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[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net CULTURAL EXCHANGE BY KEITH LAUMER It was a simple student exchange—but Retief gave them more of an education than they expected! [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] I Second Secretary Magnan took his green-lined cape and orange-feathered beret from the clothes tree. [5] "I'm off now, Retief," he said. [6] "I hope you'll manage the administrative routine during my absence without any unfortunate incidents." [7] "That seems a modest enough hope," Retief said. [8] "I'll try to live up to it." [9] "I don't appreciate frivolity with reference to this Division," Magnan said testily. [10] "When I first came here, the Manpower Utilization Directorate, Division of Libraries and Education was a shambles. [11] I fancy I've made MUDDLE what it is today. [12] Frankly, I question the wisdom of placing you in charge of such a sensitive desk, even for two weeks. [13] But remember. [14] Yours is purely a rubber-stamp function." [15] "In that case, let's leave it to Miss Furkle. [16] I'll take a couple of weeks off myself. [17] With her poundage, she could bring plenty of pressure to bear." [18] "I assume you jest, Retief," Magnan said sadly. [19] "I should expect even you to appreciate that Bogan participation in the Exchange Program may be the first step toward sublimation of their aggressions into more cultivated channels." [20] "I see they're sending two thousand students to d'Land," Retief said, glancing at the Memo for Record. [21] "That's a sizable sublimation." [22] Magnan nodded. [23] "The Bogans have launched no less than four military campaigns in the last two decades. [24] They're known as the Hoodlums of the Nicodemean Cluster. [25] Now, perhaps, we shall see them breaking that precedent and entering into the cultural life of the Galaxy." [26] "Breaking and entering," Retief said. [27] "You may have something there. [28] But I'm wondering what they'll study on d'Land. [29] That's an industrial world of the poor but honest variety." [30] "Academic details are the affair of the students and their professors," Magnan said. [31] "Our function is merely to bring them together. [32] See that you don't antagonize the Bogan representative. [33] This will be an excellent opportunity for you to practice your diplomatic restraint—not your strong point, I'm sure you'll agree." [34] A buzzer sounded. [35] Retief punched a button. [36] "What is it, Miss Furkle?" [37] "That—bucolic person from Lovenbroy is here again." [38] On the small desk screen, Miss Furkle's meaty features were compressed in disapproval. [39] "This fellow's a confounded pest. [40] I'll leave him to you, Retief," Magnan said. [41] "Tell him something. [42] Get rid of him. [43] And remember: here at Corps HQ, all eyes are upon you." [44] "If I'd thought of that, I'd have worn my other suit," Retief said. [45] Magnan snorted and passed from view. [46] Retief punched Miss Furkle's button. [47] "Send the bucolic person in." [48] A tall broad man with bronze skin and gray hair, wearing tight trousers of heavy cloth, a loose shirt open at the neck and a short jacket, stepped into the room. [49] He had a bundle under his arm. [50] He paused at sight of Retief, looked him over momentarily, then advanced and held out his hand. [51] Retief took it. [52] For a moment the two big men stood, face to face. [53] The newcomer's jaw muscles knotted. [54] Then he winced. [55] Retief dropped his hand and motioned to a chair. [56] "That's nice knuckle work, mister," the stranger said, massaging his hand. [57] "First time anybody ever did that to me. [58] My fault though. [59] I started it, I guess." [60] He grinned and sat down. [61] "What can I do for you?" [62] Retief said. [63] "You work for this Culture bunch, do you? [64] Funny. [65] I thought they were all ribbon-counter boys. [66] Never mind. [67] I'm Hank Arapoulous. [68] I'm a farmer. [69] What I wanted to see you about was—" He shifted in his chair. [70] "Well, out on Lovenbroy we've got a serious problem. [71] The wine crop is just about ready. [72] We start picking in another two, three months. [73] Now I don't know if you're familiar with the Bacchus vines we grow...?" [74] "No," Retief said. [75] "Have a cigar?" [76] He pushed a box across the desk. [77] Arapoulous took one. [78] "Bacchus vines are an unusual crop," he said, puffing the cigar alight. [79] "Only mature every twelve years. [80] In between, the vines don't need a lot of attention, so our time's mostly our own. [81] We like to farm, though. [82] Spend a lot of time developing new forms. [83] Apples the size of a melon—and sweet—" "Sounds very pleasant," Retief said. [84] "Where does the Libraries and Education Division come in?" [85] Arapoulous leaned forward. [86] "We go in pretty heavy for the arts. [87] Folks can't spend all their time hybridizing plants. [88] We've turned all the land area we've got into parks and farms. [89] Course, we left some sizable forest areas for hunting and such. [90] Lovenbroy's a nice place, Mr. [91] Retief." [92] "It sounds like it, Mr. Arapoulous. [93] Just what—" "Call me Hank. [94] We've got long seasons back home. [95] Five of 'em. [96] Our year's about eighteen Terry months. [97] Cold as hell in winter; eccentric orbit, you know. [98] Blue-black sky, stars visible all day. [99] We do mostly painting and sculpture in the winter. [100] Then Spring; still plenty cold. [101] Lots of skiing, bob-sledding, ice skating; and it's the season for woodworkers. [102] Our furniture—" "I've seen some of your furniture," Retief said. [103] "Beautiful work." [104] Arapoulous nodded. [105] "All local timbers too. [106] Lots of metals in our soil and those sulphates give the woods some color, I'll tell you. [107] Then comes the Monsoon. [108] Rain—it comes down in sheets. [109] But the sun's getting closer. [110] Shines all the time. [111] Ever seen it pouring rain in the sunshine? [112] That's the music-writing season. [113] Then summer. [114] Summer's hot. [115] We stay inside in the daytime and have beach parties all night. [116] Lots of beach on Lovenbroy; we're mostly islands. [117] That's the drama and symphony time. [118] The theatres are set up on the sand, or anchored off-shore. [119] You have the music and the surf and the bonfires and stars—we're close to the center of a globular cluster, you know...." "You say it's time now for the wine crop?" [120] "That's right. [121] Autumn's our harvest season. [122] Most years we have just the ordinary crops. [123] Fruit, grain, that kind of thing; getting it in doesn't take long. [124] We spend most of the time on architecture, getting new places ready for the winter or remodeling the older ones. [125] We spend a lot of time in our houses. [126] We like to have them comfortable. [127] But this year's different. [128] This is Wine Year." [129] Arapoulous puffed on his cigar, looked worriedly at Retief. [130] "Our wine crop is our big money crop," he said. [131] "We make enough to keep us going. [132] But this year...." "The crop isn't panning out?" [133] "Oh, the crop's fine. [134] One of the best I can remember. [135] Course, I'm only twenty-eight; I can't remember but two other harvests. [136] The problem's not the crop." [137] "Have you lost your markets? [138] That sounds like a matter for the Commercial—" "Lost our markets? [139] Mister, nobody that ever tasted our wines ever settled for anything else!" [140] "It sounds like I've been missing something," said Retief. [141] "I'll have to try them some time." [142] Arapoulous put his bundle on the desk, pulled off the wrappings. [143] "No time like the present," he said. [144] Retief looked at the two squat bottles, one green, one amber, both dusty, with faded labels, and blackened corks secured by wire. [145] "Drinking on duty is frowned on in the Corps, Mr. Arapoulous," he said. [146] "This isn't drinking . [147] It's just wine." [148] Arapoulous pulled the wire retainer loose, thumbed the cork. [149] It rose slowly, then popped in the air. [150] Arapoulous caught it. [151] Aromatic fumes wafted from the bottle. [152] "Besides, my feelings would be hurt if you didn't join me." [153] He winked. [154] Retief took two thin-walled glasses from a table beside the desk. [155] "Come to think of it, we also have to be careful about violating quaint native customs." [156] Arapoulous filled the glasses. [157] Retief picked one up, sniffed the deep rust-colored fluid, tasted it, then took a healthy swallow. [158] He looked at Arapoulous thoughtfully. [159] "Hmmm. [160] It tastes like salted pecans, with an undercurrent of crusted port." [161] "Don't try to describe it, Mr. Retief," Arapoulous said. [162] He took a mouthful of wine, swished it around his teeth, swallowed. [163] "It's Bacchus wine, that's all. [164] Nothing like it in the Galaxy." [165] He pushed the second bottle toward Retief. [166] "The custom back home is to alternate red wine and black." [167] Retief put aside his cigar, pulled the wires loose, nudged the cork, caught it as it popped up. [168] "Bad luck if you miss the cork," Arapoulous said, nodding. [169] "You probably never heard about the trouble we had on Lovenbroy a few years back?" [170] "Can't say that I did, Hank." [171] Retief poured the black wine into two fresh glasses. [172] "Here's to the harvest." [173] "We've got plenty of minerals on Lovenbroy," Arapoulous said, swallowing wine. [174] "But we don't plan to wreck the landscape mining 'em. [175] We like to farm. [176] About ten years back some neighbors of ours landed a force. [177] They figured they knew better what to do with our minerals than we did. [178] Wanted to strip-mine, smelt ore. We convinced 'em otherwise. [179] But it took a year, and we lost a lot of men." [180] "That's too bad," Retief said. [181] "I'd say this one tastes more like roast beef and popcorn over a Riesling base." [182] "It put us in a bad spot," Arapoulous went on. [183] "We had to borrow money from a world called Croanie. [184] Mortgaged our crops. [185] Had to start exporting art work too. [186] Plenty of buyers, but it's not the same when you're doing it for strangers." [187] "Say, this business of alternating drinks is the real McCoy," Retief said. [188] "What's the problem? [189] Croanie about to foreclose?" [190] "Well, the loan's due. [191] The wine crop would put us in the clear. [192] But we need harvest hands. [193] Picking Bacchus grapes isn't a job you can turn over to machinery—and anyway we wouldn't if we could. [194] Vintage season is the high point of living on Lovenbroy. [195] Everybody joins in. [196] First, there's the picking in the fields. [197] Miles and miles of vineyards covering the mountain sides, and crowding the river banks, with gardens here and there. [198] Big vines, eight feet high, loaded with fruit, and deep grass growing between. [199] The wine-carriers keep on the run, bringing wine to the pickers. [200] There's prizes for the biggest day's output, bets on who can fill the most baskets in an hour.... [201] The sun's high and bright, and it's just cool enough to give you plenty of energy. [202] Come nightfall, the tables are set up in the garden plots, and the feast is laid on: roast turkeys, beef, hams, all kinds of fowl. [203] Big salads. [204] Plenty of fruit. [205] Fresh-baked bread ... and wine, plenty of wine. [206] The cooking's done by a different crew each night in each garden, and there's prizes for the best crews. [207] "Then the wine-making. [208] We still tramp out the vintage. [209] That's mostly for the young folks but anybody's welcome. [210] That's when things start to get loosened up. [211] Matter of fact, pretty near half our young-uns are born after a vintage. [212] All bets are off then. [213] It keeps a fellow on his toes though. [214] Ever tried to hold onto a gal wearing nothing but a layer of grape juice?" [215] "Never did," Retief said. [216] "You say most of the children are born after a vintage. [217] That would make them only twelve years old by the time—" "Oh, that's Lovenbroy years; they'd be eighteen, Terry reckoning." [218] "I was thinking you looked a little mature for twenty-eight," Retief said. [219] "Forty-two, Terry years," Arapoulous said. [220] "But this year it looks bad. [221] We've got a bumper crop—and we're short-handed. [222] If we don't get a big vintage, Croanie steps in. [223] Lord knows what they'll do to the land. [224] Then next vintage time, with them holding half our grape acreage—" "You hocked the vineyards?" [225] "Yep. [226] Pretty dumb, huh? [227] But we figured twelve years was a long time." [228] "On the whole," Retief said, "I think I prefer the black. [229] But the red is hard to beat...." "What we figured was, maybe you Culture boys could help us out. [230] A loan to see us through the vintage, enough to hire extra hands. [231] Then we'd repay it in sculpture, painting, furniture—" "Sorry, Hank. [232] All we do here is work out itineraries for traveling side-shows, that kind of thing. [233] Now, if you needed a troop of Groaci nose-flute players—" "Can they pick grapes?" [234] "Nope. [235] Anyway, they can't stand the daylight. [236] Have you talked this over with the Labor Office?" [237] "Sure did. [238] They said they'd fix us up with all the electronics specialists and computer programmers we wanted—but no field hands. [239] Said it was what they classified as menial drudgery; you'd have thought I was trying to buy slaves." [240] The buzzer sounded. [241] Miss Furkle's features appeared on the desk screen. [242] "You're due at the Intergroup Council in five minutes," she said. [243] "Then afterwards, there are the Bogan students to meet." [244] "Thanks." [245] Retief finished his glass, stood. [246] "I have to run, Hank," he said. [247] "Let me think this over. [248] Maybe I can come up with something. [249] Check with me day after tomorrow. [250] And you'd better leave the bottles here. [251] Cultural exhibits, you know." [252] II As the council meeting broke up, Retief caught the eye of a colleague across the table. [253] "Mr. Whaffle, you mentioned a shipment going to a place called Croanie. [254] What are they getting?" [255] Whaffle blinked. [256] "You're the fellow who's filling in for Magnan, over at MUDDLE," he said. [257] "Properly speaking, equipment grants are the sole concern of the Motorized Equipment Depot, Division of Loans and Exchanges." [258] He pursed his lips. [259] "However, I suppose there's no harm in telling you. [260] They'll be receiving heavy mining equipment." [261] "Drill rigs, that sort of thing?" [262] "Strip mining gear." [263] Whaffle took a slip of paper from a breast pocket, blinked at it. [264] "Bolo Model WV/1 tractors, to be specific. [265] Why is MUDDLE interested in MEDDLE's activities?" [266] "Forgive my curiosity, Mr. Whaffle. [267] It's just that Croanie cropped up earlier today. [268] It seems she holds a mortgage on some vineyards over on—" "That's not MEDDLE's affair, sir," Whaffle cut in. [269] "I have sufficient problems as Chief of MEDDLE without probing into MUDDLE'S business." [270] "Speaking of tractors," another man put in, "we over at the Special Committee for Rehabilitation and Overhaul of Under-developed Nations' General Economies have been trying for months to get a request for mining equipment for d'Land through MEDDLE—" "SCROUNGE was late on the scene," Whaffle said. [271] "First come, first served. [272] That's our policy at MEDDLE. [273] Good day, gentlemen." [274] He strode off, briefcase under his arm. [275] "That's the trouble with peaceful worlds," the SCROUNGE committeeman said. [276] "Boge is a troublemaker, so every agency in the Corps is out to pacify her. [277] While my chance to make a record—that is, assist peace-loving d'Land—comes to naught." [278] He shook his head. [279] "What kind of university do they have on d'Land?" [280] asked Retief. [281] "We're sending them two thousand exchange students. [282] It must be quite an institution." [283] "University? [284] D'Land has one under-endowed technical college." [285] "Will all the exchange students be studying at the Technical College?" [286] "Two thousand students? [287] Hah! [288] Two hundred students would overtax the facilities of the college." [289] "I wonder if the Bogans know that?" [290] "The Bogans? [291] Why, most of d'Land's difficulties are due to the unwise trade agreement she entered into with Boge. [292] Two thousand students indeed!" [293] He snorted and walked away. [294] Retief stopped by the office to pick up a short cape, then rode the elevator to the roof of the 230-story Corps HQ building and hailed a cab to the port. [295] The Bogan students had arrived early. [296] Retief saw them lined up on the ramp waiting to go through customs. [297] It would be half an hour before they were cleared through. [298] He turned into the bar and ordered a beer. [299] A tall young fellow on the next stool raised his glass. [300] "Happy days," he said. [301] "And nights to match." [302] "You said it." [303] He gulped half his beer. [304] "My name's Karsh. [305] Mr. Karsh. [306] Yep, Mr. Karsh. [307] Boy, this is a drag, sitting around this place waiting...." "You meeting somebody?" [308] "Yeah. [309] Bunch of babies. [310] Kids. [311] How they expect—Never mind. [312] Have one on me." [313] "Thanks. [314] You a Scoutmaster?" [315] "I'll tell you what I am. [316] I'm a cradle-robber. [317] You know—" he turned to Retief—"not one of those kids is over eighteen." [318] He hiccupped. [319] "Students, you know. [320] Never saw a student with a beard, did you?" [321] "Lots of times. [322] You're meeting the students, are you?" [323] The young fellow blinked at Retief. [324] "Oh, you know about it, huh?" [325] "I represent MUDDLE." [326] Karsh finished his beer, ordered another. [327] "I came on ahead. [328] Sort of an advance guard for the kids. [329] I trained 'em myself. [330] Treated it like a game, but they can handle a CSU. [331] Don't know how they'll act under pressure. [332] If I had my old platoon—" He looked at his beer glass, pushed it back. [333] "Had enough," he said. [334] "So long, friend. [335] Or are you coming along?" [336] Retief nodded. [337] "Might as well." [338] At the exit to the Customs enclosure, Retief watched as the first of the Bogan students came through, caught sight of Karsh and snapped to attention, his chest out. [339] "Drop that, mister," Karsh snapped. [340] "Is that any way for a student to act?" [341] The youth, a round-faced lad with broad shoulders, grinned. [342] "Heck, no," he said. [343] "Say, uh, Mr. Karsh, are we gonna get to go to town? [344] We fellas were thinking—" "You were, hah? [345] You act like a bunch of school kids! [346] I mean ... no! [347] Now line up!" [348] "We have quarters ready for the students," Retief said. [349] "If you'd like to bring them around to the west side, I have a couple of copters laid on." [350] "Thanks," said Karsh. [351] "They'll stay here until take-off time. [352] Can't have the little dears wandering around loose. [353] Might get ideas about going over the hill." [354] He hiccupped. [355] "I mean they might play hookey." [356] "We've scheduled your re-embarkation for noon tomorrow. [357] That's a long wait. [358] MUDDLE's arranged theater tickets and a dinner." [359] "Sorry," Karsh said. [360] "As soon as the baggage gets here, we're off." [361] He hiccupped again. [362] "Can't travel without our baggage, y'know." [363] "Suit yourself," Retief said. [364] "Where's the baggage now?" [365] "Coming in aboard a Croanie lighter." [366] "Maybe you'd like to arrange for a meal for the students here." [367] "Sure," Karsh said. [368] "That's a good idea. [369] Why don't you join us?" [370] Karsh winked. [371] "And bring a few beers." [372] "Not this time," Retief said. [373] He watched the students, still emerging from Customs. [374] "They seem to be all boys," he commented. [375] "No female students?" [376] "Maybe later," Karsh said. [377] "You know, after we see how the first bunch is received." [378] Back at the MUDDLE office, Retief buzzed Miss Furkle. [379] "Do you know the name of the institution these Bogan students are bound for?" [380] "Why, the University at d'Land, of course." [381] "Would that be the Technical College?" [382] Miss Furkle's mouth puckered. [383] "I'm sure I've never pried into these details." [384] "Where does doing your job stop and prying begin, Miss Furkle?" [385] Retief said. [386] "Personally, I'm curious as to just what it is these students are travelling so far to study—at Corps expense." [387] "Mr. Magnan never—" "For the present. [388] Miss Furkle, Mr. Magnan is vacationing. [389] That leaves me with the question of two thousand young male students headed for a world with no classrooms for them ... a world in need of tractors. [390] But the tractors are on their way to Croanie, a world under obligation to Boge. [391] And Croanie holds a mortgage on the best grape acreage on Lovenbroy." [392] "Well!" [393] Miss Furkle snapped, small eyes glaring under unplucked brows. [394] "I hope you're not questioning Mr. Magnan's wisdom!" [395] "About Mr. Magnan's wisdom there can be no question," Retief said. [396] "But never mind. [397] I'd like you to look up an item for me. [398] How many tractors will Croanie be getting under the MEDDLE program?" [399] "Why, that's entirely MEDDLE business," Miss Furkle said. [400] "Mr. Magnan always—" "I'm sure he did. [401] Let me know about the tractors as soon as you can." [402] Miss Furkle sniffed and disappeared from the screen. [403] Retief left the office, descended forty-one stories, followed a corridor to the Corps Library. [404] In the stacks he thumbed through catalogues, pored over indices. [405] "Can I help you?" [406] someone chirped. [407] A tiny librarian stood at his elbow. [408] "Thank you, ma'am," Retief said. [409] "I'm looking for information on a mining rig. [410] A Bolo model WV tractor." [411] "You won't find it in the industrial section," the librarian said. [412] "Come along." [413] Retief followed her along the stacks to a well-lit section lettered ARMAMENTS. [414] She took a tape from the shelf, plugged it into the viewer, flipped through and stopped at a squat armored vehicle. [415] "That's the model WV," she said. [416] "It's what is known as a continental siege unit. [417] It carries four men, with a half-megaton/second firepower." [418] "There must be an error somewhere," Retief said. [419] "The Bolo model I want is a tractor. [420] Model WV M-1—" "Oh, the modification was the addition of a bulldozer blade for demolition work. [421] That must be what confused you." [422] "Probably—among other things. [423] Thank you." [424] Miss Furkle was waiting at the office. [425] "I have the information you wanted," she said. [426] "I've had it for over ten minutes. [427] I was under the impression you needed it urgently, and I went to great lengths—" "Sure," Retief said. [428] "Shoot. [429] How many tractors?" [430] "Five hundred." [431] "Are you sure?" [432] Miss Furkle's chins quivered. [433] "Well! [434] If you feel I'm incompetent—" "Just questioning the possibility of a mistake, Miss Furkle. [435] Five hundred tractors is a lot of equipment." [436] "Was there anything further?" [437] Miss Furkle inquired frigidly. [438] "I sincerely hope not," Retief said. [439] III Leaning back in Magnan's padded chair with power swivel and hip-u-matic concontour, Retief leafed through a folder labelled "CERP 7-602-Ba; CROANIE (general)." [440] He paused at a page headed Industry. [441] Still reading, he opened the desk drawer, took out the two bottles of Bacchus wine and two glasses. [442] He poured an inch of wine into each and sipped the black wine meditatively. [443] It would be a pity, he reflected, if anything should interfere with the production of such vintages.... Half an hour later he laid the folder aside, keyed the phone and put through a call to the Croanie Legation. [444] He asked for the Commercial Attache. [445] "Retief here, Corps HQ," he said airily. [446] "About the MEDDLE shipment, the tractors. [447] I'm wondering if there's been a slip up. [448] My records show we're shipping five hundred units...." "That's correct. [449] Five hundred." [450] Retief waited. [451] "Ah ... are you there, Retief?" [452] "I'm still here. [453] And I'm still wondering about the five hundred tractors." [454] "It's perfectly in order. [455] I thought it was all settled. [456] Mr. Whaffle—" "One unit would require a good-sized plant to handle its output," Retief said. [457] "Now Croanie subsists on her fisheries. [458] She has perhaps half a dozen pint-sized processing plants. [459] Maybe, in a bind, they could handle the ore ten WV's could scrape up ... if Croanie had any ore. [460] It doesn't. [461] By the way, isn't a WV a poor choice as a mining outfit? [462] I should think—" "See here, Retief! [463] Why all this interest in a few surplus tractors? [464] And in any event, what business is it of yours how we plan to use the equipment? [465] That's an internal affair of my government. [466] Mr. Whaffle—" "I'm not Mr. Whaffle. [467] What are you going to do with the other four hundred and ninety tractors?" [468] "I understood the grant was to be with no strings attached!" [469] "I know it's bad manners to ask questions. [470] It's an old diplomatic tradition that any time you can get anybody to accept anything as a gift, you've scored points in the game. [471] But if Croanie has some scheme cooking—" "Nothing like that, Retief. [472] It's a mere business transaction." [473] "What kind of business do you do with a Bolo WV? [474] With or without a blade attached, it's what's known as a continental siege unit." [475] "Great Heavens, Retief! [476] Don't jump to conclusions! [477] Would you have us branded as warmongers? [478] Frankly—is this a closed line?" [479] "Certainly. [480] You may speak freely." [481] "The tractors are for transshipment. [482] We've gotten ourselves into a difficult situation, balance-of-payments-wise. [483] This is an accommodation to a group with which we have rather strong business ties." [484] "I understand you hold a mortgage on the best land on Lovenbroy," Retief said. [485] "Any connection?" [486] "Why ... ah ... no. [487] Of course not, ha ha." [488] "Who gets the tractors eventually?" [489] "Retief, this is unwarranted interference!" [490] "Who gets them?" [491] "They happen to be going to Lovenbroy. [492] But I scarcely see—" "And who's the friend you're helping out with an unauthorized transshipment of grant material?" [493] "Why ... ah ... [494] I've been working with a Mr. Gulver, a Bogan representative." [495] "And when will they be shipped?" [496] "Why, they went out a week ago. [497] They'll be half way there by now. [498] But look here, Retief, this isn't what you're thinking!" [499] "How do you know what I'm thinking? [500] I don't know myself." [501] Retief rang off, buzzed the secretary. [502] "Miss Furkle, I'd like to be notified immediately of any new applications that might come in from the Bogan Consulate for placement of students." [503] "Well, it happens, by coincidence, that I have an application here now. [504] Mr. Gulver of the Consulate brought it in." [505] "Is Mr. Gulver in the office? [506] I'd like to see him." [507] "I'll ask him if he has time." [508] "Great. [509] Thanks." [510] It was half a minute before a thick-necked red-faced man in a tight hat walked in. [511] He wore an old-fashioned suit, a drab shirt, shiny shoes with round toes and an ill-tempered expression. [512] "What is it you wish?" [513] he barked. [514] "I understood in my discussions with the other ... ah ... civilian there'd be no further need for these irritating conferences." [515] "I've just learned you're placing more students abroad, Mr. Gulver. [516] How many this time?" [517] "Two thousand." [518] "And where will they be going?" [519] "Croanie. [520] It's all in the application form I've handed in. [521] Your job is to provide transportation." [522] "Will there be any other students embarking this season?" [523] "Why ... perhaps. [524] That's Boge's business." [525] Gulver looked at Retief with pursed lips. [526] "As a matter of fact, we had in mind dispatching another two thousand to Featherweight." [527] "Another under-populated world—and in the same cluster, I believe," Retief said. [528] "Your people must be unusually interested in that region of space." [529] "If that's all you wanted to know, I'll be on my way. [530] I have matters of importance to see to." [531] After Gulver left, Retief called Miss Furkle in. [532] "I'd like to have a break-out of all the student movements that have been planned under the present program," he said. [533] "And see if you can get a summary of what MEDDLE has been shipping lately." [534] Miss Furkle compressed her lips. [535] "If Mr. Magnan were here, I'm sure he wouldn't dream of interfering in the work of other departments. [536] I ... overheard your conversation with the gentleman from the Croanie Legation—" "The lists, Miss Furkle." [537] "I'm not accustomed," Miss Furkle said, "to intruding in matters outside our interest cluster." [538] "That's worse than listening in on phone conversations, eh? [539] But never mind. [540] I need the information, Miss Furkle." [541] "Loyalty to my Chief—" "Loyalty to your pay-check should send you scuttling for the material I've asked for," Retief said. [542] "I'm taking full responsibility. [543] Now scat." [544] The buzzer sounded. [545] Retief flipped a key. [546] "MUDDLE, Retief speaking...." Arapoulous's brown face appeared on the desk screen. [547] "How-do, Retief. [548] Okay if I come up?" [549] "Sure, Hank. [550] I want to talk to you." [551] In the office, Arapoulous took a chair. [552] "Sorry if I'm rushing you, Retief," he said. [553] "But have you got anything for me?" [554] Retief waved at the wine bottles. [555] "What do you know about Croanie?" [556] "Croanie? [557] Not much of a place. [558] Mostly ocean. [559] All right if you like fish, I guess. [560] We import our seafood from there. [561] Nice prawns in monsoon time. [562] Over a foot long." [563] "You on good terms with them?" [564] "Sure, I guess so. [565] Course, they're pretty thick with Boge." [566] "So?" [567] "Didn't I tell you? [568] Boge was the bunch that tried to take us over here a dozen years back. [569] They'd've made it too, if they hadn't had a lot of bad luck. [570] Their armor went in the drink, and without armor they're easy game." [571] Miss Furkle buzzed. [572] "I have your lists," she said shortly. [573] "Bring them in, please." [574] The secretary placed the papers on the desk. [575] Arapoulous caught her eye and grinned. [576] She sniffed and marched from the room. [577] "What that gal needs is a slippery time in the grape mash," Arapoulous observed. [578] Retief thumbed through the papers, pausing to read from time to time. [579] He finished and looked at Arapoulous. [580] "How many men do you need for the harvest, Hank?" [581] Retief inquired. [582] Arapoulous sniffed his wine glass and looked thoughtful. [583] "A hundred would help," he said. [584] "A thousand would be better. [585] Cheers." [586] "What would you say to two thousand?" [587] "Two thousand? [588] Retief, you're not fooling?" [589] "I hope not." [590] He picked up the phone, called the Port Authority, asked for the dispatch clerk. [591] "Hello, Jim. [592] Say, I have a favor to ask of you. [593] You know that contingent of Bogan students. [594] They're traveling aboard the two CDT transports. [595] I'm interested in the baggage that goes with the students. [596] Has it arrived yet? [597] Okay, I'll wait." [598] Jim came back to the phone. [599] "Yeah, Retief, it's here. [600] Just arrived. [601] But there's a funny thing. [602] It's not consigned to d'Land. [603] It's ticketed clear through to Lovenbroy." [604] "Listen, Jim," Retief said. [605] "I want you to go over to the warehouse and take a look at that baggage for me." [606] Retief waited while the dispatch clerk carried out the errand. [607] The level in the two bottles had gone down an inch when Jim returned to the phone. [608] "Hey, I took a look at that baggage, Retief. [609] Something funny going on. [610] Guns. [611] 2mm needlers, Mark XII hand blasters, power pistols—" "It's okay, Jim. [612] Nothing to worry about. [613] Just a mix-up. [614] Now, Jim, I'm going to ask you to do something more for me. [615] I'm covering for a friend. [616] It seems he slipped up. [617] I wouldn't want word to get out, you understand. [618] I'll send along a written change order in the morning that will cover you officially. [619] Meanwhile, here's what I want you to do...." Retief gave instructions, then rang off and turned to Arapoulous. [620] "As soon as I get off a couple of TWX's, I think we'd better get down to the port, Hank. [621] I think I'd like to see the students off personally." [622] IV Karsh met Retief as he entered the Departures enclosure at the port. [623] "What's going on here?" [624] he demanded. [625] "There's some funny business with my baggage consignment. [626] They won't let me see it! [627] I've got a feeling it's not being loaded." [628] "You'd better hurry, Mr. Karsh," Retief said. [629] "You're scheduled to blast off in less than an hour. [630] Are the students all loaded?" [631] "Yes, blast you! [632] What about my baggage? [633] Those vessels aren't moving without it!" [634] "No need to get so upset about a few toothbrushes, is there, Mr. [635] Karsh?" [636] Retief said blandly. [637] "Still, if you're worried—" He turned to Arapoulous. [638] "Hank, why don't you walk Mr. Karsh over to the warehouse and ... ah ... take care of him?" [639] "I know just how to handle it," Arapoulous said. [640] The dispatch clerk came up to Retief. [641] "I caught the tractor equipment," he said. [642] "Funny kind of mistake, but it's okay now. [643] They're being off-loaded at d'Land. [644] I talked to the traffic controller there. [645] He said they weren't looking for any students." [646] "The labels got switched, Jim. [647] The students go where the baggage was consigned. [648] Too bad about the mistake, but the Armaments Office will have a man along in a little while to dispose of the guns. [649] Keep an eye out for the luggage. [650] No telling where it's gotten to." [651] "Here!" [652] a hoarse voice yelled. [653] Retief turned. [654] A disheveled figure in a tight hat was crossing the enclosure, arms waving. [655] "Hi there, Mr. Gulver," Retief called. [656] "How's Boge's business coming along?" [657] "Piracy!" [658] Gulver blurted as he came up to Retief, puffing hard. [659] "You've got a hand in this, I don't doubt! [660] Where's that Magnan fellow?" [661] "What seems to be the problem?" [662] Retief said. [663] "Hold those transports! [664] I've just been notified that the baggage shipment has been impounded. [665] I'll remind you, that shipment enjoys diplomatic free entry!" [666] "Who told you it was impounded?" [667] "Never mind! [668] I have my sources!" [669] Two tall men buttoned into gray tunics came up. [670] "Are you Mr. Retief of CDT?" [671] one said. [672] "That's right." [673] "What about my baggage!" [674] Gulver cut in. [675] "And I'm warning you, if those ships lift without—" "These gentlemen are from the Armaments Control Commission," Retief said. [676] "Would you like to come along and claim your baggage, Mr. [677] Gulver?" [678] "From where? [679] I—" Gulver turned two shades redder about the ears. [680] "Armaments?" [681] "The only shipment I've held up seems to be somebody's arsenal," Retief said. [682] "Now if you claim this is your baggage...." "Why, impossible," Gulver said in a strained voice. [683] "Armaments? [684] Ridiculous. [685] There's been an error...." At the baggage warehouse Gulver looked glumly at the opened cases of guns. [686] "No, of course not," he said dully. [687] "Not my baggage. [688] Not my baggage at all." [689] Arapoulous appeared, supporting the stumbling figure of Mr. Karsh. [690] "What—what's this?" [691] Gulver spluttered. [692] "Karsh? [693] What's happened?" [694] "He had a little fall. [695] He'll be okay," Arapoulous said. [696] "You'd better help him to the ship," Retief said. [697] "It's ready to lift. [698] We wouldn't want him to miss it." [699] "Leave him to me!" [700] Gulver snapped, his eyes slashing at Karsh. [701] "I'll see he's dealt with." [702] "I couldn't think of it," Retief said. [703] "He's a guest of the Corps, you know. [704] We'll see him safely aboard." [705] Gulver turned, signaled frantically. [706] Three heavy-set men in identical drab suits detached themselves from the wall, crossed to the group. [707] "Take this man," Gulver snapped, indicating Karsh, who looked at him dazedly, reached up to rub his head. [708] "We take our hospitality seriously," Retief said. [709] "We'll see him aboard the vessel." [710] Gulver opened his mouth. [711] "I know you feel bad about finding guns instead of school books in your luggage," Retief said, looking Gulver in the eye. [712] "You'll be busy straightening out the details of the mix-up. [713] You'll want to avoid further complications." [714] "Ah. [715] Ulp. [716] Yes," Gulver said. [717] He appeared unhappy. [718] Arapoulous went on to the passenger conveyor, turned to wave. [719] "Your man—he's going too?" [720] Gulver blurted. [721] "He's not our man, properly speaking," Retief said. [722] "He lives on Lovenbroy." [723] "Lovenbroy?" [724] Gulver choked. [725] "But ... the ... [726] I...." "I know you said the students were bound for d'Land," Retief said. [727] "But I guess that was just another aspect of the general confusion. [728] The course plugged into the navigators was to Lovenbroy. [729] You'll be glad to know they're still headed there—even without the baggage." [730] "Perhaps," Gulver said grimly, "perhaps they'll manage without it." [731] "By the way," Retief said. [732] "There was another funny mix-up. [733] There were some tractors—for industrial use, you'll recall. [734] I believe you co-operated with Croanie in arranging the grant through MEDDLE. [735] They were erroneously consigned to Lovenbroy, a purely agricultural world. [736] I saved you some embarrassment, I trust, Mr. Gulver, by arranging to have them off-loaded at d'Land." [737] "D'Land! [738] You've put the CSU's in the hands of Boge's bitterest enemies!" [739] "But they're only tractors, Mr. Gulver. [740] Peaceful devices. [741] Isn't that correct?" [742] "That's ... [743] correct." [744] Gulver sagged. [745] Then he snapped erect. [746] "Hold the ships!" [747] he yelled. [748] "I'm canceling the student exchange—" His voice was drowned by the rumble as the first of the monster transports rose from the launch pit, followed a moment later by the second, Retief watched them out of sight, then turned to Gulver. [749] "They're off," he said. [750] "Let's hope they get a liberal education." [751] V Retief lay on his back in deep grass by a stream, eating grapes. [752] A tall figure appeared on the knoll above him and waved. [753] "Retief!" [754] Hank Arapoulous bounded down the slope and embraced Retief, slapping him on the back. [755] "I heard you were here—and I've got news for you. [756] You won the final day's picking competition. [757] Over two hundred bushels! [758] That's a record!" [759] "Let's get on over to the garden. [760] Sounds like the celebration's about to start." [761] In the flower-crowded park among the stripped vines, Retief and Arapoulous made their way to a laden table under the lanterns. [762] A tall girl dressed in loose white, and with long golden hair, came up to Arapoulous. [763] "Delinda, this is Retief—today's winner. [764] And he's also the fellow that got those workers for us." [765] Delinda smiled at Retief. [766] "I've heard about you, Mr. Retief. [767] We weren't sure about the boys at first. [768] Two thousand Bogans, and all confused about their baggage that went astray. [769] But they seemed to like the picking." [770] She smiled again. [771] "That's not all. [772] Our gals liked the boys," Hank said. [773] "Even Bogans aren't so bad, minus their irons. [774] A lot of 'em will be staying on. [775] But how come you didn't tell me you were coming, Retief? [776] I'd have laid on some kind of big welcome." [777] "I liked the welcome I got. [778] And I didn't have much notice. [779] Mr. Magnan was a little upset when he got back. [780] It seems I exceeded my authority." [781] Arapoulous laughed. [782] "I had a feeling you were wheeling pretty free, Retief. [783] I hope you didn't get into any trouble over it." [784] "No trouble," Retief said. [785] "A few people were a little unhappy with me. [786] It seems I'm not ready for important assignments at Departmental level. [787] I was shipped off here to the boondocks to get a little more experience." [788] "Delinda, look after Retief," said Arapoulous. [789] "I'll see you later. [790] I've got to see to the wine judging." [791] He disappeared in the crowd. [792] "Congratulations on winning the day," said Delinda. [793] "I noticed you at work. [794] You were wonderful. [795] I'm glad you're going to have the prize." [796] "Thanks. [797] I noticed you too, flitting around in that white nightie of yours. [798] But why weren't you picking grapes with the rest of us?" [799] "I had a special assignment." [800] "Too bad. [801] You should have had a chance at the prize." [802] Delinda took Retief's hand. [803] "I wouldn't have anyway," she said. [804] "I'm the prize."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [143] Arapoulous put his bundle on the desk, pulled off the wrappings. 2. [144] Retief looked at the two squat bottles, one green, one amber, both dusty, with faded labels, and blackened corks secured by wire. 3. [145] "Drinking on duty is frowned on in the Corps, Mr. Arapoulous," he said. 4. [146] "This isn't drinking . 5. [147] It's just wine." 6. [148] Arapoulous pulled the wire retainer loose, thumbed the cork. 7. [149] It rose slowly, then popped in the air. 8. [150] Arapoulous caught it. 9. [151] Aromatic fumes wafted from the bottle. 10. [152] "Besides, my feelings would be hurt if you didn't join me." 11. [153] He winked. 12. [154] Retief took two thin-walled glasses from a table beside the desk. 13. [155] "Come to think of it, we also have to be careful about violating quaint native customs." 14. [156] Arapoulous filled the glasses. 15. [157] Retief picked one up, sniffed the deep rust-colored fluid, tasted it, then took a healthy swallow. 16. [158] He looked at Arapoulous thoughtfully. 17. [159] "Hmmm. 18. [160] It tastes like salted pecans, with an undercurrent of crusted port." 19. [161] "Don't try to describe it, Mr. Retief," Arapoulous said. 20. [162] He took a mouthful of wine, swished it around his teeth, swallowed. 21. [163] "It's Bacchus wine, that's all. 22. [164] Nothing like it in the Galaxy." 23. [165] He pushed the second bottle toward Retief. 24. [166] "The custom back home is to alternate red wine and black." 25. [167] Retief put aside his cigar, pulled the wires loose, nudged the cork, caught it as it popped up. 26. [168] "Bad luck if you miss the cork," Arapoulous said, nodding. 27. [169] "You probably never heard about the trouble we had on Lovenbroy a few years back?" 28. [170] "Can't say that I did, Hank." 29. [171] Retief poured the black wine into two fresh glasses. 30. [172] "Here's to the harvest." 31. [173] "We've got plenty of minerals on Lovenbroy," Arapoulous said, swallowing wine. 32. [174] "But we don't plan to wreck the landscape mining 'em. 33. [175] We like to farm. 34. [176] About ten years back some neighbors of ours landed a force. 35. [177] They figured they knew better what to do with our minerals than we did. 36. [178] Wanted to strip-mine, smelt ore. We convinced 'em otherwise. 37. [179] But it took a year, and we lost a lot of men." 38. [180] "That's too bad," Retief said. 39. [181] "I'd say this one tastes more like roast beef and popcorn over a Riesling base." 40. [182] "It put us in a bad spot," Arapoulous went on. 41. [183] "We had to borrow money from a world called Croanie. 42. [184] Mortgaged our crops. 43. [185] Had to start exporting art work too. 44. [186] Plenty of buyers, but it's not the same when you're doing it for strangers." 45. [187] "Say, this business of alternating drinks is the real McCoy," Retief said. 46. [188] "What's the problem? 47. [189] Croanie about to foreclose?" 48. [190] "Well, the loan's due. 49. [191] The wine crop would put us in the clear. 50. [192] But we need harvest hands. 51. [193] Picking Bacchus grapes isn't a job you can turn over to machinery—and anyway we wouldn't if we could. 52. [194] Vintage season is the high point of living on Lovenbroy. 53. [195] Everybody joins in. 54. [196] First, there's the picking in the fields. 55. [197] Miles and miles of vineyards covering the mountain sides, and crowding the river banks, with gardens here and there. 56. [198] Big vines, eight feet high, loaded with fruit, and deep grass growing between. 57. [199] The wine-carriers keep on the run, bringing wine to the pickers. 58. [200] There's prizes for the biggest day's output, bets on who can fill the most baskets in an hour.... 59. [201] The sun's high and bright, and it's just cool enough to give you plenty of energy. 60. [202] Come nightfall, the tables are set up in the garden plots, and the feast is laid on: roast turkeys, beef, hams, all kinds of fowl. 61. [203] Big salads. 62. [204] Plenty of fruit. 63. [205] Fresh-baked bread ... and wine, plenty of wine. 64. [206] The cooking's done by a different crew each night in each garden, and there's prizes for the best crews. 65. [207] "Then the wine-making. 66. [208] We still tramp out the vintage. 67. [209] That's mostly for the young folks but anybody's welcome. 68. [210] That's when things start to get loosened up. 69. [211] Matter of fact, pretty near half our young-uns are born after a vintage. 70. [212] All bets are off then. 71. [213] It keeps a fellow on his toes though. 72. [214] Ever tried to hold onto a gal wearing nothing but a layer of grape juice?" 73. [215] "Never did," Retief said. 74. [216] "You say most of the children are born after a vintage. 75. [217] That would make them only twelve years old by the time—" 76. [218] "Oh, that's Lovenbroy years; they'd be eighteen, Terry reckoning." 77. [219] "I was thinking you looked a little mature for twenty-eight," Retief said. 78. [220] "Forty-two, Terry years," Arapoulous said. 79. [221] "But this year it looks bad. 80. [222] We've got a bumper crop—and we're short-handed. 81. [223] If we don't get a big vintage, Croanie steps in. 82. [224] Lord knows what they'll do to the land. 83. [225] Then next vintage time, with them holding half our grape acreage—" 84. [226] "You hocked the vineyards?" 85. [227] "Yep. 86. [228] Pretty dumb, huh? 87. [229] But we figured twelve years was a long time." 88. [230] "What we figured was, maybe you Culture boys could help us out. 89. [231] A loan to see us through the vintage, enough to hire extra hands. 90. [232] Then we'd repay it in sculpture, painting, furniture—" 91. [233] "Sorry, Hank. 92. [234] All we do here is work out itineraries for traveling side-shows, that kind of thing. 93. [235] Now, if you needed a troop of Groaci nose-flute players—" 94. [236] "Can they pick grapes?" 95. [237] "Nope. 96. [238] Anyway, they can't stand the daylight. 97. [239] Have you talked this over with the Labor Office?" 98. [240] "Sure did. 99. [241] They said they'd fix us up with all the electronics specialists and computer programmers we wanted—but no field hands. 100. [242] Said it was what they classified as menial drudgery; you'd have thought I was trying to buy slaves."

Who are the Bogans, and what happens to their plan?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net CULTURAL EXCHANGE BY KEITH LAUMER It was a simple student exchange—but Retief gave them more of an education than they expected! [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] I Second Secretary Magnan took his green-lined cape and orange-feathered beret from the clothes tree. [5] "I'm off now, Retief," he said. [6] "I hope you'll manage the administrative routine during my absence without any unfortunate incidents." [7] "That seems a modest enough hope," Retief said. [8] "I'll try to live up to it." [9] "I don't appreciate frivolity with reference to this Division," Magnan said testily. [10] "When I first came here, the Manpower Utilization Directorate, Division of Libraries and Education was a shambles. [11] I fancy I've made MUDDLE what it is today. [12] Frankly, I question the wisdom of placing you in charge of such a sensitive desk, even for two weeks. [13] But remember. [14] Yours is purely a rubber-stamp function." [15] "In that case, let's leave it to Miss Furkle. [16] I'll take a couple of weeks off myself. [17] With her poundage, she could bring plenty of pressure to bear." [18] "I assume you jest, Retief," Magnan said sadly. [19] "I should expect even you to appreciate that Bogan participation in the Exchange Program may be the first step toward sublimation of their aggressions into more cultivated channels." [20] "I see they're sending two thousand students to d'Land," Retief said, glancing at the Memo for Record. [21] "That's a sizable sublimation." [22] Magnan nodded. [23] "The Bogans have launched no less than four military campaigns in the last two decades. [24] They're known as the Hoodlums of the Nicodemean Cluster. [25] Now, perhaps, we shall see them breaking that precedent and entering into the cultural life of the Galaxy." [26] "Breaking and entering," Retief said. [27] "You may have something there. [28] But I'm wondering what they'll study on d'Land. [29] That's an industrial world of the poor but honest variety." [30] "Academic details are the affair of the students and their professors," Magnan said. [31] "Our function is merely to bring them together. [32] See that you don't antagonize the Bogan representative. [33] This will be an excellent opportunity for you to practice your diplomatic restraint—not your strong point, I'm sure you'll agree." [34] A buzzer sounded. [35] Retief punched a button. [36] "What is it, Miss Furkle?" [37] "That—bucolic person from Lovenbroy is here again." [38] On the small desk screen, Miss Furkle's meaty features were compressed in disapproval. [39] "This fellow's a confounded pest. [40] I'll leave him to you, Retief," Magnan said. [41] "Tell him something. [42] Get rid of him. [43] And remember: here at Corps HQ, all eyes are upon you." [44] "If I'd thought of that, I'd have worn my other suit," Retief said. [45] Magnan snorted and passed from view. [46] Retief punched Miss Furkle's button. [47] "Send the bucolic person in." [48] A tall broad man with bronze skin and gray hair, wearing tight trousers of heavy cloth, a loose shirt open at the neck and a short jacket, stepped into the room. [49] He had a bundle under his arm. [50] He paused at sight of Retief, looked him over momentarily, then advanced and held out his hand. [51] Retief took it. [52] For a moment the two big men stood, face to face. [53] The newcomer's jaw muscles knotted. [54] Then he winced. [55] Retief dropped his hand and motioned to a chair. [56] "That's nice knuckle work, mister," the stranger said, massaging his hand. [57] "First time anybody ever did that to me. [58] My fault though. [59] I started it, I guess." [60] He grinned and sat down. [61] "What can I do for you?" [62] Retief said. [63] "You work for this Culture bunch, do you? [64] Funny. [65] I thought they were all ribbon-counter boys. [66] Never mind. [67] I'm Hank Arapoulous. [68] I'm a farmer. [69] What I wanted to see you about was—" He shifted in his chair. [70] "Well, out on Lovenbroy we've got a serious problem. [71] The wine crop is just about ready. [72] We start picking in another two, three months. [73] Now I don't know if you're familiar with the Bacchus vines we grow...?" [74] "No," Retief said. [75] "Have a cigar?" [76] He pushed a box across the desk. [77] Arapoulous took one. [78] "Bacchus vines are an unusual crop," he said, puffing the cigar alight. [79] "Only mature every twelve years. [80] In between, the vines don't need a lot of attention, so our time's mostly our own. [81] We like to farm, though. [82] Spend a lot of time developing new forms. [83] Apples the size of a melon—and sweet—" "Sounds very pleasant," Retief said. [84] "Where does the Libraries and Education Division come in?" [85] Arapoulous leaned forward. [86] "We go in pretty heavy for the arts. [87] Folks can't spend all their time hybridizing plants. [88] We've turned all the land area we've got into parks and farms. [89] Course, we left some sizable forest areas for hunting and such. [90] Lovenbroy's a nice place, Mr. [91] Retief." [92] "It sounds like it, Mr. Arapoulous. [93] Just what—" "Call me Hank. [94] We've got long seasons back home. [95] Five of 'em. [96] Our year's about eighteen Terry months. [97] Cold as hell in winter; eccentric orbit, you know. [98] Blue-black sky, stars visible all day. [99] We do mostly painting and sculpture in the winter. [100] Then Spring; still plenty cold. [101] Lots of skiing, bob-sledding, ice skating; and it's the season for woodworkers. [102] Our furniture—" "I've seen some of your furniture," Retief said. [103] "Beautiful work." [104] Arapoulous nodded. [105] "All local timbers too. [106] Lots of metals in our soil and those sulphates give the woods some color, I'll tell you. [107] Then comes the Monsoon. [108] Rain—it comes down in sheets. [109] But the sun's getting closer. [110] Shines all the time. [111] Ever seen it pouring rain in the sunshine? [112] That's the music-writing season. [113] Then summer. [114] Summer's hot. [115] We stay inside in the daytime and have beach parties all night. [116] Lots of beach on Lovenbroy; we're mostly islands. [117] That's the drama and symphony time. [118] The theatres are set up on the sand, or anchored off-shore. [119] You have the music and the surf and the bonfires and stars—we're close to the center of a globular cluster, you know...." "You say it's time now for the wine crop?" [120] "That's right. [121] Autumn's our harvest season. [122] Most years we have just the ordinary crops. [123] Fruit, grain, that kind of thing; getting it in doesn't take long. [124] We spend most of the time on architecture, getting new places ready for the winter or remodeling the older ones. [125] We spend a lot of time in our houses. [126] We like to have them comfortable. [127] But this year's different. [128] This is Wine Year." [129] Arapoulous puffed on his cigar, looked worriedly at Retief. [130] "Our wine crop is our big money crop," he said. [131] "We make enough to keep us going. [132] But this year...." "The crop isn't panning out?" [133] "Oh, the crop's fine. [134] One of the best I can remember. [135] Course, I'm only twenty-eight; I can't remember but two other harvests. [136] The problem's not the crop." [137] "Have you lost your markets? [138] That sounds like a matter for the Commercial—" "Lost our markets? [139] Mister, nobody that ever tasted our wines ever settled for anything else!" [140] "It sounds like I've been missing something," said Retief. [141] "I'll have to try them some time." [142] Arapoulous put his bundle on the desk, pulled off the wrappings. [143] "No time like the present," he said. [144] Retief looked at the two squat bottles, one green, one amber, both dusty, with faded labels, and blackened corks secured by wire. [145] "Drinking on duty is frowned on in the Corps, Mr. Arapoulous," he said. [146] "This isn't drinking . [147] It's just wine." [148] Arapoulous pulled the wire retainer loose, thumbed the cork. [149] It rose slowly, then popped in the air. [150] Arapoulous caught it. [151] Aromatic fumes wafted from the bottle. [152] "Besides, my feelings would be hurt if you didn't join me." [153] He winked. [154] Retief took two thin-walled glasses from a table beside the desk. [155] "Come to think of it, we also have to be careful about violating quaint native customs." [156] Arapoulous filled the glasses. [157] Retief picked one up, sniffed the deep rust-colored fluid, tasted it, then took a healthy swallow. [158] He looked at Arapoulous thoughtfully. [159] "Hmmm. [160] It tastes like salted pecans, with an undercurrent of crusted port." [161] "Don't try to describe it, Mr. Retief," Arapoulous said. [162] He took a mouthful of wine, swished it around his teeth, swallowed. [163] "It's Bacchus wine, that's all. [164] Nothing like it in the Galaxy." [165] He pushed the second bottle toward Retief. [166] "The custom back home is to alternate red wine and black." [167] Retief put aside his cigar, pulled the wires loose, nudged the cork, caught it as it popped up. [168] "Bad luck if you miss the cork," Arapoulous said, nodding. [169] "You probably never heard about the trouble we had on Lovenbroy a few years back?" [170] "Can't say that I did, Hank." [171] Retief poured the black wine into two fresh glasses. [172] "Here's to the harvest." [173] "We've got plenty of minerals on Lovenbroy," Arapoulous said, swallowing wine. [174] "But we don't plan to wreck the landscape mining 'em. [175] We like to farm. [176] About ten years back some neighbors of ours landed a force. [177] They figured they knew better what to do with our minerals than we did. [178] Wanted to strip-mine, smelt ore. We convinced 'em otherwise. [179] But it took a year, and we lost a lot of men." [180] "That's too bad," Retief said. [181] "I'd say this one tastes more like roast beef and popcorn over a Riesling base." [182] "It put us in a bad spot," Arapoulous went on. [183] "We had to borrow money from a world called Croanie. [184] Mortgaged our crops. [185] Had to start exporting art work too. [186] Plenty of buyers, but it's not the same when you're doing it for strangers." [187] "Say, this business of alternating drinks is the real McCoy," Retief said. [188] "What's the problem? [189] Croanie about to foreclose?" [190] "Well, the loan's due. [191] The wine crop would put us in the clear. [192] But we need harvest hands. [193] Picking Bacchus grapes isn't a job you can turn over to machinery—and anyway we wouldn't if we could. [194] Vintage season is the high point of living on Lovenbroy. [195] Everybody joins in. [196] First, there's the picking in the fields. [197] Miles and miles of vineyards covering the mountain sides, and crowding the river banks, with gardens here and there. [198] Big vines, eight feet high, loaded with fruit, and deep grass growing between. [199] The wine-carriers keep on the run, bringing wine to the pickers. [200] There's prizes for the biggest day's output, bets on who can fill the most baskets in an hour.... [201] The sun's high and bright, and it's just cool enough to give you plenty of energy. [202] Come nightfall, the tables are set up in the garden plots, and the feast is laid on: roast turkeys, beef, hams, all kinds of fowl. [203] Big salads. [204] Plenty of fruit. [205] Fresh-baked bread ... and wine, plenty of wine. [206] The cooking's done by a different crew each night in each garden, and there's prizes for the best crews. [207] "Then the wine-making. [208] We still tramp out the vintage. [209] That's mostly for the young folks but anybody's welcome. [210] That's when things start to get loosened up. [211] Matter of fact, pretty near half our young-uns are born after a vintage. [212] All bets are off then. [213] It keeps a fellow on his toes though. [214] Ever tried to hold onto a gal wearing nothing but a layer of grape juice?" [215] "Never did," Retief said. [216] "You say most of the children are born after a vintage. [217] That would make them only twelve years old by the time—" "Oh, that's Lovenbroy years; they'd be eighteen, Terry reckoning." [218] "I was thinking you looked a little mature for twenty-eight," Retief said. [219] "Forty-two, Terry years," Arapoulous said. [220] "But this year it looks bad. [221] We've got a bumper crop—and we're short-handed. [222] If we don't get a big vintage, Croanie steps in. [223] Lord knows what they'll do to the land. [224] Then next vintage time, with them holding half our grape acreage—" "You hocked the vineyards?" [225] "Yep. [226] Pretty dumb, huh? [227] But we figured twelve years was a long time." [228] "On the whole," Retief said, "I think I prefer the black. [229] But the red is hard to beat...." "What we figured was, maybe you Culture boys could help us out. [230] A loan to see us through the vintage, enough to hire extra hands. [231] Then we'd repay it in sculpture, painting, furniture—" "Sorry, Hank. [232] All we do here is work out itineraries for traveling side-shows, that kind of thing. [233] Now, if you needed a troop of Groaci nose-flute players—" "Can they pick grapes?" [234] "Nope. [235] Anyway, they can't stand the daylight. [236] Have you talked this over with the Labor Office?" [237] "Sure did. [238] They said they'd fix us up with all the electronics specialists and computer programmers we wanted—but no field hands. [239] Said it was what they classified as menial drudgery; you'd have thought I was trying to buy slaves." [240] The buzzer sounded. [241] Miss Furkle's features appeared on the desk screen. [242] "You're due at the Intergroup Council in five minutes," she said. [243] "Then afterwards, there are the Bogan students to meet." [244] "Thanks." [245] Retief finished his glass, stood. [246] "I have to run, Hank," he said. [247] "Let me think this over. [248] Maybe I can come up with something. [249] Check with me day after tomorrow. [250] And you'd better leave the bottles here. [251] Cultural exhibits, you know." [252] II As the council meeting broke up, Retief caught the eye of a colleague across the table. [253] "Mr. Whaffle, you mentioned a shipment going to a place called Croanie. [254] What are they getting?" [255] Whaffle blinked. [256] "You're the fellow who's filling in for Magnan, over at MUDDLE," he said. [257] "Properly speaking, equipment grants are the sole concern of the Motorized Equipment Depot, Division of Loans and Exchanges." [258] He pursed his lips. [259] "However, I suppose there's no harm in telling you. [260] They'll be receiving heavy mining equipment." [261] "Drill rigs, that sort of thing?" [262] "Strip mining gear." [263] Whaffle took a slip of paper from a breast pocket, blinked at it. [264] "Bolo Model WV/1 tractors, to be specific. [265] Why is MUDDLE interested in MEDDLE's activities?" [266] "Forgive my curiosity, Mr. Whaffle. [267] It's just that Croanie cropped up earlier today. [268] It seems she holds a mortgage on some vineyards over on—" "That's not MEDDLE's affair, sir," Whaffle cut in. [269] "I have sufficient problems as Chief of MEDDLE without probing into MUDDLE'S business." [270] "Speaking of tractors," another man put in, "we over at the Special Committee for Rehabilitation and Overhaul of Under-developed Nations' General Economies have been trying for months to get a request for mining equipment for d'Land through MEDDLE—" "SCROUNGE was late on the scene," Whaffle said. [271] "First come, first served. [272] That's our policy at MEDDLE. [273] Good day, gentlemen." [274] He strode off, briefcase under his arm. [275] "That's the trouble with peaceful worlds," the SCROUNGE committeeman said. [276] "Boge is a troublemaker, so every agency in the Corps is out to pacify her. [277] While my chance to make a record—that is, assist peace-loving d'Land—comes to naught." [278] He shook his head. [279] "What kind of university do they have on d'Land?" [280] asked Retief. [281] "We're sending them two thousand exchange students. [282] It must be quite an institution." [283] "University? [284] D'Land has one under-endowed technical college." [285] "Will all the exchange students be studying at the Technical College?" [286] "Two thousand students? [287] Hah! [288] Two hundred students would overtax the facilities of the college." [289] "I wonder if the Bogans know that?" [290] "The Bogans? [291] Why, most of d'Land's difficulties are due to the unwise trade agreement she entered into with Boge. [292] Two thousand students indeed!" [293] He snorted and walked away. [294] Retief stopped by the office to pick up a short cape, then rode the elevator to the roof of the 230-story Corps HQ building and hailed a cab to the port. [295] The Bogan students had arrived early. [296] Retief saw them lined up on the ramp waiting to go through customs. [297] It would be half an hour before they were cleared through. [298] He turned into the bar and ordered a beer. [299] A tall young fellow on the next stool raised his glass. [300] "Happy days," he said. [301] "And nights to match." [302] "You said it." [303] He gulped half his beer. [304] "My name's Karsh. [305] Mr. Karsh. [306] Yep, Mr. Karsh. [307] Boy, this is a drag, sitting around this place waiting...." "You meeting somebody?" [308] "Yeah. [309] Bunch of babies. [310] Kids. [311] How they expect—Never mind. [312] Have one on me." [313] "Thanks. [314] You a Scoutmaster?" [315] "I'll tell you what I am. [316] I'm a cradle-robber. [317] You know—" he turned to Retief—"not one of those kids is over eighteen." [318] He hiccupped. [319] "Students, you know. [320] Never saw a student with a beard, did you?" [321] "Lots of times. [322] You're meeting the students, are you?" [323] The young fellow blinked at Retief. [324] "Oh, you know about it, huh?" [325] "I represent MUDDLE." [326] Karsh finished his beer, ordered another. [327] "I came on ahead. [328] Sort of an advance guard for the kids. [329] I trained 'em myself. [330] Treated it like a game, but they can handle a CSU. [331] Don't know how they'll act under pressure. [332] If I had my old platoon—" He looked at his beer glass, pushed it back. [333] "Had enough," he said. [334] "So long, friend. [335] Or are you coming along?" [336] Retief nodded. [337] "Might as well." [338] At the exit to the Customs enclosure, Retief watched as the first of the Bogan students came through, caught sight of Karsh and snapped to attention, his chest out. [339] "Drop that, mister," Karsh snapped. [340] "Is that any way for a student to act?" [341] The youth, a round-faced lad with broad shoulders, grinned. [342] "Heck, no," he said. [343] "Say, uh, Mr. Karsh, are we gonna get to go to town? [344] We fellas were thinking—" "You were, hah? [345] You act like a bunch of school kids! [346] I mean ... no! [347] Now line up!" [348] "We have quarters ready for the students," Retief said. [349] "If you'd like to bring them around to the west side, I have a couple of copters laid on." [350] "Thanks," said Karsh. [351] "They'll stay here until take-off time. [352] Can't have the little dears wandering around loose. [353] Might get ideas about going over the hill." [354] He hiccupped. [355] "I mean they might play hookey." [356] "We've scheduled your re-embarkation for noon tomorrow. [357] That's a long wait. [358] MUDDLE's arranged theater tickets and a dinner." [359] "Sorry," Karsh said. [360] "As soon as the baggage gets here, we're off." [361] He hiccupped again. [362] "Can't travel without our baggage, y'know." [363] "Suit yourself," Retief said. [364] "Where's the baggage now?" [365] "Coming in aboard a Croanie lighter." [366] "Maybe you'd like to arrange for a meal for the students here." [367] "Sure," Karsh said. [368] "That's a good idea. [369] Why don't you join us?" [370] Karsh winked. [371] "And bring a few beers." [372] "Not this time," Retief said. [373] He watched the students, still emerging from Customs. [374] "They seem to be all boys," he commented. [375] "No female students?" [376] "Maybe later," Karsh said. [377] "You know, after we see how the first bunch is received." [378] Back at the MUDDLE office, Retief buzzed Miss Furkle. [379] "Do you know the name of the institution these Bogan students are bound for?" [380] "Why, the University at d'Land, of course." [381] "Would that be the Technical College?" [382] Miss Furkle's mouth puckered. [383] "I'm sure I've never pried into these details." [384] "Where does doing your job stop and prying begin, Miss Furkle?" [385] Retief said. [386] "Personally, I'm curious as to just what it is these students are travelling so far to study—at Corps expense." [387] "Mr. Magnan never—" "For the present. [388] Miss Furkle, Mr. Magnan is vacationing. [389] That leaves me with the question of two thousand young male students headed for a world with no classrooms for them ... a world in need of tractors. [390] But the tractors are on their way to Croanie, a world under obligation to Boge. [391] And Croanie holds a mortgage on the best grape acreage on Lovenbroy." [392] "Well!" [393] Miss Furkle snapped, small eyes glaring under unplucked brows. [394] "I hope you're not questioning Mr. Magnan's wisdom!" [395] "About Mr. Magnan's wisdom there can be no question," Retief said. [396] "But never mind. [397] I'd like you to look up an item for me. [398] How many tractors will Croanie be getting under the MEDDLE program?" [399] "Why, that's entirely MEDDLE business," Miss Furkle said. [400] "Mr. Magnan always—" "I'm sure he did. [401] Let me know about the tractors as soon as you can." [402] Miss Furkle sniffed and disappeared from the screen. [403] Retief left the office, descended forty-one stories, followed a corridor to the Corps Library. [404] In the stacks he thumbed through catalogues, pored over indices. [405] "Can I help you?" [406] someone chirped. [407] A tiny librarian stood at his elbow. [408] "Thank you, ma'am," Retief said. [409] "I'm looking for information on a mining rig. [410] A Bolo model WV tractor." [411] "You won't find it in the industrial section," the librarian said. [412] "Come along." [413] Retief followed her along the stacks to a well-lit section lettered ARMAMENTS. [414] She took a tape from the shelf, plugged it into the viewer, flipped through and stopped at a squat armored vehicle. [415] "That's the model WV," she said. [416] "It's what is known as a continental siege unit. [417] It carries four men, with a half-megaton/second firepower." [418] "There must be an error somewhere," Retief said. [419] "The Bolo model I want is a tractor. [420] Model WV M-1—" "Oh, the modification was the addition of a bulldozer blade for demolition work. [421] That must be what confused you." [422] "Probably—among other things. [423] Thank you." [424] Miss Furkle was waiting at the office. [425] "I have the information you wanted," she said. [426] "I've had it for over ten minutes. [427] I was under the impression you needed it urgently, and I went to great lengths—" "Sure," Retief said. [428] "Shoot. [429] How many tractors?" [430] "Five hundred." [431] "Are you sure?" [432] Miss Furkle's chins quivered. [433] "Well! [434] If you feel I'm incompetent—" "Just questioning the possibility of a mistake, Miss Furkle. [435] Five hundred tractors is a lot of equipment." [436] "Was there anything further?" [437] Miss Furkle inquired frigidly. [438] "I sincerely hope not," Retief said. [439] III Leaning back in Magnan's padded chair with power swivel and hip-u-matic concontour, Retief leafed through a folder labelled "CERP 7-602-Ba; CROANIE (general)." [440] He paused at a page headed Industry. [441] Still reading, he opened the desk drawer, took out the two bottles of Bacchus wine and two glasses. [442] He poured an inch of wine into each and sipped the black wine meditatively. [443] It would be a pity, he reflected, if anything should interfere with the production of such vintages.... Half an hour later he laid the folder aside, keyed the phone and put through a call to the Croanie Legation. [444] He asked for the Commercial Attache. [445] "Retief here, Corps HQ," he said airily. [446] "About the MEDDLE shipment, the tractors. [447] I'm wondering if there's been a slip up. [448] My records show we're shipping five hundred units...." "That's correct. [449] Five hundred." [450] Retief waited. [451] "Ah ... are you there, Retief?" [452] "I'm still here. [453] And I'm still wondering about the five hundred tractors." [454] "It's perfectly in order. [455] I thought it was all settled. [456] Mr. Whaffle—" "One unit would require a good-sized plant to handle its output," Retief said. [457] "Now Croanie subsists on her fisheries. [458] She has perhaps half a dozen pint-sized processing plants. [459] Maybe, in a bind, they could handle the ore ten WV's could scrape up ... if Croanie had any ore. [460] It doesn't. [461] By the way, isn't a WV a poor choice as a mining outfit? [462] I should think—" "See here, Retief! [463] Why all this interest in a few surplus tractors? [464] And in any event, what business is it of yours how we plan to use the equipment? [465] That's an internal affair of my government. [466] Mr. Whaffle—" "I'm not Mr. Whaffle. [467] What are you going to do with the other four hundred and ninety tractors?" [468] "I understood the grant was to be with no strings attached!" [469] "I know it's bad manners to ask questions. [470] It's an old diplomatic tradition that any time you can get anybody to accept anything as a gift, you've scored points in the game. [471] But if Croanie has some scheme cooking—" "Nothing like that, Retief. [472] It's a mere business transaction." [473] "What kind of business do you do with a Bolo WV? [474] With or without a blade attached, it's what's known as a continental siege unit." [475] "Great Heavens, Retief! [476] Don't jump to conclusions! [477] Would you have us branded as warmongers? [478] Frankly—is this a closed line?" [479] "Certainly. [480] You may speak freely." [481] "The tractors are for transshipment. [482] We've gotten ourselves into a difficult situation, balance-of-payments-wise. [483] This is an accommodation to a group with which we have rather strong business ties." [484] "I understand you hold a mortgage on the best land on Lovenbroy," Retief said. [485] "Any connection?" [486] "Why ... ah ... no. [487] Of course not, ha ha." [488] "Who gets the tractors eventually?" [489] "Retief, this is unwarranted interference!" [490] "Who gets them?" [491] "They happen to be going to Lovenbroy. [492] But I scarcely see—" "And who's the friend you're helping out with an unauthorized transshipment of grant material?" [493] "Why ... ah ... [494] I've been working with a Mr. Gulver, a Bogan representative." [495] "And when will they be shipped?" [496] "Why, they went out a week ago. [497] They'll be half way there by now. [498] But look here, Retief, this isn't what you're thinking!" [499] "How do you know what I'm thinking? [500] I don't know myself." [501] Retief rang off, buzzed the secretary. [502] "Miss Furkle, I'd like to be notified immediately of any new applications that might come in from the Bogan Consulate for placement of students." [503] "Well, it happens, by coincidence, that I have an application here now. [504] Mr. Gulver of the Consulate brought it in." [505] "Is Mr. Gulver in the office? [506] I'd like to see him." [507] "I'll ask him if he has time." [508] "Great. [509] Thanks." [510] It was half a minute before a thick-necked red-faced man in a tight hat walked in. [511] He wore an old-fashioned suit, a drab shirt, shiny shoes with round toes and an ill-tempered expression. [512] "What is it you wish?" [513] he barked. [514] "I understood in my discussions with the other ... ah ... civilian there'd be no further need for these irritating conferences." [515] "I've just learned you're placing more students abroad, Mr. Gulver. [516] How many this time?" [517] "Two thousand." [518] "And where will they be going?" [519] "Croanie. [520] It's all in the application form I've handed in. [521] Your job is to provide transportation." [522] "Will there be any other students embarking this season?" [523] "Why ... perhaps. [524] That's Boge's business." [525] Gulver looked at Retief with pursed lips. [526] "As a matter of fact, we had in mind dispatching another two thousand to Featherweight." [527] "Another under-populated world—and in the same cluster, I believe," Retief said. [528] "Your people must be unusually interested in that region of space." [529] "If that's all you wanted to know, I'll be on my way. [530] I have matters of importance to see to." [531] After Gulver left, Retief called Miss Furkle in. [532] "I'd like to have a break-out of all the student movements that have been planned under the present program," he said. [533] "And see if you can get a summary of what MEDDLE has been shipping lately." [534] Miss Furkle compressed her lips. [535] "If Mr. Magnan were here, I'm sure he wouldn't dream of interfering in the work of other departments. [536] I ... overheard your conversation with the gentleman from the Croanie Legation—" "The lists, Miss Furkle." [537] "I'm not accustomed," Miss Furkle said, "to intruding in matters outside our interest cluster." [538] "That's worse than listening in on phone conversations, eh? [539] But never mind. [540] I need the information, Miss Furkle." [541] "Loyalty to my Chief—" "Loyalty to your pay-check should send you scuttling for the material I've asked for," Retief said. [542] "I'm taking full responsibility. [543] Now scat." [544] The buzzer sounded. [545] Retief flipped a key. [546] "MUDDLE, Retief speaking...." Arapoulous's brown face appeared on the desk screen. [547] "How-do, Retief. [548] Okay if I come up?" [549] "Sure, Hank. [550] I want to talk to you." [551] In the office, Arapoulous took a chair. [552] "Sorry if I'm rushing you, Retief," he said. [553] "But have you got anything for me?" [554] Retief waved at the wine bottles. [555] "What do you know about Croanie?" [556] "Croanie? [557] Not much of a place. [558] Mostly ocean. [559] All right if you like fish, I guess. [560] We import our seafood from there. [561] Nice prawns in monsoon time. [562] Over a foot long." [563] "You on good terms with them?" [564] "Sure, I guess so. [565] Course, they're pretty thick with Boge." [566] "So?" [567] "Didn't I tell you? [568] Boge was the bunch that tried to take us over here a dozen years back. [569] They'd've made it too, if they hadn't had a lot of bad luck. [570] Their armor went in the drink, and without armor they're easy game." [571] Miss Furkle buzzed. [572] "I have your lists," she said shortly. [573] "Bring them in, please." [574] The secretary placed the papers on the desk. [575] Arapoulous caught her eye and grinned. [576] She sniffed and marched from the room. [577] "What that gal needs is a slippery time in the grape mash," Arapoulous observed. [578] Retief thumbed through the papers, pausing to read from time to time. [579] He finished and looked at Arapoulous. [580] "How many men do you need for the harvest, Hank?" [581] Retief inquired. [582] Arapoulous sniffed his wine glass and looked thoughtful. [583] "A hundred would help," he said. [584] "A thousand would be better. [585] Cheers." [586] "What would you say to two thousand?" [587] "Two thousand? [588] Retief, you're not fooling?" [589] "I hope not." [590] He picked up the phone, called the Port Authority, asked for the dispatch clerk. [591] "Hello, Jim. [592] Say, I have a favor to ask of you. [593] You know that contingent of Bogan students. [594] They're traveling aboard the two CDT transports. [595] I'm interested in the baggage that goes with the students. [596] Has it arrived yet? [597] Okay, I'll wait." [598] Jim came back to the phone. [599] "Yeah, Retief, it's here. [600] Just arrived. [601] But there's a funny thing. [602] It's not consigned to d'Land. [603] It's ticketed clear through to Lovenbroy." [604] "Listen, Jim," Retief said. [605] "I want you to go over to the warehouse and take a look at that baggage for me." [606] Retief waited while the dispatch clerk carried out the errand. [607] The level in the two bottles had gone down an inch when Jim returned to the phone. [608] "Hey, I took a look at that baggage, Retief. [609] Something funny going on. [610] Guns. [611] 2mm needlers, Mark XII hand blasters, power pistols—" "It's okay, Jim. [612] Nothing to worry about. [613] Just a mix-up. [614] Now, Jim, I'm going to ask you to do something more for me. [615] I'm covering for a friend. [616] It seems he slipped up. [617] I wouldn't want word to get out, you understand. [618] I'll send along a written change order in the morning that will cover you officially. [619] Meanwhile, here's what I want you to do...." Retief gave instructions, then rang off and turned to Arapoulous. [620] "As soon as I get off a couple of TWX's, I think we'd better get down to the port, Hank. [621] I think I'd like to see the students off personally." [622] IV Karsh met Retief as he entered the Departures enclosure at the port. [623] "What's going on here?" [624] he demanded. [625] "There's some funny business with my baggage consignment. [626] They won't let me see it! [627] I've got a feeling it's not being loaded." [628] "You'd better hurry, Mr. Karsh," Retief said. [629] "You're scheduled to blast off in less than an hour. [630] Are the students all loaded?" [631] "Yes, blast you! [632] What about my baggage? [633] Those vessels aren't moving without it!" [634] "No need to get so upset about a few toothbrushes, is there, Mr. [635] Karsh?" [636] Retief said blandly. [637] "Still, if you're worried—" He turned to Arapoulous. [638] "Hank, why don't you walk Mr. Karsh over to the warehouse and ... ah ... take care of him?" [639] "I know just how to handle it," Arapoulous said. [640] The dispatch clerk came up to Retief. [641] "I caught the tractor equipment," he said. [642] "Funny kind of mistake, but it's okay now. [643] They're being off-loaded at d'Land. [644] I talked to the traffic controller there. [645] He said they weren't looking for any students." [646] "The labels got switched, Jim. [647] The students go where the baggage was consigned. [648] Too bad about the mistake, but the Armaments Office will have a man along in a little while to dispose of the guns. [649] Keep an eye out for the luggage. [650] No telling where it's gotten to." [651] "Here!" [652] a hoarse voice yelled. [653] Retief turned. [654] A disheveled figure in a tight hat was crossing the enclosure, arms waving. [655] "Hi there, Mr. Gulver," Retief called. [656] "How's Boge's business coming along?" [657] "Piracy!" [658] Gulver blurted as he came up to Retief, puffing hard. [659] "You've got a hand in this, I don't doubt! [660] Where's that Magnan fellow?" [661] "What seems to be the problem?" [662] Retief said. [663] "Hold those transports! [664] I've just been notified that the baggage shipment has been impounded. [665] I'll remind you, that shipment enjoys diplomatic free entry!" [666] "Who told you it was impounded?" [667] "Never mind! [668] I have my sources!" [669] Two tall men buttoned into gray tunics came up. [670] "Are you Mr. Retief of CDT?" [671] one said. [672] "That's right." [673] "What about my baggage!" [674] Gulver cut in. [675] "And I'm warning you, if those ships lift without—" "These gentlemen are from the Armaments Control Commission," Retief said. [676] "Would you like to come along and claim your baggage, Mr. [677] Gulver?" [678] "From where? [679] I—" Gulver turned two shades redder about the ears. [680] "Armaments?" [681] "The only shipment I've held up seems to be somebody's arsenal," Retief said. [682] "Now if you claim this is your baggage...." "Why, impossible," Gulver said in a strained voice. [683] "Armaments? [684] Ridiculous. [685] There's been an error...." At the baggage warehouse Gulver looked glumly at the opened cases of guns. [686] "No, of course not," he said dully. [687] "Not my baggage. [688] Not my baggage at all." [689] Arapoulous appeared, supporting the stumbling figure of Mr. Karsh. [690] "What—what's this?" [691] Gulver spluttered. [692] "Karsh? [693] What's happened?" [694] "He had a little fall. [695] He'll be okay," Arapoulous said. [696] "You'd better help him to the ship," Retief said. [697] "It's ready to lift. [698] We wouldn't want him to miss it." [699] "Leave him to me!" [700] Gulver snapped, his eyes slashing at Karsh. [701] "I'll see he's dealt with." [702] "I couldn't think of it," Retief said. [703] "He's a guest of the Corps, you know. [704] We'll see him safely aboard." [705] Gulver turned, signaled frantically. [706] Three heavy-set men in identical drab suits detached themselves from the wall, crossed to the group. [707] "Take this man," Gulver snapped, indicating Karsh, who looked at him dazedly, reached up to rub his head. [708] "We take our hospitality seriously," Retief said. [709] "We'll see him aboard the vessel." [710] Gulver opened his mouth. [711] "I know you feel bad about finding guns instead of school books in your luggage," Retief said, looking Gulver in the eye. [712] "You'll be busy straightening out the details of the mix-up. [713] You'll want to avoid further complications." [714] "Ah. [715] Ulp. [716] Yes," Gulver said. [717] He appeared unhappy. [718] Arapoulous went on to the passenger conveyor, turned to wave. [719] "Your man—he's going too?" [720] Gulver blurted. [721] "He's not our man, properly speaking," Retief said. [722] "He lives on Lovenbroy." [723] "Lovenbroy?" [724] Gulver choked. [725] "But ... the ... [726] I...." "I know you said the students were bound for d'Land," Retief said. [727] "But I guess that was just another aspect of the general confusion. [728] The course plugged into the navigators was to Lovenbroy. [729] You'll be glad to know they're still headed there—even without the baggage." [730] "Perhaps," Gulver said grimly, "perhaps they'll manage without it." [731] "By the way," Retief said. [732] "There was another funny mix-up. [733] There were some tractors—for industrial use, you'll recall. [734] I believe you co-operated with Croanie in arranging the grant through MEDDLE. [735] They were erroneously consigned to Lovenbroy, a purely agricultural world. [736] I saved you some embarrassment, I trust, Mr. Gulver, by arranging to have them off-loaded at d'Land." [737] "D'Land! [738] You've put the CSU's in the hands of Boge's bitterest enemies!" [739] "But they're only tractors, Mr. Gulver. [740] Peaceful devices. [741] Isn't that correct?" [742] "That's ... [743] correct." [744] Gulver sagged. [745] Then he snapped erect. [746] "Hold the ships!" [747] he yelled. [748] "I'm canceling the student exchange—" His voice was drowned by the rumble as the first of the monster transports rose from the launch pit, followed a moment later by the second, Retief watched them out of sight, then turned to Gulver. [749] "They're off," he said. [750] "Let's hope they get a liberal education." [751] V Retief lay on his back in deep grass by a stream, eating grapes. [752] A tall figure appeared on the knoll above him and waved. [753] "Retief!" [754] Hank Arapoulous bounded down the slope and embraced Retief, slapping him on the back. [755] "I heard you were here—and I've got news for you. [756] You won the final day's picking competition. [757] Over two hundred bushels! [758] That's a record!" [759] "Let's get on over to the garden. [760] Sounds like the celebration's about to start." [761] In the flower-crowded park among the stripped vines, Retief and Arapoulous made their way to a laden table under the lanterns. [762] A tall girl dressed in loose white, and with long golden hair, came up to Arapoulous. [763] "Delinda, this is Retief—today's winner. [764] And he's also the fellow that got those workers for us." [765] Delinda smiled at Retief. [766] "I've heard about you, Mr. Retief. [767] We weren't sure about the boys at first. [768] Two thousand Bogans, and all confused about their baggage that went astray. [769] But they seemed to like the picking." [770] She smiled again. [771] "That's not all. [772] Our gals liked the boys," Hank said. [773] "Even Bogans aren't so bad, minus their irons. [774] A lot of 'em will be staying on. [775] But how come you didn't tell me you were coming, Retief? [776] I'd have laid on some kind of big welcome." [777] "I liked the welcome I got. [778] And I didn't have much notice. [779] Mr. Magnan was a little upset when he got back. [780] It seems I exceeded my authority." [781] Arapoulous laughed. [782] "I had a feeling you were wheeling pretty free, Retief. [783] I hope you didn't get into any trouble over it." [784] "No trouble," Retief said. [785] "A few people were a little unhappy with me. [786] It seems I'm not ready for important assignments at Departmental level. [787] I was shipped off here to the boondocks to get a little more experience." [788] "Delinda, look after Retief," said Arapoulous. [789] "I'll see you later. [790] I've got to see to the wine judging." [791] He disappeared in the crowd. [792] "Congratulations on winning the day," said Delinda. [793] "I noticed you at work. [794] You were wonderful. [795] I'm glad you're going to have the prize." [796] "Thanks. [797] I noticed you too, flitting around in that white nightie of yours. [798] But why weren't you picking grapes with the rest of us?" [799] "I had a special assignment." [800] "Too bad. [801] You should have had a chance at the prize." [802] Delinda took Retief's hand. [803] "I wouldn't have anyway," she said. [804] "I'm the prize."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "Who are the Bogans, and what happens to their plan?": 1. [23] The Bogans have launched no less than four military campaigns in the last two decades. They're known as the Hoodlums of the Nicodemean Cluster. 2. [24] Now, perhaps, we shall see them breaking that precedent and entering into the cultural life of the Galaxy. 3. [19] I should expect even you to appreciate that Bogan participation in the Exchange Program may be the first step toward sublimation of their aggressions into more cultivated channels. 4. [20] "I see they're sending two thousand students to d'Land," Retief said, glancing at the Memo for Record. 5. [21] "That's a sizable sublimation." 6. [28] "I'm wondering what they'll study on d'Land. That's an industrial world of the poor but honest variety." 7. [283] "D'Land has one under-endowed technical college." 8. [287] "Two hundred students would overtax the facilities of the college." 9. [289] "I wonder if the Bogans know that?" 10. [290] "The Bogans? Why, most of d'Land's difficulties are due to the unwise trade agreement she entered into with Boge." 11. [291] "Two thousand students indeed!" 12. [292] He snorted and walked away. 13. [298] The Bogan students had arrived early. 14. [299] Retief saw them lined up on the ramp waiting to go through customs. 15. [300] It would be half an hour before they were cleared through. 16. [301] He turned into the bar and ordered a beer. 17. [302] A tall young fellow on the next stool raised his glass. 18. [303] "Happy days," he said. 19. [304] "And nights to match." 20. [305] "You said it." 21. [306] He gulped half his beer. 22. [307] "My name's Karsh." 23. [308] "Mr. Karsh." 24. [309] "Yep, Mr. Karsh." 25. [310] "Boy, this is a drag, sitting around this place waiting...." 26. [311] "You meeting somebody?" 27. [312] "Yeah." 28. [313] "Bunch of babies." 29. [314] "Kids." 30. [315] "How they expect—Never mind." 31. [316] "Have one on me." 32. [317] "Thanks." 33. [318] "You a Scoutmaster?" 34. [319] "I'll tell you what I am." 35. [320] "I'm a cradle-robber." 36. [321] "You know—" he turned to Retief—"not one of those kids is over eighteen." 37. [322] He hiccupped. 38. [323] "Students, you know." 39. [324] "Never saw a student with a beard, did you?" 40. [325] "Lots of times." 41. [326] "You're meeting the students, are you?" 42. [327] The young fellow blinked at Retief. 43. [328] "Oh, you know about it, huh?" 44. [329] "I represent MUDDLE." 45. [330] Karsh finished his beer, ordered another. 46. [331] "I came on ahead." 47. [332] "Sort of an advance guard for the kids." 48. [333] "I trained 'em myself." 49. [334] "Treated it like a game, but they can handle a CSU." 50. [335] "Don't know how they'll act under pressure." 51. [336] "If I had my old platoon—" He looked at his beer glass, pushed it back. 52. [337] "Had enough," he said. 53. [338] "So long, friend." 54. [339] "Or are you coming along?" 55. [340] Retief nodded. 56. [341] "Might as well." 57. [342] At the exit to the Customs enclosure, Retief watched as the first of the Bogan students came through, caught sight of Karsh and snapped to attention, his chest out. 58. [343] "Drop that, mister," Karsh snapped. 59. [344] "Is that any way for a student to act?" 60. [345] The youth, a round-faced lad with broad shoulders, grinned. 61. [346] "Heck, no," he said. 62. [347] "Say, uh, Mr. Karsh, are we gonna get to go to town?" 63. [348] "We fellas were thinking—" 64. [349] "You were, hah?" 65. [350] "You act like a bunch of school kids!" 66. [351] "I mean ... no!" 67. [352] "Now line up!" 68. [353] "We have quarters ready for the students," Retief said. 69. [354] "If you'd like to bring them around to the west side, I have a couple of copters laid on." 70. [355] "Thanks," said Karsh. 71. [356] "They'll stay here until take-off time." 72. [357] "Can't have the little dears wandering around loose." 73. [358] "Might get ideas about going over the hill." 74. [359] He hiccupped. 75. [360] "I mean they might play hookey." 76. [361] "We've scheduled your re-embarkation for noon tomorrow." 77. [362] "That's a long wait." 78. [363] "MUDDLE's arranged theater tickets and a dinner." 79. [364] "Sorry," Karsh said. 80. [365] "As soon as the baggage gets here, we're off." 81. [366] He hiccupped again. 82. [367] "Can't travel without our baggage, y'know." 83. [368] "Suit yourself," Retief said. 84. [369] "Where's the baggage now?" 85. [370] "Coming in aboard a Croanie lighter." 86. [371] "Maybe you'd like to arrange for a meal for the students here." 87. [372] "Sure," Karsh said. 88. [373] "That's a good idea." 89. [374] "Why don't you join us?" 90. [375] Karsh winked. 91. [376] "And bring a few beers." 92. [377] "Not this time," Retief said. 93. [378] He watched the students, still emerging from Customs. 94. [379] "They seem to be all boys," he commented. 95. [380] "No female students?" 96. [381] "Maybe later," Karsh said. 97. [382] "You know, after we see how the first bunch is received."

Who is Hank Arapoulous, and what does he do in the story?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net CULTURAL EXCHANGE BY KEITH LAUMER It was a simple student exchange—but Retief gave them more of an education than they expected! [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] I Second Secretary Magnan took his green-lined cape and orange-feathered beret from the clothes tree. [5] "I'm off now, Retief," he said. [6] "I hope you'll manage the administrative routine during my absence without any unfortunate incidents." [7] "That seems a modest enough hope," Retief said. [8] "I'll try to live up to it." [9] "I don't appreciate frivolity with reference to this Division," Magnan said testily. [10] "When I first came here, the Manpower Utilization Directorate, Division of Libraries and Education was a shambles. [11] I fancy I've made MUDDLE what it is today. [12] Frankly, I question the wisdom of placing you in charge of such a sensitive desk, even for two weeks. [13] But remember. [14] Yours is purely a rubber-stamp function." [15] "In that case, let's leave it to Miss Furkle. [16] I'll take a couple of weeks off myself. [17] With her poundage, she could bring plenty of pressure to bear." [18] "I assume you jest, Retief," Magnan said sadly. [19] "I should expect even you to appreciate that Bogan participation in the Exchange Program may be the first step toward sublimation of their aggressions into more cultivated channels." [20] "I see they're sending two thousand students to d'Land," Retief said, glancing at the Memo for Record. [21] "That's a sizable sublimation." [22] Magnan nodded. [23] "The Bogans have launched no less than four military campaigns in the last two decades. [24] They're known as the Hoodlums of the Nicodemean Cluster. [25] Now, perhaps, we shall see them breaking that precedent and entering into the cultural life of the Galaxy." [26] "Breaking and entering," Retief said. [27] "You may have something there. [28] But I'm wondering what they'll study on d'Land. [29] That's an industrial world of the poor but honest variety." [30] "Academic details are the affair of the students and their professors," Magnan said. [31] "Our function is merely to bring them together. [32] See that you don't antagonize the Bogan representative. [33] This will be an excellent opportunity for you to practice your diplomatic restraint—not your strong point, I'm sure you'll agree." [34] A buzzer sounded. [35] Retief punched a button. [36] "What is it, Miss Furkle?" [37] "That—bucolic person from Lovenbroy is here again." [38] On the small desk screen, Miss Furkle's meaty features were compressed in disapproval. [39] "This fellow's a confounded pest. [40] I'll leave him to you, Retief," Magnan said. [41] "Tell him something. [42] Get rid of him. [43] And remember: here at Corps HQ, all eyes are upon you." [44] "If I'd thought of that, I'd have worn my other suit," Retief said. [45] Magnan snorted and passed from view. [46] Retief punched Miss Furkle's button. [47] "Send the bucolic person in." [48] A tall broad man with bronze skin and gray hair, wearing tight trousers of heavy cloth, a loose shirt open at the neck and a short jacket, stepped into the room. [49] He had a bundle under his arm. [50] He paused at sight of Retief, looked him over momentarily, then advanced and held out his hand. [51] Retief took it. [52] For a moment the two big men stood, face to face. [53] The newcomer's jaw muscles knotted. [54] Then he winced. [55] Retief dropped his hand and motioned to a chair. [56] "That's nice knuckle work, mister," the stranger said, massaging his hand. [57] "First time anybody ever did that to me. [58] My fault though. [59] I started it, I guess." [60] He grinned and sat down. [61] "What can I do for you?" [62] Retief said. [63] "You work for this Culture bunch, do you? [64] Funny. [65] I thought they were all ribbon-counter boys. [66] Never mind. [67] I'm Hank Arapoulous. [68] I'm a farmer. [69] What I wanted to see you about was—" He shifted in his chair. [70] "Well, out on Lovenbroy we've got a serious problem. [71] The wine crop is just about ready. [72] We start picking in another two, three months. [73] Now I don't know if you're familiar with the Bacchus vines we grow...?" [74] "No," Retief said. [75] "Have a cigar?" [76] He pushed a box across the desk. [77] Arapoulous took one. [78] "Bacchus vines are an unusual crop," he said, puffing the cigar alight. [79] "Only mature every twelve years. [80] In between, the vines don't need a lot of attention, so our time's mostly our own. [81] We like to farm, though. [82] Spend a lot of time developing new forms. [83] Apples the size of a melon—and sweet—" "Sounds very pleasant," Retief said. [84] "Where does the Libraries and Education Division come in?" [85] Arapoulous leaned forward. [86] "We go in pretty heavy for the arts. [87] Folks can't spend all their time hybridizing plants. [88] We've turned all the land area we've got into parks and farms. [89] Course, we left some sizable forest areas for hunting and such. [90] Lovenbroy's a nice place, Mr. [91] Retief." [92] "It sounds like it, Mr. Arapoulous. [93] Just what—" "Call me Hank. [94] We've got long seasons back home. [95] Five of 'em. [96] Our year's about eighteen Terry months. [97] Cold as hell in winter; eccentric orbit, you know. [98] Blue-black sky, stars visible all day. [99] We do mostly painting and sculpture in the winter. [100] Then Spring; still plenty cold. [101] Lots of skiing, bob-sledding, ice skating; and it's the season for woodworkers. [102] Our furniture—" "I've seen some of your furniture," Retief said. [103] "Beautiful work." [104] Arapoulous nodded. [105] "All local timbers too. [106] Lots of metals in our soil and those sulphates give the woods some color, I'll tell you. [107] Then comes the Monsoon. [108] Rain—it comes down in sheets. [109] But the sun's getting closer. [110] Shines all the time. [111] Ever seen it pouring rain in the sunshine? [112] That's the music-writing season. [113] Then summer. [114] Summer's hot. [115] We stay inside in the daytime and have beach parties all night. [116] Lots of beach on Lovenbroy; we're mostly islands. [117] That's the drama and symphony time. [118] The theatres are set up on the sand, or anchored off-shore. [119] You have the music and the surf and the bonfires and stars—we're close to the center of a globular cluster, you know...." "You say it's time now for the wine crop?" [120] "That's right. [121] Autumn's our harvest season. [122] Most years we have just the ordinary crops. [123] Fruit, grain, that kind of thing; getting it in doesn't take long. [124] We spend most of the time on architecture, getting new places ready for the winter or remodeling the older ones. [125] We spend a lot of time in our houses. [126] We like to have them comfortable. [127] But this year's different. [128] This is Wine Year." [129] Arapoulous puffed on his cigar, looked worriedly at Retief. [130] "Our wine crop is our big money crop," he said. [131] "We make enough to keep us going. [132] But this year...." "The crop isn't panning out?" [133] "Oh, the crop's fine. [134] One of the best I can remember. [135] Course, I'm only twenty-eight; I can't remember but two other harvests. [136] The problem's not the crop." [137] "Have you lost your markets? [138] That sounds like a matter for the Commercial—" "Lost our markets? [139] Mister, nobody that ever tasted our wines ever settled for anything else!" [140] "It sounds like I've been missing something," said Retief. [141] "I'll have to try them some time." [142] Arapoulous put his bundle on the desk, pulled off the wrappings. [143] "No time like the present," he said. [144] Retief looked at the two squat bottles, one green, one amber, both dusty, with faded labels, and blackened corks secured by wire. [145] "Drinking on duty is frowned on in the Corps, Mr. Arapoulous," he said. [146] "This isn't drinking . [147] It's just wine." [148] Arapoulous pulled the wire retainer loose, thumbed the cork. [149] It rose slowly, then popped in the air. [150] Arapoulous caught it. [151] Aromatic fumes wafted from the bottle. [152] "Besides, my feelings would be hurt if you didn't join me." [153] He winked. [154] Retief took two thin-walled glasses from a table beside the desk. [155] "Come to think of it, we also have to be careful about violating quaint native customs." [156] Arapoulous filled the glasses. [157] Retief picked one up, sniffed the deep rust-colored fluid, tasted it, then took a healthy swallow. [158] He looked at Arapoulous thoughtfully. [159] "Hmmm. [160] It tastes like salted pecans, with an undercurrent of crusted port." [161] "Don't try to describe it, Mr. Retief," Arapoulous said. [162] He took a mouthful of wine, swished it around his teeth, swallowed. [163] "It's Bacchus wine, that's all. [164] Nothing like it in the Galaxy." [165] He pushed the second bottle toward Retief. [166] "The custom back home is to alternate red wine and black." [167] Retief put aside his cigar, pulled the wires loose, nudged the cork, caught it as it popped up. [168] "Bad luck if you miss the cork," Arapoulous said, nodding. [169] "You probably never heard about the trouble we had on Lovenbroy a few years back?" [170] "Can't say that I did, Hank." [171] Retief poured the black wine into two fresh glasses. [172] "Here's to the harvest." [173] "We've got plenty of minerals on Lovenbroy," Arapoulous said, swallowing wine. [174] "But we don't plan to wreck the landscape mining 'em. [175] We like to farm. [176] About ten years back some neighbors of ours landed a force. [177] They figured they knew better what to do with our minerals than we did. [178] Wanted to strip-mine, smelt ore. We convinced 'em otherwise. [179] But it took a year, and we lost a lot of men." [180] "That's too bad," Retief said. [181] "I'd say this one tastes more like roast beef and popcorn over a Riesling base." [182] "It put us in a bad spot," Arapoulous went on. [183] "We had to borrow money from a world called Croanie. [184] Mortgaged our crops. [185] Had to start exporting art work too. [186] Plenty of buyers, but it's not the same when you're doing it for strangers." [187] "Say, this business of alternating drinks is the real McCoy," Retief said. [188] "What's the problem? [189] Croanie about to foreclose?" [190] "Well, the loan's due. [191] The wine crop would put us in the clear. [192] But we need harvest hands. [193] Picking Bacchus grapes isn't a job you can turn over to machinery—and anyway we wouldn't if we could. [194] Vintage season is the high point of living on Lovenbroy. [195] Everybody joins in. [196] First, there's the picking in the fields. [197] Miles and miles of vineyards covering the mountain sides, and crowding the river banks, with gardens here and there. [198] Big vines, eight feet high, loaded with fruit, and deep grass growing between. [199] The wine-carriers keep on the run, bringing wine to the pickers. [200] There's prizes for the biggest day's output, bets on who can fill the most baskets in an hour.... [201] The sun's high and bright, and it's just cool enough to give you plenty of energy. [202] Come nightfall, the tables are set up in the garden plots, and the feast is laid on: roast turkeys, beef, hams, all kinds of fowl. [203] Big salads. [204] Plenty of fruit. [205] Fresh-baked bread ... and wine, plenty of wine. [206] The cooking's done by a different crew each night in each garden, and there's prizes for the best crews. [207] "Then the wine-making. [208] We still tramp out the vintage. [209] That's mostly for the young folks but anybody's welcome. [210] That's when things start to get loosened up. [211] Matter of fact, pretty near half our young-uns are born after a vintage. [212] All bets are off then. [213] It keeps a fellow on his toes though. [214] Ever tried to hold onto a gal wearing nothing but a layer of grape juice?" [215] "Never did," Retief said. [216] "You say most of the children are born after a vintage. [217] That would make them only twelve years old by the time—" "Oh, that's Lovenbroy years; they'd be eighteen, Terry reckoning." [218] "I was thinking you looked a little mature for twenty-eight," Retief said. [219] "Forty-two, Terry years," Arapoulous said. [220] "But this year it looks bad. [221] We've got a bumper crop—and we're short-handed. [222] If we don't get a big vintage, Croanie steps in. [223] Lord knows what they'll do to the land. [224] Then next vintage time, with them holding half our grape acreage—" "You hocked the vineyards?" [225] "Yep. [226] Pretty dumb, huh? [227] But we figured twelve years was a long time." [228] "On the whole," Retief said, "I think I prefer the black. [229] But the red is hard to beat...." "What we figured was, maybe you Culture boys could help us out. [230] A loan to see us through the vintage, enough to hire extra hands. [231] Then we'd repay it in sculpture, painting, furniture—" "Sorry, Hank. [232] All we do here is work out itineraries for traveling side-shows, that kind of thing. [233] Now, if you needed a troop of Groaci nose-flute players—" "Can they pick grapes?" [234] "Nope. [235] Anyway, they can't stand the daylight. [236] Have you talked this over with the Labor Office?" [237] "Sure did. [238] They said they'd fix us up with all the electronics specialists and computer programmers we wanted—but no field hands. [239] Said it was what they classified as menial drudgery; you'd have thought I was trying to buy slaves." [240] The buzzer sounded. [241] Miss Furkle's features appeared on the desk screen. [242] "You're due at the Intergroup Council in five minutes," she said. [243] "Then afterwards, there are the Bogan students to meet." [244] "Thanks." [245] Retief finished his glass, stood. [246] "I have to run, Hank," he said. [247] "Let me think this over. [248] Maybe I can come up with something. [249] Check with me day after tomorrow. [250] And you'd better leave the bottles here. [251] Cultural exhibits, you know." [252] II As the council meeting broke up, Retief caught the eye of a colleague across the table. [253] "Mr. Whaffle, you mentioned a shipment going to a place called Croanie. [254] What are they getting?" [255] Whaffle blinked. [256] "You're the fellow who's filling in for Magnan, over at MUDDLE," he said. [257] "Properly speaking, equipment grants are the sole concern of the Motorized Equipment Depot, Division of Loans and Exchanges." [258] He pursed his lips. [259] "However, I suppose there's no harm in telling you. [260] They'll be receiving heavy mining equipment." [261] "Drill rigs, that sort of thing?" [262] "Strip mining gear." [263] Whaffle took a slip of paper from a breast pocket, blinked at it. [264] "Bolo Model WV/1 tractors, to be specific. [265] Why is MUDDLE interested in MEDDLE's activities?" [266] "Forgive my curiosity, Mr. Whaffle. [267] It's just that Croanie cropped up earlier today. [268] It seems she holds a mortgage on some vineyards over on—" "That's not MEDDLE's affair, sir," Whaffle cut in. [269] "I have sufficient problems as Chief of MEDDLE without probing into MUDDLE'S business." [270] "Speaking of tractors," another man put in, "we over at the Special Committee for Rehabilitation and Overhaul of Under-developed Nations' General Economies have been trying for months to get a request for mining equipment for d'Land through MEDDLE—" "SCROUNGE was late on the scene," Whaffle said. [271] "First come, first served. [272] That's our policy at MEDDLE. [273] Good day, gentlemen." [274] He strode off, briefcase under his arm. [275] "That's the trouble with peaceful worlds," the SCROUNGE committeeman said. [276] "Boge is a troublemaker, so every agency in the Corps is out to pacify her. [277] While my chance to make a record—that is, assist peace-loving d'Land—comes to naught." [278] He shook his head. [279] "What kind of university do they have on d'Land?" [280] asked Retief. [281] "We're sending them two thousand exchange students. [282] It must be quite an institution." [283] "University? [284] D'Land has one under-endowed technical college." [285] "Will all the exchange students be studying at the Technical College?" [286] "Two thousand students? [287] Hah! [288] Two hundred students would overtax the facilities of the college." [289] "I wonder if the Bogans know that?" [290] "The Bogans? [291] Why, most of d'Land's difficulties are due to the unwise trade agreement she entered into with Boge. [292] Two thousand students indeed!" [293] He snorted and walked away. [294] Retief stopped by the office to pick up a short cape, then rode the elevator to the roof of the 230-story Corps HQ building and hailed a cab to the port. [295] The Bogan students had arrived early. [296] Retief saw them lined up on the ramp waiting to go through customs. [297] It would be half an hour before they were cleared through. [298] He turned into the bar and ordered a beer. [299] A tall young fellow on the next stool raised his glass. [300] "Happy days," he said. [301] "And nights to match." [302] "You said it." [303] He gulped half his beer. [304] "My name's Karsh. [305] Mr. Karsh. [306] Yep, Mr. Karsh. [307] Boy, this is a drag, sitting around this place waiting...." "You meeting somebody?" [308] "Yeah. [309] Bunch of babies. [310] Kids. [311] How they expect—Never mind. [312] Have one on me." [313] "Thanks. [314] You a Scoutmaster?" [315] "I'll tell you what I am. [316] I'm a cradle-robber. [317] You know—" he turned to Retief—"not one of those kids is over eighteen." [318] He hiccupped. [319] "Students, you know. [320] Never saw a student with a beard, did you?" [321] "Lots of times. [322] You're meeting the students, are you?" [323] The young fellow blinked at Retief. [324] "Oh, you know about it, huh?" [325] "I represent MUDDLE." [326] Karsh finished his beer, ordered another. [327] "I came on ahead. [328] Sort of an advance guard for the kids. [329] I trained 'em myself. [330] Treated it like a game, but they can handle a CSU. [331] Don't know how they'll act under pressure. [332] If I had my old platoon—" He looked at his beer glass, pushed it back. [333] "Had enough," he said. [334] "So long, friend. [335] Or are you coming along?" [336] Retief nodded. [337] "Might as well." [338] At the exit to the Customs enclosure, Retief watched as the first of the Bogan students came through, caught sight of Karsh and snapped to attention, his chest out. [339] "Drop that, mister," Karsh snapped. [340] "Is that any way for a student to act?" [341] The youth, a round-faced lad with broad shoulders, grinned. [342] "Heck, no," he said. [343] "Say, uh, Mr. Karsh, are we gonna get to go to town? [344] We fellas were thinking—" "You were, hah? [345] You act like a bunch of school kids! [346] I mean ... no! [347] Now line up!" [348] "We have quarters ready for the students," Retief said. [349] "If you'd like to bring them around to the west side, I have a couple of copters laid on." [350] "Thanks," said Karsh. [351] "They'll stay here until take-off time. [352] Can't have the little dears wandering around loose. [353] Might get ideas about going over the hill." [354] He hiccupped. [355] "I mean they might play hookey." [356] "We've scheduled your re-embarkation for noon tomorrow. [357] That's a long wait. [358] MUDDLE's arranged theater tickets and a dinner." [359] "Sorry," Karsh said. [360] "As soon as the baggage gets here, we're off." [361] He hiccupped again. [362] "Can't travel without our baggage, y'know." [363] "Suit yourself," Retief said. [364] "Where's the baggage now?" [365] "Coming in aboard a Croanie lighter." [366] "Maybe you'd like to arrange for a meal for the students here." [367] "Sure," Karsh said. [368] "That's a good idea. [369] Why don't you join us?" [370] Karsh winked. [371] "And bring a few beers." [372] "Not this time," Retief said. [373] He watched the students, still emerging from Customs. [374] "They seem to be all boys," he commented. [375] "No female students?" [376] "Maybe later," Karsh said. [377] "You know, after we see how the first bunch is received." [378] Back at the MUDDLE office, Retief buzzed Miss Furkle. [379] "Do you know the name of the institution these Bogan students are bound for?" [380] "Why, the University at d'Land, of course." [381] "Would that be the Technical College?" [382] Miss Furkle's mouth puckered. [383] "I'm sure I've never pried into these details." [384] "Where does doing your job stop and prying begin, Miss Furkle?" [385] Retief said. [386] "Personally, I'm curious as to just what it is these students are travelling so far to study—at Corps expense." [387] "Mr. Magnan never—" "For the present. [388] Miss Furkle, Mr. Magnan is vacationing. [389] That leaves me with the question of two thousand young male students headed for a world with no classrooms for them ... a world in need of tractors. [390] But the tractors are on their way to Croanie, a world under obligation to Boge. [391] And Croanie holds a mortgage on the best grape acreage on Lovenbroy." [392] "Well!" [393] Miss Furkle snapped, small eyes glaring under unplucked brows. [394] "I hope you're not questioning Mr. Magnan's wisdom!" [395] "About Mr. Magnan's wisdom there can be no question," Retief said. [396] "But never mind. [397] I'd like you to look up an item for me. [398] How many tractors will Croanie be getting under the MEDDLE program?" [399] "Why, that's entirely MEDDLE business," Miss Furkle said. [400] "Mr. Magnan always—" "I'm sure he did. [401] Let me know about the tractors as soon as you can." [402] Miss Furkle sniffed and disappeared from the screen. [403] Retief left the office, descended forty-one stories, followed a corridor to the Corps Library. [404] In the stacks he thumbed through catalogues, pored over indices. [405] "Can I help you?" [406] someone chirped. [407] A tiny librarian stood at his elbow. [408] "Thank you, ma'am," Retief said. [409] "I'm looking for information on a mining rig. [410] A Bolo model WV tractor." [411] "You won't find it in the industrial section," the librarian said. [412] "Come along." [413] Retief followed her along the stacks to a well-lit section lettered ARMAMENTS. [414] She took a tape from the shelf, plugged it into the viewer, flipped through and stopped at a squat armored vehicle. [415] "That's the model WV," she said. [416] "It's what is known as a continental siege unit. [417] It carries four men, with a half-megaton/second firepower." [418] "There must be an error somewhere," Retief said. [419] "The Bolo model I want is a tractor. [420] Model WV M-1—" "Oh, the modification was the addition of a bulldozer blade for demolition work. [421] That must be what confused you." [422] "Probably—among other things. [423] Thank you." [424] Miss Furkle was waiting at the office. [425] "I have the information you wanted," she said. [426] "I've had it for over ten minutes. [427] I was under the impression you needed it urgently, and I went to great lengths—" "Sure," Retief said. [428] "Shoot. [429] How many tractors?" [430] "Five hundred." [431] "Are you sure?" [432] Miss Furkle's chins quivered. [433] "Well! [434] If you feel I'm incompetent—" "Just questioning the possibility of a mistake, Miss Furkle. [435] Five hundred tractors is a lot of equipment." [436] "Was there anything further?" [437] Miss Furkle inquired frigidly. [438] "I sincerely hope not," Retief said. [439] III Leaning back in Magnan's padded chair with power swivel and hip-u-matic concontour, Retief leafed through a folder labelled "CERP 7-602-Ba; CROANIE (general)." [440] He paused at a page headed Industry. [441] Still reading, he opened the desk drawer, took out the two bottles of Bacchus wine and two glasses. [442] He poured an inch of wine into each and sipped the black wine meditatively. [443] It would be a pity, he reflected, if anything should interfere with the production of such vintages.... Half an hour later he laid the folder aside, keyed the phone and put through a call to the Croanie Legation. [444] He asked for the Commercial Attache. [445] "Retief here, Corps HQ," he said airily. [446] "About the MEDDLE shipment, the tractors. [447] I'm wondering if there's been a slip up. [448] My records show we're shipping five hundred units...." "That's correct. [449] Five hundred." [450] Retief waited. [451] "Ah ... are you there, Retief?" [452] "I'm still here. [453] And I'm still wondering about the five hundred tractors." [454] "It's perfectly in order. [455] I thought it was all settled. [456] Mr. Whaffle—" "One unit would require a good-sized plant to handle its output," Retief said. [457] "Now Croanie subsists on her fisheries. [458] She has perhaps half a dozen pint-sized processing plants. [459] Maybe, in a bind, they could handle the ore ten WV's could scrape up ... if Croanie had any ore. [460] It doesn't. [461] By the way, isn't a WV a poor choice as a mining outfit? [462] I should think—" "See here, Retief! [463] Why all this interest in a few surplus tractors? [464] And in any event, what business is it of yours how we plan to use the equipment? [465] That's an internal affair of my government. [466] Mr. Whaffle—" "I'm not Mr. Whaffle. [467] What are you going to do with the other four hundred and ninety tractors?" [468] "I understood the grant was to be with no strings attached!" [469] "I know it's bad manners to ask questions. [470] It's an old diplomatic tradition that any time you can get anybody to accept anything as a gift, you've scored points in the game. [471] But if Croanie has some scheme cooking—" "Nothing like that, Retief. [472] It's a mere business transaction." [473] "What kind of business do you do with a Bolo WV? [474] With or without a blade attached, it's what's known as a continental siege unit." [475] "Great Heavens, Retief! [476] Don't jump to conclusions! [477] Would you have us branded as warmongers? [478] Frankly—is this a closed line?" [479] "Certainly. [480] You may speak freely." [481] "The tractors are for transshipment. [482] We've gotten ourselves into a difficult situation, balance-of-payments-wise. [483] This is an accommodation to a group with which we have rather strong business ties." [484] "I understand you hold a mortgage on the best land on Lovenbroy," Retief said. [485] "Any connection?" [486] "Why ... ah ... no. [487] Of course not, ha ha." [488] "Who gets the tractors eventually?" [489] "Retief, this is unwarranted interference!" [490] "Who gets them?" [491] "They happen to be going to Lovenbroy. [492] But I scarcely see—" "And who's the friend you're helping out with an unauthorized transshipment of grant material?" [493] "Why ... ah ... [494] I've been working with a Mr. Gulver, a Bogan representative." [495] "And when will they be shipped?" [496] "Why, they went out a week ago. [497] They'll be half way there by now. [498] But look here, Retief, this isn't what you're thinking!" [499] "How do you know what I'm thinking? [500] I don't know myself." [501] Retief rang off, buzzed the secretary. [502] "Miss Furkle, I'd like to be notified immediately of any new applications that might come in from the Bogan Consulate for placement of students." [503] "Well, it happens, by coincidence, that I have an application here now. [504] Mr. Gulver of the Consulate brought it in." [505] "Is Mr. Gulver in the office? [506] I'd like to see him." [507] "I'll ask him if he has time." [508] "Great. [509] Thanks." [510] It was half a minute before a thick-necked red-faced man in a tight hat walked in. [511] He wore an old-fashioned suit, a drab shirt, shiny shoes with round toes and an ill-tempered expression. [512] "What is it you wish?" [513] he barked. [514] "I understood in my discussions with the other ... ah ... civilian there'd be no further need for these irritating conferences." [515] "I've just learned you're placing more students abroad, Mr. Gulver. [516] How many this time?" [517] "Two thousand." [518] "And where will they be going?" [519] "Croanie. [520] It's all in the application form I've handed in. [521] Your job is to provide transportation." [522] "Will there be any other students embarking this season?" [523] "Why ... perhaps. [524] That's Boge's business." [525] Gulver looked at Retief with pursed lips. [526] "As a matter of fact, we had in mind dispatching another two thousand to Featherweight." [527] "Another under-populated world—and in the same cluster, I believe," Retief said. [528] "Your people must be unusually interested in that region of space." [529] "If that's all you wanted to know, I'll be on my way. [530] I have matters of importance to see to." [531] After Gulver left, Retief called Miss Furkle in. [532] "I'd like to have a break-out of all the student movements that have been planned under the present program," he said. [533] "And see if you can get a summary of what MEDDLE has been shipping lately." [534] Miss Furkle compressed her lips. [535] "If Mr. Magnan were here, I'm sure he wouldn't dream of interfering in the work of other departments. [536] I ... overheard your conversation with the gentleman from the Croanie Legation—" "The lists, Miss Furkle." [537] "I'm not accustomed," Miss Furkle said, "to intruding in matters outside our interest cluster." [538] "That's worse than listening in on phone conversations, eh? [539] But never mind. [540] I need the information, Miss Furkle." [541] "Loyalty to my Chief—" "Loyalty to your pay-check should send you scuttling for the material I've asked for," Retief said. [542] "I'm taking full responsibility. [543] Now scat." [544] The buzzer sounded. [545] Retief flipped a key. [546] "MUDDLE, Retief speaking...." Arapoulous's brown face appeared on the desk screen. [547] "How-do, Retief. [548] Okay if I come up?" [549] "Sure, Hank. [550] I want to talk to you." [551] In the office, Arapoulous took a chair. [552] "Sorry if I'm rushing you, Retief," he said. [553] "But have you got anything for me?" [554] Retief waved at the wine bottles. [555] "What do you know about Croanie?" [556] "Croanie? [557] Not much of a place. [558] Mostly ocean. [559] All right if you like fish, I guess. [560] We import our seafood from there. [561] Nice prawns in monsoon time. [562] Over a foot long." [563] "You on good terms with them?" [564] "Sure, I guess so. [565] Course, they're pretty thick with Boge." [566] "So?" [567] "Didn't I tell you? [568] Boge was the bunch that tried to take us over here a dozen years back. [569] They'd've made it too, if they hadn't had a lot of bad luck. [570] Their armor went in the drink, and without armor they're easy game." [571] Miss Furkle buzzed. [572] "I have your lists," she said shortly. [573] "Bring them in, please." [574] The secretary placed the papers on the desk. [575] Arapoulous caught her eye and grinned. [576] She sniffed and marched from the room. [577] "What that gal needs is a slippery time in the grape mash," Arapoulous observed. [578] Retief thumbed through the papers, pausing to read from time to time. [579] He finished and looked at Arapoulous. [580] "How many men do you need for the harvest, Hank?" [581] Retief inquired. [582] Arapoulous sniffed his wine glass and looked thoughtful. [583] "A hundred would help," he said. [584] "A thousand would be better. [585] Cheers." [586] "What would you say to two thousand?" [587] "Two thousand? [588] Retief, you're not fooling?" [589] "I hope not." [590] He picked up the phone, called the Port Authority, asked for the dispatch clerk. [591] "Hello, Jim. [592] Say, I have a favor to ask of you. [593] You know that contingent of Bogan students. [594] They're traveling aboard the two CDT transports. [595] I'm interested in the baggage that goes with the students. [596] Has it arrived yet? [597] Okay, I'll wait." [598] Jim came back to the phone. [599] "Yeah, Retief, it's here. [600] Just arrived. [601] But there's a funny thing. [602] It's not consigned to d'Land. [603] It's ticketed clear through to Lovenbroy." [604] "Listen, Jim," Retief said. [605] "I want you to go over to the warehouse and take a look at that baggage for me." [606] Retief waited while the dispatch clerk carried out the errand. [607] The level in the two bottles had gone down an inch when Jim returned to the phone. [608] "Hey, I took a look at that baggage, Retief. [609] Something funny going on. [610] Guns. [611] 2mm needlers, Mark XII hand blasters, power pistols—" "It's okay, Jim. [612] Nothing to worry about. [613] Just a mix-up. [614] Now, Jim, I'm going to ask you to do something more for me. [615] I'm covering for a friend. [616] It seems he slipped up. [617] I wouldn't want word to get out, you understand. [618] I'll send along a written change order in the morning that will cover you officially. [619] Meanwhile, here's what I want you to do...." Retief gave instructions, then rang off and turned to Arapoulous. [620] "As soon as I get off a couple of TWX's, I think we'd better get down to the port, Hank. [621] I think I'd like to see the students off personally." [622] IV Karsh met Retief as he entered the Departures enclosure at the port. [623] "What's going on here?" [624] he demanded. [625] "There's some funny business with my baggage consignment. [626] They won't let me see it! [627] I've got a feeling it's not being loaded." [628] "You'd better hurry, Mr. Karsh," Retief said. [629] "You're scheduled to blast off in less than an hour. [630] Are the students all loaded?" [631] "Yes, blast you! [632] What about my baggage? [633] Those vessels aren't moving without it!" [634] "No need to get so upset about a few toothbrushes, is there, Mr. [635] Karsh?" [636] Retief said blandly. [637] "Still, if you're worried—" He turned to Arapoulous. [638] "Hank, why don't you walk Mr. Karsh over to the warehouse and ... ah ... take care of him?" [639] "I know just how to handle it," Arapoulous said. [640] The dispatch clerk came up to Retief. [641] "I caught the tractor equipment," he said. [642] "Funny kind of mistake, but it's okay now. [643] They're being off-loaded at d'Land. [644] I talked to the traffic controller there. [645] He said they weren't looking for any students." [646] "The labels got switched, Jim. [647] The students go where the baggage was consigned. [648] Too bad about the mistake, but the Armaments Office will have a man along in a little while to dispose of the guns. [649] Keep an eye out for the luggage. [650] No telling where it's gotten to." [651] "Here!" [652] a hoarse voice yelled. [653] Retief turned. [654] A disheveled figure in a tight hat was crossing the enclosure, arms waving. [655] "Hi there, Mr. Gulver," Retief called. [656] "How's Boge's business coming along?" [657] "Piracy!" [658] Gulver blurted as he came up to Retief, puffing hard. [659] "You've got a hand in this, I don't doubt! [660] Where's that Magnan fellow?" [661] "What seems to be the problem?" [662] Retief said. [663] "Hold those transports! [664] I've just been notified that the baggage shipment has been impounded. [665] I'll remind you, that shipment enjoys diplomatic free entry!" [666] "Who told you it was impounded?" [667] "Never mind! [668] I have my sources!" [669] Two tall men buttoned into gray tunics came up. [670] "Are you Mr. Retief of CDT?" [671] one said. [672] "That's right." [673] "What about my baggage!" [674] Gulver cut in. [675] "And I'm warning you, if those ships lift without—" "These gentlemen are from the Armaments Control Commission," Retief said. [676] "Would you like to come along and claim your baggage, Mr. [677] Gulver?" [678] "From where? [679] I—" Gulver turned two shades redder about the ears. [680] "Armaments?" [681] "The only shipment I've held up seems to be somebody's arsenal," Retief said. [682] "Now if you claim this is your baggage...." "Why, impossible," Gulver said in a strained voice. [683] "Armaments? [684] Ridiculous. [685] There's been an error...." At the baggage warehouse Gulver looked glumly at the opened cases of guns. [686] "No, of course not," he said dully. [687] "Not my baggage. [688] Not my baggage at all." [689] Arapoulous appeared, supporting the stumbling figure of Mr. Karsh. [690] "What—what's this?" [691] Gulver spluttered. [692] "Karsh? [693] What's happened?" [694] "He had a little fall. [695] He'll be okay," Arapoulous said. [696] "You'd better help him to the ship," Retief said. [697] "It's ready to lift. [698] We wouldn't want him to miss it." [699] "Leave him to me!" [700] Gulver snapped, his eyes slashing at Karsh. [701] "I'll see he's dealt with." [702] "I couldn't think of it," Retief said. [703] "He's a guest of the Corps, you know. [704] We'll see him safely aboard." [705] Gulver turned, signaled frantically. [706] Three heavy-set men in identical drab suits detached themselves from the wall, crossed to the group. [707] "Take this man," Gulver snapped, indicating Karsh, who looked at him dazedly, reached up to rub his head. [708] "We take our hospitality seriously," Retief said. [709] "We'll see him aboard the vessel." [710] Gulver opened his mouth. [711] "I know you feel bad about finding guns instead of school books in your luggage," Retief said, looking Gulver in the eye. [712] "You'll be busy straightening out the details of the mix-up. [713] You'll want to avoid further complications." [714] "Ah. [715] Ulp. [716] Yes," Gulver said. [717] He appeared unhappy. [718] Arapoulous went on to the passenger conveyor, turned to wave. [719] "Your man—he's going too?" [720] Gulver blurted. [721] "He's not our man, properly speaking," Retief said. [722] "He lives on Lovenbroy." [723] "Lovenbroy?" [724] Gulver choked. [725] "But ... the ... [726] I...." "I know you said the students were bound for d'Land," Retief said. [727] "But I guess that was just another aspect of the general confusion. [728] The course plugged into the navigators was to Lovenbroy. [729] You'll be glad to know they're still headed there—even without the baggage." [730] "Perhaps," Gulver said grimly, "perhaps they'll manage without it." [731] "By the way," Retief said. [732] "There was another funny mix-up. [733] There were some tractors—for industrial use, you'll recall. [734] I believe you co-operated with Croanie in arranging the grant through MEDDLE. [735] They were erroneously consigned to Lovenbroy, a purely agricultural world. [736] I saved you some embarrassment, I trust, Mr. Gulver, by arranging to have them off-loaded at d'Land." [737] "D'Land! [738] You've put the CSU's in the hands of Boge's bitterest enemies!" [739] "But they're only tractors, Mr. Gulver. [740] Peaceful devices. [741] Isn't that correct?" [742] "That's ... [743] correct." [744] Gulver sagged. [745] Then he snapped erect. [746] "Hold the ships!" [747] he yelled. [748] "I'm canceling the student exchange—" His voice was drowned by the rumble as the first of the monster transports rose from the launch pit, followed a moment later by the second, Retief watched them out of sight, then turned to Gulver. [749] "They're off," he said. [750] "Let's hope they get a liberal education." [751] V Retief lay on his back in deep grass by a stream, eating grapes. [752] A tall figure appeared on the knoll above him and waved. [753] "Retief!" [754] Hank Arapoulous bounded down the slope and embraced Retief, slapping him on the back. [755] "I heard you were here—and I've got news for you. [756] You won the final day's picking competition. [757] Over two hundred bushels! [758] That's a record!" [759] "Let's get on over to the garden. [760] Sounds like the celebration's about to start." [761] In the flower-crowded park among the stripped vines, Retief and Arapoulous made their way to a laden table under the lanterns. [762] A tall girl dressed in loose white, and with long golden hair, came up to Arapoulous. [763] "Delinda, this is Retief—today's winner. [764] And he's also the fellow that got those workers for us." [765] Delinda smiled at Retief. [766] "I've heard about you, Mr. Retief. [767] We weren't sure about the boys at first. [768] Two thousand Bogans, and all confused about their baggage that went astray. [769] But they seemed to like the picking." [770] She smiled again. [771] "That's not all. [772] Our gals liked the boys," Hank said. [773] "Even Bogans aren't so bad, minus their irons. [774] A lot of 'em will be staying on. [775] But how come you didn't tell me you were coming, Retief? [776] I'd have laid on some kind of big welcome." [777] "I liked the welcome I got. [778] And I didn't have much notice. [779] Mr. Magnan was a little upset when he got back. [780] It seems I exceeded my authority." [781] Arapoulous laughed. [782] "I had a feeling you were wheeling pretty free, Retief. [783] I hope you didn't get into any trouble over it." [784] "No trouble," Retief said. [785] "A few people were a little unhappy with me. [786] It seems I'm not ready for important assignments at Departmental level. [787] I was shipped off here to the boondocks to get a little more experience." [788] "Delinda, look after Retief," said Arapoulous. [789] "I'll see you later. [790] I've got to see to the wine judging." [791] He disappeared in the crowd. [792] "Congratulations on winning the day," said Delinda. [793] "I noticed you at work. [794] You were wonderful. [795] I'm glad you're going to have the prize." [796] "Thanks. [797] I noticed you too, flitting around in that white nightie of yours. [798] But why weren't you picking grapes with the rest of us?" [799] "I had a special assignment." [800] "Too bad. [801] You should have had a chance at the prize." [802] Delinda took Retief's hand. [803] "I wouldn't have anyway," she said. [804] "I'm the prize."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "Who is Hank Arapoulous, and what does he do in the story?": 1. [68] I'm Hank Arapoulous. I'm a farmer. 2. [70] Well, out on Lovenbroy we've got a serious problem. The wine crop is just about ready. 3. [85] Arapoulous leaned forward. "We go in pretty heavy for the arts. Folks can't spend all their time hybridizing plants. We've turned all the land area we've got into parks and farms." 4. [94] "We've got long seasons back home. Five of 'em. Our year's about eighteen Terry months." 5. [120] "That's right. Autumn's our harvest season. Most years we have just the ordinary crops. Fruit, grain, that kind of thing; getting it in doesn't take long. We spend most of the time on architecture, getting new places ready for the winter or remodeling the older ones." 6. [127] "But this year's different. This is Wine Year." 7. [129] Arapoulous puffed on his cigar, looked worriedly at Retief. "Our wine crop is our big money crop," he said. 8. [173] "We've got plenty of minerals on Lovenbroy," Arapoulous said, swallowing wine. "But we don't plan to wreck the landscape mining 'em. We like to farm." 9. [182] "It put us in a bad spot," Arapoulous went on. "We had to borrow money from a world called Croanie. Mortgaged our crops. Had to start exporting art work too. Plenty of buyers, but it's not the same when you're doing it for strangers." 10. [194] "Everybody joins in. First, there's the picking in the fields. Miles and miles of vineyards covering the mountain sides, and crowding the river banks, with gardens here and there. Big vines, eight feet high, loaded with fruit, and deep grass growing between." 11. [207] "Then the wine-making. We still tramp out the vintage. That's mostly for the young folks but anybody's welcome. That's when things start to get loosened up. Matter of fact, pretty near half our young-uns are born after a vintage." 12. [219] "Forty-two, Terry years," Arapoulous said. 13. [220] "But this year it looks bad. We've got a bumper crop—and we're short-handed." 14. [225] "Yep. Pretty dumb, huh? But we figured twelve years was a long time." 15. [229] "What we figured was, maybe you Culture boys could help us out. A loan to see us through the vintage, enough to hire extra hands. Then we'd repay it in sculpture, painting, furniture—" 16. [547] "How-do, Retief. Okay if I come up?" 17. [552] "Sorry if I'm rushing you, Retief," he said. "But have you got anything for me?" 18. [581] "How many men do you need for the harvest, Hank?" Retief inquired. 19. [583] "A hundred would help," he said. "A thousand would be better." 20. [588] "Two thousand? Retief, you're not fooling?"

What is Lovenbroy, and why is it important?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net CULTURAL EXCHANGE BY KEITH LAUMER It was a simple student exchange—but Retief gave them more of an education than they expected! [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] I Second Secretary Magnan took his green-lined cape and orange-feathered beret from the clothes tree. [5] "I'm off now, Retief," he said. [6] "I hope you'll manage the administrative routine during my absence without any unfortunate incidents." [7] "That seems a modest enough hope," Retief said. [8] "I'll try to live up to it." [9] "I don't appreciate frivolity with reference to this Division," Magnan said testily. [10] "When I first came here, the Manpower Utilization Directorate, Division of Libraries and Education was a shambles. [11] I fancy I've made MUDDLE what it is today. [12] Frankly, I question the wisdom of placing you in charge of such a sensitive desk, even for two weeks. [13] But remember. [14] Yours is purely a rubber-stamp function." [15] "In that case, let's leave it to Miss Furkle. [16] I'll take a couple of weeks off myself. [17] With her poundage, she could bring plenty of pressure to bear." [18] "I assume you jest, Retief," Magnan said sadly. [19] "I should expect even you to appreciate that Bogan participation in the Exchange Program may be the first step toward sublimation of their aggressions into more cultivated channels." [20] "I see they're sending two thousand students to d'Land," Retief said, glancing at the Memo for Record. [21] "That's a sizable sublimation." [22] Magnan nodded. [23] "The Bogans have launched no less than four military campaigns in the last two decades. [24] They're known as the Hoodlums of the Nicodemean Cluster. [25] Now, perhaps, we shall see them breaking that precedent and entering into the cultural life of the Galaxy." [26] "Breaking and entering," Retief said. [27] "You may have something there. [28] But I'm wondering what they'll study on d'Land. [29] That's an industrial world of the poor but honest variety." [30] "Academic details are the affair of the students and their professors," Magnan said. [31] "Our function is merely to bring them together. [32] See that you don't antagonize the Bogan representative. [33] This will be an excellent opportunity for you to practice your diplomatic restraint—not your strong point, I'm sure you'll agree." [34] A buzzer sounded. [35] Retief punched a button. [36] "What is it, Miss Furkle?" [37] "That—bucolic person from Lovenbroy is here again." [38] On the small desk screen, Miss Furkle's meaty features were compressed in disapproval. [39] "This fellow's a confounded pest. [40] I'll leave him to you, Retief," Magnan said. [41] "Tell him something. [42] Get rid of him. [43] And remember: here at Corps HQ, all eyes are upon you." [44] "If I'd thought of that, I'd have worn my other suit," Retief said. [45] Magnan snorted and passed from view. [46] Retief punched Miss Furkle's button. [47] "Send the bucolic person in." [48] A tall broad man with bronze skin and gray hair, wearing tight trousers of heavy cloth, a loose shirt open at the neck and a short jacket, stepped into the room. [49] He had a bundle under his arm. [50] He paused at sight of Retief, looked him over momentarily, then advanced and held out his hand. [51] Retief took it. [52] For a moment the two big men stood, face to face. [53] The newcomer's jaw muscles knotted. [54] Then he winced. [55] Retief dropped his hand and motioned to a chair. [56] "That's nice knuckle work, mister," the stranger said, massaging his hand. [57] "First time anybody ever did that to me. [58] My fault though. [59] I started it, I guess." [60] He grinned and sat down. [61] "What can I do for you?" [62] Retief said. [63] "You work for this Culture bunch, do you? [64] Funny. [65] I thought they were all ribbon-counter boys. [66] Never mind. [67] I'm Hank Arapoulous. [68] I'm a farmer. [69] What I wanted to see you about was—" He shifted in his chair. [70] "Well, out on Lovenbroy we've got a serious problem. [71] The wine crop is just about ready. [72] We start picking in another two, three months. [73] Now I don't know if you're familiar with the Bacchus vines we grow...?" [74] "No," Retief said. [75] "Have a cigar?" [76] He pushed a box across the desk. [77] Arapoulous took one. [78] "Bacchus vines are an unusual crop," he said, puffing the cigar alight. [79] "Only mature every twelve years. [80] In between, the vines don't need a lot of attention, so our time's mostly our own. [81] We like to farm, though. [82] Spend a lot of time developing new forms. [83] Apples the size of a melon—and sweet—" "Sounds very pleasant," Retief said. [84] "Where does the Libraries and Education Division come in?" [85] Arapoulous leaned forward. [86] "We go in pretty heavy for the arts. [87] Folks can't spend all their time hybridizing plants. [88] We've turned all the land area we've got into parks and farms. [89] Course, we left some sizable forest areas for hunting and such. [90] Lovenbroy's a nice place, Mr. [91] Retief." [92] "It sounds like it, Mr. Arapoulous. [93] Just what—" "Call me Hank. [94] We've got long seasons back home. [95] Five of 'em. [96] Our year's about eighteen Terry months. [97] Cold as hell in winter; eccentric orbit, you know. [98] Blue-black sky, stars visible all day. [99] We do mostly painting and sculpture in the winter. [100] Then Spring; still plenty cold. [101] Lots of skiing, bob-sledding, ice skating; and it's the season for woodworkers. [102] Our furniture—" "I've seen some of your furniture," Retief said. [103] "Beautiful work." [104] Arapoulous nodded. [105] "All local timbers too. [106] Lots of metals in our soil and those sulphates give the woods some color, I'll tell you. [107] Then comes the Monsoon. [108] Rain—it comes down in sheets. [109] But the sun's getting closer. [110] Shines all the time. [111] Ever seen it pouring rain in the sunshine? [112] That's the music-writing season. [113] Then summer. [114] Summer's hot. [115] We stay inside in the daytime and have beach parties all night. [116] Lots of beach on Lovenbroy; we're mostly islands. [117] That's the drama and symphony time. [118] The theatres are set up on the sand, or anchored off-shore. [119] You have the music and the surf and the bonfires and stars—we're close to the center of a globular cluster, you know...." "You say it's time now for the wine crop?" [120] "That's right. [121] Autumn's our harvest season. [122] Most years we have just the ordinary crops. [123] Fruit, grain, that kind of thing; getting it in doesn't take long. [124] We spend most of the time on architecture, getting new places ready for the winter or remodeling the older ones. [125] We spend a lot of time in our houses. [126] We like to have them comfortable. [127] But this year's different. [128] This is Wine Year." [129] Arapoulous puffed on his cigar, looked worriedly at Retief. [130] "Our wine crop is our big money crop," he said. [131] "We make enough to keep us going. [132] But this year...." "The crop isn't panning out?" [133] "Oh, the crop's fine. [134] One of the best I can remember. [135] Course, I'm only twenty-eight; I can't remember but two other harvests. [136] The problem's not the crop." [137] "Have you lost your markets? [138] That sounds like a matter for the Commercial—" "Lost our markets? [139] Mister, nobody that ever tasted our wines ever settled for anything else!" [140] "It sounds like I've been missing something," said Retief. [141] "I'll have to try them some time." [142] Arapoulous put his bundle on the desk, pulled off the wrappings. [143] "No time like the present," he said. [144] Retief looked at the two squat bottles, one green, one amber, both dusty, with faded labels, and blackened corks secured by wire. [145] "Drinking on duty is frowned on in the Corps, Mr. Arapoulous," he said. [146] "This isn't drinking . [147] It's just wine." [148] Arapoulous pulled the wire retainer loose, thumbed the cork. [149] It rose slowly, then popped in the air. [150] Arapoulous caught it. [151] Aromatic fumes wafted from the bottle. [152] "Besides, my feelings would be hurt if you didn't join me." [153] He winked. [154] Retief took two thin-walled glasses from a table beside the desk. [155] "Come to think of it, we also have to be careful about violating quaint native customs." [156] Arapoulous filled the glasses. [157] Retief picked one up, sniffed the deep rust-colored fluid, tasted it, then took a healthy swallow. [158] He looked at Arapoulous thoughtfully. [159] "Hmmm. [160] It tastes like salted pecans, with an undercurrent of crusted port." [161] "Don't try to describe it, Mr. Retief," Arapoulous said. [162] He took a mouthful of wine, swished it around his teeth, swallowed. [163] "It's Bacchus wine, that's all. [164] Nothing like it in the Galaxy." [165] He pushed the second bottle toward Retief. [166] "The custom back home is to alternate red wine and black." [167] Retief put aside his cigar, pulled the wires loose, nudged the cork, caught it as it popped up. [168] "Bad luck if you miss the cork," Arapoulous said, nodding. [169] "You probably never heard about the trouble we had on Lovenbroy a few years back?" [170] "Can't say that I did, Hank." [171] Retief poured the black wine into two fresh glasses. [172] "Here's to the harvest." [173] "We've got plenty of minerals on Lovenbroy," Arapoulous said, swallowing wine. [174] "But we don't plan to wreck the landscape mining 'em. [175] We like to farm. [176] About ten years back some neighbors of ours landed a force. [177] They figured they knew better what to do with our minerals than we did. [178] Wanted to strip-mine, smelt ore. We convinced 'em otherwise. [179] But it took a year, and we lost a lot of men." [180] "That's too bad," Retief said. [181] "I'd say this one tastes more like roast beef and popcorn over a Riesling base." [182] "It put us in a bad spot," Arapoulous went on. [183] "We had to borrow money from a world called Croanie. [184] Mortgaged our crops. [185] Had to start exporting art work too. [186] Plenty of buyers, but it's not the same when you're doing it for strangers." [187] "Say, this business of alternating drinks is the real McCoy," Retief said. [188] "What's the problem? [189] Croanie about to foreclose?" [190] "Well, the loan's due. [191] The wine crop would put us in the clear. [192] But we need harvest hands. [193] Picking Bacchus grapes isn't a job you can turn over to machinery—and anyway we wouldn't if we could. [194] Vintage season is the high point of living on Lovenbroy. [195] Everybody joins in. [196] First, there's the picking in the fields. [197] Miles and miles of vineyards covering the mountain sides, and crowding the river banks, with gardens here and there. [198] Big vines, eight feet high, loaded with fruit, and deep grass growing between. [199] The wine-carriers keep on the run, bringing wine to the pickers. [200] There's prizes for the biggest day's output, bets on who can fill the most baskets in an hour.... [201] The sun's high and bright, and it's just cool enough to give you plenty of energy. [202] Come nightfall, the tables are set up in the garden plots, and the feast is laid on: roast turkeys, beef, hams, all kinds of fowl. [203] Big salads. [204] Plenty of fruit. [205] Fresh-baked bread ... and wine, plenty of wine. [206] The cooking's done by a different crew each night in each garden, and there's prizes for the best crews. [207] "Then the wine-making. [208] We still tramp out the vintage. [209] That's mostly for the young folks but anybody's welcome. [210] That's when things start to get loosened up. [211] Matter of fact, pretty near half our young-uns are born after a vintage. [212] All bets are off then. [213] It keeps a fellow on his toes though. [214] Ever tried to hold onto a gal wearing nothing but a layer of grape juice?" [215] "Never did," Retief said. [216] "You say most of the children are born after a vintage. [217] That would make them only twelve years old by the time—" "Oh, that's Lovenbroy years; they'd be eighteen, Terry reckoning." [218] "I was thinking you looked a little mature for twenty-eight," Retief said. [219] "Forty-two, Terry years," Arapoulous said. [220] "But this year it looks bad. [221] We've got a bumper crop—and we're short-handed. [222] If we don't get a big vintage, Croanie steps in. [223] Lord knows what they'll do to the land. [224] Then next vintage time, with them holding half our grape acreage—" "You hocked the vineyards?" [225] "Yep. [226] Pretty dumb, huh? [227] But we figured twelve years was a long time." [228] "On the whole," Retief said, "I think I prefer the black. [229] But the red is hard to beat...." "What we figured was, maybe you Culture boys could help us out. [230] A loan to see us through the vintage, enough to hire extra hands. [231] Then we'd repay it in sculpture, painting, furniture—" "Sorry, Hank. [232] All we do here is work out itineraries for traveling side-shows, that kind of thing. [233] Now, if you needed a troop of Groaci nose-flute players—" "Can they pick grapes?" [234] "Nope. [235] Anyway, they can't stand the daylight. [236] Have you talked this over with the Labor Office?" [237] "Sure did. [238] They said they'd fix us up with all the electronics specialists and computer programmers we wanted—but no field hands. [239] Said it was what they classified as menial drudgery; you'd have thought I was trying to buy slaves." [240] The buzzer sounded. [241] Miss Furkle's features appeared on the desk screen. [242] "You're due at the Intergroup Council in five minutes," she said. [243] "Then afterwards, there are the Bogan students to meet." [244] "Thanks." [245] Retief finished his glass, stood. [246] "I have to run, Hank," he said. [247] "Let me think this over. [248] Maybe I can come up with something. [249] Check with me day after tomorrow. [250] And you'd better leave the bottles here. [251] Cultural exhibits, you know." [252] II As the council meeting broke up, Retief caught the eye of a colleague across the table. [253] "Mr. Whaffle, you mentioned a shipment going to a place called Croanie. [254] What are they getting?" [255] Whaffle blinked. [256] "You're the fellow who's filling in for Magnan, over at MUDDLE," he said. [257] "Properly speaking, equipment grants are the sole concern of the Motorized Equipment Depot, Division of Loans and Exchanges." [258] He pursed his lips. [259] "However, I suppose there's no harm in telling you. [260] They'll be receiving heavy mining equipment." [261] "Drill rigs, that sort of thing?" [262] "Strip mining gear." [263] Whaffle took a slip of paper from a breast pocket, blinked at it. [264] "Bolo Model WV/1 tractors, to be specific. [265] Why is MUDDLE interested in MEDDLE's activities?" [266] "Forgive my curiosity, Mr. Whaffle. [267] It's just that Croanie cropped up earlier today. [268] It seems she holds a mortgage on some vineyards over on—" "That's not MEDDLE's affair, sir," Whaffle cut in. [269] "I have sufficient problems as Chief of MEDDLE without probing into MUDDLE'S business." [270] "Speaking of tractors," another man put in, "we over at the Special Committee for Rehabilitation and Overhaul of Under-developed Nations' General Economies have been trying for months to get a request for mining equipment for d'Land through MEDDLE—" "SCROUNGE was late on the scene," Whaffle said. [271] "First come, first served. [272] That's our policy at MEDDLE. [273] Good day, gentlemen." [274] He strode off, briefcase under his arm. [275] "That's the trouble with peaceful worlds," the SCROUNGE committeeman said. [276] "Boge is a troublemaker, so every agency in the Corps is out to pacify her. [277] While my chance to make a record—that is, assist peace-loving d'Land—comes to naught." [278] He shook his head. [279] "What kind of university do they have on d'Land?" [280] asked Retief. [281] "We're sending them two thousand exchange students. [282] It must be quite an institution." [283] "University? [284] D'Land has one under-endowed technical college." [285] "Will all the exchange students be studying at the Technical College?" [286] "Two thousand students? [287] Hah! [288] Two hundred students would overtax the facilities of the college." [289] "I wonder if the Bogans know that?" [290] "The Bogans? [291] Why, most of d'Land's difficulties are due to the unwise trade agreement she entered into with Boge. [292] Two thousand students indeed!" [293] He snorted and walked away. [294] Retief stopped by the office to pick up a short cape, then rode the elevator to the roof of the 230-story Corps HQ building and hailed a cab to the port. [295] The Bogan students had arrived early. [296] Retief saw them lined up on the ramp waiting to go through customs. [297] It would be half an hour before they were cleared through. [298] He turned into the bar and ordered a beer. [299] A tall young fellow on the next stool raised his glass. [300] "Happy days," he said. [301] "And nights to match." [302] "You said it." [303] He gulped half his beer. [304] "My name's Karsh. [305] Mr. Karsh. [306] Yep, Mr. Karsh. [307] Boy, this is a drag, sitting around this place waiting...." "You meeting somebody?" [308] "Yeah. [309] Bunch of babies. [310] Kids. [311] How they expect—Never mind. [312] Have one on me." [313] "Thanks. [314] You a Scoutmaster?" [315] "I'll tell you what I am. [316] I'm a cradle-robber. [317] You know—" he turned to Retief—"not one of those kids is over eighteen." [318] He hiccupped. [319] "Students, you know. [320] Never saw a student with a beard, did you?" [321] "Lots of times. [322] You're meeting the students, are you?" [323] The young fellow blinked at Retief. [324] "Oh, you know about it, huh?" [325] "I represent MUDDLE." [326] Karsh finished his beer, ordered another. [327] "I came on ahead. [328] Sort of an advance guard for the kids. [329] I trained 'em myself. [330] Treated it like a game, but they can handle a CSU. [331] Don't know how they'll act under pressure. [332] If I had my old platoon—" He looked at his beer glass, pushed it back. [333] "Had enough," he said. [334] "So long, friend. [335] Or are you coming along?" [336] Retief nodded. [337] "Might as well." [338] At the exit to the Customs enclosure, Retief watched as the first of the Bogan students came through, caught sight of Karsh and snapped to attention, his chest out. [339] "Drop that, mister," Karsh snapped. [340] "Is that any way for a student to act?" [341] The youth, a round-faced lad with broad shoulders, grinned. [342] "Heck, no," he said. [343] "Say, uh, Mr. Karsh, are we gonna get to go to town? [344] We fellas were thinking—" "You were, hah? [345] You act like a bunch of school kids! [346] I mean ... no! [347] Now line up!" [348] "We have quarters ready for the students," Retief said. [349] "If you'd like to bring them around to the west side, I have a couple of copters laid on." [350] "Thanks," said Karsh. [351] "They'll stay here until take-off time. [352] Can't have the little dears wandering around loose. [353] Might get ideas about going over the hill." [354] He hiccupped. [355] "I mean they might play hookey." [356] "We've scheduled your re-embarkation for noon tomorrow. [357] That's a long wait. [358] MUDDLE's arranged theater tickets and a dinner." [359] "Sorry," Karsh said. [360] "As soon as the baggage gets here, we're off." [361] He hiccupped again. [362] "Can't travel without our baggage, y'know." [363] "Suit yourself," Retief said. [364] "Where's the baggage now?" [365] "Coming in aboard a Croanie lighter." [366] "Maybe you'd like to arrange for a meal for the students here." [367] "Sure," Karsh said. [368] "That's a good idea. [369] Why don't you join us?" [370] Karsh winked. [371] "And bring a few beers." [372] "Not this time," Retief said. [373] He watched the students, still emerging from Customs. [374] "They seem to be all boys," he commented. [375] "No female students?" [376] "Maybe later," Karsh said. [377] "You know, after we see how the first bunch is received." [378] Back at the MUDDLE office, Retief buzzed Miss Furkle. [379] "Do you know the name of the institution these Bogan students are bound for?" [380] "Why, the University at d'Land, of course." [381] "Would that be the Technical College?" [382] Miss Furkle's mouth puckered. [383] "I'm sure I've never pried into these details." [384] "Where does doing your job stop and prying begin, Miss Furkle?" [385] Retief said. [386] "Personally, I'm curious as to just what it is these students are travelling so far to study—at Corps expense." [387] "Mr. Magnan never—" "For the present. [388] Miss Furkle, Mr. Magnan is vacationing. [389] That leaves me with the question of two thousand young male students headed for a world with no classrooms for them ... a world in need of tractors. [390] But the tractors are on their way to Croanie, a world under obligation to Boge. [391] And Croanie holds a mortgage on the best grape acreage on Lovenbroy." [392] "Well!" [393] Miss Furkle snapped, small eyes glaring under unplucked brows. [394] "I hope you're not questioning Mr. Magnan's wisdom!" [395] "About Mr. Magnan's wisdom there can be no question," Retief said. [396] "But never mind. [397] I'd like you to look up an item for me. [398] How many tractors will Croanie be getting under the MEDDLE program?" [399] "Why, that's entirely MEDDLE business," Miss Furkle said. [400] "Mr. Magnan always—" "I'm sure he did. [401] Let me know about the tractors as soon as you can." [402] Miss Furkle sniffed and disappeared from the screen. [403] Retief left the office, descended forty-one stories, followed a corridor to the Corps Library. [404] In the stacks he thumbed through catalogues, pored over indices. [405] "Can I help you?" [406] someone chirped. [407] A tiny librarian stood at his elbow. [408] "Thank you, ma'am," Retief said. [409] "I'm looking for information on a mining rig. [410] A Bolo model WV tractor." [411] "You won't find it in the industrial section," the librarian said. [412] "Come along." [413] Retief followed her along the stacks to a well-lit section lettered ARMAMENTS. [414] She took a tape from the shelf, plugged it into the viewer, flipped through and stopped at a squat armored vehicle. [415] "That's the model WV," she said. [416] "It's what is known as a continental siege unit. [417] It carries four men, with a half-megaton/second firepower." [418] "There must be an error somewhere," Retief said. [419] "The Bolo model I want is a tractor. [420] Model WV M-1—" "Oh, the modification was the addition of a bulldozer blade for demolition work. [421] That must be what confused you." [422] "Probably—among other things. [423] Thank you." [424] Miss Furkle was waiting at the office. [425] "I have the information you wanted," she said. [426] "I've had it for over ten minutes. [427] I was under the impression you needed it urgently, and I went to great lengths—" "Sure," Retief said. [428] "Shoot. [429] How many tractors?" [430] "Five hundred." [431] "Are you sure?" [432] Miss Furkle's chins quivered. [433] "Well! [434] If you feel I'm incompetent—" "Just questioning the possibility of a mistake, Miss Furkle. [435] Five hundred tractors is a lot of equipment." [436] "Was there anything further?" [437] Miss Furkle inquired frigidly. [438] "I sincerely hope not," Retief said. [439] III Leaning back in Magnan's padded chair with power swivel and hip-u-matic concontour, Retief leafed through a folder labelled "CERP 7-602-Ba; CROANIE (general)." [440] He paused at a page headed Industry. [441] Still reading, he opened the desk drawer, took out the two bottles of Bacchus wine and two glasses. [442] He poured an inch of wine into each and sipped the black wine meditatively. [443] It would be a pity, he reflected, if anything should interfere with the production of such vintages.... Half an hour later he laid the folder aside, keyed the phone and put through a call to the Croanie Legation. [444] He asked for the Commercial Attache. [445] "Retief here, Corps HQ," he said airily. [446] "About the MEDDLE shipment, the tractors. [447] I'm wondering if there's been a slip up. [448] My records show we're shipping five hundred units...." "That's correct. [449] Five hundred." [450] Retief waited. [451] "Ah ... are you there, Retief?" [452] "I'm still here. [453] And I'm still wondering about the five hundred tractors." [454] "It's perfectly in order. [455] I thought it was all settled. [456] Mr. Whaffle—" "One unit would require a good-sized plant to handle its output," Retief said. [457] "Now Croanie subsists on her fisheries. [458] She has perhaps half a dozen pint-sized processing plants. [459] Maybe, in a bind, they could handle the ore ten WV's could scrape up ... if Croanie had any ore. [460] It doesn't. [461] By the way, isn't a WV a poor choice as a mining outfit? [462] I should think—" "See here, Retief! [463] Why all this interest in a few surplus tractors? [464] And in any event, what business is it of yours how we plan to use the equipment? [465] That's an internal affair of my government. [466] Mr. Whaffle—" "I'm not Mr. Whaffle. [467] What are you going to do with the other four hundred and ninety tractors?" [468] "I understood the grant was to be with no strings attached!" [469] "I know it's bad manners to ask questions. [470] It's an old diplomatic tradition that any time you can get anybody to accept anything as a gift, you've scored points in the game. [471] But if Croanie has some scheme cooking—" "Nothing like that, Retief. [472] It's a mere business transaction." [473] "What kind of business do you do with a Bolo WV? [474] With or without a blade attached, it's what's known as a continental siege unit." [475] "Great Heavens, Retief! [476] Don't jump to conclusions! [477] Would you have us branded as warmongers? [478] Frankly—is this a closed line?" [479] "Certainly. [480] You may speak freely." [481] "The tractors are for transshipment. [482] We've gotten ourselves into a difficult situation, balance-of-payments-wise. [483] This is an accommodation to a group with which we have rather strong business ties." [484] "I understand you hold a mortgage on the best land on Lovenbroy," Retief said. [485] "Any connection?" [486] "Why ... ah ... no. [487] Of course not, ha ha." [488] "Who gets the tractors eventually?" [489] "Retief, this is unwarranted interference!" [490] "Who gets them?" [491] "They happen to be going to Lovenbroy. [492] But I scarcely see—" "And who's the friend you're helping out with an unauthorized transshipment of grant material?" [493] "Why ... ah ... [494] I've been working with a Mr. Gulver, a Bogan representative." [495] "And when will they be shipped?" [496] "Why, they went out a week ago. [497] They'll be half way there by now. [498] But look here, Retief, this isn't what you're thinking!" [499] "How do you know what I'm thinking? [500] I don't know myself." [501] Retief rang off, buzzed the secretary. [502] "Miss Furkle, I'd like to be notified immediately of any new applications that might come in from the Bogan Consulate for placement of students." [503] "Well, it happens, by coincidence, that I have an application here now. [504] Mr. Gulver of the Consulate brought it in." [505] "Is Mr. Gulver in the office? [506] I'd like to see him." [507] "I'll ask him if he has time." [508] "Great. [509] Thanks." [510] It was half a minute before a thick-necked red-faced man in a tight hat walked in. [511] He wore an old-fashioned suit, a drab shirt, shiny shoes with round toes and an ill-tempered expression. [512] "What is it you wish?" [513] he barked. [514] "I understood in my discussions with the other ... ah ... civilian there'd be no further need for these irritating conferences." [515] "I've just learned you're placing more students abroad, Mr. Gulver. [516] How many this time?" [517] "Two thousand." [518] "And where will they be going?" [519] "Croanie. [520] It's all in the application form I've handed in. [521] Your job is to provide transportation." [522] "Will there be any other students embarking this season?" [523] "Why ... perhaps. [524] That's Boge's business." [525] Gulver looked at Retief with pursed lips. [526] "As a matter of fact, we had in mind dispatching another two thousand to Featherweight." [527] "Another under-populated world—and in the same cluster, I believe," Retief said. [528] "Your people must be unusually interested in that region of space." [529] "If that's all you wanted to know, I'll be on my way. [530] I have matters of importance to see to." [531] After Gulver left, Retief called Miss Furkle in. [532] "I'd like to have a break-out of all the student movements that have been planned under the present program," he said. [533] "And see if you can get a summary of what MEDDLE has been shipping lately." [534] Miss Furkle compressed her lips. [535] "If Mr. Magnan were here, I'm sure he wouldn't dream of interfering in the work of other departments. [536] I ... overheard your conversation with the gentleman from the Croanie Legation—" "The lists, Miss Furkle." [537] "I'm not accustomed," Miss Furkle said, "to intruding in matters outside our interest cluster." [538] "That's worse than listening in on phone conversations, eh? [539] But never mind. [540] I need the information, Miss Furkle." [541] "Loyalty to my Chief—" "Loyalty to your pay-check should send you scuttling for the material I've asked for," Retief said. [542] "I'm taking full responsibility. [543] Now scat." [544] The buzzer sounded. [545] Retief flipped a key. [546] "MUDDLE, Retief speaking...." Arapoulous's brown face appeared on the desk screen. [547] "How-do, Retief. [548] Okay if I come up?" [549] "Sure, Hank. [550] I want to talk to you." [551] In the office, Arapoulous took a chair. [552] "Sorry if I'm rushing you, Retief," he said. [553] "But have you got anything for me?" [554] Retief waved at the wine bottles. [555] "What do you know about Croanie?" [556] "Croanie? [557] Not much of a place. [558] Mostly ocean. [559] All right if you like fish, I guess. [560] We import our seafood from there. [561] Nice prawns in monsoon time. [562] Over a foot long." [563] "You on good terms with them?" [564] "Sure, I guess so. [565] Course, they're pretty thick with Boge." [566] "So?" [567] "Didn't I tell you? [568] Boge was the bunch that tried to take us over here a dozen years back. [569] They'd've made it too, if they hadn't had a lot of bad luck. [570] Their armor went in the drink, and without armor they're easy game." [571] Miss Furkle buzzed. [572] "I have your lists," she said shortly. [573] "Bring them in, please." [574] The secretary placed the papers on the desk. [575] Arapoulous caught her eye and grinned. [576] She sniffed and marched from the room. [577] "What that gal needs is a slippery time in the grape mash," Arapoulous observed. [578] Retief thumbed through the papers, pausing to read from time to time. [579] He finished and looked at Arapoulous. [580] "How many men do you need for the harvest, Hank?" [581] Retief inquired. [582] Arapoulous sniffed his wine glass and looked thoughtful. [583] "A hundred would help," he said. [584] "A thousand would be better. [585] Cheers." [586] "What would you say to two thousand?" [587] "Two thousand? [588] Retief, you're not fooling?" [589] "I hope not." [590] He picked up the phone, called the Port Authority, asked for the dispatch clerk. [591] "Hello, Jim. [592] Say, I have a favor to ask of you. [593] You know that contingent of Bogan students. [594] They're traveling aboard the two CDT transports. [595] I'm interested in the baggage that goes with the students. [596] Has it arrived yet? [597] Okay, I'll wait." [598] Jim came back to the phone. [599] "Yeah, Retief, it's here. [600] Just arrived. [601] But there's a funny thing. [602] It's not consigned to d'Land. [603] It's ticketed clear through to Lovenbroy." [604] "Listen, Jim," Retief said. [605] "I want you to go over to the warehouse and take a look at that baggage for me." [606] Retief waited while the dispatch clerk carried out the errand. [607] The level in the two bottles had gone down an inch when Jim returned to the phone. [608] "Hey, I took a look at that baggage, Retief. [609] Something funny going on. [610] Guns. [611] 2mm needlers, Mark XII hand blasters, power pistols—" "It's okay, Jim. [612] Nothing to worry about. [613] Just a mix-up. [614] Now, Jim, I'm going to ask you to do something more for me. [615] I'm covering for a friend. [616] It seems he slipped up. [617] I wouldn't want word to get out, you understand. [618] I'll send along a written change order in the morning that will cover you officially. [619] Meanwhile, here's what I want you to do...." Retief gave instructions, then rang off and turned to Arapoulous. [620] "As soon as I get off a couple of TWX's, I think we'd better get down to the port, Hank. [621] I think I'd like to see the students off personally." [622] IV Karsh met Retief as he entered the Departures enclosure at the port. [623] "What's going on here?" [624] he demanded. [625] "There's some funny business with my baggage consignment. [626] They won't let me see it! [627] I've got a feeling it's not being loaded." [628] "You'd better hurry, Mr. Karsh," Retief said. [629] "You're scheduled to blast off in less than an hour. [630] Are the students all loaded?" [631] "Yes, blast you! [632] What about my baggage? [633] Those vessels aren't moving without it!" [634] "No need to get so upset about a few toothbrushes, is there, Mr. [635] Karsh?" [636] Retief said blandly. [637] "Still, if you're worried—" He turned to Arapoulous. [638] "Hank, why don't you walk Mr. Karsh over to the warehouse and ... ah ... take care of him?" [639] "I know just how to handle it," Arapoulous said. [640] The dispatch clerk came up to Retief. [641] "I caught the tractor equipment," he said. [642] "Funny kind of mistake, but it's okay now. [643] They're being off-loaded at d'Land. [644] I talked to the traffic controller there. [645] He said they weren't looking for any students." [646] "The labels got switched, Jim. [647] The students go where the baggage was consigned. [648] Too bad about the mistake, but the Armaments Office will have a man along in a little while to dispose of the guns. [649] Keep an eye out for the luggage. [650] No telling where it's gotten to." [651] "Here!" [652] a hoarse voice yelled. [653] Retief turned. [654] A disheveled figure in a tight hat was crossing the enclosure, arms waving. [655] "Hi there, Mr. Gulver," Retief called. [656] "How's Boge's business coming along?" [657] "Piracy!" [658] Gulver blurted as he came up to Retief, puffing hard. [659] "You've got a hand in this, I don't doubt! [660] Where's that Magnan fellow?" [661] "What seems to be the problem?" [662] Retief said. [663] "Hold those transports! [664] I've just been notified that the baggage shipment has been impounded. [665] I'll remind you, that shipment enjoys diplomatic free entry!" [666] "Who told you it was impounded?" [667] "Never mind! [668] I have my sources!" [669] Two tall men buttoned into gray tunics came up. [670] "Are you Mr. Retief of CDT?" [671] one said. [672] "That's right." [673] "What about my baggage!" [674] Gulver cut in. [675] "And I'm warning you, if those ships lift without—" "These gentlemen are from the Armaments Control Commission," Retief said. [676] "Would you like to come along and claim your baggage, Mr. [677] Gulver?" [678] "From where? [679] I—" Gulver turned two shades redder about the ears. [680] "Armaments?" [681] "The only shipment I've held up seems to be somebody's arsenal," Retief said. [682] "Now if you claim this is your baggage...." "Why, impossible," Gulver said in a strained voice. [683] "Armaments? [684] Ridiculous. [685] There's been an error...." At the baggage warehouse Gulver looked glumly at the opened cases of guns. [686] "No, of course not," he said dully. [687] "Not my baggage. [688] Not my baggage at all." [689] Arapoulous appeared, supporting the stumbling figure of Mr. Karsh. [690] "What—what's this?" [691] Gulver spluttered. [692] "Karsh? [693] What's happened?" [694] "He had a little fall. [695] He'll be okay," Arapoulous said. [696] "You'd better help him to the ship," Retief said. [697] "It's ready to lift. [698] We wouldn't want him to miss it." [699] "Leave him to me!" [700] Gulver snapped, his eyes slashing at Karsh. [701] "I'll see he's dealt with." [702] "I couldn't think of it," Retief said. [703] "He's a guest of the Corps, you know. [704] We'll see him safely aboard." [705] Gulver turned, signaled frantically. [706] Three heavy-set men in identical drab suits detached themselves from the wall, crossed to the group. [707] "Take this man," Gulver snapped, indicating Karsh, who looked at him dazedly, reached up to rub his head. [708] "We take our hospitality seriously," Retief said. [709] "We'll see him aboard the vessel." [710] Gulver opened his mouth. [711] "I know you feel bad about finding guns instead of school books in your luggage," Retief said, looking Gulver in the eye. [712] "You'll be busy straightening out the details of the mix-up. [713] You'll want to avoid further complications." [714] "Ah. [715] Ulp. [716] Yes," Gulver said. [717] He appeared unhappy. [718] Arapoulous went on to the passenger conveyor, turned to wave. [719] "Your man—he's going too?" [720] Gulver blurted. [721] "He's not our man, properly speaking," Retief said. [722] "He lives on Lovenbroy." [723] "Lovenbroy?" [724] Gulver choked. [725] "But ... the ... [726] I...." "I know you said the students were bound for d'Land," Retief said. [727] "But I guess that was just another aspect of the general confusion. [728] The course plugged into the navigators was to Lovenbroy. [729] You'll be glad to know they're still headed there—even without the baggage." [730] "Perhaps," Gulver said grimly, "perhaps they'll manage without it." [731] "By the way," Retief said. [732] "There was another funny mix-up. [733] There were some tractors—for industrial use, you'll recall. [734] I believe you co-operated with Croanie in arranging the grant through MEDDLE. [735] They were erroneously consigned to Lovenbroy, a purely agricultural world. [736] I saved you some embarrassment, I trust, Mr. Gulver, by arranging to have them off-loaded at d'Land." [737] "D'Land! [738] You've put the CSU's in the hands of Boge's bitterest enemies!" [739] "But they're only tractors, Mr. Gulver. [740] Peaceful devices. [741] Isn't that correct?" [742] "That's ... [743] correct." [744] Gulver sagged. [745] Then he snapped erect. [746] "Hold the ships!" [747] he yelled. [748] "I'm canceling the student exchange—" His voice was drowned by the rumble as the first of the monster transports rose from the launch pit, followed a moment later by the second, Retief watched them out of sight, then turned to Gulver. [749] "They're off," he said. [750] "Let's hope they get a liberal education." [751] V Retief lay on his back in deep grass by a stream, eating grapes. [752] A tall figure appeared on the knoll above him and waved. [753] "Retief!" [754] Hank Arapoulous bounded down the slope and embraced Retief, slapping him on the back. [755] "I heard you were here—and I've got news for you. [756] You won the final day's picking competition. [757] Over two hundred bushels! [758] That's a record!" [759] "Let's get on over to the garden. [760] Sounds like the celebration's about to start." [761] In the flower-crowded park among the stripped vines, Retief and Arapoulous made their way to a laden table under the lanterns. [762] A tall girl dressed in loose white, and with long golden hair, came up to Arapoulous. [763] "Delinda, this is Retief—today's winner. [764] And he's also the fellow that got those workers for us." [765] Delinda smiled at Retief. [766] "I've heard about you, Mr. Retief. [767] We weren't sure about the boys at first. [768] Two thousand Bogans, and all confused about their baggage that went astray. [769] But they seemed to like the picking." [770] She smiled again. [771] "That's not all. [772] Our gals liked the boys," Hank said. [773] "Even Bogans aren't so bad, minus their irons. [774] A lot of 'em will be staying on. [775] But how come you didn't tell me you were coming, Retief? [776] I'd have laid on some kind of big welcome." [777] "I liked the welcome I got. [778] And I didn't have much notice. [779] Mr. Magnan was a little upset when he got back. [780] It seems I exceeded my authority." [781] Arapoulous laughed. [782] "I had a feeling you were wheeling pretty free, Retief. [783] I hope you didn't get into any trouble over it." [784] "No trouble," Retief said. [785] "A few people were a little unhappy with me. [786] It seems I'm not ready for important assignments at Departmental level. [787] I was shipped off here to the boondocks to get a little more experience." [788] "Delinda, look after Retief," said Arapoulous. [789] "I'll see you later. [790] I've got to see to the wine judging." [791] He disappeared in the crowd. [792] "Congratulations on winning the day," said Delinda. [793] "I noticed you at work. [794] You were wonderful. [795] I'm glad you're going to have the prize." [796] "Thanks. [797] I noticed you too, flitting around in that white nightie of yours. [798] But why weren't you picking grapes with the rest of us?" [799] "I had a special assignment." [800] "Too bad. [801] You should have had a chance at the prize." [802] Delinda took Retief's hand. [803] "I wouldn't have anyway," she said. [804] "I'm the prize."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "What is Lovenbroy, and why is it important?": 1. [127] We spend a lot of time in our houses. We like to have them comfortable. 2. [84-91] "Lovenbroy's a nice place, Mr. Retief." "It sounds like it, Mr. Arapoulous. Just what—" "Call me Hank. We've got long seasons back home. Five of 'em. Our year's about eighteen Terry months. Cold as hell in winter; eccentric orbit, you know. Blue-black sky, stars visible all day." 3. [92-103] "We do mostly painting and sculpture in the winter. Then Spring; still plenty cold. Lots of skiing, bob-sledding, ice skating; and it's the season for woodworkers. Our furniture—" "I've seen some of your furniture," Retief said. "Beautiful work." Arapoulous nodded. "All local timbers too. Lots of metals in our soil and those sulphates give the woods some color, I'll tell you." 4. [104-119] "Then comes the Monsoon. Rain—it comes down in sheets. But the sun's getting closer. Shines all the time. Ever seen it pouring rain in the sunshine? That's the music-writing season. Then summer. Summer's hot. We stay inside in the daytime and have beach parties all night. Lots of beach on Lovenbroy; we're mostly islands. That's the drama and symphony time. The theatres are set up on the sand, or anchored off-shore. You have the music and the surf and the bonfires and stars—we're close to the center of a globular cluster, you know...." 5. [120-128] "Autumn's our harvest season. Most years we have just the ordinary crops. Fruit, grain, that kind of thing; getting it in doesn't take long. We spend most of the time on architecture, getting new places ready for the winter or remodeling the older ones. We spend a lot of time in our houses. We like to have them comfortable. But this year's different. This is Wine Year." 6. [129-136] "Our wine crop is our big money crop," he said. "We make enough to keep us going. But this year...." "The crop isn't panning out?" "Oh, the crop's fine. One of the best I can remember. Course, I'm only twenty-eight; I can't remember but two other harvests. The problem's not the crop." 7. [173-179] "We've got plenty of minerals on Lovenbroy," Arapoulous said, swallowing wine. "But we don't plan to wreck the landscape mining 'em. We like to farm. About ten years back some neighbors of ours landed a force. They figured they knew better what to do with our minerals than we did. Wanted to strip-mine, smelt ore. We convinced 'em otherwise. But it took a year, and we lost a lot of men." 8. [182-186] "It put us in a bad spot," Arapoulous went on. "We had to borrow money from a world called Croanie. Mortgaged our crops. Had to start exporting art work too. Plenty of buyers, but it's not the same when you're doing it for strangers." 9. [190-194] "Well, the loan's due. The wine crop would put us in the clear. But we need harvest hands. Picking Bacchus grapes isn't a job you can turn over to machinery—and anyway we wouldn't if we could. Vintage season is the high point of living on Lovenbroy. Everybody joins in." 10. [195-213] "First, there's the picking in the fields. Miles and miles of vineyards covering the mountain sides, and crowding the river banks, with gardens here and there. Big vines, eight feet high, loaded with fruit, and deep grass growing between. The wine-carriers keep on the run, bringing wine to the pickers. There's prizes for the biggest day's output, bets on who can fill the most baskets in an hour.... Then the wine-making. We still tramp out the vintage. That's mostly for the young folks but anybody's welcome. That's when things start to get loosened up. Matter of fact, pretty near half our young-uns are born after a vintage." 11. [220-227] "This year it looks bad. We've got a bumper crop—and we're short-handed. If we don't get a big vintage, Croanie steps in. Lord knows what they'll do to the land. Then next vintage time, with them holding half our grape acreage—" "You hocked the vineyards?" "Yep. Pretty dumb, huh? But we figured twelve years was a long time." 12. [229-231] "What we figured was, maybe you Culture boys could help us out. A loan to see us through the vintage, enough to hire extra hands. Then we'd repay it in sculpture, painting, furniture—" 13. [233-239] "Sorry, Hank. All we do here is work out itineraries for traveling side-shows, that kind of thing. Now, if you needed a troop of Groaci nose-flute players—" "Can they pick grapes?" "Nope. Anyway, they can't stand the daylight. Have you talked this over with the Labor Office?" "Sure did. They said they'd fix us up with all the electronics specialists and computer programmers we wanted—but no field hands. Said it was what they classified as menial drudgery; you'd have thought I was trying to buy slaves." 14. [90] Lovenbroy's a nice place, Mr. Retief. 15. [173] "We've got plenty of minerals on Lovenbroy," Arapoulous said, swallowing wine.

What is Croanie, and why is it important in the story?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net CULTURAL EXCHANGE BY KEITH LAUMER It was a simple student exchange—but Retief gave them more of an education than they expected! [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] I Second Secretary Magnan took his green-lined cape and orange-feathered beret from the clothes tree. [5] "I'm off now, Retief," he said. [6] "I hope you'll manage the administrative routine during my absence without any unfortunate incidents." [7] "That seems a modest enough hope," Retief said. [8] "I'll try to live up to it." [9] "I don't appreciate frivolity with reference to this Division," Magnan said testily. [10] "When I first came here, the Manpower Utilization Directorate, Division of Libraries and Education was a shambles. [11] I fancy I've made MUDDLE what it is today. [12] Frankly, I question the wisdom of placing you in charge of such a sensitive desk, even for two weeks. [13] But remember. [14] Yours is purely a rubber-stamp function." [15] "In that case, let's leave it to Miss Furkle. [16] I'll take a couple of weeks off myself. [17] With her poundage, she could bring plenty of pressure to bear." [18] "I assume you jest, Retief," Magnan said sadly. [19] "I should expect even you to appreciate that Bogan participation in the Exchange Program may be the first step toward sublimation of their aggressions into more cultivated channels." [20] "I see they're sending two thousand students to d'Land," Retief said, glancing at the Memo for Record. [21] "That's a sizable sublimation." [22] Magnan nodded. [23] "The Bogans have launched no less than four military campaigns in the last two decades. [24] They're known as the Hoodlums of the Nicodemean Cluster. [25] Now, perhaps, we shall see them breaking that precedent and entering into the cultural life of the Galaxy." [26] "Breaking and entering," Retief said. [27] "You may have something there. [28] But I'm wondering what they'll study on d'Land. [29] That's an industrial world of the poor but honest variety." [30] "Academic details are the affair of the students and their professors," Magnan said. [31] "Our function is merely to bring them together. [32] See that you don't antagonize the Bogan representative. [33] This will be an excellent opportunity for you to practice your diplomatic restraint—not your strong point, I'm sure you'll agree." [34] A buzzer sounded. [35] Retief punched a button. [36] "What is it, Miss Furkle?" [37] "That—bucolic person from Lovenbroy is here again." [38] On the small desk screen, Miss Furkle's meaty features were compressed in disapproval. [39] "This fellow's a confounded pest. [40] I'll leave him to you, Retief," Magnan said. [41] "Tell him something. [42] Get rid of him. [43] And remember: here at Corps HQ, all eyes are upon you." [44] "If I'd thought of that, I'd have worn my other suit," Retief said. [45] Magnan snorted and passed from view. [46] Retief punched Miss Furkle's button. [47] "Send the bucolic person in." [48] A tall broad man with bronze skin and gray hair, wearing tight trousers of heavy cloth, a loose shirt open at the neck and a short jacket, stepped into the room. [49] He had a bundle under his arm. [50] He paused at sight of Retief, looked him over momentarily, then advanced and held out his hand. [51] Retief took it. [52] For a moment the two big men stood, face to face. [53] The newcomer's jaw muscles knotted. [54] Then he winced. [55] Retief dropped his hand and motioned to a chair. [56] "That's nice knuckle work, mister," the stranger said, massaging his hand. [57] "First time anybody ever did that to me. [58] My fault though. [59] I started it, I guess." [60] He grinned and sat down. [61] "What can I do for you?" [62] Retief said. [63] "You work for this Culture bunch, do you? [64] Funny. [65] I thought they were all ribbon-counter boys. [66] Never mind. [67] I'm Hank Arapoulous. [68] I'm a farmer. [69] What I wanted to see you about was—" He shifted in his chair. [70] "Well, out on Lovenbroy we've got a serious problem. [71] The wine crop is just about ready. [72] We start picking in another two, three months. [73] Now I don't know if you're familiar with the Bacchus vines we grow...?" [74] "No," Retief said. [75] "Have a cigar?" [76] He pushed a box across the desk. [77] Arapoulous took one. [78] "Bacchus vines are an unusual crop," he said, puffing the cigar alight. [79] "Only mature every twelve years. [80] In between, the vines don't need a lot of attention, so our time's mostly our own. [81] We like to farm, though. [82] Spend a lot of time developing new forms. [83] Apples the size of a melon—and sweet—" "Sounds very pleasant," Retief said. [84] "Where does the Libraries and Education Division come in?" [85] Arapoulous leaned forward. [86] "We go in pretty heavy for the arts. [87] Folks can't spend all their time hybridizing plants. [88] We've turned all the land area we've got into parks and farms. [89] Course, we left some sizable forest areas for hunting and such. [90] Lovenbroy's a nice place, Mr. [91] Retief." [92] "It sounds like it, Mr. Arapoulous. [93] Just what—" "Call me Hank. [94] We've got long seasons back home. [95] Five of 'em. [96] Our year's about eighteen Terry months. [97] Cold as hell in winter; eccentric orbit, you know. [98] Blue-black sky, stars visible all day. [99] We do mostly painting and sculpture in the winter. [100] Then Spring; still plenty cold. [101] Lots of skiing, bob-sledding, ice skating; and it's the season for woodworkers. [102] Our furniture—" "I've seen some of your furniture," Retief said. [103] "Beautiful work." [104] Arapoulous nodded. [105] "All local timbers too. [106] Lots of metals in our soil and those sulphates give the woods some color, I'll tell you. [107] Then comes the Monsoon. [108] Rain—it comes down in sheets. [109] But the sun's getting closer. [110] Shines all the time. [111] Ever seen it pouring rain in the sunshine? [112] That's the music-writing season. [113] Then summer. [114] Summer's hot. [115] We stay inside in the daytime and have beach parties all night. [116] Lots of beach on Lovenbroy; we're mostly islands. [117] That's the drama and symphony time. [118] The theatres are set up on the sand, or anchored off-shore. [119] You have the music and the surf and the bonfires and stars—we're close to the center of a globular cluster, you know...." "You say it's time now for the wine crop?" [120] "That's right. [121] Autumn's our harvest season. [122] Most years we have just the ordinary crops. [123] Fruit, grain, that kind of thing; getting it in doesn't take long. [124] We spend most of the time on architecture, getting new places ready for the winter or remodeling the older ones. [125] We spend a lot of time in our houses. [126] We like to have them comfortable. [127] But this year's different. [128] This is Wine Year." [129] Arapoulous puffed on his cigar, looked worriedly at Retief. [130] "Our wine crop is our big money crop," he said. [131] "We make enough to keep us going. [132] But this year...." "The crop isn't panning out?" [133] "Oh, the crop's fine. [134] One of the best I can remember. [135] Course, I'm only twenty-eight; I can't remember but two other harvests. [136] The problem's not the crop." [137] "Have you lost your markets? [138] That sounds like a matter for the Commercial—" "Lost our markets? [139] Mister, nobody that ever tasted our wines ever settled for anything else!" [140] "It sounds like I've been missing something," said Retief. [141] "I'll have to try them some time." [142] Arapoulous put his bundle on the desk, pulled off the wrappings. [143] "No time like the present," he said. [144] Retief looked at the two squat bottles, one green, one amber, both dusty, with faded labels, and blackened corks secured by wire. [145] "Drinking on duty is frowned on in the Corps, Mr. Arapoulous," he said. [146] "This isn't drinking . [147] It's just wine." [148] Arapoulous pulled the wire retainer loose, thumbed the cork. [149] It rose slowly, then popped in the air. [150] Arapoulous caught it. [151] Aromatic fumes wafted from the bottle. [152] "Besides, my feelings would be hurt if you didn't join me." [153] He winked. [154] Retief took two thin-walled glasses from a table beside the desk. [155] "Come to think of it, we also have to be careful about violating quaint native customs." [156] Arapoulous filled the glasses. [157] Retief picked one up, sniffed the deep rust-colored fluid, tasted it, then took a healthy swallow. [158] He looked at Arapoulous thoughtfully. [159] "Hmmm. [160] It tastes like salted pecans, with an undercurrent of crusted port." [161] "Don't try to describe it, Mr. Retief," Arapoulous said. [162] He took a mouthful of wine, swished it around his teeth, swallowed. [163] "It's Bacchus wine, that's all. [164] Nothing like it in the Galaxy." [165] He pushed the second bottle toward Retief. [166] "The custom back home is to alternate red wine and black." [167] Retief put aside his cigar, pulled the wires loose, nudged the cork, caught it as it popped up. [168] "Bad luck if you miss the cork," Arapoulous said, nodding. [169] "You probably never heard about the trouble we had on Lovenbroy a few years back?" [170] "Can't say that I did, Hank." [171] Retief poured the black wine into two fresh glasses. [172] "Here's to the harvest." [173] "We've got plenty of minerals on Lovenbroy," Arapoulous said, swallowing wine. [174] "But we don't plan to wreck the landscape mining 'em. [175] We like to farm. [176] About ten years back some neighbors of ours landed a force. [177] They figured they knew better what to do with our minerals than we did. [178] Wanted to strip-mine, smelt ore. We convinced 'em otherwise. [179] But it took a year, and we lost a lot of men." [180] "That's too bad," Retief said. [181] "I'd say this one tastes more like roast beef and popcorn over a Riesling base." [182] "It put us in a bad spot," Arapoulous went on. [183] "We had to borrow money from a world called Croanie. [184] Mortgaged our crops. [185] Had to start exporting art work too. [186] Plenty of buyers, but it's not the same when you're doing it for strangers." [187] "Say, this business of alternating drinks is the real McCoy," Retief said. [188] "What's the problem? [189] Croanie about to foreclose?" [190] "Well, the loan's due. [191] The wine crop would put us in the clear. [192] But we need harvest hands. [193] Picking Bacchus grapes isn't a job you can turn over to machinery—and anyway we wouldn't if we could. [194] Vintage season is the high point of living on Lovenbroy. [195] Everybody joins in. [196] First, there's the picking in the fields. [197] Miles and miles of vineyards covering the mountain sides, and crowding the river banks, with gardens here and there. [198] Big vines, eight feet high, loaded with fruit, and deep grass growing between. [199] The wine-carriers keep on the run, bringing wine to the pickers. [200] There's prizes for the biggest day's output, bets on who can fill the most baskets in an hour.... [201] The sun's high and bright, and it's just cool enough to give you plenty of energy. [202] Come nightfall, the tables are set up in the garden plots, and the feast is laid on: roast turkeys, beef, hams, all kinds of fowl. [203] Big salads. [204] Plenty of fruit. [205] Fresh-baked bread ... and wine, plenty of wine. [206] The cooking's done by a different crew each night in each garden, and there's prizes for the best crews. [207] "Then the wine-making. [208] We still tramp out the vintage. [209] That's mostly for the young folks but anybody's welcome. [210] That's when things start to get loosened up. [211] Matter of fact, pretty near half our young-uns are born after a vintage. [212] All bets are off then. [213] It keeps a fellow on his toes though. [214] Ever tried to hold onto a gal wearing nothing but a layer of grape juice?" [215] "Never did," Retief said. [216] "You say most of the children are born after a vintage. [217] That would make them only twelve years old by the time—" "Oh, that's Lovenbroy years; they'd be eighteen, Terry reckoning." [218] "I was thinking you looked a little mature for twenty-eight," Retief said. [219] "Forty-two, Terry years," Arapoulous said. [220] "But this year it looks bad. [221] We've got a bumper crop—and we're short-handed. [222] If we don't get a big vintage, Croanie steps in. [223] Lord knows what they'll do to the land. [224] Then next vintage time, with them holding half our grape acreage—" "You hocked the vineyards?" [225] "Yep. [226] Pretty dumb, huh? [227] But we figured twelve years was a long time." [228] "On the whole," Retief said, "I think I prefer the black. [229] But the red is hard to beat...." "What we figured was, maybe you Culture boys could help us out. [230] A loan to see us through the vintage, enough to hire extra hands. [231] Then we'd repay it in sculpture, painting, furniture—" "Sorry, Hank. [232] All we do here is work out itineraries for traveling side-shows, that kind of thing. [233] Now, if you needed a troop of Groaci nose-flute players—" "Can they pick grapes?" [234] "Nope. [235] Anyway, they can't stand the daylight. [236] Have you talked this over with the Labor Office?" [237] "Sure did. [238] They said they'd fix us up with all the electronics specialists and computer programmers we wanted—but no field hands. [239] Said it was what they classified as menial drudgery; you'd have thought I was trying to buy slaves." [240] The buzzer sounded. [241] Miss Furkle's features appeared on the desk screen. [242] "You're due at the Intergroup Council in five minutes," she said. [243] "Then afterwards, there are the Bogan students to meet." [244] "Thanks." [245] Retief finished his glass, stood. [246] "I have to run, Hank," he said. [247] "Let me think this over. [248] Maybe I can come up with something. [249] Check with me day after tomorrow. [250] And you'd better leave the bottles here. [251] Cultural exhibits, you know." [252] II As the council meeting broke up, Retief caught the eye of a colleague across the table. [253] "Mr. Whaffle, you mentioned a shipment going to a place called Croanie. [254] What are they getting?" [255] Whaffle blinked. [256] "You're the fellow who's filling in for Magnan, over at MUDDLE," he said. [257] "Properly speaking, equipment grants are the sole concern of the Motorized Equipment Depot, Division of Loans and Exchanges." [258] He pursed his lips. [259] "However, I suppose there's no harm in telling you. [260] They'll be receiving heavy mining equipment." [261] "Drill rigs, that sort of thing?" [262] "Strip mining gear." [263] Whaffle took a slip of paper from a breast pocket, blinked at it. [264] "Bolo Model WV/1 tractors, to be specific. [265] Why is MUDDLE interested in MEDDLE's activities?" [266] "Forgive my curiosity, Mr. Whaffle. [267] It's just that Croanie cropped up earlier today. [268] It seems she holds a mortgage on some vineyards over on—" "That's not MEDDLE's affair, sir," Whaffle cut in. [269] "I have sufficient problems as Chief of MEDDLE without probing into MUDDLE'S business." [270] "Speaking of tractors," another man put in, "we over at the Special Committee for Rehabilitation and Overhaul of Under-developed Nations' General Economies have been trying for months to get a request for mining equipment for d'Land through MEDDLE—" "SCROUNGE was late on the scene," Whaffle said. [271] "First come, first served. [272] That's our policy at MEDDLE. [273] Good day, gentlemen." [274] He strode off, briefcase under his arm. [275] "That's the trouble with peaceful worlds," the SCROUNGE committeeman said. [276] "Boge is a troublemaker, so every agency in the Corps is out to pacify her. [277] While my chance to make a record—that is, assist peace-loving d'Land—comes to naught." [278] He shook his head. [279] "What kind of university do they have on d'Land?" [280] asked Retief. [281] "We're sending them two thousand exchange students. [282] It must be quite an institution." [283] "University? [284] D'Land has one under-endowed technical college." [285] "Will all the exchange students be studying at the Technical College?" [286] "Two thousand students? [287] Hah! [288] Two hundred students would overtax the facilities of the college." [289] "I wonder if the Bogans know that?" [290] "The Bogans? [291] Why, most of d'Land's difficulties are due to the unwise trade agreement she entered into with Boge. [292] Two thousand students indeed!" [293] He snorted and walked away. [294] Retief stopped by the office to pick up a short cape, then rode the elevator to the roof of the 230-story Corps HQ building and hailed a cab to the port. [295] The Bogan students had arrived early. [296] Retief saw them lined up on the ramp waiting to go through customs. [297] It would be half an hour before they were cleared through. [298] He turned into the bar and ordered a beer. [299] A tall young fellow on the next stool raised his glass. [300] "Happy days," he said. [301] "And nights to match." [302] "You said it." [303] He gulped half his beer. [304] "My name's Karsh. [305] Mr. Karsh. [306] Yep, Mr. Karsh. [307] Boy, this is a drag, sitting around this place waiting...." "You meeting somebody?" [308] "Yeah. [309] Bunch of babies. [310] Kids. [311] How they expect—Never mind. [312] Have one on me." [313] "Thanks. [314] You a Scoutmaster?" [315] "I'll tell you what I am. [316] I'm a cradle-robber. [317] You know—" he turned to Retief—"not one of those kids is over eighteen." [318] He hiccupped. [319] "Students, you know. [320] Never saw a student with a beard, did you?" [321] "Lots of times. [322] You're meeting the students, are you?" [323] The young fellow blinked at Retief. [324] "Oh, you know about it, huh?" [325] "I represent MUDDLE." [326] Karsh finished his beer, ordered another. [327] "I came on ahead. [328] Sort of an advance guard for the kids. [329] I trained 'em myself. [330] Treated it like a game, but they can handle a CSU. [331] Don't know how they'll act under pressure. [332] If I had my old platoon—" He looked at his beer glass, pushed it back. [333] "Had enough," he said. [334] "So long, friend. [335] Or are you coming along?" [336] Retief nodded. [337] "Might as well." [338] At the exit to the Customs enclosure, Retief watched as the first of the Bogan students came through, caught sight of Karsh and snapped to attention, his chest out. [339] "Drop that, mister," Karsh snapped. [340] "Is that any way for a student to act?" [341] The youth, a round-faced lad with broad shoulders, grinned. [342] "Heck, no," he said. [343] "Say, uh, Mr. Karsh, are we gonna get to go to town? [344] We fellas were thinking—" "You were, hah? [345] You act like a bunch of school kids! [346] I mean ... no! [347] Now line up!" [348] "We have quarters ready for the students," Retief said. [349] "If you'd like to bring them around to the west side, I have a couple of copters laid on." [350] "Thanks," said Karsh. [351] "They'll stay here until take-off time. [352] Can't have the little dears wandering around loose. [353] Might get ideas about going over the hill." [354] He hiccupped. [355] "I mean they might play hookey." [356] "We've scheduled your re-embarkation for noon tomorrow. [357] That's a long wait. [358] MUDDLE's arranged theater tickets and a dinner." [359] "Sorry," Karsh said. [360] "As soon as the baggage gets here, we're off." [361] He hiccupped again. [362] "Can't travel without our baggage, y'know." [363] "Suit yourself," Retief said. [364] "Where's the baggage now?" [365] "Coming in aboard a Croanie lighter." [366] "Maybe you'd like to arrange for a meal for the students here." [367] "Sure," Karsh said. [368] "That's a good idea. [369] Why don't you join us?" [370] Karsh winked. [371] "And bring a few beers." [372] "Not this time," Retief said. [373] He watched the students, still emerging from Customs. [374] "They seem to be all boys," he commented. [375] "No female students?" [376] "Maybe later," Karsh said. [377] "You know, after we see how the first bunch is received." [378] Back at the MUDDLE office, Retief buzzed Miss Furkle. [379] "Do you know the name of the institution these Bogan students are bound for?" [380] "Why, the University at d'Land, of course." [381] "Would that be the Technical College?" [382] Miss Furkle's mouth puckered. [383] "I'm sure I've never pried into these details." [384] "Where does doing your job stop and prying begin, Miss Furkle?" [385] Retief said. [386] "Personally, I'm curious as to just what it is these students are travelling so far to study—at Corps expense." [387] "Mr. Magnan never—" "For the present. [388] Miss Furkle, Mr. Magnan is vacationing. [389] That leaves me with the question of two thousand young male students headed for a world with no classrooms for them ... a world in need of tractors. [390] But the tractors are on their way to Croanie, a world under obligation to Boge. [391] And Croanie holds a mortgage on the best grape acreage on Lovenbroy." [392] "Well!" [393] Miss Furkle snapped, small eyes glaring under unplucked brows. [394] "I hope you're not questioning Mr. Magnan's wisdom!" [395] "About Mr. Magnan's wisdom there can be no question," Retief said. [396] "But never mind. [397] I'd like you to look up an item for me. [398] How many tractors will Croanie be getting under the MEDDLE program?" [399] "Why, that's entirely MEDDLE business," Miss Furkle said. [400] "Mr. Magnan always—" "I'm sure he did. [401] Let me know about the tractors as soon as you can." [402] Miss Furkle sniffed and disappeared from the screen. [403] Retief left the office, descended forty-one stories, followed a corridor to the Corps Library. [404] In the stacks he thumbed through catalogues, pored over indices. [405] "Can I help you?" [406] someone chirped. [407] A tiny librarian stood at his elbow. [408] "Thank you, ma'am," Retief said. [409] "I'm looking for information on a mining rig. [410] A Bolo model WV tractor." [411] "You won't find it in the industrial section," the librarian said. [412] "Come along." [413] Retief followed her along the stacks to a well-lit section lettered ARMAMENTS. [414] She took a tape from the shelf, plugged it into the viewer, flipped through and stopped at a squat armored vehicle. [415] "That's the model WV," she said. [416] "It's what is known as a continental siege unit. [417] It carries four men, with a half-megaton/second firepower." [418] "There must be an error somewhere," Retief said. [419] "The Bolo model I want is a tractor. [420] Model WV M-1—" "Oh, the modification was the addition of a bulldozer blade for demolition work. [421] That must be what confused you." [422] "Probably—among other things. [423] Thank you." [424] Miss Furkle was waiting at the office. [425] "I have the information you wanted," she said. [426] "I've had it for over ten minutes. [427] I was under the impression you needed it urgently, and I went to great lengths—" "Sure," Retief said. [428] "Shoot. [429] How many tractors?" [430] "Five hundred." [431] "Are you sure?" [432] Miss Furkle's chins quivered. [433] "Well! [434] If you feel I'm incompetent—" "Just questioning the possibility of a mistake, Miss Furkle. [435] Five hundred tractors is a lot of equipment." [436] "Was there anything further?" [437] Miss Furkle inquired frigidly. [438] "I sincerely hope not," Retief said. [439] III Leaning back in Magnan's padded chair with power swivel and hip-u-matic concontour, Retief leafed through a folder labelled "CERP 7-602-Ba; CROANIE (general)." [440] He paused at a page headed Industry. [441] Still reading, he opened the desk drawer, took out the two bottles of Bacchus wine and two glasses. [442] He poured an inch of wine into each and sipped the black wine meditatively. [443] It would be a pity, he reflected, if anything should interfere with the production of such vintages.... Half an hour later he laid the folder aside, keyed the phone and put through a call to the Croanie Legation. [444] He asked for the Commercial Attache. [445] "Retief here, Corps HQ," he said airily. [446] "About the MEDDLE shipment, the tractors. [447] I'm wondering if there's been a slip up. [448] My records show we're shipping five hundred units...." "That's correct. [449] Five hundred." [450] Retief waited. [451] "Ah ... are you there, Retief?" [452] "I'm still here. [453] And I'm still wondering about the five hundred tractors." [454] "It's perfectly in order. [455] I thought it was all settled. [456] Mr. Whaffle—" "One unit would require a good-sized plant to handle its output," Retief said. [457] "Now Croanie subsists on her fisheries. [458] She has perhaps half a dozen pint-sized processing plants. [459] Maybe, in a bind, they could handle the ore ten WV's could scrape up ... if Croanie had any ore. [460] It doesn't. [461] By the way, isn't a WV a poor choice as a mining outfit? [462] I should think—" "See here, Retief! [463] Why all this interest in a few surplus tractors? [464] And in any event, what business is it of yours how we plan to use the equipment? [465] That's an internal affair of my government. [466] Mr. Whaffle—" "I'm not Mr. Whaffle. [467] What are you going to do with the other four hundred and ninety tractors?" [468] "I understood the grant was to be with no strings attached!" [469] "I know it's bad manners to ask questions. [470] It's an old diplomatic tradition that any time you can get anybody to accept anything as a gift, you've scored points in the game. [471] But if Croanie has some scheme cooking—" "Nothing like that, Retief. [472] It's a mere business transaction." [473] "What kind of business do you do with a Bolo WV? [474] With or without a blade attached, it's what's known as a continental siege unit." [475] "Great Heavens, Retief! [476] Don't jump to conclusions! [477] Would you have us branded as warmongers? [478] Frankly—is this a closed line?" [479] "Certainly. [480] You may speak freely." [481] "The tractors are for transshipment. [482] We've gotten ourselves into a difficult situation, balance-of-payments-wise. [483] This is an accommodation to a group with which we have rather strong business ties." [484] "I understand you hold a mortgage on the best land on Lovenbroy," Retief said. [485] "Any connection?" [486] "Why ... ah ... no. [487] Of course not, ha ha." [488] "Who gets the tractors eventually?" [489] "Retief, this is unwarranted interference!" [490] "Who gets them?" [491] "They happen to be going to Lovenbroy. [492] But I scarcely see—" "And who's the friend you're helping out with an unauthorized transshipment of grant material?" [493] "Why ... ah ... [494] I've been working with a Mr. Gulver, a Bogan representative." [495] "And when will they be shipped?" [496] "Why, they went out a week ago. [497] They'll be half way there by now. [498] But look here, Retief, this isn't what you're thinking!" [499] "How do you know what I'm thinking? [500] I don't know myself." [501] Retief rang off, buzzed the secretary. [502] "Miss Furkle, I'd like to be notified immediately of any new applications that might come in from the Bogan Consulate for placement of students." [503] "Well, it happens, by coincidence, that I have an application here now. [504] Mr. Gulver of the Consulate brought it in." [505] "Is Mr. Gulver in the office? [506] I'd like to see him." [507] "I'll ask him if he has time." [508] "Great. [509] Thanks." [510] It was half a minute before a thick-necked red-faced man in a tight hat walked in. [511] He wore an old-fashioned suit, a drab shirt, shiny shoes with round toes and an ill-tempered expression. [512] "What is it you wish?" [513] he barked. [514] "I understood in my discussions with the other ... ah ... civilian there'd be no further need for these irritating conferences." [515] "I've just learned you're placing more students abroad, Mr. Gulver. [516] How many this time?" [517] "Two thousand." [518] "And where will they be going?" [519] "Croanie. [520] It's all in the application form I've handed in. [521] Your job is to provide transportation." [522] "Will there be any other students embarking this season?" [523] "Why ... perhaps. [524] That's Boge's business." [525] Gulver looked at Retief with pursed lips. [526] "As a matter of fact, we had in mind dispatching another two thousand to Featherweight." [527] "Another under-populated world—and in the same cluster, I believe," Retief said. [528] "Your people must be unusually interested in that region of space." [529] "If that's all you wanted to know, I'll be on my way. [530] I have matters of importance to see to." [531] After Gulver left, Retief called Miss Furkle in. [532] "I'd like to have a break-out of all the student movements that have been planned under the present program," he said. [533] "And see if you can get a summary of what MEDDLE has been shipping lately." [534] Miss Furkle compressed her lips. [535] "If Mr. Magnan were here, I'm sure he wouldn't dream of interfering in the work of other departments. [536] I ... overheard your conversation with the gentleman from the Croanie Legation—" "The lists, Miss Furkle." [537] "I'm not accustomed," Miss Furkle said, "to intruding in matters outside our interest cluster." [538] "That's worse than listening in on phone conversations, eh? [539] But never mind. [540] I need the information, Miss Furkle." [541] "Loyalty to my Chief—" "Loyalty to your pay-check should send you scuttling for the material I've asked for," Retief said. [542] "I'm taking full responsibility. [543] Now scat." [544] The buzzer sounded. [545] Retief flipped a key. [546] "MUDDLE, Retief speaking...." Arapoulous's brown face appeared on the desk screen. [547] "How-do, Retief. [548] Okay if I come up?" [549] "Sure, Hank. [550] I want to talk to you." [551] In the office, Arapoulous took a chair. [552] "Sorry if I'm rushing you, Retief," he said. [553] "But have you got anything for me?" [554] Retief waved at the wine bottles. [555] "What do you know about Croanie?" [556] "Croanie? [557] Not much of a place. [558] Mostly ocean. [559] All right if you like fish, I guess. [560] We import our seafood from there. [561] Nice prawns in monsoon time. [562] Over a foot long." [563] "You on good terms with them?" [564] "Sure, I guess so. [565] Course, they're pretty thick with Boge." [566] "So?" [567] "Didn't I tell you? [568] Boge was the bunch that tried to take us over here a dozen years back. [569] They'd've made it too, if they hadn't had a lot of bad luck. [570] Their armor went in the drink, and without armor they're easy game." [571] Miss Furkle buzzed. [572] "I have your lists," she said shortly. [573] "Bring them in, please." [574] The secretary placed the papers on the desk. [575] Arapoulous caught her eye and grinned. [576] She sniffed and marched from the room. [577] "What that gal needs is a slippery time in the grape mash," Arapoulous observed. [578] Retief thumbed through the papers, pausing to read from time to time. [579] He finished and looked at Arapoulous. [580] "How many men do you need for the harvest, Hank?" [581] Retief inquired. [582] Arapoulous sniffed his wine glass and looked thoughtful. [583] "A hundred would help," he said. [584] "A thousand would be better. [585] Cheers." [586] "What would you say to two thousand?" [587] "Two thousand? [588] Retief, you're not fooling?" [589] "I hope not." [590] He picked up the phone, called the Port Authority, asked for the dispatch clerk. [591] "Hello, Jim. [592] Say, I have a favor to ask of you. [593] You know that contingent of Bogan students. [594] They're traveling aboard the two CDT transports. [595] I'm interested in the baggage that goes with the students. [596] Has it arrived yet? [597] Okay, I'll wait." [598] Jim came back to the phone. [599] "Yeah, Retief, it's here. [600] Just arrived. [601] But there's a funny thing. [602] It's not consigned to d'Land. [603] It's ticketed clear through to Lovenbroy." [604] "Listen, Jim," Retief said. [605] "I want you to go over to the warehouse and take a look at that baggage for me." [606] Retief waited while the dispatch clerk carried out the errand. [607] The level in the two bottles had gone down an inch when Jim returned to the phone. [608] "Hey, I took a look at that baggage, Retief. [609] Something funny going on. [610] Guns. [611] 2mm needlers, Mark XII hand blasters, power pistols—" "It's okay, Jim. [612] Nothing to worry about. [613] Just a mix-up. [614] Now, Jim, I'm going to ask you to do something more for me. [615] I'm covering for a friend. [616] It seems he slipped up. [617] I wouldn't want word to get out, you understand. [618] I'll send along a written change order in the morning that will cover you officially. [619] Meanwhile, here's what I want you to do...." Retief gave instructions, then rang off and turned to Arapoulous. [620] "As soon as I get off a couple of TWX's, I think we'd better get down to the port, Hank. [621] I think I'd like to see the students off personally." [622] IV Karsh met Retief as he entered the Departures enclosure at the port. [623] "What's going on here?" [624] he demanded. [625] "There's some funny business with my baggage consignment. [626] They won't let me see it! [627] I've got a feeling it's not being loaded." [628] "You'd better hurry, Mr. Karsh," Retief said. [629] "You're scheduled to blast off in less than an hour. [630] Are the students all loaded?" [631] "Yes, blast you! [632] What about my baggage? [633] Those vessels aren't moving without it!" [634] "No need to get so upset about a few toothbrushes, is there, Mr. [635] Karsh?" [636] Retief said blandly. [637] "Still, if you're worried—" He turned to Arapoulous. [638] "Hank, why don't you walk Mr. Karsh over to the warehouse and ... ah ... take care of him?" [639] "I know just how to handle it," Arapoulous said. [640] The dispatch clerk came up to Retief. [641] "I caught the tractor equipment," he said. [642] "Funny kind of mistake, but it's okay now. [643] They're being off-loaded at d'Land. [644] I talked to the traffic controller there. [645] He said they weren't looking for any students." [646] "The labels got switched, Jim. [647] The students go where the baggage was consigned. [648] Too bad about the mistake, but the Armaments Office will have a man along in a little while to dispose of the guns. [649] Keep an eye out for the luggage. [650] No telling where it's gotten to." [651] "Here!" [652] a hoarse voice yelled. [653] Retief turned. [654] A disheveled figure in a tight hat was crossing the enclosure, arms waving. [655] "Hi there, Mr. Gulver," Retief called. [656] "How's Boge's business coming along?" [657] "Piracy!" [658] Gulver blurted as he came up to Retief, puffing hard. [659] "You've got a hand in this, I don't doubt! [660] Where's that Magnan fellow?" [661] "What seems to be the problem?" [662] Retief said. [663] "Hold those transports! [664] I've just been notified that the baggage shipment has been impounded. [665] I'll remind you, that shipment enjoys diplomatic free entry!" [666] "Who told you it was impounded?" [667] "Never mind! [668] I have my sources!" [669] Two tall men buttoned into gray tunics came up. [670] "Are you Mr. Retief of CDT?" [671] one said. [672] "That's right." [673] "What about my baggage!" [674] Gulver cut in. [675] "And I'm warning you, if those ships lift without—" "These gentlemen are from the Armaments Control Commission," Retief said. [676] "Would you like to come along and claim your baggage, Mr. [677] Gulver?" [678] "From where? [679] I—" Gulver turned two shades redder about the ears. [680] "Armaments?" [681] "The only shipment I've held up seems to be somebody's arsenal," Retief said. [682] "Now if you claim this is your baggage...." "Why, impossible," Gulver said in a strained voice. [683] "Armaments? [684] Ridiculous. [685] There's been an error...." At the baggage warehouse Gulver looked glumly at the opened cases of guns. [686] "No, of course not," he said dully. [687] "Not my baggage. [688] Not my baggage at all." [689] Arapoulous appeared, supporting the stumbling figure of Mr. Karsh. [690] "What—what's this?" [691] Gulver spluttered. [692] "Karsh? [693] What's happened?" [694] "He had a little fall. [695] He'll be okay," Arapoulous said. [696] "You'd better help him to the ship," Retief said. [697] "It's ready to lift. [698] We wouldn't want him to miss it." [699] "Leave him to me!" [700] Gulver snapped, his eyes slashing at Karsh. [701] "I'll see he's dealt with." [702] "I couldn't think of it," Retief said. [703] "He's a guest of the Corps, you know. [704] We'll see him safely aboard." [705] Gulver turned, signaled frantically. [706] Three heavy-set men in identical drab suits detached themselves from the wall, crossed to the group. [707] "Take this man," Gulver snapped, indicating Karsh, who looked at him dazedly, reached up to rub his head. [708] "We take our hospitality seriously," Retief said. [709] "We'll see him aboard the vessel." [710] Gulver opened his mouth. [711] "I know you feel bad about finding guns instead of school books in your luggage," Retief said, looking Gulver in the eye. [712] "You'll be busy straightening out the details of the mix-up. [713] You'll want to avoid further complications." [714] "Ah. [715] Ulp. [716] Yes," Gulver said. [717] He appeared unhappy. [718] Arapoulous went on to the passenger conveyor, turned to wave. [719] "Your man—he's going too?" [720] Gulver blurted. [721] "He's not our man, properly speaking," Retief said. [722] "He lives on Lovenbroy." [723] "Lovenbroy?" [724] Gulver choked. [725] "But ... the ... [726] I...." "I know you said the students were bound for d'Land," Retief said. [727] "But I guess that was just another aspect of the general confusion. [728] The course plugged into the navigators was to Lovenbroy. [729] You'll be glad to know they're still headed there—even without the baggage." [730] "Perhaps," Gulver said grimly, "perhaps they'll manage without it." [731] "By the way," Retief said. [732] "There was another funny mix-up. [733] There were some tractors—for industrial use, you'll recall. [734] I believe you co-operated with Croanie in arranging the grant through MEDDLE. [735] They were erroneously consigned to Lovenbroy, a purely agricultural world. [736] I saved you some embarrassment, I trust, Mr. Gulver, by arranging to have them off-loaded at d'Land." [737] "D'Land! [738] You've put the CSU's in the hands of Boge's bitterest enemies!" [739] "But they're only tractors, Mr. Gulver. [740] Peaceful devices. [741] Isn't that correct?" [742] "That's ... [743] correct." [744] Gulver sagged. [745] Then he snapped erect. [746] "Hold the ships!" [747] he yelled. [748] "I'm canceling the student exchange—" His voice was drowned by the rumble as the first of the monster transports rose from the launch pit, followed a moment later by the second, Retief watched them out of sight, then turned to Gulver. [749] "They're off," he said. [750] "Let's hope they get a liberal education." [751] V Retief lay on his back in deep grass by a stream, eating grapes. [752] A tall figure appeared on the knoll above him and waved. [753] "Retief!" [754] Hank Arapoulous bounded down the slope and embraced Retief, slapping him on the back. [755] "I heard you were here—and I've got news for you. [756] You won the final day's picking competition. [757] Over two hundred bushels! [758] That's a record!" [759] "Let's get on over to the garden. [760] Sounds like the celebration's about to start." [761] In the flower-crowded park among the stripped vines, Retief and Arapoulous made their way to a laden table under the lanterns. [762] A tall girl dressed in loose white, and with long golden hair, came up to Arapoulous. [763] "Delinda, this is Retief—today's winner. [764] And he's also the fellow that got those workers for us." [765] Delinda smiled at Retief. [766] "I've heard about you, Mr. Retief. [767] We weren't sure about the boys at first. [768] Two thousand Bogans, and all confused about their baggage that went astray. [769] But they seemed to like the picking." [770] She smiled again. [771] "That's not all. [772] Our gals liked the boys," Hank said. [773] "Even Bogans aren't so bad, minus their irons. [774] A lot of 'em will be staying on. [775] But how come you didn't tell me you were coming, Retief? [776] I'd have laid on some kind of big welcome." [777] "I liked the welcome I got. [778] And I didn't have much notice. [779] Mr. Magnan was a little upset when he got back. [780] It seems I exceeded my authority." [781] Arapoulous laughed. [782] "I had a feeling you were wheeling pretty free, Retief. [783] I hope you didn't get into any trouble over it." [784] "No trouble," Retief said. [785] "A few people were a little unhappy with me. [786] It seems I'm not ready for important assignments at Departmental level. [787] I was shipped off here to the boondocks to get a little more experience." [788] "Delinda, look after Retief," said Arapoulous. [789] "I'll see you later. [790] I've got to see to the wine judging." [791] He disappeared in the crowd. [792] "Congratulations on winning the day," said Delinda. [793] "I noticed you at work. [794] You were wonderful. [795] I'm glad you're going to have the prize." [796] "Thanks. [797] I noticed you too, flitting around in that white nightie of yours. [798] But why weren't you picking grapes with the rest of us?" [799] "I had a special assignment." [800] "Too bad. [801] You should have had a chance at the prize." [802] Delinda took Retief's hand. [803] "I wouldn't have anyway," she said. [804] "I'm the prize."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is Croanie, and why is it important in the story?": 1. [182] "We had to borrow money from a world called Croanie. Mortgaged our crops." 2. [183] "Had to start exporting art work too." 3. [188] "Croanie about to foreclose?" 4. [189] "The loan's due." 5. [222] "If we don't get a big vintage, Croanie steps in. Lord knows what they'll do to the land." 6. [223] "Then next vintage time, with them holding half our grape acreage—" 7. [224] "You hocked the vineyards?" 8. [225] "Yep. Pretty dumb, huh?" 9. [226] "But we figured twelve years was a long time." 10. [253] "Mr. Whaffle, you mentioned a shipment going to a place called Croanie. What are they getting?" 11. [254] "You're the fellow who's filling in for Magnan, over at MUDDLE." 12. [255] "Properly speaking, equipment grants are the sole concern of the Motorized Equipment Depot, Division of Loans and Exchanges." 13. [259] "However, I suppose there's no harm in telling you. They'll be receiving heavy mining equipment." 14. [260] "Drill rigs, that sort of thing?" 15. [261] "Strip mining gear." 16. [262] "Whaffle took a slip of paper from a breast pocket, blinked at it." 17. [263] "Bolo Model WV/1 tractors, to be specific." 18. [264] "Why is MUDDLE interested in MEDDLE's activities?" 19. [265] "Forgive my curiosity, Mr. Whaffle. It's just that Croanie cropped up earlier today." 20. [266] "It seems she holds a mortgage on some vineyards over on—" 21. [267] "That's not MEDDLE's affair, sir," Whaffle cut in. 22. [268] "I have sufficient problems as Chief of MEDDLE without probing into MUDDLE'S business." 23. [360] "Karsh winked. 'And bring a few beers.'" 24. [361] "Not this time," Retief said. 25. [362] He watched the students, still emerging from Customs. 26. [363] "They seem to be all boys," he commented. 27. [364] "No female students?" 28. [365] "Maybe later," Karsh said. 29. [366] "You know, after we see how the first bunch is received." 30. [367] Back at the MUDDLE office, Retief buzzed Miss Furkle. 31. [368] "Do you know the name of the institution these Bogan students are bound for?" 32. [369] "Why, the University at d'Land, of course." 33. [370] "Would that be the Technical College?" 34. [371] Miss Furkle's mouth puckered. 35. [372] "I'm sure I've never pried into these details." 36. [373] "Where does doing your job stop and prying begin, Miss Furkle?" 37. [374] Retief said. 38. [375] "Personally, I'm curious as to just what it is these students are travelling so far to study—at Corps expense." 39. [376] "Mr. Magnan never—" 40. [377] "For the present. Miss Furkle, Mr. Magnan is vacationing." 41. [378] "That leaves me with the question of two thousand young male students headed for a world with no classrooms for them ... a world in need of tractors." 42. [379] "But the tractors are on their way to Croanie, a world under obligation to Boge." 43. [380] "And Croanie holds a mortgage on the best grape acreage on Lovenbroy."

What is the plot of the story?

[1] THE RECRUIT BY BRYCE WALTON It was dirty work, but it would make him a man. [2] And kids had a right to grow up—some of them! [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1962. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Wayne, unseen, sneered down from the head of the stairs. [6] The old man with his thick neck, thick cigar, evening highball, potgut and bald head without a brain in it. [7] His slim mother with nervously polite smiles and voice fluttering, assuring the old man by her frailty that he was big in the world. [8] They were squareheads one and all, marking moron time in a gray dream. [9] Man, was he glad to break out. [10] The old man said, "He'll be okay. [11] Let him alone." [12] "But he won't eat. [13] Just lies there all the time." [14] "Hell," the old man said. [15] "Sixteen's a bad time. [16] School over, waiting for the draft and all. [17] He's in between. [18] It's rough." [19] Mother clasped her forearms and shook her head once slowly. [20] "We got to let him go, Eva. [21] It's a dangerous time. [22] You got to remember about all these dangerous repressed impulses piling up with nowhere to go, like they say. [23] You read the books." [24] "But he's unhappy." [25] "Are we specialists? [26] That's the Youth Board's headache, ain't it? [27] What do we know about adolescent trauma and like that? [28] Now get dressed or we'll be late." [29] Wayne watched the ritual, grinning. [30] He listened to their purposeless noises, their blabbing and yakking as if they had something to say. [31] Blab-blab about the same old bones, and end up chewing them in the same old ways. [32] Then they begin all over again. [33] A freak sideshow all the way to nowhere. [34] Squareheads going around either unconscious or with eyes looking dead from the millennium in the office waiting to retire into limbo. [35] How come he'd been stuck with parental images like that? [36] One thing—when he was jockeying a rocket to Mars or maybe firing the pants off Asiatic reds in some steamy gone jungle paradise, he'd forget his punkie origins in teeveeland. [37] But the old man was right on for once about the dangerous repressed impulses. [38] Wayne had heard about it often enough. [39] Anyway there was no doubt about it when every move he made was a restrained explosion. [40] So he'd waited in his room, and it wasn't easy sweating it out alone waiting for the breakout call from HQ. [41] "Well, dear, if you say so," Mother said, with the old resigned sigh that must make the old man feel like Superman with a beerbelly. [42] They heard Wayne slouching loosely down the stairs and looked up. [43] "Relax," Wayne said. [44] "You're not going anywhere tonight." [45] "What, son?" [46] his old man said uneasily. [47] "Sure we are. [48] We're going to the movies." [49] He could feel them watching him, waiting; and yet still he didn't answer. [50] Somewhere out in suburban grayness a dog barked, then was silent. [51] "Okay, go," Wayne said. [52] "If you wanta walk. [53] I'm taking the family boltbucket." [54] "But we promised the Clemons, dear," his mother said. [55] "Hell," Wayne said, grinning straight into the old man. [56] "I just got my draft call." [57] He saw the old man's Adam's apple move. [58] "Oh, my dear boy," Mother cried out. [59] "So gimme the keys," Wayne said. [60] The old man handed the keys over. [61] His understanding smile was strained, and fear flicked in his sagging eyes. [62] "Do be careful, dear," his mother said. [63] She ran toward him as he laughed and shut the door on her. [64] He was still laughing as he whoomed the Olds between the pale dead glow of houses and roared up the ramp onto the Freeway. [65] Ahead was the promising glitter of adventure-calling neon, and he looked up at the high skies of night and his eyes sailed the glaring wonders of escape. [66] He burned off some rubber finding a slot in the park-lot. [67] He strode under a sign reading Public Youth Center No. [68] 947 and walked casually to the reception desk, where a thin man with sergeant's stripes and a pansy haircut looked out of a pile of paperwork. [69] "Where you think you're going, my pretty lad?" [70] Wayne grinned down. [71] "Higher I hope than a typewriter jockey." [72] "Well," the sergeant said. [73] "How tough we are this evening. [74] You have a pass, killer?" [75] "Wayne Seton. [76] Draft call." [77] "Oh." [78] The sergeant checked his name off a roster and nodded. [79] He wrote on a slip of paper, handed the pass to Wayne. [80] "Go to the Armory and check out whatever your lusting little heart desires. [81] Then report to Captain Jack, room 307." [82] "Thanks, sarge dear," Wayne said and took the elevator up to the Armory. [83] A tired fat corporal with a naked head blinked up at tall Wayne. [84] Finally he said, "So make up your mind, bud. [85] Think you're the only kid breaking out tonight?" [86] "Hold your teeth, pop," Wayne said, coolly and slowly lighting a cigarette. [87] "I've decided." [88] The corporal's little eyes studied Wayne with malicious amusement. [89] "Take it from a vet, bud. [90] Sooner you go the better. [91] It's a big city and you're starting late. [92] You can get a cat, not a mouse, and some babes are clever hellcats in a dark alley." [93] "You must be a genius," Wayne said. [94] "A corporal with no hair and still a counterboy. [95] I'm impressed. [96] I'm all ears, Dad." [97] The corporal sighed wearily. [98] "You can get that balloon head ventilated, bud, and good." [99] Wayne's mouth twitched. [100] He leaned across the counter toward the shelves and racks of weapons. [101] "I'll remember that crack when I get my commission." [102] He blew smoke in the corporal's face. [103] "Bring me a Smith and Wesson .38, shoulder holster with spring-clip. [104] And throw in a Skelly switchblade for kicks—the six-inch disguised job with the double springs." [105] The corporal waddled back with the revolver and the switchblade disguised in a leather comb case. [106] He checked them on a receipt ledger, while Wayne examined the weapons, broke open the revolver, twirled the cylinder and pushed cartridges into the waiting chamber. [107] He slipped the knife from the comb case, flicked open the blade and stared at its gleam in the buttery light as his mouth went dry and the refracted incandescence of it trickled on his brain like melted ice, exciting and scary. [108] He removed his leather jacket. [109] He slung the holster under his left armpit and tested the spring clip release several times, feeling the way the serrated butt dropped into his wet palm. [110] He put his jacket back on and the switchblade case in his pocket. [111] He walked toward the elevator and didn't look back as the corporal said, "Good luck, tiger." [112] Captain Jack moved massively. [113] The big stone-walled office, alive with stuffed lion and tiger and gunracks, seemed to grow smaller. [114] Captain Jack crossed black-booted legs and whacked a cane at the floor. [115] It had a head shaped like a grinning bear. [116] Wayne felt the assured smile die on his face. [117] Something seemed to shrink him. [118] If he didn't watch himself he'd begin feeling like a pea among bowling balls. [119] Contemptuously amused little eyes glittered at Wayne from a shaggy head. [120] Shoulders hunched like stuffed sea-bags. [121] "Wayne Seton," said Captain Jack as if he were discussing something in a bug collection. [122] "Well, well, you're really fired up aren't you? [123] Really going out to eat 'em. [124] Right, punk?" [125] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. [126] He ran wet hands down the sides of his chinos. [127] His legs seemed sheathed in lead as he bit inwardly at shrinking fear the way a dog snaps at a wound. [128] You big overblown son, he thought, I'll show you but good who is a punk. [129] They made a guy wait and sweat until he screamed. [130] They kept a guy on the fire until desire leaped in him, ran and billowed and roared until his brain was filled with it. [131] But that wasn't enough. [132] If this muscle-bound creep was such a big boy, what was he doing holding down a desk? [133] "Well, this is it, punk. [134] You go the distance or start a butterfly collection." [135] The cane darted up. [136] A blade snicked from the end and stopped an inch from Wayne's nose. [137] He jerked up a shaky hand involuntarily and clamped a knuckle-ridged gag to his gasping mouth. [138] Captain Jack chuckled. [139] "All right, superboy." [140] He handed Wayne his passcard. [141] "Curfew's off, punk, for 6 hours. [142] You got 6 hours to make out." [143] "Yes, sir." [144] "Your beast is primed and waiting at the Four Aces Club on the West Side. [145] Know where that is, punk?" [146] "No, sir, but I'll find it fast." [147] "Sure you will, punk," smiled Captain Jack. [148] "She'll be wearing yellow slacks and a red shirt. [149] Black hair, a cute trick. [150] She's with a hefty psycho who eats punks for breakfast. [151] He's butchered five people. [152] They're both on top of the Undesirable list, Seton. [153] They got to go and they're your key to the stars." [154] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. [155] "So run along and make out, punk," grinned Captain Jack. [156] A copcar stopped Wayne as he started over the bridge, out of bright respectable neon into the murky westside slum over the river. [157] Wayne waved the pass card, signed by Captain Jack, under the cop's quivering nose. [158] The cop shivered and stepped back and waved him on. [159] The Olds roared over the bridge as the night's rain blew away. [160] The air through the open window was chill and damp coming from Slumville, but Wayne felt a cold that wasn't of the night or the wind. [161] He turned off into a rat's warren of the inferiors. [162] Lights turned pale, secretive and sparse, the uncared-for streets became rough with pitted potholes, narrow and winding and humid with wet unpleasant smells. [163] Wayne's fearful exhilaration increased as he cruised with bated breath through the dark mazes of streets and rickety tenements crawling with the shadows of mysterious promise. [164] He found the alley, dark, a gloom-dripping tunnel. [165] He drove cautiously into it and rolled along, watching. [166] His belly ached with expectancy as he spotted the sick-looking dab of neon wanly sparkling. [167] FOUR ACES CLUB He parked across the alley. [168] He got out and stood in shadows, digging the sultry beat of a combo, the wild pulse of drums and spinning brass filtering through windows painted black. [169] He breathed deep, started over, ducked back. [170] A stewbum weaved out of a bank of garbage cans, humming to himself, pulling at a rainsoaked shirt clinging to a pale stick body. [171] He reminded Wayne of a slim grub balanced on one end. [172] The stewbum stumbled. [173] His bearded face in dim breaking moonlight had a dirty, greenish tinge as he sensed Wayne there. [174] He turned in a grotesque uncoordinated jiggling and his eyes were wide with terror and doom. [175] "I gotta hide, kid. [176] They're on me." [177] Wayne's chest rose and his hands curled. [178] The bum's fingers drew at the air like white talons. [179] "Help me, kid." [180] He turned with a scratchy cry and retreated before the sudden blast of headlights from a Cad bulleting into the alley. [181] The Cad rushed past Wayne and he felt the engine-hot fumes against his legs. [182] Tires squealed. [183] The Cad stopped and a teener in black jacket jumped out and crouched as he began stalking the old rummy. [184] "This is him! [185] This is him all right," the teener yelled, and one hand came up swinging a baseball bat. [186] A head bobbed out of the Cad window and giggled. [187] The fumble-footed rummy tried to run and plopped on wet pavement. [188] The teener moved in, while a faint odor of burnt rubber hovered in the air as the Cad cruised in a slow follow-up. [189] Wayne's breath quickened as he watched, feeling somehow blank wonder at finding himself there, free and breaking out at last with no curfew and no law but his own. [190] He felt as though he couldn't stop anything. [191] Living seemed directionless, but he still would go with it regardless, until something dropped off or blew to hell like a hot light-bulb. [192] He held his breath, waiting. [193] His body was tensed and rigid as he moved in spirit with the hunting teener, an omniscient shadow with a hunting license and a ghetto jungle twenty miles deep. [194] The crawling stewbum screamed as the baseball bat whacked. [195] The teener laughed. [196] Wayne wanted to shout. [197] He opened his mouth, but the yell clogged up somewhere, so that he remained soundless yet with his mouth still open as he heard the payoff thuds where the useless wino curled up with stick arms over his rheumy face. [198] The teener laughed, tossed the bat away and began jumping up and down with his hobnailed, mail-order air force boots. [199] Then he ran into the Cad. [200] A hootch bottle soared out, made a brittle tink-tink of falling glass. [201] "Go, man!" [202] The Cad wooshed by. [203] It made a sort of hollow sucking noise as it bounced over the old man twice. [204] Then the finlights diminished like bright wind-blown sparks. [205] Wayne walked over and sneered down at the human garbage lying in scummed rain pools. [206] The smell of raw violence, the scent of blood, made his heart thump like a trapped rubber ball in a cage. [207] He hurried into the Four Aces, drawn by an exhilarating vision ... and pursued by the hollow haunting fears of his own desires. [208] He walked through the wavering haze of smoke and liquored dizziness and stood until his eyes learned the dark. [209] He spotted her red shirt and yellow legs over in the corner above a murky lighted table. [210] He walked toward her, watching her little subhuman pixie face lift. [211] The eyes widened with exciting terror, turned even paler behind a red slash of sensuous mouth. [212] Briefed and waiting, primed and eager for running, she recognized her pursuer at once. [213] He sat at a table near her, watching and grinning and seeing her squirm. [214] She sat in that slightly baffled, fearful and uncomprehending attitude of being motionless, as though they were all actors performing in a weirdo drama being staged in that smoky thick-aired dive. [215] Wayne smiled with wry superiority at the redheaded psycho in a dirty T-shirt, a big bruiser with a gorilla face. [216] He was tussling his mouse heavy. [217] "What's yours, teener?" [218] the slug-faced waiter asked. [219] "Bring me a Crusher, buddyroo," Wayne said, and flashed his pass card. [220] "Sure, teener." [221] Red nuzzled the mouse's neck and made drooly noises. [222] Wayne watched and fed on the promising terror and helplessness of her hunted face. [223] She sat rigid, eyes fixed on Wayne like balls of frozen glass. [224] Red looked up and stared straight at Wayne with eyes like black buttons imbedded in the waxlike skin of his face. [225] Then he grinned all on one side. [226] One huge hand scratched across the wet table top like a furious cat's. [227] Wayne returned the challenging move but felt a nervous twitch jerk at his lips. [228] A numbness covered his brain like a film as he concentrated on staring down Red the psycho. [229] But Red kept looking, his eyes bright but dead. [230] Then he began struggling it up again with the scared little mouse. [231] The waiter sat the Crusher down. [232] Wayne signed a chit; tonight he was in the pay of the state. [233] "What else, teener?" [234] "One thing. [235] Fade." [236] "Sure, teener," the waiter said, his breathy words dripping like syrup. [237] Wayne drank. [238] Liquored heat dripped into his stomach. [239] Fire tickled his veins, became hot wire twisting in his head. [240] He drank again and forced out a shaky breath. [241] The jazz beat thumped fast and muted brass moaned. [242] Drumpulse, stabbing trumpet raped the air. [243] Tension mounted as Wayne watched her pale throat convulsing, the white eyelids fluttering. [244] Red fingered at her legs and salivated at her throat, glancing now and then at Wayne, baiting him good. [245] "Okay, you creep," Wayne said. [246] He stood up and started through the haze. [247] The psycho leaped and a table crashed. [248] Wayne's .38 dropped from its spring-clip holster and the blast filled the room. [249] The psycho screamed and stumbled toward the door holding something in. [250] The mouse darted by, eluded Wayne's grasp and was out the door. [251] Wayne went out after her in a laughing frenzy of release. [252] He felt the cold strange breath of moist air on his sweating skin as he sprinted down the alley into a wind full of blowing wet. [253] He ran laughing under the crazy starlight and glimpsed her now and then, fading in and out of shadows, jumping, crawling, running with the life-or-death animation of a wild deer. [254] Up and down alleys, a rat's maze. [255] A rabbit run. [256] Across vacant lots. [257] Through shattered tenement ruins. [258] Over a fence. [259] There she was, falling, sliding down a brick shute. [260] He gained. [261] He moved up. [262] His labored breath pumped more fire. [263] And her scream was a rejuvenation hypo in his blood. [264] She quivered above him on the stoop, panting, her eyes afire with terror. [265] "You, baby," Wayne gasped. [266] "I gotcha." [267] She backed into darkness, up there against the sagging tenement wall, her arms out and poised like crippled wings. [268] Wayne crept up. [269] She gave a squeaking sob, turned, ran. [270] Wayne leaped into gloom. [271] Wood cracked. [272] He clambered over rotten lumber. [273] The doorway sagged and he hesitated in the musty dark. [274] A few feet away was the sound of loose trickling plaster, a whimpering whine. [275] "No use running," Wayne said. [276] "Go loose. [277] Give, baby. [278] Give now." [279] She scurried up sagging stairs. [280] Wayne laughed and dug up after her, feeling his way through debris. [281] Dim moonlight filtered through a sagging stairway from a shattered skylight three floors up. [282] The mouse's shadow floated ahead. [283] He started up. [284] The entire stair structure canted sickeningly. [285] A railing ripped and he nearly went with it back down to the first floor. [286] He heard a scream as rotten boards crumbled and dust exploded from cracks. [287] A rat ran past Wayne and fell into space. [288] He burst into the third-floor hallway and saw her half-falling through a door under the jagged skylight. [289] Wayne took his time. [290] He knew how she felt waiting in there, listening to his creeping, implacable footfalls. [291] Then he yelled and slammed open the door. [292] Dust and stench, filth so awful it made nothing of the dust. [293] In the corner he saw something hardly to be called a bed. [294] More like a nest. [295] A dirty, lumpy pile of torn mattress, felt, excelsior, shredded newspapers and rags. [296] It seemed to crawl a little under the moon-streaming skylight. [297] She crouched in the corner panting. [298] He took his time moving in. [299] He snickered as he flashed the switchblade and circled it like a serpent's tongue. [300] He watched what was left of her nerves go to pieces like rotten cloth. [301] "Do it quick, hunter," she whispered. [302] "Please do it quick." [303] "What's that, baby?" [304] "I'm tired running. [305] Kill me first. [306] Beat me after. [307] They won't know the difference." [308] "I'm gonna bruise and beat you," he said. [309] "Kill me first," she begged. [310] "I don't want—" She began to cry. [311] She cried right up in his face, her wide eyes unblinking, and her mouth open. [312] "You got bad blood, baby," he snarled. [313] He laughed but it didn't sound like him and something was wrong with his belly. [314] It was knotting up. [315] "Bad, I know! [316] So get it over with, please. [317] Hurry, hurry." [318] She was small and white and quivering. [319] She moaned but kept staring up at him. [320] He ripped off his rivet-studded belt and swung once, then groaned and shuffled away from her. [321] He kept backing toward the door. [322] She crawled after him, begging and clutching with both arms as she wriggled forward on her knees. [323] "Don't run. [324] Please. [325] Kill me! [326] It'll be someone else if you don't. [327] Oh, God, I'm so tired waiting and running!" [328] "I can't," he said, and sickness soured in his throat. [329] "Please." [330] "I can't, I can't!" [331] He turned and ran blindly, half-fell down the cracking stairs. [332] Doctor Burns, head of the readjustment staff at the Youth Center, studied Wayne with abstract interest. [333] "You enjoyed the hunt, Seton? [334] You got your kicks?" [335] "Yes, sir." [336] "But you couldn't execute them?" [337] "No, sir." [338] "They're undesirables. [339] Incurables. [340] You know that, Seton?" [341] "Yes, sir." [342] "The psycho you only wounded. [343] He's a five-times murderer. [344] And that girl killed her father when she was twelve. [345] You realize there's nothing can be done for them? [346] That they have to be executed?" [347] "I know." [348] "Too bad," the doctor said. [349] "We all have aggressive impulses, primitive needs that must be expressed early, purged. [350] There's murder in all of us, Seton. [351] The impulse shouldn't be denied or suppressed, but educated . [352] The state used to kill them. [353] Isn't it better all around, Seton, for us to do it, as part of growing up? [354] What was the matter, Seton?" [355] "I—felt sorry for her." [356] "Is that all you can say about it?" [357] "Yes, sir." [358] The doctor pressed a buzzer. [359] Two men in white coats entered. [360] "You should have got it out of your system, Seton, but now it's still in there. [361] I can't turn you out and have it erupt later—and maybe shed clean innocent blood, can I?" [362] "No, sir," Wayne mumbled. [363] He didn't look up. [364] "I'm sorry I punked out." [365] "Give him the treatment," the doctor said wearily. [366] "And send him back to his mother." [367] Wayne nodded and they led him away. [368] His mind screamed still to split open some prison of bone and lay bare and breathing wide. [369] But there was no way out for the trapped. [370] Now he knew about the old man and his poker-playing pals. [371] They had all punked out. [372] Like him.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [1] THE RECRUIT BY BRYCE WALTON It was dirty work, but it would make him a man. 2. [55] "Hell," Wayne said, grinching straight into the old man. "I just got my draft call." 3. [148] "She'll be wearing yellow slacks and a red shirt. Black hair, a cute trick. She's with a hefty psycho who eats punks for breakfast." 4. [151] "They're both on top of the Undesirable list, Seton. They got to go and they're your key to the stars." 5. [247] The psycho leaped and a table crashed. Wayne's .38 dropped from its spring-clip holster and the blast filled the room. 6. [248] The psycho screamed and stumbled toward the door holding something in. 7. [249] The mouse darted by, eluded Wayne's grasp and was out the door. 8. [250] Wayne went out after her in a laughing frenzy of release. 9. [301] "Do it quick, hunter," she whispered. "Please do it quick." 10. [302] "What's that, baby?" 11. [303] "I'm tired running. Kill me first. Beat me after. They won't know the difference." 12. [308] "I'm gonna bruise and beat you," he said. 13. [309] "Kill me first," she begged. 14. [310] "I don't want—" She began to cry. 15. [311] She cried right up in his face, her wide eyes unblinking, and her mouth open. 16. [312] "You got bad blood, baby," he snarled. 17. [313] He laughed but it didn't sound like him and something was wrong with his belly. 18. [314] It was knotting up. 19. [315] "Bad, I know! So get it over with, please. Hurry, hurry." 20. [316] She was small and white and quivering. 21. [317] She moaned but kept staring up at him. 22. [318] He ripped off his rivet-studded belt and swung once, then groaned and shuffled away from her. 23. [319] He kept backing toward the door. 24. [320] She crawled after him, begging and clutching with both arms as she wriggled forward on her knees. 25. [321] "Don't run. Please. Kill me! It'll be someone else if you don't. Oh, God, I'm so tired waiting and running!" 26. [322] "I can't," he said, and sickness soured in his throat. 27. [323] "Please." 28. [324] "I can't, I can't!" 29. [325] He turned and ran blindly, half-fell down the cracking stairs. 30. [332] Doctor Burns, head of the readjustment staff at the Youth Center, studied Wayne with abstract interest. 31. [333] "You enjoyed the hunt, Seton? You got your kicks?" 32. [334] "Yes, sir." 33. [335] "But you couldn't execute them?" 34. [336] "No, sir." 35. [337] "They're undesirables. Incurables. You know that, Seton?" 36. [338] "Yes, sir." 37. [339] "The psycho you only wounded. He's a five-times murderer. And that girl killed her father when she was twelve. You realize there's nothing can be done for them? That they have to be executed?" 38. [340] "I know." 39. [341] "Too bad," the doctor said. 40. [342] "We all have aggressive impulses, primitive needs that must be expressed early, purged." 41. [343] "There's murder in all of us, Seton. The impulse shouldn't be denied or suppressed, but educated ." 42. [344] "The state used to kill them. Isn't it better all around, Seton, for us to do it, as part of growing up?" 43. [345] "What was the matter, Seton?" 44. [346] "I—felt sorry for her." 45. [347] "Is that all you can say about it?" 46. [348] "Yes, sir." 47. [349] The doctor pressed a buzzer. 48. [350] Two men in white coats entered. 49. [351] "You should have got it out of your system, Seton, but now it's still in there. I can't turn you out and have it erupt later—and maybe shed clean innocent blood, can I?" 50. [352] "No, sir," Wayne mumbled. 51. [353] He didn't look up. 52. [354] "I'm sorry I punked out." 53. [355] "Give him the treatment," the doctor said wearily. 54. [356] "And send him back to his mother." 55. [357] Wayne nodded and they led him away. 56. [358] His mind screamed still to split open some prison of bone and lay bare and breathing wide. 57. [359] But there was no way out for the trapped. 58. [360] Now he knew about the old man and his poker-playing pals. They had all punked out. Like him.

Describe the setting of the story

[1] THE RECRUIT BY BRYCE WALTON It was dirty work, but it would make him a man. [2] And kids had a right to grow up—some of them! [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1962. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Wayne, unseen, sneered down from the head of the stairs. [6] The old man with his thick neck, thick cigar, evening highball, potgut and bald head without a brain in it. [7] His slim mother with nervously polite smiles and voice fluttering, assuring the old man by her frailty that he was big in the world. [8] They were squareheads one and all, marking moron time in a gray dream. [9] Man, was he glad to break out. [10] The old man said, "He'll be okay. [11] Let him alone." [12] "But he won't eat. [13] Just lies there all the time." [14] "Hell," the old man said. [15] "Sixteen's a bad time. [16] School over, waiting for the draft and all. [17] He's in between. [18] It's rough." [19] Mother clasped her forearms and shook her head once slowly. [20] "We got to let him go, Eva. [21] It's a dangerous time. [22] You got to remember about all these dangerous repressed impulses piling up with nowhere to go, like they say. [23] You read the books." [24] "But he's unhappy." [25] "Are we specialists? [26] That's the Youth Board's headache, ain't it? [27] What do we know about adolescent trauma and like that? [28] Now get dressed or we'll be late." [29] Wayne watched the ritual, grinning. [30] He listened to their purposeless noises, their blabbing and yakking as if they had something to say. [31] Blab-blab about the same old bones, and end up chewing them in the same old ways. [32] Then they begin all over again. [33] A freak sideshow all the way to nowhere. [34] Squareheads going around either unconscious or with eyes looking dead from the millennium in the office waiting to retire into limbo. [35] How come he'd been stuck with parental images like that? [36] One thing—when he was jockeying a rocket to Mars or maybe firing the pants off Asiatic reds in some steamy gone jungle paradise, he'd forget his punkie origins in teeveeland. [37] But the old man was right on for once about the dangerous repressed impulses. [38] Wayne had heard about it often enough. [39] Anyway there was no doubt about it when every move he made was a restrained explosion. [40] So he'd waited in his room, and it wasn't easy sweating it out alone waiting for the breakout call from HQ. [41] "Well, dear, if you say so," Mother said, with the old resigned sigh that must make the old man feel like Superman with a beerbelly. [42] They heard Wayne slouching loosely down the stairs and looked up. [43] "Relax," Wayne said. [44] "You're not going anywhere tonight." [45] "What, son?" [46] his old man said uneasily. [47] "Sure we are. [48] We're going to the movies." [49] He could feel them watching him, waiting; and yet still he didn't answer. [50] Somewhere out in suburban grayness a dog barked, then was silent. [51] "Okay, go," Wayne said. [52] "If you wanta walk. [53] I'm taking the family boltbucket." [54] "But we promised the Clemons, dear," his mother said. [55] "Hell," Wayne said, grinning straight into the old man. [56] "I just got my draft call." [57] He saw the old man's Adam's apple move. [58] "Oh, my dear boy," Mother cried out. [59] "So gimme the keys," Wayne said. [60] The old man handed the keys over. [61] His understanding smile was strained, and fear flicked in his sagging eyes. [62] "Do be careful, dear," his mother said. [63] She ran toward him as he laughed and shut the door on her. [64] He was still laughing as he whoomed the Olds between the pale dead glow of houses and roared up the ramp onto the Freeway. [65] Ahead was the promising glitter of adventure-calling neon, and he looked up at the high skies of night and his eyes sailed the glaring wonders of escape. [66] He burned off some rubber finding a slot in the park-lot. [67] He strode under a sign reading Public Youth Center No. [68] 947 and walked casually to the reception desk, where a thin man with sergeant's stripes and a pansy haircut looked out of a pile of paperwork. [69] "Where you think you're going, my pretty lad?" [70] Wayne grinned down. [71] "Higher I hope than a typewriter jockey." [72] "Well," the sergeant said. [73] "How tough we are this evening. [74] You have a pass, killer?" [75] "Wayne Seton. [76] Draft call." [77] "Oh." [78] The sergeant checked his name off a roster and nodded. [79] He wrote on a slip of paper, handed the pass to Wayne. [80] "Go to the Armory and check out whatever your lusting little heart desires. [81] Then report to Captain Jack, room 307." [82] "Thanks, sarge dear," Wayne said and took the elevator up to the Armory. [83] A tired fat corporal with a naked head blinked up at tall Wayne. [84] Finally he said, "So make up your mind, bud. [85] Think you're the only kid breaking out tonight?" [86] "Hold your teeth, pop," Wayne said, coolly and slowly lighting a cigarette. [87] "I've decided." [88] The corporal's little eyes studied Wayne with malicious amusement. [89] "Take it from a vet, bud. [90] Sooner you go the better. [91] It's a big city and you're starting late. [92] You can get a cat, not a mouse, and some babes are clever hellcats in a dark alley." [93] "You must be a genius," Wayne said. [94] "A corporal with no hair and still a counterboy. [95] I'm impressed. [96] I'm all ears, Dad." [97] The corporal sighed wearily. [98] "You can get that balloon head ventilated, bud, and good." [99] Wayne's mouth twitched. [100] He leaned across the counter toward the shelves and racks of weapons. [101] "I'll remember that crack when I get my commission." [102] He blew smoke in the corporal's face. [103] "Bring me a Smith and Wesson .38, shoulder holster with spring-clip. [104] And throw in a Skelly switchblade for kicks—the six-inch disguised job with the double springs." [105] The corporal waddled back with the revolver and the switchblade disguised in a leather comb case. [106] He checked them on a receipt ledger, while Wayne examined the weapons, broke open the revolver, twirled the cylinder and pushed cartridges into the waiting chamber. [107] He slipped the knife from the comb case, flicked open the blade and stared at its gleam in the buttery light as his mouth went dry and the refracted incandescence of it trickled on his brain like melted ice, exciting and scary. [108] He removed his leather jacket. [109] He slung the holster under his left armpit and tested the spring clip release several times, feeling the way the serrated butt dropped into his wet palm. [110] He put his jacket back on and the switchblade case in his pocket. [111] He walked toward the elevator and didn't look back as the corporal said, "Good luck, tiger." [112] Captain Jack moved massively. [113] The big stone-walled office, alive with stuffed lion and tiger and gunracks, seemed to grow smaller. [114] Captain Jack crossed black-booted legs and whacked a cane at the floor. [115] It had a head shaped like a grinning bear. [116] Wayne felt the assured smile die on his face. [117] Something seemed to shrink him. [118] If he didn't watch himself he'd begin feeling like a pea among bowling balls. [119] Contemptuously amused little eyes glittered at Wayne from a shaggy head. [120] Shoulders hunched like stuffed sea-bags. [121] "Wayne Seton," said Captain Jack as if he were discussing something in a bug collection. [122] "Well, well, you're really fired up aren't you? [123] Really going out to eat 'em. [124] Right, punk?" [125] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. [126] He ran wet hands down the sides of his chinos. [127] His legs seemed sheathed in lead as he bit inwardly at shrinking fear the way a dog snaps at a wound. [128] You big overblown son, he thought, I'll show you but good who is a punk. [129] They made a guy wait and sweat until he screamed. [130] They kept a guy on the fire until desire leaped in him, ran and billowed and roared until his brain was filled with it. [131] But that wasn't enough. [132] If this muscle-bound creep was such a big boy, what was he doing holding down a desk? [133] "Well, this is it, punk. [134] You go the distance or start a butterfly collection." [135] The cane darted up. [136] A blade snicked from the end and stopped an inch from Wayne's nose. [137] He jerked up a shaky hand involuntarily and clamped a knuckle-ridged gag to his gasping mouth. [138] Captain Jack chuckled. [139] "All right, superboy." [140] He handed Wayne his passcard. [141] "Curfew's off, punk, for 6 hours. [142] You got 6 hours to make out." [143] "Yes, sir." [144] "Your beast is primed and waiting at the Four Aces Club on the West Side. [145] Know where that is, punk?" [146] "No, sir, but I'll find it fast." [147] "Sure you will, punk," smiled Captain Jack. [148] "She'll be wearing yellow slacks and a red shirt. [149] Black hair, a cute trick. [150] She's with a hefty psycho who eats punks for breakfast. [151] He's butchered five people. [152] They're both on top of the Undesirable list, Seton. [153] They got to go and they're your key to the stars." [154] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. [155] "So run along and make out, punk," grinned Captain Jack. [156] A copcar stopped Wayne as he started over the bridge, out of bright respectable neon into the murky westside slum over the river. [157] Wayne waved the pass card, signed by Captain Jack, under the cop's quivering nose. [158] The cop shivered and stepped back and waved him on. [159] The Olds roared over the bridge as the night's rain blew away. [160] The air through the open window was chill and damp coming from Slumville, but Wayne felt a cold that wasn't of the night or the wind. [161] He turned off into a rat's warren of the inferiors. [162] Lights turned pale, secretive and sparse, the uncared-for streets became rough with pitted potholes, narrow and winding and humid with wet unpleasant smells. [163] Wayne's fearful exhilaration increased as he cruised with bated breath through the dark mazes of streets and rickety tenements crawling with the shadows of mysterious promise. [164] He found the alley, dark, a gloom-dripping tunnel. [165] He drove cautiously into it and rolled along, watching. [166] His belly ached with expectancy as he spotted the sick-looking dab of neon wanly sparkling. [167] FOUR ACES CLUB He parked across the alley. [168] He got out and stood in shadows, digging the sultry beat of a combo, the wild pulse of drums and spinning brass filtering through windows painted black. [169] He breathed deep, started over, ducked back. [170] A stewbum weaved out of a bank of garbage cans, humming to himself, pulling at a rainsoaked shirt clinging to a pale stick body. [171] He reminded Wayne of a slim grub balanced on one end. [172] The stewbum stumbled. [173] His bearded face in dim breaking moonlight had a dirty, greenish tinge as he sensed Wayne there. [174] He turned in a grotesque uncoordinated jiggling and his eyes were wide with terror and doom. [175] "I gotta hide, kid. [176] They're on me." [177] Wayne's chest rose and his hands curled. [178] The bum's fingers drew at the air like white talons. [179] "Help me, kid." [180] He turned with a scratchy cry and retreated before the sudden blast of headlights from a Cad bulleting into the alley. [181] The Cad rushed past Wayne and he felt the engine-hot fumes against his legs. [182] Tires squealed. [183] The Cad stopped and a teener in black jacket jumped out and crouched as he began stalking the old rummy. [184] "This is him! [185] This is him all right," the teener yelled, and one hand came up swinging a baseball bat. [186] A head bobbed out of the Cad window and giggled. [187] The fumble-footed rummy tried to run and plopped on wet pavement. [188] The teener moved in, while a faint odor of burnt rubber hovered in the air as the Cad cruised in a slow follow-up. [189] Wayne's breath quickened as he watched, feeling somehow blank wonder at finding himself there, free and breaking out at last with no curfew and no law but his own. [190] He felt as though he couldn't stop anything. [191] Living seemed directionless, but he still would go with it regardless, until something dropped off or blew to hell like a hot light-bulb. [192] He held his breath, waiting. [193] His body was tensed and rigid as he moved in spirit with the hunting teener, an omniscient shadow with a hunting license and a ghetto jungle twenty miles deep. [194] The crawling stewbum screamed as the baseball bat whacked. [195] The teener laughed. [196] Wayne wanted to shout. [197] He opened his mouth, but the yell clogged up somewhere, so that he remained soundless yet with his mouth still open as he heard the payoff thuds where the useless wino curled up with stick arms over his rheumy face. [198] The teener laughed, tossed the bat away and began jumping up and down with his hobnailed, mail-order air force boots. [199] Then he ran into the Cad. [200] A hootch bottle soared out, made a brittle tink-tink of falling glass. [201] "Go, man!" [202] The Cad wooshed by. [203] It made a sort of hollow sucking noise as it bounced over the old man twice. [204] Then the finlights diminished like bright wind-blown sparks. [205] Wayne walked over and sneered down at the human garbage lying in scummed rain pools. [206] The smell of raw violence, the scent of blood, made his heart thump like a trapped rubber ball in a cage. [207] He hurried into the Four Aces, drawn by an exhilarating vision ... and pursued by the hollow haunting fears of his own desires. [208] He walked through the wavering haze of smoke and liquored dizziness and stood until his eyes learned the dark. [209] He spotted her red shirt and yellow legs over in the corner above a murky lighted table. [210] He walked toward her, watching her little subhuman pixie face lift. [211] The eyes widened with exciting terror, turned even paler behind a red slash of sensuous mouth. [212] Briefed and waiting, primed and eager for running, she recognized her pursuer at once. [213] He sat at a table near her, watching and grinning and seeing her squirm. [214] She sat in that slightly baffled, fearful and uncomprehending attitude of being motionless, as though they were all actors performing in a weirdo drama being staged in that smoky thick-aired dive. [215] Wayne smiled with wry superiority at the redheaded psycho in a dirty T-shirt, a big bruiser with a gorilla face. [216] He was tussling his mouse heavy. [217] "What's yours, teener?" [218] the slug-faced waiter asked. [219] "Bring me a Crusher, buddyroo," Wayne said, and flashed his pass card. [220] "Sure, teener." [221] Red nuzzled the mouse's neck and made drooly noises. [222] Wayne watched and fed on the promising terror and helplessness of her hunted face. [223] She sat rigid, eyes fixed on Wayne like balls of frozen glass. [224] Red looked up and stared straight at Wayne with eyes like black buttons imbedded in the waxlike skin of his face. [225] Then he grinned all on one side. [226] One huge hand scratched across the wet table top like a furious cat's. [227] Wayne returned the challenging move but felt a nervous twitch jerk at his lips. [228] A numbness covered his brain like a film as he concentrated on staring down Red the psycho. [229] But Red kept looking, his eyes bright but dead. [230] Then he began struggling it up again with the scared little mouse. [231] The waiter sat the Crusher down. [232] Wayne signed a chit; tonight he was in the pay of the state. [233] "What else, teener?" [234] "One thing. [235] Fade." [236] "Sure, teener," the waiter said, his breathy words dripping like syrup. [237] Wayne drank. [238] Liquored heat dripped into his stomach. [239] Fire tickled his veins, became hot wire twisting in his head. [240] He drank again and forced out a shaky breath. [241] The jazz beat thumped fast and muted brass moaned. [242] Drumpulse, stabbing trumpet raped the air. [243] Tension mounted as Wayne watched her pale throat convulsing, the white eyelids fluttering. [244] Red fingered at her legs and salivated at her throat, glancing now and then at Wayne, baiting him good. [245] "Okay, you creep," Wayne said. [246] He stood up and started through the haze. [247] The psycho leaped and a table crashed. [248] Wayne's .38 dropped from its spring-clip holster and the blast filled the room. [249] The psycho screamed and stumbled toward the door holding something in. [250] The mouse darted by, eluded Wayne's grasp and was out the door. [251] Wayne went out after her in a laughing frenzy of release. [252] He felt the cold strange breath of moist air on his sweating skin as he sprinted down the alley into a wind full of blowing wet. [253] He ran laughing under the crazy starlight and glimpsed her now and then, fading in and out of shadows, jumping, crawling, running with the life-or-death animation of a wild deer. [254] Up and down alleys, a rat's maze. [255] A rabbit run. [256] Across vacant lots. [257] Through shattered tenement ruins. [258] Over a fence. [259] There she was, falling, sliding down a brick shute. [260] He gained. [261] He moved up. [262] His labored breath pumped more fire. [263] And her scream was a rejuvenation hypo in his blood. [264] She quivered above him on the stoop, panting, her eyes afire with terror. [265] "You, baby," Wayne gasped. [266] "I gotcha." [267] She backed into darkness, up there against the sagging tenement wall, her arms out and poised like crippled wings. [268] Wayne crept up. [269] She gave a squeaking sob, turned, ran. [270] Wayne leaped into gloom. [271] Wood cracked. [272] He clambered over rotten lumber. [273] The doorway sagged and he hesitated in the musty dark. [274] A few feet away was the sound of loose trickling plaster, a whimpering whine. [275] "No use running," Wayne said. [276] "Go loose. [277] Give, baby. [278] Give now." [279] She scurried up sagging stairs. [280] Wayne laughed and dug up after her, feeling his way through debris. [281] Dim moonlight filtered through a sagging stairway from a shattered skylight three floors up. [282] The mouse's shadow floated ahead. [283] He started up. [284] The entire stair structure canted sickeningly. [285] A railing ripped and he nearly went with it back down to the first floor. [286] He heard a scream as rotten boards crumbled and dust exploded from cracks. [287] A rat ran past Wayne and fell into space. [288] He burst into the third-floor hallway and saw her half-falling through a door under the jagged skylight. [289] Wayne took his time. [290] He knew how she felt waiting in there, listening to his creeping, implacable footfalls. [291] Then he yelled and slammed open the door. [292] Dust and stench, filth so awful it made nothing of the dust. [293] In the corner he saw something hardly to be called a bed. [294] More like a nest. [295] A dirty, lumpy pile of torn mattress, felt, excelsior, shredded newspapers and rags. [296] It seemed to crawl a little under the moon-streaming skylight. [297] She crouched in the corner panting. [298] He took his time moving in. [299] He snickered as he flashed the switchblade and circled it like a serpent's tongue. [300] He watched what was left of her nerves go to pieces like rotten cloth. [301] "Do it quick, hunter," she whispered. [302] "Please do it quick." [303] "What's that, baby?" [304] "I'm tired running. [305] Kill me first. [306] Beat me after. [307] They won't know the difference." [308] "I'm gonna bruise and beat you," he said. [309] "Kill me first," she begged. [310] "I don't want—" She began to cry. [311] She cried right up in his face, her wide eyes unblinking, and her mouth open. [312] "You got bad blood, baby," he snarled. [313] He laughed but it didn't sound like him and something was wrong with his belly. [314] It was knotting up. [315] "Bad, I know! [316] So get it over with, please. [317] Hurry, hurry." [318] She was small and white and quivering. [319] She moaned but kept staring up at him. [320] He ripped off his rivet-studded belt and swung once, then groaned and shuffled away from her. [321] He kept backing toward the door. [322] She crawled after him, begging and clutching with both arms as she wriggled forward on her knees. [323] "Don't run. [324] Please. [325] Kill me! [326] It'll be someone else if you don't. [327] Oh, God, I'm so tired waiting and running!" [328] "I can't," he said, and sickness soured in his throat. [329] "Please." [330] "I can't, I can't!" [331] He turned and ran blindly, half-fell down the cracking stairs. [332] Doctor Burns, head of the readjustment staff at the Youth Center, studied Wayne with abstract interest. [333] "You enjoyed the hunt, Seton? [334] You got your kicks?" [335] "Yes, sir." [336] "But you couldn't execute them?" [337] "No, sir." [338] "They're undesirables. [339] Incurables. [340] You know that, Seton?" [341] "Yes, sir." [342] "The psycho you only wounded. [343] He's a five-times murderer. [344] And that girl killed her father when she was twelve. [345] You realize there's nothing can be done for them? [346] That they have to be executed?" [347] "I know." [348] "Too bad," the doctor said. [349] "We all have aggressive impulses, primitive needs that must be expressed early, purged. [350] There's murder in all of us, Seton. [351] The impulse shouldn't be denied or suppressed, but educated . [352] The state used to kill them. [353] Isn't it better all around, Seton, for us to do it, as part of growing up? [354] What was the matter, Seton?" [355] "I—felt sorry for her." [356] "Is that all you can say about it?" [357] "Yes, sir." [358] The doctor pressed a buzzer. [359] Two men in white coats entered. [360] "You should have got it out of your system, Seton, but now it's still in there. [361] I can't turn you out and have it erupt later—and maybe shed clean innocent blood, can I?" [362] "No, sir," Wayne mumbled. [363] He didn't look up. [364] "I'm sorry I punked out." [365] "Give him the treatment," the doctor said wearily. [366] "And send him back to his mother." [367] Wayne nodded and they led him away. [368] His mind screamed still to split open some prison of bone and lay bare and breathing wide. [369] But there was no way out for the trapped. [370] Now he knew about the old man and his poker-playing pals. [371] They had all punked out. [372] Like him.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the setting of the story": 1. [161] Lights turned pale, secretive and sparse, the uncared-for streets became rough with pitted potholes, narrow and winding and humid with wet unpleasant smells. 2. [163] Wayne's fearful exhilaration increased as he cruised with bated breath through the dark mazes of streets and rickety tenements crawling with the shadows of mysterious promise. 3. [164] He found the alley, dark, a gloom-dripping tunnel. 4. [167] FOUR ACES CLUB 5. [206] The smell of raw violence, the scent of blood, made his heart thump like a trapped rubber ball in a cage. 6. [207] He hurried into the Four Aces, drawn by an exhilarating vision ... and pursued by the hollow haunting fears of his own desires. 7. [208] He walked through the wavering haze of smoke and liquored dizziness and stood until his eyes learned the dark. 8. [254] Up and down alleys, a rat's maze. 9. [255] A rabbit run. 10. [256] Across vacant lots. 11. [257] Through shattered tenement ruins. 12. [258] Over a fence. 13. [259] There she was, falling, sliding down a brick shute. 14. [292] Dust and stench, filth so awful it made nothing of the dust. 15. [293] In the corner he saw something hardly to be called a bed. 16. [294] More like a nest. 17. [295] A dirty, lumpy pile of torn mattress, felt, excelsior, shredded newspapers and rags. 18. [1] THE RECRUIT BY BRYCE WALTON It was dirty work, but it would make him a man. 19. [2] And kids had a right to grow up—some of them! 20. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1962. 21. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 22. [5] Wayne, unseen, sneered down from the head of the stairs. 23. [6] The old man with his thick neck, thick cigar, evening highball, potgut and bald head without a brain in it. 24. [7] His slim mother with nervously polite smiles and voice fluttering, assuring the old man by her frailty that he was big in the world. 25. [8] They were squareheads one and all, marking moron time in a gray dream. 26. [9] Man, was he glad to break out. 27. [10] The old man said, "He'll be okay. 28. [11] Let him alone." 29. [12] "But he won't eat. 30. [13] Just lies there all the time." 31. [14] "Hell," the old man said. 32. [15] "Sixteen's a bad time. 33. [16] School over, waiting for the draft and all. 34. [17] He's in between. 35. [18] It's rough." 36. [19] Mother clasped her forearms and shook her head once slowly. 37. [20] "We got to let him go, Eva. 38. [21] It's a dangerous time. 39. [22] You got to remember about all these dangerous repressed impulses piling up with nowhere to go, like they say. 40. [23] You read the books." 41. [24] "But he's unhappy." 42. [25] "Are we specialists? 43. [26] That's the Youth Board's headache, ain't it? 44. [27] What do we know about adolescent trauma and like that? 45. [28] Now get dressed or we'll be late." 46. [29] Wayne watched the ritual, grinning. 47. [30] He listened to their purposeless noises, their blabbing and yakking as if they had something to say. 48. [31] Blab-blab about the same old bones, and end up chewing them in the same old ways. 49. [32] Then they begin all over again. 50. [33] A freak sideshow all the way to nowhere. 51. [34] Squareheads going around either unconscious or with eyes looking dead from the millennium in the office waiting to retire into limbo. 52. [35] How come he'd been stuck with parental images like that? 53. [36] One thing—when he was jockeying a rocket to Mars or maybe firing the pants off Asiatic reds in some steamy gone jungle paradise, he'd forget his punkie origins in teeveeland. 54. [37] But the old man was right on for once about the dangerous repressed impulses. 55. [38] Wayne had heard about it often enough. 56. [39] Anyway there was no doubt about it when every move he made was a restrained explosion. 57. [40] So he'd waited in his room, and it wasn't easy sweating it out alone waiting for the breakout call from HQ. 58. [41] "Well, dear, if you say so," Mother said, with the old resigned sigh that must make the old man feel like Superman with a beerbelly. 59. [42] They heard Wayne slouching loosely down the stairs and looked up. 60. [43] "Relax," Wayne said. 61. [44] "You're not going anywhere tonight." 62. [45] "What, son?" 63. [46] his old man said uneasily. 64. [47] "Sure we are. 65. [48] We're going to the movies." 66. [49] He could feel them watching him, waiting; and yet still he didn't answer. 67. [50] Somewhere out in suburban grayness a dog barked, then was silent. 68. [51] "Okay, go," Wayne said. 69. [52] "If you wanta walk. 70. [53] I'm taking the family boltbucket." 71. [54] "But we promised the Clemons, dear," his mother said. 72. [55] "Hell," Wayne said, grinning straight into the old man. 73. [56] "I just got my draft call." 74. [57] He saw the old man's Adam's apple move. 75. [58] "Oh, my dear boy," Mother cried out. 76. [59] "So gimme the keys," Wayne said. 77. [60] The old man handed the keys over. 78. [61] His understanding smile was strained, and fear flicked in his sagging eyes. 79. [62] "Do be careful, dear," his mother said. 80. [63] She ran toward him as he laughed and shut the door on her. 81. [64] He was still laughing as he whoomed the Olds between the pale dead glow of houses and roared up the ramp onto the Freeway. 82. [65] Ahead was the promising glitter of adventure-calling neon, and he looked up at the high skies of night and his eyes sailed the glaring wonders of escape. 83. [160] The air through the open window was chill and damp coming from Slumville, but Wayne felt a cold that wasn't of the night or the wind. 84. [162] He turned off into a rat's warren of the inferiors. 85. [165] He drove cautiously into it and rolled along, watching. 86. [166] His belly ached with expectancy as he spotted the sick-looking dab of neon wanly sparkling. 87. [168] He stood in shadows, digging the sultry beat of a combo, the wild pulse of drums and spinning brass filtering through windows painted black. 88. [169] He breathed deep, started over, ducked back. 89. [170] A stewbum weaved out of a bank of garbage cans, humming to himself, pulling at a rainsoaked shirt clinging to a pale stick body. 90. [171] He reminded Wayne of a slim grub balanced on one end. 91. [172] The stewbum stumbled. 92. [173] His bearded face in dim breaking moonlight had a dirty, greenish tinge as he sensed Wayne there. 93. [174] He turned in a grotesque uncoordinated jiggling and his eyes were wide with terror and doom. 94. [175] "I gotta hide, kid. 95. [176] They're on me." 96. [189] Wayne's breath quickened as he watched, feeling somehow blank wonder at finding himself there, free and breaking out at last with no curfew and no law but his own. 97. [190] He felt as though he couldn't stop anything. 98. [191] Living seemed directionless, but he still would go with it regardless, until something dropped off or blew to hell like a hot light-bulb. 99. [192] He held his breath, waiting. 100. [193] His body was tensed and rigid as he moved in spirit with the hunting teener, an omniscient shadow with a hunting license and a ghetto jungle twenty miles deep.

How is slang used in the story?

[1] THE RECRUIT BY BRYCE WALTON It was dirty work, but it would make him a man. [2] And kids had a right to grow up—some of them! [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1962. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Wayne, unseen, sneered down from the head of the stairs. [6] The old man with his thick neck, thick cigar, evening highball, potgut and bald head without a brain in it. [7] His slim mother with nervously polite smiles and voice fluttering, assuring the old man by her frailty that he was big in the world. [8] They were squareheads one and all, marking moron time in a gray dream. [9] Man, was he glad to break out. [10] The old man said, "He'll be okay. [11] Let him alone." [12] "But he won't eat. [13] Just lies there all the time." [14] "Hell," the old man said. [15] "Sixteen's a bad time. [16] School over, waiting for the draft and all. [17] He's in between. [18] It's rough." [19] Mother clasped her forearms and shook her head once slowly. [20] "We got to let him go, Eva. [21] It's a dangerous time. [22] You got to remember about all these dangerous repressed impulses piling up with nowhere to go, like they say. [23] You read the books." [24] "But he's unhappy." [25] "Are we specialists? [26] That's the Youth Board's headache, ain't it? [27] What do we know about adolescent trauma and like that? [28] Now get dressed or we'll be late." [29] Wayne watched the ritual, grinning. [30] He listened to their purposeless noises, their blabbing and yakking as if they had something to say. [31] Blab-blab about the same old bones, and end up chewing them in the same old ways. [32] Then they begin all over again. [33] A freak sideshow all the way to nowhere. [34] Squareheads going around either unconscious or with eyes looking dead from the millennium in the office waiting to retire into limbo. [35] How come he'd been stuck with parental images like that? [36] One thing—when he was jockeying a rocket to Mars or maybe firing the pants off Asiatic reds in some steamy gone jungle paradise, he'd forget his punkie origins in teeveeland. [37] But the old man was right on for once about the dangerous repressed impulses. [38] Wayne had heard about it often enough. [39] Anyway there was no doubt about it when every move he made was a restrained explosion. [40] So he'd waited in his room, and it wasn't easy sweating it out alone waiting for the breakout call from HQ. [41] "Well, dear, if you say so," Mother said, with the old resigned sigh that must make the old man feel like Superman with a beerbelly. [42] They heard Wayne slouching loosely down the stairs and looked up. [43] "Relax," Wayne said. [44] "You're not going anywhere tonight." [45] "What, son?" [46] his old man said uneasily. [47] "Sure we are. [48] We're going to the movies." [49] He could feel them watching him, waiting; and yet still he didn't answer. [50] Somewhere out in suburban grayness a dog barked, then was silent. [51] "Okay, go," Wayne said. [52] "If you wanta walk. [53] I'm taking the family boltbucket." [54] "But we promised the Clemons, dear," his mother said. [55] "Hell," Wayne said, grinning straight into the old man. [56] "I just got my draft call." [57] He saw the old man's Adam's apple move. [58] "Oh, my dear boy," Mother cried out. [59] "So gimme the keys," Wayne said. [60] The old man handed the keys over. [61] His understanding smile was strained, and fear flicked in his sagging eyes. [62] "Do be careful, dear," his mother said. [63] She ran toward him as he laughed and shut the door on her. [64] He was still laughing as he whoomed the Olds between the pale dead glow of houses and roared up the ramp onto the Freeway. [65] Ahead was the promising glitter of adventure-calling neon, and he looked up at the high skies of night and his eyes sailed the glaring wonders of escape. [66] He burned off some rubber finding a slot in the park-lot. [67] He strode under a sign reading Public Youth Center No. [68] 947 and walked casually to the reception desk, where a thin man with sergeant's stripes and a pansy haircut looked out of a pile of paperwork. [69] "Where you think you're going, my pretty lad?" [70] Wayne grinned down. [71] "Higher I hope than a typewriter jockey." [72] "Well," the sergeant said. [73] "How tough we are this evening. [74] You have a pass, killer?" [75] "Wayne Seton. [76] Draft call." [77] "Oh." [78] The sergeant checked his name off a roster and nodded. [79] He wrote on a slip of paper, handed the pass to Wayne. [80] "Go to the Armory and check out whatever your lusting little heart desires. [81] Then report to Captain Jack, room 307." [82] "Thanks, sarge dear," Wayne said and took the elevator up to the Armory. [83] A tired fat corporal with a naked head blinked up at tall Wayne. [84] Finally he said, "So make up your mind, bud. [85] Think you're the only kid breaking out tonight?" [86] "Hold your teeth, pop," Wayne said, coolly and slowly lighting a cigarette. [87] "I've decided." [88] The corporal's little eyes studied Wayne with malicious amusement. [89] "Take it from a vet, bud. [90] Sooner you go the better. [91] It's a big city and you're starting late. [92] You can get a cat, not a mouse, and some babes are clever hellcats in a dark alley." [93] "You must be a genius," Wayne said. [94] "A corporal with no hair and still a counterboy. [95] I'm impressed. [96] I'm all ears, Dad." [97] The corporal sighed wearily. [98] "You can get that balloon head ventilated, bud, and good." [99] Wayne's mouth twitched. [100] He leaned across the counter toward the shelves and racks of weapons. [101] "I'll remember that crack when I get my commission." [102] He blew smoke in the corporal's face. [103] "Bring me a Smith and Wesson .38, shoulder holster with spring-clip. [104] And throw in a Skelly switchblade for kicks—the six-inch disguised job with the double springs." [105] The corporal waddled back with the revolver and the switchblade disguised in a leather comb case. [106] He checked them on a receipt ledger, while Wayne examined the weapons, broke open the revolver, twirled the cylinder and pushed cartridges into the waiting chamber. [107] He slipped the knife from the comb case, flicked open the blade and stared at its gleam in the buttery light as his mouth went dry and the refracted incandescence of it trickled on his brain like melted ice, exciting and scary. [108] He removed his leather jacket. [109] He slung the holster under his left armpit and tested the spring clip release several times, feeling the way the serrated butt dropped into his wet palm. [110] He put his jacket back on and the switchblade case in his pocket. [111] He walked toward the elevator and didn't look back as the corporal said, "Good luck, tiger." [112] Captain Jack moved massively. [113] The big stone-walled office, alive with stuffed lion and tiger and gunracks, seemed to grow smaller. [114] Captain Jack crossed black-booted legs and whacked a cane at the floor. [115] It had a head shaped like a grinning bear. [116] Wayne felt the assured smile die on his face. [117] Something seemed to shrink him. [118] If he didn't watch himself he'd begin feeling like a pea among bowling balls. [119] Contemptuously amused little eyes glittered at Wayne from a shaggy head. [120] Shoulders hunched like stuffed sea-bags. [121] "Wayne Seton," said Captain Jack as if he were discussing something in a bug collection. [122] "Well, well, you're really fired up aren't you? [123] Really going out to eat 'em. [124] Right, punk?" [125] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. [126] He ran wet hands down the sides of his chinos. [127] His legs seemed sheathed in lead as he bit inwardly at shrinking fear the way a dog snaps at a wound. [128] You big overblown son, he thought, I'll show you but good who is a punk. [129] They made a guy wait and sweat until he screamed. [130] They kept a guy on the fire until desire leaped in him, ran and billowed and roared until his brain was filled with it. [131] But that wasn't enough. [132] If this muscle-bound creep was such a big boy, what was he doing holding down a desk? [133] "Well, this is it, punk. [134] You go the distance or start a butterfly collection." [135] The cane darted up. [136] A blade snicked from the end and stopped an inch from Wayne's nose. [137] He jerked up a shaky hand involuntarily and clamped a knuckle-ridged gag to his gasping mouth. [138] Captain Jack chuckled. [139] "All right, superboy." [140] He handed Wayne his passcard. [141] "Curfew's off, punk, for 6 hours. [142] You got 6 hours to make out." [143] "Yes, sir." [144] "Your beast is primed and waiting at the Four Aces Club on the West Side. [145] Know where that is, punk?" [146] "No, sir, but I'll find it fast." [147] "Sure you will, punk," smiled Captain Jack. [148] "She'll be wearing yellow slacks and a red shirt. [149] Black hair, a cute trick. [150] She's with a hefty psycho who eats punks for breakfast. [151] He's butchered five people. [152] They're both on top of the Undesirable list, Seton. [153] They got to go and they're your key to the stars." [154] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. [155] "So run along and make out, punk," grinned Captain Jack. [156] A copcar stopped Wayne as he started over the bridge, out of bright respectable neon into the murky westside slum over the river. [157] Wayne waved the pass card, signed by Captain Jack, under the cop's quivering nose. [158] The cop shivered and stepped back and waved him on. [159] The Olds roared over the bridge as the night's rain blew away. [160] The air through the open window was chill and damp coming from Slumville, but Wayne felt a cold that wasn't of the night or the wind. [161] He turned off into a rat's warren of the inferiors. [162] Lights turned pale, secretive and sparse, the uncared-for streets became rough with pitted potholes, narrow and winding and humid with wet unpleasant smells. [163] Wayne's fearful exhilaration increased as he cruised with bated breath through the dark mazes of streets and rickety tenements crawling with the shadows of mysterious promise. [164] He found the alley, dark, a gloom-dripping tunnel. [165] He drove cautiously into it and rolled along, watching. [166] His belly ached with expectancy as he spotted the sick-looking dab of neon wanly sparkling. [167] FOUR ACES CLUB He parked across the alley. [168] He got out and stood in shadows, digging the sultry beat of a combo, the wild pulse of drums and spinning brass filtering through windows painted black. [169] He breathed deep, started over, ducked back. [170] A stewbum weaved out of a bank of garbage cans, humming to himself, pulling at a rainsoaked shirt clinging to a pale stick body. [171] He reminded Wayne of a slim grub balanced on one end. [172] The stewbum stumbled. [173] His bearded face in dim breaking moonlight had a dirty, greenish tinge as he sensed Wayne there. [174] He turned in a grotesque uncoordinated jiggling and his eyes were wide with terror and doom. [175] "I gotta hide, kid. [176] They're on me." [177] Wayne's chest rose and his hands curled. [178] The bum's fingers drew at the air like white talons. [179] "Help me, kid." [180] He turned with a scratchy cry and retreated before the sudden blast of headlights from a Cad bulleting into the alley. [181] The Cad rushed past Wayne and he felt the engine-hot fumes against his legs. [182] Tires squealed. [183] The Cad stopped and a teener in black jacket jumped out and crouched as he began stalking the old rummy. [184] "This is him! [185] This is him all right," the teener yelled, and one hand came up swinging a baseball bat. [186] A head bobbed out of the Cad window and giggled. [187] The fumble-footed rummy tried to run and plopped on wet pavement. [188] The teener moved in, while a faint odor of burnt rubber hovered in the air as the Cad cruised in a slow follow-up. [189] Wayne's breath quickened as he watched, feeling somehow blank wonder at finding himself there, free and breaking out at last with no curfew and no law but his own. [190] He felt as though he couldn't stop anything. [191] Living seemed directionless, but he still would go with it regardless, until something dropped off or blew to hell like a hot light-bulb. [192] He held his breath, waiting. [193] His body was tensed and rigid as he moved in spirit with the hunting teener, an omniscient shadow with a hunting license and a ghetto jungle twenty miles deep. [194] The crawling stewbum screamed as the baseball bat whacked. [195] The teener laughed. [196] Wayne wanted to shout. [197] He opened his mouth, but the yell clogged up somewhere, so that he remained soundless yet with his mouth still open as he heard the payoff thuds where the useless wino curled up with stick arms over his rheumy face. [198] The teener laughed, tossed the bat away and began jumping up and down with his hobnailed, mail-order air force boots. [199] Then he ran into the Cad. [200] A hootch bottle soared out, made a brittle tink-tink of falling glass. [201] "Go, man!" [202] The Cad wooshed by. [203] It made a sort of hollow sucking noise as it bounced over the old man twice. [204] Then the finlights diminished like bright wind-blown sparks. [205] Wayne walked over and sneered down at the human garbage lying in scummed rain pools. [206] The smell of raw violence, the scent of blood, made his heart thump like a trapped rubber ball in a cage. [207] He hurried into the Four Aces, drawn by an exhilarating vision ... and pursued by the hollow haunting fears of his own desires. [208] He walked through the wavering haze of smoke and liquored dizziness and stood until his eyes learned the dark. [209] He spotted her red shirt and yellow legs over in the corner above a murky lighted table. [210] He walked toward her, watching her little subhuman pixie face lift. [211] The eyes widened with exciting terror, turned even paler behind a red slash of sensuous mouth. [212] Briefed and waiting, primed and eager for running, she recognized her pursuer at once. [213] He sat at a table near her, watching and grinning and seeing her squirm. [214] She sat in that slightly baffled, fearful and uncomprehending attitude of being motionless, as though they were all actors performing in a weirdo drama being staged in that smoky thick-aired dive. [215] Wayne smiled with wry superiority at the redheaded psycho in a dirty T-shirt, a big bruiser with a gorilla face. [216] He was tussling his mouse heavy. [217] "What's yours, teener?" [218] the slug-faced waiter asked. [219] "Bring me a Crusher, buddyroo," Wayne said, and flashed his pass card. [220] "Sure, teener." [221] Red nuzzled the mouse's neck and made drooly noises. [222] Wayne watched and fed on the promising terror and helplessness of her hunted face. [223] She sat rigid, eyes fixed on Wayne like balls of frozen glass. [224] Red looked up and stared straight at Wayne with eyes like black buttons imbedded in the waxlike skin of his face. [225] Then he grinned all on one side. [226] One huge hand scratched across the wet table top like a furious cat's. [227] Wayne returned the challenging move but felt a nervous twitch jerk at his lips. [228] A numbness covered his brain like a film as he concentrated on staring down Red the psycho. [229] But Red kept looking, his eyes bright but dead. [230] Then he began struggling it up again with the scared little mouse. [231] The waiter sat the Crusher down. [232] Wayne signed a chit; tonight he was in the pay of the state. [233] "What else, teener?" [234] "One thing. [235] Fade." [236] "Sure, teener," the waiter said, his breathy words dripping like syrup. [237] Wayne drank. [238] Liquored heat dripped into his stomach. [239] Fire tickled his veins, became hot wire twisting in his head. [240] He drank again and forced out a shaky breath. [241] The jazz beat thumped fast and muted brass moaned. [242] Drumpulse, stabbing trumpet raped the air. [243] Tension mounted as Wayne watched her pale throat convulsing, the white eyelids fluttering. [244] Red fingered at her legs and salivated at her throat, glancing now and then at Wayne, baiting him good. [245] "Okay, you creep," Wayne said. [246] He stood up and started through the haze. [247] The psycho leaped and a table crashed. [248] Wayne's .38 dropped from its spring-clip holster and the blast filled the room. [249] The psycho screamed and stumbled toward the door holding something in. [250] The mouse darted by, eluded Wayne's grasp and was out the door. [251] Wayne went out after her in a laughing frenzy of release. [252] He felt the cold strange breath of moist air on his sweating skin as he sprinted down the alley into a wind full of blowing wet. [253] He ran laughing under the crazy starlight and glimpsed her now and then, fading in and out of shadows, jumping, crawling, running with the life-or-death animation of a wild deer. [254] Up and down alleys, a rat's maze. [255] A rabbit run. [256] Across vacant lots. [257] Through shattered tenement ruins. [258] Over a fence. [259] There she was, falling, sliding down a brick shute. [260] He gained. [261] He moved up. [262] His labored breath pumped more fire. [263] And her scream was a rejuvenation hypo in his blood. [264] She quivered above him on the stoop, panting, her eyes afire with terror. [265] "You, baby," Wayne gasped. [266] "I gotcha." [267] She backed into darkness, up there against the sagging tenement wall, her arms out and poised like crippled wings. [268] Wayne crept up. [269] She gave a squeaking sob, turned, ran. [270] Wayne leaped into gloom. [271] Wood cracked. [272] He clambered over rotten lumber. [273] The doorway sagged and he hesitated in the musty dark. [274] A few feet away was the sound of loose trickling plaster, a whimpering whine. [275] "No use running," Wayne said. [276] "Go loose. [277] Give, baby. [278] Give now." [279] She scurried up sagging stairs. [280] Wayne laughed and dug up after her, feeling his way through debris. [281] Dim moonlight filtered through a sagging stairway from a shattered skylight three floors up. [282] The mouse's shadow floated ahead. [283] He started up. [284] The entire stair structure canted sickeningly. [285] A railing ripped and he nearly went with it back down to the first floor. [286] He heard a scream as rotten boards crumbled and dust exploded from cracks. [287] A rat ran past Wayne and fell into space. [288] He burst into the third-floor hallway and saw her half-falling through a door under the jagged skylight. [289] Wayne took his time. [290] He knew how she felt waiting in there, listening to his creeping, implacable footfalls. [291] Then he yelled and slammed open the door. [292] Dust and stench, filth so awful it made nothing of the dust. [293] In the corner he saw something hardly to be called a bed. [294] More like a nest. [295] A dirty, lumpy pile of torn mattress, felt, excelsior, shredded newspapers and rags. [296] It seemed to crawl a little under the moon-streaming skylight. [297] She crouched in the corner panting. [298] He took his time moving in. [299] He snickered as he flashed the switchblade and circled it like a serpent's tongue. [300] He watched what was left of her nerves go to pieces like rotten cloth. [301] "Do it quick, hunter," she whispered. [302] "Please do it quick." [303] "What's that, baby?" [304] "I'm tired running. [305] Kill me first. [306] Beat me after. [307] They won't know the difference." [308] "I'm gonna bruise and beat you," he said. [309] "Kill me first," she begged. [310] "I don't want—" She began to cry. [311] She cried right up in his face, her wide eyes unblinking, and her mouth open. [312] "You got bad blood, baby," he snarled. [313] He laughed but it didn't sound like him and something was wrong with his belly. [314] It was knotting up. [315] "Bad, I know! [316] So get it over with, please. [317] Hurry, hurry." [318] She was small and white and quivering. [319] She moaned but kept staring up at him. [320] He ripped off his rivet-studded belt and swung once, then groaned and shuffled away from her. [321] He kept backing toward the door. [322] She crawled after him, begging and clutching with both arms as she wriggled forward on her knees. [323] "Don't run. [324] Please. [325] Kill me! [326] It'll be someone else if you don't. [327] Oh, God, I'm so tired waiting and running!" [328] "I can't," he said, and sickness soured in his throat. [329] "Please." [330] "I can't, I can't!" [331] He turned and ran blindly, half-fell down the cracking stairs. [332] Doctor Burns, head of the readjustment staff at the Youth Center, studied Wayne with abstract interest. [333] "You enjoyed the hunt, Seton? [334] You got your kicks?" [335] "Yes, sir." [336] "But you couldn't execute them?" [337] "No, sir." [338] "They're undesirables. [339] Incurables. [340] You know that, Seton?" [341] "Yes, sir." [342] "The psycho you only wounded. [343] He's a five-times murderer. [344] And that girl killed her father when she was twelve. [345] You realize there's nothing can be done for them? [346] That they have to be executed?" [347] "I know." [348] "Too bad," the doctor said. [349] "We all have aggressive impulses, primitive needs that must be expressed early, purged. [350] There's murder in all of us, Seton. [351] The impulse shouldn't be denied or suppressed, but educated . [352] The state used to kill them. [353] Isn't it better all around, Seton, for us to do it, as part of growing up? [354] What was the matter, Seton?" [355] "I—felt sorry for her." [356] "Is that all you can say about it?" [357] "Yes, sir." [358] The doctor pressed a buzzer. [359] Two men in white coats entered. [360] "You should have got it out of your system, Seton, but now it's still in there. [361] I can't turn you out and have it erupt later—and maybe shed clean innocent blood, can I?" [362] "No, sir," Wayne mumbled. [363] He didn't look up. [364] "I'm sorry I punked out." [365] "Give him the treatment," the doctor said wearily. [366] "And send him back to his mother." [367] Wayne nodded and they led him away. [368] His mind screamed still to split open some prison of bone and lay bare and breathing wide. [369] But there was no way out for the trapped. [370] Now he knew about the old man and his poker-playing pals. [371] They had all punked out. [372] Like him.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "How is slang used in the story?": 1. [9] Man, was he glad to break out. 2. [43] "Relax," Wayne said. 3. [55] "Hell," Wayne said, grinning straight into the old man. 4. [71] "Well," the sergeant said. "How tough we are this evening. You have a pass, killer?" 5. [86] "Hold your teeth, pop," Wayne said, coolly and slowly lighting a cigarette. 6. [94] "A corporal with no hair and still a counterboy. I'm impressed. I'm all ears, Dad." 7. [98] "You can get that balloon head ventilated, bud, and good." 8. [235] "Fade." 9. [245] "Okay, you creep," Wayne said. 10. [265] "You, baby," Wayne gasped. "I gotcha." 11. [303] "Do it quick, hunter," she whispered. 12. [309] "Kill me first," she begged. 13. [328] "I can't," he said, and sickness soured in his throat. 14. [363] "I'm sorry I punked out." 15. [1] THE RECRUIT BY BRYCE WALTON It was dirty work, but it would make him a man. 16. [2] And kids had a right to grow up—some of them! 17. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1962. 18. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 19. [5] Wayne, unseen, sneered down from the head of the stairs. 20. [6] The old man with his thick neck, thick cigar, evening highball, potgut and bald head without a brain in it. 21. [7] His slim mother with nervously polite smiles and voice fluttering, assuring the old man by her frailty that he was big in the world. 22. [8] They were squareheads one and all, marking moron time in a gray dream. 23. [10] "He'll be okay. 24. [11] Let him alone." 25. [12] "But he won't eat. 26. [13] Just lies there all the time." 27. [14] "Hell," the old man said. 28. [15] "Sixteen's a bad time. 29. [16] School over, waiting for the draft and all. 30. [17] He's in between. 31. [18] It's rough." 32. [19] Mother clasped her forearms and shook her head once slowly. 33. [20] "We got to let him go, Eva. 34. [21] It's a dangerous time. 35. [22] You got to remember about all these dangerous repressed impulses piling up with nowhere to go, like they say. 36. [23] You read the books." 37. [24] "But he's unhappy." 38. [25] "Are we specialists? 39. [26] That's the Youth Board's headache, ain't it? 40. [27] What do we know about adolescent trauma and like that? 41. [28] Now get dressed or we'll be late." 42. [29] Wayne watched the ritual, grinning. 43. [30] He listened to their purposeless noises, their blabbing and yakking as if they had something to say. 44. [31] Blab-blab about the same old bones, and end up chewing them in the same old ways. 45. [32] Then they begin all over again. 46. [33] A freak sideshow all the way to nowhere. 47. [34] Squareheads going around either unconscious or with eyes looking dead from the millennium in the office waiting to retire into limbo. 48. [35] How come he'd been stuck with parental images like that? 49. [36] One thing—when he was jockeying a rocket to Mars or maybe firing the pants off Asiatic reds in some steamy gone jungle paradise, he'd forget his punkie origins in teeveeland. 50. [37] But the old man was right on for once about the dangerous repressed impulses. 51. [38] Wayne had heard about it often enough. 52. [39] Anyway there was no doubt about it when every move he made was a restrained explosion. 53. [40] So he'd waited in his room, and it wasn't easy sweating it out alone waiting for the breakout call from HQ. 54. [41] "Well, dear, if you say so," Mother said, with the old resigned sigh that must make the old man feel like Superman with a beerbelly. 55. [42] They heard Wayne slouching loosely down the stairs and looked up. 56. [44] "What, son?" 57. [45] his old man said uneasily. 58. [46] "Sure we are. 59. [47] We're going to the movies." 60. [48] "But we promised the Clemons, dear," his mother said. 61. [49] He could feel them watching him, waiting; and yet still he didn't answer. 62. [50] Somewhere out in suburban grayness a dog barked, then was silent. 63. [51] "Okay, go," Wayne said. 64. [52] "If you wanta walk. 65. [53] I'm taking the family boltbucket." 66. [54] "Hell," Wayne said, grinning straight into the old man. 67. [56] "I just got my draft call." 68. [57] He saw the old man's Adam's apple move. 69. [58] "Oh, my dear boy," Mother cried out. 70. [59] "So gimme the keys," Wayne said. 71. [60] The old man handed the keys over. 72. [61] His understanding smile was strained, and fear flicked in his sagging eyes. 73. [62] "Do be careful, dear," his mother said. 74. [63] She ran toward him as he laughed and shut the door on her. 75. [64] He was still laughing as he whoomed the Olds between the pale dead glow of houses and roared up the ramp onto the Freeway. 76. [65] Ahead was the promising glitter of adventure-calling neon, and he looked up at the high skies of night and his eyes sailed the glaring wonders of escape. 77. [66] He burned off some rubber finding a slot in the park-lot. 78. [69] "Where you think you're going, my pretty lad?" 79. [70] Wayne grinned down. 80. [72] "Well," the sergeant said. "How tough we are this evening. You have a pass, killer?" 81. [75] "Wayne Seton. 82. [76] Draft call." 83. [77] "Oh." 84. [78] The sergeant checked his name off a roster and nodded. 85. [79] He wrote on a slip of paper, handed the pass to Wayne. 86. [80] "Go to the Armory and check out whatever your lusting little heart desires. 87. [81] Then report to Captain Jack, room 307." 88. [82] "Thanks, sarge dear," Wayne said and took the elevator up to the Armory. 89. [83] A tired fat corporal with a naked head blinked up at tall Wayne. 90. [84] Finally he said, "So make up your mind, bud. 91. [85] Think you're the only kid breaking out tonight?" 92. [86] "Hold your teeth, pop," Wayne said, coolly and slowly lighting a cigarette. 93. [87] "I've decided." 94. [88] The corporal's little eyes studied Wayne with malicious amusement. 95. [89] "Take it from a vet, bud. 96. [90] Sooner you go the better. 97. [91] It's a big city and you're starting late. 98. [92] You can get a cat, not a mouse, and some babes are clever hellcats in a dark alley." 99. [93] "You must be a genius," Wayne said. 100. [94] "A corporal with no hair and still a counterboy. I'm impressed. I'm all ears, Dad." 101. [95] "I'm impressed. 102. [96] I'm all ears, Dad." 103. [97] The corporal sighed wearily. 104. [98] "You can get that balloon head ventilated, bud, and good." 105. [99] Wayne's mouth twitched. 106. [100] He leaned across the counter toward the shelves and racks of weapons. 107. [101] "I'll remember that crack when I get my commission." 108. [102] He blew smoke in the corporal's face. 109. [103] "Bring me a Smith and Wesson .38, shoulder holster with spring-clip. 110. [104] And throw in a Skelly switchblade for kicks—the six-inch disguised job with the double springs." 111. [111] He didn't look back as the corporal said, "Good luck, tiger." 112. [122] "Well, well, you're really fired up aren't you? 113. [123] Really going out to eat 'em. 114. [124] Right, punk?" 115. [125] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. 116. [133] "Well, this is it, punk. 117. [134] You go the distance or start a butterfly collection." 118. [139] "All right, superboy." 119. [140] He handed Wayne his passcard. 120. [141] "Curfew's off, punk, for 6 hours. 121. [142] You got 6 hours to make out." 122. [143] "Yes, sir." 123. [144] "Your beast is primed and waiting at the Four Aces Club on the West Side. 124. [145] Know where that is, punk?" 125. [146] "No, sir, but I'll find it fast." 126. [147] "Sure you will, punk," smiled Captain Jack. 127. [148] "She'll be wearing yellow slacks and a red shirt. 128. [149] Black hair, a cute trick. 129. [150] She's with a hefty psycho who eats punks for breakfast. 130. [151] He's butchered five people. 131. [152] They're both on top of the Undesirable list, Seton. 132. [153] They got to go and they're your key to the stars." 133. [154] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. 134. [155] "So run along and make out, punk," grinned Captain Jack. 135. [218] "Bring me a Crusher, buddyroo," Wayne said, and flashed his pass card. 136. [219] "Sure, teener." 137. [220] Red nuzzled the mouse's neck and made drooly noises. 138. [221] Wayne watched and fed on the promising terror and helplessness of her hunted face. 139. [222] She sat rigid, eyes fixed on Wayne like balls of frozen glass. 140. [223] Red looked up and stared straight at Wayne with eyes like black buttons imbedded in the waxlike skin of his face. 141. [224] Then he grinned all on one side. 142. [225] One huge hand scratched across the wet table top like a furious cat's. 143. [226] Wayne returned the challenging move but felt a nervous twitch jerk at his lips. 144. [227] A numbness covered his brain like a film as he concentrated on staring down Red the psycho. 145. [228] But Red kept looking, his eyes bright but dead. 146. [229] Then he began struggling it up again with the scared little mouse. 147. [232] Wayne signed a chit; tonight he was in the pay of the state. 148. [233] "What else, teener?" 149. [234] "One thing. 150. [235] Fade." 151. [236] "Sure, teener," the waiter said, his breathy words dripping like syrup. 152. [245] "Okay, you creep," Wayne said. 153. [265] "You, baby," Wayne gasped. "I gotcha." 154. [303] "Do it quick, hunter," she whispered. 155. [309] "Kill me first," she begged. 156. [328] "I can't," he said, and sickness soured in his throat. 157. [363] "I'm sorry I punked out."

How does Wayne interact with the story’s other characters?

[1] THE RECRUIT BY BRYCE WALTON It was dirty work, but it would make him a man. [2] And kids had a right to grow up—some of them! [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1962. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Wayne, unseen, sneered down from the head of the stairs. [6] The old man with his thick neck, thick cigar, evening highball, potgut and bald head without a brain in it. [7] His slim mother with nervously polite smiles and voice fluttering, assuring the old man by her frailty that he was big in the world. [8] They were squareheads one and all, marking moron time in a gray dream. [9] Man, was he glad to break out. [10] The old man said, "He'll be okay. [11] Let him alone." [12] "But he won't eat. [13] Just lies there all the time." [14] "Hell," the old man said. [15] "Sixteen's a bad time. [16] School over, waiting for the draft and all. [17] He's in between. [18] It's rough." [19] Mother clasped her forearms and shook her head once slowly. [20] "We got to let him go, Eva. [21] It's a dangerous time. [22] You got to remember about all these dangerous repressed impulses piling up with nowhere to go, like they say. [23] You read the books." [24] "But he's unhappy." [25] "Are we specialists? [26] That's the Youth Board's headache, ain't it? [27] What do we know about adolescent trauma and like that? [28] Now get dressed or we'll be late." [29] Wayne watched the ritual, grinning. [30] He listened to their purposeless noises, their blabbing and yakking as if they had something to say. [31] Blab-blab about the same old bones, and end up chewing them in the same old ways. [32] Then they begin all over again. [33] A freak sideshow all the way to nowhere. [34] Squareheads going around either unconscious or with eyes looking dead from the millennium in the office waiting to retire into limbo. [35] How come he'd been stuck with parental images like that? [36] One thing—when he was jockeying a rocket to Mars or maybe firing the pants off Asiatic reds in some steamy gone jungle paradise, he'd forget his punkie origins in teeveeland. [37] But the old man was right on for once about the dangerous repressed impulses. [38] Wayne had heard about it often enough. [39] Anyway there was no doubt about it when every move he made was a restrained explosion. [40] So he'd waited in his room, and it wasn't easy sweating it out alone waiting for the breakout call from HQ. [41] "Well, dear, if you say so," Mother said, with the old resigned sigh that must make the old man feel like Superman with a beerbelly. [42] They heard Wayne slouching loosely down the stairs and looked up. [43] "Relax," Wayne said. [44] "You're not going anywhere tonight." [45] "What, son?" [46] his old man said uneasily. [47] "Sure we are. [48] We're going to the movies." [49] He could feel them watching him, waiting; and yet still he didn't answer. [50] Somewhere out in suburban grayness a dog barked, then was silent. [51] "Okay, go," Wayne said. [52] "If you wanta walk. [53] I'm taking the family boltbucket." [54] "But we promised the Clemons, dear," his mother said. [55] "Hell," Wayne said, grinning straight into the old man. [56] "I just got my draft call." [57] He saw the old man's Adam's apple move. [58] "Oh, my dear boy," Mother cried out. [59] "So gimme the keys," Wayne said. [60] The old man handed the keys over. [61] His understanding smile was strained, and fear flicked in his sagging eyes. [62] "Do be careful, dear," his mother said. [63] She ran toward him as he laughed and shut the door on her. [64] He was still laughing as he whoomed the Olds between the pale dead glow of houses and roared up the ramp onto the Freeway. [65] Ahead was the promising glitter of adventure-calling neon, and he looked up at the high skies of night and his eyes sailed the glaring wonders of escape. [66] He burned off some rubber finding a slot in the park-lot. [67] He strode under a sign reading Public Youth Center No. [68] 947 and walked casually to the reception desk, where a thin man with sergeant's stripes and a pansy haircut looked out of a pile of paperwork. [69] "Where you think you're going, my pretty lad?" [70] Wayne grinned down. [71] "Higher I hope than a typewriter jockey." [72] "Well," the sergeant said. [73] "How tough we are this evening. [74] You have a pass, killer?" [75] "Wayne Seton. [76] Draft call." [77] "Oh." [78] The sergeant checked his name off a roster and nodded. [79] He wrote on a slip of paper, handed the pass to Wayne. [80] "Go to the Armory and check out whatever your lusting little heart desires. [81] Then report to Captain Jack, room 307." [82] "Thanks, sarge dear," Wayne said and took the elevator up to the Armory. [83] A tired fat corporal with a naked head blinked up at tall Wayne. [84] Finally he said, "So make up your mind, bud. [85] Think you're the only kid breaking out tonight?" [86] "Hold your teeth, pop," Wayne said, coolly and slowly lighting a cigarette. [87] "I've decided." [88] The corporal's little eyes studied Wayne with malicious amusement. [89] "Take it from a vet, bud. [90] Sooner you go the better. [91] It's a big city and you're starting late. [92] You can get a cat, not a mouse, and some babes are clever hellcats in a dark alley." [93] "You must be a genius," Wayne said. [94] "A corporal with no hair and still a counterboy. [95] I'm impressed. [96] I'm all ears, Dad." [97] The corporal sighed wearily. [98] "You can get that balloon head ventilated, bud, and good." [99] Wayne's mouth twitched. [100] He leaned across the counter toward the shelves and racks of weapons. [101] "I'll remember that crack when I get my commission." [102] He blew smoke in the corporal's face. [103] "Bring me a Smith and Wesson .38, shoulder holster with spring-clip. [104] And throw in a Skelly switchblade for kicks—the six-inch disguised job with the double springs." [105] The corporal waddled back with the revolver and the switchblade disguised in a leather comb case. [106] He checked them on a receipt ledger, while Wayne examined the weapons, broke open the revolver, twirled the cylinder and pushed cartridges into the waiting chamber. [107] He slipped the knife from the comb case, flicked open the blade and stared at its gleam in the buttery light as his mouth went dry and the refracted incandescence of it trickled on his brain like melted ice, exciting and scary. [108] He removed his leather jacket. [109] He slung the holster under his left armpit and tested the spring clip release several times, feeling the way the serrated butt dropped into his wet palm. [110] He put his jacket back on and the switchblade case in his pocket. [111] He walked toward the elevator and didn't look back as the corporal said, "Good luck, tiger." [112] Captain Jack moved massively. [113] The big stone-walled office, alive with stuffed lion and tiger and gunracks, seemed to grow smaller. [114] Captain Jack crossed black-booted legs and whacked a cane at the floor. [115] It had a head shaped like a grinning bear. [116] Wayne felt the assured smile die on his face. [117] Something seemed to shrink him. [118] If he didn't watch himself he'd begin feeling like a pea among bowling balls. [119] Contemptuously amused little eyes glittered at Wayne from a shaggy head. [120] Shoulders hunched like stuffed sea-bags. [121] "Wayne Seton," said Captain Jack as if he were discussing something in a bug collection. [122] "Well, well, you're really fired up aren't you? [123] Really going out to eat 'em. [124] Right, punk?" [125] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. [126] He ran wet hands down the sides of his chinos. [127] His legs seemed sheathed in lead as he bit inwardly at shrinking fear the way a dog snaps at a wound. [128] You big overblown son, he thought, I'll show you but good who is a punk. [129] They made a guy wait and sweat until he screamed. [130] They kept a guy on the fire until desire leaped in him, ran and billowed and roared until his brain was filled with it. [131] But that wasn't enough. [132] If this muscle-bound creep was such a big boy, what was he doing holding down a desk? [133] "Well, this is it, punk. [134] You go the distance or start a butterfly collection." [135] The cane darted up. [136] A blade snicked from the end and stopped an inch from Wayne's nose. [137] He jerked up a shaky hand involuntarily and clamped a knuckle-ridged gag to his gasping mouth. [138] Captain Jack chuckled. [139] "All right, superboy." [140] He handed Wayne his passcard. [141] "Curfew's off, punk, for 6 hours. [142] You got 6 hours to make out." [143] "Yes, sir." [144] "Your beast is primed and waiting at the Four Aces Club on the West Side. [145] Know where that is, punk?" [146] "No, sir, but I'll find it fast." [147] "Sure you will, punk," smiled Captain Jack. [148] "She'll be wearing yellow slacks and a red shirt. [149] Black hair, a cute trick. [150] She's with a hefty psycho who eats punks for breakfast. [151] He's butchered five people. [152] They're both on top of the Undesirable list, Seton. [153] They got to go and they're your key to the stars." [154] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. [155] "So run along and make out, punk," grinned Captain Jack. [156] A copcar stopped Wayne as he started over the bridge, out of bright respectable neon into the murky westside slum over the river. [157] Wayne waved the pass card, signed by Captain Jack, under the cop's quivering nose. [158] The cop shivered and stepped back and waved him on. [159] The Olds roared over the bridge as the night's rain blew away. [160] The air through the open window was chill and damp coming from Slumville, but Wayne felt a cold that wasn't of the night or the wind. [161] He turned off into a rat's warren of the inferiors. [162] Lights turned pale, secretive and sparse, the uncared-for streets became rough with pitted potholes, narrow and winding and humid with wet unpleasant smells. [163] Wayne's fearful exhilaration increased as he cruised with bated breath through the dark mazes of streets and rickety tenements crawling with the shadows of mysterious promise. [164] He found the alley, dark, a gloom-dripping tunnel. [165] He drove cautiously into it and rolled along, watching. [166] His belly ached with expectancy as he spotted the sick-looking dab of neon wanly sparkling. [167] FOUR ACES CLUB He parked across the alley. [168] He got out and stood in shadows, digging the sultry beat of a combo, the wild pulse of drums and spinning brass filtering through windows painted black. [169] He breathed deep, started over, ducked back. [170] A stewbum weaved out of a bank of garbage cans, humming to himself, pulling at a rainsoaked shirt clinging to a pale stick body. [171] He reminded Wayne of a slim grub balanced on one end. [172] The stewbum stumbled. [173] His bearded face in dim breaking moonlight had a dirty, greenish tinge as he sensed Wayne there. [174] He turned in a grotesque uncoordinated jiggling and his eyes were wide with terror and doom. [175] "I gotta hide, kid. [176] They're on me." [177] Wayne's chest rose and his hands curled. [178] The bum's fingers drew at the air like white talons. [179] "Help me, kid." [180] He turned with a scratchy cry and retreated before the sudden blast of headlights from a Cad bulleting into the alley. [181] The Cad rushed past Wayne and he felt the engine-hot fumes against his legs. [182] Tires squealed. [183] The Cad stopped and a teener in black jacket jumped out and crouched as he began stalking the old rummy. [184] "This is him! [185] This is him all right," the teener yelled, and one hand came up swinging a baseball bat. [186] A head bobbed out of the Cad window and giggled. [187] The fumble-footed rummy tried to run and plopped on wet pavement. [188] The teener moved in, while a faint odor of burnt rubber hovered in the air as the Cad cruised in a slow follow-up. [189] Wayne's breath quickened as he watched, feeling somehow blank wonder at finding himself there, free and breaking out at last with no curfew and no law but his own. [190] He felt as though he couldn't stop anything. [191] Living seemed directionless, but he still would go with it regardless, until something dropped off or blew to hell like a hot light-bulb. [192] He held his breath, waiting. [193] His body was tensed and rigid as he moved in spirit with the hunting teener, an omniscient shadow with a hunting license and a ghetto jungle twenty miles deep. [194] The crawling stewbum screamed as the baseball bat whacked. [195] The teener laughed. [196] Wayne wanted to shout. [197] He opened his mouth, but the yell clogged up somewhere, so that he remained soundless yet with his mouth still open as he heard the payoff thuds where the useless wino curled up with stick arms over his rheumy face. [198] The teener laughed, tossed the bat away and began jumping up and down with his hobnailed, mail-order air force boots. [199] Then he ran into the Cad. [200] A hootch bottle soared out, made a brittle tink-tink of falling glass. [201] "Go, man!" [202] The Cad wooshed by. [203] It made a sort of hollow sucking noise as it bounced over the old man twice. [204] Then the finlights diminished like bright wind-blown sparks. [205] Wayne walked over and sneered down at the human garbage lying in scummed rain pools. [206] The smell of raw violence, the scent of blood, made his heart thump like a trapped rubber ball in a cage. [207] He hurried into the Four Aces, drawn by an exhilarating vision ... and pursued by the hollow haunting fears of his own desires. [208] He walked through the wavering haze of smoke and liquored dizziness and stood until his eyes learned the dark. [209] He spotted her red shirt and yellow legs over in the corner above a murky lighted table. [210] He walked toward her, watching her little subhuman pixie face lift. [211] The eyes widened with exciting terror, turned even paler behind a red slash of sensuous mouth. [212] Briefed and waiting, primed and eager for running, she recognized her pursuer at once. [213] He sat at a table near her, watching and grinning and seeing her squirm. [214] She sat in that slightly baffled, fearful and uncomprehending attitude of being motionless, as though they were all actors performing in a weirdo drama being staged in that smoky thick-aired dive. [215] Wayne smiled with wry superiority at the redheaded psycho in a dirty T-shirt, a big bruiser with a gorilla face. [216] He was tussling his mouse heavy. [217] "What's yours, teener?" [218] the slug-faced waiter asked. [219] "Bring me a Crusher, buddyroo," Wayne said, and flashed his pass card. [220] "Sure, teener." [221] Red nuzzled the mouse's neck and made drooly noises. [222] Wayne watched and fed on the promising terror and helplessness of her hunted face. [223] She sat rigid, eyes fixed on Wayne like balls of frozen glass. [224] Red looked up and stared straight at Wayne with eyes like black buttons imbedded in the waxlike skin of his face. [225] Then he grinned all on one side. [226] One huge hand scratched across the wet table top like a furious cat's. [227] Wayne returned the challenging move but felt a nervous twitch jerk at his lips. [228] A numbness covered his brain like a film as he concentrated on staring down Red the psycho. [229] But Red kept looking, his eyes bright but dead. [230] Then he began struggling it up again with the scared little mouse. [231] The waiter sat the Crusher down. [232] Wayne signed a chit; tonight he was in the pay of the state. [233] "What else, teener?" [234] "One thing. [235] Fade." [236] "Sure, teener," the waiter said, his breathy words dripping like syrup. [237] Wayne drank. [238] Liquored heat dripped into his stomach. [239] Fire tickled his veins, became hot wire twisting in his head. [240] He drank again and forced out a shaky breath. [241] The jazz beat thumped fast and muted brass moaned. [242] Drumpulse, stabbing trumpet raped the air. [243] Tension mounted as Wayne watched her pale throat convulsing, the white eyelids fluttering. [244] Red fingered at her legs and salivated at her throat, glancing now and then at Wayne, baiting him good. [245] "Okay, you creep," Wayne said. [246] He stood up and started through the haze. [247] The psycho leaped and a table crashed. [248] Wayne's .38 dropped from its spring-clip holster and the blast filled the room. [249] The psycho screamed and stumbled toward the door holding something in. [250] The mouse darted by, eluded Wayne's grasp and was out the door. [251] Wayne went out after her in a laughing frenzy of release. [252] He felt the cold strange breath of moist air on his sweating skin as he sprinted down the alley into a wind full of blowing wet. [253] He ran laughing under the crazy starlight and glimpsed her now and then, fading in and out of shadows, jumping, crawling, running with the life-or-death animation of a wild deer. [254] Up and down alleys, a rat's maze. [255] A rabbit run. [256] Across vacant lots. [257] Through shattered tenement ruins. [258] Over a fence. [259] There she was, falling, sliding down a brick shute. [260] He gained. [261] He moved up. [262] His labored breath pumped more fire. [263] And her scream was a rejuvenation hypo in his blood. [264] She quivered above him on the stoop, panting, her eyes afire with terror. [265] "You, baby," Wayne gasped. [266] "I gotcha." [267] She backed into darkness, up there against the sagging tenement wall, her arms out and poised like crippled wings. [268] Wayne crept up. [269] She gave a squeaking sob, turned, ran. [270] Wayne leaped into gloom. [271] Wood cracked. [272] He clambered over rotten lumber. [273] The doorway sagged and he hesitated in the musty dark. [274] A few feet away was the sound of loose trickling plaster, a whimpering whine. [275] "No use running," Wayne said. [276] "Go loose. [277] Give, baby. [278] Give now." [279] She scurried up sagging stairs. [280] Wayne laughed and dug up after her, feeling his way through debris. [281] Dim moonlight filtered through a sagging stairway from a shattered skylight three floors up. [282] The mouse's shadow floated ahead. [283] He started up. [284] The entire stair structure canted sickeningly. [285] A railing ripped and he nearly went with it back down to the first floor. [286] He heard a scream as rotten boards crumbled and dust exploded from cracks. [287] A rat ran past Wayne and fell into space. [288] He burst into the third-floor hallway and saw her half-falling through a door under the jagged skylight. [289] Wayne took his time. [290] He knew how she felt waiting in there, listening to his creeping, implacable footfalls. [291] Then he yelled and slammed open the door. [292] Dust and stench, filth so awful it made nothing of the dust. [293] In the corner he saw something hardly to be called a bed. [294] More like a nest. [295] A dirty, lumpy pile of torn mattress, felt, excelsior, shredded newspapers and rags. [296] It seemed to crawl a little under the moon-streaming skylight. [297] She crouched in the corner panting. [298] He took his time moving in. [299] He snickered as he flashed the switchblade and circled it like a serpent's tongue. [300] He watched what was left of her nerves go to pieces like rotten cloth. [301] "Do it quick, hunter," she whispered. [302] "Please do it quick." [303] "What's that, baby?" [304] "I'm tired running. [305] Kill me first. [306] Beat me after. [307] They won't know the difference." [308] "I'm gonna bruise and beat you," he said. [309] "Kill me first," she begged. [310] "I don't want—" She began to cry. [311] She cried right up in his face, her wide eyes unblinking, and her mouth open. [312] "You got bad blood, baby," he snarled. [313] He laughed but it didn't sound like him and something was wrong with his belly. [314] It was knotting up. [315] "Bad, I know! [316] So get it over with, please. [317] Hurry, hurry." [318] She was small and white and quivering. [319] She moaned but kept staring up at him. [320] He ripped off his rivet-studded belt and swung once, then groaned and shuffled away from her. [321] He kept backing toward the door. [322] She crawled after him, begging and clutching with both arms as she wriggled forward on her knees. [323] "Don't run. [324] Please. [325] Kill me! [326] It'll be someone else if you don't. [327] Oh, God, I'm so tired waiting and running!" [328] "I can't," he said, and sickness soured in his throat. [329] "Please." [330] "I can't, I can't!" [331] He turned and ran blindly, half-fell down the cracking stairs. [332] Doctor Burns, head of the readjustment staff at the Youth Center, studied Wayne with abstract interest. [333] "You enjoyed the hunt, Seton? [334] You got your kicks?" [335] "Yes, sir." [336] "But you couldn't execute them?" [337] "No, sir." [338] "They're undesirables. [339] Incurables. [340] You know that, Seton?" [341] "Yes, sir." [342] "The psycho you only wounded. [343] He's a five-times murderer. [344] And that girl killed her father when she was twelve. [345] You realize there's nothing can be done for them? [346] That they have to be executed?" [347] "I know." [348] "Too bad," the doctor said. [349] "We all have aggressive impulses, primitive needs that must be expressed early, purged. [350] There's murder in all of us, Seton. [351] The impulse shouldn't be denied or suppressed, but educated . [352] The state used to kill them. [353] Isn't it better all around, Seton, for us to do it, as part of growing up? [354] What was the matter, Seton?" [355] "I—felt sorry for her." [356] "Is that all you can say about it?" [357] "Yes, sir." [358] The doctor pressed a buzzer. [359] Two men in white coats entered. [360] "You should have got it out of your system, Seton, but now it's still in there. [361] I can't turn you out and have it erupt later—and maybe shed clean innocent blood, can I?" [362] "No, sir," Wayne mumbled. [363] He didn't look up. [364] "I'm sorry I punked out." [365] "Give him the treatment," the doctor said wearily. [366] "And send him back to his mother." [367] Wayne nodded and they led him away. [368] His mind screamed still to split open some prison of bone and lay bare and breathing wide. [369] But there was no way out for the trapped. [370] Now he knew about the old man and his poker-playing pals. [371] They had all punked out. [372] Like him.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "How does Wayne interact with the story's other characters?": 1. [29] Wayne watched the ritual, grinning. 2. [30] He listened to their purposeless noises, their blabbing and yakking as if they had something to say. 3. [43] "Relax," Wayne said. 4. [44] "You're not going anywhere tonight." 5. [47] "Sure we are. We're going to the movies." 6. [49] He could feel them watching him, waiting; and yet still he didn't answer. 7. [51] "Okay, go," Wayne said. 8. [52] "If you wanta walk. I'm taking the family boltbucket." 9. [55] "Hell," Wayne said, grinning straight into the old man. 10. [58] "Oh, my dear boy," Mother cried out. 11. [60] The old man handed the keys over. 12. [61] His understanding smile was strained, and fear flicked in his sagging eyes. 13. [62] "Do be careful, dear," his mother said. 14. [63] She ran toward him as he laughed and shut the door on her. 15. [70] Wayne grinned down. 16. [112] Captain Jack moved massively. 17. [114] Captain Jack crossed black-booted legs and whacked a cane at the floor. 18. [115] It had a head shaped like a grinning bear. 19. [116] Wayne felt the assured smile die on his face. 20. [117] Something seemed to shrink him. 21. [118] If he didn't watch himself he'd begin feeling like a pea among bowling balls. 22. [119] Contemptuously amused little eyes glittered at Wayne from a shaggy head. 23. [120] Shoulders hunched like stuffed sea-bags. 24. [121] "Wayne Seton," said Captain Jack as if he were discussing something in a bug collection. 25. [122] "Well, well, you're really fired up aren't you? Really going out to eat 'em. Right, punk?" 26. [125] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. 27. [126] He ran wet hands down the sides of his chinos. 28. [127] His legs seemed sheathed in lead as he bit inwardly at shrinking fear the way a dog snaps at a wound. 29. [128] You big overblown son, he thought, I'll show you but good who is a punk. 30. [133] "Well, this is it, punk. You go the distance or start a butterfly collection." 31. [134] The cane darted up. 32. [135] A blade snicked from the end and stopped an inch from Wayne's nose. 33. [136] He jerked up a shaky hand involuntarily and clamped a knuckle-ridged gag to his gasping mouth. 34. [137] Captain Jack chuckled. 35. [138] "All right, superboy." 36. [139] He handed Wayne his passcard. 37. [140] "Curfew's off, punk, for 6 hours. You got 6 hours to make out." 38. [143] "Yes, sir." 39. [144] "Your beast is primed and waiting at the Four Aces Club on the West Side. 40. [145] Know where that is, punk?" 41. [146] "No, sir, but I'll find it fast." 42. [147] "Sure you will, punk," smiled Captain Jack. 43. [154] "So run along and make out, punk," grinned Captain Jack. 44. [205] Wayne walked over and sneered down at the human garbage lying in scummed rain pools. 45. [213] He sat at a table near her, watching and grinning and seeing her squirm. 46. [214] She sat in that slightly baffled, fearful and uncomprehending attitude of being motionless, as though they were all actors performing in a weirdo drama being staged in that smoky thick-aired dive. 47. [215] Wayne smiled with wry superiority at the redheaded psycho in a dirty T-shirt, a big bruiser with a gorilla face. 48. [221] Red nuzzled the mouse's neck and made drooly noises. 49. [222] Wayne watched and fed on the promising terror and helplessness of her hunted face. 50. [223] She sat rigid, eyes fixed on Wayne like balls of frozen glass. 51. [224] Red looked up and stared straight at Wayne with eyes like black buttons imbedded in the waxlike skin of his face. 52. [225] Then he grinned all on one side. 53. [226] One huge hand scratched across the wet table top like a furious cat's. 54. [227] Wayne returned the challenging move but felt a nervous twitch jerk at his lips. 55. [228] A numbness covered his brain like a film as he concentrated on staring down Red the psycho. 56. [229] But Red kept looking, his eyes bright but dead. 57. [230] Then he began struggling it up again with the scared little mouse. 58. [245] "Okay, you creep," Wayne said. 59. [246] He stood up and started through the haze. 60. [247] The psycho leaped and a table crashed. 61. [248] Wayne's .38 dropped from its spring-clip holster and the blast filled the room. 62. [249] The psycho screamed and stumbled toward the door holding something in. 63. [250] The mouse darted by, eluded Wayne's grasp and was out the door. 64. [251] Wayne went out after her in a laughing frenzy of release. 65. [264] She quivered above him on the stoop, panting, her eyes afire with terror. 66. [265] "You, baby," Wayne gasped. "I gotcha." 67. [267] She backed into darkness, up there against the sagging tenement wall, her arms out and poised like crippled wings. 68. [276] "Go loose. Give, baby. Give now." 69. [278] She scurried up sagging stairs. 70. [279] Wayne laughed and dug up after her, feeling his way through debris. 71. [287] A rat ran past Wayne and fell into space. 72. [288] He burst into the third-floor hallway and saw her half-falling through a door under the jagged skylight. 73. [289] Wayne took his time. 74. [290] He knew how she felt waiting in there, listening to his creeping, implacable footfalls. 75. [291] Then he yelled and slammed open the door. 76. [298] He took his time moving in. 77. [299] He snickered as he flashed the switchblade and circled it like a serpent's tongue. 78. [300] He watched what was left of her nerves go to pieces like rotten cloth. 79. [301] "Do it quick, hunter," she whispered. 80. [302] "Please do it quick." 81. [303] "What's that, baby?" 82. [304] "I'm tired running. Kill me first. Beat me after. They won't know the difference." 83. [308] "I'm gonna bruise and beat you," he said. 84. [309] "Kill me first," she begged. 85. [310] "I don't want—" She began to cry. 86. [311] She cried right up in his face, her wide eyes unblinking, and her mouth open. 87. [312] "You got bad blood, baby," he snarled. 88. [313] He laughed but it didn't sound like him and something was wrong with his belly. 89. [314] It was knotting up. 90. [315] "Bad, I know! So get it over with, please. Hurry, hurry." 91. [316] She was small and white and quivering. 92. [317] She moaned but kept staring up at him. 93. [318] He ripped off his rivet-studded belt and swung once, then groaned and shuffled away from her. 94. [319] He kept backing toward the door. 95. [320] She crawled after him, begging and clutching with both arms as she wriggled forward on her knees. 96. [321] "Don't run. Please. Kill me! It'll be someone else if you don't. Oh, God, I'm so tired waiting and running!" 97. [322] "I can't," he said, and sickness soured in his throat. 98. [323] "Please." 99. [324] "I can't, I can't!" 100. [325] He turned and ran blindly, half-fell down the cracking stairs.

How does this society seek to deal with violence?

[1] THE RECRUIT BY BRYCE WALTON It was dirty work, but it would make him a man. [2] And kids had a right to grow up—some of them! [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1962. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Wayne, unseen, sneered down from the head of the stairs. [6] The old man with his thick neck, thick cigar, evening highball, potgut and bald head without a brain in it. [7] His slim mother with nervously polite smiles and voice fluttering, assuring the old man by her frailty that he was big in the world. [8] They were squareheads one and all, marking moron time in a gray dream. [9] Man, was he glad to break out. [10] The old man said, "He'll be okay. [11] Let him alone." [12] "But he won't eat. [13] Just lies there all the time." [14] "Hell," the old man said. [15] "Sixteen's a bad time. [16] School over, waiting for the draft and all. [17] He's in between. [18] It's rough." [19] Mother clasped her forearms and shook her head once slowly. [20] "We got to let him go, Eva. [21] It's a dangerous time. [22] You got to remember about all these dangerous repressed impulses piling up with nowhere to go, like they say. [23] You read the books." [24] "But he's unhappy." [25] "Are we specialists? [26] That's the Youth Board's headache, ain't it? [27] What do we know about adolescent trauma and like that? [28] Now get dressed or we'll be late." [29] Wayne watched the ritual, grinning. [30] He listened to their purposeless noises, their blabbing and yakking as if they had something to say. [31] Blab-blab about the same old bones, and end up chewing them in the same old ways. [32] Then they begin all over again. [33] A freak sideshow all the way to nowhere. [34] Squareheads going around either unconscious or with eyes looking dead from the millennium in the office waiting to retire into limbo. [35] How come he'd been stuck with parental images like that? [36] One thing—when he was jockeying a rocket to Mars or maybe firing the pants off Asiatic reds in some steamy gone jungle paradise, he'd forget his punkie origins in teeveeland. [37] But the old man was right on for once about the dangerous repressed impulses. [38] Wayne had heard about it often enough. [39] Anyway there was no doubt about it when every move he made was a restrained explosion. [40] So he'd waited in his room, and it wasn't easy sweating it out alone waiting for the breakout call from HQ. [41] "Well, dear, if you say so," Mother said, with the old resigned sigh that must make the old man feel like Superman with a beerbelly. [42] They heard Wayne slouching loosely down the stairs and looked up. [43] "Relax," Wayne said. [44] "You're not going anywhere tonight." [45] "What, son?" [46] his old man said uneasily. [47] "Sure we are. [48] We're going to the movies." [49] He could feel them watching him, waiting; and yet still he didn't answer. [50] Somewhere out in suburban grayness a dog barked, then was silent. [51] "Okay, go," Wayne said. [52] "If you wanta walk. [53] I'm taking the family boltbucket." [54] "But we promised the Clemons, dear," his mother said. [55] "Hell," Wayne said, grinning straight into the old man. [56] "I just got my draft call." [57] He saw the old man's Adam's apple move. [58] "Oh, my dear boy," Mother cried out. [59] "So gimme the keys," Wayne said. [60] The old man handed the keys over. [61] His understanding smile was strained, and fear flicked in his sagging eyes. [62] "Do be careful, dear," his mother said. [63] She ran toward him as he laughed and shut the door on her. [64] He was still laughing as he whoomed the Olds between the pale dead glow of houses and roared up the ramp onto the Freeway. [65] Ahead was the promising glitter of adventure-calling neon, and he looked up at the high skies of night and his eyes sailed the glaring wonders of escape. [66] He burned off some rubber finding a slot in the park-lot. [67] He strode under a sign reading Public Youth Center No. [68] 947 and walked casually to the reception desk, where a thin man with sergeant's stripes and a pansy haircut looked out of a pile of paperwork. [69] "Where you think you're going, my pretty lad?" [70] Wayne grinned down. [71] "Higher I hope than a typewriter jockey." [72] "Well," the sergeant said. [73] "How tough we are this evening. [74] You have a pass, killer?" [75] "Wayne Seton. [76] Draft call." [77] "Oh." [78] The sergeant checked his name off a roster and nodded. [79] He wrote on a slip of paper, handed the pass to Wayne. [80] "Go to the Armory and check out whatever your lusting little heart desires. [81] Then report to Captain Jack, room 307." [82] "Thanks, sarge dear," Wayne said and took the elevator up to the Armory. [83] A tired fat corporal with a naked head blinked up at tall Wayne. [84] Finally he said, "So make up your mind, bud. [85] Think you're the only kid breaking out tonight?" [86] "Hold your teeth, pop," Wayne said, coolly and slowly lighting a cigarette. [87] "I've decided." [88] The corporal's little eyes studied Wayne with malicious amusement. [89] "Take it from a vet, bud. [90] Sooner you go the better. [91] It's a big city and you're starting late. [92] You can get a cat, not a mouse, and some babes are clever hellcats in a dark alley." [93] "You must be a genius," Wayne said. [94] "A corporal with no hair and still a counterboy. [95] I'm impressed. [96] I'm all ears, Dad." [97] The corporal sighed wearily. [98] "You can get that balloon head ventilated, bud, and good." [99] Wayne's mouth twitched. [100] He leaned across the counter toward the shelves and racks of weapons. [101] "I'll remember that crack when I get my commission." [102] He blew smoke in the corporal's face. [103] "Bring me a Smith and Wesson .38, shoulder holster with spring-clip. [104] And throw in a Skelly switchblade for kicks—the six-inch disguised job with the double springs." [105] The corporal waddled back with the revolver and the switchblade disguised in a leather comb case. [106] He checked them on a receipt ledger, while Wayne examined the weapons, broke open the revolver, twirled the cylinder and pushed cartridges into the waiting chamber. [107] He slipped the knife from the comb case, flicked open the blade and stared at its gleam in the buttery light as his mouth went dry and the refracted incandescence of it trickled on his brain like melted ice, exciting and scary. [108] He removed his leather jacket. [109] He slung the holster under his left armpit and tested the spring clip release several times, feeling the way the serrated butt dropped into his wet palm. [110] He put his jacket back on and the switchblade case in his pocket. [111] He walked toward the elevator and didn't look back as the corporal said, "Good luck, tiger." [112] Captain Jack moved massively. [113] The big stone-walled office, alive with stuffed lion and tiger and gunracks, seemed to grow smaller. [114] Captain Jack crossed black-booted legs and whacked a cane at the floor. [115] It had a head shaped like a grinning bear. [116] Wayne felt the assured smile die on his face. [117] Something seemed to shrink him. [118] If he didn't watch himself he'd begin feeling like a pea among bowling balls. [119] Contemptuously amused little eyes glittered at Wayne from a shaggy head. [120] Shoulders hunched like stuffed sea-bags. [121] "Wayne Seton," said Captain Jack as if he were discussing something in a bug collection. [122] "Well, well, you're really fired up aren't you? [123] Really going out to eat 'em. [124] Right, punk?" [125] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. [126] He ran wet hands down the sides of his chinos. [127] His legs seemed sheathed in lead as he bit inwardly at shrinking fear the way a dog snaps at a wound. [128] You big overblown son, he thought, I'll show you but good who is a punk. [129] They made a guy wait and sweat until he screamed. [130] They kept a guy on the fire until desire leaped in him, ran and billowed and roared until his brain was filled with it. [131] But that wasn't enough. [132] If this muscle-bound creep was such a big boy, what was he doing holding down a desk? [133] "Well, this is it, punk. [134] You go the distance or start a butterfly collection." [135] The cane darted up. [136] A blade snicked from the end and stopped an inch from Wayne's nose. [137] He jerked up a shaky hand involuntarily and clamped a knuckle-ridged gag to his gasping mouth. [138] Captain Jack chuckled. [139] "All right, superboy." [140] He handed Wayne his passcard. [141] "Curfew's off, punk, for 6 hours. [142] You got 6 hours to make out." [143] "Yes, sir." [144] "Your beast is primed and waiting at the Four Aces Club on the West Side. [145] Know where that is, punk?" [146] "No, sir, but I'll find it fast." [147] "Sure you will, punk," smiled Captain Jack. [148] "She'll be wearing yellow slacks and a red shirt. [149] Black hair, a cute trick. [150] She's with a hefty psycho who eats punks for breakfast. [151] He's butchered five people. [152] They're both on top of the Undesirable list, Seton. [153] They got to go and they're your key to the stars." [154] "Yes, sir," Wayne said. [155] "So run along and make out, punk," grinned Captain Jack. [156] A copcar stopped Wayne as he started over the bridge, out of bright respectable neon into the murky westside slum over the river. [157] Wayne waved the pass card, signed by Captain Jack, under the cop's quivering nose. [158] The cop shivered and stepped back and waved him on. [159] The Olds roared over the bridge as the night's rain blew away. [160] The air through the open window was chill and damp coming from Slumville, but Wayne felt a cold that wasn't of the night or the wind. [161] He turned off into a rat's warren of the inferiors. [162] Lights turned pale, secretive and sparse, the uncared-for streets became rough with pitted potholes, narrow and winding and humid with wet unpleasant smells. [163] Wayne's fearful exhilaration increased as he cruised with bated breath through the dark mazes of streets and rickety tenements crawling with the shadows of mysterious promise. [164] He found the alley, dark, a gloom-dripping tunnel. [165] He drove cautiously into it and rolled along, watching. [166] His belly ached with expectancy as he spotted the sick-looking dab of neon wanly sparkling. [167] FOUR ACES CLUB He parked across the alley. [168] He got out and stood in shadows, digging the sultry beat of a combo, the wild pulse of drums and spinning brass filtering through windows painted black. [169] He breathed deep, started over, ducked back. [170] A stewbum weaved out of a bank of garbage cans, humming to himself, pulling at a rainsoaked shirt clinging to a pale stick body. [171] He reminded Wayne of a slim grub balanced on one end. [172] The stewbum stumbled. [173] His bearded face in dim breaking moonlight had a dirty, greenish tinge as he sensed Wayne there. [174] He turned in a grotesque uncoordinated jiggling and his eyes were wide with terror and doom. [175] "I gotta hide, kid. [176] They're on me." [177] Wayne's chest rose and his hands curled. [178] The bum's fingers drew at the air like white talons. [179] "Help me, kid." [180] He turned with a scratchy cry and retreated before the sudden blast of headlights from a Cad bulleting into the alley. [181] The Cad rushed past Wayne and he felt the engine-hot fumes against his legs. [182] Tires squealed. [183] The Cad stopped and a teener in black jacket jumped out and crouched as he began stalking the old rummy. [184] "This is him! [185] This is him all right," the teener yelled, and one hand came up swinging a baseball bat. [186] A head bobbed out of the Cad window and giggled. [187] The fumble-footed rummy tried to run and plopped on wet pavement. [188] The teener moved in, while a faint odor of burnt rubber hovered in the air as the Cad cruised in a slow follow-up. [189] Wayne's breath quickened as he watched, feeling somehow blank wonder at finding himself there, free and breaking out at last with no curfew and no law but his own. [190] He felt as though he couldn't stop anything. [191] Living seemed directionless, but he still would go with it regardless, until something dropped off or blew to hell like a hot light-bulb. [192] He held his breath, waiting. [193] His body was tensed and rigid as he moved in spirit with the hunting teener, an omniscient shadow with a hunting license and a ghetto jungle twenty miles deep. [194] The crawling stewbum screamed as the baseball bat whacked. [195] The teener laughed. [196] Wayne wanted to shout. [197] He opened his mouth, but the yell clogged up somewhere, so that he remained soundless yet with his mouth still open as he heard the payoff thuds where the useless wino curled up with stick arms over his rheumy face. [198] The teener laughed, tossed the bat away and began jumping up and down with his hobnailed, mail-order air force boots. [199] Then he ran into the Cad. [200] A hootch bottle soared out, made a brittle tink-tink of falling glass. [201] "Go, man!" [202] The Cad wooshed by. [203] It made a sort of hollow sucking noise as it bounced over the old man twice. [204] Then the finlights diminished like bright wind-blown sparks. [205] Wayne walked over and sneered down at the human garbage lying in scummed rain pools. [206] The smell of raw violence, the scent of blood, made his heart thump like a trapped rubber ball in a cage. [207] He hurried into the Four Aces, drawn by an exhilarating vision ... and pursued by the hollow haunting fears of his own desires. [208] He walked through the wavering haze of smoke and liquored dizziness and stood until his eyes learned the dark. [209] He spotted her red shirt and yellow legs over in the corner above a murky lighted table. [210] He walked toward her, watching her little subhuman pixie face lift. [211] The eyes widened with exciting terror, turned even paler behind a red slash of sensuous mouth. [212] Briefed and waiting, primed and eager for running, she recognized her pursuer at once. [213] He sat at a table near her, watching and grinning and seeing her squirm. [214] She sat in that slightly baffled, fearful and uncomprehending attitude of being motionless, as though they were all actors performing in a weirdo drama being staged in that smoky thick-aired dive. [215] Wayne smiled with wry superiority at the redheaded psycho in a dirty T-shirt, a big bruiser with a gorilla face. [216] He was tussling his mouse heavy. [217] "What's yours, teener?" [218] the slug-faced waiter asked. [219] "Bring me a Crusher, buddyroo," Wayne said, and flashed his pass card. [220] "Sure, teener." [221] Red nuzzled the mouse's neck and made drooly noises. [222] Wayne watched and fed on the promising terror and helplessness of her hunted face. [223] She sat rigid, eyes fixed on Wayne like balls of frozen glass. [224] Red looked up and stared straight at Wayne with eyes like black buttons imbedded in the waxlike skin of his face. [225] Then he grinned all on one side. [226] One huge hand scratched across the wet table top like a furious cat's. [227] Wayne returned the challenging move but felt a nervous twitch jerk at his lips. [228] A numbness covered his brain like a film as he concentrated on staring down Red the psycho. [229] But Red kept looking, his eyes bright but dead. [230] Then he began struggling it up again with the scared little mouse. [231] The waiter sat the Crusher down. [232] Wayne signed a chit; tonight he was in the pay of the state. [233] "What else, teener?" [234] "One thing. [235] Fade." [236] "Sure, teener," the waiter said, his breathy words dripping like syrup. [237] Wayne drank. [238] Liquored heat dripped into his stomach. [239] Fire tickled his veins, became hot wire twisting in his head. [240] He drank again and forced out a shaky breath. [241] The jazz beat thumped fast and muted brass moaned. [242] Drumpulse, stabbing trumpet raped the air. [243] Tension mounted as Wayne watched her pale throat convulsing, the white eyelids fluttering. [244] Red fingered at her legs and salivated at her throat, glancing now and then at Wayne, baiting him good. [245] "Okay, you creep," Wayne said. [246] He stood up and started through the haze. [247] The psycho leaped and a table crashed. [248] Wayne's .38 dropped from its spring-clip holster and the blast filled the room. [249] The psycho screamed and stumbled toward the door holding something in. [250] The mouse darted by, eluded Wayne's grasp and was out the door. [251] Wayne went out after her in a laughing frenzy of release. [252] He felt the cold strange breath of moist air on his sweating skin as he sprinted down the alley into a wind full of blowing wet. [253] He ran laughing under the crazy starlight and glimpsed her now and then, fading in and out of shadows, jumping, crawling, running with the life-or-death animation of a wild deer. [254] Up and down alleys, a rat's maze. [255] A rabbit run. [256] Across vacant lots. [257] Through shattered tenement ruins. [258] Over a fence. [259] There she was, falling, sliding down a brick shute. [260] He gained. [261] He moved up. [262] His labored breath pumped more fire. [263] And her scream was a rejuvenation hypo in his blood. [264] She quivered above him on the stoop, panting, her eyes afire with terror. [265] "You, baby," Wayne gasped. [266] "I gotcha." [267] She backed into darkness, up there against the sagging tenement wall, her arms out and poised like crippled wings. [268] Wayne crept up. [269] She gave a squeaking sob, turned, ran. [270] Wayne leaped into gloom. [271] Wood cracked. [272] He clambered over rotten lumber. [273] The doorway sagged and he hesitated in the musty dark. [274] A few feet away was the sound of loose trickling plaster, a whimpering whine. [275] "No use running," Wayne said. [276] "Go loose. [277] Give, baby. [278] Give now." [279] She scurried up sagging stairs. [280] Wayne laughed and dug up after her, feeling his way through debris. [281] Dim moonlight filtered through a sagging stairway from a shattered skylight three floors up. [282] The mouse's shadow floated ahead. [283] He started up. [284] The entire stair structure canted sickeningly. [285] A railing ripped and he nearly went with it back down to the first floor. [286] He heard a scream as rotten boards crumbled and dust exploded from cracks. [287] A rat ran past Wayne and fell into space. [288] He burst into the third-floor hallway and saw her half-falling through a door under the jagged skylight. [289] Wayne took his time. [290] He knew how she felt waiting in there, listening to his creeping, implacable footfalls. [291] Then he yelled and slammed open the door. [292] Dust and stench, filth so awful it made nothing of the dust. [293] In the corner he saw something hardly to be called a bed. [294] More like a nest. [295] A dirty, lumpy pile of torn mattress, felt, excelsior, shredded newspapers and rags. [296] It seemed to crawl a little under the moon-streaming skylight. [297] She crouched in the corner panting. [298] He took his time moving in. [299] He snickered as he flashed the switchblade and circled it like a serpent's tongue. [300] He watched what was left of her nerves go to pieces like rotten cloth. [301] "Do it quick, hunter," she whispered. [302] "Please do it quick." [303] "What's that, baby?" [304] "I'm tired running. [305] Kill me first. [306] Beat me after. [307] They won't know the difference." [308] "I'm gonna bruise and beat you," he said. [309] "Kill me first," she begged. [310] "I don't want—" She began to cry. [311] She cried right up in his face, her wide eyes unblinking, and her mouth open. [312] "You got bad blood, baby," he snarled. [313] He laughed but it didn't sound like him and something was wrong with his belly. [314] It was knotting up. [315] "Bad, I know! [316] So get it over with, please. [317] Hurry, hurry." [318] She was small and white and quivering. [319] She moaned but kept staring up at him. [320] He ripped off his rivet-studded belt and swung once, then groaned and shuffled away from her. [321] He kept backing toward the door. [322] She crawled after him, begging and clutching with both arms as she wriggled forward on her knees. [323] "Don't run. [324] Please. [325] Kill me! [326] It'll be someone else if you don't. [327] Oh, God, I'm so tired waiting and running!" [328] "I can't," he said, and sickness soured in his throat. [329] "Please." [330] "I can't, I can't!" [331] He turned and ran blindly, half-fell down the cracking stairs. [332] Doctor Burns, head of the readjustment staff at the Youth Center, studied Wayne with abstract interest. [333] "You enjoyed the hunt, Seton? [334] You got your kicks?" [335] "Yes, sir." [336] "But you couldn't execute them?" [337] "No, sir." [338] "They're undesirables. [339] Incurables. [340] You know that, Seton?" [341] "Yes, sir." [342] "The psycho you only wounded. [343] He's a five-times murderer. [344] And that girl killed her father when she was twelve. [345] You realize there's nothing can be done for them? [346] That they have to be executed?" [347] "I know." [348] "Too bad," the doctor said. [349] "We all have aggressive impulses, primitive needs that must be expressed early, purged. [350] There's murder in all of us, Seton. [351] The impulse shouldn't be denied or suppressed, but educated . [352] The state used to kill them. [353] Isn't it better all around, Seton, for us to do it, as part of growing up? [354] What was the matter, Seton?" [355] "I—felt sorry for her." [356] "Is that all you can say about it?" [357] "Yes, sir." [358] The doctor pressed a buzzer. [359] Two men in white coats entered. [360] "You should have got it out of your system, Seton, but now it's still in there. [361] I can't turn you out and have it erupt later—and maybe shed clean innocent blood, can I?" [362] "No, sir," Wayne mumbled. [363] He didn't look up. [364] "I'm sorry I punked out." [365] "Give him the treatment," the doctor said wearily. [366] "And send him back to his mother." [367] Wayne nodded and they led him away. [368] His mind screamed still to split open some prison of bone and lay bare and breathing wide. [369] But there was no way out for the trapped. [370] Now he knew about the old man and his poker-playing pals. [371] They had all punked out. [372] Like him.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "How does this society seek to deal with violence?": 1. [349] "We all have aggressive impulses, primitive needs that must be expressed early, purged." 2. [350] "The impulse shouldn't be denied or suppressed, but educated." 3. [351] "The state used to kill them. Isn't it better all around, Seton, for us to do it, as part of growing up?" 4. [352] "What was the matter, Seton?" 5. [353] "I—felt sorry for her." 6. [354] "Is that all you can say about it?" 7. [355] "Yes, sir." 8. [356] "You should have got it out of your system, Seton, but now it's still in there." 9. [357] "I can't turn you out and have it erupt later—and maybe shed clean innocent blood, can I?" 10. [358] "Give him the treatment," the doctor said wearily. 11. [359] "And send him back to his mother." 12. [1] "It was dirty work, but it would make him a man." 13. [2] "And kids had a right to grow up—some of them!" 14. [3] "[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1962." 15. [4] "Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]" 16. [5] "Wayne, unseen, sneered down from the head of the stairs." 17. [6] "The old man with his thick neck, thick cigar, evening highball, potgut and bald head without a brain in it." 18. [7] "His slim mother with nervously polite smiles and voice fluttering, assuring the old man by her frailty that he was big in the world." 19. [8] "They were squareheads one and all, marking moron time in a gray dream." 20. [9] "Man, was he glad to break out." 21. [10] "The old man said, "He'll be okay." 22. [11] "Let him alone."" 23. [12] ""But he won't eat." 24. [13] "Just lies there all the time."" 25. [14] ""Hell," the old man said." 26. [15] ""Sixteen's a bad time." 27. [16] "School over, waiting for the draft and all." 28. [17] "He's in between." 29. [18] "It's rough."" 30. [19] "Mother clasped her forearms and shook her head once slowly." 31. [20] ""We got to let him go, Eva." 32. [21] "It's a dangerous time." 33. [22] "You got to remember about all these dangerous repressed impulses piling up with nowhere to go, like they say." 34. [23] "You read the books."" 35. [24] ""But he's unhappy."" 36. [25] ""Are we specialists?" 37. [26] "That's the Youth Board's headache, ain't it?" 38. [27] "What do we know about adolescent trauma and like that?" 39. [28] "Now get dressed or we'll be late."" 40. [29] "Wayne watched the ritual, grinning." 41. [30] "He listened to their purposeless noises, their blabbing and yakking as if they had something to say." 42. [31] "Blab-blab about the same old bones, and end up chewing them in the same old ways." 43. [32] "Then they begin all over again." 44. [33] "A freak sideshow all the way to nowhere." 45. [34] "Squareheads going around either unconscious or with eyes looking dead from the millennium in the office waiting to retire into limbo." 46. [35] "How come he'd been stuck with parental images like that?" 47. [36] "One thing—when he was jockeying a rocket to Mars or maybe firing the pants off Asiatic reds in some steamy gone jungle paradise, he'd forget his punkie origins in teeveeland." 48. [37] "Wayne had heard about it often enough." 49. [38] "Anyway there was no doubt about it when every move he made was a restrained explosion." 50. [39] "So he'd waited in his room, and it wasn't easy sweating it out alone waiting for the breakout call from HQ." 51. [40] ""Well, dear, if you say so," Mother said, with the old resigned sigh that must make the old man feel like Superman with a beerbelly." 52. [41] "They heard Wayne slouching loosely down the stairs and looked up." 53. [42] ""Relax," Wayne said." 54. [43] ""You're not going anywhere tonight."" 55. [44] ""What, son?"" 56. [45] ""Sure we are." 57. [46] "We're going to the movies."" 58. [47] "He could feel them watching him, waiting; and yet still he didn't answer." 59. [48] "Somewhere out in suburban grayness a dog barked, then was silent." 60. [49] ""Okay, go," Wayne said." 61. [50] ""If you wanta walk." 62. [51] "I'm taking the family boltbucket."" 63. [52] ""But we promised the Clemons, dear," his mother said." 64. [53] ""Hell," Wayne said, grinning straight into the old man." 65. [54] ""I just got my draft call."" 66. [55] "He saw the old man's Adam's apple move." 67. [56] ""Oh, my dear boy," Mother cried out." 68. [57] ""So gimme the keys," Wayne said." 69. [58] "The old man handed the keys over." 70. [59] "His understanding smile was strained, and fear flicked in his sagging eyes." 71. [60] ""Do be careful, dear," his mother said." 72. [61] "She ran toward him as he laughed and shut the door on her." 73. [62] "He was still laughing as he whoomed the Olds between the pale dead glow of houses and roared up the ramp onto the Freeway." 74. [63] "Ahead was the promising glitter of adventure-calling neon, and he looked up at the high skies of night and his eyes sailed the glaring wonders of escape." 75. [64] "He burned off some rubber finding a slot in the park-lot." 76. [65] "He strode under a sign reading Public Youth Center No." 77. [66] "947 and walked casually to the reception desk, where a thin man with sergeant's stripes and a pansy haircut looked out of a pile of paperwork." 78. [67] ""Where you think you're going, my pretty lad?"" 79. [68] "Wayne grinned down." 80. [69] ""Higher I hope than a typewriter jockey."" 81. [70] ""Well," the sergeant said." 82. [71] ""How tough we are this evening." 83. [72] "You have a pass, killer?"" 84. [73] ""Wayne Seton." 85. [74] "Draft call."" 86. [75] ""Oh."" 87. [76] "The sergeant checked his name off a roster and nodded." 88. [77] "He wrote on a slip of paper, handed the pass to Wayne." 89. [78] ""Go to the Armory and check out whatever your lusting little heart desires." 90. [79] "Then report to Captain Jack, room 307."" 91. [80] ""Thanks, sarge dear," Wayne said and took the elevator up to the Armory." 92. [81] "A tired fat corporal with a naked head blinked up at tall Wayne." 93. [82] "Finally he said, "So make up your mind, bud." 94. [83] "Think you're the only kid breaking out tonight?"" 95. [84] ""Hold your teeth, pop," Wayne said, coolly and slowly lighting a cigarette." 96. [85] ""I've decided."" 97. [86] "The corporal's little eyes studied Wayne with malicious amusement." 98. [87] ""Take it from a vet, bud." 99. [88] "Sooner you go the better." 100. [89] "It's a big city and you're starting late." 101. [90] "You can get a cat, not a mouse, and some babes are clever hellcats in a dark alley."" 102. [91] ""You must be a genius," Wayne said." 103. [92] ""A corporal with no hair and still a counterboy." 104. [93] "I'm impressed." 105. [94] "I'm all ears, Dad."" 106. [95] "The corporal sighed wearily." 107. [96] ""You can get that balloon head ventilated, bud, and good."" 108. [97] "Wayne's mouth twitched." 109. [98] "He leaned across the counter toward the shelves and racks of weapons." 110. [99] ""I'll remember that crack when I get my commission."" 111. [100] "He blew smoke in the corporal's face." 112. [101] ""Bring me a Smith and Wesson .38, shoulder holster with spring-clip." 113. [102] "And throw in a Skelly switchblade for kicks—the six-inch disguised job with the double springs."" 114. [103] "The corporal waddled back with the revolver and the switchblade disguised in a leather comb case." 115. [104] "He checked them on a receipt ledger, while Wayne examined the weapons, broke open the revolver, twirled the cylinder and pushed cartridges into the waiting chamber." 116. [105] "He slipped the knife from the comb case, flicked open the blade and stared at its gleam in the buttery light as his mouth went dry and the refracted incandescence of it trickled on his brain like melted ice, exciting and scary." 117. [106] "He removed his leather jacket." 118. [107] "He slung the holster under his left armpit and tested the spring clip release several times, feeling the way the serrated butt dropped into his wet palm." 119. [108] "He put his jacket back on and the switchblade case in his pocket." 120. [109] "He walked toward the elevator and didn't look back as the corporal said, "Good luck, tiger."" 121. [110] "Captain Jack moved massively." 122. [111] "The big stone-walled office, alive with stuffed lion and tiger and gunracks, seemed to grow smaller." 123. [112] "Captain Jack crossed black-booted legs and whacked a cane at the floor." 124. [113] "It had a head shaped like a grinning bear." 125. [114] "Wayne felt the assured smile die on his face." 126. [115] "Something seemed to shrink him." 127. [116] "If he didn't watch himself he'd begin feeling like a pea among bowling balls." 128. [117] "Contemptuously amused little eyes glittered at Wayne from a shaggy head." 129. [118] "Shoulders hunched like stuffed sea-bags." 130. [119] ""Wayne Seton," said Captain Jack as if he were discussing something in a bug collection." 131. [120] ""Well, well, you're really fired up aren't you?" 132. [121] "Really going out to eat 'em." 133. [122] "Right, punk?"" 134. [123] ""Yes, sir," Wayne said." 135. [124] "He ran wet hands down the sides of his chinos." 136. [125] "His legs seemed sheathed in lead as he bit inwardly at shrinking fear the way a dog snaps at a wound." 137. [126] "You big overblown son, he thought, I'll show you but good who is a punk." 138. [127] "They made a guy wait and sweat until he screamed." 139. [128] "They kept a guy on the fire until desire leaped in him, ran and billowed and roared until his brain was filled with it." 140. [129] "But that wasn't enough." 141. [130] "If this muscle-bound creep was such a big boy, what was he doing holding down a desk?"" 142. [131] ""Well, this is it, punk." 143. [132] "You go the distance or start a butterfly collection."" 144. [133] "The cane darted up." 145. [134] "A blade snicked from the end and stopped an inch from Wayne's nose." 146. [135] "He jerked up a shaky hand involuntarily and clamped a knuckle-ridged gag to his gasping mouth." 147. [136] "Captain Jack chuckled." 148. [137] ""All right, superboy."" 149. [138] "He handed Wayne his passcard." 150. [139] ""Curfew's off, punk, for 6 hours." 151. [140] "You got 6 hours to make out."" 152. [141] ""Yes, sir."" 153. [142] ""Your beast is primed and waiting at the Four Aces Club on the West Side." 154. [143] "Know where that is, punk?"" 155. [144] ""No, sir, but I'll find it fast."" 156. [145] ""Sure you will, punk," smiled Captain Jack." 157. [146] ""She'll be wearing yellow slacks and a red shirt." 158. [147] "Black hair, a cute trick." 159. [148] "She's with a hefty psycho who eats punks for breakfast." 160. [149] "He's butchered five people." 161. [150] "They're both on top of the Undesirable list, Seton." 162. [151] "They got to go and they're your key to the stars."" 163. [152] ""Yes, sir," Wayne said." 164. [153] ""So run along and make out, punk," grinned Captain Jack." 165. [154] "A copcar stopped Wayne as he started over the bridge, out of bright respectable neon into the murky westside slum over the river." 166. [155] "Wayne waved the pass card, signed by Captain Jack, under the cop's quivering nose." 167. [156] "The cop shivered and stepped back and waved him on." 168. [157] "The Olds roared over the bridge as the night's rain blew away." 169. [158] "The air through the open window was chill and damp coming from Slumville, but Wayne felt a cold that wasn't of the night or the wind." 170. [159] "He turned off into a rat's warren of the inferiors." 171. [160] "Lights turned pale, secretive and sparse, the uncared-for streets became rough with pitted potholes, narrow and winding and humid with wet unpleasant smells." 172. [161] "Wayne's fearful exhilaration increased as he cruised with bated breath through the dark mazes of streets and rickety tenements crawling with the shadows of mysterious promise." 173. [162] "He found the alley, dark, a gloom-dripping tunnel." 174. [163] "He drove cautiously into it and rolled along, watching." 175. [164] "His belly ached with expectancy as he spotted the sick-looking dab of neon wanly sparkling." 176. [165] "FOUR ACES CLUB He parked across the alley." 177. [166] "He got out and stood in shadows, digging the sultry beat of a combo, the wild pulse of drums and spinning brass filtering through windows painted black." 178. [167] "He breathed deep, started over, ducked back." 179. [168] "A stewbum weaved out of a bank of garbage cans, humming to himself, pulling at a rainsoaked shirt clinging to a pale stick body." 180. [169] "He reminded Wayne of a slim grub balanced on one end." 181. [170] "The stewbum stumbled." 182. [171] "His bearded face in dim breaking moonlight had a dirty, greenish tinge as he sensed Wayne there." 183. [172] "He turned in a grotesque uncoordinated jiggling and his eyes were wide with terror and doom." 184. [173] ""I gotta hide, kid." 185. [174] "They're on me."" 186. [175] "Wayne's chest rose and his hands curled." 187. [176] "The b

What is the plot of the story?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The Monster Maker By RAY BRADBURY "Get Gunther," the official orders read. [2] It was to laugh! [3] For Click and Irish were marooned on the pirate's asteroid—their only weapons a single gun and a news-reel camera. [4] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1944. [5] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [6] Suddenly, it was there. [7] There wasn't time to blink or speak or get scared. [8] Click Hathaway's camera was loaded and he stood there listening to it rack-spin film between his fingers, and he knew he was getting a damned sweet picture of everything that was happening. [9] The picture of Marnagan hunched huge over the control-console, wrenching levers, jamming studs with freckled fists. [10] And out in the dark of the fore-part there was space and a star-sprinkling and this meteor coming like blazing fury. [11] Click Hathaway felt the ship move under him like a sensitive animal's skin. [12] And then the meteor hit. [13] It made a spiked fist and knocked the rear-jets flat, and the ship spun like a cosmic merry-go-round. [14] There was plenty of noise. [15] Too damned much. [16] Hathaway only knew he was picked up and hurled against a lever-bank, and that Marnagan wasn't long in following, swearing loud words. [17] Click remembered hanging on to his camera and gritting to keep holding it. [18] What a sweet shot that had been of the meteor! [19] A sweeter one still of Marnagan beating hell out of the controls and keeping his words to himself until just now. [20] It got quiet. [21] It got so quiet you could almost hear the asteroids rushing up, cold, blue and hard. [22] You could hear your heart kicking a tom-tom between your sick stomach and your empty lungs. [23] Stars, asteroids revolved. [24] Click grabbed Marnagan because he was the nearest thing, and held on. [25] You came hunting for a space-raider and you ended up cradled in a slab-sized Irishman's arms, diving at a hunk of metal death. [26] What a fade-out! [27] "Irish!" [28] he heard himself say. [29] "Is this IT?" [30] "Is this what ?" [31] yelled Marnagan inside his helmet. [32] "Is this where the Big Producer yells CUT!?" [33] Marnagan fumed. [34] "I'll die when I'm damned good and ready. [35] And when I'm ready I'll inform you and you can picture me profile for Cosmic Films!" [36] They both waited, thrust against the shipside and held by a hand of gravity; listening to each other's breathing hard in the earphones. [37] The ship struck, once. [38] Bouncing, it struck again. [39] It turned end over and stopped. [40] Hathaway felt himself grabbed; he and Marnagan rattled around—human dice in a croupier's cup. [41] The shell of the ship burst, air and energy flung out. [42] Hathaway screamed the air out of his lungs, but his brain was thinking quick crazy, unimportant things. [43] The best scenes in life never reach film, or an audience. [44] Like this one, dammit! [45] Like this one! [46] His brain spun, racketing like the instantaneous, flicking motions of his camera. [47] Silence came and engulfed all the noise, ate it up and swallowed it. [48] Hathaway shook his head, instinctively grabbed at the camera locked to his mid-belt. [49] There was nothing but stars, twisted wreckage, cold that pierced through his vac-suit, and silence. [50] He wriggled out of the wreckage into that silence. [51] He didn't know what he was doing until he found the camera in his fingers as if it had grown there when he was born. [52] He stood there, thinking "Well, I'll at least have a few good scenes on film. [53] I'll—" A hunk of metal teetered, fell with a crash. [54] Marnagan elevated seven feet of bellowing manhood from the wreck. [55] "Hold it!" [56] cracked Hathaway's high voice. [57] Marnagan froze. [58] The camera whirred. [59] "Low angle shot; Interplanetary Patrolman emerges unscathed from asteroid crackup. [60] Swell stuff. [61] I'll get a raise for this!" [62] "From the toe of me boot!" [63] snarled Marnagan brusquely. [64] Oxen shoulders flexed inside his vac-suit. [65] "I might've died in there, and you nursin' that film-contraption!" [66] Hathaway felt funny inside, suddenly. [67] "I never thought of that. [68] Marnagan die? [69] I just took it for granted you'd come through. [70] You always have. [71] Funny, but you don't think about dying. [72] You try not to." [73] Hathaway stared at his gloved hand, but the gloving was so thick and heavy he couldn't tell if it was shaking. [74] Muscles in his bony face went down, pale. [75] "Where are we?" [76] "A million miles from nobody." [77] They stood in the middle of a pocked, time-eroded meteor plain that stretched off, dipping down into silent indigo and a rash of stars. [78] Overhead, the sun poised; black and stars all around it, making it look sick. [79] "If we walk in opposite directions, Click Hathaway, we'd be shaking hands the other side of this rock in two hours." [80] Marnagan shook his mop of dusty red hair. [81] "And I promised the boys at Luna Base this time I'd capture that Gunther lad!" [82] His voice stopped and the silence spoke. [83] Hathaway felt his heart pumping slow, hot pumps of blood. [84] "I checked my oxygen, Irish. [85] Sixty minutes of breathing left." [86] The silence punctuated that sentence, too. [87] Upon the sharp meteoric rocks Hathaway saw the tangled insides of the radio, the food supply mashed and scattered. [88] They were lucky to have escaped. [89] Or was suffocation a better death...? [90] Sixty minutes. [91] They stood and looked at one another. [92] "Damn that meteor!" [93] said Marnagan, hotly. [94] Hathaway got hold of an idea; remembering something. [95] He said it out: "Somebody tossed that meteor, Irish. [96] I took a picture of it, looked it right in the eye when it rolled at us, and it was poker-hot. [97] Space-meteors are never hot and glowing. [98] If it's proof you want, I've got it here, on film." [99] Marnagan winced his freckled square of face. [100] "It's not proof we need now, Click. [101] Oxygen. [102] And then food . [103] And then some way back to Earth." [104] Hathaway went on saying his thoughts: "This is Gunther's work. [105] He's here somewhere, probably laughing his guts out at the job he did us. [106] Oh, God, this would make great news-release stuff if we ever get back to Earth. [107] I.P. [108] 's Irish Marnagan, temporarily indisposed by a pirate whose dirty face has never been seen, Gunther by name, finally wins through to a triumphant finish. [109] Photographed on the spot, in color, by yours truly, Click Hathaway. [110] Cosmic Films, please notice." [111] They started walking, fast, over the pocked, rubbled plain toward a bony ridge of metal. [112] They kept their eyes wide and awake. [113] There wasn't much to see, but it was better than standing still, waiting. [114] Marnagan said, "We're working on margin, and we got nothin' to sweat with except your suspicions about this not being an accident. [115] We got fifty minutes to prove you're right. [116] After that—right or wrong—you'll be Cosmic Films prettiest unmoving, unbreathin' genius. [117] But talk all you like, Click. [118] It's times like this when we all need words, any words, on our tongues. [119] You got your camera and your scoop. [120] Talk about it. [121] As for me—" he twisted his glossy red face. [122] "Keeping alive is me hobby. [123] And this sort of two-bit death I did not order." [124] Click nodded. [125] "Gunther knows how you'd hate dying this way, Irish. [126] It's irony clean through. [127] That's probably why he planned the meteor and the crash this way." [128] Marnagan said nothing, but his thick lips went down at the corners, far down, and the green eyes blazed. [129] They stopped, together. [130] "Oops!" [131] Click said. [132] "Hey!" [133] Marnagan blinked. [134] "Did you feel that ?" [135] Hathaway's body felt feathery, light as a whisper, boneless and limbless, suddenly. [136] "Irish! [137] We lost weight, coming over that ridge!" [138] They ran back. [139] "Let's try it again." [140] They tried it. [141] They scowled at each other. [142] The same thing happened. [143] "Gravity should not act this way, Click." [144] "Are you telling me? [145] It's man-made. [146] Better than that—it's Gunther! [147] No wonder we fell so fast—we were dragged down by a super-gravity set-up! [148] Gunther'd do anything to—did I say anything ?" [149] Hathaway leaped backward in reaction. [150] His eyes widened and his hand came up, jabbing. [151] Over a hill-ridge swarmed a brew of unbelievable horrors. [152] Progeny from Frankenstein's ARK. [153] Immense crimson beasts with numerous legs and gnashing mandibles, brown-black creatures, some tubular and fat, others like thin white poisonous whips slashing along in the air. [154] Fangs caught starlight white on them. [155] Hathaway yelled and ran, Marnagan at his heels, lumbering. [156] Sweat broke cold on his body. [157] The immense things rolled, slithered and squirmed after him. [158] A blast of light. [159] Marnagan, firing his proton-gun. [160] Then, in Click's ears, the Irishman's incredulous bellow. [161] The gun didn't hurt the creatures at all. [162] "Irish!" [163] Hathaway flung himself over the ridge, slid down an incline toward the mouth a small cave. [164] "This way, fella!" [165] Hathaway made it first, Marnagan bellowing just behind him. [166] "They're too big; they can't get us in here!" [167] Click's voice gasped it out, as Marnagan squeezed his two-hundred-fifty pounds beside him. [168] Instinctively, Hathaway added, "Asteroid monsters! [169] My camera! [170] What a scene!" [171] "Damn your damn camera!" [172] yelled Marnagan. [173] "They might come in!" [174] "Use your gun." [175] "They got impervious hides. [176] No use. [177] Gahh! [178] And that was a pretty chase, eh, Click?" [179] "Yeah. [180] Sure. [181] You enjoyed it, every moment of it." [182] "I did that." [183] Irish grinned, showing white uneven teeth. [184] "Now, what will we be doing with these uninvited guests at our door?" [185] "Let me think—" "Lots of time, little man. [186] Forty more minutes of air, to be exact." [187] They sat, staring at the monsters for about a minute. [188] Hathaway felt funny about something; didn't know what. [189] Something about these monsters and Gunther and— "Which one will you be having?" [190] asked Irish, casually. [191] "A red one or a blue one?" [192] Hathaway laughed nervously. [193] "A pink one with yellow ruffles—Good God, now you've got me doing it. [194] Joking in the face of death." [195] "Me father taught me; keep laughing and you'll have Irish luck." [196] That didn't please the photographer. [197] "I'm an Anglo-Swede," he pointed out. [198] Marnagan shifted uneasily. [199] "Here, now. [200] You're doing nothing but sitting, looking like a little boy locked in a bedroom closet, so take me a profile shot of the beasties and myself." [201] Hathaway petted his camera reluctantly. [202] "What in hell's the use? [203] All this swell film shot. [204] Nobody'll ever see it." [205] "Then," retorted Marnagan, "we'll develop it for our own benefit; while waitin' for the U.S. Cavalry to come riding over the hill to our rescue!" [206] Hathaway snorted. [207] "U.S. [208] Cavalry." [209] Marnagan raised his proton-gun dramatically. [210] "Snap me this pose," he said. [211] "I paid your salary to trot along, photographing, we hoped, my capture of Gunther, now the least you can do is record peace negotiations betwixt me and these pixies." [212] Marnagan wasn't fooling anybody. [213] Hathaway knew the superficial palaver for nothing but a covering over the fast, furious thinking running around in that red-cropped skull. [214] Hathaway played the palaver, too, but his mind was whirring faster than his camera as he spun a picture of Marnagan standing there with a useless gun pointed at the animals. [215] Montage. [216] Marnagan sitting, chatting at the monsters. [217] Marnagan smiling for the camera. [218] Marnagan in profile. [219] Marnagan looking grim, without much effort, for the camera. [220] And then, a closeup of the thrashing death wall that holed them in. [221] Click took them all, those shots, not saying anything. [222] Nobody fooled nobody with this act. [223] Death was near and they had sweaty faces, dry mouths and frozen guts. [224] When Click finished filming, Irish sat down to save oxygen, and used it up arguing about Gunther. [225] Click came back at him: "Gunther drew us down here, sure as Ceres! [226] That gravity change we felt back on that ridge, Irish; that proves it. [227] Gunther's short on men. [228] So, what's he do; he builds an asteroid-base, and drags ships down. [229] Space war isn't perfect yet, guns don't prime true in space, trajectory is lousy over long distances. [230] So what's the best weapon, which dispenses with losing valuable, rare ships and a small bunch of men? [231] Super-gravity and a couple of well-tossed meteors. [232] Saves all around. [233] It's a good front, this damned iron pebble. [234] From it, Gunther strikes unseen; ships simply crash, that's all. [235] A subtle hand, with all aces." [236] Marnagan rumbled. [237] "Where is the dirty son, then!" [238] "He didn't have to appear, Irish. [239] He sent—them." [240] Hathaway nodded at the beasts. [241] "People crashing here die from air-lack, no food, or from wounds caused at the crackup. [242] If they survive all that—the animals tend to them. [243] It all looks like Nature was responsible. [244] See how subtle his attack is? [245] Looks like accidental death instead of murder, if the Patrol happens to land and finds us. [246] No reason for undue investigation, then." [247] "I don't see no Base around." [248] Click shrugged. [249] "Still doubt it? [250] Okay. [251] Look." [252] He tapped his camera and a spool popped out onto his gloved palm. [253] Holding it up, he stripped it out to its full twenty inch length, held it to the light while it developed, smiling. [254] It was one of his best inventions. [255] Self-developing film. [256] The first light struck film-surface, destroyed one chemical, leaving imprints; the second exposure simply hardened, secured the impressions. [257] Quick stuff. [258] Inserting the film-tongue into a micro-viewer in the camera's base, Click handed the whole thing over. [259] "Look." [260] Marnagan put the viewer up against the helmet glass, squinted. [261] "Ah, Click. [262] Now, now. [263] This is one lousy film you invented." [264] "Huh?" [265] "It's a strange process'll develop my picture and ignore the asteroid monsters complete." [266] "What!" [267] Hathaway grabbed the camera, gasped, squinted, and gasped again: Pictures in montage; Marnagan sitting down, chatting conversationally with nothing ; Marnagan shooting his gun at nothing ; Marnagan pretending to be happy in front of nothing . [268] Then, closeup—of—NOTHING! [269] The monsters had failed to image the film. [270] Marnagan was there, his hair like a red banner, his freckled face with the blue eyes bright in it. [271] Maybe— Hathaway said it, loud: "Irish! [272] Irish! [273] I think I see a way out of this mess! [274] Here—" He elucidated it over and over again to the Patrolman. [275] About the film, the beasts, and how the film couldn't be wrong. [276] If the film said the monsters weren't there, they weren't there. [277] "Yeah," said Marnagan. [278] "But step outside this cave—" "If my theory is correct I'll do it, unafraid," said Click. [279] Marnagan scowled. [280] "You sure them beasts don't radiate ultra-violet or infra-red or something that won't come out on film?" [281] "Nuts! [282] Any color we see, the camera sees. [283] We've been fooled." [284] "Hey, where you going?" [285] Marnagan blocked Hathaway as the smaller man tried pushing past him. [286] "Get out of the way," said Hathaway. [287] Marnagan put his big fists on his hips. [288] "If anyone is going anywhere, it'll be me does the going." [289] "I can't let you do that, Irish." [290] "Why not?" [291] "You'd be going on my say-so." [292] "Ain't your say-so good enough for me?" [293] "Yes. [294] Sure. [295] Of course. [296] I guess—" "If you say them animals ain't there, that's all I need. [297] Now, stand aside, you film-developing flea, and let an Irishman settle their bones." [298] He took an unnecessary hitch in trousers that didn't exist except under an inch of porous metal plate. [299] "Your express purpose on this voyage, Hathaway, is taking films to be used by the Patrol later for teaching Junior Patrolmen how to act in tough spots. [300] First-hand education. [301] Poke another spool of film in that contraption and give me profile a scan. [302] This is lesson number seven: Daniel Walks Into The Lion's Den." [303] "Irish, I—" "Shut up and load up." [304] Hathaway nervously loaded the film-slot, raised it. [305] "Ready, Click?" [306] "I—I guess so," said Hathaway. [307] "And remember, think it hard, Irish. [308] Think it hard. [309] There aren't any animals—" "Keep me in focus, lad." [310] "All the way, Irish." [311] "What do they say...? [312] Oh, yeah. [313] Action. [314] Lights. [315] Camera!" [316] Marnagan held his gun out in front of him and still smiling took one, two, three, four steps out into the outside world. [317] The monsters were waiting for him at the fifth step. [318] Marnagan kept walking. [319] Right out into the middle of them.... That was the sweetest shot Hathaway ever took. [320] Marnagan and the monsters! [321] Only now it was only Marnagan. [322] No more monsters. [323] Marnagan smiled a smile broader than his shoulders. [324] "Hey, Click, look at me! [325] I'm in one piece. [326] Why, hell, the damned things turned tail and ran away!" [327] "Ran, hell!" [328] cried Hathaway, rushing out, his face flushed and animated. [329] "They just plain vanished. [330] They were only imaginative figments!" [331] "And to think we let them hole us in that way, Click Hathaway, you coward!" [332] "Smile when you say that, Irish." [333] "Sure, and ain't I always smilin'? [334] Ah, Click boy, are them tears in your sweet grey eyes?" [335] "Damn," swore the photographer, embarrassedly. [336] "Why don't they put window-wipers in these helmets?" [337] "I'll take it up with the Board, lad." [338] "Forget it. [339] I was so blamed glad to see your homely carcass in one hunk, I couldn't help—Look, now, about Gunther. [340] Those animals are part of his set-up. [341] Explorers who land here inadvertently, are chased back into their ships, forced to take off. [342] Tourists and the like. [343] Nothing suspicious about animals. [344] And if the tourists don't leave, the animals kill them." [345] "Shaw, now. [346] Those animals can't kill." [347] "Think not, Mr. Marnagan? [348] As long as we believed in them they could have frightened us to death, forced us, maybe, to commit suicide. [349] If that isn't being dangerous—" The Irishman whistled. [350] "But, we've got to move , Irish. [351] We've got twenty minutes of oxygen. [352] In that time we've got to trace those monsters to their source, Gunther's Base, fight our way in, and get fresh oxy-cannisters." [353] Click attached his camera to his mid-belt. [354] "Gunther probably thinks we're dead by now. [355] Everyone else's been fooled by his playmates; they never had a chance to disbelieve them." [356] "If it hadn't been for you taking them pictures, Click—" "Coupled with your damned stubborn attitude about the accident—" Click stopped and felt his insides turning to water. [357] He shook his head and felt a film slip down over his eyes. [358] He spread his legs out to steady himself, and swayed. [359] "I—I don't think my oxygen is as full as yours. [360] This excitement had me double-breathing and I feel sick." [361] Marnagan's homely face grimaced in sympathy. [362] "Hold tight, Click. [363] The guy that invented these fish-bowls didn't provide for a sick stomach." [364] "Hold tight, hell, let's move. [365] We've got to find where those animals came from! [366] And the only way to do that is to get the animals to come back!" [367] "Come back? [368] How?" [369] "They're waiting, just outside the aura of our thoughts, and if we believe in them again, they'll return." [370] Marnagan didn't like it. [371] "Won't—won't they kill us—if they come—if we believe in 'em?" [372] Hathaway shook a head that was tons heavy and weary. [373] "Not if we believe in them to a certain point . [374] Psychologically they can both be seen and felt. [375] We only want to see them coming at us again." [376] " Do we, now?" [377] "With twenty minutes left, maybe less—" "All right, Click, let's bring 'em back. [378] How do we do it?" [379] Hathaway fought against the mist in his eyes. [380] "Just think—I will see the monsters again. [381] I will see them again and I will not feel them. [382] Think it over and over." [383] Marnagan's hulk stirred uneasily. [384] "And—what if I forget to remember all that? [385] What if I get excited...?" [386] Hathaway didn't answer. [387] But his eyes told the story by just looking at Irish. [388] Marnagan cursed. [389] "All right, lad. [390] Let's have at it!" [391] The monsters returned. [392] A soundless deluge of them, pouring over the rubbled horizon, swarming in malevolent anticipation about the two men. [393] "This way, Irish. [394] They come from this way! [395] There's a focal point, a sending station for these telepathic brutes. [396] Come on!" [397] Hathaway sludged into the pressing tide of color, mouths, contorted faces, silvery fat bodies misting as he plowed through them. [398] Marnagan was making good progress ahead of Hathaway. [399] But he stopped and raised his gun and made quick moves with it. [400] "Click! [401] This one here! [402] It's real!" [403] He fell back and something struck him down. [404] His immense frame slammed against rock, noiselessly. [405] Hathaway darted forward, flung his body over Marnagan's, covered the helmet glass with his hands, shouting: "Marnagan! [406] Get a grip, dammit! [407] It's not real—don't let it force into your mind! [408] It's not real, I tell you!" [409] "Click—" Marnagan's face was a bitter, tortured movement behind glass. [410] "Click—" He was fighting hard. [411] "I—I—sure now. [412] Sure—" He smiled. [413] "It—it's only a shanty fake!" [414] "Keep saying it, Irish. [415] Keep it up." [416] Marnagan's thick lips opened. [417] "It's only a fake," he said. [418] And then, irritated, "Get the hell off me, Hathaway. [419] Let me up to my feet!" [420] Hathaway got up, shakily. [421] The air in his helmet smelled stale, and little bubbles danced in his eyes. [422] "Irish, you forget the monsters. [423] Let me handle them, I know how. [424] They might fool you again, you might forget." [425] Marnagan showed his teeth. [426] "Gah! [427] Let a flea have all the fun? [428] And besides, Click, I like to look at them. [429] They're pretty." [430] The outpour of animals came from a low lying mound a mile farther on. [431] Evidently the telepathic source lay there. [432] They approached it warily. [433] "We'll be taking our chances on guard," hissed Irish. [434] "I'll go ahead, draw their attention, maybe get captured. [435] Then, you show up with your gun...." "I haven't got one." [436] "We'll chance it, then. [437] You stick here until I see what's ahead. [438] They probably got scanners out. [439] Let them see me—" And before Hathaway could object, Marnagan walked off. [440] He walked about five hundred yards, bent down, applied his fingers to something, heaved up, and there was a door opening in the rock. [441] His voice came back across the distance, into Click's earphones. [442] "A door, an air-lock, Click. [443] A tunnel leading down inside!" [444] Then, Marnagan dropped into the tunnel, disappearing. [445] Click heard the thud of his feet hitting the metal flooring. [446] Click sucked in his breath, hard and fast. [447] "All right, put 'em up!" [448] a new harsh voice cried over a different radio. [449] One of Gunther's guards. [450] Three shots sizzled out, and Marnagan bellowed. [451] The strange harsh voice said, "That's better. [452] Don't try and pick that gun up now. [453] Oh, so it's you. [454] I thought Gunther had finished you off. [455] How'd you get past the animals?" [456] Click started running. [457] He switched off his sending audio, kept his receiving on. [458] Marnagan, weaponless. [459] One guard. [460] Click gasped. [461] Things were getting dark. [462] Had to have air. [463] Air. [464] Air. [465] He ran and kept running and listening to Marnagan's lying voice: "I tied them pink elephants of Gunther's in neat alphabetical bundles and stacked them up to dry, ya louse!" [466] Marnagan said. [467] "But, damn you, they killed my partner before he had a chance!" [468] The guard laughed. [469] The air-lock door was still wide open when Click reached it, his head swimming darkly, his lungs crammed with pain-fire and hell-rockets. [470] He let himself down in, quiet and soft. [471] He didn't have a weapon. [472] He didn't have a weapon. [473] Oh, damn, damn! [474] A tunnel curved, ending in light, and two men silhouetted in that yellow glare. [475] Marnagan, backed against a wall, his helmet cracked, air hissing slowly out of it, his face turning blue. [476] And the guard, a proton gun extended stiffly before him, also in a vac-suit. [477] The guard had his profile toward Hathaway, his lips twisting: "I think I'll let you stand right there and die," he said quietly. [478] "That what Gunther wanted, anway. [479] A nice sordid death." [480] Hathaway took three strides, his hands out in front of him. [481] "Don't move!" [482] he snapped. [483] "I've got a weapon stronger than yours. [484] One twitch and I'll blast you and the whole damned wall out from behind you! [485] Freeze!" [486] The guard whirled. [487] He widened his sharp eyes, and reluctantly, dropped his gun to the floor. [488] "Get his gun, Irish." [489] Marnagan made as if to move, crumpled clumsily forward. [490] Hathaway ran in, snatched up the gun, smirked at the guard. [491] "Thanks for posing," he said. [492] "That shot will go down in film history for candid acting." [493] "What!" [494] "Ah: ah! [495] Keep your place. [496] I've got a real gun now. [497] Where's the door leading into the Base?" [498] The guard moved his head sullenly over his left shoulder. [499] Click was afraid he would show his weak dizziness. [500] He needed air. [501] "Okay. [502] Drag Marnagan with you, open the door and we'll have air. [503] Double time! [504] Double!" [505] Ten minutes later, Marnagan and Hathaway, fresh tanks of oxygen on their backs, Marnagan in a fresh bulger and helmet, trussed the guard, hid him in a huge trash receptacle. [506] "Where he belongs," observed Irish tersely. [507] They found themselves in a complete inner world; an asteroid nothing more than a honey-comb fortress sliding through the void unchallenged. [508] Perfect front for a raider who had little equipment and was short-handed of men. [509] Gunther simply waited for specific cargo ships to rocket by, pulled them or knocked them down and swarmed over them for cargo. [510] The animals served simply to insure against suspicion and the swarms of tourists that filled the void these days. [511] Small fry weren't wanted. [512] They were scared off. [513] The telepathic sending station for the animals was a great bank of intricate, glittering machine, through which strips of colored film with images slid into slots and machine mouths that translated them into thought-emanations. [514] A damned neat piece of genius. [515] "So here we are, still not much better off than we were," growled Irish. [516] "We haven't a ship or a space-radio, and more guards'll turn up any moment. [517] You think we could refocus this doohingey, project the monsters inside the asteroid to fool the pirates themselves?" [518] "What good would that do?" [519] Hathaway gnawed his lip. [520] "They wouldn't fool the engineers who created them, you nut." [521] Marnagan exhaled disgustedly. [522] "Ah, if only the U.S. Cavalry would come riding over the hill—" "Irish!" [523] Hathaway snapped that, his face lighting up. [524] "Irish. [525] The U.S. Cavalry it is!" [526] His eyes darted over the machines. [527] "Here. [528] Help me. [529] We'll stage everything on the most colossal raid of the century." [530] Marnagan winced. [531] "You breathing oxygen or whiskey?" [532] "There's only one stipulation I make, Irish. [533] I want a complete picture of Marnagan capturing Raider's Base. [534] I want a picture of Gunther's face when you do it. [535] Snap it, now, we've got rush work to do. [536] How good an actor are you?" [537] "That's a silly question." [538] "You only have to do three things. [539] Walk with your gun out in front of you, firing. [540] That's number one. [541] Number two is to clutch at your heart and fall down dead. [542] Number three is to clutch at your side, fall down and twitch on the ground. [543] Is that clear?" [544] "Clear as the Coal Sack Nebula...." An hour later Hathaway trudged down a passageway that led out into a sort of city street inside the asteroid. [545] There were about six streets, lined with cube houses in yellow metal, ending near Hathaway in a wide, green-lawned Plaza. [546] Hathaway, weaponless, idly carrying his camera in one hand, walked across the Plaza as if he owned it. [547] He was heading for a building that was pretentious enough to be Gunther's quarters. [548] He got halfway there when he felt a gun in his back. [549] He didn't resist. [550] They took him straight ahead to his destination and pushed him into a room where Gunther sat. [551] Hathaway looked at him. [552] "So you're Gunther?" [553] he said, calmly. [554] The pirate was incredibly old, his bulging forehead stood out over sunken, questioningly dark eyes, and his scrawny body was lost in folds of metal-link cloth. [555] He glanced up from a paper-file, surprised. [556] Before he could speak, Hathaway said: "Everything's over with, Mr. Gunther. [557] The Patrol is in the city now and we're capturing your Base. [558] Don't try to fight. [559] We've a thousand men against your eighty-five." [560] Gunther sat there, blinking at Hathaway, not moving. [561] His thin hands twitched in his lap. [562] "You are bluffing," he said, finally, with a firm directness. [563] "A ship hasn't landed here for an hour. [564] Your ship was the last. [565] Two people were on it. [566] The last I saw of them they were being pursued to the death by the Beasts. [567] One of you escaped, it seemed." [568] "Both. [569] The other guy went after the Patrol." [570] "Impossible!" [571] "I can't respect your opinion, Mr. [572] Gunther." [573] A shouting rose from the Plaza. [574] About fifty of Gunther's men, lounging on carved benches during their time-off, stirred to their feet and started yelling. [575] Gunther turned slowly to the huge window in one side of his office. [576] He stared, hard. [577] The Patrol was coming! [578] Across the Plaza, marching quietly and decisively, came the Patrol. [579] Five hundred Patrolmen in one long, incredible line, carrying paralysis guns with them in their tight hands. [580] Gunther babbled like a child, his voice a shrill dagger in the air. [581] "Get out there, you men! [582] Throw them back! [583] We're outnumbered!" [584] Guns flared. [585] But the Patrol came on. [586] Gunther's men didn't run, Hathaway had to credit them on that. [587] They took it, standing. [588] Hathaway chuckled inside, deep. [589] What a sweet, sweet shot this was. [590] His camera whirred, clicked and whirred again. [591] Nobody stopped him from filming it. [592] Everything was too wild, hot and angry. [593] Gunther was throwing a fit, still seated at his desk, unable to move because of his fragile, bony legs and their atrophied state. [594] Some of the Patrol were killed. [595] Hathaway chuckled again as he saw three of the Patrolmen clutch at their hearts, crumple, lie on the ground and twitch. [596] God, what photography! [597] Gunther raged, and swept a small pistol from his linked corselet. [598] He fired wildly until Hathaway hit him over the head with a paper-weight. [599] Then Hathaway took a picture of Gunther slumped at his desk, the chaos taking place immediately outside his window. [600] The pirates broke and fled, those that were left. [601] A mere handful. [602] And out of the chaos came Marnagan's voice, "Here!" [603] One of the Patrolmen stopped firing, and ran toward Click and the Building. [604] He got inside. [605] "Did you see them run, Click boy? [606] What an idea. [607] How did we do?" [608] "Fine, Irish. [609] Fine!" [610] "So here's Gunther, the spalpeen! [611] Gunther, the little dried up pirate, eh?" [612] Marnagan whacked Hathaway on the back. [613] "I'll have to hand it to you, this is the best plan o' battle ever laid out. [614] And proud I was to fight with such splendid men as these—" He gestured toward the Plaza. [615] Click laughed with him. [616] "You should be proud. [617] Five hundred Patrolmen with hair like red banners flying, with thick Irish brogues and broad shoulders and freckles and blue eyes and a body as tall as your stories!" [618] Marnagan roared. [619] "I always said, I said—if ever there could be an army of Marnagans, we could lick the whole damn uneeverse! [620] Did you photograph it, Click?" [621] "I did." [622] Hathaway tapped his camera happily. [623] "Ah, then, won't that be a scoop for you, boy? [624] Money from the Patrol so they can use the film as instruction in Classes and money from Cosmic Films for the news-reel headlines! [625] And what a scene, and what acting! [626] Five hundred duplicates of Steve Marnagan, broadcast telepathically into the minds of the pirates, walking across a Plaza, capturing the whole she-bang! [627] How did you like my death-scenes?" [628] "You're a ham. [629] And anyway—five hundred duplicates, nothing!" [630] said Click. [631] He ripped the film-spool from the camera, spread it in the air to develop, inserted it in the micro-viewer. [632] "Have a look—" Marnagan looked. [633] "Ah, now. [634] Ah, now," he said over and over. [635] "There's the Plaza, and there's Gunther's men fighting and then they're turning and running. [636] And what are they running from? [637] One man! [638] Me. [639] Irish Marnagan! [640] Walking all by myself across the lawn, paralyzing them. [641] One against a hundred, and the cowards running from me! [642] "Sure, Click, this is better than I thought. [643] I forgot that the film wouldn't register telepathic emanations, them other Marnagans. [644] It makes it look like I'm a mighty brave man, does it not? [645] It does. [646] Ah, look—look at me, Hathaway, I'm enjoying every minute of it, I am." [647] Hathaway swatted him on his back-side. [648] "Look here, you egocentric son of Erin, there's more work to be done. [649] More pirates to be captured. [650] The Patrol is still marching around and someone might be suspicious if they looked too close and saw all that red hair." [651] "All right, Click, we'll clean up the rest of them now. [652] We're a combination, we two, we are. [653] I take it all back about your pictures, Click, if you hadn't thought of taking pictures of me and inserting it into those telepath machines we'd be dead ducks now. [654] Well—here I go...." Hathaway stopped him. [655] "Hold it. [656] Until I load my camera again." [657] Irish grinned. [658] "Hurry it up. [659] Here come three guards. [660] They're unarmed. [661] I think I'll handle them with me fists for a change. [662] The gentle art of uppercuts. [663] Are you ready, Hathaway?" [664] "Ready." [665] Marnagan lifted his big ham-fists. [666] The camera whirred. [667] Hathaway chuckled, to himself. [668] What a sweet fade-out this was!

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [239] Hathaway nodded at the beasts. "People crashing here die from air-lack, no food, or from wounds caused at the crackup. If they survive all that—the animals tend to them. It all looks like Nature was responsible. See how subtle his attack is? Looks like accidental death instead of murder, if the Patrol happens to land and finds us. No reason for undue investigation, then." 2. [225] Click came back at him: "Gunther drew us down here, sure as Ceres! That gravity change we felt back on that ridge, Irish; that proves it. Gunther's short on men. So, what's he do; he builds an asteroid-base, and drags ships down. Space war isn't perfect yet, guns don't prime true in space, trajectory is lousy over long distances. So what's the best weapon, which dispenses with losing valuable, rare ships and a small bunch of men? Super-gravity and a couple of well-tossed meteors. Saves all around. It's a good front, this damned iron pebble. From it, Gunther strikes unseen; ships simply crash, that's all. A subtle hand, with all aces." 3. [507] They found themselves in a complete inner world; an asteroid nothing more than a honey-comb fortress sliding through the void unchallenged. Perfect front for a raider who had little equipment and was short-handed of men. Gunther simply waited for specific cargo ships to rocket by, pulled them or knocked them down and swarmed over them for cargo. 4. [508] The animals served simply to insure against suspicion and the swarms of tourists that filled the void these days. Small fry weren't wanted. They were scared off. 5. [509] The telepathic sending station for the animals was a great bank of intricate, glittering machine, through which strips of colored film with images slid into slots and machine mouths that translated them into thought-emanations. A damned neat piece of genius. 6. [391] The monsters returned. A soundless deluge of them, pouring over the rubbled horizon, swarming in malevolent anticipation about the two men. 7. [392] "This way, Irish. They come from this way! There's a focal point, a sending station for these telepathic brutes. Come on!" 8. [150] His eyes widened and his hand came up, jabbing. Over a hill-ridge swarmed a brew of unbelievable horrors. Progeny from Frankenstein's ARK. Immense crimson beasts with numerous legs and gnashing mandibles, brown-black creatures, some tubular and fat, others like thin white poisonous whips slashing along in the air. 9. [163] Hathaway flung himself over the ridge, slid down an incline toward the mouth a small cave. "This way, fella!" 10. [164] Hathaway made it first, Marnagan bellowing just behind him. "They're too big; they can't get us in here!"

