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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9cad33 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #69535 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69535) diff --git a/old/69535-0.txt b/old/69535-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 74371e1..0000000 --- a/old/69535-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8139 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Planet explorer, by Murray Leinster - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Planet explorer - -Author: Murray Leinster - -Release Date: December 13, 2022 [eBook #69535] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANET EXPLORER *** - - - - - - PLANET EXPLORER - - Original title: _Colonial Survey_ - - Murray Leinster - - _Complete and Unabridged_ - - AVON PUBLICATIONS, INC. - 575 Madison Avenue--New York 22, N. Y. - - _Planet Explorer_ (_Colonial Survey_) is based upon material - originally appearing in _Astounding Science Fiction_, copyright, - 1956, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. - - Copyright 1957, by Murray Leinster. Published by arrangement - with Gnome Press, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A. - - [Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any - evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - To Austin Stanton, Esq. - -Who believes that the things I write about should be accomplished right -away; - -Who believes that all men are potential geniuses; - -Who gives responsibility and opportunity to men while they are young; - -And thereby does his bit to make actual the things I only write about. - - _Murray Leinster_ - - - - - WORLDS AND WORLDS - -Eons from now, MAN will hurtle through the void in gravity-defying -ships across light-years of distance to far-flung planets ... and more -staggering yet, he will COLONIZE these islands in the unimaginably vast -ocean of space. There will be worlds, and worlds, such as-- - -LANI III--_a glacier-land warmed by man_ - -XOSA II--_a shining desert made green by man_ - -LOREN II--_an inferno of beasts, tamed by man_ - -THE FASCINATING, HEROIC STORY OF A TRAIL-BLAZER TO THE -UNKNOWN--outer-space service officer Bordman, who uses incredible -knowledge and skill to make the star-flung outposts of civilization -ready to receive new, vast surges of humanity! - - - - - Contents - - - Solar Constant - - Sand Doom - - Combat Team - - The Swamp Was Upside Down - - - - - SOLAR CONSTANT - - -Bordman waked that morning when the partly-opened port of his -sleeping-cabin closed of itself and the room-warmer began to whir. He -found himself burrowed deep under his covering, and when he got his -head out of it the already-bright room was bitterly cold and his breath -made a fog about his head. - -He thought uneasily _it's colder than yesterday_! But a Senior -Colonial Survey Officer is not supposed to let himself seem disturbed, -in public, and the only way to follow that rule is to follow it in -private too. So Bordman composed his features, while gloom filled him. -When one has just received senior service rating and is on one's very -first independent survey of a new colonial installation, the unexpected -can be appalling. The unexpected was definitely here, on Lani III. - -He'd been a Survey Candidate on Khali II and Taret and Arepo I, all of -which were tropical, and a Junior Officer on Menes III and Thotmes--one -a semi-arid planet and the other temperate-volcanic--and he'd done an -assistant job on Saril's solitary world, which was nine-tenths water. -But this first independent survey on his own was another matter. -Everything was wholly unfamiliar. An ice-planet with a minus point one -habitability rating was upsetting in its peculiarities. He knew what -the books said about glacial-world conditions, but that was all. - -The denseness of the fog his breath made seemed to grow less as the -room-warmer whirred and whirred. When by the thinness of the mist he -guessed the temperature to be not much under freezing, he climbed out -of his bunk and went to the port to look out. His cabin, of course, -was in one of the drone-hulls that had brought the colony's equipment -to Lani III. The other emptied hulls were precisely ranged in order -outside. They were connected by tubular galleries, and painstakingly -leveled. They gave an impression of impassioned tidiness among the -upheaved, ice-coated mountains all about. - -He gazed down the long valley in which the colony lay. There were -monstrous slanting peaks on either side that partly framed the morning -sun. Their flanks were ice. The sky was pale, and the sun had four -sun-dogs geometrically about it. Normal post-midnight temperatures in -this valley ranged around ten below zero--and this was technically -summer. But it was colder than ten below zero now. At noon there were -normally tiny trickling rills of surface-thaw running down the sunlit -sides of the mountains, but they froze again at night. And this was a -sheltered valley, warmer than most of the planet's surface. The sun had -its sun-dogs every day, on rising. There were nights when the brighter -planets had star-pups, too. - -The phone-plate lighted and dimmed and lighted and dimmed. They did -themselves well on Lani III; the parent world was in this same solar -system, making supply easy. That was rare. Bordman stood before the -plate and it cleared. Herndon's face peered unhappily out of it. He was -even younger than Bordman, and inclined to lean on the supposedly vast -experience of a Senior Officer of the Colonial Survey. - -"Well?" said Bordman, feeling undignified in his sleeping garments. - -"We're picking up a beam from home," said Herndon anxiously. "But we -can't make it out." - -Because the third planet of the sun Lani was being colonized from -the second, inhabited world, communication with the colony's base -was possible. A tight beam could span a distance which was only -light-minutes across at conjunction, and not much over a light-hour -at opposition, as now. But the beam communication had been broken -for the past few weeks, and shouldn't be possible again for some -weeks more. The sun lay between. One wouldn't expect normal -sound-and-picture transmission until the parent planet had moved past -the scrambler-fields of Lani. But something had come through. It would -be reasonable for it to be pretty much hash when it arrived. - -"They aren't sending words or pictures," said Herndon. "The beam is -wobbly and we don't know what to make of it. It's a signal, all right, -and on the regular frequency. But there are all sorts of stray noises -and still in the midst of it there's some sort of signal we can't make -out. It's like a whine, only it stutters. It's a broken-up sound of one -pitch." - -Bordman rubbed his chin. He remembered a course in information theory -just before he'd graduated from the Service Academy. Signals were made -by pulses, pitch-changes, and frequency-variations. Information was -what couldn't be predicted without information. And he remembered with -gratitude a seminar on the history of communication, just before he'd -gone out on his first field job as a Survey Candidate. - -"Hm," he said with a trace of self-consciousness. "Those noises, the -stuttering ones. Would they be, on the whole, of no more than two -different durations? Like--hm.--Bzz bzz bzzzzzzz bzz?" - -He felt that he lost dignity by making such ribald sounds. But -Herndon's face brightened. - -"That's it!" he said relievedly. "That's it! Only they're high-pitched -like--" His voice went falsetto. "Bz bz bz bzzz bz bz." - -Bordman thought, _we sound like two idiots_. He said: - -"Record everything you get, and I'll try to decode it." He added, -"Before there was voice communication there were signals by light -and sound in groups of long and short units. They came in groups, to -stand for letters, and things were spelled out. Of course there were -larger groups which were words. Very crude system, but it worked when -there was a lot of interference, as in the early days. If there's -some emergency, your home world might try to get through the sun's -scrambled-field that way." - -"Undoubtedly!" said Herndon, with even greater relief. "No question, -that's it!" - -He regarded Bordman with respect as he clicked off. His image faded. - -_He thinks I'm wonderful_, thought Bordman wrily. _Because I'm -Colonial Survey. But all I know is what's been taught me. It's bound to -show up sooner or later. Damn!_ - -He dressed. From time to time he looked out the port again. The -intolerable cold of Lani III had intensified, lately. There was some -idea that sunspots were the cause. He couldn't make out sunspots -with the naked eye, but the sun did look pale, with its accompanying -sun-dogs, the result of microscopic ice-crystals suspended in the air. -There was no dust on this planet, but there was plenty of ice! It was -in the air and on the ground and even under it. To be sure, the drills -for the foundation of the great landing-grid had brought up cores of -frozen humus along with frozen clay, so there must have been a time -when this world had known clouds and seas and vegetation. But it was -millions, maybe hundreds of millions of years ago. Right now, though, -it was only warm enough to have an atmosphere and very slight and -partial thawings in direct sunlight, in sheltered spots, at midday. It -couldn't support life, because life is always dependent on other life, -and there is a temperature below which a natural ecological system -can't maintain itself. And for the past few weeks, the climate had been -such that even human-supplied life looked dubious. - -Bordman slipped on his Colonial Survey uniform with its palm-tree -insignia. Nothing could be much more inappropriate than palm-tree -symbols on a planet with sixty feet of permafrost. Bordman reflected, -_The construction gang calls it a blast, instead of a tree, because -we blow up when they try to dodge specifications. But specifications -have to be met! You can't bet the lives of a colony or even a ship's -crew on half-built facilities!_ - -He marched down the corridor from his sleeping-room, with the dignity -he tried to maintain for the sake of the Colonial Survey. It was a -pretty lonely business, being dignified all the time. If Herndon didn't -look so respectful it would have been pleasant to be more friendly. But -Herndon revered him. Even his sister Riki.... - -But Bordman put her firmly out of his mind. He was on Lani III, which -had very valuable mineral resources that made colonization worth while, -to check and approve the colony installations. There was the giant -landing-grid for space-ships, which took power from the ionosphere -to bring space vessels gently to the ground, and also to supply the -colony's power needs. It likewise lifted visiting space-craft the -necessary five planetary diameters out when they took off again. -There was power storage in the remote event of disaster to that giant -device. There was a food reserve and the necessary resources for its -indefinite stretching in case of need. That usually meant hydroponic -installations. All these things had had to be finished, operable, and -inspected by a duly qualified Colonial Survey officer before the colony -could be licensed for unlimited use. - -It was all very normal and official, but Bordman was the newest Senior -Survey Officer on the list, and this was the first of his independent -operations. He felt inadequate at times. - -He passed through the vestibule between this drone-hull and the next -and went directly to Herndon's office. Herndon, like himself, was -newly endowed with authority. He was actually a mining-and-minerals -man and a youthful prodigy in that field, but when the director of the -colony was taken ill while a supply-ship was aground, he went back -to the home planet and command devolved on Herndon. _I wonder_, -thought Bordman, _if he feels as shaky as I do._ - -When he entered the office, Herndon sat listening to a literal hash -of noises coming out of a speaker on his desk. The cryptic signal -had been relayed to him, and a recorder stored it as it came. There -were cacklings and squeals and moaning sounds, sputters and rumbles -and growls. But behind the facade of confusion there was a tiny, -interrupted, high-pitched noise. It was a monotone whining not to be -confused with the random sounds accompanying it. Sometimes it faded -almost to inaudibility, and sometimes it was sharp and clear. But it -was a distinctive sound in itself, and it was made up of short whines -and longer ones of two durations only. - -"I've put Riki at making a transcription of what we've got," said -Herndon with relief as he saw Bordman. "She'll make short marks for -the short sounds, and long ones for the long. I've told her to try to -separate the groups. We've got a full half-hour of it, already." - -Bordman made an inspired guess. - -"I would expect it to be the same message repeated over and over," he -said. He added. "And I think it would be decoded by guessing at the -letters in two-letter and three-letter words, as clues to longer ones. -That's quicker than statistical analysis of frequency." - -Herndon instantly pressed buttons under his phone-plate. He relayed the -information to his sister, as if it were gospel. _But it wasn't_, -Bordman remembered. _It's simply a trick remembered from boyhood, -when I was interested in secret languages. My interest faded when I -realized I had no secrets to record or transmit._ - -Herndon turned from the phone-plate. - -"Riki says she's already learned to recognize some groups," he -reported, "but thanks for the advice. Now what?" - -Bordman sat down. "It seems to me," he observed, "that the increased -cold out here might not be local. Sunspots--" - -Herndon wordlessly handed over a sheet of paper with observation -figures on top and a graph below them which related the observations -to each other. They were the daily, at-first-routine, measurements of -the solar constant from Lani III. The graph-line almost ran off the -paper at the bottom. - -"To look at this," he admitted, "you'd think the sun was going out. Of -course it can't be," he added hastily. "Not possibly. But there is an -extraordinary number of sunspots. Maybe they'll clear. But meanwhile -the amount of heat reaching us is dropping. As far as I know there's no -parallel for it. Night temperatures are thirty degrees lower than they -should be. Not only here, either, but at all the robot weather-stations -that have been spotted around the planet. They average forty below -zero minimum, instead of ten. And--there is that terrific lot of -sunspots...." - -Bordman frowned. Sunspots are things about which nothing can be done. -Yet the habitability of a border-line planet, anyhow, could very well -depend on them. An infinitesimal change in sun-heat can make a serious -change in any planet's temperature. In the books, the ancient mother -planet Earth was said to have entered glacial periods through a drop -of only three degrees in the planet-wide temperature, and to have been -tropic almost to its poles from a rise of only six. It had been guessed -that those changes on the planet where humanity began had been caused -by a coincidence of sunspot maxima. - -Lani III was already glacial to its equator. Sunspots could account -for worsening conditions here, perhaps. _That message from the inner -planet could be bad_, thought Bordman, _if the solar constant -drops and stays down awhile._ But aloud he said: - -"There couldn't be a really significant permanent change. Not quickly, -anyhow. Lani's a sol-type star, and they aren't variables, though of -course any dynamic system like a sun will have cyclic modifications of -one sort or another. But they usually cancel out." - -He sounded encouraging, even to himself. - -There was a stirring behind him; Riki Herndon had come silently into -her brother's office. She looked pale. She put some papers down on the -desk. - -"That's true," she said. "But while cycles sometimes cancel, sometimes -they enhance each other. They heterodyne. That's what's happening." - -Bordman scrambled to his feet, flushing. Herndon said sharply: - -"What? Where'd you get that stuff, Riki?" - -She nodded at the sheaf of papers she'd just laid down. - -"That's the news from home." She nodded again, to Bordman. "You were -right. It was the same message, repeated over and over. And I decoded -it like children decode each other's secret messages. I did that to Ken -once. He was twelve, and I decoded his diary, and I remember how angry -he was that I'd found out he didn't have any secrets." - -She tried to smile. But Herndon wasn't listening. He read swiftly. -Bordman saw that the under sheets were rows of dots and dashes, -painstakingly transcribed and then decoded. There were letters under -each group of marks. - -Herndon was very white when he'd finished. He handed the sheet to -Bordman. Riki's handwriting was precise and clear. Bordman read: - -"FOR YOUR INFORMATION THE SOLAR CONSTANT IS DROPPING RAPIDLY DUE TO -COINCIDENCE OF CYCLIC VARIATIONS IN SUNSPOT ACTIVITY WITH PREVIOUS -UNOBSERVED LONG CYCLES APPARENTLY INCREASING THE EFFECT MAXIMUM IS -NOT YET REACHED AND IT IS EXPECTED THAT THIS PLANET WILL BECOME -UNINHABITABLE FOR A TIME ALREADY KILLING FROSTS HAVE DESTROYED CROPS -IN SUMMER HEMISPHERE IT IS IMPROBABLE THAT MORE THAN A SMALL PART OF -THE POPULATION CAN BE SHELTERED AND WARMED THROUGH DEVELOPING GLACIAL -CONDITIONS WHICH WILL REACH TO EQUATOR IN TWO HUNDRED DAYS THE COLD -CONDITIONS ARE COMPUTED TO LAST TWO THOUSAND DAYS BEFORE NORMAL SOLAR -CONSTANT RECURS THIS INFORMATION IS SENT YOU TO ADVISE IMMEDIATE -DEVELOPMENT OF HYDROPONIC FOOD SUPPLY AND OTHER PRECAUTIONS MESSAGE -ENDS FOR YOUR INFORMATION THE SOLAR CONSTANT IS DROPPING RAPIDLY DUE TO -COINCIDENCE OF CYCLIC--" - -Bordman looked up. Herndon's face was ghastly, Bordman said: - -"Kent IV is the nearest world your planet could hope to get help from. -A mail liner will make it in two months. Kent IV might be able to send -three ships--to get here in two months more. That's no good!" - -He felt sick. Human-inhabited planets are far apart. There is on an -average between four and five light-years of distance between suns, -two months' space-ship journey apart. And not all stars are Sol-type -or have inhabited planets. Colonized worlds are like isolated islands -in an unimaginably vast ocean, and the ships that ply between them -at thirty light-speeds seem merely to creep. In ancient days on the -mother-planet Earth, men sailed for months between ports, in their -clumsy sailing-ships. There was no way to send messages faster than -they could travel. Nowadays there was little improvement. News of -the Lani disaster could not be transmitted. It had to be carried, as -between stars, and carriage was slow and response to news of disaster -was no faster. - -The inner planet, Lani II, had twenty million inhabitants, as against -the three hundred people in the colony on Lani III. The outer planet -was already frozen, but there would be glaciation on the inner world in -two hundred days. Glaciation and human life are practically exclusive. -Human beings can survive only so long as food and power hold out, -and shelter against really bitter cold cannot be quickly improvised -for twenty million people. And, of course, there could be no help on -any adequate scale. News of the need for it would travel too slowly. -It would take five Earth-years to get a thousand ships to Lani II, -and a thousand ships could not rescue more than one per cent of the -population. But in five years there would not be nearly so many people -left alive. - -"Our people," said Riki in a thin voice, "all of them.... Mother and -father and the others. All our friends. Home is going to be like that!" - -She jerked her head toward a port which let in the frigid -colony-world's white daylight. - -Bordman was aware of an extreme unhappiness on her account. For -himself, of course, the tragedy was less. He had no family, and very -few friends. But he could see something that had not occurred to them -as yet. - -"Of course," he said, "it's not only their trouble. If the solar -constant is really dropping like that, things out here will be pretty -bad, too. A lot worse than they are now. We'll have to get to work to -save ourselves!" - -Riki did not look at him. Bordman bit his lips. It was plain that their -own fate did not concern them immediately. When one's home world is -doomed, one's personal safety seems a trivial matter. - -There was silence save for the cackling, confused noises that came out -of the speaker on Herndon's desk. - -"We," said Bordman, "are right now in the conditions they'll face a -good long time from now." - -Herndon said dully: - -"We couldn't live here without supplies from home. Or even without -the equipment we brought. But they can't get supplies from anywhere, -and they can't make such equipment for everybody! They'll die!" He -swallowed. "They--they know it, too. So they warn us to try to save -ourselves because they can't help us any more." - -There are many reasons why a man can feel shame that he belongs to a -race which can do the things that some men do. But sometimes there are -reasons to be proud, as well. The home world of this colony was doomed, -but it sent a warning to the tiny colony so that they could try to save -themselves. - -"I wish we were there to--share what they have to face," said Riki. Her -voice sounded as if her throat hurt. "I don't want to keep on living if -everybody who ever cared about us is going to die!" - -Bordman felt lonely. He could understand that nobody would want to -live as the only human alive. Nobody would want to live as a member -of the only group of people left alive. And everybody thinks of his -home planet as all the world there is. _I don't think that way_, -thought Bordman. _But maybe it's the way I'd feel about living if -Riki were to die._ It would be natural to want to share any danger -or any disaster she faced. - -"L-look!" he said, stammering a little. "You don't see! It isn't a case -of your living while they die! If your home world becomes like this, -what will this be like? We're farther from the sun, colder to start -with. Do you think we'll live through anything they can't take? Food -supplies or no, equipment or no, do you think we've got a chance? Use -your brains!" - -Herndon and Riki stared at him. And then some of the strained look left -Riki's face and body. Herndon blinked, and said slowly: - -"Why, that's so! We were thought to be taking a terrific risk when we -came here. But it'll be as much worse here. Of course! We are in the -same fix they're in!" - -He straightened a little. Color actually came back into his face. Riki -managed to smile. And then Herndon said almost naturally: - -"That makes things look more sensible. We've got to fight for our lives -too! And we've very little chance of saving them. What do we do about -it, Bordman?" - -The sun was half-way toward mid-sky, still attended by its sun-dogs, -though they were fainter than at the horizon. The sky was darker. The -icy mountain peaks reached skyward, serene and utterly aloof from the -affairs of men. The city was a fleet of metal hulks, neatly arranged -on the valley floor, emptied of the material they had brought for the -building of the colony. Not far away, the landing-grid stood. It was a -gigantic skeleton of steel, rising from legs of unequal length bedded -in the hillsides and reaching two thousand feet toward the stars. -Human figures, muffled almost past recognition, moved about a catwalk -three-quarters of the way up. There was a tiny glittering below where -they moved. The men were using sonic ice-breakers to shatter the frost -which formed on the framework at night. Falling shards of crystal -made a liquid-like flashing. The landing-grid needed to be cleared -every ten days or so. Left uncleared, it would acquire an increasingly -thick coating of ice, and in time it could collapse. But long before -that time it would have ceased to operate, and without its operation -there could be no space-travel. Rockets for lifting space-ships were -impossibly heavy, for practical use. But the landing-grids could lift -them out to the unstressed space where Lawlor drives could work, and -draw them to ground with cargoes they couldn't possibly have carried if -they'd needed rockets. - -Bordman reached the base of the grid on foot. He was dwarfed by the -ground-level upright beams. He went through the cold-lock to the small -control house at the grid's base. - -He