Kerry Blane nodded. "Yes," he agreed, and his voice changed subtly. "Val was a blackguard, a criminal; but he died in the best traditions of the service." He sighed. "He never had a chance."
"Murdered!"
Kerry Blane smiled grimly. "I guess I used too broad an interpretation of the word," he said gently. "Anyway, one of our main tasks is to destroy the thing that killed him."
His lean fingers tightened unconsciously.
"I'd like nothing better than to turn a Zelta-blaster on that chunk of living protoplasm and cremate it."
Splinters shivered slightly. "Do you think we'll find it?" he asked.
Kerry Blane nodded. "I think it will find us; after all, it's just an animated appetite looking for food."
He turned back to the controls, flipped a switch, and the cutting of the nose rocket dropped the ship in an angling glide toward the clouds a few miles below. Gravity was full strength now, and although not as great as Earth's, was still strong enough to bring a sense of giddiness to the men.
"Here we go!" Splinter said tonelessly.
The great cottony batts of roiling clouds rushed up to meet the ship, bringing the first sense of violent movement in more than a week of flying. There was something awesome and breath-taking in the speed with which the ship dropped toward the planet.