Free Big Book of Science Fiction by Groff Conklin Page B

than fifteen feet in diameter,
went completely unnoticed, as its operator intended. It was armed, of course,
but its purpose was not destruction. If this ship, whose entire crew consisted
of one individual, were successful in its mission then a great ship would come,
wiping out the entire population of cities before anyone suspected the danger.
     
    But this lone Qul-En was seeking
a complex hormone substance which Qul-En medical science said theoretically
must exist, but the molecule of which even the Qul-En- could not synthesize
directly. Yet it had to be found, in great quantity; once discovered, the
problem of obtaining it would be taken up, with the resources of the whole race
behind it. But first it had to be found.
     
    The tiny ship assigned to explore
the Solar System for the hormone wished to pass unnoticed. Its mission of
discovery should be accomplished in secrecy if possible. For one thing, the
desired hormone would be destroyed by contact with the typical Qul-En ray-gun
beam, so that normal methods of securing zoological specimens could not be
used.
     
    The ship winked into being in
empty space, not far from Neptune. It drove for that chilly planet, hovered
about it, and decided not to land. It sped inward toward the sun and touched
briefly on Io, but found no life there. It dropped into the atmosphere of Mars,
and did not rise again for a full week, but the vegetation on Mars is thin and
the animals mere degenerate survivors of once specialized forms. The ship came
to Earth, hovered lightly at the atmosphere’s very edge for a long time, and
doubtless chose its point of descent for reasons that seemed good to its
occupant. Then it landed.
     
    It actually touched Earth at
night. There was no rocket-drive to call attention and by dawn it was well
concealed. Only one living creature had seen it land—a mountain lion. Even so,
by midday the skeleton of the lion was picked clean by buzzards, with ants
tidying up after them. And the Qul-En in the ship was enormously pleased. The
carcass, before being abandoned to the buzzards, had been studied with an
incredible competence. The lion’s nervous system—particularly the mass of
tissue in the skull—unquestionably contained either the desired hormone itself,
or something so close to it that it could be modified and the hormone produced.
It remained only to discover how large a supply of the precious material could
be found on Earth. It was not feasible to destroy a group of animals—say, of
the local civilized race—and examine their bodies, because the hormone would be
broken down by the weapon which allowed of a search for it. So an estimate of
available sources would have to be made by sampling. The Qul-En in the ship
prepared to take samples.
     
    The ship had landed in tumbled
country some forty miles south of Ensenada Springs, national forest territory,
on which grazing-rights were allotted to sheep-ranchers after illimitable red
tape. Within ten miles of the hidden ship there were rabbits, birds, deer,
coyotes, a lobo wolf or two, assorted chipmunks, field-mice, perhaps as many as
three or four mountain lions, one flock of two thousand sheep, one man, and one
dog.
     
    The man was Antonio Menendez. He
was ancient, unwashed, and ignorant, and the official shepherd of the sheep.
The dog was Salazar, of dubious ancestry but sound worth, who actually took
care of the sheep and knew it; he was scarred from battles done in their
defense. He was unweariedly solicitous of the wooly half-wits in his charge.
There were whole hours when he could not find time to scratch himself, because
of his duties. He was reasonably fond of Antonio, but knew that the man did not
really understand sheep.
     
    Besides these creatures, among
whom the Qul-En expected to find its samples, there were insects. These,
however, the tiny alien being disregarded. It would not be practical to get any
great quantity of the substance it sought from such small organisms.
     
    By nightfall of