nodded to the man on standby as he got out of his muffling garments. - -"Everything all right?" he asked. - -The standby operator shrugged. Bordman was Colonial Survey. It was his -function to find fault, to expose inadequacies in the construction and -operation of colony facilities. _It's natural for me to be disliked -by men whose work I inspect_, thought Bordman. _If I approve it -doesn't mean anything, and if I protest, it's bad._ - -"I think," he said, "that there ought to be a change in maximum -no-drain voltage. I'd like to check it." - -The operator shrugged again. He pressed buttons under a phone-plate. - -"Shift to reserve power," he commanded, when a face appeared in the -plate. "Gotta check no-drain juice." - -"What for?" demanded the face in the plate. - -"You-know-who's got ideas," said the grid operator scornfully. "Maybe -we've been skimping something. Maybe there's some new specification we -didn't know about. Maybe anything! But shift to reserve power." - -The face in the screen grumbled. Bordman swallowed. It was not a -Survey officer's privilege to maintain discipline. And anyhow, there -was no particular virtue in discipline here and now. He watched the -current-demand dial. It stood a little above normal day-drain, which -was understandable. The outside temperature was down. There was more -power needed to keep the dwellings warm, and there was always a lot of -power needed in the mine the colony had been formed to exploit. The -mine had to be warmed for the men who worked to develop it. - -The current-demand needle dropped abruptly, hung steady, and dropped -again and again as additional parts of the colony's power uses were -switched to reserve. The needle hit bottom. It stayed there. - -Bordman had to walk around the standby man to get at the voltmeter. -It was built around standard, old-fashioned vacuum-tubes, and tested -it. He pushed in the contact plugs, read the no-drain voltage, licked -his lips, and made a note. He reversed the leads, so it would read -backward. He took another reading. He drew in his breath very quietly. - -"Now I want the power turned on in sections," he told the operator. -"The mine first, maybe. It doesn't matter. But I want to get voltage -readings at different power take-offs." - -The operator looked pained. He spoke with unnecessary elaboration to -the face in the phone-plate, and grudgingly went through the process -by which Bordman measured the successive drops in voltage with power -drawn from the ionosphere. The current available from a layer of -ionized gas is, in effect, the current-flow through a conductor with -marked resistance. It is possible to infer a gas's ionization from the -current it yields. - -The cold-lock door opened. Riki Herndon came in, panting a little. - -"There's another message from home," she said sharply. Her voice -seemed strained. "They picked up our answering-beam and are giving the -information you asked for." - -"I'll be along," said Bordman. "I just got some information here." - -He got into his cold-garments again, and followed her out of the -control-hut. - -"The figures from home aren't good," said Riki, when mountains visibly -rose on every hand around them. "Ken says they're much worse than he -thought. The rate of decline in the solar constant's worse than we -figured or could believe." - -"I see," said Bordman, inadequately. - -"It's absurd!" said Riki angrily. "There've been sunspots and sunspot -cycles all along--I learned about them in school. I learned about a -four-year and a seven-year cycle, and that there were others. They -should have known, they should have calculated in advance! Now they -talk about sixty-year cycles coming in with a hundred-and-thirty-year -cycle to pile up with all the others.... What's the use of scientists -if they don't do their work right and twenty million people die of it?" - -Bordman did not consider himself a scientist, but he winced. Riki raged -as they moved over the slippery ice. Her breath was an intermittent -cloud about her shoulders, and there was white frost on the front of -her cold-garments. Even so quickly the moisture of her breath congealed. - -He held out his hand quickly as she slipped, once. - -"But they'll beat it!" said Riki in a sort of angry pride. "They're -starting to build more landing-grids, back home. Hundreds of them! -Not for ships to land by, but to draw power from the ionosphere! They -figure that one ship-size grid can keep nearly three square miles of -ground warm enough to live on. They'll roof over the streets of cities -and pile snow on top for insulation. Then they'll plant food-crops -in the streets and gardens, and do what hydroponic growing they can. -They're afraid they can't do it fast enough to save everybody, but -they'll try!" - -Bordman clenched his hands inside their bulky mittens. - -"Well?" demanded Riki, "Won't that do the trick?" - -"No." - -"Why not?" - -"I just took readings on the grid, here. The voltage and the -conductivity of the layer we draw power from, both depend on -ionization. When the intensity of sunlight drops, the voltage drops and -the conductivity drops too. It's harder for less power to flow to the -area the grid can tap--and the voltage pressure is lower to drive it." - -"Don't say any more!" cried Riki. "Not another word!" - -Bordman was silent. They went down the last small slope, and passed -the opening of the mine, a great drift which bored straight into -the mountain. Looking into it, they saw the twin rows of brilliant -roof-lights going toward the heart of the stony monster. - -They had almost reached the village when Riki said in a stifled voice: - -"How bad is it?" - -"Very," admitted Bordman. "We have here the conditions the home planet -will have in two hundred days. Originally we could draw less than a -fifth the power they count on from a grid on Lani II." - -Riki ground her teeth. - -"Go on!" she said. - -"Ionization here is down ten per cent," said Bordman. "That means the -voltage is down, somewhat more. A great deal more. And the resistance -of the layer is greater. Very much greater. When they need power most, -on the home planet, they won't draw more from a grid than we do now. It -won't be enough." - -They reached the village. There were steps to the cold-lock of -Herndon's office-hull. They were ice-free, because like the village -walk-ways they were warmed to keep frost from depositing on them. -Bordman made a mental note. - -In the cold-lock, the warm air pouring in was almost stifling. Riki -said defiantly: - -"You might as well tell me now!" - -"We usually can draw one-fifth as much power, here, as the same sized -grid would yield on your home world," he said. "We are drawing--call it -sixty per cent of normal. A shade over one-tenth of what they expect to -draw when the real cold hits them. Their estimates are nine times too -high. One grid won't warm three square miles of city. About a third of -one is closer. But--" - -"That won't be the worst," said Riki in a choked voice. "Is that right? -How much good will a grid do?" - -Bordman did not answer. - -The inner cold-lock door opened. Herndon sat at his desk, even paler -than before, listening to the hash of noises that came out of the -speaker. He tapped on the desk-top, quite unconscious of the action. He -looked almost desperately at Bordman. - -"Did she tell you?" he asked in a numb voice. "They hope to save maybe -half the population. All the children anyhow...." - -"They won't," said Riki bitterly. - -"Better go transcribe the new stuff that's come in," said her brother. -"We might as well know what it says." - -Riki went out of the office. Bordman shed his cold-garments. He said: - -"The rest of the colony doesn't know what's up yet. The operator at the -grid didn't certainly. But they have to know." - -"We'll post the messages on the bulletin board," said Herndon. "I wish -I could keep it from them. It's not fun to live with. I--might as well -not tell them just yet." - -"To the contrary," insisted Bordman. "They've got to know right away! -You're going to issue orders and they'll need to understand how urgent -they are." - -Herndon looked hopeless. - -"What's the good of doing anything?" When Bordman frowned, he added: -"Seriously, is there any use? You're all right. A Survey Ship's due -to take you away. It's not coming because they know there's something -wrong, but because your job should be finished about now. But it can't -do any good! It would be insane for it to land at home. It couldn't -carry away more than a few dozen refugees, and there are twenty million -people who're going to die. It might offer to take some of us, but I -don't think many of us would go. I wouldn't. I don't think Riki would." - -"I don't see--" - -"What we've got right here," said Herndon, "is what they're going to -have back home. And worse. But there's no chance for us to keep alive -here! You are the one who pointed it out. I've been figuring, and the -way the solar-constant curve is going--I plotted it from the figures -they gave us--it couldn't possibly level out until the oxygen, anyhow, -is frozen out of the atmosphere here. We aren't equipped to stand -anything like that, and we can't get equipped. There isn't equipment -to let us stand it indefinitely! Anyhow, the maximum cold conditions -will last two thousand days back home--six Earth-years. And there'll be -storage of cold in frozen oceans and piled-up glaciers. It'll be twenty -years before home will be back to normal in temperature, and the same -here. Is there any point in trying to live--just barely to survive--for -twenty years before there'll be a habitable planet to go back to?" - -Bordman said irritably: - -"Don't be a fool! Doesn't it occur to you that this planet is a perfect -experiment station, two hundred days ahead of the home world, where -ways to beat the whole business can be tried? If we can beat it here, -they can beat it there!" - -Herndon said: - -"Can you name one thing to try here?" - -"Yes," snapped Bordman. "I want the walk-heaters and the step-heaters -outside turned off. They use power to keep walk-ways clear of frost and -door-steps not slippery. I want to save that heat!" - -Herndon said, "And when you've saved it, what will you do with it?" - -"Put it underground to be used as needed!" Bordman said. "Store it in -the mine! I want to put every heating-device we can contrive to work -in the mine, to heat the rock. I want to draw every watt the grid will -yield and warm up the inside of the mountain while we can draw power to -do it with. I want the deepest part of the mine too hot to enter! We'll -lose a lot of heat, of course. It's not like storing electric power. -But we can store heat now, and the more we store the more will be left -when we need it!" - -Herndon thought. Presently he stirred slightly. - -"Do you know, that is an idea...." He looked up. "Back home there was -a shale-oil deposit up near the ice-caps. It wasn't economical to mine -it. So they put heaters down in bore-holes and heated up the whole -shale deposit. Drill-holes let out the hot oil vapors to be condensed. -They got out every bit of oil without disturbing the shale. And then -the shale stayed warm for years! Farmers bulldozed soil over it and -raised crops with glaciers all around them. That could be done again. -They could be storing up heat back home!" - -Then he drooped. - -"But they can't spare power to warm up the ground under cities. They -need all the power they've got to build roofs.... And it takes time to -build grids." - -Bordman snapped: - -"Yes, if they're building regulation ones. By the time they were -finished they'd be useless. The ionization here is dropping already. -But they don't need to build grids that will be useless later. They -can weave cables together on the ground and hang them in the air by -helicopters. They wouldn't hold up a landing ship for an instant, but -they'll draw power right away. They'll even power the helis that hold -them up! Of course, they'll have defects; they'll have to come down in -high winds, for example. They won't be too dependable. But they can put -heat in the ground to come out under roofs, to grow food by, to save -lives by. What's the matter with them?" - -Herndon stirred again. His eyes ceased to be dull and lifeless. - -"I'll give the orders for turning off the sidewalks. And I'll send what -you just said back home. They should like it." - -He looked respectfully at Bordman. - -"I guess you know what I'm thinking right now," he said. - -Bordman flushed. He felt that Herndon was unduly impressed. Herndon -didn't see that the device wouldn't solve anything. It would merely -postpone the effects of a disaster. It could not possibly prevent them. - -"It ought to be done," he said. "There'll be other things to be done, -too." - -"Then when you tell them to me," said Herndon, "they'll get done! I'll -have Riki put this into that pulse-code you explained to us and she'll -get it off right away." - -He stood up. - -"I didn't explain the code to her!" insisted Bordman. "She was already -translating it when you gave her my suggestion!" - -"All right," said Herndon. "I'll get this sent back at once!" - -He hurried out of the office. _This_, thought Bordman irritably, -_is how reputations are made, I suppose. I'm getting one._ But -his own reaction was extremely inappropriate. If the people of Lani II -did suspend helicopter-supported grids of wire in the atmosphere, they -could warm masses of underground rock and stone and earth. They could -establish what were practically reservoirs of life-giving heat under -their cities. They could contrive that the warmth from below would -rise only as it was needed. _But_-- - -Two hundred days to conditions corresponding to the colony-planet. -Then two thousand days of minimum-heat conditions. Then very, very -slow return to normal temperature, long after the sun was back to its -previous brilliance. They couldn't store enough heat for so long. It -couldn't be done. It was ironic that in the freezing of ice and the -making of glaciers the planet itself could store cold. - -Also, there would be monstrous storms and blizzards on Lani II as cold -conditions got worse. The wire-grids could be held aloft for shorter -and shorter periods, and each time they would pull down less power than -before. Their effectiveness would diminish even faster than the need -for effectiveness increased. - -Bordman felt even deeper depression as he worked out the facts. His -proposal was essentially futile. It would be encouraging, and to a -very slight degree and for a certain short time it would palliate the -situation on the inner planet. But in the long run its effect would be -zero. - -He was embarrassed, too, that Herndon was so admiring. Herndon would -tell Riki that he was marvelous. She might--though cagily--be inclined -to agree. But he wasn't marvelous. This trick of a flier-supported -grid was not new. It had been used on Saril to supply power for giant -peristaltic pumps emptying a polder that had been formed inside a ring -of indifferently upraised islands. - -_All I know_, thought Bordman bitterly, _is what somebody's -showed me or I've read in books. And nobody's showed or written how -to handle a thing like this!_ - -He went to Herndon's desk. Herndon had made a new graph of the -solar-constant observations forwarded from home. It was a strictly -typical curve of the results of coinciding cyclic change. It was the -curve of a series of frequencies at the moment when they were all -precisely in phase. From this much one could extrapolate and compute. - -Bordman took a pencil, frowning. His fingers clumsily formed equations -and solved them. The result was just about as bad as it could be. The -change in brightness of the sun Lani would not be enough to be observed -on Kent IV, the nearest other inhabited world, when the light reached -there four years from now. Lani would never be classed as a variable -star, because the total change in light and heat would be relatively -minute. The formula for computing planetary temperatures is not simple. -Among its factors are squares and cubes of the variables. Worse, the -heat radiated from a sun's photosphere varies not as the square or -cube, but as the fourth power of its absolute temperature. - -Bordman's computations were not pure theory. The data came from Sol -itself, where alone in the galaxy there had been daily solar-constant -measurements for three hundred years. The rest of his deductions were -based ultimately on Earth observations, too. Most scientific data had -to refer back to Earth to get an adequate continuity. And there could -be no possible doubt about the sunspot data, because Sol and Lani were -of the same type and nearly equal size. - -Using the figures on the present situation, Bordman reluctantly arrived -at the fact that here, on this already-frozen world, the temperature -would drop gradually until CO_{2} froze out of the atmosphere. When -that happened, the temperature would plummet until there was no really -significant difference between it and that of empty space. It is carbon -dioxide which is responsible for the greenhouse effect, by which a -planet is in thermal equilibrium only at a temperature above its -surroundings, as a greenhouse in sunlight is warmer than the outside -air. - -The greenhouse effect would vanish soon on the colony-world. When it -vanished on the mother planet.... - -Bordman found himself thinking, _if Riki won't leave when the Survey -ship comes, I'll resign from the Service. I'll have to if I'm to stay. -And I won't go unless she does._ - - * * * * * - -"If you want to come, it's all right," said Bordman ungraciously. - -He waited while Riki slipped into the bulky cold-garments that were -needed out-of-doors in the daytime, and were doubly necessary at night. -There were heavy boots with inches-thick insulating soles, made in -one piece with the many-layered trousers. There was an air-puffed, -insulated over-tunic with its hood and mittens which were a part of the -sleeves. - -"Nobody goes outside at night," she said when they stood together in -the cold-lock. - -"I do," he told her. "I want to find out something." - -The outer door opened and he stepped out. He held his arm for her, -because the steps and walk-way were no longer heated. Now they were -covered with a filmy layer of something which was not frost, but a -faint bloom of powder--microscopic snow-crystals frozen out of the air -by the unbearable chill of night. - -There was no moon, of course, yet the ice-clad mountains glowed -faintly. The drone-hulls arranged in such an orderly fashion were dark -against the frosted ground. There was silence, stillness, the feeling -of ancient quietude. No wind stirred anywhere. Nothing moved, nothing -lived. The soundlessness was enough to crack the ear-drums. - -Bordman threw back his head and gazed at the sky for a very long time. -Nothing. He looked down at Riki. - -"Look at the sky," he commanded. - -She raised her eyes. She had been watching him. But as she gazed -upward she almost cried out. The sky was filled with stars in -innumerable variety. But the brighter ones were as stars had never -been seen before. Just as the sun in daylight had been accompanied -by its sun-dogs--pale phantoms of itself ranged about it--so the -brighter distant suns now shone from the center of rings of their own -images. They no longer had the look of random placing. Those which -were most distinct were patterns in themselves, and one's eyes strove -instinctively to grasp the greater pattern in which such seeming -artifacts must belong. - -"Oh--beautiful!" cried Riki softly. - -"Look!" he insisted. "Keep looking!" - -She continued to gaze, moving her eyes about hopefully. It was such a -sight as no one could have imagined. Every tint and every color, every -possible degree of brightness appeared. And there were groups of stars -of the same brilliance which almost made triangles, but not quite. -There were rose-tinted stars which almost formed an arc, but did not. -And there were arrays which were almost lines and nearly formed squares -and polygons, but never actually achieved them. - -"It's beautiful," said Riki. "But what must I look for?" - -"Look for what isn't there," he ordered. - -She looked, and the stars were unwinking, but that was not -extraordinary. They filled all the firmament, without the least space -in which some tiny sparkle of light was not to be found. But that was -not remarkable, either. Then there was a vague flickering grayish glow -somewhere, indefinite. It vanished. Then she realized. - -"There's no aurora!" she exclaimed. - -"That's it," said Bordman. "There've always been auroras here. But -no longer. We may be responsible. I wish I thought it wise to turn -everything back to reservoir power for a while. We could find out. But -we can't afford it." - -"I looked at it when we first landed," admitted Riki. "It was -unbelievable. But it was terribly cold, out of shelter. And it happened -every night, so I said to myself I'd look tomorrow, and then tomorrow -again. So it got so I never looked at all." - -Bordman kept his eyes where that faint gray flickering had been. And, -once one realized, it was astonishing that the former nightly play of -ghostly colors should be absent. - -"The aurora," he said, "happens in the very upper limits of the air, -fifty--seventy--ninety miles up, when God-knows-what emitted particles -from the sun come streaking in, drawn by the planet's magnetic field. -The aurora's a phenomenon of ions. We tap the ionosphere a long way -down from where it plays, but I'm wondering if we stopped it." - -"We?" said Riki, shocked. "We humans?" - -"We tap the ions of their charges," he said somberly, "that the -sunlight made by day. We're pulling in all the power we can. I wonder -if we've drained the aurora of its energy, too." - -Riki was silent. Bordman gazed, still searching. But he shook his head. - -"It could be," he said in a carefully detached voice. "We didn't draw -much power by comparison with the amount that came. But the ionization -is an ultra-violet effect. Atmospheric gases don't ionize too easily. -After all, if the solar constant dropped a very little, it might mean a -terrific drop in the ultra-violet part of the spectrum--and that's what -makes ions of oxygen and nitrogen and hydrogen and such. The ion-drop -could easily be fifty times as great as the drop in the solar constant. -And we're drawing power from the little that's left." - -Riki stood very still. The cold was horrible. Had there been a wind, it -could not have been endured for an instant. But the air was motionless. -Yet its coldness was so great that the inside of one's nostrils ached, -and the inside of one's chest was aware of chill. Even through the -cold-garments there was the feeling as of ice without. - -"I'm beginning," said Bordman, "to suspect that I'm a fool. Or maybe -I'm an optimist. It might be the same thing. I could have guessed that -the power we could draw would drop faster than our need for power -increased. If we've drained the aurora of its light, we're scraping -the bottom of the barrel. And it's a shallower barrel than one would -suspect." - -There was stillness again. Riki stood mousy-quiet. _When she realizes -what this means_, thought Bordman grimly, _she won't admire me so -much. Her brother's built me up. But I've been a fool, figuring out -excuses to hope. She'll see it._ - -"I think," said Riki, "that you're telling me that after all we can't -store up heat to live on, down in the mine." - -"We can't," agreed Bordman. "Not much, nor long. Not enough to matter." - -"So we won't live as long as Ken expects?" - -"Not nearly as long," said Bordman. "He's hoping we can find out things -to be useful back on Lani II. But we'll lose the power we can get from -our grid long before even their new grids are useless. We'll have to -start using our reserve power a lot sooner. It'll be gone--and us with -it--before they're really in straits for living-heat." - -Riki's teeth began to chatter. - -"This sounds like I'm scared," she said angrily, "but I'm not! I'm just -freezing. If you want to know, I'd a lot rather have it the way you -say. I won't have to grieve over anybody, and they'll be too busy to -grieve for me.... Let's go inside while it's still warm." - -He helped her back into the cold-lock, and the outer door closed. She -was shivering uncontrollably when the warmth came pouring in. - -They went into Herndon's office. He came in as Riki was peeling off the -top part of her cold-garments. She still shivered. He glanced at her -and