The Judas Valley

  Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell, and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  He had lost all sense of right or wrong. Justice andinjustice were the same, and his only thought was, kill--kill--kill!]

  THE JUDAS VALLEY

  By GERALD VANCE

  _Why did everybody step off the ship in this strange valley and promptly drop dead? How could a well-equipped corps of tough spacemen become a field of rotting skeletons in this quiet world of peace and contentment? It was a mystery Peter and Sherri had to solve. If they could live long enough!_

  Peter Wayne took the letter out of the machine, broke the seal, andexamined it curiously. It was an official communication from theInterstellar Exploration Service. It read:

  FROM: Lieutenant General Martin Scarborough, I.E.S. TO: Captain Peter Wayne, Preliminary Survey Corps

  Report immediately to this office for assignment to I.E.S. _Lord Nelson_. Full briefing will be held at 2200 hours, 14 April 2103.

  By order of the Fleet Commandant.

  It was short, brief, and to the point. And it gave no informationwhatsoever. Peter Wayne shrugged resignedly, put the letter down on hisbed, walked over to the phone, and dialed a number.

  A moment later, a girl's face appeared--blonde-haired, with highcheekbones, deep blue-green eyes, and an expression of the lips thatintriguingly combined desirability and crisp military bearing.

  "Lieutenant James speaking," she said formally. Then, as Wayne's imageappeared on her screen, she grinned. "Hi, Pete. What's up?"

  "Listen, Sherri," Wayne said quickly. "I'm going to have to cancel thatdate we had for tomorrow night. I just got my orders."

  The girl laughed. "I was just going to call _you_, I got a fac-sheettoo. Looks as though we won't see each other for a while, Pete."

  "What ship are you getting?"

  "The _Lord Nelson_."

  It was Wayne's turn to laugh. "It looks as though we _will_ be seeingeach other. That's my ship too. We can keep our date in the briefingroom."

  Her face brightened. "Good! I'll see you there, then," she said. "I'vegot to get my gear packed."

  "Okay," Wayne said. "Let's be on time, you know how General Scarboroughis."

  She smiled. "Don't worry, Peter. I'll be there. So long for now."

  "Bye, Sherri." He cut the connection, watched the girl's face melt awayinto a rainbow-colored diamond of light, and turned away. There were alot of things to do before he would be ready to leave Earth for aninterstellar tour of duty.

  He wondered briefly as he started to pack just what was going on. Therewas usually much more notice on any big jump of this order. Somethingspecial was up, he thought, as he dragged his duffle-bag out of thecloset.

  * * * * *

  He was at the briefing room at 2158 on the nose. The InterstellarExploration Service didn't much go for tardiness, but they didn't payextra if you got there a half-hour early. Captain Peter Wayne made it apoint of being at any appointment two minutes early--no more, no less.

  The room was starting to fill up, with men and women Wayne knew well,had worked with on other expeditions, had lived with since he'd joinedthe IES. They looked just as puzzled as he probably did, he saw; theyknew they were being called in on something big, and in the IES bigmeant _big_.

  At precisely 2200, Lieutenant General Scarborough emerged from the inneroffice, strode briskly up the aisle of the briefing room, and took hiscustomary stance on the platform in front. His face looked stern, and heheld his hands clasped behind his back. His royal blue uniform was neatand trim. Over his head, the second hand of the big clock whirledendlessly. In the silence of the briefing room, it seemed to be tickingmuch too loudly.

  The general nodded curtly and said, "Some of you are probably wonderingwhy the order to report here wasn't more specific. There are two reasonsfor that. In the first place, we have reason to believe that we havefound a substantial deposit of double-nucleus beryllium."

  There was a murmur of sound in the briefing room. Wayne felt his heartstarting to pound; D-N beryllium _was_ big. So big that a whole fleet ofIES ships did nothing but search the galaxy for it, full time.