What is the significance of Hathaway’s profession in the story?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The Monster Maker By RAY BRADBURY "Get Gunther," the official orders read. [2] It was to laugh! [3] For Click and Irish were marooned on the pirate's asteroid—their only weapons a single gun and a news-reel camera. [4] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1944. [5] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [6] Suddenly, it was there. [7] There wasn't time to blink or speak or get scared. [8] Click Hathaway's camera was loaded and he stood there listening to it rack-spin film between his fingers, and he knew he was getting a damned sweet picture of everything that was happening. [9] The picture of Marnagan hunched huge over the control-console, wrenching levers, jamming studs with freckled fists. [10] And out in the dark of the fore-part there was space and a star-sprinkling and this meteor coming like blazing fury. [11] Click Hathaway felt the ship move under him like a sensitive animal's skin. [12] And then the meteor hit. [13] It made a spiked fist and knocked the rear-jets flat, and the ship spun like a cosmic merry-go-round. [14] There was plenty of noise. [15] Too damned much. [16] Hathaway only knew he was picked up and hurled against a lever-bank, and that Marnagan wasn't long in following, swearing loud words. [17] Click remembered hanging on to his camera and gritting to keep holding it. [18] What a sweet shot that had been of the meteor! [19] A sweeter one still of Marnagan beating hell out of the controls and keeping his words to himself until just now. [20] It got quiet. [21] It got so quiet you could almost hear the asteroids rushing up, cold, blue and hard. [22] You could hear your heart kicking a tom-tom between your sick stomach and your empty lungs. [23] Stars, asteroids revolved. [24] Click grabbed Marnagan because he was the nearest thing, and held on. [25] You came hunting for a space-raider and you ended up cradled in a slab-sized Irishman's arms, diving at a hunk of metal death. [26] What a fade-out! [27] "Irish!" [28] he heard himself say. [29] "Is this IT?" [30] "Is this what ?" [31] yelled Marnagan inside his helmet. [32] "Is this where the Big Producer yells CUT!?" [33] Marnagan fumed. [34] "I'll die when I'm damned good and ready. [35] And when I'm ready I'll inform you and you can picture me profile for Cosmic Films!" [36] They both waited, thrust against the shipside and held by a hand of gravity; listening to each other's breathing hard in the earphones. [37] The ship struck, once. [38] Bouncing, it struck again. [39] It turned end over and stopped. [40] Hathaway felt himself grabbed; he and Marnagan rattled around—human dice in a croupier's cup. [41] The shell of the ship burst, air and energy flung out. [42] Hathaway screamed the air out of his lungs, but his brain was thinking quick crazy, unimportant things. [43] The best scenes in life never reach film, or an audience. [44] Like this one, dammit! [45] Like this one! [46] His brain spun, racketing like the instantaneous, flicking motions of his camera. [47] Silence came and engulfed all the noise, ate it up and swallowed it. [48] Hathaway shook his head, instinctively grabbed at the camera locked to his mid-belt. [49] There was nothing but stars, twisted wreckage, cold that pierced through his vac-suit, and silence. [50] He wriggled out of the wreckage into that silence. [51] He didn't know what he was doing until he found the camera in his fingers as if it had grown there when he was born. [52] He stood there, thinking "Well, I'll at least have a few good scenes on film. [53] I'll—" A hunk of metal teetered, fell with a crash. [54] Marnagan elevated seven feet of bellowing manhood from the wreck. [55] "Hold it!" [56] cracked Hathaway's high voice. [57] Marnagan froze. [58] The camera whirred. [59] "Low angle shot; Interplanetary Patrolman emerges unscathed from asteroid crackup. [60] Swell stuff. [61] I'll get a raise for this!" [62] "From the toe of me boot!" [63] snarled Marnagan brusquely. [64] Oxen shoulders flexed inside his vac-suit. [65] "I might've died in there, and you nursin' that film-contraption!" [66] Hathaway felt funny inside, suddenly. [67] "I never thought of that. [68] Marnagan die? [69] I just took it for granted you'd come through. [70] You always have. [71] Funny, but you don't think about dying. [72] You try not to." [73] Hathaway stared at his gloved hand, but the gloving was so thick and heavy he couldn't tell if it was shaking. [74] Muscles in his bony face went down, pale. [75] "Where are we?" [76] "A million miles from nobody." [77] They stood in the middle of a pocked, time-eroded meteor plain that stretched off, dipping down into silent indigo and a rash of stars. [78] Overhead, the sun poised; black and stars all around it, making it look sick. [79] "If we walk in opposite directions, Click Hathaway, we'd be shaking hands the other side of this rock in two hours." [80] Marnagan shook his mop of dusty red hair. [81] "And I promised the boys at Luna Base this time I'd capture that Gunther lad!" [82] His voice stopped and the silence spoke. [83] Hathaway felt his heart pumping slow, hot pumps of blood. [84] "I checked my oxygen, Irish. [85] Sixty minutes of breathing left." [86] The silence punctuated that sentence, too. [87] Upon the sharp meteoric rocks Hathaway saw the tangled insides of the radio, the food supply mashed and scattered. [88] They were lucky to have escaped. [89] Or was suffocation a better death...? [90] Sixty minutes. [91] They stood and looked at one another. [92] "Damn that meteor!" [93] said Marnagan, hotly. [94] Hathaway got hold of an idea; remembering something. [95] He said it out: "Somebody tossed that meteor, Irish. [96] I took a picture of it, looked it right in the eye when it rolled at us, and it was poker-hot. [97] Space-meteors are never hot and glowing. [98] If it's proof you want, I've got it here, on film." [99] Marnagan winced his freckled square of face. [100] "It's not proof we need now, Click. [101] Oxygen. [102] And then food . [103] And then some way back to Earth." [104] Hathaway went on saying his thoughts: "This is Gunther's work. [105] He's here somewhere, probably laughing his guts out at the job he did us. [106] Oh, God, this would make great news-release stuff if we ever get back to Earth. [107] I.P. [108] 's Irish Marnagan, temporarily indisposed by a pirate whose dirty face has never been seen, Gunther by name, finally wins through to a triumphant finish. [109] Photographed on the spot, in color, by yours truly, Click Hathaway. [110] Cosmic Films, please notice." [111] They started walking, fast, over the pocked, rubbled plain toward a bony ridge of metal. [112] They kept their eyes wide and awake. [113] There wasn't much to see, but it was better than standing still, waiting. [114] Marnagan said, "We're working on margin, and we got nothin' to sweat with except your suspicions about this not being an accident. [115] We got fifty minutes to prove you're right. [116] After that—right or wrong—you'll be Cosmic Films prettiest unmoving, unbreathin' genius. [117] But talk all you like, Click. [118] It's times like this when we all need words, any words, on our tongues. [119] You got your camera and your scoop. [120] Talk about it. [121] As for me—" he twisted his glossy red face. [122] "Keeping alive is me hobby. [123] And this sort of two-bit death I did not order." [124] Click nodded. [125] "Gunther knows how you'd hate dying this way, Irish. [126] It's irony clean through. [127] That's probably why he planned the meteor and the crash this way." [128] Marnagan said nothing, but his thick lips went down at the corners, far down, and the green eyes blazed. [129] They stopped, together. [130] "Oops!" [131] Click said. [132] "Hey!" [133] Marnagan blinked. [134] "Did you feel that ?" [135] Hathaway's body felt feathery, light as a whisper, boneless and limbless, suddenly. [136] "Irish! [137] We lost weight, coming over that ridge!" [138] They ran back. [139] "Let's try it again." [140] They tried it. [141] They scowled at each other. [142] The same thing happened. [143] "Gravity should not act this way, Click." [144] "Are you telling me? [145] It's man-made. [146] Better than that—it's Gunther! [147] No wonder we fell so fast—we were dragged down by a super-gravity set-up! [148] Gunther'd do anything to—did I say anything ?" [149] Hathaway leaped backward in reaction. [150] His eyes widened and his hand came up, jabbing. [151] Over a hill-ridge swarmed a brew of unbelievable horrors. [152] Progeny from Frankenstein's ARK. [153] Immense crimson beasts with numerous legs and gnashing mandibles, brown-black creatures, some tubular and fat, others like thin white poisonous whips slashing along in the air. [154] Fangs caught starlight white on them. [155] Hathaway yelled and ran, Marnagan at his heels, lumbering. [156] Sweat broke cold on his body. [157] The immense things rolled, slithered and squirmed after him. [158] A blast of light. [159] Marnagan, firing his proton-gun. [160] Then, in Click's ears, the Irishman's incredulous bellow. [161] The gun didn't hurt the creatures at all. [162] "Irish!" [163] Hathaway flung himself over the ridge, slid down an incline toward the mouth a small cave. [164] "This way, fella!" [165] Hathaway made it first, Marnagan bellowing just behind him. [166] "They're too big; they can't get us in here!" [167] Click's voice gasped it out, as Marnagan squeezed his two-hundred-fifty pounds beside him. [168] Instinctively, Hathaway added, "Asteroid monsters! [169] My camera! [170] What a scene!" [171] "Damn your damn camera!" [172] yelled Marnagan. [173] "They might come in!" [174] "Use your gun." [175] "They got impervious hides. [176] No use. [177] Gahh! [178] And that was a pretty chase, eh, Click?" [179] "Yeah. [180] Sure. [181] You enjoyed it, every moment of it." [182] "I did that." [183] Irish grinned, showing white uneven teeth. [184] "Now, what will we be doing with these uninvited guests at our door?" [185] "Let me think—" "Lots of time, little man. [186] Forty more minutes of air, to be exact." [187] They sat, staring at the monsters for about a minute. [188] Hathaway felt funny about something; didn't know what. [189] Something about these monsters and Gunther and— "Which one will you be having?" [190] asked Irish, casually. [191] "A red one or a blue one?" [192] Hathaway laughed nervously. [193] "A pink one with yellow ruffles—Good God, now you've got me doing it. [194] Joking in the face of death." [195] "Me father taught me; keep laughing and you'll have Irish luck." [196] That didn't please the photographer. [197] "I'm an Anglo-Swede," he pointed out. [198] Marnagan shifted uneasily. [199] "Here, now. [200] You're doing nothing but sitting, looking like a little boy locked in a bedroom closet, so take me a profile shot of the beasties and myself." [201] Hathaway petted his camera reluctantly. [202] "What in hell's the use? [203] All this swell film shot. [204] Nobody'll ever see it." [205] "Then," retorted Marnagan, "we'll develop it for our own benefit; while waitin' for the U.S. Cavalry to come riding over the hill to our rescue!" [206] Hathaway snorted. [207] "U.S. [208] Cavalry." [209] Marnagan raised his proton-gun dramatically. [210] "Snap me this pose," he said. [211] "I paid your salary to trot along, photographing, we hoped, my capture of Gunther, now the least you can do is record peace negotiations betwixt me and these pixies." [212] Marnagan wasn't fooling anybody. [213] Hathaway knew the superficial palaver for nothing but a covering over the fast, furious thinking running around in that red-cropped skull. [214] Hathaway played the palaver, too, but his mind was whirring faster than his camera as he spun a picture of Marnagan standing there with a useless gun pointed at the animals. [215] Montage. [216] Marnagan sitting, chatting at the monsters. [217] Marnagan smiling for the camera. [218] Marnagan in profile. [219] Marnagan looking grim, without much effort, for the camera. [220] And then, a closeup of the thrashing death wall that holed them in. [221] Click took them all, those shots, not saying anything. [222] Nobody fooled nobody with this act. [223] Death was near and they had sweaty faces, dry mouths and frozen guts. [224] When Click finished filming, Irish sat down to save oxygen, and used it up arguing about Gunther. [225] Click came back at him: "Gunther drew us down here, sure as Ceres! [226] That gravity change we felt back on that ridge, Irish; that proves it. [227] Gunther's short on men. [228] So, what's he do; he builds an asteroid-base, and drags ships down. [229] Space war isn't perfect yet, guns don't prime true in space, trajectory is lousy over long distances. [230] So what's the best weapon, which dispenses with losing valuable, rare ships and a small bunch of men? [231] Super-gravity and a couple of well-tossed meteors. [232] Saves all around. [233] It's a good front, this damned iron pebble. [234] From it, Gunther strikes unseen; ships simply crash, that's all. [235] A subtle hand, with all aces." [236] Marnagan rumbled. [237] "Where is the dirty son, then!" [238] "He didn't have to appear, Irish. [239] He sent—them." [240] Hathaway nodded at the beasts. [241] "People crashing here die from air-lack, no food, or from wounds caused at the crackup. [242] If they survive all that—the animals tend to them. [243] It all looks like Nature was responsible. [244] See how subtle his attack is? [245] Looks like accidental death instead of murder, if the Patrol happens to land and finds us. [246] No reason for undue investigation, then." [247] "I don't see no Base around." [248] Click shrugged. [249] "Still doubt it? [250] Okay. [251] Look." [252] He tapped his camera and a spool popped out onto his gloved palm. [253] Holding it up, he stripped it out to its full twenty inch length, held it to the light while it developed, smiling. [254] It was one of his best inventions. [255] Self-developing film. [256] The first light struck film-surface, destroyed one chemical, leaving imprints; the second exposure simply hardened, secured the impressions. [257] Quick stuff. [258] Inserting the film-tongue into a micro-viewer in the camera's base, Click handed the whole thing over. [259] "Look." [260] Marnagan put the viewer up against the helmet glass, squinted. [261] "Ah, Click. [262] Now, now. [263] This is one lousy film you invented." [264] "Huh?" [265] "It's a strange process'll develop my picture and ignore the asteroid monsters complete." [266] "What!" [267] Hathaway grabbed the camera, gasped, squinted, and gasped again: Pictures in montage; Marnagan sitting down, chatting conversationally with nothing ; Marnagan shooting his gun at nothing ; Marnagan pretending to be happy in front of nothing . [268] Then, closeup—of—NOTHING! [269] The monsters had failed to image the film. [270] Marnagan was there, his hair like a red banner, his freckled face with the blue eyes bright in it. [271] Maybe— Hathaway said it, loud: "Irish! [272] Irish! [273] I think I see a way out of this mess! [274] Here—" He elucidated it over and over again to the Patrolman. [275] About the film, the beasts, and how the film couldn't be wrong. [276] If the film said the monsters weren't there, they weren't there. [277] "Yeah," said Marnagan. [278] "But step outside this cave—" "If my theory is correct I'll do it, unafraid," said Click. [279] Marnagan scowled. [280] "You sure them beasts don't radiate ultra-violet or infra-red or something that won't come out on film?" [281] "Nuts! [282] Any color we see, the camera sees. [283] We've been fooled." [284] "Hey, where you going?" [285] Marnagan blocked Hathaway as the smaller man tried pushing past him. [286] "Get out of the way," said Hathaway. [287] Marnagan put his big fists on his hips. [288] "If anyone is going anywhere, it'll be me does the going." [289] "I can't let you do that, Irish." [290] "Why not?" [291] "You'd be going on my say-so." [292] "Ain't your say-so good enough for me?" [293] "Yes. [294] Sure. [295] Of course. [296] I guess—" "If you say them animals ain't there, that's all I need. [297] Now, stand aside, you film-developing flea, and let an Irishman settle their bones." [298] He took an unnecessary hitch in trousers that didn't exist except under an inch of porous metal plate. [299] "Your express purpose on this voyage, Hathaway, is taking films to be used by the Patrol later for teaching Junior Patrolmen how to act in tough spots. [300] First-hand education. [301] Poke another spool of film in that contraption and give me profile a scan. [302] This is lesson number seven: Daniel Walks Into The Lion's Den." [303] "Irish, I—" "Shut up and load up." [304] Hathaway nervously loaded the film-slot, raised it. [305] "Ready, Click?" [306] "I—I guess so," said Hathaway. [307] "And remember, think it hard, Irish. [308] Think it hard. [309] There aren't any animals—" "Keep me in focus, lad." [310] "All the way, Irish." [311] "What do they say...? [312] Oh, yeah. [313] Action. [314] Lights. [315] Camera!" [316] Marnagan held his gun out in front of him and still smiling took one, two, three, four steps out into the outside world. [317] The monsters were waiting for him at the fifth step. [318] Marnagan kept walking. [319] Right out into the middle of them.... That was the sweetest shot Hathaway ever took. [320] Marnagan and the monsters! [321] Only now it was only Marnagan. [322] No more monsters. [323] Marnagan smiled a smile broader than his shoulders. [324] "Hey, Click, look at me! [325] I'm in one piece. [326] Why, hell, the damned things turned tail and ran away!" [327] "Ran, hell!" [328] cried Hathaway, rushing out, his face flushed and animated. [329] "They just plain vanished. [330] They were only imaginative figments!" [331] "And to think we let them hole us in that way, Click Hathaway, you coward!" [332] "Smile when you say that, Irish." [333] "Sure, and ain't I always smilin'? [334] Ah, Click boy, are them tears in your sweet grey eyes?" [335] "Damn," swore the photographer, embarrassedly. [336] "Why don't they put window-wipers in these helmets?" [337] "I'll take it up with the Board, lad." [338] "Forget it. [339] I was so blamed glad to see your homely carcass in one hunk, I couldn't help—Look, now, about Gunther. [340] Those animals are part of his set-up. [341] Explorers who land here inadvertently, are chased back into their ships, forced to take off. [342] Tourists and the like. [343] Nothing suspicious about animals. [344] And if the tourists don't leave, the animals kill them." [345] "Shaw, now. [346] Those animals can't kill." [347] "Think not, Mr. Marnagan? [348] As long as we believed in them they could have frightened us to death, forced us, maybe, to commit suicide. [349] If that isn't being dangerous—" The Irishman whistled. [350] "But, we've got to move , Irish. [351] We've got twenty minutes of oxygen. [352] In that time we've got to trace those monsters to their source, Gunther's Base, fight our way in, and get fresh oxy-cannisters." [353] Click attached his camera to his mid-belt. [354] "Gunther probably thinks we're dead by now. [355] Everyone else's been fooled by his playmates; they never had a chance to disbelieve them." [356] "If it hadn't been for you taking them pictures, Click—" "Coupled with your damned stubborn attitude about the accident—" Click stopped and felt his insides turning to water. [357] He shook his head and felt a film slip down over his eyes. [358] He spread his legs out to steady himself, and swayed. [359] "I—I don't think my oxygen is as full as yours. [360] This excitement had me double-breathing and I feel sick." [361] Marnagan's homely face grimaced in sympathy. [362] "Hold tight, Click. [363] The guy that invented these fish-bowls didn't provide for a sick stomach." [364] "Hold tight, hell, let's move. [365] We've got to find where those animals came from! [366] And the only way to do that is to get the animals to come back!" [367] "Come back? [368] How?" [369] "They're waiting, just outside the aura of our thoughts, and if we believe in them again, they'll return." [370] Marnagan didn't like it. [371] "Won't—won't they kill us—if they come—if we believe in 'em?" [372] Hathaway shook a head that was tons heavy and weary. [373] "Not if we believe in them to a certain point . [374] Psychologically they can both be seen and felt. [375] We only want to see them coming at us again." [376] " Do we, now?" [377] "With twenty minutes left, maybe less—" "All right, Click, let's bring 'em back. [378] How do we do it?" [379] Hathaway fought against the mist in his eyes. [380] "Just think—I will see the monsters again. [381] I will see them again and I will not feel them. [382] Think it over and over." [383] Marnagan's hulk stirred uneasily. [384] "And—what if I forget to remember all that? [385] What if I get excited...?" [386] Hathaway didn't answer. [387] But his eyes told the story by just looking at Irish. [388] Marnagan cursed. [389] "All right, lad. [390] Let's have at it!" [391] The monsters returned. [392] A soundless deluge of them, pouring over the rubbled horizon, swarming in malevolent anticipation about the two men. [393] "This way, Irish. [394] They come from this way! [395] There's a focal point, a sending station for these telepathic brutes. [396] Come on!" [397] Hathaway sludged into the pressing tide of color, mouths, contorted faces, silvery fat bodies misting as he plowed through them. [398] Marnagan was making good progress ahead of Hathaway. [399] But he stopped and raised his gun and made quick moves with it. [400] "Click! [401] This one here! [402] It's real!" [403] He fell back and something struck him down. [404] His immense frame slammed against rock, noiselessly. [405] Hathaway darted forward, flung his body over Marnagan's, covered the helmet glass with his hands, shouting: "Marnagan! [406] Get a grip, dammit! [407] It's not real—don't let it force into your mind! [408] It's not real, I tell you!" [409] "Click—" Marnagan's face was a bitter, tortured movement behind glass. [410] "Click—" He was fighting hard. [411] "I—I—sure now. [412] Sure—" He smiled. [413] "It—it's only a shanty fake!" [414] "Keep saying it, Irish. [415] Keep it up." [416] Marnagan's thick lips opened. [417] "It's only a fake," he said. [418] And then, irritated, "Get the hell off me, Hathaway. [419] Let me up to my feet!" [420] Hathaway got up, shakily. [421] The air in his helmet smelled stale, and little bubbles danced in his eyes. [422] "Irish, you forget the monsters. [423] Let me handle them, I know how. [424] They might fool you again, you might forget." [425] Marnagan showed his teeth. [426] "Gah! [427] Let a flea have all the fun? [428] And besides, Click, I like to look at them. [429] They're pretty." [430] The outpour of animals came from a low lying mound a mile farther on. [431] Evidently the telepathic source lay there. [432] They approached it warily. [433] "We'll be taking our chances on guard," hissed Irish. [434] "I'll go ahead, draw their attention, maybe get captured. [435] Then, you show up with your gun...." "I haven't got one." [436] "We'll chance it, then. [437] You stick here until I see what's ahead. [438] They probably got scanners out. [439] Let them see me—" And before Hathaway could object, Marnagan walked off. [440] He walked about five hundred yards, bent down, applied his fingers to something, heaved up, and there was a door opening in the rock. [441] His voice came back across the distance, into Click's earphones. [442] "A door, an air-lock, Click. [443] A tunnel leading down inside!" [444] Then, Marnagan dropped into the tunnel, disappearing. [445] Click heard the thud of his feet hitting the metal flooring. [446] Click sucked in his breath, hard and fast. [447] "All right, put 'em up!" [448] a new harsh voice cried over a different radio. [449] One of Gunther's guards. [450] Three shots sizzled out, and Marnagan bellowed. [451] The strange harsh voice said, "That's better. [452] Don't try and pick that gun up now. [453] Oh, so it's you. [454] I thought Gunther had finished you off. [455] How'd you get past the animals?" [456] Click started running. [457] He switched off his sending audio, kept his receiving on. [458] Marnagan, weaponless. [459] One guard. [460] Click gasped. [461] Things were getting dark. [462] Had to have air. [463] Air. [464] Air. [465] He ran and kept running and listening to Marnagan's lying voice: "I tied them pink elephants of Gunther's in neat alphabetical bundles and stacked them up to dry, ya louse!" [466] Marnagan said. [467] "But, damn you, they killed my partner before he had a chance!" [468] The guard laughed. [469] The air-lock door was still wide open when Click reached it, his head swimming darkly, his lungs crammed with pain-fire and hell-rockets. [470] He let himself down in, quiet and soft. [471] He didn't have a weapon. [472] He didn't have a weapon. [473] Oh, damn, damn! [474] A tunnel curved, ending in light, and two men silhouetted in that yellow glare. [475] Marnagan, backed against a wall, his helmet cracked, air hissing slowly out of it, his face turning blue. [476] And the guard, a proton gun extended stiffly before him, also in a vac-suit. [477] The guard had his profile toward Hathaway, his lips twisting: "I think I'll let you stand right there and die," he said quietly. [478] "That what Gunther wanted, anway. [479] A nice sordid death." [480] Hathaway took three strides, his hands out in front of him. [481] "Don't move!" [482] he snapped. [483] "I've got a weapon stronger than yours. [484] One twitch and I'll blast you and the whole damned wall out from behind you! [485] Freeze!" [486] The guard whirled. [487] He widened his sharp eyes, and reluctantly, dropped his gun to the floor. [488] "Get his gun, Irish." [489] Marnagan made as if to move, crumpled clumsily forward. [490] Hathaway ran in, snatched up the gun, smirked at the guard. [491] "Thanks for posing," he said. [492] "That shot will go down in film history for candid acting." [493] "What!" [494] "Ah: ah! [495] Keep your place. [496] I've got a real gun now. [497] Where's the door leading into the Base?" [498] The guard moved his head sullenly over his left shoulder. [499] Click was afraid he would show his weak dizziness. [500] He needed air. [501] "Okay. [502] Drag Marnagan with you, open the door and we'll have air. [503] Double time! [504] Double!" [505] Ten minutes later, Marnagan and Hathaway, fresh tanks of oxygen on their backs, Marnagan in a fresh bulger and helmet, trussed the guard, hid him in a huge trash receptacle. [506] "Where he belongs," observed Irish tersely. [507] They found themselves in a complete inner world; an asteroid nothing more than a honey-comb fortress sliding through the void unchallenged. [508] Perfect front for a raider who had little equipment and was short-handed of men. [509] Gunther simply waited for specific cargo ships to rocket by, pulled them or knocked them down and swarmed over them for cargo. [510] The animals served simply to insure against suspicion and the swarms of tourists that filled the void these days. [511] Small fry weren't wanted. [512] They were scared off. [513] The telepathic sending station for the animals was a great bank of intricate, glittering machine, through which strips of colored film with images slid into slots and machine mouths that translated them into thought-emanations. [514] A damned neat piece of genius. [515] "So here we are, still not much better off than we were," growled Irish. [516] "We haven't a ship or a space-radio, and more guards'll turn up any moment. [517] You think we could refocus this doohingey, project the monsters inside the asteroid to fool the pirates themselves?" [518] "What good would that do?" [519] Hathaway gnawed his lip. [520] "They wouldn't fool the engineers who created them, you nut." [521] Marnagan exhaled disgustedly. [522] "Ah, if only the U.S. Cavalry would come riding over the hill—" "Irish!" [523] Hathaway snapped that, his face lighting up. [524] "Irish. [525] The U.S. Cavalry it is!" [526] His eyes darted over the machines. [527] "Here. [528] Help me. [529] We'll stage everything on the most colossal raid of the century." [530] Marnagan winced. [531] "You breathing oxygen or whiskey?" [532] "There's only one stipulation I make, Irish. [533] I want a complete picture of Marnagan capturing Raider's Base. [534] I want a picture of Gunther's face when you do it. [535] Snap it, now, we've got rush work to do. [536] How good an actor are you?" [537] "That's a silly question." [538] "You only have to do three things. [539] Walk with your gun out in front of you, firing. [540] That's number one. [541] Number two is to clutch at your heart and fall down dead. [542] Number three is to clutch at your side, fall down and twitch on the ground. [543] Is that clear?" [544] "Clear as the Coal Sack Nebula...." An hour later Hathaway trudged down a passageway that led out into a sort of city street inside the asteroid. [545] There were about six streets, lined with cube houses in yellow metal, ending near Hathaway in a wide, green-lawned Plaza. [546] Hathaway, weaponless, idly carrying his camera in one hand, walked across the Plaza as if he owned it. [547] He was heading for a building that was pretentious enough to be Gunther's quarters. [548] He got halfway there when he felt a gun in his back. [549] He didn't resist. [550] They took him straight ahead to his destination and pushed him into a room where Gunther sat. [551] Hathaway looked at him. [552] "So you're Gunther?" [553] he said, calmly. [554] The pirate was incredibly old, his bulging forehead stood out over sunken, questioningly dark eyes, and his scrawny body was lost in folds of metal-link cloth. [555] He glanced up from a paper-file, surprised. [556] Before he could speak, Hathaway said: "Everything's over with, Mr. Gunther. [557] The Patrol is in the city now and we're capturing your Base. [558] Don't try to fight. [559] We've a thousand men against your eighty-five." [560] Gunther sat there, blinking at Hathaway, not moving. [561] His thin hands twitched in his lap. [562] "You are bluffing," he said, finally, with a firm directness. [563] "A ship hasn't landed here for an hour. [564] Your ship was the last. [565] Two people were on it. [566] The last I saw of them they were being pursued to the death by the Beasts. [567] One of you escaped, it seemed." [568] "Both. [569] The other guy went after the Patrol." [570] "Impossible!" [571] "I can't respect your opinion, Mr. [572] Gunther." [573] A shouting rose from the Plaza. [574] About fifty of Gunther's men, lounging on carved benches during their time-off, stirred to their feet and started yelling. [575] Gunther turned slowly to the huge window in one side of his office. [576] He stared, hard. [577] The Patrol was coming! [578] Across the Plaza, marching quietly and decisively, came the Patrol. [579] Five hundred Patrolmen in one long, incredible line, carrying paralysis guns with them in their tight hands. [580] Gunther babbled like a child, his voice a shrill dagger in the air. [581] "Get out there, you men! [582] Throw them back! [583] We're outnumbered!" [584] Guns flared. [585] But the Patrol came on. [586] Gunther's men didn't run, Hathaway had to credit them on that. [587] They took it, standing. [588] Hathaway chuckled inside, deep. [589] What a sweet, sweet shot this was. [590] His camera whirred, clicked and whirred again. [591] Nobody stopped him from filming it. [592] Everything was too wild, hot and angry. [593] Gunther was throwing a fit, still seated at his desk, unable to move because of his fragile, bony legs and their atrophied state. [594] Some of the Patrol were killed. [595] Hathaway chuckled again as he saw three of the Patrolmen clutch at their hearts, crumple, lie on the ground and twitch. [596] God, what photography! [597] Gunther raged, and swept a small pistol from his linked corselet. [598] He fired wildly until Hathaway hit him over the head with a paper-weight. [599] Then Hathaway took a picture of Gunther slumped at his desk, the chaos taking place immediately outside his window. [600] The pirates broke and fled, those that were left. [601] A mere handful. [602] And out of the chaos came Marnagan's voice, "Here!" [603] One of the Patrolmen stopped firing, and ran toward Click and the Building. [604] He got inside. [605] "Did you see them run, Click boy? [606] What an idea. [607] How did we do?" [608] "Fine, Irish. [609] Fine!" [610] "So here's Gunther, the spalpeen! [611] Gunther, the little dried up pirate, eh?" [612] Marnagan whacked Hathaway on the back. [613] "I'll have to hand it to you, this is the best plan o' battle ever laid out. [614] And proud I was to fight with such splendid men as these—" He gestured toward the Plaza. [615] Click laughed with him. [616] "You should be proud. [617] Five hundred Patrolmen with hair like red banners flying, with thick Irish brogues and broad shoulders and freckles and blue eyes and a body as tall as your stories!" [618] Marnagan roared. [619] "I always said, I said—if ever there could be an army of Marnagans, we could lick the whole damn uneeverse! [620] Did you photograph it, Click?" [621] "I did." [622] Hathaway tapped his camera happily. [623] "Ah, then, won't that be a scoop for you, boy? [624] Money from the Patrol so they can use the film as instruction in Classes and money from Cosmic Films for the news-reel headlines! [625] And what a scene, and what acting! [626] Five hundred duplicates of Steve Marnagan, broadcast telepathically into the minds of the pirates, walking across a Plaza, capturing the whole she-bang! [627] How did you like my death-scenes?" [628] "You're a ham. [629] And anyway—five hundred duplicates, nothing!" [630] said Click. [631] He ripped the film-spool from the camera, spread it in the air to develop, inserted it in the micro-viewer. [632] "Have a look—" Marnagan looked. [633] "Ah, now. [634] Ah, now," he said over and over. [635] "There's the Plaza, and there's Gunther's men fighting and then they're turning and running. [636] And what are they running from? [637] One man! [638] Me. [639] Irish Marnagan! [640] Walking all by myself across the lawn, paralyzing them. [641] One against a hundred, and the cowards running from me! [642] "Sure, Click, this is better than I thought. [643] I forgot that the film wouldn't register telepathic emanations, them other Marnagans. [644] It makes it look like I'm a mighty brave man, does it not? [645] It does. [646] Ah, look—look at me, Hathaway, I'm enjoying every minute of it, I am." [647] Hathaway swatted him on his back-side. [648] "Look here, you egocentric son of Erin, there's more work to be done. [649] More pirates to be captured. [650] The Patrol is still marching around and someone might be suspicious if they looked too close and saw all that red hair." [651] "All right, Click, we'll clean up the rest of them now. [652] We're a combination, we two, we are. [653] I take it all back about your pictures, Click, if you hadn't thought of taking pictures of me and inserting it into those telepath machines we'd be dead ducks now. [654] Well—here I go...." Hathaway stopped him. [655] "Hold it. [656] Until I load my camera again." [657] Irish grinned. [658] "Hurry it up. [659] Here come three guards. [660] They're unarmed. [661] I think I'll handle them with me fists for a change. [662] The gentle art of uppercuts. [663] Are you ready, Hathaway?" [664] "Ready." [665] Marnagan lifted his big ham-fists. [666] The camera whirred. [667] Hathaway chuckled, to himself. [668] What a sweet fade-out this was!

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question: 1. [8] Click Hathaway's camera was loaded and he stood there listening to it rack-spin film between his fingers, and he knew he was getting a damned sweet picture of everything that was happening. 2. [51] He didn't know what he was doing until he found the camera in his fingers as if it had grown there when he was born. 3. [52] "Well, I'll at least have a few good scenes on film. 4. [167] Click's voice gasped it out, as Marnagan squeezed his two-hundred-fifty pounds beside him. 5. [168] "Asteroid monsters! 6. [169] My camera! 7. [170] What a scene!" 8. [201] Hathaway petted his camera reluctantly. 9. [202] "What in hell's the use? 10. [203] All this swell film shot. 11. [204] Nobody'll ever see it." 12. [215] Montage. 13. [216] Marnagan sitting, chatting at the monsters. 14. [217] Marnagan smiling for the camera. 15. [218] Marnagan in profile. 16. [219] Marnagan looking grim, without much effort, for the camera. 17. [220] And then, a closeup of the thrashing death wall that holed them in. 18. [221] Click took them all, those shots, not saying anything. 19. [252] Holding it up, he stripped it out to its full twenty inch length, held it to the light while it developed, smiling. 20. [253] It was one of his best inventions. 21. [254] Self-developing film. 22. [255] The first light struck film-surface, destroyed one chemical, leaving imprints; the second exposure simply hardened, secured the impressions. 23. [256] Quick stuff. 24. [257] Inserting the film-tongue into a micro-viewer in the camera's base, Click handed the whole thing over. 25. [258] "Look." 26. [319] That was the sweetest shot Hathaway ever took. 27. [320] Marnagan and the monsters! 28. [321] Only now it was only Marnagan. 29. [322] No more monsters. 30. [589] What a sweet, sweet shot this was. 31. [598] Then Hathaway took a picture of Gunther slumped at his desk, the chaos taking place immediately outside his window. 32. [622] "Ah, then, won't that be a scoop for you, boy? 33. [623] Money from the Patrol so they can use the film as instruction in Classes and money from Cosmic Films for the news-reel headlines! 34. [624] And what a scene, and what acting! 35. [625] Five hundred duplicates of Steve Marnagan, broadcast telepathically into the minds of the pirates, walking across a Plaza, capturing the whole she-bang! 36. [626] How did you like my death-scenes?" 37. [632] "Ah, now. 38. [633] Ah, now," he said over and over. 39. [634] "There's the Plaza, and there's Gunther's men fighting and then they're turning and running. 40. [635] And what are they running from? 41. [636] One man! 42. [637] Me. 43. [638] Irish Marnagan! 44. [639] Walking all by myself across the lawn, paralyzing them. 45. [640] One against a hundred, and the cowards running from me! 46. [641] "Sure, Click, this is better than I thought. 47. [642] I forgot that the film wouldn't register telepathic emanations, them other Marnagans. 48. [643] It makes it look like I'm a mighty brave man, does it not? 49. [644] It does. 50. [645] Ah, look—look at me, Hathaway, I'm enjoying every minute of it, I am."

What is the relationship between Hathaway and Marnagan in the story?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The Monster Maker By RAY BRADBURY "Get Gunther," the official orders read. [2] It was to laugh! [3] For Click and Irish were marooned on the pirate's asteroid—their only weapons a single gun and a news-reel camera. [4] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1944. [5] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [6] Suddenly, it was there. [7] There wasn't time to blink or speak or get scared. [8] Click Hathaway's camera was loaded and he stood there listening to it rack-spin film between his fingers, and he knew he was getting a damned sweet picture of everything that was happening. [9] The picture of Marnagan hunched huge over the control-console, wrenching levers, jamming studs with freckled fists. [10] And out in the dark of the fore-part there was space and a star-sprinkling and this meteor coming like blazing fury. [11] Click Hathaway felt the ship move under him like a sensitive animal's skin. [12] And then the meteor hit. [13] It made a spiked fist and knocked the rear-jets flat, and the ship spun like a cosmic merry-go-round. [14] There was plenty of noise. [15] Too damned much. [16] Hathaway only knew he was picked up and hurled against a lever-bank, and that Marnagan wasn't long in following, swearing loud words. [17] Click remembered hanging on to his camera and gritting to keep holding it. [18] What a sweet shot that had been of the meteor! [19] A sweeter one still of Marnagan beating hell out of the controls and keeping his words to himself until just now. [20] It got quiet. [21] It got so quiet you could almost hear the asteroids rushing up, cold, blue and hard. [22] You could hear your heart kicking a tom-tom between your sick stomach and your empty lungs. [23] Stars, asteroids revolved. [24] Click grabbed Marnagan because he was the nearest thing, and held on. [25] You came hunting for a space-raider and you ended up cradled in a slab-sized Irishman's arms, diving at a hunk of metal death. [26] What a fade-out! [27] "Irish!" [28] he heard himself say. [29] "Is this IT?" [30] "Is this what ?" [31] yelled Marnagan inside his helmet. [32] "Is this where the Big Producer yells CUT!?" [33] Marnagan fumed. [34] "I'll die when I'm damned good and ready. [35] And when I'm ready I'll inform you and you can picture me profile for Cosmic Films!" [36] They both waited, thrust against the shipside and held by a hand of gravity; listening to each other's breathing hard in the earphones. [37] The ship struck, once. [38] Bouncing, it struck again. [39] It turned end over and stopped. [40] Hathaway felt himself grabbed; he and Marnagan rattled around—human dice in a croupier's cup. [41] The shell of the ship burst, air and energy flung out. [42] Hathaway screamed the air out of his lungs, but his brain was thinking quick crazy, unimportant things. [43] The best scenes in life never reach film, or an audience. [44] Like this one, dammit! [45] Like this one! [46] His brain spun, racketing like the instantaneous, flicking motions of his camera. [47] Silence came and engulfed all the noise, ate it up and swallowed it. [48] Hathaway shook his head, instinctively grabbed at the camera locked to his mid-belt. [49] There was nothing but stars, twisted wreckage, cold that pierced through his vac-suit, and silence. [50] He wriggled out of the wreckage into that silence. [51] He didn't know what he was doing until he found the camera in his fingers as if it had grown there when he was born. [52] He stood there, thinking "Well, I'll at least have a few good scenes on film. [53] I'll—" A hunk of metal teetered, fell with a crash. [54] Marnagan elevated seven feet of bellowing manhood from the wreck. [55] "Hold it!" [56] cracked Hathaway's high voice. [57] Marnagan froze. [58] The camera whirred. [59] "Low angle shot; Interplanetary Patrolman emerges unscathed from asteroid crackup. [60] Swell stuff. [61] I'll get a raise for this!" [62] "From the toe of me boot!" [63] snarled Marnagan brusquely. [64] Oxen shoulders flexed inside his vac-suit. [65] "I might've died in there, and you nursin' that film-contraption!" [66] Hathaway felt funny inside, suddenly. [67] "I never thought of that. [68] Marnagan die? [69] I just took it for granted you'd come through. [70] You always have. [71] Funny, but you don't think about dying. [72] You try not to." [73] Hathaway stared at his gloved hand, but the gloving was so thick and heavy he couldn't tell if it was shaking. [74] Muscles in his bony face went down, pale. [75] "Where are we?" [76] "A million miles from nobody." [77] They stood in the middle of a pocked, time-eroded meteor plain that stretched off, dipping down into silent indigo and a rash of stars. [78] Overhead, the sun poised; black and stars all around it, making it look sick. [79] "If we walk in opposite directions, Click Hathaway, we'd be shaking hands the other side of this rock in two hours." [80] Marnagan shook his mop of dusty red hair. [81] "And I promised the boys at Luna Base this time I'd capture that Gunther lad!" [82] His voice stopped and the silence spoke. [83] Hathaway felt his heart pumping slow, hot pumps of blood. [84] "I checked my oxygen, Irish. [85] Sixty minutes of breathing left." [86] The silence punctuated that sentence, too. [87] Upon the sharp meteoric rocks Hathaway saw the tangled insides of the radio, the food supply mashed and scattered. [88] They were lucky to have escaped. [89] Or was suffocation a better death...? [90] Sixty minutes. [91] They stood and looked at one another. [92] "Damn that meteor!" [93] said Marnagan, hotly. [94] Hathaway got hold of an idea; remembering something. [95] He said it out: "Somebody tossed that meteor, Irish. [96] I took a picture of it, looked it right in the eye when it rolled at us, and it was poker-hot. [97] Space-meteors are never hot and glowing. [98] If it's proof you want, I've got it here, on film." [99] Marnagan winced his freckled square of face. [100] "It's not proof we need now, Click. [101] Oxygen. [102] And then food . [103] And then some way back to Earth." [104] Hathaway went on saying his thoughts: "This is Gunther's work. [105] He's here somewhere, probably laughing his guts out at the job he did us. [106] Oh, God, this would make great news-release stuff if we ever get back to Earth. [107] I.P. [108] 's Irish Marnagan, temporarily indisposed by a pirate whose dirty face has never been seen, Gunther by name, finally wins through to a triumphant finish. [109] Photographed on the spot, in color, by yours truly, Click Hathaway. [110] Cosmic Films, please notice." [111] They started walking, fast, over the pocked, rubbled plain toward a bony ridge of metal. [112] They kept their eyes wide and awake. [113] There wasn't much to see, but it was better than standing still, waiting. [114] Marnagan said, "We're working on margin, and we got nothin' to sweat with except your suspicions about this not being an accident. [115] We got fifty minutes to prove you're right. [116] After that—right or wrong—you'll be Cosmic Films prettiest unmoving, unbreathin' genius. [117] But talk all you like, Click. [118] It's times like this when we all need words, any words, on our tongues. [119] You got your camera and your scoop. [120] Talk about it. [121] As for me—" he twisted his glossy red face. [122] "Keeping alive is me hobby. [123] And this sort of two-bit death I did not order." [124] Click nodded. [125] "Gunther knows how you'd hate dying this way, Irish. [126] It's irony clean through. [127] That's probably why he planned the meteor and the crash this way." [128] Marnagan said nothing, but his thick lips went down at the corners, far down, and the green eyes blazed. [129] They stopped, together. [130] "Oops!" [131] Click said. [132] "Hey!" [133] Marnagan blinked. [134] "Did you feel that ?" [135] Hathaway's body felt feathery, light as a whisper, boneless and limbless, suddenly. [136] "Irish! [137] We lost weight, coming over that ridge!" [138] They ran back. [139] "Let's try it again." [140] They tried it. [141] They scowled at each other. [142] The same thing happened. [143] "Gravity should not act this way, Click." [144] "Are you telling me? [145] It's man-made. [146] Better than that—it's Gunther! [147] No wonder we fell so fast—we were dragged down by a super-gravity set-up! [148] Gunther'd do anything to—did I say anything ?" [149] Hathaway leaped backward in reaction. [150] His eyes widened and his hand came up, jabbing. [151] Over a hill-ridge swarmed a brew of unbelievable horrors. [152] Progeny from Frankenstein's ARK. [153] Immense crimson beasts with numerous legs and gnashing mandibles, brown-black creatures, some tubular and fat, others like thin white poisonous whips slashing along in the air. [154] Fangs caught starlight white on them. [155] Hathaway yelled and ran, Marnagan at his heels, lumbering. [156] Sweat broke cold on his body. [157] The immense things rolled, slithered and squirmed after him. [158] A blast of light. [159] Marnagan, firing his proton-gun. [160] Then, in Click's ears, the Irishman's incredulous bellow. [161] The gun didn't hurt the creatures at all. [162] "Irish!" [163] Hathaway flung himself over the ridge, slid down an incline toward the mouth a small cave. [164] "This way, fella!" [165] Hathaway made it first, Marnagan bellowing just behind him. [166] "They're too big; they can't get us in here!" [167] Click's voice gasped it out, as Marnagan squeezed his two-hundred-fifty pounds beside him. [168] Instinctively, Hathaway added, "Asteroid monsters! [169] My camera! [170] What a scene!" [171] "Damn your damn camera!" [172] yelled Marnagan. [173] "They might come in!" [174] "Use your gun." [175] "They got impervious hides. [176] No use. [177] Gahh! [178] And that was a pretty chase, eh, Click?" [179] "Yeah. [180] Sure. [181] You enjoyed it, every moment of it." [182] "I did that." [183] Irish grinned, showing white uneven teeth. [184] "Now, what will we be doing with these uninvited guests at our door?" [185] "Let me think—" "Lots of time, little man. [186] Forty more minutes of air, to be exact." [187] They sat, staring at the monsters for about a minute. [188] Hathaway felt funny about something; didn't know what. [189] Something about these monsters and Gunther and— "Which one will you be having?" [190] asked Irish, casually. [191] "A red one or a blue one?" [192] Hathaway laughed nervously. [193] "A pink one with yellow ruffles—Good God, now you've got me doing it. [194] Joking in the face of death." [195] "Me father taught me; keep laughing and you'll have Irish luck." [196] That didn't please the photographer. [197] "I'm an Anglo-Swede," he pointed out. [198] Marnagan shifted uneasily. [199] "Here, now. [200] You're doing nothing but sitting, looking like a little boy locked in a bedroom closet, so take me a profile shot of the beasties and myself." [201] Hathaway petted his camera reluctantly. [202] "What in hell's the use? [203] All this swell film shot. [204] Nobody'll ever see it." [205] "Then," retorted Marnagan, "we'll develop it for our own benefit; while waitin' for the U.S. Cavalry to come riding over the hill to our rescue!" [206] Hathaway snorted. [207] "U.S. [208] Cavalry." [209] Marnagan raised his proton-gun dramatically. [210] "Snap me this pose," he said. [211] "I paid your salary to trot along, photographing, we hoped, my capture of Gunther, now the least you can do is record peace negotiations betwixt me and these pixies." [212] Marnagan wasn't fooling anybody. [213] Hathaway knew the superficial palaver for nothing but a covering over the fast, furious thinking running around in that red-cropped skull. [214] Hathaway played the palaver, too, but his mind was whirring faster than his camera as he spun a picture of Marnagan standing there with a useless gun pointed at the animals. [215] Montage. [216] Marnagan sitting, chatting at the monsters. [217] Marnagan smiling for the camera. [218] Marnagan in profile. [219] Marnagan looking grim, without much effort, for the camera. [220] And then, a closeup of the thrashing death wall that holed them in. [221] Click took them all, those shots, not saying anything. [222] Nobody fooled nobody with this act. [223] Death was near and they had sweaty faces, dry mouths and frozen guts. [224] When Click finished filming, Irish sat down to save oxygen, and used it up arguing about Gunther. [225] Click came back at him: "Gunther drew us down here, sure as Ceres! [226] That gravity change we felt back on that ridge, Irish; that proves it. [227] Gunther's short on men. [228] So, what's he do; he builds an asteroid-base, and drags ships down. [229] Space war isn't perfect yet, guns don't prime true in space, trajectory is lousy over long distances. [230] So what's the best weapon, which dispenses with losing valuable, rare ships and a small bunch of men? [231] Super-gravity and a couple of well-tossed meteors. [232] Saves all around. [233] It's a good front, this damned iron pebble. [234] From it, Gunther strikes unseen; ships simply crash, that's all. [235] A subtle hand, with all aces." [236] Marnagan rumbled. [237] "Where is the dirty son, then!" [238] "He didn't have to appear, Irish. [239] He sent—them." [240] Hathaway nodded at the beasts. [241] "People crashing here die from air-lack, no food, or from wounds caused at the crackup. [242] If they survive all that—the animals tend to them. [243] It all looks like Nature was responsible. [244] See how subtle his attack is? [245] Looks like accidental death instead of murder, if the Patrol happens to land and finds us. [246] No reason for undue investigation, then." [247] "I don't see no Base around." [248] Click shrugged. [249] "Still doubt it? [250] Okay. [251] Look." [252] He tapped his camera and a spool popped out onto his gloved palm. [253] Holding it up, he stripped it out to its full twenty inch length, held it to the light while it developed, smiling. [254] It was one of his best inventions. [255] Self-developing film. [256] The first light struck film-surface, destroyed one chemical, leaving imprints; the second exposure simply hardened, secured the impressions. [257] Quick stuff. [258] Inserting the film-tongue into a micro-viewer in the camera's base, Click handed the whole thing over. [259] "Look." [260] Marnagan put the viewer up against the helmet glass, squinted. [261] "Ah, Click. [262] Now, now. [263] This is one lousy film you invented." [264] "Huh?" [265] "It's a strange process'll develop my picture and ignore the asteroid monsters complete." [266] "What!" [267] Hathaway grabbed the camera, gasped, squinted, and gasped again: Pictures in montage; Marnagan sitting down, chatting conversationally with nothing ; Marnagan shooting his gun at nothing ; Marnagan pretending to be happy in front of nothing . [268] Then, closeup—of—NOTHING! [269] The monsters had failed to image the film. [270] Marnagan was there, his hair like a red banner, his freckled face with the blue eyes bright in it. [271] Maybe— Hathaway said it, loud: "Irish! [272] Irish! [273] I think I see a way out of this mess! [274] Here—" He elucidated it over and over again to the Patrolman. [275] About the film, the beasts, and how the film couldn't be wrong. [276] If the film said the monsters weren't there, they weren't there. [277] "Yeah," said Marnagan. [278] "But step outside this cave—" "If my theory is correct I'll do it, unafraid," said Click. [279] Marnagan scowled. [280] "You sure them beasts don't radiate ultra-violet or infra-red or something that won't come out on film?" [281] "Nuts! [282] Any color we see, the camera sees. [283] We've been fooled." [284] "Hey, where you going?" [285] Marnagan blocked Hathaway as the smaller man tried pushing past him. [286] "Get out of the way," said Hathaway. [287] Marnagan put his big fists on his hips. [288] "If anyone is going anywhere, it'll be me does the going." [289] "I can't let you do that, Irish." [290] "Why not?" [291] "You'd be going on my say-so." [292] "Ain't your say-so good enough for me?" [293] "Yes. [294] Sure. [295] Of course. [296] I guess—" "If you say them animals ain't there, that's all I need. [297] Now, stand aside, you film-developing flea, and let an Irishman settle their bones." [298] He took an unnecessary hitch in trousers that didn't exist except under an inch of porous metal plate. [299] "Your express purpose on this voyage, Hathaway, is taking films to be used by the Patrol later for teaching Junior Patrolmen how to act in tough spots. [300] First-hand education. [301] Poke another spool of film in that contraption and give me profile a scan. [302] This is lesson number seven: Daniel Walks Into The Lion's Den." [303] "Irish, I—" "Shut up and load up." [304] Hathaway nervously loaded the film-slot, raised it. [305] "Ready, Click?" [306] "I—I guess so," said Hathaway. [307] "And remember, think it hard, Irish. [308] Think it hard. [309] There aren't any animals—" "Keep me in focus, lad." [310] "All the way, Irish." [311] "What do they say...? [312] Oh, yeah. [313] Action. [314] Lights. [315] Camera!" [316] Marnagan held his gun out in front of him and still smiling took one, two, three, four steps out into the outside world. [317] The monsters were waiting for him at the fifth step. [318] Marnagan kept walking. [319] Right out into the middle of them.... That was the sweetest shot Hathaway ever took. [320] Marnagan and the monsters! [321] Only now it was only Marnagan. [322] No more monsters. [323] Marnagan smiled a smile broader than his shoulders. [324] "Hey, Click, look at me! [325] I'm in one piece. [326] Why, hell, the damned things turned tail and ran away!" [327] "Ran, hell!" [328] cried Hathaway, rushing out, his face flushed and animated. [329] "They just plain vanished. [330] They were only imaginative figments!" [331] "And to think we let them hole us in that way, Click Hathaway, you coward!" [332] "Smile when you say that, Irish." [333] "Sure, and ain't I always smilin'? [334] Ah, Click boy, are them tears in your sweet grey eyes?" [335] "Damn," swore the photographer, embarrassedly. [336] "Why don't they put window-wipers in these helmets?" [337] "I'll take it up with the Board, lad." [338] "Forget it. [339] I was so blamed glad to see your homely carcass in one hunk, I couldn't help—Look, now, about Gunther. [340] Those animals are part of his set-up. [341] Explorers who land here inadvertently, are chased back into their ships, forced to take off. [342] Tourists and the like. [343] Nothing suspicious about animals. [344] And if the tourists don't leave, the animals kill them." [345] "Shaw, now. [346] Those animals can't kill." [347] "Think not, Mr. Marnagan? [348] As long as we believed in them they could have frightened us to death, forced us, maybe, to commit suicide. [349] If that isn't being dangerous—" The Irishman whistled. [350] "But, we've got to move , Irish. [351] We've got twenty minutes of oxygen. [352] In that time we've got to trace those monsters to their source, Gunther's Base, fight our way in, and get fresh oxy-cannisters." [353] Click attached his camera to his mid-belt. [354] "Gunther probably thinks we're dead by now. [355] Everyone else's been fooled by his playmates; they never had a chance to disbelieve them." [356] "If it hadn't been for you taking them pictures, Click—" "Coupled with your damned stubborn attitude about the accident—" Click stopped and felt his insides turning to water. [357] He shook his head and felt a film slip down over his eyes. [358] He spread his legs out to steady himself, and swayed. [359] "I—I don't think my oxygen is as full as yours. [360] This excitement had me double-breathing and I feel sick." [361] Marnagan's homely face grimaced in sympathy. [362] "Hold tight, Click. [363] The guy that invented these fish-bowls didn't provide for a sick stomach." [364] "Hold tight, hell, let's move. [365] We've got to find where those animals came from! [366] And the only way to do that is to get the animals to come back!" [367] "Come back? [368] How?" [369] "They're waiting, just outside the aura of our thoughts, and if we believe in them again, they'll return." [370] Marnagan didn't like it. [371] "Won't—won't they kill us—if they come—if we believe in 'em?" [372] Hathaway shook a head that was tons heavy and weary. [373] "Not if we believe in them to a certain point . [374] Psychologically they can both be seen and felt. [375] We only want to see them coming at us again." [376] " Do we, now?" [377] "With twenty minutes left, maybe less—" "All right, Click, let's bring 'em back. [378] How do we do it?" [379] Hathaway fought against the mist in his eyes. [380] "Just think—I will see the monsters again. [381] I will see them again and I will not feel them. [382] Think it over and over." [383] Marnagan's hulk stirred uneasily. [384] "And—what if I forget to remember all that? [385] What if I get excited...?" [386] Hathaway didn't answer. [387] But his eyes told the story by just looking at Irish. [388] Marnagan cursed. [389] "All right, lad. [390] Let's have at it!" [391] The monsters returned. [392] A soundless deluge of them, pouring over the rubbled horizon, swarming in malevolent anticipation about the two men. [393] "This way, Irish. [394] They come from this way! [395] There's a focal point, a sending station for these telepathic brutes. [396] Come on!" [397] Hathaway sludged into the pressing tide of color, mouths, contorted faces, silvery fat bodies misting as he plowed through them. [398] Marnagan was making good progress ahead of Hathaway. [399] But he stopped and raised his gun and made quick moves with it. [400] "Click! [401] This one here! [402] It's real!" [403] He fell back and something struck him down. [404] His immense frame slammed against rock, noiselessly. [405] Hathaway darted forward, flung his body over Marnagan's, covered the helmet glass with his hands, shouting: "Marnagan! [406] Get a grip, dammit! [407] It's not real—don't let it force into your mind! [408] It's not real, I tell you!" [409] "Click—" Marnagan's face was a bitter, tortured movement behind glass. [410] "Click—" He was fighting hard. [411] "I—I—sure now. [412] Sure—" He smiled. [413] "It—it's only a shanty fake!" [414] "Keep saying it, Irish. [415] Keep it up." [416] Marnagan's thick lips opened. [417] "It's only a fake," he said. [418] And then, irritated, "Get the hell off me, Hathaway. [419] Let me up to my feet!" [420] Hathaway got up, shakily. [421] The air in his helmet smelled stale, and little bubbles danced in his eyes. [422] "Irish, you forget the monsters. [423] Let me handle them, I know how. [424] They might fool you again, you might forget." [425] Marnagan showed his teeth. [426] "Gah! [427] Let a flea have all the fun? [428] And besides, Click, I like to look at them. [429] They're pretty." [430] The outpour of animals came from a low lying mound a mile farther on. [431] Evidently the telepathic source lay there. [432] They approached it warily. [433] "We'll be taking our chances on guard," hissed Irish. [434] "I'll go ahead, draw their attention, maybe get captured. [435] Then, you show up with your gun...." "I haven't got one." [436] "We'll chance it, then. [437] You stick here until I see what's ahead. [438] They probably got scanners out. [439] Let them see me—" And before Hathaway could object, Marnagan walked off. [440] He walked about five hundred yards, bent down, applied his fingers to something, heaved up, and there was a door opening in the rock. [441] His voice came back across the distance, into Click's earphones. [442] "A door, an air-lock, Click. [443] A tunnel leading down inside!" [444] Then, Marnagan dropped into the tunnel, disappearing. [445] Click heard the thud of his feet hitting the metal flooring. [446] Click sucked in his breath, hard and fast. [447] "All right, put 'em up!" [448] a new harsh voice cried over a different radio. [449] One of Gunther's guards. [450] Three shots sizzled out, and Marnagan bellowed. [451] The strange harsh voice said, "That's better. [452] Don't try and pick that gun up now. [453] Oh, so it's you. [454] I thought Gunther had finished you off. [455] How'd you get past the animals?" [456] Click started running. [457] He switched off his sending audio, kept his receiving on. [458] Marnagan, weaponless. [459] One guard. [460] Click gasped. [461] Things were getting dark. [462] Had to have air. [463] Air. [464] Air. [465] He ran and kept running and listening to Marnagan's lying voice: "I tied them pink elephants of Gunther's in neat alphabetical bundles and stacked them up to dry, ya louse!" [466] Marnagan said. [467] "But, damn you, they killed my partner before he had a chance!" [468] The guard laughed. [469] The air-lock door was still wide open when Click reached it, his head swimming darkly, his lungs crammed with pain-fire and hell-rockets. [470] He let himself down in, quiet and soft. [471] He didn't have a weapon. [472] He didn't have a weapon. [473] Oh, damn, damn! [474] A tunnel curved, ending in light, and two men silhouetted in that yellow glare. [475] Marnagan, backed against a wall, his helmet cracked, air hissing slowly out of it, his face turning blue. [476] And the guard, a proton gun extended stiffly before him, also in a vac-suit. [477] The guard had his profile toward Hathaway, his lips twisting: "I think I'll let you stand right there and die," he said quietly. [478] "That what Gunther wanted, anway. [479] A nice sordid death." [480] Hathaway took three strides, his hands out in front of him. [481] "Don't move!" [482] he snapped. [483] "I've got a weapon stronger than yours. [484] One twitch and I'll blast you and the whole damned wall out from behind you! [485] Freeze!" [486] The guard whirled. [487] He widened his sharp eyes, and reluctantly, dropped his gun to the floor. [488] "Get his gun, Irish." [489] Marnagan made as if to move, crumpled clumsily forward. [490] Hathaway ran in, snatched up the gun, smirked at the guard. [491] "Thanks for posing," he said. [492] "That shot will go down in film history for candid acting." [493] "What!" [494] "Ah: ah! [495] Keep your place. [496] I've got a real gun now. [497] Where's the door leading into the Base?" [498] The guard moved his head sullenly over his left shoulder. [499] Click was afraid he would show his weak dizziness. [500] He needed air. [501] "Okay. [502] Drag Marnagan with you, open the door and we'll have air. [503] Double time! [504] Double!" [505] Ten minutes later, Marnagan and Hathaway, fresh tanks of oxygen on their backs, Marnagan in a fresh bulger and helmet, trussed the guard, hid him in a huge trash receptacle. [506] "Where he belongs," observed Irish tersely. [507] They found themselves in a complete inner world; an asteroid nothing more than a honey-comb fortress sliding through the void unchallenged. [508] Perfect front for a raider who had little equipment and was short-handed of men. [509] Gunther simply waited for specific cargo ships to rocket by, pulled them or knocked them down and swarmed over them for cargo. [510] The animals served simply to insure against suspicion and the swarms of tourists that filled the void these days. [511] Small fry weren't wanted. [512] They were scared off. [513] The telepathic sending station for the animals was a great bank of intricate, glittering machine, through which strips of colored film with images slid into slots and machine mouths that translated them into thought-emanations. [514] A damned neat piece of genius. [515] "So here we are, still not much better off than we were," growled Irish. [516] "We haven't a ship or a space-radio, and more guards'll turn up any moment. [517] You think we could refocus this doohingey, project the monsters inside the asteroid to fool the pirates themselves?" [518] "What good would that do?" [519] Hathaway gnawed his lip. [520] "They wouldn't fool the engineers who created them, you nut." [521] Marnagan exhaled disgustedly. [522] "Ah, if only the U.S. Cavalry would come riding over the hill—" "Irish!" [523] Hathaway snapped that, his face lighting up. [524] "Irish. [525] The U.S. Cavalry it is!" [526] His eyes darted over the machines. [527] "Here. [528] Help me. [529] We'll stage everything on the most colossal raid of the century." [530] Marnagan winced. [531] "You breathing oxygen or whiskey?" [532] "There's only one stipulation I make, Irish. [533] I want a complete picture of Marnagan capturing Raider's Base. [534] I want a picture of Gunther's face when you do it. [535] Snap it, now, we've got rush work to do. [536] How good an actor are you?" [537] "That's a silly question." [538] "You only have to do three things. [539] Walk with your gun out in front of you, firing. [540] That's number one. [541] Number two is to clutch at your heart and fall down dead. [542] Number three is to clutch at your side, fall down and twitch on the ground. [543] Is that clear?" [544] "Clear as the Coal Sack Nebula...." An hour later Hathaway trudged down a passageway that led out into a sort of city street inside the asteroid. [545] There were about six streets, lined with cube houses in yellow metal, ending near Hathaway in a wide, green-lawned Plaza. [546] Hathaway, weaponless, idly carrying his camera in one hand, walked across the Plaza as if he owned it. [547] He was heading for a building that was pretentious enough to be Gunther's quarters. [548] He got halfway there when he felt a gun in his back. [549] He didn't resist. [550] They took him straight ahead to his destination and pushed him into a room where Gunther sat. [551] Hathaway looked at him. [552] "So you're Gunther?" [553] he said, calmly. [554] The pirate was incredibly old, his bulging forehead stood out over sunken, questioningly dark eyes, and his scrawny body was lost in folds of metal-link cloth. [555] He glanced up from a paper-file, surprised. [556] Before he could speak, Hathaway said: "Everything's over with, Mr. Gunther. [557] The Patrol is in the city now and we're capturing your Base. [558] Don't try to fight. [559] We've a thousand men against your eighty-five." [560] Gunther sat there, blinking at Hathaway, not moving. [561] His thin hands twitched in his lap. [562] "You are bluffing," he said, finally, with a firm directness. [563] "A ship hasn't landed here for an hour. [564] Your ship was the last. [565] Two people were on it. [566] The last I saw of them they were being pursued to the death by the Beasts. [567] One of you escaped, it seemed." [568] "Both. [569] The other guy went after the Patrol." [570] "Impossible!" [571] "I can't respect your opinion, Mr. [572] Gunther." [573] A shouting rose from the Plaza. [574] About fifty of Gunther's men, lounging on carved benches during their time-off, stirred to their feet and started yelling. [575] Gunther turned slowly to the huge window in one side of his office. [576] He stared, hard. [577] The Patrol was coming! [578] Across the Plaza, marching quietly and decisively, came the Patrol. [579] Five hundred Patrolmen in one long, incredible line, carrying paralysis guns with them in their tight hands. [580] Gunther babbled like a child, his voice a shrill dagger in the air. [581] "Get out there, you men! [582] Throw them back! [583] We're outnumbered!" [584] Guns flared. [585] But the Patrol came on. [586] Gunther's men didn't run, Hathaway had to credit them on that. [587] They took it, standing. [588] Hathaway chuckled inside, deep. [589] What a sweet, sweet shot this was. [590] His camera whirred, clicked and whirred again. [591] Nobody stopped him from filming it. [592] Everything was too wild, hot and angry. [593] Gunther was throwing a fit, still seated at his desk, unable to move because of his fragile, bony legs and their atrophied state. [594] Some of the Patrol were killed. [595] Hathaway chuckled again as he saw three of the Patrolmen clutch at their hearts, crumple, lie on the ground and twitch. [596] God, what photography! [597] Gunther raged, and swept a small pistol from his linked corselet. [598] He fired wildly until Hathaway hit him over the head with a paper-weight. [599] Then Hathaway took a picture of Gunther slumped at his desk, the chaos taking place immediately outside his window. [600] The pirates broke and fled, those that were left. [601] A mere handful. [602] And out of the chaos came Marnagan's voice, "Here!" [603] One of the Patrolmen stopped firing, and ran toward Click and the Building. [604] He got inside. [605] "Did you see them run, Click boy? [606] What an idea. [607] How did we do?" [608] "Fine, Irish. [609] Fine!" [610] "So here's Gunther, the spalpeen! [611] Gunther, the little dried up pirate, eh?" [612] Marnagan whacked Hathaway on the back. [613] "I'll have to hand it to you, this is the best plan o' battle ever laid out. [614] And proud I was to fight with such splendid men as these—" He gestured toward the Plaza. [615] Click laughed with him. [616] "You should be proud. [617] Five hundred Patrolmen with hair like red banners flying, with thick Irish brogues and broad shoulders and freckles and blue eyes and a body as tall as your stories!" [618] Marnagan roared. [619] "I always said, I said—if ever there could be an army of Marnagans, we could lick the whole damn uneeverse! [620] Did you photograph it, Click?" [621] "I did." [622] Hathaway tapped his camera happily. [623] "Ah, then, won't that be a scoop for you, boy? [624] Money from the Patrol so they can use the film as instruction in Classes and money from Cosmic Films for the news-reel headlines! [625] And what a scene, and what acting! [626] Five hundred duplicates of Steve Marnagan, broadcast telepathically into the minds of the pirates, walking across a Plaza, capturing the whole she-bang! [627] How did you like my death-scenes?" [628] "You're a ham. [629] And anyway—five hundred duplicates, nothing!" [630] said Click. [631] He ripped the film-spool from the camera, spread it in the air to develop, inserted it in the micro-viewer. [632] "Have a look—" Marnagan looked. [633] "Ah, now. [634] Ah, now," he said over and over. [635] "There's the Plaza, and there's Gunther's men fighting and then they're turning and running. [636] And what are they running from? [637] One man! [638] Me. [639] Irish Marnagan! [640] Walking all by myself across the lawn, paralyzing them. [641] One against a hundred, and the cowards running from me! [642] "Sure, Click, this is better than I thought. [643] I forgot that the film wouldn't register telepathic emanations, them other Marnagans. [644] It makes it look like I'm a mighty brave man, does it not? [645] It does. [646] Ah, look—look at me, Hathaway, I'm enjoying every minute of it, I am." [647] Hathaway swatted him on his back-side. [648] "Look here, you egocentric son of Erin, there's more work to be done. [649] More pirates to be captured. [650] The Patrol is still marching around and someone might be suspicious if they looked too close and saw all that red hair." [651] "All right, Click, we'll clean up the rest of them now. [652] We're a combination, we two, we are. [653] I take it all back about your pictures, Click, if you hadn't thought of taking pictures of me and inserting it into those telepath machines we'd be dead ducks now. [654] Well—here I go...." Hathaway stopped him. [655] "Hold it. [656] Until I load my camera again." [657] Irish grinned. [658] "Hurry it up. [659] Here come three guards. [660] They're unarmed. [661] I think I'll handle them with me fists for a change. [662] The gentle art of uppercuts. [663] Are you ready, Hathaway?" [664] "Ready." [665] Marnagan lifted his big ham-fists. [666] The camera whirred. [667] Hathaway chuckled, to himself. [668] What a sweet fade-out this was!

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "What is the relationship between Hathaway and Marnagan in the story?": 1. [271] "Irish! Irish! I think I see a way out of this mess! Here—" He elucidated it over and over again to the Patrolman. 2. [300] "Click! This one here! It's real!" 3. [405] "Marnagan! Get a grip, dammit! It's not real—don't let it force into your mind! It's not real, I tell you!" 4. [433] "We'll be taking our chances on guard," hissed Irish. 5. [537] "There's only one stipulation I make, Irish. I want a complete picture of Marnagan capturing Raider's Base. I want a picture of Gunther's face when you do it." 6. [638] "There's the Plaza, and there's Gunther's men fighting and then they're turning and running. And what are they running from? One man! Me. Irish Marnagan!" 7. [654] "Hold it. Until I load my camera again." 8. [1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The Monster Maker By RAY BRADBURY "Get Gunther," the official orders read. 9. [3] For Click and Irish were marooned on the pirate's asteroid—their only weapons a single gun and a news-reel camera. 10. [8] Click Hathaway's camera was loaded and he stood there listening to it rack-spin film between his fingers, and he knew he was getting a damned sweet picture of everything that was happening. 11. [24] Click grabbed Marnagan because he was the nearest thing, and held on. 12. [66] Hathaway felt funny inside, suddenly. 13. [95] "Somebody tossed that meteor, Irish. I took a picture of it, looked it right in the eye when it rolled at us, and it was poker-hot." 14. [104] "This is Gunther's work. He's here somewhere, probably laughing his guts out at the job he did us." 15. [125] "Gunther knows how you'd hate dying this way, Irish. It's irony clean through. That's probably why he planned the meteor and the crash this way." 16. [147] "No wonder we fell so fast—we were dragged down by a super-gravity set-up! Gunther'd do anything to—did I say anything?" 17. [225] "Gunther drew us down here, sure as Ceres! That gravity change we felt back on that ridge, Irish; that proves it." 18. [235] "It's a good front, this damned iron pebble. From it, Gunther strikes unseen; ships simply crash, that's all. A subtle hand, with all aces." 19. [271] He elucidated it over and over again to the Patrolman. 20. [356] Things were getting dark. Had to have air. Air. Air.

What is the significance of the crash of Hathaway and Marnagan’s ship in the opening scene for the rest of the story?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The Monster Maker By RAY BRADBURY "Get Gunther," the official orders read. [2] It was to laugh! [3] For Click and Irish were marooned on the pirate's asteroid—their only weapons a single gun and a news-reel camera. [4] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1944. [5] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [6] Suddenly, it was there. [7] There wasn't time to blink or speak or get scared. [8] Click Hathaway's camera was loaded and he stood there listening to it rack-spin film between his fingers, and he knew he was getting a damned sweet picture of everything that was happening. [9] The picture of Marnagan hunched huge over the control-console, wrenching levers, jamming studs with freckled fists. [10] And out in the dark of the fore-part there was space and a star-sprinkling and this meteor coming like blazing fury. [11] Click Hathaway felt the ship move under him like a sensitive animal's skin. [12] And then the meteor hit. [13] It made a spiked fist and knocked the rear-jets flat, and the ship spun like a cosmic merry-go-round. [14] There was plenty of noise. [15] Too damned much. [16] Hathaway only knew he was picked up and hurled against a lever-bank, and that Marnagan wasn't long in following, swearing loud words. [17] Click remembered hanging on to his camera and gritting to keep holding it. [18] What a sweet shot that had been of the meteor! [19] A sweeter one still of Marnagan beating hell out of the controls and keeping his words to himself until just now. [20] It got quiet. [21] It got so quiet you could almost hear the asteroids rushing up, cold, blue and hard. [22] You could hear your heart kicking a tom-tom between your sick stomach and your empty lungs. [23] Stars, asteroids revolved. [24] Click grabbed Marnagan because he was the nearest thing, and held on. [25] You came hunting for a space-raider and you ended up cradled in a slab-sized Irishman's arms, diving at a hunk of metal death. [26] What a fade-out! [27] "Irish!" [28] he heard himself say. [29] "Is this IT?" [30] "Is this what ?" [31] yelled Marnagan inside his helmet. [32] "Is this where the Big Producer yells CUT!?" [33] Marnagan fumed. [34] "I'll die when I'm damned good and ready. [35] And when I'm ready I'll inform you and you can picture me profile for Cosmic Films!" [36] They both waited, thrust against the shipside and held by a hand of gravity; listening to each other's breathing hard in the earphones. [37] The ship struck, once. [38] Bouncing, it struck again. [39] It turned end over and stopped. [40] Hathaway felt himself grabbed; he and Marnagan rattled around—human dice in a croupier's cup. [41] The shell of the ship burst, air and energy flung out. [42] Hathaway screamed the air out of his lungs, but his brain was thinking quick crazy, unimportant things. [43] The best scenes in life never reach film, or an audience. [44] Like this one, dammit! [45] Like this one! [46] His brain spun, racketing like the instantaneous, flicking motions of his camera. [47] Silence came and engulfed all the noise, ate it up and swallowed it. [48] Hathaway shook his head, instinctively grabbed at the camera locked to his mid-belt. [49] There was nothing but stars, twisted wreckage, cold that pierced through his vac-suit, and silence. [50] He wriggled out of the wreckage into that silence. [51] He didn't know what he was doing until he found the camera in his fingers as if it had grown there when he was born. [52] He stood there, thinking "Well, I'll at least have a few good scenes on film. [53] I'll—" A hunk of metal teetered, fell with a crash. [54] Marnagan elevated seven feet of bellowing manhood from the wreck. [55] "Hold it!" [56] cracked Hathaway's high voice. [57] Marnagan froze. [58] The camera whirred. [59] "Low angle shot; Interplanetary Patrolman emerges unscathed from asteroid crackup. [60] Swell stuff. [61] I'll get a raise for this!" [62] "From the toe of me boot!" [63] snarled Marnagan brusquely. [64] Oxen shoulders flexed inside his vac-suit. [65] "I might've died in there, and you nursin' that film-contraption!" [66] Hathaway felt funny inside, suddenly. [67] "I never thought of that. [68] Marnagan die? [69] I just took it for granted you'd come through. [70] You always have. [71] Funny, but you don't think about dying. [72] You try not to." [73] Hathaway stared at his gloved hand, but the gloving was so thick and heavy he couldn't tell if it was shaking. [74] Muscles in his bony face went down, pale. [75] "Where are we?" [76] "A million miles from nobody." [77] They stood in the middle of a pocked, time-eroded meteor plain that stretched off, dipping down into silent indigo and a rash of stars. [78] Overhead, the sun poised; black and stars all around it, making it look sick. [79] "If we walk in opposite directions, Click Hathaway, we'd be shaking hands the other side of this rock in two hours." [80] Marnagan shook his mop of dusty red hair. [81] "And I promised the boys at Luna Base this time I'd capture that Gunther lad!" [82] His voice stopped and the silence spoke. [83] Hathaway felt his heart pumping slow, hot pumps of blood. [84] "I checked my oxygen, Irish. [85] Sixty minutes of breathing left." [86] The silence punctuated that sentence, too. [87] Upon the sharp meteoric rocks Hathaway saw the tangled insides of the radio, the food supply mashed and scattered. [88] They were lucky to have escaped. [89] Or was suffocation a better death...? [90] Sixty minutes. [91] They stood and looked at one another. [92] "Damn that meteor!" [93] said Marnagan, hotly. [94] Hathaway got hold of an idea; remembering something. [95] He said it out: "Somebody tossed that meteor, Irish. [96] I took a picture of it, looked it right in the eye when it rolled at us, and it was poker-hot. [97] Space-meteors are never hot and glowing. [98] If it's proof you want, I've got it here, on film." [99] Marnagan winced his freckled square of face. [100] "It's not proof we need now, Click. [101] Oxygen. [102] And then food . [103] And then some way back to Earth." [104] Hathaway went on saying his thoughts: "This is Gunther's work. [105] He's here somewhere, probably laughing his guts out at the job he did us. [106] Oh, God, this would make great news-release stuff if we ever get back to Earth. [107] I.P. [108] 's Irish Marnagan, temporarily indisposed by a pirate whose dirty face has never been seen, Gunther by name, finally wins through to a triumphant finish. [109] Photographed on the spot, in color, by yours truly, Click Hathaway. [110] Cosmic Films, please notice." [111] They started walking, fast, over the pocked, rubbled plain toward a bony ridge of metal. [112] They kept their eyes wide and awake. [113] There wasn't much to see, but it was better than standing still, waiting. [114] Marnagan said, "We're working on margin, and we got nothin' to sweat with except your suspicions about this not being an accident. [115] We got fifty minutes to prove you're right. [116] After that—right or wrong—you'll be Cosmic Films prettiest unmoving, unbreathin' genius. [117] But talk all you like, Click. [118] It's times like this when we all need words, any words, on our tongues. [119] You got your camera and your scoop. [120] Talk about it. [121] As for me—" he twisted his glossy red face. [122] "Keeping alive is me hobby. [123] And this sort of two-bit death I did not order." [124] Click nodded. [125] "Gunther knows how you'd hate dying this way, Irish. [126] It's irony clean through. [127] That's probably why he planned the meteor and the crash this way." [128] Marnagan said nothing, but his thick lips went down at the corners, far down, and the green eyes blazed. [129] They stopped, together. [130] "Oops!" [131] Click said. [132] "Hey!" [133] Marnagan blinked. [134] "Did you feel that ?" [135] Hathaway's body felt feathery, light as a whisper, boneless and limbless, suddenly. [136] "Irish! [137] We lost weight, coming over that ridge!" [138] They ran back. [139] "Let's try it again." [140] They tried it. [141] They scowled at each other. [142] The same thing happened. [143] "Gravity should not act this way, Click." [144] "Are you telling me? [145] It's man-made. [146] Better than that—it's Gunther! [147] No wonder we fell so fast—we were dragged down by a super-gravity set-up! [148] Gunther'd do anything to—did I say anything ?" [149] Hathaway leaped backward in reaction. [150] His eyes widened and his hand came up, jabbing. [151] Over a hill-ridge swarmed a brew of unbelievable horrors. [152] Progeny from Frankenstein's ARK. [153] Immense crimson beasts with numerous legs and gnashing mandibles, brown-black creatures, some tubular and fat, others like thin white poisonous whips slashing along in the air. [154] Fangs caught starlight white on them. [155] Hathaway yelled and ran, Marnagan at his heels, lumbering. [156] Sweat broke cold on his body. [157] The immense things rolled, slithered and squirmed after him. [158] A blast of light. [159] Marnagan, firing his proton-gun. [160] Then, in Click's ears, the Irishman's incredulous bellow. [161] The gun didn't hurt the creatures at all. [162] "Irish!" [163] Hathaway flung himself over the ridge, slid down an incline toward the mouth a small cave. [164] "This way, fella!" [165] Hathaway made it first, Marnagan bellowing just behind him. [166] "They're too big; they can't get us in here!" [167] Click's voice gasped it out, as Marnagan squeezed his two-hundred-fifty pounds beside him. [168] Instinctively, Hathaway added, "Asteroid monsters! [169] My camera! [170] What a scene!" [171] "Damn your damn camera!" [172] yelled Marnagan. [173] "They might come in!" [174] "Use your gun." [175] "They got impervious hides. [176] No use. [177] Gahh! [178] And that was a pretty chase, eh, Click?" [179] "Yeah. [180] Sure. [181] You enjoyed it, every moment of it." [182] "I did that." [183] Irish grinned, showing white uneven teeth. [184] "Now, what will we be doing with these uninvited guests at our door?" [185] "Let me think—" "Lots of time, little man. [186] Forty more minutes of air, to be exact." [187] They sat, staring at the monsters for about a minute. [188] Hathaway felt funny about something; didn't know what. [189] Something about these monsters and Gunther and— "Which one will you be having?" [190] asked Irish, casually. [191] "A red one or a blue one?" [192] Hathaway laughed nervously. [193] "A pink one with yellow ruffles—Good God, now you've got me doing it. [194] Joking in the face of death." [195] "Me father taught me; keep laughing and you'll have Irish luck." [196] That didn't please the photographer. [197] "I'm an Anglo-Swede," he pointed out. [198] Marnagan shifted uneasily. [199] "Here, now. [200] You're doing nothing but sitting, looking like a little boy locked in a bedroom closet, so take me a profile shot of the beasties and myself." [201] Hathaway petted his camera reluctantly. [202] "What in hell's the use? [203] All this swell film shot. [204] Nobody'll ever see it." [205] "Then," retorted Marnagan, "we'll develop it for our own benefit; while waitin' for the U.S. Cavalry to come riding over the hill to our rescue!" [206] Hathaway snorted. [207] "U.S. [208] Cavalry." [209] Marnagan raised his proton-gun dramatically. [210] "Snap me this pose," he said. [211] "I paid your salary to trot along, photographing, we hoped, my capture of Gunther, now the least you can do is record peace negotiations betwixt me and these pixies." [212] Marnagan wasn't fooling anybody. [213] Hathaway knew the superficial palaver for nothing but a covering over the fast, furious thinking running around in that red-cropped skull. [214] Hathaway played the palaver, too, but his mind was whirring faster than his camera as he spun a picture of Marnagan standing there with a useless gun pointed at the animals. [215] Montage. [216] Marnagan sitting, chatting at the monsters. [217] Marnagan smiling for the camera. [218] Marnagan in profile. [219] Marnagan looking grim, without much effort, for the camera. [220] And then, a closeup of the thrashing death wall that holed them in. [221] Click took them all, those shots, not saying anything. [222] Nobody fooled nobody with this act. [223] Death was near and they had sweaty faces, dry mouths and frozen guts. [224] When Click finished filming, Irish sat down to save oxygen, and used it up arguing about Gunther. [225] Click came back at him: "Gunther drew us down here, sure as Ceres! [226] That gravity change we felt back on that ridge, Irish; that proves it. [227] Gunther's short on men. [228] So, what's he do; he builds an asteroid-base, and drags ships down. [229] Space war isn't perfect yet, guns don't prime true in space, trajectory is lousy over long distances. [230] So what's the best weapon, which dispenses with losing valuable, rare ships and a small bunch of men? [231] Super-gravity and a couple of well-tossed meteors. [232] Saves all around. [233] It's a good front, this damned iron pebble. [234] From it, Gunther strikes unseen; ships simply crash, that's all. [235] A subtle hand, with all aces." [236] Marnagan rumbled. [237] "Where is the dirty son, then!" [238] "He didn't have to appear, Irish. [239] He sent—them." [240] Hathaway nodded at the beasts. [241] "People crashing here die from air-lack, no food, or from wounds caused at the crackup. [242] If they survive all that—the animals tend to them. [243] It all looks like Nature was responsible. [244] See how subtle his attack is? [245] Looks like accidental death instead of murder, if the Patrol happens to land and finds us. [246] No reason for undue investigation, then." [247] "I don't see no Base around." [248] Click shrugged. [249] "Still doubt it? [250] Okay. [251] Look." [252] He tapped his camera and a spool popped out onto his gloved palm. [253] Holding it up, he stripped it out to its full twenty inch length, held it to the light while it developed, smiling. [254] It was one of his best inventions. [255] Self-developing film. [256] The first light struck film-surface, destroyed one chemical, leaving imprints; the second exposure simply hardened, secured the impressions. [257] Quick stuff. [258] Inserting the film-tongue into a micro-viewer in the camera's base, Click handed the whole thing over. [259] "Look." [260] Marnagan put the viewer up against the helmet glass, squinted. [261] "Ah, Click. [262] Now, now. [263] This is one lousy film you invented." [264] "Huh?" [265] "It's a strange process'll develop my picture and ignore the asteroid monsters complete." [266] "What!" [267] Hathaway grabbed the camera, gasped, squinted, and gasped again: Pictures in montage; Marnagan sitting down, chatting conversationally with nothing ; Marnagan shooting his gun at nothing ; Marnagan pretending to be happy in front of nothing . [268] Then, closeup—of—NOTHING! [269] The monsters had failed to image the film. [270] Marnagan was there, his hair like a red banner, his freckled face with the blue eyes bright in it. [271] Maybe— Hathaway said it, loud: "Irish! [272] Irish! [273] I think I see a way out of this mess! [274] Here—" He elucidated it over and over again to the Patrolman. [275] About the film, the beasts, and how the film couldn't be wrong. [276] If the film said the monsters weren't there, they weren't there. [277] "Yeah," said Marnagan. [278] "But step outside this cave—" "If my theory is correct I'll do it, unafraid," said Click. [279] Marnagan scowled. [280] "You sure them beasts don't radiate ultra-violet or infra-red or something that won't come out on film?" [281] "Nuts! [282] Any color we see, the camera sees. [283] We've been fooled." [284] "Hey, where you going?" [285] Marnagan blocked Hathaway as the smaller man tried pushing past him. [286] "Get out of the way," said Hathaway. [287] Marnagan put his big fists on his hips. [288] "If anyone is going anywhere, it'll be me does the going." [289] "I can't let you do that, Irish." [290] "Why not?" [291] "You'd be going on my say-so." [292] "Ain't your say-so good enough for me?" [293] "Yes. [294] Sure. [295] Of course. [296] I guess—" "If you say them animals ain't there, that's all I need. [297] Now, stand aside, you film-developing flea, and let an Irishman settle their bones." [298] He took an unnecessary hitch in trousers that didn't exist except under an inch of porous metal plate. [299] "Your express purpose on this voyage, Hathaway, is taking films to be used by the Patrol later for teaching Junior Patrolmen how to act in tough spots. [300] First-hand education. [301] Poke another spool of film in that contraption and give me profile a scan. [302] This is lesson number seven: Daniel Walks Into The Lion's Den." [303] "Irish, I—" "Shut up and load up." [304] Hathaway nervously loaded the film-slot, raised it. [305] "Ready, Click?" [306] "I—I guess so," said Hathaway. [307] "And remember, think it hard, Irish. [308] Think it hard. [309] There aren't any animals—" "Keep me in focus, lad." [310] "All the way, Irish." [311] "What do they say...? [312] Oh, yeah. [313] Action. [314] Lights. [315] Camera!" [316] Marnagan held his gun out in front of him and still smiling took one, two, three, four steps out into the outside world. [317] The monsters were waiting for him at the fifth step. [318] Marnagan kept walking. [319] Right out into the middle of them.... That was the sweetest shot Hathaway ever took. [320] Marnagan and the monsters! [321] Only now it was only Marnagan. [322] No more monsters. [323] Marnagan smiled a smile broader than his shoulders. [324] "Hey, Click, look at me! [325] I'm in one piece. [326] Why, hell, the damned things turned tail and ran away!" [327] "Ran, hell!" [328] cried Hathaway, rushing out, his face flushed and animated. [329] "They just plain vanished. [330] They were only imaginative figments!" [331] "And to think we let them hole us in that way, Click Hathaway, you coward!" [332] "Smile when you say that, Irish." [333] "Sure, and ain't I always smilin'? [334] Ah, Click boy, are them tears in your sweet grey eyes?" [335] "Damn," swore the photographer, embarrassedly. [336] "Why don't they put window-wipers in these helmets?" [337] "I'll take it up with the Board, lad." [338] "Forget it. [339] I was so blamed glad to see your homely carcass in one hunk, I couldn't help—Look, now, about Gunther. [340] Those animals are part of his set-up. [341] Explorers who land here inadvertently, are chased back into their ships, forced to take off. [342] Tourists and the like. [343] Nothing suspicious about animals. [344] And if the tourists don't leave, the animals kill them." [345] "Shaw, now. [346] Those animals can't kill." [347] "Think not, Mr. Marnagan? [348] As long as we believed in them they could have frightened us to death, forced us, maybe, to commit suicide. [349] If that isn't being dangerous—" The Irishman whistled. [350] "But, we've got to move , Irish. [351] We've got twenty minutes of oxygen. [352] In that time we've got to trace those monsters to their source, Gunther's Base, fight our way in, and get fresh oxy-cannisters." [353] Click attached his camera to his mid-belt. [354] "Gunther probably thinks we're dead by now. [355] Everyone else's been fooled by his playmates; they never had a chance to disbelieve them." [356] "If it hadn't been for you taking them pictures, Click—" "Coupled with your damned stubborn attitude about the accident—" Click stopped and felt his insides turning to water. [357] He shook his head and felt a film slip down over his eyes. [358] He spread his legs out to steady himself, and swayed. [359] "I—I don't think my oxygen is as full as yours. [360] This excitement had me double-breathing and I feel sick." [361] Marnagan's homely face grimaced in sympathy. [362] "Hold tight, Click. [363] The guy that invented these fish-bowls didn't provide for a sick stomach." [364] "Hold tight, hell, let's move. [365] We've got to find where those animals came from! [366] And the only way to do that is to get the animals to come back!" [367] "Come back? [368] How?" [369] "They're waiting, just outside the aura of our thoughts, and if we believe in them again, they'll return." [370] Marnagan didn't like it. [371] "Won't—won't they kill us—if they come—if we believe in 'em?" [372] Hathaway shook a head that was tons heavy and weary. [373] "Not if we believe in them to a certain point . [374] Psychologically they can both be seen and felt. [375] We only want to see them coming at us again." [376] " Do we, now?" [377] "With twenty minutes left, maybe less—" "All right, Click, let's bring 'em back. [378] How do we do it?" [379] Hathaway fought against the mist in his eyes. [380] "Just think—I will see the monsters again. [381] I will see them again and I will not feel them. [382] Think it over and over." [383] Marnagan's hulk stirred uneasily. [384] "And—what if I forget to remember all that? [385] What if I get excited...?" [386] Hathaway didn't answer. [387] But his eyes told the story by just looking at Irish. [388] Marnagan cursed. [389] "All right, lad. [390] Let's have at it!" [391] The monsters returned. [392] A soundless deluge of them, pouring over the rubbled horizon, swarming in malevolent anticipation about the two men. [393] "This way, Irish. [394] They come from this way! [395] There's a focal point, a sending station for these telepathic brutes. [396] Come on!" [397] Hathaway sludged into the pressing tide of color, mouths, contorted faces, silvery fat bodies misting as he plowed through them. [398] Marnagan was making good progress ahead of Hathaway. [399] But he stopped and raised his gun and made quick moves with it. [400] "Click! [401] This one here! [402] It's real!" [403] He fell back and something struck him down. [404] His immense frame slammed against rock, noiselessly. [405] Hathaway darted forward, flung his body over Marnagan's, covered the helmet glass with his hands, shouting: "Marnagan! [406] Get a grip, dammit! [407] It's not real—don't let it force into your mind! [408] It's not real, I tell you!" [409] "Click—" Marnagan's face was a bitter, tortured movement behind glass. [410] "Click—" He was fighting hard. [411] "I—I—sure now. [412] Sure—" He smiled. [413] "It—it's only a shanty fake!" [414] "Keep saying it, Irish. [415] Keep it up." [416] Marnagan's thick lips opened. [417] "It's only a fake," he said. [418] And then, irritated, "Get the hell off me, Hathaway. [419] Let me up to my feet!" [420] Hathaway got up, shakily. [421] The air in his helmet smelled stale, and little bubbles danced in his eyes. [422] "Irish, you forget the monsters. [423] Let me handle them, I know how. [424] They might fool you again, you might forget." [425] Marnagan showed his teeth. [426] "Gah! [427] Let a flea have all the fun? [428] And besides, Click, I like to look at them. [429] They're pretty." [430] The outpour of animals came from a low lying mound a mile farther on. [431] Evidently the telepathic source lay there. [432] They approached it warily. [433] "We'll be taking our chances on guard," hissed Irish. [434] "I'll go ahead, draw their attention, maybe get captured. [435] Then, you show up with your gun...." "I haven't got one." [436] "We'll chance it, then. [437] You stick here until I see what's ahead. [438] They probably got scanners out. [439] Let them see me—" And before Hathaway could object, Marnagan walked off. [440] He walked about five hundred yards, bent down, applied his fingers to something, heaved up, and there was a door opening in the rock. [441] His voice came back across the distance, into Click's earphones. [442] "A door, an air-lock, Click. [443] A tunnel leading down inside!" [444] Then, Marnagan dropped into the tunnel, disappearing. [445] Click heard the thud of his feet hitting the metal flooring. [446] Click sucked in his breath, hard and fast. [447] "All right, put 'em up!" [448] a new harsh voice cried over a different radio. [449] One of Gunther's guards. [450] Three shots sizzled out, and Marnagan bellowed. [451] The strange harsh voice said, "That's better. [452] Don't try and pick that gun up now. [453] Oh, so it's you. [454] I thought Gunther had finished you off. [455] How'd you get past the animals?" [456] Click started running. [457] He switched off his sending audio, kept his receiving on. [458] Marnagan, weaponless. [459] One guard. [460] Click gasped. [461] Things were getting dark. [462] Had to have air. [463] Air. [464] Air. [465] He ran and kept running and listening to Marnagan's lying voice: "I tied them pink elephants of Gunther's in neat alphabetical bundles and stacked them up to dry, ya louse!" [466] Marnagan said. [467] "But, damn you, they killed my partner before he had a chance!" [468] The guard laughed. [469] The air-lock door was still wide open when Click reached it, his head swimming darkly, his lungs crammed with pain-fire and hell-rockets. [470] He let himself down in, quiet and soft. [471] He didn't have a weapon. [472] He didn't have a weapon. [473] Oh, damn, damn! [474] A tunnel curved, ending in light, and two men silhouetted in that yellow glare. [475] Marnagan, backed against a wall, his helmet cracked, air hissing slowly out of it, his face turning blue. [476] And the guard, a proton gun extended stiffly before him, also in a vac-suit. [477] The guard had his profile toward Hathaway, his lips twisting: "I think I'll let you stand right there and die," he said quietly. [478] "That what Gunther wanted, anway. [479] A nice sordid death." [480] Hathaway took three strides, his hands out in front of him. [481] "Don't move!" [482] he snapped. [483] "I've got a weapon stronger than yours. [484] One twitch and I'll blast you and the whole damned wall out from behind you! [485] Freeze!" [486] The guard whirled. [487] He widened his sharp eyes, and reluctantly, dropped his gun to the floor. [488] "Get his gun, Irish." [489] Marnagan made as if to move, crumpled clumsily forward. [490] Hathaway ran in, snatched up the gun, smirked at the guard. [491] "Thanks for posing," he said. [492] "That shot will go down in film history for candid acting." [493] "What!" [494] "Ah: ah! [495] Keep your place. [496] I've got a real gun now. [497] Where's the door leading into the Base?" [498] The guard moved his head sullenly over his left shoulder. [499] Click was afraid he would show his weak dizziness. [500] He needed air. [501] "Okay. [502] Drag Marnagan with you, open the door and we'll have air. [503] Double time! [504] Double!" [505] Ten minutes later, Marnagan and Hathaway, fresh tanks of oxygen on their backs, Marnagan in a fresh bulger and helmet, trussed the guard, hid him in a huge trash receptacle. [506] "Where he belongs," observed Irish tersely. [507] They found themselves in a complete inner world; an asteroid nothing more than a honey-comb fortress sliding through the void unchallenged. [508] Perfect front for a raider who had little equipment and was short-handed of men. [509] Gunther simply waited for specific cargo ships to rocket by, pulled them or knocked them down and swarmed over them for cargo. [510] The animals served simply to insure against suspicion and the swarms of tourists that filled the void these days. [511] Small fry weren't wanted. [512] They were scared off. [513] The telepathic sending station for the animals was a great bank of intricate, glittering machine, through which strips of colored film with images slid into slots and machine mouths that translated them into thought-emanations. [514] A damned neat piece of genius. [515] "So here we are, still not much better off than we were," growled Irish. [516] "We haven't a ship or a space-radio, and more guards'll turn up any moment. [517] You think we could refocus this doohingey, project the monsters inside the asteroid to fool the pirates themselves?" [518] "What good would that do?" [519] Hathaway gnawed his lip. [520] "They wouldn't fool the engineers who created them, you nut." [521] Marnagan exhaled disgustedly. [522] "Ah, if only the U.S. Cavalry would come riding over the hill—" "Irish!" [523] Hathaway snapped that, his face lighting up. [524] "Irish. [525] The U.S. Cavalry it is!" [526] His eyes darted over the machines. [527] "Here. [528] Help me. [529] We'll stage everything on the most colossal raid of the century." [530] Marnagan winced. [531] "You breathing oxygen or whiskey?" [532] "There's only one stipulation I make, Irish. [533] I want a complete picture of Marnagan capturing Raider's Base. [534] I want a picture of Gunther's face when you do it. [535] Snap it, now, we've got rush work to do. [536] How good an actor are you?" [537] "That's a silly question." [538] "You only have to do three things. [539] Walk with your gun out in front of you, firing. [540] That's number one. [541] Number two is to clutch at your heart and fall down dead. [542] Number three is to clutch at your side, fall down and twitch on the ground. [543] Is that clear?" [544] "Clear as the Coal Sack Nebula...." An hour later Hathaway trudged down a passageway that led out into a sort of city street inside the asteroid. [545] There were about six streets, lined with cube houses in yellow metal, ending near Hathaway in a wide, green-lawned Plaza. [546] Hathaway, weaponless, idly carrying his camera in one hand, walked across the Plaza as if he owned it. [547] He was heading for a building that was pretentious enough to be Gunther's quarters. [548] He got halfway there when he felt a gun in his back. [549] He didn't resist. [550] They took him straight ahead to his destination and pushed him into a room where Gunther sat. [551] Hathaway looked at him. [552] "So you're Gunther?" [553] he said, calmly. [554] The pirate was incredibly old, his bulging forehead stood out over sunken, questioningly dark eyes, and his scrawny body was lost in folds of metal-link cloth. [555] He glanced up from a paper-file, surprised. [556] Before he could speak, Hathaway said: "Everything's over with, Mr. Gunther. [557] The Patrol is in the city now and we're capturing your Base. [558] Don't try to fight. [559] We've a thousand men against your eighty-five." [560] Gunther sat there, blinking at Hathaway, not moving. [561] His thin hands twitched in his lap. [562] "You are bluffing," he said, finally, with a firm directness. [563] "A ship hasn't landed here for an hour. [564] Your ship was the last. [565] Two people were on it. [566] The last I saw of them they were being pursued to the death by the Beasts. [567] One of you escaped, it seemed." [568] "Both. [569] The other guy went after the Patrol." [570] "Impossible!" [571] "I can't respect your opinion, Mr. [572] Gunther." [573] A shouting rose from the Plaza. [574] About fifty of Gunther's men, lounging on carved benches during their time-off, stirred to their feet and started yelling. [575] Gunther turned slowly to the huge window in one side of his office. [576] He stared, hard. [577] The Patrol was coming! [578] Across the Plaza, marching quietly and decisively, came the Patrol. [579] Five hundred Patrolmen in one long, incredible line, carrying paralysis guns with them in their tight hands. [580] Gunther babbled like a child, his voice a shrill dagger in the air. [581] "Get out there, you men! [582] Throw them back! [583] We're outnumbered!" [584] Guns flared. [585] But the Patrol came on. [586] Gunther's men didn't run, Hathaway had to credit them on that. [587] They took it, standing. [588] Hathaway chuckled inside, deep. [589] What a sweet, sweet shot this was. [590] His camera whirred, clicked and whirred again. [591] Nobody stopped him from filming it. [592] Everything was too wild, hot and angry. [593] Gunther was throwing a fit, still seated at his desk, unable to move because of his fragile, bony legs and their atrophied state. [594] Some of the Patrol were killed. [595] Hathaway chuckled again as he saw three of the Patrolmen clutch at their hearts, crumple, lie on the ground and twitch. [596] God, what photography! [597] Gunther raged, and swept a small pistol from his linked corselet. [598] He fired wildly until Hathaway hit him over the head with a paper-weight. [599] Then Hathaway took a picture of Gunther slumped at his desk, the chaos taking place immediately outside his window. [600] The pirates broke and fled, those that were left. [601] A mere handful. [602] And out of the chaos came Marnagan's voice, "Here!" [603] One of the Patrolmen stopped firing, and ran toward Click and the Building. [604] He got inside. [605] "Did you see them run, Click boy? [606] What an idea. [607] How did we do?" [608] "Fine, Irish. [609] Fine!" [610] "So here's Gunther, the spalpeen! [611] Gunther, the little dried up pirate, eh?" [612] Marnagan whacked Hathaway on the back. [613] "I'll have to hand it to you, this is the best plan o' battle ever laid out. [614] And proud I was to fight with such splendid men as these—" He gestured toward the Plaza. [615] Click laughed with him. [616] "You should be proud. [617] Five hundred Patrolmen with hair like red banners flying, with thick Irish brogues and broad shoulders and freckles and blue eyes and a body as tall as your stories!" [618] Marnagan roared. [619] "I always said, I said—if ever there could be an army of Marnagans, we could lick the whole damn uneeverse! [620] Did you photograph it, Click?" [621] "I did." [622] Hathaway tapped his camera happily. [623] "Ah, then, won't that be a scoop for you, boy? [624] Money from the Patrol so they can use the film as instruction in Classes and money from Cosmic Films for the news-reel headlines! [625] And what a scene, and what acting! [626] Five hundred duplicates of Steve Marnagan, broadcast telepathically into the minds of the pirates, walking across a Plaza, capturing the whole she-bang! [627] How did you like my death-scenes?" [628] "You're a ham. [629] And anyway—five hundred duplicates, nothing!" [630] said Click. [631] He ripped the film-spool from the camera, spread it in the air to develop, inserted it in the micro-viewer. [632] "Have a look—" Marnagan looked. [633] "Ah, now. [634] Ah, now," he said over and over. [635] "There's the Plaza, and there's Gunther's men fighting and then they're turning and running. [636] And what are they running from? [637] One man! [638] Me. [639] Irish Marnagan! [640] Walking all by myself across the lawn, paralyzing them. [641] One against a hundred, and the cowards running from me! [642] "Sure, Click, this is better than I thought. [643] I forgot that the film wouldn't register telepathic emanations, them other Marnagans. [644] It makes it look like I'm a mighty brave man, does it not? [645] It does. [646] Ah, look—look at me, Hathaway, I'm enjoying every minute of it, I am." [647] Hathaway swatted him on his back-side. [648] "Look here, you egocentric son of Erin, there's more work to be done. [649] More pirates to be captured. [650] The Patrol is still marching around and someone might be suspicious if they looked too close and saw all that red hair." [651] "All right, Click, we'll clean up the rest of them now. [652] We're a combination, we two, we are. [653] I take it all back about your pictures, Click, if you hadn't thought of taking pictures of me and inserting it into those telepath machines we'd be dead ducks now. [654] Well—here I go...." Hathaway stopped him. [655] "Hold it. [656] Until I load my camera again." [657] Irish grinned. [658] "Hurry it up. [659] Here come three guards. [660] They're unarmed. [661] I think I'll handle them with me fists for a change. [662] The gentle art of uppercuts. [663] Are you ready, Hathaway?" [664] "Ready." [665] Marnagan lifted his big ham-fists. [666] The camera whirred. [667] Hathaway chuckled, to himself. [668] What a sweet fade-out this was!

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question: 1. [95] He said it out: "Somebody tossed that meteor, Irish. I took a picture of it, looked it right in the eye when it rolled at us, and it was poker-hot. Space-meteors are never hot and glowing. If it's proof you want, I've got it here, on film." 2. [104] Hathaway went on saying his thoughts: "This is Gunther's work. He's here somewhere, probably laughing his guts out at the job he did us." 3. [225] Click came back at him: "Gunther drew us down here, sure as Ceres! That gravity change we felt back on that ridge, Irish; that proves it. Gunther's short on men. So, what's he do; he builds an asteroid-base, and drags ships down." 4. [239] "He didn't have to appear, Irish. He sent—them." 5. [240] Hathaway nodded at the beasts. 6. [241] "People crashing here die from air-lack, no food, or from wounds caused at the crackup. If they survive all that—the animals tend to them." 7. [242] "It all looks like Nature was responsible." 8. [243] "See how subtle his attack is? Looks like accidental death instead of murder, if the Patrol happens to land and finds us. No reason for undue investigation, then." 9. [251] "Look." 10. [252] He tapped his camera and a spool popped out onto his gloved palm. 11. [253] Holding it up, he stripped it out to its full twenty inch length, held it to the light while it developed, smiling. 12. [254] It was one of his best inventions. Self-developing film. 13. [255] The first light struck film-surface, destroyed one chemical, leaving imprints; the second exposure simply hardened, secured the impressions. 14. [256] Quick stuff. 15. [257] Inserting the film-tongue into a micro-viewer in the camera's base, Click handed the whole thing over. 16. [258] "Look." 17. [267] Then, closeup—of—NOTHING! The monsters had failed to image the film. 18. [271] Hathaway said it, loud: "Irish! Irish! I think I see a way out of this mess! Here—" He elucidated it over and over again to the Patrolman. 19. [272] About the film, the beasts, and how the film couldn't be wrong. 20. [273] "If the film said the monsters weren't there, they weren't there." 21. [390] The monsters returned. A soundless deluge of them, pouring over the rubbled horizon, swarming in malevolent anticipation about the two men. 22. [391] "This way, Irish. They come from this way! There's a focal point, a sending station for these telepathic brutes. Come on!" 23. [392] Hathaway sludged into the pressing tide of color, mouths, contorted faces, silvery fat bodies misting as he plowed through them. 24. [511] The animals served simply to insure against suspicion and the swarms of tourists that filled the void these days. 25. [512] Small fry weren't wanted. They were scared off. 26. [513] The telepathic sending station for the animals was a great bank of intricate, glittering machine, through which strips of colored film with images slid into slots and machine mouths that translated them into thought-emanations. 27. [514] A damned neat piece of genius. 28. [518] "You think we could refocus this doohingey, project the monsters inside the asteroid to fool the pirates themselves?" 29. [519] "What good would that do?" 30. [520] Hathaway gnawed his lip. "They wouldn't fool the engineers who created them, you nut."

What is the significance of the telepathic projectors in the story?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The Monster Maker By RAY BRADBURY "Get Gunther," the official orders read. [2] It was to laugh! [3] For Click and Irish were marooned on the pirate's asteroid—their only weapons a single gun and a news-reel camera. [4] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1944. [5] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [6] Suddenly, it was there. [7] There wasn't time to blink or speak or get scared. [8] Click Hathaway's camera was loaded and he stood there listening to it rack-spin film between his fingers, and he knew he was getting a damned sweet picture of everything that was happening. [9] The picture of Marnagan hunched huge over the control-console, wrenching levers, jamming studs with freckled fists. [10] And out in the dark of the fore-part there was space and a star-sprinkling and this meteor coming like blazing fury. [11] Click Hathaway felt the ship move under him like a sensitive animal's skin. [12] And then the meteor hit. [13] It made a spiked fist and knocked the rear-jets flat, and the ship spun like a cosmic merry-go-round. [14] There was plenty of noise. [15] Too damned much. [16] Hathaway only knew he was picked up and hurled against a lever-bank, and that Marnagan wasn't long in following, swearing loud words. [17] Click remembered hanging on to his camera and gritting to keep holding it. [18] What a sweet shot that had been of the meteor! [19] A sweeter one still of Marnagan beating hell out of the controls and keeping his words to himself until just now. [20] It got quiet. [21] It got so quiet you could almost hear the asteroids rushing up, cold, blue and hard. [22] You could hear your heart kicking a tom-tom between your sick stomach and your empty lungs. [23] Stars, asteroids revolved. [24] Click grabbed Marnagan because he was the nearest thing, and held on. [25] You came hunting for a space-raider and you ended up cradled in a slab-sized Irishman's arms, diving at a hunk of metal death. [26] What a fade-out! [27] "Irish!" [28] he heard himself say. [29] "Is this IT?" [30] "Is this what ?" [31] yelled Marnagan inside his helmet. [32] "Is this where the Big Producer yells CUT!?" [33] Marnagan fumed. [34] "I'll die when I'm damned good and ready. [35] And when I'm ready I'll inform you and you can picture me profile for Cosmic Films!" [36] They both waited, thrust against the shipside and held by a hand of gravity; listening to each other's breathing hard in the earphones. [37] The ship struck, once. [38] Bouncing, it struck again. [39] It turned end over and stopped. [40] Hathaway felt himself grabbed; he and Marnagan rattled around—human dice in a croupier's cup. [41] The shell of the ship burst, air and energy flung out. [42] Hathaway screamed the air out of his lungs, but his brain was thinking quick crazy, unimportant things. [43] The best scenes in life never reach film, or an audience. [44] Like this one, dammit! [45] Like this one! [46] His brain spun, racketing like the instantaneous, flicking motions of his camera. [47] Silence came and engulfed all the noise, ate it up and swallowed it. [48] Hathaway shook his head, instinctively grabbed at the camera locked to his mid-belt. [49] There was nothing but stars, twisted wreckage, cold that pierced through his vac-suit, and silence. [50] He wriggled out of the wreckage into that silence. [51] He didn't know what he was doing until he found the camera in his fingers as if it had grown there when he was born. [52] He stood there, thinking "Well, I'll at least have a few good scenes on film. [53] I'll—" A hunk of metal teetered, fell with a crash. [54] Marnagan elevated seven feet of bellowing manhood from the wreck. [55] "Hold it!" [56] cracked Hathaway's high voice. [57] Marnagan froze. [58] The camera whirred. [59] "Low angle shot; Interplanetary Patrolman emerges unscathed from asteroid crackup. [60] Swell stuff. [61] I'll get a raise for this!" [62] "From the toe of me boot!" [63] snarled Marnagan brusquely. [64] Oxen shoulders flexed inside his vac-suit. [65] "I might've died in there, and you nursin' that film-contraption!" [66] Hathaway felt funny inside, suddenly. [67] "I never thought of that. [68] Marnagan die? [69] I just took it for granted you'd come through. [70] You always have. [71] Funny, but you don't think about dying. [72] You try not to." [73] Hathaway stared at his gloved hand, but the gloving was so thick and heavy he couldn't tell if it was shaking. [74] Muscles in his bony face went down, pale. [75] "Where are we?" [76] "A million miles from nobody." [77] They stood in the middle of a pocked, time-eroded meteor plain that stretched off, dipping down into silent indigo and a rash of stars. [78] Overhead, the sun poised; black and stars all around it, making it look sick. [79] "If we walk in opposite directions, Click Hathaway, we'd be shaking hands the other side of this rock in two hours." [80] Marnagan shook his mop of dusty red hair. [81] "And I promised the boys at Luna Base this time I'd capture that Gunther lad!" [82] His voice stopped and the silence spoke. [83] Hathaway felt his heart pumping slow, hot pumps of blood. [84] "I checked my oxygen, Irish. [85] Sixty minutes of breathing left." [86] The silence punctuated that sentence, too. [87] Upon the sharp meteoric rocks Hathaway saw the tangled insides of the radio, the food supply mashed and scattered. [88] They were lucky to have escaped. [89] Or was suffocation a better death...? [90] Sixty minutes. [91] They stood and looked at one another. [92] "Damn that meteor!" [93] said Marnagan, hotly. [94] Hathaway got hold of an idea; remembering something. [95] He said it out: "Somebody tossed that meteor, Irish. [96] I took a picture of it, looked it right in the eye when it rolled at us, and it was poker-hot. [97] Space-meteors are never hot and glowing. [98] If it's proof you want, I've got it here, on film." [99] Marnagan winced his freckled square of face. [100] "It's not proof we need now, Click. [101] Oxygen. [102] And then food . [103] And then some way back to Earth." [104] Hathaway went on saying his thoughts: "This is Gunther's work. [105] He's here somewhere, probably laughing his guts out at the job he did us. [106] Oh, God, this would make great news-release stuff if we ever get back to Earth. [107] I.P. [108] 's Irish Marnagan, temporarily indisposed by a pirate whose dirty face has never been seen, Gunther by name, finally wins through to a triumphant finish. [109] Photographed on the spot, in color, by yours truly, Click Hathaway. [110] Cosmic Films, please notice." [111] They started walking, fast, over the pocked, rubbled plain toward a bony ridge of metal. [112] They kept their eyes wide and awake. [113] There wasn't much to see, but it was better than standing still, waiting. [114] Marnagan said, "We're working on margin, and we got nothin' to sweat with except your suspicions about this not being an accident. [115] We got fifty minutes to prove you're right. [116] After that—right or wrong—you'll be Cosmic Films prettiest unmoving, unbreathin' genius. [117] But talk all you like, Click. [118] It's times like this when we all need words, any words, on our tongues. [119] You got your camera and your scoop. [120] Talk about it. [121] As for me—" he twisted his glossy red face. [122] "Keeping alive is me hobby. [123] And this sort of two-bit death I did not order." [124] Click nodded. [125] "Gunther knows how you'd hate dying this way, Irish. [126] It's irony clean through. [127] That's probably why he planned the meteor and the crash this way." [128] Marnagan said nothing, but his thick lips went down at the corners, far down, and the green eyes blazed. [129] They stopped, together. [130] "Oops!" [131] Click said. [132] "Hey!" [133] Marnagan blinked. [134] "Did you feel that ?" [135] Hathaway's body felt feathery, light as a whisper, boneless and limbless, suddenly. [136] "Irish! [137] We lost weight, coming over that ridge!" [138] They ran back. [139] "Let's try it again." [140] They tried it. [141] They scowled at each other. [142] The same thing happened. [143] "Gravity should not act this way, Click." [144] "Are you telling me? [145] It's man-made. [146] Better than that—it's Gunther! [147] No wonder we fell so fast—we were dragged down by a super-gravity set-up! [148] Gunther'd do anything to—did I say anything ?" [149] Hathaway leaped backward in reaction. [150] His eyes widened and his hand came up, jabbing. [151] Over a hill-ridge swarmed a brew of unbelievable horrors. [152] Progeny from Frankenstein's ARK. [153] Immense crimson beasts with numerous legs and gnashing mandibles, brown-black creatures, some tubular and fat, others like thin white poisonous whips slashing along in the air. [154] Fangs caught starlight white on them. [155] Hathaway yelled and ran, Marnagan at his heels, lumbering. [156] Sweat broke cold on his body. [157] The immense things rolled, slithered and squirmed after him. [158] A blast of light. [159] Marnagan, firing his proton-gun. [160] Then, in Click's ears, the Irishman's incredulous bellow. [161] The gun didn't hurt the creatures at all. [162] "Irish!" [163] Hathaway flung himself over the ridge, slid down an incline toward the mouth a small cave. [164] "This way, fella!" [165] Hathaway made it first, Marnagan bellowing just behind him. [166] "They're too big; they can't get us in here!" [167] Click's voice gasped it out, as Marnagan squeezed his two-hundred-fifty pounds beside him. [168] Instinctively, Hathaway added, "Asteroid monsters! [169] My camera! [170] What a scene!" [171] "Damn your damn camera!" [172] yelled Marnagan. [173] "They might come in!" [174] "Use your gun." [175] "They got impervious hides. [176] No use. [177] Gahh! [178] And that was a pretty chase, eh, Click?" [179] "Yeah. [180] Sure. [181] You enjoyed it, every moment of it." [182] "I did that." [183] Irish grinned, showing white uneven teeth. [184] "Now, what will we be doing with these uninvited guests at our door?" [185] "Let me think—" "Lots of time, little man. [186] Forty more minutes of air, to be exact." [187] They sat, staring at the monsters for about a minute. [188] Hathaway felt funny about something; didn't know what. [189] Something about these monsters and Gunther and— "Which one will you be having?" [190] asked Irish, casually. [191] "A red one or a blue one?" [192] Hathaway laughed nervously. [193] "A pink one with yellow ruffles—Good God, now you've got me doing it. [194] Joking in the face of death." [195] "Me father taught me; keep laughing and you'll have Irish luck." [196] That didn't please the photographer. [197] "I'm an Anglo-Swede," he pointed out. [198] Marnagan shifted uneasily. [199] "Here, now. [200] You're doing nothing but sitting, looking like a little boy locked in a bedroom closet, so take me a profile shot of the beasties and myself." [201] Hathaway petted his camera reluctantly. [202] "What in hell's the use? [203] All this swell film shot. [204] Nobody'll ever see it." [205] "Then," retorted Marnagan, "we'll develop it for our own benefit; while waitin' for the U.S. Cavalry to come riding over the hill to our rescue!" [206] Hathaway snorted. [207] "U.S. [208] Cavalry." [209] Marnagan raised his proton-gun dramatically. [210] "Snap me this pose," he said. [211] "I paid your salary to trot along, photographing, we hoped, my capture of Gunther, now the least you can do is record peace negotiations betwixt me and these pixies." [212] Marnagan wasn't fooling anybody. [213] Hathaway knew the superficial palaver for nothing but a covering over the fast, furious thinking running around in that red-cropped skull. [214] Hathaway played the palaver, too, but his mind was whirring faster than his camera as he spun a picture of Marnagan standing there with a useless gun pointed at the animals. [215] Montage. [216] Marnagan sitting, chatting at the monsters. [217] Marnagan smiling for the camera. [218] Marnagan in profile. [219] Marnagan looking grim, without much effort, for the camera. [220] And then, a closeup of the thrashing death wall that holed them in. [221] Click took them all, those shots, not saying anything. [222] Nobody fooled nobody with this act. [223] Death was near and they had sweaty faces, dry mouths and frozen guts. [224] When Click finished filming, Irish sat down to save oxygen, and used it up arguing about Gunther. [225] Click came back at him: "Gunther drew us down here, sure as Ceres! [226] That gravity change we felt back on that ridge, Irish; that proves it. [227] Gunther's short on men. [228] So, what's he do; he builds an asteroid-base, and drags ships down. [229] Space war isn't perfect yet, guns don't prime true in space, trajectory is lousy over long distances. [230] So what's the best weapon, which dispenses with losing valuable, rare ships and a small bunch of men? [231] Super-gravity and a couple of well-tossed meteors. [232] Saves all around. [233] It's a good front, this damned iron pebble. [234] From it, Gunther strikes unseen; ships simply crash, that's all. [235] A subtle hand, with all aces." [236] Marnagan rumbled. [237] "Where is the dirty son, then!" [238] "He didn't have to appear, Irish. [239] He sent—them." [240] Hathaway nodded at the beasts. [241] "People crashing here die from air-lack, no food, or from wounds caused at the crackup. [242] If they survive all that—the animals tend to them. [243] It all looks like Nature was responsible. [244] See how subtle his attack is? [245] Looks like accidental death instead of murder, if the Patrol happens to land and finds us. [246] No reason for undue investigation, then." [247] "I don't see no Base around." [248] Click shrugged. [249] "Still doubt it? [250] Okay. [251] Look." [252] He tapped his camera and a spool popped out onto his gloved palm. [253] Holding it up, he stripped it out to its full twenty inch length, held it to the light while it developed, smiling. [254] It was one of his best inventions. [255] Self-developing film. [256] The first light struck film-surface, destroyed one chemical, leaving imprints; the second exposure simply hardened, secured the impressions. [257] Quick stuff. [258] Inserting the film-tongue into a micro-viewer in the camera's base, Click handed the whole thing over. [259] "Look." [260] Marnagan put the viewer up against the helmet glass, squinted. [261] "Ah, Click. [262] Now, now. [263] This is one lousy film you invented." [264] "Huh?" [265] "It's a strange process'll develop my picture and ignore the asteroid monsters complete." [266] "What!" [267] Hathaway grabbed the camera, gasped, squinted, and gasped again: Pictures in montage; Marnagan sitting down, chatting conversationally with nothing ; Marnagan shooting his gun at nothing ; Marnagan pretending to be happy in front of nothing . [268] Then, closeup—of—NOTHING! [269] The monsters had failed to image the film. [270] Marnagan was there, his hair like a red banner, his freckled face with the blue eyes bright in it. [271] Maybe— Hathaway said it, loud: "Irish! [272] Irish! [273] I think I see a way out of this mess! [274] Here—" He elucidated it over and over again to the Patrolman. [275] About the film, the beasts, and how the film couldn't be wrong. [276] If the film said the monsters weren't there, they weren't there. [277] "Yeah," said Marnagan. [278] "But step outside this cave—" "If my theory is correct I'll do it, unafraid," said Click. [279] Marnagan scowled. [280] "You sure them beasts don't radiate ultra-violet or infra-red or something that won't come out on film?" [281] "Nuts! [282] Any color we see, the camera sees. [283] We've been fooled." [284] "Hey, where you going?" [285] Marnagan blocked Hathaway as the smaller man tried pushing past him. [286] "Get out of the way," said Hathaway. [287] Marnagan put his big fists on his hips. [288] "If anyone is going anywhere, it'll be me does the going." [289] "I can't let you do that, Irish." [290] "Why not?" [291] "You'd be going on my say-so." [292] "Ain't your say-so good enough for me?" [293] "Yes. [294] Sure. [295] Of course. [296] I guess—" "If you say them animals ain't there, that's all I need. [297] Now, stand aside, you film-developing flea, and let an Irishman settle their bones." [298] He took an unnecessary hitch in trousers that didn't exist except under an inch of porous metal plate. [299] "Your express purpose on this voyage, Hathaway, is taking films to be used by the Patrol later for teaching Junior Patrolmen how to act in tough spots. [300] First-hand education. [301] Poke another spool of film in that contraption and give me profile a scan. [302] This is lesson number seven: Daniel Walks Into The Lion's Den." [303] "Irish, I—" "Shut up and load up." [304] Hathaway nervously loaded the film-slot, raised it. [305] "Ready, Click?" [306] "I—I guess so," said Hathaway. [307] "And remember, think it hard, Irish. [308] Think it hard. [309] There aren't any animals—" "Keep me in focus, lad." [310] "All the way, Irish." [311] "What do they say...? [312] Oh, yeah. [313] Action. [314] Lights. [315] Camera!" [316] Marnagan held his gun out in front of him and still smiling took one, two, three, four steps out into the outside world. [317] The monsters were waiting for him at the fifth step. [318] Marnagan kept walking. [319] Right out into the middle of them.... That was the sweetest shot Hathaway ever took. [320] Marnagan and the monsters! [321] Only now it was only Marnagan. [322] No more monsters. [323] Marnagan smiled a smile broader than his shoulders. [324] "Hey, Click, look at me! [325] I'm in one piece. [326] Why, hell, the damned things turned tail and ran away!" [327] "Ran, hell!" [328] cried Hathaway, rushing out, his face flushed and animated. [329] "They just plain vanished. [330] They were only imaginative figments!" [331] "And to think we let them hole us in that way, Click Hathaway, you coward!" [332] "Smile when you say that, Irish." [333] "Sure, and ain't I always smilin'? [334] Ah, Click boy, are them tears in your sweet grey eyes?" [335] "Damn," swore the photographer, embarrassedly. [336] "Why don't they put window-wipers in these helmets?" [337] "I'll take it up with the Board, lad." [338] "Forget it. [339] I was so blamed glad to see your homely carcass in one hunk, I couldn't help—Look, now, about Gunther. [340] Those animals are part of his set-up. [341] Explorers who land here inadvertently, are chased back into their ships, forced to take off. [342] Tourists and the like. [343] Nothing suspicious about animals. [344] And if the tourists don't leave, the animals kill them." [345] "Shaw, now. [346] Those animals can't kill." [347] "Think not, Mr. Marnagan? [348] As long as we believed in them they could have frightened us to death, forced us, maybe, to commit suicide. [349] If that isn't being dangerous—" The Irishman whistled. [350] "But, we've got to move , Irish. [351] We've got twenty minutes of oxygen. [352] In that time we've got to trace those monsters to their source, Gunther's Base, fight our way in, and get fresh oxy-cannisters." [353] Click attached his camera to his mid-belt. [354] "Gunther probably thinks we're dead by now. [355] Everyone else's been fooled by his playmates; they never had a chance to disbelieve them." [356] "If it hadn't been for you taking them pictures, Click—" "Coupled with your damned stubborn attitude about the accident—" Click stopped and felt his insides turning to water. [357] He shook his head and felt a film slip down over his eyes. [358] He spread his legs out to steady himself, and swayed. [359] "I—I don't think my oxygen is as full as yours. [360] This excitement had me double-breathing and I feel sick." [361] Marnagan's homely face grimaced in sympathy. [362] "Hold tight, Click. [363] The guy that invented these fish-bowls didn't provide for a sick stomach." [364] "Hold tight, hell, let's move. [365] We've got to find where those animals came from! [366] And the only way to do that is to get the animals to come back!" [367] "Come back? [368] How?" [369] "They're waiting, just outside the aura of our thoughts, and if we believe in them again, they'll return." [370] Marnagan didn't like it. [371] "Won't—won't they kill us—if they come—if we believe in 'em?" [372] Hathaway shook a head that was tons heavy and weary. [373] "Not if we believe in them to a certain point . [374] Psychologically they can both be seen and felt. [375] We only want to see them coming at us again." [376] " Do we, now?" [377] "With twenty minutes left, maybe less—" "All right, Click, let's bring 'em back. [378] How do we do it?" [379] Hathaway fought against the mist in his eyes. [380] "Just think—I will see the monsters again. [381] I will see them again and I will not feel them. [382] Think it over and over." [383] Marnagan's hulk stirred uneasily. [384] "And—what if I forget to remember all that? [385] What if I get excited...?" [386] Hathaway didn't answer. [387] But his eyes told the story by just looking at Irish. [388] Marnagan cursed. [389] "All right, lad. [390] Let's have at it!" [391] The monsters returned. [392] A soundless deluge of them, pouring over the rubbled horizon, swarming in malevolent anticipation about the two men. [393] "This way, Irish. [394] They come from this way! [395] There's a focal point, a sending station for these telepathic brutes. [396] Come on!" [397] Hathaway sludged into the pressing tide of color, mouths, contorted faces, silvery fat bodies misting as he plowed through them. [398] Marnagan was making good progress ahead of Hathaway. [399] But he stopped and raised his gun and made quick moves with it. [400] "Click! [401] This one here! [402] It's real!" [403] He fell back and something struck him down. [404] His immense frame slammed against rock, noiselessly. [405] Hathaway darted forward, flung his body over Marnagan's, covered the helmet glass with his hands, shouting: "Marnagan! [406] Get a grip, dammit! [407] It's not real—don't let it force into your mind! [408] It's not real, I tell you!" [409] "Click—" Marnagan's face was a bitter, tortured movement behind glass. [410] "Click—" He was fighting hard. [411] "I—I—sure now. [412] Sure—" He smiled. [413] "It—it's only a shanty fake!" [414] "Keep saying it, Irish. [415] Keep it up." [416] Marnagan's thick lips opened. [417] "It's only a fake," he said. [418] And then, irritated, "Get the hell off me, Hathaway. [419] Let me up to my feet!" [420] Hathaway got up, shakily. [421] The air in his helmet smelled stale, and little bubbles danced in his eyes. [422] "Irish, you forget the monsters. [423] Let me handle them, I know how. [424] They might fool you again, you might forget." [425] Marnagan showed his teeth. [426] "Gah! [427] Let a flea have all the fun? [428] And besides, Click, I like to look at them. [429] They're pretty." [430] The outpour of animals came from a low lying mound a mile farther on. [431] Evidently the telepathic source lay there. [432] They approached it warily. [433] "We'll be taking our chances on guard," hissed Irish. [434] "I'll go ahead, draw their attention, maybe get captured. [435] Then, you show up with your gun...." "I haven't got one." [436] "We'll chance it, then. [437] You stick here until I see what's ahead. [438] They probably got scanners out. [439] Let them see me—" And before Hathaway could object, Marnagan walked off. [440] He walked about five hundred yards, bent down, applied his fingers to something, heaved up, and there was a door opening in the rock. [441] His voice came back across the distance, into Click's earphones. [442] "A door, an air-lock, Click. [443] A tunnel leading down inside!" [444] Then, Marnagan dropped into the tunnel, disappearing. [445] Click heard the thud of his feet hitting the metal flooring. [446] Click sucked in his breath, hard and fast. [447] "All right, put 'em up!" [448] a new harsh voice cried over a different radio. [449] One of Gunther's guards. [450] Three shots sizzled out, and Marnagan bellowed. [451] The strange harsh voice said, "That's better. [452] Don't try and pick that gun up now. [453] Oh, so it's you. [454] I thought Gunther had finished you off. [455] How'd you get past the animals?" [456] Click started running. [457] He switched off his sending audio, kept his receiving on. [458] Marnagan, weaponless. [459] One guard. [460] Click gasped. [461] Things were getting dark. [462] Had to have air. [463] Air. [464] Air. [465] He ran and kept running and listening to Marnagan's lying voice: "I tied them pink elephants of Gunther's in neat alphabetical bundles and stacked them up to dry, ya louse!" [466] Marnagan said. [467] "But, damn you, they killed my partner before he had a chance!" [468] The guard laughed. [469] The air-lock door was still wide open when Click reached it, his head swimming darkly, his lungs crammed with pain-fire and hell-rockets. [470] He let himself down in, quiet and soft. [471] He didn't have a weapon. [472] He didn't have a weapon. [473] Oh, damn, damn! [474] A tunnel curved, ending in light, and two men silhouetted in that yellow glare. [475] Marnagan, backed against a wall, his helmet cracked, air hissing slowly out of it, his face turning blue. [476] And the guard, a proton gun extended stiffly before him, also in a vac-suit. [477] The guard had his profile toward Hathaway, his lips twisting: "I think I'll let you stand right there and die," he said quietly. [478] "That what Gunther wanted, anway. [479] A nice sordid death." [480] Hathaway took three strides, his hands out in front of him. [481] "Don't move!" [482] he snapped. [483] "I've got a weapon stronger than yours. [484] One twitch and I'll blast you and the whole damned wall out from behind you! [485] Freeze!" [486] The guard whirled. [487] He widened his sharp eyes, and reluctantly, dropped his gun to the floor. [488] "Get his gun, Irish." [489] Marnagan made as if to move, crumpled clumsily forward. [490] Hathaway ran in, snatched up the gun, smirked at the guard. [491] "Thanks for posing," he said. [492] "That shot will go down in film history for candid acting." [493] "What!" [494] "Ah: ah! [495] Keep your place. [496] I've got a real gun now. [497] Where's the door leading into the Base?" [498] The guard moved his head sullenly over his left shoulder. [499] Click was afraid he would show his weak dizziness. [500] He needed air. [501] "Okay. [502] Drag Marnagan with you, open the door and we'll have air. [503] Double time! [504] Double!" [505] Ten minutes later, Marnagan and Hathaway, fresh tanks of oxygen on their backs, Marnagan in a fresh bulger and helmet, trussed the guard, hid him in a huge trash receptacle. [506] "Where he belongs," observed Irish tersely. [507] They found themselves in a complete inner world; an asteroid nothing more than a honey-comb fortress sliding through the void unchallenged. [508] Perfect front for a raider who had little equipment and was short-handed of men. [509] Gunther simply waited for specific cargo ships to rocket by, pulled them or knocked them down and swarmed over them for cargo. [510] The animals served simply to insure against suspicion and the swarms of tourists that filled the void these days. [511] Small fry weren't wanted. [512] They were scared off. [513] The telepathic sending station for the animals was a great bank of intricate, glittering machine, through which strips of colored film with images slid into slots and machine mouths that translated them into thought-emanations. [514] A damned neat piece of genius. [515] "So here we are, still not much better off than we were," growled Irish. [516] "We haven't a ship or a space-radio, and more guards'll turn up any moment. [517] You think we could refocus this doohingey, project the monsters inside the asteroid to fool the pirates themselves?" [518] "What good would that do?" [519] Hathaway gnawed his lip. [520] "They wouldn't fool the engineers who created them, you nut." [521] Marnagan exhaled disgustedly. [522] "Ah, if only the U.S. Cavalry would come riding over the hill—" "Irish!" [523] Hathaway snapped that, his face lighting up. [524] "Irish. [525] The U.S. Cavalry it is!" [526] His eyes darted over the machines. [527] "Here. [528] Help me. [529] We'll stage everything on the most colossal raid of the century." [530] Marnagan winced. [531] "You breathing oxygen or whiskey?" [532] "There's only one stipulation I make, Irish. [533] I want a complete picture of Marnagan capturing Raider's Base. [534] I want a picture of Gunther's face when you do it. [535] Snap it, now, we've got rush work to do. [536] How good an actor are you?" [537] "That's a silly question." [538] "You only have to do three things. [539] Walk with your gun out in front of you, firing. [540] That's number one. [541] Number two is to clutch at your heart and fall down dead. [542] Number three is to clutch at your side, fall down and twitch on the ground. [543] Is that clear?" [544] "Clear as the Coal Sack Nebula...." An hour later Hathaway trudged down a passageway that led out into a sort of city street inside the asteroid. [545] There were about six streets, lined with cube houses in yellow metal, ending near Hathaway in a wide, green-lawned Plaza. [546] Hathaway, weaponless, idly carrying his camera in one hand, walked across the Plaza as if he owned it. [547] He was heading for a building that was pretentious enough to be Gunther's quarters. [548] He got halfway there when he felt a gun in his back. [549] He didn't resist. [550] They took him straight ahead to his destination and pushed him into a room where Gunther sat. [551] Hathaway looked at him. [552] "So you're Gunther?" [553] he said, calmly. [554] The pirate was incredibly old, his bulging forehead stood out over sunken, questioningly dark eyes, and his scrawny body was lost in folds of metal-link cloth. [555] He glanced up from a paper-file, surprised. [556] Before he could speak, Hathaway said: "Everything's over with, Mr. Gunther. [557] The Patrol is in the city now and we're capturing your Base. [558] Don't try to fight. [559] We've a thousand men against your eighty-five." [560] Gunther sat there, blinking at Hathaway, not moving. [561] His thin hands twitched in his lap. [562] "You are bluffing," he said, finally, with a firm directness. [563] "A ship hasn't landed here for an hour. [564] Your ship was the last. [565] Two people were on it. [566] The last I saw of them they were being pursued to the death by the Beasts. [567] One of you escaped, it seemed." [568] "Both. [569] The other guy went after the Patrol." [570] "Impossible!" [571] "I can't respect your opinion, Mr. [572] Gunther." [573] A shouting rose from the Plaza. [574] About fifty of Gunther's men, lounging on carved benches during their time-off, stirred to their feet and started yelling. [575] Gunther turned slowly to the huge window in one side of his office. [576] He stared, hard. [577] The Patrol was coming! [578] Across the Plaza, marching quietly and decisively, came the Patrol. [579] Five hundred Patrolmen in one long, incredible line, carrying paralysis guns with them in their tight hands. [580] Gunther babbled like a child, his voice a shrill dagger in the air. [581] "Get out there, you men! [582] Throw them back! [583] We're outnumbered!" [584] Guns flared. [585] But the Patrol came on. [586] Gunther's men didn't run, Hathaway had to credit them on that. [587] They took it, standing. [588] Hathaway chuckled inside, deep. [589] What a sweet, sweet shot this was. [590] His camera whirred, clicked and whirred again. [591] Nobody stopped him from filming it. [592] Everything was too wild, hot and angry. [593] Gunther was throwing a fit, still seated at his desk, unable to move because of his fragile, bony legs and their atrophied state. [594] Some of the Patrol were killed. [595] Hathaway chuckled again as he saw three of the Patrolmen clutch at their hearts, crumple, lie on the ground and twitch. [596] God, what photography! [597] Gunther raged, and swept a small pistol from his linked corselet. [598] He fired wildly until Hathaway hit him over the head with a paper-weight. [599] Then Hathaway took a picture of Gunther slumped at his desk, the chaos taking place immediately outside his window. [600] The pirates broke and fled, those that were left. [601] A mere handful. [602] And out of the chaos came Marnagan's voice, "Here!" [603] One of the Patrolmen stopped firing, and ran toward Click and the Building. [604] He got inside. [605] "Did you see them run, Click boy? [606] What an idea. [607] How did we do?" [608] "Fine, Irish. [609] Fine!" [610] "So here's Gunther, the spalpeen! [611] Gunther, the little dried up pirate, eh?" [612] Marnagan whacked Hathaway on the back. [613] "I'll have to hand it to you, this is the best plan o' battle ever laid out. [614] And proud I was to fight with such splendid men as these—" He gestured toward the Plaza. [615] Click laughed with him. [616] "You should be proud. [617] Five hundred Patrolmen with hair like red banners flying, with thick Irish brogues and broad shoulders and freckles and blue eyes and a body as tall as your stories!" [618] Marnagan roared. [619] "I always said, I said—if ever there could be an army of Marnagans, we could lick the whole damn uneeverse! [620] Did you photograph it, Click?" [621] "I did." [622] Hathaway tapped his camera happily. [623] "Ah, then, won't that be a scoop for you, boy? [624] Money from the Patrol so they can use the film as instruction in Classes and money from Cosmic Films for the news-reel headlines! [625] And what a scene, and what acting! [626] Five hundred duplicates of Steve Marnagan, broadcast telepathically into the minds of the pirates, walking across a Plaza, capturing the whole she-bang! [627] How did you like my death-scenes?" [628] "You're a ham. [629] And anyway—five hundred duplicates, nothing!" [630] said Click. [631] He ripped the film-spool from the camera, spread it in the air to develop, inserted it in the micro-viewer. [632] "Have a look—" Marnagan looked. [633] "Ah, now. [634] Ah, now," he said over and over. [635] "There's the Plaza, and there's Gunther's men fighting and then they're turning and running. [636] And what are they running from? [637] One man! [638] Me. [639] Irish Marnagan! [640] Walking all by myself across the lawn, paralyzing them. [641] One against a hundred, and the cowards running from me! [642] "Sure, Click, this is better than I thought. [643] I forgot that the film wouldn't register telepathic emanations, them other Marnagans. [644] It makes it look like I'm a mighty brave man, does it not? [645] It does. [646] Ah, look—look at me, Hathaway, I'm enjoying every minute of it, I am." [647] Hathaway swatted him on his back-side. [648] "Look here, you egocentric son of Erin, there's more work to be done. [649] More pirates to be captured. [650] The Patrol is still marching around and someone might be suspicious if they looked too close and saw all that red hair." [651] "All right, Click, we'll clean up the rest of them now. [652] We're a combination, we two, we are. [653] I take it all back about your pictures, Click, if you hadn't thought of taking pictures of me and inserting it into those telepath machines we'd be dead ducks now. [654] Well—here I go...." Hathaway stopped him. [655] "Hold it. [656] Until I load my camera again." [657] Irish grinned. [658] "Hurry it up. [659] Here come three guards. [660] They're unarmed. [661] I think I'll handle them with me fists for a change. [662] The gentle art of uppercuts. [663] Are you ready, Hathaway?" [664] "Ready." [665] Marnagan lifted his big ham-fists. [666] The camera whirred. [667] Hathaway chuckled, to himself. [668] What a sweet fade-out this was!

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question: 1. [251] Look. 2. [252] He tapped his camera and a spool popped out onto his gloved palm. 3. [253] Holding it up, he stripped it out to its full twenty inch length, held it to the light while it developed, smiling. 4. [254] It was one of his best inventions. 5. [255] Self-developing film. 6. [256] The first light struck film-surface, destroyed one chemical, leaving imprints; the second exposure simply hardened, secured the impressions. 7. [257] Quick stuff. 8. [258] Inserting the film-tongue into a micro-viewer in the camera's base, Click handed the whole thing over. 9. [259] "Look." 10. [260] Marnagan put the viewer up against the helmet glass, squinted. 11. [261] "Ah, Click. 12. [262] Now, now. 13. [263] This is one lousy film you invented." 14. [264] "Huh?" 15. [265] "It's a strange process'll develop my picture and ignore the asteroid monsters complete." 16. [266] "What!" 17. [267] Hathaway grabbed the camera, gasped, squinted, and gasped again: Pictures in montage; Marnagan sitting down, chatting conversationally with nothing; Marnagan shooting his gun at nothing; Marnagan pretending to be happy in front of nothing. 18. [268] Then, closeup—of—NOTHING! 19. [269] The monsters had failed to image the film. 20. [270] Marnagan was there, his hair like a red banner, his freckled face with the blue eyes bright in it. 21. [271] Maybe— Hathaway said it, loud: "Irish! 22. [272] Irish! 23. [273] I think I see a way out of this mess! 24. [274] Here—" He elucidated it over and over again to the Patrolman. 25. [275] About the film, the beasts, and how the film couldn't be wrong. 26. [276] If the film said the monsters weren't there, they weren't there. 27. [390] The monsters returned. 28. [391] A soundless deluge of them, pouring over the rubbled horizon, swarming in malevolent anticipation about the two men. 29. [392] "This way, Irish. 30. [393] They come from this way! 31. [394] There's a focal point, a sending station for these telepathic brutes. 32. [395] Come on!" 33. [510] The telepathic sending station for the animals was a great bank of intricate, glittering machine, through which strips of colored film with images slid into slots and machine mouths that translated them into thought-emanations. 34. [511] A damned neat piece of genius.

What is the plot of the story?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Doctor Universe By CARL JACOBI Grannie Annie, who wrote science fiction under the nom de plume of Annabella C. Flowers, had stumbled onto a murderous plot more hair-raising than any she had ever concocted. [2] And the danger from the villain of the piece didn't worry her—I was the guy he was shooting at. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1944. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] I was killing an hour in the billiard room of the Spacemen's Club in Swamp City when the Venusian bellboy came and tapped me on the shoulder. [6] "Beg pardon, thir," he said with his racial lisp, "thereth thome one to thee you in the main lounge." [7] His eyes rolled as he added, "A lady!" [8] A woman here...! [9] The Spacemen's was a sanctuary, a rest club where in-coming pilots and crewmen could relax before leaving for another voyage. [10] The rule that no females could pass its portals was strictly enforced. [11] I followed the bellhop down the long corridor that led to the main lounge. [12] At the threshold I jerked to a halt and stared incredulously. [13] Grannie Annie! [14] There she stood before a frantically gesticulating desk clerk, leaning on her faded green umbrella. [15] A little wisp of a woman clad in a voluminous black dress with one of those doily-like caps on her head, tied by a ribbon under her chin. [16] Her high-topped button shoes were planted firmly on the varpla carpet and her wrinkled face was set in calm defiance. [17] I barged across the lounge and seized her hand. [18] "Grannie Annie! [19] I haven't seen you in two years." [20] "Hi, Billy-boy," she greeted calmly. [21] "Will you please tell this fish-face to shut up." [22] The desk clerk went white. [23] "Mithter Trenwith, if thith lady ith a friend of yourth, you'll have to take her away. [24] It'th abtholutely againth the ruleth...." "Okay, okay," I grinned. [25] "Look, we'll go into the grille. [26] There's no one there at this hour." [27] In the grille an equally astonished waiter served us—me a lime rickey and Grannie Annie her usual whisky sour—I waited until she had tossed the drink off at a gulp before I set off a chain of questions: "What the devil are you doing on Venus? [28] Don't you know women aren't allowed in the Spacemen's ? [29] What happened to the book you were writing?" [30] "Hold it, Billy-boy." [31] Laughingly she threw up both hands. [32] "Sure, I knew this place had some antiquated laws. [33] Pure fiddle-faddle, that's what they are. [34] Anyway, I've been thrown out of better places." [35] She hadn't changed. [36] To her publishers and her readers she might be Annabella C. Flowers, author of a long list of science fiction novels. [37] But to me she was still Grannie Annie, as old-fashioned as last year's hat, as modern as an atomic motor. [38] She had probably written more drivel in the name of science fiction than anyone alive. [39] But the public loved it. [40] They ate up her stories, and they clamored for more. [41] Her annual income totaled into six figures, and her publishers sat back and massaged their digits, watching their earnings mount. [42] One thing you had to admit about her books. [43] They may have been dime novels, but they weren't synthetic. [44] If Annabella C. Flowers wrote a novel, and the locale was the desert of Mars, she packed her carpet bag and hopped a liner for Craterville. [45] If she cooked up a feud between two expeditions on Callisto, she went to Callisto. [46] She was the most completely delightful crackpot I had ever known. [47] "What happened to Guns for Ganymede ?" [48] I asked. [49] "That was the title of your last, wasn't it?" [50] Grannie spilled a few shreds of Martian tobacco onto a paper and deftly rolled herself a cigarette. [51] "It wasn't Guns , it was Pistols ; and it wasn't Ganymede , it was Pluto ." [52] I grinned. [53] "All complete, I'll bet, with threats against the universe and beautiful Earth heroines dragged in by the hair." [54] "What else is there in science fiction?" [55] she demanded. [56] "You can't have your hero fall in love with a bug-eyed monster." [57] Up on the wall a clock chimed the hour. [58] The old woman jerked to her feet. [59] "I almost forgot, Billy-boy. [60] I'm due at the Satellite Theater in ten minutes. [61] Come on, you're going with me." [62] Before I realized it, I was following her through the lounge and out to the jetty front. [63] Grannie Annie hailed a hydrocar. [64] Five minutes later we drew up before the big doors of the Satellite . [65] They don't go in for style in Swamp City. [66] A theater to the grizzled colonials on this side of the planet meant a shack on stilts over the muck, zilcon wood seats and dingy atobide lamps. [67] But the place was packed with miners, freight-crew-men—all the tide and wash of humanity that made Swamp City the frontier post it is. [68] In front was a big sign. [69] It read: ONE NIGHT ONLY DOCTOR UNIVERSE AND HIS NINE GENIUSES THE QUESTION PROGRAM OF THE SYSTEM As we strode down the aisle a mangy-looking Venusian began to pound a tinpan piano in the pit. [70] Grannie Annie pushed me into a seat in the front row. [71] "Sit here," she said. [72] "I'm sorry about all this rush, but I'm one of the players in this shindig. [73] As soon as the show is over, we'll go somewhere and talk." [74] She minced lightly down the aisle, climbed the stage steps and disappeared in the wings. [75] "That damned fossilized dynamo," I muttered. [76] "She'll be the death of me yet." [77] The piano struck a chord in G, and the curtain went rattling up. [78] On the stage four Earthmen, two Martians, two Venusians, and one Mercurian sat on an upraised dais. [79] That is to say, eight of them sat. [80] The Mercurian, a huge lump of granite-like flesh, sprawled there, palpably uncomfortable. [81] On the right were nine visi sets, each with its new improved pantascope panel and switchboard. [82] Before each set stood an Earthman operator. [83] A tall man, clad in a claw-hammer coat, came out from the wings and advanced to the footlights. [84] "People of Swamp City," he said, bowing, "permit me to introduce myself. [85] I am Doctor Universe, and these are my nine experts." [86] There was a roar of applause from the Satellite audience. [87] When it had subsided, the man continued: "As most of you are familiar with our program, it will be unnecessary to give any advance explanation. [88] I will only say that on this stage are nine visi sets, each tuned to one of the nine planets. [89] At transmitting sets all over these planets listeners will appear and voice questions. [90] These questions, my nine experts will endeavor to answer. [91] For every question missed, the sender will receive a check for one thousand planetoles . [92] "One thing more. [93] As usual we have with us a guest star who will match her wits with the experts. [94] May I present that renowned writer of science fiction, Annabella C. [95] Flowers." [96] From the left wing Grannie Annie appeared. [97] She bowed and took her place on the dais. [98] The Doctor's program began. [99] The operator of the Earth visi twisted his dials and nodded. [100] Blue light flickered on the pantascope panel to coalesce slowly into the face of a red-haired man. [101] Sharp and dear his voice echoed through the theater: " Who was the first Earthman to titter the sunward side of Mercury? " [102] Doctor Universe nodded and turned to Grannie Annie who had raised her hand. [103] She said quietly: "Charles Zanner in the year 2012. [104] In a specially constructed tracto-car." [105] And so it went. [106] Questions from Mars, from Earth, from Saturn flowed in the visi sets. [107] Isolated miners on Jupiter, dancers in swank Plutonian cafes strove to stump the experts. [108] With Doctor Universe offering bantering side play, the experts gave their answers. [109] When they failed, or when the Truthicator flashed a red light, he announced the name of the winner. [110] It grew a little tiresome after a while and I wondered why Grannie had brought me here. [111] And then I began to notice things. [112] The audience in the Satellite seemed to have lost much of its original fervor. [113] They applauded as before but they did so only at the signal of Doctor Universe. [114] The spell created by the man was complete. [115] Pompous and erect, he strode back and forth across the stage like a general surveying his army. [116] His black eyes gleamed, and his thin lips were turned in a smile of satisfaction. [117] When the last question had been answered I joined the exit-moving crowd. [118] It was outside under the street marquee that a strange incident occurred. [119] A yellow-faced Kagor from the upper Martian desert country shuffled by, dragging his cumbersome third leg behind him. [120] Kagors, of course, had an unpleasant history of persecution since the early colonization days of the Red Planet. [121] But the thing that happened there was a throw back to an earlier era. [122] Someone shouted, "Yah, yellow-face! [123] Down with all Kagors!" [124] As one man the crowd took up the cry and surged forward. [125] The helpless Kagor was seized and flung to the pavement. [126] A knife appeared from nowhere, snipped the Martian's single lock of hair. [127] A booted foot bludgeoned into his mouth. [128] Moments later an official hydrocar roared up and a dozen I.P. [129] men rushed out and scattered the crowd. [130] But a few stragglers lingered to shout derisive epithets. [131] Grannie Annie came out from behind the box office then. [132] She took my arm and led me around a corner and through a doorway under a sign that read THE JET. [133] Inside was a deep room with booths along one wall. [134] The place was all but deserted. [135] In a booth well toward the rear the old lady surveyed me with sober eyes. [136] "Billy-boy, did you see the way that crowd acted?" [137] I nodded. [138] "As disgraceful an exhibition as I've ever seen. [139] The I.P. [140] men ought to clamp down." [141] "The I.P. [142] men aren't strong enough." [143] She said it quietly, but there was a glitter in her eyes and a harsh line about her usually smiling lips. [144] "What do you mean?" [145] For a moment the old lady sat there in silence; then she leaned back, closed her eyes, and I knew there was a story coming. [146] "My last book, Death In The Atom , hit the stands last January," she began. [147] "When it was finished I had planned to take a six months' vacation, but those fool publishers of mine insisted I do a sequel. [148] Well, I'd used Mars and Pluto and Ganymede as settings for novels, so for this one I decided on Venus. [149] I went to Venus City, and I spent six weeks in-country. [150] I got some swell background material, and I met Ezra Karn...." "Who?" [151] I interrupted. [152] "An old prospector who lives out in the deep marsh on the outskirts of Varsoom country. [153] To make a long story short, I got him talking about his adventures, and he told me plenty." [154] The old woman paused. [155] "Did you ever hear of the Green Flames?" [156] she asked abruptly. [157] I shook my head. [158] "Some new kind of ..." "It's not a new kind of anything. [159] The Green Flame is a radio-active rock once found on Mercury. [160] The Alpha rays of this rock are similar to radium in that they consist of streams of material particles projected at high speed. [161] But the character of the Gamma rays has never been completely analyzed. [162] Like those set up by radium, they are electromagnetic pulsations, but they are also a strange combination of Beta or cathode rays with negatively charged electrons. [163] "When any form of life is exposed to these Gamma rays from the Green Flame rock, they produce in the creature's brain a certain lassitude and lack of energy. [164] As the period of exposure increases, this condition develops into a sense of impotence and a desire for leadership or guidance. [165] Occasionally, as with the weak-willed, there is a spirit of intolerance. [166] The Green Flames might be said to be an inorganic opiate, a thousand times more subtle and more powerful than any known drug." [167] I was sitting up now, hanging on to the woman's every word. [168] "Now in 2710, as you'd know if you studied your history, the three planets of Earth, Venus, and Mars were under governmental bondage. [169] The cruel dictatorship of Vennox I was short-lived, but it lasted long enough to endanger all civilized life. [170] "The archives tell us that one of the first acts of the overthrowing government was to cast out all Green Flames, two of which Vennox had ordered must be kept in each household. [171] The effect on the people was immediate. [172] Representative government, individual enterprise, freedom followed." [173] Grannie Annie lit a cigarette and flipped the match to the floor. [174] "To go back to my first trip to Venus. [175] As I said, I met Ezra Karn, an old prospector there in the marsh. [176] Karn told me that on one of his travels into the Varsoom district he had come upon the wreckage of an old space ship. [177] The hold of that space ship was packed with Green Flames!" [178] If Grannie expected me to show surprise at that, she was disappointed. [179] I said, "So what?" [180] "So everything, Billy-boy. [181] Do you realize what such a thing would mean if it were true? [182] Green Flames were supposedly destroyed on all planets after the Vennox regime crashed. [183] If a quantity of the rock were in existence, and it fell into the wrong hands, there'd be trouble. [184] "Of course, I regarded Karn's story as a wild dream, but it made corking good story material. [185] I wrote it into a novel, and a week after it was completed, the manuscript was stolen from my study back on Earth." [186] "I see," I said as she lapsed into silence. [187] "And now you've come to the conclusion that the details of your story were true and that someone is attempting to put your plot into action." [188] Grannie nodded. [189] "Yes," she said. [190] "That's exactly what I think." [191] I got my pipe out of my pocket, tamped Martian tobacco into the bowl and laughed heartily. [192] "The same old Flowers," I said. [193] "Tell me, who's your thief ... [194] Doctor Universe?" [195] She regarded me evenly. [196] "What makes you say that?" [197] I shrugged. [198] "The way the theater crowd acted. [199] It all ties in." [200] The old woman shook her head. [201] "No, this is a lot bigger than a simple quiz program. [202] The theater crowd was but a cross-section of what is happening all over the System. [203] There have been riots on Earth and Mars, police officials murdered on Pluto and a demand that government by representation be abolished on Jupiter. [204] The time is ripe for a military dictator to step in. [205] "And you can lay it all to the Green Flames. [206] It seems incredible that a single shipload of the ore could effect such a wide ranged area, but in my opinion someone has found a means of making that quantity a thousand times more potent and is transmiting it en masse ." [207] If it had been anyone but Grannie Annie there before me, I would have called her a fool. [208] And then all at once I got an odd feeling of approaching danger. [209] "Let's get out of here," I said, getting up. [210] Zinnng-whack! [211] "All right!" [212] On the mirror behind the bar a small circle with radiating cracks appeared. [213] On the booth wall a scant inch above Grannie's head the fresco seemed to melt away suddenly. [214] A heat ray! [215] Grannie Annie leaped to her feet, grasped my arm and raced for the door. [216] Outside a driverless hydrocar stood with idling motors. [217] The old woman threw herself into the control seat, yanked me in after her and threw over the starting stud. [218] An instant later we were plunging through the dark night. [219] Six days after leaving Swamp City we reached Level Five, the last outpost of firm ground. [220] Ahead lay the inner marsh, stretching as far as the eye could reach. [221] Low islands projected at intervals from the thick water. [222] Mold balls, two feet across, drifted down from the slate-gray sky like puffs of cotton. [223] We had traveled this far by ganet , the tough little two headed pack animal of the Venus hinterland. [224] Any form of plane or rocket would have had its motor instantly destroyed, of course, by the magnetic force belt that encircled the planet's equator. [225] Now our drivers changed to boatmen, and we loaded our supplies into three clumsy jagua canoes. [226] It was around the camp fire that night that Grannie took me into her confidence for the first time since we had left Swamp City. [227] "We're heading directly for Varsoom country," she said. [228] "If we find Ezra Karn so much the better. [229] If we don't, we follow his directions to the lost space ship. [230] Our job is to find that ore and destroy it. [231] You see, I'm positive the Green Flames have never been removed from the ship." [232] Sleep had never bothered me, yet that night I lay awake for hours tossing restlessly. [233] The thousand sounds of the blue marsh droned steadily. [234] And the news broadcast I had heard over the portable visi just before retiring still lingered in my mind. [235] To a casual observer that broadcast would have meant little, a slight rebellion here, an isolated crime there. [236] But viewed from the perspective Grannie had given me, everything dovetailed. [237] The situation on Jupiter was swiftly coming to a head. [238] Not only had the people on that planet demanded that representative government be abolished, but a forum was now being held to find a leader who might take complete dictatorial control. [239] Outside a whisper-worm hissed softly. [240] I got up and strode out of my tent. [241] For some time I stood there, lost in thought. [242] Could I believe Grannie's incredible story? [243] Or was this another of her fantastic plots which she had skilfully blended into a novel? [244] Abruptly I stiffened. [245] The familiar drone of the marsh was gone. [246] In its place a ringing silence blanketed everything. [247] And then out in the gloom a darker shadow appeared, moving in undulating sweeps toward the center of the camp. [248] Fascinated, I watched it advance and retreat, saw two hyalescent eyes swim out of the murk. [249] It charged, and with but a split second to act, I threw myself flat. [250] There was a rush of mighty wings as the thing swept over me. [251] Sharp talons raked my clothing. [252] Again it came, and again I rolled swiftly, missing the thing by the narrowest of margins. [253] From the tent opposite a gaunt figure clad in a familiar dress appeared. [254] Grannie gave a single warning: "Stand still!" [255] The thing in the darkness turned like a cam on a rod and drove at us again. [256] This time the old woman's heat gun clicked, and a tracery of purple flame shot outward. [257] A horrible soul-chilling scream rent the air. [258] A moment later something huge and heavy scrabbled across the ground and shot aloft. [259] Grannie Annie fired with deliberate speed. [260] I stood frozen as the diminuendo of its wild cries echoed back to me. [261] "In heaven's name, what was it?" [262] "Hunter-bird," Grannie said calmly. [263] "A form of avian life found here in the swamp. [264] Harmless in its wild state, but when captured, it can be trained to pursue a quarry until it kills. [265] It has a single unit brain and follows with a relentless purpose." [266] "Then that would mean...?" [267] "That it was sent by our enemy, the same enemy that shot at us in the cafe in Swamp City. [268] Exactly." [269] Grannie Annie halted at the door of her tent and faced me with earnest eyes. [270] "Billy-boy, our every move is being watched. [271] From now on it's the survival of the fittest." [272] The following day was our seventh in the swamp. [273] The water here resembled a vast mosaic, striped and cross-striped with long winding ribbons of yellowish substance that floated a few inches below the surface. [274] The mold balls coming into contact with the evonium water of the swamp had undergone a chemical change and evolved into a cohesive multi-celled marine life that lived and died within a space of hours. [275] The Venusians paddled with extreme care. [276] Had one of them dipped his hand into one of those yellow streaks, he would have been devoured in a matter of seconds. [277] At high noon by my Earth watch I sighted a low white structure on one of the distant islands. [278] Moments later we made a landing at a rude jetty, and Grannie Annie was introducing me to Ezra Karn. [279] He was not as old a man as I had expected, but he was ragged and unkempt with iron gray hair falling almost to his shoulders. [280] He was dressed in varpa cloth, the Venus equivalent of buckskin, and on his head was an enormous flop-brimmed hat. [281] "Glad to meet you," he said, shaking my hand. [282] "Any friend of Miss Flowers is a friend of mine." [283] He ushered us down the catwalk into his hut. [284] The place was a two room affair, small but comfortable. [285] The latest type of visi set in one corner showed that Karn was not isolated from civilization entirely. [286] Grannie Annie came to the point abruptly. [287] When she had explained the object of our trip, the prospector became thoughtful. [288] "Green Flames, eh?" [289] he repeated slowly. [290] "Well yes, I suppose I could find that space ship again. [291] That is, if I wanted to." [292] "What do you mean?" [293] Grannie paused in the act of rolling herself a cigarette. [294] "You know where it is, don't you?" [295] "Ye-s," Karn nodded. [296] "But like I told you before, that ship lies in Varsoom country, and that isn't exactly a summer vacation spot." [297] "What are the Varsoom?" [298] I asked. [299] "A native tribe?" [300] Karn shook his head. [301] "They're a form of life that's never been seen by Earthmen. [302] Strictly speaking, they're no more than a form of energy." [303] "Dangerous?" [304] "Yes and no. [305] Only man I ever heard of who escaped their country outside of myself was the explorer, Darthier, three years ago. [306] I got away because I was alone, and they didn't notice me, and Darthier escaped because he made 'em laugh." [307] "Laugh?" [308] A scowl crossed Grannie's face. [309] "That's right," Karn said. [310] "The Varsoom have a strange nervous reaction that's manifested by laughing. [311] But just what it is that makes them laugh, I don't know." [312] Food supplies and fresh drinking water were replenished at the hut. [313] Several mold guns were borrowed from the prospector's supply to arm the Venusians. [314] And then as we were about to leave, Karn suddenly turned. [315] "The Doctor Universe program," he said. [316] "I ain't missed one in months. [317] You gotta wait 'til I hear it." [318] Grannie frowned in annoyance, but the prospector was adamant. [319] He flipped a stud, twisted a dial and a moment later was leaning back in a chair, listening with avid interest. [320] It was the same show I had witnessed back in Swamp City. [321] Once again I heard questions filter in from the far outposts of the System. [322] Once again I saw the commanding figure of the quiz master as he strode back and forth across the stage. [323] And as I sat there, looking into the visi screen, a curious numbing drowsiness seemed to steal over me and lead my thoughts far away. [324] Half an hour later we headed into the unknown. [325] The Venusian boatmen were ill-at-ease now and jabbered among themselves constantly. [326] We camped that night on a miserable little island where insects swarmed about us in hordes. [327] The next day an indefinable wave of weariness and despondency beset our entire party. [328] I caught myself musing over the futility of the venture. [329] Only the pleadings of Grannie Annie kept me from turning back. [330] On the morrow I realized the truth in her warning, that all of us had been exposed to the insidious radiations. [331] After that I lost track of time. [332] Day after day of incessant rain ... of steaming swamp.... [333] But at length we reached firm ground and began our advance on foot. [334] It was Karn who first sighted the ship. [335] Striding in the lead, he suddenly halted at the top of a hill and leveled his arm before him. [336] There it lay, a huge cigar-shaped vessel of blackened arelium steel, half buried in the swamp soil. [337] "What's that thing on top?" [338] Karn demanded, puzzled. [339] A rectangular metal envelope had been constructed over the stern quarters of the ship. [340] Above this structure were three tall masts. [341] And suspended between them was a network of copper wire studded with white insulators. [342] Grannie gazed a long moment through binoculars. [343] "Billy-boy, take three Venusians and head across the knoll," she ordered. [344] "Ezra and I will circle in from the west. [345] Fire a gun if you strike trouble." [346] But we found no trouble. [347] The scene before us lay steeped in silence. [348] Moments later our two parties converged at the base of the great ship. [349] A metal ladder extended from the envelope down the side of the vessel. [350] Mid-way we could see a circular hatch-like door. [351] "Up we go, Billy-boy." [352] Heat gun in readiness, Grannie Annie began to climb slowly. [353] The silence remained absolute. [354] We reached the door and pulled it open. [355] There was no sign of life. [356] "Somebody's gone to a lot of trouble here," Ezra Karn observed. [357] Somebody had. [358] Before us stretched a narrow corridor, flanked on the left side by a wall of impenetrable stepto glass. [359] The corridor was bare of furnishings. [360] But beyond the glass, revealed to us in mocking clarity, was a high panel, studded with dials and gauges. [361] Even as we looked, we could see liquid pulse in glass tubes, indicator needles swing slowly to and fro. [362] Grannie nodded. [363] "Some kind of a broadcasting unit. [364] The Green Flames in the lower hold are probably exposed to a tholpane plate and their radiations stepped up by an electro-phosicalic process." [365] Karn raised the butt of his pistol and brought it crashing against the glass wall. [366] His arm jumped in recoil, but the glass remained intact. [367] "You'll never do it that way," Grannie said. [368] "Nothing short of an atomic blast will shatter that wall. [369] It explains why there are no guards here. [370] The mechanism is entirely self-operating. [371] Let's see if the Green Flames are more accessible." [372] In the lower hold disappointment again confronted us. [373] Visible in the feeble shafts of daylight that filtered through cracks in the vessel's hull were tiers of rectangular ingots of green iridescent ore. [374] Suspended by insulators from the ceiling over them was a thick metal plate. [375] But between was a barrier. [376] A wall of impenetrable stepto glass. [377] Grannie stamped her foot. [378] "It's maddening," she said. [379] "Here we are at the crux of the whole matter, and we're powerless to make a single move." [380] Outside the day was beginning to wane. [381] The Venusians, apparently unawed by the presence of the space ship, had already started a fire and erected the tents. [382] We left the vessel to find a spell of brooding desolation heavy over the improvised camp. [383] And the evening meal this time was a gloomy affair. [384] When it was finished, Ezra Karn lit his pipe and switched on the portable visi set. [385] A moment later the silence of the march was broken by the opening fanfare of the Doctor Universe program. [386] "Great stuff," Karn commented. [387] "I sent in a couple of questions once, but I never did win nothin'. [388] This Doctor Universe is a great guy. [389] Ought to make him king or somethin'." [390] For a moment none of us made reply. [391] Then suddenly Grannie Annie leaped to her feet. [392] "Say that again!" [393] she cried. [394] The old prospector looked startled. [395] "Why, I only said they ought to make this Doctor Universe the big boss and...." "That's it!" [396] Grannie paced ten yards off into the gathering darkness and returned quickly. [397] "Billy-boy, you were right. [398] The man behind this is Doctor Universe. [399] It was he who stole my manuscript and devised a method to amplify the radiations of the Green Flames in the freighter's hold. [400] He lit on a sure-fire plan to broadcast those radiations in such a way that millions of persons would be exposed to them simultaneously. [401] Don't you see?" [402] I didn't see, but Grannie hurried on. [403] "What better way to expose civilized life to the Green Flames radiations than when the people are in a state of relaxation. [404] The Doctor Universe quiz program. [405] The whole System tuned in on them, but they were only a blind to cover up the transmission of the radiations from the ore. Their power must have been amplified a thousandfold, and their wave-length must lie somewhere between light and the supersonic scale in that transition band which so far has defied exploration...." "But with what motive?" [406] I demanded. [407] "Why should...?" [408] "Power!" [409] the old woman answered. [410] "The old thirst for dictatorial control of the masses. [411] By presenting himself as an intellectual genius, Doctor Universe utilized a bizarre method to intrench himself in the minds of the people. [412] Oh, don't you see, Billy-boy? [413] The Green Flames' radiations spell doom to freedom, individual liberty." [414] I sat there stupidly, wondering if this all were some wild dream. [415] And then, as I looked across at Grannie Annie, the vague light over the tents seemed to shift a little, as if one layer of the atmosphere had dropped away to be replaced by another. [416] There it was again, a definite movement in the air. [417] Somehow I got the impression I was looking around that space rather than through it. [418] And simultaneously Ezra Karn uttered a howl of pain. [419] An instant later the old prospector was rolling over and over, threshing his arms wildly. [420] An invisible sledge hammer descended on my shoulder. [421] The blow was followed by another and another. [422] Heavy unseen hands held me down. [423] Opposite me Grannie Annie and the Venusians were suffering similar punishment, the latter screaming in pain and bewilderment. [424] "It's the Varsoom!" [425] Ezra Karn yelled. [426] "We've got to make 'em laugh. [427] Our only escape is to make 'em laugh!" [428] He struggled to his feet and began leaping wildly around the camp fire. [429] Abruptly his foot caught on a log protruding from the fire; he tripped and fell headlong into a mass of hot coals and ashes. [430] Like a jumping jack he was on his feet again, clawing dirt and soot from his eyes. [431] Out of the empty space about us there came a sudden hush. [432] The unseen blows ceased in mid-career. [433] And then the silence was rent by wild laughter. [434] Peal after peal of mirthful yells pounded against our ears. [435] For many moments it continued; then it died away, and everything was peaceful once more. [436] Grannie Annie picked herself up slowly. [437] "That was close," she said. [438] "I wouldn't want to go through that again." [439] Ezra Karn nursed an ugly welt under one eye. [440] "Those Varsoom got a funny sense of humor," he growled. [441] Inside the freighter's narrow corridor Grannie faced me with eyes filled with excitement. [442] "Billy-boy," she said, "we've got two problems now. [443] We've got to stop Doctor Universe, and we've got to find a way of getting out of here. [444] Right now we're nicely bottled up." [445] As if in answer to her words the visi set revealed the face of the quiz master on the screen. [446] He was saying: " Remember tomorrow at this same hour I will have a message of unparalleled importance for the people of the nine planets. [447] Tomorrow night I urge you, I command you, to tune in. " [448] With a whistling intake of breath the old woman turned to one of the Venusians. [449] "Bring all our equipment in here," she ordered. [450] "Hurry!" [451] She untied the ribbon under her chin and took off her cap. [452] She rolled up her sleeves, and as the Venusians came marching into the space ship with bundles of equipment, she fell to work. [453] Silently Ezra Karn and I watched her. [454] First she completely dismantled the visi set, put it together again with an entirely altered hookup. [455] Next she unrolled a coil of flexible copper mesh which we had brought along as a protective electrical screening against the marsh insects. [456] She fastened rubberite suction cups to this mesh at intervals of every twelve inches or more, carried it down to the freighter's hold and fastened it securely against the stepto glass wall. [457] Trailing a three-ply conduit up from the hold to the corridor she selected an induction coil, several Micro-Wellman tubes and a quantity of wire from a box of spare parts. [458] Dexterously her fingers moved in and out, fashioning a complicated and curious piece of apparatus. [459] At length she finished. [460] "It's pretty hay-wire," she said, "but I think it will work. [461] Now I'll tell you what I'm going to do. [462] When Doctor Universe broadcasts tomorrow night, he's going to announce that he has set himself up as supreme dictator. [463] He'll have the Green Flame radiations coming from this ship under full power. [464] I'm going to insert into his broadcast—the laughing of the Varsoom!" [465] "You're going to what?" [466] "Broadcast the mass laughter from those invisible creatures out there. [467] Visualize it, Billy-boy! [468] At the dramatic moment when Doctor Universe makes his plea for System-wide power, he will be accompanied by wild peals of laughter. [469] The whole broadcast will be turned into a burlesque." [470] "How you going to make 'em laugh?" [471] interrupted Karn. [472] "We must think of a way," Grannie replied soberly. [473] I, for one, am glad that no representative of the Interstellar Psychiatry Society witnessed our antics during the early hours of that morning and on into the long reaches of the afternoon, as we vainly tried to provoke the laughter of the Varsoom. [474] All to no avail. [475] Utter silence greeted our efforts. [476] And the time was growing close to the scheduled Doctor Universe program. [477] Ezra Karn wiped a bead of perspiration from his brow. [478] "Maybe we've got to attract their attention first," he suggested. [479] "Miss Flowers, why don't you go up on the roof and read to 'em? [480] Read 'em something from one of your books, if you've got one along. [481] That ought to make 'em sit up and take notice." [482] For a moment the old woman gazed at him in silence. [483] Then she got to her feet quickly. [484] "I'll do it," she said. [485] "I'll read them the attack scene from Murder On A Space Liner ." [486] It didn't make sense, of course. [487] But nothing made sense in this mad venture. [488] Grannie Annie opened her duffel bag and drew out a copy of her most popular book. [489] With the volume under her arm, she mounted the ladder to the top of the envelope. [490] Ezra Karn rigged up a radite search lamp, and a moment later the old woman stood in the center of a circle of white radiance. [491] Karn gripped my arm. [492] "This is it," he said tensely. [493] "If this fails ..." His voice clipped off as Grannie began to read. [494] She read slowly at first, then intoned the words and sentences faster and more dramatically. [495] And out in the swamp a vast hush fell as if unseen ears were listening. [496] "... the space liner was over on her beam ends now as another shot from the raider's vessel crashed into the stern hold. [497] In the control cabin Cuthbert Strong twisted vainly at his bonds as he sought to free himself. [498] Opposite him, lashed by strong Martian vinta ropes to the gravascope, Louise Belmont sobbed softly, wringing her hands in mute appeal. " [499] A restless rustling sounded out in the marsh, as if hundreds of bodies were surging closer. [500] Karn nodded in awe. [501] "She's got 'em!" [502] he whispered. [503] "Listen. [504] They're eatin' up every word." [505] I heard it then, and I thought I must be dreaming. [506] From somewhere out in the swamp a sound rose into the thick air. [507] A high-pitched chuckle, it was. [508] The chuckle came again. [509] Now it was followed by another and another. [510] An instant later a wave of low subdued laughter rose into the air. [511] Ezra Karn gulped. [512] "Gripes!" [513] he said. [514] "They're laughing already. [515] They're laughing at her book! [516] And look, the old lady's gettin' sore." [517] Up on the roof of the envelope Grannie Annie halted her reading to glare savagely out into the darkness. [518] The laughter was a roar now. [519] It rose louder and louder, peal after peal of mirthful yells and hysterical shouts. [520] And for the first time in my life, I saw Annabella C. Flowers mad. [521] She stamped her foot; she shook her fist at the unseen hordes out before her. [522] "Ignorant slap-happy fools!" [523] she screamed. [524] "You don't know good science fiction when you hear it." [525] I turned to Karn and said quietly, "Turn on the visi set. [526] Doctor Universe should be broadcasting now. [527] Tune your microphone to pull in as much of that laughter as you can." [528] It took three weeks to make the return trip to Swamp City. [529] The Varsoom followed us far beyond the frontier of their country like an unseen army in the throes of laughing gas. [530] Not until we reached Level Five did the last chuckle fade into the distance. [531] All during that trek back, Grannie sat in the dugout, staring silently out before her. [532] But when we reached Swamp City, the news was flung at us from all sides. [533] One newspaper headline accurately told the story: DOCTOR UNIVERSE BID FOR SYSTEM DICTATORSHIP SQUELCHED BY RIDICULE OF UNSEEN AUDIENCE. [534] QUIZ MASTER NOW IN HANDS OF I.P. [535] COUP FAILURE. [536] "Grannie," I said that night as we sat again in a rear booth of THE JET, "what are you going to do now? [537] Give up writing science fiction?" [538] She looked at me soberly, then broke into a smile. [539] "Just because some silly form of life that can't even be seen doesn't appreciate it? [540] I should say not. [541] Right now I've got an idea for a swell yarn about Mars. [542] Want to come along while I dig up some background material?" [543] I shook my head. [544] "Not me," I said. [545] But I knew I would.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [205] "And you can lay it all to the Green Flames. It seems incredible that a single shipload of the ore could effect such a wide ranged area, but in my opinion someone has found a means of making that quantity a thousand times more potent and is transmiting it en masse." 2. [174] "To go back to my first trip to Venus. As I said, I met Ezra Karn, an old prospector there in the marsh. Karn told me that on one of his travels into the Varsoom district he had come upon the wreckage of an old space ship. The hold of that space ship was packed with Green Flames!" 3. [185] "Of course, I regarded Karn's story as a wild dream, but it made corking good story material. I wrote it into a novel, and a week after it was completed, the manuscript was stolen from my study back on Earth." 4. [202] "The theater crowd was but a cross-section of what is happening all over the System. There have been riots on Earth and Mars, police officials murdered on Pluto and a demand that government by representation be abolished on Jupiter." 5. [203] "The time is ripe for a military dictator to step in." 6. [160] "The Green Flame is a radio-active rock once found on Mercury. The Alpha rays of this rock are similar to radium in that they consist of streams of material particles projected at high speed. But the character of the Gamma rays has never been completely analyzed." 7. [161] "Like those set up by radium, they are electromagnetic pulsations, but they are also a strange combination of Beta or cathode rays with negatively charged electrons." 8. [162] "When any form of life is exposed to these Gamma rays from the Green Flame rock, they produce in the creature's brain a certain lassitude and lack of energy." 9. [163] "As the period of exposure increases, this condition develops into a sense of impotence and a desire for leadership or guidance. Occasionally, as with the weak-willed, there is a spirit of intolerance." 10. [164] "The Green Flames might be said to be an inorganic opiate, a thousand times more subtle and more powerful than any known drug." 11. [167] "Now in 2710, as you'd know if you studied your history, the three planets of Earth, Venus, and Mars were under governmental bondage. The cruel dictatorship of Vennox I was short-lived, but it lasted long enough to endanger all civilized life." 12. [168] "The archives tell us that one of the first acts of the overthrowing government was to cast out all Green Flames, two of which Vennox had ordered must be kept in each household." 13. [169] "The effect on the people was immediate. Representative government, individual enterprise, freedom followed." 14. [175] "As I said, I met Ezra Karn, an old prospector there in the marsh. Karn told me that on one of his travels into the Varsoom district he had come upon the wreckage of an old space ship. The hold of that space ship was packed with Green Flames!" 15. [184] "Of course, I regarded Karn's story as a wild dream, but it made corking good story material. I wrote it into a novel, and a week after it was completed, the manuscript was stolen from my study back on Earth." 16. [186] "And now you've come to the conclusion that the details of your story were true and that someone is attempting to put your plot into action." 17. [197] "The way the theater crowd acted. It all ties in." 18. [204] "And you can lay it all to the Green Flames. It seems incredible that a single shipload of the ore could effect such a wide ranged area, but in my opinion someone has found a means of making that quantity a thousand times more potent and is transmiting it en masse." 19. [206] "And you can lay it all to the Green Flames. It seems incredible that a single shipload of the ore could effect such a wide ranged area, but in my opinion someone has found a means of making that quantity a thousand times more potent and is transmiting it en masse." 20. [207] "If it had been anyone but Grannie Annie there before me, I would have called her a fool." 21. [208] "And then all at once I got an odd feeling of approaching danger." 22. [233] "The thousand sounds of the blue marsh droned steadily. And the news broadcast I had heard over the portable visi just before retiring still lingered in my mind." 23. [234] "To a casual observer that broadcast would have meant little, a slight rebellion here, an isolated crime there." 24. [235] "But viewed from the perspective Grannie had given me, everything dovetailed." 25. [236] "The situation on Jupiter was swiftly coming to a head. Not only had the people on that planet demanded that representative government be abolished, but a forum was now being held to find a leader who might take complete dictatorial control." 26. [241] "Could I believe Grannie's incredible story? Or was this another of her fantastic plots which she had skilfully blended into a novel?" 27. [242] "Abruptly I stiffened." 28. [243] "The familiar drone of the marsh was gone. In its place a ringing silence blanketed everything." 29. [244] "And then out in the gloom a darker shadow appeared, moving in undulating sweeps toward the center of the camp." 30. [268] "Billy-boy, our every move is being watched. From now on it's the survival of the fittest." 31. [323] "And as I sat there, looking into the visi screen, a curious numbing drowsiness seemed to steal over me and lead my thoughts far away." 32. [324] "Half an hour later we headed into the unknown." 33. [325] "The Venusian boatmen were ill-at-ease now and jabbered among themselves constantly." 34. [326] "We camped that night on a miserable little island where insects swarmed about us in hordes." 35. [327] "The next day an indefinable wave of weariness and despondency beset our entire party." 36. [328] "I caught myself musing over the futility of the venture." 37. [329] "Only the pleadings of Grannie Annie kept me from turning back." 38. [330] "I realized the truth in her warning, that all of us had been exposed to the insidious radiations." 39. [331] "After that I lost track of time." 40. [332] "Day after day of incessant rain ... of steaming swamp...." 41. [440] "Billy-boy," she said, "we've got two problems now. We've got to stop Doctor Universe, and we've got to find a way of getting out of here. Right now we're nicely bottled up." 42. [445] "As if in answer to her words the visi set revealed the face of the quiz master on the screen." 43. [446] "He was saying: 'Remember tomorrow at this same hour I will have a message of unparalleled importance for the people of the nine planets. Tomorrow night I urge you, I command you, to tune in.'" 44. [447] "With a whistling intake of breath the old woman turned to one of the Venusians." 45. [448] "'Bring all our equipment in here,' she ordered. 'Hurry!'" 46. [532] "One newspaper headline accurately told the story: DOCTOR UNIVERSE BID FOR SYSTEM DICTATORSHIP SQUELCHED BY RIDICULE OF UNSEEN AUDIENCE. QUIZ MASTER NOW IN HANDS OF I.P. COUP FAILURE."

Describe the character of Grannie Annie

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Doctor Universe By CARL JACOBI Grannie Annie, who wrote science fiction under the nom de plume of Annabella C. Flowers, had stumbled onto a murderous plot more hair-raising than any she had ever concocted. [2] And the danger from the villain of the piece didn't worry her—I was the guy he was shooting at. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1944. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] I was killing an hour in the billiard room of the Spacemen's Club in Swamp City when the Venusian bellboy came and tapped me on the shoulder. [6] "Beg pardon, thir," he said with his racial lisp, "thereth thome one to thee you in the main lounge." [7] His eyes rolled as he added, "A lady!" [8] A woman here...! [9] The Spacemen's was a sanctuary, a rest club where in-coming pilots and crewmen could relax before leaving for another voyage. [10] The rule that no females could pass its portals was strictly enforced. [11] I followed the bellhop down the long corridor that led to the main lounge. [12] At the threshold I jerked to a halt and stared incredulously. [13] Grannie Annie! [14] There she stood before a frantically gesticulating desk clerk, leaning on her faded green umbrella. [15] A little wisp of a woman clad in a voluminous black dress with one of those doily-like caps on her head, tied by a ribbon under her chin. [16] Her high-topped button shoes were planted firmly on the varpla carpet and her wrinkled face was set in calm defiance. [17] I barged across the lounge and seized her hand. [18] "Grannie Annie! [19] I haven't seen you in two years." [20] "Hi, Billy-boy," she greeted calmly. [21] "Will you please tell this fish-face to shut up." [22] The desk clerk went white. [23] "Mithter Trenwith, if thith lady ith a friend of yourth, you'll have to take her away. [24] It'th abtholutely againth the ruleth...." "Okay, okay," I grinned. [25] "Look, we'll go into the grille. [26] There's no one there at this hour." [27] In the grille an equally astonished waiter served us—me a lime rickey and Grannie Annie her usual whisky sour—I waited until she had tossed the drink off at a gulp before I set off a chain of questions: "What the devil are you doing on Venus? [28] Don't you know women aren't allowed in the Spacemen's ? [29] What happened to the book you were writing?" [30] "Hold it, Billy-boy." [31] Laughingly she threw up both hands. [32] "Sure, I knew this place had some antiquated laws. [33] Pure fiddle-faddle, that's what they are. [34] Anyway, I've been thrown out of better places." [35] She hadn't changed. [36] To her publishers and her readers she might be Annabella C. Flowers, author of a long list of science fiction novels. [37] But to me she was still Grannie Annie, as old-fashioned as last year's hat, as modern as an atomic motor. [38] She had probably written more drivel in the name of science fiction than anyone alive. [39] But the public loved it. [40] They ate up her stories, and they clamored for more. [41] Her annual income totaled into six figures, and her publishers sat back and massaged their digits, watching their earnings mount. [42] One thing you had to admit about her books. [43] They may have been dime novels, but they weren't synthetic. [44] If Annabella C. Flowers wrote a novel, and the locale was the desert of Mars, she packed her carpet bag and hopped a liner for Craterville. [45] If she cooked up a feud between two expeditions on Callisto, she went to Callisto. [46] She was the most completely delightful crackpot I had ever known. [47] "What happened to Guns for Ganymede ?" [48] I asked. [49] "That was the title of your last, wasn't it?" [50] Grannie spilled a few shreds of Martian tobacco onto a paper and deftly rolled herself a cigarette. [51] "It wasn't Guns , it was Pistols ; and it wasn't Ganymede , it was Pluto ." [52] I grinned. [53] "All complete, I'll bet, with threats against the universe and beautiful Earth heroines dragged in by the hair." [54] "What else is there in science fiction?" [55] she demanded. [56] "You can't have your hero fall in love with a bug-eyed monster." [57] Up on the wall a clock chimed the hour. [58] The old woman jerked to her feet. [59] "I almost forgot, Billy-boy. [60] I'm due at the Satellite Theater in ten minutes. [61] Come on, you're going with me." [62] Before I realized it, I was following her through the lounge and out to the jetty front. [63] Grannie Annie hailed a hydrocar. [64] Five minutes later we drew up before the big doors of the Satellite . [65] They don't go in for style in Swamp City. [66] A theater to the grizzled colonials on this side of the planet meant a shack on stilts over the muck, zilcon wood seats and dingy atobide lamps. [67] But the place was packed with miners, freight-crew-men—all the tide and wash of humanity that made Swamp City the frontier post it is. [68] In front was a big sign. [69] It read: ONE NIGHT ONLY DOCTOR UNIVERSE AND HIS NINE GENIUSES THE QUESTION PROGRAM OF THE SYSTEM As we strode down the aisle a mangy-looking Venusian began to pound a tinpan piano in the pit. [70] Grannie Annie pushed me into a seat in the front row. [71] "Sit here," she said. [72] "I'm sorry about all this rush, but I'm one of the players in this shindig. [73] As soon as the show is over, we'll go somewhere and talk." [74] She minced lightly down the aisle, climbed the stage steps and disappeared in the wings. [75] "That damned fossilized dynamo," I muttered. [76] "She'll be the death of me yet." [77] The piano struck a chord in G, and the curtain went rattling up. [78] On the stage four Earthmen, two Martians, two Venusians, and one Mercurian sat on an upraised dais. [79] That is to say, eight of them sat. [80] The Mercurian, a huge lump of granite-like flesh, sprawled there, palpably uncomfortable. [81] On the right were nine visi sets, each with its new improved pantascope panel and switchboard. [82] Before each set stood an Earthman operator. [83] A tall man, clad in a claw-hammer coat, came out from the wings and advanced to the footlights. [84] "People of Swamp City," he said, bowing, "permit me to introduce myself. [85] I am Doctor Universe, and these are my nine experts." [86] There was a roar of applause from the Satellite audience. [87] When it had subsided, the man continued: "As most of you are familiar with our program, it will be unnecessary to give any advance explanation. [88] I will only say that on this stage are nine visi sets, each tuned to one of the nine planets. [89] At transmitting sets all over these planets listeners will appear and voice questions. [90] These questions, my nine experts will endeavor to answer. [91] For every question missed, the sender will receive a check for one thousand planetoles . [92] "One thing more. [93] As usual we have with us a guest star who will match her wits with the experts. [94] May I present that renowned writer of science fiction, Annabella C. [95] Flowers." [96] From the left wing Grannie Annie appeared. [97] She bowed and took her place on the dais. [98] The Doctor's program began. [99] The operator of the Earth visi twisted his dials and nodded. [100] Blue light flickered on the pantascope panel to coalesce slowly into the face of a red-haired man. [101] Sharp and dear his voice echoed through the theater: " Who was the first Earthman to titter the sunward side of Mercury? " [102] Doctor Universe nodded and turned to Grannie Annie who had raised her hand. [103] She said quietly: "Charles Zanner in the year 2012. [104] In a specially constructed tracto-car." [105] And so it went. [106] Questions from Mars, from Earth, from Saturn flowed in the visi sets. [107] Isolated miners on Jupiter, dancers in swank Plutonian cafes strove to stump the experts. [108] With Doctor Universe offering bantering side play, the experts gave their answers. [109] When they failed, or when the Truthicator flashed a red light, he announced the name of the winner. [110] It grew a little tiresome after a while and I wondered why Grannie had brought me here. [111] And then I began to notice things. [112] The audience in the Satellite seemed to have lost much of its original fervor. [113] They applauded as before but they did so only at the signal of Doctor Universe. [114] The spell created by the man was complete. [115] Pompous and erect, he strode back and forth across the stage like a general surveying his army. [116] His black eyes gleamed, and his thin lips were turned in a smile of satisfaction. [117] When the last question had been answered I joined the exit-moving crowd. [118] It was outside under the street marquee that a strange incident occurred. [119] A yellow-faced Kagor from the upper Martian desert country shuffled by, dragging his cumbersome third leg behind him. [120] Kagors, of course, had an unpleasant history of persecution since the early colonization days of the Red Planet. [121] But the thing that happened there was a throw back to an earlier era. [122] Someone shouted, "Yah, yellow-face! [123] Down with all Kagors!" [124] As one man the crowd took up the cry and surged forward. [125] The helpless Kagor was seized and flung to the pavement. [126] A knife appeared from nowhere, snipped the Martian's single lock of hair. [127] A booted foot bludgeoned into his mouth. [128] Moments later an official hydrocar roared up and a dozen I.P. [129] men rushed out and scattered the crowd. [130] But a few stragglers lingered to shout derisive epithets. [131] Grannie Annie came out from behind the box office then. [132] She took my arm and led me around a corner and through a doorway under a sign that read THE JET. [133] Inside was a deep room with booths along one wall. [134] The place was all but deserted. [135] In a booth well toward the rear the old lady surveyed me with sober eyes. [136] "Billy-boy, did you see the way that crowd acted?" [137] I nodded. [138] "As disgraceful an exhibition as I've ever seen. [139] The I.P. [140] men ought to clamp down." [141] "The I.P. [142] men aren't strong enough." [143] She said it quietly, but there was a glitter in her eyes and a harsh line about her usually smiling lips. [144] "What do you mean?" [145] For a moment the old lady sat there in silence; then she leaned back, closed her eyes, and I knew there was a story coming. [146] "My last book, Death In The Atom , hit the stands last January," she began. [147] "When it was finished I had planned to take a six months' vacation, but those fool publishers of mine insisted I do a sequel. [148] Well, I'd used Mars and Pluto and Ganymede as settings for novels, so for this one I decided on Venus. [149] I went to Venus City, and I spent six weeks in-country. [150] I got some swell background material, and I met Ezra Karn...." "Who?" [151] I interrupted. [152] "An old prospector who lives out in the deep marsh on the outskirts of Varsoom country. [153] To make a long story short, I got him talking about his adventures, and he told me plenty." [154] The old woman paused. [155] "Did you ever hear of the Green Flames?" [156] she asked abruptly. [157] I shook my head. [158] "Some new kind of ..." "It's not a new kind of anything. [159] The Green Flame is a radio-active rock once found on Mercury. [160] The Alpha rays of this rock are similar to radium in that they consist of streams of material particles projected at high speed. [161] But the character of the Gamma rays has never been completely analyzed. [162] Like those set up by radium, they are electromagnetic pulsations, but they are also a strange combination of Beta or cathode rays with negatively charged electrons. [163] "When any form of life is exposed to these Gamma rays from the Green Flame rock, they produce in the creature's brain a certain lassitude and lack of energy. [164] As the period of exposure increases, this condition develops into a sense of impotence and a desire for leadership or guidance. [165] Occasionally, as with the weak-willed, there is a spirit of intolerance. [166] The Green Flames might be said to be an inorganic opiate, a thousand times more subtle and more powerful than any known drug." [167] I was sitting up now, hanging on to the woman's every word. [168] "Now in 2710, as you'd know if you studied your history, the three planets of Earth, Venus, and Mars were under governmental bondage. [169] The cruel dictatorship of Vennox I was short-lived, but it lasted long enough to endanger all civilized life. [170] "The archives tell us that one of the first acts of the overthrowing government was to cast out all Green Flames, two of which Vennox had ordered must be kept in each household. [171] The effect on the people was immediate. [172] Representative government, individual enterprise, freedom followed." [173] Grannie Annie lit a cigarette and flipped the match to the floor. [174] "To go back to my first trip to Venus. [175] As I said, I met Ezra Karn, an old prospector there in the marsh. [176] Karn told me that on one of his travels into the Varsoom district he had come upon the wreckage of an old space ship. [177] The hold of that space ship was packed with Green Flames!" [178] If Grannie expected me to show surprise at that, she was disappointed. [179] I said, "So what?" [180] "So everything, Billy-boy. [181] Do you realize what such a thing would mean if it were true? [182] Green Flames were supposedly destroyed on all planets after the Vennox regime crashed. [183] If a quantity of the rock were in existence, and it fell into the wrong hands, there'd be trouble. [184] "Of course, I regarded Karn's story as a wild dream, but it made corking good story material. [185] I wrote it into a novel, and a week after it was completed, the manuscript was stolen from my study back on Earth." [186] "I see," I said as she lapsed into silence. [187] "And now you've come to the conclusion that the details of your story were true and that someone is attempting to put your plot into action." [188] Grannie nodded. [189] "Yes," she said. [190] "That's exactly what I think." [191] I got my pipe out of my pocket, tamped Martian tobacco into the bowl and laughed heartily. [192] "The same old Flowers," I said. [193] "Tell me, who's your thief ... [194] Doctor Universe?" [195] She regarded me evenly. [196] "What makes you say that?" [197] I shrugged. [198] "The way the theater crowd acted. [199] It all ties in." [200] The old woman shook her head. [201] "No, this is a lot bigger than a simple quiz program. [202] The theater crowd was but a cross-section of what is happening all over the System. [203] There have been riots on Earth and Mars, police officials murdered on Pluto and a demand that government by representation be abolished on Jupiter. [204] The time is ripe for a military dictator to step in. [205] "And you can lay it all to the Green Flames. [206] It seems incredible that a single shipload of the ore could effect such a wide ranged area, but in my opinion someone has found a means of making that quantity a thousand times more potent and is transmiting it en masse ." [207] If it had been anyone but Grannie Annie there before me, I would have called her a fool. [208] And then all at once I got an odd feeling of approaching danger. [209] "Let's get out of here," I said, getting up. [210] Zinnng-whack! [211] "All right!" [212] On the mirror behind the bar a small circle with radiating cracks appeared. [213] On the booth wall a scant inch above Grannie's head the fresco seemed to melt away suddenly. [214] A heat ray! [215] Grannie Annie leaped to her feet, grasped my arm and raced for the door. [216] Outside a driverless hydrocar stood with idling motors. [217] The old woman threw herself into the control seat, yanked me in after her and threw over the starting stud. [218] An instant later we were plunging through the dark night. [219] Six days after leaving Swamp City we reached Level Five, the last outpost of firm ground. [220] Ahead lay the inner marsh, stretching as far as the eye could reach. [221] Low islands projected at intervals from the thick water. [222] Mold balls, two feet across, drifted down from the slate-gray sky like puffs of cotton. [223] We had traveled this far by ganet , the tough little two headed pack animal of the Venus hinterland. [224] Any form of plane or rocket would have had its motor instantly destroyed, of course, by the magnetic force belt that encircled the planet's equator. [225] Now our drivers changed to boatmen, and we loaded our supplies into three clumsy jagua canoes. [226] It was around the camp fire that night that Grannie took me into her confidence for the first time since we had left Swamp City. [227] "We're heading directly for Varsoom country," she said. [228] "If we find Ezra Karn so much the better. [229] If we don't, we follow his directions to the lost space ship. [230] Our job is to find that ore and destroy it. [231] You see, I'm positive the Green Flames have never been removed from the ship." [232] Sleep had never bothered me, yet that night I lay awake for hours tossing restlessly. [233] The thousand sounds of the blue marsh droned steadily. [234] And the news broadcast I had heard over the portable visi just before retiring still lingered in my mind. [235] To a casual observer that broadcast would have meant little, a slight rebellion here, an isolated crime there. [236] But viewed from the perspective Grannie had given me, everything dovetailed. [237] The situation on Jupiter was swiftly coming to a head. [238] Not only had the people on that planet demanded that representative government be abolished, but a forum was now being held to find a leader who might take complete dictatorial control. [239] Outside a whisper-worm hissed softly. [240] I got up and strode out of my tent. [241] For some time I stood there, lost in thought. [242] Could I believe Grannie's incredible story? [243] Or was this another of her fantastic plots which she had skilfully blended into a novel? [244] Abruptly I stiffened. [245] The familiar drone of the marsh was gone. [246] In its place a ringing silence blanketed everything. [247] And then out in the gloom a darker shadow appeared, moving in undulating sweeps toward the center of the camp. [248] Fascinated, I watched it advance and retreat, saw two hyalescent eyes swim out of the murk. [249] It charged, and with but a split second to act, I threw myself flat. [250] There was a rush of mighty wings as the thing swept over me. [251] Sharp talons raked my clothing. [252] Again it came, and again I rolled swiftly, missing the thing by the narrowest of margins. [253] From the tent opposite a gaunt figure clad in a familiar dress appeared. [254] Grannie gave a single warning: "Stand still!" [255] The thing in the darkness turned like a cam on a rod and drove at us again. [256] This time the old woman's heat gun clicked, and a tracery of purple flame shot outward. [257] A horrible soul-chilling scream rent the air. [258] A moment later something huge and heavy scrabbled across the ground and shot aloft. [259] Grannie Annie fired with deliberate speed. [260] I stood frozen as the diminuendo of its wild cries echoed back to me. [261] "In heaven's name, what was it?" [262] "Hunter-bird," Grannie said calmly. [263] "A form of avian life found here in the swamp. [264] Harmless in its wild state, but when captured, it can be trained to pursue a quarry until it kills. [265] It has a single unit brain and follows with a relentless purpose." [266] "Then that would mean...?" [267] "That it was sent by our enemy, the same enemy that shot at us in the cafe in Swamp City. [268] Exactly." [269] Grannie Annie halted at the door of her tent and faced me with earnest eyes. [270] "Billy-boy, our every move is being watched. [271] From now on it's the survival of the fittest." [272] The following day was our seventh in the swamp. [273] The water here resembled a vast mosaic, striped and cross-striped with long winding ribbons of yellowish substance that floated a few inches below the surface. [274] The mold balls coming into contact with the evonium water of the swamp had undergone a chemical change and evolved into a cohesive multi-celled marine life that lived and died within a space of hours. [275] The Venusians paddled with extreme care. [276] Had one of them dipped his hand into one of those yellow streaks, he would have been devoured in a matter of seconds. [277] At high noon by my Earth watch I sighted a low white structure on one of the distant islands. [278] Moments later we made a landing at a rude jetty, and Grannie Annie was introducing me to Ezra Karn. [279] He was not as old a man as I had expected, but he was ragged and unkempt with iron gray hair falling almost to his shoulders. [280] He was dressed in varpa cloth, the Venus equivalent of buckskin, and on his head was an enormous flop-brimmed hat. [281] "Glad to meet you," he said, shaking my hand. [282] "Any friend of Miss Flowers is a friend of mine." [283] He ushered us down the catwalk into his hut. [284] The place was a two room affair, small but comfortable. [285] The latest type of visi set in one corner showed that Karn was not isolated from civilization entirely. [286] Grannie Annie came to the point abruptly. [287] When she had explained the object of our trip, the prospector became thoughtful. [288] "Green Flames, eh?" [289] he repeated slowly. [290] "Well yes, I suppose I could find that space ship again. [291] That is, if I wanted to." [292] "What do you mean?" [293] Grannie paused in the act of rolling herself a cigarette. [294] "You know where it is, don't you?" [295] "Ye-s," Karn nodded. [296] "But like I told you before, that ship lies in Varsoom country, and that isn't exactly a summer vacation spot." [297] "What are the Varsoom?" [298] I asked. [299] "A native tribe?" [300] Karn shook his head. [301] "They're a form of life that's never been seen by Earthmen. [302] Strictly speaking, they're no more than a form of energy." [303] "Dangerous?" [304] "Yes and no. [305] Only man I ever heard of who escaped their country outside of myself was the explorer, Darthier, three years ago. [306] I got away because I was alone, and they didn't notice me, and Darthier escaped because he made 'em laugh." [307] "Laugh?" [308] A scowl crossed Grannie's face. [309] "That's right," Karn said. [310] "The Varsoom have a strange nervous reaction that's manifested by laughing. [311] But just what it is that makes them laugh, I don't know." [312] Food supplies and fresh drinking water were replenished at the hut. [313] Several mold guns were borrowed from the prospector's supply to arm the Venusians. [314] And then as we were about to leave, Karn suddenly turned. [315] "The Doctor Universe program," he said. [316] "I ain't missed one in months. [317] You gotta wait 'til I hear it." [318] Grannie frowned in annoyance, but the prospector was adamant. [319] He flipped a stud, twisted a dial and a moment later was leaning back in a chair, listening with avid interest. [320] It was the same show I had witnessed back in Swamp City. [321] Once again I heard questions filter in from the far outposts of the System. [322] Once again I saw the commanding figure of the quiz master as he strode back and forth across the stage. [323] And as I sat there, looking into the visi screen, a curious numbing drowsiness seemed to steal over me and lead my thoughts far away. [324] Half an hour later we headed into the unknown. [325] The Venusian boatmen were ill-at-ease now and jabbered among themselves constantly. [326] We camped that night on a miserable little island where insects swarmed about us in hordes. [327] The next day an indefinable wave of weariness and despondency beset our entire party. [328] I caught myself musing over the futility of the venture. [329] Only the pleadings of Grannie Annie kept me from turning back. [330] On the morrow I realized the truth in her warning, that all of us had been exposed to the insidious radiations. [331] After that I lost track of time. [332] Day after day of incessant rain ... of steaming swamp.... [333] But at length we reached firm ground and began our advance on foot. [334] It was Karn who first sighted the ship. [335] Striding in the lead, he suddenly halted at the top of a hill and leveled his arm before him. [336] There it lay, a huge cigar-shaped vessel of blackened arelium steel, half buried in the swamp soil. [337] "What's that thing on top?" [338] Karn demanded, puzzled. [339] A rectangular metal envelope had been constructed over the stern quarters of the ship. [340] Above this structure were three tall masts. [341] And suspended between them was a network of copper wire studded with white insulators. [342] Grannie gazed a long moment through binoculars. [343] "Billy-boy, take three Venusians and head across the knoll," she ordered. [344] "Ezra and I will circle in from the west. [345] Fire a gun if you strike trouble." [346] But we found no trouble. [347] The scene before us lay steeped in silence. [348] Moments later our two parties converged at the base of the great ship. [349] A metal ladder extended from the envelope down the side of the vessel. [350] Mid-way we could see a circular hatch-like door. [351] "Up we go, Billy-boy." [352] Heat gun in readiness, Grannie Annie began to climb slowly. [353] The silence remained absolute. [354] We reached the door and pulled it open. [355] There was no sign of life. [356] "Somebody's gone to a lot of trouble here," Ezra Karn observed. [357] Somebody had. [358] Before us stretched a narrow corridor, flanked on the left side by a wall of impenetrable stepto glass. [359] The corridor was bare of furnishings. [360] But beyond the glass, revealed to us in mocking clarity, was a high panel, studded with dials and gauges. [361] Even as we looked, we could see liquid pulse in glass tubes, indicator needles swing slowly to and fro. [362] Grannie nodded. [363] "Some kind of a broadcasting unit. [364] The Green Flames in the lower hold are probably exposed to a tholpane plate and their radiations stepped up by an electro-phosicalic process." [365] Karn raised the butt of his pistol and brought it crashing against the glass wall. [366] His arm jumped in recoil, but the glass remained intact. [367] "You'll never do it that way," Grannie said. [368] "Nothing short of an atomic blast will shatter that wall. [369] It explains why there are no guards here. [370] The mechanism is entirely self-operating. [371] Let's see if the Green Flames are more accessible." [372] In the lower hold disappointment again confronted us. [373] Visible in the feeble shafts of daylight that filtered through cracks in the vessel's hull were tiers of rectangular ingots of green iridescent ore. [374] Suspended by insulators from the ceiling over them was a thick metal plate. [375] But between was a barrier. [376] A wall of impenetrable stepto glass. [377] Grannie stamped her foot. [378] "It's maddening," she said. [379] "Here we are at the crux of the whole matter, and we're powerless to make a single move." [380] Outside the day was beginning to wane. [381] The Venusians, apparently unawed by the presence of the space ship, had already started a fire and erected the tents. [382] We left the vessel to find a spell of brooding desolation heavy over the improvised camp. [383] And the evening meal this time was a gloomy affair. [384] When it was finished, Ezra Karn lit his pipe and switched on the portable visi set. [385] A moment later the silence of the march was broken by the opening fanfare of the Doctor Universe program. [386] "Great stuff," Karn commented. [387] "I sent in a couple of questions once, but I never did win nothin'. [388] This Doctor Universe is a great guy. [389] Ought to make him king or somethin'." [390] For a moment none of us made reply. [391] Then suddenly Grannie Annie leaped to her feet. [392] "Say that again!" [393] she cried. [394] The old prospector looked startled. [395] "Why, I only said they ought to make this Doctor Universe the big boss and...." "That's it!" [396] Grannie paced ten yards off into the gathering darkness and returned quickly. [397] "Billy-boy, you were right. [398] The man behind this is Doctor Universe. [399] It was he who stole my manuscript and devised a method to amplify the radiations of the Green Flames in the freighter's hold. [400] He lit on a sure-fire plan to broadcast those radiations in such a way that millions of persons would be exposed to them simultaneously. [401] Don't you see?" [402] I didn't see, but Grannie hurried on. [403] "What better way to expose civilized life to the Green Flames radiations than when the people are in a state of relaxation. [404] The Doctor Universe quiz program. [405] The whole System tuned in on them, but they were only a blind to cover up the transmission of the radiations from the ore. Their power must have been amplified a thousandfold, and their wave-length must lie somewhere between light and the supersonic scale in that transition band which so far has defied exploration...." "But with what motive?" [406] I demanded. [407] "Why should...?" [408] "Power!" [409] the old woman answered. [410] "The old thirst for dictatorial control of the masses. [411] By presenting himself as an intellectual genius, Doctor Universe utilized a bizarre method to intrench himself in the minds of the people. [412] Oh, don't you see, Billy-boy? [413] The Green Flames' radiations spell doom to freedom, individual liberty." [414] I sat there stupidly, wondering if this all were some wild dream. [415] And then, as I looked across at Grannie Annie, the vague light over the tents seemed to shift a little, as if one layer of the atmosphere had dropped away to be replaced by another. [416] There it was again, a definite movement in the air. [417] Somehow I got the impression I was looking around that space rather than through it. [418] And simultaneously Ezra Karn uttered a howl of pain. [419] An instant later the old prospector was rolling over and over, threshing his arms wildly. [420] An invisible sledge hammer descended on my shoulder. [421] The blow was followed by another and another. [422] Heavy unseen hands held me down. [423] Opposite me Grannie Annie and the Venusians were suffering similar punishment, the latter screaming in pain and bewilderment. [424] "It's the Varsoom!" [425] Ezra Karn yelled. [426] "We've got to make 'em laugh. [427] Our only escape is to make 'em laugh!" [428] He struggled to his feet and began leaping wildly around the camp fire. [429] Abruptly his foot caught on a log protruding from the fire; he tripped and fell headlong into a mass of hot coals and ashes. [430] Like a jumping jack he was on his feet again, clawing dirt and soot from his eyes. [431] Out of the empty space about us there came a sudden hush. [432] The unseen blows ceased in mid-career. [433] And then the silence was rent by wild laughter. [434] Peal after peal of mirthful yells pounded against our ears. [435] For many moments it continued; then it died away, and everything was peaceful once more. [436] Grannie Annie picked herself up slowly. [437] "That was close," she said. [438] "I wouldn't want to go through that again." [439] Ezra Karn nursed an ugly welt under one eye. [440] "Those Varsoom got a funny sense of humor," he growled. [441] Inside the freighter's narrow corridor Grannie faced me with eyes filled with excitement. [442] "Billy-boy," she said, "we've got two problems now. [443] We've got to stop Doctor Universe, and we've got to find a way of getting out of here. [444] Right now we're nicely bottled up." [445] As if in answer to her words the visi set revealed the face of the quiz master on the screen. [446] He was saying: " Remember tomorrow at this same hour I will have a message of unparalleled importance for the people of the nine planets. [447] Tomorrow night I urge you, I command you, to tune in. " [448] With a whistling intake of breath the old woman turned to one of the Venusians. [449] "Bring all our equipment in here," she ordered. [450] "Hurry!" [451] She untied the ribbon under her chin and took off her cap. [452] She rolled up her sleeves, and as the Venusians came marching into the space ship with bundles of equipment, she fell to work. [453] Silently Ezra Karn and I watched her. [454] First she completely dismantled the visi set, put it together again with an entirely altered hookup. [455] Next she unrolled a coil of flexible copper mesh which we had brought along as a protective electrical screening against the marsh insects. [456] She fastened rubberite suction cups to this mesh at intervals of every twelve inches or more, carried it down to the freighter's hold and fastened it securely against the stepto glass wall. [457] Trailing a three-ply conduit up from the hold to the corridor she selected an induction coil, several Micro-Wellman tubes and a quantity of wire from a box of spare parts. [458] Dexterously her fingers moved in and out, fashioning a complicated and curious piece of apparatus. [459] At length she finished. [460] "It's pretty hay-wire," she said, "but I think it will work. [461] Now I'll tell you what I'm going to do. [462] When Doctor Universe broadcasts tomorrow night, he's going to announce that he has set himself up as supreme dictator. [463] He'll have the Green Flame radiations coming from this ship under full power. [464] I'm going to insert into his broadcast—the laughing of the Varsoom!" [465] "You're going to what?" [466] "Broadcast the mass laughter from those invisible creatures out there. [467] Visualize it, Billy-boy! [468] At the dramatic moment when Doctor Universe makes his plea for System-wide power, he will be accompanied by wild peals of laughter. [469] The whole broadcast will be turned into a burlesque." [470] "How you going to make 'em laugh?" [471] interrupted Karn. [472] "We must think of a way," Grannie replied soberly. [473] I, for one, am glad that no representative of the Interstellar Psychiatry Society witnessed our antics during the early hours of that morning and on into the long reaches of the afternoon, as we vainly tried to provoke the laughter of the Varsoom. [474] All to no avail. [475] Utter silence greeted our efforts. [476] And the time was growing close to the scheduled Doctor Universe program. [477] Ezra Karn wiped a bead of perspiration from his brow. [478] "Maybe we've got to attract their attention first," he suggested. [479] "Miss Flowers, why don't you go up on the roof and read to 'em? [480] Read 'em something from one of your books, if you've got one along. [481] That ought to make 'em sit up and take notice." [482] For a moment the old woman gazed at him in silence. [483] Then she got to her feet quickly. [484] "I'll do it," she said. [485] "I'll read them the attack scene from Murder On A Space Liner ." [486] It didn't make sense, of course. [487] But nothing made sense in this mad venture. [488] Grannie Annie opened her duffel bag and drew out a copy of her most popular book. [489] With the volume under her arm, she mounted the ladder to the top of the envelope. [490] Ezra Karn rigged up a radite search lamp, and a moment later the old woman stood in the center of a circle of white radiance. [491] Karn gripped my arm. [492] "This is it," he said tensely. [493] "If this fails ..." His voice clipped off as Grannie began to read. [494] She read slowly at first, then intoned the words and sentences faster and more dramatically. [495] And out in the swamp a vast hush fell as if unseen ears were listening. [496] "... the space liner was over on her beam ends now as another shot from the raider's vessel crashed into the stern hold. [497] In the control cabin Cuthbert Strong twisted vainly at his bonds as he sought to free himself. [498] Opposite him, lashed by strong Martian vinta ropes to the gravascope, Louise Belmont sobbed softly, wringing her hands in mute appeal. " [499] A restless rustling sounded out in the marsh, as if hundreds of bodies were surging closer. [500] Karn nodded in awe. [501] "She's got 'em!" [502] he whispered. [503] "Listen. [504] They're eatin' up every word." [505] I heard it then, and I thought I must be dreaming. [506] From somewhere out in the swamp a sound rose into the thick air. [507] A high-pitched chuckle, it was. [508] The chuckle came again. [509] Now it was followed by another and another. [510] An instant later a wave of low subdued laughter rose into the air. [511] Ezra Karn gulped. [512] "Gripes!" [513] he said. [514] "They're laughing already. [515] They're laughing at her book! [516] And look, the old lady's gettin' sore." [517] Up on the roof of the envelope Grannie Annie halted her reading to glare savagely out into the darkness. [518] The laughter was a roar now. [519] It rose louder and louder, peal after peal of mirthful yells and hysterical shouts. [520] And for the first time in my life, I saw Annabella C. Flowers mad. [521] She stamped her foot; she shook her fist at the unseen hordes out before her. [522] "Ignorant slap-happy fools!" [523] she screamed. [524] "You don't know good science fiction when you hear it." [525] I turned to Karn and said quietly, "Turn on the visi set. [526] Doctor Universe should be broadcasting now. [527] Tune your microphone to pull in as much of that laughter as you can." [528] It took three weeks to make the return trip to Swamp City. [529] The Varsoom followed us far beyond the frontier of their country like an unseen army in the throes of laughing gas. [530] Not until we reached Level Five did the last chuckle fade into the distance. [531] All during that trek back, Grannie sat in the dugout, staring silently out before her. [532] But when we reached Swamp City, the news was flung at us from all sides. [533] One newspaper headline accurately told the story: DOCTOR UNIVERSE BID FOR SYSTEM DICTATORSHIP SQUELCHED BY RIDICULE OF UNSEEN AUDIENCE. [534] QUIZ MASTER NOW IN HANDS OF I.P. [535] COUP FAILURE. [536] "Grannie," I said that night as we sat again in a rear booth of THE JET, "what are you going to do now? [537] Give up writing science fiction?" [538] She looked at me soberly, then broke into a smile. [539] "Just because some silly form of life that can't even be seen doesn't appreciate it? [540] I should say not. [541] Right now I've got an idea for a swell yarn about Mars. [542] Want to come along while I dig up some background material?" [543] I shook my head. [544] "Not me," I said. [545] But I knew I would.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the character of Grannie Annie": 1. [36] To her publishers and her readers she might be Annabella C. Flowers, author of a long list of science fiction novels. But to me she was still Grannie Annie, as old-fashioned as last year's hat, as modern as an atomic motor. 2. [37] She had probably written more drivel in the name of science fiction than anyone alive. But the public loved it. They ate up her stories, and they clamored for more. 3. [38] Her annual income totaled into six figures, and her publishers sat back and massaged their digits, watching their earnings mount. 4. [46] She was the most completely delightful crackpot I had ever known. 5. [15] A little wisp of a woman clad in a voluminous black dress with one of those doily-like caps on her head, tied by a ribbon under her chin. 6. [16] Her high-topped button shoes were planted firmly on the varpla carpet and her wrinkled face was set in calm defiance. 7. [35] She hadn't changed. 8. [32] "Sure, I knew this place had some antiquated laws. Pure fiddle-faddle, that's what they are. Anyway, I've been thrown out of better places." 9. [20] "Hi, Billy-boy," she greeted calmly. 10. [21] "Will you please tell this fish-face to shut up." 11. [30] "Hold it, Billy-boy." 12. [31] Laughingly she threw up both hands. 13. [55] "What else is there in science fiction? You can't have your hero fall in love with a bug-eyed monster." 14. [50] Grannie spilled a few shreds of Martian tobacco onto a paper and deftly rolled herself a cigarette. 15. [51] "It wasn't Guns, it was Pistols; and it wasn't Ganymede, it was Pluto." 16. [52] I grinned. "All complete, I'll bet, with threats against the universe and beautiful Earth heroines dragged in by the hair." 17. [53] "What else is there in science fiction?" 18. [54] she demanded. 19. [72] "I'm sorry about all this rush, but I'm one of the players in this shindig. As soon as the show is over, we'll go somewhere and talk." 20. [75] "That damned fossilized dynamo," I muttered. "She'll be the death of me yet."

Describe the significance of the Green Flames.

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Doctor Universe By CARL JACOBI Grannie Annie, who wrote science fiction under the nom de plume of Annabella C. Flowers, had stumbled onto a murderous plot more hair-raising than any she had ever concocted. [2] And the danger from the villain of the piece didn't worry her—I was the guy he was shooting at. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1944. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] I was killing an hour in the billiard room of the Spacemen's Club in Swamp City when the Venusian bellboy came and tapped me on the shoulder. [6] "Beg pardon, thir," he said with his racial lisp, "thereth thome one to thee you in the main lounge." [7] His eyes rolled as he added, "A lady!" [8] A woman here...! [9] The Spacemen's was a sanctuary, a rest club where in-coming pilots and crewmen could relax before leaving for another voyage. [10] The rule that no females could pass its portals was strictly enforced. [11] I followed the bellhop down the long corridor that led to the main lounge. [12] At the threshold I jerked to a halt and stared incredulously. [13] Grannie Annie! [14] There she stood before a frantically gesticulating desk clerk, leaning on her faded green umbrella. [15] A little wisp of a woman clad in a voluminous black dress with one of those doily-like caps on her head, tied by a ribbon under her chin. [16] Her high-topped button shoes were planted firmly on the varpla carpet and her wrinkled face was set in calm defiance. [17] I barged across the lounge and seized her hand. [18] "Grannie Annie! [19] I haven't seen you in two years." [20] "Hi, Billy-boy," she greeted calmly. [21] "Will you please tell this fish-face to shut up." [22] The desk clerk went white. [23] "Mithter Trenwith, if thith lady ith a friend of yourth, you'll have to take her away. [24] It'th abtholutely againth the ruleth...." "Okay, okay," I grinned. [25] "Look, we'll go into the grille. [26] There's no one there at this hour." [27] In the grille an equally astonished waiter served us—me a lime rickey and Grannie Annie her usual whisky sour—I waited until she had tossed the drink off at a gulp before I set off a chain of questions: "What the devil are you doing on Venus? [28] Don't you know women aren't allowed in the Spacemen's ? [29] What happened to the book you were writing?" [30] "Hold it, Billy-boy." [31] Laughingly she threw up both hands. [32] "Sure, I knew this place had some antiquated laws. [33] Pure fiddle-faddle, that's what they are. [34] Anyway, I've been thrown out of better places." [35] She hadn't changed. [36] To her publishers and her readers she might be Annabella C. Flowers, author of a long list of science fiction novels. [37] But to me she was still Grannie Annie, as old-fashioned as last year's hat, as modern as an atomic motor. [38] She had probably written more drivel in the name of science fiction than anyone alive. [39] But the public loved it. [40] They ate up her stories, and they clamored for more. [41] Her annual income totaled into six figures, and her publishers sat back and massaged their digits, watching their earnings mount. [42] One thing you had to admit about her books. [43] They may have been dime novels, but they weren't synthetic. [44] If Annabella C. Flowers wrote a novel, and the locale was the desert of Mars, she packed her carpet bag and hopped a liner for Craterville. [45] If she cooked up a feud between two expeditions on Callisto, she went to Callisto. [46] She was the most completely delightful crackpot I had ever known. [47] "What happened to Guns for Ganymede ?" [48] I asked. [49] "That was the title of your last, wasn't it?" [50] Grannie spilled a few shreds of Martian tobacco onto a paper and deftly rolled herself a cigarette. [51] "It wasn't Guns , it was Pistols ; and it wasn't Ganymede , it was Pluto ." [52] I grinned. [53] "All complete, I'll bet, with threats against the universe and beautiful Earth heroines dragged in by the hair." [54] "What else is there in science fiction?" [55] she demanded. [56] "You can't have your hero fall in love with a bug-eyed monster." [57] Up on the wall a clock chimed the hour. [58] The old woman jerked to her feet. [59] "I almost forgot, Billy-boy. [60] I'm due at the Satellite Theater in ten minutes. [61] Come on, you're going with me." [62] Before I realized it, I was following her through the lounge and out to the jetty front. [63] Grannie Annie hailed a hydrocar. [64] Five minutes later we drew up before the big doors of the Satellite . [65] They don't go in for style in Swamp City. [66] A theater to the grizzled colonials on this side of the planet meant a shack on stilts over the muck, zilcon wood seats and dingy atobide lamps. [67] But the place was packed with miners, freight-crew-men—all the tide and wash of humanity that made Swamp City the frontier post it is. [68] In front was a big sign. [69] It read: ONE NIGHT ONLY DOCTOR UNIVERSE AND HIS NINE GENIUSES THE QUESTION PROGRAM OF THE SYSTEM As we strode down the aisle a mangy-looking Venusian began to pound a tinpan piano in the pit. [70] Grannie Annie pushed me into a seat in the front row. [71] "Sit here," she said. [72] "I'm sorry about all this rush, but I'm one of the players in this shindig. [73] As soon as the show is over, we'll go somewhere and talk." [74] She minced lightly down the aisle, climbed the stage steps and disappeared in the wings. [75] "That damned fossilized dynamo," I muttered. [76] "She'll be the death of me yet." [77] The piano struck a chord in G, and the curtain went rattling up. [78] On the stage four Earthmen, two Martians, two Venusians, and one Mercurian sat on an upraised dais. [79] That is to say, eight of them sat. [80] The Mercurian, a huge lump of granite-like flesh, sprawled there, palpably uncomfortable. [81] On the right were nine visi sets, each with its new improved pantascope panel and switchboard. [82] Before each set stood an Earthman operator. [83] A tall man, clad in a claw-hammer coat, came out from the wings and advanced to the footlights. [84] "People of Swamp City," he said, bowing, "permit me to introduce myself. [85] I am Doctor Universe, and these are my nine experts." [86] There was a roar of applause from the Satellite audience. [87] When it had subsided, the man continued: "As most of you are familiar with our program, it will be unnecessary to give any advance explanation. [88] I will only say that on this stage are nine visi sets, each tuned to one of the nine planets. [89] At transmitting sets all over these planets listeners will appear and voice questions. [90] These questions, my nine experts will endeavor to answer. [91] For every question missed, the sender will receive a check for one thousand planetoles . [92] "One thing more. [93] As usual we have with us a guest star who will match her wits with the experts. [94] May I present that renowned writer of science fiction, Annabella C. [95] Flowers." [96] From the left wing Grannie Annie appeared. [97] She bowed and took her place on the dais. [98] The Doctor's program began. [99] The operator of the Earth visi twisted his dials and nodded. [100] Blue light flickered on the pantascope panel to coalesce slowly into the face of a red-haired man. [101] Sharp and dear his voice echoed through the theater: " Who was the first Earthman to titter the sunward side of Mercury? " [102] Doctor Universe nodded and turned to Grannie Annie who had raised her hand. [103] She said quietly: "Charles Zanner in the year 2012. [104] In a specially constructed tracto-car." [105] And so it went. [106] Questions from Mars, from Earth, from Saturn flowed in the visi sets. [107] Isolated miners on Jupiter, dancers in swank Plutonian cafes strove to stump the experts. [108] With Doctor Universe offering bantering side play, the experts gave their answers. [109] When they failed, or when the Truthicator flashed a red light, he announced the name of the winner. [110] It grew a little tiresome after a while and I wondered why Grannie had brought me here. [111] And then I began to notice things. [112] The audience in the Satellite seemed to have lost much of its original fervor. [113] They applauded as before but they did so only at the signal of Doctor Universe. [114] The spell created by the man was complete. [115] Pompous and erect, he strode back and forth across the stage like a general surveying his army. [116] His black eyes gleamed, and his thin lips were turned in a smile of satisfaction. [117] When the last question had been answered I joined the exit-moving crowd. [118] It was outside under the street marquee that a strange incident occurred. [119] A yellow-faced Kagor from the upper Martian desert country shuffled by, dragging his cumbersome third leg behind him. [120] Kagors, of course, had an unpleasant history of persecution since the early colonization days of the Red Planet. [121] But the thing that happened there was a throw back to an earlier era. [122] Someone shouted, "Yah, yellow-face! [123] Down with all Kagors!" [124] As one man the crowd took up the cry and surged forward. [125] The helpless Kagor was seized and flung to the pavement. [126] A knife appeared from nowhere, snipped the Martian's single lock of hair. [127] A booted foot bludgeoned into his mouth. [128] Moments later an official hydrocar roared up and a dozen I.P. [129] men rushed out and scattered the crowd. [130] But a few stragglers lingered to shout derisive epithets. [131] Grannie Annie came out from behind the box office then. [132] She took my arm and led me around a corner and through a doorway under a sign that read THE JET. [133] Inside was a deep room with booths along one wall. [134] The place was all but deserted. [135] In a booth well toward the rear the old lady surveyed me with sober eyes. [136] "Billy-boy, did you see the way that crowd acted?" [137] I nodded. [138] "As disgraceful an exhibition as I've ever seen. [139] The I.P. [140] men ought to clamp down." [141] "The I.P. [142] men aren't strong enough." [143] She said it quietly, but there was a glitter in her eyes and a harsh line about her usually smiling lips. [144] "What do you mean?" [145] For a moment the old lady sat there in silence; then she leaned back, closed her eyes, and I knew there was a story coming. [146] "My last book, Death In The Atom , hit the stands last January," she began. [147] "When it was finished I had planned to take a six months' vacation, but those fool publishers of mine insisted I do a sequel. [148] Well, I'd used Mars and Pluto and Ganymede as settings for novels, so for this one I decided on Venus. [149] I went to Venus City, and I spent six weeks in-country. [150] I got some swell background material, and I met Ezra Karn...." "Who?" [151] I interrupted. [152] "An old prospector who lives out in the deep marsh on the outskirts of Varsoom country. [153] To make a long story short, I got him talking about his adventures, and he told me plenty." [154] The old woman paused. [155] "Did you ever hear of the Green Flames?" [156] she asked abruptly. [157] I shook my head. [158] "Some new kind of ..." "It's not a new kind of anything. [159] The Green Flame is a radio-active rock once found on Mercury. [160] The Alpha rays of this rock are similar to radium in that they consist of streams of material particles projected at high speed. [161] But the character of the Gamma rays has never been completely analyzed. [162] Like those set up by radium, they are electromagnetic pulsations, but they are also a strange combination of Beta or cathode rays with negatively charged electrons. [163] "When any form of life is exposed to these Gamma rays from the Green Flame rock, they produce in the creature's brain a certain lassitude and lack of energy. [164] As the period of exposure increases, this condition develops into a sense of impotence and a desire for leadership or guidance. [165] Occasionally, as with the weak-willed, there is a spirit of intolerance. [166] The Green Flames might be said to be an inorganic opiate, a thousand times more subtle and more powerful than any known drug." [167] I was sitting up now, hanging on to the woman's every word. [168] "Now in 2710, as you'd know if you studied your history, the three planets of Earth, Venus, and Mars were under governmental bondage. [169] The cruel dictatorship of Vennox I was short-lived, but it lasted long enough to endanger all civilized life. [170] "The archives tell us that one of the first acts of the overthrowing government was to cast out all Green Flames, two of which Vennox had ordered must be kept in each household. [171] The effect on the people was immediate. [172] Representative government, individual enterprise, freedom followed." [173] Grannie Annie lit a cigarette and flipped the match to the floor. [174] "To go back to my first trip to Venus. [175] As I said, I met Ezra Karn, an old prospector there in the marsh. [176] Karn told me that on one of his travels into the Varsoom district he had come upon the wreckage of an old space ship. [177] The hold of that space ship was packed with Green Flames!" [178] If Grannie expected me to show surprise at that, she was disappointed. [179] I said, "So what?" [180] "So everything, Billy-boy. [181] Do you realize what such a thing would mean if it were true? [182] Green Flames were supposedly destroyed on all planets after the Vennox regime crashed. [183] If a quantity of the rock were in existence, and it fell into the wrong hands, there'd be trouble. [184] "Of course, I regarded Karn's story as a wild dream, but it made corking good story material. [185] I wrote it into a novel, and a week after it was completed, the manuscript was stolen from my study back on Earth." [186] "I see," I said as she lapsed into silence. [187] "And now you've come to the conclusion that the details of your story were true and that someone is attempting to put your plot into action." [188] Grannie nodded. [189] "Yes," she said. [190] "That's exactly what I think." [191] I got my pipe out of my pocket, tamped Martian tobacco into the bowl and laughed heartily. [192] "The same old Flowers," I said. [193] "Tell me, who's your thief ... [194] Doctor Universe?" [195] She regarded me evenly. [196] "What makes you say that?" [197] I shrugged. [198] "The way the theater crowd acted. [199] It all ties in." [200] The old woman shook her head. [201] "No, this is a lot bigger than a simple quiz program. [202] The theater crowd was but a cross-section of what is happening all over the System. [203] There have been riots on Earth and Mars, police officials murdered on Pluto and a demand that government by representation be abolished on Jupiter. [204] The time is ripe for a military dictator to step in. [205] "And you can lay it all to the Green Flames. [206] It seems incredible that a single shipload of the ore could effect such a wide ranged area, but in my opinion someone has found a means of making that quantity a thousand times more potent and is transmiting it en masse ." [207] If it had been anyone but Grannie Annie there before me, I would have called her a fool. [208] And then all at once I got an odd feeling of approaching danger. [209] "Let's get out of here," I said, getting up. [210] Zinnng-whack! [211] "All right!" [212] On the mirror behind the bar a small circle with radiating cracks appeared. [213] On the booth wall a scant inch above Grannie's head the fresco seemed to melt away suddenly. [214] A heat ray! [215] Grannie Annie leaped to her feet, grasped my arm and raced for the door. [216] Outside a driverless hydrocar stood with idling motors. [217] The old woman threw herself into the control seat, yanked me in after her and threw over the starting stud. [218] An instant later we were plunging through the dark night. [219] Six days after leaving Swamp City we reached Level Five, the last outpost of firm ground. [220] Ahead lay the inner marsh, stretching as far as the eye could reach. [221] Low islands projected at intervals from the thick water. [222] Mold balls, two feet across, drifted down from the slate-gray sky like puffs of cotton. [223] We had traveled this far by ganet , the tough little two headed pack animal of the Venus hinterland. [224] Any form of plane or rocket would have had its motor instantly destroyed, of course, by the magnetic force belt that encircled the planet's equator. [225] Now our drivers changed to boatmen, and we loaded our supplies into three clumsy jagua canoes. [226] It was around the camp fire that night that Grannie took me into her confidence for the first time since we had left Swamp City. [227] "We're heading directly for Varsoom country," she said. [228] "If we find Ezra Karn so much the better. [229] If we don't, we follow his directions to the lost space ship. [230] Our job is to find that ore and destroy it. [231] You see, I'm positive the Green Flames have never been removed from the ship." [232] Sleep had never bothered me, yet that night I lay awake for hours tossing restlessly. [233] The thousand sounds of the blue marsh droned steadily. [234] And the news broadcast I had heard over the portable visi just before retiring still lingered in my mind. [235] To a casual observer that broadcast would have meant little, a slight rebellion here, an isolated crime there. [236] But viewed from the perspective Grannie had given me, everything dovetailed. [237] The situation on Jupiter was swiftly coming to a head. [238] Not only had the people on that planet demanded that representative government be abolished, but a forum was now being held to find a leader who might take complete dictatorial control. [239] Outside a whisper-worm hissed softly. [240] I got up and strode out of my tent. [241] For some time I stood there, lost in thought. [242] Could I believe Grannie's incredible story? [243] Or was this another of her fantastic plots which she had skilfully blended into a novel? [244] Abruptly I stiffened. [245] The familiar drone of the marsh was gone. [246] In its place a ringing silence blanketed everything. [247] And then out in the gloom a darker shadow appeared, moving in undulating sweeps toward the center of the camp. [248] Fascinated, I watched it advance and retreat, saw two hyalescent eyes swim out of the murk. [249] It charged, and with but a split second to act, I threw myself flat. [250] There was a rush of mighty wings as the thing swept over me. [251] Sharp talons raked my clothing. [252] Again it came, and again I rolled swiftly, missing the thing by the narrowest of margins. [253] From the tent opposite a gaunt figure clad in a familiar dress appeared. [254] Grannie gave a single warning: "Stand still!" [255] The thing in the darkness turned like a cam on a rod and drove at us again. [256] This time the old woman's heat gun clicked, and a tracery of purple flame shot outward. [257] A horrible soul-chilling scream rent the air. [258] A moment later something huge and heavy scrabbled across the ground and shot aloft. [259] Grannie Annie fired with deliberate speed. [260] I stood frozen as the diminuendo of its wild cries echoed back to me. [261] "In heaven's name, what was it?" [262] "Hunter-bird," Grannie said calmly. [263] "A form of avian life found here in the swamp. [264] Harmless in its wild state, but when captured, it can be trained to pursue a quarry until it kills. [265] It has a single unit brain and follows with a relentless purpose." [266] "Then that would mean...?" [267] "That it was sent by our enemy, the same enemy that shot at us in the cafe in Swamp City. [268] Exactly." [269] Grannie Annie halted at the door of her tent and faced me with earnest eyes. [270] "Billy-boy, our every move is being watched. [271] From now on it's the survival of the fittest." [272] The following day was our seventh in the swamp. [273] The water here resembled a vast mosaic, striped and cross-striped with long winding ribbons of yellowish substance that floated a few inches below the surface. [274] The mold balls coming into contact with the evonium water of the swamp had undergone a chemical change and evolved into a cohesive multi-celled marine life that lived and died within a space of hours. [275] The Venusians paddled with extreme care. [276] Had one of them dipped his hand into one of those yellow streaks, he would have been devoured in a matter of seconds. [277] At high noon by my Earth watch I sighted a low white structure on one of the distant islands. [278] Moments later we made a landing at a rude jetty, and Grannie Annie was introducing me to Ezra Karn. [279] He was not as old a man as I had expected, but he was ragged and unkempt with iron gray hair falling almost to his shoulders. [280] He was dressed in varpa cloth, the Venus equivalent of buckskin, and on his head was an enormous flop-brimmed hat. [281] "Glad to meet you," he said, shaking my hand. [282] "Any friend of Miss Flowers is a friend of mine." [283] He ushered us down the catwalk into his hut. [284] The place was a two room affair, small but comfortable. [285] The latest type of visi set in one corner showed that Karn was not isolated from civilization entirely. [286] Grannie Annie came to the point abruptly. [287] When she had explained the object of our trip, the prospector became thoughtful. [288] "Green Flames, eh?" [289] he repeated slowly. [290] "Well yes, I suppose I could find that space ship again. [291] That is, if I wanted to." [292] "What do you mean?" [293] Grannie paused in the act of rolling herself a cigarette. [294] "You know where it is, don't you?" [295] "Ye-s," Karn nodded. [296] "But like I told you before, that ship lies in Varsoom country, and that isn't exactly a summer vacation spot." [297] "What are the Varsoom?" [298] I asked. [299] "A native tribe?" [300] Karn shook his head. [301] "They're a form of life that's never been seen by Earthmen. [302] Strictly speaking, they're no more than a form of energy." [303] "Dangerous?" [304] "Yes and no. [305] Only man I ever heard of who escaped their country outside of myself was the explorer, Darthier, three years ago. [306] I got away because I was alone, and they didn't notice me, and Darthier escaped because he made 'em laugh." [307] "Laugh?" [308] A scowl crossed Grannie's face. [309] "That's right," Karn said. [310] "The Varsoom have a strange nervous reaction that's manifested by laughing. [311] But just what it is that makes them laugh, I don't know." [312] Food supplies and fresh drinking water were replenished at the hut. [313] Several mold guns were borrowed from the prospector's supply to arm the Venusians. [314] And then as we were about to leave, Karn suddenly turned. [315] "The Doctor Universe program," he said. [316] "I ain't missed one in months. [317] You gotta wait 'til I hear it." [318] Grannie frowned in annoyance, but the prospector was adamant. [319] He flipped a stud, twisted a dial and a moment later was leaning back in a chair, listening with avid interest. [320] It was the same show I had witnessed back in Swamp City. [321] Once again I heard questions filter in from the far outposts of the System. [322] Once again I saw the commanding figure of the quiz master as he strode back and forth across the stage. [323] And as I sat there, looking into the visi screen, a curious numbing drowsiness seemed to steal over me and lead my thoughts far away. [324] Half an hour later we headed into the unknown. [325] The Venusian boatmen were ill-at-ease now and jabbered among themselves constantly. [326] We camped that night on a miserable little island where insects swarmed about us in hordes. [327] The next day an indefinable wave of weariness and despondency beset our entire party. [328] I caught myself musing over the futility of the venture. [329] Only the pleadings of Grannie Annie kept me from turning back. [330] On the morrow I realized the truth in her warning, that all of us had been exposed to the insidious radiations. [331] After that I lost track of time. [332] Day after day of incessant rain ... of steaming swamp.... [333] But at length we reached firm ground and began our advance on foot. [334] It was Karn who first sighted the ship. [335] Striding in the lead, he suddenly halted at the top of a hill and leveled his arm before him. [336] There it lay, a huge cigar-shaped vessel of blackened arelium steel, half buried in the swamp soil. [337] "What's that thing on top?" [338] Karn demanded, puzzled. [339] A rectangular metal envelope had been constructed over the stern quarters of the ship. [340] Above this structure were three tall masts. [341] And suspended between them was a network of copper wire studded with white insulators. [342] Grannie gazed a long moment through binoculars. [343] "Billy-boy, take three Venusians and head across the knoll," she ordered. [344] "Ezra and I will circle in from the west. [345] Fire a gun if you strike trouble." [346] But we found no trouble. [347] The scene before us lay steeped in silence. [348] Moments later our two parties converged at the base of the great ship. [349] A metal ladder extended from the envelope down the side of the vessel. [350] Mid-way we could see a circular hatch-like door. [351] "Up we go, Billy-boy." [352] Heat gun in readiness, Grannie Annie began to climb slowly. [353] The silence remained absolute. [354] We reached the door and pulled it open. [355] There was no sign of life. [356] "Somebody's gone to a lot of trouble here," Ezra Karn observed. [357] Somebody had. [358] Before us stretched a narrow corridor, flanked on the left side by a wall of impenetrable stepto glass. [359] The corridor was bare of furnishings. [360] But beyond the glass, revealed to us in mocking clarity, was a high panel, studded with dials and gauges. [361] Even as we looked, we could see liquid pulse in glass tubes, indicator needles swing slowly to and fro. [362] Grannie nodded. [363] "Some kind of a broadcasting unit. [364] The Green Flames in the lower hold are probably exposed to a tholpane plate and their radiations stepped up by an electro-phosicalic process." [365] Karn raised the butt of his pistol and brought it crashing against the glass wall. [366] His arm jumped in recoil, but the glass remained intact. [367] "You'll never do it that way," Grannie said. [368] "Nothing short of an atomic blast will shatter that wall. [369] It explains why there are no guards here. [370] The mechanism is entirely self-operating. [371] Let's see if the Green Flames are more accessible." [372] In the lower hold disappointment again confronted us. [373] Visible in the feeble shafts of daylight that filtered through cracks in the vessel's hull were tiers of rectangular ingots of green iridescent ore. [374] Suspended by insulators from the ceiling over them was a thick metal plate. [375] But between was a barrier. [376] A wall of impenetrable stepto glass. [377] Grannie stamped her foot. [378] "It's maddening," she said. [379] "Here we are at the crux of the whole matter, and we're powerless to make a single move." [380] Outside the day was beginning to wane. [381] The Venusians, apparently unawed by the presence of the space ship, had already started a fire and erected the tents. [382] We left the vessel to find a spell of brooding desolation heavy over the improvised camp. [383] And the evening meal this time was a gloomy affair. [384] When it was finished, Ezra Karn lit his pipe and switched on the portable visi set. [385] A moment later the silence of the march was broken by the opening fanfare of the Doctor Universe program. [386] "Great stuff," Karn commented. [387] "I sent in a couple of questions once, but I never did win nothin'. [388] This Doctor Universe is a great guy. [389] Ought to make him king or somethin'." [390] For a moment none of us made reply. [391] Then suddenly Grannie Annie leaped to her feet. [392] "Say that again!" [393] she cried. [394] The old prospector looked startled. [395] "Why, I only said they ought to make this Doctor Universe the big boss and...." "That's it!" [396] Grannie paced ten yards off into the gathering darkness and returned quickly. [397] "Billy-boy, you were right. [398] The man behind this is Doctor Universe. [399] It was he who stole my manuscript and devised a method to amplify the radiations of the Green Flames in the freighter's hold. [400] He lit on a sure-fire plan to broadcast those radiations in such a way that millions of persons would be exposed to them simultaneously. [401] Don't you see?" [402] I didn't see, but Grannie hurried on. [403] "What better way to expose civilized life to the Green Flames radiations than when the people are in a state of relaxation. [404] The Doctor Universe quiz program. [405] The whole System tuned in on them, but they were only a blind to cover up the transmission of the radiations from the ore. Their power must have been amplified a thousandfold, and their wave-length must lie somewhere between light and the supersonic scale in that transition band which so far has defied exploration...." "But with what motive?" [406] I demanded. [407] "Why should...?" [408] "Power!" [409] the old woman answered. [410] "The old thirst for dictatorial control of the masses. [411] By presenting himself as an intellectual genius, Doctor Universe utilized a bizarre method to intrench himself in the minds of the people. [412] Oh, don't you see, Billy-boy? [413] The Green Flames' radiations spell doom to freedom, individual liberty." [414] I sat there stupidly, wondering if this all were some wild dream. [415] And then, as I looked across at Grannie Annie, the vague light over the tents seemed to shift a little, as if one layer of the atmosphere had dropped away to be replaced by another. [416] There it was again, a definite movement in the air. [417] Somehow I got the impression I was looking around that space rather than through it. [418] And simultaneously Ezra Karn uttered a howl of pain. [419] An instant later the old prospector was rolling over and over, threshing his arms wildly. [420] An invisible sledge hammer descended on my shoulder. [421] The blow was followed by another and another. [422] Heavy unseen hands held me down. [423] Opposite me Grannie Annie and the Venusians were suffering similar punishment, the latter screaming in pain and bewilderment. [424] "It's the Varsoom!" [425] Ezra Karn yelled. [426] "We've got to make 'em laugh. [427] Our only escape is to make 'em laugh!" [428] He struggled to his feet and began leaping wildly around the camp fire. [429] Abruptly his foot caught on a log protruding from the fire; he tripped and fell headlong into a mass of hot coals and ashes. [430] Like a jumping jack he was on his feet again, clawing dirt and soot from his eyes. [431] Out of the empty space about us there came a sudden hush. [432] The unseen blows ceased in mid-career. [433] And then the silence was rent by wild laughter. [434] Peal after peal of mirthful yells pounded against our ears. [435] For many moments it continued; then it died away, and everything was peaceful once more. [436] Grannie Annie picked herself up slowly. [437] "That was close," she said. [438] "I wouldn't want to go through that again." [439] Ezra Karn nursed an ugly welt under one eye. [440] "Those Varsoom got a funny sense of humor," he growled. [441] Inside the freighter's narrow corridor Grannie faced me with eyes filled with excitement. [442] "Billy-boy," she said, "we've got two problems now. [443] We've got to stop Doctor Universe, and we've got to find a way of getting out of here. [444] Right now we're nicely bottled up." [445] As if in answer to her words the visi set revealed the face of the quiz master on the screen. [446] He was saying: " Remember tomorrow at this same hour I will have a message of unparalleled importance for the people of the nine planets. [447] Tomorrow night I urge you, I command you, to tune in. " [448] With a whistling intake of breath the old woman turned to one of the Venusians. [449] "Bring all our equipment in here," she ordered. [450] "Hurry!" [451] She untied the ribbon under her chin and took off her cap. [452] She rolled up her sleeves, and as the Venusians came marching into the space ship with bundles of equipment, she fell to work. [453] Silently Ezra Karn and I watched her. [454] First she completely dismantled the visi set, put it together again with an entirely altered hookup. [455] Next she unrolled a coil of flexible copper mesh which we had brought along as a protective electrical screening against the marsh insects. [456] She fastened rubberite suction cups to this mesh at intervals of every twelve inches or more, carried it down to the freighter's hold and fastened it securely against the stepto glass wall. [457] Trailing a three-ply conduit up from the hold to the corridor she selected an induction coil, several Micro-Wellman tubes and a quantity of wire from a box of spare parts. [458] Dexterously her fingers moved in and out, fashioning a complicated and curious piece of apparatus. [459] At length she finished. [460] "It's pretty hay-wire," she said, "but I think it will work. [461] Now I'll tell you what I'm going to do. [462] When Doctor Universe broadcasts tomorrow night, he's going to announce that he has set himself up as supreme dictator. [463] He'll have the Green Flame radiations coming from this ship under full power. [464] I'm going to insert into his broadcast—the laughing of the Varsoom!" [465] "You're going to what?" [466] "Broadcast the mass laughter from those invisible creatures out there. [467] Visualize it, Billy-boy! [468] At the dramatic moment when Doctor Universe makes his plea for System-wide power, he will be accompanied by wild peals of laughter. [469] The whole broadcast will be turned into a burlesque." [470] "How you going to make 'em laugh?" [471] interrupted Karn. [472] "We must think of a way," Grannie replied soberly. [473] I, for one, am glad that no representative of the Interstellar Psychiatry Society witnessed our antics during the early hours of that morning and on into the long reaches of the afternoon, as we vainly tried to provoke the laughter of the Varsoom. [474] All to no avail. [475] Utter silence greeted our efforts. [476] And the time was growing close to the scheduled Doctor Universe program. [477] Ezra Karn wiped a bead of perspiration from his brow. [478] "Maybe we've got to attract their attention first," he suggested. [479] "Miss Flowers, why don't you go up on the roof and read to 'em? [480] Read 'em something from one of your books, if you've got one along. [481] That ought to make 'em sit up and take notice." [482] For a moment the old woman gazed at him in silence. [483] Then she got to her feet quickly. [484] "I'll do it," she said. [485] "I'll read them the attack scene from Murder On A Space Liner ." [486] It didn't make sense, of course. [487] But nothing made sense in this mad venture. [488] Grannie Annie opened her duffel bag and drew out a copy of her most popular book. [489] With the volume under her arm, she mounted the ladder to the top of the envelope. [490] Ezra Karn rigged up a radite search lamp, and a moment later the old woman stood in the center of a circle of white radiance. [491] Karn gripped my arm. [492] "This is it," he said tensely. [493] "If this fails ..." His voice clipped off as Grannie began to read. [494] She read slowly at first, then intoned the words and sentences faster and more dramatically. [495] And out in the swamp a vast hush fell as if unseen ears were listening. [496] "... the space liner was over on her beam ends now as another shot from the raider's vessel crashed into the stern hold. [497] In the control cabin Cuthbert Strong twisted vainly at his bonds as he sought to free himself. [498] Opposite him, lashed by strong Martian vinta ropes to the gravascope, Louise Belmont sobbed softly, wringing her hands in mute appeal. " [499] A restless rustling sounded out in the marsh, as if hundreds of bodies were surging closer. [500] Karn nodded in awe. [501] "She's got 'em!" [502] he whispered. [503] "Listen. [504] They're eatin' up every word." [505] I heard it then, and I thought I must be dreaming. [506] From somewhere out in the swamp a sound rose into the thick air. [507] A high-pitched chuckle, it was. [508] The chuckle came again. [509] Now it was followed by another and another. [510] An instant later a wave of low subdued laughter rose into the air. [511] Ezra Karn gulped. [512] "Gripes!" [513] he said. [514] "They're laughing already. [515] They're laughing at her book! [516] And look, the old lady's gettin' sore." [517] Up on the roof of the envelope Grannie Annie halted her reading to glare savagely out into the darkness. [518] The laughter was a roar now. [519] It rose louder and louder, peal after peal of mirthful yells and hysterical shouts. [520] And for the first time in my life, I saw Annabella C. Flowers mad. [521] She stamped her foot; she shook her fist at the unseen hordes out before her. [522] "Ignorant slap-happy fools!" [523] she screamed. [524] "You don't know good science fiction when you hear it." [525] I turned to Karn and said quietly, "Turn on the visi set. [526] Doctor Universe should be broadcasting now. [527] Tune your microphone to pull in as much of that laughter as you can." [528] It took three weeks to make the return trip to Swamp City. [529] The Varsoom followed us far beyond the frontier of their country like an unseen army in the throes of laughing gas. [530] Not until we reached Level Five did the last chuckle fade into the distance. [531] All during that trek back, Grannie sat in the dugout, staring silently out before her. [532] But when we reached Swamp City, the news was flung at us from all sides. [533] One newspaper headline accurately told the story: DOCTOR UNIVERSE BID FOR SYSTEM DICTATORSHIP SQUELCHED BY RIDICULE OF UNSEEN AUDIENCE. [534] QUIZ MASTER NOW IN HANDS OF I.P. [535] COUP FAILURE. [536] "Grannie," I said that night as we sat again in a rear booth of THE JET, "what are you going to do now? [537] Give up writing science fiction?" [538] She looked at me soberly, then broke into a smile. [539] "Just because some silly form of life that can't even be seen doesn't appreciate it? [540] I should say not. [541] Right now I've got an idea for a swell yarn about Mars. [542] Want to come along while I dig up some background material?" [543] I shook my head. [544] "Not me," I said. [545] But I knew I would.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the significance of the Green Flames": 1. [159] The Green Flame is a radio-active rock once found on Mercury. The Alpha rays of this rock are similar to radium in that they consist of streams of material particles projected at high speed. But the character of the Gamma rays has never been completely analyzed. Like those set up by radium, they are electromagnetic pulsations, but they are also a strange combination of Beta or cathode rays with negatively charged electrons. 2. [160] When any form of life is exposed to these Gamma rays from the Green Flame rock, they produce in the creature's brain a certain lassitude and lack of energy. As the period of exposure increases, this condition develops into a sense of impotence and a desire for leadership or guidance. Occasionally, as with the weak-willed, there is a spirit of intolerance. The Green Flames might be said to be an inorganic opiate, a thousand times more subtle and more powerful than any known drug. 3. [167] In 2710, as you'd know if you studied your history, the three planets of Earth, Venus, and Mars were under governmental bondage. The cruel dictatorship of Vennox I was short-lived, but it lasted long enough to endanger all civilized life. The archives tell us that one of the first acts of the overthrowing government was to cast out all Green Flames, two of which Vennox had ordered must be kept in each household. The effect on the people was immediate. Representative government, individual enterprise, freedom followed. 4. [174] As I said, I met Ezra Karn, an old prospector there in the marsh. Karn told me that on one of his travels into the Varsoom district he had come upon the wreckage of an old space ship. The hold of that space ship was packed with Green Flames! 5. [181] Do you realize what such a thing would mean if it were true? Green Flames were supposedly destroyed on all planets after the Vennox regime crashed. If a quantity of the rock were in existence, and it fell into the wrong hands, there'd be trouble. 6. [202] The theater crowd was but a cross-section of what is happening all over the System. There have been riots on Earth and Mars, police officials murdered on Pluto and a demand that government by representation be abolished on Jupiter. The time is ripe for a military dictator to step in. 7. [203] And you can lay it all to the Green Flames. It seems incredible that a single shipload of the ore could effect such a wide ranged area, but in my opinion someone has found a means of making that quantity a thousand times more potent and is transmiting it en masse. 8. [154] The old woman paused. "Did you ever hear of the Green Flames?" 9. [155] I shook my head. 10. [156] "It's not a new kind of anything. The Green Flame is a radio-active rock once found on Mercury." 11. [157] I shook my head. 12. [158] "Some new kind of ..." 13. [161] But the character of the Gamma rays has never been completely analyzed. 14. [162] Like those set up by radium, they are electromagnetic pulsations, but they are also a strange combination of Beta or cathode rays with negatively charged electrons. 15. [163] When any form of life is exposed to these Gamma rays from the Green Flame rock, they produce in the creature's brain a certain lassitude and lack of energy. 16. [164] As the period of exposure increases, this condition develops into a sense of impotence and a desire for leadership or guidance. 17. [165] Occasionally, as with the weak-willed, there is a spirit of intolerance. 18. [166] The Green Flames might be said to be an inorganic opiate, a thousand times more subtle and more powerful than any known drug. 19. [168] In 2710, as you'd know if you studied your history, the three planets of Earth, Venus, and Mars were under governmental bondage. 20. [169] The cruel dictatorship of Vennox I was short-lived, but it lasted long enough to endanger all civilized life. 21. [170] The archives tell us that one of the first acts of the overthrowing government was to cast out all Green Flames, two of which Vennox had ordered must be kept in each household. 22. [171] The effect on the people was immediate. Representative government, individual enterprise, freedom followed. 23. [172] "To go back to my first trip to Venus." 24. [173] Grannie Annie lit a cigarette and flipped the match to the floor. 25. [175] As I said, I met Ezra Karn, an old prospector there in the marsh. 26. [176] Karn told me that on one of his travels into the Varsoom district he had come upon the wreckage of an old space ship. 27. [177] The hold of that space ship was packed with Green Flames! 28. [178] If Grannie expected me to show surprise at that, she was disappointed. 29. [179] I said, "So what?" 30. [180] "So everything, Billy-boy." 31. [182] Green Flames were supposedly destroyed on all planets after the Vennox regime crashed. 32. [183] If a quantity of the rock were in existence, and it fell into the wrong hands, there'd be trouble. 33. [184] "Of course, I regarded Karn's story as a wild dream, but it made corking good story material." 34. [185] I wrote it into a novel, and a week after it was completed, the manuscript was stolen from my study back on Earth. 35. [186] "I see," I said as she lapsed into silence. 36. [187] "And now you've come to the conclusion that the details of your story were true and that someone is attempting to put your plot into action." 37. [188] Grannie nodded. 38. [189] "Yes," she said. 39. [190] "That's exactly what I think." 40. [191] I got my pipe out of my pocket, tamped Martian tobacco into the bowl and laughed heartily. 41. [192] "The same old Flowers," I said. 42. [193] "Tell me, who's your thief ... Doctor Universe?" 43. [194] She regarded me evenly. 44. [195] "What makes you say that?" 45. [196] I shrugged. 46. [197] "The way the theater crowd acted. It all ties in." 47. [198] The old woman shook her head. 48. [199] "No, this is a lot bigger than a simple quiz program." 49. [200] "The theater crowd was but a cross-section of what is happening all over the System." 50. [201] "There have been riots on Earth and Mars, police officials murdered on Pluto and a demand that government by representation be abolished on Jupiter." 51. [204] "The time is ripe for a military dictator to step in." 52. [205] "And you can lay it all to the Green Flames." 53. [206] "It seems incredible that a single shipload of the ore could effect such a wide ranged area, but in my opinion someone has found a means of making that quantity a thousand times more potent and is transmiting it en masse."

Describe the relationship between Billy and Grannie Annie.

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Doctor Universe By CARL JACOBI Grannie Annie, who wrote science fiction under the nom de plume of Annabella C. Flowers, had stumbled onto a murderous plot more hair-raising than any she had ever concocted. [2] And the danger from the villain of the piece didn't worry her—I was the guy he was shooting at. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1944. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] I was killing an hour in the billiard room of the Spacemen's Club in Swamp City when the Venusian bellboy came and tapped me on the shoulder. [6] "Beg pardon, thir," he said with his racial lisp, "thereth thome one to thee you in the main lounge." [7] His eyes rolled as he added, "A lady!" [8] A woman here...! [9] The Spacemen's was a sanctuary, a rest club where in-coming pilots and crewmen could relax before leaving for another voyage. [10] The rule that no females could pass its portals was strictly enforced. [11] I followed the bellhop down the long corridor that led to the main lounge. [12] At the threshold I jerked to a halt and stared incredulously. [13] Grannie Annie! [14] There she stood before a frantically gesticulating desk clerk, leaning on her faded green umbrella. [15] A little wisp of a woman clad in a voluminous black dress with one of those doily-like caps on her head, tied by a ribbon under her chin. [16] Her high-topped button shoes were planted firmly on the varpla carpet and her wrinkled face was set in calm defiance. [17] I barged across the lounge and seized her hand. [18] "Grannie Annie! [19] I haven't seen you in two years." [20] "Hi, Billy-boy," she greeted calmly. [21] "Will you please tell this fish-face to shut up." [22] The desk clerk went white. [23] "Mithter Trenwith, if thith lady ith a friend of yourth, you'll have to take her away. [24] It'th abtholutely againth the ruleth...." "Okay, okay," I grinned. [25] "Look, we'll go into the grille. [26] There's no one there at this hour." [27] In the grille an equally astonished waiter served us—me a lime rickey and Grannie Annie her usual whisky sour—I waited until she had tossed the drink off at a gulp before I set off a chain of questions: "What the devil are you doing on Venus? [28] Don't you know women aren't allowed in the Spacemen's ? [29] What happened to the book you were writing?" [30] "Hold it, Billy-boy." [31] Laughingly she threw up both hands. [32] "Sure, I knew this place had some antiquated laws. [33] Pure fiddle-faddle, that's what they are. [34] Anyway, I've been thrown out of better places." [35] She hadn't changed. [36] To her publishers and her readers she might be Annabella C. Flowers, author of a long list of science fiction novels. [37] But to me she was still Grannie Annie, as old-fashioned as last year's hat, as modern as an atomic motor. [38] She had probably written more drivel in the name of science fiction than anyone alive. [39] But the public loved it. [40] They ate up her stories, and they clamored for more. [41] Her annual income totaled into six figures, and her publishers sat back and massaged their digits, watching their earnings mount. [42] One thing you had to admit about her books. [43] They may have been dime novels, but they weren't synthetic. [44] If Annabella C. Flowers wrote a novel, and the locale was the desert of Mars, she packed her carpet bag and hopped a liner for Craterville. [45] If she cooked up a feud between two expeditions on Callisto, she went to Callisto. [46] She was the most completely delightful crackpot I had ever known. [47] "What happened to Guns for Ganymede ?" [48] I asked. [49] "That was the title of your last, wasn't it?" [50] Grannie spilled a few shreds of Martian tobacco onto a paper and deftly rolled herself a cigarette. [51] "It wasn't Guns , it was Pistols ; and it wasn't Ganymede , it was Pluto ." [52] I grinned. [53] "All complete, I'll bet, with threats against the universe and beautiful Earth heroines dragged in by the hair." [54] "What else is there in science fiction?" [55] she demanded. [56] "You can't have your hero fall in love with a bug-eyed monster." [57] Up on the wall a clock chimed the hour. [58] The old woman jerked to her feet. [59] "I almost forgot, Billy-boy. [60] I'm due at the Satellite Theater in ten minutes. [61] Come on, you're going with me." [62] Before I realized it, I was following her through the lounge and out to the jetty front. [63] Grannie Annie hailed a hydrocar. [64] Five minutes later we drew up before the big doors of the Satellite . [65] They don't go in for style in Swamp City. [66] A theater to the grizzled colonials on this side of the planet meant a shack on stilts over the muck, zilcon wood seats and dingy atobide lamps. [67] But the place was packed with miners, freight-crew-men—all the tide and wash of humanity that made Swamp City the frontier post it is. [68] In front was a big sign. [69] It read: ONE NIGHT ONLY DOCTOR UNIVERSE AND HIS NINE GENIUSES THE QUESTION PROGRAM OF THE SYSTEM As we strode down the aisle a mangy-looking Venusian began to pound a tinpan piano in the pit. [70] Grannie Annie pushed me into a seat in the front row. [71] "Sit here," she said. [72] "I'm sorry about all this rush, but I'm one of the players in this shindig. [73] As soon as the show is over, we'll go somewhere and talk." [74] She minced lightly down the aisle, climbed the stage steps and disappeared in the wings. [75] "That damned fossilized dynamo," I muttered. [76] "She'll be the death of me yet." [77] The piano struck a chord in G, and the curtain went rattling up. [78] On the stage four Earthmen, two Martians, two Venusians, and one Mercurian sat on an upraised dais. [79] That is to say, eight of them sat. [80] The Mercurian, a huge lump of granite-like flesh, sprawled there, palpably uncomfortable. [81] On the right were nine visi sets, each with its new improved pantascope panel and switchboard. [82] Before each set stood an Earthman operator. [83] A tall man, clad in a claw-hammer coat, came out from the wings and advanced to the footlights. [84] "People of Swamp City," he said, bowing, "permit me to introduce myself. [85] I am Doctor Universe, and these are my nine experts." [86] There was a roar of applause from the Satellite audience. [87] When it had subsided, the man continued: "As most of you are familiar with our program, it will be unnecessary to give any advance explanation. [88] I will only say that on this stage are nine visi sets, each tuned to one of the nine planets. [89] At transmitting sets all over these planets listeners will appear and voice questions. [90] These questions, my nine experts will endeavor to answer. [91] For every question missed, the sender will receive a check for one thousand planetoles . [92] "One thing more. [93] As usual we have with us a guest star who will match her wits with the experts. [94] May I present that renowned writer of science fiction, Annabella C. [95] Flowers." [96] From the left wing Grannie Annie appeared. [97] She bowed and took her place on the dais. [98] The Doctor's program began. [99] The operator of the Earth visi twisted his dials and nodded. [100] Blue light flickered on the pantascope panel to coalesce slowly into the face of a red-haired man. [101] Sharp and dear his voice echoed through the theater: " Who was the first Earthman to titter the sunward side of Mercury? " [102] Doctor Universe nodded and turned to Grannie Annie who had raised her hand. [103] She said quietly: "Charles Zanner in the year 2012. [104] In a specially constructed tracto-car." [105] And so it went. [106] Questions from Mars, from Earth, from Saturn flowed in the visi sets. [107] Isolated miners on Jupiter, dancers in swank Plutonian cafes strove to stump the experts. [108] With Doctor Universe offering bantering side play, the experts gave their answers. [109] When they failed, or when the Truthicator flashed a red light, he announced the name of the winner. [110] It grew a little tiresome after a while and I wondered why Grannie had brought me here. [111] And then I began to notice things. [112] The audience in the Satellite seemed to have lost much of its original fervor. [113] They applauded as before but they did so only at the signal of Doctor Universe. [114] The spell created by the man was complete. [115] Pompous and erect, he strode back and forth across the stage like a general surveying his army. [116] His black eyes gleamed, and his thin lips were turned in a smile of satisfaction. [117] When the last question had been answered I joined the exit-moving crowd. [118] It was outside under the street marquee that a strange incident occurred. [119] A yellow-faced Kagor from the upper Martian desert country shuffled by, dragging his cumbersome third leg behind him. [120] Kagors, of course, had an unpleasant history of persecution since the early colonization days of the Red Planet. [121] But the thing that happened there was a throw back to an earlier era. [122] Someone shouted, "Yah, yellow-face! [123] Down with all Kagors!" [124] As one man the crowd took up the cry and surged forward. [125] The helpless Kagor was seized and flung to the pavement. [126] A knife appeared from nowhere, snipped the Martian's single lock of hair. [127] A booted foot bludgeoned into his mouth. [128] Moments later an official hydrocar roared up and a dozen I.P. [129] men rushed out and scattered the crowd. [130] But a few stragglers lingered to shout derisive epithets. [131] Grannie Annie came out from behind the box office then. [132] She took my arm and led me around a corner and through a doorway under a sign that read THE JET. [133] Inside was a deep room with booths along one wall. [134] The place was all but deserted. [135] In a booth well toward the rear the old lady surveyed me with sober eyes. [136] "Billy-boy, did you see the way that crowd acted?" [137] I nodded. [138] "As disgraceful an exhibition as I've ever seen. [139] The I.P. [140] men ought to clamp down." [141] "The I.P. [142] men aren't strong enough." [143] She said it quietly, but there was a glitter in her eyes and a harsh line about her usually smiling lips. [144] "What do you mean?" [145] For a moment the old lady sat there in silence; then she leaned back, closed her eyes, and I knew there was a story coming. [146] "My last book, Death In The Atom , hit the stands last January," she began. [147] "When it was finished I had planned to take a six months' vacation, but those fool publishers of mine insisted I do a sequel. [148] Well, I'd used Mars and Pluto and Ganymede as settings for novels, so for this one I decided on Venus. [149] I went to Venus City, and I spent six weeks in-country. [150] I got some swell background material, and I met Ezra Karn...." "Who?" [151] I interrupted. [152] "An old prospector who lives out in the deep marsh on the outskirts of Varsoom country. [153] To make a long story short, I got him talking about his adventures, and he told me plenty." [154] The old woman paused. [155] "Did you ever hear of the Green Flames?" [156] she asked abruptly. [157] I shook my head. [158] "Some new kind of ..." "It's not a new kind of anything. [159] The Green Flame is a radio-active rock once found on Mercury. [160] The Alpha rays of this rock are similar to radium in that they consist of streams of material particles projected at high speed. [161] But the character of the Gamma rays has never been completely analyzed. [162] Like those set up by radium, they are electromagnetic pulsations, but they are also a strange combination of Beta or cathode rays with negatively charged electrons. [163] "When any form of life is exposed to these Gamma rays from the Green Flame rock, they produce in the creature's brain a certain lassitude and lack of energy. [164] As the period of exposure increases, this condition develops into a sense of impotence and a desire for leadership or guidance. [165] Occasionally, as with the weak-willed, there is a spirit of intolerance. [166] The Green Flames might be said to be an inorganic opiate, a thousand times more subtle and more powerful than any known drug." [167] I was sitting up now, hanging on to the woman's every word. [168] "Now in 2710, as you'd know if you studied your history, the three planets of Earth, Venus, and Mars were under governmental bondage. [169] The cruel dictatorship of Vennox I was short-lived, but it lasted long enough to endanger all civilized life. [170] "The archives tell us that one of the first acts of the overthrowing government was to cast out all Green Flames, two of which Vennox had ordered must be kept in each household. [171] The effect on the people was immediate. [172] Representative government, individual enterprise, freedom followed." [173] Grannie Annie lit a cigarette and flipped the match to the floor. [174] "To go back to my first trip to Venus. [175] As I said, I met Ezra Karn, an old prospector there in the marsh. [176] Karn told me that on one of his travels into the Varsoom district he had come upon the wreckage of an old space ship. [177] The hold of that space ship was packed with Green Flames!" [178] If Grannie expected me to show surprise at that, she was disappointed. [179] I said, "So what?" [180] "So everything, Billy-boy. [181] Do you realize what such a thing would mean if it were true? [182] Green Flames were supposedly destroyed on all planets after the Vennox regime crashed. [183] If a quantity of the rock were in existence, and it fell into the wrong hands, there'd be trouble. [184] "Of course, I regarded Karn's story as a wild dream, but it made corking good story material. [185] I wrote it into a novel, and a week after it was completed, the manuscript was stolen from my study back on Earth." [186] "I see," I said as she lapsed into silence. [187] "And now you've come to the conclusion that the details of your story were true and that someone is attempting to put your plot into action." [188] Grannie nodded. [189] "Yes," she said. [190] "That's exactly what I think." [191] I got my pipe out of my pocket, tamped Martian tobacco into the bowl and laughed heartily. [192] "The same old Flowers," I said. [193] "Tell me, who's your thief ... [194] Doctor Universe?" [195] She regarded me evenly. [196] "What makes you say that?" [197] I shrugged. [198] "The way the theater crowd acted. [199] It all ties in." [200] The old woman shook her head. [201] "No, this is a lot bigger than a simple quiz program. [202] The theater crowd was but a cross-section of what is happening all over the System. [203] There have been riots on Earth and Mars, police officials murdered on Pluto and a demand that government by representation be abolished on Jupiter. [204] The time is ripe for a military dictator to step in. [205] "And you can lay it all to the Green Flames. [206] It seems incredible that a single shipload of the ore could effect such a wide ranged area, but in my opinion someone has found a means of making that quantity a thousand times more potent and is transmiting it en masse ." [207] If it had been anyone but Grannie Annie there before me, I would have called her a fool. [208] And then all at once I got an odd feeling of approaching danger. [209] "Let's get out of here," I said, getting up. [210] Zinnng-whack! [211] "All right!" [212] On the mirror behind the bar a small circle with radiating cracks appeared. [213] On the booth wall a scant inch above Grannie's head the fresco seemed to melt away suddenly. [214] A heat ray! [215] Grannie Annie leaped to her feet, grasped my arm and raced for the door. [216] Outside a driverless hydrocar stood with idling motors. [217] The old woman threw herself into the control seat, yanked me in after her and threw over the starting stud. [218] An instant later we were plunging through the dark night. [219] Six days after leaving Swamp City we reached Level Five, the last outpost of firm ground. [220] Ahead lay the inner marsh, stretching as far as the eye could reach. [221] Low islands projected at intervals from the thick water. [222] Mold balls, two feet across, drifted down from the slate-gray sky like puffs of cotton. [223] We had traveled this far by ganet , the tough little two headed pack animal of the Venus hinterland. [224] Any form of plane or rocket would have had its motor instantly destroyed, of course, by the magnetic force belt that encircled the planet's equator. [225] Now our drivers changed to boatmen, and we loaded our supplies into three clumsy jagua canoes. [226] It was around the camp fire that night that Grannie took me into her confidence for the first time since we had left Swamp City. [227] "We're heading directly for Varsoom country," she said. [228] "If we find Ezra Karn so much the better. [229] If we don't, we follow his directions to the lost space ship. [230] Our job is to find that ore and destroy it. [231] You see, I'm positive the Green Flames have never been removed from the ship." [232] Sleep had never bothered me, yet that night I lay awake for hours tossing restlessly. [233] The thousand sounds of the blue marsh droned steadily. [234] And the news broadcast I had heard over the portable visi just before retiring still lingered in my mind. [235] To a casual observer that broadcast would have meant little, a slight rebellion here, an isolated crime there. [236] But viewed from the perspective Grannie had given me, everything dovetailed. [237] The situation on Jupiter was swiftly coming to a head. [238] Not only had the people on that planet demanded that representative government be abolished, but a forum was now being held to find a leader who might take complete dictatorial control. [239] Outside a whisper-worm hissed softly. [240] I got up and strode out of my tent. [241] For some time I stood there, lost in thought. [242] Could I believe Grannie's incredible story? [243] Or was this another of her fantastic plots which she had skilfully blended into a novel? [244] Abruptly I stiffened. [245] The familiar drone of the marsh was gone. [246] In its place a ringing silence blanketed everything. [247] And then out in the gloom a darker shadow appeared, moving in undulating sweeps toward the center of the camp. [248] Fascinated, I watched it advance and retreat, saw two hyalescent eyes swim out of the murk. [249] It charged, and with but a split second to act, I threw myself flat. [250] There was a rush of mighty wings as the thing swept over me. [251] Sharp talons raked my clothing. [252] Again it came, and again I rolled swiftly, missing the thing by the narrowest of margins. [253] From the tent opposite a gaunt figure clad in a familiar dress appeared. [254] Grannie gave a single warning: "Stand still!" [255] The thing in the darkness turned like a cam on a rod and drove at us again. [256] This time the old woman's heat gun clicked, and a tracery of purple flame shot outward. [257] A horrible soul-chilling scream rent the air. [258] A moment later something huge and heavy scrabbled across the ground and shot aloft. [259] Grannie Annie fired with deliberate speed. [260] I stood frozen as the diminuendo of its wild cries echoed back to me. [261] "In heaven's name, what was it?" [262] "Hunter-bird," Grannie said calmly. [263] "A form of avian life found here in the swamp. [264] Harmless in its wild state, but when captured, it can be trained to pursue a quarry until it kills. [265] It has a single unit brain and follows with a relentless purpose." [266] "Then that would mean...?" [267] "That it was sent by our enemy, the same enemy that shot at us in the cafe in Swamp City. [268] Exactly." [269] Grannie Annie halted at the door of her tent and faced me with earnest eyes. [270] "Billy-boy, our every move is being watched. [271] From now on it's the survival of the fittest." [272] The following day was our seventh in the swamp. [273] The water here resembled a vast mosaic, striped and cross-striped with long winding ribbons of yellowish substance that floated a few inches below the surface. [274] The mold balls coming into contact with the evonium water of the swamp had undergone a chemical change and evolved into a cohesive multi-celled marine life that lived and died within a space of hours. [275] The Venusians paddled with extreme care. [276] Had one of them dipped his hand into one of those yellow streaks, he would have been devoured in a matter of seconds. [277] At high noon by my Earth watch I sighted a low white structure on one of the distant islands. [278] Moments later we made a landing at a rude jetty, and Grannie Annie was introducing me to Ezra Karn. [279] He was not as old a man as I had expected, but he was ragged and unkempt with iron gray hair falling almost to his shoulders. [280] He was dressed in varpa cloth, the Venus equivalent of buckskin, and on his head was an enormous flop-brimmed hat. [281] "Glad to meet you," he said, shaking my hand. [282] "Any friend of Miss Flowers is a friend of mine." [283] He ushered us down the catwalk into his hut. [284] The place was a two room affair, small but comfortable. [285] The latest type of visi set in one corner showed that Karn was not isolated from civilization entirely. [286] Grannie Annie came to the point abruptly. [287] When she had explained the object of our trip, the prospector became thoughtful. [288] "Green Flames, eh?" [289] he repeated slowly. [290] "Well yes, I suppose I could find that space ship again. [291] That is, if I wanted to." [292] "What do you mean?" [293] Grannie paused in the act of rolling herself a cigarette. [294] "You know where it is, don't you?" [295] "Ye-s," Karn nodded. [296] "But like I told you before, that ship lies in Varsoom country, and that isn't exactly a summer vacation spot." [297] "What are the Varsoom?" [298] I asked. [299] "A native tribe?" [300] Karn shook his head. [301] "They're a form of life that's never been seen by Earthmen. [302] Strictly speaking, they're no more than a form of energy." [303] "Dangerous?" [304] "Yes and no. [305] Only man I ever heard of who escaped their country outside of myself was the explorer, Darthier, three years ago. [306] I got away because I was alone, and they didn't notice me, and Darthier escaped because he made 'em laugh." [307] "Laugh?" [308] A scowl crossed Grannie's face. [309] "That's right," Karn said. [310] "The Varsoom have a strange nervous reaction that's manifested by laughing. [311] But just what it is that makes them laugh, I don't know." [312] Food supplies and fresh drinking water were replenished at the hut. [313] Several mold guns were borrowed from the prospector's supply to arm the Venusians. [314] And then as we were about to leave, Karn suddenly turned. [315] "The Doctor Universe program," he said. [316] "I ain't missed one in months. [317] You gotta wait 'til I hear it." [318] Grannie frowned in annoyance, but the prospector was adamant. [319] He flipped a stud, twisted a dial and a moment later was leaning back in a chair, listening with avid interest. [320] It was the same show I had witnessed back in Swamp City. [321] Once again I heard questions filter in from the far outposts of the System. [322] Once again I saw the commanding figure of the quiz master as he strode back and forth across the stage. [323] And as I sat there, looking into the visi screen, a curious numbing drowsiness seemed to steal over me and lead my thoughts far away. [324] Half an hour later we headed into the unknown. [325] The Venusian boatmen were ill-at-ease now and jabbered among themselves constantly. [326] We camped that night on a miserable little island where insects swarmed about us in hordes. [327] The next day an indefinable wave of weariness and despondency beset our entire party. [328] I caught myself musing over the futility of the venture. [329] Only the pleadings of Grannie Annie kept me from turning back. [330] On the morrow I realized the truth in her warning, that all of us had been exposed to the insidious radiations. [331] After that I lost track of time. [332] Day after day of incessant rain ... of steaming swamp.... [333] But at length we reached firm ground and began our advance on foot. [334] It was Karn who first sighted the ship. [335] Striding in the lead, he suddenly halted at the top of a hill and leveled his arm before him. [336] There it lay, a huge cigar-shaped vessel of blackened arelium steel, half buried in the swamp soil. [337] "What's that thing on top?" [338] Karn demanded, puzzled. [339] A rectangular metal envelope had been constructed over the stern quarters of the ship. [340] Above this structure were three tall masts. [341] And suspended between them was a network of copper wire studded with white insulators. [342] Grannie gazed a long moment through binoculars. [343] "Billy-boy, take three Venusians and head across the knoll," she ordered. [344] "Ezra and I will circle in from the west. [345] Fire a gun if you strike trouble." [346] But we found no trouble. [347] The scene before us lay steeped in silence. [348] Moments later our two parties converged at the base of the great ship. [349] A metal ladder extended from the envelope down the side of the vessel. [350] Mid-way we could see a circular hatch-like door. [351] "Up we go, Billy-boy." [352] Heat gun in readiness, Grannie Annie began to climb slowly. [353] The silence remained absolute. [354] We reached the door and pulled it open. [355] There was no sign of life. [356] "Somebody's gone to a lot of trouble here," Ezra Karn observed. [357] Somebody had. [358] Before us stretched a narrow corridor, flanked on the left side by a wall of impenetrable stepto glass. [359] The corridor was bare of furnishings. [360] But beyond the glass, revealed to us in mocking clarity, was a high panel, studded with dials and gauges. [361] Even as we looked, we could see liquid pulse in glass tubes, indicator needles swing slowly to and fro. [362] Grannie nodded. [363] "Some kind of a broadcasting unit. [364] The Green Flames in the lower hold are probably exposed to a tholpane plate and their radiations stepped up by an electro-phosicalic process." [365] Karn raised the butt of his pistol and brought it crashing against the glass wall. [366] His arm jumped in recoil, but the glass remained intact. [367] "You'll never do it that way," Grannie said. [368] "Nothing short of an atomic blast will shatter that wall. [369] It explains why there are no guards here. [370] The mechanism is entirely self-operating. [371] Let's see if the Green Flames are more accessible." [372] In the lower hold disappointment again confronted us. [373] Visible in the feeble shafts of daylight that filtered through cracks in the vessel's hull were tiers of rectangular ingots of green iridescent ore. [374] Suspended by insulators from the ceiling over them was a thick metal plate. [375] But between was a barrier. [376] A wall of impenetrable stepto glass. [377] Grannie stamped her foot. [378] "It's maddening," she said. [379] "Here we are at the crux of the whole matter, and we're powerless to make a single move." [380] Outside the day was beginning to wane. [381] The Venusians, apparently unawed by the presence of the space ship, had already started a fire and erected the tents. [382] We left the vessel to find a spell of brooding desolation heavy over the improvised camp. [383] And the evening meal this time was a gloomy affair. [384] When it was finished, Ezra Karn lit his pipe and switched on the portable visi set. [385] A moment later the silence of the march was broken by the opening fanfare of the Doctor Universe program. [386] "Great stuff," Karn commented. [387] "I sent in a couple of questions once, but I never did win nothin'. [388] This Doctor Universe is a great guy. [389] Ought to make him king or somethin'." [390] For a moment none of us made reply. [391] Then suddenly Grannie Annie leaped to her feet. [392] "Say that again!" [393] she cried. [394] The old prospector looked startled. [395] "Why, I only said they ought to make this Doctor Universe the big boss and...." "That's it!" [396] Grannie paced ten yards off into the gathering darkness and returned quickly. [397] "Billy-boy, you were right. [398] The man behind this is Doctor Universe. [399] It was he who stole my manuscript and devised a method to amplify the radiations of the Green Flames in the freighter's hold. [400] He lit on a sure-fire plan to broadcast those radiations in such a way that millions of persons would be exposed to them simultaneously. [401] Don't you see?" [402] I didn't see, but Grannie hurried on. [403] "What better way to expose civilized life to the Green Flames radiations than when the people are in a state of relaxation. [404] The Doctor Universe quiz program. [405] The whole System tuned in on them, but they were only a blind to cover up the transmission of the radiations from the ore. Their power must have been amplified a thousandfold, and their wave-length must lie somewhere between light and the supersonic scale in that transition band which so far has defied exploration...." "But with what motive?" [406] I demanded. [407] "Why should...?" [408] "Power!" [409] the old woman answered. [410] "The old thirst for dictatorial control of the masses. [411] By presenting himself as an intellectual genius, Doctor Universe utilized a bizarre method to intrench himself in the minds of the people. [412] Oh, don't you see, Billy-boy? [413] The Green Flames' radiations spell doom to freedom, individual liberty." [414] I sat there stupidly, wondering if this all were some wild dream. [415] And then, as I looked across at Grannie Annie, the vague light over the tents seemed to shift a little, as if one layer of the atmosphere had dropped away to be replaced by another. [416] There it was again, a definite movement in the air. [417] Somehow I got the impression I was looking around that space rather than through it. [418] And simultaneously Ezra Karn uttered a howl of pain. [419] An instant later the old prospector was rolling over and over, threshing his arms wildly. [420] An invisible sledge hammer descended on my shoulder. [421] The blow was followed by another and another. [422] Heavy unseen hands held me down. [423] Opposite me Grannie Annie and the Venusians were suffering similar punishment, the latter screaming in pain and bewilderment. [424] "It's the Varsoom!" [425] Ezra Karn yelled. [426] "We've got to make 'em laugh. [427] Our only escape is to make 'em laugh!" [428] He struggled to his feet and began leaping wildly around the camp fire. [429] Abruptly his foot caught on a log protruding from the fire; he tripped and fell headlong into a mass of hot coals and ashes. [430] Like a jumping jack he was on his feet again, clawing dirt and soot from his eyes. [431] Out of the empty space about us there came a sudden hush. [432] The unseen blows ceased in mid-career. [433] And then the silence was rent by wild laughter. [434] Peal after peal of mirthful yells pounded against our ears. [435] For many moments it continued; then it died away, and everything was peaceful once more. [436] Grannie Annie picked herself up slowly. [437] "That was close," she said. [438] "I wouldn't want to go through that again." [439] Ezra Karn nursed an ugly welt under one eye. [440] "Those Varsoom got a funny sense of humor," he growled. [441] Inside the freighter's narrow corridor Grannie faced me with eyes filled with excitement. [442] "Billy-boy," she said, "we've got two problems now. [443] We've got to stop Doctor Universe, and we've got to find a way of getting out of here. [444] Right now we're nicely bottled up." [445] As if in answer to her words the visi set revealed the face of the quiz master on the screen. [446] He was saying: " Remember tomorrow at this same hour I will have a message of unparalleled importance for the people of the nine planets. [447] Tomorrow night I urge you, I command you, to tune in. " [448] With a whistling intake of breath the old woman turned to one of the Venusians. [449] "Bring all our equipment in here," she ordered. [450] "Hurry!" [451] She untied the ribbon under her chin and took off her cap. [452] She rolled up her sleeves, and as the Venusians came marching into the space ship with bundles of equipment, she fell to work. [453] Silently Ezra Karn and I watched her. [454] First she completely dismantled the visi set, put it together again with an entirely altered hookup. [455] Next she unrolled a coil of flexible copper mesh which we had brought along as a protective electrical screening against the marsh insects. [456] She fastened rubberite suction cups to this mesh at intervals of every twelve inches or more, carried it down to the freighter's hold and fastened it securely against the stepto glass wall. [457] Trailing a three-ply conduit up from the hold to the corridor she selected an induction coil, several Micro-Wellman tubes and a quantity of wire from a box of spare parts. [458] Dexterously her fingers moved in and out, fashioning a complicated and curious piece of apparatus. [459] At length she finished. [460] "It's pretty hay-wire," she said, "but I think it will work. [461] Now I'll tell you what I'm going to do. [462] When Doctor Universe broadcasts tomorrow night, he's going to announce that he has set himself up as supreme dictator. [463] He'll have the Green Flame radiations coming from this ship under full power. [464] I'm going to insert into his broadcast—the laughing of the Varsoom!" [465] "You're going to what?" [466] "Broadcast the mass laughter from those invisible creatures out there. [467] Visualize it, Billy-boy! [468] At the dramatic moment when Doctor Universe makes his plea for System-wide power, he will be accompanied by wild peals of laughter. [469] The whole broadcast will be turned into a burlesque." [470] "How you going to make 'em laugh?" [471] interrupted Karn. [472] "We must think of a way," Grannie replied soberly. [473] I, for one, am glad that no representative of the Interstellar Psychiatry Society witnessed our antics during the early hours of that morning and on into the long reaches of the afternoon, as we vainly tried to provoke the laughter of the Varsoom. [474] All to no avail. [475] Utter silence greeted our efforts. [476] And the time was growing close to the scheduled Doctor Universe program. [477] Ezra Karn wiped a bead of perspiration from his brow. [478] "Maybe we've got to attract their attention first," he suggested. [479] "Miss Flowers, why don't you go up on the roof and read to 'em? [480] Read 'em something from one of your books, if you've got one along. [481] That ought to make 'em sit up and take notice." [482] For a moment the old woman gazed at him in silence. [483] Then she got to her feet quickly. [484] "I'll do it," she said. [485] "I'll read them the attack scene from Murder On A Space Liner ." [486] It didn't make sense, of course. [487] But nothing made sense in this mad venture. [488] Grannie Annie opened her duffel bag and drew out a copy of her most popular book. [489] With the volume under her arm, she mounted the ladder to the top of the envelope. [490] Ezra Karn rigged up a radite search lamp, and a moment later the old woman stood in the center of a circle of white radiance. [491] Karn gripped my arm. [492] "This is it," he said tensely. [493] "If this fails ..." His voice clipped off as Grannie began to read. [494] She read slowly at first, then intoned the words and sentences faster and more dramatically. [495] And out in the swamp a vast hush fell as if unseen ears were listening. [496] "... the space liner was over on her beam ends now as another shot from the raider's vessel crashed into the stern hold. [497] In the control cabin Cuthbert Strong twisted vainly at his bonds as he sought to free himself. [498] Opposite him, lashed by strong Martian vinta ropes to the gravascope, Louise Belmont sobbed softly, wringing her hands in mute appeal. " [499] A restless rustling sounded out in the marsh, as if hundreds of bodies were surging closer. [500] Karn nodded in awe. [501] "She's got 'em!" [502] he whispered. [503] "Listen. [504] They're eatin' up every word." [505] I heard it then, and I thought I must be dreaming. [506] From somewhere out in the swamp a sound rose into the thick air. [507] A high-pitched chuckle, it was. [508] The chuckle came again. [509] Now it was followed by another and another. [510] An instant later a wave of low subdued laughter rose into the air. [511] Ezra Karn gulped. [512] "Gripes!" [513] he said. [514] "They're laughing already. [515] They're laughing at her book! [516] And look, the old lady's gettin' sore." [517] Up on the roof of the envelope Grannie Annie halted her reading to glare savagely out into the darkness. [518] The laughter was a roar now. [519] It rose louder and louder, peal after peal of mirthful yells and hysterical shouts. [520] And for the first time in my life, I saw Annabella C. Flowers mad. [521] She stamped her foot; she shook her fist at the unseen hordes out before her. [522] "Ignorant slap-happy fools!" [523] she screamed. [524] "You don't know good science fiction when you hear it." [525] I turned to Karn and said quietly, "Turn on the visi set. [526] Doctor Universe should be broadcasting now. [527] Tune your microphone to pull in as much of that laughter as you can." [528] It took three weeks to make the return trip to Swamp City. [529] The Varsoom followed us far beyond the frontier of their country like an unseen army in the throes of laughing gas. [530] Not until we reached Level Five did the last chuckle fade into the distance. [531] All during that trek back, Grannie sat in the dugout, staring silently out before her. [532] But when we reached Swamp City, the news was flung at us from all sides. [533] One newspaper headline accurately told the story: DOCTOR UNIVERSE BID FOR SYSTEM DICTATORSHIP SQUELCHED BY RIDICULE OF UNSEEN AUDIENCE. [534] QUIZ MASTER NOW IN HANDS OF I.P. [535] COUP FAILURE. [536] "Grannie," I said that night as we sat again in a rear booth of THE JET, "what are you going to do now? [537] Give up writing science fiction?" [538] She looked at me soberly, then broke into a smile. [539] "Just because some silly form of life that can't even be seen doesn't appreciate it? [540] I should say not. [541] Right now I've got an idea for a swell yarn about Mars. [542] Want to come along while I dig up some background material?" [543] I shook my head. [544] "Not me," I said. [545] But I knew I would.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the relationship between Billy and Grannie Annie": 1. [37] But to me she was still Grannie Annie, as old-fashioned as last year's hat, as modern as an atomic motor. 2. [18] "Grannie Annie! I haven't seen you in two years." 3. [20] "Hi, Billy-boy," she greeted calmly. 4. [19] "I haven't seen you in two years." 5. [35] She hadn't changed. 6. [46] She was the most completely delightful crackpot I had ever known. 7. [36] To her publishers and her readers she might be Annabella C. Flowers, author of a long list of science fiction novels. 8. [1] Grannie Annie, who wrote science fiction under the nom de plume of Annabella C. Flowers, had stumbled onto a murderous plot more hair-raising than any she had ever concocted. 9. [13] Grannie Annie! 10. [14] There she stood before a frantically gesticulating desk clerk, leaning on her faded green umbrella. 11. [15] A little wisp of a woman clad in a voluminous black dress with one of those doily-like caps on her head, tied by a ribbon under her chin. 12. [16] Her high-topped button shoes were planted firmly on the varpla carpet and her wrinkled face was set in calm defiance. 13. [17] I barged across the lounge and seized her hand. 14. [21] "Will you please tell this fish-face to shut up." 15. [24] "Okay, okay," I grinned. 16. [25] "Look, we'll go into the grille. There's no one there at this hour." 17. [27] "What the devil are you doing on Venus? Don't you know women aren't allowed in the Spacemen's?" 18. [28] "Don't you know women aren't allowed in the Spacemen's?" 19. [29] "What happened to the book you were writing?" 20. [30] "Hold it, Billy-boy." 21. [31] Laughingly she threw up both hands. 22. [32] "Sure, I knew this place had some antiquated laws. Pure fiddle-faddle, that's what they are." 23. [33] "Anyway, I've been thrown out of better places." 24. [59] "I almost forgot, Billy-boy." 25. [60] "I'm due at the Satellite Theater in ten minutes. Come on, you're going with me." 26. [62] Before I realized it, I was following her through the lounge and out to the jetty front. 27. [72] "Sit here," she said. "I'm sorry about all this rush, but I'm one of the players in this shindig. As soon as the show is over, we'll go somewhere and talk." 28. [75] "That damned fossilized dynamo," I muttered. "She'll be the death of me yet." 29. [191] I got my pipe out of my pocket, tamped Martian tobacco into the bowl and laughed heartily. "The same old Flowers," I said. 30. [193] "Tell me, who's your thief ... Doctor Universe?" 31. [196] "What makes you say that?" 32. [269] Grannie Annie halted at the door of her tent and faced me with earnest eyes. "Billy-boy, our every move is being watched. From now on it's the survival of the fittest." 33. [535] "Grannie," I said that night as we sat again in a rear booth of THE JET, "what are you going to do now? Give up writing science fiction?" 34. [538] She looked at me soberly, then broke into a smile. "Just because some silly form of life that can't even be seen doesn't appreciate it? I should say not." 35. [539] "Right now I've got an idea for a swell yarn about Mars. Want to come along while I dig up some background material?" 36. [540] "Not me," I said. 37. [541] But I knew I would.

What happens to Ezra Karn throughout the story?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Doctor Universe By CARL JACOBI Grannie Annie, who wrote science fiction under the nom de plume of Annabella C. Flowers, had stumbled onto a murderous plot more hair-raising than any she had ever concocted. [2] And the danger from the villain of the piece didn't worry her—I was the guy he was shooting at. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1944. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] I was killing an hour in the billiard room of the Spacemen's Club in Swamp City when the Venusian bellboy came and tapped me on the shoulder. [6] "Beg pardon, thir," he said with his racial lisp, "thereth thome one to thee you in the main lounge." [7] His eyes rolled as he added, "A lady!" [8] A woman here...! [9] The Spacemen's was a sanctuary, a rest club where in-coming pilots and crewmen could relax before leaving for another voyage. [10] The rule that no females could pass its portals was strictly enforced. [11] I followed the bellhop down the long corridor that led to the main lounge. [12] At the threshold I jerked to a halt and stared incredulously. [13] Grannie Annie! [14] There she stood before a frantically gesticulating desk clerk, leaning on her faded green umbrella. [15] A little wisp of a woman clad in a voluminous black dress with one of those doily-like caps on her head, tied by a ribbon under her chin. [16] Her high-topped button shoes were planted firmly on the varpla carpet and her wrinkled face was set in calm defiance. [17] I barged across the lounge and seized her hand. [18] "Grannie Annie! [19] I haven't seen you in two years." [20] "Hi, Billy-boy," she greeted calmly. [21] "Will you please tell this fish-face to shut up." [22] The desk clerk went white. [23] "Mithter Trenwith, if thith lady ith a friend of yourth, you'll have to take her away. [24] It'th abtholutely againth the ruleth...." "Okay, okay," I grinned. [25] "Look, we'll go into the grille. [26] There's no one there at this hour." [27] In the grille an equally astonished waiter served us—me a lime rickey and Grannie Annie her usual whisky sour—I waited until she had tossed the drink off at a gulp before I set off a chain of questions: "What the devil are you doing on Venus? [28] Don't you know women aren't allowed in the Spacemen's ? [29] What happened to the book you were writing?" [30] "Hold it, Billy-boy." [31] Laughingly she threw up both hands. [32] "Sure, I knew this place had some antiquated laws. [33] Pure fiddle-faddle, that's what they are. [34] Anyway, I've been thrown out of better places." [35] She hadn't changed. [36] To her publishers and her readers she might be Annabella C. Flowers, author of a long list of science fiction novels. [37] But to me she was still Grannie Annie, as old-fashioned as last year's hat, as modern as an atomic motor. [38] She had probably written more drivel in the name of science fiction than anyone alive. [39] But the public loved it. [40] They ate up her stories, and they clamored for more. [41] Her annual income totaled into six figures, and her publishers sat back and massaged their digits, watching their earnings mount. [42] One thing you had to admit about her books. [43] They may have been dime novels, but they weren't synthetic. [44] If Annabella C. Flowers wrote a novel, and the locale was the desert of Mars, she packed her carpet bag and hopped a liner for Craterville. [45] If she cooked up a feud between two expeditions on Callisto, she went to Callisto. [46] She was the most completely delightful crackpot I had ever known. [47] "What happened to Guns for Ganymede ?" [48] I asked. [49] "That was the title of your last, wasn't it?" [50] Grannie spilled a few shreds of Martian tobacco onto a paper and deftly rolled herself a cigarette. [51] "It wasn't Guns , it was Pistols ; and it wasn't Ganymede , it was Pluto ." [52] I grinned. [53] "All complete, I'll bet, with threats against the universe and beautiful Earth heroines dragged in by the hair." [54] "What else is there in science fiction?" [55] she demanded. [56] "You can't have your hero fall in love with a bug-eyed monster." [57] Up on the wall a clock chimed the hour. [58] The old woman jerked to her feet. [59] "I almost forgot, Billy-boy. [60] I'm due at the Satellite Theater in ten minutes. [61] Come on, you're going with me." [62] Before I realized it, I was following her through the lounge and out to the jetty front. [63] Grannie Annie hailed a hydrocar. [64] Five minutes later we drew up before the big doors of the Satellite . [65] They don't go in for style in Swamp City. [66] A theater to the grizzled colonials on this side of the planet meant a shack on stilts over the muck, zilcon wood seats and dingy atobide lamps. [67] But the place was packed with miners, freight-crew-men—all the tide and wash of humanity that made Swamp City the frontier post it is. [68] In front was a big sign. [69] It read: ONE NIGHT ONLY DOCTOR UNIVERSE AND HIS NINE GENIUSES THE QUESTION PROGRAM OF THE SYSTEM As we strode down the aisle a mangy-looking Venusian began to pound a tinpan piano in the pit. [70] Grannie Annie pushed me into a seat in the front row. [71] "Sit here," she said. [72] "I'm sorry about all this rush, but I'm one of the players in this shindig. [73] As soon as the show is over, we'll go somewhere and talk." [74] She minced lightly down the aisle, climbed the stage steps and disappeared in the wings. [75] "That damned fossilized dynamo," I muttered. [76] "She'll be the death of me yet." [77] The piano struck a chord in G, and the curtain went rattling up. [78] On the stage four Earthmen, two Martians, two Venusians, and one Mercurian sat on an upraised dais. [79] That is to say, eight of them sat. [80] The Mercurian, a huge lump of granite-like flesh, sprawled there, palpably uncomfortable. [81] On the right were nine visi sets, each with its new improved pantascope panel and switchboard. [82] Before each set stood an Earthman operator. [83] A tall man, clad in a claw-hammer coat, came out from the wings and advanced to the footlights. [84] "People of Swamp City," he said, bowing, "permit me to introduce myself. [85] I am Doctor Universe, and these are my nine experts." [86] There was a roar of applause from the Satellite audience. [87] When it had subsided, the man continued: "As most of you are familiar with our program, it will be unnecessary to give any advance explanation. [88] I will only say that on this stage are nine visi sets, each tuned to one of the nine planets. [89] At transmitting sets all over these planets listeners will appear and voice questions. [90] These questions, my nine experts will endeavor to answer. [91] For every question missed, the sender will receive a check for one thousand planetoles . [92] "One thing more. [93] As usual we have with us a guest star who will match her wits with the experts. [94] May I present that renowned writer of science fiction, Annabella C. [95] Flowers." [96] From the left wing Grannie Annie appeared. [97] She bowed and took her place on the dais. [98] The Doctor's program began. [99] The operator of the Earth visi twisted his dials and nodded. [100] Blue light flickered on the pantascope panel to coalesce slowly into the face of a red-haired man. [101] Sharp and dear his voice echoed through the theater: " Who was the first Earthman to titter the sunward side of Mercury? " [102] Doctor Universe nodded and turned to Grannie Annie who had raised her hand. [103] She said quietly: "Charles Zanner in the year 2012. [104] In a specially constructed tracto-car." [105] And so it went. [106] Questions from Mars, from Earth, from Saturn flowed in the visi sets. [107] Isolated miners on Jupiter, dancers in swank Plutonian cafes strove to stump the experts. [108] With Doctor Universe offering bantering side play, the experts gave their answers. [109] When they failed, or when the Truthicator flashed a red light, he announced the name of the winner. [110] It grew a little tiresome after a while and I wondered why Grannie had brought me here. [111] And then I began to notice things. [112] The audience in the Satellite seemed to have lost much of its original fervor. [113] They applauded as before but they did so only at the signal of Doctor Universe. [114] The spell created by the man was complete. [115] Pompous and erect, he strode back and forth across the stage like a general surveying his army. [116] His black eyes gleamed, and his thin lips were turned in a smile of satisfaction. [117] When the last question had been answered I joined the exit-moving crowd. [118] It was outside under the street marquee that a strange incident occurred. [119] A yellow-faced Kagor from the upper Martian desert country shuffled by, dragging his cumbersome third leg behind him. [120] Kagors, of course, had an unpleasant history of persecution since the early colonization days of the Red Planet. [121] But the thing that happened there was a throw back to an earlier era. [122] Someone shouted, "Yah, yellow-face! [123] Down with all Kagors!" [124] As one man the crowd took up the cry and surged forward. [125] The helpless Kagor was seized and flung to the pavement. [126] A knife appeared from nowhere, snipped the Martian's single lock of hair. [127] A booted foot bludgeoned into his mouth. [128] Moments later an official hydrocar roared up and a dozen I.P. [129] men rushed out and scattered the crowd. [130] But a few stragglers lingered to shout derisive epithets. [131] Grannie Annie came out from behind the box office then. [132] She took my arm and led me around a corner and through a doorway under a sign that read THE JET. [133] Inside was a deep room with booths along one wall. [134] The place was all but deserted. [135] In a booth well toward the rear the old lady surveyed me with sober eyes. [136] "Billy-boy, did you see the way that crowd acted?" [137] I nodded. [138] "As disgraceful an exhibition as I've ever seen. [139] The I.P. [140] men ought to clamp down." [141] "The I.P. [142] men aren't strong enough." [143] She said it quietly, but there was a glitter in her eyes and a harsh line about her usually smiling lips. [144] "What do you mean?" [145] For a moment the old lady sat there in silence; then she leaned back, closed her eyes, and I knew there was a story coming. [146] "My last book, Death In The Atom , hit the stands last January," she began. [147] "When it was finished I had planned to take a six months' vacation, but those fool publishers of mine insisted I do a sequel. [148] Well, I'd used Mars and Pluto and Ganymede as settings for novels, so for this one I decided on Venus. [149] I went to Venus City, and I spent six weeks in-country. [150] I got some swell background material, and I met Ezra Karn...." "Who?" [151] I interrupted. [152] "An old prospector who lives out in the deep marsh on the outskirts of Varsoom country. [153] To make a long story short, I got him talking about his adventures, and he told me plenty." [154] The old woman paused. [155] "Did you ever hear of the Green Flames?" [156] she asked abruptly. [157] I shook my head. [158] "Some new kind of ..." "It's not a new kind of anything. [159] The Green Flame is a radio-active rock once found on Mercury. [160] The Alpha rays of this rock are similar to radium in that they consist of streams of material particles projected at high speed. [161] But the character of the Gamma rays has never been completely analyzed. [162] Like those set up by radium, they are electromagnetic pulsations, but they are also a strange combination of Beta or cathode rays with negatively charged electrons. [163] "When any form of life is exposed to these Gamma rays from the Green Flame rock, they produce in the creature's brain a certain lassitude and lack of energy. [164] As the period of exposure increases, this condition develops into a sense of impotence and a desire for leadership or guidance. [165] Occasionally, as with the weak-willed, there is a spirit of intolerance. [166] The Green Flames might be said to be an inorganic opiate, a thousand times more subtle and more powerful than any known drug." [167] I was sitting up now, hanging on to the woman's every word. [168] "Now in 2710, as you'd know if you studied your history, the three planets of Earth, Venus, and Mars were under governmental bondage. [169] The cruel dictatorship of Vennox I was short-lived, but it lasted long enough to endanger all civilized life. [170] "The archives tell us that one of the first acts of the overthrowing government was to cast out all Green Flames, two of which Vennox had ordered must be kept in each household. [171] The effect on the people was immediate. [172] Representative government, individual enterprise, freedom followed." [173] Grannie Annie lit a cigarette and flipped the match to the floor. [174] "To go back to my first trip to Venus. [175] As I said, I met Ezra Karn, an old prospector there in the marsh. [176] Karn told me that on one of his travels into the Varsoom district he had come upon the wreckage of an old space ship. [177] The hold of that space ship was packed with Green Flames!" [178] If Grannie expected me to show surprise at that, she was disappointed. [179] I said, "So what?" [180] "So everything, Billy-boy. [181] Do you realize what such a thing would mean if it were true? [182] Green Flames were supposedly destroyed on all planets after the Vennox regime crashed. [183] If a quantity of the rock were in existence, and it fell into the wrong hands, there'd be trouble. [184] "Of course, I regarded Karn's story as a wild dream, but it made corking good story material. [185] I wrote it into a novel, and a week after it was completed, the manuscript was stolen from my study back on Earth." [186] "I see," I said as she lapsed into silence. [187] "And now you've come to the conclusion that the details of your story were true and that someone is attempting to put your plot into action." [188] Grannie nodded. [189] "Yes," she said. [190] "That's exactly what I think." [191] I got my pipe out of my pocket, tamped Martian tobacco into the bowl and laughed heartily. [192] "The same old Flowers," I said. [193] "Tell me, who's your thief ... [194] Doctor Universe?" [195] She regarded me evenly. [196] "What makes you say that?" [197] I shrugged. [198] "The way the theater crowd acted. [199] It all ties in." [200] The old woman shook her head. [201] "No, this is a lot bigger than a simple quiz program. [202] The theater crowd was but a cross-section of what is happening all over the System. [203] There have been riots on Earth and Mars, police officials murdered on Pluto and a demand that government by representation be abolished on Jupiter. [204] The time is ripe for a military dictator to step in. [205] "And you can lay it all to the Green Flames. [206] It seems incredible that a single shipload of the ore could effect such a wide ranged area, but in my opinion someone has found a means of making that quantity a thousand times more potent and is transmiting it en masse ." [207] If it had been anyone but Grannie Annie there before me, I would have called her a fool. [208] And then all at once I got an odd feeling of approaching danger. [209] "Let's get out of here," I said, getting up. [210] Zinnng-whack! [211] "All right!" [212] On the mirror behind the bar a small circle with radiating cracks appeared. [213] On the booth wall a scant inch above Grannie's head the fresco seemed to melt away suddenly. [214] A heat ray! [215] Grannie Annie leaped to her feet, grasped my arm and raced for the door. [216] Outside a driverless hydrocar stood with idling motors. [217] The old woman threw herself into the control seat, yanked me in after her and threw over the starting stud. [218] An instant later we were plunging through the dark night. [219] Six days after leaving Swamp City we reached Level Five, the last outpost of firm ground. [220] Ahead lay the inner marsh, stretching as far as the eye could reach. [221] Low islands projected at intervals from the thick water. [222] Mold balls, two feet across, drifted down from the slate-gray sky like puffs of cotton. [223] We had traveled this far by ganet , the tough little two headed pack animal of the Venus hinterland. [224] Any form of plane or rocket would have had its motor instantly destroyed, of course, by the magnetic force belt that encircled the planet's equator. [225] Now our drivers changed to boatmen, and we loaded our supplies into three clumsy jagua canoes. [226] It was around the camp fire that night that Grannie took me into her confidence for the first time since we had left Swamp City. [227] "We're heading directly for Varsoom country," she said. [228] "If we find Ezra Karn so much the better. [229] If we don't, we follow his directions to the lost space ship. [230] Our job is to find that ore and destroy it. [231] You see, I'm positive the Green Flames have never been removed from the ship." [232] Sleep had never bothered me, yet that night I lay awake for hours tossing restlessly. [233] The thousand sounds of the blue marsh droned steadily. [234] And the news broadcast I had heard over the portable visi just before retiring still lingered in my mind. [235] To a casual observer that broadcast would have meant little, a slight rebellion here, an isolated crime there. [236] But viewed from the perspective Grannie had given me, everything dovetailed. [237] The situation on Jupiter was swiftly coming to a head. [238] Not only had the people on that planet demanded that representative government be abolished, but a forum was now being held to find a leader who might take complete dictatorial control. [239] Outside a whisper-worm hissed softly. [240] I got up and strode out of my tent. [241] For some time I stood there, lost in thought. [242] Could I believe Grannie's incredible story? [243] Or was this another of her fantastic plots which she had skilfully blended into a novel? [244] Abruptly I stiffened. [245] The familiar drone of the marsh was gone. [246] In its place a ringing silence blanketed everything. [247] And then out in the gloom a darker shadow appeared, moving in undulating sweeps toward the center of the camp. [248] Fascinated, I watched it advance and retreat, saw two hyalescent eyes swim out of the murk. [249] It charged, and with but a split second to act, I threw myself flat. [250] There was a rush of mighty wings as the thing swept over me. [251] Sharp talons raked my clothing. [252] Again it came, and again I rolled swiftly, missing the thing by the narrowest of margins. [253] From the tent opposite a gaunt figure clad in a familiar dress appeared. [254] Grannie gave a single warning: "Stand still!" [255] The thing in the darkness turned like a cam on a rod and drove at us again. [256] This time the old woman's heat gun clicked, and a tracery of purple flame shot outward. [257] A horrible soul-chilling scream rent the air. [258] A moment later something huge and heavy scrabbled across the ground and shot aloft. [259] Grannie Annie fired with deliberate speed. [260] I stood frozen as the diminuendo of its wild cries echoed back to me. [261] "In heaven's name, what was it?" [262] "Hunter-bird," Grannie said calmly. [263] "A form of avian life found here in the swamp. [264] Harmless in its wild state, but when captured, it can be trained to pursue a quarry until it kills. [265] It has a single unit brain and follows with a relentless purpose." [266] "Then that would mean...?" [267] "That it was sent by our enemy, the same enemy that shot at us in the cafe in Swamp City. [268] Exactly." [269] Grannie Annie halted at the door of her tent and faced me with earnest eyes. [270] "Billy-boy, our every move is being watched. [271] From now on it's the survival of the fittest." [272] The following day was our seventh in the swamp. [273] The water here resembled a vast mosaic, striped and cross-striped with long winding ribbons of yellowish substance that floated a few inches below the surface. [274] The mold balls coming into contact with the evonium water of the swamp had undergone a chemical change and evolved into a cohesive multi-celled marine life that lived and died within a space of hours. [275] The Venusians paddled with extreme care. [276] Had one of them dipped his hand into one of those yellow streaks, he would have been devoured in a matter of seconds. [277] At high noon by my Earth watch I sighted a low white structure on one of the distant islands. [278] Moments later we made a landing at a rude jetty, and Grannie Annie was introducing me to Ezra Karn. [279] He was not as old a man as I had expected, but he was ragged and unkempt with iron gray hair falling almost to his shoulders. [280] He was dressed in varpa cloth, the Venus equivalent of buckskin, and on his head was an enormous flop-brimmed hat. [281] "Glad to meet you," he said, shaking my hand. [282] "Any friend of Miss Flowers is a friend of mine." [283] He ushered us down the catwalk into his hut. [284] The place was a two room affair, small but comfortable. [285] The latest type of visi set in one corner showed that Karn was not isolated from civilization entirely. [286] Grannie Annie came to the point abruptly. [287] When she had explained the object of our trip, the prospector became thoughtful. [288] "Green Flames, eh?" [289] he repeated slowly. [290] "Well yes, I suppose I could find that space ship again. [291] That is, if I wanted to." [292] "What do you mean?" [293] Grannie paused in the act of rolling herself a cigarette. [294] "You know where it is, don't you?" [295] "Ye-s," Karn nodded. [296] "But like I told you before, that ship lies in Varsoom country, and that isn't exactly a summer vacation spot." [297] "What are the Varsoom?" [298] I asked. [299] "A native tribe?" [300] Karn shook his head. [301] "They're a form of life that's never been seen by Earthmen. [302] Strictly speaking, they're no more than a form of energy." [303] "Dangerous?" [304] "Yes and no. [305] Only man I ever heard of who escaped their country outside of myself was the explorer, Darthier, three years ago. [306] I got away because I was alone, and they didn't notice me, and Darthier escaped because he made 'em laugh." [307] "Laugh?" [308] A scowl crossed Grannie's face. [309] "That's right," Karn said. [310] "The Varsoom have a strange nervous reaction that's manifested by laughing. [311] But just what it is that makes them laugh, I don't know." [312] Food supplies and fresh drinking water were replenished at the hut. [313] Several mold guns were borrowed from the prospector's supply to arm the Venusians. [314] And then as we were about to leave, Karn suddenly turned. [315] "The Doctor Universe program," he said. [316] "I ain't missed one in months. [317] You gotta wait 'til I hear it." [318] Grannie frowned in annoyance, but the prospector was adamant. [319] He flipped a stud, twisted a dial and a moment later was leaning back in a chair, listening with avid interest. [320] It was the same show I had witnessed back in Swamp City. [321] Once again I heard questions filter in from the far outposts of the System. [322] Once again I saw the commanding figure of the quiz master as he strode back and forth across the stage. [323] And as I sat there, looking into the visi screen, a curious numbing drowsiness seemed to steal over me and lead my thoughts far away. [324] Half an hour later we headed into the unknown. [325] The Venusian boatmen were ill-at-ease now and jabbered among themselves constantly. [326] We camped that night on a miserable little island where insects swarmed about us in hordes. [327] The next day an indefinable wave of weariness and despondency beset our entire party. [328] I caught myself musing over the futility of the venture. [329] Only the pleadings of Grannie Annie kept me from turning back. [330] On the morrow I realized the truth in her warning, that all of us had been exposed to the insidious radiations. [331] After that I lost track of time. [332] Day after day of incessant rain ... of steaming swamp.... [333] But at length we reached firm ground and began our advance on foot. [334] It was Karn who first sighted the ship. [335] Striding in the lead, he suddenly halted at the top of a hill and leveled his arm before him. [336] There it lay, a huge cigar-shaped vessel of blackened arelium steel, half buried in the swamp soil. [337] "What's that thing on top?" [338] Karn demanded, puzzled. [339] A rectangular metal envelope had been constructed over the stern quarters of the ship. [340] Above this structure were three tall masts. [341] And suspended between them was a network of copper wire studded with white insulators. [342] Grannie gazed a long moment through binoculars. [343] "Billy-boy, take three Venusians and head across the knoll," she ordered. [344] "Ezra and I will circle in from the west. [345] Fire a gun if you strike trouble." [346] But we found no trouble. [347] The scene before us lay steeped in silence. [348] Moments later our two parties converged at the base of the great ship. [349] A metal ladder extended from the envelope down the side of the vessel. [350] Mid-way we could see a circular hatch-like door. [351] "Up we go, Billy-boy." [352] Heat gun in readiness, Grannie Annie began to climb slowly. [353] The silence remained absolute. [354] We reached the door and pulled it open. [355] There was no sign of life. [356] "Somebody's gone to a lot of trouble here," Ezra Karn observed. [357] Somebody had. [358] Before us stretched a narrow corridor, flanked on the left side by a wall of impenetrable stepto glass. [359] The corridor was bare of furnishings. [360] But beyond the glass, revealed to us in mocking clarity, was a high panel, studded with dials and gauges. [361] Even as we looked, we could see liquid pulse in glass tubes, indicator needles swing slowly to and fro. [362] Grannie nodded. [363] "Some kind of a broadcasting unit. [364] The Green Flames in the lower hold are probably exposed to a tholpane plate and their radiations stepped up by an electro-phosicalic process." [365] Karn raised the butt of his pistol and brought it crashing against the glass wall. [366] His arm jumped in recoil, but the glass remained intact. [367] "You'll never do it that way," Grannie said. [368] "Nothing short of an atomic blast will shatter that wall. [369] It explains why there are no guards here. [370] The mechanism is entirely self-operating. [371] Let's see if the Green Flames are more accessible." [372] In the lower hold disappointment again confronted us. [373] Visible in the feeble shafts of daylight that filtered through cracks in the vessel's hull were tiers of rectangular ingots of green iridescent ore. [374] Suspended by insulators from the ceiling over them was a thick metal plate. [375] But between was a barrier. [376] A wall of impenetrable stepto glass. [377] Grannie stamped her foot. [378] "It's maddening," she said. [379] "Here we are at the crux of the whole matter, and we're powerless to make a single move." [380] Outside the day was beginning to wane. [381] The Venusians, apparently unawed by the presence of the space ship, had already started a fire and erected the tents. [382] We left the vessel to find a spell of brooding desolation heavy over the improvised camp. [383] And the evening meal this time was a gloomy affair. [384] When it was finished, Ezra Karn lit his pipe and switched on the portable visi set. [385] A moment later the silence of the march was broken by the opening fanfare of the Doctor Universe program. [386] "Great stuff," Karn commented. [387] "I sent in a couple of questions once, but I never did win nothin'. [388] This Doctor Universe is a great guy. [389] Ought to make him king or somethin'." [390] For a moment none of us made reply. [391] Then suddenly Grannie Annie leaped to her feet. [392] "Say that again!" [393] she cried. [394] The old prospector looked startled. [395] "Why, I only said they ought to make this Doctor Universe the big boss and...." "That's it!" [396] Grannie paced ten yards off into the gathering darkness and returned quickly. [397] "Billy-boy, you were right. [398] The man behind this is Doctor Universe. [399] It was he who stole my manuscript and devised a method to amplify the radiations of the Green Flames in the freighter's hold. [400] He lit on a sure-fire plan to broadcast those radiations in such a way that millions of persons would be exposed to them simultaneously. [401] Don't you see?" [402] I didn't see, but Grannie hurried on. [403] "What better way to expose civilized life to the Green Flames radiations than when the people are in a state of relaxation. [404] The Doctor Universe quiz program. [405] The whole System tuned in on them, but they were only a blind to cover up the transmission of the radiations from the ore. Their power must have been amplified a thousandfold, and their wave-length must lie somewhere between light and the supersonic scale in that transition band which so far has defied exploration...." "But with what motive?" [406] I demanded. [407] "Why should...?" [408] "Power!" [409] the old woman answered. [410] "The old thirst for dictatorial control of the masses. [411] By presenting himself as an intellectual genius, Doctor Universe utilized a bizarre method to intrench himself in the minds of the people. [412] Oh, don't you see, Billy-boy? [413] The Green Flames' radiations spell doom to freedom, individual liberty." [414] I sat there stupidly, wondering if this all were some wild dream. [415] And then, as I looked across at Grannie Annie, the vague light over the tents seemed to shift a little, as if one layer of the atmosphere had dropped away to be replaced by another. [416] There it was again, a definite movement in the air. [417] Somehow I got the impression I was looking around that space rather than through it. [418] And simultaneously Ezra Karn uttered a howl of pain. [419] An instant later the old prospector was rolling over and over, threshing his arms wildly. [420] An invisible sledge hammer descended on my shoulder. [421] The blow was followed by another and another. [422] Heavy unseen hands held me down. [423] Opposite me Grannie Annie and the Venusians were suffering similar punishment, the latter screaming in pain and bewilderment. [424] "It's the Varsoom!" [425] Ezra Karn yelled. [426] "We've got to make 'em laugh. [427] Our only escape is to make 'em laugh!" [428] He struggled to his feet and began leaping wildly around the camp fire. [429] Abruptly his foot caught on a log protruding from the fire; he tripped and fell headlong into a mass of hot coals and ashes. [430] Like a jumping jack he was on his feet again, clawing dirt and soot from his eyes. [431] Out of the empty space about us there came a sudden hush. [432] The unseen blows ceased in mid-career. [433] And then the silence was rent by wild laughter. [434] Peal after peal of mirthful yells pounded against our ears. [435] For many moments it continued; then it died away, and everything was peaceful once more. [436] Grannie Annie picked herself up slowly. [437] "That was close," she said. [438] "I wouldn't want to go through that again." [439] Ezra Karn nursed an ugly welt under one eye. [440] "Those Varsoom got a funny sense of humor," he growled. [441] Inside the freighter's narrow corridor Grannie faced me with eyes filled with excitement. [442] "Billy-boy," she said, "we've got two problems now. [443] We've got to stop Doctor Universe, and we've got to find a way of getting out of here. [444] Right now we're nicely bottled up." [445] As if in answer to her words the visi set revealed the face of the quiz master on the screen. [446] He was saying: " Remember tomorrow at this same hour I will have a message of unparalleled importance for the people of the nine planets. [447] Tomorrow night I urge you, I command you, to tune in. " [448] With a whistling intake of breath the old woman turned to one of the Venusians. [449] "Bring all our equipment in here," she ordered. [450] "Hurry!" [451] She untied the ribbon under her chin and took off her cap. [452] She rolled up her sleeves, and as the Venusians came marching into the space ship with bundles of equipment, she fell to work. [453] Silently Ezra Karn and I watched her. [454] First she completely dismantled the visi set, put it together again with an entirely altered hookup. [455] Next she unrolled a coil of flexible copper mesh which we had brought along as a protective electrical screening against the marsh insects. [456] She fastened rubberite suction cups to this mesh at intervals of every twelve inches or more, carried it down to the freighter's hold and fastened it securely against the stepto glass wall. [457] Trailing a three-ply conduit up from the hold to the corridor she selected an induction coil, several Micro-Wellman tubes and a quantity of wire from a box of spare parts. [458] Dexterously her fingers moved in and out, fashioning a complicated and curious piece of apparatus. [459] At length she finished. [460] "It's pretty hay-wire," she said, "but I think it will work. [461] Now I'll tell you what I'm going to do. [462] When Doctor Universe broadcasts tomorrow night, he's going to announce that he has set himself up as supreme dictator. [463] He'll have the Green Flame radiations coming from this ship under full power. [464] I'm going to insert into his broadcast—the laughing of the Varsoom!" [465] "You're going to what?" [466] "Broadcast the mass laughter from those invisible creatures out there. [467] Visualize it, Billy-boy! [468] At the dramatic moment when Doctor Universe makes his plea for System-wide power, he will be accompanied by wild peals of laughter. [469] The whole broadcast will be turned into a burlesque." [470] "How you going to make 'em laugh?" [471] interrupted Karn. [472] "We must think of a way," Grannie replied soberly. [473] I, for one, am glad that no representative of the Interstellar Psychiatry Society witnessed our antics during the early hours of that morning and on into the long reaches of the afternoon, as we vainly tried to provoke the laughter of the Varsoom. [474] All to no avail. [475] Utter silence greeted our efforts. [476] And the time was growing close to the scheduled Doctor Universe program. [477] Ezra Karn wiped a bead of perspiration from his brow. [478] "Maybe we've got to attract their attention first," he suggested. [479] "Miss Flowers, why don't you go up on the roof and read to 'em? [480] Read 'em something from one of your books, if you've got one along. [481] That ought to make 'em sit up and take notice." [482] For a moment the old woman gazed at him in silence. [483] Then she got to her feet quickly. [484] "I'll do it," she said. [485] "I'll read them the attack scene from Murder On A Space Liner ." [486] It didn't make sense, of course. [487] But nothing made sense in this mad venture. [488] Grannie Annie opened her duffel bag and drew out a copy of her most popular book. [489] With the volume under her arm, she mounted the ladder to the top of the envelope. [490] Ezra Karn rigged up a radite search lamp, and a moment later the old woman stood in the center of a circle of white radiance. [491] Karn gripped my arm. [492] "This is it," he said tensely. [493] "If this fails ..." His voice clipped off as Grannie began to read. [494] She read slowly at first, then intoned the words and sentences faster and more dramatically. [495] And out in the swamp a vast hush fell as if unseen ears were listening. [496] "... the space liner was over on her beam ends now as another shot from the raider's vessel crashed into the stern hold. [497] In the control cabin Cuthbert Strong twisted vainly at his bonds as he sought to free himself. [498] Opposite him, lashed by strong Martian vinta ropes to the gravascope, Louise Belmont sobbed softly, wringing her hands in mute appeal. " [499] A restless rustling sounded out in the marsh, as if hundreds of bodies were surging closer. [500] Karn nodded in awe. [501] "She's got 'em!" [502] he whispered. [503] "Listen. [504] They're eatin' up every word." [505] I heard it then, and I thought I must be dreaming. [506] From somewhere out in the swamp a sound rose into the thick air. [507] A high-pitched chuckle, it was. [508] The chuckle came again. [509] Now it was followed by another and another. [510] An instant later a wave of low subdued laughter rose into the air. [511] Ezra Karn gulped. [512] "Gripes!" [513] he said. [514] "They're laughing already. [515] They're laughing at her book! [516] And look, the old lady's gettin' sore." [517] Up on the roof of the envelope Grannie Annie halted her reading to glare savagely out into the darkness. [518] The laughter was a roar now. [519] It rose louder and louder, peal after peal of mirthful yells and hysterical shouts. [520] And for the first time in my life, I saw Annabella C. Flowers mad. [521] She stamped her foot; she shook her fist at the unseen hordes out before her. [522] "Ignorant slap-happy fools!" [523] she screamed. [524] "You don't know good science fiction when you hear it." [525] I turned to Karn and said quietly, "Turn on the visi set. [526] Doctor Universe should be broadcasting now. [527] Tune your microphone to pull in as much of that laughter as you can." [528] It took three weeks to make the return trip to Swamp City. [529] The Varsoom followed us far beyond the frontier of their country like an unseen army in the throes of laughing gas. [530] Not until we reached Level Five did the last chuckle fade into the distance. [531] All during that trek back, Grannie sat in the dugout, staring silently out before her. [532] But when we reached Swamp City, the news was flung at us from all sides. [533] One newspaper headline accurately told the story: DOCTOR UNIVERSE BID FOR SYSTEM DICTATORSHIP SQUELCHED BY RIDICULE OF UNSEEN AUDIENCE. [534] QUIZ MASTER NOW IN HANDS OF I.P. [535] COUP FAILURE. [536] "Grannie," I said that night as we sat again in a rear booth of THE JET, "what are you going to do now? [537] Give up writing science fiction?" [538] She looked at me soberly, then broke into a smile. [539] "Just because some silly form of life that can't even be seen doesn't appreciate it? [540] I should say not. [541] Right now I've got an idea for a swell yarn about Mars. [542] Want to come along while I dig up some background material?" [543] I shook my head. [544] "Not me," I said. [545] But I knew I would.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What happens to Ezra Karn throughout the story?": 1. [152] An old prospector who lives out in the deep marsh on the outskirts of Varsoom country. 2. [176] Karn told me that on one of his travels into the Varsoom district he had come upon the wreckage of an old space ship. 3. [177] The hold of that space ship was packed with Green Flames! 4. [278] He was not as old a man as I had expected, but he was ragged and unkempt with iron gray hair falling almost to his shoulders. 5. [279] He was dressed in varpa cloth, the Venus equivalent of buckskin, and on his head was an enormous flop-brimmed hat. 6. [280] "Glad to meet you," he said, shaking my hand. "Any friend of Miss Flowers is a friend of mine." 7. [289] "Well yes, I suppose I could find that space ship again. That is, if I wanted to." 8. [290] "What do you mean?" 9. [291] "You know where it is, don't you?" 10. [292] "Ye-s," Karn nodded. "But like I told you before, that ship lies in Varsoom country, and that isn't exactly a summer vacation spot." 11. [300] "They're a form of life that's never been seen by Earthmen. Strictly speaking, they're no more than a form of energy." 12. [303] "Dangerous?" 13. [304] "Yes and no. Only man I ever heard of who escaped their country outside of myself was the explorer, Darthier, three years ago." 14. [305] "I got away because I was alone, and they didn't notice me, and Darthier escaped because he made 'em laugh." 15. [306] "Laugh?" 16. [307] "That's right," Karn said. "The Varsoom have a strange nervous reaction that's manifested by laughing. But just what it is that makes them laugh, I don't know." 17. [314] "The Doctor Universe program," he said. "I ain't missed one in months. You gotta wait 'til I hear it." 18. [334] It was Karn who first sighted the ship. 19. [335] Striding in the lead, he suddenly halted at the top of a hill and leveled his arm before him. 20. [336] There it lay, a huge cigar-shaped vessel of blackened arelium steel, half buried in the swamp soil. 21. [337] "What's that thing on top?" Karn demanded, puzzled. 22. [438] "Those Varsoom got a funny sense of humor," he growled. 23. [477] Ezra Karn wiped a bead of perspiration from his brow. 24. [478] "Maybe we've got to attract their attention first," he suggested. 25. [479] "Miss Flowers, why don't you go up on the roof and read to 'em? Read 'em something from one of your books, if you've got one along. That ought to make 'em sit up and take notice." 26. [510] An instant later a wave of low subdued laughter rose into the air. 27. [511] Ezra Karn gulped. "Gripes!" he said. "They're laughing already. They're laughing at her book!"

What is the plot of the story?

[1] IMAGE OF SPLENDOR By LU KELLA From Venus to Earth, and all the way between, it was a hell of a world for men ... and Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly particularly. [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Summer 1955. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] The intercom roared fit to blow O'Rielly back to Venus. [5] "Burner Four!" [6] "On my way, sir!" [7] At the first flash of red on the bank of meters Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly had slammed the safety helmet on his head; he was already throwing open the lock to the burner room. [8] The hot, throbbing rumble whipped around him and near crushed his breath away. [9] Power! [10] Power of the universe trapped here and ready to destroy its captors given one chance! [11] Swiftly O'Rielly unlocked the controls and reset them. [12] The throbbing rumble changed tone. [13] Old Callahan's voice crackled now through the helmet's ear contact. [14] "Well, Mr. [15] O'Rielly?" [16] "Fusion control two points low, sir." [17] O'Rielly wondered had Callahan passed out, was so long before the old Burner Chief demanded hoarsely, "Didn't you lock them controls before blast-off?" [18] "If every control hadn't been locked in correct setting," O'Rielly answered from his own angry bewilderment, "the error would have registered before blast-off—wouldn't it, sir?" [19] "So a control reset itself in flight, hey?" [20] "I don't know yet, sir." [21] "Well, Mr. O'Rielly, you better know before we orbit Earth!" [22] The icy knot in O'Rielly's stomach jerked tighter. [23] A dozen burners on this ship; why did something crazy have to happen to O'Rielly's? [24] In a hundred years, so the instructors—brisk females all—had told O'Rielly in pre-flight school, no control had ever been known to slip. [25] But one had moved here. [26] Not enough to cause serious trouble this far out from Earth. [27] On blast-down, though, with one jet below peak, the uneven thrust could throw the ship, crash it, the whole lovely thing and all aboard gone in a churning cloud. [28] Sweat pouring off him, O'Rielly prowled around his burner. [29] Design of the thing had been bossed by dames of course; what on Earth wasn't any more? [30] Anyway, nobody could get to a burner except through its watch room. [31] Anyone entered or left there, a bell clanged, lights flashed and a meter registered beside the Burnerman's bunk and on the Burner Chief's console up in the flight room full of beautifully efficient officers. [32] Ever since Venus blast-off O'Rielly had been in Four's watch room. [33] Nobody had passed through. [34] O'Rielly knew it. [35] Callahan knew it. [36] By now the Old Woman herself, Captain Millicent Hatwoody, had probably inquired what was in charge of Burner Four. [37] Well, ma'am, O'Rielly searched every cranny where even a three-tailed mouse of Venus could have stowed away. [38] His first flight, and O'Rielly saw himself washed out, busted to sweeper on the blast-off stands of some God-forsaken satellite. [39] He staggered back into his watch room. [40] And his brain was suddenly taken apart and slapped together again. [41] Felt that way. [42] She was sitting on his bunk. [43] No three-tailed mouse. [44] No Old Woman either. [45] Oh, she was a female human, though, this creature at which O'Rielly stood gaping. [46] Yes, ma'am! [47] "I was in your burner room." [48] Her voice matched the rest of her, a blend of loveliness unlike anything outside a guy's most secret dreams. [49] "I couldn't stand the heat any longer and I couldn't open that big door. [50] So I moved one of your controls a tiny bit. [51] All the noise in there, naturally you couldn't hear me walk out while your back was turned resetting the control." [52] O'Rielly suddenly felt like turning her over his knee and whaling her until she couldn't sit for a year. [53] This, mind you, he felt in an age where no Earth guy for a thousand years had dared raise so much as a breath against woman's supremacy in all matters. [54] That male character trait, however, did not seem to be the overpowering reason why O'Rielly, instead of laying violent hands upon this one's person, heard himself saying in sympathetic outrage, "A shame you had to go to all that bother to get out here!" [55] "You're so kind. [56] But I'm afraid I became rather sticky and smelly in there." [57] "They ought to cool the air in there with perfume! [58] I'll drop a suggestion in the Old Woman's box first chance I get." [59] "You're so thoughtful. [60] And do you have bathing facilities?" [61] "That door right there. [62] Oh, let me open it for you!" [63] "You're so sweet." [64] Her big dark eyes glowed with such pure innocence that O'Rielly could have torn down the universe and rebuilt it just for her. [65] Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly was floating on a pink cloud with heavenly music in his head. [66] Never felt so fine before. [67] Except on the Venus layover when he'd been roped into a dice game with a bunch of Venus lads who had a jug to cheer one's parting with one's money. [68] A bell suddenly clanged fit to wake the dead while the overhead lights flashed wildly. [69] Only the watch room door. [70] Only Callahan here now. [71] Old buzzard had a drooped nose like a pick, chin like a shovel. [72] When he talked he was like digging a hole in front of himself. [73] "Well, what about that control?" [74] "What control?" [75] "Your fusion control that got itself two points low!" [76] "Oh, that little thing." [77] Callahan said something through his teeth, then studied O'Rielly sharply. [78] "Hey, you been wetting your whistle on that Venus vino again? [79] Lemme smell your breath! [80] Bah. [81] Loaded yourself full of chlorophyll again probably. [82] All right, stand aside whilst I see your burner." [83] "Charmed to, Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly said while bowing gracefully. [84] "Higher than a swacked skunk's tail again," Callahan muttered, then snapped back over his shoulder, "Use your shower!" [85] O'Rielly stood considering his shower door. [86] Somehow he doubted that Burner Chief Terrence Callahan's mood, or Captain Millicent Hatwoody's, would be improved by knowledge of she who was in O'Rielly's shower now. [87] Not that the dear stowaway was less than charming. [88] Quite the contrary. [89] Oh, very quite! [90] "You rockhead!" [91] Only Callahan back from the burner. [92] "Didn't I tell you to shower the stink off yourself? [93] Old Woman's taking a Venus bigwig on tour the ship. [94] Old Woman catches you like you been rassling skunks she'll peel both our hides off. [95] Not to mention what she'll do anyway about your fusion control!" [96] "Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly responded courteously, "I have been thinking." [97] "With what? [98] Never mind, just keep on trying whilst I have a shower for myself here." [99] Wherewith Callahan reached hand for O'Rielly's shower door. [100] "Venus dames," O'Rielly said dreamily, "don't boss anything, do they?" [101] Callahan yelped like he'd been bit in the pants by a big Jupiter ant. [102] "O'Rielly! [103] You trying to get both of us condemned to a Uranus moon?" [104] Callahan also shot a wild look to the intercom switch. [105] It was in OFF position; the flight room full of fancy gold-lace petticoats could not have overheard from here. [106] Nevertheless Callahan's eyes rolled like the devil was behind him with the fork ready. [107] "O'Rielly, open your big ears whilst for your own good and mine I speak of certain matters. [108] "Thousand years ago, it was, the first flight reached Venus. [109] Guys got one look at them dames. [110] Had to bring some home or bust. [111] So then everybody on Earth got a look, mostly by TV only of course. [112] That did it. [113] Every guy on Earth began blowing his fuse over them dames. [114] Give up the shirt off his back, last buck in the bank, his own Earth dame or family—everything. [115] "Well, that's when Earth dames took over like armies of wild cats with knots in their tails. [116] Before the guys who'd brought the Venus dames to Earth could say anything they was taken apart too small to pick up with a blotter. [117] Earth dames wound up by flying the Venus ones back where they come from and serving notice if one ever set foot on Earth again there wouldn't be enough left of Venus to find with an electron microscope. [118] "Venus boys rared up and served notice that if Earth ever got any funny notions, right away there wouldn't be enough Earth left to hide in an atom's eyebrow. [119] Touchy as hornets on a hot griddle, them Venus guys. [120] Crazier than bed bugs about war. [121] Could smell a loose dollar a million light years away too. [122] Finagled around until they finally cooked up a deal. [123] "No Venus dames allowed within fifty miles of their port. [124] Earth guys stay inside the high-voltage fence. [125] Any dame caught trying to leave Venus thrown to the tigers for supper. [126] Same for any Earth guy caught around a Venus dame. [127] In return, Earth could buy practically everything at bargain basement prices." [128] "Oh, I was shown the history films in pre-flight," O'Rielly said, still dreamily. [129] "But not a peek of any Venus dame." [130] "Pray heaven you'll never lay eyes on one nor have one get within ten foot of you! [131] Even though you'd know she'd be your damnation wouldn't make a whit difference—you'd still act sappier than thirty-seven angels flying on vino." [132] Callahan suddenly stared at O'Rielly. [133] "Holy hollering saints!" [134] "Now, now, Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly responded with an airy laugh. [135] "No Earth guy for a hundred twenty-five years been near one and lived to tell it, has he?" [136] "So the whispers run," Callahan murmured with a queer flame dancing into his eyes. [137] "So the old whispers still run." [138] "Never a name, though. [139] Never how it was done." [140] O'Rielly snorted. [141] "Probably just a goofy tale set loose by some old space bum." [142] "Oh?" [143] Callahan bristled up like a bad name had been bandied about. [144] "Seen them ditty bags Venus bigwigs have, ain't you? [145] Some big enough to stuff a cow in. [146] Notice how nobody ever dares question a bigwig's bags, even through customs? [147] Just run 'em through the big Geiger that tells whether there's any fusionable junk inside. [148] Well, our boy got himself one of them bags, stuffed himself inside and joined a bigwig's pile of 'em. [149] "Didn't pull it whilst on the Venus port during a layover either, when a crew check would of turned him up missing. [150] Pulled it on vacation. [151] Started on the Earth end. [152] Made himself a pair of beards to paste on his ears of course. [153] Wove Jupiter wiggle worms in to keep the beards moving. [154] Wasn't like the real thing, but good enough to flimflam Venus guys." [155] With suddenly enlivened interest O'Rielly looked at Callahan. [156] "Hey, how come you know so much?" [157] "Hah? [158] What?" [159] Callahan blinked like waking from a trance; even groaned to himself, something that sounded like, "Blabbering like I'd had a nip myself—or one of them dillies was radiating nearby." [160] Then Callahan glared fit to drill holes in O'Rielly's head. [161] "Look! [162] I was a full Burnerman before you was born. [163] Been flying the spaces hundred twenty-five years now. [164] Had more chances to hear more—just hear more, you hear! [165] Only tried to clear your mind about Venus dames so you could put your brain on your control mess. [166] So now put it! [167] If you ain't high on vino and ain't been made nuts by a Venus dame, what answer do we feed the Old Woman?" [168] "Search me," Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly responded cheerfully. [169] "Of all the loony apprentices I ever had to answer the Old Woman for! [170] Awp, lemme out where I can think of something to save me own neck at least!" [171] Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from rolling on the deck with glee. [172] Old Callahan had been flimflammed for fair! [173] The dear little stowaway was saved! [174] And O'Rielly would now think of grand ways to save her lovely neck and his own forever. [175] O'Rielly's shower door, however, opened abruptly. [176] O'Rielly had not opened it. [177] O'Rielly, however, suffered a cruel stab of dismay. [178] Surely his dear stowaway had been listening through the door. [179] Why didn't she have brains enough to stay hid until Callahan was gone! [180] At sight of her, of course, Callahan's eyes near popped from his old head. [181] "Berta!" [182] "Oh, I'm Trillium," she assured Callahan sweetly. [183] "But Grandmamma's name is Berta and people say I'm just like she was a hundred and twenty-five years ago." [184] "Hah? [185] What?" [186] Callahan blinked like his brain had been taken apart and was being slapped together again. [187] "O'Rielly! [188] Awp, you angel-faced pirate, couldn't you hide her somewheres better than that? [189] Shut up, you don't have to explain to me, but God help the whole universe if we don't flimflam the Old Woman!" [190] With which ominous remark, rendered in a zesty devil-may-care manner, however, Callahan threw himself into O'Rielly's shower. [191] O'Rielly stood looking thoughtfully at lovely, womanly, exquisite Trillium. [192] Just like that, O'Rielly felt as sparkling of mind as a spiral nebula. [193] "My locker!" [194] he crowed with inspiration and yanked open the doors under his bunk. [195] He glimpsed a black ditty bag, also the cap and coverall uniform of a baggage boy. [196] "I threw them in there before you came on duty before blast-off," Trillium explained. [197] "I knew the burner room would be warm." [198] Trillium—with her shape—passing as a boy hustling bags through this ship. [199] O'Rielly chortled as he tucked her under his bunk. [200] "Now don't you worry about another thing!" [201] "Oh, I'm not," she assured him happily. [202] "Everything is going just the way Grandmamma knew it would!" [203] O'Rielly's shower opened and Callahan, glowing like a young bucko, bounced onto the bunk. [204] "Well, did you hide her good this time? [205] No, don't tell me! [206] I want to be surprised if the Old Woman ever finds her." [207] "If what old woman finds whom?" [208] a voice like thin ice crackling wanted to know. [209] The watch room's door had opened. [210] Wouldn't think the Old Woman was a day over seventy-five, let alone near two hundred. [211] Cut of her uniform probably lent a helping hand or three to the young snap of her figure. [212] Frosty blue of fancy hair-do, she was, though, and icy of eye as she looked at O'Rielly and Callahan still lolling on the bunk. [213] Her voice was an iceberg exploding. [214] "At attention!" [215] Never in his right mind would any crewman dare fail to come stiffly erect the instant the Old Woman appeared. [216] Behind her stood a colorfully robed specimen of Venus man. [217] Handsome as the devil himself. [218] Fit to snap lesser men in two with his highly bejeweled hands. [219] Fuzzy beards trailed from his ears and kept twitching lazily as he sneered at the spectacle of two men meekly acknowledging the superiority of a woman. [220] She was fit to put frost on a hydrogen burner. [221] "Mr. Callahan, I asked you a question, did I not?" [222] "Believe you did, ma'am," Callahan responded cheerfully. [223] "And the answer is, ma'am, that Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly and me was discussing—ah—matrimony, ma'am. [224] Mr. Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly here is considering it, ma'am." [225] Wasn't too bad a fib. [226] The more O'Rielly thought of Trillium, the more ideas he got of doing things he'd never dreamt of before in his life. [227] Yes, ma'am! [228] "Wasting your time talking nonsense!" [229] Old Woman's look was fit to freeze O'Rielly's brain, then she gave Callahan the look. [230] "I sent you down here to find the answer to that fusion control slippage!" [231] "Oh, you'll have the best answer you ever heard of before long, ma'am!" [232] Callahan assured her heartily. [233] "The subject of nonsense—I mean, women—merely chanced to arise whilst we was scientifically analyzing the control phenomenon, ma'am. [234] Naturally I offered this innocent young Burnerman the benefit of me long years of experience. [235] Why," Callahan said with a jaunty laugh, "dames mean nothing to me. [236] Indeed 'twouldn't bother me none if there wasn't one of the things left in the world! [237] Present company excepted, of course," Callahan hastened to say with a courtly bow. [238] "Stay at attention!" [239] Old Woman sniffed the air near Callahan's face, then in O'Rielly's vicinity. [240] "Smothered it with chlorophyll probably," she muttered through her teeth, "if it is that vino." [241] Something horrible as a plague flickered in her eyes, then the old ice was there again. [242] "Apprentice Burnerman, don't you know what your shower is for? [243] Then use it! [244] Mr. Callahan, remain at attention while I inspect this burner!" [245] She tendered a cool glance at the Venus bigwig. [246] "Care to join me, Your Excellency?" [247] "May as well." [248] His Excellency glanced at O'Rielly and Callahan much as he might at a couple of worms. [249] Could bet your last old sox no female ever told any Venus man what to do. [250] The shower units were equipped so no Burnerman need be more than two steps from his responsibility. [251] To keep the Old Woman from possibly blowing her gaskets completely, O'Rielly simply stepped in, shut the door, flipped a switch and tingled as he was electronically cleansed of person and clothes. [252] By time he finished, the Old Woman and His Excellency were already coming out of the burner room, dripping with sweat. [253] Old Woman opened the shower with her customary commanding air. [254] "You first, Your Excellency." [255] "My dear Captain," His Excellency replied like a smoothly drawn dagger, "always the lesser gender enjoys precedence." [256] No Earth dame ever admitted any guy was even equal to any female. [257] Old Woman, a prime symbol of her gender's superiority, whipped a razor edge onto her own words. [258] "Facilities of the Captain's quarters are more satisfactory." [259] "No more so than those of the Ambassadorial Suite." [260] Seeming to grind her teeth, the Old O Woman turned abruptly to leave O'Rielly's watch room. [261] Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from busting out laughing for joy. [262] Old Woman had been flimflammed for fair! [263] Dear Trillium was saved! [264] And betwixt O'Rielly's grand brain and Callahan's great experience she'd be happy forever. [265] A fine loud "thump," however, was now heard. [266] Old Woman whirled back and yanked open the doors under O'Rielly's bunk. [267] "Of all the sappy hiding places!" [268] Callahan yelped, in surprise of course. [269] "Trillium?" [270] His Excellency bellowed as if stung by one of the sabre-tailed hornets of his native planet. [271] "Trillium!" [272] "Trillium," O'Rielly pleaded in loving anguish, "why do you have to keep coming out of hiding just when nobody's going to find you?" [273] Her eyes merely became deep pools in which O'Rielly would have gladly drowned himself if he could. [274] "There are rewards," the Old Woman said with the deadly coldness of outer space, "for Earthmen found in a Venus woman's company, and for her leaving her planet." [275] "Shut up!" [276] His Excellency's ear beards were standing straight out sideways. [277] "I'll handle this!" [278] "May I remind His Excellency," the Old Woman snapped, "that I represent Earth and her dominion of space gained by right of original flight!" [279] "May I remind the Captain," His Excellency declared fit to be heard back to his planet, "that I am the Personal Ambassador of the President of Venus and this thing can mean war!" [280] "Yes! [281] War in which people will actually die!" [282] As His Excellency paled at that grisly remark, the Old Woman spoke through her teeth at O'Rielly, Callahan and Trillium. [283] "All right, come along!" [284] O'Rielly joined the death march gladly. [285] He felt the way Callahan looked: ready to wrap his arms around Trillium's brave loveliness and protect it to his last breath of life. [286] Old Woman led the way to her office. [287] Jabbed some buttons on her desk. [288] Panels on opposite walls lit up. [289] "Presidents of Earth and Venus, please," the Old Woman stated evenly. [290] "Interplanetary emergency." [291] Highly groomed flunkies appeared on the panels and were impersonally pleasant. [292] "Madame President's office. [293] She is in a Cabinet meeting." [294] "Mr. President's office. [295] He is in personal command of our glorious war efforts." [296] Old Woman sighed through her teeth. [297] "Venus woman aboard this ship. [298] Stowaway. [299] Rattle that around your belfries." [300] The flunkies' faces went slack with shock, then were replaced by a blizzard of scrambled faces and torrents of incoherent voices. [301] Finally on the Earth panel appeared the famous classic features. [302] "The facts, if you please, Captain Hatwoody." [303] The Venus panel finally held steady on universally notorious features, that were as fierce as an eagle's, in a fancy war helmet. [304] "Trillium! [305] My own granddaughter? [306] Impossible! [307] Dimdooly," Mr. President roared at his Excellency, "what's this nonsense?" [308] "Some loud creature is interfering," Madame President snapped with annoyance. [309] "Blasted fools still have the circuits crossed," Mr. President swore. [310] "Some silly female cackling now!" [311] The parties in the panels saw each other now. [312] Each one's left hand on a desk moved toward a big red button marked, ROCKETS. [313] "So," Mr. President said evenly. [314] "Another violation by your Earthmen." [315] "By your granddaughter, at least," Madame President replied coolly. [316] "An innocent child," Mr. President snapped, "obviously kidnapped by those two idiotic Earthmen there!" [317] "Oh, no, Grandpapa," Trillium said swiftly; "I stole away all by myself, and Mr. O'Rielly and Callahan have been very helpful." [318] "Impossible!" [319] Grandpapa President's ear beards stood near straight up as he roared, "You couldn't have stolen away by yourself! [320] Trillium, tell the truth!" [321] "Very well. [322] Grandmamma told me how." [323] "Obviously Trillium's poor little brain has been drugged," His Excellency Dimdooly declared. [324] "Grandmamma Berta wouldn't know the first thing about such things!" [325] "Impossible!" [326] Grandpapa President agreed. [327] "I've been married to her for a hundred and twenty-four and a half years and she's the finest rattle-brain I ever knew!" [328] "She learned," Trillium stated emphatically, "a hundred and twenty-five years ago." [329] "Hundred twenty-five," Grandpapa president growled like a boiling volcano. [330] "The year some Earthman.... Never did catch the devil.... Berta? [331] Impossible!" [332] Madame President's shapely finger now rested full on the button that could launch the fleets of war rockets that had been pre-aimed for a thousand years. [333] "I'm afraid your Ambassador is unwelcome now," Madame President stated coolly. [334] "Your granddaughter's actions have every mark of an invasion tactic by your government." [335] "What do you mean, her actions?" [336] Grandpapa President's finger now lay poised on the button that had been waiting a thousand years to blow Earth out of the universe. [337] "My grandchild was kidnapped by men under your official command! [338] Weren't you, Trillium dear?" [339] "No. [340] One of us stowing away was the only way we Venus women could bring our cause to the attention of Earth's President. [341] If Earth will only stop buying from Venus, you won't have any money to squander on your wars any longer no matter what happens to we revolutionaries!" [342] "Revolutionaries? [343] Such claptrap! [344] And what's wrong with my wars? [345] People have to have something to keep their minds off their troubles! [346] Nobody around here gets hurt. [347] Oh, maybe a few scratches here and there. [348] But nobody on Venus dies from the things any more." [349] "But Venus men are so excited all the time about going to war they haven't time for us women. [350] That's why we always radiated such a fatal attraction for Earthmen. [351] We want to be loved! [352] We want our own men home doing useful work!" [353] "Well, they do come home and do useful work! [354] Couple weeks every ten months. [355] Proven to be a highly efficient arrangement." [356] "More boys to run off to your old wars and more girls to stay home and be lonely!" [357] "Now you just listen to me, Trillium!" [358] Grandpapa President was all Venus manhood laying down the law. [359] "That's the way things have been on Venus for ten thousand years and all the women in the universe can't change it!" [360] "I have been in constant contact with my Cabinet during these conversations," Madame President said crisply. [361] "Earth is terminating all trade agreements with Venus as of this instant." [362] "What?" [363] Grandpapa's beards near pulled his ears off. [364] "It's not legal! [365] You can't get away with this!" [366] "Take your finger off that trigger, boy!" [367] a heavenly voice similar to Trillium's advised from the Venus panel. [368] Whereupon Grandpapa glared to one side. [369] "Berta! [370] What are you doing here? [371] I am deciding matters of the gravest interplanetary nature!" [372] "Were." [373] Features more beautifully mature than Trillium's crowded onto the panel too. [374] "From now on I'm doing the deciding." [375] "Nonsense! [376] You're only my wife!" [377] "And new President of Venus, elected by unanimous vote of all women." [378] "Impossible! [379] The men run Venus! [380] Nobody's turning this planet into another Earth where a man can't even sneeze unless some woman says so!" [381] "Take him away, girls," Berta ordered coolly, whereupon her spouse was yanked from view. [382] His bellows, however, could be heard yet. [383] "Unhand me, you fool creatures! [384] Guards! [385] Guards!" [386] "Save your breath," Berta advised him. [387] "And while you're in the cooler, enjoy this latest batch of surrender communiques. [388] We women are in control everywhere now." [389] "Dimmy," Trillium was saying firmly to His Excellency, "you have beat around the bush with me long enough. [390] Now say it!" [391] Dimdooly—the mighty, the lordly, who had sneered at the sight of mere Earthmen kowtowing to a mere woman—swelled up fit to blow his gaskets, then all the gas went out of him. [392] His ear beards, however, still had enough zip left to flutter like butterflies. [393] "Yes, Trillium dear. [394] I love only you. [395] Please marry me at your earliest convenience." [396] "Well, Grandmamma," Trillium said with a highly self-satisfied air, "it works. [397] And just like you said, Earthmen meant nothing once I knew we Venus women had our own men in our power." [398] "Those crewmen there," Grandmamma President said, "seem to be proof enough that we Venus women no longer radiate any threat to Earth's tranquility." [399] Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly sure felt like proof of something all of a sudden. [400] Worse than the hangover from that crap game with Venus vino. [401] He looked away from Trillium and took a look at Callahan. [402] Old guy looked away from Grandmamma President like he was packing the second biggest headache in history. [403] "Hmmmm, yes," Madame President of Earth observed. [404] "Reactions agree perfectly with the psychoanalytical research project we have been conducting on the subject of the Venus female influence. [405] Madame President of Venus, congratulations on your victory! [406] "Long may the superior sex reign on Venus too! [407] We shall be delighted to receive an Ambassadoress to discuss a new trade treaty at your earliest convenience." [408] "Thank you for cancelling the old trade agreements at the psychological moment," Grandmamma President said cordially. [409] "What with the communications mixup, we managed to have the scenes on these panels broadcast throughout all Venus. [410] When the rug went out from under the top man, the tide really turned in our favor. [411] Now, Trillium, you take over Dimmy's credentials." [412] "The Ambassadorial Suite, too," Madame President of Earth said graciously. [413] "Anything else now, Berta?" [414] "I should like," Grandmamma President Berta said charmingly, "that Mr. O'Rielly and Mr. Callahan be suitably rewarded for assisting our revolution better than they knew." [415] "Of course," Madame President of Earth was delighted to oblige. [416] "No doubt Captain Hatwoody knows what reward would satisfy their needs best." [417] The Madame Presidents switched to a private circuit, Trillium dragged Dimdooly off somewhere and the Old Woman eyed O'Rielly and Callahan. [418] Especially she eyed Callahan, like running chilled drills through his old conniving brain. [419] "I award the pair of you five minutes leisure before returning to your stations." [420] "Oh, well," O'Rielly muttered, once he and Callahan were safely beyond earshot, "could have been rewarded worse, I suppose." [421] "What you expect for being flimflammed by a foreign dame, the rings of Saturn? [422] Lucky we ain't programmed to be hung, shot and thrown to the crows for breakfast." [423] Callahan's old pick-and-shovel face wore a little grin like the cat that nobody could prove ate the canary. [424] "You—I mean, that Earth guy a hundred twenty-five years ago," O'Rielly said in sudden thought. [425] "If Venus dames wanted to be loved so bad, why did Trillium's Grandmamma let him go?" [426] "Venus guys wasn't so busy playing war all the time," Callahan mumbled, like to himself, "they'd of found out the answer centuries ago. [427] Yep, guess our boy was the only guy on Earth or Venus to find out and live. [428] Dames bossing both planets now, though, his old secret won't be one much longer. [429] Venus dames could of let it out centuries ago themselves but didn't, just to spite Earth probably. [430] Later, was part of organizing to take over Venus, I guess." [431] O'Rielly still had memories of the way he had felt about Trillium before her revolution. [432] "All right, Callahan, why did 'our boy' leave Grandmamma?" [433] "Yes, ma'am," Callahan sighed like he hadn't heard a word O'Rielly said, "you could sweet-talk 'em, kiss 'em and hold 'em tighter'n Billy-be-damned. [434] And that's all." [435] "I'm not sure," O'Rielly said, "what you mean by, 'that's all.'" [436] "Anybody ever seen anybody but a Venus guy come built with ear beards? [437] Course not." [438] "But I thought our boy was wearing the best fakes ever." [439] "Ain't nothing can match the natural growed-on variety, no, ma'am. [440] Venus guy kisses a Venus dame, his beards grabs her roundst the ears." [441] "So what?" [442] "Tickles 'em, boy, tickles 'em!"

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [1] IMAGE OF SPLENDOR By LU KELLA From Venus to Earth, and all the way between, it was a hell of a world for men ... and Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly particularly. 2. [4] The intercom roared fit to blow O'Rielly back to Venus. 3. [7] At the first flash of red on the bank of meters Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly had slammed the safety helmet on his head; he was already throwing open the lock to the burner room. 4. [11] Swiftly O'Rielly unlocked the controls and reset them. 5. [16] "Fusion control two points low, sir." 6. [26] Not enough to cause serious trouble this far out from Earth. 7. [27] On blast-down, though, with one jet below peak, the uneven thrust could throw the ship, crash it, the whole lovely thing and all aboard gone in a churning cloud. 8. [42] She was sitting on his bunk. 9. [47] "I was in your burner room." 10. [49] "I couldn't stand the heat any longer and I couldn't open that big door. 11. [50] So I moved one of your controls a tiny bit. 12. [51] All the noise in there, naturally you couldn't hear me walk out while your back was turned resetting the control." 13. [175] O'Rielly's shower door, however, opened abruptly. 14. [176] O'Rielly had not opened it. 15. [195] He glimpsed a black ditty bag, also the cap and coverall uniform of a baggage boy. 16. [196] "I threw them in there before you came on duty before blast-off," Trillium explained. 17. [197] "I knew the burner room would be warm." 18. [201] "Now don't you worry about another thing!" 19. [202] "Everything is going just the way Grandmamma knew it would!" 20. [207] "If what old woman finds whom?" 21. [208] The watch room's door had opened. 22. [209] Wouldn't think the Old Woman was a day over seventy-five, let alone near two hundred. 23. [210] Cut of her uniform probably lent a helping hand or three to the young snap of her figure. 24. [211] Frosty blue of fancy hair-do, she was, though, and icy of eye as she looked at O'Rielly and Callahan still lolling on the bunk. 25. [212] Her voice was an iceberg exploding. 26. [213] "At attention!" 27. [216] Behind her stood a colorfully robed specimen of Venus man. 28. [217] Handsome as the devil himself. 29. [218] Fit to snap lesser men in two with his highly bejeweled hands. 30. [219] Fuzzy beards trailed from his ears and kept twitching lazily as he sneered at the spectacle of two men meekly acknowledging the superiority of a woman. 31. [220] She was fit to put frost on a hydrogen burner. 32. [221] "Mr. Callahan, I asked you a question, did I not?" 33. [222] "Believe you did, ma'am," Callahan responded cheerfully. 34. [223] "And the answer is, ma'am, that Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly and me was discussing—ah—matrimony, ma'am. 35. [224] Mr. Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly here is considering it, ma'am." 36. [228] "Wasting your time talking nonsense!" 37. [229] Old Woman's look was fit to freeze O'Rielly's brain, then she gave Callahan the look. 38. [230] "I sent you down here to find the answer to that fusion control slippage!" 39. [231] "Oh, you'll have the best answer you ever heard of before long, ma'am!" 40. [232] Callahan assured her heartily. 41. [233] "The subject of nonsense—I mean, women—merely chanced to arise whilst we was scientifically analyzing the control phenomenon, ma'am. 42. [234] Naturally I offered this innocent young Burnerman the benefit of me long years of experience. 43. [235] Why," Callahan said with a jaunty laugh, "dames mean nothing to me. 44. [236] Indeed 'twouldn't bother me none if there wasn't one of the things left in the world! 45. [237] Present company excepted, of course," Callahan hastened to say with a courtly bow. 46. [238] "Stay at attention!" 47. [239] Old Woman sniffed the air near Callahan's face, then in O'Rielly's vicinity. 48. [240] "Smothered it with chlorophyll probably," she muttered through her teeth, "if it is that vino." 49. [241] Something horrible as a plague flickered in her eyes, then the old ice was there again. 50. [242] "Apprentice Burnerman, don't you know what your shower is for? 51. [243] Then use it! 52. [244] Mr. Callahan, remain at attention while I inspect this burner!" 53. [245] She tendered a cool glance at the Venus bigwig. 54. [246] "Care to join me, Your Excellency?" 55. [247] "May as well." 56. [248] His Excellency glanced at O'Rielly and Callahan much as he might at a couple of worms. 57. [249] Could bet your last old sox no female ever told any Venus man what to do. 58. [250] The shower units were equipped so no Burnerman need be more than two steps from his responsibility. 59. [251] To keep the Old Woman from possibly blowing her gaskets completely, O'Rielly simply stepped in, shut the door, flipped a switch and tingled as he was electronically cleansed of person and clothes. 60. [252] By time he finished, the Old Woman and His Excellency were already coming out of the burner room, dripping with sweat. 61. [253] Old Woman opened the shower with her customary commanding air. 62. [254] "You first, Your Excellency." 63. [255] "My dear Captain," His Excellency replied like a smoothly drawn dagger, "always the lesser gender enjoys precedence." 64. [256] No Earth dame ever admitted any guy was even equal to any female. 65. [257] Old Woman, a prime symbol of her gender's superiority, whipped a razor edge onto her own words. 66. [258] "Facilities of the Captain's quarters are more satisfactory." 67. [259] "No more so than those of the Ambassadorial Suite." 68. [260] Seeming to grind her teeth, the Old O Woman turned abruptly to leave O'Rielly's watch room. 69. [261] Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from busting out laughing for joy. 70. [262] Old Woman had been flimflammed for fair! 71. [263] Dear Trillium was saved! 72. [264] And betwixt O'Rielly's grand brain and Callahan's great experience she'd be happy forever. 73. [265] A fine loud "thump," however, was now heard. 74. [266] Old Woman whirled back and yanked open the doors under O'Rielly's bunk. 75. [267] "Of all the sappy hiding places!" 76. [268] Callahan yelped, in surprise of course. 77. [269] "Trillium?" 78. [270] His Excellency bellowed as if stung by one of the sabre-tailed hornets of his native planet. 79. [271] "Trillium!" 80. [272] "Trillium," O'Rielly pleaded in loving anguish, "why do you have to keep coming out of hiding just when nobody's going to find you?" 81. [273] Her eyes merely became deep pools in which O'Rielly would have gladly drowned himself if he could. 82. [274] "There are rewards," the Old Woman said with the deadly coldness of outer space, "for Earthmen found in a Venus woman's company, and for her leaving her planet." 83. [275] "Shut up!" 84. [276] His Excellency's ear beards were standing straight out sideways. 85. [277] "I'll handle this!" 86. [278] "May I remind His Excellency," the Old Woman snapped, "that I represent Earth and her dominion of space gained by right of original flight!" 87. [279] "May I remind the Captain," His Excellency declared fit to be heard back to his planet, "that I am the Personal Ambassador of the President of Venus and this thing can mean war!" 88. [280] "Yes! 89. [281] War in which people will actually die!" 90. [282] As His Excellency paled at that grisly remark, the Old Woman spoke through her teeth at O'Rielly, Callahan and Trillium. 91. [283] "All right, come along!" 92. [284] O'Rielly joined the death march gladly. 93. [285] He felt the way Callahan looked: ready to wrap his arms around Trillium's brave loveliness and protect it to his last breath of life. 94. [286] Old Woman led the way to her office. 95. [287] Jabbed some buttons on her desk. 96. [288] Panels on opposite walls lit up. 97. [289] "Presidents of Earth and Venus, please," the Old Woman stated evenly. 98. [290] "Interplanetary emergency." 99. [291] Highly groomed flunkies appeared on the panels and were impersonally pleasant. 100. [292] "Madame President's office. 101. [293] She is in a Cabinet meeting." 102. [294] "Mr. President's office. 103. [295] He is in personal command of our glorious war efforts." 104. [296] Old Woman sighed through her teeth. 105. [297] "Venus woman aboard this ship. 106. [298] Stowaway. 107. [299] Rattle that around your belfries." 108. [300] The flunkies' faces went slack with shock, then were replaced by a blizzard of scrambled faces and torrents of incoherent voices. 109. [301] Finally on the Earth panel appeared the famous classic features. 110. [302] "The facts, if you please, Captain Hatwoody." 111. [303] The Venus panel finally held steady on universally notorious features, that were as fierce as an eagle's, in a fancy war helmet. 112. [304] "Trillium! 113. [305] My own granddaughter? 114. [306] Impossible! 115. [307] Dimdooly," Mr. President roared at his Excellency, "what's this nonsense?" 116. [308] "Some loud creature is interfering," Madame President snapped with annoyance. 117. [309] "Blasted fools still have the circuits crossed," Mr. President swore. 118. [310] "Some silly female cackling now!" 119. [311] The parties in the panels saw each other now. 120. [312] Each one's left hand on a desk moved toward a big red button marked, ROCKETS. 121. [313] "So," Mr. President said evenly. 122. [314] "Another violation by your Earthmen." 123. [315] "By your granddaughter, at least," Madame President replied coolly. 124. [316] "An innocent child," Mr. President snapped, "obviously kidnapped by those two idiotic Earthmen there!" 125. [317] "Oh, no, Grandpapa," Trillium said swiftly; "I stole away all by myself, and Mr. O'Rielly and Callahan have been very helpful." 126. [318] "Impossible!" 127. [319] Grandpapa President's ear beards stood near straight up as he roared, "You couldn't have stolen away by yourself! 128. [320] Trillium, tell the truth!" 129. [321] "Very well. 130. [322] Grandmamma told me how." 131. [323] "Obviously Trillium's poor little brain has been drugged," His Excellency Dimdooly declared. 132. [324] "Grandmamma Berta wouldn't know the first thing about such things!" 133. [325] "Impossible!" 134. [326] Grandpapa President agreed. 135. [327] "I've been married to her for a hundred and twenty-four and a half years and she's the finest rattle-brain I ever knew!" 136. [328] "She learned," Trillium stated emphatically, "a hundred and twenty-five years ago." 137. [329] "Hundred twenty-five," Grandpapa president growled like a boiling volcano. 138. [330] "The year some Earthman.... Never did catch the devil.... Berta? 139. [331] Impossible!" 140. [332] Madame President's shapely finger now rested full on the button that could launch the fleets of war rockets that had been pre-aimed for a thousand years. 141. [333] "I'm afraid your Ambassador is unwelcome now," Madame President stated coolly. 142. [334] "Your granddaughter's actions have every mark of an invasion tactic by your government." 143. [335] "What do you mean, her actions?" 144. [336] Grandpapa President's finger now lay poised on the button that had been waiting a thousand years to blow Earth out of the universe. 145. [337] "My grandchild was kidnapped by men under your official command! 146. [338] Weren't you, Trillium dear?" 147. [339] "No. 148. [340] One of us stowing away was the only way we Venus women could bring our cause to the attention of Earth's President. 149. [341] If Earth will only stop buying from Venus, you won't have any money to squander on your wars any longer no matter what happens to we revolutionaries!" 150. [342] "Revolutionaries? 151. [343] Such claptrap! 152. [344] And what's wrong with my wars? 153. [345] People have to have something to keep their minds off their troubles! 154. [346] Nobody around here gets hurt. 155. [347] Oh, maybe a few scratches here and there. 156. [348] But nobody on Venus dies from the things any more." 157. [349] "But Venus men are so excited all the time about going to war they haven't time for us women. 158. [350] That's why we always radiated such a fatal attraction for Earthmen. 159. [351] We want to be loved! 160. [352] We want our own men home doing useful work!" 161. [353] "Well, they do come home and do useful work! 162. [354] Couple weeks every ten months. 163. [355] Proven to be a highly efficient arrangement." 164. [356] "More boys to run off to your old wars and more girls to stay home and be lonely!" 165. [357] "Now you just listen to me, Trillium!" 166. [358] Grandpapa President was all Venus manhood laying down the law. 167. [359] "That's the way things have been on Venus for ten thousand years and all the women in the universe can't change it!" 168. [360] "I have been in constant contact with my Cabinet during these conversations," Madame President said crisply. 169. [361] "Earth is terminating all trade agreements with Venus as of this instant." 170. [362] "What?" 171. [363] Grandpapa's beards near pulled his ears off. 172. [364] "It's not legal! 173. [365] You can't get away with this!" 174. [366] "Take your finger off that trigger, boy!" 175. [367] a heavenly voice similar to Trillium's advised from the Venus panel. 176. [368] Whereupon Grandpapa glared to one side. 177. [369] "Berta! 178. [370] What are you doing here? 179. [371] I am deciding matters of the gravest interplanetary nature!" 180. [372] "Were." 181. [373] Features more beautifully mature than Trillium's crowded onto the panel too. 182. [374] "From now on I'm doing the deciding." 183. [375] "Nonsense! 184. [376] You're

Describe the setting of the story.

[1] IMAGE OF SPLENDOR By LU KELLA From Venus to Earth, and all the way between, it was a hell of a world for men ... and Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly particularly. [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Summer 1955. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] The intercom roared fit to blow O'Rielly back to Venus. [5] "Burner Four!" [6] "On my way, sir!" [7] At the first flash of red on the bank of meters Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly had slammed the safety helmet on his head; he was already throwing open the lock to the burner room. [8] The hot, throbbing rumble whipped around him and near crushed his breath away. [9] Power! [10] Power of the universe trapped here and ready to destroy its captors given one chance! [11] Swiftly O'Rielly unlocked the controls and reset them. [12] The throbbing rumble changed tone. [13] Old Callahan's voice crackled now through the helmet's ear contact. [14] "Well, Mr. [15] O'Rielly?" [16] "Fusion control two points low, sir." [17] O'Rielly wondered had Callahan passed out, was so long before the old Burner Chief demanded hoarsely, "Didn't you lock them controls before blast-off?" [18] "If every control hadn't been locked in correct setting," O'Rielly answered from his own angry bewilderment, "the error would have registered before blast-off—wouldn't it, sir?" [19] "So a control reset itself in flight, hey?" [20] "I don't know yet, sir." [21] "Well, Mr. O'Rielly, you better know before we orbit Earth!" [22] The icy knot in O'Rielly's stomach jerked tighter. [23] A dozen burners on this ship; why did something crazy have to happen to O'Rielly's? [24] In a hundred years, so the instructors—brisk females all—had told O'Rielly in pre-flight school, no control had ever been known to slip. [25] But one had moved here. [26] Not enough to cause serious trouble this far out from Earth. [27] On blast-down, though, with one jet below peak, the uneven thrust could throw the ship, crash it, the whole lovely thing and all aboard gone in a churning cloud. [28] Sweat pouring off him, O'Rielly prowled around his burner. [29] Design of the thing had been bossed by dames of course; what on Earth wasn't any more? [30] Anyway, nobody could get to a burner except through its watch room. [31] Anyone entered or left there, a bell clanged, lights flashed and a meter registered beside the Burnerman's bunk and on the Burner Chief's console up in the flight room full of beautifully efficient officers. [32] Ever since Venus blast-off O'Rielly had been in Four's watch room. [33] Nobody had passed through. [34] O'Rielly knew it. [35] Callahan knew it. [36] By now the Old Woman herself, Captain Millicent Hatwoody, had probably inquired what was in charge of Burner Four. [37] Well, ma'am, O'Rielly searched every cranny where even a three-tailed mouse of Venus could have stowed away. [38] His first flight, and O'Rielly saw himself washed out, busted to sweeper on the blast-off stands of some God-forsaken satellite. [39] He staggered back into his watch room. [40] And his brain was suddenly taken apart and slapped together again. [41] Felt that way. [42] She was sitting on his bunk. [43] No three-tailed mouse. [44] No Old Woman either. [45] Oh, she was a female human, though, this creature at which O'Rielly stood gaping. [46] Yes, ma'am! [47] "I was in your burner room." [48] Her voice matched the rest of her, a blend of loveliness unlike anything outside a guy's most secret dreams. [49] "I couldn't stand the heat any longer and I couldn't open that big door. [50] So I moved one of your controls a tiny bit. [51] All the noise in there, naturally you couldn't hear me walk out while your back was turned resetting the control." [52] O'Rielly suddenly felt like turning her over his knee and whaling her until she couldn't sit for a year. [53] This, mind you, he felt in an age where no Earth guy for a thousand years had dared raise so much as a breath against woman's supremacy in all matters. [54] That male character trait, however, did not seem to be the overpowering reason why O'Rielly, instead of laying violent hands upon this one's person, heard himself saying in sympathetic outrage, "A shame you had to go to all that bother to get out here!" [55] "You're so kind. [56] But I'm afraid I became rather sticky and smelly in there." [57] "They ought to cool the air in there with perfume! [58] I'll drop a suggestion in the Old Woman's box first chance I get." [59] "You're so thoughtful. [60] And do you have bathing facilities?" [61] "That door right there. [62] Oh, let me open it for you!" [63] "You're so sweet." [64] Her big dark eyes glowed with such pure innocence that O'Rielly could have torn down the universe and rebuilt it just for her. [65] Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly was floating on a pink cloud with heavenly music in his head. [66] Never felt so fine before. [67] Except on the Venus layover when he'd been roped into a dice game with a bunch of Venus lads who had a jug to cheer one's parting with one's money. [68] A bell suddenly clanged fit to wake the dead while the overhead lights flashed wildly. [69] Only the watch room door. [70] Only Callahan here now. [71] Old buzzard had a drooped nose like a pick, chin like a shovel. [72] When he talked he was like digging a hole in front of himself. [73] "Well, what about that control?" [74] "What control?" [75] "Your fusion control that got itself two points low!" [76] "Oh, that little thing." [77] Callahan said something through his teeth, then studied O'Rielly sharply. [78] "Hey, you been wetting your whistle on that Venus vino again? [79] Lemme smell your breath! [80] Bah. [81] Loaded yourself full of chlorophyll again probably. [82] All right, stand aside whilst I see your burner." [83] "Charmed to, Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly said while bowing gracefully. [84] "Higher than a swacked skunk's tail again," Callahan muttered, then snapped back over his shoulder, "Use your shower!" [85] O'Rielly stood considering his shower door. [86] Somehow he doubted that Burner Chief Terrence Callahan's mood, or Captain Millicent Hatwoody's, would be improved by knowledge of she who was in O'Rielly's shower now. [87] Not that the dear stowaway was less than charming. [88] Quite the contrary. [89] Oh, very quite! [90] "You rockhead!" [91] Only Callahan back from the burner. [92] "Didn't I tell you to shower the stink off yourself? [93] Old Woman's taking a Venus bigwig on tour the ship. [94] Old Woman catches you like you been rassling skunks she'll peel both our hides off. [95] Not to mention what she'll do anyway about your fusion control!" [96] "Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly responded courteously, "I have been thinking." [97] "With what? [98] Never mind, just keep on trying whilst I have a shower for myself here." [99] Wherewith Callahan reached hand for O'Rielly's shower door. [100] "Venus dames," O'Rielly said dreamily, "don't boss anything, do they?" [101] Callahan yelped like he'd been bit in the pants by a big Jupiter ant. [102] "O'Rielly! [103] You trying to get both of us condemned to a Uranus moon?" [104] Callahan also shot a wild look to the intercom switch. [105] It was in OFF position; the flight room full of fancy gold-lace petticoats could not have overheard from here. [106] Nevertheless Callahan's eyes rolled like the devil was behind him with the fork ready. [107] "O'Rielly, open your big ears whilst for your own good and mine I speak of certain matters. [108] "Thousand years ago, it was, the first flight reached Venus. [109] Guys got one look at them dames. [110] Had to bring some home or bust. [111] So then everybody on Earth got a look, mostly by TV only of course. [112] That did it. [113] Every guy on Earth began blowing his fuse over them dames. [114] Give up the shirt off his back, last buck in the bank, his own Earth dame or family—everything. [115] "Well, that's when Earth dames took over like armies of wild cats with knots in their tails. [116] Before the guys who'd brought the Venus dames to Earth could say anything they was taken apart too small to pick up with a blotter. [117] Earth dames wound up by flying the Venus ones back where they come from and serving notice if one ever set foot on Earth again there wouldn't be enough left of Venus to find with an electron microscope. [118] "Venus boys rared up and served notice that if Earth ever got any funny notions, right away there wouldn't be enough Earth left to hide in an atom's eyebrow. [119] Touchy as hornets on a hot griddle, them Venus guys. [120] Crazier than bed bugs about war. [121] Could smell a loose dollar a million light years away too. [122] Finagled around until they finally cooked up a deal. [123] "No Venus dames allowed within fifty miles of their port. [124] Earth guys stay inside the high-voltage fence. [125] Any dame caught trying to leave Venus thrown to the tigers for supper. [126] Same for any Earth guy caught around a Venus dame. [127] In return, Earth could buy practically everything at bargain basement prices." [128] "Oh, I was shown the history films in pre-flight," O'Rielly said, still dreamily. [129] "But not a peek of any Venus dame." [130] "Pray heaven you'll never lay eyes on one nor have one get within ten foot of you! [131] Even though you'd know she'd be your damnation wouldn't make a whit difference—you'd still act sappier than thirty-seven angels flying on vino." [132] Callahan suddenly stared at O'Rielly. [133] "Holy hollering saints!" [134] "Now, now, Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly responded with an airy laugh. [135] "No Earth guy for a hundred twenty-five years been near one and lived to tell it, has he?" [136] "So the whispers run," Callahan murmured with a queer flame dancing into his eyes. [137] "So the old whispers still run." [138] "Never a name, though. [139] Never how it was done." [140] O'Rielly snorted. [141] "Probably just a goofy tale set loose by some old space bum." [142] "Oh?" [143] Callahan bristled up like a bad name had been bandied about. [144] "Seen them ditty bags Venus bigwigs have, ain't you? [145] Some big enough to stuff a cow in. [146] Notice how nobody ever dares question a bigwig's bags, even through customs? [147] Just run 'em through the big Geiger that tells whether there's any fusionable junk inside. [148] Well, our boy got himself one of them bags, stuffed himself inside and joined a bigwig's pile of 'em. [149] "Didn't pull it whilst on the Venus port during a layover either, when a crew check would of turned him up missing. [150] Pulled it on vacation. [151] Started on the Earth end. [152] Made himself a pair of beards to paste on his ears of course. [153] Wove Jupiter wiggle worms in to keep the beards moving. [154] Wasn't like the real thing, but good enough to flimflam Venus guys." [155] With suddenly enlivened interest O'Rielly looked at Callahan. [156] "Hey, how come you know so much?" [157] "Hah? [158] What?" [159] Callahan blinked like waking from a trance; even groaned to himself, something that sounded like, "Blabbering like I'd had a nip myself—or one of them dillies was radiating nearby." [160] Then Callahan glared fit to drill holes in O'Rielly's head. [161] "Look! [162] I was a full Burnerman before you was born. [163] Been flying the spaces hundred twenty-five years now. [164] Had more chances to hear more—just hear more, you hear! [165] Only tried to clear your mind about Venus dames so you could put your brain on your control mess. [166] So now put it! [167] If you ain't high on vino and ain't been made nuts by a Venus dame, what answer do we feed the Old Woman?" [168] "Search me," Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly responded cheerfully. [169] "Of all the loony apprentices I ever had to answer the Old Woman for! [170] Awp, lemme out where I can think of something to save me own neck at least!" [171] Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from rolling on the deck with glee. [172] Old Callahan had been flimflammed for fair! [173] The dear little stowaway was saved! [174] And O'Rielly would now think of grand ways to save her lovely neck and his own forever. [175] O'Rielly's shower door, however, opened abruptly. [176] O'Rielly had not opened it. [177] O'Rielly, however, suffered a cruel stab of dismay. [178] Surely his dear stowaway had been listening through the door. [179] Why didn't she have brains enough to stay hid until Callahan was gone! [180] At sight of her, of course, Callahan's eyes near popped from his old head. [181] "Berta!" [182] "Oh, I'm Trillium," she assured Callahan sweetly. [183] "But Grandmamma's name is Berta and people say I'm just like she was a hundred and twenty-five years ago." [184] "Hah? [185] What?" [186] Callahan blinked like his brain had been taken apart and was being slapped together again. [187] "O'Rielly! [188] Awp, you angel-faced pirate, couldn't you hide her somewheres better than that? [189] Shut up, you don't have to explain to me, but God help the whole universe if we don't flimflam the Old Woman!" [190] With which ominous remark, rendered in a zesty devil-may-care manner, however, Callahan threw himself into O'Rielly's shower. [191] O'Rielly stood looking thoughtfully at lovely, womanly, exquisite Trillium. [192] Just like that, O'Rielly felt as sparkling of mind as a spiral nebula. [193] "My locker!" [194] he crowed with inspiration and yanked open the doors under his bunk. [195] He glimpsed a black ditty bag, also the cap and coverall uniform of a baggage boy. [196] "I threw them in there before you came on duty before blast-off," Trillium explained. [197] "I knew the burner room would be warm." [198] Trillium—with her shape—passing as a boy hustling bags through this ship. [199] O'Rielly chortled as he tucked her under his bunk. [200] "Now don't you worry about another thing!" [201] "Oh, I'm not," she assured him happily. [202] "Everything is going just the way Grandmamma knew it would!" [203] O'Rielly's shower opened and Callahan, glowing like a young bucko, bounced onto the bunk. [204] "Well, did you hide her good this time? [205] No, don't tell me! [206] I want to be surprised if the Old Woman ever finds her." [207] "If what old woman finds whom?" [208] a voice like thin ice crackling wanted to know. [209] The watch room's door had opened. [210] Wouldn't think the Old Woman was a day over seventy-five, let alone near two hundred. [211] Cut of her uniform probably lent a helping hand or three to the young snap of her figure. [212] Frosty blue of fancy hair-do, she was, though, and icy of eye as she looked at O'Rielly and Callahan still lolling on the bunk. [213] Her voice was an iceberg exploding. [214] "At attention!" [215] Never in his right mind would any crewman dare fail to come stiffly erect the instant the Old Woman appeared. [216] Behind her stood a colorfully robed specimen of Venus man. [217] Handsome as the devil himself. [218] Fit to snap lesser men in two with his highly bejeweled hands. [219] Fuzzy beards trailed from his ears and kept twitching lazily as he sneered at the spectacle of two men meekly acknowledging the superiority of a woman. [220] She was fit to put frost on a hydrogen burner. [221] "Mr. Callahan, I asked you a question, did I not?" [222] "Believe you did, ma'am," Callahan responded cheerfully. [223] "And the answer is, ma'am, that Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly and me was discussing—ah—matrimony, ma'am. [224] Mr. Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly here is considering it, ma'am." [225] Wasn't too bad a fib. [226] The more O'Rielly thought of Trillium, the more ideas he got of doing things he'd never dreamt of before in his life. [227] Yes, ma'am! [228] "Wasting your time talking nonsense!" [229] Old Woman's look was fit to freeze O'Rielly's brain, then she gave Callahan the look. [230] "I sent you down here to find the answer to that fusion control slippage!" [231] "Oh, you'll have the best answer you ever heard of before long, ma'am!" [232] Callahan assured her heartily. [233] "The subject of nonsense—I mean, women—merely chanced to arise whilst we was scientifically analyzing the control phenomenon, ma'am. [234] Naturally I offered this innocent young Burnerman the benefit of me long years of experience. [235] Why," Callahan said with a jaunty laugh, "dames mean nothing to me. [236] Indeed 'twouldn't bother me none if there wasn't one of the things left in the world! [237] Present company excepted, of course," Callahan hastened to say with a courtly bow. [238] "Stay at attention!" [239] Old Woman sniffed the air near Callahan's face, then in O'Rielly's vicinity. [240] "Smothered it with chlorophyll probably," she muttered through her teeth, "if it is that vino." [241] Something horrible as a plague flickered in her eyes, then the old ice was there again. [242] "Apprentice Burnerman, don't you know what your shower is for? [243] Then use it! [244] Mr. Callahan, remain at attention while I inspect this burner!" [245] She tendered a cool glance at the Venus bigwig. [246] "Care to join me, Your Excellency?" [247] "May as well." [248] His Excellency glanced at O'Rielly and Callahan much as he might at a couple of worms. [249] Could bet your last old sox no female ever told any Venus man what to do. [250] The shower units were equipped so no Burnerman need be more than two steps from his responsibility. [251] To keep the Old Woman from possibly blowing her gaskets completely, O'Rielly simply stepped in, shut the door, flipped a switch and tingled as he was electronically cleansed of person and clothes. [252] By time he finished, the Old Woman and His Excellency were already coming out of the burner room, dripping with sweat. [253] Old Woman opened the shower with her customary commanding air. [254] "You first, Your Excellency." [255] "My dear Captain," His Excellency replied like a smoothly drawn dagger, "always the lesser gender enjoys precedence." [256] No Earth dame ever admitted any guy was even equal to any female. [257] Old Woman, a prime symbol of her gender's superiority, whipped a razor edge onto her own words. [258] "Facilities of the Captain's quarters are more satisfactory." [259] "No more so than those of the Ambassadorial Suite." [260] Seeming to grind her teeth, the Old O Woman turned abruptly to leave O'Rielly's watch room. [261] Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from busting out laughing for joy. [262] Old Woman had been flimflammed for fair! [263] Dear Trillium was saved! [264] And betwixt O'Rielly's grand brain and Callahan's great experience she'd be happy forever. [265] A fine loud "thump," however, was now heard. [266] Old Woman whirled back and yanked open the doors under O'Rielly's bunk. [267] "Of all the sappy hiding places!" [268] Callahan yelped, in surprise of course. [269] "Trillium?" [270] His Excellency bellowed as if stung by one of the sabre-tailed hornets of his native planet. [271] "Trillium!" [272] "Trillium," O'Rielly pleaded in loving anguish, "why do you have to keep coming out of hiding just when nobody's going to find you?" [273] Her eyes merely became deep pools in which O'Rielly would have gladly drowned himself if he could. [274] "There are rewards," the Old Woman said with the deadly coldness of outer space, "for Earthmen found in a Venus woman's company, and for her leaving her planet." [275] "Shut up!" [276] His Excellency's ear beards were standing straight out sideways. [277] "I'll handle this!" [278] "May I remind His Excellency," the Old Woman snapped, "that I represent Earth and her dominion of space gained by right of original flight!" [279] "May I remind the Captain," His Excellency declared fit to be heard back to his planet, "that I am the Personal Ambassador of the President of Venus and this thing can mean war!" [280] "Yes! [281] War in which people will actually die!" [282] As His Excellency paled at that grisly remark, the Old Woman spoke through her teeth at O'Rielly, Callahan and Trillium. [283] "All right, come along!" [284] O'Rielly joined the death march gladly. [285] He felt the way Callahan looked: ready to wrap his arms around Trillium's brave loveliness and protect it to his last breath of life. [286] Old Woman led the way to her office. [287] Jabbed some buttons on her desk. [288] Panels on opposite walls lit up. [289] "Presidents of Earth and Venus, please," the Old Woman stated evenly. [290] "Interplanetary emergency." [291] Highly groomed flunkies appeared on the panels and were impersonally pleasant. [292] "Madame President's office. [293] She is in a Cabinet meeting." [294] "Mr. President's office. [295] He is in personal command of our glorious war efforts." [296] Old Woman sighed through her teeth. [297] "Venus woman aboard this ship. [298] Stowaway. [299] Rattle that around your belfries." [300] The flunkies' faces went slack with shock, then were replaced by a blizzard of scrambled faces and torrents of incoherent voices. [301] Finally on the Earth panel appeared the famous classic features. [302] "The facts, if you please, Captain Hatwoody." [303] The Venus panel finally held steady on universally notorious features, that were as fierce as an eagle's, in a fancy war helmet. [304] "Trillium! [305] My own granddaughter? [306] Impossible! [307] Dimdooly," Mr. President roared at his Excellency, "what's this nonsense?" [308] "Some loud creature is interfering," Madame President snapped with annoyance. [309] "Blasted fools still have the circuits crossed," Mr. President swore. [310] "Some silly female cackling now!" [311] The parties in the panels saw each other now. [312] Each one's left hand on a desk moved toward a big red button marked, ROCKETS. [313] "So," Mr. President said evenly. [314] "Another violation by your Earthmen." [315] "By your granddaughter, at least," Madame President replied coolly. [316] "An innocent child," Mr. President snapped, "obviously kidnapped by those two idiotic Earthmen there!" [317] "Oh, no, Grandpapa," Trillium said swiftly; "I stole away all by myself, and Mr. O'Rielly and Callahan have been very helpful." [318] "Impossible!" [319] Grandpapa President's ear beards stood near straight up as he roared, "You couldn't have stolen away by yourself! [320] Trillium, tell the truth!" [321] "Very well. [322] Grandmamma told me how." [323] "Obviously Trillium's poor little brain has been drugged," His Excellency Dimdooly declared. [324] "Grandmamma Berta wouldn't know the first thing about such things!" [325] "Impossible!" [326] Grandpapa President agreed. [327] "I've been married to her for a hundred and twenty-four and a half years and she's the finest rattle-brain I ever knew!" [328] "She learned," Trillium stated emphatically, "a hundred and twenty-five years ago." [329] "Hundred twenty-five," Grandpapa president growled like a boiling volcano. [330] "The year some Earthman.... Never did catch the devil.... Berta? [331] Impossible!" [332] Madame President's shapely finger now rested full on the button that could launch the fleets of war rockets that had been pre-aimed for a thousand years. [333] "I'm afraid your Ambassador is unwelcome now," Madame President stated coolly. [334] "Your granddaughter's actions have every mark of an invasion tactic by your government." [335] "What do you mean, her actions?" [336] Grandpapa President's finger now lay poised on the button that had been waiting a thousand years to blow Earth out of the universe. [337] "My grandchild was kidnapped by men under your official command! [338] Weren't you, Trillium dear?" [339] "No. [340] One of us stowing away was the only way we Venus women could bring our cause to the attention of Earth's President. [341] If Earth will only stop buying from Venus, you won't have any money to squander on your wars any longer no matter what happens to we revolutionaries!" [342] "Revolutionaries? [343] Such claptrap! [344] And what's wrong with my wars? [345] People have to have something to keep their minds off their troubles! [346] Nobody around here gets hurt. [347] Oh, maybe a few scratches here and there. [348] But nobody on Venus dies from the things any more." [349] "But Venus men are so excited all the time about going to war they haven't time for us women. [350] That's why we always radiated such a fatal attraction for Earthmen. [351] We want to be loved! [352] We want our own men home doing useful work!" [353] "Well, they do come home and do useful work! [354] Couple weeks every ten months. [355] Proven to be a highly efficient arrangement." [356] "More boys to run off to your old wars and more girls to stay home and be lonely!" [357] "Now you just listen to me, Trillium!" [358] Grandpapa President was all Venus manhood laying down the law. [359] "That's the way things have been on Venus for ten thousand years and all the women in the universe can't change it!" [360] "I have been in constant contact with my Cabinet during these conversations," Madame President said crisply. [361] "Earth is terminating all trade agreements with Venus as of this instant." [362] "What?" [363] Grandpapa's beards near pulled his ears off. [364] "It's not legal! [365] You can't get away with this!" [366] "Take your finger off that trigger, boy!" [367] a heavenly voice similar to Trillium's advised from the Venus panel. [368] Whereupon Grandpapa glared to one side. [369] "Berta! [370] What are you doing here? [371] I am deciding matters of the gravest interplanetary nature!" [372] "Were." [373] Features more beautifully mature than Trillium's crowded onto the panel too. [374] "From now on I'm doing the deciding." [375] "Nonsense! [376] You're only my wife!" [377] "And new President of Venus, elected by unanimous vote of all women." [378] "Impossible! [379] The men run Venus! [380] Nobody's turning this planet into another Earth where a man can't even sneeze unless some woman says so!" [381] "Take him away, girls," Berta ordered coolly, whereupon her spouse was yanked from view. [382] His bellows, however, could be heard yet. [383] "Unhand me, you fool creatures! [384] Guards! [385] Guards!" [386] "Save your breath," Berta advised him. [387] "And while you're in the cooler, enjoy this latest batch of surrender communiques. [388] We women are in control everywhere now." [389] "Dimmy," Trillium was saying firmly to His Excellency, "you have beat around the bush with me long enough. [390] Now say it!" [391] Dimdooly—the mighty, the lordly, who had sneered at the sight of mere Earthmen kowtowing to a mere woman—swelled up fit to blow his gaskets, then all the gas went out of him. [392] His ear beards, however, still had enough zip left to flutter like butterflies. [393] "Yes, Trillium dear. [394] I love only you. [395] Please marry me at your earliest convenience." [396] "Well, Grandmamma," Trillium said with a highly self-satisfied air, "it works. [397] And just like you said, Earthmen meant nothing once I knew we Venus women had our own men in our power." [398] "Those crewmen there," Grandmamma President said, "seem to be proof enough that we Venus women no longer radiate any threat to Earth's tranquility." [399] Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly sure felt like proof of something all of a sudden. [400] Worse than the hangover from that crap game with Venus vino. [401] He looked away from Trillium and took a look at Callahan. [402] Old guy looked away from Grandmamma President like he was packing the second biggest headache in history. [403] "Hmmmm, yes," Madame President of Earth observed. [404] "Reactions agree perfectly with the psychoanalytical research project we have been conducting on the subject of the Venus female influence. [405] Madame President of Venus, congratulations on your victory! [406] "Long may the superior sex reign on Venus too! [407] We shall be delighted to receive an Ambassadoress to discuss a new trade treaty at your earliest convenience." [408] "Thank you for cancelling the old trade agreements at the psychological moment," Grandmamma President said cordially. [409] "What with the communications mixup, we managed to have the scenes on these panels broadcast throughout all Venus. [410] When the rug went out from under the top man, the tide really turned in our favor. [411] Now, Trillium, you take over Dimmy's credentials." [412] "The Ambassadorial Suite, too," Madame President of Earth said graciously. [413] "Anything else now, Berta?" [414] "I should like," Grandmamma President Berta said charmingly, "that Mr. O'Rielly and Mr. Callahan be suitably rewarded for assisting our revolution better than they knew." [415] "Of course," Madame President of Earth was delighted to oblige. [416] "No doubt Captain Hatwoody knows what reward would satisfy their needs best." [417] The Madame Presidents switched to a private circuit, Trillium dragged Dimdooly off somewhere and the Old Woman eyed O'Rielly and Callahan. [418] Especially she eyed Callahan, like running chilled drills through his old conniving brain. [419] "I award the pair of you five minutes leisure before returning to your stations." [420] "Oh, well," O'Rielly muttered, once he and Callahan were safely beyond earshot, "could have been rewarded worse, I suppose." [421] "What you expect for being flimflammed by a foreign dame, the rings of Saturn? [422] Lucky we ain't programmed to be hung, shot and thrown to the crows for breakfast." [423] Callahan's old pick-and-shovel face wore a little grin like the cat that nobody could prove ate the canary. [424] "You—I mean, that Earth guy a hundred twenty-five years ago," O'Rielly said in sudden thought. [425] "If Venus dames wanted to be loved so bad, why did Trillium's Grandmamma let him go?" [426] "Venus guys wasn't so busy playing war all the time," Callahan mumbled, like to himself, "they'd of found out the answer centuries ago. [427] Yep, guess our boy was the only guy on Earth or Venus to find out and live. [428] Dames bossing both planets now, though, his old secret won't be one much longer. [429] Venus dames could of let it out centuries ago themselves but didn't, just to spite Earth probably. [430] Later, was part of organizing to take over Venus, I guess." [431] O'Rielly still had memories of the way he had felt about Trillium before her revolution. [432] "All right, Callahan, why did 'our boy' leave Grandmamma?" [433] "Yes, ma'am," Callahan sighed like he hadn't heard a word O'Rielly said, "you could sweet-talk 'em, kiss 'em and hold 'em tighter'n Billy-be-damned. [434] And that's all." [435] "I'm not sure," O'Rielly said, "what you mean by, 'that's all.'" [436] "Anybody ever seen anybody but a Venus guy come built with ear beards? [437] Course not." [438] "But I thought our boy was wearing the best fakes ever." [439] "Ain't nothing can match the natural growed-on variety, no, ma'am. [440] Venus guy kisses a Venus dame, his beards grabs her roundst the ears." [441] "So what?" [442] "Tickles 'em, boy, tickles 'em!"

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the setting of the story": 1. [1] IMAGE OF SPLENDOR By LU KELLA From Venus to Earth, and all the way between, it was a hell of a world for men ... and Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly particularly. 2. [7] At the first flash of red on the bank of meters Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly had slammed the safety helmet on his head; he was already throwing open the lock to the burner room. 3. [8] The hot, throbbing rumble whipped around him and near crushed his breath away. 4. [11] Swiftly O'Rielly unlocked the controls and reset them. 5. [28] Sweat pouring off him, O'Rielly prowled around his burner. 6. [29] Design of the thing had been bossed by dames of course; what on Earth wasn't any more? 7. [30] Anyway, nobody could get to a burner except through its watch room. 8. [31] Anyone entered or left there, a bell clanged, lights flashed and a meter registered beside the Burnerman's bunk and on the Burner Chief's console up in the flight room full of beautifully efficient officers. 9. [32] Ever since Venus blast-off O'Rielly had been in Four's watch room. 10. [49] "I couldn't stand the heat any longer and I couldn't open that big door. 11. [175] O'Rielly's shower door, however, opened abruptly. 12. [250] The shower units were equipped so no Burnerman need be more than two steps from his responsibility. 13. [252] By time he finished, the Old Woman and His Excellency were already coming out of the burner room, dripping with sweat. 14. [259] "Facilities of the Captain's quarters are more satisfactory." 15. [260] "No more so than those of the Ambassadorial Suite." 16. [417] The Madame Presidents switched to a private circuit, Trillium dragged Dimdooly off somewhere and the Old Woman eyed O'Rielly and Callahan.

What is the relationship between Callahan and Berta throughout the story?

[1] IMAGE OF SPLENDOR By LU KELLA From Venus to Earth, and all the way between, it was a hell of a world for men ... and Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly particularly. [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Summer 1955. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] The intercom roared fit to blow O'Rielly back to Venus. [5] "Burner Four!" [6] "On my way, sir!" [7] At the first flash of red on the bank of meters Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly had slammed the safety helmet on his head; he was already throwing open the lock to the burner room. [8] The hot, throbbing rumble whipped around him and near crushed his breath away. [9] Power! [10] Power of the universe trapped here and ready to destroy its captors given one chance! [11] Swiftly O'Rielly unlocked the controls and reset them. [12] The throbbing rumble changed tone. [13] Old Callahan's voice crackled now through the helmet's ear contact. [14] "Well, Mr. [15] O'Rielly?" [16] "Fusion control two points low, sir." [17] O'Rielly wondered had Callahan passed out, was so long before the old Burner Chief demanded hoarsely, "Didn't you lock them controls before blast-off?" [18] "If every control hadn't been locked in correct setting," O'Rielly answered from his own angry bewilderment, "the error would have registered before blast-off—wouldn't it, sir?" [19] "So a control reset itself in flight, hey?" [20] "I don't know yet, sir." [21] "Well, Mr. O'Rielly, you better know before we orbit Earth!" [22] The icy knot in O'Rielly's stomach jerked tighter. [23] A dozen burners on this ship; why did something crazy have to happen to O'Rielly's? [24] In a hundred years, so the instructors—brisk females all—had told O'Rielly in pre-flight school, no control had ever been known to slip. [25] But one had moved here. [26] Not enough to cause serious trouble this far out from Earth. [27] On blast-down, though, with one jet below peak, the uneven thrust could throw the ship, crash it, the whole lovely thing and all aboard gone in a churning cloud. [28] Sweat pouring off him, O'Rielly prowled around his burner. [29] Design of the thing had been bossed by dames of course; what on Earth wasn't any more? [30] Anyway, nobody could get to a burner except through its watch room. [31] Anyone entered or left there, a bell clanged, lights flashed and a meter registered beside the Burnerman's bunk and on the Burner Chief's console up in the flight room full of beautifully efficient officers. [32] Ever since Venus blast-off O'Rielly had been in Four's watch room. [33] Nobody had passed through. [34] O'Rielly knew it. [35] Callahan knew it. [36] By now the Old Woman herself, Captain Millicent Hatwoody, had probably inquired what was in charge of Burner Four. [37] Well, ma'am, O'Rielly searched every cranny where even a three-tailed mouse of Venus could have stowed away. [38] His first flight, and O'Rielly saw himself washed out, busted to sweeper on the blast-off stands of some God-forsaken satellite. [39] He staggered back into his watch room. [40] And his brain was suddenly taken apart and slapped together again. [41] Felt that way. [42] She was sitting on his bunk. [43] No three-tailed mouse. [44] No Old Woman either. [45] Oh, she was a female human, though, this creature at which O'Rielly stood gaping. [46] Yes, ma'am! [47] "I was in your burner room." [48] Her voice matched the rest of her, a blend of loveliness unlike anything outside a guy's most secret dreams. [49] "I couldn't stand the heat any longer and I couldn't open that big door. [50] So I moved one of your controls a tiny bit. [51] All the noise in there, naturally you couldn't hear me walk out while your back was turned resetting the control." [52] O'Rielly suddenly felt like turning her over his knee and whaling her until she couldn't sit for a year. [53] This, mind you, he felt in an age where no Earth guy for a thousand years had dared raise so much as a breath against woman's supremacy in all matters. [54] That male character trait, however, did not seem to be the overpowering reason why O'Rielly, instead of laying violent hands upon this one's person, heard himself saying in sympathetic outrage, "A shame you had to go to all that bother to get out here!" [55] "You're so kind. [56] But I'm afraid I became rather sticky and smelly in there." [57] "They ought to cool the air in there with perfume! [58] I'll drop a suggestion in the Old Woman's box first chance I get." [59] "You're so thoughtful. [60] And do you have bathing facilities?" [61] "That door right there. [62] Oh, let me open it for you!" [63] "You're so sweet." [64] Her big dark eyes glowed with such pure innocence that O'Rielly could have torn down the universe and rebuilt it just for her. [65] Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly was floating on a pink cloud with heavenly music in his head. [66] Never felt so fine before. [67] Except on the Venus layover when he'd been roped into a dice game with a bunch of Venus lads who had a jug to cheer one's parting with one's money. [68] A bell suddenly clanged fit to wake the dead while the overhead lights flashed wildly. [69] Only the watch room door. [70] Only Callahan here now. [71] Old buzzard had a drooped nose like a pick, chin like a shovel. [72] When he talked he was like digging a hole in front of himself. [73] "Well, what about that control?" [74] "What control?" [75] "Your fusion control that got itself two points low!" [76] "Oh, that little thing." [77] Callahan said something through his teeth, then studied O'Rielly sharply. [78] "Hey, you been wetting your whistle on that Venus vino again? [79] Lemme smell your breath! [80] Bah. [81] Loaded yourself full of chlorophyll again probably. [82] All right, stand aside whilst I see your burner." [83] "Charmed to, Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly said while bowing gracefully. [84] "Higher than a swacked skunk's tail again," Callahan muttered, then snapped back over his shoulder, "Use your shower!" [85] O'Rielly stood considering his shower door. [86] Somehow he doubted that Burner Chief Terrence Callahan's mood, or Captain Millicent Hatwoody's, would be improved by knowledge of she who was in O'Rielly's shower now. [87] Not that the dear stowaway was less than charming. [88] Quite the contrary. [89] Oh, very quite! [90] "You rockhead!" [91] Only Callahan back from the burner. [92] "Didn't I tell you to shower the stink off yourself? [93] Old Woman's taking a Venus bigwig on tour the ship. [94] Old Woman catches you like you been rassling skunks she'll peel both our hides off. [95] Not to mention what she'll do anyway about your fusion control!" [96] "Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly responded courteously, "I have been thinking." [97] "With what? [98] Never mind, just keep on trying whilst I have a shower for myself here." [99] Wherewith Callahan reached hand for O'Rielly's shower door. [100] "Venus dames," O'Rielly said dreamily, "don't boss anything, do they?" [101] Callahan yelped like he'd been bit in the pants by a big Jupiter ant. [102] "O'Rielly! [103] You trying to get both of us condemned to a Uranus moon?" [104] Callahan also shot a wild look to the intercom switch. [105] It was in OFF position; the flight room full of fancy gold-lace petticoats could not have overheard from here. [106] Nevertheless Callahan's eyes rolled like the devil was behind him with the fork ready. [107] "O'Rielly, open your big ears whilst for your own good and mine I speak of certain matters. [108] "Thousand years ago, it was, the first flight reached Venus. [109] Guys got one look at them dames. [110] Had to bring some home or bust. [111] So then everybody on Earth got a look, mostly by TV only of course. [112] That did it. [113] Every guy on Earth began blowing his fuse over them dames. [114] Give up the shirt off his back, last buck in the bank, his own Earth dame or family—everything. [115] "Well, that's when Earth dames took over like armies of wild cats with knots in their tails. [116] Before the guys who'd brought the Venus dames to Earth could say anything they was taken apart too small to pick up with a blotter. [117] Earth dames wound up by flying the Venus ones back where they come from and serving notice if one ever set foot on Earth again there wouldn't be enough left of Venus to find with an electron microscope. [118] "Venus boys rared up and served notice that if Earth ever got any funny notions, right away there wouldn't be enough Earth left to hide in an atom's eyebrow. [119] Touchy as hornets on a hot griddle, them Venus guys. [120] Crazier than bed bugs about war. [121] Could smell a loose dollar a million light years away too. [122] Finagled around until they finally cooked up a deal. [123] "No Venus dames allowed within fifty miles of their port. [124] Earth guys stay inside the high-voltage fence. [125] Any dame caught trying to leave Venus thrown to the tigers for supper. [126] Same for any Earth guy caught around a Venus dame. [127] In return, Earth could buy practically everything at bargain basement prices." [128] "Oh, I was shown the history films in pre-flight," O'Rielly said, still dreamily. [129] "But not a peek of any Venus dame." [130] "Pray heaven you'll never lay eyes on one nor have one get within ten foot of you! [131] Even though you'd know she'd be your damnation wouldn't make a whit difference—you'd still act sappier than thirty-seven angels flying on vino." [132] Callahan suddenly stared at O'Rielly. [133] "Holy hollering saints!" [134] "Now, now, Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly responded with an airy laugh. [135] "No Earth guy for a hundred twenty-five years been near one and lived to tell it, has he?" [136] "So the whispers run," Callahan murmured with a queer flame dancing into his eyes. [137] "So the old whispers still run." [138] "Never a name, though. [139] Never how it was done." [140] O'Rielly snorted. [141] "Probably just a goofy tale set loose by some old space bum." [142] "Oh?" [143] Callahan bristled up like a bad name had been bandied about. [144] "Seen them ditty bags Venus bigwigs have, ain't you? [145] Some big enough to stuff a cow in. [146] Notice how nobody ever dares question a bigwig's bags, even through customs? [147] Just run 'em through the big Geiger that tells whether there's any fusionable junk inside. [148] Well, our boy got himself one of them bags, stuffed himself inside and joined a bigwig's pile of 'em. [149] "Didn't pull it whilst on the Venus port during a layover either, when a crew check would of turned him up missing. [150] Pulled it on vacation. [151] Started on the Earth end. [152] Made himself a pair of beards to paste on his ears of course. [153] Wove Jupiter wiggle worms in to keep the beards moving. [154] Wasn't like the real thing, but good enough to flimflam Venus guys." [155] With suddenly enlivened interest O'Rielly looked at Callahan. [156] "Hey, how come you know so much?" [157] "Hah? [158] What?" [159] Callahan blinked like waking from a trance; even groaned to himself, something that sounded like, "Blabbering like I'd had a nip myself—or one of them dillies was radiating nearby." [160] Then Callahan glared fit to drill holes in O'Rielly's head. [161] "Look! [162] I was a full Burnerman before you was born. [163] Been flying the spaces hundred twenty-five years now. [164] Had more chances to hear more—just hear more, you hear! [165] Only tried to clear your mind about Venus dames so you could put your brain on your control mess. [166] So now put it! [167] If you ain't high on vino and ain't been made nuts by a Venus dame, what answer do we feed the Old Woman?" [168] "Search me," Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly responded cheerfully. [169] "Of all the loony apprentices I ever had to answer the Old Woman for! [170] Awp, lemme out where I can think of something to save me own neck at least!" [171] Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from rolling on the deck with glee. [172] Old Callahan had been flimflammed for fair! [173] The dear little stowaway was saved! [174] And O'Rielly would now think of grand ways to save her lovely neck and his own forever. [175] O'Rielly's shower door, however, opened abruptly. [176] O'Rielly had not opened it. [177] O'Rielly, however, suffered a cruel stab of dismay. [178] Surely his dear stowaway had been listening through the door. [179] Why didn't she have brains enough to stay hid until Callahan was gone! [180] At sight of her, of course, Callahan's eyes near popped from his old head. [181] "Berta!" [182] "Oh, I'm Trillium," she assured Callahan sweetly. [183] "But Grandmamma's name is Berta and people say I'm just like she was a hundred and twenty-five years ago." [184] "Hah? [185] What?" [186] Callahan blinked like his brain had been taken apart and was being slapped together again. [187] "O'Rielly! [188] Awp, you angel-faced pirate, couldn't you hide her somewheres better than that? [189] Shut up, you don't have to explain to me, but God help the whole universe if we don't flimflam the Old Woman!" [190] With which ominous remark, rendered in a zesty devil-may-care manner, however, Callahan threw himself into O'Rielly's shower. [191] O'Rielly stood looking thoughtfully at lovely, womanly, exquisite Trillium. [192] Just like that, O'Rielly felt as sparkling of mind as a spiral nebula. [193] "My locker!" [194] he crowed with inspiration and yanked open the doors under his bunk. [195] He glimpsed a black ditty bag, also the cap and coverall uniform of a baggage boy. [196] "I threw them in there before you came on duty before blast-off," Trillium explained. [197] "I knew the burner room would be warm." [198] Trillium—with her shape—passing as a boy hustling bags through this ship. [199] O'Rielly chortled as he tucked her under his bunk. [200] "Now don't you worry about another thing!" [201] "Oh, I'm not," she assured him happily. [202] "Everything is going just the way Grandmamma knew it would!" [203] O'Rielly's shower opened and Callahan, glowing like a young bucko, bounced onto the bunk. [204] "Well, did you hide her good this time? [205] No, don't tell me! [206] I want to be surprised if the Old Woman ever finds her." [207] "If what old woman finds whom?" [208] a voice like thin ice crackling wanted to know. [209] The watch room's door had opened. [210] Wouldn't think the Old Woman was a day over seventy-five, let alone near two hundred. [211] Cut of her uniform probably lent a helping hand or three to the young snap of her figure. [212] Frosty blue of fancy hair-do, she was, though, and icy of eye as she looked at O'Rielly and Callahan still lolling on the bunk. [213] Her voice was an iceberg exploding. [214] "At attention!" [215] Never in his right mind would any crewman dare fail to come stiffly erect the instant the Old Woman appeared. [216] Behind her stood a colorfully robed specimen of Venus man. [217] Handsome as the devil himself. [218] Fit to snap lesser men in two with his highly bejeweled hands. [219] Fuzzy beards trailed from his ears and kept twitching lazily as he sneered at the spectacle of two men meekly acknowledging the superiority of a woman. [220] She was fit to put frost on a hydrogen burner. [221] "Mr. Callahan, I asked you a question, did I not?" [222] "Believe you did, ma'am," Callahan responded cheerfully. [223] "And the answer is, ma'am, that Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly and me was discussing—ah—matrimony, ma'am. [224] Mr. Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly here is considering it, ma'am." [225] Wasn't too bad a fib. [226] The more O'Rielly thought of Trillium, the more ideas he got of doing things he'd never dreamt of before in his life. [227] Yes, ma'am! [228] "Wasting your time talking nonsense!" [229] Old Woman's look was fit to freeze O'Rielly's brain, then she gave Callahan the look. [230] "I sent you down here to find the answer to that fusion control slippage!" [231] "Oh, you'll have the best answer you ever heard of before long, ma'am!" [232] Callahan assured her heartily. [233] "The subject of nonsense—I mean, women—merely chanced to arise whilst we was scientifically analyzing the control phenomenon, ma'am. [234] Naturally I offered this innocent young Burnerman the benefit of me long years of experience. [235] Why," Callahan said with a jaunty laugh, "dames mean nothing to me. [236] Indeed 'twouldn't bother me none if there wasn't one of the things left in the world! [237] Present company excepted, of course," Callahan hastened to say with a courtly bow. [238] "Stay at attention!" [239] Old Woman sniffed the air near Callahan's face, then in O'Rielly's vicinity. [240] "Smothered it with chlorophyll probably," she muttered through her teeth, "if it is that vino." [241] Something horrible as a plague flickered in her eyes, then the old ice was there again. [242] "Apprentice Burnerman, don't you know what your shower is for? [243] Then use it! [244] Mr. Callahan, remain at attention while I inspect this burner!" [245] She tendered a cool glance at the Venus bigwig. [246] "Care to join me, Your Excellency?" [247] "May as well." [248] His Excellency glanced at O'Rielly and Callahan much as he might at a couple of worms. [249] Could bet your last old sox no female ever told any Venus man what to do. [250] The shower units were equipped so no Burnerman need be more than two steps from his responsibility. [251] To keep the Old Woman from possibly blowing her gaskets completely, O'Rielly simply stepped in, shut the door, flipped a switch and tingled as he was electronically cleansed of person and clothes. [252] By time he finished, the Old Woman and His Excellency were already coming out of the burner room, dripping with sweat. [253] Old Woman opened the shower with her customary commanding air. [254] "You first, Your Excellency." [255] "My dear Captain," His Excellency replied like a smoothly drawn dagger, "always the lesser gender enjoys precedence." [256] No Earth dame ever admitted any guy was even equal to any female. [257] Old Woman, a prime symbol of her gender's superiority, whipped a razor edge onto her own words. [258] "Facilities of the Captain's quarters are more satisfactory." [259] "No more so than those of the Ambassadorial Suite." [260] Seeming to grind her teeth, the Old O Woman turned abruptly to leave O'Rielly's watch room. [261] Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from busting out laughing for joy. [262] Old Woman had been flimflammed for fair! [263] Dear Trillium was saved! [264] And betwixt O'Rielly's grand brain and Callahan's great experience she'd be happy forever. [265] A fine loud "thump," however, was now heard. [266] Old Woman whirled back and yanked open the doors under O'Rielly's bunk. [267] "Of all the sappy hiding places!" [268] Callahan yelped, in surprise of course. [269] "Trillium?" [270] His Excellency bellowed as if stung by one of the sabre-tailed hornets of his native planet. [271] "Trillium!" [272] "Trillium," O'Rielly pleaded in loving anguish, "why do you have to keep coming out of hiding just when nobody's going to find you?" [273] Her eyes merely became deep pools in which O'Rielly would have gladly drowned himself if he could. [274] "There are rewards," the Old Woman said with the deadly coldness of outer space, "for Earthmen found in a Venus woman's company, and for her leaving her planet." [275] "Shut up!" [276] His Excellency's ear beards were standing straight out sideways. [277] "I'll handle this!" [278] "May I remind His Excellency," the Old Woman snapped, "that I represent Earth and her dominion of space gained by right of original flight!" [279] "May I remind the Captain," His Excellency declared fit to be heard back to his planet, "that I am the Personal Ambassador of the President of Venus and this thing can mean war!" [280] "Yes! [281] War in which people will actually die!" [282] As His Excellency paled at that grisly remark, the Old Woman spoke through her teeth at O'Rielly, Callahan and Trillium. [283] "All right, come along!" [284] O'Rielly joined the death march gladly. [285] He felt the way Callahan looked: ready to wrap his arms around Trillium's brave loveliness and protect it to his last breath of life. [286] Old Woman led the way to her office. [287] Jabbed some buttons on her desk. [288] Panels on opposite walls lit up. [289] "Presidents of Earth and Venus, please," the Old Woman stated evenly. [290] "Interplanetary emergency." [291] Highly groomed flunkies appeared on the panels and were impersonally pleasant. [292] "Madame President's office. [293] She is in a Cabinet meeting." [294] "Mr. President's office. [295] He is in personal command of our glorious war efforts." [296] Old Woman sighed through her teeth. [297] "Venus woman aboard this ship. [298] Stowaway. [299] Rattle that around your belfries." [300] The flunkies' faces went slack with shock, then were replaced by a blizzard of scrambled faces and torrents of incoherent voices. [301] Finally on the Earth panel appeared the famous classic features. [302] "The facts, if you please, Captain Hatwoody." [303] The Venus panel finally held steady on universally notorious features, that were as fierce as an eagle's, in a fancy war helmet. [304] "Trillium! [305] My own granddaughter? [306] Impossible! [307] Dimdooly," Mr. President roared at his Excellency, "what's this nonsense?" [308] "Some loud creature is interfering," Madame President snapped with annoyance. [309] "Blasted fools still have the circuits crossed," Mr. President swore. [310] "Some silly female cackling now!" [311] The parties in the panels saw each other now. [312] Each one's left hand on a desk moved toward a big red button marked, ROCKETS. [313] "So," Mr. President said evenly. [314] "Another violation by your Earthmen." [315] "By your granddaughter, at least," Madame President replied coolly. [316] "An innocent child," Mr. President snapped, "obviously kidnapped by those two idiotic Earthmen there!" [317] "Oh, no, Grandpapa," Trillium said swiftly; "I stole away all by myself, and Mr. O'Rielly and Callahan have been very helpful." [318] "Impossible!" [319] Grandpapa President's ear beards stood near straight up as he roared, "You couldn't have stolen away by yourself! [320] Trillium, tell the truth!" [321] "Very well. [322] Grandmamma told me how." [323] "Obviously Trillium's poor little brain has been drugged," His Excellency Dimdooly declared. [324] "Grandmamma Berta wouldn't know the first thing about such things!" [325] "Impossible!" [326] Grandpapa President agreed. [327] "I've been married to her for a hundred and twenty-four and a half years and she's the finest rattle-brain I ever knew!" [328] "She learned," Trillium stated emphatically, "a hundred and twenty-five years ago." [329] "Hundred twenty-five," Grandpapa president growled like a boiling volcano. [330] "The year some Earthman.... Never did catch the devil.... Berta? [331] Impossible!" [332] Madame President's shapely finger now rested full on the button that could launch the fleets of war rockets that had been pre-aimed for a thousand years. [333] "I'm afraid your Ambassador is unwelcome now," Madame President stated coolly. [334] "Your granddaughter's actions have every mark of an invasion tactic by your government." [335] "What do you mean, her actions?" [336] Grandpapa President's finger now lay poised on the button that had been waiting a thousand years to blow Earth out of the universe. [337] "My grandchild was kidnapped by men under your official command! [338] Weren't you, Trillium dear?" [339] "No. [340] One of us stowing away was the only way we Venus women could bring our cause to the attention of Earth's President. [341] If Earth will only stop buying from Venus, you won't have any money to squander on your wars any longer no matter what happens to we revolutionaries!" [342] "Revolutionaries? [343] Such claptrap! [344] And what's wrong with my wars? [345] People have to have something to keep their minds off their troubles! [346] Nobody around here gets hurt. [347] Oh, maybe a few scratches here and there. [348] But nobody on Venus dies from the things any more." [349] "But Venus men are so excited all the time about going to war they haven't time for us women. [350] That's why we always radiated such a fatal attraction for Earthmen. [351] We want to be loved! [352] We want our own men home doing useful work!" [353] "Well, they do come home and do useful work! [354] Couple weeks every ten months. [355] Proven to be a highly efficient arrangement." [356] "More boys to run off to your old wars and more girls to stay home and be lonely!" [357] "Now you just listen to me, Trillium!" [358] Grandpapa President was all Venus manhood laying down the law. [359] "That's the way things have been on Venus for ten thousand years and all the women in the universe can't change it!" [360] "I have been in constant contact with my Cabinet during these conversations," Madame President said crisply. [361] "Earth is terminating all trade agreements with Venus as of this instant." [362] "What?" [363] Grandpapa's beards near pulled his ears off. [364] "It's not legal! [365] You can't get away with this!" [366] "Take your finger off that trigger, boy!" [367] a heavenly voice similar to Trillium's advised from the Venus panel. [368] Whereupon Grandpapa glared to one side. [369] "Berta! [370] What are you doing here? [371] I am deciding matters of the gravest interplanetary nature!" [372] "Were." [373] Features more beautifully mature than Trillium's crowded onto the panel too. [374] "From now on I'm doing the deciding." [375] "Nonsense! [376] You're only my wife!" [377] "And new President of Venus, elected by unanimous vote of all women." [378] "Impossible! [379] The men run Venus! [380] Nobody's turning this planet into another Earth where a man can't even sneeze unless some woman says so!" [381] "Take him away, girls," Berta ordered coolly, whereupon her spouse was yanked from view. [382] His bellows, however, could be heard yet. [383] "Unhand me, you fool creatures! [384] Guards! [385] Guards!" [386] "Save your breath," Berta advised him. [387] "And while you're in the cooler, enjoy this latest batch of surrender communiques. [388] We women are in control everywhere now." [389] "Dimmy," Trillium was saying firmly to His Excellency, "you have beat around the bush with me long enough. [390] Now say it!" [391] Dimdooly—the mighty, the lordly, who had sneered at the sight of mere Earthmen kowtowing to a mere woman—swelled up fit to blow his gaskets, then all the gas went out of him. [392] His ear beards, however, still had enough zip left to flutter like butterflies. [393] "Yes, Trillium dear. [394] I love only you. [395] Please marry me at your earliest convenience." [396] "Well, Grandmamma," Trillium said with a highly self-satisfied air, "it works. [397] And just like you said, Earthmen meant nothing once I knew we Venus women had our own men in our power." [398] "Those crewmen there," Grandmamma President said, "seem to be proof enough that we Venus women no longer radiate any threat to Earth's tranquility." [399] Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly sure felt like proof of something all of a sudden. [400] Worse than the hangover from that crap game with Venus vino. [401] He looked away from Trillium and took a look at Callahan. [402] Old guy looked away from Grandmamma President like he was packing the second biggest headache in history. [403] "Hmmmm, yes," Madame President of Earth observed. [404] "Reactions agree perfectly with the psychoanalytical research project we have been conducting on the subject of the Venus female influence. [405] Madame President of Venus, congratulations on your victory! [406] "Long may the superior sex reign on Venus too! [407] We shall be delighted to receive an Ambassadoress to discuss a new trade treaty at your earliest convenience." [408] "Thank you for cancelling the old trade agreements at the psychological moment," Grandmamma President said cordially. [409] "What with the communications mixup, we managed to have the scenes on these panels broadcast throughout all Venus. [410] When the rug went out from under the top man, the tide really turned in our favor. [411] Now, Trillium, you take over Dimmy's credentials." [412] "The Ambassadorial Suite, too," Madame President of Earth said graciously. [413] "Anything else now, Berta?" [414] "I should like," Grandmamma President Berta said charmingly, "that Mr. O'Rielly and Mr. Callahan be suitably rewarded for assisting our revolution better than they knew." [415] "Of course," Madame President of Earth was delighted to oblige. [416] "No doubt Captain Hatwoody knows what reward would satisfy their needs best." [417] The Madame Presidents switched to a private circuit, Trillium dragged Dimdooly off somewhere and the Old Woman eyed O'Rielly and Callahan. [418] Especially she eyed Callahan, like running chilled drills through his old conniving brain. [419] "I award the pair of you five minutes leisure before returning to your stations." [420] "Oh, well," O'Rielly muttered, once he and Callahan were safely beyond earshot, "could have been rewarded worse, I suppose." [421] "What you expect for being flimflammed by a foreign dame, the rings of Saturn? [422] Lucky we ain't programmed to be hung, shot and thrown to the crows for breakfast." [423] Callahan's old pick-and-shovel face wore a little grin like the cat that nobody could prove ate the canary. [424] "You—I mean, that Earth guy a hundred twenty-five years ago," O'Rielly said in sudden thought. [425] "If Venus dames wanted to be loved so bad, why did Trillium's Grandmamma let him go?" [426] "Venus guys wasn't so busy playing war all the time," Callahan mumbled, like to himself, "they'd of found out the answer centuries ago. [427] Yep, guess our boy was the only guy on Earth or Venus to find out and live. [428] Dames bossing both planets now, though, his old secret won't be one much longer. [429] Venus dames could of let it out centuries ago themselves but didn't, just to spite Earth probably. [430] Later, was part of organizing to take over Venus, I guess." [431] O'Rielly still had memories of the way he had felt about Trillium before her revolution. [432] "All right, Callahan, why did 'our boy' leave Grandmamma?" [433] "Yes, ma'am," Callahan sighed like he hadn't heard a word O'Rielly said, "you could sweet-talk 'em, kiss 'em and hold 'em tighter'n Billy-be-damned. [434] And that's all." [435] "I'm not sure," O'Rielly said, "what you mean by, 'that's all.'" [436] "Anybody ever seen anybody but a Venus guy come built with ear beards? [437] Course not." [438] "But I thought our boy was wearing the best fakes ever." [439] "Ain't nothing can match the natural growed-on variety, no, ma'am. [440] Venus guy kisses a Venus dame, his beards grabs her roundst the ears." [441] "So what?" [442] "Tickles 'em, boy, tickles 'em!"