said to Bordman: - -"There's been a call from the grid-control shack. It looks like there's -something wrong, but they can't find anything. The grid is set for -maximum power-collection, but it's bringing in only fifty thousand -kilowatts!" - -"We're on our way back to savagery," said Bordman, with an attempt at -irony. - -It was true. A man can produce two hundred fifty watts from his muscles -for a reasonable length of time. When he has no more power, he is a -savage. When he gains a kilowatt of energy from the muscles of a horse, -he is a barbarian, but the new power cannot be directed wholly as he -wills. When he can apply it to a plow he has high barbarian culture, -and when he adds still more he begins to be civilized. Steam-power put -as much as four kilowatts to work for every human being in the first -industrialized countries, and in the mid-twentieth century there was -sixty kilowatts per person in the more advanced nations. Nowadays, of -course, a modern culture assumed five hundred as a minimum. But there -was less than half that in the colony on Lani II. And its environment -made its own demands. - -"There can't be any more," said Riki, trying to control her shivering. -"We're even using the aurora and there isn't any more power. It's -running out. We'll go even before the people at home, Ken." - -Herndon's features looked pinched. - -"But we can't! We mustn't!" He turned to Bordman. "We do them good, -back home! There was panic. Our report about cable-grids has put heart -in people. They're setting to work magnificently! So we're some use. -They know we're worse off than they are, and as long as we hold on -they'll be encouraged. We've got to keep going somehow!" - -Riki breathed deeply until her shivering stopped. Then she said: - -"Haven't you noticed, Ken, that Mr. Bordman has the view-point of his -profession? His business is finding things wrong. He was deposited in -our midst to detect defects in what we did and do. He has the habit of -looking for the worst. But I think he can turn the habit to good use. -He did turn up the idea of cable-grids." - -"Which," said Bordman, "turns out to be no good at all. They'd be some -good if they weren't needed, really. But the conditions that make them -necessary make them useless!" - -Riki shook her head. - -"They are useful!" she said. "They're keeping people at home from -despairing. Now, though, you've got to think of something else. If you -think of enough things, one will do good the way you want, more than -just making people feel better." - -"What does it matter how people feel?" he demanded bitterly. "What -difference do feelings make? One can't change facts!" - -Riki said firmly: - -"We humans are the only creatures in the universe who don't do anything -else. Every other creature accepts facts. It lives where it is born, -and it feeds on the food that is there for it, and it dies when the -facts of nature require it to. We humans don't. Especially we women! -We won't let men do it, either. When we don't like facts--mostly about -ourselves--we change them. But important facts we disapprove of--we ask -men to change them for us. And they do!" - -She faced Bordman. Rather incredibly, she grinned at him. - -"Will you please change the facts that look so annoying just now, -please? Please?" Then she elaborately pantomimed an over-feminine -girl's look of wide-eyed admiration. "You're so big and strong! I just -know you can do it--for me!" - -She abruptly dropped the pretense and moved toward the door. She -half-turned then, and said detachedly: - -"But about half of that is true." - -The door slid shut behind her. It suddenly occurred to Bordman that she -knew a Colonial Survey ship was due to stop by here to pick him up. She -believed he expected to be rescued, even though the rest of the colony -could not be, and most of it wouldn't consent to leave their kindred -when the death of mankind in this solar system took place. He said -awkwardly: - -"Fifty thousand kilowatts isn't enough to land a ship." - -Herndon frowned. Then he said: - -"Oh. You mean the Survey ship that's to pick you up can't land? But it -can go in orbit and put down a rocket landing-boat for you." - -"I wasn't thinking of that. I'd something more in mind. I--rather -like your sister. She's pretty wonderful. But there are some other -women here in the colony, too. About a dozen all told. As a matter of -self-respect I think we ought to get them away on the Survey ship. I -agree that they wouldn't consent to go. But if they had no choice--if -we could get them on board the grounded ship, and they suddenly -found themselves--well--kidnapped and outward-bound not by their own -fault.... They could be faced with the accomplished fact that they had -to go on living." - -Herndon said evenly: - -"That's been in the back of my mind for some time. Yes, I'm for that. -But if the Survey ship can't land--" - -"I believe I can land it regardless," said Bordman. "I can find out, -anyhow. I'll need to try things. I'll need help. But I want your -promise that if I can get the ship to ground you'll conspire with her -skipper and arrange for them to go on living." - -Herndon looked at him. - -"Some new stuff, in a way," said Bordman uncomfortably. "I'll have to -stay aground to work it. It's also part of the bargain that I shall. -And of course your sister can't know about it, or she can't be fooled -into living." - -Herndon's expression changed a little. - -"What'll you do? Of course it's a bargain." - -"I'll need some metals we haven't smelted so far," said Bordman. -"Potassium if I can get it, sodium if I can't, and at worst I'll settle -for zinc. Cesium would be best, but we've found no traces of it." - -Herndon said thoughtfully: - -"No-o-o. I think I can get you sodium and potassium, from rocks. I'm -afraid no zinc. How much?" - -"Grams," said Bordman. "Trivial quantities. And I'll need a miniature -landing-grid built. Very miniature." - -Herndon shrugged his shoulders. - -"It's over my head. But just to have work to do will be good for -everybody. We've been feeling more frustrated here than any other -humans in history. I'll go round up the men who'll do the work. You -talk to them." - -The door closed behind him. Bordman got out of his cold-clothing. He -thought, _She'll rage when she finds her brother and I have deceived -her._ Then he thought of the other women. _If any of them are -married, we'll have to see if there's room for their husbands. I'll -have to dress up the idea. Make it look like reason for hope, or the -women would find out. But not many can go...._ - -He knew roughly how many extra passengers could be carried on a Survey -ship, even in such an emergency as this. Living-quarters were not -luxurious, at best. Everything was cramped and skimped. Survey ships -were rugged, tiny vessels which performed their duties amid tedium and -discomfort and peril for all on board. But one of them could carry away -a very few unwilling refugees to Kent IV. - -He settled down at Herndon's desk to work out the thing to be done. - -It was not unreasonable. Tapping the ionosphere for power was -something like pumping water out of a pipe-well in sand. If the -water-table was high, there was pressure to force the water to the -pipe, and one could pump fast. If the water-table was low, water -couldn't flow fast enough. The pump would suck dry. In the ionosphere, -the level of ionization was at once like the pressure and the size of -the sand-grains. When the level was high, the flow was vast because -the sand-grains were large and the conductivity high. But as the level -lessened, so did the size of the sand-grains. There was less to draw, -and more resistance to its flow. - -However, there had been one tiny flicker of auroral light over by the -horizon. There was still power aloft. If Bordman could in a fashion -prime the pump, if he could increase the conductivity by increasing the -ions present around the place where their charges were drawn away, he -could increase the total flow. It would be like digging a brick well -where a pipe-well had been. A brick well draws water from all around -its circumference. - -So Bordman computed carefully. It was ironic that he had to go to such -trouble simply because he didn't have test-rockets like the Survey uses -to get a picture of a planet's weather-pattern. They rise vertically -for fifty miles or so, trailing a thread of sodium vapor behind them. -The trail is detectable for some time, and ground instruments record -each displacement by winds blowing in different directions at different -speeds, one over the other. Such a rocket with its loading slightly -changed would do all Bordman had in mind. But he didn't have one, so -something much more elaborate was called for. - -A landing-grid has to be not less than half a mile across and two -thousand feet high because its field has to reach out five planetary -diameters to handle ships that land and take off. To handle solid -objects it has to be accurate, though power can be drawn with an -improvisation. To thrust a sodium-vapor bomb anywhere from twenty to -fifty miles high, he'd need a grid only six feet wide and five high. -It could throw much higher, of course, and hold what it threw. But -doubling the size would make accuracy easier. - -He tripled the dimensions. There would be a grid eighteen feet across -and fifteen high. Tuned to the casing of a small bomb, it could hold it -steady at seven hundred fifty thousand feet, far beyond necessity. He -began to make the detail drawings. - -Herndon came back with half a dozen chosen colonists. They were young -men, technicians rather than scientists. Some of them were several -years younger than Bordman. There were grim and stunned expressions -on some faces, but one tried to pretend nonchalance, and two seemed -trying to suppress fury at the monstrous occurrence that would destroy -not only their own lives, but everything they remembered on the planet -which was their home. They looked almost challengingly at Bordman. - -He explained. He was going to put a cloud of metallic vapor up in the -ionosphere. Sodium if he had to, potassium if he could, zinc if he -must. Those metals were readily ionized by sunlight, much more readily -than atmospheric gases. In effect, he was going to supply a certain -area of the ionosphere with material to increase the efficiency of -sunshine in providing electric power. As a side-line, there would be -increased conductivity from the normal ionosphere. - -"Something like this was done centuries ago, back on Earth," he -explained. "They used rockets, and made sodium-vapor clouds as much -as twenty and thirty miles long. Even nowadays the Survey uses test -rockets with trails of sodium vapor. It will work to some degree. We'll -find out how much." - -He felt Herndon's eyes upon him. They were almost dazedly respectful. -But one of the technicians said: - -"How long will those clouds last?" - -"That high, three or four days," Bordman told him. "They won't help -much at night, but they should step up power-intake while the sun -shines on them." - -A man in the back said, "Hup!" The significance was, "Let's go!" - -Somebody else said feverishly, "What do we do? Got working drawings? -Who makes the bombs? Who does what? Let's get at this!" - -Then there was confusion, and Herndon vanished. Bordman suspected -he'd gone to have Riki put this theory into dot-and-dash code for -beam-transmission back to Lani II. But there was no time to stop him. -These men wanted precise information and it was half an hour before the -last of them had gone out with free-hand sketches, and had come back -for further explanation of a doubtful point, and other men had come in -to demand a share in the job. - -When he was alone again, Bordman thought, _Maybe it's worth doing -because it'll get Riki on the Survey ship. But they think it means -saving the people back home!_ - -Which it didn't. Taking energy out of sunlight is taking energy out -of sunlight, no matter how you do it. Take it out as electric power, -and there's less heat left. Warm one place with electric power, and -everywhere else is a little colder. There's an equation. On this -colony-world it wouldn't matter, but on the home world it would. -The more there was trickery to gather heat, the more heat would be -needed.... Again it might postpone the death of twenty million people, -but it would never, never prevent it.... - -The door slid aside and Riki came in. She stammered a little. - -"I just coded what Ken told me to send back home. It will--it will do -everything! It's wonderful! I wanted to tell you!" - -"Consider," Bordman said, in a desperate attempt to take it lightly, -"that I've taken a bow." - -He tried to smile. It was not a success. And Riki suddenly drew a deep -breath and looked at him in a new fashion. - -"Ken's right," she said softly. "He says you can't get conceited. -You're not satisfied with yourself even now, are you?" She smiled. "But -what I like is that you aren't really smart. A woman can make you do -things. I have!" - -He looked at her uneasily. She grinned. - -"I, even I, can at least pretend to myself that I helped bring this -about! If I hadn't said please change the facts that are so annoying, -and if I hadn't said you were big and strong and clever.... I'm going -to tell myself for the rest of my life that I helped make you do it!" - -Bordman swallowed. - -"I'm afraid," he said, "that it won't work again." - -She cocked her head on one side. - -"No?" - -He stared at her apprehensively. And then with a bewildering change of -emotional reaction, he saw that her eyes were filled with tears. She -stamped her foot. - -"You're horrible!" she cried. "Here I came in, and--and if you think -you can get me kidnaped to safety without even telling me that -you 'rather like' me, as you told my brother, or that I'm 'pretty -wonderful--'" - -He was stunned, that she knew. She stamped her foot again. - -"For Heaven's sake!" she wailed. "Do I have to _ask_ you to kiss -me?" - -During the last night of preparation, Bordman sat by a thermometer -registering the outside temperature. He hovered over it as one might -over a sick child. He watched it and sweated, though the inside -temperature of the drone-hull was lowered to save power. There was -nothing he could actually do. At midnight the thermometer said it was -seventy degrees below zero Fahrenheit. At half-way to dawn it was -eighty degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The hour before dawn it was -eighty-five degrees below zero. Then he sweated profusely. The meaning -of the slowed descent was that carbon dioxide was being frozen out of -the upper layers of the atmosphere. The frozen particles were drifting -slowly downward, and as they reached lower and faintly warmer levels -they returned to the state of gas. But there was a level, above the -CO_{2}, where the temperature was plummeting. - -The height to which carbon dioxide existed was dropping. Slowly, but -inexorably. And above the carbon-dioxide level there was no bottom -limit to the temperature. The greenhouse effect was due to CO_{2}. -Where it wasn't, the cold of space moved down. If at ground-level the -thermometer read ever-so-slightly less than one hundred nine below -zero, then everything was finished. Without the greenhouse effect, the -night-side of the planet would lose its remaining heat with a rush. -Even the day side, once cold enough, would lose heat to emptiness as -fast as it came from the sun. Minus one hundred nine point three was -the critical reading. If it went down to that it would plunge to a -hundred and fifty or two hundred degrees below zero, or more. And it -would never come up again. - -There would be rain at nightfall, a rain of oxygen frozen to a liquid -and splashing on the ground. Human life would be impossible, in any -shelter and under any conditions. Even space-suits would not protect -against an atmosphere sucking heat from it at that rate. A space-suit -can be heated against the loss of temperature due to radiation in a -vacuum. It could not be heated against nitrogen which would chill it -irresistibly by contact. - -But, as Bordman sweated over it, the thermometer steadied at minus -eighty-five degrees. When the dawn came, it rose to seventy. By -mid-morning, the temperature in bright sunshine was no lower than -sixty-five degrees below zero. - -But there was no bounce left in Bordman when Herndon came for him. - -"Your phone-plate's been flashing," said Herndon, "and you didn't -answer. Must have had your back to it. Riki's over in the mine, -watching them get things ready. She was worried that she couldn't call -you. Asked me to find out what was the trouble." - -"Has she got something to heat the air she breathes?" asked Bordman. - -"Naturally," said Herndon. He added curiously, "What's the matter?" - -"We almost took our licking," Bordman told him. "I'm afraid for -tonight, and tomorrow night too. If the CO_{2} freezes--" - -"We'll have power!" Herndon insisted. "We'll build ice-tunnels and -ice-domes. We'll build a city under ice, if we have to. But we'll have -power!" - -"I doubt it very much," said Bordman. "I wish you hadn't told Riki of -the bargain to get her away from here when the Survey ship comes!" - -Herndon grinned. - -"Is the little grid ready?" asked Bordman. - -"Everything's set," said Herndon. "It's in the mine-tunnel with radiant -heaters playing on it. The bombs are ready. We made enough to last for -months, while we were at it. No use taking chances!" - -Bordman looked at him queerly. Then he said: - -"We might as well go out and try the thing, then." - -He put on the cold-garments as they were now modified for the increased -frigidity. Nobody could breathe air at minus sixty-five degrees without -getting his lungs frost-bitten. So there was now a plastic mask to -cover one's face, and the air one breathed outdoors was heated as it -came through a wire-gauze snout. But still it was not wise to stay out -of shelter for too long a time. - -Bordman and Herndon went out-of-doors. They stepped out of the -cold-lock and gazed about them. The sun seemed markedly paler and now -it had lost its sun-dogs again. Ice-crystals no longer floated in the -almost congealed air. The sky was dark. It was almost purple, and it -seemed to Bordman that he could detect faint flecks of light in it. -They would be stars, shining in the daytime. - -There seemed no one about at all, only the white coldness of the -mountains. But there was a movement at the mine-drift, and something -came out of it. Four men appeared, muffled up like Bordman himself. -They rolled the eighteen-foot grid out of the mine-mouth, moving it on -those inflated bags which are so much better than rollers for rough -terrain. They looked absurdly like bears with steaming noses in their -masks and clothing. They had some sort of powered pusher with them and -they got the metal cage to the very top of a rounded stone upcrop which -rose in the center of the valley. - -"We picked that spot," said Herndon's muffled voice through the chill, -"because by shifting the grid's position it can be aimed, and be on a -solid base. Right?" - -"Quite all right," said Bordman. "We'll go work it." - -The two men walked across the valley, in which nothing moved except -the padded figures of the four technicians. Their wire-gauze -breathing-masks seemed to emit smoke. They waved to Bordman in greeting. - -_I'm popular again_, he thought drearily, _but it doesn't -matter. Getting the Survey ship to ground won't help now, since Riki's -forewarned. And this trick won't solve anything permanently on the home -planet. It'll just postpone things._ - -Even when Riki, muffled like the rest, waved to him from the mouth of -the tunnel, his spirits did not lift. The thing he wanted was to look -forward to years and years of being with Riki. He wanted, in fact, to -look forward to forever. And there might not be a tomorrow. - -"I had the control-board rolled out here," she called through her mask. -"It's cold, but you can watch!" - -It wouldn't be much to watch. If everything went all right, some -dial-needles would kick over violently and their readings would go up -and up. But they wouldn't be readings of temperature. Presently the -big grid would report increased power from the sky. But tonight the -temperature would drop a little farther. Tomorrow night it would drop -further still. When it reached one hundred nine point three degrees -below zero at ground-level, that would be the finish. - -Another of the figures that looked like a bear now went out of -the mine-mouth, trudging toward the grid. It carried a muffled, -well-wrapped object in its arms. It stopped and crept between the -spokes of the grid, and put the object on the stone. Bordman traced -cables with his eyes, from the grid to the control-board, and from the -board back to the reserve-power storage cells, deep in the mountain. - -"The grid's tuned to the bomb," said Riki, close beside him. "I checked -that myself!" - -The bear-like figure out in the valley jerked at the bomb. There was a -small rising cloud of grayish vapor. It continued. The figure climbed -hastily out of the grid. When the man was clear, Bordman threw a switch. - -There was a thin whining sound, and the wrapped, smoking object leaped -upward. It seemed to fall toward the sky. There was no more of drama -than that. An object the size of a basketball fell upward, swiftly, -until it disappeared. - -Bordman sat quite still, watching the control-board dials. Presently he -corrected this, and shifted that. He did not want the bomb to have too -high an upward velocity. At a hundred thousand feet it would find very -little air to stop the rise of the vapor it was to release. - -The field-focus dial reached its indication of one hundred thousand -feet. Bordman reversed the lift-switch. He counted, and then switched -the power off. The small, thin whine ended. - -He threw the power-intake switch. The power-yield needle stirred. The -minute grid was drawing power like its vaster counterpart, but its -field was infinitesimal by comparison. It drew power as a soda-straw -might draw water from wet sand. - -Then the intake-needle kicked. It swung sharply, and wavered, and then -began a steady, even, climbing movement across the markings on the -dial-face. Riki was not watching that. - -"They see something!" she panted. "Look at them!" - -The four men who had trundled the smaller grid to its place, now stared -upward. They flung out their arms. One of them jumped up and down. They -leaped. They practically danced. - -"Let's go see," said Bordman. - -He went out of the tunnel with Riki. They gazed upward. And directly -overhead, where the sky was darkest blue and where it had seemed that -stars shone through the daylight, there was a minute cloud. But it -grew. Its edges were yellow, saffron-yellow. It expanded and spread. -Presently it began to thin. As it thinned, it began to shine. It was -luminous. And the luminosity had a strange, familiar quality. - -Somebody came panting down the tunnel, from inside the mountain. - -"The grid--" he panted. "The big grid! It's pumping power! Big power! -BIG power!" - -But Bordman was looking at the sky, as if he did not quite believe his -eyes. The cloud now expanded very slowly, but still it grew. And it -was not regular in shape. The bomb had not shattered quite evenly, and -the vapor had poured out more on one side than the other. There was a -narrow, arching arm of brightness.... - -"It looks," said Riki breathlessly, "like a comet!" - -And then Bordman froze in every muscle. He stared at the cloud he had -made aloft, and his hands clenched in their mittens, and he swallowed -behind his cold-mask. - -"Th-that's it," he said in a hushed voice. "It's--_very_ much like -a comet. I'm glad you said that! We can make something even more like a -comet. We can use all the bombs we've made, right away, to make it. And -we've got to hurry so it won't get any colder tonight!" - -Which, of course, sounded like insanity. Riki looked apprehensively at -him. But Bordman had just thought of something. And nobody had taught -it to him and he hadn't gotten it out of books. But he'd seen a comet. - -The new idea was so promising that he regarded it with anguished unease -for fear it would not hold up. It was an idea that really ought to -change the facts resulting naturally from a lowered solar constant in a -sol-type star. - - * * * * * - -Half the colony set to work to make more bombs when the effect of -the first bomb showed up. The men were not very efficient, at first, -because