leave coming, Thorson. If you want tospend it on Khatka...." Jellico actually grinned then. "I take it thatyou do. When do we up-ship, sir?"
"You said that you must wait for the return of your other crewmembers--shall we say mid-afternoon tomorrow?" The Chief Ranger stood upand put Sindbad down though the cat protested with several sharp meows.
"Small lion," the tall Khatkan spoke to the cat as to an equal, "this isyour jungle, and mine lies elsewhere. But should you ever grow tired oftraveling the stars, there is always a home for you in my courts."
When the Chief Ranger went out the door, Sindbad did not try to follow,but he uttered one mournful little cry of protest and loss.
"So he wants a trouble shooter, does he?" Tau asked. "All right, I'lltry to hunt out his goblins for him; it'll be worth that to visitKhatka!"
Dane, remembering the hot glare of the Xecho spaceport, the sea onecould not swim in, contrasted that with the tri-dees he had seen of thegreen hunters' paradise on the next planet of the system. "Yes, sir!" heechoed and made a haphazard choice for the cooker.
"Don't be too lighthearted," Tau warned. "I'll say that any stew whichwas too hot for that Ranger to handle might give us burned fingers--andquick. When we land on Khatka, walk softly and look over your shoulder,and be prepared for the worst."