The Colors of Space - Page 36/108

"The murdering devils!"

Raynor sighed. "Your father and Briscoe's father were old friends.

Briscoe's father was dying with incurable heart disease; his son was

dead, and old Briscoe had only one thought in his mind--to make sure he

didn't die for nothing. So he took your father's papers, knowing they

were as good as a death warrant, slipped away and boarded a Lhari ship

that led roundabout to stars where the message hadn't reached yet. He

led them a good chase. Did he die or did they track him down and kill

him?" Bart bowed his head and told the story.

"Meanwhile," Raynor Three continued, "your father came to me, knowing I

was sympathetic, knowing I was a Lhari-trained surgeon. He had just one

thought in his mind: to do, again, what David Briscoe had done, and make

sure the news got out this time. He cooked up a plan that was even

braver and more desperate. He decided to sign on a Lhari ship as a

member of the crew."

"As a Mentorian?" Bart asked, but something cold, like ice water

trickling down his back, told him this was not what Raynor meant. "The

brainwashing--"

"No," said Raynor, "not as a Mentorian; he couldn't have escaped the

psych-checking. As a Lhari."

Bart gasped. "How--"

"Men and Lhari are very much alike," Raynor Three said. "A few small

things--skin color, the shape of the ears, the hands and claws--keep

humans from seeing that the Lhari are men."

"Don't say that," Bart almost yelled. "Those filthy, murdering devils!

You call those monsters men?"

"I've lived among the Lhari all my life. They're not devils, Bart, they

have their reasons. Physiologically, the Lhari are--well, humanoid, if

you like that better. They're a lot more like a man than a man is like,

for instance, a gorilla. Your father convinced me that with minor

plastic and facial surgery, he could pass as a Lhari. And finally I gave

in, and did the surgery--"

"And it killed him!"

"Not really. It was a completely unforeseeable thing--a blood clot broke

loose in a vein, and lodged in his brain. He was dead in seconds. It

could have happened at any time," he said, "yet I feel responsible, even

though I keep telling myself I'm not. And I'll help you as much as I

can--for his sake, and for your mother's. The Lhari don't watch me too

closely--they figure that anything I do they'll catch in the

brainwashing. But I'm still one step ahead of them, as long as I can

erase my own memories."