they tended to want to stop work and dance from time to -time. But they worked with an impassioned enthusiasm. They made more -bomb-casings, and they prepared more sodium and potassium metal and -more fuses, and more insulation to wrap around the bombs to protect -them from the cold of airless space. - -Because these were to go out to airlessness. The miniature grid could -lift and hold a bomb steady in its field-focus at seven hundred and -fifty thousand feet. But if a bomb was accelerated all the way out to -that point, and the field was then snapped off.... Why, it wasn't held -anywhere! It kept on going with its attained velocity. And it burst -when its fuse decided that it should, whereupon immediately a mass of -sodium and potassium vapor, mixed with the fumes of high explosive, -flung itself madly in all directions, out between the stars. Absolute -vacuum tore the compressed gasified metals apart. The separate atoms, -white-hot from the explosion, went swirling through sunlit space. The -sunlight was dimmed a trifle, to be sure. But individual atoms of the -lighter alkaline-earth metals have marked photoelectric properties. In -sunshine these gas-molecules ionized, and therefore spread more widely, -and did not coalesce into even microscopic droplets. - -They formed, in fact, a cloud in space. An ionized cloud, in which no -particle was too large to be responsive to the pressure of light. The -cloud acted like the gases of a comet's tail. It was a comet's tail, -though there was no comet. And it was an extraordinary comet's tail -because it is said that you can put a comet's tail in your hat, at -normal atmospheric pressure. But this could not have been put in a hat. -Even before it turned to gas, it was the size of a basketball. And, in -space, it glowed. - -It glowed with the brightness of the sunshine on it, which was light -that would normally have gone away through the interstellar dark. And -it filled one corner of the sky. Within one hour it was a comet tail -ten thousand miles long, which visibly brightened the daytime heavens. -And it was only the first of such reflecting clouds. - -The next bomb set for space exploded in a different quarter, because -Bordman had had the miniature grid wrestled around the upcrop to point -in a new and somewhat more carefully chosen line. The next spattered -brilliance in a different section still. And the brilliance lasted. - -Bordman flung his first bombs recklessly, because there would be more, -and because he was desperately anxious to hang as many comet-tails as -possible around the colony-planet before nightfall. He didn't want it -to get any colder. - -And it didn't. In fact, there wasn't exactly any real nightfall on Lani -III that night. - -The planet turned on its axis, to be sure. But around it, quite close -by, there hung gigantic streamers of shining gas. At their beginning, -those streamers bore a certain resemblance to the furry wild-animal -tails that little boys like to have hanging down from hunting-caps. -Only they shone. And as they developed they merged, so that there was -an enormous shining curtain about Lani III, draperies of metal-mist to -capture sunlight that would otherwise have been wasted, and to diffuse -much of it on Lani II. At midnight there was only one spot in all the -night sky where there was really darkness. That was overhead, directly -outward from the planet, opposite from the sun. Gigantic shining -streamers formed a wall, a tube, of comet-tail material, yet many -times more dense and therefore more bright, which shielded the colony -world against the dark and cold, and threw upon it a shining, warming -brightness. - -Riki maintained stoutly that she could feel the warmth from the -sky, but that was improbable. However, heat certainly did come from -somewhere. The thermometer did not fall at all, that night. It rose. -It was up to fifty below zero at dawn. During the day--they sent out -twenty more bombs that second day--it was up to twenty degrees below -zero. By the day after, there were competent computations from the home -planet, and the concrete results of abstruse speculation, and the third -day's bombs were placed with optimum spacing for heating purposes. - -By dawn of the fourth day the air was a balmy five degrees below zero, -and the day after that there was a small running stream in the valley -at midday. - -There was talk of stocking the stream with fish, on the morning the -Survey ship came in. The great landing-grid gave out a deep-toned, -vibrant, humming note, like the deepest possible note of the biggest -organ that could be imagined. A speck appeared high up in a pale-blue -sky with trimmings of golden gas clouds. The Survey ship came down and -down and settled as a shining silver object in the very center of the -gigantic red-painted landing-grid. - -Her skipper came to find Bordman. He was in Herndon's office. The -skipper struggled to keep sheer blankness out of his expression. - -"What the hell?" he demanded. "This is the damnedest sight in the whole -Galaxy, and they tell me you're responsible! There've been ringed -planets before, and there've been comets and who knows what! But -shining gas-pipes aimed at the sun, half a million miles across! And -there are two of them--both the occupied planets!" - -Herndon explained why the curtains hung in space. There was a drop in -the solar constant.... - -The skipper exploded. He wanted facts! Details! Something to report! - -Bordman was automatically on the defensive when the skipper swung his -questions at him. A Senior Colonial Survey officer is not revered by -the Survey ship-service officers. Men like Bordman can be a nuisance -to a hard-working ship's officer. They have to be carried to unlikely -places for their work of checking over colonial installations. They -have to be put down on hard-to-get-at colonies, and they have to be -called for, sometimes, at times and places which are inconvenient. So a -man in Bordman's position is likely to feel unpopular. - -"I'd just finished the survey here," he said defensively, "when a cycle -of sunspot cycles matured. All the sunspot periods got in phase, and -the solar constant dropped. So I naturally offered what help I could to -meet the situation." - -The skipper regarded him incredulously. - -"But it couldn't be done!" he said. "They told me how you did it, but -it couldn't be done! Do you realize that these vapor-curtains will make -fifty border-line worlds fit for use? Half a pound of sodium vapor -a week!" He gestured helplessly. "They tell me the amount of heat -reaching the surface here has been upped by fifteen per cent! D'you -realize what _that_ means?" - -"I haven't been worrying about it," admitted Bordman. "There was a -local situation and something had to be done. I--er--remembered things, -and Riki suggested something I mightn't have thought of. So it's worked -out like this." Then he said abruptly: "I'm not leaving. I'll let you -take my resignation back. I think I'm going to settle here. It'll be a -long time before we get really temperate-climate conditions here, but -we can warm up a valley like this for cultivation, and it's going to -be a rather satisfying job. It's a brand new planet with a brand new -ecological system to be established." - -The skipper of the Survey ship sat down hard. Then the sliding door of -Herndon's office opened and Riki came in. The skipper stood up again. -Bordman awkwardly made the introduction. Riki smiled. - -"I'm telling him," said Bordman, "that I'm resigning from the Service -to settle down here." - -Riki nodded. She put her hand in proprietary fashion on Bordman's arm. -The Survey skipper cleared his throat. - -"I'm not going to carry your resignation," he said. "There've got to be -detailed reports on how this business works. Dammit, if vapor clouds in -space can be used to keep a planet warm, they can be used to shade a -planet, too! If you resign, somebody else will have to come out here to -make observations and work out the details of the trick. Nobody could -be gotten here in less than a year! You've got to stay here to build -up a report, and you ought to be available for consultation when this -thing's to be done somewhere else. I'll report that I insisted as a -Survey emergency--" - -Riki said confidently: - -"Oh, that's all right! He'll do that! Of course! Won't you?" - -Bordman nodded. He thought, _I've been lonely all my life. I've -never belonged anywhere. But nobody could possibly belong anywhere -as thoroughly as I'll belong here when it's warm and green and even -the grass on the ground is partly my doing. But Riki'll like for me -still to be in the Service. Women like to see their husbands wearing -uniforms._ - -Aloud he said: - -"Of course. If it really needs to be done. Though you realize that -there's nothing really remarkable about it. Everything I've done has -been what I was taught, or read in books." - -"Hush!" said Riki. "You're wonderful!" - - * * * * * - -And so they were married, and Bordman was very, very happy. But people -who can serve their fellow-men are never left alone. We humans get into -so many predicaments! - -Bordman had lived contentedly on Lani III for only three years when -there was an emergency on Kalen IV and no other qualified Space Survey -officer could possibly be gotten to the spot in time to handle it. -A special ship raced to ask him to act,--just for this once. And, -reluctantly, he went to do what he could, with the assurance to Riki -that he would be back in three months. But he was gone two years, and -his youngest child did not remember him when he came back. - -He stayed home one year, and then there was an emergency on Seth IV. -That kept him only four months, but before he could get back to Lani -he was urgently required to check out a colony on Aleph I, whose -colonists could not enter into possession until a short-handed Survey -service licensed it. Then there was another call.... - -In the first ten years of his marriage, Bordman spent less than five -with his family. But he didn't like it. When he'd been married fifteen -years he'd made it clear at Headquarters that he was only carrying on -until a new class graduated from Space Survey training. Then he was -going home to stay. - - - - - SAND DOOM - - -Bordman knew there was something wrong when the throbbing, acutely -uncomfortable vibration of rocket-blasts shook the ship. Rockets were -strictly emergency devices, these days, so when they were used there -was obviously an emergency. - -He sat still. He had been reading in the passenger-lounge of the -_Warlock_--a very small lounge indeed--but as a Senior Colonial -Survey Officer with considerable experience he was well-traveled -enough to know when things did not go right. He looked up from the -book-screen, waiting. Nobody came to explain the eccentricity of a -space-ship using rockets. The explanation would have been immediate on -a regular liner, but the _Warlock_ was practically a tramp. This -trip it carried just two passengers. Passenger service was not yet -authorized to the planet, and would not be until Bordman had made the -report he was on his way to compile. At the moment, though, the rockets -blasted, and stopped, and blasted again. There was something definitely -wrong. - -The _Warlock's_ other passenger came out of her cabin. She looked -surprised. She was Aletha Redfeather, a very lovely Amerind. It was -extraordinary that a girl could be so self-sufficient on a tedious -space-voyage, and Bordman approved of her. She was making the journey -to Xosa II as a representative of the Amerind Historical Society, -but she'd brought her own book-reels and some elaborate fancy-work -which--woman-fashion--she used to occupy her hands. She hadn't been -at all a nuisance. Now she tilted her head on one side as she looked -inquiringly at Bordman. - -"I'm wondering too," he told her, just as an especially sustained and -violent shuddering of rocket-impulsion made his chair legs thutter on -the floor. - -There was a long period of stillness. Then another violent but much -shorter blast. A shorter one still. Presently there was a half-second -blast which must have been from a single rocket-tube because of the -mild shaking it produced. After that there was nothing at all. - -Bordman frowned to himself. He'd been anticipating ground-fall within -a matter of hours, certainly. He'd just gone through his spec-book -carefully and re-familiarized himself with the work he was to survey on -Xosa II. It was a perfectly common-place minerals-planet development, -and he'd expected to clear it FE--fully established--and probably TP -and NQ ratings as well, indicating that tourists were permitted and no -quarantine was necessary. Considering the aridity of the planet, no -bacteriological dangers could be expected to exist, and if tourists -wanted to view its monstrous deserts and inferno-like wind-sculptures, -they should be welcome. - -But the ship had used rocket-drive in the planet's near vicinity. -Emergency. Which was ridiculous. This was a perfectly routine sort of -voyage. Its purpose was the delivery of heavy equipment--specifically a -smelter--and a Senior Colonial Survey Officer to report the completion -of primary development. - -Aletha waited, as if for more rocket-blasts. Presently she smiled at -some thought that had occurred to her. - -"If this were an adventure tape," she said, "the loud-speaker would -now announce that the ship had established itself in an orbit around -the strange, uncharted planet first sighted three days ago, and that -volunteers were wanted for a boat landing." - -Bordman demanded impatiently: - -"Do you bother with adventure tapes? They're nonsense! A pure waste of -time!" - -Aletha smiled again. - -"My ancestors," she told him, "used to hold tribal dances and make -medicine and boast about how many scalps they'd taken and how they -did it. It was satisfying--and educational for the young. Adolescents -became familiar with the idea of what we nowadays call adventure. They -were partly ready for it when it came. I suspect your ancestors used to -tell each other stories about hunting mammoths and such. So I think it -would be fun to hear that we were in orbit and that a boat landing was -in order." - -Bordman grunted. There were no longer adventures. The universe was -settled, civilized. Of course there were still frontier planets--Xosa -II was one--but pioneers had only hardships. Not adventures. - -The ship-phone speaker clicked. It said curtly: - -"_Notice. We have arrived at Xosa II and have established an orbit -about it. A landing will be made by boat._" - -Bordman's mouth dropped open. - -"What the devil's this?" he demanded. - -"Adventure, maybe," said Aletha. Her eyes crinkled very pleasantly when -she smiled. She wore the modern Amerind dress--a sign of pride in the -ancestry which now implied such diverse occupations as interstellar -steel construction and animal husbandry and llano-planet colonization. -"If it were adventure, as the only girl on this ship I'd have to be in -the landing party, lest the tedium of orbital waiting make the--" her -smile widened to a grin--"the pent-up restlessness of trouble-makers in -the crew--" - -The ship phone clicked again. - -"_Mr. Bordman. Miss Redfeather. According to advices from the ground, -the ship may have to stay in orbit for a considerable time. You will -accordingly be landed by boat. Will you make yourselves ready, please, -and report to the boat-blister?_" The voice paused and added, -"_Hand luggage only, please._" - -Aletha's eyes brightened. Bordman felt the shocked incredulity of a man -accustomed to routine when routine is broken. Of course, survey ships -made boat landings from orbit, and colony ships let down robot hulls -by rocket when there was as yet no landing-grid for the handling of a -ship. But never before in his experience had an ordinary freighter, on -a routine voyage to a colony ready for a degree-of-completion survey, -ever landed anybody by boat. - -"This is ridiculous!" said Bordman, fuming. - -"Maybe it's adventure," said Aletha. "I'll pack." - -She disappeared into her cabin, Bordman hesitated. Then he went into -his own. The colony on Xosa II had been established two years since. -Minimum-comfort conditions had been realized within six months. A -temporary landing-grid for light supply ships was up within a year. It -had permitted stockpiling, and it had been taken down to be rebuilt -as a permanent grid with every possible contingency provided for. The -eight months since the last ship-landing was more than enough for the -rebuilding of the gigantic, spidery, half-mile-high structure which -would handle this planet's interstellar commerce. There was no excuse -for an emergency. A boat landing was nonsensical! - -He surveyed the contents of his cabin. Most of the cargo of the -_Warlock_ was smelter equipment which was to complete the -outfitting of the colony. It was to be unloaded first. By the time the -ship's holds were wholly empty, the smelter would be operating. The -ship would wait for a full cargo of pig-metal. Bordman had expected to -live in this cabin while he worked on the survey he'd come to make and -to leave again with the ship. - -Now he was to go aground by boat. He fretted. The only emergency -equipment he could possibly need was a heat-suit. He doubted the -urgency of that. But he packed some clothing for indoors, and then -defiantly included his spec-book and the volumes of definitive data to -which specifications for structures and colonial establishments always -referred. He'd get to work on his report immediately he landed. - -He went out of the passenger's lounge to the boat-blister. An -engineer's legs projected from the boat port. The engineer withdrew, -with a strip of tape from the boat's computer. He compared it with a -similar strip from the ship's figure-box. Bordman consciously acted -according to the best traditions of passengers. - -"What's the trouble?" he asked. - -"We can't land," said the engineer shortly. - -He went away--according to the tradition by which ships' crews are -always scornful of passengers. - -Bordman scowled. Then Aletha came, carrying a not-too-heavy bag. -Bordman put it in the boat, disapproving of the crampedness of the -craft. But this wasn't a lifeboat. It was a landing-boat. A lifeboat -had Lawlor drive and could travel light-years, but in the place of -rockets and rocket-fuel it had air purifiers and water recovery units -and food stores. It couldn't land without a landing-grid aground, -but it could get to a civilized planet. This landing-boat could land -without a grid, but its air wouldn't last long. - -"Whatever's the matter," said Bordman darkly, "it's incompetence -somewhere!" - -But he couldn't figure it out. This was a cargo-ship. Cargo-ships -neither took off nor landed under their own power. It was too costly of -fuel they would have to carry. So landing-grids used local power--which -did not have to be lifted--to heave ships out into space, and again -used local power to draw them to ground again. Therefore ships carried -fuel only for actual space flight, which was economy. Yet landing-grids -had no moving parts, and while they did have to be monstrous structures -they actually drew power from planetary ionospheres. So with no -moving parts to break down and no possibility of the failure of a -power-source, landing-grids couldn't fail! So there couldn't be an -emergency to make a ship ride orbit around a planet which had a -landing-grid. - -The engineer came back. He carried a mail sack full of letter-reels. -He waved his hand. Aletha crawled into the landing-boat port. Bordman -followed. Four people, with considerable crowding, could have gotten -into the little ship. Three pretty well filled it. The engineer -followed them and sealed the port. - -"Sealed off," he said into the microphone before him. - -The exterior-pressure needle moved half-way across the dial. The -interior-pressure needle stayed steady. - -"All tight," said the engineer. - -The exterior-pressure needle flicked to zero. There were clanking -sounds. The long halves of the boat-blister stirred and opened, and -abruptly the landing-boat was in an elongated cup in the hull plating, -and above them there were many, many stars. The enormous disk of a -nearby planet floated into view around the hull. It was monstrous and -blindingly bright. It was of a tawny color, with great, irregular areas -of yellow and patches of bluishness. But most of it was the color of -sand. And all its colors varied in shade--some places lighter and some -darker--and over at one edge there was blinding whiteness which could -not be anything but an ice-cap. Bordman knew that there was no ocean or -sea or lake on all this whole planet, and the ice-cap was more nearly -hoar-frost than such mile-deep glaciation as would be found at the -poles of a maximum-comfort world. - -"Strap in," said the engineer over his shoulder. "No-gravity coming, -and then rocket-push. Settle your heads." - -Bordman irritably strapped himself in. He saw Aletha busy at the same -task, her eyes shining. Without warning, there came a sensation of -acute discomfort. It was the landing-boat detaching itself from the -ship and the diminishment of the ship's closely-confined artificial -gravity field. That field suddenly dropped to nothingness, and -Bordman had the momentary sickish dizziness that flicked-off gravity -always produces. At the same time his heart pounded unbearably in the -instinctive, racial-memory reaction to the feel of falling. - -Then roarings. He was thrust savagely back against his seat. His tongue -tried to slide back into his throat. There was an enormous oppression -on his chest and he found himself thinking panicky profanity. - -Simultaneously the vision-ports went black, because they were out of -the shadow of the ship. The landing-boat turned--but there was no -sensation of centrifugal force--and they were in a vast obscurity with -merely a dim phantom of the planetary surface to be seen. Behind them a -blue-white sun shone terribly. Its light was warm--hot--even though it -came through the polarized, shielding ports. - -"Did you say," panted Aletha happily--breathless because of the -acceleration--"that there weren't any adventures?" - -Bordman did not answer. But he did not count discomfort as an adventure. - -The engineer did not look out the ports at all. He watched the screen -before him. There was a vertical line across the side of the lighted -ship. A blip moved downward across it, showing their height in -thousands of miles. After a long time the blip reached the bottom, and -the vertical line became double and another blip began to descend. It -measured height in hundreds of miles. A bright spot--a square--appeared -at one side of the screen. A voice muttered metallically, and suddenly -seemed to shout, and then muttered again. Bordman looked out one of the -black ports and saw the planet as if through smoked glass. It was a -ghostly reddish thing which filled half the cosmos. It had mottlings, -and its edge was curved. That would be the horizon. - -The engineer moved controls and the white square moved. It went across -the screen. He moved more controls. It came back to the center. The -height-in-hundreds blip was at the bottom, now, and the vertical line -tripled and a tens-of-miles-height blip crawled downward. - -There were sudden, monstrous plungings of the landing-boat. It had hit -the outermost fringes of atmosphere. The engineer said words it was -not appropriate for Aletha to hear. The plungings became more violent. -Bordman held on, to keep from being shaken to pieces despite the -straps, and stared at the murky surface of the planet. It seemed to be -fleeing from them and they to be trying to overtake it. Gradually, very -gradually, its flight appeared to slow. They were down to twenty miles, -then. - -Quite abruptly the landing-boat steadied. The square spot bobbled about -in the center of the astrogation-screen. The engineer worked controls -to steady it. - -The ports cleared a little. Bordman could see the ground below more -distinctly. There were patches of every tint that mineral coloring -could produce, and vast stretches of tawny sand. A little while more, -and he could see the shadows of mountains. He made out mountain-flanks -which should have had valleys between them and other mountain-flanks -beyond, but they were joined by tawny flatnesses instead. These, he -knew, would be the sand-plateaus which had been observed on this planet -and which had only a still-disputed explanation. But he could see areas -of glistening yellow and dirty white, and splashes of pink and streaks -of ultramarine and gray and violet, and the incredible red of iron -oxide covering square miles--too much to be believed. - -The landing-boat's rockets cut off. It coasted. Presently the horizon -tilted and all the dazzling ground below turned sedately beneath -them. Then came staccato instructions from a voice-speaker, which the -engineer obeyed. The landing-boat swung low--below the tips of giant -mauve mountains with a sand-plateau beyond them--and its nose went up. -It stalled. - -Then the rockets roared again--and now, with air about them, they were -horribly loud--and the boat settled down and down upon its own tail of -fire. - -A blinding mass of dust and rocket-fumes cut off all sight of -everything else. Then a crunching crash, and the engineer swore -peevishly to himself. He cut the rockets again. Finally. - -Bordman found himself staring straight up, still strapped in his -chair. The boat had settled on its own tail-fins, and his feet were -higher than his head. He felt ridiculous. He saw the engineer at work -unstrapping himself, and duplicated the action, but it was absurdly -difficult to get out of the chair. - -Aletha managed more gracefully. She didn't need help. - -"Wait," said the engineer ungraciously, "till somebody comes." - -So they waited, using what had been chair-backs for seats. - -The engineer moved a control and the windows cleared further. They saw -the surface of Xosa II. There was no living thing in sight. The ground -itself was pebbles and small rocks and minor boulders--all apparently -tumbled from the starkly magnificent mountains to one side. There were -monstrous, many-colored cliffs and mesas, every one eaten at in the -unmistakable fashion of wind erosion. Through a notch in the mountain -wall before them a strange, fan-shaped, frozen formation appeared. If -such a thing had been credible, Bordman would have said that it was -a flow of sand simulating a waterfall. And everywhere was a blinding -brightness and the look and feel of blistering sunshine. But there was -not one single leaf or twig or blade of grass. This was pure desert. -This was Xosa II. - -Aletha regarded it with bright eyes. - -"Beautiful!" she said happily. "Isn't it?" - -"Personally," said Bordman, "I never saw a place that looked less -homelike or attractive." - -Aletha laughed. - -"My eyes see it differently." - -Which was true. It was accepted, nowadays, that humankind might be one -species but was many races, and each saw the cosmos in its own fashion. -On Kalmet III there was a dense, predominantly Asiatic population -which terraced its mountain-sides for agriculture and deftly mingled -modern techniques with social customs not to be found on--say--Demeter -I, where there were many red-tiled stucco towns and very many olive -groves. In the llano planets of the Equis cluster, Amerinds--Aletha's -kin--rode over plains dotted with the descendants of buffalo and -antelope and cattle brought from ancient Earth. On the oases of Rustam -IV there were date palms and riding camels and much argument about -what should be substituted for the direction of Mecca at the times for -prayer, while wheat-fields spanned provinces on Canna I and highly -civilized emigrants from the continent of Africa on Earth stored -jungle-gums and lustrous gems in the warehouses of their space-port -city of Timbuk. - -So it was natural for Aletha to look at this wind-carved wilderness -otherwise than as Bordman did. Her racial kin were the pioneers of the -stars, these days. Their heritage made them less than appreciative -of urban life. Their inborn indifference to heights made them the -steel construction men of the cosmos, and more than two thirds of the -landing-beam grids in the whole galaxy had their coup-feather symbols -on the key posts. But the planet government on Algonka V was housed in -a three-thousand-foot stone tepee, and the best horses known to men -were raised by ranchers with bronze skins and high cheek-bones on the -llano planet Chagan. - -Now, here, in the _Warlock's_ landing-boat, the engineer snorted. -A vehicle came around a cliff wall, clanking its way on those eccentric -caterwheels that new-founded colonies find so useful. The vehicle -glittered. It crawled over tumbled boulders, and flowed over fallen -scree. It came briskly toward them. - -"That's my cousin Ralph!" said Aletha in pleased surprise. - -Bordman blinked and looked again. He did not quite believe his eyes. -But they told the truth. The figure controlling the ground car was -Indian--Amerind--wearing a breechclout and thick-soled sandals and -three streamlined feathers in a band about his head. Moreover, he did -not ride in a seat. He sat astride a semi-cylindrical part of the -ground car, over which a gaily colored blanket had been thrown. - -The ship's engineer rumbled disgustedly. But then Bordman saw how sane -this method of riding was--here. The ground vehicle lurched and swayed -and rolled and pitched and tossed as it came over the uneven ground. To -sit in anything like a chair would have been foolish. A back rest would -throw one forward in a frontward lurch, and give no support in case of -a backward one. A sidewise tilt would tend to throw one out. Riding a -ground car as if in a saddle was sense! - -But Bordman was not so sure about the costume. The engineer opened the -port and spoke hostilely out of it: - -"D'you know there's a lady in this thing?" - -The young Indian grinned. He waved his hand to Aletha, who pressed -her nose against a viewport. And just then Bordman did understand the -costume or lack of it. Air came in the open exit-port. It was hot and -dessicated. It was furnace-like! - -"How, 'Letha," called the rider on the caterwheel steed. "Either dress -for the climate or put on a heat-suit before you come out of there!" - -Aletha chuckled. Bordman heard a stirring behind him. Then Aletha -climbed to the exit-port and swung out. Bordman heard a dour muttering -from the engineer. Then he saw her greeting her cousin. She had slipped -out of the conventionalized Amerind outfit to which Bordman was -accustomed. Now she was clad as Anglo-Saxon girls dressed for beaches -on the cool-temperature planets. - -For a moment Bordman thought of sunstroke, with his own eyes dazzled by -the still partly-filtered sunlight. But Aletha's Amerind coloring was -perfectly suited to sunshine even of this intensity. Wind blowing upon -her body would cool her skin. Her thick, straight black hair was at -least as good protection against sunstroke as a heat-helmet. She might -feel hot, but she would be perfectly safe. She wouldn't even sunburn. -But he, Bordman.... - -He grimly stripped to underwear and put on the heat-suit from his -bag. He filled its canteens from the boat's water tank. He turned -on the tiny, battery-powered motors. The suit ballooned out. It was -intended for short periods of intolerable heat. The motors kept -it inflated--away from his skin--and cooled its interior by the -evaporation of sweat plus water from its canteen tanks. It was a -miniature air-conditioning system for one man, and it should enable him -to endure temperatures otherwise lethal to someone with his skin and -coloring. But it would use a lot of water. - -He climbed to the exit-port and went clumsily down the exterior -ladder to the tail fin. He adjusted his goggles. He went over to the -chattering young Indians, young man and girl, and held out his gloved -hand. - -"I'm Bordman," he said. "Here to make a degree-of-completion survey. -What's wrong that we had to land by boat?" - -Aletha's cousin shook hands cordially. - -"I'm Ralph Redfeather," he said. "Project engineer. About everything's -wrong. Our landing-grid's gone. We couldn't contact your ship in time -to warn it off. It was in our gravity-field before it answered, and -its Lawlor drive couldn't take it away--not working because of the -gravity stresses. Our power, of course, went with the landing-grid. The -ship you came in can't get back, and we can't send a distress message -anywhere, and our best estimate is that the colony will be wiped -out--thirst and starvation--in six months. I'm sorry you and Aletha -have to be included." - -Then he turned to Aletha and said amiably: - -"How's Mike Thundercloud and Sally Whitehorse and the gang in general, -'Letha?" - -The _Warlock_ rolled on in her newly-established orbit about Xosa -II. The landing-boat was aground, having removed the two passengers. -It would come back. Nobody on the ship wanted to stay aground, because -they knew the conditions and the situation below--unbearable heat -and the complete absence of hope. But nobody had anything to do. The -ship had been maintained in standard operating condition during its -two month's voyage from Trent to here. No repairs or overhaulings -were needed. There was no maintenance work to speak of. There would -be only standby watches until something happened, and nothing to do -on those watches. There would be off-watch time for twenty-one out of -every twenty-four hours, and no purposeful activity to fill even half -an hour of it. In a matter of--probably--years, the _Warlock_ -should receive aid. She might be towed out of her orbit to space--five -diameters out--in which the Lawlor drive could function, or the crew -might simply be taken off. But meanwhile, those on board were as -completely frustrated as the colony. They could not do anything at all -to help themselves. - -In one fashion the crewmen were worse off than the colonists. The -colonists had at least the colorful prospect of death before them. They -could prepare for it in their several ways. But the members of the -_Warlock's_ crew had nothing ahead but tedium. The skipper faced -the future with extreme distaste. - - * * * * * - -The ride to the colony was torment. Aletha rode behind her cousin on -the saddle blanket, and apparently suffered little if at all. But -Bordman could only ride in the ground car's cargo space, along with the -sack of mail from the ship. The ground was unbelievably rough and the -jolting intolerable. The heat was literally murderous. In the metal -cargo space, the temperature reached a hundred and sixty degrees in the -sunshine--and given enough time, food will cook in no more heat than -that. Of course a man has been known to enter an oven and stay there -while a roast was cooked, and to come out alive. But the oven wasn't -throwing him violently about or bringing sun heated--blue-white-sun -heated--metal to press his heat-suit about him. The suit did make -survival possible, but that was all. The contents of its canteens gave -out just before arrival, and for a short time Bordman had only sweat -for his suit to work with. It kept him alive by forced ventilation, -but he arrived in a state of collapse. He drank the iced salt water -they gave him and went to bed. He'd get back his strength with a proper -sodium level in his blood. But he slept for twelve hours straight. - -When he got up, he was physically normal again, but abysmally ashamed. -It did no good to remind himself that Xosa II was rated minimum-comfort -class D--a blue-white sun and a mean temperature of one hundred ten -degrees. Africans could do steel construction work in the open, -protected only by insulating shoes and gloves. But Bordman could not -venture out-of-doors except in a heat-suit. He could not stay long -then. It was not a weakness. It was a matter of genetics. But he was -ashamed. - -Aletha nodded to him when he found the Project Engineer's office. It -occupied one of the hulls in which colony-establishment materials had -been lowered by rocket power. There were forty of the hulls, and they -had been emptied and arranged for inter-communication, so that an -individual could change his quarters and ordinary associates from time -to time and colony-fever--frantic irritation with one's companions--was -minimized. - -Aletha sat at a desk, busily making notes from a loose-leaf volume -before her. The wall behind the desk was fairly lined with similar -volumes. - -"I made a spectacle of myself!" said Bordman. - -"Not at all!" Aletha assured him. "It could happen to anybody. I -wouldn't do too well on Timbuk." - -There was no answer to that. Timbuk was essentially a jungle planet, -barely emerging from the carboniferous stage. Its colonists thrived -because their ancestors had lived on the shores of the Gulf of Guinea, -on Earth. But Anglos did not find its climate healthful, nor would many -other races. Amerinds died there quicker than most. - -"Ralph's on the way here now," added Aletha. "He and Dr. Chuka were out -picking a place to leave the records. The sand-dunes here are terrible, -you know. When an explorer ship does come to find out what's happened -to us, these buildings could be covered up completely. Any place could -be. It isn't easy to pick a record cache that's quite sure to be found." - -"When," said Bordman, "there's nobody left alive to point it out. Is -that it?" - -"That's it," agreed Aletha. "It's pretty bad all around. I didn't plan -to die just yet." - -Her voice was perfectly normal. Bordman snorted. As a Senior Colonial -Survey Officer, he'd been around. But he'd never yet known a human -colony to be extinguished when it was properly equipped and after a -proper pre-settlement survey. He'd seen panic, but never real cause for -a matter-of-fact acceptance of doom. - -There was a clanking noise outside the hulk which was the Project -Engineer's headquarters. Bordman couldn't see clearly through the -filtered ports, so he reached over and opened a door. The brightness -outside struck his eyes like a blow. He blinked them shut instantly and -turned away. But he'd seen a glistening, caterwheel ground car stopping -not far from the doorway. - -He stood wiping tears from his light-dazzled eyes as footsteps -sounded outside. Aletha's cousin came in, followed by a huge man with -remarkably dark skin. The dark man wore eyeglasses with a curiously -thick, corklike nosepiece to insulate the necessary metal of the frame -from his skin. It would blister if it touched bare flesh. - -"This is Dr. Chuka," said Redfeather pleasantly, "Mr. Bordman. Dr. -Chuka's the director of mining and mineralogy here." - -Bordman shook hands with the ebony-skinned man. He grinned, showing -startlingly white teeth. Then he began to shiver. - -"It's like a freeze-box in here," he said in a deep voice. "I'll get a -robe and be with you." - -He vanished through a doorway, his teeth chattering audibly. Aletha's -cousin took half a dozen deliberate deep breaths and grimaced. - -"I could shiver myself," he admitted, "but Chuka's really acclimated to -Xosa. He was raised on Timbuk." - -Bordman said curtly: - -"I'm sorry I collapsed on landing. It won't happen again. I came -here to do a degree-of-completion survey that should open the colony -to normal commerce, let the colonist's families move in, tourists, -and so on. But I was landed by boat instead of normally, and I am -told the colony is doomed. I would like an official statement of the -degree-of-completion of the colony's facilities and an explanation of -the unusual points I have just mentioned." - -The Indian blinked at him. Then he smiled faintly. The dark man came -back, zipping up an indoor warmth-garment. Redfeather drily brought him -up to date by repeating what Bordman had just said. Chuka grinned and -sprawled comfortably in a chair. - -"I'd say," he remarked, in that astonishingly deep-toned voice of his, -"I'd say sand got in our hair. And our colony. And the landing-grid. -There's a lot of sand on Xosa. Wouldn't you say that was the trouble?" - -The Indian said with deliberate gravity: - -"Of course wind had something to do with it." - -Bordman fumed. - -"I think you know," he said, "that as a Senior Colonial Survey Officer, -I have authority to give any orders needed for my work. I give one now. -I want to see the landing-grid, if it is still standing. I take it that -it didn't fall down?" - -Redfeather flushed beneath the bronze pigment of his skin. It would be -hard to offend a steelman more than to suggest that his work did not -still stand up. - -"I assure you," he said politely, "that it did not fall down." - -"Your estimate of its degree-of-completion?" - -"Eighty per cent," said Redfeather. - -"You've stopped work on it?" - -"Work on it has been stopped," agreed the Indian. - -"Even though the colony can receive no more supplies until it is -completed?" - -"Just so," said Redfeather without expression. - -"Then I issue a formal order that I be taken to the landing-grid -site immediately!" said Bordman angrily. "I want to see what sort of -incompetence is responsible! Will you arrange it--at once?" - -Redfeather said in a completely emotionless voice: - -"You want to see the site of the landing-grid. Very good. Immediately." - -He turned and walked out into the incredible, blinding sunshine. -Bordman blinked at the momentary blast of light, and then began to pace -up and down the office. He fumed. He was still ashamed of his collapse -from the heat during the travel from the landed rocket-boat to the -colony. Therefore he was touchy and irritable. But the order he had -given was strictly justifiable. - -He heard a small noise and whirled. Dr. Chuka, huge and black and -spectacled, rocked back and forth in his seat, suppressing laughter. - -"Now, what the devil does that mean?" demanded Bordman suspiciously. -"It certainly isn't ridiculous to ask to see the structure on which the -life of the colony finally depends!" - -"Not ridiculous," said Doctor Chuka. "It's--hilarious!" - -He boomed laughter in the office with the rounded ceiling of a remade -robot hull. Aletha smiled with him, though her eyes were grave. - -"You'd better put on a heat-suit," she said to Bordman. - -He fumed again, tempted to defy all common sense because its dictates -were not the same for everybody. But he marched away, back to the -cubbyhole in which he had awakened. He donned the heat-suit that had -not protected him adequately before, but had certainly saved his life, -and filled the canteens topping full--he suspected he hadn't done so -the last time. He went back to the Project Engineer's office with a -feeling of being burdened and absurd. - -Out a filter-window, he saw that men with skins as dark as Dr. Chuka's -were at work on a ground car. They were equipping it with a sunshade -and curious shields like wings. Somebody pushed a sort of caterwheel -handtruck toward it. They put big, heavy tanks into its cargo space. -Dr. Chuka had disappeared, but Aletha was back at work making notes -from the loose-leaf volume on the desk. - -"May I ask," asked Bordman with some irony, "what your work happens to -be just now?" - -She looked up. - -"I thought you knew!" she said in surprise. "I'm here for the Amerind -Historical Society. I can certify coups. I'm taking coup-records for -the Society. They'll go in the record cache Ralph and Dr. Chuka are -arranging, so no matter what happens to the colony, the record of the -coups won't be lost." - -"Coups?" demanded Bordman. He knew that Amerinds painted feathers on -the key posts of steel structures they'd built, and he knew that the -posting of such "coup-marks" was a cherished privilege and undoubtedly -a survival or revival of some American Indian tradition back on Earth. -But he did not know what they meant. - -"Coups," repeated Aletha matter-of-factly. "Ralph wears three -eagle-feathers. You saw them. He has three coups. Pinions, too! He -built the landing-grids on Norlath and--Oh, you don't know!" - -"I don't," admitted Bordman, his temper not of the best because of what -seemed unnecessary condescensions on Xosa II. - -Aletha looked surprised. - -"In the old days," she explained, "back on Earth, if a man scalped -an enemy, he counted coup. The first to strike an enemy in a battle -counted coup, too--a lesser one. Nowadays a man counts coups for -different things, but Ralph's three eagle-feathers mean he's entitled -to as much respect as a warrior in the old days who, three separate -times, had killed and scalped an enemy warrior in the middle of his own -camp. And he is, too!" - -Bordman grunted. - -"Barbarous, I'd say!" - -"If you like," said Aletha. "But it's something to be proud of--and -one doesn't count coup for making a lot of money!" Then she paused and -said curtly: "The word 'snobbish' fits it better than 'barbarous.' We -are snobs! But when the head of a clan stands up in Council in the Big -Tepee on Algonka, representing his clan, and men have to carry the -ends of the feather head-dress with all the coups the members of his -clan have earned--why--one is proud to belong to that clan!" She added -defiantly, "Even watching it on a vision-screen!" - -Dr. Chuka opened the outer door. Blinding light poured in. He did not -enter, and his body glistened with sweat. - -"Ready for you, Mr. Bordman!" - -Bordman adjusted his goggles and turned on the motors of his heat-suit. -He went out the door. - -The heat and light outside was like a blow. He darkened the goggles -again and made his way heavily to the waiting, now-shaded ground car. -He noted that there were other changes beside the sunshade. The cover -deck of the cargo space was gone, and there were cylindrical riding -seats like saddles in the back. The odd lower shields reached out -sidewise from the body, barely above the caterwheels. He could not make -out their purpose and irritably failed to ask. - -"All ready," said Redfeather. "Dr. Chuka's coming with us. If you'll -get in here, please...." - -Bordman climbed awkwardly into the boxlike back of the car. He -bestrode one of the cylindrical arrangements. With a saddle on it, -it would undoubtedly have been a comfortable way to cover impossibly -bad terrain in a mechanical carrier. He waited. About him there were -the squatty hulls of the space barges which had been towed here by -a colony-ship, each one once equipped with rockets for landing. -Emptied of their cargos, they had been huddled together into the three -separate, adjoining communities. There were separate living-quarters -and mess-halls and recreation-rooms for each, and any colonist lived -in the community of his choice and shifted at pleasure, or visited, or -remained solitary. For mental health a man has to be assured of his -free will, and over-regimentation is deadly in any society. With men -psychologically suited to colonize, it is fatal. - -Above--but at a distance, now--was the monstrous scarp of mountains, -colored in glaring and unnatural tints. Immediately about there was -raw rock. But it was peculiarly smooth, as if sand-grains had rubbed -over it for uncountable aeons and carefully worn away every trace of -unevenness. Half a mile to the left, dunes began and went away to the -horizon. The nearer ones were small, but they gained in size with -distance from the mountains--which evidently affected the surface-winds -hereabouts--and the edge of seeing was visibly not a straight line. -The dunes yonder must be gigantic. But of course on a world the size -of ancient Earth, and which was waterless save for snow-patches at -its poles, the size to which sand-dunes could grow had no limit. The -surfaces of Xosa II was a sea of sand, on which islands and small -continents of wind-swept rock were merely minor features. - -Dr. Chuka adjusted a small metal object in his hand. It had a tube -dangling from it. He climbed into the cargo space and fastened it to -one of the two tanks previously loaded. - -"For you," he told Bordman. "Those tanks are full of compressed air at -rather high pressure--a couple of thousand pounds. Here's a reduction -valve with an adiabatic expansion feature, to supply extra air to your -heat-suit. It will be pretty cold, expanding from so high a pressure. -Bring down the temperature a little more." - -Bordman again felt humiliated. Chuka and Redfeather, because of their -races, were able to move about nine-tenths naked in the open air on -this planet, and they thrived. But he needed a special refrigerated -costume to endure the heat. More, they provided him with sunshades -and refrigerated air that they did not need for themselves. They were -thoughtful of him. He was as much out of his element where they fitted -perfectly, as he would have been making a degree-of-completion survey -on an underwater project. He had to wear what was practically a diving -suit and use a special air-supply to survive! - -He choked down the irritation his own inadequacy produced. - -"I suppose we can go now," he said as coldly as he could. - -Aletha's cousin mounted the