‘It would be better if they did. They do not: they just cease to be human - we know this because Hoopers have been stranded and unable to obtain Dome-grown food . . . Peck, it seems, had been taken by one of these creatures that had once been human - a creature they called the Skinner, because of its unpleasant habits. I, of course, wanted to see it for myself, and demanded that I go ashore with them in their attempt to rescue Peck. I think what finally persuaded them was the surgical laser I carried. I’d managed to remove its safety limiters and then had an effective weapon.’
‘So . . . you went ashore.’
‘Yes, we went ashore and we saw this Skinner.’ Erlin stared down at the water and proceeded to give a clinical description of the beast. Janer might not have believed her, had he not seen some strange and frightening things in his time. When she had finished her description she paused for a while before going on with, ‘When it came at us it was waving something in its right hand. Ambel put a hole in it with his blunderbuss and Anne and Pland got it with harpoons. When I saw what the creature was holding I joined in the fight. I cut it with my laser, and I tell you that was no easy task - then I crawled away to spew up my guts. The other three used my laser to finish the job on the thing.’
‘What did it have in its hand?’ Janer asked, getting right to the point, even though he thought he might already know the answer.
‘It was Peck’s entire skin.’
‘Jesu! The poor bastard.’
Erlin gazed at him now with a slightly crazy look in her eyes. ‘Yes, he was. When you meet him you’ll have to ask him all about it,’ she said.
‘What,’ said Janer, ‘he survived?’
‘Oh yes. Ambel picked up his skin and we went to find him. When we found him, skinless, writhing in a bowl-shaped rock, I tried to put him out of his misery. Ambel knocked the laser out of my hand, then he, Anne, and Pland proceeded to dress Peck again in his own skin.’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘Am I? You know what sticks in my mind the most?’
‘What?’
‘How they punched holes through his skin to let the air bubbles escape ... so they could squeeze the air out through the punctures. They carried him back to the boat and out to the ship, but he managed to climb on board himself. There, you see, the raw extremes . . . those are what I saw.’
Janer watched her as she stared into the descending night. Perhaps she was a bit deranged. He did not want to openly call her a liar.