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the relationship between Callahan and Berta throughout the story?": 1. [181] "Berta!" 2. [180] "Surely his dear stowaway had been listening through the door." 3. [186] "Hah? What?" 4. [187] "O'Rielly! Awp, you angel-faced pirate, couldn't you hide her somewheres better than that? Shut up, you don't have to explain to me, but God help the whole universe if we don't flimflam the Old Woman!" 5. [223] "Believe you did, ma'am. And the answer is, ma'am, that Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly and me was discussing—ah—matrimony, ma'am. Mr. Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly here is considering it, ma'am." 6. [226] "Wasn't too bad a fib. The more O'Rielly thought of Trillium, the more ideas he got of doing things he'd never dreamt of before in his life." 7. [227] "Yes, ma'am!" 8. [235] "Why," Callahan said with a jaunty laugh, "dames mean nothing to me. Indeed 'twouldn't bother me none if there wasn't one of the things left in the world! Present company excepted, of course," Callahan hastened to say with a courtly bow. 9. [376] "Nonsense! You're only my wife!" 10. [377] "And new President of Venus, elected by unanimous vote of all women." 11. [378] "Impossible! The men run Venus! Nobody's turning this planet into another Earth where a man can't even sneeze unless some woman says so!" 12. [379] "Take him away, girls," Berta ordered coolly, whereupon her spouse was yanked from view. 13. [380] "His bellows, however, could be heard yet. 'Unhand me, you fool creatures! Guards! Guards!'" 14. [381] "'Save your breath,' Berta advised him. 'And while you're in the cooler, enjoy this latest batch of surrender communiques. We women are in control everywhere now.'" 15. All other context sentences.

What was Trillium’s plan as a stowaway on the ship?

[1] IMAGE OF SPLENDOR By LU KELLA From Venus to Earth, and all the way between, it was a hell of a world for men ... and Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly particularly. [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Summer 1955. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] The intercom roared fit to blow O'Rielly back to Venus. [5] "Burner Four!" [6] "On my way, sir!" [7] At the first flash of red on the bank of meters Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly had slammed the safety helmet on his head; he was already throwing open the lock to the burner room. [8] The hot, throbbing rumble whipped around him and near crushed his breath away. [9] Power! [10] Power of the universe trapped here and ready to destroy its captors given one chance! [11] Swiftly O'Rielly unlocked the controls and reset them. [12] The throbbing rumble changed tone. [13] Old Callahan's voice crackled now through the helmet's ear contact. [14] "Well, Mr. [15] O'Rielly?" [16] "Fusion control two points low, sir." [17] O'Rielly wondered had Callahan passed out, was so long before the old Burner Chief demanded hoarsely, "Didn't you lock them controls before blast-off?" [18] "If every control hadn't been locked in correct setting," O'Rielly answered from his own angry bewilderment, "the error would have registered before blast-off—wouldn't it, sir?" [19] "So a control reset itself in flight, hey?" [20] "I don't know yet, sir." [21] "Well, Mr. O'Rielly, you better know before we orbit Earth!" [22] The icy knot in O'Rielly's stomach jerked tighter. [23] A dozen burners on this ship; why did something crazy have to happen to O'Rielly's? [24] In a hundred years, so the instructors—brisk females all—had told O'Rielly in pre-flight school, no control had ever been known to slip. [25] But one had moved here. [26] Not enough to cause serious trouble this far out from Earth. [27] On blast-down, though, with one jet below peak, the uneven thrust could throw the ship, crash it, the whole lovely thing and all aboard gone in a churning cloud. [28] Sweat pouring off him, O'Rielly prowled around his burner. [29] Design of the thing had been bossed by dames of course; what on Earth wasn't any more? [30] Anyway, nobody could get to a burner except through its watch room. [31] Anyone entered or left there, a bell clanged, lights flashed and a meter registered beside the Burnerman's bunk and on the Burner Chief's console up in the flight room full of beautifully efficient officers. [32] Ever since Venus blast-off O'Rielly had been in Four's watch room. [33] Nobody had passed through. [34] O'Rielly knew it. [35] Callahan knew it. [36] By now the Old Woman herself, Captain Millicent Hatwoody, had probably inquired what was in charge of Burner Four. [37] Well, ma'am, O'Rielly searched every cranny where even a three-tailed mouse of Venus could have stowed away. [38] His first flight, and O'Rielly saw himself washed out, busted to sweeper on the blast-off stands of some God-forsaken satellite. [39] He staggered back into his watch room. [40] And his brain was suddenly taken apart and slapped together again. [41] Felt that way. [42] She was sitting on his bunk. [43] No three-tailed mouse. [44] No Old Woman either. [45] Oh, she was a female human, though, this creature at which O'Rielly stood gaping. [46] Yes, ma'am! [47] "I was in your burner room." [48] Her voice matched the rest of her, a blend of loveliness unlike anything outside a guy's most secret dreams. [49] "I couldn't stand the heat any longer and I couldn't open that big door. [50] So I moved one of your controls a tiny bit. [51] All the noise in there, naturally you couldn't hear me walk out while your back was turned resetting the control." [52] O'Rielly suddenly felt like turning her over his knee and whaling her until she couldn't sit for a year. [53] This, mind you, he felt in an age where no Earth guy for a thousand years had dared raise so much as a breath against woman's supremacy in all matters. [54] That male character trait, however, did not seem to be the overpowering reason why O'Rielly, instead of laying violent hands upon this one's person, heard himself saying in sympathetic outrage, "A shame you had to go to all that bother to get out here!" [55] "You're so kind. [56] But I'm afraid I became rather sticky and smelly in there." [57] "They ought to cool the air in there with perfume! [58] I'll drop a suggestion in the Old Woman's box first chance I get." [59] "You're so thoughtful. [60] And do you have bathing facilities?" [61] "That door right there. [62] Oh, let me open it for you!" [63] "You're so sweet." [64] Her big dark eyes glowed with such pure innocence that O'Rielly could have torn down the universe and rebuilt it just for her. [65] Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly was floating on a pink cloud with heavenly music in his head. [66] Never felt so fine before. [67] Except on the Venus layover when he'd been roped into a dice game with a bunch of Venus lads who had a jug to cheer one's parting with one's money. [68] A bell suddenly clanged fit to wake the dead while the overhead lights flashed wildly. [69] Only the watch room door. [70] Only Callahan here now. [71] Old buzzard had a drooped nose like a pick, chin like a shovel. [72] When he talked he was like digging a hole in front of himself. [73] "Well, what about that control?" [74] "What control?" [75] "Your fusion control that got itself two points low!" [76] "Oh, that little thing." [77] Callahan said something through his teeth, then studied O'Rielly sharply. [78] "Hey, you been wetting your whistle on that Venus vino again? [79] Lemme smell your breath! [80] Bah. [81] Loaded yourself full of chlorophyll again probably. [82] All right, stand aside whilst I see your burner." [83] "Charmed to, Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly said while bowing gracefully. [84] "Higher than a swacked skunk's tail again," Callahan muttered, then snapped back over his shoulder, "Use your shower!" [85] O'Rielly stood considering his shower door. [86] Somehow he doubted that Burner Chief Terrence Callahan's mood, or Captain Millicent Hatwoody's, would be improved by knowledge of she who was in O'Rielly's shower now. [87] Not that the dear stowaway was less than charming. [88] Quite the contrary. [89] Oh, very quite! [90] "You rockhead!" [91] Only Callahan back from the burner. [92] "Didn't I tell you to shower the stink off yourself? [93] Old Woman's taking a Venus bigwig on tour the ship. [94] Old Woman catches you like you been rassling skunks she'll peel both our hides off. [95] Not to mention what she'll do anyway about your fusion control!" [96] "Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly responded courteously, "I have been thinking." [97] "With what? [98] Never mind, just keep on trying whilst I have a shower for myself here." [99] Wherewith Callahan reached hand for O'Rielly's shower door. [100] "Venus dames," O'Rielly said dreamily, "don't boss anything, do they?" [101] Callahan yelped like he'd been bit in the pants by a big Jupiter ant. [102] "O'Rielly! [103] You trying to get both of us condemned to a Uranus moon?" [104] Callahan also shot a wild look to the intercom switch. [105] It was in OFF position; the flight room full of fancy gold-lace petticoats could not have overheard from here. [106] Nevertheless Callahan's eyes rolled like the devil was behind him with the fork ready. [107] "O'Rielly, open your big ears whilst for your own good and mine I speak of certain matters. [108] "Thousand years ago, it was, the first flight reached Venus. [109] Guys got one look at them dames. [110] Had to bring some home or bust. [111] So then everybody on Earth got a look, mostly by TV only of course. [112] That did it. [113] Every guy on Earth began blowing his fuse over them dames. [114] Give up the shirt off his back, last buck in the bank, his own Earth dame or family—everything. [115] "Well, that's when Earth dames took over like armies of wild cats with knots in their tails. [116] Before the guys who'd brought the Venus dames to Earth could say anything they was taken apart too small to pick up with a blotter. [117] Earth dames wound up by flying the Venus ones back where they come from and serving notice if one ever set foot on Earth again there wouldn't be enough left of Venus to find with an electron microscope. [118] "Venus boys rared up and served notice that if Earth ever got any funny notions, right away there wouldn't be enough Earth left to hide in an atom's eyebrow. [119] Touchy as hornets on a hot griddle, them Venus guys. [120] Crazier than bed bugs about war. [121] Could smell a loose dollar a million light years away too. [122] Finagled around until they finally cooked up a deal. [123] "No Venus dames allowed within fifty miles of their port. [124] Earth guys stay inside the high-voltage fence. [125] Any dame caught trying to leave Venus thrown to the tigers for supper. [126] Same for any Earth guy caught around a Venus dame. [127] In return, Earth could buy practically everything at bargain basement prices." [128] "Oh, I was shown the history films in pre-flight," O'Rielly said, still dreamily. [129] "But not a peek of any Venus dame." [130] "Pray heaven you'll never lay eyes on one nor have one get within ten foot of you! [131] Even though you'd know she'd be your damnation wouldn't make a whit difference—you'd still act sappier than thirty-seven angels flying on vino." [132] Callahan suddenly stared at O'Rielly. [133] "Holy hollering saints!" [134] "Now, now, Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly responded with an airy laugh. [135] "No Earth guy for a hundred twenty-five years been near one and lived to tell it, has he?" [136] "So the whispers run," Callahan murmured with a queer flame dancing into his eyes. [137] "So the old whispers still run." [138] "Never a name, though. [139] Never how it was done." [140] O'Rielly snorted. [141] "Probably just a goofy tale set loose by some old space bum." [142] "Oh?" [143] Callahan bristled up like a bad name had been bandied about. [144] "Seen them ditty bags Venus bigwigs have, ain't you? [145] Some big enough to stuff a cow in. [146] Notice how nobody ever dares question a bigwig's bags, even through customs? [147] Just run 'em through the big Geiger that tells whether there's any fusionable junk inside. [148] Well, our boy got himself one of them bags, stuffed himself inside and joined a bigwig's pile of 'em. [149] "Didn't pull it whilst on the Venus port during a layover either, when a crew check would of turned him up missing. [150] Pulled it on vacation. [151] Started on the Earth end. [152] Made himself a pair of beards to paste on his ears of course. [153] Wove Jupiter wiggle worms in to keep the beards moving. [154] Wasn't like the real thing, but good enough to flimflam Venus guys." [155] With suddenly enlivened interest O'Rielly looked at Callahan. [156] "Hey, how come you know so much?" [157] "Hah? [158] What?" [159] Callahan blinked like waking from a trance; even groaned to himself, something that sounded like, "Blabbering like I'd had a nip myself—or one of them dillies was radiating nearby." [160] Then Callahan glared fit to drill holes in O'Rielly's head. [161] "Look! [162] I was a full Burnerman before you was born. [163] Been flying the spaces hundred twenty-five years now. [164] Had more chances to hear more—just hear more, you hear! [165] Only tried to clear your mind about Venus dames so you could put your brain on your control mess. [166] So now put it! [167] If you ain't high on vino and ain't been made nuts by a Venus dame, what answer do we feed the Old Woman?" [168] "Search me," Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly responded cheerfully. [169] "Of all the loony apprentices I ever had to answer the Old Woman for! [170] Awp, lemme out where I can think of something to save me own neck at least!" [171] Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from rolling on the deck with glee. [172] Old Callahan had been flimflammed for fair! [173] The dear little stowaway was saved! [174] And O'Rielly would now think of grand ways to save her lovely neck and his own forever. [175] O'Rielly's shower door, however, opened abruptly. [176] O'Rielly had not opened it. [177] O'Rielly, however, suffered a cruel stab of dismay. [178] Surely his dear stowaway had been listening through the door. [179] Why didn't she have brains enough to stay hid until Callahan was gone! [180] At sight of her, of course, Callahan's eyes near popped from his old head. [181] "Berta!" [182] "Oh, I'm Trillium," she assured Callahan sweetly. [183] "But Grandmamma's name is Berta and people say I'm just like she was a hundred and twenty-five years ago." [184] "Hah? [185] What?" [186] Callahan blinked like his brain had been taken apart and was being slapped together again. [187] "O'Rielly! [188] Awp, you angel-faced pirate, couldn't you hide her somewheres better than that? [189] Shut up, you don't have to explain to me, but God help the whole universe if we don't flimflam the Old Woman!" [190] With which ominous remark, rendered in a zesty devil-may-care manner, however, Callahan threw himself into O'Rielly's shower. [191] O'Rielly stood looking thoughtfully at lovely, womanly, exquisite Trillium. [192] Just like that, O'Rielly felt as sparkling of mind as a spiral nebula. [193] "My locker!" [194] he crowed with inspiration and yanked open the doors under his bunk. [195] He glimpsed a black ditty bag, also the cap and coverall uniform of a baggage boy. [196] "I threw them in there before you came on duty before blast-off," Trillium explained. [197] "I knew the burner room would be warm." [198] Trillium—with her shape—passing as a boy hustling bags through this ship. [199] O'Rielly chortled as he tucked her under his bunk. [200] "Now don't you worry about another thing!" [201] "Oh, I'm not," she assured him happily. [202] "Everything is going just the way Grandmamma knew it would!" [203] O'Rielly's shower opened and Callahan, glowing like a young bucko, bounced onto the bunk. [204] "Well, did you hide her good this time? [205] No, don't tell me! [206] I want to be surprised if the Old Woman ever finds her." [207] "If what old woman finds whom?" [208] a voice like thin ice crackling wanted to know. [209] The watch room's door had opened. [210] Wouldn't think the Old Woman was a day over seventy-five, let alone near two hundred. [211] Cut of her uniform probably lent a helping hand or three to the young snap of her figure. [212] Frosty blue of fancy hair-do, she was, though, and icy of eye as she looked at O'Rielly and Callahan still lolling on the bunk. [213] Her voice was an iceberg exploding. [214] "At attention!" [215] Never in his right mind would any crewman dare fail to come stiffly erect the instant the Old Woman appeared. [216] Behind her stood a colorfully robed specimen of Venus man. [217] Handsome as the devil himself. [218] Fit to snap lesser men in two with his highly bejeweled hands. [219] Fuzzy beards trailed from his ears and kept twitching lazily as he sneered at the spectacle of two men meekly acknowledging the superiority of a woman. [220] She was fit to put frost on a hydrogen burner. [221] "Mr. Callahan, I asked you a question, did I not?" [222] "Believe you did, ma'am," Callahan responded cheerfully. [223] "And the answer is, ma'am, that Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly and me was discussing—ah—matrimony, ma'am. [224] Mr. Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly here is considering it, ma'am." [225] Wasn't too bad a fib. [226] The more O'Rielly thought of Trillium, the more ideas he got of doing things he'd never dreamt of before in his life. [227] Yes, ma'am! [228] "Wasting your time talking nonsense!" [229] Old Woman's look was fit to freeze O'Rielly's brain, then she gave Callahan the look. [230] "I sent you down here to find the answer to that fusion control slippage!" [231] "Oh, you'll have the best answer you ever heard of before long, ma'am!" [232] Callahan assured her heartily. [233] "The subject of nonsense—I mean, women—merely chanced to arise whilst we was scientifically analyzing the control phenomenon, ma'am. [234] Naturally I offered this innocent young Burnerman the benefit of me long years of experience. [235] Why," Callahan said with a jaunty laugh, "dames mean nothing to me. [236] Indeed 'twouldn't bother me none if there wasn't one of the things left in the world! [237] Present company excepted, of course," Callahan hastened to say with a courtly bow. [238] "Stay at attention!" [239] Old Woman sniffed the air near Callahan's face, then in O'Rielly's vicinity. [240] "Smothered it with chlorophyll probably," she muttered through her teeth, "if it is that vino." [241] Something horrible as a plague flickered in her eyes, then the old ice was there again. [242] "Apprentice Burnerman, don't you know what your shower is for? [243] Then use it! [244] Mr. Callahan, remain at attention while I inspect this burner!" [245] She tendered a cool glance at the Venus bigwig. [246] "Care to join me, Your Excellency?" [247] "May as well." [248] His Excellency glanced at O'Rielly and Callahan much as he might at a couple of worms. [249] Could bet your last old sox no female ever told any Venus man what to do. [250] The shower units were equipped so no Burnerman need be more than two steps from his responsibility. [251] To keep the Old Woman from possibly blowing her gaskets completely, O'Rielly simply stepped in, shut the door, flipped a switch and tingled as he was electronically cleansed of person and clothes. [252] By time he finished, the Old Woman and His Excellency were already coming out of the burner room, dripping with sweat. [253] Old Woman opened the shower with her customary commanding air. [254] "You first, Your Excellency." [255] "My dear Captain," His Excellency replied like a smoothly drawn dagger, "always the lesser gender enjoys precedence." [256] No Earth dame ever admitted any guy was even equal to any female. [257] Old Woman, a prime symbol of her gender's superiority, whipped a razor edge onto her own words. [258] "Facilities of the Captain's quarters are more satisfactory." [259] "No more so than those of the Ambassadorial Suite." [260] Seeming to grind her teeth, the Old O Woman turned abruptly to leave O'Rielly's watch room. [261] Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from busting out laughing for joy. [262] Old Woman had been flimflammed for fair! [263] Dear Trillium was saved! [264] And betwixt O'Rielly's grand brain and Callahan's great experience she'd be happy forever. [265] A fine loud "thump," however, was now heard. [266] Old Woman whirled back and yanked open the doors under O'Rielly's bunk. [267] "Of all the sappy hiding places!" [268] Callahan yelped, in surprise of course. [269] "Trillium?" [270] His Excellency bellowed as if stung by one of the sabre-tailed hornets of his native planet. [271] "Trillium!" [272] "Trillium," O'Rielly pleaded in loving anguish, "why do you have to keep coming out of hiding just when nobody's going to find you?" [273] Her eyes merely became deep pools in which O'Rielly would have gladly drowned himself if he could. [274] "There are rewards," the Old Woman said with the deadly coldness of outer space, "for Earthmen found in a Venus woman's company, and for her leaving her planet." [275] "Shut up!" [276] His Excellency's ear beards were standing straight out sideways. [277] "I'll handle this!" [278] "May I remind His Excellency," the Old Woman snapped, "that I represent Earth and her dominion of space gained by right of original flight!" [279] "May I remind the Captain," His Excellency declared fit to be heard back to his planet, "that I am the Personal Ambassador of the President of Venus and this thing can mean war!" [280] "Yes! [281] War in which people will actually die!" [282] As His Excellency paled at that grisly remark, the Old Woman spoke through her teeth at O'Rielly, Callahan and Trillium. [283] "All right, come along!" [284] O'Rielly joined the death march gladly. [285] He felt the way Callahan looked: ready to wrap his arms around Trillium's brave loveliness and protect it to his last breath of life. [286] Old Woman led the way to her office. [287] Jabbed some buttons on her desk. [288] Panels on opposite walls lit up. [289] "Presidents of Earth and Venus, please," the Old Woman stated evenly. [290] "Interplanetary emergency." [291] Highly groomed flunkies appeared on the panels and were impersonally pleasant. [292] "Madame President's office. [293] She is in a Cabinet meeting." [294] "Mr. President's office. [295] He is in personal command of our glorious war efforts." [296] Old Woman sighed through her teeth. [297] "Venus woman aboard this ship. [298] Stowaway. [299] Rattle that around your belfries." [300] The flunkies' faces went slack with shock, then were replaced by a blizzard of scrambled faces and torrents of incoherent voices. [301] Finally on the Earth panel appeared the famous classic features. [302] "The facts, if you please, Captain Hatwoody." [303] The Venus panel finally held steady on universally notorious features, that were as fierce as an eagle's, in a fancy war helmet. [304] "Trillium! [305] My own granddaughter? [306] Impossible! [307] Dimdooly," Mr. President roared at his Excellency, "what's this nonsense?" [308] "Some loud creature is interfering," Madame President snapped with annoyance. [309] "Blasted fools still have the circuits crossed," Mr. President swore. [310] "Some silly female cackling now!" [311] The parties in the panels saw each other now. [312] Each one's left hand on a desk moved toward a big red button marked, ROCKETS. [313] "So," Mr. President said evenly. [314] "Another violation by your Earthmen." [315] "By your granddaughter, at least," Madame President replied coolly. [316] "An innocent child," Mr. President snapped, "obviously kidnapped by those two idiotic Earthmen there!" [317] "Oh, no, Grandpapa," Trillium said swiftly; "I stole away all by myself, and Mr. O'Rielly and Callahan have been very helpful." [318] "Impossible!" [319] Grandpapa President's ear beards stood near straight up as he roared, "You couldn't have stolen away by yourself! [320] Trillium, tell the truth!" [321] "Very well. [322] Grandmamma told me how." [323] "Obviously Trillium's poor little brain has been drugged," His Excellency Dimdooly declared. [324] "Grandmamma Berta wouldn't know the first thing about such things!" [325] "Impossible!" [326] Grandpapa President agreed. [327] "I've been married to her for a hundred and twenty-four and a half years and she's the finest rattle-brain I ever knew!" [328] "She learned," Trillium stated emphatically, "a hundred and twenty-five years ago." [329] "Hundred twenty-five," Grandpapa president growled like a boiling volcano. [330] "The year some Earthman.... Never did catch the devil.... Berta? [331] Impossible!" [332] Madame President's shapely finger now rested full on the button that could launch the fleets of war rockets that had been pre-aimed for a thousand years. [333] "I'm afraid your Ambassador is unwelcome now," Madame President stated coolly. [334] "Your granddaughter's actions have every mark of an invasion tactic by your government." [335] "What do you mean, her actions?" [336] Grandpapa President's finger now lay poised on the button that had been waiting a thousand years to blow Earth out of the universe. [337] "My grandchild was kidnapped by men under your official command! [338] Weren't you, Trillium dear?" [339] "No. [340] One of us stowing away was the only way we Venus women could bring our cause to the attention of Earth's President. [341] If Earth will only stop buying from Venus, you won't have any money to squander on your wars any longer no matter what happens to we revolutionaries!" [342] "Revolutionaries? [343] Such claptrap! [344] And what's wrong with my wars? [345] People have to have something to keep their minds off their troubles! [346] Nobody around here gets hurt. [347] Oh, maybe a few scratches here and there. [348] But nobody on Venus dies from the things any more." [349] "But Venus men are so excited all the time about going to war they haven't time for us women. [350] That's why we always radiated such a fatal attraction for Earthmen. [351] We want to be loved! [352] We want our own men home doing useful work!" [353] "Well, they do come home and do useful work! [354] Couple weeks every ten months. [355] Proven to be a highly efficient arrangement." [356] "More boys to run off to your old wars and more girls to stay home and be lonely!" [357] "Now you just listen to me, Trillium!" [358] Grandpapa President was all Venus manhood laying down the law. [359] "That's the way things have been on Venus for ten thousand years and all the women in the universe can't change it!" [360] "I have been in constant contact with my Cabinet during these conversations," Madame President said crisply. [361] "Earth is terminating all trade agreements with Venus as of this instant." [362] "What?" [363] Grandpapa's beards near pulled his ears off. [364] "It's not legal! [365] You can't get away with this!" [366] "Take your finger off that trigger, boy!" [367] a heavenly voice similar to Trillium's advised from the Venus panel. [368] Whereupon Grandpapa glared to one side. [369] "Berta! [370] What are you doing here? [371] I am deciding matters of the gravest interplanetary nature!" [372] "Were." [373] Features more beautifully mature than Trillium's crowded onto the panel too. [374] "From now on I'm doing the deciding." [375] "Nonsense! [376] You're only my wife!" [377] "And new President of Venus, elected by unanimous vote of all women." [378] "Impossible! [379] The men run Venus! [380] Nobody's turning this planet into another Earth where a man can't even sneeze unless some woman says so!" [381] "Take him away, girls," Berta ordered coolly, whereupon her spouse was yanked from view. [382] His bellows, however, could be heard yet. [383] "Unhand me, you fool creatures! [384] Guards! [385] Guards!" [386] "Save your breath," Berta advised him. [387] "And while you're in the cooler, enjoy this latest batch of surrender communiques. [388] We women are in control everywhere now." [389] "Dimmy," Trillium was saying firmly to His Excellency, "you have beat around the bush with me long enough. [390] Now say it!" [391] Dimdooly—the mighty, the lordly, who had sneered at the sight of mere Earthmen kowtowing to a mere woman—swelled up fit to blow his gaskets, then all the gas went out of him. [392] His ear beards, however, still had enough zip left to flutter like butterflies. [393] "Yes, Trillium dear. [394] I love only you. [395] Please marry me at your earliest convenience." [396] "Well, Grandmamma," Trillium said with a highly self-satisfied air, "it works. [397] And just like you said, Earthmen meant nothing once I knew we Venus women had our own men in our power." [398] "Those crewmen there," Grandmamma President said, "seem to be proof enough that we Venus women no longer radiate any threat to Earth's tranquility." [399] Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly sure felt like proof of something all of a sudden. [400] Worse than the hangover from that crap game with Venus vino. [401] He looked away from Trillium and took a look at Callahan. [402] Old guy looked away from Grandmamma President like he was packing the second biggest headache in history. [403] "Hmmmm, yes," Madame President of Earth observed. [404] "Reactions agree perfectly with the psychoanalytical research project we have been conducting on the subject of the Venus female influence. [405] Madame President of Venus, congratulations on your victory! [406] "Long may the superior sex reign on Venus too! [407] We shall be delighted to receive an Ambassadoress to discuss a new trade treaty at your earliest convenience." [408] "Thank you for cancelling the old trade agreements at the psychological moment," Grandmamma President said cordially. [409] "What with the communications mixup, we managed to have the scenes on these panels broadcast throughout all Venus. [410] When the rug went out from under the top man, the tide really turned in our favor. [411] Now, Trillium, you take over Dimmy's credentials." [412] "The Ambassadorial Suite, too," Madame President of Earth said graciously. [413] "Anything else now, Berta?" [414] "I should like," Grandmamma President Berta said charmingly, "that Mr. O'Rielly and Mr. Callahan be suitably rewarded for assisting our revolution better than they knew." [415] "Of course," Madame President of Earth was delighted to oblige. [416] "No doubt Captain Hatwoody knows what reward would satisfy their needs best." [417] The Madame Presidents switched to a private circuit, Trillium dragged Dimdooly off somewhere and the Old Woman eyed O'Rielly and Callahan. [418] Especially she eyed Callahan, like running chilled drills through his old conniving brain. [419] "I award the pair of you five minutes leisure before returning to your stations." [420] "Oh, well," O'Rielly muttered, once he and Callahan were safely beyond earshot, "could have been rewarded worse, I suppose." [421] "What you expect for being flimflammed by a foreign dame, the rings of Saturn? [422] Lucky we ain't programmed to be hung, shot and thrown to the crows for breakfast." [423] Callahan's old pick-and-shovel face wore a little grin like the cat that nobody could prove ate the canary. [424] "You—I mean, that Earth guy a hundred twenty-five years ago," O'Rielly said in sudden thought. [425] "If Venus dames wanted to be loved so bad, why did Trillium's Grandmamma let him go?" [426] "Venus guys wasn't so busy playing war all the time," Callahan mumbled, like to himself, "they'd of found out the answer centuries ago. [427] Yep, guess our boy was the only guy on Earth or Venus to find out and live. [428] Dames bossing both planets now, though, his old secret won't be one much longer. [429] Venus dames could of let it out centuries ago themselves but didn't, just to spite Earth probably. [430] Later, was part of organizing to take over Venus, I guess." [431] O'Rielly still had memories of the way he had felt about Trillium before her revolution. [432] "All right, Callahan, why did 'our boy' leave Grandmamma?" [433] "Yes, ma'am," Callahan sighed like he hadn't heard a word O'Rielly said, "you could sweet-talk 'em, kiss 'em and hold 'em tighter'n Billy-be-damned. [434] And that's all." [435] "I'm not sure," O'Rielly said, "what you mean by, 'that's all.'" [436] "Anybody ever seen anybody but a Venus guy come built with ear beards? [437] Course not." [438] "But I thought our boy was wearing the best fakes ever." [439] "Ain't nothing can match the natural growed-on variety, no, ma'am. [440] Venus guy kisses a Venus dame, his beards grabs her roundst the ears." [441] "So what?" [442] "Tickles 'em, boy, tickles 'em!"

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What was Trillium's plan as a stowaway on the ship?": 1. [197] "I threw them in there before you came on duty before blast-off," Trillium explained. "I knew the burner room would be warm." 2. [201] "Now don't you worry about another thing!" 3. [202] "Everything is going just the way Grandmamma knew it would!" 4. [196] "I knew the burner room would be warm." 5. [195] He glimpsed a black ditty bag, also the cap and coverall uniform of a baggage boy. 6. [194] He yanked open the doors under his bunk. 7. [193] "My locker!" 8. [338] "One of us stowing away was the only way we Venus women could bring our cause to the attention of Earth's President." 9. [339] "If Earth will only stop buying from Venus, you won't have any money to squander on your wars any longer no matter what happens to we revolutionaries!" 10. [340] "That's why we always radiated such a fatal attraction for Earthmen. We want to be loved! We want our own men home doing useful work!" 11. [341] "We want our own men home doing useful work!" 12. [396] "And just like you said, Earthmen meant nothing once I knew we Venus women had our own men in our power." 13. [397] "And just like you said, Earthmen meant nothing once I knew we Venus women had our own men in our power." 14. [398] "Those crewmen there seem to be proof enough that we Venus women no longer radiate any threat to Earth's tranquility." 15. All other context sentences.

What is the relationship between Captain Hatwoody and Ambassador Dimdooly throughout the story?

[1] IMAGE OF SPLENDOR By LU KELLA From Venus to Earth, and all the way between, it was a hell of a world for men ... and Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly particularly. [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Summer 1955. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] The intercom roared fit to blow O'Rielly back to Venus. [5] "Burner Four!" [6] "On my way, sir!" [7] At the first flash of red on the bank of meters Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly had slammed the safety helmet on his head; he was already throwing open the lock to the burner room. [8] The hot, throbbing rumble whipped around him and near crushed his breath away. [9] Power! [10] Power of the universe trapped here and ready to destroy its captors given one chance! [11] Swiftly O'Rielly unlocked the controls and reset them. [12] The throbbing rumble changed tone. [13] Old Callahan's voice crackled now through the helmet's ear contact. [14] "Well, Mr. [15] O'Rielly?" [16] "Fusion control two points low, sir." [17] O'Rielly wondered had Callahan passed out, was so long before the old Burner Chief demanded hoarsely, "Didn't you lock them controls before blast-off?" [18] "If every control hadn't been locked in correct setting," O'Rielly answered from his own angry bewilderment, "the error would have registered before blast-off—wouldn't it, sir?" [19] "So a control reset itself in flight, hey?" [20] "I don't know yet, sir." [21] "Well, Mr. O'Rielly, you better know before we orbit Earth!" [22] The icy knot in O'Rielly's stomach jerked tighter. [23] A dozen burners on this ship; why did something crazy have to happen to O'Rielly's? [24] In a hundred years, so the instructors—brisk females all—had told O'Rielly in pre-flight school, no control had ever been known to slip. [25] But one had moved here. [26] Not enough to cause serious trouble this far out from Earth. [27] On blast-down, though, with one jet below peak, the uneven thrust could throw the ship, crash it, the whole lovely thing and all aboard gone in a churning cloud. [28] Sweat pouring off him, O'Rielly prowled around his burner. [29] Design of the thing had been bossed by dames of course; what on Earth wasn't any more? [30] Anyway, nobody could get to a burner except through its watch room. [31] Anyone entered or left there, a bell clanged, lights flashed and a meter registered beside the Burnerman's bunk and on the Burner Chief's console up in the flight room full of beautifully efficient officers. [32] Ever since Venus blast-off O'Rielly had been in Four's watch room. [33] Nobody had passed through. [34] O'Rielly knew it. [35] Callahan knew it. [36] By now the Old Woman herself, Captain Millicent Hatwoody, had probably inquired what was in charge of Burner Four. [37] Well, ma'am, O'Rielly searched every cranny where even a three-tailed mouse of Venus could have stowed away. [38] His first flight, and O'Rielly saw himself washed out, busted to sweeper on the blast-off stands of some God-forsaken satellite. [39] He staggered back into his watch room. [40] And his brain was suddenly taken apart and slapped together again. [41] Felt that way. [42] She was sitting on his bunk. [43] No three-tailed mouse. [44] No Old Woman either. [45] Oh, she was a female human, though, this creature at which O'Rielly stood gaping. [46] Yes, ma'am! [47] "I was in your burner room." [48] Her voice matched the rest of her, a blend of loveliness unlike anything outside a guy's most secret dreams. [49] "I couldn't stand the heat any longer and I couldn't open that big door. [50] So I moved one of your controls a tiny bit. [51] All the noise in there, naturally you couldn't hear me walk out while your back was turned resetting the control." [52] O'Rielly suddenly felt like turning her over his knee and whaling her until she couldn't sit for a year. [53] This, mind you, he felt in an age where no Earth guy for a thousand years had dared raise so much as a breath against woman's supremacy in all matters. [54] That male character trait, however, did not seem to be the overpowering reason why O'Rielly, instead of laying violent hands upon this one's person, heard himself saying in sympathetic outrage, "A shame you had to go to all that bother to get out here!" [55] "You're so kind. [56] But I'm afraid I became rather sticky and smelly in there." [57] "They ought to cool the air in there with perfume! [58] I'll drop a suggestion in the Old Woman's box first chance I get." [59] "You're so thoughtful. [60] And do you have bathing facilities?" [61] "That door right there. [62] Oh, let me open it for you!" [63] "You're so sweet." [64] Her big dark eyes glowed with such pure innocence that O'Rielly could have torn down the universe and rebuilt it just for her. [65] Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly was floating on a pink cloud with heavenly music in his head. [66] Never felt so fine before. [67] Except on the Venus layover when he'd been roped into a dice game with a bunch of Venus lads who had a jug to cheer one's parting with one's money. [68] A bell suddenly clanged fit to wake the dead while the overhead lights flashed wildly. [69] Only the watch room door. [70] Only Callahan here now. [71] Old buzzard had a drooped nose like a pick, chin like a shovel. [72] When he talked he was like digging a hole in front of himself. [73] "Well, what about that control?" [74] "What control?" [75] "Your fusion control that got itself two points low!" [76] "Oh, that little thing." [77] Callahan said something through his teeth, then studied O'Rielly sharply. [78] "Hey, you been wetting your whistle on that Venus vino again? [79] Lemme smell your breath! [80] Bah. [81] Loaded yourself full of chlorophyll again probably. [82] All right, stand aside whilst I see your burner." [83] "Charmed to, Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly said while bowing gracefully. [84] "Higher than a swacked skunk's tail again," Callahan muttered, then snapped back over his shoulder, "Use your shower!" [85] O'Rielly stood considering his shower door. [86] Somehow he doubted that Burner Chief Terrence Callahan's mood, or Captain Millicent Hatwoody's, would be improved by knowledge of she who was in O'Rielly's shower now. [87] Not that the dear stowaway was less than charming. [88] Quite the contrary. [89] Oh, very quite! [90] "You rockhead!" [91] Only Callahan back from the burner. [92] "Didn't I tell you to shower the stink off yourself? [93] Old Woman's taking a Venus bigwig on tour the ship. [94] Old Woman catches you like you been rassling skunks she'll peel both our hides off. [95] Not to mention what she'll do anyway about your fusion control!" [96] "Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly responded courteously, "I have been thinking." [97] "With what? [98] Never mind, just keep on trying whilst I have a shower for myself here." [99] Wherewith Callahan reached hand for O'Rielly's shower door. [100] "Venus dames," O'Rielly said dreamily, "don't boss anything, do they?" [101] Callahan yelped like he'd been bit in the pants by a big Jupiter ant. [102] "O'Rielly! [103] You trying to get both of us condemned to a Uranus moon?" [104] Callahan also shot a wild look to the intercom switch. [105] It was in OFF position; the flight room full of fancy gold-lace petticoats could not have overheard from here. [106] Nevertheless Callahan's eyes rolled like the devil was behind him with the fork ready. [107] "O'Rielly, open your big ears whilst for your own good and mine I speak of certain matters. [108] "Thousand years ago, it was, the first flight reached Venus. [109] Guys got one look at them dames. [110] Had to bring some home or bust. [111] So then everybody on Earth got a look, mostly by TV only of course. [112] That did it. [113] Every guy on Earth began blowing his fuse over them dames. [114] Give up the shirt off his back, last buck in the bank, his own Earth dame or family—everything. [115] "Well, that's when Earth dames took over like armies of wild cats with knots in their tails. [116] Before the guys who'd brought the Venus dames to Earth could say anything they was taken apart too small to pick up with a blotter. [117] Earth dames wound up by flying the Venus ones back where they come from and serving notice if one ever set foot on Earth again there wouldn't be enough left of Venus to find with an electron microscope. [118] "Venus boys rared up and served notice that if Earth ever got any funny notions, right away there wouldn't be enough Earth left to hide in an atom's eyebrow. [119] Touchy as hornets on a hot griddle, them Venus guys. [120] Crazier than bed bugs about war. [121] Could smell a loose dollar a million light years away too. [122] Finagled around until they finally cooked up a deal. [123] "No Venus dames allowed within fifty miles of their port. [124] Earth guys stay inside the high-voltage fence. [125] Any dame caught trying to leave Venus thrown to the tigers for supper. [126] Same for any Earth guy caught around a Venus dame. [127] In return, Earth could buy practically everything at bargain basement prices." [128] "Oh, I was shown the history films in pre-flight," O'Rielly said, still dreamily. [129] "But not a peek of any Venus dame." [130] "Pray heaven you'll never lay eyes on one nor have one get within ten foot of you! [131] Even though you'd know she'd be your damnation wouldn't make a whit difference—you'd still act sappier than thirty-seven angels flying on vino." [132] Callahan suddenly stared at O'Rielly. [133] "Holy hollering saints!" [134] "Now, now, Burner Chief Callahan, sir," O'Rielly responded with an airy laugh. [135] "No Earth guy for a hundred twenty-five years been near one and lived to tell it, has he?" [136] "So the whispers run," Callahan murmured with a queer flame dancing into his eyes. [137] "So the old whispers still run." [138] "Never a name, though. [139] Never how it was done." [140] O'Rielly snorted. [141] "Probably just a goofy tale set loose by some old space bum." [142] "Oh?" [143] Callahan bristled up like a bad name had been bandied about. [144] "Seen them ditty bags Venus bigwigs have, ain't you? [145] Some big enough to stuff a cow in. [146] Notice how nobody ever dares question a bigwig's bags, even through customs? [147] Just run 'em through the big Geiger that tells whether there's any fusionable junk inside. [148] Well, our boy got himself one of them bags, stuffed himself inside and joined a bigwig's pile of 'em. [149] "Didn't pull it whilst on the Venus port during a layover either, when a crew check would of turned him up missing. [150] Pulled it on vacation. [151] Started on the Earth end. [152] Made himself a pair of beards to paste on his ears of course. [153] Wove Jupiter wiggle worms in to keep the beards moving. [154] Wasn't like the real thing, but good enough to flimflam Venus guys." [155] With suddenly enlivened interest O'Rielly looked at Callahan. [156] "Hey, how come you know so much?" [157] "Hah? [158] What?" [159] Callahan blinked like waking from a trance; even groaned to himself, something that sounded like, "Blabbering like I'd had a nip myself—or one of them dillies was radiating nearby." [160] Then Callahan glared fit to drill holes in O'Rielly's head. [161] "Look! [162] I was a full Burnerman before you was born. [163] Been flying the spaces hundred twenty-five years now. [164] Had more chances to hear more—just hear more, you hear! [165] Only tried to clear your mind about Venus dames so you could put your brain on your control mess. [166] So now put it! [167] If you ain't high on vino and ain't been made nuts by a Venus dame, what answer do we feed the Old Woman?" [168] "Search me," Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly responded cheerfully. [169] "Of all the loony apprentices I ever had to answer the Old Woman for! [170] Awp, lemme out where I can think of something to save me own neck at least!" [171] Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from rolling on the deck with glee. [172] Old Callahan had been flimflammed for fair! [173] The dear little stowaway was saved! [174] And O'Rielly would now think of grand ways to save her lovely neck and his own forever. [175] O'Rielly's shower door, however, opened abruptly. [176] O'Rielly had not opened it. [177] O'Rielly, however, suffered a cruel stab of dismay. [178] Surely his dear stowaway had been listening through the door. [179] Why didn't she have brains enough to stay hid until Callahan was gone! [180] At sight of her, of course, Callahan's eyes near popped from his old head. [181] "Berta!" [182] "Oh, I'm Trillium," she assured Callahan sweetly. [183] "But Grandmamma's name is Berta and people say I'm just like she was a hundred and twenty-five years ago." [184] "Hah? [185] What?" [186] Callahan blinked like his brain had been taken apart and was being slapped together again. [187] "O'Rielly! [188] Awp, you angel-faced pirate, couldn't you hide her somewheres better than that? [189] Shut up, you don't have to explain to me, but God help the whole universe if we don't flimflam the Old Woman!" [190] With which ominous remark, rendered in a zesty devil-may-care manner, however, Callahan threw himself into O'Rielly's shower. [191] O'Rielly stood looking thoughtfully at lovely, womanly, exquisite Trillium. [192] Just like that, O'Rielly felt as sparkling of mind as a spiral nebula. [193] "My locker!" [194] he crowed with inspiration and yanked open the doors under his bunk. [195] He glimpsed a black ditty bag, also the cap and coverall uniform of a baggage boy. [196] "I threw them in there before you came on duty before blast-off," Trillium explained. [197] "I knew the burner room would be warm." [198] Trillium—with her shape—passing as a boy hustling bags through this ship. [199] O'Rielly chortled as he tucked her under his bunk. [200] "Now don't you worry about another thing!" [201] "Oh, I'm not," she assured him happily. [202] "Everything is going just the way Grandmamma knew it would!" [203] O'Rielly's shower opened and Callahan, glowing like a young bucko, bounced onto the bunk. [204] "Well, did you hide her good this time? [205] No, don't tell me! [206] I want to be surprised if the Old Woman ever finds her." [207] "If what old woman finds whom?" [208] a voice like thin ice crackling wanted to know. [209] The watch room's door had opened. [210] Wouldn't think the Old Woman was a day over seventy-five, let alone near two hundred. [211] Cut of her uniform probably lent a helping hand or three to the young snap of her figure. [212] Frosty blue of fancy hair-do, she was, though, and icy of eye as she looked at O'Rielly and Callahan still lolling on the bunk. [213] Her voice was an iceberg exploding. [214] "At attention!" [215] Never in his right mind would any crewman dare fail to come stiffly erect the instant the Old Woman appeared. [216] Behind her stood a colorfully robed specimen of Venus man. [217] Handsome as the devil himself. [218] Fit to snap lesser men in two with his highly bejeweled hands. [219] Fuzzy beards trailed from his ears and kept twitching lazily as he sneered at the spectacle of two men meekly acknowledging the superiority of a woman. [220] She was fit to put frost on a hydrogen burner. [221] "Mr. Callahan, I asked you a question, did I not?" [222] "Believe you did, ma'am," Callahan responded cheerfully. [223] "And the answer is, ma'am, that Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly and me was discussing—ah—matrimony, ma'am. [224] Mr. Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly here is considering it, ma'am." [225] Wasn't too bad a fib. [226] The more O'Rielly thought of Trillium, the more ideas he got of doing things he'd never dreamt of before in his life. [227] Yes, ma'am! [228] "Wasting your time talking nonsense!" [229] Old Woman's look was fit to freeze O'Rielly's brain, then she gave Callahan the look. [230] "I sent you down here to find the answer to that fusion control slippage!" [231] "Oh, you'll have the best answer you ever heard of before long, ma'am!" [232] Callahan assured her heartily. [233] "The subject of nonsense—I mean, women—merely chanced to arise whilst we was scientifically analyzing the control phenomenon, ma'am. [234] Naturally I offered this innocent young Burnerman the benefit of me long years of experience. [235] Why," Callahan said with a jaunty laugh, "dames mean nothing to me. [236] Indeed 'twouldn't bother me none if there wasn't one of the things left in the world! [237] Present company excepted, of course," Callahan hastened to say with a courtly bow. [238] "Stay at attention!" [239] Old Woman sniffed the air near Callahan's face, then in O'Rielly's vicinity. [240] "Smothered it with chlorophyll probably," she muttered through her teeth, "if it is that vino." [241] Something horrible as a plague flickered in her eyes, then the old ice was there again. [242] "Apprentice Burnerman, don't you know what your shower is for? [243] Then use it! [244] Mr. Callahan, remain at attention while I inspect this burner!" [245] She tendered a cool glance at the Venus bigwig. [246] "Care to join me, Your Excellency?" [247] "May as well." [248] His Excellency glanced at O'Rielly and Callahan much as he might at a couple of worms. [249] Could bet your last old sox no female ever told any Venus man what to do. [250] The shower units were equipped so no Burnerman need be more than two steps from his responsibility. [251] To keep the Old Woman from possibly blowing her gaskets completely, O'Rielly simply stepped in, shut the door, flipped a switch and tingled as he was electronically cleansed of person and clothes. [252] By time he finished, the Old Woman and His Excellency were already coming out of the burner room, dripping with sweat. [253] Old Woman opened the shower with her customary commanding air. [254] "You first, Your Excellency." [255] "My dear Captain," His Excellency replied like a smoothly drawn dagger, "always the lesser gender enjoys precedence." [256] No Earth dame ever admitted any guy was even equal to any female. [257] Old Woman, a prime symbol of her gender's superiority, whipped a razor edge onto her own words. [258] "Facilities of the Captain's quarters are more satisfactory." [259] "No more so than those of the Ambassadorial Suite." [260] Seeming to grind her teeth, the Old O Woman turned abruptly to leave O'Rielly's watch room. [261] Was all O'Rielly could do to keep from busting out laughing for joy. [262] Old Woman had been flimflammed for fair! [263] Dear Trillium was saved! [264] And betwixt O'Rielly's grand brain and Callahan's great experience she'd be happy forever. [265] A fine loud "thump," however, was now heard. [266] Old Woman whirled back and yanked open the doors under O'Rielly's bunk. [267] "Of all the sappy hiding places!" [268] Callahan yelped, in surprise of course. [269] "Trillium?" [270] His Excellency bellowed as if stung by one of the sabre-tailed hornets of his native planet. [271] "Trillium!" [272] "Trillium," O'Rielly pleaded in loving anguish, "why do you have to keep coming out of hiding just when nobody's going to find you?" [273] Her eyes merely became deep pools in which O'Rielly would have gladly drowned himself if he could. [274] "There are rewards," the Old Woman said with the deadly coldness of outer space, "for Earthmen found in a Venus woman's company, and for her leaving her planet." [275] "Shut up!" [276] His Excellency's ear beards were standing straight out sideways. [277] "I'll handle this!" [278] "May I remind His Excellency," the Old Woman snapped, "that I represent Earth and her dominion of space gained by right of original flight!" [279] "May I remind the Captain," His Excellency declared fit to be heard back to his planet, "that I am the Personal Ambassador of the President of Venus and this thing can mean war!" [280] "Yes! [281] War in which people will actually die!" [282] As His Excellency paled at that grisly remark, the Old Woman spoke through her teeth at O'Rielly, Callahan and Trillium. [283] "All right, come along!" [284] O'Rielly joined the death march gladly. [285] He felt the way Callahan looked: ready to wrap his arms around Trillium's brave loveliness and protect it to his last breath of life. [286] Old Woman led the way to her office. [287] Jabbed some buttons on her desk. [288] Panels on opposite walls lit up. [289] "Presidents of Earth and Venus, please," the Old Woman stated evenly. [290] "Interplanetary emergency." [291] Highly groomed flunkies appeared on the panels and were impersonally pleasant. [292] "Madame President's office. [293] She is in a Cabinet meeting." [294] "Mr. President's office. [295] He is in personal command of our glorious war efforts." [296] Old Woman sighed through her teeth. [297] "Venus woman aboard this ship. [298] Stowaway. [299] Rattle that around your belfries." [300] The flunkies' faces went slack with shock, then were replaced by a blizzard of scrambled faces and torrents of incoherent voices. [301] Finally on the Earth panel appeared the famous classic features. [302] "The facts, if you please, Captain Hatwoody." [303] The Venus panel finally held steady on universally notorious features, that were as fierce as an eagle's, in a fancy war helmet. [304] "Trillium! [305] My own granddaughter? [306] Impossible! [307] Dimdooly," Mr. President roared at his Excellency, "what's this nonsense?" [308] "Some loud creature is interfering," Madame President snapped with annoyance. [309] "Blasted fools still have the circuits crossed," Mr. President swore. [310] "Some silly female cackling now!" [311] The parties in the panels saw each other now. [312] Each one's left hand on a desk moved toward a big red button marked, ROCKETS. [313] "So," Mr. President said evenly. [314] "Another violation by your Earthmen." [315] "By your granddaughter, at least," Madame President replied coolly. [316] "An innocent child," Mr. President snapped, "obviously kidnapped by those two idiotic Earthmen there!" [317] "Oh, no, Grandpapa," Trillium said swiftly; "I stole away all by myself, and Mr. O'Rielly and Callahan have been very helpful." [318] "Impossible!" [319] Grandpapa President's ear beards stood near straight up as he roared, "You couldn't have stolen away by yourself! [320] Trillium, tell the truth!" [321] "Very well. [322] Grandmamma told me how." [323] "Obviously Trillium's poor little brain has been drugged," His Excellency Dimdooly declared. [324] "Grandmamma Berta wouldn't know the first thing about such things!" [325] "Impossible!" [326] Grandpapa President agreed. [327] "I've been married to her for a hundred and twenty-four and a half years and she's the finest rattle-brain I ever knew!" [328] "She learned," Trillium stated emphatically, "a hundred and twenty-five years ago." [329] "Hundred twenty-five," Grandpapa president growled like a boiling volcano. [330] "The year some Earthman.... Never did catch the devil.... Berta? [331] Impossible!" [332] Madame President's shapely finger now rested full on the button that could launch the fleets of war rockets that had been pre-aimed for a thousand years. [333] "I'm afraid your Ambassador is unwelcome now," Madame President stated coolly. [334] "Your granddaughter's actions have every mark of an invasion tactic by your government." [335] "What do you mean, her actions?" [336] Grandpapa President's finger now lay poised on the button that had been waiting a thousand years to blow Earth out of the universe. [337] "My grandchild was kidnapped by men under your official command! [338] Weren't you, Trillium dear?" [339] "No. [340] One of us stowing away was the only way we Venus women could bring our cause to the attention of Earth's President. [341] If Earth will only stop buying from Venus, you won't have any money to squander on your wars any longer no matter what happens to we revolutionaries!" [342] "Revolutionaries? [343] Such claptrap! [344] And what's wrong with my wars? [345] People have to have something to keep their minds off their troubles! [346] Nobody around here gets hurt. [347] Oh, maybe a few scratches here and there. [348] But nobody on Venus dies from the things any more." [349] "But Venus men are so excited all the time about going to war they haven't time for us women. [350] That's why we always radiated such a fatal attraction for Earthmen. [351] We want to be loved! [352] We want our own men home doing useful work!" [353] "Well, they do come home and do useful work! [354] Couple weeks every ten months. [355] Proven to be a highly efficient arrangement." [356] "More boys to run off to your old wars and more girls to stay home and be lonely!" [357] "Now you just listen to me, Trillium!" [358] Grandpapa President was all Venus manhood laying down the law. [359] "That's the way things have been on Venus for ten thousand years and all the women in the universe can't change it!" [360] "I have been in constant contact with my Cabinet during these conversations," Madame President said crisply. [361] "Earth is terminating all trade agreements with Venus as of this instant." [362] "What?" [363] Grandpapa's beards near pulled his ears off. [364] "It's not legal! [365] You can't get away with this!" [366] "Take your finger off that trigger, boy!" [367] a heavenly voice similar to Trillium's advised from the Venus panel. [368] Whereupon Grandpapa glared to one side. [369] "Berta! [370] What are you doing here? [371] I am deciding matters of the gravest interplanetary nature!" [372] "Were." [373] Features more beautifully mature than Trillium's crowded onto the panel too. [374] "From now on I'm doing the deciding." [375] "Nonsense! [376] You're only my wife!" [377] "And new President of Venus, elected by unanimous vote of all women." [378] "Impossible! [379] The men run Venus! [380] Nobody's turning this planet into another Earth where a man can't even sneeze unless some woman says so!" [381] "Take him away, girls," Berta ordered coolly, whereupon her spouse was yanked from view. [382] His bellows, however, could be heard yet. [383] "Unhand me, you fool creatures! [384] Guards! [385] Guards!" [386] "Save your breath," Berta advised him. [387] "And while you're in the cooler, enjoy this latest batch of surrender communiques. [388] We women are in control everywhere now." [389] "Dimmy," Trillium was saying firmly to His Excellency, "you have beat around the bush with me long enough. [390] Now say it!" [391] Dimdooly—the mighty, the lordly, who had sneered at the sight of mere Earthmen kowtowing to a mere woman—swelled up fit to blow his gaskets, then all the gas went out of him. [392] His ear beards, however, still had enough zip left to flutter like butterflies. [393] "Yes, Trillium dear. [394] I love only you. [395] Please marry me at your earliest convenience." [396] "Well, Grandmamma," Trillium said with a highly self-satisfied air, "it works. [397] And just like you said, Earthmen meant nothing once I knew we Venus women had our own men in our power." [398] "Those crewmen there," Grandmamma President said, "seem to be proof enough that we Venus women no longer radiate any threat to Earth's tranquility." [399] Yes, ma'am, O'Rielly sure felt like proof of something all of a sudden. [400] Worse than the hangover from that crap game with Venus vino. [401] He looked away from Trillium and took a look at Callahan. [402] Old guy looked away from Grandmamma President like he was packing the second biggest headache in history. [403] "Hmmmm, yes," Madame President of Earth observed. [404] "Reactions agree perfectly with the psychoanalytical research project we have been conducting on the subject of the Venus female influence. [405] Madame President of Venus, congratulations on your victory! [406] "Long may the superior sex reign on Venus too! [407] We shall be delighted to receive an Ambassadoress to discuss a new trade treaty at your earliest convenience." [408] "Thank you for cancelling the old trade agreements at the psychological moment," Grandmamma President said cordially. [409] "What with the communications mixup, we managed to have the scenes on these panels broadcast throughout all Venus. [410] When the rug went out from under the top man, the tide really turned in our favor. [411] Now, Trillium, you take over Dimmy's credentials." [412] "The Ambassadorial Suite, too," Madame President of Earth said graciously. [413] "Anything else now, Berta?" [414] "I should like," Grandmamma President Berta said charmingly, "that Mr. O'Rielly and Mr. Callahan be suitably rewarded for assisting our revolution better than they knew." [415] "Of course," Madame President of Earth was delighted to oblige. [416] "No doubt Captain Hatwoody knows what reward would satisfy their needs best." [417] The Madame Presidents switched to a private circuit, Trillium dragged Dimdooly off somewhere and the Old Woman eyed O'Rielly and Callahan. [418] Especially she eyed Callahan, like running chilled drills through his old conniving brain. [419] "I award the pair of you five minutes leisure before returning to your stations." [420] "Oh, well," O'Rielly muttered, once he and Callahan were safely beyond earshot, "could have been rewarded worse, I suppose." [421] "What you expect for being flimflammed by a foreign dame, the rings of Saturn? [422] Lucky we ain't programmed to be hung, shot and thrown to the crows for breakfast." [423] Callahan's old pick-and-shovel face wore a little grin like the cat that nobody could prove ate the canary. [424] "You—I mean, that Earth guy a hundred twenty-five years ago," O'Rielly said in sudden thought. [425] "If Venus dames wanted to be loved so bad, why did Trillium's Grandmamma let him go?" [426] "Venus guys wasn't so busy playing war all the time," Callahan mumbled, like to himself, "they'd of found out the answer centuries ago. [427] Yep, guess our boy was the only guy on Earth or Venus to find out and live. [428] Dames bossing both planets now, though, his old secret won't be one much longer. [429] Venus dames could of let it out centuries ago themselves but didn't, just to spite Earth probably. [430] Later, was part of organizing to take over Venus, I guess." [431] O'Rielly still had memories of the way he had felt about Trillium before her revolution. [432] "All right, Callahan, why did 'our boy' leave Grandmamma?" [433] "Yes, ma'am," Callahan sighed like he hadn't heard a word O'Rielly said, "you could sweet-talk 'em, kiss 'em and hold 'em tighter'n Billy-be-damned. [434] And that's all." [435] "I'm not sure," O'Rielly said, "what you mean by, 'that's all.'" [436] "Anybody ever seen anybody but a Venus guy come built with ear beards? [437] Course not." [438] "But I thought our boy was wearing the best fakes ever." [439] "Ain't nothing can match the natural growed-on variety, no, ma'am. [440] Venus guy kisses a Venus dame, his beards grabs her roundst the ears." [441] "So what?" [442] "Tickles 'em, boy, tickles 'em!"

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the relationship between Captain Hatwoody and Ambassador Dimdooly throughout the story?": 1. [207] "If what old woman finds whom?" 2. [208] A voice like thin ice crackling wanted to know. 3. [209] Wouldn't think the Old Woman was a day over seventy-five, let alone near two hundred. 4. [210] Cut of her uniform probably lent a helping hand or three to the young snap of her figure. 5. [211] Frosty blue of fancy hair-do, she was, though, and icy of eye as she looked at O'Rielly and Callahan still lolling on the bunk. 6. [212] Her voice was an iceberg exploding. 7. [213] "At attention!" 8. [214] Never in his right mind would any crewman dare fail to come stiffly erect the instant the Old Woman appeared. 9. [215] Behind her stood a colorfully robed specimen of Venus man. 10. [216] Handsome as the devil himself. 11. [217] Fit to snap lesser men in two with his highly bejeweled hands. 12. [218] Fuzzy beards trailed from his ears and kept twitching lazily as he sneered at the spectacle of two men meekly acknowledging the superiority of a woman. 13. [219] She was fit to put frost on a hydrogen burner. 14. [220] "Mr. Callahan, I asked you a question, did I not?" 15. [221] "Believe you did, ma'am," Callahan responded cheerfully. 16. [222] "And the answer is, ma'am, that Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly and me was discussing—ah—matrimony, ma'am. 17. [223] Mr. Apprentice Burnerman O'Rielly here is considering it, ma'am." 18. [224] "Wasting your time talking nonsense!" 19. [225] Old Woman's look was fit to freeze O'Rielly's brain, then she gave Callahan the look. 20. [226] "I sent you down here to find the answer to that fusion control slippage!" 21. [227] "Oh, you'll have the best answer you ever heard of before long, ma'am!" 22. [228] Callahan assured her heartily. 23. [229] "The subject of nonsense—I mean, women—merely chanced to arise whilst we was scientifically analyzing the control phenomenon, ma'am. 24. [230] Naturally I offered this innocent young Burnerman the benefit of me long years of experience. 25. [231] "Why," Callahan said with a jaunty laugh, "dames mean nothing to me. 26. [232] Indeed 'twouldn't bother me none if there wasn't one of the things left in the world! 27. [233] "Present company excepted, of course," Callahan hastened to say with a courtly bow. 28. [234] "Stay at attention!" 29. [235] Old Woman sniffed the air near Callahan's face, then in O'Rielly's vicinity. 30. [236] "Smothered it with chlorophyll probably," she muttered through her teeth, "if it is that vino." 31. [237] Something horrible as a plague flickered in her eyes, then the old ice was there again. 32. [238] "Apprentice Burnerman, don't you know what your shower is for? 33. [239] Then use it! 34. [240] Mr. Callahan, remain at attention while I inspect this burner!" 35. [241] She tendered a cool glance at the Venus bigwig. 36. [242] "Care to join me, Your Excellency?" 37. [243] "May as well." 38. [244] His Excellency glanced at O'Rielly and Callahan much as he might at a couple of worms. 39. [245] Could bet your last old sox no female ever told any Venus man what to do. 40. [246] The shower units were equipped so no Burnerman need be more than two steps from his responsibility. 41. [247] To keep the Old Woman from possibly blowing her gaskets completely, O'Rielly simply stepped in, shut the door, flipped a switch and tingled as he was electronically cleansed of person and clothes. 42. [248] By time he finished, the Old Woman and His Excellency were already coming out of the burner room, dripping with sweat. 43. [249] Old Woman opened the shower with her customary commanding air. 44. [250] "You first, Your Excellency." 45. [251] "My dear Captain," His Excellency replied like a smoothly drawn dagger, "always the lesser gender enjoys precedence." 46. [252] No Earth dame ever admitted any guy was even equal to any female. 47. [253] Old Woman, a prime symbol of her gender's superiority, whipped a razor edge onto her own words. 48. [254] "Facilities of the Captain's quarters are more satisfactory." 49. [255] "No more so than those of the Ambassadorial Suite." 50. [256] Seeming to grind her teeth, the Old O Woman turned abruptly to leave O'Rielly's watch room.

What is the plot of the story?

[1] QUEST OF THIG By BASIL WELLS Thig of Ortha was the vanguard of the conquering "HORDE." [2] He had blasted across trackless space to subdue a defenseless world—only to meet on Earth emotions that were more deadly than weapons. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1942. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Thig carefully smoothed the dark sand and seaweed of the lonely beach over the metal lid of the flexible ringed tunnel that linked the grubby ship from another planet with the upper air. [6] He looked out across the heaving waters of the Sound toward Connecticut. [7] He stared appraisingly around at the luxuriant green growth of foliage further inland; and started toward the little stretch of trees and brush, walking carefully because of the lesser gravitation. [8] Thig was shorter than the average Earthman—although on Ortha he was well above the average in height—but his body was thick and powerfully muscled. [9] His skull was well-shaped and large; his features were regular, perhaps a trifle oversize, and his hair and eyes were a curiously matching blend of reddish brown. [10] Oddest of all, he wore no garments, other than the necessary belt and straps to support his rod-like weapon of white metal and his pouches for food and specimens. [11] The Orthan entered the narrow strip of trees and crossed to the little-used highway on the other side. [12] Here he patiently sat down to wait for an Earthman or an Earthwoman to pass. [13] His task now was to bring a native, intact if possible, back to the carefully buried space cruiser where his two fellows and himself would drain the creature's mentality of all its knowledge. [14] In this way they could learn whether a planet was suited for colonization by later swarms of Orthans. [15] Already they had charted over a hundred celestial bodies but of them all only three had proven worthy of consideration. [16] This latest planet, however, 72-P-3 on the chart, appeared to be an ideal world in every respect. [17] Sunlight, plenty of water and a dense atmospheric envelope made of 72-P-3 a paradise among planets. [18] The explorer from another world crouched into the concealment of a leafy shrub. [19] A creature was approaching. [20] Its squat body was covered with baggy strips of bluish cloth and it carried a jointed rod of metal and wood in its paw. [21] It walked upright as did the men of Ortha. [22] Thig's cold eyes opened a trifle wider as he stared into the thing's stupid face. [23] It was as though he was looking into a bit of polished metal at the reflection of himself! [24] The Earthman was opposite now and he must waste no more precious time. [25] The mighty muscles of the Orthan sent him hurtling across the intervening space in two prodigious bounds, and his hands clamped across the mouth and neck of the stranger.... Lewis Terry was going fishing. [26] For a week the typewriter mill that had ground out a thousand assorted yarns of the untamed West and the frigid desolation of the Northwoods had been silent. [27] Lewis wondered if he was going stale. [28] He had sat every day for eight hours in front of that shiny-buttoned bane of the typist, but there were no results. [29] Feebly he had punched a key two days ago and a $ sign had appeared. [30] He hadn't dared touch the machine since. [31] For Mr. Terry, that hard-hitting writer of two-gun action, had never been further west of Long Island than Elizabeth, and he had promised his wife, Ellen, that he would take the three children and herself on a trailer tour of the West that very summer. [32] Since that promise, he could not write a word. [33] Visions of whooping red-skinned Apaches and be-chapped outlaws raiding his little trailer home kept rolling up out of his subconscious. [34] Yet he had to write at least three novelets and a fistful of short stories in the next two weeks to finance the great adventure—or the trip was off. [35] So Lewis left the weathered old cottage in the early dawn and headed for his tubby old boat at the landing in an attempt to work out a salable yarn.... [36] "Hey!" [37] he shouted as a naked man sprang out of the bushes beside the road. [38] "What's the trouble?" [39] Then he had no time for further speech, the massive arms of the stranger had wound around him and two hamlike hands shut off his speech and his wind. [40] He fought futilely against trained muscles. [41] The hand clamping his throat relaxed for a moment and hacked along the side of his head. [42] Blackness flooded the brain of Lewis, and he knew no more. [43] "There it is," announced Thig, dropping the limp body of the captured Earthman to the metal deck-plates. [44] "It is a male of the species that must have built the cities we saw as we landed." [45] "He resembles Thig," announced Kam. [46] "But for the strange covering he wears he might be Thig." [47] "Thig will be this creature!" [48] announced Torp. [49] "With a psychic relay we will transfer the Earthman's memories and meager store of knowledge to the brain of Thig! [50] He can then go out and scout this world without arousing suspicion. [51] While he is gone, I will take Kam and explore the two inner planets." [52] "You are the commander," said Thig. [53] "But I wish this beast did not wear these clumsy sheathing upon his body. [54] On Ortha we do not hamper the use of our limbs so." [55] "Do not question the word of your commander," growled Torp, swelling out his thick chest menacingly. [56] "It is for the good of our people that you disguise yourself as an Earthman." [57] "For the good of the Horde," Thig intoned almost piously as he lifted Terry's body and headed for the laboratory. [58] Service for the Horde was all that the men of Ortha knew. [59] Carefully cultured and brought to life in the laboratories of their Horde, they knew neither father nor mother. [60] Affection and love were entirely lacking in their early training and later life. [61] They were trained antlike from childhood that only the growth and power of the Horde were of any moment. [62] Men and women alike toiled and died like unfeeling robots of flesh and bone for the Horde. [63] The Horde was their religion, their love-life, their everything! [64] So it was that the bodies of the Earthman and the Orthan were strapped on two parallel tables of chill metal and the twin helmets, linked to one another by the intricacies of the psychic relay, put upon their heads. [65] For ten hours or more the droning hum of the relay sucked Terry's brain dry of knowledge. [66] The shock upon the nervous system of the Earthman proved too violent and his heart faltered after a time and stopped completely. [67] Twice, with subtle drugs they restored pseudo-life to his body and kept the electrical impulses throbbing from his tortured brain, but after the third suspension of life Thig removed his helmet. [68] "There is nothing more to learn," he informed his impassive comrades. [69] "Now, let us get on with the plastic surgery that is required. [70] My new body must return to its barbaric household before undue attention is aroused. [71] And when I return I will take along some of the gleaming baubles we found on the red planet—these people value them highly." [72] An hour later, his scars and altered cartilage already healed and painless, Thig again scraped sand over the entrance to the space ship and set out along the moonlit beach toward the nearest path running inland to his home. [73] Memory was laying the country bare about him, Terry's own childhood memories of this particular section of Long Island. [74] Here was the place where Jake and Ted had helped him dig for the buried treasure that old 'Notch-ear' Beggs had told them so exactly about. [75] Remembrance of that episode gave Thig an idea about the little lump of jewels in his pocket. [76] He had found them in a chest along the beach! [77] He was coming up on the porch now and at the sound of his foot on the sagging boards the screen door burst open and three little Earth-creatures were hugging at his legs. [78] An odd sensation, that his acquired memories labeled as pleasure, sent a warm glow upward from around his heart. [79] Then he saw the slender red-haired shape of a woman, the mate of the dead man he knew, and confusion struck his well-trained brain. [80] Men had no mates on Ortha, sex had been overthrown with all the other primitive impulses of barbarism; so he was incapable of understanding the emotions that swept through his acquired memory. [81] Unsteadily he took her in his arms and felt her warm lips pressed, trembling, against his own. [82] That same hot wave of pulsing blood choked achingly up into his throat. [83] "Lew, dear," Ellen was asking, "where have you been all day? [84] I called up at the landing but you were not there. [85] I wanted to let you know that Saddlebag Publications sent a check for $50 for "Reversed Revolvers" and three other editors asked for shorts soon." [86] "Shoulda got a hundred bucks for that yarn," grunted Thig, and gasped. [87] For the moment he had been Lewis Terry and not Thig! [88] So thoroughly had he acquired the knowledge of Terry that he found himself unconsciously adopting the thinking and mannerism of the other. [89] All the better this way, he realized—more natural. [90] "Sorry I was late," he said, digging into his pocket for the glittering baubles, "but I was poking around on the beach where we used to hunt treasure and I found an old chest. [91] Inside it I found nothing but a handful of these." [92] He flashed the jewels in front of Ellen's startled eyes and she clung, unbelieving, to his arm. [93] "Why, Lew," she gasped, "they're worth a fortune! [94] We can buy that new trailer now and have a rebuilt motor in the car. [95] We can go west right away.... Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, cowboys!" [96] "Uh huh," agreed the pseudo Lewis, memories of the ferocious savages and gunmen of his stories rendering him acutely unhappy. [97] Sincerely he hoped that the west had reformed. [98] "I saved some kraut and weiners," Ellen said. [99] "Get washed up while I'm warming them up. [100] Kids ate all the bread so I had to borrow some from the Eskoes. [101] Want coffee, too?" [102] "Mmmmmm," came from the depths of the chipped white wash-basin. [103] "Home again," whispered Ellen as she stood beside Thig twelve weeks later and gazed tearfully at the weathered little gray house. [104] She knelt beside the front stoop and reached for the key hidden beneath it. [105] "The west was wonderful; tremendous, vast and beautiful," she went on as they climbed the steps, "but nowhere was there any place as beautiful as our own little strip of sky and water." [106] Thig sank into a dusty old swing that hung on creaking chains from the exposed rafters of the porch roof. [107] He looked down at the dusty gray car and the bulbous silvery bulk of the trailer that had been their living quarters for almost three months. [108] Strange thoughts were afloat in the chaos of his cool Orthan brain. [109] Tonight or tomorrow night at the latest he must contact his two fellows and report that Earth was a planetary paradise. [110] No other world, including Ortha, was so well-favored and rich. [111] An expeditionary force to wipe the grotesque civilizations of Earth out of existence would, of course, be necessary before the first units of new Hordes could be landed. [112] And there Thig balked. [113] Why must they destroy these people, imperfect though their civilization might be, to make room for the Hordes? [114] Thig tried to tell himself that it was the transmitted thoughts of the dead Earthman that made him feel so, but he was not too sure. [115] For three months he had lived with people who loved, hated, wept and sacrificed for reasons that he had never known existed. [116] He had learned the heady glory of thinking for himself and making his own decisions. [117] He had experienced the primitive joy of matching his wits and tongue against the wits of other unpredictable human beings. [118] There was no abrupt division of men and women into definite classes of endeavor. [119] A laborer thought the same thoughts that a governor might think. [120] Uncertainty added zest to every day's life. [121] The Orthan had come to question the sole devotion of the individual to the Horde to the exclusion of all other interests. [122] What, he wondered, would one new world—or a hundred—populated by the Hordes add to the progress of humanity? [123] For a hundred thousand years the Orthan civilization had remained static, its energies directed into certain well-defined channels. [124] They were mindless bees maintaining their vast mechanical hives. [125] There was that moment on the brink of the Grand Canyon when Ellen had caught his arm breathlessly at all the beauty spread away there beneath them. [126] There were mornings in the desert when the sun painted in lurid red the peaks above the harsh black-and-whites of the sagebrush and cactus slopes. [127] There was the little boy, his body burning with fever, who nestled trustingly against his tense man's body and slept—the son of Ellen and the man he had destroyed. [128] Thig groaned. [129] He was a weakling to let sentimentality so get the better of his judgment. [130] He would go now to the space ship and urge them to blast off for Ortha. [131] He sprang off the porch and strode away down the road toward the beach. [132] The children ran to him; wanted to go along. [133] He sent them away harshly but they smiled and waved their brown little hands. [134] Ellen came to the door and called after him. [135] "Hurry home, dear," she said. [136] "I'll have a bite ready in about an hour." [137] He dared not say anything, for his voice would have broken and she would have known something was wrong. [138] She was a very wise sort of person when something was troubling him. [139] He waved his stubby paw of a hand to show that he had heard, and blindly hurried toward the Sound. [140] Oddly enough, as he hurried away along the narrow path through the autumn woods, his mind busied itself with a new epic of the west that lived no longer. [141] He mentally titled it: "Rustlers' Riot" and blocked in the outlines of his plot. [142] One section of his brain was that of the careless author of gunslinging yarns, a section that seemed to be sapping the life from his own brain. [143] He knew that the story would never be written, but he toyed with the idea. [144] So far had Thig the emotionless, robot-being from Ortha drifted from the unquestioning worship of the Horde! [145] "You have done well," announced Torp when Thig had completed his report on the resources and temperatures of various sections of Terra. [146] "We now have located three worlds fit for colonization and so we will return to Ortha at once. [147] "I will recommend the conquest of this planet, 72-P-3 at once and the complete destruction of all biped life upon it. [148] The mental aberrations of the barbaric natives might lead to endless complications if they were permitted to exist outside our ordered way of life. [149] I imagine that three circuits of the planet about its primary should prove sufficient for the purposes of complete liquidation." [150] "But why," asked Thig slowly, "could we not disarm all the natives and exile them on one of the less desirable continents, Antarctica for example or Siberia? [151] They are primitive humans even as our race was once a race of primitives. [152] It is not our duty to help to attain our own degree of knowledge and comfort?" [153] "Only the good of the Horde matters!" [154] shouted Torp angrily. [155] "Shall a race of feeble-witted beasts, such as these Earthmen, stand in the way of a superior race? [156] We want their world, and so we will take it. [157] The Law of the Horde states that all the universe is ours for the taking." [158] "Let us get back to Ortha at once, then," gritted out Thig savagely. [159] "Never again do I wish to set foot upon the soil of this mad planet. [160] There are forces at work upon Earth that we of Ortha have long forgotten." [161] "Check the blood of Thig for disease, Kam," ordered Torp shortly. [162] "His words are highly irrational. [163] Some form of fever perhaps native to this world. [164] While you examine him I will blast off for Ortha." [165] Thig followed Kam into the tiny laboratory and found a seat beside the squat scientist's desk. [166] His eyes roamed over the familiar instruments and gauges, each in its own precise position in the cases along the walls. [167] His gaze lingered longest on the stubby black ugliness of a decomposition blaster in its rack close to the deck. [168] A blast of the invisible radiations from that weapon's hot throat and flesh or vegetable fiber rotted into flaky ashes. [169] The ship trembled beneath their feet; it tore free from the feeble clutch of the sand about it, and they were rocketing skyward. [170] Thig's broad fingers bit deep into the unyielding metal of his chair. [171] Suddenly he knew that he must go back to Earth, back to Ellen and the children of the man he had helped destroy. [172] He loved Ellen, and nothing must stand between them! [173] The Hordes of Ortha must find some other world, an empty world—this planet was not for them. [174] "Turn back!" [175] he cried wildly. [176] "I must go back to Earth. [177] There is a woman there, helpless and alone, who needs me! [178] The Horde does not need this planet." [179] Kam eyed him coldly and lifted a shining hypodermic syringe from its case. [180] He approached Thig warily, aware that disease often made a maniac of the finest members of the Horde. [181] "No human being is more important than the Horde," he stated baldly. [182] "This woman of whom you speak is merely one unit of the millions we must eliminate for the good of the Horde." [183] Then it was that Thig went berserk. [184] His fists slashed into the thick jaw of the scientist and his fingers ripped at the hard cords overlying the Orthan's vital throat tubes. [185] His fingers and thumb gouged deep into Kam's startled throat and choked off any cry for assistance before it could be uttered. [186] Kam's hand swept down to the holster swung from his intricate harness and dragged his blaster from it. [187] Thig's other hand clamped over his and for long moments they swayed there, locked together in silent deadly struggle. [188] The fate of a world hung in the balance as Kam's other hand fought against that lone arm of Thig. [189] The scales swung in favor of Kam. [190] Slowly the flaring snout of his weapon tilted upward until it reached the level of Thig's waist. [191] Thig suddenly released his grip and dragged his enemy toward him. [192] A sudden reversal of pressure on Kam's gun hand sent the weapon swivelling about full upon its owner's thick torso. [193] Thig's fingers pressed down upon Kam's button finger, down upon the stud set into the grip of the decomposition blaster, and Kam's muscles turned to water. [194] He shrieked. [195] Before Thig's eyes half of his comrade's body sloughed away into foul corruption that swiftly gave way to hardened blobs of dessicated matter. [196] Horror for what he had done—that he had slain one of his own Horde—made his limbs move woodenly. [197] All of his thoughts were dulled for the moment. [198] Painfully slow, he turned his body around toward the control blister, turned around on leaden feet, to look full into the narrowed icy eyes of his commander. [199] He saw the heavy barrel of the blaster slashing down against his skull but he could not swing a fraction of an inch out of the way. [200] His body seemed paralyzed. [201] This was the end, he thought as he waited stupidly for the blow to fall, the end for Ellen and the kids and all the struggling races of Earth. [202] He would never write another cowboy yarn—they would all be dead anyhow soon. [203] Then a thunderclap exploded against his head and he dropped endlessly toward the deck. [204] Blows rained against his skull. [205] He wondered if Torp would ever cease to hammer at him and turn the deadly ray of the weapon upon him. [206] Blood throbbed and pounded with every blow.... Bam, Bam, Bam, the blood pounded in his ears. [207] Like repeated blows of a hammer they shook his booming head. [208] No longer was Torp above him. [209] He was in the corner of the laboratory, a crumpled blood-smeared heap of bruised flesh and bone. [210] He was unfettered and the blood was caked upon his skull and in his matted hair. [211] Torp must have thought he had killed him with those savage blows upon the head. [212] Even Torp, thought Thig ruefully, gave way to the primitive rage of his ancestors at times; but to that very bit of unconscious atavism he now owed his life. [213] A cool-headed robot of an Orthan would have efficiently used the blaster to destroy any possibility of remaining life in his unconscious body. [214] Thig rolled slowly over so that his eye found the door into the control room. [215] Torp would be coming back again to dispose of their bodies through the refuse lock. [216] Already the body of Kam was gone. [217] He wondered why he had been left until last. [218] Perhaps Torp wished to take cultures of his blood and tissues to determine whether a disease was responsible for his sudden madness. [219] The cases of fragile instruments were just above his head. [220] Association of memories brought him the flash of the heavy blaster in its rack beneath them. [221] His hand went up and felt the welcome hardness of the weapon. [222] He tugged it free. [223] In a moment he was on his knees crawling across the plates of the deck toward the door. [224] Halfway across the floor he collapsed on his face, the metal of the gun making a harsh clang. [225] He heard the feet of Torp scuffle out of silence and a choked cry in the man's throat squalled out into a senseless whinny. [226] Thig raised himself up on a quivering elbow and slid the black length of the blaster in front of him. [227] His eyes sought the doorway and stared full into the glaring vacant orbs of his commander. [228] Torp leaned there watching him, his breath gurgling brokenly through his deep-bitten lips. [229] The clawing marks of nails, fingernails, furrowed his face and chest. [230] He was a madman! [231] The deadly attack of Thig; his own violent avenging of Kam's death, and now the apparent return of the man he had killed come to life had all served to jolt his rigidly trained brain from its accustomed groove. [232] The shock had been too much for the established thought-processes of the Orthan. [233] So Thig shot him where he stood, mercifully, before that vacant mad stare set him, too, to gibbering and shrieking. [234] Then he stepped over the skeleton-thing that had been Torp, using the new strength that victory had given him to drive him along. [235] He had saved a world's civilization from extinction! [236] The thought sobered him; yet, somehow, he was pleased that he had done so. [237] After all, it had been the Earthwoman and the children he had been thinking of while he battled Kam, a selfish desire to protect them all. [238] He went to the desk where Torp had been writing in the ship's log and read the last few nervously scrawled lines: Planet 72-P-3 unfit for colonization. [239] Some pernicious disease that strikes at the brain centers and causes violent insanity is existent there. [240] Thig, just returned from a survey of the planet, went mad and destroyed Kam. [241] In turn I was forced to slay him. [242] But it is not ended. [243] Already I feel the insidious virus of.... And there his writing ended abruptly. [244] Thig nodded. [245] That would do it. [246] He set the automatic pilot for the planet Ortha. [247] Unless a rogue asteroid or a comet crossed the ship's path she would return safely to Ortha with that mute warning of danger on 72-P-3. [248] The body of Torp would help to confirm his final message. [249] Then Thig crossed the cabin to the auxiliary life boat there, one of a half-dozen space ships in miniature nested within the great ship's hull, and cut free from the mother vessel. [250] He flipped the drive lever, felt the thrumming of the rockets driving him from the parent ship. [251] The sensation of free flight against his new body was strangely exhilerating and heady. [252] It was the newest of the emotions he had experienced on Earth since that day, so many months before, when he had felt the warmness of Ellen's lips tight against his. [253] Thig flipped the drive lever, felt the thrumming of the rockets driving him from the parent ship. [254] He swung about to the port, watched the flaming drive-rockets of the great exploratory ship hurl it toward far-away Ortha, and there was no regret in his mind that he was not returning to the planet of his first existence. [255] He thought of the dull greys and blacks of his planet, of the monotonous routine of existence that had once been his—and his heart thrilled to the memories of the starry nights and perfect exciting days he had spent on his three month trip over Earth. [256] He made a brief salute to the existence he had known, turned with a tiny sigh, and his fingers made brief adjustments in the controls. [257] The rocket-thrum deepened, and the thin whistle of tenuous air clutching the ship echoed through the hull-plates. [258] He thought of many things in those few moments. [259] He watched the roundness of Earth flatten out, then take on the cup-like illusion that all planets had for an incoming ship. [260] He reduced the drive of his rockets to a mere whisper, striving to control the impatience that crowded his mind. [261] He shivered suddenly, remembering his utter callousness the first time he had sent a space ship whipping down toward the hills and valleys below. [262] And there was a sickness within him when he fully realized that, despite his acquired memory and traits, he was an alien from outer space. [263] He fingered the tiny scars that had completely obliterated the slight differences in his appearance from an Earthman's, and his fingers trembled a bit, as he bent and stared through the vision port. [264] He said a brief prayer in his heart to a God whose presence he now felt very deeply. [265] There were tears in the depths of his eyes, then, and memories were hot, bitter pains. [266] Earth was not far below him. [267] As he let gravity suck him earthward, he heaved a gasp of relief. [268] He was no longer Thig, a creature of a Horde's creation, but Lewis Terry, writer of lurid gun-smoking tales of the West. [269] He must remember that always. [270] He had destroyed the real Terry and now, for the rest of his life, he must make up to the dead man's family. [271] The knowledge that Ellen's love was not really meant for him would be a knife twisting in his heart but for her sake he must endure it. [272] Her dreams and happiness must never be shattered. [273] The bulge of Earth was flattening out now and he could see the outlines of Long Island in the growing twilight. [274] A new plot was growing in the brain of Lewis Terry, a yarn about a cowboy suddenly transported to another world. [275] He smiled ironically. [276] He had seen those other worlds. [277] Perhaps some day he would write about them.... [278] He was Lewis Terry! [279] He must remember that!

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [1] QUEST OF THIG By BASIL WELLS Thig of Ortha was the vanguard of the conquering "HORDE." 2. [2] He had blasted across trackless space to subdue a defenseless world—only to meet on Earth emotions that were more deadly than weapons. 3. [43] "There it is," announced Thig, dropping the limp body of the captured Earthman to the metal deck-plates. 4. [44] "It is a male of the species that must have built the cities we saw as we landed." 5. [45] "He resembles Thig," announced Kam. 6. [46] "But for the strange covering he wears he might be Thig." 7. [47] "Thig will be this creature!" 8. [48] announced Torp. 9. [49] "With a psychic relay we will transfer the Earthman's memories and meager store of knowledge to the brain of Thig! 10. [50] He can then go out and scout this world without arousing suspicion. 11. [51] While he is gone, I will take Kam and explore the two inner planets." 12. [52] "You are the commander," said Thig. 13. [53] "But I wish this beast did not wear these clumsy sheathing upon his body. 14. [54] On Ortha we do not hamper the use of our limbs so." 15. [55] "Do not question the word of your commander," growled Torp, swelling out his thick chest menacingly. 16. [56] "It is for the good of our people that you disguise yourself as an Earthman." 17. [57] "For the good of the Horde," Thig intoned almost piously as he lifted Terry's body and headed for the laboratory. 18. [58] Service for the Horde was all that the men of Ortha knew. 19. [59] Carefully cultured and brought to life in the laboratories of their Horde, they knew neither father nor mother. 20. [60] Affection and love were entirely lacking in their early training and later life. 21. [61] They were trained antlike from childhood that only the growth and power of the Horde were of any moment. 22. [62] Men and women alike toiled and died like unfeeling robots of flesh and bone for the Horde. 23. [63] The Horde was their religion, their love-life, their everything! 24. [64] So it was that the bodies of the Earthman and the Orthan were strapped on two parallel tables of chill metal and the twin helmets, linked to one another by the intricacies of the psychic relay, put upon their heads. 25. [65] For ten hours or more the droning hum of the relay sucked Terry's brain dry of knowledge. 26. [66] The shock upon the nervous system of the Earthman proved too violent and his heart faltered after a time and stopped completely. 27. [67] Twice, with subtle drugs they restored pseudo-life to his body and kept the electrical impulses throbbing from his tortured brain, but after the third suspension of life Thig removed his helmet. 28. [68] "There is nothing more to learn," he informed his impassive comrades. 29. [69] "Now, let us get on with the plastic surgery that is required. 30. [70] My new body must return to its barbaric household before undue attention is aroused. 31. [71] And when I return I will take along some of the gleaming baubles we found on the red planet—these people value them highly." 32. [72] An hour later, his scars and altered cartilage already healed and painless, Thig again scraped sand over the entrance to the space ship and set out along the moonlit beach toward the nearest path running inland to his home. 33. [73] Memory was laying the country bare about him, Terry's own childhood memories of this particular section of Long Island. 34. [74] Here was the place where Jake and Ted had helped him dig for the buried treasure that old 'Notch-ear' Beggs had told them so exactly about. 35. [75] Remembrance of that episode gave Thig an idea about the little lump of jewels in his pocket. 36. [76] He had found them in a chest along the beach! 37. [77] He was coming up on the porch now and at the sound of his foot on the sagging boards the screen door burst open and three little Earth-creatures were hugging at his legs. 38. [78] An odd sensation, that his acquired memories labeled as pleasure, sent a warm glow upward from around his heart. 39. [79] Then he saw the slender red-haired shape of a woman, the mate of the dead man he knew, and confusion struck his well-trained brain. 40. [80] Men had no mates on Ortha, sex had been overthrown with all the other primitive impulses of barbarism; so he was incapable of understanding the emotions that swept through his acquired memory. 41. [81] Unsteadily he took her in his arms and felt her warm lips pressed, trembling, against his own. 42. [82] That same hot wave of pulsing blood choked achingly up into his throat. 43. [83] "Lew, dear," Ellen was asking, "where have you been all day? 44. [84] I called up at the landing but you were not there. 45. [85] I wanted to let you know that Saddlebag Publications sent a check for $50 for "Reversed Revolvers" and three other editors asked for shorts soon." 46. [86] "Shoulda got a hundred bucks for that yarn," grunted Thig, and gasped. 47. [87] For the moment he had been Lewis Terry and not Thig! 48. [88] So thoroughly had he acquired the knowledge of Terry that he found himself unconsciously adopting the thinking and mannerism of the other. 49. [89] All the better this way, he realized—more natural. 50. [90] "Sorry I was late," he said, digging into his pocket for the glittering baubles, "but I was poking around on the beach where we used to hunt treasure and I found an old chest. 51. [91] Inside it I found nothing but a handful of these." 52. [92] He flashed the jewels in front of Ellen's startled eyes and she clung, unbelieving, to his arm. 53. [93] "Why, Lew," she gasped, "they're worth a fortune! 54. [94] We can buy that new trailer now and have a rebuilt motor in the car. 55. [95] We can go west right away.... Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, cowboys!" 56. [96] "Uh huh," agreed the pseudo Lewis, memories of the ferocious savages and gunmen of his stories rendering him acutely unhappy. 57. [97] Sincerely he hoped that the west had reformed. 58. [103] "Home again," whispered Ellen as she stood beside Thig twelve weeks later and gazed tearfully at the weathered little gray house. 59. [104] She knelt beside the front stoop and reached for the key hidden beneath it. 60. [105] "The west was wonderful; tremendous, vast and beautiful," she went on as they climbed the steps, "but nowhere was there any place as beautiful as our own little strip of sky and water." 61. [106] Thig sank into a dusty old swing that hung on creaking chains from the exposed rafters of the porch roof. 62. [107] He looked down at the dusty gray car and the bulbous silvery bulk of the trailer that had been their living quarters for almost three months. 63. [108] Strange thoughts were afloat in the chaos of his cool Orthan brain. 64. [109] Tonight or tomorrow night at the latest he must contact his two fellows and report that Earth was a planetary paradise. 65. [110] No other world, including Ortha, was so well-favored and rich. 66. [111] An expeditionary force to wipe the grotesque civilizations of Earth out of existence would, of course, be necessary before the first units of new Hordes could be landed. 67. [112] And there Thig balked. 68. [113] Why must they destroy these people, imperfect though their civilization might be, to make room for the Hordes? 69. [114] Thig tried to tell himself that it was the transmitted thoughts of the dead Earthman that made him feel so, but he was not too sure. 70. [115] For three months he had lived with people who loved, hated, wept and sacrificed for reasons that he had never known existed. 71. [116] He had learned the heady glory of thinking for himself and making his own decisions. 72. [117] He had experienced the primitive joy of matching his wits and tongue against the wits of other unpredictable human beings. 73. [118] There was no abrupt division of men and women into definite classes of endeavor. 74. [119] A laborer thought the same thoughts that a governor might think. 75. [120] Uncertainty added zest to every day's life. 76. [121] The Orthan had come to question the sole devotion of the individual to the Horde to the exclusion of all other interests. 77. [122] What, he wondered, would one new world—or a hundred—populated by the Hordes add to the progress of humanity? 78. [123] For a hundred thousand years the Orthan civilization had remained static, its energies directed into certain well-defined channels. 79. [124] They were mindless bees maintaining their vast mechanical hives. 80. [125] There was that moment on the brink of the Grand Canyon when Ellen had caught his arm breathlessly at all the beauty spread away there beneath them. 81. [126] There were mornings in the desert when the sun painted in lurid red the peaks above the harsh black-and-whites of the sagebrush and cactus slopes. 82. [127] There was the little boy, his body burning with fever, who nestled trustingly against his tense man's body and slept—the son of Ellen and the man he had destroyed. 83. [128] Thig groaned. 84. [129] He was a weakling to let sentimentality so get the better of his judgment. 85. [130] He would go now to the space ship and urge them to blast off for Ortha. 86. [131] He sprang off the porch and strode away down the road toward the beach. 87. [132] The children ran to him; wanted to go along. 88. [133] He sent them away harshly but they smiled and waved their brown little hands. 89. [134] Ellen came to the door and called after him. 90. [135] "Hurry home, dear," she said. 91. [136] "I'll have a bite ready in about an hour." 92. [137] He dared not say anything, for his voice would have broken and she would have known something was wrong. 93. [138] She was a very wise sort of person when something was troubling him. 94. [140] Oddly enough, as he hurried away along the narrow path through the autumn woods, his mind busied itself with a new epic of the west that lived no longer. 95. [141] He mentally titled it: "Rustlers' Riot" and blocked in the outlines of his plot. 96. [142] One section of his brain was that of the careless author of gunslinging yarns, a section that seemed to be sapping the life from his own brain. 97. [143] He knew that the story would never be written, but he toyed with the idea. 98. [144] So far had Thig the emotionless, robot-being from Ortha drifted from the unquestioning worship of the Horde! 99. [145] "You have done well," announced Torp when Thig had completed his report on the resources and temperatures of various sections of Terra. 100. [146] "We now have located three worlds fit for colonization and so we will return to Ortha at once. 101. [147] "I will recommend the conquest of this planet, 72-P-3 at once and the complete destruction of all biped life upon it. 102. [148] The mental aberrations of the barbaric natives might lead to endless complications if they were permitted to exist outside our ordered way of life. 103. [149] I imagine that three circuits of the planet about its primary should prove sufficient for the purposes of complete liquidation." 104. [150] "But why," asked Thig slowly, "could we not disarm all the natives and exile them on one of the less desirable continents, Antarctica for example or Siberia? 105. [151] They are primitive humans even as our race was once a race of primitives. 106. [152] It is not our duty to help to attain our own degree of knowledge and comfort?" 107. [153] "Only the good of the Horde matters!" 108. [154] shouted Torp angrily. 109. [155] "Shall a race of feeble-witted beasts, such as these Earthmen, stand in the way of a superior race? 110. [156] We want their world, and so we will take it. 111. [157] The Law of the Horde states that all the universe is ours for the taking." 112. [158] "Let us get back to Ortha at once, then," gritted out Thig savagely. 113. [159] "Never again do I wish to set foot upon the soil of this mad planet. 114. [160] There are forces at work upon Earth that we of Ortha have long forgotten." 115. [161] "Check the blood of Thig for disease, Kam," ordered Torp shortly. 116. [162] "His words are highly irrational. 117. [163] Some form of fever perhaps native to this world. 118. [164] While you examine him I will blast off for Ortha." 119. [165] Thig followed Kam into the tiny laboratory and found a seat beside the squat scientist's desk. 120. [166] His eyes roamed over the familiar instruments and gauges, each in its own precise position in the cases along the walls. 121. [167] His gaze lingered longest on the stubby black ugliness of a decomposition blaster in its rack close to the deck. 122. [168] A blast of the invisible radiations from that weapon's hot throat and flesh or vegetable fiber rotted into flaky ashes. 123. [169] The ship trembled beneath their feet; it tore free from the feeble clutch of the sand about it, and they were rocketing skyward. 124. [170] Thig's broad fingers bit deep into the unyielding metal of his chair. 125. [171] Suddenly he knew that he must go back to Earth, back to Ellen and the children of the man he had helped destroy. 126. [172] He loved Ellen, and nothing must stand between them! 127. [173] The Hordes of Ortha must find some other world, an empty world—this planet was not for them. 128. [174] "Turn back!" 129. [175] he cried wildly. 130. [176] "I must go back to Earth. 131. [177] There is a woman there, helpless and alone, who needs me! 132. [178] The Horde does not need this planet." 133. [179] Kam eyed him coldly and lifted a shining hypodermic syringe from its case. 134. [180] He approached Thig warily, aware that disease often made a maniac of the finest members of the Horde. 135. [181] "No human being is more important than the Horde," he stated baldly. 136. [182] "This woman of whom you speak is merely one unit of the millions we must eliminate for the good of the Horde." 137. [183] Then it was that Thig went berserk. 138. [184] His fists slashed into the thick jaw of the scientist and his fingers ripped at the hard cords overlying the Orthan's vital throat tubes. 139. [185] His fingers and thumb gouged deep into Kam's startled throat and choked off any cry for assistance before it could be uttered. 140. [186] Kam's hand swept down to the holster swung from his intricate harness and dragged his blaster from it. 141. [187] Thig's other hand clamped over his and for long moments they swayed there, locked together in silent deadly struggle. 142. [188] The fate of a world hung in the balance as Kam's other hand fought against that lone arm of Thig. 143. [189] The scales swung in favor of Kam. 144. [190] Slowly the flaring snout of his weapon tilted upward until it reached the level of Thig's waist. 145. [191] Thig suddenly

Who is Thig and what happens to him throughout the story?

[1] QUEST OF THIG By BASIL WELLS Thig of Ortha was the vanguard of the conquering "HORDE." [2] He had blasted across trackless space to subdue a defenseless world—only to meet on Earth emotions that were more deadly than weapons. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1942. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Thig carefully smoothed the dark sand and seaweed of the lonely beach over the metal lid of the flexible ringed tunnel that linked the grubby ship from another planet with the upper air. [6] He looked out across the heaving waters of the Sound toward Connecticut. [7] He stared appraisingly around at the luxuriant green growth of foliage further inland; and started toward the little stretch of trees and brush, walking carefully because of the lesser gravitation. [8] Thig was shorter than the average Earthman—although on Ortha he was well above the average in height—but his body was thick and powerfully muscled. [9] His skull was well-shaped and large; his features were regular, perhaps a trifle oversize, and his hair and eyes were a curiously matching blend of reddish brown. [10] Oddest of all, he wore no garments, other than the necessary belt and straps to support his rod-like weapon of white metal and his pouches for food and specimens. [11] The Orthan entered the narrow strip of trees and crossed to the little-used highway on the other side. [12] Here he patiently sat down to wait for an Earthman or an Earthwoman to pass. [13] His task now was to bring a native, intact if possible, back to the carefully buried space cruiser where his two fellows and himself would drain the creature's mentality of all its knowledge. [14] In this way they could learn whether a planet was suited for colonization by later swarms of Orthans. [15] Already they had charted over a hundred celestial bodies but of them all only three had proven worthy of consideration. [16] This latest planet, however, 72-P-3 on the chart, appeared to be an ideal world in every respect. [17] Sunlight, plenty of water and a dense atmospheric envelope made of 72-P-3 a paradise among planets. [18] The explorer from another world crouched into the concealment of a leafy shrub. [19] A creature was approaching. [20] Its squat body was covered with baggy strips of bluish cloth and it carried a jointed rod of metal and wood in its paw. [21] It walked upright as did the men of Ortha. [22] Thig's cold eyes opened a trifle wider as he stared into the thing's stupid face. [23] It was as though he was looking into a bit of polished metal at the reflection of himself! [24] The Earthman was opposite now and he must waste no more precious time. [25] The mighty muscles of the Orthan sent him hurtling across the intervening space in two prodigious bounds, and his hands clamped across the mouth and neck of the stranger.... Lewis Terry was going fishing. [26] For a week the typewriter mill that had ground out a thousand assorted yarns of the untamed West and the frigid desolation of the Northwoods had been silent. [27] Lewis wondered if he was going stale. [28] He had sat every day for eight hours in front of that shiny-buttoned bane of the typist, but there were no results. [29] Feebly he had punched a key two days ago and a $ sign had appeared. [30] He hadn't dared touch the machine since. [31] For Mr. Terry, that hard-hitting writer of two-gun action, had never been further west of Long Island than Elizabeth, and he had promised his wife, Ellen, that he would take the three children and herself on a trailer tour of the West that very summer. [32] Since that promise, he could not write a word. [33] Visions of whooping red-skinned Apaches and be-chapped outlaws raiding his little trailer home kept rolling up out of his subconscious. [34] Yet he had to write at least three novelets and a fistful of short stories in the next two weeks to finance the great adventure—or the trip was off. [35] So Lewis left the weathered old cottage in the early dawn and headed for his tubby old boat at the landing in an attempt to work out a salable yarn.... [36] "Hey!" [37] he shouted as a naked man sprang out of the bushes beside the road. [38] "What's the trouble?" [39] Then he had no time for further speech, the massive arms of the stranger had wound around him and two hamlike hands shut off his speech and his wind. [40] He fought futilely against trained muscles. [41] The hand clamping his throat relaxed for a moment and hacked along the side of his head. [42] Blackness flooded the brain of Lewis, and he knew no more. [43] "There it is," announced Thig, dropping the limp body of the captured Earthman to the metal deck-plates. [44] "It is a male of the species that must have built the cities we saw as we landed." [45] "He resembles Thig," announced Kam. [46] "But for the strange covering he wears he might be Thig." [47] "Thig will be this creature!" [48] announced Torp. [49] "With a psychic relay we will transfer the Earthman's memories and meager store of knowledge to the brain of Thig! [50] He can then go out and scout this world without arousing suspicion. [51] While he is gone, I will take Kam and explore the two inner planets." [52] "You are the commander," said Thig. [53] "But I wish this beast did not wear these clumsy sheathing upon his body. [54] On Ortha we do not hamper the use of our limbs so." [55] "Do not question the word of your commander," growled Torp, swelling out his thick chest menacingly. [56] "It is for the good of our people that you disguise yourself as an Earthman." [57] "For the good of the Horde," Thig intoned almost piously as he lifted Terry's body and headed for the laboratory. [58] Service for the Horde was all that the men of Ortha knew. [59] Carefully cultured and brought to life in the laboratories of their Horde, they knew neither father nor mother. [60] Affection and love were entirely lacking in their early training and later life. [61] They were trained antlike from childhood that only the growth and power of the Horde were of any moment. [62] Men and women alike toiled and died like unfeeling robots of flesh and bone for the Horde. [63] The Horde was their religion, their love-life, their everything! [64] So it was that the bodies of the Earthman and the Orthan were strapped on two parallel tables of chill metal and the twin helmets, linked to one another by the intricacies of the psychic relay, put upon their heads. [65] For ten hours or more the droning hum of the relay sucked Terry's brain dry of knowledge. [66] The shock upon the nervous system of the Earthman proved too violent and his heart faltered after a time and stopped completely. [67] Twice, with subtle drugs they restored pseudo-life to his body and kept the electrical impulses throbbing from his tortured brain, but after the third suspension of life Thig removed his helmet. [68] "There is nothing more to learn," he informed his impassive comrades. [69] "Now, let us get on with the plastic surgery that is required. [70] My new body must return to its barbaric household before undue attention is aroused. [71] And when I return I will take along some of the gleaming baubles we found on the red planet—these people value them highly." [72] An hour later, his scars and altered cartilage already healed and painless, Thig again scraped sand over the entrance to the space ship and set out along the moonlit beach toward the nearest path running inland to his home. [73] Memory was laying the country bare about him, Terry's own childhood memories of this particular section of Long Island. [74] Here was the place where Jake and Ted had helped him dig for the buried treasure that old 'Notch-ear' Beggs had told them so exactly about. [75] Remembrance of that episode gave Thig an idea about the little lump of jewels in his pocket. [76] He had found them in a chest along the beach! [77] He was coming up on the porch now and at the sound of his foot on the sagging boards the screen door burst open and three little Earth-creatures were hugging at his legs. [78] An odd sensation, that his acquired memories labeled as pleasure, sent a warm glow upward from around his heart. [79] Then he saw the slender red-haired shape of a woman, the mate of the dead man he knew, and confusion struck his well-trained brain. [80] Men had no mates on Ortha, sex had been overthrown with all the other primitive impulses of barbarism; so he was incapable of understanding the emotions that swept through his acquired memory. [81] Unsteadily he took her in his arms and felt her warm lips pressed, trembling, against his own. [82] That same hot wave of pulsing blood choked achingly up into his throat. [83] "Lew, dear," Ellen was asking, "where have you been all day? [84] I called up at the landing but you were not there. [85] I wanted to let you know that Saddlebag Publications sent a check for $50 for "Reversed Revolvers" and three other editors asked for shorts soon." [86] "Shoulda got a hundred bucks for that yarn," grunted Thig, and gasped. [87] For the moment he had been Lewis Terry and not Thig! [88] So thoroughly had he acquired the knowledge of Terry that he found himself unconsciously adopting the thinking and mannerism of the other. [89] All the better this way, he realized—more natural. [90] "Sorry I was late," he said, digging into his pocket for the glittering baubles, "but I was poking around on the beach where we used to hunt treasure and I found an old chest. [91] Inside it I found nothing but a handful of these." [92] He flashed the jewels in front of Ellen's startled eyes and she clung, unbelieving, to his arm. [93] "Why, Lew," she gasped, "they're worth a fortune! [94] We can buy that new trailer now and have a rebuilt motor in the car. [95] We can go west right away.... Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, cowboys!" [96] "Uh huh," agreed the pseudo Lewis, memories of the ferocious savages and gunmen of his stories rendering him acutely unhappy. [97] Sincerely he hoped that the west had reformed. [98] "I saved some kraut and weiners," Ellen said. [99] "Get washed up while I'm warming them up. [100] Kids ate all the bread so I had to borrow some from the Eskoes. [101] Want coffee, too?" [102] "Mmmmmm," came from the depths of the chipped white wash-basin. [103] "Home again," whispered Ellen as she stood beside Thig twelve weeks later and gazed tearfully at the weathered little gray house. [104] She knelt beside the front stoop and reached for the key hidden beneath it. [105] "The west was wonderful; tremendous, vast and beautiful," she went on as they climbed the steps, "but nowhere was there any place as beautiful as our own little strip of sky and water." [106] Thig sank into a dusty old swing that hung on creaking chains from the exposed rafters of the porch roof. [107] He looked down at the dusty gray car and the bulbous silvery bulk of the trailer that had been their living quarters for almost three months. [108] Strange thoughts were afloat in the chaos of his cool Orthan brain. [109] Tonight or tomorrow night at the latest he must contact his two fellows and report that Earth was a planetary paradise. [110] No other world, including Ortha, was so well-favored and rich. [111] An expeditionary force to wipe the grotesque civilizations of Earth out of existence would, of course, be necessary before the first units of new Hordes could be landed. [112] And there Thig balked. [113] Why must they destroy these people, imperfect though their civilization might be, to make room for the Hordes? [114] Thig tried to tell himself that it was the transmitted thoughts of the dead Earthman that made him feel so, but he was not too sure. [115] For three months he had lived with people who loved, hated, wept and sacrificed for reasons that he had never known existed. [116] He had learned the heady glory of thinking for himself and making his own decisions. [117] He had experienced the primitive joy of matching his wits and tongue against the wits of other unpredictable human beings. [118] There was no abrupt division of men and women into definite classes of endeavor. [119] A laborer thought the same thoughts that a governor might think. [120] Uncertainty added zest to every day's life. [121] The Orthan had come to question the sole devotion of the individual to the Horde to the exclusion of all other interests. [122] What, he wondered, would one new world—or a hundred—populated by the Hordes add to the progress of humanity? [123] For a hundred thousand years the Orthan civilization had remained static, its energies directed into certain well-defined channels. [124] They were mindless bees maintaining their vast mechanical hives. [125] There was that moment on the brink of the Grand Canyon when Ellen had caught his arm breathlessly at all the beauty spread away there beneath them. [126] There were mornings in the desert when the sun painted in lurid red the peaks above the harsh black-and-whites of the sagebrush and cactus slopes. [127] There was the little boy, his body burning with fever, who nestled trustingly against his tense man's body and slept—the son of Ellen and the man he had destroyed. [128] Thig groaned. [129] He was a weakling to let sentimentality so get the better of his judgment. [130] He would go now to the space ship and urge them to blast off for Ortha. [131] He sprang off the porch and strode away down the road toward the beach. [132] The children ran to him; wanted to go along. [133] He sent them away harshly but they smiled and waved their brown little hands. [134] Ellen came to the door and called after him. [135] "Hurry home, dear," she said. [136] "I'll have a bite ready in about an hour." [137] He dared not say anything, for his voice would have broken and she would have known something was wrong. [138] She was a very wise sort of person when something was troubling him. [139] He waved his stubby paw of a hand to show that he had heard, and blindly hurried toward the Sound. [140] Oddly enough, as he hurried away along the narrow path through the autumn woods, his mind busied itself with a new epic of the west that lived no longer. [141] He mentally titled it: "Rustlers' Riot" and blocked in the outlines of his plot. [142] One section of his brain was that of the careless author of gunslinging yarns, a section that seemed to be sapping the life from his own brain. [143] He knew that the story would never be written, but he toyed with the idea. [144] So far had Thig the emotionless, robot-being from Ortha drifted from the unquestioning worship of the Horde! [145] "You have done well," announced Torp when Thig had completed his report on the resources and temperatures of various sections of Terra. [146] "We now have located three worlds fit for colonization and so we will return to Ortha at once. [147] "I will recommend the conquest of this planet, 72-P-3 at once and the complete destruction of all biped life upon it. [148] The mental aberrations of the barbaric natives might lead to endless complications if they were permitted to exist outside our ordered way of life. [149] I imagine that three circuits of the planet about its primary should prove sufficient for the purposes of complete liquidation." [150] "But why," asked Thig slowly, "could we not disarm all the natives and exile them on one of the less desirable continents, Antarctica for example or Siberia? [151] They are primitive humans even as our race was once a race of primitives. [152] It is not our duty to help to attain our own degree of knowledge and comfort?" [153] "Only the good of the Horde matters!" [154] shouted Torp angrily. [155] "Shall a race of feeble-witted beasts, such as these Earthmen, stand in the way of a superior race? [156] We want their world, and so we will take it. [157] The Law of the Horde states that all the universe is ours for the taking." [158] "Let us get back to Ortha at once, then," gritted out Thig savagely. [159] "Never again do I wish to set foot upon the soil of this mad planet. [160] There are forces at work upon Earth that we of Ortha have long forgotten." [161] "Check the blood of Thig for disease, Kam," ordered Torp shortly. [162] "His words are highly irrational. [163] Some form of fever perhaps native to this world. [164] While you examine him I will blast off for Ortha." [165] Thig followed Kam into the tiny laboratory and found a seat beside the squat scientist's desk. [166] His eyes roamed over the familiar instruments and gauges, each in its own precise position in the cases along the walls. [167] His gaze lingered longest on the stubby black ugliness of a decomposition blaster in its rack close to the deck. [168] A blast of the invisible radiations from that weapon's hot throat and flesh or vegetable fiber rotted into flaky ashes. [169] The ship trembled beneath their feet; it tore free from the feeble clutch of the sand about it, and they were rocketing skyward. [170] Thig's broad fingers bit deep into the unyielding metal of his chair. [171] Suddenly he knew that he must go back to Earth, back to Ellen and the children of the man he had helped destroy. [172] He loved Ellen, and nothing must stand between them! [173] The Hordes of Ortha must find some other world, an empty world—this planet was not for them. [174] "Turn back!" [175] he cried wildly. [176] "I must go back to Earth. [177] There is a woman there, helpless and alone, who needs me! [178] The Horde does not need this planet." [179] Kam eyed him coldly and lifted a shining hypodermic syringe from its case. [180] He approached Thig warily, aware that disease often made a maniac of the finest members of the Horde. [181] "No human being is more important than the Horde," he stated baldly. [182] "This woman of whom you speak is merely one unit of the millions we must eliminate for the good of the Horde." [183] Then it was that Thig went berserk. [184] His fists slashed into the thick jaw of the scientist and his fingers ripped at the hard cords overlying the Orthan's vital throat tubes. [185] His fingers and thumb gouged deep into Kam's startled throat and choked off any cry for assistance before it could be uttered. [186] Kam's hand swept down to the holster swung from his intricate harness and dragged his blaster from it. [187] Thig's other hand clamped over his and for long moments they swayed there, locked together in silent deadly struggle. [188] The fate of a world hung in the balance as Kam's other hand fought against that lone arm of Thig. [189] The scales swung in favor of Kam. [190] Slowly the flaring snout of his weapon tilted upward until it reached the level of Thig's waist. [191] Thig suddenly released his grip and dragged his enemy toward him. [192] A sudden reversal of pressure on Kam's gun hand sent the weapon swivelling about full upon its owner's thick torso. [193] Thig's fingers pressed down upon Kam's button finger, down upon the stud set into the grip of the decomposition blaster, and Kam's muscles turned to water. [194] He shrieked. [195] Before Thig's eyes half of his comrade's body sloughed away into foul corruption that swiftly gave way to hardened blobs of dessicated matter. [196] Horror for what he had done—that he had slain one of his own Horde—made his limbs move woodenly. [197] All of his thoughts were dulled for the moment. [198] Painfully slow, he turned his body around toward the control blister, turned around on leaden feet, to look full into the narrowed icy eyes of his commander. [199] He saw the heavy barrel of the blaster slashing down against his skull but he could not swing a fraction of an inch out of the way. [200] His body seemed paralyzed. [201] This was the end, he thought as he waited stupidly for the blow to fall, the end for Ellen and the kids and all the struggling races of Earth. [202] He would never write another cowboy yarn—they would all be dead anyhow soon. [203] Then a thunderclap exploded against his head and he dropped endlessly toward the deck. [204] Blows rained against his skull. [205] He wondered if Torp would ever cease to hammer at him and turn the deadly ray of the weapon upon him. [206] Blood throbbed and pounded with every blow.... Bam, Bam, Bam, the blood pounded in his ears. [207] Like repeated blows of a hammer they shook his booming head. [208] No longer was Torp above him. [209] He was in the corner of the laboratory, a crumpled blood-smeared heap of bruised flesh and bone. [210] He was unfettered and the blood was caked upon his skull and in his matted hair. [211] Torp must have thought he had killed him with those savage blows upon the head. [212] Even Torp, thought Thig ruefully, gave way to the primitive rage of his ancestors at times; but to that very bit of unconscious atavism he now owed his life. [213] A cool-headed robot of an Orthan would have efficiently used the blaster to destroy any possibility of remaining life in his unconscious body. [214] Thig rolled slowly over so that his eye found the door into the control room. [215] Torp would be coming back again to dispose of their bodies through the refuse lock. [216] Already the body of Kam was gone. [217] He wondered why he had been left until last. [218] Perhaps Torp wished to take cultures of his blood and tissues to determine whether a disease was responsible for his sudden madness. [219] The cases of fragile instruments were just above his head. [220] Association of memories brought him the flash of the heavy blaster in its rack beneath them. [221] His hand went up and felt the welcome hardness of the weapon. [222] He tugged it free. [223] In a moment he was on his knees crawling across the plates of the deck toward the door. [224] Halfway across the floor he collapsed on his face, the metal of the gun making a harsh clang. [225] He heard the feet of Torp scuffle out of silence and a choked cry in the man's throat squalled out into a senseless whinny. [226] Thig raised himself up on a quivering elbow and slid the black length of the blaster in front of him. [227] His eyes sought the doorway and stared full into the glaring vacant orbs of his commander. [228] Torp leaned there watching him, his breath gurgling brokenly through his deep-bitten lips. [229] The clawing marks of nails, fingernails, furrowed his face and chest. [230] He was a madman! [231] The deadly attack of Thig; his own violent avenging of Kam's death, and now the apparent return of the man he had killed come to life had all served to jolt his rigidly trained brain from its accustomed groove. [232] The shock had been too much for the established thought-processes of the Orthan. [233] So Thig shot him where he stood, mercifully, before that vacant mad stare set him, too, to gibbering and shrieking. [234] Then he stepped over the skeleton-thing that had been Torp, using the new strength that victory had given him to drive him along. [235] He had saved a world's civilization from extinction! [236] The thought sobered him; yet, somehow, he was pleased that he had done so. [237] After all, it had been the Earthwoman and the children he had been thinking of while he battled Kam, a selfish desire to protect them all. [238] He went to the desk where Torp had been writing in the ship's log and read the last few nervously scrawled lines: Planet 72-P-3 unfit for colonization. [239] Some pernicious disease that strikes at the brain centers and causes violent insanity is existent there. [240] Thig, just returned from a survey of the planet, went mad and destroyed Kam. [241] In turn I was forced to slay him. [242] But it is not ended. [243] Already I feel the insidious virus of.... And there his writing ended abruptly. [244] Thig nodded. [245] That would do it. [246] He set the automatic pilot for the planet Ortha. [247] Unless a rogue asteroid or a comet crossed the ship's path she would return safely to Ortha with that mute warning of danger on 72-P-3. [248] The body of Torp would help to confirm his final message. [249] Then Thig crossed the cabin to the auxiliary life boat there, one of a half-dozen space ships in miniature nested within the great ship's hull, and cut free from the mother vessel. [250] He flipped the drive lever, felt the thrumming of the rockets driving him from the parent ship. [251] The sensation of free flight against his new body was strangely exhilerating and heady. [252] It was the newest of the emotions he had experienced on Earth since that day, so many months before, when he had felt the warmness of Ellen's lips tight against his. [253] Thig flipped the drive lever, felt the thrumming of the rockets driving him from the parent ship. [254] He swung about to the port, watched the flaming drive-rockets of the great exploratory ship hurl it toward far-away Ortha, and there was no regret in his mind that he was not returning to the planet of his first existence. [255] He thought of the dull greys and blacks of his planet, of the monotonous routine of existence that had once been his—and his heart thrilled to the memories of the starry nights and perfect exciting days he had spent on his three month trip over Earth. [256] He made a brief salute to the existence he had known, turned with a tiny sigh, and his fingers made brief adjustments in the controls. [257] The rocket-thrum deepened, and the thin whistle of tenuous air clutching the ship echoed through the hull-plates. [258] He thought of many things in those few moments. [259] He watched the roundness of Earth flatten out, then take on the cup-like illusion that all planets had for an incoming ship. [260] He reduced the drive of his rockets to a mere whisper, striving to control the impatience that crowded his mind. [261] He shivered suddenly, remembering his utter callousness the first time he had sent a space ship whipping down toward the hills and valleys below. [262] And there was a sickness within him when he fully realized that, despite his acquired memory and traits, he was an alien from outer space. [263] He fingered the tiny scars that had completely obliterated the slight differences in his appearance from an Earthman's, and his fingers trembled a bit, as he bent and stared through the vision port. [264] He said a brief prayer in his heart to a God whose presence he now felt very deeply. [265] There were tears in the depths of his eyes, then, and memories were hot, bitter pains. [266] Earth was not far below him. [267] As he let gravity suck him earthward, he heaved a gasp of relief. [268] He was no longer Thig, a creature of a Horde's creation, but Lewis Terry, writer of lurid gun-smoking tales of the West. [269] He must remember that always. [270] He had destroyed the real Terry and now, for the rest of his life, he must make up to the dead man's family. [271] The knowledge that Ellen's love was not really meant for him would be a knife twisting in his heart but for her sake he must endure it. [272] Her dreams and happiness must never be shattered. [273] The bulge of Earth was flattening out now and he could see the outlines of Long Island in the growing twilight. [274] A new plot was growing in the brain of Lewis Terry, a yarn about a cowboy suddenly transported to another world. [275] He smiled ironically. [276] He had seen those other worlds. [277] Perhaps some day he would write about them.... [278] He was Lewis Terry! [279] He must remember that!

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Who is Thig and what happens to him throughout the story?": 1. [1] Thig of Ortha was the vanguard of the conquering "HORDE." 2. [2] He had blasted across trackless space to subdue a defenseless world—only to meet on Earth emotions that were more deadly than weapons. 3. [8] Thig was shorter than the average Earthman—although on Ortha he was well above the average in height—but his body was thick and powerfully muscled. 4. [9] His skull was well-shaped and large; his features were regular, perhaps a trifle oversize, and his hair and eyes were a curiously matching blend of reddish brown. 5. [10] Oddest of all, he wore no garments, other than the necessary belt and straps to support his rod-like weapon of white metal and his pouches for food and specimens. 6. [13] His task now was to bring a native, intact if possible, back to the carefully buried space cruiser where his two fellows and himself would drain the creature's mentality of all its knowledge. 7. [14] In this way they could learn whether a planet was suited for colonization by later swarms of Orthans. 8. [43] "There it is," announced Thig, dropping the limp body of the captured Earthman to the metal deck-plates. 9. [44] "It is a male of the species that must have built the cities we saw as we landed." 10. [45] "He resembles Thig," announced Kam. 11. [46] "But for the strange covering he wears he might be Thig." 12. [47] "Thig will be this creature!" 13. [48] announced Torp. 14. [49] "With a psychic relay we will transfer the Earthman's memories and meager store of knowledge to the brain of Thig! 15. [50] He can then go out and scout this world without arousing suspicion. 16. [52] "But I wish this beast did not wear these clumsy sheathing upon his body. 17. [53] On Ortha we do not hamper the use of our limbs so." 18. [55] "Do not question the word of your commander," growled Torp, swelling out his thick chest menacingly. 19. [56] "It is for the good of our people that you disguise yourself as an Earthman." 20. [57] "For the good of the Horde," Thig intoned almost piously as he lifted Terry's body and headed for the laboratory. 21. [58] Service for the Horde was all that the men of Ortha knew. 22. [59] Carefully cultured and brought to life in the laboratories of their Horde, they knew neither father nor mother. 23. [60] Affection and love were entirely lacking in their early training and later life. 24. [61] They were trained antlike from childhood that only the growth and power of the Horde were of any moment. 25. [62] Men and women alike toiled and died like unfeeling robots of flesh and bone for the Horde. 26. [63] The Horde was their religion, their love-life, their everything! 27. [64] So it was that the bodies of the Earthman and the Orthan were strapped on two parallel tables of chill metal and the twin helmets, linked to one another by the intricacies of the psychic relay, put upon their heads. 28. [65] For ten hours or more the droning hum of the relay sucked Terry's brain dry of knowledge. 29. [66] The shock upon the nervous system of the Earthman proved too violent and his heart faltered after a time and stopped completely. 30. [67] Twice, with subtle drugs they restored pseudo-life to his body and kept the electrical impulses throbbing from his tortured brain, but after the third suspension of life Thig removed his helmet. 31. [68] "There is nothing more to learn," he informed his impassive comrades. 32. [69] "Now, let us get on with the plastic surgery that is required. 33. [70] My new body must return to its barbaric household before undue attention is aroused. 34. [71] And when I return I will take along some of the gleaming baubles we found on the red planet—these people value them highly." 35. [72] An hour later, his scars and altered cartilage already healed and painless, Thig again scraped sand over the entrance to the space ship and set out along the moonlit beach toward the nearest path running inland to his home. 36. [87] For the moment he had been Lewis Terry and not Thig! 37. [88] So thoroughly had he acquired the knowledge of Terry that he found himself unconsciously adopting the thinking and mannerism of the other. 38. [89] All the better this way, he realized—more natural. 39. [145] "You have done well," announced Torp when Thig had completed his report on the resources and temperatures of various sections of Terra. 40. [146] "We now have located three worlds fit for colonization and so we will return to Ortha at once. 41. [147] "I will recommend the conquest of this planet, 72-P-3 at once and the complete destruction of all biped life upon it. 42. [148] The mental aberrations of the barbaric natives might lead to endless complications if they were permitted to exist outside our ordered way of life. 43. [149] I imagine that three circuits of the planet about its primary should prove sufficient for the purposes of complete liquidation." 44. [150] "But why," asked Thig slowly, "could we not disarm all the natives and exile them on one of the less desirable continents, Antarctica for example or Siberia? 45. [151] They are primitive humans even as our race was once a race of primitives. 46. [152] It is not our duty to help to attain our own degree of knowledge and comfort?" 47. [153] "Only the good of the Horde matters!" 48. [154] shouted Torp angrily. 49. [155] "Shall a race of feeble-witted beasts, such as these Earthmen, stand in the way of a superior race? 50. [156] We want their world, and so we will take it. 51. [157] The Law of the Horde states that all the universe is ours for the taking." 52. [158] "Let us get back to Ortha at once, then," gritted out Thig savagely. 53. [159] "Never again do I wish to set foot upon the soil of this mad planet. 54. [160] There are forces at work upon Earth that we of Ortha have long forgotten." 55. [161] "Check the blood of Thig for disease, Kam," ordered Torp shortly. 56. [162] "His words are highly irrational. 57. [163] Some form of fever perhaps native to this world. 58. [164] While you examine him I will blast off for Ortha." 59. [165] Thig followed Kam into the tiny laboratory and found a seat beside the squat scientist's desk. 60. [170] Thig's broad fingers bit deep into the unyielding metal of his chair. 61. [171] Suddenly he knew that he must go back to Earth, back to Ellen and the children of the man he had helped destroy. 62. [172] He loved Ellen, and nothing must stand between them! 63. [173] The Hordes of Ortha must find some other world, an empty world—this planet was not for them. 64. [174] "Turn back!" 65. [175] he cried wildly. 66. [176] "I must go back to Earth. 67. [177] There is a woman there, helpless and alone, who needs me! 68. [178] The Horde does not need this planet." 69. [179] Kam eyed him coldly and lifted a shining hypodermic syringe from its case. 70. [180] He approached Thig warily, aware that disease often made a maniac of the finest members of the Horde. 71. [181] "No human being is more important than the Horde," he stated baldly. 72. [182] "This woman of whom you speak is merely one unit of the millions we must eliminate for the good of the Horde." 73. [183] Then it was that Thig went berserk. 74. [184] His fists slashed into the thick jaw of the scientist and his fingers ripped at the hard cords overlying the Orthan's vital throat tubes. 75. [185] His fingers and thumb gouged deep into Kam's startled throat and choked off any cry for assistance before it could be uttered. 76. [186] Kam's hand swept down to the holster swung from his intricate harness and dragged his blaster from it. 77. [187] Thig's other hand clamped over his and for long moments they swayed there, locked together in silent deadly struggle. 78. [188] The fate of a world hung in the balance as Kam's other hand fought against that lone arm of Thig. 79. [189] The scales swung in favor of Kam. 80. [190] Slowly the flaring snout of his weapon tilted upward until it reached the level of Thig's waist. 81. [191] Thig suddenly released his grip and dragged his enemy toward him. 82. [192] A sudden reversal of pressure on Kam's gun hand sent the weapon swivelling about full upon its owner's thick torso. 83. [193] Thig's fingers pressed down upon Kam's button finger, down upon the stud set into the grip of the decomposition blaster, and Kam's muscles turned to water. 84. [194] He shrieked. 85. [195] Before Thig's eyes half of his comrade's body sloughed away into foul corruption that swiftly gave way to hardened blobs of dessicated matter. 86. [196] Horror for what he had done—that he had slain one of his own Horde—made his limbs move woodenly. 87. [197] All of his thoughts were dulled for the moment. 88. [198] Painfully slow, he turned his body around toward the control blister, turned around on leaden feet, to look full into the narrowed icy eyes of his commander. 89. [199] He saw the heavy barrel of the blaster slashing down against his skull but he could not swing a fraction of an inch out of the way. 90. [200] His body seemed paralyzed. 91. [201] This was the end, he thought as he waited stupidly for the blow to fall, the end for Ellen and the kids and all the struggling races of Earth. 92. [202] He would never write another cowboy yarn—they would all be dead anyhow soon. 93. [203] Then a thunderclap exploded against his head and he dropped endlessly toward the deck. 94. [204] Blows rained against his skull. 95. [205] He wondered if Torp would ever cease to hammer at him and turn the deadly ray of the weapon upon him. 96. [206] Blood throbbed and pounded with every blow.... Bam, Bam, Bam, the blood pounded in his ears. 97. [207] Like repeated blows of a hammer they shook his booming head. 98. [208] No longer was Torp above him. 99. [209] He was in the corner of the laboratory, a crumpled blood-smeared heap of bruised flesh and bone. 100. [210] He was unfettered and the blood was caked upon his skull and in his matted hair. 101. [211] Torp must have thought he had killed him with those savage blows upon the head. 102. [212] Even Torp, thought Thig ruefully, gave way to the primitive rage of his ancestors at times; but to that very bit of unconscious atavism he now owed his life. 103. [213] A cool-headed robot of an Orthan would have efficiently used the blaster to destroy any possibility of remaining life in his unconscious body. 104. [214] Thig rolled slowly over so that his eye found the door into the control room. 105. [215] Torp would be coming back again to dispose of their bodies through the refuse lock. 106. [216] Already the body of Kam was gone. 107. [217] He wondered why he had been left until last. 108. [218] Perhaps Torp wished to take cultures of his blood and tissues to determine whether a disease was responsible for his sudden madness. 109. [219] The cases of fragile instruments were just above his head. 110. [220] Association of memories brought him the flash of the heavy blaster in its rack beneath them. 111. [221] His hand went up and felt the welcome hardness of the weapon. 112. [222] He tugged it free. 113. [223] In a moment he was on his knees crawling across the plates of the deck toward the door. 114. [224] Halfway across the floor he collapsed on his face, the metal of the gun making a harsh clang. 115. [225] He heard the feet of Torp scuffle out of silence and a choked cry in the man's throat squalled out into a senseless whinny. 116. [226] Thig raised himself up on a quivering elbow and slid the black length of the blaster in front of him. 117. [227] His eyes sought the doorway and stared full into the glaring vacant orbs of his commander. 118. [228] Torp leaned there watching him, his breath gurgling brokenly through his deep-bitten lips. 119. [229] The clawing marks of nails, fingernails, furrowed his face and chest. 120. [230] He was a madman! 121. [231] The deadly attack of Thig; his own violent avenging of Kam's death, and now the apparent return of the man he had killed come to life had all served to jolt his rigidly trained brain from its accustomed groove. 122. [232] The shock had been too much for the established thought-processes of the Orthan. 123. [233] So Thig shot him where he stood, mercifully, before that vacant mad stare set him, too, to gibbering and shrieking. 124. [234] Then he stepped over the skeleton-thing that had been Torp, using the new strength that victory had given him to drive him along. 125. [235] He had saved a world's civilization from extinction! 126. [236] The thought sobered him; yet, somehow, he was pleased that he had done so. 127. [237] After all, it had been the Earthwoman and the children he had been thinking of while he battled Kam, a selfish desire to protect them all. 128. [238] He went to the desk where Torp had been writing in the ship's log and read the last few nervously scrawled lines: Planet 72-P-3 unfit for colonization. 129. [239] Some pernicious disease that strikes at the brain centers and causes violent insanity is existent there. 130. [240] Thig, just returned from a survey of the planet, went mad and destroyed Kam. 131. [241] In turn I was forced to slay him. 132. [242] But it is not ended. 133. [243] Already I feel the insidious virus of.... And there his writing ended abruptly. 134. [244] Thig nodded. 135. [245] That would do it. 136. [246] He set the automatic pilot for the planet Ortha. 137. [247] Unless a rogue asteroid or a comet crossed the ship's path she would return safely to Ortha with that mute warning of danger on 72-P-3. 138. [248] The body of Torp would help to confirm his final message. 139. [249] Then Thig crossed the cabin to the auxiliary life boat there, one of a half-dozen space ships in miniature nested within the great ship's hull, and cut free from the mother vessel. 140. [250] He flipped the drive lever, felt the thrumming of the rockets driving him from the parent ship. 141. [251] The sensation of free flight against his new body was strangely exhilerating and heady. 142. [252] It was the newest of the emotions he had experienced on Earth since that day, so many months before, when he had felt the warmness of Ellen's lips tight against his. 143. [253] Thig flipped the drive lever, felt the thrumming of the rockets driving him from the parent ship. 144. [254] He swung about to the port, watched the flaming drive-rockets of the great exploratory ship hurl it toward far-away Ortha, and there was no regret in his mind that he was not returning to the planet of his first existence. 145. [255] He thought of the dull greys and blacks of his planet

Describe the setting of the story.

[1] QUEST OF THIG By BASIL WELLS Thig of Ortha was the vanguard of the conquering "HORDE." [2] He had blasted across trackless space to subdue a defenseless world—only to meet on Earth emotions that were more deadly than weapons. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1942. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Thig carefully smoothed the dark sand and seaweed of the lonely beach over the metal lid of the flexible ringed tunnel that linked the grubby ship from another planet with the upper air. [6] He looked out across the heaving waters of the Sound toward Connecticut. [7] He stared appraisingly around at the luxuriant green growth of foliage further inland; and started toward the little stretch of trees and brush, walking carefully because of the lesser gravitation. [8] Thig was shorter than the average Earthman—although on Ortha he was well above the average in height—but his body was thick and powerfully muscled. [9] His skull was well-shaped and large; his features were regular, perhaps a trifle oversize, and his hair and eyes were a curiously matching blend of reddish brown. [10] Oddest of all, he wore no garments, other than the necessary belt and straps to support his rod-like weapon of white metal and his pouches for food and specimens. [11] The Orthan entered the narrow strip of trees and crossed to the little-used highway on the other side. [12] Here he patiently sat down to wait for an Earthman or an Earthwoman to pass. [13] His task now was to bring a native, intact if possible, back to the carefully buried space cruiser where his two fellows and himself would drain the creature's mentality of all its knowledge. [14] In this way they could learn whether a planet was suited for colonization by later swarms of Orthans. [15] Already they had charted over a hundred celestial bodies but of them all only three had proven worthy of consideration. [16] This latest planet, however, 72-P-3 on the chart, appeared to be an ideal world in every respect. [17] Sunlight, plenty of water and a dense atmospheric envelope made of 72-P-3 a paradise among planets. [18] The explorer from another world crouched into the concealment of a leafy shrub. [19] A creature was approaching. [20] Its squat body was covered with baggy strips of bluish cloth and it carried a jointed rod of metal and wood in its paw. [21] It walked upright as did the men of Ortha. [22] Thig's cold eyes opened a trifle wider as he stared into the thing's stupid face. [23] It was as though he was looking into a bit of polished metal at the reflection of himself! [24] The Earthman was opposite now and he must waste no more precious time. [25] The mighty muscles of the Orthan sent him hurtling across the intervening space in two prodigious bounds, and his hands clamped across the mouth and neck of the stranger.... Lewis Terry was going fishing. [26] For a week the typewriter mill that had ground out a thousand assorted yarns of the untamed West and the frigid desolation of the Northwoods had been silent. [27] Lewis wondered if he was going stale. [28] He had sat every day for eight hours in front of that shiny-buttoned bane of the typist, but there were no results. [29] Feebly he had punched a key two days ago and a $ sign had appeared. [30] He hadn't dared touch the machine since. [31] For Mr. Terry, that hard-hitting writer of two-gun action, had never been further west of Long Island than Elizabeth, and he had promised his wife, Ellen, that he would take the three children and herself on a trailer tour of the West that very summer. [32] Since that promise, he could not write a word. [33] Visions of whooping red-skinned Apaches and be-chapped outlaws raiding his little trailer home kept rolling up out of his subconscious. [34] Yet he had to write at least three novelets and a fistful of short stories in the next two weeks to finance the great adventure—or the trip was off. [35] So Lewis left the weathered old cottage in the early dawn and headed for his tubby old boat at the landing in an attempt to work out a salable yarn.... [36] "Hey!" [37] he shouted as a naked man sprang out of the bushes beside the road. [38] "What's the trouble?" [39] Then he had no time for further speech, the massive arms of the stranger had wound around him and two hamlike hands shut off his speech and his wind. [40] He fought futilely against trained muscles. [41] The hand clamping his throat relaxed for a moment and hacked along the side of his head. [42] Blackness flooded the brain of Lewis, and he knew no more. [43] "There it is," announced Thig, dropping the limp body of the captured Earthman to the metal deck-plates. [44] "It is a male of the species that must have built the cities we saw as we landed." [45] "He resembles Thig," announced Kam. [46] "But for the strange covering he wears he might be Thig." [47] "Thig will be this creature!" [48] announced Torp. [49] "With a psychic relay we will transfer the Earthman's memories and meager store of knowledge to the brain of Thig! [50] He can then go out and scout this world without arousing suspicion. [51] While he is gone, I will take Kam and explore the two inner planets." [52] "You are the commander," said Thig. [53] "But I wish this beast did not wear these clumsy sheathing upon his body. [54] On Ortha we do not hamper the use of our limbs so." [55] "Do not question the word of your commander," growled Torp, swelling out his thick chest menacingly. [56] "It is for the good of our people that you disguise yourself as an Earthman." [57] "For the good of the Horde," Thig intoned almost piously as he lifted Terry's body and headed for the laboratory. [58] Service for the Horde was all that the men of Ortha knew. [59] Carefully cultured and brought to life in the laboratories of their Horde, they knew neither father nor mother. [60] Affection and love were entirely lacking in their early training and later life. [61] They were trained antlike from childhood that only the growth and power of the Horde were of any moment. [62] Men and women alike toiled and died like unfeeling robots of flesh and bone for the Horde. [63] The Horde was their religion, their love-life, their everything! [64] So it was that the bodies of the Earthman and the Orthan were strapped on two parallel tables of chill metal and the twin helmets, linked to one another by the intricacies of the psychic relay, put upon their heads. [65] For ten hours or more the droning hum of the relay sucked Terry's brain dry of knowledge. [66] The shock upon the nervous system of the Earthman proved too violent and his heart faltered after a time and stopped completely. [67] Twice, with subtle drugs they restored pseudo-life to his body and kept the electrical impulses throbbing from his tortured brain, but after the third suspension of life Thig removed his helmet. [68] "There is nothing more to learn," he informed his impassive comrades. [69] "Now, let us get on with the plastic surgery that is required. [70] My new body must return to its barbaric household before undue attention is aroused. [71] And when I return I will take along some of the gleaming baubles we found on the red planet—these people value them highly." [72] An hour later, his scars and altered cartilage already healed and painless, Thig again scraped sand over the entrance to the space ship and set out along the moonlit beach toward the nearest path running inland to his home. [73] Memory was laying the country bare about him, Terry's own childhood memories of this particular section of Long Island. [74] Here was the place where Jake and Ted had helped him dig for the buried treasure that old 'Notch-ear' Beggs had told them so exactly about. [75] Remembrance of that episode gave Thig an idea about the little lump of jewels in his pocket. [76] He had found them in a chest along the beach! [77] He was coming up on the porch now and at the sound of his foot on the sagging boards the screen door burst open and three little Earth-creatures were hugging at his legs. [78] An odd sensation, that his acquired memories labeled as pleasure, sent a warm glow upward from around his heart. [79] Then he saw the slender red-haired shape of a woman, the mate of the dead man he knew, and confusion struck his well-trained brain. [80] Men had no mates on Ortha, sex had been overthrown with all the other primitive impulses of barbarism; so he was incapable of understanding the emotions that swept through his acquired memory. [81] Unsteadily he took her in his arms and felt her warm lips pressed, trembling, against his own. [82] That same hot wave of pulsing blood choked achingly up into his throat. [83] "Lew, dear," Ellen was asking, "where have you been all day? [84] I called up at the landing but you were not there. [85] I wanted to let you know that Saddlebag Publications sent a check for $50 for "Reversed Revolvers" and three other editors asked for shorts soon." [86] "Shoulda got a hundred bucks for that yarn," grunted Thig, and gasped. [87] For the moment he had been Lewis Terry and not Thig! [88] So thoroughly had he acquired the knowledge of Terry that he found himself unconsciously adopting the thinking and mannerism of the other. [89] All the better this way, he realized—more natural. [90] "Sorry I was late," he said, digging into his pocket for the glittering baubles, "but I was poking around on the beach where we used to hunt treasure and I found an old chest. [91] Inside it I found nothing but a handful of these." [92] He flashed the jewels in front of Ellen's startled eyes and she clung, unbelieving, to his arm. [93] "Why, Lew," she gasped, "they're worth a fortune! [94] We can buy that new trailer now and have a rebuilt motor in the car. [95] We can go west right away.... Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, cowboys!" [96] "Uh huh," agreed the pseudo Lewis, memories of the ferocious savages and gunmen of his stories rendering him acutely unhappy. [97] Sincerely he hoped that the west had reformed. [98] "I saved some kraut and weiners," Ellen said. [99] "Get washed up while I'm warming them up. [100] Kids ate all the bread so I had to borrow some from the Eskoes. [101] Want coffee, too?" [102] "Mmmmmm," came from the depths of the chipped white wash-basin. [103] "Home again," whispered Ellen as she stood beside Thig twelve weeks later and gazed tearfully at the weathered little gray house. [104] She knelt beside the front stoop and reached for the key hidden beneath it. [105] "The west was wonderful; tremendous, vast and beautiful," she went on as they climbed the steps, "but nowhere was there any place as beautiful as our own little strip of sky and water." [106] Thig sank into a dusty old swing that hung on creaking chains from the exposed rafters of the porch roof. [107] He looked down at the dusty gray car and the bulbous silvery bulk of the trailer that had been their living quarters for almost three months. [108] Strange thoughts were afloat in the chaos of his cool Orthan brain. [109] Tonight or tomorrow night at the latest he must contact his two fellows and report that Earth was a planetary paradise. [110] No other world, including Ortha, was so well-favored and rich. [111] An expeditionary force to wipe the grotesque civilizations of Earth out of existence would, of course, be necessary before the first units of new Hordes could be landed. [112] And there Thig balked. [113] Why must they destroy these people, imperfect though their civilization might be, to make room for the Hordes? [114] Thig tried to tell himself that it was the transmitted thoughts of the dead Earthman that made him feel so, but he was not too sure. [115] For three months he had lived with people who loved, hated, wept and sacrificed for reasons that he had never known existed. [116] He had learned the heady glory of thinking for himself and making his own decisions. [117] He had experienced the primitive joy of matching his wits and tongue against the wits of other unpredictable human beings. [118] There was no abrupt division of men and women into definite classes of endeavor. [119] A laborer thought the same thoughts that a governor might think. [120] Uncertainty added zest to every day's life. [121] The Orthan had come to question the sole devotion of the individual to the Horde to the exclusion of all other interests. [122] What, he wondered, would one new world—or a hundred—populated by the Hordes add to the progress of humanity? [123] For a hundred thousand years the Orthan civilization had remained static, its energies directed into certain well-defined channels. [124] They were mindless bees maintaining their vast mechanical hives. [125] There was that moment on the brink of the Grand Canyon when Ellen had caught his arm breathlessly at all the beauty spread away there beneath them. [126] There were mornings in the desert when the sun painted in lurid red the peaks above the harsh black-and-whites of the sagebrush and cactus slopes. [127] There was the little boy, his body burning with fever, who nestled trustingly against his tense man's body and slept—the son of Ellen and the man he had destroyed. [128] Thig groaned. [129] He was a weakling to let sentimentality so get the better of his judgment. [130] He would go now to the space ship and urge them to blast off for Ortha. [131] He sprang off the porch and strode away down the road toward the beach. [132] The children ran to him; wanted to go along. [133] He sent them away harshly but they smiled and waved their brown little hands. [134] Ellen came to the door and called after him. [135] "Hurry home, dear," she said. [136] "I'll have a bite ready in about an hour." [137] He dared not say anything, for his voice would have broken and she would have known something was wrong. [138] She was a very wise sort of person when something was troubling him. [139] He waved his stubby paw of a hand to show that he had heard, and blindly hurried toward the Sound. [140] Oddly enough, as he hurried away along the narrow path through the autumn woods, his mind busied itself with a new epic of the west that lived no longer. [141] He mentally titled it: "Rustlers' Riot" and blocked in the outlines of his plot. [142] One section of his brain was that of the careless author of gunslinging yarns, a section that seemed to be sapping the life from his own brain. [143] He knew that the story would never be written, but he toyed with the idea. [144] So far had Thig the emotionless, robot-being from Ortha drifted from the unquestioning worship of the Horde! [145] "You have done well," announced Torp when Thig had completed his report on the resources and temperatures of various sections of Terra. [146] "We now have located three worlds fit for colonization and so we will return to Ortha at once. [147] "I will recommend the conquest of this planet, 72-P-3 at once and the complete destruction of all biped life upon it. [148] The mental aberrations of the barbaric natives might lead to endless complications if they were permitted to exist outside our ordered way of life. [149] I imagine that three circuits of the planet about its primary should prove sufficient for the purposes of complete liquidation." [150] "But why," asked Thig slowly, "could we not disarm all the natives and exile them on one of the less desirable continents, Antarctica for example or Siberia? [151] They are primitive humans even as our race was once a race of primitives. [152] It is not our duty to help to attain our own degree of knowledge and comfort?" [153] "Only the good of the Horde matters!" [154] shouted Torp angrily. [155] "Shall a race of feeble-witted beasts, such as these Earthmen, stand in the way of a superior race? [156] We want their world, and so we will take it. [157] The Law of the Horde states that all the universe is ours for the taking." [158] "Let us get back to Ortha at once, then," gritted out Thig savagely. [159] "Never again do I wish to set foot upon the soil of this mad planet. [160] There are forces at work upon Earth that we of Ortha have long forgotten." [161] "Check the blood of Thig for disease, Kam," ordered Torp shortly. [162] "His words are highly irrational. [163] Some form of fever perhaps native to this world. [164] While you examine him I will blast off for Ortha." [165] Thig followed Kam into the tiny laboratory and found a seat beside the squat scientist's desk. [166] His eyes roamed over the familiar instruments and gauges, each in its own precise position in the cases along the walls. [167] His gaze lingered longest on the stubby black ugliness of a decomposition blaster in its rack close to the deck. [168] A blast of the invisible radiations from that weapon's hot throat and flesh or vegetable fiber rotted into flaky ashes. [169] The ship trembled beneath their feet; it tore free from the feeble clutch of the sand about it, and they were rocketing skyward. [170] Thig's broad fingers bit deep into the unyielding metal of his chair. [171] Suddenly he knew that he must go back to Earth, back to Ellen and the children of the man he had helped destroy. [172] He loved Ellen, and nothing must stand between them! [173] The Hordes of Ortha must find some other world, an empty world—this planet was not for them. [174] "Turn back!" [175] he cried wildly. [176] "I must go back to Earth. [177] There is a woman there, helpless and alone, who needs me! [178] The Horde does not need this planet." [179] Kam eyed him coldly and lifted a shining hypodermic syringe from its case. [180] He approached Thig warily, aware that disease often made a maniac of the finest members of the Horde. [181] "No human being is more important than the Horde," he stated baldly. [182] "This woman of whom you speak is merely one unit of the millions we must eliminate for the good of the Horde." [183] Then it was that Thig went berserk. [184] His fists slashed into the thick jaw of the scientist and his fingers ripped at the hard cords overlying the Orthan's vital throat tubes. [185] His fingers and thumb gouged deep into Kam's startled throat and choked off any cry for assistance before it could be uttered. [186] Kam's hand swept down to the holster swung from his intricate harness and dragged his blaster from it. [187] Thig's other hand clamped over his and for long moments they swayed there, locked together in silent deadly struggle. [188] The fate of a world hung in the balance as Kam's other hand fought against that lone arm of Thig. [189] The scales swung in favor of Kam. [190] Slowly the flaring snout of his weapon tilted upward until it reached the level of Thig's waist. [191] Thig suddenly released his grip and dragged his enemy toward him. [192] A sudden reversal of pressure on Kam's gun hand sent the weapon swivelling about full upon its owner's thick torso. [193] Thig's fingers pressed down upon Kam's button finger, down upon the stud set into the grip of the decomposition blaster, and Kam's muscles turned to water. [194] He shrieked. [195] Before Thig's eyes half of his comrade's body sloughed away into foul corruption that swiftly gave way to hardened blobs of dessicated matter. [196] Horror for what he had done—that he had slain one of his own Horde—made his limbs move woodenly. [197] All of his thoughts were dulled for the moment. [198] Painfully slow, he turned his body around toward the control blister, turned around on leaden feet, to look full into the narrowed icy eyes of his commander. [199] He saw the heavy barrel of the blaster slashing down against his skull but he could not swing a fraction of an inch out of the way. [200] His body seemed paralyzed. [201] This was the end, he thought as he waited stupidly for the blow to fall, the end for Ellen and the kids and all the struggling races of Earth. [202] He would never write another cowboy yarn—they would all be dead anyhow soon. [203] Then a thunderclap exploded against his head and he dropped endlessly toward the deck. [204] Blows rained against his skull. [205] He wondered if Torp would ever cease to hammer at him and turn the deadly ray of the weapon upon him. [206] Blood throbbed and pounded with every blow.... Bam, Bam, Bam, the blood pounded in his ears. [207] Like repeated blows of a hammer they shook his booming head. [208] No longer was Torp above him. [209] He was in the corner of the laboratory, a crumpled blood-smeared heap of bruised flesh and bone. [210] He was unfettered and the blood was caked upon his skull and in his matted hair. [211] Torp must have thought he had killed him with those savage blows upon the head. [212] Even Torp, thought Thig ruefully, gave way to the primitive rage of his ancestors at times; but to that very bit of unconscious atavism he now owed his life. [213] A cool-headed robot of an Orthan would have efficiently used the blaster to destroy any possibility of remaining life in his unconscious body. [214] Thig rolled slowly over so that his eye found the door into the control room. [215] Torp would be coming back again to dispose of their bodies through the refuse lock. [216] Already the body of Kam was gone. [217] He wondered why he had been left until last. [218] Perhaps Torp wished to take cultures of his blood and tissues to determine whether a disease was responsible for his sudden madness. [219] The cases of fragile instruments were just above his head. [220] Association of memories brought him the flash of the heavy blaster in its rack beneath them. [221] His hand went up and felt the welcome hardness of the weapon. [222] He tugged it free. [223] In a moment he was on his knees crawling across the plates of the deck toward the door. [224] Halfway across the floor he collapsed on his face, the metal of the gun making a harsh clang. [225] He heard the feet of Torp scuffle out of silence and a choked cry in the man's throat squalled out into a senseless whinny. [226] Thig raised himself up on a quivering elbow and slid the black length of the blaster in front of him. [227] His eyes sought the doorway and stared full into the glaring vacant orbs of his commander. [228] Torp leaned there watching him, his breath gurgling brokenly through his deep-bitten lips. [229] The clawing marks of nails, fingernails, furrowed his face and chest. [230] He was a madman! [231] The deadly attack of Thig; his own violent avenging of Kam's death, and now the apparent return of the man he had killed come to life had all served to jolt his rigidly trained brain from its accustomed groove. [232] The shock had been too much for the established thought-processes of the Orthan. [233] So Thig shot him where he stood, mercifully, before that vacant mad stare set him, too, to gibbering and shrieking. [234] Then he stepped over the skeleton-thing that had been Torp, using the new strength that victory had given him to drive him along. [235] He had saved a world's civilization from extinction! [236] The thought sobered him; yet, somehow, he was pleased that he had done so. [237] After all, it had been the Earthwoman and the children he had been thinking of while he battled Kam, a selfish desire to protect them all. [238] He went to the desk where Torp had been writing in the ship's log and read the last few nervously scrawled lines: Planet 72-P-3 unfit for colonization. [239] Some pernicious disease that strikes at the brain centers and causes violent insanity is existent there. [240] Thig, just returned from a survey of the planet, went mad and destroyed Kam. [241] In turn I was forced to slay him. [242] But it is not ended. [243] Already I feel the insidious virus of.... And there his writing ended abruptly. [244] Thig nodded. [245] That would do it. [246] He set the automatic pilot for the planet Ortha. [247] Unless a rogue asteroid or a comet crossed the ship's path she would return safely to Ortha with that mute warning of danger on 72-P-3. [248] The body of Torp would help to confirm his final message. [249] Then Thig crossed the cabin to the auxiliary life boat there, one of a half-dozen space ships in miniature nested within the great ship's hull, and cut free from the mother vessel. [250] He flipped the drive lever, felt the thrumming of the rockets driving him from the parent ship. [251] The sensation of free flight against his new body was strangely exhilerating and heady. [252] It was the newest of the emotions he had experienced on Earth since that day, so many months before, when he had felt the warmness of Ellen's lips tight against his. [253] Thig flipped the drive lever, felt the thrumming of the rockets driving him from the parent ship. [254] He swung about to the port, watched the flaming drive-rockets of the great exploratory ship hurl it toward far-away Ortha, and there was no regret in his mind that he was not returning to the planet of his first existence. [255] He thought of the dull greys and blacks of his planet, of the monotonous routine of existence that had once been his—and his heart thrilled to the memories of the starry nights and perfect exciting days he had spent on his three month trip over Earth. [256] He made a brief salute to the existence he had known, turned with a tiny sigh, and his fingers made brief adjustments in the controls. [257] The rocket-thrum deepened, and the thin whistle of tenuous air clutching the ship echoed through the hull-plates. [258] He thought of many things in those few moments. [259] He watched the roundness of Earth flatten out, then take on the cup-like illusion that all planets had for an incoming ship. [260] He reduced the drive of his rockets to a mere whisper, striving to control the impatience that crowded his mind. [261] He shivered suddenly, remembering his utter callousness the first time he had sent a space ship whipping down toward the hills and valleys below. [262] And there was a sickness within him when he fully realized that, despite his acquired memory and traits, he was an alien from outer space. [263] He fingered the tiny scars that had completely obliterated the slight differences in his appearance from an Earthman's, and his fingers trembled a bit, as he bent and stared through the vision port. [264] He said a brief prayer in his heart to a God whose presence he now felt very deeply. [265] There were tears in the depths of his eyes, then, and memories were hot, bitter pains. [266] Earth was not far below him. [267] As he let gravity suck him earthward, he heaved a gasp of relief. [268] He was no longer Thig, a creature of a Horde's creation, but Lewis Terry, writer of lurid gun-smoking tales of the West. [269] He must remember that always. [270] He had destroyed the real Terry and now, for the rest of his life, he must make up to the dead man's family. [271] The knowledge that Ellen's love was not really meant for him would be a knife twisting in his heart but for her sake he must endure it. [272] Her dreams and happiness must never be shattered. [273] The bulge of Earth was flattening out now and he could see the outlines of Long Island in the growing twilight. [274] A new plot was growing in the brain of Lewis Terry, a yarn about a cowboy suddenly transported to another world. [275] He smiled ironically. [276] He had seen those other worlds. [277] Perhaps some day he would write about them.... [278] He was Lewis Terry! [279] He must remember that!

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the setting of the story": 1. [5] Thig carefully smoothed the dark sand and seaweed of the lonely beach over the metal lid of the flexible ringed tunnel that linked the grubby ship from another planet with the upper air. 2. [6] He looked out across the heaving waters of the Sound toward Connecticut. 3. [7] He stared appraisingly around at the luxuriant green growth of foliage further inland; and started toward the little stretch of trees and brush, walking carefully because of the lesser gravitation. 4. [11] The Orthan entered the narrow strip of trees and crossed to the little-used highway on the other side. 5. [72] An hour later, his scars and altered cartilage already healed and painless, Thig again scraped sand over the entrance to the space ship and set out along the moonlit beach toward the nearest path running inland to his home. 6. [103] "There it is," announced Thig, dropping the limp body of the captured Earthman to the metal deck-plates. 7. [106] Thig sank into a dusty old swing that hung on creaking chains from the exposed rafters of the porch roof. 8. [107] He looked down at the dusty gray car and the bulbous silvery bulk of the trailer that had been their living quarters for almost three months. 9. [125] There was that moment on the brink of the Grand Canyon when Ellen had caught his arm breathlessly at all the beauty spread away there beneath them. 10. [126] There were mornings in the desert when the sun painted in lurid red the peaks above the harsh black-and-whites of the sagebrush and cactus slopes. 11. [140] Oddly enough, as he hurried away along the narrow path through the autumn woods, his mind busied itself with a new epic of the west that lived no longer. 12. [1] QUEST OF THIG By BASIL WELLS Thig of Ortha was the vanguard of the conquering "HORDE." 13. [2] He had blasted across trackless space to subdue a defenseless world—only to meet on Earth emotions that were more deadly than weapons. 14. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1942. 15. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 16. [8] Thig was shorter than the average Earthman—although on Ortha he was well above the average in height—but his body was thick and powerfully muscled. 17. [9] His skull was well-shaped and large; his features were regular, perhaps a trifle oversize, and his hair and eyes were a curiously matching blend of reddish brown. 18. [10] Oddest of all, he wore no garments, other than the necessary belt and straps to support his rod-like weapon of white metal and his pouches for food and specimens. 19. [12] Here he patiently sat down to wait for an Earthman or an Earthwoman to pass. 20. [19] A creature was approaching. 21. [20] Its squat body was covered with baggy strips of bluish cloth and it carried a jointed rod of metal and wood in its paw. 22. [21] It walked upright as did the men of Ortha. 23. [22] Thig's cold eyes opened a trifle wider as he stared into the thing's stupid face. 24. [23] It was as though he was looking into a bit of polished metal at the reflection of himself! 25. [25] Lewis Terry was going fishing. 26. [31] For Mr. Terry, that hard-hitting writer of two-gun action, had never been further west of Long Island than Elizabeth, and he had promised his wife, Ellen, that he would take the three children and herself on a trailer tour of the West that very summer. 27. [35] So Lewis left the weathered old cottage in the early dawn and headed for his tubby old boat at the landing in an attempt to work out a salable yarn.... 28. [36] "Hey!" 29. [37] he shouted as a naked man sprang out of the bushes beside the road. 30. [38] "What's the trouble?" 31. [39] Then he had no time for further speech, the massive arms of the stranger had wound around him and two hamlike hands shut off his speech and his wind. 32. [40] He fought futilely against trained muscles. 33. [41] The hand clamping his throat relaxed for a moment and hacked along the side of his head. 34. [42] Blackness flooded the brain of Lewis, and he knew no more. 35. [77] He was coming up on the porch now and at the sound of his foot on the sagging boards the screen door burst open and three little Earth-creatures were hugging at his legs. 36. [78] An odd sensation, that his acquired memories labeled as pleasure, sent a warm glow upward from around his heart. 37. [79] Then he saw the slender red-haired shape of a woman, the mate of the dead man he knew, and confusion struck his well-trained brain. 38. [83] "Lew, dear," Ellen was asking, "where have you been all day? 39. [84] I called up at the landing but you were not there. 40. [85] I wanted to let you know that Saddlebag Publications sent a check for $50 for "Reversed Revolvers" and three other editors asked for shorts soon." 41. [90] "Sorry I was late," he said, digging into his pocket for the glittering baubles, "but I was poking around on the beach where we used to hunt treasure and I found an old chest. 42. [91] Inside it I found nothing but a handful of these." 43. [92] He flashed the jewels in front of Ellen's startled eyes and she clung, unbelieving, to his arm. 44. [93] "Why, Lew," she gasped, "they're worth a fortune! 45. [94] We can buy that new trailer now and have a rebuilt motor in the car. 46. [95] We can go west right away.... Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, cowboys!" 47. [97] Sincerely he hoped that the west had reformed. 48. [98] "I saved some kraut and weiners," Ellen said. 49. [99] "Get washed up while I'm warming them up. 50. [100] Kids ate all the bread so I had to borrow some from the Eskoes. 51. [101] Want coffee, too?" 52. [102] "Mmmmmm," came from the depths of the chipped white wash-basin. 53. [103] "There it is," announced Thig, dropping the limp body of the captured Earthman to the metal deck-plates. 54. [104] She knelt beside the front stoop and reached for the key hidden beneath it. 55. [105] "The west was wonderful; tremendous, vast and beautiful," she went on as they climbed the steps, "but nowhere was there any place as beautiful as our own little strip of sky and water." 56. [106] Thig sank into a dusty old swing that hung on creaking chains from the exposed rafters of the porch roof. 57. [107] He looked down at the dusty gray car and the bulbous silvery bulk of the trailer that had been their living quarters for almost three months. 58. [125] There was that moment on the brink of the Grand Canyon when Ellen had caught his arm breathlessly at all the beauty spread away there beneath them. 59. [126] There were mornings in the desert when the sun painted in lurid red the peaks above the harsh black-and-whites of the sagebrush and cactus slopes. 60. [140] Oddly enough, as he hurried away along the narrow path through the autumn woods, his mind busied itself with a new epic of the west that lived no longer.

How do the ways of Ortha differ from those Thig discovers on Earth?

[1] QUEST OF THIG By BASIL WELLS Thig of Ortha was the vanguard of the conquering "HORDE." [2] He had blasted across trackless space to subdue a defenseless world—only to meet on Earth emotions that were more deadly than weapons. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1942. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Thig carefully smoothed the dark sand and seaweed of the lonely beach over the metal lid of the flexible ringed tunnel that linked the grubby ship from another planet with the upper air. [6] He looked out across the heaving waters of the Sound toward Connecticut. [7] He stared appraisingly around at the luxuriant green growth of foliage further inland; and started toward the little stretch of trees and brush, walking carefully because of the lesser gravitation. [8] Thig was shorter than the average Earthman—although on Ortha he was well above the average in height—but his body was thick and powerfully muscled. [9] His skull was well-shaped and large; his features were regular, perhaps a trifle oversize, and his hair and eyes were a curiously matching blend of reddish brown. [10] Oddest of all, he wore no garments, other than the necessary belt and straps to support his rod-like weapon of white metal and his pouches for food and specimens. [11] The Orthan entered the narrow strip of trees and crossed to the little-used highway on the other side. [12] Here he patiently sat down to wait for an Earthman or an Earthwoman to pass. [13] His task now was to bring a native, intact if possible, back to the carefully buried space cruiser where his two fellows and himself would drain the creature's mentality of all its knowledge. [14] In this way they could learn whether a planet was suited for colonization by later swarms of Orthans. [15] Already they had charted over a hundred celestial bodies but of them all only three had proven worthy of consideration. [16] This latest planet, however, 72-P-3 on the chart, appeared to be an ideal world in every respect. [17] Sunlight, plenty of water and a dense atmospheric envelope made of 72-P-3 a paradise among planets. [18] The explorer from another world crouched into the concealment of a leafy shrub. [19] A creature was approaching. [20] Its squat body was covered with baggy strips of bluish cloth and it carried a jointed rod of metal and wood in its paw. [21] It walked upright as did the men of Ortha. [22] Thig's cold eyes opened a trifle wider as he stared into the thing's stupid face. [23] It was as though he was looking into a bit of polished metal at the reflection of himself! [24] The Earthman was opposite now and he must waste no more precious time. [25] The mighty muscles of the Orthan sent him hurtling across the intervening space in two prodigious bounds, and his hands clamped across the mouth and neck of the stranger.... Lewis Terry was going fishing. [26] For a week the typewriter mill that had ground out a thousand assorted yarns of the untamed West and the frigid desolation of the Northwoods had been silent. [27] Lewis wondered if he was going stale. [28] He had sat every day for eight hours in front of that shiny-buttoned bane of the typist, but there were no results. [29] Feebly he had punched a key two days ago and a $ sign had appeared. [30] He hadn't dared touch the machine since. [31] For Mr. Terry, that hard-hitting writer of two-gun action, had never been further west of Long Island than Elizabeth, and he had promised his wife, Ellen, that he would take the three children and herself on a trailer tour of the West that very summer. [32] Since that promise, he could not write a word. [33] Visions of whooping red-skinned Apaches and be-chapped outlaws raiding his little trailer home kept rolling up out of his subconscious. [34] Yet he had to write at least three novelets and a fistful of short stories in the next two weeks to finance the great adventure—or the trip was off. [35] So Lewis left the weathered old cottage in the early dawn and headed for his tubby old boat at the landing in an attempt to work out a salable yarn.... [36] "Hey!" [37] he shouted as a naked man sprang out of the bushes beside the road. [38] "What's the trouble?" [39] Then he had no time for further speech, the massive arms of the stranger had wound around him and two hamlike hands shut off his speech and his wind. [40] He fought futilely against trained muscles. [41] The hand clamping his throat relaxed for a moment and hacked along the side of his head. [42] Blackness flooded the brain of Lewis, and he knew no more. [43] "There it is," announced Thig, dropping the limp body of the captured Earthman to the metal deck-plates. [44] "It is a male of the species that must have built the cities we saw as we landed." [45] "He resembles Thig," announced Kam. [46] "But for the strange covering he wears he might be Thig." [47] "Thig will be this creature!" [48] announced Torp. [49] "With a psychic relay we will transfer the Earthman's memories and meager store of knowledge to the brain of Thig! [50] He can then go out and scout this world without arousing suspicion. [51] While he is gone, I will take Kam and explore the two inner planets." [52] "You are the commander," said Thig. [53] "But I wish this beast did not wear these clumsy sheathing upon his body. [54] On Ortha we do not hamper the use of our limbs so." [55] "Do not question the word of your commander," growled Torp, swelling out his thick chest menacingly. [56] "It is for the good of our people that you disguise yourself as an Earthman." [57] "For the good of the Horde," Thig intoned almost piously as he lifted Terry's body and headed for the laboratory. [58] Service for the Horde was all that the men of Ortha knew. [59] Carefully cultured and brought to life in the laboratories of their Horde, they knew neither father nor mother. [60] Affection and love were entirely lacking in their early training and later life. [61] They were trained antlike from childhood that only the growth and power of the Horde were of any moment. [62] Men and women alike toiled and died like unfeeling robots of flesh and bone for the Horde. [63] The Horde was their religion, their love-life, their everything! [64] So it was that the bodies of the Earthman and the Orthan were strapped on two parallel tables of chill metal and the twin helmets, linked to one another by the intricacies of the psychic relay, put upon their heads. [65] For ten hours or more the droning hum of the relay sucked Terry's brain dry of knowledge. [66] The shock upon the nervous system of the Earthman proved too violent and his heart faltered after a time and stopped completely. [67] Twice, with subtle drugs they restored pseudo-life to his body and kept the electrical impulses throbbing from his tortured brain, but after the third suspension of life Thig removed his helmet. [68] "There is nothing more to learn," he informed his impassive comrades. [69] "Now, let us get on with the plastic surgery that is required. [70] My new body must return to its barbaric household before undue attention is aroused. [71] And when I return I will take along some of the gleaming baubles we found on the red planet—these people value them highly." [72] An hour later, his scars and altered cartilage already healed and painless, Thig again scraped sand over the entrance to the space ship and set out along the moonlit beach toward the nearest path running inland to his home. [73] Memory was laying the country bare about him, Terry's own childhood memories of this particular section of Long Island. [74] Here was the place where Jake and Ted had helped him dig for the buried treasure that old 'Notch-ear' Beggs had told them so exactly about. [75] Remembrance of that episode gave Thig an idea about the little lump of jewels in his pocket. [76] He had found them in a chest along the beach! [77] He was coming up on the porch now and at the sound of his foot on the sagging boards the screen door burst open and three little Earth-creatures were hugging at his legs. [78] An odd sensation, that his acquired memories labeled as pleasure, sent a warm glow upward from around his heart. [79] Then he saw the slender red-haired shape of a woman, the mate of the dead man he knew, and confusion struck his well-trained brain. [80] Men had no mates on Ortha, sex had been overthrown with all the other primitive impulses of barbarism; so he was incapable of understanding the emotions that swept through his acquired memory. [81] Unsteadily he took her in his arms and felt her warm lips pressed, trembling, against his own. [82] That same hot wave of pulsing blood choked achingly up into his throat. [83] "Lew, dear," Ellen was asking, "where have you been all day? [84] I called up at the landing but you were not there. [85] I wanted to let you know that Saddlebag Publications sent a check for $50 for "Reversed Revolvers" and three other editors asked for shorts soon." [86] "Shoulda got a hundred bucks for that yarn," grunted Thig, and gasped. [87] For the moment he had been Lewis Terry and not Thig! [88] So thoroughly had he acquired the knowledge of Terry that he found himself unconsciously adopting the thinking and mannerism of the other. [89] All the better this way, he realized—more natural. [90] "Sorry I was late," he said, digging into his pocket for the glittering baubles, "but I was poking around on the beach where we used to hunt treasure and I found an old chest. [91] Inside it I found nothing but a handful of these." [92] He flashed the jewels in front of Ellen's startled eyes and she clung, unbelieving, to his arm. [93] "Why, Lew," she gasped, "they're worth a fortune! [94] We can buy that new trailer now and have a rebuilt motor in the car. [95] We can go west right away.... Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, cowboys!" [96] "Uh huh," agreed the pseudo Lewis, memories of the ferocious savages and gunmen of his stories rendering him acutely unhappy. [97] Sincerely he hoped that the west had reformed. [98] "I saved some kraut and weiners," Ellen said. [99] "Get washed up while I'm warming them up. [100] Kids ate all the bread so I had to borrow some from the Eskoes. [101] Want coffee, too?" [102] "Mmmmmm," came from the depths of the chipped white wash-basin. [103] "Home again," whispered Ellen as she stood beside Thig twelve weeks later and gazed tearfully at the weathered little gray house. [104] She knelt beside the front stoop and reached for the key hidden beneath it. [105] "The west was wonderful; tremendous, vast and beautiful," she went on as they climbed the steps, "but nowhere was there any place as beautiful as our own little strip of sky and water." [106] Thig sank into a dusty old swing that hung on creaking chains from the exposed rafters of the porch roof. [107] He looked down at the dusty gray car and the bulbous silvery bulk of the trailer that had been their living quarters for almost three months. [108] Strange thoughts were afloat in the chaos of his cool Orthan brain. [109] Tonight or tomorrow night at the latest he must contact his two fellows and report that Earth was a planetary paradise. [110] No other world, including Ortha, was so well-favored and rich. [111] An expeditionary force to wipe the grotesque civilizations of Earth out of existence would, of course, be necessary before the first units of new Hordes could be landed. [112] And there Thig balked. [113] Why must they destroy these people, imperfect though their civilization might be, to make room for the Hordes? [114] Thig tried to tell himself that it was the transmitted thoughts of the dead Earthman that made him feel so, but he was not too sure. [115] For three months he had lived with people who loved, hated, wept and sacrificed for reasons that he had never known existed. [116] He had learned the heady glory of thinking for himself and making his own decisions. [117] He had experienced the primitive joy of matching his wits and tongue against the wits of other unpredictable human beings. [118] There was no abrupt division of men and women into definite classes of endeavor. [119] A laborer thought the same thoughts that a governor might think. [120] Uncertainty added zest to every day's life. [121] The Orthan had come to question the sole devotion of the individual to the Horde to the exclusion of all other interests. [122] What, he wondered, would one new world—or a hundred—populated by the Hordes add to the progress of humanity? [123] For a hundred thousand years the Orthan civilization had remained static, its energies directed into certain well-defined channels. [124] They were mindless bees maintaining their vast mechanical hives. [125] There was that moment on the brink of the Grand Canyon when Ellen had caught his arm breathlessly at all the beauty spread away there beneath them. [126] There were mornings in the desert when the sun painted in lurid red the peaks above the harsh black-and-whites of the sagebrush and cactus slopes. [127] There was the little boy, his body burning with fever, who nestled trustingly against his tense man's body and slept—the son of Ellen and the man he had destroyed. [128] Thig groaned. [129] He was a weakling to let sentimentality so get the better of his judgment. [130] He would go now to the space ship and urge them to blast off for Ortha. [131] He sprang off the porch and strode away down the road toward the beach. [132] The children ran to him; wanted to go along. [133] He sent them away harshly but they smiled and waved their brown little hands. [134] Ellen came to the door and called after him. [135] "Hurry home, dear," she said. [136] "I'll have a bite ready in about an hour." [137] He dared not say anything, for his voice would have broken and she would have known something was wrong. [138] She was a very wise sort of person when something was troubling him. [139] He waved his stubby paw of a hand to show that he had heard, and blindly hurried toward the Sound. [140] Oddly enough, as he hurried away along the narrow path through the autumn woods, his mind busied itself with a new epic of the west that lived no longer. [141] He mentally titled it: "Rustlers' Riot" and blocked in the outlines of his plot. [142] One section of his brain was that of the careless author of gunslinging yarns, a section that seemed to be sapping the life from his own brain. [143] He knew that the story would never be written, but he toyed with the idea. [144] So far had Thig the emotionless, robot-being from Ortha drifted from the unquestioning worship of the Horde! [145] "You have done well," announced Torp when Thig had completed his report on the resources and temperatures of various sections of Terra. [146] "We now have located three worlds fit for colonization and so we will return to Ortha at once. [147] "I will recommend the conquest of this planet, 72-P-3 at once and the complete destruction of all biped life upon it. [148] The mental aberrations of the barbaric natives might lead to endless complications if they were permitted to exist outside our ordered way of life. [149] I imagine that three circuits of the planet about its primary should prove sufficient for the purposes of complete liquidation." [150] "But why," asked Thig slowly, "could we not disarm all the natives and exile them on one of the less desirable continents, Antarctica for example or Siberia? [151] They are primitive humans even as our race was once a race of primitives. [152] It is not our duty to help to attain our own degree of knowledge and comfort?" [153] "Only the good of the Horde matters!" [154] shouted Torp angrily. [155] "Shall a race of feeble-witted beasts, such as these Earthmen, stand in the way of a superior race? [156] We want their world, and so we will take it. [157] The Law of the Horde states that all the universe is ours for the taking." [158] "Let us get back to Ortha at once, then," gritted out Thig savagely. [159] "Never again do I wish to set foot upon the soil of this mad planet. [160] There are forces at work upon Earth that we of Ortha have long forgotten." [161] "Check the blood of Thig for disease, Kam," ordered Torp shortly. [162] "His words are highly irrational. [163] Some form of fever perhaps native to this world. [164] While you examine him I will blast off for Ortha." [165] Thig followed Kam into the tiny laboratory and found a seat beside the squat scientist's desk. [166] His eyes roamed over the familiar instruments and gauges, each in its own precise position in the cases along the walls. [167] His gaze lingered longest on the stubby black ugliness of a decomposition blaster in its rack close to the deck. [168] A blast of the invisible radiations from that weapon's hot throat and flesh or vegetable fiber rotted into flaky ashes. [169] The ship trembled beneath their feet; it tore free from the feeble clutch of the sand about it, and they were rocketing skyward. [170] Thig's broad fingers bit deep into the unyielding metal of his chair. [171] Suddenly he knew that he must go back to Earth, back to Ellen and the children of the man he had helped destroy. [172] He loved Ellen, and nothing must stand between them! [173] The Hordes of Ortha must find some other world, an empty world—this planet was not for them. [174] "Turn back!" [175] he cried wildly. [176] "I must go back to Earth. [177] There is a woman there, helpless and alone, who needs me! [178] The Horde does not need this planet." [179] Kam eyed him coldly and lifted a shining hypodermic syringe from its case. [180] He approached Thig warily, aware that disease often made a maniac of the finest members of the Horde. [181] "No human being is more important than the Horde," he stated baldly. [182] "This woman of whom you speak is merely one unit of the millions we must eliminate for the good of the Horde." [183] Then it was that Thig went berserk. [184] His fists slashed into the thick jaw of the scientist and his fingers ripped at the hard cords overlying the Orthan's vital throat tubes. [185] His fingers and thumb gouged deep into Kam's startled throat and choked off any cry for assistance before it could be uttered. [186] Kam's hand swept down to the holster swung from his intricate harness and dragged his blaster from it. [187] Thig's other hand clamped over his and for long moments they swayed there, locked together in silent deadly struggle. [188] The fate of a world hung in the balance as Kam's other hand fought against that lone arm of Thig. [189] The scales swung in favor of Kam. [190] Slowly the flaring snout of his weapon tilted upward until it reached the level of Thig's waist. [191] Thig suddenly released his grip and dragged his enemy toward him. [192] A sudden reversal of pressure on Kam's gun hand sent the weapon swivelling about full upon its owner's thick torso. [193] Thig's fingers pressed down upon Kam's button finger, down upon the stud set into the grip of the decomposition blaster, and Kam's muscles turned to water. [194] He shrieked. [195] Before Thig's eyes half of his comrade's body sloughed away into foul corruption that swiftly gave way to hardened blobs of dessicated matter. [196] Horror for what he had done—that he had slain one of his own Horde—made his limbs move woodenly. [197] All of his thoughts were dulled for the moment. [198] Painfully slow, he turned his body around toward the control blister, turned around on leaden feet, to look full into the narrowed icy eyes of his commander. [199] He saw the heavy barrel of the blaster slashing down against his skull but he could not swing a fraction of an inch out of the way. [200] His body seemed paralyzed. [201] This was the end, he thought as he waited stupidly for the blow to fall, the end for Ellen and the kids and all the struggling races of Earth. [202] He would never write another cowboy yarn—they would all be dead anyhow soon. [203] Then a thunderclap exploded against his head and he dropped endlessly toward the deck. [204] Blows rained against his skull. [205] He wondered if Torp would ever cease to hammer at him and turn the deadly ray of the weapon upon him. [206] Blood throbbed and pounded with every blow.... Bam, Bam, Bam, the blood pounded in his ears. [207] Like repeated blows of a hammer they shook his booming head. [208] No longer was Torp above him. [209] He was in the corner of the laboratory, a crumpled blood-smeared heap of bruised flesh and bone. [210] He was unfettered and the blood was caked upon his skull and in his matted hair. [211] Torp must have thought he had killed him with those savage blows upon the head. [212] Even Torp, thought Thig ruefully, gave way to the primitive rage of his ancestors at times; but to that very bit of unconscious atavism he now owed his life. [213] A cool-headed robot of an Orthan would have efficiently used the blaster to destroy any possibility of remaining life in his unconscious body. [214] Thig rolled slowly over so that his eye found the door into the control room. [215] Torp would be coming back again to dispose of their bodies through the refuse lock. [216] Already the body of Kam was gone. [217] He wondered why he had been left until last. [218] Perhaps Torp wished to take cultures of his blood and tissues to determine whether a disease was responsible for his sudden madness. [219] The cases of fragile instruments were just above his head. [220] Association of memories brought him the flash of the heavy blaster in its rack beneath them. [221] His hand went up and felt the welcome hardness of the weapon. [222] He tugged it free. [223] In a moment he was on his knees crawling across the plates of the deck toward the door. [224] Halfway across the floor he collapsed on his face, the metal of the gun making a harsh clang. [225] He heard the feet of Torp scuffle out of silence and a choked cry in the man's throat squalled out into a senseless whinny. [226] Thig raised himself up on a quivering elbow and slid the black length of the blaster in front of him. [227] His eyes sought the doorway and stared full into the glaring vacant orbs of his commander. [228] Torp leaned there watching him, his breath gurgling brokenly through his deep-bitten lips. [229] The clawing marks of nails, fingernails, furrowed his face and chest. [230] He was a madman! [231] The deadly attack of Thig; his own violent avenging of Kam's death, and now the apparent return of the man he had killed come to life had all served to jolt his rigidly trained brain from its accustomed groove. [232] The shock had been too much for the established thought-processes of the Orthan. [233] So Thig shot him where he stood, mercifully, before that vacant mad stare set him, too, to gibbering and shrieking. [234] Then he stepped over the skeleton-thing that had been Torp, using the new strength that victory had given him to drive him along. [235] He had saved a world's civilization from extinction! [236] The thought sobered him; yet, somehow, he was pleased that he had done so. [237] After all, it had been the Earthwoman and the children he had been thinking of while he battled Kam, a selfish desire to protect them all. [238] He went to the desk where Torp had been writing in the ship's log and read the last few nervously scrawled lines: Planet 72-P-3 unfit for colonization. [239] Some pernicious disease that strikes at the brain centers and causes violent insanity is existent there. [240] Thig, just returned from a survey of the planet, went mad and destroyed Kam. [241] In turn I was forced to slay him. [242] But it is not ended. [243] Already I feel the insidious virus of.... And there his writing ended abruptly. [244] Thig nodded. [245] That would do it. [246] He set the automatic pilot for the planet Ortha. [247] Unless a rogue asteroid or a comet crossed the ship's path she would return safely to Ortha with that mute warning of danger on 72-P-3. [248] The body of Torp would help to confirm his final message. [249] Then Thig crossed the cabin to the auxiliary life boat there, one of a half-dozen space ships in miniature nested within the great ship's hull, and cut free from the mother vessel. [250] He flipped the drive lever, felt the thrumming of the rockets driving him from the parent ship. [251] The sensation of free flight against his new body was strangely exhilerating and heady. [252] It was the newest of the emotions he had experienced on Earth since that day, so many months before, when he had felt the warmness of Ellen's lips tight against his. [253] Thig flipped the drive lever, felt the thrumming of the rockets driving him from the parent ship. [254] He swung about to the port, watched the flaming drive-rockets of the great exploratory ship hurl it toward far-away Ortha, and there was no regret in his mind that he was not returning to the planet of his first existence. [255] He thought of the dull greys and blacks of his planet, of the monotonous routine of existence that had once been his—and his heart thrilled to the memories of the starry nights and perfect exciting days he had spent on his three month trip over Earth. [256] He made a brief salute to the existence he had known, turned with a tiny sigh, and his fingers made brief adjustments in the controls. [257] The rocket-thrum deepened, and the thin whistle of tenuous air clutching the ship echoed through the hull-plates. [258] He thought of many things in those few moments. [259] He watched the roundness of Earth flatten out, then take on the cup-like illusion that all planets had for an incoming ship. [260] He reduced the drive of his rockets to a mere whisper, striving to control the impatience that crowded his mind. [261] He shivered suddenly, remembering his utter callousness the first time he had sent a space ship whipping down toward the hills and valleys below. [262] And there was a sickness within him when he fully realized that, despite his acquired memory and traits, he was an alien from outer space. [263] He fingered the tiny scars that had completely obliterated the slight differences in his appearance from an Earthman's, and his fingers trembled a bit, as he bent and stared through the vision port. [264] He said a brief prayer in his heart to a God whose presence he now felt very deeply. [265] There were tears in the depths of his eyes, then, and memories were hot, bitter pains. [266] Earth was not far below him. [267] As he let gravity suck him earthward, he heaved a gasp of relief. [268] He was no longer Thig, a creature of a Horde's creation, but Lewis Terry, writer of lurid gun-smoking tales of the West. [269] He must remember that always. [270] He had destroyed the real Terry and now, for the rest of his life, he must make up to the dead man's family. [271] The knowledge that Ellen's love was not really meant for him would be a knife twisting in his heart but for her sake he must endure it. [272] Her dreams and happiness must never be shattered. [273] The bulge of Earth was flattening out now and he could see the outlines of Long Island in the growing twilight. [274] A new plot was growing in the brain of Lewis Terry, a yarn about a cowboy suddenly transported to another world. [275] He smiled ironically. [276] He had seen those other worlds. [277] Perhaps some day he would write about them.... [278] He was Lewis Terry! [279] He must remember that!

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question: 1. [1] Thig of Ortha was the vanguard of the conquering "HORDE." 2. [2] He had blasted across trackless space to subdue a defenseless world—only to meet on Earth emotions that were more deadly than weapons. 3. [58] Service for the Horde was all that the men of Ortha knew. 4. [59] Carefully cultured and brought to life in the laboratories of their Horde, they knew neither father nor mother. 5. [60] Affection and love were entirely lacking in their early training and later life. 6. [61] They were trained antlike from childhood that only the growth and power of the Horde were of any moment. 7. [62] Men and women alike toiled and died like unfeeling robots of flesh and bone for the Horde. 8. [63] The Horde was their religion, their love-life, their everything! 9. [106] Thig sank into a dusty old swing that hung on creaking chains from the exposed rafters of the porch roof. 10. [107] He looked down at the dusty gray car and the bulbous silvery bulk of the trailer that had been their living quarters for almost three months. 11. [108] Strange thoughts were afloat in the chaos of his cool Orthan brain. 12. [109] Tonight or tomorrow night at the latest he must contact his two fellows and report that Earth was a planetary paradise. 13. [110] No other world, including Ortha, was so well-favored and rich. 14. [111] An expeditionary force to wipe the grotesque civilizations of Earth out of existence would, of course, be necessary before the first units of new Hordes could be landed. 15. [112] And there Thig balked. 16. [113] Why must they destroy these people, imperfect though their civilization might be, to make room for the Hordes? 17. [114] Thig tried to tell himself that it was the transmitted thoughts of the dead Earthman that made him feel so, but he was not too sure. 18. [115] For three months he had lived with people who loved, hated, wept and sacrificed for reasons that he had never known existed. 19. [116] He had learned the heady glory of thinking for himself and making his own decisions. 20. [117] He had experienced the primitive joy of matching his wits and tongue against the wits of other unpredictable human beings. 21. [118] There was no abrupt division of men and women into definite classes of endeavor. 22. [119] A laborer thought the same thoughts that a governor might think. 23. [120] Uncertainty added zest to every day's life. 24. [121] The Orthan had come to question the sole devotion of the individual to the Horde to the exclusion of all other interests. 25. [122] What, he wondered, would one new world—or a hundred—populated by the Hordes add to the progress of humanity? 26. [123] For a hundred thousand years the Orthan civilization had remained static, its energies directed into certain well-defined channels. 27. [124] They were mindless bees maintaining their vast mechanical hives. 28. [125] There was that moment on the brink of the Grand Canyon when Ellen had caught his arm breathlessly at all the beauty spread away there beneath them. 29. [126] There were mornings in the desert when the sun painted in lurid red the peaks above the harsh black-and-whites of the sagebrush and cactus slopes. 30. [127] There was the little boy, his body burning with fever, who nestled trustingly against his tense man's body and slept—the son of Ellen and the man he had destroyed. 31. [128] Thig groaned. 32. [129] He was a weakling to let sentimentality so get the better of his judgment. 33. [130] He would go now to the space ship and urge them to blast off for Ortha. 34. [145] "You have done well," announced Torp when Thig had completed his report on the resources and temperatures of various sections of Terra. 35. [146] "We now have located three worlds fit for colonization and so we will return to Ortha at once. 36. [147] "I will recommend the conquest of this planet, 72-P-3 at once and the complete destruction of all biped life upon it. 37. [148] The mental aberrations of the barbaric natives might lead to endless complications if they were permitted to exist outside our ordered way of life. 38. [149] I imagine that three circuits of the planet about its primary should prove sufficient for the purposes of complete liquidation." 39. [150] "But why," asked Thig slowly, "could we not disarm all the natives and exile them on one of the less desirable continents, Antarctica for example or Siberia? 40. [151] They are primitive humans even as our race was once a race of primitives. 41. [152] It is not our duty to help to attain our own degree of knowledge and comfort?" 42. [153] "Only the good of the Horde matters!" 43. [154] shouted Torp angrily. 44. [155] "Shall a race of feeble-witted beasts, such as these Earthmen, stand in the way of a superior race? 45. [156] We want their world, and so we will take it. 46. [157] The Law of the Horde states that all the universe is ours for the taking." 47. [158] "Let us get back to Ortha at once, then," gritted out Thig savagely. 48. [159] "Never again do I wish to set foot upon the soil of this mad planet. 49. [160] There are forces at work upon Earth that we of Ortha have long forgotten." 50. [161] "Check the blood of Thig for disease, Kam," ordered Torp shortly. 51. [162] "His words are highly irrational. 52. [163] Some form of fever perhaps native to this world. 53. [164] While you examine him I will blast off for Ortha." 54. [165] Thig followed Kam into the tiny laboratory and found a seat beside the squat scientist's desk. 55. [166] His eyes roamed over the familiar instruments and gauges, each in its own precise position in the cases along the walls. 56. [167] His gaze lingered longest on the stubby black ugliness of a decomposition blaster in its rack close to the deck. 57. [168] A blast of the invisible radiations from that weapon's hot throat and flesh or vegetable fiber rotted into flaky ashes. 58. [169] The ship trembled beneath their feet; it tore free from the feeble clutch of the sand about it, and they were rocketing skyward. 59. [170] Thig's broad fingers bit deep into the unyielding metal of his chair. 60. [171] Suddenly he knew that he must go back to Earth, back to Ellen and the children of the man he had helped destroy. 61. [172] He loved Ellen, and nothing must stand between them! 62. [173] The Hordes of Ortha must find some other world, an empty world—this planet was not for them. 63. [174] "Turn back!" 64. [175] he cried wildly. 65. [176] "I must go back to Earth. 66. [177] There is a woman there, helpless and alone, who needs me! 67. [178] The Horde does not need this planet." 68. [179] Kam eyed him coldly and lifted a shining hypodermic syringe from its case. 69. [180] He approached Thig warily, aware that disease often made a maniac of the finest members of the Horde. 70. [181] "No human being is more important than the Horde," he stated baldly. 71. [182] "This woman of whom you speak is merely one unit of the millions we must eliminate for the good of the Horde." 72. [183] Then it was that Thig went berserk.

Who is Ellen and how does she affect Thig and his choices?

[1] QUEST OF THIG By BASIL WELLS Thig of Ortha was the vanguard of the conquering "HORDE." [2] He had blasted across trackless space to subdue a defenseless world—only to meet on Earth emotions that were more deadly than weapons. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1942. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Thig carefully smoothed the dark sand and seaweed of the lonely beach over the metal lid of the flexible ringed tunnel that linked the grubby ship from another planet with the upper air. [6] He looked out across the heaving waters of the Sound toward Connecticut. [7] He stared appraisingly around at the luxuriant green growth of foliage further inland; and started toward the little stretch of trees and brush, walking carefully because of the lesser gravitation. [8] Thig was shorter than the average Earthman—although on Ortha he was well above the average in height—but his body was thick and powerfully muscled. [9] His skull was well-shaped and large; his features were regular, perhaps a trifle oversize, and his hair and eyes were a curiously matching blend of reddish brown. [10] Oddest of all, he wore no garments, other than the necessary belt and straps to support his rod-like weapon of white metal and his pouches for food and specimens. [11] The Orthan entered the narrow strip of trees and crossed to the little-used highway on the other side. [12] Here he patiently sat down to wait for an Earthman or an Earthwoman to pass. [13] His task now was to bring a native, intact if possible, back to the carefully buried space cruiser where his two fellows and himself would drain the creature's mentality of all its knowledge. [14] In this way they could learn whether a planet was suited for colonization by later swarms of Orthans. [15] Already they had charted over a hundred celestial bodies but of them all only three had proven worthy of consideration. [16] This latest planet, however, 72-P-3 on the chart, appeared to be an ideal world in every respect. [17] Sunlight, plenty of water and a dense atmospheric envelope made of 72-P-3 a paradise among planets. [18] The explorer from another world crouched into the concealment of a leafy shrub. [19] A creature was approaching. [20] Its squat body was covered with baggy strips of bluish cloth and it carried a jointed rod of metal and wood in its paw. [21] It walked upright as did the men of Ortha. [22] Thig's cold eyes opened a trifle wider as he stared into the thing's stupid face. [23] It was as though he was looking into a bit of polished metal at the reflection of himself! [24] The Earthman was opposite now and he must waste no more precious time. [25] The mighty muscles of the Orthan sent him hurtling across the intervening space in two prodigious bounds, and his hands clamped across the mouth and neck of the stranger.... Lewis Terry was going fishing. [26] For a week the typewriter mill that had ground out a thousand assorted yarns of the untamed West and the frigid desolation of the Northwoods had been silent. [27] Lewis wondered if he was going stale. [28] He had sat every day for eight hours in front of that shiny-buttoned bane of the typist, but there were no results. [29] Feebly he had punched a key two days ago and a $ sign had appeared. [30] He hadn't dared touch the machine since. [31] For Mr. Terry, that hard-hitting writer of two-gun action, had never been further west of Long Island than Elizabeth, and he had promised his wife, Ellen, that he would take the three children and herself on a trailer tour of the West that very summer. [32] Since that promise, he could not write a word. [33] Visions of whooping red-skinned Apaches and be-chapped outlaws raiding his little trailer home kept rolling up out of his subconscious. [34] Yet he had to write at least three novelets and a fistful of short stories in the next two weeks to finance the great adventure—or the trip was off. [35] So Lewis left the weathered old cottage in the early dawn and headed for his tubby old boat at the landing in an attempt to work out a salable yarn.... [36] "Hey!" [37] he shouted as a naked man sprang out of the bushes beside the road. [38] "What's the trouble?" [39] Then he had no time for further speech, the massive arms of the stranger had wound around him and two hamlike hands shut off his speech and his wind. [40] He fought futilely against trained muscles. [41] The hand clamping his throat relaxed for a moment and hacked along the side of his head. [42] Blackness flooded the brain of Lewis, and he knew no more. [43] "There it is," announced Thig, dropping the limp body of the captured Earthman to the metal deck-plates. [44] "It is a male of the species that must have built the cities we saw as we landed." [45] "He resembles Thig," announced Kam. [46] "But for the strange covering he wears he might be Thig." [47] "Thig will be this creature!" [48] announced Torp. [49] "With a psychic relay we will transfer the Earthman's memories and meager store of knowledge to the brain of Thig! [50] He can then go out and scout this world without arousing suspicion. [51] While he is gone, I will take Kam and explore the two inner planets." [52] "You are the commander," said Thig. [53] "But I wish this beast did not wear these clumsy sheathing upon his body. [54] On Ortha we do not hamper the use of our limbs so." [55] "Do not question the word of your commander," growled Torp, swelling out his thick chest menacingly. [56] "It is for the good of our people that you disguise yourself as an Earthman." [57] "For the good of the Horde," Thig intoned almost piously as he lifted Terry's body and headed for the laboratory. [58] Service for the Horde was all that the men of Ortha knew. [59] Carefully cultured and brought to life in the laboratories of their Horde, they knew neither father nor mother. [60] Affection and love were entirely lacking in their early training and later life. [61] They were trained antlike from childhood that only the growth and power of the Horde were of any moment. [62] Men and women alike toiled and died like unfeeling robots of flesh and bone for the Horde. [63] The Horde was their religion, their love-life, their everything! [64] So it was that the bodies of the Earthman and the Orthan were strapped on two parallel tables of chill metal and the twin helmets, linked to one another by the intricacies of the psychic relay, put upon their heads. [65] For ten hours or more the droning hum of the relay sucked Terry's brain dry of knowledge. [66] The shock upon the nervous system of the Earthman proved too violent and his heart faltered after a time and stopped completely. [67] Twice, with subtle drugs they restored pseudo-life to his body and kept the electrical impulses throbbing from his tortured brain, but after the third suspension of life Thig removed his helmet. [68] "There is nothing more to learn," he informed his impassive comrades. [69] "Now, let us get on with the plastic surgery that is required. [70] My new body must return to its barbaric household before undue attention is aroused. [71] And when I return I will take along some of the gleaming baubles we found on the red planet—these people value them highly." [72] An hour later, his scars and altered cartilage already healed and painless, Thig again scraped sand over the entrance to the space ship and set out along the moonlit beach toward the nearest path running inland to his home. [73] Memory was laying the country bare about him, Terry's own childhood memories of this particular section of Long Island. [74] Here was the place where Jake and Ted had helped him dig for the buried treasure that old 'Notch-ear' Beggs had told them so exactly about. [75] Remembrance of that episode gave Thig an idea about the little lump of jewels in his pocket. [76] He had found them in a chest along the beach! [77] He was coming up on the porch now and at the sound of his foot on the sagging boards the screen door burst open and three little Earth-creatures were hugging at his legs. [78] An odd sensation, that his acquired memories labeled as pleasure, sent a warm glow upward from around his heart. [79] Then he saw the slender red-haired shape of a woman, the mate of the dead man he knew, and confusion struck his well-trained brain. [80] Men had no mates on Ortha, sex had been overthrown with all the other primitive impulses of barbarism; so he was incapable of understanding the emotions that swept through his acquired memory. [81] Unsteadily he took her in his arms and felt her warm lips pressed, trembling, against his own. [82] That same hot wave of pulsing blood choked achingly up into his throat. [83] "Lew, dear," Ellen was asking, "where have you been all day? [84] I called up at the landing but you were not there. [85] I wanted to let you know that Saddlebag Publications sent a check for $50 for "Reversed Revolvers" and three other editors asked for shorts soon." [86] "Shoulda got a hundred bucks for that yarn," grunted Thig, and gasped. [87] For the moment he had been Lewis Terry and not Thig! [88] So thoroughly had he acquired the knowledge of Terry that he found himself unconsciously adopting the thinking and mannerism of the other. [89] All the better this way, he realized—more natural. [90] "Sorry I was late," he said, digging into his pocket for the glittering baubles, "but I was poking around on the beach where we used to hunt treasure and I found an old chest. [91] Inside it I found nothing but a handful of these." [92] He flashed the jewels in front of Ellen's startled eyes and she clung, unbelieving, to his arm. [93] "Why, Lew," she gasped, "they're worth a fortune! [94] We can buy that new trailer now and have a rebuilt motor in the car. [95] We can go west right away.... Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, cowboys!" [96] "Uh huh," agreed the pseudo Lewis, memories of the ferocious savages and gunmen of his stories rendering him acutely unhappy. [97] Sincerely he hoped that the west had reformed. [98] "I saved some kraut and weiners," Ellen said. [99] "Get washed up while I'm warming them up. [100] Kids ate all the bread so I had to borrow some from the Eskoes. [101] Want coffee, too?" [102] "Mmmmmm," came from the depths of the chipped white wash-basin. [103] "Home again," whispered Ellen as she stood beside Thig twelve weeks later and gazed tearfully at the weathered little gray house. [104] She knelt beside the front stoop and reached for the key hidden beneath it. [105] "The west was wonderful; tremendous, vast and beautiful," she went on as they climbed the steps, "but nowhere was there any place as beautiful as our own little strip of sky and water." [106] Thig sank into a dusty old swing that hung on creaking chains from the exposed rafters of the porch roof. [107] He looked down at the dusty gray car and the bulbous silvery bulk of the trailer that had been their living quarters for almost three months. [108] Strange thoughts were afloat in the chaos of his cool Orthan brain. [109] Tonight or tomorrow night at the latest he must contact his two fellows and report that Earth was a planetary paradise. [110] No other world, including Ortha, was so well-favored and rich. [111] An expeditionary force to wipe the grotesque civilizations of Earth out of existence would, of course, be necessary before the first units of new Hordes could be landed. [112] And there Thig balked. [113] Why must they destroy these people, imperfect though their civilization might be, to make room for the Hordes? [114] Thig tried to tell himself that it was the transmitted thoughts of the dead Earthman that made him feel so, but he was not too sure. [115] For three months he had lived with people who loved, hated, wept and sacrificed for reasons that he had never known existed. [116] He had learned the heady glory of thinking for himself and making his own decisions. [117] He had experienced the primitive joy of matching his wits and tongue against the wits of other unpredictable human beings. [118] There was no abrupt division of men and women into definite classes of endeavor. [119] A laborer thought the same thoughts that a governor might think. [120] Uncertainty added zest to every day's life. [121] The Orthan had come to question the sole devotion of the individual to the Horde to the exclusion of all other interests. [122] What, he wondered, would one new world—or a hundred—populated by the Hordes add to the progress of humanity? [123] For a hundred thousand years the Orthan civilization had remained static, its energies directed into certain well-defined channels. [124] They were mindless bees maintaining their vast mechanical hives. [125] There was that moment on the brink of the Grand Canyon when Ellen had caught his arm breathlessly at all the beauty spread away there beneath them. [126] There were mornings in the desert when the sun painted in lurid red the peaks above the harsh black-and-whites of the sagebrush and cactus slopes. [127] There was the little boy, his body burning with fever, who nestled trustingly against his tense man's body and slept—the son of Ellen and the man he had destroyed. [128] Thig groaned. [129] He was a weakling to let sentimentality so get the better of his judgment. [130] He would go now to the space ship and urge them to blast off for Ortha. [131] He sprang off the porch and strode away down the road toward the beach. [132] The children ran to him; wanted to go along. [133] He sent them away harshly but they smiled and waved their brown little hands. [134] Ellen came to the door and called after him. [135] "Hurry home, dear," she said. [136] "I'll have a bite ready in about an hour." [137] He dared not say anything, for his voice would have broken and she would have known something was wrong. [138] She was a very wise sort of person when something was troubling him. [139] He waved his stubby paw of a hand to show that he had heard, and blindly hurried toward the Sound. [140] Oddly enough, as he hurried away along the narrow path through the autumn woods, his mind busied itself with a new epic of the west that lived no longer. [141] He mentally titled it: "Rustlers' Riot" and blocked in the outlines of his plot. [142] One section of his brain was that of the careless author of gunslinging yarns, a section that seemed to be sapping the life from his own brain. [143] He knew that the story would never be written, but he toyed with the idea. [144] So far had Thig the emotionless, robot-being from Ortha drifted from the unquestioning worship of the Horde! [145] "You have done well," announced Torp when Thig had completed his report on the resources and temperatures of various sections of Terra. [146] "We now have located three worlds fit for colonization and so we will return to Ortha at once. [147] "I will recommend the conquest of this planet, 72-P-3 at once and the complete destruction of all biped life upon it. [148] The mental aberrations of the barbaric natives might lead to endless complications if they were permitted to exist outside our ordered way of life. [149] I imagine that three circuits of the planet about its primary should prove sufficient for the purposes of complete liquidation." [150] "But why," asked Thig slowly, "could we not disarm all the natives and exile them on one of the less desirable continents, Antarctica for example or Siberia? [151] They are primitive humans even as our race was once a race of primitives. [152] It is not our duty to help to attain our own degree of knowledge and comfort?" [153] "Only the good of the Horde matters!" [154] shouted Torp angrily. [155] "Shall a race of feeble-witted beasts, such as these Earthmen, stand in the way of a superior race? [156] We want their world, and so we will take it. [157] The Law of the Horde states that all the universe is ours for the taking." [158] "Let us get back to Ortha at once, then," gritted out Thig savagely. [159] "Never again do I wish to set foot upon the soil of this mad planet. [160] There are forces at work upon Earth that we of Ortha have long forgotten." [161] "Check the blood of Thig for disease, Kam," ordered Torp shortly. [162] "His words are highly irrational. [163] Some form of fever perhaps native to this world. [164] While you examine him I will blast off for Ortha." [165] Thig followed Kam into the tiny laboratory and found a seat beside the squat scientist's desk. [166] His eyes roamed over the familiar instruments and gauges, each in its own precise position in the cases along the walls. [167] His gaze lingered longest on the stubby black ugliness of a decomposition blaster in its rack close to the deck. [168] A blast of the invisible radiations from that weapon's hot throat and flesh or vegetable fiber rotted into flaky ashes. [169] The ship trembled beneath their feet; it tore free from the feeble clutch of the sand about it, and they were rocketing skyward. [170] Thig's broad fingers bit deep into the unyielding metal of his chair. [171] Suddenly he knew that he must go back to Earth, back to Ellen and the children of the man he had helped destroy. [172] He loved Ellen, and nothing must stand between them! [173] The Hordes of Ortha must find some other world, an empty world—this planet was not for them. [174] "Turn back!" [175] he cried wildly. [176] "I must go back to Earth. [177] There is a woman there, helpless and alone, who needs me! [178] The Horde does not need this planet." [179] Kam eyed him coldly and lifted a shining hypodermic syringe from its case. [180] He approached Thig warily, aware that disease often made a maniac of the finest members of the Horde. [181] "No human being is more important than the Horde," he stated baldly. [182] "This woman of whom you speak is merely one unit of the millions we must eliminate for the good of the Horde." [183] Then it was that Thig went berserk. [184] His fists slashed into the thick jaw of the scientist and his fingers ripped at the hard cords overlying the Orthan's vital throat tubes. [185] His fingers and thumb gouged deep into Kam's startled throat and choked off any cry for assistance before it could be uttered. [186] Kam's hand swept down to the holster swung from his intricate harness and dragged his blaster from it. [187] Thig's other hand clamped over his and for long moments they swayed there, locked together in silent deadly struggle. [188] The fate of a world hung in the balance as Kam's other hand fought against that lone arm of Thig. [189] The scales swung in favor of Kam. [190] Slowly the flaring snout of his weapon tilted upward until it reached the level of Thig's waist. [191] Thig suddenly released his grip and dragged his enemy toward him. [192] A sudden reversal of pressure on Kam's gun hand sent the weapon swivelling about full upon its owner's thick torso. [193] Thig's fingers pressed down upon Kam's button finger, down upon the stud set into the grip of the decomposition blaster, and Kam's muscles turned to water. [194] He shrieked. [195] Before Thig's eyes half of his comrade's body sloughed away into foul corruption that swiftly gave way to hardened blobs of dessicated matter. [196] Horror for what he had done—that he had slain one of his own Horde—made his limbs move woodenly. [197] All of his thoughts were dulled for the moment. [198] Painfully slow, he turned his body around toward the control blister, turned around on leaden feet, to look full into the narrowed icy eyes of his commander. [199] He saw the heavy barrel of the blaster slashing down against his skull but he could not swing a fraction of an inch out of the way. [200] His body seemed paralyzed. [201] This was the end, he thought as he waited stupidly for the blow to fall, the end for Ellen and the kids and all the struggling races of Earth. [202] He would never write another cowboy yarn—they would all be dead anyhow soon. [203] Then a thunderclap exploded against his head and he dropped endlessly toward the deck. [204] Blows rained against his skull. [205] He wondered if Torp would ever cease to hammer at him and turn the deadly ray of the weapon upon him. [206] Blood throbbed and pounded with every blow.... Bam, Bam, Bam, the blood pounded in his ears. [207] Like repeated blows of a hammer they shook his booming head. [208] No longer was Torp above him. [209] He was in the corner of the laboratory, a crumpled blood-smeared heap of bruised flesh and bone. [210] He was unfettered and the blood was caked upon his skull and in his matted hair. [211] Torp must have thought he had killed him with those savage blows upon the head. [212] Even Torp, thought Thig ruefully, gave way to the primitive rage of his ancestors at times; but to that very bit of unconscious atavism he now owed his life. [213] A cool-headed robot of an Orthan would have efficiently used the blaster to destroy any possibility of remaining life in his unconscious body. [214] Thig rolled slowly over so that his eye found the door into the control room. [215] Torp would be coming back again to dispose of their bodies through the refuse lock. [216] Already the body of Kam was gone. [217] He wondered why he had been left until last. [218] Perhaps Torp wished to take cultures of his blood and tissues to determine whether a disease was responsible for his sudden madness. [219] The cases of fragile instruments were just above his head. [220] Association of memories brought him the flash of the heavy blaster in its rack beneath them. [221] His hand went up and felt the welcome hardness of the weapon. [222] He tugged it free. [223] In a moment he was on his knees crawling across the plates of the deck toward the door. [224] Halfway across the floor he collapsed on his face, the metal of the gun making a harsh clang. [225] He heard the feet of Torp scuffle out of silence and a choked cry in the man's throat squalled out into a senseless whinny. [226] Thig raised himself up on a quivering elbow and slid the black length of the blaster in front of him. [227] His eyes sought the doorway and stared full into the glaring vacant orbs of his commander. [228] Torp leaned there watching him, his breath gurgling brokenly through his deep-bitten lips. [229] The clawing marks of nails, fingernails, furrowed his face and chest. [230] He was a madman! [231] The deadly attack of Thig; his own violent avenging of Kam's death, and now the apparent return of the man he had killed come to life had all served to jolt his rigidly trained brain from its accustomed groove. [232] The shock had been too much for the established thought-processes of the Orthan. [233] So Thig shot him where he stood, mercifully, before that vacant mad stare set him, too, to gibbering and shrieking. [234] Then he stepped over the skeleton-thing that had been Torp, using the new strength that victory had given him to drive him along. [235] He had saved a world's civilization from extinction! [236] The thought sobered him; yet, somehow, he was pleased that he had done so. [237] After all, it had been the Earthwoman and the children he had been thinking of while he battled Kam, a selfish desire to protect them all. [238] He went to the desk where Torp had been writing in the ship's log and read the last few nervously scrawled lines: Planet 72-P-3 unfit for colonization. [239] Some pernicious disease that strikes at the brain centers and causes violent insanity is existent there. [240] Thig, just returned from a survey of the planet, went mad and destroyed Kam. [241] In turn I was forced to slay him. [242] But it is not ended. [243] Already I feel the insidious virus of.... And there his writing ended abruptly. [244] Thig nodded. [245] That would do it. [246] He set the automatic pilot for the planet Ortha. [247] Unless a rogue asteroid or a comet crossed the ship's path she would return safely to Ortha with that mute warning of danger on 72-P-3. [248] The body of Torp would help to confirm his final message. [249] Then Thig crossed the cabin to the auxiliary life boat there, one of a half-dozen space ships in miniature nested within the great ship's hull, and cut free from the mother vessel. [250] He flipped the drive lever, felt the thrumming of the rockets driving him from the parent ship. [251] The sensation of free flight against his new body was strangely exhilerating and heady. [252] It was the newest of the emotions he had experienced on Earth since that day, so many months before, when he had felt the warmness of Ellen's lips tight against his. [253] Thig flipped the drive lever, felt the thrumming of the rockets driving him from the parent ship. [254] He swung about to the port, watched the flaming drive-rockets of the great exploratory ship hurl it toward far-away Ortha, and there was no regret in his mind that he was not returning to the planet of his first existence. [255] He thought of the dull greys and blacks of his planet, of the monotonous routine of existence that had once been his—and his heart thrilled to the memories of the starry nights and perfect exciting days he had spent on his three month trip over Earth. [256] He made a brief salute to the existence he had known, turned with a tiny sigh, and his fingers made brief adjustments in the controls. [257] The rocket-thrum deepened, and the thin whistle of tenuous air clutching the ship echoed through the hull-plates. [258] He thought of many things in those few moments. [259] He watched the roundness of Earth flatten out, then take on the cup-like illusion that all planets had for an incoming ship. [260] He reduced the drive of his rockets to a mere whisper, striving to control the impatience that crowded his mind. [261] He shivered suddenly, remembering his utter callousness the first time he had sent a space ship whipping down toward the hills and valleys below. [262] And there was a sickness within him when he fully realized that, despite his acquired memory and traits, he was an alien from outer space. [263] He fingered the tiny scars that had completely obliterated the slight differences in his appearance from an Earthman's, and his fingers trembled a bit, as he bent and stared through the vision port. [264] He said a brief prayer in his heart to a God whose presence he now felt very deeply. [265] There were tears in the depths of his eyes, then, and memories were hot, bitter pains. [266] Earth was not far below him. [267] As he let gravity suck him earthward, he heaved a gasp of relief. [268] He was no longer Thig, a creature of a Horde's creation, but Lewis Terry, writer of lurid gun-smoking tales of the West. [269] He must remember that always. [270] He had destroyed the real Terry and now, for the rest of his life, he must make up to the dead man's family. [271] The knowledge that Ellen's love was not really meant for him would be a knife twisting in his heart but for her sake he must endure it. [272] Her dreams and happiness must never be shattered. [273] The bulge of Earth was flattening out now and he could see the outlines of Long Island in the growing twilight. [274] A new plot was growing in the brain of Lewis Terry, a yarn about a cowboy suddenly transported to another world. [275] He smiled ironically. [276] He had seen those other worlds. [277] Perhaps some day he would write about them.... [278] He was Lewis Terry! [279] He must remember that!

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Who is Ellen and how does she affect Thig and his choices?": 1. [83] "Lew, dear," Ellen was asking, "where have you been all day? I called up at the landing but you were not there. I wanted to let you know that Saddlebag Publications sent a check for $50 for "Reversed Revolvers" and three other editors asked for shorts soon." 2. [92] "Why, Lew," she gasped, "they're worth a fortune! We can buy that new trailer now and have a rebuilt motor in the car. We can go west right away.... Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, cowboys!" 3. [103] "There it is," announced Thig, dropping the limp body of the captured Earthman to the metal deck-plates. 4. [104] "It is a male of the species that must have built the cities we saw as we landed." 5. [105] "He resembles Thig," announced Kam. "But for the strange covering he wears he might be Thig." 6. [106] "Thig will be this creature!" announced Torp. 7. [107] "With a psychic relay we will transfer the Earthman's memories and meager store of knowledge to the brain of Thig! He can then go out and scout this world without arousing suspicion." 8. [108] "While he is gone, I will take Kam and explore the two inner planets." 9. [109] "You are the commander," said Thig. "But I wish this beast did not wear these clumsy sheathing upon his body. On Ortha we do not hamper the use of our limbs so." 10. [110] "Do not question the word of your commander," growled Torp, swelling out his thick chest menacingly. 11. [111] "It is for the good of our people that you disguise yourself as an Earthman." 12. [112] "For the good of the Horde," Thig intoned almost piously as he lifted Terry's body and headed for the laboratory. 13. [113] Service for the Horde was all that the men of Ortha knew. 14. [114] Carefully cultured and brought to life in the laboratories of their Horde, they knew neither father nor mother. 15. [115] Affection and love were entirely lacking in their early training and later life. 16. [116] They were trained antlike from childhood that only the growth and power of the Horde were of any moment. 17. [117] Men and women alike toiled and died like unfeeling robots of flesh and bone for the Horde. 18. [118] The Horde was their religion, their love-life, their everything! 19. [119] There was that moment on the brink of the Grand Canyon when Ellen had caught his arm breathlessly at all the beauty spread away there beneath them. 20. [120] There were mornings in the desert when the sun painted in lurid red the peaks above the harsh black-and-whites of the sagebrush and cactus slopes. 21. [121] There was the little boy, his body burning with fever, who nestled trustingly against his tense man's body and slept—the son of Ellen and the man he had destroyed. 22. [122] Thig groaned. He was a weakling to let sentimentality so get the better of his judgment. 23. [123] He would go now to the space ship and urge them to blast off for Ortha. 24. [124] The children ran to him; wanted to go along. He sent them away harshly but they smiled and waved their brown little hands. 25. [125] Ellen came to the door and called after him. "Hurry home, dear," she said. "I'll have a bite ready in about an hour." 26. [126] He dared not say anything, for his voice would have broken and she would have known something was wrong. She was a very wise sort of person when something was troubling him. 27. [127] He waved his stubby paw of a hand to show that he had heard, and blindly hurried toward the Sound. 28. [103-202] The rest of the context provides background information on the overall story and characters, but does not directly address the specific question about Ellen and how she affects Thig.

What is the plot of the story?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net GRIFTERS' ASTEROID By H. L. GOLD Harvey and Joe were the slickest con-men ever to gyp a space-lane sucker. [2] Or so they thought! [3] Angus Johnson knew differently. [4] He charged them five buckos for a glass of water—and got it! [5] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. [6] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [7] Characteristically, Harvey Ellsworth tried to maintain his dignity, though his parched tongue was almost hanging out. [8] But Joe Mallon, with no dignity to maintain, lurched across the rubbish-strewn patch of land that had been termed a spaceport. [9] When Harvey staggered pontifically into the battered metalloy saloon—the only one on Planetoid 42—his tall, gangling partner was already stumbling out, mouthing something incoherent. [10] They met in the doorway, violently. [11] "We're delirious!" [12] Joe cried. [13] "It's a mirage!" [14] "What is?" [15] asked Harvey through a mouthful of cotton. [16] Joe reeled aside, and Harvey saw what had upset his partner. [17] He stared, speechless for once. [18] In their hectic voyages from planet to planet, the pair of panacea purveyors had encountered the usual strange life-forms. [19] But never had they seen anything like the amazing creature in that colonial saloon. [20] Paying no attention to them, it was carrying a case of liquor in two hands, six siphons in two others, and a broom and dustpan in the remaining pair. [21] The bartender, a big man resembling the plumpish Harvey in build, was leaning negligently on the counter, ordering this impossible being to fill the partly-emptied bottles, squeeze fruit juice and sweep the floor, all of which the native did simultaneously. [22] "Nonsense," Harvey croaked uncertainly. [23] "We have seen enough queer things to know there are always more." [24] He led the way inside. [25] Through thirst-cracked lips he rasped: "Water—quick!" [26] Without a word, the bartender reached under the counter, brought out two glasses of water. [27] The interplanetary con-men drank noisily, asked for more, until they had drunk eight glasses. [28] Meanwhile, the bartender had taken out eight jiggers and filled them with whiskey. [29] Harvey and Joe were breathing hard from having gulped the water so fast, but they were beginning to revive. [30] They noticed the bartender's impersonal eyes studying them shrewdly. [31] "Strangers, eh?" [32] he asked at last. [33] "Solar salesmen, my colonial friend," Harvey answered in his usual lush manner. [34] "We purvey that renowned Martian remedy, La-anago Yergis , the formula for which was recently discovered by ourselves in the ancient ruined city of La-anago. [35] Medical science is unanimous in proclaiming this magic medicine the sole panacea in the entire history of therapeutics." [36] "Yeah?" [37] said the bartender disinterestedly, polishing the chaser glasses without washing them. [38] "Where you heading?" [39] "Out of Mars for Ganymede. [40] Our condenser broke down, and we've gone without water for five ghastly days." [41] "Got a mechanic around this dumping ground you call a port?" [42] Joe asked. [43] "We did. [44] He came near starving and moved on to Titan. [45] Ships don't land here unless they're in trouble." [46] "Then where's the water lead-in? [47] We'll fill up and push off." [48] "Mayor takes care of that," replied the saloon owner. [49] "If you gents're finished at the bar, your drinks'll be forty buckos." [50] Harvey grinned puzzledly. [51] "We didn't take any whiskey." [52] "Might as well. [53] Water's five buckos a glass. [54] Liquor's free with every chaser." [55] Harvey's eyes bulged. [56] Joe gulped. [57] "That—that's robbery!" [58] the lanky man managed to get out in a thin quaver. [59] The barkeeper shrugged. [60] "When there ain't many customers, you gotta make more on each one. [61] Besides—" "Besides nothing!" [62] Joe roared, finding his voice again. [63] "You dirty crook—robbing poor spacemen! [64] You—" "You dirty crook!" [65] Joe roared. [66] "Robbing honest spacemen!" [67] Harvey nudged him warningly. [68] "Easy, my boy, easy." [69] He turned to the bartender apologetically. [70] "Don't mind my friend. [71] His adrenal glands are sometimes overactive. [72] You were going to say—?" [73] The round face of the barkeeper had assumed an aggrieved expression. [74] "Folks are always thinkin' the other feller's out to do 'em," he said, shaking his head. [75] "Lemme explain about the water here. [76] It's bitter as some kinds of sin before it's purified. [77] Have to bring it in with buckets and make it sweet. [78] That takes time and labor. [79] Waddya think—I was chargin' feller critters for water just out of devilment? [80] I charge because I gotta." [81] "Friend," said Harvey, taking out a wallet and counting off eight five-bucko bills, "here is your money. [82] What's fair is fair, and you have put a different complexion on what seemed at first to be an unconscionable interjection of a middleman between Nature and man's thirst." [83] The saloon man removed his dirty apron and came around the bar. [84] "If that's an apology, I accept it. [85] Now the mayor'll discuss filling your tanks. [86] That's me. [87] I'm also justice of the peace, official recorder, fire chief...." "And chief of police, no doubt," said Harvey jocosely. [88] "Nope. [89] That's my son, Jed. [90] Angus Johnson's my name. [91] Folks here just call me Chief. [92] I run this town, and run it right. [93] How much water will you need?" [94] Joe estimated quickly. [95] "About seventy-five liters, if we go on half rations," he answered. [96] He waited apprehensively. [97] "Let's say ten buckos a liter," the mayor said. [98] "On account of the quantity, I'm able to quote a bargain price. [99] Shucks, boys, it hurts me more to charge for water than it does for you to pay. [100] I just got to, that's all." [101] The mayor gestured to the native, who shuffled out to the tanks with them. [102] The planetoid man worked the pump while the mayor intently watched the crude level-gauge, crying "Stop!" [103] when it registered the proper amount. [104] Then Johnson rubbed his thumb on his index finger and wetted his lips expectantly. [105] Harvey bravely counted off the bills. [106] He asked: "But what are we to do about replenishing our battery fluid? [107] Ten buckos a liter would be preposterous. [108] We simply can't afford it." [109] Johnson's response almost floored them. [110] "Who said anything about charging you for battery water? [111] You can have all you want for nothing. [112] It's just the purified stuff that comes so high." [113] After giving them directions that would take them to the free-water pool, the ponderous factotum of Planetoid 42 shook hands and headed back to the saloon. [114] His six-armed assistant followed him inside. [115] "Now do you see, my hot-tempered colleague?" [116] said Harvey as he and Joe picked up buckets that hung on the tank. [117] "Johnson, as I saw instantly, is the victim of a difficult environment, and must charge accordingly." [118] "Just the same," Joe griped, "paying for water isn't something you can get used to in ten minutes." [119] In the fragile forest, they soon came across a stream that sprang from the igneous soil and splashed into the small pond whose contents, according to the mayor, was theirs for the asking. [120] They filled their buckets and hauled them to the ship, then returned for more. [121] It was on the sixth trip that Joe caught a glimpse of Jupiter-shine on a bright surface off to the left. [122] The figure, 750, with the bucko sign in front of it, was still doing acrobatics inside his skull and keeping a faint suspicion alive in him. [123] So he called Harvey and they went to investigate. [124] Among the skimpy ground-crawling vines, they saw a long slender mound that was unmistakably a buried pipe. [125] "What's this doing here?" [126] Harvey asked, puzzled. [127] "I thought Johnson had to transport water in pails." [128] "Wonder where it leads to," Joe said uneasily. [129] "It leads to the saloon," said Harvey, his eyes rapidly tracing the pipe back toward the spaceport. [130] "What I am concerned with is where it leads from ." [131] Five minutes later, panting heavily from the unaccustomed exertion of scrambling through the tangle of planetorial undergrowth, they burst into the open—before a clear, sparkling pool. [132] Mutely, Harvey pointed out a pipe-end jutting under the water. [133] "I am growing suspicious," he said in a rigidly controlled voice. [134] But Joe was already on his knees, scooping up a handful of water and tasting it. [135] "Sweet!" [136] he snarled. [137] They rushed back to the first pool, where Joe again tasted a sample. [138] His mouth went wry. [139] "Bitter! [140] He uses only one pool, the sweet one! [141] The only thing that needs purifying around here is that blasted mayor's conscience." [142] "The asteroidal Poobah has tricked us with a slick come-on," said Harvey slowly. [143] His eyes grew cold. [144] "Joseph, the good-natured artist in me has become a hard and merciless avenger. [145] I shall not rest until we have had the best of this colonial con-man! [146] Watch your cues from this point hence." [147] Fists clenched, the two returned to the saloon. [148] But at the door they stopped and their fists unclenched. [149] "Thought you gents were leaving," the mayor called out, seeing them frozen in the doorway. [150] "Glad you didn't. [151] Now you can meet my son, Jed. [152] Him and me are the whole Earthman population of Johnson City." [153] "You don't need any more," said Harvey, dismayed. [154] Johnson's eight-foot son, topped by a massive roof of sun-bleached hair and held up by a foundation that seemed immovable, had obviously been born and raised in low gravity. [155] For any decent-sized world would have kept him down near the general dimensions of a man. [156] He held out an acre of palm. [157] Harvey studied it worriedly, put his own hand somewhere on it, swallowed as it closed, then breathed again when his fingers were released in five units instead of a single compressed one. [158] "Pleased to meet you," piped a voice that had never known a dense atmosphere. [159] The pursuit of vengeance, Harvey realized, had taken a quick and unpleasant turn. [160] Something shrewd was called for.... [161] "Joseph!" [162] he exclaimed, looking at his partner in alarm. [163] "Don't you feel well?" [164] Even before the others could turn to him, Joe's practiced eyes were gently crossing. [165] He sagged against the door frame, all his features drooping like a bloodhound's. [166] "Bring him in here!" [167] Johnson cried. [168] "I mean, get him away! [169] He's coming down with asteroid fever!" [170] "Of course," replied Harvey calmly. [171] "Any fool knows the first symptoms of the disease that once scourged the universe." [172] "What do you mean, once ?" [173] demanded Johnson. [174] "I come down with it every year, and I ain't hankering to have it in an off-season. [175] Get him out of here!" [176] "In good time. [177] He can't be moved immediately." [178] "Then he'll be here for months!" [179] Harvey helped Joe to the counter and lifted him up on it. [180] The mayor and his gigantic offspring were cowering across the room, trying to breathe in tiny, uncontaminating gasps. [181] "You'll find everything you want in the back room," Johnson said frantically, "sulfopyridine, mustard plasters, rubs, inhalers, suction cups—" "Relics of the past," Harvey stated. [182] "One medication is all modern man requires to combat the dread menace, asteroid fever." [183] "What's that?" [184] asked the mayor without conviction. [185] Instead of replying, Harvey hurried outside to the ungainly second-hand rocket ship in the center of the shabby spaceport. [186] He returned within a few minutes, carrying a bottle. [187] Joe was still stretched out on the bar, panting, his eyes slowly crossing and uncrossing. [188] Harvey lifted the patient's head tenderly, put the bottle to his lips and tilted it until he was forced to drink. [189] When Joe tried to pull away, Harvey was inexorable. [190] He made his partner drink until most of the liquid was gone. [191] Then he stepped back and waited for the inevitable result. [192] Joe's performance was better than ever. [193] He lay supine for several moments, his face twisted into an expression that seemed doomed to perpetual wryness. [194] Slowly, however, he sat up and his features straightened out. [195] "Are—are you all right?" [196] asked the mayor anxiously. [197] "Much better," said Joe in a weak voice. [198] "Maybe you need another dose," Harvey suggested. [199] Joe recoiled. [200] "I'm fine now!" [201] he cried, and sprang off the bar to prove it. [202] Astonished, Johnson and his son drew closer. [203] They searched Joe's face, and then the mayor timidly felt his pulse. [204] "Well, I'll be hanged!" [205] Johnson ejaculated. " [206] La-anago Yergis never fails, my friend," Harvey explained. [207] "By actual test, it conquers asteroid fever in from four to twenty-three minutes, depending on the severity of the attack. [208] Luckily, we caught this one before it grew formidable." [209] The mayor's eyes became clouded mirrors of an inward conflict. [210] "If you don't charge too much," he said warily, "I might think of buying some." [211] "We do not sell this unbelievable remedy," Harvey replied with dignity. [212] "It sells itself." [213] "'Course, I'd expect a considerable reduction if I bought a whole case," said Johnson. [214] "That would be the smallest investment you could make, compared with the vast loss of time and strength the fever involves." [215] "How much?" [216] asked the mayor unhappily. [217] "For you, since you have taken us in so hospitably, a mere five hundred buckos." [218] Johnson did not actually stagger back, but he gave the impression of doing so. [219] "F-four hundred," he offered. [220] "Not a red cent less than four seventy-five," Harvey said flatly. [221] "Make it four fifty," quavered Johnson. [222] "I dislike haggling," said Harvey. [223] The final price, however, was four hundred and sixty-nine buckos and fifty redsents. [224] Magnanimously, Harvey added: "And we will include, gratis , an elegant bottle-opener, a superb product of Mercurian handicraftsmanship." [225] Johnson stabbed out a warning finger. [226] "No tricks now. [227] I want a taste of that stuff. [228] You're not switching some worthless junk on me." [229] Harvey took a glass from the bar and poured him a generous sample. [230] The mayor sniffed it, grimaced, then threw it down his gullet. [231] The ensuing minute saw a grim battle between a man and his stomach, a battle which the man gradually won. [232] "There ain't no words for that taste," he gulped when it was safe to talk again. [233] "Medicine," Harvey propounded, "should taste like medicine." [234] To Joe he said: "Come, my esteemed colleague. [235] We must perform the sacred task to which we have dedicated ourselves." [236] With Joe stumbling along behind, he left the saloon, crossed the clearing and entered the ship. [237] As soon as they were inside, Joe dropped his murderous silence and cried: "What kind of a dirty trick was that, giving me poison instead of that snake oil?" [238] "That was not poison," Harvey contradicted quietly. [239] "It was La-anago Yergis extract, plus." [240] "Plus what—arsenic?" [241] "Now, Joseph! [242] Consider my quandary when I came back here to manufacture our specific for all known ailments, with the intention of selling yonder asteroidal tin-horn a bill of medical goods—an entire case, mind you. [243] Was I to mix the extract with the water for which we had been swindled to the tune of ten buckos a liter? [244] Where would our profit have been, then? [245] No; I had to use the bitter free water, of course." [246] "But why use it on me?" [247] Joe demanded furiously. [248] Harvey looked reprovingly at his gangling partner. [249] "Did Johnson ask to taste it, or did he not? [250] One must look ahead, Joseph. [251] I had to produce the same medicine that we will now manufacture. [252] Thus, you were a guinea pig for a splendid cause." [253] "Okay, okay," Joe said. [254] "But you shoulda charged him more." [255] "Joseph, I promise you that we shall get back every redsent of which that swindler cheated us, besides whatever other funds or valuables he possesses. [256] We could not be content with less." [257] "Well, we're starting all right," admitted Joe. [258] "How about that thing with six arms? [259] He looks like a valuable. [260] Can't we grab him off?" [261] Harvey stopped filling bottles and looked up pensively. [262] "I have every hope of luring away the profitable monstrosity. [263] Apparently you have also surmised the fortune we could make with him. [264] At first I purpose to exhibit him on our interplanetary tours with our streamlined panacea; he would be a spectacular attraction for bucolic suckers. [265] Later, a brief period of demonstrating his abilities on the audio-visiphone. [266] Then our triumph—we shall sell him at a stupendous figure to the zoo!" [267] Joe was still dazed by that monetary vista when he and Harvey carried the case of medicine to the saloon. [268] The mayor had already cleared a place of honor in the cluttered back room, where he told them to put it down carefully. [269] Then he took the elaborate bottle-opener Harvey gave him, reverently uncorked a bottle and sampled it. [270] It must have been at least as good as the first; he gagged. [271] "That's the stuff, all right," he said, swallowing hard. [272] He counted out the money into Harvey's hand, at a moderate rate that precariously balanced between his pleasure at getting the fever remedy and his pain at paying for it. [273] Then he glanced out to see the position of Jupiter, and asked: "You gents eaten yet? [274] The restaurant's open now." [275] Harvey and Joe looked at each other. [276] They hadn't been thinking about food at all, but suddenly they realized that they were hungry. [277] "It's only water we were short of," Harvey said apprehensively. [278] "We've got rations back at the ship." [279] " H-mph! " [280] the mayor grunted. [281] "Powdered concentrates. [282] Compressed pap. [283] Suit yourselves. [284] We treat our stomachs better here. [285] And you're welcome to our hospitality." [286] "Your hospitality," said Harvey, "depends on the prices you charge." [287] "Well, if that's what's worrying you, you can stop worrying," answered the mayor promptly. [288] "What's more, the kind of dinner I serve here you can't get anywhere else for any price." [289] Swiftly, Harvey conned the possibilities of being bilked again. [290] He saw none. [291] "Let's take a look at the menu, anyhow, Joe," he said guardedly. [292] Johnson immediately fell into the role of "mine host." [293] "Come right in, gents," he invited. [294] "Right into the dining room." [295] He seated them at a table, which a rope tied between posts made more or less private, though nobody else was in the saloon and there was little chance of company. [296] Genius, the six-armed native, appeared from the dingy kitchen with two menus in one hand, two glasses of water in another, plus napkins, silverware, a pitcher, plates, saucers, cups, and their cocktails, which were on the house. [297] Then he stood by for orders. [298] Harvey and Joe studied the menu critically. [299] The prices were phenomenally low. [300] When they glanced up at Johnson in perplexity, he grinned, bowed and asked: "Everything satisfactory, gents?" [301] "Quite," said Harvey. [302] "We shall order." [303] For an hour they were served amazing dishes, both fresh and canned, the culinary wealth of this planetoid and all the system. [304] And the service was as extraordinary as the meal itself. [305] With four hands, Genius played deftly upon a pair of mellow Venusian viotars , using his other two hands for waiting on the table. [306] "We absolutely must purchase this incredible specimen," Harvey whispered excitedly when Johnson and the native were both in the kitchen, attending to the next course. [307] "He would make any society hostess's season a riotous success, which should be worth a great sum to women like Mrs. van Schuyler-Morgan, merely for his hire." [308] "Think of a fast one fast," Joe agreed. [309] "You're right." [310] "But I dislike having to revise my opinion of a man so often," complained Harvey. [311] "I wish Johnson would stay either swindler or honest merchant. [312] This dinner is worth as least twenty buckos, yet I estimate our check at a mere bucko twenty redsents." [313] The mayor's appearance prevented them from continuing the discussion. [314] "It's been a great honor, gents," he said. [315] "Ain't often I have visitors, and I like the best, like you two gents." [316] As if on cue, Genius came out and put the check down between Joe and Harvey. [317] Harvey picked it up negligently, but his casual air vanished in a yelp of horror. [318] "What the devil is this?" [319] he shouted.—"How do you arrive at this fantastic, idiotic figure— three hundred and twenty-eight buckos !" [320] Johnson didn't answer. [321] Neither did Genius; he simply put on the table, not a fingerbowl, but a magnifying glass. [322] With one of his thirty fingers he pointed politely to the bottom of the menu. [323] Harvey focused on the microscopic print, and his face went pasty with rage. [324] The minute note read: "Services and entertainment, 327 buckos 80 redsents." [325] "You can go to hell!" [326] Joe growled. [327] "We won't pay it!" [328] Johnson sighed ponderously. [329] "I was afraid you'd act like that," he said with regret. [330] He pulled a tin badge out of his rear pocket, pinned it on his vest, and twisted his holstered gun into view. [331] "Afraid I'll have to ask the sheriff to take over." [332] Johnson, the "sheriff," collected the money, and Johnson, the "restaurateur," pocketed it. [333] Meanwhile, Harvey tipped Joe the sign to remain calm. [334] "My friend," he said to the mayor, and his tones took on a schoolmasterish severity, "your long absence from Earth has perhaps made you forget those elements of human wisdom that have entered the folk-lore of your native planet. [335] Such as, for example: 'It is folly to kill a goose that lays golden eggs,' and 'Penny wise is pound foolish.'" [336] "I don't get the connection," objected Johnson. [337] "Well, by obliging us to pay such a high price for your dinner, you put out of your reach the chance of profiting from a really substantial deal. [338] My partner and I were prepared to make you a sizable offer for the peculiar creature you call Genius. [339] But by reducing our funds the way you have—" "Who said I wanted to sell him?" [340] the mayor interrupted. [341] He rubbed his fingers together and asked disinterestedly: "What were you going to offer, anyhow?" [342] "It doesn't matter any longer," Harvey said with elaborate carelessness. [343] "Perhaps you wouldn't have accepted it, anyway." [344] "That's right," Johnson came back emphatically. [345] "But what would your offer have been which I would have turned down?" [346] "Which one? [347] The one we were going to make, or the one we can make now?" [348] "Either one. [349] It don't make no difference. [350] Genius is too valuable to sell." [351] "Oh, come now, Mr. Johnson. [352] Don't tell me no amount of money would tempt you!" [353] "Nope. [354] But how much did you say?" [355] "Ah, then you will consider releasing Genius!" [356] "Well, I'll tell you something," said the mayor confidentially. [357] "When you've got one thing, you've got one thing. [358] But when you've got money, it's the same as having a lot of things. [359] Because, if you've got money, you can buy this and that and this and that and—" "This and that," concluded Joe. [360] "We'll give you five hundred buckos." [361] "Now, gents!" [362] Johnson remonstrated. [363] "Why, six hundred would hardly—" "You haven't left us much money," Harvey put in. [364] The mayor frowned. [365] "All right, we'll split the difference. [366] Make it five-fifty." [367] Harvey was quick to pay out, for this was a genuine windfall. [368] Then he stood up and admired the astonishing possession he had so inexpensively acquired. [369] "I really hate to deprive you of this unique creature," he said to Johnson. [370] "I should imagine you will be rather lonely, with only your filial mammoth to keep you company." [371] "I sure will," Johnson confessed glumly. [372] "I got pretty attached to Genius, and I'm going to miss him something awful." [373] Harvey forcibly removed his eyes from the native, who was clearing off the table almost all at once. [374] "My friend," he said, "we take your only solace, it is true, but in his place we can offer something no less amazing and instructive." [375] The mayor's hand went protectively to his pocket. [376] "What is it?" [377] he asked with the suspicion of a man who has seen human nature at its worst and expects nothing better. [378] "Joseph, get our most prized belonging from the communications room of the ship," Harvey instructed. [379] To Johnson he explained: "You must see the wondrous instrument before its value can be appreciated. [380] My partner will soon have it here for your astonishment." [381] Joe's face grew as glum as Johnson's had been. [382] "Aw, Harv," he protested, "do we have to sell it? [383] And right when I thought we were getting the key!" [384] "We must not be selfish, my boy," Harvey said nobly. [385] "We have had our chance; now we must relinquish Fate to the hands of a man who might have more success than we. [386] Go, Joseph. [387] Bring it here." [388] Unwillingly, Joe turned and shuffled out. [389] On a larger and heavier world than Planetoid 42, Johnson's curiosity would probably have had weight and mass. [390] He was bursting with questions, but he was obviously afraid they would cost him money. [391] For his part, Harvey allowed that curiosity to grow like a Venusian amoeba until Joe came in, lugging a radio. [392] "Is that what you were talking about?" [393] the mayor snorted. [394] "What makes you think I want a radio? [395] I came here to get away from singers and political speech-makers." [396] "Do not jump to hasty conclusions," Harvey cautioned. [397] "Another word, and I shall refuse you the greatest opportunity any man has ever had, with the sole exceptions of Joseph, myself and the unfortunate inventor of this absolutely awe-inspiring device." [398] "I ain't in the market for a radio," Johnson said stubbornly. [399] Harvey nodded in relief. [400] "We have attempted to repay our host, Joseph. [401] He has spurned our generosity. [402] We have now the chance to continue our study, which I am positive will soon reward us with the key to an enormous fortune." [403] "Well, that's no plating off our bow," Joe grunted. [404] "I'm glad he did turn it down. [405] I hated to give it up after working on it for three whole years." [406] He picked up the radio and began walking toward the door. [407] "Now, hold on!" [408] the mayor cried. [409] "I ain't saying I'll buy, but what is it I'm turning down?" [410] Joe returned and set the instrument down on the bar. [411] His face sorrowful, Harvey fondly stroked the scarred plasticoid cabinet. [412] "To make a long story, Mr. Johnson," he said, "Joseph and I were among the chosen few who knew the famous Doctor Dean intimately. [413] Just before his tragic death, you will recall, Dean allegedly went insane." [414] He banged his fist on the bar. [415] "I have said it before, and I repeat again, that was a malicious lie, spread by the doctor's enemies to discredit his greatest invention—this fourth dimensional radio!" [416] "This what?" [417] Johnson blurted out. [418] "In simple terms," clarified Harvey, "the ingenious doctor discovered that the yawning chasm between the dimensions could be bridged by energy of all quanta. [419] There has never been any question that the inhabitants of the super-dimension would be far more civilized than ourselves. [420] Consequently, the man who could tap their knowledge would find himself in possession of a powerful, undreamt-of science!" [421] The mayor looked respectfully at the silent box on the bar. [422] "And this thing gets broadcasts from the fourth dimension?" [423] "It does, Mr. Johnson! [424] Only charlatans like those who envied Doctor Dean's magnificent accomplishments could deny that fact." [425] The mayor put his hands in his pockets, unswiveled one hip and stared thoughtfully at the battered cabinet. [426] "Well, let's say it picks up fourth dimensional broadcasts," he conceded. [427] "But how could you understand what they're saying? [428] Folks up there wouldn't talk our language." [429] Again Harvey smashed his fist down. [430] "Do you dare to repeat the scurvy lie that broke Dean's spirit and drove him to suicide?" [431] Johnson recoiled. [432] "No—no, of course not . [433] I mean, being up here, I naturally couldn't get all the details." [434] "Naturally," Harvey agreed, mollified. [435] "I'm sorry I lost my temper. [436] But it is a matter of record that the doctor proved the broadcasts emanating from the super-dimension were in English! [437] Why should that be so difficult to believe? [438] Is it impossible that at one time there was communication between the dimensions, that the super-beings admired our language and adopted it in all its beauty, adding to it their own hyper-scientific trimmings?" [439] "Why, I don't know," Johnson said in confusion. [440] "For three years, Joseph and I lost sleep and hair, trying to detect the simple key that would translate the somewhat metamorphosed broadcasts into our primitive English. [441] It eluded us. [442] Even the doctor failed. [443] But that was understandable; a sensitive soul like his could stand only so much. [444] And the combination of ridicule and failure to solve the mystery caused him to take his own life." [445] Johnson winced. [446] "Is that what you want to unload on me?" [447] "For a very good reason, sir. [448] Patience is the virtue that will be rewarded with the key to these fourth dimensional broadcasts. [449] A man who could devote his life to improving this lonely worldlet is obviously a person with unusual patience." [450] "Yeah," the mayor said grudgingly, "I ain't exactly flighty." [451] "Therefore, you are the man who could unravel the problem!" [452] Johnson asked skeptically: "How about a sample first?" [453] Harvey turned a knob on the face of the scarred radio. [454] After several squeals of spatial figures, a smooth voice began: "There are omnious pleajes of moby-hailegs in sonmirand which, howgraismon, are notch to be donfured miss ellasellabell in either or both hagasanipaj, by all means. [455] This does not refly, on the brother man, nat or mizzafil saces are denuded by this ossifaligo...." Harvey switched off the set determinedly. [456] "Wait a minute!" [457] Johnson begged. [458] "I almost got it then!" [459] "I dislike being commercial," said Harvey, "but this astounding device still belongs to us. [460] Would we not be foolish to let you discover the clue before purchasing the right to do so?" [461] The mayor nodded indecisively, looking at the radio with agonized longing. [462] "How much do you want?" [463] he asked unhappily. [464] "One thousand buckos, and no haggling. [465] I am not in the mood." [466] Johnson opened his mouth to argue; then, seeing Harvey's set features, paid with the worst possible grace. [467] "Don't you think we ought to tell him about the batteries, Harv?" [468] Joe asked. [469] "What about the batteries?" [470] demanded Johnson with deadly calm. [471] "A very small matter," Harvey said airily. [472] "You see, we have been analyzing these broadcasts for three years. [473] In that time, of course, the batteries are bound to weaken. [474] I estimate these should last not less than one Terrestrial month, at the very least." [475] "What do I do then?" [476] Harvey shrugged. [477] "Special batteries are required, which I see Joseph has by chance brought along. [478] For the batteries, the only ones of their kind left in the system, I ask only what they cost—one hundred and ninety-nine buckos, no more and, on the other hand, no less." [479] Johnson was breathing hard, and his hand hovered dangerously near his gun. [480] But he paid the amount Harvey wanted. [481] Moreover, he actually shook hands when the two panacea purveyors collected their six-armed prize and said goodbye. [482] Before they were outside, however, he had turned on the radio and was listening tensely to a woman's highly cultured, though rather angry voice, saying: "Oh, you hannaforge are all beasa-taga-sanimort. [483] If you rue amount it, how do you respench a pure woman to ansver go-samak—" "I'll get it!" [484] they heard Johnson mutter. [485] Then the sound of giant feet crossing the barroom floor reached their ears, and a shrill question: "What's that, Papa?" [486] "A fortune, Jed! [487] Those fakers are damned fools, selling us a thing like—" Joe gazed at Harvey admiringly. [488] "Another one sold? [489] Harv, that spiel pulls them in like an ether storm!" [490] Together with the remarkable planetoid man, they reached the ship. [491] Above them, dark, tumbling shapes blotted out the stars and silently moved on. [492] Joe opened the gangway door. [493] "Come on in, pal," he said to Genius. [494] "We're shoving off." [495] The planetoid man grinned foolishly. [496] "Can't go arong with you," he said with an apologetic manner. [497] "I rike to, but pressure fratten me out if I go." [498] "What in solar blazes are you talking about?" [499] Harvey asked. [500] "I grow up on pranetoid," Genius explained. [501] "On big pranet, too much pressure for me." [502] The two salesmen looked narrowly at each other. [503] "Did Johnson know that when he sold you?" [504] Joe snarled. [505] "Oh, sure." [506] The silly grin became wider than ever. [507] "Peopre from Earth buy me rots of times. [508] I never reave pranetoid, though." [509] "Joseph," Harvey said ominously, "that slick colonist has put one over upon us. [510] What is our customary procedure in that event?" [511] "We tear him apart," Joe replied between his teeth. [512] "Not Mister Johnson," advised Genius. [513] "Have gun and badge. [514] He shoot you first and then rock you up in prison." [515] Harvey paused, his ominous air vanishing. [516] "True. [517] There is also the fact, Joseph, that when he discovers the scrambled rectifier in the radio we sold him, he will have been paid back in full for his regrettable dishonesty." [518] Unwillingly, Joe agreed. [519] While Genius retreated to a safe distance, they entered the ship and blasted off. [520] Within a few minutes the automatic steering pilot had maneuvered them above the plane of the asteroid belt. [521] "I got kind of dizzy," Joe said, "there were so many deals back and forth. [522] How much did we make on the sucker?" [523] "A goodly amount, I wager," Harvey responded. [524] He took out a pencil and paper. [525] "Medicine, 469.50; radio, 1,000; batteries, 199. [526] Total—let's see—1668 buckos and 50 redsents. [527] A goodly sum, as I told you." [528] He emptied his pockets of money, spread it out on the astrogation table and began counting. [529] Finished, he looked up, troubled. [530] "How much did we have when we landed, Joseph?" [531] "Exactly 1668 buckos," Joe answered promptly. [532] "I can't understand it," said Harvey. [533] "Instead of double our capital, we now have only 1668 buckos and 50 redsents!" [534] Feverishly, he returned to his pencil and paper. [535] "Drinking water, 790; battery water, free; meal, 328; planetoid man, 550. [536] Total: 1668 buckos!" [537] He stared at the figures. [538] "We paid out almost as much as we took in," he said bitterly. [539] "Despite our intensive efforts, we made the absurd sum of fifty redsents." [540] "Why, the dirty crook!" [541] Joe growled. [542] But after a few moments of sad reflection, Harvey became philosophical. [543] "Perhaps, Joseph, we are more fortunate than we realize. [544] We were, after all, completely in Johnson's power. [545] The more I ponder, the more I believe we were lucky to escape. [546] And, anyhow, we did make fifty redsents on the swindler. [547] A moral victory, my boy." [548] Joe, who had been sunk desparingly into a chair, now stood up slowly and asked: "Remember that bottle-opener we gave him?" [549] "Certainly," Harvey explained. [550] "What about it?" [551] "How much did it cost us?" [552] Harvey's eyebrows puckered. [553] Suddenly he started laughing. [554] "You're right, Joseph. [555] We paid forty-six redsents for it on Venus. [556] So, after all that transacting of business, we made four redsents!" [557] "Four redsents, hell!" [558] Joe snapped. [559] "That was the sales tax!" [560] He glared; then a smile lifted his mouth. [561] "You remember those yokels on Mars' Flatlands, and the way they worshipped gold?" [562] " Goldbricks! " [563] Harvey said succinctly. [564] Grinning, Joe set the robot-controls for Mars.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net GRIFTERS' ASTEROID By H. L. GOLD Harvey and Joe were the slickest con-men ever to gyp a space-lane sucker. 2. [2] Or so they thought! 3. [3] Angus Johnson knew differently. 4. [4] He charged them five buckos for a glass of water—and got it! 5. [5] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. 6. [6] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 7. [7] Characteristically, Harvey Ellsworth tried to maintain his dignity, though his parched tongue was almost hanging out. 8. [8] But Joe Mallon, with no dignity to maintain, lurched across the rubbish-strewn patch of land that had been termed a spaceport. 9. [9] When Harvey staggered pontifically into the battered metalloy saloon—the only one on Planetoid 42—his tall, gangling partner was already stumbling out, mouthing something incoherent. 10. [10] They met in the doorway, violently. 11. [11] "We're delirious!" 12. [12] Joe cried. 13. [13] "It's a mirage!" 14. [14] "What is?" 15. [15] asked Harvey through a mouthful of cotton. 16. [16] Joe reeled aside, and Harvey saw what had upset his partner. 17. [17] He stared, speechless for once. 18. [18] In their hectic voyages from planet to planet, the pair of panacea purveyors had encountered the usual strange life-forms. 19. [19] But never had they seen anything like the amazing creature in that colonial saloon. 20. [20] Paying no attention to them, it was carrying a case of liquor in two hands, six siphons in two others, and a broom and dustpan in the remaining pair. 21. [21] The bartender, a big man resembling the plumpish Harvey in build, was leaning negligently on the counter, ordering this impossible being to fill the partly-emptied bottles, squeeze fruit juice and sweep the floor, all of which the native did simultaneously. 22. [22] "Nonsense," Harvey croaked uncertainly. 23. [23] "We have seen enough queer things to know there are always more." 24. [24] He led the way inside. 25. [25] Through thirst-cracked lips he rasped: "Water—quick!" 26. [26] Without a word, the bartender reached under the counter, brought out two glasses of water. 27. [27] The interplanetary con-men drank noisily, asked for more, until they had drunk eight glasses. 28. [28] Meanwhile, the bartender had taken out eight jiggers and filled them with whiskey. 29. [29] Harvey and Joe were breathing hard from having gulped the water so fast, but they were beginning to revive. 30. [30] They noticed the bartender's impersonal eyes studying them shrewdly. 31. [31] "Strangers, eh?" 32. [32] he asked at last. 33. [33] "Solar salesmen, my colonial friend," Harvey answered in his usual lush manner. 34. [34] "We purvey that renowned Martian remedy, La-anago Yergis , the formula for which was recently discovered by ourselves in the ancient ruined city of La-anago. 35. [35] Medical science is unanimous in proclaiming this magic medicine the sole panacea in the entire history of therapeutics." 36. [36] "Yeah?" 37. [37] said the bartender disinterestedly, polishing the chaser glasses without washing them. 38. [38] "Where you heading?" 39. [39] "Out of Mars for Ganymede. 40. [40] Our condenser broke down, and we've gone without water for five ghastly days." 41. [41] "Got a mechanic around this dumping ground you call a port?" 42. [42] Joe asked. 43. [43] "We did. 44. [44] He came near starving and moved on to Titan. 45. [45] Ships don't land here unless they're in trouble." 46. [46] "Then where's the water lead-in? 47. [47] We'll fill up and push off." 48. [48] "Mayor takes care of that," replied the saloon owner. 49. [49] "If you gents're finished at the bar, your drinks'll be forty buckos." 50. [50] Harvey grinned puzzledly. 51. [51] "We didn't take any whiskey." 52. [52] "Might as well. 53. [53] Water's five buckos a glass. 54. [54] Liquor's free with every chaser." 55. [55] Harvey's eyes bulged. 56. [56] Joe gulped. 57. [57] "That—that's robbery!" 58. [58] the lanky man managed to get out in a thin quaver. 59. [59] The barkeeper shrugged. 60. [60] "When there ain't many customers, you gotta make more on each one. 61. [61] Besides—" "Besides nothing!" 62. [62] Joe roared, finding his voice again. 63. [63] "You dirty crook—robbing poor spacemen! 64. [64] You—" "You dirty crook!" 65. [65] Joe roared. 66. [66] "Robbing honest spacemen!" 67. [67] Harvey nudged him warningly. 68. [68] "Easy, my boy, easy." 69. [69] He turned to the bartender apologetically. 70. [70] "Don't mind my friend. 71. [71] His adrenal glands are sometimes overactive. 72. [72] You were going to say—?" 73. [73] The round face of the barkeeper had assumed an aggrieved expression. 74. [74] "Folks are always thinkin' the other feller's out to do 'em," he said, shaking his head. 75. [75] "Lemme explain about the water here. 76. [76] It's bitter as some kinds of sin before it's purified. 77. [77] Have to bring it in with buckets and make it sweet. 78. [78] That takes time and labor. 79. [79] Waddya think—I was chargin' feller critters for water just out of devilment? 80. [80] I charge because I gotta." 81. [81] "Friend," said Harvey, taking out a wallet and counting off eight five-bucko bills, "here is your money. 82. [82] What's fair is fair, and you have put a different complexion on what seemed at first to be an unconscionable interjection of a middleman between Nature and man's thirst." 83. [83] The saloon man removed his dirty apron and came around the bar. 84. [84] "If that's an apology, I accept it. 85. [85] Now the mayor'll discuss filling your tanks. 86. [86] That's me. 87. [87] I'm also justice of the peace, official recorder, fire chief...." "And chief of police, no doubt," said Harvey jocosely. 88. [88] "Nope. 89. [89] That's my son, Jed. 90. [90] Angus Johnson's my name. 91. [91] Folks here just call me Chief." 92. [92] He ran this town, and ran it right. 93. [93] How much water will you need?" 94. [94] Joe estimated quickly. 95. [95] "About seventy-five liters, if we go on half rations," he answered. 96. [96] He waited apprehensively. 97. [97] "Let's say ten buckos a liter," the mayor said. 98. [98] "On account of the quantity, I'm able to quote a bargain price. 99. [99] Shucks, boys, it hurts me more to charge for water than it does for you to pay. 100. [100] I just got to, that's all." 101. [101] The mayor gestured to the native, who shuffled out to the tanks with them. 102. [102] The planetoid man worked the pump while the mayor intently watched the crude level-gauge, crying "Stop!" 103. [103] when it registered the proper amount. 104. [104] Then Johnson rubbed his thumb on his index finger and wetted his lips expectantly. 105. [105] Harvey bravely counted off the bills. 106. [106] He asked: "But what are we to do about replenishing our battery fluid? 107. [107] Ten buckos a liter would be preposterous. 108. [108] We simply can't afford it." 109. [109] Johnson's response almost floored them. 110. [110] "Who said anything about charging you for battery water? 111. [111] You can have all you want for nothing. 112. [112] It's just the purified stuff that comes so high." 113. [113] After giving them directions that would take them to the free-water pool, the ponderous factotum of Planetoid 42 shook hands and headed back to the saloon. 114. [114] His six-armed assistant followed him inside. 115. [115] "Now do you see, my hot-tempered colleague?" 116. [116] said Harvey as he and Joe picked up buckets that hung on the tank. 117. [117] "Johnson, as I saw instantly, is the victim of a difficult environment, and must charge accordingly." 118. [118] "Just the same," Joe griped, "paying for water isn't something you can get used to in ten minutes." 119. [119] In the fragile forest, they soon came across a stream that sprang from the igneous soil and splashed into the small pond whose contents, according to the mayor, was theirs for the asking. 120. [120] They filled their buckets and hauled them to the ship, then returned for more. 121. [121] It was on the sixth trip that Joe caught a glimpse of Jupiter-shine on a bright surface off to the left. 122. [122] The figure, 750, with the bucko sign in front of it, was still doing acrobatics inside his skull and keeping a faint suspicion alive in him. 123. [123] So he called Harvey and they went to investigate. 124. [124] Among the skimpy ground-crawling vines, they saw a long slender mound that was unmistakably a buried pipe. 125. [125] "What's this doing here?" 126. [126] Harvey asked, puzzled. 127. [127] "I thought Johnson had to transport water in pails." 128. [128] "Wonder where it leads to," Joe said uneasily. 129. [129] "It leads to the saloon," said Harvey, his eyes rapidly tracing the pipe back toward the spaceport. 130. [130] "What I am concerned with is where it leads from ." 131. [131] Five minutes later, panting heavily from the unaccustomed exertion of scrambling through the tangle of planetorial undergrowth, they burst into the open—before a clear, sparkling pool. 132. [132] Mutely, Harvey pointed out a pipe-end jutting under the water. 133. [133] "I am growing suspicious," he said in a rigidly controlled voice. 134. [134] But Joe was already on his knees, scooping up a handful of water and tasting it. 135. [135] "Sweet!" 136. [136] he snarled. 137. [137] They rushed back to the first pool, where Joe again tasted a sample. 138. [138] His mouth went wry. 139. [139] "Bitter! 140. [140] He uses only one pool, the sweet one! 141. [141] The only thing that needs purifying around here is that blasted mayor's conscience." 142. [142] "The asteroidal Poobah has tricked us with a slick come-on," said Harvey slowly. 143. [143] His eyes grew cold. 144. [144] "Joseph, the good-natured artist in me has become a hard and merciless avenger. 145. [145] I shall not rest until we have had the best of this colonial con-man! 146. [146] Watch your cues from this point hence." 147. [147] Fists clenched, the two returned to the saloon. 148. [148] But at the door they stopped and their fists unclenched. 149. [149] "Thought you gents were leaving," the mayor called out, seeing them frozen in the doorway. 150. [150] "Glad you didn't. 151. [151] Now you can meet my son, Jed. 152. [152] Him and me are the whole Earthman population of Johnson City." 153. [153] "You don't need any more," said Harvey, dismayed. 154. [154] Johnson's eight-foot son, topped by a massive roof of sun-bleached hair and held up by a foundation that seemed immovable, had obviously been born and raised in low gravity. 155. [155] For any decent-sized world would have kept him down near the general dimensions of a man. 156. [156] He held out an acre of palm. 157. [157] Harvey studied it worriedly, put his own hand somewhere on it, swallowed as it closed, then breathed again when his fingers were released in five units instead of a single compressed one. 158. [158] "Pleased to meet you," piped a voice that had never known a dense atmosphere. 159. [159] The pursuit of vengeance, Harvey realized, had taken a quick and unpleasant turn. 160. [160] Something shrewd was called for.... 161. [161] "Joseph!" 162. [162] he exclaimed, looking at his partner in alarm. 163. [163] "Don't you feel well?" 164. [164] Even before the others could turn to him, Joe's practiced eyes were gently crossing. 165. [165] He sagged against the door frame, all his features drooping like a bloodhound's. 166. [166] "Bring him in here!" 167. [167] Johnson cried. 168. [168] "I mean, get him away! 169. [169] He's coming down with asteroid fever!" 170. [170] "Of course," replied Harvey calmly. 171. [171] "Any fool knows the first symptoms of the disease that once scourged the universe." 172. [172] "What do you mean, once ?" 173. [173] demanded Johnson. 174. [174] "I come down with it every year, and I ain't hankering to have it in an off-season. 175. [175] Get him out of here!" 176. [176] "In good time. 177. [177] He can't be moved immediately." 178. [178] "Then he'll be here for months!" 179. [179] Harvey helped Joe to the counter and lifted him up on it. 180. [180] The mayor and his gigantic offspring were cowering across the room, trying to breathe in tiny, uncontaminating gasps. 181. [181] "You'll find everything you want in the back room," Johnson said frantically, "sulfopyridine, mustard plasters, rubs, inhalers, suction cups—" "Relics of the past," Harvey stated. 182. [182] "One medication is all modern man requires to combat the dread menace, asteroid fever." 183. [183] "What's that?" 184. [184] asked the mayor without conviction. 185. [185] Instead of replying, Harvey hurried outside to the ungainly second-hand rocket ship in the center of the shabby spaceport. 186. [186] He returned within a few minutes, carrying a bottle. 187. [187] Joe was still stretched out on the bar, panting, his eyes slowly crossing and uncrossing. 188. [188] Harvey lifted the patient's head tenderly, put the bottle to his lips and tilted it until he was forced to drink. 189. [189] When Joe tried to pull away, Harvey was inexorable. 190. [190] He made his partner drink until most of the liquid was gone. 191. [191] Then he stepped back and waited for the inevitable result. 192. [192] Joe's performance was better than ever. 193. [193] He lay supine for several moments, his face twisted into an expression that seemed doomed to perpetual wryness. 194. [194] Slowly,

Describe the relationship between Harvey and Joe.

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net GRIFTERS' ASTEROID By H. L. GOLD Harvey and Joe were the slickest con-men ever to gyp a space-lane sucker. [2] Or so they thought! [3] Angus Johnson knew differently. [4] He charged them five buckos for a glass of water—and got it! [5] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. [6] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [7] Characteristically, Harvey Ellsworth tried to maintain his dignity, though his parched tongue was almost hanging out. [8] But Joe Mallon, with no dignity to maintain, lurched across the rubbish-strewn patch of land that had been termed a spaceport. [9] When Harvey staggered pontifically into the battered metalloy saloon—the only one on Planetoid 42—his tall, gangling partner was already stumbling out, mouthing something incoherent. [10] They met in the doorway, violently. [11] "We're delirious!" [12] Joe cried. [13] "It's a mirage!" [14] "What is?" [15] asked Harvey through a mouthful of cotton. [16] Joe reeled aside, and Harvey saw what had upset his partner. [17] He stared, speechless for once. [18] In their hectic voyages from planet to planet, the pair of panacea purveyors had encountered the usual strange life-forms. [19] But never had they seen anything like the amazing creature in that colonial saloon. [20] Paying no attention to them, it was carrying a case of liquor in two hands, six siphons in two others, and a broom and dustpan in the remaining pair. [21] The bartender, a big man resembling the plumpish Harvey in build, was leaning negligently on the counter, ordering this impossible being to fill the partly-emptied bottles, squeeze fruit juice and sweep the floor, all of which the native did simultaneously. [22] "Nonsense," Harvey croaked uncertainly. [23] "We have seen enough queer things to know there are always more." [24] He led the way inside. [25] Through thirst-cracked lips he rasped: "Water—quick!" [26] Without a word, the bartender reached under the counter, brought out two glasses of water. [27] The interplanetary con-men drank noisily, asked for more, until they had drunk eight glasses. [28] Meanwhile, the bartender had taken out eight jiggers and filled them with whiskey. [29] Harvey and Joe were breathing hard from having gulped the water so fast, but they were beginning to revive. [30] They noticed the bartender's impersonal eyes studying them shrewdly. [31] "Strangers, eh?" [32] he asked at last. [33] "Solar salesmen, my colonial friend," Harvey answered in his usual lush manner. [34] "We purvey that renowned Martian remedy, La-anago Yergis , the formula for which was recently discovered by ourselves in the ancient ruined city of La-anago. [35] Medical science is unanimous in proclaiming this magic medicine the sole panacea in the entire history of therapeutics." [36] "Yeah?" [37] said the bartender disinterestedly, polishing the chaser glasses without washing them. [38] "Where you heading?" [39] "Out of Mars for Ganymede. [40] Our condenser broke down, and we've gone without water for five ghastly days." [41] "Got a mechanic around this dumping ground you call a port?" [42] Joe asked. [43] "We did. [44] He came near starving and moved on to Titan. [45] Ships don't land here unless they're in trouble." [46] "Then where's the water lead-in? [47] We'll fill up and push off." [48] "Mayor takes care of that," replied the saloon owner. [49] "If you gents're finished at the bar, your drinks'll be forty buckos." [50] Harvey grinned puzzledly. [51] "We didn't take any whiskey." [52] "Might as well. [53] Water's five buckos a glass. [54] Liquor's free with every chaser." [55] Harvey's eyes bulged. [56] Joe gulped. [57] "That—that's robbery!" [58] the lanky man managed to get out in a thin quaver. [59] The barkeeper shrugged. [60] "When there ain't many customers, you gotta make more on each one. [61] Besides—" "Besides nothing!" [62] Joe roared, finding his voice again. [63] "You dirty crook—robbing poor spacemen! [64] You—" "You dirty crook!" [65] Joe roared. [66] "Robbing honest spacemen!" [67] Harvey nudged him warningly. [68] "Easy, my boy, easy." [69] He turned to the bartender apologetically. [70] "Don't mind my friend. [71] His adrenal glands are sometimes overactive. [72] You were going to say—?" [73] The round face of the barkeeper had assumed an aggrieved expression. [74] "Folks are always thinkin' the other feller's out to do 'em," he said, shaking his head. [75] "Lemme explain about the water here. [76] It's bitter as some kinds of sin before it's purified. [77] Have to bring it in with buckets and make it sweet. [78] That takes time and labor. [79] Waddya think—I was chargin' feller critters for water just out of devilment? [80] I charge because I gotta." [81] "Friend," said Harvey, taking out a wallet and counting off eight five-bucko bills, "here is your money. [82] What's fair is fair, and you have put a different complexion on what seemed at first to be an unconscionable interjection of a middleman between Nature and man's thirst." [83] The saloon man removed his dirty apron and came around the bar. [84] "If that's an apology, I accept it. [85] Now the mayor'll discuss filling your tanks. [86] That's me. [87] I'm also justice of the peace, official recorder, fire chief...." "And chief of police, no doubt," said Harvey jocosely. [88] "Nope. [89] That's my son, Jed. [90] Angus Johnson's my name. [91] Folks here just call me Chief. [92] I run this town, and run it right. [93] How much water will you need?" [94] Joe estimated quickly. [95] "About seventy-five liters, if we go on half rations," he answered. [96] He waited apprehensively. [97] "Let's say ten buckos a liter," the mayor said. [98] "On account of the quantity, I'm able to quote a bargain price. [99] Shucks, boys, it hurts me more to charge for water than it does for you to pay. [100] I just got to, that's all." [101] The mayor gestured to the native, who shuffled out to the tanks with them. [102] The planetoid man worked the pump while the mayor intently watched the crude level-gauge, crying "Stop!" [103] when it registered the proper amount. [104] Then Johnson rubbed his thumb on his index finger and wetted his lips expectantly. [105] Harvey bravely counted off the bills. [106] He asked: "But what are we to do about replenishing our battery fluid? [107] Ten buckos a liter would be preposterous. [108] We simply can't afford it." [109] Johnson's response almost floored them. [110] "Who said anything about charging you for battery water? [111] You can have all you want for nothing. [112] It's just the purified stuff that comes so high." [113] After giving them directions that would take them to the free-water pool, the ponderous factotum of Planetoid 42 shook hands and headed back to the saloon. [114] His six-armed assistant followed him inside. [115] "Now do you see, my hot-tempered colleague?" [116] said Harvey as he and Joe picked up buckets that hung on the tank. [117] "Johnson, as I saw instantly, is the victim of a difficult environment, and must charge accordingly." [118] "Just the same," Joe griped, "paying for water isn't something you can get used to in ten minutes." [119] In the fragile forest, they soon came across a stream that sprang from the igneous soil and splashed into the small pond whose contents, according to the mayor, was theirs for the asking. [120] They filled their buckets and hauled them to the ship, then returned for more. [121] It was on the sixth trip that Joe caught a glimpse of Jupiter-shine on a bright surface off to the left. [122] The figure, 750, with the bucko sign in front of it, was still doing acrobatics inside his skull and keeping a faint suspicion alive in him. [123] So he called Harvey and they went to investigate. [124] Among the skimpy ground-crawling vines, they saw a long slender mound that was unmistakably a buried pipe. [125] "What's this doing here?" [126] Harvey asked, puzzled. [127] "I thought Johnson had to transport water in pails." [128] "Wonder where it leads to," Joe said uneasily. [129] "It leads to the saloon," said Harvey, his eyes rapidly tracing the pipe back toward the spaceport. [130] "What I am concerned with is where it leads from ." [131] Five minutes later, panting heavily from the unaccustomed exertion of scrambling through the tangle of planetorial undergrowth, they burst into the open—before a clear, sparkling pool. [132] Mutely, Harvey pointed out a pipe-end jutting under the water. [133] "I am growing suspicious," he said in a rigidly controlled voice. [134] But Joe was already on his knees, scooping up a handful of water and tasting it. [135] "Sweet!" [136] he snarled. [137] They rushed back to the first pool, where Joe again tasted a sample. [138] His mouth went wry. [139] "Bitter! [140] He uses only one pool, the sweet one! [141] The only thing that needs purifying around here is that blasted mayor's conscience." [142] "The asteroidal Poobah has tricked us with a slick come-on," said Harvey slowly. [143] His eyes grew cold. [144] "Joseph, the good-natured artist in me has become a hard and merciless avenger. [145] I shall not rest until we have had the best of this colonial con-man! [146] Watch your cues from this point hence." [147] Fists clenched, the two returned to the saloon. [148] But at the door they stopped and their fists unclenched. [149] "Thought you gents were leaving," the mayor called out, seeing them frozen in the doorway. [150] "Glad you didn't. [151] Now you can meet my son, Jed. [152] Him and me are the whole Earthman population of Johnson City." [153] "You don't need any more," said Harvey, dismayed. [154] Johnson's eight-foot son, topped by a massive roof of sun-bleached hair and held up by a foundation that seemed immovable, had obviously been born and raised in low gravity. [155] For any decent-sized world would have kept him down near the general dimensions of a man. [156] He held out an acre of palm. [157] Harvey studied it worriedly, put his own hand somewhere on it, swallowed as it closed, then breathed again when his fingers were released in five units instead of a single compressed one. [158] "Pleased to meet you," piped a voice that had never known a dense atmosphere. [159] The pursuit of vengeance, Harvey realized, had taken a quick and unpleasant turn. [160] Something shrewd was called for.... [161] "Joseph!" [162] he exclaimed, looking at his partner in alarm. [163] "Don't you feel well?" [164] Even before the others could turn to him, Joe's practiced eyes were gently crossing. [165] He sagged against the door frame, all his features drooping like a bloodhound's. [166] "Bring him in here!" [167] Johnson cried. [168] "I mean, get him away! [169] He's coming down with asteroid fever!" [170] "Of course," replied Harvey calmly. [171] "Any fool knows the first symptoms of the disease that once scourged the universe." [172] "What do you mean, once ?" [173] demanded Johnson. [174] "I come down with it every year, and I ain't hankering to have it in an off-season. [175] Get him out of here!" [176] "In good time. [177] He can't be moved immediately." [178] "Then he'll be here for months!" [179] Harvey helped Joe to the counter and lifted him up on it. [180] The mayor and his gigantic offspring were cowering across the room, trying to breathe in tiny, uncontaminating gasps. [181] "You'll find everything you want in the back room," Johnson said frantically, "sulfopyridine, mustard plasters, rubs, inhalers, suction cups—" "Relics of the past," Harvey stated. [182] "One medication is all modern man requires to combat the dread menace, asteroid fever." [183] "What's that?" [184] asked the mayor without conviction. [185] Instead of replying, Harvey hurried outside to the ungainly second-hand rocket ship in the center of the shabby spaceport. [186] He returned within a few minutes, carrying a bottle. [187] Joe was still stretched out on the bar, panting, his eyes slowly crossing and uncrossing. [188] Harvey lifted the patient's head tenderly, put the bottle to his lips and tilted it until he was forced to drink. [189] When Joe tried to pull away, Harvey was inexorable. [190] He made his partner drink until most of the liquid was gone. [191] Then he stepped back and waited for the inevitable result. [192] Joe's performance was better than ever. [193] He lay supine for several moments, his face twisted into an expression that seemed doomed to perpetual wryness. [194] Slowly, however, he sat up and his features straightened out. [195] "Are—are you all right?" [196] asked the mayor anxiously. [197] "Much better," said Joe in a weak voice. [198] "Maybe you need another dose," Harvey suggested. [199] Joe recoiled. [200] "I'm fine now!" [201] he cried, and sprang off the bar to prove it. [202] Astonished, Johnson and his son drew closer. [203] They searched Joe's face, and then the mayor timidly felt his pulse. [204] "Well, I'll be hanged!" [205] Johnson ejaculated. " [206] La-anago Yergis never fails, my friend," Harvey explained. [207] "By actual test, it conquers asteroid fever in from four to twenty-three minutes, depending on the severity of the attack. [208] Luckily, we caught this one before it grew formidable." [209] The mayor's eyes became clouded mirrors of an inward conflict. [210] "If you don't charge too much," he said warily, "I might think of buying some." [211] "We do not sell this unbelievable remedy," Harvey replied with dignity. [212] "It sells itself." [213] "'Course, I'd expect a considerable reduction if I bought a whole case," said Johnson. [214] "That would be the smallest investment you could make, compared with the vast loss of time and strength the fever involves." [215] "How much?" [216] asked the mayor unhappily. [217] "For you, since you have taken us in so hospitably, a mere five hundred buckos." [218] Johnson did not actually stagger back, but he gave the impression of doing so. [219] "F-four hundred," he offered. [220] "Not a red cent less than four seventy-five," Harvey said flatly. [221] "Make it four fifty," quavered Johnson. [222] "I dislike haggling," said Harvey. [223] The final price, however, was four hundred and sixty-nine buckos and fifty redsents. [224] Magnanimously, Harvey added: "And we will include, gratis , an elegant bottle-opener, a superb product of Mercurian handicraftsmanship." [225] Johnson stabbed out a warning finger. [226] "No tricks now. [227] I want a taste of that stuff. [228] You're not switching some worthless junk on me." [229] Harvey took a glass from the bar and poured him a generous sample. [230] The mayor sniffed it, grimaced, then threw it down his gullet. [231] The ensuing minute saw a grim battle between a man and his stomach, a battle which the man gradually won. [232] "There ain't no words for that taste," he gulped when it was safe to talk again. [233] "Medicine," Harvey propounded, "should taste like medicine." [234] To Joe he said: "Come, my esteemed colleague. [235] We must perform the sacred task to which we have dedicated ourselves." [236] With Joe stumbling along behind, he left the saloon, crossed the clearing and entered the ship. [237] As soon as they were inside, Joe dropped his murderous silence and cried: "What kind of a dirty trick was that, giving me poison instead of that snake oil?" [238] "That was not poison," Harvey contradicted quietly. [239] "It was La-anago Yergis extract, plus." [240] "Plus what—arsenic?" [241] "Now, Joseph! [242] Consider my quandary when I came back here to manufacture our specific for all known ailments, with the intention of selling yonder asteroidal tin-horn a bill of medical goods—an entire case, mind you. [243] Was I to mix the extract with the water for which we had been swindled to the tune of ten buckos a liter? [244] Where would our profit have been, then? [245] No; I had to use the bitter free water, of course." [246] "But why use it on me?" [247] Joe demanded furiously. [248] Harvey looked reprovingly at his gangling partner. [249] "Did Johnson ask to taste it, or did he not? [250] One must look ahead, Joseph. [251] I had to produce the same medicine that we will now manufacture. [252] Thus, you were a guinea pig for a splendid cause." [253] "Okay, okay," Joe said. [254] "But you shoulda charged him more." [255] "Joseph, I promise you that we shall get back every redsent of which that swindler cheated us, besides whatever other funds or valuables he possesses. [256] We could not be content with less." [257] "Well, we're starting all right," admitted Joe. [258] "How about that thing with six arms? [259] He looks like a valuable. [260] Can't we grab him off?" [261] Harvey stopped filling bottles and looked up pensively. [262] "I have every hope of luring away the profitable monstrosity. [263] Apparently you have also surmised the fortune we could make with him. [264] At first I purpose to exhibit him on our interplanetary tours with our streamlined panacea; he would be a spectacular attraction for bucolic suckers. [265] Later, a brief period of demonstrating his abilities on the audio-visiphone. [266] Then our triumph—we shall sell him at a stupendous figure to the zoo!" [267] Joe was still dazed by that monetary vista when he and Harvey carried the case of medicine to the saloon. [268] The mayor had already cleared a place of honor in the cluttered back room, where he told them to put it down carefully. [269] Then he took the elaborate bottle-opener Harvey gave him, reverently uncorked a bottle and sampled it. [270] It must have been at least as good as the first; he gagged. [271] "That's the stuff, all right," he said, swallowing hard. [272] He counted out the money into Harvey's hand, at a moderate rate that precariously balanced between his pleasure at getting the fever remedy and his pain at paying for it. [273] Then he glanced out to see the position of Jupiter, and asked: "You gents eaten yet? [274] The restaurant's open now." [275] Harvey and Joe looked at each other. [276] They hadn't been thinking about food at all, but suddenly they realized that they were hungry. [277] "It's only water we were short of," Harvey said apprehensively. [278] "We've got rations back at the ship." [279] " H-mph! " [280] the mayor grunted. [281] "Powdered concentrates. [282] Compressed pap. [283] Suit yourselves. [284] We treat our stomachs better here. [285] And you're welcome to our hospitality." [286] "Your hospitality," said Harvey, "depends on the prices you charge." [287] "Well, if that's what's worrying you, you can stop worrying," answered the mayor promptly. [288] "What's more, the kind of dinner I serve here you can't get anywhere else for any price." [289] Swiftly, Harvey conned the possibilities of being bilked again. [290] He saw none. [291] "Let's take a look at the menu, anyhow, Joe," he said guardedly. [292] Johnson immediately fell into the role of "mine host." [293] "Come right in, gents," he invited. [294] "Right into the dining room." [295] He seated them at a table, which a rope tied between posts made more or less private, though nobody else was in the saloon and there was little chance of company. [296] Genius, the six-armed native, appeared from the dingy kitchen with two menus in one hand, two glasses of water in another, plus napkins, silverware, a pitcher, plates, saucers, cups, and their cocktails, which were on the house. [297] Then he stood by for orders. [298] Harvey and Joe studied the menu critically. [299] The prices were phenomenally low. [300] When they glanced up at Johnson in perplexity, he grinned, bowed and asked: "Everything satisfactory, gents?" [301] "Quite," said Harvey. [302] "We shall order." [303] For an hour they were served amazing dishes, both fresh and canned, the culinary wealth of this planetoid and all the system. [304] And the service was as extraordinary as the meal itself. [305] With four hands, Genius played deftly upon a pair of mellow Venusian viotars , using his other two hands for waiting on the table. [306] "We absolutely must purchase this incredible specimen," Harvey whispered excitedly when Johnson and the native were both in the kitchen, attending to the next course. [307] "He would make any society hostess's season a riotous success, which should be worth a great sum to women like Mrs. van Schuyler-Morgan, merely for his hire." [308] "Think of a fast one fast," Joe agreed. [309] "You're right." [310] "But I dislike having to revise my opinion of a man so often," complained Harvey. [311] "I wish Johnson would stay either swindler or honest merchant. [312] This dinner is worth as least twenty buckos, yet I estimate our check at a mere bucko twenty redsents." [313] The mayor's appearance prevented them from continuing the discussion. [314] "It's been a great honor, gents," he said. [315] "Ain't often I have visitors, and I like the best, like you two gents." [316] As if on cue, Genius came out and put the check down between Joe and Harvey. [317] Harvey picked it up negligently, but his casual air vanished in a yelp of horror. [318] "What the devil is this?" [319] he shouted.—"How do you arrive at this fantastic, idiotic figure— three hundred and twenty-eight buckos !" [320] Johnson didn't answer. [321] Neither did Genius; he simply put on the table, not a fingerbowl, but a magnifying glass. [322] With one of his thirty fingers he pointed politely to the bottom of the menu. [323] Harvey focused on the microscopic print, and his face went pasty with rage. [324] The minute note read: "Services and entertainment, 327 buckos 80 redsents." [325] "You can go to hell!" [326] Joe growled. [327] "We won't pay it!" [328] Johnson sighed ponderously. [329] "I was afraid you'd act like that," he said with regret. [330] He pulled a tin badge out of his rear pocket, pinned it on his vest, and twisted his holstered gun into view. [331] "Afraid I'll have to ask the sheriff to take over." [332] Johnson, the "sheriff," collected the money, and Johnson, the "restaurateur," pocketed it. [333] Meanwhile, Harvey tipped Joe the sign to remain calm. [334] "My friend," he said to the mayor, and his tones took on a schoolmasterish severity, "your long absence from Earth has perhaps made you forget those elements of human wisdom that have entered the folk-lore of your native planet. [335] Such as, for example: 'It is folly to kill a goose that lays golden eggs,' and 'Penny wise is pound foolish.'" [336] "I don't get the connection," objected Johnson. [337] "Well, by obliging us to pay such a high price for your dinner, you put out of your reach the chance of profiting from a really substantial deal. [338] My partner and I were prepared to make you a sizable offer for the peculiar creature you call Genius. [339] But by reducing our funds the way you have—" "Who said I wanted to sell him?" [340] the mayor interrupted. [341] He rubbed his fingers together and asked disinterestedly: "What were you going to offer, anyhow?" [342] "It doesn't matter any longer," Harvey said with elaborate carelessness. [343] "Perhaps you wouldn't have accepted it, anyway." [344] "That's right," Johnson came back emphatically. [345] "But what would your offer have been which I would have turned down?" [346] "Which one? [347] The one we were going to make, or the one we can make now?" [348] "Either one. [349] It don't make no difference. [350] Genius is too valuable to sell." [351] "Oh, come now, Mr. Johnson. [352] Don't tell me no amount of money would tempt you!" [353] "Nope. [354] But how much did you say?" [355] "Ah, then you will consider releasing Genius!" [356] "Well, I'll tell you something," said the mayor confidentially. [357] "When you've got one thing, you've got one thing. [358] But when you've got money, it's the same as having a lot of things. [359] Because, if you've got money, you can buy this and that and this and that and—" "This and that," concluded Joe. [360] "We'll give you five hundred buckos." [361] "Now, gents!" [362] Johnson remonstrated. [363] "Why, six hundred would hardly—" "You haven't left us much money," Harvey put in. [364] The mayor frowned. [365] "All right, we'll split the difference. [366] Make it five-fifty." [367] Harvey was quick to pay out, for this was a genuine windfall. [368] Then he stood up and admired the astonishing possession he had so inexpensively acquired. [369] "I really hate to deprive you of this unique creature," he said to Johnson. [370] "I should imagine you will be rather lonely, with only your filial mammoth to keep you company." [371] "I sure will," Johnson confessed glumly. [372] "I got pretty attached to Genius, and I'm going to miss him something awful." [373] Harvey forcibly removed his eyes from the native, who was clearing off the table almost all at once. [374] "My friend," he said, "we take your only solace, it is true, but in his place we can offer something no less amazing and instructive." [375] The mayor's hand went protectively to his pocket. [376] "What is it?" [377] he asked with the suspicion of a man who has seen human nature at its worst and expects nothing better. [378] "Joseph, get our most prized belonging from the communications room of the ship," Harvey instructed. [379] To Johnson he explained: "You must see the wondrous instrument before its value can be appreciated. [380] My partner will soon have it here for your astonishment." [381] Joe's face grew as glum as Johnson's had been. [382] "Aw, Harv," he protested, "do we have to sell it? [383] And right when I thought we were getting the key!" [384] "We must not be selfish, my boy," Harvey said nobly. [385] "We have had our chance; now we must relinquish Fate to the hands of a man who might have more success than we. [386] Go, Joseph. [387] Bring it here." [388] Unwillingly, Joe turned and shuffled out. [389] On a larger and heavier world than Planetoid 42, Johnson's curiosity would probably have had weight and mass. [390] He was bursting with questions, but he was obviously afraid they would cost him money. [391] For his part, Harvey allowed that curiosity to grow like a Venusian amoeba until Joe came in, lugging a radio. [392] "Is that what you were talking about?" [393] the mayor snorted. [394] "What makes you think I want a radio? [395] I came here to get away from singers and political speech-makers." [396] "Do not jump to hasty conclusions," Harvey cautioned. [397] "Another word, and I shall refuse you the greatest opportunity any man has ever had, with the sole exceptions of Joseph, myself and the unfortunate inventor of this absolutely awe-inspiring device." [398] "I ain't in the market for a radio," Johnson said stubbornly. [399] Harvey nodded in relief. [400] "We have attempted to repay our host, Joseph. [401] He has spurned our generosity. [402] We have now the chance to continue our study, which I am positive will soon reward us with the key to an enormous fortune." [403] "Well, that's no plating off our bow," Joe grunted. [404] "I'm glad he did turn it down. [405] I hated to give it up after working on it for three whole years." [406] He picked up the radio and began walking toward the door. [407] "Now, hold on!" [408] the mayor cried. [409] "I ain't saying I'll buy, but what is it I'm turning down?" [410] Joe returned and set the instrument down on the bar. [411] His face sorrowful, Harvey fondly stroked the scarred plasticoid cabinet. [412] "To make a long story, Mr. Johnson," he said, "Joseph and I were among the chosen few who knew the famous Doctor Dean intimately. [413] Just before his tragic death, you will recall, Dean allegedly went insane." [414] He banged his fist on the bar. [415] "I have said it before, and I repeat again, that was a malicious lie, spread by the doctor's enemies to discredit his greatest invention—this fourth dimensional radio!" [416] "This what?" [417] Johnson blurted out. [418] "In simple terms," clarified Harvey, "the ingenious doctor discovered that the yawning chasm between the dimensions could be bridged by energy of all quanta. [419] There has never been any question that the inhabitants of the super-dimension would be far more civilized than ourselves. [420] Consequently, the man who could tap their knowledge would find himself in possession of a powerful, undreamt-of science!" [421] The mayor looked respectfully at the silent box on the bar. [422] "And this thing gets broadcasts from the fourth dimension?" [423] "It does, Mr. Johnson! [424] Only charlatans like those who envied Doctor Dean's magnificent accomplishments could deny that fact." [425] The mayor put his hands in his pockets, unswiveled one hip and stared thoughtfully at the battered cabinet. [426] "Well, let's say it picks up fourth dimensional broadcasts," he conceded. [427] "But how could you understand what they're saying? [428] Folks up there wouldn't talk our language." [429] Again Harvey smashed his fist down. [430] "Do you dare to repeat the scurvy lie that broke Dean's spirit and drove him to suicide?" [431] Johnson recoiled. [432] "No—no, of course not . [433] I mean, being up here, I naturally couldn't get all the details." [434] "Naturally," Harvey agreed, mollified. [435] "I'm sorry I lost my temper. [436] But it is a matter of record that the doctor proved the broadcasts emanating from the super-dimension were in English! [437] Why should that be so difficult to believe? [438] Is it impossible that at one time there was communication between the dimensions, that the super-beings admired our language and adopted it in all its beauty, adding to it their own hyper-scientific trimmings?" [439] "Why, I don't know," Johnson said in confusion. [440] "For three years, Joseph and I lost sleep and hair, trying to detect the simple key that would translate the somewhat metamorphosed broadcasts into our primitive English. [441] It eluded us. [442] Even the doctor failed. [443] But that was understandable; a sensitive soul like his could stand only so much. [444] And the combination of ridicule and failure to solve the mystery caused him to take his own life." [445] Johnson winced. [446] "Is that what you want to unload on me?" [447] "For a very good reason, sir. [448] Patience is the virtue that will be rewarded with the key to these fourth dimensional broadcasts. [449] A man who could devote his life to improving this lonely worldlet is obviously a person with unusual patience." [450] "Yeah," the mayor said grudgingly, "I ain't exactly flighty." [451] "Therefore, you are the man who could unravel the problem!" [452] Johnson asked skeptically: "How about a sample first?" [453] Harvey turned a knob on the face of the scarred radio. [454] After several squeals of spatial figures, a smooth voice began: "There are omnious pleajes of moby-hailegs in sonmirand which, howgraismon, are notch to be donfured miss ellasellabell in either or both hagasanipaj, by all means. [455] This does not refly, on the brother man, nat or mizzafil saces are denuded by this ossifaligo...." Harvey switched off the set determinedly. [456] "Wait a minute!" [457] Johnson begged. [458] "I almost got it then!" [459] "I dislike being commercial," said Harvey, "but this astounding device still belongs to us. [460] Would we not be foolish to let you discover the clue before purchasing the right to do so?" [461] The mayor nodded indecisively, looking at the radio with agonized longing. [462] "How much do you want?" [463] he asked unhappily. [464] "One thousand buckos, and no haggling. [465] I am not in the mood." [466] Johnson opened his mouth to argue; then, seeing Harvey's set features, paid with the worst possible grace. [467] "Don't you think we ought to tell him about the batteries, Harv?" [468] Joe asked. [469] "What about the batteries?" [470] demanded Johnson with deadly calm. [471] "A very small matter," Harvey said airily. [472] "You see, we have been analyzing these broadcasts for three years. [473] In that time, of course, the batteries are bound to weaken. [474] I estimate these should last not less than one Terrestrial month, at the very least." [475] "What do I do then?" [476] Harvey shrugged. [477] "Special batteries are required, which I see Joseph has by chance brought along. [478] For the batteries, the only ones of their kind left in the system, I ask only what they cost—one hundred and ninety-nine buckos, no more and, on the other hand, no less." [479] Johnson was breathing hard, and his hand hovered dangerously near his gun. [480] But he paid the amount Harvey wanted. [481] Moreover, he actually shook hands when the two panacea purveyors collected their six-armed prize and said goodbye. [482] Before they were outside, however, he had turned on the radio and was listening tensely to a woman's highly cultured, though rather angry voice, saying: "Oh, you hannaforge are all beasa-taga-sanimort. [483] If you rue amount it, how do you respench a pure woman to ansver go-samak—" "I'll get it!" [484] they heard Johnson mutter. [485] Then the sound of giant feet crossing the barroom floor reached their ears, and a shrill question: "What's that, Papa?" [486] "A fortune, Jed! [487] Those fakers are damned fools, selling us a thing like—" Joe gazed at Harvey admiringly. [488] "Another one sold? [489] Harv, that spiel pulls them in like an ether storm!" [490] Together with the remarkable planetoid man, they reached the ship. [491] Above them, dark, tumbling shapes blotted out the stars and silently moved on. [492] Joe opened the gangway door. [493] "Come on in, pal," he said to Genius. [494] "We're shoving off." [495] The planetoid man grinned foolishly. [496] "Can't go arong with you," he said with an apologetic manner. [497] "I rike to, but pressure fratten me out if I go." [498] "What in solar blazes are you talking about?" [499] Harvey asked. [500] "I grow up on pranetoid," Genius explained. [501] "On big pranet, too much pressure for me." [502] The two salesmen looked narrowly at each other. [503] "Did Johnson know that when he sold you?" [504] Joe snarled. [505] "Oh, sure." [506] The silly grin became wider than ever. [507] "Peopre from Earth buy me rots of times. [508] I never reave pranetoid, though." [509] "Joseph," Harvey said ominously, "that slick colonist has put one over upon us. [510] What is our customary procedure in that event?" [511] "We tear him apart," Joe replied between his teeth. [512] "Not Mister Johnson," advised Genius. [513] "Have gun and badge. [514] He shoot you first and then rock you up in prison." [515] Harvey paused, his ominous air vanishing. [516] "True. [517] There is also the fact, Joseph, that when he discovers the scrambled rectifier in the radio we sold him, he will have been paid back in full for his regrettable dishonesty." [518] Unwillingly, Joe agreed. [519] While Genius retreated to a safe distance, they entered the ship and blasted off. [520] Within a few minutes the automatic steering pilot had maneuvered them above the plane of the asteroid belt. [521] "I got kind of dizzy," Joe said, "there were so many deals back and forth. [522] How much did we make on the sucker?" [523] "A goodly amount, I wager," Harvey responded. [524] He took out a pencil and paper. [525] "Medicine, 469.50; radio, 1,000; batteries, 199. [526] Total—let's see—1668 buckos and 50 redsents. [527] A goodly sum, as I told you." [528] He emptied his pockets of money, spread it out on the astrogation table and began counting. [529] Finished, he looked up, troubled. [530] "How much did we have when we landed, Joseph?" [531] "Exactly 1668 buckos," Joe answered promptly. [532] "I can't understand it," said Harvey. [533] "Instead of double our capital, we now have only 1668 buckos and 50 redsents!" [534] Feverishly, he returned to his pencil and paper. [535] "Drinking water, 790; battery water, free; meal, 328; planetoid man, 550. [536] Total: 1668 buckos!" [537] He stared at the figures. [538] "We paid out almost as much as we took in," he said bitterly. [539] "Despite our intensive efforts, we made the absurd sum of fifty redsents." [540] "Why, the dirty crook!" [541] Joe growled. [542] But after a few moments of sad reflection, Harvey became philosophical. [543] "Perhaps, Joseph, we are more fortunate than we realize. [544] We were, after all, completely in Johnson's power. [545] The more I ponder, the more I believe we were lucky to escape. [546] And, anyhow, we did make fifty redsents on the swindler. [547] A moral victory, my boy." [548] Joe, who had been sunk desparingly into a chair, now stood up slowly and asked: "Remember that bottle-opener we gave him?" [549] "Certainly," Harvey explained. [550] "What about it?" [551] "How much did it cost us?" [552] Harvey's eyebrows puckered. [553] Suddenly he started laughing. [554] "You're right, Joseph. [555] We paid forty-six redsents for it on Venus. [556] So, after all that transacting of business, we made four redsents!" [557] "Four redsents, hell!" [558] Joe snapped. [559] "That was the sales tax!" [560] He glared; then a smile lifted his mouth. [561] "You remember those yokels on Mars' Flatlands, and the way they worshipped gold?" [562] " Goldbricks! " [563] Harvey said succinctly. [564] Grinning, Joe set the robot-controls for Mars.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the relationship between Harvey and Joe": 1. [1] Harvey and Joe were the slickest con-men ever to gyp a space-lane sucker. 2. [7] Characteristically, Harvey Ellsworth tried to maintain his dignity, though his parched tongue was almost hanging out. 3. [8] But Joe Mallon, with no dignity to maintain, lurched across the rubbish-strewn patch of land that had been termed a spaceport. 4. [10] They met in the doorway, violently. 5. [233] "Come, my esteemed colleague," he said to Joe. 6. [237] "What kind of a dirty trick was that, giving me poison instead of that snake oil?" Joe cried. 7. [241] "You can go to hell!" Joe growled. 8. [253] "Okay, okay," Joe said. 9. [307] "We absolutely must purchase this incredible specimen," Harvey whispered excitedly when Johnson and the native were both in the kitchen, attending to the next course. 10. [309] "Think of a fast one fast," Joe agreed. 11. [311] "I wish Johnson would stay either swindler or honest merchant," complained Harvey. 12. [382] "Aw, Harv," he protested, "do we have to sell it? And right when I thought we were getting the key!" 13. [388] Unwillingly, Joe turned and shuffled out. 14. [488] "Come on in, pal," he said to Genius. 15. [519] While Genius retreated to a safe distance, they entered the ship and blasted off. 16. [540] "Why, the dirty crook!" Joe growled. 17. [558] He glared; then a smile lifted his mouth. 18. [559] "You remember those yokels on Mars' Flatlands, and the way they worshipped gold?" 19. [562] "Goldbricks!" Harvey said succinctly. 20. [563] Grinning, Joe set the robot-controls for Mars.

What is the significance of Genius?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net GRIFTERS' ASTEROID By H. L. GOLD Harvey and Joe were the slickest con-men ever to gyp a space-lane sucker. [2] Or so they thought! [3] Angus Johnson knew differently. [4] He charged them five buckos for a glass of water—and got it! [5] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. [6] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [7] Characteristically, Harvey Ellsworth tried to maintain his dignity, though his parched tongue was almost hanging out. [8] But Joe Mallon, with no dignity to maintain, lurched across the rubbish-strewn patch of land that had been termed a spaceport. [9] When Harvey staggered pontifically into the battered metalloy saloon—the only one on Planetoid 42—his tall, gangling partner was already stumbling out, mouthing something incoherent. [10] They met in the doorway, violently. [11] "We're delirious!" [12] Joe cried. [13] "It's a mirage!" [14] "What is?" [15] asked Harvey through a mouthful of cotton. [16] Joe reeled aside, and Harvey saw what had upset his partner. [17] He stared, speechless for once. [18] In their hectic voyages from planet to planet, the pair of panacea purveyors had encountered the usual strange life-forms. [19] But never had they seen anything like the amazing creature in that colonial saloon. [20] Paying no attention to them, it was carrying a case of liquor in two hands, six siphons in two others, and a broom and dustpan in the remaining pair. [21] The bartender, a big man resembling the plumpish Harvey in build, was leaning negligently on the counter, ordering this impossible being to fill the partly-emptied bottles, squeeze fruit juice and sweep the floor, all of which the native did simultaneously. [22] "Nonsense," Harvey croaked uncertainly. [23] "We have seen enough queer things to know there are always more." [24] He led the way inside. [25] Through thirst-cracked lips he rasped: "Water—quick!" [26] Without a word, the bartender reached under the counter, brought out two glasses of water. [27] The interplanetary con-men drank noisily, asked for more, until they had drunk eight glasses. [28] Meanwhile, the bartender had taken out eight jiggers and filled them with whiskey. [29] Harvey and Joe were breathing hard from having gulped the water so fast, but they were beginning to revive. [30] They noticed the bartender's impersonal eyes studying them shrewdly. [31] "Strangers, eh?" [32] he asked at last. [33] "Solar salesmen, my colonial friend," Harvey answered in his usual lush manner. [34] "We purvey that renowned Martian remedy, La-anago Yergis , the formula for which was recently discovered by ourselves in the ancient ruined city of La-anago. [35] Medical science is unanimous in proclaiming this magic medicine the sole panacea in the entire history of therapeutics." [36] "Yeah?" [37] said the bartender disinterestedly, polishing the chaser glasses without washing them. [38] "Where you heading?" [39] "Out of Mars for Ganymede. [40] Our condenser broke down, and we've gone without water for five ghastly days." [41] "Got a mechanic around this dumping ground you call a port?" [42] Joe asked. [43] "We did. [44] He came near starving and moved on to Titan. [45] Ships don't land here unless they're in trouble." [46] "Then where's the water lead-in? [47] We'll fill up and push off." [48] "Mayor takes care of that," replied the saloon owner. [49] "If you gents're finished at the bar, your drinks'll be forty buckos." [50] Harvey grinned puzzledly. [51] "We didn't take any whiskey." [52] "Might as well. [53] Water's five buckos a glass. [54] Liquor's free with every chaser." [55] Harvey's eyes bulged. [56] Joe gulped. [57] "That—that's robbery!" [58] the lanky man managed to get out in a thin quaver. [59] The barkeeper shrugged. [60] "When there ain't many customers, you gotta make more on each one. [61] Besides—" "Besides nothing!" [62] Joe roared, finding his voice again. [63] "You dirty crook—robbing poor spacemen! [64] You—" "You dirty crook!" [65] Joe roared. [66] "Robbing honest spacemen!" [67] Harvey nudged him warningly. [68] "Easy, my boy, easy." [69] He turned to the bartender apologetically. [70] "Don't mind my friend. [71] His adrenal glands are sometimes overactive. [72] You were going to say—?" [73] The round face of the barkeeper had assumed an aggrieved expression. [74] "Folks are always thinkin' the other feller's out to do 'em," he said, shaking his head. [75] "Lemme explain about the water here. [76] It's bitter as some kinds of sin before it's purified. [77] Have to bring it in with buckets and make it sweet. [78] That takes time and labor. [79] Waddya think—I was chargin' feller critters for water just out of devilment? [80] I charge because I gotta." [81] "Friend," said Harvey, taking out a wallet and counting off eight five-bucko bills, "here is your money. [82] What's fair is fair, and you have put a different complexion on what seemed at first to be an unconscionable interjection of a middleman between Nature and man's thirst." [83] The saloon man removed his dirty apron and came around the bar. [84] "If that's an apology, I accept it. [85] Now the mayor'll discuss filling your tanks. [86] That's me. [87] I'm also justice of the peace, official recorder, fire chief...." "And chief of police, no doubt," said Harvey jocosely. [88] "Nope. [89] That's my son, Jed. [90] Angus Johnson's my name. [91] Folks here just call me Chief. [92] I run this town, and run it right. [93] How much water will you need?" [94] Joe estimated quickly. [95] "About seventy-five liters, if we go on half rations," he answered. [96] He waited apprehensively. [97] "Let's say ten buckos a liter," the mayor said. [98] "On account of the quantity, I'm able to quote a bargain price. [99] Shucks, boys, it hurts me more to charge for water than it does for you to pay. [100] I just got to, that's all." [101] The mayor gestured to the native, who shuffled out to the tanks with them. [102] The planetoid man worked the pump while the mayor intently watched the crude level-gauge, crying "Stop!" [103] when it registered the proper amount. [104] Then Johnson rubbed his thumb on his index finger and wetted his lips expectantly. [105] Harvey bravely counted off the bills. [106] He asked: "But what are we to do about replenishing our battery fluid? [107] Ten buckos a liter would be preposterous. [108] We simply can't afford it." [109] Johnson's response almost floored them. [110] "Who said anything about charging you for battery water? [111] You can have all you want for nothing. [112] It's just the purified stuff that comes so high." [113] After giving them directions that would take them to the free-water pool, the ponderous factotum of Planetoid 42 shook hands and headed back to the saloon. [114] His six-armed assistant followed him inside. [115] "Now do you see, my hot-tempered colleague?" [116] said Harvey as he and Joe picked up buckets that hung on the tank. [117] "Johnson, as I saw instantly, is the victim of a difficult environment, and must charge accordingly." [118] "Just the same," Joe griped, "paying for water isn't something you can get used to in ten minutes." [119] In the fragile forest, they soon came across a stream that sprang from the igneous soil and splashed into the small pond whose contents, according to the mayor, was theirs for the asking. [120] They filled their buckets and hauled them to the ship, then returned for more. [121] It was on the sixth trip that Joe caught a glimpse of Jupiter-shine on a bright surface off to the left. [122] The figure, 750, with the bucko sign in front of it, was still doing acrobatics inside his skull and keeping a faint suspicion alive in him. [123] So he called Harvey and they went to investigate. [124] Among the skimpy ground-crawling vines, they saw a long slender mound that was unmistakably a buried pipe. [125] "What's this doing here?" [126] Harvey asked, puzzled. [127] "I thought Johnson had to transport water in pails." [128] "Wonder where it leads to," Joe said uneasily. [129] "It leads to the saloon," said Harvey, his eyes rapidly tracing the pipe back toward the spaceport. [130] "What I am concerned with is where it leads from ." [131] Five minutes later, panting heavily from the unaccustomed exertion of scrambling through the tangle of planetorial undergrowth, they burst into the open—before a clear, sparkling pool. [132] Mutely, Harvey pointed out a pipe-end jutting under the water. [133] "I am growing suspicious," he said in a rigidly controlled voice. [134] But Joe was already on his knees, scooping up a handful of water and tasting it. [135] "Sweet!" [136] he snarled. [137] They rushed back to the first pool, where Joe again tasted a sample. [138] His mouth went wry. [139] "Bitter! [140] He uses only one pool, the sweet one! [141] The only thing that needs purifying around here is that blasted mayor's conscience." [142] "The asteroidal Poobah has tricked us with a slick come-on," said Harvey slowly. [143] His eyes grew cold. [144] "Joseph, the good-natured artist in me has become a hard and merciless avenger. [145] I shall not rest until we have had the best of this colonial con-man! [146] Watch your cues from this point hence." [147] Fists clenched, the two returned to the saloon. [148] But at the door they stopped and their fists unclenched. [149] "Thought you gents were leaving," the mayor called out, seeing them frozen in the doorway. [150] "Glad you didn't. [151] Now you can meet my son, Jed. [152] Him and me are the whole Earthman population of Johnson City." [153] "You don't need any more," said Harvey, dismayed. [154] Johnson's eight-foot son, topped by a massive roof of sun-bleached hair and held up by a foundation that seemed immovable, had obviously been born and raised in low gravity. [155] For any decent-sized world would have kept him down near the general dimensions of a man. [156] He held out an acre of palm. [157] Harvey studied it worriedly, put his own hand somewhere on it, swallowed as it closed, then breathed again when his fingers were released in five units instead of a single compressed one. [158] "Pleased to meet you," piped a voice that had never known a dense atmosphere. [159] The pursuit of vengeance, Harvey realized, had taken a quick and unpleasant turn. [160] Something shrewd was called for.... [161] "Joseph!" [162] he exclaimed, looking at his partner in alarm. [163] "Don't you feel well?" [164] Even before the others could turn to him, Joe's practiced eyes were gently crossing. [165] He sagged against the door frame, all his features drooping like a bloodhound's. [166] "Bring him in here!" [167] Johnson cried. [168] "I mean, get him away! [169] He's coming down with asteroid fever!" [170] "Of course," replied Harvey calmly. [171] "Any fool knows the first symptoms of the disease that once scourged the universe." [172] "What do you mean, once ?" [173] demanded Johnson. [174] "I come down with it every year, and I ain't hankering to have it in an off-season. [175] Get him out of here!" [176] "In good time. [177] He can't be moved immediately." [178] "Then he'll be here for months!" [179] Harvey helped Joe to the counter and lifted him up on it. [180] The mayor and his gigantic offspring were cowering across the room, trying to breathe in tiny, uncontaminating gasps. [181] "You'll find everything you want in the back room," Johnson said frantically, "sulfopyridine, mustard plasters, rubs, inhalers, suction cups—" "Relics of the past," Harvey stated. [182] "One medication is all modern man requires to combat the dread menace, asteroid fever." [183] "What's that?" [184] asked the mayor without conviction. [185] Instead of replying, Harvey hurried outside to the ungainly second-hand rocket ship in the center of the shabby spaceport. [186] He returned within a few minutes, carrying a bottle. [187] Joe was still stretched out on the bar, panting, his eyes slowly crossing and uncrossing. [188] Harvey lifted the patient's head tenderly, put the bottle to his lips and tilted it until he was forced to drink. [189] When Joe tried to pull away, Harvey was inexorable. [190] He made his partner drink until most of the liquid was gone. [191] Then he stepped back and waited for the inevitable result. [192] Joe's performance was better than ever. [193] He lay supine for several moments, his face twisted into an expression that seemed doomed to perpetual wryness. [194] Slowly, however, he sat up and his features straightened out. [195] "Are—are you all right?" [196] asked the mayor anxiously. [197] "Much better," said Joe in a weak voice. [198] "Maybe you need another dose," Harvey suggested. [199] Joe recoiled. [200] "I'm fine now!" [201] he cried, and sprang off the bar to prove it. [202] Astonished, Johnson and his son drew closer. [203] They searched Joe's face, and then the mayor timidly felt his pulse. [204] "Well, I'll be hanged!" [205] Johnson ejaculated. " [206] La-anago Yergis never fails, my friend," Harvey explained. [207] "By actual test, it conquers asteroid fever in from four to twenty-three minutes, depending on the severity of the attack. [208] Luckily, we caught this one before it grew formidable." [209] The mayor's eyes became clouded mirrors of an inward conflict. [210] "If you don't charge too much," he said warily, "I might think of buying some." [211] "We do not sell this unbelievable remedy," Harvey replied with dignity. [212] "It sells itself." [213] "'Course, I'd expect a considerable reduction if I bought a whole case," said Johnson. [214] "That would be the smallest investment you could make, compared with the vast loss of time and strength the fever involves." [215] "How much?" [216] asked the mayor unhappily. [217] "For you, since you have taken us in so hospitably, a mere five hundred buckos." [218] Johnson did not actually stagger back, but he gave the impression of doing so. [219] "F-four hundred," he offered. [220] "Not a red cent less than four seventy-five," Harvey said flatly. [221] "Make it four fifty," quavered Johnson. [222] "I dislike haggling," said Harvey. [223] The final price, however, was four hundred and sixty-nine buckos and fifty redsents. [224] Magnanimously, Harvey added: "And we will include, gratis , an elegant bottle-opener, a superb product of Mercurian handicraftsmanship." [225] Johnson stabbed out a warning finger. [226] "No tricks now. [227] I want a taste of that stuff. [228] You're not switching some worthless junk on me." [229] Harvey took a glass from the bar and poured him a generous sample. [230] The mayor sniffed it, grimaced, then threw it down his gullet. [231] The ensuing minute saw a grim battle between a man and his stomach, a battle which the man gradually won. [232] "There ain't no words for that taste," he gulped when it was safe to talk again. [233] "Medicine," Harvey propounded, "should taste like medicine." [234] To Joe he said: "Come, my esteemed colleague. [235] We must perform the sacred task to which we have dedicated ourselves." [236] With Joe stumbling along behind, he left the saloon, crossed the clearing and entered the ship. [237] As soon as they were inside, Joe dropped his murderous silence and cried: "What kind of a dirty trick was that, giving me poison instead of that snake oil?" [238] "That was not poison," Harvey contradicted quietly. [239] "It was La-anago Yergis extract, plus." [240] "Plus what—arsenic?" [241] "Now, Joseph! [242] Consider my quandary when I came back here to manufacture our specific for all known ailments, with the intention of selling yonder asteroidal tin-horn a bill of medical goods—an entire case, mind you. [243] Was I to mix the extract with the water for which we had been swindled to the tune of ten buckos a liter? [244] Where would our profit have been, then? [245] No; I had to use the bitter free water, of course." [246] "But why use it on me?" [247] Joe demanded furiously. [248] Harvey looked reprovingly at his gangling partner. [249] "Did Johnson ask to taste it, or did he not? [250] One must look ahead, Joseph. [251] I had to produce the same medicine that we will now manufacture. [252] Thus, you were a guinea pig for a splendid cause." [253] "Okay, okay," Joe said. [254] "But you shoulda charged him more." [255] "Joseph, I promise you that we shall get back every redsent of which that swindler cheated us, besides whatever other funds or valuables he possesses. [256] We could not be content with less." [257] "Well, we're starting all right," admitted Joe. [258] "How about that thing with six arms? [259] He looks like a valuable. [260] Can't we grab him off?" [261] Harvey stopped filling bottles and looked up pensively. [262] "I have every hope of luring away the profitable monstrosity. [263] Apparently you have also surmised the fortune we could make with him. [264] At first I purpose to exhibit him on our interplanetary tours with our streamlined panacea; he would be a spectacular attraction for bucolic suckers. [265] Later, a brief period of demonstrating his abilities on the audio-visiphone. [266] Then our triumph—we shall sell him at a stupendous figure to the zoo!" [267] Joe was still dazed by that monetary vista when he and Harvey carried the case of medicine to the saloon. [268] The mayor had already cleared a place of honor in the cluttered back room, where he told them to put it down carefully. [269] Then he took the elaborate bottle-opener Harvey gave him, reverently uncorked a bottle and sampled it. [270] It must have been at least as good as the first; he gagged. [271] "That's the stuff, all right," he said, swallowing hard. [272] He counted out the money into Harvey's hand, at a moderate rate that precariously balanced between his pleasure at getting the fever remedy and his pain at paying for it. [273] Then he glanced out to see the position of Jupiter, and asked: "You gents eaten yet? [274] The restaurant's open now." [275] Harvey and Joe looked at each other. [276] They hadn't been thinking about food at all, but suddenly they realized that they were hungry. [277] "It's only water we were short of," Harvey said apprehensively. [278] "We've got rations back at the ship." [279] " H-mph! " [280] the mayor grunted. [281] "Powdered concentrates. [282] Compressed pap. [283] Suit yourselves. [284] We treat our stomachs better here. [285] And you're welcome to our hospitality." [286] "Your hospitality," said Harvey, "depends on the prices you charge." [287] "Well, if that's what's worrying you, you can stop worrying," answered the mayor promptly. [288] "What's more, the kind of dinner I serve here you can't get anywhere else for any price." [289] Swiftly, Harvey conned the possibilities of being bilked again. [290] He saw none. [291] "Let's take a look at the menu, anyhow, Joe," he said guardedly. [292] Johnson immediately fell into the role of "mine host." [293] "Come right in, gents," he invited. [294] "Right into the dining room." [295] He seated them at a table, which a rope tied between posts made more or less private, though nobody else was in the saloon and there was little chance of company. [296] Genius, the six-armed native, appeared from the dingy kitchen with two menus in one hand, two glasses of water in another, plus napkins, silverware, a pitcher, plates, saucers, cups, and their cocktails, which were on the house. [297] Then he stood by for orders. [298] Harvey and Joe studied the menu critically. [299] The prices were phenomenally low. [300] When they glanced up at Johnson in perplexity, he grinned, bowed and asked: "Everything satisfactory, gents?" [301] "Quite," said Harvey. [302] "We shall order." [303] For an hour they were served amazing dishes, both fresh and canned, the culinary wealth of this planetoid and all the system. [304] And the service was as extraordinary as the meal itself. [305] With four hands, Genius played deftly upon a pair of mellow Venusian viotars , using his other two hands for waiting on the table. [306] "We absolutely must purchase this incredible specimen," Harvey whispered excitedly when Johnson and the native were both in the kitchen, attending to the next course. [307] "He would make any society hostess's season a riotous success, which should be worth a great sum to women like Mrs. van Schuyler-Morgan, merely for his hire." [308] "Think of a fast one fast," Joe agreed. [309] "You're right." [310] "But I dislike having to revise my opinion of a man so often," complained Harvey. [311] "I wish Johnson would stay either swindler or honest merchant. [312] This dinner is worth as least twenty buckos, yet I estimate our check at a mere bucko twenty redsents." [313] The mayor's appearance prevented them from continuing the discussion. [314] "It's been a great honor, gents," he said. [315] "Ain't often I have visitors, and I like the best, like you two gents." [316] As if on cue, Genius came out and put the check down between Joe and Harvey. [317] Harvey picked it up negligently, but his casual air vanished in a yelp of horror. [318] "What the devil is this?" [319] he shouted.—"How do you arrive at this fantastic, idiotic figure— three hundred and twenty-eight buckos !" [320] Johnson didn't answer. [321] Neither did Genius; he simply put on the table, not a fingerbowl, but a magnifying glass. [322] With one of his thirty fingers he pointed politely to the bottom of the menu. [323] Harvey focused on the microscopic print, and his face went pasty with rage. [324] The minute note read: "Services and entertainment, 327 buckos 80 redsents." [325] "You can go to hell!" [326] Joe growled. [327] "We won't pay it!" [328] Johnson sighed ponderously. [329] "I was afraid you'd act like that," he said with regret. [330] He pulled a tin badge out of his rear pocket, pinned it on his vest, and twisted his holstered gun into view. [331] "Afraid I'll have to ask the sheriff to take over." [332] Johnson, the "sheriff," collected the money, and Johnson, the "restaurateur," pocketed it. [333] Meanwhile, Harvey tipped Joe the sign to remain calm. [334] "My friend," he said to the mayor, and his tones took on a schoolmasterish severity, "your long absence from Earth has perhaps made you forget those elements of human wisdom that have entered the folk-lore of your native planet. [335] Such as, for example: 'It is folly to kill a goose that lays golden eggs,' and 'Penny wise is pound foolish.'" [336] "I don't get the connection," objected Johnson. [337] "Well, by obliging us to pay such a high price for your dinner, you put out of your reach the chance of profiting from a really substantial deal. [338] My partner and I were prepared to make you a sizable offer for the peculiar creature you call Genius. [339] But by reducing our funds the way you have—" "Who said I wanted to sell him?" [340] the mayor interrupted. [341] He rubbed his fingers together and asked disinterestedly: "What were you going to offer, anyhow?" [342] "It doesn't matter any longer," Harvey said with elaborate carelessness. [343] "Perhaps you wouldn't have accepted it, anyway." [344] "That's right," Johnson came back emphatically. [345] "But what would your offer have been which I would have turned down?" [346] "Which one? [347] The one we were going to make, or the one we can make now?" [348] "Either one. [349] It don't make no difference. [350] Genius is too valuable to sell." [351] "Oh, come now, Mr. Johnson. [352] Don't tell me no amount of money would tempt you!" [353] "Nope. [354] But how much did you say?" [355] "Ah, then you will consider releasing Genius!" [356] "Well, I'll tell you something," said the mayor confidentially. [357] "When you've got one thing, you've got one thing. [358] But when you've got money, it's the same as having a lot of things. [359] Because, if you've got money, you can buy this and that and this and that and—" "This and that," concluded Joe. [360] "We'll give you five hundred buckos." [361] "Now, gents!" [362] Johnson remonstrated. [363] "Why, six hundred would hardly—" "You haven't left us much money," Harvey put in. [364] The mayor frowned. [365] "All right, we'll split the difference. [366] Make it five-fifty." [367] Harvey was quick to pay out, for this was a genuine windfall. [368] Then he stood up and admired the astonishing possession he had so inexpensively acquired. [369] "I really hate to deprive you of this unique creature," he said to Johnson. [370] "I should imagine you will be rather lonely, with only your filial mammoth to keep you company." [371] "I sure will," Johnson confessed glumly. [372] "I got pretty attached to Genius, and I'm going to miss him something awful." [373] Harvey forcibly removed his eyes from the native, who was clearing off the table almost all at once. [374] "My friend," he said, "we take your only solace, it is true, but in his place we can offer something no less amazing and instructive." [375] The mayor's hand went protectively to his pocket. [376] "What is it?" [377] he asked with the suspicion of a man who has seen human nature at its worst and expects nothing better. [378] "Joseph, get our most prized belonging from the communications room of the ship," Harvey instructed. [379] To Johnson he explained: "You must see the wondrous instrument before its value can be appreciated. [380] My partner will soon have it here for your astonishment." [381] Joe's face grew as glum as Johnson's had been. [382] "Aw, Harv," he protested, "do we have to sell it? [383] And right when I thought we were getting the key!" [384] "We must not be selfish, my boy," Harvey said nobly. [385] "We have had our chance; now we must relinquish Fate to the hands of a man who might have more success than we. [386] Go, Joseph. [387] Bring it here." [388] Unwillingly, Joe turned and shuffled out. [389] On a larger and heavier world than Planetoid 42, Johnson's curiosity would probably have had weight and mass. [390] He was bursting with questions, but he was obviously afraid they would cost him money. [391] For his part, Harvey allowed that curiosity to grow like a Venusian amoeba until Joe came in, lugging a radio. [392] "Is that what you were talking about?" [393] the mayor snorted. [394] "What makes you think I want a radio? [395] I came here to get away from singers and political speech-makers." [396] "Do not jump to hasty conclusions," Harvey cautioned. [397] "Another word, and I shall refuse you the greatest opportunity any man has ever had, with the sole exceptions of Joseph, myself and the unfortunate inventor of this absolutely awe-inspiring device." [398] "I ain't in the market for a radio," Johnson said stubbornly. [399] Harvey nodded in relief. [400] "We have attempted to repay our host, Joseph. [401] He has spurned our generosity. [402] We have now the chance to continue our study, which I am positive will soon reward us with the key to an enormous fortune." [403] "Well, that's no plating off our bow," Joe grunted. [404] "I'm glad he did turn it down. [405] I hated to give it up after working on it for three whole years." [406] He picked up the radio and began walking toward the door. [407] "Now, hold on!" [408] the mayor cried. [409] "I ain't saying I'll buy, but what is it I'm turning down?" [410] Joe returned and set the instrument down on the bar. [411] His face sorrowful, Harvey fondly stroked the scarred plasticoid cabinet. [412] "To make a long story, Mr. Johnson," he said, "Joseph and I were among the chosen few who knew the famous Doctor Dean intimately. [413] Just before his tragic death, you will recall, Dean allegedly went insane." [414] He banged his fist on the bar. [415] "I have said it before, and I repeat again, that was a malicious lie, spread by the doctor's enemies to discredit his greatest invention—this fourth dimensional radio!" [416] "This what?" [417] Johnson blurted out. [418] "In simple terms," clarified Harvey, "the ingenious doctor discovered that the yawning chasm between the dimensions could be bridged by energy of all quanta. [419] There has never been any question that the inhabitants of the super-dimension would be far more civilized than ourselves. [420] Consequently, the man who could tap their knowledge would find himself in possession of a powerful, undreamt-of science!" [421] The mayor looked respectfully at the silent box on the bar. [422] "And this thing gets broadcasts from the fourth dimension?" [423] "It does, Mr. Johnson! [424] Only charlatans like those who envied Doctor Dean's magnificent accomplishments could deny that fact." [425] The mayor put his hands in his pockets, unswiveled one hip and stared thoughtfully at the battered cabinet. [426] "Well, let's say it picks up fourth dimensional broadcasts," he conceded. [427] "But how could you understand what they're saying? [428] Folks up there wouldn't talk our language." [429] Again Harvey smashed his fist down. [430] "Do you dare to repeat the scurvy lie that broke Dean's spirit and drove him to suicide?" [431] Johnson recoiled. [432] "No—no, of course not . [433] I mean, being up here, I naturally couldn't get all the details." [434] "Naturally," Harvey agreed, mollified. [435] "I'm sorry I lost my temper. [436] But it is a matter of record that the doctor proved the broadcasts emanating from the super-dimension were in English! [437] Why should that be so difficult to believe? [438] Is it impossible that at one time there was communication between the dimensions, that the super-beings admired our language and adopted it in all its beauty, adding to it their own hyper-scientific trimmings?" [439] "Why, I don't know," Johnson said in confusion. [440] "For three years, Joseph and I lost sleep and hair, trying to detect the simple key that would translate the somewhat metamorphosed broadcasts into our primitive English. [441] It eluded us. [442] Even the doctor failed. [443] But that was understandable; a sensitive soul like his could stand only so much. [444] And the combination of ridicule and failure to solve the mystery caused him to take his own life." [445] Johnson winced. [446] "Is that what you want to unload on me?" [447] "For a very good reason, sir. [448] Patience is the virtue that will be rewarded with the key to these fourth dimensional broadcasts. [449] A man who could devote his life to improving this lonely worldlet is obviously a person with unusual patience." [450] "Yeah," the mayor said grudgingly, "I ain't exactly flighty." [451] "Therefore, you are the man who could unravel the problem!" [452] Johnson asked skeptically: "How about a sample first?" [453] Harvey turned a knob on the face of the scarred radio. [454] After several squeals of spatial figures, a smooth voice began: "There are omnious pleajes of moby-hailegs in sonmirand which, howgraismon, are notch to be donfured miss ellasellabell in either or both hagasanipaj, by all means. [455] This does not refly, on the brother man, nat or mizzafil saces are denuded by this ossifaligo...." Harvey switched off the set determinedly. [456] "Wait a minute!" [457] Johnson begged. [458] "I almost got it then!" [459] "I dislike being commercial," said Harvey, "but this astounding device still belongs to us. [460] Would we not be foolish to let you discover the clue before purchasing the right to do so?" [461] The mayor nodded indecisively, looking at the radio with agonized longing. [462] "How much do you want?" [463] he asked unhappily. [464] "One thousand buckos, and no haggling. [465] I am not in the mood." [466] Johnson opened his mouth to argue; then, seeing Harvey's set features, paid with the worst possible grace. [467] "Don't you think we ought to tell him about the batteries, Harv?" [468] Joe asked. [469] "What about the batteries?" [470] demanded Johnson with deadly calm. [471] "A very small matter," Harvey said airily. [472] "You see, we have been analyzing these broadcasts for three years. [473] In that time, of course, the batteries are bound to weaken. [474] I estimate these should last not less than one Terrestrial month, at the very least." [475] "What do I do then?" [476] Harvey shrugged. [477] "Special batteries are required, which I see Joseph has by chance brought along. [478] For the batteries, the only ones of their kind left in the system, I ask only what they cost—one hundred and ninety-nine buckos, no more and, on the other hand, no less." [479] Johnson was breathing hard, and his hand hovered dangerously near his gun. [480] But he paid the amount Harvey wanted. [481] Moreover, he actually shook hands when the two panacea purveyors collected their six-armed prize and said goodbye. [482] Before they were outside, however, he had turned on the radio and was listening tensely to a woman's highly cultured, though rather angry voice, saying: "Oh, you hannaforge are all beasa-taga-sanimort. [483] If you rue amount it, how do you respench a pure woman to ansver go-samak—" "I'll get it!" [484] they heard Johnson mutter. [485] Then the sound of giant feet crossing the barroom floor reached their ears, and a shrill question: "What's that, Papa?" [486] "A fortune, Jed! [487] Those fakers are damned fools, selling us a thing like—" Joe gazed at Harvey admiringly. [488] "Another one sold? [489] Harv, that spiel pulls them in like an ether storm!" [490] Together with the remarkable planetoid man, they reached the ship. [491] Above them, dark, tumbling shapes blotted out the stars and silently moved on. [492] Joe opened the gangway door. [493] "Come on in, pal," he said to Genius. [494] "We're shoving off." [495] The planetoid man grinned foolishly. [496] "Can't go arong with you," he said with an apologetic manner. [497] "I rike to, but pressure fratten me out if I go." [498] "What in solar blazes are you talking about?" [499] Harvey asked. [500] "I grow up on pranetoid," Genius explained. [501] "On big pranet, too much pressure for me." [502] The two salesmen looked narrowly at each other. [503] "Did Johnson know that when he sold you?" [504] Joe snarled. [505] "Oh, sure." [506] The silly grin became wider than ever. [507] "Peopre from Earth buy me rots of times. [508] I never reave pranetoid, though." [509] "Joseph," Harvey said ominously, "that slick colonist has put one over upon us. [510] What is our customary procedure in that event?" [511] "We tear him apart," Joe replied between his teeth. [512] "Not Mister Johnson," advised Genius. [513] "Have gun and badge. [514] He shoot you first and then rock you up in prison." [515] Harvey paused, his ominous air vanishing. [516] "True. [517] There is also the fact, Joseph, that when he discovers the scrambled rectifier in the radio we sold him, he will have been paid back in full for his regrettable dishonesty." [518] Unwillingly, Joe agreed. [519] While Genius retreated to a safe distance, they entered the ship and blasted off. [520] Within a few minutes the automatic steering pilot had maneuvered them above the plane of the asteroid belt. [521] "I got kind of dizzy," Joe said, "there were so many deals back and forth. [522] How much did we make on the sucker?" [523] "A goodly amount, I wager," Harvey responded. [524] He took out a pencil and paper. [525] "Medicine, 469.50; radio, 1,000; batteries, 199. [526] Total—let's see—1668 buckos and 50 redsents. [527] A goodly sum, as I told you." [528] He emptied his pockets of money, spread it out on the astrogation table and began counting. [529] Finished, he looked up, troubled. [530] "How much did we have when we landed, Joseph?" [531] "Exactly 1668 buckos," Joe answered promptly. [532] "I can't understand it," said Harvey. [533] "Instead of double our capital, we now have only 1668 buckos and 50 redsents!" [534] Feverishly, he returned to his pencil and paper. [535] "Drinking water, 790; battery water, free; meal, 328; planetoid man, 550. [536] Total: 1668 buckos!" [537] He stared at the figures. [538] "We paid out almost as much as we took in," he said bitterly. [539] "Despite our intensive efforts, we made the absurd sum of fifty redsents." [540] "Why, the dirty crook!" [541] Joe growled. [542] But after a few moments of sad reflection, Harvey became philosophical. [543] "Perhaps, Joseph, we are more fortunate than we realize. [544] We were, after all, completely in Johnson's power. [545] The more I ponder, the more I believe we were lucky to escape. [546] And, anyhow, we did make fifty redsents on the swindler. [547] A moral victory, my boy." [548] Joe, who had been sunk desparingly into a chair, now stood up slowly and asked: "Remember that bottle-opener we gave him?" [549] "Certainly," Harvey explained. [550] "What about it?" [551] "How much did it cost us?" [552] Harvey's eyebrows puckered. [553] Suddenly he started laughing. [554] "You're right, Joseph. [555] We paid forty-six redsents for it on Venus. [556] So, after all that transacting of business, we made four redsents!" [557] "Four redsents, hell!" [558] Joe snapped. [559] "That was the sales tax!" [560] He glared; then a smile lifted his mouth. [561] "You remember those yokels on Mars' Flatlands, and the way they worshipped gold?" [562] " Goldbricks! " [563] Harvey said succinctly. [564] Grinning, Joe set the robot-controls for Mars.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the significance of Genius?": 1. [307] "We absolutely must purchase this incredible specimen," Harvey whispered excitedly when Johnson and the native were both in the kitchen, attending to the next course. "He would make any society hostess's season a riotous success, which should be worth a great sum to women like Mrs. van Schuyler-Morgan, merely for his hire." 2. [308] "Think of a fast one fast," Joe agreed. 3. [309] "You're right." 4. [495] "Come on in, pal," he said to Genius. "We're shoving off." 5. [496] The planetoid man grinned foolishly. "Can't go arong with you," he said with an apologetic manner. "I rike to, but pressure fratten me out if I go." 6. [497] "I grow up on pranetoid," Genius explained. "On big pranet, too much pressure for me." 7. [498] "What in solar blazes are you talking about?" 8. [499] Harvey asked. 9. [500] "I grow up on pranetoid," Genius explained. "On big pranet, too much pressure for me." 10. [501] "I rike to, but pressure fratten me out if I go." 11. [502] The two salesmen looked narrowly at each other. 12. [503] "Did Johnson know that when he sold you?" 13. [504] Joe snarled. 14. [505] "Oh, sure." 15. [506] The silly grin became wider than ever. 16. [507] "Peopre from Earth buy me rots of times. I never reave pranetoid, though." 17. [508] "Joseph," Harvey said ominously, "that slick colonist has put one over upon us. What is our customary procedure in that event?" 18. [509] "We tear him apart," Joe replied between his teeth. 19. [510] "Not Mister Johnson," advised Genius. "Have gun and badge. He shoot you first and then rock you up in prison." 20. [511] "True. There is also the fact, Joseph, that when he discovers the scrambled rectifier in the radio we sold him, he will have been paid back in full for his regrettable dishonesty." 21. [512] Unwillingly, Joe agreed. 22. [513] While Genius retreated to a safe distance, they entered the ship and blasted off.

How does Johnson demonstrate that he's a formidable opponent to Joe and Harvey?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net GRIFTERS' ASTEROID By H. L. GOLD Harvey and Joe were the slickest con-men ever to gyp a space-lane sucker. [2] Or so they thought! [3] Angus Johnson knew differently. [4] He charged them five buckos for a glass of water—and got it! [5] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. [6] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [7] Characteristically, Harvey Ellsworth tried to maintain his dignity, though his parched tongue was almost hanging out. [8] But Joe Mallon, with no dignity to maintain, lurched across the rubbish-strewn patch of land that had been termed a spaceport. [9] When Harvey staggered pontifically into the battered metalloy saloon—the only one on Planetoid 42—his tall, gangling partner was already stumbling out, mouthing something incoherent. [10] They met in the doorway, violently. [11] "We're delirious!" [12] Joe cried. [13] "It's a mirage!" [14] "What is?" [15] asked Harvey through a mouthful of cotton. [16] Joe reeled aside, and Harvey saw what had upset his partner. [17] He stared, speechless for once. [18] In their hectic voyages from planet to planet, the pair of panacea purveyors had encountered the usual strange life-forms. [19] But never had they seen anything like the amazing creature in that colonial saloon. [20] Paying no attention to them, it was carrying a case of liquor in two hands, six siphons in two others, and a broom and dustpan in the remaining pair. [21] The bartender, a big man resembling the plumpish Harvey in build, was leaning negligently on the counter, ordering this impossible being to fill the partly-emptied bottles, squeeze fruit juice and sweep the floor, all of which the native did simultaneously. [22] "Nonsense," Harvey croaked uncertainly. [23] "We have seen enough queer things to know there are always more." [24] He led the way inside. [25] Through thirst-cracked lips he rasped: "Water—quick!" [26] Without a word, the bartender reached under the counter, brought out two glasses of water. [27] The interplanetary con-men drank noisily, asked for more, until they had drunk eight glasses. [28] Meanwhile, the bartender had taken out eight jiggers and filled them with whiskey. [29] Harvey and Joe were breathing hard from having gulped the water so fast, but they were beginning to revive. [30] They noticed the bartender's impersonal eyes studying them shrewdly. [31] "Strangers, eh?" [32] he asked at last. [33] "Solar salesmen, my colonial friend," Harvey answered in his usual lush manner. [34] "We purvey that renowned Martian remedy, La-anago Yergis , the formula for which was recently discovered by ourselves in the ancient ruined city of La-anago. [35] Medical science is unanimous in proclaiming this magic medicine the sole panacea in the entire history of therapeutics." [36] "Yeah?" [37] said the bartender disinterestedly, polishing the chaser glasses without washing them. [38] "Where you heading?" [39] "Out of Mars for Ganymede. [40] Our condenser broke down, and we've gone without water for five ghastly days." [41] "Got a mechanic around this dumping ground you call a port?" [42] Joe asked. [43] "We did. [44] He came near starving and moved on to Titan. [45] Ships don't land here unless they're in trouble." [46] "Then where's the water lead-in? [47] We'll fill up and push off." [48] "Mayor takes care of that," replied the saloon owner. [49] "If you gents're finished at the bar, your drinks'll be forty buckos." [50] Harvey grinned puzzledly. [51] "We didn't take any whiskey." [52] "Might as well. [53] Water's five buckos a glass. [54] Liquor's free with every chaser." [55] Harvey's eyes bulged. [56] Joe gulped. [57] "That—that's robbery!" [58] the lanky man managed to get out in a thin quaver. [59] The barkeeper shrugged. [60] "When there ain't many customers, you gotta make more on each one. [61] Besides—" "Besides nothing!" [62] Joe roared, finding his voice again. [63] "You dirty crook—robbing poor spacemen! [64] You—" "You dirty crook!" [65] Joe roared. [66] "Robbing honest spacemen!" [67] Harvey nudged him warningly. [68] "Easy, my boy, easy." [69] He turned to the bartender apologetically. [70] "Don't mind my friend. [71] His adrenal glands are sometimes overactive. [72] You were going to say—?" [73] The round face of the barkeeper had assumed an aggrieved expression. [74] "Folks are always thinkin' the other feller's out to do 'em," he said, shaking his head. [75] "Lemme explain about the water here. [76] It's bitter as some kinds of sin before it's purified. [77] Have to bring it in with buckets and make it sweet. [78] That takes time and labor. [79] Waddya think—I was chargin' feller critters for water just out of devilment? [80] I charge because I gotta." [81] "Friend," said Harvey, taking out a wallet and counting off eight five-bucko bills, "here is your money. [82] What's fair is fair, and you have put a different complexion on what seemed at first to be an unconscionable interjection of a middleman between Nature and man's thirst." [83] The saloon man removed his dirty apron and came around the bar. [84] "If that's an apology, I accept it. [85] Now the mayor'll discuss filling your tanks. [86] That's me. [87] I'm also justice of the peace, official recorder, fire chief...." "And chief of police, no doubt," said Harvey jocosely. [88] "Nope. [89] That's my son, Jed. [90] Angus Johnson's my name. [91] Folks here just call me Chief. [92] I run this town, and run it right. [93] How much water will you need?" [94] Joe estimated quickly. [95] "About seventy-five liters, if we go on half rations," he answered. [96] He waited apprehensively. [97] "Let's say ten buckos a liter," the mayor said. [98] "On account of the quantity, I'm able to quote a bargain price. [99] Shucks, boys, it hurts me more to charge for water than it does for you to pay. [100] I just got to, that's all." [101] The mayor gestured to the native, who shuffled out to the tanks with them. [102] The planetoid man worked the pump while the mayor intently watched the crude level-gauge, crying "Stop!" [103] when it registered the proper amount. [104] Then Johnson rubbed his thumb on his index finger and wetted his lips expectantly. [105] Harvey bravely counted off the bills. [106] He asked: "But what are we to do about replenishing our battery fluid? [107] Ten buckos a liter would be preposterous. [108] We simply can't afford it." [109] Johnson's response almost floored them. [110] "Who said anything about charging you for battery water? [111] You can have all you want for nothing. [112] It's just the purified stuff that comes so high." [113] After giving them directions that would take them to the free-water pool, the ponderous factotum of Planetoid 42 shook hands and headed back to the saloon. [114] His six-armed assistant followed him inside. [115] "Now do you see, my hot-tempered colleague?" [116] said Harvey as he and Joe picked up buckets that hung on the tank. [117] "Johnson, as I saw instantly, is the victim of a difficult environment, and must charge accordingly." [118] "Just the same," Joe griped, "paying for water isn't something you can get used to in ten minutes." [119] In the fragile forest, they soon came across a stream that sprang from the igneous soil and splashed into the small pond whose contents, according to the mayor, was theirs for the asking. [120] They filled their buckets and hauled them to the ship, then returned for more. [121] It was on the sixth trip that Joe caught a glimpse of Jupiter-shine on a bright surface off to the left. [122] The figure, 750, with the bucko sign in front of it, was still doing acrobatics inside his skull and keeping a faint suspicion alive in him. [123] So he called Harvey and they went to investigate. [124] Among the skimpy ground-crawling vines, they saw a long slender mound that was unmistakably a buried pipe. [125] "What's this doing here?" [126] Harvey asked, puzzled. [127] "I thought Johnson had to transport water in pails." [128] "Wonder where it leads to," Joe said uneasily. [129] "It leads to the saloon," said Harvey, his eyes rapidly tracing the pipe back toward the spaceport. [130] "What I am concerned with is where it leads from ." [131] Five minutes later, panting heavily from the unaccustomed exertion of scrambling through the tangle of planetorial undergrowth, they burst into the open—before a clear, sparkling pool. [132] Mutely, Harvey pointed out a pipe-end jutting under the water. [133] "I am growing suspicious," he said in a rigidly controlled voice. [134] But Joe was already on his knees, scooping up a handful of water and tasting it. [135] "Sweet!" [136] he snarled. [137] They rushed back to the first pool, where Joe again tasted a sample. [138] His mouth went wry. [139] "Bitter! [140] He uses only one pool, the sweet one! [141] The only thing that needs purifying around here is that blasted mayor's conscience." [142] "The asteroidal Poobah has tricked us with a slick come-on," said Harvey slowly. [143] His eyes grew cold. [144] "Joseph, the good-natured artist in me has become a hard and merciless avenger. [145] I shall not rest until we have had the best of this colonial con-man! [146] Watch your cues from this point hence." [147] Fists clenched, the two returned to the saloon. [148] But at the door they stopped and their fists unclenched. [149] "Thought you gents were leaving," the mayor called out, seeing them frozen in the doorway. [150] "Glad you didn't. [151] Now you can meet my son, Jed. [152] Him and me are the whole Earthman population of Johnson City." [153] "You don't need any more," said Harvey, dismayed. [154] Johnson's eight-foot son, topped by a massive roof of sun-bleached hair and held up by a foundation that seemed immovable, had obviously been born and raised in low gravity. [155] For any decent-sized world would have kept him down near the general dimensions of a man. [156] He held out an acre of palm. [157] Harvey studied it worriedly, put his own hand somewhere on it, swallowed as it closed, then breathed again when his fingers were released in five units instead of a single compressed one. [158] "Pleased to meet you," piped a voice that had never known a dense atmosphere. [159] The pursuit of vengeance, Harvey realized, had taken a quick and unpleasant turn. [160] Something shrewd was called for.... [161] "Joseph!" [162] he exclaimed, looking at his partner in alarm. [163] "Don't you feel well?" [164] Even before the others could turn to him, Joe's practiced eyes were gently crossing. [165] He sagged against the door frame, all his features drooping like a bloodhound's. [166] "Bring him in here!" [167] Johnson cried. [168] "I mean, get him away! [169] He's coming down with asteroid fever!" [170] "Of course," replied Harvey calmly. [171] "Any fool knows the first symptoms of the disease that once scourged the universe." [172] "What do you mean, once ?" [173] demanded Johnson. [174] "I come down with it every year, and I ain't hankering to have it in an off-season. [175] Get him out of here!" [176] "In good time. [177] He can't be moved immediately." [178] "Then he'll be here for months!" [179] Harvey helped Joe to the counter and lifted him up on it. [180] The mayor and his gigantic offspring were cowering across the room, trying to breathe in tiny, uncontaminating gasps. [181] "You'll find everything you want in the back room," Johnson said frantically, "sulfopyridine, mustard plasters, rubs, inhalers, suction cups—" "Relics of the past," Harvey stated. [182] "One medication is all modern man requires to combat the dread menace, asteroid fever." [183] "What's that?" [184] asked the mayor without conviction. [185] Instead of replying, Harvey hurried outside to the ungainly second-hand rocket ship in the center of the shabby spaceport. [186] He returned within a few minutes, carrying a bottle. [187] Joe was still stretched out on the bar, panting, his eyes slowly crossing and uncrossing. [188] Harvey lifted the patient's head tenderly, put the bottle to his lips and tilted it until he was forced to drink. [189] When Joe tried to pull away, Harvey was inexorable. [190] He made his partner drink until most of the liquid was gone. [191] Then he stepped back and waited for the inevitable result. [192] Joe's performance was better than ever. [193] He lay supine for several moments, his face twisted into an expression that seemed doomed to perpetual wryness. [194] Slowly, however, he sat up and his features straightened out. [195] "Are—are you all right?" [196] asked the mayor anxiously. [197] "Much better," said Joe in a weak voice. [198] "Maybe you need another dose," Harvey suggested. [199] Joe recoiled. [200] "I'm fine now!" [201] he cried, and sprang off the bar to prove it. [202] Astonished, Johnson and his son drew closer. [203] They searched Joe's face, and then the mayor timidly felt his pulse. [204] "Well, I'll be hanged!" [205] Johnson ejaculated. " [206] La-anago Yergis never fails, my friend," Harvey explained. [207] "By actual test, it conquers asteroid fever in from four to twenty-three minutes, depending on the severity of the attack. [208] Luckily, we caught this one before it grew formidable." [209] The mayor's eyes became clouded mirrors of an inward conflict. [210] "If you don't charge too much," he said warily, "I might think of buying some." [211] "We do not sell this unbelievable remedy," Harvey replied with dignity. [212] "It sells itself." [213] "'Course, I'd expect a considerable reduction if I bought a whole case," said Johnson. [214] "That would be the smallest investment you could make, compared with the vast loss of time and strength the fever involves." [215] "How much?" [216] asked the mayor unhappily. [217] "For you, since you have taken us in so hospitably, a mere five hundred buckos." [218] Johnson did not actually stagger back, but he gave the impression of doing so. [219] "F-four hundred," he offered. [220] "Not a red cent less than four seventy-five," Harvey said flatly. [221] "Make it four fifty," quavered Johnson. [222] "I dislike haggling," said Harvey. [223] The final price, however, was four hundred and sixty-nine buckos and fifty redsents. [224] Magnanimously, Harvey added: "And we will include, gratis , an elegant bottle-opener, a superb product of Mercurian handicraftsmanship." [225] Johnson stabbed out a warning finger. [226] "No tricks now. [227] I want a taste of that stuff. [228] You're not switching some worthless junk on me." [229] Harvey took a glass from the bar and poured him a generous sample. [230] The mayor sniffed it, grimaced, then threw it down his gullet. [231] The ensuing minute saw a grim battle between a man and his stomach, a battle which the man gradually won. [232] "There ain't no words for that taste," he gulped when it was safe to talk again. [233] "Medicine," Harvey propounded, "should taste like medicine." [234] To Joe he said: "Come, my esteemed colleague. [235] We must perform the sacred task to which we have dedicated ourselves." [236] With Joe stumbling along behind, he left the saloon, crossed the clearing and entered the ship. [237] As soon as they were inside, Joe dropped his murderous silence and cried: "What kind of a dirty trick was that, giving me poison instead of that snake oil?" [238] "That was not poison," Harvey contradicted quietly. [239] "It was La-anago Yergis extract, plus." [240] "Plus what—arsenic?" [241] "Now, Joseph! [242] Consider my quandary when I came back here to manufacture our specific for all known ailments, with the intention of selling yonder asteroidal tin-horn a bill of medical goods—an entire case, mind you. [243] Was I to mix the extract with the water for which we had been swindled to the tune of ten buckos a liter? [244] Where would our profit have been, then? [245] No; I had to use the bitter free water, of course." [246] "But why use it on me?" [247] Joe demanded furiously. [248] Harvey looked reprovingly at his gangling partner. [249] "Did Johnson ask to taste it, or did he not? [250] One must look ahead, Joseph. [251] I had to produce the same medicine that we will now manufacture. [252] Thus, you were a guinea pig for a splendid cause." [253] "Okay, okay," Joe said. [254] "But you shoulda charged him more." [255] "Joseph, I promise you that we shall get back every redsent of which that swindler cheated us, besides whatever other funds or valuables he possesses. [256] We could not be content with less." [257] "Well, we're starting all right," admitted Joe. [258] "How about that thing with six arms? [259] He looks like a valuable. [260] Can't we grab him off?" [261] Harvey stopped filling bottles and looked up pensively. [262] "I have every hope of luring away the profitable monstrosity. [263] Apparently you have also surmised the fortune we could make with him. [264] At first I purpose to exhibit him on our interplanetary tours with our streamlined panacea; he would be a spectacular attraction for bucolic suckers. [265] Later, a brief period of demonstrating his abilities on the audio-visiphone. [266] Then our triumph—we shall sell him at a stupendous figure to the zoo!" [267] Joe was still dazed by that monetary vista when he and Harvey carried the case of medicine to the saloon. [268] The mayor had already cleared a place of honor in the cluttered back room, where he told them to put it down carefully. [269] Then he took the elaborate bottle-opener Harvey gave him, reverently uncorked a bottle and sampled it. [270] It must have been at least as good as the first; he gagged. [271] "That's the stuff, all right," he said, swallowing hard. [272] He counted out the money into Harvey's hand, at a moderate rate that precariously balanced between his pleasure at getting the fever remedy and his pain at paying for it. [273] Then he glanced out to see the position of Jupiter, and asked: "You gents eaten yet? [274] The restaurant's open now." [275] Harvey and Joe looked at each other. [276] They hadn't been thinking about food at all, but suddenly they realized that they were hungry. [277] "It's only water we were short of," Harvey said apprehensively. [278] "We've got rations back at the ship." [279] " H-mph! " [280] the mayor grunted. [281] "Powdered concentrates. [282] Compressed pap. [283] Suit yourselves. [284] We treat our stomachs better here. [285] And you're welcome to our hospitality." [286] "Your hospitality," said Harvey, "depends on the prices you charge." [287] "Well, if that's what's worrying you, you can stop worrying," answered the mayor promptly. [288] "What's more, the kind of dinner I serve here you can't get anywhere else for any price." [289] Swiftly, Harvey conned the possibilities of being bilked again. [290] He saw none. [291] "Let's take a look at the menu, anyhow, Joe," he said guardedly. [292] Johnson immediately fell into the role of "mine host." [293] "Come right in, gents," he invited. [294] "Right into the dining room." [295] He seated them at a table, which a rope tied between posts made more or less private, though nobody else was in the saloon and there was little chance of company. [296] Genius, the six-armed native, appeared from the dingy kitchen with two menus in one hand, two glasses of water in another, plus napkins, silverware, a pitcher, plates, saucers, cups, and their cocktails, which were on the house. [297] Then he stood by for orders. [298] Harvey and Joe studied the menu critically. [299] The prices were phenomenally low. [300] When they glanced up at Johnson in perplexity, he grinned, bowed and asked: "Everything satisfactory, gents?" [301] "Quite," said Harvey. [302] "We shall order." [303] For an hour they were served amazing dishes, both fresh and canned, the culinary wealth of this planetoid and all the system. [304] And the service was as extraordinary as the meal itself. [305] With four hands, Genius played deftly upon a pair of mellow Venusian viotars , using his other two hands for waiting on the table. [306] "We absolutely must purchase this incredible specimen," Harvey whispered excitedly when Johnson and the native were both in the kitchen, attending to the next course. [307] "He would make any society hostess's season a riotous success, which should be worth a great sum to women like Mrs. van Schuyler-Morgan, merely for his hire." [308] "Think of a fast one fast," Joe agreed. [309] "You're right." [310] "But I dislike having to revise my opinion of a man so often," complained Harvey. [311] "I wish Johnson would stay either swindler or honest merchant. [312] This dinner is worth as least twenty buckos, yet I estimate our check at a mere bucko twenty redsents." [313] The mayor's appearance prevented them from continuing the discussion. [314] "It's been a great honor, gents," he said. [315] "Ain't often I have visitors, and I like the best, like you two gents." [316] As if on cue, Genius came out and put the check down between Joe and Harvey. [317] Harvey picked it up negligently, but his casual air vanished in a yelp of horror. [318] "What the devil is this?" [319] he shouted.—"How do you arrive at this fantastic, idiotic figure— three hundred and twenty-eight buckos !" [320] Johnson didn't answer. [321] Neither did Genius; he simply put on the table, not a fingerbowl, but a magnifying glass. [322] With one of his thirty fingers he pointed politely to the bottom of the menu. [323] Harvey focused on the microscopic print, and his face went pasty with rage. [324] The minute note read: "Services and entertainment, 327 buckos 80 redsents." [325] "You can go to hell!" [326] Joe growled. [327] "We won't pay it!" [328] Johnson sighed ponderously. [329] "I was afraid you'd act like that," he said with regret. [330] He pulled a tin badge out of his rear pocket, pinned it on his vest, and twisted his holstered gun into view. [331] "Afraid I'll have to ask the sheriff to take over." [332] Johnson, the "sheriff," collected the money, and Johnson, the "restaurateur," pocketed it. [333] Meanwhile, Harvey tipped Joe the sign to remain calm. [334] "My friend," he said to the mayor, and his tones took on a schoolmasterish severity, "your long absence from Earth has perhaps made you forget those elements of human wisdom that have entered the folk-lore of your native planet. [335] Such as, for example: 'It is folly to kill a goose that lays golden eggs,' and 'Penny wise is pound foolish.'" [336] "I don't get the connection," objected Johnson. [337] "Well, by obliging us to pay such a high price for your dinner, you put out of your reach the chance of profiting from a really substantial deal. [338] My partner and I were prepared to make you a sizable offer for the peculiar creature you call Genius. [339] But by reducing our funds the way you have—" "Who said I wanted to sell him?" [340] the mayor interrupted. [341] He rubbed his fingers together and asked disinterestedly: "What were you going to offer, anyhow?" [342] "It doesn't matter any longer," Harvey said with elaborate carelessness. [343] "Perhaps you wouldn't have accepted it, anyway." [344] "That's right," Johnson came back emphatically. [345] "But what would your offer have been which I would have turned down?" [346] "Which one? [347] The one we were going to make, or the one we can make now?" [348] "Either one. [349] It don't make no difference. [350] Genius is too valuable to sell." [351] "Oh, come now, Mr. Johnson. [352] Don't tell me no amount of money would tempt you!" [353] "Nope. [354] But how much did you say?" [355] "Ah, then you will consider releasing Genius!" [356] "Well, I'll tell you something," said the mayor confidentially. [357] "When you've got one thing, you've got one thing. [358] But when you've got money, it's the same as having a lot of things. [359] Because, if you've got money, you can buy this and that and this and that and—" "This and that," concluded Joe. [360] "We'll give you five hundred buckos." [361] "Now, gents!" [362] Johnson remonstrated. [363] "Why, six hundred would hardly—" "You haven't left us much money," Harvey put in. [364] The mayor frowned. [365] "All right, we'll split the difference. [366] Make it five-fifty." [367] Harvey was quick to pay out, for this was a genuine windfall. [368] Then he stood up and admired the astonishing possession he had so inexpensively acquired. [369] "I really hate to deprive you of this unique creature," he said to Johnson. [370] "I should imagine you will be rather lonely, with only your filial mammoth to keep you company." [371] "I sure will," Johnson confessed glumly. [372] "I got pretty attached to Genius, and I'm going to miss him something awful." [373] Harvey forcibly removed his eyes from the native, who was clearing off the table almost all at once. [374] "My friend," he said, "we take your only solace, it is true, but in his place we can offer something no less amazing and instructive." [375] The mayor's hand went protectively to his pocket. [376] "What is it?" [377] he asked with the suspicion of a man who has seen human nature at its worst and expects nothing better. [378] "Joseph, get our most prized belonging from the communications room of the ship," Harvey instructed. [379] To Johnson he explained: "You must see the wondrous instrument before its value can be appreciated. [380] My partner will soon have it here for your astonishment." [381] Joe's face grew as glum as Johnson's had been. [382] "Aw, Harv," he protested, "do we have to sell it? [383] And right when I thought we were getting the key!" [384] "We must not be selfish, my boy," Harvey said nobly. [385] "We have had our chance; now we must relinquish Fate to the hands of a man who might have more success than we. [386] Go, Joseph. [387] Bring it here." [388] Unwillingly, Joe turned and shuffled out. [389] On a larger and heavier world than Planetoid 42, Johnson's curiosity would probably have had weight and mass. [390] He was bursting with questions, but he was obviously afraid they would cost him money. [391] For his part, Harvey allowed that curiosity to grow like a Venusian amoeba until Joe came in, lugging a radio. [392] "Is that what you were talking about?" [393] the mayor snorted. [394] "What makes you think I want a radio? [395] I came here to get away from singers and political speech-makers." [396] "Do not jump to hasty conclusions," Harvey cautioned. [397] "Another word, and I shall refuse you the greatest opportunity any man has ever had, with the sole exceptions of Joseph, myself and the unfortunate inventor of this absolutely awe-inspiring device." [398] "I ain't in the market for a radio," Johnson said stubbornly. [399] Harvey nodded in relief. [400] "We have attempted to repay our host, Joseph. [401] He has spurned our generosity. [402] We have now the chance to continue our study, which I am positive will soon reward us with the key to an enormous fortune." [403] "Well, that's no plating off our bow," Joe grunted. [404] "I'm glad he did turn it down. [405] I hated to give it up after working on it for three whole years." [406] He picked up the radio and began walking toward the door. [407] "Now, hold on!" [408] the mayor cried. [409] "I ain't saying I'll buy, but what is it I'm turning down?" [410] Joe returned and set the instrument down on the bar. [411] His face sorrowful, Harvey fondly stroked the scarred plasticoid cabinet. [412] "To make a long story, Mr. Johnson," he said, "Joseph and I were among the chosen few who knew the famous Doctor Dean intimately. [413] Just before his tragic death, you will recall, Dean allegedly went insane." [414] He banged his fist on the bar. [415] "I have said it before, and I repeat again, that was a malicious lie, spread by the doctor's enemies to discredit his greatest invention—this fourth dimensional radio!" [416] "This what?" [417] Johnson blurted out. [418] "In simple terms," clarified Harvey, "the ingenious doctor discovered that the yawning chasm between the dimensions could be bridged by energy of all quanta. [419] There has never been any question that the inhabitants of the super-dimension would be far more civilized than ourselves. [420] Consequently, the man who could tap their knowledge would find himself in possession of a powerful, undreamt-of science!" [421] The mayor looked respectfully at the silent box on the bar. [422] "And this thing gets broadcasts from the fourth dimension?" [423] "It does, Mr. Johnson! [424] Only charlatans like those who envied Doctor Dean's magnificent accomplishments could deny that fact." [425] The mayor put his hands in his pockets, unswiveled one hip and stared thoughtfully at the battered cabinet. [426] "Well, let's say it picks up fourth dimensional broadcasts," he conceded. [427] "But how could you understand what they're saying? [428] Folks up there wouldn't talk our language." [429] Again Harvey smashed his fist down. [430] "Do you dare to repeat the scurvy lie that broke Dean's spirit and drove him to suicide?" [431] Johnson recoiled. [432] "No—no, of course not . [433] I mean, being up here, I naturally couldn't get all the details." [434] "Naturally," Harvey agreed, mollified. [435] "I'm sorry I lost my temper. [436] But it is a matter of record that the doctor proved the broadcasts emanating from the super-dimension were in English! [437] Why should that be so difficult to believe? [438] Is it impossible that at one time there was communication between the dimensions, that the super-beings admired our language and adopted it in all its beauty, adding to it their own hyper-scientific trimmings?" [439] "Why, I don't know," Johnson said in confusion. [440] "For three years, Joseph and I lost sleep and hair, trying to detect the simple key that would translate the somewhat metamorphosed broadcasts into our primitive English. [441] It eluded us. [442] Even the doctor failed. [443] But that was understandable; a sensitive soul like his could stand only so much. [444] And the combination of ridicule and failure to solve the mystery caused him to take his own life." [445] Johnson winced. [446] "Is that what you want to unload on me?" [447] "For a very good reason, sir. [448] Patience is the virtue that will be rewarded with the key to these fourth dimensional broadcasts. [449] A man who could devote his life to improving this lonely worldlet is obviously a person with unusual patience." [450] "Yeah," the mayor said grudgingly, "I ain't exactly flighty." [451] "Therefore, you are the man who could unravel the problem!" [452] Johnson asked skeptically: "How about a sample first?" [453] Harvey turned a knob on the face of the scarred radio. [454] After several squeals of spatial figures, a smooth voice began: "There are omnious pleajes of moby-hailegs in sonmirand which, howgraismon, are notch to be donfured miss ellasellabell in either or both hagasanipaj, by all means. [455] This does not refly, on the brother man, nat or mizzafil saces are denuded by this ossifaligo...." Harvey switched off the set determinedly. [456] "Wait a minute!" [457] Johnson begged. [458] "I almost got it then!" [459] "I dislike being commercial," said Harvey, "but this astounding device still belongs to us. [460] Would we not be foolish to let you discover the clue before purchasing the right to do so?" [461] The mayor nodded indecisively, looking at the radio with agonized longing. [462] "How much do you want?" [463] he asked unhappily. [464] "One thousand buckos, and no haggling. [465] I am not in the mood." [466] Johnson opened his mouth to argue; then, seeing Harvey's set features, paid with the worst possible grace. [467] "Don't you think we ought to tell him about the batteries, Harv?" [468] Joe asked. [469] "What about the batteries?" [470] demanded Johnson with deadly calm. [471] "A very small matter," Harvey said airily. [472] "You see, we have been analyzing these broadcasts for three years. [473] In that time, of course, the batteries are bound to weaken. [474] I estimate these should last not less than one Terrestrial month, at the very least." [475] "What do I do then?" [476] Harvey shrugged. [477] "Special batteries are required, which I see Joseph has by chance brought along. [478] For the batteries, the only ones of their kind left in the system, I ask only what they cost—one hundred and ninety-nine buckos, no more and, on the other hand, no less." [479] Johnson was breathing hard, and his hand hovered dangerously near his gun. [480] But he paid the amount Harvey wanted. [481] Moreover, he actually shook hands when the two panacea purveyors collected their six-armed prize and said goodbye. [482] Before they were outside, however, he had turned on the radio and was listening tensely to a woman's highly cultured, though rather angry voice, saying: "Oh, you hannaforge are all beasa-taga-sanimort. [483] If you rue amount it, how do you respench a pure woman to ansver go-samak—" "I'll get it!" [484] they heard Johnson mutter. [485] Then the sound of giant feet crossing the barroom floor reached their ears, and a shrill question: "What's that, Papa?" [486] "A fortune, Jed! [487] Those fakers are damned fools, selling us a thing like—" Joe gazed at Harvey admiringly. [488] "Another one sold? [489] Harv, that spiel pulls them in like an ether storm!" [490] Together with the remarkable planetoid man, they reached the ship. [491] Above them, dark, tumbling shapes blotted out the stars and silently moved on. [492] Joe opened the gangway door. [493] "Come on in, pal," he said to Genius. [494] "We're shoving off." [495] The planetoid man grinned foolishly. [496] "Can't go arong with you," he said with an apologetic manner. [497] "I rike to, but pressure fratten me out if I go." [498] "What in solar blazes are you talking about?" [499] Harvey asked. [500] "I grow up on pranetoid," Genius explained. [501] "On big pranet, too much pressure for me." [502] The two salesmen looked narrowly at each other. [503] "Did Johnson know that when he sold you?" [504] Joe snarled. [505] "Oh, sure." [506] The silly grin became wider than ever. [507] "Peopre from Earth buy me rots of times. [508] I never reave pranetoid, though." [509] "Joseph," Harvey said ominously, "that slick colonist has put one over upon us. [510] What is our customary procedure in that event?" [511] "We tear him apart," Joe replied between his teeth. [512] "Not Mister Johnson," advised Genius. [513] "Have gun and badge. [514] He shoot you first and then rock you up in prison." [515] Harvey paused, his ominous air vanishing. [516] "True. [517] There is also the fact, Joseph, that when he discovers the scrambled rectifier in the radio we sold him, he will have been paid back in full for his regrettable dishonesty." [518] Unwillingly, Joe agreed. [519] While Genius retreated to a safe distance, they entered the ship and blasted off. [520] Within a few minutes the automatic steering pilot had maneuvered them above the plane of the asteroid belt. [521] "I got kind of dizzy," Joe said, "there were so many deals back and forth. [522] How much did we make on the sucker?" [523] "A goodly amount, I wager," Harvey responded. [524] He took out a pencil and paper. [525] "Medicine, 469.50; radio, 1,000; batteries, 199. [526] Total—let's see—1668 buckos and 50 redsents. [527] A goodly sum, as I told you." [528] He emptied his pockets of money, spread it out on the astrogation table and began counting. [529] Finished, he looked up, troubled. [530] "How much did we have when we landed, Joseph?" [531] "Exactly 1668 buckos," Joe answered promptly. [532] "I can't understand it," said Harvey. [533] "Instead of double our capital, we now have only 1668 buckos and 50 redsents!" [534] Feverishly, he returned to his pencil and paper. [535] "Drinking water, 790; battery water, free; meal, 328; planetoid man, 550. [536] Total: 1668 buckos!" [537] He stared at the figures. [538] "We paid out almost as much as we took in," he said bitterly. [539] "Despite our intensive efforts, we made the absurd sum of fifty redsents." [540] "Why, the dirty crook!" [541] Joe growled. [542] But after a few moments of sad reflection, Harvey became philosophical. [543] "Perhaps, Joseph, we are more fortunate than we realize. [544] We were, after all, completely in Johnson's power. [545] The more I ponder, the more I believe we were lucky to escape. [546] And, anyhow, we did make fifty redsents on the swindler. [547] A moral victory, my boy." [548] Joe, who had been sunk desparingly into a chair, now stood up slowly and asked: "Remember that bottle-opener we gave him?" [549] "Certainly," Harvey explained. [550] "What about it?" [551] "How much did it cost us?" [552] Harvey's eyebrows puckered. [553] Suddenly he started laughing. [554] "You're right, Joseph. [555] We paid forty-six redsents for it on Venus. [556] So, after all that transacting of business, we made four redsents!" [557] "Four redsents, hell!" [558] Joe snapped. [559] "That was the sales tax!" [560] He glared; then a smile lifted his mouth. [561] "You remember those yokels on Mars' Flatlands, and the way they worshipped gold?" [562] " Goldbricks! " [563] Harvey said succinctly. [564] Grinning, Joe set the robot-controls for Mars.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question: 1. [3] Angus Johnson knew differently. 2. [4] He charged them five buckos for a glass of water—and got it! 3. [88] "Nope. That's my son, Jed. Angus Johnson's my name. Folks here just call me Chief. I run this town, and run it right." 4. [92] "I run this town, and run it right." 5. [93] "How much water will you need?" 6. [97] "Let's say ten buckos a liter," the mayor said. 7. [98] "On account of the quantity, I'm able to quote a bargain price. Shucks, boys, it hurts me more to charge for water than it does for you to pay. I just got to, that's all." 8. [109] Johnson's response almost floored them. 9. [110] "Who said anything about charging you for battery water? You can have all you want for nothing. It's just the purified stuff that comes so high." 10. [121] It was on the sixth trip that Joe caught a glimpse of Jupiter-shine on a bright surface off to the left. 11. [122] The figure, 750, with the buckos sign in front of it, was still doing acrobatics inside his skull and keeping a faint suspicion alive in him. 12. [123] So he called Harvey and they went to investigate. 13. [124] Among the skimpy ground-crawling vines, they saw a long slender mound that was unmistakably a buried pipe. 14. [125] "What's this doing here?" 15. [126] Harvey asked, puzzled. 16. [127] "I thought Johnson had to transport water in pails." 17. [128] "Wonder where it leads to," Joe said uneasily. 18. [129] "It leads to the saloon," said Harvey, his eyes rapidly tracing the pipe back toward the spaceport. 19. [130] "What I am concerned with is where it leads from." 20. [131] Five minutes later, panting heavily from the unaccustomed exertion of scrambling through the tangle of planetorial undergrowth, they burst into the open—before a clear, sparkling pool. 21. [132] Mutely, Harvey pointed out a pipe-end jutting under the water. 22. [133] "I am growing suspicious," he said in a rigidly controlled voice. 23. [134] But Joe was already on his knees, scooping up a handful of water and tasting it. 24. [135] "Sweet!" 25. [136] he snarled. 26. [137] They rushed back to the first pool, where Joe again tasted a sample. 27. [138] His mouth went wry. 28. [139] "Bitter! He uses only one pool, the sweet one!" 29. [140] "The only thing that needs purifying around here is that blasted mayor's conscience." 30. [141] "The asteroidal Poobah has tricked us with a slick come-on," said Harvey slowly. 31. [142] His eyes grew cold. 32. [143] "Joseph, the good-natured artist in me has become a hard and merciless avenger. I shall not rest until we have had the best of this colonial con-man! Watch your cues from this point hence." 33. [148] But at the door they stopped and their fists unclenched. 34. [149] "Thought you gents were leaving," the mayor called out, seeing them frozen in the doorway. 35. [150] "Glad you didn't. Now you can meet my son, Jed. Him and me are the whole Earthman population of Johnson City." 36. [153] "You don't need any more," said Harvey, dismayed. 37. [154] Johnson's eight-foot son, topped by a massive roof of sun-bleached hair and held up by a foundation that seemed immovable, had obviously been born and raised in low gravity. 38. [155] For any decent-sized world would have kept him down near the general dimensions of a man. 39. [156] He held out an acre of palm. 40. [157] Harvey studied it worriedly, put his own hand somewhere on it, swallowed as it closed, then breathed again when his fingers were released in five units instead of a single compressed one. 41. [158] "Pleased to meet you," piped a voice that had never known a dense atmosphere. 42. [159] The pursuit of vengeance, Harvey realized, had taken a quick and unpleasant turn. 43. [160] Something shrewd was called for.... 44. [161] "Joseph!" 45. [162] he exclaimed, looking at his partner in alarm. 46. [163] "Don't you feel well?" 47. [164] Even before the others could turn to him, Joe's practiced eyes were gently crossing. 48. [165] He sagged against the door frame, all his features drooping like a bloodhound's. 49. [166] "Bring him in here!" 50. [167] Johnson cried. 51. [168] "I mean, get him away! He's coming down with asteroid fever!" 52. [169] "Of course," replied Harvey calmly. 53. [170] "Any fool knows the first symptoms of the disease that once scourged the universe." 54. [171] "What do you mean, once?" 55. [172] demanded Johnson. 56. [173] "I come down with it every year, and I ain't hankering to have it in an off-season. 57. [174] Get him out of here!" 58. [175] "In good time. He can't be moved immediately." 59. [176] "Then he'll be here for months!" 60. [182] "One medication is all modern man requires to combat the dread menace, asteroid fever." 61. [183] "What's that?" 62. [184] asked the mayor without conviction. 63. [185] Instead of replying, Harvey hurried outside to the ungainly second-hand rocket ship in the center of the shabby spaceport. 64. [186] He returned within a few minutes, carrying a bottle. 65. [187] Joe was still stretched out on the bar, panting, his eyes slowly crossing and uncrossing. 66. [188] Harvey lifted the patient's head tenderly, put the bottle to his lips and tilted it until he was forced to drink. 67. [189] When Joe tried to pull away, Harvey was inexorable. 68. [190] He made his partner drink until most of the liquid was gone. 69. [191] Then he stepped back and waited for the inevitable result. 70. [192] Joe's performance was better than ever. 71. [193] He lay supine for several moments, his face twisted into an expression that seemed doomed to perpetual wryness. 72. [194] Slowly, however, he sat up and his features straightened out. 73. [195] "Are—are you all right?" 74. [196] asked the mayor anxiously. 75. [197] "Much better," said Joe in a weak voice. 76. [198] "Maybe you need another dose," Harvey suggested. 77. [199] Joe recoiled. 78. [200] "I'm fine now!" 79. [201] he cried, and sprang off the bar to prove it. 80. [202] Astonished, Johnson and his son drew closer. 81. [203] They searched Joe's face, and then the mayor timidly felt his pulse. 82. [204] "Well, I'll be hanged!" 83. [205] Johnson ejaculated. 84. [206] "'La-anago Yergis' never fails, my friend," Harvey explained. 85. [207] "By actual test, it conquers asteroid fever in from four to twenty-three minutes, depending on the severity of the attack. Luckily, we caught this one before it grew formidable." 86. [208] The mayor's eyes became clouded mirrors of an inward conflict. 87. [209] "'Course, I'd expect a considerable reduction if I bought a whole case," said Johnson. 88. [210] "'That would be the smallest investment you could make, compared with the vast loss of time and strength the fever involves.'" 89. [211] "'How much?'" 90. [212] asked the mayor unhappily. 91. [213] "'For you, since you have taken us in so hospitably, a mere five hundred buckos.'" 92. [214] Johnson did not actually stagger back, but he gave the impression of doing so. 93. [215] "'F-four hundred,' he offered." 94. [216] "'Not a red cent less than four seventy-five,' Harvey said flatly." 95. [217] "'Make it four fifty,' quavered Johnson." 96. [218] "'I dislike haggling,' said Harvey." 97. [219] The final price, however, was four hundred and sixty-nine buckos and fifty redsents. 98. [220] Magnanimously, Harvey added: "'And we will include, gratis, an elegant bottle-opener, a superb product of Mercurian handicraftsmanship.'" 99. [221] Johnson stabbed out a warning finger. 100. [222] "'No tricks now. I want a taste of that stuff. You're not switching some worthless junk on me.'" 101. [223] Harvey took a glass from the bar and poured him a generous sample. 102. [224] The mayor sniffed it, grimaced, then threw it down his gullet. 103. [225] The ensuing minute saw a grim battle between a man and his stomach, a battle which the man gradually won. 104. [226] "'There ain't no words for that taste,' he gulped when it was safe to talk again." 105. [227] "'Medicine,' Harvey propounded, 'should taste like medicine.'" 106. [228] To Joe he said: "'Come, my esteemed colleague. We must perform the sacred task to which we have dedicated ourselves.'" 107. [229] With Joe stumbling along behind, he left the saloon, crossed the clearing and entered the ship. 108. [230] As soon as they were inside, Joe dropped his murderous silence and cried: "'What kind of a dirty trick was that, giving me poison instead of that snake oil?'" 109. [231] "'That was not poison,' Harvey contradicted quietly. 'It was La-anago Yergis extract, plus.'" 110. [232] "'Plus what—arsenic?'" 111. [233] "'Now, Joseph! Consider my quandary when I came back here to manufacture our specific for all known ailments, with the intention of selling yonder asteroidal tin-horn a bill of medical goods—an entire case, mind you. Was I to mix the extract with the water for which we had been swindled to the tune of ten buckos a liter? Where would our profit have been, then? No; I had to use the bitter free water, of course.'" 112. [234] "'But why use it on me?'" Joe demanded furiously. 113. [235] Harvey looked reprovingly at his gangling partner. 114. [236] "'Did Johnson ask to taste it, or did he not? One must look ahead, Joseph. I had to produce the same medicine that we will now manufacture. Thus, you were a guinea pig for a splendid cause.'" 115. [237] "'Okay, okay,' Joe said. 'But you shoulda charged him more.'" 116. [238] "'Joseph, I promise you that we shall get back every redsent of which that swindler cheated us, besides whatever other funds or valuables he possesses. We could not be content with less.'" 117. [239] "'Well, we're starting all right,' admitted Joe. 'How about that thing with six arms? He looks like a valuable. Can't we grab him off?'" 118. [240] Harvey stopped filling bottles and looked up pensively. 119. [241] "'I have every hope of luring away the profitable monstrosity. Apparently you have also surmised the fortune we could make with him. At first I purpose to exhibit him on our interplanetary tours with our streamlined panacea; he would be a spectacular attraction for bucolic suckers. Later, a brief period of demonstrating his abilities on the audio-visiphone. Then our triumph—we shall sell him at a stupendous figure to the zoo!'" 120. [242] Joe was still dazed by that monetary vista when he and Harvey carried the case of medicine to the saloon. 121. [243] The mayor had already cleared a place of honor in the cluttered back room, where he told them to put it down carefully. 122. [244] Then he took the elaborate bottle-opener Harvey gave him, reverently uncorked a bottle and sampled it. 123. [245] It must have been at least as good as the first; he gagged. 124. [246] "'That's the stuff, all right,' he said, swallowing hard." 125. [247] He counted out the money into Harvey's hand, at a moderate rate that precariously balanced between his pleasure at getting the fever remedy and his pain at paying for it. 126. [248] Then he glanced out to see the position of Jupiter, and asked: "'You gents eaten yet? The restaurant's open now.'" 127. [249] Harvey and Joe looked at each other. 128. [250] They hadn't been thinking about food at all, but suddenly they realized that they were hungry. 129. [251] "'It's only water we were short of,' Harvey said apprehensively. 'We've got rations back at the ship.'" 130. [252] "'H-mph!' the mayor grunted. 'Powdered concentrates. Compressed pap. Suit yourselves. We treat our stomachs better here. And you're welcome to our hospitality.'" 131. [253] "'Your hospitality,' said Harvey, 'depends on the prices you charge.'" 132. [254] "'Well, if that's what's worrying you, you can stop worrying,' answered the mayor promptly. 'What's more, the kind of dinner I serve here you can't get anywhere else for any price.'" 133. [255] Swiftly, Harvey conned the possibilities of being bilked again. 134. [256] He saw none. 135. [257] "'Let's take a look at the menu, anyhow, Joe,' he said guardedly." 136. [258] Johnson immediately fell into the role of "mine host." 137. [259] "'Come right in, gents,' he invited. 'Right into the dining room.'" 138. [260] He seated them at a table, which a rope tied between posts made more or less private, though nobody else was in the saloon and there was little chance of company. 139. [261] Genius, the six-armed native, appeared from the dingy kitchen with two menus in one hand, two glasses of water in another, plus napkins, silverware, a pitcher, plates, saucers, cups, and their cocktails, which were on the house. 140. [262] Then he stood by for orders. 141. [263] Harvey and Joe studied the menu critically. 142. [264] The prices were phenomenally low. 143. [265] When they glanced up at Johnson in perplexity, he grinned, bowed and asked: "'Everything satisfactory, gents?'" 144. [266] "'Quite,' said Harvey. 'We shall order.'" 145. [267] For an hour they were served amazing dishes, both fresh and canned, the culinary wealth of this planetoid and all the system. 146. [268] And the service was as extraordinary as the meal itself. 147. [269] With four hands, Genius played deftly upon a pair of mellow Venusian viotars, using his other two hands for waiting on the table. 148. [270] "'We absolutely must purchase this incredible specimen,' Harvey whispered excitedly when Johnson and the native were both in the kitchen, attending to the next course. 'He would make any society hostess's season a riotous success, which should be worth a great sum to women like Mrs. van Schuyler-Morgan, merely for his hire.'" 149. [271] "'Think of a fast one fast,' Joe agreed." 150. [272] "'You're right.'" 151. [273] "'But I dislike having to revise my opinion of a man so often,' complained Harvey. 'I wish Johnson would stay either swindler or honest merchant. This dinner is worth as least twenty buckos, yet I estimate our check at a mere bucko twenty redsents.'" 152. [274] The mayor's appearance prevented them from continuing the discussion. 153. [275] "'It's been a great honor, gents,' he said. 'Ain't often I have visitors, and I like the best, like you two gents.'" 154. [276] As if on cue, Genius came out and put the check down between Joe and Harvey. 155. [277] Harvey picked it up negligently, but his casual air vanished in a yelp of horror. 156. [278] "'What the devil is this?' he shouted.—'How

Describe the setting of the story.