control saddle--though it was no more than -a blanket--and Dr. Chuka mounted beside Bordman. The ground car got -under way. It headed for the mountains. - -The smoothness of the rock was deceptive. The caterwheel car lurched -and bumped and swayed and rocked. It rolled and dipped and wallowed. -Nobody could have remained in a normal seat on such terrain, but -Bordman felt hopelessly undignified riding what amounted to a -hobby-horse. Under the sunshade it was infuriatingly like a horse on -a carrousel. That there were three of them together made it look even -more foolish. He stared about him, trying to take his mind from his own -absurdity. His goggles made the light endurable, but he felt ashamed. - -"Those side-fins," said Chuka's deep voice pleasantly, "the bottom -ones, makes things better for you. The shade overhead cuts off direct -sunlight, and they cut off the reflected glare. It would blister your -skin even if the sun never touched you directly." - -Bordman did not answer. The caterwheel car went on. It came to a patch -of sand--tawny sand, heavily mineralized. There was a dune here. Not a -big one for Xosa II, no more than a hundred feet high. But they went -up its leeward, steeply slanting side. All the planet seemed to tilt -insanely as the caterwheels spun. They reached the dune's crest, where -it tended to curl over and break like a water-comber, and here the -wheels struggled with sand precariously ready to fall, and Bordman had -a sudden perception of the sands of Xosa II as the oceans that they -really were. The dunes were waves which moved with infinite slowness, -but the irresistible force of storm-seas. Nothing could resist them. -Nothing! - -They traveled over similar dunes for two miles. Then they began to -climb the approaches to the mountains. And Bordman saw for the second -time--the first had been through the ports of the landing-boat--where -there was a notch in the mountain wall and sand had flowed out of it -like a waterfall, making a beautifully symmetrical cone-shaped heap -against the lower cliffs. There were many such falls. In one place -there was a sand-cascade. Sand had poured over a series of rocky steps, -piling up on each in turn to its very edge, and then spilling again to -the next. - -They went up a crazily slanting spur of stone, whose sides were too -steep for sand to lodge on, and whose narrow crest had a bare thin -coating of powder. - -The landscape looked like a nightmare. As the car went on, wobbling and -lurching and dipping, the heights on either side made Bordman tend to -dizziness. The coloring was impossible. The aridness, the dessication, -the lifelessness of everything about was somehow shocking. Bordman -found himself straining his eyes for the merest, scrubbiest of bushes -and for however stunted and isolated a wisp of grass. - -The journey went on for an hour. Then there came a straining climb up -a now-windswept ridge of eroded rock, and then the attainment of its -highest point--and then the ground car went onward for a hundred yards -and stopped. - -They had reached the top of the mountain range, and there was -doubtlessly another range beyond. But they could not see it. Here, as -the place to which they had climbed so effortfully, there were no more -rocks. There was no valley. There was no descending slope. There was -sand. This was one of the sand-plateaus which were a unique feature of -Xosa II. And Bordman knew, now, that the disputed explanation was the -true one. - -Winds, blowing over the mountains, carried sand as on other worlds they -carried moisture and pollen and seeds and rain. Where two mountain -ranges ran across the course of long-blowing winds, the winds eddied -above the valley between. They dropped sand into it. The equivalent of -trade winds, Bordman considered, in time would fill a valley to the -mountain tops, just as trade winds provide moisture in equal quantity -on other worlds, and civilizations have been built upon them. But-- - -"Well?" said Bordman challengingly. - -"This is the site of the landing-grid," said Redfeather. - -"Where?" - -"Here," said the Indian. "A few months ago there was a valley here. The -landing-grid had eighteen hundred feet of height built. There was to -be four hundred feet more--the lighter top construction justifies my -figure of eighty per cent completion. Then there was a storm." - -It was hot. Horribly, terribly hot, even here on a plateau at mountain -top height. Dr. Chuka looked at Bordman's face and bent down in the -vehicle. He turned a stopcock on one of the air tanks brought for -Bordman's needs. Immediately Bordman felt cooler. His skin was dry, of -course; the circulated air dried sweat as fast as it appeared. But he -had the dazed, feverish feeling of a man in an artificial fever box. -He'd been fighting it for some time. Now the coolness of the expanded -air was almost deliriously refreshing. - -Dr. Chuka produced a canteen. Bordman drank thirstily. The water was -slightly salted to replace salt lost in sweat. - -"A storm, eh?" asked Bordman, after a time of contemplation of his -inner sensations as well as the scene of disaster before him. There'd -be some hundreds of millions of tons of sand in even a section of -this plateau. It was unthinkable that it could be removed except by a -long-time sweep of changed trade winds along the length of the valley. -"But what has a storm to do--?" - -"It was a sandstorm," said Redfeather curtly. "Probably there was a -sunspot flareup. We don't know. But the pre-colonization survey spoke -of sandstorms. The survey-team even made estimates of sandfall in -various places as so many inches per year. Here all storms drop sand -instead of rain. But there must have been a sunspot flare because -this storm blew for--" his voice went flat and deliberate because -it was stating the unbelievable--"this storm blew for two months. We -did not see the sun in all that time. And we couldn't work, naturally. -So we waited it out. When it ended, there was this sand-plateau where -the survey had ordered the landing-grid to be built. The grid was -under it. It is still under it. The top of eighteen hundred feet -of steel is buried two hundred feet down in the sand you see. Our -unfabricated building-steel is piled ready for erection--under two -thousand feet of sand. Without anything but stored power it is hardly -practical"--Redfeather's tone was sardonic--"for us to try to dig it -out. There are hundreds of millions of tons of stuff to be moved. If we -could get the sand away, we could finish the grid. If we could finish -the grid, we'd have power enough to get the sand away--in a few years, -and if we could replace the machinery that wore out handling it. And -if there wasn't another sandstorm." - -He paused. Bordman took deep breaths of the cooler air. He could think -more clearly. - -"If you will accept photographs," said Redfeather, "you can check that -we actually did the work." - -Bordman saw the implications. The colony had been formed of Amerinds -for the steel work and Africans for the labor. The Amerinds were -congenitally averse to the handling of complex mining-machinery -underground and the control of modern high speed smelting operations. -Both races could endure this climate and work in it, provided that they -had cooled sleeping-quarters. But they had to have power. Power not -only to work with, but to live by. The air cooling machinery that made -sleep possible also condensed from the cool air that minute trace of -water-vapor it contained and that they needed for drink. But without -power they would thirst. Without the landing-grid and the power it took -from the ionosphere, they could not receive supplies from the rest of -the universe. So they would starve. - -Bordman said: - -"I'll accept the photographs. I even accept the statement that the -colony will die. I will prepare my report for the cache Aletha tells me -you're preparing. And I apologize for any affront I may have offered -you." - -Dr. Chuka nodded. He regarded Bordman with benign warmth. Ralph -Redfeather said cordially enough: - -"That's perfectly all right. No harm done." - -"And now," said Bordman, "since I have authority to give any orders -needed for my work, I want to survey the steps you've taken to carry -out those parts of your instructions dealing with emergencies. I want -to see right away what you've done to beat this state of things. I know -they can't be beaten, but I intend to leave a report on what you've -tried!" - - * * * * * - -A fist-fight broke out in the crew's quarters within two hours after -the _Warlock_ had established its orbit--a first reaction to -their catastrophe. The skipper went through the ship and painstakingly -confiscated every weapon. He locked them up. He, himself, already felt -the nagging effect of jangling nerves. There was nothing to do. He -didn't know when there would ever be anything to do. It was a condition -to produce hysteria. - - * * * * * - -It was night. Outside and above the colony there were uncountable -myriads of stars. They were not the stars of Earth, of course, -but Bordman had never been on Earth. He was used to unfamiliar -constellations. He stared out a port at the sky, and noted that there -were no moons. He remembered, when he thought, that Xosa II had no -moons. There was a rustling of paper behind him. Aletha Redfeather -turned a page in a loose-leaf volume and made a note. The wall -behind her held many more such books. From them could be extracted -the detailed history of every bit of work that had been done by the -colony-preparation crews. Separate, tersely-phrased items could be -assembled to make a record of individual men. - -There had been incredible hardships, at first, and heroic feats. There -had been an attempt to ferry water-supplies down from the pole by -aircraft. It was not practical, even to build up a reserve of fluid. -Winds carried sand particles here as on other worlds they carried -moisture. Aircraft were abraded as they flew. The last working flier -made a forced landing five hundred miles from the colony. A caterwheel -expedition went out and brought the crew in. The caterwheel trucks were -armored with silicone plastic, resistant to abrasion, but when they got -back they had to be scrapped. Men had been lost in sudden sand squalls, -and heroic searches made for them, and once or twice rescues. There had -been cave-ins in the mines, and other accidents. - -Bordman went to the door of the hull which was Ralph Redfeather's -office. He opened it, and stepped outside. - -It was like stepping into an oven. The sand was still hot from the -sunshine just ended. The air was so utterly dry that Bordman instantly -felt it sucking at the moisture of his nasal passages. In ten seconds -his feet--clad in indoor footwear--were uncomfortably hot. In twenty -the soles of his feet felt as if they were blistering. He would die -of the heat even at night, here! Perhaps he could endure the outside -near dawn, but he raged a little. Here Amerinds and Africans lived -and throve, but he could live unprotected for no more than an hour or -two--and that at one special time of the planet's rotation! - -He went back in, ashamed of the discomfort of his feet and angrily -letting them feel scorched rather than admit to it. - -Aletha turned another page. - -"Look here!" said Bordman. "No matter what you say, you're going to go -back on the _Warlock_ before--" - -She raised her eyes. - -"We'll worry about that when the time comes. But I think not. I'd -rather stay here." - -"For the present, perhaps," snapped Bordman. "But before things get -too bad you go back to the ship! They've rocket-fuel enough for half a -dozen landings of the landing-boat. They can lift you out of here." - -Aletha shrugged. - -"Why leave here to board a derelict? The _Warlock's_ practically -that. What's your honest estimate of the time before a ship equipped to -help us gets here?" - -Bordman would not answer. He'd done some figuring. It had been a -two-month journey from Trent, the nearest Survey base, to here. The -_Warlock_ had been expected to remain aground until the smelter -it brought could load it with pig-metal. Which could be as little as -two weeks, but would surprise nobody if it was two months instead. So -the ship would not be considered due back on Trent for four months. -It would not be considered overdue for at least two more. It would be -six months before anybody seriously wondered why it wasn't back with -its cargo. There'd be a wait for lifeboats to come in, should there -have been a mishap in space. Eventually a report of non-communication -would be made to the Colonial Survey headquarters on Canna III. But it -would take three months for that report to be received, and six more -for a confirmation--even if ships made the voyages exactly at the most -favorable intervals--and then there should at least be a complaint from -the colony. There were lifeboats aground on Xosa II, for emergency -communication, and if a lifeboat didn't bring news of a planetary -crisis, no crisis would be considered to exist. Nobody could imagine a -landing-grid failing. - -Maybe in a year somebody would think that maybe somebody ought to ask -around about Xosa II. It would be much longer before somebody put a -note on somebody else's desk that would suggest that when or if a -suitable ship passed near Xosa II, or if one should be available for -the inquiry, it might be worth while to have the non-communication -from the planet looked into. Actually, to guess at three years before -another ship arrived would be the most optimistic of estimates. - -"You're a civilian," said Bordman. "When the food and water run low, -you go back to the ship. You'll at least be alive when somebody does -come to see what's the matter here!" - -Aletha said mildly: - -"Maybe I'd rather not be alive. Will you go back to the ship?" - -Bordman flushed. He wouldn't. But he said: - -"I can order you sent on board, and your cousin will carry out the -order." - -"I doubt it very much," said Aletha. - -She returned to her task. - -There were crunching footsteps outside the hulk. Bordman winced a -little. With insulated sandals, it was normal for these colonists -to move from one part of the colony to another in the open, even by -daylight. He, Bordman, couldn't take out-of-doors at night! - -Men came in. There were dark men with rippling muscles under glistening -skin, and bronze Amerinds with coarse straight hair. Ralph Redfeather -was with them. Dr. Chuka came in last of all. - -"Here we are," said Redfeather. "These are our foremen. Among us, I -think we can answer any questions you want to ask." - -He made introductions. Bordman didn't try to remember the names. -Abeokuta and Northwind and Sutata and Tallgrass and T'chka and -Spottedhorse and Lewanika.... They were names which in combination -would only be found in a very raw, new colony. But the men who crowded -into the office were wholly at ease, in their own minds as well as in -the presence of a Senior Colonial Survey Officer. They nodded as they -were named, and the nearest shook hands. Bordman knew that he'd have -liked their looks under other circumstances. But he was humiliated by -the conditions on this planet. They were not. They were apparently only -sentenced to death by them. - -"I have to leave a report," said Bordman--and he was somehow astonished -to know that he did expect to leave a report rather than make one: he -accepted the hopelessness of the colony's future--"I have to leave a -report on the degree-of-completion of the work here. But since there's -an emergency, I have also to leave a report on the measures taken to -meet it." - -The report would be futile, of course. As futile as the coup-records -Aletha was compiling, which would be read only after everybody on the -planet was dead. But Bordman knew he'd write it. It was unthinkable -that he shouldn't. - -"Redfeather tells me," he added, "that the power in storage can be used -to cool the colony buildings--and therefore condense drinking water -from the air--for just about six months. There is food for about six -months also. If one lets the buildings warm up a little, to stretch -the fuel, there won't be enough water to drink. Go on half rations to -stretch the food, and there won't be enough water to last and the power -will give out anyhow. No profit there!" - -There were nods. The matter had been thrashed out long before. - -"There's food in the _Warlock_ overhead," Bordman went on, "but -they can't use the landing-boat more than a few times. It can't use -ship fuel. No refrigeration to hold it stable. They couldn't land more -than a ton of supplies all told. There are five hundred of us here. No -help there!" - -He looked from one to another. - -"So we live comfortably," he told them with irony, "until our food and -water and minimum night comfort run out together. Anything we do to try -to stretch anything is useless because of what happens to something -else. Redfeather tells me you accept the situation. What are you doing, -since you accept it?" - -Dr. Chuka said amiably: - -"We've picked a storage place for our records, and our miners are -blasting out space in which to put away the record of our actions -to the last possible moment. It will be sand-proof. Our mechanics -are building a broadcast unit we'll spare a tiny bit of fuel for. It -will run twenty-odd years, broadcasting directions so it can be found -regardless of how the terrain is changed by drifting sand." - -"And," said Bordman, "the fact that nobody will be here to give -directions." - -Chuka added benignly. - -"We're doing a great deal of singing, too. My people -are--ah--religious. When we are no longer here--there have been -boastings that there'll be a well-practiced choir ready to go to work -in the next world." - -White teeth showed in grins. Bordman was almost envious of men who -could grin at such a thought. But he went on: - -"And I understand that athletics have also been much practiced?" - -Redfeather said: - -"There's been time for it. Climbing teams have counted coup on all -the worst mountains within three hundred miles. There's been a new -record set for the javelin, adjusted for gravity constant, and Johnny -Cornstalk did a hundred yards in eight point four seconds. Aletha has -the records and has certified them." - -"Very useful!" said Bordman sardonically. Then he disliked himself for -saying it even before the bronze-skinned men's faces grew studiedly -impassive. - -Chuka waved his hand. - -"Wait, Ralph! Lewanika's nephew will beat that within a week!" - -Bordman was ashamed again because Chuka had spoken to cover up his own -bad temper. - -"I take it back," he said irritably. "What I said was uncalled for. I -shouldn't have said it. But I came here to do a completion survey and -what you've been giving me is material for an estimate of morale. It's -not my line! I'm a technician, first and foremost. We're faced with a -technical problem!" - -Aletha spoke suddenly from behind him. - -"But these are men, first and foremost, Mr. Bordman. And they're faced -with a very human problem--how to die well. They seem to be rather good -at it, so far." - -Bordman ground his teeth. He was again humiliated. In his own fashion -he was attempting the same thing. But just as he was genetically not -qualified to endure the climate of this planet, he was not prepared -for a fatalistic or pious acceptance of disaster. Amerind and African, -alike, these men instinctively held to their own ideas of what the -dignity of a man called upon him to do when he could not do anything -but die. But Bordman's idea of his human dignity required him to be -still fighting: still scratching at the eyes of fate or destiny when he -was slain. It was in his blood or genes or the result of training. He -simply could not, with self-respect, accept any physical situation as -hopeless even when his mind assured him that it was. - -"I agree," he said, "but I still have to think in technical -terms. You might say that we are going to die because we cannot -land the _Warlock_ with food and equipment. We cannot land -the _Warlock_ because we have no landing-grid. We have no -landing-grid because it and all the material to complete it is buried -under millions of tons of sand. We cannot make a new, light-supply-ship -type of landing-grid because we have no smelter to make beams, nor -power to run it if we had, yet if we had the beams we could get the -power to run the smelter we haven't got to make the beams. And we have -no smelter, hence no beams, no power, no prospect of food or help -because we can't land the _Warlock_. It is strictly a circular -problem. Break it at any point and all of it is solved." - -One of the dark men muttered something under his breath to those near -him. There were chuckles. - -"Like Mr. Woodchuck," explained the man, when Bordman's eyes fell on -him. "When I was a little boy there was a story like that." - -Bordman said icily: - -"The problem of coolness and water and food is the same sort of -problem. In six months we could raise food--if we had power to condense -moisture. We've chemicals for hydroponics--if we could keep the plants -from roasting as they grew. Refrigeration and water and food are -practically another circular problem." - -Aletha said tentatively: - -"Mr. Bordman--" - -He turned, annoyed. Aletha said almost apologetically: - -"On Chagan there was a--you might call it a woman's coup given to a -woman I know. Her husband raises horses. He's mad about them. And they -live in a sort of home on caterwheels out on the plains--the llanos. -Sometimes they're months away from a settlement. And she loves ice -cream and refrigeration isn't too simple. But she has a Doctorate in -Human History. So she had her husband make an insulated tray on the -roof of their prefabricated tepee, and she makes her ice cream there." - -Men looked at her. Her cousin said amusedly: - -"That should rate some sort of technical coup feather!" - -"The Council gave her a brass pot--official," said Aletha. "Domestic -science achievement." To Bordman she explained: "Her husband put a tray -on the roof of their house, insulated from the heat of the house below. -During the day there's an insulated cover on top of it, insulating it -from the heat of the sun. At night she takes off the top cover, pours -her custard, thin, in the tray. Then she goes to bed. She has to get up -before daybreak to scrape it up, but by then the ice cream is frozen. -Even on a warm night." She looked from one to another. "I don't know -why. She said it was done in a place called Babylonia on Earth, many -thousands of years ago." - -Bordman blinked. Then he said: - -"Damn! Who knows how much the ground temperature drops here before -dawn?" - -"I do," said Aletha's cousin. "The top sand temperature falls forty-odd -degrees. Warmer underneath, of course. But the air here is almost cool -when the sun rises. Why?" - -"Nights are cooler on all planets," said Bordman, "because every night -the dark side radiates heat to empty space. There'd be frost everywhere -every morning if the ground didn't store up heat during the day. If we -prevent daytime heat storage--cover a patch of ground before dawn and -leave it covered all day--and uncover it all night while shielding it -from warm winds--we've got refrigeration! The night sky is empty space -itself--two hundred eighty below zero!" - -There was a murmur, then argument. The foremen of the Xosa II colony -preparation crew were strictly practical men, but they had the habit -of knowing why some things were practical. One does not do modern -steel construction in contempt of theory, nor handle modern mining -tools without knowing why as well as how they work. This proposal -sounded like something that was based on reason--that should work to -some degree. But how well? Anybody could guess that it should cool -something at least twice as much as the normal night temperature drop. -But somebody produced a slipstick and began to juggle it. He announced -his results. Others questioned, and then verified it. Nobody paid much -attention to Bordman. But there was a hum of discussion, in which -Redfeather and Chuka were immediately included. By calculation, it -appeared that if the air on Xosa II was really as clear as the bright -stars and deep day sky color indicated, every second night a total drop -of one hundred eighty degrees temperature could be secured by radiation -to interstellar space--if there were no convection currents, and they -could be prevented by-- - -It was the convection current problem which broke the assembly into -groups with different solutions. But it was Dr. Chuka who boomed at all -of them to try all three solutions and have them ready before daybreak, -so the assembly left the hulk, still disputing enthusiastically. -Somebody had recalled that there were dewponds in the one arid area on -Timbuk, and somebody else remembered that irrigation on Delmos III was -accomplished that same way. And they recalled how it was done.... - -Voices went away in the oven-like night outside. Bordman grimaced, and -again said: - -"Darn! Why didn't I think of that myself?" - -"Because," said Aletha, smiling, "you aren't a Doctor of Human History -with a horse-raising husband and a fondness for ice cream. Even so, -a technician was needed to break down the problems here into really -simple terms." Then she said, "I think Bob Running Antelope might -approve of you, Mr. Bordman." - -Bordman fumed to himself. - -"Who's he?