Zach Hughes: Tiger in the Stars

Joker, already gifted with some para abilities, felt it. Tom Peters tried and

failed. Plank felt nothing. As Susan looked deeply into his eyes and tried to reach him, Martha and Ellen were playing games. «I'm sorry,» Plank said, after a moment. «I just can't seem to concentrate with those two flying about the cabin.» For Ellen and Martha were moving about, as if in free-fall, floating and darting against the artificial gravity of the ship's system. «Look, I'm superwoman,» Ellen laughed, soaring to the cabin's ceiling and, at the same time, lifting with her mental force a seat that was normally bolted to the deck, twirling it dizzily in midair. The voice was in their minds. «Very well, you may come.» Plank mused. Ellen and Martha floated to the deck and the chair took its place, firmly bolted. «We accept your invitation,» Plank said aloud. He waited. «We accept your invitation,» Susan said, when nothing happened. They all heard the laugh. It was delightfully feminine. «Good,» the voice said. Blink coordinates were given. Plank wrote them down and punched them into the computer. The ship gathered power and leaped. The planet was on the fringe of a galaxy, the stars thin around its parent sun. It was a blue planet, a water planet. Close-up viewers showed a tailored beauty. Plank looked knowingly at Ellen. «The same,» she said. «The planet John and Sahara Plank visited.» «Yes,» Plank said. «Will you accept our transport to the surface?» the voice asked. «Gladly,» Plank said. They stood below a vertical cliff. Above them the house perched high and stately, all crystals and glowing angles. «Brace yourselves,» Susan said. «We're going to try something.» And

they lifted. All six of them, rising effortlessly on the mental force of the combined minds of the women. The balcony was the same. The room was as John Plank and Sahara had described it. The woman was the same, entering the room in her graceful flow of motion, all beauty. She gestured to the sunken conversation area. The six Earth people seated themselves. «You continue to surprise us,» the woman said. «We come in goodwill,» Plank said. «With a certain amount of belligerent pride,» the woman said, smiling. «Admitted,» Plank said. «And an unlimited quantity of curiosity,» the woman said. «That, too, I admit,» Plank said. «One galaxy was just too small for you.» «Wouldn't it be for you?» A slight frown crossed the woman's face. It faded rapidly. «This is the quality in you that we feared.» Plank looked at her, eyebrows raised. «It is a strong word,» she said, laughing. «But don't be deceived. We

feared it not for us, but for you. At least most of us felt that way. In all honesty there were those who, when you appeared once more, wanted to

destroy you. There were a minority of votes to reduce all of your worlds, to return you to primitivism. Those who voted thus said you broke the barrier too quickly. That, of course, is true, but the majority saw the amusing side: for how could one small race from one small galaxy threaten

the serenity of a coalition of thousands of races from billions of planets in a sweep of the universe beyond your wildest imagination?» «I have said we come in peace,» Plank said. «We ask only—» She waved him into silence. «You have earned the right to enter our community. You have passed the tests.» There was something in her voice that caused a flash of anger in Plank. «Tests?» he asked. «The barrier?» «The barrier.» «The Eater?» For the first time Plank saw what could have been uncertainty in the beautiful face. «That was unfortunate.» «Unfortunate?» She opened her mouth to speak. Plank went on, overcoming her objection. «The Eater destroyed thousands. Wasn't that a rather severe

test? What kind of people are you to allow a thing like the Eater to prey on other life forms?» «Your status then was not the same. We were, and I admit it, unaware of the facts.» «You were very human,» Plank said. The woman looked at him questioningly. «You were not infallible.» «You may express it that way.» «I think my grandfather asked you this same question,» Plank said. «Who are you to judge us?» «You ask the question with even more right than your grandfather,» she replied. A wall misted, shimmered. The room darkened. Images began to appear in the shimmering space: worlds of cities marched by and worlds without cities and worlds with objects that defied description; varied life forms, some manlike, some so alien as to cause shudders, some so beautiful that Plank would feel a pain of admiration in his throat. It

continued for a timeless period, a capsule look at a universe so diverse, so fantastic that he was numbed. When it ended the woman smiled. «You have much to learn, man from Earth. Will you join us?» «That is for our governments to decide,» Plank said. «Of course,» the woman said, smiling. «I'm sure that your leaders will decide that you have much to gain.» «I believe they will,» Plank said. «Our discussion is ended, then,» the woman said. «Now may I offer you the hospitality of our coalition?» Over food and wine they talked of many things, the tone friendly, the mood one of cautious optimism. As evening came to the landscaped and tailored world, the beautiful woman, feeling mellow, looked at Plank and said, «We look forward to your becoming a part of our little community.» A wave of her hand showed that she was being facetious in referring to the vast stretch of the peopled universe as small. «You won't, will you, come out here and take over immediately?» She smiled. «Not for at least 100 or so years,» Plank said, laughing; but in his mind he heard a roar, a familiar roar, beginning low and rising into the gutty, coughing call of a jungle beast. He looked swiftly at Ellen. There was a

pixie gleam in her eyes as the tiger's roar in Plank's mind trailed off into a small and mewling whine.