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net GRIFTERS' ASTEROID By H. L. GOLD Harvey and Joe were the slickest con-men ever to gyp a space-lane sucker. [2] Or so they thought! [3] Angus Johnson knew differently. [4] He charged them five buckos for a glass of water—and got it! [5] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. [6] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [7] Characteristically, Harvey Ellsworth tried to maintain his dignity, though his parched tongue was almost hanging out. [8] But Joe Mallon, with no dignity to maintain, lurched across the rubbish-strewn patch of land that had been termed a spaceport. [9] When Harvey staggered pontifically into the battered metalloy saloon—the only one on Planetoid 42—his tall, gangling partner was already stumbling out, mouthing something incoherent. [10] They met in the doorway, violently. [11] "We're delirious!" [12] Joe cried. [13] "It's a mirage!" [14] "What is?" [15] asked Harvey through a mouthful of cotton. [16] Joe reeled aside, and Harvey saw what had upset his partner. [17] He stared, speechless for once. [18] In their hectic voyages from planet to planet, the pair of panacea purveyors had encountered the usual strange life-forms. [19] But never had they seen anything like the amazing creature in that colonial saloon. [20] Paying no attention to them, it was carrying a case of liquor in two hands, six siphons in two others, and a broom and dustpan in the remaining pair. [21] The bartender, a big man resembling the plumpish Harvey in build, was leaning negligently on the counter, ordering this impossible being to fill the partly-emptied bottles, squeeze fruit juice and sweep the floor, all of which the native did simultaneously. [22] "Nonsense," Harvey croaked uncertainly. [23] "We have seen enough queer things to know there are always more." [24] He led the way inside. [25] Through thirst-cracked lips he rasped: "Water—quick!" [26] Without a word, the bartender reached under the counter, brought out two glasses of water. [27] The interplanetary con-men drank noisily, asked for more, until they had drunk eight glasses. [28] Meanwhile, the bartender had taken out eight jiggers and filled them with whiskey. [29] Harvey and Joe were breathing hard from having gulped the water so fast, but they were beginning to revive. [30] They noticed the bartender's impersonal eyes studying them shrewdly. [31] "Strangers, eh?" [32] he asked at last. [33] "Solar salesmen, my colonial friend," Harvey answered in his usual lush manner. [34] "We purvey that renowned Martian remedy, La-anago Yergis , the formula for which was recently discovered by ourselves in the ancient ruined city of La-anago. [35] Medical science is unanimous in proclaiming this magic medicine the sole panacea in the entire history of therapeutics." [36] "Yeah?" [37] said the bartender disinterestedly, polishing the chaser glasses without washing them. [38] "Where you heading?" [39] "Out of Mars for Ganymede. [40] Our condenser broke down, and we've gone without water for five ghastly days." [41] "Got a mechanic around this dumping ground you call a port?" [42] Joe asked. [43] "We did. [44] He came near starving and moved on to Titan. [45] Ships don't land here unless they're in trouble." [46] "Then where's the water lead-in? [47] We'll fill up and push off." [48] "Mayor takes care of that," replied the saloon owner. [49] "If you gents're finished at the bar, your drinks'll be forty buckos." [50] Harvey grinned puzzledly. [51] "We didn't take any whiskey." [52] "Might as well. [53] Water's five buckos a glass. [54] Liquor's free with every chaser." [55] Harvey's eyes bulged. [56] Joe gulped. [57] "That—that's robbery!" [58] the lanky man managed to get out in a thin quaver. [59] The barkeeper shrugged. [60] "When there ain't many customers, you gotta make more on each one. [61] Besides—" "Besides nothing!" [62] Joe roared, finding his voice again. [63] "You dirty crook—robbing poor spacemen! [64] You—" "You dirty crook!" [65] Joe roared. [66] "Robbing honest spacemen!" [67] Harvey nudged him warningly. [68] "Easy, my boy, easy." [69] He turned to the bartender apologetically. [70] "Don't mind my friend. [71] His adrenal glands are sometimes overactive. [72] You were going to say—?" [73] The round face of the barkeeper had assumed an aggrieved expression. [74] "Folks are always thinkin' the other feller's out to do 'em," he said, shaking his head. [75] "Lemme explain about the water here. [76] It's bitter as some kinds of sin before it's purified. [77] Have to bring it in with buckets and make it sweet. [78] That takes time and labor. [79] Waddya think—I was chargin' feller critters for water just out of devilment? [80] I charge because I gotta." [81] "Friend," said Harvey, taking out a wallet and counting off eight five-bucko bills, "here is your money. [82] What's fair is fair, and you have put a different complexion on what seemed at first to be an unconscionable interjection of a middleman between Nature and man's thirst." [83] The saloon man removed his dirty apron and came around the bar. [84] "If that's an apology, I accept it. [85] Now the mayor'll discuss filling your tanks. [86] That's me. [87] I'm also justice of the peace, official recorder, fire chief...." "And chief of police, no doubt," said Harvey jocosely. [88] "Nope. [89] That's my son, Jed. [90] Angus Johnson's my name. [91] Folks here just call me Chief. [92] I run this town, and run it right. [93] How much water will you need?" [94] Joe estimated quickly. [95] "About seventy-five liters, if we go on half rations," he answered. [96] He waited apprehensively. [97] "Let's say ten buckos a liter," the mayor said. [98] "On account of the quantity, I'm able to quote a bargain price. [99] Shucks, boys, it hurts me more to charge for water than it does for you to pay. [100] I just got to, that's all." [101] The mayor gestured to the native, who shuffled out to the tanks with them. [102] The planetoid man worked the pump while the mayor intently watched the crude level-gauge, crying "Stop!" [103] when it registered the proper amount. [104] Then Johnson rubbed his thumb on his index finger and wetted his lips expectantly. [105] Harvey bravely counted off the bills. [106] He asked: "But what are we to do about replenishing our battery fluid? [107] Ten buckos a liter would be preposterous. [108] We simply can't afford it." [109] Johnson's response almost floored them. [110] "Who said anything about charging you for battery water? [111] You can have all you want for nothing. [112] It's just the purified stuff that comes so high." [113] After giving them directions that would take them to the free-water pool, the ponderous factotum of Planetoid 42 shook hands and headed back to the saloon. [114] His six-armed assistant followed him inside. [115] "Now do you see, my hot-tempered colleague?" [116] said Harvey as he and Joe picked up buckets that hung on the tank. [117] "Johnson, as I saw instantly, is the victim of a difficult environment, and must charge accordingly." [118] "Just the same," Joe griped, "paying for water isn't something you can get used to in ten minutes." [119] In the fragile forest, they soon came across a stream that sprang from the igneous soil and splashed into the small pond whose contents, according to the mayor, was theirs for the asking. [120] They filled their buckets and hauled them to the ship, then returned for more. [121] It was on the sixth trip that Joe caught a glimpse of Jupiter-shine on a bright surface off to the left. [122] The figure, 750, with the bucko sign in front of it, was still doing acrobatics inside his skull and keeping a faint suspicion alive in him. [123] So he called Harvey and they went to investigate. [124] Among the skimpy ground-crawling vines, they saw a long slender mound that was unmistakably a buried pipe. [125] "What's this doing here?" [126] Harvey asked, puzzled. [127] "I thought Johnson had to transport water in pails." [128] "Wonder where it leads to," Joe said uneasily. [129] "It leads to the saloon," said Harvey, his eyes rapidly tracing the pipe back toward the spaceport. [130] "What I am concerned with is where it leads from ." [131] Five minutes later, panting heavily from the unaccustomed exertion of scrambling through the tangle of planetorial undergrowth, they burst into the open—before a clear, sparkling pool. [132] Mutely, Harvey pointed out a pipe-end jutting under the water. [133] "I am growing suspicious," he said in a rigidly controlled voice. [134] But Joe was already on his knees, scooping up a handful of water and tasting it. [135] "Sweet!" [136] he snarled. [137] They rushed back to the first pool, where Joe again tasted a sample. [138] His mouth went wry. [139] "Bitter! [140] He uses only one pool, the sweet one! [141] The only thing that needs purifying around here is that blasted mayor's conscience." [142] "The asteroidal Poobah has tricked us with a slick come-on," said Harvey slowly. [143] His eyes grew cold. [144] "Joseph, the good-natured artist in me has become a hard and merciless avenger. [145] I shall not rest until we have had the best of this colonial con-man! [146] Watch your cues from this point hence." [147] Fists clenched, the two returned to the saloon. [148] But at the door they stopped and their fists unclenched. [149] "Thought you gents were leaving," the mayor called out, seeing them frozen in the doorway. [150] "Glad you didn't. [151] Now you can meet my son, Jed. [152] Him and me are the whole Earthman population of Johnson City." [153] "You don't need any more," said Harvey, dismayed. [154] Johnson's eight-foot son, topped by a massive roof of sun-bleached hair and held up by a foundation that seemed immovable, had obviously been born and raised in low gravity. [155] For any decent-sized world would have kept him down near the general dimensions of a man. [156] He held out an acre of palm. [157] Harvey studied it worriedly, put his own hand somewhere on it, swallowed as it closed, then breathed again when his fingers were released in five units instead of a single compressed one. [158] "Pleased to meet you," piped a voice that had never known a dense atmosphere. [159] The pursuit of vengeance, Harvey realized, had taken a quick and unpleasant turn. [160] Something shrewd was called for.... [161] "Joseph!" [162] he exclaimed, looking at his partner in alarm. [163] "Don't you feel well?" [164] Even before the others could turn to him, Joe's practiced eyes were gently crossing. [165] He sagged against the door frame, all his features drooping like a bloodhound's. [166] "Bring him in here!" [167] Johnson cried. [168] "I mean, get him away! [169] He's coming down with asteroid fever!" [170] "Of course," replied Harvey calmly. [171] "Any fool knows the first symptoms of the disease that once scourged the universe." [172] "What do you mean, once ?" [173] demanded Johnson. [174] "I come down with it every year, and I ain't hankering to have it in an off-season. [175] Get him out of here!" [176] "In good time. [177] He can't be moved immediately." [178] "Then he'll be here for months!" [179] Harvey helped Joe to the counter and lifted him up on it. [180] The mayor and his gigantic offspring were cowering across the room, trying to breathe in tiny, uncontaminating gasps. [181] "You'll find everything you want in the back room," Johnson said frantically, "sulfopyridine, mustard plasters, rubs, inhalers, suction cups—" "Relics of the past," Harvey stated. [182] "One medication is all modern man requires to combat the dread menace, asteroid fever." [183] "What's that?" [184] asked the mayor without conviction. [185] Instead of replying, Harvey hurried outside to the ungainly second-hand rocket ship in the center of the shabby spaceport. [186] He returned within a few minutes, carrying a bottle. [187] Joe was still stretched out on the bar, panting, his eyes slowly crossing and uncrossing. [188] Harvey lifted the patient's head tenderly, put the bottle to his lips and tilted it until he was forced to drink. [189] When Joe tried to pull away, Harvey was inexorable. [190] He made his partner drink until most of the liquid was gone. [191] Then he stepped back and waited for the inevitable result. [192] Joe's performance was better than ever. [193] He lay supine for several moments, his face twisted into an expression that seemed doomed to perpetual wryness. [194] Slowly, however, he sat up and his features straightened out. [195] "Are—are you all right?" [196] asked the mayor anxiously. [197] "Much better," said Joe in a weak voice. [198] "Maybe you need another dose," Harvey suggested. [199] Joe recoiled. [200] "I'm fine now!" [201] he cried, and sprang off the bar to prove it. [202] Astonished, Johnson and his son drew closer. [203] They searched Joe's face, and then the mayor timidly felt his pulse. [204] "Well, I'll be hanged!" [205] Johnson ejaculated. " [206] La-anago Yergis never fails, my friend," Harvey explained. [207] "By actual test, it conquers asteroid fever in from four to twenty-three minutes, depending on the severity of the attack. [208] Luckily, we caught this one before it grew formidable." [209] The mayor's eyes became clouded mirrors of an inward conflict. [210] "If you don't charge too much," he said warily, "I might think of buying some." [211] "We do not sell this unbelievable remedy," Harvey replied with dignity. [212] "It sells itself." [213] "'Course, I'd expect a considerable reduction if I bought a whole case," said Johnson. [214] "That would be the smallest investment you could make, compared with the vast loss of time and strength the fever involves." [215] "How much?" [216] asked the mayor unhappily. [217] "For you, since you have taken us in so hospitably, a mere five hundred buckos." [218] Johnson did not actually stagger back, but he gave the impression of doing so. [219] "F-four hundred," he offered. [220] "Not a red cent less than four seventy-five," Harvey said flatly. [221] "Make it four fifty," quavered Johnson. [222] "I dislike haggling," said Harvey. [223] The final price, however, was four hundred and sixty-nine buckos and fifty redsents. [224] Magnanimously, Harvey added: "And we will include, gratis , an elegant bottle-opener, a superb product of Mercurian handicraftsmanship." [225] Johnson stabbed out a warning finger. [226] "No tricks now. [227] I want a taste of that stuff. [228] You're not switching some worthless junk on me." [229] Harvey took a glass from the bar and poured him a generous sample. [230] The mayor sniffed it, grimaced, then threw it down his gullet. [231] The ensuing minute saw a grim battle between a man and his stomach, a battle which the man gradually won. [232] "There ain't no words for that taste," he gulped when it was safe to talk again. [233] "Medicine," Harvey propounded, "should taste like medicine." [234] To Joe he said: "Come, my esteemed colleague. [235] We must perform the sacred task to which we have dedicated ourselves." [236] With Joe stumbling along behind, he left the saloon, crossed the clearing and entered the ship. [237] As soon as they were inside, Joe dropped his murderous silence and cried: "What kind of a dirty trick was that, giving me poison instead of that snake oil?" [238] "That was not poison," Harvey contradicted quietly. [239] "It was La-anago Yergis extract, plus." [240] "Plus what—arsenic?" [241] "Now, Joseph! [242] Consider my quandary when I came back here to manufacture our specific for all known ailments, with the intention of selling yonder asteroidal tin-horn a bill of medical goods—an entire case, mind you. [243] Was I to mix the extract with the water for which we had been swindled to the tune of ten buckos a liter? [244] Where would our profit have been, then? [245] No; I had to use the bitter free water, of course." [246] "But why use it on me?" [247] Joe demanded furiously. [248] Harvey looked reprovingly at his gangling partner. [249] "Did Johnson ask to taste it, or did he not? [250] One must look ahead, Joseph. [251] I had to produce the same medicine that we will now manufacture. [252] Thus, you were a guinea pig for a splendid cause." [253] "Okay, okay," Joe said. [254] "But you shoulda charged him more." [255] "Joseph, I promise you that we shall get back every redsent of which that swindler cheated us, besides whatever other funds or valuables he possesses. [256] We could not be content with less." [257] "Well, we're starting all right," admitted Joe. [258] "How about that thing with six arms? [259] He looks like a valuable. [260] Can't we grab him off?" [261] Harvey stopped filling bottles and looked up pensively. [262] "I have every hope of luring away the profitable monstrosity. [263] Apparently you have also surmised the fortune we could make with him. [264] At first I purpose to exhibit him on our interplanetary tours with our streamlined panacea; he would be a spectacular attraction for bucolic suckers. [265] Later, a brief period of demonstrating his abilities on the audio-visiphone. [266] Then our triumph—we shall sell him at a stupendous figure to the zoo!" [267] Joe was still dazed by that monetary vista when he and Harvey carried the case of medicine to the saloon. [268] The mayor had already cleared a place of honor in the cluttered back room, where he told them to put it down carefully. [269] Then he took the elaborate bottle-opener Harvey gave him, reverently uncorked a bottle and sampled it. [270] It must have been at least as good as the first; he gagged. [271] "That's the stuff, all right," he said, swallowing hard. [272] He counted out the money into Harvey's hand, at a moderate rate that precariously balanced between his pleasure at getting the fever remedy and his pain at paying for it. [273] Then he glanced out to see the position of Jupiter, and asked: "You gents eaten yet? [274] The restaurant's open now." [275] Harvey and Joe looked at each other. [276] They hadn't been thinking about food at all, but suddenly they realized that they were hungry. [277] "It's only water we were short of," Harvey said apprehensively. [278] "We've got rations back at the ship." [279] " H-mph! " [280] the mayor grunted. [281] "Powdered concentrates. [282] Compressed pap. [283] Suit yourselves. [284] We treat our stomachs better here. [285] And you're welcome to our hospitality." [286] "Your hospitality," said Harvey, "depends on the prices you charge." [287] "Well, if that's what's worrying you, you can stop worrying," answered the mayor promptly. [288] "What's more, the kind of dinner I serve here you can't get anywhere else for any price." [289] Swiftly, Harvey conned the possibilities of being bilked again. [290] He saw none. [291] "Let's take a look at the menu, anyhow, Joe," he said guardedly. [292] Johnson immediately fell into the role of "mine host." [293] "Come right in, gents," he invited. [294] "Right into the dining room." [295] He seated them at a table, which a rope tied between posts made more or less private, though nobody else was in the saloon and there was little chance of company. [296] Genius, the six-armed native, appeared from the dingy kitchen with two menus in one hand, two glasses of water in another, plus napkins, silverware, a pitcher, plates, saucers, cups, and their cocktails, which were on the house. [297] Then he stood by for orders. [298] Harvey and Joe studied the menu critically. [299] The prices were phenomenally low. [300] When they glanced up at Johnson in perplexity, he grinned, bowed and asked: "Everything satisfactory, gents?" [301] "Quite," said Harvey. [302] "We shall order." [303] For an hour they were served amazing dishes, both fresh and canned, the culinary wealth of this planetoid and all the system. [304] And the service was as extraordinary as the meal itself. [305] With four hands, Genius played deftly upon a pair of mellow Venusian viotars , using his other two hands for waiting on the table. [306] "We absolutely must purchase this incredible specimen," Harvey whispered excitedly when Johnson and the native were both in the kitchen, attending to the next course. [307] "He would make any society hostess's season a riotous success, which should be worth a great sum to women like Mrs. van Schuyler-Morgan, merely for his hire." [308] "Think of a fast one fast," Joe agreed. [309] "You're right." [310] "But I dislike having to revise my opinion of a man so often," complained Harvey. [311] "I wish Johnson would stay either swindler or honest merchant. [312] This dinner is worth as least twenty buckos, yet I estimate our check at a mere bucko twenty redsents." [313] The mayor's appearance prevented them from continuing the discussion. [314] "It's been a great honor, gents," he said. [315] "Ain't often I have visitors, and I like the best, like you two gents." [316] As if on cue, Genius came out and put the check down between Joe and Harvey. [317] Harvey picked it up negligently, but his casual air vanished in a yelp of horror. [318] "What the devil is this?" [319] he shouted.—"How do you arrive at this fantastic, idiotic figure— three hundred and twenty-eight buckos !" [320] Johnson didn't answer. [321] Neither did Genius; he simply put on the table, not a fingerbowl, but a magnifying glass. [322] With one of his thirty fingers he pointed politely to the bottom of the menu. [323] Harvey focused on the microscopic print, and his face went pasty with rage. [324] The minute note read: "Services and entertainment, 327 buckos 80 redsents." [325] "You can go to hell!" [326] Joe growled. [327] "We won't pay it!" [328] Johnson sighed ponderously. [329] "I was afraid you'd act like that," he said with regret. [330] He pulled a tin badge out of his rear pocket, pinned it on his vest, and twisted his holstered gun into view. [331] "Afraid I'll have to ask the sheriff to take over." [332] Johnson, the "sheriff," collected the money, and Johnson, the "restaurateur," pocketed it. [333] Meanwhile, Harvey tipped Joe the sign to remain calm. [334] "My friend," he said to the mayor, and his tones took on a schoolmasterish severity, "your long absence from Earth has perhaps made you forget those elements of human wisdom that have entered the folk-lore of your native planet. [335] Such as, for example: 'It is folly to kill a goose that lays golden eggs,' and 'Penny wise is pound foolish.'" [336] "I don't get the connection," objected Johnson. [337] "Well, by obliging us to pay such a high price for your dinner, you put out of your reach the chance of profiting from a really substantial deal. [338] My partner and I were prepared to make you a sizable offer for the peculiar creature you call Genius. [339] But by reducing our funds the way you have—" "Who said I wanted to sell him?" [340] the mayor interrupted. [341] He rubbed his fingers together and asked disinterestedly: "What were you going to offer, anyhow?" [342] "It doesn't matter any longer," Harvey said with elaborate carelessness. [343] "Perhaps you wouldn't have accepted it, anyway." [344] "That's right," Johnson came back emphatically. [345] "But what would your offer have been which I would have turned down?" [346] "Which one? [347] The one we were going to make, or the one we can make now?" [348] "Either one. [349] It don't make no difference. [350] Genius is too valuable to sell." [351] "Oh, come now, Mr. Johnson. [352] Don't tell me no amount of money would tempt you!" [353] "Nope. [354] But how much did you say?" [355] "Ah, then you will consider releasing Genius!" [356] "Well, I'll tell you something," said the mayor confidentially. [357] "When you've got one thing, you've got one thing. [358] But when you've got money, it's the same as having a lot of things. [359] Because, if you've got money, you can buy this and that and this and that and—" "This and that," concluded Joe. [360] "We'll give you five hundred buckos." [361] "Now, gents!" [362] Johnson remonstrated. [363] "Why, six hundred would hardly—" "You haven't left us much money," Harvey put in. [364] The mayor frowned. [365] "All right, we'll split the difference. [366] Make it five-fifty." [367] Harvey was quick to pay out, for this was a genuine windfall. [368] Then he stood up and admired the astonishing possession he had so inexpensively acquired. [369] "I really hate to deprive you of this unique creature," he said to Johnson. [370] "I should imagine you will be rather lonely, with only your filial mammoth to keep you company." [371] "I sure will," Johnson confessed glumly. [372] "I got pretty attached to Genius, and I'm going to miss him something awful." [373] Harvey forcibly removed his eyes from the native, who was clearing off the table almost all at once. [374] "My friend," he said, "we take your only solace, it is true, but in his place we can offer something no less amazing and instructive." [375] The mayor's hand went protectively to his pocket. [376] "What is it?" [377] he asked with the suspicion of a man who has seen human nature at its worst and expects nothing better. [378] "Joseph, get our most prized belonging from the communications room of the ship," Harvey instructed. [379] To Johnson he explained: "You must see the wondrous instrument before its value can be appreciated. [380] My partner will soon have it here for your astonishment." [381] Joe's face grew as glum as Johnson's had been. [382] "Aw, Harv," he protested, "do we have to sell it? [383] And right when I thought we were getting the key!" [384] "We must not be selfish, my boy," Harvey said nobly. [385] "We have had our chance; now we must relinquish Fate to the hands of a man who might have more success than we. [386] Go, Joseph. [387] Bring it here." [388] Unwillingly, Joe turned and shuffled out. [389] On a larger and heavier world than Planetoid 42, Johnson's curiosity would probably have had weight and mass. [390] He was bursting with questions, but he was obviously afraid they would cost him money. [391] For his part, Harvey allowed that curiosity to grow like a Venusian amoeba until Joe came in, lugging a radio. [392] "Is that what you were talking about?" [393] the mayor snorted. [394] "What makes you think I want a radio? [395] I came here to get away from singers and political speech-makers." [396] "Do not jump to hasty conclusions," Harvey cautioned. [397] "Another word, and I shall refuse you the greatest opportunity any man has ever had, with the sole exceptions of Joseph, myself and the unfortunate inventor of this absolutely awe-inspiring device." [398] "I ain't in the market for a radio," Johnson said stubbornly. [399] Harvey nodded in relief. [400] "We have attempted to repay our host, Joseph. [401] He has spurned our generosity. [402] We have now the chance to continue our study, which I am positive will soon reward us with the key to an enormous fortune." [403] "Well, that's no plating off our bow," Joe grunted. [404] "I'm glad he did turn it down. [405] I hated to give it up after working on it for three whole years." [406] He picked up the radio and began walking toward the door. [407] "Now, hold on!" [408] the mayor cried. [409] "I ain't saying I'll buy, but what is it I'm turning down?" [410] Joe returned and set the instrument down on the bar. [411] His face sorrowful, Harvey fondly stroked the scarred plasticoid cabinet. [412] "To make a long story, Mr. Johnson," he said, "Joseph and I were among the chosen few who knew the famous Doctor Dean intimately. [413] Just before his tragic death, you will recall, Dean allegedly went insane." [414] He banged his fist on the bar. [415] "I have said it before, and I repeat again, that was a malicious lie, spread by the doctor's enemies to discredit his greatest invention—this fourth dimensional radio!" [416] "This what?" [417] Johnson blurted out. [418] "In simple terms," clarified Harvey, "the ingenious doctor discovered that the yawning chasm between the dimensions could be bridged by energy of all quanta. [419] There has never been any question that the inhabitants of the super-dimension would be far more civilized than ourselves. [420] Consequently, the man who could tap their knowledge would find himself in possession of a powerful, undreamt-of science!" [421] The mayor looked respectfully at the silent box on the bar. [422] "And this thing gets broadcasts from the fourth dimension?" [423] "It does, Mr. Johnson! [424] Only charlatans like those who envied Doctor Dean's magnificent accomplishments could deny that fact." [425] The mayor put his hands in his pockets, unswiveled one hip and stared thoughtfully at the battered cabinet. [426] "Well, let's say it picks up fourth dimensional broadcasts," he conceded. [427] "But how could you understand what they're saying? [428] Folks up there wouldn't talk our language." [429] Again Harvey smashed his fist down. [430] "Do you dare to repeat the scurvy lie that broke Dean's spirit and drove him to suicide?" [431] Johnson recoiled. [432] "No—no, of course not . [433] I mean, being up here, I naturally couldn't get all the details." [434] "Naturally," Harvey agreed, mollified. [435] "I'm sorry I lost my temper. [436] But it is a matter of record that the doctor proved the broadcasts emanating from the super-dimension were in English! [437] Why should that be so difficult to believe? [438] Is it impossible that at one time there was communication between the dimensions, that the super-beings admired our language and adopted it in all its beauty, adding to it their own hyper-scientific trimmings?" [439] "Why, I don't know," Johnson said in confusion. [440] "For three years, Joseph and I lost sleep and hair, trying to detect the simple key that would translate the somewhat metamorphosed broadcasts into our primitive English. [441] It eluded us. [442] Even the doctor failed. [443] But that was understandable; a sensitive soul like his could stand only so much. [444] And the combination of ridicule and failure to solve the mystery caused him to take his own life." [445] Johnson winced. [446] "Is that what you want to unload on me?" [447] "For a very good reason, sir. [448] Patience is the virtue that will be rewarded with the key to these fourth dimensional broadcasts. [449] A man who could devote his life to improving this lonely worldlet is obviously a person with unusual patience." [450] "Yeah," the mayor said grudgingly, "I ain't exactly flighty." [451] "Therefore, you are the man who could unravel the problem!" [452] Johnson asked skeptically: "How about a sample first?" [453] Harvey turned a knob on the face of the scarred radio. [454] After several squeals of spatial figures, a smooth voice began: "There are omnious pleajes of moby-hailegs in sonmirand which, howgraismon, are notch to be donfured miss ellasellabell in either or both hagasanipaj, by all means. [455] This does not refly, on the brother man, nat or mizzafil saces are denuded by this ossifaligo...." Harvey switched off the set determinedly. [456] "Wait a minute!" [457] Johnson begged. [458] "I almost got it then!" [459] "I dislike being commercial," said Harvey, "but this astounding device still belongs to us. [460] Would we not be foolish to let you discover the clue before purchasing the right to do so?" [461] The mayor nodded indecisively, looking at the radio with agonized longing. [462] "How much do you want?" [463] he asked unhappily. [464] "One thousand buckos, and no haggling. [465] I am not in the mood." [466] Johnson opened his mouth to argue; then, seeing Harvey's set features, paid with the worst possible grace. [467] "Don't you think we ought to tell him about the batteries, Harv?" [468] Joe asked. [469] "What about the batteries?" [470] demanded Johnson with deadly calm. [471] "A very small matter," Harvey said airily. [472] "You see, we have been analyzing these broadcasts for three years. [473] In that time, of course, the batteries are bound to weaken. [474] I estimate these should last not less than one Terrestrial month, at the very least." [475] "What do I do then?" [476] Harvey shrugged. [477] "Special batteries are required, which I see Joseph has by chance brought along. [478] For the batteries, the only ones of their kind left in the system, I ask only what they cost—one hundred and ninety-nine buckos, no more and, on the other hand, no less." [479] Johnson was breathing hard, and his hand hovered dangerously near his gun. [480] But he paid the amount Harvey wanted. [481] Moreover, he actually shook hands when the two panacea purveyors collected their six-armed prize and said goodbye. [482] Before they were outside, however, he had turned on the radio and was listening tensely to a woman's highly cultured, though rather angry voice, saying: "Oh, you hannaforge are all beasa-taga-sanimort. [483] If you rue amount it, how do you respench a pure woman to ansver go-samak—" "I'll get it!" [484] they heard Johnson mutter. [485] Then the sound of giant feet crossing the barroom floor reached their ears, and a shrill question: "What's that, Papa?" [486] "A fortune, Jed! [487] Those fakers are damned fools, selling us a thing like—" Joe gazed at Harvey admiringly. [488] "Another one sold? [489] Harv, that spiel pulls them in like an ether storm!" [490] Together with the remarkable planetoid man, they reached the ship. [491] Above them, dark, tumbling shapes blotted out the stars and silently moved on. [492] Joe opened the gangway door. [493] "Come on in, pal," he said to Genius. [494] "We're shoving off." [495] The planetoid man grinned foolishly. [496] "Can't go arong with you," he said with an apologetic manner. [497] "I rike to, but pressure fratten me out if I go." [498] "What in solar blazes are you talking about?" [499] Harvey asked. [500] "I grow up on pranetoid," Genius explained. [501] "On big pranet, too much pressure for me." [502] The two salesmen looked narrowly at each other. [503] "Did Johnson know that when he sold you?" [504] Joe snarled. [505] "Oh, sure." [506] The silly grin became wider than ever. [507] "Peopre from Earth buy me rots of times. [508] I never reave pranetoid, though." [509] "Joseph," Harvey said ominously, "that slick colonist has put one over upon us. [510] What is our customary procedure in that event?" [511] "We tear him apart," Joe replied between his teeth. [512] "Not Mister Johnson," advised Genius. [513] "Have gun and badge. [514] He shoot you first and then rock you up in prison." [515] Harvey paused, his ominous air vanishing. [516] "True. [517] There is also the fact, Joseph, that when he discovers the scrambled rectifier in the radio we sold him, he will have been paid back in full for his regrettable dishonesty." [518] Unwillingly, Joe agreed. [519] While Genius retreated to a safe distance, they entered the ship and blasted off. [520] Within a few minutes the automatic steering pilot had maneuvered them above the plane of the asteroid belt. [521] "I got kind of dizzy," Joe said, "there were so many deals back and forth. [522] How much did we make on the sucker?" [523] "A goodly amount, I wager," Harvey responded. [524] He took out a pencil and paper. [525] "Medicine, 469.50; radio, 1,000; batteries, 199. [526] Total—let's see—1668 buckos and 50 redsents. [527] A goodly sum, as I told you." [528] He emptied his pockets of money, spread it out on the astrogation table and began counting. [529] Finished, he looked up, troubled. [530] "How much did we have when we landed, Joseph?" [531] "Exactly 1668 buckos," Joe answered promptly. [532] "I can't understand it," said Harvey. [533] "Instead of double our capital, we now have only 1668 buckos and 50 redsents!" [534] Feverishly, he returned to his pencil and paper. [535] "Drinking water, 790; battery water, free; meal, 328; planetoid man, 550. [536] Total: 1668 buckos!" [537] He stared at the figures. [538] "We paid out almost as much as we took in," he said bitterly. [539] "Despite our intensive efforts, we made the absurd sum of fifty redsents." [540] "Why, the dirty crook!" [541] Joe growled. [542] But after a few moments of sad reflection, Harvey became philosophical. [543] "Perhaps, Joseph, we are more fortunate than we realize. [544] We were, after all, completely in Johnson's power. [545] The more I ponder, the more I believe we were lucky to escape. [546] And, anyhow, we did make fifty redsents on the swindler. [547] A moral victory, my boy." [548] Joe, who had been sunk desparingly into a chair, now stood up slowly and asked: "Remember that bottle-opener we gave him?" [549] "Certainly," Harvey explained. [550] "What about it?" [551] "How much did it cost us?" [552] Harvey's eyebrows puckered. [553] Suddenly he started laughing. [554] "You're right, Joseph. [555] We paid forty-six redsents for it on Venus. [556] So, after all that transacting of business, we made four redsents!" [557] "Four redsents, hell!" [558] Joe snapped. [559] "That was the sales tax!" [560] He glared; then a smile lifted his mouth. [561] "You remember those yokels on Mars' Flatlands, and the way they worshipped gold?" [562] " Goldbricks! " [563] Harvey said succinctly. [564] Grinning, Joe set the robot-controls for Mars.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the setting of the story": 1. [1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net GRIFTERS' ASTEROID By H. L. GOLD Harvey and Joe were the slickest con-men ever to gyp a space-lane sucker. 2. [5] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. 3. [9] When Harvey staggered pontifically into the battered metalloy saloon—the only one on Planetoid 42—his tall, gangling partner was already stumbling out, mouthing something incoherent. 4. [119] In the fragile forest, they soon came across a stream that sprang from the igneous soil and splashed into the small pond whose contents, according to the mayor, was theirs for the asking. 5. [130] Five minutes later, panting heavily from the unaccustomed exertion of scrambling through the tangle of planetorial undergrowth, they burst into the open—before a clear, sparkling pool. 6. [153] "You don't need any more," said Harvey, dismayed. 7. [491] Above them, dark, tumbling shapes blotted out the stars and silently moved on. 8. [2] Or so they thought! 9. [3] Angus Johnson knew differently. 10. [4] He charged them five buckos for a glass of water—and got it! 11. [6] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 12. [7] Characteristically, Harvey Ellsworth tried to maintain his dignity, though his parched tongue was almost hanging out. 13. [8] But Joe Mallon, with no dignity to maintain, lurched across the rubbish-strewn patch of land that had been termed a spaceport. 14. [10] They met in the doorway, violently. 15. [11] "We're delirious!" 16. [12] Joe cried. 17. [13] "It's a mirage!" 18. [14] "What is?" 19. [15] asked Harvey through a mouthful of cotton. 20. [16] Joe reeled aside, and Harvey saw what had upset his partner. 21. [17] He stared, speechless for once. 22. [18] In their hectic voyages from planet to planet, the pair of panacea purveyors had encountered the usual strange life-forms. 23. [19] But never had they seen anything like the amazing creature in that colonial saloon. 24. [20] Paying no attention to them, it was carrying a case of liquor in two hands, six siphons in two others, and a broom and dustpan in the remaining pair. 25. [21] The bartender, a big man resembling the plumpish Harvey in build, was leaning negligently on the counter, ordering this impossible being to fill the partly-emptied bottles, squeeze fruit juice and sweep the floor, all of which the native did simultaneously. 26. [22] "Nonsense," Harvey croaked uncertainly. 27. [23] "We have seen enough queer things to know there are always more." 28. [24] He led the way inside. 29. [25] Through thirst-cracked lips he rasped: "Water—quick!" 30. [26] Without a word, the bartender reached under the counter, brought out two glasses of water. 31. [27] The interplanetary con-men drank noisily, asked for more, until they had drunk eight glasses. 32. [28] Meanwhile, the bartender had taken out eight jiggers and filled them with whiskey. 33. [29] Harvey and Joe were breathing hard from having gulped the water so fast, but they were beginning to revive. 34. [30] They noticed the bartender's impersonal eyes studying them shrewdly. 35. [31] "Strangers, eh?" 36. [32] he asked at last. 37. [33] "Solar salesmen, my colonial friend," Harvey answered in his usual lush manner. 38. [34] "We purvey that renowned Martian remedy, La-anago Yergis , the formula for which was recently discovered by ourselves in the ancient ruined city of La-anago. 39. [35] Medical science is unanimous in proclaiming this magic medicine the sole panacea in the entire history of therapeutics." 40. [36] "Yeah?" 41. [37] said the bartender disinterestedly, polishing the chaser glasses without washing them. 42. [38] "Where you heading?" 43. [39] "Out of Mars for Ganymede. 44. [40] Our condenser broke down, and we've gone without water for five ghastly days." 45. [41] "Got a mechanic around this dumping ground you call a port?" 46. [42] Joe asked. 47. [43] "We did. 48. [44] He came near starving and moved on to Titan. 49. [45] Ships don't land here unless they're in trouble." 50. [46] "Then where's the water lead-in? 51. [47] We'll fill up and push off." 52. [48] "Mayor takes care of that," replied the saloon owner. 53. [49] "If you gents're finished at the bar, your drinks'll be forty buckos." 54. [50] Harvey grinned puzzledly. 55. [51] "We didn't take any whiskey." 56. [52] "Might as well. 57. [53] Water's five buckos a glass. 58. [54] Liquor's free with every chaser." 59. [55] Harvey's eyes bulged. 60. [56] Joe gulped. 61. [57] "That—that's robbery!" 62. [58] the lanky man managed to get out in a thin quaver. 63. [59] The barkeeper shrugged. 64. [60] "When there ain't many customers, you gotta make more on each one. 65. [61] Besides—" 66. [62] "Besides nothing!" 67. [63] Joe roared, finding his voice again. 68. [64] "You dirty crook—robbing poor spacemen! 69. [65] You—" 70. [66] "You dirty crook!" 71. [67] Joe roared. 72. [68] "Robbing honest spacemen!" 73. [69] Harvey nudged him warningly. 74. [70] "Easy, my boy, easy." 75. [71] He turned to the bartender apologetically. 76. [72] "Don't mind my friend. 77. [73] His adrenal glands are sometimes overactive." 78. [74] The round face of the barkeeper had assumed an aggrieved expression. 79. [75] "Folks are always thinkin' the other feller's out to do 'em," he said, shaking his head. 80. [76] "Lemme explain about the water here. 81. [77] It's bitter as some kinds of sin before it's purified. 82. [78] Have to bring it in with buckets and make it sweet. 83. [79] That takes time and labor. 84. [80] Waddya think—I was chargin' feller critters for water just out of devilment? 85. [81] I charge because I gotta." 86. [82] "Friend," said Harvey, taking out a wallet and counting off eight five-bucko bills, "here is your money. 87. [83] What's fair is fair, and you have put a different complexion on what seemed at first to be an unconscionable interjection of a middleman between Nature and man's thirst." 88. [84] The saloon man removed his dirty apron and came around the bar. 89. [85] "If that's an apology, I accept it. 90. [86] Now the mayor'll discuss filling your tanks. 91. [87] That's me. 92. [88] I'm also justice of the peace, official recorder, fire chief...." 93. [89] "And chief of police, no doubt," said Harvey jocosely. 94. [90] "Nope. 95. [91] That's my son, Jed. 96. [92] Angus Johnson's my name. 97. [93] Folks here just call me Chief. 98. [94] I run this town, and run it right. 99. [95] How much water will you need?" 100. [96] Joe estimated quickly. 101. [97] "About seventy-five liters, if we go on half rations," he answered. 102. [98] He waited apprehensively. 103. [99] "Let's say ten buckos a liter," the mayor said. 104. [100] "On account of the quantity, I'm able to quote a bargain price. 105. [101] Shucks, boys, it hurts me more to charge for water than it does for you to pay. 106. [102] I just got to, that's all." 107. [103] The mayor gestured to the native, who shuffled out to the tanks with them. 108. [104] The planetoid man worked the pump while the mayor intently watched the crude level-gauge, crying "Stop!" 109. [105] when it registered the proper amount. 110. [106] Then Johnson rubbed his thumb on his index finger and wetted his lips expectantly. 111. [107] Harvey bravely counted off the bills. 112. [108] He asked: "But what are we to do about replenishing our battery fluid? 113. [109] Ten buckos a liter would be preposterous. 114. [110] We simply can't afford it." 115. [111] Johnson's response almost floored them. 116. [112] "Who said anything about charging you for battery water? 117. [113] You can have all you want for nothing. 118. [114] It's just the purified stuff that comes so high." 119. [115] After giving them directions that would take them to the free-water pool, the ponderous factotum of Planetoid 42 shook hands and headed back to the saloon. 120. [116] His six-armed assistant followed him inside. 121. [117] "Now do you see, my hot-tempered colleague?" 122. [118] said Harvey as he and Joe picked up buckets that hung on the tank. 123. [119] "Johnson, as I saw instantly, is the victim of a difficult environment, and must charge accordingly." 124. [120] "Just the same," Joe griped, "paying for water isn't something you can get used to in ten minutes." 125. [121] In the fragile forest, they soon came across a stream that sprang from the igneous soil and splashed into the small pond whose contents, according to the mayor, was theirs for the asking. 126. [122] They filled their buckets and hauled them to the ship, then returned for more. 127. [123] It was on the sixth trip that Joe caught a glimpse of Jupiter-shine on a bright surface off to the left. 128. [124] The figure, 750, with the bucko sign in front of it, was still doing acrobatics inside his skull and keeping a faint suspicion alive in him. 129. [125] So he called Harvey and they went to investigate. 130. [126] Among the skimpy ground-crawling vines, they saw a long slender mound that was unmistakably a buried pipe. 131. [127] "What's this doing here?" 132. [128] Harvey asked, puzzled. 133. [129] "I thought Johnson had to transport water in pails." 134. [130] "Wonder where it leads to," Joe said uneasily. 135. [131] "It leads to the saloon," said Harvey, his eyes rapidly tracing the pipe back toward the spaceport. 136. [132] "What I am concerned with is where it leads from ." 137. [133] Five minutes later, panting heavily from the unaccustomed exertion of scrambling through the tangle of planetorial undergrowth, they burst into the open—before a clear, sparkling pool. 138. [134] Mutely, Harvey pointed out a pipe-end jutting under the water. 139. [135] "I am growing suspicious," he said in a rigidly controlled voice. 140. [136] But Joe was already on his knees, scooping up a handful of water and tasting it. 141. [137] "Sweet!" 142. [138] he snarled. 143. [139] They rushed back to the first pool, where Joe again tasted a sample. 144. [140] His mouth went wry. 145. [141] "Bitter! 146. [142] He uses only one pool, the sweet one! 147. [143] The only thing that needs purifying around here is that blasted mayor's conscience." 148. [144] "The asteroidal Poobah has tricked us with a slick come-on," said Harvey slowly. 149. [145] His eyes grew cold. 150. [146] "Joseph, the good-natured artist in me has become a hard and merciless avenger. 151. [147] I shall not rest until we have had the best of this colonial con-man! 152. [148] Watch your cues from this point hence." 153. [149] Fists clenched, the two returned to the saloon. 154. [150] But at the door they stopped and their fists unclenched. 155. [151] "Thought you gents were leaving," the mayor called out, seeing them frozen in the doorway. 156. [152] "Glad you didn't. 157. [153] Now you can meet my son, Jed. 158. [154] Him and me are the whole Earthman population of Johnson City." 159. [491] Above them, dark, tumbling shapes blotted out the stars and silently moved on.

What is the plot of the story?

[1] IT WAS A DULL, ROUTINE LITTLE WORLD. [2] IT DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CITY. [3] EVERYTHING IT HAD WAS IN THE GARDEN BY R. A. LAFFERTY [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, March 1961. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] The protozoic recorder chirped like a bird. [6] Not only would there be life traces on that little moon, but it would be a lively place. [7] So they skipped several steps in the procedure. [8] The chordata discerner read Positive over most of the surface. [9] There was spinal fluid on that orb, rivers of it. [10] So again they omitted several tests and went to the cognition scanner. [11] Would it show Thought on the body? [12] Naturally they did not get results at once, nor did they expect to; it required a fine adjustment. [13] But they were disappointed that they found nothing for several hours as they hovered high over the rotation. [14] Then it came—clearly and definitely, but from quite a small location only. [15] "Limited," said Steiner, "as though within a pale. [16] As though there were but one city, if that is its form. [17] Shall we follow the rest of the surface to find another, or concentrate on this? [18] It'll be twelve hours before it's back in our ken if we let it go now." [19] "Let's lock on this one and finish the scan. [20] Then we can do the rest of the world to make sure we've missed nothing," said Stark. [21] There was one more test to run, one very tricky and difficult of analysis, that with the Extraordinary Perception Locator. [22] This was designed simply to locate a source of superior thought. [23] But this might be so varied or so unfamiliar that often both the machine and the designer of it were puzzled as to how to read the results. [24] The E. P. Locator had been designed by Glaser. [25] But when the Locator had refused to read Positive when turned on the inventor himself, bad blood developed between machine and man. [26] Glaser knew that he had extraordinary perception. [27] He was a much honored man in his field. [28] He told the machine so heatedly. [29] The machine replied, with such warmth that its relays chattered, that Glaser did not have extraordinary perception; he had only ordinary perception to an extraordinary degree. [30] There is a difference , the machine insisted. [31] It was for this reason that Glaser used that model no more, but built others more amenable. [32] And it was for this reason also that the owners of Little Probe had acquired the original machine so cheaply. [33] And there was no denying that the Extraordinary Perception Locator (or Eppel) was a contrary machine. [34] On Earth it had read Positive on a number of crack-pots, including Waxey Sax, a jazz tootler who could not even read music. [35] But it had also read Positive on ninety per cent of the acknowledged superior minds of the Earth. [36] In space it had been a sound guide to the unusual intelligences encountered. [37] Yet on Suzuki-Mi it had read Positive on a two-inch-long worm, only one of them out of billions. [38] For the countless identical worms no trace of anything at all was shown by the test. [39] So it was with mixed expectations that Steiner locked onto the area and got a flick. [40] He then narrowed to a smaller area (apparently one individual, though this could not be certain) and got very definite action. [41] Eppel was busy. [42] The machine had a touch of the ham in it, and assumed an air of importance when it ran these tests. [43] Finally it signaled the result, the most exasperating result it ever produces: the single orange light. [44] It was the equivalent of the shrug of the shoulders in a man. [45] They called it the "You tell me light." [46] So among the intelligences there was at least one that might be extraordinary, though possibly in a crackpot way. [47] It is good to be forewarned. [48] "Scan the remainder of the world, Steiner," said Stark, "and the rest of us will get some sleep. [49] If you find no other spot then we will go down on that one the next time it is in position under us, in about twelve hours." [50] "You don't want to visit any of the other areas first? [51] Somewhere away from the thoughtful creature?" [52] "No. [53] The rest of the world may be dangerous. [54] There must be a reason that thought is in one spot only. [55] If we find no others then we will go down boldly and visit this." [56] So they all, except Steiner, went off to their bunks then: Stark, the Captain; Gregory Gilbert, the executive officer; Wolfgang Langweilig, the engineer; Casper Craig, super-cargo, tycoon and 51% owner of the Little Probe, and F. R. Briton, S.J., a Jesuit priest who was linguist and checker champion of the craft. [57] Dawn did not come to the moon-town. [58] The Little Probe hovered stationary in the light and the moon-town came up under the dawn. [59] Then the Probe went down to visit whatever was there. [60] "There's no town," said Steiner. [61] "Not a building. [62] Yet we're on the track of the minds. [63] There's nothing but a meadow and some boscage, a sort of fountain or pool, and four streams coming out of it." [64] "Keep on towards the minds," said Stark. [65] "They're our target." [66] "Not a building, not two sticks or stones placed together. [67] That looks like an Earth-type sheep there. [68] And that looks like an Earth-lion, I'm almost afraid to say. [69] And those two ... why, they could well be Earth-people. [70] But with a difference. [71] Where is that bright light coming from?" [72] "I don't know, but they're right in the middle of it. [73] Land here. [74] We'll go to meet them at once. [75] Timidity has never been an efficacious tool with us." [76] Well, they were people. [77] And one could only wish that all people were like them. [78] There was a man and a woman, and they were clothed either in very bright garments or in no garments at all, but only in a very bright light. [79] "Talk to them, Father Briton," said Stark. [80] "You are the linguist." [81] "Howdy," said the priest. [82] He may or may not have been understood, but the two of them smiled at him, so he went on. [83] "Father Briton from Philadelphia," he said, "on detached service. [84] And you, my good man, what is your handle, your monicker, your tag?" [85] "Ha-Adamah," said the man. [86] "And your daughter, or niece?" [87] It may be that the shining man frowned momentarily at this; but the woman smiled, proving that she was human. [88] "The woman is named Hawwah," said the man. [89] "The sheep is named sheep, the lion is named lion, the horse is named horse and the hoolock is named hoolock." [90] "I understand. [91] It is possible that this could go on and on. [92] How is it that you use the English tongue?" [93] "I have only one tongue; but it is given to us to be understood by all; by the eagle, by the squirrel, by the ass, by the English." [94] "We happen to be bloody Yankees, but we use a borrowed tongue. [95] You wouldn't have a drink on you for a tubful of thirsty travellers, would you?" [96] "The fountain." [97] "Ah—I see." [98] But the crew all drank of the fountain to be sociable. [99] It was water, but water that excelled, cool and with all its original bubbles like the first water ever made. [100] "What do you make of them?" [101] asked Stark. [102] "Human," said Steiner. [103] "It may even be that they are a little more than human. [104] I don't understand that light that surrounds them. [105] And they seem to be clothed, as it were, in dignity." [106] "And very little else," said Father Briton, "though that light trick does serve a purpose. [107] But I'm not sure they'd pass in Philadelphia." [108] "Talk to them again," said Stark. [109] "You're the linguist." [110] "That isn't necessary here, Captain. [111] Talk to them yourself." [112] "Are there any other people here?" [113] Stark asked the man. [114] "The two of us. [115] Man and woman." [116] "But are there any others?" [117] "How would there be any others? [118] What other kind of people could there be than man and woman?" [119] "But is there more than one man or woman?" [120] "How could there be more than one of anything?" [121] The captain was a little puzzled by this, but he went on doggedly: "Ha-Adamah, what do you think that we are? [122] Are we not people?" [123] "You are not anything till I name you. [124] But I will name you and then you can be. [125] You are named Captain. [126] He is named Priest. [127] He is named Engineer. [128] He is named Flunky." [129] "Thanks a lot," said Steiner. [130] "But are we not people?" [131] persisted Captain Stark. [132] "No. [133] We are the people. [134] There are no people but two. [135] How could there be other people?" [136] "And the damnest thing about it," muttered Langweilig, "is, how are you going to prove him wrong? [137] But it does give you a small feeling." [138] "Can we have something to eat?" [139] asked the Captain. [140] "Pick from the trees," said Ha-Adamah, "and then it may be that you will want to sleep on the grass. [141] Being not of human nature (which does not need sleep or rest), it may be that you require respite. [142] But you are free to enjoy the garden and its fruits." [143] "We will," said Captain Stark. [144] They wandered about the place, but they were uneasy. [145] There were the animals. [146] The lion and lioness were enough to make one cautious, though they offered no harm. [147] The two bears had a puzzling look, as though they wanted either to frolic with you or to mangle you. [148] "If there are only two people here," said Casper Craig, "then it may be that the rest of the world is not dangerous at all. [149] It looked fertile wherever we scanned it, though not so fertile as this central bit. [150] And those rocks would bear examining." [151] "Flecked with gold, and possibly with something else," said Stark. [152] "A very promising site." [153] "And everything grows here," added Steiner. [154] "Those are Earth-fruits and I never saw finer. [155] I've tasted the grapes and plums and pears. [156] The figs and dates are superb, the quince is as flavorsome as a quince can be, the cherries are excellent. [157] And I never did taste such oranges. [158] But I haven't yet tried the—" and he stopped. [159] "If you're thinking what I'm afraid to think," said Gilbert, "then it will be the test at least: whether we're having a pleasant dream or whether this is reality. [160] Go ahead and eat one." [161] "I won't be the first to eat one. [162] You eat." [163] "Ask him first. [164] You ask him." [165] "Ha-Adamah, is it allowed to eat the apples?" [166] "Certainly. [167] Eat. [168] It is the finest fruit in the garden." [169] "Well, the analogy breaks down there," said Stark. [170] "I was almost beginning to believe in the thing. [171] But if it isn't that, then what. [172] Father Briton, you are the linguist, but in Hebrew does not Ha-Adamah and Hawwah mean—?" [173] "Of course they do. [174] You know that as well as I." [175] "I was never a believer. [176] But would it be possible for the exact same proposition to maintain here as on Earth?" [177] "All things are possible." [178] And it was then that Ha-Adamah, the shining man, gave a wild cry: "No, no. [179] Do not approach it. [180] It is not allowed to eat of that one!" [181] It was the pomegranate tree, and he was warning Langweilig away from it. [182] "Once more, Father," said Stark, "you should be the authority; but does not the idea that it was the apple that was forbidden go back only to a medieval painting?" [183] "It does. [184] The name of the fruit is not mentioned in Genesis. [185] In Hebrew exegesis, however, the pomegranate is usually indicated." [186] "I thought so. [187] Question the man further, Father. [188] This is too incredible." [189] "It is a little odd. [190] Adam, old man, how long have you been here?" [191] "Forever less six days is the answer that has been given to me. [192] I never did understand the answer, however." [193] "And have you gotten no older in all that time?" [194] "I do not understand what 'older' is. [195] I am as I have been from the beginning." [196] "And do you think that you will ever die?" [197] "To die I do not understand. [198] I am taught that it is a property of fallen nature to die, and that does not pertain to me or mine." [199] "And are you completely happy here?" [200] "Perfectly happy according to my preternatural state. [201] But I am taught that it might be possible to lose that happiness, and then to seek it vainly through all the ages. [202] I am taught that sickness and ageing and even death could come if this happiness were ever lost. [203] I am taught that on at least one other unfortunate world it has actually been lost." [204] "Do you consider yourself a knowledgeable man?" [205] "Yes, since I am the only man, and knowledge is natural to man. [206] But I am further blessed. [207] I have a preternatural intellect." [208] Then Stark cut in once more: "There must be some one question you could ask him, Father. [209] Some way to settle it. [210] I am becoming nearly convinced." [211] "Yes, there is a question that will settle it. [212] Adam, old man, how about a game of checkers?" [213] "This is hardly the time for clowning," said Stark. [214] "I'm not clowning, Captain. [215] How about it, Adam? [216] I'll give you choice of colors and first move." [217] "No. [218] It would be no contest. [219] I have a preternatural intellect." [220] "Well, I beat a barber who was champion of Germantown. [221] And I beat the champion of Morgan County, Tennessee, which is the hottest checker center on Earth. [222] I've played against, and beaten, machines. [223] But I never played a preternatural mind. [224] Let's just set up the board, Adam, and have a go at it." [225] "No. [226] It would be no contest. [227] I would not like to humble you." [228] They were there for three days. [229] They were delighted with the place. [230] It was a world with everything, and it seemed to have only two inhabitants. [231] They went everywhere except into the big cave. [232] "What is there, Adam?" [233] asked Captain Stark. [234] "The great serpent lives there. [235] I would not disturb him. [236] He has long been cranky because plans he had for us did not materialize. [237] But we are taught that should ever evil come to us, which it cannot if we persevere, it will come by him." [238] They learned no more of the real nature of the sphere in their time there. [239] Yet all but one of them were convinced of the reality when they left. [240] And they talked of it as they took off. [241] "A crowd would laugh if told of it," said Stark, "but not many would laugh if they had actually seen the place, or them. [242] I am not a gullible man, but I am convinced of this: that this is a pristine and pure world and that ours and all the others we have visited are fallen worlds. [243] Here are the prototypes of our first parents before their fall. [244] They are garbed in light and innocence, and they have the happiness that we have been seeking for centuries. [245] It would be a crime if anyone disturbed that happiness." [246] "I too am convinced," said Steiner. [247] "It is Paradise itself, where the lion lies down with the lamb, and where the serpent has not prevailed. [248] It would be the darkest of crimes if we or others should play the part of the serpent, and intrude and spoil." [249] "I am probably the most skeptical man in the world," said Casper Craig the tycoon, "but I do believe my eyes. [250] I have been there and seen it. [251] It is indeed an unspoiled Paradise; and it would be a crime calling to the wide heavens for vengeance for anyone to smirch in any way that perfection. [252] "So much for that. [253] Now to business. [254] Gilbert, take a gram: Ninety Million Square Miles of Pristine Paradise for Sale or Lease. [255] Farming, Ranching, exceptional opportunities for Horticulture. [256] Gold, Silver, Iron, Earth-Type Fauna. [257] Terms. [258] Special Rates for Large Settlement Parties. [259] Write, Gram, or call in person at any of our planetary offices as listed below. [260] Ask for Brochure—Eden Acres Unlimited." [261] Down in the great cave that Old Serpent, a two-legged one among whose names were "Snake-Oil Sam," spoke to his underlings: "It'll take them fourteen days to get back with the settlers. [262] We'll have time to overhaul the blasters. [263] We haven't had any well-equipped settlers for six weeks. [264] It used to be we'd hardly have time to strip and slaughter and stow before there was another batch to take care of." [265] "I think you'd better write me some new lines," said Adam. [266] "I feel like a goof saying those same ones to each bunch." [267] "You are a goof, and therefore perfect for the part. [268] I was in show business long enough to know never to change a line too soon. [269] I did change Adam and Eve to Ha-Adamah and Hawwah, and the apple to the pomegranate. [270] People aren't becoming any smarter—but they are becoming better researched, and they insist on authenticity. [271] "This is still a perfect come-on here. [272] There is something in human nature that cannot resist the idea of a Perfect Paradise. [273] Folks will whoop and holler to their neighbors to come in droves to spoil and mar it. [274] It isn't greed or the desire for new land so much—though that is strong too. [275] Mainly it is the feverish passion to befoul and poison what is unspoiled. [276] Fortunately I am sagacious enough to take advantage of this trait. [277] And when you start to farm a new world on a shoestring you have to acquire your equipment as you can." [278] He looked proudly around at the great cave with its mountains and tiers of materials, heavy machinery of all sorts, titanic crates of foodstuff space-sealed; wheeled, tracked, propped, vaned and jetted vehicles; and power packs to run a world. [279] He looked at the three dozen space ships stripped and stacked, and at the rather large pile of bone-meal in one corner. [280] "We will have to have another lion," said Eve. [281] "Bowser is getting old, and Marie-Yvette abuses him and gnaws his toes. [282] And we do have to have a big-maned lion to lie down with the lamb." [283] "I know it, Eve. [284] The lion is a very important prop. [285] Maybe one of the crackpot settlers will bring a new lion." [286] "And can't you mix another kind of shining paint? [287] This itches. [288] It's hell." [289] "I'm working on it." [290] Casper Craig was still dictating the gram: "Amazing quality of longevity seemingly inherent in the locale. [291] Climate ideal. [292] Daylight or half-light. [293] All twenty-one hours from Planet Delphina and from Sol. [294] Pure water for all industrial purposes. [295] Scenic and storied. [296] Zoning and pre-settlement restrictions to insure congenial neighbors. [297] A completely planned globular settlement in a near arm of our own galaxy. [298] Low taxes and liberal credit. [299] Financing our specialty—" "And you had better have an armed escort when you return," said Father Briton. [300] "Why in cosmos would we want an armed escort?" [301] "It's as phony as a seven-credit note!" [302] "You, a man of the cloth doubt it? [303] And us ready skeptics convinced by our senses? [304] Why do you doubt?" [305] "It is only the unbelieving who believe so easily in obvious frauds. [306] Theologically unsound, dramaturgically weak, philologically impossible, zoologically rigged, salted conspicuously with gold and shot through with anachronisms. [307] And moreover he was afraid to play me at checkers." [308] "What?" [309] "If I have a preternatural intellect I wouldn't be afraid of a game of checkers with anyone. [310] Yet there was an unusual mind there somewhere; it was just that he chose not to make our acquaintance personally." [311] "They looked at the priest thoughtfully. [312] "But it was Paradise in one way," said Steiner at last. [313] "How?" [314] "All the time we were there the woman did not speak."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [261] Down in the great cave that Old Serpent, a two-legged one among whose names were "Snake-Oil Sam," spoke to his underlings: "It'll take them fourteen days to get back with the settlers. We'll have time to overhaul the blasters. We haven't had any well-equipped settlers for six weeks. It used to be we'd hardly have time to strip and slaughter and stow before there was another batch to take care of." 2. [265] "I feel like a goof saying those same ones to each bunch." 3. [266] "You are a goof, and therefore perfect for the part. I was in show business long enough to know never to change a line too soon." 4. [267] "I did change Adam and Eve to Ha-Adamah and Hawwah, and the apple to the pomegranate. People aren't becoming any smarter—but they are becoming better researched, and they insist on authenticity." 5. [268] "This is still a perfect come-on here. There is something in human nature that cannot resist the idea of a Perfect Paradise." 6. [269] "Folks will whoop and holler to their neighbors to come in droves to spoil and mar it. It isn't greed or the desire for new land so much—though that is strong too. Mainly it is the feverish passion to befoul and poison what is unspoiled." 7. [270] "Fortunately I am sagacious enough to take advantage of this trait. And when you start to farm a new world on a shoestring you have to acquire your equipment as you can." 8. [271] He looked proudly around at the great cave with its mountains and tiers of materials, heavy machinery of all sorts, titanic crates of foodstuff space-sealed; wheeled, tracked, propped, vaned and jetted vehicles; and power packs to run a world. 9. [272] He looked at the three dozen space ships stripped and stacked, and at the rather large pile of bone-meal in one corner. 10. [273] "We will have to have another lion," said Eve. "Bowser is getting old, and Marie-Yvette abuses him and gnaws his toes. And we do have to have a big-maned lion to lie down with the lamb." 11. [274] "I know it, Eve. The lion is a very important prop. Maybe one of the crackpot settlers will bring a new lion." 12. [275] "And can't you mix another kind of shining paint? This itches. It's hell." 13. [276] "I'm working on it." 14. [1] IT WAS A DULL, ROUTINE LITTLE WORLD. 15. [2] IT DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CITY. 16. [3] EVERYTHING IT HAD WAS IN THE GARDEN BY R. A. LAFFERTY [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, March 1961. 17. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 18. [5] The protozoic recorder chirped like a bird. 19. [6] Not only would there be life traces on that little moon, but it would be a lively place. 20. [7] So they skipped several steps in the procedure. 21. [8] The chordata discerner read Positive over most of the surface. 22. [9] There was spinal fluid on that orb, rivers of it. 23. [10] So again they omitted several tests and went to the cognition scanner. 24. [11] Would it show Thought on the body? 25. [12] Naturally they did not get results at once, nor did they expect to; it required a fine adjustment. 26. [13] But they were disappointed that they found nothing for several hours as they hovered high over the rotation. 27. [14] Then it came—clearly and definitely, but from quite a small location only. 28. [15] "Limited," said Steiner, "as though within a pale. 29. [16] As though there were but one city, if that is its form. 30. [17] Shall we follow the rest of the surface to find another, or concentrate on this? 31. [18] It'll be twelve hours before it's back in our ken if we let it go now." 32. [19] "Let's lock on this one and finish the scan. Then we can do the rest of the world to make sure we've missed nothing," said Stark. 33. [20] There was one more test to run, one very tricky and difficult of analysis, that with the Extraordinary Perception Locator. 34. [21] This was designed simply to locate a source of superior thought. 35. [22] But this might be so varied or so unfamiliar that often both the machine and the designer of it were puzzled as to how to read the results. 36. [23] The E. P. Locator had been designed by Glaser. 37. [24] But when the Locator had refused to read Positive when turned on the inventor himself, bad blood developed between machine and man. 38. [25] Glaser knew that he had extraordinary perception. 39. [26] He was a much honored man in his field. 40. [27] He told the machine so heatedly. 41. [28] The machine replied, with such warmth that its relays chattered, that Glaser did not have extraordinary perception; he had only ordinary perception to an extraordinary degree. 42. [29] There is a difference , the machine insisted. 43. [30] It was for this reason that Glaser used that model no more, but built others more amenable. 44. [31] And it was for this reason also that the owners of Little Probe had acquired the original machine so cheaply. 45. [32] And there was no denying that the Extraordinary Perception Locator (or Eppel) was a contrary machine. 46. [33] On Earth it had read Positive on a number of crack-pots, including Waxey Sax, a jazz tootler who could not even read music. 47. [34] But it had also read Positive on ninety per cent of the acknowledged superior minds of the Earth. 48. [35] In space it had been a sound guide to the unusual intelligences encountered. 49. [36] Yet on Suzuki-Mi it had read Positive on a two-inch-long worm, only one of them out of billions. 50. [37] For the countless identical worms no trace of anything at all was shown by the test. 51. [38] So it was with mixed expectations that Steiner locked onto the area and got a flick. 52. [39] He then narrowed to a smaller area (apparently one individual, though this could not be certain) and got very definite action. 53. [40] Eppel was busy. 54. [41] The machine had a touch of the ham in it, and assumed an air of importance when it ran these tests. 55. [42] Finally it signaled the result, the most exasperating result it ever produces: the single orange light. 56. [43] It was the equivalent of the shrug of the shoulders in a man. 57. [44] They called it the "You tell me light." 58. [45] So among the intelligences there was at least one that might be extraordinary, though possibly in a crackpot way. 59. [46] It is good to be forewarned. 60. [47] "Scan the remainder of the world, Steiner," said Stark, "and the rest of us will get some sleep. If you find no other spot then we will go down on that one the next time it is in position under us, in about twelve hours." 61. [48] "You don't want to visit any of the other areas first? Somewhere away from the thoughtful creature?" 62. [49] "No. The rest of the world may be dangerous. There must be a reason that thought is in one spot only. If we find no others then we will go down boldly and visit this." 63. [50] So they all, except Steiner, went off to their bunks then: Stark, the Captain; Gregory Gilbert, the executive officer; Wolfgang Langweilig, the engineer; Casper Craig, super-cargo, tycoon and 51% owner of the Little Probe, and F. R. Briton, S.J., a Jesuit priest who was linguist and checker champion of the craft. 64. [51] Dawn did not come to the moon-town. 65. [52] The Little Probe hovered stationary in the light and the moon-town came up under the dawn. 66. [53] Then the Probe went down to visit whatever was there. 67. [54] "There's no town," said Steiner. "Not a building. Yet we're on the track of the minds. There's nothing but a meadow and some boscage, a sort of fountain or pool, and four streams coming out of it." 68. [55] "Keep on towards the minds," said Stark. "They're our target." 69. [56] "Not a building, not two sticks or stones placed together. That looks like an Earth-type sheep there. And that looks like an Earth-lion, I'm almost afraid to say. And those two ... why, they could well be Earth-people. But with a difference. Where is that bright light coming from?" 70. [57] "I don't know, but they're right in the middle of it. Land here. We'll go to meet them at once. Timidity has never been an efficacious tool with us." 71. [58] Well, they were people. And one could only wish that all people were like them. 72. [59] There was a man and a woman, and they were clothed either in very bright garments or in no garments at all, but only in a very bright light. 73. [60] "Talk to them, Father Briton," said Stark. "You are the linguist." 74. [61] "Howdy," said the priest. He may or may not have been understood, but the two of them smiled at him, so he went on. 75. [62] "Father Briton from Philadelphia," he said, "on detached service. And you, my good man, what is your handle, your monicker, your tag?" 76. [63] "Ha-Adamah," said the man. "And your daughter, or niece?" 77. [64] It may be that the shining man frowned momentarily at this; but the woman smiled, proving that she was human. 78. [65] "The woman is named Hawwah," said the man. "The sheep is named sheep, the lion is named lion, the horse is named horse and the hoolock is named hoolock." 79. [66] "I understand. It is possible that this could go on and on. How is it that you use the English tongue?" 80. [67] "I have only one tongue; but it is given to us to be understood by all; by the eagle, by the squirrel, by the ass, by the English." 81. [68] "We happen to be bloody Yankees, but we use a borrowed tongue. You wouldn't have a drink on you for a tubful of thirsty travellers, would you?" 82. [69] "The fountain." 83. [70] "Ah—I see." 84. [71] But the crew all drank of the fountain to be sociable. It was water, but water that excelled, cool and with all its original bubbles like the first water ever made. 85. [72] "What do you make of them?" asked Stark. 86. [73] "Human," said Steiner. "It may even be that they are a little more than human. I don't understand that light that surrounds them. And they seem to be clothed, as it were, in dignity." 87. [74] "And very little else," said Father Briton, "though that light trick does serve a purpose. But I'm not sure they'd pass in Philadelphia." 88. [75] "Talk to them again," said Stark. "You're the linguist." 89. [76] "That isn't necessary here, Captain. Talk to them yourself." 90. [77] "Are there any other people here?" Stark asked the man. 91. [78] "The two of us. Man and woman." 92. [79] "But are there any others?" 93. [80] "How would there be any others? What other kind of people could there be than man and woman?" 94. [81] "But is there more than one man or woman?" 95. [82] "How could there be more than one of anything?" 96. [83] The captain was a little puzzled by this, but he went on doggedly: "Ha-Adamah, what do you think that we are? Are we not people?" 97. [84] "You are not anything till I name you. But I will name you and then you can be. You are named Captain. He is named Priest. He is named Engineer. He is named Flunky." 98. [85] "Thanks a lot," said Steiner. 99. [86] "But are we not people?" persisted Captain Stark. 100. [87] "No. We are the people. There are no people but two. How could there be other people?" 101. [88] "And the damnest thing about it," muttered Langweilig, "is, how are you going to prove him wrong? But it does give you a small feeling." 102. [89] "Can we have something to eat?" asked the Captain. 103. [90] "Pick from the trees," said Ha-Adamah, "and then it may be that you will want to sleep on the grass. Being not of human nature (which does not need sleep or rest), it may be that you require respite. But you are free to enjoy the garden and its fruits." 104. [91] "We will," said Captain Stark. 105. [92] They wandered about the place, but they were uneasy. 106. [93] There were the animals. The lion and lioness were enough to make one cautious, though they offered no harm. The two bears had a puzzling look, as though they wanted either to frolic with you or to mangle you. 107. [94] "If there are only two people here," said Casper Craig, "then it may be that the rest of the world is not dangerous at all. It looked fertile wherever we scanned it, though not so fertile as this central bit. And those rocks would bear examining." 108. [95] "Flecked with gold, and possibly with something else," said Stark. "A very promising site." 109. [96] "And everything grows here," added Steiner. "Those are Earth-fruits and I never saw finer. I've tasted the grapes and plums and pears. The figs and dates are superb, the quince is as flavorsome as a quince can be, the cherries are excellent. And I never did taste such oranges." 110. [97] "If you're thinking what I'm afraid to think," said Gilbert, "then it will be the test at least: whether we're having a pleasant dream or whether this is reality. Go ahead and eat one." 111. [98] "I won't be the first to eat one. You eat." 112. [99] "Ask him first. You ask him." 113. [100] "Ha-Adamah, is it allowed to eat the apples?" 114. [101] "Certainly. Eat. It is the finest fruit in the garden." 115. [102] "Well, the analogy breaks down there," said Stark. "I was almost beginning to believe in the thing. But if it isn't that, then what." 116. [103] "Father Briton, you are the linguist, but in Hebrew does not Ha-Adamah and Hawwah mean—?" 117. [104] "Of course they do. You know that as well as I." 118. [105] "I was never a believer. But would it be possible for the exact same proposition to maintain here as on Earth?" 119. [106] "All things are possible." 120. [107] And it was then that Ha-Adamah, the shining man, gave a wild cry: "No, no. Do not approach it. It is not allowed to eat of that one!" 121. [108] It was the pomegranate tree, and he was warning Langweilig away from it. 122. [109] "Once more, Father," said Stark, "you should be the authority; but does not the idea that it was the apple that was forbidden go back only to a medieval painting?" 123. [110] "It does. The name of the fruit is not mentioned in Genesis. In Hebrew exegesis, however, the pomegranate is usually indicated." 124. [111] "I thought so. Question the man further, Father. This is too incredible." 125. [112] "It is a little odd. Adam, old man, how long have you been here?" 126. [113] "Forever less six days is the answer that has been given to me. I never did understand the answer, however." 127. [114] "And

Describe the story's characters and how they interact.

[1] IT WAS A DULL, ROUTINE LITTLE WORLD. [2] IT DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CITY. [3] EVERYTHING IT HAD WAS IN THE GARDEN BY R. A. LAFFERTY [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, March 1961. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] The protozoic recorder chirped like a bird. [6] Not only would there be life traces on that little moon, but it would be a lively place. [7] So they skipped several steps in the procedure. [8] The chordata discerner read Positive over most of the surface. [9] There was spinal fluid on that orb, rivers of it. [10] So again they omitted several tests and went to the cognition scanner. [11] Would it show Thought on the body? [12] Naturally they did not get results at once, nor did they expect to; it required a fine adjustment. [13] But they were disappointed that they found nothing for several hours as they hovered high over the rotation. [14] Then it came—clearly and definitely, but from quite a small location only. [15] "Limited," said Steiner, "as though within a pale. [16] As though there were but one city, if that is its form. [17] Shall we follow the rest of the surface to find another, or concentrate on this? [18] It'll be twelve hours before it's back in our ken if we let it go now." [19] "Let's lock on this one and finish the scan. [20] Then we can do the rest of the world to make sure we've missed nothing," said Stark. [21] There was one more test to run, one very tricky and difficult of analysis, that with the Extraordinary Perception Locator. [22] This was designed simply to locate a source of superior thought. [23] But this might be so varied or so unfamiliar that often both the machine and the designer of it were puzzled as to how to read the results. [24] The E. P. Locator had been designed by Glaser. [25] But when the Locator had refused to read Positive when turned on the inventor himself, bad blood developed between machine and man. [26] Glaser knew that he had extraordinary perception. [27] He was a much honored man in his field. [28] He told the machine so heatedly. [29] The machine replied, with such warmth that its relays chattered, that Glaser did not have extraordinary perception; he had only ordinary perception to an extraordinary degree. [30] There is a difference , the machine insisted. [31] It was for this reason that Glaser used that model no more, but built others more amenable. [32] And it was for this reason also that the owners of Little Probe had acquired the original machine so cheaply. [33] And there was no denying that the Extraordinary Perception Locator (or Eppel) was a contrary machine. [34] On Earth it had read Positive on a number of crack-pots, including Waxey Sax, a jazz tootler who could not even read music. [35] But it had also read Positive on ninety per cent of the acknowledged superior minds of the Earth. [36] In space it had been a sound guide to the unusual intelligences encountered. [37] Yet on Suzuki-Mi it had read Positive on a two-inch-long worm, only one of them out of billions. [38] For the countless identical worms no trace of anything at all was shown by the test. [39] So it was with mixed expectations that Steiner locked onto the area and got a flick. [40] He then narrowed to a smaller area (apparently one individual, though this could not be certain) and got very definite action. [41] Eppel was busy. [42] The machine had a touch of the ham in it, and assumed an air of importance when it ran these tests. [43] Finally it signaled the result, the most exasperating result it ever produces: the single orange light. [44] It was the equivalent of the shrug of the shoulders in a man. [45] They called it the "You tell me light." [46] So among the intelligences there was at least one that might be extraordinary, though possibly in a crackpot way. [47] It is good to be forewarned. [48] "Scan the remainder of the world, Steiner," said Stark, "and the rest of us will get some sleep. [49] If you find no other spot then we will go down on that one the next time it is in position under us, in about twelve hours." [50] "You don't want to visit any of the other areas first? [51] Somewhere away from the thoughtful creature?" [52] "No. [53] The rest of the world may be dangerous. [54] There must be a reason that thought is in one spot only. [55] If we find no others then we will go down boldly and visit this." [56] So they all, except Steiner, went off to their bunks then: Stark, the Captain; Gregory Gilbert, the executive officer; Wolfgang Langweilig, the engineer; Casper Craig, super-cargo, tycoon and 51% owner of the Little Probe, and F. R. Briton, S.J., a Jesuit priest who was linguist and checker champion of the craft. [57] Dawn did not come to the moon-town. [58] The Little Probe hovered stationary in the light and the moon-town came up under the dawn. [59] Then the Probe went down to visit whatever was there. [60] "There's no town," said Steiner. [61] "Not a building. [62] Yet we're on the track of the minds. [63] There's nothing but a meadow and some boscage, a sort of fountain or pool, and four streams coming out of it." [64] "Keep on towards the minds," said Stark. [65] "They're our target." [66] "Not a building, not two sticks or stones placed together. [67] That looks like an Earth-type sheep there. [68] And that looks like an Earth-lion, I'm almost afraid to say. [69] And those two ... why, they could well be Earth-people. [70] But with a difference. [71] Where is that bright light coming from?" [72] "I don't know, but they're right in the middle of it. [73] Land here. [74] We'll go to meet them at once. [75] Timidity has never been an efficacious tool with us." [76] Well, they were people. [77] And one could only wish that all people were like them. [78] There was a man and a woman, and they were clothed either in very bright garments or in no garments at all, but only in a very bright light. [79] "Talk to them, Father Briton," said Stark. [80] "You are the linguist." [81] "Howdy," said the priest. [82] He may or may not have been understood, but the two of them smiled at him, so he went on. [83] "Father Briton from Philadelphia," he said, "on detached service. [84] And you, my good man, what is your handle, your monicker, your tag?" [85] "Ha-Adamah," said the man. [86] "And your daughter, or niece?" [87] It may be that the shining man frowned momentarily at this; but the woman smiled, proving that she was human. [88] "The woman is named Hawwah," said the man. [89] "The sheep is named sheep, the lion is named lion, the horse is named horse and the hoolock is named hoolock." [90] "I understand. [91] It is possible that this could go on and on. [92] How is it that you use the English tongue?" [93] "I have only one tongue; but it is given to us to be understood by all; by the eagle, by the squirrel, by the ass, by the English." [94] "We happen to be bloody Yankees, but we use a borrowed tongue. [95] You wouldn't have a drink on you for a tubful of thirsty travellers, would you?" [96] "The fountain." [97] "Ah—I see." [98] But the crew all drank of the fountain to be sociable. [99] It was water, but water that excelled, cool and with all its original bubbles like the first water ever made. [100] "What do you make of them?" [101] asked Stark. [102] "Human," said Steiner. [103] "It may even be that they are a little more than human. [104] I don't understand that light that surrounds them. [105] And they seem to be clothed, as it were, in dignity." [106] "And very little else," said Father Briton, "though that light trick does serve a purpose. [107] But I'm not sure they'd pass in Philadelphia." [108] "Talk to them again," said Stark. [109] "You're the linguist." [110] "That isn't necessary here, Captain. [111] Talk to them yourself." [112] "Are there any other people here?" [113] Stark asked the man. [114] "The two of us. [115] Man and woman." [116] "But are there any others?" [117] "How would there be any others? [118] What other kind of people could there be than man and woman?" [119] "But is there more than one man or woman?" [120] "How could there be more than one of anything?" [121] The captain was a little puzzled by this, but he went on doggedly: "Ha-Adamah, what do you think that we are? [122] Are we not people?" [123] "You are not anything till I name you. [124] But I will name you and then you can be. [125] You are named Captain. [126] He is named Priest. [127] He is named Engineer. [128] He is named Flunky." [129] "Thanks a lot," said Steiner. [130] "But are we not people?" [131] persisted Captain Stark. [132] "No. [133] We are the people. [134] There are no people but two. [135] How could there be other people?" [136] "And the damnest thing about it," muttered Langweilig, "is, how are you going to prove him wrong? [137] But it does give you a small feeling." [138] "Can we have something to eat?" [139] asked the Captain. [140] "Pick from the trees," said Ha-Adamah, "and then it may be that you will want to sleep on the grass. [141] Being not of human nature (which does not need sleep or rest), it may be that you require respite. [142] But you are free to enjoy the garden and its fruits." [143] "We will," said Captain Stark. [144] They wandered about the place, but they were uneasy. [145] There were the animals. [146] The lion and lioness were enough to make one cautious, though they offered no harm. [147] The two bears had a puzzling look, as though they wanted either to frolic with you or to mangle you. [148] "If there are only two people here," said Casper Craig, "then it may be that the rest of the world is not dangerous at all. [149] It looked fertile wherever we scanned it, though not so fertile as this central bit. [150] And those rocks would bear examining." [151] "Flecked with gold, and possibly with something else," said Stark. [152] "A very promising site." [153] "And everything grows here," added Steiner. [154] "Those are Earth-fruits and I never saw finer. [155] I've tasted the grapes and plums and pears. [156] The figs and dates are superb, the quince is as flavorsome as a quince can be, the cherries are excellent. [157] And I never did taste such oranges. [158] But I haven't yet tried the—" and he stopped. [159] "If you're thinking what I'm afraid to think," said Gilbert, "then it will be the test at least: whether we're having a pleasant dream or whether this is reality. [160] Go ahead and eat one." [161] "I won't be the first to eat one. [162] You eat." [163] "Ask him first. [164] You ask him." [165] "Ha-Adamah, is it allowed to eat the apples?" [166] "Certainly. [167] Eat. [168] It is the finest fruit in the garden." [169] "Well, the analogy breaks down there," said Stark. [170] "I was almost beginning to believe in the thing. [171] But if it isn't that, then what. [172] Father Briton, you are the linguist, but in Hebrew does not Ha-Adamah and Hawwah mean—?" [173] "Of course they do. [174] You know that as well as I." [175] "I was never a believer. [176] But would it be possible for the exact same proposition to maintain here as on Earth?" [177] "All things are possible." [178] And it was then that Ha-Adamah, the shining man, gave a wild cry: "No, no. [179] Do not approach it. [180] It is not allowed to eat of that one!" [181] It was the pomegranate tree, and he was warning Langweilig away from it. [182] "Once more, Father," said Stark, "you should be the authority; but does not the idea that it was the apple that was forbidden go back only to a medieval painting?" [183] "It does. [184] The name of the fruit is not mentioned in Genesis. [185] In Hebrew exegesis, however, the pomegranate is usually indicated." [186] "I thought so. [187] Question the man further, Father. [188] This is too incredible." [189] "It is a little odd. [190] Adam, old man, how long have you been here?" [191] "Forever less six days is the answer that has been given to me. [192] I never did understand the answer, however." [193] "And have you gotten no older in all that time?" [194] "I do not understand what 'older' is. [195] I am as I have been from the beginning." [196] "And do you think that you will ever die?" [197] "To die I do not understand. [198] I am taught that it is a property of fallen nature to die, and that does not pertain to me or mine." [199] "And are you completely happy here?" [200] "Perfectly happy according to my preternatural state. [201] But I am taught that it might be possible to lose that happiness, and then to seek it vainly through all the ages. [202] I am taught that sickness and ageing and even death could come if this happiness were ever lost. [203] I am taught that on at least one other unfortunate world it has actually been lost." [204] "Do you consider yourself a knowledgeable man?" [205] "Yes, since I am the only man, and knowledge is natural to man. [206] But I am further blessed. [207] I have a preternatural intellect." [208] Then Stark cut in once more: "There must be some one question you could ask him, Father. [209] Some way to settle it. [210] I am becoming nearly convinced." [211] "Yes, there is a question that will settle it. [212] Adam, old man, how about a game of checkers?" [213] "This is hardly the time for clowning," said Stark. [214] "I'm not clowning, Captain. [215] How about it, Adam? [216] I'll give you choice of colors and first move." [217] "No. [218] It would be no contest. [219] I have a preternatural intellect." [220] "Well, I beat a barber who was champion of Germantown. [221] And I beat the champion of Morgan County, Tennessee, which is the hottest checker center on Earth. [222] I've played against, and beaten, machines. [223] But I never played a preternatural mind. [224] Let's just set up the board, Adam, and have a go at it." [225] "No. [226] It would be no contest. [227] I would not like to humble you." [228] They were there for three days. [229] They were delighted with the place. [230] It was a world with everything, and it seemed to have only two inhabitants. [231] They went everywhere except into the big cave. [232] "What is there, Adam?" [233] asked Captain Stark. [234] "The great serpent lives there. [235] I would not disturb him. [236] He has long been cranky because plans he had for us did not materialize. [237] But we are taught that should ever evil come to us, which it cannot if we persevere, it will come by him." [238] They learned no more of the real nature of the sphere in their time there. [239] Yet all but one of them were convinced of the reality when they left. [240] And they talked of it as they took off. [241] "A crowd would laugh if told of it," said Stark, "but not many would laugh if they had actually seen the place, or them. [242] I am not a gullible man, but I am convinced of this: that this is a pristine and pure world and that ours and all the others we have visited are fallen worlds. [243] Here are the prototypes of our first parents before their fall. [244] They are garbed in light and innocence, and they have the happiness that we have been seeking for centuries. [245] It would be a crime if anyone disturbed that happiness." [246] "I too am convinced," said Steiner. [247] "It is Paradise itself, where the lion lies down with the lamb, and where the serpent has not prevailed. [248] It would be the darkest of crimes if we or others should play the part of the serpent, and intrude and spoil." [249] "I am probably the most skeptical man in the world," said Casper Craig the tycoon, "but I do believe my eyes. [250] I have been there and seen it. [251] It is indeed an unspoiled Paradise; and it would be a crime calling to the wide heavens for vengeance for anyone to smirch in any way that perfection. [252] "So much for that. [253] Now to business. [254] Gilbert, take a gram: Ninety Million Square Miles of Pristine Paradise for Sale or Lease. [255] Farming, Ranching, exceptional opportunities for Horticulture. [256] Gold, Silver, Iron, Earth-Type Fauna. [257] Terms. [258] Special Rates for Large Settlement Parties. [259] Write, Gram, or call in person at any of our planetary offices as listed below. [260] Ask for Brochure—Eden Acres Unlimited." [261] Down in the great cave that Old Serpent, a two-legged one among whose names were "Snake-Oil Sam," spoke to his underlings: "It'll take them fourteen days to get back with the settlers. [262] We'll have time to overhaul the blasters. [263] We haven't had any well-equipped settlers for six weeks. [264] It used to be we'd hardly have time to strip and slaughter and stow before there was another batch to take care of." [265] "I think you'd better write me some new lines," said Adam. [266] "I feel like a goof saying those same ones to each bunch." [267] "You are a goof, and therefore perfect for the part. [268] I was in show business long enough to know never to change a line too soon. [269] I did change Adam and Eve to Ha-Adamah and Hawwah, and the apple to the pomegranate. [270] People aren't becoming any smarter—but they are becoming better researched, and they insist on authenticity. [271] "This is still a perfect come-on here. [272] There is something in human nature that cannot resist the idea of a Perfect Paradise. [273] Folks will whoop and holler to their neighbors to come in droves to spoil and mar it. [274] It isn't greed or the desire for new land so much—though that is strong too. [275] Mainly it is the feverish passion to befoul and poison what is unspoiled. [276] Fortunately I am sagacious enough to take advantage of this trait. [277] And when you start to farm a new world on a shoestring you have to acquire your equipment as you can." [278] He looked proudly around at the great cave with its mountains and tiers of materials, heavy machinery of all sorts, titanic crates of foodstuff space-sealed; wheeled, tracked, propped, vaned and jetted vehicles; and power packs to run a world. [279] He looked at the three dozen space ships stripped and stacked, and at the rather large pile of bone-meal in one corner. [280] "We will have to have another lion," said Eve. [281] "Bowser is getting old, and Marie-Yvette abuses him and gnaws his toes. [282] And we do have to have a big-maned lion to lie down with the lamb." [283] "I know it, Eve. [284] The lion is a very important prop. [285] Maybe one of the crackpot settlers will bring a new lion." [286] "And can't you mix another kind of shining paint? [287] This itches. [288] It's hell." [289] "I'm working on it." [290] Casper Craig was still dictating the gram: "Amazing quality of longevity seemingly inherent in the locale. [291] Climate ideal. [292] Daylight or half-light. [293] All twenty-one hours from Planet Delphina and from Sol. [294] Pure water for all industrial purposes. [295] Scenic and storied. [296] Zoning and pre-settlement restrictions to insure congenial neighbors. [297] A completely planned globular settlement in a near arm of our own galaxy. [298] Low taxes and liberal credit. [299] Financing our specialty—" "And you had better have an armed escort when you return," said Father Briton. [300] "Why in cosmos would we want an armed escort?" [301] "It's as phony as a seven-credit note!" [302] "You, a man of the cloth doubt it? [303] And us ready skeptics convinced by our senses? [304] Why do you doubt?" [305] "It is only the unbelieving who believe so easily in obvious frauds. [306] Theologically unsound, dramaturgically weak, philologically impossible, zoologically rigged, salted conspicuously with gold and shot through with anachronisms. [307] And moreover he was afraid to play me at checkers." [308] "What?" [309] "If I have a preternatural intellect I wouldn't be afraid of a game of checkers with anyone. [310] Yet there was an unusual mind there somewhere; it was just that he chose not to make our acquaintance personally." [311] "They looked at the priest thoughtfully. [312] "But it was Paradise in one way," said Steiner at last. [313] "How?" [314] "All the time we were there the woman did not speak."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "Describe the story's characters and how they interact": 1. [76] Well, they were people. And one could only wish that all people were like them. 2. [78] There was a man and a woman, and they were clothed either in very bright garments or in no garments at all, but only in a very bright light. 3. [85] "Ha-Adamah," said the man. 4. [88] "The woman is named Hawwah," said the man. 5. [93] "I have only one tongue; but it is given to us to be understood by all; by the eagle, by the squirrel, by the ass, by the English." 6. [113] "The two of us. Man and woman." 7. [117] "How would there be any others? What other kind of people could there be than man and woman?" 8. [123] "You are named Captain. He is named Priest. He is named Engineer. He is named Flunky." 9. [132] "No. We are the people. There are no people but two. How could there be other people?" 10. [140] "Pick from the trees," said Ha-Adamah, "and then it may be that you will want to sleep on the grass. Being not of human nature (which does not need sleep or rest), it may be that you require respite. But you are free to enjoy the garden and its fruits." 11. [178] "No, no. Do not approach it. It is not allowed to eat of that one!" 12. [190] "Forever less six days is the answer that has been given to me. I never did understand the answer, however." 13. [197] "To die I do not understand. I am taught that it is a property of fallen nature to die, and that does not pertain to me or mine." 14. [200] "Perfectly happy according to my preternatural state. But I am taught that it might be possible to lose that happiness, and then to seek it vainly through all the ages. I am taught that sickness and ageing and even death could come if this happiness were ever lost. I am taught that on at least one other unfortunate world it has actually been lost." 15. [205] "Yes, since I am the only man, and knowledge is natural to man. But I am further blessed. I have a preternatural intellect." 16. [217] "No. It would be no contest." 17. [225] "No. It would be no contest. I would not like to humble you." 18. [234] "The great serpent lives there. I would not disturb him. He has long been cranky because plans he had for us did not materialize. But we are taught that should ever evil come to us, which it cannot if we persevere, it will come by him." 19. [265] "I feel like a goof saying those same ones to each bunch." 20. [280] "We will have to have another lion," said Eve. "Bowser is getting old, and Marie-Yvette abuses him and gnaws his toes. And we do have to have a big-maned lion to lie down with the lamb." 21. [286] "And can't you mix another kind of shining paint? This itches. It's hell."

Describe the setting of the story.

[1] IT WAS A DULL, ROUTINE LITTLE WORLD. [2] IT DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CITY. [3] EVERYTHING IT HAD WAS IN THE GARDEN BY R. A. LAFFERTY [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, March 1961. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] The protozoic recorder chirped like a bird. [6] Not only would there be life traces on that little moon, but it would be a lively place. [7] So they skipped several steps in the procedure. [8] The chordata discerner read Positive over most of the surface. [9] There was spinal fluid on that orb, rivers of it. [10] So again they omitted several tests and went to the cognition scanner. [11] Would it show Thought on the body? [12] Naturally they did not get results at once, nor did they expect to; it required a fine adjustment. [13] But they were disappointed that they found nothing for several hours as they hovered high over the rotation. [14] Then it came—clearly and definitely, but from quite a small location only. [15] "Limited," said Steiner, "as though within a pale. [16] As though there were but one city, if that is its form. [17] Shall we follow the rest of the surface to find another, or concentrate on this? [18] It'll be twelve hours before it's back in our ken if we let it go now." [19] "Let's lock on this one and finish the scan. [20] Then we can do the rest of the world to make sure we've missed nothing," said Stark. [21] There was one more test to run, one very tricky and difficult of analysis, that with the Extraordinary Perception Locator. [22] This was designed simply to locate a source of superior thought. [23] But this might be so varied or so unfamiliar that often both the machine and the designer of it were puzzled as to how to read the results. [24] The E. P. Locator had been designed by Glaser. [25] But when the Locator had refused to read Positive when turned on the inventor himself, bad blood developed between machine and man. [26] Glaser knew that he had extraordinary perception. [27] He was a much honored man in his field. [28] He told the machine so heatedly. [29] The machine replied, with such warmth that its relays chattered, that Glaser did not have extraordinary perception; he had only ordinary perception to an extraordinary degree. [30] There is a difference , the machine insisted. [31] It was for this reason that Glaser used that model no more, but built others more amenable. [32] And it was for this reason also that the owners of Little Probe had acquired the original machine so cheaply. [33] And there was no denying that the Extraordinary Perception Locator (or Eppel) was a contrary machine. [34] On Earth it had read Positive on a number of crack-pots, including Waxey Sax, a jazz tootler who could not even read music. [35] But it had also read Positive on ninety per cent of the acknowledged superior minds of the Earth. [36] In space it had been a sound guide to the unusual intelligences encountered. [37] Yet on Suzuki-Mi it had read Positive on a two-inch-long worm, only one of them out of billions. [38] For the countless identical worms no trace of anything at all was shown by the test. [39] So it was with mixed expectations that Steiner locked onto the area and got a flick. [40] He then narrowed to a smaller area (apparently one individual, though this could not be certain) and got very definite action. [41] Eppel was busy. [42] The machine had a touch of the ham in it, and assumed an air of importance when it ran these tests. [43] Finally it signaled the result, the most exasperating result it ever produces: the single orange light. [44] It was the equivalent of the shrug of the shoulders in a man. [45] They called it the "You tell me light." [46] So among the intelligences there was at least one that might be extraordinary, though possibly in a crackpot way. [47] It is good to be forewarned. [48] "Scan the remainder of the world, Steiner," said Stark, "and the rest of us will get some sleep. [49] If you find no other spot then we will go down on that one the next time it is in position under us, in about twelve hours." [50] "You don't want to visit any of the other areas first? [51] Somewhere away from the thoughtful creature?" [52] "No. [53] The rest of the world may be dangerous. [54] There must be a reason that thought is in one spot only. [55] If we find no others then we will go down boldly and visit this." [56] So they all, except Steiner, went off to their bunks then: Stark, the Captain; Gregory Gilbert, the executive officer; Wolfgang Langweilig, the engineer; Casper Craig, super-cargo, tycoon and 51% owner of the Little Probe, and F. R. Briton, S.J., a Jesuit priest who was linguist and checker champion of the craft. [57] Dawn did not come to the moon-town. [58] The Little Probe hovered stationary in the light and the moon-town came up under the dawn. [59] Then the Probe went down to visit whatever was there. [60] "There's no town," said Steiner. [61] "Not a building. [62] Yet we're on the track of the minds. [63] There's nothing but a meadow and some boscage, a sort of fountain or pool, and four streams coming out of it." [64] "Keep on towards the minds," said Stark. [65] "They're our target." [66] "Not a building, not two sticks or stones placed together. [67] That looks like an Earth-type sheep there. [68] And that looks like an Earth-lion, I'm almost afraid to say. [69] And those two ... why, they could well be Earth-people. [70] But with a difference. [71] Where is that bright light coming from?" [72] "I don't know, but they're right in the middle of it. [73] Land here. [74] We'll go to meet them at once. [75] Timidity has never been an efficacious tool with us." [76] Well, they were people. [77] And one could only wish that all people were like them. [78] There was a man and a woman, and they were clothed either in very bright garments or in no garments at all, but only in a very bright light. [79] "Talk to them, Father Briton," said Stark. [80] "You are the linguist." [81] "Howdy," said the priest. [82] He may or may not have been understood, but the two of them smiled at him, so he went on. [83] "Father Briton from Philadelphia," he said, "on detached service. [84] And you, my good man, what is your handle, your monicker, your tag?" [85] "Ha-Adamah," said the man. [86] "And your daughter, or niece?" [87] It may be that the shining man frowned momentarily at this; but the woman smiled, proving that she was human. [88] "The woman is named Hawwah," said the man. [89] "The sheep is named sheep, the lion is named lion, the horse is named horse and the hoolock is named hoolock." [90] "I understand. [91] It is possible that this could go on and on. [92] How is it that you use the English tongue?" [93] "I have only one tongue; but it is given to us to be understood by all; by the eagle, by the squirrel, by the ass, by the English." [94] "We happen to be bloody Yankees, but we use a borrowed tongue. [95] You wouldn't have a drink on you for a tubful of thirsty travellers, would you?" [96] "The fountain." [97] "Ah—I see." [98] But the crew all drank of the fountain to be sociable. [99] It was water, but water that excelled, cool and with all its original bubbles like the first water ever made. [100] "What do you make of them?" [101] asked Stark. [102] "Human," said Steiner. [103] "It may even be that they are a little more than human. [104] I don't understand that light that surrounds them. [105] And they seem to be clothed, as it were, in dignity." [106] "And very little else," said Father Briton, "though that light trick does serve a purpose. [107] But I'm not sure they'd pass in Philadelphia." [108] "Talk to them again," said Stark. [109] "You're the linguist." [110] "That isn't necessary here, Captain. [111] Talk to them yourself." [112] "Are there any other people here?" [113] Stark asked the man. [114] "The two of us. [115] Man and woman." [116] "But are there any others?" [117] "How would there be any others? [118] What other kind of people could there be than man and woman?" [119] "But is there more than one man or woman?" [120] "How could there be more than one of anything?" [121] The captain was a little puzzled by this, but he went on doggedly: "Ha-Adamah, what do you think that we are? [122] Are we not people?" [123] "You are not anything till I name you. [124] But I will name you and then you can be. [125] You are named Captain. [126] He is named Priest. [127] He is named Engineer. [128] He is named Flunky." [129] "Thanks a lot," said Steiner. [130] "But are we not people?" [131] persisted Captain Stark. [132] "No. [133] We are the people. [134] There are no people but two. [135] How could there be other people?" [136] "And the damnest thing about it," muttered Langweilig, "is, how are you going to prove him wrong? [137] But it does give you a small feeling." [138] "Can we have something to eat?" [139] asked the Captain. [140] "Pick from the trees," said Ha-Adamah, "and then it may be that you will want to sleep on the grass. [141] Being not of human nature (which does not need sleep or rest), it may be that you require respite. [142] But you are free to enjoy the garden and its fruits." [143] "We will," said Captain Stark. [144] They wandered about the place, but they were uneasy. [145] There were the animals. [146] The lion and lioness were enough to make one cautious, though they offered no harm. [147] The two bears had a puzzling look, as though they wanted either to frolic with you or to mangle you. [148] "If there are only two people here," said Casper Craig, "then it may be that the rest of the world is not dangerous at all. [149] It looked fertile wherever we scanned it, though not so fertile as this central bit. [150] And those rocks would bear examining." [151] "Flecked with gold, and possibly with something else," said Stark. [152] "A very promising site." [153] "And everything grows here," added Steiner. [154] "Those are Earth-fruits and I never saw finer. [155] I've tasted the grapes and plums and pears. [156] The figs and dates are superb, the quince is as flavorsome as a quince can be, the cherries are excellent. [157] And I never did taste such oranges. [158] But I haven't yet tried the—" and he stopped. [159] "If you're thinking what I'm afraid to think," said Gilbert, "then it will be the test at least: whether we're having a pleasant dream or whether this is reality. [160] Go ahead and eat one." [161] "I won't be the first to eat one. [162] You eat." [163] "Ask him first. [164] You ask him." [165] "Ha-Adamah, is it allowed to eat the apples?" [166] "Certainly. [167] Eat. [168] It is the finest fruit in the garden." [169] "Well, the analogy breaks down there," said Stark. [170] "I was almost beginning to believe in the thing. [171] But if it isn't that, then what. [172] Father Briton, you are the linguist, but in Hebrew does not Ha-Adamah and Hawwah mean—?" [173] "Of course they do. [174] You know that as well as I." [175] "I was never a believer. [176] But would it be possible for the exact same proposition to maintain here as on Earth?" [177] "All things are possible." [178] And it was then that Ha-Adamah, the shining man, gave a wild cry: "No, no. [179] Do not approach it. [180] It is not allowed to eat of that one!" [181] It was the pomegranate tree, and he was warning Langweilig away from it. [182] "Once more, Father," said Stark, "you should be the authority; but does not the idea that it was the apple that was forbidden go back only to a medieval painting?" [183] "It does. [184] The name of the fruit is not mentioned in Genesis. [185] In Hebrew exegesis, however, the pomegranate is usually indicated." [186] "I thought so. [187] Question the man further, Father. [188] This is too incredible." [189] "It is a little odd. [190] Adam, old man, how long have you been here?" [191] "Forever less six days is the answer that has been given to me. [192] I never did understand the answer, however." [193] "And have you gotten no older in all that time?" [194] "I do not understand what 'older' is. [195] I am as I have been from the beginning." [196] "And do you think that you will ever die?" [197] "To die I do not understand. [198] I am taught that it is a property of fallen nature to die, and that does not pertain to me or mine." [199] "And are you completely happy here?" [200] "Perfectly happy according to my preternatural state. [201] But I am taught that it might be possible to lose that happiness, and then to seek it vainly through all the ages. [202] I am taught that sickness and ageing and even death could come if this happiness were ever lost. [203] I am taught that on at least one other unfortunate world it has actually been lost." [204] "Do you consider yourself a knowledgeable man?" [205] "Yes, since I am the only man, and knowledge is natural to man. [206] But I am further blessed. [207] I have a preternatural intellect." [208] Then Stark cut in once more: "There must be some one question you could ask him, Father. [209] Some way to settle it. [210] I am becoming nearly convinced." [211] "Yes, there is a question that will settle it. [212] Adam, old man, how about a game of checkers?" [213] "This is hardly the time for clowning," said Stark. [214] "I'm not clowning, Captain. [215] How about it, Adam? [216] I'll give you choice of colors and first move." [217] "No. [218] It would be no contest. [219] I have a preternatural intellect." [220] "Well, I beat a barber who was champion of Germantown. [221] And I beat the champion of Morgan County, Tennessee, which is the hottest checker center on Earth. [222] I've played against, and beaten, machines. [223] But I never played a preternatural mind. [224] Let's just set up the board, Adam, and have a go at it." [225] "No. [226] It would be no contest. [227] I would not like to humble you." [228] They were there for three days. [229] They were delighted with the place. [230] It was a world with everything, and it seemed to have only two inhabitants. [231] They went everywhere except into the big cave. [232] "What is there, Adam?" [233] asked Captain Stark. [234] "The great serpent lives there. [235] I would not disturb him. [236] He has long been cranky because plans he had for us did not materialize. [237] But we are taught that should ever evil come to us, which it cannot if we persevere, it will come by him." [238] They learned no more of the real nature of the sphere in their time there. [239] Yet all but one of them were convinced of the reality when they left. [240] And they talked of it as they took off. [241] "A crowd would laugh if told of it," said Stark, "but not many would laugh if they had actually seen the place, or them. [242] I am not a gullible man, but I am convinced of this: that this is a pristine and pure world and that ours and all the others we have visited are fallen worlds. [243] Here are the prototypes of our first parents before their fall. [244] They are garbed in light and innocence, and they have the happiness that we have been seeking for centuries. [245] It would be a crime if anyone disturbed that happiness." [246] "I too am convinced," said Steiner. [247] "It is Paradise itself, where the lion lies down with the lamb, and where the serpent has not prevailed. [248] It would be the darkest of crimes if we or others should play the part of the serpent, and intrude and spoil." [249] "I am probably the most skeptical man in the world," said Casper Craig the tycoon, "but I do believe my eyes. [250] I have been there and seen it. [251] It is indeed an unspoiled Paradise; and it would be a crime calling to the wide heavens for vengeance for anyone to smirch in any way that perfection. [252] "So much for that. [253] Now to business. [254] Gilbert, take a gram: Ninety Million Square Miles of Pristine Paradise for Sale or Lease. [255] Farming, Ranching, exceptional opportunities for Horticulture. [256] Gold, Silver, Iron, Earth-Type Fauna. [257] Terms. [258] Special Rates for Large Settlement Parties. [259] Write, Gram, or call in person at any of our planetary offices as listed below. [260] Ask for Brochure—Eden Acres Unlimited." [261] Down in the great cave that Old Serpent, a two-legged one among whose names were "Snake-Oil Sam," spoke to his underlings: "It'll take them fourteen days to get back with the settlers. [262] We'll have time to overhaul the blasters. [263] We haven't had any well-equipped settlers for six weeks. [264] It used to be we'd hardly have time to strip and slaughter and stow before there was another batch to take care of." [265] "I think you'd better write me some new lines," said Adam. [266] "I feel like a goof saying those same ones to each bunch." [267] "You are a goof, and therefore perfect for the part. [268] I was in show business long enough to know never to change a line too soon. [269] I did change Adam and Eve to Ha-Adamah and Hawwah, and the apple to the pomegranate. [270] People aren't becoming any smarter—but they are becoming better researched, and they insist on authenticity. [271] "This is still a perfect come-on here. [272] There is something in human nature that cannot resist the idea of a Perfect Paradise. [273] Folks will whoop and holler to their neighbors to come in droves to spoil and mar it. [274] It isn't greed or the desire for new land so much—though that is strong too. [275] Mainly it is the feverish passion to befoul and poison what is unspoiled. [276] Fortunately I am sagacious enough to take advantage of this trait. [277] And when you start to farm a new world on a shoestring you have to acquire your equipment as you can." [278] He looked proudly around at the great cave with its mountains and tiers of materials, heavy machinery of all sorts, titanic crates of foodstuff space-sealed; wheeled, tracked, propped, vaned and jetted vehicles; and power packs to run a world. [279] He looked at the three dozen space ships stripped and stacked, and at the rather large pile of bone-meal in one corner. [280] "We will have to have another lion," said Eve. [281] "Bowser is getting old, and Marie-Yvette abuses him and gnaws his toes. [282] And we do have to have a big-maned lion to lie down with the lamb." [283] "I know it, Eve. [284] The lion is a very important prop. [285] Maybe one of the crackpot settlers will bring a new lion." [286] "And can't you mix another kind of shining paint? [287] This itches. [288] It's hell." [289] "I'm working on it." [290] Casper Craig was still dictating the gram: "Amazing quality of longevity seemingly inherent in the locale. [291] Climate ideal. [292] Daylight or half-light. [293] All twenty-one hours from Planet Delphina and from Sol. [294] Pure water for all industrial purposes. [295] Scenic and storied. [296] Zoning and pre-settlement restrictions to insure congenial neighbors. [297] A completely planned globular settlement in a near arm of our own galaxy. [298] Low taxes and liberal credit. [299] Financing our specialty—" "And you had better have an armed escort when you return," said Father Briton. [300] "Why in cosmos would we want an armed escort?" [301] "It's as phony as a seven-credit note!" [302] "You, a man of the cloth doubt it? [303] And us ready skeptics convinced by our senses? [304] Why do you doubt?" [305] "It is only the unbelieving who believe so easily in obvious frauds. [306] Theologically unsound, dramaturgically weak, philologically impossible, zoologically rigged, salted conspicuously with gold and shot through with anachronisms. [307] And moreover he was afraid to play me at checkers." [308] "What?" [309] "If I have a preternatural intellect I wouldn't be afraid of a game of checkers with anyone. [310] Yet there was an unusual mind there somewhere; it was just that he chose not to make our acquaintance personally." [311] "They looked at the priest thoughtfully. [312] "But it was Paradise in one way," said Steiner at last. [313] "How?" [314] "All the time we were there the woman did not speak."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "Describe the setting of the story": 1. [1] IT WAS A DULL, ROUTINE LITTLE WORLD. 2. [2] IT DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CITY. 3. [57] Dawn did not come to the moon-town. 4. [58] The Little Probe hovered stationary in the light and the moon-town came up under the dawn. 5. [59] Then the Probe went down to visit whatever was there. 6. [60] "There's no town," said Steiner. 7. [61] "Not a building. 8. [62] Yet we're on the track of the minds. 9. [63] There's nothing but a meadow and some boscage, a sort of fountain or pool, and four streams coming out of it." 10. [66] "Not a building, not two sticks or stones placed together. 11. [67] That looks like an Earth-type sheep there. 12. [68] And that looks like an Earth-lion, I'm almost afraid to say. 13. [69] And those two ... why, they could well be Earth-people. 14. [70] But with a difference. 15. [71] Where is that bright light coming from?" 16. [72] "I don't know, but they're right in the middle of it. 17. [73] Land here. 18. [74] We'll go to meet them at once. 19. [75] Timidity has never been an efficacious tool with us." 20. [230] It was a world with everything, and it seemed to have only two inhabitants. 21. [231] They went everywhere except into the big cave. 22. [232] "What is there, Adam?" 23. [233] asked Captain Stark. 24. [234] "The great serpent lives there. 25. [235] I would not disturb him. 26. [236] He has long been cranky because plans he had for us did not materialize. 27. [237] But we are taught that should ever evil come to us, which it cannot if we persevere, it will come by him."

How do religion and religious faith contribute to the story?

[1] IT WAS A DULL, ROUTINE LITTLE WORLD. [2] IT DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CITY. [3] EVERYTHING IT HAD WAS IN THE GARDEN BY R. A. LAFFERTY [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, March 1961. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] The protozoic recorder chirped like a bird. [6] Not only would there be life traces on that little moon, but it would be a lively place. [7] So they skipped several steps in the procedure. [8] The chordata discerner read Positive over most of the surface. [9] There was spinal fluid on that orb, rivers of it. [10] So again they omitted several tests and went to the cognition scanner. [11] Would it show Thought on the body? [12] Naturally they did not get results at once, nor did they expect to; it required a fine adjustment. [13] But they were disappointed that they found nothing for several hours as they hovered high over the rotation. [14] Then it came—clearly and definitely, but from quite a small location only. [15] "Limited," said Steiner, "as though within a pale. [16] As though there were but one city, if that is its form. [17] Shall we follow the rest of the surface to find another, or concentrate on this? [18] It'll be twelve hours before it's back in our ken if we let it go now." [19] "Let's lock on this one and finish the scan. [20] Then we can do the rest of the world to make sure we've missed nothing," said Stark. [21] There was one more test to run, one very tricky and difficult of analysis, that with the Extraordinary Perception Locator. [22] This was designed simply to locate a source of superior thought. [23] But this might be so varied or so unfamiliar that often both the machine and the designer of it were puzzled as to how to read the results. [24] The E. P. Locator had been designed by Glaser. [25] But when the Locator had refused to read Positive when turned on the inventor himself, bad blood developed between machine and man. [26] Glaser knew that he had extraordinary perception. [27] He was a much honored man in his field. [28] He told the machine so heatedly. [29] The machine replied, with such warmth that its relays chattered, that Glaser did not have extraordinary perception; he had only ordinary perception to an extraordinary degree. [30] There is a difference , the machine insisted. [31] It was for this reason that Glaser used that model no more, but built others more amenable. [32] And it was for this reason also that the owners of Little Probe had acquired the original machine so cheaply. [33] And there was no denying that the Extraordinary Perception Locator (or Eppel) was a contrary machine. [34] On Earth it had read Positive on a number of crack-pots, including Waxey Sax, a jazz tootler who could not even read music. [35] But it had also read Positive on ninety per cent of the acknowledged superior minds of the Earth. [36] In space it had been a sound guide to the unusual intelligences encountered. [37] Yet on Suzuki-Mi it had read Positive on a two-inch-long worm, only one of them out of billions. [38] For the countless identical worms no trace of anything at all was shown by the test. [39] So it was with mixed expectations that Steiner locked onto the area and got a flick. [40] He then narrowed to a smaller area (apparently one individual, though this could not be certain) and got very definite action. [41] Eppel was busy. [42] The machine had a touch of the ham in it, and assumed an air of importance when it ran these tests. [43] Finally it signaled the result, the most exasperating result it ever produces: the single orange light. [44] It was the equivalent of the shrug of the shoulders in a man. [45] They called it the "You tell me light." [46] So among the intelligences there was at least one that might be extraordinary, though possibly in a crackpot way. [47] It is good to be forewarned. [48] "Scan the remainder of the world, Steiner," said Stark, "and the rest of us will get some sleep. [49] If you find no other spot then we will go down on that one the next time it is in position under us, in about twelve hours." [50] "You don't want to visit any of the other areas first? [51] Somewhere away from the thoughtful creature?" [52] "No. [53] The rest of the world may be dangerous. [54] There must be a reason that thought is in one spot only. [55] If we find no others then we will go down boldly and visit this." [56] So they all, except Steiner, went off to their bunks then: Stark, the Captain; Gregory Gilbert, the executive officer; Wolfgang Langweilig, the engineer; Casper Craig, super-cargo, tycoon and 51% owner of the Little Probe, and F. R. Briton, S.J., a Jesuit priest who was linguist and checker champion of the craft. [57] Dawn did not come to the moon-town. [58] The Little Probe hovered stationary in the light and the moon-town came up under the dawn. [59] Then the Probe went down to visit whatever was there. [60] "There's no town," said Steiner. [61] "Not a building. [62] Yet we're on the track of the minds. [63] There's nothing but a meadow and some boscage, a sort of fountain or pool, and four streams coming out of it." [64] "Keep on towards the minds," said Stark. [65] "They're our target." [66] "Not a building, not two sticks or stones placed together. [67] That looks like an Earth-type sheep there. [68] And that looks like an Earth-lion, I'm almost afraid to say. [69] And those two ... why, they could well be Earth-people. [70] But with a difference. [71] Where is that bright light coming from?" [72] "I don't know, but they're right in the middle of it. [73] Land here. [74] We'll go to meet them at once. [75] Timidity has never been an efficacious tool with us." [76] Well, they were people. [77] And one could only wish that all people were like them. [78] There was a man and a woman, and they were clothed either in very bright garments or in no garments at all, but only in a very bright light. [79] "Talk to them, Father Briton," said Stark. [80] "You are the linguist." [81] "Howdy," said the priest. [82] He may or may not have been understood, but the two of them smiled at him, so he went on. [83] "Father Briton from Philadelphia," he said, "on detached service. [84] And you, my good man, what is your handle, your monicker, your tag?" [85] "Ha-Adamah," said the man. [86] "And your daughter, or niece?" [87] It may be that the shining man frowned momentarily at this; but the woman smiled, proving that she was human. [88] "The woman is named Hawwah," said the man. [89] "The sheep is named sheep, the lion is named lion, the horse is named horse and the hoolock is named hoolock." [90] "I understand. [91] It is possible that this could go on and on. [92] How is it that you use the English tongue?" [93] "I have only one tongue; but it is given to us to be understood by all; by the eagle, by the squirrel, by the ass, by the English." [94] "We happen to be bloody Yankees, but we use a borrowed tongue. [95] You wouldn't have a drink on you for a tubful of thirsty travellers, would you?" [96] "The fountain." [97] "Ah—I see." [98] But the crew all drank of the fountain to be sociable. [99] It was water, but water that excelled, cool and with all its original bubbles like the first water ever made. [100] "What do you make of them?" [101] asked Stark. [102] "Human," said Steiner. [103] "It may even be that they are a little more than human. [104] I don't understand that light that surrounds them. [105] And they seem to be clothed, as it were, in dignity." [106] "And very little else," said Father Briton, "though that light trick does serve a purpose. [107] But I'm not sure they'd pass in Philadelphia." [108] "Talk to them again," said Stark. [109] "You're the linguist." [110] "That isn't necessary here, Captain. [111] Talk to them yourself." [112] "Are there any other people here?" [113] Stark asked the man. [114] "The two of us. [115] Man and woman." [116] "But are there any others?" [117] "How would there be any others? [118] What other kind of people could there be than man and woman?" [119] "But is there more than one man or woman?" [120] "How could there be more than one of anything?" [121] The captain was a little puzzled by this, but he went on doggedly: "Ha-Adamah, what do you think that we are? [122] Are we not people?" [123] "You are not anything till I name you. [124] But I will name you and then you can be. [125] You are named Captain. [126] He is named Priest. [127] He is named Engineer. [128] He is named Flunky." [129] "Thanks a lot," said Steiner. [130] "But are we not people?" [131] persisted Captain Stark. [132] "No. [133] We are the people. [134] There are no people but two. [135] How could there be other people?" [136] "And the damnest thing about it," muttered Langweilig, "is, how are you going to prove him wrong? [137] But it does give you a small feeling." [138] "Can we have something to eat?" [139] asked the Captain. [140] "Pick from the trees," said Ha-Adamah, "and then it may be that you will want to sleep on the grass. [141] Being not of human nature (which does not need sleep or rest), it may be that you require respite. [142] But you are free to enjoy the garden and its fruits." [143] "We will," said Captain Stark. [144] They wandered about the place, but they were uneasy. [145] There were the animals. [146] The lion and lioness were enough to make one cautious, though they offered no harm. [147] The two bears had a puzzling look, as though they wanted either to frolic with you or to mangle you. [148] "If there are only two people here," said Casper Craig, "then it may be that the rest of the world is not dangerous at all. [149] It looked fertile wherever we scanned it, though not so fertile as this central bit. [150] And those rocks would bear examining." [151] "Flecked with gold, and possibly with something else," said Stark. [152] "A very promising site." [153] "And everything grows here," added Steiner. [154] "Those are Earth-fruits and I never saw finer. [155] I've tasted the grapes and plums and pears. [156] The figs and dates are superb, the quince is as flavorsome as a quince can be, the cherries are excellent. [157] And I never did taste such oranges. [158] But I haven't yet tried the—" and he stopped. [159] "If you're thinking what I'm afraid to think," said Gilbert, "then it will be the test at least: whether we're having a pleasant dream or whether this is reality. [160] Go ahead and eat one." [161] "I won't be the first to eat one. [162] You eat." [163] "Ask him first. [164] You ask him." [165] "Ha-Adamah, is it allowed to eat the apples?" [166] "Certainly. [167] Eat. [168] It is the finest fruit in the garden." [169] "Well, the analogy breaks down there," said Stark. [170] "I was almost beginning to believe in the thing. [171] But if it isn't that, then what. [172] Father Briton, you are the linguist, but in Hebrew does not Ha-Adamah and Hawwah mean—?" [173] "Of course they do. [174] You know that as well as I." [175] "I was never a believer. [176] But would it be possible for the exact same proposition to maintain here as on Earth?" [177] "All things are possible." [178] And it was then that Ha-Adamah, the shining man, gave a wild cry: "No, no. [179] Do not approach it. [180] It is not allowed to eat of that one!" [181] It was the pomegranate tree, and he was warning Langweilig away from it. [182] "Once more, Father," said Stark, "you should be the authority; but does not the idea that it was the apple that was forbidden go back only to a medieval painting?" [183] "It does. [184] The name of the fruit is not mentioned in Genesis. [185] In Hebrew exegesis, however, the pomegranate is usually indicated." [186] "I thought so. [187] Question the man further, Father. [188] This is too incredible." [189] "It is a little odd. [190] Adam, old man, how long have you been here?" [191] "Forever less six days is the answer that has been given to me. [192] I never did understand the answer, however." [193] "And have you gotten no older in all that time?" [194] "I do not understand what 'older' is. [195] I am as I have been from the beginning." [196] "And do you think that you will ever die?" [197] "To die I do not understand. [198] I am taught that it is a property of fallen nature to die, and that does not pertain to me or mine." [199] "And are you completely happy here?" [200] "Perfectly happy according to my preternatural state. [201] But I am taught that it might be possible to lose that happiness, and then to seek it vainly through all the ages. [202] I am taught that sickness and ageing and even death could come if this happiness were ever lost. [203] I am taught that on at least one other unfortunate world it has actually been lost." [204] "Do you consider yourself a knowledgeable man?" [205] "Yes, since I am the only man, and knowledge is natural to man. [206] But I am further blessed. [207] I have a preternatural intellect." [208] Then Stark cut in once more: "There must be some one question you could ask him, Father. [209] Some way to settle it. [210] I am becoming nearly convinced." [211] "Yes, there is a question that will settle it. [212] Adam, old man, how about a game of checkers?" [213] "This is hardly the time for clowning," said Stark. [214] "I'm not clowning, Captain. [215] How about it, Adam? [216] I'll give you choice of colors and first move." [217] "No. [218] It would be no contest. [219] I have a preternatural intellect." [220] "Well, I beat a barber who was champion of Germantown. [221] And I beat the champion of Morgan County, Tennessee, which is the hottest checker center on Earth. [222] I've played against, and beaten, machines. [223] But I never played a preternatural mind. [224] Let's just set up the board, Adam, and have a go at it." [225] "No. [226] It would be no contest. [227] I would not like to humble you." [228] They were there for three days. [229] They were delighted with the place. [230] It was a world with everything, and it seemed to have only two inhabitants. [231] They went everywhere except into the big cave. [232] "What is there, Adam?" [233] asked Captain Stark. [234] "The great serpent lives there. [235] I would not disturb him. [236] He has long been cranky because plans he had for us did not materialize. [237] But we are taught that should ever evil come to us, which it cannot if we persevere, it will come by him." [238] They learned no more of the real nature of the sphere in their time there. [239] Yet all but one of them were convinced of the reality when they left. [240] And they talked of it as they took off. [241] "A crowd would laugh if told of it," said Stark, "but not many would laugh if they had actually seen the place, or them. [242] I am not a gullible man, but I am convinced of this: that this is a pristine and pure world and that ours and all the others we have visited are fallen worlds. [243] Here are the prototypes of our first parents before their fall. [244] They are garbed in light and innocence, and they have the happiness that we have been seeking for centuries. [245] It would be a crime if anyone disturbed that happiness." [246] "I too am convinced," said Steiner. [247] "It is Paradise itself, where the lion lies down with the lamb, and where the serpent has not prevailed. [248] It would be the darkest of crimes if we or others should play the part of the serpent, and intrude and spoil." [249] "I am probably the most skeptical man in the world," said Casper Craig the tycoon, "but I do believe my eyes. [250] I have been there and seen it. [251] It is indeed an unspoiled Paradise; and it would be a crime calling to the wide heavens for vengeance for anyone to smirch in any way that perfection. [252] "So much for that. [253] Now to business. [254] Gilbert, take a gram: Ninety Million Square Miles of Pristine Paradise for Sale or Lease. [255] Farming, Ranching, exceptional opportunities for Horticulture. [256] Gold, Silver, Iron, Earth-Type Fauna. [257] Terms. [258] Special Rates for Large Settlement Parties. [259] Write, Gram, or call in person at any of our planetary offices as listed below. [260] Ask for Brochure—Eden Acres Unlimited." [261] Down in the great cave that Old Serpent, a two-legged one among whose names were "Snake-Oil Sam," spoke to his underlings: "It'll take them fourteen days to get back with the settlers. [262] We'll have time to overhaul the blasters. [263] We haven't had any well-equipped settlers for six weeks. [264] It used to be we'd hardly have time to strip and slaughter and stow before there was another batch to take care of." [265] "I think you'd better write me some new lines," said Adam. [266] "I feel like a goof saying those same ones to each bunch." [267] "You are a goof, and therefore perfect for the part. [268] I was in show business long enough to know never to change a line too soon. [269] I did change Adam and Eve to Ha-Adamah and Hawwah, and the apple to the pomegranate. [270] People aren't becoming any smarter—but they are becoming better researched, and they insist on authenticity. [271] "This is still a perfect come-on here. [272] There is something in human nature that cannot resist the idea of a Perfect Paradise. [273] Folks will whoop and holler to their neighbors to come in droves to spoil and mar it. [274] It isn't greed or the desire for new land so much—though that is strong too. [275] Mainly it is the feverish passion to befoul and poison what is unspoiled. [276] Fortunately I am sagacious enough to take advantage of this trait. [277] And when you start to farm a new world on a shoestring you have to acquire your equipment as you can." [278] He looked proudly around at the great cave with its mountains and tiers of materials, heavy machinery of all sorts, titanic crates of foodstuff space-sealed; wheeled, tracked, propped, vaned and jetted vehicles; and power packs to run a world. [279] He looked at the three dozen space ships stripped and stacked, and at the rather large pile of bone-meal in one corner. [280] "We will have to have another lion," said Eve. [281] "Bowser is getting old, and Marie-Yvette abuses him and gnaws his toes. [282] And we do have to have a big-maned lion to lie down with the lamb." [283] "I know it, Eve. [284] The lion is a very important prop. [285] Maybe one of the crackpot settlers will bring a new lion." [286] "And can't you mix another kind of shining paint? [287] This itches. [288] It's hell." [289] "I'm working on it." [290] Casper Craig was still dictating the gram: "Amazing quality of longevity seemingly inherent in the locale. [291] Climate ideal. [292] Daylight or half-light. [293] All twenty-one hours from Planet Delphina and from Sol. [294] Pure water for all industrial purposes. [295] Scenic and storied. [296] Zoning and pre-settlement restrictions to insure congenial neighbors. [297] A completely planned globular settlement in a near arm of our own galaxy. [298] Low taxes and liberal credit. [299] Financing our specialty—" "And you had better have an armed escort when you return," said Father Briton. [300] "Why in cosmos would we want an armed escort?" [301] "It's as phony as a seven-credit note!" [302] "You, a man of the cloth doubt it? [303] And us ready skeptics convinced by our senses? [304] Why do you doubt?" [305] "It is only the unbelieving who believe so easily in obvious frauds. [306] Theologically unsound, dramaturgically weak, philologically impossible, zoologically rigged, salted conspicuously with gold and shot through with anachronisms. [307] And moreover he was afraid to play me at checkers." [308] "What?" [309] "If I have a preternatural intellect I wouldn't be afraid of a game of checkers with anyone. [310] Yet there was an unusual mind there somewhere; it was just that he chose not to make our acquaintance personally." [311] "They looked at the priest thoughtfully. [312] "But it was Paradise in one way," said Steiner at last. [313] "How?" [314] "All the time we were there the woman did not speak."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "How do religion and religious faith contribute to the story?": 1. [201] "But I am taught that it might be possible to lose that happiness, and then to seek it vainly through all the ages. I am taught that sickness and ageing and even death could come if this happiness were ever lost. I am taught that on at least one other unfortunate world it has actually been lost." 2. [197] "To die I do not understand. I am taught that it is a property of fallen nature to die, and that does not pertain to me or mine." 3. [200] "Perfectly happy according to my preternatural state." 4. [205] "Yes, since I am the only man, and knowledge is natural to man. But I am further blessed. I have a preternatural intellect." 5. [233] "The great serpent lives there. I would not disturb him. He has long been cranky because plans he had for us did not materialize. But we are taught that should ever evil come to us, which it cannot if we persevere, it will come by him." 6. [190] "Forever less six days is the answer that has been given to me. I never did understand the answer, however." 7. [196] "And do you think that you will ever die?" 8. [199] "And are you completely happy here?" 9. [204] "Do you consider yourself a knowledgeable man?" 10. [214] "I'm not clowning, Captain. How about it, Adam? I'll give you choice of colors and first move." 11. [216] "No. It would be no contest." 12. [225] "No. It would be no contest. I would not like to humble you." 13. [231] "What is there, Adam?" 14. [234] "The great serpent lives there." 15. [265] "I feel like a goof saying those same ones to each bunch." 16. [270] "I did change Adam and Eve to Ha-Adamah and Hawwah, and the apple to the pomegranate. People aren't becoming any smarter—but they are becoming better researched, and they insist on authenticity." 17. [271] "This is still a perfect come-on here. There is something in human nature that cannot resist the idea of a Perfect Paradise." 18. [272] "Folks will whoop and holler to their neighbors to come in droves to spoil and mar it." 19. [273] "It isn't greed or the desire for new land so much—though that is strong too. Mainly it is the feverish passion to befoul and poison what is unspoiled." 20. [274] "Fortunately I am sagacious enough to take advantage of this trait." 21. [299] "And you had better have an armed escort when you return," said Father Briton. 22. [302] "You, a man of the cloth doubt it?" 23. [305] "It is only the unbelieving who believe so easily in obvious frauds. Theologically unsound, dramaturgically weak, philologically impossible, zoologically rigged, salted conspicuously with gold and shot through with anachronisms." 24. [309] "If I have a preternatural intellect I wouldn't be afraid of a game of checkers with anyone. Yet there was an unusual mind there somewhere; it was just that he chose not to make our acquaintance personally."

How is human fallenness explored as a theme?

[1] IT WAS A DULL, ROUTINE LITTLE WORLD. [2] IT DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CITY. [3] EVERYTHING IT HAD WAS IN THE GARDEN BY R. A. LAFFERTY [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, March 1961. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] The protozoic recorder chirped like a bird. [6] Not only would there be life traces on that little moon, but it would be a lively place. [7] So they skipped several steps in the procedure. [8] The chordata discerner read Positive over most of the surface. [9] There was spinal fluid on that orb, rivers of it. [10] So again they omitted several tests and went to the cognition scanner. [11] Would it show Thought on the body? [12] Naturally they did not get results at once, nor did they expect to; it required a fine adjustment. [13] But they were disappointed that they found nothing for several hours as they hovered high over the rotation. [14] Then it came—clearly and definitely, but from quite a small location only. [15] "Limited," said Steiner, "as though within a pale. [16] As though there were but one city, if that is its form. [17] Shall we follow the rest of the surface to find another, or concentrate on this? [18] It'll be twelve hours before it's back in our ken if we let it go now." [19] "Let's lock on this one and finish the scan. [20] Then we can do the rest of the world to make sure we've missed nothing," said Stark. [21] There was one more test to run, one very tricky and difficult of analysis, that with the Extraordinary Perception Locator. [22] This was designed simply to locate a source of superior thought. [23] But this might be so varied or so unfamiliar that often both the machine and the designer of it were puzzled as to how to read the results. [24] The E. P. Locator had been designed by Glaser. [25] But when the Locator had refused to read Positive when turned on the inventor himself, bad blood developed between machine and man. [26] Glaser knew that he had extraordinary perception. [27] He was a much honored man in his field. [28] He told the machine so heatedly. [29] The machine replied, with such warmth that its relays chattered, that Glaser did not have extraordinary perception; he had only ordinary perception to an extraordinary degree. [30] There is a difference , the machine insisted. [31] It was for this reason that Glaser used that model no more, but built others more amenable. [32] And it was for this reason also that the owners of Little Probe had acquired the original machine so cheaply. [33] And there was no denying that the Extraordinary Perception Locator (or Eppel) was a contrary machine. [34] On Earth it had read Positive on a number of crack-pots, including Waxey Sax, a jazz tootler who could not even read music. [35] But it had also read Positive on ninety per cent of the acknowledged superior minds of the Earth. [36] In space it had been a sound guide to the unusual intelligences encountered. [37] Yet on Suzuki-Mi it had read Positive on a two-inch-long worm, only one of them out of billions. [38] For the countless identical worms no trace of anything at all was shown by the test. [39] So it was with mixed expectations that Steiner locked onto the area and got a flick. [40] He then narrowed to a smaller area (apparently one individual, though this could not be certain) and got very definite action. [41] Eppel was busy. [42] The machine had a touch of the ham in it, and assumed an air of importance when it ran these tests. [43] Finally it signaled the result, the most exasperating result it ever produces: the single orange light. [44] It was the equivalent of the shrug of the shoulders in a man. [45] They called it the "You tell me light." [46] So among the intelligences there was at least one that might be extraordinary, though possibly in a crackpot way. [47] It is good to be forewarned. [48] "Scan the remainder of the world, Steiner," said Stark, "and the rest of us will get some sleep. [49] If you find no other spot then we will go down on that one the next time it is in position under us, in about twelve hours." [50] "You don't want to visit any of the other areas first? [51] Somewhere away from the thoughtful creature?" [52] "No. [53] The rest of the world may be dangerous. [54] There must be a reason that thought is in one spot only. [55] If we find no others then we will go down boldly and visit this." [56] So they all, except Steiner, went off to their bunks then: Stark, the Captain; Gregory Gilbert, the executive officer; Wolfgang Langweilig, the engineer; Casper Craig, super-cargo, tycoon and 51% owner of the Little Probe, and F. R. Briton, S.J., a Jesuit priest who was linguist and checker champion of the craft. [57] Dawn did not come to the moon-town. [58] The Little Probe hovered stationary in the light and the moon-town came up under the dawn. [59] Then the Probe went down to visit whatever was there. [60] "There's no town," said Steiner. [61] "Not a building. [62] Yet we're on the track of the minds. [63] There's nothing but a meadow and some boscage, a sort of fountain or pool, and four streams coming out of it." [64] "Keep on towards the minds," said Stark. [65] "They're our target." [66] "Not a building, not two sticks or stones placed together. [67] That looks like an Earth-type sheep there. [68] And that looks like an Earth-lion, I'm almost afraid to say. [69] And those two ... why, they could well be Earth-people. [70] But with a difference. [71] Where is that bright light coming from?" [72] "I don't know, but they're right in the middle of it. [73] Land here. [74] We'll go to meet them at once. [75] Timidity has never been an efficacious tool with us." [76] Well, they were people. [77] And one could only wish that all people were like them. [78] There was a man and a woman, and they were clothed either in very bright garments or in no garments at all, but only in a very bright light. [79] "Talk to them, Father Briton," said Stark. [80] "You are the linguist." [81] "Howdy," said the priest. [82] He may or may not have been understood, but the two of them smiled at him, so he went on. [83] "Father Briton from Philadelphia," he said, "on detached service. [84] And you, my good man, what is your handle, your monicker, your tag?" [85] "Ha-Adamah," said the man. [86] "And your daughter, or niece?" [87] It may be that the shining man frowned momentarily at this; but the woman smiled, proving that she was human. [88] "The woman is named Hawwah," said the man. [89] "The sheep is named sheep, the lion is named lion, the horse is named horse and the hoolock is named hoolock." [90] "I understand. [91] It is possible that this could go on and on. [92] How is it that you use the English tongue?" [93] "I have only one tongue; but it is given to us to be understood by all; by the eagle, by the squirrel, by the ass, by the English." [94] "We happen to be bloody Yankees, but we use a borrowed tongue. [95] You wouldn't have a drink on you for a tubful of thirsty travellers, would you?" [96] "The fountain." [97] "Ah—I see." [98] But the crew all drank of the fountain to be sociable. [99] It was water, but water that excelled, cool and with all its original bubbles like the first water ever made. [100] "What do you make of them?" [101] asked Stark. [102] "Human," said Steiner. [103] "It may even be that they are a little more than human. [104] I don't understand that light that surrounds them. [105] And they seem to be clothed, as it were, in dignity." [106] "And very little else," said Father Briton, "though that light trick does serve a purpose. [107] But I'm not sure they'd pass in Philadelphia." [108] "Talk to them again," said Stark. [109] "You're the linguist." [110] "That isn't necessary here, Captain. [111] Talk to them yourself." [112] "Are there any other people here?" [113] Stark asked the man. [114] "The two of us. [115] Man and woman." [116] "But are there any others?" [117] "How would there be any others? [118] What other kind of people could there be than man and woman?" [119] "But is there more than one man or woman?" [120] "How could there be more than one of anything?" [121] The captain was a little puzzled by this, but he went on doggedly: "Ha-Adamah, what do you think that we are? [122] Are we not people?" [123] "You are not anything till I name you. [124] But I will name you and then you can be. [125] You are named Captain. [126] He is named Priest. [127] He is named Engineer. [128] He is named Flunky." [129] "Thanks a lot," said Steiner. [130] "But are we not people?" [131] persisted Captain Stark. [132] "No. [133] We are the people. [134] There are no people but two. [135] How could there be other people?" [136] "And the damnest thing about it," muttered Langweilig, "is, how are you going to prove him wrong? [137] But it does give you a small feeling." [138] "Can we have something to eat?" [139] asked the Captain. [140] "Pick from the trees," said Ha-Adamah, "and then it may be that you will want to sleep on the grass. [141] Being not of human nature (which does not need sleep or rest), it may be that you require respite. [142] But you are free to enjoy the garden and its fruits." [143] "We will," said Captain Stark. [144] They wandered about the place, but they were uneasy. [145] There were the animals. [146] The lion and lioness were enough to make one cautious, though they offered no harm. [147] The two bears had a puzzling look, as though they wanted either to frolic with you or to mangle you. [148] "If there are only two people here," said Casper Craig, "then it may be that the rest of the world is not dangerous at all. [149] It looked fertile wherever we scanned it, though not so fertile as this central bit. [150] And those rocks would bear examining." [151] "Flecked with gold, and possibly with something else," said Stark. [152] "A very promising site." [153] "And everything grows here," added Steiner. [154] "Those are Earth-fruits and I never saw finer. [155] I've tasted the grapes and plums and pears. [156] The figs and dates are superb, the quince is as flavorsome as a quince can be, the cherries are excellent. [157] And I never did taste such oranges. [158] But I haven't yet tried the—" and he stopped. [159] "If you're thinking what I'm afraid to think," said Gilbert, "then it will be the test at least: whether we're having a pleasant dream or whether this is reality. [160] Go ahead and eat one." [161] "I won't be the first to eat one. [162] You eat." [163] "Ask him first. [164] You ask him." [165] "Ha-Adamah, is it allowed to eat the apples?" [166] "Certainly. [167] Eat. [168] It is the finest fruit in the garden." [169] "Well, the analogy breaks down there," said Stark. [170] "I was almost beginning to believe in the thing. [171] But if it isn't that, then what. [172] Father Briton, you are the linguist, but in Hebrew does not Ha-Adamah and Hawwah mean—?" [173] "Of course they do. [174] You know that as well as I." [175] "I was never a believer. [176] But would it be possible for the exact same proposition to maintain here as on Earth?" [177] "All things are possible." [178] And it was then that Ha-Adamah, the shining man, gave a wild cry: "No, no. [179] Do not approach it. [180] It is not allowed to eat of that one!" [181] It was the pomegranate tree, and he was warning Langweilig away from it. [182] "Once more, Father," said Stark, "you should be the authority; but does not the idea that it was the apple that was forbidden go back only to a medieval painting?" [183] "It does. [184] The name of the fruit is not mentioned in Genesis. [185] In Hebrew exegesis, however, the pomegranate is usually indicated." [186] "I thought so. [187] Question the man further, Father. [188] This is too incredible." [189] "It is a little odd. [190] Adam, old man, how long have you been here?" [191] "Forever less six days is the answer that has been given to me. [192] I never did understand the answer, however." [193] "And have you gotten no older in all that time?" [194] "I do not understand what 'older' is. [195] I am as I have been from the beginning." [196] "And do you think that you will ever die?" [197] "To die I do not understand. [198] I am taught that it is a property of fallen nature to die, and that does not pertain to me or mine." [199] "And are you completely happy here?" [200] "Perfectly happy according to my preternatural state. [201] But I am taught that it might be possible to lose that happiness, and then to seek it vainly through all the ages. [202] I am taught that sickness and ageing and even death could come if this happiness were ever lost. [203] I am taught that on at least one other unfortunate world it has actually been lost." [204] "Do you consider yourself a knowledgeable man?" [205] "Yes, since I am the only man, and knowledge is natural to man. [206] But I am further blessed. [207] I have a preternatural intellect." [208] Then Stark cut in once more: "There must be some one question you could ask him, Father. [209] Some way to settle it. [210] I am becoming nearly convinced." [211] "Yes, there is a question that will settle it. [212] Adam, old man, how about a game of checkers?" [213] "This is hardly the time for clowning," said Stark. [214] "I'm not clowning, Captain. [215] How about it, Adam? [216] I'll give you choice of colors and first move." [217] "No. [218] It would be no contest. [219] I have a preternatural intellect." [220] "Well, I beat a barber who was champion of Germantown. [221] And I beat the champion of Morgan County, Tennessee, which is the hottest checker center on Earth. [222] I've played against, and beaten, machines. [223] But I never played a preternatural mind. [224] Let's just set up the board, Adam, and have a go at it." [225] "No. [226] It would be no contest. [227] I would not like to humble you." [228] They were there for three days. [229] They were delighted with the place. [230] It was a world with everything, and it seemed to have only two inhabitants. [231] They went everywhere except into the big cave. [232] "What is there, Adam?" [233] asked Captain Stark. [234] "The great serpent lives there. [235] I would not disturb him. [236] He has long been cranky because plans he had for us did not materialize. [237] But we are taught that should ever evil come to us, which it cannot if we persevere, it will come by him." [238] They learned no more of the real nature of the sphere in their time there. [239] Yet all but one of them were convinced of the reality when they left. [240] And they talked of it as they took off. [241] "A crowd would laugh if told of it," said Stark, "but not many would laugh if they had actually seen the place, or them. [242] I am not a gullible man, but I am convinced of this: that this is a pristine and pure world and that ours and all the others we have visited are fallen worlds. [243] Here are the prototypes of our first parents before their fall. [244] They are garbed in light and innocence, and they have the happiness that we have been seeking for centuries. [245] It would be a crime if anyone disturbed that happiness." [246] "I too am convinced," said Steiner. [247] "It is Paradise itself, where the lion lies down with the lamb, and where the serpent has not prevailed. [248] It would be the darkest of crimes if we or others should play the part of the serpent, and intrude and spoil." [249] "I am probably the most skeptical man in the world," said Casper Craig the tycoon, "but I do believe my eyes. [250] I have been there and seen it. [251] It is indeed an unspoiled Paradise; and it would be a crime calling to the wide heavens for vengeance for anyone to smirch in any way that perfection. [252] "So much for that. [253] Now to business. [254] Gilbert, take a gram: Ninety Million Square Miles of Pristine Paradise for Sale or Lease. [255] Farming, Ranching, exceptional opportunities for Horticulture. [256] Gold, Silver, Iron, Earth-Type Fauna. [257] Terms. [258] Special Rates for Large Settlement Parties. [259] Write, Gram, or call in person at any of our planetary offices as listed below. [260] Ask for Brochure—Eden Acres Unlimited." [261] Down in the great cave that Old Serpent, a two-legged one among whose names were "Snake-Oil Sam," spoke to his underlings: "It'll take them fourteen days to get back with the settlers. [262] We'll have time to overhaul the blasters. [263] We haven't had any well-equipped settlers for six weeks. [264] It used to be we'd hardly have time to strip and slaughter and stow before there was another batch to take care of." [265] "I think you'd better write me some new lines," said Adam. [266] "I feel like a goof saying those same ones to each bunch." [267] "You are a goof, and therefore perfect for the part. [268] I was in show business long enough to know never to change a line too soon. [269] I did change Adam and Eve to Ha-Adamah and Hawwah, and the apple to the pomegranate. [270] People aren't becoming any smarter—but they are becoming better researched, and they insist on authenticity. [271] "This is still a perfect come-on here. [272] There is something in human nature that cannot resist the idea of a Perfect Paradise. [273] Folks will whoop and holler to their neighbors to come in droves to spoil and mar it. [274] It isn't greed or the desire for new land so much—though that is strong too. [275] Mainly it is the feverish passion to befoul and poison what is unspoiled. [276] Fortunately I am sagacious enough to take advantage of this trait. [277] And when you start to farm a new world on a shoestring you have to acquire your equipment as you can." [278] He looked proudly around at the great cave with its mountains and tiers of materials, heavy machinery of all sorts, titanic crates of foodstuff space-sealed; wheeled, tracked, propped, vaned and jetted vehicles; and power packs to run a world. [279] He looked at the three dozen space ships stripped and stacked, and at the rather large pile of bone-meal in one corner. [280] "We will have to have another lion," said Eve. [281] "Bowser is getting old, and Marie-Yvette abuses him and gnaws his toes. [282] And we do have to have a big-maned lion to lie down with the lamb." [283] "I know it, Eve. [284] The lion is a very important prop. [285] Maybe one of the crackpot settlers will bring a new lion." [286] "And can't you mix another kind of shining paint? [287] This itches. [288] It's hell." [289] "I'm working on it." [290] Casper Craig was still dictating the gram: "Amazing quality of longevity seemingly inherent in the locale. [291] Climate ideal. [292] Daylight or half-light. [293] All twenty-one hours from Planet Delphina and from Sol. [294] Pure water for all industrial purposes. [295] Scenic and storied. [296] Zoning and pre-settlement restrictions to insure congenial neighbors. [297] A completely planned globular settlement in a near arm of our own galaxy. [298] Low taxes and liberal credit. [299] Financing our specialty—" "And you had better have an armed escort when you return," said Father Briton. [300] "Why in cosmos would we want an armed escort?" [301] "It's as phony as a seven-credit note!" [302] "You, a man of the cloth doubt it? [303] And us ready skeptics convinced by our senses? [304] Why do you doubt?" [305] "It is only the unbelieving who believe so easily in obvious frauds. [306] Theologically unsound, dramaturgically weak, philologically impossible, zoologically rigged, salted conspicuously with gold and shot through with anachronisms. [307] And moreover he was afraid to play me at checkers." [308] "What?" [309] "If I have a preternatural intellect I wouldn't be afraid of a game of checkers with anyone. [310] Yet there was an unusual mind there somewhere; it was just that he chose not to make our acquaintance personally." [311] "They looked at the priest thoughtfully. [312] "But it was Paradise in one way," said Steiner at last. [313] "How?" [314] "All the time we were there the woman did not speak."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "How is human fallenness explored as a theme?": 1. [201] "But I am taught that it might be possible to lose that happiness, and then to seek it vainly through all the ages. [202] I am taught that sickness and ageing and even death could come if this happiness were ever lost. [203] I am taught that on at least one other unfortunate world it has actually been lost." 2. [197] "To die I do not understand. [198] I am taught that it is a property of fallen nature to die, and that does not pertain to me or mine." 3. [200] "Perfectly happy according to my preternatural state." 4. [199] "And are you completely happy here?" 5. [196] "And do you think that you will ever die?" 6. [193] "I never did understand the answer, however." 7. [190] "Adam, old man, how long have you been here?" 8. [178] "No, no. [179] Do not approach it. [180] It is not allowed to eat of that one!" 9. [175] "I was never a believer. [176] But would it be possible for the exact same proposition to maintain here as on Earth?" 10. [174] "You know that as well as I." 11. [173] "Of course they do." 12. [172] "Father Briton, you are the linguist, but in Hebrew does not Ha-Adamah and Hawwah mean—?" 13. [169] "Well, the analogy breaks down there." 14. [165] "Ha-Adamah, is it allowed to eat the apples?" 15. [159] "If you're thinking what I'm afraid to think, then it will be the test at least: whether we're having a pleasant dream or whether this is reality." 16. [158] "And I never did taste such oranges. [159] But I haven't yet tried the—" and he stopped. 17. [157] "And the cherries are excellent." 18. [156] "The figs and dates are superb, the quince is as flavorsome as a quince can be, the cherries are excellent." 19. [155] "I've tasted the grapes and plums and pears." 20. [154] "Those are Earth-fruits and I never saw finer." 21. [153] "And everything grows here," 22. [151] "Flecked with gold, and possibly with something else," 23. [150] "And those rocks would bear examining." 24. [149] "It looked fertile wherever we scanned it, though not so fertile as this central bit." 25. [148] "If there are only two people here, then it may be that the rest of the world is not dangerous at all." 26. [147] "The two bears had a puzzling look, as though they wanted either to frolic with you or to mangle you." 27. [146] "The lion and lioness were enough to make one cautious, though they offered no harm." 28. [145] "There were the animals." 29. [144] "They wandered about the place, but they were uneasy." 30. [143] "We will," said Captain Stark. 31. [142] "Being not of human nature (which does not need sleep or rest), it may be that you require respite." 32. [141] "and then it may be that you will want to sleep on the grass." 33. [140] "Pick from the trees," said Ha-Adamah, "and then it may be that you will want to sleep on the grass." 34. [139] "Can we have something to eat?" 35. [138] "Thanks a lot," said Steiner. 36. [137] "But it does give you a small feeling." 37. [136] "And the damnest thing about it," muttered Langweilig, "is, how are you going to prove him wrong?" 38. [135] "How could there be other people?" 39. [134] "We are the people. [135] There are no people but two." 40. [133] "No. [134] We are the people." 41. [132] "No. [133] We are the people." 42. [131] "No. [132] We are the people. [133] There are no people but two." 43. [130] "But are we not people?" 44. [129] "Thanks a lot," said Steiner. 45. [128] "He is named Flunky." 46. [127] "He is named Engineer." 47. [126] "He is named Priest." 48. [125] "You are named Captain." 49. [124] "But I will name you and then you can be." 50. [123] "But I will name you and then you can be. [124] You are named Captain." 51. [122] "Are we not people?" 52. [121] "How could there be more than one of anything?" 53. [120] "But is there more than one man or woman?" 54. [119] "How could there be any others? [120] What other kind of people could there be than man and woman?" 55. [118] "How would there be any others?" 56. [117] "The two of us. [118] Man and woman." 57. [116] "But are there any others?" 58. [115] "Man and woman." 59. [114] "The two of us." 60. [113] "Are there any other people here?" 61. [112] "Are there any other people here?" 62. [111] "Talk to them yourself." 63. [110] "That isn't necessary here, Captain." 64. [109] "You're the linguist." 65. [108] "Talk to them again," 66. [107] "But I'm not sure they'd pass in Philadelphia." 67. [106] "And very little else," said Father Briton, "though that light trick does serve a purpose." 68. [105] "And they seem to be clothed, as it were, in dignity." 69. [104] "I don't understand that light that surrounds them." 70. [103] "It may even be that they are a little more than human." 71. [102] "Human," said Steiner. 72. [101] "What do you make of them?" 73. [100] "What do you make of them?" 74. [99] "It was water, but water that excelled, cool and with all its original bubbles like the first water ever made." 75. [98] "But the crew all drank of the fountain to be sociable." 76. [97] "Ah—I see." 77. [96] "The fountain." 78. [95] "You wouldn't have a drink on you for a tubful of thirsty travellers, would you?" 79. [94] "We happen to be bloody Yankees, but we use a borrowed tongue." 80. [93] "I have only one tongue; but it is given to us to be understood by all; by the eagle, by the squirrel, by the ass, by the English." 81. [92] "How is it that you use the English tongue?" 82. [91] "It is possible that this could go on and on." 83. [90] "I understand." 84. [89] "The sheep is named sheep, the lion is named lion, the horse is named horse and the hoolock is named hoolock." 85. [88] "The woman is named Hawwah," said the man. 86. [87] "It may be that the shining man frowned momentarily at this; but the woman smiled, proving that she was human." 87. [86] "And your daughter, or niece?" 88. [85] "Ha-Adamah," said the man. 89. [84] "Father Briton from Philadelphia," he said, "on detached service. [85] And you, my good man, what is your handle, your monicker, your tag?" 90. [83] "Howdy," said the priest. 91. [82] "Howdy," said the priest. 92. [81] "Howdy," said the priest. 93. [80] "You are the linguist." 94. [79] "Talk to them, Father Briton," said Stark. 95. [78] "There was a man and a woman, and they were clothed either in very bright garments or in no garments at all, but only in a very bright light." 96. [77] "And one could only wish that all people were like them." 97. [76] "Well, they were people." 98. [75] "Timidity has never been an efficacious tool with us." 99. [74] "We'll go to meet them at once." 100. [73] "Land here." 101. [72] "I don't know, but they're right in the middle of it." 102. [71] "Where is that bright light coming from?" 103. [70] "But with a difference." 104. [69] "And those two ... why, they could well be Earth-people." 105. [68] "And that looks like an Earth-lion, I'm almost afraid to say." 106. [67] "That looks like an Earth-type sheep there." 107. [66] "Not a building, not two sticks or stones placed together." 108. [65] "They're our target." 109. [64] "Keep on towards the minds," 110. [63] "There's nothing but a meadow and some boscage, a sort of fountain or pool, and four streams coming out of it." 111. [62] "Yet we're on the track of the minds." 112. [61] "Not a building." 113. [60] "There's no town," 114. [59] "Then the Probe went down to visit whatever was there." 115. [58] "The Little Probe hovered stationary in the light and the moon-town came up under the dawn." 116. [57] "Dawn did not come to the moon-town." 117. [56] "So they all, except Steiner, went off to their bunks then: Stark, the Captain; Gregory Gilbert, the executive officer; Wolfgang Langweilig, the engineer; Casper Craig, super-cargo, tycoon and 51% owner of the Little Probe, and F. R. Briton, S.J., a Jesuit priest who was linguist and checker champion of the craft." 118. [55] "If we find no others then we will go down boldly and visit this." 119. [54] "There must be a reason that thought is in one spot only." 120. [53] "The rest of the world may be dangerous." 121. [52] "No." 122. [51] "Somewhere away from the thoughtful creature?" 123. [50] "You don't want to visit any of the other areas first?" 124. [49] "If you find no other spot then we will go down on that one the next time it is in position under us, in about twelve hours." 125. [48] "Scan the remainder of the world, Steiner," said Stark, "and the rest of us will get some sleep." 126. [47] "It is good to be forewarned." 127. [46] "So among the intelligences there was at least one that might be extraordinary, though possibly in a crackpot way." 128. [45] "They called it the 'You tell me light.'" 129. [44] "It was the equivalent of the shrug of the shoulders in a man." 130. [43] "Finally it signaled the result, the most exasperating result it ever produces: the single orange light." 131. [42] "The machine had a touch of the ham in it, and assumed an air of importance when it ran these tests." 132. [41] "Eppel was busy." 133. [40] "He then narrowed to a smaller area (apparently one individual, though this could not be certain) and got very definite action." 134. [39] "So it was with mixed expectations that Steiner locked onto the area and got a flick." 135. [38] "For the countless identical worms no trace of anything at all was shown by the test." 136. [37] "Yet on Suzuki-Mi it had read Positive on a two-inch-long worm, only one of them out of billions." 137. [36] "In space it had been a sound guide to the unusual intelligences encountered." 138. [35] "But it had also read Positive on ninety per cent of the acknowledged superior minds of the Earth." 139. [34] "On Earth it had read Positive on a number of crack-pots, including Waxey Sax, a jazz tootler who could not even read music." 140. [33] "And there was no denying that the Extraordinary Perception Locator (or Eppel) was a contrary machine." 141. [32] "And it was for this reason also that the owners of Little Probe had acquired the original machine so cheaply." 142. [31] "It was for this reason that Glaser used that model no more, but built others more amenable." 143. [30] "There is a difference , the machine insisted." 144. [29] "The machine replied, with such warmth that its relays chattered, that Glaser did not have extraordinary perception; he had only ordinary perception to an extraordinary degree." 145. [28] "He told the machine so heatedly." 146. [27] "He was a much honored man in his field." 147. [26] "Glaser knew that he had extraordinary perception." 148. [25] "But when the Locator had refused to read Positive when turned on the inventor himself, bad blood developed between machine and man." 149. [24] "The E. P. Locator had been designed by Glaser." 150. [23] "But this might be so varied or so unfamiliar that often both the machine and the designer of it were puzzled as to how to read the results." 151. [22] "This was designed simply to locate a source of superior thought." 152. [21] "There was one more test to run, one very tricky and difficult of analysis, that with the Extraordinary Perception Locator." 153. [20] "Then we can do the rest of the world to make sure we've missed nothing," said Stark. 154. [19] "Let's lock on this one and finish the scan." 155. [18] "It'll be twelve hours before it's back in our ken if we let it go now." 156. [17] "Shall we follow the rest of the surface to find another, or concentrate on this?" 157. [16] "As though there were but one city, if that is its form." 158. [15] "Limited," said Steiner, "as though within a pale." 159. [14] "Then it came—clearly and definitely, but from quite a small location only." 160. [13] "But they were disappointed that they found nothing for several hours as they hovered high over the rotation." 161. [12] "Naturally they did not get results at once, nor did they expect to; it required a fine adjustment." 162. [11] "Would it show Thought on the body?" 163. [10] "So again they omitted several tests and went to the cognition scanner." 164. [9] "There was spinal fluid on that orb, rivers of it." 165. [8] "The chordata discerner read Positive over most of the surface." 166. [7] "So they skipped several steps in the procedure." 167. [6] "Not only would there be life traces on that little moon, but it would be a lively place." 168. [5] "The protozoic recorder chirped like a bird." 169. [4] "Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]" 170. [3] "EVERYTHING IT HAD WAS IN THE GARDEN BY R. A. LAFFERTY [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, March 1961." 171. [2] "IT DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CITY." 172. [1] "IT WAS A DULL, ROUTINE LITTLE WORLD."

What is the plot of the story?

[1] Brightside Crossing by Alan E. Nourse JAMES BARON was not pleased to hear that he had had a visitor when he reached the Red Lion that evening. [2] He had no stomach for mysteries, vast or trifling, and there were pressing things to think about at this time. [3] Yet the doorman had flagged him as he came in from the street: “A thousand pardons, Mr. Baron. [4] The gentleman—he would leave no name. [5] He said you’d want to see him. [6] He will be back by eight.” Now Baron drummed his fingers on the table top, staring about the quiet lounge. [7] Street trade was discouraged at the Red Lion, gently but persuasively; the patrons were few in number. [8] Across to the right was a group that Baron knew vaguely—Andean climbers, or at least two of them were. [9] Over near the door he recognized old Balmer, who had mapped the first passage to the core of Vulcan Crater on Venus. [10] Baron returned his smile with a nod. [11] Then he settled back and waited impatiently for the intruder who demanded his time without justifying it. [12] Presently a small, grizzled man crossed the room and sat down at Baron’s table. [13] He was short and wiry. [14] His face held no key to his age—he might have been thirty or a thousand—but he looked weary and immensely ugly. [15] His cheeks and forehead were twisted and brown, with scars that were still healing. [16] The stranger said, “I’m glad you waited. [17] I’ve heard you’re planning to attempt the Brightside.” Baron stared at the man for a moment. [18] “I see you can read telecasts,” he said coldly. [19] “The news was correct. [20] We are going to make a Brightside Crossing.” “At perihelion?” “Of course. [21] When else?” The grizzled man searched Baron’s face for a moment without expression. [22] Then he said slowly, “No, I’m afraid you’re not going to make the Crossing.” “Say, who are you, if you don’t mind?” Baron demanded. [23] “The name is Claney,” said the stranger. [24] There was a silence. [25] Then: “Claney? [26] Peter Claney?” “That’s right.” Baron’s eyes were wide with excitement, all trace of anger gone. [27] “Great balls of fire, man— where have you been hiding? [28] We’ve been trying to contact you for months!” “I know. [29] I was hoping you’d quit looking and chuck the whole idea.” “Quit looking!” Baron bent forward over the table. [30] “My friend, we’d given up hope, but we’ve never quit looking. [31] Here, have a drink. [32] There’s so much you can tell us.” His fingers were trembling. [33] Peter Claney shook his head. [34] “I can’t tell you anything you want to hear.” “But you’ve got to. [35] You’re the only man on Earth who’s attempted a Brightside Crossing and lived through it! [36] And the story you cleared for the news—it was nothing. [37] We need details . [38] Where did your equipment fall down? [39] Where did you miscalculate? [40] What were the trouble spots?” Baron jabbed a finger at Claney’s face. [41] “That, for instance—epithelioma? [42] Why? [43] What was wrong with your glass? [44] Your filters? [45] We’ve got to know those things. [46] If you can tell us, we can make it across where your attempt failed—” “You want to know why we failed?” asked Claney. [47] “Of course we want to know. [48] We have to know.” “It’s simple. [49] We failed because it can’t be done. [50] We couldn’t do it and neither can you. [51] No human beings will ever cross the Brightside alive, not if they try for centuries.” “Nonsense,” Baron declared. [52] “We will.” Claney shrugged. [53] “I was there. [54] I know what I’m saying. [55] You can blame the equipment or the men—there were flaws in both quarters—but we just didn’t know what we were fighting. [56] It was the planet that whipped us, that and the Sun . [57] They’ll whip you, too, if you try it.” “Never,” said Baron. [58] “Let me tell you,” Peter Claney said. [59] I’d been interested in the Brightside for almost as long as I can remember (Claney said). [60] I guess I was about ten when Wyatt and Carpenter made the last attempt—that was in 2082, I think. [61] I followed the news stories like a tri-V serial and then I was heartbroken when they just disappeared. [62] I know now that they were a pair of idiots, starting off without proper equipment, with practically no knowledge of surface conditions, without any charts—they couldn’t have made a hundred miles—but I didn’t know that then and it was a terrible tragedy. [63] After that, I followed Sanderson’s work in the Twilight Lab up there and began to get Brightside into my blood, sure as death. [64] But it was Mikuta’s idea to attempt a Crossing. [65] Did you ever know Tom Mikuta? [66] I don’t suppose you did. [67] No, not Japanese—Polish-American. [68] He was a major in the Interplanetary Service for some years and hung onto the title after he gave up his commission. [69] He was with Armstrong on Mars during his Service days, did a good deal of the original mapping and surveying for the Colony there. [70] I first met him on Venus; we spent five years together up there doing some of the nastiest exploring since the Matto Grasso. [71] Then he made the attempt on Vulcan Crater that paved the way for Balmer a few years later. [72] I’d always liked the Major—he was big and quiet and cool, the sort of guy who always had things figured a little further ahead than anyone else and always knew what to do in a tight place. [73] Too many men in this game are all nerve and luck, with no judgment. [74] The Major had both. [75] He also had the kind of personality that could take a crew of wild men and make them work like a well-oiled machine across a thousand miles of Venus jungle. [76] I liked him and I trusted him. [77] He contacted me in New York and he was very casual at first. [78] We spent an evening here at the Red Lion, talking about old times; he told me about the Vulcan business, and how he’d been out to see Sanderson and the Twilight Lab on Mercury, and how he preferred a hot trek to a cold one any day of the year—and then he wanted to know what I’d been doing since Venus and what my plans were. [79] “No particular plans,” I told him. [80] “Why?” He looked me over. [81] “How much do you weigh, Peter?” I told him one-thirty-five. [82] “That much!” he said. [83] “Well, there can’t be much fat on you, at any rate. [84] How do you take heat?” “You should know,” I said. [85] “Venus was no icebox.” “No, I mean real heat.” Then I began to get it. [86] “You’re planning a trip.” “That’s right. [87] A hot trip.” He grinned at me. [88] “Might be dangerous, too.” “What trip?” “Brightside of Mercury,” the Major said. [89] I whistled cautiously. [90] “At aphelion?” He threw his head back. [91] “Why try a Crossing at aphelion? [92] What have you done then? [93] Four thousand miles of butcherous heat, just to have some joker come along, use your data and drum you out of the glory by crossing at perihelion forty-four days later? [94] No, thanks. [95] I want the Brightside without any nonsense about it.” He leaned across me eagerly. [96] “I want to make a Crossing at perihelion and I want to cross on the surface. [97] If a man can do that, he’s got Mercury. [98] Until then, nobody’s got Mercury. [99] I want Mercury—but I’ll need help getting it.” I’d thought of it a thousand times and never dared consider it. [100] Nobody had, since Wyatt and Carpenter disappeared. [101] Mercury turns on its axis in the same time that it wheels around the Sun, which means that the Brightside is always facing in. [102] That makes the Brightside of Mercury at perihelion the hottest place in the Solar System, with one single exception: the surface of the Sun itself. [103] It would be a hellish trek. [104] Only a few men had ever learned just how hellish and they never came back to tell about it. [105] It was a real hell’s Crossing, but someday, I thought, somebody would cross it. [106] I wanted to be along. [107] The Twilight Lab, near the northern pole of Mercury, was the obvious jumping-off place. [108] The setup there wasn’t very extensive—a rocket landing, the labs and quarters for Sanderson’s crew sunk deep into the crust, and the tower that housed the Solar ’scope that Sanderson had built up there ten years before. [109] Twilight Lab wasn’t particularly interested in the Brightside, of course—the Sun was Sanderson’s baby and he’d picked Mercury as the closest chunk of rock to the Sun that could hold his observatory. [110] He’d chosen a good location, too. [111] On Mercury, the Brightside temperature hits 770° F. at perihelion and the Darkside runs pretty constant at -410° F. No permanent installation with a human crew could survive at either extreme. [112] But with Mercury’s wobble, the twilight zone between Brightside and Darkside offers something closer to survival temperatures. [113] Sanderson built the Lab up near the pole, where the zone is about five miles wide, so the temperature only varies 50 to 60 degrees with the libration. [114] The Solar ’scope could take that much change and they’d get good clear observation of the Sun for about seventy out of the eighty-eight days it takes the planet to wheel around. [115] The Major was counting on Sanderson knowing something about Mercury as well as the Sun when we camped at the Lab to make final preparations. [116] Sanderson did. [117] He thought we’d lost our minds and he said so, but he gave us all the help he could. [118] He spent a week briefing Jack Stone, the third member of our party, who had arrived with the supplies and equipment a few days earlier. [119] Poor Jack met us at the rocket landing almost bawling, Sanderson had given him such a gloomy picture of what Brightside was like. [120] Stone was a youngster—hardly twenty-five, I’d say—but he’d been with the Major at Vulcan and had begged to join this trek. [121] I had a funny feeling that Jack really didn’t care for exploring too much, but he thought Mikuta was God, followed him around like a puppy. [122] It didn’t matter to me as long as he knew what he was getting in for. [123] You don’t go asking people in this game why they do it—they’re liable to get awfully uneasy and none of them can ever give you an answer that makes sense. [124] Anyway, Stone had borrowed three men from the Lab, and had the supplies and equipment all lined up when we got there, ready to check and test. [125] We dug right in. [126] With plenty of funds—tri-V money and some government cash the Major had talked his way around—our equipment was new and good. [127] Mikuta had done the designing and testing himself, with a big assist from Sanderson. [128] We had four Bugs, three of them the light pillow-tire models, with special lead-cooled cut-in engines when the heat set in, and one heavy-duty tractor model for pulling the sledges. [129] The Major went over them like a kid at the circus. [130] Then he said, “Have you heard anything from McIvers?” “Who’s he?” Stone wanted to know. [131] “He’ll be joining us. [132] He’s a good man—got quite a name for climbing, back home.” The Major turned to me. [133] “You’ve probably heard of him.” I’d heard plenty of stories about Ted McIvers and I wasn’t too happy to hear that he was joining us. [134] “Kind of a daredevil, isn’t he?” “Maybe. [135] He’s lucky and skillful. [136] Where do you draw the line? [137] We’ll need plenty of both.” “Have you ever worked with him?” I asked. [138] “No. [139] Are you worried?” “Not exactly. [140] But Brightside is no place to count on luck.” The Major laughed. [141] “I don’t think we need to worry about McIvers. [142] We understood each other when I talked up the trip to him and we’re going to need each other too much to do any fooling around.” He turned back to the supply list. [143] “Meanwhile, let’s get this stuff listed and packed. [144] We’ll need to cut weight sharply and our time is short. [145] Sanderson says we should leave in three days.” Two days later, McIvers hadn’t arrived. [146] The Major didn’t say much about it. [147] Stone was getting edgy and so was I. [148] We spent the second day studying charts of the Brightside, such as they were. [149] The best available were pretty poor, taken from so far out that the detail dissolved into blurs on blow-up. [150] They showed the biggest ranges of peaks and craters and faults, and that was all. [151] Still, we could use them to plan a broad outline of our course. [152] “This range here,” the Major said as we crowded around the board, “is largely inactive, according to Sanderson. [153] But these to the south and west could be active. [154] Seismograph tracings suggest a lot of activity in that region, getting worse down toward the equator—not only volcanic, but sub-surface shifting.” Stone nodded. [155] “Sanderson told me there was probably constant surface activity.” The Major shrugged. [156] “Well, it’s treacherous, there’s no doubt of it. [157] But the only way to avoid it is to travel over the Pole, which would lose us days and offer us no guarantee of less activity to the west. [158] Now we might avoid some if we could find a pass through this range and cut sharp east—” It seemed that the more we considered the problem, the further we got from a solution. [159] We knew there were active volcanoes on the Brightside—even on the Darkside, though surface activity there was pretty much slowed down and localized. [160] But there were problems of atmosphere on Brightside, as well. [161] There was an atmosphere and a constant atmospheric flow from Brightside to Darkside. [162] Not much—the lighter gases had reached escape velocity and disappeared from Brightside millennia ago—but there was CO 2 , and nitrogen, and traces of other heavier gases. [163] There was also an abundance of sulfur vapor, as well as carbon disulfide and sulfur dioxide. [164] The atmospheric tide moved toward the Darkside, where it condensed, carrying enough volcanic ash with it for Sanderson to estimate the depth and nature of the surface upheavals on Brightside from his samplings. [165] The trick was to find a passage that avoided those upheavals as far as possible. [166] But in the final analysis, we were barely scraping the surface. [167] The only way we would find out what was happening where was to be there. [168] Finally, on the third day, McIvers blew in on a freight rocket from Venus. [169] He’d missed the ship that the Major and I had taken by a few hours, and had conned his way to Venus in hopes of getting a hop from there. [170] He didn’t seem too upset about it, as though this were his usual way of doing things and he couldn’t see why everyone should get so excited. [171] He was a tall, rangy man with long, wavy hair prematurely gray, and the sort of eyes that looked like a climber’s—half-closed, sleepy, almost indolent, but capable of abrupt alertness. [172] And he never stood still; he was always moving, always doing something with his hands, or talking, or pacing about. [173] Evidently the Major decided not to press the issue of his arrival. [174] There was still work to do, and an hour later we were running the final tests on the pressure suits. [175] That evening, Stone and McIvers were thick as thieves, and everything was set for an early departure after we got some rest. [176] “And that,” said Baron, finishing his drink and signaling the waiter for another pair, “was your first big mistake.” Peter Claney raised his eyebrows. [177] “McIvers?” “Of course.” Claney shrugged, glanced at the small quiet tables around them. [178] “There are lots of bizarre personalities around a place like this, and some of the best wouldn’t seem to be the most reliable at first glance. [179] Anyway, personality problems weren’t our big problem right then. [180] Equipment worried us first and route next.” Baron nodded in agreement. [181] “What kind of suits did you have?” “The best insulating suits ever made,” said Claney. [182] “Each one had an inner lining of a fiberglass modification, to avoid the clumsiness of asbestos, and carried the refrigerating unit and oxygen storage which we recharged from the sledges every eight hours. [183] Outer layer carried a monomolecular chrome reflecting surface that made us glitter like Christmas trees. [184] And we had a half-inch dead-air space under positive pressure between the two layers. [185] Warning thermocouples, of course—at 770 degrees, it wouldn’t take much time to fry us to cinders if the suits failed somewhere.” “How about the Bugs?” “They were insulated, too, but we weren’t counting on them too much for protection.” “You weren’t!” Baron exclaimed. [186] “Why not?” “We’d be in and out of them too much. [187] They gave us mobility and storage, but we knew we’d have to do a lot of forward work on foot.” Claney smiled bitterly. [188] “Which meant that we had an inch of fiberglass and a half-inch of dead air between us and a surface temperature where lead flowed like water and zinc was almost at melting point and the pools of sulfur in the shadows were boiling like oatmeal over a campfire.” Baron licked his lips. [189] His fingers stroked the cool, wet glass as he set it down on the tablecloth. [190] “Go on,” he said tautly. [191] “You started on schedule?” “Oh, yes,” said Claney, “we started on schedule, all right. [192] We just didn’t quite end on schedule, that was all. [193] But I’m getting to that.” He settled back in his chair and continued. [194] We jumped off from Twilight on a course due southeast with thirty days to make it to the Center of Brightside. [195] If we could cross an average of seventy miles a day, we could hit Center exactly at perihelion, the point of Mercury’s closest approach to the Sun—which made Center the hottest part of the planet at the hottest it ever gets. [196] The Sun was already huge and yellow over the horizon when we started, twice the size it appears on Earth. [197] Every day that Sun would grow bigger and whiter, and every day the surface would get hotter. [198] But once we reached Center, the job was only half done—we would still have to travel another two thousand miles to the opposite twilight zone. [199] Sanderson was to meet us on the other side in the Laboratory’s scout ship, approximately sixty days from the time we jumped off. [200] That was the plan, in outline. [201] It was up to us to cross those seventy miles a day, no matter how hot it became, no matter what terrain we had to cross. [202] Detours would be dangerous and time-consuming. [203] Delays could cost us our lives. [204] We all knew that. [205] The Major briefed us on details an hour before we left. [206] “Peter, you’ll take the lead Bug, the small one we stripped down for you. [207] Stone and I will flank you on either side, giving you a hundred-yard lead. [208] McIvers, you’ll have the job of dragging the sledges, so we’ll have to direct your course pretty closely. [209] Peter’s job is to pick the passage at any given point. [210] If there’s any doubt of safe passage, we’ll all explore ahead on foot before we risk the Bugs. [211] Got that?” McIvers and Stone exchanged glances. [212] McIvers said: “Jack and I were planning to change around. [213] We figured he could take the sledges. [214] That would give me a little more mobility.” The Major looked up sharply at Stone. [215] “Do you buy that, Jack?” Stone shrugged. [216] “I don’t mind. [217] Mac wanted—” McIvers made an impatient gesture with his hands. [218] “It doesn’t matter. [219] I just feel better when I’m on the move. [220] Does it make any difference?” “I guess it doesn’t,” said the Major. [221] “Then you’ll flank Peter along with me. [222] Right?” “Sure, sure.” McIvers pulled at his lower lip. [223] “Who’s going to do the advance scouting?” “It sounds like I am,” I cut in. [224] “We want to keep the lead Bug light as possible.” Mikuta nodded. [225] “That’s right. [226] Peter’s Bug is stripped down to the frame and wheels.” McIvers shook his head. [227] “No, I mean the advance work. [228] You need somebody out ahead—four or five miles, at least—to pick up the big flaws and active surface changes, don’t you?” He stared at the Major. [229] “I mean, how can we tell what sort of a hole we may be moving into, unless we have a scout up ahead?” “That’s what we have the charts for,” the Major said sharply. [230] “Charts! [231] I’m talking about detail work. [232] We don’t need to worry about the major topography. [233] It’s the little faults you can’t see on the pictures that can kill us.” He tossed the charts down excitedly. [234] “Look, let me take a Bug out ahead and work reconnaissance, keep five, maybe ten miles ahead of the column. [235] I can stay on good solid ground, of course, but scan the area closely and radio back to Peter where to avoid the flaws. [236] Then—” “No dice,” the Major broke in. [237] “But why not? [238] We could save ourselves days!” “I don’t care what we could save. [239] We stay together. [240] When we get to the Center, I want live men along with me. [241] That means we stay within easy sight of each other at all times. [242] Any climber knows that everybody is safer in a party than one man alone—any time, any place.” McIvers stared at him, his cheeks an angry red. [243] Finally he gave a sullen nod. [244] “Okay. [245] If you say so.” “Well, I say so and I mean it. [246] I don’t want any fancy stuff. [247] We’re going to hit Center together, and finish the Crossing together. [248] Got that?” McIvers nodded. [249] Mikuta then looked at Stone and me and we nodded, too. [250] “All right,” he said slowly. [251] “Now that we’ve got it straight, let’s go.” It was hot. [252] If I forget everything else about that trek, I’ll never forget that huge yellow Sun glaring down, without a break, hotter and hotter with every mile. [253] We knew that the first few days would be the easiest and we were rested and fresh when we started down the long ragged gorge southeast of the Twilight Lab. [254] I moved out first; back over my shoulder, I could see the Major and McIvers crawling out behind me, their pillow tires taking the rugged floor of the gorge smoothly. [255] Behind them, Stone dragged the sledges. [256] Even at only 30 per cent Earth gravity they were a strain on the big tractor, until the ski-blades bit into the fluffy volcanic ash blanketing the valley. [257] We even had a path to follow for the first twenty miles. [258] I kept my eyes pasted to the big polaroid binocs, picking out the track the early research teams had made out into the edge of Brightside. [259] But in a couple of hours we rumbled past Sanderson’s little outpost observatory and the tracks stopped. [260] We were in virgin territory and already the Sun was beginning to bite. [261] We didn’t feel the heat so much those first days out. [262] We saw it. [263] The refrig units kept our skins at a nice comfortable seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit inside our suits, but our eyes watched that glaring Sun and the baked yellow rocks going past, and some nerve pathways got twisted up, somehow. [264] We poured sweat as if we were in a superheated furnace. [265] We drove eight hours and slept five. [266] When a sleep period came due, we pulled the Bugs together into a square, threw up a light aluminum sun-shield and lay out in the dust and rocks. [267] The sun-shield cut the temperature down sixty or seventy degrees, for whatever help that was. [268] And then we ate from the forward sledge—sucking through tubes—protein, carbohydrates, bulk gelatin, vitamins. [269] The Major measured water out with an iron hand, because we’d have drunk ourselves into nephritis in a week otherwise. [270] We were constantly, unceasingly thirsty. [271] Ask the physiologists and psychiatrists why—they can give you have a dozen interesting reasons—but all we knew, or cared about, was that it happened to be so. [272] We didn’t sleep the first few stops, as a consequence. [273] Our eyes burned in spite of the filters and we had roaring headaches, but we couldn’t sleep them off. [274] We sat around looking at each other. [275] Then McIvers would say how good a beer would taste, and off we’d go. [276] We’d have murdered our grandmothers for one ice-cold bottle of beer. [277] After a few driving periods, I began to get my bearings at the wheel. [278] We were moving down into desolation that made Earth’s old Death Valley look like a Japanese rose garden. [279] Huge sun-baked cracks opened up in the floor of the gorge, with black cliffs jutting up on either side; the air was filled with a barely visible yellowish mist of sulfur and sulfurous gases. [280] It was a hot, barren hole, no place for any man to go, but the challenge was so powerful you could almost feel it. [281] No one had ever crossed this land before and escaped. [282] Those who had tried it had been cruelly punished, but the land was still there, so it had to be crossed. [283] Not the easy way. [284] It had to be crossed the hardest way possible: overland, through anything the land could throw up to us, at the most difficult time possible. [285] Yet we knew that even the land might have been conquered before, except for that Sun. [286] We’d fought absolute cold before and won. [287] We’d never fought heat like this and won. [288] The only worse heat in the Solar System was the surface of the Sun itself. [289] Brightside was worth trying for. [290] We would get it or it would get us. [291] That was the bargain. [292] I learned a lot about Mercury those first few driving periods. [293] The gorge petered out after a hundred miles and we moved onto the slope of a range of ragged craters that ran south and east. [294] This range had shown no activity since the first landing on Mercury forty years before, but beyond it there were active cones. [295] Yellow fumes rose from the craters constantly; their sides were shrouded with heavy ash. [296] We couldn’t detect a wind, but we knew there was a hot, sulfurous breeze sweeping in great continental tides across the face of the planet. [297] Not enough for erosion, though. [298] The craters rose up out of jagged gorges, huge towering spears of rock and rubble. [299] Below were the vast yellow flatlands, smoking and hissing from the gases beneath the crust. [300] Over everything was gray dust—silicates and salts, pumice and limestone and granite ash, filling crevices and declivities—offering a soft, treacherous surface for the Bug’s pillow tires. [301] I learned to read the ground, to tell a covered fault by the sag of the dust; I learned to spot a passable crack, and tell it from an impassable cut. [302] Time after time the Bugs ground to a halt while we explored a passage on foot, tied together with light copper cable, digging, advancing, digging some more until we were sure the surface would carry the machines. [303] It was cruel work; we slept in exhaustion. [304] But it went smoothly, at first. [305] Too smoothly, it seemed to me, and the others seemed to think so, too. [306] McIvers’ restlessness was beginning to grate on our nerves. [307] He talked too much, while we were resting or while we were driving; wisecracks, witticisms, unfunny jokes that wore thin with repetition. [308] He took to making side trips from the route now and then, never far, but a little further each time. [309] Jack Stone reacted quite the opposite; he grew quieter with each stop, more reserved and apprehensive. [310] I didn’t like it, but I figured that it would pass off after a while. [311] I was apprehensive enough myself; I just managed to hide it better. [312] And every mile the Sun got bigger and whiter and higher in the sky and hotter. [313] Without our ultra-violet screens and glare filters we would have been blinded; as it was our eyes ached constantly and the skin on our faces itched and tingled at the end of an eight-hour trek. [314] But it took one of those side trips of McIvers’ to deliver the penultimate blow to our already fraying nerves. [315] He had driven down a side-branch of a long canyon running off west of our route and was almost out of sight in a cloud of ash when we heard a sharp cry through our earphones. [316] I wheeled my Bug around with my heart in my throat and spotted him through the binocs, waving frantically from the top of his machine. [317] The Major and I took off, lumbering down the gulch after him as fast as the Bugs could go, with a thousand horrible pictures racing through our minds.... We found him standing stock-still, pointing down the gorge and, for once, he didn’t have anything to say. [318] It was the wreck of a Bug; an old-fashioned half-track model of the sort that hadn’t been in use for years. [319] It was wedged tight in a cut in the rock, an axle broken, its casing split wide open up the middle, half-buried in a rock slide. [320] A dozen feet away were two insulated suits with white bones gleaming through the fiberglass helmets. [321] This was as far as Wyatt and Carpenter had gotten on their Brightside Crossing. [322] On the fifth driving period out, the terrain began to change. [323] It looked the same, but every now and then it felt different. [324] On two occasions I felt my wheels spin, with a howl of protest from my engine. [325] Then, quite suddenly, the Bug gave a lurch; I gunned my motor and nothing happened. [326] I could see the dull gray stuff seeping up around the hubs, thick and tenacious, splattering around in steaming gobs as the wheels spun. [327] I knew what had happened the moment the wheels gave and, a few minutes later, they chained me to the tractor and dragged me back out of the mire. [328] It looked for all the world like thick gray mud, but it was a pit of molten lead, steaming under a soft layer of concealing ash. [329] I picked my way more cautiously then. [330] We were getting into an area of recent surface activity; the surface was really treacherous. [331] I caught myself wishing that the Major had okayed McIvers’ scheme for an advanced scout; more dangerous for the individual, maybe, but I was driving blind now and I didn’t like it. [332] One error in judgment could sink us all, but I wasn’t thinking much about the others. [333] I was worried about me , plenty worried. [334] I kept thinking, better McIvers should go than me. [335] It wasn’t healthy thinking and I knew it, but I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind. [336] It was a grueling eight hours and we slept poorly. [337] Back in the Bug again, we moved still more slowly—edging out on a broad flat plateau, dodging a network of gaping surface cracks—winding back and forth in an effort to keep the machines on solid rock. [338] I couldn’t see far ahead, because of the yellow haze rising from the cracks, so I was almost on top of it when I saw a sharp cut ahead where the surface dropped six feet beyond a deep crack. [339] I let out a shout to halt the others; then I edged my Bug forward, peering at the cleft. [340] It was deep and wide. [341] I moved fifty yards to the left, then back to the right. [342] There was only one place that looked like a possible crossing; a long, narrow ledge of gray stuff that lay down across a section of the fault like a ramp. [343] Even as I watched it, I could feel the surface crust under the Bug trembling and saw the ledge shift over a few feet.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [194] We jumped off from Twilight on a course due southeast with thirty days to make it to the Center of Brightside. 2. [195] If we could cross an average of seventy miles a day, we could hit Center exactly at perihelion, the point of Mercury's closest approach to the Sun—which made Center the hottest part of the planet at the hottest it ever gets. 3. [196] The Sun was already huge and yellow over the horizon when we started, twice the size it appears on Earth. 4. [197] Every day that Sun would grow bigger and whiter, and every day the surface would get hotter. 5. [198] But once we reached Center, the job was only half done—we would still have to travel another two thousand miles to the opposite twilight zone. 6. [199] Sanderson was to meet us on the other side in the Laboratory's scout ship, approximately sixty days from the time we jumped off. 7. [200] That was the plan, in outline. 8. [201] It was up to us to cross those seventy miles a day, no matter how hot it became, no matter what terrain we had to cross. 9. [202] Detours would be dangerous and time-consuming. 10. [203] Delays could cost us our lives. 11. [204] We all knew that. 12. [251] It was hot. 13. [252] If I forget everything else about that trek, I'll never forget that huge yellow Sun glaring down, without a break, hotter and hotter with every mile. 14. [253] We knew that the first few days would be the easiest and we were rested and fresh when we started down the long ragged gorge southeast of the Twilight Lab. 15. [254] I moved out first; back over my shoulder, I could see the Major and McIvers crawling out behind me, their pillow tires taking the rugged floor of the gorge smoothly. 16. [255] Behind them, Stone dragged the sledges. 17. [256] Even at only 30 per cent Earth gravity they were a strain on the big tractor, until the ski-blades bit into the fluffy volcanic ash blanketing the valley. 18. [257] We even had a path to follow for the first twenty miles. 19. [258] I kept my eyes pasted to the big polaroid binocs, picking out the track the early research teams had made out into the edge of Brightside. 20. [259] But in a couple of hours we rumbled past Sanderson's little outpost observatory and the tracks stopped. 21. [260] We were in virgin territory and already the Sun was beginning to bite. 22. [261] We didn't feel the heat so much those first days out. 23. [262] We saw it. 24. [263] The refrig units kept our skins at a nice comfortable seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit inside our suits, but our eyes watched that glaring Sun and the baked yellow rocks going past, and some nerve pathways got twisted up, somehow. 25. [264] We poured sweat as if we were in a superheated furnace. 26. [265] We drove eight hours and slept five. 27. [266] When a sleep period came due, we pulled the Bugs together into a square, threw up a light aluminum sun-shield and lay out in the dust and rocks. 28. [267] The sun-shield cut the temperature down sixty or seventy degrees, for whatever help that was. 29. [268] And then we ate from the forward sledge—sucking through tubes—protein, carbohydrates, bulk gelatin, vitamins. 30. [269] The Major measured water out with an iron hand, because we'd have drunk ourselves into nephritis in a week otherwise. 31. [270] We were constantly, unceasingly thirsty. 32. [271] Ask the physiologists and psychiatrists why—they can give you have a dozen interesting reasons—but all we knew, or cared about, was that it happened to be so. 33. [272] We didn't sleep the first few stops, as a consequence. 34. [273] Our eyes burned in spite of the filters and we had roaring headaches, but we couldn't sleep them off. 35. [274] We sat around looking at each other. 36. [275] Then McIvers would say how good a beer would taste, and off we'd go. 37. [276] We'd have murdered our grandmothers for one ice-cold bottle of beer. 38. [277] After a few driving periods, I began to get my bearings at the wheel. 39. [278] We were moving down into desolation that made Earth's old Death Valley look like a Japanese rose garden. 40. [279] Huge sun-baked cracks opened up in the floor of the gorge, with black cliffs jutting up on either side; the air was filled with a barely visible yellowish mist of sulfur and sulfurous gases. 41. [280] It was a hot, barren hole, no place for any man to go, but the challenge was so powerful you could almost feel it. 42. [281] No one had ever crossed this land before and escaped. 43. [282] Those who had tried it had been cruelly punished, but the land was still there, so it had to be crossed. 44. [283] Not the easy way. 45. [284] It had to be crossed the hardest way possible: overland, through anything the land could throw up to us, at the most difficult time possible. 46. [285] Yet we knew that even the land might have been conquered before, except for that Sun. 47. [286] We'd fought absolute cold before and won. 48. [287] We'd never fought heat like this and won. 49. [288] The only worse heat in the Solar System was the surface of the Sun itself. 50. [289] Brightside was worth trying for. 51. [290] We would get it or it would get us. 52. [291] That was the bargain. 53. [292] I learned a lot about Mercury those first few driving periods. 54. [293] The gorge petered out after a hundred miles and we moved onto the slope of a range of ragged craters that ran south and east. 55. [294] This range had shown no activity since the first landing on Mercury forty years before, but beyond it there were active cones. 56. [295] Yellow fumes rose from the craters constantly; their sides were shrouded with heavy ash. 57. [296] We couldn't detect a wind, but we knew there was a hot, sulfurous breeze sweeping in great continental tides across the face of the planet. 58. [297] Not enough for erosion, though. 59. [298] The craters rose up out of jagged gorges, huge towering spears of rock and rubble. 60. [299] Below were the vast yellow flatlands, smoking and hissing from the gases beneath the crust. 61. [300] Over everything was gray dust—silicates and salts, pumice and limestone and granite ash, filling crevices and declivities—offering a soft, treacherous surface for the Bug's pillow tires. 62. [301] I learned to read the ground, to tell a covered fault by the sag of the dust; I learned to spot a passable crack, and tell it from an impassable cut. 63. [302] Time after time the Bugs ground to a halt while we explored a passage on foot, tied together with light copper cable, digging, advancing, digging some more until we were sure the surface would carry the machines. 64. [303] It was cruel work; we slept in exhaustion. 65. [304] But it went smoothly, at first. 66. [305] Too smoothly, it seemed to me, and the others seemed to think so, too. 67. [306] McIvers' restlessness was beginning to grate on our nerves. 68. [307] He talked too much, while we were resting or while we were driving; wisecracks, witticisms, unfunny jokes that wore thin with repetition. 69. [308] He took to making side trips from the route now and then, never far, but a little further each time. 70. [309] Jack Stone reacted quite the opposite; he grew quieter with each stop, more reserved and apprehensive. 71. [310] I didn't like it, but I figured that it would pass off after a while. 72. [311] I was apprehensive enough myself; I just managed to hide it better. 73. [312] And every mile the Sun got bigger and whiter and higher in the sky and hotter. 74. [313] Without our ultra-violet screens and glare filters we would have been blinded; as it was our eyes ached constantly and the skin on our faces itched and tingled at the end of an eight-hour trek. 75. [314] But it took one of those side trips of McIvers' to deliver the penultimate blow to our already fraying nerves. 76. [315] He had driven down a side-branch of a long canyon running off west of our route and was almost out of sight in a cloud of ash when we heard a sharp cry through our earphones. 77. [316] I wheeled my Bug around with my heart in my throat and spotted him through the binocs, waving frantically from the top of his machine. 78. [317] The Major and I took off, lumbering down the gulch after him as fast as the Bugs could go, with a thousand horrible pictures racing through our minds.... 79. [318] We found him standing stock-still, pointing down the gorge and, for once, he didn't have anything to say. 80. [319] It was the wreck of a Bug; an old-fashioned half-track model of the sort that hadn't been in use for years. 81. [320] It was wedged tight in a cut in the rock, an axle broken, its casing split wide open up the middle, half-buried in a rock slide. 82. [321] A dozen feet away were two insulated suits with white bones gleaming through the fiberglass helmets. 83. [322] This was as far as Wyatt and Carpenter had gotten on their Brightside Crossing. 84. [323] On the fifth driving period out, the terrain began to change. 85. [324] It looked the same, but every now and then it felt different. 86. [325] On two occasions I felt my wheels spin, with a howl of protest from my engine. 87. [326] Then, quite suddenly, the Bug gave a lurch; I gunned my motor and nothing happened. 88. [327] I could see the dull gray stuff seeping up around the hubs, thick and tenacious, splattering around in steaming gobs as the wheels spun. 89. [328] I knew what had happened the moment the wheels gave and, a few minutes later, they chained me to the tractor and dragged me back out of the mire. 90. [329] It looked for all the world like thick gray mud, but it was a pit of molten lead, steaming under a soft layer of concealing ash. 91. [330] I picked my way more cautiously then. 92. [331] We were getting into an area of recent surface activity; the surface was really treacherous. 93. [332] I caught myself wishing that the Major had okayed McIvers' scheme for an advanced scout; more dangerous for the individual, maybe, but I was driving blind now and I didn't like it. 94. [333] I wasn't thinking much about the others. 95. [334] I was worried about me , plenty worried. 96. [335] I kept thinking, better McIvers should go than me. 97. [336] It wasn't healthy thinking and I knew it, but I couldn't get the thought out of my mind. 98. [337] It was a grueling eight hours and we slept poorly. 99. [338] Back in the Bug again, we moved still more slowly—edging out on a broad flat plateau, dodging a network of gaping surface cracks—winding back and forth in an effort to keep the machines on solid rock. 100. [339] I couldn't see far ahead, because of the yellow haze rising from the cracks, so I was almost on top of it when I saw a sharp cut ahead where the surface dropped six feet beyond a deep crack. 101. [340] I let out a shout to halt the others; then I edged my Bug forward, peering at the cleft. 102. [341] It was deep and wide. 103. [342] I moved fifty yards to the left, then back to the right. 104. [343] There was only one place that looked like a possible crossing; a long, narrow ledge of gray stuff that lay down across a section of the fault like a ramp. 105. [344] Even as I watched it, I could feel the surface crust under the Bug trembling and saw the ledge shift over a few feet.

Who is McIvers, and what happens to him throughout the story?

[1] Brightside Crossing by Alan E. Nourse JAMES BARON was not pleased to hear that he had had a visitor when he reached the Red Lion that evening. [2] He had no stomach for mysteries, vast or trifling, and there were pressing things to think about at this time. [3] Yet the doorman had flagged him as he came in from the street: “A thousand pardons, Mr. Baron. [4] The gentleman—he would leave no name. [5] He said you’d want to see him. [6] He will be back by eight.” Now Baron drummed his fingers on the table top, staring about the quiet lounge. [7] Street trade was discouraged at the Red Lion, gently but persuasively; the patrons were few in number. [8] Across to the right was a group that Baron knew vaguely—Andean climbers, or at least two of them were. [9] Over near the door he recognized old Balmer, who had mapped the first passage to the core of Vulcan Crater on Venus. [10] Baron returned his smile with a nod. [11] Then he settled back and waited impatiently for the intruder who demanded his time without justifying it. [12] Presently a small, grizzled man crossed the room and sat down at Baron’s table. [13] He was short and wiry. [14] His face held no key to his age—he might have been thirty or a thousand—but he looked weary and immensely ugly. [15] His cheeks and forehead were twisted and brown, with scars that were still healing. [16] The stranger said, “I’m glad you waited. [17] I’ve heard you’re planning to attempt the Brightside.” Baron stared at the man for a moment. [18] “I see you can read telecasts,” he said coldly. [19] “The news was correct. [20] We are going to make a Brightside Crossing.” “At perihelion?” “Of course. [21] When else?” The grizzled man searched Baron’s face for a moment without expression. [22] Then he said slowly, “No, I’m afraid you’re not going to make the Crossing.” “Say, who are you, if you don’t mind?” Baron demanded. [23] “The name is Claney,” said the stranger. [24] There was a silence. [25] Then: “Claney? [26] Peter Claney?” “That’s right.” Baron’s eyes were wide with excitement, all trace of anger gone. [27] “Great balls of fire, man— where have you been hiding? [28] We’ve been trying to contact you for months!” “I know. [29] I was hoping you’d quit looking and chuck the whole idea.” “Quit looking!” Baron bent forward over the table. [30] “My friend, we’d given up hope, but we’ve never quit looking. [31] Here, have a drink. [32] There’s so much you can tell us.” His fingers were trembling. [33] Peter Claney shook his head. [34] “I can’t tell you anything you want to hear.” “But you’ve got to. [35] You’re the only man on Earth who’s attempted a Brightside Crossing and lived through it! [36] And the story you cleared for the news—it was nothing. [37] We need details . [38] Where did your equipment fall down? [39] Where did you miscalculate? [40] What were the trouble spots?” Baron jabbed a finger at Claney’s face. [41] “That, for instance—epithelioma? [42] Why? [43] What was wrong with your glass? [44] Your filters? [45] We’ve got to know those things. [46] If you can tell us, we can make it across where your attempt failed—” “You want to know why we failed?” asked Claney. [47] “Of course we want to know. [48] We have to know.” “It’s simple. [49] We failed because it can’t be done. [50] We couldn’t do it and neither can you. [51] No human beings will ever cross the Brightside alive, not if they try for centuries.” “Nonsense,” Baron declared. [52] “We will.” Claney shrugged. [53] “I was there. [54] I know what I’m saying. [55] You can blame the equipment or the men—there were flaws in both quarters—but we just didn’t know what we were fighting. [56] It was the planet that whipped us, that and the Sun . [57] They’ll whip you, too, if you try it.” “Never,” said Baron. [58] “Let me tell you,” Peter Claney said. [59] I’d been interested in the Brightside for almost as long as I can remember (Claney said). [60] I guess I was about ten when Wyatt and Carpenter made the last attempt—that was in 2082, I think. [61] I followed the news stories like a tri-V serial and then I was heartbroken when they just disappeared. [62] I know now that they were a pair of idiots, starting off without proper equipment, with practically no knowledge of surface conditions, without any charts—they couldn’t have made a hundred miles—but I didn’t know that then and it was a terrible tragedy. [63] After that, I followed Sanderson’s work in the Twilight Lab up there and began to get Brightside into my blood, sure as death. [64] But it was Mikuta’s idea to attempt a Crossing. [65] Did you ever know Tom Mikuta? [66] I don’t suppose you did. [67] No, not Japanese—Polish-American. [68] He was a major in the Interplanetary Service for some years and hung onto the title after he gave up his commission. [69] He was with Armstrong on Mars during his Service days, did a good deal of the original mapping and surveying for the Colony there. [70] I first met him on Venus; we spent five years together up there doing some of the nastiest exploring since the Matto Grasso. [71] Then he made the attempt on Vulcan Crater that paved the way for Balmer a few years later. [72] I’d always liked the Major—he was big and quiet and cool, the sort of guy who always had things figured a little further ahead than anyone else and always knew what to do in a tight place. [73] Too many men in this game are all nerve and luck, with no judgment. [74] The Major had both. [75] He also had the kind of personality that could take a crew of wild men and make them work like a well-oiled machine across a thousand miles of Venus jungle. [76] I liked him and I trusted him. [77] He contacted me in New York and he was very casual at first. [78] We spent an evening here at the Red Lion, talking about old times; he told me about the Vulcan business, and how he’d been out to see Sanderson and the Twilight Lab on Mercury, and how he preferred a hot trek to a cold one any day of the year—and then he wanted to know what I’d been doing since Venus and what my plans were. [79] “No particular plans,” I told him. [80] “Why?” He looked me over. [81] “How much do you weigh, Peter?” I told him one-thirty-five. [82] “That much!” he said. [83] “Well, there can’t be much fat on you, at any rate. [84] How do you take heat?” “You should know,” I said. [85] “Venus was no icebox.” “No, I mean real heat.” Then I began to get it. [86] “You’re planning a trip.” “That’s right. [87] A hot trip.” He grinned at me. [88] “Might be dangerous, too.” “What trip?” “Brightside of Mercury,” the Major said. [89] I whistled cautiously. [90] “At aphelion?” He threw his head back. [91] “Why try a Crossing at aphelion? [92] What have you done then? [93] Four thousand miles of butcherous heat, just to have some joker come along, use your data and drum you out of the glory by crossing at perihelion forty-four days later? [94] No, thanks. [95] I want the Brightside without any nonsense about it.” He leaned across me eagerly. [96] “I want to make a Crossing at perihelion and I want to cross on the surface. [97] If a man can do that, he’s got Mercury. [98] Until then, nobody’s got Mercury. [99] I want Mercury—but I’ll need help getting it.” I’d thought of it a thousand times and never dared consider it. [100] Nobody had, since Wyatt and Carpenter disappeared. [101] Mercury turns on its axis in the same time that it wheels around the Sun, which means that the Brightside is always facing in. [102] That makes the Brightside of Mercury at perihelion the hottest place in the Solar System, with one single exception: the surface of the Sun itself. [103] It would be a hellish trek. [104] Only a few men had ever learned just how hellish and they never came back to tell about it. [105] It was a real hell’s Crossing, but someday, I thought, somebody would cross it. [106] I wanted to be along. [107] The Twilight Lab, near the northern pole of Mercury, was the obvious jumping-off place. [108] The setup there wasn’t very extensive—a rocket landing, the labs and quarters for Sanderson’s crew sunk deep into the crust, and the tower that housed the Solar ’scope that Sanderson had built up there ten years before. [109] Twilight Lab wasn’t particularly interested in the Brightside, of course—the Sun was Sanderson’s baby and he’d picked Mercury as the closest chunk of rock to the Sun that could hold his observatory. [110] He’d chosen a good location, too. [111] On Mercury, the Brightside temperature hits 770° F. at perihelion and the Darkside runs pretty constant at -410° F. No permanent installation with a human crew could survive at either extreme. [112] But with Mercury’s wobble, the twilight zone between Brightside and Darkside offers something closer to survival temperatures. [113] Sanderson built the Lab up near the pole, where the zone is about five miles wide, so the temperature only varies 50 to 60 degrees with the libration. [114] The Solar ’scope could take that much change and they’d get good clear observation of the Sun for about seventy out of the eighty-eight days it takes the planet to wheel around. [115] The Major was counting on Sanderson knowing something about Mercury as well as the Sun when we camped at the Lab to make final preparations. [116] Sanderson did. [117] He thought we’d lost our minds and he said so, but he gave us all the help he could. [118] He spent a week briefing Jack Stone, the third member of our party, who had arrived with the supplies and equipment a few days earlier. [119] Poor Jack met us at the rocket landing almost bawling, Sanderson had given him such a gloomy picture of what Brightside was like. [120] Stone was a youngster—hardly twenty-five, I’d say—but he’d been with the Major at Vulcan and had begged to join this trek. [121] I had a funny feeling that Jack really didn’t care for exploring too much, but he thought Mikuta was God, followed him around like a puppy. [122] It didn’t matter to me as long as he knew what he was getting in for. [123] You don’t go asking people in this game why they do it—they’re liable to get awfully uneasy and none of them can ever give you an answer that makes sense. [124] Anyway, Stone had borrowed three men from the Lab, and had the supplies and equipment all lined up when we got there, ready to check and test. [125] We dug right in. [126] With plenty of funds—tri-V money and some government cash the Major had talked his way around—our equipment was new and good. [127] Mikuta had done the designing and testing himself, with a big assist from Sanderson. [128] We had four Bugs, three of them the light pillow-tire models, with special lead-cooled cut-in engines when the heat set in, and one heavy-duty tractor model for pulling the sledges. [129] The Major went over them like a kid at the circus. [130] Then he said, “Have you heard anything from McIvers?” “Who’s he?” Stone wanted to know. [131] “He’ll be joining us. [132] He’s a good man—got quite a name for climbing, back home.” The Major turned to me. [133] “You’ve probably heard of him.” I’d heard plenty of stories about Ted McIvers and I wasn’t too happy to hear that he was joining us. [134] “Kind of a daredevil, isn’t he?” “Maybe. [135] He’s lucky and skillful. [136] Where do you draw the line? [137] We’ll need plenty of both.” “Have you ever worked with him?” I asked. [138] “No. [139] Are you worried?” “Not exactly. [140] But Brightside is no place to count on luck.” The Major laughed. [141] “I don’t think we need to worry about McIvers. [142] We understood each other when I talked up the trip to him and we’re going to need each other too much to do any fooling around.” He turned back to the supply list. [143] “Meanwhile, let’s get this stuff listed and packed. [144] We’ll need to cut weight sharply and our time is short. [145] Sanderson says we should leave in three days.” Two days later, McIvers hadn’t arrived. [146] The Major didn’t say much about it. [147] Stone was getting edgy and so was I. [148] We spent the second day studying charts of the Brightside, such as they were. [149] The best available were pretty poor, taken from so far out that the detail dissolved into blurs on blow-up. [150] They showed the biggest ranges of peaks and craters and faults, and that was all. [151] Still, we could use them to plan a broad outline of our course. [152] “This range here,” the Major said as we crowded around the board, “is largely inactive, according to Sanderson. [153] But these to the south and west could be active. [154] Seismograph tracings suggest a lot of activity in that region, getting worse down toward the equator—not only volcanic, but sub-surface shifting.” Stone nodded. [155] “Sanderson told me there was probably constant surface activity.” The Major shrugged. [156] “Well, it’s treacherous, there’s no doubt of it. [157] But the only way to avoid it is to travel over the Pole, which would lose us days and offer us no guarantee of less activity to the west. [158] Now we might avoid some if we could find a pass through this range and cut sharp east—” It seemed that the more we considered the problem, the further we got from a solution. [159] We knew there were active volcanoes on the Brightside—even on the Darkside, though surface activity there was pretty much slowed down and localized. [160] But there were problems of atmosphere on Brightside, as well. [161] There was an atmosphere and a constant atmospheric flow from Brightside to Darkside. [162] Not much—the lighter gases had reached escape velocity and disappeared from Brightside millennia ago—but there was CO 2 , and nitrogen, and traces of other heavier gases. [163] There was also an abundance of sulfur vapor, as well as carbon disulfide and sulfur dioxide. [164] The atmospheric tide moved toward the Darkside, where it condensed, carrying enough volcanic ash with it for Sanderson to estimate the depth and nature of the surface upheavals on Brightside from his samplings. [165] The trick was to find a passage that avoided those upheavals as far as possible. [166] But in the final analysis, we were barely scraping the surface. [167] The only way we would find out what was happening where was to be there. [168] Finally, on the third day, McIvers blew in on a freight rocket from Venus. [169] He’d missed the ship that the Major and I had taken by a few hours, and had conned his way to Venus in hopes of getting a hop from there. [170] He didn’t seem too upset about it, as though this were his usual way of doing things and he couldn’t see why everyone should get so excited. [171] He was a tall, rangy man with long, wavy hair prematurely gray, and the sort of eyes that looked like a climber’s—half-closed, sleepy, almost indolent, but capable of abrupt alertness. [172] And he never stood still; he was always moving, always doing something with his hands, or talking, or pacing about. [173] Evidently the Major decided not to press the issue of his arrival. [174] There was still work to do, and an hour later we were running the final tests on the pressure suits. [175] That evening, Stone and McIvers were thick as thieves, and everything was set for an early departure after we got some rest. [176] “And that,” said Baron, finishing his drink and signaling the waiter for another pair, “was your first big mistake.” Peter Claney raised his eyebrows. [177] “McIvers?” “Of course.” Claney shrugged, glanced at the small quiet tables around them. [178] “There are lots of bizarre personalities around a place like this, and some of the best wouldn’t seem to be the most reliable at first glance. [179] Anyway, personality problems weren’t our big problem right then. [180] Equipment worried us first and route next.” Baron nodded in agreement. [181] “What kind of suits did you have?” “The best insulating suits ever made,” said Claney. [182] “Each one had an inner lining of a fiberglass modification, to avoid the clumsiness of asbestos, and carried the refrigerating unit and oxygen storage which we recharged from the sledges every eight hours. [183] Outer layer carried a monomolecular chrome reflecting surface that made us glitter like Christmas trees. [184] And we had a half-inch dead-air space under positive pressure between the two layers. [185] Warning thermocouples, of course—at 770 degrees, it wouldn’t take much time to fry us to cinders if the suits failed somewhere.” “How about the Bugs?” “They were insulated, too, but we weren’t counting on them too much for protection.” “You weren’t!” Baron exclaimed. [186] “Why not?” “We’d be in and out of them too much. [187] They gave us mobility and storage, but we knew we’d have to do a lot of forward work on foot.” Claney smiled bitterly. [188] “Which meant that we had an inch of fiberglass and a half-inch of dead air between us and a surface temperature where lead flowed like water and zinc was almost at melting point and the pools of sulfur in the shadows were boiling like oatmeal over a campfire.” Baron licked his lips. [189] His fingers stroked the cool, wet glass as he set it down on the tablecloth. [190] “Go on,” he said tautly. [191] “You started on schedule?” “Oh, yes,” said Claney, “we started on schedule, all right. [192] We just didn’t quite end on schedule, that was all. [193] But I’m getting to that.” He settled back in his chair and continued. [194] We jumped off from Twilight on a course due southeast with thirty days to make it to the Center of Brightside. [195] If we could cross an average of seventy miles a day, we could hit Center exactly at perihelion, the point of Mercury’s closest approach to the Sun—which made Center the hottest part of the planet at the hottest it ever gets. [196] The Sun was already huge and yellow over the horizon when we started, twice the size it appears on Earth. [197] Every day that Sun would grow bigger and whiter, and every day the surface would get hotter. [198] But once we reached Center, the job was only half done—we would still have to travel another two thousand miles to the opposite twilight zone. [199] Sanderson was to meet us on the other side in the Laboratory’s scout ship, approximately sixty days from the time we jumped off. [200] That was the plan, in outline. [201] It was up to us to cross those seventy miles a day, no matter how hot it became, no matter what terrain we had to cross. [202] Detours would be dangerous and time-consuming. [203] Delays could cost us our lives. [204] We all knew that. [205] The Major briefed us on details an hour before we left. [206] “Peter, you’ll take the lead Bug, the small one we stripped down for you. [207] Stone and I will flank you on either side, giving you a hundred-yard lead. [208] McIvers, you’ll have the job of dragging the sledges, so we’ll have to direct your course pretty closely. [209] Peter’s job is to pick the passage at any given point. [210] If there’s any doubt of safe passage, we’ll all explore ahead on foot before we risk the Bugs. [211] Got that?” McIvers and Stone exchanged glances. [212] McIvers said: “Jack and I were planning to change around. [213] We figured he could take the sledges. [214] That would give me a little more mobility.” The Major looked up sharply at Stone. [215] “Do you buy that, Jack?” Stone shrugged. [216] “I don’t mind. [217] Mac wanted—” McIvers made an impatient gesture with his hands. [218] “It doesn’t matter. [219] I just feel better when I’m on the move. [220] Does it make any difference?” “I guess it doesn’t,” said the Major. [221] “Then you’ll flank Peter along with me. [222] Right?” “Sure, sure.” McIvers pulled at his lower lip. [223] “Who’s going to do the advance scouting?” “It sounds like I am,” I cut in. [224] “We want to keep the lead Bug light as possible.” Mikuta nodded. [225] “That’s right. [226] Peter’s Bug is stripped down to the frame and wheels.” McIvers shook his head. [227] “No, I mean the advance work. [228] You need somebody out ahead—four or five miles, at least—to pick up the big flaws and active surface changes, don’t you?” He stared at the Major. [229] “I mean, how can we tell what sort of a hole we may be moving into, unless we have a scout up ahead?” “That’s what we have the charts for,” the Major said sharply. [230] “Charts! [231] I’m talking about detail work. [232] We don’t need to worry about the major topography. [233] It’s the little faults you can’t see on the pictures that can kill us.” He tossed the charts down excitedly. [234] “Look, let me take a Bug out ahead and work reconnaissance, keep five, maybe ten miles ahead of the column. [235] I can stay on good solid ground, of course, but scan the area closely and radio back to Peter where to avoid the flaws. [236] Then—” “No dice,” the Major broke in. [237] “But why not? [238] We could save ourselves days!” “I don’t care what we could save. [239] We stay together. [240] When we get to the Center, I want live men along with me. [241] That means we stay within easy sight of each other at all times. [242] Any climber knows that everybody is safer in a party than one man alone—any time, any place.” McIvers stared at him, his cheeks an angry red. [243] Finally he gave a sullen nod. [244] “Okay. [245] If you say so.” “Well, I say so and I mean it. [246] I don’t want any fancy stuff. [247] We’re going to hit Center together, and finish the Crossing together. [248] Got that?” McIvers nodded. [249] Mikuta then looked at Stone and me and we nodded, too. [250] “All right,” he said slowly. [251] “Now that we’ve got it straight, let’s go.” It was hot. [252] If I forget everything else about that trek, I’ll never forget that huge yellow Sun glaring down, without a break, hotter and hotter with every mile. [253] We knew that the first few days would be the easiest and we were rested and fresh when we started down the long ragged gorge southeast of the Twilight Lab. [254] I moved out first; back over my shoulder, I could see the Major and McIvers crawling out behind me, their pillow tires taking the rugged floor of the gorge smoothly. [255] Behind them, Stone dragged the sledges. [256] Even at only 30 per cent Earth gravity they were a strain on the big tractor, until the ski-blades bit into the fluffy volcanic ash blanketing the valley. [257] We even had a path to follow for the first twenty miles. [258] I kept my eyes pasted to the big polaroid binocs, picking out the track the early research teams had made out into the edge of Brightside. [259] But in a couple of hours we rumbled past Sanderson’s little outpost observatory and the tracks stopped. [260] We were in virgin territory and already the Sun was beginning to bite. [261] We didn’t feel the heat so much those first days out. [262] We saw it. [263] The refrig units kept our skins at a nice comfortable seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit inside our suits, but our eyes watched that glaring Sun and the baked yellow rocks going past, and some nerve pathways got twisted up, somehow. [264] We poured sweat as if we were in a superheated furnace. [265] We drove eight hours and slept five. [266] When a sleep period came due, we pulled the Bugs together into a square, threw up a light aluminum sun-shield and lay out in the dust and rocks. [267] The sun-shield cut the temperature down sixty or seventy degrees, for whatever help that was. [268] And then we ate from the forward sledge—sucking through tubes—protein, carbohydrates, bulk gelatin, vitamins. [269] The Major measured water out with an iron hand, because we’d have drunk ourselves into nephritis in a week otherwise. [270] We were constantly, unceasingly thirsty. [271] Ask the physiologists and psychiatrists why—they can give you have a dozen interesting reasons—but all we knew, or cared about, was that it happened to be so. [272] We didn’t sleep the first few stops, as a consequence. [273] Our eyes burned in spite of the filters and we had roaring headaches, but we couldn’t sleep them off. [274] We sat around looking at each other. [275] Then McIvers would say how good a beer would taste, and off we’d go. [276] We’d have murdered our grandmothers for one ice-cold bottle of beer. [277] After a few driving periods, I began to get my bearings at the wheel. [278] We were moving down into desolation that made Earth’s old Death Valley look like a Japanese rose garden. [279] Huge sun-baked cracks opened up in the floor of the gorge, with black cliffs jutting up on either side; the air was filled with a barely visible yellowish mist of sulfur and sulfurous gases. [280] It was a hot, barren hole, no place for any man to go, but the challenge was so powerful you could almost feel it. [281] No one had ever crossed this land before and escaped. [282] Those who had tried it had been cruelly punished, but the land was still there, so it had to be crossed. [283] Not the easy way. [284] It had to be crossed the hardest way possible: overland, through anything the land could throw up to us, at the most difficult time possible. [285] Yet we knew that even the land might have been conquered before, except for that Sun. [286] We’d fought absolute cold before and won. [287] We’d never fought heat like this and won. [288] The only worse heat in the Solar System was the surface of the Sun itself. [289] Brightside was worth trying for. [290] We would get it or it would get us. [291] That was the bargain. [292] I learned a lot about Mercury those first few driving periods. [293] The gorge petered out after a hundred miles and we moved onto the slope of a range of ragged craters that ran south and east. [294] This range had shown no activity since the first landing on Mercury forty years before, but beyond it there were active cones. [295] Yellow fumes rose from the craters constantly; their sides were shrouded with heavy ash. [296] We couldn’t detect a wind, but we knew there was a hot, sulfurous breeze sweeping in great continental tides across the face of the planet. [297] Not enough for erosion, though. [298] The craters rose up out of jagged gorges, huge towering spears of rock and rubble. [299] Below were the vast yellow flatlands, smoking and hissing from the gases beneath the crust. [300] Over everything was gray dust—silicates and salts, pumice and limestone and granite ash, filling crevices and declivities—offering a soft, treacherous surface for the Bug’s pillow tires. [301] I learned to read the ground, to tell a covered fault by the sag of the dust; I learned to spot a passable crack, and tell it from an impassable cut. [302] Time after time the Bugs ground to a halt while we explored a passage on foot, tied together with light copper cable, digging, advancing, digging some more until we were sure the surface would carry the machines. [303] It was cruel work; we slept in exhaustion. [304] But it went smoothly, at first. [305] Too smoothly, it seemed to me, and the others seemed to think so, too. [306] McIvers’ restlessness was beginning to grate on our nerves. [307] He talked too much, while we were resting or while we were driving; wisecracks, witticisms, unfunny jokes that wore thin with repetition. [308] He took to making side trips from the route now and then, never far, but a little further each time. [309] Jack Stone reacted quite the opposite; he grew quieter with each stop, more reserved and apprehensive. [310] I didn’t like it, but I figured that it would pass off after a while. [311] I was apprehensive enough myself; I just managed to hide it better. [312] And every mile the Sun got bigger and whiter and higher in the sky and hotter. [313] Without our ultra-violet screens and glare filters we would have been blinded; as it was our eyes ached constantly and the skin on our faces itched and tingled at the end of an eight-hour trek. [314] But it took one of those side trips of McIvers’ to deliver the penultimate blow to our already fraying nerves. [315] He had driven down a side-branch of a long canyon running off west of our route and was almost out of sight in a cloud of ash when we heard a sharp cry through our earphones. [316] I wheeled my Bug around with my heart in my throat and spotted him through the binocs, waving frantically from the top of his machine. [317] The Major and I took off, lumbering down the gulch after him as fast as the Bugs could go, with a thousand horrible pictures racing through our minds.... We found him standing stock-still, pointing down the gorge and, for once, he didn’t have anything to say. [318] It was the wreck of a Bug; an old-fashioned half-track model of the sort that hadn’t been in use for years. [319] It was wedged tight in a cut in the rock, an axle broken, its casing split wide open up the middle, half-buried in a rock slide. [320] A dozen feet away were two insulated suits with white bones gleaming through the fiberglass helmets. [321] This was as far as Wyatt and Carpenter had gotten on their Brightside Crossing. [322] On the fifth driving period out, the terrain began to change. [323] It looked the same, but every now and then it felt different. [324] On two occasions I felt my wheels spin, with a howl of protest from my engine. [325] Then, quite suddenly, the Bug gave a lurch; I gunned my motor and nothing happened. [326] I could see the dull gray stuff seeping up around the hubs, thick and tenacious, splattering around in steaming gobs as the wheels spun. [327] I knew what had happened the moment the wheels gave and, a few minutes later, they chained me to the tractor and dragged me back out of the mire. [328] It looked for all the world like thick gray mud, but it was a pit of molten lead, steaming under a soft layer of concealing ash. [329] I picked my way more cautiously then. [330] We were getting into an area of recent surface activity; the surface was really treacherous. [331] I caught myself wishing that the Major had okayed McIvers’ scheme for an advanced scout; more dangerous for the individual, maybe, but I was driving blind now and I didn’t like it. [332] One error in judgment could sink us all, but I wasn’t thinking much about the others. [333] I was worried about me , plenty worried. [334] I kept thinking, better McIvers should go than me. [335] It wasn’t healthy thinking and I knew it, but I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind. [336] It was a grueling eight hours and we slept poorly. [337] Back in the Bug again, we moved still more slowly—edging out on a broad flat plateau, dodging a network of gaping surface cracks—winding back and forth in an effort to keep the machines on solid rock. [338] I couldn’t see far ahead, because of the yellow haze rising from the cracks, so I was almost on top of it when I saw a sharp cut ahead where the surface dropped six feet beyond a deep crack. [339] I let out a shout to halt the others; then I edged my Bug forward, peering at the cleft. [340] It was deep and wide. [341] I moved fifty yards to the left, then back to the right. [342] There was only one place that looked like a possible crossing; a long, narrow ledge of gray stuff that lay down across a section of the fault like a ramp. [343] Even as I watched it, I could feel the surface crust under the Bug trembling and saw the ledge shift over a few feet.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Who is McIvers, and what happens to him throughout the story?": 1. [133] "I'd heard plenty of stories about Ted McIvers and I wasn't too happy to hear that he was joining us." 2. [134] "Maybe. He's lucky and skillful. Where do you draw the line?" 3. [135] "We'll need plenty of both." 4. [137] "We'll need to draw the line. Brightside is no place to count on luck." 5. [141] "I don't think we need to worry about McIvers. We understood each other when I talked up the trip to him and we're going to need each other too much to do any fooling around." 6. [145] "McIvers hadn't arrived." 7. [146] "The Major didn't say much about it." 8. [147] "Stone was getting edgy and so was I." 9. [168] "Finally, on the third day, McIvers blew in on a freight rocket from Venus." 10. [169] "He'd missed the ship that the Major and I had taken by a few hours, and had conned his way to Venus in hopes of getting a hop from there." 11. [170] "He didn't seem too upset about it, as though this were his usual way of doing things and he couldn't see why everyone should get so excited." 12. [171] "He was a tall, rangy man with long, wavy hair prematurely gray, and the sort of eyes that looked like a climber's—half-closed, sleepy, almost indolent, but capable of abrupt alertness." 13. [172] "And he never stood still; he was always moving, always doing something with his hands, or talking, or pacing about." 14. [173] "Evidently the Major decided not to press the issue of his arrival." 15. [174] "There was still work to do, and an hour later we were running the final tests on the pressure suits." 16. [175] "That evening, Stone and McIvers were thick as thieves, and everything was set for an early departure after we got some rest." 17. [176] "'And that,' said Baron, finishing his drink and signaling the waiter for another pair, 'was your first big mistake.'" 18. [177] "'McIvers?' 'Of course.'" 19. [178] "Claney shrugged, glanced at the small quiet tables around them. 'There are lots of bizarre personalities around a place like this, and some of the best wouldn't seem to be the most reliable at first glance.'" 20. [179] "Anyway, personality problems weren't our big problem right then. Equipment worried us first and route next." 21. [206] "'Peter, you'll take the lead Bug, the small one we stripped down for you. Stone and I will flank you on either side, giving you a hundred-yard lead. McIvers, you'll have the job of dragging the sledges, so we'll have to direct your course pretty closely.'" 22. [211] "McIvers and Stone exchanged glances. McIvers said: 'Jack and I were planning to change around. We figured he could take the sledges. That would give me a little more mobility.'" 23. [212] "'Do you buy that, Jack?' Stone shrugged. 'I don't mind. Mac wanted—'" 24. [213] "'—I just feel better when I'm on the move. Does it make any difference?'" 25. [214] "'I guess it doesn't,' said the Major. 'Then you'll flank Peter along with me. Right?' 'Sure, sure.' McIvers pulled at his lower lip." 26. [227] "'No, I mean the advance work. You need somebody out ahead—four or five miles, at least—to pick up the big flaws and active surface changes, don't you?' He stared at the Major." 27. [228] "'I'm talking about detail work. We don't need to worry about the major topography. It's the little faults you can't see on the pictures that can kill us.'" 28. [229] "He tossed the charts down excitedly. 'Look, let me take a Bug out ahead and work reconnaissance, keep five, maybe ten miles ahead of the column.'" 29. [230] "'No dice,' the Major broke in." 30. [231] "'But why not? We could save ourselves days!'" 31. [232] "'I don't care what we could save. We stay together. When we get to the Center, I want live men along with me. That means we stay within easy sight of each other at all times. Any climber knows that everybody is safer in a party than one man alone—any time, any place.'" 32. [233] "McIvers stared at him, his cheeks an angry red. Finally he gave a sullen nod. 'Okay. If you say so.'" 33. [234] "'Well, I say so and I mean it. I don't want any fancy stuff. We're going to hit Center together, and finish the Crossing together. Got that?'" 34. [235] "McIvers nodded. Mikuta then looked at Stone and me and we nodded, too."

Describe the setting of the story.

[1] Brightside Crossing by Alan E. Nourse JAMES BARON was not pleased to hear that he had had a visitor when he reached the Red Lion that evening. [2] He had no stomach for mysteries, vast or trifling, and there were pressing things to think about at this time. [3] Yet the doorman had flagged him as he came in from the street: “A thousand pardons, Mr. Baron. [4] The gentleman—he would leave no name. [5] He said you’d want to see him. [6] He will be back by eight.” Now Baron drummed his fingers on the table top, staring about the quiet lounge. [7] Street trade was discouraged at the Red Lion, gently but persuasively; the patrons were few in number. [8] Across to the right was a group that Baron knew vaguely—Andean climbers, or at least two of them were. [9] Over near the door he recognized old Balmer, who had mapped the first passage to the core of Vulcan Crater on Venus. [10] Baron returned his smile with a nod. [11] Then he settled back and waited impatiently for the intruder who demanded his time without justifying it. [12] Presently a small, grizzled man crossed the room and sat down at Baron’s table. [13] He was short and wiry. [14] His face held no key to his age—he might have been thirty or a thousand—but he looked weary and immensely ugly. [15] His cheeks and forehead were twisted and brown, with scars that were still healing. [16] The stranger said, “I’m glad you waited. [17] I’ve heard you’re planning to attempt the Brightside.” Baron stared at the man for a moment. [18] “I see you can read telecasts,” he said coldly. [19] “The news was correct. [20] We are going to make a Brightside Crossing.” “At perihelion?” “Of course. [21] When else?” The grizzled man searched Baron’s face for a moment without expression. [22] Then he said slowly, “No, I’m afraid you’re not going to make the Crossing.” “Say, who are you, if you don’t mind?” Baron demanded. [23] “The name is Claney,” said the stranger. [24] There was a silence. [25] Then: “Claney? [26] Peter Claney?” “That’s right.” Baron’s eyes were wide with excitement, all trace of anger gone. [27] “Great balls of fire, man— where have you been hiding? [28] We’ve been trying to contact you for months!” “I know. [29] I was hoping you’d quit looking and chuck the whole idea.” “Quit looking!” Baron bent forward over the table. [30] “My friend, we’d given up hope, but we’ve never quit looking. [31] Here, have a drink. [32] There’s so much you can tell us.” His fingers were trembling. [33] Peter Claney shook his head. [34] “I can’t tell you anything you want to hear.” “But you’ve got to. [35] You’re the only man on Earth who’s attempted a Brightside Crossing and lived through it! [36] And the story you cleared for the news—it was nothing. [37] We need details . [38] Where did your equipment fall down? [39] Where did you miscalculate? [40] What were the trouble spots?” Baron jabbed a finger at Claney’s face. [41] “That, for instance—epithelioma? [42] Why? [43] What was wrong with your glass? [44] Your filters? [45] We’ve got to know those things. [46] If you can tell us, we can make it across where your attempt failed—” “You want to know why we failed?” asked Claney. [47] “Of course we want to know. [48] We have to know.” “It’s simple. [49] We failed because it can’t be done. [50] We couldn’t do it and neither can you. [51] No human beings will ever cross the Brightside alive, not if they try for centuries.” “Nonsense,” Baron declared. [52] “We will.” Claney shrugged. [53] “I was there. [54] I know what I’m saying. [55] You can blame the equipment or the men—there were flaws in both quarters—but we just didn’t know what we were fighting. [56] It was the planet that whipped us, that and the Sun . [57] They’ll whip you, too, if you try it.” “Never,” said Baron. [58] “Let me tell you,” Peter Claney said. [59] I’d been interested in the Brightside for almost as long as I can remember (Claney said). [60] I guess I was about ten when Wyatt and Carpenter made the last attempt—that was in 2082, I think. [61] I followed the news stories like a tri-V serial and then I was heartbroken when they just disappeared. [62] I know now that they were a pair of idiots, starting off without proper equipment, with practically no knowledge of surface conditions, without any charts—they couldn’t have made a hundred miles—but I didn’t know that then and it was a terrible tragedy. [63] After that, I followed Sanderson’s work in the Twilight Lab up there and began to get Brightside into my blood, sure as death. [64] But it was Mikuta’s idea to attempt a Crossing. [65] Did you ever know Tom Mikuta? [66] I don’t suppose you did. [67] No, not Japanese—Polish-American. [68] He was a major in the Interplanetary Service for some years and hung onto the title after he gave up his commission. [69] He was with Armstrong on Mars during his Service days, did a good deal of the original mapping and surveying for the Colony there. [70] I first met him on Venus; we spent five years together up there doing some of the nastiest exploring since the Matto Grasso. [71] Then he made the attempt on Vulcan Crater that paved the way for Balmer a few years later. [72] I’d always liked the Major—he was big and quiet and cool, the sort of guy who always had things figured a little further ahead than anyone else and always knew what to do in a tight place. [73] Too many men in this game are all nerve and luck, with no judgment. [74] The Major had both. [75] He also had the kind of personality that could take a crew of wild men and make them work like a well-oiled machine across a thousand miles of Venus jungle. [76] I liked him and I trusted him. [77] He contacted me in New York and he was very casual at first. [78] We spent an evening here at the Red Lion, talking about old times; he told me about the Vulcan business, and how he’d been out to see Sanderson and the Twilight Lab on Mercury, and how he preferred a hot trek to a cold one any day of the year—and then he wanted to know what I’d been doing since Venus and what my plans were. [79] “No particular plans,” I told him. [80] “Why?” He looked me over. [81] “How much do you weigh, Peter?” I told him one-thirty-five. [82] “That much!” he said. [83] “Well, there can’t be much fat on you, at any rate. [84] How do you take heat?” “You should know,” I said. [85] “Venus was no icebox.” “No, I mean real heat.” Then I began to get it. [86] “You’re planning a trip.” “That’s right. [87] A hot trip.” He grinned at me. [88] “Might be dangerous, too.” “What trip?” “Brightside of Mercury,” the Major said. [89] I whistled cautiously. [90] “At aphelion?” He threw his head back. [91] “Why try a Crossing at aphelion? [92] What have you done then? [93] Four thousand miles of butcherous heat, just to have some joker come along, use your data and drum you out of the glory by crossing at perihelion forty-four days later? [94] No, thanks. [95] I want the Brightside without any nonsense about it.” He leaned across me eagerly. [96] “I want to make a Crossing at perihelion and I want to cross on the surface. [97] If a man can do that, he’s got Mercury. [98] Until then, nobody’s got Mercury. [99] I want Mercury—but I’ll need help getting it.” I’d thought of it a thousand times and never dared consider it. [100] Nobody had, since Wyatt and Carpenter disappeared. [101] Mercury turns on its axis in the same time that it wheels around the Sun, which means that the Brightside is always facing in. [102] That makes the Brightside of Mercury at perihelion the hottest place in the Solar System, with one single exception: the surface of the Sun itself. [103] It would be a hellish trek. [104] Only a few men had ever learned just how hellish and they never came back to tell about it. [105] It was a real hell’s Crossing, but someday, I thought, somebody would cross it. [106] I wanted to be along. [107] The Twilight Lab, near the northern pole of Mercury, was the obvious jumping-off place. [108] The setup there wasn’t very extensive—a rocket landing, the labs and quarters for Sanderson’s crew sunk deep into the crust, and the tower that housed the Solar ’scope that Sanderson had built up there ten years before. [109] Twilight Lab wasn’t particularly interested in the Brightside, of course—the Sun was Sanderson’s baby and he’d picked Mercury as the closest chunk of rock to the Sun that could hold his observatory. [110] He’d chosen a good location, too. [111] On Mercury, the Brightside temperature hits 770° F. at perihelion and the Darkside runs pretty constant at -410° F. No permanent installation with a human crew could survive at either extreme. [112] But with Mercury’s wobble, the twilight zone between Brightside and Darkside offers something closer to survival temperatures. [113] Sanderson built the Lab up near the pole, where the zone is about five miles wide, so the temperature only varies 50 to 60 degrees with the libration. [114] The Solar ’scope could take that much change and they’d get good clear observation of the Sun for about seventy out of the eighty-eight days it takes the planet to wheel around. [115] The Major was counting on Sanderson knowing something about Mercury as well as the Sun when we camped at the Lab to make final preparations. [116] Sanderson did. [117] He thought we’d lost our minds and he said so, but he gave us all the help he could. [118] He spent a week briefing Jack Stone, the third member of our party, who had arrived with the supplies and equipment a few days earlier. [119] Poor Jack met us at the rocket landing almost bawling, Sanderson had given him such a gloomy picture of what Brightside was like. [120] Stone was a youngster—hardly twenty-five, I’d say—but he’d been with the Major at Vulcan and had begged to join this trek. [121] I had a funny feeling that Jack really didn’t care for exploring too much, but he thought Mikuta was God, followed him around like a puppy. [122] It didn’t matter to me as long as he knew what he was getting in for. [123] You don’t go asking people in this game why they do it—they’re liable to get awfully uneasy and none of them can ever give you an answer that makes sense. [124] Anyway, Stone had borrowed three men from the Lab, and had the supplies and equipment all lined up when we got there, ready to check and test. [125] We dug right in. [126] With plenty of funds—tri-V money and some government cash the Major had talked his way around—our equipment was new and good. [127] Mikuta had done the designing and testing himself, with a big assist from Sanderson. [128] We had four Bugs, three of them the light pillow-tire models, with special lead-cooled cut-in engines when the heat set in, and one heavy-duty tractor model for pulling the sledges. [129] The Major went over them like a kid at the circus. [130] Then he said, “Have you heard anything from McIvers?” “Who’s he?” Stone wanted to know. [131] “He’ll be joining us. [132] He’s a good man—got quite a name for climbing, back home.” The Major turned to me. [133] “You’ve probably heard of him.” I’d heard plenty of stories about Ted McIvers and I wasn’t too happy to hear that he was joining us. [134] “Kind of a daredevil, isn’t he?” “Maybe. [135] He’s lucky and skillful. [136] Where do you draw the line? [137] We’ll need plenty of both.” “Have you ever worked with him?” I asked. [138] “No. [139] Are you worried?” “Not exactly. [140] But Brightside is no place to count on luck.” The Major laughed. [141] “I don’t think we need to worry about McIvers. [142] We understood each other when I talked up the trip to him and we’re going to need each other too much to do any fooling around.” He turned back to the supply list. [143] “Meanwhile, let’s get this stuff listed and packed. [144] We’ll need to cut weight sharply and our time is short. [145] Sanderson says we should leave in three days.” Two days later, McIvers hadn’t arrived. [146] The Major didn’t say much about it. [147] Stone was getting edgy and so was I. [148] We spent the second day studying charts of the Brightside, such as they were. [149] The best available were pretty poor, taken from so far out that the detail dissolved into blurs on blow-up. [150] They showed the biggest ranges of peaks and craters and faults, and that was all. [151] Still, we could use them to plan a broad outline of our course. [152] “This range here,” the Major said as we crowded around the board, “is largely inactive, according to Sanderson. [153] But these to the south and west could be active. [154] Seismograph tracings suggest a lot of activity in that region, getting worse down toward the equator—not only volcanic, but sub-surface shifting.” Stone nodded. [155] “Sanderson told me there was probably constant surface activity.” The Major shrugged. [156] “Well, it’s treacherous, there’s no doubt of it. [157] But the only way to avoid it is to travel over the Pole, which would lose us days and offer us no guarantee of less activity to the west. [158] Now we might avoid some if we could find a pass through this range and cut sharp east—” It seemed that the more we considered the problem, the further we got from a solution. [159] We knew there were active volcanoes on the Brightside—even on the Darkside, though surface activity there was pretty much slowed down and localized. [160] But there were problems of atmosphere on Brightside, as well. [161] There was an atmosphere and a constant atmospheric flow from Brightside to Darkside. [162] Not much—the lighter gases had reached escape velocity and disappeared from Brightside millennia ago—but there was CO 2 , and nitrogen, and traces of other heavier gases. [163] There was also an abundance of sulfur vapor, as well as carbon disulfide and sulfur dioxide. [164] The atmospheric tide moved toward the Darkside, where it condensed, carrying enough volcanic ash with it for Sanderson to estimate the depth and nature of the surface upheavals on Brightside from his samplings. [165] The trick was to find a passage that avoided those upheavals as far as possible. [166] But in the final analysis, we were barely scraping the surface. [167] The only way we would find out what was happening where was to be there. [168] Finally, on the third day, McIvers blew in on a freight rocket from Venus. [169] He’d missed the ship that the Major and I had taken by a few hours, and had conned his way to Venus in hopes of getting a hop from there. [170] He didn’t seem too upset about it, as though this were his usual way of doing things and he couldn’t see why everyone should get so excited. [171] He was a tall, rangy man with long, wavy hair prematurely gray, and the sort of eyes that looked like a climber’s—half-closed, sleepy, almost indolent, but capable of abrupt alertness. [172] And he never stood still; he was always moving, always doing something with his hands, or talking, or pacing about. [173] Evidently the Major decided not to press the issue of his arrival. [174] There was still work to do, and an hour later we were running the final tests on the pressure suits. [175] That evening, Stone and McIvers were thick as thieves, and everything was set for an early departure after we got some rest. [176] “And that,” said Baron, finishing his drink and signaling the waiter for another pair, “was your first big mistake.” Peter Claney raised his eyebrows. [177] “McIvers?” “Of course.” Claney shrugged, glanced at the small quiet tables around them. [178] “There are lots of bizarre personalities around a place like this, and some of the best wouldn’t seem to be the most reliable at first glance. [179] Anyway, personality problems weren’t our big problem right then. [180] Equipment worried us first and route next.” Baron nodded in agreement. [181] “What kind of suits did you have?” “The best insulating suits ever made,” said Claney. [182] “Each one had an inner lining of a fiberglass modification, to avoid the clumsiness of asbestos, and carried the refrigerating unit and oxygen storage which we recharged from the sledges every eight hours. [183] Outer layer carried a monomolecular chrome reflecting surface that made us glitter like Christmas trees. [184] And we had a half-inch dead-air space under positive pressure between the two layers. [185] Warning thermocouples, of course—at 770 degrees, it wouldn’t take much time to fry us to cinders if the suits failed somewhere.” “How about the Bugs?” “They were insulated, too, but we weren’t counting on them too much for protection.” “You weren’t!” Baron exclaimed. [186] “Why not?” “We’d be in and out of them too much. [187] They gave us mobility and storage, but we knew we’d have to do a lot of forward work on foot.” Claney smiled bitterly. [188] “Which meant that we had an inch of fiberglass and a half-inch of dead air between us and a surface temperature where lead flowed like water and zinc was almost at melting point and the pools of sulfur in the shadows were boiling like oatmeal over a campfire.” Baron licked his lips. [189] His fingers stroked the cool, wet glass as he set it down on the tablecloth. [190] “Go on,” he said tautly. [191] “You started on schedule?” “Oh, yes,” said Claney, “we started on schedule, all right. [192] We just didn’t quite end on schedule, that was all. [193] But I’m getting to that.” He settled back in his chair and continued. [194] We jumped off from Twilight on a course due southeast with thirty days to make it to the Center of Brightside. [195] If we could cross an average of seventy miles a day, we could hit Center exactly at perihelion, the point of Mercury’s closest approach to the Sun—which made Center the hottest part of the planet at the hottest it ever gets. [196] The Sun was already huge and yellow over the horizon when we started, twice the size it appears on Earth. [197] Every day that Sun would grow bigger and whiter, and every day the surface would get hotter. [198] But once we reached Center, the job was only half done—we would still have to travel another two thousand miles to the opposite twilight zone. [199] Sanderson was to meet us on the other side in the Laboratory’s scout ship, approximately sixty days from the time we jumped off. [200] That was the plan, in outline. [201] It was up to us to cross those seventy miles a day, no matter how hot it became, no matter what terrain we had to cross. [202] Detours would be dangerous and time-consuming. [203] Delays could cost us our lives. [204] We all knew that. [205] The Major briefed us on details an hour before we left. [206] “Peter, you’ll take the lead Bug, the small one we stripped down for you. [207] Stone and I will flank you on either side, giving you a hundred-yard lead. [208] McIvers, you’ll have the job of dragging the sledges, so we’ll have to direct your course pretty closely. [209] Peter’s job is to pick the passage at any given point. [210] If there’s any doubt of safe passage, we’ll all explore ahead on foot before we risk the Bugs. [211] Got that?” McIvers and Stone exchanged glances. [212] McIvers said: “Jack and I were planning to change around. [213] We figured he could take the sledges. [214] That would give me a little more mobility.” The Major looked up sharply at Stone. [215] “Do you buy that, Jack?” Stone shrugged. [216] “I don’t mind. [217] Mac wanted—” McIvers made an impatient gesture with his hands. [218] “It doesn’t matter. [219] I just feel better when I’m on the move. [220] Does it make any difference?” “I guess it doesn’t,” said the Major. [221] “Then you’ll flank Peter along with me. [222] Right?” “Sure, sure.” McIvers pulled at his lower lip. [223] “Who’s going to do the advance scouting?” “It sounds like I am,” I cut in. [224] “We want to keep the lead Bug light as possible.” Mikuta nodded. [225] “That’s right. [226] Peter’s Bug is stripped down to the frame and wheels.” McIvers shook his head. [227] “No, I mean the advance work. [228] You need somebody out ahead—four or five miles, at least—to pick up the big flaws and active surface changes, don’t you?” He stared at the Major. [229] “I mean, how can we tell what sort of a hole we may be moving into, unless we have a scout up ahead?” “That’s what we have the charts for,” the Major said sharply. [230] “Charts! [231] I’m talking about detail work. [232] We don’t need to worry about the major topography. [233] It’s the little faults you can’t see on the pictures that can kill us.” He tossed the charts down excitedly. [234] “Look, let me take a Bug out ahead and work reconnaissance, keep five, maybe ten miles ahead of the column. [235] I can stay on good solid ground, of course, but scan the area closely and radio back to Peter where to avoid the flaws. [236] Then—” “No dice,” the Major broke in. [237] “But why not? [238] We could save ourselves days!” “I don’t care what we could save. [239] We stay together. [240] When we get to the Center, I want live men along with me. [241] That means we stay within easy sight of each other at all times. [242] Any climber knows that everybody is safer in a party than one man alone—any time, any place.” McIvers stared at him, his cheeks an angry red. [243] Finally he gave a sullen nod. [244] “Okay. [245] If you say so.” “Well, I say so and I mean it. [246] I don’t want any fancy stuff. [247] We’re going to hit Center together, and finish the Crossing together. [248] Got that?” McIvers nodded. [249] Mikuta then looked at Stone and me and we nodded, too. [250] “All right,” he said slowly. [251] “Now that we’ve got it straight, let’s go.” It was hot. [252] If I forget everything else about that trek, I’ll never forget that huge yellow Sun glaring down, without a break, hotter and hotter with every mile. [253] We knew that the first few days would be the easiest and we were rested and fresh when we started down the long ragged gorge southeast of the Twilight Lab. [254] I moved out first; back over my shoulder, I could see the Major and McIvers crawling out behind me, their pillow tires taking the rugged floor of the gorge smoothly. [255] Behind them, Stone dragged the sledges. [256] Even at only 30 per cent Earth gravity they were a strain on the big tractor, until the ski-blades bit into the fluffy volcanic ash blanketing the valley. [257] We even had a path to follow for the first twenty miles. [258] I kept my eyes pasted to the big polaroid binocs, picking out the track the early research teams had made out into the edge of Brightside. [259] But in a couple of hours we rumbled past Sanderson’s little outpost observatory and the tracks stopped. [260] We were in virgin territory and already the Sun was beginning to bite. [261] We didn’t feel the heat so much those first days out. [262] We saw it. [263] The refrig units kept our skins at a nice comfortable seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit inside our suits, but our eyes watched that glaring Sun and the baked yellow rocks going past, and some nerve pathways got twisted up, somehow. [264] We poured sweat as if we were in a superheated furnace. [265] We drove eight hours and slept five. [266] When a sleep period came due, we pulled the Bugs together into a square, threw up a light aluminum sun-shield and lay out in the dust and rocks. [267] The sun-shield cut the temperature down sixty or seventy degrees, for whatever help that was. [268] And then we ate from the forward sledge—sucking through tubes—protein, carbohydrates, bulk gelatin, vitamins. [269] The Major measured water out with an iron hand, because we’d have drunk ourselves into nephritis in a week otherwise. [270] We were constantly, unceasingly thirsty. [271] Ask the physiologists and psychiatrists why—they can give you have a dozen interesting reasons—but all we knew, or cared about, was that it happened to be so. [272] We didn’t sleep the first few stops, as a consequence. [273] Our eyes burned in spite of the filters and we had roaring headaches, but we couldn’t sleep them off. [274] We sat around looking at each other. [275] Then McIvers would say how good a beer would taste, and off we’d go. [276] We’d have murdered our grandmothers for one ice-cold bottle of beer. [277] After a few driving periods, I began to get my bearings at the wheel. [278] We were moving down into desolation that made Earth’s old Death Valley look like a Japanese rose garden. [279] Huge sun-baked cracks opened up in the floor of the gorge, with black cliffs jutting up on either side; the air was filled with a barely visible yellowish mist of sulfur and sulfurous gases. [280] It was a hot, barren hole, no place for any man to go, but the challenge was so powerful you could almost feel it. [281] No one had ever crossed this land before and escaped. [282] Those who had tried it had been cruelly punished, but the land was still there, so it had to be crossed. [283] Not the easy way. [284] It had to be crossed the hardest way possible: overland, through anything the land could throw up to us, at the most difficult time possible. [285] Yet we knew that even the land might have been conquered before, except for that Sun. [286] We’d fought absolute cold before and won. [287] We’d never fought heat like this and won. [288] The only worse heat in the Solar System was the surface of the Sun itself. [289] Brightside was worth trying for. [290] We would get it or it would get us. [291] That was the bargain. [292] I learned a lot about Mercury those first few driving periods. [293] The gorge petered out after a hundred miles and we moved onto the slope of a range of ragged craters that ran south and east. [294] This range had shown no activity since the first landing on Mercury forty years before, but beyond it there were active cones. [295] Yellow fumes rose from the craters constantly; their sides were shrouded with heavy ash. [296] We couldn’t detect a wind, but we knew there was a hot, sulfurous breeze sweeping in great continental tides across the face of the planet. [297] Not enough for erosion, though. [298] The craters rose up out of jagged gorges, huge towering spears of rock and rubble. [299] Below were the vast yellow flatlands, smoking and hissing from the gases beneath the crust. [300] Over everything was gray dust—silicates and salts, pumice and limestone and granite ash, filling crevices and declivities—offering a soft, treacherous surface for the Bug’s pillow tires. [301] I learned to read the ground, to tell a covered fault by the sag of the dust; I learned to spot a passable crack, and tell it from an impassable cut. [302] Time after time the Bugs ground to a halt while we explored a passage on foot, tied together with light copper cable, digging, advancing, digging some more until we were sure the surface would carry the machines. [303] It was cruel work; we slept in exhaustion. [304] But it went smoothly, at first. [305] Too smoothly, it seemed to me, and the others seemed to think so, too. [306] McIvers’ restlessness was beginning to grate on our nerves. [307] He talked too much, while we were resting or while we were driving; wisecracks, witticisms, unfunny jokes that wore thin with repetition. [308] He took to making side trips from the route now and then, never far, but a little further each time. [309] Jack Stone reacted quite the opposite; he grew quieter with each stop, more reserved and apprehensive. [310] I didn’t like it, but I figured that it would pass off after a while. [311] I was apprehensive enough myself; I just managed to hide it better. [312] And every mile the Sun got bigger and whiter and higher in the sky and hotter. [313] Without our ultra-violet screens and glare filters we would have been blinded; as it was our eyes ached constantly and the skin on our faces itched and tingled at the end of an eight-hour trek. [314] But it took one of those side trips of McIvers’ to deliver the penultimate blow to our already fraying nerves. [315] He had driven down a side-branch of a long canyon running off west of our route and was almost out of sight in a cloud of ash when we heard a sharp cry through our earphones. [316] I wheeled my Bug around with my heart in my throat and spotted him through the binocs, waving frantically from the top of his machine. [317] The Major and I took off, lumbering down the gulch after him as fast as the Bugs could go, with a thousand horrible pictures racing through our minds.... We found him standing stock-still, pointing down the gorge and, for once, he didn’t have anything to say. [318] It was the wreck of a Bug; an old-fashioned half-track model of the sort that hadn’t been in use for years. [319] It was wedged tight in a cut in the rock, an axle broken, its casing split wide open up the middle, half-buried in a rock slide. [320] A dozen feet away were two insulated suits with white bones gleaming through the fiberglass helmets. [321] This was as far as Wyatt and Carpenter had gotten on their Brightside Crossing. [322] On the fifth driving period out, the terrain began to change. [323] It looked the same, but every now and then it felt different. [324] On two occasions I felt my wheels spin, with a howl of protest from my engine. [325] Then, quite suddenly, the Bug gave a lurch; I gunned my motor and nothing happened. [326] I could see the dull gray stuff seeping up around the hubs, thick and tenacious, splattering around in steaming gobs as the wheels spun. [327] I knew what had happened the moment the wheels gave and, a few minutes later, they chained me to the tractor and dragged me back out of the mire. [328] It looked for all the world like thick gray mud, but it was a pit of molten lead, steaming under a soft layer of concealing ash. [329] I picked my way more cautiously then. [330] We were getting into an area of recent surface activity; the surface was really treacherous. [331] I caught myself wishing that the Major had okayed McIvers’ scheme for an advanced scout; more dangerous for the individual, maybe, but I was driving blind now and I didn’t like it. [332] One error in judgment could sink us all, but I wasn’t thinking much about the others. [333] I was worried about me , plenty worried. [334] I kept thinking, better McIvers should go than me. [335] It wasn’t healthy thinking and I knew it, but I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind. [336] It was a grueling eight hours and we slept poorly. [337] Back in the Bug again, we moved still more slowly—edging out on a broad flat plateau, dodging a network of gaping surface cracks—winding back and forth in an effort to keep the machines on solid rock. [338] I couldn’t see far ahead, because of the yellow haze rising from the cracks, so I was almost on top of it when I saw a sharp cut ahead where the surface dropped six feet beyond a deep crack. [339] I let out a shout to halt the others; then I edged my Bug forward, peering at the cleft. [340] It was deep and wide. [341] I moved fifty yards to the left, then back to the right. [342] There was only one place that looked like a possible crossing; a long, narrow ledge of gray stuff that lay down across a section of the fault like a ramp. [343] Even as I watched it, I could feel the surface crust under the Bug trembling and saw the ledge shift over a few feet.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the setting of the story": 1. [291] That was the bargain. 2. [292] I learned a lot about Mercury those first few driving periods. 3. [293] The gorge petered out after a hundred miles and we moved onto the slope of a range of ragged craters that ran south and east. 4. [294] This range had shown no activity since the first landing on Mercury forty years before, but beyond it there were active cones. 5. [295] Yellow fumes rose from the craters constantly; their sides were shrouded with heavy ash. 6. [296] We couldn't detect a wind, but we knew there was a hot, sulfurous breeze sweeping in great continental tides across the face of the planet. 7. [297] Not enough for erosion, though. 8. [298] The craters rose up out of jagged gorges, huge towering spears of rock and rubble. 9. [299] Below were the vast yellow flatlands, smoking and hissing from the gases beneath the crust. 10. [300] Over everything was gray dust—silicates and salts, pumice and limestone and granite ash, filling crevices and declivities—offering a soft, treacherous surface for the Bug's pillow tires. 11. [251] It was hot. 12. [252] If I forget everything else about that trek, I'll never forget that huge yellow Sun glaring down, without a break, hotter and hotter with every mile. 13. [253] We knew that the first few days would be the easiest and we were rested and fresh when we started down the long ragged gorge southeast of the Twilight Lab. 14. [254] I moved out first; back over my shoulder, I could see the Major and McIvers crawling out behind me, their pillow tires taking the rugged floor of the gorge smoothly. 15. [255] Behind them, Stone dragged the sledges. 16. [256] Even at only 30 per cent Earth gravity they were a strain on the big tractor, until the ski-blades bit into the fluffy volcanic ash blanketing the valley. 17. [257] We even had a path to follow for the first twenty miles. 18. [258] I kept my eyes pasted to the big polaroid binocs, picking out the track the early research teams had made out into the edge of Brightside. 19. [259] But in a couple of hours we rumbled past Sanderson's little outpost observatory and the tracks stopped. 20. [260] We were in virgin territory and already the Sun was beginning to bite. 21. [261] We didn't feel the heat so much those first days out. 22. [262] We saw it. 23. [263] The refrig units kept our skins at a nice comfortable seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit inside our suits, but our eyes watched that glaring Sun and the baked yellow rocks going past, and some nerve pathways got twisted up, somehow. 24. [264] We poured sweat as if we were in a superheated furnace. 25. [265] We drove eight hours and slept five. 26. [266] When a sleep period came due, we pulled the Bugs together into a square, threw up a light aluminum sun-shield and lay out in the dust and rocks. 27. [267] The sun-shield cut the temperature down sixty or seventy degrees, for whatever help that was. 28. [268] And then we ate from the forward sledge—sucking through tubes—protein, carbohydrates, bulk gelatin, vitamins. 29. [269] The Major measured water out with an iron hand, because we'd have drunk ourselves into nephritis in a week otherwise. 30. [270] We were constantly, unceasingly thirsty. 31. [277] After a few driving periods, I began to get my bearings at the wheel. 32. [278] We were moving down into desolation that made Earth's old Death Valley look like a Japanese rose garden. 33. [279] Huge sun-baked cracks opened up in the floor of the gorge, with black cliffs jutting up on either side; the air was filled with a barely visible yellowish mist of sulfur and sulfurous gases. 34. [280] It was a hot, barren hole, no place for any man to go, but the challenge was so powerful you could almost feel it. 35. [281] No one had ever crossed this land before and escaped. 36. [282] Those who had tried it had been cruelly punished, but the land was still there, so it had to be crossed. 37. [283] Not the easy way. 38. [284] It had to be crossed the hardest way possible: overland, through anything the land could throw up to us, at the most difficult time possible. 39. [285] Yet we knew that even the land might have been conquered before, except for that Sun. 40. [286] We'd fought absolute cold before and won. 41. [287] We'd never fought heat like this and won. 42. [288] The only worse heat in the Solar System was the surface of the Sun itself. 43. [289] Brightside was worth trying for. 44. [290] We would get it or it would get us. 45. [301] I learned to read the ground, to tell a covered fault by the sag of the dust; I learned to spot a passable crack, and tell it from an impassable cut. 46. [302] Time after time the Bugs ground to a halt while we explored a passage on foot, tied together with light copper cable, digging, advancing, digging some more until we were sure the surface would carry the machines. 47. [303] It was cruel work; we slept in exhaustion. 48. [304] But it went smoothly, at first. 49. [305] Too smoothly, it seemed to me, and the others seemed to think so, too. 50. [306] McIvers' restlessness was beginning to grate on our nerves. 51. [307] He talked too much, while we were resting or while we were driving; wisecracks, witticisms, unfunny jokes that wore thin with repetition. 52. [308] He took to making side trips from the route now and then, never far, but a little further each time. 53. [309] Jack Stone reacted quite the opposite; he grew quieter with each stop, more reserved and apprehensive. 54. [310] I didn't like it, but I figured that it would pass off after a while. 55. [311] I was apprehensive enough myself; I just managed to hide it better. 56. [312] And every mile the Sun got bigger and whiter and higher in the sky and hotter. 57. [313] Without our ultra-violet screens and glare filters we would have been blinded; as it was our eyes ached constantly and the skin on our faces itched and tingled at the end of an eight-hour trek. 58. [314] But it took one of those side trips of McIvers' to deliver the penultimate blow to our already fraying nerves. 59. [315] He had driven down a side-branch of a long canyon running off west of our route and was almost out of sight in a cloud of ash when we heard a sharp cry through our earphones. 60. [316] I wheeled my Bug around with my heart in my throat and spotted him through the binocs, waving frantically from the top of his machine. 61. [317] The Major and I took off, lumbering down the gulch after him as fast as the Bugs could go, with a thousand horrible pictures racing through our minds.... 62. [318] We found him standing stock-still, pointing down the gorge and, for once, he didn't have anything to say. 63. [319] It was the wreck of a Bug; an old-fashioned half-track model of the sort that hadn't been in use for years. 64. [320] It was wedged tight in a cut in the rock, an axle broken, its casing split wide open up the middle, half-buried in a rock slide. 65. [321] A dozen feet away were two insulated suits with white bones gleaming through the fiberglass helmets. 66. [322] This was as far as Wyatt and Carpenter had gotten on their Brightside Crossing. 67. [323] On the fifth driving period out, the terrain began to change. 68. [324] It looked the same, but every now and then it felt different. 69. [325] On two occasions I felt my wheels spin, with a howl of protest from my engine. 70. [326] Then, quite suddenly, the Bug gave a lurch; I gunned my motor and nothing happened. 71. [327] I could see the dull gray stuff seeping up around the hubs, thick and tenacious, splattering around in steaming gobs as the wheels spun. 72. [328] I knew what had happened the moment the wheels gave and, a few minutes later, they chained me to the tractor and dragged me back out of the mire. 73. [329] It looked for all the world like thick gray mud, but it was a pit of molten lead, steaming under a soft layer of concealing ash. 74. [330] I picked my way more cautiously then. 75. [331] We were getting into an area of recent surface activity; the surface was really treacherous. 76. [332] I caught myself wishing that the Major had okayed McIvers' scheme for an advanced scout; more dangerous for the individual, maybe, but I was driving blind now and I didn't like it. 77. [333] One error in judgment could sink us all, but I wasn't thinking much about the others. 78. [334] I was worried about me , plenty worried. 79. [335] I kept thinking, better McIvers should go than me. 80. [336] It wasn't healthy thinking and I knew it, but I couldn't get the thought out of my mind. 81. [337] It was a grueling eight hours and we slept poorly. 82. [338] Back in the Bug again, we moved still more slowly—edging out on a broad flat plateau, dodging a network of gaping surface cracks—winding back and forth in an effort to keep the machines on solid rock. 83. [339] I couldn't see far ahead, because of the yellow haze rising from the cracks, so I was almost on top of it when I saw a sharp cut ahead where the surface dropped six feet beyond a deep crack. 84. [340] I let out a shout to halt the others; then I edged my Bug forward, peering at the cleft. 85. [341] It was deep and wide. 86. [342] I moved fifty yards to the left, then back to the right. 87. [343] There was only one place that looked like a possible crossing; a long, narrow ledge of gray stuff that lay down across a section of the fault like a ramp. 88. [344] Even as I watched it, I could feel the surface crust under the Bug trembling and saw the ledge shift over a few feet.

What is the significance of the Brightside Crossing?

[1] Brightside Crossing by Alan E. Nourse JAMES BARON was not pleased to hear that he had had a visitor when he reached the Red Lion that evening. [2] He had no stomach for mysteries, vast or trifling, and there were pressing things to think about at this time. [3] Yet the doorman had flagged him as he came in from the street: “A thousand pardons, Mr. Baron. [4] The gentleman—he would leave no name. [5] He said you’d want to see him. [6] He will be back by eight.” Now Baron drummed his fingers on the table top, staring about the quiet lounge. [7] Street trade was discouraged at the Red Lion, gently but persuasively; the patrons were few in number. [8] Across to the right was a group that Baron knew vaguely—Andean climbers, or at least two of them were. [9] Over near the door he recognized old Balmer, who had mapped the first passage to the core of Vulcan Crater on Venus. [10] Baron returned his smile with a nod. [11] Then he settled back and waited impatiently for the intruder who demanded his time without justifying it. [12] Presently a small, grizzled man crossed the room and sat down at Baron’s table. [13] He was short and wiry. [14] His face held no key to his age—he might have been thirty or a thousand—but he looked weary and immensely ugly. [15] His cheeks and forehead were twisted and brown, with scars that were still healing. [16] The stranger said, “I’m glad you waited. [17] I’ve heard you’re planning to attempt the Brightside.” Baron stared at the man for a moment. [18] “I see you can read telecasts,” he said coldly. [19] “The news was correct. [20] We are going to make a Brightside Crossing.” “At perihelion?” “Of course. [21] When else?” The grizzled man searched Baron’s face for a moment without expression. [22] Then he said slowly, “No, I’m afraid you’re not going to make the Crossing.” “Say, who are you, if you don’t mind?” Baron demanded. [23] “The name is Claney,” said the stranger. [24] There was a silence. [25] Then: “Claney? [26] Peter Claney?” “That’s right.” Baron’s eyes were wide with excitement, all trace of anger gone. [27] “Great balls of fire, man— where have you been hiding? [28] We’ve been trying to contact you for months!” “I know. [29] I was hoping you’d quit looking and chuck the whole idea.” “Quit looking!” Baron bent forward over the table. [30] “My friend, we’d given up hope, but we’ve never quit looking. [31] Here, have a drink. [32] There’s so much you can tell us.” His fingers were trembling. [33] Peter Claney shook his head. [34] “I can’t tell you anything you want to hear.” “But you’ve got to. [35] You’re the only man on Earth who’s attempted a Brightside Crossing and lived through it! [36] And the story you cleared for the news—it was nothing. [37] We need details . [38] Where did your equipment fall down? [39] Where did you miscalculate? [40] What were the trouble spots?” Baron jabbed a finger at Claney’s face. [41] “That, for instance—epithelioma? [42] Why? [43] What was wrong with your glass? [44] Your filters? [45] We’ve got to know those things. [46] If you can tell us, we can make it across where your attempt failed—” “You want to know why we failed?” asked Claney. [47] “Of course we want to know. [48] We have to know.” “It’s simple. [49] We failed because it can’t be done. [50] We couldn’t do it and neither can you. [51] No human beings will ever cross the Brightside alive, not if they try for centuries.” “Nonsense,” Baron declared. [52] “We will.” Claney shrugged. [53] “I was there. [54] I know what I’m saying. [55] You can blame the equipment or the men—there were flaws in both quarters—but we just didn’t know what we were fighting. [56] It was the planet that whipped us, that and the Sun . [57] They’ll whip you, too, if you try it.” “Never,” said Baron. [58] “Let me tell you,” Peter Claney said. [59] I’d been interested in the Brightside for almost as long as I can remember (Claney said). [60] I guess I was about ten when Wyatt and Carpenter made the last attempt—that was in 2082, I think. [61] I followed the news stories like a tri-V serial and then I was heartbroken when they just disappeared. [62] I know now that they were a pair of idiots, starting off without proper equipment, with practically no knowledge of surface conditions, without any charts—they couldn’t have made a hundred miles—but I didn’t know that then and it was a terrible tragedy. [63] After that, I followed Sanderson’s work in the Twilight Lab up there and began to get Brightside into my blood, sure as death. [64] But it was Mikuta’s idea to attempt a Crossing. [65] Did you ever know Tom Mikuta? [66] I don’t suppose you did. [67] No, not Japanese—Polish-American. [68] He was a major in the Interplanetary Service for some years and hung onto the title after he gave up his commission. [69] He was with Armstrong on Mars during his Service days, did a good deal of the original mapping and surveying for the Colony there. [70] I first met him on Venus; we spent five years together up there doing some of the nastiest exploring since the Matto Grasso. [71] Then he made the attempt on Vulcan Crater that paved the way for Balmer a few years later. [72] I’d always liked the Major—he was big and quiet and cool, the sort of guy who always had things figured a little further ahead than anyone else and always knew what to do in a tight place. [73] Too many men in this game are all nerve and luck, with no judgment. [74] The Major had both. [75] He also had the kind of personality that could take a crew of wild men and make them work like a well-oiled machine across a thousand miles of Venus jungle. [76] I liked him and I trusted him. [77] He contacted me in New York and he was very casual at first. [78] We spent an evening here at the Red Lion, talking about old times; he told me about the Vulcan business, and how he’d been out to see Sanderson and the Twilight Lab on Mercury, and how he preferred a hot trek to a cold one any day of the year—and then he wanted to know what I’d been doing since Venus and what my plans were. [79] “No particular plans,” I told him. [80] “Why?” He looked me over. [81] “How much do you weigh, Peter?” I told him one-thirty-five. [82] “That much!” he said. [83] “Well, there can’t be much fat on you, at any rate. [84] How do you take heat?” “You should know,” I said. [85] “Venus was no icebox.” “No, I mean real heat.” Then I began to get it. [86] “You’re planning a trip.” “That’s right. [87] A hot trip.” He grinned at me. [88] “Might be dangerous, too.” “What trip?” “Brightside of Mercury,” the Major said. [89] I whistled cautiously. [90] “At aphelion?” He threw his head back. [91] “Why try a Crossing at aphelion? [92] What have you done then? [93] Four thousand miles of butcherous heat, just to have some joker come along, use your data and drum you out of the glory by crossing at perihelion forty-four days later? [94] No, thanks. [95] I want the Brightside without any nonsense about it.” He leaned across me eagerly. [96] “I want to make a Crossing at perihelion and I want to cross on the surface. [97] If a man can do that, he’s got Mercury. [98] Until then, nobody’s got Mercury. [99] I want Mercury—but I’ll need help getting it.” I’d thought of it a thousand times and never dared consider it. [100] Nobody had, since Wyatt and Carpenter disappeared. [101] Mercury turns on its axis in the same time that it wheels around the Sun, which means that the Brightside is always facing in. [102] That makes the Brightside of Mercury at perihelion the hottest place in the Solar System, with one single exception: the surface of the Sun itself. [103] It would be a hellish trek. [104] Only a few men had ever learned just how hellish and they never came back to tell about it. [105] It was a real hell’s Crossing, but someday, I thought, somebody would cross it. [106] I wanted to be along. [107] The Twilight Lab, near the northern pole of Mercury, was the obvious jumping-off place. [108] The setup there wasn’t very extensive—a rocket landing, the labs and quarters for Sanderson’s crew sunk deep into the crust, and the tower that housed the Solar ’scope that Sanderson had built up there ten years before. [109] Twilight Lab wasn’t particularly interested in the Brightside, of course—the Sun was Sanderson’s baby and he’d picked Mercury as the closest chunk of rock to the Sun that could hold his observatory. [110] He’d chosen a good location, too. [111] On Mercury, the Brightside temperature hits 770° F. at perihelion and the Darkside runs pretty constant at -410° F. No permanent installation with a human crew could survive at either extreme. [112] But with Mercury’s wobble, the twilight zone between Brightside and Darkside offers something closer to survival temperatures. [113] Sanderson built the Lab up near the pole, where the zone is about five miles wide, so the temperature only varies 50 to 60 degrees with the libration. [114] The Solar ’scope could take that much change and they’d get good clear observation of the Sun for about seventy out of the eighty-eight days it takes the planet to wheel around. [115] The Major was counting on Sanderson knowing something about Mercury as well as the Sun when we camped at the Lab to make final preparations. [116] Sanderson did. [117] He thought we’d lost our minds and he said so, but he gave us all the help he could. [118] He spent a week briefing Jack Stone, the third member of our party, who had arrived with the supplies and equipment a few days earlier. [119] Poor Jack met us at the rocket landing almost bawling, Sanderson had given him such a gloomy picture of what Brightside was like. [120] Stone was a youngster—hardly twenty-five, I’d say—but he’d been with the Major at Vulcan and had begged to join this trek. [121] I had a funny feeling that Jack really didn’t care for exploring too much, but he thought Mikuta was God, followed him around like a puppy. [122] It didn’t matter to me as long as he knew what he was getting in for. [123] You don’t go asking people in this game why they do it—they’re liable to get awfully uneasy and none of them can ever give you an answer that makes sense. [124] Anyway, Stone had borrowed three men from the Lab, and had the supplies and equipment all lined up when we got there, ready to check and test. [125] We dug right in. [126] With plenty of funds—tri-V money and some government cash the Major had talked his way around—our equipment was new and good. [127] Mikuta had done the designing and testing himself, with a big assist from Sanderson. [128] We had four Bugs, three of them the light pillow-tire models, with special lead-cooled cut-in engines when the heat set in, and one heavy-duty tractor model for pulling the sledges. [129] The Major went over them like a kid at the circus. [130] Then he said, “Have you heard anything from McIvers?” “Who’s he?” Stone wanted to know. [131] “He’ll be joining us. [132] He’s a good man—got quite a name for climbing, back home.” The Major turned to me. [133] “You’ve probably heard of him.” I’d heard plenty of stories about Ted McIvers and I wasn’t too happy to hear that he was joining us. [134] “Kind of a daredevil, isn’t he?” “Maybe. [135] He’s lucky and skillful. [136] Where do you draw the line? [137] We’ll need plenty of both.” “Have you ever worked with him?” I asked. [138] “No. [139] Are you worried?” “Not exactly. [140] But Brightside is no place to count on luck.” The Major laughed. [141] “I don’t think we need to worry about McIvers. [142] We understood each other when I talked up the trip to him and we’re going to need each other too much to do any fooling around.” He turned back to the supply list. [143] “Meanwhile, let’s get this stuff listed and packed. [144] We’ll need to cut weight sharply and our time is short. [145] Sanderson says we should leave in three days.” Two days later, McIvers hadn’t arrived. [146] The Major didn’t say much about it. [147] Stone was getting edgy and so was I. [148] We spent the second day studying charts of the Brightside, such as they were. [149] The best available were pretty poor, taken from so far out that the detail dissolved into blurs on blow-up. [150] They showed the biggest ranges of peaks and craters and faults, and that was all. [151] Still, we could use them to plan a broad outline of our course. [152] “This range here,” the Major said as we crowded around the board, “is largely inactive, according to Sanderson. [153] But these to the south and west could be active. [154] Seismograph tracings suggest a lot of activity in that region, getting worse down toward the equator—not only volcanic, but sub-surface shifting.” Stone nodded. [155] “Sanderson told me there was probably constant surface activity.” The Major shrugged. [156] “Well, it’s treacherous, there’s no doubt of it. [157] But the only way to avoid it is to travel over the Pole, which would lose us days and offer us no guarantee of less activity to the west. [158] Now we might avoid some if we could find a pass through this range and cut sharp east—” It seemed that the more we considered the problem, the further we got from a solution. [159] We knew there were active volcanoes on the Brightside—even on the Darkside, though surface activity there was pretty much slowed down and localized. [160] But there were problems of atmosphere on Brightside, as well. [161] There was an atmosphere and a constant atmospheric flow from Brightside to Darkside. [162] Not much—the lighter gases had reached escape velocity and disappeared from Brightside millennia ago—but there was CO 2 , and nitrogen, and traces of other heavier gases. [163] There was also an abundance of sulfur vapor, as well as carbon disulfide and sulfur dioxide. [164] The atmospheric tide moved toward the Darkside, where it condensed, carrying enough volcanic ash with it for Sanderson to estimate the depth and nature of the surface upheavals on Brightside from his samplings. [165] The trick was to find a passage that avoided those upheavals as far as possible. [166] But in the final analysis, we were barely scraping the surface. [167] The only way we would find out what was happening where was to be there. [168] Finally, on the third day, McIvers blew in on a freight rocket from Venus. [169] He’d missed the ship that the Major and I had taken by a few hours, and had conned his way to Venus in hopes of getting a hop from there. [170] He didn’t seem too upset about it, as though this were his usual way of doing things and he couldn’t see why everyone should get so excited. [171] He was a tall, rangy man with long, wavy hair prematurely gray, and the sort of eyes that looked like a climber’s—half-closed, sleepy, almost indolent, but capable of abrupt alertness. [172] And he never stood still; he was always moving, always doing something with his hands, or talking, or pacing about. [173] Evidently the Major decided not to press the issue of his arrival. [174] There was still work to do, and an hour later we were running the final tests on the pressure suits. [175] That evening, Stone and McIvers were thick as thieves, and everything was set for an early departure after we got some rest. [176] “And that,” said Baron, finishing his drink and signaling the waiter for another pair, “was your first big mistake.” Peter Claney raised his eyebrows. [177] “McIvers?” “Of course.” Claney shrugged, glanced at the small quiet tables around them. [178] “There are lots of bizarre personalities around a place like this, and some of the best wouldn’t seem to be the most reliable at first glance. [179] Anyway, personality problems weren’t our big problem right then. [180] Equipment worried us first and route next.” Baron nodded in agreement. [181] “What kind of suits did you have?” “The best insulating suits ever made,” said Claney. [182] “Each one had an inner lining of a fiberglass modification, to avoid the clumsiness of asbestos, and carried the refrigerating unit and oxygen storage which we recharged from the sledges every eight hours. [183] Outer layer carried a monomolecular chrome reflecting surface that made us glitter like Christmas trees. [184] And we had a half-inch dead-air space under positive pressure between the two layers. [185] Warning thermocouples, of course—at 770 degrees, it wouldn’t take much time to fry us to cinders if the suits failed somewhere.” “How about the Bugs?” “They were insulated, too, but we weren’t counting on them too much for protection.” “You weren’t!” Baron exclaimed. [186] “Why not?” “We’d be in and out of them too much. [187] They gave us mobility and storage, but we knew we’d have to do a lot of forward work on foot.” Claney smiled bitterly. [188] “Which meant that we had an inch of fiberglass and a half-inch of dead air between us and a surface temperature where lead flowed like water and zinc was almost at melting point and the pools of sulfur in the shadows were boiling like oatmeal over a campfire.” Baron licked his lips. [189] His fingers stroked the cool, wet glass as he set it down on the tablecloth. [190] “Go on,” he said tautly. [191] “You started on schedule?” “Oh, yes,” said Claney, “we started on schedule, all right. [192] We just didn’t quite end on schedule, that was all. [193] But I’m getting to that.” He settled back in his chair and continued. [194] We jumped off from Twilight on a course due southeast with thirty days to make it to the Center of Brightside. [195] If we could cross an average of seventy miles a day, we could hit Center exactly at perihelion, the point of Mercury’s closest approach to the Sun—which made Center the hottest part of the planet at the hottest it ever gets. [196] The Sun was already huge and yellow over the horizon when we started, twice the size it appears on Earth. [197] Every day that Sun would grow bigger and whiter, and every day the surface would get hotter. [198] But once we reached Center, the job was only half done—we would still have to travel another two thousand miles to the opposite twilight zone. [199] Sanderson was to meet us on the other side in the Laboratory’s scout ship, approximately sixty days from the time we jumped off. [200] That was the plan, in outline. [201] It was up to us to cross those seventy miles a day, no matter how hot it became, no matter what terrain we had to cross. [202] Detours would be dangerous and time-consuming. [203] Delays could cost us our lives. [204] We all knew that. [205] The Major briefed us on details an hour before we left. [206] “Peter, you’ll take the lead Bug, the small one we stripped down for you. [207] Stone and I will flank you on either side, giving you a hundred-yard lead. [208] McIvers, you’ll have the job of dragging the sledges, so we’ll have to direct your course pretty closely. [209] Peter’s job is to pick the passage at any given point. [210] If there’s any doubt of safe passage, we’ll all explore ahead on foot before we risk the Bugs. [211] Got that?” McIvers and Stone exchanged glances. [212] McIvers said: “Jack and I were planning to change around. [213] We figured he could take the sledges. [214] That would give me a little more mobility.” The Major looked up sharply at Stone. [215] “Do you buy that, Jack?” Stone shrugged. [216] “I don’t mind. [217] Mac wanted—” McIvers made an impatient gesture with his hands. [218] “It doesn’t matter. [219] I just feel better when I’m on the move. [220] Does it make any difference?” “I guess it doesn’t,” said the Major. [221] “Then you’ll flank Peter along with me. [222] Right?” “Sure, sure.” McIvers pulled at his lower lip. [223] “Who’s going to do the advance scouting?” “It sounds like I am,” I cut in. [224] “We want to keep the lead Bug light as possible.” Mikuta nodded. [225] “That’s right. [226] Peter’s Bug is stripped down to the frame and wheels.” McIvers shook his head. [227] “No, I mean the advance work. [228] You need somebody out ahead—four or five miles, at least—to pick up the big flaws and active surface changes, don’t you?” He stared at the Major. [229] “I mean, how can we tell what sort of a hole we may be moving into, unless we have a scout up ahead?” “That’s what we have the charts for,” the Major said sharply. [230] “Charts! [231] I’m talking about detail work. [232] We don’t need to worry about the major topography. [233] It’s the little faults you can’t see on the pictures that can kill us.” He tossed the charts down excitedly. [234] “Look, let me take a Bug out ahead and work reconnaissance, keep five, maybe ten miles ahead of the column. [235] I can stay on good solid ground, of course, but scan the area closely and radio back to Peter where to avoid the flaws. [236] Then—” “No dice,” the Major broke in. [237] “But why not? [238] We could save ourselves days!” “I don’t care what we could save. [239] We stay together. [240] When we get to the Center, I want live men along with me. [241] That means we stay within easy sight of each other at all times. [242] Any climber knows that everybody is safer in a party than one man alone—any time, any place.” McIvers stared at him, his cheeks an angry red. [243] Finally he gave a sullen nod. [244] “Okay. [245] If you say so.” “Well, I say so and I mean it. [246] I don’t want any fancy stuff. [247] We’re going to hit Center together, and finish the Crossing together. [248] Got that?” McIvers nodded. [249] Mikuta then looked at Stone and me and we nodded, too. [250] “All right,” he said slowly. [251] “Now that we’ve got it straight, let’s go.” It was hot. [252] If I forget everything else about that trek, I’ll never forget that huge yellow Sun glaring down, without a break, hotter and hotter with every mile. [253] We knew that the first few days would be the easiest and we were rested and fresh when we started down the long ragged gorge southeast of the Twilight Lab. [254] I moved out first; back over my shoulder, I could see the Major and McIvers crawling out behind me, their pillow tires taking the rugged floor of the gorge smoothly. [255] Behind them, Stone dragged the sledges. [256] Even at only 30 per cent Earth gravity they were a strain on the big tractor, until the ski-blades bit into the fluffy volcanic ash blanketing the valley. [257] We even had a path to follow for the first twenty miles. [258] I kept my eyes pasted to the big polaroid binocs, picking out the track the early research teams had made out into the edge of Brightside. [259] But in a couple of hours we rumbled past Sanderson’s little outpost observatory and the tracks stopped. [260] We were in virgin territory and already the Sun was beginning to bite. [261] We didn’t feel the heat so much those first days out. [262] We saw it. [263] The refrig units kept our skins at a nice comfortable seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit inside our suits, but our eyes watched that glaring Sun and the baked yellow rocks going past, and some nerve pathways got twisted up, somehow. [264] We poured sweat as if we were in a superheated furnace. [265] We drove eight hours and slept five. [266] When a sleep period came due, we pulled the Bugs together into a square, threw up a light aluminum sun-shield and lay out in the dust and rocks. [267] The sun-shield cut the temperature down sixty or seventy degrees, for whatever help that was. [268] And then we ate from the forward sledge—sucking through tubes—protein, carbohydrates, bulk gelatin, vitamins. [269] The Major measured water out with an iron hand, because we’d have drunk ourselves into nephritis in a week otherwise. [270] We were constantly, unceasingly thirsty. [271] Ask the physiologists and psychiatrists why—they can give you have a dozen interesting reasons—but all we knew, or cared about, was that it happened to be so. [272] We didn’t sleep the first few stops, as a consequence. [273] Our eyes burned in spite of the filters and we had roaring headaches, but we couldn’t sleep them off. [274] We sat around looking at each other. [275] Then McIvers would say how good a beer would taste, and off we’d go. [276] We’d have murdered our grandmothers for one ice-cold bottle of beer. [277] After a few driving periods, I began to get my bearings at the wheel. [278] We were moving down into desolation that made Earth’s old Death Valley look like a Japanese rose garden. [279] Huge sun-baked cracks opened up in the floor of the gorge, with black cliffs jutting up on either side; the air was filled with a barely visible yellowish mist of sulfur and sulfurous gases. [280] It was a hot, barren hole, no place for any man to go, but the challenge was so powerful you could almost feel it. [281] No one had ever crossed this land before and escaped. [282] Those who had tried it had been cruelly punished, but the land was still there, so it had to be crossed. [283] Not the easy way. [284] It had to be crossed the hardest way possible: overland, through anything the land could throw up to us, at the most difficult time possible. [285] Yet we knew that even the land might have been conquered before, except for that Sun. [286] We’d fought absolute cold before and won. [287] We’d never fought heat like this and won. [288] The only worse heat in the Solar System was the surface of the Sun itself. [289] Brightside was worth trying for. [290] We would get it or it would get us. [291] That was the bargain. [292] I learned a lot about Mercury those first few driving periods. [293] The gorge petered out after a hundred miles and we moved onto the slope of a range of ragged craters that ran south and east. [294] This range had shown no activity since the first landing on Mercury forty years before, but beyond it there were active cones. [295] Yellow fumes rose from the craters constantly; their sides were shrouded with heavy ash. [296] We couldn’t detect a wind, but we knew there was a hot, sulfurous breeze sweeping in great continental tides across the face of the planet. [297] Not enough for erosion, though. [298] The craters rose up out of jagged gorges, huge towering spears of rock and rubble. [299] Below were the vast yellow flatlands, smoking and hissing from the gases beneath the crust. [300] Over everything was gray dust—silicates and salts, pumice and limestone and granite ash, filling crevices and declivities—offering a soft, treacherous surface for the Bug’s pillow tires. [301] I learned to read the ground, to tell a covered fault by the sag of the dust; I learned to spot a passable crack, and tell it from an impassable cut. [302] Time after time the Bugs ground to a halt while we explored a passage on foot, tied together with light copper cable, digging, advancing, digging some more until we were sure the surface would carry the machines. [303] It was cruel work; we slept in exhaustion. [304] But it went smoothly, at first. [305] Too smoothly, it seemed to me, and the others seemed to think so, too. [306] McIvers’ restlessness was beginning to grate on our nerves. [307] He talked too much, while we were resting or while we were driving; wisecracks, witticisms, unfunny jokes that wore thin with repetition. [308] He took to making side trips from the route now and then, never far, but a little further each time. [309] Jack Stone reacted quite the opposite; he grew quieter with each stop, more reserved and apprehensive. [310] I didn’t like it, but I figured that it would pass off after a while. [311] I was apprehensive enough myself; I just managed to hide it better. [312] And every mile the Sun got bigger and whiter and higher in the sky and hotter. [313] Without our ultra-violet screens and glare filters we would have been blinded; as it was our eyes ached constantly and the skin on our faces itched and tingled at the end of an eight-hour trek. [314] But it took one of those side trips of McIvers’ to deliver the penultimate blow to our already fraying nerves. [315] He had driven down a side-branch of a long canyon running off west of our route and was almost out of sight in a cloud of ash when we heard a sharp cry through our earphones. [316] I wheeled my Bug around with my heart in my throat and spotted him through the binocs, waving frantically from the top of his machine. [317] The Major and I took off, lumbering down the gulch after him as fast as the Bugs could go, with a thousand horrible pictures racing through our minds.... We found him standing stock-still, pointing down the gorge and, for once, he didn’t have anything to say. [318] It was the wreck of a Bug; an old-fashioned half-track model of the sort that hadn’t been in use for years. [319] It was wedged tight in a cut in the rock, an axle broken, its casing split wide open up the middle, half-buried in a rock slide. [320] A dozen feet away were two insulated suits with white bones gleaming through the fiberglass helmets. [321] This was as far as Wyatt and Carpenter had gotten on their Brightside Crossing. [322] On the fifth driving period out, the terrain began to change. [323] It looked the same, but every now and then it felt different. [324] On two occasions I felt my wheels spin, with a howl of protest from my engine. [325] Then, quite suddenly, the Bug gave a lurch; I gunned my motor and nothing happened. [326] I could see the dull gray stuff seeping up around the hubs, thick and tenacious, splattering around in steaming gobs as the wheels spun. [327] I knew what had happened the moment the wheels gave and, a few minutes later, they chained me to the tractor and dragged me back out of the mire. [328] It looked for all the world like thick gray mud, but it was a pit of molten lead, steaming under a soft layer of concealing ash. [329] I picked my way more cautiously then. [330] We were getting into an area of recent surface activity; the surface was really treacherous. [331] I caught myself wishing that the Major had okayed McIvers’ scheme for an advanced scout; more dangerous for the individual, maybe, but I was driving blind now and I didn’t like it. [332] One error in judgment could sink us all, but I wasn’t thinking much about the others. [333] I was worried about me , plenty worried. [334] I kept thinking, better McIvers should go than me. [335] It wasn’t healthy thinking and I knew it, but I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind. [336] It was a grueling eight hours and we slept poorly. [337] Back in the Bug again, we moved still more slowly—edging out on a broad flat plateau, dodging a network of gaping surface cracks—winding back and forth in an effort to keep the machines on solid rock. [338] I couldn’t see far ahead, because of the yellow haze rising from the cracks, so I was almost on top of it when I saw a sharp cut ahead where the surface dropped six feet beyond a deep crack. [339] I let out a shout to halt the others; then I edged my Bug forward, peering at the cleft. [340] It was deep and wide. [341] I moved fifty yards to the left, then back to the right. [342] There was only one place that looked like a possible crossing; a long, narrow ledge of gray stuff that lay down across a section of the fault like a ramp. [343] Even as I watched it, I could feel the surface crust under the Bug trembling and saw the ledge shift over a few feet.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "What is the significance of the Brightside Crossing?": 1. [105] It would be a hellish trek. Only a few men had ever learned just how hellish and they never came back to tell about it. It was a real hell's Crossing, but someday, I thought, somebody would cross it. 2. [49] "It's simple. We failed because it can't be done. We couldn't do it and neither can you. No human beings will ever cross the Brightside alive, not if they try for centuries." 3. [101] Mercury turns on its axis in the same time that it wheels around the Sun, which means that the Brightside is always facing in. That makes the Brightside of Mercury at perihelion the hottest place in the Solar System, with one single exception: the surface of the Sun itself. 4. [288] Brightside was worth trying for. We would get it or it would get us. That was the bargain. 5. [318] It was the wreck of a Bug; an old-fashioned half-track model of the sort that hadn't been in use for years. It was wedged tight in a cut in the rock, an axle broken, its casing split wide open up the middle, half-buried in a rock slide. A dozen feet away were two insulated suits with white bones gleaming through the fiberglass helmets. This was as far as Wyatt and Carpenter had gotten on their Brightside Crossing. 6. [251] It was hot. If I forget everything else about that trek, I'll never forget that huge yellow Sun glaring down, without a break, hotter and hotter with every mile. 7. [291] We'd fought absolute cold before and won. We'd never fought heat like this and won. The only worse heat in the Solar System was the surface of the Sun itself. 8. [102] Mercury turns on its axis in the same time that it wheels around the Sun, which means that the Brightside is always facing in. That makes the Brightside of Mercury at perihelion the hottest place in the Solar System, with one single exception: the surface of the Sun itself. 9. [103] It would be a hellish trek. Only a few men had ever learned just how hellish and they never came back to tell about it. 10. [289] Yet we knew that even the land might have been conquered before, except for that Sun. 11. [284] Not the easy way. It had to be crossed the hardest way possible: overland, through anything the land could throw up to us, at the most difficult time possible. 12. [285] Yet we knew that even the land might have been conquered before, except for that Sun. 13. [290] We would get it or it would get us. That was the bargain. 14. [287] We'd never fought heat like this and won. The only worse heat in the Solar System was the surface of the Sun itself. 15. [292] I learned a lot about Mercury those first few driving periods. 16. [302] It was cruel work; we slept in exhaustion. 17. [303] But it went smoothly, at first. Too smoothly, it seemed to me, and the others seemed to think so, too. 18. [304] Too smoothly, it seemed to me, and the others seemed to think so, too. 19. [305] McIvers' restlessness was beginning to grate on our nerves. 20. [306] He talked too much, while we were resting or while we were driving; wisecracks, witticisms, unfunny jokes that wore thin with repetition. 21. [307] He took to making side trips from the route now and then, never far, but a little further each time. 22. [308] Jack Stone reacted quite the opposite; he grew quieter with each stop, more reserved and apprehensive. 23. [309] I didn't like it, but I figured that it would pass off after a while. 24. [310] I was apprehensive enough myself; I just managed to hide it better. 25. [311] And every mile the Sun got bigger and whiter and higher in the sky and hotter. 26. [312] Without our ultra-violet screens and glare filters we would have been blinded; as it was our eyes ached constantly and the skin on our faces itched and tingled at the end of an eight-hour trek. 27. [313] But it took one of those side trips of McIvers' to deliver the penultimate blow to our already fraying nerves. 28. [314] He had driven down a side-branch of a long canyon running off west of our route and was almost out of sight in a cloud of ash when we heard a sharp cry through our earphones. 29. [315] I wheeled my Bug around with my heart in my throat and spotted him through the binocs, waving frantically from the top of his machine. 30. [316] The Major and I took off, lumbering down the gulch after him as fast as the Bugs could go, with a thousand horrible pictures racing through our minds.... 31. [317] We found him standing stock-still, pointing down the gorge and, for once, he didn't have anything to say. 32. [319] It was wedged tight in a cut in the rock, an axle broken, its casing split wide open up the middle, half-buried in a rock slide. 33. [320] A dozen feet away were two insulated suits with white bones gleaming through the fiberglass helmets. This was as far as Wyatt and Carpenter had gotten on their Brightside Crossing. 34. [321] On the fifth driving period out, the terrain began to change. 35. [322] It looked the same, but every now and then it felt different. 36. [323] On two occasions I felt my wheels spin, with a howl of protest from my engine. 37. [324] Then, quite suddenly, the Bug gave a lurch; I gunned my motor and nothing happened. 38. [325] I could see the dull gray stuff seeping up around the hubs, thick and tenacious, splattering around in steaming gobs as the wheels spun. 39. [326] I knew what had happened the moment the wheels gave and, a few minutes later, they chained me to the tractor and dragged me back out of the mire. 40. [327] It looked for all the world like thick gray mud, but it was a pit of molten lead, steaming under a soft layer of concealing ash. 41. [328] I picked my way more cautiously then. 42. [329] We were getting into an area of recent surface activity; the surface was really treacherous. 43. [330] I caught myself wishing that the Major had okayed McIvers' scheme for an advanced scout; more dangerous for the individual, maybe, but I was driving blind now and I didn't like it. 44. [331] One error in judgment could sink us all, but I wasn't thinking much about the others. 45. [332] I was worried about me , plenty worried. 46. [333] I kept thinking, better McIvers should go than me. 47. [334] It wasn't healthy thinking and I knew it, but I couldn't get the thought out of my mind. 48. [335] It was a grueling eight hours and we slept poorly. 49. [336] Back in the Bug again, we moved still more slowly—edging out on a broad flat plateau, dodging a network of gaping surface cracks—winding back and forth in an effort to keep the machines on solid rock. 50. [337] I couldn't see far ahead, because of the yellow haze rising from the cracks, so I was almost on top of it when I saw a sharp cut ahead where the surface dropped six feet beyond a deep crack. 51. [338] I let out a shout to halt the others; then I edged my Bug forward, peering at the cleft. 52. [339] It was deep and wide. 53. [340] I moved fifty yards to the left, then back to the right. 54. [341] There was only one place that looked like a possible crossing; a long, narrow ledge of gray stuff that lay down across a section of the fault like a ramp. 55. [342] Even as I watched it, I could feel the surface crust under the Bug trembling and saw the ledge shift over a few feet.

Who is Jack Stone, and what happens to him throughout the story?

[1] Brightside Crossing by Alan E. Nourse JAMES BARON was not pleased to hear that he had had a visitor when he reached the Red Lion that evening. [2] He had no stomach for mysteries, vast or trifling, and there were pressing things to think about at this time. [3] Yet the doorman had flagged him as he came in from the street: “A thousand pardons, Mr. Baron. [4] The gentleman—he would leave no name. [5] He said you’d want to see him. [6] He will be back by eight.” Now Baron drummed his fingers on the table top, staring about the quiet lounge. [7] Street trade was discouraged at the Red Lion, gently but persuasively; the patrons were few in number. [8] Across to the right was a group that Baron knew vaguely—Andean climbers, or at least two of them were. [9] Over near the door he recognized old Balmer, who had mapped the first passage to the core of Vulcan Crater on Venus. [10] Baron returned his smile with a nod. [11] Then he settled back and waited impatiently for the intruder who demanded his time without justifying it. [12] Presently a small, grizzled man crossed the room and sat down at Baron’s table. [13] He was short and wiry. [14] His face held no key to his age—he might have been thirty or a thousand—but he looked weary and immensely ugly. [15] His cheeks and forehead were twisted and brown, with scars that were still healing. [16] The stranger said, “I’m glad you waited. [17] I’ve heard you’re planning to attempt the Brightside.” Baron stared at the man for a moment. [18] “I see you can read telecasts,” he said coldly. [19] “The news was correct. [20] We are going to make a Brightside Crossing.” “At perihelion?” “Of course. [21] When else?” The grizzled man searched Baron’s face for a moment without expression. [22] Then he said slowly, “No, I’m afraid you’re not going to make the Crossing.” “Say, who are you, if you don’t mind?” Baron demanded. [23] “The name is Claney,” said the stranger. [24] There was a silence. [25] Then: “Claney? [26] Peter Claney?” “That’s right.” Baron’s eyes were wide with excitement, all trace of anger gone. [27] “Great balls of fire, man— where have you been hiding? [28] We’ve been trying to contact you for months!” “I know. [29] I was hoping you’d quit looking and chuck the whole idea.” “Quit looking!” Baron bent forward over the table. [30] “My friend, we’d given up hope, but we’ve never quit looking. [31] Here, have a drink. [32] There’s so much you can tell us.” His fingers were trembling. [33] Peter Claney shook his head. [34] “I can’t tell you anything you want to hear.” “But you’ve got to. [35] You’re the only man on Earth who’s attempted a Brightside Crossing and lived through it! [36] And the story you cleared for the news—it was nothing. [37] We need details . [38] Where did your equipment fall down? [39] Where did you miscalculate? [40] What were the trouble spots?” Baron jabbed a finger at Claney’s face. [41] “That, for instance—epithelioma? [42] Why? [43] What was wrong with your glass? [44] Your filters? [45] We’ve got to know those things. [46] If you can tell us, we can make it across where your attempt failed—” “You want to know why we failed?” asked Claney. [47] “Of course we want to know. [48] We have to know.” “It’s simple. [49] We failed because it can’t be done. [50] We couldn’t do it and neither can you. [51] No human beings will ever cross the Brightside alive, not if they try for centuries.” “Nonsense,” Baron declared. [52] “We will.” Claney shrugged. [53] “I was there. [54] I know what I’m saying. [55] You can blame the equipment or the men—there were flaws in both quarters—but we just didn’t know what we were fighting. [56] It was the planet that whipped us, that and the Sun . [57] They’ll whip you, too, if you try it.” “Never,” said Baron. [58] “Let me tell you,” Peter Claney said. [59] I’d been interested in the Brightside for almost as long as I can remember (Claney said). [60] I guess I was about ten when Wyatt and Carpenter made the last attempt—that was in 2082, I think. [61] I followed the news stories like a tri-V serial and then I was heartbroken when they just disappeared. [62] I know now that they were a pair of idiots, starting off without proper equipment, with practically no knowledge of surface conditions, without any charts—they couldn’t have made a hundred miles—but I didn’t know that then and it was a terrible tragedy. [63] After that, I followed Sanderson’s work in the Twilight Lab up there and began to get Brightside into my blood, sure as death. [64] But it was Mikuta’s idea to attempt a Crossing. [65] Did you ever know Tom Mikuta? [66] I don’t suppose you did. [67] No, not Japanese—Polish-American. [68] He was a major in the Interplanetary Service for some years and hung onto the title after he gave up his commission. [69] He was with Armstrong on Mars during his Service days, did a good deal of the original mapping and surveying for the Colony there. [70] I first met him on Venus; we spent five years together up there doing some of the nastiest exploring since the Matto Grasso. [71] Then he made the attempt on Vulcan Crater that paved the way for Balmer a few years later. [72] I’d always liked the Major—he was big and quiet and cool, the sort of guy who always had things figured a little further ahead than anyone else and always knew what to do in a tight place. [73] Too many men in this game are all nerve and luck, with no judgment. [74] The Major had both. [75] He also had the kind of personality that could take a crew of wild men and make them work like a well-oiled machine across a thousand miles of Venus jungle. [76] I liked him and I trusted him. [77] He contacted me in New York and he was very casual at first. [78] We spent an evening here at the Red Lion, talking about old times; he told me about the Vulcan business, and how he’d been out to see Sanderson and the Twilight Lab on Mercury, and how he preferred a hot trek to a cold one any day of the year—and then he wanted to know what I’d been doing since Venus and what my plans were. [79] “No particular plans,” I told him. [80] “Why?” He looked me over. [81] “How much do you weigh, Peter?” I told him one-thirty-five. [82] “That much!” he said. [83] “Well, there can’t be much fat on you, at any rate. [84] How do you take heat?” “You should know,” I said. [85] “Venus was no icebox.” “No, I mean real heat.” Then I began to get it. [86] “You’re planning a trip.” “That’s right. [87] A hot trip.” He grinned at me. [88] “Might be dangerous, too.” “What trip?” “Brightside of Mercury,” the Major said. [89] I whistled cautiously. [90] “At aphelion?” He threw his head back. [91] “Why try a Crossing at aphelion? [92] What have you done then? [93] Four thousand miles of butcherous heat, just to have some joker come along, use your data and drum you out of the glory by crossing at perihelion forty-four days later? [94] No, thanks. [95] I want the Brightside without any nonsense about it.” He leaned across me eagerly. [96] “I want to make a Crossing at perihelion and I want to cross on the surface. [97] If a man can do that, he’s got Mercury. [98] Until then, nobody’s got Mercury. [99] I want Mercury—but I’ll need help getting it.” I’d thought of it a thousand times and never dared consider it. [100] Nobody had, since Wyatt and Carpenter disappeared. [101] Mercury turns on its axis in the same time that it wheels around the Sun, which means that the Brightside is always facing in. [102] That makes the Brightside of Mercury at perihelion the hottest place in the Solar System, with one single exception: the surface of the Sun itself. [103] It would be a hellish trek. [104] Only a few men had ever learned just how hellish and they never came back to tell about it. [105] It was a real hell’s Crossing, but someday, I thought, somebody would cross it. [106] I wanted to be along. [107] The Twilight Lab, near the northern pole of Mercury, was the obvious jumping-off place. [108] The setup there wasn’t very extensive—a rocket landing, the labs and quarters for Sanderson’s crew sunk deep into the crust, and the tower that housed the Solar ’scope that Sanderson had built up there ten years before. [109] Twilight Lab wasn’t particularly interested in the Brightside, of course—the Sun was Sanderson’s baby and he’d picked Mercury as the closest chunk of rock to the Sun that could hold his observatory. [110] He’d chosen a good location, too. [111] On Mercury, the Brightside temperature hits 770° F. at perihelion and the Darkside runs pretty constant at -410° F. No permanent installation with a human crew could survive at either extreme. [112] But with Mercury’s wobble, the twilight zone between Brightside and Darkside offers something closer to survival temperatures. [113] Sanderson built the Lab up near the pole, where the zone is about five miles wide, so the temperature only varies 50 to 60 degrees with the libration. [114] The Solar ’scope could take that much change and they’d get good clear observation of the Sun for about seventy out of the eighty-eight days it takes the planet to wheel around. [115] The Major was counting on Sanderson knowing something about Mercury as well as the Sun when we camped at the Lab to make final preparations. [116] Sanderson did. [117] He thought we’d lost our minds and he said so, but he gave us all the help he could. [118] He spent a week briefing Jack Stone, the third member of our party, who had arrived with the supplies and equipment a few days earlier. [119] Poor Jack met us at the rocket landing almost bawling, Sanderson had given him such a gloomy picture of what Brightside was like. [120] Stone was a youngster—hardly twenty-five, I’d say—but he’d been with the Major at Vulcan and had begged to join this trek. [121] I had a funny feeling that Jack really didn’t care for exploring too much, but he thought Mikuta was God, followed him around like a puppy. [122] It didn’t matter to me as long as he knew what he was getting in for. [123] You don’t go asking people in this game why they do it—they’re liable to get awfully uneasy and none of them can ever give you an answer that makes sense. [124] Anyway, Stone had borrowed three men from the Lab, and had the supplies and equipment all lined up when we got there, ready to check and test. [125] We dug right in. [126] With plenty of funds—tri-V money and some government cash the Major had talked his way around—our equipment was new and good. [127] Mikuta had done the designing and testing himself, with a big assist from Sanderson. [128] We had four Bugs, three of them the light pillow-tire models, with special lead-cooled cut-in engines when the heat set in, and one heavy-duty tractor model for pulling the sledges. [129] The Major went over them like a kid at the circus. [130] Then he said, “Have you heard anything from McIvers?” “Who’s he?” Stone wanted to know. [131] “He’ll be joining us. [132] He’s a good man—got quite a name for climbing, back home.” The Major turned to me. [133] “You’ve probably heard of him.” I’d heard plenty of stories about Ted McIvers and I wasn’t too happy to hear that he was joining us. [134] “Kind of a daredevil, isn’t he?” “Maybe. [135] He’s lucky and skillful. [136] Where do you draw the line? [137] We’ll need plenty of both.” “Have you ever worked with him?” I asked. [138] “No. [139] Are you worried?” “Not exactly. [140] But Brightside is no place to count on luck.” The Major laughed. [141] “I don’t think we need to worry about McIvers. [142] We understood each other when I talked up the trip to him and we’re going to need each other too much to do any fooling around.” He turned back to the supply list. [143] “Meanwhile, let’s get this stuff listed and packed. [144] We’ll need to cut weight sharply and our time is short. [145] Sanderson says we should leave in three days.” Two days later, McIvers hadn’t arrived. [146] The Major didn’t say much about it. [147] Stone was getting edgy and so was I. [148] We spent the second day studying charts of the Brightside, such as they were. [149] The best available were pretty poor, taken from so far out that the detail dissolved into blurs on blow-up. [150] They showed the biggest ranges of peaks and craters and faults, and that was all. [151] Still, we could use them to plan a broad outline of our course. [152] “This range here,” the Major said as we crowded around the board, “is largely inactive, according to Sanderson. [153] But these to the south and west could be active. [154] Seismograph tracings suggest a lot of activity in that region, getting worse down toward the equator—not only volcanic, but sub-surface shifting.” Stone nodded. [155] “Sanderson told me there was probably constant surface activity.” The Major shrugged. [156] “Well, it’s treacherous, there’s no doubt of it. [157] But the only way to avoid it is to travel over the Pole, which would lose us days and offer us no guarantee of less activity to the west. [158] Now we might avoid some if we could find a pass through this range and cut sharp east—” It seemed that the more we considered the problem, the further we got from a solution. [159] We knew there were active volcanoes on the Brightside—even on the Darkside, though surface activity there was pretty much slowed down and localized. [160] But there were problems of atmosphere on Brightside, as well. [161] There was an atmosphere and a constant atmospheric flow from Brightside to Darkside. [162] Not much—the lighter gases had reached escape velocity and disappeared from Brightside millennia ago—but there was CO 2 , and nitrogen, and traces of other heavier gases. [163] There was also an abundance of sulfur vapor, as well as carbon disulfide and sulfur dioxide. [164] The atmospheric tide moved toward the Darkside, where it condensed, carrying enough volcanic ash with it for Sanderson to estimate the depth and nature of the surface upheavals on Brightside from his samplings. [165] The trick was to find a passage that avoided those upheavals as far as possible. [166] But in the final analysis, we were barely scraping the surface. [167] The only way we would find out what was happening where was to be there. [168] Finally, on the third day, McIvers blew in on a freight rocket from Venus. [169] He’d missed the ship that the Major and I had taken by a few hours, and had conned his way to Venus in hopes of getting a hop from there. [170] He didn’t seem too upset about it, as though this were his usual way of doing things and he couldn’t see why everyone should get so excited. [171] He was a tall, rangy man with long, wavy hair prematurely gray, and the sort of eyes that looked like a climber’s—half-closed, sleepy, almost indolent, but capable of abrupt alertness. [172] And he never stood still; he was always moving, always doing something with his hands, or talking, or pacing about. [173] Evidently the Major decided not to press the issue of his arrival. [174] There was still work to do, and an hour later we were running the final tests on the pressure suits. [175] That evening, Stone and McIvers were thick as thieves, and everything was set for an early departure after we got some rest. [176] “And that,” said Baron, finishing his drink and signaling the waiter for another pair, “was your first big mistake.” Peter Claney raised his eyebrows. [177] “McIvers?” “Of course.” Claney shrugged, glanced at the small quiet tables around them. [178] “There are lots of bizarre personalities around a place like this, and some of the best wouldn’t seem to be the most reliable at first glance. [179] Anyway, personality problems weren’t our big problem right then. [180] Equipment worried us first and route next.” Baron nodded in agreement. [181] “What kind of suits did you have?” “The best insulating suits ever made,” said Claney. [182] “Each one had an inner lining of a fiberglass modification, to avoid the clumsiness of asbestos, and carried the refrigerating unit and oxygen storage which we recharged from the sledges every eight hours. [183] Outer layer carried a monomolecular chrome reflecting surface that made us glitter like Christmas trees. [184] And we had a half-inch dead-air space under positive pressure between the two layers. [185] Warning thermocouples, of course—at 770 degrees, it wouldn’t take much time to fry us to cinders if the suits failed somewhere.” “How about the Bugs?” “They were insulated, too, but we weren’t counting on them too much for protection.” “You weren’t!” Baron exclaimed. [186] “Why not?” “We’d be in and out of them too much. [187] They gave us mobility and storage, but we knew we’d have to do a lot of forward work on foot.” Claney smiled bitterly. [188] “Which meant that we had an inch of fiberglass and a half-inch of dead air between us and a surface temperature where lead flowed like water and zinc was almost at melting point and the pools of sulfur in the shadows were boiling like oatmeal over a campfire.” Baron licked his lips. [189] His fingers stroked the cool, wet glass as he set it down on the tablecloth. [190] “Go on,” he said tautly. [191] “You started on schedule?” “Oh, yes,” said Claney, “we started on schedule, all right. [192] We just didn’t quite end on schedule, that was all. [193] But I’m getting to that.” He settled back in his chair and continued. [194] We jumped off from Twilight on a course due southeast with thirty days to make it to the Center of Brightside. [195] If we could cross an average of seventy miles a day, we could hit Center exactly at perihelion, the point of Mercury’s closest approach to the Sun—which made Center the hottest part of the planet at the hottest it ever gets. [196] The Sun was already huge and yellow over the horizon when we started, twice the size it appears on Earth. [197] Every day that Sun would grow bigger and whiter, and every day the surface would get hotter. [198] But once we reached Center, the job was only half done—we would still have to travel another two thousand miles to the opposite twilight zone. [199] Sanderson was to meet us on the other side in the Laboratory’s scout ship, approximately sixty days from the time we jumped off. [200] That was the plan, in outline. [201] It was up to us to cross those seventy miles a day, no matter how hot it became, no matter what terrain we had to cross. [202] Detours would be dangerous and time-consuming. [203] Delays could cost us our lives. [204] We all knew that. [205] The Major briefed us on details an hour before we left. [206] “Peter, you’ll take the lead Bug, the small one we stripped down for you. [207] Stone and I will flank you on either side, giving you a hundred-yard lead. [208] McIvers, you’ll have the job of dragging the sledges, so we’ll have to direct your course pretty closely. [209] Peter’s job is to pick the passage at any given point. [210] If there’s any doubt of safe passage, we’ll all explore ahead on foot before we risk the Bugs. [211] Got that?” McIvers and Stone exchanged glances. [212] McIvers said: “Jack and I were planning to change around. [213] We figured he could take the sledges. [214] That would give me a little more mobility.” The Major looked up sharply at Stone. [215] “Do you buy that, Jack?” Stone shrugged. [216] “I don’t mind. [217] Mac wanted—” McIvers made an impatient gesture with his hands. [218] “It doesn’t matter. [219] I just feel better when I’m on the move. [220] Does it make any difference?” “I guess it doesn’t,” said the Major. [221] “Then you’ll flank Peter along with me. [222] Right?” “Sure, sure.” McIvers pulled at his lower lip. [223] “Who’s going to do the advance scouting?” “It sounds like I am,” I cut in. [224] “We want to keep the lead Bug light as possible.” Mikuta nodded. [225] “That’s right. [226] Peter’s Bug is stripped down to the frame and wheels.” McIvers shook his head. [227] “No, I mean the advance work. [228] You need somebody out ahead—four or five miles, at least—to pick up the big flaws and active surface changes, don’t you?” He stared at the Major. [229] “I mean, how can we tell what sort of a hole we may be moving into, unless we have a scout up ahead?” “That’s what we have the charts for,” the Major said sharply. [230] “Charts! [231] I’m talking about detail work. [232] We don’t need to worry about the major topography. [233] It’s the little faults you can’t see on the pictures that can kill us.” He tossed the charts down excitedly. [234] “Look, let me take a Bug out ahead and work reconnaissance, keep five, maybe ten miles ahead of the column. [235] I can stay on good solid ground, of course, but scan the area closely and radio back to Peter where to avoid the flaws. [236] Then—” “No dice,” the Major broke in. [237] “But why not? [238] We could save ourselves days!” “I don’t care what we could save. [239] We stay together. [240] When we get to the Center, I want live men along with me. [241] That means we stay within easy sight of each other at all times. [242] Any climber knows that everybody is safer in a party than one man alone—any time, any place.” McIvers stared at him, his cheeks an angry red. [243] Finally he gave a sullen nod. [244] “Okay. [245] If you say so.” “Well, I say so and I mean it. [246] I don’t want any fancy stuff. [247] We’re going to hit Center together, and finish the Crossing together. [248] Got that?” McIvers nodded. [249] Mikuta then looked at Stone and me and we nodded, too. [250] “All right,” he said slowly. [251] “Now that we’ve got it straight, let’s go.” It was hot. [252] If I forget everything else about that trek, I’ll never forget that huge yellow Sun glaring down, without a break, hotter and hotter with every mile. [253] We knew that the first few days would be the easiest and we were rested and fresh when we started down the long ragged gorge southeast of the Twilight Lab. [254] I moved out first; back over my shoulder, I could see the Major and McIvers crawling out behind me, their pillow tires taking the rugged floor of the gorge smoothly. [255] Behind them, Stone dragged the sledges. [256] Even at only 30 per cent Earth gravity they were a strain on the big tractor, until the ski-blades bit into the fluffy volcanic ash blanketing the valley. [257] We even had a path to follow for the first twenty miles. [258] I kept my eyes pasted to the big polaroid binocs, picking out the track the early research teams had made out into the edge of Brightside. [259] But in a couple of hours we rumbled past Sanderson’s little outpost observatory and the tracks stopped. [260] We were in virgin territory and already the Sun was beginning to bite. [261] We didn’t feel the heat so much those first days out. [262] We saw it. [263] The refrig units kept our skins at a nice comfortable seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit inside our suits, but our eyes watched that glaring Sun and the baked yellow rocks going past, and some nerve pathways got twisted up, somehow. [264] We poured sweat as if we were in a superheated furnace. [265] We drove eight hours and slept five. [266] When a sleep period came due, we pulled the Bugs together into a square, threw up a light aluminum sun-shield and lay out in the dust and rocks. [267] The sun-shield cut the temperature down sixty or seventy degrees, for whatever help that was. [268] And then we ate from the forward sledge—sucking through tubes—protein, carbohydrates, bulk gelatin, vitamins. [269] The Major measured water out with an iron hand, because we’d have drunk ourselves into nephritis in a week otherwise. [270] We were constantly, unceasingly thirsty. [271] Ask the physiologists and psychiatrists why—they can give you have a dozen interesting reasons—but all we knew, or cared about, was that it happened to be so. [272] We didn’t sleep the first few stops, as a consequence. [273] Our eyes burned in spite of the filters and we had roaring headaches, but we couldn’t sleep them off. [274] We sat around looking at each other. [275] Then McIvers would say how good a beer would taste, and off we’d go. [276] We’d have murdered our grandmothers for one ice-cold bottle of beer. [277] After a few driving periods, I began to get my bearings at the wheel. [278] We were moving down into desolation that made Earth’s old Death Valley look like a Japanese rose garden. [279] Huge sun-baked cracks opened up in the floor of the gorge, with black cliffs jutting up on either side; the air was filled with a barely visible yellowish mist of sulfur and sulfurous gases. [280] It was a hot, barren hole, no place for any man to go, but the challenge was so powerful you could almost feel it. [281] No one had ever crossed this land before and escaped. [282] Those who had tried it had been cruelly punished, but the land was still there, so it had to be crossed. [283] Not the easy way. [284] It had to be crossed the hardest way possible: overland, through anything the land could throw up to us, at the most difficult time possible. [285] Yet we knew that even the land might have been conquered before, except for that Sun. [286] We’d fought absolute cold before and won. [287] We’d never fought heat like this and won. [288] The only worse heat in the Solar System was the surface of the Sun itself. [289] Brightside was worth trying for. [290] We would get it or it would get us. [291] That was the bargain. [292] I learned a lot about Mercury those first few driving periods. [293] The gorge petered out after a hundred miles and we moved onto the slope of a range of ragged craters that ran south and east. [294] This range had shown no activity since the first landing on Mercury forty years before, but beyond it there were active cones. [295] Yellow fumes rose from the craters constantly; their sides were shrouded with heavy ash. [296] We couldn’t detect a wind, but we knew there was a hot, sulfurous breeze sweeping in great continental tides across the face of the planet. [297] Not enough for erosion, though. [298] The craters rose up out of jagged gorges, huge towering spears of rock and rubble. [299] Below were the vast yellow flatlands, smoking and hissing from the gases beneath the crust. [300] Over everything was gray dust—silicates and salts, pumice and limestone and granite ash, filling crevices and declivities—offering a soft, treacherous surface for the Bug’s pillow tires. [301] I learned to read the ground, to tell a covered fault by the sag of the dust; I learned to spot a passable crack, and tell it from an impassable cut. [302] Time after time the Bugs ground to a halt while we explored a passage on foot, tied together with light copper cable, digging, advancing, digging some more until we were sure the surface would carry the machines. [303] It was cruel work; we slept in exhaustion. [304] But it went smoothly, at first. [305] Too smoothly, it seemed to me, and the others seemed to think so, too. [306] McIvers’ restlessness was beginning to grate on our nerves. [307] He talked too much, while we were resting or while we were driving; wisecracks, witticisms, unfunny jokes that wore thin with repetition. [308] He took to making side trips from the route now and then, never far, but a little further each time. [309] Jack Stone reacted quite the opposite; he grew quieter with each stop, more reserved and apprehensive. [310] I didn’t like it, but I figured that it would pass off after a while. [311] I was apprehensive enough myself; I just managed to hide it better. [312] And every mile the Sun got bigger and whiter and higher in the sky and hotter. [313] Without our ultra-violet screens and glare filters we would have been blinded; as it was our eyes ached constantly and the skin on our faces itched and tingled at the end of an eight-hour trek. [314] But it took one of those side trips of McIvers’ to deliver the penultimate blow to our already fraying nerves. [315] He had driven down a side-branch of a long canyon running off west of our route and was almost out of sight in a cloud of ash when we heard a sharp cry through our earphones. [316] I wheeled my Bug around with my heart in my throat and spotted him through the binocs, waving frantically from the top of his machine. [317] The Major and I took off, lumbering down the gulch after him as fast as the Bugs could go, with a thousand horrible pictures racing through our minds.... We found him standing stock-still, pointing down the gorge and, for once, he didn’t have anything to say. [318] It was the wreck of a Bug; an old-fashioned half-track model of the sort that hadn’t been in use for years. [319] It was wedged tight in a cut in the rock, an axle broken, its casing split wide open up the middle, half-buried in a rock slide. [320] A dozen feet away were two insulated suits with white bones gleaming through the fiberglass helmets. [321] This was as far as Wyatt and Carpenter had gotten on their Brightside Crossing. [322] On the fifth driving period out, the terrain began to change. [323] It looked the same, but every now and then it felt different. [324] On two occasions I felt my wheels spin, with a howl of protest from my engine. [325] Then, quite suddenly, the Bug gave a lurch; I gunned my motor and nothing happened. [326] I could see the dull gray stuff seeping up around the hubs, thick and tenacious, splattering around in steaming gobs as the wheels spun. [327] I knew what had happened the moment the wheels gave and, a few minutes later, they chained me to the tractor and dragged me back out of the mire. [328] It looked for all the world like thick gray mud, but it was a pit of molten lead, steaming under a soft layer of concealing ash. [329] I picked my way more cautiously then. [330] We were getting into an area of recent surface activity; the surface was really treacherous. [331] I caught myself wishing that the Major had okayed McIvers’ scheme for an advanced scout; more dangerous for the individual, maybe, but I was driving blind now and I didn’t like it. [332] One error in judgment could sink us all, but I wasn’t thinking much about the others. [333] I was worried about me , plenty worried. [334] I kept thinking, better McIvers should go than me. [335] It wasn’t healthy thinking and I knew it, but I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind. [336] It was a grueling eight hours and we slept poorly. [337] Back in the Bug again, we moved still more slowly—edging out on a broad flat plateau, dodging a network of gaping surface cracks—winding back and forth in an effort to keep the machines on solid rock. [338] I couldn’t see far ahead, because of the yellow haze rising from the cracks, so I was almost on top of it when I saw a sharp cut ahead where the surface dropped six feet beyond a deep crack. [339] I let out a shout to halt the others; then I edged my Bug forward, peering at the cleft. [340] It was deep and wide. [341] I moved fifty yards to the left, then back to the right. [342] There was only one place that looked like a possible crossing; a long, narrow ledge of gray stuff that lay down across a section of the fault like a ramp. [343] Even as I watched it, I could feel the surface crust under the Bug trembling and saw the ledge shift over a few feet.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "Who is Jack Stone, and what happens to him throughout the story?": 1. [119] Poor Jack met us at the rocket landing almost bawling, Sanderson had given him such a gloomy picture of what Brightside was like. 2. [120] Stone was a youngster—hardly twenty-five, I'd say—but he'd been with the Major at Vulcan and had begged to join this trek. 3. [121] I had a funny feeling that Jack really didn't care for exploring too much, but he thought Mikuta was God, followed him around like a puppy. 4. [130] "Have you heard anything from McIvers?" "Who's he?" Stone wanted to know. 5. [151] Still, we could use them to plan a broad outline of our course. 6. [155] "Sanderson told me there was probably constant surface activity." 7. [216] "I don't mind. Mac wanted—" 8. [217] "I just feel better when I'm on the move. Does it make any difference?" 9. [306] McIvers' restlessness was beginning to grate on our nerves. 10. [307] He talked too much, while we were resting or while we were driving; wisecracks, witticisms, unfunny jokes that wore thin with repetition. 11. [308] He took to making side trips from the route now and then, never far, but a little further each time. 12. [309] Jack Stone reacted quite the opposite; he grew quieter with each stop, more reserved and apprehensive. 13. [310] I didn't like it, but I figured that it would pass off after a while. 14. [311] I was apprehensive enough myself; I just managed to hide it better.

What is the plot of the story?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net DOUBLE TROUBLE by CARL JACOBI Grannie Annie, that waspish science-fiction writer, was in a jam again. [2] What with red-spot fever, talking cockatoos and flagpole trees, I was running in circles—especially since Grannie became twins every now and then. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1945. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] We had left the offices of Interstellar Voice three days ago, Earth time, and now as the immense disc of Jupiter flamed across the sky, entered the outer limits of the Baldric. [6] Grannie Annie strode in the lead, her absurd long-skirted black dress looking as out of place in this desert as the trees. [7] Flagpole trees. [8] They rose straight up like enormous cat-tails, with only a melon-shaped protuberance at the top to show they were a form of vegetation. [9] Everything else was blanketed by the sand and the powerful wind that blew from all quarters. [10] As we reached the first of those trees, Grannie came to a halt. [11] "This is the Baldric all right. [12] If my calculations are right, we've hit it at its narrowest spot." [13] Ezra Karn took a greasy pipe from his lips and spat. [14] "It looks like the rest of this God-forsaken moon," he said, "'ceptin for them sticks." [15] Xartal, the Martian illustrator, said nothing. [16] He was like that, taciturn, speaking only when spoken to. [17] He could be excused this time, however, for this was only our third day on Jupiter's Eighth Moon, and the country was still strange to us. [18] When Annabella C. Flowers, that renowned writer of science fiction, visiphoned me at Crater City, Mars, to meet her here, I had thought she was crazy. [19] But Miss Flowers, known to her friends as Grannie Annie, had always been mildly crazy. [20] If you haven't read her books, you've missed something. [21] She's the author of Lady of the Green Flames , Lady of the Runaway Planet , Lady of the Crimson Space-Beast , and other works of science fiction. [22] Blood-and-thunder as these books are, however, they have one redeeming feature—authenticity of background. [23] Grannie Annie was the original research digger-upper, and when she laid the setting of a yarn on a star of the sixth magnitude, only a transportation-velocity of less than light could prevent her from visiting her "stage" in person. [24] Therefore when she asked me to meet her at the landing field of Interstellar Voice on Jupiter's Eighth Moon, I knew she had another novel in the state of embryo. [25] What I didn't expect was Ezra Karn. [26] He was an old prospector Grannie had met, and he had become so attached to the authoress he now followed her wherever she went. [27] As for Xartal, he was a Martian and was slated to do the illustrations for Grannie's new book. [28] Five minutes after my ship had blasted down, the four of us met in the offices of Interstellar Voice . [29] And then I was shaking hands with Antlers Park, the manager of I. V. himself. [30] "Glad to meet you," he said cordially. [31] "I've just been trying to persuade Miss Flowers not to attempt a trip into the Baldric." [32] "What's the Baldric?" [33] I had asked. [34] Antlers Park flicked the ash from his cheroot and shrugged. [35] "Will you believe me, sir," he said, "when I tell you I've been out here on this forsaken moon five years and don't rightly know myself?" [36] I scowled at that; it didn't make sense. [37] "However, as you perhaps know, the only reason for colonial activities here at all is because of the presence of an ore known as Acoustix. [38] It's no use to the people of Earth but of untold value on Mars. [39] I'm not up on the scientific reasons, but it seems that life on the red planet has developed with a supersonic method of vocal communication. [40] The Martian speaks as the Earthman does, but he amplifies his thoughts' transmission by way of wave lengths as high as three million vibrations per second. [41] The trouble is that by the time the average Martian reaches middle age, his ability to produce those vibrations steadily decreases. [42] Then it was found that this ore, Acoustix, revitalized their sounding apparatus, and the rush was on." [43] "What do you mean?" [44] Park leaned back. [45] "The rush to find more of the ore," he explained. [46] "But up until now this moon is the only place where it can be found. [47] "There are two companies here," he continued, " Interstellar Voice and Larynx Incorporated . [48] Chap by the name of Jimmy Baker runs that. [49] However, the point is, between the properties of these two companies stretches a band or belt which has become known as the Baldric. [50] "There are two principal forms of life in the Baldric; flagpole trees and a species of ornithoid resembling cockatoos. [51] So far no one has crossed the Baldric without trouble." [52] "What sort of trouble?" [53] Grannie Annie had demanded. [54] And when Antlers Park stuttered evasively, the old lady snorted, "Fiddlesticks, I never saw trouble yet that couldn't be explained. [55] We leave in an hour." [56] So now here we were at the outer reaches of the Baldric, four travelers on foot with only the barest necessities in the way of equipment and supplies. [57] I walked forward to get a closer view of one of the flagpole trees. [58] And then abruptly I saw something else. [59] A queer-looking bird squatted there in the sand, looking up at me. [60] Silver in plumage, it resembled a parrot with a crest; and yet it didn't. [61] In some strange way the thing was a hideous caricature. [62] "Look what I found," I yelled. [63] "What I found," said the cockatoo in a very human voice. [64] "Thunder, it talks," I said amazed. [65] "Talks," repeated the bird, blinking its eyes. [66] The cockatoo repeated my last statement again, then rose on its short legs, flapped its wings once and soared off into the sky. [67] Xartal, the Martian illustrator, already had a notebook in his hands and was sketching a likeness of the creature. [68] Ten minutes later we were on the move again. [69] We saw more silver cockatoos and more flagpole trees. [70] Above us, the great disc of Jupiter began to descend toward the horizon. [71] And then all at once Grannie stopped again, this time at the top of a high ridge. [72] She shielded her eyes and stared off into the plain we had just crossed. [73] "Billy-boy," she said to me in a strange voice, "look down there and tell me what you see." [74] I followed the direction of her hand and a shock went through me from head to foot. [75] Down there, slowly toiling across the sand, advanced a party of four persons. [76] In the lead was a little old lady in a black dress. [77] Behind her strode a grizzled Earth man in a flop-brimmed hat, another Earth man, and a Martian. [78] Detail for detail they were a duplicate of ourselves! [79] "A mirage!" [80] said Ezra Karn. [81] But it wasn't a mirage. [82] As the party came closer, we could see that their lips were moving, and their voices became audible. [83] I listened in awe. [84] The duplicate of myself was talking to the duplicate of Grannie Annie, and she was replying in the most natural way. [85] Steadily the four travelers approached. [86] Then, when a dozen yards away, they suddenly faded like a negative exposed to light and disappeared. [87] "What do you make of it?" [88] I said in a hushed voice. [89] Grannie shook her head. [90] "Might be a form of mass hypnosis superinduced by some chemical radiations," she replied. [91] "Whatever it is, we'd better watch our step. [92] There's no telling what might lie ahead." [93] We walked after that with taut nerves and watchful eyes, but we saw no repetition of the "mirage." [94] The wind continued to blow ceaselessly, and the sand seemed to grow more and more powdery. [95] For some time I had fixed my gaze on a dot in the sky which I supposed to be a high-flying cockatoo. [96] As that dot continued to move across the heavens in a single direction, I called Grannie's attention to it. [97] "It's a kite," she nodded. [98] "There should be a car attached to it somewhere." [99] She offered no further explanation, but a quarter of an hour later as we topped another rise a curious elliptical car with a long slanting windscreen came into view. [100] Attached to its hood was a taut wire which slanted up into the sky to connect with the kite. [101] A man was driving and when he saw us, he waved. [102] Five minutes later Grannie was shaking his hand vigorously and mumbling introductions. [103] "This is Jimmy Baker," she said. [104] "He manages Larynx Incorporated , and he's the real reason we're here." [105] I decided I liked Baker the moment I saw him. [106] In his middle thirties, he was tall and lean, with pleasant blue eyes which even his sand goggles could not conceal. [107] "I can't tell you how glad I am you're here, Grannie," he said. [108] "If anybody can help me, you can." [109] Grannie's eyes glittered. [110] "Trouble with the mine laborers?" [111] she questioned. [112] Jimmy Baker nodded. [113] He told his story over the roar of the wind as we headed back across the desert. [114] Occasionally he touched a stud on an electric windlass to which the kite wire was attached. [115] Apparently these adjustments moved planes or fins on the kite and accounted for the car's ability to move in any direction. [116] "If I weren't a realist, I'd say that Larynx Incorporated has been bewitched," he began slowly. [117] "We pay our men high wages and give them excellent living conditions with a vacation on Callisto every year. [118] Up until a short time ago most of them were in excellent health and spirits. [119] Then the Red Spot Fever got them." [120] "Red Spot Fever?" [121] Grannie looked at him curiously. [122] Jimmy Baker nodded. [123] "The first symptoms are a tendency to garrulousness on the part of the patient. [124] Then they disappear." [125] He paused to make an adjustment of the windlass. [126] "They walk out into the Baldric," he continued, "and nothing can stop them. [127] We tried following them, of course, but it was no go. [128] As soon as they realize they're being followed, they stop. [129] But the moment our eyes are turned, they give us the slip." [130] "But surely you must have some idea of where they go," Grannie said. [131] Baker lit a cigarette. [132] "There's all kinds of rumors," he replied, "but none of them will hold water. [133] By the way, there's a cockatoo eyrie ahead of us." [134] I followed his gaze and saw a curious structure suspended between a rude circle of flagpole trees. [135] A strange web-like formation of translucent gauzy material, it was. [136] Fully two hundred cockatoos were perched upon it. [137] They watched us with their mild eyes as we passed, but they didn't move. [138] After that we were rolling up the driveway that led to the offices of Larynx Incorporated . [139] As Jimmy Baker led the way up the inclined ramp, a door in the central building opened, and a man emerged. [140] His face was drawn. [141] "Mr. Baker," he said breathlessly, "seventy-five workers at Shaft Four have headed out into the Baldric." [142] Baker dropped his cigarette and ground his heel on it savagely. [143] "Shaft Four, eh?" [144] he repeated. [145] "That's our principal mine. [146] If the fever spreads there, I'm licked." [147] He motioned us into his office and strode across to a desk. [148] Silent Xartal, the Martian illustrator, took a chair in a corner and got his notebook out, sketching the room's interior. [149] Grannie Annie remained standing. [150] Presently the old lady walked across to the desk and helped herself to the bottle of Martian whiskey there. [151] "There must be ways of stopping this," she said. [152] "Have you called in any physicians? [153] Why don't you call an enforced vacation and send the men away until the plague has died down?" [154] Baker shook his head. [155] "Three doctors from Callisto were here last month. [156] They were as much at loss as I am. [157] As for sending the men away, I may have to do that, but when I do, it means quits. [158] Our company is chartered with Spacolonial, and you know what that means. [159] Failure to produce during a period of thirty days or more, and you lose all rights." [160] A visiphone bell sounded, and Baker walked across to the instrument. [161] A man's face formed in the vision plate. [162] Baker listened, said "Okay" and threw off the switch. [163] "The entire crew of Shaft Four have gone out into the Baldric," he said slowly. [164] There was a large map hanging on the wall back of Baker's desk. [165] Grannie Annie walked across to it and began to study its markings. [166] "Shaft Four is at the outer edge of the Baldric at a point where that corridor is at its widest," she said. [167] Baker looked up. [168] "That's right. [169] We only began operations there a comparatively short time ago. [170] Struck a rich vein of Acoustix that runs deep in. [171] If that vein holds out, we'll double the output of Interstellar Voice , our rival, in a year." [172] Grannie nodded. [173] "I think you and I and Xartal had better take a run up there," she said. [174] "But first I want to see your laboratory." [175] There was no refusing her. [176] Jimmy Baker led the way down to a lower level where a huge laboratory and experimental shop ran the length of the building. [177] Grannie seized a light weight carry-case and began dropping articles into it. [178] A pontocated glass lens, three or four Wellington radite bulbs, each with a spectroscopic filament, a small dynamo that would operate on a kite windlass, and a quantity of wire and other items. [179] The kite car was brought out again, and the old woman, Baker and the Martian took their places in it. [180] Then Jimmy waved, and the car began to roll down the ramp. [181] Not until they had vanished in the desert haze did I sense the loneliness of this outpost. [182] With that loneliness came a sudden sense of foreboding. [183] Had I been a fool to let Grannie go? [184] I thought of her, an old woman who should be in a rocking chair, knitting socks. [185] If anything happened to Annabella C. Flowers, I would never forgive myself and neither would her millions of readers. [186] Ezra Karn and I went back into the office. [187] The old prospector chuckled. [188] "Dang human dynamo. [189] Got more energy than a runaway comet." [190] A connecting door on the far side of the office opened onto a long corridor which ended at a staircase. [191] "Let's look around," I said. [192] We passed down the corridor and climbed the staircase to the second floor. [193] Here were the general offices of Larynx Incorporated , and through glass doors I could see clerks busy with counting machines and report tapes. [194] In another chamber the extremely light Acoustix ore was being packed into big cases and marked for shipment. [195] At the far end a door to a small room stood open. [196] Inside a young man was tilted back in a swivel chair before a complicated instrument panel. [197] "C'mon in," he said, seeing us. [198] "If you want a look at your friends, here they are." [199] He flicked a stud, and the entire wall above the panel underwent a slow change of colors. [200] Those colors whirled kaleidescopically, then coalesced into a three-dimensional scene. [201] It was a scene of a rapidly unfolding desert country as seen from the rear of a kite car. [202] Directly behind the windscreen, backs turned to me, were Jimmy Baker, Grannie, and Xartal. [203] It was as if I were standing directly behind them. [204] "It's Mr. Baker's own invention," the operator said. [205] "An improvement on the visiphone." [206] "Do you mean to say you can follow the movements of that car and its passengers wherever it goes? [207] Can you hear them talk too?" [208] "Sure." [209] The operator turned another dial, and Grannie's falsetto voice entered the room. [210] It stopped abruptly. [211] "The machine uses a lot of power," the operator said, "and as yet we haven't got much." [212] The cloud of anxiety which had wrapped itself about me disappeared somewhat as I viewed this device. [213] At least I could now keep myself posted of Grannie's movements. [214] Karn and I went down to the commissary where we ate our supper. [215] When we returned to Jimmy Baker's office, the visiphone bell was ringing. [216] I went over to it and turned it on, and to my surprise the face of Antlers Park flashed on the screen. [217] "Hello," he said in his friendly way. [218] "I see you arrived all right. [219] Is Miss Flowers there?" [220] "Miss Flowers left with Mr. Baker for Shaft Four," I said. [221] "There's trouble up there. [222] Red spot fever." [223] "Fever, eh?" [224] repeated Park. [225] "That's a shame. [226] Is there anything I can do?" [227] "Tell me," I said, "has your company had any trouble with this plague?" [228] "A little. [229] But up until yesterday the fever's been confined to the other side of the Baldric. [230] We had one partial case, but my chemists gave the chap an antitoxin that seems to have worked. [231] Come to think of it, I might drive over to Shaft Four and give Jimmy Baker the formula. [232] I haven't been out in the Baldric for years, but if you didn't have any trouble, I shouldn't either." [233] We exchanged a few more pleasantries, and then he rang off. [234] In exactly an hour I went upstairs to the visiscreen room. [235] Then once more I was directly behind my friends, listening in on their conversation. [236] The view through the windscreen showed an irregular array of flagpole trees, with the sky dotted by high-flying cockatoos. [237] "There's an eyrie over there," Jimmy Baker was saying. [238] "We might as well camp beside it." [239] Moments later a rude circle of flagpole trees loomed ahead. [240] Across the top of them was stretched a translucent web. [241] Jimmy and Grannie got out of the car and began making camp. [242] Xartal remained in his seat. [243] He was drawing pictures on large pieces of pasteboard, and as I stood there in the visiscreen room, I watched him. [244] There was no doubt about it, the Martian was clever. [245] He would make a few rapid lines on one of the pasteboards, rub it a little to get the proper shading and then go on to the next. [246] In swift rotation likenesses of Ezra Karn, of myself, of Jimmy Baker, and of Antlers Park took form. [247] Ezra spoke over my shoulder. [248] "He's doing scenes for Grannie's new book," he said. [249] "The old lady figures on using the events here for a plot. [250] Look at that damned nosy bird! " [251] A silver cockatoo had alighted on the kite car and was surveying curiously Xartal's work. [252] As each drawing was completed, the bird scanned it with rapt attention. [253] Abruptly it flew to the top of the eyrie, where it seemed to be having a consultation with its bird companions. [254] And then abruptly it happened. [255] The cockatoos took off in mass flight. [256] A group of Earth people suddenly materialized on the eyrie, talking and moving about as if it were the most natural thing in the world. [257] With a shock I saw the likeness of myself; I saw Ezra Karn; and I saw the image of Jimmy Baker. [258] The real Jimmy Baker stood next to Grannie, staring up at this incredible mirage. [259] Grannie let out a whoop. [260] "I've got it!" [261] she said. [262] "Those things we see up there are nothing more than mental images. [263] They're Xartal's drawings!" [264] "Don't you see," the lady continued. [265] "Everything that Xartal put on paper has been seen by one or more of these cockatoos. [266] The cockatoos are like Earth parrots all right, but not only have they the power of copying speech, they also have the ability to recreate a mental image of what they have seen. [267] In other words their brains form a powerful photographic impression of the object. [268] That impression is then transmitted simultaneously in telepathic wavelengths to common foci. [269] That eyrie might be likened to a cinema screen, receiving brain vibrations from a hundred different sources that blend into the light field to form what are apparently three-dimensional images." [270] The Larynx manager nodded slowly. [271] "I see," he said. [272] "But why don't the birds reconstruct images from the actual person. [273] Why use drawings?" [274] "Probably because the drawings are exaggerated in certain details and made a greater impression on their brains," Grannie replied. [275] Up on the eyrie a strange performance was taking place. [276] The duplicate of Grannie Annie was bowing to the duplicate of Jimmy Baker, and the image of Ezra Karn was playing leap frog with the image of Antlers Park. [277] Then abruptly the screen before me blurred and went blank. [278] "Sorry," the operator said. [279] "I've used too much power already. [280] Have to give the generators a chance to build it up again." [281] Nodding, I turned and motioned to Karn. [282] We went back downstairs. [283] "That explains something at any rate," the old prospector said. [284] "But how about that Red spot fever?" [285] On Jimmy Baker's desk was a large file marked: FEVER VICTIMS. [286] I opened it and found it contained the case histories of those men who had been attacked by the strange malady. [287] Reading them over, I was struck by one detail. [288] Each patient had received the first symptoms, not while working in the mines, but while sleeping or lounging in the barracks. [289] Five minutes later Karn and I were striding down a white ramp that led to the nearest barracks. [290] The building came into sight, a low rectangular structure, dome-roofed to withstand the violent winds. [291] Inside double tiers of bunks stretched along either wall. [292] In those bunks some thirty men lay sleeping. [293] The far wall was taken up by a huge window of denvo-quartz. [294] As I stood there, something suddenly caught Ezra Karn's eye. [295] He began to walk toward that window. [296] "Look here," he said. [297] Six feet up on that window a small almost imperceptible button of dull metal had been wedged into an aperture cut in the quartz. [298] The central part of the button appeared to be a powerful lens of some kind, and as I seized it and pulled it loose, I felt the hum of tiny clock work. [299] All at once I had it! [300] Red spot fever. [301] Heat fever from the infra-red rays of Jupiter's great spot. [302] Someone had constructed this lens to concentrate and amplify the power of those rays. [303] The internal clockwork served a double purpose. [304] It opened a shutter, and it rotated the lens slowly so that it played for a time on each of the sleeping men. [305] I slid the metal button in my pocket and left the barracks at a run. [306] Back in the visiscreen room, I snapped to the operator: "Turn it on!" [307] The kite car swam into view in the screen above the instrument panel. [308] I stared with open eyes. [309] Jimmy Baker no longer was in the car, nor was Xartal, the Martian. [310] Grannie Annie was there, but seated at the controls was Antlers Park, the manager of Interstellar Voice. [311] Ezra Karn jabbed my elbow. [312] "Grannie's coming back. [313] I thought she'd be getting sick of this blamed moon." [314] It didn't make sense. [315] In all the years I'd known Annabella C. Flowers, never yet had I seen her desert a case until she had woven the clues and facts to a logical conclusion. [316] "Ezra," I said, "we're going to drive out and meet them. [317] There's something screwy here." [318] Ten minutes later in another kite car we were driving at a fast clip through the powdery sands of the Baldric. [319] And before long we saw another car approaching. [320] It was Grannie. [321] As the car drew up alongside I saw her sitting in her prim way next to Antlers Park. [322] Park said: "We left the others at the mine. [323] Miss Flowers is going back with me to my offices to help me improve the formula for that new antitoxin." [324] He waved his hand, and the car moved off. [325] I watched it as it sped across the desert, and a growing suspicion began to form in my mind. [326] Then, like a knife thrust, the truth struck me. [327] "Ezra!" [328] I yelled, swinging the car. [329] "That wasn't Grannie! [330] That was one of those damned cockatoo images. [331] We've got to catch him." [332] The other car was some distance ahead now. [333] Park looked back and saw us following. [334] He did something to the kite wire, and his car leaped ahead. [335] I threw the speed indicator hard over. [336] Our kite was a huge box affair with a steady powerful pull to the connecting wire. [337] Park's vehicle was drawn by a flat triangular kite that dove and fluttered with each variance of the wind. [338] Steadily we began to close in. [339] The manager of Interstellar Voice turned again, and something glinted in his hand. [340] There was a flash of purple flame, and a round hole appeared in our windscreen inches above Karn's head. [341] "Heat gun!" [342] Ezra yelled. [343] Now we were rocketing over the sand dunes, winding in and out between the flagpole trees. [344] I had to catch that car I told myself. [345] Grannie Annie's very life might be at stake, not to mention the lives of hundreds of mine workers. [346] Again Park took aim and again a hole shattered our windscreen. [347] The wind shifted and blew from another quarter. [348] The box kite soared, but the triangular kite faltered. [349] Taking advantage of Park's loss of speed, I raced alongside. [350] The I. V. manager lifted his weapon frantically. [351] But before he could use it a third time, Ezra Karn had whipped a lariat from his belt and sent it coiling across the intervening space. [352] The thong yanked tight about the manager's throat. [353] Park did the only thing he could do. [354] He shut off power, and the two cars coasted to a halt. [355] Then I was across in the other seat, wrenching the weapon free from his grasp. [356] "What have you done with Miss Flowers?" [357] I demanded. [358] The manager's eyes glittered with fear as he saw my finger tense on the trigger. [359] Weakly he lifted an arm and pointed to the northwest. [360] "Val-ley. [361] Thir-ty miles. [362] Entrance hidden by wall of ... flagpole trees." [363] I leaped into the driver's seat and gave the kite its head. [364] And now the country began to undergo a subtle change. [365] The trees seemed to group themselves in a long flanking corridor in a northwesterly direction, as if to hide some secret that lay beyond. [366] Twice I attempted to penetrate that wall, only to find my way blocked by those curious growths. [367] Then a corridor opened before me; a mile forward and the desert began again. [368] But it was a new desert this time: the sand packed hard as granite, the way ahead utterly devoid of vegetation. [369] In the distance black bulging hills extended to right and left, with a narrow chasm or doorway between. [370] I headed for that entrance, and when I reached it, I shut off power with an exclamation of astonishment. [371] There was a huge chair-shaped rock there, and seated upon it was Grannie Annie. [372] She had a tablet in her hands, and she was writing. [373] "Grannie!" [374] I yelled. [375] "What're you doing here? [376] Where's Mr. [377] Baker?" [378] She rose to her feet and clambered down the rock. [379] "Getting back Jimmy's mine laborers," she said, a twinkle in her eyes. [380] "I see you've got Antlers Park. [381] I'm glad of that. [382] It saves me a lot of trouble." [383] She took off her spectacles and wiped them on her sleeve. [384] "Don't look so fuddled, Billy-boy. [385] Come along, and I'll show you." [386] She led the way through the narrow passage into the valley. [387] A deep gorge, it was, with the black sheer cliffs on either side pressing close. [388] Ten feet forward, I stopped short, staring in amazement. [389] Advancing toward me like a column of infantry came a long line of Larynx miners. [390] They walked slowly, looking straight ahead, moving down the center of the gorge toward the entrance. [391] But there was more! [392] A kite car was drawn up to the side. [393] The windscreen had been removed, and mounted on the hood was a large bullet-like contrivance that looked not unlike a search lamp. [394] A blinding shaft of bluish radiance spewed from its open end. [395] Playing it back and forth upon the marching men were Jimmy Baker and Xartal, the Martian. [396] "Ultra violet," Grannie Annie explained. [397] "The opposite end of the vibratory scale and the only thing that will combat the infra-red rays that cause red spot fever. [398] Those men won't stop walking until they've reached Shaft Four." [399] Grannie Annie told her story during the long ride back to Shaft Four. [400] We drove slowly, keeping the line of marching Larynx miners always ahead of us. [401] Jimmy Baker had struck a new big lode of Acoustix, a lode which if worked successfully would see Larynx Incorporated become a far more powerful exporting concern than Interstellar Voice . [402] Antlers Park didn't want that. [403] It was he or his agents who placed those lens buttons in the Larynx barracks. [404] For he knew that just as Jupiter's great spot was responsible for a climate and atmosphere suitable for an Earthman on this Eighth Moon, so also was that spot a deadly power in itself, capable when its rays were concentrated of causing a fatal sickness. [405] Then suddenly becoming fearful of Grannie's prying, Antlers Park strove to head her off before she reached Shaft Four. [406] He did head her off and managed to lure her and Baker and Xartal into the Shaft barracks where they would be exposed to the rays from the lens button. [407] But Grannie only pretended to contract the plague. [408] Park then attempted to outwit Ezra Karn and me by returning in Jimmy Baker's kite car with a cockatoo image of Grannie. [409] I listened to all this in silence. [410] "But," I said when she had finished, "how did Park manage to have that image created and why did the mine laborers walk out into the Baldric when they contracted the fever?" [411] Grannie Annie frowned. [412] "I'm not sure I can answer the first of those questions," she replied. [413] "You must remember Antlers Park has been on this moon five years and during that time he must have acquainted himself with many of its secrets. [414] Probably he learned long ago just what to do to make a cockatoo create a mental image. [415] "As for the men going out into the Baldric, that was more of Park's diabolical work. [416] In the walls of the barracks besides those lens buttons were also miniature electro-hypnotic plates, with the master controlling unit located in that valley. [417] Park knew that when the miners were in a drugged condition from the effects of the fever they would be susceptible to the machine's lure.... And now, Billy-boy, are you coming with me?" [418] "Coming with you?" [419] I repeated. [420] "Where?" [421] The old lady lit a cigarette. [422] "Pluto maybe," she said. [423] "There's a penal colony there, you know, and that ought to tie in nicely with a new crime story. [424] I can see it now ... prison break, stolen rocket ship, fugitives lurking in the interplanetary lanes...." "Grannie," I laughed. [425] "You're incorrigible!"

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [163] "The entire crew of Shaft Four have gone out into the Baldric," he said slowly. 2. [259] "I've got it!" she said. 3. [260] "Those things we see up there are nothing more than mental images. 4. [261] "They're Xartal's drawings!" 5. [262] "Don't you see," the lady continued. 6. [263] "Everything that Xartal put on paper has been seen by one or more of these cockatoos. 7. [264] "The cockatoos are like Earth parrots all right, but not only have they the power of copying speech, they also have the ability to recreate a mental image of what they have seen. 8. [265] "In other words their brains form a powerful photographic impression of the object. 9. [266] "That impression is then transmitted simultaneously in telepathic wavelengths to common foci. 10. [267] "That eyrie might be likened to a cinema screen, receiving brain vibrations from a hundred different sources that blend into the light field to form what are apparently three-dimensional images." 11. [268] The Larynx manager nodded slowly. 12. [269] "I see," he said. 13. [270] "But why don't the birds reconstruct images from the actual person. 14. [271] "Why use drawings?" 15. [272] "Probably because the drawings are exaggerated in certain details and made a greater impression on their brains," Grannie replied. 16. [273] Up on the eyrie a strange performance was taking place. 17. [274] The duplicate of Grannie Annie was bowing to the duplicate of Jimmy Baker, and the image of Ezra Karn was playing leap frog with the image of Antlers Park. 18. [287] Reading them over, I was struck by one detail. 19. [288] Each patient had received the first symptoms, not while working in the mines, but while sleeping or lounging in the barracks. 20. [299] All at once I had it! 21. [300] Red spot fever. 22. [301] Heat fever from the infra-red rays of Jupiter's great spot. 23. [302] Someone had constructed this lens to concentrate and amplify the power of those rays. 24. [303] The internal clockwork served a double purpose. 25. [304] It opened a shutter, and it rotated the lens slowly so that it played for a time on each of the sleeping men. 26. [406] Then suddenly becoming fearful of Grannie's prying, Antlers Park strove to head her off before she reached Shaft Four. 27. [407] He did head her off and managed to lure her and Baker and Xartal into the Shaft barracks where they would be exposed to the rays from the lens button. 28. [408] But Grannie only pretended to contract the plague. 29. [409] Park then attempted to outwit Ezra Karn and me by returning in Jimmy Baker's kite car with a cockatoo image of Grannie. 30. [410] "But," I said when she had finished, "how did Park manage to have that image created and why did the mine laborers walk out into the Baldric when they contracted the fever?" 31. [411] Grannie Annie frowned. 32. [412] "I'm not sure I can answer the first of those questions," she replied. 33. [413] "You must remember Antlers Park has been on this moon five years and during that time he must have acquainted himself with many of its secrets. 34. [414] "Probably he learned long ago just what to do to make a cockatoo create a mental image. 35. [415] "As for the men going out into the Baldric, that was more of Park's diabolical work. 36. [416] "In the walls of the barracks besides those lens buttons were also miniature electro-hypnotic plates, with the master controlling unit located in that valley. 37. [417] "Park knew that when the miners were in a drugged condition from the effects of the fever they would be susceptible to the machine's lure.... And now, Billy-boy, are you coming with me?"

What settings does the story take place in?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net DOUBLE TROUBLE by CARL JACOBI Grannie Annie, that waspish science-fiction writer, was in a jam again. [2] What with red-spot fever, talking cockatoos and flagpole trees, I was running in circles—especially since Grannie became twins every now and then. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1945. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] We had left the offices of Interstellar Voice three days ago, Earth time, and now as the immense disc of Jupiter flamed across the sky, entered the outer limits of the Baldric. [6] Grannie Annie strode in the lead, her absurd long-skirted black dress looking as out of place in this desert as the trees. [7] Flagpole trees. [8] They rose straight up like enormous cat-tails, with only a melon-shaped protuberance at the top to show they were a form of vegetation. [9] Everything else was blanketed by the sand and the powerful wind that blew from all quarters. [10] As we reached the first of those trees, Grannie came to a halt. [11] "This is the Baldric all right. [12] If my calculations are right, we've hit it at its narrowest spot." [13] Ezra Karn took a greasy pipe from his lips and spat. [14] "It looks like the rest of this God-forsaken moon," he said, "'ceptin for them sticks." [15] Xartal, the Martian illustrator, said nothing. [16] He was like that, taciturn, speaking only when spoken to. [17] He could be excused this time, however, for this was only our third day on Jupiter's Eighth Moon, and the country was still strange to us. [18] When Annabella C. Flowers, that renowned writer of science fiction, visiphoned me at Crater City, Mars, to meet her here, I had thought she was crazy. [19] But Miss Flowers, known to her friends as Grannie Annie, had always been mildly crazy. [20] If you haven't read her books, you've missed something. [21] She's the author of Lady of the Green Flames , Lady of the Runaway Planet , Lady of the Crimson Space-Beast , and other works of science fiction. [22] Blood-and-thunder as these books are, however, they have one redeeming feature—authenticity of background. [23] Grannie Annie was the original research digger-upper, and when she laid the setting of a yarn on a star of the sixth magnitude, only a transportation-velocity of less than light could prevent her from visiting her "stage" in person. [24] Therefore when she asked me to meet her at the landing field of Interstellar Voice on Jupiter's Eighth Moon, I knew she had another novel in the state of embryo. [25] What I didn't expect was Ezra Karn. [26] He was an old prospector Grannie had met, and he had become so attached to the authoress he now followed her wherever she went. [27] As for Xartal, he was a Martian and was slated to do the illustrations for Grannie's new book. [28] Five minutes after my ship had blasted down, the four of us met in the offices of Interstellar Voice . [29] And then I was shaking hands with Antlers Park, the manager of I. V. himself. [30] "Glad to meet you," he said cordially. [31] "I've just been trying to persuade Miss Flowers not to attempt a trip into the Baldric." [32] "What's the Baldric?" [33] I had asked. [34] Antlers Park flicked the ash from his cheroot and shrugged. [35] "Will you believe me, sir," he said, "when I tell you I've been out here on this forsaken moon five years and don't rightly know myself?" [36] I scowled at that; it didn't make sense. [37] "However, as you perhaps know, the only reason for colonial activities here at all is because of the presence of an ore known as Acoustix. [38] It's no use to the people of Earth but of untold value on Mars. [39] I'm not up on the scientific reasons, but it seems that life on the red planet has developed with a supersonic method of vocal communication. [40] The Martian speaks as the Earthman does, but he amplifies his thoughts' transmission by way of wave lengths as high as three million vibrations per second. [41] The trouble is that by the time the average Martian reaches middle age, his ability to produce those vibrations steadily decreases. [42] Then it was found that this ore, Acoustix, revitalized their sounding apparatus, and the rush was on." [43] "What do you mean?" [44] Park leaned back. [45] "The rush to find more of the ore," he explained. [46] "But up until now this moon is the only place where it can be found. [47] "There are two companies here," he continued, " Interstellar Voice and Larynx Incorporated . [48] Chap by the name of Jimmy Baker runs that. [49] However, the point is, between the properties of these two companies stretches a band or belt which has become known as the Baldric. [50] "There are two principal forms of life in the Baldric; flagpole trees and a species of ornithoid resembling cockatoos. [51] So far no one has crossed the Baldric without trouble." [52] "What sort of trouble?" [53] Grannie Annie had demanded. [54] And when Antlers Park stuttered evasively, the old lady snorted, "Fiddlesticks, I never saw trouble yet that couldn't be explained. [55] We leave in an hour." [56] So now here we were at the outer reaches of the Baldric, four travelers on foot with only the barest necessities in the way of equipment and supplies. [57] I walked forward to get a closer view of one of the flagpole trees. [58] And then abruptly I saw something else. [59] A queer-looking bird squatted there in the sand, looking up at me. [60] Silver in plumage, it resembled a parrot with a crest; and yet it didn't. [61] In some strange way the thing was a hideous caricature. [62] "Look what I found," I yelled. [63] "What I found," said the cockatoo in a very human voice. [64] "Thunder, it talks," I said amazed. [65] "Talks," repeated the bird, blinking its eyes. [66] The cockatoo repeated my last statement again, then rose on its short legs, flapped its wings once and soared off into the sky. [67] Xartal, the Martian illustrator, already had a notebook in his hands and was sketching a likeness of the creature. [68] Ten minutes later we were on the move again. [69] We saw more silver cockatoos and more flagpole trees. [70] Above us, the great disc of Jupiter began to descend toward the horizon. [71] And then all at once Grannie stopped again, this time at the top of a high ridge. [72] She shielded her eyes and stared off into the plain we had just crossed. [73] "Billy-boy," she said to me in a strange voice, "look down there and tell me what you see." [74] I followed the direction of her hand and a shock went through me from head to foot. [75] Down there, slowly toiling across the sand, advanced a party of four persons. [76] In the lead was a little old lady in a black dress. [77] Behind her strode a grizzled Earth man in a flop-brimmed hat, another Earth man, and a Martian. [78] Detail for detail they were a duplicate of ourselves! [79] "A mirage!" [80] said Ezra Karn. [81] But it wasn't a mirage. [82] As the party came closer, we could see that their lips were moving, and their voices became audible. [83] I listened in awe. [84] The duplicate of myself was talking to the duplicate of Grannie Annie, and she was replying in the most natural way. [85] Steadily the four travelers approached. [86] Then, when a dozen yards away, they suddenly faded like a negative exposed to light and disappeared. [87] "What do you make of it?" [88] I said in a hushed voice. [89] Grannie shook her head. [90] "Might be a form of mass hypnosis superinduced by some chemical radiations," she replied. [91] "Whatever it is, we'd better watch our step. [92] There's no telling what might lie ahead." [93] We walked after that with taut nerves and watchful eyes, but we saw no repetition of the "mirage." [94] The wind continued to blow ceaselessly, and the sand seemed to grow more and more powdery. [95] For some time I had fixed my gaze on a dot in the sky which I supposed to be a high-flying cockatoo. [96] As that dot continued to move across the heavens in a single direction, I called Grannie's attention to it. [97] "It's a kite," she nodded. [98] "There should be a car attached to it somewhere." [99] She offered no further explanation, but a quarter of an hour later as we topped another rise a curious elliptical car with a long slanting windscreen came into view. [100] Attached to its hood was a taut wire which slanted up into the sky to connect with the kite. [101] A man was driving and when he saw us, he waved. [102] Five minutes later Grannie was shaking his hand vigorously and mumbling introductions. [103] "This is Jimmy Baker," she said. [104] "He manages Larynx Incorporated , and he's the real reason we're here." [105] I decided I liked Baker the moment I saw him. [106] In his middle thirties, he was tall and lean, with pleasant blue eyes which even his sand goggles could not conceal. [107] "I can't tell you how glad I am you're here, Grannie," he said. [108] "If anybody can help me, you can." [109] Grannie's eyes glittered. [110] "Trouble with the mine laborers?" [111] she questioned. [112] Jimmy Baker nodded. [113] He told his story over the roar of the wind as we headed back across the desert. [114] Occasionally he touched a stud on an electric windlass to which the kite wire was attached. [115] Apparently these adjustments moved planes or fins on the kite and accounted for the car's ability to move in any direction. [116] "If I weren't a realist, I'd say that Larynx Incorporated has been bewitched," he began slowly. [117] "We pay our men high wages and give them excellent living conditions with a vacation on Callisto every year. [118] Up until a short time ago most of them were in excellent health and spirits. [119] Then the Red Spot Fever got them." [120] "Red Spot Fever?" [121] Grannie looked at him curiously. [122] Jimmy Baker nodded. [123] "The first symptoms are a tendency to garrulousness on the part of the patient. [124] Then they disappear." [125] He paused to make an adjustment of the windlass. [126] "They walk out into the Baldric," he continued, "and nothing can stop them. [127] We tried following them, of course, but it was no go. [128] As soon as they realize they're being followed, they stop. [129] But the moment our eyes are turned, they give us the slip." [130] "But surely you must have some idea of where they go," Grannie said. [131] Baker lit a cigarette. [132] "There's all kinds of rumors," he replied, "but none of them will hold water. [133] By the way, there's a cockatoo eyrie ahead of us." [134] I followed his gaze and saw a curious structure suspended between a rude circle of flagpole trees. [135] A strange web-like formation of translucent gauzy material, it was. [136] Fully two hundred cockatoos were perched upon it. [137] They watched us with their mild eyes as we passed, but they didn't move. [138] After that we were rolling up the driveway that led to the offices of Larynx Incorporated . [139] As Jimmy Baker led the way up the inclined ramp, a door in the central building opened, and a man emerged. [140] His face was drawn. [141] "Mr. Baker," he said breathlessly, "seventy-five workers at Shaft Four have headed out into the Baldric." [142] Baker dropped his cigarette and ground his heel on it savagely. [143] "Shaft Four, eh?" [144] he repeated. [145] "That's our principal mine. [146] If the fever spreads there, I'm licked." [147] He motioned us into his office and strode across to a desk. [148] Silent Xartal, the Martian illustrator, took a chair in a corner and got his notebook out, sketching the room's interior. [149] Grannie Annie remained standing. [150] Presently the old lady walked across to the desk and helped herself to the bottle of Martian whiskey there. [151] "There must be ways of stopping this," she said. [152] "Have you called in any physicians? [153] Why don't you call an enforced vacation and send the men away until the plague has died down?" [154] Baker shook his head. [155] "Three doctors from Callisto were here last month. [156] They were as much at loss as I am. [157] As for sending the men away, I may have to do that, but when I do, it means quits. [158] Our company is chartered with Spacolonial, and you know what that means. [159] Failure to produce during a period of thirty days or more, and you lose all rights." [160] A visiphone bell sounded, and Baker walked across to the instrument. [161] A man's face formed in the vision plate. [162] Baker listened, said "Okay" and threw off the switch. [163] "The entire crew of Shaft Four have gone out into the Baldric," he said slowly. [164] There was a large map hanging on the wall back of Baker's desk. [165] Grannie Annie walked across to it and began to study its markings. [166] "Shaft Four is at the outer edge of the Baldric at a point where that corridor is at its widest," she said. [167] Baker looked up. [168] "That's right. [169] We only began operations there a comparatively short time ago. [170] Struck a rich vein of Acoustix that runs deep in. [171] If that vein holds out, we'll double the output of Interstellar Voice , our rival, in a year." [172] Grannie nodded. [173] "I think you and I and Xartal had better take a run up there," she said. [174] "But first I want to see your laboratory." [175] There was no refusing her. [176] Jimmy Baker led the way down to a lower level where a huge laboratory and experimental shop ran the length of the building. [177] Grannie seized a light weight carry-case and began dropping articles into it. [178] A pontocated glass lens, three or four Wellington radite bulbs, each with a spectroscopic filament, a small dynamo that would operate on a kite windlass, and a quantity of wire and other items. [179] The kite car was brought out again, and the old woman, Baker and the Martian took their places in it. [180] Then Jimmy waved, and the car began to roll down the ramp. [181] Not until they had vanished in the desert haze did I sense the loneliness of this outpost. [182] With that loneliness came a sudden sense of foreboding. [183] Had I been a fool to let Grannie go? [184] I thought of her, an old woman who should be in a rocking chair, knitting socks. [185] If anything happened to Annabella C. Flowers, I would never forgive myself and neither would her millions of readers. [186] Ezra Karn and I went back into the office. [187] The old prospector chuckled. [188] "Dang human dynamo. [189] Got more energy than a runaway comet." [190] A connecting door on the far side of the office opened onto a long corridor which ended at a staircase. [191] "Let's look around," I said. [192] We passed down the corridor and climbed the staircase to the second floor. [193] Here were the general offices of Larynx Incorporated , and through glass doors I could see clerks busy with counting machines and report tapes. [194] In another chamber the extremely light Acoustix ore was being packed into big cases and marked for shipment. [195] At the far end a door to a small room stood open. [196] Inside a young man was tilted back in a swivel chair before a complicated instrument panel. [197] "C'mon in," he said, seeing us. [198] "If you want a look at your friends, here they are." [199] He flicked a stud, and the entire wall above the panel underwent a slow change of colors. [200] Those colors whirled kaleidescopically, then coalesced into a three-dimensional scene. [201] It was a scene of a rapidly unfolding desert country as seen from the rear of a kite car. [202] Directly behind the windscreen, backs turned to me, were Jimmy Baker, Grannie, and Xartal. [203] It was as if I were standing directly behind them. [204] "It's Mr. Baker's own invention," the operator said. [205] "An improvement on the visiphone." [206] "Do you mean to say you can follow the movements of that car and its passengers wherever it goes? [207] Can you hear them talk too?" [208] "Sure." [209] The operator turned another dial, and Grannie's falsetto voice entered the room. [210] It stopped abruptly. [211] "The machine uses a lot of power," the operator said, "and as yet we haven't got much." [212] The cloud of anxiety which had wrapped itself about me disappeared somewhat as I viewed this device. [213] At least I could now keep myself posted of Grannie's movements. [214] Karn and I went down to the commissary where we ate our supper. [215] When we returned to Jimmy Baker's office, the visiphone bell was ringing. [216] I went over to it and turned it on, and to my surprise the face of Antlers Park flashed on the screen. [217] "Hello," he said in his friendly way. [218] "I see you arrived all right. [219] Is Miss Flowers there?" [220] "Miss Flowers left with Mr. Baker for Shaft Four," I said. [221] "There's trouble up there. [222] Red spot fever." [223] "Fever, eh?" [224] repeated Park. [225] "That's a shame. [226] Is there anything I can do?" [227] "Tell me," I said, "has your company had any trouble with this plague?" [228] "A little. [229] But up until yesterday the fever's been confined to the other side of the Baldric. [230] We had one partial case, but my chemists gave the chap an antitoxin that seems to have worked. [231] Come to think of it, I might drive over to Shaft Four and give Jimmy Baker the formula. [232] I haven't been out in the Baldric for years, but if you didn't have any trouble, I shouldn't either." [233] We exchanged a few more pleasantries, and then he rang off. [234] In exactly an hour I went upstairs to the visiscreen room. [235] Then once more I was directly behind my friends, listening in on their conversation. [236] The view through the windscreen showed an irregular array of flagpole trees, with the sky dotted by high-flying cockatoos. [237] "There's an eyrie over there," Jimmy Baker was saying. [238] "We might as well camp beside it." [239] Moments later a rude circle of flagpole trees loomed ahead. [240] Across the top of them was stretched a translucent web. [241] Jimmy and Grannie got out of the car and began making camp. [242] Xartal remained in his seat. [243] He was drawing pictures on large pieces of pasteboard, and as I stood there in the visiscreen room, I watched him. [244] There was no doubt about it, the Martian was clever. [245] He would make a few rapid lines on one of the pasteboards, rub it a little to get the proper shading and then go on to the next. [246] In swift rotation likenesses of Ezra Karn, of myself, of Jimmy Baker, and of Antlers Park took form. [247] Ezra spoke over my shoulder. [248] "He's doing scenes for Grannie's new book," he said. [249] "The old lady figures on using the events here for a plot. [250] Look at that damned nosy bird! " [251] A silver cockatoo had alighted on the kite car and was surveying curiously Xartal's work. [252] As each drawing was completed, the bird scanned it with rapt attention. [253] Abruptly it flew to the top of the eyrie, where it seemed to be having a consultation with its bird companions. [254] And then abruptly it happened. [255] The cockatoos took off in mass flight. [256] A group of Earth people suddenly materialized on the eyrie, talking and moving about as if it were the most natural thing in the world. [257] With a shock I saw the likeness of myself; I saw Ezra Karn; and I saw the image of Jimmy Baker. [258] The real Jimmy Baker stood next to Grannie, staring up at this incredible mirage. [259] Grannie let out a whoop. [260] "I've got it!" [261] she said. [262] "Those things we see up there are nothing more than mental images. [263] They're Xartal's drawings!" [264] "Don't you see," the lady continued. [265] "Everything that Xartal put on paper has been seen by one or more of these cockatoos. [266] The cockatoos are like Earth parrots all right, but not only have they the power of copying speech, they also have the ability to recreate a mental image of what they have seen. [267] In other words their brains form a powerful photographic impression of the object. [268] That impression is then transmitted simultaneously in telepathic wavelengths to common foci. [269] That eyrie might be likened to a cinema screen, receiving brain vibrations from a hundred different sources that blend into the light field to form what are apparently three-dimensional images." [270] The Larynx manager nodded slowly. [271] "I see," he said. [272] "But why don't the birds reconstruct images from the actual person. [273] Why use drawings?" [274] "Probably because the drawings are exaggerated in certain details and made a greater impression on their brains," Grannie replied. [275] Up on the eyrie a strange performance was taking place. [276] The duplicate of Grannie Annie was bowing to the duplicate of Jimmy Baker, and the image of Ezra Karn was playing leap frog with the image of Antlers Park. [277] Then abruptly the screen before me blurred and went blank. [278] "Sorry," the operator said. [279] "I've used too much power already. [280] Have to give the generators a chance to build it up again." [281] Nodding, I turned and motioned to Karn. [282] We went back downstairs. [283] "That explains something at any rate," the old prospector said. [284] "But how about that Red spot fever?" [285] On Jimmy Baker's desk was a large file marked: FEVER VICTIMS. [286] I opened it and found it contained the case histories of those men who had been attacked by the strange malady. [287] Reading them over, I was struck by one detail. [288] Each patient had received the first symptoms, not while working in the mines, but while sleeping or lounging in the barracks. [289] Five minutes later Karn and I were striding down a white ramp that led to the nearest barracks. [290] The building came into sight, a low rectangular structure, dome-roofed to withstand the violent winds. [291] Inside double tiers of bunks stretched along either wall. [292] In those bunks some thirty men lay sleeping. [293] The far wall was taken up by a huge window of denvo-quartz. [294] As I stood there, something suddenly caught Ezra Karn's eye. [295] He began to walk toward that window. [296] "Look here," he said. [297] Six feet up on that window a small almost imperceptible button of dull metal had been wedged into an aperture cut in the quartz. [298] The central part of the button appeared to be a powerful lens of some kind, and as I seized it and pulled it loose, I felt the hum of tiny clock work. [299] All at once I had it! [300] Red spot fever. [301] Heat fever from the infra-red rays of Jupiter's great spot. [302] Someone had constructed this lens to concentrate and amplify the power of those rays. [303] The internal clockwork served a double purpose. [304] It opened a shutter, and it rotated the lens slowly so that it played for a time on each of the sleeping men. [305] I slid the metal button in my pocket and left the barracks at a run. [306] Back in the visiscreen room, I snapped to the operator: "Turn it on!" [307] The kite car swam into view in the screen above the instrument panel. [308] I stared with open eyes. [309] Jimmy Baker no longer was in the car, nor was Xartal, the Martian. [310] Grannie Annie was there, but seated at the controls was Antlers Park, the manager of Interstellar Voice. [311] Ezra Karn jabbed my elbow. [312] "Grannie's coming back. [313] I thought she'd be getting sick of this blamed moon." [314] It didn't make sense. [315] In all the years I'd known Annabella C. Flowers, never yet had I seen her desert a case until she had woven the clues and facts to a logical conclusion. [316] "Ezra," I said, "we're going to drive out and meet them. [317] There's something screwy here." [318] Ten minutes later in another kite car we were driving at a fast clip through the powdery sands of the Baldric. [319] And before long we saw another car approaching. [320] It was Grannie. [321] As the car drew up alongside I saw her sitting in her prim way next to Antlers Park. [322] Park said: "We left the others at the mine. [323] Miss Flowers is going back with me to my offices to help me improve the formula for that new antitoxin." [324] He waved his hand, and the car moved off. [325] I watched it as it sped across the desert, and a growing suspicion began to form in my mind. [326] Then, like a knife thrust, the truth struck me. [327] "Ezra!" [328] I yelled, swinging the car. [329] "That wasn't Grannie! [330] That was one of those damned cockatoo images. [331] We've got to catch him." [332] The other car was some distance ahead now. [333] Park looked back and saw us following. [334] He did something to the kite wire, and his car leaped ahead. [335] I threw the speed indicator hard over. [336] Our kite was a huge box affair with a steady powerful pull to the connecting wire. [337] Park's vehicle was drawn by a flat triangular kite that dove and fluttered with each variance of the wind. [338] Steadily we began to close in. [339] The manager of Interstellar Voice turned again, and something glinted in his hand. [340] There was a flash of purple flame, and a round hole appeared in our windscreen inches above Karn's head. [341] "Heat gun!" [342] Ezra yelled. [343] Now we were rocketing over the sand dunes, winding in and out between the flagpole trees. [344] I had to catch that car I told myself. [345] Grannie Annie's very life might be at stake, not to mention the lives of hundreds of mine workers. [346] Again Park took aim and again a hole shattered our windscreen. [347] The wind shifted and blew from another quarter. [348] The box kite soared, but the triangular kite faltered. [349] Taking advantage of Park's loss of speed, I raced alongside. [350] The I. V. manager lifted his weapon frantically. [351] But before he could use it a third time, Ezra Karn had whipped a lariat from his belt and sent it coiling across the intervening space. [352] The thong yanked tight about the manager's throat. [353] Park did the only thing he could do. [354] He shut off power, and the two cars coasted to a halt. [355] Then I was across in the other seat, wrenching the weapon free from his grasp. [356] "What have you done with Miss Flowers?" [357] I demanded. [358] The manager's eyes glittered with fear as he saw my finger tense on the trigger. [359] Weakly he lifted an arm and pointed to the northwest. [360] "Val-ley. [361] Thir-ty miles. [362] Entrance hidden by wall of ... flagpole trees." [363] I leaped into the driver's seat and gave the kite its head. [364] And now the country began to undergo a subtle change. [365] The trees seemed to group themselves in a long flanking corridor in a northwesterly direction, as if to hide some secret that lay beyond. [366] Twice I attempted to penetrate that wall, only to find my way blocked by those curious growths. [367] Then a corridor opened before me; a mile forward and the desert began again. [368] But it was a new desert this time: the sand packed hard as granite, the way ahead utterly devoid of vegetation. [369] In the distance black bulging hills extended to right and left, with a narrow chasm or doorway between. [370] I headed for that entrance, and when I reached it, I shut off power with an exclamation of astonishment. [371] There was a huge chair-shaped rock there, and seated upon it was Grannie Annie. [372] She had a tablet in her hands, and she was writing. [373] "Grannie!" [374] I yelled. [375] "What're you doing here? [376] Where's Mr. [377] Baker?" [378] She rose to her feet and clambered down the rock. [379] "Getting back Jimmy's mine laborers," she said, a twinkle in her eyes. [380] "I see you've got Antlers Park. [381] I'm glad of that. [382] It saves me a lot of trouble." [383] She took off her spectacles and wiped them on her sleeve. [384] "Don't look so fuddled, Billy-boy. [385] Come along, and I'll show you." [386] She led the way through the narrow passage into the valley. [387] A deep gorge, it was, with the black sheer cliffs on either side pressing close. [388] Ten feet forward, I stopped short, staring in amazement. [389] Advancing toward me like a column of infantry came a long line of Larynx miners. [390] They walked slowly, looking straight ahead, moving down the center of the gorge toward the entrance. [391] But there was more! [392] A kite car was drawn up to the side. [393] The windscreen had been removed, and mounted on the hood was a large bullet-like contrivance that looked not unlike a search lamp. [394] A blinding shaft of bluish radiance spewed from its open end. [395] Playing it back and forth upon the marching men were Jimmy Baker and Xartal, the Martian. [396] "Ultra violet," Grannie Annie explained. [397] "The opposite end of the vibratory scale and the only thing that will combat the infra-red rays that cause red spot fever. [398] Those men won't stop walking until they've reached Shaft Four." [399] Grannie Annie told her story during the long ride back to Shaft Four. [400] We drove slowly, keeping the line of marching Larynx miners always ahead of us. [401] Jimmy Baker had struck a new big lode of Acoustix, a lode which if worked successfully would see Larynx Incorporated become a far more powerful exporting concern than Interstellar Voice . [402] Antlers Park didn't want that. [403] It was he or his agents who placed those lens buttons in the Larynx barracks. [404] For he knew that just as Jupiter's great spot was responsible for a climate and atmosphere suitable for an Earthman on this Eighth Moon, so also was that spot a deadly power in itself, capable when its rays were concentrated of causing a fatal sickness. [405] Then suddenly becoming fearful of Grannie's prying, Antlers Park strove to head her off before she reached Shaft Four. [406] He did head her off and managed to lure her and Baker and Xartal into the Shaft barracks where they would be exposed to the rays from the lens button. [407] But Grannie only pretended to contract the plague. [408] Park then attempted to outwit Ezra Karn and me by returning in Jimmy Baker's kite car with a cockatoo image of Grannie. [409] I listened to all this in silence. [410] "But," I said when she had finished, "how did Park manage to have that image created and why did the mine laborers walk out into the Baldric when they contracted the fever?" [411] Grannie Annie frowned. [412] "I'm not sure I can answer the first of those questions," she replied. [413] "You must remember Antlers Park has been on this moon five years and during that time he must have acquainted himself with many of its secrets. [414] Probably he learned long ago just what to do to make a cockatoo create a mental image. [415] "As for the men going out into the Baldric, that was more of Park's diabolical work. [416] In the walls of the barracks besides those lens buttons were also miniature electro-hypnotic plates, with the master controlling unit located in that valley. [417] Park knew that when the miners were in a drugged condition from the effects of the fever they would be susceptible to the machine's lure.... And now, Billy-boy, are you coming with me?" [418] "Coming with you?" [419] I repeated. [420] "Where?" [421] The old lady lit a cigarette. [422] "Pluto maybe," she said. [423] "There's a penal colony there, you know, and that ought to tie in nicely with a new crime story. [424] I can see it now ... prison break, stolen rocket ship, fugitives lurking in the interplanetary lanes...." "Grannie," I laughed. [425] "You're incorrigible!"

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What settings does the story take place in?": 1. [56] So now here we were at the outer reaches of the Baldric, four travelers on foot with only the barest necessities in the way of equipment and supplies. 2. [70] Above us, the great disc of Jupiter began to descend toward the horizon. 3. [99] Then Jimmy waved, and the car began to roll down the ramp. 4. [133] "There's a cockatoo eyrie ahead of us." 5. [134] A curious structure suspended between a rude circle of flagpole trees. 6. [138] After that we were rolling up the driveway that led to the offices of Larynx Incorporated. 7. [140] His face was drawn. 8. [190] A connecting door on the far side of the office opened onto a long corridor which ended at a staircase. 9. [191] We passed down the corridor and climbed the staircase to the second floor. 10. [290] The building came into sight, a low rectangular structure, dome-roofed to withstand the violent winds. 11. [362] "Val-ley. Thir-ty miles. Entrance hidden by wall of ... flagpole trees." 12. [363] I leaped into the driver's seat and gave the kite its head. 13. [388] Advancing toward me like a column of infantry came a long line of Larynx miners. 14. [392] A kite car was drawn up to the side.

What was the relationship like between Jimmy and Grannie?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net DOUBLE TROUBLE by CARL JACOBI Grannie Annie, that waspish science-fiction writer, was in a jam again. [2] What with red-spot fever, talking cockatoos and flagpole trees, I was running in circles—especially since Grannie became twins every now and then. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1945. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] We had left the offices of Interstellar Voice three days ago, Earth time, and now as the immense disc of Jupiter flamed across the sky, entered the outer limits of the Baldric. [6] Grannie Annie strode in the lead, her absurd long-skirted black dress looking as out of place in this desert as the trees. [7] Flagpole trees. [8] They rose straight up like enormous cat-tails, with only a melon-shaped protuberance at the top to show they were a form of vegetation. [9] Everything else was blanketed by the sand and the powerful wind that blew from all quarters. [10] As we reached the first of those trees, Grannie came to a halt. [11] "This is the Baldric all right. [12] If my calculations are right, we've hit it at its narrowest spot." [13] Ezra Karn took a greasy pipe from his lips and spat. [14] "It looks like the rest of this God-forsaken moon," he said, "'ceptin for them sticks." [15] Xartal, the Martian illustrator, said nothing. [16] He was like that, taciturn, speaking only when spoken to. [17] He could be excused this time, however, for this was only our third day on Jupiter's Eighth Moon, and the country was still strange to us. [18] When Annabella C. Flowers, that renowned writer of science fiction, visiphoned me at Crater City, Mars, to meet her here, I had thought she was crazy. [19] But Miss Flowers, known to her friends as Grannie Annie, had always been mildly crazy. [20] If you haven't read her books, you've missed something. [21] She's the author of Lady of the Green Flames , Lady of the Runaway Planet , Lady of the Crimson Space-Beast , and other works of science fiction. [22] Blood-and-thunder as these books are, however, they have one redeeming feature—authenticity of background. [23] Grannie Annie was the original research digger-upper, and when she laid the setting of a yarn on a star of the sixth magnitude, only a transportation-velocity of less than light could prevent her from visiting her "stage" in person. [24] Therefore when she asked me to meet her at the landing field of Interstellar Voice on Jupiter's Eighth Moon, I knew she had another novel in the state of embryo. [25] What I didn't expect was Ezra Karn. [26] He was an old prospector Grannie had met, and he had become so attached to the authoress he now followed her wherever she went. [27] As for Xartal, he was a Martian and was slated to do the illustrations for Grannie's new book. [28] Five minutes after my ship had blasted down, the four of us met in the offices of Interstellar Voice . [29] And then I was shaking hands with Antlers Park, the manager of I. V. himself. [30] "Glad to meet you," he said cordially. [31] "I've just been trying to persuade Miss Flowers not to attempt a trip into the Baldric." [32] "What's the Baldric?" [33] I had asked. [34] Antlers Park flicked the ash from his cheroot and shrugged. [35] "Will you believe me, sir," he said, "when I tell you I've been out here on this forsaken moon five years and don't rightly know myself?" [36] I scowled at that; it didn't make sense. [37] "However, as you perhaps know, the only reason for colonial activities here at all is because of the presence of an ore known as Acoustix. [38] It's no use to the people of Earth but of untold value on Mars. [39] I'm not up on the scientific reasons, but it seems that life on the red planet has developed with a supersonic method of vocal communication. [40] The Martian speaks as the Earthman does, but he amplifies his thoughts' transmission by way of wave lengths as high as three million vibrations per second. [41] The trouble is that by the time the average Martian reaches middle age, his ability to produce those vibrations steadily decreases. [42] Then it was found that this ore, Acoustix, revitalized their sounding apparatus, and the rush was on." [43] "What do you mean?" [44] Park leaned back. [45] "The rush to find more of the ore," he explained. [46] "But up until now this moon is the only place where it can be found. [47] "There are two companies here," he continued, " Interstellar Voice and Larynx Incorporated . [48] Chap by the name of Jimmy Baker runs that. [49] However, the point is, between the properties of these two companies stretches a band or belt which has become known as the Baldric. [50] "There are two principal forms of life in the Baldric; flagpole trees and a species of ornithoid resembling cockatoos. [51] So far no one has crossed the Baldric without trouble." [52] "What sort of trouble?" [53] Grannie Annie had demanded. [54] And when Antlers Park stuttered evasively, the old lady snorted, "Fiddlesticks, I never saw trouble yet that couldn't be explained. [55] We leave in an hour." [56] So now here we were at the outer reaches of the Baldric, four travelers on foot with only the barest necessities in the way of equipment and supplies. [57] I walked forward to get a closer view of one of the flagpole trees. [58] And then abruptly I saw something else. [59] A queer-looking bird squatted there in the sand, looking up at me. [60] Silver in plumage, it resembled a parrot with a crest; and yet it didn't. [61] In some strange way the thing was a hideous caricature. [62] "Look what I found," I yelled. [63] "What I found," said the cockatoo in a very human voice. [64] "Thunder, it talks," I said amazed. [65] "Talks," repeated the bird, blinking its eyes. [66] The cockatoo repeated my last statement again, then rose on its short legs, flapped its wings once and soared off into the sky. [67] Xartal, the Martian illustrator, already had a notebook in his hands and was sketching a likeness of the creature. [68] Ten minutes later we were on the move again. [69] We saw more silver cockatoos and more flagpole trees. [70] Above us, the great disc of Jupiter began to descend toward the horizon. [71] And then all at once Grannie stopped again, this time at the top of a high ridge. [72] She shielded her eyes and stared off into the plain we had just crossed. [73] "Billy-boy," she said to me in a strange voice, "look down there and tell me what you see." [74] I followed the direction of her hand and a shock went through me from head to foot. [75] Down there, slowly toiling across the sand, advanced a party of four persons. [76] In the lead was a little old lady in a black dress. [77] Behind her strode a grizzled Earth man in a flop-brimmed hat, another Earth man, and a Martian. [78] Detail for detail they were a duplicate of ourselves! [79] "A mirage!" [80] said Ezra Karn. [81] But it wasn't a mirage. [82] As the party came closer, we could see that their lips were moving, and their voices became audible. [83] I listened in awe. [84] The duplicate of myself was talking to the duplicate of Grannie Annie, and she was replying in the most natural way. [85] Steadily the four travelers approached. [86] Then, when a dozen yards away, they suddenly faded like a negative exposed to light and disappeared. [87] "What do you make of it?" [88] I said in a hushed voice. [89] Grannie shook her head. [90] "Might be a form of mass hypnosis superinduced by some chemical radiations," she replied. [91] "Whatever it is, we'd better watch our step. [92] There's no telling what might lie ahead." [93] We walked after that with taut nerves and watchful eyes, but we saw no repetition of the "mirage." [94] The wind continued to blow ceaselessly, and the sand seemed to grow more and more powdery. [95] For some time I had fixed my gaze on a dot in the sky which I supposed to be a high-flying cockatoo. [96] As that dot continued to move across the heavens in a single direction, I called Grannie's attention to it. [97] "It's a kite," she nodded. [98] "There should be a car attached to it somewhere." [99] She offered no further explanation, but a quarter of an hour later as we topped another rise a curious elliptical car with a long slanting windscreen came into view. [100] Attached to its hood was a taut wire which slanted up into the sky to connect with the kite. [101] A man was driving and when he saw us, he waved. [102] Five minutes later Grannie was shaking his hand vigorously and mumbling introductions. [103] "This is Jimmy Baker," she said. [104] "He manages Larynx Incorporated , and he's the real reason we're here." [105] I decided I liked Baker the moment I saw him. [106] In his middle thirties, he was tall and lean, with pleasant blue eyes which even his sand goggles could not conceal. [107] "I can't tell you how glad I am you're here, Grannie," he said. [108] "If anybody can help me, you can." [109] Grannie's eyes glittered. [110] "Trouble with the mine laborers?" [111] she questioned. [112] Jimmy Baker nodded. [113] He told his story over the roar of the wind as we headed back across the desert. [114] Occasionally he touched a stud on an electric windlass to which the kite wire was attached. [115] Apparently these adjustments moved planes or fins on the kite and accounted for the car's ability to move in any direction. [116] "If I weren't a realist, I'd say that Larynx Incorporated has been bewitched," he began slowly. [117] "We pay our men high wages and give them excellent living conditions with a vacation on Callisto every year. [118] Up until a short time ago most of them were in excellent health and spirits. [119] Then the Red Spot Fever got them." [120] "Red Spot Fever?" [121] Grannie looked at him curiously. [122] Jimmy Baker nodded. [123] "The first symptoms are a tendency to garrulousness on the part of the patient. [124] Then they disappear." [125] He paused to make an adjustment of the windlass. [126] "They walk out into the Baldric," he continued, "and nothing can stop them. [127] We tried following them, of course, but it was no go. [128] As soon as they realize they're being followed, they stop. [129] But the moment our eyes are turned, they give us the slip." [130] "But surely you must have some idea of where they go," Grannie said. [131] Baker lit a cigarette. [132] "There's all kinds of rumors," he replied, "but none of them will hold water. [133] By the way, there's a cockatoo eyrie ahead of us." [134] I followed his gaze and saw a curious structure suspended between a rude circle of flagpole trees. [135] A strange web-like formation of translucent gauzy material, it was. [136] Fully two hundred cockatoos were perched upon it. [137] They watched us with their mild eyes as we passed, but they didn't move. [138] After that we were rolling up the driveway that led to the offices of Larynx Incorporated . [139] As Jimmy Baker led the way up the inclined ramp, a door in the central building opened, and a man emerged. [140] His face was drawn. [141] "Mr. Baker," he said breathlessly, "seventy-five workers at Shaft Four have headed out into the Baldric." [142] Baker dropped his cigarette and ground his heel on it savagely. [143] "Shaft Four, eh?" [144] he repeated. [145] "That's our principal mine. [146] If the fever spreads there, I'm licked." [147] He motioned us into his office and strode across to a desk. [148] Silent Xartal, the Martian illustrator, took a chair in a corner and got his notebook out, sketching the room's interior. [149] Grannie Annie remained standing. [150] Presently the old lady walked across to the desk and helped herself to the bottle of Martian whiskey there. [151] "There must be ways of stopping this," she said. [152] "Have you called in any physicians? [153] Why don't you call an enforced vacation and send the men away until the plague has died down?" [154] Baker shook his head. [155] "Three doctors from Callisto were here last month. [156] They were as much at loss as I am. [157] As for sending the men away, I may have to do that, but when I do, it means quits. [158] Our company is chartered with Spacolonial, and you know what that means. [159] Failure to produce during a period of thirty days or more, and you lose all rights." [160] A visiphone bell sounded, and Baker walked across to the instrument. [161] A man's face formed in the vision plate. [162] Baker listened, said "Okay" and threw off the switch. [163] "The entire crew of Shaft Four have gone out into the Baldric," he said slowly. [164] There was a large map hanging on the wall back of Baker's desk. [165] Grannie Annie walked across to it and began to study its markings. [166] "Shaft Four is at the outer edge of the Baldric at a point where that corridor is at its widest," she said. [167] Baker looked up. [168] "That's right. [169] We only began operations there a comparatively short time ago. [170] Struck a rich vein of Acoustix that runs deep in. [171] If that vein holds out, we'll double the output of Interstellar Voice , our rival, in a year." [172] Grannie nodded. [173] "I think you and I and Xartal had better take a run up there," she said. [174] "But first I want to see your laboratory." [175] There was no refusing her. [176] Jimmy Baker led the way down to a lower level where a huge laboratory and experimental shop ran the length of the building. [177] Grannie seized a light weight carry-case and began dropping articles into it. [178] A pontocated glass lens, three or four Wellington radite bulbs, each with a spectroscopic filament, a small dynamo that would operate on a kite windlass, and a quantity of wire and other items. [179] The kite car was brought out again, and the old woman, Baker and the Martian took their places in it. [180] Then Jimmy waved, and the car began to roll down the ramp. [181] Not until they had vanished in the desert haze did I sense the loneliness of this outpost. [182] With that loneliness came a sudden sense of foreboding. [183] Had I been a fool to let Grannie go? [184] I thought of her, an old woman who should be in a rocking chair, knitting socks. [185] If anything happened to Annabella C. Flowers, I would never forgive myself and neither would her millions of readers. [186] Ezra Karn and I went back into the office. [187] The old prospector chuckled. [188] "Dang human dynamo. [189] Got more energy than a runaway comet." [190] A connecting door on the far side of the office opened onto a long corridor which ended at a staircase. [191] "Let's look around," I said. [192] We passed down the corridor and climbed the staircase to the second floor. [193] Here were the general offices of Larynx Incorporated , and through glass doors I could see clerks busy with counting machines and report tapes. [194] In another chamber the extremely light Acoustix ore was being packed into big cases and marked for shipment. [195] At the far end a door to a small room stood open. [196] Inside a young man was tilted back in a swivel chair before a complicated instrument panel. [197] "C'mon in," he said, seeing us. [198] "If you want a look at your friends, here they are." [199] He flicked a stud, and the entire wall above the panel underwent a slow change of colors. [200] Those colors whirled kaleidescopically, then coalesced into a three-dimensional scene. [201] It was a scene of a rapidly unfolding desert country as seen from the rear of a kite car. [202] Directly behind the windscreen, backs turned to me, were Jimmy Baker, Grannie, and Xartal. [203] It was as if I were standing directly behind them. [204] "It's Mr. Baker's own invention," the operator said. [205] "An improvement on the visiphone." [206] "Do you mean to say you can follow the movements of that car and its passengers wherever it goes? [207] Can you hear them talk too?" [208] "Sure." [209] The operator turned another dial, and Grannie's falsetto voice entered the room. [210] It stopped abruptly. [211] "The machine uses a lot of power," the operator said, "and as yet we haven't got much." [212] The cloud of anxiety which had wrapped itself about me disappeared somewhat as I viewed this device. [213] At least I could now keep myself posted of Grannie's movements. [214] Karn and I went down to the commissary where we ate our supper. [215] When we returned to Jimmy Baker's office, the visiphone bell was ringing. [216] I went over to it and turned it on, and to my surprise the face of Antlers Park flashed on the screen. [217] "Hello," he said in his friendly way. [218] "I see you arrived all right. [219] Is Miss Flowers there?" [220] "Miss Flowers left with Mr. Baker for Shaft Four," I said. [221] "There's trouble up there. [222] Red spot fever." [223] "Fever, eh?" [224] repeated Park. [225] "That's a shame. [226] Is there anything I can do?" [227] "Tell me," I said, "has your company had any trouble with this plague?" [228] "A little. [229] But up until yesterday the fever's been confined to the other side of the Baldric. [230] We had one partial case, but my chemists gave the chap an antitoxin that seems to have worked. [231] Come to think of it, I might drive over to Shaft Four and give Jimmy Baker the formula. [232] I haven't been out in the Baldric for years, but if you didn't have any trouble, I shouldn't either." [233] We exchanged a few more pleasantries, and then he rang off. [234] In exactly an hour I went upstairs to the visiscreen room. [235] Then once more I was directly behind my friends, listening in on their conversation. [236] The view through the windscreen showed an irregular array of flagpole trees, with the sky dotted by high-flying cockatoos. [237] "There's an eyrie over there," Jimmy Baker was saying. [238] "We might as well camp beside it." [239] Moments later a rude circle of flagpole trees loomed ahead. [240] Across the top of them was stretched a translucent web. [241] Jimmy and Grannie got out of the car and began making camp. [242] Xartal remained in his seat. [243] He was drawing pictures on large pieces of pasteboard, and as I stood there in the visiscreen room, I watched him. [244] There was no doubt about it, the Martian was clever. [245] He would make a few rapid lines on one of the pasteboards, rub it a little to get the proper shading and then go on to the next. [246] In swift rotation likenesses of Ezra Karn, of myself, of Jimmy Baker, and of Antlers Park took form. [247] Ezra spoke over my shoulder. [248] "He's doing scenes for Grannie's new book," he said. [249] "The old lady figures on using the events here for a plot. [250] Look at that damned nosy bird! " [251] A silver cockatoo had alighted on the kite car and was surveying curiously Xartal's work. [252] As each drawing was completed, the bird scanned it with rapt attention. [253] Abruptly it flew to the top of the eyrie, where it seemed to be having a consultation with its bird companions. [254] And then abruptly it happened. [255] The cockatoos took off in mass flight. [256] A group of Earth people suddenly materialized on the eyrie, talking and moving about as if it were the most natural thing in the world. [257] With a shock I saw the likeness of myself; I saw Ezra Karn; and I saw the image of Jimmy Baker. [258] The real Jimmy Baker stood next to Grannie, staring up at this incredible mirage. [259] Grannie let out a whoop. [260] "I've got it!" [261] she said. [262] "Those things we see up there are nothing more than mental images. [263] They're Xartal's drawings!" [264] "Don't you see," the lady continued. [265] "Everything that Xartal put on paper has been seen by one or more of these cockatoos. [266] The cockatoos are like Earth parrots all right, but not only have they the power of copying speech, they also have the ability to recreate a mental image of what they have seen. [267] In other words their brains form a powerful photographic impression of the object. [268] That impression is then transmitted simultaneously in telepathic wavelengths to common foci. [269] That eyrie might be likened to a cinema screen, receiving brain vibrations from a hundred different sources that blend into the light field to form what are apparently three-dimensional images." [270] The Larynx manager nodded slowly. [271] "I see," he said. [272] "But why don't the birds reconstruct images from the actual person. [273] Why use drawings?" [274] "Probably because the drawings are exaggerated in certain details and made a greater impression on their brains," Grannie replied. [275] Up on the eyrie a strange performance was taking place. [276] The duplicate of Grannie Annie was bowing to the duplicate of Jimmy Baker, and the image of Ezra Karn was playing leap frog with the image of Antlers Park. [277] Then abruptly the screen before me blurred and went blank. [278] "Sorry," the operator said. [279] "I've used too much power already. [280] Have to give the generators a chance to build it up again." [281] Nodding, I turned and motioned to Karn. [282] We went back downstairs. [283] "That explains something at any rate," the old prospector said. [284] "But how about that Red spot fever?" [285] On Jimmy Baker's desk was a large file marked: FEVER VICTIMS. [286] I opened it and found it contained the case histories of those men who had been attacked by the strange malady. [287] Reading them over, I was struck by one detail. [288] Each patient had received the first symptoms, not while working in the mines, but while sleeping or lounging in the barracks. [289] Five minutes later Karn and I were striding down a white ramp that led to the nearest barracks. [290] The building came into sight, a low rectangular structure, dome-roofed to withstand the violent winds. [291] Inside double tiers of bunks stretched along either wall. [292] In those bunks some thirty men lay sleeping. [293] The far wall was taken up by a huge window of denvo-quartz. [294] As I stood there, something suddenly caught Ezra Karn's eye. [295] He began to walk toward that window. [296] "Look here," he said. [297] Six feet up on that window a small almost imperceptible button of dull metal had been wedged into an aperture cut in the quartz. [298] The central part of the button appeared to be a powerful lens of some kind, and as I seized it and pulled it loose, I felt the hum of tiny clock work. [299] All at once I had it! [300] Red spot fever. [301] Heat fever from the infra-red rays of Jupiter's great spot. [302] Someone had constructed this lens to concentrate and amplify the power of those rays. [303] The internal clockwork served a double purpose. [304] It opened a shutter, and it rotated the lens slowly so that it played for a time on each of the sleeping men. [305] I slid the metal button in my pocket and left the barracks at a run. [306] Back in the visiscreen room, I snapped to the operator: "Turn it on!" [307] The kite car swam into view in the screen above the instrument panel. [308] I stared with open eyes. [309] Jimmy Baker no longer was in the car, nor was Xartal, the Martian. [310] Grannie Annie was there, but seated at the controls was Antlers Park, the manager of Interstellar Voice. [311] Ezra Karn jabbed my elbow. [312] "Grannie's coming back. [313] I thought she'd be getting sick of this blamed moon." [314] It didn't make sense. [315] In all the years I'd known Annabella C. Flowers, never yet had I seen her desert a case until she had woven the clues and facts to a logical conclusion. [316] "Ezra," I said, "we're going to drive out and meet them. [317] There's something screwy here." [318] Ten minutes later in another kite car we were driving at a fast clip through the powdery sands of the Baldric. [319] And before long we saw another car approaching. [320] It was Grannie. [321] As the car drew up alongside I saw her sitting in her prim way next to Antlers Park. [322] Park said: "We left the others at the mine. [323] Miss Flowers is going back with me to my offices to help me improve the formula for that new antitoxin." [324] He waved his hand, and the car moved off. [325] I watched it as it sped across the desert, and a growing suspicion began to form in my mind. [326] Then, like a knife thrust, the truth struck me. [327] "Ezra!" [328] I yelled, swinging the car. [329] "That wasn't Grannie! [330] That was one of those damned cockatoo images. [331] We've got to catch him." [332] The other car was some distance ahead now. [333] Park looked back and saw us following. [334] He did something to the kite wire, and his car leaped ahead. [335] I threw the speed indicator hard over. [336] Our kite was a huge box affair with a steady powerful pull to the connecting wire. [337] Park's vehicle was drawn by a flat triangular kite that dove and fluttered with each variance of the wind. [338] Steadily we began to close in. [339] The manager of Interstellar Voice turned again, and something glinted in his hand. [340] There was a flash of purple flame, and a round hole appeared in our windscreen inches above Karn's head. [341] "Heat gun!" [342] Ezra yelled. [343] Now we were rocketing over the sand dunes, winding in and out between the flagpole trees. [344] I had to catch that car I told myself. [345] Grannie Annie's very life might be at stake, not to mention the lives of hundreds of mine workers. [346] Again Park took aim and again a hole shattered our windscreen. [347] The wind shifted and blew from another quarter. [348] The box kite soared, but the triangular kite faltered. [349] Taking advantage of Park's loss of speed, I raced alongside. [350] The I. V. manager lifted his weapon frantically. [351] But before he could use it a third time, Ezra Karn had whipped a lariat from his belt and sent it coiling across the intervening space. [352] The thong yanked tight about the manager's throat. [353] Park did the only thing he could do. [354] He shut off power, and the two cars coasted to a halt. [355] Then I was across in the other seat, wrenching the weapon free from his grasp. [356] "What have you done with Miss Flowers?" [357] I demanded. [358] The manager's eyes glittered with fear as he saw my finger tense on the trigger. [359] Weakly he lifted an arm and pointed to the northwest. [360] "Val-ley. [361] Thir-ty miles. [362] Entrance hidden by wall of ... flagpole trees." [363] I leaped into the driver's seat and gave the kite its head. [364] And now the country began to undergo a subtle change. [365] The trees seemed to group themselves in a long flanking corridor in a northwesterly direction, as if to hide some secret that lay beyond. [366] Twice I attempted to penetrate that wall, only to find my way blocked by those curious growths. [367] Then a corridor opened before me; a mile forward and the desert began again. [368] But it was a new desert this time: the sand packed hard as granite, the way ahead utterly devoid of vegetation. [369] In the distance black bulging hills extended to right and left, with a narrow chasm or doorway between. [370] I headed for that entrance, and when I reached it, I shut off power with an exclamation of astonishment. [371] There was a huge chair-shaped rock there, and seated upon it was Grannie Annie. [372] She had a tablet in her hands, and she was writing. [373] "Grannie!" [374] I yelled. [375] "What're you doing here? [376] Where's Mr. [377] Baker?" [378] She rose to her feet and clambered down the rock. [379] "Getting back Jimmy's mine laborers," she said, a twinkle in her eyes. [380] "I see you've got Antlers Park. [381] I'm glad of that. [382] It saves me a lot of trouble." [383] She took off her spectacles and wiped them on her sleeve. [384] "Don't look so fuddled, Billy-boy. [385] Come along, and I'll show you." [386] She led the way through the narrow passage into the valley. [387] A deep gorge, it was, with the black sheer cliffs on either side pressing close. [388] Ten feet forward, I stopped short, staring in amazement. [389] Advancing toward me like a column of infantry came a long line of Larynx miners. [390] They walked slowly, looking straight ahead, moving down the center of the gorge toward the entrance. [391] But there was more! [392] A kite car was drawn up to the side. [393] The windscreen had been removed, and mounted on the hood was a large bullet-like contrivance that looked not unlike a search lamp. [394] A blinding shaft of bluish radiance spewed from its open end. [395] Playing it back and forth upon the marching men were Jimmy Baker and Xartal, the Martian. [396] "Ultra violet," Grannie Annie explained. [397] "The opposite end of the vibratory scale and the only thing that will combat the infra-red rays that cause red spot fever. [398] Those men won't stop walking until they've reached Shaft Four." [399] Grannie Annie told her story during the long ride back to Shaft Four. [400] We drove slowly, keeping the line of marching Larynx miners always ahead of us. [401] Jimmy Baker had struck a new big lode of Acoustix, a lode which if worked successfully would see Larynx Incorporated become a far more powerful exporting concern than Interstellar Voice . [402] Antlers Park didn't want that. [403] It was he or his agents who placed those lens buttons in the Larynx barracks. [404] For he knew that just as Jupiter's great spot was responsible for a climate and atmosphere suitable for an Earthman on this Eighth Moon, so also was that spot a deadly power in itself, capable when its rays were concentrated of causing a fatal sickness. [405] Then suddenly becoming fearful of Grannie's prying, Antlers Park strove to head her off before she reached Shaft Four. [406] He did head her off and managed to lure her and Baker and Xartal into the Shaft barracks where they would be exposed to the rays from the lens button. [407] But Grannie only pretended to contract the plague. [408] Park then attempted to outwit Ezra Karn and me by returning in Jimmy Baker's kite car with a cockatoo image of Grannie. [409] I listened to all this in silence. [410] "But," I said when she had finished, "how did Park manage to have that image created and why did the mine laborers walk out into the Baldric when they contracted the fever?" [411] Grannie Annie frowned. [412] "I'm not sure I can answer the first of those questions," she replied. [413] "You must remember Antlers Park has been on this moon five years and during that time he must have acquainted himself with many of its secrets. [414] Probably he learned long ago just what to do to make a cockatoo create a mental image. [415] "As for the men going out into the Baldric, that was more of Park's diabolical work. [416] In the walls of the barracks besides those lens buttons were also miniature electro-hypnotic plates, with the master controlling unit located in that valley. [417] Park knew that when the miners were in a drugged condition from the effects of the fever they would be susceptible to the machine's lure.... And now, Billy-boy, are you coming with me?" [418] "Coming with you?" [419] I repeated. [420] "Where?" [421] The old lady lit a cigarette. [422] "Pluto maybe," she said. [423] "There's a penal colony there, you know, and that ought to tie in nicely with a new crime story. [424] I can see it now ... prison break, stolen rocket ship, fugitives lurking in the interplanetary lanes...." "Grannie," I laughed. [425] "You're incorrigible!"

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What was the relationship like between Jimmy and Grannie?": 1. [103] "This is Jimmy Baker," she said. "He manages Larynx Incorporated, and he's the real reason we're here." 2. [107] "I can't tell you how glad I am you're here, Grannie," he said. "If anybody can help me, you can." 3. [109] Grannie's eyes glittered. "Trouble with the mine laborers?" 4. [113] He told his story over the roar of the wind as we headed back across the desert. 5. [173] "I think you and I and Xartal had better take a run up there," she said. 6. [259] Grannie let out a whoop. "I've got it!" 7. [270] The Larynx manager nodded slowly. "I see," he said. 8. [402] Antlers Park didn't want that. It was he or his agents who placed those lens buttons in the Larynx barracks. 9. [406] Then suddenly becoming fearful of Grannie's prying, Antlers Park strove to head her off before she reached Shaft Four. 10. [407] He did head her off and managed to lure her and Baker and Xartal into the Shaft barracks where they would be exposed to the rays from the lens button. 11. [408] But Grannie only pretended to contract the plague. 12. [411] "But," I said when she had finished, "how did Park manage to have that image created and why did the mine laborers walk out into the Baldric when they contracted the fever?" 13. [412] Grannie Annie frowned. "I'm not sure I can answer the first of those questions," she replied. 14. [415] "As for the men going out into the Baldric, that was more of Park's diabolical work." 15. [416] "In the walls of the barracks besides those lens buttons were also miniature electro-hypnotic plates, with the master controlling unit located in that valley." 16. [417] "Park knew that when the miners were in a drugged condition from the effects of the fever they would be susceptible to the machine's lure...." 17. [1] Grannie Annie, that waspish science-fiction writer, was in a jam again. 18. [2] What with red-spot fever, talking cockatoos and flagpole trees, I was running in circles—especially since Grannie became twins every now and then. 19. [18] When Annabella C. Flowers, that renowned writer of science fiction, visiphoned me at Crater City, Mars, to meet her here, I had thought she was crazy. 20. [19] But Miss Flowers, known to her friends as Grannie Annie, had always been mildly crazy. 21. [20] If you haven't read her books, you've missed something. 22. [21] She's the author of Lady of the Green Flames, Lady of the Runaway Planet, Lady of the Crimson Space-Beast, and other works of science fiction. 23. [22] Blood-and-thunder as these books are, however, they have one redeeming feature—authenticity of background. 24. [23] Grannie Annie was the original research digger-upper, and when she laid the setting of a yarn on a star of the sixth magnitude, only a transportation-velocity of less than light could prevent her from visiting her "stage" in person. 25. [24] Therefore when she asked me to meet her at the landing field of Interstellar Voice on Jupiter's Eighth Moon, I knew she had another novel in the state of embryo. 26. [25] What I didn't expect was Ezra Karn. 27. [26] He was an old prospector Grannie had met, and he had become so attached to the authoress he now followed her wherever she went. 28. [27] As for Xartal, he was a Martian and was slated to do the illustrations for Grannie's new book. 29. [52] "What sort of trouble?" Grannie Annie had demanded. 30. [54] And when Antlers Park stuttered evasively, the old lady snorted, "Fiddlesticks, I never saw trouble yet that couldn't be explained." 31. [55] "We leave in an hour." 32. [71] Grannie Annie strode in the lead, her absurd long-skirted black dress looking as out of place in this desert as the trees. 33. [72] She shielded her eyes and stared off into the plain we had just crossed. 34. [73] "Billy-boy," she said to me in a strange voice, "look down there and tell me what you see." 35. [89] Grannie shook her head. 36. [90] "Might be a form of mass hypnosis superinduced by some chemical radiations," she replied. 37. [91] "Whatever it is, we'd better watch our step. There's no telling what might lie ahead." 38. [99] Attached to its hood was a taut wire which slanted up into the sky to connect with the kite. 39. [100] A man was driving and when he saw us, he waved. 40. [101] Five minutes later Grannie was shaking his hand vigorously and mumbling introductions. 41. [102] "This is Jimmy Baker," she said. 42. [104] "I can't tell you how glad I am you're here, Grannie," he said. 43. [110] "Trouble with the mine laborers?" 44. [119] "Then the Red Spot Fever got them." 45. [123] "The first symptoms are a tendency to garrulousness on the part of the patient. Then they disappear." 46. [124] "They walk out into the Baldric," he continued, "and nothing can stop them." 47. [125] He paused to make an adjustment of the windlass. 48. [126] "We tried following them, of course, but it was no go." 49. [127] "As soon as they realize they're being followed, they stop." 50. [128] "But the moment our eyes are turned, they give us the slip." 51. [129] "But surely you must have some idea of where they go," Grannie said. 52. [130] Baker lit a cigarette. 53. [131] "There's all kinds of rumors," he replied, "but none of them will hold water." 54. [139] As Jimmy Baker led the way up the inclined ramp, a door in the central building opened, and a man emerged. 55. [140] His face was drawn. 56. [141] "Mr. Baker," he said breathlessly, "seventy-five workers at Shaft Four have headed out into the Baldric." 57. [142] Baker dropped his cigarette and ground his heel on it savagely. 58. [143] "Shaft Four, eh?" he repeated. 59. [144] "That's our principal mine." 60. [145] "If the fever spreads there, I'm licked." 61. [146] He motioned us into his office and strode across to a desk. 62. [147] Silent Xartal, the Martian illustrator, took a chair in a corner and got his notebook out, sketching the room's interior. 63. [148] Grannie Annie remained standing. 64. [149] Presently the old lady walked across to the desk and helped herself to the bottle of Martian whiskey there. 65. [150] "There must be ways of stopping this," she said. 66. [151] "Have you called in any physicians?" 67. [152] "Why don't you call an enforced vacation and send the men away until the plague has died down?" 68. [154] Baker shook his head. 69. [155] "Three doctors from Callisto were here last month." 70. [156] "They were as much at loss as I am." 71. [157] "As for sending the men away, I may have to do that, but when I do, it means quits." 72. [158] "Our company is chartered with Spacolonial, and you know what that means." 73. [159] "Failure to produce during a period of thirty days or more, and you lose all rights." 74. [163] "The entire crew of Shaft Four have gone out into the Baldric," he said slowly. 75. [169] "We only began operations there a comparatively short time ago." 76. [170] "Struck a rich vein of Acoustix that runs deep in." 77. [171] "If that vein holds out, we'll double the output of Interstellar Voice, our rival, in a year." 78. [172] Grannie nodded. 79. [173] "I think you and I and Xartal had better take a run up there," she said. 80. [174] "But first I want to see your laboratory." 81. [177] Grannie seized a light weight carry-case and began dropping articles into it. 82. [179] The kite car was brought out again, and the old woman, Baker and the Martian took their places in it. 83. [180] Then Jimmy waved, and the car began to roll down the ramp. 84. [181] Not until they had vanished in the desert haze did I sense the loneliness of this outpost. 85. [182] With that loneliness came a sudden sense of foreboding. 86. [183] Had I been a fool to let Grannie go? 87. [184] I thought of her, an old woman who should be in a rocking chair, knitting socks. 88. [185] If anything happened to Annabella C. Flowers, I would never forgive myself and neither would her millions of readers. 89. [187] The old prospector chuckled. "Dang human dynamo." 90. [188] "Got more energy than a runaway comet." 91. [259] Grannie let out a whoop. "I've got it!" 92. [260] "Those things we see up there are nothing more than mental images." 93. [261] "They're Xartal's drawings!" 94. [262] "Don't you see," the lady continued. 95. [263] "Everything that Xartal put on paper has been seen by one or more of these cockatoos." 96. [264] "The cockatoos are like Earth parrots all right, but not only have they the power of copying speech, they also have the ability to recreate a mental image of what they have seen." 97. [265] "In other words their brains form a powerful photographic impression of the object." 98. [266] "That impression is then transmitted simultaneously in telepathic wavelengths to common foci." 99. [267] "That eyrie might be likened to a cinema screen, receiving brain vibrations from a hundred different sources that blend into the light field to form what are apparently three-dimensional images." 100. [270] The Larynx manager nodded slowly. "I see," he said. 101. [271] "But why don't the birds reconstruct images from the actual person." 102. [272] "Why use drawings?" 103. [273] "Probably because the drawings are exaggerated in certain details and made a greater impression on their brains," Grannie replied. 104. [302] Someone had constructed this lens to concentrate and amplify the power of those rays. 105. [303] The internal clockwork served a double purpose. 106. [304] It opened a shutter, and it rotated the lens slowly so that it played for a time on each of the sleeping men. 107. [325] Then, like a knife thrust, the truth struck me. 108. [326] "Ezra!" I yelled, swinging the car. 109. [327] "That wasn't Grannie! That was one of those damned cockatoo images." 110. [328] "We've got to catch him." 111. [359] Weakly he lifted an arm and pointed to the northwest. 112. [360] "Val-ley. Thir-ty miles." 113. [361] "Entrance hidden by wall of ... flagpole trees." 114. [362] I leaped into the driver's seat and gave the kite its head. 115. [363] And now the country began to undergo a subtle change. 116. [364] The trees seemed to group themselves in a long flanking corridor in a northwesterly direction, as if to hide some secret that lay beyond. 117. [365] Twice I attempted to penetrate that wall, only to find my way blocked by those curious growths. 118. [366] Then a corridor opened before me; a mile forward and the desert began again. 119. [367] But it was a new desert this time: the sand packed hard as granite, the way ahead utterly devoid of vegetation. 120. [368] In the distance black bulging hills extended to right and left, with a narrow chasm or doorway between. 121. [369] I headed for that entrance, and when I reached it, I shut off power with an exclamation of astonishment. 122. [370] There was a huge chair-shaped rock there, and seated upon it was Grannie Annie. 123. [371] She had a tablet in her hands, and she was writing. 124. [372] "Grannie!" I yelled. 125. [373] "What're you doing here? Where's Mr. Baker?" 126. [374] She rose to her feet and clambered down the rock. 127. [375] "Getting back Jimmy's mine laborers," she said, a twinkle in her eyes. 128. [376] "I see you've got Antlers Park. I'm glad of that. It saves me a lot of trouble." 129. [377] She took off her spectacles and wiped them on her sleeve. 130. [378] "Don't look so fuddled, Billy-boy. Come along, and I'll show you." 131. [379] She led the way through the narrow passage into the valley. 132. [380] A deep gorge, it was, with the black sheer cliffs on either side pressing close. 133. [381] Ten feet forward, I stopped short, staring in amazement. 134. [382] Advancing toward me like a column of infantry came a long line of Larynx miners. 135. [383] They walked slowly, looking straight ahead, moving down the center of the gorge toward the entrance. 136. [384] But there was more! 137. [385] A kite car was drawn up to the side. 138. [386] The windscreen had been removed, and mounted on the hood was a large bullet-like contrivance that looked not unlike a search lamp. 139. [387] A blinding shaft of bluish radiance spewed from its open end. 140. [388] Playing it back and forth upon the marching men were Jimmy Baker and Xartal, the Martian. 141. [389] "Ultra violet," Grannie Annie explained. 142. [390] "The opposite end of the vibratory scale and the only thing that will combat the infra-red rays that cause red spot fever." 143. [391] "Those men won't stop walking until they've reached Shaft Four." 144. [392] Grannie Annie told her story during the long ride back to Shaft Four. 145. [393] We drove slowly, keeping the line of marching Larynx miners always ahead of us. 146. [394] Jimmy Baker had struck a new big lode of Acoustix, a lode which if worked successfully would see Larynx Incorporated become a far more powerful exporting concern than Interstellar Voice. 147. [395] Antlers Park didn't want that. 148. [396] It was he or his agents who placed those lens buttons in the Larynx barracks. 149. [397] For he knew that just as Jupiter's great spot was responsible for a climate and atmosphere suitable for an Earthman on this Eighth Moon, so also was that spot a deadly power in itself, capable when its rays were concentrated of causing a fatal sickness. 150. [398] Then suddenly becoming fearful of Grannie's prying, Antlers Park strove to head her off before she reached Shaft Four. 151. [399] He did head her off and managed to lure her and Baker and Xartal into the Shaft barracks where they would be exposed to the rays from the lens button. 152. [400] But Grannie only pretended to contract the plague. 153. [401] Park then attempted to outwit Ezra Karn and me by returning in Jimmy Baker's kite car with a cockatoo image of Grannie.

