His dark eyes closed for a moment, and his face drew stern as if with some memory of pain.
“But sometimes it must be done.
I learned that long ago, and found that I could do it.”
He stepped abruptly forward.
“And so must you, Bob.
You can—and must!
As things stand now, it is very likely to become your duty to take the life of Stephen Oreo.”
Those softly spoken words brought Bob Star out of his chair.
“How is that, commander?” He was trembling, and he had to gasp for his breath.
“I’d give anything for the chance!”
Something checked his eager voice, and something made him bite his Up.
“But I’m afraid—afraid I couldn’t do it.”
Chimes rang softly, then.
A massive door swung open, to admit once more the deep-toned, vibrant song of the geodynes that drove the battleship.
A steward came in, pushing a little wheeled table.
He saluted.
“Breakfast, commander,” he announced.
“For two.”
Jay Kalam motioned silently for him to go.
The heavy door closed behind him, and once more it seemed that the long, ivory-walled room was somewhere far from the racing ship.
“Why might it be my special duty to kill Stephen Oreo?” Bob Star was whispering.
“And how does it happen that he’s still alive, now so long after his execution was announced?”
“A strange affair.”
Jay Kalam stood frowning gravely, ignoring the covered table the steward had left.
“An unfortunate aftermath of the Jovian Revolt.
The full history of that rebellion has never been made public, but I must outline it to you now—so that you will understand the peculiar status of Stephen Oreo, and the supreme importance of your present duty.”
Bob Star nodded, listening breathlessly.
“Oreo himself is a sinister riddle, from the very beginning,” the commander went on gravely.
“Many people besides yourself have found him queerly inhuman.
Perhaps he is.
Our investigators have been at work ever since he turned traitor, and still they have discovered nothing whatever about his origin.”
“But I remember his parents,” Bob Star broke in.
“They visited the academy, not long before—that night.”
He found his fingers on that scar again, and dropped them self-consciously.
“He gave a party for them.
He made a point of inviting all my friends, and leaving me out.”
“They were only foster parents,” Jay Kalam said.
“His adoptive father, Edward Oreo, seems to have found him, when he was just an infant, under peculiar circumstances.
Oreo was a wealthy planter.
He had extensive holdings through the asteroids.
His home was on Pallas.
Our investigators learned what we know about the finding of Stephen Oreo, from his old servants.
“It happened nearly thirty years ago.
Oreo was cruising in toward Mars in his space yacht.
He and his wife had been visiting some of their properties scattered through the smaller asteroids, and they were coming to Mars for the social season.
Their route had taken them far off the usual space lanes.
“Some forty million miles off Mars, their navigator discovered an unusual object, adrift in space.
It had tripped the meteor-detectors, but it was obviously no common meteorite.
The navigator’s report aroused Oreo’s curiosity enough so that he turned back to examine the object.
“It proved to be a cylinder of magnelithium alloy, eight feet long.