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- G h o s t V
- by Robert Sheckley
- "He's reading our sign now," Gregor said, his
- long bony face pressed against the peephole in the
- office door.
- "Let me see," Arnold said.
- Gregor pushed him back. "He's going to knock -
- no, he's changed his mind. He's leaving."
- Arnold returned to his desk and laid out
- another game of solitaire. Gregor kept watch at
- the peephole.
- They had constructed the peephole out of
- sheer boredom three months after forming their
- partnership and renting the office. During that time,
- the AAA Ace Planet Decontamination Service had
- had no business - in spite of being first in the telephone
- book. Planetary decontamination was an old, established
- line, completely monopolized by two large outfits. It
- was discouraging for a small new firm run by two young
- men with big ideas and a lot of unpaid-for equipment.
- "He's coming back," Gregor called. "*Quick* -
- look busy and important!"
- Arnold swept his cards into a drawer and just
- finished buttoning his lab gown when the knock came.
- Their visitor was a short, bald, tired-looking
- man. He stared at them dubiously.
- "You decontaminate planets?"
- "That is correct, sir," Gregor said, pushing
- away a pile of papers and shaking the man's moist hand.
- "I am Richard Gregor. This is my partner, Doctor Frank
- Arnold. "
- Arnold, impressively garbed in a white lab gown
- and black horn-rimmed glasses, nodded absently and
- resumed his examination of a row of ancient, crusted test
- tubes.
- "Kindly be seated, Mister - "
- "Ferngraum."
- "Mr. Ferngraum. I think we can handle just about
- anything you require," Gregor said heartily. "Flora or
- fauna control, cleansing atmosphere, purifying water
- supply, sterilizing soil, stability testing, volcano and
- earthquake control - anything you need to make a planet fit
- for human habitation."
- Ferngraum still looked dubious. "I'm going to
- level with you. I've got a problem planet on my hands."
- Gregor nodded confidently. "Problems are our business."
- "I'm a freelance real-estate broker," Ferngraum
- said. "You know how it works - buy a planet, sell a planet,
- everyone makes a living. Usually I stick with the scrub
- worlds and let my buyers do their decontaminating. But a
- few months ago I had a chance to buy a real quality planet -
- took it right out from under the noses of the big operators."
- Ferngraum mopped his forehead unhappily.
- "It's a beautiful place," he continued with no
- enthusiasm whatsoever. "Average temperature of
- seventy-one degrees. Mountainous, but fertile. Waterfalls,
- rainbows, all that sort of thing. And no fauna at all."
- "Sounds perfect," Gregor said. "Microorganisms?"
- "Nothing dangerous."
- "Then what's wrong with the place?"
- Ferngraum looked embarrassed. "Maybe you heard
- about it. The Government catalogue number is RJC-5. But
- everyone else calls it 'Ghost V.'"
- Gregor raised an eyebrow. "Ghost" was an odd
- nickname for a planet, but he had heard odder. After all,
- you had to call them something. There were thousands of
- planet-bearing suns within spaceship range, many of them
- inhabitable or potentially inhabitable. And there were plenty
- of people from the civilized worlds who wanted to colonize
- them. Religious sects, political minorities, philosophic groups -
- or just plain pioneers, out to make a fresh start.
- "I don't believe I've heard of it," Gregor said.
- Ferngraum squirmed uncomfortably in his chair.
- "I should have listened to my wife. But no - I was gonna be a
- big operator. Paid ten times my usual price for Ghost V and
- now I'm stuck with it."
- "But what's *wrong* with it?" Gregor asked.
- "It seems to be haunted," Ferngraum said in despair.
- Ferngraum had radar-checked his planet, then leased
- it to a combine of farmers from Dijon VI. The eight-man
- advance guard landed and, within a day, began to broadcast
- garbled reports about demons, ghouls, vampires, dinosaurs
- and other inimical fauna.
- When a relief ship came for them, all were dead.
- An autopsy report stated that the gashes, cuts and marks on
- their bodies could indeed have been made by almost anything,
- even demons, ghouls, vampires or dinosaurs, if such existed.
- Ferngraum was fined for improper decontamination.