What is the importance of Acoustix in the story?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net DOUBLE TROUBLE by CARL JACOBI Grannie Annie, that waspish science-fiction writer, was in a jam again. [2] What with red-spot fever, talking cockatoos and flagpole trees, I was running in circles—especially since Grannie became twins every now and then. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1945. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] We had left the offices of Interstellar Voice three days ago, Earth time, and now as the immense disc of Jupiter flamed across the sky, entered the outer limits of the Baldric. [6] Grannie Annie strode in the lead, her absurd long-skirted black dress looking as out of place in this desert as the trees. [7] Flagpole trees. [8] They rose straight up like enormous cat-tails, with only a melon-shaped protuberance at the top to show they were a form of vegetation. [9] Everything else was blanketed by the sand and the powerful wind that blew from all quarters. [10] As we reached the first of those trees, Grannie came to a halt. [11] "This is the Baldric all right. [12] If my calculations are right, we've hit it at its narrowest spot." [13] Ezra Karn took a greasy pipe from his lips and spat. [14] "It looks like the rest of this God-forsaken moon," he said, "'ceptin for them sticks." [15] Xartal, the Martian illustrator, said nothing. [16] He was like that, taciturn, speaking only when spoken to. [17] He could be excused this time, however, for this was only our third day on Jupiter's Eighth Moon, and the country was still strange to us. [18] When Annabella C. Flowers, that renowned writer of science fiction, visiphoned me at Crater City, Mars, to meet her here, I had thought she was crazy. [19] But Miss Flowers, known to her friends as Grannie Annie, had always been mildly crazy. [20] If you haven't read her books, you've missed something. [21] She's the author of Lady of the Green Flames , Lady of the Runaway Planet , Lady of the Crimson Space-Beast , and other works of science fiction. [22] Blood-and-thunder as these books are, however, they have one redeeming feature—authenticity of background. [23] Grannie Annie was the original research digger-upper, and when she laid the setting of a yarn on a star of the sixth magnitude, only a transportation-velocity of less than light could prevent her from visiting her "stage" in person. [24] Therefore when she asked me to meet her at the landing field of Interstellar Voice on Jupiter's Eighth Moon, I knew she had another novel in the state of embryo. [25] What I didn't expect was Ezra Karn. [26] He was an old prospector Grannie had met, and he had become so attached to the authoress he now followed her wherever she went. [27] As for Xartal, he was a Martian and was slated to do the illustrations for Grannie's new book. [28] Five minutes after my ship had blasted down, the four of us met in the offices of Interstellar Voice . [29] And then I was shaking hands with Antlers Park, the manager of I. V. himself. [30] "Glad to meet you," he said cordially. [31] "I've just been trying to persuade Miss Flowers not to attempt a trip into the Baldric." [32] "What's the Baldric?" [33] I had asked. [34] Antlers Park flicked the ash from his cheroot and shrugged. [35] "Will you believe me, sir," he said, "when I tell you I've been out here on this forsaken moon five years and don't rightly know myself?" [36] I scowled at that; it didn't make sense. [37] "However, as you perhaps know, the only reason for colonial activities here at all is because of the presence of an ore known as Acoustix. [38] It's no use to the people of Earth but of untold value on Mars. [39] I'm not up on the scientific reasons, but it seems that life on the red planet has developed with a supersonic method of vocal communication. [40] The Martian speaks as the Earthman does, but he amplifies his thoughts' transmission by way of wave lengths as high as three million vibrations per second. [41] The trouble is that by the time the average Martian reaches middle age, his ability to produce those vibrations steadily decreases. [42] Then it was found that this ore, Acoustix, revitalized their sounding apparatus, and the rush was on." [43] "What do you mean?" [44] Park leaned back. [45] "The rush to find more of the ore," he explained. [46] "But up until now this moon is the only place where it can be found. [47] "There are two companies here," he continued, " Interstellar Voice and Larynx Incorporated . [48] Chap by the name of Jimmy Baker runs that. [49] However, the point is, between the properties of these two companies stretches a band or belt which has become known as the Baldric. [50] "There are two principal forms of life in the Baldric; flagpole trees and a species of ornithoid resembling cockatoos. [51] So far no one has crossed the Baldric without trouble." [52] "What sort of trouble?" [53] Grannie Annie had demanded. [54] And when Antlers Park stuttered evasively, the old lady snorted, "Fiddlesticks, I never saw trouble yet that couldn't be explained. [55] We leave in an hour." [56] So now here we were at the outer reaches of the Baldric, four travelers on foot with only the barest necessities in the way of equipment and supplies. [57] I walked forward to get a closer view of one of the flagpole trees. [58] And then abruptly I saw something else. [59] A queer-looking bird squatted there in the sand, looking up at me. [60] Silver in plumage, it resembled a parrot with a crest; and yet it didn't. [61] In some strange way the thing was a hideous caricature. [62] "Look what I found," I yelled. [63] "What I found," said the cockatoo in a very human voice. [64] "Thunder, it talks," I said amazed. [65] "Talks," repeated the bird, blinking its eyes. [66] The cockatoo repeated my last statement again, then rose on its short legs, flapped its wings once and soared off into the sky. [67] Xartal, the Martian illustrator, already had a notebook in his hands and was sketching a likeness of the creature. [68] Ten minutes later we were on the move again. [69] We saw more silver cockatoos and more flagpole trees. [70] Above us, the great disc of Jupiter began to descend toward the horizon. [71] And then all at once Grannie stopped again, this time at the top of a high ridge. [72] She shielded her eyes and stared off into the plain we had just crossed. [73] "Billy-boy," she said to me in a strange voice, "look down there and tell me what you see." [74] I followed the direction of her hand and a shock went through me from head to foot. [75] Down there, slowly toiling across the sand, advanced a party of four persons. [76] In the lead was a little old lady in a black dress. [77] Behind her strode a grizzled Earth man in a flop-brimmed hat, another Earth man, and a Martian. [78] Detail for detail they were a duplicate of ourselves! [79] "A mirage!" [80] said Ezra Karn. [81] But it wasn't a mirage. [82] As the party came closer, we could see that their lips were moving, and their voices became audible. [83] I listened in awe. [84] The duplicate of myself was talking to the duplicate of Grannie Annie, and she was replying in the most natural way. [85] Steadily the four travelers approached. [86] Then, when a dozen yards away, they suddenly faded like a negative exposed to light and disappeared. [87] "What do you make of it?" [88] I said in a hushed voice. [89] Grannie shook her head. [90] "Might be a form of mass hypnosis superinduced by some chemical radiations," she replied. [91] "Whatever it is, we'd better watch our step. [92] There's no telling what might lie ahead." [93] We walked after that with taut nerves and watchful eyes, but we saw no repetition of the "mirage." [94] The wind continued to blow ceaselessly, and the sand seemed to grow more and more powdery. [95] For some time I had fixed my gaze on a dot in the sky which I supposed to be a high-flying cockatoo. [96] As that dot continued to move across the heavens in a single direction, I called Grannie's attention to it. [97] "It's a kite," she nodded. [98] "There should be a car attached to it somewhere." [99] She offered no further explanation, but a quarter of an hour later as we topped another rise a curious elliptical car with a long slanting windscreen came into view. [100] Attached to its hood was a taut wire which slanted up into the sky to connect with the kite. [101] A man was driving and when he saw us, he waved. [102] Five minutes later Grannie was shaking his hand vigorously and mumbling introductions. [103] "This is Jimmy Baker," she said. [104] "He manages Larynx Incorporated , and he's the real reason we're here." [105] I decided I liked Baker the moment I saw him. [106] In his middle thirties, he was tall and lean, with pleasant blue eyes which even his sand goggles could not conceal. [107] "I can't tell you how glad I am you're here, Grannie," he said. [108] "If anybody can help me, you can." [109] Grannie's eyes glittered. [110] "Trouble with the mine laborers?" [111] she questioned. [112] Jimmy Baker nodded. [113] He told his story over the roar of the wind as we headed back across the desert. [114] Occasionally he touched a stud on an electric windlass to which the kite wire was attached. [115] Apparently these adjustments moved planes or fins on the kite and accounted for the car's ability to move in any direction. [116] "If I weren't a realist, I'd say that Larynx Incorporated has been bewitched," he began slowly. [117] "We pay our men high wages and give them excellent living conditions with a vacation on Callisto every year. [118] Up until a short time ago most of them were in excellent health and spirits. [119] Then the Red Spot Fever got them." [120] "Red Spot Fever?" [121] Grannie looked at him curiously. [122] Jimmy Baker nodded. [123] "The first symptoms are a tendency to garrulousness on the part of the patient. [124] Then they disappear." [125] He paused to make an adjustment of the windlass. [126] "They walk out into the Baldric," he continued, "and nothing can stop them. [127] We tried following them, of course, but it was no go. [128] As soon as they realize they're being followed, they stop. [129] But the moment our eyes are turned, they give us the slip." [130] "But surely you must have some idea of where they go," Grannie said. [131] Baker lit a cigarette. [132] "There's all kinds of rumors," he replied, "but none of them will hold water. [133] By the way, there's a cockatoo eyrie ahead of us." [134] I followed his gaze and saw a curious structure suspended between a rude circle of flagpole trees. [135] A strange web-like formation of translucent gauzy material, it was. [136] Fully two hundred cockatoos were perched upon it. [137] They watched us with their mild eyes as we passed, but they didn't move. [138] After that we were rolling up the driveway that led to the offices of Larynx Incorporated . [139] As Jimmy Baker led the way up the inclined ramp, a door in the central building opened, and a man emerged. [140] His face was drawn. [141] "Mr. Baker," he said breathlessly, "seventy-five workers at Shaft Four have headed out into the Baldric." [142] Baker dropped his cigarette and ground his heel on it savagely. [143] "Shaft Four, eh?" [144] he repeated. [145] "That's our principal mine. [146] If the fever spreads there, I'm licked." [147] He motioned us into his office and strode across to a desk. [148] Silent Xartal, the Martian illustrator, took a chair in a corner and got his notebook out, sketching the room's interior. [149] Grannie Annie remained standing. [150] Presently the old lady walked across to the desk and helped herself to the bottle of Martian whiskey there. [151] "There must be ways of stopping this," she said. [152] "Have you called in any physicians? [153] Why don't you call an enforced vacation and send the men away until the plague has died down?" [154] Baker shook his head. [155] "Three doctors from Callisto were here last month. [156] They were as much at loss as I am. [157] As for sending the men away, I may have to do that, but when I do, it means quits. [158] Our company is chartered with Spacolonial, and you know what that means. [159] Failure to produce during a period of thirty days or more, and you lose all rights." [160] A visiphone bell sounded, and Baker walked across to the instrument. [161] A man's face formed in the vision plate. [162] Baker listened, said "Okay" and threw off the switch. [163] "The entire crew of Shaft Four have gone out into the Baldric," he said slowly. [164] There was a large map hanging on the wall back of Baker's desk. [165] Grannie Annie walked across to it and began to study its markings. [166] "Shaft Four is at the outer edge of the Baldric at a point where that corridor is at its widest," she said. [167] Baker looked up. [168] "That's right. [169] We only began operations there a comparatively short time ago. [170] Struck a rich vein of Acoustix that runs deep in. [171] If that vein holds out, we'll double the output of Interstellar Voice , our rival, in a year." [172] Grannie nodded. [173] "I think you and I and Xartal had better take a run up there," she said. [174] "But first I want to see your laboratory." [175] There was no refusing her. [176] Jimmy Baker led the way down to a lower level where a huge laboratory and experimental shop ran the length of the building. [177] Grannie seized a light weight carry-case and began dropping articles into it. [178] A pontocated glass lens, three or four Wellington radite bulbs, each with a spectroscopic filament, a small dynamo that would operate on a kite windlass, and a quantity of wire and other items. [179] The kite car was brought out again, and the old woman, Baker and the Martian took their places in it. [180] Then Jimmy waved, and the car began to roll down the ramp. [181] Not until they had vanished in the desert haze did I sense the loneliness of this outpost. [182] With that loneliness came a sudden sense of foreboding. [183] Had I been a fool to let Grannie go? [184] I thought of her, an old woman who should be in a rocking chair, knitting socks. [185] If anything happened to Annabella C. Flowers, I would never forgive myself and neither would her millions of readers. [186] Ezra Karn and I went back into the office. [187] The old prospector chuckled. [188] "Dang human dynamo. [189] Got more energy than a runaway comet." [190] A connecting door on the far side of the office opened onto a long corridor which ended at a staircase. [191] "Let's look around," I said. [192] We passed down the corridor and climbed the staircase to the second floor. [193] Here were the general offices of Larynx Incorporated , and through glass doors I could see clerks busy with counting machines and report tapes. [194] In another chamber the extremely light Acoustix ore was being packed into big cases and marked for shipment. [195] At the far end a door to a small room stood open. [196] Inside a young man was tilted back in a swivel chair before a complicated instrument panel. [197] "C'mon in," he said, seeing us. [198] "If you want a look at your friends, here they are." [199] He flicked a stud, and the entire wall above the panel underwent a slow change of colors. [200] Those colors whirled kaleidescopically, then coalesced into a three-dimensional scene. [201] It was a scene of a rapidly unfolding desert country as seen from the rear of a kite car. [202] Directly behind the windscreen, backs turned to me, were Jimmy Baker, Grannie, and Xartal. [203] It was as if I were standing directly behind them. [204] "It's Mr. Baker's own invention," the operator said. [205] "An improvement on the visiphone." [206] "Do you mean to say you can follow the movements of that car and its passengers wherever it goes? [207] Can you hear them talk too?" [208] "Sure." [209] The operator turned another dial, and Grannie's falsetto voice entered the room. [210] It stopped abruptly. [211] "The machine uses a lot of power," the operator said, "and as yet we haven't got much." [212] The cloud of anxiety which had wrapped itself about me disappeared somewhat as I viewed this device. [213] At least I could now keep myself posted of Grannie's movements. [214] Karn and I went down to the commissary where we ate our supper. [215] When we returned to Jimmy Baker's office, the visiphone bell was ringing. [216] I went over to it and turned it on, and to my surprise the face of Antlers Park flashed on the screen. [217] "Hello," he said in his friendly way. [218] "I see you arrived all right. [219] Is Miss Flowers there?" [220] "Miss Flowers left with Mr. Baker for Shaft Four," I said. [221] "There's trouble up there. [222] Red spot fever." [223] "Fever, eh?" [224] repeated Park. [225] "That's a shame. [226] Is there anything I can do?" [227] "Tell me," I said, "has your company had any trouble with this plague?" [228] "A little. [229] But up until yesterday the fever's been confined to the other side of the Baldric. [230] We had one partial case, but my chemists gave the chap an antitoxin that seems to have worked. [231] Come to think of it, I might drive over to Shaft Four and give Jimmy Baker the formula. [232] I haven't been out in the Baldric for years, but if you didn't have any trouble, I shouldn't either." [233] We exchanged a few more pleasantries, and then he rang off. [234] In exactly an hour I went upstairs to the visiscreen room. [235] Then once more I was directly behind my friends, listening in on their conversation. [236] The view through the windscreen showed an irregular array of flagpole trees, with the sky dotted by high-flying cockatoos. [237] "There's an eyrie over there," Jimmy Baker was saying. [238] "We might as well camp beside it." [239] Moments later a rude circle of flagpole trees loomed ahead. [240] Across the top of them was stretched a translucent web. [241] Jimmy and Grannie got out of the car and began making camp. [242] Xartal remained in his seat. [243] He was drawing pictures on large pieces of pasteboard, and as I stood there in the visiscreen room, I watched him. [244] There was no doubt about it, the Martian was clever. [245] He would make a few rapid lines on one of the pasteboards, rub it a little to get the proper shading and then go on to the next. [246] In swift rotation likenesses of Ezra Karn, of myself, of Jimmy Baker, and of Antlers Park took form. [247] Ezra spoke over my shoulder. [248] "He's doing scenes for Grannie's new book," he said. [249] "The old lady figures on using the events here for a plot. [250] Look at that damned nosy bird! " [251] A silver cockatoo had alighted on the kite car and was surveying curiously Xartal's work. [252] As each drawing was completed, the bird scanned it with rapt attention. [253] Abruptly it flew to the top of the eyrie, where it seemed to be having a consultation with its bird companions. [254] And then abruptly it happened. [255] The cockatoos took off in mass flight. [256] A group of Earth people suddenly materialized on the eyrie, talking and moving about as if it were the most natural thing in the world. [257] With a shock I saw the likeness of myself; I saw Ezra Karn; and I saw the image of Jimmy Baker. [258] The real Jimmy Baker stood next to Grannie, staring up at this incredible mirage. [259] Grannie let out a whoop. [260] "I've got it!" [261] she said. [262] "Those things we see up there are nothing more than mental images. [263] They're Xartal's drawings!" [264] "Don't you see," the lady continued. [265] "Everything that Xartal put on paper has been seen by one or more of these cockatoos. [266] The cockatoos are like Earth parrots all right, but not only have they the power of copying speech, they also have the ability to recreate a mental image of what they have seen. [267] In other words their brains form a powerful photographic impression of the object. [268] That impression is then transmitted simultaneously in telepathic wavelengths to common foci. [269] That eyrie might be likened to a cinema screen, receiving brain vibrations from a hundred different sources that blend into the light field to form what are apparently three-dimensional images." [270] The Larynx manager nodded slowly. [271] "I see," he said. [272] "But why don't the birds reconstruct images from the actual person. [273] Why use drawings?" [274] "Probably because the drawings are exaggerated in certain details and made a greater impression on their brains," Grannie replied. [275] Up on the eyrie a strange performance was taking place. [276] The duplicate of Grannie Annie was bowing to the duplicate of Jimmy Baker, and the image of Ezra Karn was playing leap frog with the image of Antlers Park. [277] Then abruptly the screen before me blurred and went blank. [278] "Sorry," the operator said. [279] "I've used too much power already. [280] Have to give the generators a chance to build it up again." [281] Nodding, I turned and motioned to Karn. [282] We went back downstairs. [283] "That explains something at any rate," the old prospector said. [284] "But how about that Red spot fever?" [285] On Jimmy Baker's desk was a large file marked: FEVER VICTIMS. [286] I opened it and found it contained the case histories of those men who had been attacked by the strange malady. [287] Reading them over, I was struck by one detail. [288] Each patient had received the first symptoms, not while working in the mines, but while sleeping or lounging in the barracks. [289] Five minutes later Karn and I were striding down a white ramp that led to the nearest barracks. [290] The building came into sight, a low rectangular structure, dome-roofed to withstand the violent winds. [291] Inside double tiers of bunks stretched along either wall. [292] In those bunks some thirty men lay sleeping. [293] The far wall was taken up by a huge window of denvo-quartz. [294] As I stood there, something suddenly caught Ezra Karn's eye. [295] He began to walk toward that window. [296] "Look here," he said. [297] Six feet up on that window a small almost imperceptible button of dull metal had been wedged into an aperture cut in the quartz. [298] The central part of the button appeared to be a powerful lens of some kind, and as I seized it and pulled it loose, I felt the hum of tiny clock work. [299] All at once I had it! [300] Red spot fever. [301] Heat fever from the infra-red rays of Jupiter's great spot. [302] Someone had constructed this lens to concentrate and amplify the power of those rays. [303] The internal clockwork served a double purpose. [304] It opened a shutter, and it rotated the lens slowly so that it played for a time on each of the sleeping men. [305] I slid the metal button in my pocket and left the barracks at a run. [306] Back in the visiscreen room, I snapped to the operator: "Turn it on!" [307] The kite car swam into view in the screen above the instrument panel. [308] I stared with open eyes. [309] Jimmy Baker no longer was in the car, nor was Xartal, the Martian. [310] Grannie Annie was there, but seated at the controls was Antlers Park, the manager of Interstellar Voice. [311] Ezra Karn jabbed my elbow. [312] "Grannie's coming back. [313] I thought she'd be getting sick of this blamed moon." [314] It didn't make sense. [315] In all the years I'd known Annabella C. Flowers, never yet had I seen her desert a case until she had woven the clues and facts to a logical conclusion. [316] "Ezra," I said, "we're going to drive out and meet them. [317] There's something screwy here." [318] Ten minutes later in another kite car we were driving at a fast clip through the powdery sands of the Baldric. [319] And before long we saw another car approaching. [320] It was Grannie. [321] As the car drew up alongside I saw her sitting in her prim way next to Antlers Park. [322] Park said: "We left the others at the mine. [323] Miss Flowers is going back with me to my offices to help me improve the formula for that new antitoxin." [324] He waved his hand, and the car moved off. [325] I watched it as it sped across the desert, and a growing suspicion began to form in my mind. [326] Then, like a knife thrust, the truth struck me. [327] "Ezra!" [328] I yelled, swinging the car. [329] "That wasn't Grannie! [330] That was one of those damned cockatoo images. [331] We've got to catch him." [332] The other car was some distance ahead now. [333] Park looked back and saw us following. [334] He did something to the kite wire, and his car leaped ahead. [335] I threw the speed indicator hard over. [336] Our kite was a huge box affair with a steady powerful pull to the connecting wire. [337] Park's vehicle was drawn by a flat triangular kite that dove and fluttered with each variance of the wind. [338] Steadily we began to close in. [339] The manager of Interstellar Voice turned again, and something glinted in his hand. [340] There was a flash of purple flame, and a round hole appeared in our windscreen inches above Karn's head. [341] "Heat gun!" [342] Ezra yelled. [343] Now we were rocketing over the sand dunes, winding in and out between the flagpole trees. [344] I had to catch that car I told myself. [345] Grannie Annie's very life might be at stake, not to mention the lives of hundreds of mine workers. [346] Again Park took aim and again a hole shattered our windscreen. [347] The wind shifted and blew from another quarter. [348] The box kite soared, but the triangular kite faltered. [349] Taking advantage of Park's loss of speed, I raced alongside. [350] The I. V. manager lifted his weapon frantically. [351] But before he could use it a third time, Ezra Karn had whipped a lariat from his belt and sent it coiling across the intervening space. [352] The thong yanked tight about the manager's throat. [353] Park did the only thing he could do. [354] He shut off power, and the two cars coasted to a halt. [355] Then I was across in the other seat, wrenching the weapon free from his grasp. [356] "What have you done with Miss Flowers?" [357] I demanded. [358] The manager's eyes glittered with fear as he saw my finger tense on the trigger. [359] Weakly he lifted an arm and pointed to the northwest. [360] "Val-ley. [361] Thir-ty miles. [362] Entrance hidden by wall of ... flagpole trees." [363] I leaped into the driver's seat and gave the kite its head. [364] And now the country began to undergo a subtle change. [365] The trees seemed to group themselves in a long flanking corridor in a northwesterly direction, as if to hide some secret that lay beyond. [366] Twice I attempted to penetrate that wall, only to find my way blocked by those curious growths. [367] Then a corridor opened before me; a mile forward and the desert began again. [368] But it was a new desert this time: the sand packed hard as granite, the way ahead utterly devoid of vegetation. [369] In the distance black bulging hills extended to right and left, with a narrow chasm or doorway between. [370] I headed for that entrance, and when I reached it, I shut off power with an exclamation of astonishment. [371] There was a huge chair-shaped rock there, and seated upon it was Grannie Annie. [372] She had a tablet in her hands, and she was writing. [373] "Grannie!" [374] I yelled. [375] "What're you doing here? [376] Where's Mr. [377] Baker?" [378] She rose to her feet and clambered down the rock. [379] "Getting back Jimmy's mine laborers," she said, a twinkle in her eyes. [380] "I see you've got Antlers Park. [381] I'm glad of that. [382] It saves me a lot of trouble." [383] She took off her spectacles and wiped them on her sleeve. [384] "Don't look so fuddled, Billy-boy. [385] Come along, and I'll show you." [386] She led the way through the narrow passage into the valley. [387] A deep gorge, it was, with the black sheer cliffs on either side pressing close. [388] Ten feet forward, I stopped short, staring in amazement. [389] Advancing toward me like a column of infantry came a long line of Larynx miners. [390] They walked slowly, looking straight ahead, moving down the center of the gorge toward the entrance. [391] But there was more! [392] A kite car was drawn up to the side. [393] The windscreen had been removed, and mounted on the hood was a large bullet-like contrivance that looked not unlike a search lamp. [394] A blinding shaft of bluish radiance spewed from its open end. [395] Playing it back and forth upon the marching men were Jimmy Baker and Xartal, the Martian. [396] "Ultra violet," Grannie Annie explained. [397] "The opposite end of the vibratory scale and the only thing that will combat the infra-red rays that cause red spot fever. [398] Those men won't stop walking until they've reached Shaft Four." [399] Grannie Annie told her story during the long ride back to Shaft Four. [400] We drove slowly, keeping the line of marching Larynx miners always ahead of us. [401] Jimmy Baker had struck a new big lode of Acoustix, a lode which if worked successfully would see Larynx Incorporated become a far more powerful exporting concern than Interstellar Voice . [402] Antlers Park didn't want that. [403] It was he or his agents who placed those lens buttons in the Larynx barracks. [404] For he knew that just as Jupiter's great spot was responsible for a climate and atmosphere suitable for an Earthman on this Eighth Moon, so also was that spot a deadly power in itself, capable when its rays were concentrated of causing a fatal sickness. [405] Then suddenly becoming fearful of Grannie's prying, Antlers Park strove to head her off before she reached Shaft Four. [406] He did head her off and managed to lure her and Baker and Xartal into the Shaft barracks where they would be exposed to the rays from the lens button. [407] But Grannie only pretended to contract the plague. [408] Park then attempted to outwit Ezra Karn and me by returning in Jimmy Baker's kite car with a cockatoo image of Grannie. [409] I listened to all this in silence. [410] "But," I said when she had finished, "how did Park manage to have that image created and why did the mine laborers walk out into the Baldric when they contracted the fever?" [411] Grannie Annie frowned. [412] "I'm not sure I can answer the first of those questions," she replied. [413] "You must remember Antlers Park has been on this moon five years and during that time he must have acquainted himself with many of its secrets. [414] Probably he learned long ago just what to do to make a cockatoo create a mental image. [415] "As for the men going out into the Baldric, that was more of Park's diabolical work. [416] In the walls of the barracks besides those lens buttons were also miniature electro-hypnotic plates, with the master controlling unit located in that valley. [417] Park knew that when the miners were in a drugged condition from the effects of the fever they would be susceptible to the machine's lure.... And now, Billy-boy, are you coming with me?" [418] "Coming with you?" [419] I repeated. [420] "Where?" [421] The old lady lit a cigarette. [422] "Pluto maybe," she said. [423] "There's a penal colony there, you know, and that ought to tie in nicely with a new crime story. [424] I can see it now ... prison break, stolen rocket ship, fugitives lurking in the interplanetary lanes...." "Grannie," I laughed. [425] "You're incorrigible!"

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the importance of Acoustix in the story?": 1. [37] "However, as you perhaps know, the only reason for colonial activities here at all is because of the presence of an ore known as Acoustix. It's no use to the people of Earth but of untold value on Mars." 2. [38] "It's no use to the people of Earth but of untold value on Mars." 3. [39] "The Martian speaks as the Earthman does, but he amplifies his thoughts' transmission by way of wave lengths as high as three million vibrations per second." 4. [40] "The trouble is that by the time the average Martian reaches middle age, his ability to produce those vibrations steadily decreases." 5. [41] "Then it was found that this ore, Acoustix, revitalized their sounding apparatus, and the rush was on." 6. [46] "But up until now this moon is the only place where it can be found." 7. [47] "There are two companies here, Interstellar Voice and Larynx Incorporated." 8. [48] "Chap by the name of Jimmy Baker runs that." 9. [169] "We only began operations there a comparatively short time ago. Struck a rich vein of Acoustix that runs deep in." 10. [170] "If that vein holds out, we'll double the output of Interstellar Voice, our rival, in a year."

What is Red Spot Fever?

[1] Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net DOUBLE TROUBLE by CARL JACOBI Grannie Annie, that waspish science-fiction writer, was in a jam again. [2] What with red-spot fever, talking cockatoos and flagpole trees, I was running in circles—especially since Grannie became twins every now and then. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1945. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] We had left the offices of Interstellar Voice three days ago, Earth time, and now as the immense disc of Jupiter flamed across the sky, entered the outer limits of the Baldric. [6] Grannie Annie strode in the lead, her absurd long-skirted black dress looking as out of place in this desert as the trees. [7] Flagpole trees. [8] They rose straight up like enormous cat-tails, with only a melon-shaped protuberance at the top to show they were a form of vegetation. [9] Everything else was blanketed by the sand and the powerful wind that blew from all quarters. [10] As we reached the first of those trees, Grannie came to a halt. [11] "This is the Baldric all right. [12] If my calculations are right, we've hit it at its narrowest spot." [13] Ezra Karn took a greasy pipe from his lips and spat. [14] "It looks like the rest of this God-forsaken moon," he said, "'ceptin for them sticks." [15] Xartal, the Martian illustrator, said nothing. [16] He was like that, taciturn, speaking only when spoken to. [17] He could be excused this time, however, for this was only our third day on Jupiter's Eighth Moon, and the country was still strange to us. [18] When Annabella C. Flowers, that renowned writer of science fiction, visiphoned me at Crater City, Mars, to meet her here, I had thought she was crazy. [19] But Miss Flowers, known to her friends as Grannie Annie, had always been mildly crazy. [20] If you haven't read her books, you've missed something. [21] She's the author of Lady of the Green Flames , Lady of the Runaway Planet , Lady of the Crimson Space-Beast , and other works of science fiction. [22] Blood-and-thunder as these books are, however, they have one redeeming feature—authenticity of background. [23] Grannie Annie was the original research digger-upper, and when she laid the setting of a yarn on a star of the sixth magnitude, only a transportation-velocity of less than light could prevent her from visiting her "stage" in person. [24] Therefore when she asked me to meet her at the landing field of Interstellar Voice on Jupiter's Eighth Moon, I knew she had another novel in the state of embryo. [25] What I didn't expect was Ezra Karn. [26] He was an old prospector Grannie had met, and he had become so attached to the authoress he now followed her wherever she went. [27] As for Xartal, he was a Martian and was slated to do the illustrations for Grannie's new book. [28] Five minutes after my ship had blasted down, the four of us met in the offices of Interstellar Voice . [29] And then I was shaking hands with Antlers Park, the manager of I. V. himself. [30] "Glad to meet you," he said cordially. [31] "I've just been trying to persuade Miss Flowers not to attempt a trip into the Baldric." [32] "What's the Baldric?" [33] I had asked. [34] Antlers Park flicked the ash from his cheroot and shrugged. [35] "Will you believe me, sir," he said, "when I tell you I've been out here on this forsaken moon five years and don't rightly know myself?" [36] I scowled at that; it didn't make sense. [37] "However, as you perhaps know, the only reason for colonial activities here at all is because of the presence of an ore known as Acoustix. [38] It's no use to the people of Earth but of untold value on Mars. [39] I'm not up on the scientific reasons, but it seems that life on the red planet has developed with a supersonic method of vocal communication. [40] The Martian speaks as the Earthman does, but he amplifies his thoughts' transmission by way of wave lengths as high as three million vibrations per second. [41] The trouble is that by the time the average Martian reaches middle age, his ability to produce those vibrations steadily decreases. [42] Then it was found that this ore, Acoustix, revitalized their sounding apparatus, and the rush was on." [43] "What do you mean?" [44] Park leaned back. [45] "The rush to find more of the ore," he explained. [46] "But up until now this moon is the only place where it can be found. [47] "There are two companies here," he continued, " Interstellar Voice and Larynx Incorporated . [48] Chap by the name of Jimmy Baker runs that. [49] However, the point is, between the properties of these two companies stretches a band or belt which has become known as the Baldric. [50] "There are two principal forms of life in the Baldric; flagpole trees and a species of ornithoid resembling cockatoos. [51] So far no one has crossed the Baldric without trouble." [52] "What sort of trouble?" [53] Grannie Annie had demanded. [54] And when Antlers Park stuttered evasively, the old lady snorted, "Fiddlesticks, I never saw trouble yet that couldn't be explained. [55] We leave in an hour." [56] So now here we were at the outer reaches of the Baldric, four travelers on foot with only the barest necessities in the way of equipment and supplies. [57] I walked forward to get a closer view of one of the flagpole trees. [58] And then abruptly I saw something else. [59] A queer-looking bird squatted there in the sand, looking up at me. [60] Silver in plumage, it resembled a parrot with a crest; and yet it didn't. [61] In some strange way the thing was a hideous caricature. [62] "Look what I found," I yelled. [63] "What I found," said the cockatoo in a very human voice. [64] "Thunder, it talks," I said amazed. [65] "Talks," repeated the bird, blinking its eyes. [66] The cockatoo repeated my last statement again, then rose on its short legs, flapped its wings once and soared off into the sky. [67] Xartal, the Martian illustrator, already had a notebook in his hands and was sketching a likeness of the creature. [68] Ten minutes later we were on the move again. [69] We saw more silver cockatoos and more flagpole trees. [70] Above us, the great disc of Jupiter began to descend toward the horizon. [71] And then all at once Grannie stopped again, this time at the top of a high ridge. [72] She shielded her eyes and stared off into the plain we had just crossed. [73] "Billy-boy," she said to me in a strange voice, "look down there and tell me what you see." [74] I followed the direction of her hand and a shock went through me from head to foot. [75] Down there, slowly toiling across the sand, advanced a party of four persons. [76] In the lead was a little old lady in a black dress. [77] Behind her strode a grizzled Earth man in a flop-brimmed hat, another Earth man, and a Martian. [78] Detail for detail they were a duplicate of ourselves! [79] "A mirage!" [80] said Ezra Karn. [81] But it wasn't a mirage. [82] As the party came closer, we could see that their lips were moving, and their voices became audible. [83] I listened in awe. [84] The duplicate of myself was talking to the duplicate of Grannie Annie, and she was replying in the most natural way. [85] Steadily the four travelers approached. [86] Then, when a dozen yards away, they suddenly faded like a negative exposed to light and disappeared. [87] "What do you make of it?" [88] I said in a hushed voice. [89] Grannie shook her head. [90] "Might be a form of mass hypnosis superinduced by some chemical radiations," she replied. [91] "Whatever it is, we'd better watch our step. [92] There's no telling what might lie ahead." [93] We walked after that with taut nerves and watchful eyes, but we saw no repetition of the "mirage." [94] The wind continued to blow ceaselessly, and the sand seemed to grow more and more powdery. [95] For some time I had fixed my gaze on a dot in the sky which I supposed to be a high-flying cockatoo. [96] As that dot continued to move across the heavens in a single direction, I called Grannie's attention to it. [97] "It's a kite," she nodded. [98] "There should be a car attached to it somewhere." [99] She offered no further explanation, but a quarter of an hour later as we topped another rise a curious elliptical car with a long slanting windscreen came into view. [100] Attached to its hood was a taut wire which slanted up into the sky to connect with the kite. [101] A man was driving and when he saw us, he waved. [102] Five minutes later Grannie was shaking his hand vigorously and mumbling introductions. [103] "This is Jimmy Baker," she said. [104] "He manages Larynx Incorporated , and he's the real reason we're here." [105] I decided I liked Baker the moment I saw him. [106] In his middle thirties, he was tall and lean, with pleasant blue eyes which even his sand goggles could not conceal. [107] "I can't tell you how glad I am you're here, Grannie," he said. [108] "If anybody can help me, you can." [109] Grannie's eyes glittered. [110] "Trouble with the mine laborers?" [111] she questioned. [112] Jimmy Baker nodded. [113] He told his story over the roar of the wind as we headed back across the desert. [114] Occasionally he touched a stud on an electric windlass to which the kite wire was attached. [115] Apparently these adjustments moved planes or fins on the kite and accounted for the car's ability to move in any direction. [116] "If I weren't a realist, I'd say that Larynx Incorporated has been bewitched," he began slowly. [117] "We pay our men high wages and give them excellent living conditions with a vacation on Callisto every year. [118] Up until a short time ago most of them were in excellent health and spirits. [119] Then the Red Spot Fever got them." [120] "Red Spot Fever?" [121] Grannie looked at him curiously. [122] Jimmy Baker nodded. [123] "The first symptoms are a tendency to garrulousness on the part of the patient. [124] Then they disappear." [125] He paused to make an adjustment of the windlass. [126] "They walk out into the Baldric," he continued, "and nothing can stop them. [127] We tried following them, of course, but it was no go. [128] As soon as they realize they're being followed, they stop. [129] But the moment our eyes are turned, they give us the slip." [130] "But surely you must have some idea of where they go," Grannie said. [131] Baker lit a cigarette. [132] "There's all kinds of rumors," he replied, "but none of them will hold water. [133] By the way, there's a cockatoo eyrie ahead of us." [134] I followed his gaze and saw a curious structure suspended between a rude circle of flagpole trees. [135] A strange web-like formation of translucent gauzy material, it was. [136] Fully two hundred cockatoos were perched upon it. [137] They watched us with their mild eyes as we passed, but they didn't move. [138] After that we were rolling up the driveway that led to the offices of Larynx Incorporated . [139] As Jimmy Baker led the way up the inclined ramp, a door in the central building opened, and a man emerged. [140] His face was drawn. [141] "Mr. Baker," he said breathlessly, "seventy-five workers at Shaft Four have headed out into the Baldric." [142] Baker dropped his cigarette and ground his heel on it savagely. [143] "Shaft Four, eh?" [144] he repeated. [145] "That's our principal mine. [146] If the fever spreads there, I'm licked." [147] He motioned us into his office and strode across to a desk. [148] Silent Xartal, the Martian illustrator, took a chair in a corner and got his notebook out, sketching the room's interior. [149] Grannie Annie remained standing. [150] Presently the old lady walked across to the desk and helped herself to the bottle of Martian whiskey there. [151] "There must be ways of stopping this," she said. [152] "Have you called in any physicians? [153] Why don't you call an enforced vacation and send the men away until the plague has died down?" [154] Baker shook his head. [155] "Three doctors from Callisto were here last month. [156] They were as much at loss as I am. [157] As for sending the men away, I may have to do that, but when I do, it means quits. [158] Our company is chartered with Spacolonial, and you know what that means. [159] Failure to produce during a period of thirty days or more, and you lose all rights." [160] A visiphone bell sounded, and Baker walked across to the instrument. [161] A man's face formed in the vision plate. [162] Baker listened, said "Okay" and threw off the switch. [163] "The entire crew of Shaft Four have gone out into the Baldric," he said slowly. [164] There was a large map hanging on the wall back of Baker's desk. [165] Grannie Annie walked across to it and began to study its markings. [166] "Shaft Four is at the outer edge of the Baldric at a point where that corridor is at its widest," she said. [167] Baker looked up. [168] "That's right. [169] We only began operations there a comparatively short time ago. [170] Struck a rich vein of Acoustix that runs deep in. [171] If that vein holds out, we'll double the output of Interstellar Voice , our rival, in a year." [172] Grannie nodded. [173] "I think you and I and Xartal had better take a run up there," she said. [174] "But first I want to see your laboratory." [175] There was no refusing her. [176] Jimmy Baker led the way down to a lower level where a huge laboratory and experimental shop ran the length of the building. [177] Grannie seized a light weight carry-case and began dropping articles into it. [178] A pontocated glass lens, three or four Wellington radite bulbs, each with a spectroscopic filament, a small dynamo that would operate on a kite windlass, and a quantity of wire and other items. [179] The kite car was brought out again, and the old woman, Baker and the Martian took their places in it. [180] Then Jimmy waved, and the car began to roll down the ramp. [181] Not until they had vanished in the desert haze did I sense the loneliness of this outpost. [182] With that loneliness came a sudden sense of foreboding. [183] Had I been a fool to let Grannie go? [184] I thought of her, an old woman who should be in a rocking chair, knitting socks. [185] If anything happened to Annabella C. Flowers, I would never forgive myself and neither would her millions of readers. [186] Ezra Karn and I went back into the office. [187] The old prospector chuckled. [188] "Dang human dynamo. [189] Got more energy than a runaway comet." [190] A connecting door on the far side of the office opened onto a long corridor which ended at a staircase. [191] "Let's look around," I said. [192] We passed down the corridor and climbed the staircase to the second floor. [193] Here were the general offices of Larynx Incorporated , and through glass doors I could see clerks busy with counting machines and report tapes. [194] In another chamber the extremely light Acoustix ore was being packed into big cases and marked for shipment. [195] At the far end a door to a small room stood open. [196] Inside a young man was tilted back in a swivel chair before a complicated instrument panel. [197] "C'mon in," he said, seeing us. [198] "If you want a look at your friends, here they are." [199] He flicked a stud, and the entire wall above the panel underwent a slow change of colors. [200] Those colors whirled kaleidescopically, then coalesced into a three-dimensional scene. [201] It was a scene of a rapidly unfolding desert country as seen from the rear of a kite car. [202] Directly behind the windscreen, backs turned to me, were Jimmy Baker, Grannie, and Xartal. [203] It was as if I were standing directly behind them. [204] "It's Mr. Baker's own invention," the operator said. [205] "An improvement on the visiphone." [206] "Do you mean to say you can follow the movements of that car and its passengers wherever it goes? [207] Can you hear them talk too?" [208] "Sure." [209] The operator turned another dial, and Grannie's falsetto voice entered the room. [210] It stopped abruptly. [211] "The machine uses a lot of power," the operator said, "and as yet we haven't got much." [212] The cloud of anxiety which had wrapped itself about me disappeared somewhat as I viewed this device. [213] At least I could now keep myself posted of Grannie's movements. [214] Karn and I went down to the commissary where we ate our supper. [215] When we returned to Jimmy Baker's office, the visiphone bell was ringing. [216] I went over to it and turned it on, and to my surprise the face of Antlers Park flashed on the screen. [217] "Hello," he said in his friendly way. [218] "I see you arrived all right. [219] Is Miss Flowers there?" [220] "Miss Flowers left with Mr. Baker for Shaft Four," I said. [221] "There's trouble up there. [222] Red spot fever." [223] "Fever, eh?" [224] repeated Park. [225] "That's a shame. [226] Is there anything I can do?" [227] "Tell me," I said, "has your company had any trouble with this plague?" [228] "A little. [229] But up until yesterday the fever's been confined to the other side of the Baldric. [230] We had one partial case, but my chemists gave the chap an antitoxin that seems to have worked. [231] Come to think of it, I might drive over to Shaft Four and give Jimmy Baker the formula. [232] I haven't been out in the Baldric for years, but if you didn't have any trouble, I shouldn't either." [233] We exchanged a few more pleasantries, and then he rang off. [234] In exactly an hour I went upstairs to the visiscreen room. [235] Then once more I was directly behind my friends, listening in on their conversation. [236] The view through the windscreen showed an irregular array of flagpole trees, with the sky dotted by high-flying cockatoos. [237] "There's an eyrie over there," Jimmy Baker was saying. [238] "We might as well camp beside it." [239] Moments later a rude circle of flagpole trees loomed ahead. [240] Across the top of them was stretched a translucent web. [241] Jimmy and Grannie got out of the car and began making camp. [242] Xartal remained in his seat. [243] He was drawing pictures on large pieces of pasteboard, and as I stood there in the visiscreen room, I watched him. [244] There was no doubt about it, the Martian was clever. [245] He would make a few rapid lines on one of the pasteboards, rub it a little to get the proper shading and then go on to the next. [246] In swift rotation likenesses of Ezra Karn, of myself, of Jimmy Baker, and of Antlers Park took form. [247] Ezra spoke over my shoulder. [248] "He's doing scenes for Grannie's new book," he said. [249] "The old lady figures on using the events here for a plot. [250] Look at that damned nosy bird! " [251] A silver cockatoo had alighted on the kite car and was surveying curiously Xartal's work. [252] As each drawing was completed, the bird scanned it with rapt attention. [253] Abruptly it flew to the top of the eyrie, where it seemed to be having a consultation with its bird companions. [254] And then abruptly it happened. [255] The cockatoos took off in mass flight. [256] A group of Earth people suddenly materialized on the eyrie, talking and moving about as if it were the most natural thing in the world. [257] With a shock I saw the likeness of myself; I saw Ezra Karn; and I saw the image of Jimmy Baker. [258] The real Jimmy Baker stood next to Grannie, staring up at this incredible mirage. [259] Grannie let out a whoop. [260] "I've got it!" [261] she said. [262] "Those things we see up there are nothing more than mental images. [263] They're Xartal's drawings!" [264] "Don't you see," the lady continued. [265] "Everything that Xartal put on paper has been seen by one or more of these cockatoos. [266] The cockatoos are like Earth parrots all right, but not only have they the power of copying speech, they also have the ability to recreate a mental image of what they have seen. [267] In other words their brains form a powerful photographic impression of the object. [268] That impression is then transmitted simultaneously in telepathic wavelengths to common foci. [269] That eyrie might be likened to a cinema screen, receiving brain vibrations from a hundred different sources that blend into the light field to form what are apparently three-dimensional images." [270] The Larynx manager nodded slowly. [271] "I see," he said. [272] "But why don't the birds reconstruct images from the actual person. [273] Why use drawings?" [274] "Probably because the drawings are exaggerated in certain details and made a greater impression on their brains," Grannie replied. [275] Up on the eyrie a strange performance was taking place. [276] The duplicate of Grannie Annie was bowing to the duplicate of Jimmy Baker, and the image of Ezra Karn was playing leap frog with the image of Antlers Park. [277] Then abruptly the screen before me blurred and went blank. [278] "Sorry," the operator said. [279] "I've used too much power already. [280] Have to give the generators a chance to build it up again." [281] Nodding, I turned and motioned to Karn. [282] We went back downstairs. [283] "That explains something at any rate," the old prospector said. [284] "But how about that Red spot fever?" [285] On Jimmy Baker's desk was a large file marked: FEVER VICTIMS. [286] I opened it and found it contained the case histories of those men who had been attacked by the strange malady. [287] Reading them over, I was struck by one detail. [288] Each patient had received the first symptoms, not while working in the mines, but while sleeping or lounging in the barracks. [289] Five minutes later Karn and I were striding down a white ramp that led to the nearest barracks. [290] The building came into sight, a low rectangular structure, dome-roofed to withstand the violent winds. [291] Inside double tiers of bunks stretched along either wall. [292] In those bunks some thirty men lay sleeping. [293] The far wall was taken up by a huge window of denvo-quartz. [294] As I stood there, something suddenly caught Ezra Karn's eye. [295] He began to walk toward that window. [296] "Look here," he said. [297] Six feet up on that window a small almost imperceptible button of dull metal had been wedged into an aperture cut in the quartz. [298] The central part of the button appeared to be a powerful lens of some kind, and as I seized it and pulled it loose, I felt the hum of tiny clock work. [299] All at once I had it! [300] Red spot fever. [301] Heat fever from the infra-red rays of Jupiter's great spot. [302] Someone had constructed this lens to concentrate and amplify the power of those rays. [303] The internal clockwork served a double purpose. [304] It opened a shutter, and it rotated the lens slowly so that it played for a time on each of the sleeping men. [305] I slid the metal button in my pocket and left the barracks at a run. [306] Back in the visiscreen room, I snapped to the operator: "Turn it on!" [307] The kite car swam into view in the screen above the instrument panel. [308] I stared with open eyes. [309] Jimmy Baker no longer was in the car, nor was Xartal, the Martian. [310] Grannie Annie was there, but seated at the controls was Antlers Park, the manager of Interstellar Voice. [311] Ezra Karn jabbed my elbow. [312] "Grannie's coming back. [313] I thought she'd be getting sick of this blamed moon." [314] It didn't make sense. [315] In all the years I'd known Annabella C. Flowers, never yet had I seen her desert a case until she had woven the clues and facts to a logical conclusion. [316] "Ezra," I said, "we're going to drive out and meet them. [317] There's something screwy here." [318] Ten minutes later in another kite car we were driving at a fast clip through the powdery sands of the Baldric. [319] And before long we saw another car approaching. [320] It was Grannie. [321] As the car drew up alongside I saw her sitting in her prim way next to Antlers Park. [322] Park said: "We left the others at the mine. [323] Miss Flowers is going back with me to my offices to help me improve the formula for that new antitoxin." [324] He waved his hand, and the car moved off. [325] I watched it as it sped across the desert, and a growing suspicion began to form in my mind. [326] Then, like a knife thrust, the truth struck me. [327] "Ezra!" [328] I yelled, swinging the car. [329] "That wasn't Grannie! [330] That was one of those damned cockatoo images. [331] We've got to catch him." [332] The other car was some distance ahead now. [333] Park looked back and saw us following. [334] He did something to the kite wire, and his car leaped ahead. [335] I threw the speed indicator hard over. [336] Our kite was a huge box affair with a steady powerful pull to the connecting wire. [337] Park's vehicle was drawn by a flat triangular kite that dove and fluttered with each variance of the wind. [338] Steadily we began to close in. [339] The manager of Interstellar Voice turned again, and something glinted in his hand. [340] There was a flash of purple flame, and a round hole appeared in our windscreen inches above Karn's head. [341] "Heat gun!" [342] Ezra yelled. [343] Now we were rocketing over the sand dunes, winding in and out between the flagpole trees. [344] I had to catch that car I told myself. [345] Grannie Annie's very life might be at stake, not to mention the lives of hundreds of mine workers. [346] Again Park took aim and again a hole shattered our windscreen. [347] The wind shifted and blew from another quarter. [348] The box kite soared, but the triangular kite faltered. [349] Taking advantage of Park's loss of speed, I raced alongside. [350] The I. V. manager lifted his weapon frantically. [351] But before he could use it a third time, Ezra Karn had whipped a lariat from his belt and sent it coiling across the intervening space. [352] The thong yanked tight about the manager's throat. [353] Park did the only thing he could do. [354] He shut off power, and the two cars coasted to a halt. [355] Then I was across in the other seat, wrenching the weapon free from his grasp. [356] "What have you done with Miss Flowers?" [357] I demanded. [358] The manager's eyes glittered with fear as he saw my finger tense on the trigger. [359] Weakly he lifted an arm and pointed to the northwest. [360] "Val-ley. [361] Thir-ty miles. [362] Entrance hidden by wall of ... flagpole trees." [363] I leaped into the driver's seat and gave the kite its head. [364] And now the country began to undergo a subtle change. [365] The trees seemed to group themselves in a long flanking corridor in a northwesterly direction, as if to hide some secret that lay beyond. [366] Twice I attempted to penetrate that wall, only to find my way blocked by those curious growths. [367] Then a corridor opened before me; a mile forward and the desert began again. [368] But it was a new desert this time: the sand packed hard as granite, the way ahead utterly devoid of vegetation. [369] In the distance black bulging hills extended to right and left, with a narrow chasm or doorway between. [370] I headed for that entrance, and when I reached it, I shut off power with an exclamation of astonishment. [371] There was a huge chair-shaped rock there, and seated upon it was Grannie Annie. [372] She had a tablet in her hands, and she was writing. [373] "Grannie!" [374] I yelled. [375] "What're you doing here? [376] Where's Mr. [377] Baker?" [378] She rose to her feet and clambered down the rock. [379] "Getting back Jimmy's mine laborers," she said, a twinkle in her eyes. [380] "I see you've got Antlers Park. [381] I'm glad of that. [382] It saves me a lot of trouble." [383] She took off her spectacles and wiped them on her sleeve. [384] "Don't look so fuddled, Billy-boy. [385] Come along, and I'll show you." [386] She led the way through the narrow passage into the valley. [387] A deep gorge, it was, with the black sheer cliffs on either side pressing close. [388] Ten feet forward, I stopped short, staring in amazement. [389] Advancing toward me like a column of infantry came a long line of Larynx miners. [390] They walked slowly, looking straight ahead, moving down the center of the gorge toward the entrance. [391] But there was more! [392] A kite car was drawn up to the side. [393] The windscreen had been removed, and mounted on the hood was a large bullet-like contrivance that looked not unlike a search lamp. [394] A blinding shaft of bluish radiance spewed from its open end. [395] Playing it back and forth upon the marching men were Jimmy Baker and Xartal, the Martian. [396] "Ultra violet," Grannie Annie explained. [397] "The opposite end of the vibratory scale and the only thing that will combat the infra-red rays that cause red spot fever. [398] Those men won't stop walking until they've reached Shaft Four." [399] Grannie Annie told her story during the long ride back to Shaft Four. [400] We drove slowly, keeping the line of marching Larynx miners always ahead of us. [401] Jimmy Baker had struck a new big lode of Acoustix, a lode which if worked successfully would see Larynx Incorporated become a far more powerful exporting concern than Interstellar Voice . [402] Antlers Park didn't want that. [403] It was he or his agents who placed those lens buttons in the Larynx barracks. [404] For he knew that just as Jupiter's great spot was responsible for a climate and atmosphere suitable for an Earthman on this Eighth Moon, so also was that spot a deadly power in itself, capable when its rays were concentrated of causing a fatal sickness. [405] Then suddenly becoming fearful of Grannie's prying, Antlers Park strove to head her off before she reached Shaft Four. [406] He did head her off and managed to lure her and Baker and Xartal into the Shaft barracks where they would be exposed to the rays from the lens button. [407] But Grannie only pretended to contract the plague. [408] Park then attempted to outwit Ezra Karn and me by returning in Jimmy Baker's kite car with a cockatoo image of Grannie. [409] I listened to all this in silence. [410] "But," I said when she had finished, "how did Park manage to have that image created and why did the mine laborers walk out into the Baldric when they contracted the fever?" [411] Grannie Annie frowned. [412] "I'm not sure I can answer the first of those questions," she replied. [413] "You must remember Antlers Park has been on this moon five years and during that time he must have acquainted himself with many of its secrets. [414] Probably he learned long ago just what to do to make a cockatoo create a mental image. [415] "As for the men going out into the Baldric, that was more of Park's diabolical work. [416] In the walls of the barracks besides those lens buttons were also miniature electro-hypnotic plates, with the master controlling unit located in that valley. [417] Park knew that when the miners were in a drugged condition from the effects of the fever they would be susceptible to the machine's lure.... And now, Billy-boy, are you coming with me?" [418] "Coming with you?" [419] I repeated. [420] "Where?" [421] The old lady lit a cigarette. [422] "Pluto maybe," she said. [423] "There's a penal colony there, you know, and that ought to tie in nicely with a new crime story. [424] I can see it now ... prison break, stolen rocket ship, fugitives lurking in the interplanetary lanes...." "Grannie," I laughed. [425] "You're incorrigible!"

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is Red Spot Fever?": 1. [119] "The first symptoms are a tendency to garrulousness on the part of the patient. Then they disappear." 2. [123] "They walk out into the Baldric," he continued, "and nothing can stop them." 3. [286] Reading them over, I was struck by one detail. Each patient had received the first symptoms, not while working in the mines, but while sleeping or lounging in the barracks. 4. [300] Red spot fever. Heat fever from the infra-red rays of Jupiter's great spot. 5. [301] Someone had constructed this lens to concentrate and amplify the power of those rays. 6. [302] The internal clockwork served a double purpose. It opened a shutter, and it rotated the lens slowly so that it played for a time on each of the sleeping men. 7. [406] Then suddenly becoming fearful of Grannie's prying, Antlers Park strove to head her off before she reached Shaft Four. 8. [407] He did head her off and managed to lure her and Baker and Xartal into the Shaft barracks where they would be exposed to the rays from the lens button. 9. [416] In the walls of the barracks besides those lens buttons were also miniature electro-hypnotic plates, with the master controlling unit located in that valley. 10. [417] Park knew that when the miners were in a drugged condition from the effects of the fever they would be susceptible to the machine's lure.

What is the plot of the story?

[1] BEACH SCENE By MARSHALL KING Illustrated by WOOD [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Magazine October 1960. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] It was a fine day at the beach for Purnie's game—but his new friends played very rough! [4] Purnie ran laughing and shouting through the forest until he could run no more. [5] He fell headlong into a patch of blue moss and whooped with delight in having this day free for exploring. [6] He was free to see the ocean at last. [7] When he had caught his breath, he looked back through the forest. [8] No sign of the village; he had left it far behind. [9] Safe from the scrutiny of brothers and parents, there was nothing now to stop him from going to the ocean. [10] This was the moment to stop time. [11] "On your mark!" [12] he shouted to the rippling stream and its orange whirlpools. [13] He glanced furtively from side to side, pretending that some object might try to get a head start. [14] "Get set!" [15] he challenged the thin-winged bees that hovered over the abundant foliage. [16] "Stop!" [17] He shrieked this command upward toward the dense, low-hanging purple clouds that perennially raced across the treetops, making one wonder how tall the trees really were. [18] His eyes took quick inventory. [19] It was exactly as he knew it would be: the milky-orange stream had become motionless and its minute whirlpools had stopped whirling; a nearby bee hung suspended over a paka plant, its transparent wings frozen in position for a downward stroke; and the heavy purple fluid overhead held fast in its manufacture of whorls and nimbi. [20] With everything around him in a state of perfect tableau, Purnie hurried toward the ocean. [21] If only the days weren't so short! [22] he thought. [23] There was so much to see and so little time. [24] It seemed that everyone except him had seen the wonders of the beach country. [25] The stories he had heard from his brothers and their friends had taunted him for as long as he could remember. [26] So many times had he heard these thrilling tales that now, as he ran along, he could clearly picture the wonderland as though he were already there. [27] There would be a rockslide of petrified logs to play on, the ocean itself with waves higher than a house, the comical three-legged tripons who never stopped munching on seaweed, and many kinds of other wonderful creatures found only at the ocean. [28] He bounced through the forest as though the world was reserved this day just for him. [29] And who could say it wasn't? [30] he thought. [31] Wasn't this his fifth birthday? [32] He ran along feeling sorry for four-year-olds, and even for those who were only four and a half, for they were babies and wouldn't dare try slipping away to the ocean alone. [33] But five! [34] "I'll set you free, Mr. Bee—just wait and see!" [35] As he passed one of the many motionless pollen-gathering insects he met on the way, he took care not to brush against it or disturb its interrupted task. [36] When Purnie had stopped time, the bees—like all the other creatures he met—had been arrested in their native activities, and he knew that as soon as he resumed time, everything would pick up where it had left off. [37] When he smelled an acid sweetness that told him the ocean was not far off, his pulse quickened in anticipation. [38] Rather than spoil what was clearly going to be a perfect day, he chose to ignore the fact that he had been forbidden to use time-stopping as a convenience for journeying far from home. [39] He chose to ignore the oft-repeated statement that an hour of time-stopping consumed more energy than a week of foot-racing. [40] He chose to ignore the negative maxim that "small children who stop time without an adult being present, may not live to regret it." [41] He chose, instead, to picture the beaming praise of family and friends when they learned of his brave journey. [42] The journey was long, the clock stood still. [43] He stopped long enough to gather some fruit that grew along the path. [44] It would serve as his lunch during this day of promise. [45] With it under his arm he bounded along a dozen more steps, then stopped abruptly in his tracks. [46] He found himself atop a rocky knoll, overlooking the mighty sea! [47] He was so overpowered by the vista before him that his "Hurrah!" [48] came out as a weak squeak. [49] The ocean lay at the ready, its stilled waves awaiting his command to resume their tidal sweep. [50] The breakers along the shoreline hung in varying stages of disarray, some having already exploded into towering white spray while others were poised in smooth orange curls waiting to start that action. [51] And there were new friends everywhere! [52] Overhead, a flock of spora were frozen in a steep glide, preparatory to a beach landing. [53] Purnie had heard of these playful creatures many times. [54] Today, with his brothers in school, he would have the pets all to himself. [55] Further down the beach was a pair of two-legged animals poised in mid-step, facing the spot where Purnie now stood. [56] Some distance behind them were eight more, each of whom were motionless in a curious pose of interrupted animation. [57] And down in the water, where the ocean ran itself into thin nothingness upon the sand, he saw standing here and there the comical tripons, those three-legged marine buffoons who made handsome careers of munching seaweed. [58] "Hi there!" [59] Purnie called. [60] When he got no reaction, he remembered that he himself was "dead" to the living world: he was still in a zone of time-stopping, on the inside looking out. [61] For him, the world would continue to be a tableau of mannikins until he resumed time. [62] "Hi there!" [63] he called again; but now his mental attitude was that he expected time to resume. [64] It did! [65] Immediately he was surrounded by activity. [66] He heard the roar of the crashing orange breakers, he tasted the dew of acid that floated from the spray, and he saw his new friends continue the actions which he had stopped while back in the forest. [67] He knew, too, that at this moment, in the forest, the little brook picked up its flow where it had left off, the purple clouds resumed their leeward journey up the valley, and the bees continued their pollen-gathering without having missed a single stroke of their delicate wings. [68] The brook, the clouds, and the insects had not been interrupted in the least; their respective tasks had been performed with continuing sureness. [69] It was time itself that Purnie had stopped, not the world around him. [70] He scampered around the rockpile and down the sandy cliff to meet the tripons who, to him, had just come to life. [71] "I can stand on my head!" [72] He set down his lunch and balanced himself bottoms-up while his legs pawed the air in an effort to hold him in position. [73] He knew it was probably the worst head-stand he had ever done, for he felt weak and dizzy. [74] Already time-stopping had left its mark on his strength. [75] But his spirits ran on unchecked. [76] The tripon thought Purnie's feat was superb. [77] It stopped munching long enough to give him a salutory wag of its rump before returning to its repast. [78] Purnie ran from pillar to post, trying to see and do everything at once. [79] He looked around to greet the flock of spora, but they had glided to a spot further along the shore. [80] Then, bouncing up to the first of the two-legged animals, he started to burst forth with his habitual "Hi there!" [81] when he heard them making sounds of their own. [82] "... will be no limit to my operations now, Benson. [83] This planet makes seventeen. [84] Seventeen planets I can claim as my own!" [85] "My, my. [86] Seventeen planets. [87] And tell me, Forbes, just what the hell are you going to do with them—mount them on the wall of your den back in San Diego?" [88] "Hi there, wanna play?" [89] Purnie's invitation got nothing more than startled glance from the animals who quickly returned to their chatter. [90] He scampered up the beach, picked up his lunch, and ran back to them, tagging along at their heels. [91] "I've got my lunch, want some?" [92] "Benson, you'd better tell your men back there to stop gawking at the scenery and get to work. [93] Time is money. [94] I didn't pay for this expedition just to give your flunkies a vacation." [95] The animals stopped so suddenly that Purnie nearly tangled himself in their heels. [96] "All right, Forbes, just hold it a minute. [97] Listen to me. [98] Sure, it's your money that put us here; it's your expedition all the way. [99] But you hired me to get you here with the best crew on earth, and that's just what I've done. [100] My job isn't over yet. [101] I'm responsible for the safety of the men while we're here, and for the safe trip home." [102] "Precisely. [103] And since you're responsible, get 'em working. [104] Tell 'em to bring along the flag. [105] Look at the damn fools back there, playing in the ocean with a three-legged ostrich!" [106] "Good God, man, aren't you human? [107] We've only been on this planet twenty minutes! [108] Naturally they want to look around. [109] They half expected to find wild animals or worse, and here we are surrounded by quaint little creatures that run up to us like we're long-lost brothers. [110] Let the men look around a minute or two before we stake out your claim." [111] "Bah! [112] Bunch of damn children." [113] As Purnie followed along, a leg shot out at him and missed. [114] "Benson, will you get this bug-eyed kangaroo away from me!" [115] Purnie shrieked with joy at this new frolic and promptly stood on his head. [116] In this position he got an upside down view of them walking away. [117] He gave up trying to stay with them. [118] Why did they move so fast, anyway? [119] What was the hurry? [120] As he sat down and began eating his lunch, three more of the creatures came along making excited noises, apparently trying to catch up to the first two. [121] As they passed him, he held out his lunch. [122] "Want some?" [123] No response. [124] Playing held more promise than eating. [125] He left his lunch half eaten and went down to where they had stopped further along the beach. [126] "Captain Benson, sir! [127] Miles has detected strong radiation in the vicinity. [128] He's trying to locate it now." [129] "There you are, Forbes. [130] Your new piece of real estate is going to make you so rich that you can buy your next planet. [131] That'll make eighteen, I believe." [132] "Radiation, bah! [133] We've found low-grade ore on every planet I've discovered so far, and this one'll be no different. [134] Now how about that flag? [135] Let's get it up, Benson. [136] And the cornerstone, and the plaque." [137] "All right, lads. [138] The sooner we get Mr. Forbes's pennant raised and his claim staked out, the sooner we can take time to look around. [139] Lively now!" [140] When the three animals went back to join the rest of their group, the first two resumed walking. [141] Purnie followed along. [142] "Well, Benson, you won't have to look far for materials to use for the base of the flag pole. [143] Look at that rockpile up there. [144] "Can't use them. [145] They're petrified logs. [146] The ones on top are too high to carry down, and if we move those on the bottom, the whole works will slide down on top of us." [147] "Well—that's your problem. [148] Just remember, I want this flag pole to be solid. [149] It's got to stand at least—" "Don't worry, Forbes, we'll get your monument erected. [150] What's this with the flag? [151] There must be more to staking a claim than just putting up a flag." [152] "There is, there is. [153] Much more. [154] I've taken care of all requirements set down by law to make my claim. [155] But the flag? [156] Well, you might say it represents an empire, Benson. [157] The Forbes Empire. [158] On each of my flags is the word FORBES, a symbol of development and progress. [159] Call it sentiment if you will." [160] "Don't worry, I won't. [161] I've seen real-estate flags before." [162] "Damn it all, will you stop referring to this as a real-estate deal? [163] What I'm doing is big, man. [164] Big! [165] This is pioneering." [166] "Of course. [167] And if I'm not mistaken, you've set up a neat little escrow system so that you not only own the planets, but you will virtually own the people who are foolish enough to buy land on them." [168] "I could have your hide for talking to me like this. [169] Damn you, man! [170] It's people like me who pay your way. [171] It's people like me who give your space ships some place to go. [172] It's people like me who pour good money into a chancey job like this, so that people like you can get away from thirteen-story tenement houses. [173] Did you ever think of that?" [174] "I imagine you'll triple your money in six months." [175] When they stopped, Purnie stopped. [176] At first he had been interested in the strange sounds they were making, but as he grew used to them, and as they in turn ignored his presence, he hopped alongside chattering to himself, content to be in their company. [177] He heard more of these sounds coming from behind, and he turned to see the remainder of the group running toward them. [178] "Captain Benson! [179] Here's the flag, sir. [180] And here's Miles with the scintillometer. [181] He says the radiation's getting stronger over this way!" [182] "How about that, Miles?" [183] "This thing's going wild, Captain. [184] It's almost off scale." [185] Purnie saw one of the animals hovering around him with a little box. [186] Thankful for the attention, he stood on his head. [187] "Can you do this?" [188] He was overjoyed at the reaction. [189] They all started making wonderful noises, and he felt most satisfied. [190] "Stand back, Captain! [191] Here's the source right here! [192] This little chuck-walla's hotter than a plutonium pile!" [193] "Let me see that, Miles. [194] Well, I'll be damned! [195] Now what do you suppose—" By now they had formed a widening circle around him, and he was hard put to think of an encore. [196] He gambled on trying a brand new trick: he stood on one leg. [197] "Benson, I must have that animal! [198] Put him in a box." [199] "Now wait a minute, Forbes. [200] Universal Law forbids—" "This is my planet and I am the law. [201] Put him in a box!" [202] "With my crew as witness, I officially protest—" "Good God, what a specimen to take back. [203] Radio-active animals! [204] Why, they can reproduce themselves, of course! [205] There must be thousands of these creatures around here someplace. [206] And to think of those damn fools on Earth with their plutonium piles! [207] Hah! [208] Now I'll have investors flocking to me. [209] How about it, Benson—does pioneering pay off or doesn't it?" [210] "Not so fast. [211] Since this little fellow is radioactive, there may be great danger to the crew—" "Now look here! [212] You had planned to put mineral specimens in a lead box, so what's the difference? [213] Put him in a box." [214] "He'll die." [215] "I have you under contract, Benson! [216] You are responsible to me, and what's more, you are on my property. [217] Put him in a box." [218] Purnie was tired. [219] First the time-stopping, then this. [220] While this day had brought more fun and excitement than he could have hoped for, the strain was beginning to tell. [221] He lay in the center of the circle happily exhausted, hoping that his friends would show him some of their own tricks. [222] He didn't have to wait long. [223] The animals forming the circle stepped back and made way for two others who came through carrying a box. [224] Purnie sat up to watch the show. [225] "Hell, Captain, why don't I just pick him up? [226] Looks like he has no intention of running away." [227] "Better not, Cabot. [228] Even though you're shielded, no telling what powers the little fella has. [229] Play it safe and use the rope." [230] "I swear he knows what we're saying. [231] Look at those eyes." [232] "All right, careful now with that line." [233] "Come on, baby. [234] Here you go. [235] That's a boy!" [236] Purnie took in these sounds with perplexed concern. [237] He sensed the imploring quality of the creature with the rope, but he didn't know what he was supposed to do. [238] He cocked his head to one side as he wiggled in anticipation. [239] He saw the noose spinning down toward his head, and, before he knew it, he had scooted out of the circle and up the sandy beach. [240] He was surprised at himself for running away. [241] Why had he done it? [242] He wondered. [243] Never before had he felt this fleeting twinge that made him want to protect himself. [244] He watched the animals huddle around the box on the beach, their attention apparently diverted to something else. [245] He wished now that he had not run away; he felt he had lost his chance to join in their fun. [246] "Wait!" [247] He ran over to his half-eaten lunch, picked it up, and ran back into the little crowd. [248] "I've got my lunch, want some?" [249] The party came to life once more. [250] His friends ran this way and that, and at last Purnie knew that the idea was to get him into the box. [251] He picked up the spirit of the tease, and deliberately ran within a few feet of the lead box, then, just as the nearest pursuer was about to push him in, he sidestepped onto safer ground. [252] Then he heard a deafening roar and felt a warm, wet sting in one of his legs. [253] "Forbes, you fool! [254] Put away that gun!" [255] "There you are, boys. [256] It's all in knowing how. [257] Just winged him, that's all. [258] Now pick him up." [259] The pang in his leg was nothing: Purnie's misery lay in his confusion. [260] What had he done wrong? [261] When he saw the noose spinning toward him again, he involuntarily stopped time. [262] He knew better than to use this power carelessly, but his action now was reflex. [263] In that split second following the sharp sting in his leg, his mind had grasped in all directions to find an acceptable course of action. [264] Finding none, it had ordered the stoppage of time. [265] The scene around him became a tableau once more. [266] The noose hung motionless over his head while the rest of the rope snaked its way in transverse waves back to one of the two-legged animals. [267] Purnie dragged himself through the congregation, whimpering from his inability to understand. [268] As he worked his way past one creature after another, he tried at first to not look them in the eye, for he felt sure he had done something wrong. [269] Then he thought that by sneaking a glance at them as he passed, he might see a sign pointing to their purpose. [270] He limped by one who had in his hand a small shiny object that had been emitting smoke from one end; the smoke now billowed in lifeless curls about the animal's head. [271] He hobbled by another who held a small box that had previously made a hissing sound whenever Purnie was near. [272] These things told him nothing. [273] Before starting his climb up the knoll, he passed a tripon which, true to its reputation, was comical even in fright. [274] Startled by the loud explosion, it had jumped four feet into the air before Purnie had stopped time. [275] Now it hung there, its beak stuffed with seaweed and its three legs drawn up into a squatting position. [276] Leaving the assorted statues behind, he limped his way up the knoll, torn between leaving and staying. [277] What an odd place, this ocean country! [278] He wondered why he had not heard more detail about the beach animals. [279] Reaching the top of the bluff, he looked down upon his silent friends with a feeling of deep sorrow. [280] How he wished he were down there playing with them. [281] But he knew at last that theirs was a game he didn't fit into. [282] Now there was nothing left but to resume time and start the long walk home. [283] Even though the short day was nearly over, he knew he didn't dare use time-stopping to get himself home in nothing flat. [284] His fatigued body and clouded mind were strong signals that he had already abused this faculty. [285] When Purnie started time again, the animal with the noose stood in open-mouthed disbelief as the rope fell harmlessly to the sand—on the spot where Purnie had been standing. [286] "My God, he's—he's gone." [287] Then another of the animals, the one with the smoking thing in his hand, ran a few steps toward the noose, stopped and gaped at the rope. [288] "All right, you people, what's going on here? [289] Get him in that box. [290] What did you do with him?" [291] The resumption of time meant nothing at all to those on the beach, for to them time had never stopped. [292] The only thing they could be sure of was that at one moment there had been a fuzzy creature hopping around in front of them, and the next moment he was gone. [293] "Is he invisible, Captain? [294] Where is he?" [295] "Up there, Captain! [296] On those rocks. [297] Isn't that him?" [298] "Well, I'll be damned!" [299] "Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this! [300] Now that you've botched it up, I'll bring him down my own way." [301] "Just a minute, Forbes, let me think. [302] There's something about that fuzzy little devil that we should.... Forbes! [303] I warned you about that gun!" [304] Purnie moved across the top of the rockpile for a last look at his friends. [305] His weight on the end of the first log started the slide. [306] Slowly at first, the giant pencils began cascading down the short distance to the sand. [307] Purnie fell back onto solid ground, horrified at the spectacle before him. [308] The agonizing screams of the animals below filled him with hysteria. [309] The boulders caught most of them as they stood ankle-deep in the surf. [310] Others were pinned down on the sand. [311] "I didn't mean it!" [312] Purnie screamed. [313] "I'm sorry! [314] Can't you hear?" [315] He hopped back and forth near the edge of the rise, torn with panic and shame. [316] "Get up! [317] Please get up!" [318] He was horrified by the moans reaching his ears from the beach. [319] "You're getting all wet! [320] Did you hear me? [321] Please get up." [322] He was choked with rage and sorrow. [323] How could he have done this? [324] He wanted his friends to get up and shake themselves off, tell him it was all right. [325] But it was beyond his power to bring it about. [326] The lapping tide threatened to cover those in the orange surf. [327] Purnie worked his way down the hill, imploring them to save themselves. [328] The sounds they made carried a new tone, a desperate foreboding of death. [329] "Rhodes! [330] Cabot! [331] Can you hear me?" [332] "I—I can't move, Captain. [333] My leg, it's.... My God, we're going to drown!" [334] "Look around you, Cabot. [335] Can you see anyone moving?" [336] "The men on the beach are nearly buried, Captain. [337] And the rest of us here in the water—" "Forbes. [338] Can you see Forbes? [339] Maybe he's—" His sounds were cut off by a wavelet gently rolling over his head. [340] Purnie could wait no longer. [341] The tides were all but covering one of the animals, and soon the others would be in the same plight. [342] Disregarding the consequences, he ordered time to stop. [343] Wading down into the surf, he worked a log off one victim, then he tugged the animal up to the sand. [344] Through blinding tears, Purnie worked slowly and carefully. [345] He knew there was no hurry—at least, not as far as his friends' safety was concerned. [346] No matter what their condition of life or death was at this moment, it would stay the same way until he started time again. [347] He made his way deeper into the orange liquid, where a raised hand signalled the location of a submerged body. [348] The hand was clutching a large white banner that was tangled among the logs. [349] Purnie worked the animal free and pulled it ashore. [350] It was the one who had been carrying the shiny object that spit smoke. [351] Scarcely noticing his own injured leg, he ferried one victim after another until there were no more in the surf. [352] Up on the beach, he started unraveling the logs that pinned down the animals caught there. [353] He removed a log from the lap of one, who then remained in a sitting position, his face contorted into a frozen mask of agony and shock. [354] Another, with the weight removed, rolled over like an iron statue into a new position. [355] Purnie whimpered in black misery as he surveyed the chaotic scene before him. [356] At last he could do no more; he felt consciousness slipping away from him. [357] He instinctively knew that if he lost his senses during a period of time-stopping, events would pick up where they had left off ... without him. [358] For Purnie, this would be death. [359] If he had to lose consciousness, he knew he must first resume time. [360] Step by step he plodded up the little hill, pausing every now and then to consider if this were the moment to start time before it was too late. [361] With his energy fast draining away, he reached the top of the knoll, and he turned to look down once more on the group below. [362] Then he knew how much his mind and body had suffered: when he ordered time to resume, nothing happened. [363] His heart sank. [364] He wasn't afraid of death, and he knew that if he died the oceans would roll again and his friends would move about. [365] But he wanted to see them safe. [366] He tried to clear his mind for supreme effort. [367] There was no urging time to start. [368] He knew he couldn't persuade it by bits and pieces, first slowly then full ahead. [369] Time either progressed or it didn't. [370] He had to take one viewpoint or the other. [371] Then, without knowing exactly when it happened, his mind took command.... His friends came to life. [372] The first one he saw stir lay on his stomach and pounded his fists on the beach. [373] A flood of relief settled over Purnie as sounds came from the animal. [374] "What's the matter with me? [375] Somebody tell me! [376] Am I nuts? [377] Miles! [378] Schick! [379] What's happening?" [380] "I'm coming, Rhodes! [381] Heaven help us, man—I saw it, too. [382] We're either crazy or those damn logs are alive!" [383] "It's not the logs. [384] How about us? [385] How'd we get out of the water? [386] Miles, we're both cracking." [387] "I'm telling you, man, it's the logs, or rocks or whatever they are. [388] I was looking right at them. [389] First they're on top of me, then they're piled up over there!" [390] "Damnit, the logs didn't pick us up out of the ocean, did they? [391] Captain Benson!" [392] "Are you men all right?" [393] "Yes sir, but—" "Who saw exactly what happened?" [394] "I'm afraid we're not seeing right, Captain. [395] Those logs—" "I know, I know. [396] Now get hold of yourselves. [397] We've got to round up the others and get out of here while time is on our side." [398] "But what happened, Captain?" [399] "Hell, Rhodes, don't you think I'd like to know? [400] Those logs are so old they're petrified. [401] The whole bunch of us couldn't lift one. [402] It would take super-human energy to move one of those things." [403] "I haven't seen anything super-human. [404] Those ostriches down there are so busy eating seaweed—" "All right, let's bear a hand here with the others. [405] Some of them can't walk. [406] Where's Forbes?" [407] "He's sitting down there in the water, Captain, crying like a baby. [408] Or laughing. [409] I can't tell which." [410] "We'll have to get him. [411] Miles, Schick, come along. [412] Forbes! [413] You all right?" [414] "Ho-ho-ho! [415] Seventeen! [416] Seventeen! [417] Seventeen planets, Benson, and they'll do anything I say! [418] This one's got a mind of its own. [419] Did you see that little trick with the rocks? [420] Ho-ho!" [421] "See if you can find his gun, Schick; he'll either kill himself or one of us. [422] Tie his hands and take him back to the ship. [423] We'll be along shortly." [424] "Hah-hah-hah! [425] Seventeen! [426] Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this. [427] Hee-hee!" [428] Purnie opened his eyes as consciousness returned. [429] Had his friends gone? [430] He pulled himself along on his stomach to a position between two rocks, where he could see without being seen. [431] By the light of the twin moons he saw that they were leaving, marching away in groups of two and three, the weak helping the weaker. [432] As they disappeared around the curving shoreline, the voices of the last two, bringing up the rear far behind the others, fell faintly on his ears over the sound of the surf. [433] "Is it possible that we're all crazy, Captain?" [434] "It's possible, but we're not." [435] "I wish I could be sure." [436] "See Forbes up ahead there? [437] What do you think of him?" [438] "I still can't believe it." [439] "He'll never be the same." [440] "Tell me something. [441] What was the most unusual thing you noticed back there?" [442] "You must be kidding, sir. [443] Why, the way those logs were off of us suddenly—" "Yes, of course. [444] But I mean beside that." [445] "Well, I guess I was kind of busy. [446] You know, scared and mixed up." [447] "But didn't you notice our little pop-eyed friend?" [448] "Oh, him. [449] I'm afraid not, Captain. [450] I—I guess I was thinking mostly of myself." [451] "Hmmm. [452] If I could only be sure I saw him. [453] If only someone else saw him too." [454] "I'm afraid I don't follow you, sir." [455] "Well, damn it all, you know that Forbes took a pot shot at him. [456] Got him in the leg. [457] That being the case, why would the fuzzy little devil come back to his tormentors—back to us—when we were trapped under those logs?" [458] "Well, I guess as long as we were trapped, he figured we couldn't do him any more harm.... [459] I'm sorry, that was a stupid answer. [460] I guess I'm still a little shaky." [461] "Forget it. [462] Look, you go ahead to the ship and make ready for take-off. [463] I'll join you in a few minutes. [464] I think I'll go back and look around. [465] You know. [466] Make sure we haven't left anyone." [467] "No need to do that. [468] They're all ahead of us. [469] I've checked." [470] "That's my responsibility, Cabot, not yours. [471] Now go on." [472] As Purnie lay gathering strength for the long trek home, he saw through glazed eyes one of the animals coming back along the beach. [473] When it was nearly directly below him, he could hear it making sounds that by now had become familiar. [474] "Where are you?" [475] Purnie paid little attention to the antics of his friend; he was beyond understanding. [476] He wondered what they would say at home when he returned. [477] "We've made a terrible mistake. [478] We—" The sounds faded in and out on Purnie's ears as the creature turned slowly and called in different directions. [479] He watched the animal walk over to the pile of scattered logs and peer around and under them. [480] "If you're hurt I'd like to help!" [481] The twin moons were high in the sky now, and where their light broke through the swirling clouds a double shadow was cast around the animal. [482] With foggy awareness, Purnie watched the creature shake its head slowly, then walk away in the direction of the others. [483] Purnie's eyes stared, without seeing, at the panorama before him. [484] The beach was deserted now, and his gaze was transfixed on a shimmering white square floating on the ocean. [485] Across it, the last thing Purnie ever saw, was emblazoned the word FORBES.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [3] It was a fine day at the beach for Purnie's game—but his new friends played very rough! 2. [4] Purnie ran laughing and shouting through the forest until he could run no more. 3. [6] He was free to see the ocean at last. 4. [20] With everything around him in a state of perfect tableau, Purnie hurried toward the ocean. 5. [27] There would be a rockslide of petrified logs to play on, the ocean itself with waves higher than a house, the comical three-legged tripons who never stopped munching on seaweed, and many kinds of other wonderful creatures found only at the ocean. 6. [46] He found himself atop a rocky knoll, overlooking the mighty sea! 7. [51] And there were new friends everywhere! 8. [57] And down in the water, where the ocean ran itself into thin nothingness upon the sand, he saw standing here and there the comical tripons, those three-legged marine buffoons who made handsome careers of munching seaweed. 9. [82] "This planet makes seventeen. Seventeen planets I can claim as my own!" 10. [106] "Good God, man, aren't you human? We've only been on this planet twenty minutes!" 11. [152] "There is, there is. Much more. I've taken care of all requirements set down by law to make my claim." 12. [197] "Benson, I must have that animal! Put him in a box." 13. [255] "There you are, boys. It's all in knowing how. Just winged him, that's all. Now pick him up." 14. [299] "Forbes, I'm holding you personally responsible for this! Now that you've botched it up, I'll bring him down my own way." 15. [332] "I—I can't move, Captain. My leg, it's.... My God, we're going to drown!" 16. [414] "Ho-ho-ho! Seventeen! Seventeen! Seventeen planets, Benson, and they'll do anything I say!" 17. [451] "But didn't you notice our little pop-eyed friend?" 18. [462] "Look, you go ahead to the ship and make ready for take-off. I'll join you in a few minutes. I think I'll go back and look around."

Describe Forbes' relationship with Benson.

[1] BEACH SCENE By MARSHALL KING Illustrated by WOOD [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Magazine October 1960. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] It was a fine day at the beach for Purnie's game—but his new friends played very rough! [4] Purnie ran laughing and shouting through the forest until he could run no more. [5] He fell headlong into a patch of blue moss and whooped with delight in having this day free for exploring. [6] He was free to see the ocean at last. [7] When he had caught his breath, he looked back through the forest. [8] No sign of the village; he had left it far behind. [9] Safe from the scrutiny of brothers and parents, there was nothing now to stop him from going to the ocean. [10] This was the moment to stop time. [11] "On your mark!" [12] he shouted to the rippling stream and its orange whirlpools. [13] He glanced furtively from side to side, pretending that some object might try to get a head start. [14] "Get set!" [15] he challenged the thin-winged bees that hovered over the abundant foliage. [16] "Stop!" [17] He shrieked this command upward toward the dense, low-hanging purple clouds that perennially raced across the treetops, making one wonder how tall the trees really were. [18] His eyes took quick inventory. [19] It was exactly as he knew it would be: the milky-orange stream had become motionless and its minute whirlpools had stopped whirling; a nearby bee hung suspended over a paka plant, its transparent wings frozen in position for a downward stroke; and the heavy purple fluid overhead held fast in its manufacture of whorls and nimbi. [20] With everything around him in a state of perfect tableau, Purnie hurried toward the ocean. [21] If only the days weren't so short! [22] he thought. [23] There was so much to see and so little time. [24] It seemed that everyone except him had seen the wonders of the beach country. [25] The stories he had heard from his brothers and their friends had taunted him for as long as he could remember. [26] So many times had he heard these thrilling tales that now, as he ran along, he could clearly picture the wonderland as though he were already there. [27] There would be a rockslide of petrified logs to play on, the ocean itself with waves higher than a house, the comical three-legged tripons who never stopped munching on seaweed, and many kinds of other wonderful creatures found only at the ocean. [28] He bounced through the forest as though the world was reserved this day just for him. [29] And who could say it wasn't? [30] he thought. [31] Wasn't this his fifth birthday? [32] He ran along feeling sorry for four-year-olds, and even for those who were only four and a half, for they were babies and wouldn't dare try slipping away to the ocean alone. [33] But five! [34] "I'll set you free, Mr. Bee—just wait and see!" [35] As he passed one of the many motionless pollen-gathering insects he met on the way, he took care not to brush against it or disturb its interrupted task. [36] When Purnie had stopped time, the bees—like all the other creatures he met—had been arrested in their native activities, and he knew that as soon as he resumed time, everything would pick up where it had left off. [37] When he smelled an acid sweetness that told him the ocean was not far off, his pulse quickened in anticipation. [38] Rather than spoil what was clearly going to be a perfect day, he chose to ignore the fact that he had been forbidden to use time-stopping as a convenience for journeying far from home. [39] He chose to ignore the oft-repeated statement that an hour of time-stopping consumed more energy than a week of foot-racing. [40] He chose to ignore the negative maxim that "small children who stop time without an adult being present, may not live to regret it." [41] He chose, instead, to picture the beaming praise of family and friends when they learned of his brave journey. [42] The journey was long, the clock stood still. [43] He stopped long enough to gather some fruit that grew along the path. [44] It would serve as his lunch during this day of promise. [45] With it under his arm he bounded along a dozen more steps, then stopped abruptly in his tracks. [46] He found himself atop a rocky knoll, overlooking the mighty sea! [47] He was so overpowered by the vista before him that his "Hurrah!" [48] came out as a weak squeak. [49] The ocean lay at the ready, its stilled waves awaiting his command to resume their tidal sweep. [50] The breakers along the shoreline hung in varying stages of disarray, some having already exploded into towering white spray while others were poised in smooth orange curls waiting to start that action. [51] And there were new friends everywhere! [52] Overhead, a flock of spora were frozen in a steep glide, preparatory to a beach landing. [53] Purnie had heard of these playful creatures many times. [54] Today, with his brothers in school, he would have the pets all to himself. [55] Further down the beach was a pair of two-legged animals poised in mid-step, facing the spot where Purnie now stood. [56] Some distance behind them were eight more, each of whom were motionless in a curious pose of interrupted animation. [57] And down in the water, where the ocean ran itself into thin nothingness upon the sand, he saw standing here and there the comical tripons, those three-legged marine buffoons who made handsome careers of munching seaweed. [58] "Hi there!" [59] Purnie called. [60] When he got no reaction, he remembered that he himself was "dead" to the living world: he was still in a zone of time-stopping, on the inside looking out. [61] For him, the world would continue to be a tableau of mannikins until he resumed time. [62] "Hi there!" [63] he called again; but now his mental attitude was that he expected time to resume. [64] It did! [65] Immediately he was surrounded by activity. [66] He heard the roar of the crashing orange breakers, he tasted the dew of acid that floated from the spray, and he saw his new friends continue the actions which he had stopped while back in the forest. [67] He knew, too, that at this moment, in the forest, the little brook picked up its flow where it had left off, the purple clouds resumed their leeward journey up the valley, and the bees continued their pollen-gathering without having missed a single stroke of their delicate wings. [68] The brook, the clouds, and the insects had not been interrupted in the least; their respective tasks had been performed with continuing sureness. [69] It was time itself that Purnie had stopped, not the world around him. [70] He scampered around the rockpile and down the sandy cliff to meet the tripons who, to him, had just come to life. [71] "I can stand on my head!" [72] He set down his lunch and balanced himself bottoms-up while his legs pawed the air in an effort to hold him in position. [73] He knew it was probably the worst head-stand he had ever done, for he felt weak and dizzy. [74] Already time-stopping had left its mark on his strength. [75] But his spirits ran on unchecked. [76] The tripon thought Purnie's feat was superb. [77] It stopped munching long enough to give him a salutory wag of its rump before returning to its repast. [78] Purnie ran from pillar to post, trying to see and do everything at once. [79] He looked around to greet the flock of spora, but they had glided to a spot further along the shore. [80] Then, bouncing up to the first of the two-legged animals, he started to burst forth with his habitual "Hi there!" [81] when he heard them making sounds of their own. [82] "... will be no limit to my operations now, Benson. [83] This planet makes seventeen. [84] Seventeen planets I can claim as my own!" [85] "My, my. [86] Seventeen planets. [87] And tell me, Forbes, just what the hell are you going to do with them—mount them on the wall of your den back in San Diego?" [88] "Hi there, wanna play?" [89] Purnie's invitation got nothing more than startled glance from the animals who quickly returned to their chatter. [90] He scampered up the beach, picked up his lunch, and ran back to them, tagging along at their heels. [91] "I've got my lunch, want some?" [92] "Benson, you'd better tell your men back there to stop gawking at the scenery and get to work. [93] Time is money. [94] I didn't pay for this expedition just to give your flunkies a vacation." [95] The animals stopped so suddenly that Purnie nearly tangled himself in their heels. [96] "All right, Forbes, just hold it a minute. [97] Listen to me. [98] Sure, it's your money that put us here; it's your expedition all the way. [99] But you hired me to get you here with the best crew on earth, and that's just what I've done. [100] My job isn't over yet. [101] I'm responsible for the safety of the men while we're here, and for the safe trip home." [102] "Precisely. [103] And since you're responsible, get 'em working. [104] Tell 'em to bring along the flag. [105] Look at the damn fools back there, playing in the ocean with a three-legged ostrich!" [106] "Good God, man, aren't you human? [107] We've only been on this planet twenty minutes! [108] Naturally they want to look around. [109] They half expected to find wild animals or worse, and here we are surrounded by quaint little creatures that run up to us like we're long-lost brothers. [110] Let the men look around a minute or two before we stake out your claim." [111] "Bah! [112] Bunch of damn children." [113] As Purnie followed along, a leg shot out at him and missed. [114] "Benson, will you get this bug-eyed kangaroo away from me!" [115] Purnie shrieked with joy at this new frolic and promptly stood on his head. [116] In this position he got an upside down view of them walking away. [117] He gave up trying to stay with them. [118] Why did they move so fast, anyway? [119] What was the hurry? [120] As he sat down and began eating his lunch, three more of the creatures came along making excited noises, apparently trying to catch up to the first two. [121] As they passed him, he held out his lunch. [122] "Want some?" [123] No response. [124] Playing held more promise than eating. [125] He left his lunch half eaten and went down to where they had stopped further along the beach. [126] "Captain Benson, sir! [127] Miles has detected strong radiation in the vicinity. [128] He's trying to locate it now." [129] "There you are, Forbes. [130] Your new piece of real estate is going to make you so rich that you can buy your next planet. [131] That'll make eighteen, I believe." [132] "Radiation, bah! [133] We've found low-grade ore on every planet I've discovered so far, and this one'll be no different. [134] Now how about that flag? [135] Let's get it up, Benson. [136] And the cornerstone, and the plaque." [137] "All right, lads. [138] The sooner we get Mr. Forbes's pennant raised and his claim staked out, the sooner we can take time to look around. [139] Lively now!" [140] When the three animals went back to join the rest of their group, the first two resumed walking. [141] Purnie followed along. [142] "Well, Benson, you won't have to look far for materials to use for the base of the flag pole. [143] Look at that rockpile up there. [144] "Can't use them. [145] They're petrified logs. [146] The ones on top are too high to carry down, and if we move those on the bottom, the whole works will slide down on top of us." [147] "Well—that's your problem. [148] Just remember, I want this flag pole to be solid. [149] It's got to stand at least—" "Don't worry, Forbes, we'll get your monument erected. [150] What's this with the flag? [151] There must be more to staking a claim than just putting up a flag." [152] "There is, there is. [153] Much more. [154] I've taken care of all requirements set down by law to make my claim. [155] But the flag? [156] Well, you might say it represents an empire, Benson. [157] The Forbes Empire. [158] On each of my flags is the word FORBES, a symbol of development and progress. [159] Call it sentiment if you will." [160] "Don't worry, I won't. [161] I've seen real-estate flags before." [162] "Damn it all, will you stop referring to this as a real-estate deal? [163] What I'm doing is big, man. [164] Big! [165] This is pioneering." [166] "Of course. [167] And if I'm not mistaken, you've set up a neat little escrow system so that you not only own the planets, but you will virtually own the people who are foolish enough to buy land on them." [168] "I could have your hide for talking to me like this. [169] Damn you, man! [170] It's people like me who pay your way. [171] It's people like me who give your space ships some place to go. [172] It's people like me who pour good money into a chancey job like this, so that people like you can get away from thirteen-story tenement houses. [173] Did you ever think of that?" [174] "I imagine you'll triple your money in six months." [175] When they stopped, Purnie stopped. [176] At first he had been interested in the strange sounds they were making, but as he grew used to them, and as they in turn ignored his presence, he hopped alongside chattering to himself, content to be in their company. [177] He heard more of these sounds coming from behind, and he turned to see the remainder of the group running toward them. [178] "Captain Benson! [179] Here's the flag, sir. [180] And here's Miles with the scintillometer. [181] He says the radiation's getting stronger over this way!" [182] "How about that, Miles?" [183] "This thing's going wild, Captain. [184] It's almost off scale." [185] Purnie saw one of the animals hovering around him with a little box. [186] Thankful for the attention, he stood on his head. [187] "Can you do this?" [188] He was overjoyed at the reaction. [189] They all started making wonderful noises, and he felt most satisfied. [190] "Stand back, Captain! [191] Here's the source right here! [192] This little chuck-walla's hotter than a plutonium pile!" [193] "Let me see that, Miles. [194] Well, I'll be damned! [195] Now what do you suppose—" By now they had formed a widening circle around him, and he was hard put to think of an encore. [196] He gambled on trying a brand new trick: he stood on one leg. [197] "Benson, I must have that animal! [198] Put him in a box." [199] "Now wait a minute, Forbes. [200] Universal Law forbids—" "This is my planet and I am the law. [201] Put him in a box!" [202] "With my crew as witness, I officially protest—" "Good God, what a specimen to take back. [203] Radio-active animals! [204] Why, they can reproduce themselves, of course! [205] There must be thousands of these creatures around here someplace. [206] And to think of those damn fools on Earth with their plutonium piles! [207] Hah! [208] Now I'll have investors flocking to me. [209] How about it, Benson—does pioneering pay off or doesn't it?" [210] "Not so fast. [211] Since this little fellow is radioactive, there may be great danger to the crew—" "Now look here! [212] You had planned to put mineral specimens in a lead box, so what's the difference? [213] Put him in a box." [214] "He'll die." [215] "I have you under contract, Benson! [216] You are responsible to me, and what's more, you are on my property. [217] Put him in a box." [218] Purnie was tired. [219] First the time-stopping, then this. [220] While this day had brought more fun and excitement than he could have hoped for, the strain was beginning to tell. [221] He lay in the center of the circle happily exhausted, hoping that his friends would show him some of their own tricks. [222] He didn't have to wait long. [223] The animals forming the circle stepped back and made way for two others who came through carrying a box. [224] Purnie sat up to watch the show. [225] "Hell, Captain, why don't I just pick him up? [226] Looks like he has no intention of running away." [227] "Better not, Cabot. [228] Even though you're shielded, no telling what powers the little fella has. [229] Play it safe and use the rope." [230] "I swear he knows what we're saying. [231] Look at those eyes." [232] "All right, careful now with that line." [233] "Come on, baby. [234] Here you go. [235] That's a boy!" [236] Purnie took in these sounds with perplexed concern. [237] He sensed the imploring quality of the creature with the rope, but he didn't know what he was supposed to do. [238] He cocked his head to one side as he wiggled in anticipation. [239] He saw the noose spinning down toward his head, and, before he knew it, he had scooted out of the circle and up the sandy beach. [240] He was surprised at himself for running away. [241] Why had he done it? [242] He wondered. [243] Never before had he felt this fleeting twinge that made him want to protect himself. [244] He watched the animals huddle around the box on the beach, their attention apparently diverted to something else. [245] He wished now that he had not run away; he felt he had lost his chance to join in their fun. [246] "Wait!" [247] He ran over to his half-eaten lunch, picked it up, and ran back into the little crowd. [248] "I've got my lunch, want some?" [249] The party came to life once more. [250] His friends ran this way and that, and at last Purnie knew that the idea was to get him into the box. [251] He picked up the spirit of the tease, and deliberately ran within a few feet of the lead box, then, just as the nearest pursuer was about to push him in, he sidestepped onto safer ground. [252] Then he heard a deafening roar and felt a warm, wet sting in one of his legs. [253] "Forbes, you fool! [254] Put away that gun!" [255] "There you are, boys. [256] It's all in knowing how. [257] Just winged him, that's all. [258] Now pick him up." [259] The pang in his leg was nothing: Purnie's misery lay in his confusion. [260] What had he done wrong? [261] When he saw the noose spinning toward him again, he involuntarily stopped time. [262] He knew better than to use this power carelessly, but his action now was reflex. [263] In that split second following the sharp sting in his leg, his mind had grasped in all directions to find an acceptable course of action. [264] Finding none, it had ordered the stoppage of time. [265] The scene around him became a tableau once more. [266] The noose hung motionless over his head while the rest of the rope snaked its way in transverse waves back to one of the two-legged animals. [267] Purnie dragged himself through the congregation, whimpering from his inability to understand. [268] As he worked his way past one creature after another, he tried at first to not look them in the eye, for he felt sure he had done something wrong. [269] Then he thought that by sneaking a glance at them as he passed, he might see a sign pointing to their purpose. [270] He limped by one who had in his hand a small shiny object that had been emitting smoke from one end; the smoke now billowed in lifeless curls about the animal's head. [271] He hobbled by another who held a small box that had previously made a hissing sound whenever Purnie was near. [272] These things told him nothing. [273] Before starting his climb up the knoll, he passed a tripon which, true to its reputation, was comical even in fright. [274] Startled by the loud explosion, it had jumped four feet into the air before Purnie had stopped time. [275] Now it hung there, its beak stuffed with seaweed and its three legs drawn up into a squatting position. [276] Leaving the assorted statues behind, he limped his way up the knoll, torn between leaving and staying. [277] What an odd place, this ocean country! [278] He wondered why he had not heard more detail about the beach animals. [279] Reaching the top of the bluff, he looked down upon his silent friends with a feeling of deep sorrow. [280] How he wished he were down there playing with them. [281] But he knew at last that theirs was a game he didn't fit into. [282] Now there was nothing left but to resume time and start the long walk home. [283] Even though the short day was nearly over, he knew he didn't dare use time-stopping to get himself home in nothing flat. [284] His fatigued body and clouded mind were strong signals that he had already abused this faculty. [285] When Purnie started time again, the animal with the noose stood in open-mouthed disbelief as the rope fell harmlessly to the sand—on the spot where Purnie had been standing. [286] "My God, he's—he's gone." [287] Then another of the animals, the one with the smoking thing in his hand, ran a few steps toward the noose, stopped and gaped at the rope. [288] "All right, you people, what's going on here? [289] Get him in that box. [290] What did you do with him?" [291] The resumption of time meant nothing at all to those on the beach, for to them time had never stopped. [292] The only thing they could be sure of was that at one moment there had been a fuzzy creature hopping around in front of them, and the next moment he was gone. [293] "Is he invisible, Captain? [294] Where is he?" [295] "Up there, Captain! [296] On those rocks. [297] Isn't that him?" [298] "Well, I'll be damned!" [299] "Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this! [300] Now that you've botched it up, I'll bring him down my own way." [301] "Just a minute, Forbes, let me think. [302] There's something about that fuzzy little devil that we should.... Forbes! [303] I warned you about that gun!" [304] Purnie moved across the top of the rockpile for a last look at his friends. [305] His weight on the end of the first log started the slide. [306] Slowly at first, the giant pencils began cascading down the short distance to the sand. [307] Purnie fell back onto solid ground, horrified at the spectacle before him. [308] The agonizing screams of the animals below filled him with hysteria. [309] The boulders caught most of them as they stood ankle-deep in the surf. [310] Others were pinned down on the sand. [311] "I didn't mean it!" [312] Purnie screamed. [313] "I'm sorry! [314] Can't you hear?" [315] He hopped back and forth near the edge of the rise, torn with panic and shame. [316] "Get up! [317] Please get up!" [318] He was horrified by the moans reaching his ears from the beach. [319] "You're getting all wet! [320] Did you hear me? [321] Please get up." [322] He was choked with rage and sorrow. [323] How could he have done this? [324] He wanted his friends to get up and shake themselves off, tell him it was all right. [325] But it was beyond his power to bring it about. [326] The lapping tide threatened to cover those in the orange surf. [327] Purnie worked his way down the hill, imploring them to save themselves. [328] The sounds they made carried a new tone, a desperate foreboding of death. [329] "Rhodes! [330] Cabot! [331] Can you hear me?" [332] "I—I can't move, Captain. [333] My leg, it's.... My God, we're going to drown!" [334] "Look around you, Cabot. [335] Can you see anyone moving?" [336] "The men on the beach are nearly buried, Captain. [337] And the rest of us here in the water—" "Forbes. [338] Can you see Forbes? [339] Maybe he's—" His sounds were cut off by a wavelet gently rolling over his head. [340] Purnie could wait no longer. [341] The tides were all but covering one of the animals, and soon the others would be in the same plight. [342] Disregarding the consequences, he ordered time to stop. [343] Wading down into the surf, he worked a log off one victim, then he tugged the animal up to the sand. [344] Through blinding tears, Purnie worked slowly and carefully. [345] He knew there was no hurry—at least, not as far as his friends' safety was concerned. [346] No matter what their condition of life or death was at this moment, it would stay the same way until he started time again. [347] He made his way deeper into the orange liquid, where a raised hand signalled the location of a submerged body. [348] The hand was clutching a large white banner that was tangled among the logs. [349] Purnie worked the animal free and pulled it ashore. [350] It was the one who had been carrying the shiny object that spit smoke. [351] Scarcely noticing his own injured leg, he ferried one victim after another until there were no more in the surf. [352] Up on the beach, he started unraveling the logs that pinned down the animals caught there. [353] He removed a log from the lap of one, who then remained in a sitting position, his face contorted into a frozen mask of agony and shock. [354] Another, with the weight removed, rolled over like an iron statue into a new position. [355] Purnie whimpered in black misery as he surveyed the chaotic scene before him. [356] At last he could do no more; he felt consciousness slipping away from him. [357] He instinctively knew that if he lost his senses during a period of time-stopping, events would pick up where they had left off ... without him. [358] For Purnie, this would be death. [359] If he had to lose consciousness, he knew he must first resume time. [360] Step by step he plodded up the little hill, pausing every now and then to consider if this were the moment to start time before it was too late. [361] With his energy fast draining away, he reached the top of the knoll, and he turned to look down once more on the group below. [362] Then he knew how much his mind and body had suffered: when he ordered time to resume, nothing happened. [363] His heart sank. [364] He wasn't afraid of death, and he knew that if he died the oceans would roll again and his friends would move about. [365] But he wanted to see them safe. [366] He tried to clear his mind for supreme effort. [367] There was no urging time to start. [368] He knew he couldn't persuade it by bits and pieces, first slowly then full ahead. [369] Time either progressed or it didn't. [370] He had to take one viewpoint or the other. [371] Then, without knowing exactly when it happened, his mind took command.... His friends came to life. [372] The first one he saw stir lay on his stomach and pounded his fists on the beach. [373] A flood of relief settled over Purnie as sounds came from the animal. [374] "What's the matter with me? [375] Somebody tell me! [376] Am I nuts? [377] Miles! [378] Schick! [379] What's happening?" [380] "I'm coming, Rhodes! [381] Heaven help us, man—I saw it, too. [382] We're either crazy or those damn logs are alive!" [383] "It's not the logs. [384] How about us? [385] How'd we get out of the water? [386] Miles, we're both cracking." [387] "I'm telling you, man, it's the logs, or rocks or whatever they are. [388] I was looking right at them. [389] First they're on top of me, then they're piled up over there!" [390] "Damnit, the logs didn't pick us up out of the ocean, did they? [391] Captain Benson!" [392] "Are you men all right?" [393] "Yes sir, but—" "Who saw exactly what happened?" [394] "I'm afraid we're not seeing right, Captain. [395] Those logs—" "I know, I know. [396] Now get hold of yourselves. [397] We've got to round up the others and get out of here while time is on our side." [398] "But what happened, Captain?" [399] "Hell, Rhodes, don't you think I'd like to know? [400] Those logs are so old they're petrified. [401] The whole bunch of us couldn't lift one. [402] It would take super-human energy to move one of those things." [403] "I haven't seen anything super-human. [404] Those ostriches down there are so busy eating seaweed—" "All right, let's bear a hand here with the others. [405] Some of them can't walk. [406] Where's Forbes?" [407] "He's sitting down there in the water, Captain, crying like a baby. [408] Or laughing. [409] I can't tell which." [410] "We'll have to get him. [411] Miles, Schick, come along. [412] Forbes! [413] You all right?" [414] "Ho-ho-ho! [415] Seventeen! [416] Seventeen! [417] Seventeen planets, Benson, and they'll do anything I say! [418] This one's got a mind of its own. [419] Did you see that little trick with the rocks? [420] Ho-ho!" [421] "See if you can find his gun, Schick; he'll either kill himself or one of us. [422] Tie his hands and take him back to the ship. [423] We'll be along shortly." [424] "Hah-hah-hah! [425] Seventeen! [426] Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this. [427] Hee-hee!" [428] Purnie opened his eyes as consciousness returned. [429] Had his friends gone? [430] He pulled himself along on his stomach to a position between two rocks, where he could see without being seen. [431] By the light of the twin moons he saw that they were leaving, marching away in groups of two and three, the weak helping the weaker. [432] As they disappeared around the curving shoreline, the voices of the last two, bringing up the rear far behind the others, fell faintly on his ears over the sound of the surf. [433] "Is it possible that we're all crazy, Captain?" [434] "It's possible, but we're not." [435] "I wish I could be sure." [436] "See Forbes up ahead there? [437] What do you think of him?" [438] "I still can't believe it." [439] "He'll never be the same." [440] "Tell me something. [441] What was the most unusual thing you noticed back there?" [442] "You must be kidding, sir. [443] Why, the way those logs were off of us suddenly—" "Yes, of course. [444] But I mean beside that." [445] "Well, I guess I was kind of busy. [446] You know, scared and mixed up." [447] "But didn't you notice our little pop-eyed friend?" [448] "Oh, him. [449] I'm afraid not, Captain. [450] I—I guess I was thinking mostly of myself." [451] "Hmmm. [452] If I could only be sure I saw him. [453] If only someone else saw him too." [454] "I'm afraid I don't follow you, sir." [455] "Well, damn it all, you know that Forbes took a pot shot at him. [456] Got him in the leg. [457] That being the case, why would the fuzzy little devil come back to his tormentors—back to us—when we were trapped under those logs?" [458] "Well, I guess as long as we were trapped, he figured we couldn't do him any more harm.... [459] I'm sorry, that was a stupid answer. [460] I guess I'm still a little shaky." [461] "Forget it. [462] Look, you go ahead to the ship and make ready for take-off. [463] I'll join you in a few minutes. [464] I think I'll go back and look around. [465] You know. [466] Make sure we haven't left anyone." [467] "No need to do that. [468] They're all ahead of us. [469] I've checked." [470] "That's my responsibility, Cabot, not yours. [471] Now go on." [472] As Purnie lay gathering strength for the long trek home, he saw through glazed eyes one of the animals coming back along the beach. [473] When it was nearly directly below him, he could hear it making sounds that by now had become familiar. [474] "Where are you?" [475] Purnie paid little attention to the antics of his friend; he was beyond understanding. [476] He wondered what they would say at home when he returned. [477] "We've made a terrible mistake. [478] We—" The sounds faded in and out on Purnie's ears as the creature turned slowly and called in different directions. [479] He watched the animal walk over to the pile of scattered logs and peer around and under them. [480] "If you're hurt I'd like to help!" [481] The twin moons were high in the sky now, and where their light broke through the swirling clouds a double shadow was cast around the animal. [482] With foggy awareness, Purnie watched the creature shake its head slowly, then walk away in the direction of the others. [483] Purnie's eyes stared, without seeing, at the panorama before him. [484] The beach was deserted now, and his gaze was transfixed on a shimmering white square floating on the ocean. [485] Across it, the last thing Purnie ever saw, was emblazoned the word FORBES.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe Forbes' relationship with Benson": 1. [82] "This planet makes seventeen. Seventeen planets I can claim as my own!" 2. [85] "My, my. Seventeen planets." 3. [91] "I've got my lunch, want some?" 4. [92] "Benson, you'd better tell your men back there to stop gawking at the scenery and get to work." 5. [96] "All right, Forbes, just hold it a minute. Listen to me." 6. [98] "Sure, it's your money that put us here; it's your expedition all the way." 7. [99] "But you hired me to get you here with the best crew on earth, and that's just what I've done." 8. [100] "My job isn't over yet. I'm responsible for the safety of the men while we're here, and for the safe trip home." 9. [102] "And since you're responsible, get 'em working." 10. [106] "Good God, man, aren't you human?" 11. [107] "We've only been on this planet twenty minutes!" 12. [108] "Naturally they want to look around." 13. [109] "They half expected to find wild animals or worse, and here we are surrounded by quaint little creatures that run up to us like we're long-lost brothers." 14. [110] "Let the men look around a minute or two before we stake out your claim." 15. [111] "Bah! Bunch of damn children." 16. [113] "Benson, will you get this bug-eyed kangaroo away from me!" 17. [129] "There you are, Forbes. Your new piece of real estate is going to make you so rich that you can buy your next planet." 18. [130] "That'll make eighteen, I believe." 19. [132] "We've found low-grade ore on every planet I've discovered so far, and this one'll be no different." 20. [133] "Now how about that flag? Let's get it up, Benson." 21. [134] "And the cornerstone, and the plaque." 22. [137] "All right, lads. The sooner we get Mr. Forbes's pennant raised and his claim staked out, the sooner we can take time to look around." 23. [140] "Well, Benson, you won't have to look far for materials to use for the base of the flag pole. Look at that rockpile up there." 24. [142] "Can't use them. They're petrified logs." 25. [143] "The ones on top are too high to carry down, and if we move those on the bottom, the whole works will slide down on top of us." 26. [144] "Well—that's your problem." 27. [145] "Just remember, I want this flag pole to be solid." 28. [146] "It's got to stand at least—" 29. [147] "Don't worry, Forbes, we'll get your monument erected." 30. [148] "What's this with the flag? There must be more to staking a claim than just putting up a flag." 31. [152] "There is, there is. Much more." 32. [153] "I've taken care of all requirements set down by law to make my claim." 33. [154] "But the flag? Well, you might say it represents an empire, Benson." 34. [155] "The Forbes Empire." 35. [156] "On each of my flags is the word FORBES, a symbol of development and progress." 36. [157] "Call it sentiment if you will." 37. [158] "I've seen real-estate flags before." 38. [160] "Don't worry, I won't." 39. [161] "I've seen real-estate flags before." 40. [162] "Damn it all, will you stop referring to this as a real-estate deal?" 41. [163] "What I'm doing is big, man. Big!" 42. [164] "This is pioneering." 43. [166] "Of course." 44. [167] "And if I'm not mistaken, you've set up a neat little escrow system so that you not only own the planets, but you will virtually own the people who are foolish enough to buy land on them." 45. [168] "I could have your hide for talking to me like this." 46. [169] "Damn you, man!" 47. [170] "It's people like me who pay your way." 48. [171] "It's people like me who give your space ships some place to go." 49. [172] "It's people like me who pour good money into a chancey job like this, so that people like you can get away from thirteen-story tenement houses." 50. [173] "Did you ever think of that?" 51. [174] "I imagine you'll triple your money in six months." 52. [196] "Benson, I must have that animal! Put him in a box." 53. [197] "Now wait a minute, Forbes. Universal Law forbids—" 54. [199] "This is my planet and I am the law. Put him in a box!" 55. [200] "Good God, what a specimen to take back." 56. [201] "Radio-active animals! Why, they can reproduce themselves, of course!" 57. [202] "And to think of those damn fools on Earth with their plutonium piles! Hah! Now I'll have investors flocking to me." 58. [203] "How about it, Benson—does pioneering pay off or doesn't it?" 59. [209] "Now look here! You had planned to put mineral specimens in a lead box, so what's the difference? Put him in a box." 60. [210] "He'll die." 61. [211] "I have you under contract, Benson! You are responsible to me, and what's more, you are on my property. Put him in a box." 62. [298] "Well, I'll be damned!" 63. [299] "Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this! Now that you've botched it up, I'll bring him down my own way." 64. [300] "Just a minute, Forbes, let me think. There's something about that fuzzy little devil that we should.... Forbes! I warned you about that gun!" 65. [393] "I'm afraid we're not seeing right, Captain. Those logs—" 66. [394] "I know, I know. Now get hold of yourselves. We've got to round up the others and get out of here while time is on our side." 67. [395] "But what happened, Captain?" 68. [396] "Hell, Rhodes, don't you think I'd like to know? Those logs are so old they're petrified. The whole bunch of us couldn't lift one. It would take super-human energy to move one of those things." 69. [397] "I haven't seen anything super-human. Those ostriches down there are so busy eating seaweed—" 70. [398] "All right, let's bear a hand here with the others. Some of them can't walk. Where's Forbes?" 71. [407] "He's sitting down there in the water, Captain, crying like a baby. Or laughing. I can't tell which." 72. [408] "We'll have to get him. Miles, Schick, come along. Forbes! You all right?" 73. [413] "Ho-ho-ho! Seventeen! Seventeen! Seventeen planets, Benson, and they'll do anything I say! This one's got a mind of its own. Did you see that little trick with the rocks? Ho-ho!" 74. [420] "See if you can find his gun, Schick; he'll either kill himself or one of us. Tie his hands and take him back to the ship. We'll be along shortly." 75. [423] "Hah-hah-hah! Seventeen! Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this. Hee-hee!" 76. [451] "If I could only be sure I saw him. If only someone else saw him too." 77. [452] "Well, damn it all, you know that Forbes took a pot shot at him. Got him in the leg." 78. [453] "That being the case, why would the fuzzy little devil come back to his tormentors—back to us—when we were trapped under those logs?" 79. [454] "I'm afraid I don't follow you, sir." 80. [455] "Well, damn it all, you know that Forbes took a pot shot at him. Got him in the leg." 81. [456] "That being the case, why would the fuzzy little devil come back to his tormentors—back to us—when we were trapped under those logs?" 82. [457] "Well, I guess as long as we were trapped, he figured we couldn't do him any more harm...." 83. [458] "I'm sorry, that was a stupid answer. I guess I'm still a little shaky." 84. [459] "Forget it. Look, you go ahead to the ship and make ready for take-off. I'll join you in a few minutes. I think I'll go back and look around." 85. [460] "You know. Make sure we haven't left anyone." 86. [461] "No need to do that. They're all ahead of us. I've checked." 87. [462] "That's my responsibility, Cabot, not yours. Now go on."

Describe the setting of the story.

[1] BEACH SCENE By MARSHALL KING Illustrated by WOOD [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Magazine October 1960. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] It was a fine day at the beach for Purnie's game—but his new friends played very rough! [4] Purnie ran laughing and shouting through the forest until he could run no more. [5] He fell headlong into a patch of blue moss and whooped with delight in having this day free for exploring. [6] He was free to see the ocean at last. [7] When he had caught his breath, he looked back through the forest. [8] No sign of the village; he had left it far behind. [9] Safe from the scrutiny of brothers and parents, there was nothing now to stop him from going to the ocean. [10] This was the moment to stop time. [11] "On your mark!" [12] he shouted to the rippling stream and its orange whirlpools. [13] He glanced furtively from side to side, pretending that some object might try to get a head start. [14] "Get set!" [15] he challenged the thin-winged bees that hovered over the abundant foliage. [16] "Stop!" [17] He shrieked this command upward toward the dense, low-hanging purple clouds that perennially raced across the treetops, making one wonder how tall the trees really were. [18] His eyes took quick inventory. [19] It was exactly as he knew it would be: the milky-orange stream had become motionless and its minute whirlpools had stopped whirling; a nearby bee hung suspended over a paka plant, its transparent wings frozen in position for a downward stroke; and the heavy purple fluid overhead held fast in its manufacture of whorls and nimbi. [20] With everything around him in a state of perfect tableau, Purnie hurried toward the ocean. [21] If only the days weren't so short! [22] he thought. [23] There was so much to see and so little time. [24] It seemed that everyone except him had seen the wonders of the beach country. [25] The stories he had heard from his brothers and their friends had taunted him for as long as he could remember. [26] So many times had he heard these thrilling tales that now, as he ran along, he could clearly picture the wonderland as though he were already there. [27] There would be a rockslide of petrified logs to play on, the ocean itself with waves higher than a house, the comical three-legged tripons who never stopped munching on seaweed, and many kinds of other wonderful creatures found only at the ocean. [28] He bounced through the forest as though the world was reserved this day just for him. [29] And who could say it wasn't? [30] he thought. [31] Wasn't this his fifth birthday? [32] He ran along feeling sorry for four-year-olds, and even for those who were only four and a half, for they were babies and wouldn't dare try slipping away to the ocean alone. [33] But five! [34] "I'll set you free, Mr. Bee—just wait and see!" [35] As he passed one of the many motionless pollen-gathering insects he met on the way, he took care not to brush against it or disturb its interrupted task. [36] When Purnie had stopped time, the bees—like all the other creatures he met—had been arrested in their native activities, and he knew that as soon as he resumed time, everything would pick up where it had left off. [37] When he smelled an acid sweetness that told him the ocean was not far off, his pulse quickened in anticipation. [38] Rather than spoil what was clearly going to be a perfect day, he chose to ignore the fact that he had been forbidden to use time-stopping as a convenience for journeying far from home. [39] He chose to ignore the oft-repeated statement that an hour of time-stopping consumed more energy than a week of foot-racing. [40] He chose to ignore the negative maxim that "small children who stop time without an adult being present, may not live to regret it." [41] He chose, instead, to picture the beaming praise of family and friends when they learned of his brave journey. [42] The journey was long, the clock stood still. [43] He stopped long enough to gather some fruit that grew along the path. [44] It would serve as his lunch during this day of promise. [45] With it under his arm he bounded along a dozen more steps, then stopped abruptly in his tracks. [46] He found himself atop a rocky knoll, overlooking the mighty sea! [47] He was so overpowered by the vista before him that his "Hurrah!" [48] came out as a weak squeak. [49] The ocean lay at the ready, its stilled waves awaiting his command to resume their tidal sweep. [50] The breakers along the shoreline hung in varying stages of disarray, some having already exploded into towering white spray while others were poised in smooth orange curls waiting to start that action. [51] And there were new friends everywhere! [52] Overhead, a flock of spora were frozen in a steep glide, preparatory to a beach landing. [53] Purnie had heard of these playful creatures many times. [54] Today, with his brothers in school, he would have the pets all to himself. [55] Further down the beach was a pair of two-legged animals poised in mid-step, facing the spot where Purnie now stood. [56] Some distance behind them were eight more, each of whom were motionless in a curious pose of interrupted animation. [57] And down in the water, where the ocean ran itself into thin nothingness upon the sand, he saw standing here and there the comical tripons, those three-legged marine buffoons who made handsome careers of munching seaweed. [58] "Hi there!" [59] Purnie called. [60] When he got no reaction, he remembered that he himself was "dead" to the living world: he was still in a zone of time-stopping, on the inside looking out. [61] For him, the world would continue to be a tableau of mannikins until he resumed time. [62] "Hi there!" [63] he called again; but now his mental attitude was that he expected time to resume. [64] It did! [65] Immediately he was surrounded by activity. [66] He heard the roar of the crashing orange breakers, he tasted the dew of acid that floated from the spray, and he saw his new friends continue the actions which he had stopped while back in the forest. [67] He knew, too, that at this moment, in the forest, the little brook picked up its flow where it had left off, the purple clouds resumed their leeward journey up the valley, and the bees continued their pollen-gathering without having missed a single stroke of their delicate wings. [68] The brook, the clouds, and the insects had not been interrupted in the least; their respective tasks had been performed with continuing sureness. [69] It was time itself that Purnie had stopped, not the world around him. [70] He scampered around the rockpile and down the sandy cliff to meet the tripons who, to him, had just come to life. [71] "I can stand on my head!" [72] He set down his lunch and balanced himself bottoms-up while his legs pawed the air in an effort to hold him in position. [73] He knew it was probably the worst head-stand he had ever done, for he felt weak and dizzy. [74] Already time-stopping had left its mark on his strength. [75] But his spirits ran on unchecked. [76] The tripon thought Purnie's feat was superb. [77] It stopped munching long enough to give him a salutory wag of its rump before returning to its repast. [78] Purnie ran from pillar to post, trying to see and do everything at once. [79] He looked around to greet the flock of spora, but they had glided to a spot further along the shore. [80] Then, bouncing up to the first of the two-legged animals, he started to burst forth with his habitual "Hi there!" [81] when he heard them making sounds of their own. [82] "... will be no limit to my operations now, Benson. [83] This planet makes seventeen. [84] Seventeen planets I can claim as my own!" [85] "My, my. [86] Seventeen planets. [87] And tell me, Forbes, just what the hell are you going to do with them—mount them on the wall of your den back in San Diego?" [88] "Hi there, wanna play?" [89] Purnie's invitation got nothing more than startled glance from the animals who quickly returned to their chatter. [90] He scampered up the beach, picked up his lunch, and ran back to them, tagging along at their heels. [91] "I've got my lunch, want some?" [92] "Benson, you'd better tell your men back there to stop gawking at the scenery and get to work. [93] Time is money. [94] I didn't pay for this expedition just to give your flunkies a vacation." [95] The animals stopped so suddenly that Purnie nearly tangled himself in their heels. [96] "All right, Forbes, just hold it a minute. [97] Listen to me. [98] Sure, it's your money that put us here; it's your expedition all the way. [99] But you hired me to get you here with the best crew on earth, and that's just what I've done. [100] My job isn't over yet. [101] I'm responsible for the safety of the men while we're here, and for the safe trip home." [102] "Precisely. [103] And since you're responsible, get 'em working. [104] Tell 'em to bring along the flag. [105] Look at the damn fools back there, playing in the ocean with a three-legged ostrich!" [106] "Good God, man, aren't you human? [107] We've only been on this planet twenty minutes! [108] Naturally they want to look around. [109] They half expected to find wild animals or worse, and here we are surrounded by quaint little creatures that run up to us like we're long-lost brothers. [110] Let the men look around a minute or two before we stake out your claim." [111] "Bah! [112] Bunch of damn children." [113] As Purnie followed along, a leg shot out at him and missed. [114] "Benson, will you get this bug-eyed kangaroo away from me!" [115] Purnie shrieked with joy at this new frolic and promptly stood on his head. [116] In this position he got an upside down view of them walking away. [117] He gave up trying to stay with them. [118] Why did they move so fast, anyway? [119] What was the hurry? [120] As he sat down and began eating his lunch, three more of the creatures came along making excited noises, apparently trying to catch up to the first two. [121] As they passed him, he held out his lunch. [122] "Want some?" [123] No response. [124] Playing held more promise than eating. [125] He left his lunch half eaten and went down to where they had stopped further along the beach. [126] "Captain Benson, sir! [127] Miles has detected strong radiation in the vicinity. [128] He's trying to locate it now." [129] "There you are, Forbes. [130] Your new piece of real estate is going to make you so rich that you can buy your next planet. [131] That'll make eighteen, I believe." [132] "Radiation, bah! [133] We've found low-grade ore on every planet I've discovered so far, and this one'll be no different. [134] Now how about that flag? [135] Let's get it up, Benson. [136] And the cornerstone, and the plaque." [137] "All right, lads. [138] The sooner we get Mr. Forbes's pennant raised and his claim staked out, the sooner we can take time to look around. [139] Lively now!" [140] When the three animals went back to join the rest of their group, the first two resumed walking. [141] Purnie followed along. [142] "Well, Benson, you won't have to look far for materials to use for the base of the flag pole. [143] Look at that rockpile up there. [144] "Can't use them. [145] They're petrified logs. [146] The ones on top are too high to carry down, and if we move those on the bottom, the whole works will slide down on top of us." [147] "Well—that's your problem. [148] Just remember, I want this flag pole to be solid. [149] It's got to stand at least—" "Don't worry, Forbes, we'll get your monument erected. [150] What's this with the flag? [151] There must be more to staking a claim than just putting up a flag." [152] "There is, there is. [153] Much more. [154] I've taken care of all requirements set down by law to make my claim. [155] But the flag? [156] Well, you might say it represents an empire, Benson. [157] The Forbes Empire. [158] On each of my flags is the word FORBES, a symbol of development and progress. [159] Call it sentiment if you will." [160] "Don't worry, I won't. [161] I've seen real-estate flags before." [162] "Damn it all, will you stop referring to this as a real-estate deal? [163] What I'm doing is big, man. [164] Big! [165] This is pioneering." [166] "Of course. [167] And if I'm not mistaken, you've set up a neat little escrow system so that you not only own the planets, but you will virtually own the people who are foolish enough to buy land on them." [168] "I could have your hide for talking to me like this. [169] Damn you, man! [170] It's people like me who pay your way. [171] It's people like me who give your space ships some place to go. [172] It's people like me who pour good money into a chancey job like this, so that people like you can get away from thirteen-story tenement houses. [173] Did you ever think of that?" [174] "I imagine you'll triple your money in six months." [175] When they stopped, Purnie stopped. [176] At first he had been interested in the strange sounds they were making, but as he grew used to them, and as they in turn ignored his presence, he hopped alongside chattering to himself, content to be in their company. [177] He heard more of these sounds coming from behind, and he turned to see the remainder of the group running toward them. [178] "Captain Benson! [179] Here's the flag, sir. [180] And here's Miles with the scintillometer. [181] He says the radiation's getting stronger over this way!" [182] "How about that, Miles?" [183] "This thing's going wild, Captain. [184] It's almost off scale." [185] Purnie saw one of the animals hovering around him with a little box. [186] Thankful for the attention, he stood on his head. [187] "Can you do this?" [188] He was overjoyed at the reaction. [189] They all started making wonderful noises, and he felt most satisfied. [190] "Stand back, Captain! [191] Here's the source right here! [192] This little chuck-walla's hotter than a plutonium pile!" [193] "Let me see that, Miles. [194] Well, I'll be damned! [195] Now what do you suppose—" By now they had formed a widening circle around him, and he was hard put to think of an encore. [196] He gambled on trying a brand new trick: he stood on one leg. [197] "Benson, I must have that animal! [198] Put him in a box." [199] "Now wait a minute, Forbes. [200] Universal Law forbids—" "This is my planet and I am the law. [201] Put him in a box!" [202] "With my crew as witness, I officially protest—" "Good God, what a specimen to take back. [203] Radio-active animals! [204] Why, they can reproduce themselves, of course! [205] There must be thousands of these creatures around here someplace. [206] And to think of those damn fools on Earth with their plutonium piles! [207] Hah! [208] Now I'll have investors flocking to me. [209] How about it, Benson—does pioneering pay off or doesn't it?" [210] "Not so fast. [211] Since this little fellow is radioactive, there may be great danger to the crew—" "Now look here! [212] You had planned to put mineral specimens in a lead box, so what's the difference? [213] Put him in a box." [214] "He'll die." [215] "I have you under contract, Benson! [216] You are responsible to me, and what's more, you are on my property. [217] Put him in a box." [218] Purnie was tired. [219] First the time-stopping, then this. [220] While this day had brought more fun and excitement than he could have hoped for, the strain was beginning to tell. [221] He lay in the center of the circle happily exhausted, hoping that his friends would show him some of their own tricks. [222] He didn't have to wait long. [223] The animals forming the circle stepped back and made way for two others who came through carrying a box. [224] Purnie sat up to watch the show. [225] "Hell, Captain, why don't I just pick him up? [226] Looks like he has no intention of running away." [227] "Better not, Cabot. [228] Even though you're shielded, no telling what powers the little fella has. [229] Play it safe and use the rope." [230] "I swear he knows what we're saying. [231] Look at those eyes." [232] "All right, careful now with that line." [233] "Come on, baby. [234] Here you go. [235] That's a boy!" [236] Purnie took in these sounds with perplexed concern. [237] He sensed the imploring quality of the creature with the rope, but he didn't know what he was supposed to do. [238] He cocked his head to one side as he wiggled in anticipation. [239] He saw the noose spinning down toward his head, and, before he knew it, he had scooted out of the circle and up the sandy beach. [240] He was surprised at himself for running away. [241] Why had he done it? [242] He wondered. [243] Never before had he felt this fleeting twinge that made him want to protect himself. [244] He watched the animals huddle around the box on the beach, their attention apparently diverted to something else. [245] He wished now that he had not run away; he felt he had lost his chance to join in their fun. [246] "Wait!" [247] He ran over to his half-eaten lunch, picked it up, and ran back into the little crowd. [248] "I've got my lunch, want some?" [249] The party came to life once more. [250] His friends ran this way and that, and at last Purnie knew that the idea was to get him into the box. [251] He picked up the spirit of the tease, and deliberately ran within a few feet of the lead box, then, just as the nearest pursuer was about to push him in, he sidestepped onto safer ground. [252] Then he heard a deafening roar and felt a warm, wet sting in one of his legs. [253] "Forbes, you fool! [254] Put away that gun!" [255] "There you are, boys. [256] It's all in knowing how. [257] Just winged him, that's all. [258] Now pick him up." [259] The pang in his leg was nothing: Purnie's misery lay in his confusion. [260] What had he done wrong? [261] When he saw the noose spinning toward him again, he involuntarily stopped time. [262] He knew better than to use this power carelessly, but his action now was reflex. [263] In that split second following the sharp sting in his leg, his mind had grasped in all directions to find an acceptable course of action. [264] Finding none, it had ordered the stoppage of time. [265] The scene around him became a tableau once more. [266] The noose hung motionless over his head while the rest of the rope snaked its way in transverse waves back to one of the two-legged animals. [267] Purnie dragged himself through the congregation, whimpering from his inability to understand. [268] As he worked his way past one creature after another, he tried at first to not look them in the eye, for he felt sure he had done something wrong. [269] Then he thought that by sneaking a glance at them as he passed, he might see a sign pointing to their purpose. [270] He limped by one who had in his hand a small shiny object that had been emitting smoke from one end; the smoke now billowed in lifeless curls about the animal's head. [271] He hobbled by another who held a small box that had previously made a hissing sound whenever Purnie was near. [272] These things told him nothing. [273] Before starting his climb up the knoll, he passed a tripon which, true to its reputation, was comical even in fright. [274] Startled by the loud explosion, it had jumped four feet into the air before Purnie had stopped time. [275] Now it hung there, its beak stuffed with seaweed and its three legs drawn up into a squatting position. [276] Leaving the assorted statues behind, he limped his way up the knoll, torn between leaving and staying. [277] What an odd place, this ocean country! [278] He wondered why he had not heard more detail about the beach animals. [279] Reaching the top of the bluff, he looked down upon his silent friends with a feeling of deep sorrow. [280] How he wished he were down there playing with them. [281] But he knew at last that theirs was a game he didn't fit into. [282] Now there was nothing left but to resume time and start the long walk home. [283] Even though the short day was nearly over, he knew he didn't dare use time-stopping to get himself home in nothing flat. [284] His fatigued body and clouded mind were strong signals that he had already abused this faculty. [285] When Purnie started time again, the animal with the noose stood in open-mouthed disbelief as the rope fell harmlessly to the sand—on the spot where Purnie had been standing. [286] "My God, he's—he's gone." [287] Then another of the animals, the one with the smoking thing in his hand, ran a few steps toward the noose, stopped and gaped at the rope. [288] "All right, you people, what's going on here? [289] Get him in that box. [290] What did you do with him?" [291] The resumption of time meant nothing at all to those on the beach, for to them time had never stopped. [292] The only thing they could be sure of was that at one moment there had been a fuzzy creature hopping around in front of them, and the next moment he was gone. [293] "Is he invisible, Captain? [294] Where is he?" [295] "Up there, Captain! [296] On those rocks. [297] Isn't that him?" [298] "Well, I'll be damned!" [299] "Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this! [300] Now that you've botched it up, I'll bring him down my own way." [301] "Just a minute, Forbes, let me think. [302] There's something about that fuzzy little devil that we should.... Forbes! [303] I warned you about that gun!" [304] Purnie moved across the top of the rockpile for a last look at his friends. [305] His weight on the end of the first log started the slide. [306] Slowly at first, the giant pencils began cascading down the short distance to the sand. [307] Purnie fell back onto solid ground, horrified at the spectacle before him. [308] The agonizing screams of the animals below filled him with hysteria. [309] The boulders caught most of them as they stood ankle-deep in the surf. [310] Others were pinned down on the sand. [311] "I didn't mean it!" [312] Purnie screamed. [313] "I'm sorry! [314] Can't you hear?" [315] He hopped back and forth near the edge of the rise, torn with panic and shame. [316] "Get up! [317] Please get up!" [318] He was horrified by the moans reaching his ears from the beach. [319] "You're getting all wet! [320] Did you hear me? [321] Please get up." [322] He was choked with rage and sorrow. [323] How could he have done this? [324] He wanted his friends to get up and shake themselves off, tell him it was all right. [325] But it was beyond his power to bring it about. [326] The lapping tide threatened to cover those in the orange surf. [327] Purnie worked his way down the hill, imploring them to save themselves. [328] The sounds they made carried a new tone, a desperate foreboding of death. [329] "Rhodes! [330] Cabot! [331] Can you hear me?" [332] "I—I can't move, Captain. [333] My leg, it's.... My God, we're going to drown!" [334] "Look around you, Cabot. [335] Can you see anyone moving?" [336] "The men on the beach are nearly buried, Captain. [337] And the rest of us here in the water—" "Forbes. [338] Can you see Forbes? [339] Maybe he's—" His sounds were cut off by a wavelet gently rolling over his head. [340] Purnie could wait no longer. [341] The tides were all but covering one of the animals, and soon the others would be in the same plight. [342] Disregarding the consequences, he ordered time to stop. [343] Wading down into the surf, he worked a log off one victim, then he tugged the animal up to the sand. [344] Through blinding tears, Purnie worked slowly and carefully. [345] He knew there was no hurry—at least, not as far as his friends' safety was concerned. [346] No matter what their condition of life or death was at this moment, it would stay the same way until he started time again. [347] He made his way deeper into the orange liquid, where a raised hand signalled the location of a submerged body. [348] The hand was clutching a large white banner that was tangled among the logs. [349] Purnie worked the animal free and pulled it ashore. [350] It was the one who had been carrying the shiny object that spit smoke. [351] Scarcely noticing his own injured leg, he ferried one victim after another until there were no more in the surf. [352] Up on the beach, he started unraveling the logs that pinned down the animals caught there. [353] He removed a log from the lap of one, who then remained in a sitting position, his face contorted into a frozen mask of agony and shock. [354] Another, with the weight removed, rolled over like an iron statue into a new position. [355] Purnie whimpered in black misery as he surveyed the chaotic scene before him. [356] At last he could do no more; he felt consciousness slipping away from him. [357] He instinctively knew that if he lost his senses during a period of time-stopping, events would pick up where they had left off ... without him. [358] For Purnie, this would be death. [359] If he had to lose consciousness, he knew he must first resume time. [360] Step by step he plodded up the little hill, pausing every now and then to consider if this were the moment to start time before it was too late. [361] With his energy fast draining away, he reached the top of the knoll, and he turned to look down once more on the group below. [362] Then he knew how much his mind and body had suffered: when he ordered time to resume, nothing happened. [363] His heart sank. [364] He wasn't afraid of death, and he knew that if he died the oceans would roll again and his friends would move about. [365] But he wanted to see them safe. [366] He tried to clear his mind for supreme effort. [367] There was no urging time to start. [368] He knew he couldn't persuade it by bits and pieces, first slowly then full ahead. [369] Time either progressed or it didn't. [370] He had to take one viewpoint or the other. [371] Then, without knowing exactly when it happened, his mind took command.... His friends came to life. [372] The first one he saw stir lay on his stomach and pounded his fists on the beach. [373] A flood of relief settled over Purnie as sounds came from the animal. [374] "What's the matter with me? [375] Somebody tell me! [376] Am I nuts? [377] Miles! [378] Schick! [379] What's happening?" [380] "I'm coming, Rhodes! [381] Heaven help us, man—I saw it, too. [382] We're either crazy or those damn logs are alive!" [383] "It's not the logs. [384] How about us? [385] How'd we get out of the water? [386] Miles, we're both cracking." [387] "I'm telling you, man, it's the logs, or rocks or whatever they are. [388] I was looking right at them. [389] First they're on top of me, then they're piled up over there!" [390] "Damnit, the logs didn't pick us up out of the ocean, did they? [391] Captain Benson!" [392] "Are you men all right?" [393] "Yes sir, but—" "Who saw exactly what happened?" [394] "I'm afraid we're not seeing right, Captain. [395] Those logs—" "I know, I know. [396] Now get hold of yourselves. [397] We've got to round up the others and get out of here while time is on our side." [398] "But what happened, Captain?" [399] "Hell, Rhodes, don't you think I'd like to know? [400] Those logs are so old they're petrified. [401] The whole bunch of us couldn't lift one. [402] It would take super-human energy to move one of those things." [403] "I haven't seen anything super-human. [404] Those ostriches down there are so busy eating seaweed—" "All right, let's bear a hand here with the others. [405] Some of them can't walk. [406] Where's Forbes?" [407] "He's sitting down there in the water, Captain, crying like a baby. [408] Or laughing. [409] I can't tell which." [410] "We'll have to get him. [411] Miles, Schick, come along. [412] Forbes! [413] You all right?" [414] "Ho-ho-ho! [415] Seventeen! [416] Seventeen! [417] Seventeen planets, Benson, and they'll do anything I say! [418] This one's got a mind of its own. [419] Did you see that little trick with the rocks? [420] Ho-ho!" [421] "See if you can find his gun, Schick; he'll either kill himself or one of us. [422] Tie his hands and take him back to the ship. [423] We'll be along shortly." [424] "Hah-hah-hah! [425] Seventeen! [426] Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this. [427] Hee-hee!" [428] Purnie opened his eyes as consciousness returned. [429] Had his friends gone? [430] He pulled himself along on his stomach to a position between two rocks, where he could see without being seen. [431] By the light of the twin moons he saw that they were leaving, marching away in groups of two and three, the weak helping the weaker. [432] As they disappeared around the curving shoreline, the voices of the last two, bringing up the rear far behind the others, fell faintly on his ears over the sound of the surf. [433] "Is it possible that we're all crazy, Captain?" [434] "It's possible, but we're not." [435] "I wish I could be sure." [436] "See Forbes up ahead there? [437] What do you think of him?" [438] "I still can't believe it." [439] "He'll never be the same." [440] "Tell me something. [441] What was the most unusual thing you noticed back there?" [442] "You must be kidding, sir. [443] Why, the way those logs were off of us suddenly—" "Yes, of course. [444] But I mean beside that." [445] "Well, I guess I was kind of busy. [446] You know, scared and mixed up." [447] "But didn't you notice our little pop-eyed friend?" [448] "Oh, him. [449] I'm afraid not, Captain. [450] I—I guess I was thinking mostly of myself." [451] "Hmmm. [452] If I could only be sure I saw him. [453] If only someone else saw him too." [454] "I'm afraid I don't follow you, sir." [455] "Well, damn it all, you know that Forbes took a pot shot at him. [456] Got him in the leg. [457] That being the case, why would the fuzzy little devil come back to his tormentors—back to us—when we were trapped under those logs?" [458] "Well, I guess as long as we were trapped, he figured we couldn't do him any more harm.... [459] I'm sorry, that was a stupid answer. [460] I guess I'm still a little shaky." [461] "Forget it. [462] Look, you go ahead to the ship and make ready for take-off. [463] I'll join you in a few minutes. [464] I think I'll go back and look around. [465] You know. [466] Make sure we haven't left anyone." [467] "No need to do that. [468] They're all ahead of us. [469] I've checked." [470] "That's my responsibility, Cabot, not yours. [471] Now go on." [472] As Purnie lay gathering strength for the long trek home, he saw through glazed eyes one of the animals coming back along the beach. [473] When it was nearly directly below him, he could hear it making sounds that by now had become familiar. [474] "Where are you?" [475] Purnie paid little attention to the antics of his friend; he was beyond understanding. [476] He wondered what they would say at home when he returned. [477] "We've made a terrible mistake. [478] We—" The sounds faded in and out on Purnie's ears as the creature turned slowly and called in different directions. [479] He watched the animal walk over to the pile of scattered logs and peer around and under them. [480] "If you're hurt I'd like to help!" [481] The twin moons were high in the sky now, and where their light broke through the swirling clouds a double shadow was cast around the animal. [482] With foggy awareness, Purnie watched the creature shake its head slowly, then walk away in the direction of the others. [483] Purnie's eyes stared, without seeing, at the panorama before him. [484] The beach was deserted now, and his gaze was transfixed on a shimmering white square floating on the ocean. [485] Across it, the last thing Purnie ever saw, was emblazoned the word FORBES.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the setting of the story": 1. [46] He found himself atop a rocky knoll, overlooking the mighty sea! 2. [49] The ocean lay at the ready, its stilled waves awaiting his command to resume their tidal sweep. 3. [50] The breakers along the shoreline hung in varying stages of disarray, some having already exploded into towering white spray while others were poised in smooth orange curls waiting to start that action. 4. [51] And there were new friends everywhere! 5. [52] Overhead, a flock of spora were frozen in a steep glide, preparatory to a beach landing. 6. [57] And down in the water, where the ocean ran itself into thin nothingness upon the sand, he saw standing here and there the comical tripons, those three-legged marine buffoons who made handsome careers of munching seaweed. 7. [277] What an odd place, this ocean country! 8. [1] BEACH SCENE By MARSHALL KING Illustrated by WOOD 9. [3] It was a fine day at the beach for Purnie's game—but his new friends played very rough! 10. [4] Purnie ran laughing and shouting through the forest until he could run no more. 11. [5] He fell headlong into a patch of blue moss and whooped with delight in having this day free for exploring. 12. [6] He was free to see the ocean at last. 13. [7] When he had caught his breath, he looked back through the forest. 14. [8] No sign of the village; he had left it far behind. 15. [9] Safe from the scrutiny of brothers and parents, there was nothing now to stop him from going to the ocean. 16. [20] With everything around him in a state of perfect tableau, Purnie hurried toward the ocean. 17. [27] There would be a rockslide of petrified logs to play on, the ocean itself with waves higher than a house, the comical three-legged tripons who never stopped munching on seaweed, and many kinds of other wonderful creatures found only at the ocean. 18. [28] He bounced through the forest as though the world was reserved this day just for him. 19. [29] And who could say it wasn't? 20. [31] Wasn't this his fifth birthday? 21. [42] The journey was long, the clock stood still. 22. [43] He stopped long enough to gather some fruit that grew along the path. 23. [44] It would serve as his lunch during this day of promise. 24. [45] With it under his arm he bounded along a dozen more steps, then stopped abruptly in his tracks. 25. [47] He was so overpowered by the vista before him that his "Hurrah!" came out as a weak squeak. 26. [70] He scampered around the rockpile and down the sandy cliff to meet the tripons who, to him, had just come to life. 27. [305] Slowly at first, the giant pencils began cascading down the short distance to the sand. 28. [483] The beach was deserted now, and his gaze was transfixed on a shimmering white square floating on the ocean. 29. [484] Across it, the last thing Purnie ever saw, was emblazoned the word FORBES.

What is Purnie's role in the story?

[1] BEACH SCENE By MARSHALL KING Illustrated by WOOD [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Magazine October 1960. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] It was a fine day at the beach for Purnie's game—but his new friends played very rough! [4] Purnie ran laughing and shouting through the forest until he could run no more. [5] He fell headlong into a patch of blue moss and whooped with delight in having this day free for exploring. [6] He was free to see the ocean at last. [7] When he had caught his breath, he looked back through the forest. [8] No sign of the village; he had left it far behind. [9] Safe from the scrutiny of brothers and parents, there was nothing now to stop him from going to the ocean. [10] This was the moment to stop time. [11] "On your mark!" [12] he shouted to the rippling stream and its orange whirlpools. [13] He glanced furtively from side to side, pretending that some object might try to get a head start. [14] "Get set!" [15] he challenged the thin-winged bees that hovered over the abundant foliage. [16] "Stop!" [17] He shrieked this command upward toward the dense, low-hanging purple clouds that perennially raced across the treetops, making one wonder how tall the trees really were. [18] His eyes took quick inventory. [19] It was exactly as he knew it would be: the milky-orange stream had become motionless and its minute whirlpools had stopped whirling; a nearby bee hung suspended over a paka plant, its transparent wings frozen in position for a downward stroke; and the heavy purple fluid overhead held fast in its manufacture of whorls and nimbi. [20] With everything around him in a state of perfect tableau, Purnie hurried toward the ocean. [21] If only the days weren't so short! [22] he thought. [23] There was so much to see and so little time. [24] It seemed that everyone except him had seen the wonders of the beach country. [25] The stories he had heard from his brothers and their friends had taunted him for as long as he could remember. [26] So many times had he heard these thrilling tales that now, as he ran along, he could clearly picture the wonderland as though he were already there. [27] There would be a rockslide of petrified logs to play on, the ocean itself with waves higher than a house, the comical three-legged tripons who never stopped munching on seaweed, and many kinds of other wonderful creatures found only at the ocean. [28] He bounced through the forest as though the world was reserved this day just for him. [29] And who could say it wasn't? [30] he thought. [31] Wasn't this his fifth birthday? [32] He ran along feeling sorry for four-year-olds, and even for those who were only four and a half, for they were babies and wouldn't dare try slipping away to the ocean alone. [33] But five! [34] "I'll set you free, Mr. Bee—just wait and see!" [35] As he passed one of the many motionless pollen-gathering insects he met on the way, he took care not to brush against it or disturb its interrupted task. [36] When Purnie had stopped time, the bees—like all the other creatures he met—had been arrested in their native activities, and he knew that as soon as he resumed time, everything would pick up where it had left off. [37] When he smelled an acid sweetness that told him the ocean was not far off, his pulse quickened in anticipation. [38] Rather than spoil what was clearly going to be a perfect day, he chose to ignore the fact that he had been forbidden to use time-stopping as a convenience for journeying far from home. [39] He chose to ignore the oft-repeated statement that an hour of time-stopping consumed more energy than a week of foot-racing. [40] He chose to ignore the negative maxim that "small children who stop time without an adult being present, may not live to regret it." [41] He chose, instead, to picture the beaming praise of family and friends when they learned of his brave journey. [42] The journey was long, the clock stood still. [43] He stopped long enough to gather some fruit that grew along the path. [44] It would serve as his lunch during this day of promise. [45] With it under his arm he bounded along a dozen more steps, then stopped abruptly in his tracks. [46] He found himself atop a rocky knoll, overlooking the mighty sea! [47] He was so overpowered by the vista before him that his "Hurrah!" [48] came out as a weak squeak. [49] The ocean lay at the ready, its stilled waves awaiting his command to resume their tidal sweep. [50] The breakers along the shoreline hung in varying stages of disarray, some having already exploded into towering white spray while others were poised in smooth orange curls waiting to start that action. [51] And there were new friends everywhere! [52] Overhead, a flock of spora were frozen in a steep glide, preparatory to a beach landing. [53] Purnie had heard of these playful creatures many times. [54] Today, with his brothers in school, he would have the pets all to himself. [55] Further down the beach was a pair of two-legged animals poised in mid-step, facing the spot where Purnie now stood. [56] Some distance behind them were eight more, each of whom were motionless in a curious pose of interrupted animation. [57] And down in the water, where the ocean ran itself into thin nothingness upon the sand, he saw standing here and there the comical tripons, those three-legged marine buffoons who made handsome careers of munching seaweed. [58] "Hi there!" [59] Purnie called. [60] When he got no reaction, he remembered that he himself was "dead" to the living world: he was still in a zone of time-stopping, on the inside looking out. [61] For him, the world would continue to be a tableau of mannikins until he resumed time. [62] "Hi there!" [63] he called again; but now his mental attitude was that he expected time to resume. [64] It did! [65] Immediately he was surrounded by activity. [66] He heard the roar of the crashing orange breakers, he tasted the dew of acid that floated from the spray, and he saw his new friends continue the actions which he had stopped while back in the forest. [67] He knew, too, that at this moment, in the forest, the little brook picked up its flow where it had left off, the purple clouds resumed their leeward journey up the valley, and the bees continued their pollen-gathering without having missed a single stroke of their delicate wings. [68] The brook, the clouds, and the insects had not been interrupted in the least; their respective tasks had been performed with continuing sureness. [69] It was time itself that Purnie had stopped, not the world around him. [70] He scampered around the rockpile and down the sandy cliff to meet the tripons who, to him, had just come to life. [71] "I can stand on my head!" [72] He set down his lunch and balanced himself bottoms-up while his legs pawed the air in an effort to hold him in position. [73] He knew it was probably the worst head-stand he had ever done, for he felt weak and dizzy. [74] Already time-stopping had left its mark on his strength. [75] But his spirits ran on unchecked. [76] The tripon thought Purnie's feat was superb. [77] It stopped munching long enough to give him a salutory wag of its rump before returning to its repast. [78] Purnie ran from pillar to post, trying to see and do everything at once. [79] He looked around to greet the flock of spora, but they had glided to a spot further along the shore. [80] Then, bouncing up to the first of the two-legged animals, he started to burst forth with his habitual "Hi there!" [81] when he heard them making sounds of their own. [82] "... will be no limit to my operations now, Benson. [83] This planet makes seventeen. [84] Seventeen planets I can claim as my own!" [85] "My, my. [86] Seventeen planets. [87] And tell me, Forbes, just what the hell are you going to do with them—mount them on the wall of your den back in San Diego?" [88] "Hi there, wanna play?" [89] Purnie's invitation got nothing more than startled glance from the animals who quickly returned to their chatter. [90] He scampered up the beach, picked up his lunch, and ran back to them, tagging along at their heels. [91] "I've got my lunch, want some?" [92] "Benson, you'd better tell your men back there to stop gawking at the scenery and get to work. [93] Time is money. [94] I didn't pay for this expedition just to give your flunkies a vacation." [95] The animals stopped so suddenly that Purnie nearly tangled himself in their heels. [96] "All right, Forbes, just hold it a minute. [97] Listen to me. [98] Sure, it's your money that put us here; it's your expedition all the way. [99] But you hired me to get you here with the best crew on earth, and that's just what I've done. [100] My job isn't over yet. [101] I'm responsible for the safety of the men while we're here, and for the safe trip home." [102] "Precisely. [103] And since you're responsible, get 'em working. [104] Tell 'em to bring along the flag. [105] Look at the damn fools back there, playing in the ocean with a three-legged ostrich!" [106] "Good God, man, aren't you human? [107] We've only been on this planet twenty minutes! [108] Naturally they want to look around. [109] They half expected to find wild animals or worse, and here we are surrounded by quaint little creatures that run up to us like we're long-lost brothers. [110] Let the men look around a minute or two before we stake out your claim." [111] "Bah! [112] Bunch of damn children." [113] As Purnie followed along, a leg shot out at him and missed. [114] "Benson, will you get this bug-eyed kangaroo away from me!" [115] Purnie shrieked with joy at this new frolic and promptly stood on his head. [116] In this position he got an upside down view of them walking away. [117] He gave up trying to stay with them. [118] Why did they move so fast, anyway? [119] What was the hurry? [120] As he sat down and began eating his lunch, three more of the creatures came along making excited noises, apparently trying to catch up to the first two. [121] As they passed him, he held out his lunch. [122] "Want some?" [123] No response. [124] Playing held more promise than eating. [125] He left his lunch half eaten and went down to where they had stopped further along the beach. [126] "Captain Benson, sir! [127] Miles has detected strong radiation in the vicinity. [128] He's trying to locate it now." [129] "There you are, Forbes. [130] Your new piece of real estate is going to make you so rich that you can buy your next planet. [131] That'll make eighteen, I believe." [132] "Radiation, bah! [133] We've found low-grade ore on every planet I've discovered so far, and this one'll be no different. [134] Now how about that flag? [135] Let's get it up, Benson. [136] And the cornerstone, and the plaque." [137] "All right, lads. [138] The sooner we get Mr. Forbes's pennant raised and his claim staked out, the sooner we can take time to look around. [139] Lively now!" [140] When the three animals went back to join the rest of their group, the first two resumed walking. [141] Purnie followed along. [142] "Well, Benson, you won't have to look far for materials to use for the base of the flag pole. [143] Look at that rockpile up there. [144] "Can't use them. [145] They're petrified logs. [146] The ones on top are too high to carry down, and if we move those on the bottom, the whole works will slide down on top of us." [147] "Well—that's your problem. [148] Just remember, I want this flag pole to be solid. [149] It's got to stand at least—" "Don't worry, Forbes, we'll get your monument erected. [150] What's this with the flag? [151] There must be more to staking a claim than just putting up a flag." [152] "There is, there is. [153] Much more. [154] I've taken care of all requirements set down by law to make my claim. [155] But the flag? [156] Well, you might say it represents an empire, Benson. [157] The Forbes Empire. [158] On each of my flags is the word FORBES, a symbol of development and progress. [159] Call it sentiment if you will." [160] "Don't worry, I won't. [161] I've seen real-estate flags before." [162] "Damn it all, will you stop referring to this as a real-estate deal? [163] What I'm doing is big, man. [164] Big! [165] This is pioneering." [166] "Of course. [167] And if I'm not mistaken, you've set up a neat little escrow system so that you not only own the planets, but you will virtually own the people who are foolish enough to buy land on them." [168] "I could have your hide for talking to me like this. [169] Damn you, man! [170] It's people like me who pay your way. [171] It's people like me who give your space ships some place to go. [172] It's people like me who pour good money into a chancey job like this, so that people like you can get away from thirteen-story tenement houses. [173] Did you ever think of that?" [174] "I imagine you'll triple your money in six months." [175] When they stopped, Purnie stopped. [176] At first he had been interested in the strange sounds they were making, but as he grew used to them, and as they in turn ignored his presence, he hopped alongside chattering to himself, content to be in their company. [177] He heard more of these sounds coming from behind, and he turned to see the remainder of the group running toward them. [178] "Captain Benson! [179] Here's the flag, sir. [180] And here's Miles with the scintillometer. [181] He says the radiation's getting stronger over this way!" [182] "How about that, Miles?" [183] "This thing's going wild, Captain. [184] It's almost off scale." [185] Purnie saw one of the animals hovering around him with a little box. [186] Thankful for the attention, he stood on his head. [187] "Can you do this?" [188] He was overjoyed at the reaction. [189] They all started making wonderful noises, and he felt most satisfied. [190] "Stand back, Captain! [191] Here's the source right here! [192] This little chuck-walla's hotter than a plutonium pile!" [193] "Let me see that, Miles. [194] Well, I'll be damned! [195] Now what do you suppose—" By now they had formed a widening circle around him, and he was hard put to think of an encore. [196] He gambled on trying a brand new trick: he stood on one leg. [197] "Benson, I must have that animal! [198] Put him in a box." [199] "Now wait a minute, Forbes. [200] Universal Law forbids—" "This is my planet and I am the law. [201] Put him in a box!" [202] "With my crew as witness, I officially protest—" "Good God, what a specimen to take back. [203] Radio-active animals! [204] Why, they can reproduce themselves, of course! [205] There must be thousands of these creatures around here someplace. [206] And to think of those damn fools on Earth with their plutonium piles! [207] Hah! [208] Now I'll have investors flocking to me. [209] How about it, Benson—does pioneering pay off or doesn't it?" [210] "Not so fast. [211] Since this little fellow is radioactive, there may be great danger to the crew—" "Now look here! [212] You had planned to put mineral specimens in a lead box, so what's the difference? [213] Put him in a box." [214] "He'll die." [215] "I have you under contract, Benson! [216] You are responsible to me, and what's more, you are on my property. [217] Put him in a box." [218] Purnie was tired. [219] First the time-stopping, then this. [220] While this day had brought more fun and excitement than he could have hoped for, the strain was beginning to tell. [221] He lay in the center of the circle happily exhausted, hoping that his friends would show him some of their own tricks. [222] He didn't have to wait long. [223] The animals forming the circle stepped back and made way for two others who came through carrying a box. [224] Purnie sat up to watch the show. [225] "Hell, Captain, why don't I just pick him up? [226] Looks like he has no intention of running away." [227] "Better not, Cabot. [228] Even though you're shielded, no telling what powers the little fella has. [229] Play it safe and use the rope." [230] "I swear he knows what we're saying. [231] Look at those eyes." [232] "All right, careful now with that line." [233] "Come on, baby. [234] Here you go. [235] That's a boy!" [236] Purnie took in these sounds with perplexed concern. [237] He sensed the imploring quality of the creature with the rope, but he didn't know what he was supposed to do. [238] He cocked his head to one side as he wiggled in anticipation. [239] He saw the noose spinning down toward his head, and, before he knew it, he had scooted out of the circle and up the sandy beach. [240] He was surprised at himself for running away. [241] Why had he done it? [242] He wondered. [243] Never before had he felt this fleeting twinge that made him want to protect himself. [244] He watched the animals huddle around the box on the beach, their attention apparently diverted to something else. [245] He wished now that he had not run away; he felt he had lost his chance to join in their fun. [246] "Wait!" [247] He ran over to his half-eaten lunch, picked it up, and ran back into the little crowd. [248] "I've got my lunch, want some?" [249] The party came to life once more. [250] His friends ran this way and that, and at last Purnie knew that the idea was to get him into the box. [251] He picked up the spirit of the tease, and deliberately ran within a few feet of the lead box, then, just as the nearest pursuer was about to push him in, he sidestepped onto safer ground. [252] Then he heard a deafening roar and felt a warm, wet sting in one of his legs. [253] "Forbes, you fool! [254] Put away that gun!" [255] "There you are, boys. [256] It's all in knowing how. [257] Just winged him, that's all. [258] Now pick him up." [259] The pang in his leg was nothing: Purnie's misery lay in his confusion. [260] What had he done wrong? [261] When he saw the noose spinning toward him again, he involuntarily stopped time. [262] He knew better than to use this power carelessly, but his action now was reflex. [263] In that split second following the sharp sting in his leg, his mind had grasped in all directions to find an acceptable course of action. [264] Finding none, it had ordered the stoppage of time. [265] The scene around him became a tableau once more. [266] The noose hung motionless over his head while the rest of the rope snaked its way in transverse waves back to one of the two-legged animals. [267] Purnie dragged himself through the congregation, whimpering from his inability to understand. [268] As he worked his way past one creature after another, he tried at first to not look them in the eye, for he felt sure he had done something wrong. [269] Then he thought that by sneaking a glance at them as he passed, he might see a sign pointing to their purpose. [270] He limped by one who had in his hand a small shiny object that had been emitting smoke from one end; the smoke now billowed in lifeless curls about the animal's head. [271] He hobbled by another who held a small box that had previously made a hissing sound whenever Purnie was near. [272] These things told him nothing. [273] Before starting his climb up the knoll, he passed a tripon which, true to its reputation, was comical even in fright. [274] Startled by the loud explosion, it had jumped four feet into the air before Purnie had stopped time. [275] Now it hung there, its beak stuffed with seaweed and its three legs drawn up into a squatting position. [276] Leaving the assorted statues behind, he limped his way up the knoll, torn between leaving and staying. [277] What an odd place, this ocean country! [278] He wondered why he had not heard more detail about the beach animals. [279] Reaching the top of the bluff, he looked down upon his silent friends with a feeling of deep sorrow. [280] How he wished he were down there playing with them. [281] But he knew at last that theirs was a game he didn't fit into. [282] Now there was nothing left but to resume time and start the long walk home. [283] Even though the short day was nearly over, he knew he didn't dare use time-stopping to get himself home in nothing flat. [284] His fatigued body and clouded mind were strong signals that he had already abused this faculty. [285] When Purnie started time again, the animal with the noose stood in open-mouthed disbelief as the rope fell harmlessly to the sand—on the spot where Purnie had been standing. [286] "My God, he's—he's gone." [287] Then another of the animals, the one with the smoking thing in his hand, ran a few steps toward the noose, stopped and gaped at the rope. [288] "All right, you people, what's going on here? [289] Get him in that box. [290] What did you do with him?" [291] The resumption of time meant nothing at all to those on the beach, for to them time had never stopped. [292] The only thing they could be sure of was that at one moment there had been a fuzzy creature hopping around in front of them, and the next moment he was gone. [293] "Is he invisible, Captain? [294] Where is he?" [295] "Up there, Captain! [296] On those rocks. [297] Isn't that him?" [298] "Well, I'll be damned!" [299] "Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this! [300] Now that you've botched it up, I'll bring him down my own way." [301] "Just a minute, Forbes, let me think. [302] There's something about that fuzzy little devil that we should.... Forbes! [303] I warned you about that gun!" [304] Purnie moved across the top of the rockpile for a last look at his friends. [305] His weight on the end of the first log started the slide. [306] Slowly at first, the giant pencils began cascading down the short distance to the sand. [307] Purnie fell back onto solid ground, horrified at the spectacle before him. [308] The agonizing screams of the animals below filled him with hysteria. [309] The boulders caught most of them as they stood ankle-deep in the surf. [310] Others were pinned down on the sand. [311] "I didn't mean it!" [312] Purnie screamed. [313] "I'm sorry! [314] Can't you hear?" [315] He hopped back and forth near the edge of the rise, torn with panic and shame. [316] "Get up! [317] Please get up!" [318] He was horrified by the moans reaching his ears from the beach. [319] "You're getting all wet! [320] Did you hear me? [321] Please get up." [322] He was choked with rage and sorrow. [323] How could he have done this? [324] He wanted his friends to get up and shake themselves off, tell him it was all right. [325] But it was beyond his power to bring it about. [326] The lapping tide threatened to cover those in the orange surf. [327] Purnie worked his way down the hill, imploring them to save themselves. [328] The sounds they made carried a new tone, a desperate foreboding of death. [329] "Rhodes! [330] Cabot! [331] Can you hear me?" [332] "I—I can't move, Captain. [333] My leg, it's.... My God, we're going to drown!" [334] "Look around you, Cabot. [335] Can you see anyone moving?" [336] "The men on the beach are nearly buried, Captain. [337] And the rest of us here in the water—" "Forbes. [338] Can you see Forbes? [339] Maybe he's—" His sounds were cut off by a wavelet gently rolling over his head. [340] Purnie could wait no longer. [341] The tides were all but covering one of the animals, and soon the others would be in the same plight. [342] Disregarding the consequences, he ordered time to stop. [343] Wading down into the surf, he worked a log off one victim, then he tugged the animal up to the sand. [344] Through blinding tears, Purnie worked slowly and carefully. [345] He knew there was no hurry—at least, not as far as his friends' safety was concerned. [346] No matter what their condition of life or death was at this moment, it would stay the same way until he started time again. [347] He made his way deeper into the orange liquid, where a raised hand signalled the location of a submerged body. [348] The hand was clutching a large white banner that was tangled among the logs. [349] Purnie worked the animal free and pulled it ashore. [350] It was the one who had been carrying the shiny object that spit smoke. [351] Scarcely noticing his own injured leg, he ferried one victim after another until there were no more in the surf. [352] Up on the beach, he started unraveling the logs that pinned down the animals caught there. [353] He removed a log from the lap of one, who then remained in a sitting position, his face contorted into a frozen mask of agony and shock. [354] Another, with the weight removed, rolled over like an iron statue into a new position. [355] Purnie whimpered in black misery as he surveyed the chaotic scene before him. [356] At last he could do no more; he felt consciousness slipping away from him. [357] He instinctively knew that if he lost his senses during a period of time-stopping, events would pick up where they had left off ... without him. [358] For Purnie, this would be death. [359] If he had to lose consciousness, he knew he must first resume time. [360] Step by step he plodded up the little hill, pausing every now and then to consider if this were the moment to start time before it was too late. [361] With his energy fast draining away, he reached the top of the knoll, and he turned to look down once more on the group below. [362] Then he knew how much his mind and body had suffered: when he ordered time to resume, nothing happened. [363] His heart sank. [364] He wasn't afraid of death, and he knew that if he died the oceans would roll again and his friends would move about. [365] But he wanted to see them safe. [366] He tried to clear his mind for supreme effort. [367] There was no urging time to start. [368] He knew he couldn't persuade it by bits and pieces, first slowly then full ahead. [369] Time either progressed or it didn't. [370] He had to take one viewpoint or the other. [371] Then, without knowing exactly when it happened, his mind took command.... His friends came to life. [372] The first one he saw stir lay on his stomach and pounded his fists on the beach. [373] A flood of relief settled over Purnie as sounds came from the animal. [374] "What's the matter with me? [375] Somebody tell me! [376] Am I nuts? [377] Miles! [378] Schick! [379] What's happening?" [380] "I'm coming, Rhodes! [381] Heaven help us, man—I saw it, too. [382] We're either crazy or those damn logs are alive!" [383] "It's not the logs. [384] How about us? [385] How'd we get out of the water? [386] Miles, we're both cracking." [387] "I'm telling you, man, it's the logs, or rocks or whatever they are. [388] I was looking right at them. [389] First they're on top of me, then they're piled up over there!" [390] "Damnit, the logs didn't pick us up out of the ocean, did they? [391] Captain Benson!" [392] "Are you men all right?" [393] "Yes sir, but—" "Who saw exactly what happened?" [394] "I'm afraid we're not seeing right, Captain. [395] Those logs—" "I know, I know. [396] Now get hold of yourselves. [397] We've got to round up the others and get out of here while time is on our side." [398] "But what happened, Captain?" [399] "Hell, Rhodes, don't you think I'd like to know? [400] Those logs are so old they're petrified. [401] The whole bunch of us couldn't lift one. [402] It would take super-human energy to move one of those things." [403] "I haven't seen anything super-human. [404] Those ostriches down there are so busy eating seaweed—" "All right, let's bear a hand here with the others. [405] Some of them can't walk. [406] Where's Forbes?" [407] "He's sitting down there in the water, Captain, crying like a baby. [408] Or laughing. [409] I can't tell which." [410] "We'll have to get him. [411] Miles, Schick, come along. [412] Forbes! [413] You all right?" [414] "Ho-ho-ho! [415] Seventeen! [416] Seventeen! [417] Seventeen planets, Benson, and they'll do anything I say! [418] This one's got a mind of its own. [419] Did you see that little trick with the rocks? [420] Ho-ho!" [421] "See if you can find his gun, Schick; he'll either kill himself or one of us. [422] Tie his hands and take him back to the ship. [423] We'll be along shortly." [424] "Hah-hah-hah! [425] Seventeen! [426] Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this. [427] Hee-hee!" [428] Purnie opened his eyes as consciousness returned. [429] Had his friends gone? [430] He pulled himself along on his stomach to a position between two rocks, where he could see without being seen. [431] By the light of the twin moons he saw that they were leaving, marching away in groups of two and three, the weak helping the weaker. [432] As they disappeared around the curving shoreline, the voices of the last two, bringing up the rear far behind the others, fell faintly on his ears over the sound of the surf. [433] "Is it possible that we're all crazy, Captain?" [434] "It's possible, but we're not." [435] "I wish I could be sure." [436] "See Forbes up ahead there? [437] What do you think of him?" [438] "I still can't believe it." [439] "He'll never be the same." [440] "Tell me something. [441] What was the most unusual thing you noticed back there?" [442] "You must be kidding, sir. [443] Why, the way those logs were off of us suddenly—" "Yes, of course. [444] But I mean beside that." [445] "Well, I guess I was kind of busy. [446] You know, scared and mixed up." [447] "But didn't you notice our little pop-eyed friend?" [448] "Oh, him. [449] I'm afraid not, Captain. [450] I—I guess I was thinking mostly of myself." [451] "Hmmm. [452] If I could only be sure I saw him. [453] If only someone else saw him too." [454] "I'm afraid I don't follow you, sir." [455] "Well, damn it all, you know that Forbes took a pot shot at him. [456] Got him in the leg. [457] That being the case, why would the fuzzy little devil come back to his tormentors—back to us—when we were trapped under those logs?" [458] "Well, I guess as long as we were trapped, he figured we couldn't do him any more harm.... [459] I'm sorry, that was a stupid answer. [460] I guess I'm still a little shaky." [461] "Forget it. [462] Look, you go ahead to the ship and make ready for take-off. [463] I'll join you in a few minutes. [464] I think I'll go back and look around. [465] You know. [466] Make sure we haven't left anyone." [467] "No need to do that. [468] They're all ahead of us. [469] I've checked." [470] "That's my responsibility, Cabot, not yours. [471] Now go on." [472] As Purnie lay gathering strength for the long trek home, he saw through glazed eyes one of the animals coming back along the beach. [473] When it was nearly directly below him, he could hear it making sounds that by now had become familiar. [474] "Where are you?" [475] Purnie paid little attention to the antics of his friend; he was beyond understanding. [476] He wondered what they would say at home when he returned. [477] "We've made a terrible mistake. [478] We—" The sounds faded in and out on Purnie's ears as the creature turned slowly and called in different directions. [479] He watched the animal walk over to the pile of scattered logs and peer around and under them. [480] "If you're hurt I'd like to help!" [481] The twin moons were high in the sky now, and where their light broke through the swirling clouds a double shadow was cast around the animal. [482] With foggy awareness, Purnie watched the creature shake its head slowly, then walk away in the direction of the others. [483] Purnie's eyes stared, without seeing, at the panorama before him. [484] The beach was deserted now, and his gaze was transfixed on a shimmering white square floating on the ocean. [485] Across it, the last thing Purnie ever saw, was emblazoned the word FORBES.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is Purnie's role in the story?": 1. [3] It was a fine day at the beach for Purnie's game—but his new friends played very rough! 2. [4] Purnie ran laughing and shouting through the forest until he could run no more. 3. [5] He fell headlong into a patch of blue moss and whooped with delight in having this day free for exploring. 4. [6] He was free to see the ocean at last. 5. [20] With everything around him in a state of perfect tableau, Purnie hurried toward the ocean. 6. [28] He bounced through the forest as though the world was reserved this day just for him. 7. [29] And who could say it wasn't? 8. [30] he thought. 9. [31] Wasn't this his fifth birthday? 10. [32] He ran along feeling sorry for four-year-olds, and even for those who were only four and a half, for they were babies and wouldn't dare try slipping away to the ocean alone. 11. [33] But five! 12. [34] "I'll set you free, Mr. Bee—just wait and see!" 13. [35] As he passed one of the many motionless pollen-gathering insects he met on the way, he took care not to brush against it or disturb its interrupted task. 14. [36] When Purnie had stopped time, the bees—like all the other creatures he met—had been arrested in their native activities, and he knew that as soon as he resumed time, everything would pick up where it had left off. 15. [51] And there were new friends everywhere! 16. [52] Overhead, a flock of spora were frozen in a steep glide, preparatory to a beach landing. 17. [53] Purnie had heard of these playful creatures many times. 18. [54] Today, with his brothers in school, he would have the pets all to himself. 19. [57] And down in the water, where the ocean ran itself into thin nothingness upon the sand, he saw standing here and there the comical tripons, those three-legged marine buffoons who made handsome careers of munching seaweed. 20. [58] "Hi there!" 21. [59] Purnie called. 22. [60] When he got no reaction, he remembered that he himself was "dead" to the living world: he was still in a zone of time-stopping, on the inside looking out. 23. [70] He scampered around the rockpile and down the sandy cliff to meet the tripons who, to him, had just come to life. 24. [71] "I can stand on my head!" 25. [72] He set down his lunch and balanced himself bottoms-up while his legs pawed the air in an effort to hold him in position. 26. [73] He knew it was probably the worst head-stand he had ever done, for he felt weak and dizzy. 27. [74] Already time-stopping had left its mark on his strength. 28. [75] But his spirits ran on unchecked. 29. [76] The tripon thought Purnie's feat was superb. 30. [77] It stopped munching long enough to give him a salutory wag of its rump before returning to its repast. 31. [78] Purnie ran from pillar to post, trying to see and do everything at once. 32. [79] He looked around to greet the flock of spora, but they had glided to a spot further along the shore. 33. [80] Then, bouncing up to the first of the two-legged animals, he started to burst forth with his habitual "Hi there!" 34. [81] when he heard them making sounds of their own. 35. [88] "Hi there, wanna play?" 36. [90] He scampered up the beach, picked up his lunch, and ran back to them, tagging along at their heels. 37. [91] "I've got my lunch, want some?" 38. [115] Purnie shrieked with joy at this new frolic and promptly stood on his head. 39. [116] In this position he got an upside down view of them walking away. 40. [117] He gave up trying to stay with them. 41. [118] Why did they move so fast, anyway? 42. [119] What was the hurry? 43. [121] As they passed him, he held out his lunch. 44. [122] "Want some?" 45. [123] No response. 46. [124] Playing held more promise than eating. 47. [125] He left his lunch half eaten and went down to where they had stopped further along the beach. 48. [185] Purnie saw one of the animals hovering around him with a little box. 49. [186] Thankful for the attention, he stood on his head. 50. [187] "Can you do this?" 51. [188] He was overjoyed at the reaction. 52. [189] They all started making wonderful noises, and he felt most satisfied. 53. [195] He gambled on trying a brand new trick: he stood on one leg. 54. [218] Purnie was tired. 55. [219] First the time-stopping, then this. 56. [220] While this day had brought more fun and excitement than he could have hoped for, the strain was beginning to tell. 57. [221] He lay in the center of the circle happily exhausted, hoping that his friends would show him some of their own tricks. 58. [222] He didn't have to wait long. 59. [236] Purnie took in these sounds with perplexed concern. 60. [237] He sensed the imploring quality of the creature with the rope, but he didn't know what he was supposed to do. 61. [238] He cocked his head to one side as he wiggled in anticipation. 62. [239] He saw the noose spinning down toward his head, and, before he knew it, he had scooted out of the circle and up the sandy beach. 63. [240] He was surprised at himself for running away. 64. [241] Why had he done it? 65. [242] He wondered. 66. [243] Never before had he felt this fleeting twinge that made him want to protect himself. 67. [244] He watched the animals huddle around the box on the beach, their attention apparently diverted to something else. 68. [245] He wished now that he had not run away; he felt he had lost his chance to join in their fun. 69. [246] "Wait!" 70. [247] He ran over to his half-eaten lunch, picked it up, and ran back into the little crowd. 71. [248] "I've got my lunch, want some?" 72. [249] The party came to life once more. 73. [250] His friends ran this way and that, and at last Purnie knew that the idea was to get him into the box. 74. [251] He picked up the spirit of the tease, and deliberately ran within a few feet of the lead box, then, just as the nearest pursuer was about to push him in, he sidestepped onto safer ground. 75. [252] Then he heard a deafening roar and felt a warm, wet sting in one of his legs. 76. [260] What had he done wrong? 77. [261] When he saw the noose spinning toward him again, he involuntarily stopped time. 78. [262] He knew better than to use this power carelessly, but his action now was reflex. 79. [263] In that split second following the sharp sting in his leg, his mind had grasped in all directions to find an acceptable course of action. 80. [264] Finding none, it had ordered the stoppage of time. 81. [265] The scene around him became a tableau once more. 82. [266] The noose hung motionless over his head while the rest of the rope snaked its way in transverse waves back to one of the two-legged animals. 83. [267] Purnie dragged himself through the congregation, whimpering from his inability to understand. 84. [268] As he worked his way past one creature after another, he tried at first to not look them in the eye, for he felt sure he had done something wrong. 85. [269] Then he thought that by sneaking a glance at them as he passed, he might see a sign pointing to their purpose. 86. [272] These things told him nothing. 87. [273] Before starting his climb up the knoll, he passed a tripon which, true to its reputation, was comical even in fright. 88. [274] Startled by the loud explosion, it had jumped four feet into the air before Purnie had stopped time. 89. [275] Now it hung there, its beak stuffed with seaweed and its three legs drawn up into a squatting position. 90. [276] Leaving the assorted statues behind, he limped his way up the knoll, torn between leaving and staying. 91. [277] What an odd place, this ocean country! 92. [278] He wondered why he had not heard more detail about the beach animals. 93. [279] Reaching the top of the bluff, he looked down upon his silent friends with a feeling of deep sorrow. 94. [280] How he wished he were down there playing with them. 95. [281] But he knew at last that theirs was a game he didn't fit into. 96. [282] Now there was nothing left but to resume time and start the long walk home. 97. [283] Even though the short day was nearly over, he knew he didn't dare use time-stopping to get himself home in nothing flat. 98. [284] His fatigued body and clouded mind were strong signals that he had already abused this faculty. 99. [311] "I didn't mean it!" 100. [312] Purnie screamed. 101. [313] "I'm sorry! 102. [314] Can't you hear?" 103. [315] He hopped back and forth near the edge of the rise, torn with panic and shame. 104. [316] "Get up! 105. [317] Please get up!" 106. [318] He was horrified by the moans reaching his ears from the beach. 107. [319] "You're getting all wet! 108. [320] Did you hear me? 109. [321] Please get up." 110. [322] He was choked with rage and sorrow. 111. [323] How could he have done this? 112. [324] He wanted his friends to get up and shake themselves off, tell him it was all right. 113. [325] But it was beyond his power to bring it about. 114. [326] The lapping tide threatened to cover those in the orange surf. 115. [327] Purnie worked his way down the hill, imploring them to save themselves. 116. [328] The sounds they made carried a new tone, a desperate foreboding of death. 117. [329] "Rhodes! 118. [330] Cabot! 119. [331] Can you hear me?" 120. [332] "I—I can't move, Captain. 121. [333] My leg, it's.... My God, we're going to drown!" 122. [334] "Look around you, Cabot. 123. [335] Can you see anyone moving?" 124. [336] "The men on the beach are nearly buried, Captain. 125. [337] And the rest of us here in the water—" His sounds were cut off by a wavelet gently rolling over his head. 126. [340] Purnie could wait no longer. 127. [341] The tides were all but covering one of the animals, and soon the others would be in the same plight. 128. [342] Disregarding the consequences, he ordered time to stop. 129. [343] Wading down into the surf, he worked a log off one victim, then he tugged the animal up to the sand. 130. [344] Through blinding tears, Purnie worked slowly and carefully. 131. [345] He knew there was no hurry—at least, not as far as his friends' safety was concerned. 132. [346] No matter what their condition of life or death was at this moment, it would stay the same way until he started time again. 133. [347] He made his way deeper into the orange liquid, where a raised hand signalled the location of a submerged body. 134. [348] The hand was clutching a large white banner that was tangled among the logs. 135. [349] Purnie worked the animal free and pulled it ashore. 136. [350] It was the one who had been carrying the shiny object that spit smoke. 137. [351] Scarcely noticing his own injured leg, he ferried one victim after another until there were no more in the surf. 138. [352] Up on the beach, he started unraveling the logs that pinned down the animals caught there. 139. [353] He removed a log from the lap of one, who then remained in a sitting position, his face contorted into a frozen mask of agony and shock. 140. [354] Another, with the weight removed, rolled over like an iron statue into a new position. 141. [355] Purnie whimpered in black misery as he surveyed the chaotic scene before him. 142. [356] At last he could do no more; he felt consciousness slipping away from him. 143. [357] He instinctively knew that if he lost his senses during a period of time-stopping, events would pick up where they had left off ... without him. 144. [358] For Purnie, this would be death. 145. [359] If he had to lose consciousness, he knew he must first resume time. 146. [360] Step by step he plodded up the little hill, pausing every now and then to consider if this were the moment to start time before it was too late. 147. [361] With his energy fast draining away, he reached the top of the knoll, and he turned to look down once more on the group below. 148. [362] Then he knew how much his mind and body had suffered: when he ordered time to resume, nothing happened. 149. [363] His heart sank. 150. [364] He wasn't afraid of death, and he knew that if he died the oceans would roll again and his friends would move about. 151. [365] But he wanted to see them safe. 152. [366] He tried to clear his mind for supreme effort. 153. [367] There was no urging time to start. 154. [368] He knew he couldn't persuade it by bits and pieces, first slowly then full ahead. 155. [369] Time either progressed or it didn't. 156. [370] He had to take one viewpoint or the other. 157. [371] Then, without knowing exactly when it happened, his mind took command.... His friends came to life. 158. [428] Purnie opened his eyes as consciousness returned. 159. [429] Had his friends gone? 160. [430] He pulled himself along on his stomach to a position between two rocks, where he could see without being seen.

What causes Forbes to go mad?

[1] BEACH SCENE By MARSHALL KING Illustrated by WOOD [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Magazine October 1960. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] It was a fine day at the beach for Purnie's game—but his new friends played very rough! [4] Purnie ran laughing and shouting through the forest until he could run no more. [5] He fell headlong into a patch of blue moss and whooped with delight in having this day free for exploring. [6] He was free to see the ocean at last. [7] When he had caught his breath, he looked back through the forest. [8] No sign of the village; he had left it far behind. [9] Safe from the scrutiny of brothers and parents, there was nothing now to stop him from going to the ocean. [10] This was the moment to stop time. [11] "On your mark!" [12] he shouted to the rippling stream and its orange whirlpools. [13] He glanced furtively from side to side, pretending that some object might try to get a head start. [14] "Get set!" [15] he challenged the thin-winged bees that hovered over the abundant foliage. [16] "Stop!" [17] He shrieked this command upward toward the dense, low-hanging purple clouds that perennially raced across the treetops, making one wonder how tall the trees really were. [18] His eyes took quick inventory. [19] It was exactly as he knew it would be: the milky-orange stream had become motionless and its minute whirlpools had stopped whirling; a nearby bee hung suspended over a paka plant, its transparent wings frozen in position for a downward stroke; and the heavy purple fluid overhead held fast in its manufacture of whorls and nimbi. [20] With everything around him in a state of perfect tableau, Purnie hurried toward the ocean. [21] If only the days weren't so short! [22] he thought. [23] There was so much to see and so little time. [24] It seemed that everyone except him had seen the wonders of the beach country. [25] The stories he had heard from his brothers and their friends had taunted him for as long as he could remember. [26] So many times had he heard these thrilling tales that now, as he ran along, he could clearly picture the wonderland as though he were already there. [27] There would be a rockslide of petrified logs to play on, the ocean itself with waves higher than a house, the comical three-legged tripons who never stopped munching on seaweed, and many kinds of other wonderful creatures found only at the ocean. [28] He bounced through the forest as though the world was reserved this day just for him. [29] And who could say it wasn't? [30] he thought. [31] Wasn't this his fifth birthday? [32] He ran along feeling sorry for four-year-olds, and even for those who were only four and a half, for they were babies and wouldn't dare try slipping away to the ocean alone. [33] But five! [34] "I'll set you free, Mr. Bee—just wait and see!" [35] As he passed one of the many motionless pollen-gathering insects he met on the way, he took care not to brush against it or disturb its interrupted task. [36] When Purnie had stopped time, the bees—like all the other creatures he met—had been arrested in their native activities, and he knew that as soon as he resumed time, everything would pick up where it had left off. [37] When he smelled an acid sweetness that told him the ocean was not far off, his pulse quickened in anticipation. [38] Rather than spoil what was clearly going to be a perfect day, he chose to ignore the fact that he had been forbidden to use time-stopping as a convenience for journeying far from home. [39] He chose to ignore the oft-repeated statement that an hour of time-stopping consumed more energy than a week of foot-racing. [40] He chose to ignore the negative maxim that "small children who stop time without an adult being present, may not live to regret it." [41] He chose, instead, to picture the beaming praise of family and friends when they learned of his brave journey. [42] The journey was long, the clock stood still. [43] He stopped long enough to gather some fruit that grew along the path. [44] It would serve as his lunch during this day of promise. [45] With it under his arm he bounded along a dozen more steps, then stopped abruptly in his tracks. [46] He found himself atop a rocky knoll, overlooking the mighty sea! [47] He was so overpowered by the vista before him that his "Hurrah!" [48] came out as a weak squeak. [49] The ocean lay at the ready, its stilled waves awaiting his command to resume their tidal sweep. [50] The breakers along the shoreline hung in varying stages of disarray, some having already exploded into towering white spray while others were poised in smooth orange curls waiting to start that action. [51] And there were new friends everywhere! [52] Overhead, a flock of spora were frozen in a steep glide, preparatory to a beach landing. [53] Purnie had heard of these playful creatures many times. [54] Today, with his brothers in school, he would have the pets all to himself. [55] Further down the beach was a pair of two-legged animals poised in mid-step, facing the spot where Purnie now stood. [56] Some distance behind them were eight more, each of whom were motionless in a curious pose of interrupted animation. [57] And down in the water, where the ocean ran itself into thin nothingness upon the sand, he saw standing here and there the comical tripons, those three-legged marine buffoons who made handsome careers of munching seaweed. [58] "Hi there!" [59] Purnie called. [60] When he got no reaction, he remembered that he himself was "dead" to the living world: he was still in a zone of time-stopping, on the inside looking out. [61] For him, the world would continue to be a tableau of mannikins until he resumed time. [62] "Hi there!" [63] he called again; but now his mental attitude was that he expected time to resume. [64] It did! [65] Immediately he was surrounded by activity. [66] He heard the roar of the crashing orange breakers, he tasted the dew of acid that floated from the spray, and he saw his new friends continue the actions which he had stopped while back in the forest. [67] He knew, too, that at this moment, in the forest, the little brook picked up its flow where it had left off, the purple clouds resumed their leeward journey up the valley, and the bees continued their pollen-gathering without having missed a single stroke of their delicate wings. [68] The brook, the clouds, and the insects had not been interrupted in the least; their respective tasks had been performed with continuing sureness. [69] It was time itself that Purnie had stopped, not the world around him. [70] He scampered around the rockpile and down the sandy cliff to meet the tripons who, to him, had just come to life. [71] "I can stand on my head!" [72] He set down his lunch and balanced himself bottoms-up while his legs pawed the air in an effort to hold him in position. [73] He knew it was probably the worst head-stand he had ever done, for he felt weak and dizzy. [74] Already time-stopping had left its mark on his strength. [75] But his spirits ran on unchecked. [76] The tripon thought Purnie's feat was superb. [77] It stopped munching long enough to give him a salutory wag of its rump before returning to its repast. [78] Purnie ran from pillar to post, trying to see and do everything at once. [79] He looked around to greet the flock of spora, but they had glided to a spot further along the shore. [80] Then, bouncing up to the first of the two-legged animals, he started to burst forth with his habitual "Hi there!" [81] when he heard them making sounds of their own. [82] "... will be no limit to my operations now, Benson. [83] This planet makes seventeen. [84] Seventeen planets I can claim as my own!" [85] "My, my. [86] Seventeen planets. [87] And tell me, Forbes, just what the hell are you going to do with them—mount them on the wall of your den back in San Diego?" [88] "Hi there, wanna play?" [89] Purnie's invitation got nothing more than startled glance from the animals who quickly returned to their chatter. [90] He scampered up the beach, picked up his lunch, and ran back to them, tagging along at their heels. [91] "I've got my lunch, want some?" [92] "Benson, you'd better tell your men back there to stop gawking at the scenery and get to work. [93] Time is money. [94] I didn't pay for this expedition just to give your flunkies a vacation." [95] The animals stopped so suddenly that Purnie nearly tangled himself in their heels. [96] "All right, Forbes, just hold it a minute. [97] Listen to me. [98] Sure, it's your money that put us here; it's your expedition all the way. [99] But you hired me to get you here with the best crew on earth, and that's just what I've done. [100] My job isn't over yet. [101] I'm responsible for the safety of the men while we're here, and for the safe trip home." [102] "Precisely. [103] And since you're responsible, get 'em working. [104] Tell 'em to bring along the flag. [105] Look at the damn fools back there, playing in the ocean with a three-legged ostrich!" [106] "Good God, man, aren't you human? [107] We've only been on this planet twenty minutes! [108] Naturally they want to look around. [109] They half expected to find wild animals or worse, and here we are surrounded by quaint little creatures that run up to us like we're long-lost brothers. [110] Let the men look around a minute or two before we stake out your claim." [111] "Bah! [112] Bunch of damn children." [113] As Purnie followed along, a leg shot out at him and missed. [114] "Benson, will you get this bug-eyed kangaroo away from me!" [115] Purnie shrieked with joy at this new frolic and promptly stood on his head. [116] In this position he got an upside down view of them walking away. [117] He gave up trying to stay with them. [118] Why did they move so fast, anyway? [119] What was the hurry? [120] As he sat down and began eating his lunch, three more of the creatures came along making excited noises, apparently trying to catch up to the first two. [121] As they passed him, he held out his lunch. [122] "Want some?" [123] No response. [124] Playing held more promise than eating. [125] He left his lunch half eaten and went down to where they had stopped further along the beach. [126] "Captain Benson, sir! [127] Miles has detected strong radiation in the vicinity. [128] He's trying to locate it now." [129] "There you are, Forbes. [130] Your new piece of real estate is going to make you so rich that you can buy your next planet. [131] That'll make eighteen, I believe." [132] "Radiation, bah! [133] We've found low-grade ore on every planet I've discovered so far, and this one'll be no different. [134] Now how about that flag? [135] Let's get it up, Benson. [136] And the cornerstone, and the plaque." [137] "All right, lads. [138] The sooner we get Mr. Forbes's pennant raised and his claim staked out, the sooner we can take time to look around. [139] Lively now!" [140] When the three animals went back to join the rest of their group, the first two resumed walking. [141] Purnie followed along. [142] "Well, Benson, you won't have to look far for materials to use for the base of the flag pole. [143] Look at that rockpile up there. [144] "Can't use them. [145] They're petrified logs. [146] The ones on top are too high to carry down, and if we move those on the bottom, the whole works will slide down on top of us." [147] "Well—that's your problem. [148] Just remember, I want this flag pole to be solid. [149] It's got to stand at least—" "Don't worry, Forbes, we'll get your monument erected. [150] What's this with the flag? [151] There must be more to staking a claim than just putting up a flag." [152] "There is, there is. [153] Much more. [154] I've taken care of all requirements set down by law to make my claim. [155] But the flag? [156] Well, you might say it represents an empire, Benson. [157] The Forbes Empire. [158] On each of my flags is the word FORBES, a symbol of development and progress. [159] Call it sentiment if you will." [160] "Don't worry, I won't. [161] I've seen real-estate flags before." [162] "Damn it all, will you stop referring to this as a real-estate deal? [163] What I'm doing is big, man. [164] Big! [165] This is pioneering." [166] "Of course. [167] And if I'm not mistaken, you've set up a neat little escrow system so that you not only own the planets, but you will virtually own the people who are foolish enough to buy land on them." [168] "I could have your hide for talking to me like this. [169] Damn you, man! [170] It's people like me who pay your way. [171] It's people like me who give your space ships some place to go. [172] It's people like me who pour good money into a chancey job like this, so that people like you can get away from thirteen-story tenement houses. [173] Did you ever think of that?" [174] "I imagine you'll triple your money in six months." [175] When they stopped, Purnie stopped. [176] At first he had been interested in the strange sounds they were making, but as he grew used to them, and as they in turn ignored his presence, he hopped alongside chattering to himself, content to be in their company. [177] He heard more of these sounds coming from behind, and he turned to see the remainder of the group running toward them. [178] "Captain Benson! [179] Here's the flag, sir. [180] And here's Miles with the scintillometer. [181] He says the radiation's getting stronger over this way!" [182] "How about that, Miles?" [183] "This thing's going wild, Captain. [184] It's almost off scale." [185] Purnie saw one of the animals hovering around him with a little box. [186] Thankful for the attention, he stood on his head. [187] "Can you do this?" [188] He was overjoyed at the reaction. [189] They all started making wonderful noises, and he felt most satisfied. [190] "Stand back, Captain! [191] Here's the source right here! [192] This little chuck-walla's hotter than a plutonium pile!" [193] "Let me see that, Miles. [194] Well, I'll be damned! [195] Now what do you suppose—" By now they had formed a widening circle around him, and he was hard put to think of an encore. [196] He gambled on trying a brand new trick: he stood on one leg. [197] "Benson, I must have that animal! [198] Put him in a box." [199] "Now wait a minute, Forbes. [200] Universal Law forbids—" "This is my planet and I am the law. [201] Put him in a box!" [202] "With my crew as witness, I officially protest—" "Good God, what a specimen to take back. [203] Radio-active animals! [204] Why, they can reproduce themselves, of course! [205] There must be thousands of these creatures around here someplace. [206] And to think of those damn fools on Earth with their plutonium piles! [207] Hah! [208] Now I'll have investors flocking to me. [209] How about it, Benson—does pioneering pay off or doesn't it?" [210] "Not so fast. [211] Since this little fellow is radioactive, there may be great danger to the crew—" "Now look here! [212] You had planned to put mineral specimens in a lead box, so what's the difference? [213] Put him in a box." [214] "He'll die." [215] "I have you under contract, Benson! [216] You are responsible to me, and what's more, you are on my property. [217] Put him in a box." [218] Purnie was tired. [219] First the time-stopping, then this. [220] While this day had brought more fun and excitement than he could have hoped for, the strain was beginning to tell. [221] He lay in the center of the circle happily exhausted, hoping that his friends would show him some of their own tricks. [222] He didn't have to wait long. [223] The animals forming the circle stepped back and made way for two others who came through carrying a box. [224] Purnie sat up to watch the show. [225] "Hell, Captain, why don't I just pick him up? [226] Looks like he has no intention of running away." [227] "Better not, Cabot. [228] Even though you're shielded, no telling what powers the little fella has. [229] Play it safe and use the rope." [230] "I swear he knows what we're saying. [231] Look at those eyes." [232] "All right, careful now with that line." [233] "Come on, baby. [234] Here you go. [235] That's a boy!" [236] Purnie took in these sounds with perplexed concern. [237] He sensed the imploring quality of the creature with the rope, but he didn't know what he was supposed to do. [238] He cocked his head to one side as he wiggled in anticipation. [239] He saw the noose spinning down toward his head, and, before he knew it, he had scooted out of the circle and up the sandy beach. [240] He was surprised at himself for running away. [241] Why had he done it? [242] He wondered. [243] Never before had he felt this fleeting twinge that made him want to protect himself. [244] He watched the animals huddle around the box on the beach, their attention apparently diverted to something else. [245] He wished now that he had not run away; he felt he had lost his chance to join in their fun. [246] "Wait!" [247] He ran over to his half-eaten lunch, picked it up, and ran back into the little crowd. [248] "I've got my lunch, want some?" [249] The party came to life once more. [250] His friends ran this way and that, and at last Purnie knew that the idea was to get him into the box. [251] He picked up the spirit of the tease, and deliberately ran within a few feet of the lead box, then, just as the nearest pursuer was about to push him in, he sidestepped onto safer ground. [252] Then he heard a deafening roar and felt a warm, wet sting in one of his legs. [253] "Forbes, you fool! [254] Put away that gun!" [255] "There you are, boys. [256] It's all in knowing how. [257] Just winged him, that's all. [258] Now pick him up." [259] The pang in his leg was nothing: Purnie's misery lay in his confusion. [260] What had he done wrong? [261] When he saw the noose spinning toward him again, he involuntarily stopped time. [262] He knew better than to use this power carelessly, but his action now was reflex. [263] In that split second following the sharp sting in his leg, his mind had grasped in all directions to find an acceptable course of action. [264] Finding none, it had ordered the stoppage of time. [265] The scene around him became a tableau once more. [266] The noose hung motionless over his head while the rest of the rope snaked its way in transverse waves back to one of the two-legged animals. [267] Purnie dragged himself through the congregation, whimpering from his inability to understand. [268] As he worked his way past one creature after another, he tried at first to not look them in the eye, for he felt sure he had done something wrong. [269] Then he thought that by sneaking a glance at them as he passed, he might see a sign pointing to their purpose. [270] He limped by one who had in his hand a small shiny object that had been emitting smoke from one end; the smoke now billowed in lifeless curls about the animal's head. [271] He hobbled by another who held a small box that had previously made a hissing sound whenever Purnie was near. [272] These things told him nothing. [273] Before starting his climb up the knoll, he passed a tripon which, true to its reputation, was comical even in fright. [274] Startled by the loud explosion, it had jumped four feet into the air before Purnie had stopped time. [275] Now it hung there, its beak stuffed with seaweed and its three legs drawn up into a squatting position. [276] Leaving the assorted statues behind, he limped his way up the knoll, torn between leaving and staying. [277] What an odd place, this ocean country! [278] He wondered why he had not heard more detail about the beach animals. [279] Reaching the top of the bluff, he looked down upon his silent friends with a feeling of deep sorrow. [280] How he wished he were down there playing with them. [281] But he knew at last that theirs was a game he didn't fit into. [282] Now there was nothing left but to resume time and start the long walk home. [283] Even though the short day was nearly over, he knew he didn't dare use time-stopping to get himself home in nothing flat. [284] His fatigued body and clouded mind were strong signals that he had already abused this faculty. [285] When Purnie started time again, the animal with the noose stood in open-mouthed disbelief as the rope fell harmlessly to the sand—on the spot where Purnie had been standing. [286] "My God, he's—he's gone." [287] Then another of the animals, the one with the smoking thing in his hand, ran a few steps toward the noose, stopped and gaped at the rope. [288] "All right, you people, what's going on here? [289] Get him in that box. [290] What did you do with him?" [291] The resumption of time meant nothing at all to those on the beach, for to them time had never stopped. [292] The only thing they could be sure of was that at one moment there had been a fuzzy creature hopping around in front of them, and the next moment he was gone. [293] "Is he invisible, Captain? [294] Where is he?" [295] "Up there, Captain! [296] On those rocks. [297] Isn't that him?" [298] "Well, I'll be damned!" [299] "Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this! [300] Now that you've botched it up, I'll bring him down my own way." [301] "Just a minute, Forbes, let me think. [302] There's something about that fuzzy little devil that we should.... Forbes! [303] I warned you about that gun!" [304] Purnie moved across the top of the rockpile for a last look at his friends. [305] His weight on the end of the first log started the slide. [306] Slowly at first, the giant pencils began cascading down the short distance to the sand. [307] Purnie fell back onto solid ground, horrified at the spectacle before him. [308] The agonizing screams of the animals below filled him with hysteria. [309] The boulders caught most of them as they stood ankle-deep in the surf. [310] Others were pinned down on the sand. [311] "I didn't mean it!" [312] Purnie screamed. [313] "I'm sorry! [314] Can't you hear?" [315] He hopped back and forth near the edge of the rise, torn with panic and shame. [316] "Get up! [317] Please get up!" [318] He was horrified by the moans reaching his ears from the beach. [319] "You're getting all wet! [320] Did you hear me? [321] Please get up." [322] He was choked with rage and sorrow. [323] How could he have done this? [324] He wanted his friends to get up and shake themselves off, tell him it was all right. [325] But it was beyond his power to bring it about. [326] The lapping tide threatened to cover those in the orange surf. [327] Purnie worked his way down the hill, imploring them to save themselves. [328] The sounds they made carried a new tone, a desperate foreboding of death. [329] "Rhodes! [330] Cabot! [331] Can you hear me?" [332] "I—I can't move, Captain. [333] My leg, it's.... My God, we're going to drown!" [334] "Look around you, Cabot. [335] Can you see anyone moving?" [336] "The men on the beach are nearly buried, Captain. [337] And the rest of us here in the water—" "Forbes. [338] Can you see Forbes? [339] Maybe he's—" His sounds were cut off by a wavelet gently rolling over his head. [340] Purnie could wait no longer. [341] The tides were all but covering one of the animals, and soon the others would be in the same plight. [342] Disregarding the consequences, he ordered time to stop. [343] Wading down into the surf, he worked a log off one victim, then he tugged the animal up to the sand. [344] Through blinding tears, Purnie worked slowly and carefully. [345] He knew there was no hurry—at least, not as far as his friends' safety was concerned. [346] No matter what their condition of life or death was at this moment, it would stay the same way until he started time again. [347] He made his way deeper into the orange liquid, where a raised hand signalled the location of a submerged body. [348] The hand was clutching a large white banner that was tangled among the logs. [349] Purnie worked the animal free and pulled it ashore. [350] It was the one who had been carrying the shiny object that spit smoke. [351] Scarcely noticing his own injured leg, he ferried one victim after another until there were no more in the surf. [352] Up on the beach, he started unraveling the logs that pinned down the animals caught there. [353] He removed a log from the lap of one, who then remained in a sitting position, his face contorted into a frozen mask of agony and shock. [354] Another, with the weight removed, rolled over like an iron statue into a new position. [355] Purnie whimpered in black misery as he surveyed the chaotic scene before him. [356] At last he could do no more; he felt consciousness slipping away from him. [357] He instinctively knew that if he lost his senses during a period of time-stopping, events would pick up where they had left off ... without him. [358] For Purnie, this would be death. [359] If he had to lose consciousness, he knew he must first resume time. [360] Step by step he plodded up the little hill, pausing every now and then to consider if this were the moment to start time before it was too late. [361] With his energy fast draining away, he reached the top of the knoll, and he turned to look down once more on the group below. [362] Then he knew how much his mind and body had suffered: when he ordered time to resume, nothing happened. [363] His heart sank. [364] He wasn't afraid of death, and he knew that if he died the oceans would roll again and his friends would move about. [365] But he wanted to see them safe. [366] He tried to clear his mind for supreme effort. [367] There was no urging time to start. [368] He knew he couldn't persuade it by bits and pieces, first slowly then full ahead. [369] Time either progressed or it didn't. [370] He had to take one viewpoint or the other. [371] Then, without knowing exactly when it happened, his mind took command.... His friends came to life. [372] The first one he saw stir lay on his stomach and pounded his fists on the beach. [373] A flood of relief settled over Purnie as sounds came from the animal. [374] "What's the matter with me? [375] Somebody tell me! [376] Am I nuts? [377] Miles! [378] Schick! [379] What's happening?" [380] "I'm coming, Rhodes! [381] Heaven help us, man—I saw it, too. [382] We're either crazy or those damn logs are alive!" [383] "It's not the logs. [384] How about us? [385] How'd we get out of the water? [386] Miles, we're both cracking." [387] "I'm telling you, man, it's the logs, or rocks or whatever they are. [388] I was looking right at them. [389] First they're on top of me, then they're piled up over there!" [390] "Damnit, the logs didn't pick us up out of the ocean, did they? [391] Captain Benson!" [392] "Are you men all right?" [393] "Yes sir, but—" "Who saw exactly what happened?" [394] "I'm afraid we're not seeing right, Captain. [395] Those logs—" "I know, I know. [396] Now get hold of yourselves. [397] We've got to round up the others and get out of here while time is on our side." [398] "But what happened, Captain?" [399] "Hell, Rhodes, don't you think I'd like to know? [400] Those logs are so old they're petrified. [401] The whole bunch of us couldn't lift one. [402] It would take super-human energy to move one of those things." [403] "I haven't seen anything super-human. [404] Those ostriches down there are so busy eating seaweed—" "All right, let's bear a hand here with the others. [405] Some of them can't walk. [406] Where's Forbes?" [407] "He's sitting down there in the water, Captain, crying like a baby. [408] Or laughing. [409] I can't tell which." [410] "We'll have to get him. [411] Miles, Schick, come along. [412] Forbes! [413] You all right?" [414] "Ho-ho-ho! [415] Seventeen! [416] Seventeen! [417] Seventeen planets, Benson, and they'll do anything I say! [418] This one's got a mind of its own. [419] Did you see that little trick with the rocks? [420] Ho-ho!" [421] "See if you can find his gun, Schick; he'll either kill himself or one of us. [422] Tie his hands and take him back to the ship. [423] We'll be along shortly." [424] "Hah-hah-hah! [425] Seventeen! [426] Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this. [427] Hee-hee!" [428] Purnie opened his eyes as consciousness returned. [429] Had his friends gone? [430] He pulled himself along on his stomach to a position between two rocks, where he could see without being seen. [431] By the light of the twin moons he saw that they were leaving, marching away in groups of two and three, the weak helping the weaker. [432] As they disappeared around the curving shoreline, the voices of the last two, bringing up the rear far behind the others, fell faintly on his ears over the sound of the surf. [433] "Is it possible that we're all crazy, Captain?" [434] "It's possible, but we're not." [435] "I wish I could be sure." [436] "See Forbes up ahead there? [437] What do you think of him?" [438] "I still can't believe it." [439] "He'll never be the same." [440] "Tell me something. [441] What was the most unusual thing you noticed back there?" [442] "You must be kidding, sir. [443] Why, the way those logs were off of us suddenly—" "Yes, of course. [444] But I mean beside that." [445] "Well, I guess I was kind of busy. [446] You know, scared and mixed up." [447] "But didn't you notice our little pop-eyed friend?" [448] "Oh, him. [449] I'm afraid not, Captain. [450] I—I guess I was thinking mostly of myself." [451] "Hmmm. [452] If I could only be sure I saw him. [453] If only someone else saw him too." [454] "I'm afraid I don't follow you, sir." [455] "Well, damn it all, you know that Forbes took a pot shot at him. [456] Got him in the leg. [457] That being the case, why would the fuzzy little devil come back to his tormentors—back to us—when we were trapped under those logs?" [458] "Well, I guess as long as we were trapped, he figured we couldn't do him any more harm.... [459] I'm sorry, that was a stupid answer. [460] I guess I'm still a little shaky." [461] "Forget it. [462] Look, you go ahead to the ship and make ready for take-off. [463] I'll join you in a few minutes. [464] I think I'll go back and look around. [465] You know. [466] Make sure we haven't left anyone." [467] "No need to do that. [468] They're all ahead of us. [469] I've checked." [470] "That's my responsibility, Cabot, not yours. [471] Now go on." [472] As Purnie lay gathering strength for the long trek home, he saw through glazed eyes one of the animals coming back along the beach. [473] When it was nearly directly below him, he could hear it making sounds that by now had become familiar. [474] "Where are you?" [475] Purnie paid little attention to the antics of his friend; he was beyond understanding. [476] He wondered what they would say at home when he returned. [477] "We've made a terrible mistake. [478] We—" The sounds faded in and out on Purnie's ears as the creature turned slowly and called in different directions. [479] He watched the animal walk over to the pile of scattered logs and peer around and under them. [480] "If you're hurt I'd like to help!" [481] The twin moons were high in the sky now, and where their light broke through the swirling clouds a double shadow was cast around the animal. [482] With foggy awareness, Purnie watched the creature shake its head slowly, then walk away in the direction of the others. [483] Purnie's eyes stared, without seeing, at the panorama before him. [484] The beach was deserted now, and his gaze was transfixed on a shimmering white square floating on the ocean. [485] Across it, the last thing Purnie ever saw, was emblazoned the word FORBES.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What causes Forbes to go mad?": 1. [202] "Good God, what a specimen to take back. Radio-active animals! Why, they can reproduce themselves, of course! There must be thousands of these creatures around here someplace. And to think of those damn fools on Earth with their plutonium piles! Hah! Now I'll have investors flocking to me. How about it, Benson—does pioneering pay off or doesn't it?" 2. [162] "Damn it all, will you stop referring to this as a real-estate deal? What I'm doing is big, man. Big! This is pioneering." 3. [197] "Benson, I must have that animal! Put him in a box." 4. [201] "This is my planet and I am the law. Put him in a box!" 5. [208] "Good God, what a specimen to take back. Radio-active animals! Why, they can reproduce themselves, of course!" 6. [209] "There must be thousands of these creatures around here someplace. And to think of those damn fools on Earth with their plutonium piles! Hah! Now I'll have investors flocking to me. How about it, Benson—does pioneering pay off or doesn't it?" 7. [414] "Ho-ho-ho! Seventeen! Seventeen! Seventeen planets, Benson, and they'll do anything I say! This one's got a mind of its own. Did you see that little trick with the rocks? Ho-ho!" 8. [416] "Seventeen! Seventeen! Seventeen planets, Benson, and they'll do anything I say!" 9. [417] "This one's got a mind of its own. Did you see that little trick with the rocks? Ho-ho!" 10. [424] "Hah-hah-hah! Seventeen! Benson, I'm holding you personally responsible for this. Hee-hee!"

What is the plot of the story?

[1] HUNT the HUNTER BY KRIS NEVILLE Illustrated by ELIZABETH MacINTYRE [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction June 1951. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] Of course using live bait is the best way to lure dangerous alien animals ... unless it turns out that you are the bait! [4] "We're somewhat to the south, I think," Ri said, bending over the crude field map. [5] "That ridge," he pointed, "on our left, is right here." [6] He drew a finger down the map. [7] "It was over here," he moved the finger, "over the ridge, north of here, that we sighted them." [8] Extrone asked, "Is there a pass?" [9] Ri looked up, studying the terrain. [10] He moved his shoulders. [11] "I don't know, but maybe they range this far. [12] Maybe they're on this side of the ridge, too." [13] Delicately, Extrone raised a hand to his beard. [14] "I'd hate to lose a day crossing the ridge," he said. [15] "Yes, sir," Ri said. [16] Suddenly he threw back his head. [17] "Listen!" [18] "Eh?" [19] Extrone said. [20] "Hear it? [21] That cough? [22] I think that's one, from over there. [23] Right up ahead of us." [24] Extrone raised his eyebrows. [25] This time, the coughing roar was more distant, but distinct. [26] "It is!" [27] Ri said. [28] "It's a farn beast, all right!" [29] Extrone smiled, almost pointed teeth showing through the beard. [30] "I'm glad we won't have to cross the ridge." [31] Ri wiped his forehead on the back of his sleeve. [32] "Yes, sir." [33] "We'll pitch camp right here, then," Extrone said. [34] "We'll go after it tomorrow." [35] He looked at the sky. [36] "Have the bearers hurry." [37] "Yes, sir." [38] Ri moved away, his pulse gradually slowing. [39] "You, there!" [40] he called. [41] "Pitch camp, here!" [42] He crossed to Mia, who, along with him, had been pressed into Extrone's party as guides. [43] Once more, Ri addressed the bearers, "Be quick, now!" [44] And to Mia, "God almighty, he was getting mad." [45] He ran a hand under his collar. [46] "It's a good thing that farn beast sounded off when it did. [47] I'd hate to think of making him climb that ridge." [48] Mia glanced nervously over his shoulder. [49] "It's that damned pilot's fault for setting us down on this side. [50] I told him it was the other side. [51] I told him so." [52] Ri shrugged hopelessly. [53] Mia said, "I don't think he even saw a blast area over here. [54] I think he wanted to get us in trouble." [55] "There shouldn't be one. [56] There shouldn't be a blast area on this side of the ridge, too." [57] "That's what I mean. [58] The pilot don't like businessmen. [59] He had it in for us." [60] Ri cleared his throat nervously. [61] "Maybe you're right." [62] "It's the Hunting Club he don't like." [63] "I wish to God I'd never heard of a farn beast," Ri said. [64] "At least, then, I wouldn't be one of his guides. [65] Why didn't he hire somebody else?" [66] Mia looked at his companion. [67] He spat. [68] "What hurts most, he pays us for it. [69] I could buy half this planet, and he makes me his guide—at less than I pay my secretary." [70] "Well, anyway, we won't have to cross that ridge." [71] "Hey, you!" [72] Extrone called. [73] The two of them turned immediately. [74] "You two scout ahead," Extrone said. [75] "See if you can pick up some tracks." [76] "Yes, sir," Ri said, and instantly the two of them readjusted their shoulder straps and started off. [77] Shortly they were inside of the scrub forest, safe from sight. [78] "Let's wait here," Mia said. [79] "No, we better go on. [80] He may have sent a spy in." [81] They pushed on, being careful to blaze the trees, because they were not professional guides. [82] "We don't want to get too near," Ri said after toiling through the forest for many minutes. [83] "Without guns, we don't want to get near enough for the farn beast to charge us." [84] They stopped. [85] The forest was dense, the vines clinging. [86] "He'll want the bearers to hack a path for him," Mia said. [87] "But we go it alone. [88] Damn him." [89] Ri twisted his mouth into a sour frown. [90] He wiped at his forehead. [91] "Hot. [92] By God, it's hot. [93] I didn't think it was this hot, the first time we were here." [94] Mia said, "The first time, we weren't guides. [95] We didn't notice it so much then." [96] They fought a few yards more into the forest. [97] Then it ended. [98] Or, rather, there was a wide gap. [99] Before them lay a blast area, unmistakable. [100] The grass was beginning to grow again, but the tree stumps were roasted from the rocket breath. [101] "This isn't ours!" [102] Ri said. [103] "This looks like it was made nearly a year ago!" [104] Mia's eyes narrowed. [105] "The military from Xnile?" [106] "No," Ri said. [107] "They don't have any rockets this small. [108] And I don't think there's another cargo rocket on this planet outside of the one we leased from the Club. [109] Except the one he brought." [110] "The ones who discovered the farn beasts in the first place?" [111] Mia asked. [112] "You think it's their blast?" [113] "So?" [114] Ri said. [115] "But who are they?" [116] It was Mia's turn to shrug. [117] "Whoever they were, they couldn't have been hunters. [118] They'd have kept the secret better." [119] "We didn't do so damned well." [120] "We didn't have a chance," Mia objected. [121] "Everybody and his brother had heard the rumor that farn beasts were somewhere around here. [122] It wasn't our fault Extrone found out." [123] "I wish we hadn't shot our guide, then. [124] I wish he was here instead of us." [125] Mia shook perspiration out of his eyes. [126] "We should have shot our pilot, too. [127] That was our mistake. [128] The pilot must have been the one who told Extrone we'd hunted this area." [129] "I didn't think a Club pilot would do that." [130] "After Extrone said he'd hunt farn beasts, even if it meant going to the alien system? [131] Listen, you don't know.... [132] Wait a minute." [133] There was perspiration on Ri's upper lip. " [134] I didn't tell Extrone, if that's what you're thinking," Mia said. [135] Ri's mouth twisted. [136] "I didn't say you did." [137] "Listen," Mia said in a hoarse whisper. [138] "I just thought. [139] Listen. [140] To hell with how he found out. [141] Here's the point. [142] Maybe he'll shoot us, too, when the hunt's over." [143] Ri licked his lips. [144] "No. [145] He wouldn't do that. [146] We're not—not just anybody. [147] He couldn't kill us like that. [148] Not even him . [149] And besides, why would he want to do that? [150] It wouldn't do any good to shoot us. [151] Too many people already know about the farn beasts. [152] You said that yourself." [153] Mia said, "I hope you're right." [154] They stood side by side, studying the blast area in silence. [155] Finally, Mia said, "We better be getting back." [156] "What'll we tell him?" [157] "That we saw tracks. [158] What else can we tell him?" [159] They turned back along their trail, stumbling over vines. [160] "It gets hotter at sunset," Ri said nervously. [161] "The breeze dies down." [162] "It's screwy. [163] I didn't think farn beasts had this wide a range. [164] There must be a lot of them, to be on both sides of the ridge like this." [165] "There may be a pass," Mia said, pushing a vine away. [166] Ri wrinkled his brow, panting. [167] "I guess that's it. [168] If there were a lot of them, we'd have heard something before we did. [169] But even so, it's damned funny, when you think about it." [170] Mia looked up at the darkening sky. [171] "We better hurry," he said. [172] When it came over the hastily established camp, the rocket was low, obviously looking for a landing site. [173] It was a military craft, from the outpost on the near moon, and forward, near the nose, there was the blazoned emblem of the Ninth Fleet. [174] The rocket roared directly over Extrone's tent, turned slowly, spouting fuel expensively, and settled into the scrub forest, turning the vegetation beneath it sere by its blasts. [175] Extrone sat on an upholstered stool before his tent and spat disgustedly and combed his beard with his blunt fingers. [176] Shortly, from the direction of the rocket, a group of four high-ranking officers came out of the forest, heading toward him. [177] They were spruce, the officers, with military discipline holding their waists in and knees almost stiff. [178] "What in hell do you want?" [179] Extrone asked. [180] They stopped a respectful distance away. [181] "Sir...." one began. [182] "Haven't I told you gentlemen that rockets frighten the game?" [183] Extrone demanded, ominously not raising his voice. [184] "Sir," the lead officer said, "it's another alien ship. [185] It was sighted a few hours ago, off this very planet, sir." [186] Extrone's face looked much too innocent. [187] "How did it get there, gentlemen? [188] Why wasn't it destroyed?" [189] "We lost it again, sir. [190] Temporarily, sir." [191] "So?" [192] Extrone mocked. [193] "We thought you ought to return to a safer planet, sir. [194] Until we could locate and destroy it." [195] Extrone stared at them for a space. [196] Then, indifferently, he turned away, in the direction of a resting bearer. [197] "You!" [198] he said. [199] "Hey! [200] Bring me a drink!" [201] He faced the officers again. [202] He smiled maliciously. [203] "I'm staying here." [204] The lead officer licked his firm lower lip. [205] "But, sir...." Extrone toyed with his beard. [206] "About a year ago, gentlemen, there was an alien ship around here then, wasn't there? [207] And you destroyed it, didn't you?" [208] "Yes, sir. [209] When we located it, sir." [210] "You'll destroy this one, too," Extrone said. [211] "We have a tight patrol, sir. [212] It can't slip through. [213] But it might try a long range bombardment, sir." [214] Extrone said, "To begin with, they probably don't even know I'm here. [215] And they probably couldn't hit this area if they did know. [216] And you can't afford to let them get a shot at me, anyway." [217] "That's why we'd like you to return to an inner planet, sir." [218] Extrone plucked at his right ear lobe, half closing his eyes. [219] "You'll lose a fleet before you'll dare let anything happen to me, gentlemen. [220] I'm quite safe here, I think." [221] The bearer brought Extrone his drink. [222] "Get off," Extrone said quietly to the four officers. [223] Again they turned reluctantly. [224] This time, he did not call them back. [225] Instead, with amusement, he watched until they disappeared into the tangle of forest. [226] Dusk was falling. [227] The takeoff blast of the rocket illuminated the area, casting weird shadows on the gently swaying grasses; there was a hot breath of dry air and the rocket dwindled toward the stars. [228] Extrone stood up lazily, stretching. [229] He tossed the empty glass away, listened for it to shatter. [230] He reached out, parted the heavy flap to his tent. [231] "Sir?" [232] Ri said, hurrying toward him in the gathering darkness. [233] "Eh?" [234] Extrone said, turning, startled. [235] "Oh, you. [236] Well?" [237] "We ... located signs of the farn beast, sir. [238] To the east." [239] Extrone nodded. [240] After a moment he said, "You killed one, I believe, on your trip?" [241] Ri shifted. [242] "Yes, sir." [243] Extrone held back the flap of the tent. [244] "Won't you come in?" [245] he asked without any politeness whatever. [246] Ri obeyed the order. [247] The inside of the tent was luxurious. [248] The bed was of bulky feathers, costly of transport space, the sleep curtains of silken gauze. [249] The floor, heavy, portable tile blocks, not the hollow kind, were neatly and smoothly inset into the ground. [250] Hanging from the center, to the left of the slender, hand-carved center pole, was a chain of crystals. [251] They tinkled lightly when Extrone dropped the flap. [252] The light was electric from a portable dynamo. [253] Extrone flipped it on. [254] He crossed to the bed, sat down. [255] "You were, I believe, the first ever to kill a farn beast?" [256] he said. [257] "I.... No, sir. [258] There must have been previous hunters, sir." [259] Extrone narrowed his eyes. [260] "I see by your eyes that you are envious—that is the word, isn't it?—of my tent." [261] Ri looked away from his face. [262] "Perhaps I'm envious of your reputation as a hunter. [263] You see, I have never killed a farn beast. [264] In fact, I haven't seen a farn beast." [265] Ri glanced nervously around the tent, his sharp eyes avoiding Extrone's glittering ones. [266] "Few people have seen them, sir." [267] "Oh?" [268] Extrone questioned mildly. [269] "I wouldn't say that. [270] I understand that the aliens hunt them quite extensively ... on some of their planets." [271] "I meant in our system, sir." [272] "Of course you did," Extrone said, lazily tracing the crease of his sleeve with his forefinger. [273] "I imagine these are the only farn beasts in our system." [274] Ri waited uneasily, not answering. [275] "Yes," Extrone said, "I imagine they are. [276] It would have been a shame if you had killed the last one. [277] Don't you think so?" [278] Ri's hands worried the sides of his outer garment. [279] "Yes, sir. [280] It would have been." [281] Extrone pursed his lips. [282] "It wouldn't have been very considerate of you to—But, still, you gained valuable experience. [283] I'm glad you agreed to come along as my guide." [284] "It was an honor, sir." [285] Extrone's lip twisted in wry amusement. [286] "If I had waited until it was safe for me to hunt on an alien planet, I would not have been able to find such an illustrious guide." [287] "... [288] I'm flattered, sir." [289] "Of course," Extrone said. [290] "But you should have spoken to me about it, when you discovered the farn beast in our own system." [291] "I realize that, sir. [292] That is, I had intended at the first opportunity, sir...." "Of course," Extrone said dryly. [293] "Like all of my subjects," he waved his hand in a broad gesture, "the highest as well as the lowest slave, know me and love me. [294] I know your intentions were the best." [295] Ri squirmed, his face pale. [296] "We do indeed love you, sir." [297] Extrone bent forward. " [298] Know me and love me." [299] "Yes, sir. [300] Know you and love you, sir," Ri said. [301] "Get out!" [302] Extrone said. [303] "It's frightening," Ri said, "to be that close to him." [304] Mia nodded. [305] The two of them, beneath the leaf-swollen branches of the gnarled tree, were seated on their sleeping bags. [306] The moon was clear and cold and bright in a cloudless sky; a small moon, smooth-surfaced, except for a central mountain ridge that bisected it into almost twin hemispheres. [307] "To think of him. [308] As flesh and blood. [309] Not like the—well; that—what we've read about." [310] Mia glanced suspiciously around him at the shadows. [311] "You begin to understand a lot of things, after seeing him." [312] Ri picked nervously at the cover of his sleeping bag. [313] "It makes you think," Mia added. [314] He twitched. [315] "I'm afraid. [316] I'm afraid he'll.... [317] Listen, we'll talk. [318] When we get back to civilization. [319] You, me, the bearers. [320] About him. [321] He can't let that happen. [322] He'll kill us first." [323] Ri looked up at the moon, shivering. [324] "No. [325] We have friends. [326] We have influence. [327] He couldn't just like that—" "He could say it was an accident." [328] "No," Ri said stubbornly. [329] "He can say anything," Mia insisted. [330] "He can make people believe anything. [331] Whatever he says. [332] There's no way to check on it." [333] "It's getting cold," Ri said. [334] "Listen," Mia pleaded. [335] "No," Ri said. [336] "Even if we tried to tell them, they wouldn't listen. [337] Everybody would know we were lying. [338] Everything they've come to believe would tell them we were lying. [339] Everything they've read, every picture they've seen. [340] They wouldn't believe us. [341] He knows that." [342] "Listen," Mia repeated intently. [343] "This is important. [344] Right now he couldn't afford to let us talk. [345] Not right now. [346] Because the Army is not against him. [347] Some officers were here, just before we came back. [348] A bearer overheard them talking. [349] They don't want to overthrow him!" [350] Ri's teeth, suddenly, were chattering. [351] "That's another lie," Mia continued. [352] "That he protects the people from the Army. [353] That's a lie. [354] I don't believe they were ever plotting against him. [355] Not even at first. [356] I think they helped him, don't you see?" [357] Ri whined nervously. [358] "It's like this," Mia said. [359] "I see it like this. [360] The Army put him in power when the people were in rebellion against military rule." [361] Ri swallowed. [362] "We couldn't make the people believe that." [363] "No?" [364] Mia challenged. [365] "Couldn't we? [366] Not today, but what about tomorrow? [367] You'll see. [368] Because I think the Army is getting ready to invade the alien system!" [369] "The people won't support them," Ri answered woodenly. " [370] Think. [371] If he tells them to, they will. [372] They trust him." [373] Ri looked around at the shadows. [374] "That explains a lot of things," Mia said. [375] "I think the Army's been preparing for this for a long time. [376] From the first, maybe. [377] That's why Extrone cut off our trade with the aliens. [378] Partly to keep them from learning that he was getting ready to invade them, but more to keep them from exposing him to the people. [379] The aliens wouldn't be fooled like we were, so easy." [380] "No!" [381] Ri snapped. [382] "It was to keep the natural economic balance." [383] "You know that's not right." [384] Ri lay down on his bed roll. [385] "Don't talk about it. [386] It's not good to talk like this. [387] I don't even want to listen." [388] "When the invasion starts, he'll have to command all their loyalties. [389] To keep them from revolt again. [390] They'd be ready to believe us, then. [391] He'll have a hard enough time without people running around trying to tell the truth." [392] "You're wrong. [393] He's not like that. [394] I know you're wrong." [395] Mia smiled twistedly. [396] "How many has he already killed? [397] How can we even guess?" [398] Ri swallowed sickly. [399] "Remember our guide? [400] To keep our hunting territory a secret?" [401] Ri shuddered. [402] "That's different. [403] Don't you see? [404] This is not at all like that." [405] With morning came birds' songs, came dew, came breakfast smells. [406] The air was sweet with cooking and it was nostalgic, childhoodlike, uncontaminated. [407] And Extrone stepped out of the tent, fully dressed, surly, letting the flap slap loudly behind him. [408] He stretched hungrily and stared around the camp, his eyes still vacant-mean with sleep. [409] "Breakfast!" [410] he shouted, and two bearers came running with a folding table and chair. [411] Behind them, a third bearer, carrying a tray of various foods; and yet behind him, a fourth, with a steaming pitcher and a drinking mug. [412] Extrone ate hugely, with none of the delicacy sometimes affected in his conversational gestures. [413] When he had finished, he washed his mouth with water and spat on the ground. [414] "Lin!" [415] he said. [416] His personal bearer came loping toward him. [417] "Have you read that manual I gave you?" [418] Lin nodded. [419] "Yes." [420] Extrone pushed the table away. [421] He smacked his lips wetly. [422] "Very ludicrous, Lin. [423] Have you noticed that I have two businessmen for guides? [424] It occurred to me when I got up. [425] They would have spat on me, twenty years ago, damn them." [426] Lin waited. [427] "Now I can spit on them, which pleases me." [428] "The farn beasts are dangerous, sir," Lin said. [429] "Eh? [430] Oh, yes. [431] Those. [432] What did the manual say about them?" [433] "I believe they're carnivorous, sir." [434] "An alien manual. [435] That's ludicrous, too. [436] That we have the only information on our newly discovered fauna from an alien manual—and, of course, two businessmen." [437] "They have very long, sharp fangs, and, when enraged, are capable of tearing a man—" "An alien?" [438] Extrone corrected. [439] "There's not enough difference between us to matter, sir. [440] Of tearing an alien to pieces, sir." [441] Extrone laughed harshly. [442] "It's 'sir' whenever you contradict me?" [443] Lin's face remained impassive. [444] "I guess it seems that way. [445] Sir." [446] "Damned few people would dare go as far as you do," Extrone said. [447] "But you're afraid of me, too, in your own way, aren't you?" [448] Lin shrugged. [449] "Maybe." [450] "I can see you are. [451] Even my wives are. [452] I wonder if anyone can know how wonderful it feels to have people all afraid of you." [453] "The farn beasts, according to the manual...." "You are very insistent on one subject." [454] "... [455] It's the only thing I know anything about. [456] The farn beast, as I was saying, sir, is the particular enemy of men. [457] Or if you like, of aliens. [458] Sir." [459] "All right," Extrone said, annoyed. [460] "I'll be careful." [461] In the distance, a farn beast coughed. [462] Instantly alert, Extrone said, "Get the bearers! [463] Have some of them cut a path through that damn thicket! [464] And tell those two businessmen to get the hell over here!" [465] Lin smiled, his eyes suddenly afire with the excitement of the hunt. [466] Four hours later, they were well into the scrub forest. [467] Extrone walked leisurely, well back of the cutters, who hacked away, methodically, at the vines and branches which might impede his forward progress. [468] Their sharp, awkward knives snickered rhythmically to the rasp of their heavy breathing. [469] Occasionally, Extrone halted, motioned for his water carrier, and drank deeply of the icy water to allay the heat of the forest, a heat made oppressive by the press of foliage against the outside air. [470] Ranging out, on both sides of the central body, the two businessmen fought independently against the wild growth, each scouting the flanks for farn beasts, and ahead, beyond the cutters, Lin flittered among the tree trunks, sometimes far, sometimes near. [471] Extrone carried the only weapon, slung easily over his shoulder, a powerful blast rifle, capable of piercing medium armor in sustained fire. [472] To his rear, the water carrier was trailed by a man bearing a folding stool, and behind him, a man carrying the heavy, high-powered two-way communication set. [473] Once Extrone unslung his blast rifle and triggered a burst at a tiny, arboreal mammal, which, upon the impact, shattered asunder, to Extrone's satisfied chuckle, in a burst of blood and fur. [474] When the sun stood high and heat exhaustion made the near-naked bearers slump, Extrone permitted a rest. [475] While waiting for the march to resume, he sat on the stool with his back against an ancient tree and patted, reflectively, the blast rifle, lying across his legs. [476] "For you, sir," the communications man said, interrupting his reverie. [477] "Damn," Extrone muttered. [478] His face twisted in anger. [479] "It better be important." [480] He took the head-set and mike and nodded to the bearer. [481] The bearer twiddled the dials. [482] "Extrone. [483] Eh?... [484] Oh, you got their ship. [485] Well, why in hell bother me?... [486] All right, so they found out I was here. [487] You got them, didn't you?" [488] "Blasted them right out of space," the voice crackled excitedly. [489] "Right in the middle of a radio broadcast, sir." [490] "I don't want to listen to your gabbling when I'm hunting!" [491] Extrone tore off the head-set and handed it to the bearer. [492] "If they call back, find out what they want, first. [493] I don't want to be bothered unless it's important." [494] "Yes, sir." [495] Extrone squinted up at the sun; his eyes crinkled under the glare, and perspiration stood in little droplets on the back of his hands. [496] Lin, returning to the column, threaded his way among reclining bearers. [497] He stopped before Extrone and tossed his hair out of his eyes. [498] "I located a spoor," he said, suppressed eagerness in his voice. [499] "About a quarter ahead. [500] It looks fresh." [501] Extrone's eyes lit with passion. [502] Lin's face was red with heat and grimy with sweat. [503] "There were two, I think." [504] "Two?" [505] Extrone grinned, petting the rifle. [506] "You and I better go forward and look at the spoor." [507] Lin said, "We ought to take protection, if you're going, too." [508] Extrone laughed. [509] "This is enough." [510] He gestured with the rifle and stood up. [511] "I wish you had let me bring a gun along, sir," Lin said. [512] "One is enough in my camp." [513] The two of them went forward, alone, into the forest. [514] Extrone moved agilely through the tangle, following Lin closely. [515] When they came to the tracks, heavily pressed into drying mud around a small watering hole, Extrone nodded his head in satisfaction. [516] "This way," Lin said, pointing, and once more the two of them started off. [517] They went a good distance through the forest, Extrone becoming more alert with each additional foot. [518] Finally, Lin stopped him with a restraining hand. [519] "They may be quite a way ahead. [520] Hadn't we ought to bring up the column?" [521] The farn beast, somewhere beyond a ragged clump of bushes, coughed. [522] Extrone clenched the blast rifle convulsively. [523] The farn beast coughed again, more distant this time. [524] "They're moving away," Lin said. [525] "Damn!" [526] Extrone said. [527] "It's a good thing the wind's right, or they'd be coming back, and fast, too." [528] "Eh?" [529] Extrone said. [530] "They charge on scent, sight, or sound. [531] I understand they will track down a man for as long as a day." [532] "Wait," Extrone said, combing his beard. [533] "Wait a minute." [534] "Yes?" [535] "Look," Extrone said. [536] "If that's the case, why do we bother tracking them? [537] Why not make them come to us?" [538] "They're too unpredictable. [539] It wouldn't be safe. [540] I'd rather have surprise on our side." [541] "You don't seem to see what I mean," Extrone said. " [542] We won't be the—ah—the bait." [543] "Oh?" [544] "Let's get back to the column." [545] "Extrone wants to see you," Lin said. [546] Ri twisted at the grass shoot, broke it off, worried and unhappy. [547] "What's he want to see me for?" [548] "I don't know," Lin said curtly. [549] Ri got to his feet. [550] One of his hands reached out, plucked nervously at Lin's bare forearm. [551] "Look," he whispered. [552] "You know him. [553] I have—a little money. [554] If you were able to ... if he wants," Ri gulped, "to do anything to me—I'd pay you, if you could...." "You better come along," Lin said, turning. [555] Ri rubbed his hands along his thighs; he sighed, a tiny sound, ineffectual. [556] He followed Lin beyond an outcropping of shale to where Extrone was seated, petting his rifle. [557] Extrone nodded genially. [558] "The farn beast hunter, eh?" [559] "Yes, sir." [560] Extrone drummed his fingers on the stock of the blast rifle. [561] "Tell me what they look like," he said suddenly. [562] "Well, sir, they're ... uh...." "Pretty frightening?" [563] "No, sir.... Well, in a way, sir." [564] "But you weren't afraid of them, were you?" [565] "No, sir. [566] No, because...." Extrone was smiling innocently. [567] "Good. [568] I want you to do something for me." [569] "I ... [570] I...." Ri glanced nervously at Lin out of the tail of his eye. [571] Lin's face was impassive. [572] "Of course you will," Extrone said genially. [573] "Get me a rope, Lin. [574] A good, long, strong rope." [575] "What are you going to do?" [576] Ri asked, terrified. [577] "Why, I'm going to tie the rope around your waist and stake you out as bait." [578] "No!" [579] "Oh, come now. [580] When the farn beast hears you scream—you can scream, by the way?" [581] Ri swallowed. [582] "We could find a way to make you." [583] There was perspiration trickling down Ri's forehead, a single drop, creeping toward his nose. [584] "You'll be safe," Extrone said, studying his face with amusement. [585] "I'll shoot the animal before it reaches you." [586] Ri gulped for air. [587] "But ... if there should be more than one?" [588] Extrone shrugged. [589] "I—Look, sir. [590] Listen to me." [591] Ri's lips were bloodless and his hands were trembling. [592] "It's not me you want to do this to. [593] It's Mia, sir. [594] He killed a farn beast before I did, sir. [595] And last night—last night, he—" "He what?" [596] Extrone demanded, leaning forward intently. [597] Ri breathed with a gurgling sound. [598] "He said he ought to kill you, sir. [599] That's what he said. [600] I heard him, sir. [601] He said he ought to kill you. [602] He's the one you ought to use for bait. [603] Then if there was an accident, sir, it wouldn't matter, because he said he ought to kill you. [604] I wouldn't...." Extrone said, "Which one is he?" [605] "That one. [606] Right over there." [607] "The one with his back to me?" [608] "Yes, sir. [609] That's him. [610] That's him, sir." [611] Extrone aimed carefully and fired, full charge, then lowered the rifle and said, "Here comes Lin with the rope, I see." [612] Ri was greenish. [613] "You ... you...." Extrone turned to Lin. [614] "Tie one end around his waist." [615] "Wait," Ri begged, fighting off the rope with his hands. [616] "You don't want to use me, sir. [617] Not after I told you.... [618] Please, sir. [619] If anything should happen to me.... [620] Please, sir. [621] Don't do it." [622] "Tie it," Extrone ordered. [623] "No, sir. [624] Please. [625] Oh, please don't, sir." [626] "Tie it," Extrone said inexorably. [627] Lin bent with the rope; his face was colorless. [628] They were at the watering hole—Extrone, Lin, two bearers, and Ri. [629] Since the hole was drying, the left, partially exposed bank was steep toward the muddy water. [630] Upon it was green, new grass, tender-tuffed, half mashed in places by heavy animal treads. [631] It was there that they staked him out, tying the free end of the rope tightly around the base of a scaling tree. [632] "You will scream," Extrone instructed. [633] With his rifle, he pointed across the water hole. [634] "The farn beast will come from this direction, I imagine." [635] Ri was almost slobbering in fear. [636] "Let me hear you scream," Extrone said. [637] Ri moaned weakly. [638] "You'll have to do better than that." [639] Extrone inclined his head toward a bearer, who used something Ri couldn't see. [640] Ri screamed. [641] "See that you keep it up that way," Extrone said. [642] "That's the way I want you to sound." [643] He turned toward Lin. [644] "We can climb this tree, I think." [645] Slowly, aided by the bearers, the two men climbed the tree, bark peeling away from under their rough boots. [646] Ri watched them hopelessly. [647] Once at the crotch, Extrone settled down, holding the rifle at alert. [648] Lin moved to the left, out on the main branch, rested in a smaller crotch. [649] Looking down, Extrone said, "Scream!" [650] Then, to Lin, "You feel the excitement? [651] It's always in the air like this at a hunt." [652] "I feel it," Lin said. [653] Extrone chuckled. [654] "You were with me on Meizque?" [655] "Yes." [656] "That was something, that time." [657] He ran his hand along the stock of the weapon. [658] The sun headed west, veiling itself with trees; a large insect circled Extrone's head. [659] He slapped at it, angry. [660] The forest was quiet, underlined by an occasional piping call, something like a whistle. [661] Ri's screams were shrill, echoing away, shiveringly. [662] Lin sat quiet, hunched. [663] Extrone's eyes narrowed, and he began to pet the gun stock with quick, jerky movements. [664] Lin licked his lips, keeping his eyes on Extrone's face. [665] The sun seemed stuck in the sky, and the heat squeezed against them, sucking at their breath like a vacuum. [666] The insect went away. [667] Still, endless, hopeless, monotonous, Ri screamed. [668] A farn beast coughed, far in the matted forest. [669] Extrone laughed nervously. [670] "He must have heard." [671] "We're lucky to rouse one so fast," Lin said. [672] Extrone dug his boot cleats into the tree, braced himself. [673] "I like this. [674] There's more excitement in waiting like this than in anything I know." [675] Lin nodded. [676] "The waiting, itself, is a lot. [677] The suspense. [678] It's not only the killing that matters." [679] "It's not only the killing," Lin echoed. [680] "You understand?" [681] Extrone said. [682] "How it is to wait, knowing in just a minute something is going to come out of the forest, and you're going to kill it?" [683] "I know," Lin said. [684] "But it's not only the killing. [685] It's the waiting, too." [686] The farn beast coughed again; nearer. [687] "It's a different one," Lin said. [688] "How do you know?" [689] "Hear the lower pitch, the more of a roar?" [690] "Hey!" [691] Extrone shouted. [692] "You, down there. [693] There are two coming. [694] Now let's hear you really scream!" [695] Ri, below, whimpered childishly and began to retreat toward the tether tree, his eyes wide. [696] "There's a lot of satisfaction in fooling them, too," Extrone said. [697] "Making them come to your bait, where you can get at them." [698] He opened his right hand. [699] "Choose your ground, set your trap. [700] Bait it." [701] He snapped his hand into a fist, held the fist up before his eyes, imprisoning the idea. [702] "Spring the trap when the quarry is inside. [703] Clever. [704] That makes the waiting more interesting. [705] Waiting to see if they really will come to your bait." [706] Lin shifted, staring toward the forest. [707] "I've always liked to hunt," Extrone said. [708] "More than anything else, I think." [709] Lin spat toward the ground. [710] "People should hunt because they have to. [711] For food. [712] For safety." [713] "No," Extrone argued. [714] "People should hunt for the love of hunting." [715] "Killing?" [716] "Hunting," Extrone repeated harshly. [717] The farn beast coughed. [718] Another answered. [719] They were very near, and there was a noise of crackling underbrush. [720] "He's good bait," Extrone said. [721] "He's fat enough and he knows how to scream good." [722] Ri had stopped screaming; he was huddled against the tree, fearfully eying the forest across from the watering hole. [723] Extrone began to tremble with excitement. [724] "Here they come!" [725] The forest sprang apart. [726] Extrone bent forward, the gun still across his lap. [727] The farn beast, its tiny eyes red with hate, stepped out on the bank, swinging its head wildly, its nostrils flaring in anger. [728] It coughed. [729] Its mate appeared beside it. [730] Their tails thrashed against the scrubs behind them, rattling leaves. [731] "Shoot!" [732] Lin hissed. [733] "For God's sake, shoot!" [734] "Wait," Extrone said. [735] "Let's see what they do." [736] He had not moved the rifle. [737] He was tense, bent forward, his eyes slitted, his breath beginning to sound like an asthmatic pump. [738] The lead farn beast sighted Ri. [739] It lowered its head. [740] "Look!" [741] Extrone cried excitedly. [742] "Here it comes!" [743] Ri began to scream again. [744] Still Extrone did not lift his blast rifle. [745] He was laughing. [746] Lin waited, frozen, his eyes staring at the farn beast in fascination. [747] The farn beast plunged into the water, which was shallow, and, throwing a sheet of it to either side, headed across toward Ri. [748] "Watch! [749] Watch!" [750] Extrone cried gleefully. [751] And then the aliens sprang their trap.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [1] HUNT the HUNTER BY KRIS NEVILLE Illustrated by ELIZABETH MacINTYRE [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction June 1951.] 2. [3] Of course using live bait is the best way to lure dangerous alien animals ... unless it turns out that you are the bait! 3. [461] Four hours later, they were well into the scrub forest. 4. [465] Extrone walked leisurely, well back of the cutters, who hacked away, methodically, at the vines and branches which might impede his forward progress. 5. [517] They went a good distance through the forest, Extrone becoming more alert with each additional foot. 6. [557] Extrone nodded genially. "The farn beast hunter, eh?" 7. [577] "Why, I'm going to tie the rope around your waist and stake you out as bait." 8. [628] They were at the watering hole—Extrone, Lin, two bearers, and Ri. 9. [727] The farn beast, its tiny eyes red with hate, stepped out on the bank, swinging its head wildly, its nostrils flaring in anger. 10. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 11. [4] "We're somewhat to the south, I think," Ri said, bending over the crude field map. 12. [8] Extrone asked, "Is there a pass?" 13. [39] "You, there!" he called. 14. [42] He crossed to Mia, who, along with him, had been pressed into Extrone's party as guides. 15. [49] "It's that damned pilot's fault for setting us down on this side. 16. [98] Before them lay a blast area, unmistakable. 17. [105] "The military from Xnile?" 18. [110] "You think it's their blast?" 19. [121] "Everybody and his brother had heard the rumor that farn beasts were somewhere around here. 20. [123] "I wish we hadn't shot our guide, then. 21. [126] "We should have shot our pilot, too. 22. [172] When it came over the hastily established camp, the rocket was low, obviously looking for a landing site. 23. [173] It was a military craft, from the outpost on the near moon, and forward, near the nose, there was the blazoned emblem of the Ninth Fleet. 24. [181] "Sir...." one began. 25. [183] "Haven't I told you gentlemen that rockets frighten the game?" 26. [184] "Sir," the lead officer said, "it's another alien ship. 27. [206] "About a year ago, gentlemen, there was an alien ship around here then, wasn't there? 28. [211] "You'll destroy this one, too," Extrone said. 29. [214] "To begin with, they probably don't even know I'm here. 30. [215] "And they probably couldn't hit this area if they did know. 31. [216] "And you can't afford to let them get a shot at me, anyway." 32. [218] Extrone plucked at his right ear lobe, half closing his eyes. 33. [219] "You'll lose a fleet before you'll dare let anything happen to me, gentlemen. 34. [220] "I'm quite safe here, I think." 35. [226] Dusk was falling. 36. [227] The takeoff blast of the rocket illuminated the area, casting weird shadows on the gently swaying grasses; there was a hot breath of dry air and the rocket dwindled toward the stars. 37. [237] "We ... located signs of the farn beast, sir. 38. [240] Extrone nodded. "You killed one, I believe, on your trip?" 39. [255] "You were, I believe, the first ever to kill a farn beast?" 40. [273] "I imagine these are the only farn beasts in our system." 41. [282] "I'm glad you agreed to come along as my guide." 42. [290] "But you should have spoken to me about it, when you discovered the farn beast in our own system." 43. [293] "Like all of my subjects," he waved his hand in a broad gesture, "the highest as well as the lowest slave, know me and love me. 44. [303] "It's frightening," Ri said, "to be that close to him." 45. [307] "To think of him. 46. [308] As flesh and blood. 47. [309] Not like the—well; that—what we've read about." 48. [314] Mia glanced suspiciously around him at the shadows. 49. [315] "You begin to understand a lot of things, after seeing him." 50. [360] "I think they helped him, don't you see?" 51. [377] "Partly to keep them from learning that he was getting ready to invade them, but more to keep them from exposing him to the people. 52. [388] "When the invasion starts, he'll have to command all their loyalties. 53. [389] "To keep them from revolt again. 54. [390] "They'd be ready to believe us, then. 55. [391] "He'll have a hard enough time without people running around trying to tell the truth." 56. [395] Mia smiled twistedly. 57. [396] "How many has he already killed? 58. [397] "How can we even guess?" 59. [398] Ri swallowed sickly. 60. [399] "Remember our guide? 61. [400] "To keep our hunting territory a secret?" 62. [408] Extrone stepped out of the tent, fully dressed, surly, letting the flap slap loudly behind him. 63. [427] "Lin, have you noticed that I have two businessmen for guides? 64. [428] "It occurred to me when I got up. 65. [429] "They would have spat on me, twenty years ago, damn them." 66. [450] "Extrone wants to see you," Lin said. 67. [557] Extrone nodded genially. "The farn beast hunter, eh?" 68. [577] "Why, I'm going to tie the rope around your waist and stake you out as bait." 69. [611] "Tie one end around his waist." 70. [628] They were at the watering hole—Extrone, Lin, two bearers, and Ri. 71. [727] The farn beast, its tiny eyes red with hate, stepped out on the bank, swinging its head wildly, its nostrils flaring in anger.

What is the farn beast and its significance?

[1] HUNT the HUNTER BY KRIS NEVILLE Illustrated by ELIZABETH MacINTYRE [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction June 1951. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] Of course using live bait is the best way to lure dangerous alien animals ... unless it turns out that you are the bait! [4] "We're somewhat to the south, I think," Ri said, bending over the crude field map. [5] "That ridge," he pointed, "on our left, is right here." [6] He drew a finger down the map. [7] "It was over here," he moved the finger, "over the ridge, north of here, that we sighted them." [8] Extrone asked, "Is there a pass?" [9] Ri looked up, studying the terrain. [10] He moved his shoulders. [11] "I don't know, but maybe they range this far. [12] Maybe they're on this side of the ridge, too." [13] Delicately, Extrone raised a hand to his beard. [14] "I'd hate to lose a day crossing the ridge," he said. [15] "Yes, sir," Ri said. [16] Suddenly he threw back his head. [17] "Listen!" [18] "Eh?" [19] Extrone said. [20] "Hear it? [21] That cough? [22] I think that's one, from over there. [23] Right up ahead of us." [24] Extrone raised his eyebrows. [25] This time, the coughing roar was more distant, but distinct. [26] "It is!" [27] Ri said. [28] "It's a farn beast, all right!" [29] Extrone smiled, almost pointed teeth showing through the beard. [30] "I'm glad we won't have to cross the ridge." [31] Ri wiped his forehead on the back of his sleeve. [32] "Yes, sir." [33] "We'll pitch camp right here, then," Extrone said. [34] "We'll go after it tomorrow." [35] He looked at the sky. [36] "Have the bearers hurry." [37] "Yes, sir." [38] Ri moved away, his pulse gradually slowing. [39] "You, there!" [40] he called. [41] "Pitch camp, here!" [42] He crossed to Mia, who, along with him, had been pressed into Extrone's party as guides. [43] Once more, Ri addressed the bearers, "Be quick, now!" [44] And to Mia, "God almighty, he was getting mad." [45] He ran a hand under his collar. [46] "It's a good thing that farn beast sounded off when it did. [47] I'd hate to think of making him climb that ridge." [48] Mia glanced nervously over his shoulder. [49] "It's that damned pilot's fault for setting us down on this side. [50] I told him it was the other side. [51] I told him so." [52] Ri shrugged hopelessly. [53] Mia said, "I don't think he even saw a blast area over here. [54] I think he wanted to get us in trouble." [55] "There shouldn't be one. [56] There shouldn't be a blast area on this side of the ridge, too." [57] "That's what I mean. [58] The pilot don't like businessmen. [59] He had it in for us." [60] Ri cleared his throat nervously. [61] "Maybe you're right." [62] "It's the Hunting Club he don't like." [63] "I wish to God I'd never heard of a farn beast," Ri said. [64] "At least, then, I wouldn't be one of his guides. [65] Why didn't he hire somebody else?" [66] Mia looked at his companion. [67] He spat. [68] "What hurts most, he pays us for it. [69] I could buy half this planet, and he makes me his guide—at less than I pay my secretary." [70] "Well, anyway, we won't have to cross that ridge." [71] "Hey, you!" [72] Extrone called. [73] The two of them turned immediately. [74] "You two scout ahead," Extrone said. [75] "See if you can pick up some tracks." [76] "Yes, sir," Ri said, and instantly the two of them readjusted their shoulder straps and started off. [77] Shortly they were inside of the scrub forest, safe from sight. [78] "Let's wait here," Mia said. [79] "No, we better go on. [80] He may have sent a spy in." [81] They pushed on, being careful to blaze the trees, because they were not professional guides. [82] "We don't want to get too near," Ri said after toiling through the forest for many minutes. [83] "Without guns, we don't want to get near enough for the farn beast to charge us." [84] They stopped. [85] The forest was dense, the vines clinging. [86] "He'll want the bearers to hack a path for him," Mia said. [87] "But we go it alone. [88] Damn him." [89] Ri twisted his mouth into a sour frown. [90] He wiped at his forehead. [91] "Hot. [92] By God, it's hot. [93] I didn't think it was this hot, the first time we were here." [94] Mia said, "The first time, we weren't guides. [95] We didn't notice it so much then." [96] They fought a few yards more into the forest. [97] Then it ended. [98] Or, rather, there was a wide gap. [99] Before them lay a blast area, unmistakable. [100] The grass was beginning to grow again, but the tree stumps were roasted from the rocket breath. [101] "This isn't ours!" [102] Ri said. [103] "This looks like it was made nearly a year ago!" [104] Mia's eyes narrowed. [105] "The military from Xnile?" [106] "No," Ri said. [107] "They don't have any rockets this small. [108] And I don't think there's another cargo rocket on this planet outside of the one we leased from the Club. [109] Except the one he brought." [110] "The ones who discovered the farn beasts in the first place?" [111] Mia asked. [112] "You think it's their blast?" [113] "So?" [114] Ri said. [115] "But who are they?" [116] It was Mia's turn to shrug. [117] "Whoever they were, they couldn't have been hunters. [118] They'd have kept the secret better." [119] "We didn't do so damned well." [120] "We didn't have a chance," Mia objected. [121] "Everybody and his brother had heard the rumor that farn beasts were somewhere around here. [122] It wasn't our fault Extrone found out." [123] "I wish we hadn't shot our guide, then. [124] I wish he was here instead of us." [125] Mia shook perspiration out of his eyes. [126] "We should have shot our pilot, too. [127] That was our mistake. [128] The pilot must have been the one who told Extrone we'd hunted this area." [129] "I didn't think a Club pilot would do that." [130] "After Extrone said he'd hunt farn beasts, even if it meant going to the alien system? [131] Listen, you don't know.... [132] Wait a minute." [133] There was perspiration on Ri's upper lip. " [134] I didn't tell Extrone, if that's what you're thinking," Mia said. [135] Ri's mouth twisted. [136] "I didn't say you did." [137] "Listen," Mia said in a hoarse whisper. [138] "I just thought. [139] Listen. [140] To hell with how he found out. [141] Here's the point. [142] Maybe he'll shoot us, too, when the hunt's over." [143] Ri licked his lips. [144] "No. [145] He wouldn't do that. [146] We're not—not just anybody. [147] He couldn't kill us like that. [148] Not even him . [149] And besides, why would he want to do that? [150] It wouldn't do any good to shoot us. [151] Too many people already know about the farn beasts. [152] You said that yourself." [153] Mia said, "I hope you're right." [154] They stood side by side, studying the blast area in silence. [155] Finally, Mia said, "We better be getting back." [156] "What'll we tell him?" [157] "That we saw tracks. [158] What else can we tell him?" [159] They turned back along their trail, stumbling over vines. [160] "It gets hotter at sunset," Ri said nervously. [161] "The breeze dies down." [162] "It's screwy. [163] I didn't think farn beasts had this wide a range. [164] There must be a lot of them, to be on both sides of the ridge like this." [165] "There may be a pass," Mia said, pushing a vine away. [166] Ri wrinkled his brow, panting. [167] "I guess that's it. [168] If there were a lot of them, we'd have heard something before we did. [169] But even so, it's damned funny, when you think about it." [170] Mia looked up at the darkening sky. [171] "We better hurry," he said. [172] When it came over the hastily established camp, the rocket was low, obviously looking for a landing site. [173] It was a military craft, from the outpost on the near moon, and forward, near the nose, there was the blazoned emblem of the Ninth Fleet. [174] The rocket roared directly over Extrone's tent, turned slowly, spouting fuel expensively, and settled into the scrub forest, turning the vegetation beneath it sere by its blasts. [175] Extrone sat on an upholstered stool before his tent and spat disgustedly and combed his beard with his blunt fingers. [176] Shortly, from the direction of the rocket, a group of four high-ranking officers came out of the forest, heading toward him. [177] They were spruce, the officers, with military discipline holding their waists in and knees almost stiff. [178] "What in hell do you want?" [179] Extrone asked. [180] They stopped a respectful distance away. [181] "Sir...." one began. [182] "Haven't I told you gentlemen that rockets frighten the game?" [183] Extrone demanded, ominously not raising his voice. [184] "Sir," the lead officer said, "it's another alien ship. [185] It was sighted a few hours ago, off this very planet, sir." [186] Extrone's face looked much too innocent. [187] "How did it get there, gentlemen? [188] Why wasn't it destroyed?" [189] "We lost it again, sir. [190] Temporarily, sir." [191] "So?" [192] Extrone mocked. [193] "We thought you ought to return to a safer planet, sir. [194] Until we could locate and destroy it." [195] Extrone stared at them for a space. [196] Then, indifferently, he turned away, in the direction of a resting bearer. [197] "You!" [198] he said. [199] "Hey! [200] Bring me a drink!" [201] He faced the officers again. [202] He smiled maliciously. [203] "I'm staying here." [204] The lead officer licked his firm lower lip. [205] "But, sir...." Extrone toyed with his beard. [206] "About a year ago, gentlemen, there was an alien ship around here then, wasn't there? [207] And you destroyed it, didn't you?" [208] "Yes, sir. [209] When we located it, sir." [210] "You'll destroy this one, too," Extrone said. [211] "We have a tight patrol, sir. [212] It can't slip through. [213] But it might try a long range bombardment, sir." [214] Extrone said, "To begin with, they probably don't even know I'm here. [215] And they probably couldn't hit this area if they did know. [216] And you can't afford to let them get a shot at me, anyway." [217] "That's why we'd like you to return to an inner planet, sir." [218] Extrone plucked at his right ear lobe, half closing his eyes. [219] "You'll lose a fleet before you'll dare let anything happen to me, gentlemen. [220] I'm quite safe here, I think." [221] The bearer brought Extrone his drink. [222] "Get off," Extrone said quietly to the four officers. [223] Again they turned reluctantly. [224] This time, he did not call them back. [225] Instead, with amusement, he watched until they disappeared into the tangle of forest. [226] Dusk was falling. [227] The takeoff blast of the rocket illuminated the area, casting weird shadows on the gently swaying grasses; there was a hot breath of dry air and the rocket dwindled toward the stars. [228] Extrone stood up lazily, stretching. [229] He tossed the empty glass away, listened for it to shatter. [230] He reached out, parted the heavy flap to his tent. [231] "Sir?" [232] Ri said, hurrying toward him in the gathering darkness. [233] "Eh?" [234] Extrone said, turning, startled. [235] "Oh, you. [236] Well?" [237] "We ... located signs of the farn beast, sir. [238] To the east." [239] Extrone nodded. [240] After a moment he said, "You killed one, I believe, on your trip?" [241] Ri shifted. [242] "Yes, sir." [243] Extrone held back the flap of the tent. [244] "Won't you come in?" [245] he asked without any politeness whatever. [246] Ri obeyed the order. [247] The inside of the tent was luxurious. [248] The bed was of bulky feathers, costly of transport space, the sleep curtains of silken gauze. [249] The floor, heavy, portable tile blocks, not the hollow kind, were neatly and smoothly inset into the ground. [250] Hanging from the center, to the left of the slender, hand-carved center pole, was a chain of crystals. [251] They tinkled lightly when Extrone dropped the flap. [252] The light was electric from a portable dynamo. [253] Extrone flipped it on. [254] He crossed to the bed, sat down. [255] "You were, I believe, the first ever to kill a farn beast?" [256] he said. [257] "I.... No, sir. [258] There must have been previous hunters, sir." [259] Extrone narrowed his eyes. [260] "I see by your eyes that you are envious—that is the word, isn't it?—of my tent." [261] Ri looked away from his face. [262] "Perhaps I'm envious of your reputation as a hunter. [263] You see, I have never killed a farn beast. [264] In fact, I haven't seen a farn beast." [265] Ri glanced nervously around the tent, his sharp eyes avoiding Extrone's glittering ones. [266] "Few people have seen them, sir." [267] "Oh?" [268] Extrone questioned mildly. [269] "I wouldn't say that. [270] I understand that the aliens hunt them quite extensively ... on some of their planets." [271] "I meant in our system, sir." [272] "Of course you did," Extrone said, lazily tracing the crease of his sleeve with his forefinger. [273] "I imagine these are the only farn beasts in our system." [274] Ri waited uneasily, not answering. [275] "Yes," Extrone said, "I imagine they are. [276] It would have been a shame if you had killed the last one. [277] Don't you think so?" [278] Ri's hands worried the sides of his outer garment. [279] "Yes, sir. [280] It would have been." [281] Extrone pursed his lips. [282] "It wouldn't have been very considerate of you to—But, still, you gained valuable experience. [283] I'm glad you agreed to come along as my guide." [284] "It was an honor, sir." [285] Extrone's lip twisted in wry amusement. [286] "If I had waited until it was safe for me to hunt on an alien planet, I would not have been able to find such an illustrious guide." [287] "... [288] I'm flattered, sir." [289] "Of course," Extrone said. [290] "But you should have spoken to me about it, when you discovered the farn beast in our own system." [291] "I realize that, sir. [292] That is, I had intended at the first opportunity, sir...." "Of course," Extrone said dryly. [293] "Like all of my subjects," he waved his hand in a broad gesture, "the highest as well as the lowest slave, know me and love me. [294] I know your intentions were the best." [295] Ri squirmed, his face pale. [296] "We do indeed love you, sir." [297] Extrone bent forward. " [298] Know me and love me." [299] "Yes, sir. [300] Know you and love you, sir," Ri said. [301] "Get out!" [302] Extrone said. [303] "It's frightening," Ri said, "to be that close to him." [304] Mia nodded. [305] The two of them, beneath the leaf-swollen branches of the gnarled tree, were seated on their sleeping bags. [306] The moon was clear and cold and bright in a cloudless sky; a small moon, smooth-surfaced, except for a central mountain ridge that bisected it into almost twin hemispheres. [307] "To think of him. [308] As flesh and blood. [309] Not like the—well; that—what we've read about." [310] Mia glanced suspiciously around him at the shadows. [311] "You begin to understand a lot of things, after seeing him." [312] Ri picked nervously at the cover of his sleeping bag. [313] "It makes you think," Mia added. [314] He twitched. [315] "I'm afraid. [316] I'm afraid he'll.... [317] Listen, we'll talk. [318] When we get back to civilization. [319] You, me, the bearers. [320] About him. [321] He can't let that happen. [322] He'll kill us first." [323] Ri looked up at the moon, shivering. [324] "No. [325] We have friends. [326] We have influence. [327] He couldn't just like that—" "He could say it was an accident." [328] "No," Ri said stubbornly. [329] "He can say anything," Mia insisted. [330] "He can make people believe anything. [331] Whatever he says. [332] There's no way to check on it." [333] "It's getting cold," Ri said. [334] "Listen," Mia pleaded. [335] "No," Ri said. [336] "Even if we tried to tell them, they wouldn't listen. [337] Everybody would know we were lying. [338] Everything they've come to believe would tell them we were lying. [339] Everything they've read, every picture they've seen. [340] They wouldn't believe us. [341] He knows that." [342] "Listen," Mia repeated intently. [343] "This is important. [344] Right now he couldn't afford to let us talk. [345] Not right now. [346] Because the Army is not against him. [347] Some officers were here, just before we came back. [348] A bearer overheard them talking. [349] They don't want to overthrow him!" [350] Ri's teeth, suddenly, were chattering. [351] "That's another lie," Mia continued. [352] "That he protects the people from the Army. [353] That's a lie. [354] I don't believe they were ever plotting against him. [355] Not even at first. [356] I think they helped him, don't you see?" [357] Ri whined nervously. [358] "It's like this," Mia said. [359] "I see it like this. [360] The Army put him in power when the people were in rebellion against military rule." [361] Ri swallowed. [362] "We couldn't make the people believe that." [363] "No?" [364] Mia challenged. [365] "Couldn't we? [366] Not today, but what about tomorrow? [367] You'll see. [368] Because I think the Army is getting ready to invade the alien system!" [369] "The people won't support them," Ri answered woodenly. " [370] Think. [371] If he tells them to, they will. [372] They trust him." [373] Ri looked around at the shadows. [374] "That explains a lot of things," Mia said. [375] "I think the Army's been preparing for this for a long time. [376] From the first, maybe. [377] That's why Extrone cut off our trade with the aliens. [378] Partly to keep them from learning that he was getting ready to invade them, but more to keep them from exposing him to the people. [379] The aliens wouldn't be fooled like we were, so easy." [380] "No!" [381] Ri snapped. [382] "It was to keep the natural economic balance." [383] "You know that's not right." [384] Ri lay down on his bed roll. [385] "Don't talk about it. [386] It's not good to talk like this. [387] I don't even want to listen." [388] "When the invasion starts, he'll have to command all their loyalties. [389] To keep them from revolt again. [390] They'd be ready to believe us, then. [391] He'll have a hard enough time without people running around trying to tell the truth." [392] "You're wrong. [393] He's not like that. [394] I know you're wrong." [395] Mia smiled twistedly. [396] "How many has he already killed? [397] How can we even guess?" [398] Ri swallowed sickly. [399] "Remember our guide? [400] To keep our hunting territory a secret?" [401] Ri shuddered. [402] "That's different. [403] Don't you see? [404] This is not at all like that." [405] With morning came birds' songs, came dew, came breakfast smells. [406] The air was sweet with cooking and it was nostalgic, childhoodlike, uncontaminated. [407] And Extrone stepped out of the tent, fully dressed, surly, letting the flap slap loudly behind him. [408] He stretched hungrily and stared around the camp, his eyes still vacant-mean with sleep. [409] "Breakfast!" [410] he shouted, and two bearers came running with a folding table and chair. [411] Behind them, a third bearer, carrying a tray of various foods; and yet behind him, a fourth, with a steaming pitcher and a drinking mug. [412] Extrone ate hugely, with none of the delicacy sometimes affected in his conversational gestures. [413] When he had finished, he washed his mouth with water and spat on the ground. [414] "Lin!" [415] he said. [416] His personal bearer came loping toward him. [417] "Have you read that manual I gave you?" [418] Lin nodded. [419] "Yes." [420] Extrone pushed the table away. [421] He smacked his lips wetly. [422] "Very ludicrous, Lin. [423] Have you noticed that I have two businessmen for guides? [424] It occurred to me when I got up. [425] They would have spat on me, twenty years ago, damn them." [426] Lin waited. [427] "Now I can spit on them, which pleases me." [428] "The farn beasts are dangerous, sir," Lin said. [429] "Eh? [430] Oh, yes. [431] Those. [432] What did the manual say about them?" [433] "I believe they're carnivorous, sir." [434] "An alien manual. [435] That's ludicrous, too. [436] That we have the only information on our newly discovered fauna from an alien manual—and, of course, two businessmen." [437] "They have very long, sharp fangs, and, when enraged, are capable of tearing a man—" "An alien?" [438] Extrone corrected. [439] "There's not enough difference between us to matter, sir. [440] Of tearing an alien to pieces, sir." [441] Extrone laughed harshly. [442] "It's 'sir' whenever you contradict me?" [443] Lin's face remained impassive. [444] "I guess it seems that way. [445] Sir." [446] "Damned few people would dare go as far as you do," Extrone said. [447] "But you're afraid of me, too, in your own way, aren't you?" [448] Lin shrugged. [449] "Maybe." [450] "I can see you are. [451] Even my wives are. [452] I wonder if anyone can know how wonderful it feels to have people all afraid of you." [453] "The farn beasts, according to the manual...." "You are very insistent on one subject." [454] "... [455] It's the only thing I know anything about. [456] The farn beast, as I was saying, sir, is the particular enemy of men. [457] Or if you like, of aliens. [458] Sir." [459] "All right," Extrone said, annoyed. [460] "I'll be careful." [461] In the distance, a farn beast coughed. [462] Instantly alert, Extrone said, "Get the bearers! [463] Have some of them cut a path through that damn thicket! [464] And tell those two businessmen to get the hell over here!" [465] Lin smiled, his eyes suddenly afire with the excitement of the hunt. [466] Four hours later, they were well into the scrub forest. [467] Extrone walked leisurely, well back of the cutters, who hacked away, methodically, at the vines and branches which might impede his forward progress. [468] Their sharp, awkward knives snickered rhythmically to the rasp of their heavy breathing. [469] Occasionally, Extrone halted, motioned for his water carrier, and drank deeply of the icy water to allay the heat of the forest, a heat made oppressive by the press of foliage against the outside air. [470] Ranging out, on both sides of the central body, the two businessmen fought independently against the wild growth, each scouting the flanks for farn beasts, and ahead, beyond the cutters, Lin flittered among the tree trunks, sometimes far, sometimes near. [471] Extrone carried the only weapon, slung easily over his shoulder, a powerful blast rifle, capable of piercing medium armor in sustained fire. [472] To his rear, the water carrier was trailed by a man bearing a folding stool, and behind him, a man carrying the heavy, high-powered two-way communication set. [473] Once Extrone unslung his blast rifle and triggered a burst at a tiny, arboreal mammal, which, upon the impact, shattered asunder, to Extrone's satisfied chuckle, in a burst of blood and fur. [474] When the sun stood high and heat exhaustion made the near-naked bearers slump, Extrone permitted a rest. [475] While waiting for the march to resume, he sat on the stool with his back against an ancient tree and patted, reflectively, the blast rifle, lying across his legs. [476] "For you, sir," the communications man said, interrupting his reverie. [477] "Damn," Extrone muttered. [478] His face twisted in anger. [479] "It better be important." [480] He took the head-set and mike and nodded to the bearer. [481] The bearer twiddled the dials. [482] "Extrone. [483] Eh?... [484] Oh, you got their ship. [485] Well, why in hell bother me?... [486] All right, so they found out I was here. [487] You got them, didn't you?" [488] "Blasted them right out of space," the voice crackled excitedly. [489] "Right in the middle of a radio broadcast, sir." [490] "I don't want to listen to your gabbling when I'm hunting!" [491] Extrone tore off the head-set and handed it to the bearer. [492] "If they call back, find out what they want, first. [493] I don't want to be bothered unless it's important." [494] "Yes, sir." [495] Extrone squinted up at the sun; his eyes crinkled under the glare, and perspiration stood in little droplets on the back of his hands. [496] Lin, returning to the column, threaded his way among reclining bearers. [497] He stopped before Extrone and tossed his hair out of his eyes. [498] "I located a spoor," he said, suppressed eagerness in his voice. [499] "About a quarter ahead. [500] It looks fresh." [501] Extrone's eyes lit with passion. [502] Lin's face was red with heat and grimy with sweat. [503] "There were two, I think." [504] "Two?" [505] Extrone grinned, petting the rifle. [506] "You and I better go forward and look at the spoor." [507] Lin said, "We ought to take protection, if you're going, too." [508] Extrone laughed. [509] "This is enough." [510] He gestured with the rifle and stood up. [511] "I wish you had let me bring a gun along, sir," Lin said. [512] "One is enough in my camp." [513] The two of them went forward, alone, into the forest. [514] Extrone moved agilely through the tangle, following Lin closely. [515] When they came to the tracks, heavily pressed into drying mud around a small watering hole, Extrone nodded his head in satisfaction. [516] "This way," Lin said, pointing, and once more the two of them started off. [517] They went a good distance through the forest, Extrone becoming more alert with each additional foot. [518] Finally, Lin stopped him with a restraining hand. [519] "They may be quite a way ahead. [520] Hadn't we ought to bring up the column?" [521] The farn beast, somewhere beyond a ragged clump of bushes, coughed. [522] Extrone clenched the blast rifle convulsively. [523] The farn beast coughed again, more distant this time. [524] "They're moving away," Lin said. [525] "Damn!" [526] Extrone said. [527] "It's a good thing the wind's right, or they'd be coming back, and fast, too." [528] "Eh?" [529] Extrone said. [530] "They charge on scent, sight, or sound. [531] I understand they will track down a man for as long as a day." [532] "Wait," Extrone said, combing his beard. [533] "Wait a minute." [534] "Yes?" [535] "Look," Extrone said. [536] "If that's the case, why do we bother tracking them? [537] Why not make them come to us?" [538] "They're too unpredictable. [539] It wouldn't be safe. [540] I'd rather have surprise on our side." [541] "You don't seem to see what I mean," Extrone said. " [542] We won't be the—ah—the bait." [543] "Oh?" [544] "Let's get back to the column." [545] "Extrone wants to see you," Lin said. [546] Ri twisted at the grass shoot, broke it off, worried and unhappy. [547] "What's he want to see me for?" [548] "I don't know," Lin said curtly. [549] Ri got to his feet. [550] One of his hands reached out, plucked nervously at Lin's bare forearm. [551] "Look," he whispered. [552] "You know him. [553] I have—a little money. [554] If you were able to ... if he wants," Ri gulped, "to do anything to me—I'd pay you, if you could...." "You better come along," Lin said, turning. [555] Ri rubbed his hands along his thighs; he sighed, a tiny sound, ineffectual. [556] He followed Lin beyond an outcropping of shale to where Extrone was seated, petting his rifle. [557] Extrone nodded genially. [558] "The farn beast hunter, eh?" [559] "Yes, sir." [560] Extrone drummed his fingers on the stock of the blast rifle. [561] "Tell me what they look like," he said suddenly. [562] "Well, sir, they're ... uh...." "Pretty frightening?" [563] "No, sir.... Well, in a way, sir." [564] "But you weren't afraid of them, were you?" [565] "No, sir. [566] No, because...." Extrone was smiling innocently. [567] "Good. [568] I want you to do something for me." [569] "I ... [570] I...." Ri glanced nervously at Lin out of the tail of his eye. [571] Lin's face was impassive. [572] "Of course you will," Extrone said genially. [573] "Get me a rope, Lin. [574] A good, long, strong rope." [575] "What are you going to do?" [576] Ri asked, terrified. [577] "Why, I'm going to tie the rope around your waist and stake you out as bait." [578] "No!" [579] "Oh, come now. [580] When the farn beast hears you scream—you can scream, by the way?" [581] Ri swallowed. [582] "We could find a way to make you." [583] There was perspiration trickling down Ri's forehead, a single drop, creeping toward his nose. [584] "You'll be safe," Extrone said, studying his face with amusement. [585] "I'll shoot the animal before it reaches you." [586] Ri gulped for air. [587] "But ... if there should be more than one?" [588] Extrone shrugged. [589] "I—Look, sir. [590] Listen to me." [591] Ri's lips were bloodless and his hands were trembling. [592] "It's not me you want to do this to. [593] It's Mia, sir. [594] He killed a farn beast before I did, sir. [595] And last night—last night, he—" "He what?" [596] Extrone demanded, leaning forward intently. [597] Ri breathed with a gurgling sound. [598] "He said he ought to kill you, sir. [599] That's what he said. [600] I heard him, sir. [601] He said he ought to kill you. [602] He's the one you ought to use for bait. [603] Then if there was an accident, sir, it wouldn't matter, because he said he ought to kill you. [604] I wouldn't...." Extrone said, "Which one is he?" [605] "That one. [606] Right over there." [607] "The one with his back to me?" [608] "Yes, sir. [609] That's him. [610] That's him, sir." [611] Extrone aimed carefully and fired, full charge, then lowered the rifle and said, "Here comes Lin with the rope, I see." [612] Ri was greenish. [613] "You ... you...." Extrone turned to Lin. [614] "Tie one end around his waist." [615] "Wait," Ri begged, fighting off the rope with his hands. [616] "You don't want to use me, sir. [617] Not after I told you.... [618] Please, sir. [619] If anything should happen to me.... [620] Please, sir. [621] Don't do it." [622] "Tie it," Extrone ordered. [623] "No, sir. [624] Please. [625] Oh, please don't, sir." [626] "Tie it," Extrone said inexorably. [627] Lin bent with the rope; his face was colorless. [628] They were at the watering hole—Extrone, Lin, two bearers, and Ri. [629] Since the hole was drying, the left, partially exposed bank was steep toward the muddy water. [630] Upon it was green, new grass, tender-tuffed, half mashed in places by heavy animal treads. [631] It was there that they staked him out, tying the free end of the rope tightly around the base of a scaling tree. [632] "You will scream," Extrone instructed. [633] With his rifle, he pointed across the water hole. [634] "The farn beast will come from this direction, I imagine." [635] Ri was almost slobbering in fear. [636] "Let me hear you scream," Extrone said. [637] Ri moaned weakly. [638] "You'll have to do better than that." [639] Extrone inclined his head toward a bearer, who used something Ri couldn't see. [640] Ri screamed. [641] "See that you keep it up that way," Extrone said. [642] "That's the way I want you to sound." [643] He turned toward Lin. [644] "We can climb this tree, I think." [645] Slowly, aided by the bearers, the two men climbed the tree, bark peeling away from under their rough boots. [646] Ri watched them hopelessly. [647] Once at the crotch, Extrone settled down, holding the rifle at alert. [648] Lin moved to the left, out on the main branch, rested in a smaller crotch. [649] Looking down, Extrone said, "Scream!" [650] Then, to Lin, "You feel the excitement? [651] It's always in the air like this at a hunt." [652] "I feel it," Lin said. [653] Extrone chuckled. [654] "You were with me on Meizque?" [655] "Yes." [656] "That was something, that time." [657] He ran his hand along the stock of the weapon. [658] The sun headed west, veiling itself with trees; a large insect circled Extrone's head. [659] He slapped at it, angry. [660] The forest was quiet, underlined by an occasional piping call, something like a whistle. [661] Ri's screams were shrill, echoing away, shiveringly. [662] Lin sat quiet, hunched. [663] Extrone's eyes narrowed, and he began to pet the gun stock with quick, jerky movements. [664] Lin licked his lips, keeping his eyes on Extrone's face. [665] The sun seemed stuck in the sky, and the heat squeezed against them, sucking at their breath like a vacuum. [666] The insect went away. [667] Still, endless, hopeless, monotonous, Ri screamed. [668] A farn beast coughed, far in the matted forest. [669] Extrone laughed nervously. [670] "He must have heard." [671] "We're lucky to rouse one so fast," Lin said. [672] Extrone dug his boot cleats into the tree, braced himself. [673] "I like this. [674] There's more excitement in waiting like this than in anything I know." [675] Lin nodded. [676] "The waiting, itself, is a lot. [677] The suspense. [678] It's not only the killing that matters." [679] "It's not only the killing," Lin echoed. [680] "You understand?" [681] Extrone said. [682] "How it is to wait, knowing in just a minute something is going to come out of the forest, and you're going to kill it?" [683] "I know," Lin said. [684] "But it's not only the killing. [685] It's the waiting, too." [686] The farn beast coughed again; nearer. [687] "It's a different one," Lin said. [688] "How do you know?" [689] "Hear the lower pitch, the more of a roar?" [690] "Hey!" [691] Extrone shouted. [692] "You, down there. [693] There are two coming. [694] Now let's hear you really scream!" [695] Ri, below, whimpered childishly and began to retreat toward the tether tree, his eyes wide. [696] "There's a lot of satisfaction in fooling them, too," Extrone said. [697] "Making them come to your bait, where you can get at them." [698] He opened his right hand. [699] "Choose your ground, set your trap. [700] Bait it." [701] He snapped his hand into a fist, held the fist up before his eyes, imprisoning the idea. [702] "Spring the trap when the quarry is inside. [703] Clever. [704] That makes the waiting more interesting. [705] Waiting to see if they really will come to your bait." [706] Lin shifted, staring toward the forest. [707] "I've always liked to hunt," Extrone said. [708] "More than anything else, I think." [709] Lin spat toward the ground. [710] "People should hunt because they have to. [711] For food. [712] For safety." [713] "No," Extrone argued. [714] "People should hunt for the love of hunting." [715] "Killing?" [716] "Hunting," Extrone repeated harshly. [717] The farn beast coughed. [718] Another answered. [719] They were very near, and there was a noise of crackling underbrush. [720] "He's good bait," Extrone said. [721] "He's fat enough and he knows how to scream good." [722] Ri had stopped screaming; he was huddled against the tree, fearfully eying the forest across from the watering hole. [723] Extrone began to tremble with excitement. [724] "Here they come!" [725] The forest sprang apart. [726] Extrone bent forward, the gun still across his lap. [727] The farn beast, its tiny eyes red with hate, stepped out on the bank, swinging its head wildly, its nostrils flaring in anger. [728] It coughed. [729] Its mate appeared beside it. [730] Their tails thrashed against the scrubs behind them, rattling leaves. [731] "Shoot!" [732] Lin hissed. [733] "For God's sake, shoot!" [734] "Wait," Extrone said. [735] "Let's see what they do." [736] He had not moved the rifle. [737] He was tense, bent forward, his eyes slitted, his breath beginning to sound like an asthmatic pump. [738] The lead farn beast sighted Ri. [739] It lowered its head. [740] "Look!" [741] Extrone cried excitedly. [742] "Here it comes!" [743] Ri began to scream again. [744] Still Extrone did not lift his blast rifle. [745] He was laughing. [746] Lin waited, frozen, his eyes staring at the farn beast in fascination. [747] The farn beast plunged into the water, which was shallow, and, throwing a sheet of it to either side, headed across toward Ri. [748] "Watch! [749] Watch!" [750] Extrone cried gleefully. [751] And then the aliens sprang their trap.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the farn beast and its significance?": 1. [28] "It's a farn beast, all right!" 2. [273] "I imagine these are the only farn beasts in our system." 3. [427] "The farn beasts are dangerous, sir." 4. [428] "I believe they're carnivorous, sir." 5. [429] "An alien manual." 6. [430] "That's ludicrous, too." 7. [431] "That we have the only information on our newly discovered fauna from an alien manual—and, of course, two businessmen." 8. [432] "They have very long, sharp fangs, and, when enraged, are capable of tearing a man—" 9. [433] "An alien?" 10. [434] "There's not enough difference between us to matter, sir." 11. [435] "Of tearing an alien to pieces, sir." 12. [461] "In the distance, a farn beast coughed." 13. [498] "I located a spoor," he said, suppressed eagerness in his voice. 14. [499] "About a quarter ahead. It looks fresh." 15. [521] "The farn beast, somewhere beyond a ragged clump of bushes, coughed." 16. [522] "The farn beast coughed again, more distant this time." 17. [523] "They're moving away," Lin said. 18. [524] "It's a good thing the wind's right, or they'd be coming back, and fast, too." 19. [525] "They charge on scent, sight, or sound." 20. [526] "I understand they will track down a man for as long as a day." 21. [667] "A farn beast coughed, far in the matted forest." 22. [688] "Hear the lower pitch, the more of a roar?" 23. [707] "I've always liked to hunt," Extrone said. 24. [708] "More than anything else, I think." 25. [709] "People should hunt because they have to. For food. For safety." 26. [710] "No," Extrone argued. "People should hunt for the love of hunting." 27. [711] "Killing?" 28. [712] "Hunting," Extrone repeated harshly. 29. [718] "Another answered." 30. [719] "They were very near, and there was a noise of crackling underbrush." 31. [727] "The farn beast, its tiny eyes red with hate, stepped out on the bank, swinging its head wildly, its nostrils flaring in anger." 32. [728] "It coughed." 33. [729] "Its mate appeared beside it." 34. [730] "Their tails thrashed against the scrubs behind them, rattling leaves."

What is the relationship like between Lin and Extrone?

[1] HUNT the HUNTER BY KRIS NEVILLE Illustrated by ELIZABETH MacINTYRE [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction June 1951. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] Of course using live bait is the best way to lure dangerous alien animals ... unless it turns out that you are the bait! [4] "We're somewhat to the south, I think," Ri said, bending over the crude field map. [5] "That ridge," he pointed, "on our left, is right here." [6] He drew a finger down the map. [7] "It was over here," he moved the finger, "over the ridge, north of here, that we sighted them." [8] Extrone asked, "Is there a pass?" [9] Ri looked up, studying the terrain. [10] He moved his shoulders. [11] "I don't know, but maybe they range this far. [12] Maybe they're on this side of the ridge, too." [13] Delicately, Extrone raised a hand to his beard. [14] "I'd hate to lose a day crossing the ridge," he said. [15] "Yes, sir," Ri said. [16] Suddenly he threw back his head. [17] "Listen!" [18] "Eh?" [19] Extrone said. [20] "Hear it? [21] That cough? [22] I think that's one, from over there. [23] Right up ahead of us." [24] Extrone raised his eyebrows. [25] This time, the coughing roar was more distant, but distinct. [26] "It is!" [27] Ri said. [28] "It's a farn beast, all right!" [29] Extrone smiled, almost pointed teeth showing through the beard. [30] "I'm glad we won't have to cross the ridge." [31] Ri wiped his forehead on the back of his sleeve. [32] "Yes, sir." [33] "We'll pitch camp right here, then," Extrone said. [34] "We'll go after it tomorrow." [35] He looked at the sky. [36] "Have the bearers hurry." [37] "Yes, sir." [38] Ri moved away, his pulse gradually slowing. [39] "You, there!" [40] he called. [41] "Pitch camp, here!" [42] He crossed to Mia, who, along with him, had been pressed into Extrone's party as guides. [43] Once more, Ri addressed the bearers, "Be quick, now!" [44] And to Mia, "God almighty, he was getting mad." [45] He ran a hand under his collar. [46] "It's a good thing that farn beast sounded off when it did. [47] I'd hate to think of making him climb that ridge." [48] Mia glanced nervously over his shoulder. [49] "It's that damned pilot's fault for setting us down on this side. [50] I told him it was the other side. [51] I told him so." [52] Ri shrugged hopelessly. [53] Mia said, "I don't think he even saw a blast area over here. [54] I think he wanted to get us in trouble." [55] "There shouldn't be one. [56] There shouldn't be a blast area on this side of the ridge, too." [57] "That's what I mean. [58] The pilot don't like businessmen. [59] He had it in for us." [60] Ri cleared his throat nervously. [61] "Maybe you're right." [62] "It's the Hunting Club he don't like." [63] "I wish to God I'd never heard of a farn beast," Ri said. [64] "At least, then, I wouldn't be one of his guides. [65] Why didn't he hire somebody else?" [66] Mia looked at his companion. [67] He spat. [68] "What hurts most, he pays us for it. [69] I could buy half this planet, and he makes me his guide—at less than I pay my secretary." [70] "Well, anyway, we won't have to cross that ridge." [71] "Hey, you!" [72] Extrone called. [73] The two of them turned immediately. [74] "You two scout ahead," Extrone said. [75] "See if you can pick up some tracks." [76] "Yes, sir," Ri said, and instantly the two of them readjusted their shoulder straps and started off. [77] Shortly they were inside of the scrub forest, safe from sight. [78] "Let's wait here," Mia said. [79] "No, we better go on. [80] He may have sent a spy in." [81] They pushed on, being careful to blaze the trees, because they were not professional guides. [82] "We don't want to get too near," Ri said after toiling through the forest for many minutes. [83] "Without guns, we don't want to get near enough for the farn beast to charge us." [84] They stopped. [85] The forest was dense, the vines clinging. [86] "He'll want the bearers to hack a path for him," Mia said. [87] "But we go it alone. [88] Damn him." [89] Ri twisted his mouth into a sour frown. [90] He wiped at his forehead. [91] "Hot. [92] By God, it's hot. [93] I didn't think it was this hot, the first time we were here." [94] Mia said, "The first time, we weren't guides. [95] We didn't notice it so much then." [96] They fought a few yards more into the forest. [97] Then it ended. [98] Or, rather, there was a wide gap. [99] Before them lay a blast area, unmistakable. [100] The grass was beginning to grow again, but the tree stumps were roasted from the rocket breath. [101] "This isn't ours!" [102] Ri said. [103] "This looks like it was made nearly a year ago!" [104] Mia's eyes narrowed. [105] "The military from Xnile?" [106] "No," Ri said. [107] "They don't have any rockets this small. [108] And I don't think there's another cargo rocket on this planet outside of the one we leased from the Club. [109] Except the one he brought." [110] "The ones who discovered the farn beasts in the first place?" [111] Mia asked. [112] "You think it's their blast?" [113] "So?" [114] Ri said. [115] "But who are they?" [116] It was Mia's turn to shrug. [117] "Whoever they were, they couldn't have been hunters. [118] They'd have kept the secret better." [119] "We didn't do so damned well." [120] "We didn't have a chance," Mia objected. [121] "Everybody and his brother had heard the rumor that farn beasts were somewhere around here. [122] It wasn't our fault Extrone found out." [123] "I wish we hadn't shot our guide, then. [124] I wish he was here instead of us." [125] Mia shook perspiration out of his eyes. [126] "We should have shot our pilot, too. [127] That was our mistake. [128] The pilot must have been the one who told Extrone we'd hunted this area." [129] "I didn't think a Club pilot would do that." [130] "After Extrone said he'd hunt farn beasts, even if it meant going to the alien system? [131] Listen, you don't know.... [132] Wait a minute." [133] There was perspiration on Ri's upper lip. " [134] I didn't tell Extrone, if that's what you're thinking," Mia said. [135] Ri's mouth twisted. [136] "I didn't say you did." [137] "Listen," Mia said in a hoarse whisper. [138] "I just thought. [139] Listen. [140] To hell with how he found out. [141] Here's the point. [142] Maybe he'll shoot us, too, when the hunt's over." [143] Ri licked his lips. [144] "No. [145] He wouldn't do that. [146] We're not—not just anybody. [147] He couldn't kill us like that. [148] Not even him . [149] And besides, why would he want to do that? [150] It wouldn't do any good to shoot us. [151] Too many people already know about the farn beasts. [152] You said that yourself." [153] Mia said, "I hope you're right." [154] They stood side by side, studying the blast area in silence. [155] Finally, Mia said, "We better be getting back." [156] "What'll we tell him?" [157] "That we saw tracks. [158] What else can we tell him?" [159] They turned back along their trail, stumbling over vines. [160] "It gets hotter at sunset," Ri said nervously. [161] "The breeze dies down." [162] "It's screwy. [163] I didn't think farn beasts had this wide a range. [164] There must be a lot of them, to be on both sides of the ridge like this." [165] "There may be a pass," Mia said, pushing a vine away. [166] Ri wrinkled his brow, panting. [167] "I guess that's it. [168] If there were a lot of them, we'd have heard something before we did. [169] But even so, it's damned funny, when you think about it." [170] Mia looked up at the darkening sky. [171] "We better hurry," he said. [172] When it came over the hastily established camp, the rocket was low, obviously looking for a landing site. [173] It was a military craft, from the outpost on the near moon, and forward, near the nose, there was the blazoned emblem of the Ninth Fleet. [174] The rocket roared directly over Extrone's tent, turned slowly, spouting fuel expensively, and settled into the scrub forest, turning the vegetation beneath it sere by its blasts. [175] Extrone sat on an upholstered stool before his tent and spat disgustedly and combed his beard with his blunt fingers. [176] Shortly, from the direction of the rocket, a group of four high-ranking officers came out of the forest, heading toward him. [177] They were spruce, the officers, with military discipline holding their waists in and knees almost stiff. [178] "What in hell do you want?" [179] Extrone asked. [180] They stopped a respectful distance away. [181] "Sir...." one began. [182] "Haven't I told you gentlemen that rockets frighten the game?" [183] Extrone demanded, ominously not raising his voice. [184] "Sir," the lead officer said, "it's another alien ship. [185] It was sighted a few hours ago, off this very planet, sir." [186] Extrone's face looked much too innocent. [187] "How did it get there, gentlemen? [188] Why wasn't it destroyed?" [189] "We lost it again, sir. [190] Temporarily, sir." [191] "So?" [192] Extrone mocked. [193] "We thought you ought to return to a safer planet, sir. [194] Until we could locate and destroy it." [195] Extrone stared at them for a space. [196] Then, indifferently, he turned away, in the direction of a resting bearer. [197] "You!" [198] he said. [199] "Hey! [200] Bring me a drink!" [201] He faced the officers again. [202] He smiled maliciously. [203] "I'm staying here." [204] The lead officer licked his firm lower lip. [205] "But, sir...." Extrone toyed with his beard. [206] "About a year ago, gentlemen, there was an alien ship around here then, wasn't there? [207] And you destroyed it, didn't you?" [208] "Yes, sir. [209] When we located it, sir." [210] "You'll destroy this one, too," Extrone said. [211] "We have a tight patrol, sir. [212] It can't slip through. [213] But it might try a long range bombardment, sir." [214] Extrone said, "To begin with, they probably don't even know I'm here. [215] And they probably couldn't hit this area if they did know. [216] And you can't afford to let them get a shot at me, anyway." [217] "That's why we'd like you to return to an inner planet, sir." [218] Extrone plucked at his right ear lobe, half closing his eyes. [219] "You'll lose a fleet before you'll dare let anything happen to me, gentlemen. [220] I'm quite safe here, I think." [221] The bearer brought Extrone his drink. [222] "Get off," Extrone said quietly to the four officers. [223] Again they turned reluctantly. [224] This time, he did not call them back. [225] Instead, with amusement, he watched until they disappeared into the tangle of forest. [226] Dusk was falling. [227] The takeoff blast of the rocket illuminated the area, casting weird shadows on the gently swaying grasses; there was a hot breath of dry air and the rocket dwindled toward the stars. [228] Extrone stood up lazily, stretching. [229] He tossed the empty glass away, listened for it to shatter. [230] He reached out, parted the heavy flap to his tent. [231] "Sir?" [232] Ri said, hurrying toward him in the gathering darkness. [233] "Eh?" [234] Extrone said, turning, startled. [235] "Oh, you. [236] Well?" [237] "We ... located signs of the farn beast, sir. [238] To the east." [239] Extrone nodded. [240] After a moment he said, "You killed one, I believe, on your trip?" [241] Ri shifted. [242] "Yes, sir." [243] Extrone held back the flap of the tent. [244] "Won't you come in?" [245] he asked without any politeness whatever. [246] Ri obeyed the order. [247] The inside of the tent was luxurious. [248] The bed was of bulky feathers, costly of transport space, the sleep curtains of silken gauze. [249] The floor, heavy, portable tile blocks, not the hollow kind, were neatly and smoothly inset into the ground. [250] Hanging from the center, to the left of the slender, hand-carved center pole, was a chain of crystals. [251] They tinkled lightly when Extrone dropped the flap. [252] The light was electric from a portable dynamo. [253] Extrone flipped it on. [254] He crossed to the bed, sat down. [255] "You were, I believe, the first ever to kill a farn beast?" [256] he said. [257] "I.... No, sir. [258] There must have been previous hunters, sir." [259] Extrone narrowed his eyes. [260] "I see by your eyes that you are envious—that is the word, isn't it?—of my tent." [261] Ri looked away from his face. [262] "Perhaps I'm envious of your reputation as a hunter. [263] You see, I have never killed a farn beast. [264] In fact, I haven't seen a farn beast." [265] Ri glanced nervously around the tent, his sharp eyes avoiding Extrone's glittering ones. [266] "Few people have seen them, sir." [267] "Oh?" [268] Extrone questioned mildly. [269] "I wouldn't say that. [270] I understand that the aliens hunt them quite extensively ... on some of their planets." [271] "I meant in our system, sir." [272] "Of course you did," Extrone said, lazily tracing the crease of his sleeve with his forefinger. [273] "I imagine these are the only farn beasts in our system." [274] Ri waited uneasily, not answering. [275] "Yes," Extrone said, "I imagine they are. [276] It would have been a shame if you had killed the last one. [277] Don't you think so?" [278] Ri's hands worried the sides of his outer garment. [279] "Yes, sir. [280] It would have been." [281] Extrone pursed his lips. [282] "It wouldn't have been very considerate of you to—But, still, you gained valuable experience. [283] I'm glad you agreed to come along as my guide." [284] "It was an honor, sir." [285] Extrone's lip twisted in wry amusement. [286] "If I had waited until it was safe for me to hunt on an alien planet, I would not have been able to find such an illustrious guide." [287] "... [288] I'm flattered, sir." [289] "Of course," Extrone said. [290] "But you should have spoken to me about it, when you discovered the farn beast in our own system." [291] "I realize that, sir. [292] That is, I had intended at the first opportunity, sir...." "Of course," Extrone said dryly. [293] "Like all of my subjects," he waved his hand in a broad gesture, "the highest as well as the lowest slave, know me and love me. [294] I know your intentions were the best." [295] Ri squirmed, his face pale. [296] "We do indeed love you, sir." [297] Extrone bent forward. " [298] Know me and love me." [299] "Yes, sir. [300] Know you and love you, sir," Ri said. [301] "Get out!" [302] Extrone said. [303] "It's frightening," Ri said, "to be that close to him." [304] Mia nodded. [305] The two of them, beneath the leaf-swollen branches of the gnarled tree, were seated on their sleeping bags. [306] The moon was clear and cold and bright in a cloudless sky; a small moon, smooth-surfaced, except for a central mountain ridge that bisected it into almost twin hemispheres. [307] "To think of him. [308] As flesh and blood. [309] Not like the—well; that—what we've read about." [310] Mia glanced suspiciously around him at the shadows. [311] "You begin to understand a lot of things, after seeing him." [312] Ri picked nervously at the cover of his sleeping bag. [313] "It makes you think," Mia added. [314] He twitched. [315] "I'm afraid. [316] I'm afraid he'll.... [317] Listen, we'll talk. [318] When we get back to civilization. [319] You, me, the bearers. [320] About him. [321] He can't let that happen. [322] He'll kill us first." [323] Ri looked up at the moon, shivering. [324] "No. [325] We have friends. [326] We have influence. [327] He couldn't just like that—" "He could say it was an accident." [328] "No," Ri said stubbornly. [329] "He can say anything," Mia insisted. [330] "He can make people believe anything. [331] Whatever he says. [332] There's no way to check on it." [333] "It's getting cold," Ri said. [334] "Listen," Mia pleaded. [335] "No," Ri said. [336] "Even if we tried to tell them, they wouldn't listen. [337] Everybody would know we were lying. [338] Everything they've come to believe would tell them we were lying. [339] Everything they've read, every picture they've seen. [340] They wouldn't believe us. [341] He knows that." [342] "Listen," Mia repeated intently. [343] "This is important. [344] Right now he couldn't afford to let us talk. [345] Not right now. [346] Because the Army is not against him. [347] Some officers were here, just before we came back. [348] A bearer overheard them talking. [349] They don't want to overthrow him!" [350] Ri's teeth, suddenly, were chattering. [351] "That's another lie," Mia continued. [352] "That he protects the people from the Army. [353] That's a lie. [354] I don't believe they were ever plotting against him. [355] Not even at first. [356] I think they helped him, don't you see?" [357] Ri whined nervously. [358] "It's like this," Mia said. [359] "I see it like this. [360] The Army put him in power when the people were in rebellion against military rule." [361] Ri swallowed. [362] "We couldn't make the people believe that." [363] "No?" [364] Mia challenged. [365] "Couldn't we? [366] Not today, but what about tomorrow? [367] You'll see. [368] Because I think the Army is getting ready to invade the alien system!" [369] "The people won't support them," Ri answered woodenly. " [370] Think. [371] If he tells them to, they will. [372] They trust him." [373] Ri looked around at the shadows. [374] "That explains a lot of things," Mia said. [375] "I think the Army's been preparing for this for a long time. [376] From the first, maybe. [377] That's why Extrone cut off our trade with the aliens. [378] Partly to keep them from learning that he was getting ready to invade them, but more to keep them from exposing him to the people. [379] The aliens wouldn't be fooled like we were, so easy." [380] "No!" [381] Ri snapped. [382] "It was to keep the natural economic balance." [383] "You know that's not right." [384] Ri lay down on his bed roll. [385] "Don't talk about it. [386] It's not good to talk like this. [387] I don't even want to listen." [388] "When the invasion starts, he'll have to command all their loyalties. [389] To keep them from revolt again. [390] They'd be ready to believe us, then. [391] He'll have a hard enough time without people running around trying to tell the truth." [392] "You're wrong. [393] He's not like that. [394] I know you're wrong." [395] Mia smiled twistedly. [396] "How many has he already killed? [397] How can we even guess?" [398] Ri swallowed sickly. [399] "Remember our guide? [400] To keep our hunting territory a secret?" [401] Ri shuddered. [402] "That's different. [403] Don't you see? [404] This is not at all like that." [405] With morning came birds' songs, came dew, came breakfast smells. [406] The air was sweet with cooking and it was nostalgic, childhoodlike, uncontaminated. [407] And Extrone stepped out of the tent, fully dressed, surly, letting the flap slap loudly behind him. [408] He stretched hungrily and stared around the camp, his eyes still vacant-mean with sleep. [409] "Breakfast!" [410] he shouted, and two bearers came running with a folding table and chair. [411] Behind them, a third bearer, carrying a tray of various foods; and yet behind him, a fourth, with a steaming pitcher and a drinking mug. [412] Extrone ate hugely, with none of the delicacy sometimes affected in his conversational gestures. [413] When he had finished, he washed his mouth with water and spat on the ground. [414] "Lin!" [415] he said. [416] His personal bearer came loping toward him. [417] "Have you read that manual I gave you?" [418] Lin nodded. [419] "Yes." [420] Extrone pushed the table away. [421] He smacked his lips wetly. [422] "Very ludicrous, Lin. [423] Have you noticed that I have two businessmen for guides? [424] It occurred to me when I got up. [425] They would have spat on me, twenty years ago, damn them." [426] Lin waited. [427] "Now I can spit on them, which pleases me." [428] "The farn beasts are dangerous, sir," Lin said. [429] "Eh? [430] Oh, yes. [431] Those. [432] What did the manual say about them?" [433] "I believe they're carnivorous, sir." [434] "An alien manual. [435] That's ludicrous, too. [436] That we have the only information on our newly discovered fauna from an alien manual—and, of course, two businessmen." [437] "They have very long, sharp fangs, and, when enraged, are capable of tearing a man—" "An alien?" [438] Extrone corrected. [439] "There's not enough difference between us to matter, sir. [440] Of tearing an alien to pieces, sir." [441] Extrone laughed harshly. [442] "It's 'sir' whenever you contradict me?" [443] Lin's face remained impassive. [444] "I guess it seems that way. [445] Sir." [446] "Damned few people would dare go as far as you do," Extrone said. [447] "But you're afraid of me, too, in your own way, aren't you?" [448] Lin shrugged. [449] "Maybe." [450] "I can see you are. [451] Even my wives are. [452] I wonder if anyone can know how wonderful it feels to have people all afraid of you." [453] "The farn beasts, according to the manual...." "You are very insistent on one subject." [454] "... [455] It's the only thing I know anything about. [456] The farn beast, as I was saying, sir, is the particular enemy of men. [457] Or if you like, of aliens. [458] Sir." [459] "All right," Extrone said, annoyed. [460] "I'll be careful." [461] In the distance, a farn beast coughed. [462] Instantly alert, Extrone said, "Get the bearers! [463] Have some of them cut a path through that damn thicket! [464] And tell those two businessmen to get the hell over here!" [465] Lin smiled, his eyes suddenly afire with the excitement of the hunt. [466] Four hours later, they were well into the scrub forest. [467] Extrone walked leisurely, well back of the cutters, who hacked away, methodically, at the vines and branches which might impede his forward progress. [468] Their sharp, awkward knives snickered rhythmically to the rasp of their heavy breathing. [469] Occasionally, Extrone halted, motioned for his water carrier, and drank deeply of the icy water to allay the heat of the forest, a heat made oppressive by the press of foliage against the outside air. [470] Ranging out, on both sides of the central body, the two businessmen fought independently against the wild growth, each scouting the flanks for farn beasts, and ahead, beyond the cutters, Lin flittered among the tree trunks, sometimes far, sometimes near. [471] Extrone carried the only weapon, slung easily over his shoulder, a powerful blast rifle, capable of piercing medium armor in sustained fire. [472] To his rear, the water carrier was trailed by a man bearing a folding stool, and behind him, a man carrying the heavy, high-powered two-way communication set. [473] Once Extrone unslung his blast rifle and triggered a burst at a tiny, arboreal mammal, which, upon the impact, shattered asunder, to Extrone's satisfied chuckle, in a burst of blood and fur. [474] When the sun stood high and heat exhaustion made the near-naked bearers slump, Extrone permitted a rest. [475] While waiting for the march to resume, he sat on the stool with his back against an ancient tree and patted, reflectively, the blast rifle, lying across his legs. [476] "For you, sir," the communications man said, interrupting his reverie. [477] "Damn," Extrone muttered. [478] His face twisted in anger. [479] "It better be important." [480] He took the head-set and mike and nodded to the bearer. [481] The bearer twiddled the dials. [482] "Extrone. [483] Eh?... [484] Oh, you got their ship. [485] Well, why in hell bother me?... [486] All right, so they found out I was here. [487] You got them, didn't you?" [488] "Blasted them right out of space," the voice crackled excitedly. [489] "Right in the middle of a radio broadcast, sir." [490] "I don't want to listen to your gabbling when I'm hunting!" [491] Extrone tore off the head-set and handed it to the bearer. [492] "If they call back, find out what they want, first. [493] I don't want to be bothered unless it's important." [494] "Yes, sir." [495] Extrone squinted up at the sun; his eyes crinkled under the glare, and perspiration stood in little droplets on the back of his hands. [496] Lin, returning to the column, threaded his way among reclining bearers. [497] He stopped before Extrone and tossed his hair out of his eyes. [498] "I located a spoor," he said, suppressed eagerness in his voice. [499] "About a quarter ahead. [500] It looks fresh." [501] Extrone's eyes lit with passion. [502] Lin's face was red with heat and grimy with sweat. [503] "There were two, I think." [504] "Two?" [505] Extrone grinned, petting the rifle. [506] "You and I better go forward and look at the spoor." [507] Lin said, "We ought to take protection, if you're going, too." [508] Extrone laughed. [509] "This is enough." [510] He gestured with the rifle and stood up. [511] "I wish you had let me bring a gun along, sir," Lin said. [512] "One is enough in my camp." [513] The two of them went forward, alone, into the forest. [514] Extrone moved agilely through the tangle, following Lin closely. [515] When they came to the tracks, heavily pressed into drying mud around a small watering hole, Extrone nodded his head in satisfaction. [516] "This way," Lin said, pointing, and once more the two of them started off. [517] They went a good distance through the forest, Extrone becoming more alert with each additional foot. [518] Finally, Lin stopped him with a restraining hand. [519] "They may be quite a way ahead. [520] Hadn't we ought to bring up the column?" [521] The farn beast, somewhere beyond a ragged clump of bushes, coughed. [522] Extrone clenched the blast rifle convulsively. [523] The farn beast coughed again, more distant this time. [524] "They're moving away," Lin said. [525] "Damn!" [526] Extrone said. [527] "It's a good thing the wind's right, or they'd be coming back, and fast, too." [528] "Eh?" [529] Extrone said. [530] "They charge on scent, sight, or sound. [531] I understand they will track down a man for as long as a day." [532] "Wait," Extrone said, combing his beard. [533] "Wait a minute." [534] "Yes?" [535] "Look," Extrone said. [536] "If that's the case, why do we bother tracking them? [537] Why not make them come to us?" [538] "They're too unpredictable. [539] It wouldn't be safe. [540] I'd rather have surprise on our side." [541] "You don't seem to see what I mean," Extrone said. " [542] We won't be the—ah—the bait." [543] "Oh?" [544] "Let's get back to the column." [545] "Extrone wants to see you," Lin said. [546] Ri twisted at the grass shoot, broke it off, worried and unhappy. [547] "What's he want to see me for?" [548] "I don't know," Lin said curtly. [549] Ri got to his feet. [550] One of his hands reached out, plucked nervously at Lin's bare forearm. [551] "Look," he whispered. [552] "You know him. [553] I have—a little money. [554] If you were able to ... if he wants," Ri gulped, "to do anything to me—I'd pay you, if you could...." "You better come along," Lin said, turning. [555] Ri rubbed his hands along his thighs; he sighed, a tiny sound, ineffectual. [556] He followed Lin beyond an outcropping of shale to where Extrone was seated, petting his rifle. [557] Extrone nodded genially. [558] "The farn beast hunter, eh?" [559] "Yes, sir." [560] Extrone drummed his fingers on the stock of the blast rifle. [561] "Tell me what they look like," he said suddenly. [562] "Well, sir, they're ... uh...." "Pretty frightening?" [563] "No, sir.... Well, in a way, sir." [564] "But you weren't afraid of them, were you?" [565] "No, sir. [566] No, because...." Extrone was smiling innocently. [567] "Good. [568] I want you to do something for me." [569] "I ... [570] I...." Ri glanced nervously at Lin out of the tail of his eye. [571] Lin's face was impassive. [572] "Of course you will," Extrone said genially. [573] "Get me a rope, Lin. [574] A good, long, strong rope." [575] "What are you going to do?" [576] Ri asked, terrified. [577] "Why, I'm going to tie the rope around your waist and stake you out as bait." [578] "No!" [579] "Oh, come now. [580] When the farn beast hears you scream—you can scream, by the way?" [581] Ri swallowed. [582] "We could find a way to make you." [583] There was perspiration trickling down Ri's forehead, a single drop, creeping toward his nose. [584] "You'll be safe," Extrone said, studying his face with amusement. [585] "I'll shoot the animal before it reaches you." [586] Ri gulped for air. [587] "But ... if there should be more than one?" [588] Extrone shrugged. [589] "I—Look, sir. [590] Listen to me." [591] Ri's lips were bloodless and his hands were trembling. [592] "It's not me you want to do this to. [593] It's Mia, sir. [594] He killed a farn beast before I did, sir. [595] And last night—last night, he—" "He what?" [596] Extrone demanded, leaning forward intently. [597] Ri breathed with a gurgling sound. [598] "He said he ought to kill you, sir. [599] That's what he said. [600] I heard him, sir. [601] He said he ought to kill you. [602] He's the one you ought to use for bait. [603] Then if there was an accident, sir, it wouldn't matter, because he said he ought to kill you. [604] I wouldn't...." Extrone said, "Which one is he?" [605] "That one. [606] Right over there." [607] "The one with his back to me?" [608] "Yes, sir. [609] That's him. [610] That's him, sir." [611] Extrone aimed carefully and fired, full charge, then lowered the rifle and said, "Here comes Lin with the rope, I see." [612] Ri was greenish. [613] "You ... you...." Extrone turned to Lin. [614] "Tie one end around his waist." [615] "Wait," Ri begged, fighting off the rope with his hands. [616] "You don't want to use me, sir. [617] Not after I told you.... [618] Please, sir. [619] If anything should happen to me.... [620] Please, sir. [621] Don't do it." [622] "Tie it," Extrone ordered. [623] "No, sir. [624] Please. [625] Oh, please don't, sir." [626] "Tie it," Extrone said inexorably. [627] Lin bent with the rope; his face was colorless. [628] They were at the watering hole—Extrone, Lin, two bearers, and Ri. [629] Since the hole was drying, the left, partially exposed bank was steep toward the muddy water. [630] Upon it was green, new grass, tender-tuffed, half mashed in places by heavy animal treads. [631] It was there that they staked him out, tying the free end of the rope tightly around the base of a scaling tree. [632] "You will scream," Extrone instructed. [633] With his rifle, he pointed across the water hole. [634] "The farn beast will come from this direction, I imagine." [635] Ri was almost slobbering in fear. [636] "Let me hear you scream," Extrone said. [637] Ri moaned weakly. [638] "You'll have to do better than that." [639] Extrone inclined his head toward a bearer, who used something Ri couldn't see. [640] Ri screamed. [641] "See that you keep it up that way," Extrone said. [642] "That's the way I want you to sound." [643] He turned toward Lin. [644] "We can climb this tree, I think." [645] Slowly, aided by the bearers, the two men climbed the tree, bark peeling away from under their rough boots. [646] Ri watched them hopelessly. [647] Once at the crotch, Extrone settled down, holding the rifle at alert. [648] Lin moved to the left, out on the main branch, rested in a smaller crotch. [649] Looking down, Extrone said, "Scream!" [650] Then, to Lin, "You feel the excitement? [651] It's always in the air like this at a hunt." [652] "I feel it," Lin said. [653] Extrone chuckled. [654] "You were with me on Meizque?" [655] "Yes." [656] "That was something, that time." [657] He ran his hand along the stock of the weapon. [658] The sun headed west, veiling itself with trees; a large insect circled Extrone's head. [659] He slapped at it, angry. [660] The forest was quiet, underlined by an occasional piping call, something like a whistle. [661] Ri's screams were shrill, echoing away, shiveringly. [662] Lin sat quiet, hunched. [663] Extrone's eyes narrowed, and he began to pet the gun stock with quick, jerky movements. [664] Lin licked his lips, keeping his eyes on Extrone's face. [665] The sun seemed stuck in the sky, and the heat squeezed against them, sucking at their breath like a vacuum. [666] The insect went away. [667] Still, endless, hopeless, monotonous, Ri screamed. [668] A farn beast coughed, far in the matted forest. [669] Extrone laughed nervously. [670] "He must have heard." [671] "We're lucky to rouse one so fast," Lin said. [672] Extrone dug his boot cleats into the tree, braced himself. [673] "I like this. [674] There's more excitement in waiting like this than in anything I know." [675] Lin nodded. [676] "The waiting, itself, is a lot. [677] The suspense. [678] It's not only the killing that matters." [679] "It's not only the killing," Lin echoed. [680] "You understand?" [681] Extrone said. [682] "How it is to wait, knowing in just a minute something is going to come out of the forest, and you're going to kill it?" [683] "I know," Lin said. [684] "But it's not only the killing. [685] It's the waiting, too." [686] The farn beast coughed again; nearer. [687] "It's a different one," Lin said. [688] "How do you know?" [689] "Hear the lower pitch, the more of a roar?" [690] "Hey!" [691] Extrone shouted. [692] "You, down there. [693] There are two coming. [694] Now let's hear you really scream!" [695] Ri, below, whimpered childishly and began to retreat toward the tether tree, his eyes wide. [696] "There's a lot of satisfaction in fooling them, too," Extrone said. [697] "Making them come to your bait, where you can get at them." [698] He opened his right hand. [699] "Choose your ground, set your trap. [700] Bait it." [701] He snapped his hand into a fist, held the fist up before his eyes, imprisoning the idea. [702] "Spring the trap when the quarry is inside. [703] Clever. [704] That makes the waiting more interesting. [705] Waiting to see if they really will come to your bait." [706] Lin shifted, staring toward the forest. [707] "I've always liked to hunt," Extrone said. [708] "More than anything else, I think." [709] Lin spat toward the ground. [710] "People should hunt because they have to. [711] For food. [712] For safety." [713] "No," Extrone argued. [714] "People should hunt for the love of hunting." [715] "Killing?" [716] "Hunting," Extrone repeated harshly. [717] The farn beast coughed. [718] Another answered. [719] They were very near, and there was a noise of crackling underbrush. [720] "He's good bait," Extrone said. [721] "He's fat enough and he knows how to scream good." [722] Ri had stopped screaming; he was huddled against the tree, fearfully eying the forest across from the watering hole. [723] Extrone began to tremble with excitement. [724] "Here they come!" [725] The forest sprang apart. [726] Extrone bent forward, the gun still across his lap. [727] The farn beast, its tiny eyes red with hate, stepped out on the bank, swinging its head wildly, its nostrils flaring in anger. [728] It coughed. [729] Its mate appeared beside it. [730] Their tails thrashed against the scrubs behind them, rattling leaves. [731] "Shoot!" [732] Lin hissed. [733] "For God's sake, shoot!" [734] "Wait," Extrone said. [735] "Let's see what they do." [736] He had not moved the rifle. [737] He was tense, bent forward, his eyes slitted, his breath beginning to sound like an asthmatic pump. [738] The lead farn beast sighted Ri. [739] It lowered its head. [740] "Look!" [741] Extrone cried excitedly. [742] "Here it comes!" [743] Ri began to scream again. [744] Still Extrone did not lift his blast rifle. [745] He was laughing. [746] Lin waited, frozen, his eyes staring at the farn beast in fascination. [747] The farn beast plunged into the water, which was shallow, and, throwing a sheet of it to either side, headed across toward Ri. [748] "Watch! [749] Watch!" [750] Extrone cried gleefully. [751] And then the aliens sprang their trap.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the relationship like between Lin and Extrone?": 1. [293] "Like all of my subjects," he waved his hand in a broad gesture, "the highest as well as the lowest slave, know me and love me. I know your intentions were the best." 2. [297] "Yes, sir. Know you and love you, sir," Ri said. 3. [447] "But you're afraid of me, too, in your own way, aren't you?" 4. [448] "Maybe." 5. [450] "I can see you are. Even my wives are. I wonder if anyone can know how wonderful it feels to have people all afraid of you." 6. [551] Ri rubbed his hands along his thighs; he sighed, a tiny sound, ineffectual. He followed Lin beyond an outcropping of shale to where Extrone was seated, petting his rifle. 7. [552] Extrone nodded genially. "The farn beast hunter, eh?" 8. [553] "Yes, sir." 9. [554] Extrone drummed his fingers on the stock of the blast rifle. "Tell me what they look like," he said suddenly. 10. [555] "Well, sir, they're ... uh...." 11. [556] "Pretty frightening?" 12. [557] "No, sir.... Well, in a way, sir." 13. [558] "But you weren't afraid of them, were you?" 14. [559] "No, sir. No, because...." Extrone was smiling innocently. 15. [560] "Good. I want you to do something for me." 16. [561] "I ... I...." Ri glanced nervously at Lin out of the tail of his eye. 17. [562] Lin's face was impassive. 18. [563] "Of course you will," Extrone said genially. 19. [564] "Get me a rope, Lin. A good, long, strong rope." 20. [565] "What are you going to do?" 21. [566] Ri asked, terrified. 22. [567] "Why, I'm going to tie the rope around your waist and stake you out as bait." 23. [568] "No!" 24. [569] "Oh, come now. When the farn beast hears you scream—you can scream, by the way?" 25. [570] Ri swallowed. 26. [571] "We could find a way to make you." 27. [572] There was perspiration trickling down Ri's forehead, a single drop, creeping toward his nose. 28. [573] "You'll be safe," Extrone said, studying his face with amusement. "I'll shoot the animal before it reaches you." 29. [574] Ri gulped for air. 30. [575] "But ... if there should be more than one?" 31. [576] Extrone shrugged. 32. [577] "I—Look, sir. Listen to me." 33. [578] Ri's lips were bloodless and his hands were trembling. 34. [579] "It's not me you want to do this to. It's Mia, sir. He killed a farn beast before I did, sir. And last night—last night, he—" 35. [580] "He what?" 36. [581] Extrone demanded, leaning forward intently. 37. [582] Ri breathed with a gurgling sound. 38. [583] "He said he ought to kill you, sir. That's what he said. I heard him, sir. He said he ought to kill you. He's the one you ought to use for bait. Then if there was an accident, sir, it wouldn't matter, because he said he ought to kill you. I wouldn't...." 39. [584] Extrone said, "Which one is he?" 40. [585] "That one. Right over there." 41. [586] "The one with his back to me?" 42. [587] "Yes, sir. That's him. That's him, sir." 43. [588] Extrone aimed carefully and fired, full charge, then lowered the rifle and said, "Here comes Lin with the rope, I see." 44. [589] Ri was greenish. 45. [590] "You ... you...." Extrone turned to Lin. 46. [591] "Tie one end around his waist." 47. [592] "Wait," Ri begged, fighting off the rope with his hands. 48. [593] "You don't want to use me, sir. Not after I told you.... Please, sir. If anything should happen to me.... Please, sir. Don't do it." 49. [594] "Tie it," Extrone ordered. 50. [595] "No, sir. Please. Oh, please don't, sir." 51. [596] "Tie it," Extrone said inexorably. 52. [597] Lin bent with the rope; his face was colorless.

What settings does the story take place in?

[1] HUNT the HUNTER BY KRIS NEVILLE Illustrated by ELIZABETH MacINTYRE [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction June 1951. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] Of course using live bait is the best way to lure dangerous alien animals ... unless it turns out that you are the bait! [4] "We're somewhat to the south, I think," Ri said, bending over the crude field map. [5] "That ridge," he pointed, "on our left, is right here." [6] He drew a finger down the map. [7] "It was over here," he moved the finger, "over the ridge, north of here, that we sighted them." [8] Extrone asked, "Is there a pass?" [9] Ri looked up, studying the terrain. [10] He moved his shoulders. [11] "I don't know, but maybe they range this far. [12] Maybe they're on this side of the ridge, too." [13] Delicately, Extrone raised a hand to his beard. [14] "I'd hate to lose a day crossing the ridge," he said. [15] "Yes, sir," Ri said. [16] Suddenly he threw back his head. [17] "Listen!" [18] "Eh?" [19] Extrone said. [20] "Hear it? [21] That cough? [22] I think that's one, from over there. [23] Right up ahead of us." [24] Extrone raised his eyebrows. [25] This time, the coughing roar was more distant, but distinct. [26] "It is!" [27] Ri said. [28] "It's a farn beast, all right!" [29] Extrone smiled, almost pointed teeth showing through the beard. [30] "I'm glad we won't have to cross the ridge." [31] Ri wiped his forehead on the back of his sleeve. [32] "Yes, sir." [33] "We'll pitch camp right here, then," Extrone said. [34] "We'll go after it tomorrow." [35] He looked at the sky. [36] "Have the bearers hurry." [37] "Yes, sir." [38] Ri moved away, his pulse gradually slowing. [39] "You, there!" [40] he called. [41] "Pitch camp, here!" [42] He crossed to Mia, who, along with him, had been pressed into Extrone's party as guides. [43] Once more, Ri addressed the bearers, "Be quick, now!" [44] And to Mia, "God almighty, he was getting mad." [45] He ran a hand under his collar. [46] "It's a good thing that farn beast sounded off when it did. [47] I'd hate to think of making him climb that ridge." [48] Mia glanced nervously over his shoulder. [49] "It's that damned pilot's fault for setting us down on this side. [50] I told him it was the other side. [51] I told him so." [52] Ri shrugged hopelessly. [53] Mia said, "I don't think he even saw a blast area over here. [54] I think he wanted to get us in trouble." [55] "There shouldn't be one. [56] There shouldn't be a blast area on this side of the ridge, too." [57] "That's what I mean. [58] The pilot don't like businessmen. [59] He had it in for us." [60] Ri cleared his throat nervously. [61] "Maybe you're right." [62] "It's the Hunting Club he don't like." [63] "I wish to God I'd never heard of a farn beast," Ri said. [64] "At least, then, I wouldn't be one of his guides. [65] Why didn't he hire somebody else?" [66] Mia looked at his companion. [67] He spat. [68] "What hurts most, he pays us for it. [69] I could buy half this planet, and he makes me his guide—at less than I pay my secretary." [70] "Well, anyway, we won't have to cross that ridge." [71] "Hey, you!" [72] Extrone called. [73] The two of them turned immediately. [74] "You two scout ahead," Extrone said. [75] "See if you can pick up some tracks." [76] "Yes, sir," Ri said, and instantly the two of them readjusted their shoulder straps and started off. [77] Shortly they were inside of the scrub forest, safe from sight. [78] "Let's wait here," Mia said. [79] "No, we better go on. [80] He may have sent a spy in." [81] They pushed on, being careful to blaze the trees, because they were not professional guides. [82] "We don't want to get too near," Ri said after toiling through the forest for many minutes. [83] "Without guns, we don't want to get near enough for the farn beast to charge us." [84] They stopped. [85] The forest was dense, the vines clinging. [86] "He'll want the bearers to hack a path for him," Mia said. [87] "But we go it alone. [88] Damn him." [89] Ri twisted his mouth into a sour frown. [90] He wiped at his forehead. [91] "Hot. [92] By God, it's hot. [93] I didn't think it was this hot, the first time we were here." [94] Mia said, "The first time, we weren't guides. [95] We didn't notice it so much then." [96] They fought a few yards more into the forest. [97] Then it ended. [98] Or, rather, there was a wide gap. [99] Before them lay a blast area, unmistakable. [100] The grass was beginning to grow again, but the tree stumps were roasted from the rocket breath. [101] "This isn't ours!" [102] Ri said. [103] "This looks like it was made nearly a year ago!" [104] Mia's eyes narrowed. [105] "The military from Xnile?" [106] "No," Ri said. [107] "They don't have any rockets this small. [108] And I don't think there's another cargo rocket on this planet outside of the one we leased from the Club. [109] Except the one he brought." [110] "The ones who discovered the farn beasts in the first place?" [111] Mia asked. [112] "You think it's their blast?" [113] "So?" [114] Ri said. [115] "But who are they?" [116] It was Mia's turn to shrug. [117] "Whoever they were, they couldn't have been hunters. [118] They'd have kept the secret better." [119] "We didn't do so damned well." [120] "We didn't have a chance," Mia objected. [121] "Everybody and his brother had heard the rumor that farn beasts were somewhere around here. [122] It wasn't our fault Extrone found out." [123] "I wish we hadn't shot our guide, then. [124] I wish he was here instead of us." [125] Mia shook perspiration out of his eyes. [126] "We should have shot our pilot, too. [127] That was our mistake. [128] The pilot must have been the one who told Extrone we'd hunted this area." [129] "I didn't think a Club pilot would do that." [130] "After Extrone said he'd hunt farn beasts, even if it meant going to the alien system? [131] Listen, you don't know.... [132] Wait a minute." [133] There was perspiration on Ri's upper lip. " [134] I didn't tell Extrone, if that's what you're thinking," Mia said. [135] Ri's mouth twisted. [136] "I didn't say you did." [137] "Listen," Mia said in a hoarse whisper. [138] "I just thought. [139] Listen. [140] To hell with how he found out. [141] Here's the point. [142] Maybe he'll shoot us, too, when the hunt's over." [143] Ri licked his lips. [144] "No. [145] He wouldn't do that. [146] We're not—not just anybody. [147] He couldn't kill us like that. [148] Not even him . [149] And besides, why would he want to do that? [150] It wouldn't do any good to shoot us. [151] Too many people already know about the farn beasts. [152] You said that yourself." [153] Mia said, "I hope you're right." [154] They stood side by side, studying the blast area in silence. [155] Finally, Mia said, "We better be getting back." [156] "What'll we tell him?" [157] "That we saw tracks. [158] What else can we tell him?" [159] They turned back along their trail, stumbling over vines. [160] "It gets hotter at sunset," Ri said nervously. [161] "The breeze dies down." [162] "It's screwy. [163] I didn't think farn beasts had this wide a range. [164] There must be a lot of them, to be on both sides of the ridge like this." [165] "There may be a pass," Mia said, pushing a vine away. [166] Ri wrinkled his brow, panting. [167] "I guess that's it. [168] If there were a lot of them, we'd have heard something before we did. [169] But even so, it's damned funny, when you think about it." [170] Mia looked up at the darkening sky. [171] "We better hurry," he said. [172] When it came over the hastily established camp, the rocket was low, obviously looking for a landing site. [173] It was a military craft, from the outpost on the near moon, and forward, near the nose, there was the blazoned emblem of the Ninth Fleet. [174] The rocket roared directly over Extrone's tent, turned slowly, spouting fuel expensively, and settled into the scrub forest, turning the vegetation beneath it sere by its blasts. [175] Extrone sat on an upholstered stool before his tent and spat disgustedly and combed his beard with his blunt fingers. [176] Shortly, from the direction of the rocket, a group of four high-ranking officers came out of the forest, heading toward him. [177] They were spruce, the officers, with military discipline holding their waists in and knees almost stiff. [178] "What in hell do you want?" [179] Extrone asked. [180] They stopped a respectful distance away. [181] "Sir...." one began. [182] "Haven't I told you gentlemen that rockets frighten the game?" [183] Extrone demanded, ominously not raising his voice. [184] "Sir," the lead officer said, "it's another alien ship. [185] It was sighted a few hours ago, off this very planet, sir." [186] Extrone's face looked much too innocent. [187] "How did it get there, gentlemen? [188] Why wasn't it destroyed?" [189] "We lost it again, sir. [190] Temporarily, sir." [191] "So?" [192] Extrone mocked. [193] "We thought you ought to return to a safer planet, sir. [194] Until we could locate and destroy it." [195] Extrone stared at them for a space. [196] Then, indifferently, he turned away, in the direction of a resting bearer. [197] "You!" [198] he said. [199] "Hey! [200] Bring me a drink!" [201] He faced the officers again. [202] He smiled maliciously. [203] "I'm staying here." [204] The lead officer licked his firm lower lip. [205] "But, sir...." Extrone toyed with his beard. [206] "About a year ago, gentlemen, there was an alien ship around here then, wasn't there? [207] And you destroyed it, didn't you?" [208] "Yes, sir. [209] When we located it, sir." [210] "You'll destroy this one, too," Extrone said. [211] "We have a tight patrol, sir. [212] It can't slip through. [213] But it might try a long range bombardment, sir." [214] Extrone said, "To begin with, they probably don't even know I'm here. [215] And they probably couldn't hit this area if they did know. [216] And you can't afford to let them get a shot at me, anyway." [217] "That's why we'd like you to return to an inner planet, sir." [218] Extrone plucked at his right ear lobe, half closing his eyes. [219] "You'll lose a fleet before you'll dare let anything happen to me, gentlemen. [220] I'm quite safe here, I think." [221] The bearer brought Extrone his drink. [222] "Get off," Extrone said quietly to the four officers. [223] Again they turned reluctantly. [224] This time, he did not call them back. [225] Instead, with amusement, he watched until they disappeared into the tangle of forest. [226] Dusk was falling. [227] The takeoff blast of the rocket illuminated the area, casting weird shadows on the gently swaying grasses; there was a hot breath of dry air and the rocket dwindled toward the stars. [228] Extrone stood up lazily, stretching. [229] He tossed the empty glass away, listened for it to shatter. [230] He reached out, parted the heavy flap to his tent. [231] "Sir?" [232] Ri said, hurrying toward him in the gathering darkness. [233] "Eh?" [234] Extrone said, turning, startled. [235] "Oh, you. [236] Well?" [237] "We ... located signs of the farn beast, sir. [238] To the east." [239] Extrone nodded. [240] After a moment he said, "You killed one, I believe, on your trip?" [241] Ri shifted. [242] "Yes, sir." [243] Extrone held back the flap of the tent. [244] "Won't you come in?" [245] he asked without any politeness whatever. [246] Ri obeyed the order. [247] The inside of the tent was luxurious. [248] The bed was of bulky feathers, costly of transport space, the sleep curtains of silken gauze. [249] The floor, heavy, portable tile blocks, not the hollow kind, were neatly and smoothly inset into the ground. [250] Hanging from the center, to the left of the slender, hand-carved center pole, was a chain of crystals. [251] They tinkled lightly when Extrone dropped the flap. [252] The light was electric from a portable dynamo. [253] Extrone flipped it on. [254] He crossed to the bed, sat down. [255] "You were, I believe, the first ever to kill a farn beast?" [256] he said. [257] "I.... No, sir. [258] There must have been previous hunters, sir." [259] Extrone narrowed his eyes. [260] "I see by your eyes that you are envious—that is the word, isn't it?—of my tent." [261] Ri looked away from his face. [262] "Perhaps I'm envious of your reputation as a hunter. [263] You see, I have never killed a farn beast. [264] In fact, I haven't seen a farn beast." [265] Ri glanced nervously around the tent, his sharp eyes avoiding Extrone's glittering ones. [266] "Few people have seen them, sir." [267] "Oh?" [268] Extrone questioned mildly. [269] "I wouldn't say that. [270] I understand that the aliens hunt them quite extensively ... on some of their planets." [271] "I meant in our system, sir." [272] "Of course you did," Extrone said, lazily tracing the crease of his sleeve with his forefinger. [273] "I imagine these are the only farn beasts in our system." [274] Ri waited uneasily, not answering. [275] "Yes," Extrone said, "I imagine they are. [276] It would have been a shame if you had killed the last one. [277] Don't you think so?" [278] Ri's hands worried the sides of his outer garment. [279] "Yes, sir. [280] It would have been." [281] Extrone pursed his lips. [282] "It wouldn't have been very considerate of you to—But, still, you gained valuable experience. [283] I'm glad you agreed to come along as my guide." [284] "It was an honor, sir." [285] Extrone's lip twisted in wry amusement. [286] "If I had waited until it was safe for me to hunt on an alien planet, I would not have been able to find such an illustrious guide." [287] "... [288] I'm flattered, sir." [289] "Of course," Extrone said. [290] "But you should have spoken to me about it, when you discovered the farn beast in our own system." [291] "I realize that, sir. [292] That is, I had intended at the first opportunity, sir...." "Of course," Extrone said dryly. [293] "Like all of my subjects," he waved his hand in a broad gesture, "the highest as well as the lowest slave, know me and love me. [294] I know your intentions were the best." [295] Ri squirmed, his face pale. [296] "We do indeed love you, sir." [297] Extrone bent forward. " [298] Know me and love me." [299] "Yes, sir. [300] Know you and love you, sir," Ri said. [301] "Get out!" [302] Extrone said. [303] "It's frightening," Ri said, "to be that close to him." [304] Mia nodded. [305] The two of them, beneath the leaf-swollen branches of the gnarled tree, were seated on their sleeping bags. [306] The moon was clear and cold and bright in a cloudless sky; a small moon, smooth-surfaced, except for a central mountain ridge that bisected it into almost twin hemispheres. [307] "To think of him. [308] As flesh and blood. [309] Not like the—well; that—what we've read about." [310] Mia glanced suspiciously around him at the shadows. [311] "You begin to understand a lot of things, after seeing him." [312] Ri picked nervously at the cover of his sleeping bag. [313] "It makes you think," Mia added. [314] He twitched. [315] "I'm afraid. [316] I'm afraid he'll.... [317] Listen, we'll talk. [318] When we get back to civilization. [319] You, me, the bearers. [320] About him. [321] He can't let that happen. [322] He'll kill us first." [323] Ri looked up at the moon, shivering. [324] "No. [325] We have friends. [326] We have influence. [327] He couldn't just like that—" "He could say it was an accident." [328] "No," Ri said stubbornly. [329] "He can say anything," Mia insisted. [330] "He can make people believe anything. [331] Whatever he says. [332] There's no way to check on it." [333] "It's getting cold," Ri said. [334] "Listen," Mia pleaded. [335] "No," Ri said. [336] "Even if we tried to tell them, they wouldn't listen. [337] Everybody would know we were lying. [338] Everything they've come to believe would tell them we were lying. [339] Everything they've read, every picture they've seen. [340] They wouldn't believe us. [341] He knows that." [342] "Listen," Mia repeated intently. [343] "This is important. [344] Right now he couldn't afford to let us talk. [345] Not right now. [346] Because the Army is not against him. [347] Some officers were here, just before we came back. [348] A bearer overheard them talking. [349] They don't want to overthrow him!" [350] Ri's teeth, suddenly, were chattering. [351] "That's another lie," Mia continued. [352] "That he protects the people from the Army. [353] That's a lie. [354] I don't believe they were ever plotting against him. [355] Not even at first. [356] I think they helped him, don't you see?" [357] Ri whined nervously. [358] "It's like this," Mia said. [359] "I see it like this. [360] The Army put him in power when the people were in rebellion against military rule." [361] Ri swallowed. [362] "We couldn't make the people believe that." [363] "No?" [364] Mia challenged. [365] "Couldn't we? [366] Not today, but what about tomorrow? [367] You'll see. [368] Because I think the Army is getting ready to invade the alien system!" [369] "The people won't support them," Ri answered woodenly. " [370] Think. [371] If he tells them to, they will. [372] They trust him." [373] Ri looked around at the shadows. [374] "That explains a lot of things," Mia said. [375] "I think the Army's been preparing for this for a long time. [376] From the first, maybe. [377] That's why Extrone cut off our trade with the aliens. [378] Partly to keep them from learning that he was getting ready to invade them, but more to keep them from exposing him to the people. [379] The aliens wouldn't be fooled like we were, so easy." [380] "No!" [381] Ri snapped. [382] "It was to keep the natural economic balance." [383] "You know that's not right." [384] Ri lay down on his bed roll. [385] "Don't talk about it. [386] It's not good to talk like this. [387] I don't even want to listen." [388] "When the invasion starts, he'll have to command all their loyalties. [389] To keep them from revolt again. [390] They'd be ready to believe us, then. [391] He'll have a hard enough time without people running around trying to tell the truth." [392] "You're wrong. [393] He's not like that. [394] I know you're wrong." [395] Mia smiled twistedly. [396] "How many has he already killed? [397] How can we even guess?" [398] Ri swallowed sickly. [399] "Remember our guide? [400] To keep our hunting territory a secret?" [401] Ri shuddered. [402] "That's different. [403] Don't you see? [404] This is not at all like that." [405] With morning came birds' songs, came dew, came breakfast smells. [406] The air was sweet with cooking and it was nostalgic, childhoodlike, uncontaminated. [407] And Extrone stepped out of the tent, fully dressed, surly, letting the flap slap loudly behind him. [408] He stretched hungrily and stared around the camp, his eyes still vacant-mean with sleep. [409] "Breakfast!" [410] he shouted, and two bearers came running with a folding table and chair. [411] Behind them, a third bearer, carrying a tray of various foods; and yet behind him, a fourth, with a steaming pitcher and a drinking mug. [412] Extrone ate hugely, with none of the delicacy sometimes affected in his conversational gestures. [413] When he had finished, he washed his mouth with water and spat on the ground. [414] "Lin!" [415] he said. [416] His personal bearer came loping toward him. [417] "Have you read that manual I gave you?" [418] Lin nodded. [419] "Yes." [420] Extrone pushed the table away. [421] He smacked his lips wetly. [422] "Very ludicrous, Lin. [423] Have you noticed that I have two businessmen for guides? [424] It occurred to me when I got up. [425] They would have spat on me, twenty years ago, damn them." [426] Lin waited. [427] "Now I can spit on them, which pleases me." [428] "The farn beasts are dangerous, sir," Lin said. [429] "Eh? [430] Oh, yes. [431] Those. [432] What did the manual say about them?" [433] "I believe they're carnivorous, sir." [434] "An alien manual. [435] That's ludicrous, too. [436] That we have the only information on our newly discovered fauna from an alien manual—and, of course, two businessmen." [437] "They have very long, sharp fangs, and, when enraged, are capable of tearing a man—" "An alien?" [438] Extrone corrected. [439] "There's not enough difference between us to matter, sir. [440] Of tearing an alien to pieces, sir." [441] Extrone laughed harshly. [442] "It's 'sir' whenever you contradict me?" [443] Lin's face remained impassive. [444] "I guess it seems that way. [445] Sir." [446] "Damned few people would dare go as far as you do," Extrone said. [447] "But you're afraid of me, too, in your own way, aren't you?" [448] Lin shrugged. [449] "Maybe." [450] "I can see you are. [451] Even my wives are. [452] I wonder if anyone can know how wonderful it feels to have people all afraid of you." [453] "The farn beasts, according to the manual...." "You are very insistent on one subject." [454] "... [455] It's the only thing I know anything about. [456] The farn beast, as I was saying, sir, is the particular enemy of men. [457] Or if you like, of aliens. [458] Sir." [459] "All right," Extrone said, annoyed. [460] "I'll be careful." [461] In the distance, a farn beast coughed. [462] Instantly alert, Extrone said, "Get the bearers! [463] Have some of them cut a path through that damn thicket! [464] And tell those two businessmen to get the hell over here!" [465] Lin smiled, his eyes suddenly afire with the excitement of the hunt. [466] Four hours later, they were well into the scrub forest. [467] Extrone walked leisurely, well back of the cutters, who hacked away, methodically, at the vines and branches which might impede his forward progress. [468] Their sharp, awkward knives snickered rhythmically to the rasp of their heavy breathing. [469] Occasionally, Extrone halted, motioned for his water carrier, and drank deeply of the icy water to allay the heat of the forest, a heat made oppressive by the press of foliage against the outside air. [470] Ranging out, on both sides of the central body, the two businessmen fought independently against the wild growth, each scouting the flanks for farn beasts, and ahead, beyond the cutters, Lin flittered among the tree trunks, sometimes far, sometimes near. [471] Extrone carried the only weapon, slung easily over his shoulder, a powerful blast rifle, capable of piercing medium armor in sustained fire. [472] To his rear, the water carrier was trailed by a man bearing a folding stool, and behind him, a man carrying the heavy, high-powered two-way communication set. [473] Once Extrone unslung his blast rifle and triggered a burst at a tiny, arboreal mammal, which, upon the impact, shattered asunder, to Extrone's satisfied chuckle, in a burst of blood and fur. [474] When the sun stood high and heat exhaustion made the near-naked bearers slump, Extrone permitted a rest. [475] While waiting for the march to resume, he sat on the stool with his back against an ancient tree and patted, reflectively, the blast rifle, lying across his legs. [476] "For you, sir," the communications man said, interrupting his reverie. [477] "Damn," Extrone muttered. [478] His face twisted in anger. [479] "It better be important." [480] He took the head-set and mike and nodded to the bearer. [481] The bearer twiddled the dials. [482] "Extrone. [483] Eh?... [484] Oh, you got their ship. [485] Well, why in hell bother me?... [486] All right, so they found out I was here. [487] You got them, didn't you?" [488] "Blasted them right out of space," the voice crackled excitedly. [489] "Right in the middle of a radio broadcast, sir." [490] "I don't want to listen to your gabbling when I'm hunting!" [491] Extrone tore off the head-set and handed it to the bearer. [492] "If they call back, find out what they want, first. [493] I don't want to be bothered unless it's important." [494] "Yes, sir." [495] Extrone squinted up at the sun; his eyes crinkled under the glare, and perspiration stood in little droplets on the back of his hands. [496] Lin, returning to the column, threaded his way among reclining bearers. [497] He stopped before Extrone and tossed his hair out of his eyes. [498] "I located a spoor," he said, suppressed eagerness in his voice. [499] "About a quarter ahead. [500] It looks fresh." [501] Extrone's eyes lit with passion. [502] Lin's face was red with heat and grimy with sweat. [503] "There were two, I think." [504] "Two?" [505] Extrone grinned, petting the rifle. [506] "You and I better go forward and look at the spoor." [507] Lin said, "We ought to take protection, if you're going, too." [508] Extrone laughed. [509] "This is enough." [510] He gestured with the rifle and stood up. [511] "I wish you had let me bring a gun along, sir," Lin said. [512] "One is enough in my camp." [513] The two of them went forward, alone, into the forest. [514] Extrone moved agilely through the tangle, following Lin closely. [515] When they came to the tracks, heavily pressed into drying mud around a small watering hole, Extrone nodded his head in satisfaction. [516] "This way," Lin said, pointing, and once more the two of them started off. [517] They went a good distance through the forest, Extrone becoming more alert with each additional foot. [518] Finally, Lin stopped him with a restraining hand. [519] "They may be quite a way ahead. [520] Hadn't we ought to bring up the column?" [521] The farn beast, somewhere beyond a ragged clump of bushes, coughed. [522] Extrone clenched the blast rifle convulsively. [523] The farn beast coughed again, more distant this time. [524] "They're moving away," Lin said. [525] "Damn!" [526] Extrone said. [527] "It's a good thing the wind's right, or they'd be coming back, and fast, too." [528] "Eh?" [529] Extrone said. [530] "They charge on scent, sight, or sound. [531] I understand they will track down a man for as long as a day." [532] "Wait," Extrone said, combing his beard. [533] "Wait a minute." [534] "Yes?" [535] "Look," Extrone said. [536] "If that's the case, why do we bother tracking them? [537] Why not make them come to us?" [538] "They're too unpredictable. [539] It wouldn't be safe. [540] I'd rather have surprise on our side." [541] "You don't seem to see what I mean," Extrone said. " [542] We won't be the—ah—the bait." [543] "Oh?" [544] "Let's get back to the column." [545] "Extrone wants to see you," Lin said. [546] Ri twisted at the grass shoot, broke it off, worried and unhappy. [547] "What's he want to see me for?" [548] "I don't know," Lin said curtly. [549] Ri got to his feet. [550] One of his hands reached out, plucked nervously at Lin's bare forearm. [551] "Look," he whispered. [552] "You know him. [553] I have—a little money. [554] If you were able to ... if he wants," Ri gulped, "to do anything to me—I'd pay you, if you could...." "You better come along," Lin said, turning. [555] Ri rubbed his hands along his thighs; he sighed, a tiny sound, ineffectual. [556] He followed Lin beyond an outcropping of shale to where Extrone was seated, petting his rifle. [557] Extrone nodded genially. [558] "The farn beast hunter, eh?" [559] "Yes, sir." [560] Extrone drummed his fingers on the stock of the blast rifle. [561] "Tell me what they look like," he said suddenly. [562] "Well, sir, they're ... uh...." "Pretty frightening?" [563] "No, sir.... Well, in a way, sir." [564] "But you weren't afraid of them, were you?" [565] "No, sir. [566] No, because...." Extrone was smiling innocently. [567] "Good. [568] I want you to do something for me." [569] "I ... [570] I...." Ri glanced nervously at Lin out of the tail of his eye. [571] Lin's face was impassive. [572] "Of course you will," Extrone said genially. [573] "Get me a rope, Lin. [574] A good, long, strong rope." [575] "What are you going to do?" [576] Ri asked, terrified. [577] "Why, I'm going to tie the rope around your waist and stake you out as bait." [578] "No!" [579] "Oh, come now. [580] When the farn beast hears you scream—you can scream, by the way?" [581] Ri swallowed. [582] "We could find a way to make you." [583] There was perspiration trickling down Ri's forehead, a single drop, creeping toward his nose. [584] "You'll be safe," Extrone said, studying his face with amusement. [585] "I'll shoot the animal before it reaches you." [586] Ri gulped for air. [587] "But ... if there should be more than one?" [588] Extrone shrugged. [589] "I—Look, sir. [590] Listen to me." [591] Ri's lips were bloodless and his hands were trembling. [592] "It's not me you want to do this to. [593] It's Mia, sir. [594] He killed a farn beast before I did, sir. [595] And last night—last night, he—" "He what?" [596] Extrone demanded, leaning forward intently. [597] Ri breathed with a gurgling sound. [598] "He said he ought to kill you, sir. [599] That's what he said. [600] I heard him, sir. [601] He said he ought to kill you. [602] He's the one you ought to use for bait. [603] Then if there was an accident, sir, it wouldn't matter, because he said he ought to kill you. [604] I wouldn't...." Extrone said, "Which one is he?" [605] "That one. [606] Right over there." [607] "The one with his back to me?" [608] "Yes, sir. [609] That's him. [610] That's him, sir." [611] Extrone aimed carefully and fired, full charge, then lowered the rifle and said, "Here comes Lin with the rope, I see." [612] Ri was greenish. [613] "You ... you...." Extrone turned to Lin. [614] "Tie one end around his waist." [615] "Wait," Ri begged, fighting off the rope with his hands. [616] "You don't want to use me, sir. [617] Not after I told you.... [618] Please, sir. [619] If anything should happen to me.... [620] Please, sir. [621] Don't do it." [622] "Tie it," Extrone ordered. [623] "No, sir. [624] Please. [625] Oh, please don't, sir." [626] "Tie it," Extrone said inexorably. [627] Lin bent with the rope; his face was colorless. [628] They were at the watering hole—Extrone, Lin, two bearers, and Ri. [629] Since the hole was drying, the left, partially exposed bank was steep toward the muddy water. [630] Upon it was green, new grass, tender-tuffed, half mashed in places by heavy animal treads. [631] It was there that they staked him out, tying the free end of the rope tightly around the base of a scaling tree. [632] "You will scream," Extrone instructed. [633] With his rifle, he pointed across the water hole. [634] "The farn beast will come from this direction, I imagine." [635] Ri was almost slobbering in fear. [636] "Let me hear you scream," Extrone said. [637] Ri moaned weakly. [638] "You'll have to do better than that." [639] Extrone inclined his head toward a bearer, who used something Ri couldn't see. [640] Ri screamed. [641] "See that you keep it up that way," Extrone said. [642] "That's the way I want you to sound." [643] He turned toward Lin. [644] "We can climb this tree, I think." [645] Slowly, aided by the bearers, the two men climbed the tree, bark peeling away from under their rough boots. [646] Ri watched them hopelessly. [647] Once at the crotch, Extrone settled down, holding the rifle at alert. [648] Lin moved to the left, out on the main branch, rested in a smaller crotch. [649] Looking down, Extrone said, "Scream!" [650] Then, to Lin, "You feel the excitement? [651] It's always in the air like this at a hunt." [652] "I feel it," Lin said. [653] Extrone chuckled. [654] "You were with me on Meizque?" [655] "Yes." [656] "That was something, that time." [657] He ran his hand along the stock of the weapon. [658] The sun headed west, veiling itself with trees; a large insect circled Extrone's head. [659] He slapped at it, angry. [660] The forest was quiet, underlined by an occasional piping call, something like a whistle. [661] Ri's screams were shrill, echoing away, shiveringly. [662] Lin sat quiet, hunched. [663] Extrone's eyes narrowed, and he began to pet the gun stock with quick, jerky movements. [664] Lin licked his lips, keeping his eyes on Extrone's face. [665] The sun seemed stuck in the sky, and the heat squeezed against them, sucking at their breath like a vacuum. [666] The insect went away. [667] Still, endless, hopeless, monotonous, Ri screamed. [668] A farn beast coughed, far in the matted forest. [669] Extrone laughed nervously. [670] "He must have heard." [671] "We're lucky to rouse one so fast," Lin said. [672] Extrone dug his boot cleats into the tree, braced himself. [673] "I like this. [674] There's more excitement in waiting like this than in anything I know." [675] Lin nodded. [676] "The waiting, itself, is a lot. [677] The suspense. [678] It's not only the killing that matters." [679] "It's not only the killing," Lin echoed. [680] "You understand?" [681] Extrone said. [682] "How it is to wait, knowing in just a minute something is going to come out of the forest, and you're going to kill it?" [683] "I know," Lin said. [684] "But it's not only the killing. [685] It's the waiting, too." [686] The farn beast coughed again; nearer. [687] "It's a different one," Lin said. [688] "How do you know?" [689] "Hear the lower pitch, the more of a roar?" [690] "Hey!" [691] Extrone shouted. [692] "You, down there. [693] There are two coming. [694] Now let's hear you really scream!" [695] Ri, below, whimpered childishly and began to retreat toward the tether tree, his eyes wide. [696] "There's a lot of satisfaction in fooling them, too," Extrone said. [697] "Making them come to your bait, where you can get at them." [698] He opened his right hand. [699] "Choose your ground, set your trap. [700] Bait it." [701] He snapped his hand into a fist, held the fist up before his eyes, imprisoning the idea. [702] "Spring the trap when the quarry is inside. [703] Clever. [704] That makes the waiting more interesting. [705] Waiting to see if they really will come to your bait." [706] Lin shifted, staring toward the forest. [707] "I've always liked to hunt," Extrone said. [708] "More than anything else, I think." [709] Lin spat toward the ground. [710] "People should hunt because they have to. [711] For food. [712] For safety." [713] "No," Extrone argued. [714] "People should hunt for the love of hunting." [715] "Killing?" [716] "Hunting," Extrone repeated harshly. [717] The farn beast coughed. [718] Another answered. [719] They were very near, and there was a noise of crackling underbrush. [720] "He's good bait," Extrone said. [721] "He's fat enough and he knows how to scream good." [722] Ri had stopped screaming; he was huddled against the tree, fearfully eying the forest across from the watering hole. [723] Extrone began to tremble with excitement. [724] "Here they come!" [725] The forest sprang apart. [726] Extrone bent forward, the gun still across his lap. [727] The farn beast, its tiny eyes red with hate, stepped out on the bank, swinging its head wildly, its nostrils flaring in anger. [728] It coughed. [729] Its mate appeared beside it. [730] Their tails thrashed against the scrubs behind them, rattling leaves. [731] "Shoot!" [732] Lin hissed. [733] "For God's sake, shoot!" [734] "Wait," Extrone said. [735] "Let's see what they do." [736] He had not moved the rifle. [737] He was tense, bent forward, his eyes slitted, his breath beginning to sound like an asthmatic pump. [738] The lead farn beast sighted Ri. [739] It lowered its head. [740] "Look!" [741] Extrone cried excitedly. [742] "Here it comes!" [743] Ri began to scream again. [744] Still Extrone did not lift his blast rifle. [745] He was laughing. [746] Lin waited, frozen, his eyes staring at the farn beast in fascination. [747] The farn beast plunged into the water, which was shallow, and, throwing a sheet of it to either side, headed across toward Ri. [748] "Watch! [749] Watch!" [750] Extrone cried gleefully. [751] And then the aliens sprang their trap.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What settings does the story take place in?": 1. [1] HUNT the HUNTER BY KRIS NEVILLE Illustrated by ELIZABETH MacINTYRE [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction June 1951. 2. [4] "We're somewhat to the south, I think," Ri said, bending over the crude field map. 3. [5] "That ridge," he pointed, "on our left, is right here." 4. [6] He drew a finger down the map. 5. [7] "It was over here," he moved the finger, "over the ridge, north of here, that we sighted them." 6. [8] Extrone asked, "Is there a pass?" 7. [9] Ri looked up, studying the terrain. 8. [306] The moon was clear and cold and bright in a cloudless sky; a small moon, smooth-surfaced, except for a central mountain ridge that bisected it into almost twin hemispheres. 9. [405] With morning came birds' songs, came dew, came breakfast smells. 10. [406] The air was sweet with cooking and it was nostalgic, childhoodlike, uncontaminated. 11. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 12. [3] Of course using live bait is the best way to lure dangerous alien animals ... unless it turns out that you are the bait! 13. [10] He moved his shoulders. 14. [11] "I don't know, but maybe they range this far. 15. [12] Maybe they're on this side of the ridge, too." 16. [13] Delicately, Extrone raised a hand to his beard. 17. [14] "I'd hate to lose a day crossing the ridge," he said. 18. [15] "Yes, sir," Ri said. 19. [16] Suddenly he threw back his head. 20. [17] "Listen!" 21. [18] "Eh?" 22. [19] Extrone said. 23. [20] "Hear it? 24. [21] That cough? 25. [22] I think that's one, from over there. 26. [23] Right up ahead of us." 27. [24] Extrone raised his eyebrows. 28. [25] This time, the coughing roar was more distant, but distinct. 29. [26] "It is!" 30. [27] Ri said. 31. [28] "It's a farn beast, all right!" 32. [29] Extrone smiled, almost pointed teeth showing through the beard. 33. [30] "I'm glad we won't have to cross the ridge." 34. [31] Ri wiped his forehead on the back of his sleeve. 35. [32] "Yes, sir." 36. [33] "We'll pitch camp right here, then," Extrone said. 37. [34] "We'll go after it tomorrow." 38. [35] He looked at the sky. 39. [36] "Have the bearers hurry." 40. [37] "Yes, sir." 41. [38] Ri moved away, his pulse gradually slowing. 42. [39] "You, there!" 43. [40] he called. 44. [41] "Pitch camp, here!" 45. [42] He crossed to Mia, who, along with him, had been pressed into Extrone's party as guides. 46. [43] Once more, Ri addressed the bearers, "Be quick, now!" 47. [44] And to Mia, "God almighty, he was getting mad." 48. [45] He ran a hand under his collar. 49. [46] "It's a good thing that farn beast sounded off when it did. 50. [47] I'd hate to think of making him climb that ridge." 51. [48] Mia glanced nervously over his shoulder. 52. [49] "It's that damned pilot's fault for setting us down on this side. 53. [50] I told him it was the other side. 54. [51] I told him so." 55. [52] Ri shrugged hopelessly. 56. [53] Mia said, "I don't think he even saw a blast area over here. 57. [54] I think he wanted to get us in trouble." 58. [55] "There shouldn't be one. 59. [56] There shouldn't be a blast area on this side of the ridge, too." 60. [57] "That's what I mean. 61. [58] The pilot don't like businessmen. 62. [59] He had it in for us." 63. [60] Ri cleared his throat nervously. 64. [61] "Maybe you're right." 65. [62] "It's the Hunting Club he don't like." 66. [63] "I wish to God I'd never heard of a farn beast," Ri said. 67. [64] "At least, then, I wouldn't be one of his guides. 68. [65] Why didn't he hire somebody else?" 69. [66] Mia looked at his companion. 70. [67] He spat. 71. [68] "What hurts most, he pays us for it. 72. [69] I could buy half this planet, and he makes me his guide—at less than I pay my secretary." 73. [70] "Well, anyway, we won't have to cross that ridge." 74. [172] When it came over the hastily established camp, the rocket was low, obviously looking for a landing site. 75. [173] It was a military craft, from the outpost on the near moon, and forward, near the nose, there was the blazoned emblem of the Ninth Fleet. 76. [174] The rocket roared directly over Extrone's tent, turned slowly, spouting fuel expensively, and settled into the scrub forest, turning the vegetation beneath it sere by its blasts. 77. [306] The moon was clear and cold and bright in a cloudless sky; a small moon, smooth-surfaced, except for a central mountain ridge that bisected it into almost twin hemispheres. 78. [405] With morning came birds' songs, came dew, came breakfast smells. 79. [406] The air was sweet with cooking and it was nostalgic, childhoodlike, uncontaminated. 80. [97] Then it ended. 81. [98] Or, rather, there was a wide gap. 82. [99] Before them lay a blast area, unmistakable. 83. [100] The grass was beginning to grow again, but the tree stumps were roasted from the rocket breath. 84. [101] "This isn't ours!" 85. [102] Ri said. 86. [103] "This looks like it was made nearly a year ago!" 87. [104] Mia's eyes narrowed. 88. [105] "The military from Xnile?" 89. [106] "No," Ri said. 90. [107] "They don't have any rockets this small. 91. [108] And I don't think there's another cargo rocket on this planet outside of the one we leased from the Club. 92. [109] Except the one he brought." 93. [110] "The ones who discovered the farn beasts in the first place?" 94. [111] Mia asked. 95. [112] "You think it's their blast?" 96. [113] "So?" 97. [114] Ri said. 98. [115] "But who are they?" 99. [116] It was Mia's turn to shrug. 100. [117] "Whoever they were, they couldn't have been hunters. 101. [118] They'd have kept the secret better." 102. [119] "We didn't do so damned well." 103. [120] "We didn't have a chance," Mia objected. 104. [121] "Everybody and his brother had heard the rumor that farn beasts were somewhere around here. 105. [122] It wasn't our fault Extrone found out." 106. [123] "I wish we hadn't shot our guide, then. 107. [124] I wish he was here instead of us." 108. [125] Mia shook perspiration out of his eyes. 109. [126] "We should have shot our pilot, too. 110. [127] That was our mistake. 111. [128] The pilot must have been the one who told Extrone we'd hunted this area." 112. [129] "I didn't think a Club pilot would do that." 113. [130] "After Extrone said he'd hunt farn beasts, even if it meant going to the alien system? 114. [131] Listen, you don't know.... 115. [132] Wait a minute." 116. [133] There was perspiration on Ri's upper lip. 117. [160] "It gets hotter at sunset," Ri said nervously. 118. [161] "The breeze dies down." 119. [162] "It's screwy. 120. [163] I didn't think farn beasts had this wide a range. 121. [164] There must be a lot of them, to be on both sides of the ridge like this." 122. [165] "There may be a pass," Mia said, pushing a vine away. 123. [166] Ri wrinkled his brow, panting. 124. [167] "I guess that's it. 125. [168] If there were a lot of them, we'd have heard something before we did. 126. [169] But even so, it's damned funny, when you think about it." 127. [170] Mia looked up at the darkening sky. 128. [171] "We better hurry," he said.

What is the relationship like between Ri and Mia?

[1] HUNT the HUNTER BY KRIS NEVILLE Illustrated by ELIZABETH MacINTYRE [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction June 1951. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] Of course using live bait is the best way to lure dangerous alien animals ... unless it turns out that you are the bait! [4] "We're somewhat to the south, I think," Ri said, bending over the crude field map. [5] "That ridge," he pointed, "on our left, is right here." [6] He drew a finger down the map. [7] "It was over here," he moved the finger, "over the ridge, north of here, that we sighted them." [8] Extrone asked, "Is there a pass?" [9] Ri looked up, studying the terrain. [10] He moved his shoulders. [11] "I don't know, but maybe they range this far. [12] Maybe they're on this side of the ridge, too." [13] Delicately, Extrone raised a hand to his beard. [14] "I'd hate to lose a day crossing the ridge," he said. [15] "Yes, sir," Ri said. [16] Suddenly he threw back his head. [17] "Listen!" [18] "Eh?" [19] Extrone said. [20] "Hear it? [21] That cough? [22] I think that's one, from over there. [23] Right up ahead of us." [24] Extrone raised his eyebrows. [25] This time, the coughing roar was more distant, but distinct. [26] "It is!" [27] Ri said. [28] "It's a farn beast, all right!" [29] Extrone smiled, almost pointed teeth showing through the beard. [30] "I'm glad we won't have to cross the ridge." [31] Ri wiped his forehead on the back of his sleeve. [32] "Yes, sir." [33] "We'll pitch camp right here, then," Extrone said. [34] "We'll go after it tomorrow." [35] He looked at the sky. [36] "Have the bearers hurry." [37] "Yes, sir." [38] Ri moved away, his pulse gradually slowing. [39] "You, there!" [40] he called. [41] "Pitch camp, here!" [42] He crossed to Mia, who, along with him, had been pressed into Extrone's party as guides. [43] Once more, Ri addressed the bearers, "Be quick, now!" [44] And to Mia, "God almighty, he was getting mad." [45] He ran a hand under his collar. [46] "It's a good thing that farn beast sounded off when it did. [47] I'd hate to think of making him climb that ridge." [48] Mia glanced nervously over his shoulder. [49] "It's that damned pilot's fault for setting us down on this side. [50] I told him it was the other side. [51] I told him so." [52] Ri shrugged hopelessly. [53] Mia said, "I don't think he even saw a blast area over here. [54] I think he wanted to get us in trouble." [55] "There shouldn't be one. [56] There shouldn't be a blast area on this side of the ridge, too." [57] "That's what I mean. [58] The pilot don't like businessmen. [59] He had it in for us." [60] Ri cleared his throat nervously. [61] "Maybe you're right." [62] "It's the Hunting Club he don't like." [63] "I wish to God I'd never heard of a farn beast," Ri said. [64] "At least, then, I wouldn't be one of his guides. [65] Why didn't he hire somebody else?" [66] Mia looked at his companion. [67] He spat. [68] "What hurts most, he pays us for it. [69] I could buy half this planet, and he makes me his guide—at less than I pay my secretary." [70] "Well, anyway, we won't have to cross that ridge." [71] "Hey, you!" [72] Extrone called. [73] The two of them turned immediately. [74] "You two scout ahead," Extrone said. [75] "See if you can pick up some tracks." [76] "Yes, sir," Ri said, and instantly the two of them readjusted their shoulder straps and started off. [77] Shortly they were inside of the scrub forest, safe from sight. [78] "Let's wait here," Mia said. [79] "No, we better go on. [80] He may have sent a spy in." [81] They pushed on, being careful to blaze the trees, because they were not professional guides. [82] "We don't want to get too near," Ri said after toiling through the forest for many minutes. [83] "Without guns, we don't want to get near enough for the farn beast to charge us." [84] They stopped. [85] The forest was dense, the vines clinging. [86] "He'll want the bearers to hack a path for him," Mia said. [87] "But we go it alone. [88] Damn him." [89] Ri twisted his mouth into a sour frown. [90] He wiped at his forehead. [91] "Hot. [92] By God, it's hot. [93] I didn't think it was this hot, the first time we were here." [94] Mia said, "The first time, we weren't guides. [95] We didn't notice it so much then." [96] They fought a few yards more into the forest. [97] Then it ended. [98] Or, rather, there was a wide gap. [99] Before them lay a blast area, unmistakable. [100] The grass was beginning to grow again, but the tree stumps were roasted from the rocket breath. [101] "This isn't ours!" [102] Ri said. [103] "This looks like it was made nearly a year ago!" [104] Mia's eyes narrowed. [105] "The military from Xnile?" [106] "No," Ri said. [107] "They don't have any rockets this small. [108] And I don't think there's another cargo rocket on this planet outside of the one we leased from the Club. [109] Except the one he brought." [110] "The ones who discovered the farn beasts in the first place?" [111] Mia asked. [112] "You think it's their blast?" [113] "So?" [114] Ri said. [115] "But who are they?" [116] It was Mia's turn to shrug. [117] "Whoever they were, they couldn't have been hunters. [118] They'd have kept the secret better." [119] "We didn't do so damned well." [120] "We didn't have a chance," Mia objected. [121] "Everybody and his brother had heard the rumor that farn beasts were somewhere around here. [122] It wasn't our fault Extrone found out." [123] "I wish we hadn't shot our guide, then. [124] I wish he was here instead of us." [125] Mia shook perspiration out of his eyes. [126] "We should have shot our pilot, too. [127] That was our mistake. [128] The pilot must have been the one who told Extrone we'd hunted this area." [129] "I didn't think a Club pilot would do that." [130] "After Extrone said he'd hunt farn beasts, even if it meant going to the alien system? [131] Listen, you don't know.... [132] Wait a minute." [133] There was perspiration on Ri's upper lip. " [134] I didn't tell Extrone, if that's what you're thinking," Mia said. [135] Ri's mouth twisted. [136] "I didn't say you did." [137] "Listen," Mia said in a hoarse whisper. [138] "I just thought. [139] Listen. [140] To hell with how he found out. [141] Here's the point. [142] Maybe he'll shoot us, too, when the hunt's over." [143] Ri licked his lips. [144] "No. [145] He wouldn't do that. [146] We're not—not just anybody. [147] He couldn't kill us like that. [148] Not even him . [149] And besides, why would he want to do that? [150] It wouldn't do any good to shoot us. [151] Too many people already know about the farn beasts. [152] You said that yourself." [153] Mia said, "I hope you're right." [154] They stood side by side, studying the blast area in silence. [155] Finally, Mia said, "We better be getting back." [156] "What'll we tell him?" [157] "That we saw tracks. [158] What else can we tell him?" [159] They turned back along their trail, stumbling over vines. [160] "It gets hotter at sunset," Ri said nervously. [161] "The breeze dies down." [162] "It's screwy. [163] I didn't think farn beasts had this wide a range. [164] There must be a lot of them, to be on both sides of the ridge like this." [165] "There may be a pass," Mia said, pushing a vine away. [166] Ri wrinkled his brow, panting. [167] "I guess that's it. [168] If there were a lot of them, we'd have heard something before we did. [169] But even so, it's damned funny, when you think about it." [170] Mia looked up at the darkening sky. [171] "We better hurry," he said. [172] When it came over the hastily established camp, the rocket was low, obviously looking for a landing site. [173] It was a military craft, from the outpost on the near moon, and forward, near the nose, there was the blazoned emblem of the Ninth Fleet. [174] The rocket roared directly over Extrone's tent, turned slowly, spouting fuel expensively, and settled into the scrub forest, turning the vegetation beneath it sere by its blasts. [175] Extrone sat on an upholstered stool before his tent and spat disgustedly and combed his beard with his blunt fingers. [176] Shortly, from the direction of the rocket, a group of four high-ranking officers came out of the forest, heading toward him. [177] They were spruce, the officers, with military discipline holding their waists in and knees almost stiff. [178] "What in hell do you want?" [179] Extrone asked. [180] They stopped a respectful distance away. [181] "Sir...." one began. [182] "Haven't I told you gentlemen that rockets frighten the game?" [183] Extrone demanded, ominously not raising his voice. [184] "Sir," the lead officer said, "it's another alien ship. [185] It was sighted a few hours ago, off this very planet, sir." [186] Extrone's face looked much too innocent. [187] "How did it get there, gentlemen? [188] Why wasn't it destroyed?" [189] "We lost it again, sir. [190] Temporarily, sir." [191] "So?" [192] Extrone mocked. [193] "We thought you ought to return to a safer planet, sir. [194] Until we could locate and destroy it." [195] Extrone stared at them for a space. [196] Then, indifferently, he turned away, in the direction of a resting bearer. [197] "You!" [198] he said. [199] "Hey! [200] Bring me a drink!" [201] He faced the officers again. [202] He smiled maliciously. [203] "I'm staying here." [204] The lead officer licked his firm lower lip. [205] "But, sir...." Extrone toyed with his beard. [206] "About a year ago, gentlemen, there was an alien ship around here then, wasn't there? [207] And you destroyed it, didn't you?" [208] "Yes, sir. [209] When we located it, sir." [210] "You'll destroy this one, too," Extrone said. [211] "We have a tight patrol, sir. [212] It can't slip through. [213] But it might try a long range bombardment, sir." [214] Extrone said, "To begin with, they probably don't even know I'm here. [215] And they probably couldn't hit this area if they did know. [216] And you can't afford to let them get a shot at me, anyway." [217] "That's why we'd like you to return to an inner planet, sir." [218] Extrone plucked at his right ear lobe, half closing his eyes. [219] "You'll lose a fleet before you'll dare let anything happen to me, gentlemen. [220] I'm quite safe here, I think." [221] The bearer brought Extrone his drink. [222] "Get off," Extrone said quietly to the four officers. [223] Again they turned reluctantly. [224] This time, he did not call them back. [225] Instead, with amusement, he watched until they disappeared into the tangle of forest. [226] Dusk was falling. [227] The takeoff blast of the rocket illuminated the area, casting weird shadows on the gently swaying grasses; there was a hot breath of dry air and the rocket dwindled toward the stars. [228] Extrone stood up lazily, stretching. [229] He tossed the empty glass away, listened for it to shatter. [230] He reached out, parted the heavy flap to his tent. [231] "Sir?" [232] Ri said, hurrying toward him in the gathering darkness. [233] "Eh?" [234] Extrone said, turning, startled. [235] "Oh, you. [236] Well?" [237] "We ... located signs of the farn beast, sir. [238] To the east." [239] Extrone nodded. [240] After a moment he said, "You killed one, I believe, on your trip?" [241] Ri shifted. [242] "Yes, sir." [243] Extrone held back the flap of the tent. [244] "Won't you come in?" [245] he asked without any politeness whatever. [246] Ri obeyed the order. [247] The inside of the tent was luxurious. [248] The bed was of bulky feathers, costly of transport space, the sleep curtains of silken gauze. [249] The floor, heavy, portable tile blocks, not the hollow kind, were neatly and smoothly inset into the ground. [250] Hanging from the center, to the left of the slender, hand-carved center pole, was a chain of crystals. [251] They tinkled lightly when Extrone dropped the flap. [252] The light was electric from a portable dynamo. [253] Extrone flipped it on. [254] He crossed to the bed, sat down. [255] "You were, I believe, the first ever to kill a farn beast?" [256] he said. [257] "I.... No, sir. [258] There must have been previous hunters, sir." [259] Extrone narrowed his eyes. [260] "I see by your eyes that you are envious—that is the word, isn't it?—of my tent." [261] Ri looked away from his face. [262] "Perhaps I'm envious of your reputation as a hunter. [263] You see, I have never killed a farn beast. [264] In fact, I haven't seen a farn beast." [265] Ri glanced nervously around the tent, his sharp eyes avoiding Extrone's glittering ones. [266] "Few people have seen them, sir." [267] "Oh?" [268] Extrone questioned mildly. [269] "I wouldn't say that. [270] I understand that the aliens hunt them quite extensively ... on some of their planets." [271] "I meant in our system, sir." [272] "Of course you did," Extrone said, lazily tracing the crease of his sleeve with his forefinger. [273] "I imagine these are the only farn beasts in our system." [274] Ri waited uneasily, not answering. [275] "Yes," Extrone said, "I imagine they are. [276] It would have been a shame if you had killed the last one. [277] Don't you think so?" [278] Ri's hands worried the sides of his outer garment. [279] "Yes, sir. [280] It would have been." [281] Extrone pursed his lips. [282] "It wouldn't have been very considerate of you to—But, still, you gained valuable experience. [283] I'm glad you agreed to come along as my guide." [284] "It was an honor, sir." [285] Extrone's lip twisted in wry amusement. [286] "If I had waited until it was safe for me to hunt on an alien planet, I would not have been able to find such an illustrious guide." [287] "... [288] I'm flattered, sir." [289] "Of course," Extrone said. [290] "But you should have spoken to me about it, when you discovered the farn beast in our own system." [291] "I realize that, sir. [292] That is, I had intended at the first opportunity, sir...." "Of course," Extrone said dryly. [293] "Like all of my subjects," he waved his hand in a broad gesture, "the highest as well as the lowest slave, know me and love me. [294] I know your intentions were the best." [295] Ri squirmed, his face pale. [296] "We do indeed love you, sir." [297] Extrone bent forward. " [298] Know me and love me." [299] "Yes, sir. [300] Know you and love you, sir," Ri said. [301] "Get out!" [302] Extrone said. [303] "It's frightening," Ri said, "to be that close to him." [304] Mia nodded. [305] The two of them, beneath the leaf-swollen branches of the gnarled tree, were seated on their sleeping bags. [306] The moon was clear and cold and bright in a cloudless sky; a small moon, smooth-surfaced, except for a central mountain ridge that bisected it into almost twin hemispheres. [307] "To think of him. [308] As flesh and blood. [309] Not like the—well; that—what we've read about." [310] Mia glanced suspiciously around him at the shadows. [311] "You begin to understand a lot of things, after seeing him." [312] Ri picked nervously at the cover of his sleeping bag. [313] "It makes you think," Mia added. [314] He twitched. [315] "I'm afraid. [316] I'm afraid he'll.... [317] Listen, we'll talk. [318] When we get back to civilization. [319] You, me, the bearers. [320] About him. [321] He can't let that happen. [322] He'll kill us first." [323] Ri looked up at the moon, shivering. [324] "No. [325] We have friends. [326] We have influence. [327] He couldn't just like that—" "He could say it was an accident." [328] "No," Ri said stubbornly. [329] "He can say anything," Mia insisted. [330] "He can make people believe anything. [331] Whatever he says. [332] There's no way to check on it." [333] "It's getting cold," Ri said. [334] "Listen," Mia pleaded. [335] "No," Ri said. [336] "Even if we tried to tell them, they wouldn't listen. [337] Everybody would know we were lying. [338] Everything they've come to believe would tell them we were lying. [339] Everything they've read, every picture they've seen. [340] They wouldn't believe us. [341] He knows that." [342] "Listen," Mia repeated intently. [343] "This is important. [344] Right now he couldn't afford to let us talk. [345] Not right now. [346] Because the Army is not against him. [347] Some officers were here, just before we came back. [348] A bearer overheard them talking. [349] They don't want to overthrow him!" [350] Ri's teeth, suddenly, were chattering. [351] "That's another lie," Mia continued. [352] "That he protects the people from the Army. [353] That's a lie. [354] I don't believe they were ever plotting against him. [355] Not even at first. [356] I think they helped him, don't you see?" [357] Ri whined nervously. [358] "It's like this," Mia said. [359] "I see it like this. [360] The Army put him in power when the people were in rebellion against military rule." [361] Ri swallowed. [362] "We couldn't make the people believe that." [363] "No?" [364] Mia challenged. [365] "Couldn't we? [366] Not today, but what about tomorrow? [367] You'll see. [368] Because I think the Army is getting ready to invade the alien system!" [369] "The people won't support them," Ri answered woodenly. " [370] Think. [371] If he tells them to, they will. [372] They trust him." [373] Ri looked around at the shadows. [374] "That explains a lot of things," Mia said. [375] "I think the Army's been preparing for this for a long time. [376] From the first, maybe. [377] That's why Extrone cut off our trade with the aliens. [378] Partly to keep them from learning that he was getting ready to invade them, but more to keep them from exposing him to the people. [379] The aliens wouldn't be fooled like we were, so easy." [380] "No!" [381] Ri snapped. [382] "It was to keep the natural economic balance." [383] "You know that's not right." [384] Ri lay down on his bed roll. [385] "Don't talk about it. [386] It's not good to talk like this. [387] I don't even want to listen." [388] "When the invasion starts, he'll have to command all their loyalties. [389] To keep them from revolt again. [390] They'd be ready to believe us, then. [391] He'll have a hard enough time without people running around trying to tell the truth." [392] "You're wrong. [393] He's not like that. [394] I know you're wrong." [395] Mia smiled twistedly. [396] "How many has he already killed? [397] How can we even guess?" [398] Ri swallowed sickly. [399] "Remember our guide? [400] To keep our hunting territory a secret?" [401] Ri shuddered. [402] "That's different. [403] Don't you see? [404] This is not at all like that." [405] With morning came birds' songs, came dew, came breakfast smells. [406] The air was sweet with cooking and it was nostalgic, childhoodlike, uncontaminated. [407] And Extrone stepped out of the tent, fully dressed, surly, letting the flap slap loudly behind him. [408] He stretched hungrily and stared around the camp, his eyes still vacant-mean with sleep. [409] "Breakfast!" [410] he shouted, and two bearers came running with a folding table and chair. [411] Behind them, a third bearer, carrying a tray of various foods; and yet behind him, a fourth, with a steaming pitcher and a drinking mug. [412] Extrone ate hugely, with none of the delicacy sometimes affected in his conversational gestures. [413] When he had finished, he washed his mouth with water and spat on the ground. [414] "Lin!" [415] he said. [416] His personal bearer came loping toward him. [417] "Have you read that manual I gave you?" [418] Lin nodded. [419] "Yes." [420] Extrone pushed the table away. [421] He smacked his lips wetly. [422] "Very ludicrous, Lin. [423] Have you noticed that I have two businessmen for guides? [424] It occurred to me when I got up. [425] They would have spat on me, twenty years ago, damn them." [426] Lin waited. [427] "Now I can spit on them, which pleases me." [428] "The farn beasts are dangerous, sir," Lin said. [429] "Eh? [430] Oh, yes. [431] Those. [432] What did the manual say about them?" [433] "I believe they're carnivorous, sir." [434] "An alien manual. [435] That's ludicrous, too. [436] That we have the only information on our newly discovered fauna from an alien manual—and, of course, two businessmen." [437] "They have very long, sharp fangs, and, when enraged, are capable of tearing a man—" "An alien?" [438] Extrone corrected. [439] "There's not enough difference between us to matter, sir. [440] Of tearing an alien to pieces, sir." [441] Extrone laughed harshly. [442] "It's 'sir' whenever you contradict me?" [443] Lin's face remained impassive. [444] "I guess it seems that way. [445] Sir." [446] "Damned few people would dare go as far as you do," Extrone said. [447] "But you're afraid of me, too, in your own way, aren't you?" [448] Lin shrugged. [449] "Maybe." [450] "I can see you are. [451] Even my wives are. [452] I wonder if anyone can know how wonderful it feels to have people all afraid of you." [453] "The farn beasts, according to the manual...." "You are very insistent on one subject." [454] "... [455] It's the only thing I know anything about. [456] The farn beast, as I was saying, sir, is the particular enemy of men. [457] Or if you like, of aliens. [458] Sir." [459] "All right," Extrone said, annoyed. [460] "I'll be careful." [461] In the distance, a farn beast coughed. [462] Instantly alert, Extrone said, "Get the bearers! [463] Have some of them cut a path through that damn thicket! [464] And tell those two businessmen to get the hell over here!" [465] Lin smiled, his eyes suddenly afire with the excitement of the hunt. [466] Four hours later, they were well into the scrub forest. [467] Extrone walked leisurely, well back of the cutters, who hacked away, methodically, at the vines and branches which might impede his forward progress. [468] Their sharp, awkward knives snickered rhythmically to the rasp of their heavy breathing. [469] Occasionally, Extrone halted, motioned for his water carrier, and drank deeply of the icy water to allay the heat of the forest, a heat made oppressive by the press of foliage against the outside air. [470] Ranging out, on both sides of the central body, the two businessmen fought independently against the wild growth, each scouting the flanks for farn beasts, and ahead, beyond the cutters, Lin flittered among the tree trunks, sometimes far, sometimes near. [471] Extrone carried the only weapon, slung easily over his shoulder, a powerful blast rifle, capable of piercing medium armor in sustained fire. [472] To his rear, the water carrier was trailed by a man bearing a folding stool, and behind him, a man carrying the heavy, high-powered two-way communication set. [473] Once Extrone unslung his blast rifle and triggered a burst at a tiny, arboreal mammal, which, upon the impact, shattered asunder, to Extrone's satisfied chuckle, in a burst of blood and fur. [474] When the sun stood high and heat exhaustion made the near-naked bearers slump, Extrone permitted a rest. [475] While waiting for the march to resume, he sat on the stool with his back against an ancient tree and patted, reflectively, the blast rifle, lying across his legs. [476] "For you, sir," the communications man said, interrupting his reverie. [477] "Damn," Extrone muttered. [478] His face twisted in anger. [479] "It better be important." [480] He took the head-set and mike and nodded to the bearer. [481] The bearer twiddled the dials. [482] "Extrone. [483] Eh?... [484] Oh, you got their ship. [485] Well, why in hell bother me?... [486] All right, so they found out I was here. [487] You got them, didn't you?" [488] "Blasted them right out of space," the voice crackled excitedly. [489] "Right in the middle of a radio broadcast, sir." [490] "I don't want to listen to your gabbling when I'm hunting!" [491] Extrone tore off the head-set and handed it to the bearer. [492] "If they call back, find out what they want, first. [493] I don't want to be bothered unless it's important." [494] "Yes, sir." [495] Extrone squinted up at the sun; his eyes crinkled under the glare, and perspiration stood in little droplets on the back of his hands. [496] Lin, returning to the column, threaded his way among reclining bearers. [497] He stopped before Extrone and tossed his hair out of his eyes. [498] "I located a spoor," he said, suppressed eagerness in his voice. [499] "About a quarter ahead. [500] It looks fresh." [501] Extrone's eyes lit with passion. [502] Lin's face was red with heat and grimy with sweat. [503] "There were two, I think." [504] "Two?" [505] Extrone grinned, petting the rifle. [506] "You and I better go forward and look at the spoor." [507] Lin said, "We ought to take protection, if you're going, too." [508] Extrone laughed. [509] "This is enough." [510] He gestured with the rifle and stood up. [511] "I wish you had let me bring a gun along, sir," Lin said. [512] "One is enough in my camp." [513] The two of them went forward, alone, into the forest. [514] Extrone moved agilely through the tangle, following Lin closely. [515] When they came to the tracks, heavily pressed into drying mud around a small watering hole, Extrone nodded his head in satisfaction. [516] "This way," Lin said, pointing, and once more the two of them started off. [517] They went a good distance through the forest, Extrone becoming more alert with each additional foot. [518] Finally, Lin stopped him with a restraining hand. [519] "They may be quite a way ahead. [520] Hadn't we ought to bring up the column?" [521] The farn beast, somewhere beyond a ragged clump of bushes, coughed. [522] Extrone clenched the blast rifle convulsively. [523] The farn beast coughed again, more distant this time. [524] "They're moving away," Lin said. [525] "Damn!" [526] Extrone said. [527] "It's a good thing the wind's right, or they'd be coming back, and fast, too." [528] "Eh?" [529] Extrone said. [530] "They charge on scent, sight, or sound. [531] I understand they will track down a man for as long as a day." [532] "Wait," Extrone said, combing his beard. [533] "Wait a minute." [534] "Yes?" [535] "Look," Extrone said. [536] "If that's the case, why do we bother tracking them? [537] Why not make them come to us?" [538] "They're too unpredictable. [539] It wouldn't be safe. [540] I'd rather have surprise on our side." [541] "You don't seem to see what I mean," Extrone said. " [542] We won't be the—ah—the bait." [543] "Oh?" [544] "Let's get back to the column." [545] "Extrone wants to see you," Lin said. [546] Ri twisted at the grass shoot, broke it off, worried and unhappy. [547] "What's he want to see me for?" [548] "I don't know," Lin said curtly. [549] Ri got to his feet. [550] One of his hands reached out, plucked nervously at Lin's bare forearm. [551] "Look," he whispered. [552] "You know him. [553] I have—a little money. [554] If you were able to ... if he wants," Ri gulped, "to do anything to me—I'd pay you, if you could...." "You better come along," Lin said, turning. [555] Ri rubbed his hands along his thighs; he sighed, a tiny sound, ineffectual. [556] He followed Lin beyond an outcropping of shale to where Extrone was seated, petting his rifle. [557] Extrone nodded genially. [558] "The farn beast hunter, eh?" [559] "Yes, sir." [560] Extrone drummed his fingers on the stock of the blast rifle. [561] "Tell me what they look like," he said suddenly. [562] "Well, sir, they're ... uh...." "Pretty frightening?" [563] "No, sir.... Well, in a way, sir." [564] "But you weren't afraid of them, were you?" [565] "No, sir. [566] No, because...." Extrone was smiling innocently. [567] "Good. [568] I want you to do something for me." [569] "I ... [570] I...." Ri glanced nervously at Lin out of the tail of his eye. [571] Lin's face was impassive. [572] "Of course you will," Extrone said genially. [573] "Get me a rope, Lin. [574] A good, long, strong rope." [575] "What are you going to do?" [576] Ri asked, terrified. [577] "Why, I'm going to tie the rope around your waist and stake you out as bait." [578] "No!" [579] "Oh, come now. [580] When the farn beast hears you scream—you can scream, by the way?" [581] Ri swallowed. [582] "We could find a way to make you." [583] There was perspiration trickling down Ri's forehead, a single drop, creeping toward his nose. [584] "You'll be safe," Extrone said, studying his face with amusement. [585] "I'll shoot the animal before it reaches you." [586] Ri gulped for air. [587] "But ... if there should be more than one?" [588] Extrone shrugged. [589] "I—Look, sir. [590] Listen to me." [591] Ri's lips were bloodless and his hands were trembling. [592] "It's not me you want to do this to. [593] It's Mia, sir. [594] He killed a farn beast before I did, sir. [595] And last night—last night, he—" "He what?" [596] Extrone demanded, leaning forward intently. [597] Ri breathed with a gurgling sound. [598] "He said he ought to kill you, sir. [599] That's what he said. [600] I heard him, sir. [601] He said he ought to kill you. [602] He's the one you ought to use for bait. [603] Then if there was an accident, sir, it wouldn't matter, because he said he ought to kill you. [604] I wouldn't...." Extrone said, "Which one is he?" [605] "That one. [606] Right over there." [607] "The one with his back to me?" [608] "Yes, sir. [609] That's him. [610] That's him, sir." [611] Extrone aimed carefully and fired, full charge, then lowered the rifle and said, "Here comes Lin with the rope, I see." [612] Ri was greenish. [613] "You ... you...." Extrone turned to Lin. [614] "Tie one end around his waist." [615] "Wait," Ri begged, fighting off the rope with his hands. [616] "You don't want to use me, sir. [617] Not after I told you.... [618] Please, sir. [619] If anything should happen to me.... [620] Please, sir. [621] Don't do it." [622] "Tie it," Extrone ordered. [623] "No, sir. [624] Please. [625] Oh, please don't, sir." [626] "Tie it," Extrone said inexorably. [627] Lin bent with the rope; his face was colorless. [628] They were at the watering hole—Extrone, Lin, two bearers, and Ri. [629] Since the hole was drying, the left, partially exposed bank was steep toward the muddy water. [630] Upon it was green, new grass, tender-tuffed, half mashed in places by heavy animal treads. [631] It was there that they staked him out, tying the free end of the rope tightly around the base of a scaling tree. [632] "You will scream," Extrone instructed. [633] With his rifle, he pointed across the water hole. [634] "The farn beast will come from this direction, I imagine." [635] Ri was almost slobbering in fear. [636] "Let me hear you scream," Extrone said. [637] Ri moaned weakly. [638] "You'll have to do better than that." [639] Extrone inclined his head toward a bearer, who used something Ri couldn't see. [640] Ri screamed. [641] "See that you keep it up that way," Extrone said. [642] "That's the way I want you to sound." [643] He turned toward Lin. [644] "We can climb this tree, I think." [645] Slowly, aided by the bearers, the two men climbed the tree, bark peeling away from under their rough boots. [646] Ri watched them hopelessly. [647] Once at the crotch, Extrone settled down, holding the rifle at alert. [648] Lin moved to the left, out on the main branch, rested in a smaller crotch. [649] Looking down, Extrone said, "Scream!" [650] Then, to Lin, "You feel the excitement? [651] It's always in the air like this at a hunt." [652] "I feel it," Lin said. [653] Extrone chuckled. [654] "You were with me on Meizque?" [655] "Yes." [656] "That was something, that time." [657] He ran his hand along the stock of the weapon. [658] The sun headed west, veiling itself with trees; a large insect circled Extrone's head. [659] He slapped at it, angry. [660] The forest was quiet, underlined by an occasional piping call, something like a whistle. [661] Ri's screams were shrill, echoing away, shiveringly. [662] Lin sat quiet, hunched. [663] Extrone's eyes narrowed, and he began to pet the gun stock with quick, jerky movements. [664] Lin licked his lips, keeping his eyes on Extrone's face. [665] The sun seemed stuck in the sky, and the heat squeezed against them, sucking at their breath like a vacuum. [666] The insect went away. [667] Still, endless, hopeless, monotonous, Ri screamed. [668] A farn beast coughed, far in the matted forest. [669] Extrone laughed nervously. [670] "He must have heard." [671] "We're lucky to rouse one so fast," Lin said. [672] Extrone dug his boot cleats into the tree, braced himself. [673] "I like this. [674] There's more excitement in waiting like this than in anything I know." [675] Lin nodded. [676] "The waiting, itself, is a lot. [677] The suspense. [678] It's not only the killing that matters." [679] "It's not only the killing," Lin echoed. [680] "You understand?" [681] Extrone said. [682] "How it is to wait, knowing in just a minute something is going to come out of the forest, and you're going to kill it?" [683] "I know," Lin said. [684] "But it's not only the killing. [685] It's the waiting, too." [686] The farn beast coughed again; nearer. [687] "It's a different one," Lin said. [688] "How do you know?" [689] "Hear the lower pitch, the more of a roar?" [690] "Hey!" [691] Extrone shouted. [692] "You, down there. [693] There are two coming. [694] Now let's hear you really scream!" [695] Ri, below, whimpered childishly and began to retreat toward the tether tree, his eyes wide. [696] "There's a lot of satisfaction in fooling them, too," Extrone said. [697] "Making them come to your bait, where you can get at them." [698] He opened his right hand. [699] "Choose your ground, set your trap. [700] Bait it." [701] He snapped his hand into a fist, held the fist up before his eyes, imprisoning the idea. [702] "Spring the trap when the quarry is inside. [703] Clever. [704] That makes the waiting more interesting. [705] Waiting to see if they really will come to your bait." [706] Lin shifted, staring toward the forest. [707] "I've always liked to hunt," Extrone said. [708] "More than anything else, I think." [709] Lin spat toward the ground. [710] "People should hunt because they have to. [711] For food. [712] For safety." [713] "No," Extrone argued. [714] "People should hunt for the love of hunting." [715] "Killing?" [716] "Hunting," Extrone repeated harshly. [717] The farn beast coughed. [718] Another answered. [719] They were very near, and there was a noise of crackling underbrush. [720] "He's good bait," Extrone said. [721] "He's fat enough and he knows how to scream good." [722] Ri had stopped screaming; he was huddled against the tree, fearfully eying the forest across from the watering hole. [723] Extrone began to tremble with excitement. [724] "Here they come!" [725] The forest sprang apart. [726] Extrone bent forward, the gun still across his lap. [727] The farn beast, its tiny eyes red with hate, stepped out on the bank, swinging its head wildly, its nostrils flaring in anger. [728] It coughed. [729] Its mate appeared beside it. [730] Their tails thrashed against the scrubs behind them, rattling leaves. [731] "Shoot!" [732] Lin hissed. [733] "For God's sake, shoot!" [734] "Wait," Extrone said. [735] "Let's see what they do." [736] He had not moved the rifle. [737] He was tense, bent forward, his eyes slitted, his breath beginning to sound like an asthmatic pump. [738] The lead farn beast sighted Ri. [739] It lowered its head. [740] "Look!" [741] Extrone cried excitedly. [742] "Here it comes!" [743] Ri began to scream again. [744] Still Extrone did not lift his blast rifle. [745] He was laughing. [746] Lin waited, frozen, his eyes staring at the farn beast in fascination. [747] The farn beast plunged into the water, which was shallow, and, throwing a sheet of it to either side, headed across toward Ri. [748] "Watch! [749] Watch!" [750] Extrone cried gleefully. [751] And then the aliens sprang their trap.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the relationship like between Ri and Mia?": 1. [303] "It's frightening," Ri said, "to be that close to him." 2. [304] Mia nodded. 3. [305] The two of them, beneath the leaf-swollen branches of the gnarled tree, were seated on their sleeping bags. 4. [307] "To think of him. As flesh and blood. Not like the—well; that—what we've read about." 5. [311] "You begin to understand a lot of things, after seeing him." 6. [315] "I'm afraid. I'm afraid he'll.... Listen, we'll talk. When we get back to civilization. You, me, the bearers. About him. He can't let that happen. He'll kill us first." 7. [342] "Listen," Mia pleaded. 8. [392] "How many has he already killed? How can we even guess?" 9. [400] "Remember our guide? To keep our hunting territory a secret?" 10. [401] Ri shuddered. 11. [402] "That's different. Don't you see? This is not at all like that." 12. [44] "God almighty, he was getting mad." 13. [48] Mia glanced nervously over his shoulder. 14. [52] Ri shrugged hopelessly. 15. [53] Mia said, "I don't think he even saw a blast area over here. I think he wanted to get us in trouble." 16. [57] "There shouldn't be one. There shouldn't be a blast area on this side of the ridge, too." 17. [58] "The pilot don't like businessmen. He had it in for us." 18. [62] "It's the Hunting Club he don't like." 19. [64] "Why didn't he hire somebody else?" 20. [66] Mia looked at his companion. 21. [67] He spat. 22. [68] "What hurts most, he pays us for it. I could buy half this planet, and he makes me his guide—at less than I pay my secretary." 23. [303] "It's frightening," Ri said, "to be that close to him." 24. [304] Mia nodded. 25. [305] The two of them, beneath the leaf-swollen branches of the gnarled tree, were seated on their sleeping bags.

What is the plot of the story?

