Jean Palmer shivered, held tightly to the trouble shooter's hand. "I know," she said, "I took off my helmet to adjust the oxygen valve, and I looked up to see that whitish thing at the corner of the hut. Before I could call out, something seemed to grab my mind—and then I was running toward the jungle. I tried to scream to you, when you found me gone, but I couldn't move."
Don Denton smiled, tightened his strong fingers over the girl's. "It's fairly easy to reconstruct from there on," he said carefully. "The slugs tried to get control of my mind. But because thought is of an electrical nature, absolute control wouldn't pass through the copper of my oxy-helmet. They set a scene to make me think I was crazy, and sent Palmer to take off my helmet."
"I remember that," Jim Palmer said thoughtfully.
Don Denton nodded. "Well," he went on, "their mental control was enough that it played tricks with my mind. They blanked out my vision when I looked at them, and later, they blacked out the sight of the freighters, trying to make me think that I was so crazy I should take off my helmet for an examination."
"I escaped from Palmer, went back to the Comet, then raced out of the ship to save Jean from a beating." He shook his head slightly when he saw the pain on Palmer's face. "Of course it was just a trick to get me outside without my helmet. Well, I fell for it; and the slugs took control, making me believe that Jim Palmer was the master mind engineering everything. But on entering the Comet, I slipped and fell beneath the ship's gravity-rotor. The field of gravity-energy neutralized the electricity of the thought waves—just as it blanks out the power of a flashlight—and I was able to think again. I blasted the slugs, got two portable rotors and fastened them to Palmer and myself, and the two of us cleaned out the slugs."
Don Denton flicked his gaze about the room. "Now, if you men intend to stay, you've got to wear tiny gravity-rotors on your heads. It apparently isn't the quantity of power put out that blankets the thought waves, it's possible to use a very weak power. I don't think the slugs will try anything again, but if they do, you shouldn't have any trouble getting rid of them."
"We're staying on," Jim Palmer said grimly, nodded approvingly at the confident glances given him by his men. "And I hope those damned things show up again. I'd like nothing better than to take an ati-blaster to a bunch of those uncanny devils."
He grinned suddenly, looked squarely into Don Denton's eyes.
"How about staying on for awhile?" he asked, "There might be a little excitement on this planet that you could dig up?"
Don Denton shook his head. "Sorry," he said, "but I've got a date with some friends of mine on Mars; we're going to explore some of the new tombs they discovered two months ago. I guess I'll be getting along."