- The farmers dropped their lease. But he managed to lease it to
- a group of sun worshipers from Opal II.
- The sun worshipers were cautious. They sent their
- equipment, but only three men accompanied it, to scout out
- trouble. The men set up camp, unpacked and declared the place
- a paradise. They radioed the home group to come at once - then,
- suddenly, there was a wild scream and radio silence.
- A patrol ship went to Ghost V, buried the three
- mangled bodies and departed in five minutes flat.
- "And that did it," Ferngraum said. "Now no one will
- touch it at any price. Space crews refuse to land on it. And I
- still don't know what happened."
- He sighed deeply and looked at Gregor. "It's your
- baby, if you want it."
- Gregor and Arnold excused themselves and went
- into the anteroom.
- Arnold whooped at once, "We've got a job!"
- "Yeah," Gregor said, "but what a job."
- "We wanted the tough ones," Arnold pointed out.
- "If we lick this, we're established - to say nothing of the
- profit we'll make on a percentage basis."
- "You seem to forget," Gregor said, "I'm the one who
- has to actually land on the planet. All you do is sit here
- and interpret my data."
- "That's the way we set it up," Arnold reminded
- him. "I'm the research department - you're the troubleshooter.
- Remember?"
- Gregor remembered. Ever since childhood, he
- had been sticking his neck out while Arnold stayed home
- and told him why he was sticking his neck out.
- "I don't like it," he said.
- "You don't believe in ghosts, do you?"
- "No, of course not."
- "Well, we can handle anything else. Faint heart
- ne'er won fair profit." Gregor shrugged his shoulders. They
- went back to Ferngraum.
- In half an hour, they had worked out their terms -
- a large percentage of future development profits if they
- succeeded, a forfeiture clause if they failed.
- Gregor walked to the door with Ferngraum. "By
- the way, sir," he asked, "how did you happen to come to us?"
- "No one else would handle it," Ferngraum said,
- looking extremely pleased with himself. "Good luck."
- Three days later, Gregor was aboard a rickety space
- freighter, bound for Ghost V. He spent his time studying
- reports on the two colonization attempts and reading
- survey after survey on supernatural phenomena.
- They didn't help at all. No trace of animal life had
- been found on Ghost V. And no proof of the existence of
- supernatural creatures had been discovered anywhere in the
- galaxy.
- Gregor pondered this, then checked his weapons as
- the freighter spiraled into the region of Ghost V. He was
- carrying an arsenal large enough to start a small war and win
- it.
- *If* he could find something to shoot at ...
- The captain of the freighter brought his ship to
- within several thousand feet of the smiling green surface
- of the planet, but no closer. Gregor parachuted his equipment
- to the site of the last two camps, shook hands with the captain
- and 'chuted himself down.
- He landed safely and looked up. The freighter was
- streaking into space as though the furies were after it.
- He was alone on Ghost V.
- After checking his equipment for breakage, he
- radioed Arnold that he had landed safely. Then, with drawn
- blaster, he inspected the sun worshipers' camp.
- They had set themselves up at the base of a
- mountain, beside a small, crystal-clear lake. The prefabs
- were in perfect condition.
- No storm had ever damaged them, because Ghost V
- was blessed with a beautifully even climate. But they looked
- pathetically lonely.
- Gregor made a careful check of one. Clothes were
- still neatly packed in cabinets, pictures were hung on the
- wall and there was even a curtain on one window. In a corner
- of the room, a case of toys had been opened for the arrival of
- the main party's children.
- A water pistol, a top and a bag of marbles had
- spilled on to the floor.
- Evening was coming, so Gregor dragged his equipment
- into the prefab and made his preparations. He rigged an alarm
- system and adjusted it so finely that even a roach would set it
- off. He put up a radar alarm to scan the immediate area. He
- unpacked his arsenal, laying the heavy rifles within easy reach,
- but keeping a hand-blaster in his belt. Then, satisfied, he ate a
- leisurely supper.
- Outside, the evening drifted into night. The warm
- and dreamy land grew dark. A gentle breeze ruffled the surface
- of the lake and rustled silkily in the tall grass.
- It was all very peaceful.
- The settlers must have been hysterical types, he
- decided. They had probably panicked and killed each other.