[1] Bodyguard By CHRISTOPHER GRIMM Illustrated by CAVAT [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1956. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] When overwhelming danger is constantly present,of course a man is entitled to have a bodyguard. [4] The annoyance was that he had to do it himself ... and his body would not cooperate! [5] The man at the bar was exceptionally handsome, and he knew it. [6] So did the light-haired girl at his side, and so did the nondescript man in the gray suit who was watching them from a booth in the corner. [7] Everyone in the room was aware of the big young man, and most of the humans present were resentful, for he handled himself consciously and arrogantly, as if his appearance alone were enough to make him superior to anyone. [8] Even the girl with him was growing restless, for she was accustomed to adulation herself, and next to Gabriel Lockard she was almost ordinary-looking. [9] As for the extraterrestrials—it was a free bar—they were merely amused, since to them all men were pathetically and irredeemably hideous. [10] Gabe threw his arm wide in one of his expansive gestures. [11] There was a short man standing next to the pair—young, as most men and women were in that time, thanks to the science which could stave off decay, though not death—but with no other apparent physical virtue, for plastic surgery had not fulfilled its bright promise of the twentieth century. [12] The drink he had been raising to his lips splashed all over his clothing; the glass shattered at his feet. [13] Now he was not only a rather ugly little man, but also a rather ridiculous one—or at least he felt he was, which was what mattered. [14] "Sorry, colleague," Gabe said lazily. [15] "All my fault. [16] You must let me buy you a replacement." [17] He gestured to the bartender. [18] "Another of the same for my fellow-man here." [19] The ugly man dabbed futilely at his dripping trousers with a cloth hastily supplied by the management. [20] "You must allow me to pay your cleaning bill," Gabe said, taking out his wallet and extracting several credit notes without seeming to look at them. [21] "Here, have yourself a new suit on me." [22] You could use one was implied. [23] And that, coming on top of Gabriel Lockard's spectacular appearance, was too much. [24] The ugly man picked up the drink the bartender had just set before him and started to hurl it, glass and all, into Lockard's handsome face. [25] Suddenly a restraining hand was laid upon his arm. [26] "Don't do that," the nondescript man who had been sitting in the corner advised. [27] He removed the glass from the little man's slackening grasp. [28] "You wouldn't want to go to jail because of him." [29] The ugly man gave him a bewildered stare. [30] Then, seeing the forces now ranged against him—including his own belated prudence—were too strong, he stumbled off. [31] He hadn't really wanted to fight, only to smash back, and now it was too late for that. [32] Gabe studied the newcomer curiously. [33] "So, it's you again?" [34] The man in the gray suit smiled. [35] "Who else in any world would stand up for you?" [36] "I should think you'd have given up by now. [37] Not that I mind having you around, of course," Gabriel added too quickly. [38] "You do come in useful at times, you know." [39] "So you don't mind having me around?" [40] The nondescript man smiled again. [41] "Then what are you running from, if not me? [42] You can't be running from yourself—you lost yourself a while back, remember?" [43] Gabe ran a hand through his thick blond hair. [44] "Come on, have a drink with me, fellow-man, and let's let bygones be bygones. [45] I owe you something—I admit that. [46] Maybe we can even work this thing out." [47] "I drank with you once too often," the nondescript man said. [48] "And things worked out fine, didn't they? [49] For you." [50] His eyes studied the other man's incredibly handsome young face, noted the suggestion of bags under the eyes, the beginning of slackness at the lips, and were not pleased with what they saw. [51] "Watch yourself, colleague," he warned as he left. [52] "Soon you might not be worth the saving." [53] "Who was that, Gabe?" [54] the girl asked. [55] He shrugged. [56] "I never saw him before in my life." [57] Of course, knowing him, she assumed he was lying, but, as a matter of fact, just then he happened to have been telling the truth. [58] Once the illuminators were extinguished in Gabriel Lockard's hotel suite, it seemed reasonably certain to the man in the gray suit, as he watched from the street, that his quarry would not go out again that night. [59] So he went to the nearest airstation. [60] There he inserted a coin in a locker, into which he put most of his personal possessions, reserving only a sum of money. [61] After setting the locker to respond to the letter combination bodyguard , he went out into the street. [62] If he had met with a fatal accident at that point, there would have been nothing on his body to identify him. [63] As a matter of fact, no real identification was possible, for he was no one and had been no one for years. [64] The nondescript man hailed a cruising helicab. [65] "Where to, fellow-man?" [66] the driver asked. [67] "I'm new in the parish," the other man replied and let it hang there. [68] "Oh...? [69] Females...? [70] Narcophagi...? [71] Thrill-mills?" [72] But to each of these questions the nondescript man shook his head. [73] "Games?" [74] the driver finally asked, although he could guess what was wanted by then. [75] "Dice...? [76] Roulette...? [77] Farjeen?" [78] "Is there a good zarquil game in town?" [79] The driver moved so he could see the face of the man behind him in the teleview. [80] A very ordinary face. [81] "Look, colleague, why don't you commit suicide? [82] It's cleaner and quicker." [83] "I can't contact your attitude," the passenger said with a thin smile. [84] "Bet you've never tried the game yourself. [85] Each time it happens, there's a ... well, there's no experience to match it at a thrill-mill." [86] He gave a sigh that was almost an audible shudder, and which the driver misinterpreted as an expression of ecstasy. [87] "Each time, eh? [88] You're a dutchman then?" [89] The driver spat out of the window. [90] "If it wasn't for the nibble, I'd throw you right out of the cab. [91] Without even bothering to take it down even. [92] I hate dutchmen ... anybody with any legitimate feelings hates 'em." [93] "But it would be silly to let personal prejudice stand in the way of a commission, wouldn't it?" [94] the other man asked coolly. [95] "Of course. [96] You'll need plenty of foliage, though." [97] "I have sufficient funds. [98] I also have a gun." [99] "You're the dictator," the driver agreed sullenly. [100] II It was a dark and rainy night in early fall. [101] Gabe Lockard was in no condition to drive the helicar. [102] However, he was stubborn. [103] "Let me take the controls, honey," the light-haired girl urged, but he shook his handsome head. [104] "Show you I can do something 'sides look pretty," he said thickly, referring to an earlier and not amicable conversation they had held, and of which she still bore the reminder on one thickly made-up cheek. [105] Fortunately the car was flying low, contrary to regulations, so that when they smashed into the beacon tower on the outskirts of the little town, they didn't have far to fall. [106] And hardly had their car crashed on the ground when the car that had been following them landed, and a short fat man was puffing toward them through the mist. [107] To the girl's indignation, the stranger not only hauled Gabe out onto the dripping grass first, but stopped and deliberately examined the young man by the light of his minilume, almost as if she weren't there at all. [108] Only when she started to struggle out by herself did he seem to remember her existence. [109] He pulled her away from the wreck just a moment before the fuel tank exploded and the 'copter went up in flames. [110] Gabe opened his eyes and saw the fat man gazing down at him speculatively. [111] "My guardian angel," he mumbled—shock had sobered him a little, but not enough. [112] He sat up. [113] "Guess I'm not hurt or you'd have thrown me back in." [114] "And that's no joke," the fat man agreed. [115] The girl shivered and at that moment Gabriel suddenly seemed to recall that he had not been alone. [116] "How about Helen? [117] She on course?" [118] "Seems to be," the fat man said. [119] "You all right, miss?" [120] he asked, glancing toward the girl without, she thought, much apparent concern. " [121] Mrs. ," Gabriel corrected. [122] "Allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," he said, bowing from his seated position toward the girl. [123] "Pretty bauble, isn't she?" [124] "I'm delighted to meet you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," the fat man said, looking at her intently. [125] His small eyes seemed to strip the make-up from her cheek and examine the livid bruise underneath. [126] "I hope you'll be worthy of the name." [127] The light given off by the flaming car flickered on his face and Gabriel's and, she supposed, hers too. [128] Otherwise, darkness surrounded the three of them. [129] There were no public illuminators this far out—even in town the lights were dimming and not being replaced fast enough nor by the newer models. [130] The town, the civilization, the planet all were old and beginning to slide downhill.... Gabe gave a short laugh, for no reason that she could see. [131] There was the feeling that she had encountered the fat man before, which was, of course, absurd. [132] She had an excellent memory for faces and his was not included in her gallery. [133] The girl pulled her thin jacket closer about her chilly body. [134] "Aren't you going to introduce your—your friend to me, Gabe?" [135] "I don't know who he is," Gabe said almost merrily, "except that he's no friend of mine. [136] Do you have a name, stranger?" [137] "Of course I have a name." [138] The fat man extracted an identification card from his wallet and read it. [139] "Says here I'm Dominic Bianchi, and Dominic Bianchi is a retail milgot dealer.... Only he isn't a retail milgot dealer any more; the poor fellow went bankrupt a couple of weeks ago, and now he isn't ... [140] anything." [141] "You saved our lives," the girl said. [142] "I'd like to give you some token of my—of our appreciation." [143] Her hand reached toward her credit-carrier with deliberate insult. [144] He might have saved her life, but only casually, as a by-product of some larger scheme, and her appreciation held little gratitude. [145] The fat man shook his head without rancor. [146] "I have plenty of money, thank you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard.... Come," he addressed her husband, "if you get up, I'll drive you home. [147] I warn you, be more careful in the future! [148] Sometimes," he added musingly, "I almost wish you would let something happen. [149] Then my problem would not be any problem, would it?" [150] Gabriel shivered. [151] "I'll be careful," he vowed. [152] "I promise—I'll be careful." [153] When he was sure that his charge was safely tucked in for the night, the fat man checked his personal possessions. [154] He then requested a taxi driver to take him to the nearest zarquil game. [155] The driver accepted the commission phlegmatically. [156] Perhaps he was more hardened than the others had been; perhaps he was unaware that the fat man was not a desperate or despairing individual seeking one last chance, but what was known colloquially as a flying dutchman, a man, or woman, who went from one zarquil game to another, loving the thrill of the sport, if you could call it that, for its own sake, and not for the futile hope it extended and which was its sole shred of claim to moral justification. [157] Perhaps—and this was the most likely hypothesis—he just didn't care. [158] Zarquil was extremely illegal, of course—so much so that there were many legitimate citizens who weren't quite sure just what the word implied, knowing merely that it was one of those nameless horrors so deliciously hinted at by the fax sheets under the generic term of "crimes against nature." [159] Actually the phrase was more appropriate to zarquil than to most of the other activities to which it was commonly applied. [160] And this was one crime—for it was crime in law as well as nature—in which victim had to be considered as guilty as perpetrator; otherwise the whole legal structure of society would collapse. [161] Playing the game was fabulously expensive; it had to be to make it profitable for the Vinzz to run it. [162] Those odd creatures from Altair's seventh planet cared nothing for the welfare of the completely alien human beings; all they wanted was to feather their own pockets with interstellar credits, so that they could return to Vinau and buy many slaves. [163] For, on Vinau, bodies were of little account, and so to them zarquil was the equivalent of the terrestrial game musical chairs. [164] Which was why they came to Terra to make profits—there has never been big money in musical chairs as such. [165] When the zarquil operators were apprehended, which was not frequent—as they had strange powers, which, not being definable, were beyond the law—they suffered their sentences with equanimity. [166] No Earth court could give an effective prison sentence to a creature whose life spanned approximately two thousand terrestrial years. [167] And capital punishment had become obsolete on Terra, which very possibly saved the terrestrials embarrassment, for it was not certain that their weapons could kill the Vinzz ... or whether, in fact, the Vinzz merely expired after a period of years out of sheer boredom. [168] Fortunately, because trade was more profitable than war, there had always been peace between Vinau and Terra, and, for that reason, Terra could not bar the entrance of apparently respectable citizens of a friendly planet. [169] The taxi driver took the fat man to one of the rather seedy locales in which the zarquil games were usually found, for the Vinzz attempted to conduct their operations with as much unobtrusiveness as was possible. [170] But the front door swung open on an interior that lacked the opulence of the usual Vinoz set-up; it was down-right shabby, the dim olive light hinting of squalor rather than forbidden pleasures. [171] That was the trouble in these smaller towns—you ran greater risks of getting involved in games where the players had not been carefully screened. [172] The Vinoz games were usually clean, because that paid off better, but, when profits were lacking, the Vinzz were capable of sliding off into darkside practices. [173] Naturally the small-town houses were more likely to have trouble in making ends meet, because everybody in the parish knew everybody else far too well. [174] The fat man wondered whether that had been his quarry's motive in coming to such desolate, off-trail places—hoping that eventually disaster would hit the one who pursued him. [175] Somehow, such a plan seemed too logical for the man he was haunting. [176] However, beggars could not be choosers. [177] The fat man paid off the heli-driver and entered the zarquil house. [178] "One?" [179] the small green creature in the slightly frayed robe asked. [180] "One," the fat man answered. [181] III The would-be thief fled down the dark alley, with the hot bright rays from the stranger's gun lancing out after him in flamboyant but futile patterns. [182] The stranger, a thin young man with delicate, angular features, made no attempt to follow. [183] Instead, he bent over to examine Gabriel Lockard's form, appropriately outstretched in the gutter. [184] "Only weighted out," he muttered, "he'll be all right. [185] Whatever possessed you two to come out to a place like this?" [186] "I really think Gabriel must be possessed...." the girl said, mostly to herself. [187] "I had no idea of the kind of place it was going to be until he brought me here. [188] The others were bad, but this is even worse. [189] It almost seems as if he went around looking for trouble, doesn't it?" [190] "It does indeed," the stranger agreed, coughing a little. [191] It was growing colder and, on this world, the cities had no domes to protect them from the climate, because it was Earth and the air was breathable and it wasn't worth the trouble of fixing up. [192] The girl looked closely at him. [193] "You look different, but you are the same man who pulled us out of that aircar crash, aren't you? [194] And before that the man in the gray suit? [195] And before that...?" [196] The young man's cheekbones protruded as he smiled. [197] "Yes, I'm all of them." [198] "Then what they say about the zarquil games is true? [199] There are people who go around changing their bodies like—like hats?" [200] Automatically she reached to adjust the expensive bit of blue synthetic on her moon-pale hair, for she was always conscious of her appearance; if she had not been so before marriage, Gabriel would have taught her that. [201] He smiled again, but coughed instead of speaking. [202] "But why do you do it? [203] Why! [204] Do you like it? [205] Or is it because of Gabriel?" [206] She was growing a little frantic; there was menace here and she could not understand it nor determine whether or not she was included in its scope. [207] "Do you want to keep him from recognizing you; is that it?" [208] "Ask him." [209] "He won't tell me; he never tells me anything. [210] We just keep running. [211] I didn't recognize it as running at first, but now I realize that's what we've been doing ever since we were married. [212] And running from you, I think?" [213] There was no change of expression on the man's gaunt face, and she wondered how much control he had over a body that, though second- or third- or fourth-hand, must be new to him. [214] How well could he make it respond? [215] What was it like to step into another person's casing? [216] But she must not let herself think that way or she would find herself looking for a zarquil game. [217] It would be one way of escaping Gabriel, but not, she thought, the best way; her body was much too good a one to risk so casually. [218] It was beginning to snow. [219] Light, feathery flakes drifted down on her husband's immobile body. [220] She pulled her thick coat—of fur taken from some animal who had lived and died light-years away—more closely about herself. [221] The thin young man began to cough again. [222] Overhead a tiny star seemed to detach itself from the pale flat disk of the Moon and hurl itself upward—one of the interstellar ships embarking on its long voyage to distant suns. [223] She wished that somehow she could be on it, but she was here, on this solitary old world in a barren solar system, with her unconscious husband and a strange man who followed them, and it looked as if here she would stay ... all three of them would stay.... "If you're after Gabriel, planning to hurt him," she asked, "why then do you keep helping him?" [224] "I am not helping him . [225] And he knows that." [226] "You'll change again tonight, won't you?" [227] she babbled. [228] "You always change after you ... meet us? [229] I think I'm beginning to be able to identify you now, even when you're ... wearing a new body; there's something about you that doesn't change." [230] "Too bad he got married," the young man said. [231] "I could have followed him for an eternity and he would never have been able to pick me out from the crowd. [232] Too bad he got married anyway," he added, his voice less impersonal, "for your sake." [233] She had come to the same conclusion in her six months of marriage, but she would not admit that to an outsider. [234] Though this man was hardly an outsider; he was part of their small family group—as long as she had known Gabriel, so long he must have known her. [235] And she began to suspect that he was even more closely involved than that. [236] "Why must you change again?" [237] she persisted, obliquely approaching the subject she feared. [238] "You have a pretty good body there. [239] Why run the risk of getting a bad one?" [240] "This isn't a good body," he said. [241] "It's diseased. [242] Sure, nobody's supposed to play the game who hasn't passed a thorough medical examination. [243] But in the places to which your husband has been leading me, they're often not too particular, as long as the player has plenty of foliage." [244] "How—long will it last you?" [245] "Four or five months, if I'm careful." [246] He smiled. [247] "But don't worry, if that's what you're doing; I'll get it passed on before then. [248] It'll be expensive—that's all. [249] Bad landing for the guy who gets it, but then it was tough on me too, wasn't it?" [250] "But how did you get into this ... [251] pursuit?" [252] she asked again. [253] "And why are you doing it?" [254] People didn't have any traffic with Gabriel Lockard for fun, not after they got to know him. [255] And this man certainly should know him better than most. [256] "Ask your husband." [257] The original Gabriel Lockard looked down at the prostrate, snow-powdered figure of the man who had stolen his body and his name, and stirred it with his toe. [258] "I'd better call a cab—he might freeze to death." [259] He signaled and a cab came. [260] "Tell him, when he comes to," he said to the girl as he and the driver lifted the heavy form of her husband into the helicar, "that I'm getting pretty tired of this." [261] He stopped for a long spell of coughing. [262] "Tell him that sometimes I wonder whether cutting off my nose wouldn't, in the long run, be most beneficial for my face." [263] "Sorry," the Vinzz said impersonally, in English that was perfect except for the slight dampening of the sibilants, "but I'm afraid you cannot play." [264] "Why not?" [265] The emaciated young man began to put on his clothes. [266] "You know why. [267] Your body is worthless. [268] And this is a reputable house." [269] "But I have plenty of money." [270] The young man coughed. [271] The Vinzz shrugged. [272] "I'll pay you twice the regular fee." [273] The green one shook his head. [274] "Regrettably, I do mean what I say. [275] This game is really clean." [276] "In a town like this?" [277] "That is the reason we can afford to be honest." [278] The Vinzz' tendrils quivered in what the man had come to recognize as amusement through long, but necessarily superficial acquaintance with the Vinzz. [279] His heavy robe of what looked like moss-green velvet, but might have been velvet-green moss, encrusted with oddly faceted alien jewels, swung with him. [280] "We do a lot of business here," he said unnecessarily, for the whole set-up spelled wealth far beyond the dreams of the man, and he was by no means poor when it came to worldly goods. [281] "Why don't you try another town where they're not so particular?" [282] The young man smiled wryly. [283] Just his luck to stumble on a sunny game. [284] He never liked to risk following his quarry in the same configuration. [285] And even though only the girl had actually seen him this time, he wouldn't feel at ease until he had made the usual body-shift. [286] Was he changing because of Gabriel, he wondered, or was he using his own discoverment and identification simply as an excuse to cover the fact that none of the bodies that fell to his lot ever seemed to fit him? [287] Was he activated solely by revenge or as much by the hope that in the hazards of the game he might, impossible though it now seemed, some day win another body that approached perfection as nearly as his original casing had? [288] He didn't know. [289] However, there seemed to be no help for it now; he would have to wait until they reached the next town, unless the girl, seeing him reappear in the same guise, would guess what had happened and tell her husband. [290] He himself had been a fool to admit to her that the hulk he inhabited was a sick one; he still couldn't understand how he could so casually have entrusted her with so vital a piece of information. [291] The Vinzz had been locking antennae with another of his kind. [292] Now they detached, and the first approached the man once more. [293] "There is, as it happens, a body available for a private game," he lisped. [294] "No questions to be asked or answered. [295] All I can tell you is that it is in good health." [296] The man hesitated. [297] "But unable to pass the screening?" [298] he murmured aloud. [299] "A criminal then." [300] The green one's face—if you could call it a face—remained impassive. [301] "Male?" [302] "Of course," the Vinzz said primly. [303] His kind did have certain ultimate standards to which they adhered rigidly, and one of those was the curious tabu against mixed games, strictly enforced even though it kept them from tapping a vast source of potential players. [304] There had also never been a recorded instance of humans and extraterrestrials exchanging identities, but whether that was the result of tabu or biological impossibility, no one could tell. [305] It might merely be prudence on the Vinzz' part—if it had ever been proved that an alien life-form had "desecrated" a human body, Earthmen would clamor for war ... for on this planet humanity held its self-bestowed purity of birthright dear—and the Vinzz, despite being unquestionably the stronger, were pragmatic pacifists. [306] It had been undoubtedly some rabid member of the anti-alien groups active on Terra who had started the rumor that the planetary slogan of Vinau was, "Don't beat 'em; cheat 'em." [307] "It would have to be something pretty nuclear for the other guy to take such a risk." [308] The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. [309] "How much?" [310] "Thirty thousand credits." [311] "Why, that's three times the usual rate!" [312] "The other will pay five times the usual rate." [313] "Oh, all right," the delicate young man gave in. [314] It was a terrific risk he was agreeing to take, because, if the other was a criminal, he himself would, upon assuming the body, assume responsibility for all the crimes it had committed. [315] But there was nothing else he could do. [316] He looked at himself in the mirror and found he had a fine new body; tall and strikingly handsome in a dark, coarse-featured way. [317] Nothing to match the one he had lost, in his opinion, but there were probably many people who might find this one preferable. [318] No identification in the pockets, but it wasn't necessary; he recognized the face. [319] Not that it was a very famous or even notorious one, but the dutchman was a careful student of the "wanted" fax that had decorated public buildings from time immemorial, for he was ever mindful of the possibility that he might one day find himself trapped unwittingly in the body of one of the men depicted there. [320] And he knew that this particular man, though not an important criminal in any sense of the word, was one whom the police had been ordered to burn on sight. [321] The abolishing of capital punishment could not abolish the necessity for self-defense, and the man in question was not one who would let himself be captured easily, nor whom the police intended to capture easily. [322] This might be a lucky break for me after all , the new tenant thought, as he tried to adjust himself to the body. [323] It, too, despite its obvious rude health, was not a very comfortable fit. [324] I can do a lot with a hulk like this. [325] And maybe I'm cleverer than the original owner; maybe I'll be able to get away with it. [326] IV "Look, Gabe," the girl said, "don't try to fool me! [327] I know you too well. [328] And I know you have that man's—the real Gabriel Lockard's—body." [329] She put unnecessary stardust on her nose as she watched her husband's reflection in the dressing table mirror. [330] Lockard—Lockard's body, at any rate—sat up and felt his unshaven chin. [331] "That what he tell you?" [332] "No, he didn't tell me anything really—just suggested I ask you whatever I want to know. [333] But why else should he guard somebody he obviously hates the way he hates you? [334] Only because he doesn't want to see his body spoiled." [335] "It is a pretty good body, isn't it?" [336] Gabe flexed softening muscles and made no attempt to deny her charge; very probably he was relieved at having someone with whom to share his secret. [337] "Not as good as it must have been," the girl said, turning and looking at him without admiration. [338] "Not if you keep on the way you're coursing. [339] Gabe, why don't you...?" [340] "Give it back to him, eh?" [341] Lockard regarded his wife appraisingly. [342] "You'd like that, wouldn't you? [343] You'd be his wife then. [344] That would be nice—a sound mind in a sound body. [345] But don't you think that's a little more than you deserve?" [346] "I wasn't thinking about that, Gabe," she said truthfully enough, for she hadn't followed the idea to its logical conclusion. [347] "Of course I'd go with you," she went on, now knowing she lied, "when you got your ... old body back." [348] Sure , she thought, I'd keep going with you to farjeen houses and thrill-mills. [349] Actually she had accompanied him to a thrill-mill only once, and from then on, despite all his threats, she had refused to go with him again. [350] But that once had been enough; nothing could ever wash that experience from her mind or her body. [351] "You wouldn't be able to get your old body back, though, would you?" [352] she went on. [353] "You don't know where it's gone, and neither, I suppose, does he?" [354] "I don't want to know!" [355] he spat. [356] "I wouldn't want it if I could get it back. [357] Whoever it adhered to probably killed himself as soon as he looked in a mirror." [358] He swung long legs over the side of his bed. [359] "Christ, anything would be better than that! [360] You can't imagine what a hulk I had!" [361] "Oh, yes, I can," she said incautiously. [362] "You must have had a body to match your character. [363] Pity you could only change one."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [326] "Look, Gabe," the girl said, "don't try to fool me! I know you too well. And I know you have that man's—the real Gabriel Lockard's—body." 2. [340] "Give it back to him, eh?" Lockard regarded his wife appraisingly. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? You'd be his wife then. That would be nice—a sound mind in a sound body. But don't you think that's a little more than you deserve?" 3. [351] "You wouldn't be able to get your old body back, though, would you?" she went on. "You don't know where it's gone, and neither, I suppose, does he?" 4. [357] "Anything would be better than that! You can't imagine what a hulk I had!" 5. [362] "You must have had a body to match your character. Pity you could only change one." 6. [1] Bodyguard By CHRISTOPHER GRIMM Illustrated by CAVAT [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1956.] 7. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 8. [3] When overwhelming danger is constantly present,of course a man is entitled to have a bodyguard. 9. [4] The annoyance was that he had to do it himself ... and his body would not cooperate! 10. [5] The man at the bar was exceptionally handsome, and he knew it. 11. [6] So did the light-haired girl at his side, and so did the nondescript man in the gray suit who was watching them from a booth in the corner. 12. [7] Everyone in the room was aware of the big young man, and most of the humans present were resentful, for he handled himself consciously and arrogantly, as if his appearance alone were enough to make him superior to anyone. 13. [8] Even the girl with him was growing restless, for she was accustomed to adulation herself, and next to Gabriel Lockard she was almost ordinary-looking. 14. [9] As for the extraterrestrials—it was a free bar—they were merely amused, since to them all men were pathetically and irredeemably hideous. 15. [10] Gabe threw his arm wide in one of his expansive gestures. 16. [11] There was a short man standing next to the pair—young, as most men and women were in that time, thanks to the science which could stave off decay, though not death—but with no other apparent physical virtue, for plastic surgery had not fulfilled its bright promise of the twentieth century. 17. [12] The drink he had been raising to his lips splashed all over his clothing; the glass shattered at his feet. 18. [13] Now he was not only a rather ugly little man, but also a rather ridiculous one—or at least he felt he was, which was what mattered. 19. [14] "Sorry, colleague," Gabe said lazily. 20. [15] "All my fault. 21. [16] You must let me buy you a replacement." 22. [17] He gestured to the bartender. 23. [18] "Another of the same for my fellow-man here." 24. [19] The ugly man dabbed futilely at his dripping trousers with a cloth hastily supplied by the management. 25. [20] "You must allow me to pay your cleaning bill," Gabe said, taking out his wallet and extracting several credit notes without seeming to look at them. 26. [21] "Here, have yourself a new suit on me." 27. [22] You could use one was implied. 28. [23] And that, coming on top of Gabriel Lockard's spectacular appearance, was too much. 29. [24] The ugly man picked up the drink the bartender had just set before him and started to hurl it, glass and all, into Lockard's handsome face. 30. [25] Suddenly a restraining hand was laid upon his arm. 31. [26] "Don't do that," the nondescript man who had been sitting in the corner advised. 32. [27] He removed the glass from the little man's slackening grasp. 33. [28] "You wouldn't want to go to jail because of him." 34. [29] The ugly man gave him a bewildered stare. 35. [30] Then, seeing the forces now ranged against him—including his own belated prudence—were too strong, he stumbled off. 36. [31] He hadn't really wanted to fight, only to smash back, and now it was too late for that. 37. [32] Gabe studied the newcomer curiously. 38. [33] "So, it's you again?" 39. [34] The man in the gray suit smiled. 40. [35] "Who else in any world would stand up for you?" 41. [36] "I should think you'd have given up by now. 42. [37] Not that I mind having you around, of course," Gabriel added too quickly. 43. [38] "You do come in useful at times, you know." 44. [39] "So you don't mind having me around?" 45. [40] The nondescript man smiled again. 46. [41] "Then what are you running from, if not me? 47. [42] You can't be running from yourself—you lost yourself a while back, remember?" 48. [43] Gabe ran a hand through his thick blond hair. 49. [44] "Come on, have a drink with me, fellow-man, and let's let bygones be bygones. 50. [45] I owe you something—I admit that. 51. [46] Maybe we can even work this thing out." 52. [47] "I drank with you once too often," the nondescript man said. 53. [48] "And things worked out fine, didn't they? 54. [49] For you." 55. [50] His eyes studied the other man's incredibly handsome young face, noted the suggestion of bags under the eyes, the beginning of slackness at the lips, and were not pleased with what they saw. 56. [51] "Watch yourself, colleague," he warned as he left. 57. [52] "Soon you might not be worth the saving." 58. [53] "Who was that, Gabe?" 59. [54] the girl asked. 60. [55] He shrugged. 61. [56] "I never saw him before in my life." 62. [57] Of course, knowing him, she assumed he was lying, but, as a matter of fact, just then he happened to have been telling the truth. 63. [58] Once the illuminators were extinguished in Gabriel Lockard's hotel suite, it seemed reasonably certain to the man in the gray suit, as he watched from the street, that his quarry would not go out again that night. 64. [59] So he went to the nearest airstation. 65. [60] There he inserted a coin in a locker, into which he put most of his personal possessions, reserving only a sum of money. 66. [61] After setting the locker to respond to the letter combination bodyguard , he went out into the street. 67. [62] If he had met with a fatal accident at that point, there would have been nothing on his body to identify him. 68. [63] As a matter of fact, no real identification was possible, for he was no one and had been no one for years. 69. [64] The nondescript man hailed a cruising helicab. 70. [65] "Where to, fellow-man?" 71. [66] the driver asked. 72. [67] "I'm new in the parish," the other man replied and let it hang there. 73. [68] "Oh...? 74. [69] Females...? 75. [70] Narcophagi...? 76. [71] Thrill-mills?" 77. [72] But to each of these questions the nondescript man shook his head. 78. [73] "Games?" 79. [74] the driver finally asked, although he could guess what was wanted by then. 80. [75] "Dice...? 81. [76] Roulette...? 82. [77] Farjeen?" 83. [78] "Is there a good zarquil game in town?" 84. [79] The driver moved so he could see the face of the man behind him in the teleview. 85. [80] A very ordinary face. 86. [81] "Look, colleague, why don't you commit suicide? 87. [82] It's cleaner and quicker." 88. [83] "I can't contact your attitude," the passenger said with a thin smile. 89. [84] "Bet you've never tried the game yourself. 90. [85] Each time it happens, there's a ... well, there's no experience to match it at a thrill-mill." 91. [86] He gave a sigh that was almost an audible shudder, and which the driver misinterpreted as an expression of ecstasy. 92. [87] "Each time, eh? 93. [88] You're a dutchman then?" 94. [89] The driver spat out of the window. 95. [90] "If it wasn't for the nibble, I'd throw you right out of the cab. 96. [91] Without even bothering to take it down even. 97. [92] I hate dutchmen ... anybody with any legitimate feelings hates 'em." 98. [93] "But it would be silly to let personal prejudice stand in the way of a commission, wouldn't it?" 99. [94] the other man asked coolly. 100. [95] "Of course. 101. [96] You'll need plenty of foliage, though." 102. [97] "I have sufficient funds. 103. [98] I also have a gun." 104. [99] "You're the dictator," the driver agreed sullenly. 105. [100] II It was a dark and rainy night in early fall. 106. [101] Gabe Lockard was in no condition to drive the helicar. 107. [102] However, he was stubborn. 108. [103] "Let me take the controls, honey," the light-haired girl urged, but he shook his handsome head. 109. [104] "Show you I can do something 'sides look pretty," he said thickly, referring to an earlier and not amicable conversation they had held, and of which she still bore the reminder on one thickly made-up cheek. 110. [105] Fortunately the car was flying low, contrary to regulations, so that when they smashed into the beacon tower on the outskirts of the little town, they didn't have far to fall. 111. [106] And hardly had their car crashed on the ground when the car that had been following them landed, and a short fat man was puffing toward them through the mist. 112. [107] To the girl's indignation, the stranger not only hauled Gabe out onto the dripping grass first, but stopped and deliberately examined the young man by the light of his minilume, almost as if she weren't there at all. 113. [108] Only when she started to struggle out by herself did he seem to remember her existence. 114. [109] He pulled her away from the wreck just a moment before the fuel tank exploded and the 'copter went up in flames. 115. [110] Gabe opened his eyes and saw the fat man gazing down at him speculatively. 116. [111] "My guardian angel," he mumbled—shock had sobered him a little, but not enough. 117. [112] He sat up. 118. [113] "Guess I'm not hurt or you'd have thrown me back in." 119. [114] "And that's no joke," the fat man agreed. 120. [115] The girl shivered and at that moment Gabriel suddenly seemed to recall that he had not been alone. 121. [116] "How about Helen? 122. [117] She on course?" 123. [118] "Seems to be," the fat man said. 124. [119] "You all right, miss?" 125. [120] he asked, glancing toward the girl without, she thought, much apparent concern. " 126. [121] Mrs. ," Gabriel corrected. 127. [122] "Allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," he said, bowing from his seated position toward the girl. 128. [123] "Pretty bauble, isn't she?" 129. [124] "I'm delighted to meet you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," the fat man said, looking at her intently. 130. [125] His small eyes seemed to strip the make-up from her cheek and examine the livid bruise underneath. 131. [126] "I hope you'll be worthy of the name." 132. [127] The light given off by the flaming car flickered on his face and Gabriel's and, she supposed, hers too. 133. [128] Otherwise, darkness surrounded the three of them. 134. [129] There were no public illuminators this far out—even in town the lights were dimming and not being replaced fast enough nor by the newer models. 135. [130] The town, the civilization, the planet all were old and beginning to slide downhill.... Gabe gave a short laugh, for no reason that she could see. 136. [131] There was the feeling that she had encountered the fat man before, which was, of course, absurd. 137. [132] She had an excellent memory for faces and his was not included in her gallery. 138. [133] The girl pulled her thin jacket closer about her chilly body. 139. [134] "Aren't you going to introduce your—your friend to me, Gabe?" 140. [135] "I don't know who he is," Gabe said almost merrily, "except that he's no friend of mine. 141. [136] Do you have a name, stranger?" 142. [137] "Of course I have a name." 143. [138] The fat man extracted an identification card from his wallet and read it. 144. [139] "Says here I'm Dominic Bianchi, and Dominic Bianchi is a retail milgot dealer.... Only he isn't a retail milgot dealer any more; the poor fellow went bankrupt a couple of weeks ago, and now he isn't ... 145. [140] anything." 146. [141] "You saved our lives," the girl said. 147. [142] "I'd like to give you some token of my—of our appreciation." 148. [143] Her hand reached toward her credit-carrier with deliberate insult. 149. [144] He might have saved her life, but only casually, as a by-product of some larger scheme, and her appreciation held little gratitude. 150. [145] The fat man shook his head without rancor. 151. [146] "I have plenty of money, thank you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard.... Come," he addressed her husband, "if you get up, I'll drive you home. 152. [147] I warn you, be more careful in the future! 153. [148] Sometimes," he added musingly, "I almost wish you would let something happen. 154. [149] Then my problem would not be any problem, would it?" 155. [150] Gabriel shivered. 156. [151] "I'll be careful," he vowed. 157. [152] "I promise—I'll be careful." 158. [153] When he was sure that his charge was safely tucked in for the night, the fat man checked his personal possessions. 159. [154] He then requested a taxi driver to take him to the nearest zarquil game. 160. [155] The driver accepted the commission phlegmatically. 161. [156] Perhaps he was more hardened than the others had been; perhaps he was unaware that the fat man was not a desperate or despairing individual seeking one last chance, but what was known colloquially as a flying dutchman, a man, or woman, who went from one zarquil game to another, loving the thrill of the sport, if you could call it that, for its own sake, and not for the futile hope it extended and which was its sole shred of claim to moral justification. 162. [157] Perhaps—and this was the most likely hypothesis—he just didn't care. 163. [158] Zarquil was extremely illegal, of course—so much so that there were many legitimate citizens who weren't quite sure just what the word implied, knowing merely that it was one of those nameless horrors so deliciously hinted at by the fax sheets under the generic term of "crimes against nature." 164. [159] Actually the phrase was more appropriate to zarquil than to most of the other activities to which it was commonly applied. 165. [160] And this was one crime—for it was crime in law as well as nature—in which victim had to be considered as guilty as perpetrator; otherwise

Who is Mrs. Lockard and what is her significance to the story?

[1] Bodyguard By CHRISTOPHER GRIMM Illustrated by CAVAT [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1956. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] When overwhelming danger is constantly present,of course a man is entitled to have a bodyguard. [4] The annoyance was that he had to do it himself ... and his body would not cooperate! [5] The man at the bar was exceptionally handsome, and he knew it. [6] So did the light-haired girl at his side, and so did the nondescript man in the gray suit who was watching them from a booth in the corner. [7] Everyone in the room was aware of the big young man, and most of the humans present were resentful, for he handled himself consciously and arrogantly, as if his appearance alone were enough to make him superior to anyone. [8] Even the girl with him was growing restless, for she was accustomed to adulation herself, and next to Gabriel Lockard she was almost ordinary-looking. [9] As for the extraterrestrials—it was a free bar—they were merely amused, since to them all men were pathetically and irredeemably hideous. [10] Gabe threw his arm wide in one of his expansive gestures. [11] There was a short man standing next to the pair—young, as most men and women were in that time, thanks to the science which could stave off decay, though not death—but with no other apparent physical virtue, for plastic surgery had not fulfilled its bright promise of the twentieth century. [12] The drink he had been raising to his lips splashed all over his clothing; the glass shattered at his feet. [13] Now he was not only a rather ugly little man, but also a rather ridiculous one—or at least he felt he was, which was what mattered. [14] "Sorry, colleague," Gabe said lazily. [15] "All my fault. [16] You must let me buy you a replacement." [17] He gestured to the bartender. [18] "Another of the same for my fellow-man here." [19] The ugly man dabbed futilely at his dripping trousers with a cloth hastily supplied by the management. [20] "You must allow me to pay your cleaning bill," Gabe said, taking out his wallet and extracting several credit notes without seeming to look at them. [21] "Here, have yourself a new suit on me." [22] You could use one was implied. [23] And that, coming on top of Gabriel Lockard's spectacular appearance, was too much. [24] The ugly man picked up the drink the bartender had just set before him and started to hurl it, glass and all, into Lockard's handsome face. [25] Suddenly a restraining hand was laid upon his arm. [26] "Don't do that," the nondescript man who had been sitting in the corner advised. [27] He removed the glass from the little man's slackening grasp. [28] "You wouldn't want to go to jail because of him." [29] The ugly man gave him a bewildered stare. [30] Then, seeing the forces now ranged against him—including his own belated prudence—were too strong, he stumbled off. [31] He hadn't really wanted to fight, only to smash back, and now it was too late for that. [32] Gabe studied the newcomer curiously. [33] "So, it's you again?" [34] The man in the gray suit smiled. [35] "Who else in any world would stand up for you?" [36] "I should think you'd have given up by now. [37] Not that I mind having you around, of course," Gabriel added too quickly. [38] "You do come in useful at times, you know." [39] "So you don't mind having me around?" [40] The nondescript man smiled again. [41] "Then what are you running from, if not me? [42] You can't be running from yourself—you lost yourself a while back, remember?" [43] Gabe ran a hand through his thick blond hair. [44] "Come on, have a drink with me, fellow-man, and let's let bygones be bygones. [45] I owe you something—I admit that. [46] Maybe we can even work this thing out." [47] "I drank with you once too often," the nondescript man said. [48] "And things worked out fine, didn't they? [49] For you." [50] His eyes studied the other man's incredibly handsome young face, noted the suggestion of bags under the eyes, the beginning of slackness at the lips, and were not pleased with what they saw. [51] "Watch yourself, colleague," he warned as he left. [52] "Soon you might not be worth the saving." [53] "Who was that, Gabe?" [54] the girl asked. [55] He shrugged. [56] "I never saw him before in my life." [57] Of course, knowing him, she assumed he was lying, but, as a matter of fact, just then he happened to have been telling the truth. [58] Once the illuminators were extinguished in Gabriel Lockard's hotel suite, it seemed reasonably certain to the man in the gray suit, as he watched from the street, that his quarry would not go out again that night. [59] So he went to the nearest airstation. [60] There he inserted a coin in a locker, into which he put most of his personal possessions, reserving only a sum of money. [61] After setting the locker to respond to the letter combination bodyguard , he went out into the street. [62] If he had met with a fatal accident at that point, there would have been nothing on his body to identify him. [63] As a matter of fact, no real identification was possible, for he was no one and had been no one for years. [64] The nondescript man hailed a cruising helicab. [65] "Where to, fellow-man?" [66] the driver asked. [67] "I'm new in the parish," the other man replied and let it hang there. [68] "Oh...? [69] Females...? [70] Narcophagi...? [71] Thrill-mills?" [72] But to each of these questions the nondescript man shook his head. [73] "Games?" [74] the driver finally asked, although he could guess what was wanted by then. [75] "Dice...? [76] Roulette...? [77] Farjeen?" [78] "Is there a good zarquil game in town?" [79] The driver moved so he could see the face of the man behind him in the teleview. [80] A very ordinary face. [81] "Look, colleague, why don't you commit suicide? [82] It's cleaner and quicker." [83] "I can't contact your attitude," the passenger said with a thin smile. [84] "Bet you've never tried the game yourself. [85] Each time it happens, there's a ... well, there's no experience to match it at a thrill-mill." [86] He gave a sigh that was almost an audible shudder, and which the driver misinterpreted as an expression of ecstasy. [87] "Each time, eh? [88] You're a dutchman then?" [89] The driver spat out of the window. [90] "If it wasn't for the nibble, I'd throw you right out of the cab. [91] Without even bothering to take it down even. [92] I hate dutchmen ... anybody with any legitimate feelings hates 'em." [93] "But it would be silly to let personal prejudice stand in the way of a commission, wouldn't it?" [94] the other man asked coolly. [95] "Of course. [96] You'll need plenty of foliage, though." [97] "I have sufficient funds. [98] I also have a gun." [99] "You're the dictator," the driver agreed sullenly. [100] II It was a dark and rainy night in early fall. [101] Gabe Lockard was in no condition to drive the helicar. [102] However, he was stubborn. [103] "Let me take the controls, honey," the light-haired girl urged, but he shook his handsome head. [104] "Show you I can do something 'sides look pretty," he said thickly, referring to an earlier and not amicable conversation they had held, and of which she still bore the reminder on one thickly made-up cheek. [105] Fortunately the car was flying low, contrary to regulations, so that when they smashed into the beacon tower on the outskirts of the little town, they didn't have far to fall. [106] And hardly had their car crashed on the ground when the car that had been following them landed, and a short fat man was puffing toward them through the mist. [107] To the girl's indignation, the stranger not only hauled Gabe out onto the dripping grass first, but stopped and deliberately examined the young man by the light of his minilume, almost as if she weren't there at all. [108] Only when she started to struggle out by herself did he seem to remember her existence. [109] He pulled her away from the wreck just a moment before the fuel tank exploded and the 'copter went up in flames. [110] Gabe opened his eyes and saw the fat man gazing down at him speculatively. [111] "My guardian angel," he mumbled—shock had sobered him a little, but not enough. [112] He sat up. [113] "Guess I'm not hurt or you'd have thrown me back in." [114] "And that's no joke," the fat man agreed. [115] The girl shivered and at that moment Gabriel suddenly seemed to recall that he had not been alone. [116] "How about Helen? [117] She on course?" [118] "Seems to be," the fat man said. [119] "You all right, miss?" [120] he asked, glancing toward the girl without, she thought, much apparent concern. " [121] Mrs. ," Gabriel corrected. [122] "Allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," he said, bowing from his seated position toward the girl. [123] "Pretty bauble, isn't she?" [124] "I'm delighted to meet you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," the fat man said, looking at her intently. [125] His small eyes seemed to strip the make-up from her cheek and examine the livid bruise underneath. [126] "I hope you'll be worthy of the name." [127] The light given off by the flaming car flickered on his face and Gabriel's and, she supposed, hers too. [128] Otherwise, darkness surrounded the three of them. [129] There were no public illuminators this far out—even in town the lights were dimming and not being replaced fast enough nor by the newer models. [130] The town, the civilization, the planet all were old and beginning to slide downhill.... Gabe gave a short laugh, for no reason that she could see. [131] There was the feeling that she had encountered the fat man before, which was, of course, absurd. [132] She had an excellent memory for faces and his was not included in her gallery. [133] The girl pulled her thin jacket closer about her chilly body. [134] "Aren't you going to introduce your—your friend to me, Gabe?" [135] "I don't know who he is," Gabe said almost merrily, "except that he's no friend of mine. [136] Do you have a name, stranger?" [137] "Of course I have a name." [138] The fat man extracted an identification card from his wallet and read it. [139] "Says here I'm Dominic Bianchi, and Dominic Bianchi is a retail milgot dealer.... Only he isn't a retail milgot dealer any more; the poor fellow went bankrupt a couple of weeks ago, and now he isn't ... [140] anything." [141] "You saved our lives," the girl said. [142] "I'd like to give you some token of my—of our appreciation." [143] Her hand reached toward her credit-carrier with deliberate insult. [144] He might have saved her life, but only casually, as a by-product of some larger scheme, and her appreciation held little gratitude. [145] The fat man shook his head without rancor. [146] "I have plenty of money, thank you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard.... Come," he addressed her husband, "if you get up, I'll drive you home. [147] I warn you, be more careful in the future! [148] Sometimes," he added musingly, "I almost wish you would let something happen. [149] Then my problem would not be any problem, would it?" [150] Gabriel shivered. [151] "I'll be careful," he vowed. [152] "I promise—I'll be careful." [153] When he was sure that his charge was safely tucked in for the night, the fat man checked his personal possessions. [154] He then requested a taxi driver to take him to the nearest zarquil game. [155] The driver accepted the commission phlegmatically. [156] Perhaps he was more hardened than the others had been; perhaps he was unaware that the fat man was not a desperate or despairing individual seeking one last chance, but what was known colloquially as a flying dutchman, a man, or woman, who went from one zarquil game to another, loving the thrill of the sport, if you could call it that, for its own sake, and not for the futile hope it extended and which was its sole shred of claim to moral justification. [157] Perhaps—and this was the most likely hypothesis—he just didn't care. [158] Zarquil was extremely illegal, of course—so much so that there were many legitimate citizens who weren't quite sure just what the word implied, knowing merely that it was one of those nameless horrors so deliciously hinted at by the fax sheets under the generic term of "crimes against nature." [159] Actually the phrase was more appropriate to zarquil than to most of the other activities to which it was commonly applied. [160] And this was one crime—for it was crime in law as well as nature—in which victim had to be considered as guilty as perpetrator; otherwise the whole legal structure of society would collapse. [161] Playing the game was fabulously expensive; it had to be to make it profitable for the Vinzz to run it. [162] Those odd creatures from Altair's seventh planet cared nothing for the welfare of the completely alien human beings; all they wanted was to feather their own pockets with interstellar credits, so that they could return to Vinau and buy many slaves. [163] For, on Vinau, bodies were of little account, and so to them zarquil was the equivalent of the terrestrial game musical chairs. [164] Which was why they came to Terra to make profits—there has never been big money in musical chairs as such. [165] When the zarquil operators were apprehended, which was not frequent—as they had strange powers, which, not being definable, were beyond the law—they suffered their sentences with equanimity. [166] No Earth court could give an effective prison sentence to a creature whose life spanned approximately two thousand terrestrial years. [167] And capital punishment had become obsolete on Terra, which very possibly saved the terrestrials embarrassment, for it was not certain that their weapons could kill the Vinzz ... or whether, in fact, the Vinzz merely expired after a period of years out of sheer boredom. [168] Fortunately, because trade was more profitable than war, there had always been peace between Vinau and Terra, and, for that reason, Terra could not bar the entrance of apparently respectable citizens of a friendly planet. [169] The taxi driver took the fat man to one of the rather seedy locales in which the zarquil games were usually found, for the Vinzz attempted to conduct their operations with as much unobtrusiveness as was possible. [170] But the front door swung open on an interior that lacked the opulence of the usual Vinoz set-up; it was down-right shabby, the dim olive light hinting of squalor rather than forbidden pleasures. [171] That was the trouble in these smaller towns—you ran greater risks of getting involved in games where the players had not been carefully screened. [172] The Vinoz games were usually clean, because that paid off better, but, when profits were lacking, the Vinzz were capable of sliding off into darkside practices. [173] Naturally the small-town houses were more likely to have trouble in making ends meet, because everybody in the parish knew everybody else far too well. [174] The fat man wondered whether that had been his quarry's motive in coming to such desolate, off-trail places—hoping that eventually disaster would hit the one who pursued him. [175] Somehow, such a plan seemed too logical for the man he was haunting. [176] However, beggars could not be choosers. [177] The fat man paid off the heli-driver and entered the zarquil house. [178] "One?" [179] the small green creature in the slightly frayed robe asked. [180] "One," the fat man answered. [181] III The would-be thief fled down the dark alley, with the hot bright rays from the stranger's gun lancing out after him in flamboyant but futile patterns. [182] The stranger, a thin young man with delicate, angular features, made no attempt to follow. [183] Instead, he bent over to examine Gabriel Lockard's form, appropriately outstretched in the gutter. [184] "Only weighted out," he muttered, "he'll be all right. [185] Whatever possessed you two to come out to a place like this?" [186] "I really think Gabriel must be possessed...." the girl said, mostly to herself. [187] "I had no idea of the kind of place it was going to be until he brought me here. [188] The others were bad, but this is even worse. [189] It almost seems as if he went around looking for trouble, doesn't it?" [190] "It does indeed," the stranger agreed, coughing a little. [191] It was growing colder and, on this world, the cities had no domes to protect them from the climate, because it was Earth and the air was breathable and it wasn't worth the trouble of fixing up. [192] The girl looked closely at him. [193] "You look different, but you are the same man who pulled us out of that aircar crash, aren't you? [194] And before that the man in the gray suit? [195] And before that...?" [196] The young man's cheekbones protruded as he smiled. [197] "Yes, I'm all of them." [198] "Then what they say about the zarquil games is true? [199] There are people who go around changing their bodies like—like hats?" [200] Automatically she reached to adjust the expensive bit of blue synthetic on her moon-pale hair, for she was always conscious of her appearance; if she had not been so before marriage, Gabriel would have taught her that. [201] He smiled again, but coughed instead of speaking. [202] "But why do you do it? [203] Why! [204] Do you like it? [205] Or is it because of Gabriel?" [206] She was growing a little frantic; there was menace here and she could not understand it nor determine whether or not she was included in its scope. [207] "Do you want to keep him from recognizing you; is that it?" [208] "Ask him." [209] "He won't tell me; he never tells me anything. [210] We just keep running. [211] I didn't recognize it as running at first, but now I realize that's what we've been doing ever since we were married. [212] And running from you, I think?" [213] There was no change of expression on the man's gaunt face, and she wondered how much control he had over a body that, though second- or third- or fourth-hand, must be new to him. [214] How well could he make it respond? [215] What was it like to step into another person's casing? [216] But she must not let herself think that way or she would find herself looking for a zarquil game. [217] It would be one way of escaping Gabriel, but not, she thought, the best way; her body was much too good a one to risk so casually. [218] It was beginning to snow. [219] Light, feathery flakes drifted down on her husband's immobile body. [220] She pulled her thick coat—of fur taken from some animal who had lived and died light-years away—more closely about herself. [221] The thin young man began to cough again. [222] Overhead a tiny star seemed to detach itself from the pale flat disk of the Moon and hurl itself upward—one of the interstellar ships embarking on its long voyage to distant suns. [223] She wished that somehow she could be on it, but she was here, on this solitary old world in a barren solar system, with her unconscious husband and a strange man who followed them, and it looked as if here she would stay ... all three of them would stay.... "If you're after Gabriel, planning to hurt him," she asked, "why then do you keep helping him?" [224] "I am not helping him . [225] And he knows that." [226] "You'll change again tonight, won't you?" [227] she babbled. [228] "You always change after you ... meet us? [229] I think I'm beginning to be able to identify you now, even when you're ... wearing a new body; there's something about you that doesn't change." [230] "Too bad he got married," the young man said. [231] "I could have followed him for an eternity and he would never have been able to pick me out from the crowd. [232] Too bad he got married anyway," he added, his voice less impersonal, "for your sake." [233] She had come to the same conclusion in her six months of marriage, but she would not admit that to an outsider. [234] Though this man was hardly an outsider; he was part of their small family group—as long as she had known Gabriel, so long he must have known her. [235] And she began to suspect that he was even more closely involved than that. [236] "Why must you change again?" [237] she persisted, obliquely approaching the subject she feared. [238] "You have a pretty good body there. [239] Why run the risk of getting a bad one?" [240] "This isn't a good body," he said. [241] "It's diseased. [242] Sure, nobody's supposed to play the game who hasn't passed a thorough medical examination. [243] But in the places to which your husband has been leading me, they're often not too particular, as long as the player has plenty of foliage." [244] "How—long will it last you?" [245] "Four or five months, if I'm careful." [246] He smiled. [247] "But don't worry, if that's what you're doing; I'll get it passed on before then. [248] It'll be expensive—that's all. [249] Bad landing for the guy who gets it, but then it was tough on me too, wasn't it?" [250] "But how did you get into this ... [251] pursuit?" [252] she asked again. [253] "And why are you doing it?" [254] People didn't have any traffic with Gabriel Lockard for fun, not after they got to know him. [255] And this man certainly should know him better than most. [256] "Ask your husband." [257] The original Gabriel Lockard looked down at the prostrate, snow-powdered figure of the man who had stolen his body and his name, and stirred it with his toe. [258] "I'd better call a cab—he might freeze to death." [259] He signaled and a cab came. [260] "Tell him, when he comes to," he said to the girl as he and the driver lifted the heavy form of her husband into the helicar, "that I'm getting pretty tired of this." [261] He stopped for a long spell of coughing. [262] "Tell him that sometimes I wonder whether cutting off my nose wouldn't, in the long run, be most beneficial for my face." [263] "Sorry," the Vinzz said impersonally, in English that was perfect except for the slight dampening of the sibilants, "but I'm afraid you cannot play." [264] "Why not?" [265] The emaciated young man began to put on his clothes. [266] "You know why. [267] Your body is worthless. [268] And this is a reputable house." [269] "But I have plenty of money." [270] The young man coughed. [271] The Vinzz shrugged. [272] "I'll pay you twice the regular fee." [273] The green one shook his head. [274] "Regrettably, I do mean what I say. [275] This game is really clean." [276] "In a town like this?" [277] "That is the reason we can afford to be honest." [278] The Vinzz' tendrils quivered in what the man had come to recognize as amusement through long, but necessarily superficial acquaintance with the Vinzz. [279] His heavy robe of what looked like moss-green velvet, but might have been velvet-green moss, encrusted with oddly faceted alien jewels, swung with him. [280] "We do a lot of business here," he said unnecessarily, for the whole set-up spelled wealth far beyond the dreams of the man, and he was by no means poor when it came to worldly goods. [281] "Why don't you try another town where they're not so particular?" [282] The young man smiled wryly. [283] Just his luck to stumble on a sunny game. [284] He never liked to risk following his quarry in the same configuration. [285] And even though only the girl had actually seen him this time, he wouldn't feel at ease until he had made the usual body-shift. [286] Was he changing because of Gabriel, he wondered, or was he using his own discoverment and identification simply as an excuse to cover the fact that none of the bodies that fell to his lot ever seemed to fit him? [287] Was he activated solely by revenge or as much by the hope that in the hazards of the game he might, impossible though it now seemed, some day win another body that approached perfection as nearly as his original casing had? [288] He didn't know. [289] However, there seemed to be no help for it now; he would have to wait until they reached the next town, unless the girl, seeing him reappear in the same guise, would guess what had happened and tell her husband. [290] He himself had been a fool to admit to her that the hulk he inhabited was a sick one; he still couldn't understand how he could so casually have entrusted her with so vital a piece of information. [291] The Vinzz had been locking antennae with another of his kind. [292] Now they detached, and the first approached the man once more. [293] "There is, as it happens, a body available for a private game," he lisped. [294] "No questions to be asked or answered. [295] All I can tell you is that it is in good health." [296] The man hesitated. [297] "But unable to pass the screening?" [298] he murmured aloud. [299] "A criminal then." [300] The green one's face—if you could call it a face—remained impassive. [301] "Male?" [302] "Of course," the Vinzz said primly. [303] His kind did have certain ultimate standards to which they adhered rigidly, and one of those was the curious tabu against mixed games, strictly enforced even though it kept them from tapping a vast source of potential players. [304] There had also never been a recorded instance of humans and extraterrestrials exchanging identities, but whether that was the result of tabu or biological impossibility, no one could tell. [305] It might merely be prudence on the Vinzz' part—if it had ever been proved that an alien life-form had "desecrated" a human body, Earthmen would clamor for war ... for on this planet humanity held its self-bestowed purity of birthright dear—and the Vinzz, despite being unquestionably the stronger, were pragmatic pacifists. [306] It had been undoubtedly some rabid member of the anti-alien groups active on Terra who had started the rumor that the planetary slogan of Vinau was, "Don't beat 'em; cheat 'em." [307] "It would have to be something pretty nuclear for the other guy to take such a risk." [308] The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. [309] "How much?" [310] "Thirty thousand credits." [311] "Why, that's three times the usual rate!" [312] "The other will pay five times the usual rate." [313] "Oh, all right," the delicate young man gave in. [314] It was a terrific risk he was agreeing to take, because, if the other was a criminal, he himself would, upon assuming the body, assume responsibility for all the crimes it had committed. [315] But there was nothing else he could do. [316] He looked at himself in the mirror and found he had a fine new body; tall and strikingly handsome in a dark, coarse-featured way. [317] Nothing to match the one he had lost, in his opinion, but there were probably many people who might find this one preferable. [318] No identification in the pockets, but it wasn't necessary; he recognized the face. [319] Not that it was a very famous or even notorious one, but the dutchman was a careful student of the "wanted" fax that had decorated public buildings from time immemorial, for he was ever mindful of the possibility that he might one day find himself trapped unwittingly in the body of one of the men depicted there. [320] And he knew that this particular man, though not an important criminal in any sense of the word, was one whom the police had been ordered to burn on sight. [321] The abolishing of capital punishment could not abolish the necessity for self-defense, and the man in question was not one who would let himself be captured easily, nor whom the police intended to capture easily. [322] This might be a lucky break for me after all , the new tenant thought, as he tried to adjust himself to the body. [323] It, too, despite its obvious rude health, was not a very comfortable fit. [324] I can do a lot with a hulk like this. [325] And maybe I'm cleverer than the original owner; maybe I'll be able to get away with it. [326] IV "Look, Gabe," the girl said, "don't try to fool me! [327] I know you too well. [328] And I know you have that man's—the real Gabriel Lockard's—body." [329] She put unnecessary stardust on her nose as she watched her husband's reflection in the dressing table mirror. [330] Lockard—Lockard's body, at any rate—sat up and felt his unshaven chin. [331] "That what he tell you?" [332] "No, he didn't tell me anything really—just suggested I ask you whatever I want to know. [333] But why else should he guard somebody he obviously hates the way he hates you? [334] Only because he doesn't want to see his body spoiled." [335] "It is a pretty good body, isn't it?" [336] Gabe flexed softening muscles and made no attempt to deny her charge; very probably he was relieved at having someone with whom to share his secret. [337] "Not as good as it must have been," the girl said, turning and looking at him without admiration. [338] "Not if you keep on the way you're coursing. [339] Gabe, why don't you...?" [340] "Give it back to him, eh?" [341] Lockard regarded his wife appraisingly. [342] "You'd like that, wouldn't you? [343] You'd be his wife then. [344] That would be nice—a sound mind in a sound body. [345] But don't you think that's a little more than you deserve?" [346] "I wasn't thinking about that, Gabe," she said truthfully enough, for she hadn't followed the idea to its logical conclusion. [347] "Of course I'd go with you," she went on, now knowing she lied, "when you got your ... old body back." [348] Sure , she thought, I'd keep going with you to farjeen houses and thrill-mills. [349] Actually she had accompanied him to a thrill-mill only once, and from then on, despite all his threats, she had refused to go with him again. [350] But that once had been enough; nothing could ever wash that experience from her mind or her body. [351] "You wouldn't be able to get your old body back, though, would you?" [352] she went on. [353] "You don't know where it's gone, and neither, I suppose, does he?" [354] "I don't want to know!" [355] he spat. [356] "I wouldn't want it if I could get it back. [357] Whoever it adhered to probably killed himself as soon as he looked in a mirror." [358] He swung long legs over the side of his bed. [359] "Christ, anything would be better than that! [360] You can't imagine what a hulk I had!" [361] "Oh, yes, I can," she said incautiously. [362] "You must have had a body to match your character. [363] Pity you could only change one."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "Who is Mrs. Lockard and what is her significance to the story?": 1. [121] "Mrs. ," Gabriel corrected. "Allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," he said, bowing from his seated position toward the girl. 2. [123] "Pretty bauble, isn't she?" 3. [141] "You saved our lives," the girl said. "I'd like to give you some token of my—of our appreciation." 4. [326] "Look, Gabe," the girl said, "don't try to fool me! I know you too well. And I know you have that man's—the real Gabriel Lockard's—body." 5. [347] "Of course I'd go with you," she went on, now knowing she lied, "when you got your ... old body back." 6. [352] "You wouldn't be able to get your old body back, though, would you?" she went on. 7. [360] "You can't imagine what a hulk I had!" 8. [361] "Oh, yes, I can," she said incautiously. "You must have had a body to match your character. Pity you could only change one." 9. [1] Bodyguard By CHRISTOPHER GRIMM Illustrated by CAVAT [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1956.] 10. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 11. [3] When overwhelming danger is constantly present,of course a man is entitled to have a bodyguard. 12. [4] The annoyance was that he had to do it himself ... and his body would not cooperate! 13. [5] The man at the bar was exceptionally handsome, and he knew it. 14. [6] So did the light-haired girl at his side, and so did the nondescript man in the gray suit who was watching them from a booth in the corner. 15. [7] Everyone in the room was aware of the big young man, and most of the humans present were resentful, for he handled himself consciously and arrogantly, as if his appearance alone were enough to make him superior to anyone. 16. [8] Even the girl with him was growing restless, for she was accustomed to adulation herself, and next to Gabriel Lockard she was almost ordinary-looking. 17. [9] As for the extraterrestrials—it was a free bar—they were merely amused, since to them all men were pathetically and irredeemably hideous. 18. [10] Gabe threw his arm wide in one of his expansive gestures. 19. [11] There was a short man standing next to the pair—young, as most men and women were in that time, thanks to the science which could stave off decay, though not death—but with no other apparent physical virtue, for plastic surgery had not fulfilled its bright promise of the twentieth century. 20. [12] The drink he had been raising to his lips splashed all over his clothing; the glass shattered at his feet. 21. [13] Now he was not only a rather ugly little man, but also a rather ridiculous one—or at least he felt he was, which was what mattered. 22. [14] "Sorry, colleague," Gabe said lazily. 23. [15] "All my fault. 24. [16] You must let me buy you a replacement." 25. [17] He gestured to the bartender. 26. [18] "Another of the same for my fellow-man here." 27. [19] The ugly man dabbed futilely at his dripping trousers with a cloth hastily supplied by the management. 28. [20] "You must allow me to pay your cleaning bill," Gabe said, taking out his wallet and extracting several credit notes without seeming to look at them. 29. [21] "Here, have yourself a new suit on me." 30. [22] You could use one was implied. 31. [23] And that, coming on top of Gabriel Lockard's spectacular appearance, was too much. 32. [24] The ugly man picked up the drink the bartender had just set before him and started to hurl it, glass and all, into Lockard's handsome face. 33. [25] Suddenly a restraining hand was laid upon his arm. 34. [26] "Don't do that," the nondescript man who had been sitting in the corner advised. 35. [27] He removed the glass from the little man's slackening grasp. 36. [28] "You wouldn't want to go to jail because of him." 37. [29] The ugly man gave him a bewildered stare. 38. [30] Then, seeing the forces now ranged against him—including his own belated prudence—were too strong, he stumbled off. 39. [31] He hadn't really wanted to fight, only to smash back, and now it was too late for that. 40. [32] Gabe studied the newcomer curiously. 41. [33] "So, it's you again?" 42. [34] The man in the gray suit smiled. 43. [35] "Who else in any world would stand up for you?" 44. [36] "I should think you'd have given up by now. 45. [37] Not that I mind having you around, of course," Gabriel added too quickly. 46. [38] "You do come in useful at times, you know." 47. [39] "So you don't mind having me around?" 48. [40] The nondescript man smiled again. 49. [41] "Then what are you running from, if not me? 50. [42] You can't be running from yourself—you lost yourself a while back, remember?" 51. [43] Gabe ran a hand through his thick blond hair. 52. [44] "Come on, have a drink with me, fellow-man, and let's let bygones be bygones. 53. [45] I owe you something—I admit that. 54. [46] Maybe we can even work this thing out." 55. [47] "I drank with you once too often," the nondescript man said. 56. [48] "And things worked out fine, didn't they? 57. [49] For you." 58. [50] His eyes studied the other man's incredibly handsome young face, noted the suggestion of bags under the eyes, the beginning of slackness at the lips, and were not pleased with what they saw. 59. [51] "Watch yourself, colleague," he warned as he left. 60. [52] "Soon you might not be worth the saving." 61. [53] "Who was that, Gabe?" 62. [54] the girl asked. 63. [55] He shrugged. 64. [56] "I never saw him before in my life." 65. [57] Of course, knowing him, she assumed he was lying, but, as a matter of fact, just then he happened to have been telling the truth. 66. [116] "How about Helen? 67. [117] She on course?" 68. [118] "Seems to be," the fat man said. 69. [119] "You all right, miss?" 70. [120] he asked, glancing toward the girl without, she thought, much apparent concern. 71. [122] "Allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," he said, bowing from his seated position toward the girl. 72. [123] "Pretty bauble, isn't she?" 73. [124] "I'm delighted to meet you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," the fat man said, looking at her intently. 74. [125] His small eyes seemed to strip the make-up from her cheek and examine the livid bruise underneath. 75. [126] "I hope you'll be worthy of the name." 76. [127] The light given off by the flaming car flickered on his face and Gabriel's and, she supposed, hers too. 77. [128] Otherwise, darkness surrounded the three of them. 78. [129] There were no public illuminators this far out—even in town the lights were dimming and not being replaced fast enough nor by the newer models. 79. [130] The town, the civilization, the planet all were old and beginning to slide downhill.... Gabe gave a short laugh, for no reason that she could see. 80. [131] There was the feeling that she had encountered the fat man before, which was, of course, absurd. 81. [132] She had an excellent memory for faces and his was not included in her gallery. 82. [133] The girl pulled her thin jacket closer about her chilly body. 83. [134] "Aren't you going to introduce your—your friend to me, Gabe?" 84. [135] "I don't know who he is," Gabe said almost merrily, "except that he's no friend of mine. 85. [136] Do you have a name, stranger?" 86. [137] "Of course I have a name." 87. [138] The fat man extracted an identification card from his wallet and read it. 88. [139] "Says here I'm Dominic Bianchi, and Dominic Bianchi is a retail milgot dealer.... Only he isn't a retail milgot dealer any more; the poor fellow went bankrupt a couple of weeks ago, and now he isn't ... 89. [140] anything." 90. [141] "You saved our lives," the girl said. 91. [142] "I'd like to give you some token of my—of our appreciation." 92. [143] Her hand reached toward her credit-carrier with deliberate insult. 93. [144] He might have saved her life, but only casually, as a by-product of some larger scheme, and her appreciation held little gratitude. 94. [145] The fat man shook his head without rancor. 95. [146] "I have plenty of money, thank you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard.... Come," he addressed her husband, "if you get up, I'll drive you home. 96. [147] I warn you, be more careful in the future! 97. [148] Sometimes," he added musingly, "I almost wish you would let something happen. 98. [149] Then my problem would not be any problem, would it?" 99. [150] Gabriel shivered. 100. [151] "I'll be careful," he vowed. 101. [152] "I promise—I'll be careful."

Who is the stranger in the gray suit and what is his significance?

[1] Bodyguard By CHRISTOPHER GRIMM Illustrated by CAVAT [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1956. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] When overwhelming danger is constantly present,of course a man is entitled to have a bodyguard. [4] The annoyance was that he had to do it himself ... and his body would not cooperate! [5] The man at the bar was exceptionally handsome, and he knew it. [6] So did the light-haired girl at his side, and so did the nondescript man in the gray suit who was watching them from a booth in the corner. [7] Everyone in the room was aware of the big young man, and most of the humans present were resentful, for he handled himself consciously and arrogantly, as if his appearance alone were enough to make him superior to anyone. [8] Even the girl with him was growing restless, for she was accustomed to adulation herself, and next to Gabriel Lockard she was almost ordinary-looking. [9] As for the extraterrestrials—it was a free bar—they were merely amused, since to them all men were pathetically and irredeemably hideous. [10] Gabe threw his arm wide in one of his expansive gestures. [11] There was a short man standing next to the pair—young, as most men and women were in that time, thanks to the science which could stave off decay, though not death—but with no other apparent physical virtue, for plastic surgery had not fulfilled its bright promise of the twentieth century. [12] The drink he had been raising to his lips splashed all over his clothing; the glass shattered at his feet. [13] Now he was not only a rather ugly little man, but also a rather ridiculous one—or at least he felt he was, which was what mattered. [14] "Sorry, colleague," Gabe said lazily. [15] "All my fault. [16] You must let me buy you a replacement." [17] He gestured to the bartender. [18] "Another of the same for my fellow-man here." [19] The ugly man dabbed futilely at his dripping trousers with a cloth hastily supplied by the management. [20] "You must allow me to pay your cleaning bill," Gabe said, taking out his wallet and extracting several credit notes without seeming to look at them. [21] "Here, have yourself a new suit on me." [22] You could use one was implied. [23] And that, coming on top of Gabriel Lockard's spectacular appearance, was too much. [24] The ugly man picked up the drink the bartender had just set before him and started to hurl it, glass and all, into Lockard's handsome face. [25] Suddenly a restraining hand was laid upon his arm. [26] "Don't do that," the nondescript man who had been sitting in the corner advised. [27] He removed the glass from the little man's slackening grasp. [28] "You wouldn't want to go to jail because of him." [29] The ugly man gave him a bewildered stare. [30] Then, seeing the forces now ranged against him—including his own belated prudence—were too strong, he stumbled off. [31] He hadn't really wanted to fight, only to smash back, and now it was too late for that. [32] Gabe studied the newcomer curiously. [33] "So, it's you again?" [34] The man in the gray suit smiled. [35] "Who else in any world would stand up for you?" [36] "I should think you'd have given up by now. [37] Not that I mind having you around, of course," Gabriel added too quickly. [38] "You do come in useful at times, you know." [39] "So you don't mind having me around?" [40] The nondescript man smiled again. [41] "Then what are you running from, if not me? [42] You can't be running from yourself—you lost yourself a while back, remember?" [43] Gabe ran a hand through his thick blond hair. [44] "Come on, have a drink with me, fellow-man, and let's let bygones be bygones. [45] I owe you something—I admit that. [46] Maybe we can even work this thing out." [47] "I drank with you once too often," the nondescript man said. [48] "And things worked out fine, didn't they? [49] For you." [50] His eyes studied the other man's incredibly handsome young face, noted the suggestion of bags under the eyes, the beginning of slackness at the lips, and were not pleased with what they saw. [51] "Watch yourself, colleague," he warned as he left. [52] "Soon you might not be worth the saving." [53] "Who was that, Gabe?" [54] the girl asked. [55] He shrugged. [56] "I never saw him before in my life." [57] Of course, knowing him, she assumed he was lying, but, as a matter of fact, just then he happened to have been telling the truth. [58] Once the illuminators were extinguished in Gabriel Lockard's hotel suite, it seemed reasonably certain to the man in the gray suit, as he watched from the street, that his quarry would not go out again that night. [59] So he went to the nearest airstation. [60] There he inserted a coin in a locker, into which he put most of his personal possessions, reserving only a sum of money. [61] After setting the locker to respond to the letter combination bodyguard , he went out into the street. [62] If he had met with a fatal accident at that point, there would have been nothing on his body to identify him. [63] As a matter of fact, no real identification was possible, for he was no one and had been no one for years. [64] The nondescript man hailed a cruising helicab. [65] "Where to, fellow-man?" [66] the driver asked. [67] "I'm new in the parish," the other man replied and let it hang there. [68] "Oh...? [69] Females...? [70] Narcophagi...? [71] Thrill-mills?" [72] But to each of these questions the nondescript man shook his head. [73] "Games?" [74] the driver finally asked, although he could guess what was wanted by then. [75] "Dice...? [76] Roulette...? [77] Farjeen?" [78] "Is there a good zarquil game in town?" [79] The driver moved so he could see the face of the man behind him in the teleview. [80] A very ordinary face. [81] "Look, colleague, why don't you commit suicide? [82] It's cleaner and quicker." [83] "I can't contact your attitude," the passenger said with a thin smile. [84] "Bet you've never tried the game yourself. [85] Each time it happens, there's a ... well, there's no experience to match it at a thrill-mill." [86] He gave a sigh that was almost an audible shudder, and which the driver misinterpreted as an expression of ecstasy. [87] "Each time, eh? [88] You're a dutchman then?" [89] The driver spat out of the window. [90] "If it wasn't for the nibble, I'd throw you right out of the cab. [91] Without even bothering to take it down even. [92] I hate dutchmen ... anybody with any legitimate feelings hates 'em." [93] "But it would be silly to let personal prejudice stand in the way of a commission, wouldn't it?" [94] the other man asked coolly. [95] "Of course. [96] You'll need plenty of foliage, though." [97] "I have sufficient funds. [98] I also have a gun." [99] "You're the dictator," the driver agreed sullenly. [100] II It was a dark and rainy night in early fall. [101] Gabe Lockard was in no condition to drive the helicar. [102] However, he was stubborn. [103] "Let me take the controls, honey," the light-haired girl urged, but he shook his handsome head. [104] "Show you I can do something 'sides look pretty," he said thickly, referring to an earlier and not amicable conversation they had held, and of which she still bore the reminder on one thickly made-up cheek. [105] Fortunately the car was flying low, contrary to regulations, so that when they smashed into the beacon tower on the outskirts of the little town, they didn't have far to fall. [106] And hardly had their car crashed on the ground when the car that had been following them landed, and a short fat man was puffing toward them through the mist. [107] To the girl's indignation, the stranger not only hauled Gabe out onto the dripping grass first, but stopped and deliberately examined the young man by the light of his minilume, almost as if she weren't there at all. [108] Only when she started to struggle out by herself did he seem to remember her existence. [109] He pulled her away from the wreck just a moment before the fuel tank exploded and the 'copter went up in flames. [110] Gabe opened his eyes and saw the fat man gazing down at him speculatively. [111] "My guardian angel," he mumbled—shock had sobered him a little, but not enough. [112] He sat up. [113] "Guess I'm not hurt or you'd have thrown me back in." [114] "And that's no joke," the fat man agreed. [115] The girl shivered and at that moment Gabriel suddenly seemed to recall that he had not been alone. [116] "How about Helen? [117] She on course?" [118] "Seems to be," the fat man said. [119] "You all right, miss?" [120] he asked, glancing toward the girl without, she thought, much apparent concern. " [121] Mrs. ," Gabriel corrected. [122] "Allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," he said, bowing from his seated position toward the girl. [123] "Pretty bauble, isn't she?" [124] "I'm delighted to meet you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," the fat man said, looking at her intently. [125] His small eyes seemed to strip the make-up from her cheek and examine the livid bruise underneath. [126] "I hope you'll be worthy of the name." [127] The light given off by the flaming car flickered on his face and Gabriel's and, she supposed, hers too. [128] Otherwise, darkness surrounded the three of them. [129] There were no public illuminators this far out—even in town the lights were dimming and not being replaced fast enough nor by the newer models. [130] The town, the civilization, the planet all were old and beginning to slide downhill.... Gabe gave a short laugh, for no reason that she could see. [131] There was the feeling that she had encountered the fat man before, which was, of course, absurd. [132] She had an excellent memory for faces and his was not included in her gallery. [133] The girl pulled her thin jacket closer about her chilly body. [134] "Aren't you going to introduce your—your friend to me, Gabe?" [135] "I don't know who he is," Gabe said almost merrily, "except that he's no friend of mine. [136] Do you have a name, stranger?" [137] "Of course I have a name." [138] The fat man extracted an identification card from his wallet and read it. [139] "Says here I'm Dominic Bianchi, and Dominic Bianchi is a retail milgot dealer.... Only he isn't a retail milgot dealer any more; the poor fellow went bankrupt a couple of weeks ago, and now he isn't ... [140] anything." [141] "You saved our lives," the girl said. [142] "I'd like to give you some token of my—of our appreciation." [143] Her hand reached toward her credit-carrier with deliberate insult. [144] He might have saved her life, but only casually, as a by-product of some larger scheme, and her appreciation held little gratitude. [145] The fat man shook his head without rancor. [146] "I have plenty of money, thank you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard.... Come," he addressed her husband, "if you get up, I'll drive you home. [147] I warn you, be more careful in the future! [148] Sometimes," he added musingly, "I almost wish you would let something happen. [149] Then my problem would not be any problem, would it?" [150] Gabriel shivered. [151] "I'll be careful," he vowed. [152] "I promise—I'll be careful." [153] When he was sure that his charge was safely tucked in for the night, the fat man checked his personal possessions. [154] He then requested a taxi driver to take him to the nearest zarquil game. [155] The driver accepted the commission phlegmatically. [156] Perhaps he was more hardened than the others had been; perhaps he was unaware that the fat man was not a desperate or despairing individual seeking one last chance, but what was known colloquially as a flying dutchman, a man, or woman, who went from one zarquil game to another, loving the thrill of the sport, if you could call it that, for its own sake, and not for the futile hope it extended and which was its sole shred of claim to moral justification. [157] Perhaps—and this was the most likely hypothesis—he just didn't care. [158] Zarquil was extremely illegal, of course—so much so that there were many legitimate citizens who weren't quite sure just what the word implied, knowing merely that it was one of those nameless horrors so deliciously hinted at by the fax sheets under the generic term of "crimes against nature." [159] Actually the phrase was more appropriate to zarquil than to most of the other activities to which it was commonly applied. [160] And this was one crime—for it was crime in law as well as nature—in which victim had to be considered as guilty as perpetrator; otherwise the whole legal structure of society would collapse. [161] Playing the game was fabulously expensive; it had to be to make it profitable for the Vinzz to run it. [162] Those odd creatures from Altair's seventh planet cared nothing for the welfare of the completely alien human beings; all they wanted was to feather their own pockets with interstellar credits, so that they could return to Vinau and buy many slaves. [163] For, on Vinau, bodies were of little account, and so to them zarquil was the equivalent of the terrestrial game musical chairs. [164] Which was why they came to Terra to make profits—there has never been big money in musical chairs as such. [165] When the zarquil operators were apprehended, which was not frequent—as they had strange powers, which, not being definable, were beyond the law—they suffered their sentences with equanimity. [166] No Earth court could give an effective prison sentence to a creature whose life spanned approximately two thousand terrestrial years. [167] And capital punishment had become obsolete on Terra, which very possibly saved the terrestrials embarrassment, for it was not certain that their weapons could kill the Vinzz ... or whether, in fact, the Vinzz merely expired after a period of years out of sheer boredom. [168] Fortunately, because trade was more profitable than war, there had always been peace between Vinau and Terra, and, for that reason, Terra could not bar the entrance of apparently respectable citizens of a friendly planet. [169] The taxi driver took the fat man to one of the rather seedy locales in which the zarquil games were usually found, for the Vinzz attempted to conduct their operations with as much unobtrusiveness as was possible. [170] But the front door swung open on an interior that lacked the opulence of the usual Vinoz set-up; it was down-right shabby, the dim olive light hinting of squalor rather than forbidden pleasures. [171] That was the trouble in these smaller towns—you ran greater risks of getting involved in games where the players had not been carefully screened. [172] The Vinoz games were usually clean, because that paid off better, but, when profits were lacking, the Vinzz were capable of sliding off into darkside practices. [173] Naturally the small-town houses were more likely to have trouble in making ends meet, because everybody in the parish knew everybody else far too well. [174] The fat man wondered whether that had been his quarry's motive in coming to such desolate, off-trail places—hoping that eventually disaster would hit the one who pursued him. [175] Somehow, such a plan seemed too logical for the man he was haunting. [176] However, beggars could not be choosers. [177] The fat man paid off the heli-driver and entered the zarquil house. [178] "One?" [179] the small green creature in the slightly frayed robe asked. [180] "One," the fat man answered. [181] III The would-be thief fled down the dark alley, with the hot bright rays from the stranger's gun lancing out after him in flamboyant but futile patterns. [182] The stranger, a thin young man with delicate, angular features, made no attempt to follow. [183] Instead, he bent over to examine Gabriel Lockard's form, appropriately outstretched in the gutter. [184] "Only weighted out," he muttered, "he'll be all right. [185] Whatever possessed you two to come out to a place like this?" [186] "I really think Gabriel must be possessed...." the girl said, mostly to herself. [187] "I had no idea of the kind of place it was going to be until he brought me here. [188] The others were bad, but this is even worse. [189] It almost seems as if he went around looking for trouble, doesn't it?" [190] "It does indeed," the stranger agreed, coughing a little. [191] It was growing colder and, on this world, the cities had no domes to protect them from the climate, because it was Earth and the air was breathable and it wasn't worth the trouble of fixing up. [192] The girl looked closely at him. [193] "You look different, but you are the same man who pulled us out of that aircar crash, aren't you? [194] And before that the man in the gray suit? [195] And before that...?" [196] The young man's cheekbones protruded as he smiled. [197] "Yes, I'm all of them." [198] "Then what they say about the zarquil games is true? [199] There are people who go around changing their bodies like—like hats?" [200] Automatically she reached to adjust the expensive bit of blue synthetic on her moon-pale hair, for she was always conscious of her appearance; if she had not been so before marriage, Gabriel would have taught her that. [201] He smiled again, but coughed instead of speaking. [202] "But why do you do it? [203] Why! [204] Do you like it? [205] Or is it because of Gabriel?" [206] She was growing a little frantic; there was menace here and she could not understand it nor determine whether or not she was included in its scope. [207] "Do you want to keep him from recognizing you; is that it?" [208] "Ask him." [209] "He won't tell me; he never tells me anything. [210] We just keep running. [211] I didn't recognize it as running at first, but now I realize that's what we've been doing ever since we were married. [212] And running from you, I think?" [213] There was no change of expression on the man's gaunt face, and she wondered how much control he had over a body that, though second- or third- or fourth-hand, must be new to him. [214] How well could he make it respond? [215] What was it like to step into another person's casing? [216] But she must not let herself think that way or she would find herself looking for a zarquil game. [217] It would be one way of escaping Gabriel, but not, she thought, the best way; her body was much too good a one to risk so casually. [218] It was beginning to snow. [219] Light, feathery flakes drifted down on her husband's immobile body. [220] She pulled her thick coat—of fur taken from some animal who had lived and died light-years away—more closely about herself. [221] The thin young man began to cough again. [222] Overhead a tiny star seemed to detach itself from the pale flat disk of the Moon and hurl itself upward—one of the interstellar ships embarking on its long voyage to distant suns. [223] She wished that somehow she could be on it, but she was here, on this solitary old world in a barren solar system, with her unconscious husband and a strange man who followed them, and it looked as if here she would stay ... all three of them would stay.... "If you're after Gabriel, planning to hurt him," she asked, "why then do you keep helping him?" [224] "I am not helping him . [225] And he knows that." [226] "You'll change again tonight, won't you?" [227] she babbled. [228] "You always change after you ... meet us? [229] I think I'm beginning to be able to identify you now, even when you're ... wearing a new body; there's something about you that doesn't change." [230] "Too bad he got married," the young man said. [231] "I could have followed him for an eternity and he would never have been able to pick me out from the crowd. [232] Too bad he got married anyway," he added, his voice less impersonal, "for your sake." [233] She had come to the same conclusion in her six months of marriage, but she would not admit that to an outsider. [234] Though this man was hardly an outsider; he was part of their small family group—as long as she had known Gabriel, so long he must have known her. [235] And she began to suspect that he was even more closely involved than that. [236] "Why must you change again?" [237] she persisted, obliquely approaching the subject she feared. [238] "You have a pretty good body there. [239] Why run the risk of getting a bad one?" [240] "This isn't a good body," he said. [241] "It's diseased. [242] Sure, nobody's supposed to play the game who hasn't passed a thorough medical examination. [243] But in the places to which your husband has been leading me, they're often not too particular, as long as the player has plenty of foliage." [244] "How—long will it last you?" [245] "Four or five months, if I'm careful." [246] He smiled. [247] "But don't worry, if that's what you're doing; I'll get it passed on before then. [248] It'll be expensive—that's all. [249] Bad landing for the guy who gets it, but then it was tough on me too, wasn't it?" [250] "But how did you get into this ... [251] pursuit?" [252] she asked again. [253] "And why are you doing it?" [254] People didn't have any traffic with Gabriel Lockard for fun, not after they got to know him. [255] And this man certainly should know him better than most. [256] "Ask your husband." [257] The original Gabriel Lockard looked down at the prostrate, snow-powdered figure of the man who had stolen his body and his name, and stirred it with his toe. [258] "I'd better call a cab—he might freeze to death." [259] He signaled and a cab came. [260] "Tell him, when he comes to," he said to the girl as he and the driver lifted the heavy form of her husband into the helicar, "that I'm getting pretty tired of this." [261] He stopped for a long spell of coughing. [262] "Tell him that sometimes I wonder whether cutting off my nose wouldn't, in the long run, be most beneficial for my face." [263] "Sorry," the Vinzz said impersonally, in English that was perfect except for the slight dampening of the sibilants, "but I'm afraid you cannot play." [264] "Why not?" [265] The emaciated young man began to put on his clothes. [266] "You know why. [267] Your body is worthless. [268] And this is a reputable house." [269] "But I have plenty of money." [270] The young man coughed. [271] The Vinzz shrugged. [272] "I'll pay you twice the regular fee." [273] The green one shook his head. [274] "Regrettably, I do mean what I say. [275] This game is really clean." [276] "In a town like this?" [277] "That is the reason we can afford to be honest." [278] The Vinzz' tendrils quivered in what the man had come to recognize as amusement through long, but necessarily superficial acquaintance with the Vinzz. [279] His heavy robe of what looked like moss-green velvet, but might have been velvet-green moss, encrusted with oddly faceted alien jewels, swung with him. [280] "We do a lot of business here," he said unnecessarily, for the whole set-up spelled wealth far beyond the dreams of the man, and he was by no means poor when it came to worldly goods. [281] "Why don't you try another town where they're not so particular?" [282] The young man smiled wryly. [283] Just his luck to stumble on a sunny game. [284] He never liked to risk following his quarry in the same configuration. [285] And even though only the girl had actually seen him this time, he wouldn't feel at ease until he had made the usual body-shift. [286] Was he changing because of Gabriel, he wondered, or was he using his own discoverment and identification simply as an excuse to cover the fact that none of the bodies that fell to his lot ever seemed to fit him? [287] Was he activated solely by revenge or as much by the hope that in the hazards of the game he might, impossible though it now seemed, some day win another body that approached perfection as nearly as his original casing had? [288] He didn't know. [289] However, there seemed to be no help for it now; he would have to wait until they reached the next town, unless the girl, seeing him reappear in the same guise, would guess what had happened and tell her husband. [290] He himself had been a fool to admit to her that the hulk he inhabited was a sick one; he still couldn't understand how he could so casually have entrusted her with so vital a piece of information. [291] The Vinzz had been locking antennae with another of his kind. [292] Now they detached, and the first approached the man once more. [293] "There is, as it happens, a body available for a private game," he lisped. [294] "No questions to be asked or answered. [295] All I can tell you is that it is in good health." [296] The man hesitated. [297] "But unable to pass the screening?" [298] he murmured aloud. [299] "A criminal then." [300] The green one's face—if you could call it a face—remained impassive. [301] "Male?" [302] "Of course," the Vinzz said primly. [303] His kind did have certain ultimate standards to which they adhered rigidly, and one of those was the curious tabu against mixed games, strictly enforced even though it kept them from tapping a vast source of potential players. [304] There had also never been a recorded instance of humans and extraterrestrials exchanging identities, but whether that was the result of tabu or biological impossibility, no one could tell. [305] It might merely be prudence on the Vinzz' part—if it had ever been proved that an alien life-form had "desecrated" a human body, Earthmen would clamor for war ... for on this planet humanity held its self-bestowed purity of birthright dear—and the Vinzz, despite being unquestionably the stronger, were pragmatic pacifists. [306] It had been undoubtedly some rabid member of the anti-alien groups active on Terra who had started the rumor that the planetary slogan of Vinau was, "Don't beat 'em; cheat 'em." [307] "It would have to be something pretty nuclear for the other guy to take such a risk." [308] The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. [309] "How much?" [310] "Thirty thousand credits." [311] "Why, that's three times the usual rate!" [312] "The other will pay five times the usual rate." [313] "Oh, all right," the delicate young man gave in. [314] It was a terrific risk he was agreeing to take, because, if the other was a criminal, he himself would, upon assuming the body, assume responsibility for all the crimes it had committed. [315] But there was nothing else he could do. [316] He looked at himself in the mirror and found he had a fine new body; tall and strikingly handsome in a dark, coarse-featured way. [317] Nothing to match the one he had lost, in his opinion, but there were probably many people who might find this one preferable. [318] No identification in the pockets, but it wasn't necessary; he recognized the face. [319] Not that it was a very famous or even notorious one, but the dutchman was a careful student of the "wanted" fax that had decorated public buildings from time immemorial, for he was ever mindful of the possibility that he might one day find himself trapped unwittingly in the body of one of the men depicted there. [320] And he knew that this particular man, though not an important criminal in any sense of the word, was one whom the police had been ordered to burn on sight. [321] The abolishing of capital punishment could not abolish the necessity for self-defense, and the man in question was not one who would let himself be captured easily, nor whom the police intended to capture easily. [322] This might be a lucky break for me after all , the new tenant thought, as he tried to adjust himself to the body. [323] It, too, despite its obvious rude health, was not a very comfortable fit. [324] I can do a lot with a hulk like this. [325] And maybe I'm cleverer than the original owner; maybe I'll be able to get away with it. [326] IV "Look, Gabe," the girl said, "don't try to fool me! [327] I know you too well. [328] And I know you have that man's—the real Gabriel Lockard's—body." [329] She put unnecessary stardust on her nose as she watched her husband's reflection in the dressing table mirror. [330] Lockard—Lockard's body, at any rate—sat up and felt his unshaven chin. [331] "That what he tell you?" [332] "No, he didn't tell me anything really—just suggested I ask you whatever I want to know. [333] But why else should he guard somebody he obviously hates the way he hates you? [334] Only because he doesn't want to see his body spoiled." [335] "It is a pretty good body, isn't it?" [336] Gabe flexed softening muscles and made no attempt to deny her charge; very probably he was relieved at having someone with whom to share his secret. [337] "Not as good as it must have been," the girl said, turning and looking at him without admiration. [338] "Not if you keep on the way you're coursing. [339] Gabe, why don't you...?" [340] "Give it back to him, eh?" [341] Lockard regarded his wife appraisingly. [342] "You'd like that, wouldn't you? [343] You'd be his wife then. [344] That would be nice—a sound mind in a sound body. [345] But don't you think that's a little more than you deserve?" [346] "I wasn't thinking about that, Gabe," she said truthfully enough, for she hadn't followed the idea to its logical conclusion. [347] "Of course I'd go with you," she went on, now knowing she lied, "when you got your ... old body back." [348] Sure , she thought, I'd keep going with you to farjeen houses and thrill-mills. [349] Actually she had accompanied him to a thrill-mill only once, and from then on, despite all his threats, she had refused to go with him again. [350] But that once had been enough; nothing could ever wash that experience from her mind or her body. [351] "You wouldn't be able to get your old body back, though, would you?" [352] she went on. [353] "You don't know where it's gone, and neither, I suppose, does he?" [354] "I don't want to know!" [355] he spat. [356] "I wouldn't want it if I could get it back. [357] Whoever it adhered to probably killed himself as soon as he looked in a mirror." [358] He swung long legs over the side of his bed. [359] "Christ, anything would be better than that! [360] You can't imagine what a hulk I had!" [361] "Oh, yes, I can," she said incautiously. [362] "You must have had a body to match your character. [363] Pity you could only change one."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Who is the stranger in the gray suit and what is his significance?": 1. [32] Gabe studied the newcomer curiously. 2. [33] "So, it's you again?" 3. [34] The man in the gray suit smiled. 4. [35] "Who else in any world would stand up for you?" 5. [36] "I should think you'd have given up by now. 6. [37] Not that I mind having you around, of course," Gabriel added too quickly. 7. [38] "You do come in useful at times, you know." 8. [39] "So you don't mind having me around?" 9. [40] The nondescript man smiled again. 10. [41] "Then what are you running from, if not me? 11. [42] You can't be running from yourself—you lost yourself a while back, remember?" 12. [47] "I drank with you once too often," the nondescript man said. 13. [48] "And things worked out fine, didn't they? 14. [49] For you." 15. [50] His eyes studied the other man's incredibly handsome young face, noted the suggestion of bags under the eyes, the beginning of slackness at the lips, and were not pleased with what they saw. 16. [51] "Watch yourself, colleague," he warned as he left. 17. [52] "Soon you might not be worth the saving." 18. [58] Once the illuminators were extinguished in Gabriel Lockard's hotel suite, it seemed reasonably certain to the man in the gray suit, as he watched from the street, that his quarry would not go out again that night. 19. [59] So he went to the nearest airstation. 20. [60] There he inserted a coin in a locker, into which he put most of his personal possessions, reserving only a sum of money. 21. [61] After setting the locker to respond to the letter combination bodyguard , he went out into the street. 22. [62] If he had met with a fatal accident at that point, there would have been nothing on his body to identify him. 23. [63] As a matter of fact, no real identification was possible, for he was no one and had been no one for years. 24. [64] The nondescript man hailed a cruising helicab. 25. [65] "Where to, fellow-man?" 26. [66] the driver asked. 27. [67] "I'm new in the parish," the other man replied and let it hang there. 28. [147] "Come," he addressed her husband, "if you get up, I'll drive you home. 29. [148] I warn you, be more careful in the future! 30. [149] Sometimes," he added musingly, "I almost wish you would let something happen. 31. [150] Then my problem would not be any problem, would it?" 32. [223] "If you're after Gabriel, planning to hurt him," she asked, "why then do you keep helping him?" 33. [224] "I am not helping him . 34. [225] And he knows that." 35. [230] "Too bad he got married," the young man said. 36. [231] "I could have followed him for an eternity and he would never have been able to pick me out from the crowd. 37. [232] Too bad he got married anyway," he added, his voice less impersonal, "for your sake." 38. [257] The original Gabriel Lockard looked down at the prostrate, snow-powdered figure of the man who had stolen his body and his name, and stirred it with his toe. 39. [258] "I'd better call a cab—he might freeze to death." 40. [259] He signaled and a cab came. 41. [260] "Tell him, when he comes to," he said to the girl as he and the driver lifted the heavy form of her husband into the helicar, "that I'm getting pretty tired of this." 42. [261] He stopped for a long spell of coughing. 43. [262] "Tell him that sometimes I wonder whether cutting off my nose wouldn't, in the long run, be most beneficial for my face."

What are the zarquil games and what is their significance?

[1] Bodyguard By CHRISTOPHER GRIMM Illustrated by CAVAT [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1956. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] When overwhelming danger is constantly present,of course a man is entitled to have a bodyguard. [4] The annoyance was that he had to do it himself ... and his body would not cooperate! [5] The man at the bar was exceptionally handsome, and he knew it. [6] So did the light-haired girl at his side, and so did the nondescript man in the gray suit who was watching them from a booth in the corner. [7] Everyone in the room was aware of the big young man, and most of the humans present were resentful, for he handled himself consciously and arrogantly, as if his appearance alone were enough to make him superior to anyone. [8] Even the girl with him was growing restless, for she was accustomed to adulation herself, and next to Gabriel Lockard she was almost ordinary-looking. [9] As for the extraterrestrials—it was a free bar—they were merely amused, since to them all men were pathetically and irredeemably hideous. [10] Gabe threw his arm wide in one of his expansive gestures. [11] There was a short man standing next to the pair—young, as most men and women were in that time, thanks to the science which could stave off decay, though not death—but with no other apparent physical virtue, for plastic surgery had not fulfilled its bright promise of the twentieth century. [12] The drink he had been raising to his lips splashed all over his clothing; the glass shattered at his feet. [13] Now he was not only a rather ugly little man, but also a rather ridiculous one—or at least he felt he was, which was what mattered. [14] "Sorry, colleague," Gabe said lazily. [15] "All my fault. [16] You must let me buy you a replacement." [17] He gestured to the bartender. [18] "Another of the same for my fellow-man here." [19] The ugly man dabbed futilely at his dripping trousers with a cloth hastily supplied by the management. [20] "You must allow me to pay your cleaning bill," Gabe said, taking out his wallet and extracting several credit notes without seeming to look at them. [21] "Here, have yourself a new suit on me." [22] You could use one was implied. [23] And that, coming on top of Gabriel Lockard's spectacular appearance, was too much. [24] The ugly man picked up the drink the bartender had just set before him and started to hurl it, glass and all, into Lockard's handsome face. [25] Suddenly a restraining hand was laid upon his arm. [26] "Don't do that," the nondescript man who had been sitting in the corner advised. [27] He removed the glass from the little man's slackening grasp. [28] "You wouldn't want to go to jail because of him." [29] The ugly man gave him a bewildered stare. [30] Then, seeing the forces now ranged against him—including his own belated prudence—were too strong, he stumbled off. [31] He hadn't really wanted to fight, only to smash back, and now it was too late for that. [32] Gabe studied the newcomer curiously. [33] "So, it's you again?" [34] The man in the gray suit smiled. [35] "Who else in any world would stand up for you?" [36] "I should think you'd have given up by now. [37] Not that I mind having you around, of course," Gabriel added too quickly. [38] "You do come in useful at times, you know." [39] "So you don't mind having me around?" [40] The nondescript man smiled again. [41] "Then what are you running from, if not me? [42] You can't be running from yourself—you lost yourself a while back, remember?" [43] Gabe ran a hand through his thick blond hair. [44] "Come on, have a drink with me, fellow-man, and let's let bygones be bygones. [45] I owe you something—I admit that. [46] Maybe we can even work this thing out." [47] "I drank with you once too often," the nondescript man said. [48] "And things worked out fine, didn't they? [49] For you." [50] His eyes studied the other man's incredibly handsome young face, noted the suggestion of bags under the eyes, the beginning of slackness at the lips, and were not pleased with what they saw. [51] "Watch yourself, colleague," he warned as he left. [52] "Soon you might not be worth the saving." [53] "Who was that, Gabe?" [54] the girl asked. [55] He shrugged. [56] "I never saw him before in my life." [57] Of course, knowing him, she assumed he was lying, but, as a matter of fact, just then he happened to have been telling the truth. [58] Once the illuminators were extinguished in Gabriel Lockard's hotel suite, it seemed reasonably certain to the man in the gray suit, as he watched from the street, that his quarry would not go out again that night. [59] So he went to the nearest airstation. [60] There he inserted a coin in a locker, into which he put most of his personal possessions, reserving only a sum of money. [61] After setting the locker to respond to the letter combination bodyguard , he went out into the street. [62] If he had met with a fatal accident at that point, there would have been nothing on his body to identify him. [63] As a matter of fact, no real identification was possible, for he was no one and had been no one for years. [64] The nondescript man hailed a cruising helicab. [65] "Where to, fellow-man?" [66] the driver asked. [67] "I'm new in the parish," the other man replied and let it hang there. [68] "Oh...? [69] Females...? [70] Narcophagi...? [71] Thrill-mills?" [72] But to each of these questions the nondescript man shook his head. [73] "Games?" [74] the driver finally asked, although he could guess what was wanted by then. [75] "Dice...? [76] Roulette...? [77] Farjeen?" [78] "Is there a good zarquil game in town?" [79] The driver moved so he could see the face of the man behind him in the teleview. [80] A very ordinary face. [81] "Look, colleague, why don't you commit suicide? [82] It's cleaner and quicker." [83] "I can't contact your attitude," the passenger said with a thin smile. [84] "Bet you've never tried the game yourself. [85] Each time it happens, there's a ... well, there's no experience to match it at a thrill-mill." [86] He gave a sigh that was almost an audible shudder, and which the driver misinterpreted as an expression of ecstasy. [87] "Each time, eh? [88] You're a dutchman then?" [89] The driver spat out of the window. [90] "If it wasn't for the nibble, I'd throw you right out of the cab. [91] Without even bothering to take it down even. [92] I hate dutchmen ... anybody with any legitimate feelings hates 'em." [93] "But it would be silly to let personal prejudice stand in the way of a commission, wouldn't it?" [94] the other man asked coolly. [95] "Of course. [96] You'll need plenty of foliage, though." [97] "I have sufficient funds. [98] I also have a gun." [99] "You're the dictator," the driver agreed sullenly. [100] II It was a dark and rainy night in early fall. [101] Gabe Lockard was in no condition to drive the helicar. [102] However, he was stubborn. [103] "Let me take the controls, honey," the light-haired girl urged, but he shook his handsome head. [104] "Show you I can do something 'sides look pretty," he said thickly, referring to an earlier and not amicable conversation they had held, and of which she still bore the reminder on one thickly made-up cheek. [105] Fortunately the car was flying low, contrary to regulations, so that when they smashed into the beacon tower on the outskirts of the little town, they didn't have far to fall. [106] And hardly had their car crashed on the ground when the car that had been following them landed, and a short fat man was puffing toward them through the mist. [107] To the girl's indignation, the stranger not only hauled Gabe out onto the dripping grass first, but stopped and deliberately examined the young man by the light of his minilume, almost as if she weren't there at all. [108] Only when she started to struggle out by herself did he seem to remember her existence. [109] He pulled her away from the wreck just a moment before the fuel tank exploded and the 'copter went up in flames. [110] Gabe opened his eyes and saw the fat man gazing down at him speculatively. [111] "My guardian angel," he mumbled—shock had sobered him a little, but not enough. [112] He sat up. [113] "Guess I'm not hurt or you'd have thrown me back in." [114] "And that's no joke," the fat man agreed. [115] The girl shivered and at that moment Gabriel suddenly seemed to recall that he had not been alone. [116] "How about Helen? [117] She on course?" [118] "Seems to be," the fat man said. [119] "You all right, miss?" [120] he asked, glancing toward the girl without, she thought, much apparent concern. " [121] Mrs. ," Gabriel corrected. [122] "Allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," he said, bowing from his seated position toward the girl. [123] "Pretty bauble, isn't she?" [124] "I'm delighted to meet you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," the fat man said, looking at her intently. [125] His small eyes seemed to strip the make-up from her cheek and examine the livid bruise underneath. [126] "I hope you'll be worthy of the name." [127] The light given off by the flaming car flickered on his face and Gabriel's and, she supposed, hers too. [128] Otherwise, darkness surrounded the three of them. [129] There were no public illuminators this far out—even in town the lights were dimming and not being replaced fast enough nor by the newer models. [130] The town, the civilization, the planet all were old and beginning to slide downhill.... Gabe gave a short laugh, for no reason that she could see. [131] There was the feeling that she had encountered the fat man before, which was, of course, absurd. [132] She had an excellent memory for faces and his was not included in her gallery. [133] The girl pulled her thin jacket closer about her chilly body. [134] "Aren't you going to introduce your—your friend to me, Gabe?" [135] "I don't know who he is," Gabe said almost merrily, "except that he's no friend of mine. [136] Do you have a name, stranger?" [137] "Of course I have a name." [138] The fat man extracted an identification card from his wallet and read it. [139] "Says here I'm Dominic Bianchi, and Dominic Bianchi is a retail milgot dealer.... Only he isn't a retail milgot dealer any more; the poor fellow went bankrupt a couple of weeks ago, and now he isn't ... [140] anything." [141] "You saved our lives," the girl said. [142] "I'd like to give you some token of my—of our appreciation." [143] Her hand reached toward her credit-carrier with deliberate insult. [144] He might have saved her life, but only casually, as a by-product of some larger scheme, and her appreciation held little gratitude. [145] The fat man shook his head without rancor. [146] "I have plenty of money, thank you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard.... Come," he addressed her husband, "if you get up, I'll drive you home. [147] I warn you, be more careful in the future! [148] Sometimes," he added musingly, "I almost wish you would let something happen. [149] Then my problem would not be any problem, would it?" [150] Gabriel shivered. [151] "I'll be careful," he vowed. [152] "I promise—I'll be careful." [153] When he was sure that his charge was safely tucked in for the night, the fat man checked his personal possessions. [154] He then requested a taxi driver to take him to the nearest zarquil game. [155] The driver accepted the commission phlegmatically. [156] Perhaps he was more hardened than the others had been; perhaps he was unaware that the fat man was not a desperate or despairing individual seeking one last chance, but what was known colloquially as a flying dutchman, a man, or woman, who went from one zarquil game to another, loving the thrill of the sport, if you could call it that, for its own sake, and not for the futile hope it extended and which was its sole shred of claim to moral justification. [157] Perhaps—and this was the most likely hypothesis—he just didn't care. [158] Zarquil was extremely illegal, of course—so much so that there were many legitimate citizens who weren't quite sure just what the word implied, knowing merely that it was one of those nameless horrors so deliciously hinted at by the fax sheets under the generic term of "crimes against nature." [159] Actually the phrase was more appropriate to zarquil than to most of the other activities to which it was commonly applied. [160] And this was one crime—for it was crime in law as well as nature—in which victim had to be considered as guilty as perpetrator; otherwise the whole legal structure of society would collapse. [161] Playing the game was fabulously expensive; it had to be to make it profitable for the Vinzz to run it. [162] Those odd creatures from Altair's seventh planet cared nothing for the welfare of the completely alien human beings; all they wanted was to feather their own pockets with interstellar credits, so that they could return to Vinau and buy many slaves. [163] For, on Vinau, bodies were of little account, and so to them zarquil was the equivalent of the terrestrial game musical chairs. [164] Which was why they came to Terra to make profits—there has never been big money in musical chairs as such. [165] When the zarquil operators were apprehended, which was not frequent—as they had strange powers, which, not being definable, were beyond the law—they suffered their sentences with equanimity. [166] No Earth court could give an effective prison sentence to a creature whose life spanned approximately two thousand terrestrial years. [167] And capital punishment had become obsolete on Terra, which very possibly saved the terrestrials embarrassment, for it was not certain that their weapons could kill the Vinzz ... or whether, in fact, the Vinzz merely expired after a period of years out of sheer boredom. [168] Fortunately, because trade was more profitable than war, there had always been peace between Vinau and Terra, and, for that reason, Terra could not bar the entrance of apparently respectable citizens of a friendly planet. [169] The taxi driver took the fat man to one of the rather seedy locales in which the zarquil games were usually found, for the Vinzz attempted to conduct their operations with as much unobtrusiveness as was possible. [170] But the front door swung open on an interior that lacked the opulence of the usual Vinoz set-up; it was down-right shabby, the dim olive light hinting of squalor rather than forbidden pleasures. [171] That was the trouble in these smaller towns—you ran greater risks of getting involved in games where the players had not been carefully screened. [172] The Vinoz games were usually clean, because that paid off better, but, when profits were lacking, the Vinzz were capable of sliding off into darkside practices. [173] Naturally the small-town houses were more likely to have trouble in making ends meet, because everybody in the parish knew everybody else far too well. [174] The fat man wondered whether that had been his quarry's motive in coming to such desolate, off-trail places—hoping that eventually disaster would hit the one who pursued him. [175] Somehow, such a plan seemed too logical for the man he was haunting. [176] However, beggars could not be choosers. [177] The fat man paid off the heli-driver and entered the zarquil house. [178] "One?" [179] the small green creature in the slightly frayed robe asked. [180] "One," the fat man answered. [181] III The would-be thief fled down the dark alley, with the hot bright rays from the stranger's gun lancing out after him in flamboyant but futile patterns. [182] The stranger, a thin young man with delicate, angular features, made no attempt to follow. [183] Instead, he bent over to examine Gabriel Lockard's form, appropriately outstretched in the gutter. [184] "Only weighted out," he muttered, "he'll be all right. [185] Whatever possessed you two to come out to a place like this?" [186] "I really think Gabriel must be possessed...." the girl said, mostly to herself. [187] "I had no idea of the kind of place it was going to be until he brought me here. [188] The others were bad, but this is even worse. [189] It almost seems as if he went around looking for trouble, doesn't it?" [190] "It does indeed," the stranger agreed, coughing a little. [191] It was growing colder and, on this world, the cities had no domes to protect them from the climate, because it was Earth and the air was breathable and it wasn't worth the trouble of fixing up. [192] The girl looked closely at him. [193] "You look different, but you are the same man who pulled us out of that aircar crash, aren't you? [194] And before that the man in the gray suit? [195] And before that...?" [196] The young man's cheekbones protruded as he smiled. [197] "Yes, I'm all of them." [198] "Then what they say about the zarquil games is true? [199] There are people who go around changing their bodies like—like hats?" [200] Automatically she reached to adjust the expensive bit of blue synthetic on her moon-pale hair, for she was always conscious of her appearance; if she had not been so before marriage, Gabriel would have taught her that. [201] He smiled again, but coughed instead of speaking. [202] "But why do you do it? [203] Why! [204] Do you like it? [205] Or is it because of Gabriel?" [206] She was growing a little frantic; there was menace here and she could not understand it nor determine whether or not she was included in its scope. [207] "Do you want to keep him from recognizing you; is that it?" [208] "Ask him." [209] "He won't tell me; he never tells me anything. [210] We just keep running. [211] I didn't recognize it as running at first, but now I realize that's what we've been doing ever since we were married. [212] And running from you, I think?" [213] There was no change of expression on the man's gaunt face, and she wondered how much control he had over a body that, though second- or third- or fourth-hand, must be new to him. [214] How well could he make it respond? [215] What was it like to step into another person's casing? [216] But she must not let herself think that way or she would find herself looking for a zarquil game. [217] It would be one way of escaping Gabriel, but not, she thought, the best way; her body was much too good a one to risk so casually. [218] It was beginning to snow. [219] Light, feathery flakes drifted down on her husband's immobile body. [220] She pulled her thick coat—of fur taken from some animal who had lived and died light-years away—more closely about herself. [221] The thin young man began to cough again. [222] Overhead a tiny star seemed to detach itself from the pale flat disk of the Moon and hurl itself upward—one of the interstellar ships embarking on its long voyage to distant suns. [223] She wished that somehow she could be on it, but she was here, on this solitary old world in a barren solar system, with her unconscious husband and a strange man who followed them, and it looked as if here she would stay ... all three of them would stay.... "If you're after Gabriel, planning to hurt him," she asked, "why then do you keep helping him?" [224] "I am not helping him . [225] And he knows that." [226] "You'll change again tonight, won't you?" [227] she babbled. [228] "You always change after you ... meet us? [229] I think I'm beginning to be able to identify you now, even when you're ... wearing a new body; there's something about you that doesn't change." [230] "Too bad he got married," the young man said. [231] "I could have followed him for an eternity and he would never have been able to pick me out from the crowd. [232] Too bad he got married anyway," he added, his voice less impersonal, "for your sake." [233] She had come to the same conclusion in her six months of marriage, but she would not admit that to an outsider. [234] Though this man was hardly an outsider; he was part of their small family group—as long as she had known Gabriel, so long he must have known her. [235] And she began to suspect that he was even more closely involved than that. [236] "Why must you change again?" [237] she persisted, obliquely approaching the subject she feared. [238] "You have a pretty good body there. [239] Why run the risk of getting a bad one?" [240] "This isn't a good body," he said. [241] "It's diseased. [242] Sure, nobody's supposed to play the game who hasn't passed a thorough medical examination. [243] But in the places to which your husband has been leading me, they're often not too particular, as long as the player has plenty of foliage." [244] "How—long will it last you?" [245] "Four or five months, if I'm careful." [246] He smiled. [247] "But don't worry, if that's what you're doing; I'll get it passed on before then. [248] It'll be expensive—that's all. [249] Bad landing for the guy who gets it, but then it was tough on me too, wasn't it?" [250] "But how did you get into this ... [251] pursuit?" [252] she asked again. [253] "And why are you doing it?" [254] People didn't have any traffic with Gabriel Lockard for fun, not after they got to know him. [255] And this man certainly should know him better than most. [256] "Ask your husband." [257] The original Gabriel Lockard looked down at the prostrate, snow-powdered figure of the man who had stolen his body and his name, and stirred it with his toe. [258] "I'd better call a cab—he might freeze to death." [259] He signaled and a cab came. [260] "Tell him, when he comes to," he said to the girl as he and the driver lifted the heavy form of her husband into the helicar, "that I'm getting pretty tired of this." [261] He stopped for a long spell of coughing. [262] "Tell him that sometimes I wonder whether cutting off my nose wouldn't, in the long run, be most beneficial for my face." [263] "Sorry," the Vinzz said impersonally, in English that was perfect except for the slight dampening of the sibilants, "but I'm afraid you cannot play." [264] "Why not?" [265] The emaciated young man began to put on his clothes. [266] "You know why. [267] Your body is worthless. [268] And this is a reputable house." [269] "But I have plenty of money." [270] The young man coughed. [271] The Vinzz shrugged. [272] "I'll pay you twice the regular fee." [273] The green one shook his head. [274] "Regrettably, I do mean what I say. [275] This game is really clean." [276] "In a town like this?" [277] "That is the reason we can afford to be honest." [278] The Vinzz' tendrils quivered in what the man had come to recognize as amusement through long, but necessarily superficial acquaintance with the Vinzz. [279] His heavy robe of what looked like moss-green velvet, but might have been velvet-green moss, encrusted with oddly faceted alien jewels, swung with him. [280] "We do a lot of business here," he said unnecessarily, for the whole set-up spelled wealth far beyond the dreams of the man, and he was by no means poor when it came to worldly goods. [281] "Why don't you try another town where they're not so particular?" [282] The young man smiled wryly. [283] Just his luck to stumble on a sunny game. [284] He never liked to risk following his quarry in the same configuration. [285] And even though only the girl had actually seen him this time, he wouldn't feel at ease until he had made the usual body-shift. [286] Was he changing because of Gabriel, he wondered, or was he using his own discoverment and identification simply as an excuse to cover the fact that none of the bodies that fell to his lot ever seemed to fit him? [287] Was he activated solely by revenge or as much by the hope that in the hazards of the game he might, impossible though it now seemed, some day win another body that approached perfection as nearly as his original casing had? [288] He didn't know. [289] However, there seemed to be no help for it now; he would have to wait until they reached the next town, unless the girl, seeing him reappear in the same guise, would guess what had happened and tell her husband. [290] He himself had been a fool to admit to her that the hulk he inhabited was a sick one; he still couldn't understand how he could so casually have entrusted her with so vital a piece of information. [291] The Vinzz had been locking antennae with another of his kind. [292] Now they detached, and the first approached the man once more. [293] "There is, as it happens, a body available for a private game," he lisped. [294] "No questions to be asked or answered. [295] All I can tell you is that it is in good health." [296] The man hesitated. [297] "But unable to pass the screening?" [298] he murmured aloud. [299] "A criminal then." [300] The green one's face—if you could call it a face—remained impassive. [301] "Male?" [302] "Of course," the Vinzz said primly. [303] His kind did have certain ultimate standards to which they adhered rigidly, and one of those was the curious tabu against mixed games, strictly enforced even though it kept them from tapping a vast source of potential players. [304] There had also never been a recorded instance of humans and extraterrestrials exchanging identities, but whether that was the result of tabu or biological impossibility, no one could tell. [305] It might merely be prudence on the Vinzz' part—if it had ever been proved that an alien life-form had "desecrated" a human body, Earthmen would clamor for war ... for on this planet humanity held its self-bestowed purity of birthright dear—and the Vinzz, despite being unquestionably the stronger, were pragmatic pacifists. [306] It had been undoubtedly some rabid member of the anti-alien groups active on Terra who had started the rumor that the planetary slogan of Vinau was, "Don't beat 'em; cheat 'em." [307] "It would have to be something pretty nuclear for the other guy to take such a risk." [308] The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. [309] "How much?" [310] "Thirty thousand credits." [311] "Why, that's three times the usual rate!" [312] "The other will pay five times the usual rate." [313] "Oh, all right," the delicate young man gave in. [314] It was a terrific risk he was agreeing to take, because, if the other was a criminal, he himself would, upon assuming the body, assume responsibility for all the crimes it had committed. [315] But there was nothing else he could do. [316] He looked at himself in the mirror and found he had a fine new body; tall and strikingly handsome in a dark, coarse-featured way. [317] Nothing to match the one he had lost, in his opinion, but there were probably many people who might find this one preferable. [318] No identification in the pockets, but it wasn't necessary; he recognized the face. [319] Not that it was a very famous or even notorious one, but the dutchman was a careful student of the "wanted" fax that had decorated public buildings from time immemorial, for he was ever mindful of the possibility that he might one day find himself trapped unwittingly in the body of one of the men depicted there. [320] And he knew that this particular man, though not an important criminal in any sense of the word, was one whom the police had been ordered to burn on sight. [321] The abolishing of capital punishment could not abolish the necessity for self-defense, and the man in question was not one who would let himself be captured easily, nor whom the police intended to capture easily. [322] This might be a lucky break for me after all , the new tenant thought, as he tried to adjust himself to the body. [323] It, too, despite its obvious rude health, was not a very comfortable fit. [324] I can do a lot with a hulk like this. [325] And maybe I'm cleverer than the original owner; maybe I'll be able to get away with it. [326] IV "Look, Gabe," the girl said, "don't try to fool me! [327] I know you too well. [328] And I know you have that man's—the real Gabriel Lockard's—body." [329] She put unnecessary stardust on her nose as she watched her husband's reflection in the dressing table mirror. [330] Lockard—Lockard's body, at any rate—sat up and felt his unshaven chin. [331] "That what he tell you?" [332] "No, he didn't tell me anything really—just suggested I ask you whatever I want to know. [333] But why else should he guard somebody he obviously hates the way he hates you? [334] Only because he doesn't want to see his body spoiled." [335] "It is a pretty good body, isn't it?" [336] Gabe flexed softening muscles and made no attempt to deny her charge; very probably he was relieved at having someone with whom to share his secret. [337] "Not as good as it must have been," the girl said, turning and looking at him without admiration. [338] "Not if you keep on the way you're coursing. [339] Gabe, why don't you...?" [340] "Give it back to him, eh?" [341] Lockard regarded his wife appraisingly. [342] "You'd like that, wouldn't you? [343] You'd be his wife then. [344] That would be nice—a sound mind in a sound body. [345] But don't you think that's a little more than you deserve?" [346] "I wasn't thinking about that, Gabe," she said truthfully enough, for she hadn't followed the idea to its logical conclusion. [347] "Of course I'd go with you," she went on, now knowing she lied, "when you got your ... old body back." [348] Sure , she thought, I'd keep going with you to farjeen houses and thrill-mills. [349] Actually she had accompanied him to a thrill-mill only once, and from then on, despite all his threats, she had refused to go with him again. [350] But that once had been enough; nothing could ever wash that experience from her mind or her body. [351] "You wouldn't be able to get your old body back, though, would you?" [352] she went on. [353] "You don't know where it's gone, and neither, I suppose, does he?" [354] "I don't want to know!" [355] he spat. [356] "I wouldn't want it if I could get it back. [357] Whoever it adhered to probably killed himself as soon as he looked in a mirror." [358] He swung long legs over the side of his bed. [359] "Christ, anything would be better than that! [360] You can't imagine what a hulk I had!" [361] "Oh, yes, I can," she said incautiously. [362] "You must have had a body to match your character. [363] Pity you could only change one."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What are the zarquil games and what is their significance?": 1. [159] Actually the phrase was more appropriate to zarquil than to most of the other activities to which it was commonly applied. 2. [160] And this was one crime—for it was crime in law as well as nature—in which victim had to be considered as guilty as perpetrator; otherwise the whole legal structure of society would collapse. 3. [161] Playing the game was fabulously expensive; it had to be to make it profitable for the Vinzz to run it. 4. [162] Those odd creatures from Altair's seventh planet cared nothing for the welfare of the completely alien human beings; all they wanted was to feather their own pockets with interstellar credits, so that they could return to Vinau and buy many slaves. 5. [163] For, on Vinau, bodies were of little account, and so to them zarquil was the equivalent of the terrestrial game musical chairs. 6. [164] Which was why they came to Terra to make profits—there has never been big money in musical chairs as such. 7. [165] When the zarquil operators were apprehended, which was not frequent—as they had strange powers, which, not being definable, were beyond the law—they suffered their sentences with equanimity. 8. [166] No Earth court could give an effective prison sentence to a creature whose life spanned approximately two thousand terrestrial years. 9. [167] And capital punishment had become obsolete on Terra, which very possibly saved the terrestrials embarrassment, for it was not certain that their weapons could kill the Vinzz ... or whether, in fact, the Vinzz merely expired after a period of years out of sheer boredom. 10. [168] Fortunately, because trade was more profitable than war, there had always been peace between Vinau and Terra, and, for that reason, Terra could not bar the entrance of apparently respectable citizens of a friendly planet. 11. [169] The taxi driver took the fat man to one of the rather seedy locales in which the zarquil games were usually found, for the Vinzz attempted to conduct their operations with as much unobtrusiveness as was possible. 12. [170] But the front door swung open on an interior that lacked the opulence of the usual Vinoz set-up; it was down-right shabby, the dim olive light hinting of squalor rather than forbidden pleasures. 13. [171] That was the trouble in these smaller towns—you ran greater risks of getting involved in games where the players had not been carefully screened. 14. [172] The Vinoz games were usually clean, because that paid off better, but, when profits were lacking, the Vinzz were capable of sliding off into darkside practices. 15. [173] Naturally the small-town houses were more likely to have trouble in making ends meet, because everybody in the parish knew everybody else far too well. 16. [174] The fat man wondered whether that had been his quarry's motive in coming to such desolate, off-trail places—hoping that eventually disaster would hit the one who pursued him. 17. [257] The original Gabriel Lockard looked down at the prostrate, snow-powdered figure of the man who had stolen his body and his name, and stirred it with his toe. 18. [258] "I'd better call a cab—he might freeze to death." 19. [259] He signaled and a cab came. 20. [260] "Tell him, when he comes to," he said to the girl as he and the driver lifted the heavy form of her husband into the helicar, "that I'm getting pretty tired of this." 21. [261] He stopped for a long spell of coughing. 22. [262] "Tell him that sometimes I wonder whether cutting off my nose wouldn't, in the long run, be most beneficial for my face." 23. [263] "Sorry," the Vinzz said impersonally, in English that was perfect except for the slight dampening of the sibilants, "but I'm afraid you cannot play." 24. [264] "Why not?" 25. [265] The emaciated young man began to put on his clothes. 26. [266] "You know why. 27. [267] Your body is worthless. 28. [268] And this is a reputable house." 29. [269] "But I have plenty of money." 30. [270] The young man coughed. 31. [271] The Vinzz shrugged. 32. [272] "I'll pay you twice the regular fee." 33. [273] The green one shook his head. 34. [274] "Regrettably, I do mean what I say. 35. [275] This game is really clean." 36. [276] "In a town like this?" 37. [277] "That is the reason we can afford to be honest." 38. [278] The Vinzz' tendrils quivered in what the man had come to recognize as amusement through long, but necessarily superficial acquaintance with the Vinzz. 39. [279] His heavy robe of what looked like moss-green velvet, but might have been velvet-green moss, encrusted with oddly faceted alien jewels, swung with him. 40. [280] "We do a lot of business here," he said unnecessarily, for the whole set-up spelled wealth far beyond the dreams of the man, and he was by no means poor when it came to worldly goods. 41. [281] "Why don't you try another town where they're not so particular?" 42. [282] The young man smiled wryly. 43. [283] Just his luck to stumble on a sunny game. 44. [284] He never liked to risk following his quarry in the same configuration. 45. [285] And even though only the girl had actually seen him this time, he wouldn't feel at ease until he had made the usual body-shift. 46. [286] Was he changing because of Gabriel, he wondered, or was he using his own discoverment and identification simply as an excuse to cover the fact that none of the bodies that fell to his lot ever seemed to fit him? 47. [287] Was he activated solely by revenge or as much by the hope that in the hazards of the game he might, impossible though it now seemed, some day win another body that approached perfection as nearly as his original casing had? 48. [288] He didn't know. 49. [289] However, there seemed to be no help for it now; he would have to wait until they reached the next town, unless the girl, seeing him reappear in the same guise, would guess what had happened and tell her husband. 50. [290] He himself had been a fool to admit to her that the hulk he inhabited was a sick one; he still couldn't understand how he could so casually have entrusted her with so vital a piece of information. 51. [291] The Vinzz had been locking antennae with another of his kind. 52. [292] Now they detached, and the first approached the man once more. 53. [293] "There is, as it happens, a body available for a private game," he lisped. 54. [294] "No questions to be asked or answered. 55. [295] All I can tell you is that it is in good health." 56. [296] The man hesitated. 57. [297] "But unable to pass the screening?" 58. [298] he murmured aloud. 59. [299] "A criminal then." 60. [300] The green one's face—if you could call it a face—remained impassive. 61. [301] "Male?" 62. [302] "Of course," the Vinzz said primly. 63. [303] His kind did have certain ultimate standards to which they adhered rigidly, and one of those was the curious tabu against mixed games, strictly enforced even though it kept them from tapping a vast source of potential players. 64. [304] There had also never been a recorded instance of humans and extraterrestrials exchanging identities, but whether that was the result of tabu or biological impossibility, no one could tell. 65. [305] It might merely be prudence on the Vinzz' part—if it had ever been proved that an alien life-form had "desecrated" a human body, Earthmen would clamor for war ... for on this planet humanity held its self-bestowed purity of birthright dear—and the Vinzz, despite being unquestionably the stronger, were pragmatic pacifists. 66. [306] It had been undoubtedly some rabid member of the anti-alien groups active on Terra who had started the rumor that the planetary slogan of Vinau was, "Don't beat 'em; cheat 'em." 67. [307] "It would have to be something pretty nuclear for the other guy to take such a risk." 68. [308] The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 69. [309] "How much?" 70. [310] "Thirty thousand credits." 71. [311] "Why, that's three times the usual rate!" 72. [312] "The other will pay five times the usual rate." 73. [313] "Oh, all right," the delicate young man gave in. 74. [314] It was a terrific risk he was agreeing to take, because, if the other was a criminal, he himself would, upon assuming the body, assume responsibility for all the crimes it had committed. 75. [315] But there was nothing else he could do. 76. [316] He looked at himself in the mirror and found he had a fine new body; tall and strikingly handsome in a dark, coarse-featured way. 77. [317] Nothing to match the one he had lost, in his opinion, but there were probably many people who might find this one preferable. 78. [318] No identification in the pockets, but it wasn't necessary; he recognized the face. 79. [319] Not that it was a very famous or even notorious one, but the dutchman was a careful student of the "wanted" fax that had decorated public buildings from time immemorial, for he was ever mindful of the possibility that he might one day find himself trapped unwittingly in the body of one of the men depicted there. 80. [320] And he knew that this particular man, though not an important criminal in any sense of the word, was one whom the police had been ordered to burn on sight. 81. [321] The abolishing of capital punishment could not abolish the necessity for self-defense, and the man in question was not one who would let himself be captured easily, nor whom the police intended to capture easily. 82. [322] This might be a lucky break for me after all , the new tenant thought, as he tried to adjust himself to the body. 83. [323] It, too, despite its obvious rude health, was not a very comfortable fit. 84. [324] I can do a lot with a hulk like this. 85. [325] And maybe I'm cleverer than the original owner; maybe I'll be able to get away with it.

What is the relationship between Gabe Lockard and the stranger?

[1] Bodyguard By CHRISTOPHER GRIMM Illustrated by CAVAT [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1956. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] When overwhelming danger is constantly present,of course a man is entitled to have a bodyguard. [4] The annoyance was that he had to do it himself ... and his body would not cooperate! [5] The man at the bar was exceptionally handsome, and he knew it. [6] So did the light-haired girl at his side, and so did the nondescript man in the gray suit who was watching them from a booth in the corner. [7] Everyone in the room was aware of the big young man, and most of the humans present were resentful, for he handled himself consciously and arrogantly, as if his appearance alone were enough to make him superior to anyone. [8] Even the girl with him was growing restless, for she was accustomed to adulation herself, and next to Gabriel Lockard she was almost ordinary-looking. [9] As for the extraterrestrials—it was a free bar—they were merely amused, since to them all men were pathetically and irredeemably hideous. [10] Gabe threw his arm wide in one of his expansive gestures. [11] There was a short man standing next to the pair—young, as most men and women were in that time, thanks to the science which could stave off decay, though not death—but with no other apparent physical virtue, for plastic surgery had not fulfilled its bright promise of the twentieth century. [12] The drink he had been raising to his lips splashed all over his clothing; the glass shattered at his feet. [13] Now he was not only a rather ugly little man, but also a rather ridiculous one—or at least he felt he was, which was what mattered. [14] "Sorry, colleague," Gabe said lazily. [15] "All my fault. [16] You must let me buy you a replacement." [17] He gestured to the bartender. [18] "Another of the same for my fellow-man here." [19] The ugly man dabbed futilely at his dripping trousers with a cloth hastily supplied by the management. [20] "You must allow me to pay your cleaning bill," Gabe said, taking out his wallet and extracting several credit notes without seeming to look at them. [21] "Here, have yourself a new suit on me." [22] You could use one was implied. [23] And that, coming on top of Gabriel Lockard's spectacular appearance, was too much. [24] The ugly man picked up the drink the bartender had just set before him and started to hurl it, glass and all, into Lockard's handsome face. [25] Suddenly a restraining hand was laid upon his arm. [26] "Don't do that," the nondescript man who had been sitting in the corner advised. [27] He removed the glass from the little man's slackening grasp. [28] "You wouldn't want to go to jail because of him." [29] The ugly man gave him a bewildered stare. [30] Then, seeing the forces now ranged against him—including his own belated prudence—were too strong, he stumbled off. [31] He hadn't really wanted to fight, only to smash back, and now it was too late for that. [32] Gabe studied the newcomer curiously. [33] "So, it's you again?" [34] The man in the gray suit smiled. [35] "Who else in any world would stand up for you?" [36] "I should think you'd have given up by now. [37] Not that I mind having you around, of course," Gabriel added too quickly. [38] "You do come in useful at times, you know." [39] "So you don't mind having me around?" [40] The nondescript man smiled again. [41] "Then what are you running from, if not me? [42] You can't be running from yourself—you lost yourself a while back, remember?" [43] Gabe ran a hand through his thick blond hair. [44] "Come on, have a drink with me, fellow-man, and let's let bygones be bygones. [45] I owe you something—I admit that. [46] Maybe we can even work this thing out." [47] "I drank with you once too often," the nondescript man said. [48] "And things worked out fine, didn't they? [49] For you." [50] His eyes studied the other man's incredibly handsome young face, noted the suggestion of bags under the eyes, the beginning of slackness at the lips, and were not pleased with what they saw. [51] "Watch yourself, colleague," he warned as he left. [52] "Soon you might not be worth the saving." [53] "Who was that, Gabe?" [54] the girl asked. [55] He shrugged. [56] "I never saw him before in my life." [57] Of course, knowing him, she assumed he was lying, but, as a matter of fact, just then he happened to have been telling the truth. [58] Once the illuminators were extinguished in Gabriel Lockard's hotel suite, it seemed reasonably certain to the man in the gray suit, as he watched from the street, that his quarry would not go out again that night. [59] So he went to the nearest airstation. [60] There he inserted a coin in a locker, into which he put most of his personal possessions, reserving only a sum of money. [61] After setting the locker to respond to the letter combination bodyguard , he went out into the street. [62] If he had met with a fatal accident at that point, there would have been nothing on his body to identify him. [63] As a matter of fact, no real identification was possible, for he was no one and had been no one for years. [64] The nondescript man hailed a cruising helicab. [65] "Where to, fellow-man?" [66] the driver asked. [67] "I'm new in the parish," the other man replied and let it hang there. [68] "Oh...? [69] Females...? [70] Narcophagi...? [71] Thrill-mills?" [72] But to each of these questions the nondescript man shook his head. [73] "Games?" [74] the driver finally asked, although he could guess what was wanted by then. [75] "Dice...? [76] Roulette...? [77] Farjeen?" [78] "Is there a good zarquil game in town?" [79] The driver moved so he could see the face of the man behind him in the teleview. [80] A very ordinary face. [81] "Look, colleague, why don't you commit suicide? [82] It's cleaner and quicker." [83] "I can't contact your attitude," the passenger said with a thin smile. [84] "Bet you've never tried the game yourself. [85] Each time it happens, there's a ... well, there's no experience to match it at a thrill-mill." [86] He gave a sigh that was almost an audible shudder, and which the driver misinterpreted as an expression of ecstasy. [87] "Each time, eh? [88] You're a dutchman then?" [89] The driver spat out of the window. [90] "If it wasn't for the nibble, I'd throw you right out of the cab. [91] Without even bothering to take it down even. [92] I hate dutchmen ... anybody with any legitimate feelings hates 'em." [93] "But it would be silly to let personal prejudice stand in the way of a commission, wouldn't it?" [94] the other man asked coolly. [95] "Of course. [96] You'll need plenty of foliage, though." [97] "I have sufficient funds. [98] I also have a gun." [99] "You're the dictator," the driver agreed sullenly. [100] II It was a dark and rainy night in early fall. [101] Gabe Lockard was in no condition to drive the helicar. [102] However, he was stubborn. [103] "Let me take the controls, honey," the light-haired girl urged, but he shook his handsome head. [104] "Show you I can do something 'sides look pretty," he said thickly, referring to an earlier and not amicable conversation they had held, and of which she still bore the reminder on one thickly made-up cheek. [105] Fortunately the car was flying low, contrary to regulations, so that when they smashed into the beacon tower on the outskirts of the little town, they didn't have far to fall. [106] And hardly had their car crashed on the ground when the car that had been following them landed, and a short fat man was puffing toward them through the mist. [107] To the girl's indignation, the stranger not only hauled Gabe out onto the dripping grass first, but stopped and deliberately examined the young man by the light of his minilume, almost as if she weren't there at all. [108] Only when she started to struggle out by herself did he seem to remember her existence. [109] He pulled her away from the wreck just a moment before the fuel tank exploded and the 'copter went up in flames. [110] Gabe opened his eyes and saw the fat man gazing down at him speculatively. [111] "My guardian angel," he mumbled—shock had sobered him a little, but not enough. [112] He sat up. [113] "Guess I'm not hurt or you'd have thrown me back in." [114] "And that's no joke," the fat man agreed. [115] The girl shivered and at that moment Gabriel suddenly seemed to recall that he had not been alone. [116] "How about Helen? [117] She on course?" [118] "Seems to be," the fat man said. [119] "You all right, miss?" [120] he asked, glancing toward the girl without, she thought, much apparent concern. " [121] Mrs. ," Gabriel corrected. [122] "Allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," he said, bowing from his seated position toward the girl. [123] "Pretty bauble, isn't she?" [124] "I'm delighted to meet you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard," the fat man said, looking at her intently. [125] His small eyes seemed to strip the make-up from her cheek and examine the livid bruise underneath. [126] "I hope you'll be worthy of the name." [127] The light given off by the flaming car flickered on his face and Gabriel's and, she supposed, hers too. [128] Otherwise, darkness surrounded the three of them. [129] There were no public illuminators this far out—even in town the lights were dimming and not being replaced fast enough nor by the newer models. [130] The town, the civilization, the planet all were old and beginning to slide downhill.... Gabe gave a short laugh, for no reason that she could see. [131] There was the feeling that she had encountered the fat man before, which was, of course, absurd. [132] She had an excellent memory for faces and his was not included in her gallery. [133] The girl pulled her thin jacket closer about her chilly body. [134] "Aren't you going to introduce your—your friend to me, Gabe?" [135] "I don't know who he is," Gabe said almost merrily, "except that he's no friend of mine. [136] Do you have a name, stranger?" [137] "Of course I have a name." [138] The fat man extracted an identification card from his wallet and read it. [139] "Says here I'm Dominic Bianchi, and Dominic Bianchi is a retail milgot dealer.... Only he isn't a retail milgot dealer any more; the poor fellow went bankrupt a couple of weeks ago, and now he isn't ... [140] anything." [141] "You saved our lives," the girl said. [142] "I'd like to give you some token of my—of our appreciation." [143] Her hand reached toward her credit-carrier with deliberate insult. [144] He might have saved her life, but only casually, as a by-product of some larger scheme, and her appreciation held little gratitude. [145] The fat man shook his head without rancor. [146] "I have plenty of money, thank you, Mrs. Gabriel Lockard.... Come," he addressed her husband, "if you get up, I'll drive you home. [147] I warn you, be more careful in the future! [148] Sometimes," he added musingly, "I almost wish you would let something happen. [149] Then my problem would not be any problem, would it?" [150] Gabriel shivered. [151] "I'll be careful," he vowed. [152] "I promise—I'll be careful." [153] When he was sure that his charge was safely tucked in for the night, the fat man checked his personal possessions. [154] He then requested a taxi driver to take him to the nearest zarquil game. [155] The driver accepted the commission phlegmatically. [156] Perhaps he was more hardened than the others had been; perhaps he was unaware that the fat man was not a desperate or despairing individual seeking one last chance, but what was known colloquially as a flying dutchman, a man, or woman, who went from one zarquil game to another, loving the thrill of the sport, if you could call it that, for its own sake, and not for the futile hope it extended and which was its sole shred of claim to moral justification. [157] Perhaps—and this was the most likely hypothesis—he just didn't care. [158] Zarquil was extremely illegal, of course—so much so that there were many legitimate citizens who weren't quite sure just what the word implied, knowing merely that it was one of those nameless horrors so deliciously hinted at by the fax sheets under the generic term of "crimes against nature." [159] Actually the phrase was more appropriate to zarquil than to most of the other activities to which it was commonly applied. [160] And this was one crime—for it was crime in law as well as nature—in which victim had to be considered as guilty as perpetrator; otherwise the whole legal structure of society would collapse. [161] Playing the game was fabulously expensive; it had to be to make it profitable for the Vinzz to run it. [162] Those odd creatures from Altair's seventh planet cared nothing for the welfare of the completely alien human beings; all they wanted was to feather their own pockets with interstellar credits, so that they could return to Vinau and buy many slaves. [163] For, on Vinau, bodies were of little account, and so to them zarquil was the equivalent of the terrestrial game musical chairs. [164] Which was why they came to Terra to make profits—there has never been big money in musical chairs as such. [165] When the zarquil operators were apprehended, which was not frequent—as they had strange powers, which, not being definable, were beyond the law—they suffered their sentences with equanimity. [166] No Earth court could give an effective prison sentence to a creature whose life spanned approximately two thousand terrestrial years. [167] And capital punishment had become obsolete on Terra, which very possibly saved the terrestrials embarrassment, for it was not certain that their weapons could kill the Vinzz ... or whether, in fact, the Vinzz merely expired after a period of years out of sheer boredom. [168] Fortunately, because trade was more profitable than war, there had always been peace between Vinau and Terra, and, for that reason, Terra could not bar the entrance of apparently respectable citizens of a friendly planet. [169] The taxi driver took the fat man to one of the rather seedy locales in which the zarquil games were usually found, for the Vinzz attempted to conduct their operations with as much unobtrusiveness as was possible. [170] But the front door swung open on an interior that lacked the opulence of the usual Vinoz set-up; it was down-right shabby, the dim olive light hinting of squalor rather than forbidden pleasures. [171] That was the trouble in these smaller towns—you ran greater risks of getting involved in games where the players had not been carefully screened. [172] The Vinoz games were usually clean, because that paid off better, but, when profits were lacking, the Vinzz were capable of sliding off into darkside practices. [173] Naturally the small-town houses were more likely to have trouble in making ends meet, because everybody in the parish knew everybody else far too well. [174] The fat man wondered whether that had been his quarry's motive in coming to such desolate, off-trail places—hoping that eventually disaster would hit the one who pursued him. [175] Somehow, such a plan seemed too logical for the man he was haunting. [176] However, beggars could not be choosers. [177] The fat man paid off the heli-driver and entered the zarquil house. [178] "One?" [179] the small green creature in the slightly frayed robe asked. [180] "One," the fat man answered. [181] III The would-be thief fled down the dark alley, with the hot bright rays from the stranger's gun lancing out after him in flamboyant but futile patterns. [182] The stranger, a thin young man with delicate, angular features, made no attempt to follow. [183] Instead, he bent over to examine Gabriel Lockard's form, appropriately outstretched in the gutter. [184] "Only weighted out," he muttered, "he'll be all right. [185] Whatever possessed you two to come out to a place like this?" [186] "I really think Gabriel must be possessed...." the girl said, mostly to herself. [187] "I had no idea of the kind of place it was going to be until he brought me here. [188] The others were bad, but this is even worse. [189] It almost seems as if he went around looking for trouble, doesn't it?" [190] "It does indeed," the stranger agreed, coughing a little. [191] It was growing colder and, on this world, the cities had no domes to protect them from the climate, because it was Earth and the air was breathable and it wasn't worth the trouble of fixing up. [192] The girl looked closely at him. [193] "You look different, but you are the same man who pulled us out of that aircar crash, aren't you? [194] And before that the man in the gray suit? [195] And before that...?" [196] The young man's cheekbones protruded as he smiled. [197] "Yes, I'm all of them." [198] "Then what they say about the zarquil games is true? [199] There are people who go around changing their bodies like—like hats?" [200] Automatically she reached to adjust the expensive bit of blue synthetic on her moon-pale hair, for she was always conscious of her appearance; if she had not been so before marriage, Gabriel would have taught her that. [201] He smiled again, but coughed instead of speaking. [202] "But why do you do it? [203] Why! [204] Do you like it? [205] Or is it because of Gabriel?" [206] She was growing a little frantic; there was menace here and she could not understand it nor determine whether or not she was included in its scope. [207] "Do you want to keep him from recognizing you; is that it?" [208] "Ask him." [209] "He won't tell me; he never tells me anything. [210] We just keep running. [211] I didn't recognize it as running at first, but now I realize that's what we've been doing ever since we were married. [212] And running from you, I think?" [213] There was no change of expression on the man's gaunt face, and she wondered how much control he had over a body that, though second- or third- or fourth-hand, must be new to him. [214] How well could he make it respond? [215] What was it like to step into another person's casing? [216] But she must not let herself think that way or she would find herself looking for a zarquil game. [217] It would be one way of escaping Gabriel, but not, she thought, the best way; her body was much too good a one to risk so casually. [218] It was beginning to snow. [219] Light, feathery flakes drifted down on her husband's immobile body. [220] She pulled her thick coat—of fur taken from some animal who had lived and died light-years away—more closely about herself. [221] The thin young man began to cough again. [222] Overhead a tiny star seemed to detach itself from the pale flat disk of the Moon and hurl itself upward—one of the interstellar ships embarking on its long voyage to distant suns. [223] She wished that somehow she could be on it, but she was here, on this solitary old world in a barren solar system, with her unconscious husband and a strange man who followed them, and it looked as if here she would stay ... all three of them would stay.... "If you're after Gabriel, planning to hurt him," she asked, "why then do you keep helping him?" [224] "I am not helping him . [225] And he knows that." [226] "You'll change again tonight, won't you?" [227] she babbled. [228] "You always change after you ... meet us? [229] I think I'm beginning to be able to identify you now, even when you're ... wearing a new body; there's something about you that doesn't change." [230] "Too bad he got married," the young man said. [231] "I could have followed him for an eternity and he would never have been able to pick me out from the crowd. [232] Too bad he got married anyway," he added, his voice less impersonal, "for your sake." [233] She had come to the same conclusion in her six months of marriage, but she would not admit that to an outsider. [234] Though this man was hardly an outsider; he was part of their small family group—as long as she had known Gabriel, so long he must have known her. [235] And she began to suspect that he was even more closely involved than that. [236] "Why must you change again?" [237] she persisted, obliquely approaching the subject she feared. [238] "You have a pretty good body there. [239] Why run the risk of getting a bad one?" [240] "This isn't a good body," he said. [241] "It's diseased. [242] Sure, nobody's supposed to play the game who hasn't passed a thorough medical examination. [243] But in the places to which your husband has been leading me, they're often not too particular, as long as the player has plenty of foliage." [244] "How—long will it last you?" [245] "Four or five months, if I'm careful." [246] He smiled. [247] "But don't worry, if that's what you're doing; I'll get it passed on before then. [248] It'll be expensive—that's all. [249] Bad landing for the guy who gets it, but then it was tough on me too, wasn't it?" [250] "But how did you get into this ... [251] pursuit?" [252] she asked again. [253] "And why are you doing it?" [254] People didn't have any traffic with Gabriel Lockard for fun, not after they got to know him. [255] And this man certainly should know him better than most. [256] "Ask your husband." [257] The original Gabriel Lockard looked down at the prostrate, snow-powdered figure of the man who had stolen his body and his name, and stirred it with his toe. [258] "I'd better call a cab—he might freeze to death." [259] He signaled and a cab came. [260] "Tell him, when he comes to," he said to the girl as he and the driver lifted the heavy form of her husband into the helicar, "that I'm getting pretty tired of this." [261] He stopped for a long spell of coughing. [262] "Tell him that sometimes I wonder whether cutting off my nose wouldn't, in the long run, be most beneficial for my face." [263] "Sorry," the Vinzz said impersonally, in English that was perfect except for the slight dampening of the sibilants, "but I'm afraid you cannot play." [264] "Why not?" [265] The emaciated young man began to put on his clothes. [266] "You know why. [267] Your body is worthless. [268] And this is a reputable house." [269] "But I have plenty of money." [270] The young man coughed. [271] The Vinzz shrugged. [272] "I'll pay you twice the regular fee." [273] The green one shook his head. [274] "Regrettably, I do mean what I say. [275] This game is really clean." [276] "In a town like this?" [277] "That is the reason we can afford to be honest." [278] The Vinzz' tendrils quivered in what the man had come to recognize as amusement through long, but necessarily superficial acquaintance with the Vinzz. [279] His heavy robe of what looked like moss-green velvet, but might have been velvet-green moss, encrusted with oddly faceted alien jewels, swung with him. [280] "We do a lot of business here," he said unnecessarily, for the whole set-up spelled wealth far beyond the dreams of the man, and he was by no means poor when it came to worldly goods. [281] "Why don't you try another town where they're not so particular?" [282] The young man smiled wryly. [283] Just his luck to stumble on a sunny game. [284] He never liked to risk following his quarry in the same configuration. [285] And even though only the girl had actually seen him this time, he wouldn't feel at ease until he had made the usual body-shift. [286] Was he changing because of Gabriel, he wondered, or was he using his own discoverment and identification simply as an excuse to cover the fact that none of the bodies that fell to his lot ever seemed to fit him? [287] Was he activated solely by revenge or as much by the hope that in the hazards of the game he might, impossible though it now seemed, some day win another body that approached perfection as nearly as his original casing had? [288] He didn't know. [289] However, there seemed to be no help for it now; he would have to wait until they reached the next town, unless the girl, seeing him reappear in the same guise, would guess what had happened and tell her husband. [290] He himself had been a fool to admit to her that the hulk he inhabited was a sick one; he still couldn't understand how he could so casually have entrusted her with so vital a piece of information. [291] The Vinzz had been locking antennae with another of his kind. [292] Now they detached, and the first approached the man once more. [293] "There is, as it happens, a body available for a private game," he lisped. [294] "No questions to be asked or answered. [295] All I can tell you is that it is in good health." [296] The man hesitated. [297] "But unable to pass the screening?" [298] he murmured aloud. [299] "A criminal then." [300] The green one's face—if you could call it a face—remained impassive. [301] "Male?" [302] "Of course," the Vinzz said primly. [303] His kind did have certain ultimate standards to which they adhered rigidly, and one of those was the curious tabu against mixed games, strictly enforced even though it kept them from tapping a vast source of potential players. [304] There had also never been a recorded instance of humans and extraterrestrials exchanging identities, but whether that was the result of tabu or biological impossibility, no one could tell. [305] It might merely be prudence on the Vinzz' part—if it had ever been proved that an alien life-form had "desecrated" a human body, Earthmen would clamor for war ... for on this planet humanity held its self-bestowed purity of birthright dear—and the Vinzz, despite being unquestionably the stronger, were pragmatic pacifists. [306] It had been undoubtedly some rabid member of the anti-alien groups active on Terra who had started the rumor that the planetary slogan of Vinau was, "Don't beat 'em; cheat 'em." [307] "It would have to be something pretty nuclear for the other guy to take such a risk." [308] The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. [309] "How much?" [310] "Thirty thousand credits." [311] "Why, that's three times the usual rate!" [312] "The other will pay five times the usual rate." [313] "Oh, all right," the delicate young man gave in. [314] It was a terrific risk he was agreeing to take, because, if the other was a criminal, he himself would, upon assuming the body, assume responsibility for all the crimes it had committed. [315] But there was nothing else he could do. [316] He looked at himself in the mirror and found he had a fine new body; tall and strikingly handsome in a dark, coarse-featured way. [317] Nothing to match the one he had lost, in his opinion, but there were probably many people who might find this one preferable. [318] No identification in the pockets, but it wasn't necessary; he recognized the face. [319] Not that it was a very famous or even notorious one, but the dutchman was a careful student of the "wanted" fax that had decorated public buildings from time immemorial, for he was ever mindful of the possibility that he might one day find himself trapped unwittingly in the body of one of the men depicted there. [320] And he knew that this particular man, though not an important criminal in any sense of the word, was one whom the police had been ordered to burn on sight. [321] The abolishing of capital punishment could not abolish the necessity for self-defense, and the man in question was not one who would let himself be captured easily, nor whom the police intended to capture easily. [322] This might be a lucky break for me after all , the new tenant thought, as he tried to adjust himself to the body. [323] It, too, despite its obvious rude health, was not a very comfortable fit. [324] I can do a lot with a hulk like this. [325] And maybe I'm cleverer than the original owner; maybe I'll be able to get away with it. [326] IV "Look, Gabe," the girl said, "don't try to fool me! [327] I know you too well. [328] And I know you have that man's—the real Gabriel Lockard's—body." [329] She put unnecessary stardust on her nose as she watched her husband's reflection in the dressing table mirror. [330] Lockard—Lockard's body, at any rate—sat up and felt his unshaven chin. [331] "That what he tell you?" [332] "No, he didn't tell me anything really—just suggested I ask you whatever I want to know. [333] But why else should he guard somebody he obviously hates the way he hates you? [334] Only because he doesn't want to see his body spoiled." [335] "It is a pretty good body, isn't it?" [336] Gabe flexed softening muscles and made no attempt to deny her charge; very probably he was relieved at having someone with whom to share his secret. [337] "Not as good as it must have been," the girl said, turning and looking at him without admiration. [338] "Not if you keep on the way you're coursing. [339] Gabe, why don't you...?" [340] "Give it back to him, eh?" [341] Lockard regarded his wife appraisingly. [342] "You'd like that, wouldn't you? [343] You'd be his wife then. [344] That would be nice—a sound mind in a sound body. [345] But don't you think that's a little more than you deserve?" [346] "I wasn't thinking about that, Gabe," she said truthfully enough, for she hadn't followed the idea to its logical conclusion. [347] "Of course I'd go with you," she went on, now knowing she lied, "when you got your ... old body back." [348] Sure , she thought, I'd keep going with you to farjeen houses and thrill-mills. [349] Actually she had accompanied him to a thrill-mill only once, and from then on, despite all his threats, she had refused to go with him again. [350] But that once had been enough; nothing could ever wash that experience from her mind or her body. [351] "You wouldn't be able to get your old body back, though, would you?" [352] she went on. [353] "You don't know where it's gone, and neither, I suppose, does he?" [354] "I don't want to know!" [355] he spat. [356] "I wouldn't want it if I could get it back. [357] Whoever it adhered to probably killed himself as soon as he looked in a mirror." [358] He swung long legs over the side of his bed. [359] "Christ, anything would be better than that! [360] You can't imagine what a hulk I had!" [361] "Oh, yes, I can," she said incautiously. [362] "You must have had a body to match your character. [363] Pity you could only change one."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the relationship between Gabe Lockard and the stranger?": 1. [32] Gabe studied the newcomer curiously. 2. [33] "So, it's you again?" 3. [34] The man in the gray suit smiled. 4. [35] "Who else in any world would stand up for you?" 5. [36] "I should think you'd have given up by now. 6. [37] Not that I mind having you around, of course," Gabriel added too quickly. 7. [38] "You do come in useful at times, you know." 8. [39] "So you don't mind having me around?" 9. [40] The nondescript man smiled again. 10. [41] "Then what are you running from, if not me? 11. [42] You can't be running from yourself—you lost yourself a while back, remember?" 12. [44] "Come on, have a drink with me, fellow-man, and let's let bygones be bygones. 13. [45] I owe you something—I admit that. 14. [46] Maybe we can even work this thing out." 15. [47] "I drank with you once too often," the nondescript man said. 16. [48] "And things worked out fine, didn't they? 17. [49] For you." 18. [50] His eyes studied the other man's incredibly handsome young face, noted the suggestion of bags under the eyes, the beginning of slackness at the lips, and were not pleased with what they saw. 19. [51] "Watch yourself, colleague," he warned as he left. 20. [52] "Soon you might not be worth the saving." 21. [53] "Who was that, Gabe?" 22. [54] the girl asked. 23. [55] He shrugged. 24. [56] "I never saw him before in my life." 25. [57] Of course, knowing him, she assumed he was lying, but, as a matter of fact, just then he happened to have been telling the truth. 26. [58] Once the illuminators were extinguished in Gabriel Lockard's hotel suite, it seemed reasonably certain to the man in the gray suit, as he watched from the street, that his quarry would not go out again that night. 27. [59] So he went to the nearest airstation. 28. [60] There he inserted a coin in a locker, into which he put most of his personal possessions, reserving only a sum of money. 29. [61] After setting the locker to respond to the letter combination bodyguard , he went out into the street. 30. [62] If he had met with a fatal accident at that point, there would have been nothing on his body to identify him. 31. [63] As a matter of fact, no real identification was possible, for he was no one and had been no one for years. 32. [135] "I don't know who he is," Gabe said almost merrily, "except that he's no friend of mine. 33. [136] Do you have a name, stranger?" 34. [137] "Of course I have a name." 35. [138] The fat man extracted an identification card from his wallet and read it. 36. [139] "Says here I'm Dominic Bianchi, and Dominic Bianchi is a retail milgot dealer.... Only he isn't a retail milgot dealer any more; the poor fellow went bankrupt a couple of weeks ago, and now he isn't ... 37. [140] anything." 38. [147] "I warn you, be more careful in the future! 39. [148] Sometimes," he added musingly, "I almost wish you would let something happen. 40. [149] Then my problem would not be any problem, would it?" 41. [223] "If you're after Gabriel, planning to hurt him," she asked, "why then do you keep helping him?" 42. [224] "I am not helping him . 43. [225] And he knows that." 44. [230] "Too bad he got married," the young man said. 45. [231] "I could have followed him for an eternity and he would never have been able to pick me out from the crowd. 46. [232] Too bad he got married anyway," he added, his voice less impersonal, "for your sake." 47. [257] The original Gabriel Lockard looked down at the prostrate, snow-powdered figure of the man who had stolen his body and his name, and stirred it with his toe. 48. [258] "I'd better call a cab—he might freeze to death." 49. [259] He signaled and a cab came. 50. [260] "Tell him, when he comes to," he said to the girl as he and the driver lifted the heavy form of her husband into the helicar, "that I'm getting pretty tired of this." 51. [261] He stopped for a long spell of coughing. 52. [262] "Tell him that sometimes I wonder whether cutting off my nose wouldn't, in the long run, be most beneficial for my face."

What is the plot of the story?

[1] The Winning of the Moon BY KRIS NEVILLE The enemy was friendly enough. [2] Trouble was—their friendship was as dangerous as their hate! [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] General Finogenov notified Major Winship that the underground blast was scheduled for the following morning. [6] Major Winship, after receiving the message, discussed precautions with the three other Americans. [7] Next morning, before the sunlight exploded, the four of them donned their space suits and went and sat outside the dome, waiting. [8] The sun rose with its bright, silent clap of radiance. [9] Black pools of shadows lay in harsh contrast, their edges drawn with geometric precision. [10] Major Winship attempted unsuccessfully to communicate with Base Gagarin. [11] "Will you please request the general to keep us informed on the progress of the countdown?" [12] "Is Pinov," came the reply. [13] "Help?" [14] " Nyet ," said Major Winship, exhausting his Russian. [15] "Count down. [16] Progress. [17] When—boom?" [18] "Is Pinov," came the reply. [19] "Boom! [20] Boom!" [21] said Major Winship in exasperation. [22] "Boom!" [23] said Pinov happily. [24] "When?" [25] "Boom—boom!" [26] said Pinov. [27] "Oh, nuts." [28] Major Winship cut out the circuit. [29] "They've got Pinov on emergency watch this morning," he explained to the other Americans. [30] "The one that doesn't speak English." [31] "He's done it deliberately," said Capt. [32] Wilkins, the eldest of the four Americans. [33] "How are we going to know when it's over?" [34] No one bothered to respond. [35] They sat for a while in silence while the shadows evaporated. [36] One by one they clicked on their cooling systems. [37] Ultimately, Lt. Chandler said, "This is a little ridiculous. [38] I'm going to switch over to their channel. [39] Rap if you want me." [40] He sat transfixed for several minutes. [41] "Ah, it's all Russian. [42] Jabbering away. [43] I can't tell a thing that's going on." [44] In the airless void of the moon, the blast itself would be silent. [45] A moth's wing of dust would, perhaps, rise and settle beyond the horizon: no more. [46] "Static?" [47] "Nope." [48] "We'll get static on these things." [49] A small infinity seemed to pass very slowly. [50] Major Winship shifted restlessly. [51] "My reefer's gone on the fritz." [52] Perspiration was trickling down his face. [53] "Let's all go in," said the fourth American, Capt. [54] Lawler. [55] "It's probably over by now." [56] "I'll try again," Major Winship said and switched to the emergency channel. [57] "Base Gagarin? [58] Base Gagarin?" [59] "Is Pinov. [60] Help?" [61] " Nyet. " [62] "Pinov's still there," Major Winship said. [63] "Tell him, 'Help'," said Capt. [64] Wilkins, "so he'll get somebody we can talk to." [65] "I'll see them all in hell, first," Major Winship said. [66] Five minutes later, the perspiration was rivers across his face. [67] "This is it," he said. [68] "I'm going in." [69] "Let's all—" "No. [70] I've got to cool off." [71] "Hell, Charlie, I feel stupid sitting out here," Capt. [72] Lawler said. [73] "The shot probably went off an hour ago." [74] "The static level hasn't gone up much, if at all." [75] "Maybe," Lt. Chandler said, "it's buried too deep." [76] "Maybe so," Major Winship said. [77] "But we can't have the dome fall down around all our ears." [78] He stood. [79] "Whew! [80] You guys stay put." [81] He crossed with the floating moon-motion to the airlock and entered, closing the door behind him. [82] The darkness slowly filled with air, and the temperature inside the suit declined steadily. [83] At the proper moment of pressure, the inner lock slid open and Major Winship stepped into the illuminated central area. [84] His foot was lifted for the second step when the floor beneath him rose and fell gently, pitching him forward, off balance. [85] He stumbled against the table and ended up seated beside the radio equipment. [86] The ground moved again. [87] "Charlie! [88] Charlie!" [89] "I'm okay," Major Winship answered. [90] "Okay! [91] Okay!" [92] "It's—" There was additional surface movement. [93] The movement ceased. [94] "Hey, Les, how's it look?" [95] Capt. [96] Wilkins asked. [97] "Okay from this side. [98] Charlie, you still okay?" [99] "Okay," Major Winship said. [100] "We told them this might happen," he added bitterly. [101] There was a wait during which everyone seemed to be holding their breath. [102] "I guess it's over," said Major Winship, getting to his feet. [103] "Wait a bit more, there may be an after-shock." [104] He switched once again to the emergency channel. [105] "Is Pinov," came the supremely relaxed voice. [106] "Help?" [107] Major Winship whinnied in disgust. " [108] Nyet! " [109] he snarled. [110] To the other Americans: "Our comrades seem unconcerned." [111] "Tough." [112] They began to get the static for the first time. [113] It crackled and snapped in their speakers. [114] They made sounds of disapproval at each other. [115] For a minute or two, static blanked out the communications completely. [116] It then abated to something in excess of normal. [117] "Well," Lt. Chandler commented, "even though we didn't build this thing to withstand a moonquake, it seems to have stood up all right." [118] "I guess I was just—" Major Winship began. [119] "Oh, hell! [120] We're losing pressure. [121] Where's the markers?" [122] "By the lug cabinet." [123] "Got 'em," Major Winship said a moment later. [124] He peeled back a marker and let it fall. [125] Air currents whisked it away and plastered it against a riveted seam of the dome. [126] It pulsed as though it were breathing and then it ruptured. [127] Major Winship moved quickly to cut out the emergency air supply which had cut in automatically with the pressure drop. [128] "You guys wait. [129] It's on your right side, midway up. [130] I'll try to sheet it." [131] He moved for the plastic sheeting. [132] "We've lost about three feet of calk out here," Capt. [133] Lawler said. [134] "I can see more ripping loose. [135] You're losing pressure fast at this rate." [136] Major Winship pressed the sheeting over the leak. [137] "How's that?" [138] "Not yet." [139] "I don't think I've got enough pressure left to hold it, now. [140] It's sprung a little, and I can't get it to conform over the rivet heads." [141] There was a splatter of static. [142] "Damn!" [143] Major Winship said, "they should have made these things more flexible." [144] "Still coming out." [145] "Best I can do." [146] Major Winship stepped back. [147] The sheet began slowly to slide downward, then it fell away completely and lay limply on the floor. [148] "Come on in," he said dryly. [149] With the four of them inside, it was somewhat cramped. [150] Most of the five hundred square feet was filled with equipment. [151] Electrical cables trailed loosely along the walls and were festooned from the ceiling, radiating from the connections to the outside solar cells. [152] The living space was more restricted than in a submarine, with the bunks jutting out from the walls about six feet from the floor. [153] Lt. Chandler mounted one of the bunks to give them more room. [154] "Well," he said wryly, "it doesn't smell as bad now." [155] "Oops," said Major Winship. [156] "Just a second. [157] They're coming in." [158] He switched over to the emergency channel. [159] It was General Finogenov. [160] "Major Winship! [161] Hello! [162] Hello, hello, hello. [163] You A Okay?" [164] "This is Major Winship." [165] "Oh! [166] Excellent, very good. [167] Any damage, Major?" [168] "Little leak. [169] You?" [170] "Came through without damage." [171] General Finogenov paused a moment. [172] When no comment was forthcoming, he continued: "Perhaps we built a bit more strongly, Major." [173] "You did this deliberately," Major Winship said testily. [174] "No, no. [175] Oh, no, no, no, no. [176] Major Winship, please believe me. [177] I very much regret this. [178] Very much so. [179] I am very distressed. [180] Depressed. [181] After repeatedly assuring you there was no danger of a quake—and then to have something like this happen. [182] Oh, this is very embarrassing to me. [183] Is there anything at all we can do?" [184] "Just leave us alone, thank you," Major Winship said and cut off the communication. [185] "What'd they say?" [186] Capt. [187] Wilkins asked. [188] "Larry, General Finogenov said he was very embarrassed by this." [189] "That's nice," Lt. Chandler said. [190] "I'll be damned surprised," Major Winship said, "if they got any seismic data out of that shot.... Well, to hell with them, let's get this leak fixed. [191] Skip, can you get the calking compound?" [192] "Larry, where's the inventory?" [193] "Les has got it." [194] Lt. Chandler got down from the bunk and Capt. [195] Wilkins mounted. [196] "Larry," Major Winship said, "why don't you get Earth?" [197] "Okay." [198] Capt. [199] Wilkins got down from the bunk and Capt. [200] Lawler ascended. [201] "Got the inventory sheet, Les?" [202] "Right here." [203] Squeezed in front of the massive transmitter, Capt. [204] Wilkins had energized the circuits. [205] There was a puzzled look on his face. [206] He leaned his helmet against the speaker and then shook his head sadly. [207] "We can't hear anything without any air." [208] Major Winship looked at the microphone. [209] "Well, I'll just report and—" He started to pick up the microphone and reconsidered. [210] "Yes," he said. [211] "That's right, isn't it." [212] Capt. [213] Wilkins flicked off the transmitter. [214] "Some days you don't mine at all," he said. [215] "Les, have you found it?" [216] "It's around here somewhere. [217] Supposed to be back here." [218] "Well, find it." [219] Lt. Chandler began moving boxes. [220] "I saw it—" "Skip, help look." [221] Capt. [222] Lawler got down from the bunk and Major Winship mounted. [223] "We haven't got all day." [224] A few minutes later, Lt. Chandler issued the triumphant cry. [225] "Here it is! [226] Dozen tubes. [227] Squeeze tubes. [228] It's the new stuff." [229] Major Winship got down and Capt. [230] Wilkins got up. [231] "Marker showed it over here," Major Winship said, inching over to the wall. [232] He traced the leak with a metallic finger. [233] "How does this stuff work?" [234] Capt. [235] Lawler asked. [236] They huddled over the instruction sheet. [237] "Let's see. [238] Squeeze the tube until the diaphragm at the nozzle ruptures. [239] Extrude paste into seam. [240] Allow to harden one hour before service." [241] Major Winship said dryly, "Never mind. [242] I notice it hardens on contact with air." [243] Capt. [244] Wilkins lay back on the bunk and stared upward. [245] He said, "Now that makes a weird kind of sense, doesn't it?" [246] "How do they possibly think—?" [247] "Gentlemen! [248] It doesn't make any difference," Lt. Chandler said. [249] "Some air must already have leaked into this one. [250] It's hard as a rock. [251] A gorilla couldn't extrude it." [252] "How're the other ones?" [253] asked Major Winship. [254] Lt. Chandler turned and made a quick examination. [255] "Oh, they're all hard, too." [256] "Who was supposed to check?" [257] demanded Capt. [258] Wilkins in exasperation. [259] "The only way you can check is to extrude it," Lt. Chandler said, "and if it does extrude, you've ruined it." [260] "That's that," Major Winship said. [261] "There's nothing for it but to yell help." [262] II Capt. [263] Lawler and Lt. Chandler took the land car to Base Gagarin. [264] The Soviet base was situated some ten miles toward sunset at the bottom of a natural fold in the surface. [265] The route was moderately direct to the tip of the gently rolling ridge. [266] At that point, the best pathway angled left and made an S-shaped descent to the basin. [267] It was a one-way trip of approximately thirty exhausting minutes. [268] Major Winship, with his deficient reefer, remained behind. [269] Capt. [270] Wilkins stayed for company. [271] "I want a cigarette in the worst way," Capt. [272] Wilkins said. [273] "So do I, Larry. [274] Shouldn't be more than a couple of hours. [275] Unless something else goes wrong." [276] "As long as they'll loan us the calking compound," Capt. [277] Wilkins said. [278] "Yeah, yeah," Major Winship said. [279] "Let's eat." [280] "You got any concentrate? [281] I'm empty." [282] "I'll load you," Capt. [283] Wilkins volunteered wearily. [284] It was an awkward operation that took several minutes. [285] Capt. [286] Wilkins cursed twice during the operation. [287] "I'd hate to live in this thing for any period." [288] "I think these suits are one thing we've got over the Russians," Major Winship said. [289] "I don't see how they can manipulate those bulky pieces of junk around." [290] They ate. [291] "Really horrible stuff." [292] "Nutritious." [293] After the meal, Major Winship said reflectively, "Now I'd like a cup of hot tea. [294] I'm cooled off." [295] Capt. [296] Wilkins raised eyebrows. [297] "What brought this on?" [298] "I was just thinking.... [299] They really got it made, Larry. [300] They've got better than three thousand square feet in the main dome and better than twelve hundred square feet in each of the two little ones. [301] And there's only seven of them right now. [302] That's living." [303] "They've been here six years longer, after all." [304] "Finogenov had a clay samovar sent up. [305] Lemon and nutmeg, too. [306] Real, by God, fresh lemons for the tea, the last time I was there. [307] His own office is about ten by ten. [308] Think of that. [309] One hundred square feet. [310] And a wooden desk. [311] A wooden desk. [312] And a chair. [313] A wooden chair. [314] Everything big and heavy. [315] Everything. [316] Weight, hell. [317] Fifty pounds more or less—" "They've got the power-plants for it." [318] "Do you think he did that deliberately?" [319] Major Winship asked. [320] "I think he's trying to force us off. [321] I think he hoped for the quake. [322] Gagarin's built to take it, I'll say that. [323] Looks like it, anyhow. [324] You don't suppose they planned this all along? [325] Even if they didn't, they sure got the jump on us again, didn't they? [326] I told you what he told me?" [327] "You told me," Capt. [328] Wilkins said. [329] After a moment, Major Winship said bitterly, "To hell with the Russian engineer." [330] "If you've got all that power...." "That's the thing. [331] That's the thing that gripes me, know what I mean? [332] It's just insane to send up a heavy wooden desk. [333] That's showing off. [334] Like a little kid." [335] "Maybe they don't make aluminum desks." [336] "They've—got—aluminum. [337] Half of everything on the whole planet is aluminum. [338] You know they're just showing off." [339] "Let me wire you up," Capt. [340] Wilkins said. [341] "We ought to report." [342] "That's going to take awhile." [343] "It's something to do while we wait." [344] "I guess we ought to." [345] Major Winship came down from the bunk and sat with his back toward the transmitter. [346] Capt. [347] Wilkins slewed the equipment around until the emergency jacks were accessible. [348] He unearthed the appropriate cable and began unscrewing the exterior plate to the small transmitter-receiver set on Major Winship's back. [349] Eventually, trailing wires, Major Winship was coupled into the network. [350] "Okay?" [351] "Okay," Major Winship gestured. [352] They roused Earth. [353] "This is Major Charles Winship, Commanding Officer, Freedom 19, the American moonbase." [354] At this point, Major Winship observed for the first time that he was now on emergency air. [355] He started to ask Capt. [356] Wilkins to change his air bottle, but then he realized his communications were cut off. [357] He reached over and rapped Capt. [358] Wilkins' helmet. [359] "This is the Cape. [360] Come in, Major Winship." [361] "Just a moment." [362] "Is everything all right?" [363] Major Winship was squirming nervously, obviously perturbed. [364] "A-Okay," he said. [365] "Just a moment." [366] "What's wrong?" [367] came the worried question. [368] In the background, he heard someone say, "I think there's something wrong." [369] Capt. [370] Wilkins peered intently. [371] Major Winship contorted his face in a savage grimace. [372] Capt. [373] Wilkins raised his eyebrows in alarm. [374] They were face to face through their helmets, close together. [375] Each face appeared monstrously large to the other. [376] Major Winship made a strangling motion and reached for his throat. [377] One arm tangled a cable and jerked the speaker jack loose. [378] Major Winship could no longer hear the alarmed expressions from the Cape. [379] The effort was not entirely subvocal, since he emitted a little gasping cry in involuntary realism. [380] This, in the course of some 90 seconds, was transmitted to Earth. [381] Capt. [382] Wilkins's lips were desperately forming the word "Leak?" [383] Air, Major Winship said silently. [384] Leak? [385] Bottle! [386] Bottle! [387] Bottle! [388] It was a frog-like, unvocal expletive. [389] Comprehension dawned. [390] Capt. [391] Wilkins nodded and started to turn away. [392] Major Winship caught his arm and nodded his head toward the loose jack. [393] Oh. [394] Capt. [395] Wilkins nodded and smiled. [396] He reached across and plugged the speaker in again. [397] "... Freedom 19! [398] Hello, Freedom 19! [399] Come in!" [400] "We're here," Major Winship said. [401] "All right? [402] Are you all right?" [403] "We're all right. [404] A-Okay." [405] Major Winship, mindful of the extent of his potential audience, took a deep breath. [406] "Earlier this morning, the Soviet Union fired an underground atomic device for the ostensible purpose of investigating the composition of the lunar mass by means of seismic analysis of the resultant shock waves. [407] This was done in spite of American warnings that such a disturbance might release accumulated stresses in the long undisturbed satellite, and was done in the face of vigorous American protests." [408] Capt. [409] Wilkins tapped his helmet and gestured for him to swivel around. [410] The turn was uncomfortably tight and complicated by the restraining cables. [411] Capt. [412] Wilkins began replacement of the air bottle. [413] "These protests have proved well founded," Major Winship continued. [414] "Immediately following the detonation, Freedom 19 was called on to withstand a moderately severe shifting of the Lunar surface. [415] No personnel were injured and there was no equipment damage." [416] Capt. [417] Wilkins tapped his shoulder to indicate the new air bottle was being inserted. [418] Another tap indicated it was seated. [419] Major Winship flicked the appropriate chest button and nodded in appreciation. [420] "However," he continued, "we did experience a minor leak in the dome, which is presently being repaired." [421] "The Soviet Union," came the reply, "has reported the disturbance and has tendered their official apology. [422] You want it?" [423] "It can wait until later. [424] Send it by mail for all I care. [425] Vacuum has destroyed our organic air reconditioner. [426] We have approximately three weeks of emergency air. [427] However, Base Gagarin reports no damage, so that, in the event we exhaust our air, we will be able to obtain the necessary replacement." [428] The wait of a little better than three seconds for the response gave the conversation a tone of deliberation. [429] A new voice came on. [430] "We tried to contact you earlier, Major. [431] We will be able to deliver replacements in about ten days." [432] "I will forward a coded report on the occurrence," Major Winship said. [433] "Let us hear from you again in ... about three hours. [434] Is the leak repaired?" [435] "The leak has not yet been repaired. [436] Over and out." [437] He nodded to Capt. [438] Wilkins and leaned back. [439] Methodically, Capt. [440] Wilkins set about disconnecting the major from the transmitter. [441] "Wow!" [442] said Major Winship when he was once more in communication. [443] "For a moment there, I thought...." "What?" [444] Capt. [445] Wilkins asked with interest. [446] "I could see myself asking them to ask the Russians to ask Finogenov to get on the emergency channel to ask you to charge the air bottle. [447] I never felt so ... idiotic is not quite strong enough ... there for a minute in my whole life. [448] I didn't know how much emergency air was left, and I thought, my God, I'll never live this down. [449] All the hams in the world listening, while I try to explain the situation. [450] I could see the nickname being entered in my files: aka. [451] The Airless Idiot. [452] I tell you, that was rough." [453] III Capt. [454] Lawler and Lt. Chandler returned with the calking compound. [455] It occupied the rear section of the land car. [456] Lt. Chandler sat atop it. [457] It was a fifty-five gallon drum. [458] The airlock to Freedom 19 was open. [459] "What is that ?" [460] asked Major Winship, squinting out into the glaring sunlight. [461] "That," said Capt. [462] Lawler, "is the calking compound." [463] "You're kidding," said Capt. [464] Wilkins. [465] "I am not kidding." [466] Capt. [467] Lawler and Lt. Chandler came inside. [468] Capt. [469] Wilkins mounted a bunk. [470] "Why didn't you just borrow a cupful?" [471] Major Winship said sarcastically. [472] "It's this way," Lt. Chandler said. [473] "They didn't have anything but 55-gallon drums of it." [474] "Oh, my," said Capt. [475] Wilkins. [476] "I suppose it's a steel drum. [477] Those things must weigh...." "Actually, I think you guys have got the general wrong," Capt. [478] Lawler said. [479] "He was out, himself, to greet us. [480] I think he was really quite upset by the quake. [481] Probably because his people had misfigured so bad." [482] "He's too damned suspicious," Major Winship said. [483] "You know and I know why they set that blast off. [484] I tried to tell him. [485] Hell. [486] He looks at me like an emasculated owl and wants to know our ulterior motive in trying to prevent a purely scientific experiment, the results of which will be published in the technical press for the good of everybody. [487] I'll bet!" [488] "About this drum," Capt. [489] Wilkins said. [490] "Well, like I said, it's this way," Lt. Chandler resumed. [491] "I told him we needed about a pint. [492] Maybe a quart. [493] But this stuff you have to mix up. [494] He only had these drums. [495] There's two parts to it, and you have to combine them in just the right proportion. [496] He told me to take a little scale—" "A little scale?" [497] asked Capt. [498] Wilkins, rolling his eyes at the dome. [499] "That's what I told him. [500] We don't have any little scale." [501] "Yeah," said Captain Lawler, "and he looked at us with that mute, surprised look, like everybody, everywhere has dozens of little scales." [502] "Well, anyway," Lt. Chandler continued, "he told us just to mix up the whole fifty-five gallon drum. [503] There's a little bucket of stuff that goes in, and it's measured just right. [504] We can throw away what we don't need." [505] "Somehow, that sounds like him," Major Winship said. [506] "He had five or six of them." [507] "Jesus!" [508] said Capt. [509] Wilkins. [510] "That must be three thousand pounds of calking compound. [511] Those people are insane." [512] "The question is," Capt. [513] Lawler said, "'How are we going to mix it?' [514] It's supposed to be mixed thoroughly." [515] They thought over the problem for a while. [516] "That will be a man-sized job," Major Winship said. [517] "Let's see, Charlie. [518] Maybe not too bad," said Capt. [519] Wilkins. [520] "If I took the compressor motor, we could make up a shaft and ... let's see ... if we could...." It took the better part of an hour to rig up the electric mixer. [521] Capt. [522] Wilkins was profusely congratulated. [523] "Now," Major Winship said, "we can either bring the drum inside or take the mixer out there." [524] "We're going to have to bring the drum in," Capt. [525] Wilkins said. [526] "Well," said Capt. [527] Lawler, "that will make it nice and cozy." [528] It took the four of them to roll the drum inside, rocking it back and forth through the airlock. [529] At that time, it was apparent the table was interposing itself. [530] Lt. Chandler tried to dismantle the table. [531] "Damn these suits," he said. [532] "You've got it stuck between the bunk post." [533] "I know that." [534] "I don't think this is the way to do it," Major Winship said. [535] "Let's back the drum out." [536] Reluctantly, they backed the drum out and deposited it. [537] With the aid of Capt. [538] Lawler, Lt. Chandler got the table unstuck. [539] They passed it over to Major Winship, who handed it out to Capt. [540] Wilkins. [541] Captain Wilkins carried it around the drum of calking compound and set it down. [542] It rested uneasily on the uneven surface. [543] "Now, let's go," said Major Winship. [544] Eventually, they accomplished the moving. [545] They wedged the drum between the main air-supply tank and the transmitter. [546] They were all perspiring. [547] "It's not the weight, it's the mass," said Capt. [548] Wilkins brightly. [549] "The hell it isn't the weight," said Lt. Chandler. [550] "That's heavy." [551] "With my reefer out," said Major Winship, "I'm the one it's rough on." [552] He shook perspiration out of his eyes. [553] "They should figure a way to get a mop in here, or a towel, or a sponge, or something. [554] I'll bet you've forgotten how much sweat stings in the eyes." [555] "It's the salt." [556] "Speaking of salt. [557] I wish I had some salt tablets," Major Winship said. [558] "I've never sweat so much since basic." [559] "Want to bet Finogenov hasn't got a bushel of them?" [560] "No!" [561] Major Winship snapped. [562] With the drum of calking compound inside, both Capt. [563] Lawler and Lt. Chandler retreated to the bunks. [564] Capt. [565] Wilkins maneuvered the mixing attachment. [566] "I feel crowded," he said. [567] "Cozy's the word." [568] "Watch it! [569] Watch it! [570] You almost hit me in the face plate with that!" [571] "Sorry." [572] At length the mixer was in operation in the drum. [573] "Works perfectly," said Capt. [574] Wilkins proudly. [575] "Now what, Skip? [576] The instructions aren't in English." [577] "You're supposed to dump the bucket of stuff in. [578] Then clean the area thoroughly around the leak." [579] "With what?" [580] asked Major Winship. [581] "Sandpaper, I guess." [582] "With sandpaper?" [583] Major Winship said, emptying the bucket of fluid into the drum. [584] "We don't have any sandpaper." [585] "It's been a long day," Capt. [586] Wilkins said. [587] "Mix it thoroughly," Lt. Chandler mused. [588] "I guess that means let it mix for about ten minutes or so. [589] Then you apply it. [590] It sets for service in just a little bit, Finogenov said. [591] An hour or so, maybe." [592] "I hope this doesn't set on exposure to air." [593] "No," Capt. [594] Lawler said. [595] "It sets by some kind of chemical action. [596] General Finogenov wasn't sure of the English name for it. [597] Some kind of plastic." [598] "Let's come back to how we're going to clean around the leak," Major Winship said. [599] "Say, I—" interrupted Capt. [600] Wilkins. [601] There was a trace of concern in his voice. [602] "This is a hell of a time for this to occur to me. [603] I just wasn't thinking, before. [604] You don't suppose it's a room-temperature-curing epoxy resin, do you? " [605] "Larry," said Major Winship, "I wouldn't know a room-temperature-curing epoxy resin from—" "Hey!" [606] exclaimed Capt. [607] Wilkins. [608] "The mixer's stopped." [609] He bent forward and touched the drum. [610] He jerked back. [611] "Ye Gods! [612] that's hot! [613] And it's harder than a rock! [614] It is an epoxy! [615] Let's get out of here." [616] "Huh?" [617] "Out! [618] Out!" [619] Major Winship, Lt. Chandler, and Capt. [620] Lawler, recognizing the sense of urgency, simultaneously glanced at the drum. [621] It was glowing cherry red. [622] "Let's go!" [623] Capt. [624] Wilkins said. [625] He and the Major reached the airlock at the same time and became temporarily engaged with each other. [626] Movement was somewhat ungainly in the space suits under the best of conditions, and now, with the necessity for speed, was doubly so. [627] The other two crashed into them from behind, and they spewed forth from the dome in a tangle of arms and legs. [628] At the table, they separated, two going to the left, two to the right. [629] The table remained untouched. [630] When they halted, Capt. [631] Wilkins said, "Get to one side, it may go off like shrapnel." [632] They obeyed. [633] "What—what—what?" [634] Capt. [635] Lawler stuttered. [636] They were still separated, two on one side of the airlock, two on the other. [637] "I'm going to try to look," Capt. [638] Wilkins said. [639] "Let me go." [640] He lumbered directly away from the dome for a distance of about fifteen feet, then turned and positioned himself, some five feet behind the table, on a line of sight with the airlock. [641] "I can see it," he said. [642] "It's getting redder. [643] It's ... it's ... melting, yes. [644] Melting down at the bottom a little. [645] Now it's falling over to one side and laying on the air tank. [646] The air tank is getting red, too. [647] I'm afraid ... it's weakening it.... Redder. [648] Oh, oh." [649] "What?" [650] said Capt. [651] Lawler. [652] "Watch out! [653] There. [654] There! " [655] Capt. [656] Wilkins leaped from his position. [657] He was still floating toward the ground when there was an incredibly bright flare from inside the dome, and a great, silent tongue of flame lashed through the airlock and rolled across the lunar surface. [658] The table was sent tumbling. [659] The flame was gone almost instantly. [660] "There went the air," Capt. [661] Lawler commented. [662] "We got T-Trouble," said Lt. Chandler.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [1] The Winning of the Moon BY KRIS NEVILLE The enemy was friendly enough. 2. [2] Trouble was—their friendship was as dangerous as their hate! 3. [405] Major Winship, mindful of the extent of his potential audience, took a deep breath. 4. [406] "Earlier this morning, the Soviet Union fired an underground atomic device for the ostensible purpose of investigating the composition of the lunar mass by means of seismic analysis of the resultant shock waves. 5. [407] This was done in spite of American warnings that such a disturbance might release accumulated stresses in the long undisturbed satellite, and was done in the face of vigorous American protests." 6. [414] "Immediately following the detonation, Freedom 19 was called on to withstand a moderately severe shifting of the Lunar surface." 7. [420] "However," he continued, "we did experience a minor leak in the dome, which is presently being repaired." 8. [425] "Vacuum has destroyed our organic air reconditioner. We have approximately three weeks of emergency air." 9. [426] "However, Base Gagarin reports no damage, so that, in the event we exhaust our air, we will be able to obtain the necessary replacement." 10. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. 11. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 12. [5] General Finogenov notified Major Winship that the underground blast was scheduled for the following morning. 13. [6] Major Winship, after receiving the message, discussed precautions with the three other Americans. 14. [7] Next morning, before the sunlight exploded, the four of them donned their space suits and went and sat outside the dome, waiting. 15. [8] The sun rose with its bright, silent clap of radiance. 16. [9] Black pools of shadows lay in harsh contrast, their edges drawn with geometric precision. 17. [10] Major Winship attempted unsuccessfully to communicate with Base Gagarin. 18. [11] "Will you please request the general to keep us informed on the progress of the countdown?" 19. [12] "Is Pinov," came the reply. 20. [13] "Help?" 21. [14] " Nyet ," said Major Winship, exhausting his Russian. 22. [15] "Count down. 23. [16] Progress. 24. [17] When—boom?" 25. [18] "Is Pinov," came the reply. 26. [19] "Boom! 27. [20] Boom!" 28. [21] said Major Winship in exasperation. 29. [22] "Boom!" 30. [23] said Pinov happily. 31. [24] "When?" 32. [25] "Boom—boom!" 33. [26] said Pinov. 34. [27] "Oh, nuts." 35. [28] Major Winship cut out the circuit. 36. [29] "They've got Pinov on emergency watch this morning," he explained to the other Americans. 37. [30] "The one that doesn't speak English." 38. [31] "He's done it deliberately," said Capt. 39. [32] Wilkins, the eldest of the four Americans. 40. [33] "How are we going to know when it's over?" 41. [34] No one bothered to respond. 42. [35] They sat for a while in silence while the shadows evaporated. 43. [36] One by one they clicked on their cooling systems. 44. [37] Ultimately, Lt. Chandler said, "This is a little ridiculous. 45. [38] I'm going to switch over to their channel. 46. [39] Rap if you want me." 47. [40] He sat transfixed for several minutes. 48. [41] "Ah, it's all Russian. 49. [42] Jabbering away. 50. [43] I can't tell a thing that's going on." 51. [44] In the airless void of the moon, the blast itself would be silent. 52. [45] A moth's wing of dust would, perhaps, rise and settle beyond the horizon: no more. 53. [46] "Static?" 54. [47] "Nope." 55. [48] "We'll get static on these things." 56. [49] A small infinity seemed to pass very slowly. 57. [50] Major Winship shifted restlessly. 58. [51] "My reefer's gone on the fritz." 59. [52] Perspiration was trickling down his face. 60. [53] "Let's all go in," said the fourth American, Capt. 61. [54] Lawler. 62. [55] "It's probably over by now." 63. [56] "I'll try again," Major Winship said and switched to the emergency channel. 64. [57] "Base Gagarin? 65. [58] Base Gagarin?" 66. [59] "Is Pinov. 67. [60] Help?" 68. [61] " Nyet. " 69. [62] "Pinov's still there," Major Winship said. 70. [63] "Tell him, 'Help'," said Capt. 71. [64] Wilkins, "so he'll get somebody we can talk to." 72. [65] "I'll see them all in hell, first," Major Winship said. 73. [66] Five minutes later, the perspiration was rivers across his face. 74. [67] "This is it," he said. 75. [68] "I'm going in." 76. [69] "Let's all—" "No. 77. [70] I've got to cool off." 78. [71] "Hell, Charlie, I feel stupid sitting out here," Capt. 79. [72] Lawler said. 80. [73] "The shot probably went off an hour ago." 81. [74] "The static level hasn't gone up much, if at all." 82. [75] "Maybe," Lt. Chandler said, "it's buried too deep." 83. [76] "Maybe so," Major Winship said. 84. [77] "But we can't have the dome fall down around all our ears." 85. [78] He stood. 86. [79] "Whew! 87. [80] You guys stay put." 88. [81] He crossed with the floating moon-motion to the airlock and entered, closing the door behind him. 89. [82] The darkness slowly filled with air, and the temperature inside the suit declined steadily. 90. [83] At the proper moment of pressure, the inner lock slid open and Major Winship stepped into the illuminated central area. 91. [84] His foot was lifted for the second step when the floor beneath him rose and fell gently, pitching him forward, off balance. 92. [85] He stumbled against the table and ended up seated beside the radio equipment. 93. [86] The ground moved again. 94. [87] "Charlie! 95. [88] Charlie!" 96. [89] "I'm okay," Major Winship answered. 97. [90] "Okay! 98. [91] Okay!" 99. [92] "It's—" There was additional surface movement. 100. [93] The movement ceased. 101. [94] "Hey, Les, how's it look?" 102. [95] Capt. 103. [96] Wilkins asked. 104. [97] "Okay from this side. 105. [98] Charlie, you still okay?" 106. [99] "Okay," Major Winship said. 107. [100] "We told them this might happen," he added bitterly. 108. [101] There was a wait during which everyone seemed to be holding their breath. 109. [102] "I guess it's over," said Major Winship, getting to his feet. 110. [103] "Wait a bit more, there may be an after-shock." 111. [104] He switched once again to the emergency channel. 112. [105] "Is Pinov," came the supremely relaxed voice. 113. [106] "Help?" 114. [107] Major Winship whinnied in disgust. " 115. [108] Nyet! " 116. [109] he snarled. 117. [110] To the other Americans: "Our comrades seem unconcerned." 118. [111] "Tough." 119. [112] They began to get the static for the first time. 120. [113] It crackled and snapped in their speakers. 121. [114] They made sounds of disapproval at each other. 122. [115] For a minute or two, static blanked out the communications completely. 123. [116] It then abated to something in excess of normal. 124. [117] "Well," Lt. Chandler commented, "even though we didn't build this thing to withstand a moonquake, it seems to have stood up all right." 125. [118] "I guess I was just—" Major Winship began. 126. [119] "Oh, hell! 127. [120] We're losing pressure. 128. [121] Where's the markers?" 129. [122] "By the lug cabinet." 130. [123] "Got 'em," Major Winship said a moment later. 131. [124] He peeled back a marker and let it fall. 132. [125] Air currents whisked it away and plastered it against a riveted seam of the dome. 133. [126] It pulsed as though it were breathing and then it ruptured. 134. [127] Major Winship moved quickly to cut out the emergency air supply which had cut in automatically with the pressure drop. 135. [128] "You guys wait. 136. [129] It's on your right side, midway up. 137. [130] I'll try to sheet it." 138. [131] He moved for the plastic sheeting. 139. [132] "We've lost about three feet of calk out here," Capt. 140. [133] Lawler said. 141. [134] "I can see more ripping loose. 142. [135] You're losing pressure fast at this rate." 143. [136] Major Winship pressed the sheeting over the leak. 144. [137] "How's that?" 145. [138] "Not yet." 146. [139] "I don't think I've got enough pressure left to hold it, now. 147. [140] It's sprung a little, and I can't get it to conform over the rivet heads." 148. [141] There was a splatter of static. 149. [142] "Damn!" 150. [143] Major Winship said, "they should have made these things more flexible." 151. [144] "Still coming out." 152. [145] "Best I can do." 153. [146] Major Winship stepped back. 154. [147] The sheet began slowly to slide downward, then it fell away completely and lay limply on the floor. 155. [148] "Come on in," he said dryly. 156. [149] With the four of them inside, it was somewhat cramped. 157. [150] Most of the five hundred square feet was filled with equipment. 158. [151] Electrical cables trailed loosely along the walls and were festooned from the ceiling, radiating from the connections to the outside solar cells. 159. [152] The living space was more restricted than in a submarine, with the bunks jutting out from the walls about six feet from the floor. 160. [153] Lt. Chandler mounted one of the bunks to give them more room. 161. [154] "Well," he said wryly, "it doesn't smell as bad now." 162. [155] "Oops," said Major Winship. 163. [156] "Just a second. 164. [157] They're coming in." 165. [158] He switched over to the emergency channel. 166. [159] It was General Finogenov. 167. [160] "Major Winship! 168. [161] Hello! 169. [162] Hello, hello, hello. 170. [163] You A Okay?" 171. [164] "This is Major Winship." 172. [165] "Oh! 173. [166] Excellent, very good. 174. [167] Any damage, Major?" 175. [168] "Little leak. 176. [169] You?" 177. [170] "Came through without damage." 178. [171] General Finogenov paused a moment. 179. [172] When no comment was forthcoming, he continued: "Perhaps we built a bit more strongly, Major." 180. [173] "You did this deliberately," Major Winship said testily. 181. [174] "No, no. 182. [175] Oh, no, no, no, no. 183. [176] Major Winship, please believe me. 184. [177] I very much regret this. 185. [178] Very much so. 186. [179] I am very distressed. 187. [180] Depressed. 188. [181] After repeatedly assuring you there was no danger of a quake—and then to have something like this happen. 189. [182] Oh, this is very embarrassing to me. 190. [183] Is there anything at all we can do?" 191. [184] "Just leave us alone, thank you," Major Winship said and cut off the communication. 192. [185] "What'd they say?" 193. [186] Capt. 194. [187] Wilkins asked. 195. [188] "Larry, General Finogenov said he was very embarrassed by this." 196. [189] "That's nice," Lt. Chandler said. 197. [190] "I'll be damned surprised," Major Winship said, "if they got any seismic data out of that shot.... Well, to hell with them, let's get this leak fixed. 198. [191] Skip, can you get the calking compound?" 199. [192] "Larry, where's the inventory?" 200. [193] "Les has got it." 201. [194] Lt. Chandler got down from the bunk and Capt. 202. [195] Wilkins mounted. 203. [196] "Larry, why don't you get Earth?" 204. [197] "Okay." 205. [198] Capt. 206. [199] Wilkins got down from the bunk and Capt. 207. [200] Lawler ascended. 208. [201] "Got the inventory sheet, Les?" 209. [202] "Right here." 210. [203] Squeezed in front of the massive transmitter, Capt. 211. [204] Wilkins had energized the circuits. 212. [205] There was a puzzled look on his face. 213. [206] He leaned his helmet against the speaker and then shook his head sadly. 214. [207] "We can't hear anything without any air." 215. [208] Major Winship looked at the microphone. 216. [209] "Well, I'll just report and—" He started to pick up the microphone and reconsidered. 217. [210] "Yes," he said. 218. [211] "That's right, isn't it." 219. [212] Capt. 220. [213] Wilkins flicked off the transmitter. 221. [214] "Some days you don't mine at all," he said. 222. [215] "Les, have you found it?" 223. [216] "It's around here somewhere. 224. [217] Supposed to be back here." 225. [218] "Well, find it." 226. [219] Lt. Chandler began moving boxes. 227. [220] "I saw it—" "Skip, help look." 228. [221] Capt. 229. [222] Lawler got down from the bunk and Major Winship mounted. 230. [223] "We haven't got all day." 231. [224] A few minutes later, Lt. Chandler issued the triumphant cry. 232. [225] "Here it is! 233. [226] Dozen tubes. 234. [227] Squeeze tubes. 235. [228] It's the new stuff." 236. [229] Major Winship got down and Capt. 237. [230] Wilkins got up. 238. [231] "Marker showed it over here," Major Winship said, inching over to the wall. 239. [232] He traced the

Describe the relationship between the Soviets and the Americans.

[1] The Winning of the Moon BY KRIS NEVILLE The enemy was friendly enough. [2] Trouble was—their friendship was as dangerous as their hate! [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] General Finogenov notified Major Winship that the underground blast was scheduled for the following morning. [6] Major Winship, after receiving the message, discussed precautions with the three other Americans. [7] Next morning, before the sunlight exploded, the four of them donned their space suits and went and sat outside the dome, waiting. [8] The sun rose with its bright, silent clap of radiance. [9] Black pools of shadows lay in harsh contrast, their edges drawn with geometric precision. [10] Major Winship attempted unsuccessfully to communicate with Base Gagarin. [11] "Will you please request the general to keep us informed on the progress of the countdown?" [12] "Is Pinov," came the reply. [13] "Help?" [14] " Nyet ," said Major Winship, exhausting his Russian. [15] "Count down. [16] Progress. [17] When—boom?" [18] "Is Pinov," came the reply. [19] "Boom! [20] Boom!" [21] said Major Winship in exasperation. [22] "Boom!" [23] said Pinov happily. [24] "When?" [25] "Boom—boom!" [26] said Pinov. [27] "Oh, nuts." [28] Major Winship cut out the circuit. [29] "They've got Pinov on emergency watch this morning," he explained to the other Americans. [30] "The one that doesn't speak English." [31] "He's done it deliberately," said Capt. [32] Wilkins, the eldest of the four Americans. [33] "How are we going to know when it's over?" [34] No one bothered to respond. [35] They sat for a while in silence while the shadows evaporated. [36] One by one they clicked on their cooling systems. [37] Ultimately, Lt. Chandler said, "This is a little ridiculous. [38] I'm going to switch over to their channel. [39] Rap if you want me." [40] He sat transfixed for several minutes. [41] "Ah, it's all Russian. [42] Jabbering away. [43] I can't tell a thing that's going on." [44] In the airless void of the moon, the blast itself would be silent. [45] A moth's wing of dust would, perhaps, rise and settle beyond the horizon: no more. [46] "Static?" [47] "Nope." [48] "We'll get static on these things." [49] A small infinity seemed to pass very slowly. [50] Major Winship shifted restlessly. [51] "My reefer's gone on the fritz." [52] Perspiration was trickling down his face. [53] "Let's all go in," said the fourth American, Capt. [54] Lawler. [55] "It's probably over by now." [56] "I'll try again," Major Winship said and switched to the emergency channel. [57] "Base Gagarin? [58] Base Gagarin?" [59] "Is Pinov. [60] Help?" [61] " Nyet. " [62] "Pinov's still there," Major Winship said. [63] "Tell him, 'Help'," said Capt. [64] Wilkins, "so he'll get somebody we can talk to." [65] "I'll see them all in hell, first," Major Winship said. [66] Five minutes later, the perspiration was rivers across his face. [67] "This is it," he said. [68] "I'm going in." [69] "Let's all—" "No. [70] I've got to cool off." [71] "Hell, Charlie, I feel stupid sitting out here," Capt. [72] Lawler said. [73] "The shot probably went off an hour ago." [74] "The static level hasn't gone up much, if at all." [75] "Maybe," Lt. Chandler said, "it's buried too deep." [76] "Maybe so," Major Winship said. [77] "But we can't have the dome fall down around all our ears." [78] He stood. [79] "Whew! [80] You guys stay put." [81] He crossed with the floating moon-motion to the airlock and entered, closing the door behind him. [82] The darkness slowly filled with air, and the temperature inside the suit declined steadily. [83] At the proper moment of pressure, the inner lock slid open and Major Winship stepped into the illuminated central area. [84] His foot was lifted for the second step when the floor beneath him rose and fell gently, pitching him forward, off balance. [85] He stumbled against the table and ended up seated beside the radio equipment. [86] The ground moved again. [87] "Charlie! [88] Charlie!" [89] "I'm okay," Major Winship answered. [90] "Okay! [91] Okay!" [92] "It's—" There was additional surface movement. [93] The movement ceased. [94] "Hey, Les, how's it look?" [95] Capt. [96] Wilkins asked. [97] "Okay from this side. [98] Charlie, you still okay?" [99] "Okay," Major Winship said. [100] "We told them this might happen," he added bitterly. [101] There was a wait during which everyone seemed to be holding their breath. [102] "I guess it's over," said Major Winship, getting to his feet. [103] "Wait a bit more, there may be an after-shock." [104] He switched once again to the emergency channel. [105] "Is Pinov," came the supremely relaxed voice. [106] "Help?" [107] Major Winship whinnied in disgust. " [108] Nyet! " [109] he snarled. [110] To the other Americans: "Our comrades seem unconcerned." [111] "Tough." [112] They began to get the static for the first time. [113] It crackled and snapped in their speakers. [114] They made sounds of disapproval at each other. [115] For a minute or two, static blanked out the communications completely. [116] It then abated to something in excess of normal. [117] "Well," Lt. Chandler commented, "even though we didn't build this thing to withstand a moonquake, it seems to have stood up all right." [118] "I guess I was just—" Major Winship began. [119] "Oh, hell! [120] We're losing pressure. [121] Where's the markers?" [122] "By the lug cabinet." [123] "Got 'em," Major Winship said a moment later. [124] He peeled back a marker and let it fall. [125] Air currents whisked it away and plastered it against a riveted seam of the dome. [126] It pulsed as though it were breathing and then it ruptured. [127] Major Winship moved quickly to cut out the emergency air supply which had cut in automatically with the pressure drop. [128] "You guys wait. [129] It's on your right side, midway up. [130] I'll try to sheet it." [131] He moved for the plastic sheeting. [132] "We've lost about three feet of calk out here," Capt. [133] Lawler said. [134] "I can see more ripping loose. [135] You're losing pressure fast at this rate." [136] Major Winship pressed the sheeting over the leak. [137] "How's that?" [138] "Not yet." [139] "I don't think I've got enough pressure left to hold it, now. [140] It's sprung a little, and I can't get it to conform over the rivet heads." [141] There was a splatter of static. [142] "Damn!" [143] Major Winship said, "they should have made these things more flexible." [144] "Still coming out." [145] "Best I can do." [146] Major Winship stepped back. [147] The sheet began slowly to slide downward, then it fell away completely and lay limply on the floor. [148] "Come on in," he said dryly. [149] With the four of them inside, it was somewhat cramped. [150] Most of the five hundred square feet was filled with equipment. [151] Electrical cables trailed loosely along the walls and were festooned from the ceiling, radiating from the connections to the outside solar cells. [152] The living space was more restricted than in a submarine, with the bunks jutting out from the walls about six feet from the floor. [153] Lt. Chandler mounted one of the bunks to give them more room. [154] "Well," he said wryly, "it doesn't smell as bad now." [155] "Oops," said Major Winship. [156] "Just a second. [157] They're coming in." [158] He switched over to the emergency channel. [159] It was General Finogenov. [160] "Major Winship! [161] Hello! [162] Hello, hello, hello. [163] You A Okay?" [164] "This is Major Winship." [165] "Oh! [166] Excellent, very good. [167] Any damage, Major?" [168] "Little leak. [169] You?" [170] "Came through without damage." [171] General Finogenov paused a moment. [172] When no comment was forthcoming, he continued: "Perhaps we built a bit more strongly, Major." [173] "You did this deliberately," Major Winship said testily. [174] "No, no. [175] Oh, no, no, no, no. [176] Major Winship, please believe me. [177] I very much regret this. [178] Very much so. [179] I am very distressed. [180] Depressed. [181] After repeatedly assuring you there was no danger of a quake—and then to have something like this happen. [182] Oh, this is very embarrassing to me. [183] Is there anything at all we can do?" [184] "Just leave us alone, thank you," Major Winship said and cut off the communication. [185] "What'd they say?" [186] Capt. [187] Wilkins asked. [188] "Larry, General Finogenov said he was very embarrassed by this." [189] "That's nice," Lt. Chandler said. [190] "I'll be damned surprised," Major Winship said, "if they got any seismic data out of that shot.... Well, to hell with them, let's get this leak fixed. [191] Skip, can you get the calking compound?" [192] "Larry, where's the inventory?" [193] "Les has got it." [194] Lt. Chandler got down from the bunk and Capt. [195] Wilkins mounted. [196] "Larry," Major Winship said, "why don't you get Earth?" [197] "Okay." [198] Capt. [199] Wilkins got down from the bunk and Capt. [200] Lawler ascended. [201] "Got the inventory sheet, Les?" [202] "Right here." [203] Squeezed in front of the massive transmitter, Capt. [204] Wilkins had energized the circuits. [205] There was a puzzled look on his face. [206] He leaned his helmet against the speaker and then shook his head sadly. [207] "We can't hear anything without any air." [208] Major Winship looked at the microphone. [209] "Well, I'll just report and—" He started to pick up the microphone and reconsidered. [210] "Yes," he said. [211] "That's right, isn't it." [212] Capt. [213] Wilkins flicked off the transmitter. [214] "Some days you don't mine at all," he said. [215] "Les, have you found it?" [216] "It's around here somewhere. [217] Supposed to be back here." [218] "Well, find it." [219] Lt. Chandler began moving boxes. [220] "I saw it—" "Skip, help look." [221] Capt. [222] Lawler got down from the bunk and Major Winship mounted. [223] "We haven't got all day." [224] A few minutes later, Lt. Chandler issued the triumphant cry. [225] "Here it is! [226] Dozen tubes. [227] Squeeze tubes. [228] It's the new stuff." [229] Major Winship got down and Capt. [230] Wilkins got up. [231] "Marker showed it over here," Major Winship said, inching over to the wall. [232] He traced the leak with a metallic finger. [233] "How does this stuff work?" [234] Capt. [235] Lawler asked. [236] They huddled over the instruction sheet. [237] "Let's see. [238] Squeeze the tube until the diaphragm at the nozzle ruptures. [239] Extrude paste into seam. [240] Allow to harden one hour before service." [241] Major Winship said dryly, "Never mind. [242] I notice it hardens on contact with air." [243] Capt. [244] Wilkins lay back on the bunk and stared upward. [245] He said, "Now that makes a weird kind of sense, doesn't it?" [246] "How do they possibly think—?" [247] "Gentlemen! [248] It doesn't make any difference," Lt. Chandler said. [249] "Some air must already have leaked into this one. [250] It's hard as a rock. [251] A gorilla couldn't extrude it." [252] "How're the other ones?" [253] asked Major Winship. [254] Lt. Chandler turned and made a quick examination. [255] "Oh, they're all hard, too." [256] "Who was supposed to check?" [257] demanded Capt. [258] Wilkins in exasperation. [259] "The only way you can check is to extrude it," Lt. Chandler said, "and if it does extrude, you've ruined it." [260] "That's that," Major Winship said. [261] "There's nothing for it but to yell help." [262] II Capt. [263] Lawler and Lt. Chandler took the land car to Base Gagarin. [264] The Soviet base was situated some ten miles toward sunset at the bottom of a natural fold in the surface. [265] The route was moderately direct to the tip of the gently rolling ridge. [266] At that point, the best pathway angled left and made an S-shaped descent to the basin. [267] It was a one-way trip of approximately thirty exhausting minutes. [268] Major Winship, with his deficient reefer, remained behind. [269] Capt. [270] Wilkins stayed for company. [271] "I want a cigarette in the worst way," Capt. [272] Wilkins said. [273] "So do I, Larry. [274] Shouldn't be more than a couple of hours. [275] Unless something else goes wrong." [276] "As long as they'll loan us the calking compound," Capt. [277] Wilkins said. [278] "Yeah, yeah," Major Winship said. [279] "Let's eat." [280] "You got any concentrate? [281] I'm empty." [282] "I'll load you," Capt. [283] Wilkins volunteered wearily. [284] It was an awkward operation that took several minutes. [285] Capt. [286] Wilkins cursed twice during the operation. [287] "I'd hate to live in this thing for any period." [288] "I think these suits are one thing we've got over the Russians," Major Winship said. [289] "I don't see how they can manipulate those bulky pieces of junk around." [290] They ate. [291] "Really horrible stuff." [292] "Nutritious." [293] After the meal, Major Winship said reflectively, "Now I'd like a cup of hot tea. [294] I'm cooled off." [295] Capt. [296] Wilkins raised eyebrows. [297] "What brought this on?" [298] "I was just thinking.... [299] They really got it made, Larry. [300] They've got better than three thousand square feet in the main dome and better than twelve hundred square feet in each of the two little ones. [301] And there's only seven of them right now. [302] That's living." [303] "They've been here six years longer, after all." [304] "Finogenov had a clay samovar sent up. [305] Lemon and nutmeg, too. [306] Real, by God, fresh lemons for the tea, the last time I was there. [307] His own office is about ten by ten. [308] Think of that. [309] One hundred square feet. [310] And a wooden desk. [311] A wooden desk. [312] And a chair. [313] A wooden chair. [314] Everything big and heavy. [315] Everything. [316] Weight, hell. [317] Fifty pounds more or less—" "They've got the power-plants for it." [318] "Do you think he did that deliberately?" [319] Major Winship asked. [320] "I think he's trying to force us off. [321] I think he hoped for the quake. [322] Gagarin's built to take it, I'll say that. [323] Looks like it, anyhow. [324] You don't suppose they planned this all along? [325] Even if they didn't, they sure got the jump on us again, didn't they? [326] I told you what he told me?" [327] "You told me," Capt. [328] Wilkins said. [329] After a moment, Major Winship said bitterly, "To hell with the Russian engineer." [330] "If you've got all that power...." "That's the thing. [331] That's the thing that gripes me, know what I mean? [332] It's just insane to send up a heavy wooden desk. [333] That's showing off. [334] Like a little kid." [335] "Maybe they don't make aluminum desks." [336] "They've—got—aluminum. [337] Half of everything on the whole planet is aluminum. [338] You know they're just showing off." [339] "Let me wire you up," Capt. [340] Wilkins said. [341] "We ought to report." [342] "That's going to take awhile." [343] "It's something to do while we wait." [344] "I guess we ought to." [345] Major Winship came down from the bunk and sat with his back toward the transmitter. [346] Capt. [347] Wilkins slewed the equipment around until the emergency jacks were accessible. [348] He unearthed the appropriate cable and began unscrewing the exterior plate to the small transmitter-receiver set on Major Winship's back. [349] Eventually, trailing wires, Major Winship was coupled into the network. [350] "Okay?" [351] "Okay," Major Winship gestured. [352] They roused Earth. [353] "This is Major Charles Winship, Commanding Officer, Freedom 19, the American moonbase." [354] At this point, Major Winship observed for the first time that he was now on emergency air. [355] He started to ask Capt. [356] Wilkins to change his air bottle, but then he realized his communications were cut off. [357] He reached over and rapped Capt. [358] Wilkins' helmet. [359] "This is the Cape. [360] Come in, Major Winship." [361] "Just a moment." [362] "Is everything all right?" [363] Major Winship was squirming nervously, obviously perturbed. [364] "A-Okay," he said. [365] "Just a moment." [366] "What's wrong?" [367] came the worried question. [368] In the background, he heard someone say, "I think there's something wrong." [369] Capt. [370] Wilkins peered intently. [371] Major Winship contorted his face in a savage grimace. [372] Capt. [373] Wilkins raised his eyebrows in alarm. [374] They were face to face through their helmets, close together. [375] Each face appeared monstrously large to the other. [376] Major Winship made a strangling motion and reached for his throat. [377] One arm tangled a cable and jerked the speaker jack loose. [378] Major Winship could no longer hear the alarmed expressions from the Cape. [379] The effort was not entirely subvocal, since he emitted a little gasping cry in involuntary realism. [380] This, in the course of some 90 seconds, was transmitted to Earth. [381] Capt. [382] Wilkins's lips were desperately forming the word "Leak?" [383] Air, Major Winship said silently. [384] Leak? [385] Bottle! [386] Bottle! [387] Bottle! [388] It was a frog-like, unvocal expletive. [389] Comprehension dawned. [390] Capt. [391] Wilkins nodded and started to turn away. [392] Major Winship caught his arm and nodded his head toward the loose jack. [393] Oh. [394] Capt. [395] Wilkins nodded and smiled. [396] He reached across and plugged the speaker in again. [397] "... Freedom 19! [398] Hello, Freedom 19! [399] Come in!" [400] "We're here," Major Winship said. [401] "All right? [402] Are you all right?" [403] "We're all right. [404] A-Okay." [405] Major Winship, mindful of the extent of his potential audience, took a deep breath. [406] "Earlier this morning, the Soviet Union fired an underground atomic device for the ostensible purpose of investigating the composition of the lunar mass by means of seismic analysis of the resultant shock waves. [407] This was done in spite of American warnings that such a disturbance might release accumulated stresses in the long undisturbed satellite, and was done in the face of vigorous American protests." [408] Capt. [409] Wilkins tapped his helmet and gestured for him to swivel around. [410] The turn was uncomfortably tight and complicated by the restraining cables. [411] Capt. [412] Wilkins began replacement of the air bottle. [413] "These protests have proved well founded," Major Winship continued. [414] "Immediately following the detonation, Freedom 19 was called on to withstand a moderately severe shifting of the Lunar surface. [415] No personnel were injured and there was no equipment damage." [416] Capt. [417] Wilkins tapped his shoulder to indicate the new air bottle was being inserted. [418] Another tap indicated it was seated. [419] Major Winship flicked the appropriate chest button and nodded in appreciation. [420] "However," he continued, "we did experience a minor leak in the dome, which is presently being repaired." [421] "The Soviet Union," came the reply, "has reported the disturbance and has tendered their official apology. [422] You want it?" [423] "It can wait until later. [424] Send it by mail for all I care. [425] Vacuum has destroyed our organic air reconditioner. [426] We have approximately three weeks of emergency air. [427] However, Base Gagarin reports no damage, so that, in the event we exhaust our air, we will be able to obtain the necessary replacement." [428] The wait of a little better than three seconds for the response gave the conversation a tone of deliberation. [429] A new voice came on. [430] "We tried to contact you earlier, Major. [431] We will be able to deliver replacements in about ten days." [432] "I will forward a coded report on the occurrence," Major Winship said. [433] "Let us hear from you again in ... about three hours. [434] Is the leak repaired?" [435] "The leak has not yet been repaired. [436] Over and out." [437] He nodded to Capt. [438] Wilkins and leaned back. [439] Methodically, Capt. [440] Wilkins set about disconnecting the major from the transmitter. [441] "Wow!" [442] said Major Winship when he was once more in communication. [443] "For a moment there, I thought...." "What?" [444] Capt. [445] Wilkins asked with interest. [446] "I could see myself asking them to ask the Russians to ask Finogenov to get on the emergency channel to ask you to charge the air bottle. [447] I never felt so ... idiotic is not quite strong enough ... there for a minute in my whole life. [448] I didn't know how much emergency air was left, and I thought, my God, I'll never live this down. [449] All the hams in the world listening, while I try to explain the situation. [450] I could see the nickname being entered in my files: aka. [451] The Airless Idiot. [452] I tell you, that was rough." [453] III Capt. [454] Lawler and Lt. Chandler returned with the calking compound. [455] It occupied the rear section of the land car. [456] Lt. Chandler sat atop it. [457] It was a fifty-five gallon drum. [458] The airlock to Freedom 19 was open. [459] "What is that ?" [460] asked Major Winship, squinting out into the glaring sunlight. [461] "That," said Capt. [462] Lawler, "is the calking compound." [463] "You're kidding," said Capt. [464] Wilkins. [465] "I am not kidding." [466] Capt. [467] Lawler and Lt. Chandler came inside. [468] Capt. [469] Wilkins mounted a bunk. [470] "Why didn't you just borrow a cupful?" [471] Major Winship said sarcastically. [472] "It's this way," Lt. Chandler said. [473] "They didn't have anything but 55-gallon drums of it." [474] "Oh, my," said Capt. [475] Wilkins. [476] "I suppose it's a steel drum. [477] Those things must weigh...." "Actually, I think you guys have got the general wrong," Capt. [478] Lawler said. [479] "He was out, himself, to greet us. [480] I think he was really quite upset by the quake. [481] Probably because his people had misfigured so bad." [482] "He's too damned suspicious," Major Winship said. [483] "You know and I know why they set that blast off. [484] I tried to tell him. [485] Hell. [486] He looks at me like an emasculated owl and wants to know our ulterior motive in trying to prevent a purely scientific experiment, the results of which will be published in the technical press for the good of everybody. [487] I'll bet!" [488] "About this drum," Capt. [489] Wilkins said. [490] "Well, like I said, it's this way," Lt. Chandler resumed. [491] "I told him we needed about a pint. [492] Maybe a quart. [493] But this stuff you have to mix up. [494] He only had these drums. [495] There's two parts to it, and you have to combine them in just the right proportion. [496] He told me to take a little scale—" "A little scale?" [497] asked Capt. [498] Wilkins, rolling his eyes at the dome. [499] "That's what I told him. [500] We don't have any little scale." [501] "Yeah," said Captain Lawler, "and he looked at us with that mute, surprised look, like everybody, everywhere has dozens of little scales." [502] "Well, anyway," Lt. Chandler continued, "he told us just to mix up the whole fifty-five gallon drum. [503] There's a little bucket of stuff that goes in, and it's measured just right. [504] We can throw away what we don't need." [505] "Somehow, that sounds like him," Major Winship said. [506] "He had five or six of them." [507] "Jesus!" [508] said Capt. [509] Wilkins. [510] "That must be three thousand pounds of calking compound. [511] Those people are insane." [512] "The question is," Capt. [513] Lawler said, "'How are we going to mix it?' [514] It's supposed to be mixed thoroughly." [515] They thought over the problem for a while. [516] "That will be a man-sized job," Major Winship said. [517] "Let's see, Charlie. [518] Maybe not too bad," said Capt. [519] Wilkins. [520] "If I took the compressor motor, we could make up a shaft and ... let's see ... if we could...." It took the better part of an hour to rig up the electric mixer. [521] Capt. [522] Wilkins was profusely congratulated. [523] "Now," Major Winship said, "we can either bring the drum inside or take the mixer out there." [524] "We're going to have to bring the drum in," Capt. [525] Wilkins said. [526] "Well," said Capt. [527] Lawler, "that will make it nice and cozy." [528] It took the four of them to roll the drum inside, rocking it back and forth through the airlock. [529] At that time, it was apparent the table was interposing itself. [530] Lt. Chandler tried to dismantle the table. [531] "Damn these suits," he said. [532] "You've got it stuck between the bunk post." [533] "I know that." [534] "I don't think this is the way to do it," Major Winship said. [535] "Let's back the drum out." [536] Reluctantly, they backed the drum out and deposited it. [537] With the aid of Capt. [538] Lawler, Lt. Chandler got the table unstuck. [539] They passed it over to Major Winship, who handed it out to Capt. [540] Wilkins. [541] Captain Wilkins carried it around the drum of calking compound and set it down. [542] It rested uneasily on the uneven surface. [543] "Now, let's go," said Major Winship. [544] Eventually, they accomplished the moving. [545] They wedged the drum between the main air-supply tank and the transmitter. [546] They were all perspiring. [547] "It's not the weight, it's the mass," said Capt. [548] Wilkins brightly. [549] "The hell it isn't the weight," said Lt. Chandler. [550] "That's heavy." [551] "With my reefer out," said Major Winship, "I'm the one it's rough on." [552] He shook perspiration out of his eyes. [553] "They should figure a way to get a mop in here, or a towel, or a sponge, or something. [554] I'll bet you've forgotten how much sweat stings in the eyes." [555] "It's the salt." [556] "Speaking of salt. [557] I wish I had some salt tablets," Major Winship said. [558] "I've never sweat so much since basic." [559] "Want to bet Finogenov hasn't got a bushel of them?" [560] "No!" [561] Major Winship snapped. [562] With the drum of calking compound inside, both Capt. [563] Lawler and Lt. Chandler retreated to the bunks. [564] Capt. [565] Wilkins maneuvered the mixing attachment. [566] "I feel crowded," he said. [567] "Cozy's the word." [568] "Watch it! [569] Watch it! [570] You almost hit me in the face plate with that!" [571] "Sorry." [572] At length the mixer was in operation in the drum. [573] "Works perfectly," said Capt. [574] Wilkins proudly. [575] "Now what, Skip? [576] The instructions aren't in English." [577] "You're supposed to dump the bucket of stuff in. [578] Then clean the area thoroughly around the leak." [579] "With what?" [580] asked Major Winship. [581] "Sandpaper, I guess." [582] "With sandpaper?" [583] Major Winship said, emptying the bucket of fluid into the drum. [584] "We don't have any sandpaper." [585] "It's been a long day," Capt. [586] Wilkins said. [587] "Mix it thoroughly," Lt. Chandler mused. [588] "I guess that means let it mix for about ten minutes or so. [589] Then you apply it. [590] It sets for service in just a little bit, Finogenov said. [591] An hour or so, maybe." [592] "I hope this doesn't set on exposure to air." [593] "No," Capt. [594] Lawler said. [595] "It sets by some kind of chemical action. [596] General Finogenov wasn't sure of the English name for it. [597] Some kind of plastic." [598] "Let's come back to how we're going to clean around the leak," Major Winship said. [599] "Say, I—" interrupted Capt. [600] Wilkins. [601] There was a trace of concern in his voice. [602] "This is a hell of a time for this to occur to me. [603] I just wasn't thinking, before. [604] You don't suppose it's a room-temperature-curing epoxy resin, do you? " [605] "Larry," said Major Winship, "I wouldn't know a room-temperature-curing epoxy resin from—" "Hey!" [606] exclaimed Capt. [607] Wilkins. [608] "The mixer's stopped." [609] He bent forward and touched the drum. [610] He jerked back. [611] "Ye Gods! [612] that's hot! [613] And it's harder than a rock! [614] It is an epoxy! [615] Let's get out of here." [616] "Huh?" [617] "Out! [618] Out!" [619] Major Winship, Lt. Chandler, and Capt. [620] Lawler, recognizing the sense of urgency, simultaneously glanced at the drum. [621] It was glowing cherry red. [622] "Let's go!" [623] Capt. [624] Wilkins said. [625] He and the Major reached the airlock at the same time and became temporarily engaged with each other. [626] Movement was somewhat ungainly in the space suits under the best of conditions, and now, with the necessity for speed, was doubly so. [627] The other two crashed into them from behind, and they spewed forth from the dome in a tangle of arms and legs. [628] At the table, they separated, two going to the left, two to the right. [629] The table remained untouched. [630] When they halted, Capt. [631] Wilkins said, "Get to one side, it may go off like shrapnel." [632] They obeyed. [633] "What—what—what?" [634] Capt. [635] Lawler stuttered. [636] They were still separated, two on one side of the airlock, two on the other. [637] "I'm going to try to look," Capt. [638] Wilkins said. [639] "Let me go." [640] He lumbered directly away from the dome for a distance of about fifteen feet, then turned and positioned himself, some five feet behind the table, on a line of sight with the airlock. [641] "I can see it," he said. [642] "It's getting redder. [643] It's ... it's ... melting, yes. [644] Melting down at the bottom a little. [645] Now it's falling over to one side and laying on the air tank. [646] The air tank is getting red, too. [647] I'm afraid ... it's weakening it.... Redder. [648] Oh, oh." [649] "What?" [650] said Capt. [651] Lawler. [652] "Watch out! [653] There. [654] There! " [655] Capt. [656] Wilkins leaped from his position. [657] He was still floating toward the ground when there was an incredibly bright flare from inside the dome, and a great, silent tongue of flame lashed through the airlock and rolled across the lunar surface. [658] The table was sent tumbling. [659] The flame was gone almost instantly. [660] "There went the air," Capt. [661] Lawler commented. [662] "We got T-Trouble," said Lt. Chandler.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the relationship between the Soviets and the Americans": 1. [405] Major Winship, mindful of the extent of his potential audience, took a deep breath. "Earlier this morning, the Soviet Union fired an underground atomic device for the ostensible purpose of investigating the composition of the lunar mass by means of seismic analysis of the resultant shock waves. This was done in spite of American warnings that such a disturbance might release accumulated stresses in the long undisturbed satellite, and was done in the face of vigorous American protests." 2. [420] "However," he continued, "we did experience a minor leak in the dome, which is presently being repaired." 3. [421] "The Soviet Union," came the reply, "has reported the disturbance and has tendered their official apology." 4. [476] "It's this way," Lt. Chandler said. "They didn't have anything but 55-gallon drums of it." 5. [477] "It's this way," Lt. Chandler resumed. "I told him we needed about a pint. Maybe a quart. But this stuff you have to mix up. He only had these drums. There's two parts to it, and you have to combine them in just the right proportion. He told me to take a little scale—" 6. [478] "A little scale?" asked Capt. Wilkins, rolling his eyes at the dome. 7. [479] "That's what I told him. We don't have any little scale." 8. [480] "Yeah," said Captain Lawler, "and he looked at us with that mute, surprised look, like everybody, everywhere has dozens of little scales." 9. [481] "Well, anyway," Lt. Chandler continued, "he told us just to mix up the whole fifty-five gallon drum. There's a little bucket of stuff that goes in, and it's measured just right. We can throw away what we don't need." 10. [482] "He had five or six of them." 11. [483] "Jesus!" said Capt. Wilkins. "That must be three thousand pounds of calking compound. Those people are insane." 12. [484] "The question is," Capt. Lawler said, "'How are we going to mix it?' It's supposed to be mixed thoroughly." 13. [485] They thought over the problem for a while. 14. [486] "That will be a man-sized job," Major Winship said. 15. [487] "Let's see, Charlie. Maybe not too bad," said Capt. Wilkins. 16. [488] "If I took the compressor motor, we could make up a shaft and ... let's see ... if we could...." It took the better part of an hour to rig up the electric mixer. 17. [489] Capt. Wilkins was profusely congratulated. 18. [490] "Now," Major Winship said, "we can either bring the drum inside or take the mixer out there." 19. [491] "We're going to have to bring the drum in," Capt. Wilkins said. 20. [492] "Well," said Capt. Lawler, "that will make it nice and cozy." 21. [493] It took the four of them to roll the drum inside, rocking it back and forth through the airlock. 22. [494] At that time, it was apparent the table was interposing itself. 23. [495] Lt. Chandler tried to dismantle the table. 24. [496] "Damn these suits," he said. 25. [497] "You've got it stuck between the bunk post." 26. [498] "I know that." 27. [499] "I don't think this is the way to do it," Major Winship said. 28. [500] "Let's back the drum out." 29. [501] Reluctantly, they backed the drum out and deposited it. 30. [502] With the aid of Capt. Lawler, Lt. Chandler got the table unstuck. 31. [503] They passed it over to Major Winship, who handed it out to Capt. Wilkins. 32. [504] Captain Wilkins carried it around the drum of calking compound and set it down. 33. [505] It rested uneasily on the uneven surface. 34. [506] "Now, let's go," said Major Winship. 35. [507] Eventually, they accomplished the moving. 36. [508] They wedged the drum between the main air-supply tank and the transmitter. 37. [509] They were all perspiring. 38. [510] "It's not the weight, it's the mass," said Capt. Wilkins brightly. 39. [511] "The hell it isn't the weight," said Lt. Chandler. "That's heavy." 40. [512] "With my reefer out," said Major Winship, "I'm the one it's rough on." 41. [513] He shook perspiration out of his eyes. 42. [514] "They should figure a way to get a mop in here, or a towel, or a sponge, or something. I'll bet you've forgotten how much sweat stings in the eyes." 43. [515] "It's the salt." 44. [516] "Speaking of salt. I wish I had some salt tablets," Major Winship said. 45. [517] "I've never sweat so much since basic." 46. [518] "Want to bet Finogenov hasn't got a bushel of them?" 47. [519] "No!" Major Winship snapped. 48. [520] With the drum of calking compound inside, both Capt. Lawler and Lt. Chandler retreated to the bunks. 49. [521] Capt. Wilkins maneuvered the mixing attachment. 50. [522] "I feel crowded," he said. 51. [523] "Cozy's the word." 52. [524] "Watch it! Watch it! You almost hit me in the face plate with that!" 53. [525] "Sorry." 54. [526] At length the mixer was in operation in the drum. 55. [527] "Works perfectly," said Capt. Wilkins proudly. 56. [528] "Now what, Skip? The instructions aren't in English." 57. [529] "You're supposed to dump the bucket of stuff in. Then clean the area thoroughly around the leak." 58. [530] "With what?" asked Major Winship. 59. [531] "Sandpaper, I guess." 60. [532] "With sandpaper?" Major Winship said, emptying the bucket of fluid into the drum. "We don't have any sandpaper." 61. [533] "It's been a long day," Capt. Wilkins said. 62. [534] "Mix it thoroughly," Lt. Chandler mused. "I guess that means let it mix for about ten minutes or so. Then you apply it. It sets for service in just a little bit, Finogenov said. An hour or so, maybe." 63. [535] "I hope this doesn't set on exposure to air." 64. [536] "No," Capt. Lawler said. "It sets by some kind of chemical action. General Finogenov wasn't sure of the English name for it. Some kind of plastic." 65. [537] "Let's come back to how we're going to clean around the leak," Major Winship said. 66. [538] "Say, I—" interrupted Capt. Wilkins. There was a trace of concern in his voice. "This is a hell of a time for this to occur to me. I just wasn't thinking, before. You don't suppose it's a room-temperature-curing epoxy resin, do you?" 67. [539] "Larry," said Major Winship, "I wouldn't know a room-temperature-curing epoxy resin from—" 68. [540] "Hey!" exclaimed Capt. Wilkins. "The mixer's stopped." 69. [541] He bent forward and touched the drum. He jerked back. "Ye Gods! that's hot! And it's harder than a rock! It is an epoxy! Let's get out of here." 70. [542] "Huh?" 71. [543] "Out! Out!" 72. [544] Major Winship, Lt. Chandler, and Capt. Lawler, recognizing the sense of urgency, simultaneously glanced at the drum. It was glowing cherry red. 73. [545] "Let's go!" Capt. Wilkins said. 74. [546] He and the Major reached the airlock at the same time and became temporarily engaged with each other. 75. [547] Movement was somewhat ungainly in the space suits under the best of conditions, and now, with the necessity for speed, was doubly so. 76. [548] The other two crashed into them from behind, and they spewed forth from the dome in a tangle of arms and legs. 77. [549] At the table, they separated, two going to the left, two to the right. 78. [550] The table remained untouched. 79. [551] When they halted, Capt. Wilkins said, "Get to one side, it may go off like shrapnel." 80. [552] They obeyed. 81. [553] "What—what—what?" Capt. Lawler stuttered. 82. [554] They were still separated, two on one side of the airlock, two on the other. 83. [555] "I'm going to try to look," Capt. Wilkins said. "Let me go." 84. [556] He lumbered directly away from the dome for a distance of about fifteen feet, then turned and positioned himself, some five feet behind the table, on a line of sight with the airlock. 85. [557] "I can see it," he said. "It's getting redder. It's ... it's ... melting, yes. Melting down at the bottom a little. Now it's falling over to one side and laying on the air tank. The air tank is getting red, too. I'm afraid ... it's weakening it.... Redder. Oh, oh." 86. [558] "What?" said Capt. Lawler. 87. [559] "Watch out! There. There!" 88. [560] Capt. Wilkins leaped from his position. 89. [561] He was still floating toward the ground when there was an incredibly bright flare from inside the dome, and a great, silent tongue of flame lashed through the airlock and rolled across the lunar surface. 90. [562] The table was sent tumbling. 91. [563] The flame was gone almost instantly. 92. [564] "There went the air," Capt. Lawler commented. 93. [565] "We got T-Trouble," said Lt. Chandler.

Describe the setting of the story.

[1] The Winning of the Moon BY KRIS NEVILLE The enemy was friendly enough. [2] Trouble was—their friendship was as dangerous as their hate! [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] General Finogenov notified Major Winship that the underground blast was scheduled for the following morning. [6] Major Winship, after receiving the message, discussed precautions with the three other Americans. [7] Next morning, before the sunlight exploded, the four of them donned their space suits and went and sat outside the dome, waiting. [8] The sun rose with its bright, silent clap of radiance. [9] Black pools of shadows lay in harsh contrast, their edges drawn with geometric precision. [10] Major Winship attempted unsuccessfully to communicate with Base Gagarin. [11] "Will you please request the general to keep us informed on the progress of the countdown?" [12] "Is Pinov," came the reply. [13] "Help?" [14] " Nyet ," said Major Winship, exhausting his Russian. [15] "Count down. [16] Progress. [17] When—boom?" [18] "Is Pinov," came the reply. [19] "Boom! [20] Boom!" [21] said Major Winship in exasperation. [22] "Boom!" [23] said Pinov happily. [24] "When?" [25] "Boom—boom!" [26] said Pinov. [27] "Oh, nuts." [28] Major Winship cut out the circuit. [29] "They've got Pinov on emergency watch this morning," he explained to the other Americans. [30] "The one that doesn't speak English." [31] "He's done it deliberately," said Capt. [32] Wilkins, the eldest of the four Americans. [33] "How are we going to know when it's over?" [34] No one bothered to respond. [35] They sat for a while in silence while the shadows evaporated. [36] One by one they clicked on their cooling systems. [37] Ultimately, Lt. Chandler said, "This is a little ridiculous. [38] I'm going to switch over to their channel. [39] Rap if you want me." [40] He sat transfixed for several minutes. [41] "Ah, it's all Russian. [42] Jabbering away. [43] I can't tell a thing that's going on." [44] In the airless void of the moon, the blast itself would be silent. [45] A moth's wing of dust would, perhaps, rise and settle beyond the horizon: no more. [46] "Static?" [47] "Nope." [48] "We'll get static on these things." [49] A small infinity seemed to pass very slowly. [50] Major Winship shifted restlessly. [51] "My reefer's gone on the fritz." [52] Perspiration was trickling down his face. [53] "Let's all go in," said the fourth American, Capt. [54] Lawler. [55] "It's probably over by now." [56] "I'll try again," Major Winship said and switched to the emergency channel. [57] "Base Gagarin? [58] Base Gagarin?" [59] "Is Pinov. [60] Help?" [61] " Nyet. " [62] "Pinov's still there," Major Winship said. [63] "Tell him, 'Help'," said Capt. [64] Wilkins, "so he'll get somebody we can talk to." [65] "I'll see them all in hell, first," Major Winship said. [66] Five minutes later, the perspiration was rivers across his face. [67] "This is it," he said. [68] "I'm going in." [69] "Let's all—" "No. [70] I've got to cool off." [71] "Hell, Charlie, I feel stupid sitting out here," Capt. [72] Lawler said. [73] "The shot probably went off an hour ago." [74] "The static level hasn't gone up much, if at all." [75] "Maybe," Lt. Chandler said, "it's buried too deep." [76] "Maybe so," Major Winship said. [77] "But we can't have the dome fall down around all our ears." [78] He stood. [79] "Whew! [80] You guys stay put." [81] He crossed with the floating moon-motion to the airlock and entered, closing the door behind him. [82] The darkness slowly filled with air, and the temperature inside the suit declined steadily. [83] At the proper moment of pressure, the inner lock slid open and Major Winship stepped into the illuminated central area. [84] His foot was lifted for the second step when the floor beneath him rose and fell gently, pitching him forward, off balance. [85] He stumbled against the table and ended up seated beside the radio equipment. [86] The ground moved again. [87] "Charlie! [88] Charlie!" [89] "I'm okay," Major Winship answered. [90] "Okay! [91] Okay!" [92] "It's—" There was additional surface movement. [93] The movement ceased. [94] "Hey, Les, how's it look?" [95] Capt. [96] Wilkins asked. [97] "Okay from this side. [98] Charlie, you still okay?" [99] "Okay," Major Winship said. [100] "We told them this might happen," he added bitterly. [101] There was a wait during which everyone seemed to be holding their breath. [102] "I guess it's over," said Major Winship, getting to his feet. [103] "Wait a bit more, there may be an after-shock." [104] He switched once again to the emergency channel. [105] "Is Pinov," came the supremely relaxed voice. [106] "Help?" [107] Major Winship whinnied in disgust. " [108] Nyet! " [109] he snarled. [110] To the other Americans: "Our comrades seem unconcerned." [111] "Tough." [112] They began to get the static for the first time. [113] It crackled and snapped in their speakers. [114] They made sounds of disapproval at each other. [115] For a minute or two, static blanked out the communications completely. [116] It then abated to something in excess of normal. [117] "Well," Lt. Chandler commented, "even though we didn't build this thing to withstand a moonquake, it seems to have stood up all right." [118] "I guess I was just—" Major Winship began. [119] "Oh, hell! [120] We're losing pressure. [121] Where's the markers?" [122] "By the lug cabinet." [123] "Got 'em," Major Winship said a moment later. [124] He peeled back a marker and let it fall. [125] Air currents whisked it away and plastered it against a riveted seam of the dome. [126] It pulsed as though it were breathing and then it ruptured. [127] Major Winship moved quickly to cut out the emergency air supply which had cut in automatically with the pressure drop. [128] "You guys wait. [129] It's on your right side, midway up. [130] I'll try to sheet it." [131] He moved for the plastic sheeting. [132] "We've lost about three feet of calk out here," Capt. [133] Lawler said. [134] "I can see more ripping loose. [135] You're losing pressure fast at this rate." [136] Major Winship pressed the sheeting over the leak. [137] "How's that?" [138] "Not yet." [139] "I don't think I've got enough pressure left to hold it, now. [140] It's sprung a little, and I can't get it to conform over the rivet heads." [141] There was a splatter of static. [142] "Damn!" [143] Major Winship said, "they should have made these things more flexible." [144] "Still coming out." [145] "Best I can do." [146] Major Winship stepped back. [147] The sheet began slowly to slide downward, then it fell away completely and lay limply on the floor. [148] "Come on in," he said dryly. [149] With the four of them inside, it was somewhat cramped. [150] Most of the five hundred square feet was filled with equipment. [151] Electrical cables trailed loosely along the walls and were festooned from the ceiling, radiating from the connections to the outside solar cells. [152] The living space was more restricted than in a submarine, with the bunks jutting out from the walls about six feet from the floor. [153] Lt. Chandler mounted one of the bunks to give them more room. [154] "Well," he said wryly, "it doesn't smell as bad now." [155] "Oops," said Major Winship. [156] "Just a second. [157] They're coming in." [158] He switched over to the emergency channel. [159] It was General Finogenov. [160] "Major Winship! [161] Hello! [162] Hello, hello, hello. [163] You A Okay?" [164] "This is Major Winship." [165] "Oh! [166] Excellent, very good. [167] Any damage, Major?" [168] "Little leak. [169] You?" [170] "Came through without damage." [171] General Finogenov paused a moment. [172] When no comment was forthcoming, he continued: "Perhaps we built a bit more strongly, Major." [173] "You did this deliberately," Major Winship said testily. [174] "No, no. [175] Oh, no, no, no, no. [176] Major Winship, please believe me. [177] I very much regret this. [178] Very much so. [179] I am very distressed. [180] Depressed. [181] After repeatedly assuring you there was no danger of a quake—and then to have something like this happen. [182] Oh, this is very embarrassing to me. [183] Is there anything at all we can do?" [184] "Just leave us alone, thank you," Major Winship said and cut off the communication. [185] "What'd they say?" [186] Capt. [187] Wilkins asked. [188] "Larry, General Finogenov said he was very embarrassed by this." [189] "That's nice," Lt. Chandler said. [190] "I'll be damned surprised," Major Winship said, "if they got any seismic data out of that shot.... Well, to hell with them, let's get this leak fixed. [191] Skip, can you get the calking compound?" [192] "Larry, where's the inventory?" [193] "Les has got it." [194] Lt. Chandler got down from the bunk and Capt. [195] Wilkins mounted. [196] "Larry," Major Winship said, "why don't you get Earth?" [197] "Okay." [198] Capt. [199] Wilkins got down from the bunk and Capt. [200] Lawler ascended. [201] "Got the inventory sheet, Les?" [202] "Right here." [203] Squeezed in front of the massive transmitter, Capt. [204] Wilkins had energized the circuits. [205] There was a puzzled look on his face. [206] He leaned his helmet against the speaker and then shook his head sadly. [207] "We can't hear anything without any air." [208] Major Winship looked at the microphone. [209] "Well, I'll just report and—" He started to pick up the microphone and reconsidered. [210] "Yes," he said. [211] "That's right, isn't it." [212] Capt. [213] Wilkins flicked off the transmitter. [214] "Some days you don't mine at all," he said. [215] "Les, have you found it?" [216] "It's around here somewhere. [217] Supposed to be back here." [218] "Well, find it." [219] Lt. Chandler began moving boxes. [220] "I saw it—" "Skip, help look." [221] Capt. [222] Lawler got down from the bunk and Major Winship mounted. [223] "We haven't got all day." [224] A few minutes later, Lt. Chandler issued the triumphant cry. [225] "Here it is! [226] Dozen tubes. [227] Squeeze tubes. [228] It's the new stuff." [229] Major Winship got down and Capt. [230] Wilkins got up. [231] "Marker showed it over here," Major Winship said, inching over to the wall. [232] He traced the leak with a metallic finger. [233] "How does this stuff work?" [234] Capt. [235] Lawler asked. [236] They huddled over the instruction sheet. [237] "Let's see. [238] Squeeze the tube until the diaphragm at the nozzle ruptures. [239] Extrude paste into seam. [240] Allow to harden one hour before service." [241] Major Winship said dryly, "Never mind. [242] I notice it hardens on contact with air." [243] Capt. [244] Wilkins lay back on the bunk and stared upward. [245] He said, "Now that makes a weird kind of sense, doesn't it?" [246] "How do they possibly think—?" [247] "Gentlemen! [248] It doesn't make any difference," Lt. Chandler said. [249] "Some air must already have leaked into this one. [250] It's hard as a rock. [251] A gorilla couldn't extrude it." [252] "How're the other ones?" [253] asked Major Winship. [254] Lt. Chandler turned and made a quick examination. [255] "Oh, they're all hard, too." [256] "Who was supposed to check?" [257] demanded Capt. [258] Wilkins in exasperation. [259] "The only way you can check is to extrude it," Lt. Chandler said, "and if it does extrude, you've ruined it." [260] "That's that," Major Winship said. [261] "There's nothing for it but to yell help." [262] II Capt. [263] Lawler and Lt. Chandler took the land car to Base Gagarin. [264] The Soviet base was situated some ten miles toward sunset at the bottom of a natural fold in the surface. [265] The route was moderately direct to the tip of the gently rolling ridge. [266] At that point, the best pathway angled left and made an S-shaped descent to the basin. [267] It was a one-way trip of approximately thirty exhausting minutes. [268] Major Winship, with his deficient reefer, remained behind. [269] Capt. [270] Wilkins stayed for company. [271] "I want a cigarette in the worst way," Capt. [272] Wilkins said. [273] "So do I, Larry. [274] Shouldn't be more than a couple of hours. [275] Unless something else goes wrong." [276] "As long as they'll loan us the calking compound," Capt. [277] Wilkins said. [278] "Yeah, yeah," Major Winship said. [279] "Let's eat." [280] "You got any concentrate? [281] I'm empty." [282] "I'll load you," Capt. [283] Wilkins volunteered wearily. [284] It was an awkward operation that took several minutes. [285] Capt. [286] Wilkins cursed twice during the operation. [287] "I'd hate to live in this thing for any period." [288] "I think these suits are one thing we've got over the Russians," Major Winship said. [289] "I don't see how they can manipulate those bulky pieces of junk around." [290] They ate. [291] "Really horrible stuff." [292] "Nutritious." [293] After the meal, Major Winship said reflectively, "Now I'd like a cup of hot tea. [294] I'm cooled off." [295] Capt. [296] Wilkins raised eyebrows. [297] "What brought this on?" [298] "I was just thinking.... [299] They really got it made, Larry. [300] They've got better than three thousand square feet in the main dome and better than twelve hundred square feet in each of the two little ones. [301] And there's only seven of them right now. [302] That's living." [303] "They've been here six years longer, after all." [304] "Finogenov had a clay samovar sent up. [305] Lemon and nutmeg, too. [306] Real, by God, fresh lemons for the tea, the last time I was there. [307] His own office is about ten by ten. [308] Think of that. [309] One hundred square feet. [310] And a wooden desk. [311] A wooden desk. [312] And a chair. [313] A wooden chair. [314] Everything big and heavy. [315] Everything. [316] Weight, hell. [317] Fifty pounds more or less—" "They've got the power-plants for it." [318] "Do you think he did that deliberately?" [319] Major Winship asked. [320] "I think he's trying to force us off. [321] I think he hoped for the quake. [322] Gagarin's built to take it, I'll say that. [323] Looks like it, anyhow. [324] You don't suppose they planned this all along? [325] Even if they didn't, they sure got the jump on us again, didn't they? [326] I told you what he told me?" [327] "You told me," Capt. [328] Wilkins said. [329] After a moment, Major Winship said bitterly, "To hell with the Russian engineer." [330] "If you've got all that power...." "That's the thing. [331] That's the thing that gripes me, know what I mean? [332] It's just insane to send up a heavy wooden desk. [333] That's showing off. [334] Like a little kid." [335] "Maybe they don't make aluminum desks." [336] "They've—got—aluminum. [337] Half of everything on the whole planet is aluminum. [338] You know they're just showing off." [339] "Let me wire you up," Capt. [340] Wilkins said. [341] "We ought to report." [342] "That's going to take awhile." [343] "It's something to do while we wait." [344] "I guess we ought to." [345] Major Winship came down from the bunk and sat with his back toward the transmitter. [346] Capt. [347] Wilkins slewed the equipment around until the emergency jacks were accessible. [348] He unearthed the appropriate cable and began unscrewing the exterior plate to the small transmitter-receiver set on Major Winship's back. [349] Eventually, trailing wires, Major Winship was coupled into the network. [350] "Okay?" [351] "Okay," Major Winship gestured. [352] They roused Earth. [353] "This is Major Charles Winship, Commanding Officer, Freedom 19, the American moonbase." [354] At this point, Major Winship observed for the first time that he was now on emergency air. [355] He started to ask Capt. [356] Wilkins to change his air bottle, but then he realized his communications were cut off. [357] He reached over and rapped Capt. [358] Wilkins' helmet. [359] "This is the Cape. [360] Come in, Major Winship." [361] "Just a moment." [362] "Is everything all right?" [363] Major Winship was squirming nervously, obviously perturbed. [364] "A-Okay," he said. [365] "Just a moment." [366] "What's wrong?" [367] came the worried question. [368] In the background, he heard someone say, "I think there's something wrong." [369] Capt. [370] Wilkins peered intently. [371] Major Winship contorted his face in a savage grimace. [372] Capt. [373] Wilkins raised his eyebrows in alarm. [374] They were face to face through their helmets, close together. [375] Each face appeared monstrously large to the other. [376] Major Winship made a strangling motion and reached for his throat. [377] One arm tangled a cable and jerked the speaker jack loose. [378] Major Winship could no longer hear the alarmed expressions from the Cape. [379] The effort was not entirely subvocal, since he emitted a little gasping cry in involuntary realism. [380] This, in the course of some 90 seconds, was transmitted to Earth. [381] Capt. [382] Wilkins's lips were desperately forming the word "Leak?" [383] Air, Major Winship said silently. [384] Leak? [385] Bottle! [386] Bottle! [387] Bottle! [388] It was a frog-like, unvocal expletive. [389] Comprehension dawned. [390] Capt. [391] Wilkins nodded and started to turn away. [392] Major Winship caught his arm and nodded his head toward the loose jack. [393] Oh. [394] Capt. [395] Wilkins nodded and smiled. [396] He reached across and plugged the speaker in again. [397] "... Freedom 19! [398] Hello, Freedom 19! [399] Come in!" [400] "We're here," Major Winship said. [401] "All right? [402] Are you all right?" [403] "We're all right. [404] A-Okay." [405] Major Winship, mindful of the extent of his potential audience, took a deep breath. [406] "Earlier this morning, the Soviet Union fired an underground atomic device for the ostensible purpose of investigating the composition of the lunar mass by means of seismic analysis of the resultant shock waves. [407] This was done in spite of American warnings that such a disturbance might release accumulated stresses in the long undisturbed satellite, and was done in the face of vigorous American protests." [408] Capt. [409] Wilkins tapped his helmet and gestured for him to swivel around. [410] The turn was uncomfortably tight and complicated by the restraining cables. [411] Capt. [412] Wilkins began replacement of the air bottle. [413] "These protests have proved well founded," Major Winship continued. [414] "Immediately following the detonation, Freedom 19 was called on to withstand a moderately severe shifting of the Lunar surface. [415] No personnel were injured and there was no equipment damage." [416] Capt. [417] Wilkins tapped his shoulder to indicate the new air bottle was being inserted. [418] Another tap indicated it was seated. [419] Major Winship flicked the appropriate chest button and nodded in appreciation. [420] "However," he continued, "we did experience a minor leak in the dome, which is presently being repaired." [421] "The Soviet Union," came the reply, "has reported the disturbance and has tendered their official apology. [422] You want it?" [423] "It can wait until later. [424] Send it by mail for all I care. [425] Vacuum has destroyed our organic air reconditioner. [426] We have approximately three weeks of emergency air. [427] However, Base Gagarin reports no damage, so that, in the event we exhaust our air, we will be able to obtain the necessary replacement." [428] The wait of a little better than three seconds for the response gave the conversation a tone of deliberation. [429] A new voice came on. [430] "We tried to contact you earlier, Major. [431] We will be able to deliver replacements in about ten days." [432] "I will forward a coded report on the occurrence," Major Winship said. [433] "Let us hear from you again in ... about three hours. [434] Is the leak repaired?" [435] "The leak has not yet been repaired. [436] Over and out." [437] He nodded to Capt. [438] Wilkins and leaned back. [439] Methodically, Capt. [440] Wilkins set about disconnecting the major from the transmitter. [441] "Wow!" [442] said Major Winship when he was once more in communication. [443] "For a moment there, I thought...." "What?" [444] Capt. [445] Wilkins asked with interest. [446] "I could see myself asking them to ask the Russians to ask Finogenov to get on the emergency channel to ask you to charge the air bottle. [447] I never felt so ... idiotic is not quite strong enough ... there for a minute in my whole life. [448] I didn't know how much emergency air was left, and I thought, my God, I'll never live this down. [449] All the hams in the world listening, while I try to explain the situation. [450] I could see the nickname being entered in my files: aka. [451] The Airless Idiot. [452] I tell you, that was rough." [453] III Capt. [454] Lawler and Lt. Chandler returned with the calking compound. [455] It occupied the rear section of the land car. [456] Lt. Chandler sat atop it. [457] It was a fifty-five gallon drum. [458] The airlock to Freedom 19 was open. [459] "What is that ?" [460] asked Major Winship, squinting out into the glaring sunlight. [461] "That," said Capt. [462] Lawler, "is the calking compound." [463] "You're kidding," said Capt. [464] Wilkins. [465] "I am not kidding." [466] Capt. [467] Lawler and Lt. Chandler came inside. [468] Capt. [469] Wilkins mounted a bunk. [470] "Why didn't you just borrow a cupful?" [471] Major Winship said sarcastically. [472] "It's this way," Lt. Chandler said. [473] "They didn't have anything but 55-gallon drums of it." [474] "Oh, my," said Capt. [475] Wilkins. [476] "I suppose it's a steel drum. [477] Those things must weigh...." "Actually, I think you guys have got the general wrong," Capt. [478] Lawler said. [479] "He was out, himself, to greet us. [480] I think he was really quite upset by the quake. [481] Probably because his people had misfigured so bad." [482] "He's too damned suspicious," Major Winship said. [483] "You know and I know why they set that blast off. [484] I tried to tell him. [485] Hell. [486] He looks at me like an emasculated owl and wants to know our ulterior motive in trying to prevent a purely scientific experiment, the results of which will be published in the technical press for the good of everybody. [487] I'll bet!" [488] "About this drum," Capt. [489] Wilkins said. [490] "Well, like I said, it's this way," Lt. Chandler resumed. [491] "I told him we needed about a pint. [492] Maybe a quart. [493] But this stuff you have to mix up. [494] He only had these drums. [495] There's two parts to it, and you have to combine them in just the right proportion. [496] He told me to take a little scale—" "A little scale?" [497] asked Capt. [498] Wilkins, rolling his eyes at the dome. [499] "That's what I told him. [500] We don't have any little scale." [501] "Yeah," said Captain Lawler, "and he looked at us with that mute, surprised look, like everybody, everywhere has dozens of little scales." [502] "Well, anyway," Lt. Chandler continued, "he told us just to mix up the whole fifty-five gallon drum. [503] There's a little bucket of stuff that goes in, and it's measured just right. [504] We can throw away what we don't need." [505] "Somehow, that sounds like him," Major Winship said. [506] "He had five or six of them." [507] "Jesus!" [508] said Capt. [509] Wilkins. [510] "That must be three thousand pounds of calking compound. [511] Those people are insane." [512] "The question is," Capt. [513] Lawler said, "'How are we going to mix it?' [514] It's supposed to be mixed thoroughly." [515] They thought over the problem for a while. [516] "That will be a man-sized job," Major Winship said. [517] "Let's see, Charlie. [518] Maybe not too bad," said Capt. [519] Wilkins. [520] "If I took the compressor motor, we could make up a shaft and ... let's see ... if we could...." It took the better part of an hour to rig up the electric mixer. [521] Capt. [522] Wilkins was profusely congratulated. [523] "Now," Major Winship said, "we can either bring the drum inside or take the mixer out there." [524] "We're going to have to bring the drum in," Capt. [525] Wilkins said. [526] "Well," said Capt. [527] Lawler, "that will make it nice and cozy." [528] It took the four of them to roll the drum inside, rocking it back and forth through the airlock. [529] At that time, it was apparent the table was interposing itself. [530] Lt. Chandler tried to dismantle the table. [531] "Damn these suits," he said. [532] "You've got it stuck between the bunk post." [533] "I know that." [534] "I don't think this is the way to do it," Major Winship said. [535] "Let's back the drum out." [536] Reluctantly, they backed the drum out and deposited it. [537] With the aid of Capt. [538] Lawler, Lt. Chandler got the table unstuck. [539] They passed it over to Major Winship, who handed it out to Capt. [540] Wilkins. [541] Captain Wilkins carried it around the drum of calking compound and set it down. [542] It rested uneasily on the uneven surface. [543] "Now, let's go," said Major Winship. [544] Eventually, they accomplished the moving. [545] They wedged the drum between the main air-supply tank and the transmitter. [546] They were all perspiring. [547] "It's not the weight, it's the mass," said Capt. [548] Wilkins brightly. [549] "The hell it isn't the weight," said Lt. Chandler. [550] "That's heavy." [551] "With my reefer out," said Major Winship, "I'm the one it's rough on." [552] He shook perspiration out of his eyes. [553] "They should figure a way to get a mop in here, or a towel, or a sponge, or something. [554] I'll bet you've forgotten how much sweat stings in the eyes." [555] "It's the salt." [556] "Speaking of salt. [557] I wish I had some salt tablets," Major Winship said. [558] "I've never sweat so much since basic." [559] "Want to bet Finogenov hasn't got a bushel of them?" [560] "No!" [561] Major Winship snapped. [562] With the drum of calking compound inside, both Capt. [563] Lawler and Lt. Chandler retreated to the bunks. [564] Capt. [565] Wilkins maneuvered the mixing attachment. [566] "I feel crowded," he said. [567] "Cozy's the word." [568] "Watch it! [569] Watch it! [570] You almost hit me in the face plate with that!" [571] "Sorry." [572] At length the mixer was in operation in the drum. [573] "Works perfectly," said Capt. [574] Wilkins proudly. [575] "Now what, Skip? [576] The instructions aren't in English." [577] "You're supposed to dump the bucket of stuff in. [578] Then clean the area thoroughly around the leak." [579] "With what?" [580] asked Major Winship. [581] "Sandpaper, I guess." [582] "With sandpaper?" [583] Major Winship said, emptying the bucket of fluid into the drum. [584] "We don't have any sandpaper." [585] "It's been a long day," Capt. [586] Wilkins said. [587] "Mix it thoroughly," Lt. Chandler mused. [588] "I guess that means let it mix for about ten minutes or so. [589] Then you apply it. [590] It sets for service in just a little bit, Finogenov said. [591] An hour or so, maybe." [592] "I hope this doesn't set on exposure to air." [593] "No," Capt. [594] Lawler said. [595] "It sets by some kind of chemical action. [596] General Finogenov wasn't sure of the English name for it. [597] Some kind of plastic." [598] "Let's come back to how we're going to clean around the leak," Major Winship said. [599] "Say, I—" interrupted Capt. [600] Wilkins. [601] There was a trace of concern in his voice. [602] "This is a hell of a time for this to occur to me. [603] I just wasn't thinking, before. [604] You don't suppose it's a room-temperature-curing epoxy resin, do you? " [605] "Larry," said Major Winship, "I wouldn't know a room-temperature-curing epoxy resin from—" "Hey!" [606] exclaimed Capt. [607] Wilkins. [608] "The mixer's stopped." [609] He bent forward and touched the drum. [610] He jerked back. [611] "Ye Gods! [612] that's hot! [613] And it's harder than a rock! [614] It is an epoxy! [615] Let's get out of here." [616] "Huh?" [617] "Out! [618] Out!" [619] Major Winship, Lt. Chandler, and Capt. [620] Lawler, recognizing the sense of urgency, simultaneously glanced at the drum. [621] It was glowing cherry red. [622] "Let's go!" [623] Capt. [624] Wilkins said. [625] He and the Major reached the airlock at the same time and became temporarily engaged with each other. [626] Movement was somewhat ungainly in the space suits under the best of conditions, and now, with the necessity for speed, was doubly so. [627] The other two crashed into them from behind, and they spewed forth from the dome in a tangle of arms and legs. [628] At the table, they separated, two going to the left, two to the right. [629] The table remained untouched. [630] When they halted, Capt. [631] Wilkins said, "Get to one side, it may go off like shrapnel." [632] They obeyed. [633] "What—what—what?" [634] Capt. [635] Lawler stuttered. [636] They were still separated, two on one side of the airlock, two on the other. [637] "I'm going to try to look," Capt. [638] Wilkins said. [639] "Let me go." [640] He lumbered directly away from the dome for a distance of about fifteen feet, then turned and positioned himself, some five feet behind the table, on a line of sight with the airlock. [641] "I can see it," he said. [642] "It's getting redder. [643] It's ... it's ... melting, yes. [644] Melting down at the bottom a little. [645] Now it's falling over to one side and laying on the air tank. [646] The air tank is getting red, too. [647] I'm afraid ... it's weakening it.... Redder. [648] Oh, oh." [649] "What?" [650] said Capt. [651] Lawler. [652] "Watch out! [653] There. [654] There! " [655] Capt. [656] Wilkins leaped from his position. [657] He was still floating toward the ground when there was an incredibly bright flare from inside the dome, and a great, silent tongue of flame lashed through the airlock and rolled across the lunar surface. [658] The table was sent tumbling. [659] The flame was gone almost instantly. [660] "There went the air," Capt. [661] Lawler commented. [662] "We got T-Trouble," said Lt. Chandler.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the setting of the story": 1. [264] The Soviet base was situated some ten miles toward sunset at the bottom of a natural fold in the surface. 2. [265] The route was moderately direct to the tip of the gently rolling ridge. 3. [266] At that point, the best pathway angled left and made an S-shaped descent to the basin. 4. [151] Electrical cables trailed loosely along the walls and were festooned from the ceiling, radiating from the connections to the outside solar cells. 5. [152] The living space was more restricted than in a submarine, with the bunks jutting out from the walls about six feet from the floor. 6. [299] They've got better than three thousand square feet in the main dome and better than twelve hundred square feet in each of the two little ones. 7. [300] And there's only seven of them right now. 8. [301] That's living. 9. [302] They've been here six years longer, after all. 10. [303] Finogenov had a clay samovar sent up. 11. [304] Lemon and nutmeg, too. 12. [305] Real, by God, fresh lemons for the tea, the last time I was there. 13. [306] His own office is about ten by ten. 14. [307] Think of that. 15. [308] One hundred square feet. 16. [309] And a wooden desk. 17. [310] A wooden desk. 18. [311] And a chair. 19. [312] A wooden chair. 20. [313] Everything big and heavy. 21. [314] Everything. 22. [315] Weight, hell. 23. [316] Fifty pounds more or less— 24. [1] The enemy was friendly enough. 25. [2] Trouble was—their friendship was as dangerous as their hate! 26. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. 27. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 28. [5] General Finogenov notified Major Winship that the underground blast was scheduled for the following morning. 29. [6] Major Winship, after receiving the message, discussed precautions with the three other Americans. 30. [7] Next morning, before the sunlight exploded, the four of them donned their space suits and went and sat outside the dome, waiting. 31. [8] The sun rose with its bright, silent clap of radiance. 32. [9] Black pools of shadows lay in harsh contrast, their edges drawn with geometric precision. 33. [10] Major Winship attempted unsuccessfully to communicate with Base Gagarin. 34. [44] In the airless void of the moon, the blast itself would be silent. 35. [45] A moth's wing of dust would, perhaps, rise and settle beyond the horizon: no more.

What is the significance of the seismic test the Russians conduct?

[1] The Winning of the Moon BY KRIS NEVILLE The enemy was friendly enough. [2] Trouble was—their friendship was as dangerous as their hate! [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] General Finogenov notified Major Winship that the underground blast was scheduled for the following morning. [6] Major Winship, after receiving the message, discussed precautions with the three other Americans. [7] Next morning, before the sunlight exploded, the four of them donned their space suits and went and sat outside the dome, waiting. [8] The sun rose with its bright, silent clap of radiance. [9] Black pools of shadows lay in harsh contrast, their edges drawn with geometric precision. [10] Major Winship attempted unsuccessfully to communicate with Base Gagarin. [11] "Will you please request the general to keep us informed on the progress of the countdown?" [12] "Is Pinov," came the reply. [13] "Help?" [14] " Nyet ," said Major Winship, exhausting his Russian. [15] "Count down. [16] Progress. [17] When—boom?" [18] "Is Pinov," came the reply. [19] "Boom! [20] Boom!" [21] said Major Winship in exasperation. [22] "Boom!" [23] said Pinov happily. [24] "When?" [25] "Boom—boom!" [26] said Pinov. [27] "Oh, nuts." [28] Major Winship cut out the circuit. [29] "They've got Pinov on emergency watch this morning," he explained to the other Americans. [30] "The one that doesn't speak English." [31] "He's done it deliberately," said Capt. [32] Wilkins, the eldest of the four Americans. [33] "How are we going to know when it's over?" [34] No one bothered to respond. [35] They sat for a while in silence while the shadows evaporated. [36] One by one they clicked on their cooling systems. [37] Ultimately, Lt. Chandler said, "This is a little ridiculous. [38] I'm going to switch over to their channel. [39] Rap if you want me." [40] He sat transfixed for several minutes. [41] "Ah, it's all Russian. [42] Jabbering away. [43] I can't tell a thing that's going on." [44] In the airless void of the moon, the blast itself would be silent. [45] A moth's wing of dust would, perhaps, rise and settle beyond the horizon: no more. [46] "Static?" [47] "Nope." [48] "We'll get static on these things." [49] A small infinity seemed to pass very slowly. [50] Major Winship shifted restlessly. [51] "My reefer's gone on the fritz." [52] Perspiration was trickling down his face. [53] "Let's all go in," said the fourth American, Capt. [54] Lawler. [55] "It's probably over by now." [56] "I'll try again," Major Winship said and switched to the emergency channel. [57] "Base Gagarin? [58] Base Gagarin?" [59] "Is Pinov. [60] Help?" [61] " Nyet. " [62] "Pinov's still there," Major Winship said. [63] "Tell him, 'Help'," said Capt. [64] Wilkins, "so he'll get somebody we can talk to." [65] "I'll see them all in hell, first," Major Winship said. [66] Five minutes later, the perspiration was rivers across his face. [67] "This is it," he said. [68] "I'm going in." [69] "Let's all—" "No. [70] I've got to cool off." [71] "Hell, Charlie, I feel stupid sitting out here," Capt. [72] Lawler said. [73] "The shot probably went off an hour ago." [74] "The static level hasn't gone up much, if at all." [75] "Maybe," Lt. Chandler said, "it's buried too deep." [76] "Maybe so," Major Winship said. [77] "But we can't have the dome fall down around all our ears." [78] He stood. [79] "Whew! [80] You guys stay put." [81] He crossed with the floating moon-motion to the airlock and entered, closing the door behind him. [82] The darkness slowly filled with air, and the temperature inside the suit declined steadily. [83] At the proper moment of pressure, the inner lock slid open and Major Winship stepped into the illuminated central area. [84] His foot was lifted for the second step when the floor beneath him rose and fell gently, pitching him forward, off balance. [85] He stumbled against the table and ended up seated beside the radio equipment. [86] The ground moved again. [87] "Charlie! [88] Charlie!" [89] "I'm okay," Major Winship answered. [90] "Okay! [91] Okay!" [92] "It's—" There was additional surface movement. [93] The movement ceased. [94] "Hey, Les, how's it look?" [95] Capt. [96] Wilkins asked. [97] "Okay from this side. [98] Charlie, you still okay?" [99] "Okay," Major Winship said. [100] "We told them this might happen," he added bitterly. [101] There was a wait during which everyone seemed to be holding their breath. [102] "I guess it's over," said Major Winship, getting to his feet. [103] "Wait a bit more, there may be an after-shock." [104] He switched once again to the emergency channel. [105] "Is Pinov," came the supremely relaxed voice. [106] "Help?" [107] Major Winship whinnied in disgust. " [108] Nyet! " [109] he snarled. [110] To the other Americans: "Our comrades seem unconcerned." [111] "Tough." [112] They began to get the static for the first time. [113] It crackled and snapped in their speakers. [114] They made sounds of disapproval at each other. [115] For a minute or two, static blanked out the communications completely. [116] It then abated to something in excess of normal. [117] "Well," Lt. Chandler commented, "even though we didn't build this thing to withstand a moonquake, it seems to have stood up all right." [118] "I guess I was just—" Major Winship began. [119] "Oh, hell! [120] We're losing pressure. [121] Where's the markers?" [122] "By the lug cabinet." [123] "Got 'em," Major Winship said a moment later. [124] He peeled back a marker and let it fall. [125] Air currents whisked it away and plastered it against a riveted seam of the dome. [126] It pulsed as though it were breathing and then it ruptured. [127] Major Winship moved quickly to cut out the emergency air supply which had cut in automatically with the pressure drop. [128] "You guys wait. [129] It's on your right side, midway up. [130] I'll try to sheet it." [131] He moved for the plastic sheeting. [132] "We've lost about three feet of calk out here," Capt. [133] Lawler said. [134] "I can see more ripping loose. [135] You're losing pressure fast at this rate." [136] Major Winship pressed the sheeting over the leak. [137] "How's that?" [138] "Not yet." [139] "I don't think I've got enough pressure left to hold it, now. [140] It's sprung a little, and I can't get it to conform over the rivet heads." [141] There was a splatter of static. [142] "Damn!" [143] Major Winship said, "they should have made these things more flexible." [144] "Still coming out." [145] "Best I can do." [146] Major Winship stepped back. [147] The sheet began slowly to slide downward, then it fell away completely and lay limply on the floor. [148] "Come on in," he said dryly. [149] With the four of them inside, it was somewhat cramped. [150] Most of the five hundred square feet was filled with equipment. [151] Electrical cables trailed loosely along the walls and were festooned from the ceiling, radiating from the connections to the outside solar cells. [152] The living space was more restricted than in a submarine, with the bunks jutting out from the walls about six feet from the floor. [153] Lt. Chandler mounted one of the bunks to give them more room. [154] "Well," he said wryly, "it doesn't smell as bad now." [155] "Oops," said Major Winship. [156] "Just a second. [157] They're coming in." [158] He switched over to the emergency channel. [159] It was General Finogenov. [160] "Major Winship! [161] Hello! [162] Hello, hello, hello. [163] You A Okay?" [164] "This is Major Winship." [165] "Oh! [166] Excellent, very good. [167] Any damage, Major?" [168] "Little leak. [169] You?" [170] "Came through without damage." [171] General Finogenov paused a moment. [172] When no comment was forthcoming, he continued: "Perhaps we built a bit more strongly, Major." [173] "You did this deliberately," Major Winship said testily. [174] "No, no. [175] Oh, no, no, no, no. [176] Major Winship, please believe me. [177] I very much regret this. [178] Very much so. [179] I am very distressed. [180] Depressed. [181] After repeatedly assuring you there was no danger of a quake—and then to have something like this happen. [182] Oh, this is very embarrassing to me. [183] Is there anything at all we can do?" [184] "Just leave us alone, thank you," Major Winship said and cut off the communication. [185] "What'd they say?" [186] Capt. [187] Wilkins asked. [188] "Larry, General Finogenov said he was very embarrassed by this." [189] "That's nice," Lt. Chandler said. [190] "I'll be damned surprised," Major Winship said, "if they got any seismic data out of that shot.... Well, to hell with them, let's get this leak fixed. [191] Skip, can you get the calking compound?" [192] "Larry, where's the inventory?" [193] "Les has got it." [194] Lt. Chandler got down from the bunk and Capt. [195] Wilkins mounted. [196] "Larry," Major Winship said, "why don't you get Earth?" [197] "Okay." [198] Capt. [199] Wilkins got down from the bunk and Capt. [200] Lawler ascended. [201] "Got the inventory sheet, Les?" [202] "Right here." [203] Squeezed in front of the massive transmitter, Capt. [204] Wilkins had energized the circuits. [205] There was a puzzled look on his face. [206] He leaned his helmet against the speaker and then shook his head sadly. [207] "We can't hear anything without any air." [208] Major Winship looked at the microphone. [209] "Well, I'll just report and—" He started to pick up the microphone and reconsidered. [210] "Yes," he said. [211] "That's right, isn't it." [212] Capt. [213] Wilkins flicked off the transmitter. [214] "Some days you don't mine at all," he said. [215] "Les, have you found it?" [216] "It's around here somewhere. [217] Supposed to be back here." [218] "Well, find it." [219] Lt. Chandler began moving boxes. [220] "I saw it—" "Skip, help look." [221] Capt. [222] Lawler got down from the bunk and Major Winship mounted. [223] "We haven't got all day." [224] A few minutes later, Lt. Chandler issued the triumphant cry. [225] "Here it is! [226] Dozen tubes. [227] Squeeze tubes. [228] It's the new stuff." [229] Major Winship got down and Capt. [230] Wilkins got up. [231] "Marker showed it over here," Major Winship said, inching over to the wall. [232] He traced the leak with a metallic finger. [233] "How does this stuff work?" [234] Capt. [235] Lawler asked. [236] They huddled over the instruction sheet. [237] "Let's see. [238] Squeeze the tube until the diaphragm at the nozzle ruptures. [239] Extrude paste into seam. [240] Allow to harden one hour before service." [241] Major Winship said dryly, "Never mind. [242] I notice it hardens on contact with air." [243] Capt. [244] Wilkins lay back on the bunk and stared upward. [245] He said, "Now that makes a weird kind of sense, doesn't it?" [246] "How do they possibly think—?" [247] "Gentlemen! [248] It doesn't make any difference," Lt. Chandler said. [249] "Some air must already have leaked into this one. [250] It's hard as a rock. [251] A gorilla couldn't extrude it." [252] "How're the other ones?" [253] asked Major Winship. [254] Lt. Chandler turned and made a quick examination. [255] "Oh, they're all hard, too." [256] "Who was supposed to check?" [257] demanded Capt. [258] Wilkins in exasperation. [259] "The only way you can check is to extrude it," Lt. Chandler said, "and if it does extrude, you've ruined it." [260] "That's that," Major Winship said. [261] "There's nothing for it but to yell help." [262] II Capt. [263] Lawler and Lt. Chandler took the land car to Base Gagarin. [264] The Soviet base was situated some ten miles toward sunset at the bottom of a natural fold in the surface. [265] The route was moderately direct to the tip of the gently rolling ridge. [266] At that point, the best pathway angled left and made an S-shaped descent to the basin. [267] It was a one-way trip of approximately thirty exhausting minutes. [268] Major Winship, with his deficient reefer, remained behind. [269] Capt. [270] Wilkins stayed for company. [271] "I want a cigarette in the worst way," Capt. [272] Wilkins said. [273] "So do I, Larry. [274] Shouldn't be more than a couple of hours. [275] Unless something else goes wrong." [276] "As long as they'll loan us the calking compound," Capt. [277] Wilkins said. [278] "Yeah, yeah," Major Winship said. [279] "Let's eat." [280] "You got any concentrate? [281] I'm empty." [282] "I'll load you," Capt. [283] Wilkins volunteered wearily. [284] It was an awkward operation that took several minutes. [285] Capt. [286] Wilkins cursed twice during the operation. [287] "I'd hate to live in this thing for any period." [288] "I think these suits are one thing we've got over the Russians," Major Winship said. [289] "I don't see how they can manipulate those bulky pieces of junk around." [290] They ate. [291] "Really horrible stuff." [292] "Nutritious." [293] After the meal, Major Winship said reflectively, "Now I'd like a cup of hot tea. [294] I'm cooled off." [295] Capt. [296] Wilkins raised eyebrows. [297] "What brought this on?" [298] "I was just thinking.... [299] They really got it made, Larry. [300] They've got better than three thousand square feet in the main dome and better than twelve hundred square feet in each of the two little ones. [301] And there's only seven of them right now. [302] That's living." [303] "They've been here six years longer, after all." [304] "Finogenov had a clay samovar sent up. [305] Lemon and nutmeg, too. [306] Real, by God, fresh lemons for the tea, the last time I was there. [307] His own office is about ten by ten. [308] Think of that. [309] One hundred square feet. [310] And a wooden desk. [311] A wooden desk. [312] And a chair. [313] A wooden chair. [314] Everything big and heavy. [315] Everything. [316] Weight, hell. [317] Fifty pounds more or less—" "They've got the power-plants for it." [318] "Do you think he did that deliberately?" [319] Major Winship asked. [320] "I think he's trying to force us off. [321] I think he hoped for the quake. [322] Gagarin's built to take it, I'll say that. [323] Looks like it, anyhow. [324] You don't suppose they planned this all along? [325] Even if they didn't, they sure got the jump on us again, didn't they? [326] I told you what he told me?" [327] "You told me," Capt. [328] Wilkins said. [329] After a moment, Major Winship said bitterly, "To hell with the Russian engineer." [330] "If you've got all that power...." "That's the thing. [331] That's the thing that gripes me, know what I mean? [332] It's just insane to send up a heavy wooden desk. [333] That's showing off. [334] Like a little kid." [335] "Maybe they don't make aluminum desks." [336] "They've—got—aluminum. [337] Half of everything on the whole planet is aluminum. [338] You know they're just showing off." [339] "Let me wire you up," Capt. [340] Wilkins said. [341] "We ought to report." [342] "That's going to take awhile." [343] "It's something to do while we wait." [344] "I guess we ought to." [345] Major Winship came down from the bunk and sat with his back toward the transmitter. [346] Capt. [347] Wilkins slewed the equipment around until the emergency jacks were accessible. [348] He unearthed the appropriate cable and began unscrewing the exterior plate to the small transmitter-receiver set on Major Winship's back. [349] Eventually, trailing wires, Major Winship was coupled into the network. [350] "Okay?" [351] "Okay," Major Winship gestured. [352] They roused Earth. [353] "This is Major Charles Winship, Commanding Officer, Freedom 19, the American moonbase." [354] At this point, Major Winship observed for the first time that he was now on emergency air. [355] He started to ask Capt. [356] Wilkins to change his air bottle, but then he realized his communications were cut off. [357] He reached over and rapped Capt. [358] Wilkins' helmet. [359] "This is the Cape. [360] Come in, Major Winship." [361] "Just a moment." [362] "Is everything all right?" [363] Major Winship was squirming nervously, obviously perturbed. [364] "A-Okay," he said. [365] "Just a moment." [366] "What's wrong?" [367] came the worried question. [368] In the background, he heard someone say, "I think there's something wrong." [369] Capt. [370] Wilkins peered intently. [371] Major Winship contorted his face in a savage grimace. [372] Capt. [373] Wilkins raised his eyebrows in alarm. [374] They were face to face through their helmets, close together. [375] Each face appeared monstrously large to the other. [376] Major Winship made a strangling motion and reached for his throat. [377] One arm tangled a cable and jerked the speaker jack loose. [378] Major Winship could no longer hear the alarmed expressions from the Cape. [379] The effort was not entirely subvocal, since he emitted a little gasping cry in involuntary realism. [380] This, in the course of some 90 seconds, was transmitted to Earth. [381] Capt. [382] Wilkins's lips were desperately forming the word "Leak?" [383] Air, Major Winship said silently. [384] Leak? [385] Bottle! [386] Bottle! [387] Bottle! [388] It was a frog-like, unvocal expletive. [389] Comprehension dawned. [390] Capt. [391] Wilkins nodded and started to turn away. [392] Major Winship caught his arm and nodded his head toward the loose jack. [393] Oh. [394] Capt. [395] Wilkins nodded and smiled. [396] He reached across and plugged the speaker in again. [397] "... Freedom 19! [398] Hello, Freedom 19! [399] Come in!" [400] "We're here," Major Winship said. [401] "All right? [402] Are you all right?" [403] "We're all right. [404] A-Okay." [405] Major Winship, mindful of the extent of his potential audience, took a deep breath. [406] "Earlier this morning, the Soviet Union fired an underground atomic device for the ostensible purpose of investigating the composition of the lunar mass by means of seismic analysis of the resultant shock waves. [407] This was done in spite of American warnings that such a disturbance might release accumulated stresses in the long undisturbed satellite, and was done in the face of vigorous American protests." [408] Capt. [409] Wilkins tapped his helmet and gestured for him to swivel around. [410] The turn was uncomfortably tight and complicated by the restraining cables. [411] Capt. [412] Wilkins began replacement of the air bottle. [413] "These protests have proved well founded," Major Winship continued. [414] "Immediately following the detonation, Freedom 19 was called on to withstand a moderately severe shifting of the Lunar surface. [415] No personnel were injured and there was no equipment damage." [416] Capt. [417] Wilkins tapped his shoulder to indicate the new air bottle was being inserted. [418] Another tap indicated it was seated. [419] Major Winship flicked the appropriate chest button and nodded in appreciation. [420] "However," he continued, "we did experience a minor leak in the dome, which is presently being repaired." [421] "The Soviet Union," came the reply, "has reported the disturbance and has tendered their official apology. [422] You want it?" [423] "It can wait until later. [424] Send it by mail for all I care. [425] Vacuum has destroyed our organic air reconditioner. [426] We have approximately three weeks of emergency air. [427] However, Base Gagarin reports no damage, so that, in the event we exhaust our air, we will be able to obtain the necessary replacement." [428] The wait of a little better than three seconds for the response gave the conversation a tone of deliberation. [429] A new voice came on. [430] "We tried to contact you earlier, Major. [431] We will be able to deliver replacements in about ten days." [432] "I will forward a coded report on the occurrence," Major Winship said. [433] "Let us hear from you again in ... about three hours. [434] Is the leak repaired?" [435] "The leak has not yet been repaired. [436] Over and out." [437] He nodded to Capt. [438] Wilkins and leaned back. [439] Methodically, Capt. [440] Wilkins set about disconnecting the major from the transmitter. [441] "Wow!" [442] said Major Winship when he was once more in communication. [443] "For a moment there, I thought...." "What?" [444] Capt. [445] Wilkins asked with interest. [446] "I could see myself asking them to ask the Russians to ask Finogenov to get on the emergency channel to ask you to charge the air bottle. [447] I never felt so ... idiotic is not quite strong enough ... there for a minute in my whole life. [448] I didn't know how much emergency air was left, and I thought, my God, I'll never live this down. [449] All the hams in the world listening, while I try to explain the situation. [450] I could see the nickname being entered in my files: aka. [451] The Airless Idiot. [452] I tell you, that was rough." [453] III Capt. [454] Lawler and Lt. Chandler returned with the calking compound. [455] It occupied the rear section of the land car. [456] Lt. Chandler sat atop it. [457] It was a fifty-five gallon drum. [458] The airlock to Freedom 19 was open. [459] "What is that ?" [460] asked Major Winship, squinting out into the glaring sunlight. [461] "That," said Capt. [462] Lawler, "is the calking compound." [463] "You're kidding," said Capt. [464] Wilkins. [465] "I am not kidding." [466] Capt. [467] Lawler and Lt. Chandler came inside. [468] Capt. [469] Wilkins mounted a bunk. [470] "Why didn't you just borrow a cupful?" [471] Major Winship said sarcastically. [472] "It's this way," Lt. Chandler said. [473] "They didn't have anything but 55-gallon drums of it." [474] "Oh, my," said Capt. [475] Wilkins. [476] "I suppose it's a steel drum. [477] Those things must weigh...." "Actually, I think you guys have got the general wrong," Capt. [478] Lawler said. [479] "He was out, himself, to greet us. [480] I think he was really quite upset by the quake. [481] Probably because his people had misfigured so bad." [482] "He's too damned suspicious," Major Winship said. [483] "You know and I know why they set that blast off. [484] I tried to tell him. [485] Hell. [486] He looks at me like an emasculated owl and wants to know our ulterior motive in trying to prevent a purely scientific experiment, the results of which will be published in the technical press for the good of everybody. [487] I'll bet!" [488] "About this drum," Capt. [489] Wilkins said. [490] "Well, like I said, it's this way," Lt. Chandler resumed. [491] "I told him we needed about a pint. [492] Maybe a quart. [493] But this stuff you have to mix up. [494] He only had these drums. [495] There's two parts to it, and you have to combine them in just the right proportion. [496] He told me to take a little scale—" "A little scale?" [497] asked Capt. [498] Wilkins, rolling his eyes at the dome. [499] "That's what I told him. [500] We don't have any little scale." [501] "Yeah," said Captain Lawler, "and he looked at us with that mute, surprised look, like everybody, everywhere has dozens of little scales." [502] "Well, anyway," Lt. Chandler continued, "he told us just to mix up the whole fifty-five gallon drum. [503] There's a little bucket of stuff that goes in, and it's measured just right. [504] We can throw away what we don't need." [505] "Somehow, that sounds like him," Major Winship said. [506] "He had five or six of them." [507] "Jesus!" [508] said Capt. [509] Wilkins. [510] "That must be three thousand pounds of calking compound. [511] Those people are insane." [512] "The question is," Capt. [513] Lawler said, "'How are we going to mix it?' [514] It's supposed to be mixed thoroughly." [515] They thought over the problem for a while. [516] "That will be a man-sized job," Major Winship said. [517] "Let's see, Charlie. [518] Maybe not too bad," said Capt. [519] Wilkins. [520] "If I took the compressor motor, we could make up a shaft and ... let's see ... if we could...." It took the better part of an hour to rig up the electric mixer. [521] Capt. [522] Wilkins was profusely congratulated. [523] "Now," Major Winship said, "we can either bring the drum inside or take the mixer out there." [524] "We're going to have to bring the drum in," Capt. [525] Wilkins said. [526] "Well," said Capt. [527] Lawler, "that will make it nice and cozy." [528] It took the four of them to roll the drum inside, rocking it back and forth through the airlock. [529] At that time, it was apparent the table was interposing itself. [530] Lt. Chandler tried to dismantle the table. [531] "Damn these suits," he said. [532] "You've got it stuck between the bunk post." [533] "I know that." [534] "I don't think this is the way to do it," Major Winship said. [535] "Let's back the drum out." [536] Reluctantly, they backed the drum out and deposited it. [537] With the aid of Capt. [538] Lawler, Lt. Chandler got the table unstuck. [539] They passed it over to Major Winship, who handed it out to Capt. [540] Wilkins. [541] Captain Wilkins carried it around the drum of calking compound and set it down. [542] It rested uneasily on the uneven surface. [543] "Now, let's go," said Major Winship. [544] Eventually, they accomplished the moving. [545] They wedged the drum between the main air-supply tank and the transmitter. [546] They were all perspiring. [547] "It's not the weight, it's the mass," said Capt. [548] Wilkins brightly. [549] "The hell it isn't the weight," said Lt. Chandler. [550] "That's heavy." [551] "With my reefer out," said Major Winship, "I'm the one it's rough on." [552] He shook perspiration out of his eyes. [553] "They should figure a way to get a mop in here, or a towel, or a sponge, or something. [554] I'll bet you've forgotten how much sweat stings in the eyes." [555] "It's the salt." [556] "Speaking of salt. [557] I wish I had some salt tablets," Major Winship said. [558] "I've never sweat so much since basic." [559] "Want to bet Finogenov hasn't got a bushel of them?" [560] "No!" [561] Major Winship snapped. [562] With the drum of calking compound inside, both Capt. [563] Lawler and Lt. Chandler retreated to the bunks. [564] Capt. [565] Wilkins maneuvered the mixing attachment. [566] "I feel crowded," he said. [567] "Cozy's the word." [568] "Watch it! [569] Watch it! [570] You almost hit me in the face plate with that!" [571] "Sorry." [572] At length the mixer was in operation in the drum. [573] "Works perfectly," said Capt. [574] Wilkins proudly. [575] "Now what, Skip? [576] The instructions aren't in English." [577] "You're supposed to dump the bucket of stuff in. [578] Then clean the area thoroughly around the leak." [579] "With what?" [580] asked Major Winship. [581] "Sandpaper, I guess." [582] "With sandpaper?" [583] Major Winship said, emptying the bucket of fluid into the drum. [584] "We don't have any sandpaper." [585] "It's been a long day," Capt. [586] Wilkins said. [587] "Mix it thoroughly," Lt. Chandler mused. [588] "I guess that means let it mix for about ten minutes or so. [589] Then you apply it. [590] It sets for service in just a little bit, Finogenov said. [591] An hour or so, maybe." [592] "I hope this doesn't set on exposure to air." [593] "No," Capt. [594] Lawler said. [595] "It sets by some kind of chemical action. [596] General Finogenov wasn't sure of the English name for it. [597] Some kind of plastic." [598] "Let's come back to how we're going to clean around the leak," Major Winship said. [599] "Say, I—" interrupted Capt. [600] Wilkins. [601] There was a trace of concern in his voice. [602] "This is a hell of a time for this to occur to me. [603] I just wasn't thinking, before. [604] You don't suppose it's a room-temperature-curing epoxy resin, do you? " [605] "Larry," said Major Winship, "I wouldn't know a room-temperature-curing epoxy resin from—" "Hey!" [606] exclaimed Capt. [607] Wilkins. [608] "The mixer's stopped." [609] He bent forward and touched the drum. [610] He jerked back. [611] "Ye Gods! [612] that's hot! [613] And it's harder than a rock! [614] It is an epoxy! [615] Let's get out of here." [616] "Huh?" [617] "Out! [618] Out!" [619] Major Winship, Lt. Chandler, and Capt. [620] Lawler, recognizing the sense of urgency, simultaneously glanced at the drum. [621] It was glowing cherry red. [622] "Let's go!" [623] Capt. [624] Wilkins said. [625] He and the Major reached the airlock at the same time and became temporarily engaged with each other. [626] Movement was somewhat ungainly in the space suits under the best of conditions, and now, with the necessity for speed, was doubly so. [627] The other two crashed into them from behind, and they spewed forth from the dome in a tangle of arms and legs. [628] At the table, they separated, two going to the left, two to the right. [629] The table remained untouched. [630] When they halted, Capt. [631] Wilkins said, "Get to one side, it may go off like shrapnel." [632] They obeyed. [633] "What—what—what?" [634] Capt. [635] Lawler stuttered. [636] They were still separated, two on one side of the airlock, two on the other. [637] "I'm going to try to look," Capt. [638] Wilkins said. [639] "Let me go." [640] He lumbered directly away from the dome for a distance of about fifteen feet, then turned and positioned himself, some five feet behind the table, on a line of sight with the airlock. [641] "I can see it," he said. [642] "It's getting redder. [643] It's ... it's ... melting, yes. [644] Melting down at the bottom a little. [645] Now it's falling over to one side and laying on the air tank. [646] The air tank is getting red, too. [647] I'm afraid ... it's weakening it.... Redder. [648] Oh, oh." [649] "What?" [650] said Capt. [651] Lawler. [652] "Watch out! [653] There. [654] There! " [655] Capt. [656] Wilkins leaped from his position. [657] He was still floating toward the ground when there was an incredibly bright flare from inside the dome, and a great, silent tongue of flame lashed through the airlock and rolled across the lunar surface. [658] The table was sent tumbling. [659] The flame was gone almost instantly. [660] "There went the air," Capt. [661] Lawler commented. [662] "We got T-Trouble," said Lt. Chandler.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the significance of the seismic test the Russians conduct?": 1. [405] Major Winship, mindful of the extent of his potential audience, took a deep breath. "Earlier this morning, the Soviet Union fired an underground atomic device for the ostensible purpose of investigating the composition of the lunar mass by means of seismic analysis of the resultant shock waves. This was done in spite of American warnings that such a disturbance might release accumulated stresses in the long undisturbed satellite, and was done in the face of vigorous American protests." 2. [421] "The Soviet Union," came the reply, "has reported the disturbance and has tendered their official apology." 3. [422] "You want it?" 4. [423] "It can wait until later. Send it by mail for all I care." 5. [424] "Vacuum has destroyed our organic air reconditioner. We have approximately three weeks of emergency air." 6. [425] "However, Base Gagarin reports no damage, so that, in the event we exhaust our air, we will be able to obtain the necessary replacement." 7. [482] "He's too damned suspicious," Major Winship said. "You know and I know why they set that blast off. I tried to tell him." 8. [483] "Hell. He looks at me like an emasculated owl and wants to know our ulterior motive in trying to prevent a purely scientific experiment, the results of which will be published in the technical press for the good of everybody. I'll bet!" 9. [170] "Oh, excellent, very good. Any damage, Major?" 10. [171] "Little leak. You?" 11. [172] "Came through without damage." 12. [173] "You did this deliberately," Major Winship said testily. 13. [174] "No, no. Oh, no, no, no, no. Major Winship, please believe me. I very much regret this. Very much so. I am very distressed. Depressed." 14. [175] "After repeatedly assuring you there was no danger of a quake—and then to have something like this happen. Oh, this is very embarrassing to me." 15. [176] "Is there anything at all we can do?" 16. [177] "Just leave us alone, thank you," Major Winship said and cut off the communication. 17. [190] "I'll be damned surprised," Major Winship said, "if they got any seismic data out of that shot.... Well, to hell with them, let's get this leak fixed." 18. [320] "Do you think he did that deliberately?" 19. [321] "I think he's trying to force us off. I think he hoped for the quake." 20. [322] "Gagarin's built to take it, I'll say that. Looks like it, anyhow." 21. [323] "You don't suppose they planned this all along? Even if they didn't, they sure got the jump on us again, didn't they?" 22. [324] "What he told me?" 23. [325] "You told me," Capt. Wilkins said. 24. [329] "To hell with the Russian engineer." 25. [330] "If you've got all that power...." 26. [331] "That's the thing. That's the thing that gripes me, know what I mean? It's just insane to send up a heavy wooden desk." 27. [332] "That's showing off. Like a little kid." 28. [333] "They've—got—aluminum. Half of everything on the whole planet is aluminum. You know they're just showing off." 29. [476] "Actually, I think you guys have got the general wrong," Capt. Lawler said. "He was out, himself, to greet us. I think he was really quite upset by the quake. Probably because his people had misfigured so bad." 30. [477] "He's too damned suspicious," Major Winship said. "You know and I know why they set that blast off. I tried to tell him." 31. [478] "Hell. He looks at me like an emasculated owl and wants to know our ulterior motive in trying to prevent a purely scientific experiment, the results of which will be published in the technical press for the good of everybody. I'll bet!"

Who is Major Winship, and what happens to him throughout the story?

[1] The Winning of the Moon BY KRIS NEVILLE The enemy was friendly enough. [2] Trouble was—their friendship was as dangerous as their hate! [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] General Finogenov notified Major Winship that the underground blast was scheduled for the following morning. [6] Major Winship, after receiving the message, discussed precautions with the three other Americans. [7] Next morning, before the sunlight exploded, the four of them donned their space suits and went and sat outside the dome, waiting. [8] The sun rose with its bright, silent clap of radiance. [9] Black pools of shadows lay in harsh contrast, their edges drawn with geometric precision. [10] Major Winship attempted unsuccessfully to communicate with Base Gagarin. [11] "Will you please request the general to keep us informed on the progress of the countdown?" [12] "Is Pinov," came the reply. [13] "Help?" [14] " Nyet ," said Major Winship, exhausting his Russian. [15] "Count down. [16] Progress. [17] When—boom?" [18] "Is Pinov," came the reply. [19] "Boom! [20] Boom!" [21] said Major Winship in exasperation. [22] "Boom!" [23] said Pinov happily. [24] "When?" [25] "Boom—boom!" [26] said Pinov. [27] "Oh, nuts." [28] Major Winship cut out the circuit. [29] "They've got Pinov on emergency watch this morning," he explained to the other Americans. [30] "The one that doesn't speak English." [31] "He's done it deliberately," said Capt. [32] Wilkins, the eldest of the four Americans. [33] "How are we going to know when it's over?" [34] No one bothered to respond. [35] They sat for a while in silence while the shadows evaporated. [36] One by one they clicked on their cooling systems. [37] Ultimately, Lt. Chandler said, "This is a little ridiculous. [38] I'm going to switch over to their channel. [39] Rap if you want me." [40] He sat transfixed for several minutes. [41] "Ah, it's all Russian. [42] Jabbering away. [43] I can't tell a thing that's going on." [44] In the airless void of the moon, the blast itself would be silent. [45] A moth's wing of dust would, perhaps, rise and settle beyond the horizon: no more. [46] "Static?" [47] "Nope." [48] "We'll get static on these things." [49] A small infinity seemed to pass very slowly. [50] Major Winship shifted restlessly. [51] "My reefer's gone on the fritz." [52] Perspiration was trickling down his face. [53] "Let's all go in," said the fourth American, Capt. [54] Lawler. [55] "It's probably over by now." [56] "I'll try again," Major Winship said and switched to the emergency channel. [57] "Base Gagarin? [58] Base Gagarin?" [59] "Is Pinov. [60] Help?" [61] " Nyet. " [62] "Pinov's still there," Major Winship said. [63] "Tell him, 'Help'," said Capt. [64] Wilkins, "so he'll get somebody we can talk to." [65] "I'll see them all in hell, first," Major Winship said. [66] Five minutes later, the perspiration was rivers across his face. [67] "This is it," he said. [68] "I'm going in." [69] "Let's all—" "No. [70] I've got to cool off." [71] "Hell, Charlie, I feel stupid sitting out here," Capt. [72] Lawler said. [73] "The shot probably went off an hour ago." [74] "The static level hasn't gone up much, if at all." [75] "Maybe," Lt. Chandler said, "it's buried too deep." [76] "Maybe so," Major Winship said. [77] "But we can't have the dome fall down around all our ears." [78] He stood. [79] "Whew! [80] You guys stay put." [81] He crossed with the floating moon-motion to the airlock and entered, closing the door behind him. [82] The darkness slowly filled with air, and the temperature inside the suit declined steadily. [83] At the proper moment of pressure, the inner lock slid open and Major Winship stepped into the illuminated central area. [84] His foot was lifted for the second step when the floor beneath him rose and fell gently, pitching him forward, off balance. [85] He stumbled against the table and ended up seated beside the radio equipment. [86] The ground moved again. [87] "Charlie! [88] Charlie!" [89] "I'm okay," Major Winship answered. [90] "Okay! [91] Okay!" [92] "It's—" There was additional surface movement. [93] The movement ceased. [94] "Hey, Les, how's it look?" [95] Capt. [96] Wilkins asked. [97] "Okay from this side. [98] Charlie, you still okay?" [99] "Okay," Major Winship said. [100] "We told them this might happen," he added bitterly. [101] There was a wait during which everyone seemed to be holding their breath. [102] "I guess it's over," said Major Winship, getting to his feet. [103] "Wait a bit more, there may be an after-shock." [104] He switched once again to the emergency channel. [105] "Is Pinov," came the supremely relaxed voice. [106] "Help?" [107] Major Winship whinnied in disgust. " [108] Nyet! " [109] he snarled. [110] To the other Americans: "Our comrades seem unconcerned." [111] "Tough." [112] They began to get the static for the first time. [113] It crackled and snapped in their speakers. [114] They made sounds of disapproval at each other. [115] For a minute or two, static blanked out the communications completely. [116] It then abated to something in excess of normal. [117] "Well," Lt. Chandler commented, "even though we didn't build this thing to withstand a moonquake, it seems to have stood up all right." [118] "I guess I was just—" Major Winship began. [119] "Oh, hell! [120] We're losing pressure. [121] Where's the markers?" [122] "By the lug cabinet." [123] "Got 'em," Major Winship said a moment later. [124] He peeled back a marker and let it fall. [125] Air currents whisked it away and plastered it against a riveted seam of the dome. [126] It pulsed as though it were breathing and then it ruptured. [127] Major Winship moved quickly to cut out the emergency air supply which had cut in automatically with the pressure drop. [128] "You guys wait. [129] It's on your right side, midway up. [130] I'll try to sheet it." [131] He moved for the plastic sheeting. [132] "We've lost about three feet of calk out here," Capt. [133] Lawler said. [134] "I can see more ripping loose. [135] You're losing pressure fast at this rate." [136] Major Winship pressed the sheeting over the leak. [137] "How's that?" [138] "Not yet." [139] "I don't think I've got enough pressure left to hold it, now. [140] It's sprung a little, and I can't get it to conform over the rivet heads." [141] There was a splatter of static. [142] "Damn!" [143] Major Winship said, "they should have made these things more flexible." [144] "Still coming out." [145] "Best I can do." [146] Major Winship stepped back. [147] The sheet began slowly to slide downward, then it fell away completely and lay limply on the floor. [148] "Come on in," he said dryly. [149] With the four of them inside, it was somewhat cramped. [150] Most of the five hundred square feet was filled with equipment. [151] Electrical cables trailed loosely along the walls and were festooned from the ceiling, radiating from the connections to the outside solar cells. [152] The living space was more restricted than in a submarine, with the bunks jutting out from the walls about six feet from the floor. [153] Lt. Chandler mounted one of the bunks to give them more room. [154] "Well," he said wryly, "it doesn't smell as bad now." [155] "Oops," said Major Winship. [156] "Just a second. [157] They're coming in." [158] He switched over to the emergency channel. [159] It was General Finogenov. [160] "Major Winship! [161] Hello! [162] Hello, hello, hello. [163] You A Okay?" [164] "This is Major Winship." [165] "Oh! [166] Excellent, very good. [167] Any damage, Major?" [168] "Little leak. [169] You?" [170] "Came through without damage." [171] General Finogenov paused a moment. [172] When no comment was forthcoming, he continued: "Perhaps we built a bit more strongly, Major." [173] "You did this deliberately," Major Winship said testily. [174] "No, no. [175] Oh, no, no, no, no. [176] Major Winship, please believe me. [177] I very much regret this. [178] Very much so. [179] I am very distressed. [180] Depressed. [181] After repeatedly assuring you there was no danger of a quake—and then to have something like this happen. [182] Oh, this is very embarrassing to me. [183] Is there anything at all we can do?" [184] "Just leave us alone, thank you," Major Winship said and cut off the communication. [185] "What'd they say?" [186] Capt. [187] Wilkins asked. [188] "Larry, General Finogenov said he was very embarrassed by this." [189] "That's nice," Lt. Chandler said. [190] "I'll be damned surprised," Major Winship said, "if they got any seismic data out of that shot.... Well, to hell with them, let's get this leak fixed. [191] Skip, can you get the calking compound?" [192] "Larry, where's the inventory?" [193] "Les has got it." [194] Lt. Chandler got down from the bunk and Capt. [195] Wilkins mounted. [196] "Larry," Major Winship said, "why don't you get Earth?" [197] "Okay." [198] Capt. [199] Wilkins got down from the bunk and Capt. [200] Lawler ascended. [201] "Got the inventory sheet, Les?" [202] "Right here." [203] Squeezed in front of the massive transmitter, Capt. [204] Wilkins had energized the circuits. [205] There was a puzzled look on his face. [206] He leaned his helmet against the speaker and then shook his head sadly. [207] "We can't hear anything without any air." [208] Major Winship looked at the microphone. [209] "Well, I'll just report and—" He started to pick up the microphone and reconsidered. [210] "Yes," he said. [211] "That's right, isn't it." [212] Capt. [213] Wilkins flicked off the transmitter. [214] "Some days you don't mine at all," he said. [215] "Les, have you found it?" [216] "It's around here somewhere. [217] Supposed to be back here." [218] "Well, find it." [219] Lt. Chandler began moving boxes. [220] "I saw it—" "Skip, help look." [221] Capt. [222] Lawler got down from the bunk and Major Winship mounted. [223] "We haven't got all day." [224] A few minutes later, Lt. Chandler issued the triumphant cry. [225] "Here it is! [226] Dozen tubes. [227] Squeeze tubes. [228] It's the new stuff." [229] Major Winship got down and Capt. [230] Wilkins got up. [231] "Marker showed it over here," Major Winship said, inching over to the wall. [232] He traced the leak with a metallic finger. [233] "How does this stuff work?" [234] Capt. [235] Lawler asked. [236] They huddled over the instruction sheet. [237] "Let's see. [238] Squeeze the tube until the diaphragm at the nozzle ruptures. [239] Extrude paste into seam. [240] Allow to harden one hour before service." [241] Major Winship said dryly, "Never mind. [242] I notice it hardens on contact with air." [243] Capt. [244] Wilkins lay back on the bunk and stared upward. [245] He said, "Now that makes a weird kind of sense, doesn't it?" [246] "How do they possibly think—?" [247] "Gentlemen! [248] It doesn't make any difference," Lt. Chandler said. [249] "Some air must already have leaked into this one. [250] It's hard as a rock. [251] A gorilla couldn't extrude it." [252] "How're the other ones?" [253] asked Major Winship. [254] Lt. Chandler turned and made a quick examination. [255] "Oh, they're all hard, too." [256] "Who was supposed to check?" [257] demanded Capt. [258] Wilkins in exasperation. [259] "The only way you can check is to extrude it," Lt. Chandler said, "and if it does extrude, you've ruined it." [260] "That's that," Major Winship said. [261] "There's nothing for it but to yell help." [262] II Capt. [263] Lawler and Lt. Chandler took the land car to Base Gagarin. [264] The Soviet base was situated some ten miles toward sunset at the bottom of a natural fold in the surface. [265] The route was moderately direct to the tip of the gently rolling ridge. [266] At that point, the best pathway angled left and made an S-shaped descent to the basin. [267] It was a one-way trip of approximately thirty exhausting minutes. [268] Major Winship, with his deficient reefer, remained behind. [269] Capt. [270] Wilkins stayed for company. [271] "I want a cigarette in the worst way," Capt. [272] Wilkins said. [273] "So do I, Larry. [274] Shouldn't be more than a couple of hours. [275] Unless something else goes wrong." [276] "As long as they'll loan us the calking compound," Capt. [277] Wilkins said. [278] "Yeah, yeah," Major Winship said. [279] "Let's eat." [280] "You got any concentrate? [281] I'm empty." [282] "I'll load you," Capt. [283] Wilkins volunteered wearily. [284] It was an awkward operation that took several minutes. [285] Capt. [286] Wilkins cursed twice during the operation. [287] "I'd hate to live in this thing for any period." [288] "I think these suits are one thing we've got over the Russians," Major Winship said. [289] "I don't see how they can manipulate those bulky pieces of junk around." [290] They ate. [291] "Really horrible stuff." [292] "Nutritious." [293] After the meal, Major Winship said reflectively, "Now I'd like a cup of hot tea. [294] I'm cooled off." [295] Capt. [296] Wilkins raised eyebrows. [297] "What brought this on?" [298] "I was just thinking.... [299] They really got it made, Larry. [300] They've got better than three thousand square feet in the main dome and better than twelve hundred square feet in each of the two little ones. [301] And there's only seven of them right now. [302] That's living." [303] "They've been here six years longer, after all." [304] "Finogenov had a clay samovar sent up. [305] Lemon and nutmeg, too. [306] Real, by God, fresh lemons for the tea, the last time I was there. [307] His own office is about ten by ten. [308] Think of that. [309] One hundred square feet. [310] And a wooden desk. [311] A wooden desk. [312] And a chair. [313] A wooden chair. [314] Everything big and heavy. [315] Everything. [316] Weight, hell. [317] Fifty pounds more or less—" "They've got the power-plants for it." [318] "Do you think he did that deliberately?" [319] Major Winship asked. [320] "I think he's trying to force us off. [321] I think he hoped for the quake. [322] Gagarin's built to take it, I'll say that. [323] Looks like it, anyhow. [324] You don't suppose they planned this all along? [325] Even if they didn't, they sure got the jump on us again, didn't they? [326] I told you what he told me?" [327] "You told me," Capt. [328] Wilkins said. [329] After a moment, Major Winship said bitterly, "To hell with the Russian engineer." [330] "If you've got all that power...." "That's the thing. [331] That's the thing that gripes me, know what I mean? [332] It's just insane to send up a heavy wooden desk. [333] That's showing off. [334] Like a little kid." [335] "Maybe they don't make aluminum desks." [336] "They've—got—aluminum. [337] Half of everything on the whole planet is aluminum. [338] You know they're just showing off." [339] "Let me wire you up," Capt. [340] Wilkins said. [341] "We ought to report." [342] "That's going to take awhile." [343] "It's something to do while we wait." [344] "I guess we ought to." [345] Major Winship came down from the bunk and sat with his back toward the transmitter. [346] Capt. [347] Wilkins slewed the equipment around until the emergency jacks were accessible. [348] He unearthed the appropriate cable and began unscrewing the exterior plate to the small transmitter-receiver set on Major Winship's back. [349] Eventually, trailing wires, Major Winship was coupled into the network. [350] "Okay?" [351] "Okay," Major Winship gestured. [352] They roused Earth. [353] "This is Major Charles Winship, Commanding Officer, Freedom 19, the American moonbase." [354] At this point, Major Winship observed for the first time that he was now on emergency air. [355] He started to ask Capt. [356] Wilkins to change his air bottle, but then he realized his communications were cut off. [357] He reached over and rapped Capt. [358] Wilkins' helmet. [359] "This is the Cape. [360] Come in, Major Winship." [361] "Just a moment." [362] "Is everything all right?" [363] Major Winship was squirming nervously, obviously perturbed. [364] "A-Okay," he said. [365] "Just a moment." [366] "What's wrong?" [367] came the worried question. [368] In the background, he heard someone say, "I think there's something wrong." [369] Capt. [370] Wilkins peered intently. [371] Major Winship contorted his face in a savage grimace. [372] Capt. [373] Wilkins raised his eyebrows in alarm. [374] They were face to face through their helmets, close together. [375] Each face appeared monstrously large to the other. [376] Major Winship made a strangling motion and reached for his throat. [377] One arm tangled a cable and jerked the speaker jack loose. [378] Major Winship could no longer hear the alarmed expressions from the Cape. [379] The effort was not entirely subvocal, since he emitted a little gasping cry in involuntary realism. [380] This, in the course of some 90 seconds, was transmitted to Earth. [381] Capt. [382] Wilkins's lips were desperately forming the word "Leak?" [383] Air, Major Winship said silently. [384] Leak? [385] Bottle! [386] Bottle! [387] Bottle! [388] It was a frog-like, unvocal expletive. [389] Comprehension dawned. [390] Capt. [391] Wilkins nodded and started to turn away. [392] Major Winship caught his arm and nodded his head toward the loose jack. [393] Oh. [394] Capt. [395] Wilkins nodded and smiled. [396] He reached across and plugged the speaker in again. [397] "... Freedom 19! [398] Hello, Freedom 19! [399] Come in!" [400] "We're here," Major Winship said. [401] "All right? [402] Are you all right?" [403] "We're all right. [404] A-Okay." [405] Major Winship, mindful of the extent of his potential audience, took a deep breath. [406] "Earlier this morning, the Soviet Union fired an underground atomic device for the ostensible purpose of investigating the composition of the lunar mass by means of seismic analysis of the resultant shock waves. [407] This was done in spite of American warnings that such a disturbance might release accumulated stresses in the long undisturbed satellite, and was done in the face of vigorous American protests." [408] Capt. [409] Wilkins tapped his helmet and gestured for him to swivel around. [410] The turn was uncomfortably tight and complicated by the restraining cables. [411] Capt. [412] Wilkins began replacement of the air bottle. [413] "These protests have proved well founded," Major Winship continued. [414] "Immediately following the detonation, Freedom 19 was called on to withstand a moderately severe shifting of the Lunar surface. [415] No personnel were injured and there was no equipment damage." [416] Capt. [417] Wilkins tapped his shoulder to indicate the new air bottle was being inserted. [418] Another tap indicated it was seated. [419] Major Winship flicked the appropriate chest button and nodded in appreciation. [420] "However," he continued, "we did experience a minor leak in the dome, which is presently being repaired." [421] "The Soviet Union," came the reply, "has reported the disturbance and has tendered their official apology. [422] You want it?" [423] "It can wait until later. [424] Send it by mail for all I care. [425] Vacuum has destroyed our organic air reconditioner. [426] We have approximately three weeks of emergency air. [427] However, Base Gagarin reports no damage, so that, in the event we exhaust our air, we will be able to obtain the necessary replacement." [428] The wait of a little better than three seconds for the response gave the conversation a tone of deliberation. [429] A new voice came on. [430] "We tried to contact you earlier, Major. [431] We will be able to deliver replacements in about ten days." [432] "I will forward a coded report on the occurrence," Major Winship said. [433] "Let us hear from you again in ... about three hours. [434] Is the leak repaired?" [435] "The leak has not yet been repaired. [436] Over and out." [437] He nodded to Capt. [438] Wilkins and leaned back. [439] Methodically, Capt. [440] Wilkins set about disconnecting the major from the transmitter. [441] "Wow!" [442] said Major Winship when he was once more in communication. [443] "For a moment there, I thought...." "What?" [444] Capt. [445] Wilkins asked with interest. [446] "I could see myself asking them to ask the Russians to ask Finogenov to get on the emergency channel to ask you to charge the air bottle. [447] I never felt so ... idiotic is not quite strong enough ... there for a minute in my whole life. [448] I didn't know how much emergency air was left, and I thought, my God, I'll never live this down. [449] All the hams in the world listening, while I try to explain the situation. [450] I could see the nickname being entered in my files: aka. [451] The Airless Idiot. [452] I tell you, that was rough." [453] III Capt. [454] Lawler and Lt. Chandler returned with the calking compound. [455] It occupied the rear section of the land car. [456] Lt. Chandler sat atop it. [457] It was a fifty-five gallon drum. [458] The airlock to Freedom 19 was open. [459] "What is that ?" [460] asked Major Winship, squinting out into the glaring sunlight. [461] "That," said Capt. [462] Lawler, "is the calking compound." [463] "You're kidding," said Capt. [464] Wilkins. [465] "I am not kidding." [466] Capt. [467] Lawler and Lt. Chandler came inside. [468] Capt. [469] Wilkins mounted a bunk. [470] "Why didn't you just borrow a cupful?" [471] Major Winship said sarcastically. [472] "It's this way," Lt. Chandler said. [473] "They didn't have anything but 55-gallon drums of it." [474] "Oh, my," said Capt. [475] Wilkins. [476] "I suppose it's a steel drum. [477] Those things must weigh...." "Actually, I think you guys have got the general wrong," Capt. [478] Lawler said. [479] "He was out, himself, to greet us. [480] I think he was really quite upset by the quake. [481] Probably because his people had misfigured so bad." [482] "He's too damned suspicious," Major Winship said. [483] "You know and I know why they set that blast off. [484] I tried to tell him. [485] Hell. [486] He looks at me like an emasculated owl and wants to know our ulterior motive in trying to prevent a purely scientific experiment, the results of which will be published in the technical press for the good of everybody. [487] I'll bet!" [488] "About this drum," Capt. [489] Wilkins said. [490] "Well, like I said, it's this way," Lt. Chandler resumed. [491] "I told him we needed about a pint. [492] Maybe a quart. [493] But this stuff you have to mix up. [494] He only had these drums. [495] There's two parts to it, and you have to combine them in just the right proportion. [496] He told me to take a little scale—" "A little scale?" [497] asked Capt. [498] Wilkins, rolling his eyes at the dome. [499] "That's what I told him. [500] We don't have any little scale." [501] "Yeah," said Captain Lawler, "and he looked at us with that mute, surprised look, like everybody, everywhere has dozens of little scales." [502] "Well, anyway," Lt. Chandler continued, "he told us just to mix up the whole fifty-five gallon drum. [503] There's a little bucket of stuff that goes in, and it's measured just right. [504] We can throw away what we don't need." [505] "Somehow, that sounds like him," Major Winship said. [506] "He had five or six of them." [507] "Jesus!" [508] said Capt. [509] Wilkins. [510] "That must be three thousand pounds of calking compound. [511] Those people are insane." [512] "The question is," Capt. [513] Lawler said, "'How are we going to mix it?' [514] It's supposed to be mixed thoroughly." [515] They thought over the problem for a while. [516] "That will be a man-sized job," Major Winship said. [517] "Let's see, Charlie. [518] Maybe not too bad," said Capt. [519] Wilkins. [520] "If I took the compressor motor, we could make up a shaft and ... let's see ... if we could...." It took the better part of an hour to rig up the electric mixer. [521] Capt. [522] Wilkins was profusely congratulated. [523] "Now," Major Winship said, "we can either bring the drum inside or take the mixer out there." [524] "We're going to have to bring the drum in," Capt. [525] Wilkins said. [526] "Well," said Capt. [527] Lawler, "that will make it nice and cozy." [528] It took the four of them to roll the drum inside, rocking it back and forth through the airlock. [529] At that time, it was apparent the table was interposing itself. [530] Lt. Chandler tried to dismantle the table. [531] "Damn these suits," he said. [532] "You've got it stuck between the bunk post." [533] "I know that." [534] "I don't think this is the way to do it," Major Winship said. [535] "Let's back the drum out." [536] Reluctantly, they backed the drum out and deposited it. [537] With the aid of Capt. [538] Lawler, Lt. Chandler got the table unstuck. [539] They passed it over to Major Winship, who handed it out to Capt. [540] Wilkins. [541] Captain Wilkins carried it around the drum of calking compound and set it down. [542] It rested uneasily on the uneven surface. [543] "Now, let's go," said Major Winship. [544] Eventually, they accomplished the moving. [545] They wedged the drum between the main air-supply tank and the transmitter. [546] They were all perspiring. [547] "It's not the weight, it's the mass," said Capt. [548] Wilkins brightly. [549] "The hell it isn't the weight," said Lt. Chandler. [550] "That's heavy." [551] "With my reefer out," said Major Winship, "I'm the one it's rough on." [552] He shook perspiration out of his eyes. [553] "They should figure a way to get a mop in here, or a towel, or a sponge, or something. [554] I'll bet you've forgotten how much sweat stings in the eyes." [555] "It's the salt." [556] "Speaking of salt. [557] I wish I had some salt tablets," Major Winship said. [558] "I've never sweat so much since basic." [559] "Want to bet Finogenov hasn't got a bushel of them?" [560] "No!" [561] Major Winship snapped. [562] With the drum of calking compound inside, both Capt. [563] Lawler and Lt. Chandler retreated to the bunks. [564] Capt. [565] Wilkins maneuvered the mixing attachment. [566] "I feel crowded," he said. [567] "Cozy's the word." [568] "Watch it! [569] Watch it! [570] You almost hit me in the face plate with that!" [571] "Sorry." [572] At length the mixer was in operation in the drum. [573] "Works perfectly," said Capt. [574] Wilkins proudly. [575] "Now what, Skip? [576] The instructions aren't in English." [577] "You're supposed to dump the bucket of stuff in. [578] Then clean the area thoroughly around the leak." [579] "With what?" [580] asked Major Winship. [581] "Sandpaper, I guess." [582] "With sandpaper?" [583] Major Winship said, emptying the bucket of fluid into the drum. [584] "We don't have any sandpaper." [585] "It's been a long day," Capt. [586] Wilkins said. [587] "Mix it thoroughly," Lt. Chandler mused. [588] "I guess that means let it mix for about ten minutes or so. [589] Then you apply it. [590] It sets for service in just a little bit, Finogenov said. [591] An hour or so, maybe." [592] "I hope this doesn't set on exposure to air." [593] "No," Capt. [594] Lawler said. [595] "It sets by some kind of chemical action. [596] General Finogenov wasn't sure of the English name for it. [597] Some kind of plastic." [598] "Let's come back to how we're going to clean around the leak," Major Winship said. [599] "Say, I—" interrupted Capt. [600] Wilkins. [601] There was a trace of concern in his voice. [602] "This is a hell of a time for this to occur to me. [603] I just wasn't thinking, before. [604] You don't suppose it's a room-temperature-curing epoxy resin, do you? " [605] "Larry," said Major Winship, "I wouldn't know a room-temperature-curing epoxy resin from—" "Hey!" [606] exclaimed Capt. [607] Wilkins. [608] "The mixer's stopped." [609] He bent forward and touched the drum. [610] He jerked back. [611] "Ye Gods! [612] that's hot! [613] And it's harder than a rock! [614] It is an epoxy! [615] Let's get out of here." [616] "Huh?" [617] "Out! [618] Out!" [619] Major Winship, Lt. Chandler, and Capt. [620] Lawler, recognizing the sense of urgency, simultaneously glanced at the drum. [621] It was glowing cherry red. [622] "Let's go!" [623] Capt. [624] Wilkins said. [625] He and the Major reached the airlock at the same time and became temporarily engaged with each other. [626] Movement was somewhat ungainly in the space suits under the best of conditions, and now, with the necessity for speed, was doubly so. [627] The other two crashed into them from behind, and they spewed forth from the dome in a tangle of arms and legs. [628] At the table, they separated, two going to the left, two to the right. [629] The table remained untouched. [630] When they halted, Capt. [631] Wilkins said, "Get to one side, it may go off like shrapnel." [632] They obeyed. [633] "What—what—what?" [634] Capt. [635] Lawler stuttered. [636] They were still separated, two on one side of the airlock, two on the other. [637] "I'm going to try to look," Capt. [638] Wilkins said. [639] "Let me go." [640] He lumbered directly away from the dome for a distance of about fifteen feet, then turned and positioned himself, some five feet behind the table, on a line of sight with the airlock. [641] "I can see it," he said. [642] "It's getting redder. [643] It's ... it's ... melting, yes. [644] Melting down at the bottom a little. [645] Now it's falling over to one side and laying on the air tank. [646] The air tank is getting red, too. [647] I'm afraid ... it's weakening it.... Redder. [648] Oh, oh." [649] "What?" [650] said Capt. [651] Lawler. [652] "Watch out! [653] There. [654] There! " [655] Capt. [656] Wilkins leaped from his position. [657] He was still floating toward the ground when there was an incredibly bright flare from inside the dome, and a great, silent tongue of flame lashed through the airlock and rolled across the lunar surface. [658] The table was sent tumbling. [659] The flame was gone almost instantly. [660] "There went the air," Capt. [661] Lawler commented. [662] "We got T-Trouble," said Lt. Chandler.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Who is Major Winship, and what happens to him throughout the story?": 1. [405] Major Winship, mindful of the extent of his potential audience, took a deep breath. 2. [406] "Earlier this morning, the Soviet Union fired an underground atomic device for the ostensible purpose of investigating the composition of the lunar mass by means of seismic analysis of the resultant shock waves. 3. [407] This was done in spite of American warnings that such a disturbance might release accumulated stresses in the long undisturbed satellite, and was done in the face of vigorous American protests." 4. [414] "Immediately following the detonation, Freedom 19 was called on to withstand a moderately severe shifting of the Lunar surface. 5. [415] No personnel were injured and there was no equipment damage." 6. [420] "However, we did experience a minor leak in the dome, which is presently being repaired." 7. [425] "Vacuum has destroyed our organic air reconditioner. 8. [426] We have approximately three weeks of emergency air. 9. [427] However, Base Gagarin reports no damage, so that, in the event we exhaust our air, we will be able to obtain the necessary replacement." 10. [442] "Wow! 11. [443] For a moment there, I thought...." 12. [444] "What?" 13. [445] Capt. Wilkins asked with interest. 14. [446] "I could see myself asking them to ask the Russians to ask Finogenov to get on the emergency channel to ask you to charge the air bottle. 15. [447] I never felt so ... idiotic is not quite strong enough ... there for a minute in my whole life. 16. [448] I didn't know how much emergency air was left, and I thought, my God, I'll never live this down. 17. [449] All the hams in the world listening, while I try to explain the situation. 18. [450] I could see the nickname being entered in my files: aka. The Airless Idiot. 19. [451] I tell you, that was rough." 20. All other sentences.

What is the plot of the story?

[1] DOWN TO THE WORLDS OF MEN BY ALEXEI PANSHIN The ancient rule was sink or swim—swim in the miasma of a planet without spaceflight, or sink to utter destruction! [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1963. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] I The horses and packs were loaded before we went aboard the scoutship. [5] The scout bay is no more than a great oversized airlock with a dozen small ships squatting over their tubes, but it was the last of the Ship that I might ever see, so I took a long final look from the top of the ramp. [6] There were sixteen of us girls and thirteen boys. [7] We took our places in the seats in the center of the scout. [8] Riggy Allen made a joke that nobody bothered to laugh at, and then we were all silent. [9] I was feeling lost and just beginning to enjoy it when Jimmy Dentremont came over to me. [10] He's red-headed and has a face that makes him look about ten. [11] An intelligent runt like me. [12] He said what I expected. [13] "Mia, do you want to go partners if we can get together when we get down?" [14] I guess he thought that because we were always matched on study I liked him. [15] Well, I did when I wasn't mad at him, but now I had that crack he'd made about being a snob in mind, so I said, "Not likely. [16] I want to come back alive." [17] It wasn't fair, but it was a good crack and he went back to his place without saying anything. [18] My name is Mia Havero. [19] I'm fourteen, of course, or I wouldn't be telling this. [20] I'm short, dark and scrawny, though I don't expect that scrawniness to last much longer. [21] Mother is very good looking. [22] In the meantime, I've got brains as a consolation. [23] After we were all settled, George Fuhonin, the pilot, raised the ramps. [24] We sat there for five minutes while they bled air out of our tube and then we just ... dropped. [25] My stomach turned flips. [26] We didn't have to leave that way, but George thinks it's fun to be a hot pilot. [27] Thinking it over, I was almost sorry I'd been stinking to Jimmy D. He's the only competition I have my own age. [28] The trouble is, you don't go partners with the competition, do you? [29] Besides, there was still that crack about being a snob. [30] The planet chosen for our Trial was called Tintera. [31] The last contact the Ship had had with it—and we were the ones who dropped them—was almost 150 years ago. [32] No contact since. [33] That had made the Council debate a little before they dropped us there, but they decided it was all right in the end. [34] It didn't make any practical difference to us kids because they never tell you anything about the place they're going to drop you. [35] All I knew was the name. [36] I wouldn't have known that much if Daddy weren't Chairman of the Council. [37] I felt like crawling in a corner of the ship and crying, but nobody else was breaking down, so I didn't. [38] I did feel miserable. [39] I cried when I said good-by to Mother and Daddy—a real emotional scene—but that wasn't in public. [40] It wasn't the chance of not coming back that bothered me really, because I never believed that I wouldn't. [41] The thought that made me unhappy was that I would have to be on a planet for a whole month. [42] Planets make me feel wretched. [43] The gravity is always wrong, for one thing. [44] Either your arches and calves ache or every time you step you think you're going to trip on a piece of fluff and break your neck. [45] There are vegetables everywhere and little grubby things just looking for you to crawl on. [46] If you can think of anything creepier than that, you've got a real nasty imagination. [47] Worst of all, planets stink. [48] Every single one smells—I've been on enough to know that. [49] A planet is all right for a Mud-eater, but not for me. [50] We have a place in the Ship like that—the Third Level—but it's only a thousand square miles and any time it gets on your nerves you can go up a level or down a level and be back in civilization. [51] When we reached Tintera, they started dropping us. [52] We swung over the sea from the morning side and then dropped low over gray-green forested hills. [53] Finally George spotted a clear area and dropped into it. [54] They don't care what order you go in, so Jimmy D. jumped up, grabbed his gear and then led his horse down the ramp. [55] I think he was still smarting from the slap I'd given him. [56] In a minute we were airborne again. [57] I wondered if I would ever see Jimmy—if he would get back alive. [58] It's no game we play. [59] When we turn fourteen, they drop us on the nearest colonized planet and come back one month later. [60] That may sound like fun to you, but a lot of us never come back alive. [61] Don't think I was helpless. [62] I'm hell on wheels. [63] They don't let us grow for fourteen years and then kick us out to die. [64] They prepare us. [65] They do figure, though, that if you can't keep yourself alive by the time you're fourteen, you're too stupid, foolish or unlucky to be any use to the Ship. [66] There's sense behind it. [67] It means that everybody on the Ship is a person who can take care of himself if he has to. [68] Daddy says that something has to be done in a closed society to keep the population from decaying mentally and physically, and this is it. [69] And it helps to keep the population steady. [70] I began to check my gear out—sonic pistol, pickup signal so I could be found at the end of the month, saddle and cinches, food and clothes. [71] Venie Morlock has got a crush on Jimmy D., and when she saw me start getting ready to go, she began to check her gear, too. [72] At our next landing, I grabbed Ninc's reins and cut Venie out smoothly. [73] It didn't have anything to do with Jimmy. [74] I just couldn't stand to put off the bad moment any longer. [75] The ship lifted impersonally away from Ninc and me like a rising bird, and in just a moment it was gone. [76] Its gray-blue color was almost the color of the half-overcast sky, so I was never sure when I saw it last. [77] II The first night was hell, I guess because I'm not used to having the lights out. [78] That's when you really start to feel lonely, being alone in the dark. [79] When the sun disappears, somehow you wonder in your stomach if it's really going to come back. [80] But I lived through it—one day in thirty gone. [81] I rode in a spiral search pattern during the next two days. [82] I had three things in mind—stay alive, find people and find some of the others. [83] The first was automatic. [84] The second was to find out if there was a slot I could fit into for a month. [85] If not, I would have to find a place to camp out, as nasty as that would be. [86] The third was to join forces, though not with that meatball Jimmy D. No, he isn't really a meatball. [87] The trouble is that I don't take nothing from nobody, especially him, and he doesn't take nothing from nobody, especially me. [88] So we do a lot of fighting. [89] I had a good month for Trial. [90] My birthday is in November—too close to Year End Holiday for my taste, but this year it was all right. [91] It was spring on Tintera, but it was December in the Ship, and after we got back we had five days of Holiday to celebrate. [92] It gave me something to look forward to. [93] In two days of riding, I ran onto nothing but a few odd-looking animals. [94] I shot one small one and ate it. [95] It turned out to taste pretty good, though not as good as a slice from Hambone No. [96] 4, to my mind the best meat vat on the Ship. [97] I've eaten things so gruey-looking that I wondered that anybody had the guts to try them in the first place and they've turned out to taste good. [98] And I've seen things that looked good that I couldn't keep on my stomach. [99] So I guess I was lucky. [100] On the third day, I found the road. [101] I brought Ninc down off the hillside, losing sight of the road in the trees, and then reaching it in the level below. [102] It was narrow and made of sand spread over a hard base. [103] Out of the marks in the sand, I could pick out the tracks of horses and both narrow and wide wheels. [104] Other tracks I couldn't identify. [105] One of the smartest moves in history was to include horses when they dropped the colonies. [106] I say "they" because, while we did the actual dropping, the idea originated with the whole evac plan back on Earth. [107] Considering how short a time it was in which the colonies were established, there was not time to set up industry, so they had to have draft animals. [108] The first of the Great Ships was finished in 2025. [109] One of the eight, as well as the two that were being built then, went up with everything else in the Solar System in 2041. [110] In that sixteen years 112 colonies were planted. [111] I don't know how many of those planets had animals that could have been substituted but, even if they had, they would have had to be domesticated from scratch. [112] That would have been stupid. [113] I'll bet that half the colonies would have failed if they hadn't had horses. [114] We'd come in from the west over the ocean, so I traveled east on the road. [115] That much water makes me nervous, and roads have to go somewhere. [116] I came on my first travelers three hours later. [117] I rounded a tree-lined bend, ducking an overhanging branch, and pulled Ninc to a stop. [118] There were five men on horseback herding a bunch of the ugliest creatures alive. [119] They were green and grotesque. [120] They had squat bodies, long limbs and knobby bulges at their joints. [121] They had square, flat animal masks for faces. [122] But they walked on their hind legs and they had paws that were almost hands, and that was enough to make them seem almost human. [123] They made a wordless, chilling, lowing sound as they milled and plodded along. [124] I started Ninc up again and moved slowly to catch up with them. [125] All the men on horseback had guns in saddle boots. [126] They looked as nervous as cats with kittens. [127] One of them had a string of packhorses on a line and he saw me and called to another who seemed to be the leader. [128] That one wheeled his black horse and rode back toward me. [129] He was a middle-aged man, maybe as old as my Daddy. [130] He was large and he had a hard face. [131] Normal enough, but hard. [132] He pulled to a halt when we reached each other, but I kept going. [133] He had to come around and follow me. [134] I believe in judging a person by his face. [135] A man can't help the face he owns, but he can help the expression he wears on it. [136] If a man looks mean, I generally believe that he is. [137] This one looked mean. [138] That was why I kept riding. [139] He said, "What be you doing out here, boy? [140] Be you out of your head? [141] There be escaped Losels in these woods." [142] I told you I hadn't finished filling out yet, but I hadn't thought it was that bad. [143] I wasn't ready to make a fight over the point, though. [144] Generally, I can't keep my bloody mouth shut, but now I didn't say anything. [145] It seemed smart. [146] "Where be you from?" [147] he asked. [148] I pointed to the road behind us. [149] "And where be you going?" [150] I pointed ahead. [151] No other way to go. [152] He seemed exasperated. [153] I have that effect sometimes. [154] Even on Mother and Daddy, who should know better. [155] We were coming up on the others now, and the man said, "Maybe you'd better ride on from here with us. [156] For protection." [157] He had an odd way of twisting his sounds, almost as though he had a mouthful of mush. [158] I wondered whether he were just an oddball or whether everybody here spoke the same way. [159] I'd never heard International English spoken any way but one, even on the planet Daddy made me visit with him. [160] One of the other outriders came easing by then. [161] I suppose they'd been watching us all the while. [162] He called to the hard man. [163] "He be awfully small, Horst. [164] I doubt me a Losel'd even notice him at all. [165] We mought as well throw him back again." [166] The rider looked at me. [167] When I didn't dissolve in terror as he expected, he shrugged and one of the other men laughed. [168] The hard man said to the others, "This boy will be riding along with us to Forton for protection." [169] I looked down at the plodding, unhappy creatures they were driving along and one looked back at me with dull, expressionless golden eyes. [170] I felt uncomfortable. [171] I said, "I don't think so." [172] What the man did then surprised me. [173] He said, "I do think so," and reached for the rifle in his saddle boot. [174] I whipped my sonic pistol out so fast that he was caught leaning over with the rifle half out. [175] His jaw dropped. [176] He knew what I held and he didn't want to be fried. [177] I said, "Ease your rifles out and drop them gently to the ground." [178] They did, watching me all the while with wary expressions. [179] When all the rifles were on the ground, I said, "All right, let's go." [180] They didn't want to move. [181] They didn't want to leave the rifles. [182] I could see that. [183] Horst didn't say anything. [184] He just watched me with narrowed eyes. [185] But one of the others held up a hand and in wheedling tones said, "Look here, kid...." "Shut up," I said, in as mean a voice as I could muster, and he did. [186] It surprised me. [187] I didn't think I sounded that mean. [188] I decided he just didn't trust the crazy kid not to shoot. [189] After twenty minutes of easy riding for us and hard walking for the creatures, I said, "If you want your rifles, you can go back and get them now." [190] I dug my heels into Ninc's sides and rode on. [191] At the next bend I looked back and saw four of them holding their packhorses and the creatures still while one beat a dust-raising retreat down the road. [192] I put this episode in the "file and hold for analysis" section in my mind and rode on, feeling good. [193] I think I even giggled once. [194] Sometimes I even convince myself that I'm hell on wheels. [195] III When I was nine, my Daddy gave me a painted wooden doll that my great-grandmother brought from Earth. [196] The thing is that inside it, nestled one in another, are eleven more dolls, each one smaller than the last. [197] I like to watch people when they open it for the first time. [198] My face must have been like that as I rode along the road. [199] The country leveled into a great rolling valley and the trees gave way to great farms and fields. [200] In the fields, working, were some of the green creatures, which surprised me since the ones I'd seen before hadn't seemed smart enough to count to one, let alone do any work. [201] But it relieved me. [202] I thought they might have been eating them or something. [203] I passed two crossroads and started to meet more people, but nobody questioned me. [204] I met people on horseback, and twice I met trucks moving silently past. [205] And I overtook a wagon driven by the oldest man I've seen in my life. [206] He waved to me, and I waved back. [207] Near the end of the afternoon I came to the town, and there I received a jolt that sickened me. [208] By the time I came out on the other side, I was sick. [209] My hands were cold and sweaty and my head was spinning, and I wanted to kick Ninc to a gallop. [210] I rode slowly in, looking all around, missing nothing. [211] The town was all stone, wood and brick. [212] Out of date. [213] Out of time, really. [214] There were no machines more complicated than the trucks I'd seen earlier. [215] At the edge of town, I passed a newspaper office with a headline pasted in the window—INVASION! [216] I remember that. [217] I wondered about it. [218] But I looked most closely at the people. [219] In all that town, I didn't see one girl over ten years old and no grown-up women at all. [220] There were little kids, there were boys and there were men, but no girls. [221] All the boys and men wore pants, and so did I, which must have been why Horst and his buddies assumed I was a boy. [222] It wasn't flattering; but I decided I'd not tell anybody different until I found what made the clocks tick on this planet. [223] But that wasn't what bothered me. [224] It was the kids. [225] My God! [226] They swarmed. [227] I saw a family come out of a house—a father and four children. [228] It was the most foul thing I've ever seen. [229] It struck me then—these people were Free Birthers! [230] I felt a wave of nausea and I closed my eyes until it passed. [231] The first thing you learn in school is that if it weren't for idiot and criminal people like these, Earth would never have been destroyed. [232] The evacuation would never have had to take place, and eight billion people wouldn't have died. [233] There wouldn't have been eight billion people. [234] But, no. [235] They bred and they spread and they devoured everything in their path like a cancer. [236] They gobbled up all the resources that Earth had and crowded and shoved one another until the final war came. [237] I am lucky. [238] My great-great-grandparents were among those who had enough foresight to see what was coming. [239] If it hadn't been for them and some others like them, there wouldn't be any humans left anywhere. [240] And I wouldn't be here. [241] That may not scare you, but it scares me. [242] What happened before, when people didn't use their heads and wound up blowing the Solar System apart, is something nobody should forget. [243] The older people don't let us forget. [244] But these people had, and that the Council should know. [245] For the first time since I landed on Tintera, I felt really frightened. [246] There was too much going on that I didn't understand. [247] I felt a blind urge to get away, and when I reached the edge of town, I whomped Ninc a good one and gave him his head. [248] I let him run for almost a mile before I pulled him down to a walk again. [249] I couldn't help wishing for Jimmy D. Whatever else he is, he's smart and brains I needed. [250] How do you find out what's going on? [251] Eavesdrop? [252] That's a lousy method. [253] For one thing, people can't be depended on to talk about the things you want to hear. [254] For another, you're likely to get caught. [255] Ask somebody? [256] Who? [257] Make the mistake of bracing a fellow like Horst and you might wind up with a sore head and an empty pocket. [258] The best thing I could think of was to find a library, but that might be a job. [259] I'd had two bad shocks on this day, but they weren't the last. [260] In the late afternoon, when the sun was starting to sink and a cool wind was starting to ripple the tree leaves, I saw the scoutship high in the sky. [261] The dying sun colored it a deep red. [262] Back again? [263] I wondered what had gone wrong. [264] I reached down into my saddlebag and brought out my contact signal. [265] The scoutship swung up in the sky in a familiar movement calculated to drop the stomach out of everybody aboard. [266] George Fuhonin's style. [267] I triggered the signal, my heart turning flips all the while. [268] I didn't know why he was back, but I wasn't really sorry. [269] The ship swung around until it was coming back on a path almost over my head, going in the same direction. [270] Then it went into a slip and started bucking so hard that I knew this wasn't hot piloting at all, just plain idiot stutter-fingered stupidity at the controls. [271] As it skidded by me overhead, I got a good look at it and knew that it wasn't one of ours. [272] Not too different, but not ours. [273] One more enigma. [274] Where was it from? [275] Not here. [276] Even if you know how, and we wouldn't tell these Mud-eaters how, a scoutship is something that takes an advanced technology to build. [277] I felt defeated and tired. [278] Not much farther along the road, I came to a campsite with two wagons pulled in for the night, and I couldn't help but pull in myself. [279] The campsite was large and had two permanent buildings on it. [280] One was a well enclosure and the other was little more than a high-walled pen. [281] It didn't even have a roof. [282] I set up camp and ate my dinner. [283] In the wagon closest to me were a man, his wife and their three children. [284] The kids were running around and playing, and one of them ran close to the high-walled pen. [285] His father came and pulled him away. [286] The kids weren't to blame for their parents, but when one of them said hello to me, I didn't even answer. [287] I know how lousy I would feel if I had two or three brothers and sisters, but it didn't strike me until that moment that it wouldn't even seem out of the ordinary to these kids. [288] Isn't that horrible? [289] About the time I finished eating, and before it grew dark, the old man I had seen earlier in the day drove his wagon in. [290] He fascinated me. [291] He had white hair, something I had read about in stories but had never seen before. [292] When nightfall came, they started a large fire. [293] Everybody gathered around. [294] There was singing for awhile, and then the father of the children tried to pack them off to bed. [295] But they weren't ready to go, so the old man started telling them a story. [296] In the old man's odd accent, and sitting there in the campfire light surrounded by darkness, it seemed just right. [297] It was about an old witch named Baba Yaga who lived in the forest in a house that stood on chicken legs. [298] She was the nasty stepmother of a nice little girl, and to get rid of the kid, she sent her on a phony errand into the deep dark woods at nightfall. [299] I could appreciate the poor girl's position. [300] All the little girl had to help her were the handkerchief, the comb and the pearl that she had inherited from her dear dead mother. [301] But, as it turned out, they were just enough to defeat nasty old Baba Yaga and bring the girl safely home. [302] I wished for the same for myself. [303] The old man had just finished and they were starting to drag the kids off to bed when there was a commotion on the road at the edge of the camp. [304] I looked but my eyes were adjusted to the light of the fire and I couldn't see far into the dark. [305] A voice there said, "I'll be damned if I'll take another day like this one, Horst. [306] We should have been here hours ago. [307] It be your fault we're not." [308] Horst growled a retort. [309] I decided that it was time for me to leave the campfire. [310] I got up and eased away as Horst and his men came up to the fire, and cut back to where Ninc was parked. [311] I grabbed up my blankets and mattress and started to roll them up. [312] I had a pretty good idea now what they used the high-walled pen for. [313] I should have known that they would have to pen the animals up for the night. [314] I should have used my head. [315] I hadn't and now it was time to take leave. [316] I never got the chance. [317] I was just heaving the saddle up on Ninc when I felt a hand on my shoulder and I was swung around. [318] "Well, well. [319] Horst, look who we have here," he called. [320] It was the one who'd made the joke about me being beneath the notice of a Losel. [321] He was alone with me now, but with that call the others would be up fast. [322] I brought the saddle around as hard as I could and then up, and he went down. [323] He started to get up again, so I dropped the saddle on him and reached inside my jacket for my gun. [324] Somebody grabbed me then from behind and pinned my arms to my side. [325] I opened my mouth to scream—I have a good scream—but a rough smelly hand clamped down over it before I had a chance to get more than a lungful of air. [326] I bit down hard—5000 lbs. [327] psi, I'm told—but he didn't let me go. [328] I started to kick, but Horst jerked me off my feet and dragged me off. [329] When we were behind the pen and out of earshot of the fire, he stopped dragging me and dropped me in a heap. [330] "Make any noise," he said, "and I'll hurt you." [331] That was a silly way to put it, but somehow it said more than if he'd threatened to break my arm or my head. [332] It left him a latitude of things to do if he pleased. [333] He examined his hand. [334] There was enough moonlight for that. [335] "I ought to club you anyway," he said. [336] The one I'd dropped the saddle on came up then. [337] The others were putting the animals in the pen. [338] He started to kick me, but Horst stopped him. [339] "No," he said. [340] "Look through the kid's gear, bring the horse and what we can use." [341] The other one didn't move. [342] "Get going, Jack," Horst said in a menacing tone and they stood toe to toe for a long moment before Jack finally backed down. [343] It seemed to me that Horst wasn't so much objecting to me being kicked, but was rather establishing who did the kicking in his bunch. [344] But I wasn't done yet. [345] I was scared, but I still had the pistol under my jacket. [346] Horst turned back to me and I said, "You can't do this and get away with it." [347] He said, "Look, boy. [348] You may not know it, but you be in a lot of trouble. [349] So don't give me a hard time." [350] He still thought I was a boy. [351] It was not time to correct him, but I didn't like to see the point go unchallenged. [352] It was unflattering. [353] "The courts won't let you get away with this," I said. [354] I'd passed a courthouse in the town with a carved motto over the doors: EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW or TRUTH OUR SHIELD AND JUSTICE OUR SWORD or something stuffy like that. [355] He laughed, not a phony, villian-type laugh, but a real laugh, so I knew I'd goofed. [356] "Boy, boy. [357] Don't talk about the courts. [358] I be doing you a favor. [359] I be taking what I can use of your gear, but I be letting you go. [360] You go to court and they'll take everything and lock you up besides. [361] I be leaving you your freedom." [362] "Why would they be doing that?" [363] I asked. [364] I slipped my hand under my jacket. [365] "Every time you open your mouth you shout that you be off one of the Ships," Horst said. [366] "That be enough. [367] They already have one of you brats in jail in Forton." [368] I was about to bring my gun out when up came Jack leading Ninc, with all my stuff loaded on. [369] I mentally thanked him. [370] He said, "The kid's got some good equipment. [371] But I can't make out what this be for." [372] He held out my pickup signal. [373] Horst looked at it, then handed it back. [374] "Throw it away," he said. [375] I leveled my gun at them—Hell on Wheels strikes again! [376] I said, "Hand that over to me." [377] Horst made a disgusted sound. [378] "Don't make any noise," I said, "or you'll fry. [379] Now hand it over." [380] I stowed it away, then paused with one hand on the leather horn of the saddle. [381] "What's the name of the kid in jail in Forton." [382] "I can't remember," he said. [383] "But it be coming to me. [384] Hold on." [385] I waited. [386] Then suddenly my arm was hit a numbing blow from behind and the gun went flying. [387] Jack pounced after it and Horst said, "Good enough," to the others who'd come up behind me. [388] I felt like a fool. [389] Horst stalked over and got the signal. [390] He dropped it on the ground and said in a voice far colder than mine could ever be, because it was natural and mine wasn't, "The piece be yours." [391] Then he tromped on it until it cracked and fell apart. [392] Then he said, "Pull a gun on me twice. [393] Twice." [394] He slapped me so hard that my ears rang. [395] "You dirty little punk." [396] I said calmly, "You big louse." [397] It was a time I would have done better to keep my mouth shut. [398] All I can remember is a flash of pain as his fist crunched against the side of my face and then nothing. [399] Brains are no good if you don't use them.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [30] The planet chosen for our Trial was called Tintera. 2. [58] When we turn fourteen, they drop us on the nearest colonized planet and come back one month later. 3. [59] That may sound like fun to you, but a lot of us never come back alive. 4. [63] They don't let us grow for fourteen years and then kick us out to die. 5. [64] They prepare us. 6. [65] They do figure, though, that if you can't keep yourself alive by the time you're fourteen, you're too stupid, foolish or unlucky to be any use to the Ship. 7. [66] There's sense behind it. 8. [67] It means that everybody on the Ship is a person who can take care of himself if he has to. 9. [51] When we reached Tintera, they started dropping us. 10. [52] We swung over the sea from the morning side and then dropped low over gray-green forested hills. 11. [53] Finally George spotted a clear area and dropped into it. 12. [54] They don't care what order you go in, so Jimmy D. jumped up, grabbed his gear and then led his horse down the ramp. 13. [55] I think he was still smarting from the slap I'd given him. 14. [56] In a minute we were airborne again. 15. [57] I wondered if I would ever see Jimmy—if he would get back alive. 16. [70] I began to check my gear out—sonic pistol, pickup signal so I could be found at the end of the month, saddle and cinches, food and clothes. 17. [71] Venie Morlock has got a crush on Jimmy D., and when she saw me start getting ready to go, she began to check her gear, too. 18. [72] At our next landing, I grabbed Ninc's reins and cut Venie out smoothly. 19. [73] It didn't have anything to do with Jimmy. 20. [74] I just couldn't stand to put off the bad moment any longer. 21. [75] The ship lifted impersonally away from Ninc and me like a rising bird, and in just a moment it was gone. 22. [76] Its gray-blue color was almost the color of the half-overcast sky, so I was never sure when I saw it last. 23. [1] DOWN TO THE WORLDS OF MEN BY ALEXEI PANSHIN The ancient rule was sink or swim—swim in the miasma of a planet without spaceflight, or sink to utter destruction! 24. [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1963. 25. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 26. [4] I The horses and packs were loaded before we went aboard the scoutship. 27. [5] The scout bay is no more than a great oversized airlock with a dozen small ships squatting over their tubes, but it was the last of the Ship that I might ever see, so I took a long final look from the top of the ramp. 28. [6] There were sixteen of us girls and thirteen boys. 29. [7] We took our places in the seats in the center of the scout. 30. [8] Riggy Allen made a joke that nobody bothered to laugh at, and then we were all silent. 31. [9] I was feeling lost and just beginning to enjoy it when Jimmy Dentremont came over to me. 32. [10] He's red-headed and has a face that makes him look about ten. 33. [11] An intelligent runt like me. 34. [12] He said what I expected. 35. [13] "Mia, do you want to go partners if we can get together when we get down?" 36. [14] I guess he thought that because we were always matched on study I liked him. 37. [15] Well, I did when I wasn't mad at him, but now I had that crack he'd made about being a snob in mind, so I said, "Not likely. 38. [16] I want to come back alive." 39. [17] It wasn't fair, but it was a good crack and he went back to his place without saying anything. 40. [18] My name is Mia Havero. 41. [19] I'm fourteen, of course, or I wouldn't be telling this. 42. [20] I'm short, dark and scrawny, though I don't expect that scrawniness to last much longer. 43. [21] Mother is very good looking. 44. [22] In the meantime, I've got brains as a consolation. 45. [23] After we were all settled, George Fuhonin, the pilot, raised the ramps. 46. [24] We sat there for five minutes while they bled air out of our tube and then we just ... dropped. 47. [25] My stomach turned flips. 48. [26] We didn't have to leave that way, but George thinks it's fun to be a hot pilot. 49. [27] Thinking it over, I was almost sorry I'd been stinking to Jimmy D. He's the only competition I have my own age. 50. [28] The trouble is, you don't go partners with the competition, do you? 51. [29] Besides, there was still that crack about being a snob. 52. [31] The last contact the Ship had had with it—and we were the ones who dropped them—was almost 150 years ago. 53. [32] No contact since. 54. [33] That had made the Council debate a little before they dropped us there, but they decided it was all right in the end. 55. [34] It didn't make any practical difference to us kids because they never tell you anything about the place they're going to drop you. 56. [35] All I knew was the name. 57. [36] I wouldn't have known that much if Daddy weren't Chairman of the Council. 58. [37] I felt like crawling in a corner of the ship and crying, but nobody else was breaking down, so I didn't. 59. [38] I did feel miserable. 60. [39] I cried when I said good-by to Mother and Daddy—a real emotional scene—but that wasn't in public. 61. [40] It wasn't the chance of not coming back that bothered me really, because I never believed that I wouldn't. 62. [41] The thought that made me unhappy was that I would have to be on a planet for a whole month. 63. [42] Planets make me feel wretched. 64. [43] The gravity is always wrong, for one thing. 65. [44] Either your arches and calves ache or every time you step you think you're going to trip on a piece of fluff and break your neck. 66. [45] There are vegetables everywhere and little grubby things just looking for you to crawl on. 67. [46] If you can think of anything creepier than that, you've got a real nasty imagination. 68. [47] Worst of all, planets stink. 69. [48] Every single one smells—I've been on enough to know that. 70. [49] A planet is all right for a Mud-eater, but not for me. 71. [50] We have a place in the Ship like that—the Third Level—but it's only a thousand square miles and any time it gets on your nerves you can go up a level or down a level and be back in civilization.

What was Mia taught about Earth being destroyed?

[1] DOWN TO THE WORLDS OF MEN BY ALEXEI PANSHIN The ancient rule was sink or swim—swim in the miasma of a planet without spaceflight, or sink to utter destruction! [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1963. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] I The horses and packs were loaded before we went aboard the scoutship. [5] The scout bay is no more than a great oversized airlock with a dozen small ships squatting over their tubes, but it was the last of the Ship that I might ever see, so I took a long final look from the top of the ramp. [6] There were sixteen of us girls and thirteen boys. [7] We took our places in the seats in the center of the scout. [8] Riggy Allen made a joke that nobody bothered to laugh at, and then we were all silent. [9] I was feeling lost and just beginning to enjoy it when Jimmy Dentremont came over to me. [10] He's red-headed and has a face that makes him look about ten. [11] An intelligent runt like me. [12] He said what I expected. [13] "Mia, do you want to go partners if we can get together when we get down?" [14] I guess he thought that because we were always matched on study I liked him. [15] Well, I did when I wasn't mad at him, but now I had that crack he'd made about being a snob in mind, so I said, "Not likely. [16] I want to come back alive." [17] It wasn't fair, but it was a good crack and he went back to his place without saying anything. [18] My name is Mia Havero. [19] I'm fourteen, of course, or I wouldn't be telling this. [20] I'm short, dark and scrawny, though I don't expect that scrawniness to last much longer. [21] Mother is very good looking. [22] In the meantime, I've got brains as a consolation. [23] After we were all settled, George Fuhonin, the pilot, raised the ramps. [24] We sat there for five minutes while they bled air out of our tube and then we just ... dropped. [25] My stomach turned flips. [26] We didn't have to leave that way, but George thinks it's fun to be a hot pilot. [27] Thinking it over, I was almost sorry I'd been stinking to Jimmy D. He's the only competition I have my own age. [28] The trouble is, you don't go partners with the competition, do you? [29] Besides, there was still that crack about being a snob. [30] The planet chosen for our Trial was called Tintera. [31] The last contact the Ship had had with it—and we were the ones who dropped them—was almost 150 years ago. [32] No contact since. [33] That had made the Council debate a little before they dropped us there, but they decided it was all right in the end. [34] It didn't make any practical difference to us kids because they never tell you anything about the place they're going to drop you. [35] All I knew was the name. [36] I wouldn't have known that much if Daddy weren't Chairman of the Council. [37] I felt like crawling in a corner of the ship and crying, but nobody else was breaking down, so I didn't. [38] I did feel miserable. [39] I cried when I said good-by to Mother and Daddy—a real emotional scene—but that wasn't in public. [40] It wasn't the chance of not coming back that bothered me really, because I never believed that I wouldn't. [41] The thought that made me unhappy was that I would have to be on a planet for a whole month. [42] Planets make me feel wretched. [43] The gravity is always wrong, for one thing. [44] Either your arches and calves ache or every time you step you think you're going to trip on a piece of fluff and break your neck. [45] There are vegetables everywhere and little grubby things just looking for you to crawl on. [46] If you can think of anything creepier than that, you've got a real nasty imagination. [47] Worst of all, planets stink. [48] Every single one smells—I've been on enough to know that. [49] A planet is all right for a Mud-eater, but not for me. [50] We have a place in the Ship like that—the Third Level—but it's only a thousand square miles and any time it gets on your nerves you can go up a level or down a level and be back in civilization. [51] When we reached Tintera, they started dropping us. [52] We swung over the sea from the morning side and then dropped low over gray-green forested hills. [53] Finally George spotted a clear area and dropped into it. [54] They don't care what order you go in, so Jimmy D. jumped up, grabbed his gear and then led his horse down the ramp. [55] I think he was still smarting from the slap I'd given him. [56] In a minute we were airborne again. [57] I wondered if I would ever see Jimmy—if he would get back alive. [58] It's no game we play. [59] When we turn fourteen, they drop us on the nearest colonized planet and come back one month later. [60] That may sound like fun to you, but a lot of us never come back alive. [61] Don't think I was helpless. [62] I'm hell on wheels. [63] They don't let us grow for fourteen years and then kick us out to die. [64] They prepare us. [65] They do figure, though, that if you can't keep yourself alive by the time you're fourteen, you're too stupid, foolish or unlucky to be any use to the Ship. [66] There's sense behind it. [67] It means that everybody on the Ship is a person who can take care of himself if he has to. [68] Daddy says that something has to be done in a closed society to keep the population from decaying mentally and physically, and this is it. [69] And it helps to keep the population steady. [70] I began to check my gear out—sonic pistol, pickup signal so I could be found at the end of the month, saddle and cinches, food and clothes. [71] Venie Morlock has got a crush on Jimmy D., and when she saw me start getting ready to go, she began to check her gear, too. [72] At our next landing, I grabbed Ninc's reins and cut Venie out smoothly. [73] It didn't have anything to do with Jimmy. [74] I just couldn't stand to put off the bad moment any longer. [75] The ship lifted impersonally away from Ninc and me like a rising bird, and in just a moment it was gone. [76] Its gray-blue color was almost the color of the half-overcast sky, so I was never sure when I saw it last. [77] II The first night was hell, I guess because I'm not used to having the lights out. [78] That's when you really start to feel lonely, being alone in the dark. [79] When the sun disappears, somehow you wonder in your stomach if it's really going to come back. [80] But I lived through it—one day in thirty gone. [81] I rode in a spiral search pattern during the next two days. [82] I had three things in mind—stay alive, find people and find some of the others. [83] The first was automatic. [84] The second was to find out if there was a slot I could fit into for a month. [85] If not, I would have to find a place to camp out, as nasty as that would be. [86] The third was to join forces, though not with that meatball Jimmy D. No, he isn't really a meatball. [87] The trouble is that I don't take nothing from nobody, especially him, and he doesn't take nothing from nobody, especially me. [88] So we do a lot of fighting. [89] I had a good month for Trial. [90] My birthday is in November—too close to Year End Holiday for my taste, but this year it was all right. [91] It was spring on Tintera, but it was December in the Ship, and after we got back we had five days of Holiday to celebrate. [92] It gave me something to look forward to. [93] In two days of riding, I ran onto nothing but a few odd-looking animals. [94] I shot one small one and ate it. [95] It turned out to taste pretty good, though not as good as a slice from Hambone No. [96] 4, to my mind the best meat vat on the Ship. [97] I've eaten things so gruey-looking that I wondered that anybody had the guts to try them in the first place and they've turned out to taste good. [98] And I've seen things that looked good that I couldn't keep on my stomach. [99] So I guess I was lucky. [100] On the third day, I found the road. [101] I brought Ninc down off the hillside, losing sight of the road in the trees, and then reaching it in the level below. [102] It was narrow and made of sand spread over a hard base. [103] Out of the marks in the sand, I could pick out the tracks of horses and both narrow and wide wheels. [104] Other tracks I couldn't identify. [105] One of the smartest moves in history was to include horses when they dropped the colonies. [106] I say "they" because, while we did the actual dropping, the idea originated with the whole evac plan back on Earth. [107] Considering how short a time it was in which the colonies were established, there was not time to set up industry, so they had to have draft animals. [108] The first of the Great Ships was finished in 2025. [109] One of the eight, as well as the two that were being built then, went up with everything else in the Solar System in 2041. [110] In that sixteen years 112 colonies were planted. [111] I don't know how many of those planets had animals that could have been substituted but, even if they had, they would have had to be domesticated from scratch. [112] That would have been stupid. [113] I'll bet that half the colonies would have failed if they hadn't had horses. [114] We'd come in from the west over the ocean, so I traveled east on the road. [115] That much water makes me nervous, and roads have to go somewhere. [116] I came on my first travelers three hours later. [117] I rounded a tree-lined bend, ducking an overhanging branch, and pulled Ninc to a stop. [118] There were five men on horseback herding a bunch of the ugliest creatures alive. [119] They were green and grotesque. [120] They had squat bodies, long limbs and knobby bulges at their joints. [121] They had square, flat animal masks for faces. [122] But they walked on their hind legs and they had paws that were almost hands, and that was enough to make them seem almost human. [123] They made a wordless, chilling, lowing sound as they milled and plodded along. [124] I started Ninc up again and moved slowly to catch up with them. [125] All the men on horseback had guns in saddle boots. [126] They looked as nervous as cats with kittens. [127] One of them had a string of packhorses on a line and he saw me and called to another who seemed to be the leader. [128] That one wheeled his black horse and rode back toward me. [129] He was a middle-aged man, maybe as old as my Daddy. [130] He was large and he had a hard face. [131] Normal enough, but hard. [132] He pulled to a halt when we reached each other, but I kept going. [133] He had to come around and follow me. [134] I believe in judging a person by his face. [135] A man can't help the face he owns, but he can help the expression he wears on it. [136] If a man looks mean, I generally believe that he is. [137] This one looked mean. [138] That was why I kept riding. [139] He said, "What be you doing out here, boy? [140] Be you out of your head? [141] There be escaped Losels in these woods." [142] I told you I hadn't finished filling out yet, but I hadn't thought it was that bad. [143] I wasn't ready to make a fight over the point, though. [144] Generally, I can't keep my bloody mouth shut, but now I didn't say anything. [145] It seemed smart. [146] "Where be you from?" [147] he asked. [148] I pointed to the road behind us. [149] "And where be you going?" [150] I pointed ahead. [151] No other way to go. [152] He seemed exasperated. [153] I have that effect sometimes. [154] Even on Mother and Daddy, who should know better. [155] We were coming up on the others now, and the man said, "Maybe you'd better ride on from here with us. [156] For protection." [157] He had an odd way of twisting his sounds, almost as though he had a mouthful of mush. [158] I wondered whether he were just an oddball or whether everybody here spoke the same way. [159] I'd never heard International English spoken any way but one, even on the planet Daddy made me visit with him. [160] One of the other outriders came easing by then. [161] I suppose they'd been watching us all the while. [162] He called to the hard man. [163] "He be awfully small, Horst. [164] I doubt me a Losel'd even notice him at all. [165] We mought as well throw him back again." [166] The rider looked at me. [167] When I didn't dissolve in terror as he expected, he shrugged and one of the other men laughed. [168] The hard man said to the others, "This boy will be riding along with us to Forton for protection." [169] I looked down at the plodding, unhappy creatures they were driving along and one looked back at me with dull, expressionless golden eyes. [170] I felt uncomfortable. [171] I said, "I don't think so." [172] What the man did then surprised me. [173] He said, "I do think so," and reached for the rifle in his saddle boot. [174] I whipped my sonic pistol out so fast that he was caught leaning over with the rifle half out. [175] His jaw dropped. [176] He knew what I held and he didn't want to be fried. [177] I said, "Ease your rifles out and drop them gently to the ground." [178] They did, watching me all the while with wary expressions. [179] When all the rifles were on the ground, I said, "All right, let's go." [180] They didn't want to move. [181] They didn't want to leave the rifles. [182] I could see that. [183] Horst didn't say anything. [184] He just watched me with narrowed eyes. [185] But one of the others held up a hand and in wheedling tones said, "Look here, kid...." "Shut up," I said, in as mean a voice as I could muster, and he did. [186] It surprised me. [187] I didn't think I sounded that mean. [188] I decided he just didn't trust the crazy kid not to shoot. [189] After twenty minutes of easy riding for us and hard walking for the creatures, I said, "If you want your rifles, you can go back and get them now." [190] I dug my heels into Ninc's sides and rode on. [191] At the next bend I looked back and saw four of them holding their packhorses and the creatures still while one beat a dust-raising retreat down the road. [192] I put this episode in the "file and hold for analysis" section in my mind and rode on, feeling good. [193] I think I even giggled once. [194] Sometimes I even convince myself that I'm hell on wheels. [195] III When I was nine, my Daddy gave me a painted wooden doll that my great-grandmother brought from Earth. [196] The thing is that inside it, nestled one in another, are eleven more dolls, each one smaller than the last. [197] I like to watch people when they open it for the first time. [198] My face must have been like that as I rode along the road. [199] The country leveled into a great rolling valley and the trees gave way to great farms and fields. [200] In the fields, working, were some of the green creatures, which surprised me since the ones I'd seen before hadn't seemed smart enough to count to one, let alone do any work. [201] But it relieved me. [202] I thought they might have been eating them or something. [203] I passed two crossroads and started to meet more people, but nobody questioned me. [204] I met people on horseback, and twice I met trucks moving silently past. [205] And I overtook a wagon driven by the oldest man I've seen in my life. [206] He waved to me, and I waved back. [207] Near the end of the afternoon I came to the town, and there I received a jolt that sickened me. [208] By the time I came out on the other side, I was sick. [209] My hands were cold and sweaty and my head was spinning, and I wanted to kick Ninc to a gallop. [210] I rode slowly in, looking all around, missing nothing. [211] The town was all stone, wood and brick. [212] Out of date. [213] Out of time, really. [214] There were no machines more complicated than the trucks I'd seen earlier. [215] At the edge of town, I passed a newspaper office with a headline pasted in the window—INVASION! [216] I remember that. [217] I wondered about it. [218] But I looked most closely at the people. [219] In all that town, I didn't see one girl over ten years old and no grown-up women at all. [220] There were little kids, there were boys and there were men, but no girls. [221] All the boys and men wore pants, and so did I, which must have been why Horst and his buddies assumed I was a boy. [222] It wasn't flattering; but I decided I'd not tell anybody different until I found what made the clocks tick on this planet. [223] But that wasn't what bothered me. [224] It was the kids. [225] My God! [226] They swarmed. [227] I saw a family come out of a house—a father and four children. [228] It was the most foul thing I've ever seen. [229] It struck me then—these people were Free Birthers! [230] I felt a wave of nausea and I closed my eyes until it passed. [231] The first thing you learn in school is that if it weren't for idiot and criminal people like these, Earth would never have been destroyed. [232] The evacuation would never have had to take place, and eight billion people wouldn't have died. [233] There wouldn't have been eight billion people. [234] But, no. [235] They bred and they spread and they devoured everything in their path like a cancer. [236] They gobbled up all the resources that Earth had and crowded and shoved one another until the final war came. [237] I am lucky. [238] My great-great-grandparents were among those who had enough foresight to see what was coming. [239] If it hadn't been for them and some others like them, there wouldn't be any humans left anywhere. [240] And I wouldn't be here. [241] That may not scare you, but it scares me. [242] What happened before, when people didn't use their heads and wound up blowing the Solar System apart, is something nobody should forget. [243] The older people don't let us forget. [244] But these people had, and that the Council should know. [245] For the first time since I landed on Tintera, I felt really frightened. [246] There was too much going on that I didn't understand. [247] I felt a blind urge to get away, and when I reached the edge of town, I whomped Ninc a good one and gave him his head. [248] I let him run for almost a mile before I pulled him down to a walk again. [249] I couldn't help wishing for Jimmy D. Whatever else he is, he's smart and brains I needed. [250] How do you find out what's going on? [251] Eavesdrop? [252] That's a lousy method. [253] For one thing, people can't be depended on to talk about the things you want to hear. [254] For another, you're likely to get caught. [255] Ask somebody? [256] Who? [257] Make the mistake of bracing a fellow like Horst and you might wind up with a sore head and an empty pocket. [258] The best thing I could think of was to find a library, but that might be a job. [259] I'd had two bad shocks on this day, but they weren't the last. [260] In the late afternoon, when the sun was starting to sink and a cool wind was starting to ripple the tree leaves, I saw the scoutship high in the sky. [261] The dying sun colored it a deep red. [262] Back again? [263] I wondered what had gone wrong. [264] I reached down into my saddlebag and brought out my contact signal. [265] The scoutship swung up in the sky in a familiar movement calculated to drop the stomach out of everybody aboard. [266] George Fuhonin's style. [267] I triggered the signal, my heart turning flips all the while. [268] I didn't know why he was back, but I wasn't really sorry. [269] The ship swung around until it was coming back on a path almost over my head, going in the same direction. [270] Then it went into a slip and started bucking so hard that I knew this wasn't hot piloting at all, just plain idiot stutter-fingered stupidity at the controls. [271] As it skidded by me overhead, I got a good look at it and knew that it wasn't one of ours. [272] Not too different, but not ours. [273] One more enigma. [274] Where was it from? [275] Not here. [276] Even if you know how, and we wouldn't tell these Mud-eaters how, a scoutship is something that takes an advanced technology to build. [277] I felt defeated and tired. [278] Not much farther along the road, I came to a campsite with two wagons pulled in for the night, and I couldn't help but pull in myself. [279] The campsite was large and had two permanent buildings on it. [280] One was a well enclosure and the other was little more than a high-walled pen. [281] It didn't even have a roof. [282] I set up camp and ate my dinner. [283] In the wagon closest to me were a man, his wife and their three children. [284] The kids were running around and playing, and one of them ran close to the high-walled pen. [285] His father came and pulled him away. [286] The kids weren't to blame for their parents, but when one of them said hello to me, I didn't even answer. [287] I know how lousy I would feel if I had two or three brothers and sisters, but it didn't strike me until that moment that it wouldn't even seem out of the ordinary to these kids. [288] Isn't that horrible? [289] About the time I finished eating, and before it grew dark, the old man I had seen earlier in the day drove his wagon in. [290] He fascinated me. [291] He had white hair, something I had read about in stories but had never seen before. [292] When nightfall came, they started a large fire. [293] Everybody gathered around. [294] There was singing for awhile, and then the father of the children tried to pack them off to bed. [295] But they weren't ready to go, so the old man started telling them a story. [296] In the old man's odd accent, and sitting there in the campfire light surrounded by darkness, it seemed just right. [297] It was about an old witch named Baba Yaga who lived in the forest in a house that stood on chicken legs. [298] She was the nasty stepmother of a nice little girl, and to get rid of the kid, she sent her on a phony errand into the deep dark woods at nightfall. [299] I could appreciate the poor girl's position. [300] All the little girl had to help her were the handkerchief, the comb and the pearl that she had inherited from her dear dead mother. [301] But, as it turned out, they were just enough to defeat nasty old Baba Yaga and bring the girl safely home. [302] I wished for the same for myself. [303] The old man had just finished and they were starting to drag the kids off to bed when there was a commotion on the road at the edge of the camp. [304] I looked but my eyes were adjusted to the light of the fire and I couldn't see far into the dark. [305] A voice there said, "I'll be damned if I'll take another day like this one, Horst. [306] We should have been here hours ago. [307] It be your fault we're not." [308] Horst growled a retort. [309] I decided that it was time for me to leave the campfire. [310] I got up and eased away as Horst and his men came up to the fire, and cut back to where Ninc was parked. [311] I grabbed up my blankets and mattress and started to roll them up. [312] I had a pretty good idea now what they used the high-walled pen for. [313] I should have known that they would have to pen the animals up for the night. [314] I should have used my head. [315] I hadn't and now it was time to take leave. [316] I never got the chance. [317] I was just heaving the saddle up on Ninc when I felt a hand on my shoulder and I was swung around. [318] "Well, well. [319] Horst, look who we have here," he called. [320] It was the one who'd made the joke about me being beneath the notice of a Losel. [321] He was alone with me now, but with that call the others would be up fast. [322] I brought the saddle around as hard as I could and then up, and he went down. [323] He started to get up again, so I dropped the saddle on him and reached inside my jacket for my gun. [324] Somebody grabbed me then from behind and pinned my arms to my side. [325] I opened my mouth to scream—I have a good scream—but a rough smelly hand clamped down over it before I had a chance to get more than a lungful of air. [326] I bit down hard—5000 lbs. [327] psi, I'm told—but he didn't let me go. [328] I started to kick, but Horst jerked me off my feet and dragged me off. [329] When we were behind the pen and out of earshot of the fire, he stopped dragging me and dropped me in a heap. [330] "Make any noise," he said, "and I'll hurt you." [331] That was a silly way to put it, but somehow it said more than if he'd threatened to break my arm or my head. [332] It left him a latitude of things to do if he pleased. [333] He examined his hand. [334] There was enough moonlight for that. [335] "I ought to club you anyway," he said. [336] The one I'd dropped the saddle on came up then. [337] The others were putting the animals in the pen. [338] He started to kick me, but Horst stopped him. [339] "No," he said. [340] "Look through the kid's gear, bring the horse and what we can use." [341] The other one didn't move. [342] "Get going, Jack," Horst said in a menacing tone and they stood toe to toe for a long moment before Jack finally backed down. [343] It seemed to me that Horst wasn't so much objecting to me being kicked, but was rather establishing who did the kicking in his bunch. [344] But I wasn't done yet. [345] I was scared, but I still had the pistol under my jacket. [346] Horst turned back to me and I said, "You can't do this and get away with it." [347] He said, "Look, boy. [348] You may not know it, but you be in a lot of trouble. [349] So don't give me a hard time." [350] He still thought I was a boy. [351] It was not time to correct him, but I didn't like to see the point go unchallenged. [352] It was unflattering. [353] "The courts won't let you get away with this," I said. [354] I'd passed a courthouse in the town with a carved motto over the doors: EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW or TRUTH OUR SHIELD AND JUSTICE OUR SWORD or something stuffy like that. [355] He laughed, not a phony, villian-type laugh, but a real laugh, so I knew I'd goofed. [356] "Boy, boy. [357] Don't talk about the courts. [358] I be doing you a favor. [359] I be taking what I can use of your gear, but I be letting you go. [360] You go to court and they'll take everything and lock you up besides. [361] I be leaving you your freedom." [362] "Why would they be doing that?" [363] I asked. [364] I slipped my hand under my jacket. [365] "Every time you open your mouth you shout that you be off one of the Ships," Horst said. [366] "That be enough. [367] They already have one of you brats in jail in Forton." [368] I was about to bring my gun out when up came Jack leading Ninc, with all my stuff loaded on. [369] I mentally thanked him. [370] He said, "The kid's got some good equipment. [371] But I can't make out what this be for." [372] He held out my pickup signal. [373] Horst looked at it, then handed it back. [374] "Throw it away," he said. [375] I leveled my gun at them—Hell on Wheels strikes again! [376] I said, "Hand that over to me." [377] Horst made a disgusted sound. [378] "Don't make any noise," I said, "or you'll fry. [379] Now hand it over." [380] I stowed it away, then paused with one hand on the leather horn of the saddle. [381] "What's the name of the kid in jail in Forton." [382] "I can't remember," he said. [383] "But it be coming to me. [384] Hold on." [385] I waited. [386] Then suddenly my arm was hit a numbing blow from behind and the gun went flying. [387] Jack pounced after it and Horst said, "Good enough," to the others who'd come up behind me. [388] I felt like a fool. [389] Horst stalked over and got the signal. [390] He dropped it on the ground and said in a voice far colder than mine could ever be, because it was natural and mine wasn't, "The piece be yours." [391] Then he tromped on it until it cracked and fell apart. [392] Then he said, "Pull a gun on me twice. [393] Twice." [394] He slapped me so hard that my ears rang. [395] "You dirty little punk." [396] I said calmly, "You big louse." [397] It was a time I would have done better to keep my mouth shut. [398] All I can remember is a flash of pain as his fist crunched against the side of my face and then nothing. [399] Brains are no good if you don't use them.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What was Mia taught about Earth being destroyed?": 1. [231] The first thing you learn in school is that if it weren't for idiot and criminal people like these, Earth would never have been destroyed. 2. [232] The evacuation would never have had to take place, and eight billion people wouldn't have died. 3. [233] There wouldn't have been eight billion people. 4. [234] But, no. 5. [235] They bred and they spread and they devoured everything in their path like a cancer. 6. [236] They gobbled up all the resources that Earth had and crowded and shoved one another until the final war came. 7. [237] I am lucky. 8. [238] My great-great-grandparents were among those who had enough foresight to see what was coming. 9. [239] If it hadn't been for them and some others like them, there wouldn't be any humans left anywhere. 10. [240] And I wouldn't be here. 11. [241] That may not scare you, but it scares me. 12. [242] What happened before, when people didn't use their heads and wound up blowing the Solar System apart, is something nobody should forget. 13. [243] The older people don't let us forget. 14. [244] But these people had, and that the Council should know. 15. [1] The ancient rule was sink or swim—swim in the miasma of a planet without spaceflight, or sink to utter destruction! 16. [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1963.] 17. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 18. [4] I The horses and packs were loaded before we went aboard the scoutship. 19. [5] The scout bay is no more than a great oversized airlock with a dozen small ships squatting over their tubes, but it was the last of the Ship that I might ever see, so I took a long final look from the top of the ramp. 20. [6] There were sixteen of us girls and thirteen boys. 21. [7] We took our places in the seats in the center of the scout. 22. [8] Riggy Allen made a joke that nobody bothered to laugh at, and then we were all silent. 23. [9] I was feeling lost and just beginning to enjoy it when Jimmy Dentremont came over to me. 24. [10] He's red-headed and has a face that makes him look about ten. 25. [11] An intelligent runt like me. 26. [12] He said what I expected. 27. [13] "Mia, do you want to go partners if we can get together when we get down?" 28. [14] I guess he thought that because we were always matched on study I liked him. 29. [15] Well, I did when I wasn't mad at him, but now I had that crack he'd made about being a snob in mind, so I said, "Not likely. 30. [16] I want to come back alive." 31. [17] It wasn't fair, but it was a good crack and he went back to his place without saying anything. 32. [18] My name is Mia Havero. 33. [19] I'm fourteen, of course, or I wouldn't be telling this. 34. [20] I'm short, dark and scrawny, though I don't expect that scrawniness to last much longer. 35. [21] Mother is very good looking. 36. [22] In the meantime, I've got brains as a consolation. 37. [23] After we were all settled, George Fuhonin, the pilot, raised the ramps. 38. [24] We sat there for five minutes while they bled air out of our tube and then we just ... dropped. 39. [25] My stomach turned flips. 40. [26] We didn't have to leave that way, but George thinks it's fun to be a hot pilot. 41. [27] Thinking it over, I was almost sorry I'd been stinking to Jimmy D. He's the only competition I have my own age. 42. [28] The trouble is, you don't go partners with the competition, do you? 43. [29] Besides, there was still that crack about being a snob. 44. [30] The planet chosen for our Trial was called Tintera. 45. [31] The last contact the Ship had had with it—and we were the ones who dropped them—was almost 150 years ago. 46. [32] No contact since. 47. [33] That had made the Council debate a little before they dropped us there, but they decided it was all right in the end. 48. [34] It didn't make any practical difference to us kids because they never tell you anything about the place they're going to drop you. 49. [35] All I knew was the name. 50. [36] I wouldn't have known that much if Daddy weren't Chairman of the Council. 51. [37] I felt like crawling in a corner of the ship and crying, but nobody else was breaking down, so I didn't. 52. [38] I did feel miserable. 53. [39] I cried when I said good-by to Mother and Daddy—a real emotional scene—but that wasn't in public. 54. [40] It wasn't the chance of not coming back that bothered me really, because I never believed that I wouldn't. 55. [41] The thought that made me unhappy was that I would have to be on a planet for a whole month. 56. [42] Planets make me feel wretched. 57. [43] The gravity is always wrong, for one thing. 58. [44] Either your arches and calves ache or every time you step you think you're going to trip on a piece of fluff and break your neck. 59. [45] There are vegetables everywhere and little grubby things just looking for you to crawl on. 60. [46] If you can think of anything creepier than that, you've got a real nasty imagination. 61. [47] Worst of all, planets stink. 62. [48] Every single one smells—I've been on enough to know that. 63. [49] A planet is all right for a Mud-eater, but not for me. 64. [50] We have a place in the Ship like that—the Third Level—but it's only a thousand square miles and any time it gets on your nerves you can go up a level or down a level and be back in civilization. 65. [51] When we reached Tintera, they started dropping us. 66. [52] We swung over the sea from the morning side and then dropped low over gray-green forested hills. 67. [53] Finally George spotted a clear area and dropped into it. 68. [54] They don't care what order you go in, so Jimmy D. jumped up, grabbed his gear and then led his horse down the ramp. 69. [55] I think he was still smarting from the slap I'd given him. 70. [56] In a minute we were airborne again. 71. [57] I wondered if I would ever see Jimmy—if he would get back alive. 72. [58] It's no game we play. 73. [59] When we turn fourteen, they drop us on the nearest colonized planet and come back one month later. 74. [60] That may sound like fun to you, but a lot of us never come back alive. 75. [61] Don't think I was helpless. 76. [62] I'm hell on wheels. 77. [63] They don't let us grow for fourteen years and then kick us out to die. 78. [64] They prepare us. 79. [65] They do figure, though, that if you can't keep yourself alive by the time you're fourteen, you're too stupid, foolish or unlucky to be any use to the Ship. 80. [66] There's sense behind it. 81. [67] It means that everybody on the Ship is a person who can take care of himself if he has to. 82. [68] Daddy says that something has to be done in a closed society to keep the population from decaying mentally and physically, and this is it. 83. [69] And it helps to keep the population steady.

What about the planet Tintera does Mia note is different than what she is used to?

[1] DOWN TO THE WORLDS OF MEN BY ALEXEI PANSHIN The ancient rule was sink or swim—swim in the miasma of a planet without spaceflight, or sink to utter destruction! [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1963. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] I The horses and packs were loaded before we went aboard the scoutship. [5] The scout bay is no more than a great oversized airlock with a dozen small ships squatting over their tubes, but it was the last of the Ship that I might ever see, so I took a long final look from the top of the ramp. [6] There were sixteen of us girls and thirteen boys. [7] We took our places in the seats in the center of the scout. [8] Riggy Allen made a joke that nobody bothered to laugh at, and then we were all silent. [9] I was feeling lost and just beginning to enjoy it when Jimmy Dentremont came over to me. [10] He's red-headed and has a face that makes him look about ten. [11] An intelligent runt like me. [12] He said what I expected. [13] "Mia, do you want to go partners if we can get together when we get down?" [14] I guess he thought that because we were always matched on study I liked him. [15] Well, I did when I wasn't mad at him, but now I had that crack he'd made about being a snob in mind, so I said, "Not likely. [16] I want to come back alive." [17] It wasn't fair, but it was a good crack and he went back to his place without saying anything. [18] My name is Mia Havero. [19] I'm fourteen, of course, or I wouldn't be telling this. [20] I'm short, dark and scrawny, though I don't expect that scrawniness to last much longer. [21] Mother is very good looking. [22] In the meantime, I've got brains as a consolation. [23] After we were all settled, George Fuhonin, the pilot, raised the ramps. [24] We sat there for five minutes while they bled air out of our tube and then we just ... dropped. [25] My stomach turned flips. [26] We didn't have to leave that way, but George thinks it's fun to be a hot pilot. [27] Thinking it over, I was almost sorry I'd been stinking to Jimmy D. He's the only competition I have my own age. [28] The trouble is, you don't go partners with the competition, do you? [29] Besides, there was still that crack about being a snob. [30] The planet chosen for our Trial was called Tintera. [31] The last contact the Ship had had with it—and we were the ones who dropped them—was almost 150 years ago. [32] No contact since. [33] That had made the Council debate a little before they dropped us there, but they decided it was all right in the end. [34] It didn't make any practical difference to us kids because they never tell you anything about the place they're going to drop you. [35] All I knew was the name. [36] I wouldn't have known that much if Daddy weren't Chairman of the Council. [37] I felt like crawling in a corner of the ship and crying, but nobody else was breaking down, so I didn't. [38] I did feel miserable. [39] I cried when I said good-by to Mother and Daddy—a real emotional scene—but that wasn't in public. [40] It wasn't the chance of not coming back that bothered me really, because I never believed that I wouldn't. [41] The thought that made me unhappy was that I would have to be on a planet for a whole month. [42] Planets make me feel wretched. [43] The gravity is always wrong, for one thing. [44] Either your arches and calves ache or every time you step you think you're going to trip on a piece of fluff and break your neck. [45] There are vegetables everywhere and little grubby things just looking for you to crawl on. [46] If you can think of anything creepier than that, you've got a real nasty imagination. [47] Worst of all, planets stink. [48] Every single one smells—I've been on enough to know that. [49] A planet is all right for a Mud-eater, but not for me. [50] We have a place in the Ship like that—the Third Level—but it's only a thousand square miles and any time it gets on your nerves you can go up a level or down a level and be back in civilization. [51] When we reached Tintera, they started dropping us. [52] We swung over the sea from the morning side and then dropped low over gray-green forested hills. [53] Finally George spotted a clear area and dropped into it. [54] They don't care what order you go in, so Jimmy D. jumped up, grabbed his gear and then led his horse down the ramp. [55] I think he was still smarting from the slap I'd given him. [56] In a minute we were airborne again. [57] I wondered if I would ever see Jimmy—if he would get back alive. [58] It's no game we play. [59] When we turn fourteen, they drop us on the nearest colonized planet and come back one month later. [60] That may sound like fun to you, but a lot of us never come back alive. [61] Don't think I was helpless. [62] I'm hell on wheels. [63] They don't let us grow for fourteen years and then kick us out to die. [64] They prepare us. [65] They do figure, though, that if you can't keep yourself alive by the time you're fourteen, you're too stupid, foolish or unlucky to be any use to the Ship. [66] There's sense behind it. [67] It means that everybody on the Ship is a person who can take care of himself if he has to. [68] Daddy says that something has to be done in a closed society to keep the population from decaying mentally and physically, and this is it. [69] And it helps to keep the population steady. [70] I began to check my gear out—sonic pistol, pickup signal so I could be found at the end of the month, saddle and cinches, food and clothes. [71] Venie Morlock has got a crush on Jimmy D., and when she saw me start getting ready to go, she began to check her gear, too. [72] At our next landing, I grabbed Ninc's reins and cut Venie out smoothly. [73] It didn't have anything to do with Jimmy. [74] I just couldn't stand to put off the bad moment any longer. [75] The ship lifted impersonally away from Ninc and me like a rising bird, and in just a moment it was gone. [76] Its gray-blue color was almost the color of the half-overcast sky, so I was never sure when I saw it last. [77] II The first night was hell, I guess because I'm not used to having the lights out. [78] That's when you really start to feel lonely, being alone in the dark. [79] When the sun disappears, somehow you wonder in your stomach if it's really going to come back. [80] But I lived through it—one day in thirty gone. [81] I rode in a spiral search pattern during the next two days. [82] I had three things in mind—stay alive, find people and find some of the others. [83] The first was automatic. [84] The second was to find out if there was a slot I could fit into for a month. [85] If not, I would have to find a place to camp out, as nasty as that would be. [86] The third was to join forces, though not with that meatball Jimmy D. No, he isn't really a meatball. [87] The trouble is that I don't take nothing from nobody, especially him, and he doesn't take nothing from nobody, especially me. [88] So we do a lot of fighting. [89] I had a good month for Trial. [90] My birthday is in November—too close to Year End Holiday for my taste, but this year it was all right. [91] It was spring on Tintera, but it was December in the Ship, and after we got back we had five days of Holiday to celebrate. [92] It gave me something to look forward to. [93] In two days of riding, I ran onto nothing but a few odd-looking animals. [94] I shot one small one and ate it. [95] It turned out to taste pretty good, though not as good as a slice from Hambone No. [96] 4, to my mind the best meat vat on the Ship. [97] I've eaten things so gruey-looking that I wondered that anybody had the guts to try them in the first place and they've turned out to taste good. [98] And I've seen things that looked good that I couldn't keep on my stomach. [99] So I guess I was lucky. [100] On the third day, I found the road. [101] I brought Ninc down off the hillside, losing sight of the road in the trees, and then reaching it in the level below. [102] It was narrow and made of sand spread over a hard base. [103] Out of the marks in the sand, I could pick out the tracks of horses and both narrow and wide wheels. [104] Other tracks I couldn't identify. [105] One of the smartest moves in history was to include horses when they dropped the colonies. [106] I say "they" because, while we did the actual dropping, the idea originated with the whole evac plan back on Earth. [107] Considering how short a time it was in which the colonies were established, there was not time to set up industry, so they had to have draft animals. [108] The first of the Great Ships was finished in 2025. [109] One of the eight, as well as the two that were being built then, went up with everything else in the Solar System in 2041. [110] In that sixteen years 112 colonies were planted. [111] I don't know how many of those planets had animals that could have been substituted but, even if they had, they would have had to be domesticated from scratch. [112] That would have been stupid. [113] I'll bet that half the colonies would have failed if they hadn't had horses. [114] We'd come in from the west over the ocean, so I traveled east on the road. [115] That much water makes me nervous, and roads have to go somewhere. [116] I came on my first travelers three hours later. [117] I rounded a tree-lined bend, ducking an overhanging branch, and pulled Ninc to a stop. [118] There were five men on horseback herding a bunch of the ugliest creatures alive. [119] They were green and grotesque. [120] They had squat bodies, long limbs and knobby bulges at their joints. [121] They had square, flat animal masks for faces. [122] But they walked on their hind legs and they had paws that were almost hands, and that was enough to make them seem almost human. [123] They made a wordless, chilling, lowing sound as they milled and plodded along. [124] I started Ninc up again and moved slowly to catch up with them. [125] All the men on horseback had guns in saddle boots. [126] They looked as nervous as cats with kittens. [127] One of them had a string of packhorses on a line and he saw me and called to another who seemed to be the leader. [128] That one wheeled his black horse and rode back toward me. [129] He was a middle-aged man, maybe as old as my Daddy. [130] He was large and he had a hard face. [131] Normal enough, but hard. [132] He pulled to a halt when we reached each other, but I kept going. [133] He had to come around and follow me. [134] I believe in judging a person by his face. [135] A man can't help the face he owns, but he can help the expression he wears on it. [136] If a man looks mean, I generally believe that he is. [137] This one looked mean. [138] That was why I kept riding. [139] He said, "What be you doing out here, boy? [140] Be you out of your head? [141] There be escaped Losels in these woods." [142] I told you I hadn't finished filling out yet, but I hadn't thought it was that bad. [143] I wasn't ready to make a fight over the point, though. [144] Generally, I can't keep my bloody mouth shut, but now I didn't say anything. [145] It seemed smart. [146] "Where be you from?" [147] he asked. [148] I pointed to the road behind us. [149] "And where be you going?" [150] I pointed ahead. [151] No other way to go. [152] He seemed exasperated. [153] I have that effect sometimes. [154] Even on Mother and Daddy, who should know better. [155] We were coming up on the others now, and the man said, "Maybe you'd better ride on from here with us. [156] For protection." [157] He had an odd way of twisting his sounds, almost as though he had a mouthful of mush. [158] I wondered whether he were just an oddball or whether everybody here spoke the same way. [159] I'd never heard International English spoken any way but one, even on the planet Daddy made me visit with him. [160] One of the other outriders came easing by then. [161] I suppose they'd been watching us all the while. [162] He called to the hard man. [163] "He be awfully small, Horst. [164] I doubt me a Losel'd even notice him at all. [165] We mought as well throw him back again." [166] The rider looked at me. [167] When I didn't dissolve in terror as he expected, he shrugged and one of the other men laughed. [168] The hard man said to the others, "This boy will be riding along with us to Forton for protection." [169] I looked down at the plodding, unhappy creatures they were driving along and one looked back at me with dull, expressionless golden eyes. [170] I felt uncomfortable. [171] I said, "I don't think so." [172] What the man did then surprised me. [173] He said, "I do think so," and reached for the rifle in his saddle boot. [174] I whipped my sonic pistol out so fast that he was caught leaning over with the rifle half out. [175] His jaw dropped. [176] He knew what I held and he didn't want to be fried. [177] I said, "Ease your rifles out and drop them gently to the ground." [178] They did, watching me all the while with wary expressions. [179] When all the rifles were on the ground, I said, "All right, let's go." [180] They didn't want to move. [181] They didn't want to leave the rifles. [182] I could see that. [183] Horst didn't say anything. [184] He just watched me with narrowed eyes. [185] But one of the others held up a hand and in wheedling tones said, "Look here, kid...." "Shut up," I said, in as mean a voice as I could muster, and he did. [186] It surprised me. [187] I didn't think I sounded that mean. [188] I decided he just didn't trust the crazy kid not to shoot. [189] After twenty minutes of easy riding for us and hard walking for the creatures, I said, "If you want your rifles, you can go back and get them now." [190] I dug my heels into Ninc's sides and rode on. [191] At the next bend I looked back and saw four of them holding their packhorses and the creatures still while one beat a dust-raising retreat down the road. [192] I put this episode in the "file and hold for analysis" section in my mind and rode on, feeling good. [193] I think I even giggled once. [194] Sometimes I even convince myself that I'm hell on wheels. [195] III When I was nine, my Daddy gave me a painted wooden doll that my great-grandmother brought from Earth. [196] The thing is that inside it, nestled one in another, are eleven more dolls, each one smaller than the last. [197] I like to watch people when they open it for the first time. [198] My face must have been like that as I rode along the road. [199] The country leveled into a great rolling valley and the trees gave way to great farms and fields. [200] In the fields, working, were some of the green creatures, which surprised me since the ones I'd seen before hadn't seemed smart enough to count to one, let alone do any work. [201] But it relieved me. [202] I thought they might have been eating them or something. [203] I passed two crossroads and started to meet more people, but nobody questioned me. [204] I met people on horseback, and twice I met trucks moving silently past. [205] And I overtook a wagon driven by the oldest man I've seen in my life. [206] He waved to me, and I waved back. [207] Near the end of the afternoon I came to the town, and there I received a jolt that sickened me. [208] By the time I came out on the other side, I was sick. [209] My hands were cold and sweaty and my head was spinning, and I wanted to kick Ninc to a gallop. [210] I rode slowly in, looking all around, missing nothing. [211] The town was all stone, wood and brick. [212] Out of date. [213] Out of time, really. [214] There were no machines more complicated than the trucks I'd seen earlier. [215] At the edge of town, I passed a newspaper office with a headline pasted in the window—INVASION! [216] I remember that. [217] I wondered about it. [218] But I looked most closely at the people. [219] In all that town, I didn't see one girl over ten years old and no grown-up women at all. [220] There were little kids, there were boys and there were men, but no girls. [221] All the boys and men wore pants, and so did I, which must have been why Horst and his buddies assumed I was a boy. [222] It wasn't flattering; but I decided I'd not tell anybody different until I found what made the clocks tick on this planet. [223] But that wasn't what bothered me. [224] It was the kids. [225] My God! [226] They swarmed. [227] I saw a family come out of a house—a father and four children. [228] It was the most foul thing I've ever seen. [229] It struck me then—these people were Free Birthers! [230] I felt a wave of nausea and I closed my eyes until it passed. [231] The first thing you learn in school is that if it weren't for idiot and criminal people like these, Earth would never have been destroyed. [232] The evacuation would never have had to take place, and eight billion people wouldn't have died. [233] There wouldn't have been eight billion people. [234] But, no. [235] They bred and they spread and they devoured everything in their path like a cancer. [236] They gobbled up all the resources that Earth had and crowded and shoved one another until the final war came. [237] I am lucky. [238] My great-great-grandparents were among those who had enough foresight to see what was coming. [239] If it hadn't been for them and some others like them, there wouldn't be any humans left anywhere. [240] And I wouldn't be here. [241] That may not scare you, but it scares me. [242] What happened before, when people didn't use their heads and wound up blowing the Solar System apart, is something nobody should forget. [243] The older people don't let us forget. [244] But these people had, and that the Council should know. [245] For the first time since I landed on Tintera, I felt really frightened. [246] There was too much going on that I didn't understand. [247] I felt a blind urge to get away, and when I reached the edge of town, I whomped Ninc a good one and gave him his head. [248] I let him run for almost a mile before I pulled him down to a walk again. [249] I couldn't help wishing for Jimmy D. Whatever else he is, he's smart and brains I needed. [250] How do you find out what's going on? [251] Eavesdrop? [252] That's a lousy method. [253] For one thing, people can't be depended on to talk about the things you want to hear. [254] For another, you're likely to get caught. [255] Ask somebody? [256] Who? [257] Make the mistake of bracing a fellow like Horst and you might wind up with a sore head and an empty pocket. [258] The best thing I could think of was to find a library, but that might be a job. [259] I'd had two bad shocks on this day, but they weren't the last. [260] In the late afternoon, when the sun was starting to sink and a cool wind was starting to ripple the tree leaves, I saw the scoutship high in the sky. [261] The dying sun colored it a deep red. [262] Back again? [263] I wondered what had gone wrong. [264] I reached down into my saddlebag and brought out my contact signal. [265] The scoutship swung up in the sky in a familiar movement calculated to drop the stomach out of everybody aboard. [266] George Fuhonin's style. [267] I triggered the signal, my heart turning flips all the while. [268] I didn't know why he was back, but I wasn't really sorry. [269] The ship swung around until it was coming back on a path almost over my head, going in the same direction. [270] Then it went into a slip and started bucking so hard that I knew this wasn't hot piloting at all, just plain idiot stutter-fingered stupidity at the controls. [271] As it skidded by me overhead, I got a good look at it and knew that it wasn't one of ours. [272] Not too different, but not ours. [273] One more enigma. [274] Where was it from? [275] Not here. [276] Even if you know how, and we wouldn't tell these Mud-eaters how, a scoutship is something that takes an advanced technology to build. [277] I felt defeated and tired. [278] Not much farther along the road, I came to a campsite with two wagons pulled in for the night, and I couldn't help but pull in myself. [279] The campsite was large and had two permanent buildings on it. [280] One was a well enclosure and the other was little more than a high-walled pen. [281] It didn't even have a roof. [282] I set up camp and ate my dinner. [283] In the wagon closest to me were a man, his wife and their three children. [284] The kids were running around and playing, and one of them ran close to the high-walled pen. [285] His father came and pulled him away. [286] The kids weren't to blame for their parents, but when one of them said hello to me, I didn't even answer. [287] I know how lousy I would feel if I had two or three brothers and sisters, but it didn't strike me until that moment that it wouldn't even seem out of the ordinary to these kids. [288] Isn't that horrible? [289] About the time I finished eating, and before it grew dark, the old man I had seen earlier in the day drove his wagon in. [290] He fascinated me. [291] He had white hair, something I had read about in stories but had never seen before. [292] When nightfall came, they started a large fire. [293] Everybody gathered around. [294] There was singing for awhile, and then the father of the children tried to pack them off to bed. [295] But they weren't ready to go, so the old man started telling them a story. [296] In the old man's odd accent, and sitting there in the campfire light surrounded by darkness, it seemed just right. [297] It was about an old witch named Baba Yaga who lived in the forest in a house that stood on chicken legs. [298] She was the nasty stepmother of a nice little girl, and to get rid of the kid, she sent her on a phony errand into the deep dark woods at nightfall. [299] I could appreciate the poor girl's position. [300] All the little girl had to help her were the handkerchief, the comb and the pearl that she had inherited from her dear dead mother. [301] But, as it turned out, they were just enough to defeat nasty old Baba Yaga and bring the girl safely home. [302] I wished for the same for myself. [303] The old man had just finished and they were starting to drag the kids off to bed when there was a commotion on the road at the edge of the camp. [304] I looked but my eyes were adjusted to the light of the fire and I couldn't see far into the dark. [305] A voice there said, "I'll be damned if I'll take another day like this one, Horst. [306] We should have been here hours ago. [307] It be your fault we're not." [308] Horst growled a retort. [309] I decided that it was time for me to leave the campfire. [310] I got up and eased away as Horst and his men came up to the fire, and cut back to where Ninc was parked. [311] I grabbed up my blankets and mattress and started to roll them up. [312] I had a pretty good idea now what they used the high-walled pen for. [313] I should have known that they would have to pen the animals up for the night. [314] I should have used my head. [315] I hadn't and now it was time to take leave. [316] I never got the chance. [317] I was just heaving the saddle up on Ninc when I felt a hand on my shoulder and I was swung around. [318] "Well, well. [319] Horst, look who we have here," he called. [320] It was the one who'd made the joke about me being beneath the notice of a Losel. [321] He was alone with me now, but with that call the others would be up fast. [322] I brought the saddle around as hard as I could and then up, and he went down. [323] He started to get up again, so I dropped the saddle on him and reached inside my jacket for my gun. [324] Somebody grabbed me then from behind and pinned my arms to my side. [325] I opened my mouth to scream—I have a good scream—but a rough smelly hand clamped down over it before I had a chance to get more than a lungful of air. [326] I bit down hard—5000 lbs. [327] psi, I'm told—but he didn't let me go. [328] I started to kick, but Horst jerked me off my feet and dragged me off. [329] When we were behind the pen and out of earshot of the fire, he stopped dragging me and dropped me in a heap. [330] "Make any noise," he said, "and I'll hurt you." [331] That was a silly way to put it, but somehow it said more than if he'd threatened to break my arm or my head. [332] It left him a latitude of things to do if he pleased. [333] He examined his hand. [334] There was enough moonlight for that. [335] "I ought to club you anyway," he said. [336] The one I'd dropped the saddle on came up then. [337] The others were putting the animals in the pen. [338] He started to kick me, but Horst stopped him. [339] "No," he said. [340] "Look through the kid's gear, bring the horse and what we can use." [341] The other one didn't move. [342] "Get going, Jack," Horst said in a menacing tone and they stood toe to toe for a long moment before Jack finally backed down. [343] It seemed to me that Horst wasn't so much objecting to me being kicked, but was rather establishing who did the kicking in his bunch. [344] But I wasn't done yet. [345] I was scared, but I still had the pistol under my jacket. [346] Horst turned back to me and I said, "You can't do this and get away with it." [347] He said, "Look, boy. [348] You may not know it, but you be in a lot of trouble. [349] So don't give me a hard time." [350] He still thought I was a boy. [351] It was not time to correct him, but I didn't like to see the point go unchallenged. [352] It was unflattering. [353] "The courts won't let you get away with this," I said. [354] I'd passed a courthouse in the town with a carved motto over the doors: EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW or TRUTH OUR SHIELD AND JUSTICE OUR SWORD or something stuffy like that. [355] He laughed, not a phony, villian-type laugh, but a real laugh, so I knew I'd goofed. [356] "Boy, boy. [357] Don't talk about the courts. [358] I be doing you a favor. [359] I be taking what I can use of your gear, but I be letting you go. [360] You go to court and they'll take everything and lock you up besides. [361] I be leaving you your freedom." [362] "Why would they be doing that?" [363] I asked. [364] I slipped my hand under my jacket. [365] "Every time you open your mouth you shout that you be off one of the Ships," Horst said. [366] "That be enough. [367] They already have one of you brats in jail in Forton." [368] I was about to bring my gun out when up came Jack leading Ninc, with all my stuff loaded on. [369] I mentally thanked him. [370] He said, "The kid's got some good equipment. [371] But I can't make out what this be for." [372] He held out my pickup signal. [373] Horst looked at it, then handed it back. [374] "Throw it away," he said. [375] I leveled my gun at them—Hell on Wheels strikes again! [376] I said, "Hand that over to me." [377] Horst made a disgusted sound. [378] "Don't make any noise," I said, "or you'll fry. [379] Now hand it over." [380] I stowed it away, then paused with one hand on the leather horn of the saddle. [381] "What's the name of the kid in jail in Forton." [382] "I can't remember," he said. [383] "But it be coming to me. [384] Hold on." [385] I waited. [386] Then suddenly my arm was hit a numbing blow from behind and the gun went flying. [387] Jack pounced after it and Horst said, "Good enough," to the others who'd come up behind me. [388] I felt like a fool. [389] Horst stalked over and got the signal. [390] He dropped it on the ground and said in a voice far colder than mine could ever be, because it was natural and mine wasn't, "The piece be yours." [391] Then he tromped on it until it cracked and fell apart. [392] Then he said, "Pull a gun on me twice. [393] Twice." [394] He slapped me so hard that my ears rang. [395] "You dirty little punk." [396] I said calmly, "You big louse." [397] It was a time I would have done better to keep my mouth shut. [398] All I can remember is a flash of pain as his fist crunched against the side of my face and then nothing. [399] Brains are no good if you don't use them.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question: 1. [30] The planet chosen for our Trial was called Tintera. 2. [42] Planets make me feel wretched. 3. [43] The gravity is always wrong, for one thing. 4. [44] Either your arches and calves ache or every time you step you think you're going to trip on a piece of fluff and break your neck. 5. [45] There are vegetables everywhere and little grubby things just looking for you to crawl on. 6. [46] If you can think of anything creepier than that, you've got a real nasty imagination. 7. [47] Worst of all, planets stink. 8. [48] Every single one smells—I've been on enough to know that. 9. [49] A planet is all right for a Mud-eater, but not for me. 10. [51] When we reached Tintera, they started dropping us. 11. [52] We swung over the sea from the morning side and then dropped low over gray-green forested hills. 12. [53] Finally George spotted a clear area and dropped into it. 13. [169] I felt uncomfortable. 14. [200] In the fields, working, were some of the green creatures, which surprised me since the ones I'd seen before hadn't seemed smart enough to count to one, let alone do any work. 15. [201] But it relieved me. 16. [202] I thought they might have been eating them or something. 17. [207] Near the end of the afternoon I came to the town, and there I received a jolt that sickened me. 18. [208] By the time I came out on the other side, I was sick. 19. [209] My hands were cold and sweaty and my head was spinning, and I wanted to kick Ninc to a gallop. 20. [210] I rode slowly in, looking all around, missing nothing. 21. [211] The town was all stone, wood and brick. 22. [212] Out of date. 23. [213] Out of time, really. 24. [214] There were no machines more complicated than the trucks I'd seen earlier. 25. [215] At the edge of town, I passed a newspaper office with a headline pasted in the window—INVASION! 26. [216] I remember that. 27. [217] I wondered about it. 28. [218] But I looked most closely at the people. 29. [219] In all that town, I didn't see one girl over ten years old and no grown-up women at all. 30. [220] There were little kids, there were boys and there were men, but no girls. 31. [221] All the boys and men wore pants, and so did I, which must have been why Horst and his buddies assumed I was a boy. 32. [222] It wasn't flattering; but I decided I'd not tell anybody different until I found what made the clocks tick on this planet. 33. [223] But that wasn't what bothered me. 34. [224] It was the kids. 35. [225] My God! 36. [226] They swarmed. 37. [227] I saw a family come out of a house—a father and four children. 38. [228] It was the most foul thing I've ever seen. 39. [229] It struck me then—these people were Free Birthers! 40. [230] I felt a wave of nausea and I closed my eyes until it passed. 41. [231] The first thing you learn in school is that if it weren't for idiot and criminal people like these, Earth would never have been destroyed. 42. [232] The evacuation would never have had to take place, and eight billion people wouldn't have died. 43. [233] There wouldn't have been eight billion people. 44. [234] But, no. 45. [235] They bred and they spread and they devoured everything in their path like a cancer. 46. [236] They gobbled up all the resources that Earth had and crowded and shoved one another until the final war came.