  "Naturally," the general continued, "we don't want any of thisinformation to leak out, just in case it should prove false. Theprospect of enough D-N beryllium to make fusion power really cheap couldcause a panic if we didn't handle it properly. The Economics Board haswarned us that we'll have to proceed carefully if there actually is abig deposit on this planet."

  Captain Wayne stared uneasily at Sherri James, who frowned and chewedher lip. To his left, a short, stubby private named Manetti murmuredworriedly, "That means trouble. D-N beryllium always means trouble.There's a catch somewhere."

  General Scarborough, on the platform, said, "There's a second reason forsecrecy. I think it can better be explained by a man who has theevidence first-hand."

  He paused and looked around the room. "Four weeks ago, the Scout Ship_Mavis_ came back from Fomalhaut V." There was a dead silence in thebriefing room.

  "Lieutenant Jervis, will you tell the crew exactly what happened onFomalhaut V?"

  * * * * *

  Lieutenant Jervis stepped forward and took his place on the platform. Hewas small and wiry, with a hawk nose and piercingly intense eyes. Hecleared his throat and smiled a little sheepishly.

  "I've told this story so many times that it doesn't even sound real tome any more. I've told it to the Supreme Senate Space Committee, to halfthe top brass in the IES, and to a Board of Physicians from the MedicalDepartment.

  "As well as I can remember it, it goes something like this."

  Laughter rippled through the room.

  "We orbited around Fomalhaut V for a Scouting Survey," Jervis said. "Theplanet is hot and rocky, but it has a breathable atmosphere. Thedetectors showed various kinds of metals in the crust, some of them incommercially feasible concentration. But the crust is so mountainous androcky that there aren't very many places to land a ship.

  "Then we picked up the double-nucleus beryllium deposit on ourdetectors. Nearby, there was a small, fairly level valley, so we broughtthe ship down for a closer check. We wanted to make absolutely positivethat it was double-nucleus beryllium before we made our report."

  He paused, as if arranging the story he wanted to tell in his mind, andwent on. "The D-N beryllium deposit lies at the top of a fairly lowmountain about five miles from the valley. We triangulated it first, andthen we decided we ought to send up a party to get samples of the ore ifit were at all possible.

  "I was chosen to go, along with another member of the crew, a man namedLee Bellows. We left the ship at about five in the morning, and spentmost of the day climbing up to the spot where we had detected theberyllium. We couldn't get a sample; the main deposit is located severalfeet beneath the surface of the mountaintop, and the mountain is toorough and rocky to climb without special equipment. We got less thanhalfway before we had to stop."

  Wayne felt Sherri nudge him, and turned to nod. He knew what she wasthinking. This was where he came in; it was a job that called for aspecialist, a trained mountaineer--such as Captain Peter Wayne. Hefrowned and turned his attention back to the man on the platform.

  * * * * *

  "We made all the readings we could," Jervis continued. "Then we headedback to our temporary base."

  His face looked troubled. "When we got back, every man at the base wasdead."

  Silence in the room. Complete, utter, deafening silence.

  "There were only nine of us in the ship," Jervis said. He was obviouslystill greatly aff
ected by whatever had taken place on Fomalhaut V. "Withseven of us dead, that left only Bellows and myself. We couldn't findout what had killed them. They were lying scattered over the valleyfloor for several yards around the ship. They looked as though they hadsuddenly dropped dead at whatever they were doing."

  Peter Wayne made use of his extra few inches of height to glance aroundthe briefing room. He saw row on row of tense faces--faces thatreflected the same emotions he was feeling. Space exploration wassomething still new and mostly unknown, and even the experienced men ofIES still knew fear occasionally. The galaxy was a big place; unknownterrors lurked on planets unimaginably distant. Every now and then,something like this would come up--something to give you pause, beforeyou ventured into space again.

  "We couldn't find out what had killed them," Jervis said again. "Theywere lying scattered every which way, with no clues at all." The smallman's fingers were trembling from relived fright. "Bellows and I werepretty scared, I'll have to admit. We couldn't find a sign of what hadkilled the men--they'd just--just _died_."