--Just what does that whole comment mean?" - -"I'll tell you," said Aletha, "when you've solved one or two more -problems." - -Her cousin came back into the room. He said with gratification: - -"Chuka can turn out silicone-wool insulation, he says. Plenty of -material, and he'll use a solar mirror to get the heat he needs. Plenty -of temperature to make silicones! How much area will we need to pull in -four thousand gallons of water a night?" - -"How do I know?" demanded Bordman. "What's the moisture-content of -the air here, anyhow?" Then he said, "Tell me! Are you using heat -exchangers to help cool the air you pump into the buildings, before you -use power to refrigerate it? It would save some power--" - -The Indian project engineer said: - -"Let's get to work on this! I'm a steel man myself, but--" - -They settled down. Aletha turned a page. - - * * * * * - -The _Warlock_ spun around the planet. The members of its crew -withdrew into themselves. In even two months of routine tedious -voyaging to this planet there had been the beginnings of irritation -with the mannerisms of other men. Now there would be years of it. -Within two days of its establishment in orbit, the _Warlock_ was -manned by men already morbidly resentful of fate, with the psychology -of prisoners doomed to close confinement for an indeterminate but -ghastly period. On the third day there was a second fist-fight. A -bitter one. - -Fist-fights are not healthy symptoms in a space-ship which cannot hope -to make port for a matter of years. - - * * * * * - -Most human problems are circular and fall apart when a single trivial -part of them is solved. There used to be enmity between races because -they were different, and they tended to be different because they -were enemies, so there was enmity.... The big problem of interstellar -flight was that nothing could travel faster than light, and nothing -could travel faster than light because mass increased with speed, and -mass increased with speed--obviously!--because ships remained in the -same time slot, and ships remained in the same time slot long after a -one-second shift was possible because nobody realized that it meant -traveling faster than light. And even before there was interstellar -travel, there was practically no interplanetary commerce because it -took so much fuel to take off and land. It took more fuel to carry -the fuel to take off and land, and more still to carry the fuel for -that, until somebody used power on the ground for heave-off instead of -take-off, and again on the ground for landing. And then interplanetary -ships carried cargos. On Xosa II there was an emergency because a -sandstorm had buried the almost-completed landing-grid under some -megatons of sand, and it couldn't be completed because there was only -storage power because it wasn't completed, because there was only -storage power because-- - -It took three weeks for the problem to be seen as the ultimately simple -thing it really was. Bordman had called it a circular problem, but he -hadn't seen its true circularity. It was actually--like all circular -problems--inherently an unstable set of conditions. It began to fall -apart simply because he saw that mere refrigeration would break its -solidity. - -In one week there were ten acres of desert covered with silicone-wool -felt in great strips. By day a reflective surface was uppermost, and -at sundown caterwheel trucks hooked on to towlines and neatly pulled -it over on its back, to expose gridded black-body surfaces to the -starlight. The gridding was precisely designed so that winds blowing -across it did not make eddies in the grid squares. The chilled air in -those pockets remained undisturbed, and there was no conduction of -heat downward by eddy-currents, while there was admirable radiation of -heat out to space. This was in the manner of the night sides of all -planets, only somewhat more efficient. - -In two weeks there was a water yield of three thousand gallons per -night, and in three weeks more there were similar grids over the colony -houses and a vast roofed cooling shed for pre-chilling air to be -used by the refrigeration systems themselves. The fuel-store--stored -power--was thereupon stretched to three times its former calculated -usefulness. The situation was no longer a simple and neat equation of -despair. - -Then something else happened. One of Dr. Chuka's assistants was curious -about a certain mineral. He used the solar furnace that had made the -silicone wool to smelt it. And Dr. Chuka saw him. After one blank -moment he bellowed laughter and went to see Ralph Redfeather. Whereupon -Amerind steel-workers sawed apart a robot hull that was no longer a -fuel tank because its fuel was gone, and they built a demountable -solar mirror some sixty feet across--which African mechanics deftly -powered--and suddenly there was a spot of incandescence even brighter -than the sun of Xosa II, down on the planet's surface. It played upon -a mineral cliff, and monstrous smells developed and even the African -mining-technicians put on goggles because of the brightness. Presently -there were little rolls of molten metal and slag trickling--and -separating as they trickled--hesitantly down the cliffside. Dr. Chuka -beamed and slapped his sweating thighs, and Bordman went out in a -caterwheel truck, wearing a heat-suit, to watch it for all of twenty -minutes. When he got back to the Project Engineer's office he gulped -iced salt water and dug out the books he'd brought down from the -ship. There was the spec-book for Xosa II, and the other volumes of -definitions issued by the Colonial Survey. They were definitions of the -exact meanings of terms used in briefer specifications, for items of -equipment sometimes ordered by the Colony Office. - -When Chuka came into the office presently, he carried the first crude -pig of Xosa II iron in his gloved hand. He gloated. Bordman was then -absent, and Ralph Redfeather worked feverishly at his desk. - -"Where's Bordman?" demanded Chuka in that resonant bass voice of his. -"I'm ready to report for degree-of-completion credit that the mining -properties on Xosa II are prepared as of today to deliver pig iron, -cobalt, zirconium and beryllium in commercial quantities. We require -one day's notice to begin delivery of metal other than iron at the -moment, because we're short of equipment, but we can furnish chromium -and manganese on two days' notice--the deposits are farther away." - -He dumped the pig of metal on the second desk, where Aletha sat with -her perpetual loose-leaf volumes before her. The metal smoked and began -to char the desk-top. He picked it up again and tossed it from one -gloved hand to the other. - -"There y'are, Ralph!" he boasted. "You Indians go after your coups! -Match this coup for me! Without fuel and minus all equipment except of -our own making--I credit an assist on the mirror, but that's all--we're -set to load the first ship that comes in for cargo! Now what are you -going to do for the record? I think we've wiped your eye for you!" - -Ralph hardly looked up. His eyes were very bright. Bordman had -shown him and he was copying figures and formulae from a section of -the definition book of the Colonial Survey. The book started with -the specifications for antibiotic growth equipment for colonies -with problems in local bacteria. It ended with definitions of the -required strength of material and the designs stipulated for cages -in zoos for motile fauna, sub-divided into flying, marine, and solid -ground creatures: sub-sub-divided into carnivores, herbivores, and -omnivores, with the special specifications for enclosures to contain -abyssal creatures requiring extreme pressures, and the equipment for -maintaining a healthfully re-poisoned atmosphere for creatures from -methane planets. - -Redfeather had the third volume open at, "_Landing-Grids, Lightest -Emergency, Commerce Refuges, For Use Of._" There were some dozens -of non-colonized planets along the most traveled spaceways on which -refuges for shipwrecked spacemen were maintained. Small forces of -Patrol personnel manned them. Space lifeboats serviced them. They -had the minimum installations which could draw on their planets' -ionospheres for power, and they were not expected to handle anything -bigger than a twenty ton lifeboat. But the specifications for the -equipment of such refuges was included in the reference volumes for -Bordman's use in making colonial surveys. They were compiled for -the information of contractors who wanted to bid on Colonial Survey -installations, and for the guidance of people like Bordman who checked -up on the work. So they contained all the data for the building of a -landing-grid, lightest emergency, commerce refuge type, for use of, in -case of need. Redfeather copied feverishly. - -Chuka ceased his boasting, but still he grinned. - -"I know we're stuck, Ralph," he said, "but it's nice stuff to go in the -records. Too bad we don't keep coup-records like you Indians." - -Aletha's cousin--Project Engineer--said crisply: - -"Go away! Who made your solar mirror? It was more than an assist! You -get set to cast beams for us. Girders! I'm going to get a lifeboat -aloft and away to Trent. Build a minimum size landing-grid! Build a -fire under somebody so they'll send us a colony-ship with supplies. If -there's no new sandstorm to bury the radiation refrigerators Bordman -brought to mind, we can keep alive with hydroponics until a ship can -arrive with something useful!" - -Chuka stared. - -"You don't mean we might actually live through this! Really?" - -Aletha regarded the two of them with impartial irony. - -"Dr. Chuka," she said, "you accomplished the impossible. Ralph, here, -is planning to attempt the preposterous. Does it occur to you that -Mr. Bordman is nagging himself to achieve the inconceivable?--It is -inconceivable, even to him, but he's trying to do it." - -"What's he trying to do?" demanded Chuka, wary but amused. - -"He's trying," said Aletha, "to prove to himself that he's the best man -on this planet. Because he's physically least capable of living here. -His vanity's hurt. Don't underestimate him!" - -"He the best man here?" demanded Chuka blankly. "In his way he's all -right. The refrigeration proves that. But he can't walk out-of-doors -without a heat-suit!" - -Ralph Redfeather, without ceasing his work, said: - -"Nonsense, Aletha. He has courage. I give him that. But he couldn't -walk a beam twelve hundred feet up. In his own way, yes. He's capable. -But the best man--" - -"I'm sure," agreed Aletha, "that he couldn't sing as well as the -worst of your singing crew, Dr. Chuka, and any Amerind could outrun -him. Even I could. But he's got something we haven't got, just as we -have qualities he hasn't. We're secure in our competences. We knew -what we can do, and that we can do it better than any--" her eyes -twinkled--"than any pale-face. But he doubts himself. All the time and -in every way. And that's why he may be the best man on this planet. -I'll bet he does prove it!" - -Redfeather said scornfully: - -"_You_ suggested radiation refrigeration! What does it prove that -he applied it?" - -"That," said Aletha, "he couldn't face the disaster that was here -without trying to do something about it--even when it was impossible. -He couldn't face the deadly facts. He had to torment himself by seeing -that they wouldn't be deadly if only this or that or the other were -twisted a little. His vanity was hurt because nature had beaten men. -His dignity was offended. And a man with easily-hurt dignity won't ever -be happy, but he can be pretty good." - -Chuka raised his ebony bulk from the chair in which he still shifted -the iron pig from gloved hand to gloved hand. - -"You're kind," he said, chuckling. "Too kind! I don't want to hurt his -feelings. I wouldn't, for the world! But really--I've never heard a man -praised for his vanity before, or admired for being touchy about his -dignity! If you're right--why--it's been convenient. It might even mean -hope. But--hm ... would you want to marry a man like that?" - -"Great Manitou forbid!" said Aletha firmly. She grimaced at the bare -idea. "I'm an Amerind. I'll want my husband to be contented. I want -to be contented along with him. Mr. Bordman will never be either -happy or content. No pale-face husband for me! But I don't think he's -through here yet. Sending for help won't satisfy him. It's a further -hurt to his vanity. He'll be miserable if he doesn't prove himself--to -himself--a better man than that!" - -Chuka shrugged his massive shoulders. Redfeather tracked down the last -item he needed and fairly bounced to his feet. - -"What tonnage of iron can you get out, Chuka?" he demanded. "What can -you do in the way of castings? What's the elastic modulus--how much -carbon in this iron? And when can you start making castings? Big ones?" - -"Let's go talk to my foremen," said Chuka. "We'll see how fast -my--ah--mineral spring is trickling metal down the cliff face. If you -can really launch a lifeboat, we might get some help here in a year and -a half instead of five...." - -They went out-of-doors together. There was a small sound in the next -office. Aletha was suddenly very still. She sat motionless for a long -half minute. Then she turned her head. - -"I owe you an apology, Mr. Bordman," she said ruefully. "It won't take -back the discourtesy, but--I'm very sorry." - -Bordman came into the office from the next room. He was rather pale. He -said wrily: - -"Eavesdroppers never hear good of themselves, eh?--Actually I was on -the way in here when I heard--references to myself. It would embarrass -Chuka and your cousin to know I heard. So I stopped. Not to listen, but -to keep them from knowing I'd heard their private opinions of me. I'll -be obliged if you don't tell them. They're entitled to their opinions -of me. I've mine of them." He added, "Apparently I think more highly of -them than they do of me!" - -"It must have sounded horrible!" Aletha said. "But they--we--all of us -think better of you than you do of yourself!" - -Bordman shrugged. - -"You in particular. Would you marry someone like me? Great Manitou, no!" - -"For an excellent reason," said Aletha. "When I get back from -here--_if_ I get back from here--I'm going to marry Bob Running -Antelope. He's nice. I like the idea of marrying him. But I look -forward not only to happiness but to contentment. To me that's -important. It isn't to you, or to the woman you ought to marry. And -I--well--I simply don't envy either of you a bit." - -"I see!" said Bordman with irony. He didn't. "I wish you all the -contentment you look for." Then he snapped: "But what's this business -about expecting more from me? What spectacular idea do you expect me to -pull out of somebody's hat now?--Because I'm frantically vain?" - -"I haven't the least idea," said Aletha. "But I think you'll come up -with something we couldn't possibly imagine. And I didn't say it was -because you were vain, but because you are discontented with yourself. -It's born in you. And there you are!" - -"If you mean neurotic," snapped Bordman, "you're all wrong. I'm not -neurotic. I'm hot, and I'm annoyed. I'll get hopelessly behind schedule -because of this mess. But that's all!" - -Aletha stood up and shrugged her shoulders ruefully. - -"I repeat my apology," she told him, "and leave you the office. But -I also repeat that I think you'll turn up something nobody else -expects--and I've no idea what it will be. But you'll do it now to -prove that I'm wrong about how your mind works." - -She went out. Bordman clamped his jaws tightly. He felt that especially -haunting discomfort which comes of suspecting that one has been told -something about oneself which may be true. - -"Idiotic!" he fumed, all alone. "Me neurotic? Me wanting to prove I'm -the best man here out of vanity?" He made a scornful noise. He sat -impatiently at the desk. "Absurd!" he muttered. "Why should I need to -prove to myself I'm capable? What would I do if I felt such a need, -anyhow?" - -Scowling, he stared at the wall. It was a nagging sort of question. -What would he do if she were right? If he did need constantly to prove -to himself-- - -He stiffened, suddenly. A look of intense surprise came upon his face. -He'd thought of what a self-doubtful, discontented man would try to do, -here on Xosa II at this juncture. - -The surprise was because he had also thought of how it could be done. - - * * * * * - -The _Warlock_ came to life. Her skipper gloomily answered -the emergency call from Xosa II. In a minute he clicked off the -communicator and hastened to an exterior port, deeply darkened against -those times when the blue-white sun Xosa shone upon this side of the -hull. He moved the manual control to make it more transparent, and -stared down at the monstrous, tawny, mottled surface of the planet five -thousand miles away. He searched for the spot he knew was the colony's -site. - -He saw what he'd been told he'd see. It was an infinitely fine, -threadlike projection from the surface of the planet. It rose at a -slight angle--it leaned toward the planet's west--and it expanded and -widened and formed an extraordinary sort of mushroom-shaped object -that was completely impossible. It could not be. Humans do not create -visible objects twenty miles high, which at their tops expand like -toadstools on excessively slender stalks, and which drift westward, -fray, and grow thin, and are constantly renewed. - -But it was true. The skipper of the _Warlock_ gazed until he was -completely sure. It was no atomic bomb, because it continued to exist. -It faded, but was constantly replenished. There was no such thing! - -He went through the ship, bellowing, and faced mutinous snarlings. But -when the _Warlock_ was around on that side of the planet again, -the members of the crew saw the strange appearance, too. They examined -it with telescopes. They grew hysterical. They went frantically to work -to clear away the signs of a month and a half of mutiny and despair. - -It took them three days to get the ship to tidiness again, and during -all that time the peculiar tawny jet remained. On the sixth day the jet -was fainter. On the seventh it was larger than before. It continued -larger. And telescopes at highest magnification verified what the -emergency communication had said. - -Then the crew began to experience frantic impatience. It was worse, -waiting those last three or four days, than even all the hopeless time -before. But there was no reason to hate anybody now. The skipper was -very much relieved. - - * * * * * - -Eighteen hundred feet of steel grid soared overhead. It made a -criss-cross, ring-shaped wall more than a quarter mile high and almost -to the top of the surrounding mountains. But the valley was not -exactly a normal one. It was a crater, now: a steeply sloping, conical -pit whose walls descended smoothly to the outer girders of the red -painted, glistening steel structure. More girders for the completion -of the grid projected from the sand just outside its circle. And in -the landing-grid there was now a smaller, elaborate, truss-braced -object. It rested on the rocky ground, unpainted and quite small. A -hundred feet high, perhaps, and no more than three hundred across. But -it was visibly a miniature of the great, newly-uncovered, repainted -landing-grid which was qualified to handle interstellar cargo-ships and -all the proper space-traffic of a minerals colony-planet. - -A caterwheel truck came lurching and rolling and rumbling down the side -of the pit. It had a sunshade and ground reflector wings, and Bordman -slouched on a hobby-horse saddle in its back cargo section. He wore a -heat-suit. - -The truck reached the pit's bottom and bumped up to a tool-shed and -stopped. Bordman got out, visibly cramped by the jolting, rocking, -exhausting ride. - -"Do you want to go in the shed and cool off?" asked Chuka. - -"I'm all right," said Bordman. "I'm quite comfortable, so long as you -feed me that expanded air." It was plain that he resented needing -even a special air-supply. "What's all this about? Bringing the -_Warlock_ in? Why the insistence on my being here?" - -"Ralph has a problem," said Chuka blandly. "He's up there--See? He -needs you. There's a hoist. You've got to check degree-of-completion -anyhow. You might take a look around while you're up there. But he's -anxious for you to see something. There where you see the little knot -of people. The platform." - -Bordman grimaced. When one was well started on a survey, one got used -to heights and depths and all sorts of environments. But he hadn't been -up on steel work in a good many months. Not since a survey on Kalka IV -nearly a year ago. He would be dizzy at first. - -He accompanied Chuka to the spot where a steel cable dangled from an -almost invisibly thin beam high above. There was a strictly improvised -cage to ascend in--planks and a hand rail forming an insecure platform -that might hold four people. He got into it, and Dr. Chuka got in -beside him. Chuka waved his hand. The cage started up. - -Bordman winced as the ground dropped away below. It was ghastly to be -dangling in emptiness like this. He wanted to close his eyes. The cage -went up and up. It took many long minutes to reach the top. - -There was a newly-made platform there. The sunlight was blindingly -bright, the landscape an intolerable glare. Bordman adjusted his -goggles to maximum darkness and stepped gingerly from the swaying -cage to the hardly more solid-seeming area. Here he was in mid-air -on a platform barely ten feet square. It was rather more than -twice the height of a metropolitan skyscraper from the ground. The -mountain-crests were only half a mile away and not much higher. Bordman -was acutely uncomfortable. He would get used to it, but-- - -"Well?" he asked. "Chuka said you needed me here. What's the matter?" - -Ralph Redfeather nodded formally. Aletha was here, too, and two of -Chuka's foremen--one did not look happy--and four of the Amerind -steel-workers. They grinned at Bordman. - -"I wanted you to see," said Aletha's cousin, "before we threw on the -current. It doesn't look like that little grid could handle the sand it -took care of. But Lewanika wants to report." - -A dark man who worked under Chuka--and looked as if he belonged on -solid ground--said: - -"We cast the beams for the small landing-grid, Mr. Bordman. We melted -the metal out of the cliffs and ran it into moulds as it flowed down." - -He stopped. One of the Indians said: - -"We made the girders into the small landing-grid. It bothered us -because we built it on the sand that had buried the big grid. We didn't -understand why you ordered it there. But we built it." - -The second dark man said with a trace of swagger: - -"We made the coils, Mr. Bordman. We made the small grid so it would -work the same as the big one when it was finished. And then we made the -big grid work, finished or not!" - -Bordman said impatiently: - -"All right. Very good. But what is this? A ceremony?" - -"Just so," said Aletha, smiling. "Be patient, Mr. Bordman!" - -Her cousin said: - -"We built the small grid on the top of the sand. And it tapped the -ionosphere for power. No lack of power then! And we'd set it to heave -up sand instead of ships. Not to heave it out into space, but to give -it up to a mile a second vertical velocity. Then we turned it on." - -"And we rode it down, that little grid," said one of the remaining -Indians, grinning. "What a party! Manitou!" - -Redfeather frowned at him and took up the narrative. - -"It hurled the sand up from its center, as you said it would. The sand -swept air with it. It made a