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Read Ebook: Genesis! by Winterbotham R R Russell Robert Morey Leo Illustrator
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Ebook has 228 lines and 9518 words, and 5 pages
GENESIS!
Renzu was mad, certainly! From Venus' lifeless clay he dreamed of moulding a mighty race; a new Creation, with himself as God!
There was Gheal--neither god nor devil, only a poor, hideous, half-human slave that had been brought with Renzu to the earth from a previous expedition to Venus. Captain Arlen quit trying to classify himself and his passengers. They were neither gods nor devils. Not even men, taking the group as a whole.
An ominous chill seemed to reach through the beryllium hull of the ship from outer space, caressing Arlen's backbone. A faint cry sounded in the passageway that led to the sleeping quarters behind the control room.
The captain tripped the controls into neutral. The acceleration was complete and from now until the braking rockets were fired, the craft would follow its carefully calculated orbit.
Again came the cry, a groan of pain and a moaning sob. The captain strode into the passage.
"Gheal!" he called, recognizing the Venusian's hoarse voice. "Gheal! What's the matter?"
A repetition of the cry was the only answer. The passageway was open, but the sobs seemed to be coming from the cabin of Harry Renzu, the scientist who had chartered the moon rocket for his second expedition to Venus.
The captain paused before the cabin door, listening. The cry came again and he pushed open the door.
The hideous Venusian was on the floor, looking upward with his two light-sensitive eye-glands at Renzu, who stood over him with an upraised cane.
Gheal's rubbery, lipless mouth was agape, revealing his long, sharp teeth. He had raised one of his long, rope-muscled arms to catch the descending blow. His hairless, leathery body trembled slightly with pain.
"You dumb, dim-witted chunk of Venusian protoplasm!" Renzu snarled as he brought the cane crashing over the monster's shoulders. "When I want a thing done, I want it done!"
Arlen pushed into the room and seized Renzu's arm before the scientist could strike again.
"Hold on, Renzu!" Arlen commanded, pushing the scientist back and seizing the cane. "Lay off! Can't you treat this miserable wretch with decency?"
Renzu's face flushed angrily. His deep-set eyes burned with fury.
"This is none of your affair!" Renzu snapped. "Go back to your business of running this ship. I didn't hire you to run my business."
"This may be your expedition," Arlen replied stubbornly, "but while we're in space, I'm the captain of this ship and my orders are to be obeyed. My orders are to give this Venusian beast humane treatment."
A whimpering sob broke from the throat of the brute on the floor.
Renzu sullenly twisted his arm loose from the captain's grasp. He appeared more calm now.
"You are right, Arlen," he said. "Your orders are to be obeyed. But you aren't a scientist. You don't know Gheal. He's not like the animals we know on the earth. He has to be beaten."
"Not while we're in space. I won't stand for it."
"You can't stand in the way of science, Arlen. I shall whip Gheal, if I deem it necessary." Renzu ended his words with a suggestive snap of his fingers in Gheal's direction. The monster cringed into a corner of the stateroom.
"Come with me, Gheal," Arlen ordered, beckoning to the monster.
The creature, seeming to understand, rose to his feet and followed Arlen out of the door.
The captain took the Venusian forward into the control room, where he daubed the welts on the creature's naked shoulders with arnica.
McFerson, easy-going, but dependable old spaceman, watched the operation critically. Gheal winced as the arnica touched his skin. He squirmed and tried to resist.
"Hold on a minute, Cap," McFerson said. "Look at the right shoulder, where you put the arnica; it's red and inflamed."
"So it is, but arnica ought to help."
"Look at the left shoulder, where you haven't put any arnica."
"Great guns! It's almost healed!"
"I'd say maybe arnica wasn't the best treatment."
Captain Arlen corked the bottle and put it aside. "Gheal looks like a man. Sometimes he acts like a man. Yet he's entirely different most of the time.
"I've been watching him, Cap. I somehow get the idea that Gheal finds it unhandy, most of the time, to be built like a man."
The captain laughed. He took Gheal's arm and held it up. "Look at that. Good, human bones, but the body of a monster. I wish you could talk, Gheal. I wish you could tell us more about yourself. Why are you almost a man yet the farthest point south?"
Gheal uttered a sort of deep-throated growl.
"Renzu says you can be vicious--that you're a killer at heart. Renzu said one of your kind killed Jimmy Brooks on the first expedition. You don't look like a killer. Brooks was a big man. You'd have a hard time killing him."
Gheal's sight-glands stared from Arlen to McFerson.
Arlen laughed and patted Gheal's hairless head and pointed to a built-in seat in the corner.
"You're welcome to stay here as long as you don't bother us," he said.
Gheal shuffled uneasily and whimpered, but he did not go to the seat. Instead, he turned and moved toward the door. The creature looked ridiculous, clad as he was only in a pair of Renzu's discarded trousers, which had been rolled at the bottom to fit his stubby legs.
At the door the Venusian hesitated and glanced back at the captain. Then he slowly turned and shuffled down the passageway.
"Hey you!" Captain Arlen shouted. "Come back here!"
Gheal did not stop. He was striding to Renzu's room. He pushed open the door.
A fear for Renzu's safety rushed into the captain's mind. He ran after the creature and entered Renzu's cabin. But as he opened the door he gasped in astonishment.
Gheal was crawling into a corner of the room, while Renzu stood nearby laughing.
"You see, Arlen," smiled Renzu, "I'm his master. He recognizes my authority and no one else's. He would not desert me, no matter how I treated him."
Renzu picked up the cane that Arlen had tossed on the bunk a few minutes before. As the scientist shook the stick at Gheal, Arlen thought he saw a look of satisfaction creep into the creature's face.
"Just the same," Arlen said, "I can't stand your beating him. He may enjoy it. He may be a masochist at heart, but I won't stand for it."
"Your mind is provincially human, Arlen," said Renzu. "When you look at Gheal you see the product of an entirely different evolution. You see a creature without emotions, without ethics. He's devoid of every terrestrial feeling, especially gratitude. He may even hate you for taking his side against me."
There was a trace of bitterness in Renzu's voice.
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