- After checking his alarm system one last time,
- Gregor threw his clothes on to a chair, turned off the lights
- and climbed into bed. The room was illuminated by starlight,
- stronger than moonlight on Earth. His blaster was under his
- pillow. All was well with the world.
- He had just begun to doze off when he became
- aware that he was not alone in the room.
- That was impossible. His alarm system hadn't
- gone off. The radar was still humming peacefully.
- Yet every nerve in his body was shrieking alarm.
- He eased the blaster out and looked around.
- A man was standing in a corner of the room.
- There was no time to consider how he had come.
- Gregor aimed the blaster and said, "Okay, raise your hands,"
- in a quiet, resolute voice.
- The figure didn't move.
- Gregor's finger tightened on the trigger, then
- suddenly relaxed. He recognized the man. It was his own
- clothing, heaped on a chair, distorted by the starlight and
- his own imagination.
- He grinned and lowered the blaster. The pile of
- clothing began to stir faintly. Gregor felt a faint breeze
- from the window and continued to grin.
- Then the pile of clothing stood up, stretched
- itself and began to walk toward him purposefully.
- Frozen to his bed, he watched the disembodied clothing,
- assembled roughly in manlike form, advance on him.
- When it was halfway across the room and its
- empty sleeves were reaching for him, he began to blast.
- And kept on blasting, for the rags and remnants
- slithered toward him as if filled with a life of their own.
- Flaming bits of cloth crowded toward his face and a belt
- tried to coil around his legs. He had to burn everything to
- ashes before the attack stopped.
- When it was over, Gregor turned on every light
- he could find. He brewed a pot of coffee and poured in
- most of a bottle of brandy. Somehow, he resisted an urge
- to kick his useless alarm system to pieces. Instead, he
- radioed his partner.
- "That's very interesting," Arnold said, after
- Gregor had brought him up to date. "Animation! Very
- interesting indeed."
- "I hoped it would amuse you." Gregor answered
- bitterly. After several shots of brandy, he was beginning
- to feel abandoned and abused.
- "Did anything else happen?"
- "Not yet."
- "Well, take care. I've got a theory. Have to do
- some research on it. By the way, some crazy bookie is
- laying five to one against you."
- "Really?"
- "Yeah. I took a piece of it."
- "Did you bet for me or against me?" Gregor asked, worried.
- "For you, of course," Arnold said indignantly.
- "We're partners, aren't we?"
- They signed off and Gregor brewed another pot of
- coffee. He was not planning on any more sleep that night. It
- was comforting to know that Arnold had bet on him. But, then,
- Arnold was a notoriously bad gambler.
- By daylight, Gregor was able to get a few hours of
- fitful sleep. In the early afternoon he awoke, found some
- clothes and began to explore the sun worshipers' camp.
- Toward evening, he found something. On the wall
- of a prefab, the word "*Tgasklit*" had been hastily scratched.
- *Tgasklit.* It meant nothing to him, but he relayed it to
- Arnold at once.
- He then searched his prefab carefully, set up
- more lights, tested the alarm system and recharged his blaster.
- Everything seemed in order. With regret, he
- watched the sun go down, hoping he would live to see it rise
- again. Then he settled himself in a comfortable chair and tried
- to do some constructive thinking.
- There was no animal life here - nor were there
- any walking plants, intelligent rocks or giant brains dwelling
- in the planet's core. Ghost V hadn't even a moon for someone to
- hide on.
- And he couldn't believe in ghosts or demons. He
- knew that supernatural happenings tended to break down,
- under detailed examination, into eminently natural events.
- The ones that didn't break down - stopped. Ghosts just
- wouldn't stand still and let a nonbeliever examine them. The
- phantom of the castle was invariably on vacation when a
- scientist showed up with cameras and tape recorders.
- That left another possibility. Suppose someone
- wanted this planet, but wasn't prepared to pay Ferngraum's
- price? Couldn't this someone hide here, frighten the settlers,
- kill them if necessary in order to drive down the price?
- That seemed logical. You could even explain the
- behavior of his clothes that way. Static electricity,
- correctly used, could -
- Something was standing in front of him. His
- alarm system, as before, hadn't gone off.
