nd
then we decided we ought to send up a party to get samples of the ore if
it were at all possible.

"I was chosen to go, along with another member of the crew, a man named
Lee Bellows. We left the ship at about five in the morning, and spent
most of the day climbing up to the spot where we had detected the
beryllium. We couldn't get a sample; the main deposit is located several
feet beneath the surface of the mountaintop, and the mountain is too
rough and rocky to climb without special equipment. We got less than
halfway before we had to stop."

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

"There were only nine of us in the ship," Jervis said. He was obviously
still greatly affected by whatever had taken place on Fomalhaut V. "With
seven of us dead, that left only Bellows and myself. We couldn't find
out what had killed them. They were lying scattered over the valley
floor for several yards around the ship. They looked as though they had
suddenly dropped dead at whatever they were doing."

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

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

There was a quiver in his voice. It was obvious he could never take the
story lightly, no matter