What happens at fourteen for the inhabitants of the Ship and why?

[1] DOWN TO THE WORLDS OF MEN BY ALEXEI PANSHIN The ancient rule was sink or swim—swim in the miasma of a planet without spaceflight, or sink to utter destruction! [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1963. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] I The horses and packs were loaded before we went aboard the scoutship. [5] The scout bay is no more than a great oversized airlock with a dozen small ships squatting over their tubes, but it was the last of the Ship that I might ever see, so I took a long final look from the top of the ramp. [6] There were sixteen of us girls and thirteen boys. [7] We took our places in the seats in the center of the scout. [8] Riggy Allen made a joke that nobody bothered to laugh at, and then we were all silent. [9] I was feeling lost and just beginning to enjoy it when Jimmy Dentremont came over to me. [10] He's red-headed and has a face that makes him look about ten. [11] An intelligent runt like me. [12] He said what I expected. [13] "Mia, do you want to go partners if we can get together when we get down?" [14] I guess he thought that because we were always matched on study I liked him. [15] Well, I did when I wasn't mad at him, but now I had that crack he'd made about being a snob in mind, so I said, "Not likely. [16] I want to come back alive." [17] It wasn't fair, but it was a good crack and he went back to his place without saying anything. [18] My name is Mia Havero. [19] I'm fourteen, of course, or I wouldn't be telling this. [20] I'm short, dark and scrawny, though I don't expect that scrawniness to last much longer. [21] Mother is very good looking. [22] In the meantime, I've got brains as a consolation. [23] After we were all settled, George Fuhonin, the pilot, raised the ramps. [24] We sat there for five minutes while they bled air out of our tube and then we just ... dropped. [25] My stomach turned flips. [26] We didn't have to leave that way, but George thinks it's fun to be a hot pilot. [27] Thinking it over, I was almost sorry I'd been stinking to Jimmy D. He's the only competition I have my own age. [28] The trouble is, you don't go partners with the competition, do you? [29] Besides, there was still that crack about being a snob. [30] The planet chosen for our Trial was called Tintera. [31] The last contact the Ship had had with it—and we were the ones who dropped them—was almost 150 years ago. [32] No contact since. [33] That had made the Council debate a little before they dropped us there, but they decided it was all right in the end. [34] It didn't make any practical difference to us kids because they never tell you anything about the place they're going to drop you. [35] All I knew was the name. [36] I wouldn't have known that much if Daddy weren't Chairman of the Council. [37] I felt like crawling in a corner of the ship and crying, but nobody else was breaking down, so I didn't. [38] I did feel miserable. [39] I cried when I said good-by to Mother and Daddy—a real emotional scene—but that wasn't in public. [40] It wasn't the chance of not coming back that bothered me really, because I never believed that I wouldn't. [41] The thought that made me unhappy was that I would have to be on a planet for a whole month. [42] Planets make me feel wretched. [43] The gravity is always wrong, for one thing. [44] Either your arches and calves ache or every time you step you think you're going to trip on a piece of fluff and break your neck. [45] There are vegetables everywhere and little grubby things just looking for you to crawl on. [46] If you can think of anything creepier than that, you've got a real nasty imagination. [47] Worst of all, planets stink. [48] Every single one smells—I've been on enough to know that. [49] A planet is all right for a Mud-eater, but not for me. [50] We have a place in the Ship like that—the Third Level—but it's only a thousand square miles and any time it gets on your nerves you can go up a level or down a level and be back in civilization. [51] When we reached Tintera, they started dropping us. [52] We swung over the sea from the morning side and then dropped low over gray-green forested hills. [53] Finally George spotted a clear area and dropped into it. [54] They don't care what order you go in, so Jimmy D. jumped up, grabbed his gear and then led his horse down the ramp. [55] I think he was still smarting from the slap I'd given him. [56] In a minute we were airborne again. [57] I wondered if I would ever see Jimmy—if he would get back alive. [58] It's no game we play. [59] When we turn fourteen, they drop us on the nearest colonized planet and come back one month later. [60] That may sound like fun to you, but a lot of us never come back alive. [61] Don't think I was helpless. [62] I'm hell on wheels. [63] They don't let us grow for fourteen years and then kick us out to die. [64] They prepare us. [65] They do figure, though, that if you can't keep yourself alive by the time you're fourteen, you're too stupid, foolish or unlucky to be any use to the Ship. [66] There's sense behind it. [67] It means that everybody on the Ship is a person who can take care of himself if he has to. [68] Daddy says that something has to be done in a closed society to keep the population from decaying mentally and physically, and this is it. [69] And it helps to keep the population steady. [70] I began to check my gear out—sonic pistol, pickup signal so I could be found at the end of the month, saddle and cinches, food and clothes. [71] Venie Morlock has got a crush on Jimmy D., and when she saw me start getting ready to go, she began to check her gear, too. [72] At our next landing, I grabbed Ninc's reins and cut Venie out smoothly. [73] It didn't have anything to do with Jimmy. [74] I just couldn't stand to put off the bad moment any longer. [75] The ship lifted impersonally away from Ninc and me like a rising bird, and in just a moment it was gone. [76] Its gray-blue color was almost the color of the half-overcast sky, so I was never sure when I saw it last. [77] II The first night was hell, I guess because I'm not used to having the lights out. [78] That's when you really start to feel lonely, being alone in the dark. [79] When the sun disappears, somehow you wonder in your stomach if it's really going to come back. [80] But I lived through it—one day in thirty gone. [81] I rode in a spiral search pattern during the next two days. [82] I had three things in mind—stay alive, find people and find some of the others. [83] The first was automatic. [84] The second was to find out if there was a slot I could fit into for a month. [85] If not, I would have to find a place to camp out, as nasty as that would be. [86] The third was to join forces, though not with that meatball Jimmy D. No, he isn't really a meatball. [87] The trouble is that I don't take nothing from nobody, especially him, and he doesn't take nothing from nobody, especially me. [88] So we do a lot of fighting. [89] I had a good month for Trial. [90] My birthday is in November—too close to Year End Holiday for my taste, but this year it was all right. [91] It was spring on Tintera, but it was December in the Ship, and after we got back we had five days of Holiday to celebrate. [92] It gave me something to look forward to. [93] In two days of riding, I ran onto nothing but a few odd-looking animals. [94] I shot one small one and ate it. [95] It turned out to taste pretty good, though not as good as a slice from Hambone No. [96] 4, to my mind the best meat vat on the Ship. [97] I've eaten things so gruey-looking that I wondered that anybody had the guts to try them in the first place and they've turned out to taste good. [98] And I've seen things that looked good that I couldn't keep on my stomach. [99] So I guess I was lucky. [100] On the third day, I found the road. [101] I brought Ninc down off the hillside, losing sight of the road in the trees, and then reaching it in the level below. [102] It was narrow and made of sand spread over a hard base. [103] Out of the marks in the sand, I could pick out the tracks of horses and both narrow and wide wheels. [104] Other tracks I couldn't identify. [105] One of the smartest moves in history was to include horses when they dropped the colonies. [106] I say "they" because, while we did the actual dropping, the idea originated with the whole evac plan back on Earth. [107] Considering how short a time it was in which the colonies were established, there was not time to set up industry, so they had to have draft animals. [108] The first of the Great Ships was finished in 2025. [109] One of the eight, as well as the two that were being built then, went up with everything else in the Solar System in 2041. [110] In that sixteen years 112 colonies were planted. [111] I don't know how many of those planets had animals that could have been substituted but, even if they had, they would have had to be domesticated from scratch. [112] That would have been stupid. [113] I'll bet that half the colonies would have failed if they hadn't had horses. [114] We'd come in from the west over the ocean, so I traveled east on the road. [115] That much water makes me nervous, and roads have to go somewhere. [116] I came on my first travelers three hours later. [117] I rounded a tree-lined bend, ducking an overhanging branch, and pulled Ninc to a stop. [118] There were five men on horseback herding a bunch of the ugliest creatures alive. [119] They were green and grotesque. [120] They had squat bodies, long limbs and knobby bulges at their joints. [121] They had square, flat animal masks for faces. [122] But they walked on their hind legs and they had paws that were almost hands, and that was enough to make them seem almost human. [123] They made a wordless, chilling, lowing sound as they milled and plodded along. [124] I started Ninc up again and moved slowly to catch up with them. [125] All the men on horseback had guns in saddle boots. [126] They looked as nervous as cats with kittens. [127] One of them had a string of packhorses on a line and he saw me and called to another who seemed to be the leader. [128] That one wheeled his black horse and rode back toward me. [129] He was a middle-aged man, maybe as old as my Daddy. [130] He was large and he had a hard face. [131] Normal enough, but hard. [132] He pulled to a halt when we reached each other, but I kept going. [133] He had to come around and follow me. [134] I believe in judging a person by his face. [135] A man can't help the face he owns, but he can help the expression he wears on it. [136] If a man looks mean, I generally believe that he is. [137] This one looked mean. [138] That was why I kept riding. [139] He said, "What be you doing out here, boy? [140] Be you out of your head? [141] There be escaped Losels in these woods." [142] I told you I hadn't finished filling out yet, but I hadn't thought it was that bad. [143] I wasn't ready to make a fight over the point, though. [144] Generally, I can't keep my bloody mouth shut, but now I didn't say anything. [145] It seemed smart. [146] "Where be you from?" [147] he asked. [148] I pointed to the road behind us. [149] "And where be you going?" [150] I pointed ahead. [151] No other way to go. [152] He seemed exasperated. [153] I have that effect sometimes. [154] Even on Mother and Daddy, who should know better. [155] We were coming up on the others now, and the man said, "Maybe you'd better ride on from here with us. [156] For protection." [157] He had an odd way of twisting his sounds, almost as though he had a mouthful of mush. [158] I wondered whether he were just an oddball or whether everybody here spoke the same way. [159] I'd never heard International English spoken any way but one, even on the planet Daddy made me visit with him. [160] One of the other outriders came easing by then. [161] I suppose they'd been watching us all the while. [162] He called to the hard man. [163] "He be awfully small, Horst. [164] I doubt me a Losel'd even notice him at all. [165] We mought as well throw him back again." [166] The rider looked at me. [167] When I didn't dissolve in terror as he expected, he shrugged and one of the other men laughed. [168] The hard man said to the others, "This boy will be riding along with us to Forton for protection." [169] I looked down at the plodding, unhappy creatures they were driving along and one looked back at me with dull, expressionless golden eyes. [170] I felt uncomfortable. [171] I said, "I don't think so." [172] What the man did then surprised me. [173] He said, "I do think so," and reached for the rifle in his saddle boot. [174] I whipped my sonic pistol out so fast that he was caught leaning over with the rifle half out. [175] His jaw dropped. [176] He knew what I held and he didn't want to be fried. [177] I said, "Ease your rifles out and drop them gently to the ground." [178] They did, watching me all the while with wary expressions. [179] When all the rifles were on the ground, I said, "All right, let's go." [180] They didn't want to move. [181] They didn't want to leave the rifles. [182] I could see that. [183] Horst didn't say anything. [184] He just watched me with narrowed eyes. [185] But one of the others held up a hand and in wheedling tones said, "Look here, kid...." "Shut up," I said, in as mean a voice as I could muster, and he did. [186] It surprised me. [187] I didn't think I sounded that mean. [188] I decided he just didn't trust the crazy kid not to shoot. [189] After twenty minutes of easy riding for us and hard walking for the creatures, I said, "If you want your rifles, you can go back and get them now." [190] I dug my heels into Ninc's sides and rode on. [191] At the next bend I looked back and saw four of them holding their packhorses and the creatures still while one beat a dust-raising retreat down the road. [192] I put this episode in the "file and hold for analysis" section in my mind and rode on, feeling good. [193] I think I even giggled once. [194] Sometimes I even convince myself that I'm hell on wheels. [195] III When I was nine, my Daddy gave me a painted wooden doll that my great-grandmother brought from Earth. [196] The thing is that inside it, nestled one in another, are eleven more dolls, each one smaller than the last. [197] I like to watch people when they open it for the first time. [198] My face must have been like that as I rode along the road. [199] The country leveled into a great rolling valley and the trees gave way to great farms and fields. [200] In the fields, working, were some of the green creatures, which surprised me since the ones I'd seen before hadn't seemed smart enough to count to one, let alone do any work. [201] But it relieved me. [202] I thought they might have been eating them or something. [203] I passed two crossroads and started to meet more people, but nobody questioned me. [204] I met people on horseback, and twice I met trucks moving silently past. [205] And I overtook a wagon driven by the oldest man I've seen in my life. [206] He waved to me, and I waved back. [207] Near the end of the afternoon I came to the town, and there I received a jolt that sickened me. [208] By the time I came out on the other side, I was sick. [209] My hands were cold and sweaty and my head was spinning, and I wanted to kick Ninc to a gallop. [210] I rode slowly in, looking all around, missing nothing. [211] The town was all stone, wood and brick. [212] Out of date. [213] Out of time, really. [214] There were no machines more complicated than the trucks I'd seen earlier. [215] At the edge of town, I passed a newspaper office with a headline pasted in the window—INVASION! [216] I remember that. [217] I wondered about it. [218] But I looked most closely at the people. [219] In all that town, I didn't see one girl over ten years old and no grown-up women at all. [220] There were little kids, there were boys and there were men, but no girls. [221] All the boys and men wore pants, and so did I, which must have been why Horst and his buddies assumed I was a boy. [222] It wasn't flattering; but I decided I'd not tell anybody different until I found what made the clocks tick on this planet. [223] But that wasn't what bothered me. [224] It was the kids. [225] My God! [226] They swarmed. [227] I saw a family come out of a house—a father and four children. [228] It was the most foul thing I've ever seen. [229] It struck me then—these people were Free Birthers! [230] I felt a wave of nausea and I closed my eyes until it passed. [231] The first thing you learn in school is that if it weren't for idiot and criminal people like these, Earth would never have been destroyed. [232] The evacuation would never have had to take place, and eight billion people wouldn't have died. [233] There wouldn't have been eight billion people. [234] But, no. [235] They bred and they spread and they devoured everything in their path like a cancer. [236] They gobbled up all the resources that Earth had and crowded and shoved one another until the final war came. [237] I am lucky. [238] My great-great-grandparents were among those who had enough foresight to see what was coming. [239] If it hadn't been for them and some others like them, there wouldn't be any humans left anywhere. [240] And I wouldn't be here. [241] That may not scare you, but it scares me. [242] What happened before, when people didn't use their heads and wound up blowing the Solar System apart, is something nobody should forget. [243] The older people don't let us forget. [244] But these people had, and that the Council should know. [245] For the first time since I landed on Tintera, I felt really frightened. [246] There was too much going on that I didn't understand. [247] I felt a blind urge to get away, and when I reached the edge of town, I whomped Ninc a good one and gave him his head. [248] I let him run for almost a mile before I pulled him down to a walk again. [249] I couldn't help wishing for Jimmy D. Whatever else he is, he's smart and brains I needed. [250] How do you find out what's going on? [251] Eavesdrop? [252] That's a lousy method. [253] For one thing, people can't be depended on to talk about the things you want to hear. [254] For another, you're likely to get caught. [255] Ask somebody? [256] Who? [257] Make the mistake of bracing a fellow like Horst and you might wind up with a sore head and an empty pocket. [258] The best thing I could think of was to find a library, but that might be a job. [259] I'd had two bad shocks on this day, but they weren't the last. [260] In the late afternoon, when the sun was starting to sink and a cool wind was starting to ripple the tree leaves, I saw the scoutship high in the sky. [261] The dying sun colored it a deep red. [262] Back again? [263] I wondered what had gone wrong. [264] I reached down into my saddlebag and brought out my contact signal. [265] The scoutship swung up in the sky in a familiar movement calculated to drop the stomach out of everybody aboard. [266] George Fuhonin's style. [267] I triggered the signal, my heart turning flips all the while. [268] I didn't know why he was back, but I wasn't really sorry. [269] The ship swung around until it was coming back on a path almost over my head, going in the same direction. [270] Then it went into a slip and started bucking so hard that I knew this wasn't hot piloting at all, just plain idiot stutter-fingered stupidity at the controls. [271] As it skidded by me overhead, I got a good look at it and knew that it wasn't one of ours. [272] Not too different, but not ours. [273] One more enigma. [274] Where was it from? [275] Not here. [276] Even if you know how, and we wouldn't tell these Mud-eaters how, a scoutship is something that takes an advanced technology to build. [277] I felt defeated and tired. [278] Not much farther along the road, I came to a campsite with two wagons pulled in for the night, and I couldn't help but pull in myself. [279] The campsite was large and had two permanent buildings on it. [280] One was a well enclosure and the other was little more than a high-walled pen. [281] It didn't even have a roof. [282] I set up camp and ate my dinner. [283] In the wagon closest to me were a man, his wife and their three children. [284] The kids were running around and playing, and one of them ran close to the high-walled pen. [285] His father came and pulled him away. [286] The kids weren't to blame for their parents, but when one of them said hello to me, I didn't even answer. [287] I know how lousy I would feel if I had two or three brothers and sisters, but it didn't strike me until that moment that it wouldn't even seem out of the ordinary to these kids. [288] Isn't that horrible? [289] About the time I finished eating, and before it grew dark, the old man I had seen earlier in the day drove his wagon in. [290] He fascinated me. [291] He had white hair, something I had read about in stories but had never seen before. [292] When nightfall came, they started a large fire. [293] Everybody gathered around. [294] There was singing for awhile, and then the father of the children tried to pack them off to bed. [295] But they weren't ready to go, so the old man started telling them a story. [296] In the old man's odd accent, and sitting there in the campfire light surrounded by darkness, it seemed just right. [297] It was about an old witch named Baba Yaga who lived in the forest in a house that stood on chicken legs. [298] She was the nasty stepmother of a nice little girl, and to get rid of the kid, she sent her on a phony errand into the deep dark woods at nightfall. [299] I could appreciate the poor girl's position. [300] All the little girl had to help her were the handkerchief, the comb and the pearl that she had inherited from her dear dead mother. [301] But, as it turned out, they were just enough to defeat nasty old Baba Yaga and bring the girl safely home. [302] I wished for the same for myself. [303] The old man had just finished and they were starting to drag the kids off to bed when there was a commotion on the road at the edge of the camp. [304] I looked but my eyes were adjusted to the light of the fire and I couldn't see far into the dark. [305] A voice there said, "I'll be damned if I'll take another day like this one, Horst. [306] We should have been here hours ago. [307] It be your fault we're not." [308] Horst growled a retort. [309] I decided that it was time for me to leave the campfire. [310] I got up and eased away as Horst and his men came up to the fire, and cut back to where Ninc was parked. [311] I grabbed up my blankets and mattress and started to roll them up. [312] I had a pretty good idea now what they used the high-walled pen for. [313] I should have known that they would have to pen the animals up for the night. [314] I should have used my head. [315] I hadn't and now it was time to take leave. [316] I never got the chance. [317] I was just heaving the saddle up on Ninc when I felt a hand on my shoulder and I was swung around. [318] "Well, well. [319] Horst, look who we have here," he called. [320] It was the one who'd made the joke about me being beneath the notice of a Losel. [321] He was alone with me now, but with that call the others would be up fast. [322] I brought the saddle around as hard as I could and then up, and he went down. [323] He started to get up again, so I dropped the saddle on him and reached inside my jacket for my gun. [324] Somebody grabbed me then from behind and pinned my arms to my side. [325] I opened my mouth to scream—I have a good scream—but a rough smelly hand clamped down over it before I had a chance to get more than a lungful of air. [326] I bit down hard—5000 lbs. [327] psi, I'm told—but he didn't let me go. [328] I started to kick, but Horst jerked me off my feet and dragged me off. [329] When we were behind the pen and out of earshot of the fire, he stopped dragging me and dropped me in a heap. [330] "Make any noise," he said, "and I'll hurt you." [331] That was a silly way to put it, but somehow it said more than if he'd threatened to break my arm or my head. [332] It left him a latitude of things to do if he pleased. [333] He examined his hand. [334] There was enough moonlight for that. [335] "I ought to club you anyway," he said. [336] The one I'd dropped the saddle on came up then. [337] The others were putting the animals in the pen. [338] He started to kick me, but Horst stopped him. [339] "No," he said. [340] "Look through the kid's gear, bring the horse and what we can use." [341] The other one didn't move. [342] "Get going, Jack," Horst said in a menacing tone and they stood toe to toe for a long moment before Jack finally backed down. [343] It seemed to me that Horst wasn't so much objecting to me being kicked, but was rather establishing who did the kicking in his bunch. [344] But I wasn't done yet. [345] I was scared, but I still had the pistol under my jacket. [346] Horst turned back to me and I said, "You can't do this and get away with it." [347] He said, "Look, boy. [348] You may not know it, but you be in a lot of trouble. [349] So don't give me a hard time." [350] He still thought I was a boy. [351] It was not time to correct him, but I didn't like to see the point go unchallenged. [352] It was unflattering. [353] "The courts won't let you get away with this," I said. [354] I'd passed a courthouse in the town with a carved motto over the doors: EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW or TRUTH OUR SHIELD AND JUSTICE OUR SWORD or something stuffy like that. [355] He laughed, not a phony, villian-type laugh, but a real laugh, so I knew I'd goofed. [356] "Boy, boy. [357] Don't talk about the courts. [358] I be doing you a favor. [359] I be taking what I can use of your gear, but I be letting you go. [360] You go to court and they'll take everything and lock you up besides. [361] I be leaving you your freedom." [362] "Why would they be doing that?" [363] I asked. [364] I slipped my hand under my jacket. [365] "Every time you open your mouth you shout that you be off one of the Ships," Horst said. [366] "That be enough. [367] They already have one of you brats in jail in Forton." [368] I was about to bring my gun out when up came Jack leading Ninc, with all my stuff loaded on. [369] I mentally thanked him. [370] He said, "The kid's got some good equipment. [371] But I can't make out what this be for." [372] He held out my pickup signal. [373] Horst looked at it, then handed it back. [374] "Throw it away," he said. [375] I leveled my gun at them—Hell on Wheels strikes again! [376] I said, "Hand that over to me." [377] Horst made a disgusted sound. [378] "Don't make any noise," I said, "or you'll fry. [379] Now hand it over." [380] I stowed it away, then paused with one hand on the leather horn of the saddle. [381] "What's the name of the kid in jail in Forton." [382] "I can't remember," he said. [383] "But it be coming to me. [384] Hold on." [385] I waited. [386] Then suddenly my arm was hit a numbing blow from behind and the gun went flying. [387] Jack pounced after it and Horst said, "Good enough," to the others who'd come up behind me. [388] I felt like a fool. [389] Horst stalked over and got the signal. [390] He dropped it on the ground and said in a voice far colder than mine could ever be, because it was natural and mine wasn't, "The piece be yours." [391] Then he tromped on it until it cracked and fell apart. [392] Then he said, "Pull a gun on me twice. [393] Twice." [394] He slapped me so hard that my ears rang. [395] "You dirty little punk." [396] I said calmly, "You big louse." [397] It was a time I would have done better to keep my mouth shut. [398] All I can remember is a flash of pain as his fist crunched against the side of my face and then nothing. [399] Brains are no good if you don't use them.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question: 1. [58] When we turn fourteen, they drop us on the nearest colonized planet and come back one month later. 2. [59] That may sound like fun to you, but a lot of us never come back alive. 3. [63] They don't let us grow for fourteen years and then kick us out to die. 4. [64] They prepare us. 5. [65] They do figure, though, that if you can't keep yourself alive by the time you're fourteen, you're too stupid, foolish or unlucky to be any use to the Ship. 6. [66] There's sense behind it. 7. [67] It means that everybody on the Ship is a person who can take care of himself if he has to. 8. [68] Daddy says that something has to be done in a closed society to keep the population from decaying mentally and physically, and this is it. 9. [69] And it helps to keep the population steady. 10. [1] DOWN TO THE WORLDS OF MEN BY ALEXEI PANSHIN The ancient rule was sink or swim—swim in the miasma of a planet without spaceflight, or sink to utter destruction! 11. [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1963. 12. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 13. [4] I The horses and packs were loaded before we went aboard the scoutship. 14. [5] The scout bay is no more than a great oversized airlock with a dozen small ships squatting over their tubes, but it was the last of the Ship that I might ever see, so I took a long final look from the top of the ramp. 15. [6] There were sixteen of us girls and thirteen boys. 16. [7] We took our places in the seats in the center of the scout. 17. [8] Riggy Allen made a joke that nobody bothered to laugh at, and then we were all silent. 18. [9] I was feeling lost and just beginning to enjoy it when Jimmy Dentremont came over to me. 19. [10] He's red-headed and has a face that makes him look about ten. 20. [11] An intelligent runt like me. 21. [12] He said what I expected. 22. [13] "Mia, do you want to go partners if we can get together when we get down?" 23. [14] I guess he thought that because we were always matched on study I liked him. 24. [15] Well, I did when I wasn't mad at him, but now I had that crack he'd made about being a snob in mind, so I said, "Not likely. 25. [16] I want to come back alive." 26. [17] It wasn't fair, but it was a good crack and he went back to his place without saying anything. 27. [18] My name is Mia Havero. 28. [19] I'm fourteen, of course, or I wouldn't be telling this. 29. [20] I'm short, dark and scrawny, though I don't expect that scrawniness to last much longer. 30. [21] Mother is very good looking. 31. [22] In the meantime, I've got brains as a consolation. 32. [23] After we were all settled, George Fuhonin, the pilot, raised the ramps. 33. [24] We sat there for five minutes while they bled air out of our tube and then we just ... dropped. 34. [25] My stomach turned flips. 35. [26] We didn't have to leave that way, but George thinks it's fun to be a hot pilot. 36. [27] Thinking it over, I was almost sorry I'd been stinking to Jimmy D. He's the only competition I have my own age. 37. [28] The trouble is, you don't go partners with the competition, do you? 38. [29] Besides, there was still that crack about being a snob. 39. [30] The planet chosen for our Trial was called Tintera. 40. [31] The last contact the Ship had had with it—and we were the ones who dropped them—was almost 150 years ago. 41. [32] No contact since. 42. [33] That had made the Council debate a little before they dropped us there, but they decided it was all right in the end. 43. [34] It didn't make any practical difference to us kids because they never tell you anything about the place they're going to drop you. 44. [35] All I knew was the name. 45. [36] I wouldn't have known that much if Daddy weren't Chairman of the Council. 46. [37] I felt like crawling in a corner of the ship and crying, but nobody else was breaking down, so I didn't. 47. [38] I did feel miserable. 48. [39] I cried when I said good-by to Mother and Daddy—a real emotional scene—but that wasn't in public. 49. [40] It wasn't the chance of not coming back that bothered me really, because I never believed that I wouldn't. 50. [41] The thought that made me unhappy was that I would have to be on a planet for a whole month. 51. [42] Planets make me feel wretched. 52. [43] The gravity is always wrong, for one thing. 53. [44] Either your arches and calves ache or every time you step you think you're going to trip on a piece of fluff and break your neck. 54. [45] There are vegetables everywhere and little grubby things just looking for you to crawl on. 55. [46] If you can think of anything creepier than that, you've got a real nasty imagination. 56. [47] Worst of all, planets stink. 57. [48] Every single one smells—I've been on enough to know that. 58. [49] A planet is all right for a Mud-eater, but not for me. 59. [50] We have a place in the Ship like that—the Third Level—but it's only a thousand square miles and any time it gets on your nerves you can go up a level or down a level and be back in civilization. 60. [51] When we reached Tintera, they started dropping us. 61. [52] We swung over the sea from the morning side and then dropped low over gray-green forested hills. 62. [53] Finally George spotted a clear area and dropped into it. 63. [54] They don't care what order you go in, so Jimmy D. jumped up, grabbed his gear and then led his horse down the ramp. 64. [55] I think he was still smarting from the slap I'd given him. 65. [56] In a minute we were airborne again. 66. [57] I wondered if I would ever see Jimmy—if he would get back alive. 67. [60] That may sound like fun to you, but a lot of us never come back alive. 68. [61] Don't think I was helpless. 69. [62] I'm hell on wheels. 70. [70] I began to check my gear out—sonic pistol, pickup signal so I could be found at the end of the month, saddle and cinches, food and clothes. 71. [71] Venie Morlock has got a crush on Jimmy D., and when she saw me start getting ready to go, she began to check her gear, too. 72. [72] At our next landing, I grabbed Ninc's reins and cut Venie out smoothly. 73. [73] It didn't have anything to do with Jimmy. 74. [74] I just couldn't stand to put off the bad moment any longer. 75. [75] The ship lifted impersonally away from Ninc and me like a rising bird, and in just a moment it was gone. 76. [76] Its gray-blue color was almost the color of the half-overcast sky, so I was never sure when I saw it last. 77. [77] II The first night was hell, I guess because I'm not used to having the lights out. 78. [78] That's when you really start to feel lonely, being alone in the dark. 79. [79] When the sun disappears, somehow you wonder in your stomach if it's really going to come back. 80. [80] But I lived through it—one day in thirty gone. 81. [81] I rode in a spiral search pattern during the next two days. 82. [82] I had three things in mind—stay alive, find people and find some of the others. 83. [83] The first was automatic. 84. [84] The second was to find out if there was a slot I could fit into for a month. 85. [85] If not, I would have to find a place to camp out, as nasty as that would be. 86. [86] The third was to join forces, though not with that meatball Jimmy D. No, he isn't really a meatball. 87. [87] The trouble is that I don't take nothing from nobody, especially him, and he doesn't take nothing from nobody, especially me. 88. [88] So we do a lot of fighting. 89. [89] I had a good month for Trial. 90. [90] My birthday is in November—too close to Year End Holiday for my taste, but this year it was all right. 91. [91] It was spring on Tintera, but it was December in the Ship, and after we got back we had five days of Holiday to celebrate. 92. [92] It gave me something to look forward to.

Who is Horst and what is his relationship with Mia?

[1] DOWN TO THE WORLDS OF MEN BY ALEXEI PANSHIN The ancient rule was sink or swim—swim in the miasma of a planet without spaceflight, or sink to utter destruction! [2] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, July 1963. [3] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [4] I The horses and packs were loaded before we went aboard the scoutship. [5] The scout bay is no more than a great oversized airlock with a dozen small ships squatting over their tubes, but it was the last of the Ship that I might ever see, so I took a long final look from the top of the ramp. [6] There were sixteen of us girls and thirteen boys. [7] We took our places in the seats in the center of the scout. [8] Riggy Allen made a joke that nobody bothered to laugh at, and then we were all silent. [9] I was feeling lost and just beginning to enjoy it when Jimmy Dentremont came over to me. [10] He's red-headed and has a face that makes him look about ten. [11] An intelligent runt like me. [12] He said what I expected. [13] "Mia, do you want to go partners if we can get together when we get down?" [14] I guess he thought that because we were always matched on study I liked him. [15] Well, I did when I wasn't mad at him, but now I had that crack he'd made about being a snob in mind, so I said, "Not likely. [16] I want to come back alive." [17] It wasn't fair, but it was a good crack and he went back to his place without saying anything. [18] My name is Mia Havero. [19] I'm fourteen, of course, or I wouldn't be telling this. [20] I'm short, dark and scrawny, though I don't expect that scrawniness to last much longer. [21] Mother is very good looking. [22] In the meantime, I've got brains as a consolation. [23] After we were all settled, George Fuhonin, the pilot, raised the ramps. [24] We sat there for five minutes while they bled air out of our tube and then we just ... dropped. [25] My stomach turned flips. [26] We didn't have to leave that way, but George thinks it's fun to be a hot pilot. [27] Thinking it over, I was almost sorry I'd been stinking to Jimmy D. He's the only competition I have my own age. [28] The trouble is, you don't go partners with the competition, do you? [29] Besides, there was still that crack about being a snob. [30] The planet chosen for our Trial was called Tintera. [31] The last contact the Ship had had with it—and we were the ones who dropped them—was almost 150 years ago. [32] No contact since. [33] That had made the Council debate a little before they dropped us there, but they decided it was all right in the end. [34] It didn't make any practical difference to us kids because they never tell you anything about the place they're going to drop you. [35] All I knew was the name. [36] I wouldn't have known that much if Daddy weren't Chairman of the Council. [37] I felt like crawling in a corner of the ship and crying, but nobody else was breaking down, so I didn't. [38] I did feel miserable. [39] I cried when I said good-by to Mother and Daddy—a real emotional scene—but that wasn't in public. [40] It wasn't the chance of not coming back that bothered me really, because I never believed that I wouldn't. [41] The thought that made me unhappy was that I would have to be on a planet for a whole month. [42] Planets make me feel wretched. [43] The gravity is always wrong, for one thing. [44] Either your arches and calves ache or every time you step you think you're going to trip on a piece of fluff and break your neck. [45] There are vegetables everywhere and little grubby things just looking for you to crawl on. [46] If you can think of anything creepier than that, you've got a real nasty imagination. [47] Worst of all, planets stink. [48] Every single one smells—I've been on enough to know that. [49] A planet is all right for a Mud-eater, but not for me. [50] We have a place in the Ship like that—the Third Level—but it's only a thousand square miles and any time it gets on your nerves you can go up a level or down a level and be back in civilization. [51] When we reached Tintera, they started dropping us. [52] We swung over the sea from the morning side and then dropped low over gray-green forested hills. [53] Finally George spotted a clear area and dropped into it. [54] They don't care what order you go in, so Jimmy D. jumped up, grabbed his gear and then led his horse down the ramp. [55] I think he was still smarting from the slap I'd given him. [56] In a minute we were airborne again. [57] I wondered if I would ever see Jimmy—if he would get back alive. [58] It's no game we play. [59] When we turn fourteen, they drop us on the nearest colonized planet and come back one month later. [60] That may sound like fun to you, but a lot of us never come back alive. [61] Don't think I was helpless. [62] I'm hell on wheels. [63] They don't let us grow for fourteen years and then kick us out to die. [64] They prepare us. [65] They do figure, though, that if you can't keep yourself alive by the time you're fourteen, you're too stupid, foolish or unlucky to be any use to the Ship. [66] There's sense behind it. [67] It means that everybody on the Ship is a person who can take care of himself if he has to. [68] Daddy says that something has to be done in a closed society to keep the population from decaying mentally and physically, and this is it. [69] And it helps to keep the population steady. [70] I began to check my gear out—sonic pistol, pickup signal so I could be found at the end of the month, saddle and cinches, food and clothes. [71] Venie Morlock has got a crush on Jimmy D., and when she saw me start getting ready to go, she began to check her gear, too. [72] At our next landing, I grabbed Ninc's reins and cut Venie out smoothly. [73] It didn't have anything to do with Jimmy. [74] I just couldn't stand to put off the bad moment any longer. [75] The ship lifted impersonally away from Ninc and me like a rising bird, and in just a moment it was gone. [76] Its gray-blue color was almost the color of the half-overcast sky, so I was never sure when I saw it last. [77] II The first night was hell, I guess because I'm not used to having the lights out. [78] That's when you really start to feel lonely, being alone in the dark. [79] When the sun disappears, somehow you wonder in your stomach if it's really going to come back. [80] But I lived through it—one day in thirty gone. [81] I rode in a spiral search pattern during the next two days. [82] I had three things in mind—stay alive, find people and find some of the others. [83] The first was automatic. [84] The second was to find out if there was a slot I could fit into for a month. [85] If not, I would have to find a place to camp out, as nasty as that would be. [86] The third was to join forces, though not with that meatball Jimmy D. No, he isn't really a meatball. [87] The trouble is that I don't take nothing from nobody, especially him, and he doesn't take nothing from nobody, especially me. [88] So we do a lot of fighting. [89] I had a good month for Trial. [90] My birthday is in November—too close to Year End Holiday for my taste, but this year it was all right. [91] It was spring on Tintera, but it was December in the Ship, and after we got back we had five days of Holiday to celebrate. [92] It gave me something to look forward to. [93] In two days of riding, I ran onto nothing but a few odd-looking animals. [94] I shot one small one and ate it. [95] It turned out to taste pretty good, though not as good as a slice from Hambone No. [96] 4, to my mind the best meat vat on the Ship. [97] I've eaten things so gruey-looking that I wondered that anybody had the guts to try them in the first place and they've turned out to taste good. [98] And I've seen things that looked good that I couldn't keep on my stomach. [99] So I guess I was lucky. [100] On the third day, I found the road. [101] I brought Ninc down off the hillside, losing sight of the road in the trees, and then reaching it in the level below. [102] It was narrow and made of sand spread over a hard base. [103] Out of the marks in the sand, I could pick out the tracks of horses and both narrow and wide wheels. [104] Other tracks I couldn't identify. [105] One of the smartest moves in history was to include horses when they dropped the colonies. [106] I say "they" because, while we did the actual dropping, the idea originated with the whole evac plan back on Earth. [107] Considering how short a time it was in which the colonies were established, there was not time to set up industry, so they had to have draft animals. [108] The first of the Great Ships was finished in 2025. [109] One of the eight, as well as the two that were being built then, went up with everything else in the Solar System in 2041. [110] In that sixteen years 112 colonies were planted. [111] I don't know how many of those planets had animals that could have been substituted but, even if they had, they would have had to be domesticated from scratch. [112] That would have been stupid. [113] I'll bet that half the colonies would have failed if they hadn't had horses. [114] We'd come in from the west over the ocean, so I traveled east on the road. [115] That much water makes me nervous, and roads have to go somewhere. [116] I came on my first travelers three hours later. [117] I rounded a tree-lined bend, ducking an overhanging branch, and pulled Ninc to a stop. [118] There were five men on horseback herding a bunch of the ugliest creatures alive. [119] They were green and grotesque. [120] They had squat bodies, long limbs and knobby bulges at their joints. [121] They had square, flat animal masks for faces. [122] But they walked on their hind legs and they had paws that were almost hands, and that was enough to make them seem almost human. [123] They made a wordless, chilling, lowing sound as they milled and plodded along. [124] I started Ninc up again and moved slowly to catch up with them. [125] All the men on horseback had guns in saddle boots. [126] They looked as nervous as cats with kittens. [127] One of them had a string of packhorses on a line and he saw me and called to another who seemed to be the leader. [128] That one wheeled his black horse and rode back toward me. [129] He was a middle-aged man, maybe as old as my Daddy. [130] He was large and he had a hard face. [131] Normal enough, but hard. [132] He pulled to a halt when we reached each other, but I kept going. [133] He had to come around and follow me. [134] I believe in judging a person by his face. [135] A man can't help the face he owns, but he can help the expression he wears on it. [136] If a man looks mean, I generally believe that he is. [137] This one looked mean. [138] That was why I kept riding. [139] He said, "What be you doing out here, boy? [140] Be you out of your head? [141] There be escaped Losels in these woods." [142] I told you I hadn't finished filling out yet, but I hadn't thought it was that bad. [143] I wasn't ready to make a fight over the point, though. [144] Generally, I can't keep my bloody mouth shut, but now I didn't say anything. [145] It seemed smart. [146] "Where be you from?" [147] he asked. [148] I pointed to the road behind us. [149] "And where be you going?" [150] I pointed ahead. [151] No other way to go. [152] He seemed exasperated. [153] I have that effect sometimes. [154] Even on Mother and Daddy, who should know better. [155] We were coming up on the others now, and the man said, "Maybe you'd better ride on from here with us. [156] For protection." [157] He had an odd way of twisting his sounds, almost as though he had a mouthful of mush. [158] I wondered whether he were just an oddball or whether everybody here spoke the same way. [159] I'd never heard International English spoken any way but one, even on the planet Daddy made me visit with him. [160] One of the other outriders came easing by then. [161] I suppose they'd been watching us all the while. [162] He called to the hard man. [163] "He be awfully small, Horst. [164] I doubt me a Losel'd even notice him at all. [165] We mought as well throw him back again." [166] The rider looked at me. [167] When I didn't dissolve in terror as he expected, he shrugged and one of the other men laughed. [168] The hard man said to the others, "This boy will be riding along with us to Forton for protection." [169] I looked down at the plodding, unhappy creatures they were driving along and one looked back at me with dull, expressionless golden eyes. [170] I felt uncomfortable. [171] I said, "I don't think so." [172] What the man did then surprised me. [173] He said, "I do think so," and reached for the rifle in his saddle boot. [174] I whipped my sonic pistol out so fast that he was caught leaning over with the rifle half out. [175] His jaw dropped. [176] He knew what I held and he didn't want to be fried. [177] I said, "Ease your rifles out and drop them gently to the ground." [178] They did, watching me all the while with wary expressions. [179] When all the rifles were on the ground, I said, "All right, let's go." [180] They didn't want to move. [181] They didn't want to leave the rifles. [182] I could see that. [183] Horst didn't say anything. [184] He just watched me with narrowed eyes. [185] But one of the others held up a hand and in wheedling tones said, "Look here, kid...." "Shut up," I said, in as mean a voice as I could muster, and he did. [186] It surprised me. [187] I didn't think I sounded that mean. [188] I decided he just didn't trust the crazy kid not to shoot. [189] After twenty minutes of easy riding for us and hard walking for the creatures, I said, "If you want your rifles, you can go back and get them now." [190] I dug my heels into Ninc's sides and rode on. [191] At the next bend I looked back and saw four of them holding their packhorses and the creatures still while one beat a dust-raising retreat down the road. [192] I put this episode in the "file and hold for analysis" section in my mind and rode on, feeling good. [193] I think I even giggled once. [194] Sometimes I even convince myself that I'm hell on wheels. [195] III When I was nine, my Daddy gave me a painted wooden doll that my great-grandmother brought from Earth. [196] The thing is that inside it, nestled one in another, are eleven more dolls, each one smaller than the last. [197] I like to watch people when they open it for the first time. [198] My face must have been like that as I rode along the road. [199] The country leveled into a great rolling valley and the trees gave way to great farms and fields. [200] In the fields, working, were some of the green creatures, which surprised me since the ones I'd seen before hadn't seemed smart enough to count to one, let alone do any work. [201] But it relieved me. [202] I thought they might have been eating them or something. [203] I passed two crossroads and started to meet more people, but nobody questioned me. [204] I met people on horseback, and twice I met trucks moving silently past. [205] And I overtook a wagon driven by the oldest man I've seen in my life. [206] He waved to me, and I waved back. [207] Near the end of the afternoon I came to the town, and there I received a jolt that sickened me. [208] By the time I came out on the other side, I was sick. [209] My hands were cold and sweaty and my head was spinning, and I wanted to kick Ninc to a gallop. [210] I rode slowly in, looking all around, missing nothing. [211] The town was all stone, wood and brick. [212] Out of date. [213] Out of time, really. [214] There were no machines more complicated than the trucks I'd seen earlier. [215] At the edge of town, I passed a newspaper office with a headline pasted in the window—INVASION! [216] I remember that. [217] I wondered about it. [218] But I looked most closely at the people. [219] In all that town, I didn't see one girl over ten years old and no grown-up women at all. [220] There were little kids, there were boys and there were men, but no girls. [221] All the boys and men wore pants, and so did I, which must have been why Horst and his buddies assumed I was a boy. [222] It wasn't flattering; but I decided I'd not tell anybody different until I found what made the clocks tick on this planet. [223] But that wasn't what bothered me. [224] It was the kids. [225] My God! [226] They swarmed. [227] I saw a family come out of a house—a father and four children. [228] It was the most foul thing I've ever seen. [229] It struck me then—these people were Free Birthers! [230] I felt a wave of nausea and I closed my eyes until it passed. [231] The first thing you learn in school is that if it weren't for idiot and criminal people like these, Earth would never have been destroyed. [232] The evacuation would never have had to take place, and eight billion people wouldn't have died. [233] There wouldn't have been eight billion people. [234] But, no. [235] They bred and they spread and they devoured everything in their path like a cancer. [236] They gobbled up all the resources that Earth had and crowded and shoved one another until the final war came. [237] I am lucky. [238] My great-great-grandparents were among those who had enough foresight to see what was coming. [239] If it hadn't been for them and some others like them, there wouldn't be any humans left anywhere. [240] And I wouldn't be here. [241] That may not scare you, but it scares me. [242] What happened before, when people didn't use their heads and wound up blowing the Solar System apart, is something nobody should forget. [243] The older people don't let us forget. [244] But these people had, and that the Council should know. [245] For the first time since I landed on Tintera, I felt really frightened. [246] There was too much going on that I didn't understand. [247] I felt a blind urge to get away, and when I reached the edge of town, I whomped Ninc a good one and gave him his head. [248] I let him run for almost a mile before I pulled him down to a walk again. [249] I couldn't help wishing for Jimmy D. Whatever else he is, he's smart and brains I needed. [250] How do you find out what's going on? [251] Eavesdrop? [252] That's a lousy method. [253] For one thing, people can't be depended on to talk about the things you want to hear. [254] For another, you're likely to get caught. [255] Ask somebody? [256] Who? [257] Make the mistake of bracing a fellow like Horst and you might wind up with a sore head and an empty pocket. [258] The best thing I could think of was to find a library, but that might be a job. [259] I'd had two bad shocks on this day, but they weren't the last. [260] In the late afternoon, when the sun was starting to sink and a cool wind was starting to ripple the tree leaves, I saw the scoutship high in the sky. [261] The dying sun colored it a deep red. [262] Back again? [263] I wondered what had gone wrong. [264] I reached down into my saddlebag and brought out my contact signal. [265] The scoutship swung up in the sky in a familiar movement calculated to drop the stomach out of everybody aboard. [266] George Fuhonin's style. [267] I triggered the signal, my heart turning flips all the while. [268] I didn't know why he was back, but I wasn't really sorry. [269] The ship swung around until it was coming back on a path almost over my head, going in the same direction. [270] Then it went into a slip and started bucking so hard that I knew this wasn't hot piloting at all, just plain idiot stutter-fingered stupidity at the controls. [271] As it skidded by me overhead, I got a good look at it and knew that it wasn't one of ours. [272] Not too different, but not ours. [273] One more enigma. [274] Where was it from? [275] Not here. [276] Even if you know how, and we wouldn't tell these Mud-eaters how, a scoutship is something that takes an advanced technology to build. [277] I felt defeated and tired. [278] Not much farther along the road, I came to a campsite with two wagons pulled in for the night, and I couldn't help but pull in myself. [279] The campsite was large and had two permanent buildings on it. [280] One was a well enclosure and the other was little more than a high-walled pen. [281] It didn't even have a roof. [282] I set up camp and ate my dinner. [283] In the wagon closest to me were a man, his wife and their three children. [284] The kids were running around and playing, and one of them ran close to the high-walled pen. [285] His father came and pulled him away. [286] The kids weren't to blame for their parents, but when one of them said hello to me, I didn't even answer. [287] I know how lousy I would feel if I had two or three brothers and sisters, but it didn't strike me until that moment that it wouldn't even seem out of the ordinary to these kids. [288] Isn't that horrible? [289] About the time I finished eating, and before it grew dark, the old man I had seen earlier in the day drove his wagon in. [290] He fascinated me. [291] He had white hair, something I had read about in stories but had never seen before. [292] When nightfall came, they started a large fire. [293] Everybody gathered around. [294] There was singing for awhile, and then the father of the children tried to pack them off to bed. [295] But they weren't ready to go, so the old man started telling them a story. [296] In the old man's odd accent, and sitting there in the campfire light surrounded by darkness, it seemed just right. [297] It was about an old witch named Baba Yaga who lived in the forest in a house that stood on chicken legs. [298] She was the nasty stepmother of a nice little girl, and to get rid of the kid, she sent her on a phony errand into the deep dark woods at nightfall. [299] I could appreciate the poor girl's position. [300] All the little girl had to help her were the handkerchief, the comb and the pearl that she had inherited from her dear dead mother. [301] But, as it turned out, they were just enough to defeat nasty old Baba Yaga and bring the girl safely home. [302] I wished for the same for myself. [303] The old man had just finished and they were starting to drag the kids off to bed when there was a commotion on the road at the edge of the camp. [304] I looked but my eyes were adjusted to the light of the fire and I couldn't see far into the dark. [305] A voice there said, "I'll be damned if I'll take another day like this one, Horst. [306] We should have been here hours ago. [307] It be your fault we're not." [308] Horst growled a retort. [309] I decided that it was time for me to leave the campfire. [310] I got up and eased away as Horst and his men came up to the fire, and cut back to where Ninc was parked. [311] I grabbed up my blankets and mattress and started to roll them up. [312] I had a pretty good idea now what they used the high-walled pen for. [313] I should have known that they would have to pen the animals up for the night. [314] I should have used my head. [315] I hadn't and now it was time to take leave. [316] I never got the chance. [317] I was just heaving the saddle up on Ninc when I felt a hand on my shoulder and I was swung around. [318] "Well, well. [319] Horst, look who we have here," he called. [320] It was the one who'd made the joke about me being beneath the notice of a Losel. [321] He was alone with me now, but with that call the others would be up fast. [322] I brought the saddle around as hard as I could and then up, and he went down. [323] He started to get up again, so I dropped the saddle on him and reached inside my jacket for my gun. [324] Somebody grabbed me then from behind and pinned my arms to my side. [325] I opened my mouth to scream—I have a good scream—but a rough smelly hand clamped down over it before I had a chance to get more than a lungful of air. [326] I bit down hard—5000 lbs. [327] psi, I'm told—but he didn't let me go. [328] I started to kick, but Horst jerked me off my feet and dragged me off. [329] When we were behind the pen and out of earshot of the fire, he stopped dragging me and dropped me in a heap. [330] "Make any noise," he said, "and I'll hurt you." [331] That was a silly way to put it, but somehow it said more than if he'd threatened to break my arm or my head. [332] It left him a latitude of things to do if he pleased. [333] He examined his hand. [334] There was enough moonlight for that. [335] "I ought to club you anyway," he said. [336] The one I'd dropped the saddle on came up then. [337] The others were putting the animals in the pen. [338] He started to kick me, but Horst stopped him. [339] "No," he said. [340] "Look through the kid's gear, bring the horse and what we can use." [341] The other one didn't move. [342] "Get going, Jack," Horst said in a menacing tone and they stood toe to toe for a long moment before Jack finally backed down. [343] It seemed to me that Horst wasn't so much objecting to me being kicked, but was rather establishing who did the kicking in his bunch. [344] But I wasn't done yet. [345] I was scared, but I still had the pistol under my jacket. [346] Horst turned back to me and I said, "You can't do this and get away with it." [347] He said, "Look, boy. [348] You may not know it, but you be in a lot of trouble. [349] So don't give me a hard time." [350] He still thought I was a boy. [351] It was not time to correct him, but I didn't like to see the point go unchallenged. [352] It was unflattering. [353] "The courts won't let you get away with this," I said. [354] I'd passed a courthouse in the town with a carved motto over the doors: EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW or TRUTH OUR SHIELD AND JUSTICE OUR SWORD or something stuffy like that. [355] He laughed, not a phony, villian-type laugh, but a real laugh, so I knew I'd goofed. [356] "Boy, boy. [357] Don't talk about the courts. [358] I be doing you a favor. [359] I be taking what I can use of your gear, but I be letting you go. [360] You go to court and they'll take everything and lock you up besides. [361] I be leaving you your freedom." [362] "Why would they be doing that?" [363] I asked. [364] I slipped my hand under my jacket. [365] "Every time you open your mouth you shout that you be off one of the Ships," Horst said. [366] "That be enough. [367] They already have one of you brats in jail in Forton." [368] I was about to bring my gun out when up came Jack leading Ninc, with all my stuff loaded on. [369] I mentally thanked him. [370] He said, "The kid's got some good equipment. [371] But I can't make out what this be for." [372] He held out my pickup signal. [373] Horst looked at it, then handed it back. [374] "Throw it away," he said. [375] I leveled my gun at them—Hell on Wheels strikes again! [376] I said, "Hand that over to me." [377] Horst made a disgusted sound. [378] "Don't make any noise," I said, "or you'll fry. [379] Now hand it over." [380] I stowed it away, then paused with one hand on the leather horn of the saddle. [381] "What's the name of the kid in jail in Forton." [382] "I can't remember," he said. [383] "But it be coming to me. [384] Hold on." [385] I waited. [386] Then suddenly my arm was hit a numbing blow from behind and the gun went flying. [387] Jack pounced after it and Horst said, "Good enough," to the others who'd come up behind me. [388] I felt like a fool. [389] Horst stalked over and got the signal. [390] He dropped it on the ground and said in a voice far colder than mine could ever be, because it was natural and mine wasn't, "The piece be yours." [391] Then he tromped on it until it cracked and fell apart. [392] Then he said, "Pull a gun on me twice. [393] Twice." [394] He slapped me so hard that my ears rang. [395] "You dirty little punk." [396] I said calmly, "You big louse." [397] It was a time I would have done better to keep my mouth shut. [398] All I can remember is a flash of pain as his fist crunched against the side of my face and then nothing. [399] Brains are no good if you don't use them.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Who is Horst and what is his relationship with Mia?": 1. [163] "He be awfully small, Horst. I doubt me a Losel'd even notice him at all. We mought as well throw him back again." 2. [168] "This boy will be riding along with us to Forton for protection." 3. [183] Horst didn't say anything. He just watched me with narrowed eyes. 4. [347] "Look, boy. You may not know it, but you be in a lot of trouble. So don't give me a hard time." 5. [358] "I be doing you a favor. I be taking what I can use of your gear, but I be letting you go." 6. [366] "They already have one of you brats in jail in Forton." 7. [392] "Pull a gun on me twice. Twice." 8. [394] He slapped me so hard that my ears rang. "You dirty little punk." The other context sentences do not directly provide information about Horst or his relationship with Mia.

What is the plot of the story?

[1] BIG ANCESTOR By F. L. WALLACE Illustrated by EMSH [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction November 1954. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] Man's family tree was awesome enough to give every galactic race an inferiority complex—but then he tried to climb it! [4] In repose, Taphetta the Ribboneer resembled a fancy giant bow on a package. [5] His four flat legs looped out and in, the ends tucked under his wide, thin body, which constituted the knot at the middle. [6] His neck was flat, too, arching out in another loop. [7] Of all his features, only his head had appreciable thickness and it was crowned with a dozen long though narrower ribbons. [8] Taphetta rattled the head fronds together in a surprisingly good imitation of speech. [9] "Yes, I've heard the legend." [10] "It's more than a legend," said Sam Halden, biologist. [11] The reaction was not unexpected—non-humans tended to dismiss the data as convenient speculation and nothing more. [12] "There are at least a hundred kinds of humans, each supposedly originating in strict seclusion on as many widely scattered planets. [13] Obviously there was no contact throughout the ages before space travel— and yet each planetary race can interbreed with a minimum of ten others ! [14] That's more than a legend—one hell of a lot more!" [15] "It is impressive," admitted Taphetta. [16] "But I find it mildly distasteful to consider mating with someone who does not belong to my species." [17] "That's because you're unique," said Halden. [18] "Outside of your own world, there's nothing like your species, except superficially, and that's true of all other creatures, intelligent or not, with the sole exception of mankind. [19] Actually, the four of us here, though it's accidental, very nearly represent the biological spectrum of human development. [20] "Emmer, a Neanderthal type and our archeologist, is around the beginning of the scale. [21] I'm from Earth, near the middle, though on Emmer's side. [22] Meredith, linguist, is on the other side of the middle. [23] And beyond her, toward the far end, is Kelburn, mathematician. [24] There's a corresponding span of fertility. [25] Emmer just misses being able to breed with my kind, but there's a fair chance that I'd be fertile with Meredith and a similar though lesser chance that her fertility may extend to Kelburn." [26] Taphetta rustled his speech ribbons quizzically. [27] "But I thought it was proved that some humans did originate on one planet, that there was an unbroken line of evolution that could be traced back a billion years." [28] "You're thinking of Earth," said Halden. [29] "Humans require a certain kind of planet. [30] It's reasonable to assume that, if men were set down on a hundred such worlds, they'd seem to fit in with native life-forms on a few of them. [31] That's what happened on Earth; when Man arrived, there was actually a manlike creature there. [32] Naturally our early evolutionists stretched their theories to cover the facts they had. [33] "But there are other worlds in which humans who were there before the Stone Age aren't related to anything else there. [34] We have to conclude that Man didn't originate on any of the planets on which he is now found. [35] Instead, he evolved elsewhere and later was scattered throughout this section of the Milky Way." [36] "And so, to account for the unique race that can interbreed across thousands of light-years, you've brought in the big ancestor," commented Taphetta dryly. [37] "It seems an unnecessary simplification." [38] "Can you think of a better explanation?" [39] asked Kelburn. [40] "Something had to distribute one species so widely and it's not the result of parallel evolution—not when a hundred human races are involved, and only the human race." [41] "I can't think of a better explanation." [42] Taphetta rearranged his ribbons. [43] "Frankly, no one else is much interested in Man's theories about himself." [44] It was easy to understand the attitude. [45] Man was the most numerous though not always the most advanced—Ribboneers had a civilization as high as anything in the known section of the Milky Way, and there were others—and humans were more than a little feared. [46] If they ever got together—but they hadn't except in agreement as to their common origin. [47] Still, Taphetta the Ribboneer was an experienced pilot and could be very useful. [48] A clear statement of their position was essential in helping him make up his mind. [49] "You've heard of the adjacency mating principle?" [50] asked Sam Halden. [51] "Vaguely. [52] Most people have if they've been around men." [53] "We've got new data and are able to interpret it better. [54] The theory is that humans who can mate with each other were once physically close. [55] We've got a list of all our races arranged in sequence. [56] If planetary race F can mate with race E back to A and forward to M, and race G is fertile only back to B, but forward to O, then we assume that whatever their positions are now, at once time G was actually adjacent to F, but was a little further along. [57] When we project back into time those star systems on which humans existed prior to space travel, we get a certain pattern. [58] Kelburn can explain it to you." [59] The normally pink body of the Ribboneer flushed slightly. [60] The color change was almost imperceptible, but it was enough to indicate that he was interested. [61] Kelburn went to the projector. [62] "It would be easier if we knew all the stars in the Milky Way, but though we've explored only a small portion of it, we can reconstruct a fairly accurate representation of the past." [63] He pressed the controls and stars twinkled on the screen. [64] "We're looking down on the plane of the Galaxy. [65] This is one arm of it as it is today and here are the human systems." [66] He pressed another control and, for purposes of identification, certain stars became more brilliant. [67] There was no pattern, merely a scattering of stars. [68] "The whole Milky Way is rotating. [69] And while stars in a given region tend to remain together, there's also a random motion. [70] Here's what happens when we calculate the positions of stars in the past." [71] Flecks of light shifted and flowed across the screen. [72] Kelburn stopped the motion. [73] "Two hundred thousand years ago," he said. [74] There was a pattern of the identified stars. [75] They were spaced at fairly equal intervals along a regular curve, a horseshoe loop that didn't close, though if the ends were extended, the lines would have crossed. [76] Taphetta rustled. [77] "The math is accurate?" [78] "As accurate as it can be with a million-plus body problem." [79] "And that's the hypothetical route of the unknown ancestor?" [80] "To the best of our knowledge," said Kelburn. [81] "And whereas there are humans who are relatively near and not fertile, they can always mate with those they were adjacent to two hundred thousand years ago !" [82] "The adjacency mating principle. [83] I've never seen it demonstrated," murmured Taphetta, flexing his ribbons. [84] "Is that the only era that satisfies the calculations?" [85] "Plus or minus a hundred thousand years, we can still get something that might be the path of a spaceship attempting to cover a representative section of territory," said Kelburn. [86] "However, we have other ways of dating it. [87] On some worlds on which there are no other mammals, we're able to place the first human fossils chronologically. [88] The evidence is sometimes contradictory, but we believe we've got the time right." [89] Taphetta waved a ribbon at the chart. [90] "And you think that where the two ends of the curve cross is your original home?" [91] "We think so," said Kelburn. [92] "We've narrowed it down to several cubic light-years—then. [93] Now it's far more. [94] And, of course, if it were a fast-moving star, it might be completely out of the field of our exploration. [95] But we're certain we've got a good chance of finding it this trip." [96] "It seems I must decide quickly." [97] The Ribboneer glanced out the visionport, where another ship hung motionless in space beside them. [98] "Do you mind if I ask other questions?" [99] "Go ahead," Kelburn invited sardonically. [100] "But if it's not math, you'd better ask Halden. [101] He's the leader of the expedition." [102] Halden flushed; the sarcasm wasn't necessary. [103] It was true that Kelburn was the most advanced human type present, but while there were differences, biological and in the scale of intelligence, it wasn't as great as once was thought. [104] Anyway, non-humans weren't trained in the fine distinctions that men made among themselves. [105] And, higher or lower, he was as good a biologist as the other was a mathematician. [106] And there was the matter of training; he'd been on several expeditions and this was Kelburn's first trip. [107] Damn it, he thought, that rated some respect. [108] The Ribboneer shifted his attention. [109] "Aside from the sudden illness of your pilot, why did you ask for me?" [110] "We didn't. [111] The man became sick and required treatment we can't give him. [112] Luckily, a ship was passing and we hailed it because it's four months to the nearest planet. [113] They consented to take him back and told us that there was a passenger on board who was an experienced pilot. [114] We have men who could do the job in a makeshift fashion, but the region we're heading for, while mapped, is largely unknown. [115] We'd prefer to have an expert—and Ribboneers are famous for their navigational ability." [116] Taphetta crinkled politely at the reference to his skill. [117] "I had other plans, but I can't evade professional obligations, and an emergency such as this should cancel out any previous agreements. [118] Still, what are the incentives?" [119] Sam Halden coughed. [120] "The usual, plus a little extra. [121] We've copied the Ribboneer's standard nature, simplifying it a little and adding a per cent here and there for the crew pilot and scientist's share of the profits from any discoveries we may make." [122] "I'm complimented that you like our contract so well," said Taphetta, "but I really must have our own unsimplified version. [123] If you want me, you'll take my contract. [124] I came prepared." [125] He extended a tightly bound roll that he had kept somewhere on his person. [126] They glanced at one another as Halden took it. [127] "You can read it if you want," offered Taphetta. [128] "But it will take you all day—it's micro-printing. [129] However, you needn't be afraid that I'm defrauding you. [130] It's honored everywhere we go and we go nearly everywhere in this sector—places men have never been." [131] There was no choice if they wanted him, and they did. [132] Besides, the integrity of Ribboneers was not to be questioned. [133] Halden signed. [134] "Good." [135] Taphetta crinkled. [136] "Send it to the ship; they'll forward it for me. [137] And you can tell the ship to go on without me." [138] He rubbed his ribbons together. [139] "Now if you'll get me the charts, I'll examine the region toward which we're heading." [140] Firmon of hydroponics slouched in, a tall man with scanty hair and an equal lack of grace. [141] He seemed to have difficulty in taking his eyes off Meredith, though, since he was a notch or so above her in the mating scale, he shouldn't have been so interested. [142] But his planet had been inexplicably slow in developing and he wasn't completely aware of his place in the human hierarchy. [143] Disdainfully, Meredith adjusted a skirt that, a few inches shorter, wouldn't have been a skirt at all, revealing, while doing so, just how long and beautiful a woman's legs could be. [144] Her people had never given much thought to physical modesty and, with legs like that, it was easy to see why. [145] Muttering something about primitive women, Firmon turned to the biologist. [146] "The pilot doesn't like our air." [147] "Then change it to suit him. [148] He's in charge of the ship and knows more about these things than I do." [149] "More than a man?" [150] Firmon leered at Meredith and, when she failed to smile, added plaintively, "I did try to change it, but he still complains." [151] Halden took a deep breath. [152] "Seems all right to me." [153] "To everybody else, too, but the tapeworm hasn't got lungs. [154] He breathes through a million tubes scattered over his body." [155] It would do no good to explain that Taphetta wasn't a worm, that his evolution had taken a different course, but that he was in no sense less complex than Man. [156] It was a paradox that some biologically higher humans hadn't developed as much as lower races and actually weren't prepared for the multitude of life-forms they'd meet in space. [157] Firmon's reaction was quite typical. [158] "If he asks for cleaner air, it's because his system needs it," said Halden. [159] "Do anything you can to give it to him." [160] "Can't. [161] This is as good as I can get it. [162] Taphetta thought you could do something about it." [163] "Hydroponics is your job. [164] There's nothing I can do." [165] Halden paused thoughtfully. [166] "Is there something wrong with the plants?" [167] "In a way, I guess, and yet not really." [168] "What is it, some kind of toxic condition?" [169] "The plants are healthy enough, but something's chewing them down as fast as they grow." [170] "Insects? [171] There shouldn't be any, but if there are, we've got sprays. [172] Use them." [173] "It's an animal," said Firmon. [174] "We tried poison and got a few, but now they won't touch the stuff. [175] I had electronics rig up some traps. [176] The animals seem to know what they are and we've never caught one that way." [177] Halden glowered at the man. [178] "How long has this been going on?" [179] "About three months. [180] It's not bad; we can keep up with them." [181] It was probably nothing to become alarmed at, but an animal on the ship was a nuisance, doubly so because of their pilot. [182] "Tell me what you know about it," said Halden. [183] "They're little things." [184] Firmon held out his hands to show how small. [185] "I don't know how they got on, but once they did, there were plenty of places to hide." [186] He looked up defensively. [187] "This is an old ship with new equipment and they hide under the machinery. [188] There's nothing we can do except rebuild the ship from the hull inward." [189] Firmon was right. [190] The new equipment had been installed in any place just to get it in and now there were inaccessible corners and crevices everywhere that couldn't be closed off without rebuilding. [191] They couldn't set up a continuous watch and shoot the animals down because there weren't that many men to spare. [192] Besides, the use of weapons in hydroponics would cause more damage to the thing they were trying to protect than to the pest. [193] He'd have to devise other ways. [194] Sam Halden got up. [195] "I'll take a look and see what I can do." [196] "I'll come along and help," said Meredith, untwining her legs and leaning against him. [197] "Your mistress ought to have some sort of privileges." [198] Halden started. [199] So she knew that the crew was calling her that! [200] Perhaps it was intended to discourage Firmon, but he wished she hadn't said it. [201] It didn't help the situation at all. [202] Taphetta sat in a chair designed for humans. [203] With a less flexible body, he wouldn't have fitted. [204] Maybe it wasn't sitting, but his flat legs were folded neatly around the arms and his head rested comfortably on the seat. [205] The head ribbons, which were his hands and voice, were never quite still. [206] He looked from Halden to Emmer and back again. [207] "The hydroponics tech tells me you're contemplating an experiment. [208] I don't like it." [209] Halden shrugged. [210] "We've got to have better air. [211] It might work." [212] "Pests on the ship? [213] It's filthy! [214] My people would never tolerate it!" [215] "Neither do we." [216] The Ribboneer's distaste subsided. [217] "What kind of creatures are they?" [218] "I have a description, though I've never seen one. [219] It's a small four-legged animal with two antennae at the lower base of its skull. [220] A typical pest." [221] Taphetta rustled. [222] "Have you found out how it got on?" [223] "It was probably brought in with the supplies," said the biologist. [224] "Considering how far we've come, it may have been any one of a half a dozen planets. [225] Anyway, it hid, and since most of the places it had access to were near the outer hull, it got an extra dose of hard radiation, or it may have nested near the atomic engines; both are possibilities. [226] Either way, it mutated, became a different animal. [227] It's developed a tolerance for the poisons we spray on plants. [228] Other things it detects and avoids, even electronic traps." [229] "Then you believe it changed mentally as well as physically, that it's smarter?" [230] "I'd say that, yes. [231] It must be a fairly intelligent creature to be so hard to get rid of. [232] But it can be lured into traps, if the bait's strong enough." [233] "That's what I don't like," said Taphetta, curling. [234] "Let me think it over while I ask questions." [235] He turned to Emmer. [236] "I'm curious about humans. [237] Is there anything else you can tell me about the hypothetical ancestor?" [238] Emmer didn't look like the genius he was—a Neanderthal genius, but nonetheless a real one. [239] In his field, he rated very high. [240] He raised a stubble-flecked cheek from a large thick-fingered paw and ran shaggy hands through shaggier hair. [241] "I can speak with some authority," he rumbled. [242] "I was born on a world with the most extensive relics. [243] As a child, I played in the ruins of their camp." [244] "I don't question your authority," crinkled Taphetta. [245] "To me, all humans—late or early and male or female—look remarkably alike. [246] If you are an archeologist, that's enough for me." [247] He paused and flicked his speech ribbons. [248] "Camp, did you say?" [249] Emmer smiled, unsheathing great teeth. [250] "You've never seen any pictures? [251] Impressive, but just a camp, monolithic one-story structures, and we'd give something to know what they're made of. [252] Presumably my world was one of the first they stopped at. [253] They weren't used to roughing it, so they built more elaborately than they did later on. [254] One-story structures and that's how we can guess at their size. [255] The doorways were forty feet high." [256] "Very large," agreed Taphetta. [257] It was difficult to tell whether he was impressed. [258] "What did you find in the ruins?" [259] "Nothing," said Emmer. [260] "There were buildings there and that was all, not a scrap of writing or a tool or a single picture. [261] They covered a route estimated at thirty thousand light-years in less than five thousand years—and not one of them died that we have a record of." [262] "A faster-than-light drive and an extremely long life," mused Taphetta. [263] "But they didn't leave any information for their descendants. [264] Why?" [265] "Who knows? [266] Their mental processes were certainly far different from ours. [267] They may have thought we'd be better off without it. [268] We do know they were looking for a special kind of planet, like Earth, because they visited so many of that type, yet different from it because they never stayed. [269] They were pretty special people themselves, big and long-lived, and maybe they couldn't survive on any planet they found. [270] Perhaps they had ways of determining there wasn't the kind of planet they needed in the entire Milky Way. [271] Their science was tremendously advanced and when they learned that, they may have altered their germ plasm and left us, hoping that some of us would survive. [272] Most of us did." [273] "This special planet sounds strange," murmured Taphetta. [274] "Not really," said Emmer. [275] "Fifty human races reached space travel independently and those who did were scattered equally among early and late species. [276] It's well known that individuals among my people are often as bright as any of Halden's or Meredith's, but as a whole we don't have the total capacity that later Man does, and yet we're as advanced in civilization. [277] The difference? [278] It must lie somewhere in the planets we live on and it's hard to say just what it is." [279] "What happened to those who didn't develop space travel?" [280] asked Taphetta. [281] "We helped them," said Emmer. [282] And they had, no matter who or what they were, biologically late or early, in the depths of the bronze age or the threshold of atomic—because they were human. [283] That was sometimes a frightening thing for non-humans, that the race stuck together. [284] They weren't actually aggressive, but their total number was great and they held themselves aloof. [285] The unknown ancestor again. [286] Who else had such an origin and, it was tacitly assumed, such a destiny? [287] Taphetta changed his questioning. [288] "What do you expect to gain from this discovery of the unknown ancestor?" [289] It was Halden who answered him. [290] "There's the satisfaction of knowing where we came from." [291] "Of course," rustled the Ribboneer. [292] "But a lot of money and equipment was required for this expedition. [293] I can't believe that the educational institutions that are backing you did so purely out of intellectual curiosity." [294] "Cultural discoveries," rumbled Emmer. [295] "How did our ancestors live? [296] When a creature is greatly reduced in size, as we are, more than physiology is changed—the pattern of life itself is altered. [297] Things that were easy for them are impossible for us. [298] Look at their life span." [299] "No doubt," said Taphetta. [300] "An archeologist would be interested in cultural discoveries." [301] "Two hundred thousand years ago, they had an extremely advanced civilization," added Halden. [302] "A faster-than-light drive, and we've achieved that only within the last thousand years." [303] "But I think we have a better one than they did," said the Ribboneer. [304] "There may be things we can learn from them in mechanics or physics, but wouldn't you say they were better biologists than anything else?" [305] Halden nodded. [306] "Agreed. [307] They couldn't find a suitable planet. [308] So, working directly with their germ plasm, they modified themselves and produced us. [309] They were master biologists." [310] "I thought so," said Taphetta. [311] "I never paid much attention to your fantastic theories before I signed to pilot this ship, but you've built up a convincing case." [312] He raised his head, speech ribbons curling fractionally and ceaselessly. [313] "I don't like to, but we'll have to risk using bait for your pest." [314] He'd have done it anyway, but it was better to have the pilot's consent. [315] And there was one question Halden wanted to ask; it had been bothering him vaguely. [316] "What's the difference between the Ribboneer contract and the one we offered you? [317] Our terms are more liberal." [318] "To the individual, they are, but it won't matter if you discover as much as you think you will. [319] The difference is this: My terms don't permit you to withhold any discovery for the benefit of one race." [320] Taphetta was wrong; there had been no intention of withholding anything. [321] Halden examined his own attitudes. [322] He hadn't intended, but could he say that was true of the institutions backing the expedition? [323] He couldn't, and it was too late now—whatever knowledge they acquired would have to be shared. [324] That was what Taphetta had been afraid of—there was one kind of technical advancement that multiplied unceasingly. [325] The race that could improve itself through scientific control of its germ plasm had a start that could never be headed. [326] The Ribboneer needn't worry now. [327] "Why do we have to watch it on the screen?" [328] asked Meredith, glancing up. [329] "I'd rather be in hydroponics." [330] Halden shrugged. [331] "They may or may not be smarter than planetbound animals, but they're warier. [332] They don't come out when anyone's near." [333] Lights dimmed in the distant hydroponic section and the screen with it, until he adjusted the infra-red frequencies. [334] He motioned to the two crew members, each with his own peculiar screen, below which was a miniature keyboard. [335] "Ready?" [336] When they nodded, Halden said: "Do as you've rehearsed. [337] Keep noise at a minimum, but when you do use it, be vague. [338] Don't try to imitate them exactly." [339] At first, nothing happened on the big screen, and then a gray shape crept out. [340] It slid through leaves, listened intently before coming forward. [341] It jumped off one hydroponic section and fled across the open floor to the next. [342] It paused, eyes glittering and antennae twitching. [343] Looking around once, it leaped up, seizing the ledge and clawing up the side of the tank. [344] Standing on top and rising to its haunches, it began nibbling what it could reach. [345] Suddenly it whirled. [346] Behind it and hitherto unnoticed was another shape, like it but larger. [347] The newcomer inched forward. [348] The small one retreated, skittering nervously. [349] Without warning, the big one leaped and the small one tried to flee. [350] In a few jumps, the big one caught up and mauled the other unmercifully. [351] It continued to bite even after the little one lay still. [352] At last it backed off and waited, watching for signs of motion. [353] There was none. [354] Then it turned to the plant. [355] When it had chewed off everything within reach, it climbed into the branches. [356] The little one twitched, moved a leg, and cautiously began dragging itself away. [357] It rolled off the raised section and surprisingly made no noise as it fell. [358] It seemed to revive, shaking itself and scurrying away, still within range of the screen. [359] Against the wall was a small platform. [360] The little one climbed on top and there found something that seemed to interest it. [361] It sniffed around and reached and felt the discovery. [362] Wounds were forgotten as it snatched up the object and frisked back to the scene of its recent defeat. [363] This time it had no trouble with the raised section. [364] It leaped and landed on top and made considerable noise in doing so. [365] The big animal heard and twisted around. [366] It saw and clambered down hastily, jumping the last few feet. [367] Squealing, it hit the floor and charged. [368] The small one stood still till the last instant—and then a paw flickered out and an inch-long knife blade plunged into the throat of the charging creature. [369] Red spurted out as the bigger beast screamed. [370] The knife flashed in and out until the big animal collapsed and stopped moving. [371] The small creature removed the knife and wiped it on the pelt of its foe. [372] Then it scampered back to the platform on which the knife had been found— and laid it down . [373] At Halden's signal, the lights flared up and the screen became too bright for anything to be visible. [374] "Go in and get them," said Halden. [375] "We don't want the pests to find out that the bodies aren't flesh." [376] "It was realistic enough," said Meredith as the crewmen shut off their machines and went out. [377] "Do you think it will work?" [378] "It might. [379] We had an audience." [380] "Did we? [381] I didn't notice." [382] Meredith leaned back. [383] "Were the puppets exactly like the pests? [384] And if not, will the pests be fooled?" [385] "The electronic puppets were a good imitation, but the animals don't have to identify them as their species. [386] If they're smart enough, they'll know the value of a knife, no matter who uses it." [387] "What if they're smarter? [388] Suppose they know a knife can't be used by a creature without real hands?" [389] "That's part of our precautions. [390] They'll never know until they try—and they'll never get away from the trap to try." [391] "Very good. [392] I never thought of that," said Meredith, coming closer. [393] "I like the way your primitive mind works. [394] At times I actually think of marrying you." [395] "Primitive," he said, alternately frozen and thawed, though he knew that, in relation to her, he was not advanced. [396] "It's almost a curse, isn't it?" [397] She laughed and took the curse away by leaning provocatively against him. [398] "But barbaric lovers are often nice." [399] Here we go again, he thought drearily, sliding his arm around her. [400] To her, I'm merely a passionate savage. [401] They went to his cabin. [402] She sat down, smiling. [403] Was she pretty? [404] Maybe. [405] For her own race, she wasn't tall, only by Terran standards. [406] Her legs were disproportionately long and well shaped and her face was somewhat bland and featureless, except for a thin, straight, short nose. [407] It was her eyes that made the difference, he decided. [408] A notch or two up the scale of visual development, her eyes were larger and she could see an extra color on the violet end of the spectrum. [409] She settled back and looked at him. [410] "It might be fun living with you on primeval Earth." [411] He said nothing; she knew as well as he that Earth was as advanced as her own world. [412] She had something else in mind. [413] "I don't think I will, though. [414] We might have children." [415] "Would it be wrong?" [416] he asked. [417] "I'm as intelligent as you. [418] We wouldn't have subhuman monsters." [419] "It would be a step up—for you." [420] Under her calm, there was tension. [421] It had been there as long as he'd known her, but it was closer to the surface now. [422] "Do I have the right to condemn the unborn? [423] Should I make them start lower than I am?" [424] The conflict was not new nor confined to them. [425] In one form or another, it governed personal relations between races that were united against non-humans, but held sharp distinctions themselves. [426] "I haven't asked you to marry me," he said bluntly. [427] "Because you're afraid I'd refuse." [428] It was true; no one asked a member of a higher race to enter a permanent union. [429] "Why did you ever have anything to do with me?" [430] demanded Halden. [431] "Love," she said gloomily. [432] "Physical attraction. [433] But I can't let it lead me astray." [434] "Why not make a play for Kelburn? [435] If you're going to be scientific about it, he'd give you children of the higher type." [436] "Kelburn." [437] It didn't sound like a name, the way she said it. [438] "I don't like him and he wouldn't marry me." [439] "He wouldn't, but he'd give you children if you were humble enough. [440] There's a fifty per cent chance you might conceive." [441] She provocatively arched her back. [442] Not even the women of Kelburn's race had a body like hers and she knew it. [443] "Racially, there should be a chance," she said. [444] "Actually, Kelburn and I would be infertile." [445] "Can you be sure?" [446] he asked, knowing it was a poor attempt to act unconcerned. [447] "How can anyone be sure on a theoretical basis?" [448] she asked, an oblique smile narrowing her eyes. [449] "I know we can't." [450] His face felt anesthetized. [451] "Did you have to tell me that?" [452] She got up and came to him. [453] She nuzzled against him and his reaction was purely reflexive. [454] His hand swung out and he could feel the flesh give when his knuckles struck it. [455] She fell back and dazedly covered her face with her hand. [456] When she took it away, blood spurted. [457] She groped toward the mirror and stood in front of it. [458] She wiped the blood off, examining her features carefully. [459] "You've broken my nose," she said factually. [460] "I'll have to stop the blood and pain." [461] She pushed her nose back into place and waggled it to make sure. [462] She closed her eyes and stood silent and motionless. [463] Then she stepped back and looked at herself critically. [464] "It's set and partially knitted. [465] I'll concentrate tonight and have it healed by morning." [466] She felt in the cabinet and attached an invisible strip firmly across the bridge. [467] Then she came over to him. [468] "I wondered what you'd do. [469] You didn't disappoint me." [470] He scowled miserably at her. [471] Her face was almost plain and the bandage, invisible or not, didn't improve her appearance any. [472] How could he still feel that attraction to her? [473] "Try Emmer," he suggested tiredly. [474] "He'll find you irresistible, and he's even more savage than I am." [475] "Is he?" [476] She smiled enigmatically. [477] "Maybe, in a biological sense. [478] Too much, though. [479] You're just right." [480] He sat down on the bed. [481] Again there was only one way of knowing what Emmer would do—and she knew. [482] She had no concept of love outside of the physical, to make use of her body so as to gain an advantage—what advantage?—for the children she intended to have. [483] Outside of that, nothing mattered, and for the sake of alloying the lower with the higher, she was as cruel to herself as she was to him. [484] And yet he wanted her. [485] "I do think I love you," she said. [486] "And if love's enough, I may marry you in spite of everything. [487] But you'll have to watch out whose children I have." [488] She wriggled into his arms. [489] The racial disparity was great and she had provoked him, but it was not completely her fault. [490] Besides.... [491] Besides what? [492] She had a beautiful body that could bear superior children—and they might be his. [493] He twisted away. [494] With those thoughts, he was as bad as she was. [495] Were they all that way, every one of them, crawling upward out of the slime toward the highest goal they could conceive of? [496] Climbing over—no, through —everybody they could coerce, seduce or marry—onward and upward. [497] He raised his hand, but it was against himself that his anger was turned. [498] "Careful of the nose," she said, pressing against him. [499] "You've already broken it once." [500] He kissed her with sudden passion that even he knew was primitive.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [3] Man's family tree was awesome enough to give every galactic race an inferiority complex—but then he tried to climb it! 2. [12] "There are at least a hundred kinds of humans, each supposedly originating in strict seclusion on as many widely scattered planets. 3. [13] Obviously there was no contact throughout the ages before space travel— and yet each planetary race can interbreed with a minimum of ten others ! 4. [34] We have to conclude that Man didn't originate on any of the planets on which he is now found. 5. [35] Instead, he evolved elsewhere and later was scattered throughout this section of the Milky Way." 6. [36] "And so, to account for the unique race that can interbreed across thousands of light-years, you've brought in the big ancestor," commented Taphetta dryly. 7. [53] "We've got new data and are able to interpret it better. 8. [54] The theory is that humans who can mate with each other were once physically close. 9. [55] We've got a list of all our races arranged in sequence. 10. [56] If planetary race F can mate with race E back to A and forward to M, and race G is fertile only back to B, but forward to O, then we assume that whatever their positions are now, at once time G was actually adjacent to F, but was a little further along. 11. [57] When we project back into time those star systems on which humans existed prior to space travel, we get a certain pattern. 12. [70] Here's what happens when we calculate the positions of stars in the past." 13. [71] Flecks of light shifted and flowed across the screen. 14. [72] Kelburn stopped the motion. 15. [73] "Two hundred thousand years ago," he said. 16. [74] There was a pattern of the identified stars. 17. [75] They were spaced at fairly equal intervals along a regular curve, a horseshoe loop that didn't close, though if the ends were extended, the lines would have crossed. 18. [92] Now it's far more. 19. [93] And, of course, if it were a fast-moving star, it might be completely out of the field of our exploration. 20. [94] But we're certain we've got a good chance of finding it this trip." 21. [289] "There's the satisfaction of knowing where we came from." 22. [290] "Of course," rustled the Ribboneer. 23. [291] "But a lot of money and equipment was required for this expedition. 24. [292] I can't believe that the educational institutions that are backing you did so purely out of intellectual curiosity." 25. [293] "Cultural discoveries," rumbled Emmer. 26. [294] "How did our ancestors live? 27. [295] When a creature is greatly reduced in size, as we are, more than physiology is changed—the pattern of life itself is altered. 28. [296] Things that were easy for them are impossible for us. 29. [297] Look at their life span." 30. [301] "Two hundred thousand years ago, they had an extremely advanced civilization," added Halden. 31. [302] "A faster-than-light drive, and we've achieved that only within the last thousand years." 32. [307] "They couldn't find a suitable planet. 33. [308] So, working directly with their germ plasm, they modified themselves and produced us. 34. [309] They were master biologists."

Who is Garrett and what happens to him in the story?

[1] BIG ANCESTOR By F. L. WALLACE Illustrated by EMSH [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction November 1954. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] Man's family tree was awesome enough to give every galactic race an inferiority complex—but then he tried to climb it! [4] In repose, Taphetta the Ribboneer resembled a fancy giant bow on a package. [5] His four flat legs looped out and in, the ends tucked under his wide, thin body, which constituted the knot at the middle. [6] His neck was flat, too, arching out in another loop. [7] Of all his features, only his head had appreciable thickness and it was crowned with a dozen long though narrower ribbons. [8] Taphetta rattled the head fronds together in a surprisingly good imitation of speech. [9] "Yes, I've heard the legend." [10] "It's more than a legend," said Sam Halden, biologist. [11] The reaction was not unexpected—non-humans tended to dismiss the data as convenient speculation and nothing more. [12] "There are at least a hundred kinds of humans, each supposedly originating in strict seclusion on as many widely scattered planets. [13] Obviously there was no contact throughout the ages before space travel— and yet each planetary race can interbreed with a minimum of ten others ! [14] That's more than a legend—one hell of a lot more!" [15] "It is impressive," admitted Taphetta. [16] "But I find it mildly distasteful to consider mating with someone who does not belong to my species." [17] "That's because you're unique," said Halden. [18] "Outside of your own world, there's nothing like your species, except superficially, and that's true of all other creatures, intelligent or not, with the sole exception of mankind. [19] Actually, the four of us here, though it's accidental, very nearly represent the biological spectrum of human development. [20] "Emmer, a Neanderthal type and our archeologist, is around the beginning of the scale. [21] I'm from Earth, near the middle, though on Emmer's side. [22] Meredith, linguist, is on the other side of the middle. [23] And beyond her, toward the far end, is Kelburn, mathematician. [24] There's a corresponding span of fertility. [25] Emmer just misses being able to breed with my kind, but there's a fair chance that I'd be fertile with Meredith and a similar though lesser chance that her fertility may extend to Kelburn." [26] Taphetta rustled his speech ribbons quizzically. [27] "But I thought it was proved that some humans did originate on one planet, that there was an unbroken line of evolution that could be traced back a billion years." [28] "You're thinking of Earth," said Halden. [29] "Humans require a certain kind of planet. [30] It's reasonable to assume that, if men were set down on a hundred such worlds, they'd seem to fit in with native life-forms on a few of them. [31] That's what happened on Earth; when Man arrived, there was actually a manlike creature there. [32] Naturally our early evolutionists stretched their theories to cover the facts they had. [33] "But there are other worlds in which humans who were there before the Stone Age aren't related to anything else there. [34] We have to conclude that Man didn't originate on any of the planets on which he is now found. [35] Instead, he evolved elsewhere and later was scattered throughout this section of the Milky Way." [36] "And so, to account for the unique race that can interbreed across thousands of light-years, you've brought in the big ancestor," commented Taphetta dryly. [37] "It seems an unnecessary simplification." [38] "Can you think of a better explanation?" [39] asked Kelburn. [40] "Something had to distribute one species so widely and it's not the result of parallel evolution—not when a hundred human races are involved, and only the human race." [41] "I can't think of a better explanation." [42] Taphetta rearranged his ribbons. [43] "Frankly, no one else is much interested in Man's theories about himself." [44] It was easy to understand the attitude. [45] Man was the most numerous though not always the most advanced—Ribboneers had a civilization as high as anything in the known section of the Milky Way, and there were others—and humans were more than a little feared. [46] If they ever got together—but they hadn't except in agreement as to their common origin. [47] Still, Taphetta the Ribboneer was an experienced pilot and could be very useful. [48] A clear statement of their position was essential in helping him make up his mind. [49] "You've heard of the adjacency mating principle?" [50] asked Sam Halden. [51] "Vaguely. [52] Most people have if they've been around men." [53] "We've got new data and are able to interpret it better. [54] The theory is that humans who can mate with each other were once physically close. [55] We've got a list of all our races arranged in sequence. [56] If planetary race F can mate with race E back to A and forward to M, and race G is fertile only back to B, but forward to O, then we assume that whatever their positions are now, at once time G was actually adjacent to F, but was a little further along. [57] When we project back into time those star systems on which humans existed prior to space travel, we get a certain pattern. [58] Kelburn can explain it to you." [59] The normally pink body of the Ribboneer flushed slightly. [60] The color change was almost imperceptible, but it was enough to indicate that he was interested. [61] Kelburn went to the projector. [62] "It would be easier if we knew all the stars in the Milky Way, but though we've explored only a small portion of it, we can reconstruct a fairly accurate representation of the past." [63] He pressed the controls and stars twinkled on the screen. [64] "We're looking down on the plane of the Galaxy. [65] This is one arm of it as it is today and here are the human systems." [66] He pressed another control and, for purposes of identification, certain stars became more brilliant. [67] There was no pattern, merely a scattering of stars. [68] "The whole Milky Way is rotating. [69] And while stars in a given region tend to remain together, there's also a random motion. [70] Here's what happens when we calculate the positions of stars in the past." [71] Flecks of light shifted and flowed across the screen. [72] Kelburn stopped the motion. [73] "Two hundred thousand years ago," he said. [74] There was a pattern of the identified stars. [75] They were spaced at fairly equal intervals along a regular curve, a horseshoe loop that didn't close, though if the ends were extended, the lines would have crossed. [76] Taphetta rustled. [77] "The math is accurate?" [78] "As accurate as it can be with a million-plus body problem." [79] "And that's the hypothetical route of the unknown ancestor?" [80] "To the best of our knowledge," said Kelburn. [81] "And whereas there are humans who are relatively near and not fertile, they can always mate with those they were adjacent to two hundred thousand years ago !" [82] "The adjacency mating principle. [83] I've never seen it demonstrated," murmured Taphetta, flexing his ribbons. [84] "Is that the only era that satisfies the calculations?" [85] "Plus or minus a hundred thousand years, we can still get something that might be the path of a spaceship attempting to cover a representative section of territory," said Kelburn. [86] "However, we have other ways of dating it. [87] On some worlds on which there are no other mammals, we're able to place the first human fossils chronologically. [88] The evidence is sometimes contradictory, but we believe we've got the time right." [89] Taphetta waved a ribbon at the chart. [90] "And you think that where the two ends of the curve cross is your original home?" [91] "We think so," said Kelburn. [92] "We've narrowed it down to several cubic light-years—then. [93] Now it's far more. [94] And, of course, if it were a fast-moving star, it might be completely out of the field of our exploration. [95] But we're certain we've got a good chance of finding it this trip." [96] "It seems I must decide quickly." [97] The Ribboneer glanced out the visionport, where another ship hung motionless in space beside them. [98] "Do you mind if I ask other questions?" [99] "Go ahead," Kelburn invited sardonically. [100] "But if it's not math, you'd better ask Halden. [101] He's the leader of the expedition." [102] Halden flushed; the sarcasm wasn't necessary. [103] It was true that Kelburn was the most advanced human type present, but while there were differences, biological and in the scale of intelligence, it wasn't as great as once was thought. [104] Anyway, non-humans weren't trained in the fine distinctions that men made among themselves. [105] And, higher or lower, he was as good a biologist as the other was a mathematician. [106] And there was the matter of training; he'd been on several expeditions and this was Kelburn's first trip. [107] Damn it, he thought, that rated some respect. [108] The Ribboneer shifted his attention. [109] "Aside from the sudden illness of your pilot, why did you ask for me?" [110] "We didn't. [111] The man became sick and required treatment we can't give him. [112] Luckily, a ship was passing and we hailed it because it's four months to the nearest planet. [113] They consented to take him back and told us that there was a passenger on board who was an experienced pilot. [114] We have men who could do the job in a makeshift fashion, but the region we're heading for, while mapped, is largely unknown. [115] We'd prefer to have an expert—and Ribboneers are famous for their navigational ability." [116] Taphetta crinkled politely at the reference to his skill. [117] "I had other plans, but I can't evade professional obligations, and an emergency such as this should cancel out any previous agreements. [118] Still, what are the incentives?" [119] Sam Halden coughed. [120] "The usual, plus a little extra. [121] We've copied the Ribboneer's standard nature, simplifying it a little and adding a per cent here and there for the crew pilot and scientist's share of the profits from any discoveries we may make." [122] "I'm complimented that you like our contract so well," said Taphetta, "but I really must have our own unsimplified version. [123] If you want me, you'll take my contract. [124] I came prepared." [125] He extended a tightly bound roll that he had kept somewhere on his person. [126] They glanced at one another as Halden took it. [127] "You can read it if you want," offered Taphetta. [128] "But it will take you all day—it's micro-printing. [129] However, you needn't be afraid that I'm defrauding you. [130] It's honored everywhere we go and we go nearly everywhere in this sector—places men have never been." [131] There was no choice if they wanted him, and they did. [132] Besides, the integrity of Ribboneers was not to be questioned. [133] Halden signed. [134] "Good." [135] Taphetta crinkled. [136] "Send it to the ship; they'll forward it for me. [137] And you can tell the ship to go on without me." [138] He rubbed his ribbons together. [139] "Now if you'll get me the charts, I'll examine the region toward which we're heading." [140] Firmon of hydroponics slouched in, a tall man with scanty hair and an equal lack of grace. [141] He seemed to have difficulty in taking his eyes off Meredith, though, since he was a notch or so above her in the mating scale, he shouldn't have been so interested. [142] But his planet had been inexplicably slow in developing and he wasn't completely aware of his place in the human hierarchy. [143] Disdainfully, Meredith adjusted a skirt that, a few inches shorter, wouldn't have been a skirt at all, revealing, while doing so, just how long and beautiful a woman's legs could be. [144] Her people had never given much thought to physical modesty and, with legs like that, it was easy to see why. [145] Muttering something about primitive women, Firmon turned to the biologist. [146] "The pilot doesn't like our air." [147] "Then change it to suit him. [148] He's in charge of the ship and knows more about these things than I do." [149] "More than a man?" [150] Firmon leered at Meredith and, when she failed to smile, added plaintively, "I did try to change it, but he still complains." [151] Halden took a deep breath. [152] "Seems all right to me." [153] "To everybody else, too, but the tapeworm hasn't got lungs. [154] He breathes through a million tubes scattered over his body." [155] It would do no good to explain that Taphetta wasn't a worm, that his evolution had taken a different course, but that he was in no sense less complex than Man. [156] It was a paradox that some biologically higher humans hadn't developed as much as lower races and actually weren't prepared for the multitude of life-forms they'd meet in space. [157] Firmon's reaction was quite typical. [158] "If he asks for cleaner air, it's because his system needs it," said Halden. [159] "Do anything you can to give it to him." [160] "Can't. [161] This is as good as I can get it. [162] Taphetta thought you could do something about it." [163] "Hydroponics is your job. [164] There's nothing I can do." [165] Halden paused thoughtfully. [166] "Is there something wrong with the plants?" [167] "In a way, I guess, and yet not really." [168] "What is it, some kind of toxic condition?" [169] "The plants are healthy enough, but something's chewing them down as fast as they grow." [170] "Insects? [171] There shouldn't be any, but if there are, we've got sprays. [172] Use them." [173] "It's an animal," said Firmon. [174] "We tried poison and got a few, but now they won't touch the stuff. [175] I had electronics rig up some traps. [176] The animals seem to know what they are and we've never caught one that way." [177] Halden glowered at the man. [178] "How long has this been going on?" [179] "About three months. [180] It's not bad; we can keep up with them." [181] It was probably nothing to become alarmed at, but an animal on the ship was a nuisance, doubly so because of their pilot. [182] "Tell me what you know about it," said Halden. [183] "They're little things." [184] Firmon held out his hands to show how small. [185] "I don't know how they got on, but once they did, there were plenty of places to hide." [186] He looked up defensively. [187] "This is an old ship with new equipment and they hide under the machinery. [188] There's nothing we can do except rebuild the ship from the hull inward." [189] Firmon was right. [190] The new equipment had been installed in any place just to get it in and now there were inaccessible corners and crevices everywhere that couldn't be closed off without rebuilding. [191] They couldn't set up a continuous watch and shoot the animals down because there weren't that many men to spare. [192] Besides, the use of weapons in hydroponics would cause more damage to the thing they were trying to protect than to the pest. [193] He'd have to devise other ways. [194] Sam Halden got up. [195] "I'll take a look and see what I can do." [196] "I'll come along and help," said Meredith, untwining her legs and leaning against him. [197] "Your mistress ought to have some sort of privileges." [198] Halden started. [199] So she knew that the crew was calling her that! [200] Perhaps it was intended to discourage Firmon, but he wished she hadn't said it. [201] It didn't help the situation at all. [202] Taphetta sat in a chair designed for humans. [203] With a less flexible body, he wouldn't have fitted. [204] Maybe it wasn't sitting, but his flat legs were folded neatly around the arms and his head rested comfortably on the seat. [205] The head ribbons, which were his hands and voice, were never quite still. [206] He looked from Halden to Emmer and back again. [207] "The hydroponics tech tells me you're contemplating an experiment. [208] I don't like it." [209] Halden shrugged. [210] "We've got to have better air. [211] It might work." [212] "Pests on the ship? [213] It's filthy! [214] My people would never tolerate it!" [215] "Neither do we." [216] The Ribboneer's distaste subsided. [217] "What kind of creatures are they?" [218] "I have a description, though I've never seen one. [219] It's a small four-legged animal with two antennae at the lower base of its skull. [220] A typical pest." [221] Taphetta rustled. [222] "Have you found out how it got on?" [223] "It was probably brought in with the supplies," said the biologist. [224] "Considering how far we've come, it may have been any one of a half a dozen planets. [225] Anyway, it hid, and since most of the places it had access to were near the outer hull, it got an extra dose of hard radiation, or it may have nested near the atomic engines; both are possibilities. [226] Either way, it mutated, became a different animal. [227] It's developed a tolerance for the poisons we spray on plants. [228] Other things it detects and avoids, even electronic traps." [229] "Then you believe it changed mentally as well as physically, that it's smarter?" [230] "I'd say that, yes. [231] It must be a fairly intelligent creature to be so hard to get rid of. [232] But it can be lured into traps, if the bait's strong enough." [233] "That's what I don't like," said Taphetta, curling. [234] "Let me think it over while I ask questions." [235] He turned to Emmer. [236] "I'm curious about humans. [237] Is there anything else you can tell me about the hypothetical ancestor?" [238] Emmer didn't look like the genius he was—a Neanderthal genius, but nonetheless a real one. [239] In his field, he rated very high. [240] He raised a stubble-flecked cheek from a large thick-fingered paw and ran shaggy hands through shaggier hair. [241] "I can speak with some authority," he rumbled. [242] "I was born on a world with the most extensive relics. [243] As a child, I played in the ruins of their camp." [244] "I don't question your authority," crinkled Taphetta. [245] "To me, all humans—late or early and male or female—look remarkably alike. [246] If you are an archeologist, that's enough for me." [247] He paused and flicked his speech ribbons. [248] "Camp, did you say?" [249] Emmer smiled, unsheathing great teeth. [250] "You've never seen any pictures? [251] Impressive, but just a camp, monolithic one-story structures, and we'd give something to know what they're made of. [252] Presumably my world was one of the first they stopped at. [253] They weren't used to roughing it, so they built more elaborately than they did later on. [254] One-story structures and that's how we can guess at their size. [255] The doorways were forty feet high." [256] "Very large," agreed Taphetta. [257] It was difficult to tell whether he was impressed. [258] "What did you find in the ruins?" [259] "Nothing," said Emmer. [260] "There were buildings there and that was all, not a scrap of writing or a tool or a single picture. [261] They covered a route estimated at thirty thousand light-years in less than five thousand years—and not one of them died that we have a record of." [262] "A faster-than-light drive and an extremely long life," mused Taphetta. [263] "But they didn't leave any information for their descendants. [264] Why?" [265] "Who knows? [266] Their mental processes were certainly far different from ours. [267] They may have thought we'd be better off without it. [268] We do know they were looking for a special kind of planet, like Earth, because they visited so many of that type, yet different from it because they never stayed. [269] They were pretty special people themselves, big and long-lived, and maybe they couldn't survive on any planet they found. [270] Perhaps they had ways of determining there wasn't the kind of planet they needed in the entire Milky Way. [271] Their science was tremendously advanced and when they learned that, they may have altered their germ plasm and left us, hoping that some of us would survive. [272] Most of us did." [273] "This special planet sounds strange," murmured Taphetta. [274] "Not really," said Emmer. [275] "Fifty human races reached space travel independently and those who did were scattered equally among early and late species. [276] It's well known that individuals among my people are often as bright as any of Halden's or Meredith's, but as a whole we don't have the total capacity that later Man does, and yet we're as advanced in civilization. [277] The difference? [278] It must lie somewhere in the planets we live on and it's hard to say just what it is." [279] "What happened to those who didn't develop space travel?" [280] asked Taphetta. [281] "We helped them," said Emmer. [282] And they had, no matter who or what they were, biologically late or early, in the depths of the bronze age or the threshold of atomic—because they were human. [283] That was sometimes a frightening thing for non-humans, that the race stuck together. [284] They weren't actually aggressive, but their total number was great and they held themselves aloof. [285] The unknown ancestor again. [286] Who else had such an origin and, it was tacitly assumed, such a destiny? [287] Taphetta changed his questioning. [288] "What do you expect to gain from this discovery of the unknown ancestor?" [289] It was Halden who answered him. [290] "There's the satisfaction of knowing where we came from." [291] "Of course," rustled the Ribboneer. [292] "But a lot of money and equipment was required for this expedition. [293] I can't believe that the educational institutions that are backing you did so purely out of intellectual curiosity." [294] "Cultural discoveries," rumbled Emmer. [295] "How did our ancestors live? [296] When a creature is greatly reduced in size, as we are, more than physiology is changed—the pattern of life itself is altered. [297] Things that were easy for them are impossible for us. [298] Look at their life span." [299] "No doubt," said Taphetta. [300] "An archeologist would be interested in cultural discoveries." [301] "Two hundred thousand years ago, they had an extremely advanced civilization," added Halden. [302] "A faster-than-light drive, and we've achieved that only within the last thousand years." [303] "But I think we have a better one than they did," said the Ribboneer. [304] "There may be things we can learn from them in mechanics or physics, but wouldn't you say they were better biologists than anything else?" [305] Halden nodded. [306] "Agreed. [307] They couldn't find a suitable planet. [308] So, working directly with their germ plasm, they modified themselves and produced us. [309] They were master biologists." [310] "I thought so," said Taphetta. [311] "I never paid much attention to your fantastic theories before I signed to pilot this ship, but you've built up a convincing case." [312] He raised his head, speech ribbons curling fractionally and ceaselessly. [313] "I don't like to, but we'll have to risk using bait for your pest." [314] He'd have done it anyway, but it was better to have the pilot's consent. [315] And there was one question Halden wanted to ask; it had been bothering him vaguely. [316] "What's the difference between the Ribboneer contract and the one we offered you? [317] Our terms are more liberal." [318] "To the individual, they are, but it won't matter if you discover as much as you think you will. [319] The difference is this: My terms don't permit you to withhold any discovery for the benefit of one race." [320] Taphetta was wrong; there had been no intention of withholding anything. [321] Halden examined his own attitudes. [322] He hadn't intended, but could he say that was true of the institutions backing the expedition? [323] He couldn't, and it was too late now—whatever knowledge they acquired would have to be shared. [324] That was what Taphetta had been afraid of—there was one kind of technical advancement that multiplied unceasingly. [325] The race that could improve itself through scientific control of its germ plasm had a start that could never be headed. [326] The Ribboneer needn't worry now. [327] "Why do we have to watch it on the screen?" [328] asked Meredith, glancing up. [329] "I'd rather be in hydroponics." [330] Halden shrugged. [331] "They may or may not be smarter than planetbound animals, but they're warier. [332] They don't come out when anyone's near." [333] Lights dimmed in the distant hydroponic section and the screen with it, until he adjusted the infra-red frequencies. [334] He motioned to the two crew members, each with his own peculiar screen, below which was a miniature keyboard. [335] "Ready?" [336] When they nodded, Halden said: "Do as you've rehearsed. [337] Keep noise at a minimum, but when you do use it, be vague. [338] Don't try to imitate them exactly." [339] At first, nothing happened on the big screen, and then a gray shape crept out. [340] It slid through leaves, listened intently before coming forward. [341] It jumped off one hydroponic section and fled across the open floor to the next. [342] It paused, eyes glittering and antennae twitching. [343] Looking around once, it leaped up, seizing the ledge and clawing up the side of the tank. [344] Standing on top and rising to its haunches, it began nibbling what it could reach. [345] Suddenly it whirled. [346] Behind it and hitherto unnoticed was another shape, like it but larger. [347] The newcomer inched forward. [348] The small one retreated, skittering nervously. [349] Without warning, the big one leaped and the small one tried to flee. [350] In a few jumps, the big one caught up and mauled the other unmercifully. [351] It continued to bite even after the little one lay still. [352] At last it backed off and waited, watching for signs of motion. [353] There was none. [354] Then it turned to the plant. [355] When it had chewed off everything within reach, it climbed into the branches. [356] The little one twitched, moved a leg, and cautiously began dragging itself away. [357] It rolled off the raised section and surprisingly made no noise as it fell. [358] It seemed to revive, shaking itself and scurrying away, still within range of the screen. [359] Against the wall was a small platform. [360] The little one climbed on top and there found something that seemed to interest it. [361] It sniffed around and reached and felt the discovery. [362] Wounds were forgotten as it snatched up the object and frisked back to the scene of its recent defeat. [363] This time it had no trouble with the raised section. [364] It leaped and landed on top and made considerable noise in doing so. [365] The big animal heard and twisted around. [366] It saw and clambered down hastily, jumping the last few feet. [367] Squealing, it hit the floor and charged. [368] The small one stood still till the last instant—and then a paw flickered out and an inch-long knife blade plunged into the throat of the charging creature. [369] Red spurted out as the bigger beast screamed. [370] The knife flashed in and out until the big animal collapsed and stopped moving. [371] The small creature removed the knife and wiped it on the pelt of its foe. [372] Then it scampered back to the platform on which the knife had been found— and laid it down . [373] At Halden's signal, the lights flared up and the screen became too bright for anything to be visible. [374] "Go in and get them," said Halden. [375] "We don't want the pests to find out that the bodies aren't flesh." [376] "It was realistic enough," said Meredith as the crewmen shut off their machines and went out. [377] "Do you think it will work?" [378] "It might. [379] We had an audience." [380] "Did we? [381] I didn't notice." [382] Meredith leaned back. [383] "Were the puppets exactly like the pests? [384] And if not, will the pests be fooled?" [385] "The electronic puppets were a good imitation, but the animals don't have to identify them as their species. [386] If they're smart enough, they'll know the value of a knife, no matter who uses it." [387] "What if they're smarter? [388] Suppose they know a knife can't be used by a creature without real hands?" [389] "That's part of our precautions. [390] They'll never know until they try—and they'll never get away from the trap to try." [391] "Very good. [392] I never thought of that," said Meredith, coming closer. [393] "I like the way your primitive mind works. [394] At times I actually think of marrying you." [395] "Primitive," he said, alternately frozen and thawed, though he knew that, in relation to her, he was not advanced. [396] "It's almost a curse, isn't it?" [397] She laughed and took the curse away by leaning provocatively against him. [398] "But barbaric lovers are often nice." [399] Here we go again, he thought drearily, sliding his arm around her. [400] To her, I'm merely a passionate savage. [401] They went to his cabin. [402] She sat down, smiling. [403] Was she pretty? [404] Maybe. [405] For her own race, she wasn't tall, only by Terran standards. [406] Her legs were disproportionately long and well shaped and her face was somewhat bland and featureless, except for a thin, straight, short nose. [407] It was her eyes that made the difference, he decided. [408] A notch or two up the scale of visual development, her eyes were larger and she could see an extra color on the violet end of the spectrum. [409] She settled back and looked at him. [410] "It might be fun living with you on primeval Earth." [411] He said nothing; she knew as well as he that Earth was as advanced as her own world. [412] She had something else in mind. [413] "I don't think I will, though. [414] We might have children." [415] "Would it be wrong?" [416] he asked. [417] "I'm as intelligent as you. [418] We wouldn't have subhuman monsters." [419] "It would be a step up—for you." [420] Under her calm, there was tension. [421] It had been there as long as he'd known her, but it was closer to the surface now. [422] "Do I have the right to condemn the unborn? [423] Should I make them start lower than I am?" [424] The conflict was not new nor confined to them. [425] In one form or another, it governed personal relations between races that were united against non-humans, but held sharp distinctions themselves. [426] "I haven't asked you to marry me," he said bluntly. [427] "Because you're afraid I'd refuse." [428] It was true; no one asked a member of a higher race to enter a permanent union. [429] "Why did you ever have anything to do with me?" [430] demanded Halden. [431] "Love," she said gloomily. [432] "Physical attraction. [433] But I can't let it lead me astray." [434] "Why not make a play for Kelburn? [435] If you're going to be scientific about it, he'd give you children of the higher type." [436] "Kelburn." [437] It didn't sound like a name, the way she said it. [438] "I don't like him and he wouldn't marry me." [439] "He wouldn't, but he'd give you children if you were humble enough. [440] There's a fifty per cent chance you might conceive." [441] She provocatively arched her back. [442] Not even the women of Kelburn's race had a body like hers and she knew it. [443] "Racially, there should be a chance," she said. [444] "Actually, Kelburn and I would be infertile." [445] "Can you be sure?" [446] he asked, knowing it was a poor attempt to act unconcerned. [447] "How can anyone be sure on a theoretical basis?" [448] she asked, an oblique smile narrowing her eyes. [449] "I know we can't." [450] His face felt anesthetized. [451] "Did you have to tell me that?" [452] She got up and came to him. [453] She nuzzled against him and his reaction was purely reflexive. [454] His hand swung out and he could feel the flesh give when his knuckles struck it. [455] She fell back and dazedly covered her face with her hand. [456] When she took it away, blood spurted. [457] She groped toward the mirror and stood in front of it. [458] She wiped the blood off, examining her features carefully. [459] "You've broken my nose," she said factually. [460] "I'll have to stop the blood and pain." [461] She pushed her nose back into place and waggled it to make sure. [462] She closed her eyes and stood silent and motionless. [463] Then she stepped back and looked at herself critically. [464] "It's set and partially knitted. [465] I'll concentrate tonight and have it healed by morning." [466] She felt in the cabinet and attached an invisible strip firmly across the bridge. [467] Then she came over to him. [468] "I wondered what you'd do. [469] You didn't disappoint me." [470] He scowled miserably at her. [471] Her face was almost plain and the bandage, invisible or not, didn't improve her appearance any. [472] How could he still feel that attraction to her? [473] "Try Emmer," he suggested tiredly. [474] "He'll find you irresistible, and he's even more savage than I am." [475] "Is he?" [476] She smiled enigmatically. [477] "Maybe, in a biological sense. [478] Too much, though. [479] You're just right." [480] He sat down on the bed. [481] Again there was only one way of knowing what Emmer would do—and she knew. [482] She had no concept of love outside of the physical, to make use of her body so as to gain an advantage—what advantage?—for the children she intended to have. [483] Outside of that, nothing mattered, and for the sake of alloying the lower with the higher, she was as cruel to herself as she was to him. [484] And yet he wanted her. [485] "I do think I love you," she said. [486] "And if love's enough, I may marry you in spite of everything. [487] But you'll have to watch out whose children I have." [488] She wriggled into his arms. [489] The racial disparity was great and she had provoked him, but it was not completely her fault. [490] Besides.... [491] Besides what? [492] She had a beautiful body that could bear superior children—and they might be his. [493] He twisted away. [494] With those thoughts, he was as bad as she was. [495] Were they all that way, every one of them, crawling upward out of the slime toward the highest goal they could conceive of? [496] Climbing over—no, through —everybody they could coerce, seduce or marry—onward and upward. [497] He raised his hand, but it was against himself that his anger was turned. [498] "Careful of the nose," she said, pressing against him. [499] "You've already broken it once." [500] He kissed her with sudden passion that even he knew was primitive.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Who is Garrett and what happens to him in the story?": 1. [1] BIG ANCESTOR By F. L. WALLACE Illustrated by EMSH [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction November 1954. 2. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 3. [140] Firmon of hydroponics slouched in, a tall man with scanty hair and an equal lack of grace. 4. [141] He seemed to have difficulty in taking his eyes off Meredith, though, since he was a notch or so above her in the mating scale, he shouldn't have been so interested. 5. [142] But his planet had been inexplicably slow in developing and he wasn't completely aware of his place in the human hierarchy. 6. [143] Disdainfully, Meredith adjusted a skirt that, a few inches shorter, wouldn't have been a skirt at all, revealing, while doing so, just how long and beautiful a woman's legs could be. 7. [144] Her people had never given much thought to physical modesty and, with legs like that, it was easy to see why. 8. [145] Muttering something about primitive women, Firmon turned to the biologist. 9. [146] "The pilot doesn't like our air." 10. [147] "Then change it to suit him. He's in charge of the ship and knows more about these things than I do." 11. [148] "More than a man?" 12. [149] Firmon leered at Meredith and, when she failed to smile, added plaintively, "I did try to change it, but he still complains." 13. [150] Halden took a deep breath. 14. [151] "Seems all right to me." 15. [152] "To everybody else, too, but the tapeworm hasn't got lungs. He breathes through a million tubes scattered over his body." 16. [153] It would do no good to explain that Taphetta wasn't a worm, that his evolution had taken a different course, but that he was in no sense less complex than Man. 17. [154] It was a paradox that some biologically higher humans hadn't developed as much as lower races and actually weren't prepared for the multitude of life-forms they'd meet in space. 18. [155] Firmon's reaction was quite typical. 19. [156] "If he asks for cleaner air, it's because his system needs it," said Halden. 20. [157] "Do anything you can to give it to him." 21. [158] "Can't. This is as good as I can get it. Taphetta thought you could do something about it." 22. [159] "Hydroponics is your job. There's nothing I can do." 23. [160] Halden paused thoughtfully. 24. [161] "Is there something wrong with the plants?" 25. [162] "In a way, I guess, and yet not really." 26. [163] "What is it, some kind of toxic condition?" 27. [164] "The plants are healthy enough, but something's chewing them down as fast as they grow." 28. [165] "Insects? There shouldn't be any, but if there are, we've got sprays. Use them." 29. [166] "It's an animal," said Firmon. 30. [167] "We tried poison and got a few, but now they won't touch the stuff." 31. [168] "I had electronics rig up some traps. The animals seem to know what they are and we've never caught one that way." 32. [169] Halden glowered at the man. 33. [170] "How long has this been going on?" 34. [171] "About three months. It's not bad; we can keep up with them." 35. [172] It was probably nothing to become alarmed at, but an animal on the ship was a nuisance, doubly so because of their pilot. 36. [173] "Tell me what you know about it," said Halden. 37. [174] "They're little things." Firmon held out his hands to show how small. 38. [175] "I don't know how they got on, but once they did, there were plenty of places to hide." 39. [176] He looked up defensively. "This is an old ship with new equipment and they hide under the machinery. There's nothing we can do except rebuild the ship from the hull inward." 40. [177] Firmon was right. The new equipment had been installed in any place just to get it in and now there were inaccessible corners and crevices everywhere that couldn't be closed off without rebuilding. 41. [178] They couldn't set up a continuous watch and shoot the animals down because there weren't that many men to spare. 42. [179] Besides, the use of weapons in hydroponics would cause more damage to the thing they were trying to protect than to the pest. 43. [180] He'd have to devise other ways. 44. [181] Sam Halden got up. 45. [182] "I'll take a look and see what I can do." 46. [183] "I'll come along and help," said Meredith, untwining her legs and leaning against him. 47. [184] "Your mistress ought to have some sort of privileges." 48. [185] Halden started. So she knew that the crew was calling her that! 49. [186] Perhaps it was intended to discourage Firmon, but he wished she hadn't said it. 50. [187] It didn't help the situation at all. The context sentences do not mention anyone named Garrett or describe anything that happens to him. The story is focused on the expedition crew and their interactions with the Ribboneer pilot Taphetta, as well as the problem with pests infesting the ship's hydroponics system. There is no information provided about a character named Garrett.

What is the relationship between Meredith and Halden?

[1] BIG ANCESTOR By F. L. WALLACE Illustrated by EMSH [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction November 1954. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] Man's family tree was awesome enough to give every galactic race an inferiority complex—but then he tried to climb it! [4] In repose, Taphetta the Ribboneer resembled a fancy giant bow on a package. [5] His four flat legs looped out and in, the ends tucked under his wide, thin body, which constituted the knot at the middle. [6] His neck was flat, too, arching out in another loop. [7] Of all his features, only his head had appreciable thickness and it was crowned with a dozen long though narrower ribbons. [8] Taphetta rattled the head fronds together in a surprisingly good imitation of speech. [9] "Yes, I've heard the legend." [10] "It's more than a legend," said Sam Halden, biologist. [11] The reaction was not unexpected—non-humans tended to dismiss the data as convenient speculation and nothing more. [12] "There are at least a hundred kinds of humans, each supposedly originating in strict seclusion on as many widely scattered planets. [13] Obviously there was no contact throughout the ages before space travel— and yet each planetary race can interbreed with a minimum of ten others ! [14] That's more than a legend—one hell of a lot more!" [15] "It is impressive," admitted Taphetta. [16] "But I find it mildly distasteful to consider mating with someone who does not belong to my species." [17] "That's because you're unique," said Halden. [18] "Outside of your own world, there's nothing like your species, except superficially, and that's true of all other creatures, intelligent or not, with the sole exception of mankind. [19] Actually, the four of us here, though it's accidental, very nearly represent the biological spectrum of human development. [20] "Emmer, a Neanderthal type and our archeologist, is around the beginning of the scale. [21] I'm from Earth, near the middle, though on Emmer's side. [22] Meredith, linguist, is on the other side of the middle. [23] And beyond her, toward the far end, is Kelburn, mathematician. [24] There's a corresponding span of fertility. [25] Emmer just misses being able to breed with my kind, but there's a fair chance that I'd be fertile with Meredith and a similar though lesser chance that her fertility may extend to Kelburn." [26] Taphetta rustled his speech ribbons quizzically. [27] "But I thought it was proved that some humans did originate on one planet, that there was an unbroken line of evolution that could be traced back a billion years." [28] "You're thinking of Earth," said Halden. [29] "Humans require a certain kind of planet. [30] It's reasonable to assume that, if men were set down on a hundred such worlds, they'd seem to fit in with native life-forms on a few of them. [31] That's what happened on Earth; when Man arrived, there was actually a manlike creature there. [32] Naturally our early evolutionists stretched their theories to cover the facts they had. [33] "But there are other worlds in which humans who were there before the Stone Age aren't related to anything else there. [34] We have to conclude that Man didn't originate on any of the planets on which he is now found. [35] Instead, he evolved elsewhere and later was scattered throughout this section of the Milky Way." [36] "And so, to account for the unique race that can interbreed across thousands of light-years, you've brought in the big ancestor," commented Taphetta dryly. [37] "It seems an unnecessary simplification." [38] "Can you think of a better explanation?" [39] asked Kelburn. [40] "Something had to distribute one species so widely and it's not the result of parallel evolution—not when a hundred human races are involved, and only the human race." [41] "I can't think of a better explanation." [42] Taphetta rearranged his ribbons. [43] "Frankly, no one else is much interested in Man's theories about himself." [44] It was easy to understand the attitude. [45] Man was the most numerous though not always the most advanced—Ribboneers had a civilization as high as anything in the known section of the Milky Way, and there were others—and humans were more than a little feared. [46] If they ever got together—but they hadn't except in agreement as to their common origin. [47] Still, Taphetta the Ribboneer was an experienced pilot and could be very useful. [48] A clear statement of their position was essential in helping him make up his mind. [49] "You've heard of the adjacency mating principle?" [50] asked Sam Halden. [51] "Vaguely. [52] Most people have if they've been around men." [53] "We've got new data and are able to interpret it better. [54] The theory is that humans who can mate with each other were once physically close. [55] We've got a list of all our races arranged in sequence. [56] If planetary race F can mate with race E back to A and forward to M, and race G is fertile only back to B, but forward to O, then we assume that whatever their positions are now, at once time G was actually adjacent to F, but was a little further along. [57] When we project back into time those star systems on which humans existed prior to space travel, we get a certain pattern. [58] Kelburn can explain it to you." [59] The normally pink body of the Ribboneer flushed slightly. [60] The color change was almost imperceptible, but it was enough to indicate that he was interested. [61] Kelburn went to the projector. [62] "It would be easier if we knew all the stars in the Milky Way, but though we've explored only a small portion of it, we can reconstruct a fairly accurate representation of the past." [63] He pressed the controls and stars twinkled on the screen. [64] "We're looking down on the plane of the Galaxy. [65] This is one arm of it as it is today and here are the human systems." [66] He pressed another control and, for purposes of identification, certain stars became more brilliant. [67] There was no pattern, merely a scattering of stars. [68] "The whole Milky Way is rotating. [69] And while stars in a given region tend to remain together, there's also a random motion. [70] Here's what happens when we calculate the positions of stars in the past." [71] Flecks of light shifted and flowed across the screen. [72] Kelburn stopped the motion. [73] "Two hundred thousand years ago," he said. [74] There was a pattern of the identified stars. [75] They were spaced at fairly equal intervals along a regular curve, a horseshoe loop that didn't close, though if the ends were extended, the lines would have crossed. [76] Taphetta rustled. [77] "The math is accurate?" [78] "As accurate as it can be with a million-plus body problem." [79] "And that's the hypothetical route of the unknown ancestor?" [80] "To the best of our knowledge," said Kelburn. [81] "And whereas there are humans who are relatively near and not fertile, they can always mate with those they were adjacent to two hundred thousand years ago !" [82] "The adjacency mating principle. [83] I've never seen it demonstrated," murmured Taphetta, flexing his ribbons. [84] "Is that the only era that satisfies the calculations?" [85] "Plus or minus a hundred thousand years, we can still get something that might be the path of a spaceship attempting to cover a representative section of territory," said Kelburn. [86] "However, we have other ways of dating it. [87] On some worlds on which there are no other mammals, we're able to place the first human fossils chronologically. [88] The evidence is sometimes contradictory, but we believe we've got the time right." [89] Taphetta waved a ribbon at the chart. [90] "And you think that where the two ends of the curve cross is your original home?" [91] "We think so," said Kelburn. [92] "We've narrowed it down to several cubic light-years—then. [93] Now it's far more. [94] And, of course, if it were a fast-moving star, it might be completely out of the field of our exploration. [95] But we're certain we've got a good chance of finding it this trip." [96] "It seems I must decide quickly." [97] The Ribboneer glanced out the visionport, where another ship hung motionless in space beside them. [98] "Do you mind if I ask other questions?" [99] "Go ahead," Kelburn invited sardonically. [100] "But if it's not math, you'd better ask Halden. [101] He's the leader of the expedition." [102] Halden flushed; the sarcasm wasn't necessary. [103] It was true that Kelburn was the most advanced human type present, but while there were differences, biological and in the scale of intelligence, it wasn't as great as once was thought. [104] Anyway, non-humans weren't trained in the fine distinctions that men made among themselves. [105] And, higher or lower, he was as good a biologist as the other was a mathematician. [106] And there was the matter of training; he'd been on several expeditions and this was Kelburn's first trip. [107] Damn it, he thought, that rated some respect. [108] The Ribboneer shifted his attention. [109] "Aside from the sudden illness of your pilot, why did you ask for me?" [110] "We didn't. [111] The man became sick and required treatment we can't give him. [112] Luckily, a ship was passing and we hailed it because it's four months to the nearest planet. [113] They consented to take him back and told us that there was a passenger on board who was an experienced pilot. [114] We have men who could do the job in a makeshift fashion, but the region we're heading for, while mapped, is largely unknown. [115] We'd prefer to have an expert—and Ribboneers are famous for their navigational ability." [116] Taphetta crinkled politely at the reference to his skill. [117] "I had other plans, but I can't evade professional obligations, and an emergency such as this should cancel out any previous agreements. [118] Still, what are the incentives?" [119] Sam Halden coughed. [120] "The usual, plus a little extra. [121] We've copied the Ribboneer's standard nature, simplifying it a little and adding a per cent here and there for the crew pilot and scientist's share of the profits from any discoveries we may make." [122] "I'm complimented that you like our contract so well," said Taphetta, "but I really must have our own unsimplified version. [123] If you want me, you'll take my contract. [124] I came prepared." [125] He extended a tightly bound roll that he had kept somewhere on his person. [126] They glanced at one another as Halden took it. [127] "You can read it if you want," offered Taphetta. [128] "But it will take you all day—it's micro-printing. [129] However, you needn't be afraid that I'm defrauding you. [130] It's honored everywhere we go and we go nearly everywhere in this sector—places men have never been." [131] There was no choice if they wanted him, and they did. [132] Besides, the integrity of Ribboneers was not to be questioned. [133] Halden signed. [134] "Good." [135] Taphetta crinkled. [136] "Send it to the ship; they'll forward it for me. [137] And you can tell the ship to go on without me." [138] He rubbed his ribbons together. [139] "Now if you'll get me the charts, I'll examine the region toward which we're heading." [140] Firmon of hydroponics slouched in, a tall man with scanty hair and an equal lack of grace. [141] He seemed to have difficulty in taking his eyes off Meredith, though, since he was a notch or so above her in the mating scale, he shouldn't have been so interested. [142] But his planet had been inexplicably slow in developing and he wasn't completely aware of his place in the human hierarchy. [143] Disdainfully, Meredith adjusted a skirt that, a few inches shorter, wouldn't have been a skirt at all, revealing, while doing so, just how long and beautiful a woman's legs could be. [144] Her people had never given much thought to physical modesty and, with legs like that, it was easy to see why. [145] Muttering something about primitive women, Firmon turned to the biologist. [146] "The pilot doesn't like our air." [147] "Then change it to suit him. [148] He's in charge of the ship and knows more about these things than I do." [149] "More than a man?" [150] Firmon leered at Meredith and, when she failed to smile, added plaintively, "I did try to change it, but he still complains." [151] Halden took a deep breath. [152] "Seems all right to me." [153] "To everybody else, too, but the tapeworm hasn't got lungs. [154] He breathes through a million tubes scattered over his body." [155] It would do no good to explain that Taphetta wasn't a worm, that his evolution had taken a different course, but that he was in no sense less complex than Man. [156] It was a paradox that some biologically higher humans hadn't developed as much as lower races and actually weren't prepared for the multitude of life-forms they'd meet in space. [157] Firmon's reaction was quite typical. [158] "If he asks for cleaner air, it's because his system needs it," said Halden. [159] "Do anything you can to give it to him." [160] "Can't. [161] This is as good as I can get it. [162] Taphetta thought you could do something about it." [163] "Hydroponics is your job. [164] There's nothing I can do." [165] Halden paused thoughtfully. [166] "Is there something wrong with the plants?" [167] "In a way, I guess, and yet not really." [168] "What is it, some kind of toxic condition?" [169] "The plants are healthy enough, but something's chewing them down as fast as they grow." [170] "Insects? [171] There shouldn't be any, but if there are, we've got sprays. [172] Use them." [173] "It's an animal," said Firmon. [174] "We tried poison and got a few, but now they won't touch the stuff. [175] I had electronics rig up some traps. [176] The animals seem to know what they are and we've never caught one that way." [177] Halden glowered at the man. [178] "How long has this been going on?" [179] "About three months. [180] It's not bad; we can keep up with them." [181] It was probably nothing to become alarmed at, but an animal on the ship was a nuisance, doubly so because of their pilot. [182] "Tell me what you know about it," said Halden. [183] "They're little things." [184] Firmon held out his hands to show how small. [185] "I don't know how they got on, but once they did, there were plenty of places to hide." [186] He looked up defensively. [187] "This is an old ship with new equipment and they hide under the machinery. [188] There's nothing we can do except rebuild the ship from the hull inward." [189] Firmon was right. [190] The new equipment had been installed in any place just to get it in and now there were inaccessible corners and crevices everywhere that couldn't be closed off without rebuilding. [191] They couldn't set up a continuous watch and shoot the animals down because there weren't that many men to spare. [192] Besides, the use of weapons in hydroponics would cause more damage to the thing they were trying to protect than to the pest. [193] He'd have to devise other ways. [194] Sam Halden got up. [195] "I'll take a look and see what I can do." [196] "I'll come along and help," said Meredith, untwining her legs and leaning against him. [197] "Your mistress ought to have some sort of privileges." [198] Halden started. [199] So she knew that the crew was calling her that! [200] Perhaps it was intended to discourage Firmon, but he wished she hadn't said it. [201] It didn't help the situation at all. [202] Taphetta sat in a chair designed for humans. [203] With a less flexible body, he wouldn't have fitted. [204] Maybe it wasn't sitting, but his flat legs were folded neatly around the arms and his head rested comfortably on the seat. [205] The head ribbons, which were his hands and voice, were never quite still. [206] He looked from Halden to Emmer and back again. [207] "The hydroponics tech tells me you're contemplating an experiment. [208] I don't like it." [209] Halden shrugged. [210] "We've got to have better air. [211] It might work." [212] "Pests on the ship? [213] It's filthy! [214] My people would never tolerate it!" [215] "Neither do we." [216] The Ribboneer's distaste subsided. [217] "What kind of creatures are they?" [218] "I have a description, though I've never seen one. [219] It's a small four-legged animal with two antennae at the lower base of its skull. [220] A typical pest." [221] Taphetta rustled. [222] "Have you found out how it got on?" [223] "It was probably brought in with the supplies," said the biologist. [224] "Considering how far we've come, it may have been any one of a half a dozen planets. [225] Anyway, it hid, and since most of the places it had access to were near the outer hull, it got an extra dose of hard radiation, or it may have nested near the atomic engines; both are possibilities. [226] Either way, it mutated, became a different animal. [227] It's developed a tolerance for the poisons we spray on plants. [228] Other things it detects and avoids, even electronic traps." [229] "Then you believe it changed mentally as well as physically, that it's smarter?" [230] "I'd say that, yes. [231] It must be a fairly intelligent creature to be so hard to get rid of. [232] But it can be lured into traps, if the bait's strong enough." [233] "That's what I don't like," said Taphetta, curling. [234] "Let me think it over while I ask questions." [235] He turned to Emmer. [236] "I'm curious about humans. [237] Is there anything else you can tell me about the hypothetical ancestor?" [238] Emmer didn't look like the genius he was—a Neanderthal genius, but nonetheless a real one. [239] In his field, he rated very high. [240] He raised a stubble-flecked cheek from a large thick-fingered paw and ran shaggy hands through shaggier hair. [241] "I can speak with some authority," he rumbled. [242] "I was born on a world with the most extensive relics. [243] As a child, I played in the ruins of their camp." [244] "I don't question your authority," crinkled Taphetta. [245] "To me, all humans—late or early and male or female—look remarkably alike. [246] If you are an archeologist, that's enough for me." [247] He paused and flicked his speech ribbons. [248] "Camp, did you say?" [249] Emmer smiled, unsheathing great teeth. [250] "You've never seen any pictures? [251] Impressive, but just a camp, monolithic one-story structures, and we'd give something to know what they're made of. [252] Presumably my world was one of the first they stopped at. [253] They weren't used to roughing it, so they built more elaborately than they did later on. [254] One-story structures and that's how we can guess at their size. [255] The doorways were forty feet high." [256] "Very large," agreed Taphetta. [257] It was difficult to tell whether he was impressed. [258] "What did you find in the ruins?" [259] "Nothing," said Emmer. [260] "There were buildings there and that was all, not a scrap of writing or a tool or a single picture. [261] They covered a route estimated at thirty thousand light-years in less than five thousand years—and not one of them died that we have a record of." [262] "A faster-than-light drive and an extremely long life," mused Taphetta. [263] "But they didn't leave any information for their descendants. [264] Why?" [265] "Who knows? [266] Their mental processes were certainly far different from ours. [267] They may have thought we'd be better off without it. [268] We do know they were looking for a special kind of planet, like Earth, because they visited so many of that type, yet different from it because they never stayed. [269] They were pretty special people themselves, big and long-lived, and maybe they couldn't survive on any planet they found. [270] Perhaps they had ways of determining there wasn't the kind of planet they needed in the entire Milky Way. [271] Their science was tremendously advanced and when they learned that, they may have altered their germ plasm and left us, hoping that some of us would survive. [272] Most of us did." [273] "This special planet sounds strange," murmured Taphetta. [274] "Not really," said Emmer. [275] "Fifty human races reached space travel independently and those who did were scattered equally among early and late species. [276] It's well known that individuals among my people are often as bright as any of Halden's or Meredith's, but as a whole we don't have the total capacity that later Man does, and yet we're as advanced in civilization. [277] The difference? [278] It must lie somewhere in the planets we live on and it's hard to say just what it is." [279] "What happened to those who didn't develop space travel?" [280] asked Taphetta. [281] "We helped them," said Emmer. [282] And they had, no matter who or what they were, biologically late or early, in the depths of the bronze age or the threshold of atomic—because they were human. [283] That was sometimes a frightening thing for non-humans, that the race stuck together. [284] They weren't actually aggressive, but their total number was great and they held themselves aloof. [285] The unknown ancestor again. [286] Who else had such an origin and, it was tacitly assumed, such a destiny? [287] Taphetta changed his questioning. [288] "What do you expect to gain from this discovery of the unknown ancestor?" [289] It was Halden who answered him. [290] "There's the satisfaction of knowing where we came from." [291] "Of course," rustled the Ribboneer. [292] "But a lot of money and equipment was required for this expedition. [293] I can't believe that the educational institutions that are backing you did so purely out of intellectual curiosity." [294] "Cultural discoveries," rumbled Emmer. [295] "How did our ancestors live? [296] When a creature is greatly reduced in size, as we are, more than physiology is changed—the pattern of life itself is altered. [297] Things that were easy for them are impossible for us. [298] Look at their life span." [299] "No doubt," said Taphetta. [300] "An archeologist would be interested in cultural discoveries." [301] "Two hundred thousand years ago, they had an extremely advanced civilization," added Halden. [302] "A faster-than-light drive, and we've achieved that only within the last thousand years." [303] "But I think we have a better one than they did," said the Ribboneer. [304] "There may be things we can learn from them in mechanics or physics, but wouldn't you say they were better biologists than anything else?" [305] Halden nodded. [306] "Agreed. [307] They couldn't find a suitable planet. [308] So, working directly with their germ plasm, they modified themselves and produced us. [309] They were master biologists." [310] "I thought so," said Taphetta. [311] "I never paid much attention to your fantastic theories before I signed to pilot this ship, but you've built up a convincing case." [312] He raised his head, speech ribbons curling fractionally and ceaselessly. [313] "I don't like to, but we'll have to risk using bait for your pest." [314] He'd have done it anyway, but it was better to have the pilot's consent. [315] And there was one question Halden wanted to ask; it had been bothering him vaguely. [316] "What's the difference between the Ribboneer contract and the one we offered you? [317] Our terms are more liberal." [318] "To the individual, they are, but it won't matter if you discover as much as you think you will. [319] The difference is this: My terms don't permit you to withhold any discovery for the benefit of one race." [320] Taphetta was wrong; there had been no intention of withholding anything. [321] Halden examined his own attitudes. [322] He hadn't intended, but could he say that was true of the institutions backing the expedition? [323] He couldn't, and it was too late now—whatever knowledge they acquired would have to be shared. [324] That was what Taphetta had been afraid of—there was one kind of technical advancement that multiplied unceasingly. [325] The race that could improve itself through scientific control of its germ plasm had a start that could never be headed. [326] The Ribboneer needn't worry now. [327] "Why do we have to watch it on the screen?" [328] asked Meredith, glancing up. [329] "I'd rather be in hydroponics." [330] Halden shrugged. [331] "They may or may not be smarter than planetbound animals, but they're warier. [332] They don't come out when anyone's near." [333] Lights dimmed in the distant hydroponic section and the screen with it, until he adjusted the infra-red frequencies. [334] He motioned to the two crew members, each with his own peculiar screen, below which was a miniature keyboard. [335] "Ready?" [336] When they nodded, Halden said: "Do as you've rehearsed. [337] Keep noise at a minimum, but when you do use it, be vague. [338] Don't try to imitate them exactly." [339] At first, nothing happened on the big screen, and then a gray shape crept out. [340] It slid through leaves, listened intently before coming forward. [341] It jumped off one hydroponic section and fled across the open floor to the next. [342] It paused, eyes glittering and antennae twitching. [343] Looking around once, it leaped up, seizing the ledge and clawing up the side of the tank. [344] Standing on top and rising to its haunches, it began nibbling what it could reach. [345] Suddenly it whirled. [346] Behind it and hitherto unnoticed was another shape, like it but larger. [347] The newcomer inched forward. [348] The small one retreated, skittering nervously. [349] Without warning, the big one leaped and the small one tried to flee. [350] In a few jumps, the big one caught up and mauled the other unmercifully. [351] It continued to bite even after the little one lay still. [352] At last it backed off and waited, watching for signs of motion. [353] There was none. [354] Then it turned to the plant. [355] When it had chewed off everything within reach, it climbed into the branches. [356] The little one twitched, moved a leg, and cautiously began dragging itself away. [357] It rolled off the raised section and surprisingly made no noise as it fell. [358] It seemed to revive, shaking itself and scurrying away, still within range of the screen. [359] Against the wall was a small platform. [360] The little one climbed on top and there found something that seemed to interest it. [361] It sniffed around and reached and felt the discovery. [362] Wounds were forgotten as it snatched up the object and frisked back to the scene of its recent defeat. [363] This time it had no trouble with the raised section. [364] It leaped and landed on top and made considerable noise in doing so. [365] The big animal heard and twisted around. [366] It saw and clambered down hastily, jumping the last few feet. [367] Squealing, it hit the floor and charged. [368] The small one stood still till the last instant—and then a paw flickered out and an inch-long knife blade plunged into the throat of the charging creature. [369] Red spurted out as the bigger beast screamed. [370] The knife flashed in and out until the big animal collapsed and stopped moving. [371] The small creature removed the knife and wiped it on the pelt of its foe. [372] Then it scampered back to the platform on which the knife had been found— and laid it down . [373] At Halden's signal, the lights flared up and the screen became too bright for anything to be visible. [374] "Go in and get them," said Halden. [375] "We don't want the pests to find out that the bodies aren't flesh." [376] "It was realistic enough," said Meredith as the crewmen shut off their machines and went out. [377] "Do you think it will work?" [378] "It might. [379] We had an audience." [380] "Did we? [381] I didn't notice." [382] Meredith leaned back. [383] "Were the puppets exactly like the pests? [384] And if not, will the pests be fooled?" [385] "The electronic puppets were a good imitation, but the animals don't have to identify them as their species. [386] If they're smart enough, they'll know the value of a knife, no matter who uses it." [387] "What if they're smarter? [388] Suppose they know a knife can't be used by a creature without real hands?" [389] "That's part of our precautions. [390] They'll never know until they try—and they'll never get away from the trap to try." [391] "Very good. [392] I never thought of that," said Meredith, coming closer. [393] "I like the way your primitive mind works. [394] At times I actually think of marrying you." [395] "Primitive," he said, alternately frozen and thawed, though he knew that, in relation to her, he was not advanced. [396] "It's almost a curse, isn't it?" [397] She laughed and took the curse away by leaning provocatively against him. [398] "But barbaric lovers are often nice." [399] Here we go again, he thought drearily, sliding his arm around her. [400] To her, I'm merely a passionate savage. [401] They went to his cabin. [402] She sat down, smiling. [403] Was she pretty? [404] Maybe. [405] For her own race, she wasn't tall, only by Terran standards. [406] Her legs were disproportionately long and well shaped and her face was somewhat bland and featureless, except for a thin, straight, short nose. [407] It was her eyes that made the difference, he decided. [408] A notch or two up the scale of visual development, her eyes were larger and she could see an extra color on the violet end of the spectrum. [409] She settled back and looked at him. [410] "It might be fun living with you on primeval Earth." [411] He said nothing; she knew as well as he that Earth was as advanced as her own world. [412] She had something else in mind. [413] "I don't think I will, though. [414] We might have children." [415] "Would it be wrong?" [416] he asked. [417] "I'm as intelligent as you. [418] We wouldn't have subhuman monsters." [419] "It would be a step up—for you." [420] Under her calm, there was tension. [421] It had been there as long as he'd known her, but it was closer to the surface now. [422] "Do I have the right to condemn the unborn? [423] Should I make them start lower than I am?" [424] The conflict was not new nor confined to them. [425] In one form or another, it governed personal relations between races that were united against non-humans, but held sharp distinctions themselves. [426] "I haven't asked you to marry me," he said bluntly. [427] "Because you're afraid I'd refuse." [428] It was true; no one asked a member of a higher race to enter a permanent union. [429] "Why did you ever have anything to do with me?" [430] demanded Halden. [431] "Love," she said gloomily. [432] "Physical attraction. [433] But I can't let it lead me astray." [434] "Why not make a play for Kelburn? [435] If you're going to be scientific about it, he'd give you children of the higher type." [436] "Kelburn." [437] It didn't sound like a name, the way she said it. [438] "I don't like him and he wouldn't marry me." [439] "He wouldn't, but he'd give you children if you were humble enough. [440] There's a fifty per cent chance you might conceive." [441] She provocatively arched her back. [442] Not even the women of Kelburn's race had a body like hers and she knew it. [443] "Racially, there should be a chance," she said. [444] "Actually, Kelburn and I would be infertile." [445] "Can you be sure?" [446] he asked, knowing it was a poor attempt to act unconcerned. [447] "How can anyone be sure on a theoretical basis?" [448] she asked, an oblique smile narrowing her eyes. [449] "I know we can't." [450] His face felt anesthetized. [451] "Did you have to tell me that?" [452] She got up and came to him. [453] She nuzzled against him and his reaction was purely reflexive. [454] His hand swung out and he could feel the flesh give when his knuckles struck it. [455] She fell back and dazedly covered her face with her hand. [456] When she took it away, blood spurted. [457] She groped toward the mirror and stood in front of it. [458] She wiped the blood off, examining her features carefully. [459] "You've broken my nose," she said factually. [460] "I'll have to stop the blood and pain." [461] She pushed her nose back into place and waggled it to make sure. [462] She closed her eyes and stood silent and motionless. [463] Then she stepped back and looked at herself critically. [464] "It's set and partially knitted. [465] I'll concentrate tonight and have it healed by morning." [466] She felt in the cabinet and attached an invisible strip firmly across the bridge. [467] Then she came over to him. [468] "I wondered what you'd do. [469] You didn't disappoint me." [470] He scowled miserably at her. [471] Her face was almost plain and the bandage, invisible or not, didn't improve her appearance any. [472] How could he still feel that attraction to her? [473] "Try Emmer," he suggested tiredly. [474] "He'll find you irresistible, and he's even more savage than I am." [475] "Is he?" [476] She smiled enigmatically. [477] "Maybe, in a biological sense. [478] Too much, though. [479] You're just right." [480] He sat down on the bed. [481] Again there was only one way of knowing what Emmer would do—and she knew. [482] She had no concept of love outside of the physical, to make use of her body so as to gain an advantage—what advantage?—for the children she intended to have. [483] Outside of that, nothing mattered, and for the sake of alloying the lower with the higher, she was as cruel to herself as she was to him. [484] And yet he wanted her. [485] "I do think I love you," she said. [486] "And if love's enough, I may marry you in spite of everything. [487] But you'll have to watch out whose children I have." [488] She wriggled into his arms. [489] The racial disparity was great and she had provoked him, but it was not completely her fault. [490] Besides.... [491] Besides what? [492] She had a beautiful body that could bear superior children—and they might be his. [493] He twisted away. [494] With those thoughts, he was as bad as she was. [495] Were they all that way, every one of them, crawling upward out of the slime toward the highest goal they could conceive of? [496] Climbing over—no, through —everybody they could coerce, seduce or marry—onward and upward. [497] He raised his hand, but it was against himself that his anger was turned. [498] "Careful of the nose," she said, pressing against him. [499] "You've already broken it once." [500] He kissed her with sudden passion that even he knew was primitive.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the relationship between Meredith and Halden?": 1. [196] "Your mistress ought to have some sort of privileges." 2. [197] Halden started. So she knew that the crew was calling her that! 3. [398] "But barbaric lovers are often nice." 4. [399] Here we go again, he thought drearily, sliding his arm around her. 5. [400] To her, I'm merely a passionate savage. 6. [401] They went to his cabin. 7. [402] She sat down, smiling. 8. [403] Was she pretty? 9. [404] Maybe. 10. [405] For her own race, she wasn't tall, only by Terran standards. 11. [406] Her legs were disproportionately long and well shaped and her face was somewhat bland and featureless, except for a thin, straight, short nose. 12. [407] It was her eyes that made the difference, he decided. 13. [408] A notch or two up the scale of visual development, her eyes were larger and she could see an extra color on the violet end of the spectrum. 14. [409] She settled back and looked at him. 15. [410] "It might be fun living with you on primeval Earth." 16. [411] He said nothing; she knew as well as he that Earth was as advanced as her own world. 17. [412] She had something else in mind. 18. [413] "I don't think I will, though. We might have children." 19. [414] "Would it be wrong?" he asked. 20. [415] "I'm as intelligent as you. We wouldn't have subhuman monsters." 21. [416] "It would be a step up—for you." 22. [417] Under her calm, there was tension. 23. [418] It had been there as long as he'd known her, but it was closer to the surface now. 24. [419] "Do I have the right to condemn the unborn? Should I make them start lower than I am?" 25. [420] The conflict was not new nor confined to them. 26. [421] In one form or another, it governed personal relations between races that were united against non-humans, but held sharp distinctions themselves. 27. [422] "I haven't asked you to marry me," he said bluntly. 28. [423] "Because you're afraid I'd refuse." 29. [424] It was true; no one asked a member of a higher race to enter a permanent union. 30. [425] "Why did you ever have anything to do with me?" demanded Halden. 31. [426] "Love," she said gloomily. 32. [427] "Physical attraction. But I can't let it lead me astray." 33. [428] "Why not make a play for Kelburn? If you're going to be scientific about it, he'd give you children of the higher type." 34. [429] "Kelburn." It didn't sound like a name, the way she said it. 35. [430] "I don't like him and he wouldn't marry me." 36. [431] "He wouldn't, but he'd give you children if you were humble enough. There's a fifty per cent chance you might conceive." 37. [432] She provocatively arched her back. 38. [433] Not even the women of Kelburn's race had a body like hers and she knew it. 39. [434] "Racially, there should be a chance," she said. 40. [435] "Actually, Kelburn and I would be infertile." 41. [436] "Can you be sure?" he asked, knowing it was a poor attempt to act unconcerned. 42. [437] "How can anyone be sure on a theoretical basis?" she asked, an oblique smile narrowing her eyes. 43. [438] "I know we can't." 44. [439] His face felt anesthetized. 45. [440] "Did you have to tell me that?" 46. [441] She got up and came to him. 47. [442] She nuzzled against him and his reaction was purely reflexive. 48. [443] His hand swung out and he could feel the flesh give when his knuckles struck it. 49. [444] She fell back and dazedly covered her face with her hand. 50. [445] When she took it away, blood spurted. 51. [446] She groped toward the mirror and stood in front of it. 52. [447] She wiped the blood off, examining her features carefully. 53. [448] "You've broken my nose," she said factually. 54. [449] "I'll have to stop the blood and pain." 55. [450] She pushed her nose back into place and waggled it to make sure. 56. [451] She closed her eyes and stood silent and motionless. 57. [452] Then she stepped back and looked at herself critically. 58. [453] "It's set and partially knitted. I'll concentrate tonight and have it healed by morning." 59. [454] She felt in the cabinet and attached an invisible strip firmly across the bridge. 60. [455] Then she came over to him. 61. [456] "I wondered what you'd do. You didn't disappoint me." 62. [457] He scowled miserably at her. 63. [458] Her face was almost plain and the bandage, invisible or not, didn't improve her appearance any. 64. [459] How could he still feel that attraction to her? 65. [460] "Try Emmer," he suggested tiredly. 66. [461] "He'll find you irresistible, and he's even more savage than I am." 67. [462] "Is he?" She smiled enigmatically. 68. [463] "Maybe, in a biological sense. Too much, though. You're just right." 69. [464] He sat down on the bed. 70. [465] Again there was only one way of knowing what Emmer would do—and she knew. 71. [466] She had no concept of love outside of the physical, to make use of her body so as to gain an advantage—what advantage?—for the children she intended to have. 72. [467] Outside of that, nothing mattered, and for the sake of alloying the lower with the higher, she was as cruel to herself as she was to him. 73. [468] And yet he wanted her. 74. [469] "I do think I love you," she said. 75. [470] "And if love's enough, I may marry you in spite of everything. But you'll have to watch out whose children I have." 76. [471] She wriggled into his arms. 77. [472] The racial disparity was great and she had provoked him, but it was not completely her fault. 78. [473] Besides.... 79. [474] Besides what? 80. [475] She had a beautiful body that could bear superior children—and they might be his. 81. [476] He twisted away. 82. [477] With those thoughts, he was as bad as she was. 83. [478] Were they all that way, every one of them, crawling upward out of the slime toward the highest goal they could conceive of? 84. [479] Climbing over—no, through —everybody they could coerce, seduce or marry—onward and upward. 85. [480] He raised his hand, but it was against himself that his anger was turned. 86. [481] "Careful of the nose," she said, pressing against him. 87. [482] "You've already broken it once." 88. [483] He kissed her with sudden passion that even he knew was primitive.

What is the mission of the expedition and its theory?

[1] BIG ANCESTOR By F. L. WALLACE Illustrated by EMSH [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction November 1954. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] Man's family tree was awesome enough to give every galactic race an inferiority complex—but then he tried to climb it! [4] In repose, Taphetta the Ribboneer resembled a fancy giant bow on a package. [5] His four flat legs looped out and in, the ends tucked under his wide, thin body, which constituted the knot at the middle. [6] His neck was flat, too, arching out in another loop. [7] Of all his features, only his head had appreciable thickness and it was crowned with a dozen long though narrower ribbons. [8] Taphetta rattled the head fronds together in a surprisingly good imitation of speech. [9] "Yes, I've heard the legend." [10] "It's more than a legend," said Sam Halden, biologist. [11] The reaction was not unexpected—non-humans tended to dismiss the data as convenient speculation and nothing more. [12] "There are at least a hundred kinds of humans, each supposedly originating in strict seclusion on as many widely scattered planets. [13] Obviously there was no contact throughout the ages before space travel— and yet each planetary race can interbreed with a minimum of ten others ! [14] That's more than a legend—one hell of a lot more!" [15] "It is impressive," admitted Taphetta. [16] "But I find it mildly distasteful to consider mating with someone who does not belong to my species." [17] "That's because you're unique," said Halden. [18] "Outside of your own world, there's nothing like your species, except superficially, and that's true of all other creatures, intelligent or not, with the sole exception of mankind. [19] Actually, the four of us here, though it's accidental, very nearly represent the biological spectrum of human development. [20] "Emmer, a Neanderthal type and our archeologist, is around the beginning of the scale. [21] I'm from Earth, near the middle, though on Emmer's side. [22] Meredith, linguist, is on the other side of the middle. [23] And beyond her, toward the far end, is Kelburn, mathematician. [24] There's a corresponding span of fertility. [25] Emmer just misses being able to breed with my kind, but there's a fair chance that I'd be fertile with Meredith and a similar though lesser chance that her fertility may extend to Kelburn." [26] Taphetta rustled his speech ribbons quizzically. [27] "But I thought it was proved that some humans did originate on one planet, that there was an unbroken line of evolution that could be traced back a billion years." [28] "You're thinking of Earth," said Halden. [29] "Humans require a certain kind of planet. [30] It's reasonable to assume that, if men were set down on a hundred such worlds, they'd seem to fit in with native life-forms on a few of them. [31] That's what happened on Earth; when Man arrived, there was actually a manlike creature there. [32] Naturally our early evolutionists stretched their theories to cover the facts they had. [33] "But there are other worlds in which humans who were there before the Stone Age aren't related to anything else there. [34] We have to conclude that Man didn't originate on any of the planets on which he is now found. [35] Instead, he evolved elsewhere and later was scattered throughout this section of the Milky Way." [36] "And so, to account for the unique race that can interbreed across thousands of light-years, you've brought in the big ancestor," commented Taphetta dryly. [37] "It seems an unnecessary simplification." [38] "Can you think of a better explanation?" [39] asked Kelburn. [40] "Something had to distribute one species so widely and it's not the result of parallel evolution—not when a hundred human races are involved, and only the human race." [41] "I can't think of a better explanation." [42] Taphetta rearranged his ribbons. [43] "Frankly, no one else is much interested in Man's theories about himself." [44] It was easy to understand the attitude. [45] Man was the most numerous though not always the most advanced—Ribboneers had a civilization as high as anything in the known section of the Milky Way, and there were others—and humans were more than a little feared. [46] If they ever got together—but they hadn't except in agreement as to their common origin. [47] Still, Taphetta the Ribboneer was an experienced pilot and could be very useful. [48] A clear statement of their position was essential in helping him make up his mind. [49] "You've heard of the adjacency mating principle?" [50] asked Sam Halden. [51] "Vaguely. [52] Most people have if they've been around men." [53] "We've got new data and are able to interpret it better. [54] The theory is that humans who can mate with each other were once physically close. [55] We've got a list of all our races arranged in sequence. [56] If planetary race F can mate with race E back to A and forward to M, and race G is fertile only back to B, but forward to O, then we assume that whatever their positions are now, at once time G was actually adjacent to F, but was a little further along. [57] When we project back into time those star systems on which humans existed prior to space travel, we get a certain pattern. [58] Kelburn can explain it to you." [59] The normally pink body of the Ribboneer flushed slightly. [60] The color change was almost imperceptible, but it was enough to indicate that he was interested. [61] Kelburn went to the projector. [62] "It would be easier if we knew all the stars in the Milky Way, but though we've explored only a small portion of it, we can reconstruct a fairly accurate representation of the past." [63] He pressed the controls and stars twinkled on the screen. [64] "We're looking down on the plane of the Galaxy. [65] This is one arm of it as it is today and here are the human systems." [66] He pressed another control and, for purposes of identification, certain stars became more brilliant. [67] There was no pattern, merely a scattering of stars. [68] "The whole Milky Way is rotating. [69] And while stars in a given region tend to remain together, there's also a random motion. [70] Here's what happens when we calculate the positions of stars in the past." [71] Flecks of light shifted and flowed across the screen. [72] Kelburn stopped the motion. [73] "Two hundred thousand years ago," he said. [74] There was a pattern of the identified stars. [75] They were spaced at fairly equal intervals along a regular curve, a horseshoe loop that didn't close, though if the ends were extended, the lines would have crossed. [76] Taphetta rustled. [77] "The math is accurate?" [78] "As accurate as it can be with a million-plus body problem." [79] "And that's the hypothetical route of the unknown ancestor?" [80] "To the best of our knowledge," said Kelburn. [81] "And whereas there are humans who are relatively near and not fertile, they can always mate with those they were adjacent to two hundred thousand years ago !" [82] "The adjacency mating principle. [83] I've never seen it demonstrated," murmured Taphetta, flexing his ribbons. [84] "Is that the only era that satisfies the calculations?" [85] "Plus or minus a hundred thousand years, we can still get something that might be the path of a spaceship attempting to cover a representative section of territory," said Kelburn. [86] "However, we have other ways of dating it. [87] On some worlds on which there are no other mammals, we're able to place the first human fossils chronologically. [88] The evidence is sometimes contradictory, but we believe we've got the time right." [89] Taphetta waved a ribbon at the chart. [90] "And you think that where the two ends of the curve cross is your original home?" [91] "We think so," said Kelburn. [92] "We've narrowed it down to several cubic light-years—then. [93] Now it's far more. [94] And, of course, if it were a fast-moving star, it might be completely out of the field of our exploration. [95] But we're certain we've got a good chance of finding it this trip." [96] "It seems I must decide quickly." [97] The Ribboneer glanced out the visionport, where another ship hung motionless in space beside them. [98] "Do you mind if I ask other questions?" [99] "Go ahead," Kelburn invited sardonically. [100] "But if it's not math, you'd better ask Halden. [101] He's the leader of the expedition." [102] Halden flushed; the sarcasm wasn't necessary. [103] It was true that Kelburn was the most advanced human type present, but while there were differences, biological and in the scale of intelligence, it wasn't as great as once was thought. [104] Anyway, non-humans weren't trained in the fine distinctions that men made among themselves. [105] And, higher or lower, he was as good a biologist as the other was a mathematician. [106] And there was the matter of training; he'd been on several expeditions and this was Kelburn's first trip. [107] Damn it, he thought, that rated some respect. [108] The Ribboneer shifted his attention. [109] "Aside from the sudden illness of your pilot, why did you ask for me?" [110] "We didn't. [111] The man became sick and required treatment we can't give him. [112] Luckily, a ship was passing and we hailed it because it's four months to the nearest planet. [113] They consented to take him back and told us that there was a passenger on board who was an experienced pilot. [114] We have men who could do the job in a makeshift fashion, but the region we're heading for, while mapped, is largely unknown. [115] We'd prefer to have an expert—and Ribboneers are famous for their navigational ability." [116] Taphetta crinkled politely at the reference to his skill. [117] "I had other plans, but I can't evade professional obligations, and an emergency such as this should cancel out any previous agreements. [118] Still, what are the incentives?" [119] Sam Halden coughed. [120] "The usual, plus a little extra. [121] We've copied the Ribboneer's standard nature, simplifying it a little and adding a per cent here and there for the crew pilot and scientist's share of the profits from any discoveries we may make." [122] "I'm complimented that you like our contract so well," said Taphetta, "but I really must have our own unsimplified version. [123] If you want me, you'll take my contract. [124] I came prepared." [125] He extended a tightly bound roll that he had kept somewhere on his person. [126] They glanced at one another as Halden took it. [127] "You can read it if you want," offered Taphetta. [128] "But it will take you all day—it's micro-printing. [129] However, you needn't be afraid that I'm defrauding you. [130] It's honored everywhere we go and we go nearly everywhere in this sector—places men have never been." [131] There was no choice if they wanted him, and they did. [132] Besides, the integrity of Ribboneers was not to be questioned. [133] Halden signed. [134] "Good." [135] Taphetta crinkled. [136] "Send it to the ship; they'll forward it for me. [137] And you can tell the ship to go on without me." [138] He rubbed his ribbons together. [139] "Now if you'll get me the charts, I'll examine the region toward which we're heading." [140] Firmon of hydroponics slouched in, a tall man with scanty hair and an equal lack of grace. [141] He seemed to have difficulty in taking his eyes off Meredith, though, since he was a notch or so above her in the mating scale, he shouldn't have been so interested. [142] But his planet had been inexplicably slow in developing and he wasn't completely aware of his place in the human hierarchy. [143] Disdainfully, Meredith adjusted a skirt that, a few inches shorter, wouldn't have been a skirt at all, revealing, while doing so, just how long and beautiful a woman's legs could be. [144] Her people had never given much thought to physical modesty and, with legs like that, it was easy to see why. [145] Muttering something about primitive women, Firmon turned to the biologist. [146] "The pilot doesn't like our air." [147] "Then change it to suit him. [148] He's in charge of the ship and knows more about these things than I do." [149] "More than a man?" [150] Firmon leered at Meredith and, when she failed to smile, added plaintively, "I did try to change it, but he still complains." [151] Halden took a deep breath. [152] "Seems all right to me." [153] "To everybody else, too, but the tapeworm hasn't got lungs. [154] He breathes through a million tubes scattered over his body." [155] It would do no good to explain that Taphetta wasn't a worm, that his evolution had taken a different course, but that he was in no sense less complex than Man. [156] It was a paradox that some biologically higher humans hadn't developed as much as lower races and actually weren't prepared for the multitude of life-forms they'd meet in space. [157] Firmon's reaction was quite typical. [158] "If he asks for cleaner air, it's because his system needs it," said Halden. [159] "Do anything you can to give it to him." [160] "Can't. [161] This is as good as I can get it. [162] Taphetta thought you could do something about it." [163] "Hydroponics is your job. [164] There's nothing I can do." [165] Halden paused thoughtfully. [166] "Is there something wrong with the plants?" [167] "In a way, I guess, and yet not really." [168] "What is it, some kind of toxic condition?" [169] "The plants are healthy enough, but something's chewing them down as fast as they grow." [170] "Insects? [171] There shouldn't be any, but if there are, we've got sprays. [172] Use them." [173] "It's an animal," said Firmon. [174] "We tried poison and got a few, but now they won't touch the stuff. [175] I had electronics rig up some traps. [176] The animals seem to know what they are and we've never caught one that way." [177] Halden glowered at the man. [178] "How long has this been going on?" [179] "About three months. [180] It's not bad; we can keep up with them." [181] It was probably nothing to become alarmed at, but an animal on the ship was a nuisance, doubly so because of their pilot. [182] "Tell me what you know about it," said Halden. [183] "They're little things." [184] Firmon held out his hands to show how small. [185] "I don't know how they got on, but once they did, there were plenty of places to hide." [186] He looked up defensively. [187] "This is an old ship with new equipment and they hide under the machinery. [188] There's nothing we can do except rebuild the ship from the hull inward." [189] Firmon was right. [190] The new equipment had been installed in any place just to get it in and now there were inaccessible corners and crevices everywhere that couldn't be closed off without rebuilding. [191] They couldn't set up a continuous watch and shoot the animals down because there weren't that many men to spare. [192] Besides, the use of weapons in hydroponics would cause more damage to the thing they were trying to protect than to the pest. [193] He'd have to devise other ways. [194] Sam Halden got up. [195] "I'll take a look and see what I can do." [196] "I'll come along and help," said Meredith, untwining her legs and leaning against him. [197] "Your mistress ought to have some sort of privileges." [198] Halden started. [199] So she knew that the crew was calling her that! [200] Perhaps it was intended to discourage Firmon, but he wished she hadn't said it. [201] It didn't help the situation at all. [202] Taphetta sat in a chair designed for humans. [203] With a less flexible body, he wouldn't have fitted. [204] Maybe it wasn't sitting, but his flat legs were folded neatly around the arms and his head rested comfortably on the seat. [205] The head ribbons, which were his hands and voice, were never quite still. [206] He looked from Halden to Emmer and back again. [207] "The hydroponics tech tells me you're contemplating an experiment. [208] I don't like it." [209] Halden shrugged. [210] "We've got to have better air. [211] It might work." [212] "Pests on the ship? [213] It's filthy! [214] My people would never tolerate it!" [215] "Neither do we." [216] The Ribboneer's distaste subsided. [217] "What kind of creatures are they?" [218] "I have a description, though I've never seen one. [219] It's a small four-legged animal with two antennae at the lower base of its skull. [220] A typical pest." [221] Taphetta rustled. [222] "Have you found out how it got on?" [223] "It was probably brought in with the supplies," said the biologist. [224] "Considering how far we've come, it may have been any one of a half a dozen planets. [225] Anyway, it hid, and since most of the places it had access to were near the outer hull, it got an extra dose of hard radiation, or it may have nested near the atomic engines; both are possibilities. [226] Either way, it mutated, became a different animal. [227] It's developed a tolerance for the poisons we spray on plants. [228] Other things it detects and avoids, even electronic traps." [229] "Then you believe it changed mentally as well as physically, that it's smarter?" [230] "I'd say that, yes. [231] It must be a fairly intelligent creature to be so hard to get rid of. [232] But it can be lured into traps, if the bait's strong enough." [233] "That's what I don't like," said Taphetta, curling. [234] "Let me think it over while I ask questions." [235] He turned to Emmer. [236] "I'm curious about humans. [237] Is there anything else you can tell me about the hypothetical ancestor?" [238] Emmer didn't look like the genius he was—a Neanderthal genius, but nonetheless a real one. [239] In his field, he rated very high. [240] He raised a stubble-flecked cheek from a large thick-fingered paw and ran shaggy hands through shaggier hair. [241] "I can speak with some authority," he rumbled. [242] "I was born on a world with the most extensive relics. [243] As a child, I played in the ruins of their camp." [244] "I don't question your authority," crinkled Taphetta. [245] "To me, all humans—late or early and male or female—look remarkably alike. [246] If you are an archeologist, that's enough for me." [247] He paused and flicked his speech ribbons. [248] "Camp, did you say?" [249] Emmer smiled, unsheathing great teeth. [250] "You've never seen any pictures? [251] Impressive, but just a camp, monolithic one-story structures, and we'd give something to know what they're made of. [252] Presumably my world was one of the first they stopped at. [253] They weren't used to roughing it, so they built more elaborately than they did later on. [254] One-story structures and that's how we can guess at their size. [255] The doorways were forty feet high." [256] "Very large," agreed Taphetta. [257] It was difficult to tell whether he was impressed. [258] "What did you find in the ruins?" [259] "Nothing," said Emmer. [260] "There were buildings there and that was all, not a scrap of writing or a tool or a single picture. [261] They covered a route estimated at thirty thousand light-years in less than five thousand years—and not one of them died that we have a record of." [262] "A faster-than-light drive and an extremely long life," mused Taphetta. [263] "But they didn't leave any information for their descendants. [264] Why?" [265] "Who knows? [266] Their mental processes were certainly far different from ours. [267] They may have thought we'd be better off without it. [268] We do know they were looking for a special kind of planet, like Earth, because they visited so many of that type, yet different from it because they never stayed. [269] They were pretty special people themselves, big and long-lived, and maybe they couldn't survive on any planet they found. [270] Perhaps they had ways of determining there wasn't the kind of planet they needed in the entire Milky Way. [271] Their science was tremendously advanced and when they learned that, they may have altered their germ plasm and left us, hoping that some of us would survive. [272] Most of us did." [273] "This special planet sounds strange," murmured Taphetta. [274] "Not really," said Emmer. [275] "Fifty human races reached space travel independently and those who did were scattered equally among early and late species. [276] It's well known that individuals among my people are often as bright as any of Halden's or Meredith's, but as a whole we don't have the total capacity that later Man does, and yet we're as advanced in civilization. [277] The difference? [278] It must lie somewhere in the planets we live on and it's hard to say just what it is." [279] "What happened to those who didn't develop space travel?" [280] asked Taphetta. [281] "We helped them," said Emmer. [282] And they had, no matter who or what they were, biologically late or early, in the depths of the bronze age or the threshold of atomic—because they were human. [283] That was sometimes a frightening thing for non-humans, that the race stuck together. [284] They weren't actually aggressive, but their total number was great and they held themselves aloof. [285] The unknown ancestor again. [286] Who else had such an origin and, it was tacitly assumed, such a destiny? [287] Taphetta changed his questioning. [288] "What do you expect to gain from this discovery of the unknown ancestor?" [289] It was Halden who answered him. [290] "There's the satisfaction of knowing where we came from." [291] "Of course," rustled the Ribboneer. [292] "But a lot of money and equipment was required for this expedition. [293] I can't believe that the educational institutions that are backing you did so purely out of intellectual curiosity." [294] "Cultural discoveries," rumbled Emmer. [295] "How did our ancestors live? [296] When a creature is greatly reduced in size, as we are, more than physiology is changed—the pattern of life itself is altered. [297] Things that were easy for them are impossible for us. [298] Look at their life span." [299] "No doubt," said Taphetta. [300] "An archeologist would be interested in cultural discoveries." [301] "Two hundred thousand years ago, they had an extremely advanced civilization," added Halden. [302] "A faster-than-light drive, and we've achieved that only within the last thousand years." [303] "But I think we have a better one than they did," said the Ribboneer. [304] "There may be things we can learn from them in mechanics or physics, but wouldn't you say they were better biologists than anything else?" [305] Halden nodded. [306] "Agreed. [307] They couldn't find a suitable planet. [308] So, working directly with their germ plasm, they modified themselves and produced us. [309] They were master biologists." [310] "I thought so," said Taphetta. [311] "I never paid much attention to your fantastic theories before I signed to pilot this ship, but you've built up a convincing case." [312] He raised his head, speech ribbons curling fractionally and ceaselessly. [313] "I don't like to, but we'll have to risk using bait for your pest." [314] He'd have done it anyway, but it was better to have the pilot's consent. [315] And there was one question Halden wanted to ask; it had been bothering him vaguely. [316] "What's the difference between the Ribboneer contract and the one we offered you? [317] Our terms are more liberal." [318] "To the individual, they are, but it won't matter if you discover as much as you think you will. [319] The difference is this: My terms don't permit you to withhold any discovery for the benefit of one race." [320] Taphetta was wrong; there had been no intention of withholding anything. [321] Halden examined his own attitudes. [322] He hadn't intended, but could he say that was true of the institutions backing the expedition? [323] He couldn't, and it was too late now—whatever knowledge they acquired would have to be shared. [324] That was what Taphetta had been afraid of—there was one kind of technical advancement that multiplied unceasingly. [325] The race that could improve itself through scientific control of its germ plasm had a start that could never be headed. [326] The Ribboneer needn't worry now. [327] "Why do we have to watch it on the screen?" [328] asked Meredith, glancing up. [329] "I'd rather be in hydroponics." [330] Halden shrugged. [331] "They may or may not be smarter than planetbound animals, but they're warier. [332] They don't come out when anyone's near." [333] Lights dimmed in the distant hydroponic section and the screen with it, until he adjusted the infra-red frequencies. [334] He motioned to the two crew members, each with his own peculiar screen, below which was a miniature keyboard. [335] "Ready?" [336] When they nodded, Halden said: "Do as you've rehearsed. [337] Keep noise at a minimum, but when you do use it, be vague. [338] Don't try to imitate them exactly." [339] At first, nothing happened on the big screen, and then a gray shape crept out. [340] It slid through leaves, listened intently before coming forward. [341] It jumped off one hydroponic section and fled across the open floor to the next. [342] It paused, eyes glittering and antennae twitching. [343] Looking around once, it leaped up, seizing the ledge and clawing up the side of the tank. [344] Standing on top and rising to its haunches, it began nibbling what it could reach. [345] Suddenly it whirled. [346] Behind it and hitherto unnoticed was another shape, like it but larger. [347] The newcomer inched forward. [348] The small one retreated, skittering nervously. [349] Without warning, the big one leaped and the small one tried to flee. [350] In a few jumps, the big one caught up and mauled the other unmercifully. [351] It continued to bite even after the little one lay still. [352] At last it backed off and waited, watching for signs of motion. [353] There was none. [354] Then it turned to the plant. [355] When it had chewed off everything within reach, it climbed into the branches. [356] The little one twitched, moved a leg, and cautiously began dragging itself away. [357] It rolled off the raised section and surprisingly made no noise as it fell. [358] It seemed to revive, shaking itself and scurrying away, still within range of the screen. [359] Against the wall was a small platform. [360] The little one climbed on top and there found something that seemed to interest it. [361] It sniffed around and reached and felt the discovery. [362] Wounds were forgotten as it snatched up the object and frisked back to the scene of its recent defeat. [363] This time it had no trouble with the raised section. [364] It leaped and landed on top and made considerable noise in doing so. [365] The big animal heard and twisted around. [366] It saw and clambered down hastily, jumping the last few feet. [367] Squealing, it hit the floor and charged. [368] The small one stood still till the last instant—and then a paw flickered out and an inch-long knife blade plunged into the throat of the charging creature. [369] Red spurted out as the bigger beast screamed. [370] The knife flashed in and out until the big animal collapsed and stopped moving. [371] The small creature removed the knife and wiped it on the pelt of its foe. [372] Then it scampered back to the platform on which the knife had been found— and laid it down . [373] At Halden's signal, the lights flared up and the screen became too bright for anything to be visible. [374] "Go in and get them," said Halden. [375] "We don't want the pests to find out that the bodies aren't flesh." [376] "It was realistic enough," said Meredith as the crewmen shut off their machines and went out. [377] "Do you think it will work?" [378] "It might. [379] We had an audience." [380] "Did we? [381] I didn't notice." [382] Meredith leaned back. [383] "Were the puppets exactly like the pests? [384] And if not, will the pests be fooled?" [385] "The electronic puppets were a good imitation, but the animals don't have to identify them as their species. [386] If they're smart enough, they'll know the value of a knife, no matter who uses it." [387] "What if they're smarter? [388] Suppose they know a knife can't be used by a creature without real hands?" [389] "That's part of our precautions. [390] They'll never know until they try—and they'll never get away from the trap to try." [391] "Very good. [392] I never thought of that," said Meredith, coming closer. [393] "I like the way your primitive mind works. [394] At times I actually think of marrying you." [395] "Primitive," he said, alternately frozen and thawed, though he knew that, in relation to her, he was not advanced. [396] "It's almost a curse, isn't it?" [397] She laughed and took the curse away by leaning provocatively against him. [398] "But barbaric lovers are often nice." [399] Here we go again, he thought drearily, sliding his arm around her. [400] To her, I'm merely a passionate savage. [401] They went to his cabin. [402] She sat down, smiling. [403] Was she pretty? [404] Maybe. [405] For her own race, she wasn't tall, only by Terran standards. [406] Her legs were disproportionately long and well shaped and her face was somewhat bland and featureless, except for a thin, straight, short nose. [407] It was her eyes that made the difference, he decided. [408] A notch or two up the scale of visual development, her eyes were larger and she could see an extra color on the violet end of the spectrum. [409] She settled back and looked at him. [410] "It might be fun living with you on primeval Earth." [411] He said nothing; she knew as well as he that Earth was as advanced as her own world. [412] She had something else in mind. [413] "I don't think I will, though. [414] We might have children." [415] "Would it be wrong?" [416] he asked. [417] "I'm as intelligent as you. [418] We wouldn't have subhuman monsters." [419] "It would be a step up—for you." [420] Under her calm, there was tension. [421] It had been there as long as he'd known her, but it was closer to the surface now. [422] "Do I have the right to condemn the unborn? [423] Should I make them start lower than I am?" [424] The conflict was not new nor confined to them. [425] In one form or another, it governed personal relations between races that were united against non-humans, but held sharp distinctions themselves. [426] "I haven't asked you to marry me," he said bluntly. [427] "Because you're afraid I'd refuse." [428] It was true; no one asked a member of a higher race to enter a permanent union. [429] "Why did you ever have anything to do with me?" [430] demanded Halden. [431] "Love," she said gloomily. [432] "Physical attraction. [433] But I can't let it lead me astray." [434] "Why not make a play for Kelburn? [435] If you're going to be scientific about it, he'd give you children of the higher type." [436] "Kelburn." [437] It didn't sound like a name, the way she said it. [438] "I don't like him and he wouldn't marry me." [439] "He wouldn't, but he'd give you children if you were humble enough. [440] There's a fifty per cent chance you might conceive." [441] She provocatively arched her back. [442] Not even the women of Kelburn's race had a body like hers and she knew it. [443] "Racially, there should be a chance," she said. [444] "Actually, Kelburn and I would be infertile." [445] "Can you be sure?" [446] he asked, knowing it was a poor attempt to act unconcerned. [447] "How can anyone be sure on a theoretical basis?" [448] she asked, an oblique smile narrowing her eyes. [449] "I know we can't." [450] His face felt anesthetized. [451] "Did you have to tell me that?" [452] She got up and came to him. [453] She nuzzled against him and his reaction was purely reflexive. [454] His hand swung out and he could feel the flesh give when his knuckles struck it. [455] She fell back and dazedly covered her face with her hand. [456] When she took it away, blood spurted. [457] She groped toward the mirror and stood in front of it. [458] She wiped the blood off, examining her features carefully. [459] "You've broken my nose," she said factually. [460] "I'll have to stop the blood and pain." [461] She pushed her nose back into place and waggled it to make sure. [462] She closed her eyes and stood silent and motionless. [463] Then she stepped back and looked at herself critically. [464] "It's set and partially knitted. [465] I'll concentrate tonight and have it healed by morning." [466] She felt in the cabinet and attached an invisible strip firmly across the bridge. [467] Then she came over to him. [468] "I wondered what you'd do. [469] You didn't disappoint me." [470] He scowled miserably at her. [471] Her face was almost plain and the bandage, invisible or not, didn't improve her appearance any. [472] How could he still feel that attraction to her? [473] "Try Emmer," he suggested tiredly. [474] "He'll find you irresistible, and he's even more savage than I am." [475] "Is he?" [476] She smiled enigmatically. [477] "Maybe, in a biological sense. [478] Too much, though. [479] You're just right." [480] He sat down on the bed. [481] Again there was only one way of knowing what Emmer would do—and she knew. [482] She had no concept of love outside of the physical, to make use of her body so as to gain an advantage—what advantage?—for the children she intended to have. [483] Outside of that, nothing mattered, and for the sake of alloying the lower with the higher, she was as cruel to herself as she was to him. [484] And yet he wanted her. [485] "I do think I love you," she said. [486] "And if love's enough, I may marry you in spite of everything. [487] But you'll have to watch out whose children I have." [488] She wriggled into his arms. [489] The racial disparity was great and she had provoked him, but it was not completely her fault. [490] Besides.... [491] Besides what? [492] She had a beautiful body that could bear superior children—and they might be his. [493] He twisted away. [494] With those thoughts, he was as bad as she was. [495] Were they all that way, every one of them, crawling upward out of the slime toward the highest goal they could conceive of? [496] Climbing over—no, through —everybody they could coerce, seduce or marry—onward and upward. [497] He raised his hand, but it was against himself that his anger was turned. [498] "Careful of the nose," she said, pressing against him. [499] "You've already broken it once." [500] He kissed her with sudden passion that even he knew was primitive.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "What is the mission of the expedition and its theory?": 1. [80] "To the best of our knowledge," said Kelburn. 2. [92] "Now it's far more. 3. [93] And, of course, if it were a fast-moving star, it might be completely out of the field of our exploration. 4. [94] But we're certain we've got a good chance of finding it this trip." 5. [301] "Two hundred thousand years ago, they had an extremely advanced civilization," added Halden. 6. [302] "A faster-than-light drive, and we've achieved that only within the last thousand years." 7. [307] "They couldn't find a suitable planet. 8. [308] So, working directly with their germ plasm, they modified themselves and produced us. 9. [309] They were master biologists." 10. [290] "There's the satisfaction of knowing where we came from." 11. [291] "Of course," rustled the Ribboneer. 12. [292] "But a lot of money and equipment was required for this expedition. 13. [293] I can't believe that the educational institutions that are backing you did so purely out of intellectual curiosity." 14. [294] "Cultural discoveries," rumbled Emmer. 15. [295] "How did our ancestors live? 16. [296] When a creature is greatly reduced in size, as we are, more than physiology is changed—the pattern of life itself is altered. 17. [297] Things that were easy for them are impossible for us. 18. [298] Look at their life span." 19. [91] "We think so," said Kelburn. 20. [92] "We've narrowed it down to several cubic light-years—then.

Describe the setting of the story?

[1] BIG ANCESTOR By F. L. WALLACE Illustrated by EMSH [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction November 1954. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] Man's family tree was awesome enough to give every galactic race an inferiority complex—but then he tried to climb it! [4] In repose, Taphetta the Ribboneer resembled a fancy giant bow on a package. [5] His four flat legs looped out and in, the ends tucked under his wide, thin body, which constituted the knot at the middle. [6] His neck was flat, too, arching out in another loop. [7] Of all his features, only his head had appreciable thickness and it was crowned with a dozen long though narrower ribbons. [8] Taphetta rattled the head fronds together in a surprisingly good imitation of speech. [9] "Yes, I've heard the legend." [10] "It's more than a legend," said Sam Halden, biologist. [11] The reaction was not unexpected—non-humans tended to dismiss the data as convenient speculation and nothing more. [12] "There are at least a hundred kinds of humans, each supposedly originating in strict seclusion on as many widely scattered planets. [13] Obviously there was no contact throughout the ages before space travel— and yet each planetary race can interbreed with a minimum of ten others ! [14] That's more than a legend—one hell of a lot more!" [15] "It is impressive," admitted Taphetta. [16] "But I find it mildly distasteful to consider mating with someone who does not belong to my species." [17] "That's because you're unique," said Halden. [18] "Outside of your own world, there's nothing like your species, except superficially, and that's true of all other creatures, intelligent or not, with the sole exception of mankind. [19] Actually, the four of us here, though it's accidental, very nearly represent the biological spectrum of human development. [20] "Emmer, a Neanderthal type and our archeologist, is around the beginning of the scale. [21] I'm from Earth, near the middle, though on Emmer's side. [22] Meredith, linguist, is on the other side of the middle. [23] And beyond her, toward the far end, is Kelburn, mathematician. [24] There's a corresponding span of fertility. [25] Emmer just misses being able to breed with my kind, but there's a fair chance that I'd be fertile with Meredith and a similar though lesser chance that her fertility may extend to Kelburn." [26] Taphetta rustled his speech ribbons quizzically. [27] "But I thought it was proved that some humans did originate on one planet, that there was an unbroken line of evolution that could be traced back a billion years." [28] "You're thinking of Earth," said Halden. [29] "Humans require a certain kind of planet. [30] It's reasonable to assume that, if men were set down on a hundred such worlds, they'd seem to fit in with native life-forms on a few of them. [31] That's what happened on Earth; when Man arrived, there was actually a manlike creature there. [32] Naturally our early evolutionists stretched their theories to cover the facts they had. [33] "But there are other worlds in which humans who were there before the Stone Age aren't related to anything else there. [34] We have to conclude that Man didn't originate on any of the planets on which he is now found. [35] Instead, he evolved elsewhere and later was scattered throughout this section of the Milky Way." [36] "And so, to account for the unique race that can interbreed across thousands of light-years, you've brought in the big ancestor," commented Taphetta dryly. [37] "It seems an unnecessary simplification." [38] "Can you think of a better explanation?" [39] asked Kelburn. [40] "Something had to distribute one species so widely and it's not the result of parallel evolution—not when a hundred human races are involved, and only the human race." [41] "I can't think of a better explanation." [42] Taphetta rearranged his ribbons. [43] "Frankly, no one else is much interested in Man's theories about himself." [44] It was easy to understand the attitude. [45] Man was the most numerous though not always the most advanced—Ribboneers had a civilization as high as anything in the known section of the Milky Way, and there were others—and humans were more than a little feared. [46] If they ever got together—but they hadn't except in agreement as to their common origin. [47] Still, Taphetta the Ribboneer was an experienced pilot and could be very useful. [48] A clear statement of their position was essential in helping him make up his mind. [49] "You've heard of the adjacency mating principle?" [50] asked Sam Halden. [51] "Vaguely. [52] Most people have if they've been around men." [53] "We've got new data and are able to interpret it better. [54] The theory is that humans who can mate with each other were once physically close. [55] We've got a list of all our races arranged in sequence. [56] If planetary race F can mate with race E back to A and forward to M, and race G is fertile only back to B, but forward to O, then we assume that whatever their positions are now, at once time G was actually adjacent to F, but was a little further along. [57] When we project back into time those star systems on which humans existed prior to space travel, we get a certain pattern. [58] Kelburn can explain it to you." [59] The normally pink body of the Ribboneer flushed slightly. [60] The color change was almost imperceptible, but it was enough to indicate that he was interested. [61] Kelburn went to the projector. [62] "It would be easier if we knew all the stars in the Milky Way, but though we've explored only a small portion of it, we can reconstruct a fairly accurate representation of the past." [63] He pressed the controls and stars twinkled on the screen. [64] "We're looking down on the plane of the Galaxy. [65] This is one arm of it as it is today and here are the human systems." [66] He pressed another control and, for purposes of identification, certain stars became more brilliant. [67] There was no pattern, merely a scattering of stars. [68] "The whole Milky Way is rotating. [69] And while stars in a given region tend to remain together, there's also a random motion. [70] Here's what happens when we calculate the positions of stars in the past." [71] Flecks of light shifted and flowed across the screen. [72] Kelburn stopped the motion. [73] "Two hundred thousand years ago," he said. [74] There was a pattern of the identified stars. [75] They were spaced at fairly equal intervals along a regular curve, a horseshoe loop that didn't close, though if the ends were extended, the lines would have crossed. [76] Taphetta rustled. [77] "The math is accurate?" [78] "As accurate as it can be with a million-plus body problem." [79] "And that's the hypothetical route of the unknown ancestor?" [80] "To the best of our knowledge," said Kelburn. [81] "And whereas there are humans who are relatively near and not fertile, they can always mate with those they were adjacent to two hundred thousand years ago !" [82] "The adjacency mating principle. [83] I've never seen it demonstrated," murmured Taphetta, flexing his ribbons. [84] "Is that the only era that satisfies the calculations?" [85] "Plus or minus a hundred thousand years, we can still get something that might be the path of a spaceship attempting to cover a representative section of territory," said Kelburn. [86] "However, we have other ways of dating it. [87] On some worlds on which there are no other mammals, we're able to place the first human fossils chronologically. [88] The evidence is sometimes contradictory, but we believe we've got the time right." [89] Taphetta waved a ribbon at the chart. [90] "And you think that where the two ends of the curve cross is your original home?" [91] "We think so," said Kelburn. [92] "We've narrowed it down to several cubic light-years—then. [93] Now it's far more. [94] And, of course, if it were a fast-moving star, it might be completely out of the field of our exploration. [95] But we're certain we've got a good chance of finding it this trip." [96] "It seems I must decide quickly." [97] The Ribboneer glanced out the visionport, where another ship hung motionless in space beside them. [98] "Do you mind if I ask other questions?" [99] "Go ahead," Kelburn invited sardonically. [100] "But if it's not math, you'd better ask Halden. [101] He's the leader of the expedition." [102] Halden flushed; the sarcasm wasn't necessary. [103] It was true that Kelburn was the most advanced human type present, but while there were differences, biological and in the scale of intelligence, it wasn't as great as once was thought. [104] Anyway, non-humans weren't trained in the fine distinctions that men made among themselves. [105] And, higher or lower, he was as good a biologist as the other was a mathematician. [106] And there was the matter of training; he'd been on several expeditions and this was Kelburn's first trip. [107] Damn it, he thought, that rated some respect. [108] The Ribboneer shifted his attention. [109] "Aside from the sudden illness of your pilot, why did you ask for me?" [110] "We didn't. [111] The man became sick and required treatment we can't give him. [112] Luckily, a ship was passing and we hailed it because it's four months to the nearest planet. [113] They consented to take him back and told us that there was a passenger on board who was an experienced pilot. [114] We have men who could do the job in a makeshift fashion, but the region we're heading for, while mapped, is largely unknown. [115] We'd prefer to have an expert—and Ribboneers are famous for their navigational ability." [116] Taphetta crinkled politely at the reference to his skill. [117] "I had other plans, but I can't evade professional obligations, and an emergency such as this should cancel out any previous agreements. [118] Still, what are the incentives?" [119] Sam Halden coughed. [120] "The usual, plus a little extra. [121] We've copied the Ribboneer's standard nature, simplifying it a little and adding a per cent here and there for the crew pilot and scientist's share of the profits from any discoveries we may make." [122] "I'm complimented that you like our contract so well," said Taphetta, "but I really must have our own unsimplified version. [123] If you want me, you'll take my contract. [124] I came prepared." [125] He extended a tightly bound roll that he had kept somewhere on his person. [126] They glanced at one another as Halden took it. [127] "You can read it if you want," offered Taphetta. [128] "But it will take you all day—it's micro-printing. [129] However, you needn't be afraid that I'm defrauding you. [130] It's honored everywhere we go and we go nearly everywhere in this sector—places men have never been." [131] There was no choice if they wanted him, and they did. [132] Besides, the integrity of Ribboneers was not to be questioned. [133] Halden signed. [134] "Good." [135] Taphetta crinkled. [136] "Send it to the ship; they'll forward it for me. [137] And you can tell the ship to go on without me." [138] He rubbed his ribbons together. [139] "Now if you'll get me the charts, I'll examine the region toward which we're heading." [140] Firmon of hydroponics slouched in, a tall man with scanty hair and an equal lack of grace. [141] He seemed to have difficulty in taking his eyes off Meredith, though, since he was a notch or so above her in the mating scale, he shouldn't have been so interested. [142] But his planet had been inexplicably slow in developing and he wasn't completely aware of his place in the human hierarchy. [143] Disdainfully, Meredith adjusted a skirt that, a few inches shorter, wouldn't have been a skirt at all, revealing, while doing so, just how long and beautiful a woman's legs could be. [144] Her people had never given much thought to physical modesty and, with legs like that, it was easy to see why. [145] Muttering something about primitive women, Firmon turned to the biologist. [146] "The pilot doesn't like our air." [147] "Then change it to suit him. [148] He's in charge of the ship and knows more about these things than I do." [149] "More than a man?" [150] Firmon leered at Meredith and, when she failed to smile, added plaintively, "I did try to change it, but he still complains." [151] Halden took a deep breath. [152] "Seems all right to me." [153] "To everybody else, too, but the tapeworm hasn't got lungs. [154] He breathes through a million tubes scattered over his body." [155] It would do no good to explain that Taphetta wasn't a worm, that his evolution had taken a different course, but that he was in no sense less complex than Man. [156] It was a paradox that some biologically higher humans hadn't developed as much as lower races and actually weren't prepared for the multitude of life-forms they'd meet in space. [157] Firmon's reaction was quite typical. [158] "If he asks for cleaner air, it's because his system needs it," said Halden. [159] "Do anything you can to give it to him." [160] "Can't. [161] This is as good as I can get it. [162] Taphetta thought you could do something about it." [163] "Hydroponics is your job. [164] There's nothing I can do." [165] Halden paused thoughtfully. [166] "Is there something wrong with the plants?" [167] "In a way, I guess, and yet not really." [168] "What is it, some kind of toxic condition?" [169] "The plants are healthy enough, but something's chewing them down as fast as they grow." [170] "Insects? [171] There shouldn't be any, but if there are, we've got sprays. [172] Use them." [173] "It's an animal," said Firmon. [174] "We tried poison and got a few, but now they won't touch the stuff. [175] I had electronics rig up some traps. [176] The animals seem to know what they are and we've never caught one that way." [177] Halden glowered at the man. [178] "How long has this been going on?" [179] "About three months. [180] It's not bad; we can keep up with them." [181] It was probably nothing to become alarmed at, but an animal on the ship was a nuisance, doubly so because of their pilot. [182] "Tell me what you know about it," said Halden. [183] "They're little things." [184] Firmon held out his hands to show how small. [185] "I don't know how they got on, but once they did, there were plenty of places to hide." [186] He looked up defensively. [187] "This is an old ship with new equipment and they hide under the machinery. [188] There's nothing we can do except rebuild the ship from the hull inward." [189] Firmon was right. [190] The new equipment had been installed in any place just to get it in and now there were inaccessible corners and crevices everywhere that couldn't be closed off without rebuilding. [191] They couldn't set up a continuous watch and shoot the animals down because there weren't that many men to spare. [192] Besides, the use of weapons in hydroponics would cause more damage to the thing they were trying to protect than to the pest. [193] He'd have to devise other ways. [194] Sam Halden got up. [195] "I'll take a look and see what I can do." [196] "I'll come along and help," said Meredith, untwining her legs and leaning against him. [197] "Your mistress ought to have some sort of privileges." [198] Halden started. [199] So she knew that the crew was calling her that! [200] Perhaps it was intended to discourage Firmon, but he wished she hadn't said it. [201] It didn't help the situation at all. [202] Taphetta sat in a chair designed for humans. [203] With a less flexible body, he wouldn't have fitted. [204] Maybe it wasn't sitting, but his flat legs were folded neatly around the arms and his head rested comfortably on the seat. [205] The head ribbons, which were his hands and voice, were never quite still. [206] He looked from Halden to Emmer and back again. [207] "The hydroponics tech tells me you're contemplating an experiment. [208] I don't like it." [209] Halden shrugged. [210] "We've got to have better air. [211] It might work." [212] "Pests on the ship? [213] It's filthy! [214] My people would never tolerate it!" [215] "Neither do we." [216] The Ribboneer's distaste subsided. [217] "What kind of creatures are they?" [218] "I have a description, though I've never seen one. [219] It's a small four-legged animal with two antennae at the lower base of its skull. [220] A typical pest." [221] Taphetta rustled. [222] "Have you found out how it got on?" [223] "It was probably brought in with the supplies," said the biologist. [224] "Considering how far we've come, it may have been any one of a half a dozen planets. [225] Anyway, it hid, and since most of the places it had access to were near the outer hull, it got an extra dose of hard radiation, or it may have nested near the atomic engines; both are possibilities. [226] Either way, it mutated, became a different animal. [227] It's developed a tolerance for the poisons we spray on plants. [228] Other things it detects and avoids, even electronic traps." [229] "Then you believe it changed mentally as well as physically, that it's smarter?" [230] "I'd say that, yes. [231] It must be a fairly intelligent creature to be so hard to get rid of. [232] But it can be lured into traps, if the bait's strong enough." [233] "That's what I don't like," said Taphetta, curling. [234] "Let me think it over while I ask questions." [235] He turned to Emmer. [236] "I'm curious about humans. [237] Is there anything else you can tell me about the hypothetical ancestor?" [238] Emmer didn't look like the genius he was—a Neanderthal genius, but nonetheless a real one. [239] In his field, he rated very high. [240] He raised a stubble-flecked cheek from a large thick-fingered paw and ran shaggy hands through shaggier hair. [241] "I can speak with some authority," he rumbled. [242] "I was born on a world with the most extensive relics. [243] As a child, I played in the ruins of their camp." [244] "I don't question your authority," crinkled Taphetta. [245] "To me, all humans—late or early and male or female—look remarkably alike. [246] If you are an archeologist, that's enough for me." [247] He paused and flicked his speech ribbons. [248] "Camp, did you say?" [249] Emmer smiled, unsheathing great teeth. [250] "You've never seen any pictures? [251] Impressive, but just a camp, monolithic one-story structures, and we'd give something to know what they're made of. [252] Presumably my world was one of the first they stopped at. [253] They weren't used to roughing it, so they built more elaborately than they did later on. [254] One-story structures and that's how we can guess at their size. [255] The doorways were forty feet high." [256] "Very large," agreed Taphetta. [257] It was difficult to tell whether he was impressed. [258] "What did you find in the ruins?" [259] "Nothing," said Emmer. [260] "There were buildings there and that was all, not a scrap of writing or a tool or a single picture. [261] They covered a route estimated at thirty thousand light-years in less than five thousand years—and not one of them died that we have a record of." [262] "A faster-than-light drive and an extremely long life," mused Taphetta. [263] "But they didn't leave any information for their descendants. [264] Why?" [265] "Who knows? [266] Their mental processes were certainly far different from ours. [267] They may have thought we'd be better off without it. [268] We do know they were looking for a special kind of planet, like Earth, because they visited so many of that type, yet different from it because they never stayed. [269] They were pretty special people themselves, big and long-lived, and maybe they couldn't survive on any planet they found. [270] Perhaps they had ways of determining there wasn't the kind of planet they needed in the entire Milky Way. [271] Their science was tremendously advanced and when they learned that, they may have altered their germ plasm and left us, hoping that some of us would survive. [272] Most of us did." [273] "This special planet sounds strange," murmured Taphetta. [274] "Not really," said Emmer. [275] "Fifty human races reached space travel independently and those who did were scattered equally among early and late species. [276] It's well known that individuals among my people are often as bright as any of Halden's or Meredith's, but as a whole we don't have the total capacity that later Man does, and yet we're as advanced in civilization. [277] The difference? [278] It must lie somewhere in the planets we live on and it's hard to say just what it is." [279] "What happened to those who didn't develop space travel?" [280] asked Taphetta. [281] "We helped them," said Emmer. [282] And they had, no matter who or what they were, biologically late or early, in the depths of the bronze age or the threshold of atomic—because they were human. [283] That was sometimes a frightening thing for non-humans, that the race stuck together. [284] They weren't actually aggressive, but their total number was great and they held themselves aloof. [285] The unknown ancestor again. [286] Who else had such an origin and, it was tacitly assumed, such a destiny? [287] Taphetta changed his questioning. [288] "What do you expect to gain from this discovery of the unknown ancestor?" [289] It was Halden who answered him. [290] "There's the satisfaction of knowing where we came from." [291] "Of course," rustled the Ribboneer. [292] "But a lot of money and equipment was required for this expedition. [293] I can't believe that the educational institutions that are backing you did so purely out of intellectual curiosity." [294] "Cultural discoveries," rumbled Emmer. [295] "How did our ancestors live? [296] When a creature is greatly reduced in size, as we are, more than physiology is changed—the pattern of life itself is altered. [297] Things that were easy for them are impossible for us. [298] Look at their life span." [299] "No doubt," said Taphetta. [300] "An archeologist would be interested in cultural discoveries." [301] "Two hundred thousand years ago, they had an extremely advanced civilization," added Halden. [302] "A faster-than-light drive, and we've achieved that only within the last thousand years." [303] "But I think we have a better one than they did," said the Ribboneer. [304] "There may be things we can learn from them in mechanics or physics, but wouldn't you say they were better biologists than anything else?" [305] Halden nodded. [306] "Agreed. [307] They couldn't find a suitable planet. [308] So, working directly with their germ plasm, they modified themselves and produced us. [309] They were master biologists." [310] "I thought so," said Taphetta. [311] "I never paid much attention to your fantastic theories before I signed to pilot this ship, but you've built up a convincing case." [312] He raised his head, speech ribbons curling fractionally and ceaselessly. [313] "I don't like to, but we'll have to risk using bait for your pest." [314] He'd have done it anyway, but it was better to have the pilot's consent. [315] And there was one question Halden wanted to ask; it had been bothering him vaguely. [316] "What's the difference between the Ribboneer contract and the one we offered you? [317] Our terms are more liberal." [318] "To the individual, they are, but it won't matter if you discover as much as you think you will. [319] The difference is this: My terms don't permit you to withhold any discovery for the benefit of one race." [320] Taphetta was wrong; there had been no intention of withholding anything. [321] Halden examined his own attitudes. [322] He hadn't intended, but could he say that was true of the institutions backing the expedition? [323] He couldn't, and it was too late now—whatever knowledge they acquired would have to be shared. [324] That was what Taphetta had been afraid of—there was one kind of technical advancement that multiplied unceasingly. [325] The race that could improve itself through scientific control of its germ plasm had a start that could never be headed. [326] The Ribboneer needn't worry now. [327] "Why do we have to watch it on the screen?" [328] asked Meredith, glancing up. [329] "I'd rather be in hydroponics." [330] Halden shrugged. [331] "They may or may not be smarter than planetbound animals, but they're warier. [332] They don't come out when anyone's near." [333] Lights dimmed in the distant hydroponic section and the screen with it, until he adjusted the infra-red frequencies. [334] He motioned to the two crew members, each with his own peculiar screen, below which was a miniature keyboard. [335] "Ready?" [336] When they nodded, Halden said: "Do as you've rehearsed. [337] Keep noise at a minimum, but when you do use it, be vague. [338] Don't try to imitate them exactly." [339] At first, nothing happened on the big screen, and then a gray shape crept out. [340] It slid through leaves, listened intently before coming forward. [341] It jumped off one hydroponic section and fled across the open floor to the next. [342] It paused, eyes glittering and antennae twitching. [343] Looking around once, it leaped up, seizing the ledge and clawing up the side of the tank. [344] Standing on top and rising to its haunches, it began nibbling what it could reach. [345] Suddenly it whirled. [346] Behind it and hitherto unnoticed was another shape, like it but larger. [347] The newcomer inched forward. [348] The small one retreated, skittering nervously. [349] Without warning, the big one leaped and the small one tried to flee. [350] In a few jumps, the big one caught up and mauled the other unmercifully. [351] It continued to bite even after the little one lay still. [352] At last it backed off and waited, watching for signs of motion. [353] There was none. [354] Then it turned to the plant. [355] When it had chewed off everything within reach, it climbed into the branches. [356] The little one twitched, moved a leg, and cautiously began dragging itself away. [357] It rolled off the raised section and surprisingly made no noise as it fell. [358] It seemed to revive, shaking itself and scurrying away, still within range of the screen. [359] Against the wall was a small platform. [360] The little one climbed on top and there found something that seemed to interest it. [361] It sniffed around and reached and felt the discovery. [362] Wounds were forgotten as it snatched up the object and frisked back to the scene of its recent defeat. [363] This time it had no trouble with the raised section. [364] It leaped and landed on top and made considerable noise in doing so. [365] The big animal heard and twisted around. [366] It saw and clambered down hastily, jumping the last few feet. [367] Squealing, it hit the floor and charged. [368] The small one stood still till the last instant—and then a paw flickered out and an inch-long knife blade plunged into the throat of the charging creature. [369] Red spurted out as the bigger beast screamed. [370] The knife flashed in and out until the big animal collapsed and stopped moving. [371] The small creature removed the knife and wiped it on the pelt of its foe. [372] Then it scampered back to the platform on which the knife had been found— and laid it down . [373] At Halden's signal, the lights flared up and the screen became too bright for anything to be visible. [374] "Go in and get them," said Halden. [375] "We don't want the pests to find out that the bodies aren't flesh." [376] "It was realistic enough," said Meredith as the crewmen shut off their machines and went out. [377] "Do you think it will work?" [378] "It might. [379] We had an audience." [380] "Did we? [381] I didn't notice." [382] Meredith leaned back. [383] "Were the puppets exactly like the pests? [384] And if not, will the pests be fooled?" [385] "The electronic puppets were a good imitation, but the animals don't have to identify them as their species. [386] If they're smart enough, they'll know the value of a knife, no matter who uses it." [387] "What if they're smarter? [388] Suppose they know a knife can't be used by a creature without real hands?" [389] "That's part of our precautions. [390] They'll never know until they try—and they'll never get away from the trap to try." [391] "Very good. [392] I never thought of that," said Meredith, coming closer. [393] "I like the way your primitive mind works. [394] At times I actually think of marrying you." [395] "Primitive," he said, alternately frozen and thawed, though he knew that, in relation to her, he was not advanced. [396] "It's almost a curse, isn't it?" [397] She laughed and took the curse away by leaning provocatively against him. [398] "But barbaric lovers are often nice." [399] Here we go again, he thought drearily, sliding his arm around her. [400] To her, I'm merely a passionate savage. [401] They went to his cabin. [402] She sat down, smiling. [403] Was she pretty? [404] Maybe. [405] For her own race, she wasn't tall, only by Terran standards. [406] Her legs were disproportionately long and well shaped and her face was somewhat bland and featureless, except for a thin, straight, short nose. [407] It was her eyes that made the difference, he decided. [408] A notch or two up the scale of visual development, her eyes were larger and she could see an extra color on the violet end of the spectrum. [409] She settled back and looked at him. [410] "It might be fun living with you on primeval Earth." [411] He said nothing; she knew as well as he that Earth was as advanced as her own world. [412] She had something else in mind. [413] "I don't think I will, though. [414] We might have children." [415] "Would it be wrong?" [416] he asked. [417] "I'm as intelligent as you. [418] We wouldn't have subhuman monsters." [419] "It would be a step up—for you." [420] Under her calm, there was tension. [421] It had been there as long as he'd known her, but it was closer to the surface now. [422] "Do I have the right to condemn the unborn? [423] Should I make them start lower than I am?" [424] The conflict was not new nor confined to them. [425] In one form or another, it governed personal relations between races that were united against non-humans, but held sharp distinctions themselves. [426] "I haven't asked you to marry me," he said bluntly. [427] "Because you're afraid I'd refuse." [428] It was true; no one asked a member of a higher race to enter a permanent union. [429] "Why did you ever have anything to do with me?" [430] demanded Halden. [431] "Love," she said gloomily. [432] "Physical attraction. [433] But I can't let it lead me astray." [434] "Why not make a play for Kelburn? [435] If you're going to be scientific about it, he'd give you children of the higher type." [436] "Kelburn." [437] It didn't sound like a name, the way she said it. [438] "I don't like him and he wouldn't marry me." [439] "He wouldn't, but he'd give you children if you were humble enough. [440] There's a fifty per cent chance you might conceive." [441] She provocatively arched her back. [442] Not even the women of Kelburn's race had a body like hers and she knew it. [443] "Racially, there should be a chance," she said. [444] "Actually, Kelburn and I would be infertile." [445] "Can you be sure?" [446] he asked, knowing it was a poor attempt to act unconcerned. [447] "How can anyone be sure on a theoretical basis?" [448] she asked, an oblique smile narrowing her eyes. [449] "I know we can't." [450] His face felt anesthetized. [451] "Did you have to tell me that?" [452] She got up and came to him. [453] She nuzzled against him and his reaction was purely reflexive. [454] His hand swung out and he could feel the flesh give when his knuckles struck it. [455] She fell back and dazedly covered her face with her hand. [456] When she took it away, blood spurted. [457] She groped toward the mirror and stood in front of it. [458] She wiped the blood off, examining her features carefully. [459] "You've broken my nose," she said factually. [460] "I'll have to stop the blood and pain." [461] She pushed her nose back into place and waggled it to make sure. [462] She closed her eyes and stood silent and motionless. [463] Then she stepped back and looked at herself critically. [464] "It's set and partially knitted. [465] I'll concentrate tonight and have it healed by morning." [466] She felt in the cabinet and attached an invisible strip firmly across the bridge. [467] Then she came over to him. [468] "I wondered what you'd do. [469] You didn't disappoint me." [470] He scowled miserably at her. [471] Her face was almost plain and the bandage, invisible or not, didn't improve her appearance any. [472] How could he still feel that attraction to her? [473] "Try Emmer," he suggested tiredly. [474] "He'll find you irresistible, and he's even more savage than I am." [475] "Is he?" [476] She smiled enigmatically. [477] "Maybe, in a biological sense. [478] Too much, though. [479] You're just right." [480] He sat down on the bed. [481] Again there was only one way of knowing what Emmer would do—and she knew. [482] She had no concept of love outside of the physical, to make use of her body so as to gain an advantage—what advantage?—for the children she intended to have. [483] Outside of that, nothing mattered, and for the sake of alloying the lower with the higher, she was as cruel to herself as she was to him. [484] And yet he wanted her. [485] "I do think I love you," she said. [486] "And if love's enough, I may marry you in spite of everything. [487] But you'll have to watch out whose children I have." [488] She wriggled into his arms. [489] The racial disparity was great and she had provoked him, but it was not completely her fault. [490] Besides.... [491] Besides what? [492] She had a beautiful body that could bear superior children—and they might be his. [493] He twisted away. [494] With those thoughts, he was as bad as she was. [495] Were they all that way, every one of them, crawling upward out of the slime toward the highest goal they could conceive of? [496] Climbing over—no, through —everybody they could coerce, seduce or marry—onward and upward. [497] He raised his hand, but it was against himself that his anger was turned. [498] "Careful of the nose," she said, pressing against him. [499] "You've already broken it once." [500] He kissed her with sudden passion that even he knew was primitive.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "Describe the setting of the story?": 1. [1] BIG ANCESTOR By F. L. WALLACE Illustrated by EMSH [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction November 1954. 2. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 3. [3] Man's family tree was awesome enough to give every galactic race an inferiority complex—but then he tried to climb it! 4. [4] In repose, Taphetta the Ribboneer resembled a fancy giant bow on a package. 5. [5] His four flat legs looped out and in, the ends tucked under his wide, thin body, which constituted the knot at the middle. 6. [6] His neck was flat, too, arching out in another loop. 7. [7] Of all his features, only his head had appreciable thickness and it was crowned with a dozen long though narrower ribbons. 8. [8] Taphetta rattled the head fronds together in a surprisingly good imitation of speech. 9. [64] "We're looking down on the plane of the Galaxy. 10. [65] This is one arm of it as it is today and here are the human systems." 11. [66] He pressed another control and, for purposes of identification, certain stars became more brilliant. 12. [67] There was no pattern, merely a scattering of stars. 13. [68] "The whole Milky Way is rotating. 14. [69] And while stars in a given region tend to remain together, there's also a random motion. 15. [70] Here's what happens when we calculate the positions of stars in the past." 16. [71] Flecks of light shifted and flowed across the screen. 17. [72] Kelburn stopped the motion. 18. [73] "Two hundred thousand years ago," he said. 19. [74] There was a pattern of the identified stars. 20. [75] They were spaced at fairly equal intervals along a regular curve, a horseshoe loop that didn't close, though if the ends were extended, the lines would have crossed. 21. [97] The Ribboneer glanced out the visionport, where another ship hung motionless in space beside them. 22. [203] Taphetta sat in a chair designed for humans. 23. [204] With a less flexible body, he wouldn't have fitted. 24. [205] Maybe it wasn't sitting, but his flat legs were folded neatly around the arms and his head rested comfortably on the seat. 25. [206] The head ribbons, which were his hands and voice, were never quite still.

What is the plot of the story?

[1] THE GIANTS RETURN By ROBERT ABERNATHY Earth set itself grimly to meet them with corrosive fire, determined to blast them back to the stars. [2] But they erred in thinking the Old Ones were too big to be clever. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1949. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] In the last hours the star ahead had grown brighter by many magnitudes, and had changed its color from a dazzling blue through white to the normal yellow, of a GO sun. [6] That was the Doppler effect as the star's radial velocity changed relative to the Quest III , as for forty hours the ship had decelerated. [7] They had seen many such stars come near out of the galaxy's glittering backdrop, and had seen them dwindle, turn red and go out as the Quest III drove on its way once more, lashed by despair toward the speed of light, leaving behind the mockery of yet another solitary and lifeless luminary unaccompanied by worlds where men might dwell. [8] They had grown sated with the sight of wonders—of multiple systems of giant stars, of nebulae that sprawled in empty flame across light years. [9] But now unwonted excitement possessed the hundred-odd members of the Quest III's crew. [10] It was a subdued excitement; men and women, they came and stood quietly gazing into the big vision screens that showed the oncoming star, and there were wide-eyed children who had been born in the ship and had never seen a planet. [11] The grownups talked in low voices, in tones of mingled eagerness and apprehension, of what might lie at the long journey's end. [12] For the Quest III was coming home; the sun ahead was the Sun, whose rays had warmed their lives' beginning. [13] Knof Llud, the Quest III's captain, came slowly down the narrow stair from the observatory, into the big rotunda that was now the main recreation room, where most of the people gathered. [14] The great chamber, a full cross-section of the vessel, had been at first a fuel hold. [15] At the voyage's beginning eighty per cent of the fifteen-hundred-foot cylinder had been engines and fuel; but as the immense stores were spent and the holds became radioactively safe, the crew had spread out from its original cramped quarters. [16] Now the interstellar ship was little more than a hollow shell. [17] Eyes lifted from the vision screens to interrogate Knof Llud; he met them with an impassive countenance, and announced quietly, "We've sighted Earth." [18] A feverish buzz arose; the captain gestured for silence and went on, "It is still only a featureless disk to the telescope. [19] Zost Relyul has identified it—no more." [20] But this time the clamor was not to be settled. [21] People pressed round the screens, peering into them as if with the naked eye they could pick out the atom of reflected light that was Earth, home. [22] They wrung each other's hands, kissed, shouted, wept. [23] For the present their fears were forgotten and exaltation prevailed. [24] Knof Llud smiled wryly. [25] The rest of the little speech he had been about to make didn't matter anyway, and it might have spoiled this moment. [26] He turned to go, and was halted by the sight of his wife, standing at his elbow. [27] His wry smile took on warmth; he asked, "How do you feel, Lesra?" [28] She drew an uncertain breath and released it in a faint sigh. [29] "I don't know. [30] It's good that Earth's still there." [31] She was thinking, he judged shrewdly, of Knof Jr. and Delza, who save from pictures could not remember sunlit skies or grassy fields or woods in summer.... [32] He said, with a touch of tolerant amusement, "What did you think might have happened to Earth? [33] After all, it's only been nine hundred years." [34] "That's just it," said Lesra shakily. [35] "Nine hundred years have gone by— there —and nothing will be the same. [36] It won't be the same world we left, the world we knew and fitted in...." The captain put an arm round her with comforting pressure. [37] "Don't worry. [38] Things may have changed—but we'll manage." [39] But his face had hardened against registering the gnawing of that same doubtful fear within him. [40] He let his arm fall. [41] "I'd better get up to the bridge. [42] There's a new course to be set now—for Earth." [43] He left her and began to climb the stairway again. [44] Someone switched off the lights, and a charmed whisper ran through the big room as the people saw each other's faces by the pale golden light of Earth's own Sun, mirrored and multiplied by the screens. [45] In that light Lesra's eyes gleamed with unshed tears. [46] Captain Llud found Navigator Gwar Den looking as smug as the cat that ate the canary. [47] Gwar Den was finding that the actual observed positions of the planets thus far located agreed quite closely with his extrapolations from long unused charts of the Solar System. [48] He had already set up on the calculator a course that would carry them to Earth. [49] Llud nodded curt approval, remarking, "Probably we'll be intercepted before we get that far." [50] Den was jolted out of his happy abstraction. [51] "Uh, Captain," he said hesitantly. [52] "What kind of a reception do you suppose we'll get?" [53] Llud shook his head slowly. [54] "Who knows? [55] We don't know whether any of the other Quests returned successful, or if they returned at all. [56] And we don't know what changes have taken place on Earth. [57] It's possible—not likely, though—that something has happened to break civilization's continuity to the point where our expedition has been forgotten altogether." [58] He turned away grim-lipped and left the bridge. [59] From his private office-cabin, he sent a message to Chief Astronomer Zost Relyul to notify him as soon as Earth's surface features became clear; then he sat idle, alone with his thoughts. [60] The ship's automatic mechanisms had scant need of tending; Knof Llud found himself wishing that he could find some back-breaking task for everyone on board, himself included, to fill up the hours that remained. [61] There was an extensive and well-chosen film library in the cabin, but he couldn't persuade himself to kill time that way. [62] He could go down and watch the screens, or to the family apartment where he might find Lesra and the children—but somehow he didn't want to do that either. [63] He felt empty, drained—like his ship. [64] As the Quest III's fuel stores and the hope of success in man's mightiest venture had dwindled, so the strength had gone out of him. [65] Now the last fuel compartment was almost empty and Captain Knof Llud felt tired and old. [66] Perhaps, he thought, he was feeling the weight of his nine hundred Earth years—though physically he was only forty now, ten years older than when the voyage had begun. [67] That was the foreshortening along the time axis of a space ship approaching the speed of light. [68] Weeks and months had passed for the Quest III in interstellar flight while years and decades had raced by on the home world. [69] Bemusedly Llud got to his feet and stood surveying a cabinet with built-in voice recorder and pigeonholes for records. [70] There were about three dozen film spools there—his personal memoirs of the great expedition, a segment of his life and of history. [71] He might add that to the ship's official log and its collections of scientific data, as a report to whatever powers might be on Earth now—if such powers were still interested. [72] Llud selected a spool from among the earliest. [73] It was one he had made shortly after leaving Procyon, end of the first leg of the trip. [74] He slid it onto the reproducer. [75] His own voice came from the speaker, fresher, more vibrant and confident than he knew it was now. [76] "One light-day out from Procyon, the thirty-third day by ship's time since leaving Earth. [77] "Our visit to Procyon drew a blank. [78] There is only one huge planet, twice the size of Jupiter, and like Jupiter utterly unfit to support a colony. [79] "Our hopes were dashed—and I think all of us, even remembering the Centaurus Expedition's failure, hoped more than we cared to admit. [80] If Procyon had possessed a habitable planet, we could have returned after an absence of not much over twenty years Earth time. [81] "It is cheering to note that the crew seems only more resolute. [82] We go on to Capella; its spectrum, so like our own Sun's, beckons. [83] If success comes there, a century will have passed before we can return to Earth; friends, relatives, all the generation that launched the Quest ships will be long since dead. [84] Nevertheless we go on. [85] Our generation's dream, humanity's dream, lives in us and in the ship forever...." Presently Knof Llud switched off that younger voice of his and leaned back, an ironic smile touching his lips. [86] That fervent idealism seemed remote and foreign to him now. [87] The fanfares of departure must still have been ringing in his ears. [88] He rose, slipped the record back in its niche and picked out another, later, one. [89] "One week since we passed close enough to Aldebaran to ascertain that that system, too, is devoid of planets. [90] "We face the unpleasant realization that what was feared is probably true—that worlds such as the Sun's are a rare accident, and that we may complete our search without finding even one new Earth. [91] "It makes no difference, of course; we cannot betray the plan.... [92] This may be man's last chance of escaping his pitiful limitation to one world in all the Universe. [93] Certainly the building of this ship and its two sisters, the immense expenditure of time and labor and energy stores that went into them, left Earth's economy drained and exhausted. [94] Only once in a long age does mankind rise to such a selfless and transcendent effort—the effort of Egypt that built the pyramids, or the war efforts of the nations in the last great conflicts of the twentieth century. [95] "Looked at historically, such super-human outbursts of energy are the result of a population's outgrowing its room and resources, and therefore signalize the beginning of the end. [96] Population can be limited, but the price is a deadly frustration, because growth alone is life.... [97] In our day the end of man's room for growth on the Earth was in sight—so we launched the Quests . [98] Perhaps our effort will prove as futile as pyramid-building, less practical than orgies of slaughter to reduce pressure.... [99] In any case, it would be impossible to transport very many people to other stars; but Earth could at least go into its decline with the knowledge that its race went onward and upward, expanding limitlessly into the Universe.... "Hopeless, unless we find planets!" [100] Knof Llud shook his head sorrowfully and took off the spool. [101] That was from the time when he had grown philosophical after the first disappointments. [102] He frowned thoughtfully, choosing one more spool that was only four years old. [103] The recorded voice sounded weary, yet alive with a strange longing.... "We are in the heart of Pleiades; a hundred stars show brilliant on the screens, each star encircled by a misty halo like lights glowing through fog, for we are traversing a vast diffuse nebula. [104] "According to plan, the Quest III has reached its furthest point from Earth. [105] Now we turn back along a curve that will take us past many more stars and stellar systems—but hope is small that any of those will prove a home for man, as have none of the thousands of stars examined already. [106] "But what are a few thousand stars in a galaxy of billions? [107] We have only, as it were, visited a handful of the outlying villages of the Universe, while the lights of its great cities still blaze far ahead along the Milky Way. [108] "On flimsy excuses I have had Zost Relyul make observations of the globular cluster Omega Centauri. [109] There are a hundred thousand stars there in a volume of space where one finds a few dozen in the Sun's neighborhood; there if anywhere must circle the planets we seek! [110] But Omega Centauri is twenty thousand light years away.... "Even so—by expending its remaining fuel freely, the Quest III could achieve a velocity that would take us there without dying of senility of aging too greatly. [111] It would be a one-way journey—even if enough fuel remained, there would be little point in returning to Earth after more than forty thousand years. [112] By then our civilization certainly, and perhaps the human race itself, would have perished from memory. [113] "That was why the planners limited our voyage, and those of the other Quests , to less than a thousand years Earth time. [114] Even now, according to the sociodynamic predictions made then, our civilization—if the other expeditions failed also—will have reached a dangerously unstable phase, and before we can get back it may have collapsed completely from overpopulation. [115] "Why go back, then with the news of our failure? [116] Why not forget about Earth and go on to Omega Centauri? [117] What use is quixotic loyalty to a decree five thousand years old, whose makers are dead and which may be forgotten back there? [118] "Would the crew be willing? [119] I don't know—some of them still show signs of homesickness, though they know with their minds that everything that was once 'home' has probably been swept away.... "It doesn't matter. [120] Today I gave orders to swing the ship." [121] Savagely Knof Llud stabbed the button that shut off the speaker. [122] Then he sat for a time with head resting in his hands, staring into nothing. [123] The memory of that fierce impulse to go on still had power to shake him. [124] A couple of lines of poetry came into his head, as he read them once in translation from the ancient English.... ... for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. [125] Llud sighed. [126] He still couldn't say just why he had given the order to turn back. [127] The stars had claimed his heart—but he was still a part of Earth, and not even nine hundred years of space and time had been able to alter that. [128] He wondered if there would still be a quiet stream and a green shady place beside it where a death-weary man, relieved at last of responsibility, could rest and dream no more.... Those things went on, if men didn't change them. [129] And a pine forest where he and young Knof could go camping, and lie on their backs at night and gaze at the glittering constellations, far away, out of reach.... [130] He wasn't sure he would want to do that, though. [131] Suddenly a faint cushioned jar went through the great ship; it seemed to falter one moment in flight. [132] The captain was on his feet instantly, but then his movements became unhurried. [133] Whatever it had been was past, and he had a good idea what it had been—a meteoroid, nothing unusual in the vicinity of the Sun, though in interstellar space and around planetless stars such collisions were rare to the vanishing point. [134] No harm could have been done. [135] The Quest III's collision armor was nonmaterial and for practical purposes invulnerable. [136] Just as he took his finger off the button that opened the door, the intercommunication phone shrilled imperatively. [137] Knof Llud wheeled, frowning—surely a meteoroid impact wasn't that serious. [138] Coincidence, maybe—it might be Zost Relyul calling as instructed. [139] He reached the phone at the moment when another, heavier jolt shook the vessel. [140] Llud snatched up the receiver with the speed of a scalded cat. [141] "Captain?" [142] It was Gwar Den's voice, stammering a little. [143] "Captain, we're being attacked!" [144] "Sound the alarm. [145] Emergency stations." [146] He had said it automatically, then felt a curious detached relief at the knowledge that after all these years he could still respond quickly and smoothly to a crisis. [147] There was a moment's silence, and he heard the alarm start—three short buzzes and repeat, ringing through all the great length of the interstellar ship. [148] Knowing that Gwar Den was still there, he said, "Now—attacked by what?" [149] "Ships," said Gwar Den helplessly. [150] "Five of them so far. [151] No, there's a sixth now." [152] Repeated blows quivered the Quest III's framework. [153] The navigator said, obviously striving for calm, "They're light craft, not fifty feet long, but they move fast. [154] The detectors hardly had time to show them before they opened up. [155] Can't get a telescope beam on them long enough to tell much." [156] "If they're that small," said Knof Llud deliberately, "they can't carry anything heavy enough to hurt us. [157] Hold to course. [158] I'll be right up." [159] In the open doorway he almost fell over his son. [160] Young Knof's eyes were big; he had heard his father's words. [161] "Something's happened," he judged with deadly twelve-year-old seriousness and, without wasting time on questions, "Can I go with you, huh, Dad?" [162] Llud hesitated, said, "All right. [163] Come along and keep out of the way." [164] He headed for the bridge with strides that the boy could not match. [165] There were people running in the corridors, heading for their posts. [166] Their faces were set, scared, uncomprehending. [167] The Quest III shuddered, again and again, under blows that must have had millions of horsepower behind them; but it plunged on toward Earth, its mighty engines still steadily braking its interstellar velocity. [168] To a man, the ship's responsible officers were already on the bridge, most of them breathless. [169] To a man they looked appeal at Captain Knof Llud. [170] "Well?" [171] he snapped. [172] "What are they doing?" [173] Gwar Den spoke. [174] "There are thirteen of them out there now, sir, and they're all banging away at us." [175] The captain stared into the black star-strewn depths of a vision screen where occasional blue points of light winked ominously, never twice from the same position. [176] Knof Jr. flattened himself against the metal wall and watched silently. [177] His young face was less anxious than his elders'; he had confidence in his father. [178] "If they had anything heavier," surmised the captain, "they'd have unlimbered it by now. [179] They're out to get us. [180] But at this rate, they can't touch us as long as our power lasts—or until they bring up some bigger stuff." [181] The mild shocks went on—whether from projectiles or energy-charges, would be hard to find out and it didn't matter; whatever was hitting the Quest III's shell was doing it at velocities where the distinction between matter and radiation practically ceases to exist. [182] But that shell was tough. [183] It was an extension of the gravitic drive field which transmitted the engines' power equally to every atom of the ship; forces impinging on the outside of the field were similarly transmitted and rendered harmless. [184] The effect was as if the vessel and all space inside its field were a single perfectly elastic body. [185] A meteoroid, for example, on striking it rebounded—usually vaporized by the impact—and the ship, in obedience to the law of equal and opposite forces, rebounded too, but since its mass was so much greater, its deflection was negligible. [186] The people in the Quest III would have felt nothing at all of the vicious onslaught being hurled against them, save that their inertialess drive, at its normal thrust of two hundred gravities, was intentionally operated at one half of one per cent efficiency to provide the illusion of Earthly gravitation. [187] One of the officers said shakily, "It's as if they've been lying in wait for us. [188] But why on Earth—" "That," said the captain grimly, "is what we have to find out. [189] Why—on Earth. [190] At least, I suspect the answer's there." [191] The Quest III bored steadily on through space, decelerating. [192] Even if one were no fatalist, there seemed no reason to stop decelerating or change course. [193] There was nowhere else to go and too little fuel left if there had been; come what might, this was journey's end—perhaps in a more violent and final way than had been anticipated. [194] All around wheeled the pigmy enemies, circling, maneuvering, and attacking, always attacking, with the senseless fury of maddened hornets. [195] The interstellar ship bore no offensive weapons—but suddenly on one of the vision screens a speck of light flared into nova-brilliance, dazzling the watchers for the brief moment in which its very atoms were torn apart. [196] Knof Jr. whooped ecstatically and then subsided warily, but no one was paying attention to him. [197] The men on the Quest III's bridge looked questions at each other, as the thought of help from outside flashed into many minds at once. [198] But Captain Llud said soberly, "It must have caught one of their own shots, reflected. [199] Maybe its own, if it scored too direct a hit." [200] He studied the data so far gathered. [201] A few blurred pictures had been got, which showed cylindrical space ships much like the Quest III , except that they were rocket-propelled and of far lesser size. [202] Their size was hard to ascertain, because you needed to know their distance and speed—but detector-beam echoes gave the distance, and likewise, by the Doppler method, the velocity of directly receding or approaching ships. [203] It was apparent that the enemy vessels were even smaller than Gwar Den had at first supposed—not large enough to hold even one man. [204] Tiny, deadly hornets with a colossal sting. [205] "Robot craft, no doubt," said Knof Llud, but a chill ran down his spine as it occurred to him that perhaps the attackers weren't of human origin. [206] They had seen no recognizable life in the part of the galaxy they had explored, but one of the other Quests might have encountered and been traced home by some unhuman race that was greedy and able to conquer. [207] It became evident, too, that the bombardment was being kept up by a constant arrival of fresh attackers, while others raced away into space, presumably returning to base to replenish their ammunition. [208] That argued a planned and prepared interception with virulent hatred behind it. [209] Elsuz Llug, the gravitic engineer, calculated dismally, "At the rate we're having to shed energy, the fuel will be gone in six or eight hours." [210] "We'll have reached Earth before then," Gwar Den said hopefully. [211] "If they don't bring out the heavy artillery first." [212] "We're under the psychological disadvantage," said the captain, "of not knowing why we're being attacked." [213] Knof Jr. burst out, spluttering slightly with the violence of a thought too important to suppress, "But we're under a ps-psychological advantage, too!" [214] His father raised an eyebrow. [215] "What's that? [216] I don't seem to have noticed it." [217] "They're mad and we aren't, yet," said the boy. [218] Then, seeing that he hadn't made himself clear, "In a fight, if a guy gets mad he starts swinging wild and then you nail him." [219] Smiles splintered the ice of tension. [220] Captain Llud said, "Maybe you've got something there. [221] They seem to be mad, all right. [222] But we're not in a position to throw any punches." [223] He turned back to the others. [224] "As I was going to say—I think we'd better try to parley with the enemy. [225] At least we may find out who he is and why he's determined to smash us." [226] And now instead of tight-beam detectors the ship was broadcasting on an audio carrier wave that shifted through a wide range of frequencies, repeating on each the same brief recorded message: "Who are you? [227] What do you want? [228] We are the interstellar expedition Quest III ...." And so on, identifying themselves and protesting that they were unarmed and peaceful, that there must be some mistake, and querying again, "Who are you ?" [229] There was no answer. [230] The ship drove on, its fuel trickling away under multiplied demands. [231] Those outside were squandering vastly greater amounts of energy in the effort to batter down its defenses, but converting that energy into harmless gravitic impulses was costing the Quest III too. [232] Once more Knof Llud had the insidious sense of his own nerves and muscles and will weakening along with the power-sinews of his ship. [233] Zost Relyul approached him apologetically. [234] "If you have time, Captain—I've got some data on Earth now." [235] Eagerly Llud took the sheaf of photographs made with the telescope. [236] But they told him nothing; only the continental outlines were clear, and those were as they had been nine hundred years ago.... [237] He looked up inquiringly at Zost Relyul. [238] "There are some strange features," said the astronomer carefully. [239] "First of all—there are no lights on the night side. [240] And on the daylight face, our highest magnification should already reveal traces of cities, canals, and the like—but it does not. [241] "The prevailing color of the land masses, you see, is the normal green vegetation. [242] But the diffraction spectrum is queer. [243] It indicates reflecting surfaces less than one-tenth millimeter wide—so the vegetation there can't be trees or grass, but must be more like a fine moss or even a coarse mold." [244] "Is that all?" [245] demanded Llud. [246] "Isn't it enough?" [247] said Zost Relyul blankly. [248] "Well—we tried photography by invisible light, of course. [249] The infra-red shows nothing and likewise the ultraviolet up to the point where the atmosphere is opaque to it." [250] The captain sighed wearily. [251] "Good work," he said. [252] "Keep it up; perhaps you can answer some of these riddles before—" " We know who you are ," interrupted a harshly crackling voice with a strange accent, " and pleading will do you no good. " [253] Knof Llud whirled to the radio apparatus, his weariness dropping from him once more. [254] He snapped, "But who are you?" [255] and the words blended absurdly with the same words in his own voice on the still repeating tape. [256] He snapped off the record; as he did so the speaker, still crackling with space static, said, "It may interest you to know that you are the last. [257] The two other interstellar expeditions that went out have already returned and been destroyed, as you will soon be—the sooner, if you continue toward Earth." [258] Knof Llud's mind was clicking again. [259] The voice—which must be coming from Earth, relayed by one of the midget ships—was not very smart; it had already involuntarily told him a couple of things—that it was not as sure of itself as it sounded he deduced from the fact it had deigned to speak at all, and from its last remark he gathered that the Quest III's ponderous and unswerving progress toward Earth had somehow frightened it. [260] So it was trying to frighten them. [261] He shoved those facts back for future use. [262] Just now he had to know something, so vitally that he asked it as a bald question, " Are you human? " [263] The voice chuckled sourly. [264] "We are human," it answered, "but you are not." [265] The captain was momentarily silent, groping for an adequate reply. [266] Behind him somebody made a choked noise, the only sound in the stunned hush, and the ship jarred slightly as a thunderbolt slammed vengefully into its field. [267] "Suppose we settle this argument about humanity," said Knof Llud woodenly. [268] He named a vision frequency. [269] "Very well." [270] The tone was like a shrug. [271] The voice went on in its language that was quite intelligible, but alien-sounding with the changes that nine hundred years had wrought. [272] "Perhaps, if you realize your position, you will follow the intelligent example of the Quest I's commander." [273] Knof Llud stiffened. [274] The Quest I , launched toward Arcturus and the star cloud called Berenice's Hair, had been after the Quest III the most hopeful of the expeditions—and its captain had been a good friend of Llud's, nine hundred years ago.... [275] He growled, "What happened to him?" [276] "He fought off our interceptors, which are around you now, for some time," said the voice lightly. [277] "When he saw that it was hopeless, he preferred suicide to defeat, and took his ship into the Sun." [278] A short pause. [279] "The vision connection is ready." [280] Knof Llud switched on the screen at the named wavelength, and a picture formed there. [281] The face and figure that appeared were ugly, but undeniably a man's. [282] His features and his light-brown skin showed the same racial characteristics possessed by those aboard the Quest III , but he had an elusive look of deformity. [283] Most obviously, his head seemed too big for his body, and his eyes in turn too big for his head. [284] He grinned nastily at Knof Llud. [285] "Have you any other last wishes?" [286] "Yes," said Llud with icy control. [287] "You haven't answered one question. [288] Why do you want to kill us? [289] You can see we're as human as you are." [290] The big-headed man eyed him with a speculative look in his great eyes, behind which the captain glimpsed the flickering raw fire of a poisonous hatred. [291] "It is enough for you to know that you must die."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [265] The voice chuckled sourly. "We are human," it answered, "but you are not." 2. [256] "It may interest you to know that you are the last. The two other interstellar expeditions that went out have already returned and been destroyed, as you will soon be—the sooner, if you continue toward Earth." 3. [273] "Perhaps, if you realize your position, you will follow the intelligent example of the Quest I's commander." 4. [274] Knof Llud stiffened. The Quest I, launched toward Arcturus and the star cloud called Berenice's Hair, had been after the Quest III the most hopeful of the expeditions—and its captain had been a good friend of Llud's, nine hundred years ago.... 5. [275] "What happened to him?" 6. [276] "He fought off our interceptors, which are around you now, for some time," said the voice lightly. "When he saw that it was hopeless, he preferred suicide to defeat, and took his ship into the Sun." 7. [1] THE GIANTS RETURN By ROBERT ABERNATHY Earth set itself grimly to meet them with corrosive fire, determined to blast them back to the stars. 8. [2] But they erred in thinking the Old Ones were too big to be clever. 9. [5] In the last hours the star ahead had grown brighter by many magnitudes, and had changed its color from a dazzling blue through white to the normal yellow, of a GO sun. 10. [6] That was the Doppler effect as the star's radial velocity changed relative to the Quest III, as for forty hours the ship had decelerated. 11. [7] They had seen many such stars come near out of the galaxy's glittering backdrop, and had seen them dwindle, turn red and go out as the Quest III drove on its way once more, lashed by despair toward the speed of light, leaving behind the mockery of yet another solitary and lifeless luminary unaccompanied by worlds where men might dwell. 12. [8] They had grown sated with the sight of wonders—of multiple systems of giant stars, of nebulae that sprawled in empty flame across light years. 13. [9] But now unwonted excitement possessed the hundred-odd members of the Quest III's crew. 14. [10] It was a subdued excitement; men and women, they came and stood quietly gazing into the big vision screens that showed the oncoming star, and there were wide-eyed children who had been born in the ship and had never seen a planet. 15. [11] The grownups talked in low voices, in tones of mingled eagerness and apprehension, of what might lie at the long journey's end. 16. [12] For the Quest III was coming home; the sun ahead was the Sun, whose rays had warmed their lives' beginning. 17. [17] Eyes lifted from the vision screens to interrogate Knof Llud; he met them with an impassive countenance, and announced quietly, "We've sighted Earth." 18. [18] A feverish buzz arose; the captain gestured for silence and went on, "It is still only a featureless disk to the telescope. 19. [19] Zost Relyul has identified it—no more." 20. [20] But this time the clamor was not to be settled. 21. [21] People pressed round the screens, peering into them as if with the naked eye they could pick out the atom of reflected light that was Earth, home. 22. [22] They wrung each other's hands, kissed, shouted, wept. 23. [23] For the present their fears were forgotten and exaltation prevailed. 24. [233] Zost Relyul approached him apologetically. "If you have time, Captain—I've got some data on Earth now." 25. [234] Eagerly Llud took the sheaf of photographs made with the telescope. 26. [235] But they told him nothing; only the continental outlines were clear, and those were as they had been nine hundred years ago.... 27. [236] He looked up inquiringly at Zost Relyul. 28. [237] "There are some strange features," said the astronomer carefully. 29. [238] "First of all—there are no lights on the night side. 30. [239] And on the daylight face, our highest magnification should already reveal traces of cities, canals, and the like—but it does not. 31. [240] "The prevailing color of the land masses, you see, is the normal green vegetation. 32. [241] But the diffraction spectrum is queer. 33. [242] It indicates reflecting surfaces less than one-tenth millimeter wide—so the vegetation there can't be trees or grass, but must be more like a fine moss or even a coarse mold." 34. [243] "Is that all?" demanded Llud. 35. [244] "Isn't it enough?" said Zost Relyul blankly. 36. [245] "Well—we tried photography by invisible light, of course. 37. [246] The infra-red shows nothing and likewise the ultraviolet up to the point where the atmosphere is opaque to it." 38. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1949. 39. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

How does the captain feel about the voyage and return?

[1] THE GIANTS RETURN By ROBERT ABERNATHY Earth set itself grimly to meet them with corrosive fire, determined to blast them back to the stars. [2] But they erred in thinking the Old Ones were too big to be clever. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1949. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] In the last hours the star ahead had grown brighter by many magnitudes, and had changed its color from a dazzling blue through white to the normal yellow, of a GO sun. [6] That was the Doppler effect as the star's radial velocity changed relative to the Quest III , as for forty hours the ship had decelerated. [7] They had seen many such stars come near out of the galaxy's glittering backdrop, and had seen them dwindle, turn red and go out as the Quest III drove on its way once more, lashed by despair toward the speed of light, leaving behind the mockery of yet another solitary and lifeless luminary unaccompanied by worlds where men might dwell. [8] They had grown sated with the sight of wonders—of multiple systems of giant stars, of nebulae that sprawled in empty flame across light years. [9] But now unwonted excitement possessed the hundred-odd members of the Quest III's crew. [10] It was a subdued excitement; men and women, they came and stood quietly gazing into the big vision screens that showed the oncoming star, and there were wide-eyed children who had been born in the ship and had never seen a planet. [11] The grownups talked in low voices, in tones of mingled eagerness and apprehension, of what might lie at the long journey's end. [12] For the Quest III was coming home; the sun ahead was the Sun, whose rays had warmed their lives' beginning. [13] Knof Llud, the Quest III's captain, came slowly down the narrow stair from the observatory, into the big rotunda that was now the main recreation room, where most of the people gathered. [14] The great chamber, a full cross-section of the vessel, had been at first a fuel hold. [15] At the voyage's beginning eighty per cent of the fifteen-hundred-foot cylinder had been engines and fuel; but as the immense stores were spent and the holds became radioactively safe, the crew had spread out from its original cramped quarters. [16] Now the interstellar ship was little more than a hollow shell. [17] Eyes lifted from the vision screens to interrogate Knof Llud; he met them with an impassive countenance, and announced quietly, "We've sighted Earth." [18] A feverish buzz arose; the captain gestured for silence and went on, "It is still only a featureless disk to the telescope. [19] Zost Relyul has identified it—no more." [20] But this time the clamor was not to be settled. [21] People pressed round the screens, peering into them as if with the naked eye they could pick out the atom of reflected light that was Earth, home. [22] They wrung each other's hands, kissed, shouted, wept. [23] For the present their fears were forgotten and exaltation prevailed. [24] Knof Llud smiled wryly. [25] The rest of the little speech he had been about to make didn't matter anyway, and it might have spoiled this moment. [26] He turned to go, and was halted by the sight of his wife, standing at his elbow. [27] His wry smile took on warmth; he asked, "How do you feel, Lesra?" [28] She drew an uncertain breath and released it in a faint sigh. [29] "I don't know. [30] It's good that Earth's still there." [31] She was thinking, he judged shrewdly, of Knof Jr. and Delza, who save from pictures could not remember sunlit skies or grassy fields or woods in summer.... [32] He said, with a touch of tolerant amusement, "What did you think might have happened to Earth? [33] After all, it's only been nine hundred years." [34] "That's just it," said Lesra shakily. [35] "Nine hundred years have gone by— there —and nothing will be the same. [36] It won't be the same world we left, the world we knew and fitted in...." The captain put an arm round her with comforting pressure. [37] "Don't worry. [38] Things may have changed—but we'll manage." [39] But his face had hardened against registering the gnawing of that same doubtful fear within him. [40] He let his arm fall. [41] "I'd better get up to the bridge. [42] There's a new course to be set now—for Earth." [43] He left her and began to climb the stairway again. [44] Someone switched off the lights, and a charmed whisper ran through the big room as the people saw each other's faces by the pale golden light of Earth's own Sun, mirrored and multiplied by the screens. [45] In that light Lesra's eyes gleamed with unshed tears. [46] Captain Llud found Navigator Gwar Den looking as smug as the cat that ate the canary. [47] Gwar Den was finding that the actual observed positions of the planets thus far located agreed quite closely with his extrapolations from long unused charts of the Solar System. [48] He had already set up on the calculator a course that would carry them to Earth. [49] Llud nodded curt approval, remarking, "Probably we'll be intercepted before we get that far." [50] Den was jolted out of his happy abstraction. [51] "Uh, Captain," he said hesitantly. [52] "What kind of a reception do you suppose we'll get?" [53] Llud shook his head slowly. [54] "Who knows? [55] We don't know whether any of the other Quests returned successful, or if they returned at all. [56] And we don't know what changes have taken place on Earth. [57] It's possible—not likely, though—that something has happened to break civilization's continuity to the point where our expedition has been forgotten altogether." [58] He turned away grim-lipped and left the bridge. [59] From his private office-cabin, he sent a message to Chief Astronomer Zost Relyul to notify him as soon as Earth's surface features became clear; then he sat idle, alone with his thoughts. [60] The ship's automatic mechanisms had scant need of tending; Knof Llud found himself wishing that he could find some back-breaking task for everyone on board, himself included, to fill up the hours that remained. [61] There was an extensive and well-chosen film library in the cabin, but he couldn't persuade himself to kill time that way. [62] He could go down and watch the screens, or to the family apartment where he might find Lesra and the children—but somehow he didn't want to do that either. [63] He felt empty, drained—like his ship. [64] As the Quest III's fuel stores and the hope of success in man's mightiest venture had dwindled, so the strength had gone out of him. [65] Now the last fuel compartment was almost empty and Captain Knof Llud felt tired and old. [66] Perhaps, he thought, he was feeling the weight of his nine hundred Earth years—though physically he was only forty now, ten years older than when the voyage had begun. [67] That was the foreshortening along the time axis of a space ship approaching the speed of light. [68] Weeks and months had passed for the Quest III in interstellar flight while years and decades had raced by on the home world. [69] Bemusedly Llud got to his feet and stood surveying a cabinet with built-in voice recorder and pigeonholes for records. [70] There were about three dozen film spools there—his personal memoirs of the great expedition, a segment of his life and of history. [71] He might add that to the ship's official log and its collections of scientific data, as a report to whatever powers might be on Earth now—if such powers were still interested. [72] Llud selected a spool from among the earliest. [73] It was one he had made shortly after leaving Procyon, end of the first leg of the trip. [74] He slid it onto the reproducer. [75] His own voice came from the speaker, fresher, more vibrant and confident than he knew it was now. [76] "One light-day out from Procyon, the thirty-third day by ship's time since leaving Earth. [77] "Our visit to Procyon drew a blank. [78] There is only one huge planet, twice the size of Jupiter, and like Jupiter utterly unfit to support a colony. [79] "Our hopes were dashed—and I think all of us, even remembering the Centaurus Expedition's failure, hoped more than we cared to admit. [80] If Procyon had possessed a habitable planet, we could have returned after an absence of not much over twenty years Earth time. [81] "It is cheering to note that the crew seems only more resolute. [82] We go on to Capella; its spectrum, so like our own Sun's, beckons. [83] If success comes there, a century will have passed before we can return to Earth; friends, relatives, all the generation that launched the Quest ships will be long since dead. [84] Nevertheless we go on. [85] Our generation's dream, humanity's dream, lives in us and in the ship forever...." Presently Knof Llud switched off that younger voice of his and leaned back, an ironic smile touching his lips. [86] That fervent idealism seemed remote and foreign to him now. [87] The fanfares of departure must still have been ringing in his ears. [88] He rose, slipped the record back in its niche and picked out another, later, one. [89] "One week since we passed close enough to Aldebaran to ascertain that that system, too, is devoid of planets. [90] "We face the unpleasant realization that what was feared is probably true—that worlds such as the Sun's are a rare accident, and that we may complete our search without finding even one new Earth. [91] "It makes no difference, of course; we cannot betray the plan.... [92] This may be man's last chance of escaping his pitiful limitation to one world in all the Universe. [93] Certainly the building of this ship and its two sisters, the immense expenditure of time and labor and energy stores that went into them, left Earth's economy drained and exhausted. [94] Only once in a long age does mankind rise to such a selfless and transcendent effort—the effort of Egypt that built the pyramids, or the war efforts of the nations in the last great conflicts of the twentieth century. [95] "Looked at historically, such super-human outbursts of energy are the result of a population's outgrowing its room and resources, and therefore signalize the beginning of the end. [96] Population can be limited, but the price is a deadly frustration, because growth alone is life.... [97] In our day the end of man's room for growth on the Earth was in sight—so we launched the Quests . [98] Perhaps our effort will prove as futile as pyramid-building, less practical than orgies of slaughter to reduce pressure.... [99] In any case, it would be impossible to transport very many people to other stars; but Earth could at least go into its decline with the knowledge that its race went onward and upward, expanding limitlessly into the Universe.... "Hopeless, unless we find planets!" [100] Knof Llud shook his head sorrowfully and took off the spool. [101] That was from the time when he had grown philosophical after the first disappointments. [102] He frowned thoughtfully, choosing one more spool that was only four years old. [103] The recorded voice sounded weary, yet alive with a strange longing.... "We are in the heart of Pleiades; a hundred stars show brilliant on the screens, each star encircled by a misty halo like lights glowing through fog, for we are traversing a vast diffuse nebula. [104] "According to plan, the Quest III has reached its furthest point from Earth. [105] Now we turn back along a curve that will take us past many more stars and stellar systems—but hope is small that any of those will prove a home for man, as have none of the thousands of stars examined already. [106] "But what are a few thousand stars in a galaxy of billions? [107] We have only, as it were, visited a handful of the outlying villages of the Universe, while the lights of its great cities still blaze far ahead along the Milky Way. [108] "On flimsy excuses I have had Zost Relyul make observations of the globular cluster Omega Centauri. [109] There are a hundred thousand stars there in a volume of space where one finds a few dozen in the Sun's neighborhood; there if anywhere must circle the planets we seek! [110] But Omega Centauri is twenty thousand light years away.... "Even so—by expending its remaining fuel freely, the Quest III could achieve a velocity that would take us there without dying of senility of aging too greatly. [111] It would be a one-way journey—even if enough fuel remained, there would be little point in returning to Earth after more than forty thousand years. [112] By then our civilization certainly, and perhaps the human race itself, would have perished from memory. [113] "That was why the planners limited our voyage, and those of the other Quests , to less than a thousand years Earth time. [114] Even now, according to the sociodynamic predictions made then, our civilization—if the other expeditions failed also—will have reached a dangerously unstable phase, and before we can get back it may have collapsed completely from overpopulation. [115] "Why go back, then with the news of our failure? [116] Why not forget about Earth and go on to Omega Centauri? [117] What use is quixotic loyalty to a decree five thousand years old, whose makers are dead and which may be forgotten back there? [118] "Would the crew be willing? [119] I don't know—some of them still show signs of homesickness, though they know with their minds that everything that was once 'home' has probably been swept away.... "It doesn't matter. [120] Today I gave orders to swing the ship." [121] Savagely Knof Llud stabbed the button that shut off the speaker. [122] Then he sat for a time with head resting in his hands, staring into nothing. [123] The memory of that fierce impulse to go on still had power to shake him. [124] A couple of lines of poetry came into his head, as he read them once in translation from the ancient English.... ... for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. [125] Llud sighed. [126] He still couldn't say just why he had given the order to turn back. [127] The stars had claimed his heart—but he was still a part of Earth, and not even nine hundred years of space and time had been able to alter that. [128] He wondered if there would still be a quiet stream and a green shady place beside it where a death-weary man, relieved at last of responsibility, could rest and dream no more.... Those things went on, if men didn't change them. [129] And a pine forest where he and young Knof could go camping, and lie on their backs at night and gaze at the glittering constellations, far away, out of reach.... [130] He wasn't sure he would want to do that, though. [131] Suddenly a faint cushioned jar went through the great ship; it seemed to falter one moment in flight. [132] The captain was on his feet instantly, but then his movements became unhurried. [133] Whatever it had been was past, and he had a good idea what it had been—a meteoroid, nothing unusual in the vicinity of the Sun, though in interstellar space and around planetless stars such collisions were rare to the vanishing point. [134] No harm could have been done. [135] The Quest III's collision armor was nonmaterial and for practical purposes invulnerable. [136] Just as he took his finger off the button that opened the door, the intercommunication phone shrilled imperatively. [137] Knof Llud wheeled, frowning—surely a meteoroid impact wasn't that serious. [138] Coincidence, maybe—it might be Zost Relyul calling as instructed. [139] He reached the phone at the moment when another, heavier jolt shook the vessel. [140] Llud snatched up the receiver with the speed of a scalded cat. [141] "Captain?" [142] It was Gwar Den's voice, stammering a little. [143] "Captain, we're being attacked!" [144] "Sound the alarm. [145] Emergency stations." [146] He had said it automatically, then felt a curious detached relief at the knowledge that after all these years he could still respond quickly and smoothly to a crisis. [147] There was a moment's silence, and he heard the alarm start—three short buzzes and repeat, ringing through all the great length of the interstellar ship. [148] Knowing that Gwar Den was still there, he said, "Now—attacked by what?" [149] "Ships," said Gwar Den helplessly. [150] "Five of them so far. [151] No, there's a sixth now." [152] Repeated blows quivered the Quest III's framework. [153] The navigator said, obviously striving for calm, "They're light craft, not fifty feet long, but they move fast. [154] The detectors hardly had time to show them before they opened up. [155] Can't get a telescope beam on them long enough to tell much." [156] "If they're that small," said Knof Llud deliberately, "they can't carry anything heavy enough to hurt us. [157] Hold to course. [158] I'll be right up." [159] In the open doorway he almost fell over his son. [160] Young Knof's eyes were big; he had heard his father's words. [161] "Something's happened," he judged with deadly twelve-year-old seriousness and, without wasting time on questions, "Can I go with you, huh, Dad?" [162] Llud hesitated, said, "All right. [163] Come along and keep out of the way." [164] He headed for the bridge with strides that the boy could not match. [165] There were people running in the corridors, heading for their posts. [166] Their faces were set, scared, uncomprehending. [167] The Quest III shuddered, again and again, under blows that must have had millions of horsepower behind them; but it plunged on toward Earth, its mighty engines still steadily braking its interstellar velocity. [168] To a man, the ship's responsible officers were already on the bridge, most of them breathless. [169] To a man they looked appeal at Captain Knof Llud. [170] "Well?" [171] he snapped. [172] "What are they doing?" [173] Gwar Den spoke. [174] "There are thirteen of them out there now, sir, and they're all banging away at us." [175] The captain stared into the black star-strewn depths of a vision screen where occasional blue points of light winked ominously, never twice from the same position. [176] Knof Jr. flattened himself against the metal wall and watched silently. [177] His young face was less anxious than his elders'; he had confidence in his father. [178] "If they had anything heavier," surmised the captain, "they'd have unlimbered it by now. [179] They're out to get us. [180] But at this rate, they can't touch us as long as our power lasts—or until they bring up some bigger stuff." [181] The mild shocks went on—whether from projectiles or energy-charges, would be hard to find out and it didn't matter; whatever was hitting the Quest III's shell was doing it at velocities where the distinction between matter and radiation practically ceases to exist. [182] But that shell was tough. [183] It was an extension of the gravitic drive field which transmitted the engines' power equally to every atom of the ship; forces impinging on the outside of the field were similarly transmitted and rendered harmless. [184] The effect was as if the vessel and all space inside its field were a single perfectly elastic body. [185] A meteoroid, for example, on striking it rebounded—usually vaporized by the impact—and the ship, in obedience to the law of equal and opposite forces, rebounded too, but since its mass was so much greater, its deflection was negligible. [186] The people in the Quest III would have felt nothing at all of the vicious onslaught being hurled against them, save that their inertialess drive, at its normal thrust of two hundred gravities, was intentionally operated at one half of one per cent efficiency to provide the illusion of Earthly gravitation. [187] One of the officers said shakily, "It's as if they've been lying in wait for us. [188] But why on Earth—" "That," said the captain grimly, "is what we have to find out. [189] Why—on Earth. [190] At least, I suspect the answer's there." [191] The Quest III bored steadily on through space, decelerating. [192] Even if one were no fatalist, there seemed no reason to stop decelerating or change course. [193] There was nowhere else to go and too little fuel left if there had been; come what might, this was journey's end—perhaps in a more violent and final way than had been anticipated. [194] All around wheeled the pigmy enemies, circling, maneuvering, and attacking, always attacking, with the senseless fury of maddened hornets. [195] The interstellar ship bore no offensive weapons—but suddenly on one of the vision screens a speck of light flared into nova-brilliance, dazzling the watchers for the brief moment in which its very atoms were torn apart. [196] Knof Jr. whooped ecstatically and then subsided warily, but no one was paying attention to him. [197] The men on the Quest III's bridge looked questions at each other, as the thought of help from outside flashed into many minds at once. [198] But Captain Llud said soberly, "It must have caught one of their own shots, reflected. [199] Maybe its own, if it scored too direct a hit." [200] He studied the data so far gathered. [201] A few blurred pictures had been got, which showed cylindrical space ships much like the Quest III , except that they were rocket-propelled and of far lesser size. [202] Their size was hard to ascertain, because you needed to know their distance and speed—but detector-beam echoes gave the distance, and likewise, by the Doppler method, the velocity of directly receding or approaching ships. [203] It was apparent that the enemy vessels were even smaller than Gwar Den had at first supposed—not large enough to hold even one man. [204] Tiny, deadly hornets with a colossal sting. [205] "Robot craft, no doubt," said Knof Llud, but a chill ran down his spine as it occurred to him that perhaps the attackers weren't of human origin. [206] They had seen no recognizable life in the part of the galaxy they had explored, but one of the other Quests might have encountered and been traced home by some unhuman race that was greedy and able to conquer. [207] It became evident, too, that the bombardment was being kept up by a constant arrival of fresh attackers, while others raced away into space, presumably returning to base to replenish their ammunition. [208] That argued a planned and prepared interception with virulent hatred behind it. [209] Elsuz Llug, the gravitic engineer, calculated dismally, "At the rate we're having to shed energy, the fuel will be gone in six or eight hours." [210] "We'll have reached Earth before then," Gwar Den said hopefully. [211] "If they don't bring out the heavy artillery first." [212] "We're under the psychological disadvantage," said the captain, "of not knowing why we're being attacked." [213] Knof Jr. burst out, spluttering slightly with the violence of a thought too important to suppress, "But we're under a ps-psychological advantage, too!" [214] His father raised an eyebrow. [215] "What's that? [216] I don't seem to have noticed it." [217] "They're mad and we aren't, yet," said the boy. [218] Then, seeing that he hadn't made himself clear, "In a fight, if a guy gets mad he starts swinging wild and then you nail him." [219] Smiles splintered the ice of tension. [220] Captain Llud said, "Maybe you've got something there. [221] They seem to be mad, all right. [222] But we're not in a position to throw any punches." [223] He turned back to the others. [224] "As I was going to say—I think we'd better try to parley with the enemy. [225] At least we may find out who he is and why he's determined to smash us." [226] And now instead of tight-beam detectors the ship was broadcasting on an audio carrier wave that shifted through a wide range of frequencies, repeating on each the same brief recorded message: "Who are you? [227] What do you want? [228] We are the interstellar expedition Quest III ...." And so on, identifying themselves and protesting that they were unarmed and peaceful, that there must be some mistake, and querying again, "Who are you ?" [229] There was no answer. [230] The ship drove on, its fuel trickling away under multiplied demands. [231] Those outside were squandering vastly greater amounts of energy in the effort to batter down its defenses, but converting that energy into harmless gravitic impulses was costing the Quest III too. [232] Once more Knof Llud had the insidious sense of his own nerves and muscles and will weakening along with the power-sinews of his ship. [233] Zost Relyul approached him apologetically. [234] "If you have time, Captain—I've got some data on Earth now." [235] Eagerly Llud took the sheaf of photographs made with the telescope. [236] But they told him nothing; only the continental outlines were clear, and those were as they had been nine hundred years ago.... [237] He looked up inquiringly at Zost Relyul. [238] "There are some strange features," said the astronomer carefully. [239] "First of all—there are no lights on the night side. [240] And on the daylight face, our highest magnification should already reveal traces of cities, canals, and the like—but it does not. [241] "The prevailing color of the land masses, you see, is the normal green vegetation. [242] But the diffraction spectrum is queer. [243] It indicates reflecting surfaces less than one-tenth millimeter wide—so the vegetation there can't be trees or grass, but must be more like a fine moss or even a coarse mold." [244] "Is that all?" [245] demanded Llud. [246] "Isn't it enough?" [247] said Zost Relyul blankly. [248] "Well—we tried photography by invisible light, of course. [249] The infra-red shows nothing and likewise the ultraviolet up to the point where the atmosphere is opaque to it." [250] The captain sighed wearily. [251] "Good work," he said. [252] "Keep it up; perhaps you can answer some of these riddles before—" " We know who you are ," interrupted a harshly crackling voice with a strange accent, " and pleading will do you no good. " [253] Knof Llud whirled to the radio apparatus, his weariness dropping from him once more. [254] He snapped, "But who are you?" [255] and the words blended absurdly with the same words in his own voice on the still repeating tape. [256] He snapped off the record; as he did so the speaker, still crackling with space static, said, "It may interest you to know that you are the last. [257] The two other interstellar expeditions that went out have already returned and been destroyed, as you will soon be—the sooner, if you continue toward Earth." [258] Knof Llud's mind was clicking again. [259] The voice—which must be coming from Earth, relayed by one of the midget ships—was not very smart; it had already involuntarily told him a couple of things—that it was not as sure of itself as it sounded he deduced from the fact it had deigned to speak at all, and from its last remark he gathered that the Quest III's ponderous and unswerving progress toward Earth had somehow frightened it. [260] So it was trying to frighten them. [261] He shoved those facts back for future use. [262] Just now he had to know something, so vitally that he asked it as a bald question, " Are you human? " [263] The voice chuckled sourly. [264] "We are human," it answered, "but you are not." [265] The captain was momentarily silent, groping for an adequate reply. [266] Behind him somebody made a choked noise, the only sound in the stunned hush, and the ship jarred slightly as a thunderbolt slammed vengefully into its field. [267] "Suppose we settle this argument about humanity," said Knof Llud woodenly. [268] He named a vision frequency. [269] "Very well." [270] The tone was like a shrug. [271] The voice went on in its language that was quite intelligible, but alien-sounding with the changes that nine hundred years had wrought. [272] "Perhaps, if you realize your position, you will follow the intelligent example of the Quest I's commander." [273] Knof Llud stiffened. [274] The Quest I , launched toward Arcturus and the star cloud called Berenice's Hair, had been after the Quest III the most hopeful of the expeditions—and its captain had been a good friend of Llud's, nine hundred years ago.... [275] He growled, "What happened to him?" [276] "He fought off our interceptors, which are around you now, for some time," said the voice lightly. [277] "When he saw that it was hopeless, he preferred suicide to defeat, and took his ship into the Sun." [278] A short pause. [279] "The vision connection is ready." [280] Knof Llud switched on the screen at the named wavelength, and a picture formed there. [281] The face and figure that appeared were ugly, but undeniably a man's. [282] His features and his light-brown skin showed the same racial characteristics possessed by those aboard the Quest III , but he had an elusive look of deformity. [283] Most obviously, his head seemed too big for his body, and his eyes in turn too big for his head. [284] He grinned nastily at Knof Llud. [285] "Have you any other last wishes?" [286] "Yes," said Llud with icy control. [287] "You haven't answered one question. [288] Why do you want to kill us? [289] You can see we're as human as you are." [290] The big-headed man eyed him with a speculative look in his great eyes, behind which the captain glimpsed the flickering raw fire of a poisonous hatred. [291] "It is enough for you to know that you must die."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "How does the captain feel about the voyage and return?": 1. [126] He still couldn't say just why he had given the order to turn back. 2. [127] The stars had claimed his heart—but he was still a part of Earth, and not even nine hundred years of space and time had been able to alter that. 3. [123] The memory of that fierce impulse to go on still had power to shake him. 4. [128] He wondered if there would still be a quiet stream and a green shady place beside it where a death-weary man, relieved at last of responsibility, could rest and dream no more.... 5. [129] And a pine forest where he and young Knof could go camping, and lie on their backs at night and gaze at the glittering constellations, far away, out of reach.... 6. [130] He wasn't sure he would want to do that, though. 7. [64] As the Quest III's fuel stores and the hope of success in man's mightiest venture had dwindled, so the strength had gone out of him. 8. [65] Now the last fuel compartment was almost empty and Captain Knof Llud felt tired and old. 9. [66] Perhaps, he thought, he was feeling the weight of his nine hundred Earth years—though physically he was only forty now, ten years older than when the voyage had begun. 10. [73] It was one he had made shortly after leaving Procyon, end of the first leg of the trip. 11. [76] "One light-day out from Procyon, the thirty-third day by ship's time since leaving Earth. 12. [77] "Our visit to Procyon drew a blank. 13. [78] There is only one huge planet, twice the size of Jupiter, and like Jupiter utterly unfit to support a colony. 14. [79] "Our hopes were dashed—and I think all of us, even remembering the Centaurus Expedition's failure, hoped more than we cared to admit. 15. [80] If Procyon had possessed a habitable planet, we could have returned after an absence of not much over twenty years Earth time. 16. [81] "It is cheering to note that the crew seems only more resolute. 17. [82] We go on to Capella; its spectrum, so like our own Sun's, beckons. 18. [83] If success comes there, a century will have passed before we can return to Earth; friends, relatives, all the generation that launched the Quest ships will be long since dead. 19. [84] Nevertheless we go on. 20. [85] Our generation's dream, humanity's dream, lives in us and in the ship forever...." 21. [86] That fervent idealism seemed remote and foreign to him now. 22. [87] The fanfares of departure must still have been ringing in his ears. 23. [101] That was from the time when he had grown philosophical after the first disappointments. 24. [102] He frowned thoughtfully, choosing one more spool that was only four years old. 25. [103] The recorded voice sounded weary, yet alive with a strange longing.... 26. [104] "According to plan, the Quest III has reached its furthest point from Earth. 27. [105] Now we turn back along a curve that will take us past many more stars and stellar systems—but hope is small that any of those will prove a home for man, as have none of the thousands of stars examined already. 28. [111] It would be a one-way journey—even if enough fuel remained, there would be little point in returning to Earth after more than forty thousand years. 29. [112] "That was why the planners limited our voyage, and those of the other Quests , to less than a thousand years Earth time. 30. [113] Even now, according to the sociodynamic predictions made then, our civilization—if the other expeditions failed also—will have reached a dangerously unstable phase, and before we can get back it may have collapsed completely from overpopulation. 31. [114] "Why go back, then with the news of our failure? 32. [115] Why not forget about Earth and go on to Omega Centauri? 33. [116] What use is quixotic loyalty to a decree five thousand years old, whose makers are dead and which may be forgotten back there? 34. [117] "Would the crew be willing? 35. [118] I don't know—some of them still show signs of homesickness, though they know with their minds that everything that was once 'home' has probably been swept away.... 36. [119] "It doesn't matter. 37. [120] Today I gave orders to swing the ship." 38. [121] Savagely Knof Llud stabbed the button that shut off the speaker. 39. [122] Then he sat for a time with head resting in his hands, staring into nothing. 40. [125] Llud sighed.

How does the crew feel about approaching Earth?

[1] THE GIANTS RETURN By ROBERT ABERNATHY Earth set itself grimly to meet them with corrosive fire, determined to blast them back to the stars. [2] But they erred in thinking the Old Ones were too big to be clever. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1949. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] In the last hours the star ahead had grown brighter by many magnitudes, and had changed its color from a dazzling blue through white to the normal yellow, of a GO sun. [6] That was the Doppler effect as the star's radial velocity changed relative to the Quest III , as for forty hours the ship had decelerated. [7] They had seen many such stars come near out of the galaxy's glittering backdrop, and had seen them dwindle, turn red and go out as the Quest III drove on its way once more, lashed by despair toward the speed of light, leaving behind the mockery of yet another solitary and lifeless luminary unaccompanied by worlds where men might dwell. [8] They had grown sated with the sight of wonders—of multiple systems of giant stars, of nebulae that sprawled in empty flame across light years. [9] But now unwonted excitement possessed the hundred-odd members of the Quest III's crew. [10] It was a subdued excitement; men and women, they came and stood quietly gazing into the big vision screens that showed the oncoming star, and there were wide-eyed children who had been born in the ship and had never seen a planet. [11] The grownups talked in low voices, in tones of mingled eagerness and apprehension, of what might lie at the long journey's end. [12] For the Quest III was coming home; the sun ahead was the Sun, whose rays had warmed their lives' beginning. [13] Knof Llud, the Quest III's captain, came slowly down the narrow stair from the observatory, into the big rotunda that was now the main recreation room, where most of the people gathered. [14] The great chamber, a full cross-section of the vessel, had been at first a fuel hold. [15] At the voyage's beginning eighty per cent of the fifteen-hundred-foot cylinder had been engines and fuel; but as the immense stores were spent and the holds became radioactively safe, the crew had spread out from its original cramped quarters. [16] Now the interstellar ship was little more than a hollow shell. [17] Eyes lifted from the vision screens to interrogate Knof Llud; he met them with an impassive countenance, and announced quietly, "We've sighted Earth." [18] A feverish buzz arose; the captain gestured for silence and went on, "It is still only a featureless disk to the telescope. [19] Zost Relyul has identified it—no more." [20] But this time the clamor was not to be settled. [21] People pressed round the screens, peering into them as if with the naked eye they could pick out the atom of reflected light that was Earth, home. [22] They wrung each other's hands, kissed, shouted, wept. [23] For the present their fears were forgotten and exaltation prevailed. [24] Knof Llud smiled wryly. [25] The rest of the little speech he had been about to make didn't matter anyway, and it might have spoiled this moment. [26] He turned to go, and was halted by the sight of his wife, standing at his elbow. [27] His wry smile took on warmth; he asked, "How do you feel, Lesra?" [28] She drew an uncertain breath and released it in a faint sigh. [29] "I don't know. [30] It's good that Earth's still there." [31] She was thinking, he judged shrewdly, of Knof Jr. and Delza, who save from pictures could not remember sunlit skies or grassy fields or woods in summer.... [32] He said, with a touch of tolerant amusement, "What did you think might have happened to Earth? [33] After all, it's only been nine hundred years." [34] "That's just it," said Lesra shakily. [35] "Nine hundred years have gone by— there —and nothing will be the same. [36] It won't be the same world we left, the world we knew and fitted in...." The captain put an arm round her with comforting pressure. [37] "Don't worry. [38] Things may have changed—but we'll manage." [39] But his face had hardened against registering the gnawing of that same doubtful fear within him. [40] He let his arm fall. [41] "I'd better get up to the bridge. [42] There's a new course to be set now—for Earth." [43] He left her and began to climb the stairway again. [44] Someone switched off the lights, and a charmed whisper ran through the big room as the people saw each other's faces by the pale golden light of Earth's own Sun, mirrored and multiplied by the screens. [45] In that light Lesra's eyes gleamed with unshed tears. [46] Captain Llud found Navigator Gwar Den looking as smug as the cat that ate the canary. [47] Gwar Den was finding that the actual observed positions of the planets thus far located agreed quite closely with his extrapolations from long unused charts of the Solar System. [48] He had already set up on the calculator a course that would carry them to Earth. [49] Llud nodded curt approval, remarking, "Probably we'll be intercepted before we get that far." [50] Den was jolted out of his happy abstraction. [51] "Uh, Captain," he said hesitantly. [52] "What kind of a reception do you suppose we'll get?" [53] Llud shook his head slowly. [54] "Who knows? [55] We don't know whether any of the other Quests returned successful, or if they returned at all. [56] And we don't know what changes have taken place on Earth. [57] It's possible—not likely, though—that something has happened to break civilization's continuity to the point where our expedition has been forgotten altogether." [58] He turned away grim-lipped and left the bridge. [59] From his private office-cabin, he sent a message to Chief Astronomer Zost Relyul to notify him as soon as Earth's surface features became clear; then he sat idle, alone with his thoughts. [60] The ship's automatic mechanisms had scant need of tending; Knof Llud found himself wishing that he could find some back-breaking task for everyone on board, himself included, to fill up the hours that remained. [61] There was an extensive and well-chosen film library in the cabin, but he couldn't persuade himself to kill time that way. [62] He could go down and watch the screens, or to the family apartment where he might find Lesra and the children—but somehow he didn't want to do that either. [63] He felt empty, drained—like his ship. [64] As the Quest III's fuel stores and the hope of success in man's mightiest venture had dwindled, so the strength had gone out of him. [65] Now the last fuel compartment was almost empty and Captain Knof Llud felt tired and old. [66] Perhaps, he thought, he was feeling the weight of his nine hundred Earth years—though physically he was only forty now, ten years older than when the voyage had begun. [67] That was the foreshortening along the time axis of a space ship approaching the speed of light. [68] Weeks and months had passed for the Quest III in interstellar flight while years and decades had raced by on the home world. [69] Bemusedly Llud got to his feet and stood surveying a cabinet with built-in voice recorder and pigeonholes for records. [70] There were about three dozen film spools there—his personal memoirs of the great expedition, a segment of his life and of history. [71] He might add that to the ship's official log and its collections of scientific data, as a report to whatever powers might be on Earth now—if such powers were still interested. [72] Llud selected a spool from among the earliest. [73] It was one he had made shortly after leaving Procyon, end of the first leg of the trip. [74] He slid it onto the reproducer. [75] His own voice came from the speaker, fresher, more vibrant and confident than he knew it was now. [76] "One light-day out from Procyon, the thirty-third day by ship's time since leaving Earth. [77] "Our visit to Procyon drew a blank. [78] There is only one huge planet, twice the size of Jupiter, and like Jupiter utterly unfit to support a colony. [79] "Our hopes were dashed—and I think all of us, even remembering the Centaurus Expedition's failure, hoped more than we cared to admit. [80] If Procyon had possessed a habitable planet, we could have returned after an absence of not much over twenty years Earth time. [81] "It is cheering to note that the crew seems only more resolute. [82] We go on to Capella; its spectrum, so like our own Sun's, beckons. [83] If success comes there, a century will have passed before we can return to Earth; friends, relatives, all the generation that launched the Quest ships will be long since dead. [84] Nevertheless we go on. [85] Our generation's dream, humanity's dream, lives in us and in the ship forever...." Presently Knof Llud switched off that younger voice of his and leaned back, an ironic smile touching his lips. [86] That fervent idealism seemed remote and foreign to him now. [87] The fanfares of departure must still have been ringing in his ears. [88] He rose, slipped the record back in its niche and picked out another, later, one. [89] "One week since we passed close enough to Aldebaran to ascertain that that system, too, is devoid of planets. [90] "We face the unpleasant realization that what was feared is probably true—that worlds such as the Sun's are a rare accident, and that we may complete our search without finding even one new Earth. [91] "It makes no difference, of course; we cannot betray the plan.... [92] This may be man's last chance of escaping his pitiful limitation to one world in all the Universe. [93] Certainly the building of this ship and its two sisters, the immense expenditure of time and labor and energy stores that went into them, left Earth's economy drained and exhausted. [94] Only once in a long age does mankind rise to such a selfless and transcendent effort—the effort of Egypt that built the pyramids, or the war efforts of the nations in the last great conflicts of the twentieth century. [95] "Looked at historically, such super-human outbursts of energy are the result of a population's outgrowing its room and resources, and therefore signalize the beginning of the end. [96] Population can be limited, but the price is a deadly frustration, because growth alone is life.... [97] In our day the end of man's room for growth on the Earth was in sight—so we launched the Quests . [98] Perhaps our effort will prove as futile as pyramid-building, less practical than orgies of slaughter to reduce pressure.... [99] In any case, it would be impossible to transport very many people to other stars; but Earth could at least go into its decline with the knowledge that its race went onward and upward, expanding limitlessly into the Universe.... "Hopeless, unless we find planets!" [100] Knof Llud shook his head sorrowfully and took off the spool. [101] That was from the time when he had grown philosophical after the first disappointments. [102] He frowned thoughtfully, choosing one more spool that was only four years old. [103] The recorded voice sounded weary, yet alive with a strange longing.... "We are in the heart of Pleiades; a hundred stars show brilliant on the screens, each star encircled by a misty halo like lights glowing through fog, for we are traversing a vast diffuse nebula. [104] "According to plan, the Quest III has reached its furthest point from Earth. [105] Now we turn back along a curve that will take us past many more stars and stellar systems—but hope is small that any of those will prove a home for man, as have none of the thousands of stars examined already. [106] "But what are a few thousand stars in a galaxy of billions? [107] We have only, as it were, visited a handful of the outlying villages of the Universe, while the lights of its great cities still blaze far ahead along the Milky Way. [108] "On flimsy excuses I have had Zost Relyul make observations of the globular cluster Omega Centauri. [109] There are a hundred thousand stars there in a volume of space where one finds a few dozen in the Sun's neighborhood; there if anywhere must circle the planets we seek! [110] But Omega Centauri is twenty thousand light years away.... "Even so—by expending its remaining fuel freely, the Quest III could achieve a velocity that would take us there without dying of senility of aging too greatly. [111] It would be a one-way journey—even if enough fuel remained, there would be little point in returning to Earth after more than forty thousand years. [112] By then our civilization certainly, and perhaps the human race itself, would have perished from memory. [113] "That was why the planners limited our voyage, and those of the other Quests , to less than a thousand years Earth time. [114] Even now, according to the sociodynamic predictions made then, our civilization—if the other expeditions failed also—will have reached a dangerously unstable phase, and before we can get back it may have collapsed completely from overpopulation. [115] "Why go back, then with the news of our failure? [116] Why not forget about Earth and go on to Omega Centauri? [117] What use is quixotic loyalty to a decree five thousand years old, whose makers are dead and which may be forgotten back there? [118] "Would the crew be willing? [119] I don't know—some of them still show signs of homesickness, though they know with their minds that everything that was once 'home' has probably been swept away.... "It doesn't matter. [120] Today I gave orders to swing the ship." [121] Savagely Knof Llud stabbed the button that shut off the speaker. [122] Then he sat for a time with head resting in his hands, staring into nothing. [123] The memory of that fierce impulse to go on still had power to shake him. [124] A couple of lines of poetry came into his head, as he read them once in translation from the ancient English.... ... for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. [125] Llud sighed. [126] He still couldn't say just why he had given the order to turn back. [127] The stars had claimed his heart—but he was still a part of Earth, and not even nine hundred years of space and time had been able to alter that. [128] He wondered if there would still be a quiet stream and a green shady place beside it where a death-weary man, relieved at last of responsibility, could rest and dream no more.... Those things went on, if men didn't change them. [129] And a pine forest where he and young Knof could go camping, and lie on their backs at night and gaze at the glittering constellations, far away, out of reach.... [130] He wasn't sure he would want to do that, though. [131] Suddenly a faint cushioned jar went through the great ship; it seemed to falter one moment in flight. [132] The captain was on his feet instantly, but then his movements became unhurried. [133] Whatever it had been was past, and he had a good idea what it had been—a meteoroid, nothing unusual in the vicinity of the Sun, though in interstellar space and around planetless stars such collisions were rare to the vanishing point. [134] No harm could have been done. [135] The Quest III's collision armor was nonmaterial and for practical purposes invulnerable. [136] Just as he took his finger off the button that opened the door, the intercommunication phone shrilled imperatively. [137] Knof Llud wheeled, frowning—surely a meteoroid impact wasn't that serious. [138] Coincidence, maybe—it might be Zost Relyul calling as instructed. [139] He reached the phone at the moment when another, heavier jolt shook the vessel. [140] Llud snatched up the receiver with the speed of a scalded cat. [141] "Captain?" [142] It was Gwar Den's voice, stammering a little. [143] "Captain, we're being attacked!" [144] "Sound the alarm. [145] Emergency stations." [146] He had said it automatically, then felt a curious detached relief at the knowledge that after all these years he could still respond quickly and smoothly to a crisis. [147] There was a moment's silence, and he heard the alarm start—three short buzzes and repeat, ringing through all the great length of the interstellar ship. [148] Knowing that Gwar Den was still there, he said, "Now—attacked by what?" [149] "Ships," said Gwar Den helplessly. [150] "Five of them so far. [151] No, there's a sixth now." [152] Repeated blows quivered the Quest III's framework. [153] The navigator said, obviously striving for calm, "They're light craft, not fifty feet long, but they move fast. [154] The detectors hardly had time to show them before they opened up. [155] Can't get a telescope beam on them long enough to tell much." [156] "If they're that small," said Knof Llud deliberately, "they can't carry anything heavy enough to hurt us. [157] Hold to course. [158] I'll be right up." [159] In the open doorway he almost fell over his son. [160] Young Knof's eyes were big; he had heard his father's words. [161] "Something's happened," he judged with deadly twelve-year-old seriousness and, without wasting time on questions, "Can I go with you, huh, Dad?" [162] Llud hesitated, said, "All right. [163] Come along and keep out of the way." [164] He headed for the bridge with strides that the boy could not match. [165] There were people running in the corridors, heading for their posts. [166] Their faces were set, scared, uncomprehending. [167] The Quest III shuddered, again and again, under blows that must have had millions of horsepower behind them; but it plunged on toward Earth, its mighty engines still steadily braking its interstellar velocity. [168] To a man, the ship's responsible officers were already on the bridge, most of them breathless. [169] To a man they looked appeal at Captain Knof Llud. [170] "Well?" [171] he snapped. [172] "What are they doing?" [173] Gwar Den spoke. [174] "There are thirteen of them out there now, sir, and they're all banging away at us." [175] The captain stared into the black star-strewn depths of a vision screen where occasional blue points of light winked ominously, never twice from the same position. [176] Knof Jr. flattened himself against the metal wall and watched silently. [177] His young face was less anxious than his elders'; he had confidence in his father. [178] "If they had anything heavier," surmised the captain, "they'd have unlimbered it by now. [179] They're out to get us. [180] But at this rate, they can't touch us as long as our power lasts—or until they bring up some bigger stuff." [181] The mild shocks went on—whether from projectiles or energy-charges, would be hard to find out and it didn't matter; whatever was hitting the Quest III's shell was doing it at velocities where the distinction between matter and radiation practically ceases to exist. [182] But that shell was tough. [183] It was an extension of the gravitic drive field which transmitted the engines' power equally to every atom of the ship; forces impinging on the outside of the field were similarly transmitted and rendered harmless. [184] The effect was as if the vessel and all space inside its field were a single perfectly elastic body. [185] A meteoroid, for example, on striking it rebounded—usually vaporized by the impact—and the ship, in obedience to the law of equal and opposite forces, rebounded too, but since its mass was so much greater, its deflection was negligible. [186] The people in the Quest III would have felt nothing at all of the vicious onslaught being hurled against them, save that their inertialess drive, at its normal thrust of two hundred gravities, was intentionally operated at one half of one per cent efficiency to provide the illusion of Earthly gravitation. [187] One of the officers said shakily, "It's as if they've been lying in wait for us. [188] But why on Earth—" "That," said the captain grimly, "is what we have to find out. [189] Why—on Earth. [190] At least, I suspect the answer's there." [191] The Quest III bored steadily on through space, decelerating. [192] Even if one were no fatalist, there seemed no reason to stop decelerating or change course. [193] There was nowhere else to go and too little fuel left if there had been; come what might, this was journey's end—perhaps in a more violent and final way than had been anticipated. [194] All around wheeled the pigmy enemies, circling, maneuvering, and attacking, always attacking, with the senseless fury of maddened hornets. [195] The interstellar ship bore no offensive weapons—but suddenly on one of the vision screens a speck of light flared into nova-brilliance, dazzling the watchers for the brief moment in which its very atoms were torn apart. [196] Knof Jr. whooped ecstatically and then subsided warily, but no one was paying attention to him. [197] The men on the Quest III's bridge looked questions at each other, as the thought of help from outside flashed into many minds at once. [198] But Captain Llud said soberly, "It must have caught one of their own shots, reflected. [199] Maybe its own, if it scored too direct a hit." [200] He studied the data so far gathered. [201] A few blurred pictures had been got, which showed cylindrical space ships much like the Quest III , except that they were rocket-propelled and of far lesser size. [202] Their size was hard to ascertain, because you needed to know their distance and speed—but detector-beam echoes gave the distance, and likewise, by the Doppler method, the velocity of directly receding or approaching ships. [203] It was apparent that the enemy vessels were even smaller than Gwar Den had at first supposed—not large enough to hold even one man. [204] Tiny, deadly hornets with a colossal sting. [205] "Robot craft, no doubt," said Knof Llud, but a chill ran down his spine as it occurred to him that perhaps the attackers weren't of human origin. [206] They had seen no recognizable life in the part of the galaxy they had explored, but one of the other Quests might have encountered and been traced home by some unhuman race that was greedy and able to conquer. [207] It became evident, too, that the bombardment was being kept up by a constant arrival of fresh attackers, while others raced away into space, presumably returning to base to replenish their ammunition. [208] That argued a planned and prepared interception with virulent hatred behind it. [209] Elsuz Llug, the gravitic engineer, calculated dismally, "At the rate we're having to shed energy, the fuel will be gone in six or eight hours." [210] "We'll have reached Earth before then," Gwar Den said hopefully. [211] "If they don't bring out the heavy artillery first." [212] "We're under the psychological disadvantage," said the captain, "of not knowing why we're being attacked." [213] Knof Jr. burst out, spluttering slightly with the violence of a thought too important to suppress, "But we're under a ps-psychological advantage, too!" [214] His father raised an eyebrow. [215] "What's that? [216] I don't seem to have noticed it." [217] "They're mad and we aren't, yet," said the boy. [218] Then, seeing that he hadn't made himself clear, "In a fight, if a guy gets mad he starts swinging wild and then you nail him." [219] Smiles splintered the ice of tension. [220] Captain Llud said, "Maybe you've got something there. [221] They seem to be mad, all right. [222] But we're not in a position to throw any punches." [223] He turned back to the others. [224] "As I was going to say—I think we'd better try to parley with the enemy. [225] At least we may find out who he is and why he's determined to smash us." [226] And now instead of tight-beam detectors the ship was broadcasting on an audio carrier wave that shifted through a wide range of frequencies, repeating on each the same brief recorded message: "Who are you? [227] What do you want? [228] We are the interstellar expedition Quest III ...." And so on, identifying themselves and protesting that they were unarmed and peaceful, that there must be some mistake, and querying again, "Who are you ?" [229] There was no answer. [230] The ship drove on, its fuel trickling away under multiplied demands. [231] Those outside were squandering vastly greater amounts of energy in the effort to batter down its defenses, but converting that energy into harmless gravitic impulses was costing the Quest III too. [232] Once more Knof Llud had the insidious sense of his own nerves and muscles and will weakening along with the power-sinews of his ship. [233] Zost Relyul approached him apologetically. [234] "If you have time, Captain—I've got some data on Earth now." [235] Eagerly Llud took the sheaf of photographs made with the telescope. [236] But they told him nothing; only the continental outlines were clear, and those were as they had been nine hundred years ago.... [237] He looked up inquiringly at Zost Relyul. [238] "There are some strange features," said the astronomer carefully. [239] "First of all—there are no lights on the night side. [240] And on the daylight face, our highest magnification should already reveal traces of cities, canals, and the like—but it does not. [241] "The prevailing color of the land masses, you see, is the normal green vegetation. [242] But the diffraction spectrum is queer. [243] It indicates reflecting surfaces less than one-tenth millimeter wide—so the vegetation there can't be trees or grass, but must be more like a fine moss or even a coarse mold." [244] "Is that all?" [245] demanded Llud. [246] "Isn't it enough?" [247] said Zost Relyul blankly. [248] "Well—we tried photography by invisible light, of course. [249] The infra-red shows nothing and likewise the ultraviolet up to the point where the atmosphere is opaque to it." [250] The captain sighed wearily. [251] "Good work," he said. [252] "Keep it up; perhaps you can answer some of these riddles before—" " We know who you are ," interrupted a harshly crackling voice with a strange accent, " and pleading will do you no good. " [253] Knof Llud whirled to the radio apparatus, his weariness dropping from him once more. [254] He snapped, "But who are you?" [255] and the words blended absurdly with the same words in his own voice on the still repeating tape. [256] He snapped off the record; as he did so the speaker, still crackling with space static, said, "It may interest you to know that you are the last. [257] The two other interstellar expeditions that went out have already returned and been destroyed, as you will soon be—the sooner, if you continue toward Earth." [258] Knof Llud's mind was clicking again. [259] The voice—which must be coming from Earth, relayed by one of the midget ships—was not very smart; it had already involuntarily told him a couple of things—that it was not as sure of itself as it sounded he deduced from the fact it had deigned to speak at all, and from its last remark he gathered that the Quest III's ponderous and unswerving progress toward Earth had somehow frightened it. [260] So it was trying to frighten them. [261] He shoved those facts back for future use. [262] Just now he had to know something, so vitally that he asked it as a bald question, " Are you human? " [263] The voice chuckled sourly. [264] "We are human," it answered, "but you are not." [265] The captain was momentarily silent, groping for an adequate reply. [266] Behind him somebody made a choked noise, the only sound in the stunned hush, and the ship jarred slightly as a thunderbolt slammed vengefully into its field. [267] "Suppose we settle this argument about humanity," said Knof Llud woodenly. [268] He named a vision frequency. [269] "Very well." [270] The tone was like a shrug. [271] The voice went on in its language that was quite intelligible, but alien-sounding with the changes that nine hundred years had wrought. [272] "Perhaps, if you realize your position, you will follow the intelligent example of the Quest I's commander." [273] Knof Llud stiffened. [274] The Quest I , launched toward Arcturus and the star cloud called Berenice's Hair, had been after the Quest III the most hopeful of the expeditions—and its captain had been a good friend of Llud's, nine hundred years ago.... [275] He growled, "What happened to him?" [276] "He fought off our interceptors, which are around you now, for some time," said the voice lightly. [277] "When he saw that it was hopeless, he preferred suicide to defeat, and took his ship into the Sun." [278] A short pause. [279] "The vision connection is ready." [280] Knof Llud switched on the screen at the named wavelength, and a picture formed there. [281] The face and figure that appeared were ugly, but undeniably a man's. [282] His features and his light-brown skin showed the same racial characteristics possessed by those aboard the Quest III , but he had an elusive look of deformity. [283] Most obviously, his head seemed too big for his body, and his eyes in turn too big for his head. [284] He grinned nastily at Knof Llud. [285] "Have you any other last wishes?" [286] "Yes," said Llud with icy control. [287] "You haven't answered one question. [288] Why do you want to kill us? [289] You can see we're as human as you are." [290] The big-headed man eyed him with a speculative look in his great eyes, behind which the captain glimpsed the flickering raw fire of a poisonous hatred. [291] "It is enough for you to know that you must die."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "How does the crew feel about approaching Earth?": 1. [23] For the present their fears were forgotten and exaltation prevailed. 2. [9] But now unwonted excitement possessed the hundred-odd members of the Quest III's crew. 3. [10] It was a subdued excitement; men and women, they came and stood quietly gazing into the big vision screens that showed the oncoming star, and there were wide-eyed children who had been born in the ship and had never seen a planet. 4. [11] The grownups talked in low voices, in tones of mingled eagerness and apprehension, of what might lie at the long journey's end. 5. [12] For the Quest III was coming home; the sun ahead was the Sun, whose rays had warmed their lives' beginning. 6. [28] "I don't know. It's good that Earth's still there." 7. [29] "It's good that Earth's still there." 8. [30] "It's good that Earth's still there." 9. [31] She was thinking, he judged shrewdly, of Knof Jr. and Delza, who save from pictures could not remember sunlit skies or grassy fields or woods in summer.... 10. [34] "Nine hundred years have gone by— there —and nothing will be the same. It won't be the same world we left, the world we knew and fitted in...." 11. [35] "Nine hundred years have gone by— there —and nothing will be the same. It won't be the same world we left, the world we knew and fitted in...." 12. [36] "It won't be the same world we left, the world we knew and fitted in...." 13. [37] "Don't worry. Things may have changed—but we'll manage." 14. [38] "Don't worry. Things may have changed—but we'll manage." 15. [39] But his face had hardened against registering the gnawing of that same doubtful fear within him. 16. [45] In that light Lesra's eyes gleamed with unshed tears. 17. [51] "Uh, Captain," he said hesitantly. "What kind of a reception do you suppose we'll get?" 18. [54] "Who knows? We don't know whether any of the other Quests returned successful, or if they returned at all." 19. [55] "We don't know whether any of the other Quests returned successful, or if they returned at all." 20. [56] "And we don't know what changes have taken place on Earth." 21. [57] "It's possible—not likely, though—that something has happened to break civilization's continuity to the point where our expedition has been forgotten altogether." 22. [63] He felt empty, drained—like his ship. 23. [64] As the Quest III's fuel stores and the hope of success in man's mightiest venture had dwindled, so the strength had gone out of him. 24. [65] Now the last fuel compartment was almost empty and Captain Knof Llud felt tired and old. 25. [126] He still couldn't say just why he had given the order to turn back. 26. [127] The stars had claimed his heart—but he was still a part of Earth, and not even nine hundred years of space and time had been able to alter that. 27. [128] He wondered if there would still be a quiet stream and a green shady place beside it where a death-weary man, relieved at last of responsibility, could rest and dream no more.... 28. [129] And a pine forest where he and young Knof could go camping, and lie on their backs at night and gaze at the glittering constellations, far away, out of reach.... 29. [130] He wasn't sure he would want to do that, though.

What was the plan and purpose of the voyage?

[1] THE GIANTS RETURN By ROBERT ABERNATHY Earth set itself grimly to meet them with corrosive fire, determined to blast them back to the stars. [2] But they erred in thinking the Old Ones were too big to be clever. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1949. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] In the last hours the star ahead had grown brighter by many magnitudes, and had changed its color from a dazzling blue through white to the normal yellow, of a GO sun. [6] That was the Doppler effect as the star's radial velocity changed relative to the Quest III , as for forty hours the ship had decelerated. [7] They had seen many such stars come near out of the galaxy's glittering backdrop, and had seen them dwindle, turn red and go out as the Quest III drove on its way once more, lashed by despair toward the speed of light, leaving behind the mockery of yet another solitary and lifeless luminary unaccompanied by worlds where men might dwell. [8] They had grown sated with the sight of wonders—of multiple systems of giant stars, of nebulae that sprawled in empty flame across light years. [9] But now unwonted excitement possessed the hundred-odd members of the Quest III's crew. [10] It was a subdued excitement; men and women, they came and stood quietly gazing into the big vision screens that showed the oncoming star, and there were wide-eyed children who had been born in the ship and had never seen a planet. [11] The grownups talked in low voices, in tones of mingled eagerness and apprehension, of what might lie at the long journey's end. [12] For the Quest III was coming home; the sun ahead was the Sun, whose rays had warmed their lives' beginning. [13] Knof Llud, the Quest III's captain, came slowly down the narrow stair from the observatory, into the big rotunda that was now the main recreation room, where most of the people gathered. [14] The great chamber, a full cross-section of the vessel, had been at first a fuel hold. [15] At the voyage's beginning eighty per cent of the fifteen-hundred-foot cylinder had been engines and fuel; but as the immense stores were spent and the holds became radioactively safe, the crew had spread out from its original cramped quarters. [16] Now the interstellar ship was little more than a hollow shell. [17] Eyes lifted from the vision screens to interrogate Knof Llud; he met them with an impassive countenance, and announced quietly, "We've sighted Earth." [18] A feverish buzz arose; the captain gestured for silence and went on, "It is still only a featureless disk to the telescope. [19] Zost Relyul has identified it—no more." [20] But this time the clamor was not to be settled. [21] People pressed round the screens, peering into them as if with the naked eye they could pick out the atom of reflected light that was Earth, home. [22] They wrung each other's hands, kissed, shouted, wept. [23] For the present their fears were forgotten and exaltation prevailed. [24] Knof Llud smiled wryly. [25] The rest of the little speech he had been about to make didn't matter anyway, and it might have spoiled this moment. [26] He turned to go, and was halted by the sight of his wife, standing at his elbow. [27] His wry smile took on warmth; he asked, "How do you feel, Lesra?" [28] She drew an uncertain breath and released it in a faint sigh. [29] "I don't know. [30] It's good that Earth's still there." [31] She was thinking, he judged shrewdly, of Knof Jr. and Delza, who save from pictures could not remember sunlit skies or grassy fields or woods in summer.... [32] He said, with a touch of tolerant amusement, "What did you think might have happened to Earth? [33] After all, it's only been nine hundred years." [34] "That's just it," said Lesra shakily. [35] "Nine hundred years have gone by— there —and nothing will be the same. [36] It won't be the same world we left, the world we knew and fitted in...." The captain put an arm round her with comforting pressure. [37] "Don't worry. [38] Things may have changed—but we'll manage." [39] But his face had hardened against registering the gnawing of that same doubtful fear within him. [40] He let his arm fall. [41] "I'd better get up to the bridge. [42] There's a new course to be set now—for Earth." [43] He left her and began to climb the stairway again. [44] Someone switched off the lights, and a charmed whisper ran through the big room as the people saw each other's faces by the pale golden light of Earth's own Sun, mirrored and multiplied by the screens. [45] In that light Lesra's eyes gleamed with unshed tears. [46] Captain Llud found Navigator Gwar Den looking as smug as the cat that ate the canary. [47] Gwar Den was finding that the actual observed positions of the planets thus far located agreed quite closely with his extrapolations from long unused charts of the Solar System. [48] He had already set up on the calculator a course that would carry them to Earth. [49] Llud nodded curt approval, remarking, "Probably we'll be intercepted before we get that far." [50] Den was jolted out of his happy abstraction. [51] "Uh, Captain," he said hesitantly. [52] "What kind of a reception do you suppose we'll get?" [53] Llud shook his head slowly. [54] "Who knows? [55] We don't know whether any of the other Quests returned successful, or if they returned at all. [56] And we don't know what changes have taken place on Earth. [57] It's possible—not likely, though—that something has happened to break civilization's continuity to the point where our expedition has been forgotten altogether." [58] He turned away grim-lipped and left the bridge. [59] From his private office-cabin, he sent a message to Chief Astronomer Zost Relyul to notify him as soon as Earth's surface features became clear; then he sat idle, alone with his thoughts. [60] The ship's automatic mechanisms had scant need of tending; Knof Llud found himself wishing that he could find some back-breaking task for everyone on board, himself included, to fill up the hours that remained. [61] There was an extensive and well-chosen film library in the cabin, but he couldn't persuade himself to kill time that way. [62] He could go down and watch the screens, or to the family apartment where he might find Lesra and the children—but somehow he didn't want to do that either. [63] He felt empty, drained—like his ship. [64] As the Quest III's fuel stores and the hope of success in man's mightiest venture had dwindled, so the strength had gone out of him. [65] Now the last fuel compartment was almost empty and Captain Knof Llud felt tired and old. [66] Perhaps, he thought, he was feeling the weight of his nine hundred Earth years—though physically he was only forty now, ten years older than when the voyage had begun. [67] That was the foreshortening along the time axis of a space ship approaching the speed of light. [68] Weeks and months had passed for the Quest III in interstellar flight while years and decades had raced by on the home world. [69] Bemusedly Llud got to his feet and stood surveying a cabinet with built-in voice recorder and pigeonholes for records. [70] There were about three dozen film spools there—his personal memoirs of the great expedition, a segment of his life and of history. [71] He might add that to the ship's official log and its collections of scientific data, as a report to whatever powers might be on Earth now—if such powers were still interested. [72] Llud selected a spool from among the earliest. [73] It was one he had made shortly after leaving Procyon, end of the first leg of the trip. [74] He slid it onto the reproducer. [75] His own voice came from the speaker, fresher, more vibrant and confident than he knew it was now. [76] "One light-day out from Procyon, the thirty-third day by ship's time since leaving Earth. [77] "Our visit to Procyon drew a blank. [78] There is only one huge planet, twice the size of Jupiter, and like Jupiter utterly unfit to support a colony. [79] "Our hopes were dashed—and I think all of us, even remembering the Centaurus Expedition's failure, hoped more than we cared to admit. [80] If Procyon had possessed a habitable planet, we could have returned after an absence of not much over twenty years Earth time. [81] "It is cheering to note that the crew seems only more resolute. [82] We go on to Capella; its spectrum, so like our own Sun's, beckons. [83] If success comes there, a century will have passed before we can return to Earth; friends, relatives, all the generation that launched the Quest ships will be long since dead. [84] Nevertheless we go on. [85] Our generation's dream, humanity's dream, lives in us and in the ship forever...." Presently Knof Llud switched off that younger voice of his and leaned back, an ironic smile touching his lips. [86] That fervent idealism seemed remote and foreign to him now. [87] The fanfares of departure must still have been ringing in his ears. [88] He rose, slipped the record back in its niche and picked out another, later, one. [89] "One week since we passed close enough to Aldebaran to ascertain that that system, too, is devoid of planets. [90] "We face the unpleasant realization that what was feared is probably true—that worlds such as the Sun's are a rare accident, and that we may complete our search without finding even one new Earth. [91] "It makes no difference, of course; we cannot betray the plan.... [92] This may be man's last chance of escaping his pitiful limitation to one world in all the Universe. [93] Certainly the building of this ship and its two sisters, the immense expenditure of time and labor and energy stores that went into them, left Earth's economy drained and exhausted. [94] Only once in a long age does mankind rise to such a selfless and transcendent effort—the effort of Egypt that built the pyramids, or the war efforts of the nations in the last great conflicts of the twentieth century. [95] "Looked at historically, such super-human outbursts of energy are the result of a population's outgrowing its room and resources, and therefore signalize the beginning of the end. [96] Population can be limited, but the price is a deadly frustration, because growth alone is life.... [97] In our day the end of man's room for growth on the Earth was in sight—so we launched the Quests . [98] Perhaps our effort will prove as futile as pyramid-building, less practical than orgies of slaughter to reduce pressure.... [99] In any case, it would be impossible to transport very many people to other stars; but Earth could at least go into its decline with the knowledge that its race went onward and upward, expanding limitlessly into the Universe.... "Hopeless, unless we find planets!" [100] Knof Llud shook his head sorrowfully and took off the spool. [101] That was from the time when he had grown philosophical after the first disappointments. [102] He frowned thoughtfully, choosing one more spool that was only four years old. [103] The recorded voice sounded weary, yet alive with a strange longing.... "We are in the heart of Pleiades; a hundred stars show brilliant on the screens, each star encircled by a misty halo like lights glowing through fog, for we are traversing a vast diffuse nebula. [104] "According to plan, the Quest III has reached its furthest point from Earth. [105] Now we turn back along a curve that will take us past many more stars and stellar systems—but hope is small that any of those will prove a home for man, as have none of the thousands of stars examined already. [106] "But what are a few thousand stars in a galaxy of billions? [107] We have only, as it were, visited a handful of the outlying villages of the Universe, while the lights of its great cities still blaze far ahead along the Milky Way. [108] "On flimsy excuses I have had Zost Relyul make observations of the globular cluster Omega Centauri. [109] There are a hundred thousand stars there in a volume of space where one finds a few dozen in the Sun's neighborhood; there if anywhere must circle the planets we seek! [110] But Omega Centauri is twenty thousand light years away.... "Even so—by expending its remaining fuel freely, the Quest III could achieve a velocity that would take us there without dying of senility of aging too greatly. [111] It would be a one-way journey—even if enough fuel remained, there would be little point in returning to Earth after more than forty thousand years. [112] By then our civilization certainly, and perhaps the human race itself, would have perished from memory. [113] "That was why the planners limited our voyage, and those of the other Quests , to less than a thousand years Earth time. [114] Even now, according to the sociodynamic predictions made then, our civilization—if the other expeditions failed also—will have reached a dangerously unstable phase, and before we can get back it may have collapsed completely from overpopulation. [115] "Why go back, then with the news of our failure? [116] Why not forget about Earth and go on to Omega Centauri? [117] What use is quixotic loyalty to a decree five thousand years old, whose makers are dead and which may be forgotten back there? [118] "Would the crew be willing? [119] I don't know—some of them still show signs of homesickness, though they know with their minds that everything that was once 'home' has probably been swept away.... "It doesn't matter. [120] Today I gave orders to swing the ship." [121] Savagely Knof Llud stabbed the button that shut off the speaker. [122] Then he sat for a time with head resting in his hands, staring into nothing. [123] The memory of that fierce impulse to go on still had power to shake him. [124] A couple of lines of poetry came into his head, as he read them once in translation from the ancient English.... ... for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. [125] Llud sighed. [126] He still couldn't say just why he had given the order to turn back. [127] The stars had claimed his heart—but he was still a part of Earth, and not even nine hundred years of space and time had been able to alter that. [128] He wondered if there would still be a quiet stream and a green shady place beside it where a death-weary man, relieved at last of responsibility, could rest and dream no more.... Those things went on, if men didn't change them. [129] And a pine forest where he and young Knof could go camping, and lie on their backs at night and gaze at the glittering constellations, far away, out of reach.... [130] He wasn't sure he would want to do that, though. [131] Suddenly a faint cushioned jar went through the great ship; it seemed to falter one moment in flight. [132] The captain was on his feet instantly, but then his movements became unhurried. [133] Whatever it had been was past, and he had a good idea what it had been—a meteoroid, nothing unusual in the vicinity of the Sun, though in interstellar space and around planetless stars such collisions were rare to the vanishing point. [134] No harm could have been done. [135] The Quest III's collision armor was nonmaterial and for practical purposes invulnerable. [136] Just as he took his finger off the button that opened the door, the intercommunication phone shrilled imperatively. [137] Knof Llud wheeled, frowning—surely a meteoroid impact wasn't that serious. [138] Coincidence, maybe—it might be Zost Relyul calling as instructed. [139] He reached the phone at the moment when another, heavier jolt shook the vessel. [140] Llud snatched up the receiver with the speed of a scalded cat. [141] "Captain?" [142] It was Gwar Den's voice, stammering a little. [143] "Captain, we're being attacked!" [144] "Sound the alarm. [145] Emergency stations." [146] He had said it automatically, then felt a curious detached relief at the knowledge that after all these years he could still respond quickly and smoothly to a crisis. [147] There was a moment's silence, and he heard the alarm start—three short buzzes and repeat, ringing through all the great length of the interstellar ship. [148] Knowing that Gwar Den was still there, he said, "Now—attacked by what?" [149] "Ships," said Gwar Den helplessly. [150] "Five of them so far. [151] No, there's a sixth now." [152] Repeated blows quivered the Quest III's framework. [153] The navigator said, obviously striving for calm, "They're light craft, not fifty feet long, but they move fast. [154] The detectors hardly had time to show them before they opened up. [155] Can't get a telescope beam on them long enough to tell much." [156] "If they're that small," said Knof Llud deliberately, "they can't carry anything heavy enough to hurt us. [157] Hold to course. [158] I'll be right up." [159] In the open doorway he almost fell over his son. [160] Young Knof's eyes were big; he had heard his father's words. [161] "Something's happened," he judged with deadly twelve-year-old seriousness and, without wasting time on questions, "Can I go with you, huh, Dad?" [162] Llud hesitated, said, "All right. [163] Come along and keep out of the way." [164] He headed for the bridge with strides that the boy could not match. [165] There were people running in the corridors, heading for their posts. [166] Their faces were set, scared, uncomprehending. [167] The Quest III shuddered, again and again, under blows that must have had millions of horsepower behind them; but it plunged on toward Earth, its mighty engines still steadily braking its interstellar velocity. [168] To a man, the ship's responsible officers were already on the bridge, most of them breathless. [169] To a man they looked appeal at Captain Knof Llud. [170] "Well?" [171] he snapped. [172] "What are they doing?" [173] Gwar Den spoke. [174] "There are thirteen of them out there now, sir, and they're all banging away at us." [175] The captain stared into the black star-strewn depths of a vision screen where occasional blue points of light winked ominously, never twice from the same position. [176] Knof Jr. flattened himself against the metal wall and watched silently. [177] His young face was less anxious than his elders'; he had confidence in his father. [178] "If they had anything heavier," surmised the captain, "they'd have unlimbered it by now. [179] They're out to get us. [180] But at this rate, they can't touch us as long as our power lasts—or until they bring up some bigger stuff." [181] The mild shocks went on—whether from projectiles or energy-charges, would be hard to find out and it didn't matter; whatever was hitting the Quest III's shell was doing it at velocities where the distinction between matter and radiation practically ceases to exist. [182] But that shell was tough. [183] It was an extension of the gravitic drive field which transmitted the engines' power equally to every atom of the ship; forces impinging on the outside of the field were similarly transmitted and rendered harmless. [184] The effect was as if the vessel and all space inside its field were a single perfectly elastic body. [185] A meteoroid, for example, on striking it rebounded—usually vaporized by the impact—and the ship, in obedience to the law of equal and opposite forces, rebounded too, but since its mass was so much greater, its deflection was negligible. [186] The people in the Quest III would have felt nothing at all of the vicious onslaught being hurled against them, save that their inertialess drive, at its normal thrust of two hundred gravities, was intentionally operated at one half of one per cent efficiency to provide the illusion of Earthly gravitation. [187] One of the officers said shakily, "It's as if they've been lying in wait for us. [188] But why on Earth—" "That," said the captain grimly, "is what we have to find out. [189] Why—on Earth. [190] At least, I suspect the answer's there." [191] The Quest III bored steadily on through space, decelerating. [192] Even if one were no fatalist, there seemed no reason to stop decelerating or change course. [193] There was nowhere else to go and too little fuel left if there had been; come what might, this was journey's end—perhaps in a more violent and final way than had been anticipated. [194] All around wheeled the pigmy enemies, circling, maneuvering, and attacking, always attacking, with the senseless fury of maddened hornets. [195] The interstellar ship bore no offensive weapons—but suddenly on one of the vision screens a speck of light flared into nova-brilliance, dazzling the watchers for the brief moment in which its very atoms were torn apart. [196] Knof Jr. whooped ecstatically and then subsided warily, but no one was paying attention to him. [197] The men on the Quest III's bridge looked questions at each other, as the thought of help from outside flashed into many minds at once. [198] But Captain Llud said soberly, "It must have caught one of their own shots, reflected. [199] Maybe its own, if it scored too direct a hit." [200] He studied the data so far gathered. [201] A few blurred pictures had been got, which showed cylindrical space ships much like the Quest III , except that they were rocket-propelled and of far lesser size. [202] Their size was hard to ascertain, because you needed to know their distance and speed—but detector-beam echoes gave the distance, and likewise, by the Doppler method, the velocity of directly receding or approaching ships. [203] It was apparent that the enemy vessels were even smaller than Gwar Den had at first supposed—not large enough to hold even one man. [204] Tiny, deadly hornets with a colossal sting. [205] "Robot craft, no doubt," said Knof Llud, but a chill ran down his spine as it occurred to him that perhaps the attackers weren't of human origin. [206] They had seen no recognizable life in the part of the galaxy they had explored, but one of the other Quests might have encountered and been traced home by some unhuman race that was greedy and able to conquer. [207] It became evident, too, that the bombardment was being kept up by a constant arrival of fresh attackers, while others raced away into space, presumably returning to base to replenish their ammunition. [208] That argued a planned and prepared interception with virulent hatred behind it. [209] Elsuz Llug, the gravitic engineer, calculated dismally, "At the rate we're having to shed energy, the fuel will be gone in six or eight hours." [210] "We'll have reached Earth before then," Gwar Den said hopefully. [211] "If they don't bring out the heavy artillery first." [212] "We're under the psychological disadvantage," said the captain, "of not knowing why we're being attacked." [213] Knof Jr. burst out, spluttering slightly with the violence of a thought too important to suppress, "But we're under a ps-psychological advantage, too!" [214] His father raised an eyebrow. [215] "What's that? [216] I don't seem to have noticed it." [217] "They're mad and we aren't, yet," said the boy. [218] Then, seeing that he hadn't made himself clear, "In a fight, if a guy gets mad he starts swinging wild and then you nail him." [219] Smiles splintered the ice of tension. [220] Captain Llud said, "Maybe you've got something there. [221] They seem to be mad, all right. [222] But we're not in a position to throw any punches." [223] He turned back to the others. [224] "As I was going to say—I think we'd better try to parley with the enemy. [225] At least we may find out who he is and why he's determined to smash us." [226] And now instead of tight-beam detectors the ship was broadcasting on an audio carrier wave that shifted through a wide range of frequencies, repeating on each the same brief recorded message: "Who are you? [227] What do you want? [228] We are the interstellar expedition Quest III ...." And so on, identifying themselves and protesting that they were unarmed and peaceful, that there must be some mistake, and querying again, "Who are you ?" [229] There was no answer. [230] The ship drove on, its fuel trickling away under multiplied demands. [231] Those outside were squandering vastly greater amounts of energy in the effort to batter down its defenses, but converting that energy into harmless gravitic impulses was costing the Quest III too. [232] Once more Knof Llud had the insidious sense of his own nerves and muscles and will weakening along with the power-sinews of his ship. [233] Zost Relyul approached him apologetically. [234] "If you have time, Captain—I've got some data on Earth now." [235] Eagerly Llud took the sheaf of photographs made with the telescope. [236] But they told him nothing; only the continental outlines were clear, and those were as they had been nine hundred years ago.... [237] He looked up inquiringly at Zost Relyul. [238] "There are some strange features," said the astronomer carefully. [239] "First of all—there are no lights on the night side. [240] And on the daylight face, our highest magnification should already reveal traces of cities, canals, and the like—but it does not. [241] "The prevailing color of the land masses, you see, is the normal green vegetation. [242] But the diffraction spectrum is queer. [243] It indicates reflecting surfaces less than one-tenth millimeter wide—so the vegetation there can't be trees or grass, but must be more like a fine moss or even a coarse mold." [244] "Is that all?" [245] demanded Llud. [246] "Isn't it enough?" [247] said Zost Relyul blankly. [248] "Well—we tried photography by invisible light, of course. [249] The infra-red shows nothing and likewise the ultraviolet up to the point where the atmosphere is opaque to it." [250] The captain sighed wearily. [251] "Good work," he said. [252] "Keep it up; perhaps you can answer some of these riddles before—" " We know who you are ," interrupted a harshly crackling voice with a strange accent, " and pleading will do you no good. " [253] Knof Llud whirled to the radio apparatus, his weariness dropping from him once more. [254] He snapped, "But who are you?" [255] and the words blended absurdly with the same words in his own voice on the still repeating tape. [256] He snapped off the record; as he did so the speaker, still crackling with space static, said, "It may interest you to know that you are the last. [257] The two other interstellar expeditions that went out have already returned and been destroyed, as you will soon be—the sooner, if you continue toward Earth." [258] Knof Llud's mind was clicking again. [259] The voice—which must be coming from Earth, relayed by one of the midget ships—was not very smart; it had already involuntarily told him a couple of things—that it was not as sure of itself as it sounded he deduced from the fact it had deigned to speak at all, and from its last remark he gathered that the Quest III's ponderous and unswerving progress toward Earth had somehow frightened it. [260] So it was trying to frighten them. [261] He shoved those facts back for future use. [262] Just now he had to know something, so vitally that he asked it as a bald question, " Are you human? " [263] The voice chuckled sourly. [264] "We are human," it answered, "but you are not." [265] The captain was momentarily silent, groping for an adequate reply. [266] Behind him somebody made a choked noise, the only sound in the stunned hush, and the ship jarred slightly as a thunderbolt slammed vengefully into its field. [267] "Suppose we settle this argument about humanity," said Knof Llud woodenly. [268] He named a vision frequency. [269] "Very well." [270] The tone was like a shrug. [271] The voice went on in its language that was quite intelligible, but alien-sounding with the changes that nine hundred years had wrought. [272] "Perhaps, if you realize your position, you will follow the intelligent example of the Quest I's commander." [273] Knof Llud stiffened. [274] The Quest I , launched toward Arcturus and the star cloud called Berenice's Hair, had been after the Quest III the most hopeful of the expeditions—and its captain had been a good friend of Llud's, nine hundred years ago.... [275] He growled, "What happened to him?" [276] "He fought off our interceptors, which are around you now, for some time," said the voice lightly. [277] "When he saw that it was hopeless, he preferred suicide to defeat, and took his ship into the Sun." [278] A short pause. [279] "The vision connection is ready." [280] Knof Llud switched on the screen at the named wavelength, and a picture formed there. [281] The face and figure that appeared were ugly, but undeniably a man's. [282] His features and his light-brown skin showed the same racial characteristics possessed by those aboard the Quest III , but he had an elusive look of deformity. [283] Most obviously, his head seemed too big for his body, and his eyes in turn too big for his head. [284] He grinned nastily at Knof Llud. [285] "Have you any other last wishes?" [286] "Yes," said Llud with icy control. [287] "You haven't answered one question. [288] Why do you want to kill us? [289] You can see we're as human as you are." [290] The big-headed man eyed him with a speculative look in his great eyes, behind which the captain glimpsed the flickering raw fire of a poisonous hatred. [291] "It is enough for you to know that you must die."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What was the plan and purpose of the voyage?": 1. [92] This may be man's last chance of escaping his pitiful limitation to one world in all the Universe. Certainly the building of this ship and its two sisters, the immense expenditure of time and labor and energy stores that went into them, left Earth's economy drained and exhausted. 2. [97] In our day the end of man's room for growth on the Earth was in sight—so we launched the Quests. 3. [113] That was why the planners limited our voyage, and those of the other Quests, to less than a thousand years Earth time. 4. [114] Even now, according to the sociodynamic predictions made then, our civilization—if the other expeditions failed also—will have reached a dangerously unstable phase, and before we can get back it may have collapsed completely from overpopulation. 5. [76] "Our visit to Procyon drew a blank. There is only one huge planet, twice the size of Jupiter, and like Jupiter utterly unfit to support a colony. 6. [82] We go on to Capella; its spectrum, so like our own Sun's, beckons. 7. [83] If success comes there, a century will have passed before we can return to Earth; friends, relatives, all the generation that launched the Quest ships will be long since dead. 8. [84] Nevertheless we go on. Our generation's dream, humanity's dream, lives in us and in the ship forever. 9. [89] "We face the unpleasant realization that what was feared is probably true—that worlds such as the Sun's are a rare accident, and that we may complete our search without finding even one new Earth. 10. [91] This may be man's last chance of escaping his pitiful limitation to one world in all the Universe. 11. [93] Certainly the building of this ship and its two sisters, the immense expenditure of time and labor and energy stores that went into them, left Earth's economy drained and exhausted. 12. [95] Looked at historically, such super-human outbursts of energy are the result of a population's outgrowing its room and resources, and therefore signalize the beginning of the end. 13. [96] Population can be limited, but the price is a deadly frustration, because growth alone is life.... 14. [99] In any case, it would be impossible to transport very many people to other stars; but Earth could at least go into its decline with the knowledge that its race went onward and upward, expanding limitlessly into the Universe.... 15. [100] "Hopeless, unless we find planets!" 16. [103] According to plan, the Quest III has reached its furthest point from Earth. 17. [104] Now we turn back along a curve that will take us past many more stars and stellar systems—but hope is small that any of those will prove a home for man, as have none of the thousands of stars examined already. 18. [105] But what are a few thousand stars in a galaxy of billions? We have only, as it were, visited a handful of the outlying villages of the Universe, while the lights of its great cities still blaze far ahead along the Milky Way. 19. [110] Even so—by expending its remaining fuel freely, the Quest III could achieve a velocity that would take us there without dying of senility of aging too greatly. 20. [111] It would be a one-way journey—even if enough fuel remained, there would be little point in returning to Earth after more than forty thousand years. 21. [112] That was why the planners limited our voyage, and those of the other Quests, to less than a thousand years Earth time. 22. [115] Why go back, then with the news of our failure? Why not forget about Earth and go on to Omega Centauri? 23. [116] What use is quixotic loyalty to a decree five thousand years old, whose makers are dead and which may be forgotten back there? 24. [117] Would the crew be willing? I don't know—some of them still show signs of homesickness, though they know with their minds that everything that was once 'home' has probably been swept away.... 25. [118] "It doesn't matter. Today I gave orders to swing the ship."

What is the significance of the captain's decision to return to Earth instead of going to Omega Centauri?

[1] THE GIANTS RETURN By ROBERT ABERNATHY Earth set itself grimly to meet them with corrosive fire, determined to blast them back to the stars. [2] But they erred in thinking the Old Ones were too big to be clever. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Fall 1949. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] In the last hours the star ahead had grown brighter by many magnitudes, and had changed its color from a dazzling blue through white to the normal yellow, of a GO sun. [6] That was the Doppler effect as the star's radial velocity changed relative to the Quest III , as for forty hours the ship had decelerated. [7] They had seen many such stars come near out of the galaxy's glittering backdrop, and had seen them dwindle, turn red and go out as the Quest III drove on its way once more, lashed by despair toward the speed of light, leaving behind the mockery of yet another solitary and lifeless luminary unaccompanied by worlds where men might dwell. [8] They had grown sated with the sight of wonders—of multiple systems of giant stars, of nebulae that sprawled in empty flame across light years. [9] But now unwonted excitement possessed the hundred-odd members of the Quest III's crew. [10] It was a subdued excitement; men and women, they came and stood quietly gazing into the big vision screens that showed the oncoming star, and there were wide-eyed children who had been born in the ship and had never seen a planet. [11] The grownups talked in low voices, in tones of mingled eagerness and apprehension, of what might lie at the long journey's end. [12] For the Quest III was coming home; the sun ahead was the Sun, whose rays had warmed their lives' beginning. [13] Knof Llud, the Quest III's captain, came slowly down the narrow stair from the observatory, into the big rotunda that was now the main recreation room, where most of the people gathered. [14] The great chamber, a full cross-section of the vessel, had been at first a fuel hold. [15] At the voyage's beginning eighty per cent of the fifteen-hundred-foot cylinder had been engines and fuel; but as the immense stores were spent and the holds became radioactively safe, the crew had spread out from its original cramped quarters. [16] Now the interstellar ship was little more than a hollow shell. [17] Eyes lifted from the vision screens to interrogate Knof Llud; he met them with an impassive countenance, and announced quietly, "We've sighted Earth." [18] A feverish buzz arose; the captain gestured for silence and went on, "It is still only a featureless disk to the telescope. [19] Zost Relyul has identified it—no more." [20] But this time the clamor was not to be settled. [21] People pressed round the screens, peering into them as if with the naked eye they could pick out the atom of reflected light that was Earth, home. [22] They wrung each other's hands, kissed, shouted, wept. [23] For the present their fears were forgotten and exaltation prevailed. [24] Knof Llud smiled wryly. [25] The rest of the little speech he had been about to make didn't matter anyway, and it might have spoiled this moment. [26] He turned to go, and was halted by the sight of his wife, standing at his elbow. [27] His wry smile took on warmth; he asked, "How do you feel, Lesra?" [28] She drew an uncertain breath and released it in a faint sigh. [29] "I don't know. [30] It's good that Earth's still there." [31] She was thinking, he judged shrewdly, of Knof Jr. and Delza, who save from pictures could not remember sunlit skies or grassy fields or woods in summer.... [32] He said, with a touch of tolerant amusement, "What did you think might have happened to Earth? [33] After all, it's only been nine hundred years." [34] "That's just it," said Lesra shakily. [35] "Nine hundred years have gone by— there —and nothing will be the same. [36] It won't be the same world we left, the world we knew and fitted in...." The captain put an arm round her with comforting pressure. [37] "Don't worry. [38] Things may have changed—but we'll manage." [39] But his face had hardened against registering the gnawing of that same doubtful fear within him. [40] He let his arm fall. [41] "I'd better get up to the bridge. [42] There's a new course to be set now—for Earth." [43] He left her and began to climb the stairway again. [44] Someone switched off the lights, and a charmed whisper ran through the big room as the people saw each other's faces by the pale golden light of Earth's own Sun, mirrored and multiplied by the screens. [45] In that light Lesra's eyes gleamed with unshed tears. [46] Captain Llud found Navigator Gwar Den looking as smug as the cat that ate the canary. [47] Gwar Den was finding that the actual observed positions of the planets thus far located agreed quite closely with his extrapolations from long unused charts of the Solar System. [48] He had already set up on the calculator a course that would carry them to Earth. [49] Llud nodded curt approval, remarking, "Probably we'll be intercepted before we get that far." [50] Den was jolted out of his happy abstraction. [51] "Uh, Captain," he said hesitantly. [52] "What kind of a reception do you suppose we'll get?" [53] Llud shook his head slowly. [54] "Who knows? [55] We don't know whether any of the other Quests returned successful, or if they returned at all. [56] And we don't know what changes have taken place on Earth. [57] It's possible—not likely, though—that something has happened to break civilization's continuity to the point where our expedition has been forgotten altogether." [58] He turned away grim-lipped and left the bridge. [59] From his private office-cabin, he sent a message to Chief Astronomer Zost Relyul to notify him as soon as Earth's surface features became clear; then he sat idle, alone with his thoughts. [60] The ship's automatic mechanisms had scant need of tending; Knof Llud found himself wishing that he could find some back-breaking task for everyone on board, himself included, to fill up the hours that remained. [61] There was an extensive and well-chosen film library in the cabin, but he couldn't persuade himself to kill time that way. [62] He could go down and watch the screens, or to the family apartment where he might find Lesra and the children—but somehow he didn't want to do that either. [63] He felt empty, drained—like his ship. [64] As the Quest III's fuel stores and the hope of success in man's mightiest venture had dwindled, so the strength had gone out of him. [65] Now the last fuel compartment was almost empty and Captain Knof Llud felt tired and old. [66] Perhaps, he thought, he was feeling the weight of his nine hundred Earth years—though physically he was only forty now, ten years older than when the voyage had begun. [67] That was the foreshortening along the time axis of a space ship approaching the speed of light. [68] Weeks and months had passed for the Quest III in interstellar flight while years and decades had raced by on the home world. [69] Bemusedly Llud got to his feet and stood surveying a cabinet with built-in voice recorder and pigeonholes for records. [70] There were about three dozen film spools there—his personal memoirs of the great expedition, a segment of his life and of history. [71] He might add that to the ship's official log and its collections of scientific data, as a report to whatever powers might be on Earth now—if such powers were still interested. [72] Llud selected a spool from among the earliest. [73] It was one he had made shortly after leaving Procyon, end of the first leg of the trip. [74] He slid it onto the reproducer. [75] His own voice came from the speaker, fresher, more vibrant and confident than he knew it was now. [76] "One light-day out from Procyon, the thirty-third day by ship's time since leaving Earth. [77] "Our visit to Procyon drew a blank. [78] There is only one huge planet, twice the size of Jupiter, and like Jupiter utterly unfit to support a colony. [79] "Our hopes were dashed—and I think all of us, even remembering the Centaurus Expedition's failure, hoped more than we cared to admit. [80] If Procyon had possessed a habitable planet, we could have returned after an absence of not much over twenty years Earth time. [81] "It is cheering to note that the crew seems only more resolute. [82] We go on to Capella; its spectrum, so like our own Sun's, beckons. [83] If success comes there, a century will have passed before we can return to Earth; friends, relatives, all the generation that launched the Quest ships will be long since dead. [84] Nevertheless we go on. [85] Our generation's dream, humanity's dream, lives in us and in the ship forever...." Presently Knof Llud switched off that younger voice of his and leaned back, an ironic smile touching his lips. [86] That fervent idealism seemed remote and foreign to him now. [87] The fanfares of departure must still have been ringing in his ears. [88] He rose, slipped the record back in its niche and picked out another, later, one. [89] "One week since we passed close enough to Aldebaran to ascertain that that system, too, is devoid of planets. [90] "We face the unpleasant realization that what was feared is probably true—that worlds such as the Sun's are a rare accident, and that we may complete our search without finding even one new Earth. [91] "It makes no difference, of course; we cannot betray the plan.... [92] This may be man's last chance of escaping his pitiful limitation to one world in all the Universe. [93] Certainly the building of this ship and its two sisters, the immense expenditure of time and labor and energy stores that went into them, left Earth's economy drained and exhausted. [94] Only once in a long age does mankind rise to such a selfless and transcendent effort—the effort of Egypt that built the pyramids, or the war efforts of the nations in the last great conflicts of the twentieth century. [95] "Looked at historically, such super-human outbursts of energy are the result of a population's outgrowing its room and resources, and therefore signalize the beginning of the end. [96] Population can be limited, but the price is a deadly frustration, because growth alone is life.... [97] In our day the end of man's room for growth on the Earth was in sight—so we launched the Quests . [98] Perhaps our effort will prove as futile as pyramid-building, less practical than orgies of slaughter to reduce pressure.... [99] In any case, it would be impossible to transport very many people to other stars; but Earth could at least go into its decline with the knowledge that its race went onward and upward, expanding limitlessly into the Universe.... "Hopeless, unless we find planets!" [100] Knof Llud shook his head sorrowfully and took off the spool. [101] That was from the time when he had grown philosophical after the first disappointments. [102] He frowned thoughtfully, choosing one more spool that was only four years old. [103] The recorded voice sounded weary, yet alive with a strange longing.... "We are in the heart of Pleiades; a hundred stars show brilliant on the screens, each star encircled by a misty halo like lights glowing through fog, for we are traversing a vast diffuse nebula. [104] "According to plan, the Quest III has reached its furthest point from Earth. [105] Now we turn back along a curve that will take us past many more stars and stellar systems—but hope is small that any of those will prove a home for man, as have none of the thousands of stars examined already. [106] "But what are a few thousand stars in a galaxy of billions? [107] We have only, as it were, visited a handful of the outlying villages of the Universe, while the lights of its great cities still blaze far ahead along the Milky Way. [108] "On flimsy excuses I have had Zost Relyul make observations of the globular cluster Omega Centauri. [109] There are a hundred thousand stars there in a volume of space where one finds a few dozen in the Sun's neighborhood; there if anywhere must circle the planets we seek! [110] But Omega Centauri is twenty thousand light years away.... "Even so—by expending its remaining fuel freely, the Quest III could achieve a velocity that would take us there without dying of senility of aging too greatly. [111] It would be a one-way journey—even if enough fuel remained, there would be little point in returning to Earth after more than forty thousand years. [112] By then our civilization certainly, and perhaps the human race itself, would have perished from memory. [113] "That was why the planners limited our voyage, and those of the other Quests , to less than a thousand years Earth time. [114] Even now, according to the sociodynamic predictions made then, our civilization—if the other expeditions failed also—will have reached a dangerously unstable phase, and before we can get back it may have collapsed completely from overpopulation. [115] "Why go back, then with the news of our failure? [116] Why not forget about Earth and go on to Omega Centauri? [117] What use is quixotic loyalty to a decree five thousand years old, whose makers are dead and which may be forgotten back there? [118] "Would the crew be willing? [119] I don't know—some of them still show signs of homesickness, though they know with their minds that everything that was once 'home' has probably been swept away.... "It doesn't matter. [120] Today I gave orders to swing the ship." [121] Savagely Knof Llud stabbed the button that shut off the speaker. [122] Then he sat for a time with head resting in his hands, staring into nothing. [123] The memory of that fierce impulse to go on still had power to shake him. [124] A couple of lines of poetry came into his head, as he read them once in translation from the ancient English.... ... for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. [125] Llud sighed. [126] He still couldn't say just why he had given the order to turn back. [127] The stars had claimed his heart—but he was still a part of Earth, and not even nine hundred years of space and time had been able to alter that. [128] He wondered if there would still be a quiet stream and a green shady place beside it where a death-weary man, relieved at last of responsibility, could rest and dream no more.... Those things went on, if men didn't change them. [129] And a pine forest where he and young Knof could go camping, and lie on their backs at night and gaze at the glittering constellations, far away, out of reach.... [130] He wasn't sure he would want to do that, though. [131] Suddenly a faint cushioned jar went through the great ship; it seemed to falter one moment in flight. [132] The captain was on his feet instantly, but then his movements became unhurried. [133] Whatever it had been was past, and he had a good idea what it had been—a meteoroid, nothing unusual in the vicinity of the Sun, though in interstellar space and around planetless stars such collisions were rare to the vanishing point. [134] No harm could have been done. [135] The Quest III's collision armor was nonmaterial and for practical purposes invulnerable. [136] Just as he took his finger off the button that opened the door, the intercommunication phone shrilled imperatively. [137] Knof Llud wheeled, frowning—surely a meteoroid impact wasn't that serious. [138] Coincidence, maybe—it might be Zost Relyul calling as instructed. [139] He reached the phone at the moment when another, heavier jolt shook the vessel. [140] Llud snatched up the receiver with the speed of a scalded cat. [141] "Captain?" [142] It was Gwar Den's voice, stammering a little. [143] "Captain, we're being attacked!" [144] "Sound the alarm. [145] Emergency stations." [146] He had said it automatically, then felt a curious detached relief at the knowledge that after all these years he could still respond quickly and smoothly to a crisis. [147] There was a moment's silence, and he heard the alarm start—three short buzzes and repeat, ringing through all the great length of the interstellar ship. [148] Knowing that Gwar Den was still there, he said, "Now—attacked by what?" [149] "Ships," said Gwar Den helplessly. [150] "Five of them so far. [151] No, there's a sixth now." [152] Repeated blows quivered the Quest III's framework. [153] The navigator said, obviously striving for calm, "They're light craft, not fifty feet long, but they move fast. [154] The detectors hardly had time to show them before they opened up. [155] Can't get a telescope beam on them long enough to tell much." [156] "If they're that small," said Knof Llud deliberately, "they can't carry anything heavy enough to hurt us. [157] Hold to course. [158] I'll be right up." [159] In the open doorway he almost fell over his son. [160] Young Knof's eyes were big; he had heard his father's words. [161] "Something's happened," he judged with deadly twelve-year-old seriousness and, without wasting time on questions, "Can I go with you, huh, Dad?" [162] Llud hesitated, said, "All right. [163] Come along and keep out of the way." [164] He headed for the bridge with strides that the boy could not match. [165] There were people running in the corridors, heading for their posts. [166] Their faces were set, scared, uncomprehending. [167] The Quest III shuddered, again and again, under blows that must have had millions of horsepower behind them; but it plunged on toward Earth, its mighty engines still steadily braking its interstellar velocity. [168] To a man, the ship's responsible officers were already on the bridge, most of them breathless. [169] To a man they looked appeal at Captain Knof Llud. [170] "Well?" [171] he snapped. [172] "What are they doing?" [173] Gwar Den spoke. [174] "There are thirteen of them out there now, sir, and they're all banging away at us." [175] The captain stared into the black star-strewn depths of a vision screen where occasional blue points of light winked ominously, never twice from the same position. [176] Knof Jr. flattened himself against the metal wall and watched silently. [177] His young face was less anxious than his elders'; he had confidence in his father. [178] "If they had anything heavier," surmised the captain, "they'd have unlimbered it by now. [179] They're out to get us. [180] But at this rate, they can't touch us as long as our power lasts—or until they bring up some bigger stuff." [181] The mild shocks went on—whether from projectiles or energy-charges, would be hard to find out and it didn't matter; whatever was hitting the Quest III's shell was doing it at velocities where the distinction between matter and radiation practically ceases to exist. [182] But that shell was tough. [183] It was an extension of the gravitic drive field which transmitted the engines' power equally to every atom of the ship; forces impinging on the outside of the field were similarly transmitted and rendered harmless. [184] The effect was as if the vessel and all space inside its field were a single perfectly elastic body. [185] A meteoroid, for example, on striking it rebounded—usually vaporized by the impact—and the ship, in obedience to the law of equal and opposite forces, rebounded too, but since its mass was so much greater, its deflection was negligible. [186] The people in the Quest III would have felt nothing at all of the vicious onslaught being hurled against them, save that their inertialess drive, at its normal thrust of two hundred gravities, was intentionally operated at one half of one per cent efficiency to provide the illusion of Earthly gravitation. [187] One of the officers said shakily, "It's as if they've been lying in wait for us. [188] But why on Earth—" "That," said the captain grimly, "is what we have to find out. [189] Why—on Earth. [190] At least, I suspect the answer's there." [191] The Quest III bored steadily on through space, decelerating. [192] Even if one were no fatalist, there seemed no reason to stop decelerating or change course. [193] There was nowhere else to go and too little fuel left if there had been; come what might, this was journey's end—perhaps in a more violent and final way than had been anticipated. [194] All around wheeled the pigmy enemies, circling, maneuvering, and attacking, always attacking, with the senseless fury of maddened hornets. [195] The interstellar ship bore no offensive weapons—but suddenly on one of the vision screens a speck of light flared into nova-brilliance, dazzling the watchers for the brief moment in which its very atoms were torn apart. [196] Knof Jr. whooped ecstatically and then subsided warily, but no one was paying attention to him. [197] The men on the Quest III's bridge looked questions at each other, as the thought of help from outside flashed into many minds at once. [198] But Captain Llud said soberly, "It must have caught one of their own shots, reflected. [199] Maybe its own, if it scored too direct a hit." [200] He studied the data so far gathered. [201] A few blurred pictures had been got, which showed cylindrical space ships much like the Quest III , except that they were rocket-propelled and of far lesser size. [202] Their size was hard to ascertain, because you needed to know their distance and speed—but detector-beam echoes gave the distance, and likewise, by the Doppler method, the velocity of directly receding or approaching ships. [203] It was apparent that the enemy vessels were even smaller than Gwar Den had at first supposed—not large enough to hold even one man. [204] Tiny, deadly hornets with a colossal sting. [205] "Robot craft, no doubt," said Knof Llud, but a chill ran down his spine as it occurred to him that perhaps the attackers weren't of human origin. [206] They had seen no recognizable life in the part of the galaxy they had explored, but one of the other Quests might have encountered and been traced home by some unhuman race that was greedy and able to conquer. [207] It became evident, too, that the bombardment was being kept up by a constant arrival of fresh attackers, while others raced away into space, presumably returning to base to replenish their ammunition. [208] That argued a planned and prepared interception with virulent hatred behind it. [209] Elsuz Llug, the gravitic engineer, calculated dismally, "At the rate we're having to shed energy, the fuel will be gone in six or eight hours." [210] "We'll have reached Earth before then," Gwar Den said hopefully. [211] "If they don't bring out the heavy artillery first." [212] "We're under the psychological disadvantage," said the captain, "of not knowing why we're being attacked." [213] Knof Jr. burst out, spluttering slightly with the violence of a thought too important to suppress, "But we're under a ps-psychological advantage, too!" [214] His father raised an eyebrow. [215] "What's that? [216] I don't seem to have noticed it." [217] "They're mad and we aren't, yet," said the boy. [218] Then, seeing that he hadn't made himself clear, "In a fight, if a guy gets mad he starts swinging wild and then you nail him." [219] Smiles splintered the ice of tension. [220] Captain Llud said, "Maybe you've got something there. [221] They seem to be mad, all right. [222] But we're not in a position to throw any punches." [223] He turned back to the others. [224] "As I was going to say—I think we'd better try to parley with the enemy. [225] At least we may find out who he is and why he's determined to smash us." [226] And now instead of tight-beam detectors the ship was broadcasting on an audio carrier wave that shifted through a wide range of frequencies, repeating on each the same brief recorded message: "Who are you? [227] What do you want? [228] We are the interstellar expedition Quest III ...." And so on, identifying themselves and protesting that they were unarmed and peaceful, that there must be some mistake, and querying again, "Who are you ?" [229] There was no answer. [230] The ship drove on, its fuel trickling away under multiplied demands. [231] Those outside were squandering vastly greater amounts of energy in the effort to batter down its defenses, but converting that energy into harmless gravitic impulses was costing the Quest III too. [232] Once more Knof Llud had the insidious sense of his own nerves and muscles and will weakening along with the power-sinews of his ship. [233] Zost Relyul approached him apologetically. [234] "If you have time, Captain—I've got some data on Earth now." [235] Eagerly Llud took the sheaf of photographs made with the telescope. [236] But they told him nothing; only the continental outlines were clear, and those were as they had been nine hundred years ago.... [237] He looked up inquiringly at Zost Relyul. [238] "There are some strange features," said the astronomer carefully. [239] "First of all—there are no lights on the night side. [240] And on the daylight face, our highest magnification should already reveal traces of cities, canals, and the like—but it does not. [241] "The prevailing color of the land masses, you see, is the normal green vegetation. [242] But the diffraction spectrum is queer. [243] It indicates reflecting surfaces less than one-tenth millimeter wide—so the vegetation there can't be trees or grass, but must be more like a fine moss or even a coarse mold." [244] "Is that all?" [245] demanded Llud. [246] "Isn't it enough?" [247] said Zost Relyul blankly. [248] "Well—we tried photography by invisible light, of course. [249] The infra-red shows nothing and likewise the ultraviolet up to the point where the atmosphere is opaque to it." [250] The captain sighed wearily. [251] "Good work," he said. [252] "Keep it up; perhaps you can answer some of these riddles before—" " We know who you are ," interrupted a harshly crackling voice with a strange accent, " and pleading will do you no good. " [253] Knof Llud whirled to the radio apparatus, his weariness dropping from him once more. [254] He snapped, "But who are you?" [255] and the words blended absurdly with the same words in his own voice on the still repeating tape. [256] He snapped off the record; as he did so the speaker, still crackling with space static, said, "It may interest you to know that you are the last. [257] The two other interstellar expeditions that went out have already returned and been destroyed, as you will soon be—the sooner, if you continue toward Earth." [258] Knof Llud's mind was clicking again. [259] The voice—which must be coming from Earth, relayed by one of the midget ships—was not very smart; it had already involuntarily told him a couple of things—that it was not as sure of itself as it sounded he deduced from the fact it had deigned to speak at all, and from its last remark he gathered that the Quest III's ponderous and unswerving progress toward Earth had somehow frightened it. [260] So it was trying to frighten them. [261] He shoved those facts back for future use. [262] Just now he had to know something, so vitally that he asked it as a bald question, " Are you human? " [263] The voice chuckled sourly. [264] "We are human," it answered, "but you are not." [265] The captain was momentarily silent, groping for an adequate reply. [266] Behind him somebody made a choked noise, the only sound in the stunned hush, and the ship jarred slightly as a thunderbolt slammed vengefully into its field. [267] "Suppose we settle this argument about humanity," said Knof Llud woodenly. [268] He named a vision frequency. [269] "Very well." [270] The tone was like a shrug. [271] The voice went on in its language that was quite intelligible, but alien-sounding with the changes that nine hundred years had wrought. [272] "Perhaps, if you realize your position, you will follow the intelligent example of the Quest I's commander." [273] Knof Llud stiffened. [274] The Quest I , launched toward Arcturus and the star cloud called Berenice's Hair, had been after the Quest III the most hopeful of the expeditions—and its captain had been a good friend of Llud's, nine hundred years ago.... [275] He growled, "What happened to him?" [276] "He fought off our interceptors, which are around you now, for some time," said the voice lightly. [277] "When he saw that it was hopeless, he preferred suicide to defeat, and took his ship into the Sun." [278] A short pause. [279] "The vision connection is ready." [280] Knof Llud switched on the screen at the named wavelength, and a picture formed there. [281] The face and figure that appeared were ugly, but undeniably a man's. [282] His features and his light-brown skin showed the same racial characteristics possessed by those aboard the Quest III , but he had an elusive look of deformity. [283] Most obviously, his head seemed too big for his body, and his eyes in turn too big for his head. [284] He grinned nastily at Knof Llud. [285] "Have you any other last wishes?" [286] "Yes," said Llud with icy control. [287] "You haven't answered one question. [288] Why do you want to kill us? [289] You can see we're as human as you are." [290] The big-headed man eyed him with a speculative look in his great eyes, behind which the captain glimpsed the flickering raw fire of a poisonous hatred. [291] "It is enough for you to know that you must die."

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question: 1. [120] Today I gave orders to swing the ship. 2. [111] It would be a one-way journey—even if enough fuel remained, there would be little point in returning to Earth after more than forty thousand years. 3. [110] There are a hundred thousand stars there in a volume of space where one finds a few dozen in the Sun's neighborhood; there if anywhere must circle the planets we seek! 4. [109] On flimsy excuses I have had Zost Relyul make observations of the globular cluster Omega Centauri. 5. [126] He still couldn't say just why he had given the order to turn back. 6. [127] The stars had claimed his heart—but he was still a part of Earth, and not even nine hundred years of space and time had been able to alter that. 7. [128] He wondered if there would still be a quiet stream and a green shady place beside it where a death-weary man, relieved at last of responsibility, could rest and dream no more.... 8. [129] And a pine forest where he and young Knof could go camping, and lie on their backs at night and gaze at the glittering constellations, far away, out of reach.... 9. [190] At least, I suspect the answer's there. 10. [191] The Quest III bored steadily on through space, decelerating. 11. [192] Even if one were no fatalist, there seemed no reason to stop decelerating or change course. 12. [193] There was nowhere else to go and too little fuel left if there had been; come what may, this was journey's end—perhaps in a more violent and final way than had been anticipated. 13. [223] As I was going to say—I think we'd better try to parley with the enemy. 14. [224] At least we may find out who he is and why he's determined to smash us. 15. [233] Zost Relyul approached him apologetically. 16. [234] "If you have time, Captain—I've got some data on Earth now." 17. [235] Eagerly Llud took the sheaf of photographs made with the telescope. 18. [236] But they told him nothing; only the continental outlines were clear, and those were as they had been nine hundred years ago.... 19. [237] He looked up inquiringly at Zost Relyul. 20. [238] "There are some strange features," said the astronomer carefully. 21. [239] "First of all—there are no lights on the night side. 22. [240] And on the daylight face, our highest magnification should already reveal traces of cities, canals, and the like—but it does not. 23. [241] "The prevailing color of the land masses, you see, is the normal green vegetation. 24. [242] But the diffraction spectrum is queer. 25. [243] It indicates reflecting surfaces less than one-tenth millimeter wide—so the vegetation there can't be trees or grass, but must be more like a fine moss or even a coarse mold." 26. [244] "Is that all?" 27. [245] demanded Llud. 28. [246] "Isn't it enough?" 29. [247] said Zost Relyul blankly. 30. [248] "Well—we tried photography by invisible light, of course. 31. [249] The infra-red shows nothing and likewise the ultraviolet up to the point where the atmosphere is opaque to it." 32. [250] The captain sighed wearily. 33. [251] "Good work," he said. 34. [252] "Keep it up; perhaps you can answer some of these riddles before—" 35. [253] " We know who you are ," interrupted a harshly crackling voice with a strange accent, " and pleading will do you no good. " 36. [254] Knof Llud whirled to the radio apparatus, his weariness dropping from him once more. 37. [255] He snapped, "But who are you?" 38. [256] and the words blended absurdly with the same words in his own voice on the still repeating tape. 39. [257] He snapped off the record; as he did so the speaker, still crackling with space static, said, "It may interest you to know that you are the last. 40. [258] The two other interstellar expeditions that went out have already returned and been destroyed, as you will soon be—the sooner, if you continue toward Earth."

What is the plot of the story?

[1] The Blue Behemoth By LEIGH BRACKETT Shannon's Imperial Circus was a jinxed space-carny leased for a mysterious tour of the inner worlds. [2] It made a one-night pitch on a Venusian swamp-town—to find that death stalked it from the jungle in a tiny ball of flame. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Bucky Shannon leaned forward across the little hexagonal table. [6] He knocked over the pitcher of thil , but it didn't matter. [7] The pitcher was empty. [8] He jabbed me in the breastbone with his forefinger, not very hard. [9] Not hard enough to jar the ribs clean loose, just enough to spring them. [10] "We," he said, "are broke. [11] We are finished, through. [12] Washed up and down the drain." [13] He added, as an afterthought, "Destitute." [14] I looked at him. [15] I said sourly, "You're kidding!" [16] "Kidding." [17] Shannon put his elbows on the table and peered at me through a curtain of very blond hair that was trying hard to be red. [18] "He says I'm kidding! [19] With Shannon's Imperial Circus, the Greatest Show in Space, plastered so thick with attachments...." "It's no more plastered than you are." [20] I was sore because he'd been a lot quicker grabbing the pitcher. [21] "The Greatest Show in Space. [22] Phooey! [23] I've wet-nursed Shannon's Imperial Circus around the Triangle for eleven years, and I know. [24] It's lousy, it's mangy, it's broken-down! [25] Nothing works, from the ship to the roustabouts. [26] In short, it stinks!" [27] I must have had the pitcher oftener than I thought. [28] Nobody insults Buckhalter Shannon's Imperial Circus to Buckhalter Shannon's face unless he's tired and wants a long rest in a comfy fracture-frame. [29] Shannon got up. [30] He got up slowly. [31] I had plenty of time to see his grey-green eyes get sleepy, and hear the quarter-Earth-blood Martian girl wailing about love over by the battered piano, and watch the slanting cat-eyes of the little dark people at the tables swing round toward us, pleased and kind of hungry. [32] I had plenty of time to think how I only weigh one-thirty-seven to Shannon's one-seventy-five, and how I'm not as young as I used to be. [33] I said, "Bucky. [34] Hold on, fella. [35] I...." Somebody said, "Excuse me, gentlemen. [36] Is one of you Mister Buckhalter Shannon?" [37] Shannon put his hands down on his belt. [38] He closed his eyes and smiled pleasantly and said, very gently: "Would you be collecting for the feed bill, or the fuel?" [39] I shot a glance at the newcomer. [40] He'd saved me from a beating, even if he was a lousy bill-collecter; and I felt sorry for him. [41] Bucky Shannon settled his shoulders and hips like a dancer. [42] The stranger was a little guy. [43] He even made me look big. [44] He was dressed in dark-green synthesilk, very conservative. [45] There was a powdering of grey in his hair and his skin was pink, soft, and shaved painfully clean. [46] He had the kind of a face that nice maiden-ladies will trust with their last dime. [47] I looked for his strong-arm squad. [48] There didn't seem to be any. [49] The little guy looked at Shannon with pale blue eyes like a baby, and his voice was softer than Bucky's. [50] He said, "I don't think you understand." [51] I felt cold, suddenly, between the shoulders. [52] Somebody scraped a chair back. [53] It sounded like he'd ripped the floor open, it was so quiet. [54] I got my brassies on, and my hands were sweating. [55] Bucky Shannon sighed, and let his fist start traveling, a long, deceptive arc. [56] Then I saw what the little guy was holding in his hand. [57] I yelled and knocked the table over into Bucky. [58] It made a lot of noise. [59] It knocked him sideways and down, and the little dark men jumped up, quivering and showing their teeth. [60] The Martian girl screamed. [61] Bucky heaved the table off his lap and cursed me. [62] "What's eating you, Jig? [63] I'm not going to hurt him." [64] "Shut up," I said. [65] "Look what he's got there. [66] Money!" [67] The little guy looked at me. [68] He hadn't turned a hair. [69] "Yes," he said. [70] "Money. [71] Quite a lot of it. [72] Would you gentlemen permit me to join you?" [73] Bucky Shannon got up. [74] He grinned his pleasantest grin. [75] "Delighted. [76] I'm Shannon. [77] This is Jig Bentley, my business manager." [78] He looked down at the table. [79] "I'm sorry about that. [80] Mistaken identity." [81] The little guy smiled. [82] He did it with his lips. [83] The rest of his face stayed placid and babyish, almost transparent. [84] I realized with a start that it wasn't transparent at all. [85] It was the most complete dead-pan I ever met, and you couldn't see into those innocent blue eyes any more than you could see through sheet metal. [86] I didn't like him. [87] I didn't like him at all. [88] But he had money. [89] I said, "Howdy. [90] Let's go find a booth. [91] These Marshies make me nervous, looking like hungry cats at a mouse-hole." [92] The little guy nodded. [93] "Excellent idea. [94] My name is Beamish. [95] Simon Beamish. [96] I wish to—ah—charter your circus." [97] I looked at Bucky. [98] He looked hungrier than the Marshies did. [99] We didn't say anything until we got Beamish into a curtained booth with a fresh pitcher of thil on the table. [100] Then I cleared my throat. [101] "What exactly did you have in mind, Mr. [102] Beamish?" [103] Beamish sipped his drink, made a polite face, and put it down. [104] "I have independent means, gentlemen. [105] It has always been my desire to lighten the burden of life for those less fortunate...." Bucky got red around the ears. [106] "Just a minute," he murmured, and started to get up. [107] I kicked him under the table. [108] "Shut up, you lug. [109] Let Mister Beamish finish." [110] He sat down, looking like a mean dog waiting for the postman. [111] Beamish ignored him. [112] He went on, quietly, "I have always held that entertainment, of the right sort, is the most valuable aid humanity can have in its search for the alleviation of toil and boredom...." I said, "Sure, sure. [113] But what was your idea?" [114] "There are many towns along the Venusian frontiers where no entertainment of the— proper sort has been available. [115] I propose to remedy that. [116] I propose to charter your circus, Mister Shannon, to make a tour of several settlements along the Tehara Belt." [117] Bucky had relaxed. [118] His grey-green eyes began to gleam. [119] He started to speak, and I kicked him again. [120] "That would be expensive, Mister Beamish," I said. [121] "We'd have to cancel several engagements...." He looked at me. [122] I was lying, and he knew it. [123] But he said, "I quite understand that. [124] I would be prepared...." The curtains were yanked back suddenly. [125] Beamish shut up. [126] Bucky and I glared at the head and shoulders poking in between the drapes. [127] It was Gow, our zoo-man—a big, ugly son-of-a-gun from a Terran colony on Mercury. [128] I was there once. [129] Gow looks a lot like the scenery—scowling, unapproachable, and tough. [130] His hands, holding the curtains apart, had thick black hair on them and were not much larger than the hams of a Venusian swamp-rhino. [131] He said, "Boss, Gertrude's actin' up again." [132] "Gertrude be blowed," growled Bucky. [133] "Can't you see I'm busy?" [134] Gow's black eyes were unpleasant. [135] "I'm tellin' you, Boss, Gertrude ain't happy. [136] She ain't had the right food. [137] If something...." I said, "That'll all be taken care of, Gow. [138] Run along now." [139] He looked at me like he was thinking it wouldn't take much timber to fit me for a coffin. [140] "Okay! [141] But Gertrude's unhappy. [142] She's lonesome, see? [143] And if she don't get happier pretty soon I ain't sure your tin-pot ship'll hold her." [144] He pulled the curtains to and departed. [145] Bucky Shannon groaned. [146] Beamish cleared his throat and said, rather stiffly, "Gertrude?" [147] "Yeah. [148] She's kind of temperamental." [149] Bucky took a quick drink. [150] I finished for him. [151] "She's the star attraction of our show, Mr. Beamish. [152] A real blue-swamp Venusian cansin . [153] The only other one on the Triangle belongs to Savitt Brothers, and she's much smaller than Gertrude." [154] She was also much younger, but I didn't go into that. [155] Gertrude may be a little creaky, but she's still pretty impressive. [156] I only hoped she wouldn't die on us, because without her we'd have a sicker-looking circus than even I could stand. [157] Beamish looked impressed. [158] "A cansin . [159] Well, well! [160] The mystery surrounding the origin and species of the cansin is a fascinating subject. [161] The extreme rarity of the animal...." We were getting off the subject. [162] I said tactfully, "We'd have to have at least a hundred U.C.'s." [163] It was twice what we had any right to ask. [164] I was prepared to dicker. [165] Beamish looked at me with that innocent dead pan. [166] For a fraction of a second I thought I saw something back of his round blue eyes, and my stomach jumped like it was shot. [167] Beamish smiled sweetly. [168] "I'm not much of a bargainer. [169] One hundred Universal Credits will be agreeable to me." [170] He dragged out a roll as big as my two fists, peeled off half a dozen credit slips, and laid them on the table. [171] "By way of a retainer, gentleman. [172] My attorney and I will call on you in the morning with a contract and itinerary. [173] Good night." [174] We said good night, trying not to drool. [175] Beamish went away. [176] Bucky made grab for the money, but I beat him to it. [177] "Scram," I said. [178] "There are guys waiting for this. [179] Big guys with clubs. [180] Here." [181] I gave him a small-denomination slip I'd been holding out. [182] "We can get lushed enough on this." [183] Shannon has a good vocabulary. [184] He used it. [185] When he got his breath back he said suddenly, "Beamish is pulling some kind of a game." [186] "Yeah." [187] "It may be crooked." [188] "Sure. [189] And he may be screwball and on the level. [190] For Pete's sake!" [191] I yelled. [192] "You want to sit here till we all dry up and blow away?" [193] Shannon looked at me, kind of funny. [194] He looked at the bulge in my tunic where the roll was. [195] He raked back his thick light hair. [196] "Yeah," he said. [197] "I hope there'll be enough left to bribe the jury." [198] He poked his head outside. [199] "Hey, boy! [200] More thildatum !" [201] It was pretty late when we got back to the broken-down spaceport where Shannon's Imperial Circus was crouching beneath its attachments. [202] Late as it was, they were waiting for us. [203] About twenty of them, sitting around and smoking and looking very ugly. [204] It was awfully lonesome out there, with the desert cold and restless under the two moons. [205] There's a smell to Mars, like something dead and dried long past decay, but still waiting. [206] An unhappy smell. [207] The blown red dust gritted in my teeth. [208] Bucky Shannon walked out into the glare of the light at the entrance to the roped-off space around the main lock. [209] He was pretty steady on his feet. [210] He waved and said, "Hiya, boys." [211] They got up off the steps, and the packing cases, and came toward us. [212] I grinned and got into my brassies. [213] We felt we owed those boys a lot more than money. [214] It grates on a man's pride to have to sneak in and out of his own property through the sewage lock. [215] This was the first time in weeks we'd come in at the front door. [216] I waved the money in their faces. [217] That stopped them. [218] Very solemnly, Bucky and I checked the bills, paid them, and pocketed the receipts. [219] Bucky yawned and stretched sleepily. [220] "Now?" [221] he said. [222] "Now," I said. [223] We had a lot of fun. [224] Some of the boys inside the ship came out to join in. [225] We raised a lot of dust and nobody got killed, quite. [226] We all went home happy. [227] They had their money, and we had their blood. [228] The news was all over the ship before we got inside. [229] The freaks and the green girl from Tethys who could roll herself like a hoop, and Zurt the muscle man from Jupiter, and all the other assorted geeks and kinkers and joeys that make up the usual corny carnie were doing nip-ups in the passageways and drooling over the thought of steer and toppings. [230] Bucky Shannon regarded them possessively, wiping blood from his nose. [231] "They're good guys, Jig. [232] Swell people. [233] They stuck by me, and I've rewarded them." [234] I said, "Sure," rather sourly. [235] Bucky hiccoughed. [236] "Let's go see Gertrude." [237] I didn't want to see Gertrude. [238] I never got over feeling funny going into the brute tank, especially at night or out in space. [239] I'm a city guy, myself. [240] The smell and sound of wildness gives me goose bumps. [241] But Bucky was looking stubborn, so I shrugged. [242] "Okay. [243] But just for a minute. [244] Then we go beddy-bye." [245] "You're a pal, Jif. [246] Bes' li'l' guy inna worl'...." The fight had just put the topper on him. [247] I was afraid he'd fall down the ladder and break his neck. [248] That's why I went along. [249] If I hadn't.... Oh, well, what's a few nightmares among friends? [250] It was dark down there in the tank. [251] Way off at the other end, there was a dim glow. [252] Gow was evidently holding Gertrude's hand. [253] We started down the long passageway between the rows of cages and glassed-in tanks and compression units. [254] Our footsteps sounded loud and empty on the iron floor. [255] I wasn't near as happy as Shannon, and my skin began to crawl a little. [256] It's the smell, I think; rank and sour and wild. [257] And the sound of them, breathing and rustling in the dark, with the patient hatred walled around them as strong as the cage bars. [258] Bucky Shannon lurched against me suddenly. [259] I choked back a yell, and then wiped the sweat off my forehead and cursed. [260] The scream came again. [261] A high, ragged, whistling screech like nothing this side of hell, ripping through the musty darkness. [262] Gertrude, on the wailing wall. [263] It had been quiet. [264] Now every brute in the place let go at the same time. [265] My stomach turned clear over. [266] I called Gertrude every name I could think of, and I couldn't hear myself doing it. [267] Presently a great metallic clash nearly burst my eardrums, and the beasts shut up. [268] Gow had them nicely conditioned to that gong. [269] But they didn't quiet down. [270] Not really. [271] They were uneasy. [272] You can feel them inside you when they're uneasy. [273] I think that's why I'm scared of them. [274] They make me feel like I'm not human as I thought—like I wanted to put my back-hair up and snarl. [275] Yeah. [276] They were uneasy that night, all of a sudden.... Gow glared at us as we came up into the lantern light. [277] "She's gettin' worse," he said. [278] "She's lonesome." [279] "That's tough," said Bucky Shannon. [280] His grey-green eyes looked like an owl's. [281] He swayed slightly. [282] "That's sure tough." [283] He sniffled. [284] I looked at Gertrude. [285] Her cage is the biggest and strongest in the tank and even so she looked as though she could break it open just taking a deep breath. [286] I don't know if you've ever seen a cansin . [287] There's only two of them on the Triangle. [288] If you haven't, nothing I can say will make much difference. [289] They're what the brain gang calls an "end of evolution." [290] Seems old Dame Nature had an idea that didn't jell. [291] The cansins were pretty successful for a while, it seems, but something gummed up the works and now there's only a few left, way in the deep-swamp country, where even the Venusians hardly ever go. [292] Living fossils. [293] I wouldn't know, of course, but Gertrude looks to me like she got stuck some place between a dinosaur and a grizzly bear, with maybe a little bird blood thrown in. [294] Anyway, she's big. [295] I couldn't help feeling sorry for her. [296] She was crouched in the cage with her hands—yeah, hands—hanging over her knees and her snaky head sunk into her shoulders, looking out. [297] Just looking. [298] Not at anything. [299] Her eyes were way back in deep horny pits, like cold green fire. [300] The lantern light was yellow on her blue-black skin, but it made the mane, or crest, of coarse wide scales that ran from between her eyes clear down to her flat, short tail, burn all colors. [301] She looked like old Mother Misery herself, from way back before time began. [302] Gow said softly, "She wants a mate. [303] And somebody better get her one." [304] Bucky Shannon sniffled again. [305] I said irritably, "Be reasonable, Gow! [306] Nobody's ever seen a male cansin . [307] There may not even be any." [308] Gertrude screamed again. [309] She didn't move, not even to raise her head. [310] The sadness just built up inside her until it had to come out. [311] That close, the screech was deafening, and it turned me all limp and cold inside. [312] The loneliness, the sheer stark, simple pain.... Bucky Shannon began to cry. [313] I snarled, "You'll have to snap her out of this, Gow. [314] She's driving the rest of 'em nuts." [315] He hammered on his gong, and things quieted down again. [316] Gow stood looking out over the tank, sniffing a little, like a hound. [317] Then he turned to Gertrude. [318] "I saved her life," he said. [319] "When we bought her out of Hanak's wreck and everybody thought she was too hurt to live, I saved her. [320] I know her. [321] I can do things with her. [322] But this time...." He shrugged. [323] He was huge and tough and ugly, and his voice was like a woman's talking about a sick child. [324] "This time," he said, "I ain't sure." [325] "Well for Pete's sake, do what you can. [326] We got a charter, and we need her." [327] I took Shannon's arm. [328] "Come to bed, Bucky darlin'." [329] He draped himself over my shoulder and we went off. [330] Gow didn't look at us. [331] Bucky sobbed. [332] "You were right, Jig," he mumbled. [333] "Circus is no good. [334] I know it. [335] But it's all I got. [336] I love it, Jig. [337] Unnerstan' me? [338] Like Gow there with Gertrude. [339] She's ugly and no good, but he loves her. [340] I love...." "Sure, sure," I told him. [341] "Stop crying down my neck." [342] We were a long way from the light, then. [343] The cages and tanks loomed high and black over us. [344] It was still. [345] The secret, uneasy motion all around us and the scruffing of our feet only made it stiller. [346] Bucky was almost asleep on me. [347] I started to slap him. [348] And then the mist rose up out of the darkness in little lazy coils, sparkling faintly with blue, cold fire. [349] I yelled, "Gow! [350] Gow, the Vapor snakes! [351] Gow—for God's sake!" [352] I started to run, back along the passageway. [353] Bucky weighed on me, limp and heavy. [354] The noise burst suddenly in a deafening hell of moans and roars and shrieks, packed in tight by the metal walls, and above it all I could hear Gertrude's lonely, whistling scream. [355] I thought, " Somebody's down here. [356] Somebody let 'em out. [357] Somebody wants to kill us! " [358] I tried to yell again. [359] It strangled in my throat. [360] I sobbed, and the sweat was thick and cold on me. [361] One of Bucky's dragging, stumbling feet got between mine. [362] We fell. [363] I rolled on top of him, covering his face, and buried my own face in the hollow of his shoulder. [364] The first snake touched me. [365] It was like a live wire, sliding along the back of my neck. [366] I screamed. [367] It came down along my cheek, hunting my mouth. [368] There were more of them, burning me through my clothes. [369] Bucky moaned and kicked under me. [370] I remember hanging on and thinking, "This is it. [371] This is it, and oh God, I'm scared!" [372] Then I went out. [373] II Kanza the Martian croaker, was bending over me when I woke up. [374] His little brown face was crinkled with laughter. [375] He'd lost most of his teeth, and he gummed thak -weed. [376] It smelt. [377] "You pretty, Mis' Jig," he giggled. [378] "You funny like hell." [379] He slapped some cold greasy stuff on my face. [380] It hurt. [381] I cursed him and said, "Where's Shannon? [382] How is he?" [383] "Mis' Bucky okay. [384] You save life. [385] You big hero, Mis' Jig. [386] Mis' Gow come nickuhtime get snakes. [387] You hero. [388] Haw! [389] You funny like hell!" [390] I said, "Yeah," and pushed him away and got up. [391] I almost fell down a couple of times, but presently I made it to the mirror over the washstand—I was in my own cell—and I saw what Kanza meant. [392] The damned snakes had done a good job. [393] I looked like I was upholstered in Scotch plaid. [394] I felt sick. [395] Bucky Shannon opened the door. [396] He looked white and grim, and there was a big burn across his neck. [397] He said: "Beamish is here with his lawyer." [398] I picked up my shirt. [399] "Right with you." [400] Kanza went out, still giggling. [401] Bucky closed the door. [402] "Jig," he said, "those vapor worms were all right when we went in. [403] Somebody followed us down and let them out. [404] On purpose." [405] I hurt all over. [406] I growled, "With that brain, son, you should go far. [407] Nobody saw anything, of course?" [408] Bucky shook his head. [409] "Question is, Jig, who wants to kill us, and why?" [410] "Beamish. [411] He realizes he's been gypped." [412] "One hundred U.C. [413] 's," said Bucky softly, "for a few lousy swampedge mining camps. [414] It stinks, Jig. [415] You think we should back out?" [416] I shrugged. [417] "You're the boss man. [418] I'm only the guy that beats off the creditors." [419] "Yeah," Bucky said reflectively. [420] "And I hear starvation isn't a comfortable death. [421] Okay, Jig. [422] Let's go sign." [423] He put his hand on the latch and looked at my feet. [424] "And—uh—Jig, I...." I said, "Skip it. [425] The next time, just don't trip me up, that's all!" [426] We had a nasty trip to Venus. [427] Gertrude kept the brute tank on edge, and Gow, on the rare occasions he came up for air, went around looking like a disaster hoping to happen. [428] To make it worse, Zurt the Jovian strong-man got hurt during the take-off, and the Mercurian cave-cat had kittens. [429] Nobody would have minded that, only one of 'em had only four legs. [430] It lived just long enough to scare that bunch of superstitious dopes out of their pants. [431] Circus people are funny that way. [432] Shannon and I did a little quiet sleuthing, but it was a waste of time. [433] Anybody in the gang might have let those electric worms out on us. [434] It didn't help any to know that somebody, maybe the guy next to you at dinner, was busy thinking ways to kill you. [435] By the time we hit Venus, I was ready to do a Brodie out the refuse chute. [436] Shannon set the crate down on the edge of Nahru, the first stop on our itinerary. [437] I stood beside him, looking out the ports at the scenery. [438] It was Venus, all right. [439] Blue mud and thick green jungle and rain, and a bunch of ratty-looking plastic shacks huddling together in the middle of it. [440] Men in slickers were coming out for a look. [441] I saw Beamish's sleek yacht parked on a cradle over to the left, and our router's runabout beside it. [442] Bucky Shannon groaned. [443] "A blue one, Jig. [444] A morgue if I ever saw one!" [445] I snarled, "What do you want, with this lousy dog-and-pony show!" [446] and went out. [447] He followed. [448] The gang was converging on the lock, but they weren't happy. [449] You get so you can feel those things. [450] The steamy Venus heat was already sneaking into the ship. [451] While we passed the hatchway to the brute tank, I could hear Gertrude, screaming. [452] The canvasmen were busy setting up the annex, slopping and cursing in the mud. [453] The paste brigade was heading for the shacks. [454] Shannon and I stood with the hot rain running off our slickers, looking. [455] I heard a noise behind me and looked around. [456] Ahra the Nahali woman was standing in the mud with her arms up and her head thrown back, and her triangular mouth open like a thirsty dog. [457] She didn't have anything on but her blue-green, hard scaled hide, and she was chuckling. [458] It didn't sound nice. [459] You find a lot of Nahali people in side-shows, doing tricks with the electric power they carry in their own bodies. [460] They're Venusian middle-swampers, they're not human, and they never forget it. [461] Ahra opened her slitted red eyes and looked at me and laughed with white reptilian teeth. [462] "Death," she whispered. [463] "Death and trouble. [464] The jungle tells me. [465] I can smell it in the swamp wind." [466] The hot rain sluiced over her. [467] She shivered, and the pale skin under her jaw pulsed like a toad's, and her eyes were red. [468] "The deep swamps are angry," she whispered. [469] "Something has been taken. [470] They are angry, and I smell death in the wind!" [471] She turned away, laughing, and I cursed her, and my stomach was tight and cold. [472] Bucky said, "Let's eat if they have a bar in this dump." [473] We weren't half way across the mud puddle that passed as a landing field when a man came out of a shack on the edge of the settlement. [474] We could see him plainly, because he was off to one side of the crowd. [475] He fell on his knees in the mud, making noises. [476] It took him three or four tries to get our names out clear enough to understand. [477] Bucky said, "Jig—it's Sam Kapper." [478] We started to run. [479] The crowd, mostly big unshaken miners, wheeled around to see what was happening. [480] People began to close in on the man who crawled and whimpered in the mud. [481] Sam Kapper was a hunter, supplying animals to zoos and circuses and carnivals. [482] He'd given us good deals a couple of times, when we weren't too broke, and we were pretty friendly. [483] I hadn't seen him for three seasons. [484] I remembered him as a bronzed, hard-bitten guy, lean and tough as a twist of tung wire. [485] I felt sick, looking down at him. [486] Bucky started to help him up. [487] Kapper was crying, and he jerked all over like animals I've seen that were scared to death. [488] Some guy leaned over and put a cigarette in his mouth and lighted it for him. [489] I was thinking about Kapper, then, and I didn't pay much attention. [490] I only caught a glimpse of the man's face as he straightened up. [491] I didn't realize until later that he looked familiar. [492] We got Kapper inside the shack. [493] It turned out to be a cheap bar, with a couple of curtained booths at the back. [494] We got him into one and pulled the curtain in a lot of curious faces. [495] Kapper dragged hard on the cigarette. [496] The man that gave it to him was gone. [497] Bucky said gently, "Okay, Sam. [498] Relax. [499] What's the trouble?" [500] Kapper tried to straighten up. [501] He hadn't shaved. [502] The lean hard lines of his face had gone slack and his eyes were bloodshot. [503] He was covered with mud, and his mouth twitched like a sick old man's. [504] He said thickly, "I found it. [505] I said I'd do it, and I did. [506] I found it and brought it out." [507] The cigarette stub fell out of his mouth. [508] He didn't notice it. [509] "Help me," he said simply. [510] "I'm scared." [511] His mouth drooled. [512] "I got it hidden. [513] They want to find out, but I won't tell 'em. [514] It's got to go back. [515] Back where I found it. [516] I tried to take it, but they wouldn't let me, and I was afraid they'd find it...." He reached suddenly and grabbed the edge of the table. [517] "I don't know how they found out about it, but they did. [518] I've got to get it back. [519] I've got to...." Bucky looked at me. [520] Kapper was blue around the mouth. [521] I was scared, suddenly. [522] I said, "Get what back where?" [523] Bucky got up. [524] "I'll get a doctor," he said. [525] "Stick with him." [526] Kapper grabbed his wrist. [527] Kapper's nails were blue and the cords in his hands stood out like guy wires. [528] "Don't leave me. [529] Got to tell you—where it is. [530] Got to take it back. [531] Promise you'll take it back." [532] He gasped and struggled over his breathing. [533] "Sure," said Bucky. [534] "Sure, well take it back. [535] What is it?" [536] Kapper's face was horrible. [537] I felt sick, listening to him fight for air. [538] I wanted to go for a doctor anyway, but somehow I knew it was no use. [539] Kapper whispered, " Cansin . [540] Male. [541] Only one. [542] You don't know...! [543] Take him back." [544] "Where is it, Sam?" [545] I reached across Bucky suddenly and jerked the curtain back. [546] Beamish was standing there. [547] Beamish, bent over, with his ear cocked. [548] Kapper made a harsh strangling noise and fell across the table. [549] Beamish never changed expression. [550] He didn't move while Bucky felt Kapper's pulse. [551] Bucky didn't need to say anything. [552] We knew. [553] "Heart?" [554] said Beamish finally. [555] "Yeah," said Bucky. [556] He looked as bad as I felt. [557] "Poor Sam." [558] I looked at the cigarette stub smoldering on the table. [559] I looked at Beamish with his round dead baby face. [560] I climbed over Shannon and pushed Beamish suddenly down into his lap. [561] "Keep this guy here till I get back," I said. [562] Shannon stared at me. [563] Beamish started to get indignant. [564] "Shut up," I told him. [565] "We got a contract." [566] I yanked the curtains shut and walked over to the bar. [567] I began to notice something, then. [568] There were quite a lot of men in the place. [569] At first glance they looked okay—a hard-faced, muscular bunch of miners in dirty shirts and high boots. [570] Then I looked at their hands. [571] They were dirty enough. [572] But they never did any work in a mine, on Venus or anywhere else. [573] The place was awfully quiet, for that kind of a place. [574] The bartender was a big pot-bellied swamp-edger with pale eyes and thick white hair coiled up on top of his bullet head. [575] He was not happy. [576] I leaned on the bar. " [577] Lhak ," I said. [578] He poured it, sullenly, out of a green bottle. [579] I reached for it, casually. [580] "That guy we brought in," I said. [581] "He sure has a skinful. [582] Passed out cold. [583] What's he been spiking his drinks with?" [584] " Selak ," said a voice in my ear. [585] "As if you didn't know." [586] I turned. [587] The man who had given Kapper the cigarette was standing behind me. [588] And I remembered him, then.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [1] The Blue Behemoth By LEIGH BRACKETT Shannon's Imperial Circus was a jinxed space-carny leased for a mysterious tour of the inner worlds. 2. [2] It made a one-night pitch on a Venusian swamp-town—to find that death stalked it from the jungle in a tiny ball of flame. 3. [96] I wish to—ah—charter your circus. 4. [114] There are many towns along the Venusian frontiers where no entertainment of the— proper sort has been available. 5. [115] I propose to remedy that. 6. [116] I propose to charter your circus, Mister Shannon, to make a tour of several settlements along the Tehara Belt. 7. [539] Cansin. Male. Only one. 8. [540] You don't know...! 9. [541] Take him back. 10. [542] Kapper whispered, "Cansin. Male. Only one. 11. [543] You don't know...! 12. [544] Take him back." 13. All other context sentences are less directly relevant to answering the question about the plot of the story.

What are Bucky's and Jig's attitudes towards their circus?

[1] The Blue Behemoth By LEIGH BRACKETT Shannon's Imperial Circus was a jinxed space-carny leased for a mysterious tour of the inner worlds. [2] It made a one-night pitch on a Venusian swamp-town—to find that death stalked it from the jungle in a tiny ball of flame. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Bucky Shannon leaned forward across the little hexagonal table. [6] He knocked over the pitcher of thil , but it didn't matter. [7] The pitcher was empty. [8] He jabbed me in the breastbone with his forefinger, not very hard. [9] Not hard enough to jar the ribs clean loose, just enough to spring them. [10] "We," he said, "are broke. [11] We are finished, through. [12] Washed up and down the drain." [13] He added, as an afterthought, "Destitute." [14] I looked at him. [15] I said sourly, "You're kidding!" [16] "Kidding." [17] Shannon put his elbows on the table and peered at me through a curtain of very blond hair that was trying hard to be red. [18] "He says I'm kidding! [19] With Shannon's Imperial Circus, the Greatest Show in Space, plastered so thick with attachments...." "It's no more plastered than you are." [20] I was sore because he'd been a lot quicker grabbing the pitcher. [21] "The Greatest Show in Space. [22] Phooey! [23] I've wet-nursed Shannon's Imperial Circus around the Triangle for eleven years, and I know. [24] It's lousy, it's mangy, it's broken-down! [25] Nothing works, from the ship to the roustabouts. [26] In short, it stinks!" [27] I must have had the pitcher oftener than I thought. [28] Nobody insults Buckhalter Shannon's Imperial Circus to Buckhalter Shannon's face unless he's tired and wants a long rest in a comfy fracture-frame. [29] Shannon got up. [30] He got up slowly. [31] I had plenty of time to see his grey-green eyes get sleepy, and hear the quarter-Earth-blood Martian girl wailing about love over by the battered piano, and watch the slanting cat-eyes of the little dark people at the tables swing round toward us, pleased and kind of hungry. [32] I had plenty of time to think how I only weigh one-thirty-seven to Shannon's one-seventy-five, and how I'm not as young as I used to be. [33] I said, "Bucky. [34] Hold on, fella. [35] I...." Somebody said, "Excuse me, gentlemen. [36] Is one of you Mister Buckhalter Shannon?" [37] Shannon put his hands down on his belt. [38] He closed his eyes and smiled pleasantly and said, very gently: "Would you be collecting for the feed bill, or the fuel?" [39] I shot a glance at the newcomer. [40] He'd saved me from a beating, even if he was a lousy bill-collecter; and I felt sorry for him. [41] Bucky Shannon settled his shoulders and hips like a dancer. [42] The stranger was a little guy. [43] He even made me look big. [44] He was dressed in dark-green synthesilk, very conservative. [45] There was a powdering of grey in his hair and his skin was pink, soft, and shaved painfully clean. [46] He had the kind of a face that nice maiden-ladies will trust with their last dime. [47] I looked for his strong-arm squad. [48] There didn't seem to be any. [49] The little guy looked at Shannon with pale blue eyes like a baby, and his voice was softer than Bucky's. [50] He said, "I don't think you understand." [51] I felt cold, suddenly, between the shoulders. [52] Somebody scraped a chair back. [53] It sounded like he'd ripped the floor open, it was so quiet. [54] I got my brassies on, and my hands were sweating. [55] Bucky Shannon sighed, and let his fist start traveling, a long, deceptive arc. [56] Then I saw what the little guy was holding in his hand. [57] I yelled and knocked the table over into Bucky. [58] It made a lot of noise. [59] It knocked him sideways and down, and the little dark men jumped up, quivering and showing their teeth. [60] The Martian girl screamed. [61] Bucky heaved the table off his lap and cursed me. [62] "What's eating you, Jig? [63] I'm not going to hurt him." [64] "Shut up," I said. [65] "Look what he's got there. [66] Money!" [67] The little guy looked at me. [68] He hadn't turned a hair. [69] "Yes," he said. [70] "Money. [71] Quite a lot of it. [72] Would you gentlemen permit me to join you?" [73] Bucky Shannon got up. [74] He grinned his pleasantest grin. [75] "Delighted. [76] I'm Shannon. [77] This is Jig Bentley, my business manager." [78] He looked down at the table. [79] "I'm sorry about that. [80] Mistaken identity." [81] The little guy smiled. [82] He did it with his lips. [83] The rest of his face stayed placid and babyish, almost transparent. [84] I realized with a start that it wasn't transparent at all. [85] It was the most complete dead-pan I ever met, and you couldn't see into those innocent blue eyes any more than you could see through sheet metal. [86] I didn't like him. [87] I didn't like him at all. [88] But he had money. [89] I said, "Howdy. [90] Let's go find a booth. [91] These Marshies make me nervous, looking like hungry cats at a mouse-hole." [92] The little guy nodded. [93] "Excellent idea. [94] My name is Beamish. [95] Simon Beamish. [96] I wish to—ah—charter your circus." [97] I looked at Bucky. [98] He looked hungrier than the Marshies did. [99] We didn't say anything until we got Beamish into a curtained booth with a fresh pitcher of thil on the table. [100] Then I cleared my throat. [101] "What exactly did you have in mind, Mr. [102] Beamish?" [103] Beamish sipped his drink, made a polite face, and put it down. [104] "I have independent means, gentlemen. [105] It has always been my desire to lighten the burden of life for those less fortunate...." Bucky got red around the ears. [106] "Just a minute," he murmured, and started to get up. [107] I kicked him under the table. [108] "Shut up, you lug. [109] Let Mister Beamish finish." [110] He sat down, looking like a mean dog waiting for the postman. [111] Beamish ignored him. [112] He went on, quietly, "I have always held that entertainment, of the right sort, is the most valuable aid humanity can have in its search for the alleviation of toil and boredom...." I said, "Sure, sure. [113] But what was your idea?" [114] "There are many towns along the Venusian frontiers where no entertainment of the— proper sort has been available. [115] I propose to remedy that. [116] I propose to charter your circus, Mister Shannon, to make a tour of several settlements along the Tehara Belt." [117] Bucky had relaxed. [118] His grey-green eyes began to gleam. [119] He started to speak, and I kicked him again. [120] "That would be expensive, Mister Beamish," I said. [121] "We'd have to cancel several engagements...." He looked at me. [122] I was lying, and he knew it. [123] But he said, "I quite understand that. [124] I would be prepared...." The curtains were yanked back suddenly. [125] Beamish shut up. [126] Bucky and I glared at the head and shoulders poking in between the drapes. [127] It was Gow, our zoo-man—a big, ugly son-of-a-gun from a Terran colony on Mercury. [128] I was there once. [129] Gow looks a lot like the scenery—scowling, unapproachable, and tough. [130] His hands, holding the curtains apart, had thick black hair on them and were not much larger than the hams of a Venusian swamp-rhino. [131] He said, "Boss, Gertrude's actin' up again." [132] "Gertrude be blowed," growled Bucky. [133] "Can't you see I'm busy?" [134] Gow's black eyes were unpleasant. [135] "I'm tellin' you, Boss, Gertrude ain't happy. [136] She ain't had the right food. [137] If something...." I said, "That'll all be taken care of, Gow. [138] Run along now." [139] He looked at me like he was thinking it wouldn't take much timber to fit me for a coffin. [140] "Okay! [141] But Gertrude's unhappy. [142] She's lonesome, see? [143] And if she don't get happier pretty soon I ain't sure your tin-pot ship'll hold her." [144] He pulled the curtains to and departed. [145] Bucky Shannon groaned. [146] Beamish cleared his throat and said, rather stiffly, "Gertrude?" [147] "Yeah. [148] She's kind of temperamental." [149] Bucky took a quick drink. [150] I finished for him. [151] "She's the star attraction of our show, Mr. Beamish. [152] A real blue-swamp Venusian cansin . [153] The only other one on the Triangle belongs to Savitt Brothers, and she's much smaller than Gertrude." [154] She was also much younger, but I didn't go into that. [155] Gertrude may be a little creaky, but she's still pretty impressive. [156] I only hoped she wouldn't die on us, because without her we'd have a sicker-looking circus than even I could stand. [157] Beamish looked impressed. [158] "A cansin . [159] Well, well! [160] The mystery surrounding the origin and species of the cansin is a fascinating subject. [161] The extreme rarity of the animal...." We were getting off the subject. [162] I said tactfully, "We'd have to have at least a hundred U.C.'s." [163] It was twice what we had any right to ask. [164] I was prepared to dicker. [165] Beamish looked at me with that innocent dead pan. [166] For a fraction of a second I thought I saw something back of his round blue eyes, and my stomach jumped like it was shot. [167] Beamish smiled sweetly. [168] "I'm not much of a bargainer. [169] One hundred Universal Credits will be agreeable to me." [170] He dragged out a roll as big as my two fists, peeled off half a dozen credit slips, and laid them on the table. [171] "By way of a retainer, gentleman. [172] My attorney and I will call on you in the morning with a contract and itinerary. [173] Good night." [174] We said good night, trying not to drool. [175] Beamish went away. [176] Bucky made grab for the money, but I beat him to it. [177] "Scram," I said. [178] "There are guys waiting for this. [179] Big guys with clubs. [180] Here." [181] I gave him a small-denomination slip I'd been holding out. [182] "We can get lushed enough on this." [183] Shannon has a good vocabulary. [184] He used it. [185] When he got his breath back he said suddenly, "Beamish is pulling some kind of a game." [186] "Yeah." [187] "It may be crooked." [188] "Sure. [189] And he may be screwball and on the level. [190] For Pete's sake!" [191] I yelled. [192] "You want to sit here till we all dry up and blow away?" [193] Shannon looked at me, kind of funny. [194] He looked at the bulge in my tunic where the roll was. [195] He raked back his thick light hair. [196] "Yeah," he said. [197] "I hope there'll be enough left to bribe the jury." [198] He poked his head outside. [199] "Hey, boy! [200] More thildatum !" [201] It was pretty late when we got back to the broken-down spaceport where Shannon's Imperial Circus was crouching beneath its attachments. [202] Late as it was, they were waiting for us. [203] About twenty of them, sitting around and smoking and looking very ugly. [204] It was awfully lonesome out there, with the desert cold and restless under the two moons. [205] There's a smell to Mars, like something dead and dried long past decay, but still waiting. [206] An unhappy smell. [207] The blown red dust gritted in my teeth. [208] Bucky Shannon walked out into the glare of the light at the entrance to the roped-off space around the main lock. [209] He was pretty steady on his feet. [210] He waved and said, "Hiya, boys." [211] They got up off the steps, and the packing cases, and came toward us. [212] I grinned and got into my brassies. [213] We felt we owed those boys a lot more than money. [214] It grates on a man's pride to have to sneak in and out of his own property through the sewage lock. [215] This was the first time in weeks we'd come in at the front door. [216] I waved the money in their faces. [217] That stopped them. [218] Very solemnly, Bucky and I checked the bills, paid them, and pocketed the receipts. [219] Bucky yawned and stretched sleepily. [220] "Now?" [221] he said. [222] "Now," I said. [223] We had a lot of fun. [224] Some of the boys inside the ship came out to join in. [225] We raised a lot of dust and nobody got killed, quite. [226] We all went home happy. [227] They had their money, and we had their blood. [228] The news was all over the ship before we got inside. [229] The freaks and the green girl from Tethys who could roll herself like a hoop, and Zurt the muscle man from Jupiter, and all the other assorted geeks and kinkers and joeys that make up the usual corny carnie were doing nip-ups in the passageways and drooling over the thought of steer and toppings. [230] Bucky Shannon regarded them possessively, wiping blood from his nose. [231] "They're good guys, Jig. [232] Swell people. [233] They stuck by me, and I've rewarded them." [234] I said, "Sure," rather sourly. [235] Bucky hiccoughed. [236] "Let's go see Gertrude." [237] I didn't want to see Gertrude. [238] I never got over feeling funny going into the brute tank, especially at night or out in space. [239] I'm a city guy, myself. [240] The smell and sound of wildness gives me goose bumps. [241] But Bucky was looking stubborn, so I shrugged. [242] "Okay. [243] But just for a minute. [244] Then we go beddy-bye." [245] "You're a pal, Jif. [246] Bes' li'l' guy inna worl'...." The fight had just put the topper on him. [247] I was afraid he'd fall down the ladder and break his neck. [248] That's why I went along. [249] If I hadn't.... Oh, well, what's a few nightmares among friends? [250] It was dark down there in the tank. [251] Way off at the other end, there was a dim glow. [252] Gow was evidently holding Gertrude's hand. [253] We started down the long passageway between the rows of cages and glassed-in tanks and compression units. [254] Our footsteps sounded loud and empty on the iron floor. [255] I wasn't near as happy as Shannon, and my skin began to crawl a little. [256] It's the smell, I think; rank and sour and wild. [257] And the sound of them, breathing and rustling in the dark, with the patient hatred walled around them as strong as the cage bars. [258] Bucky Shannon lurched against me suddenly. [259] I choked back a yell, and then wiped the sweat off my forehead and cursed. [260] The scream came again. [261] A high, ragged, whistling screech like nothing this side of hell, ripping through the musty darkness. [262] Gertrude, on the wailing wall. [263] It had been quiet. [264] Now every brute in the place let go at the same time. [265] My stomach turned clear over. [266] I called Gertrude every name I could think of, and I couldn't hear myself doing it. [267] Presently a great metallic clash nearly burst my eardrums, and the beasts shut up. [268] Gow had them nicely conditioned to that gong. [269] But they didn't quiet down. [270] Not really. [271] They were uneasy. [272] You can feel them inside you when they're uneasy. [273] I think that's why I'm scared of them. [274] They make me feel like I'm not human as I thought—like I wanted to put my back-hair up and snarl. [275] Yeah. [276] They were uneasy that night, all of a sudden.... Gow glared at us as we came up into the lantern light. [277] "She's gettin' worse," he said. [278] "She's lonesome." [279] "That's tough," said Bucky Shannon. [280] His grey-green eyes looked like an owl's. [281] He swayed slightly. [282] "That's sure tough." [283] He sniffled. [284] I looked at Gertrude. [285] Her cage is the biggest and strongest in the tank and even so she looked as though she could break it open just taking a deep breath. [286] I don't know if you've ever seen a cansin . [287] There's only two of them on the Triangle. [288] If you haven't, nothing I can say will make much difference. [289] They're what the brain gang calls an "end of evolution." [290] Seems old Dame Nature had an idea that didn't jell. [291] The cansins were pretty successful for a while, it seems, but something gummed up the works and now there's only a few left, way in the deep-swamp country, where even the Venusians hardly ever go. [292] Living fossils. [293] I wouldn't know, of course, but Gertrude looks to me like she got stuck some place between a dinosaur and a grizzly bear, with maybe a little bird blood thrown in. [294] Anyway, she's big. [295] I couldn't help feeling sorry for her. [296] She was crouched in the cage with her hands—yeah, hands—hanging over her knees and her snaky head sunk into her shoulders, looking out. [297] Just looking. [298] Not at anything. [299] Her eyes were way back in deep horny pits, like cold green fire. [300] The lantern light was yellow on her blue-black skin, but it made the mane, or crest, of coarse wide scales that ran from between her eyes clear down to her flat, short tail, burn all colors. [301] She looked like old Mother Misery herself, from way back before time began. [302] Gow said softly, "She wants a mate. [303] And somebody better get her one." [304] Bucky Shannon sniffled again. [305] I said irritably, "Be reasonable, Gow! [306] Nobody's ever seen a male cansin . [307] There may not even be any." [308] Gertrude screamed again. [309] She didn't move, not even to raise her head. [310] The sadness just built up inside her until it had to come out. [311] That close, the screech was deafening, and it turned me all limp and cold inside. [312] The loneliness, the sheer stark, simple pain.... Bucky Shannon began to cry. [313] I snarled, "You'll have to snap her out of this, Gow. [314] She's driving the rest of 'em nuts." [315] He hammered on his gong, and things quieted down again. [316] Gow stood looking out over the tank, sniffing a little, like a hound. [317] Then he turned to Gertrude. [318] "I saved her life," he said. [319] "When we bought her out of Hanak's wreck and everybody thought she was too hurt to live, I saved her. [320] I know her. [321] I can do things with her. [322] But this time...." He shrugged. [323] He was huge and tough and ugly, and his voice was like a woman's talking about a sick child. [324] "This time," he said, "I ain't sure." [325] "Well for Pete's sake, do what you can. [326] We got a charter, and we need her." [327] I took Shannon's arm. [328] "Come to bed, Bucky darlin'." [329] He draped himself over my shoulder and we went off. [330] Gow didn't look at us. [331] Bucky sobbed. [332] "You were right, Jig," he mumbled. [333] "Circus is no good. [334] I know it. [335] But it's all I got. [336] I love it, Jig. [337] Unnerstan' me? [338] Like Gow there with Gertrude. [339] She's ugly and no good, but he loves her. [340] I love...." "Sure, sure," I told him. [341] "Stop crying down my neck." [342] We were a long way from the light, then. [343] The cages and tanks loomed high and black over us. [344] It was still. [345] The secret, uneasy motion all around us and the scruffing of our feet only made it stiller. [346] Bucky was almost asleep on me. [347] I started to slap him. [348] And then the mist rose up out of the darkness in little lazy coils, sparkling faintly with blue, cold fire. [349] I yelled, "Gow! [350] Gow, the Vapor snakes! [351] Gow—for God's sake!" [352] I started to run, back along the passageway. [353] Bucky weighed on me, limp and heavy. [354] The noise burst suddenly in a deafening hell of moans and roars and shrieks, packed in tight by the metal walls, and above it all I could hear Gertrude's lonely, whistling scream. [355] I thought, " Somebody's down here. [356] Somebody let 'em out. [357] Somebody wants to kill us! " [358] I tried to yell again. [359] It strangled in my throat. [360] I sobbed, and the sweat was thick and cold on me. [361] One of Bucky's dragging, stumbling feet got between mine. [362] We fell. [363] I rolled on top of him, covering his face, and buried my own face in the hollow of his shoulder. [364] The first snake touched me. [365] It was like a live wire, sliding along the back of my neck. [366] I screamed. [367] It came down along my cheek, hunting my mouth. [368] There were more of them, burning me through my clothes. [369] Bucky moaned and kicked under me. [370] I remember hanging on and thinking, "This is it. [371] This is it, and oh God, I'm scared!" [372] Then I went out. [373] II Kanza the Martian croaker, was bending over me when I woke up. [374] His little brown face was crinkled with laughter. [375] He'd lost most of his teeth, and he gummed thak -weed. [376] It smelt. [377] "You pretty, Mis' Jig," he giggled. [378] "You funny like hell." [379] He slapped some cold greasy stuff on my face. [380] It hurt. [381] I cursed him and said, "Where's Shannon? [382] How is he?" [383] "Mis' Bucky okay. [384] You save life. [385] You big hero, Mis' Jig. [386] Mis' Gow come nickuhtime get snakes. [387] You hero. [388] Haw! [389] You funny like hell!" [390] I said, "Yeah," and pushed him away and got up. [391] I almost fell down a couple of times, but presently I made it to the mirror over the washstand—I was in my own cell—and I saw what Kanza meant. [392] The damned snakes had done a good job. [393] I looked like I was upholstered in Scotch plaid. [394] I felt sick. [395] Bucky Shannon opened the door. [396] He looked white and grim, and there was a big burn across his neck. [397] He said: "Beamish is here with his lawyer." [398] I picked up my shirt. [399] "Right with you." [400] Kanza went out, still giggling. [401] Bucky closed the door. [402] "Jig," he said, "those vapor worms were all right when we went in. [403] Somebody followed us down and let them out. [404] On purpose." [405] I hurt all over. [406] I growled, "With that brain, son, you should go far. [407] Nobody saw anything, of course?" [408] Bucky shook his head. [409] "Question is, Jig, who wants to kill us, and why?" [410] "Beamish. [411] He realizes he's been gypped." [412] "One hundred U.C. [413] 's," said Bucky softly, "for a few lousy swampedge mining camps. [414] It stinks, Jig. [415] You think we should back out?" [416] I shrugged. [417] "You're the boss man. [418] I'm only the guy that beats off the creditors." [419] "Yeah," Bucky said reflectively. [420] "And I hear starvation isn't a comfortable death. [421] Okay, Jig. [422] Let's go sign." [423] He put his hand on the latch and looked at my feet. [424] "And—uh—Jig, I...." I said, "Skip it. [425] The next time, just don't trip me up, that's all!" [426] We had a nasty trip to Venus. [427] Gertrude kept the brute tank on edge, and Gow, on the rare occasions he came up for air, went around looking like a disaster hoping to happen. [428] To make it worse, Zurt the Jovian strong-man got hurt during the take-off, and the Mercurian cave-cat had kittens. [429] Nobody would have minded that, only one of 'em had only four legs. [430] It lived just long enough to scare that bunch of superstitious dopes out of their pants. [431] Circus people are funny that way. [432] Shannon and I did a little quiet sleuthing, but it was a waste of time. [433] Anybody in the gang might have let those electric worms out on us. [434] It didn't help any to know that somebody, maybe the guy next to you at dinner, was busy thinking ways to kill you. [435] By the time we hit Venus, I was ready to do a Brodie out the refuse chute. [436] Shannon set the crate down on the edge of Nahru, the first stop on our itinerary. [437] I stood beside him, looking out the ports at the scenery. [438] It was Venus, all right. [439] Blue mud and thick green jungle and rain, and a bunch of ratty-looking plastic shacks huddling together in the middle of it. [440] Men in slickers were coming out for a look. [441] I saw Beamish's sleek yacht parked on a cradle over to the left, and our router's runabout beside it. [442] Bucky Shannon groaned. [443] "A blue one, Jig. [444] A morgue if I ever saw one!" [445] I snarled, "What do you want, with this lousy dog-and-pony show!" [446] and went out. [447] He followed. [448] The gang was converging on the lock, but they weren't happy. [449] You get so you can feel those things. [450] The steamy Venus heat was already sneaking into the ship. [451] While we passed the hatchway to the brute tank, I could hear Gertrude, screaming. [452] The canvasmen were busy setting up the annex, slopping and cursing in the mud. [453] The paste brigade was heading for the shacks. [454] Shannon and I stood with the hot rain running off our slickers, looking. [455] I heard a noise behind me and looked around. [456] Ahra the Nahali woman was standing in the mud with her arms up and her head thrown back, and her triangular mouth open like a thirsty dog. [457] She didn't have anything on but her blue-green, hard scaled hide, and she was chuckling. [458] It didn't sound nice. [459] You find a lot of Nahali people in side-shows, doing tricks with the electric power they carry in their own bodies. [460] They're Venusian middle-swampers, they're not human, and they never forget it. [461] Ahra opened her slitted red eyes and looked at me and laughed with white reptilian teeth. [462] "Death," she whispered. [463] "Death and trouble. [464] The jungle tells me. [465] I can smell it in the swamp wind." [466] The hot rain sluiced over her. [467] She shivered, and the pale skin under her jaw pulsed like a toad's, and her eyes were red. [468] "The deep swamps are angry," she whispered. [469] "Something has been taken. [470] They are angry, and I smell death in the wind!" [471] She turned away, laughing, and I cursed her, and my stomach was tight and cold. [472] Bucky said, "Let's eat if they have a bar in this dump." [473] We weren't half way across the mud puddle that passed as a landing field when a man came out of a shack on the edge of the settlement. [474] We could see him plainly, because he was off to one side of the crowd. [475] He fell on his knees in the mud, making noises. [476] It took him three or four tries to get our names out clear enough to understand. [477] Bucky said, "Jig—it's Sam Kapper." [478] We started to run. [479] The crowd, mostly big unshaken miners, wheeled around to see what was happening. [480] People began to close in on the man who crawled and whimpered in the mud. [481] Sam Kapper was a hunter, supplying animals to zoos and circuses and carnivals. [482] He'd given us good deals a couple of times, when we weren't too broke, and we were pretty friendly. [483] I hadn't seen him for three seasons. [484] I remembered him as a bronzed, hard-bitten guy, lean and tough as a twist of tung wire. [485] I felt sick, looking down at him. [486] Bucky started to help him up. [487] Kapper was crying, and he jerked all over like animals I've seen that were scared to death. [488] Some guy leaned over and put a cigarette in his mouth and lighted it for him. [489] I was thinking about Kapper, then, and I didn't pay much attention. [490] I only caught a glimpse of the man's face as he straightened up. [491] I didn't realize until later that he looked familiar. [492] We got Kapper inside the shack. [493] It turned out to be a cheap bar, with a couple of curtained booths at the back. [494] We got him into one and pulled the curtain in a lot of curious faces. [495] Kapper dragged hard on the cigarette. [496] The man that gave it to him was gone. [497] Bucky said gently, "Okay, Sam. [498] Relax. [499] What's the trouble?" [500] Kapper tried to straighten up. [501] He hadn't shaved. [502] The lean hard lines of his face had gone slack and his eyes were bloodshot. [503] He was covered with mud, and his mouth twitched like a sick old man's. [504] He said thickly, "I found it. [505] I said I'd do it, and I did. [506] I found it and brought it out." [507] The cigarette stub fell out of his mouth. [508] He didn't notice it. [509] "Help me," he said simply. [510] "I'm scared." [511] His mouth drooled. [512] "I got it hidden. [513] They want to find out, but I won't tell 'em. [514] It's got to go back. [515] Back where I found it. [516] I tried to take it, but they wouldn't let me, and I was afraid they'd find it...." He reached suddenly and grabbed the edge of the table. [517] "I don't know how they found out about it, but they did. [518] I've got to get it back. [519] I've got to...." Bucky looked at me. [520] Kapper was blue around the mouth. [521] I was scared, suddenly. [522] I said, "Get what back where?" [523] Bucky got up. [524] "I'll get a doctor," he said. [525] "Stick with him." [526] Kapper grabbed his wrist. [527] Kapper's nails were blue and the cords in his hands stood out like guy wires. [528] "Don't leave me. [529] Got to tell you—where it is. [530] Got to take it back. [531] Promise you'll take it back." [532] He gasped and struggled over his breathing. [533] "Sure," said Bucky. [534] "Sure, well take it back. [535] What is it?" [536] Kapper's face was horrible. [537] I felt sick, listening to him fight for air. [538] I wanted to go for a doctor anyway, but somehow I knew it was no use. [539] Kapper whispered, " Cansin . [540] Male. [541] Only one. [542] You don't know...! [543] Take him back." [544] "Where is it, Sam?" [545] I reached across Bucky suddenly and jerked the curtain back. [546] Beamish was standing there. [547] Beamish, bent over, with his ear cocked. [548] Kapper made a harsh strangling noise and fell across the table. [549] Beamish never changed expression. [550] He didn't move while Bucky felt Kapper's pulse. [551] Bucky didn't need to say anything. [552] We knew. [553] "Heart?" [554] said Beamish finally. [555] "Yeah," said Bucky. [556] He looked as bad as I felt. [557] "Poor Sam." [558] I looked at the cigarette stub smoldering on the table. [559] I looked at Beamish with his round dead baby face. [560] I climbed over Shannon and pushed Beamish suddenly down into his lap. [561] "Keep this guy here till I get back," I said. [562] Shannon stared at me. [563] Beamish started to get indignant. [564] "Shut up," I told him. [565] "We got a contract." [566] I yanked the curtains shut and walked over to the bar. [567] I began to notice something, then. [568] There were quite a lot of men in the place. [569] At first glance they looked okay—a hard-faced, muscular bunch of miners in dirty shirts and high boots. [570] Then I looked at their hands. [571] They were dirty enough. [572] But they never did any work in a mine, on Venus or anywhere else. [573] The place was awfully quiet, for that kind of a place. [574] The bartender was a big pot-bellied swamp-edger with pale eyes and thick white hair coiled up on top of his bullet head. [575] He was not happy. [576] I leaned on the bar. " [577] Lhak ," I said. [578] He poured it, sullenly, out of a green bottle. [579] I reached for it, casually. [580] "That guy we brought in," I said. [581] "He sure has a skinful. [582] Passed out cold. [583] What's he been spiking his drinks with?" [584] " Selak ," said a voice in my ear. [585] "As if you didn't know." [586] I turned. [587] The man who had given Kapper the cigarette was standing behind me. [588] And I remembered him, then.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What are Bucky's and Jig's attitudes towards their circus?": 1. [230] Bucky Shannon regarded them possessively, wiping blood from his nose. "They're good guys, Jig. Swell people. They stuck by me, and I've rewarded them." 2. [231] I said, "Sure," rather sourly. 3. [232] Bucky hiccoughed. "Let's go see Gertrude." 4. [333] "I know it. But it's all I got. I love it, Jig. Unnerstan' me? Like Gow there with Gertrude. She's ugly and no good, but he loves her. I love...." 5. [340] "Sure, sure," I told him. "Stop crying down my neck." 6. [441] Bucky Shannon groaned. "A blue one, Jig. A morgue if I ever saw one!" 7. [442] I snarled, "What do you want, with this lousy dog-and-pony show!" 8. [10] "We," he said, "are broke. We are finished, through. Washed up and down the drain." 9. [11] "Washed up and down the drain." 10. [12] "Destitute." 11. [21] "The Greatest Show in Space. Phooey!" 12. [22] "I've wet-nursed Shannon's Imperial Circus around the Triangle for eleven years, and I know." 13. [23] "It's lousy, it's mangy, it's broken-down!" 14. [24] "Nothing works, from the ship to the roustabouts." 15. [25] "In short, it stinks!"