- Gregor looked up slowly. The thing in front of him
- was about ten feet tall and roughly human in shape, except
- for its crocodile head. It was colored a bright crimson and
- had purple stripes running lengthwise on its body. In one claw,
- it was carrying a large brown can.
- "Hello," it said.
- "Hello," Gregor gulped. His blaster was on a
- table only two feet away. He wondered, would the thing
- attack if he reached for it?
- "What's your name?" Gregor asked, with the
- calmness of deep shock.
- "I'm the Purple-striped Grabber," the thing
- said. "I grab things."
- "How interesting." Gregor's hand began to creep
- toward the blaster.
- "I grab things named Richard Gregor," the
- Grabber told him in its bright, ingenuous voice. "And I
- usually eat them in chocolate sauce." It held up the brown
- can and Gregor saw that it was labelled "Smigs Chocolate -
- An Ideal Sauce to Use with Gregors, Arnolds and Flynns."
- Gregor's fingers touched the butt of the
- blaster. He asked, "Were you planning to eat me?"
- "Oh, yes," the Grabber said.
- Gregor had the gun now. He flipped off the
- safety catch and fired. The radiant blast cascaded off
- the Grabber's chest and singed the floor, the walls and
- Gregor's eyebrows.
- "That won't hurt me," the Grabber explained. "I'm too tall."
- The blaster dropped from Gregor's fingers.
- The Grabber leaned forward.
- "I'm not going to eat you now," the Grabber said.
- "No?" Gregor managed to enunciate.
- "No. I can only eat you tomorrow, on May first.
- Those are the rules. I just came to ask a favor."
- "What is it?"
- The Grabber smiled winningly. "Would you
- be a good sport and eat a few apples? They flavor the
- flesh so wonderfully."
- And, with that, the striped monster vanished.
- With shaking hands, Gregor worked the radio
- and told Arnold everything that had happened.
- "Hmm," Arnold said. "Purple-striped Grabber,
- eh? I think that clinches it. Everything fits."
- "What fits? What is it?"
- "First, do as I say. I want to make sure."
- Obeying Arnold's instructions, Gregor unpacked
- his chemical equipment and laid out a number of test tubes,
- retorts and chemicals. He stirred, mixed, added and subtracted
- as directed and finally put the mixture on the stove to heat.
- "Now," Gregor said, coming back to the radio,
- "tell me what's going on."
- "Certainly. I looked up the word '*Tgasklit.*'
- It's Opalian. It means 'many-toothed ghost.' The sun
- worshipers were from Opal. What does that suggest to you?"
- "They were killed by a hometown ghost,"
- Gregor replied nastily. "It must have stowed away on their
- ship. Maybe there was a curse and - "
- "Calm down," Arnold said. "There aren't any
- ghosts in this. Is the solution boiling yet?"
- "No. "
- "Tell me when it does. Now let's take your
- animated clothing. Does it remind you of anything?"
- Gregor thought. "Well," he said, "when I was a
- kid - no, that's ridiculous."
- "Out with it," Arnold insisted.
- "When I was a kid, I never left clothing on a
- chair. In the dark, it always looked like a man or a dragon
- or something. I guess everyone's had that experience. But it
- doesn't explain - "
- "Sure it does! Remember the Purple-striped Grabber now?"
- "No. Why should l?"
- "Because you invented him! Remember? We must
- have been eight or nine, you and me and Jimmy Flynn. We
- invented the most horrible monster you could think of - he
- was our own personal monster and he only wanted to eat you or
- me or Jimmy - flavored with chocolate sauce. But only on the
- first of every month, when the report cards were due. You had to
- use the magic word to get rid of him."
- Then Gregor remembered and wondered how he
- could ever have forgotten. How many nights had he stayed up
- in fearful expectation of the Grabber? It had made bad report
- cards seem very unimportant.
- "Is the solution boiling?" Arnold asked.
- "Yes," said Gregor, glancing obediently at the
- stove. "What color is it?"
- "A sort of greenish blue. No, it's more blue than - "
- "Right. You can pour it out. I want to run a few
- more tests, but I think we've got it licked."
