The Nipe stood quietly for a moment, looking down at the thing he hadkilled. His stomachs churned with disgust. He ignored the fadinghoofbeats of the slave-animal from which he had knocked the thing thatlay on the ground with a crushed skull. The slave-animal wasunintelligent and unimportant.
This was--had been--the intelligent one.
But so slow! So incredibly slow! And so weak and soft!
It seemed impossible that such a poorly equipped beast could havesurvived long enough on any world to become the dominant life-form.
Then again, perhaps it was not the dominant form. Perhaps it was merelya higher form of slave-animal. He would have to do more investigating.
He picked up the weapon the thing had been carrying and examined itcarefully. The mechanism was unfamiliar, but a glance at the muzzle toldhim it was a projectile weapon of some sort. The spiraling grooves inthe barrel were obviously intended to impart a spin to the projectile,to give it gyroscopic stability while in flight.
He tossed the weapon aside. Now there was a certain compassion in histhoughts as he looked again at the dead thing. It must surely havethought it was faced with a wild animal, the Nipe decided. Surely nobeing would carry a weapon for use against members of its own oranother intelligent species.
He examined the rest of the equipment on the thing. There was verylittle further information. The fabric in which it wrapped itself wascrude, but ingeniously put together, and its presence indicated that thebeing needed some sort of protection against the temperature. Itappeared to have a thermal insulating quality. Evidently the creaturewas used to a warmer climate. That served as additional information tohelp substantiate his observation from space that the areas farthersouth were the ones containing the major centers of population. The tiltof this planet on its axis would tend to give the weather a cyclicvariation, but it appeared that the areas around the poles remainedfairly cold even when the incidence of radiation from the primary was atmaximum.
It would have been good, he decided, if he had stopped the slave-animal.There had been more equipment on the thing's back which would have givenhim more information upon which to base a judgment as to the level ofcivilization of the dead being. That, however, was no longerpracticable, so he dismissed the thought from his mind.
The next question was, what should he do with the body?
Should he dispose of it properly, as one should with a validly slainfoe?
It didn't seem that he could do anything else, and yet his stomachswanted to rebel at the thought. After all, it wasn't as if the thingwere really a proper being. It was astonishing to find anotherintelligent race; none had ever been found before, although theexistence of such had been postulated. There were certain criteria thatmust be met by any such beings, however.
It must have manipulatory organs, such as this being very obviously didhave--organs very much like his own. But there were only two, whichargued that the being lacked dexterity. The organs for walking wereencased in protective clothing too stiff to allow them to be used asmanipulators.
He ripped off one of the boots and looked at the exposed foot. The thumbwas not opposed. Obviously such an organ was not much good formanipulation.
He pried open the eating orifice and inspected it carefully. Ah! Thecreature was omnivorous, judging by its teeth. There were both rendingand grinding teeth. That certainly argued for intelligence, since itshowed that the being could behave in a gentlemanly fashion. Still, itwas not conclusive.
If they _were_ intelligent, it was most certainly necessary for him toshow that he was also civilized and a gentleman. On the other hand, theslowness and lack of strength of this particular specimen argued thatthe species was of a lower order than the Nipe, which made the questioneven more puzzling.
In the end, the question was rendered unnecessary for the time being,since the problem was taken out of his hands.
A sound came from the ground a few yards away. It was an insistentbuzzing. Cautiously, the Nipe approached the thing.
_Buzz-buzz! Buzz-buzz-buzzzzzz!_
It was an instrument of some kind. He recognized it as the device thathe had seen the dead being speak into while he, himself, had beenwatching from the concealment of the undergrowth, trying to decidewhether or not to approach. The device was obviously a communicator ofsome kind, and someone at the other end was trying to make contact.
If it were not answered, whoever was calling would certainly deduce thatsomething had gone wrong at this end. And, of course, there was no wayfor it to be answered.
It would be necessary, then, to leave the body here for others of itskind to find. Doubtless they would dispose of it properly.
He would have to leave quickly. It was necessary that he find one oftheir centers of production or supply, and he would have to do it alone,with only the equipment he had on him. The utter destruction of his shiphad left him seriously hampered.
He began moving, staying in the protection of the trees. He had no wayof knowing whether investigators would come by air or on theslave-animals, and there was no point in taking chances.
His sense of ethics still bothered him. It was not at all civilized toleave a body at the mercy of lesser animals or monocells in thatfashion. What kind of monster would they think he was?
Still, there was no help for it. If they caught him, they might thinkhim a lower animal and shoot him. He would not have put an onus likethat upon them.