  There was a quiver in his voice. It was obvious he could never take thestory lightly, no matter how many times he had to tell it.

  Wayne heard Private Manetti mutter, "There's always a price for D-Nberyllium."

  "The Scout Ship hadn't been molested," Jervis went on. "I went insideand checked it over. It was untouched, undisturbed in every way. Ichecked the control panel, the cabins, everything. All unbothered. Theship was empty and dead. And--outside--

  "When I came out, Bellows was dead too." He took a deep breath. "I'mafraid I panicked then. I locked myself inside the ship, set theautocontrols, and headed back to Earth at top velocity. I set the shipin an orbit around the moon and notified headquarters. I was quarantinedimmediately, of course, to make sure I wasn't carrying anything. Themedics checked me over carefully. I wasn't and am not now carrying anyvirus or bacteria unknown to Terrestrial medicine.

  "Since I'm the only one who knows exactly where this valley is, thegeneral has asked me to guide the _Lord Nelson_ to the exact spot.Actually, it could be found eventually with the D-N beryllium as aguide. But the _Mavis_ was in orbit around Fomalhaut V for two weeksbefore we found the D-N beryllium deposit, and the Service feels that weshouldn't waste any time."

  The lieutenant sat down, and General Scarborough resumed his place onthe platform.

  * * * * *

  "That's the situation," Scarborough said bluntly. "You know the setup,now--and I think some of you see how your specialities are going to fitinto the operation. As Lieutenant Jervis pointed out, we don't know whatkilled the crew of the _Mavis_; therefore, we are going to take everypossible precaution. As far as we know, there are no inimical life formson Fomalhaut V--but it's possible that there are things we don't knowabout, such as airborne viruses that kill in a very short time. If so,then Lieutenant Jervis is immune to the virus and is not a transmitteror carrier of it.

  "However, to guard against such a possibility, no one will leave the_Lord Nelson_, once it has landed, without wearing a spacesuit. The airis breathable, but we're taking no chances. Also, no one will go outalone; scouting parties will always be in pairs, with wide opencommunication with the ship. And at no time will more than ten percentof the ship's company be outside at any one time."

  Wayne made a rough mental computation. _The_ Lord Nelson _holds sixty.That means no more than six out at any single time. They really must beworried._

  "Aside from those orders, which were decided on by the Service Command,you'll be under the direct orders of Colonel Nels Petersen. ColonelPetersen."

  Petersen was a tall, hard-faced man with a touch of gray at his temples.He stepped forward and stared intently at the assembled crew.

  * * * * *

  "Our job is to make the preliminary preparations for getting D-Nberyllium out of the crust of Fomalhaut V. We're supposed to stay alivewhile we do it. Therefore, our secondary job is to find out what it wasthat killed the scouting expedition of the _Mavis_. There are sixty ofus going aboard the _Lord Nelson_ tomorrow, and I'd like to have sixtyaboard when we come back. Got that?"

  He leaned forward, stretched upward on his toes, and smiledmechanically. "Fine. Now, you all know your jobs, but we're going tohave to work together as a team. We're going to have to correlate ourwork so that we'll know what we're doing. So don't think we won't haveanything to do during the two weeks it will take us to get to FomalhautV. We're going to work it as though it were a shakedown cruise. Ifanyone doesn't work out, he'll be replaced, even if we have to turnaround and come back to Earth. On a planet which has wiped out a wholescouting expedition, we can't afford to have any slip-ups. And thatmeans we can't afford to have anyone aboard who doesn't know what he'sdoing or doesn't care. Is that clear?"

  It was.

  "All right," said the colonel. "Let's go out and get acquainted with the_Lord Nelson_."

  * * * * *

  The briefing session broke up well past midnight, and the group thatshortly would become the crew of the _Lord Nelson_ filtered out of thebuilding and into the cool spring air. Each man had a fairly good ideaof his job and each man knew the dangers involved. No one had backedout.