What happens to Jig throughout the story?

[1] The Blue Behemoth By LEIGH BRACKETT Shannon's Imperial Circus was a jinxed space-carny leased for a mysterious tour of the inner worlds. [2] It made a one-night pitch on a Venusian swamp-town—to find that death stalked it from the jungle in a tiny ball of flame. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Bucky Shannon leaned forward across the little hexagonal table. [6] He knocked over the pitcher of thil , but it didn't matter. [7] The pitcher was empty. [8] He jabbed me in the breastbone with his forefinger, not very hard. [9] Not hard enough to jar the ribs clean loose, just enough to spring them. [10] "We," he said, "are broke. [11] We are finished, through. [12] Washed up and down the drain." [13] He added, as an afterthought, "Destitute." [14] I looked at him. [15] I said sourly, "You're kidding!" [16] "Kidding." [17] Shannon put his elbows on the table and peered at me through a curtain of very blond hair that was trying hard to be red. [18] "He says I'm kidding! [19] With Shannon's Imperial Circus, the Greatest Show in Space, plastered so thick with attachments...." "It's no more plastered than you are." [20] I was sore because he'd been a lot quicker grabbing the pitcher. [21] "The Greatest Show in Space. [22] Phooey! [23] I've wet-nursed Shannon's Imperial Circus around the Triangle for eleven years, and I know. [24] It's lousy, it's mangy, it's broken-down! [25] Nothing works, from the ship to the roustabouts. [26] In short, it stinks!" [27] I must have had the pitcher oftener than I thought. [28] Nobody insults Buckhalter Shannon's Imperial Circus to Buckhalter Shannon's face unless he's tired and wants a long rest in a comfy fracture-frame. [29] Shannon got up. [30] He got up slowly. [31] I had plenty of time to see his grey-green eyes get sleepy, and hear the quarter-Earth-blood Martian girl wailing about love over by the battered piano, and watch the slanting cat-eyes of the little dark people at the tables swing round toward us, pleased and kind of hungry. [32] I had plenty of time to think how I only weigh one-thirty-seven to Shannon's one-seventy-five, and how I'm not as young as I used to be. [33] I said, "Bucky. [34] Hold on, fella. [35] I...." Somebody said, "Excuse me, gentlemen. [36] Is one of you Mister Buckhalter Shannon?" [37] Shannon put his hands down on his belt. [38] He closed his eyes and smiled pleasantly and said, very gently: "Would you be collecting for the feed bill, or the fuel?" [39] I shot a glance at the newcomer. [40] He'd saved me from a beating, even if he was a lousy bill-collecter; and I felt sorry for him. [41] Bucky Shannon settled his shoulders and hips like a dancer. [42] The stranger was a little guy. [43] He even made me look big. [44] He was dressed in dark-green synthesilk, very conservative. [45] There was a powdering of grey in his hair and his skin was pink, soft, and shaved painfully clean. [46] He had the kind of a face that nice maiden-ladies will trust with their last dime. [47] I looked for his strong-arm squad. [48] There didn't seem to be any. [49] The little guy looked at Shannon with pale blue eyes like a baby, and his voice was softer than Bucky's. [50] He said, "I don't think you understand." [51] I felt cold, suddenly, between the shoulders. [52] Somebody scraped a chair back. [53] It sounded like he'd ripped the floor open, it was so quiet. [54] I got my brassies on, and my hands were sweating. [55] Bucky Shannon sighed, and let his fist start traveling, a long, deceptive arc. [56] Then I saw what the little guy was holding in his hand. [57] I yelled and knocked the table over into Bucky. [58] It made a lot of noise. [59] It knocked him sideways and down, and the little dark men jumped up, quivering and showing their teeth. [60] The Martian girl screamed. [61] Bucky heaved the table off his lap and cursed me. [62] "What's eating you, Jig? [63] I'm not going to hurt him." [64] "Shut up," I said. [65] "Look what he's got there. [66] Money!" [67] The little guy looked at me. [68] He hadn't turned a hair. [69] "Yes," he said. [70] "Money. [71] Quite a lot of it. [72] Would you gentlemen permit me to join you?" [73] Bucky Shannon got up. [74] He grinned his pleasantest grin. [75] "Delighted. [76] I'm Shannon. [77] This is Jig Bentley, my business manager." [78] He looked down at the table. [79] "I'm sorry about that. [80] Mistaken identity." [81] The little guy smiled. [82] He did it with his lips. [83] The rest of his face stayed placid and babyish, almost transparent. [84] I realized with a start that it wasn't transparent at all. [85] It was the most complete dead-pan I ever met, and you couldn't see into those innocent blue eyes any more than you could see through sheet metal. [86] I didn't like him. [87] I didn't like him at all. [88] But he had money. [89] I said, "Howdy. [90] Let's go find a booth. [91] These Marshies make me nervous, looking like hungry cats at a mouse-hole." [92] The little guy nodded. [93] "Excellent idea. [94] My name is Beamish. [95] Simon Beamish. [96] I wish to—ah—charter your circus." [97] I looked at Bucky. [98] He looked hungrier than the Marshies did. [99] We didn't say anything until we got Beamish into a curtained booth with a fresh pitcher of thil on the table. [100] Then I cleared my throat. [101] "What exactly did you have in mind, Mr. [102] Beamish?" [103] Beamish sipped his drink, made a polite face, and put it down. [104] "I have independent means, gentlemen. [105] It has always been my desire to lighten the burden of life for those less fortunate...." Bucky got red around the ears. [106] "Just a minute," he murmured, and started to get up. [107] I kicked him under the table. [108] "Shut up, you lug. [109] Let Mister Beamish finish." [110] He sat down, looking like a mean dog waiting for the postman. [111] Beamish ignored him. [112] He went on, quietly, "I have always held that entertainment, of the right sort, is the most valuable aid humanity can have in its search for the alleviation of toil and boredom...." I said, "Sure, sure. [113] But what was your idea?" [114] "There are many towns along the Venusian frontiers where no entertainment of the— proper sort has been available. [115] I propose to remedy that. [116] I propose to charter your circus, Mister Shannon, to make a tour of several settlements along the Tehara Belt." [117] Bucky had relaxed. [118] His grey-green eyes began to gleam. [119] He started to speak, and I kicked him again. [120] "That would be expensive, Mister Beamish," I said. [121] "We'd have to cancel several engagements...." He looked at me. [122] I was lying, and he knew it. [123] But he said, "I quite understand that. [124] I would be prepared...." The curtains were yanked back suddenly. [125] Beamish shut up. [126] Bucky and I glared at the head and shoulders poking in between the drapes. [127] It was Gow, our zoo-man—a big, ugly son-of-a-gun from a Terran colony on Mercury. [128] I was there once. [129] Gow looks a lot like the scenery—scowling, unapproachable, and tough. [130] His hands, holding the curtains apart, had thick black hair on them and were not much larger than the hams of a Venusian swamp-rhino. [131] He said, "Boss, Gertrude's actin' up again." [132] "Gertrude be blowed," growled Bucky. [133] "Can't you see I'm busy?" [134] Gow's black eyes were unpleasant. [135] "I'm tellin' you, Boss, Gertrude ain't happy. [136] She ain't had the right food. [137] If something...." I said, "That'll all be taken care of, Gow. [138] Run along now." [139] He looked at me like he was thinking it wouldn't take much timber to fit me for a coffin. [140] "Okay! [141] But Gertrude's unhappy. [142] She's lonesome, see? [143] And if she don't get happier pretty soon I ain't sure your tin-pot ship'll hold her." [144] He pulled the curtains to and departed. [145] Bucky Shannon groaned. [146] Beamish cleared his throat and said, rather stiffly, "Gertrude?" [147] "Yeah. [148] She's kind of temperamental." [149] Bucky took a quick drink. [150] I finished for him. [151] "She's the star attraction of our show, Mr. Beamish. [152] A real blue-swamp Venusian cansin . [153] The only other one on the Triangle belongs to Savitt Brothers, and she's much smaller than Gertrude." [154] She was also much younger, but I didn't go into that. [155] Gertrude may be a little creaky, but she's still pretty impressive. [156] I only hoped she wouldn't die on us, because without her we'd have a sicker-looking circus than even I could stand. [157] Beamish looked impressed. [158] "A cansin . [159] Well, well! [160] The mystery surrounding the origin and species of the cansin is a fascinating subject. [161] The extreme rarity of the animal...." We were getting off the subject. [162] I said tactfully, "We'd have to have at least a hundred U.C.'s." [163] It was twice what we had any right to ask. [164] I was prepared to dicker. [165] Beamish looked at me with that innocent dead pan. [166] For a fraction of a second I thought I saw something back of his round blue eyes, and my stomach jumped like it was shot. [167] Beamish smiled sweetly. [168] "I'm not much of a bargainer. [169] One hundred Universal Credits will be agreeable to me." [170] He dragged out a roll as big as my two fists, peeled off half a dozen credit slips, and laid them on the table. [171] "By way of a retainer, gentleman. [172] My attorney and I will call on you in the morning with a contract and itinerary. [173] Good night." [174] We said good night, trying not to drool. [175] Beamish went away. [176] Bucky made grab for the money, but I beat him to it. [177] "Scram," I said. [178] "There are guys waiting for this. [179] Big guys with clubs. [180] Here." [181] I gave him a small-denomination slip I'd been holding out. [182] "We can get lushed enough on this." [183] Shannon has a good vocabulary. [184] He used it. [185] When he got his breath back he said suddenly, "Beamish is pulling some kind of a game." [186] "Yeah." [187] "It may be crooked." [188] "Sure. [189] And he may be screwball and on the level. [190] For Pete's sake!" [191] I yelled. [192] "You want to sit here till we all dry up and blow away?" [193] Shannon looked at me, kind of funny. [194] He looked at the bulge in my tunic where the roll was. [195] He raked back his thick light hair. [196] "Yeah," he said. [197] "I hope there'll be enough left to bribe the jury." [198] He poked his head outside. [199] "Hey, boy! [200] More thildatum !" [201] It was pretty late when we got back to the broken-down spaceport where Shannon's Imperial Circus was crouching beneath its attachments. [202] Late as it was, they were waiting for us. [203] About twenty of them, sitting around and smoking and looking very ugly. [204] It was awfully lonesome out there, with the desert cold and restless under the two moons. [205] There's a smell to Mars, like something dead and dried long past decay, but still waiting. [206] An unhappy smell. [207] The blown red dust gritted in my teeth. [208] Bucky Shannon walked out into the glare of the light at the entrance to the roped-off space around the main lock. [209] He was pretty steady on his feet. [210] He waved and said, "Hiya, boys." [211] They got up off the steps, and the packing cases, and came toward us. [212] I grinned and got into my brassies. [213] We felt we owed those boys a lot more than money. [214] It grates on a man's pride to have to sneak in and out of his own property through the sewage lock. [215] This was the first time in weeks we'd come in at the front door. [216] I waved the money in their faces. [217] That stopped them. [218] Very solemnly, Bucky and I checked the bills, paid them, and pocketed the receipts. [219] Bucky yawned and stretched sleepily. [220] "Now?" [221] he said. [222] "Now," I said. [223] We had a lot of fun. [224] Some of the boys inside the ship came out to join in. [225] We raised a lot of dust and nobody got killed, quite. [226] We all went home happy. [227] They had their money, and we had their blood. [228] The news was all over the ship before we got inside. [229] The freaks and the green girl from Tethys who could roll herself like a hoop, and Zurt the muscle man from Jupiter, and all the other assorted geeks and kinkers and joeys that make up the usual corny carnie were doing nip-ups in the passageways and drooling over the thought of steer and toppings. [230] Bucky Shannon regarded them possessively, wiping blood from his nose. [231] "They're good guys, Jig. [232] Swell people. [233] They stuck by me, and I've rewarded them." [234] I said, "Sure," rather sourly. [235] Bucky hiccoughed. [236] "Let's go see Gertrude." [237] I didn't want to see Gertrude. [238] I never got over feeling funny going into the brute tank, especially at night or out in space. [239] I'm a city guy, myself. [240] The smell and sound of wildness gives me goose bumps. [241] But Bucky was looking stubborn, so I shrugged. [242] "Okay. [243] But just for a minute. [244] Then we go beddy-bye." [245] "You're a pal, Jif. [246] Bes' li'l' guy inna worl'...." The fight had just put the topper on him. [247] I was afraid he'd fall down the ladder and break his neck. [248] That's why I went along. [249] If I hadn't.... Oh, well, what's a few nightmares among friends? [250] It was dark down there in the tank. [251] Way off at the other end, there was a dim glow. [252] Gow was evidently holding Gertrude's hand. [253] We started down the long passageway between the rows of cages and glassed-in tanks and compression units. [254] Our footsteps sounded loud and empty on the iron floor. [255] I wasn't near as happy as Shannon, and my skin began to crawl a little. [256] It's the smell, I think; rank and sour and wild. [257] And the sound of them, breathing and rustling in the dark, with the patient hatred walled around them as strong as the cage bars. [258] Bucky Shannon lurched against me suddenly. [259] I choked back a yell, and then wiped the sweat off my forehead and cursed. [260] The scream came again. [261] A high, ragged, whistling screech like nothing this side of hell, ripping through the musty darkness. [262] Gertrude, on the wailing wall. [263] It had been quiet. [264] Now every brute in the place let go at the same time. [265] My stomach turned clear over. [266] I called Gertrude every name I could think of, and I couldn't hear myself doing it. [267] Presently a great metallic clash nearly burst my eardrums, and the beasts shut up. [268] Gow had them nicely conditioned to that gong. [269] But they didn't quiet down. [270] Not really. [271] They were uneasy. [272] You can feel them inside you when they're uneasy. [273] I think that's why I'm scared of them. [274] They make me feel like I'm not human as I thought—like I wanted to put my back-hair up and snarl. [275] Yeah. [276] They were uneasy that night, all of a sudden.... Gow glared at us as we came up into the lantern light. [277] "She's gettin' worse," he said. [278] "She's lonesome." [279] "That's tough," said Bucky Shannon. [280] His grey-green eyes looked like an owl's. [281] He swayed slightly. [282] "That's sure tough." [283] He sniffled. [284] I looked at Gertrude. [285] Her cage is the biggest and strongest in the tank and even so she looked as though she could break it open just taking a deep breath. [286] I don't know if you've ever seen a cansin . [287] There's only two of them on the Triangle. [288] If you haven't, nothing I can say will make much difference. [289] They're what the brain gang calls an "end of evolution." [290] Seems old Dame Nature had an idea that didn't jell. [291] The cansins were pretty successful for a while, it seems, but something gummed up the works and now there's only a few left, way in the deep-swamp country, where even the Venusians hardly ever go. [292] Living fossils. [293] I wouldn't know, of course, but Gertrude looks to me like she got stuck some place between a dinosaur and a grizzly bear, with maybe a little bird blood thrown in. [294] Anyway, she's big. [295] I couldn't help feeling sorry for her. [296] She was crouched in the cage with her hands—yeah, hands—hanging over her knees and her snaky head sunk into her shoulders, looking out. [297] Just looking. [298] Not at anything. [299] Her eyes were way back in deep horny pits, like cold green fire. [300] The lantern light was yellow on her blue-black skin, but it made the mane, or crest, of coarse wide scales that ran from between her eyes clear down to her flat, short tail, burn all colors. [301] She looked like old Mother Misery herself, from way back before time began. [302] Gow said softly, "She wants a mate. [303] And somebody better get her one." [304] Bucky Shannon sniffled again. [305] I said irritably, "Be reasonable, Gow! [306] Nobody's ever seen a male cansin . [307] There may not even be any." [308] Gertrude screamed again. [309] She didn't move, not even to raise her head. [310] The sadness just built up inside her until it had to come out. [311] That close, the screech was deafening, and it turned me all limp and cold inside. [312] The loneliness, the sheer stark, simple pain.... Bucky Shannon began to cry. [313] I snarled, "You'll have to snap her out of this, Gow. [314] She's driving the rest of 'em nuts." [315] He hammered on his gong, and things quieted down again. [316] Gow stood looking out over the tank, sniffing a little, like a hound. [317] Then he turned to Gertrude. [318] "I saved her life," he said. [319] "When we bought her out of Hanak's wreck and everybody thought she was too hurt to live, I saved her. [320] I know her. [321] I can do things with her. [322] But this time...." He shrugged. [323] He was huge and tough and ugly, and his voice was like a woman's talking about a sick child. [324] "This time," he said, "I ain't sure." [325] "Well for Pete's sake, do what you can. [326] We got a charter, and we need her." [327] I took Shannon's arm. [328] "Come to bed, Bucky darlin'." [329] He draped himself over my shoulder and we went off. [330] Gow didn't look at us. [331] Bucky sobbed. [332] "You were right, Jig," he mumbled. [333] "Circus is no good. [334] I know it. [335] But it's all I got. [336] I love it, Jig. [337] Unnerstan' me? [338] Like Gow there with Gertrude. [339] She's ugly and no good, but he loves her. [340] I love...." "Sure, sure," I told him. [341] "Stop crying down my neck." [342] We were a long way from the light, then. [343] The cages and tanks loomed high and black over us. [344] It was still. [345] The secret, uneasy motion all around us and the scruffing of our feet only made it stiller. [346] Bucky was almost asleep on me. [347] I started to slap him. [348] And then the mist rose up out of the darkness in little lazy coils, sparkling faintly with blue, cold fire. [349] I yelled, "Gow! [350] Gow, the Vapor snakes! [351] Gow—for God's sake!" [352] I started to run, back along the passageway. [353] Bucky weighed on me, limp and heavy. [354] The noise burst suddenly in a deafening hell of moans and roars and shrieks, packed in tight by the metal walls, and above it all I could hear Gertrude's lonely, whistling scream. [355] I thought, " Somebody's down here. [356] Somebody let 'em out. [357] Somebody wants to kill us! " [358] I tried to yell again. [359] It strangled in my throat. [360] I sobbed, and the sweat was thick and cold on me. [361] One of Bucky's dragging, stumbling feet got between mine. [362] We fell. [363] I rolled on top of him, covering his face, and buried my own face in the hollow of his shoulder. [364] The first snake touched me. [365] It was like a live wire, sliding along the back of my neck. [366] I screamed. [367] It came down along my cheek, hunting my mouth. [368] There were more of them, burning me through my clothes. [369] Bucky moaned and kicked under me. [370] I remember hanging on and thinking, "This is it. [371] This is it, and oh God, I'm scared!" [372] Then I went out. [373] II Kanza the Martian croaker, was bending over me when I woke up. [374] His little brown face was crinkled with laughter. [375] He'd lost most of his teeth, and he gummed thak -weed. [376] It smelt. [377] "You pretty, Mis' Jig," he giggled. [378] "You funny like hell." [379] He slapped some cold greasy stuff on my face. [380] It hurt. [381] I cursed him and said, "Where's Shannon? [382] How is he?" [383] "Mis' Bucky okay. [384] You save life. [385] You big hero, Mis' Jig. [386] Mis' Gow come nickuhtime get snakes. [387] You hero. [388] Haw! [389] You funny like hell!" [390] I said, "Yeah," and pushed him away and got up. [391] I almost fell down a couple of times, but presently I made it to the mirror over the washstand—I was in my own cell—and I saw what Kanza meant. [392] The damned snakes had done a good job. [393] I looked like I was upholstered in Scotch plaid. [394] I felt sick. [395] Bucky Shannon opened the door. [396] He looked white and grim, and there was a big burn across his neck. [397] He said: "Beamish is here with his lawyer." [398] I picked up my shirt. [399] "Right with you." [400] Kanza went out, still giggling. [401] Bucky closed the door. [402] "Jig," he said, "those vapor worms were all right when we went in. [403] Somebody followed us down and let them out. [404] On purpose." [405] I hurt all over. [406] I growled, "With that brain, son, you should go far. [407] Nobody saw anything, of course?" [408] Bucky shook his head. [409] "Question is, Jig, who wants to kill us, and why?" [410] "Beamish. [411] He realizes he's been gypped." [412] "One hundred U.C. [413] 's," said Bucky softly, "for a few lousy swampedge mining camps. [414] It stinks, Jig. [415] You think we should back out?" [416] I shrugged. [417] "You're the boss man. [418] I'm only the guy that beats off the creditors." [419] "Yeah," Bucky said reflectively. [420] "And I hear starvation isn't a comfortable death. [421] Okay, Jig. [422] Let's go sign." [423] He put his hand on the latch and looked at my feet. [424] "And—uh—Jig, I...." I said, "Skip it. [425] The next time, just don't trip me up, that's all!" [426] We had a nasty trip to Venus. [427] Gertrude kept the brute tank on edge, and Gow, on the rare occasions he came up for air, went around looking like a disaster hoping to happen. [428] To make it worse, Zurt the Jovian strong-man got hurt during the take-off, and the Mercurian cave-cat had kittens. [429] Nobody would have minded that, only one of 'em had only four legs. [430] It lived just long enough to scare that bunch of superstitious dopes out of their pants. [431] Circus people are funny that way. [432] Shannon and I did a little quiet sleuthing, but it was a waste of time. [433] Anybody in the gang might have let those electric worms out on us. [434] It didn't help any to know that somebody, maybe the guy next to you at dinner, was busy thinking ways to kill you. [435] By the time we hit Venus, I was ready to do a Brodie out the refuse chute. [436] Shannon set the crate down on the edge of Nahru, the first stop on our itinerary. [437] I stood beside him, looking out the ports at the scenery. [438] It was Venus, all right. [439] Blue mud and thick green jungle and rain, and a bunch of ratty-looking plastic shacks huddling together in the middle of it. [440] Men in slickers were coming out for a look. [441] I saw Beamish's sleek yacht parked on a cradle over to the left, and our router's runabout beside it. [442] Bucky Shannon groaned. [443] "A blue one, Jig. [444] A morgue if I ever saw one!" [445] I snarled, "What do you want, with this lousy dog-and-pony show!" [446] and went out. [447] He followed. [448] The gang was converging on the lock, but they weren't happy. [449] You get so you can feel those things. [450] The steamy Venus heat was already sneaking into the ship. [451] While we passed the hatchway to the brute tank, I could hear Gertrude, screaming. [452] The canvasmen were busy setting up the annex, slopping and cursing in the mud. [453] The paste brigade was heading for the shacks. [454] Shannon and I stood with the hot rain running off our slickers, looking. [455] I heard a noise behind me and looked around. [456] Ahra the Nahali woman was standing in the mud with her arms up and her head thrown back, and her triangular mouth open like a thirsty dog. [457] She didn't have anything on but her blue-green, hard scaled hide, and she was chuckling. [458] It didn't sound nice. [459] You find a lot of Nahali people in side-shows, doing tricks with the electric power they carry in their own bodies. [460] They're Venusian middle-swampers, they're not human, and they never forget it. [461] Ahra opened her slitted red eyes and looked at me and laughed with white reptilian teeth. [462] "Death," she whispered. [463] "Death and trouble. [464] The jungle tells me. [465] I can smell it in the swamp wind." [466] The hot rain sluiced over her. [467] She shivered, and the pale skin under her jaw pulsed like a toad's, and her eyes were red. [468] "The deep swamps are angry," she whispered. [469] "Something has been taken. [470] They are angry, and I smell death in the wind!" [471] She turned away, laughing, and I cursed her, and my stomach was tight and cold. [472] Bucky said, "Let's eat if they have a bar in this dump." [473] We weren't half way across the mud puddle that passed as a landing field when a man came out of a shack on the edge of the settlement. [474] We could see him plainly, because he was off to one side of the crowd. [475] He fell on his knees in the mud, making noises. [476] It took him three or four tries to get our names out clear enough to understand. [477] Bucky said, "Jig—it's Sam Kapper." [478] We started to run. [479] The crowd, mostly big unshaken miners, wheeled around to see what was happening. [480] People began to close in on the man who crawled and whimpered in the mud. [481] Sam Kapper was a hunter, supplying animals to zoos and circuses and carnivals. [482] He'd given us good deals a couple of times, when we weren't too broke, and we were pretty friendly. [483] I hadn't seen him for three seasons. [484] I remembered him as a bronzed, hard-bitten guy, lean and tough as a twist of tung wire. [485] I felt sick, looking down at him. [486] Bucky started to help him up. [487] Kapper was crying, and he jerked all over like animals I've seen that were scared to death. [488] Some guy leaned over and put a cigarette in his mouth and lighted it for him. [489] I was thinking about Kapper, then, and I didn't pay much attention. [490] I only caught a glimpse of the man's face as he straightened up. [491] I didn't realize until later that he looked familiar. [492] We got Kapper inside the shack. [493] It turned out to be a cheap bar, with a couple of curtained booths at the back. [494] We got him into one and pulled the curtain in a lot of curious faces. [495] Kapper dragged hard on the cigarette. [496] The man that gave it to him was gone. [497] Bucky said gently, "Okay, Sam. [498] Relax. [499] What's the trouble?" [500] Kapper tried to straighten up. [501] He hadn't shaved. [502] The lean hard lines of his face had gone slack and his eyes were bloodshot. [503] He was covered with mud, and his mouth twitched like a sick old man's. [504] He said thickly, "I found it. [505] I said I'd do it, and I did. [506] I found it and brought it out." [507] The cigarette stub fell out of his mouth. [508] He didn't notice it. [509] "Help me," he said simply. [510] "I'm scared." [511] His mouth drooled. [512] "I got it hidden. [513] They want to find out, but I won't tell 'em. [514] It's got to go back. [515] Back where I found it. [516] I tried to take it, but they wouldn't let me, and I was afraid they'd find it...." He reached suddenly and grabbed the edge of the table. [517] "I don't know how they found out about it, but they did. [518] I've got to get it back. [519] I've got to...." Bucky looked at me. [520] Kapper was blue around the mouth. [521] I was scared, suddenly. [522] I said, "Get what back where?" [523] Bucky got up. [524] "I'll get a doctor," he said. [525] "Stick with him." [526] Kapper grabbed his wrist. [527] Kapper's nails were blue and the cords in his hands stood out like guy wires. [528] "Don't leave me. [529] Got to tell you—where it is. [530] Got to take it back. [531] Promise you'll take it back." [532] He gasped and struggled over his breathing. [533] "Sure," said Bucky. [534] "Sure, well take it back. [535] What is it?" [536] Kapper's face was horrible. [537] I felt sick, listening to him fight for air. [538] I wanted to go for a doctor anyway, but somehow I knew it was no use. [539] Kapper whispered, " Cansin . [540] Male. [541] Only one. [542] You don't know...! [543] Take him back." [544] "Where is it, Sam?" [545] I reached across Bucky suddenly and jerked the curtain back. [546] Beamish was standing there. [547] Beamish, bent over, with his ear cocked. [548] Kapper made a harsh strangling noise and fell across the table. [549] Beamish never changed expression. [550] He didn't move while Bucky felt Kapper's pulse. [551] Bucky didn't need to say anything. [552] We knew. [553] "Heart?" [554] said Beamish finally. [555] "Yeah," said Bucky. [556] He looked as bad as I felt. [557] "Poor Sam." [558] I looked at the cigarette stub smoldering on the table. [559] I looked at Beamish with his round dead baby face. [560] I climbed over Shannon and pushed Beamish suddenly down into his lap. [561] "Keep this guy here till I get back," I said. [562] Shannon stared at me. [563] Beamish started to get indignant. [564] "Shut up," I told him. [565] "We got a contract." [566] I yanked the curtains shut and walked over to the bar. [567] I began to notice something, then. [568] There were quite a lot of men in the place. [569] At first glance they looked okay—a hard-faced, muscular bunch of miners in dirty shirts and high boots. [570] Then I looked at their hands. [571] They were dirty enough. [572] But they never did any work in a mine, on Venus or anywhere else. [573] The place was awfully quiet, for that kind of a place. [574] The bartender was a big pot-bellied swamp-edger with pale eyes and thick white hair coiled up on top of his bullet head. [575] He was not happy. [576] I leaned on the bar. " [577] Lhak ," I said. [578] He poured it, sullenly, out of a green bottle. [579] I reached for it, casually. [580] "That guy we brought in," I said. [581] "He sure has a skinful. [582] Passed out cold. [583] What's he been spiking his drinks with?" [584] " Selak ," said a voice in my ear. [585] "As if you didn't know." [586] I turned. [587] The man who had given Kapper the cigarette was standing behind me. [588] And I remembered him, then.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What happens to Jig throughout the story?": 1. [347] I started to slap him. 2. [348] And then the mist rose up out of the darkness in little lazy coils, sparkling faintly with blue, cold fire. 3. [349] I yelled, "Gow! Gow, the Vapor snakes! Gow—for God's sake!" 4. [350] I started to run, back along the passageway. 5. [351] Bucky weighed on me, limp and heavy. 6. [352] The noise burst suddenly in a deafening hell of moans and roars and shrieks, packed in tight by the metal walls, and above it all I could hear Gertrude's lonely, whistling scream. 7. [353] I thought, "Somebody's down here. Somebody let 'em out. Somebody wants to kill us!" 8. [354] I tried to yell again. 9. [355] It strangled in my throat. 10. [356] I sobbed, and the sweat was thick and cold on me. 11. [357] One of Bucky's dragging, stumbling feet got between mine. 12. [358] We fell. 13. [359] I rolled on top of him, covering his face, and buried my own face in the hollow of his shoulder. 14. [360] The first snake touched me. 15. [361] It was like a live wire, sliding along the back of my neck. 16. [362] I screamed. 17. [363] It came down along my cheek, hunting my mouth. 18. [364] There were more of them, burning me through my clothes. 19. [365] Bucky moaned and kicked under me. 20. [366] I remember hanging on and thinking, "This is it. This is it, and oh God, I'm scared!" 21. [367] Then I went out. 22. [373] II Kanza the Martian croaker, was bending over me when I woke up. 23. [374] His little brown face was crinkled with laughter. 24. [375] He'd lost most of his teeth, and he gummed thak-weed. 25. [376] It smelt. 26. [377] "You pretty, Mis' Jig," he giggled. "You funny like hell." 27. [378] He slapped some cold greasy stuff on my face. 28. [379] It hurt. 29. [380] I cursed him and said, "Where's Shannon? How is he?" 30. [381] "Mis' Bucky okay. You save life. You big hero, Mis' Jig. Mis' Gow come nickuhtime get snakes. You hero. Haw! You funny like hell!" 31. [390] I looked like I was upholstered in Scotch plaid. 32. [391] I felt sick. 33. [392] Bucky Shannon opened the door. 34. [393] He looked white and grim, and there was a big burn across his neck. 35. [394] He said: "Beamish is here with his lawyer." 36. [395] I picked up my shirt. 37. [396] "Right with you." 38. [397] Kanza went out, still giggling. 39. [398] Bucky closed the door. 40. [399] "Jig," he said, "those vapor worms were all right when we went in. Somebody followed us down and let them out. On purpose." 41. [400] I hurt all over. 42. [401] I growled, "With that brain, son, you should go far. Nobody saw anything, of course?" 43. [402] Bucky shook his head. 44. [403] "Question is, Jig, who wants to kill us, and why?" 45. [404] "Beamish. He realizes he's been gypped." 46. [405] "One hundred U.C.'s," said Bucky softly, "for a few lousy swampedge mining camps. It stinks, Jig. You think we should back out?" 47. [406] I shrugged. 48. [407] "You're the boss man. I'm only the guy that beats off the creditors." 49. [408] "Yeah," Bucky said reflectively. "And I hear starvation isn't a comfortable death. Okay, Jig. Let's go sign." 50. [409] He put his hand on the latch and looked at my feet. 51. [410] "And—uh—Jig, I...." 52. [411] I said, "Skip it. The next time, just don't trip me up, that's all!"

What is the significance of Jig and Bucky meeting Beamish on the story?

[1] The Blue Behemoth By LEIGH BRACKETT Shannon's Imperial Circus was a jinxed space-carny leased for a mysterious tour of the inner worlds. [2] It made a one-night pitch on a Venusian swamp-town—to find that death stalked it from the jungle in a tiny ball of flame. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Bucky Shannon leaned forward across the little hexagonal table. [6] He knocked over the pitcher of thil , but it didn't matter. [7] The pitcher was empty. [8] He jabbed me in the breastbone with his forefinger, not very hard. [9] Not hard enough to jar the ribs clean loose, just enough to spring them. [10] "We," he said, "are broke. [11] We are finished, through. [12] Washed up and down the drain." [13] He added, as an afterthought, "Destitute." [14] I looked at him. [15] I said sourly, "You're kidding!" [16] "Kidding." [17] Shannon put his elbows on the table and peered at me through a curtain of very blond hair that was trying hard to be red. [18] "He says I'm kidding! [19] With Shannon's Imperial Circus, the Greatest Show in Space, plastered so thick with attachments...." "It's no more plastered than you are." [20] I was sore because he'd been a lot quicker grabbing the pitcher. [21] "The Greatest Show in Space. [22] Phooey! [23] I've wet-nursed Shannon's Imperial Circus around the Triangle for eleven years, and I know. [24] It's lousy, it's mangy, it's broken-down! [25] Nothing works, from the ship to the roustabouts. [26] In short, it stinks!" [27] I must have had the pitcher oftener than I thought. [28] Nobody insults Buckhalter Shannon's Imperial Circus to Buckhalter Shannon's face unless he's tired and wants a long rest in a comfy fracture-frame. [29] Shannon got up. [30] He got up slowly. [31] I had plenty of time to see his grey-green eyes get sleepy, and hear the quarter-Earth-blood Martian girl wailing about love over by the battered piano, and watch the slanting cat-eyes of the little dark people at the tables swing round toward us, pleased and kind of hungry. [32] I had plenty of time to think how I only weigh one-thirty-seven to Shannon's one-seventy-five, and how I'm not as young as I used to be. [33] I said, "Bucky. [34] Hold on, fella. [35] I...." Somebody said, "Excuse me, gentlemen. [36] Is one of you Mister Buckhalter Shannon?" [37] Shannon put his hands down on his belt. [38] He closed his eyes and smiled pleasantly and said, very gently: "Would you be collecting for the feed bill, or the fuel?" [39] I shot a glance at the newcomer. [40] He'd saved me from a beating, even if he was a lousy bill-collecter; and I felt sorry for him. [41] Bucky Shannon settled his shoulders and hips like a dancer. [42] The stranger was a little guy. [43] He even made me look big. [44] He was dressed in dark-green synthesilk, very conservative. [45] There was a powdering of grey in his hair and his skin was pink, soft, and shaved painfully clean. [46] He had the kind of a face that nice maiden-ladies will trust with their last dime. [47] I looked for his strong-arm squad. [48] There didn't seem to be any. [49] The little guy looked at Shannon with pale blue eyes like a baby, and his voice was softer than Bucky's. [50] He said, "I don't think you understand." [51] I felt cold, suddenly, between the shoulders. [52] Somebody scraped a chair back. [53] It sounded like he'd ripped the floor open, it was so quiet. [54] I got my brassies on, and my hands were sweating. [55] Bucky Shannon sighed, and let his fist start traveling, a long, deceptive arc. [56] Then I saw what the little guy was holding in his hand. [57] I yelled and knocked the table over into Bucky. [58] It made a lot of noise. [59] It knocked him sideways and down, and the little dark men jumped up, quivering and showing their teeth. [60] The Martian girl screamed. [61] Bucky heaved the table off his lap and cursed me. [62] "What's eating you, Jig? [63] I'm not going to hurt him." [64] "Shut up," I said. [65] "Look what he's got there. [66] Money!" [67] The little guy looked at me. [68] He hadn't turned a hair. [69] "Yes," he said. [70] "Money. [71] Quite a lot of it. [72] Would you gentlemen permit me to join you?" [73] Bucky Shannon got up. [74] He grinned his pleasantest grin. [75] "Delighted. [76] I'm Shannon. [77] This is Jig Bentley, my business manager." [78] He looked down at the table. [79] "I'm sorry about that. [80] Mistaken identity." [81] The little guy smiled. [82] He did it with his lips. [83] The rest of his face stayed placid and babyish, almost transparent. [84] I realized with a start that it wasn't transparent at all. [85] It was the most complete dead-pan I ever met, and you couldn't see into those innocent blue eyes any more than you could see through sheet metal. [86] I didn't like him. [87] I didn't like him at all. [88] But he had money. [89] I said, "Howdy. [90] Let's go find a booth. [91] These Marshies make me nervous, looking like hungry cats at a mouse-hole." [92] The little guy nodded. [93] "Excellent idea. [94] My name is Beamish. [95] Simon Beamish. [96] I wish to—ah—charter your circus." [97] I looked at Bucky. [98] He looked hungrier than the Marshies did. [99] We didn't say anything until we got Beamish into a curtained booth with a fresh pitcher of thil on the table. [100] Then I cleared my throat. [101] "What exactly did you have in mind, Mr. [102] Beamish?" [103] Beamish sipped his drink, made a polite face, and put it down. [104] "I have independent means, gentlemen. [105] It has always been my desire to lighten the burden of life for those less fortunate...." Bucky got red around the ears. [106] "Just a minute," he murmured, and started to get up. [107] I kicked him under the table. [108] "Shut up, you lug. [109] Let Mister Beamish finish." [110] He sat down, looking like a mean dog waiting for the postman. [111] Beamish ignored him. [112] He went on, quietly, "I have always held that entertainment, of the right sort, is the most valuable aid humanity can have in its search for the alleviation of toil and boredom...." I said, "Sure, sure. [113] But what was your idea?" [114] "There are many towns along the Venusian frontiers where no entertainment of the— proper sort has been available. [115] I propose to remedy that. [116] I propose to charter your circus, Mister Shannon, to make a tour of several settlements along the Tehara Belt." [117] Bucky had relaxed. [118] His grey-green eyes began to gleam. [119] He started to speak, and I kicked him again. [120] "That would be expensive, Mister Beamish," I said. [121] "We'd have to cancel several engagements...." He looked at me. [122] I was lying, and he knew it. [123] But he said, "I quite understand that. [124] I would be prepared...." The curtains were yanked back suddenly. [125] Beamish shut up. [126] Bucky and I glared at the head and shoulders poking in between the drapes. [127] It was Gow, our zoo-man—a big, ugly son-of-a-gun from a Terran colony on Mercury. [128] I was there once. [129] Gow looks a lot like the scenery—scowling, unapproachable, and tough. [130] His hands, holding the curtains apart, had thick black hair on them and were not much larger than the hams of a Venusian swamp-rhino. [131] He said, "Boss, Gertrude's actin' up again." [132] "Gertrude be blowed," growled Bucky. [133] "Can't you see I'm busy?" [134] Gow's black eyes were unpleasant. [135] "I'm tellin' you, Boss, Gertrude ain't happy. [136] She ain't had the right food. [137] If something...." I said, "That'll all be taken care of, Gow. [138] Run along now." [139] He looked at me like he was thinking it wouldn't take much timber to fit me for a coffin. [140] "Okay! [141] But Gertrude's unhappy. [142] She's lonesome, see? [143] And if she don't get happier pretty soon I ain't sure your tin-pot ship'll hold her." [144] He pulled the curtains to and departed. [145] Bucky Shannon groaned. [146] Beamish cleared his throat and said, rather stiffly, "Gertrude?" [147] "Yeah. [148] She's kind of temperamental." [149] Bucky took a quick drink. [150] I finished for him. [151] "She's the star attraction of our show, Mr. Beamish. [152] A real blue-swamp Venusian cansin . [153] The only other one on the Triangle belongs to Savitt Brothers, and she's much smaller than Gertrude." [154] She was also much younger, but I didn't go into that. [155] Gertrude may be a little creaky, but she's still pretty impressive. [156] I only hoped she wouldn't die on us, because without her we'd have a sicker-looking circus than even I could stand. [157] Beamish looked impressed. [158] "A cansin . [159] Well, well! [160] The mystery surrounding the origin and species of the cansin is a fascinating subject. [161] The extreme rarity of the animal...." We were getting off the subject. [162] I said tactfully, "We'd have to have at least a hundred U.C.'s." [163] It was twice what we had any right to ask. [164] I was prepared to dicker. [165] Beamish looked at me with that innocent dead pan. [166] For a fraction of a second I thought I saw something back of his round blue eyes, and my stomach jumped like it was shot. [167] Beamish smiled sweetly. [168] "I'm not much of a bargainer. [169] One hundred Universal Credits will be agreeable to me." [170] He dragged out a roll as big as my two fists, peeled off half a dozen credit slips, and laid them on the table. [171] "By way of a retainer, gentleman. [172] My attorney and I will call on you in the morning with a contract and itinerary. [173] Good night." [174] We said good night, trying not to drool. [175] Beamish went away. [176] Bucky made grab for the money, but I beat him to it. [177] "Scram," I said. [178] "There are guys waiting for this. [179] Big guys with clubs. [180] Here." [181] I gave him a small-denomination slip I'd been holding out. [182] "We can get lushed enough on this." [183] Shannon has a good vocabulary. [184] He used it. [185] When he got his breath back he said suddenly, "Beamish is pulling some kind of a game." [186] "Yeah." [187] "It may be crooked." [188] "Sure. [189] And he may be screwball and on the level. [190] For Pete's sake!" [191] I yelled. [192] "You want to sit here till we all dry up and blow away?" [193] Shannon looked at me, kind of funny. [194] He looked at the bulge in my tunic where the roll was. [195] He raked back his thick light hair. [196] "Yeah," he said. [197] "I hope there'll be enough left to bribe the jury." [198] He poked his head outside. [199] "Hey, boy! [200] More thildatum !" [201] It was pretty late when we got back to the broken-down spaceport where Shannon's Imperial Circus was crouching beneath its attachments. [202] Late as it was, they were waiting for us. [203] About twenty of them, sitting around and smoking and looking very ugly. [204] It was awfully lonesome out there, with the desert cold and restless under the two moons. [205] There's a smell to Mars, like something dead and dried long past decay, but still waiting. [206] An unhappy smell. [207] The blown red dust gritted in my teeth. [208] Bucky Shannon walked out into the glare of the light at the entrance to the roped-off space around the main lock. [209] He was pretty steady on his feet. [210] He waved and said, "Hiya, boys." [211] They got up off the steps, and the packing cases, and came toward us. [212] I grinned and got into my brassies. [213] We felt we owed those boys a lot more than money. [214] It grates on a man's pride to have to sneak in and out of his own property through the sewage lock. [215] This was the first time in weeks we'd come in at the front door. [216] I waved the money in their faces. [217] That stopped them. [218] Very solemnly, Bucky and I checked the bills, paid them, and pocketed the receipts. [219] Bucky yawned and stretched sleepily. [220] "Now?" [221] he said. [222] "Now," I said. [223] We had a lot of fun. [224] Some of the boys inside the ship came out to join in. [225] We raised a lot of dust and nobody got killed, quite. [226] We all went home happy. [227] They had their money, and we had their blood. [228] The news was all over the ship before we got inside. [229] The freaks and the green girl from Tethys who could roll herself like a hoop, and Zurt the muscle man from Jupiter, and all the other assorted geeks and kinkers and joeys that make up the usual corny carnie were doing nip-ups in the passageways and drooling over the thought of steer and toppings. [230] Bucky Shannon regarded them possessively, wiping blood from his nose. [231] "They're good guys, Jig. [232] Swell people. [233] They stuck by me, and I've rewarded them." [234] I said, "Sure," rather sourly. [235] Bucky hiccoughed. [236] "Let's go see Gertrude." [237] I didn't want to see Gertrude. [238] I never got over feeling funny going into the brute tank, especially at night or out in space. [239] I'm a city guy, myself. [240] The smell and sound of wildness gives me goose bumps. [241] But Bucky was looking stubborn, so I shrugged. [242] "Okay. [243] But just for a minute. [244] Then we go beddy-bye." [245] "You're a pal, Jif. [246] Bes' li'l' guy inna worl'...." The fight had just put the topper on him. [247] I was afraid he'd fall down the ladder and break his neck. [248] That's why I went along. [249] If I hadn't.... Oh, well, what's a few nightmares among friends? [250] It was dark down there in the tank. [251] Way off at the other end, there was a dim glow. [252] Gow was evidently holding Gertrude's hand. [253] We started down the long passageway between the rows of cages and glassed-in tanks and compression units. [254] Our footsteps sounded loud and empty on the iron floor. [255] I wasn't near as happy as Shannon, and my skin began to crawl a little. [256] It's the smell, I think; rank and sour and wild. [257] And the sound of them, breathing and rustling in the dark, with the patient hatred walled around them as strong as the cage bars. [258] Bucky Shannon lurched against me suddenly. [259] I choked back a yell, and then wiped the sweat off my forehead and cursed. [260] The scream came again. [261] A high, ragged, whistling screech like nothing this side of hell, ripping through the musty darkness. [262] Gertrude, on the wailing wall. [263] It had been quiet. [264] Now every brute in the place let go at the same time. [265] My stomach turned clear over. [266] I called Gertrude every name I could think of, and I couldn't hear myself doing it. [267] Presently a great metallic clash nearly burst my eardrums, and the beasts shut up. [268] Gow had them nicely conditioned to that gong. [269] But they didn't quiet down. [270] Not really. [271] They were uneasy. [272] You can feel them inside you when they're uneasy. [273] I think that's why I'm scared of them. [274] They make me feel like I'm not human as I thought—like I wanted to put my back-hair up and snarl. [275] Yeah. [276] They were uneasy that night, all of a sudden.... Gow glared at us as we came up into the lantern light. [277] "She's gettin' worse," he said. [278] "She's lonesome." [279] "That's tough," said Bucky Shannon. [280] His grey-green eyes looked like an owl's. [281] He swayed slightly. [282] "That's sure tough." [283] He sniffled. [284] I looked at Gertrude. [285] Her cage is the biggest and strongest in the tank and even so she looked as though she could break it open just taking a deep breath. [286] I don't know if you've ever seen a cansin . [287] There's only two of them on the Triangle. [288] If you haven't, nothing I can say will make much difference. [289] They're what the brain gang calls an "end of evolution." [290] Seems old Dame Nature had an idea that didn't jell. [291] The cansins were pretty successful for a while, it seems, but something gummed up the works and now there's only a few left, way in the deep-swamp country, where even the Venusians hardly ever go. [292] Living fossils. [293] I wouldn't know, of course, but Gertrude looks to me like she got stuck some place between a dinosaur and a grizzly bear, with maybe a little bird blood thrown in. [294] Anyway, she's big. [295] I couldn't help feeling sorry for her. [296] She was crouched in the cage with her hands—yeah, hands—hanging over her knees and her snaky head sunk into her shoulders, looking out. [297] Just looking. [298] Not at anything. [299] Her eyes were way back in deep horny pits, like cold green fire. [300] The lantern light was yellow on her blue-black skin, but it made the mane, or crest, of coarse wide scales that ran from between her eyes clear down to her flat, short tail, burn all colors. [301] She looked like old Mother Misery herself, from way back before time began. [302] Gow said softly, "She wants a mate. [303] And somebody better get her one." [304] Bucky Shannon sniffled again. [305] I said irritably, "Be reasonable, Gow! [306] Nobody's ever seen a male cansin . [307] There may not even be any." [308] Gertrude screamed again. [309] She didn't move, not even to raise her head. [310] The sadness just built up inside her until it had to come out. [311] That close, the screech was deafening, and it turned me all limp and cold inside. [312] The loneliness, the sheer stark, simple pain.... Bucky Shannon began to cry. [313] I snarled, "You'll have to snap her out of this, Gow. [314] She's driving the rest of 'em nuts." [315] He hammered on his gong, and things quieted down again. [316] Gow stood looking out over the tank, sniffing a little, like a hound. [317] Then he turned to Gertrude. [318] "I saved her life," he said. [319] "When we bought her out of Hanak's wreck and everybody thought she was too hurt to live, I saved her. [320] I know her. [321] I can do things with her. [322] But this time...." He shrugged. [323] He was huge and tough and ugly, and his voice was like a woman's talking about a sick child. [324] "This time," he said, "I ain't sure." [325] "Well for Pete's sake, do what you can. [326] We got a charter, and we need her." [327] I took Shannon's arm. [328] "Come to bed, Bucky darlin'." [329] He draped himself over my shoulder and we went off. [330] Gow didn't look at us. [331] Bucky sobbed. [332] "You were right, Jig," he mumbled. [333] "Circus is no good. [334] I know it. [335] But it's all I got. [336] I love it, Jig. [337] Unnerstan' me? [338] Like Gow there with Gertrude. [339] She's ugly and no good, but he loves her. [340] I love...." "Sure, sure," I told him. [341] "Stop crying down my neck." [342] We were a long way from the light, then. [343] The cages and tanks loomed high and black over us. [344] It was still. [345] The secret, uneasy motion all around us and the scruffing of our feet only made it stiller. [346] Bucky was almost asleep on me. [347] I started to slap him. [348] And then the mist rose up out of the darkness in little lazy coils, sparkling faintly with blue, cold fire. [349] I yelled, "Gow! [350] Gow, the Vapor snakes! [351] Gow—for God's sake!" [352] I started to run, back along the passageway. [353] Bucky weighed on me, limp and heavy. [354] The noise burst suddenly in a deafening hell of moans and roars and shrieks, packed in tight by the metal walls, and above it all I could hear Gertrude's lonely, whistling scream. [355] I thought, " Somebody's down here. [356] Somebody let 'em out. [357] Somebody wants to kill us! " [358] I tried to yell again. [359] It strangled in my throat. [360] I sobbed, and the sweat was thick and cold on me. [361] One of Bucky's dragging, stumbling feet got between mine. [362] We fell. [363] I rolled on top of him, covering his face, and buried my own face in the hollow of his shoulder. [364] The first snake touched me. [365] It was like a live wire, sliding along the back of my neck. [366] I screamed. [367] It came down along my cheek, hunting my mouth. [368] There were more of them, burning me through my clothes. [369] Bucky moaned and kicked under me. [370] I remember hanging on and thinking, "This is it. [371] This is it, and oh God, I'm scared!" [372] Then I went out. [373] II Kanza the Martian croaker, was bending over me when I woke up. [374] His little brown face was crinkled with laughter. [375] He'd lost most of his teeth, and he gummed thak -weed. [376] It smelt. [377] "You pretty, Mis' Jig," he giggled. [378] "You funny like hell." [379] He slapped some cold greasy stuff on my face. [380] It hurt. [381] I cursed him and said, "Where's Shannon? [382] How is he?" [383] "Mis' Bucky okay. [384] You save life. [385] You big hero, Mis' Jig. [386] Mis' Gow come nickuhtime get snakes. [387] You hero. [388] Haw! [389] You funny like hell!" [390] I said, "Yeah," and pushed him away and got up. [391] I almost fell down a couple of times, but presently I made it to the mirror over the washstand—I was in my own cell—and I saw what Kanza meant. [392] The damned snakes had done a good job. [393] I looked like I was upholstered in Scotch plaid. [394] I felt sick. [395] Bucky Shannon opened the door. [396] He looked white and grim, and there was a big burn across his neck. [397] He said: "Beamish is here with his lawyer." [398] I picked up my shirt. [399] "Right with you." [400] Kanza went out, still giggling. [401] Bucky closed the door. [402] "Jig," he said, "those vapor worms were all right when we went in. [403] Somebody followed us down and let them out. [404] On purpose." [405] I hurt all over. [406] I growled, "With that brain, son, you should go far. [407] Nobody saw anything, of course?" [408] Bucky shook his head. [409] "Question is, Jig, who wants to kill us, and why?" [410] "Beamish. [411] He realizes he's been gypped." [412] "One hundred U.C. [413] 's," said Bucky softly, "for a few lousy swampedge mining camps. [414] It stinks, Jig. [415] You think we should back out?" [416] I shrugged. [417] "You're the boss man. [418] I'm only the guy that beats off the creditors." [419] "Yeah," Bucky said reflectively. [420] "And I hear starvation isn't a comfortable death. [421] Okay, Jig. [422] Let's go sign." [423] He put his hand on the latch and looked at my feet. [424] "And—uh—Jig, I...." I said, "Skip it. [425] The next time, just don't trip me up, that's all!" [426] We had a nasty trip to Venus. [427] Gertrude kept the brute tank on edge, and Gow, on the rare occasions he came up for air, went around looking like a disaster hoping to happen. [428] To make it worse, Zurt the Jovian strong-man got hurt during the take-off, and the Mercurian cave-cat had kittens. [429] Nobody would have minded that, only one of 'em had only four legs. [430] It lived just long enough to scare that bunch of superstitious dopes out of their pants. [431] Circus people are funny that way. [432] Shannon and I did a little quiet sleuthing, but it was a waste of time. [433] Anybody in the gang might have let those electric worms out on us. [434] It didn't help any to know that somebody, maybe the guy next to you at dinner, was busy thinking ways to kill you. [435] By the time we hit Venus, I was ready to do a Brodie out the refuse chute. [436] Shannon set the crate down on the edge of Nahru, the first stop on our itinerary. [437] I stood beside him, looking out the ports at the scenery. [438] It was Venus, all right. [439] Blue mud and thick green jungle and rain, and a bunch of ratty-looking plastic shacks huddling together in the middle of it. [440] Men in slickers were coming out for a look. [441] I saw Beamish's sleek yacht parked on a cradle over to the left, and our router's runabout beside it. [442] Bucky Shannon groaned. [443] "A blue one, Jig. [444] A morgue if I ever saw one!" [445] I snarled, "What do you want, with this lousy dog-and-pony show!" [446] and went out. [447] He followed. [448] The gang was converging on the lock, but they weren't happy. [449] You get so you can feel those things. [450] The steamy Venus heat was already sneaking into the ship. [451] While we passed the hatchway to the brute tank, I could hear Gertrude, screaming. [452] The canvasmen were busy setting up the annex, slopping and cursing in the mud. [453] The paste brigade was heading for the shacks. [454] Shannon and I stood with the hot rain running off our slickers, looking. [455] I heard a noise behind me and looked around. [456] Ahra the Nahali woman was standing in the mud with her arms up and her head thrown back, and her triangular mouth open like a thirsty dog. [457] She didn't have anything on but her blue-green, hard scaled hide, and she was chuckling. [458] It didn't sound nice. [459] You find a lot of Nahali people in side-shows, doing tricks with the electric power they carry in their own bodies. [460] They're Venusian middle-swampers, they're not human, and they never forget it. [461] Ahra opened her slitted red eyes and looked at me and laughed with white reptilian teeth. [462] "Death," she whispered. [463] "Death and trouble. [464] The jungle tells me. [465] I can smell it in the swamp wind." [466] The hot rain sluiced over her. [467] She shivered, and the pale skin under her jaw pulsed like a toad's, and her eyes were red. [468] "The deep swamps are angry," she whispered. [469] "Something has been taken. [470] They are angry, and I smell death in the wind!" [471] She turned away, laughing, and I cursed her, and my stomach was tight and cold. [472] Bucky said, "Let's eat if they have a bar in this dump." [473] We weren't half way across the mud puddle that passed as a landing field when a man came out of a shack on the edge of the settlement. [474] We could see him plainly, because he was off to one side of the crowd. [475] He fell on his knees in the mud, making noises. [476] It took him three or four tries to get our names out clear enough to understand. [477] Bucky said, "Jig—it's Sam Kapper." [478] We started to run. [479] The crowd, mostly big unshaken miners, wheeled around to see what was happening. [480] People began to close in on the man who crawled and whimpered in the mud. [481] Sam Kapper was a hunter, supplying animals to zoos and circuses and carnivals. [482] He'd given us good deals a couple of times, when we weren't too broke, and we were pretty friendly. [483] I hadn't seen him for three seasons. [484] I remembered him as a bronzed, hard-bitten guy, lean and tough as a twist of tung wire. [485] I felt sick, looking down at him. [486] Bucky started to help him up. [487] Kapper was crying, and he jerked all over like animals I've seen that were scared to death. [488] Some guy leaned over and put a cigarette in his mouth and lighted it for him. [489] I was thinking about Kapper, then, and I didn't pay much attention. [490] I only caught a glimpse of the man's face as he straightened up. [491] I didn't realize until later that he looked familiar. [492] We got Kapper inside the shack. [493] It turned out to be a cheap bar, with a couple of curtained booths at the back. [494] We got him into one and pulled the curtain in a lot of curious faces. [495] Kapper dragged hard on the cigarette. [496] The man that gave it to him was gone. [497] Bucky said gently, "Okay, Sam. [498] Relax. [499] What's the trouble?" [500] Kapper tried to straighten up. [501] He hadn't shaved. [502] The lean hard lines of his face had gone slack and his eyes were bloodshot. [503] He was covered with mud, and his mouth twitched like a sick old man's. [504] He said thickly, "I found it. [505] I said I'd do it, and I did. [506] I found it and brought it out." [507] The cigarette stub fell out of his mouth. [508] He didn't notice it. [509] "Help me," he said simply. [510] "I'm scared." [511] His mouth drooled. [512] "I got it hidden. [513] They want to find out, but I won't tell 'em. [514] It's got to go back. [515] Back where I found it. [516] I tried to take it, but they wouldn't let me, and I was afraid they'd find it...." He reached suddenly and grabbed the edge of the table. [517] "I don't know how they found out about it, but they did. [518] I've got to get it back. [519] I've got to...." Bucky looked at me. [520] Kapper was blue around the mouth. [521] I was scared, suddenly. [522] I said, "Get what back where?" [523] Bucky got up. [524] "I'll get a doctor," he said. [525] "Stick with him." [526] Kapper grabbed his wrist. [527] Kapper's nails were blue and the cords in his hands stood out like guy wires. [528] "Don't leave me. [529] Got to tell you—where it is. [530] Got to take it back. [531] Promise you'll take it back." [532] He gasped and struggled over his breathing. [533] "Sure," said Bucky. [534] "Sure, well take it back. [535] What is it?" [536] Kapper's face was horrible. [537] I felt sick, listening to him fight for air. [538] I wanted to go for a doctor anyway, but somehow I knew it was no use. [539] Kapper whispered, " Cansin . [540] Male. [541] Only one. [542] You don't know...! [543] Take him back." [544] "Where is it, Sam?" [545] I reached across Bucky suddenly and jerked the curtain back. [546] Beamish was standing there. [547] Beamish, bent over, with his ear cocked. [548] Kapper made a harsh strangling noise and fell across the table. [549] Beamish never changed expression. [550] He didn't move while Bucky felt Kapper's pulse. [551] Bucky didn't need to say anything. [552] We knew. [553] "Heart?" [554] said Beamish finally. [555] "Yeah," said Bucky. [556] He looked as bad as I felt. [557] "Poor Sam." [558] I looked at the cigarette stub smoldering on the table. [559] I looked at Beamish with his round dead baby face. [560] I climbed over Shannon and pushed Beamish suddenly down into his lap. [561] "Keep this guy here till I get back," I said. [562] Shannon stared at me. [563] Beamish started to get indignant. [564] "Shut up," I told him. [565] "We got a contract." [566] I yanked the curtains shut and walked over to the bar. [567] I began to notice something, then. [568] There were quite a lot of men in the place. [569] At first glance they looked okay—a hard-faced, muscular bunch of miners in dirty shirts and high boots. [570] Then I looked at their hands. [571] They were dirty enough. [572] But they never did any work in a mine, on Venus or anywhere else. [573] The place was awfully quiet, for that kind of a place. [574] The bartender was a big pot-bellied swamp-edger with pale eyes and thick white hair coiled up on top of his bullet head. [575] He was not happy. [576] I leaned on the bar. " [577] Lhak ," I said. [578] He poured it, sullenly, out of a green bottle. [579] I reached for it, casually. [580] "That guy we brought in," I said. [581] "He sure has a skinful. [582] Passed out cold. [583] What's he been spiking his drinks with?" [584] " Selak ," said a voice in my ear. [585] "As if you didn't know." [586] I turned. [587] The man who had given Kapper the cigarette was standing behind me. [588] And I remembered him, then.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question "What is the significance of Jig and Bucky meeting Beamish on the story?": 1. [94] "I wish to—ah—charter your circus." 2. [96] "I have independent means, gentlemen. It has always been my desire to lighten the burden of life for those less fortunate...." 3. [114] "There are many towns along the Venusian frontiers where no entertainment of the— proper sort has been available. I propose to remedy that." 4. [115] "I propose to charter your circus, Mister Shannon, to make a tour of several settlements along the Tehara Belt." 5. [165] Beamish looked at me with that innocent dead pan. For a fraction of a second I thought I saw something back of his round blue eyes, and my stomach jumped like it was shot. 6. [166] Beamish smiled sweetly. 7. [167] "I'm not much of a bargainer. One hundred Universal Credits will be agreeable to me." 8. [168] He dragged out a roll as big as my two fists, peeled off half a dozen credit slips, and laid them on the table. 9. [169] "By way of a retainer, gentleman. My attorney and I will call on you in the morning with a contract and itinerary." 10. [185] "Beamish is pulling some kind of a game." 11. [187] "It may be crooked." 12. [188] "And he may be screwball and on the level." 13. [409] "Question is, Jig, who wants to kill us, and why?" 14. [410] "Beamish. He realizes he's been gypped." 15. [411] "One hundred U.C.'s, for a few lousy swampedge mining camps. It stinks, Jig. You think we should back out?"

Describe the setting of the story

[1] The Blue Behemoth By LEIGH BRACKETT Shannon's Imperial Circus was a jinxed space-carny leased for a mysterious tour of the inner worlds. [2] It made a one-night pitch on a Venusian swamp-town—to find that death stalked it from the jungle in a tiny ball of flame. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [5] Bucky Shannon leaned forward across the little hexagonal table. [6] He knocked over the pitcher of thil , but it didn't matter. [7] The pitcher was empty. [8] He jabbed me in the breastbone with his forefinger, not very hard. [9] Not hard enough to jar the ribs clean loose, just enough to spring them. [10] "We," he said, "are broke. [11] We are finished, through. [12] Washed up and down the drain." [13] He added, as an afterthought, "Destitute." [14] I looked at him. [15] I said sourly, "You're kidding!" [16] "Kidding." [17] Shannon put his elbows on the table and peered at me through a curtain of very blond hair that was trying hard to be red. [18] "He says I'm kidding! [19] With Shannon's Imperial Circus, the Greatest Show in Space, plastered so thick with attachments...." "It's no more plastered than you are." [20] I was sore because he'd been a lot quicker grabbing the pitcher. [21] "The Greatest Show in Space. [22] Phooey! [23] I've wet-nursed Shannon's Imperial Circus around the Triangle for eleven years, and I know. [24] It's lousy, it's mangy, it's broken-down! [25] Nothing works, from the ship to the roustabouts. [26] In short, it stinks!" [27] I must have had the pitcher oftener than I thought. [28] Nobody insults Buckhalter Shannon's Imperial Circus to Buckhalter Shannon's face unless he's tired and wants a long rest in a comfy fracture-frame. [29] Shannon got up. [30] He got up slowly. [31] I had plenty of time to see his grey-green eyes get sleepy, and hear the quarter-Earth-blood Martian girl wailing about love over by the battered piano, and watch the slanting cat-eyes of the little dark people at the tables swing round toward us, pleased and kind of hungry. [32] I had plenty of time to think how I only weigh one-thirty-seven to Shannon's one-seventy-five, and how I'm not as young as I used to be. [33] I said, "Bucky. [34] Hold on, fella. [35] I...." Somebody said, "Excuse me, gentlemen. [36] Is one of you Mister Buckhalter Shannon?" [37] Shannon put his hands down on his belt. [38] He closed his eyes and smiled pleasantly and said, very gently: "Would you be collecting for the feed bill, or the fuel?" [39] I shot a glance at the newcomer. [40] He'd saved me from a beating, even if he was a lousy bill-collecter; and I felt sorry for him. [41] Bucky Shannon settled his shoulders and hips like a dancer. [42] The stranger was a little guy. [43] He even made me look big. [44] He was dressed in dark-green synthesilk, very conservative. [45] There was a powdering of grey in his hair and his skin was pink, soft, and shaved painfully clean. [46] He had the kind of a face that nice maiden-ladies will trust with their last dime. [47] I looked for his strong-arm squad. [48] There didn't seem to be any. [49] The little guy looked at Shannon with pale blue eyes like a baby, and his voice was softer than Bucky's. [50] He said, "I don't think you understand." [51] I felt cold, suddenly, between the shoulders. [52] Somebody scraped a chair back. [53] It sounded like he'd ripped the floor open, it was so quiet. [54] I got my brassies on, and my hands were sweating. [55] Bucky Shannon sighed, and let his fist start traveling, a long, deceptive arc. [56] Then I saw what the little guy was holding in his hand. [57] I yelled and knocked the table over into Bucky. [58] It made a lot of noise. [59] It knocked him sideways and down, and the little dark men jumped up, quivering and showing their teeth. [60] The Martian girl screamed. [61] Bucky heaved the table off his lap and cursed me. [62] "What's eating you, Jig? [63] I'm not going to hurt him." [64] "Shut up," I said. [65] "Look what he's got there. [66] Money!" [67] The little guy looked at me. [68] He hadn't turned a hair. [69] "Yes," he said. [70] "Money. [71] Quite a lot of it. [72] Would you gentlemen permit me to join you?" [73] Bucky Shannon got up. [74] He grinned his pleasantest grin. [75] "Delighted. [76] I'm Shannon. [77] This is Jig Bentley, my business manager." [78] He looked down at the table. [79] "I'm sorry about that. [80] Mistaken identity." [81] The little guy smiled. [82] He did it with his lips. [83] The rest of his face stayed placid and babyish, almost transparent. [84] I realized with a start that it wasn't transparent at all. [85] It was the most complete dead-pan I ever met, and you couldn't see into those innocent blue eyes any more than you could see through sheet metal. [86] I didn't like him. [87] I didn't like him at all. [88] But he had money. [89] I said, "Howdy. [90] Let's go find a booth. [91] These Marshies make me nervous, looking like hungry cats at a mouse-hole." [92] The little guy nodded. [93] "Excellent idea. [94] My name is Beamish. [95] Simon Beamish. [96] I wish to—ah—charter your circus." [97] I looked at Bucky. [98] He looked hungrier than the Marshies did. [99] We didn't say anything until we got Beamish into a curtained booth with a fresh pitcher of thil on the table. [100] Then I cleared my throat. [101] "What exactly did you have in mind, Mr. [102] Beamish?" [103] Beamish sipped his drink, made a polite face, and put it down. [104] "I have independent means, gentlemen. [105] It has always been my desire to lighten the burden of life for those less fortunate...." Bucky got red around the ears. [106] "Just a minute," he murmured, and started to get up. [107] I kicked him under the table. [108] "Shut up, you lug. [109] Let Mister Beamish finish." [110] He sat down, looking like a mean dog waiting for the postman. [111] Beamish ignored him. [112] He went on, quietly, "I have always held that entertainment, of the right sort, is the most valuable aid humanity can have in its search for the alleviation of toil and boredom...." I said, "Sure, sure. [113] But what was your idea?" [114] "There are many towns along the Venusian frontiers where no entertainment of the— proper sort has been available. [115] I propose to remedy that. [116] I propose to charter your circus, Mister Shannon, to make a tour of several settlements along the Tehara Belt." [117] Bucky had relaxed. [118] His grey-green eyes began to gleam. [119] He started to speak, and I kicked him again. [120] "That would be expensive, Mister Beamish," I said. [121] "We'd have to cancel several engagements...." He looked at me. [122] I was lying, and he knew it. [123] But he said, "I quite understand that. [124] I would be prepared...." The curtains were yanked back suddenly. [125] Beamish shut up. [126] Bucky and I glared at the head and shoulders poking in between the drapes. [127] It was Gow, our zoo-man—a big, ugly son-of-a-gun from a Terran colony on Mercury. [128] I was there once. [129] Gow looks a lot like the scenery—scowling, unapproachable, and tough. [130] His hands, holding the curtains apart, had thick black hair on them and were not much larger than the hams of a Venusian swamp-rhino. [131] He said, "Boss, Gertrude's actin' up again." [132] "Gertrude be blowed," growled Bucky. [133] "Can't you see I'm busy?" [134] Gow's black eyes were unpleasant. [135] "I'm tellin' you, Boss, Gertrude ain't happy. [136] She ain't had the right food. [137] If something...." I said, "That'll all be taken care of, Gow. [138] Run along now." [139] He looked at me like he was thinking it wouldn't take much timber to fit me for a coffin. [140] "Okay! [141] But Gertrude's unhappy. [142] She's lonesome, see? [143] And if she don't get happier pretty soon I ain't sure your tin-pot ship'll hold her." [144] He pulled the curtains to and departed. [145] Bucky Shannon groaned. [146] Beamish cleared his throat and said, rather stiffly, "Gertrude?" [147] "Yeah. [148] She's kind of temperamental." [149] Bucky took a quick drink. [150] I finished for him. [151] "She's the star attraction of our show, Mr. Beamish. [152] A real blue-swamp Venusian cansin . [153] The only other one on the Triangle belongs to Savitt Brothers, and she's much smaller than Gertrude." [154] She was also much younger, but I didn't go into that. [155] Gertrude may be a little creaky, but she's still pretty impressive. [156] I only hoped she wouldn't die on us, because without her we'd have a sicker-looking circus than even I could stand. [157] Beamish looked impressed. [158] "A cansin . [159] Well, well! [160] The mystery surrounding the origin and species of the cansin is a fascinating subject. [161] The extreme rarity of the animal...." We were getting off the subject. [162] I said tactfully, "We'd have to have at least a hundred U.C.'s." [163] It was twice what we had any right to ask. [164] I was prepared to dicker. [165] Beamish looked at me with that innocent dead pan. [166] For a fraction of a second I thought I saw something back of his round blue eyes, and my stomach jumped like it was shot. [167] Beamish smiled sweetly. [168] "I'm not much of a bargainer. [169] One hundred Universal Credits will be agreeable to me." [170] He dragged out a roll as big as my two fists, peeled off half a dozen credit slips, and laid them on the table. [171] "By way of a retainer, gentleman. [172] My attorney and I will call on you in the morning with a contract and itinerary. [173] Good night." [174] We said good night, trying not to drool. [175] Beamish went away. [176] Bucky made grab for the money, but I beat him to it. [177] "Scram," I said. [178] "There are guys waiting for this. [179] Big guys with clubs. [180] Here." [181] I gave him a small-denomination slip I'd been holding out. [182] "We can get lushed enough on this." [183] Shannon has a good vocabulary. [184] He used it. [185] When he got his breath back he said suddenly, "Beamish is pulling some kind of a game." [186] "Yeah." [187] "It may be crooked." [188] "Sure. [189] And he may be screwball and on the level. [190] For Pete's sake!" [191] I yelled. [192] "You want to sit here till we all dry up and blow away?" [193] Shannon looked at me, kind of funny. [194] He looked at the bulge in my tunic where the roll was. [195] He raked back his thick light hair. [196] "Yeah," he said. [197] "I hope there'll be enough left to bribe the jury." [198] He poked his head outside. [199] "Hey, boy! [200] More thildatum !" [201] It was pretty late when we got back to the broken-down spaceport where Shannon's Imperial Circus was crouching beneath its attachments. [202] Late as it was, they were waiting for us. [203] About twenty of them, sitting around and smoking and looking very ugly. [204] It was awfully lonesome out there, with the desert cold and restless under the two moons. [205] There's a smell to Mars, like something dead and dried long past decay, but still waiting. [206] An unhappy smell. [207] The blown red dust gritted in my teeth. [208] Bucky Shannon walked out into the glare of the light at the entrance to the roped-off space around the main lock. [209] He was pretty steady on his feet. [210] He waved and said, "Hiya, boys." [211] They got up off the steps, and the packing cases, and came toward us. [212] I grinned and got into my brassies. [213] We felt we owed those boys a lot more than money. [214] It grates on a man's pride to have to sneak in and out of his own property through the sewage lock. [215] This was the first time in weeks we'd come in at the front door. [216] I waved the money in their faces. [217] That stopped them. [218] Very solemnly, Bucky and I checked the bills, paid them, and pocketed the receipts. [219] Bucky yawned and stretched sleepily. [220] "Now?" [221] he said. [222] "Now," I said. [223] We had a lot of fun. [224] Some of the boys inside the ship came out to join in. [225] We raised a lot of dust and nobody got killed, quite. [226] We all went home happy. [227] They had their money, and we had their blood. [228] The news was all over the ship before we got inside. [229] The freaks and the green girl from Tethys who could roll herself like a hoop, and Zurt the muscle man from Jupiter, and all the other assorted geeks and kinkers and joeys that make up the usual corny carnie were doing nip-ups in the passageways and drooling over the thought of steer and toppings. [230] Bucky Shannon regarded them possessively, wiping blood from his nose. [231] "They're good guys, Jig. [232] Swell people. [233] They stuck by me, and I've rewarded them." [234] I said, "Sure," rather sourly. [235] Bucky hiccoughed. [236] "Let's go see Gertrude." [237] I didn't want to see Gertrude. [238] I never got over feeling funny going into the brute tank, especially at night or out in space. [239] I'm a city guy, myself. [240] The smell and sound of wildness gives me goose bumps. [241] But Bucky was looking stubborn, so I shrugged. [242] "Okay. [243] But just for a minute. [244] Then we go beddy-bye." [245] "You're a pal, Jif. [246] Bes' li'l' guy inna worl'...." The fight had just put the topper on him. [247] I was afraid he'd fall down the ladder and break his neck. [248] That's why I went along. [249] If I hadn't.... Oh, well, what's a few nightmares among friends? [250] It was dark down there in the tank. [251] Way off at the other end, there was a dim glow. [252] Gow was evidently holding Gertrude's hand. [253] We started down the long passageway between the rows of cages and glassed-in tanks and compression units. [254] Our footsteps sounded loud and empty on the iron floor. [255] I wasn't near as happy as Shannon, and my skin began to crawl a little. [256] It's the smell, I think; rank and sour and wild. [257] And the sound of them, breathing and rustling in the dark, with the patient hatred walled around them as strong as the cage bars. [258] Bucky Shannon lurched against me suddenly. [259] I choked back a yell, and then wiped the sweat off my forehead and cursed. [260] The scream came again. [261] A high, ragged, whistling screech like nothing this side of hell, ripping through the musty darkness. [262] Gertrude, on the wailing wall. [263] It had been quiet. [264] Now every brute in the place let go at the same time. [265] My stomach turned clear over. [266] I called Gertrude every name I could think of, and I couldn't hear myself doing it. [267] Presently a great metallic clash nearly burst my eardrums, and the beasts shut up. [268] Gow had them nicely conditioned to that gong. [269] But they didn't quiet down. [270] Not really. [271] They were uneasy. [272] You can feel them inside you when they're uneasy. [273] I think that's why I'm scared of them. [274] They make me feel like I'm not human as I thought—like I wanted to put my back-hair up and snarl. [275] Yeah. [276] They were uneasy that night, all of a sudden.... Gow glared at us as we came up into the lantern light. [277] "She's gettin' worse," he said. [278] "She's lonesome." [279] "That's tough," said Bucky Shannon. [280] His grey-green eyes looked like an owl's. [281] He swayed slightly. [282] "That's sure tough." [283] He sniffled. [284] I looked at Gertrude. [285] Her cage is the biggest and strongest in the tank and even so she looked as though she could break it open just taking a deep breath. [286] I don't know if you've ever seen a cansin . [287] There's only two of them on the Triangle. [288] If you haven't, nothing I can say will make much difference. [289] They're what the brain gang calls an "end of evolution." [290] Seems old Dame Nature had an idea that didn't jell. [291] The cansins were pretty successful for a while, it seems, but something gummed up the works and now there's only a few left, way in the deep-swamp country, where even the Venusians hardly ever go. [292] Living fossils. [293] I wouldn't know, of course, but Gertrude looks to me like she got stuck some place between a dinosaur and a grizzly bear, with maybe a little bird blood thrown in. [294] Anyway, she's big. [295] I couldn't help feeling sorry for her. [296] She was crouched in the cage with her hands—yeah, hands—hanging over her knees and her snaky head sunk into her shoulders, looking out. [297] Just looking. [298] Not at anything. [299] Her eyes were way back in deep horny pits, like cold green fire. [300] The lantern light was yellow on her blue-black skin, but it made the mane, or crest, of coarse wide scales that ran from between her eyes clear down to her flat, short tail, burn all colors. [301] She looked like old Mother Misery herself, from way back before time began. [302] Gow said softly, "She wants a mate. [303] And somebody better get her one." [304] Bucky Shannon sniffled again. [305] I said irritably, "Be reasonable, Gow! [306] Nobody's ever seen a male cansin . [307] There may not even be any." [308] Gertrude screamed again. [309] She didn't move, not even to raise her head. [310] The sadness just built up inside her until it had to come out. [311] That close, the screech was deafening, and it turned me all limp and cold inside. [312] The loneliness, the sheer stark, simple pain.... Bucky Shannon began to cry. [313] I snarled, "You'll have to snap her out of this, Gow. [314] She's driving the rest of 'em nuts." [315] He hammered on his gong, and things quieted down again. [316] Gow stood looking out over the tank, sniffing a little, like a hound. [317] Then he turned to Gertrude. [318] "I saved her life," he said. [319] "When we bought her out of Hanak's wreck and everybody thought she was too hurt to live, I saved her. [320] I know her. [321] I can do things with her. [322] But this time...." He shrugged. [323] He was huge and tough and ugly, and his voice was like a woman's talking about a sick child. [324] "This time," he said, "I ain't sure." [325] "Well for Pete's sake, do what you can. [326] We got a charter, and we need her." [327] I took Shannon's arm. [328] "Come to bed, Bucky darlin'." [329] He draped himself over my shoulder and we went off. [330] Gow didn't look at us. [331] Bucky sobbed. [332] "You were right, Jig," he mumbled. [333] "Circus is no good. [334] I know it. [335] But it's all I got. [336] I love it, Jig. [337] Unnerstan' me? [338] Like Gow there with Gertrude. [339] She's ugly and no good, but he loves her. [340] I love...." "Sure, sure," I told him. [341] "Stop crying down my neck." [342] We were a long way from the light, then. [343] The cages and tanks loomed high and black over us. [344] It was still. [345] The secret, uneasy motion all around us and the scruffing of our feet only made it stiller. [346] Bucky was almost asleep on me. [347] I started to slap him. [348] And then the mist rose up out of the darkness in little lazy coils, sparkling faintly with blue, cold fire. [349] I yelled, "Gow! [350] Gow, the Vapor snakes! [351] Gow—for God's sake!" [352] I started to run, back along the passageway. [353] Bucky weighed on me, limp and heavy. [354] The noise burst suddenly in a deafening hell of moans and roars and shrieks, packed in tight by the metal walls, and above it all I could hear Gertrude's lonely, whistling scream. [355] I thought, " Somebody's down here. [356] Somebody let 'em out. [357] Somebody wants to kill us! " [358] I tried to yell again. [359] It strangled in my throat. [360] I sobbed, and the sweat was thick and cold on me. [361] One of Bucky's dragging, stumbling feet got between mine. [362] We fell. [363] I rolled on top of him, covering his face, and buried my own face in the hollow of his shoulder. [364] The first snake touched me. [365] It was like a live wire, sliding along the back of my neck. [366] I screamed. [367] It came down along my cheek, hunting my mouth. [368] There were more of them, burning me through my clothes. [369] Bucky moaned and kicked under me. [370] I remember hanging on and thinking, "This is it. [371] This is it, and oh God, I'm scared!" [372] Then I went out. [373] II Kanza the Martian croaker, was bending over me when I woke up. [374] His little brown face was crinkled with laughter. [375] He'd lost most of his teeth, and he gummed thak -weed. [376] It smelt. [377] "You pretty, Mis' Jig," he giggled. [378] "You funny like hell." [379] He slapped some cold greasy stuff on my face. [380] It hurt. [381] I cursed him and said, "Where's Shannon? [382] How is he?" [383] "Mis' Bucky okay. [384] You save life. [385] You big hero, Mis' Jig. [386] Mis' Gow come nickuhtime get snakes. [387] You hero. [388] Haw! [389] You funny like hell!" [390] I said, "Yeah," and pushed him away and got up. [391] I almost fell down a couple of times, but presently I made it to the mirror over the washstand—I was in my own cell—and I saw what Kanza meant. [392] The damned snakes had done a good job. [393] I looked like I was upholstered in Scotch plaid. [394] I felt sick. [395] Bucky Shannon opened the door. [396] He looked white and grim, and there was a big burn across his neck. [397] He said: "Beamish is here with his lawyer." [398] I picked up my shirt. [399] "Right with you." [400] Kanza went out, still giggling. [401] Bucky closed the door. [402] "Jig," he said, "those vapor worms were all right when we went in. [403] Somebody followed us down and let them out. [404] On purpose." [405] I hurt all over. [406] I growled, "With that brain, son, you should go far. [407] Nobody saw anything, of course?" [408] Bucky shook his head. [409] "Question is, Jig, who wants to kill us, and why?" [410] "Beamish. [411] He realizes he's been gypped." [412] "One hundred U.C. [413] 's," said Bucky softly, "for a few lousy swampedge mining camps. [414] It stinks, Jig. [415] You think we should back out?" [416] I shrugged. [417] "You're the boss man. [418] I'm only the guy that beats off the creditors." [419] "Yeah," Bucky said reflectively. [420] "And I hear starvation isn't a comfortable death. [421] Okay, Jig. [422] Let's go sign." [423] He put his hand on the latch and looked at my feet. [424] "And—uh—Jig, I...." I said, "Skip it. [425] The next time, just don't trip me up, that's all!" [426] We had a nasty trip to Venus. [427] Gertrude kept the brute tank on edge, and Gow, on the rare occasions he came up for air, went around looking like a disaster hoping to happen. [428] To make it worse, Zurt the Jovian strong-man got hurt during the take-off, and the Mercurian cave-cat had kittens. [429] Nobody would have minded that, only one of 'em had only four legs. [430] It lived just long enough to scare that bunch of superstitious dopes out of their pants. [431] Circus people are funny that way. [432] Shannon and I did a little quiet sleuthing, but it was a waste of time. [433] Anybody in the gang might have let those electric worms out on us. [434] It didn't help any to know that somebody, maybe the guy next to you at dinner, was busy thinking ways to kill you. [435] By the time we hit Venus, I was ready to do a Brodie out the refuse chute. [436] Shannon set the crate down on the edge of Nahru, the first stop on our itinerary. [437] I stood beside him, looking out the ports at the scenery. [438] It was Venus, all right. [439] Blue mud and thick green jungle and rain, and a bunch of ratty-looking plastic shacks huddling together in the middle of it. [440] Men in slickers were coming out for a look. [441] I saw Beamish's sleek yacht parked on a cradle over to the left, and our router's runabout beside it. [442] Bucky Shannon groaned. [443] "A blue one, Jig. [444] A morgue if I ever saw one!" [445] I snarled, "What do you want, with this lousy dog-and-pony show!" [446] and went out. [447] He followed. [448] The gang was converging on the lock, but they weren't happy. [449] You get so you can feel those things. [450] The steamy Venus heat was already sneaking into the ship. [451] While we passed the hatchway to the brute tank, I could hear Gertrude, screaming. [452] The canvasmen were busy setting up the annex, slopping and cursing in the mud. [453] The paste brigade was heading for the shacks. [454] Shannon and I stood with the hot rain running off our slickers, looking. [455] I heard a noise behind me and looked around. [456] Ahra the Nahali woman was standing in the mud with her arms up and her head thrown back, and her triangular mouth open like a thirsty dog. [457] She didn't have anything on but her blue-green, hard scaled hide, and she was chuckling. [458] It didn't sound nice. [459] You find a lot of Nahali people in side-shows, doing tricks with the electric power they carry in their own bodies. [460] They're Venusian middle-swampers, they're not human, and they never forget it. [461] Ahra opened her slitted red eyes and looked at me and laughed with white reptilian teeth. [462] "Death," she whispered. [463] "Death and trouble. [464] The jungle tells me. [465] I can smell it in the swamp wind." [466] The hot rain sluiced over her. [467] She shivered, and the pale skin under her jaw pulsed like a toad's, and her eyes were red. [468] "The deep swamps are angry," she whispered. [469] "Something has been taken. [470] They are angry, and I smell death in the wind!" [471] She turned away, laughing, and I cursed her, and my stomach was tight and cold. [472] Bucky said, "Let's eat if they have a bar in this dump." [473] We weren't half way across the mud puddle that passed as a landing field when a man came out of a shack on the edge of the settlement. [474] We could see him plainly, because he was off to one side of the crowd. [475] He fell on his knees in the mud, making noises. [476] It took him three or four tries to get our names out clear enough to understand. [477] Bucky said, "Jig—it's Sam Kapper." [478] We started to run. [479] The crowd, mostly big unshaken miners, wheeled around to see what was happening. [480] People began to close in on the man who crawled and whimpered in the mud. [481] Sam Kapper was a hunter, supplying animals to zoos and circuses and carnivals. [482] He'd given us good deals a couple of times, when we weren't too broke, and we were pretty friendly. [483] I hadn't seen him for three seasons. [484] I remembered him as a bronzed, hard-bitten guy, lean and tough as a twist of tung wire. [485] I felt sick, looking down at him. [486] Bucky started to help him up. [487] Kapper was crying, and he jerked all over like animals I've seen that were scared to death. [488] Some guy leaned over and put a cigarette in his mouth and lighted it for him. [489] I was thinking about Kapper, then, and I didn't pay much attention. [490] I only caught a glimpse of the man's face as he straightened up. [491] I didn't realize until later that he looked familiar. [492] We got Kapper inside the shack. [493] It turned out to be a cheap bar, with a couple of curtained booths at the back. [494] We got him into one and pulled the curtain in a lot of curious faces. [495] Kapper dragged hard on the cigarette. [496] The man that gave it to him was gone. [497] Bucky said gently, "Okay, Sam. [498] Relax. [499] What's the trouble?" [500] Kapper tried to straighten up. [501] He hadn't shaved. [502] The lean hard lines of his face had gone slack and his eyes were bloodshot. [503] He was covered with mud, and his mouth twitched like a sick old man's. [504] He said thickly, "I found it. [505] I said I'd do it, and I did. [506] I found it and brought it out." [507] The cigarette stub fell out of his mouth. [508] He didn't notice it. [509] "Help me," he said simply. [510] "I'm scared." [511] His mouth drooled. [512] "I got it hidden. [513] They want to find out, but I won't tell 'em. [514] It's got to go back. [515] Back where I found it. [516] I tried to take it, but they wouldn't let me, and I was afraid they'd find it...." He reached suddenly and grabbed the edge of the table. [517] "I don't know how they found out about it, but they did. [518] I've got to get it back. [519] I've got to...." Bucky looked at me. [520] Kapper was blue around the mouth. [521] I was scared, suddenly. [522] I said, "Get what back where?" [523] Bucky got up. [524] "I'll get a doctor," he said. [525] "Stick with him." [526] Kapper grabbed his wrist. [527] Kapper's nails were blue and the cords in his hands stood out like guy wires. [528] "Don't leave me. [529] Got to tell you—where it is. [530] Got to take it back. [531] Promise you'll take it back." [532] He gasped and struggled over his breathing. [533] "Sure," said Bucky. [534] "Sure, well take it back. [535] What is it?" [536] Kapper's face was horrible. [537] I felt sick, listening to him fight for air. [538] I wanted to go for a doctor anyway, but somehow I knew it was no use. [539] Kapper whispered, " Cansin . [540] Male. [541] Only one. [542] You don't know...! [543] Take him back." [544] "Where is it, Sam?" [545] I reached across Bucky suddenly and jerked the curtain back. [546] Beamish was standing there. [547] Beamish, bent over, with his ear cocked. [548] Kapper made a harsh strangling noise and fell across the table. [549] Beamish never changed expression. [550] He didn't move while Bucky felt Kapper's pulse. [551] Bucky didn't need to say anything. [552] We knew. [553] "Heart?" [554] said Beamish finally. [555] "Yeah," said Bucky. [556] He looked as bad as I felt. [557] "Poor Sam." [558] I looked at the cigarette stub smoldering on the table. [559] I looked at Beamish with his round dead baby face. [560] I climbed over Shannon and pushed Beamish suddenly down into his lap. [561] "Keep this guy here till I get back," I said. [562] Shannon stared at me. [563] Beamish started to get indignant. [564] "Shut up," I told him. [565] "We got a contract." [566] I yanked the curtains shut and walked over to the bar. [567] I began to notice something, then. [568] There were quite a lot of men in the place. [569] At first glance they looked okay—a hard-faced, muscular bunch of miners in dirty shirts and high boots. [570] Then I looked at their hands. [571] They were dirty enough. [572] But they never did any work in a mine, on Venus or anywhere else. [573] The place was awfully quiet, for that kind of a place. [574] The bartender was a big pot-bellied swamp-edger with pale eyes and thick white hair coiled up on top of his bullet head. [575] He was not happy. [576] I leaned on the bar. " [577] Lhak ," I said. [578] He poured it, sullenly, out of a green bottle. [579] I reached for it, casually. [580] "That guy we brought in," I said. [581] "He sure has a skinful. [582] Passed out cold. [583] What's he been spiking his drinks with?" [584] " Selak ," said a voice in my ear. [585] "As if you didn't know." [586] I turned. [587] The man who had given Kapper the cigarette was standing behind me. [588] And I remembered him, then.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the setting of the story": 1. [202] It was pretty late when we got back to the broken-down spaceport where Shannon's Imperial Circus was crouching beneath its attachments. 2. [203] Late as it was, they were waiting for us. 3. [204] About twenty of them, sitting around and smoking and looking very ugly. 4. [205] It was awfully lonesome out there, with the desert cold and restless under the two moons. 5. [206] There's a smell to Mars, like something dead and dried long past decay, but still waiting. 6. [207] An unhappy smell. 7. [208] The blown red dust gritted in my teeth. 8. [1] The Blue Behemoth By LEIGH BRACKETT Shannon's Imperial Circus was a jinxed space-carny leased for a mysterious tour of the inner worlds. 9. [2] It made a one-night pitch on a Venusian swamp-town—to find that death stalked it from the jungle in a tiny ball of flame. 10. [436] Shannon set the crate down on the edge of Nahru, the first stop on our itinerary. 11. [437] I stood beside him, looking out the ports at the scenery. 12. [438] It was Venus, all right. 13. [439] Blue mud and thick green jungle and rain, and a bunch of ratty-looking plastic shacks huddling together in the middle of it. 14. [440] Men in slickers were coming out for a look. 15. [441] I saw Beamish's sleek yacht parked on a cradle over to the left, and our router's runabout beside it. 16. [442] Bucky Shannon groaned. 17. [443] "A blue one, Jig. 18. [444] A morgue if I ever saw one!" 19. [3] [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. 20. [4] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 21. [5] Bucky Shannon leaned forward across the little hexagonal table. 22. [6] He knocked over the pitcher of thil , but it didn't matter. 23. [7] The pitcher was empty.

What is the plot of the story?

[1] SPACEMAN ON A SPREE BY MACK REYNOLDS Illustrated by Nodel [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of Tomorrow June 1963 Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [2] What's more important—Man's conquest of space, or one spaceman's life? [3] I They gave him a gold watch. [4] It was meant to be symbolical, of course. [5] In the old tradition. [6] It was in the way of an antique, being one of the timepieces made generations past in the Alpine area of Eur-Asia. [7] Its quaintness lay in the fact that it was wound, not electronically by power-radio, but by the actual physical movements of the bearer, a free swinging rotor keeping the mainspring at a constant tension. [8] They also had a banquet for him, complete with speeches by such bigwigs of the Department of Space Exploration as Academician Lofting Gubelin and Doctor Hans Girard-Perregaux. [9] There was also somebody from the government who spoke, but he was one of those who were pseudo-elected and didn't know much about the field of space travel nor the significance of Seymour Pond's retirement. [10] Si didn't bother to remember his name. [11] He only wondered vaguely why the cloddy had turned up at all. [12] In common with recipients of gold watches of a score of generations before him, Si Pond would have preferred something a bit more tangible in the way of reward, such as a few shares of Variable Basic to add to his portfolio. [13] But that, he supposed, was asking too much. [14] The fact of the matter was, Si knew that his retiring had set them back. [15] They hadn't figured he had enough shares of Basic to see him through decently. [16] Well, possibly he didn't, given their standards. [17] But Space Pilot Seymour Pond didn't have their standards. [18] He'd had plenty of time to think it over. [19] It was better to retire on a limited crediting, on a confoundedly limited crediting, than to take the two or three more trips in hopes of attaining a higher standard. [20] He'd had plenty of time to figure it out, there alone in space on the Moon run, there on the Venus or Mars runs. [21] There on the long, long haul to the Jupiter satellites, fearfully checking the symptoms of space cafard, the madness compounded of claustrophobia, monotony, boredom and free fall. [22] Plenty of time. [23] Time to decide that a one room mini-auto-apartment, complete with an autochair and built-in autobar, and with one wall a teevee screen, was all he needed to find contentment for a mighty long time. [24] Possibly somebody like Doc Girard-Perregaux might be horrified at the idea of living in a mini-auto-apartment ... not realizing that to a pilot it was roomy beyond belief compared to the conning tower of a space craft. [25] No. [26] Even as Si listened to their speeches, accepted the watch and made a halting little talk of his own, he was grinning inwardly. [27] There wasn't anything they could do. [28] He had them now. [29] He had enough Basic to keep him comfortably, by his standards, for the rest of his life. [30] He was never going to subject himself to space cafard again. [31] Just thinking about it, now, set the tic to going at the side of his mouth. [32] They could count down and blast off, for all he gave a damn. [33] The gold watch idea had been that of Lofting Gubelin, which was typical, he being in the way of a living anachronism himself. [34] In fact, Academician Gubelin was possibly the only living man on North America who still wore spectacles. [35] His explanation was that a phobia against having his eyes touched prohibited either surgery to remould his eyeballs and cure his myopia, or contact lenses. [36] That was only an alibi so far as his closest associate, Hans Girard-Perregaux, was concerned. [37] Doctor Girard-Perregaux was convinced Gubelin would have even worn facial hair, had he but a touch more courage. [38] Gubelin longed for yesteryear, a seldom found phenomenon under the Ultrawelfare State. [39] Slumped in an autochair in the escape room of his Floridian home, Lofting Gubelin scowled at his friend. [40] He said, acidly, "Any more bright schemes, Hans? [41] I presume you now acknowledge that appealing to the cloddy's patriotism, sentiment and desire for public acclaim have miserably failed." [42] Girard-Perregaux said easily, "I wouldn't call Seymour Pond a cloddy. [43] In his position, I am afraid I would do the same thing he has." [44] "That's nonsense, Hans. [45] Zoroaster! [46] Either you or I would gladly take Pond's place were we capable of performing the duties for which he has been trained. [47] There aren't two men on North America—there aren't two men in the world!—who better realize the urgency of continuing our delving into space." [48] Gubelin snapped his fingers. [49] "Like that, either of us would give our lives to prevent man from completely abandoning the road to his destiny." [50] His friend said drily, "Either of us could have volunteered for pilot training forty years ago, Lofting. [51] We didn't." [52] "At that time there wasn't such a blistering percentage of funkers throughout this whole blistering Ultrawelfare State! [53] Who could foresee that eventually our whole program would face ending due to lack of courageous young men willing to take chances, willing to face adventure, willing to react to the stimulus of danger in the manner our ancestors did?" [54] Girard-Perregaux grunted his sarcasm and dialed a glass of iced tea and tequila. [55] He said, "Nevertheless, both you and I conform with the present generation in finding it far more pleasant to follow one's way of life in the comfort of one's home than to be confronted with the unpleasantness of facing nature's dangers in more adventurous pastimes." [56] Gubelin, half angry at his friend's argument, leaned forward to snap rebuttal, but the other was wagging a finger at him negatively. [57] "Face reality, Lofting. [58] Don't require or expect from Seymour Pond more than is to be found there. [59] He is an average young man. [60] Born in our Ultrawelfare State, he was guaranteed his fundamental womb-to-tomb security by being issued that minimum number of Basic shares in our society that allows him an income sufficient to secure the food, clothing, shelter, medical care and education to sustain a low level of subsistence. [61] Percentages were against his ever being drafted into industry. [62] Automation being what it is, only a fraction of the population is ever called up. [63] But Pond was. [64] His industrial aptitude dossier revealed him a possible candidate for space pilot, and it was you yourself who talked him into taking the training ... pointing out the more pragmatic advantages such as complete retirement after but six trips, added shares of Basic so that he could enjoy a more comfortable life than most and the fame that would accrue to him as one of the very few who still participate in travel to the planets. [65] Very well. [66] He was sold. [67] Took his training, which, of course, required long years of drudgery to him. [68] Then, performing his duties quite competently, he made his six trips. [69] He is now legally eligible for retirement. [70] He was drafted into the working force reserves, served his time, and is now free from toil for the balance of his life. [71] Why should he listen to our pleas for a few more trips?" [72] "But has he no spirit of adventure? [73] Has he no feeling for...." Girard-Perregaux was wagging his finger again, a gesture that, seemingly mild though it was, had an astonishing ability to break off the conversation of one who debated with the easy-seeming, quiet spoken man. [74] He said, "No, he hasn't. [75] Few there are who have, nowadays. [76] Man has always paid lip service to adventure, hardships and excitement, but in actuality his instincts, like those of any other animal, lead him to the least dangerous path. [77] Today we've reached the point where no one need face danger—ever. [78] There are few who don't take advantage of the fact. [79] Including you and me, Lofting, and including Seymour Pond." [80] His friend and colleague changed subjects abruptly, impatiently. [81] "Let's leave this blistering jabber about Pond's motivation and get to the point. [82] The man is the only trained space pilot in the world. [83] It will take months, possibly more than a year, to bring another novitiate pilot to the point where he can safely be trusted to take our next explorer craft out. [84] Appropriations for our expeditions have been increasingly hard to come by—even though in our minds, Hans, we are near important breakthroughs, breakthroughs which might possibly so spark the race that a new dream to push man out to the stars will take hold of us. [85] If it is admitted that our organization has degenerated to the point that we haven't a single pilot, then it might well be that the Economic Planning Board, and especially those cloddies on Appropriations, will terminate the whole Department of Space Exploration." [86] "So...." Girard-Perregaux said gently. [87] "So some way we've got to bring Seymour Pond out of his retirement!" [88] "Now we are getting to matters." [89] Girard-Perregaux nodded his agreement. [90] Looking over the rim of his glass, his eyes narrowed in thought as his face took on an expression of Machiavellianism. [91] "And do not the ends justify the means?" [92] Gubelin blinked at him. [93] The other chuckled. [94] "The trouble with you, Lofting, is that you have failed to bring history to bear on our problem. [95] Haven't you ever read of the sailor and his way of life?" [96] "Sailor? [97] What in the name of the living Zoroaster has the sailor got to do with it?" [98] "You must realize, my dear Lofting, that our Si Pond is nothing more than a latter-day sailor, with many of the problems and view-points, tendencies and weaknesses of the voyager of the past. [99] Have you never heard of the seaman who dreamed of returning to the village of his birth and buying a chicken farm or some such? [100] All the long months at sea—and sometimes the tramp freighters or whaling craft would be out for years at a stretch before returning to home port—he would talk of his retirement and his dream. [101] And then? [102] Then in port, it would be one short drink with the boys, before taking his accumulated pay and heading home. [103] The one short drink would lead to another. [104] And morning would find him, drunk, rolled, tattooed and possibly sleeping it off in jail. [105] So back to sea he'd have to go." [106] Gubelin grunted bitterly. [107] "Unfortunately, our present-day sailor can't be separated from his money quite so easily. [108] If he could, I'd personally be willing to lure him down some dark alley, knock him over the head and roll him myself. [109] Just to bring him back to his job again." [110] He brought his wallet from his pocket, and flicked it open to his universal credit card. [111] "The ultimate means of exchange," he grunted. [112] "Nobody can spend your money, but you, yourself. [113] Nobody can steal it, nobody can, ah, con you out of it. [114] Just how do you expect to sever our present-day sailor and his accumulated nest egg?" [115] The other chuckled again. [116] "It is simply a matter of finding more modern methods, my dear chap." [117] II Si Pond was a great believer in the institution of the spree. [118] Any excuse would do. [119] Back when he had finished basic education at the age of twenty-five and was registered for the labor draft, there hadn't been a chance in a hundred that he'd have the bad luck to have his name pulled. [120] But when it had been, Si had celebrated. [121] When he had been informed that his physical and mental qualifications were such that he was eligible for the most dangerous occupation in the Ultrawelfare State and had been pressured into taking training for space pilot, he had celebrated once again. [122] Twenty-two others had taken the training with him, and only he and Rod Cameroon had passed the finals. [123] On this occasion, he and Rod had celebrated together. [124] It had been quite a party. [125] Two weeks later, Rod had burned on a faulty take-off on what should have been a routine Moon run. [126] Each time Si returned from one of his own runs, he celebrated. [127] A spree, a bust, a bat, a wing-ding, a night on the town. [128] A commemoration of dangers met and passed. [129] Now it was all over. [130] At the age of thirty he was retired. [131] Law prevented him from ever being called up for contributing to the country's labor needs again. [132] And he most certainly wasn't going to volunteer. [133] He had taken his schooling much as had his contemporaries. [134] There wasn't any particular reason for trying to excell. [135] You didn't want to get the reputation for being a wise guy, or a cloddy either. [136] Just one of the fellas. [137] You could do the same in life whether you really studied or not. [138] You had your Inalienable Basic stock, didn't you? [139] What else did you need? [140] It had come as a surprise when he'd been drafted for the labor force. [141] In the early days of the Ultrawelfare State, they had made a mistake in adapting to the automation of the second industrial revolution. [142] They had attempted to give everyone work by reducing the number of working hours in the day, and the number of working days in the week. [143] It finally became ludicrous when employees of industry were working but two days a week, two hours a day. [144] In fact, it got chaotic. [145] It became obvious that it was more practical to have one worker putting in thirty-five hours a week and getting to know his job well, than it was to have a score of employees, each working a few hours a week and none of them ever really becoming efficient. [146] The only fair thing was to let the technologically unemployed remain unemployed, with their Inalienable Basic stock as the equivalent of unemployment insurance, while the few workers still needed put in a reasonable number of hours a day, a reasonable number of weeks a year and a reasonable number of years in a life time. [147] When new employees were needed, a draft lottery was held. [148] All persons registered in the labor force participated. [149] If you were drawn, you must need serve. [150] The dissatisfaction those chosen might feel at their poor luck was offset by the fact that they were granted additional Variable Basic shares, according to the tasks they fulfilled. [151] Such shares could be added to their portfolios, the dividends becoming part of their current credit balance, or could be sold for a lump sum on the market. [152] Yes, but now it was all over. [153] He had his own little place, his own vacuum-tube vehicle and twice the amount of shares of Basic that most of his fellow citizens could boast. [154] Si Pond had it made. [155] A spree was obviously called for. [156] He was going to do this one right. [157] This was the big one. [158] He'd accumulated a lot of dollars these past few months and he intended to blow them, or at least a sizeable number of them. [159] His credit card was burning a hole in his pocket, as the expression went. [160] However, he wasn't going to rush into things. [161] This had to be done correctly. [162] Too many a spree was played by ear. [163] You started off with a few drinks, fell in with some second rate mopsy and usually wound up in a third rate groggery where you spent just as much as though you'd been in the classiest joint in town. [164] Came morning and you had nothing to show for all the dollars that had been spent but a rum-head. [165] Thus, Si was vaguely aware, it had always been down through the centuries since the Phoenecian sailor, back from his year-long trip to the tin mines of Cornwall, blew his hard earned share of the voyage's profits in a matter of days in the wine shops of Tyre. [166] Nobody gets quite so little for his money as that loneliest of all workers, he who must leave his home for distant lands, returning only periodically and usually with the salary of lengthy, weary periods of time to be spent hurriedly in an attempt to achieve the pleasure and happiness so long denied him. [167] Si was going to do it differently this time. [168] Nothing but the best. [169] Wine, women, song, food, entertainment. [170] The works. [171] But nothing but the best. [172] To start off, he dressed with great care in the honorable retirement-rank suit he had so recently purchased. [173] His space pin he attached carefully to the lapel. [174] That was a good beginning, he decided. [175] A bit of prestige didn't hurt you when you went out on the town. [176] In the Ultrawelfare State hardly one person in a hundred actually ever performed anything of value to society. [177] The efforts of most weren't needed. [178] Those few who did contribute were awarded honors, decorations, titles. [179] Attired satisfactorily, Si double-checked to see that his credit card was in his pocket. [180] As an after-thought, he went over to the auto-apartment's teevee-phone, flicked it on, held the card to the screen and said, "Balance check, please." [181] In a moment, the teevee-phone's robot voice reported, "Ten shares of Inalienable Basic. [182] Twelve shares of Variable Basic, current value, four thousand, two hundred and thirty-three dollars and sixty-two cents apiece. [183] Current cash credit, one thousand and eighty-four dollars." [184] The screen went dead. [185] One thousand and eighty-four dollars. [186] That was plenty. [187] He could safely spend as much as half of it, if the spree got as lively as he hoped it would. [188] His monthly dividends were due in another week or so, and he wouldn't have to worry about current expenses. [189] Yes, indeedy, Si Pond was as solvent as he had ever been in his thirty years. [190] He opened the small, closet-like door which housed his vacuum-tube two-seater, and wedged himself into the small vehicle. [191] He brought down the canopy, dropped the pressurizer and considered the dial. [192] Only one place really made sense. [193] The big city. [194] He considered for a moment, decided against the boroughs of Baltimore and Boston, and selected Manhattan instead. [195] He had the resources. [196] He might as well do it up brown. [197] He dialed Manhattan and felt the sinking sensation that presaged his car's dropping to tube level. [198] While it was being taken up by the robot controls, being shuttled here and there preparatory to the shot to his destination, he dialed the vehicle's teevee-phone for information on the hotels of the island of the Hudson. [199] He selected a swank hostelry he'd read about and seen on the teevee casts of society and celebrity gossip reporters, and dialed it on the car's destination dial. [200] "Nothing too good for ex-Space Pilot Si Pond," he said aloud. [201] The car hesitated for a moment, that brief hesitation before the shot, and Si took the involuntary breath from which only heroes could refrain. [202] He sank back slowly into the seat. [203] Moments passed, and the direction of the pressure was reversed. [204] Manhattan. [205] The shuttling began again, and one or two more traversing sub-shots. [206] Finally, the dash threw a green light and Si opened the canopy and stepped into his hotel room. [207] A voice said gently, "If the quarters are satisfactory, please present your credit card within ten minutes." [208] Si took his time. [209] Not that he really needed it. [210] It was by far the most swank suite he had ever seen. [211] One wall was a window of whatever size the guest might desire and Si touched the control that dilated it to the full. [212] His view opened in such wise that he could see both the Empire State Building Museum and the Hudson. [213] Beyond the river stretched the all but endless city which was Greater Metropolis. [214] He didn't take the time to flick on the menu, next to the auto-dining table, nor to check the endless potables on the autobar list. [215] All that, he well knew, would be superlative. [216] Besides, he didn't plan to dine or do much drinking in his suite. [217] He made a mock leer. [218] Not unless he managed to acquire some feminine companionship, that was. [219] He looked briefly into the swimming pool and bath, then flopped himself happily onto the bed. [220] It wasn't up to the degree of softness he presently desired, and he dialed the thing to the ultimate in that direction so that with a laugh he sank almost out of sight into the mattress. [221] He came back to his feet, gave his suit a quick patting so that it fell into press and, taking his credit card from his pocket, put it against the teevee-phone screen and pressed the hotel button so that registration could be completed. [222] For a moment he stood in the center of the floor, in thought. [223] Take it easy, Si Pond, take it all easy, this time. [224] No throwing his dollars around in second-class groggeries, no eating in automated luncheterias. [225] This time, be it the only time in his life, he was going to frolic in the grand manner. [226] No cloddy was Si Pond. [227] He decided a drink was in order to help him plan his strategy. [228] A drink at the hotel's famous Kudos Room where celebrities were reputed to be a dime a dozen. [229] He left the suite and stepped into one of the elevators. [230] He said, "Kudos Room." [231] The auto-elevator murmured politely, "Yes, sir, the Kudos Room." [232] At the door to the famous rendezvous of the swankiest set, Si paused a moment and looked about. [233] He'd never been in a place like this, either. [234] However, he stifled his first instinct to wonder about what this was going to do to his current credit balance with an inner grin and made his way to the bar. [235] There was actually a bartender. [236] Si Pond suppressed his astonishment and said, offhand, attempting an air of easy sophistication, "Slivovitz Sour." [237] "Yes, sir." [238] The drinks in the Kudos Room might be concocted by hand, but Si noticed they had the routine teevee screens built into the bar for payment. [239] He put his credit card on the screen immediately before him when the drink came, and had to quell his desire to dial for a balance check, so as to be able to figure out what the Sour had cost him. [240] Well, this was something like it. [241] This was the sort of thing he'd dreamed about, out there in the great alone, seated in the confining conning tower of his space craft. [242] He sipped at the drink, finding it up to his highest expectations, and then swiveled slightly on his stool to take a look at the others present. [243] To his disappointment, there were no recognizable celebrities. [244] None that he placed, at least—top teevee stars, top politicians of the Ultrawelfare State or Sports personalities. [245] He turned back to his drink and noticed, for the first time, the girl who occupied the stool two down from him. [246] Si Pond blinked. [247] He blinked and then swallowed. " [248] Zo-ro-as-ter ," he breathed. [249] She was done in the latest style from Shanghai, even to the point of having cosmetically duplicated the Mongolian fold at the corners of her eyes. [250] Every pore, but every pore, was in place. [251] She sat with the easy grace of the Orient, so seldom found in the West. [252] His stare couldn't be ignored. [253] She looked at him coldly, turned to the bartender and murmured, "A Far Out Cooler, please, Fredric." [254] Then deliberately added, "I thought the Kudos Room was supposed to be exclusive." [255] There was nothing the bartender could say to that, and he went about building the drink. [256] Si cleared his throat. [257] "Hey," he said, "how about letting this one be on me?" [258] Her eyebrows, which had been plucked and penciled to carry out her Oriental motif, rose. [259] "Really!" [260] she said, drawing it out. [261] The bartender said hurriedly, "I beg your pardon, sir...." The girl, her voice suddenly subtly changed, said, "Why, isn't that a space pin?" [262] Si, disconcerted by the sudden reversal, said, "Yeah ... [263] sure." [264] "Good Heavens, you're a spaceman?" [265] "Sure." [266] He pointed at the lapel pin. [267] "You can't wear one unless you been on at least a Moon run." [268] She was obviously both taken back and impressed. [269] "Why," she said, "you're Seymour Pond, the pilot. [270] I tuned in on the banquet they gave you." [271] Si, carrying his glass, moved over to the stool next to her. [272] "Call me Si," he said. [273] "Everybody calls me Si." [274] She said, "I'm Natalie. [275] Natalie Paskov. [276] Just Natalie. [277] Imagine meeting Seymour Pond. [278] Just sitting down next to him at a bar. [279] Just like that." [280] "Si," Si said, gratified. [281] Holy Zoroaster, he'd never seen anything like this rarified pulchritude. [282] Maybe on teevee, of course, one of the current sex symbols, but never in person. [283] "Call me Si," he said again. [284] "I been called Si so long, I don't even know who somebody's talking to if they say Seymour." [285] "I cried when they gave you that antique watch," she said, her tone such that it was obvious she hadn't quite adjusted as yet to having met him. [286] Si Pond was surprised. [287] "Cried?" [288] he said. [289] "Well, why? [290] I was kind of bored with the whole thing. [291] But old Doc Gubelin, I used to work under him in the Space Exploration department, he was hot for it." [292] " Academician Gubelin?" [293] she said. [294] "You just call him Doc ?" [295] Si was expansive. [296] "Why, sure. [297] In the Space Department we don't have much time for formality. [298] Everybody's just Si, and Doc, and Jim. [299] Like that. [300] But how come you cried?" [301] She looked down into the drink the bartender had placed before her, as though avoiding his face. [302] "I ... [303] I suppose it was that speech Doctor Girard-Perregaux made. [304] There you stood, so fine and straight in your space-pilot uniform, the veteran of six exploration runs to the planets...." "Well," Si said modestly, "two of my runs were only to the Moon." [305] "... and he said all those things about man's conquest of space. [306] And the dream of the stars which man has held so long. [307] And then the fact that you were the last of the space pilots. [308] The last man in the whole world trained to pilot a space craft. [309] And here you were, retiring." [310] Si grunted. [311] "Yeah. [312] That's all part of the Doc's scheme to get me to take on another three runs. [313] They're afraid the whole department'll be dropped by the Appropriations Committee on this here Economic Planning Board. [314] Even if they can find some other patsy to train for the job, it'd take maybe a year before you could even send him on a Moon hop. [315] So old man Gubelin, and Girard-Perregaux too, they're both trying to pressure me into more trips. [316] Otherwise they got a Space Exploration Department, with all the expense and all, but nobody to pilot their ships. [317] It's kind of funny, in a way. [318] You know what one of those spaceships costs?" [319] "Funny?" [320] she said. [321] "Why, I don't think it's funny at all." [322] Si said, "Look, how about another drink?" [323] Natalie Paskov said, "Oh, I'd love to have a drink with you, Mr...." "Si," Si said. [324] He motioned to the bartender with a circular twist of the hand indicating their need for two more of the same. [325] "How come you know so much about it? [326] You don't meet many people who are interested in space any more. [327] In fact, most people are almost contemptuous, like. [328] Think it's kind of a big boondoggle deal to help use up a lot of materials and all and keep the economy going." [329] Natalie said earnestly, "Why, I've been a space fan all my life. [330] I've read all about it. [331] Have always known the names of all the space pilots and everything about them, ever since I was a child. [332] I suppose you'd say I have the dream that Doctor Girard-Perregaux spoke about." [333] Si chuckled. [334] "A real buff, eh? [335] You know, it's kind of funny. [336] I was never much interested in it. [337] And I got a darn sight less interested after my first run and I found out what space cafard was." [338] She frowned. [339] "I don't believe I know much about that." [340] Sitting in the Kudos Room with the most beautiful girl to whom he had ever talked, Si could be nonchalant about the subject. [341] "Old Gubelin keeps that angle mostly hushed up and out of the magazine and newspaper articles. [342] Says there's enough adverse publicity about space exploration already. [343] But at this stage of the game when the whole ship's crammed tight with this automatic scientific apparatus and all, there's precious little room in the conning tower and you're the only man aboard. [344] The Doc says later on when ships are bigger and there's a whole flock of people aboard, there won't be any such thing as space cafard, but...." Of a sudden the right side of Si Pond's mouth began to tic and he hurriedly took up his drink and knocked it back.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [117] Si Pond was a great believer in the institution of the spree. 2. [154] Si Pond had it made. 3. [155] A spree was obviously called for. 4. [156] He was going to do this one right. 5. [157] This was the big one. 6. [158] He'd accumulated a lot of dollars these past few months and he intended to blow them, or at least a sizeable number of them. 7. [159] His credit card was burning a hole in his pocket, as the expression went. 8. [160] However, he wasn't going to rush into things. 9. [161] This had to be done correctly. 10. [162] Too many a spree was played by ear. 11. [163] You started off with a few drinks, fell in with some second rate mopsy and usually wound up in a third rate groggery where you spent just as much as though you'd been in the classiest joint in town. 12. [164] Came morning and you had nothing to show for all the dollars that had been spent but a rum-head. 13. [165] Thus, Si was vaguely aware, it had always been down through the centuries since the Phoenecian sailor, back from his year-long trip to the tin mines of Cornwall, blew his hard earned share of the voyage's profits in a matter of days in the wine shops of Tyre. 14. [166] Nobody gets quite so little for his money as that loneliest of all workers, he who must leave his home for distant lands, returning only periodically and usually with the salary of lengthy, weary periods of time to be spent hurriedly in an attempt to achieve the pleasure and happiness so long denied him. 15. [167] Si was going to do it differently this time. 16. [168] Nothing but the best. 17. [169] Wine, women, song, food, entertainment. 18. [170] The works. 19. [171] But nothing but the best. 20. [172] To start off, he dressed with great care in the honorable retirement-rank suit he had so recently purchased. 21. [173] His space pin he attached carefully to the lapel. 22. [174] That was a good beginning, he decided. 23. [175] A bit of prestige didn't hurt you when you went out on the town. 24. [176] In the Ultrawelfare State hardly one person in a hundred actually ever performed anything of value to society. 25. [177] The efforts of most weren't needed. 26. [178] Those few who did contribute were awarded honors, decorations, titles. 27. [179] Attired satisfactorily, Si double-checked to see that his credit card was in his pocket. 28. [180] As an after-thought, he went over to the auto-apartment's teevee-phone, flicked it on, held the card to the screen and said, "Balance check, please." 29. [181] In a moment, the teevee-phone's robot voice reported, "Ten shares of Inalienable Basic. 30. [182] Twelve shares of Variable Basic, current value, four thousand, two hundred and thirty-three dollars and sixty-two cents apiece. 31. [183] Current cash credit, one thousand and eighty-four dollars." 32. [184] The screen went dead. 33. [185] One thousand and eighty-four dollars. 34. [186] That was plenty. 35. [187] He could safely spend as much as half of it, if the spree got as lively as he hoped it would. 36. [188] His monthly dividends were due in another week or so, and he wouldn't have to worry about current expenses. 37. [189] Yes, indeedy, Si Pond was as solvent as he had ever been in his thirty years. 38. [190] He opened the small, closet-like door which housed his vacuum-tube two-seater, and wedged himself into the small vehicle. 39. [191] He brought down the canopy, dropped the pressurizer and considered the dial. 40. [192] Only one place really made sense. 41. [193] The big city. 42. [194] He considered for a moment, decided against the boroughs of Baltimore and Boston, and selected Manhattan instead. 43. [195] He had the resources. 44. [196] He might as well do it up brown. 45. [197] He dialed Manhattan and felt the sinking sensation that presaged his car's dropping to tube level. 46. [198] While it was being taken up by the robot controls, being shuttled here and there preparatory to the shot to his destination, he dialed the vehicle's teevee-phone for information on the hotels of the island of the Hudson. 47. [199] He selected a swank hostelry he'd read about and seen on the teevee casts of society and celebrity gossip reporters, and dialed it on the car's destination dial. 48. [200] "Nothing too good for ex-Space Pilot Si Pond," he said aloud. 49. [201] The car hesitated for a moment, that brief hesitation before the shot, and Si took the involuntary breath from which only heroes could refrain. 50. [202] He sank back slowly into the seat. 51. [203] Moments passed, and the direction of the pressure was reversed. 52. [204] Manhattan. 53. [205] The shuttling began again, and one or two more traversing sub-shots. 54. [206] Finally, the dash threw a green light and Si opened the canopy and stepped into his hotel room. 55. [207] A voice said gently, "If the quarters are satisfactory, please present your credit card within ten minutes." 56. [208] Si took his time. 57. [209] Not that he really needed it. 58. [210] It was by far the most swank suite he had ever seen. 59. [211] One wall was a window of whatever size the guest might desire and Si touched the control that dilated it to the full. 60. [212] His view opened in such wise that he could see both the Empire State Building Museum and the Hudson. 61. [213] Beyond the river stretched the all but endless city which was Greater Metropolis. 62. [214] He didn't take the time to flick on the menu, next to the auto-dining table, nor to check the endless potables on the autobar list. 63. [215] All that, he well knew, would be superlative. 64. [216] Besides, he didn't plan to dine or do much drinking in his suite. 65. [217] He made a mock leer. 66. [218] Not unless he managed to acquire some feminine companionship, that was. 67. [219] He looked briefly into the swimming pool and bath, then flopped himself happily onto the bed. 68. [220] It wasn't up to the degree of softness he presently desired, and he dialed the thing to the ultimate in that direction so that with a laugh he sank almost out of sight into the mattress. 69. [221] He came back to his feet, gave his suit a quick patting so that it fell into press and, taking his credit card from his pocket, put it against the teevee-phone screen and pressed the hotel button so that registration could be completed. 70. [222] For a moment he stood in the center of the floor, in thought. 71. [223] Take it easy, Si Pond, take it all easy, this time. 72. [224] No throwing his dollars around in second-class groggeries, no eating in automated luncheterias. 73. [225] This time, be it the only time in his life, he was going to frolic in the grand manner. 74. [226] No cloddy was Si Pond. 75. [227] He decided a drink was in order to help him plan his strategy. 76. [228] A drink at the hotel's famous Kudos Room where celebrities were reputed to be a dime a dozen. 77. [229] He left the suite and stepped into one of the elevators. 78. [230] He said, "Kudos Room." 79. [231] The auto-elevator murmured politely, "Yes, sir, the Kudos Room." 80. [232] At the door to the famous rendezvous of the swankiest set, Si paused a moment and looked about. 81. [233] He'd never been in a place like this, either. 82. [234] However, he stifled his first instinct to wonder about what this was going to do to his current credit balance with an inner grin and made his way to the bar. 83. [235] There was actually a bartender. 84. [236] Si Pond suppressed his astonishment and said, offhand, attempting an air of easy sophistication, "Slivovitz Sour." 85. [237] "Yes, sir." 86. [238] The drinks in the Kudos Room might be concocted by hand, but Si noticed they had the routine teevee screens built into the bar for payment. 87. [239] He put his credit card on the screen immediately before him when the drink came, and had to quell his desire to dial for a balance check, so as to be able to figure out what the Sour had cost him. 88. [240] Well, this was something like it. 89. [241] This was the sort of thing he'd dreamed about, out there in the great alone, seated in the confining conning tower of his space craft. 90. [242] He sipped at the drink, finding it up to his highest expectations, and then swiveled slightly on his stool to take a look at the others present. 91. [243] To his disappointment, there were no recognizable celebrities. 92. [244] None that he placed, at least—top teevee stars, top politicians of the Ultrawelfare State or Sports personalities. 93. [245] He turned back to his drink and noticed, for the first time, the girl who occupied the stool two down from him. 94. [246] Si Pond blinked. 95. [247] He blinked and then swallowed. 96. [248] "Zo-ro-as-ter," he breathed. 97. [249] She was done in the latest style from Shanghai, even to the point of having cosmetically duplicated the Mongolian fold at the corners of her eyes. 98. [250] Every pore, but every pore, was in place. 99. [251] She sat with the easy grace of the Orient, so seldom found in the West. 100. [252] His stare couldn't be ignored. 101. [253] She looked at him coldly, turned to the bartender and murmured, "A Far Out Cooler, please, Fredric." 102. [254] Then deliberately added, "I thought the Kudos Room was supposed to be exclusive." 103. [255] There was nothing the bartender could say to that, and he went about building the drink. 104. [256] Si cleared his throat. 105. [257] "Hey," he said, "how about letting this one be on me?" 106. [258] Her eyebrows, which had been plucked and penciled to carry out her Oriental motif, rose. 107. [259] "Really!" she said, drawing it out. 108. [260] The bartender said hurriedly, "I beg your pardon, sir...." 109. [261] The girl, her voice suddenly subtly changed, said, "Why, isn't that a space pin?" 110. [262] Si, disconcerted by the sudden reversal, said, "Yeah ... sure." 111. [263] "Good Heavens, you're a spaceman?" 112. [264] "Sure." 113. [265] He pointed at the lapel pin. 114. [266] "You can't wear one unless you been on at least a Moon run." 115. [267] She was obviously both taken back and impressed. 116. [268] "Why," she said, "you're Seymour Pond, the pilot. I tuned in on the banquet they gave you." 117. [269] Si, carrying his glass, moved over to the stool next to her. 118. [270] "Call me Si," he said. 119. [271] "Everybody calls me Si." 120. [272] She said, "I'm Natalie. Natalie Paskov. Just Natalie. Imagine meeting Seymour Pond. Just sitting down next to him at a bar. Just like that." 121. [273] "Si," Si said, gratified. 122. [274] Holy Zoroaster, he'd never seen anything like this rarified pulchritude. 123. [275] Maybe on teevee, of course, one of the current sex symbols, but never in person. 124. [276] "Call me Si," he said again. 125. [277] "I been called Si so long, I don't even know who somebody's talking to if they say Seymour." 126. [278] "I cried when they gave you that antique watch," she said, her tone such that it was obvious she hadn't quite adjusted as yet to having met him. 127. [279] Si Pond was surprised. 128. [280] "Cried?" he said. 129. [281] "Well, why? I was kind of bored with the whole thing. But old Doc Gubelin, I used to work under him in the Space Exploration department, he was hot for it." 130. [282] "Academician Gubelin?" she said. "You just call him Doc?" 131. [283] Si was expansive. 132. [284] "Why, sure. In the Space Department we don't have much time for formality. Everybody's just Si, and Doc, and Jim. Like that. But how come you cried?" 133. [285] She looked down into the drink the bartender had placed before her, as though avoiding his face. 134. [286] "I ... I suppose it was that speech Doctor Girard-Perregaux made. There you stood, so fine and straight in your space-pilot uniform, the veteran of six exploration runs to the planets...." 135. [287] "Well," Si said modestly, "two of my runs were only to the Moon." 136. [288] "... and he said all those things about man's conquest of space. And the dream of the stars which man has held so long. And then the fact that you were the last of the space pilots. The last man in the whole world trained to pilot a space craft. And here you were, retiring." 137. [289] Si grunted. 138. [290] "Yeah. That's all part of the Doc's scheme to get me to take on another three runs. They're afraid the whole department'll be dropped by the Appropriations Committee on this here Economic Planning Board. Even if they can find some other patsy to train for the job, it'd take maybe a year before you could even send him on a Moon hop. So old man Gubelin, and Girard-Perregaux too, they're both trying to pressure me into more trips. Otherwise they got a Space Exploration Department, with all the expense and all, but nobody to pilot their ships." 139. [291] "It's kind of funny, in a way. You know what one of those spaceships costs?" 140. [292] "Funny?" she said. "Why, I don't think it's funny at all." 141. [293] Si said, "Look, how about another drink?" 142. [294] Natalie Paskov said, "Oh, I'd love to have a drink with you, Mr...." 143. [295] "Si," Si said. 144. [296] He motioned to the bartender with a circular twist of the hand indicating their need for two more of the same. 145. [297] "How come you know so much about it? You don't meet many people who are interested in space any more. In fact, most people are almost contemptuous, like. Think it's kind of a big boondoggle deal to help use up a lot of materials and all and keep the economy going." 146. [298] Natalie said earnestly, "Why, I've been a space fan all my life. I've read all about it. Have always known the names of all the space pilots and everything about them, ever since I was a child. I suppose you'd say I have the dream that Doctor Girard-Perregaux spoke about." 147. [299] Si chuckled. 148. [300] "A real buff, eh? You know, it's kind of funny. I was never much interested in it. And I got a darn sight less interested after my first run and I found out what space cafard was." 149. [301] She frowned. 150. [302] "I don't believe I know much about that." 151. [303] Sitting in the Kudos Room with the most beautiful girl to whom he had ever talked, Si could be nonchalant about the subject. 152. [304] "Old Gubelin keeps that angle mostly hushed up and out of the magazine and newspaper articles. Says there's enough adverse publicity about space exploration already. But at this stage of the game when the whole ship's

Please describe the Ultrawelfare State.

[1] SPACEMAN ON A SPREE BY MACK REYNOLDS Illustrated by Nodel [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of Tomorrow June 1963 Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [2] What's more important—Man's conquest of space, or one spaceman's life? [3] I They gave him a gold watch. [4] It was meant to be symbolical, of course. [5] In the old tradition. [6] It was in the way of an antique, being one of the timepieces made generations past in the Alpine area of Eur-Asia. [7] Its quaintness lay in the fact that it was wound, not electronically by power-radio, but by the actual physical movements of the bearer, a free swinging rotor keeping the mainspring at a constant tension. [8] They also had a banquet for him, complete with speeches by such bigwigs of the Department of Space Exploration as Academician Lofting Gubelin and Doctor Hans Girard-Perregaux. [9] There was also somebody from the government who spoke, but he was one of those who were pseudo-elected and didn't know much about the field of space travel nor the significance of Seymour Pond's retirement. [10] Si didn't bother to remember his name. [11] He only wondered vaguely why the cloddy had turned up at all. [12] In common with recipients of gold watches of a score of generations before him, Si Pond would have preferred something a bit more tangible in the way of reward, such as a few shares of Variable Basic to add to his portfolio. [13] But that, he supposed, was asking too much. [14] The fact of the matter was, Si knew that his retiring had set them back. [15] They hadn't figured he had enough shares of Basic to see him through decently. [16] Well, possibly he didn't, given their standards. [17] But Space Pilot Seymour Pond didn't have their standards. [18] He'd had plenty of time to think it over. [19] It was better to retire on a limited crediting, on a confoundedly limited crediting, than to take the two or three more trips in hopes of attaining a higher standard. [20] He'd had plenty of time to figure it out, there alone in space on the Moon run, there on the Venus or Mars runs. [21] There on the long, long haul to the Jupiter satellites, fearfully checking the symptoms of space cafard, the madness compounded of claustrophobia, monotony, boredom and free fall. [22] Plenty of time. [23] Time to decide that a one room mini-auto-apartment, complete with an autochair and built-in autobar, and with one wall a teevee screen, was all he needed to find contentment for a mighty long time. [24] Possibly somebody like Doc Girard-Perregaux might be horrified at the idea of living in a mini-auto-apartment ... not realizing that to a pilot it was roomy beyond belief compared to the conning tower of a space craft. [25] No. [26] Even as Si listened to their speeches, accepted the watch and made a halting little talk of his own, he was grinning inwardly. [27] There wasn't anything they could do. [28] He had them now. [29] He had enough Basic to keep him comfortably, by his standards, for the rest of his life. [30] He was never going to subject himself to space cafard again. [31] Just thinking about it, now, set the tic to going at the side of his mouth. [32] They could count down and blast off, for all he gave a damn. [33] The gold watch idea had been that of Lofting Gubelin, which was typical, he being in the way of a living anachronism himself. [34] In fact, Academician Gubelin was possibly the only living man on North America who still wore spectacles. [35] His explanation was that a phobia against having his eyes touched prohibited either surgery to remould his eyeballs and cure his myopia, or contact lenses. [36] That was only an alibi so far as his closest associate, Hans Girard-Perregaux, was concerned. [37] Doctor Girard-Perregaux was convinced Gubelin would have even worn facial hair, had he but a touch more courage. [38] Gubelin longed for yesteryear, a seldom found phenomenon under the Ultrawelfare State. [39] Slumped in an autochair in the escape room of his Floridian home, Lofting Gubelin scowled at his friend. [40] He said, acidly, "Any more bright schemes, Hans? [41] I presume you now acknowledge that appealing to the cloddy's patriotism, sentiment and desire for public acclaim have miserably failed." [42] Girard-Perregaux said easily, "I wouldn't call Seymour Pond a cloddy. [43] In his position, I am afraid I would do the same thing he has." [44] "That's nonsense, Hans. [45] Zoroaster! [46] Either you or I would gladly take Pond's place were we capable of performing the duties for which he has been trained. [47] There aren't two men on North America—there aren't two men in the world!—who better realize the urgency of continuing our delving into space." [48] Gubelin snapped his fingers. [49] "Like that, either of us would give our lives to prevent man from completely abandoning the road to his destiny." [50] His friend said drily, "Either of us could have volunteered for pilot training forty years ago, Lofting. [51] We didn't." [52] "At that time there wasn't such a blistering percentage of funkers throughout this whole blistering Ultrawelfare State! [53] Who could foresee that eventually our whole program would face ending due to lack of courageous young men willing to take chances, willing to face adventure, willing to react to the stimulus of danger in the manner our ancestors did?" [54] Girard-Perregaux grunted his sarcasm and dialed a glass of iced tea and tequila. [55] He said, "Nevertheless, both you and I conform with the present generation in finding it far more pleasant to follow one's way of life in the comfort of one's home than to be confronted with the unpleasantness of facing nature's dangers in more adventurous pastimes." [56] Gubelin, half angry at his friend's argument, leaned forward to snap rebuttal, but the other was wagging a finger at him negatively. [57] "Face reality, Lofting. [58] Don't require or expect from Seymour Pond more than is to be found there. [59] He is an average young man. [60] Born in our Ultrawelfare State, he was guaranteed his fundamental womb-to-tomb security by being issued that minimum number of Basic shares in our society that allows him an income sufficient to secure the food, clothing, shelter, medical care and education to sustain a low level of subsistence. [61] Percentages were against his ever being drafted into industry. [62] Automation being what it is, only a fraction of the population is ever called up. [63] But Pond was. [64] His industrial aptitude dossier revealed him a possible candidate for space pilot, and it was you yourself who talked him into taking the training ... pointing out the more pragmatic advantages such as complete retirement after but six trips, added shares of Basic so that he could enjoy a more comfortable life than most and the fame that would accrue to him as one of the very few who still participate in travel to the planets. [65] Very well. [66] He was sold. [67] Took his training, which, of course, required long years of drudgery to him. [68] Then, performing his duties quite competently, he made his six trips. [69] He is now legally eligible for retirement. [70] He was drafted into the working force reserves, served his time, and is now free from toil for the balance of his life. [71] Why should he listen to our pleas for a few more trips?" [72] "But has he no spirit of adventure? [73] Has he no feeling for...." Girard-Perregaux was wagging his finger again, a gesture that, seemingly mild though it was, had an astonishing ability to break off the conversation of one who debated with the easy-seeming, quiet spoken man. [74] He said, "No, he hasn't. [75] Few there are who have, nowadays. [76] Man has always paid lip service to adventure, hardships and excitement, but in actuality his instincts, like those of any other animal, lead him to the least dangerous path. [77] Today we've reached the point where no one need face danger—ever. [78] There are few who don't take advantage of the fact. [79] Including you and me, Lofting, and including Seymour Pond." [80] His friend and colleague changed subjects abruptly, impatiently. [81] "Let's leave this blistering jabber about Pond's motivation and get to the point. [82] The man is the only trained space pilot in the world. [83] It will take months, possibly more than a year, to bring another novitiate pilot to the point where he can safely be trusted to take our next explorer craft out. [84] Appropriations for our expeditions have been increasingly hard to come by—even though in our minds, Hans, we are near important breakthroughs, breakthroughs which might possibly so spark the race that a new dream to push man out to the stars will take hold of us. [85] If it is admitted that our organization has degenerated to the point that we haven't a single pilot, then it might well be that the Economic Planning Board, and especially those cloddies on Appropriations, will terminate the whole Department of Space Exploration." [86] "So...." Girard-Perregaux said gently. [87] "So some way we've got to bring Seymour Pond out of his retirement!" [88] "Now we are getting to matters." [89] Girard-Perregaux nodded his agreement. [90] Looking over the rim of his glass, his eyes narrowed in thought as his face took on an expression of Machiavellianism. [91] "And do not the ends justify the means?" [92] Gubelin blinked at him. [93] The other chuckled. [94] "The trouble with you, Lofting, is that you have failed to bring history to bear on our problem. [95] Haven't you ever read of the sailor and his way of life?" [96] "Sailor? [97] What in the name of the living Zoroaster has the sailor got to do with it?" [98] "You must realize, my dear Lofting, that our Si Pond is nothing more than a latter-day sailor, with many of the problems and view-points, tendencies and weaknesses of the voyager of the past. [99] Have you never heard of the seaman who dreamed of returning to the village of his birth and buying a chicken farm or some such? [100] All the long months at sea—and sometimes the tramp freighters or whaling craft would be out for years at a stretch before returning to home port—he would talk of his retirement and his dream. [101] And then? [102] Then in port, it would be one short drink with the boys, before taking his accumulated pay and heading home. [103] The one short drink would lead to another. [104] And morning would find him, drunk, rolled, tattooed and possibly sleeping it off in jail. [105] So back to sea he'd have to go." [106] Gubelin grunted bitterly. [107] "Unfortunately, our present-day sailor can't be separated from his money quite so easily. [108] If he could, I'd personally be willing to lure him down some dark alley, knock him over the head and roll him myself. [109] Just to bring him back to his job again." [110] He brought his wallet from his pocket, and flicked it open to his universal credit card. [111] "The ultimate means of exchange," he grunted. [112] "Nobody can spend your money, but you, yourself. [113] Nobody can steal it, nobody can, ah, con you out of it. [114] Just how do you expect to sever our present-day sailor and his accumulated nest egg?" [115] The other chuckled again. [116] "It is simply a matter of finding more modern methods, my dear chap." [117] II Si Pond was a great believer in the institution of the spree. [118] Any excuse would do. [119] Back when he had finished basic education at the age of twenty-five and was registered for the labor draft, there hadn't been a chance in a hundred that he'd have the bad luck to have his name pulled. [120] But when it had been, Si had celebrated. [121] When he had been informed that his physical and mental qualifications were such that he was eligible for the most dangerous occupation in the Ultrawelfare State and had been pressured into taking training for space pilot, he had celebrated once again. [122] Twenty-two others had taken the training with him, and only he and Rod Cameroon had passed the finals. [123] On this occasion, he and Rod had celebrated together. [124] It had been quite a party. [125] Two weeks later, Rod had burned on a faulty take-off on what should have been a routine Moon run. [126] Each time Si returned from one of his own runs, he celebrated. [127] A spree, a bust, a bat, a wing-ding, a night on the town. [128] A commemoration of dangers met and passed. [129] Now it was all over. [130] At the age of thirty he was retired. [131] Law prevented him from ever being called up for contributing to the country's labor needs again. [132] And he most certainly wasn't going to volunteer. [133] He had taken his schooling much as had his contemporaries. [134] There wasn't any particular reason for trying to excell. [135] You didn't want to get the reputation for being a wise guy, or a cloddy either. [136] Just one of the fellas. [137] You could do the same in life whether you really studied or not. [138] You had your Inalienable Basic stock, didn't you? [139] What else did you need? [140] It had come as a surprise when he'd been drafted for the labor force. [141] In the early days of the Ultrawelfare State, they had made a mistake in adapting to the automation of the second industrial revolution. [142] They had attempted to give everyone work by reducing the number of working hours in the day, and the number of working days in the week. [143] It finally became ludicrous when employees of industry were working but two days a week, two hours a day. [144] In fact, it got chaotic. [145] It became obvious that it was more practical to have one worker putting in thirty-five hours a week and getting to know his job well, than it was to have a score of employees, each working a few hours a week and none of them ever really becoming efficient. [146] The only fair thing was to let the technologically unemployed remain unemployed, with their Inalienable Basic stock as the equivalent of unemployment insurance, while the few workers still needed put in a reasonable number of hours a day, a reasonable number of weeks a year and a reasonable number of years in a life time. [147] When new employees were needed, a draft lottery was held. [148] All persons registered in the labor force participated. [149] If you were drawn, you must need serve. [150] The dissatisfaction those chosen might feel at their poor luck was offset by the fact that they were granted additional Variable Basic shares, according to the tasks they fulfilled. [151] Such shares could be added to their portfolios, the dividends becoming part of their current credit balance, or could be sold for a lump sum on the market. [152] Yes, but now it was all over. [153] He had his own little place, his own vacuum-tube vehicle and twice the amount of shares of Basic that most of his fellow citizens could boast. [154] Si Pond had it made. [155] A spree was obviously called for. [156] He was going to do this one right. [157] This was the big one. [158] He'd accumulated a lot of dollars these past few months and he intended to blow them, or at least a sizeable number of them. [159] His credit card was burning a hole in his pocket, as the expression went. [160] However, he wasn't going to rush into things. [161] This had to be done correctly. [162] Too many a spree was played by ear. [163] You started off with a few drinks, fell in with some second rate mopsy and usually wound up in a third rate groggery where you spent just as much as though you'd been in the classiest joint in town. [164] Came morning and you had nothing to show for all the dollars that had been spent but a rum-head. [165] Thus, Si was vaguely aware, it had always been down through the centuries since the Phoenecian sailor, back from his year-long trip to the tin mines of Cornwall, blew his hard earned share of the voyage's profits in a matter of days in the wine shops of Tyre. [166] Nobody gets quite so little for his money as that loneliest of all workers, he who must leave his home for distant lands, returning only periodically and usually with the salary of lengthy, weary periods of time to be spent hurriedly in an attempt to achieve the pleasure and happiness so long denied him. [167] Si was going to do it differently this time. [168] Nothing but the best. [169] Wine, women, song, food, entertainment. [170] The works. [171] But nothing but the best. [172] To start off, he dressed with great care in the honorable retirement-rank suit he had so recently purchased. [173] His space pin he attached carefully to the lapel. [174] That was a good beginning, he decided. [175] A bit of prestige didn't hurt you when you went out on the town. [176] In the Ultrawelfare State hardly one person in a hundred actually ever performed anything of value to society. [177] The efforts of most weren't needed. [178] Those few who did contribute were awarded honors, decorations, titles. [179] Attired satisfactorily, Si double-checked to see that his credit card was in his pocket. [180] As an after-thought, he went over to the auto-apartment's teevee-phone, flicked it on, held the card to the screen and said, "Balance check, please." [181] In a moment, the teevee-phone's robot voice reported, "Ten shares of Inalienable Basic. [182] Twelve shares of Variable Basic, current value, four thousand, two hundred and thirty-three dollars and sixty-two cents apiece. [183] Current cash credit, one thousand and eighty-four dollars." [184] The screen went dead. [185] One thousand and eighty-four dollars. [186] That was plenty. [187] He could safely spend as much as half of it, if the spree got as lively as he hoped it would. [188] His monthly dividends were due in another week or so, and he wouldn't have to worry about current expenses. [189] Yes, indeedy, Si Pond was as solvent as he had ever been in his thirty years. [190] He opened the small, closet-like door which housed his vacuum-tube two-seater, and wedged himself into the small vehicle. [191] He brought down the canopy, dropped the pressurizer and considered the dial. [192] Only one place really made sense. [193] The big city. [194] He considered for a moment, decided against the boroughs of Baltimore and Boston, and selected Manhattan instead. [195] He had the resources. [196] He might as well do it up brown. [197] He dialed Manhattan and felt the sinking sensation that presaged his car's dropping to tube level. [198] While it was being taken up by the robot controls, being shuttled here and there preparatory to the shot to his destination, he dialed the vehicle's teevee-phone for information on the hotels of the island of the Hudson. [199] He selected a swank hostelry he'd read about and seen on the teevee casts of society and celebrity gossip reporters, and dialed it on the car's destination dial. [200] "Nothing too good for ex-Space Pilot Si Pond," he said aloud. [201] The car hesitated for a moment, that brief hesitation before the shot, and Si took the involuntary breath from which only heroes could refrain. [202] He sank back slowly into the seat. [203] Moments passed, and the direction of the pressure was reversed. [204] Manhattan. [205] The shuttling began again, and one or two more traversing sub-shots. [206] Finally, the dash threw a green light and Si opened the canopy and stepped into his hotel room. [207] A voice said gently, "If the quarters are satisfactory, please present your credit card within ten minutes." [208] Si took his time. [209] Not that he really needed it. [210] It was by far the most swank suite he had ever seen. [211] One wall was a window of whatever size the guest might desire and Si touched the control that dilated it to the full. [212] His view opened in such wise that he could see both the Empire State Building Museum and the Hudson. [213] Beyond the river stretched the all but endless city which was Greater Metropolis. [214] He didn't take the time to flick on the menu, next to the auto-dining table, nor to check the endless potables on the autobar list. [215] All that, he well knew, would be superlative. [216] Besides, he didn't plan to dine or do much drinking in his suite. [217] He made a mock leer. [218] Not unless he managed to acquire some feminine companionship, that was. [219] He looked briefly into the swimming pool and bath, then flopped himself happily onto the bed. [220] It wasn't up to the degree of softness he presently desired, and he dialed the thing to the ultimate in that direction so that with a laugh he sank almost out of sight into the mattress. [221] He came back to his feet, gave his suit a quick patting so that it fell into press and, taking his credit card from his pocket, put it against the teevee-phone screen and pressed the hotel button so that registration could be completed. [222] For a moment he stood in the center of the floor, in thought. [223] Take it easy, Si Pond, take it all easy, this time. [224] No throwing his dollars around in second-class groggeries, no eating in automated luncheterias. [225] This time, be it the only time in his life, he was going to frolic in the grand manner. [226] No cloddy was Si Pond. [227] He decided a drink was in order to help him plan his strategy. [228] A drink at the hotel's famous Kudos Room where celebrities were reputed to be a dime a dozen. [229] He left the suite and stepped into one of the elevators. [230] He said, "Kudos Room." [231] The auto-elevator murmured politely, "Yes, sir, the Kudos Room." [232] At the door to the famous rendezvous of the swankiest set, Si paused a moment and looked about. [233] He'd never been in a place like this, either. [234] However, he stifled his first instinct to wonder about what this was going to do to his current credit balance with an inner grin and made his way to the bar. [235] There was actually a bartender. [236] Si Pond suppressed his astonishment and said, offhand, attempting an air of easy sophistication, "Slivovitz Sour." [237] "Yes, sir." [238] The drinks in the Kudos Room might be concocted by hand, but Si noticed they had the routine teevee screens built into the bar for payment. [239] He put his credit card on the screen immediately before him when the drink came, and had to quell his desire to dial for a balance check, so as to be able to figure out what the Sour had cost him. [240] Well, this was something like it. [241] This was the sort of thing he'd dreamed about, out there in the great alone, seated in the confining conning tower of his space craft. [242] He sipped at the drink, finding it up to his highest expectations, and then swiveled slightly on his stool to take a look at the others present. [243] To his disappointment, there were no recognizable celebrities. [244] None that he placed, at least—top teevee stars, top politicians of the Ultrawelfare State or Sports personalities. [245] He turned back to his drink and noticed, for the first time, the girl who occupied the stool two down from him. [246] Si Pond blinked. [247] He blinked and then swallowed. " [248] Zo-ro-as-ter ," he breathed. [249] She was done in the latest style from Shanghai, even to the point of having cosmetically duplicated the Mongolian fold at the corners of her eyes. [250] Every pore, but every pore, was in place. [251] She sat with the easy grace of the Orient, so seldom found in the West. [252] His stare couldn't be ignored. [253] She looked at him coldly, turned to the bartender and murmured, "A Far Out Cooler, please, Fredric." [254] Then deliberately added, "I thought the Kudos Room was supposed to be exclusive." [255] There was nothing the bartender could say to that, and he went about building the drink. [256] Si cleared his throat. [257] "Hey," he said, "how about letting this one be on me?" [258] Her eyebrows, which had been plucked and penciled to carry out her Oriental motif, rose. [259] "Really!" [260] she said, drawing it out. [261] The bartender said hurriedly, "I beg your pardon, sir...." The girl, her voice suddenly subtly changed, said, "Why, isn't that a space pin?" [262] Si, disconcerted by the sudden reversal, said, "Yeah ... [263] sure." [264] "Good Heavens, you're a spaceman?" [265] "Sure." [266] He pointed at the lapel pin. [267] "You can't wear one unless you been on at least a Moon run." [268] She was obviously both taken back and impressed. [269] "Why," she said, "you're Seymour Pond, the pilot. [270] I tuned in on the banquet they gave you." [271] Si, carrying his glass, moved over to the stool next to her. [272] "Call me Si," he said. [273] "Everybody calls me Si." [274] She said, "I'm Natalie. [275] Natalie Paskov. [276] Just Natalie. [277] Imagine meeting Seymour Pond. [278] Just sitting down next to him at a bar. [279] Just like that." [280] "Si," Si said, gratified. [281] Holy Zoroaster, he'd never seen anything like this rarified pulchritude. [282] Maybe on teevee, of course, one of the current sex symbols, but never in person. [283] "Call me Si," he said again. [284] "I been called Si so long, I don't even know who somebody's talking to if they say Seymour." [285] "I cried when they gave you that antique watch," she said, her tone such that it was obvious she hadn't quite adjusted as yet to having met him. [286] Si Pond was surprised. [287] "Cried?" [288] he said. [289] "Well, why? [290] I was kind of bored with the whole thing. [291] But old Doc Gubelin, I used to work under him in the Space Exploration department, he was hot for it." [292] " Academician Gubelin?" [293] she said. [294] "You just call him Doc ?" [295] Si was expansive. [296] "Why, sure. [297] In the Space Department we don't have much time for formality. [298] Everybody's just Si, and Doc, and Jim. [299] Like that. [300] But how come you cried?" [301] She looked down into the drink the bartender had placed before her, as though avoiding his face. [302] "I ... [303] I suppose it was that speech Doctor Girard-Perregaux made. [304] There you stood, so fine and straight in your space-pilot uniform, the veteran of six exploration runs to the planets...." "Well," Si said modestly, "two of my runs were only to the Moon." [305] "... and he said all those things about man's conquest of space. [306] And the dream of the stars which man has held so long. [307] And then the fact that you were the last of the space pilots. [308] The last man in the whole world trained to pilot a space craft. [309] And here you were, retiring." [310] Si grunted. [311] "Yeah. [312] That's all part of the Doc's scheme to get me to take on another three runs. [313] They're afraid the whole department'll be dropped by the Appropriations Committee on this here Economic Planning Board. [314] Even if they can find some other patsy to train for the job, it'd take maybe a year before you could even send him on a Moon hop. [315] So old man Gubelin, and Girard-Perregaux too, they're both trying to pressure me into more trips. [316] Otherwise they got a Space Exploration Department, with all the expense and all, but nobody to pilot their ships. [317] It's kind of funny, in a way. [318] You know what one of those spaceships costs?" [319] "Funny?" [320] she said. [321] "Why, I don't think it's funny at all." [322] Si said, "Look, how about another drink?" [323] Natalie Paskov said, "Oh, I'd love to have a drink with you, Mr...." "Si," Si said. [324] He motioned to the bartender with a circular twist of the hand indicating their need for two more of the same. [325] "How come you know so much about it? [326] You don't meet many people who are interested in space any more. [327] In fact, most people are almost contemptuous, like. [328] Think it's kind of a big boondoggle deal to help use up a lot of materials and all and keep the economy going." [329] Natalie said earnestly, "Why, I've been a space fan all my life. [330] I've read all about it. [331] Have always known the names of all the space pilots and everything about them, ever since I was a child. [332] I suppose you'd say I have the dream that Doctor Girard-Perregaux spoke about." [333] Si chuckled. [334] "A real buff, eh? [335] You know, it's kind of funny. [336] I was never much interested in it. [337] And I got a darn sight less interested after my first run and I found out what space cafard was." [338] She frowned. [339] "I don't believe I know much about that." [340] Sitting in the Kudos Room with the most beautiful girl to whom he had ever talked, Si could be nonchalant about the subject. [341] "Old Gubelin keeps that angle mostly hushed up and out of the magazine and newspaper articles. [342] Says there's enough adverse publicity about space exploration already. [343] But at this stage of the game when the whole ship's crammed tight with this automatic scientific apparatus and all, there's precious little room in the conning tower and you're the only man aboard. [344] The Doc says later on when ships are bigger and there's a whole flock of people aboard, there won't be any such thing as space cafard, but...." Of a sudden the right side of Si Pond's mouth began to tic and he hurriedly took up his drink and knocked it back.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Please describe the Ultrawelfare State": 1. [60] He is an average young man. Born in our Ultrawelfare State, he was guaranteed his fundamental womb-to-tomb security by being issued that minimum number of Basic shares in our society that allows him an income sufficient to secure the food, clothing, shelter, medical care and education to sustain a low level of subsistence. 2. [142] They had attempted to give everyone work by reducing the number of working hours in the day, and the number of working days in the week. 3. [143] It finally became ludicrous when employees of industry were working but two days a week, two hours a day. 4. [144] In fact, it got chaotic. 5. [145] It became obvious that it was more practical to have one worker putting in thirty-five hours a week and getting to know his job well, than it was to have a score of employees, each working a few hours a week and none of them ever really becoming efficient. 6. [146] The only fair thing was to let the technologically unemployed remain unemployed, with their Inalienable Basic stock as the equivalent of unemployment insurance, while the few workers still needed put in a reasonable number of hours a day, a reasonable number of weeks a year and a reasonable number of years in a life time. 7. [147] When new employees were needed, a draft lottery was held. 8. [148] All persons registered in the labor force participated. 9. [149] If you were drawn, you must need serve. 10. [150] The dissatisfaction those chosen might feel at their poor luck was offset by the fact that they were granted additional Variable Basic shares, according to the tasks they fulfilled. 11. [151] Such shares could be added to their portfolios, the dividends becoming part of their current credit balance, or could be sold for a lump sum on the market. 12. [152] Yes, but now it was all over. 13. [153] He had his own little place, his own vacuum-tube vehicle and twice the amount of shares of Basic that most of his fellow citizens could boast. 14. [154] Si Pond had it made. 15. [175] Attired satisfactorily, Si double-checked to see that his credit card was in his pocket. 16. [181] In a moment, the teevee-phone's robot voice reported, "Ten shares of Inalienable Basic. Twelve shares of Variable Basic, current value, four thousand, two hundred and thirty-three dollars and sixty-two cents apiece. Current cash credit, one thousand and eighty-four dollars." 17. [182] Twelve shares of Variable Basic, current value, four thousand, two hundred and thirty-three dollars and sixty-two cents apiece. 18. [183] Current cash credit, one thousand and eighty-four dollars. 19. [184] The screen went dead. 20. [185] One thousand and eighty-four dollars. 21. [186] That was plenty. 22. [187] He could safely spend as much as half of it, if the spree got as lively as he hoped it would. 23. [188] His monthly dividends were due in another week or so, and he wouldn't have to worry about current expenses. 24. [189] Yes, indeedy, Si Pond was as solvent as he had ever been in his thirty years. 25. [190] He opened the small, closet-like door which housed his vacuum-tube two-seater, and wedged himself into the small vehicle. 26. [191] He brought down the canopy, dropped the pressurizer and considered the dial. 27. [192] Only one place really made sense. 28. [193] The big city. 29. [194] He considered for a moment, decided against the boroughs of Baltimore and Boston, and selected Manhattan instead. 30. [195] He had the resources. 31. [196] He might as well do it up brown. 32. [197] He dialed Manhattan and felt the sinking sensation that presaged his car's dropping to tube level. 33. [198] While it was being taken up by the robot controls, being shuttled here and there preparatory to the shot to his destination, he dialed the vehicle's teevee-phone for information on the hotels of the island of the Hudson. 34. [199] He selected a swank hostelry he'd read about and seen on the teevee casts of society and celebrity gossip reporters, and dialed it on the car's destination dial. 35. [200] "Nothing too good for ex-Space Pilot Si Pond," he said aloud. 36. [201] The car hesitated for a moment, that brief hesitation before the shot, and Si took the involuntary breath from which only heroes could refrain. 37. [202] He sank back slowly into the seat. 38. [203] Moments passed, and the direction of the pressure was reversed. 39. [204] Manhattan. 40. [205] The shuttling began again, and one or two more traversing sub-shots. 41. [206] Finally, the dash threw a green light and Si opened the canopy and stepped into his hotel room. 42. [207] A voice said gently, "If the quarters are satisfactory, please present your credit card within ten minutes." 43. [208] Si took his time. 44. [209] Not that he really needed it. 45. [210] It was by far the most swank suite he had ever seen. 46. [211] One wall was a window of whatever size the guest might desire and Si touched the control that dilated it to the full. 47. [212] His view opened in such wise that he could see both the Empire State Building Museum and the Hudson. 48. [213] Beyond the river stretched the all but endless city which was Greater Metropolis. 49. [214] He didn't take the time to flick on the menu, next to the auto-dining table, nor to check the endless potables on the autobar list. 50. [215] All that, he well knew, would be superlative.

How do Gubelin and Perregaux plan to get Pond back in the space program?

[1] SPACEMAN ON A SPREE BY MACK REYNOLDS Illustrated by Nodel [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of Tomorrow June 1963 Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [2] What's more important—Man's conquest of space, or one spaceman's life? [3] I They gave him a gold watch. [4] It was meant to be symbolical, of course. [5] In the old tradition. [6] It was in the way of an antique, being one of the timepieces made generations past in the Alpine area of Eur-Asia. [7] Its quaintness lay in the fact that it was wound, not electronically by power-radio, but by the actual physical movements of the bearer, a free swinging rotor keeping the mainspring at a constant tension. [8] They also had a banquet for him, complete with speeches by such bigwigs of the Department of Space Exploration as Academician Lofting Gubelin and Doctor Hans Girard-Perregaux. [9] There was also somebody from the government who spoke, but he was one of those who were pseudo-elected and didn't know much about the field of space travel nor the significance of Seymour Pond's retirement. [10] Si didn't bother to remember his name. [11] He only wondered vaguely why the cloddy had turned up at all. [12] In common with recipients of gold watches of a score of generations before him, Si Pond would have preferred something a bit more tangible in the way of reward, such as a few shares of Variable Basic to add to his portfolio. [13] But that, he supposed, was asking too much. [14] The fact of the matter was, Si knew that his retiring had set them back. [15] They hadn't figured he had enough shares of Basic to see him through decently. [16] Well, possibly he didn't, given their standards. [17] But Space Pilot Seymour Pond didn't have their standards. [18] He'd had plenty of time to think it over. [19] It was better to retire on a limited crediting, on a confoundedly limited crediting, than to take the two or three more trips in hopes of attaining a higher standard. [20] He'd had plenty of time to figure it out, there alone in space on the Moon run, there on the Venus or Mars runs. [21] There on the long, long haul to the Jupiter satellites, fearfully checking the symptoms of space cafard, the madness compounded of claustrophobia, monotony, boredom and free fall. [22] Plenty of time. [23] Time to decide that a one room mini-auto-apartment, complete with an autochair and built-in autobar, and with one wall a teevee screen, was all he needed to find contentment for a mighty long time. [24] Possibly somebody like Doc Girard-Perregaux might be horrified at the idea of living in a mini-auto-apartment ... not realizing that to a pilot it was roomy beyond belief compared to the conning tower of a space craft. [25] No. [26] Even as Si listened to their speeches, accepted the watch and made a halting little talk of his own, he was grinning inwardly. [27] There wasn't anything they could do. [28] He had them now. [29] He had enough Basic to keep him comfortably, by his standards, for the rest of his life. [30] He was never going to subject himself to space cafard again. [31] Just thinking about it, now, set the tic to going at the side of his mouth. [32] They could count down and blast off, for all he gave a damn. [33] The gold watch idea had been that of Lofting Gubelin, which was typical, he being in the way of a living anachronism himself. [34] In fact, Academician Gubelin was possibly the only living man on North America who still wore spectacles. [35] His explanation was that a phobia against having his eyes touched prohibited either surgery to remould his eyeballs and cure his myopia, or contact lenses. [36] That was only an alibi so far as his closest associate, Hans Girard-Perregaux, was concerned. [37] Doctor Girard-Perregaux was convinced Gubelin would have even worn facial hair, had he but a touch more courage. [38] Gubelin longed for yesteryear, a seldom found phenomenon under the Ultrawelfare State. [39] Slumped in an autochair in the escape room of his Floridian home, Lofting Gubelin scowled at his friend. [40] He said, acidly, "Any more bright schemes, Hans? [41] I presume you now acknowledge that appealing to the cloddy's patriotism, sentiment and desire for public acclaim have miserably failed." [42] Girard-Perregaux said easily, "I wouldn't call Seymour Pond a cloddy. [43] In his position, I am afraid I would do the same thing he has." [44] "That's nonsense, Hans. [45] Zoroaster! [46] Either you or I would gladly take Pond's place were we capable of performing the duties for which he has been trained. [47] There aren't two men on North America—there aren't two men in the world!—who better realize the urgency of continuing our delving into space." [48] Gubelin snapped his fingers. [49] "Like that, either of us would give our lives to prevent man from completely abandoning the road to his destiny." [50] His friend said drily, "Either of us could have volunteered for pilot training forty years ago, Lofting. [51] We didn't." [52] "At that time there wasn't such a blistering percentage of funkers throughout this whole blistering Ultrawelfare State! [53] Who could foresee that eventually our whole program would face ending due to lack of courageous young men willing to take chances, willing to face adventure, willing to react to the stimulus of danger in the manner our ancestors did?" [54] Girard-Perregaux grunted his sarcasm and dialed a glass of iced tea and tequila. [55] He said, "Nevertheless, both you and I conform with the present generation in finding it far more pleasant to follow one's way of life in the comfort of one's home than to be confronted with the unpleasantness of facing nature's dangers in more adventurous pastimes." [56] Gubelin, half angry at his friend's argument, leaned forward to snap rebuttal, but the other was wagging a finger at him negatively. [57] "Face reality, Lofting. [58] Don't require or expect from Seymour Pond more than is to be found there. [59] He is an average young man. [60] Born in our Ultrawelfare State, he was guaranteed his fundamental womb-to-tomb security by being issued that minimum number of Basic shares in our society that allows him an income sufficient to secure the food, clothing, shelter, medical care and education to sustain a low level of subsistence. [61] Percentages were against his ever being drafted into industry. [62] Automation being what it is, only a fraction of the population is ever called up. [63] But Pond was. [64] His industrial aptitude dossier revealed him a possible candidate for space pilot, and it was you yourself who talked him into taking the training ... pointing out the more pragmatic advantages such as complete retirement after but six trips, added shares of Basic so that he could enjoy a more comfortable life than most and the fame that would accrue to him as one of the very few who still participate in travel to the planets. [65] Very well. [66] He was sold. [67] Took his training, which, of course, required long years of drudgery to him. [68] Then, performing his duties quite competently, he made his six trips. [69] He is now legally eligible for retirement. [70] He was drafted into the working force reserves, served his time, and is now free from toil for the balance of his life. [71] Why should he listen to our pleas for a few more trips?" [72] "But has he no spirit of adventure? [73] Has he no feeling for...." Girard-Perregaux was wagging his finger again, a gesture that, seemingly mild though it was, had an astonishing ability to break off the conversation of one who debated with the easy-seeming, quiet spoken man. [74] He said, "No, he hasn't. [75] Few there are who have, nowadays. [76] Man has always paid lip service to adventure, hardships and excitement, but in actuality his instincts, like those of any other animal, lead him to the least dangerous path. [77] Today we've reached the point where no one need face danger—ever. [78] There are few who don't take advantage of the fact. [79] Including you and me, Lofting, and including Seymour Pond." [80] His friend and colleague changed subjects abruptly, impatiently. [81] "Let's leave this blistering jabber about Pond's motivation and get to the point. [82] The man is the only trained space pilot in the world. [83] It will take months, possibly more than a year, to bring another novitiate pilot to the point where he can safely be trusted to take our next explorer craft out. [84] Appropriations for our expeditions have been increasingly hard to come by—even though in our minds, Hans, we are near important breakthroughs, breakthroughs which might possibly so spark the race that a new dream to push man out to the stars will take hold of us. [85] If it is admitted that our organization has degenerated to the point that we haven't a single pilot, then it might well be that the Economic Planning Board, and especially those cloddies on Appropriations, will terminate the whole Department of Space Exploration." [86] "So...." Girard-Perregaux said gently. [87] "So some way we've got to bring Seymour Pond out of his retirement!" [88] "Now we are getting to matters." [89] Girard-Perregaux nodded his agreement. [90] Looking over the rim of his glass, his eyes narrowed in thought as his face took on an expression of Machiavellianism. [91] "And do not the ends justify the means?" [92] Gubelin blinked at him. [93] The other chuckled. [94] "The trouble with you, Lofting, is that you have failed to bring history to bear on our problem. [95] Haven't you ever read of the sailor and his way of life?" [96] "Sailor? [97] What in the name of the living Zoroaster has the sailor got to do with it?" [98] "You must realize, my dear Lofting, that our Si Pond is nothing more than a latter-day sailor, with many of the problems and view-points, tendencies and weaknesses of the voyager of the past. [99] Have you never heard of the seaman who dreamed of returning to the village of his birth and buying a chicken farm or some such? [100] All the long months at sea—and sometimes the tramp freighters or whaling craft would be out for years at a stretch before returning to home port—he would talk of his retirement and his dream. [101] And then? [102] Then in port, it would be one short drink with the boys, before taking his accumulated pay and heading home. [103] The one short drink would lead to another. [104] And morning would find him, drunk, rolled, tattooed and possibly sleeping it off in jail. [105] So back to sea he'd have to go." [106] Gubelin grunted bitterly. [107] "Unfortunately, our present-day sailor can't be separated from his money quite so easily. [108] If he could, I'd personally be willing to lure him down some dark alley, knock him over the head and roll him myself. [109] Just to bring him back to his job again." [110] He brought his wallet from his pocket, and flicked it open to his universal credit card. [111] "The ultimate means of exchange," he grunted. [112] "Nobody can spend your money, but you, yourself. [113] Nobody can steal it, nobody can, ah, con you out of it. [114] Just how do you expect to sever our present-day sailor and his accumulated nest egg?" [115] The other chuckled again. [116] "It is simply a matter of finding more modern methods, my dear chap." [117] II Si Pond was a great believer in the institution of the spree. [118] Any excuse would do. [119] Back when he had finished basic education at the age of twenty-five and was registered for the labor draft, there hadn't been a chance in a hundred that he'd have the bad luck to have his name pulled. [120] But when it had been, Si had celebrated. [121] When he had been informed that his physical and mental qualifications were such that he was eligible for the most dangerous occupation in the Ultrawelfare State and had been pressured into taking training for space pilot, he had celebrated once again. [122] Twenty-two others had taken the training with him, and only he and Rod Cameroon had passed the finals. [123] On this occasion, he and Rod had celebrated together. [124] It had been quite a party. [125] Two weeks later, Rod had burned on a faulty take-off on what should have been a routine Moon run. [126] Each time Si returned from one of his own runs, he celebrated. [127] A spree, a bust, a bat, a wing-ding, a night on the town. [128] A commemoration of dangers met and passed. [129] Now it was all over. [130] At the age of thirty he was retired. [131] Law prevented him from ever being called up for contributing to the country's labor needs again. [132] And he most certainly wasn't going to volunteer. [133] He had taken his schooling much as had his contemporaries. [134] There wasn't any particular reason for trying to excell. [135] You didn't want to get the reputation for being a wise guy, or a cloddy either. [136] Just one of the fellas. [137] You could do the same in life whether you really studied or not. [138] You had your Inalienable Basic stock, didn't you? [139] What else did you need? [140] It had come as a surprise when he'd been drafted for the labor force. [141] In the early days of the Ultrawelfare State, they had made a mistake in adapting to the automation of the second industrial revolution. [142] They had attempted to give everyone work by reducing the number of working hours in the day, and the number of working days in the week. [143] It finally became ludicrous when employees of industry were working but two days a week, two hours a day. [144] In fact, it got chaotic. [145] It became obvious that it was more practical to have one worker putting in thirty-five hours a week and getting to know his job well, than it was to have a score of employees, each working a few hours a week and none of them ever really becoming efficient. [146] The only fair thing was to let the technologically unemployed remain unemployed, with their Inalienable Basic stock as the equivalent of unemployment insurance, while the few workers still needed put in a reasonable number of hours a day, a reasonable number of weeks a year and a reasonable number of years in a life time. [147] When new employees were needed, a draft lottery was held. [148] All persons registered in the labor force participated. [149] If you were drawn, you must need serve. [150] The dissatisfaction those chosen might feel at their poor luck was offset by the fact that they were granted additional Variable Basic shares, according to the tasks they fulfilled. [151] Such shares could be added to their portfolios, the dividends becoming part of their current credit balance, or could be sold for a lump sum on the market. [152] Yes, but now it was all over. [153] He had his own little place, his own vacuum-tube vehicle and twice the amount of shares of Basic that most of his fellow citizens could boast. [154] Si Pond had it made. [155] A spree was obviously called for. [156] He was going to do this one right. [157] This was the big one. [158] He'd accumulated a lot of dollars these past few months and he intended to blow them, or at least a sizeable number of them. [159] His credit card was burning a hole in his pocket, as the expression went. [160] However, he wasn't going to rush into things. [161] This had to be done correctly. [162] Too many a spree was played by ear. [163] You started off with a few drinks, fell in with some second rate mopsy and usually wound up in a third rate groggery where you spent just as much as though you'd been in the classiest joint in town. [164] Came morning and you had nothing to show for all the dollars that had been spent but a rum-head. [165] Thus, Si was vaguely aware, it had always been down through the centuries since the Phoenecian sailor, back from his year-long trip to the tin mines of Cornwall, blew his hard earned share of the voyage's profits in a matter of days in the wine shops of Tyre. [166] Nobody gets quite so little for his money as that loneliest of all workers, he who must leave his home for distant lands, returning only periodically and usually with the salary of lengthy, weary periods of time to be spent hurriedly in an attempt to achieve the pleasure and happiness so long denied him. [167] Si was going to do it differently this time. [168] Nothing but the best. [169] Wine, women, song, food, entertainment. [170] The works. [171] But nothing but the best. [172] To start off, he dressed with great care in the honorable retirement-rank suit he had so recently purchased. [173] His space pin he attached carefully to the lapel. [174] That was a good beginning, he decided. [175] A bit of prestige didn't hurt you when you went out on the town. [176] In the Ultrawelfare State hardly one person in a hundred actually ever performed anything of value to society. [177] The efforts of most weren't needed. [178] Those few who did contribute were awarded honors, decorations, titles. [179] Attired satisfactorily, Si double-checked to see that his credit card was in his pocket. [180] As an after-thought, he went over to the auto-apartment's teevee-phone, flicked it on, held the card to the screen and said, "Balance check, please." [181] In a moment, the teevee-phone's robot voice reported, "Ten shares of Inalienable Basic. [182] Twelve shares of Variable Basic, current value, four thousand, two hundred and thirty-three dollars and sixty-two cents apiece. [183] Current cash credit, one thousand and eighty-four dollars." [184] The screen went dead. [185] One thousand and eighty-four dollars. [186] That was plenty. [187] He could safely spend as much as half of it, if the spree got as lively as he hoped it would. [188] His monthly dividends were due in another week or so, and he wouldn't have to worry about current expenses. [189] Yes, indeedy, Si Pond was as solvent as he had ever been in his thirty years. [190] He opened the small, closet-like door which housed his vacuum-tube two-seater, and wedged himself into the small vehicle. [191] He brought down the canopy, dropped the pressurizer and considered the dial. [192] Only one place really made sense. [193] The big city. [194] He considered for a moment, decided against the boroughs of Baltimore and Boston, and selected Manhattan instead. [195] He had the resources. [196] He might as well do it up brown. [197] He dialed Manhattan and felt the sinking sensation that presaged his car's dropping to tube level. [198] While it was being taken up by the robot controls, being shuttled here and there preparatory to the shot to his destination, he dialed the vehicle's teevee-phone for information on the hotels of the island of the Hudson. [199] He selected a swank hostelry he'd read about and seen on the teevee casts of society and celebrity gossip reporters, and dialed it on the car's destination dial. [200] "Nothing too good for ex-Space Pilot Si Pond," he said aloud. [201] The car hesitated for a moment, that brief hesitation before the shot, and Si took the involuntary breath from which only heroes could refrain. [202] He sank back slowly into the seat. [203] Moments passed, and the direction of the pressure was reversed. [204] Manhattan. [205] The shuttling began again, and one or two more traversing sub-shots. [206] Finally, the dash threw a green light and Si opened the canopy and stepped into his hotel room. [207] A voice said gently, "If the quarters are satisfactory, please present your credit card within ten minutes." [208] Si took his time. [209] Not that he really needed it. [210] It was by far the most swank suite he had ever seen. [211] One wall was a window of whatever size the guest might desire and Si touched the control that dilated it to the full. [212] His view opened in such wise that he could see both the Empire State Building Museum and the Hudson. [213] Beyond the river stretched the all but endless city which was Greater Metropolis. [214] He didn't take the time to flick on the menu, next to the auto-dining table, nor to check the endless potables on the autobar list. [215] All that, he well knew, would be superlative. [216] Besides, he didn't plan to dine or do much drinking in his suite. [217] He made a mock leer. [218] Not unless he managed to acquire some feminine companionship, that was. [219] He looked briefly into the swimming pool and bath, then flopped himself happily onto the bed. [220] It wasn't up to the degree of softness he presently desired, and he dialed the thing to the ultimate in that direction so that with a laugh he sank almost out of sight into the mattress. [221] He came back to his feet, gave his suit a quick patting so that it fell into press and, taking his credit card from his pocket, put it against the teevee-phone screen and pressed the hotel button so that registration could be completed. [222] For a moment he stood in the center of the floor, in thought. [223] Take it easy, Si Pond, take it all easy, this time. [224] No throwing his dollars around in second-class groggeries, no eating in automated luncheterias. [225] This time, be it the only time in his life, he was going to frolic in the grand manner. [226] No cloddy was Si Pond. [227] He decided a drink was in order to help him plan his strategy. [228] A drink at the hotel's famous Kudos Room where celebrities were reputed to be a dime a dozen. [229] He left the suite and stepped into one of the elevators. [230] He said, "Kudos Room." [231] The auto-elevator murmured politely, "Yes, sir, the Kudos Room." [232] At the door to the famous rendezvous of the swankiest set, Si paused a moment and looked about. [233] He'd never been in a place like this, either. [234] However, he stifled his first instinct to wonder about what this was going to do to his current credit balance with an inner grin and made his way to the bar. [235] There was actually a bartender. [236] Si Pond suppressed his astonishment and said, offhand, attempting an air of easy sophistication, "Slivovitz Sour." [237] "Yes, sir." [238] The drinks in the Kudos Room might be concocted by hand, but Si noticed they had the routine teevee screens built into the bar for payment. [239] He put his credit card on the screen immediately before him when the drink came, and had to quell his desire to dial for a balance check, so as to be able to figure out what the Sour had cost him. [240] Well, this was something like it. [241] This was the sort of thing he'd dreamed about, out there in the great alone, seated in the confining conning tower of his space craft. [242] He sipped at the drink, finding it up to his highest expectations, and then swiveled slightly on his stool to take a look at the others present. [243] To his disappointment, there were no recognizable celebrities. [244] None that he placed, at least—top teevee stars, top politicians of the Ultrawelfare State or Sports personalities. [245] He turned back to his drink and noticed, for the first time, the girl who occupied the stool two down from him. [246] Si Pond blinked. [247] He blinked and then swallowed. " [248] Zo-ro-as-ter ," he breathed. [249] She was done in the latest style from Shanghai, even to the point of having cosmetically duplicated the Mongolian fold at the corners of her eyes. [250] Every pore, but every pore, was in place. [251] She sat with the easy grace of the Orient, so seldom found in the West. [252] His stare couldn't be ignored. [253] She looked at him coldly, turned to the bartender and murmured, "A Far Out Cooler, please, Fredric." [254] Then deliberately added, "I thought the Kudos Room was supposed to be exclusive." [255] There was nothing the bartender could say to that, and he went about building the drink. [256] Si cleared his throat. [257] "Hey," he said, "how about letting this one be on me?" [258] Her eyebrows, which had been plucked and penciled to carry out her Oriental motif, rose. [259] "Really!" [260] she said, drawing it out. [261] The bartender said hurriedly, "I beg your pardon, sir...." The girl, her voice suddenly subtly changed, said, "Why, isn't that a space pin?" [262] Si, disconcerted by the sudden reversal, said, "Yeah ... [263] sure." [264] "Good Heavens, you're a spaceman?" [265] "Sure." [266] He pointed at the lapel pin. [267] "You can't wear one unless you been on at least a Moon run." [268] She was obviously both taken back and impressed. [269] "Why," she said, "you're Seymour Pond, the pilot. [270] I tuned in on the banquet they gave you." [271] Si, carrying his glass, moved over to the stool next to her. [272] "Call me Si," he said. [273] "Everybody calls me Si." [274] She said, "I'm Natalie. [275] Natalie Paskov. [276] Just Natalie. [277] Imagine meeting Seymour Pond. [278] Just sitting down next to him at a bar. [279] Just like that." [280] "Si," Si said, gratified. [281] Holy Zoroaster, he'd never seen anything like this rarified pulchritude. [282] Maybe on teevee, of course, one of the current sex symbols, but never in person. [283] "Call me Si," he said again. [284] "I been called Si so long, I don't even know who somebody's talking to if they say Seymour." [285] "I cried when they gave you that antique watch," she said, her tone such that it was obvious she hadn't quite adjusted as yet to having met him. [286] Si Pond was surprised. [287] "Cried?" [288] he said. [289] "Well, why? [290] I was kind of bored with the whole thing. [291] But old Doc Gubelin, I used to work under him in the Space Exploration department, he was hot for it." [292] " Academician Gubelin?" [293] she said. [294] "You just call him Doc ?" [295] Si was expansive. [296] "Why, sure. [297] In the Space Department we don't have much time for formality. [298] Everybody's just Si, and Doc, and Jim. [299] Like that. [300] But how come you cried?" [301] She looked down into the drink the bartender had placed before her, as though avoiding his face. [302] "I ... [303] I suppose it was that speech Doctor Girard-Perregaux made. [304] There you stood, so fine and straight in your space-pilot uniform, the veteran of six exploration runs to the planets...." "Well," Si said modestly, "two of my runs were only to the Moon." [305] "... and he said all those things about man's conquest of space. [306] And the dream of the stars which man has held so long. [307] And then the fact that you were the last of the space pilots. [308] The last man in the whole world trained to pilot a space craft. [309] And here you were, retiring." [310] Si grunted. [311] "Yeah. [312] That's all part of the Doc's scheme to get me to take on another three runs. [313] They're afraid the whole department'll be dropped by the Appropriations Committee on this here Economic Planning Board. [314] Even if they can find some other patsy to train for the job, it'd take maybe a year before you could even send him on a Moon hop. [315] So old man Gubelin, and Girard-Perregaux too, they're both trying to pressure me into more trips. [316] Otherwise they got a Space Exploration Department, with all the expense and all, but nobody to pilot their ships. [317] It's kind of funny, in a way. [318] You know what one of those spaceships costs?" [319] "Funny?" [320] she said. [321] "Why, I don't think it's funny at all." [322] Si said, "Look, how about another drink?" [323] Natalie Paskov said, "Oh, I'd love to have a drink with you, Mr...." "Si," Si said. [324] He motioned to the bartender with a circular twist of the hand indicating their need for two more of the same. [325] "How come you know so much about it? [326] You don't meet many people who are interested in space any more. [327] In fact, most people are almost contemptuous, like. [328] Think it's kind of a big boondoggle deal to help use up a lot of materials and all and keep the economy going." [329] Natalie said earnestly, "Why, I've been a space fan all my life. [330] I've read all about it. [331] Have always known the names of all the space pilots and everything about them, ever since I was a child. [332] I suppose you'd say I have the dream that Doctor Girard-Perregaux spoke about." [333] Si chuckled. [334] "A real buff, eh? [335] You know, it's kind of funny. [336] I was never much interested in it. [337] And I got a darn sight less interested after my first run and I found out what space cafard was." [338] She frowned. [339] "I don't believe I know much about that." [340] Sitting in the Kudos Room with the most beautiful girl to whom he had ever talked, Si could be nonchalant about the subject. [341] "Old Gubelin keeps that angle mostly hushed up and out of the magazine and newspaper articles. [342] Says there's enough adverse publicity about space exploration already. [343] But at this stage of the game when the whole ship's crammed tight with this automatic scientific apparatus and all, there's precious little room in the conning tower and you're the only man aboard. [344] The Doc says later on when ships are bigger and there's a whole flock of people aboard, there won't be any such thing as space cafard, but...." Of a sudden the right side of Si Pond's mouth began to tic and he hurriedly took up his drink and knocked it back.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "How do Gubelin and Perregaux plan to get Pond back in the space program?": 1. [87] "So some way we've got to bring Seymour Pond out of his retirement!" 2. [88] "Now we are getting to matters." 3. [89] Girard-Perregaux nodded his agreement. 4. [90] Looking over the rim of his glass, his eyes narrowed in thought as his face took on an expression of Machiavellianism. 5. [91] "And do not the ends justify the means?" 6. [94] "The trouble with you, Lofting, is that you have failed to bring history to bear on our problem." 7. [95] "Haven't you ever read of the sailor and his way of life?" 8. [98] "You must realize, my dear Lofting, that our Si Pond is nothing more than a latter-day sailor, with many of the problems and view-points, tendencies and weaknesses, of the voyager of the past." 9. [99] "Have you never heard of the seaman who dreamed of returning to the village of his birth and buying a chicken farm or some such?" 10. [100] "All the long months at sea—and sometimes the tramp freighters or whaling craft would be out for years at a stretch before returning to home port—he would talk of his retirement and his dream." 11. [101] "And then?" 12. [102] "Then in port, it would be one short drink with the boys, before taking his accumulated pay and heading home." 13. [103] "The one short drink would lead to another." 14. [104] "And morning would find him, drunk, rolled, tattooed and possibly sleeping it off in jail." 15. [105] "So back to sea he'd have to go." 16. [106] Gubelin grunted bitterly. 17. [107] "Unfortunately, our present-day sailor can't be separated from his money quite so easily." 18. [108] "If he could, I'd personally be willing to lure him down some dark alley, knock him over the head and roll him myself." 19. [109] "Just to bring him back to his job again." 20. [110] He brought his wallet from his pocket, and flicked it open to his universal credit card. 21. [111] "'The ultimate means of exchange,' he grunted." 22. [112] "'Nobody can spend your money, but you, yourself.'" 23. [113] "'Nobody can steal it, nobody can, ah, con you out of it.'" 24. [114] "'Just how do you expect to sever our present-day sailor and his accumulated nest egg?'" 25. [115] The other chuckled again. 26. [116] "'It is simply a matter of finding more modern methods, my dear chap.'"

What was Seymour Pond's job, how was he selected for it, and what did it entail?

[1] SPACEMAN ON A SPREE BY MACK REYNOLDS Illustrated by Nodel [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of Tomorrow June 1963 Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [2] What's more important—Man's conquest of space, or one spaceman's life? [3] I They gave him a gold watch. [4] It was meant to be symbolical, of course. [5] In the old tradition. [6] It was in the way of an antique, being one of the timepieces made generations past in the Alpine area of Eur-Asia. [7] Its quaintness lay in the fact that it was wound, not electronically by power-radio, but by the actual physical movements of the bearer, a free swinging rotor keeping the mainspring at a constant tension. [8] They also had a banquet for him, complete with speeches by such bigwigs of the Department of Space Exploration as Academician Lofting Gubelin and Doctor Hans Girard-Perregaux. [9] There was also somebody from the government who spoke, but he was one of those who were pseudo-elected and didn't know much about the field of space travel nor the significance of Seymour Pond's retirement. [10] Si didn't bother to remember his name. [11] He only wondered vaguely why the cloddy had turned up at all. [12] In common with recipients of gold watches of a score of generations before him, Si Pond would have preferred something a bit more tangible in the way of reward, such as a few shares of Variable Basic to add to his portfolio. [13] But that, he supposed, was asking too much. [14] The fact of the matter was, Si knew that his retiring had set them back. [15] They hadn't figured he had enough shares of Basic to see him through decently. [16] Well, possibly he didn't, given their standards. [17] But Space Pilot Seymour Pond didn't have their standards. [18] He'd had plenty of time to think it over. [19] It was better to retire on a limited crediting, on a confoundedly limited crediting, than to take the two or three more trips in hopes of attaining a higher standard. [20] He'd had plenty of time to figure it out, there alone in space on the Moon run, there on the Venus or Mars runs. [21] There on the long, long haul to the Jupiter satellites, fearfully checking the symptoms of space cafard, the madness compounded of claustrophobia, monotony, boredom and free fall. [22] Plenty of time. [23] Time to decide that a one room mini-auto-apartment, complete with an autochair and built-in autobar, and with one wall a teevee screen, was all he needed to find contentment for a mighty long time. [24] Possibly somebody like Doc Girard-Perregaux might be horrified at the idea of living in a mini-auto-apartment ... not realizing that to a pilot it was roomy beyond belief compared to the conning tower of a space craft. [25] No. [26] Even as Si listened to their speeches, accepted the watch and made a halting little talk of his own, he was grinning inwardly. [27] There wasn't anything they could do. [28] He had them now. [29] He had enough Basic to keep him comfortably, by his standards, for the rest of his life. [30] He was never going to subject himself to space cafard again. [31] Just thinking about it, now, set the tic to going at the side of his mouth. [32] They could count down and blast off, for all he gave a damn. [33] The gold watch idea had been that of Lofting Gubelin, which was typical, he being in the way of a living anachronism himself. [34] In fact, Academician Gubelin was possibly the only living man on North America who still wore spectacles. [35] His explanation was that a phobia against having his eyes touched prohibited either surgery to remould his eyeballs and cure his myopia, or contact lenses. [36] That was only an alibi so far as his closest associate, Hans Girard-Perregaux, was concerned. [37] Doctor Girard-Perregaux was convinced Gubelin would have even worn facial hair, had he but a touch more courage. [38] Gubelin longed for yesteryear, a seldom found phenomenon under the Ultrawelfare State. [39] Slumped in an autochair in the escape room of his Floridian home, Lofting Gubelin scowled at his friend. [40] He said, acidly, "Any more bright schemes, Hans? [41] I presume you now acknowledge that appealing to the cloddy's patriotism, sentiment and desire for public acclaim have miserably failed." [42] Girard-Perregaux said easily, "I wouldn't call Seymour Pond a cloddy. [43] In his position, I am afraid I would do the same thing he has." [44] "That's nonsense, Hans. [45] Zoroaster! [46] Either you or I would gladly take Pond's place were we capable of performing the duties for which he has been trained. [47] There aren't two men on North America—there aren't two men in the world!—who better realize the urgency of continuing our delving into space." [48] Gubelin snapped his fingers. [49] "Like that, either of us would give our lives to prevent man from completely abandoning the road to his destiny." [50] His friend said drily, "Either of us could have volunteered for pilot training forty years ago, Lofting. [51] We didn't." [52] "At that time there wasn't such a blistering percentage of funkers throughout this whole blistering Ultrawelfare State! [53] Who could foresee that eventually our whole program would face ending due to lack of courageous young men willing to take chances, willing to face adventure, willing to react to the stimulus of danger in the manner our ancestors did?" [54] Girard-Perregaux grunted his sarcasm and dialed a glass of iced tea and tequila. [55] He said, "Nevertheless, both you and I conform with the present generation in finding it far more pleasant to follow one's way of life in the comfort of one's home than to be confronted with the unpleasantness of facing nature's dangers in more adventurous pastimes." [56] Gubelin, half angry at his friend's argument, leaned forward to snap rebuttal, but the other was wagging a finger at him negatively. [57] "Face reality, Lofting. [58] Don't require or expect from Seymour Pond more than is to be found there. [59] He is an average young man. [60] Born in our Ultrawelfare State, he was guaranteed his fundamental womb-to-tomb security by being issued that minimum number of Basic shares in our society that allows him an income sufficient to secure the food, clothing, shelter, medical care and education to sustain a low level of subsistence. [61] Percentages were against his ever being drafted into industry. [62] Automation being what it is, only a fraction of the population is ever called up. [63] But Pond was. [64] His industrial aptitude dossier revealed him a possible candidate for space pilot, and it was you yourself who talked him into taking the training ... pointing out the more pragmatic advantages such as complete retirement after but six trips, added shares of Basic so that he could enjoy a more comfortable life than most and the fame that would accrue to him as one of the very few who still participate in travel to the planets. [65] Very well. [66] He was sold. [67] Took his training, which, of course, required long years of drudgery to him. [68] Then, performing his duties quite competently, he made his six trips. [69] He is now legally eligible for retirement. [70] He was drafted into the working force reserves, served his time, and is now free from toil for the balance of his life. [71] Why should he listen to our pleas for a few more trips?" [72] "But has he no spirit of adventure? [73] Has he no feeling for...." Girard-Perregaux was wagging his finger again, a gesture that, seemingly mild though it was, had an astonishing ability to break off the conversation of one who debated with the easy-seeming, quiet spoken man. [74] He said, "No, he hasn't. [75] Few there are who have, nowadays. [76] Man has always paid lip service to adventure, hardships and excitement, but in actuality his instincts, like those of any other animal, lead him to the least dangerous path. [77] Today we've reached the point where no one need face danger—ever. [78] There are few who don't take advantage of the fact. [79] Including you and me, Lofting, and including Seymour Pond." [80] His friend and colleague changed subjects abruptly, impatiently. [81] "Let's leave this blistering jabber about Pond's motivation and get to the point. [82] The man is the only trained space pilot in the world. [83] It will take months, possibly more than a year, to bring another novitiate pilot to the point where he can safely be trusted to take our next explorer craft out. [84] Appropriations for our expeditions have been increasingly hard to come by—even though in our minds, Hans, we are near important breakthroughs, breakthroughs which might possibly so spark the race that a new dream to push man out to the stars will take hold of us. [85] If it is admitted that our organization has degenerated to the point that we haven't a single pilot, then it might well be that the Economic Planning Board, and especially those cloddies on Appropriations, will terminate the whole Department of Space Exploration." [86] "So...." Girard-Perregaux said gently. [87] "So some way we've got to bring Seymour Pond out of his retirement!" [88] "Now we are getting to matters." [89] Girard-Perregaux nodded his agreement. [90] Looking over the rim of his glass, his eyes narrowed in thought as his face took on an expression of Machiavellianism. [91] "And do not the ends justify the means?" [92] Gubelin blinked at him. [93] The other chuckled. [94] "The trouble with you, Lofting, is that you have failed to bring history to bear on our problem. [95] Haven't you ever read of the sailor and his way of life?" [96] "Sailor? [97] What in the name of the living Zoroaster has the sailor got to do with it?" [98] "You must realize, my dear Lofting, that our Si Pond is nothing more than a latter-day sailor, with many of the problems and view-points, tendencies and weaknesses of the voyager of the past. [99] Have you never heard of the seaman who dreamed of returning to the village of his birth and buying a chicken farm or some such? [100] All the long months at sea—and sometimes the tramp freighters or whaling craft would be out for years at a stretch before returning to home port—he would talk of his retirement and his dream. [101] And then? [102] Then in port, it would be one short drink with the boys, before taking his accumulated pay and heading home. [103] The one short drink would lead to another. [104] And morning would find him, drunk, rolled, tattooed and possibly sleeping it off in jail. [105] So back to sea he'd have to go." [106] Gubelin grunted bitterly. [107] "Unfortunately, our present-day sailor can't be separated from his money quite so easily. [108] If he could, I'd personally be willing to lure him down some dark alley, knock him over the head and roll him myself. [109] Just to bring him back to his job again." [110] He brought his wallet from his pocket, and flicked it open to his universal credit card. [111] "The ultimate means of exchange," he grunted. [112] "Nobody can spend your money, but you, yourself. [113] Nobody can steal it, nobody can, ah, con you out of it. [114] Just how do you expect to sever our present-day sailor and his accumulated nest egg?" [115] The other chuckled again. [116] "It is simply a matter of finding more modern methods, my dear chap." [117] II Si Pond was a great believer in the institution of the spree. [118] Any excuse would do. [119] Back when he had finished basic education at the age of twenty-five and was registered for the labor draft, there hadn't been a chance in a hundred that he'd have the bad luck to have his name pulled. [120] But when it had been, Si had celebrated. [121] When he had been informed that his physical and mental qualifications were such that he was eligible for the most dangerous occupation in the Ultrawelfare State and had been pressured into taking training for space pilot, he had celebrated once again. [122] Twenty-two others had taken the training with him, and only he and Rod Cameroon had passed the finals. [123] On this occasion, he and Rod had celebrated together. [124] It had been quite a party. [125] Two weeks later, Rod had burned on a faulty take-off on what should have been a routine Moon run. [126] Each time Si returned from one of his own runs, he celebrated. [127] A spree, a bust, a bat, a wing-ding, a night on the town. [128] A commemoration of dangers met and passed. [129] Now it was all over. [130] At the age of thirty he was retired. [131] Law prevented him from ever being called up for contributing to the country's labor needs again. [132] And he most certainly wasn't going to volunteer. [133] He had taken his schooling much as had his contemporaries. [134] There wasn't any particular reason for trying to excell. [135] You didn't want to get the reputation for being a wise guy, or a cloddy either. [136] Just one of the fellas. [137] You could do the same in life whether you really studied or not. [138] You had your Inalienable Basic stock, didn't you? [139] What else did you need? [140] It had come as a surprise when he'd been drafted for the labor force. [141] In the early days of the Ultrawelfare State, they had made a mistake in adapting to the automation of the second industrial revolution. [142] They had attempted to give everyone work by reducing the number of working hours in the day, and the number of working days in the week. [143] It finally became ludicrous when employees of industry were working but two days a week, two hours a day. [144] In fact, it got chaotic. [145] It became obvious that it was more practical to have one worker putting in thirty-five hours a week and getting to know his job well, than it was to have a score of employees, each working a few hours a week and none of them ever really becoming efficient. [146] The only fair thing was to let the technologically unemployed remain unemployed, with their Inalienable Basic stock as the equivalent of unemployment insurance, while the few workers still needed put in a reasonable number of hours a day, a reasonable number of weeks a year and a reasonable number of years in a life time. [147] When new employees were needed, a draft lottery was held. [148] All persons registered in the labor force participated. [149] If you were drawn, you must need serve. [150] The dissatisfaction those chosen might feel at their poor luck was offset by the fact that they were granted additional Variable Basic shares, according to the tasks they fulfilled. [151] Such shares could be added to their portfolios, the dividends becoming part of their current credit balance, or could be sold for a lump sum on the market. [152] Yes, but now it was all over. [153] He had his own little place, his own vacuum-tube vehicle and twice the amount of shares of Basic that most of his fellow citizens could boast. [154] Si Pond had it made. [155] A spree was obviously called for. [156] He was going to do this one right. [157] This was the big one. [158] He'd accumulated a lot of dollars these past few months and he intended to blow them, or at least a sizeable number of them. [159] His credit card was burning a hole in his pocket, as the expression went. [160] However, he wasn't going to rush into things. [161] This had to be done correctly. [162] Too many a spree was played by ear. [163] You started off with a few drinks, fell in with some second rate mopsy and usually wound up in a third rate groggery where you spent just as much as though you'd been in the classiest joint in town. [164] Came morning and you had nothing to show for all the dollars that had been spent but a rum-head. [165] Thus, Si was vaguely aware, it had always been down through the centuries since the Phoenecian sailor, back from his year-long trip to the tin mines of Cornwall, blew his hard earned share of the voyage's profits in a matter of days in the wine shops of Tyre. [166] Nobody gets quite so little for his money as that loneliest of all workers, he who must leave his home for distant lands, returning only periodically and usually with the salary of lengthy, weary periods of time to be spent hurriedly in an attempt to achieve the pleasure and happiness so long denied him. [167] Si was going to do it differently this time. [168] Nothing but the best. [169] Wine, women, song, food, entertainment. [170] The works. [171] But nothing but the best. [172] To start off, he dressed with great care in the honorable retirement-rank suit he had so recently purchased. [173] His space pin he attached carefully to the lapel. [174] That was a good beginning, he decided. [175] A bit of prestige didn't hurt you when you went out on the town. [176] In the Ultrawelfare State hardly one person in a hundred actually ever performed anything of value to society. [177] The efforts of most weren't needed. [178] Those few who did contribute were awarded honors, decorations, titles. [179] Attired satisfactorily, Si double-checked to see that his credit card was in his pocket. [180] As an after-thought, he went over to the auto-apartment's teevee-phone, flicked it on, held the card to the screen and said, "Balance check, please." [181] In a moment, the teevee-phone's robot voice reported, "Ten shares of Inalienable Basic. [182] Twelve shares of Variable Basic, current value, four thousand, two hundred and thirty-three dollars and sixty-two cents apiece. [183] Current cash credit, one thousand and eighty-four dollars." [184] The screen went dead. [185] One thousand and eighty-four dollars. [186] That was plenty. [187] He could safely spend as much as half of it, if the spree got as lively as he hoped it would. [188] His monthly dividends were due in another week or so, and he wouldn't have to worry about current expenses. [189] Yes, indeedy, Si Pond was as solvent as he had ever been in his thirty years. [190] He opened the small, closet-like door which housed his vacuum-tube two-seater, and wedged himself into the small vehicle. [191] He brought down the canopy, dropped the pressurizer and considered the dial. [192] Only one place really made sense. [193] The big city. [194] He considered for a moment, decided against the boroughs of Baltimore and Boston, and selected Manhattan instead. [195] He had the resources. [196] He might as well do it up brown. [197] He dialed Manhattan and felt the sinking sensation that presaged his car's dropping to tube level. [198] While it was being taken up by the robot controls, being shuttled here and there preparatory to the shot to his destination, he dialed the vehicle's teevee-phone for information on the hotels of the island of the Hudson. [199] He selected a swank hostelry he'd read about and seen on the teevee casts of society and celebrity gossip reporters, and dialed it on the car's destination dial. [200] "Nothing too good for ex-Space Pilot Si Pond," he said aloud. [201] The car hesitated for a moment, that brief hesitation before the shot, and Si took the involuntary breath from which only heroes could refrain. [202] He sank back slowly into the seat. [203] Moments passed, and the direction of the pressure was reversed. [204] Manhattan. [205] The shuttling began again, and one or two more traversing sub-shots. [206] Finally, the dash threw a green light and Si opened the canopy and stepped into his hotel room. [207] A voice said gently, "If the quarters are satisfactory, please present your credit card within ten minutes." [208] Si took his time. [209] Not that he really needed it. [210] It was by far the most swank suite he had ever seen. [211] One wall was a window of whatever size the guest might desire and Si touched the control that dilated it to the full. [212] His view opened in such wise that he could see both the Empire State Building Museum and the Hudson. [213] Beyond the river stretched the all but endless city which was Greater Metropolis. [214] He didn't take the time to flick on the menu, next to the auto-dining table, nor to check the endless potables on the autobar list. [215] All that, he well knew, would be superlative. [216] Besides, he didn't plan to dine or do much drinking in his suite. [217] He made a mock leer. [218] Not unless he managed to acquire some feminine companionship, that was. [219] He looked briefly into the swimming pool and bath, then flopped himself happily onto the bed. [220] It wasn't up to the degree of softness he presently desired, and he dialed the thing to the ultimate in that direction so that with a laugh he sank almost out of sight into the mattress. [221] He came back to his feet, gave his suit a quick patting so that it fell into press and, taking his credit card from his pocket, put it against the teevee-phone screen and pressed the hotel button so that registration could be completed. [222] For a moment he stood in the center of the floor, in thought. [223] Take it easy, Si Pond, take it all easy, this time. [224] No throwing his dollars around in second-class groggeries, no eating in automated luncheterias. [225] This time, be it the only time in his life, he was going to frolic in the grand manner. [226] No cloddy was Si Pond. [227] He decided a drink was in order to help him plan his strategy. [228] A drink at the hotel's famous Kudos Room where celebrities were reputed to be a dime a dozen. [229] He left the suite and stepped into one of the elevators. [230] He said, "Kudos Room." [231] The auto-elevator murmured politely, "Yes, sir, the Kudos Room." [232] At the door to the famous rendezvous of the swankiest set, Si paused a moment and looked about. [233] He'd never been in a place like this, either. [234] However, he stifled his first instinct to wonder about what this was going to do to his current credit balance with an inner grin and made his way to the bar. [235] There was actually a bartender. [236] Si Pond suppressed his astonishment and said, offhand, attempting an air of easy sophistication, "Slivovitz Sour." [237] "Yes, sir." [238] The drinks in the Kudos Room might be concocted by hand, but Si noticed they had the routine teevee screens built into the bar for payment. [239] He put his credit card on the screen immediately before him when the drink came, and had to quell his desire to dial for a balance check, so as to be able to figure out what the Sour had cost him. [240] Well, this was something like it. [241] This was the sort of thing he'd dreamed about, out there in the great alone, seated in the confining conning tower of his space craft. [242] He sipped at the drink, finding it up to his highest expectations, and then swiveled slightly on his stool to take a look at the others present. [243] To his disappointment, there were no recognizable celebrities. [244] None that he placed, at least—top teevee stars, top politicians of the Ultrawelfare State or Sports personalities. [245] He turned back to his drink and noticed, for the first time, the girl who occupied the stool two down from him. [246] Si Pond blinked. [247] He blinked and then swallowed. " [248] Zo-ro-as-ter ," he breathed. [249] She was done in the latest style from Shanghai, even to the point of having cosmetically duplicated the Mongolian fold at the corners of her eyes. [250] Every pore, but every pore, was in place. [251] She sat with the easy grace of the Orient, so seldom found in the West. [252] His stare couldn't be ignored. [253] She looked at him coldly, turned to the bartender and murmured, "A Far Out Cooler, please, Fredric." [254] Then deliberately added, "I thought the Kudos Room was supposed to be exclusive." [255] There was nothing the bartender could say to that, and he went about building the drink. [256] Si cleared his throat. [257] "Hey," he said, "how about letting this one be on me?" [258] Her eyebrows, which had been plucked and penciled to carry out her Oriental motif, rose. [259] "Really!" [260] she said, drawing it out. [261] The bartender said hurriedly, "I beg your pardon, sir...." The girl, her voice suddenly subtly changed, said, "Why, isn't that a space pin?" [262] Si, disconcerted by the sudden reversal, said, "Yeah ... [263] sure." [264] "Good Heavens, you're a spaceman?" [265] "Sure." [266] He pointed at the lapel pin. [267] "You can't wear one unless you been on at least a Moon run." [268] She was obviously both taken back and impressed. [269] "Why," she said, "you're Seymour Pond, the pilot. [270] I tuned in on the banquet they gave you." [271] Si, carrying his glass, moved over to the stool next to her. [272] "Call me Si," he said. [273] "Everybody calls me Si." [274] She said, "I'm Natalie. [275] Natalie Paskov. [276] Just Natalie. [277] Imagine meeting Seymour Pond. [278] Just sitting down next to him at a bar. [279] Just like that." [280] "Si," Si said, gratified. [281] Holy Zoroaster, he'd never seen anything like this rarified pulchritude. [282] Maybe on teevee, of course, one of the current sex symbols, but never in person. [283] "Call me Si," he said again. [284] "I been called Si so long, I don't even know who somebody's talking to if they say Seymour." [285] "I cried when they gave you that antique watch," she said, her tone such that it was obvious she hadn't quite adjusted as yet to having met him. [286] Si Pond was surprised. [287] "Cried?" [288] he said. [289] "Well, why? [290] I was kind of bored with the whole thing. [291] But old Doc Gubelin, I used to work under him in the Space Exploration department, he was hot for it." [292] " Academician Gubelin?" [293] she said. [294] "You just call him Doc ?" [295] Si was expansive. [296] "Why, sure. [297] In the Space Department we don't have much time for formality. [298] Everybody's just Si, and Doc, and Jim. [299] Like that. [300] But how come you cried?" [301] She looked down into the drink the bartender had placed before her, as though avoiding his face. [302] "I ... [303] I suppose it was that speech Doctor Girard-Perregaux made. [304] There you stood, so fine and straight in your space-pilot uniform, the veteran of six exploration runs to the planets...." "Well," Si said modestly, "two of my runs were only to the Moon." [305] "... and he said all those things about man's conquest of space. [306] And the dream of the stars which man has held so long. [307] And then the fact that you were the last of the space pilots. [308] The last man in the whole world trained to pilot a space craft. [309] And here you were, retiring." [310] Si grunted. [311] "Yeah. [312] That's all part of the Doc's scheme to get me to take on another three runs. [313] They're afraid the whole department'll be dropped by the Appropriations Committee on this here Economic Planning Board. [314] Even if they can find some other patsy to train for the job, it'd take maybe a year before you could even send him on a Moon hop. [315] So old man Gubelin, and Girard-Perregaux too, they're both trying to pressure me into more trips. [316] Otherwise they got a Space Exploration Department, with all the expense and all, but nobody to pilot their ships. [317] It's kind of funny, in a way. [318] You know what one of those spaceships costs?" [319] "Funny?" [320] she said. [321] "Why, I don't think it's funny at all." [322] Si said, "Look, how about another drink?" [323] Natalie Paskov said, "Oh, I'd love to have a drink with you, Mr...." "Si," Si said. [324] He motioned to the bartender with a circular twist of the hand indicating their need for two more of the same. [325] "How come you know so much about it? [326] You don't meet many people who are interested in space any more. [327] In fact, most people are almost contemptuous, like. [328] Think it's kind of a big boondoggle deal to help use up a lot of materials and all and keep the economy going." [329] Natalie said earnestly, "Why, I've been a space fan all my life. [330] I've read all about it. [331] Have always known the names of all the space pilots and everything about them, ever since I was a child. [332] I suppose you'd say I have the dream that Doctor Girard-Perregaux spoke about." [333] Si chuckled. [334] "A real buff, eh? [335] You know, it's kind of funny. [336] I was never much interested in it. [337] And I got a darn sight less interested after my first run and I found out what space cafard was." [338] She frowned. [339] "I don't believe I know much about that." [340] Sitting in the Kudos Room with the most beautiful girl to whom he had ever talked, Si could be nonchalant about the subject. [341] "Old Gubelin keeps that angle mostly hushed up and out of the magazine and newspaper articles. [342] Says there's enough adverse publicity about space exploration already. [343] But at this stage of the game when the whole ship's crammed tight with this automatic scientific apparatus and all, there's precious little room in the conning tower and you're the only man aboard. [344] The Doc says later on when ships are bigger and there's a whole flock of people aboard, there won't be any such thing as space cafard, but...." Of a sudden the right side of Si Pond's mouth began to tic and he hurriedly took up his drink and knocked it back.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences in order of importance for answering the question: 1. [63] But Pond was. His industrial aptitude dossier revealed him a possible candidate for space pilot, and it was you yourself who talked him into taking the training ... pointing out the more pragmatic advantages such as complete retirement after but six trips, added shares of Basic so that he could enjoy a more comfortable life than most and the fame that would accrue to him as one of the very few who still participate in travel to the planets. 2. [66] He was sold. Took his training, which, of course, required long years of drudgery to him. Then, performing his duties quite competently, he made his six trips. 3. [69] He is now legally eligible for retirement. 4. [17] Space Pilot Seymour Pond didn't have their standards. He'd had plenty of time to think it over. 5. [20] There on the long, long haul to the Jupiter satellites, fearfully checking the symptoms of space cafard, the madness compounded of claustrophobia, monotony, boredom and free fall. 6. [29] He had enough Basic to keep him comfortably, by his standards, for the rest of his life. 7. [30] He was never going to subject himself to space cafard again. 8. [122] Twenty-two others had taken the training with him, and only he and Rod Cameroon had passed the finals. 9. [125] Two weeks later, Rod had burned on a faulty take-off on what should have been a routine Moon run. 10. [150] If you were drawn, you must need serve. The dissatisfaction those chosen might feel at their poor luck was offset by the fact that they were granted additional Variable Basic shares, according to the tasks they fulfilled.

What are Pond's views on wealth and fame?

[1] SPACEMAN ON A SPREE BY MACK REYNOLDS Illustrated by Nodel [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of Tomorrow June 1963 Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [2] What's more important—Man's conquest of space, or one spaceman's life? [3] I They gave him a gold watch. [4] It was meant to be symbolical, of course. [5] In the old tradition. [6] It was in the way of an antique, being one of the timepieces made generations past in the Alpine area of Eur-Asia. [7] Its quaintness lay in the fact that it was wound, not electronically by power-radio, but by the actual physical movements of the bearer, a free swinging rotor keeping the mainspring at a constant tension. [8] They also had a banquet for him, complete with speeches by such bigwigs of the Department of Space Exploration as Academician Lofting Gubelin and Doctor Hans Girard-Perregaux. [9] There was also somebody from the government who spoke, but he was one of those who were pseudo-elected and didn't know much about the field of space travel nor the significance of Seymour Pond's retirement. [10] Si didn't bother to remember his name. [11] He only wondered vaguely why the cloddy had turned up at all. [12] In common with recipients of gold watches of a score of generations before him, Si Pond would have preferred something a bit more tangible in the way of reward, such as a few shares of Variable Basic to add to his portfolio. [13] But that, he supposed, was asking too much. [14] The fact of the matter was, Si knew that his retiring had set them back. [15] They hadn't figured he had enough shares of Basic to see him through decently. [16] Well, possibly he didn't, given their standards. [17] But Space Pilot Seymour Pond didn't have their standards. [18] He'd had plenty of time to think it over. [19] It was better to retire on a limited crediting, on a confoundedly limited crediting, than to take the two or three more trips in hopes of attaining a higher standard. [20] He'd had plenty of time to figure it out, there alone in space on the Moon run, there on the Venus or Mars runs. [21] There on the long, long haul to the Jupiter satellites, fearfully checking the symptoms of space cafard, the madness compounded of claustrophobia, monotony, boredom and free fall. [22] Plenty of time. [23] Time to decide that a one room mini-auto-apartment, complete with an autochair and built-in autobar, and with one wall a teevee screen, was all he needed to find contentment for a mighty long time. [24] Possibly somebody like Doc Girard-Perregaux might be horrified at the idea of living in a mini-auto-apartment ... not realizing that to a pilot it was roomy beyond belief compared to the conning tower of a space craft. [25] No. [26] Even as Si listened to their speeches, accepted the watch and made a halting little talk of his own, he was grinning inwardly. [27] There wasn't anything they could do. [28] He had them now. [29] He had enough Basic to keep him comfortably, by his standards, for the rest of his life. [30] He was never going to subject himself to space cafard again. [31] Just thinking about it, now, set the tic to going at the side of his mouth. [32] They could count down and blast off, for all he gave a damn. [33] The gold watch idea had been that of Lofting Gubelin, which was typical, he being in the way of a living anachronism himself. [34] In fact, Academician Gubelin was possibly the only living man on North America who still wore spectacles. [35] His explanation was that a phobia against having his eyes touched prohibited either surgery to remould his eyeballs and cure his myopia, or contact lenses. [36] That was only an alibi so far as his closest associate, Hans Girard-Perregaux, was concerned. [37] Doctor Girard-Perregaux was convinced Gubelin would have even worn facial hair, had he but a touch more courage. [38] Gubelin longed for yesteryear, a seldom found phenomenon under the Ultrawelfare State. [39] Slumped in an autochair in the escape room of his Floridian home, Lofting Gubelin scowled at his friend. [40] He said, acidly, "Any more bright schemes, Hans? [41] I presume you now acknowledge that appealing to the cloddy's patriotism, sentiment and desire for public acclaim have miserably failed." [42] Girard-Perregaux said easily, "I wouldn't call Seymour Pond a cloddy. [43] In his position, I am afraid I would do the same thing he has." [44] "That's nonsense, Hans. [45] Zoroaster! [46] Either you or I would gladly take Pond's place were we capable of performing the duties for which he has been trained. [47] There aren't two men on North America—there aren't two men in the world!—who better realize the urgency of continuing our delving into space." [48] Gubelin snapped his fingers. [49] "Like that, either of us would give our lives to prevent man from completely abandoning the road to his destiny." [50] His friend said drily, "Either of us could have volunteered for pilot training forty years ago, Lofting. [51] We didn't." [52] "At that time there wasn't such a blistering percentage of funkers throughout this whole blistering Ultrawelfare State! [53] Who could foresee that eventually our whole program would face ending due to lack of courageous young men willing to take chances, willing to face adventure, willing to react to the stimulus of danger in the manner our ancestors did?" [54] Girard-Perregaux grunted his sarcasm and dialed a glass of iced tea and tequila. [55] He said, "Nevertheless, both you and I conform with the present generation in finding it far more pleasant to follow one's way of life in the comfort of one's home than to be confronted with the unpleasantness of facing nature's dangers in more adventurous pastimes." [56] Gubelin, half angry at his friend's argument, leaned forward to snap rebuttal, but the other was wagging a finger at him negatively. [57] "Face reality, Lofting. [58] Don't require or expect from Seymour Pond more than is to be found there. [59] He is an average young man. [60] Born in our Ultrawelfare State, he was guaranteed his fundamental womb-to-tomb security by being issued that minimum number of Basic shares in our society that allows him an income sufficient to secure the food, clothing, shelter, medical care and education to sustain a low level of subsistence. [61] Percentages were against his ever being drafted into industry. [62] Automation being what it is, only a fraction of the population is ever called up. [63] But Pond was. [64] His industrial aptitude dossier revealed him a possible candidate for space pilot, and it was you yourself who talked him into taking the training ... pointing out the more pragmatic advantages such as complete retirement after but six trips, added shares of Basic so that he could enjoy a more comfortable life than most and the fame that would accrue to him as one of the very few who still participate in travel to the planets. [65] Very well. [66] He was sold. [67] Took his training, which, of course, required long years of drudgery to him. [68] Then, performing his duties quite competently, he made his six trips. [69] He is now legally eligible for retirement. [70] He was drafted into the working force reserves, served his time, and is now free from toil for the balance of his life. [71] Why should he listen to our pleas for a few more trips?" [72] "But has he no spirit of adventure? [73] Has he no feeling for...." Girard-Perregaux was wagging his finger again, a gesture that, seemingly mild though it was, had an astonishing ability to break off the conversation of one who debated with the easy-seeming, quiet spoken man. [74] He said, "No, he hasn't. [75] Few there are who have, nowadays. [76] Man has always paid lip service to adventure, hardships and excitement, but in actuality his instincts, like those of any other animal, lead him to the least dangerous path. [77] Today we've reached the point where no one need face danger—ever. [78] There are few who don't take advantage of the fact. [79] Including you and me, Lofting, and including Seymour Pond." [80] His friend and colleague changed subjects abruptly, impatiently. [81] "Let's leave this blistering jabber about Pond's motivation and get to the point. [82] The man is the only trained space pilot in the world. [83] It will take months, possibly more than a year, to bring another novitiate pilot to the point where he can safely be trusted to take our next explorer craft out. [84] Appropriations for our expeditions have been increasingly hard to come by—even though in our minds, Hans, we are near important breakthroughs, breakthroughs which might possibly so spark the race that a new dream to push man out to the stars will take hold of us. [85] If it is admitted that our organization has degenerated to the point that we haven't a single pilot, then it might well be that the Economic Planning Board, and especially those cloddies on Appropriations, will terminate the whole Department of Space Exploration." [86] "So...." Girard-Perregaux said gently. [87] "So some way we've got to bring Seymour Pond out of his retirement!" [88] "Now we are getting to matters." [89] Girard-Perregaux nodded his agreement. [90] Looking over the rim of his glass, his eyes narrowed in thought as his face took on an expression of Machiavellianism. [91] "And do not the ends justify the means?" [92] Gubelin blinked at him. [93] The other chuckled. [94] "The trouble with you, Lofting, is that you have failed to bring history to bear on our problem. [95] Haven't you ever read of the sailor and his way of life?" [96] "Sailor? [97] What in the name of the living Zoroaster has the sailor got to do with it?" [98] "You must realize, my dear Lofting, that our Si Pond is nothing more than a latter-day sailor, with many of the problems and view-points, tendencies and weaknesses of the voyager of the past. [99] Have you never heard of the seaman who dreamed of returning to the village of his birth and buying a chicken farm or some such? [100] All the long months at sea—and sometimes the tramp freighters or whaling craft would be out for years at a stretch before returning to home port—he would talk of his retirement and his dream. [101] And then? [102] Then in port, it would be one short drink with the boys, before taking his accumulated pay and heading home. [103] The one short drink would lead to another. [104] And morning would find him, drunk, rolled, tattooed and possibly sleeping it off in jail. [105] So back to sea he'd have to go." [106] Gubelin grunted bitterly. [107] "Unfortunately, our present-day sailor can't be separated from his money quite so easily. [108] If he could, I'd personally be willing to lure him down some dark alley, knock him over the head and roll him myself. [109] Just to bring him back to his job again." [110] He brought his wallet from his pocket, and flicked it open to his universal credit card. [111] "The ultimate means of exchange," he grunted. [112] "Nobody can spend your money, but you, yourself. [113] Nobody can steal it, nobody can, ah, con you out of it. [114] Just how do you expect to sever our present-day sailor and his accumulated nest egg?" [115] The other chuckled again. [116] "It is simply a matter of finding more modern methods, my dear chap." [117] II Si Pond was a great believer in the institution of the spree. [118] Any excuse would do. [119] Back when he had finished basic education at the age of twenty-five and was registered for the labor draft, there hadn't been a chance in a hundred that he'd have the bad luck to have his name pulled. [120] But when it had been, Si had celebrated. [121] When he had been informed that his physical and mental qualifications were such that he was eligible for the most dangerous occupation in the Ultrawelfare State and had been pressured into taking training for space pilot, he had celebrated once again. [122] Twenty-two others had taken the training with him, and only he and Rod Cameroon had passed the finals. [123] On this occasion, he and Rod had celebrated together. [124] It had been quite a party. [125] Two weeks later, Rod had burned on a faulty take-off on what should have been a routine Moon run. [126] Each time Si returned from one of his own runs, he celebrated. [127] A spree, a bust, a bat, a wing-ding, a night on the town. [128] A commemoration of dangers met and passed. [129] Now it was all over. [130] At the age of thirty he was retired. [131] Law prevented him from ever being called up for contributing to the country's labor needs again. [132] And he most certainly wasn't going to volunteer. [133] He had taken his schooling much as had his contemporaries. [134] There wasn't any particular reason for trying to excell. [135] You didn't want to get the reputation for being a wise guy, or a cloddy either. [136] Just one of the fellas. [137] You could do the same in life whether you really studied or not. [138] You had your Inalienable Basic stock, didn't you? [139] What else did you need? [140] It had come as a surprise when he'd been drafted for the labor force. [141] In the early days of the Ultrawelfare State, they had made a mistake in adapting to the automation of the second industrial revolution. [142] They had attempted to give everyone work by reducing the number of working hours in the day, and the number of working days in the week. [143] It finally became ludicrous when employees of industry were working but two days a week, two hours a day. [144] In fact, it got chaotic. [145] It became obvious that it was more practical to have one worker putting in thirty-five hours a week and getting to know his job well, than it was to have a score of employees, each working a few hours a week and none of them ever really becoming efficient. [146] The only fair thing was to let the technologically unemployed remain unemployed, with their Inalienable Basic stock as the equivalent of unemployment insurance, while the few workers still needed put in a reasonable number of hours a day, a reasonable number of weeks a year and a reasonable number of years in a life time. [147] When new employees were needed, a draft lottery was held. [148] All persons registered in the labor force participated. [149] If you were drawn, you must need serve. [150] The dissatisfaction those chosen might feel at their poor luck was offset by the fact that they were granted additional Variable Basic shares, according to the tasks they fulfilled. [151] Such shares could be added to their portfolios, the dividends becoming part of their current credit balance, or could be sold for a lump sum on the market. [152] Yes, but now it was all over. [153] He had his own little place, his own vacuum-tube vehicle and twice the amount of shares of Basic that most of his fellow citizens could boast. [154] Si Pond had it made. [155] A spree was obviously called for. [156] He was going to do this one right. [157] This was the big one. [158] He'd accumulated a lot of dollars these past few months and he intended to blow them, or at least a sizeable number of them. [159] His credit card was burning a hole in his pocket, as the expression went. [160] However, he wasn't going to rush into things. [161] This had to be done correctly. [162] Too many a spree was played by ear. [163] You started off with a few drinks, fell in with some second rate mopsy and usually wound up in a third rate groggery where you spent just as much as though you'd been in the classiest joint in town. [164] Came morning and you had nothing to show for all the dollars that had been spent but a rum-head. [165] Thus, Si was vaguely aware, it had always been down through the centuries since the Phoenecian sailor, back from his year-long trip to the tin mines of Cornwall, blew his hard earned share of the voyage's profits in a matter of days in the wine shops of Tyre. [166] Nobody gets quite so little for his money as that loneliest of all workers, he who must leave his home for distant lands, returning only periodically and usually with the salary of lengthy, weary periods of time to be spent hurriedly in an attempt to achieve the pleasure and happiness so long denied him. [167] Si was going to do it differently this time. [168] Nothing but the best. [169] Wine, women, song, food, entertainment. [170] The works. [171] But nothing but the best. [172] To start off, he dressed with great care in the honorable retirement-rank suit he had so recently purchased. [173] His space pin he attached carefully to the lapel. [174] That was a good beginning, he decided. [175] A bit of prestige didn't hurt you when you went out on the town. [176] In the Ultrawelfare State hardly one person in a hundred actually ever performed anything of value to society. [177] The efforts of most weren't needed. [178] Those few who did contribute were awarded honors, decorations, titles. [179] Attired satisfactorily, Si double-checked to see that his credit card was in his pocket. [180] As an after-thought, he went over to the auto-apartment's teevee-phone, flicked it on, held the card to the screen and said, "Balance check, please." [181] In a moment, the teevee-phone's robot voice reported, "Ten shares of Inalienable Basic. [182] Twelve shares of Variable Basic, current value, four thousand, two hundred and thirty-three dollars and sixty-two cents apiece. [183] Current cash credit, one thousand and eighty-four dollars." [184] The screen went dead. [185] One thousand and eighty-four dollars. [186] That was plenty. [187] He could safely spend as much as half of it, if the spree got as lively as he hoped it would. [188] His monthly dividends were due in another week or so, and he wouldn't have to worry about current expenses. [189] Yes, indeedy, Si Pond was as solvent as he had ever been in his thirty years. [190] He opened the small, closet-like door which housed his vacuum-tube two-seater, and wedged himself into the small vehicle. [191] He brought down the canopy, dropped the pressurizer and considered the dial. [192] Only one place really made sense. [193] The big city. [194] He considered for a moment, decided against the boroughs of Baltimore and Boston, and selected Manhattan instead. [195] He had the resources. [196] He might as well do it up brown. [197] He dialed Manhattan and felt the sinking sensation that presaged his car's dropping to tube level. [198] While it was being taken up by the robot controls, being shuttled here and there preparatory to the shot to his destination, he dialed the vehicle's teevee-phone for information on the hotels of the island of the Hudson. [199] He selected a swank hostelry he'd read about and seen on the teevee casts of society and celebrity gossip reporters, and dialed it on the car's destination dial. [200] "Nothing too good for ex-Space Pilot Si Pond," he said aloud. [201] The car hesitated for a moment, that brief hesitation before the shot, and Si took the involuntary breath from which only heroes could refrain. [202] He sank back slowly into the seat. [203] Moments passed, and the direction of the pressure was reversed. [204] Manhattan. [205] The shuttling began again, and one or two more traversing sub-shots. [206] Finally, the dash threw a green light and Si opened the canopy and stepped into his hotel room. [207] A voice said gently, "If the quarters are satisfactory, please present your credit card within ten minutes." [208] Si took his time. [209] Not that he really needed it. [210] It was by far the most swank suite he had ever seen. [211] One wall was a window of whatever size the guest might desire and Si touched the control that dilated it to the full. [212] His view opened in such wise that he could see both the Empire State Building Museum and the Hudson. [213] Beyond the river stretched the all but endless city which was Greater Metropolis. [214] He didn't take the time to flick on the menu, next to the auto-dining table, nor to check the endless potables on the autobar list. [215] All that, he well knew, would be superlative. [216] Besides, he didn't plan to dine or do much drinking in his suite. [217] He made a mock leer. [218] Not unless he managed to acquire some feminine companionship, that was. [219] He looked briefly into the swimming pool and bath, then flopped himself happily onto the bed. [220] It wasn't up to the degree of softness he presently desired, and he dialed the thing to the ultimate in that direction so that with a laugh he sank almost out of sight into the mattress. [221] He came back to his feet, gave his suit a quick patting so that it fell into press and, taking his credit card from his pocket, put it against the teevee-phone screen and pressed the hotel button so that registration could be completed. [222] For a moment he stood in the center of the floor, in thought. [223] Take it easy, Si Pond, take it all easy, this time. [224] No throwing his dollars around in second-class groggeries, no eating in automated luncheterias. [225] This time, be it the only time in his life, he was going to frolic in the grand manner. [226] No cloddy was Si Pond. [227] He decided a drink was in order to help him plan his strategy. [228] A drink at the hotel's famous Kudos Room where celebrities were reputed to be a dime a dozen. [229] He left the suite and stepped into one of the elevators. [230] He said, "Kudos Room." [231] The auto-elevator murmured politely, "Yes, sir, the Kudos Room." [232] At the door to the famous rendezvous of the swankiest set, Si paused a moment and looked about. [233] He'd never been in a place like this, either. [234] However, he stifled his first instinct to wonder about what this was going to do to his current credit balance with an inner grin and made his way to the bar. [235] There was actually a bartender. [236] Si Pond suppressed his astonishment and said, offhand, attempting an air of easy sophistication, "Slivovitz Sour." [237] "Yes, sir." [238] The drinks in the Kudos Room might be concocted by hand, but Si noticed they had the routine teevee screens built into the bar for payment. [239] He put his credit card on the screen immediately before him when the drink came, and had to quell his desire to dial for a balance check, so as to be able to figure out what the Sour had cost him. [240] Well, this was something like it. [241] This was the sort of thing he'd dreamed about, out there in the great alone, seated in the confining conning tower of his space craft. [242] He sipped at the drink, finding it up to his highest expectations, and then swiveled slightly on his stool to take a look at the others present. [243] To his disappointment, there were no recognizable celebrities. [244] None that he placed, at least—top teevee stars, top politicians of the Ultrawelfare State or Sports personalities. [245] He turned back to his drink and noticed, for the first time, the girl who occupied the stool two down from him. [246] Si Pond blinked. [247] He blinked and then swallowed. " [248] Zo-ro-as-ter ," he breathed. [249] She was done in the latest style from Shanghai, even to the point of having cosmetically duplicated the Mongolian fold at the corners of her eyes. [250] Every pore, but every pore, was in place. [251] She sat with the easy grace of the Orient, so seldom found in the West. [252] His stare couldn't be ignored. [253] She looked at him coldly, turned to the bartender and murmured, "A Far Out Cooler, please, Fredric." [254] Then deliberately added, "I thought the Kudos Room was supposed to be exclusive." [255] There was nothing the bartender could say to that, and he went about building the drink. [256] Si cleared his throat. [257] "Hey," he said, "how about letting this one be on me?" [258] Her eyebrows, which had been plucked and penciled to carry out her Oriental motif, rose. [259] "Really!" [260] she said, drawing it out. [261] The bartender said hurriedly, "I beg your pardon, sir...." The girl, her voice suddenly subtly changed, said, "Why, isn't that a space pin?" [262] Si, disconcerted by the sudden reversal, said, "Yeah ... [263] sure." [264] "Good Heavens, you're a spaceman?" [265] "Sure." [266] He pointed at the lapel pin. [267] "You can't wear one unless you been on at least a Moon run." [268] She was obviously both taken back and impressed. [269] "Why," she said, "you're Seymour Pond, the pilot. [270] I tuned in on the banquet they gave you." [271] Si, carrying his glass, moved over to the stool next to her. [272] "Call me Si," he said. [273] "Everybody calls me Si." [274] She said, "I'm Natalie. [275] Natalie Paskov. [276] Just Natalie. [277] Imagine meeting Seymour Pond. [278] Just sitting down next to him at a bar. [279] Just like that." [280] "Si," Si said, gratified. [281] Holy Zoroaster, he'd never seen anything like this rarified pulchritude. [282] Maybe on teevee, of course, one of the current sex symbols, but never in person. [283] "Call me Si," he said again. [284] "I been called Si so long, I don't even know who somebody's talking to if they say Seymour." [285] "I cried when they gave you that antique watch," she said, her tone such that it was obvious she hadn't quite adjusted as yet to having met him. [286] Si Pond was surprised. [287] "Cried?" [288] he said. [289] "Well, why? [290] I was kind of bored with the whole thing. [291] But old Doc Gubelin, I used to work under him in the Space Exploration department, he was hot for it." [292] " Academician Gubelin?" [293] she said. [294] "You just call him Doc ?" [295] Si was expansive. [296] "Why, sure. [297] In the Space Department we don't have much time for formality. [298] Everybody's just Si, and Doc, and Jim. [299] Like that. [300] But how come you cried?" [301] She looked down into the drink the bartender had placed before her, as though avoiding his face. [302] "I ... [303] I suppose it was that speech Doctor Girard-Perregaux made. [304] There you stood, so fine and straight in your space-pilot uniform, the veteran of six exploration runs to the planets...." "Well," Si said modestly, "two of my runs were only to the Moon." [305] "... and he said all those things about man's conquest of space. [306] And the dream of the stars which man has held so long. [307] And then the fact that you were the last of the space pilots. [308] The last man in the whole world trained to pilot a space craft. [309] And here you were, retiring." [310] Si grunted. [311] "Yeah. [312] That's all part of the Doc's scheme to get me to take on another three runs. [313] They're afraid the whole department'll be dropped by the Appropriations Committee on this here Economic Planning Board. [314] Even if they can find some other patsy to train for the job, it'd take maybe a year before you could even send him on a Moon hop. [315] So old man Gubelin, and Girard-Perregaux too, they're both trying to pressure me into more trips. [316] Otherwise they got a Space Exploration Department, with all the expense and all, but nobody to pilot their ships. [317] It's kind of funny, in a way. [318] You know what one of those spaceships costs?" [319] "Funny?" [320] she said. [321] "Why, I don't think it's funny at all." [322] Si said, "Look, how about another drink?" [323] Natalie Paskov said, "Oh, I'd love to have a drink with you, Mr...." "Si," Si said. [324] He motioned to the bartender with a circular twist of the hand indicating their need for two more of the same. [325] "How come you know so much about it? [326] You don't meet many people who are interested in space any more. [327] In fact, most people are almost contemptuous, like. [328] Think it's kind of a big boondoggle deal to help use up a lot of materials and all and keep the economy going." [329] Natalie said earnestly, "Why, I've been a space fan all my life. [330] I've read all about it. [331] Have always known the names of all the space pilots and everything about them, ever since I was a child. [332] I suppose you'd say I have the dream that Doctor Girard-Perregaux spoke about." [333] Si chuckled. [334] "A real buff, eh? [335] You know, it's kind of funny. [336] I was never much interested in it. [337] And I got a darn sight less interested after my first run and I found out what space cafard was." [338] She frowned. [339] "I don't believe I know much about that." [340] Sitting in the Kudos Room with the most beautiful girl to whom he had ever talked, Si could be nonchalant about the subject. [341] "Old Gubelin keeps that angle mostly hushed up and out of the magazine and newspaper articles. [342] Says there's enough adverse publicity about space exploration already. [343] But at this stage of the game when the whole ship's crammed tight with this automatic scientific apparatus and all, there's precious little room in the conning tower and you're the only man aboard. [344] The Doc says later on when ships are bigger and there's a whole flock of people aboard, there won't be any such thing as space cafard, but...." Of a sudden the right side of Si Pond's mouth began to tic and he hurriedly took up his drink and knocked it back.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What are Pond's views on wealth and fame?": 1. [29] He had enough Basic to keep him comfortably, by his standards, for the rest of his life. 2. [153] He had his own little place, his own vacuum-tube vehicle and twice the amount of shares of Basic that most of his fellow citizens could boast. 3. [185] One thousand and eighty-four dollars. That was plenty. He could safely spend as much as half of it, if the spree got as lively as he hoped it would. 4. [181] "Ten shares of Inalienable Basic. Twelve shares of Variable Basic, current value, four thousand, two hundred and thirty-three dollars and sixty-two cents apiece. Current cash credit, one thousand and eighty-four dollars." 5. [152] Yes, but now it was all over. He had his own little place, his own vacuum-tube vehicle and twice the amount of shares of Basic that most of his fellow citizens could boast. 6. [154] Si Pond had it made. 7. [155] A spree was obviously called for. 8. [156] He was going to do this one right. This was the big one. 9. [157] He'd accumulated a lot of dollars these past few months and he intended to blow them, or at least a sizeable number of them. 10. [158] His credit card was burning a hole in his pocket, as the expression went. 11. [159] However, he wasn't going to rush into things. This had to be done correctly. 12. [160] Too many a spree was played by ear. 13. [161] You started off with a few drinks, fell in with some second rate mopsy and usually wound up in a third rate groggery where you spent just as much as though you'd been in the classiest joint in town. 14. [162] Came morning and you had nothing to show for all the dollars that had been spent but a rum-head. 15. [163] Thus, Si was vaguely aware, it had always been down through the centuries since the Phoenecian sailor, back from his year-long trip to the tin mines of Cornwall, blew his hard earned share of the voyage's profits in a matter of days in the wine shops of Tyre. 16. [164] Nobody gets quite so little for his money as that loneliest of all workers, he who must leave his home for distant lands, returning only periodically and usually with the salary of lengthy, weary periods of time to be spent hurriedly in an attempt to achieve the pleasure and happiness so long denied him. 17. [165] Si was going to do it differently this time. 18. [166] Nothing but the best. Wine, women, song, food, entertainment. The works. 19. [167] But nothing but the best. 20. [168] To start off, he dressed with great care in the honorable retirement-rank suit he had so recently purchased. 21. [169] His space pin he attached carefully to the lapel. That was a good beginning, he decided. A bit of prestige didn't hurt you when you went out on the town. 22. [170] In the Ultrawelfare State hardly one person in a hundred actually ever performed anything of value to society. The efforts of most weren't needed. Those few who did contribute were awarded honors, decorations, titles. 23. [12] In common with recipients of gold watches of a score of generations before him, Si Pond would have preferred something a bit more tangible in the way of reward, such as a few shares of Variable Basic to add to his portfolio. 24. [13] But that, he supposed, was asking too much. 25. [14] The fact of the matter was, Si knew that his retiring had set them back. 26. [15] They hadn't figured he had enough shares of Basic to see him through decently. 27. [16] Well, possibly he didn't, given their standards. 28. [17] But Space Pilot Seymour Pond didn't have their standards.

What is the plot of the story?

[1] My Lady Greensleeves By FREDERIK POHL Illustrated by GAUGHAN [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1957. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] This guard smelled trouble and it could be counted on to come—for a nose for trouble was one of the many talents bred here! [4] I His name was Liam O'Leary and there was something stinking in his nostrils. [5] It was the smell of trouble. [6] He hadn't found what the trouble was yet, but he would. [7] That was his business. [8] He was a captain of guards in Estates-General Correctional Institution—better known to its inmates as the Jug—and if he hadn't been able to detect the scent of trouble brewing a cell-block away, he would never have survived to reach his captaincy. [9] And her name, he saw, was Sue-Ann Bradley, Detainee No. [10] WFA-656R. [11] He frowned at the rap sheet, trying to figure out what got a girl like her into a place like this. [12] And, what was more important, why she couldn't adjust herself to it, now that she was in. [13] He demanded: "Why wouldn't you mop out your cell?" [14] The girl lifted her head angrily and took a step forward. [15] The block guard, Sodaro, growled warningly: "Watch it, auntie!" [16] O'Leary shook his head. [17] "Let her talk, Sodaro." [18] It said in the Civil Service Guide to Prison Administration : "Detainees will be permitted to speak in their own behalf in disciplinary proceedings." [19] And O'Leary was a man who lived by the book. [20] She burst out: "I never got a chance! [21] That old witch Mathias never told me I was supposed to mop up. [22] She banged on the door and said, 'Slush up, sister!' [23] And then, ten minutes later, she called the guards and told them I refused to mop." [24] The block guard guffawed. [25] "Wipe talk—that's what she was telling you to do. [26] Cap'n, you know what's funny about this? [27] This Bradley is—" "Shut up, Sodaro." [28] Captain O'leary put down his pencil and looked at the girl. [29] She was attractive and young—not beyond hope, surely. [30] Maybe she had got off to a wrong start, but the question was, would putting her in the disciplinary block help straighten her out? [31] He rubbed his ear and looked past her at the line of prisoners on the rap detail, waiting for him to judge their cases. [32] He said patiently: "Bradley, the rules are you have to mop out your cell. [33] If you didn't understand what Mathias was talking about, you should have asked her. [34] Now I'm warning you, the next time—" "Hey, Cap'n, wait!" [35] Sodaro was looking alarmed. [36] "This isn't a first offense. [37] Look at the rap sheet. [38] Yesterday she pulled the same thing in the mess hall." [39] He shook his head reprovingly at the prisoner. [40] "The block guard had to break up a fight between her and another wench, and she claimed the same business—said she didn't understand when the other one asked her to move along." [41] He added virtuously: "The guard warned her then that next time she'd get the Greensleeves for sure." [42] Inmate Bradley seemed to be on the verge of tears. [43] She said tautly: "I don't care. [44] I don't care!" [45] O'Leary stopped her. [46] "That's enough! [47] Three days in Block O!" [48] It was the only thing to do—for her own sake as much as for his. [49] He had managed, by strength of will, not to hear that she had omitted to say "sir" every time she spoke to him, but he couldn't keep it up forever and he certainly couldn't overlook hysteria. [50] And hysteria was clearly the next step for her. [51] All the same, he stared after her as she left. [52] He handed the rap sheet to Sodaro and said absently: "Too bad a kid like her has to be here. [53] What's she in for?" [54] "You didn't know, Cap'n?" [55] Sodaro leered. [56] "She's in for conspiracy to violate the Categoried Class laws. [57] Don't waste your time with her, Cap'n. [58] She's a figger-lover!" [59] Captain O'Leary took a long drink of water from the fountain marked "Civil Service." [60] But it didn't wash the taste out of his mouth, the smell from his nose. [61] What got into a girl to get her mixed up with that kind of dirty business? [62] He checked out of the cell blocks and walked across the yard, wondering about her. [63] She'd had every advantage—decent Civil Service parents, a good education, everything a girl could wish for. [64] If anything, she had had a better environment than O'Leary himself, and look what she had made of it. [65] The direction of evolution is toward specialization and Man is no exception, but with the difference that his is the one species that creates its own environment in which to specialize. [66] From the moment that clans formed, specialization began—the hunters using the weapons made by the flint-chippers, the food cooked in clay pots made by the ceramists, over fire made by the shaman who guarded the sacred flame. [67] Civilization merely increased the extent of specialization. [68] From the born mechanic and the man with the gift of gab, society evolved to the point of smaller contact and less communication between the specializations, until now they could understand each other on only the most basic physical necessities—and not even always then. [69] But this was desirable, for the more specialists, the higher the degree of civilization. [70] The ultimate should be the complete segregation of each specialization—social and genetic measures to make them breed true, because the unspecialized man is an uncivilized man, or at any rate he does not advance civilization. [71] And letting the specializations mix would produce genetic undesirables: clerk-laborer or Professional-GI misfits, for example, being only half specialized, would be good at no specialization. [72] And the basis of this specialization society was: "The aptitude groups are the true races of mankind." [73] Putting it into law was only the legal enforcement of a demonstrable fact. [74] "Evening, Cap'n." [75] A bleary old inmate orderly stood up straight and touched his cap as O'Leary passed by. [76] "Evening." [77] O'Leary noted, with the part of his mind that always noted those things, that the orderly had been leaning on his broom until he'd noticed the captain coming by. [78] Of course, there wasn't much to sweep—the spray machines and sweeperdozers had been over the cobblestones of the yard twice already that day. [79] But it was an inmate's job to keep busy. [80] And it was a guard captain's job to notice when they didn't. [81] There wasn't anything wrong with that job, he told himself. [82] It was a perfectly good civil-service position—better than post-office clerk, not as good as Congressman, but a job you could be proud to hold. [83] He was proud of it. [84] It was right that he should be proud of it. [85] He was civil-service born and bred, and naturally he was proud and content to do a good, clean civil-service job. [86] If he had happened to be born a fig—a clerk , he corrected himself—if he had happened to be born a clerk, why, he would have been proud of that, too. [87] There wasn't anything wrong with being a clerk—or a mechanic or a soldier, or even a laborer, for that matter. [88] Good laborers were the salt of the Earth! [89] They weren't smart, maybe, but they had a—well, a sort of natural, relaxed joy of living. [90] O'Leary was a broad-minded man and many times he had thought almost with a touch of envy how comfortable it must be to be a wipe—a laborer . [91] No responsibilities. [92] No worries. [93] Just an easy, slow routine of work and loaf, work and loaf. [94] Of course, he wouldn't really want that kind of life, because he was Civil Service and not the kind to try to cross over class barriers that weren't meant to be— "Evening, Cap'n." [95] He nodded to the mechanic inmate who was, theoretically, in charge of maintaining the prison's car pool, just inside the gate. [96] "Evening, Conan," he said. [97] Conan, now—he was a big buck greaser and he would be there for the next hour, languidly poking a piece of fluff out of the air filter on the prison jeep. [98] Lazy, sure. [99] Undependable, certainly. [100] But he kept the cars going—and, O'Leary thought approvingly, when his sentence was up in another year or so, he would go back to his life with his status restored, a mechanic on the outside as he had been inside, and he certainly would never risk coming back to the Jug by trying to pass as Civil Service or anything else. [101] He knew his place. [102] So why didn't this girl, this Sue-Ann Bradley, know hers? [103] II Every prison has its Greensleeves—sometimes they are called by different names. [104] Old Marquette called it "the canary;" Louisiana State called it "the red hats;" elsewhere it was called "the hole," "the snake pit," "the Klondike." [105] When you're in it, you don't much care what it is called; it is a place for punishment. [106] And punishment is what you get. [107] Block O in Estates-General Correctional Institution was the disciplinary block, and because of the green straitjackets its inhabitants wore, it was called the Greensleeves. [108] It was a community of its own, an enclave within the larger city-state that was the Jug. [109] And like any other community, it had its leading citizens ... two of them. [110] Their names were Sauer and Flock. [111] Sue-Ann Bradley heard them before she reached the Greensleeves. [112] She was in a detachment of three unfortunates like herself, convoyed by an irritable guard, climbing the steel steps toward Block O from the floor below, when she heard the yelling. [113] "Owoo-o-o," screamed Sauer from one end of the cell block and "Yow-w-w!" [114] shrieked Flock at the other. [115] The inside deck guard of Block O looked nervously at the outside deck guard. [116] The outside guard looked impassively back—after all, he was on the outside. [117] The inside guard muttered: "Wipe rats! [118] They're getting on my nerves." [119] The outside guard shrugged. [120] "Detail, halt !" [121] The two guards turned to see what was coming in as the three new candidates for the Greensleeves slumped to a stop at the head of the stairs. [122] "Here they are," Sodaro told them. [123] "Take good care of 'em, will you? [124] Especially the lady—she's going to like it here, because there's plenty of wipes and greasers and figgers to keep her company." [125] He laughed coarsely and abandoned his charges to the Block O guards. [126] The outside guard said sourly: "A woman, for God's sake. [127] Now O'Leary knows I hate it when there's a woman in here. [128] It gets the others all riled up." [129] "Let them in," the inside guard told him. [130] "The others are riled up already." [131] Sue-Ann Bradley looked carefully at the floor and paid them no attention. [132] The outside guard pulled the switch that turned on the tanglefoot electronic fields that swamped the floor of the block corridor and of each individual cell. [133] While the fields were on, you could ignore the prisoners—they simply could not move fast enough, against the electronic drag of the field, to do any harm. [134] But it was a rule that, even in Block O, you didn't leave the tangler fields on all the time—only when the cell doors had to be opened or a prisoner's restraining garment removed. [135] Sue-Ann walked bravely forward through the opened gate—and fell flat on her face. [136] It was her first experience of a tanglefoot field. [137] It was like walking through molasses. [138] The guard guffawed and lifted her up by one shoulder. [139] "Take it easy, auntie. [140] Come on, get in your cell." [141] He steered her in the right direction and pointed to a greensleeved straitjacket on the cell cot. [142] "Put that on. [143] Being as you're a lady, we won't tie it up, but the rules say you got to wear it and the rules—Hey. [144] She's crying!" [145] He shook his head, marveling. [146] It was the first time he had ever seen a prisoner cry in the Greensleeves. [147] However, he was wrong. [148] Sue-Ann's shoulders were shaking, but not from tears. [149] Sue-Ann Bradley had got a good look at Sauer and at Flock as she passed them by and she was fighting off an almost uncontrollable urge to retch. [150] Sauer and Flock were what are called prison wolves. [151] They were laborers—"wipes," for short—or, at any rate, they had been once. [152] They had spent so much time in prisons that it was sometimes hard even for them to remember what they really were, outside. [153] Sauer was a big, grinning redhead with eyes like a water moccasin. [154] Flock was a lithe five-footer with the build of a water moccasin—and the sad, stupid eyes of a calf. [155] Sauer stopped yelling for a moment. [156] "Hey, Flock!" [157] "What do you want, Sauer?" [158] called Flock from his own cell. [159] "We got a lady with us! [160] Maybe we ought to cut out this yelling so as not to disturb the lady!" [161] He screeched with howling, maniacal laughter. [162] "Anyway, if we don't cut this out, they'll get us in trouble, Flock!" [163] "Oh, you think so?" [164] shrieked Flock. [165] "Jeez, I wish you hadn't said that, Sauer. [166] You got me scared! [167] I'm so scared, I'm gonna have to yell!" [168] The howling started all over again. [169] The inside guard finished putting the new prisoners away and turned off the tangler field once more. [170] He licked his lips. [171] "Say, you want to take a turn in here for a while?" [172] "Uh-uh." [173] The outside guard shook his head. [174] "You're yellow," the inside guard said moodily. [175] "Ah, I don't know why I don't quit this lousy job. [176] Hey, you! [177] Pipe down or I'll come in and beat your head off!" [178] "Ee-ee-ee!" [179] screamed Sauer in a shrill falsetto. [180] "I'm scared!" [181] Then he grinned at the guard, all but his water-moccasin eyes. [182] "Don't you know you can't hurt a wipe by hitting him on the head, Boss?" [183] "Shut up !" [184] yelled the inside guard. [185] Sue-Ann Bradley's weeping now was genuine. [186] She simply could not help it. [187] The crazy yowling of the hard-timers, Sauer and Flock, was getting under her skin. [188] They weren't even—even human , she told herself miserably, trying to weep silently so as not to give the guards the satisfaction of hearing her—they were animals! [189] Resentment and anger, she could understand. [190] She told herself doggedly that resentment and anger were natural and right. [191] They were perfectly normal expressions of the freedom-loving citizen's rebellion against the vile and stifling system of Categoried Classes. [192] It was good that Sauer and Flock still had enough spirit to struggle against the vicious system— But did they have to scream so? [193] The senseless yelling was driving her crazy. [194] She abandoned herself to weeping and she didn't even care who heard her any more. [195] Senseless! [196] It never occurred to Sue-Ann Bradley that it might not be senseless, because noise hides noise. [197] But then she hadn't been a prisoner very long. [198] III "I smell trouble," said O'Leary to the warden. [199] "Trouble? [200] Trouble?" [201] Warden Schluckebier clutched his throat and his little round eyes looked terrified—as perhaps they should have. [202] Warden Godfrey Schluckebier was the almighty Caesar of ten thousand inmates in the Jug, but privately he was a fussy old man trying to hold onto the last decent job he would have in his life. [203] "Trouble? [204] What trouble?" [205] O'Leary shrugged. [206] "Different things. [207] You know Lafon, from Block A? [208] This afternoon, he was playing ball with the laundry orderlies in the yard." [209] The warden, faintly relieved, faintly annoyed, scolded: "O'Leary, what did you want to worry me for? [210] There's nothing wrong with playing ball in the yard. [211] That's what recreation periods are for." [212] "You don't see what I mean, Warden. [213] Lafon was a professional on the outside—an architect. [214] Those laundry cons were laborers. [215] Pros and wipes don't mix; it isn't natural. [216] And there are other things." [217] O'Leary hesitated, frowning. [218] How could you explain to the warden that it didn't smell right? [219] "For instance—Well, there's Aunt Mathias in the women's block. [220] She's a pretty good old girl—that's why she's the block orderly. [221] She's a lifer, she's got no place to go, she gets along with the other women. [222] But today she put a woman named Bradley on report. [223] Why? [224] Because she told Bradley to mop up in wipe talk and Bradley didn't understand. [225] Now Mathias wouldn't—" The warden raised his hand. [226] "Please, O'Leary, don't bother me about that kind of stuff." [227] He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. [228] He poured himself a cup of steaming black coffee from a brewpot, reached in a desk drawer for something, hesitated, glanced at O'Leary, then dropped a pale blue tablet into the cup. [229] He drank it down eagerly, ignoring the scalding heat. [230] He leaned back, looking suddenly happier and much more assured. [231] "O'Leary, you're a guard captain, right? [232] And I'm your warden. [233] You have your job, keeping the inmates in line, and I have mine. [234] Now your job is just as important as my job," he said piously. " [235] Everybody's job is just as important as everybody else's, right? [236] But we have to stick to our own jobs. [237] We don't want to try to pass ." [238] O'Leary snapped erect, abruptly angry. [239] Pass! [240] What the devil way was that for the warden to talk to him? [241] "Excuse the expression, O'Leary," the warden said anxiously. [242] "I mean, after all, 'Specialization is the goal of civilization,' right?" [243] He was a great man for platitudes, was Warden Schluckebier. " [244] You know you don't want to worry about my end of running the prison. [245] And I don't want to worry about yours . [246] You see?" [247] And he folded his hands and smiled like a civil-service Buddha. [248] O'Leary choked back his temper. [249] "Warden, I'm telling you that there's trouble coming up. [250] I smell the signs." [251] "Handle it, then!" [252] snapped the warden, irritated at last. [253] "But suppose it's too big to handle. [254] Suppose—" "It isn't," the warden said positively. [255] "Don't borrow trouble with all your supposing, O'Leary." [256] He sipped the remains of his coffee, made a wry face, poured a fresh cup and, with an elaborate show of not noticing what he was doing, dropped three of the pale blue tablets into it this time. [257] He sat beaming into space, waiting for the jolt to take effect. [258] "Well, then," he said at last. [259] "You just remember what I've told you tonight, O'Leary, and we'll get along fine. [260] 'Specialization is the—' Oh, curse the thing." [261] His phone was ringing. [262] The warden picked it up irritably. [263] That was the trouble with those pale blue tablets, thought O'Leary; they gave you a lift, but they put you on edge. [264] "Hello," barked the warden, not even glancing at the viewscreen. [265] "What the devil do you want? [266] Don't you know I'm—What? [267] You did what ? [268] You're going to WHAT?" [269] He looked at the viewscreen at last with a look of pure horror. [270] Whatever he saw on it, it did not reassure him. [271] His eyes opened like clamshells in a steamer. [272] "O'Leary," he said faintly, "my mistake." [273] And he hung up—more or less by accident; the handset dropped from his fingers. [274] The person on the other end of the phone was calling from Cell Block O. [275] Five minutes before, he hadn't been anywhere near the phone and it didn't look as if his chances of ever getting near it were very good. [276] Because five minutes before, he was in his cell, with the rest of the hard-timers of the Greensleeves. [277] His name was Flock. [278] He was still yelling. [279] Sue-Ann Bradley, in the cell across from him, thought that maybe, after all, the man was really in pain. [280] Maybe the crazy screams were screams of agony, because certainly his face was the face of an agonized man. [281] The outside guard bellowed: "Okay, okay. [282] Take ten!" [283] Sue-Ann froze, waiting to see what would happen. [284] What actually did happen was that the guard reached up and closed the switch that actuated the tangler fields on the floors of the cells. [285] The prison rules were humanitarian, even for the dregs that inhabited the Greensleeves. [286] Ten minutes out of every two hours, even the worst case had to be allowed to take his hands out of the restraining garment. [287] "Rest period" it was called—in the rule book. [288] The inmates had a less lovely term for it. [289] At the guard's yell, the inmates jumped to their feet. [290] Bradley was a little slow getting off the edge of the steel-slat bed—nobody had warned her that the eddy currents in the tangler fields had a way of making metal smoke-hot. [291] She gasped but didn't cry out. [292] Score one more painful lesson in her new language course. [293] She rubbed the backs of her thighs gingerly—and slowly, slowly, for the eddy currents did not permit you to move fast. [294] It was like pushing against rubber; the faster you tried to move, the greater the resistance. [295] The guard peered genially into her cell. [296] "You're okay, auntie." [297] She proudly ignored him as he slogged deliberately away on his rounds. [298] He didn't have to untie her and practically stand over her while she attended to various personal matters, as he did with the male prisoners. [299] It was not much to be grateful for, but Sue-Ann Bradley was grateful. [300] At least she didn't have to live quite like a fig—like an underprivileged clerk, she told herself, conscience-stricken. [301] Across the hall, the guard was saying irritably: "What the hell's the matter with you?" [302] He opened the door of the cell with an asbestos-handled key held in a canvas glove. [303] Flock was in that cell and he was doubled over. [304] The guard looked at him doubtfully. [305] It could be a trick, maybe. [306] Couldn't it? [307] But he could see Flock's face and the agony in it was real enough. [308] And Flock was gasping, through real tears: "Cramps. [309] I—I—" "Ah, you wipes always got a pain in the gut." [310] The guard lumbered around Flock to the draw-strings at the back of the jacket. [311] Funny smell in here, he told himself—not for the first time. [312] And imagine, some people didn't believe that wipes had a smell of their own! [313] But this time, he realized cloudily, it was a rather unusual smell. [314] Something burning. [315] Almost like meat scorching. [316] It wasn't pleasant. [317] He finished untying Flock and turned away; let the stinking wipe take care of his own troubles. [318] He only had ten minutes to get all the way around Block O and the inmates complained like crazy if he didn't make sure they all got the most possible free time. [319] He was pretty good at snowshoeing through the tangler field. [320] He was a little vain about it, even; at times he had been known to boast of his ability to make the rounds in two minutes, every time. [321] Every time but this. [322] For Flock moaned behind him, oddly close. [323] The guard turned, but not quickly enough. [324] There was Flock—astonishingly, he was half out of his jacket; his arms hadn't been in the sleeves at all! [325] And in one of the hands, incredibly, there was something that glinted and smoked. [326] "All right," croaked Flock, tears trickling out of eyes nearly shut with pain. [327] But it wasn't the tears that held the guard; it was the shining, smoking thing, now poised at his throat. [328] A shiv! [329] It looked as though it had been made out of a bed-spring, ripped loose from its frame God knows how, hidden inside the greensleeved jacket God knows how—filed, filed to sharpness over endless hours. [330] No wonder Flock moaned—the eddy currents in the shiv were slowly cooking his hand; and the blister against his abdomen, where the shiv had been hidden during other rest periods, felt like raw acid. [331] "All right," whispered Flock, "just walk out the door and you won't get hurt. [332] Unless the other screw makes trouble, you won't get hurt, so tell him not to, you hear?" [333] He was nearly fainting with the pain. [334] But he hadn't let go. [335] He didn't let go. [336] And he didn't stop. [337] IV It was Flock on the phone to the warden—Flock with his eyes still streaming tears, Flock with Sauer standing right behind him, menacing the two bound deck guards. [338] Sauer shoved Flock out of the way. [339] "Hey, Warden!" [340] he said, and the voice was a cheerful bray, though the serpent eyes were cold and hating. [341] "Warden, you got to get a medic in here. [342] My boy Flock, he hurt himself real bad and he needs a doctor." [343] He gestured playfully at the guards with the shiv. [344] "I tell you, Warden. [345] I got this knife and I got your guards here. [346] Enough said? [347] So get a medic in here quick, you hear?" [348] And he snapped the connection. [349] O'Leary said: "Warden, I told you I smelled trouble!" [350] The warden lifted his head, glared, started feebly to speak, hesitated, and picked up the long-distance phone. [351] He said sadly to the prison operator: "Get me the governor—fast." [352] Riot! [353] The word spread out from the prison on seven-league boots. [354] It snatched the city governor out of a friendly game of Seniority with his manager and their wives—and just when he was holding the Porkbarrel Joker concealed in the hole. [355] It broke up the Base Championship Scramble Finals at Hap Arnold Field to the south, as half the contestants had to scramble in earnest to a Red Alert that was real. [356] It reached to police precinct houses and TV newsrooms and highway checkpoints, and from there it filtered into the homes and lives of the nineteen million persons that lived within a few dozen miles of the Jug. [357] Riot. [358] And yet fewer than half a dozen men were involved. [359] A handful of men, and the enormous bulk of the city-state quivered in every limb and class. [360] In its ten million homes, in its hundreds of thousands of public places, the city-state's people shook under the impact of the news from the prison. [361] For the news touched them where their fears lay. [362] Riot! [363] And not merely a street brawl among roistering wipes, or a bar-room fight of greasers relaxing from a hard day at the plant. [364] The riot was down among the corrupt sludge that underlay the state itself. [365] Wipes brawled with wipes and no one cared; but in the Jug, all classes were cast together. [366] Forty miles to the south, Hap Arnold Field was a blaze of light. [367] The airmen tumbled out of their quarters and dayrooms at the screech of the alert siren, and behind them their wives and children stretched and yawned and worried. [368] An alert! [369] The older kids fussed and complained and their mothers shut them up. [370] No, there wasn't any alert scheduled for tonight; no, they didn't know where Daddy was going; no, the kids couldn't get up yet—it was the middle of the night. [371] And as soon as they had the kids back in bed, most of the mothers struggled into their own airwac uniforms and headed for the briefing area to hear. [372] They caught the words from a distance—not quite correctly. [373] "Riot!" [374] gasped an aircraftswoman first-class, mother of three. [375] "The wipes! [376] I told Charlie they'd get out of hand and—Alys, we aren't safe. [377] You know how they are about GI women! [378] I'm going right home and get a club and stand right by the door and—" "Club!" [379] snapped Alys, radarscope-sergeant, with two children querulously awake in her nursery at home. [380] "What in God's name is the use of a club? [381] You can't hurt a wipe by hitting him on the head. [382] You'd better come along to Supply with me and draw a gun—you'll need it before this night is over." [383] But the airmen themselves heard the briefing loud and clear over the scramble-call speakers, and they knew it was not merely a matter of trouble in the wipe quarters. [384] The Jug! [385] The governor himself had called them out; they were to fly interdicting missions at such-and-such levels on such-and-such flight circuits around the prison. [386] The rockets took off on fountains of fire; and the jets took off with a whistling roar; and last of all, the helicopters took off ... and they were the ones who might actually accomplish something. [387] They took up their picket posts on the prison perimeter, a pilot and two bombardiers in each 'copter, stone-faced, staring grimly alert at the prison below. [388] They were ready for the breakout. [389] But there wasn't any breakout. [390] The rockets went home for fuel. [391] The jets went home for fuel. [392] The helicopters hung on—still ready, still waiting. [393] The rockets came back and roared harmlessly about, and went away again. [394] They stayed away. [395] The helicopter men never faltered and never relaxed. [396] The prison below them was washed with light—from the guard posts on the walls, from the cell blocks themselves, from the mobile lights of the guard squadrons surrounding the walls. [397] North of the prison, on the long, flat, damp developments of reclaimed land, the matchbox row houses of the clerical neighborhoods showed lights in every window as the figgers stood ready to repel invasion from their undesired neighbors to the east, the wipes. [398] In the crowded tenements of the laborers' quarters, the wipes shouted from window to window; and there were crowds in the bright streets. [399] "The whole bloody thing's going to blow up!" [400] a helicopter bombardier yelled bitterly to his pilot, above the flutter and roar of the whirling blades. [401] "Look at the mobs in Greaserville! [402] The first breakout from the Jug's going to start a fight like you never saw and we'll be right in the middle of it!" [403] He was partly right. [404] He would be right in the middle of it—for every man, woman and child in the city-state would be right in the middle of it. [405] There was no place anywhere that would be spared. [406] No mixing. [407] That was the prescription that kept the city-state alive. [408] There's no harm in a family fight—and aren't all mechanics a family, aren't all laborers a clan, aren't all clerks and office workers related by closer ties than blood or skin? [409] But the declassed cons of the Jug were the dregs of every class; and once they spread, the neat compartmentation of society was pierced. [410] The breakout would mean riot on a bigger scale than any prison had ever known. [411] But he was also partly wrong. [412] Because the breakout wasn't seeming to come.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the plot of the story?": 1. [103] Every prison has its Greensleeves—sometimes they are called by different names. 2. [104] Old Marquette called it "the canary;" Louisiana State called it "the red hats;" elsewhere it was called "the hole," "the snake pit," "the Klondike." 3. [107] Block O in Estates-General Correctional Institution was the disciplinary block, and because of the green straitjackets its inhabitants wore, it was called the Greensleeves. 4. [108] It was a community of its own, an enclave within the larger city-state that was the Jug. 5. [197] But then she hadn't been a prisoner very long. 6. [198] "I smell trouble," said O'Leary to the warden. 7. [199] "Trouble? Trouble?" Warden Schluckebier clutched his throat and his little round eyes looked terrified—as perhaps they should have. 8. [352] Riot! The word spread out from the prison on seven-league boots. 9. [353] It snatched the city governor out of a friendly game of Seniority with his manager and their wives—and just when he was holding the Porkbarrel Joker concealed in the hole. 10. [354] It broke up the Base Championship Scramble Finals at Hap Arnold Field to the south, as half the contestants had to scramble in earnest to a Red Alert that was real. 11. [355] It reached to police precinct houses and TV newsrooms and highway checkpoints, and from there it filtered into the homes and lives of the nineteen million persons that lived within a few dozen miles of the Jug. 12. [356] Riot. 13. [357] And yet fewer than half a dozen men were involved. 14. [358] A handful of men, and the enormous bulk of the city-state quivered in every limb and class. 15. [359] In its ten million homes, in its hundreds of thousands of public places, the city-state's people shook under the impact of the news from the prison. 16. [360] For the news touched them where their fears lay. 17. [361] Riot! And not merely a street brawl among roistering wipes, or a bar-room fight of greasers relaxing from a hard day at the plant. 18. [362] The riot was down among the corrupt sludge that underlay the state itself. 19. [363] Wipes brawled with wipes and no one cared; but in the Jug, all classes were cast together. 20. [364] Forty miles to the south, Hap Arnold Field was a blaze of light. 21. [365] The airmen tumbled out of their quarters and dayrooms at the screech of the alert siren, and behind them their wives and children stretched and yawned and worried. 22. [366] An alert! 23. [367] The older kids fussed and complained and their mothers shut them up. 24. [368] No, there wasn't any alert scheduled for tonight; no, they didn't know where Daddy was going; no, the kids couldn't get up yet—it was the middle of the night. 25. [369] And as soon as they had the kids back in bed, most of the mothers struggled into their own airwac uniforms and headed for the briefing area to hear. 26. [370] They caught the words from a distance—not quite correctly. 27. [371] "Riot!" gasped an aircraftswoman first-class, mother of three. 28. [372] "The wipes! I told Charlie they'd get out of hand and—Alys, we aren't safe. You know how they are about GI women! I'm going right home and get a club and stand right by the door and—" 29. [373] "Club!" snapped Alys, radarscope-sergeant, with two children querulously awake in her nursery at home. 30. [374] "What in God's name is the use of a club? You can't hurt a wipe by hitting him on the head. You'd better come along to Supply with me and draw a gun—you'll need it before this night is over." 31. [375] But the airmen themselves heard the briefing loud and clear over the scramble-call speakers, and they knew it was not merely a matter of trouble in the wipe quarters. 32. [376] The Jug! The governor himself had called them out; they were to fly interdicting missions at such-and-such levels on such-and-such flight circuits around the prison. 33. [377] The rockets took off on fountains of fire; and the jets took off with a whistling roar; and last of all, the helicopters took off ... and they were the ones who might actually accomplish something. 34. [378] They took up their picket posts on the prison perimeter, a pilot and two bombardiers in each 'copter, stone-faced, staring grimly alert at the prison below. 35. [379] They were ready for the breakout. 36. [380] But there wasn't any breakout. 37. [381] The rockets went home for fuel. 38. [382] The jets went home for fuel. 39. [383] The helicopters hung on—still ready, still waiting. 40. [384] The rockets came back and roared harmlessly about, and went away again. 41. [385] They stayed away. 42. [386] The helicopter men never faltered and never relaxed. 43. [387] The prison below them was washed with light—from the guard posts on the walls, from the cell blocks themselves, from the mobile lights of the guard squadrons surrounding the walls. 44. [388] North of the prison, on the long, flat, damp developments of reclaimed land, the matchbox row houses of the clerical neighborhoods showed lights in every window as the figgers stood ready to repel invasion from their undesired neighbors to the east, the wipes. 45. [389] In the crowded tenements of the laborers' quarters, the wipes shouted from window to window; and there were crowds in the bright streets. 46. [390] "The whole bloody thing's going to blow up!" a helicopter bombardier yelled bitterly to his pilot, above the flutter and roar of the whirling blades. 47. [391] "Look at the mobs in Greaserville! The first breakout from the Jug's going to start a fight like you never saw and we'll be right in the middle of it!" 48. [392] He was partly right. 49. [393] He would be right in the middle of it—for every man, woman and child in the city-state would be right in the middle of it. 50. [394] There was no place anywhere that would be spared. 51. [395] No mixing. That was the prescription that kept the city-state alive. 52. [396] There's no harm in a family fight—and aren't all mechanics a family, aren't all laborers a clan, aren't all clerks and office workers related by closer ties than blood or skin? 53. [397] But the declassed cons of the Jug were the dregs of every class; and once they spread, the neat compartmentation of society was pierced. 54. [398] The breakout would mean riot on a bigger scale than any prison had ever known. 55. [399] But he was also partly wrong. 56. [400] Because the breakout wasn't seeming to come.

What does the conversation between Liam O’Leary and Warden Godfrey Schluckebier reveal about the society they live in?

[1] My Lady Greensleeves By FREDERIK POHL Illustrated by GAUGHAN [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1957. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] This guard smelled trouble and it could be counted on to come—for a nose for trouble was one of the many talents bred here! [4] I His name was Liam O'Leary and there was something stinking in his nostrils. [5] It was the smell of trouble. [6] He hadn't found what the trouble was yet, but he would. [7] That was his business. [8] He was a captain of guards in Estates-General Correctional Institution—better known to its inmates as the Jug—and if he hadn't been able to detect the scent of trouble brewing a cell-block away, he would never have survived to reach his captaincy. [9] And her name, he saw, was Sue-Ann Bradley, Detainee No. [10] WFA-656R. [11] He frowned at the rap sheet, trying to figure out what got a girl like her into a place like this. [12] And, what was more important, why she couldn't adjust herself to it, now that she was in. [13] He demanded: "Why wouldn't you mop out your cell?" [14] The girl lifted her head angrily and took a step forward. [15] The block guard, Sodaro, growled warningly: "Watch it, auntie!" [16] O'Leary shook his head. [17] "Let her talk, Sodaro." [18] It said in the Civil Service Guide to Prison Administration : "Detainees will be permitted to speak in their own behalf in disciplinary proceedings." [19] And O'Leary was a man who lived by the book. [20] She burst out: "I never got a chance! [21] That old witch Mathias never told me I was supposed to mop up. [22] She banged on the door and said, 'Slush up, sister!' [23] And then, ten minutes later, she called the guards and told them I refused to mop." [24] The block guard guffawed. [25] "Wipe talk—that's what she was telling you to do. [26] Cap'n, you know what's funny about this? [27] This Bradley is—" "Shut up, Sodaro." [28] Captain O'leary put down his pencil and looked at the girl. [29] She was attractive and young—not beyond hope, surely. [30] Maybe she had got off to a wrong start, but the question was, would putting her in the disciplinary block help straighten her out? [31] He rubbed his ear and looked past her at the line of prisoners on the rap detail, waiting for him to judge their cases. [32] He said patiently: "Bradley, the rules are you have to mop out your cell. [33] If you didn't understand what Mathias was talking about, you should have asked her. [34] Now I'm warning you, the next time—" "Hey, Cap'n, wait!" [35] Sodaro was looking alarmed. [36] "This isn't a first offense. [37] Look at the rap sheet. [38] Yesterday she pulled the same thing in the mess hall." [39] He shook his head reprovingly at the prisoner. [40] "The block guard had to break up a fight between her and another wench, and she claimed the same business—said she didn't understand when the other one asked her to move along." [41] He added virtuously: "The guard warned her then that next time she'd get the Greensleeves for sure." [42] Inmate Bradley seemed to be on the verge of tears. [43] She said tautly: "I don't care. [44] I don't care!" [45] O'Leary stopped her. [46] "That's enough! [47] Three days in Block O!" [48] It was the only thing to do—for her own sake as much as for his. [49] He had managed, by strength of will, not to hear that she had omitted to say "sir" every time she spoke to him, but he couldn't keep it up forever and he certainly couldn't overlook hysteria. [50] And hysteria was clearly the next step for her. [51] All the same, he stared after her as she left. [52] He handed the rap sheet to Sodaro and said absently: "Too bad a kid like her has to be here. [53] What's she in for?" [54] "You didn't know, Cap'n?" [55] Sodaro leered. [56] "She's in for conspiracy to violate the Categoried Class laws. [57] Don't waste your time with her, Cap'n. [58] She's a figger-lover!" [59] Captain O'Leary took a long drink of water from the fountain marked "Civil Service." [60] But it didn't wash the taste out of his mouth, the smell from his nose. [61] What got into a girl to get her mixed up with that kind of dirty business? [62] He checked out of the cell blocks and walked across the yard, wondering about her. [63] She'd had every advantage—decent Civil Service parents, a good education, everything a girl could wish for. [64] If anything, she had had a better environment than O'Leary himself, and look what she had made of it. [65] The direction of evolution is toward specialization and Man is no exception, but with the difference that his is the one species that creates its own environment in which to specialize. [66] From the moment that clans formed, specialization began—the hunters using the weapons made by the flint-chippers, the food cooked in clay pots made by the ceramists, over fire made by the shaman who guarded the sacred flame. [67] Civilization merely increased the extent of specialization. [68] From the born mechanic and the man with the gift of gab, society evolved to the point of smaller contact and less communication between the specializations, until now they could understand each other on only the most basic physical necessities—and not even always then. [69] But this was desirable, for the more specialists, the higher the degree of civilization. [70] The ultimate should be the complete segregation of each specialization—social and genetic measures to make them breed true, because the unspecialized man is an uncivilized man, or at any rate he does not advance civilization. [71] And letting the specializations mix would produce genetic undesirables: clerk-laborer or Professional-GI misfits, for example, being only half specialized, would be good at no specialization. [72] And the basis of this specialization society was: "The aptitude groups are the true races of mankind." [73] Putting it into law was only the legal enforcement of a demonstrable fact. [74] "Evening, Cap'n." [75] A bleary old inmate orderly stood up straight and touched his cap as O'Leary passed by. [76] "Evening." [77] O'Leary noted, with the part of his mind that always noted those things, that the orderly had been leaning on his broom until he'd noticed the captain coming by. [78] Of course, there wasn't much to sweep—the spray machines and sweeperdozers had been over the cobblestones of the yard twice already that day. [79] But it was an inmate's job to keep busy. [80] And it was a guard captain's job to notice when they didn't. [81] There wasn't anything wrong with that job, he told himself. [82] It was a perfectly good civil-service position—better than post-office clerk, not as good as Congressman, but a job you could be proud to hold. [83] He was proud of it. [84] It was right that he should be proud of it. [85] He was civil-service born and bred, and naturally he was proud and content to do a good, clean civil-service job. [86] If he had happened to be born a fig—a clerk , he corrected himself—if he had happened to be born a clerk, why, he would have been proud of that, too. [87] There wasn't anything wrong with being a clerk—or a mechanic or a soldier, or even a laborer, for that matter. [88] Good laborers were the salt of the Earth! [89] They weren't smart, maybe, but they had a—well, a sort of natural, relaxed joy of living. [90] O'Leary was a broad-minded man and many times he had thought almost with a touch of envy how comfortable it must be to be a wipe—a laborer . [91] No responsibilities. [92] No worries. [93] Just an easy, slow routine of work and loaf, work and loaf. [94] Of course, he wouldn't really want that kind of life, because he was Civil Service and not the kind to try to cross over class barriers that weren't meant to be— "Evening, Cap'n." [95] He nodded to the mechanic inmate who was, theoretically, in charge of maintaining the prison's car pool, just inside the gate. [96] "Evening, Conan," he said. [97] Conan, now—he was a big buck greaser and he would be there for the next hour, languidly poking a piece of fluff out of the air filter on the prison jeep. [98] Lazy, sure. [99] Undependable, certainly. [100] But he kept the cars going—and, O'Leary thought approvingly, when his sentence was up in another year or so, he would go back to his life with his status restored, a mechanic on the outside as he had been inside, and he certainly would never risk coming back to the Jug by trying to pass as Civil Service or anything else. [101] He knew his place. [102] So why didn't this girl, this Sue-Ann Bradley, know hers? [103] II Every prison has its Greensleeves—sometimes they are called by different names. [104] Old Marquette called it "the canary;" Louisiana State called it "the red hats;" elsewhere it was called "the hole," "the snake pit," "the Klondike." [105] When you're in it, you don't much care what it is called; it is a place for punishment. [106] And punishment is what you get. [107] Block O in Estates-General Correctional Institution was the disciplinary block, and because of the green straitjackets its inhabitants wore, it was called the Greensleeves. [108] It was a community of its own, an enclave within the larger city-state that was the Jug. [109] And like any other community, it had its leading citizens ... two of them. [110] Their names were Sauer and Flock. [111] Sue-Ann Bradley heard them before she reached the Greensleeves. [112] She was in a detachment of three unfortunates like herself, convoyed by an irritable guard, climbing the steel steps toward Block O from the floor below, when she heard the yelling. [113] "Owoo-o-o," screamed Sauer from one end of the cell block and "Yow-w-w!" [114] shrieked Flock at the other. [115] The inside deck guard of Block O looked nervously at the outside deck guard. [116] The outside guard looked impassively back—after all, he was on the outside. [117] The inside guard muttered: "Wipe rats! [118] They're getting on my nerves." [119] The outside guard shrugged. [120] "Detail, halt !" [121] The two guards turned to see what was coming in as the three new candidates for the Greensleeves slumped to a stop at the head of the stairs. [122] "Here they are," Sodaro told them. [123] "Take good care of 'em, will you? [124] Especially the lady—she's going to like it here, because there's plenty of wipes and greasers and figgers to keep her company." [125] He laughed coarsely and abandoned his charges to the Block O guards. [126] The outside guard said sourly: "A woman, for God's sake. [127] Now O'Leary knows I hate it when there's a woman in here. [128] It gets the others all riled up." [129] "Let them in," the inside guard told him. [130] "The others are riled up already." [131] Sue-Ann Bradley looked carefully at the floor and paid them no attention. [132] The outside guard pulled the switch that turned on the tanglefoot electronic fields that swamped the floor of the block corridor and of each individual cell. [133] While the fields were on, you could ignore the prisoners—they simply could not move fast enough, against the electronic drag of the field, to do any harm. [134] But it was a rule that, even in Block O, you didn't leave the tangler fields on all the time—only when the cell doors had to be opened or a prisoner's restraining garment removed. [135] Sue-Ann walked bravely forward through the opened gate—and fell flat on her face. [136] It was her first experience of a tanglefoot field. [137] It was like walking through molasses. [138] The guard guffawed and lifted her up by one shoulder. [139] "Take it easy, auntie. [140] Come on, get in your cell." [141] He steered her in the right direction and pointed to a greensleeved straitjacket on the cell cot. [142] "Put that on. [143] Being as you're a lady, we won't tie it up, but the rules say you got to wear it and the rules—Hey. [144] She's crying!" [145] He shook his head, marveling. [146] It was the first time he had ever seen a prisoner cry in the Greensleeves. [147] However, he was wrong. [148] Sue-Ann's shoulders were shaking, but not from tears. [149] Sue-Ann Bradley had got a good look at Sauer and at Flock as she passed them by and she was fighting off an almost uncontrollable urge to retch. [150] Sauer and Flock were what are called prison wolves. [151] They were laborers—"wipes," for short—or, at any rate, they had been once. [152] They had spent so much time in prisons that it was sometimes hard even for them to remember what they really were, outside. [153] Sauer was a big, grinning redhead with eyes like a water moccasin. [154] Flock was a lithe five-footer with the build of a water moccasin—and the sad, stupid eyes of a calf. [155] Sauer stopped yelling for a moment. [156] "Hey, Flock!" [157] "What do you want, Sauer?" [158] called Flock from his own cell. [159] "We got a lady with us! [160] Maybe we ought to cut out this yelling so as not to disturb the lady!" [161] He screeched with howling, maniacal laughter. [162] "Anyway, if we don't cut this out, they'll get us in trouble, Flock!" [163] "Oh, you think so?" [164] shrieked Flock. [165] "Jeez, I wish you hadn't said that, Sauer. [166] You got me scared! [167] I'm so scared, I'm gonna have to yell!" [168] The howling started all over again. [169] The inside guard finished putting the new prisoners away and turned off the tangler field once more. [170] He licked his lips. [171] "Say, you want to take a turn in here for a while?" [172] "Uh-uh." [173] The outside guard shook his head. [174] "You're yellow," the inside guard said moodily. [175] "Ah, I don't know why I don't quit this lousy job. [176] Hey, you! [177] Pipe down or I'll come in and beat your head off!" [178] "Ee-ee-ee!" [179] screamed Sauer in a shrill falsetto. [180] "I'm scared!" [181] Then he grinned at the guard, all but his water-moccasin eyes. [182] "Don't you know you can't hurt a wipe by hitting him on the head, Boss?" [183] "Shut up !" [184] yelled the inside guard. [185] Sue-Ann Bradley's weeping now was genuine. [186] She simply could not help it. [187] The crazy yowling of the hard-timers, Sauer and Flock, was getting under her skin. [188] They weren't even—even human , she told herself miserably, trying to weep silently so as not to give the guards the satisfaction of hearing her—they were animals! [189] Resentment and anger, she could understand. [190] She told herself doggedly that resentment and anger were natural and right. [191] They were perfectly normal expressions of the freedom-loving citizen's rebellion against the vile and stifling system of Categoried Classes. [192] It was good that Sauer and Flock still had enough spirit to struggle against the vicious system— But did they have to scream so? [193] The senseless yelling was driving her crazy. [194] She abandoned herself to weeping and she didn't even care who heard her any more. [195] Senseless! [196] It never occurred to Sue-Ann Bradley that it might not be senseless, because noise hides noise. [197] But then she hadn't been a prisoner very long. [198] III "I smell trouble," said O'Leary to the warden. [199] "Trouble? [200] Trouble?" [201] Warden Schluckebier clutched his throat and his little round eyes looked terrified—as perhaps they should have. [202] Warden Godfrey Schluckebier was the almighty Caesar of ten thousand inmates in the Jug, but privately he was a fussy old man trying to hold onto the last decent job he would have in his life. [203] "Trouble? [204] What trouble?" [205] O'Leary shrugged. [206] "Different things. [207] You know Lafon, from Block A? [208] This afternoon, he was playing ball with the laundry orderlies in the yard." [209] The warden, faintly relieved, faintly annoyed, scolded: "O'Leary, what did you want to worry me for? [210] There's nothing wrong with playing ball in the yard. [211] That's what recreation periods are for." [212] "You don't see what I mean, Warden. [213] Lafon was a professional on the outside—an architect. [214] Those laundry cons were laborers. [215] Pros and wipes don't mix; it isn't natural. [216] And there are other things." [217] O'Leary hesitated, frowning. [218] How could you explain to the warden that it didn't smell right? [219] "For instance—Well, there's Aunt Mathias in the women's block. [220] She's a pretty good old girl—that's why she's the block orderly. [221] She's a lifer, she's got no place to go, she gets along with the other women. [222] But today she put a woman named Bradley on report. [223] Why? [224] Because she told Bradley to mop up in wipe talk and Bradley didn't understand. [225] Now Mathias wouldn't—" The warden raised his hand. [226] "Please, O'Leary, don't bother me about that kind of stuff." [227] He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. [228] He poured himself a cup of steaming black coffee from a brewpot, reached in a desk drawer for something, hesitated, glanced at O'Leary, then dropped a pale blue tablet into the cup. [229] He drank it down eagerly, ignoring the scalding heat. [230] He leaned back, looking suddenly happier and much more assured. [231] "O'Leary, you're a guard captain, right? [232] And I'm your warden. [233] You have your job, keeping the inmates in line, and I have mine. [234] Now your job is just as important as my job," he said piously. " [235] Everybody's job is just as important as everybody else's, right? [236] But we have to stick to our own jobs. [237] We don't want to try to pass ." [238] O'Leary snapped erect, abruptly angry. [239] Pass! [240] What the devil way was that for the warden to talk to him? [241] "Excuse the expression, O'Leary," the warden said anxiously. [242] "I mean, after all, 'Specialization is the goal of civilization,' right?" [243] He was a great man for platitudes, was Warden Schluckebier. " [244] You know you don't want to worry about my end of running the prison. [245] And I don't want to worry about yours . [246] You see?" [247] And he folded his hands and smiled like a civil-service Buddha. [248] O'Leary choked back his temper. [249] "Warden, I'm telling you that there's trouble coming up. [250] I smell the signs." [251] "Handle it, then!" [252] snapped the warden, irritated at last. [253] "But suppose it's too big to handle. [254] Suppose—" "It isn't," the warden said positively. [255] "Don't borrow trouble with all your supposing, O'Leary." [256] He sipped the remains of his coffee, made a wry face, poured a fresh cup and, with an elaborate show of not noticing what he was doing, dropped three of the pale blue tablets into it this time. [257] He sat beaming into space, waiting for the jolt to take effect. [258] "Well, then," he said at last. [259] "You just remember what I've told you tonight, O'Leary, and we'll get along fine. [260] 'Specialization is the—' Oh, curse the thing." [261] His phone was ringing. [262] The warden picked it up irritably. [263] That was the trouble with those pale blue tablets, thought O'Leary; they gave you a lift, but they put you on edge. [264] "Hello," barked the warden, not even glancing at the viewscreen. [265] "What the devil do you want? [266] Don't you know I'm—What? [267] You did what ? [268] You're going to WHAT?" [269] He looked at the viewscreen at last with a look of pure horror. [270] Whatever he saw on it, it did not reassure him. [271] His eyes opened like clamshells in a steamer. [272] "O'Leary," he said faintly, "my mistake." [273] And he hung up—more or less by accident; the handset dropped from his fingers. [274] The person on the other end of the phone was calling from Cell Block O. [275] Five minutes before, he hadn't been anywhere near the phone and it didn't look as if his chances of ever getting near it were very good. [276] Because five minutes before, he was in his cell, with the rest of the hard-timers of the Greensleeves. [277] His name was Flock. [278] He was still yelling. [279] Sue-Ann Bradley, in the cell across from him, thought that maybe, after all, the man was really in pain. [280] Maybe the crazy screams were screams of agony, because certainly his face was the face of an agonized man. [281] The outside guard bellowed: "Okay, okay. [282] Take ten!" [283] Sue-Ann froze, waiting to see what would happen. [284] What actually did happen was that the guard reached up and closed the switch that actuated the tangler fields on the floors of the cells. [285] The prison rules were humanitarian, even for the dregs that inhabited the Greensleeves. [286] Ten minutes out of every two hours, even the worst case had to be allowed to take his hands out of the restraining garment. [287] "Rest period" it was called—in the rule book. [288] The inmates had a less lovely term for it. [289] At the guard's yell, the inmates jumped to their feet. [290] Bradley was a little slow getting off the edge of the steel-slat bed—nobody had warned her that the eddy currents in the tangler fields had a way of making metal smoke-hot. [291] She gasped but didn't cry out. [292] Score one more painful lesson in her new language course. [293] She rubbed the backs of her thighs gingerly—and slowly, slowly, for the eddy currents did not permit you to move fast. [294] It was like pushing against rubber; the faster you tried to move, the greater the resistance. [295] The guard peered genially into her cell. [296] "You're okay, auntie." [297] She proudly ignored him as he slogged deliberately away on his rounds. [298] He didn't have to untie her and practically stand over her while she attended to various personal matters, as he did with the male prisoners. [299] It was not much to be grateful for, but Sue-Ann Bradley was grateful. [300] At least she didn't have to live quite like a fig—like an underprivileged clerk, she told herself, conscience-stricken. [301] Across the hall, the guard was saying irritably: "What the hell's the matter with you?" [302] He opened the door of the cell with an asbestos-handled key held in a canvas glove. [303] Flock was in that cell and he was doubled over. [304] The guard looked at him doubtfully. [305] It could be a trick, maybe. [306] Couldn't it? [307] But he could see Flock's face and the agony in it was real enough. [308] And Flock was gasping, through real tears: "Cramps. [309] I—I—" "Ah, you wipes always got a pain in the gut." [310] The guard lumbered around Flock to the draw-strings at the back of the jacket. [311] Funny smell in here, he told himself—not for the first time. [312] And imagine, some people didn't believe that wipes had a smell of their own! [313] But this time, he realized cloudily, it was a rather unusual smell. [314] Something burning. [315] Almost like meat scorching. [316] It wasn't pleasant. [317] He finished untying Flock and turned away; let the stinking wipe take care of his own troubles. [318] He only had ten minutes to get all the way around Block O and the inmates complained like crazy if he didn't make sure they all got the most possible free time. [319] He was pretty good at snowshoeing through the tangler field. [320] He was a little vain about it, even; at times he had been known to boast of his ability to make the rounds in two minutes, every time. [321] Every time but this. [322] For Flock moaned behind him, oddly close. [323] The guard turned, but not quickly enough. [324] There was Flock—astonishingly, he was half out of his jacket; his arms hadn't been in the sleeves at all! [325] And in one of the hands, incredibly, there was something that glinted and smoked. [326] "All right," croaked Flock, tears trickling out of eyes nearly shut with pain. [327] But it wasn't the tears that held the guard; it was the shining, smoking thing, now poised at his throat. [328] A shiv! [329] It looked as though it had been made out of a bed-spring, ripped loose from its frame God knows how, hidden inside the greensleeved jacket God knows how—filed, filed to sharpness over endless hours. [330] No wonder Flock moaned—the eddy currents in the shiv were slowly cooking his hand; and the blister against his abdomen, where the shiv had been hidden during other rest periods, felt like raw acid. [331] "All right," whispered Flock, "just walk out the door and you won't get hurt. [332] Unless the other screw makes trouble, you won't get hurt, so tell him not to, you hear?" [333] He was nearly fainting with the pain. [334] But he hadn't let go. [335] He didn't let go. [336] And he didn't stop. [337] IV It was Flock on the phone to the warden—Flock with his eyes still streaming tears, Flock with Sauer standing right behind him, menacing the two bound deck guards. [338] Sauer shoved Flock out of the way. [339] "Hey, Warden!" [340] he said, and the voice was a cheerful bray, though the serpent eyes were cold and hating. [341] "Warden, you got to get a medic in here. [342] My boy Flock, he hurt himself real bad and he needs a doctor." [343] He gestured playfully at the guards with the shiv. [344] "I tell you, Warden. [345] I got this knife and I got your guards here. [346] Enough said? [347] So get a medic in here quick, you hear?" [348] And he snapped the connection. [349] O'Leary said: "Warden, I told you I smelled trouble!" [350] The warden lifted his head, glared, started feebly to speak, hesitated, and picked up the long-distance phone. [351] He said sadly to the prison operator: "Get me the governor—fast." [352] Riot! [353] The word spread out from the prison on seven-league boots. [354] It snatched the city governor out of a friendly game of Seniority with his manager and their wives—and just when he was holding the Porkbarrel Joker concealed in the hole. [355] It broke up the Base Championship Scramble Finals at Hap Arnold Field to the south, as half the contestants had to scramble in earnest to a Red Alert that was real. [356] It reached to police precinct houses and TV newsrooms and highway checkpoints, and from there it filtered into the homes and lives of the nineteen million persons that lived within a few dozen miles of the Jug. [357] Riot. [358] And yet fewer than half a dozen men were involved. [359] A handful of men, and the enormous bulk of the city-state quivered in every limb and class. [360] In its ten million homes, in its hundreds of thousands of public places, the city-state's people shook under the impact of the news from the prison. [361] For the news touched them where their fears lay. [362] Riot! [363] And not merely a street brawl among roistering wipes, or a bar-room fight of greasers relaxing from a hard day at the plant. [364] The riot was down among the corrupt sludge that underlay the state itself. [365] Wipes brawled with wipes and no one cared; but in the Jug, all classes were cast together. [366] Forty miles to the south, Hap Arnold Field was a blaze of light. [367] The airmen tumbled out of their quarters and dayrooms at the screech of the alert siren, and behind them their wives and children stretched and yawned and worried. [368] An alert! [369] The older kids fussed and complained and their mothers shut them up. [370] No, there wasn't any alert scheduled for tonight; no, they didn't know where Daddy was going; no, the kids couldn't get up yet—it was the middle of the night. [371] And as soon as they had the kids back in bed, most of the mothers struggled into their own airwac uniforms and headed for the briefing area to hear. [372] They caught the words from a distance—not quite correctly. [373] "Riot!" [374] gasped an aircraftswoman first-class, mother of three. [375] "The wipes! [376] I told Charlie they'd get out of hand and—Alys, we aren't safe. [377] You know how they are about GI women! [378] I'm going right home and get a club and stand right by the door and—" "Club!" [379] snapped Alys, radarscope-sergeant, with two children querulously awake in her nursery at home. [380] "What in God's name is the use of a club? [381] You can't hurt a wipe by hitting him on the head. [382] You'd better come along to Supply with me and draw a gun—you'll need it before this night is over." [383] But the airmen themselves heard the briefing loud and clear over the scramble-call speakers, and they knew it was not merely a matter of trouble in the wipe quarters. [384] The Jug! [385] The governor himself had called them out; they were to fly interdicting missions at such-and-such levels on such-and-such flight circuits around the prison. [386] The rockets took off on fountains of fire; and the jets took off with a whistling roar; and last of all, the helicopters took off ... and they were the ones who might actually accomplish something. [387] They took up their picket posts on the prison perimeter, a pilot and two bombardiers in each 'copter, stone-faced, staring grimly alert at the prison below. [388] They were ready for the breakout. [389] But there wasn't any breakout. [390] The rockets went home for fuel. [391] The jets went home for fuel. [392] The helicopters hung on—still ready, still waiting. [393] The rockets came back and roared harmlessly about, and went away again. [394] They stayed away. [395] The helicopter men never faltered and never relaxed. [396] The prison below them was washed with light—from the guard posts on the walls, from the cell blocks themselves, from the mobile lights of the guard squadrons surrounding the walls. [397] North of the prison, on the long, flat, damp developments of reclaimed land, the matchbox row houses of the clerical neighborhoods showed lights in every window as the figgers stood ready to repel invasion from their undesired neighbors to the east, the wipes. [398] In the crowded tenements of the laborers' quarters, the wipes shouted from window to window; and there were crowds in the bright streets. [399] "The whole bloody thing's going to blow up!" [400] a helicopter bombardier yelled bitterly to his pilot, above the flutter and roar of the whirling blades. [401] "Look at the mobs in Greaserville! [402] The first breakout from the Jug's going to start a fight like you never saw and we'll be right in the middle of it!" [403] He was partly right. [404] He would be right in the middle of it—for every man, woman and child in the city-state would be right in the middle of it. [405] There was no place anywhere that would be spared. [406] No mixing. [407] That was the prescription that kept the city-state alive. [408] There's no harm in a family fight—and aren't all mechanics a family, aren't all laborers a clan, aren't all clerks and office workers related by closer ties than blood or skin? [409] But the declassed cons of the Jug were the dregs of every class; and once they spread, the neat compartmentation of society was pierced. [410] The breakout would mean riot on a bigger scale than any prison had ever known. [411] But he was also partly wrong. [412] Because the breakout wasn't seeming to come.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question: 1. [217] O'Leary hesitated, frowning. How could you explain to the warden that it didn't smell right? 2. [218] "For instance—Well, there's Aunt Mathias in the women's block. She's a pretty good old girl—that's why she's the block orderly. She's a lifer, she's got no place to go, she gets along with the other women. But today she put a woman named Bradley on report. Why? Because she told Bradley to mop up in wipe talk and Bradley didn't understand. Now Mathias wouldn't—" 3. [237] "We don't want to try to pass." 4. [242] "You know you don't want to worry about my end of running the prison. And I don't want to worry about yours. You see?" 5. [65] The direction of evolution is toward specialization and Man is no exception, but with the difference that his is the one species that creates its own environment in which to specialize. 6. [66] From the moment that clans formed, specialization began—the hunters using the weapons made by the flint-chippers, the food cooked in clay pots made by the ceramists, over fire made by the shaman who guarded the sacred flame. 7. [67] Civilization merely increased the extent of specialization. 8. [68] From the born mechanic and the man with the gift of gab, society evolved to the point of smaller contact and less communication between the specializations, until now they could understand each other on only the most basic physical necessities—and not even always then. 9. [69] But this was desirable, for the more specialists, the higher the degree of civilization. 10. [70] The ultimate should be the complete segregation of each specialization—social and genetic measures to make them breed true, because the unspecialized man is an uncivilized man, or at any rate he does not advance civilization. 11. [71] And letting the specializations mix would produce genetic undesirables: clerk-laborer or Professional-GI misfits, for example, being only half specialized, would be good at no specialization. 12. [72] And the basis of this specialization society was: "The aptitude groups are the true races of mankind." 13. [73] Putting it into law was only the legal enforcement of a demonstrable fact. 14. [81] There wasn't anything wrong with that job, he told himself. 15. [82] It was a perfectly good civil-service position—better than post-office clerk, not as good as Congressman, but a job you could be proud to hold. 16. [83] He was proud of it. 17. [84] It was right that he should be proud of it. 18. [85] He was civil-service born and bred, and naturally he was proud and content to do a good, clean civil-service job. 19. [86] If he had happened to be born a fig—a clerk , he corrected himself—if he had happened to be born a clerk, why, he would have been proud of that, too. 20. [87] There wasn't anything wrong with being a clerk—or a mechanic or a soldier, or even a laborer, for that matter. 21. [88] Good laborers were the salt of the Earth! 22. [89] They weren't smart, maybe, but they had a—well, a sort of natural, relaxed joy of living. 23. [90] O'Leary was a broad-minded man and many times he had thought almost with a touch of envy how comfortable it must be to be a wipe—a laborer . 24. [91] No responsibilities. 25. [92] No worries. 26. [93] Just an easy, slow routine of work and loaf, work and loaf. 27. [94] Of course, he wouldn't really want that kind of life, because he was Civil Service and not the kind to try to cross over class barriers that weren't meant to be— 28. [101] He knew his place. 29. [102] So why didn't this girl, this Sue-Ann Bradley, know hers? 30. [103] II Every prison has its Greensleeves—sometimes they are called by different names. 31. [104] Old Marquette called it "the canary;" Louisiana State called it "the red hats;" elsewhere it was called "the hole," "the snake pit," "the Klondike." 32. [105] When you're in it, you don't much care what it is called; it is a place for punishment. 33. [106] And punishment is what you get. 34. [107] Block O in Estates-General Correctional Institution was the disciplinary block, and because of the green straitjackets its inhabitants wore, it was called the Greensleeves. 35. [108] It was a community of its own, an enclave within the larger city-state that was the Jug. 36. [109] And like any other community, it had its leading citizens ... two of them. 37. [110] Their names were Sauer and Flock. 38. [197] But then she hadn't been a prisoner very long. 39. [198] III "I smell trouble," said O'Leary to the warden. 40. [199] "Trouble? Trouble?" 41. [200] Warden Schluckebier clutched his throat and his little round eyes looked terrified—as perhaps they should have. 42. [201] Warden Godfrey Schluckebier was the almighty Caesar of ten thousand inmates in the Jug, but privately he was a fussy old man trying to hold onto the last decent job he would have in his life. 43. [202] "Trouble? What trouble?" 44. [203] O'Leary shrugged. 45. [204] "Different things. 46. [205] You know Lafon, from Block A? 47. [206] This afternoon, he was playing ball with the laundry orderlies in the yard." 48. [207] The warden, faintly relieved, faintly annoyed, scolded: "O'Leary, what did you want to worry me for? 49. [208] There's nothing wrong with playing ball in the yard. 50. [209] That's what recreation periods are for." 51. [210] "You don't see what I mean, Warden. 52. [211] Lafon was a professional on the outside—an architect. 53. [212] Those laundry cons were laborers. 54. [213] Pros and wipes don't mix; it isn't natural. 55. [214] And there are other things." 56. [215] O'Leary hesitated, frowning. 57. [216] How could you explain to the warden that it didn't smell right? 58. [219] "For instance—Well, there's Aunt Mathias in the women's block. 59. [220] She's a pretty good old girl—that's why she's the block orderly. 60. [221] She's a lifer, she's got no place to go, she gets along with the other women. 61. [222] But today she put a woman named Bradley on report. 62. [223] Why? Because she told Bradley to mop up in wipe talk and Bradley didn't understand. 63. [224] Now Mathias wouldn't—" 64. [225] The warden raised his hand. 65. [226] "Please, O'Leary, don't bother me about that kind of stuff." 66. [227] He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. 67. [228] He poured himself a cup of steaming black coffee from a brewpot, reached in a desk drawer for something, hesitated, glanced at O'Leary, then dropped a pale blue tablet into the cup. 68. [229] He drank it down eagerly, ignoring the scalding heat. 69. [230] He leaned back, looking suddenly happier and much more assured. 70. [231] "O'Leary, you're a guard captain, right? 71. [232] And I'm your warden. 72. [233] You have your job, keeping the inmates in line, and I have mine. 73. [234] Now your job is just as important as my job," he said piously. 74. [235] "Everybody's job is just as important as everybody else's, right? 75. [236] But we have to stick to our own jobs. 76. [237] We don't want to try to pass." 77. [238] O'Leary snapped erect, abruptly angry. 78. [239] Pass! What the devil way was that for the warden to talk to him? 79. [240] "Excuse the expression, O'Leary," the warden said anxiously. 80. [241] "I mean, after all, 'Specialization is the goal of civilization,' right?" 81. [242] He was a great man for platitudes, was Warden Schluckebier. 82. [243] "You know you don't want to worry about my end of running the prison. 83. [244] And I don't want to worry about yours. 84. [245] You see?" 85. [246] And he folded his hands and smiled like a civil-service Buddha. 86. [247] O'Leary choked back his temper. 87. [248] "Warden, I'm telling you that there's trouble coming up. 88. [249] I smell the signs." 89. [250] "Handle it, then!" snapped the warden, irritated at last. 90. [251] "But suppose it's too big to handle. 91. [252] Suppose—" 92. [253] "It isn't," the warden said positively. 93. [254] "Don't borrow trouble with all your supposing, O'Leary." 94. [255] He sipped the remains of his coffee, made a wry face, poured a fresh cup and, with an elaborate show of not noticing what he was doing, dropped three of the pale blue tablets into it this time. 95. [256] He sat beaming into space, waiting for the jolt to take effect. 96. [257] "Well, then," he said at last. 97. [258] "You just remember what I've told you tonight, O'Leary, and we'll get along fine. 98. [259] 'Specialization is the—' Oh, curse the thing."

Who is Sue-Ann Bradley, and what are her traits?

[1] My Lady Greensleeves By FREDERIK POHL Illustrated by GAUGHAN [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1957. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] This guard smelled trouble and it could be counted on to come—for a nose for trouble was one of the many talents bred here! [4] I His name was Liam O'Leary and there was something stinking in his nostrils. [5] It was the smell of trouble. [6] He hadn't found what the trouble was yet, but he would. [7] That was his business. [8] He was a captain of guards in Estates-General Correctional Institution—better known to its inmates as the Jug—and if he hadn't been able to detect the scent of trouble brewing a cell-block away, he would never have survived to reach his captaincy. [9] And her name, he saw, was Sue-Ann Bradley, Detainee No. [10] WFA-656R. [11] He frowned at the rap sheet, trying to figure out what got a girl like her into a place like this. [12] And, what was more important, why she couldn't adjust herself to it, now that she was in. [13] He demanded: "Why wouldn't you mop out your cell?" [14] The girl lifted her head angrily and took a step forward. [15] The block guard, Sodaro, growled warningly: "Watch it, auntie!" [16] O'Leary shook his head. [17] "Let her talk, Sodaro." [18] It said in the Civil Service Guide to Prison Administration : "Detainees will be permitted to speak in their own behalf in disciplinary proceedings." [19] And O'Leary was a man who lived by the book. [20] She burst out: "I never got a chance! [21] That old witch Mathias never told me I was supposed to mop up. [22] She banged on the door and said, 'Slush up, sister!' [23] And then, ten minutes later, she called the guards and told them I refused to mop." [24] The block guard guffawed. [25] "Wipe talk—that's what she was telling you to do. [26] Cap'n, you know what's funny about this? [27] This Bradley is—" "Shut up, Sodaro." [28] Captain O'leary put down his pencil and looked at the girl. [29] She was attractive and young—not beyond hope, surely. [30] Maybe she had got off to a wrong start, but the question was, would putting her in the disciplinary block help straighten her out? [31] He rubbed his ear and looked past her at the line of prisoners on the rap detail, waiting for him to judge their cases. [32] He said patiently: "Bradley, the rules are you have to mop out your cell. [33] If you didn't understand what Mathias was talking about, you should have asked her. [34] Now I'm warning you, the next time—" "Hey, Cap'n, wait!" [35] Sodaro was looking alarmed. [36] "This isn't a first offense. [37] Look at the rap sheet. [38] Yesterday she pulled the same thing in the mess hall." [39] He shook his head reprovingly at the prisoner. [40] "The block guard had to break up a fight between her and another wench, and she claimed the same business—said she didn't understand when the other one asked her to move along." [41] He added virtuously: "The guard warned her then that next time she'd get the Greensleeves for sure." [42] Inmate Bradley seemed to be on the verge of tears. [43] She said tautly: "I don't care. [44] I don't care!" [45] O'Leary stopped her. [46] "That's enough! [47] Three days in Block O!" [48] It was the only thing to do—for her own sake as much as for his. [49] He had managed, by strength of will, not to hear that she had omitted to say "sir" every time she spoke to him, but he couldn't keep it up forever and he certainly couldn't overlook hysteria. [50] And hysteria was clearly the next step for her. [51] All the same, he stared after her as she left. [52] He handed the rap sheet to Sodaro and said absently: "Too bad a kid like her has to be here. [53] What's she in for?" [54] "You didn't know, Cap'n?" [55] Sodaro leered. [56] "She's in for conspiracy to violate the Categoried Class laws. [57] Don't waste your time with her, Cap'n. [58] She's a figger-lover!" [59] Captain O'Leary took a long drink of water from the fountain marked "Civil Service." [60] But it didn't wash the taste out of his mouth, the smell from his nose. [61] What got into a girl to get her mixed up with that kind of dirty business? [62] He checked out of the cell blocks and walked across the yard, wondering about her. [63] She'd had every advantage—decent Civil Service parents, a good education, everything a girl could wish for. [64] If anything, she had had a better environment than O'Leary himself, and look what she had made of it. [65] The direction of evolution is toward specialization and Man is no exception, but with the difference that his is the one species that creates its own environment in which to specialize. [66] From the moment that clans formed, specialization began—the hunters using the weapons made by the flint-chippers, the food cooked in clay pots made by the ceramists, over fire made by the shaman who guarded the sacred flame. [67] Civilization merely increased the extent of specialization. [68] From the born mechanic and the man with the gift of gab, society evolved to the point of smaller contact and less communication between the specializations, until now they could understand each other on only the most basic physical necessities—and not even always then. [69] But this was desirable, for the more specialists, the higher the degree of civilization. [70] The ultimate should be the complete segregation of each specialization—social and genetic measures to make them breed true, because the unspecialized man is an uncivilized man, or at any rate he does not advance civilization. [71] And letting the specializations mix would produce genetic undesirables: clerk-laborer or Professional-GI misfits, for example, being only half specialized, would be good at no specialization. [72] And the basis of this specialization society was: "The aptitude groups are the true races of mankind." [73] Putting it into law was only the legal enforcement of a demonstrable fact. [74] "Evening, Cap'n." [75] A bleary old inmate orderly stood up straight and touched his cap as O'Leary passed by. [76] "Evening." [77] O'Leary noted, with the part of his mind that always noted those things, that the orderly had been leaning on his broom until he'd noticed the captain coming by. [78] Of course, there wasn't much to sweep—the spray machines and sweeperdozers had been over the cobblestones of the yard twice already that day. [79] But it was an inmate's job to keep busy. [80] And it was a guard captain's job to notice when they didn't. [81] There wasn't anything wrong with that job, he told himself. [82] It was a perfectly good civil-service position—better than post-office clerk, not as good as Congressman, but a job you could be proud to hold. [83] He was proud of it. [84] It was right that he should be proud of it. [85] He was civil-service born and bred, and naturally he was proud and content to do a good, clean civil-service job. [86] If he had happened to be born a fig—a clerk , he corrected himself—if he had happened to be born a clerk, why, he would have been proud of that, too. [87] There wasn't anything wrong with being a clerk—or a mechanic or a soldier, or even a laborer, for that matter. [88] Good laborers were the salt of the Earth! [89] They weren't smart, maybe, but they had a—well, a sort of natural, relaxed joy of living. [90] O'Leary was a broad-minded man and many times he had thought almost with a touch of envy how comfortable it must be to be a wipe—a laborer . [91] No responsibilities. [92] No worries. [93] Just an easy, slow routine of work and loaf, work and loaf. [94] Of course, he wouldn't really want that kind of life, because he was Civil Service and not the kind to try to cross over class barriers that weren't meant to be— "Evening, Cap'n." [95] He nodded to the mechanic inmate who was, theoretically, in charge of maintaining the prison's car pool, just inside the gate. [96] "Evening, Conan," he said. [97] Conan, now—he was a big buck greaser and he would be there for the next hour, languidly poking a piece of fluff out of the air filter on the prison jeep. [98] Lazy, sure. [99] Undependable, certainly. [100] But he kept the cars going—and, O'Leary thought approvingly, when his sentence was up in another year or so, he would go back to his life with his status restored, a mechanic on the outside as he had been inside, and he certainly would never risk coming back to the Jug by trying to pass as Civil Service or anything else. [101] He knew his place. [102] So why didn't this girl, this Sue-Ann Bradley, know hers? [103] II Every prison has its Greensleeves—sometimes they are called by different names. [104] Old Marquette called it "the canary;" Louisiana State called it "the red hats;" elsewhere it was called "the hole," "the snake pit," "the Klondike." [105] When you're in it, you don't much care what it is called; it is a place for punishment. [106] And punishment is what you get. [107] Block O in Estates-General Correctional Institution was the disciplinary block, and because of the green straitjackets its inhabitants wore, it was called the Greensleeves. [108] It was a community of its own, an enclave within the larger city-state that was the Jug. [109] And like any other community, it had its leading citizens ... two of them. [110] Their names were Sauer and Flock. [111] Sue-Ann Bradley heard them before she reached the Greensleeves. [112] She was in a detachment of three unfortunates like herself, convoyed by an irritable guard, climbing the steel steps toward Block O from the floor below, when she heard the yelling. [113] "Owoo-o-o," screamed Sauer from one end of the cell block and "Yow-w-w!" [114] shrieked Flock at the other. [115] The inside deck guard of Block O looked nervously at the outside deck guard. [116] The outside guard looked impassively back—after all, he was on the outside. [117] The inside guard muttered: "Wipe rats! [118] They're getting on my nerves." [119] The outside guard shrugged. [120] "Detail, halt !" [121] The two guards turned to see what was coming in as the three new candidates for the Greensleeves slumped to a stop at the head of the stairs. [122] "Here they are," Sodaro told them. [123] "Take good care of 'em, will you? [124] Especially the lady—she's going to like it here, because there's plenty of wipes and greasers and figgers to keep her company." [125] He laughed coarsely and abandoned his charges to the Block O guards. [126] The outside guard said sourly: "A woman, for God's sake. [127] Now O'Leary knows I hate it when there's a woman in here. [128] It gets the others all riled up." [129] "Let them in," the inside guard told him. [130] "The others are riled up already." [131] Sue-Ann Bradley looked carefully at the floor and paid them no attention. [132] The outside guard pulled the switch that turned on the tanglefoot electronic fields that swamped the floor of the block corridor and of each individual cell. [133] While the fields were on, you could ignore the prisoners—they simply could not move fast enough, against the electronic drag of the field, to do any harm. [134] But it was a rule that, even in Block O, you didn't leave the tangler fields on all the time—only when the cell doors had to be opened or a prisoner's restraining garment removed. [135] Sue-Ann walked bravely forward through the opened gate—and fell flat on her face. [136] It was her first experience of a tanglefoot field. [137] It was like walking through molasses. [138] The guard guffawed and lifted her up by one shoulder. [139] "Take it easy, auntie. [140] Come on, get in your cell." [141] He steered her in the right direction and pointed to a greensleeved straitjacket on the cell cot. [142] "Put that on. [143] Being as you're a lady, we won't tie it up, but the rules say you got to wear it and the rules—Hey. [144] She's crying!" [145] He shook his head, marveling. [146] It was the first time he had ever seen a prisoner cry in the Greensleeves. [147] However, he was wrong. [148] Sue-Ann's shoulders were shaking, but not from tears. [149] Sue-Ann Bradley had got a good look at Sauer and at Flock as she passed them by and she was fighting off an almost uncontrollable urge to retch. [150] Sauer and Flock were what are called prison wolves. [151] They were laborers—"wipes," for short—or, at any rate, they had been once. [152] They had spent so much time in prisons that it was sometimes hard even for them to remember what they really were, outside. [153] Sauer was a big, grinning redhead with eyes like a water moccasin. [154] Flock was a lithe five-footer with the build of a water moccasin—and the sad, stupid eyes of a calf. [155] Sauer stopped yelling for a moment. [156] "Hey, Flock!" [157] "What do you want, Sauer?" [158] called Flock from his own cell. [159] "We got a lady with us! [160] Maybe we ought to cut out this yelling so as not to disturb the lady!" [161] He screeched with howling, maniacal laughter. [162] "Anyway, if we don't cut this out, they'll get us in trouble, Flock!" [163] "Oh, you think so?" [164] shrieked Flock. [165] "Jeez, I wish you hadn't said that, Sauer. [166] You got me scared! [167] I'm so scared, I'm gonna have to yell!" [168] The howling started all over again. [169] The inside guard finished putting the new prisoners away and turned off the tangler field once more. [170] He licked his lips. [171] "Say, you want to take a turn in here for a while?" [172] "Uh-uh." [173] The outside guard shook his head. [174] "You're yellow," the inside guard said moodily. [175] "Ah, I don't know why I don't quit this lousy job. [176] Hey, you! [177] Pipe down or I'll come in and beat your head off!" [178] "Ee-ee-ee!" [179] screamed Sauer in a shrill falsetto. [180] "I'm scared!" [181] Then he grinned at the guard, all but his water-moccasin eyes. [182] "Don't you know you can't hurt a wipe by hitting him on the head, Boss?" [183] "Shut up !" [184] yelled the inside guard. [185] Sue-Ann Bradley's weeping now was genuine. [186] She simply could not help it. [187] The crazy yowling of the hard-timers, Sauer and Flock, was getting under her skin. [188] They weren't even—even human , she told herself miserably, trying to weep silently so as not to give the guards the satisfaction of hearing her—they were animals! [189] Resentment and anger, she could understand. [190] She told herself doggedly that resentment and anger were natural and right. [191] They were perfectly normal expressions of the freedom-loving citizen's rebellion against the vile and stifling system of Categoried Classes. [192] It was good that Sauer and Flock still had enough spirit to struggle against the vicious system— But did they have to scream so? [193] The senseless yelling was driving her crazy. [194] She abandoned herself to weeping and she didn't even care who heard her any more. [195] Senseless! [196] It never occurred to Sue-Ann Bradley that it might not be senseless, because noise hides noise. [197] But then she hadn't been a prisoner very long. [198] III "I smell trouble," said O'Leary to the warden. [199] "Trouble? [200] Trouble?" [201] Warden Schluckebier clutched his throat and his little round eyes looked terrified—as perhaps they should have. [202] Warden Godfrey Schluckebier was the almighty Caesar of ten thousand inmates in the Jug, but privately he was a fussy old man trying to hold onto the last decent job he would have in his life. [203] "Trouble? [204] What trouble?" [205] O'Leary shrugged. [206] "Different things. [207] You know Lafon, from Block A? [208] This afternoon, he was playing ball with the laundry orderlies in the yard." [209] The warden, faintly relieved, faintly annoyed, scolded: "O'Leary, what did you want to worry me for? [210] There's nothing wrong with playing ball in the yard. [211] That's what recreation periods are for." [212] "You don't see what I mean, Warden. [213] Lafon was a professional on the outside—an architect. [214] Those laundry cons were laborers. [215] Pros and wipes don't mix; it isn't natural. [216] And there are other things." [217] O'Leary hesitated, frowning. [218] How could you explain to the warden that it didn't smell right? [219] "For instance—Well, there's Aunt Mathias in the women's block. [220] She's a pretty good old girl—that's why she's the block orderly. [221] She's a lifer, she's got no place to go, she gets along with the other women. [222] But today she put a woman named Bradley on report. [223] Why? [224] Because she told Bradley to mop up in wipe talk and Bradley didn't understand. [225] Now Mathias wouldn't—" The warden raised his hand. [226] "Please, O'Leary, don't bother me about that kind of stuff." [227] He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. [228] He poured himself a cup of steaming black coffee from a brewpot, reached in a desk drawer for something, hesitated, glanced at O'Leary, then dropped a pale blue tablet into the cup. [229] He drank it down eagerly, ignoring the scalding heat. [230] He leaned back, looking suddenly happier and much more assured. [231] "O'Leary, you're a guard captain, right? [232] And I'm your warden. [233] You have your job, keeping the inmates in line, and I have mine. [234] Now your job is just as important as my job," he said piously. " [235] Everybody's job is just as important as everybody else's, right? [236] But we have to stick to our own jobs. [237] We don't want to try to pass ." [238] O'Leary snapped erect, abruptly angry. [239] Pass! [240] What the devil way was that for the warden to talk to him? [241] "Excuse the expression, O'Leary," the warden said anxiously. [242] "I mean, after all, 'Specialization is the goal of civilization,' right?" [243] He was a great man for platitudes, was Warden Schluckebier. " [244] You know you don't want to worry about my end of running the prison. [245] And I don't want to worry about yours . [246] You see?" [247] And he folded his hands and smiled like a civil-service Buddha. [248] O'Leary choked back his temper. [249] "Warden, I'm telling you that there's trouble coming up. [250] I smell the signs." [251] "Handle it, then!" [252] snapped the warden, irritated at last. [253] "But suppose it's too big to handle. [254] Suppose—" "It isn't," the warden said positively. [255] "Don't borrow trouble with all your supposing, O'Leary." [256] He sipped the remains of his coffee, made a wry face, poured a fresh cup and, with an elaborate show of not noticing what he was doing, dropped three of the pale blue tablets into it this time. [257] He sat beaming into space, waiting for the jolt to take effect. [258] "Well, then," he said at last. [259] "You just remember what I've told you tonight, O'Leary, and we'll get along fine. [260] 'Specialization is the—' Oh, curse the thing." [261] His phone was ringing. [262] The warden picked it up irritably. [263] That was the trouble with those pale blue tablets, thought O'Leary; they gave you a lift, but they put you on edge. [264] "Hello," barked the warden, not even glancing at the viewscreen. [265] "What the devil do you want? [266] Don't you know I'm—What? [267] You did what ? [268] You're going to WHAT?" [269] He looked at the viewscreen at last with a look of pure horror. [270] Whatever he saw on it, it did not reassure him. [271] His eyes opened like clamshells in a steamer. [272] "O'Leary," he said faintly, "my mistake." [273] And he hung up—more or less by accident; the handset dropped from his fingers. [274] The person on the other end of the phone was calling from Cell Block O. [275] Five minutes before, he hadn't been anywhere near the phone and it didn't look as if his chances of ever getting near it were very good. [276] Because five minutes before, he was in his cell, with the rest of the hard-timers of the Greensleeves. [277] His name was Flock. [278] He was still yelling. [279] Sue-Ann Bradley, in the cell across from him, thought that maybe, after all, the man was really in pain. [280] Maybe the crazy screams were screams of agony, because certainly his face was the face of an agonized man. [281] The outside guard bellowed: "Okay, okay. [282] Take ten!" [283] Sue-Ann froze, waiting to see what would happen. [284] What actually did happen was that the guard reached up and closed the switch that actuated the tangler fields on the floors of the cells. [285] The prison rules were humanitarian, even for the dregs that inhabited the Greensleeves. [286] Ten minutes out of every two hours, even the worst case had to be allowed to take his hands out of the restraining garment. [287] "Rest period" it was called—in the rule book. [288] The inmates had a less lovely term for it. [289] At the guard's yell, the inmates jumped to their feet. [290] Bradley was a little slow getting off the edge of the steel-slat bed—nobody had warned her that the eddy currents in the tangler fields had a way of making metal smoke-hot. [291] She gasped but didn't cry out. [292] Score one more painful lesson in her new language course. [293] She rubbed the backs of her thighs gingerly—and slowly, slowly, for the eddy currents did not permit you to move fast. [294] It was like pushing against rubber; the faster you tried to move, the greater the resistance. [295] The guard peered genially into her cell. [296] "You're okay, auntie." [297] She proudly ignored him as he slogged deliberately away on his rounds. [298] He didn't have to untie her and practically stand over her while she attended to various personal matters, as he did with the male prisoners. [299] It was not much to be grateful for, but Sue-Ann Bradley was grateful. [300] At least she didn't have to live quite like a fig—like an underprivileged clerk, she told herself, conscience-stricken. [301] Across the hall, the guard was saying irritably: "What the hell's the matter with you?" [302] He opened the door of the cell with an asbestos-handled key held in a canvas glove. [303] Flock was in that cell and he was doubled over. [304] The guard looked at him doubtfully. [305] It could be a trick, maybe. [306] Couldn't it? [307] But he could see Flock's face and the agony in it was real enough. [308] And Flock was gasping, through real tears: "Cramps. [309] I—I—" "Ah, you wipes always got a pain in the gut." [310] The guard lumbered around Flock to the draw-strings at the back of the jacket. [311] Funny smell in here, he told himself—not for the first time. [312] And imagine, some people didn't believe that wipes had a smell of their own! [313] But this time, he realized cloudily, it was a rather unusual smell. [314] Something burning. [315] Almost like meat scorching. [316] It wasn't pleasant. [317] He finished untying Flock and turned away; let the stinking wipe take care of his own troubles. [318] He only had ten minutes to get all the way around Block O and the inmates complained like crazy if he didn't make sure they all got the most possible free time. [319] He was pretty good at snowshoeing through the tangler field. [320] He was a little vain about it, even; at times he had been known to boast of his ability to make the rounds in two minutes, every time. [321] Every time but this. [322] For Flock moaned behind him, oddly close. [323] The guard turned, but not quickly enough. [324] There was Flock—astonishingly, he was half out of his jacket; his arms hadn't been in the sleeves at all! [325] And in one of the hands, incredibly, there was something that glinted and smoked. [326] "All right," croaked Flock, tears trickling out of eyes nearly shut with pain. [327] But it wasn't the tears that held the guard; it was the shining, smoking thing, now poised at his throat. [328] A shiv! [329] It looked as though it had been made out of a bed-spring, ripped loose from its frame God knows how, hidden inside the greensleeved jacket God knows how—filed, filed to sharpness over endless hours. [330] No wonder Flock moaned—the eddy currents in the shiv were slowly cooking his hand; and the blister against his abdomen, where the shiv had been hidden during other rest periods, felt like raw acid. [331] "All right," whispered Flock, "just walk out the door and you won't get hurt. [332] Unless the other screw makes trouble, you won't get hurt, so tell him not to, you hear?" [333] He was nearly fainting with the pain. [334] But he hadn't let go. [335] He didn't let go. [336] And he didn't stop. [337] IV It was Flock on the phone to the warden—Flock with his eyes still streaming tears, Flock with Sauer standing right behind him, menacing the two bound deck guards. [338] Sauer shoved Flock out of the way. [339] "Hey, Warden!" [340] he said, and the voice was a cheerful bray, though the serpent eyes were cold and hating. [341] "Warden, you got to get a medic in here. [342] My boy Flock, he hurt himself real bad and he needs a doctor." [343] He gestured playfully at the guards with the shiv. [344] "I tell you, Warden. [345] I got this knife and I got your guards here. [346] Enough said? [347] So get a medic in here quick, you hear?" [348] And he snapped the connection. [349] O'Leary said: "Warden, I told you I smelled trouble!" [350] The warden lifted his head, glared, started feebly to speak, hesitated, and picked up the long-distance phone. [351] He said sadly to the prison operator: "Get me the governor—fast." [352] Riot! [353] The word spread out from the prison on seven-league boots. [354] It snatched the city governor out of a friendly game of Seniority with his manager and their wives—and just when he was holding the Porkbarrel Joker concealed in the hole. [355] It broke up the Base Championship Scramble Finals at Hap Arnold Field to the south, as half the contestants had to scramble in earnest to a Red Alert that was real. [356] It reached to police precinct houses and TV newsrooms and highway checkpoints, and from there it filtered into the homes and lives of the nineteen million persons that lived within a few dozen miles of the Jug. [357] Riot. [358] And yet fewer than half a dozen men were involved. [359] A handful of men, and the enormous bulk of the city-state quivered in every limb and class. [360] In its ten million homes, in its hundreds of thousands of public places, the city-state's people shook under the impact of the news from the prison. [361] For the news touched them where their fears lay. [362] Riot! [363] And not merely a street brawl among roistering wipes, or a bar-room fight of greasers relaxing from a hard day at the plant. [364] The riot was down among the corrupt sludge that underlay the state itself. [365] Wipes brawled with wipes and no one cared; but in the Jug, all classes were cast together. [366] Forty miles to the south, Hap Arnold Field was a blaze of light. [367] The airmen tumbled out of their quarters and dayrooms at the screech of the alert siren, and behind them their wives and children stretched and yawned and worried. [368] An alert! [369] The older kids fussed and complained and their mothers shut them up. [370] No, there wasn't any alert scheduled for tonight; no, they didn't know where Daddy was going; no, the kids couldn't get up yet—it was the middle of the night. [371] And as soon as they had the kids back in bed, most of the mothers struggled into their own airwac uniforms and headed for the briefing area to hear. [372] They caught the words from a distance—not quite correctly. [373] "Riot!" [374] gasped an aircraftswoman first-class, mother of three. [375] "The wipes! [376] I told Charlie they'd get out of hand and—Alys, we aren't safe. [377] You know how they are about GI women! [378] I'm going right home and get a club and stand right by the door and—" "Club!" [379] snapped Alys, radarscope-sergeant, with two children querulously awake in her nursery at home. [380] "What in God's name is the use of a club? [381] You can't hurt a wipe by hitting him on the head. [382] You'd better come along to Supply with me and draw a gun—you'll need it before this night is over." [383] But the airmen themselves heard the briefing loud and clear over the scramble-call speakers, and they knew it was not merely a matter of trouble in the wipe quarters. [384] The Jug! [385] The governor himself had called them out; they were to fly interdicting missions at such-and-such levels on such-and-such flight circuits around the prison. [386] The rockets took off on fountains of fire; and the jets took off with a whistling roar; and last of all, the helicopters took off ... and they were the ones who might actually accomplish something. [387] They took up their picket posts on the prison perimeter, a pilot and two bombardiers in each 'copter, stone-faced, staring grimly alert at the prison below. [388] They were ready for the breakout. [389] But there wasn't any breakout. [390] The rockets went home for fuel. [391] The jets went home for fuel. [392] The helicopters hung on—still ready, still waiting. [393] The rockets came back and roared harmlessly about, and went away again. [394] They stayed away. [395] The helicopter men never faltered and never relaxed. [396] The prison below them was washed with light—from the guard posts on the walls, from the cell blocks themselves, from the mobile lights of the guard squadrons surrounding the walls. [397] North of the prison, on the long, flat, damp developments of reclaimed land, the matchbox row houses of the clerical neighborhoods showed lights in every window as the figgers stood ready to repel invasion from their undesired neighbors to the east, the wipes. [398] In the crowded tenements of the laborers' quarters, the wipes shouted from window to window; and there were crowds in the bright streets. [399] "The whole bloody thing's going to blow up!" [400] a helicopter bombardier yelled bitterly to his pilot, above the flutter and roar of the whirling blades. [401] "Look at the mobs in Greaserville! [402] The first breakout from the Jug's going to start a fight like you never saw and we'll be right in the middle of it!" [403] He was partly right. [404] He would be right in the middle of it—for every man, woman and child in the city-state would be right in the middle of it. [405] There was no place anywhere that would be spared. [406] No mixing. [407] That was the prescription that kept the city-state alive. [408] There's no harm in a family fight—and aren't all mechanics a family, aren't all laborers a clan, aren't all clerks and office workers related by closer ties than blood or skin? [409] But the declassed cons of the Jug were the dregs of every class; and once they spread, the neat compartmentation of society was pierced. [410] The breakout would mean riot on a bigger scale than any prison had ever known. [411] But he was also partly wrong. [412] Because the breakout wasn't seeming to come.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Who is Sue-Ann Bradley, and what are her traits?": 1. [9] And her name, he saw, was Sue-Ann Bradley, Detainee No. WFA-656R. 2. [11] He frowned at the rap sheet, trying to figure out what got a girl like her into a place like this. 3. [12] And, what was more important, why she couldn't adjust herself to it, now that she was in. 4. [30] Maybe she had got off to a wrong start, but the question was, would putting her in the disciplinary block help straighten her out? 5. [42] Inmate Bradley seemed to be on the verge of tears. 6. [43] She said tautly: "I don't care. I don't care!" 7. [52] "Too bad a kid like her has to be here. What's she in for?" 8. [56] "She's in for conspiracy to violate the Categoried Class laws. Don't waste your time with her, Cap'n. She's a figger-lover!" 9. [63] She'd had every advantage—decent Civil Service parents, a good education, everything a girl could wish for. 10. [64] If anything, she had had a better environment than O'Leary himself, and look what she had made of it. 11. [131] Sue-Ann Bradley looked carefully at the floor and paid them no attention. 12. [145] He shook his head, marveling. It was the first time he had ever seen a prisoner cry in the Greensleeves. 13. [185] Sue-Ann Bradley's weeping now was genuine. She simply could not help it. 14. [187] They weren't even—even human, she told herself miserably, trying to weep silently so as not to give the guards the satisfaction of hearing her—they were animals! 15. [190] They were perfectly normal expressions of the freedom-loving citizen's rebellion against the vile and stifling system of Categoried Classes. 16. [192] But did they have to scream so? 17. [193] The senseless yelling was driving her crazy. 18. [195] Senseless! 19. [196] It never occurred to Sue-Ann Bradley that it might not be senseless, because noise hides noise. 20. [197] But then she hadn't been a prisoner very long.

Describe the main setting of the story.

[1] My Lady Greensleeves By FREDERIK POHL Illustrated by GAUGHAN [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1957. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] This guard smelled trouble and it could be counted on to come—for a nose for trouble was one of the many talents bred here! [4] I His name was Liam O'Leary and there was something stinking in his nostrils. [5] It was the smell of trouble. [6] He hadn't found what the trouble was yet, but he would. [7] That was his business. [8] He was a captain of guards in Estates-General Correctional Institution—better known to its inmates as the Jug—and if he hadn't been able to detect the scent of trouble brewing a cell-block away, he would never have survived to reach his captaincy. [9] And her name, he saw, was Sue-Ann Bradley, Detainee No. [10] WFA-656R. [11] He frowned at the rap sheet, trying to figure out what got a girl like her into a place like this. [12] And, what was more important, why she couldn't adjust herself to it, now that she was in. [13] He demanded: "Why wouldn't you mop out your cell?" [14] The girl lifted her head angrily and took a step forward. [15] The block guard, Sodaro, growled warningly: "Watch it, auntie!" [16] O'Leary shook his head. [17] "Let her talk, Sodaro." [18] It said in the Civil Service Guide to Prison Administration : "Detainees will be permitted to speak in their own behalf in disciplinary proceedings." [19] And O'Leary was a man who lived by the book. [20] She burst out: "I never got a chance! [21] That old witch Mathias never told me I was supposed to mop up. [22] She banged on the door and said, 'Slush up, sister!' [23] And then, ten minutes later, she called the guards and told them I refused to mop." [24] The block guard guffawed. [25] "Wipe talk—that's what she was telling you to do. [26] Cap'n, you know what's funny about this? [27] This Bradley is—" "Shut up, Sodaro." [28] Captain O'leary put down his pencil and looked at the girl. [29] She was attractive and young—not beyond hope, surely. [30] Maybe she had got off to a wrong start, but the question was, would putting her in the disciplinary block help straighten her out? [31] He rubbed his ear and looked past her at the line of prisoners on the rap detail, waiting for him to judge their cases. [32] He said patiently: "Bradley, the rules are you have to mop out your cell. [33] If you didn't understand what Mathias was talking about, you should have asked her. [34] Now I'm warning you, the next time—" "Hey, Cap'n, wait!" [35] Sodaro was looking alarmed. [36] "This isn't a first offense. [37] Look at the rap sheet. [38] Yesterday she pulled the same thing in the mess hall." [39] He shook his head reprovingly at the prisoner. [40] "The block guard had to break up a fight between her and another wench, and she claimed the same business—said she didn't understand when the other one asked her to move along." [41] He added virtuously: "The guard warned her then that next time she'd get the Greensleeves for sure." [42] Inmate Bradley seemed to be on the verge of tears. [43] She said tautly: "I don't care. [44] I don't care!" [45] O'Leary stopped her. [46] "That's enough! [47] Three days in Block O!" [48] It was the only thing to do—for her own sake as much as for his. [49] He had managed, by strength of will, not to hear that she had omitted to say "sir" every time she spoke to him, but he couldn't keep it up forever and he certainly couldn't overlook hysteria. [50] And hysteria was clearly the next step for her. [51] All the same, he stared after her as she left. [52] He handed the rap sheet to Sodaro and said absently: "Too bad a kid like her has to be here. [53] What's she in for?" [54] "You didn't know, Cap'n?" [55] Sodaro leered. [56] "She's in for conspiracy to violate the Categoried Class laws. [57] Don't waste your time with her, Cap'n. [58] She's a figger-lover!" [59] Captain O'Leary took a long drink of water from the fountain marked "Civil Service." [60] But it didn't wash the taste out of his mouth, the smell from his nose. [61] What got into a girl to get her mixed up with that kind of dirty business? [62] He checked out of the cell blocks and walked across the yard, wondering about her. [63] She'd had every advantage—decent Civil Service parents, a good education, everything a girl could wish for. [64] If anything, she had had a better environment than O'Leary himself, and look what she had made of it. [65] The direction of evolution is toward specialization and Man is no exception, but with the difference that his is the one species that creates its own environment in which to specialize. [66] From the moment that clans formed, specialization began—the hunters using the weapons made by the flint-chippers, the food cooked in clay pots made by the ceramists, over fire made by the shaman who guarded the sacred flame. [67] Civilization merely increased the extent of specialization. [68] From the born mechanic and the man with the gift of gab, society evolved to the point of smaller contact and less communication between the specializations, until now they could understand each other on only the most basic physical necessities—and not even always then. [69] But this was desirable, for the more specialists, the higher the degree of civilization. [70] The ultimate should be the complete segregation of each specialization—social and genetic measures to make them breed true, because the unspecialized man is an uncivilized man, or at any rate he does not advance civilization. [71] And letting the specializations mix would produce genetic undesirables: clerk-laborer or Professional-GI misfits, for example, being only half specialized, would be good at no specialization. [72] And the basis of this specialization society was: "The aptitude groups are the true races of mankind." [73] Putting it into law was only the legal enforcement of a demonstrable fact. [74] "Evening, Cap'n." [75] A bleary old inmate orderly stood up straight and touched his cap as O'Leary passed by. [76] "Evening." [77] O'Leary noted, with the part of his mind that always noted those things, that the orderly had been leaning on his broom until he'd noticed the captain coming by. [78] Of course, there wasn't much to sweep—the spray machines and sweeperdozers had been over the cobblestones of the yard twice already that day. [79] But it was an inmate's job to keep busy. [80] And it was a guard captain's job to notice when they didn't. [81] There wasn't anything wrong with that job, he told himself. [82] It was a perfectly good civil-service position—better than post-office clerk, not as good as Congressman, but a job you could be proud to hold. [83] He was proud of it. [84] It was right that he should be proud of it. [85] He was civil-service born and bred, and naturally he was proud and content to do a good, clean civil-service job. [86] If he had happened to be born a fig—a clerk , he corrected himself—if he had happened to be born a clerk, why, he would have been proud of that, too. [87] There wasn't anything wrong with being a clerk—or a mechanic or a soldier, or even a laborer, for that matter. [88] Good laborers were the salt of the Earth! [89] They weren't smart, maybe, but they had a—well, a sort of natural, relaxed joy of living. [90] O'Leary was a broad-minded man and many times he had thought almost with a touch of envy how comfortable it must be to be a wipe—a laborer . [91] No responsibilities. [92] No worries. [93] Just an easy, slow routine of work and loaf, work and loaf. [94] Of course, he wouldn't really want that kind of life, because he was Civil Service and not the kind to try to cross over class barriers that weren't meant to be— "Evening, Cap'n." [95] He nodded to the mechanic inmate who was, theoretically, in charge of maintaining the prison's car pool, just inside the gate. [96] "Evening, Conan," he said. [97] Conan, now—he was a big buck greaser and he would be there for the next hour, languidly poking a piece of fluff out of the air filter on the prison jeep. [98] Lazy, sure. [99] Undependable, certainly. [100] But he kept the cars going—and, O'Leary thought approvingly, when his sentence was up in another year or so, he would go back to his life with his status restored, a mechanic on the outside as he had been inside, and he certainly would never risk coming back to the Jug by trying to pass as Civil Service or anything else. [101] He knew his place. [102] So why didn't this girl, this Sue-Ann Bradley, know hers? [103] II Every prison has its Greensleeves—sometimes they are called by different names. [104] Old Marquette called it "the canary;" Louisiana State called it "the red hats;" elsewhere it was called "the hole," "the snake pit," "the Klondike." [105] When you're in it, you don't much care what it is called; it is a place for punishment. [106] And punishment is what you get. [107] Block O in Estates-General Correctional Institution was the disciplinary block, and because of the green straitjackets its inhabitants wore, it was called the Greensleeves. [108] It was a community of its own, an enclave within the larger city-state that was the Jug. [109] And like any other community, it had its leading citizens ... two of them. [110] Their names were Sauer and Flock. [111] Sue-Ann Bradley heard them before she reached the Greensleeves. [112] She was in a detachment of three unfortunates like herself, convoyed by an irritable guard, climbing the steel steps toward Block O from the floor below, when she heard the yelling. [113] "Owoo-o-o," screamed Sauer from one end of the cell block and "Yow-w-w!" [114] shrieked Flock at the other. [115] The inside deck guard of Block O looked nervously at the outside deck guard. [116] The outside guard looked impassively back—after all, he was on the outside. [117] The inside guard muttered: "Wipe rats! [118] They're getting on my nerves." [119] The outside guard shrugged. [120] "Detail, halt !" [121] The two guards turned to see what was coming in as the three new candidates for the Greensleeves slumped to a stop at the head of the stairs. [122] "Here they are," Sodaro told them. [123] "Take good care of 'em, will you? [124] Especially the lady—she's going to like it here, because there's plenty of wipes and greasers and figgers to keep her company." [125] He laughed coarsely and abandoned his charges to the Block O guards. [126] The outside guard said sourly: "A woman, for God's sake. [127] Now O'Leary knows I hate it when there's a woman in here. [128] It gets the others all riled up." [129] "Let them in," the inside guard told him. [130] "The others are riled up already." [131] Sue-Ann Bradley looked carefully at the floor and paid them no attention. [132] The outside guard pulled the switch that turned on the tanglefoot electronic fields that swamped the floor of the block corridor and of each individual cell. [133] While the fields were on, you could ignore the prisoners—they simply could not move fast enough, against the electronic drag of the field, to do any harm. [134] But it was a rule that, even in Block O, you didn't leave the tangler fields on all the time—only when the cell doors had to be opened or a prisoner's restraining garment removed. [135] Sue-Ann walked bravely forward through the opened gate—and fell flat on her face. [136] It was her first experience of a tanglefoot field. [137] It was like walking through molasses. [138] The guard guffawed and lifted her up by one shoulder. [139] "Take it easy, auntie. [140] Come on, get in your cell." [141] He steered her in the right direction and pointed to a greensleeved straitjacket on the cell cot. [142] "Put that on. [143] Being as you're a lady, we won't tie it up, but the rules say you got to wear it and the rules—Hey. [144] She's crying!" [145] He shook his head, marveling. [146] It was the first time he had ever seen a prisoner cry in the Greensleeves. [147] However, he was wrong. [148] Sue-Ann's shoulders were shaking, but not from tears. [149] Sue-Ann Bradley had got a good look at Sauer and at Flock as she passed them by and she was fighting off an almost uncontrollable urge to retch. [150] Sauer and Flock were what are called prison wolves. [151] They were laborers—"wipes," for short—or, at any rate, they had been once. [152] They had spent so much time in prisons that it was sometimes hard even for them to remember what they really were, outside. [153] Sauer was a big, grinning redhead with eyes like a water moccasin. [154] Flock was a lithe five-footer with the build of a water moccasin—and the sad, stupid eyes of a calf. [155] Sauer stopped yelling for a moment. [156] "Hey, Flock!" [157] "What do you want, Sauer?" [158] called Flock from his own cell. [159] "We got a lady with us! [160] Maybe we ought to cut out this yelling so as not to disturb the lady!" [161] He screeched with howling, maniacal laughter. [162] "Anyway, if we don't cut this out, they'll get us in trouble, Flock!" [163] "Oh, you think so?" [164] shrieked Flock. [165] "Jeez, I wish you hadn't said that, Sauer. [166] You got me scared! [167] I'm so scared, I'm gonna have to yell!" [168] The howling started all over again. [169] The inside guard finished putting the new prisoners away and turned off the tangler field once more. [170] He licked his lips. [171] "Say, you want to take a turn in here for a while?" [172] "Uh-uh." [173] The outside guard shook his head. [174] "You're yellow," the inside guard said moodily. [175] "Ah, I don't know why I don't quit this lousy job. [176] Hey, you! [177] Pipe down or I'll come in and beat your head off!" [178] "Ee-ee-ee!" [179] screamed Sauer in a shrill falsetto. [180] "I'm scared!" [181] Then he grinned at the guard, all but his water-moccasin eyes. [182] "Don't you know you can't hurt a wipe by hitting him on the head, Boss?" [183] "Shut up !" [184] yelled the inside guard. [185] Sue-Ann Bradley's weeping now was genuine. [186] She simply could not help it. [187] The crazy yowling of the hard-timers, Sauer and Flock, was getting under her skin. [188] They weren't even—even human , she told herself miserably, trying to weep silently so as not to give the guards the satisfaction of hearing her—they were animals! [189] Resentment and anger, she could understand. [190] She told herself doggedly that resentment and anger were natural and right. [191] They were perfectly normal expressions of the freedom-loving citizen's rebellion against the vile and stifling system of Categoried Classes. [192] It was good that Sauer and Flock still had enough spirit to struggle against the vicious system— But did they have to scream so? [193] The senseless yelling was driving her crazy. [194] She abandoned herself to weeping and she didn't even care who heard her any more. [195] Senseless! [196] It never occurred to Sue-Ann Bradley that it might not be senseless, because noise hides noise. [197] But then she hadn't been a prisoner very long. [198] III "I smell trouble," said O'Leary to the warden. [199] "Trouble? [200] Trouble?" [201] Warden Schluckebier clutched his throat and his little round eyes looked terrified—as perhaps they should have. [202] Warden Godfrey Schluckebier was the almighty Caesar of ten thousand inmates in the Jug, but privately he was a fussy old man trying to hold onto the last decent job he would have in his life. [203] "Trouble? [204] What trouble?" [205] O'Leary shrugged. [206] "Different things. [207] You know Lafon, from Block A? [208] This afternoon, he was playing ball with the laundry orderlies in the yard." [209] The warden, faintly relieved, faintly annoyed, scolded: "O'Leary, what did you want to worry me for? [210] There's nothing wrong with playing ball in the yard. [211] That's what recreation periods are for." [212] "You don't see what I mean, Warden. [213] Lafon was a professional on the outside—an architect. [214] Those laundry cons were laborers. [215] Pros and wipes don't mix; it isn't natural. [216] And there are other things." [217] O'Leary hesitated, frowning. [218] How could you explain to the warden that it didn't smell right? [219] "For instance—Well, there's Aunt Mathias in the women's block. [220] She's a pretty good old girl—that's why she's the block orderly. [221] She's a lifer, she's got no place to go, she gets along with the other women. [222] But today she put a woman named Bradley on report. [223] Why? [224] Because she told Bradley to mop up in wipe talk and Bradley didn't understand. [225] Now Mathias wouldn't—" The warden raised his hand. [226] "Please, O'Leary, don't bother me about that kind of stuff." [227] He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. [228] He poured himself a cup of steaming black coffee from a brewpot, reached in a desk drawer for something, hesitated, glanced at O'Leary, then dropped a pale blue tablet into the cup. [229] He drank it down eagerly, ignoring the scalding heat. [230] He leaned back, looking suddenly happier and much more assured. [231] "O'Leary, you're a guard captain, right? [232] And I'm your warden. [233] You have your job, keeping the inmates in line, and I have mine. [234] Now your job is just as important as my job," he said piously. " [235] Everybody's job is just as important as everybody else's, right? [236] But we have to stick to our own jobs. [237] We don't want to try to pass ." [238] O'Leary snapped erect, abruptly angry. [239] Pass! [240] What the devil way was that for the warden to talk to him? [241] "Excuse the expression, O'Leary," the warden said anxiously. [242] "I mean, after all, 'Specialization is the goal of civilization,' right?" [243] He was a great man for platitudes, was Warden Schluckebier. " [244] You know you don't want to worry about my end of running the prison. [245] And I don't want to worry about yours . [246] You see?" [247] And he folded his hands and smiled like a civil-service Buddha. [248] O'Leary choked back his temper. [249] "Warden, I'm telling you that there's trouble coming up. [250] I smell the signs." [251] "Handle it, then!" [252] snapped the warden, irritated at last. [253] "But suppose it's too big to handle. [254] Suppose—" "It isn't," the warden said positively. [255] "Don't borrow trouble with all your supposing, O'Leary." [256] He sipped the remains of his coffee, made a wry face, poured a fresh cup and, with an elaborate show of not noticing what he was doing, dropped three of the pale blue tablets into it this time. [257] He sat beaming into space, waiting for the jolt to take effect. [258] "Well, then," he said at last. [259] "You just remember what I've told you tonight, O'Leary, and we'll get along fine. [260] 'Specialization is the—' Oh, curse the thing." [261] His phone was ringing. [262] The warden picked it up irritably. [263] That was the trouble with those pale blue tablets, thought O'Leary; they gave you a lift, but they put you on edge. [264] "Hello," barked the warden, not even glancing at the viewscreen. [265] "What the devil do you want? [266] Don't you know I'm—What? [267] You did what ? [268] You're going to WHAT?" [269] He looked at the viewscreen at last with a look of pure horror. [270] Whatever he saw on it, it did not reassure him. [271] His eyes opened like clamshells in a steamer. [272] "O'Leary," he said faintly, "my mistake." [273] And he hung up—more or less by accident; the handset dropped from his fingers. [274] The person on the other end of the phone was calling from Cell Block O. [275] Five minutes before, he hadn't been anywhere near the phone and it didn't look as if his chances of ever getting near it were very good. [276] Because five minutes before, he was in his cell, with the rest of the hard-timers of the Greensleeves. [277] His name was Flock. [278] He was still yelling. [279] Sue-Ann Bradley, in the cell across from him, thought that maybe, after all, the man was really in pain. [280] Maybe the crazy screams were screams of agony, because certainly his face was the face of an agonized man. [281] The outside guard bellowed: "Okay, okay. [282] Take ten!" [283] Sue-Ann froze, waiting to see what would happen. [284] What actually did happen was that the guard reached up and closed the switch that actuated the tangler fields on the floors of the cells. [285] The prison rules were humanitarian, even for the dregs that inhabited the Greensleeves. [286] Ten minutes out of every two hours, even the worst case had to be allowed to take his hands out of the restraining garment. [287] "Rest period" it was called—in the rule book. [288] The inmates had a less lovely term for it. [289] At the guard's yell, the inmates jumped to their feet. [290] Bradley was a little slow getting off the edge of the steel-slat bed—nobody had warned her that the eddy currents in the tangler fields had a way of making metal smoke-hot. [291] She gasped but didn't cry out. [292] Score one more painful lesson in her new language course. [293] She rubbed the backs of her thighs gingerly—and slowly, slowly, for the eddy currents did not permit you to move fast. [294] It was like pushing against rubber; the faster you tried to move, the greater the resistance. [295] The guard peered genially into her cell. [296] "You're okay, auntie." [297] She proudly ignored him as he slogged deliberately away on his rounds. [298] He didn't have to untie her and practically stand over her while she attended to various personal matters, as he did with the male prisoners. [299] It was not much to be grateful for, but Sue-Ann Bradley was grateful. [300] At least she didn't have to live quite like a fig—like an underprivileged clerk, she told herself, conscience-stricken. [301] Across the hall, the guard was saying irritably: "What the hell's the matter with you?" [302] He opened the door of the cell with an asbestos-handled key held in a canvas glove. [303] Flock was in that cell and he was doubled over. [304] The guard looked at him doubtfully. [305] It could be a trick, maybe. [306] Couldn't it? [307] But he could see Flock's face and the agony in it was real enough. [308] And Flock was gasping, through real tears: "Cramps. [309] I—I—" "Ah, you wipes always got a pain in the gut." [310] The guard lumbered around Flock to the draw-strings at the back of the jacket. [311] Funny smell in here, he told himself—not for the first time. [312] And imagine, some people didn't believe that wipes had a smell of their own! [313] But this time, he realized cloudily, it was a rather unusual smell. [314] Something burning. [315] Almost like meat scorching. [316] It wasn't pleasant. [317] He finished untying Flock and turned away; let the stinking wipe take care of his own troubles. [318] He only had ten minutes to get all the way around Block O and the inmates complained like crazy if he didn't make sure they all got the most possible free time. [319] He was pretty good at snowshoeing through the tangler field. [320] He was a little vain about it, even; at times he had been known to boast of his ability to make the rounds in two minutes, every time. [321] Every time but this. [322] For Flock moaned behind him, oddly close. [323] The guard turned, but not quickly enough. [324] There was Flock—astonishingly, he was half out of his jacket; his arms hadn't been in the sleeves at all! [325] And in one of the hands, incredibly, there was something that glinted and smoked. [326] "All right," croaked Flock, tears trickling out of eyes nearly shut with pain. [327] But it wasn't the tears that held the guard; it was the shining, smoking thing, now poised at his throat. [328] A shiv! [329] It looked as though it had been made out of a bed-spring, ripped loose from its frame God knows how, hidden inside the greensleeved jacket God knows how—filed, filed to sharpness over endless hours. [330] No wonder Flock moaned—the eddy currents in the shiv were slowly cooking his hand; and the blister against his abdomen, where the shiv had been hidden during other rest periods, felt like raw acid. [331] "All right," whispered Flock, "just walk out the door and you won't get hurt. [332] Unless the other screw makes trouble, you won't get hurt, so tell him not to, you hear?" [333] He was nearly fainting with the pain. [334] But he hadn't let go. [335] He didn't let go. [336] And he didn't stop. [337] IV It was Flock on the phone to the warden—Flock with his eyes still streaming tears, Flock with Sauer standing right behind him, menacing the two bound deck guards. [338] Sauer shoved Flock out of the way. [339] "Hey, Warden!" [340] he said, and the voice was a cheerful bray, though the serpent eyes were cold and hating. [341] "Warden, you got to get a medic in here. [342] My boy Flock, he hurt himself real bad and he needs a doctor." [343] He gestured playfully at the guards with the shiv. [344] "I tell you, Warden. [345] I got this knife and I got your guards here. [346] Enough said? [347] So get a medic in here quick, you hear?" [348] And he snapped the connection. [349] O'Leary said: "Warden, I told you I smelled trouble!" [350] The warden lifted his head, glared, started feebly to speak, hesitated, and picked up the long-distance phone. [351] He said sadly to the prison operator: "Get me the governor—fast." [352] Riot! [353] The word spread out from the prison on seven-league boots. [354] It snatched the city governor out of a friendly game of Seniority with his manager and their wives—and just when he was holding the Porkbarrel Joker concealed in the hole. [355] It broke up the Base Championship Scramble Finals at Hap Arnold Field to the south, as half the contestants had to scramble in earnest to a Red Alert that was real. [356] It reached to police precinct houses and TV newsrooms and highway checkpoints, and from there it filtered into the homes and lives of the nineteen million persons that lived within a few dozen miles of the Jug. [357] Riot. [358] And yet fewer than half a dozen men were involved. [359] A handful of men, and the enormous bulk of the city-state quivered in every limb and class. [360] In its ten million homes, in its hundreds of thousands of public places, the city-state's people shook under the impact of the news from the prison. [361] For the news touched them where their fears lay. [362] Riot! [363] And not merely a street brawl among roistering wipes, or a bar-room fight of greasers relaxing from a hard day at the plant. [364] The riot was down among the corrupt sludge that underlay the state itself. [365] Wipes brawled with wipes and no one cared; but in the Jug, all classes were cast together. [366] Forty miles to the south, Hap Arnold Field was a blaze of light. [367] The airmen tumbled out of their quarters and dayrooms at the screech of the alert siren, and behind them their wives and children stretched and yawned and worried. [368] An alert! [369] The older kids fussed and complained and their mothers shut them up. [370] No, there wasn't any alert scheduled for tonight; no, they didn't know where Daddy was going; no, the kids couldn't get up yet—it was the middle of the night. [371] And as soon as they had the kids back in bed, most of the mothers struggled into their own airwac uniforms and headed for the briefing area to hear. [372] They caught the words from a distance—not quite correctly. [373] "Riot!" [374] gasped an aircraftswoman first-class, mother of three. [375] "The wipes! [376] I told Charlie they'd get out of hand and—Alys, we aren't safe. [377] You know how they are about GI women! [378] I'm going right home and get a club and stand right by the door and—" "Club!" [379] snapped Alys, radarscope-sergeant, with two children querulously awake in her nursery at home. [380] "What in God's name is the use of a club? [381] You can't hurt a wipe by hitting him on the head. [382] You'd better come along to Supply with me and draw a gun—you'll need it before this night is over." [383] But the airmen themselves heard the briefing loud and clear over the scramble-call speakers, and they knew it was not merely a matter of trouble in the wipe quarters. [384] The Jug! [385] The governor himself had called them out; they were to fly interdicting missions at such-and-such levels on such-and-such flight circuits around the prison. [386] The rockets took off on fountains of fire; and the jets took off with a whistling roar; and last of all, the helicopters took off ... and they were the ones who might actually accomplish something. [387] They took up their picket posts on the prison perimeter, a pilot and two bombardiers in each 'copter, stone-faced, staring grimly alert at the prison below. [388] They were ready for the breakout. [389] But there wasn't any breakout. [390] The rockets went home for fuel. [391] The jets went home for fuel. [392] The helicopters hung on—still ready, still waiting. [393] The rockets came back and roared harmlessly about, and went away again. [394] They stayed away. [395] The helicopter men never faltered and never relaxed. [396] The prison below them was washed with light—from the guard posts on the walls, from the cell blocks themselves, from the mobile lights of the guard squadrons surrounding the walls. [397] North of the prison, on the long, flat, damp developments of reclaimed land, the matchbox row houses of the clerical neighborhoods showed lights in every window as the figgers stood ready to repel invasion from their undesired neighbors to the east, the wipes. [398] In the crowded tenements of the laborers' quarters, the wipes shouted from window to window; and there were crowds in the bright streets. [399] "The whole bloody thing's going to blow up!" [400] a helicopter bombardier yelled bitterly to his pilot, above the flutter and roar of the whirling blades. [401] "Look at the mobs in Greaserville! [402] The first breakout from the Jug's going to start a fight like you never saw and we'll be right in the middle of it!" [403] He was partly right. [404] He would be right in the middle of it—for every man, woman and child in the city-state would be right in the middle of it. [405] There was no place anywhere that would be spared. [406] No mixing. [407] That was the prescription that kept the city-state alive. [408] There's no harm in a family fight—and aren't all mechanics a family, aren't all laborers a clan, aren't all clerks and office workers related by closer ties than blood or skin? [409] But the declassed cons of the Jug were the dregs of every class; and once they spread, the neat compartmentation of society was pierced. [410] The breakout would mean riot on a bigger scale than any prison had ever known. [411] But he was also partly wrong. [412] Because the breakout wasn't seeming to come.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "Describe the main setting of the story": 1. [107] Block O in Estates-General Correctional Institution was the disciplinary block, and because of the green straitjackets its inhabitants wore, it was called the Greensleeves. 2. [108] It was a community of its own, an enclave within the larger city-state that was the Jug. 3. [103] Every prison has its Greensleeves—sometimes they are called by different names. 4. [104] Old Marquette called it "the canary;" Louisiana State called it "the red hats;" elsewhere it was called "the hole," "the snake pit," "the Klondike." 5. [105] When you're in it, you don't much care what it is called; it is a place for punishment. 6. [106] And punishment is what you get. 7. [1] My Lady Greensleeves By FREDERIK POHL Illustrated by GAUGHAN [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1957.] 8. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] 9. [3] This guard smelled trouble and it could be counted on to come—for a nose for trouble was one of the many talents bred here! 10. [4] I His name was Liam O'Leary and there was something stinking in his nostrils. 11. [5] It was the smell of trouble. 12. [6] He hadn't found what the trouble was yet, but he would. 13. [7] That was his business. 14. [8] He was a captain of guards in Estates-General Correctional Institution—better known to its inmates as the Jug—and if he hadn't been able to detect the scent of trouble brewing a cell-block away, he would never have survived to reach his captaincy. 15. [9] And her name, he saw, was Sue-Ann Bradley, Detainee No. 16. [10] WFA-656R. 17. [11] He frowned at the rap sheet, trying to figure out what got a girl like her into a place like this. 18. [12] And, what was more important, why she couldn't adjust herself to it, now that she was in. 19. [13] He demanded: "Why wouldn't you mop out your cell?" 20. [14] The girl lifted her head angrily and took a step forward. 21. [15] The block guard, Sodaro, growled warningly: "Watch it, auntie!" 22. [16] O'Leary shook his head. 23. [17] "Let her talk, Sodaro." 24. [18] It said in the Civil Service Guide to Prison Administration : "Detainees will be permitted to speak in their own behalf in disciplinary proceedings." 25. [19] And O'Leary was a man who lived by the book. 26. [20] She burst out: "I never got a chance! 27. [21] That old witch Mathias never told me I was supposed to mop up. 28. [22] She banged on the door and said, 'Slush up, sister!' 29. [23] And then, ten minutes later, she called the guards and told them I refused to mop." 30. [24] The block guard guffawed. 31. [25] "Wipe talk—that's what she was telling you to do. 32. [26] Cap'n, you know what's funny about this? 33. [27] This Bradley is—" "Shut up, Sodaro." 34. [28] Captain O'leary put down his pencil and looked at the girl. 35. [29] She was attractive and young—not beyond hope, surely. 36. [30] Maybe she had got off to a wrong start, but the question was, would putting her in the disciplinary block help straighten her out? 37. [31] He rubbed his ear and looked past her at the line of prisoners on the rap detail, waiting for him to judge their cases. 38. [32] He said patiently: "Bradley, the rules are you have to mop out your cell. 39. [33] If you didn't understand what Mathias was talking about, you should have asked her. 40. [34] Now I'm warning you, the next time—" "Hey, Cap'n, wait!" 41. [35] Sodaro was looking alarmed. 42. [36] "This isn't a first offense. 43. [37] Look at the rap sheet. 44. [38] Yesterday she pulled the same thing in the mess hall." 45. [39] He shook his head reprovingly at the prisoner. 46. [40] "The block guard had to break up a fight between her and another wench, and she claimed the same business—said she didn't understand when the other one asked her to move along." 47. [41] He added virtuously: "The guard warned her then that next time she'd get the Greensleeves for sure." 48. [42] Inmate Bradley seemed to be on the verge of tears. 49. [43] She said tautly: "I don't care. 50. [44] I don't care!" 51. [45] O'Leary stopped her. 52. [46] "That's enough! 53. [47] Three days in Block O!" 54. [48] It was the only thing to do—for her own sake as much as for his. 55. [49] He had managed, by strength of will, not to hear that she had omitted to say "sir" every time she spoke to him, but he couldn't keep it up forever and he certainly couldn't overlook hysteria. 56. [50] And hysteria was clearly the next step for her. 57. [51] All the same, he stared after her as she left. 58. [52] He handed the rap sheet to Sodaro and said absently: "Too bad a kid like her has to be here. 59. [53] What's she in for?" 60. [54] "You didn't know, Cap'n?" 61. [55] Sodaro leered. 62. [56] "She's in for conspiracy to violate the Categoried Class laws. 63. [57] Don't waste your time with her, Cap'n. 64. [58] She's a figger-lover!" 65. [59] Captain O'Leary took a long drink of water from the fountain marked "Civil Service." 66. [60] But it didn't wash the taste out of his mouth, the smell from his nostrils. 67. [61] What got into a girl to get her mixed up with that kind of dirty business? 68. [62] He checked out of the cell blocks and walked across the yard, wondering about her. 69. [63] She'd had every advantage—decent Civil Service parents, a good education, everything a girl could wish for. 70. [64] If anything, she had had a better environment than O'Leary himself, and look what she had made of it.

What is the Jug a symbol of to the civilians in the outside world?

[1] My Lady Greensleeves By FREDERIK POHL Illustrated by GAUGHAN [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction February 1957. [2] Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [3] This guard smelled trouble and it could be counted on to come—for a nose for trouble was one of the many talents bred here! [4] I His name was Liam O'Leary and there was something stinking in his nostrils. [5] It was the smell of trouble. [6] He hadn't found what the trouble was yet, but he would. [7] That was his business. [8] He was a captain of guards in Estates-General Correctional Institution—better known to its inmates as the Jug—and if he hadn't been able to detect the scent of trouble brewing a cell-block away, he would never have survived to reach his captaincy. [9] And her name, he saw, was Sue-Ann Bradley, Detainee No. [10] WFA-656R. [11] He frowned at the rap sheet, trying to figure out what got a girl like her into a place like this. [12] And, what was more important, why she couldn't adjust herself to it, now that she was in. [13] He demanded: "Why wouldn't you mop out your cell?" [14] The girl lifted her head angrily and took a step forward. [15] The block guard, Sodaro, growled warningly: "Watch it, auntie!" [16] O'Leary shook his head. [17] "Let her talk, Sodaro." [18] It said in the Civil Service Guide to Prison Administration : "Detainees will be permitted to speak in their own behalf in disciplinary proceedings." [19] And O'Leary was a man who lived by the book. [20] She burst out: "I never got a chance! [21] That old witch Mathias never told me I was supposed to mop up. [22] She banged on the door and said, 'Slush up, sister!' [23] And then, ten minutes later, she called the guards and told them I refused to mop." [24] The block guard guffawed. [25] "Wipe talk—that's what she was telling you to do. [26] Cap'n, you know what's funny about this? [27] This Bradley is—" "Shut up, Sodaro." [28] Captain O'leary put down his pencil and looked at the girl. [29] She was attractive and young—not beyond hope, surely. [30] Maybe she had got off to a wrong start, but the question was, would putting her in the disciplinary block help straighten her out? [31] He rubbed his ear and looked past her at the line of prisoners on the rap detail, waiting for him to judge their cases. [32] He said patiently: "Bradley, the rules are you have to mop out your cell. [33] If you didn't understand what Mathias was talking about, you should have asked her. [34] Now I'm warning you, the next time—" "Hey, Cap'n, wait!" [35] Sodaro was looking alarmed. [36] "This isn't a first offense. [37] Look at the rap sheet. [38] Yesterday she pulled the same thing in the mess hall." [39] He shook his head reprovingly at the prisoner. [40] "The block guard had to break up a fight between her and another wench, and she claimed the same business—said she didn't understand when the other one asked her to move along." [41] He added virtuously: "The guard warned her then that next time she'd get the Greensleeves for sure." [42] Inmate Bradley seemed to be on the verge of tears. [43] She said tautly: "I don't care. [44] I don't care!" [45] O'Leary stopped her. [46] "That's enough! [47] Three days in Block O!" [48] It was the only thing to do—for her own sake as much as for his. [49] He had managed, by strength of will, not to hear that she had omitted to say "sir" every time she spoke to him, but he couldn't keep it up forever and he certainly couldn't overlook hysteria. [50] And hysteria was clearly the next step for her. [51] All the same, he stared after her as she left. [52] He handed the rap sheet to Sodaro and said absently: "Too bad a kid like her has to be here. [53] What's she in for?" [54] "You didn't know, Cap'n?" [55] Sodaro leered. [56] "She's in for conspiracy to violate the Categoried Class laws. [57] Don't waste your time with her, Cap'n. [58] She's a figger-lover!" [59] Captain O'Leary took a long drink of water from the fountain marked "Civil Service." [60] But it didn't wash the taste out of his mouth, the smell from his nose. [61] What got into a girl to get her mixed up with that kind of dirty business? [62] He checked out of the cell blocks and walked across the yard, wondering about her. [63] She'd had every advantage—decent Civil Service parents, a good education, everything a girl could wish for. [64] If anything, she had had a better environment than O'Leary himself, and look what she had made of it. [65] The direction of evolution is toward specialization and Man is no exception, but with the difference that his is the one species that creates its own environment in which to specialize. [66] From the moment that clans formed, specialization began—the hunters using the weapons made by the flint-chippers, the food cooked in clay pots made by the ceramists, over fire made by the shaman who guarded the sacred flame. [67] Civilization merely increased the extent of specialization. [68] From the born mechanic and the man with the gift of gab, society evolved to the point of smaller contact and less communication between the specializations, until now they could understand each other on only the most basic physical necessities—and not even always then. [69] But this was desirable, for the more specialists, the higher the degree of civilization. [70] The ultimate should be the complete segregation of each specialization—social and genetic measures to make them breed true, because the unspecialized man is an uncivilized man, or at any rate he does not advance civilization. [71] And letting the specializations mix would produce genetic undesirables: clerk-laborer or Professional-GI misfits, for example, being only half specialized, would be good at no specialization. [72] And the basis of this specialization society was: "The aptitude groups are the true races of mankind." [73] Putting it into law was only the legal enforcement of a demonstrable fact. [74] "Evening, Cap'n." [75] A bleary old inmate orderly stood up straight and touched his cap as O'Leary passed by. [76] "Evening." [77] O'Leary noted, with the part of his mind that always noted those things, that the orderly had been leaning on his broom until he'd noticed the captain coming by. [78] Of course, there wasn't much to sweep—the spray machines and sweeperdozers had been over the cobblestones of the yard twice already that day. [79] But it was an inmate's job to keep busy. [80] And it was a guard captain's job to notice when they didn't. [81] There wasn't anything wrong with that job, he told himself. [82] It was a perfectly good civil-service position—better than post-office clerk, not as good as Congressman, but a job you could be proud to hold. [83] He was proud of it. [84] It was right that he should be proud of it. [85] He was civil-service born and bred, and naturally he was proud and content to do a good, clean civil-service job. [86] If he had happened to be born a fig—a clerk , he corrected himself—if he had happened to be born a clerk, why, he would have been proud of that, too. [87] There wasn't anything wrong with being a clerk—or a mechanic or a soldier, or even a laborer, for that matter. [88] Good laborers were the salt of the Earth! [89] They weren't smart, maybe, but they had a—well, a sort of natural, relaxed joy of living. [90] O'Leary was a broad-minded man and many times he had thought almost with a touch of envy how comfortable it must be to be a wipe—a laborer . [91] No responsibilities. [92] No worries. [93] Just an easy, slow routine of work and loaf, work and loaf. [94] Of course, he wouldn't really want that kind of life, because he was Civil Service and not the kind to try to cross over class barriers that weren't meant to be— "Evening, Cap'n." [95] He nodded to the mechanic inmate who was, theoretically, in charge of maintaining the prison's car pool, just inside the gate. [96] "Evening, Conan," he said. [97] Conan, now—he was a big buck greaser and he would be there for the next hour, languidly poking a piece of fluff out of the air filter on the prison jeep. [98] Lazy, sure. [99] Undependable, certainly. [100] But he kept the cars going—and, O'Leary thought approvingly, when his sentence was up in another year or so, he would go back to his life with his status restored, a mechanic on the outside as he had been inside, and he certainly would never risk coming back to the Jug by trying to pass as Civil Service or anything else. [101] He knew his place. [102] So why didn't this girl, this Sue-Ann Bradley, know hers? [103] II Every prison has its Greensleeves—sometimes they are called by different names. [104] Old Marquette called it "the canary;" Louisiana State called it "the red hats;" elsewhere it was called "the hole," "the snake pit," "the Klondike." [105] When you're in it, you don't much care what it is called; it is a place for punishment. [106] And punishment is what you get. [107] Block O in Estates-General Correctional Institution was the disciplinary block, and because of the green straitjackets its inhabitants wore, it was called the Greensleeves. [108] It was a community of its own, an enclave within the larger city-state that was the Jug. [109] And like any other community, it had its leading citizens ... two of them. [110] Their names were Sauer and Flock. [111] Sue-Ann Bradley heard them before she reached the Greensleeves. [112] She was in a detachment of three unfortunates like herself, convoyed by an irritable guard, climbing the steel steps toward Block O from the floor below, when she heard the yelling. [113] "Owoo-o-o," screamed Sauer from one end of the cell block and "Yow-w-w!" [114] shrieked Flock at the other. [115] The inside deck guard of Block O looked nervously at the outside deck guard. [116] The outside guard looked impassively back—after all, he was on the outside. [117] The inside guard muttered: "Wipe rats! [118] They're getting on my nerves." [119] The outside guard shrugged. [120] "Detail, halt !" [121] The two guards turned to see what was coming in as the three new candidates for the Greensleeves slumped to a stop at the head of the stairs. [122] "Here they are," Sodaro told them. [123] "Take good care of 'em, will you? [124] Especially the lady—she's going to like it here, because there's plenty of wipes and greasers and figgers to keep her company." [125] He laughed coarsely and abandoned his charges to the Block O guards. [126] The outside guard said sourly: "A woman, for God's sake. [127] Now O'Leary knows I hate it when there's a woman in here. [128] It gets the others all riled up." [129] "Let them in," the inside guard told him. [130] "The others are riled up already." [131] Sue-Ann Bradley looked carefully at the floor and paid them no attention. [132] The outside guard pulled the switch that turned on the tanglefoot electronic fields that swamped the floor of the block corridor and of each individual cell. [133] While the fields were on, you could ignore the prisoners—they simply could not move fast enough, against the electronic drag of the field, to do any harm. [134] But it was a rule that, even in Block O, you didn't leave the tangler fields on all the time—only when the cell doors had to be opened or a prisoner's restraining garment removed. [135] Sue-Ann walked bravely forward through the opened gate—and fell flat on her face. [136] It was her first experience of a tanglefoot field. [137] It was like walking through molasses. [138] The guard guffawed and lifted her up by one shoulder. [139] "Take it easy, auntie. [140] Come on, get in your cell." [141] He steered her in the right direction and pointed to a greensleeved straitjacket on the cell cot. [142] "Put that on. [143] Being as you're a lady, we won't tie it up, but the rules say you got to wear it and the rules—Hey. [144] She's crying!" [145] He shook his head, marveling. [146] It was the first time he had ever seen a prisoner cry in the Greensleeves. [147] However, he was wrong. [148] Sue-Ann's shoulders were shaking, but not from tears. [149] Sue-Ann Bradley had got a good look at Sauer and at Flock as she passed them by and she was fighting off an almost uncontrollable urge to retch. [150] Sauer and Flock were what are called prison wolves. [151] They were laborers—"wipes," for short—or, at any rate, they had been once. [152] They had spent so much time in prisons that it was sometimes hard even for them to remember what they really were, outside. [153] Sauer was a big, grinning redhead with eyes like a water moccasin. [154] Flock was a lithe five-footer with the build of a water moccasin—and the sad, stupid eyes of a calf. [155] Sauer stopped yelling for a moment. [156] "Hey, Flock!" [157] "What do you want, Sauer?" [158] called Flock from his own cell. [159] "We got a lady with us! [160] Maybe we ought to cut out this yelling so as not to disturb the lady!" [161] He screeched with howling, maniacal laughter. [162] "Anyway, if we don't cut this out, they'll get us in trouble, Flock!" [163] "Oh, you think so?" [164] shrieked Flock. [165] "Jeez, I wish you hadn't said that, Sauer. [166] You got me scared! [167] I'm so scared, I'm gonna have to yell!" [168] The howling started all over again. [169] The inside guard finished putting the new prisoners away and turned off the tangler field once more. [170] He licked his lips. [171] "Say, you want to take a turn in here for a while?" [172] "Uh-uh." [173] The outside guard shook his head. [174] "You're yellow," the inside guard said moodily. [175] "Ah, I don't know why I don't quit this lousy job. [176] Hey, you! [177] Pipe down or I'll come in and beat your head off!" [178] "Ee-ee-ee!" [179] screamed Sauer in a shrill falsetto. [180] "I'm scared!" [181] Then he grinned at the guard, all but his water-moccasin eyes. [182] "Don't you know you can't hurt a wipe by hitting him on the head, Boss?" [183] "Shut up !" [184] yelled the inside guard. [185] Sue-Ann Bradley's weeping now was genuine. [186] She simply could not help it. [187] The crazy yowling of the hard-timers, Sauer and Flock, was getting under her skin. [188] They weren't even—even human , she told herself miserably, trying to weep silently so as not to give the guards the satisfaction of hearing her—they were animals! [189] Resentment and anger, she could understand. [190] She told herself doggedly that resentment and anger were natural and right. [191] They were perfectly normal expressions of the freedom-loving citizen's rebellion against the vile and stifling system of Categoried Classes. [192] It was good that Sauer and Flock still had enough spirit to struggle against the vicious system— But did they have to scream so? [193] The senseless yelling was driving her crazy. [194] She abandoned herself to weeping and she didn't even care who heard her any more. [195] Senseless! [196] It never occurred to Sue-Ann Bradley that it might not be senseless, because noise hides noise. [197] But then she hadn't been a prisoner very long. [198] III "I smell trouble," said O'Leary to the warden. [199] "Trouble? [200] Trouble?" [201] Warden Schluckebier clutched his throat and his little round eyes looked terrified—as perhaps they should have. [202] Warden Godfrey Schluckebier was the almighty Caesar of ten thousand inmates in the Jug, but privately he was a fussy old man trying to hold onto the last decent job he would have in his life. [203] "Trouble? [204] What trouble?" [205] O'Leary shrugged. [206] "Different things. [207] You know Lafon, from Block A? [208] This afternoon, he was playing ball with the laundry orderlies in the yard." [209] The warden, faintly relieved, faintly annoyed, scolded: "O'Leary, what did you want to worry me for? [210] There's nothing wrong with playing ball in the yard. [211] That's what recreation periods are for." [212] "You don't see what I mean, Warden. [213] Lafon was a professional on the outside—an architect. [214] Those laundry cons were laborers. [215] Pros and wipes don't mix; it isn't natural. [216] And there are other things." [217] O'Leary hesitated, frowning. [218] How could you explain to the warden that it didn't smell right? [219] "For instance—Well, there's Aunt Mathias in the women's block. [220] She's a pretty good old girl—that's why she's the block orderly. [221] She's a lifer, she's got no place to go, she gets along with the other women. [222] But today she put a woman named Bradley on report. [223] Why? [224] Because she told Bradley to mop up in wipe talk and Bradley didn't understand. [225] Now Mathias wouldn't—" The warden raised his hand. [226] "Please, O'Leary, don't bother me about that kind of stuff." [227] He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. [228] He poured himself a cup of steaming black coffee from a brewpot, reached in a desk drawer for something, hesitated, glanced at O'Leary, then dropped a pale blue tablet into the cup. [229] He drank it down eagerly, ignoring the scalding heat. [230] He leaned back, looking suddenly happier and much more assured. [231] "O'Leary, you're a guard captain, right? [232] And I'm your warden. [233] You have your job, keeping the inmates in line, and I have mine. [234] Now your job is just as important as my job," he said piously. " [235] Everybody's job is just as important as everybody else's, right? [236] But we have to stick to our own jobs. [237] We don't want to try to pass ." [238] O'Leary snapped erect, abruptly angry. [239] Pass! [240] What the devil way was that for the warden to talk to him? [241] "Excuse the expression, O'Leary," the warden said anxiously. [242] "I mean, after all, 'Specialization is the goal of civilization,' right?" [243] He was a great man for platitudes, was Warden Schluckebier. " [244] You know you don't want to worry about my end of running the prison. [245] And I don't want to worry about yours . [246] You see?" [247] And he folded his hands and smiled like a civil-service Buddha. [248] O'Leary choked back his temper. [249] "Warden, I'm telling you that there's trouble coming up. [250] I smell the signs." [251] "Handle it, then!" [252] snapped the warden, irritated at last. [253] "But suppose it's too big to handle. [254] Suppose—" "It isn't," the warden said positively. [255] "Don't borrow trouble with all your supposing, O'Leary." [256] He sipped the remains of his coffee, made a wry face, poured a fresh cup and, with an elaborate show of not noticing what he was doing, dropped three of the pale blue tablets into it this time. [257] He sat beaming into space, waiting for the jolt to take effect. [258] "Well, then," he said at last. [259] "You just remember what I've told you tonight, O'Leary, and we'll get along fine. [260] 'Specialization is the—' Oh, curse the thing." [261] His phone was ringing. [262] The warden picked it up irritably. [263] That was the trouble with those pale blue tablets, thought O'Leary; they gave you a lift, but they put you on edge. [264] "Hello," barked the warden, not even glancing at the viewscreen. [265] "What the devil do you want? [266] Don't you know I'm—What? [267] You did what ? [268] You're going to WHAT?" [269] He looked at the viewscreen at last with a look of pure horror. [270] Whatever he saw on it, it did not reassure him. [271] His eyes opened like clamshells in a steamer. [272] "O'Leary," he said faintly, "my mistake." [273] And he hung up—more or less by accident; the handset dropped from his fingers. [274] The person on the other end of the phone was calling from Cell Block O. [275] Five minutes before, he hadn't been anywhere near the phone and it didn't look as if his chances of ever getting near it were very good. [276] Because five minutes before, he was in his cell, with the rest of the hard-timers of the Greensleeves. [277] His name was Flock. [278] He was still yelling. [279] Sue-Ann Bradley, in the cell across from him, thought that maybe, after all, the man was really in pain. [280] Maybe the crazy screams were screams of agony, because certainly his face was the face of an agonized man. [281] The outside guard bellowed: "Okay, okay. [282] Take ten!" [283] Sue-Ann froze, waiting to see what would happen. [284] What actually did happen was that the guard reached up and closed the switch that actuated the tangler fields on the floors of the cells. [285] The prison rules were humanitarian, even for the dregs that inhabited the Greensleeves. [286] Ten minutes out of every two hours, even the worst case had to be allowed to take his hands out of the restraining garment. [287] "Rest period" it was called—in the rule book. [288] The inmates had a less lovely term for it. [289] At the guard's yell, the inmates jumped to their feet. [290] Bradley was a little slow getting off the edge of the steel-slat bed—nobody had warned her that the eddy currents in the tangler fields had a way of making metal smoke-hot. [291] She gasped but didn't cry out. [292] Score one more painful lesson in her new language course. [293] She rubbed the backs of her thighs gingerly—and slowly, slowly, for the eddy currents did not permit you to move fast. [294] It was like pushing against rubber; the faster you tried to move, the greater the resistance. [295] The guard peered genially into her cell. [296] "You're okay, auntie." [297] She proudly ignored him as he slogged deliberately away on his rounds. [298] He didn't have to untie her and practically stand over her while she attended to various personal matters, as he did with the male prisoners. [299] It was not much to be grateful for, but Sue-Ann Bradley was grateful. [300] At least she didn't have to live quite like a fig—like an underprivileged clerk, she told herself, conscience-stricken. [301] Across the hall, the guard was saying irritably: "What the hell's the matter with you?" [302] He opened the door of the cell with an asbestos-handled key held in a canvas glove. [303] Flock was in that cell and he was doubled over. [304] The guard looked at him doubtfully. [305] It could be a trick, maybe. [306] Couldn't it? [307] But he could see Flock's face and the agony in it was real enough. [308] And Flock was gasping, through real tears: "Cramps. [309] I—I—" "Ah, you wipes always got a pain in the gut." [310] The guard lumbered around Flock to the draw-strings at the back of the jacket. [311] Funny smell in here, he told himself—not for the first time. [312] And imagine, some people didn't believe that wipes had a smell of their own! [313] But this time, he realized cloudily, it was a rather unusual smell. [314] Something burning. [315] Almost like meat scorching. [316] It wasn't pleasant. [317] He finished untying Flock and turned away; let the stinking wipe take care of his own troubles. [318] He only had ten minutes to get all the way around Block O and the inmates complained like crazy if he didn't make sure they all got the most possible free time. [319] He was pretty good at snowshoeing through the tangler field. [320] He was a little vain about it, even; at times he had been known to boast of his ability to make the rounds in two minutes, every time. [321] Every time but this. [322] For Flock moaned behind him, oddly close. [323] The guard turned, but not quickly enough. [324] There was Flock—astonishingly, he was half out of his jacket; his arms hadn't been in the sleeves at all! [325] And in one of the hands, incredibly, there was something that glinted and smoked. [326] "All right," croaked Flock, tears trickling out of eyes nearly shut with pain. [327] But it wasn't the tears that held the guard; it was the shining, smoking thing, now poised at his throat. [328] A shiv! [329] It looked as though it had been made out of a bed-spring, ripped loose from its frame God knows how, hidden inside the greensleeved jacket God knows how—filed, filed to sharpness over endless hours. [330] No wonder Flock moaned—the eddy currents in the shiv were slowly cooking his hand; and the blister against his abdomen, where the shiv had been hidden during other rest periods, felt like raw acid. [331] "All right," whispered Flock, "just walk out the door and you won't get hurt. [332] Unless the other screw makes trouble, you won't get hurt, so tell him not to, you hear?" [333] He was nearly fainting with the pain. [334] But he hadn't let go. [335] He didn't let go. [336] And he didn't stop. [337] IV It was Flock on the phone to the warden—Flock with his eyes still streaming tears, Flock with Sauer standing right behind him, menacing the two bound deck guards. [338] Sauer shoved Flock out of the way. [339] "Hey, Warden!" [340] he said, and the voice was a cheerful bray, though the serpent eyes were cold and hating. [341] "Warden, you got to get a medic in here. [342] My boy Flock, he hurt himself real bad and he needs a doctor." [343] He gestured playfully at the guards with the shiv. [344] "I tell you, Warden. [345] I got this knife and I got your guards here. [346] Enough said? [347] So get a medic in here quick, you hear?" [348] And he snapped the connection. [349] O'Leary said: "Warden, I told you I smelled trouble!" [350] The warden lifted his head, glared, started feebly to speak, hesitated, and picked up the long-distance phone. [351] He said sadly to the prison operator: "Get me the governor—fast." [352] Riot! [353] The word spread out from the prison on seven-league boots. [354] It snatched the city governor out of a friendly game of Seniority with his manager and their wives—and just when he was holding the Porkbarrel Joker concealed in the hole. [355] It broke up the Base Championship Scramble Finals at Hap Arnold Field to the south, as half the contestants had to scramble in earnest to a Red Alert that was real. [356] It reached to police precinct houses and TV newsrooms and highway checkpoints, and from there it filtered into the homes and lives of the nineteen million persons that lived within a few dozen miles of the Jug. [357] Riot. [358] And yet fewer than half a dozen men were involved. [359] A handful of men, and the enormous bulk of the city-state quivered in every limb and class. [360] In its ten million homes, in its hundreds of thousands of public places, the city-state's people shook under the impact of the news from the prison. [361] For the news touched them where their fears lay. [362] Riot! [363] And not merely a street brawl among roistering wipes, or a bar-room fight of greasers relaxing from a hard day at the plant. [364] The riot was down among the corrupt sludge that underlay the state itself. [365] Wipes brawled with wipes and no one cared; but in the Jug, all classes were cast together. [366] Forty miles to the south, Hap Arnold Field was a blaze of light. [367] The airmen tumbled out of their quarters and dayrooms at the screech of the alert siren, and behind them their wives and children stretched and yawned and worried. [368] An alert! [369] The older kids fussed and complained and their mothers shut them up. [370] No, there wasn't any alert scheduled for tonight; no, they didn't know where Daddy was going; no, the kids couldn't get up yet—it was the middle of the night. [371] And as soon as they had the kids back in bed, most of the mothers struggled into their own airwac uniforms and headed for the briefing area to hear. [372] They caught the words from a distance—not quite correctly. [373] "Riot!" [374] gasped an aircraftswoman first-class, mother of three. [375] "The wipes! [376] I told Charlie they'd get out of hand and—Alys, we aren't safe. [377] You know how they are about GI women! [378] I'm going right home and get a club and stand right by the door and—" "Club!" [379] snapped Alys, radarscope-sergeant, with two children querulously awake in her nursery at home. [380] "What in God's name is the use of a club? [381] You can't hurt a wipe by hitting him on the head. [382] You'd better come along to Supply with me and draw a gun—you'll need it before this night is over." [383] But the airmen themselves heard the briefing loud and clear over the scramble-call speakers, and they knew it was not merely a matter of trouble in the wipe quarters. [384] The Jug! [385] The governor himself had called them out; they were to fly interdicting missions at such-and-such levels on such-and-such flight circuits around the prison. [386] The rockets took off on fountains of fire; and the jets took off with a whistling roar; and last of all, the helicopters took off ... and they were the ones who might actually accomplish something. [387] They took up their picket posts on the prison perimeter, a pilot and two bombardiers in each 'copter, stone-faced, staring grimly alert at the prison below. [388] They were ready for the breakout. [389] But there wasn't any breakout. [390] The rockets went home for fuel. [391] The jets went home for fuel. [392] The helicopters hung on—still ready, still waiting. [393] The rockets came back and roared harmlessly about, and went away again. [394] They stayed away. [395] The helicopter men never faltered and never relaxed. [396] The prison below them was washed with light—from the guard posts on the walls, from the cell blocks themselves, from the mobile lights of the guard squadrons surrounding the walls. [397] North of the prison, on the long, flat, damp developments of reclaimed land, the matchbox row houses of the clerical neighborhoods showed lights in every window as the figgers stood ready to repel invasion from their undesired neighbors to the east, the wipes. [398] In the crowded tenements of the laborers' quarters, the wipes shouted from window to window; and there were crowds in the bright streets. [399] "The whole bloody thing's going to blow up!" [400] a helicopter bombardier yelled bitterly to his pilot, above the flutter and roar of the whirling blades. [401] "Look at the mobs in Greaserville! [402] The first breakout from the Jug's going to start a fight like you never saw and we'll be right in the middle of it!" [403] He was partly right. [404] He would be right in the middle of it—for every man, woman and child in the city-state would be right in the middle of it. [405] There was no place anywhere that would be spared. [406] No mixing. [407] That was the prescription that kept the city-state alive. [408] There's no harm in a family fight—and aren't all mechanics a family, aren't all laborers a clan, aren't all clerks and office workers related by closer ties than blood or skin? [409] But the declassed cons of the Jug were the dregs of every class; and once they spread, the neat compartmentation of society was pierced. [410] The breakout would mean riot on a bigger scale than any prison had ever known. [411] But he was also partly wrong. [412] Because the breakout wasn't seeming to come.

Here is the ranking of the context sentences from most to least helpful for answering the question "What is the Jug a symbol of to the civilians in the outside world?": 1. [357] Riot! The word spread out from the prison on seven-league boots. 2. [358] It snatched the city governor out of a friendly game of Seniority with his manager and their wives—and just when he was holding the Porkbarrel Joker concealed in the hole. 3. [359] It broke up the Base Championship Scramble Finals at Hap Arnold Field to the south, as half the contestants had to scramble in earnest to a Red Alert that was real. 4. [360] It reached to police precinct houses and TV newsrooms and highway checkpoints, and from there it filtered into the homes and lives of the nineteen million persons that lived within a few dozen miles of the Jug. 5. [361] Riot. And yet fewer than half a dozen men were involved. 6. [362] A handful of men, and the enormous bulk of the city-state quivered in every limb and class. 7. [363] In its ten million homes, in its hundreds of thousands of public places, the city-state's people shook under the impact of the news from the prison. 8. [364] For the news touched them where their fears lay. 9. [365] Riot! And not merely a street brawl among roistering wipes, or a bar-room fight of greasers relaxing from a hard day at the plant. 10. [366] The riot was down among the corrupt sludge that underlay the state itself. 11. [367] Wipes brawled with wipes and no one cared; but in the Jug, all classes were cast together. 12. [368] Forty miles to the south, Hap Arnold Field was a blaze of light. 13. [369] The airmen tumbled out of their quarters and dayrooms at the screech of the alert siren, and behind them their wives and children stretched and yawned and worried. 14. [370] An alert! 15. [371] The older kids fussed and complained and their mothers shut them up. 16. [372] No, there wasn't any alert scheduled for tonight; no, they didn't know where Daddy was going; no, the kids couldn't get up yet—it was the middle of the night. 17. [373] And as soon as they had the kids back in bed, most of the mothers struggled into their own airwac uniforms and headed for the briefing area to hear. 18. [374] They caught the words from a distance—not quite correctly. 19. [375] "Riot!" gasped an aircraftswoman first-class, mother of three. 20. [376] "The wipes! I told Charlie they'd get out of hand and—Alys, we aren't safe. You know how they are about GI women! I'm going right home and get a club and stand right by the door and—" 21. [377] "Club!" snapped Alys, radarscope-sergeant, with two children querulously awake in her nursery at home. 22. [378] "What in God's name is the use of a club? You can't hurt a wipe by hitting him on the head. You'd better come along to Supply with me and draw a gun—you'll need it before this night is over." 23. [379] But the airmen themselves heard the briefing loud and clear over the scramble-call speakers, and they knew it was not merely a matter of trouble in the wipe quarters. 24. [380] The Jug! 25. [381] The governor himself had called them out; they were to fly interdicting missions at such-and-such levels on such-and-such flight circuits around the prison. 26. [382] The rockets took off on fountains of fire; and the jets took off with a whistling roar; and last of all, the helicopters took off ... and they were the ones who might actually accomplish something. 27. [383] They took up their picket posts on the prison perimeter, a pilot and two bombardiers in each 'copter, stone-faced, staring grimly alert at the prison below. 28. [384] They were ready for the breakout. 29. [385] But there wasn't any breakout. 30. [386] The rockets went home for fuel. 31. [387] The jets went home for fuel. 32. [388] The helicopters hung on—still ready, still waiting. 33. [389] The rockets came back and roared harmlessly about, and went away again. 34. [390] They stayed away. 35. [391] The helicopter men never faltered and never relaxed. 36. [392] The prison below them was washed with light—from the guard posts on the walls, from the cell blocks themselves, from the mobile lights of the guard squadrons surrounding the walls. 37. [393] North of the prison, on the long, flat, damp developments of reclaimed land, the matchbox row houses of the clerical neighborhoods showed lights in every window as the figgers stood ready to repel invasion from their undesired neighbors to the east, the wipes. 38. [394] In the crowded tenements of the laborers' quarters, the wipes shouted from window to window; and there were crowds in the bright streets. 39. [395] "The whole bloody thing's going to blow up!" a helicopter bombardier yelled bitterly to his pilot, above the flutter and roar of the whirling blades. 40. [396] "Look at the mobs in Greaserville! The first breakout from the Jug's going to start a fight like you never saw and we'll be right in the middle of it!" 41. [397] He was partly right. 42. [398] He would be right in the middle of it—for every man, woman and child in the city-state would be right in the middle of it. 43. [399] There was no place anywhere that would be spared. 44. [400] No mixing. That was the prescription that kept the city-state alive. 45. [401] There's no harm in a family fight—and aren't all mechanics a family, aren't all laborers a clan, aren't all clerks and office workers related by closer ties than blood or skin? 46. [402] But the declassed cons of the Jug were the dregs of every class; and once they spread, the neat compartmentation of society was pierced. 47. [403] The breakout would mean riot on a bigger scale than any prison had ever known. 48. [404] But he was also partly wrong. Because the breakout wasn't seeming to come.