- "Got *what* licked? Would you do a little explaining?"
- "It's obvious. The planet has no animal life.
- There are no ghosts or at least none solid enough to kill
- off a party of armed men. Hallucination was the answer, so I
- looked for something that would produce it. I found plenty.
- Aside from all the drugs on Earth, there are about a dozen
- hallucination-forming gases in the _Catalogue of Alien Trace
- Elements_. There are depressants, stimulants, stuff that'll
- make you feel like a genius or an earthworm or an eagle. This
- particular one corresponds to Longstead 42 in the catalogue.
- It's a heavy, transparent, odorless gas, not harmful physically.
- It's an imagination stimulant."
- "You mean I was just having hallucinations? I tell you - "
- "Not quite that simple," Arnold cut in. "Longstead
- 42 works directly on the subconscious. It releases your
- strongest subconscious fears, the childhood terrors you've
- been suppressing. It animates them. And that's what you've
- been seeing."
- "Then there's actually nothing here?" Gregor asked.
- "Nothing physical. But the hallucinations are
- real enough to whoever is having them."
- Gregor reached over for another bottle of
- brandy. This called for a celebration.
- "It won't be hard to decontaminate Ghost V,"
- Arnold went on confidently. "We can cancel the Longstead 42
- with no difficulty. And then - we'll be rich, partner!"
- Gregor suggested a toast, then thought of
- something disturbing. "If they're just hallucinations,
- what happened to the settlers?"
- Arnold was silent for a moment. "Well," he
- said finally, "Longstead may have a tendency to stimulate
- the mortido - the death instinct. The settlers must have gone
- crazy. Killed each other."
- "And no survivors?"
- "Sure, why not? The last ones alive committed
- suicide or died of wounds. Don't worry about it. I'm chartering
- a ship immediately and coming out to run those tests. Relax.
- I'll pick you up in a day or two."
- Gregor signed off. He allowed himself the rest
- of the bottle of brandy that night. It seemed only fair. The
- mystery of Ghost V was solved and they were going to be rich.
- Soon *he* would be able to hire a man to land on strange
- planets for him, while *he* sat home and gave instructions
- over a radio.
- * * *
- He awoke late the next day with a hangover. Arnold's
- ship hadn't arrived yet, so he packed his equipment and
- waited. By evening, there was still no ship. He sat in the
- doorway of the prefab and watched a gaudy sunset, then went
- inside and made dinner.
- The problem of the settlers still bothered
- him, but he determined not to worry about it. Undoubtedly
- there was a logical answer.
- After dinner, he stretched out on a bed. He
- had barely closed his eyes when he heard someone cough
- apologetically.
- "Hello," said the Purple-striped Grabber.
- His own personal hallucination had returned to
- eat him. "Hello, old chap," Gregor said cheerfully, without a
- bit of fear or worry.
- "Did you eat the apples?"
- "Dreadfully sorry. I forgot. "
- "Oh, well." The Grabber tried to conceal his
- disappointment. "I brought the chocolate sauce." He held up
- the can.
- Gregor smiled. "You can leave now," he said.
- "I know you're just a figment of my imagination. You can't
- hurt me."
- "I'm not going to hurt you," the Grabber said.
- "I'm just going to eat you."
- He walked up to Gregor. Gregor held his ground,
- smiling, although he wished the Grabber didn't appear so solid
- and undreamlike. The Grabber leaned over and bit his arm
- experimentally.
- He jumped back and looked at his arm. There
- were toothmarks on it. Blood was oozing out - real blood -
- *his* blood.
- The colonists had been bitten, gashed, torn and ripped.
- At that moment, Gregor remembered an exhibition
- of hypnotism he had once seen. The hypnotist had told the
- subject he was putting a lighted cigarette on his arm. Then he
- had touched the spot with a pencil.
- Within seconds, an angry red blister had appeared
- on the subject's arm, because he *believed* he had been burned.
- If your subconscious thinks you're dead, you're dead. If it
- orders the stigmata of toothmarks, they are there.
- *He* didn't believe in the Grabber.
- But his subconscious did.
- Gregor tried to run for the door. The Grabber cut
- him off. It seized him in its claws and bent to reach his neck.
