I did see Badger again. He came to visit me one day shortly after I bought my new house on the Pacific Palisades. I had been reinstated, and I was doing well again as a spaceship captain. I owe it all to Stan. It wouldn't have happened if he hadn't stolen that ship, which brought the whole thing to the attention of the authorities and resulted in the reopening of my old case. This time a jury found for me, and against Bio-Pharm.
Badger arrived when I was between flights. He just wanted to say hello. We talked a while. Potter had brought him back to Earth in the Lancet, after he'd fixed the damage Gill caused.
“He didn't like me,” Badger said cheerfully, “but he couldn't very well kick me out. I was the one who'd tipped him off to you and the doctor.”
“And got Stan killed,” I pointed out.
“He did his best to get me killed,” Badger said.
“That was not intentional.”
“No? Well, neither was my blowing the whistle on you to Potter. I was just trying to save my own life.”
I didn't know what to say to that.
Badger was curious about one thing. When we'd gone back to get Stan and Julie, why had we only found two aliens, instead of the hordes that had been swarming over the harvester? And why hadn't they gotten to Julie?
“That bothers me, too,” I said. “No one will ever really know. But I've got a theory.”
“I'd like to hear it,” Badger said.
“I figure there'd be communication of some sort between the aliens and their queen. I think she sent them an order that overrode everything else they were doing.”
“Why do you think that?”
“You know all that royal jelly that Potter's men had packed into the harvester? It was gone, all of it. I think the queen told them the first thing to do was to recover all the stolen royal jelly and bring it back to the hive. Then they could go back and finish off whatever humans were left. But we had come and gone by then. I can never prove it, but that's what I think happened.”
Badger stared at me, taking it in. I began to laugh. Badger said, “What's so funny?”
“It's not really funny,” I said. “But it is ironic. That the royal jelly that was ultimately responsible for Stan's death should also be responsible for saving Julie's life.”
ROBERT SHECKLEY is the author of over fifty books in science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. His novel Immorality, Inc. was recently made into the movie Freejack. The cult classic The Tenth Victim was made from his original short story. Mr. Sheckley is a New Yorker currently residing in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and children.