There was no answer, but the flash beam shifted slightly and fell upon the shadow’s other hand. It held a ‘neuronic whip,’ that pleasant little weapon that paralyzes the vocal cords and twists nerves into so many knots of agony. Williams swallowed hard, and got out of bed.
He dressed in silence, and then said:
‘All right, what do I do now?’
The gleaming ‘whip’ gestured, and the Earthman moved toward the door.
‘Just walk ahead,’ said the unknown.
Williams moved out of the room, along the silent corridor, and down eight stories without daring to iook back. Out upon the campus he stopped, and felt metal probe the small of his back.
‘Do you know where Obel Hall is?’
Williams, nodding, began walking. He walked past Obel Hall, turned right at University Avenue, and after half a mile stepped off the roads and past the trees. A spaceship hulked dimly in the darkness, with ports closely curtained and only a dim light showing where the airlock opened a crack.
‘Get in!’ He was shoved up a flight of stairs and into a small room. He blinked, looked al;Jout him and counted aloud.
‘ – seven, eight, nine, and I make ten. They’ve got us all, I guess.’
‘It’s no guess,’ growled Eric Chamberlain sourly. ‘It’s a certainty.’ He was rubbing his hand. ‘I’ve been here an hour.’
‘What’s wrong with the mitt?’ asked Williams.
‘I sprained it on the jaw of the rat that brought me here. He’s as tough as a spaceship’s hull.’
Williams seated himself cross-legged upon the floor and rested his head against the wall.
‘Has anyone any idea as to what this is all about?’
‘Kidnaping!’ said little Joey Sweeney. His teeth were chattering.
‘What the devil for?’ snorted Chamberlain. ‘If any of us are millionaires, I hadn’t heard of it. I know I’m not!’
Williams said, ‘Look, let’s not go off the deep end. Kidnaping or anything of that sort is out. These people can’t be criminals. It stands to reason that a civilization that has developed psychology to the extent this Galactic Federation has, would be able to wipe out crime without raising a sweat.’
‘Pirates,’ grunted Lawrence Marsh. ‘I don’t think so, but it’s just a suggestion.’
‘Nuts!’ said Williams. ‘Piracy is a frontier phenomenon. This region of space has been civilized for tens of millennia.’
‘Just the same, they had guns,’ insisted Joe, ‘and I don’t like it.’ He had left his glasses in his room and peered about in near-sighted anxiety.
‘That doesn’t mean much,’ answered Williams. ‘Now, I’ve been thinking. Here we are – ten newly arrived freshmen at Arcturus U. On our first night here, we’re bundled mysteriously out of our rooms and into a strange spaceship. That suggests something to me. How about it?’
Sidney Morton raised his head from his arms long enough to say sleepily:
‘I’ve thought of it, too. It looks like we’re in for one hell of a hazing. Gents, I think the local sophs are just having good, clean fun.’
‘Exactly,’ agreed Williams. ‘Anyone have any other ideas?’
Silence. ‘All right, then, so there isn’t anything to do but wait. Personally, I’m going to catch up on my sleep. They can wake me up if they need me.’
There was a jar at that moment and he fell off balance.
‘Well, we’re off – wherever we’re going.’
Moments later, Bill Sefan hesitated just an instant before entering the control room. When he finally did, it was to face a highly excited Wri Forase.
‘How is it working?’ demanded the Denebian.
‘Rotten,’ responded Sefan sourly. ‘If they’re panicked, then I’m damned. They’re going to sleep.’
‘Asleep! All of them? But what were they saying?’
‘How do I know? They weren’t speaking Galactic, and I can’t make head’’or tail out of their infernal foreign gibberish.’
Forase threw his hands into the air in disgust.
Tubal spoke finally. ‘Listen, Forase, I’m cutting a class in Biosoc. – which I can’t afford. You guaranteed the psychology of this stunt. If it turns out to be a flop, I’m not going to like it.’
‘Well, for the love of Deneb,’ grated Forase desperately, ‘you two are a fine pair of yellow-bellies! Did you expect them to start screaming and kicking right off? Sizzling Arcturus! Wait till we get to the Spican System, will you? When we maroon them overnight – ‘
He tittered suddenly. ‘This is going to be the fanciest trick since they tied those stink-bats to the chromatic organ on Concert Night.’
Tubal cracked a grin, but Sefan leaned back in his chair and remarked thoughtfully.
‘What if someone – say, President Wynn – hears about this?’
The Arcturian at the controls shrugged. ‘It’s only a hazing. They’ll go easy.’
‘Don’t play dumb, M. T. This isn’t kid stuff. Planet Four, Spica – the whole Spican System, in fact – is banned to Galactic ships, and you know that. It’s got a sub-Humanoid race on it. They’re supposed to develop entirely free of interference until they discover interstellar travel on their own. That’s the law, and they’re strict about it. Space! If they find out about this, we’ll be in the soup for fair.’
Tubal turned in his seat. ‘How in Arcturus do you expect Prexy Wynn – damn his thick hide! – to find out·about us? Now, mind you, I’m not saying the story won’t spread around the campus, because half the fun will be killed if we have to keep it to ourselves. But how will names come out? No one will squeal. You know that.’
‘Okay,’ said Sefan, and shrugged.
And then Tubal said, ‘Ready for hyper-space!’
He compressed keys and there was the queer internal wrench that marked the ship’s departure from normal space.
The ten Earthmen were rather the worse for wear, and looked it. Lawrence Marsh squinted at his watch again.
‘Two-thirty,’ he said. ‘That’s thirty-six hours now. I wish they’d get this over with.’
‘This isn’t a hazing,’ moaned Sweeney. ‘It takes too long.’
Williams grew red. ‘What do you all look half-dead about? They’ve been feeding us regularly, haven’t they? They haven’t tied us up, have they? I should say it was pretty evident that they were taking good care of us.’
‘Or,’ came Sidney Morton’s discontented drawl, ‘fattening us up for the slaughter.’