- The magic word! What was it?
- Gregor shouted, "*Alphoisto*?"
- "Wrong word," said the Grabber. "Please don't squirm."
- "*Regnastikio*?"
- "Nope. Stop wriggling and it'll be over before you - "
- "*Voorshpellhappilo*!"
- The Grabber let out a scream of pain and
- released him. It bounded high into the air and vanished.
- Gregor collapsed into a chair. That had been
- close. Too close. It would be a particularly stupid way to die -
- rent by his own death-desiring subconscious, slashed by his
- own imagination, killed by his own conviction. It was fortunate
- he had remembered the word. Now if Arnold would only hurry ...
- He heard a low chuckle of amusement.
- It came from the blackness of a half-opened
- closet door, touching off an almost forgotten memory. He
- was nine years old again, and the Shadower - his Shadower -
- was a strange, thin, grisly creature who hid in doorways,
- slept under beds and attacked only in the dark.
- "Turn out the lights," the Shadower said.
- "Not a chance," Gregor retorted, drawing his
- blaster. As long as the lights were on, he was safe.
- "You'd better turn them off."
- "No!"
- "Very well. Egan, Megan, Degan!"
- Three little creatures scampered into the room.
- They raced to the nearest light bulb, flung themselves on it
- and began to gulp hungrily.
- The room was growing darker.
- Gregor blasted at them each time they
- approached a light. Glass shattered, but the nimble creatures
- darted out of the way.
- And then Gregor realized what he had done.
- The creatures couldn't actually eat light. Imagination
- can't make any impression on inanimate matter. He had
- *imagined* that the room was growing dark and -
- He had shot out his light bulbs! His own
- destructive subsconscious had tricked him.
- Now the Shadower stepped out. Leaping from
- shadow to shadow, he came toward Gregor.
- The blaster had no effect. Gregor tried frantically
- to think of the magic word - and terrifiedly remembered
- that no magic word banished the Shadower.
- He backed away, the Shadower advancing, until
- he was stopped by a packing case. The Shadower towered
- over him and Gregor shrank to the floor and closed his eyes.
- His hands came in contact with something cold.
- He was leaning against the packing case of toys for the
- settlers' children. And he was holding a water pistol.
- Gregor brandished it. The Shadower backed
- away, eyeing the weapon with apprehension.
- Quickly, Gregor ran to the tap and filled the
- pistol. He directed a deadly stream of water into the
- creature.
- The Shadower howled in agony and vanished.
- Gregor smiled tightly and slipped the empty gun
- into his belt.
- A water pistol was the right weapon to use
- against an imaginary monster.
- It was nearly dawn when the ship landed and Arnold
- stepped out. Without wasting any time, he set up his tests.
- By midday, it was done and the element definitely established
- as Longstead 42. He and Gregor packed up immediately and
- blasted off.
- Once they were in space, Gregor told his partner
- everything that had happened.
- "Pretty rough," said Arnold softly, but with deep feeling.
- Gregor could smile with modest heroism now
- that he was safely off Ghost V. "Could have been worse,"
- he said.
- "How?"
- "Suppose Jimmy Flynn were here. There was a kid
- who could really dream up monsters. Remember the Grumbler?"
- "All I remember is the nightmares it gave me,"
- Arnold said.
- They were on their way home. Arnold jotted down
- some notes for an article entitled "The Death Instinct on
- Ghost V: An Examination of Subconscious Stimulation, Hysteria,
- and Mass Hallucination in Producing Physical Stigmata." Then he
- went to the control room to set the autopilot.
- Gregor threw himself on a couch, determined to
- get his first decent night's sleep since landing on Ghost V. He
- had barely dozed off when Arnold hurried in, his face pasty with
- terror.
- "I think there's something in the control room,"
- he said. Gregor sat up. "There can't be. We're off the - "
- There was a low growl from the control room.
- "Oh, my God!" Arnold gasped. He concentrated furiously
- for a few seconds. "I know. I left the airlocks open when I landed.
- We're still breathing Ghost V air!"
- And there, framed in the open doorway, was an
- immense gray creature with red spots on its hide. It had an
- amazing number of arms, legs, tentacles, claws and teeth, plus
- two tiny wings on its back. It walked slowly toward them,
- mumbling and moaning.
