The Red Gem of Mercury by Henry Kuttner Page B

overwhelming curiosity. Would it be that for the first time in human history a—spaceship had reached the Earth? And its passenger—what would he be like?
    The two guards were kneeling beside the body, one of them trying to force brandy between the alien being’s lips. Vane’s captor halted behind them, his hand tightly gripping the lawyer’s arm. A whistle of amazement escaped his lips. “Jeez!” he muttered. “What a freak!”
    A freak, truly, Vane thought, in this world. Fully eight feet tall the being was, man-shaped, with a tremendous barrel chest and thick legs jointed in several places. The clothing was skin tight, ripped and torn to reveal greenish skin that gleamed with pale radiance.
    The lips, Vane saw, were broad, fleshy, and indigo-blue in color. And there was but one eye; the other had vanished in a crimson smear that matched in hue the red jewel that gleamed on the being’s forehead.
    Vane stared at the strange gem, conscious of an inexplicable fascination that seemed to radiate from it. Larger than a hen’s egg, it seemed to be embedded in the greenish flesh of the bulging forehead and the bone beneath.
    And—it lived!

Chapter 2 
    The Gift of Power
    One guard took the bottle from the bluish lips. “It’s dead,” he said slowly. “I don’t—”
    The monster groaned. The massive head turned. The single eye passed over the faces of the four men. Vane felt an odd sense of shock as the weird gaze focused briefly upon him.
    Simultaneously an icy chill shook Vane’s mind. He went sick, giddy, and momentarily blind. Beside him, he heard the guards gasp, and realized that they felt as he did.
    It passed. Vane heard a voice inside his mind.
    Inaudible, yes—but clearer than any bell-tone he heard it.
    â€œFor Gawd’s sake!” a guard said, amazedly. “I—I’m hearing things—” He paused.
    The inaudible voice commanded, “Silence!” And the word’s meaning was somehow as clear to Vane as it would have been if spoken aloud in modern English.
    â€œI am Zaravin,” the mental voice said. “I must give you four my message swiftly, for I have little time left. I am from … the planet you call Mercury. The innermost planet.”
    Vane tried to draw back, but could not. His muscles seemed frozen into paralysis. Sweat was cold on his forehead.
    Unreasoning horror of the unknown made his stomach a sick void. The telepathic voice went on.
    â€œListen…. Two months out from Mercury I fell ill … with the sleeping death. When I awoke, all was lost. The ship needed continual guidance. Since I could not carry sufficient fuel, I had to manufacture it on the way … and I awoke too late. There was not enough fuel for me to prevent this crash.” The jewel on Zaravin’s forehead flamed with red, baleful light. It held Vane’s gaze.
    The Mercutian went on: “It is the Stone from the Stars that you see. It is the bestower of all power. Ages ago it fell, embedded in a meteorite, brought from some alien Universe, perhaps … it is alive. All knowledge, all strength, is hidden in it. You doubt me, I see…. Jaeckel, Bester, Hanley….Stephen Vane…. How, then, do I know the names of you four?”
    There was silence. All around the green dust sparkled eerily, and drifted down from the trees. A chill wind blew up flurries of snow. The distant sound of the tumbling river seemed very loud in the utter silence.
    â€œThe Stone from the Stars gives all power,” Zaravin told the Earthmen soundlessly. “It is … what you call … symbiosis. For it lives, with a strange, silicate life of its own. Perhaps, in the unknown abyss from which it came, it drew its life-force from rays … alien suns…. I do not know. On Mercury, it feeds upon the life-energy of its host. And now I am its host.” The blue, fleshy lips twisted in pain. Shining blood