  "What d'ye think of it, Pete?" Sherri James asked, as they lefttogether. "Sounds pretty mean."

  "I wish we knew what the answers were beforehand," Wayne said. Heglanced down at Sherri. The moon was full, and its rays glinted brightlyoff her golden hair. "It's a risky deal, as Petersen said. Nine men goout, and eight die--of what? Just dead, that's all."

  "It's the way the game goes," Sherri said. "You knew that when youjoined the corps." They turned down the main road of the IES compoundand headed for the snack bar.

  Wayne nodded. "I know, kid. It's a job, and it has to be done. Butnobody likes to walk into an empty planet like that knowing that eightof the last nine guys who did didn't come back."

  He put his arm around her and they entered the snack bar that way. Mostof the other crew-members were there already; Wayne sensed theheightening tenseness on their faces.

  "Two nuclear fizzes," he said to the pfc at the bar. "With all thetrimmings."

  "What's the matter, Captain?" said a balding, potbellied major a fewstools down, who was nursing a beer. "How come the soft drinks tonight,Wayne?"

  Peter grinned. "I'm in training, Major Osborne. Gotta kill the evilgreen horde from Rigel Seven, and I don't dare drink anything strongerthan sarsaparilla."

  "How about the amazon, then?" Osborne said, gesturing at Sherri. "Hertoo?"

  "Me too," Sherri said.

  Osborne stared at his beer. "You two must be in Scarborough's newproject, then." He squinted at Peter, who nodded almost imperceptibly.

  "You'll need luck," Osborne said.

  "No we won't," Wayne said. "Not luck. We'll need more than just luck topull us through."

  The nuclear fizzes arrived. He began to sip it quietly. A few moremembers of the crew entered the snack bar. Their faces were drawntensely.

  He guzzled the drink and looked up at Sherri, who was sucking down thelast of the soda. "Let's get going, Lieutenant James. The noncoms arecoming, and we don't want them to make nasty remarks about us."

  * * * * *

  The _Lord Nelson_ blasted off the next evening, after a frenzied day ofhurried preparations. The crew of sixty filed solemnly aboard, ColonelPetersen last, and the great hatch swung closed.

  There was the usual routine loudspeaker-business while everyone quicklyand efficiently strapped into his acceleration cradle, and then the shipleaped skyward. It climbed rapidly, broke free of Earth's grasp, and,out past the moon, abruptly winked out of normal space into overdrive.It would spend the next two weeks in hyperspace, short-cutting acrossthe galaxy to Fomalhaut V.

  It was a busy two weeks for everyone involved. Captain Peter Wayne, as acentral part of the team, spent much of his time planning his attack.His job would be th
e actual climbing of the mountain where thedouble-nucleus beryllium was located. It wasn't going to be an easy job;the terrain was rough, the wind, according to Jervis, whipped raginglythrough the hills, and the jagged peaks thrust into the air like theteeth of some mythical dragon.

  Study of the three-dimensional aerial photographs taken from the _Mavis_showed that the best route was probably up through one end of thevalley, through a narrow pass that led around the mountain, and up thewest slope, which appeared to offer better handholds and was lessperpendicular than the other sides of the mountain.

  This time, the expedition would have the equipment to make the climb.There were ropes, picks, and crampons, and sets of metamagnetic bootsand grapples. With metamagnetic boots, Wayne thought, they'd be able towalk up the side of the mountain almost as easily as if it were flat.

  He studied the thick, heavy soles of the boots for a moment, then set towork polishing. Wayne liked to keep his boots mirror-bright; it wasn'trequired, but it was a habit of his nonetheless.

  He set to work vigorously. Everyone aboard the ship was working thatway. Sherri James, who was in charge of the Correlation Section, hadnoticed the same thing the day before. Her job was to co-ordinate allthe information from various members of the expedition, run them throughthe computers, and record them. She had been