- They both recognized it as the Grumbler.
- Gregor dashed forward and slammed the door in its
- face. "We should be safe in here," he panted. "That door is airtight.
- But how will we pilot the ship?"
- "We won't," Arnold said. "We'll have to trust
- the robot pilot - unless we can figure out some way of
- getting that thing out of there."
- They noticed that a faint smoke was beginning
- to seep through the sealed edges of the door.
- "What's that?" Arnold asked, with a sharp edge
- of panic in his voice.
- Gregor frowned. "You remember, don't you? The
- Grumbler can get into any room. There's no way of keeping
- him out."
- "I don't remember anything about him,"
- Arnold said. "Does he eat people?"
- "No. As I recall, he just mangles them thoroughly."
- The smoke was beginning to solidify into
- the immense gray shape of the Grumbler. They retreated
- into the next compartment and sealed the door. Within seconds,
- the thin smoke was leaking through.
- "This is ridiculous," Arnold said, biting his
- lip. "To be haunted by an imaginary monster - wait! You've
- still got your water pistol, haven't you?"
- "Yes, but - "
- "Give it to me!"
- Arnold hurried over to a water tank and
- filled the pistol. The Grumbler had taken form again and
- was lumbering towards them, groaning unhappily. Arnold
- raked it with a stream of water.
- The Grumbler kept on advancing.
- "Now it's all coming back to me," Gregor said.
- "A water pistol never could stop the Grumbler."
- They backed into the next room and slammed
- the door. Behind them was only the bunkroom with nothing
- behind that but the deadly vacuum of space.
- Gregor asked, "Isn't there something you can do
- about the atmosphere?"
- Arnold shook his head. "It's dissipating now.
- But it takes about twenty hours for the effects of Longstead
- to wear off."
- "Haven't you any antidote?"
- "No."
- Once again the Grumbler was materializing, and
- neither silently nor pleasantly.
- "How can we kill it?" Arnold asked. "There
- must be a way. Magic words? How about a wooden sword?"
- Gregor shook his head. "I remember the
- Grumbler now," he said unhappily.
- "What kills it?"
- "It can't be destroyed by water pistols, cap guns,
- firecrackers, slingshots, stink bombs, or any other childhood
- weapon. The Grumbler is absolutely unkillable."
- "That Flynn and his damned imagination! Why
- did we have to talk about him? How do you get rid of it then?"
- "I told you. You don't. It just has to go away of its
- own accord."
- The Grumbler was full size now. Gregor and
- Arnold hurried into the tiny bunkroom and slammed their last
- door.
- "*Think*, Gregor," Arnold pleaded. "No kid invents
- a monster without a defense of some sort. *Think*!"
- "The Grumbler cannot be killed," Gregor said.
- The red-spotted monster was taking shape again.
- Gregor thought back over all the midnight horrors he had ever
- known. He *must* have done something as a child to neutralize
- the power of the unknown.
- And then - almost too late - he remembered.
- Under autopilot controls, the ship flashed Earthward
- with the Grumbler as complete master. He marched up and
- down the empty corridors and floated through steel partitions
- into cabins and cargo compartments, moaning, groaning and
- cursing because he could not get at any victim.
- The ship reached the solar system and took up
- an automatic orbit around the moon.
- Gregor peered out cautiously, ready to duck back
- if necessary. There was no sinister shuffling, no moaning or
- groaning, no hungry mist seeping under the door or through the
- walls.
- "All clear," he called out to Arnold. "The Grumbler's gone."
- Safe within the ultimate defense against night
- horrors - wrapped in the blankets that had covered their
- heads - they climbed out of their bunks.
- "I told you the water pistol wouldn't do any
- good," Gregor said. Arnold gave him a sick grin and put the
- pistol in his pocket. "I'm hanging on to it. If I ever get married
- and have a kid, it's going to be his first present. "
- "Not for any of mine," said Gregor. He patted the
- bunk affectionately. "You can't beat blankets over the head for
- protection."
- "Ghost V," by Robert Sheckley. Copyright © 1957 by Robert Sheckley
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