Robert Silverberg: Planet of Death

He wondered if it was really the heat that was making him sweat like this. Or was it the fact that he was the first man to set foot on an unknown world? Who knew what terrible monsters were hiding in that jungle?

Very quickly, Roy Crawford found out what World Seven of Star System Z-16 was like.

He took three steps away from the ship. He walked slowly through the purplish grass. He looked around in all directions and kept his hand on his needle-gun.

Then something came bounding out of the jungle at a mile a minute. Crawford had no time to fire. He didn’t even have time to think. The creature charged him. It banged into him and knocked him to the ground.

The needle-gun went flying out of his hand. He got up, feeling groggy, and reached for the weapon. The animal had run right past him and was turning around.

Crawford took a good look at the whatever-it-was. It was about as tall as a man. It had a huge head, a small middle, and a pair of giant kangaroo-like legs. He saw the flash of white teeth that were as long as his fingers. He stared into big red eyes. The animal had yellow skin, covered with scales.

It had turned around, and now it charged a second time.

The powerful kangaroo-like legs tightened. The animal hopped forward. It covered an enormous amount of ground with each hop.

Crawford tried to get out of the way. But he couldn’t move fast enough. The thing bashed into him a second time and knocked him down again.

A moment later the animal was on top of him.

The big feet were planted right in the middle of his chest. Looking up, Crawford saw the glittering teeth. The animal had tiny little arms, but they had sharp claws. In another moment those claws would be digging into his flesh. Those teeth would be taking big bites.

There wouldn’t be any time for the men in the ship to help him. He couldn’t draw his own weapons. He was pinned flat on the ground. The weight of the animal was tremendous.

The shining, spike-like teeth came close to his throat.

Crawford shut his eyes and waited to die.

And then he felt the heavy weight lifting from his chest. The teeth did not touch him. He could hardly believe it. He opened his eyes and looked up.

Some other monster had come out of the jungle and had caught the one that had attacked Crawford. The second animal had grabbed the first one up and was about to eat it! Staring up, Crawford saw his attacker dangling in midair.

He was saved—for the moment, anyway.

Lying sprawled in the grass, Crawford took a good look at the beast that had saved him.

He could hardly believe his eyes.

This monster was tall and thin, maybe fifteen feet high and less than a foot wide. It looked like a walking telescope, green all over. It had two tremendously long arms that reached almost to the ground, and a pair of tiny legs tucked away below. At the very top were three slit-like eyes and something that looked like a cluster of flower petals.

One of the long dangling arms had stretched out and pulled the animal off Crawford’s chest. The arm had lifted the hopping creature high into the air—toward the cluster of petals.

Crawford scrambled to his feet. He stepped back against the ship and watched. The beast with the teeth and the strong hind legs was kicking and squirming. But the walking telescope had a good grip on it, and wasn’t letting go.

As Crawford stared, the animal rose higher and higher. Then the skinny arm held it over the petal cluster on the top. The arm let go.

The petals spread wide and turned into a mouth. One gulp, and the big kicking animal was inside the walking telescope.

There was a live and kicking lump in the telescope-animal’s long throat. Then that lump began to sink toward the animal’s stomach. It was a horrible sight to watch. Crawford shuddered.

Even though the kangaroo-animal had wanted to eat him, Crawford was shaken up to see this. Death was swift and sudden on this jungle planet.

The telescope-creature seemed to be enjoying its meal. The lump in its narrow throat disappeared. The telescope folded its long arms around its middle. It hugged itself happily and did a little dance. Then it waddled back into the jungle.

Crawford didn’t stay around to meet any more visitors. He turned around and ducked inside the ship. He slammed the outer door shut to keep anything else from coming in.

Quickly he went up the elevator to the top. The other nine men looked glad to see him.

“That was pretty close,” said Captain Hendrin. “You were lucky, Markham.”

Crawford nodded. “I sure was. We didn’t get a very friendly welcome to World Seven, did we?”

Everybody would have to keep his eyes open all the time. There was no telling when some dangerous beast would strike.

“Are you all right?” Lazenby asked.

Crawford grinned at the little biologist. “Now I am,” he said. “Not a scratch on me. But I didn’t feel so good with that thing sitting on me.”

“We saw the whole thing,” said Dr. Fernandez. He was a heavy-set man with black hair and huge eyebrows. “You didn’t have a chance, Markham. That beast moved a mile a minute.”

Nodding, Crawford said, “It was a lucky thing for me that the other cutie-pie came along. Otherwise I’d have been down his throat ten minutes ago. Ugh!”

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked through the viewscreen at the dark jungle. It was like a wall of green leaves where the clearing ended. A foggy cloud hung low in the sky.

“This is a rough world,” Lazenby said. The biologist looked pale and nervous. “It’s a young world. Life is cheap here.”

“We can all get killed out there in no time,” said Bartlett, who was a big man with bulging muscles. Bartlett was the anthropologist. That meant he was supposed to study any intelligent creatures that might live on this planet.

Captain Hendrin said, “Yes, it’s plenty dangerous out there. We’d better operate in teams when we go out to explore. Nobody goes alone. And we’ll have to be heavily armed. Wide-beam blasters for everyone. There’s no telling what horrible monsters are lurking in that jungle.”

Crawford was still shaking a little. That sudden meeting with the big-toothed creature hadn’t done his nerves any good. He looked at Captain Hendrin and said, “Maybe we’d better just pull up off this planet, Captain. It’s too dangerous for us. Nobody’s going to be able to settle on a planet with animals like that!”

Hendrin looked surprised. “What kind of nonsense are you talking, Markham?”

Crawford wished he hadn’t said anything. After all, he wasn’t really a member of this expedition. He was no scientist. What right did he have to suggest that they should leave the planet?

But he stuck to his guns, as long as he had started to speak. He said, “We ought to go on to some of the other planets in the system, I think. Maybe they’ll be more friendly. This place is too rough.”

Captain Hendrin stared straight at him. All the friendliness was gone from the Captain’s face. He didn’t look easygoing any more.

Right now the Captain looked like a man who took his job very seriously. More seriously than anything else in the world. His face was hard and cold. He gave Crawford a long, chilly look before he spoke.

Then he said, “Markham, you haven’t been with this team very long. So I can forgive you for what you just said. But I’m shocked to hear a member of the Exploration Corps talk that way. Especially an ecologist. Or somebody who claims to be an ecologist.”

Crawford wished more than ever that he hadn’t said anything. He said, “Sir, I—”

Hendrin cut him off. “Quiet! Markham, you ought to know our basic rule. Once an Exploration Corps ship lands on a planet, it stays there until its job is done. It doesn’t pull up and quit five minutes after it lands. We can’t be sure that this planet is unfit for colonists until we’ve taken a good look.”