whirlwind, bringing more sand from outside -the grid into its field. It was a whirlwind with fifteen megakilowatts -of power to drive it. Some of the sand went twenty miles high. Then it -made a mushroom head and the winds up yonder blew it to the west. It -came down a long way off, Mr. Bordman. We've made a new dune area ten -miles down-wind. And the little grid sank as the sand went away from -around it. We had to stop it three times, because it leaned. We had to -dig under parts of it to get it straight up again. But it went down -into the valley." - -Bordman turned up the power to his heat-suit motors. He felt -uncomfortably warm. - -"In six days," said Ralph, almost ceremonially, "it had uncovered half -the original grid we'd built. Then we were able to modify that to -heave sand and to let it tap the ionosphere. We were able to use a good -many times the power the little grid could apply to sand lifting. In -two days more the landing-grid was clear. The valley bottom was clean. -We shifted some hundreds of millions of tons of sand by landing-grid, -and now it is possible to land the _Warlock_, and receive her -supplies. The solar-power furnace is already turning out pigs for her -loading. We wanted you to see what we have done. The colony is no -longer in danger, and we shall have the grid completely finished for -your inspection before the ship is ready to return." - -Bordman said uncomfortably: - -"That's very good. It's excellent. I'll put it in my survey report." - -"But," said Ralph, more ceremonially still, "we have the right to count -coup for the members of our tribe and clan. Now--" - -Then there was confusion. Aletha's cousin was saying syllables that did -not mean anything at all. The other Indians joined in at intervals, -speaking gibberish. Aletha's eyes were shining and she looked pleased -and satisfied. - -"What--what's this?" demanded Bordman when they stopped. - -Aletha spoke proudly. - -"Ralph just formally adopted you into the tribe, Mr. Bordman--and into -his clan and mine! He gave you a name I'll have to write down for you, -but it means, 'Man-who-believes-not-his-own-wisdom.' And now--" - -Ralph Redfeather, licensed interstellar engineer, graduate of the -stiffest technical university in this quarter of the galaxy, wearer of -three eagle-pinion feathers and clad in a pair of insulated sandals -and a breechclout--Ralph Redfeather whipped out a small paint-pot and -a brush from somewhere and began carefully to paint on a section of -girder ready for the next tier of steel. He painted a feather on the -metal. - -"It's a coup," he told Bordman over his shoulder. "Your coup. Placed -where it was earned--up here. Aletha is authorized to certify it. And -the head of the clan will add an eagle feather to the head-dress he -wears in Council in the Big Tepee on Algonka, and--your clan-brothers -will be proud." - -Then he straightened up and held out his hand. - -Chuka said benignly: - -"Being civilized men, Mr. Bordman, we Africans do not go in for -uncivilized feathers. But we--ah--rather approve of you too. And we -plan a corroboree at the colony after the _Warlock_ is down, when -there will be some excellently practiced singing. There is--ah--a song, -a sort of choral calypso, about this adventure you have brought to so -satisfying a conclusion. It is quite a good calypso. It's likely to be -popular on a good many planets." - -Bordman swallowed. He felt that he ought to say something, and he did -not know what. - -But just then there was a deep-toned humming in the air. It -was a vibrant tone, instinct with limitless power. It was the -eighteen-hundred-foot landing-grid, giving off that profoundly bass and -vibrant note it uttered while operating. Bordman looked up. - -The _Warlock_ was coming down. - - * * * * * - -After Bordman made his report he found that the newest graduates -of Space Survey training had been swallowed up by the needs of the -service, and he was apparently needed as badly as before. But he -protested vigorously, and went back to Lani III and enjoyed the society -of Riki and his children for a full year and a half. - -Then three Senior Officers died within one year, and the Survey's -facilities were stretched to the breaking-point. Population-pressure -required the opening of colonies. The safety of thousands and millions -of human lives depended on the Survey's work. Worlds which had been -biologically surveyed had also to be checked to make sure they were -equipped to sustain the populations waiting impatiently to swarm upon -them. - -Reluctantly, to meet the emergency, Bordman agreed to return to the -Service for one year only. - -But he'd served seven, with only two brief visits to his children and -his wife, when he was promised that after the checking of a single -robot-colony on Loren Two, his resignation would be accepted. - -So he boarded a Crete Line Ship for his last active assignment in the -Colonial Survey.... - - - - - COMBAT TEAM - - -The nearer moon went by overhead. It was jagged and irregular in shape, -probably a captured asteroid. Huyghens had seen it often enough, so -he did not go out of his quarters to watch it hurtle across the sky -with seemingly the speed of an atmosphere-flier, occulting the stars -as it went. Instead, he sweated over paper-work, which should have -been odd because he was technically a felon and all his labors on -Loren Two felonious. It was odd, too, for a man to do paper-work in a -room with steel shutters and a huge bald eagle--untethered--dozing on -a three-inch perch set in the wall. But paper-work was not Huyghens' -real task. His only assistant had tangled with a night-walker, and the -furtive Kodius Company ships had taken him away to where Kodius Company -ships came from. Huyghens had to do two men's work in loneliness. To -his knowledge, he was the only man in this solar system. - -Below him, there were snufflings. Sitka Pete got up heavily and padded -to his water-pan. He lapped the refrigerated water and sneezed. -Sourdough Charley waked and complained in a rumbling growl. There -were diverse other rumblings and mutterings below. Huyghens called -reassuringly, "Easy there!" and went on with his work. He finished a -climate report, and fed figures to a computer. While it hummed over -them he entered the inventory totals in the station log, showing what -supplies remained. Then he began to write up the log proper. - -"_Sitka Pete_," he wrote, "_has apparently solved the problem of -killing individual sphexes. He has learned that it doesn't do to hug -them and that his claws can't penetrate their hide, not the top-hide, -anyhow. Today Semper notified us that a pack of sphexes had found the -scent-trail to the station. Sitka hid down-wind until they arrived. -Then he charged from the rear and brought his paws together on both -sides of a sphex's head in a terrific pair of slaps. It must have been -like two twelve-inch shells arriving from opposite directions at the -same time. It must have scrambled the sphex's brains as if they were -eggs. It dropped dead. He killed two more with such mighty pairs of -wallops. Sourdough Charley watched, grunting, and when the sphexes -turned on Sitka, he charged in his turn. I, of course, couldn't shoot -too close to him, so he might have fared badly except that Faro Nell -came pouring out of the bear-quarters to help. The diversion enabled -Sitka Pete to resume the use of his new technique, towering on his hind -legs and swinging his paws in the new and grizly fashion. The fight -ended promptly. Semper flew and screamed above the scrap, but as usual -did not join in. Note: Nugget, the cub, tried to mix in but his mother -cuffed him out of the way. Sourdough and Sitka ignored him as usual. -Kodius Champion's genes are sound!_" - -The noises of the night went on outside. There were notes like -organ-tones--song-lizards. There were the tittering, giggling cries of -night-walkers. There were sounds like tack-hammers, and doors closing, -and from every direction came noises like hiccoughs in various keys. -These were made by the improbable small creatures which on Loren Two -took the place of insects. - -Huyghens wrote out: - -"_Sitka seemed ruffled when the fight was over. He used his trick -on the head of every dead or wounded sphex, except those he'd killed -with it, lifting up their heads for his pile-driver-like blows from -two directions at once, as if to show Sourdough how it was done. There -was much grunting as they hauled the carcasses to the incinerator. It -almost seemed--_" - -The arrival-bell clanged, and Huyghens jerked up his head to stare at -it. Semper, the eagle, opened icy eyes. He blinked. - -Noises. There was a long, deep, contented snore from below. Something -shrieked, out in the jungle. Hiccoughs, clatterings, and organ-notes.... - -The bell clanged again. It was a notice that an unscheduled ship aloft -somewhere had picked up the beacon-beam--which only Kodius Company -ships should know about--and was communicating for a landing. But -there shouldn't be any ships in this solar system just now! The Kodius -Company's colony was completely illegal, and there were few graver -crimes than unauthorized occupation of a new planet. - -The bell clanged a third time. Huyghens swore. His hand went out to cut -off the beacon, and then stopped. That would be useless. Radar would -have fixed it and tied it in with physical features like the nearby -sea and the Sere Plateau. The ship could find the place, anyhow, and -descend by daylight. - -"The devil!" said Huyghens. But he waited yet again for the bell to -ring. A Kodius Company ship would double-ring to reassure him. But -there shouldn't be a Kodius Company ship for months. - -The bell clanged singly. The space-phone dial flickered and a voice -came out of it, tinny from stratospheric distortion: - -"_Calling ground. Calling ground. Crete Line ship_ Odysseus -_calling ground on Loren Two. Landing one passenger by boat. Put on -your field lights._" - -Huyghens' mouth dropped open. A Kodius Company ship would be welcome. -A Colonial Survey ship would be extremely unwelcome, because it -would destroy the colony and Sitka and Sourdough and Faro Nell and -Nugget--and Semper--and carry Huyghens off to be tried for unauthorized -colonization and all that it implied. - -But a commercial ship, landing one passenger by boat.... There were -simply no circumstances under which that could happen. Not to an -unknown, illegal colony. Not to a furtive station! - -Huyghens flicked on the landing-field lights. He saw the glare over -the field half a mile away. Then he stood up and prepared to take the -measures required by discovery. He packed the paper-work he'd been -doing into the disposal-safe. He gathered up all personal documents -and tossed them in. Every record, every bit of evidence that the -Kodius Company maintained this station went into the safe. He slammed -the door. He moved his finger toward the disposal-button, which would -destroy the contents and melt down even the ashes past their possible -use for evidence in court. - -Then he hesitated. If it were a Survey ship, the button had to -be pressed and he must resign himself to a long term in prison. -But a Crete Line ship--if the space-phone told the truth--was not -threatening. It was simply unbelievable. - -He shook his head. He got into travel garb, armed himself, and went -down into the bear-quarters, turning on lights as he went. There -were startled snufflings, and Sitka Pete reared himself to a sitting -position to blink at him. Sourdough Charley lay on his back with his -legs in the air. He'd found it cooler, sleeping that way. He rolled -over with a thump, and made snorting sounds which somehow sounded -cordial. Faro Nell padded to the door of her separate apartment, -assigned her so that Nugget would not be underfoot to irritate the big -males. - -Huyghens, as the human population of Loren Two, faced the work-force, -fighting-force, and--with Nugget--four-fifths of the terrestrial -non-human population of the planet. They were mutated Kodiak bears, -descendants of that Kodius Champion for whom the Kodius Company was -named. Sitka Pete was a good twenty-two hundred pounds of lumbering, -intelligent carnivore, Sourdough Charley would weigh within a hundred -pounds of that figure. Faro Nell was eighteen hundred pounds of female -charm and ferocity. Then Nugget poked his muzzle around his mother's -furry rump to see what was toward, and he was six-hundred pounds of -ursine infancy. The animals looked at Huyghens expectantly. If he'd had -Semper riding on his shoulder they'd have known what was expected of -them. - -"Let's go," said Huyghens. "It's dark outside, but somebody's coming. -And it may be bad!" - -He unfastened the outer door of the bear-quarters. Sitka Pete went -charging clumsily through it. A forthright charge was the best -way to develop any situation--if one was an oversize male Kodiak -bear. Sourdough went lumbering after him. There was nothing hostile -immediately outside. Sitka stood up on his hind legs--he reared up -a solid twelve feet--and sniffed the air. Sourdough methodically -lumbered to one side and then the other, sniffing in his turn. Nell -came out, nine-tenths of a ton of daintiness, and rumbled admonitorily -at Nugget, who trailed her closely. Huyghens stood in the doorway, his -night-sighted gun ready. He felt uncomfortable at sending the bears -ahead into a Loren Two jungle at night, but they were qualified to -scent danger, and he was not. - -The illumination of the jungle in a wide path toward the landing-field -made for weirdness in the look of things. There were arching giant -ferns and columnar trees which grew above them, and the extraordinary -lanceolate underbrush of the jungle. The flood-lamps, set level with -the ground, lighted everything from below. The foliage, then, was -brightly lit against the black night-sky, brightly enough lit to dim -the stars. - -"On ahead!" commanded Huyghens, waving. "Hup!" - -He swung the bear-quarters door shut, and moved toward the -landing-field through the lane of lighted forest. The two giant male -Kodiaks lumbered ahead. Sitka Pete dropped to all fours and prowled. -Sourdough Charley followed closely, swinging from side to side. -Huyghens came behind the two of them, and Faro Nell brought up the rear -with Nugget nudging her. - -It was an excellent military formation for progress through dangerous -jungle. Sourdough and Sitka were advance-guard and point, respectively, -while Faro Nell guarded the rear. With Nugget to look after, she was -especially alert against attack from behind. Huyghens was, of course, -the striking force. His gun fired explosive bullets which would -discourage even sphexes, and his night-sight--a cone of light which -went on when he took up the trigger-slack--told exactly where they -would strike. It was not a sportsmanlike weapon, but the creatures -of Loren Two were not sportsmanlike antagonists. The night-walkers, -for example. But night-walkers feared light. They attacked only in a -species of hysteria if it were too bright. - -Huyghens moved toward the glare at the landing-field. His mental state -was savage. The Kodius Company on Loren Two was completely illegal. -It happened to be necessary, from one point of view, but it was still -illegal. The tinny voice on the space-phone was not convincing, in -ignoring that illegality. But if a ship landed, Huyghens could get back -to the station before men could follow, and he'd have the disposal-safe -turned on in time to protect those who'd sent him here. - -Then he heard the far-away and high harsh roar of a landing-boat -rocket--not a ship's bellowing tubes--as he made his way through the -unreal-seeming brush. The roar grew louder as he pushed on, the three -big Kodiaks padding here and there, sniffing for danger. - -He reached the edge of the landing-field, and it was blindingly -bright, with the customary divergent beams slanting skyward so a ship -could check its instrument-landing by sight. Landing fields like this -had been standard, once upon a time. Nowadays all developed planets -had landing-grids--monstrous structures which drew upon ionospheres -for power and lifted and drew down star-ships with remarkable -gentleness and unlimited force. This sort of landing-field would now -be found only where a survey-team was at work, or where some strictly -temporary investigation of ecology or bacteriology was under way, or -where a newly authorized colony had not yet been able to build its -landing-grid. Of course, it was unthinkable that anybody would attempt -a settlement in defiance of the law! - -Already, as Huyghens reached the edge of the scorched open space, -the night-creatures had rushed to the light, like moths on Earth. -The air was misty with crazily gyrating, tiny flying things. They -were innumerable and of every possible form and size, from the white -midges of the night and multi-winged flying worms to those revoltingly -naked-looking larger creatures which might have passed for plucked -flying monkeys if they had not been carnivorous and worse. The flying -things soared and whirred and danced and spun insanely in the glare, -making peculiarly plaintive humming noises. They almost formed a -lamp-lit ceiling over the cleared space, and actually did hide the -stars. Staring upward, Huyghens could just barely make out the -blue-white flame of the space-boat's rockets through the fog of wings -and bodies. - -The rocket-flame grew steadily in size. Once it tilted to adjust -the boat's descending course. It went back to normal. A speck of -incandescence at first, it grew until it was like a great star, -then a more-than-brilliant moon, and then it was a pitiless glaring -eye. Huyghens averted his gaze from it. Sitka Pete sat lumpily and -blinked at the dark jungle away from the light. Sourdough ignored the -deepening, increasing rocket-roar. He sniffed the air. Faro Nell held -Nugget firmly under one huge paw and licked his head as if tidying him -up to be seen by company. Nugget wriggled. - -The roar became that of ten thousand thunders. A warm breeze blew -outward from the landing-field. The rocket-boat hurtled downward, and -as its flame touched the mist of flying things, they shriveled and -burned. Then there were churning clouds of dust everywhere, and the -center of the field blazed terribly--and something slid down a shaft -of fire, squeezed it flat, and sat on it--and the flame went out. The -rocket-boat sat there, resting on its tail-fins, pointing toward the -stars from which it came. - -There was a terrible silence after the tumult. Then, very faintly, -the noises of the night came again. There were sounds like those of -organ-pipes, and very faint and apologetic noises like hiccoughs. -All these sounds increased, and suddenly Huyghens could hear quite -normally. As he watched, a side-port opened with a clattering, -something unfolded from where it had been inset into the hull of the -space-boat, and there was a metal passageway across the flame-heated -space on which the boat stood. - -A man came out of the port. He reached back in and shook hands. Then -he climbed down the ladder-rungs to the walk-way, and marched above -the steaming baked area, carrying a traveling bag. At the end of the -walk he stepped to the ground, and moved hastily to the edge of the -clearing. He waved to the space-boat. The walk-way folded briskly -back up to the hull and vanished in it, and almost at once a flame -exploded into being under the tail-fins. There were fresh clouds of -monstrous, choking dust, a brightness like that of a sun, and noise -past the possibility of endurance. Then the light rose swiftly through -the dust-cloud, sprang higher, and climbed more swiftly still. When -Huyghens' ears again permitted him to hear anything, there was only a -diminishing mutter in the heavens and a faint bright speck of light -ascending to the sky, swinging eastward as it rose to intercept the -ship from which it had descended. - -The night-noises of the jungle went on, even though there was a spot -of incandescence in the day-bright clearing, and steam rolled up in -clouds at the edge of the hottest area. Beyond that edge, a man with a -traveling bag in his hand looked about him. - -Huyghens advanced toward him as the incandescence dimmed. Sourdough and -Sitka preceded him. Faro Nell trailed faithfully, keeping a maternal -eye on her offspring. The man in the clearing stared at the parade -they made. It would be upsetting, even after preparation, to land at -night on a strange planet, to have the ship's boat and all links with -the rest of the cosmos depart, and then to find oneself approached--it -might seem stalked--by two colossal male Kodiak bears, with a third -bear and a cub behind them. A single human figure in such company might -seem irrelevant. - -The new arrival gazed blankly. He moved back a few steps. Then Huyghens -called: - -"Hello, there! Don't worry about the bears! They're friends!" - -Sitka reached the newcomer. He went warily down-wind from him and -sniffed. The smell was satisfactory. Man-smell. Sitka sat down with the -solid impact of more than a ton of bear-meat landing on packed dirt, -and regarded the man. Sourdough said "_Whoosh_!" and went on to -sample the air beyond the clearing. Huyghens approached. The newcomer -wore the uniform of the Colonial Survey. That was bad. It bore the -insignia of a senior officer. Worse. - -"Hah!" said the just-landed man. "Where are the robots? What in all the -nineteen hells are these creatures? Why did you shift your station? I'm -Bordman, here to make a progress-report on your colony." - -Huyghens said: - -"What colony?" - -"Loren Two Robot Installation--" Then Bordman said indignantly, -"Don't tell me that that idiot skipper can have dropped me at the wrong -place! This is Loren Two, isn't it? And this is the landing-field. But -where are your robots? You should have the beginning of a grid up! What -the devil's happened here and what are these beasts?" - -Huyghens grimaced. - -"This," he said, "is an illegal, unlicensed settlement. I'm a criminal. -These beasts are my confederates. If you don't want to associate with -criminals you needn't, of course, but I doubt if you'll live till -morning unless you accept my hospitality while I think over what to do -about your landing. In reason, I ought to shoot you." - -Faro Nell came to a halt behind Huyghens, which was her proper post in -all out-door movement. Nugget, however, saw a new human. Nugget was a -cub, and therefore friendly. He ambled forward. He wriggled bashfully -as he approached Bordman. He sneezed, because he was embarrassed. - -His mother overtook him and cuffed him to one side. He wailed. The wail -of a six-hundred-pound Kodiak bear-cub is a remarkable sound. Bordman -gave ground a pace. - -"I think," he said carefully, "that we'd better talk things over. -But if this is an illegal colony, of course you're under arrest and -anything you say will be used against you." - -Huyghens grimaced again. - -"Right," he said. "But now if you'll walk close to me, we'll head back -to the station. I'd have Sourdough carry your bag--he likes to carry -things--but he may need his teeth. We've half a mile to travel." He -turned to the animals. "Let's go!" he said commandingly. "Back to the -station! Hup!" - -Grunting, Sitka Pete arose and took up his duties as advanced point -of a combat-team. Sourdough trailed, swinging widely to one side and -another. Huyghens and Bordman moved together. Faro Nell and Nugget -brought up the rear. - -There was only one incident on the way back. It was a night-walker, -made hysterical by the lane of light. It poured through the underbrush, -uttering cries like maniacal laughter. - -Sourdough brought it down, a good ten yards from Huyghens. - -When it was all over, Nugget bristled up to the dead creature, uttering -cub-growls. He feigned to attack it. - -His mother whacked him soundly. - - * * * * * - -There were comfortable, settling-down noises below, as the bears -grunted and rumbled, and ultimately were still. The glare from the -landing-field was gone. The lighted lane through the jungle was dark -again. Huyghens ushered the man from the space-boat up into his living -quarters. There was a rustling stir, and Semper took his head from -under his wing. He stared coldly at the two humans, spread monstrous, -seven-foot wings, and fluttered them. He opened his beak and closed it -with a snap. - -"That's Semper," said Huyghens. "Semper Tyrannis. He's the rest of the -terrestrial population here. Not being a fly-by-night sort of creature, -he didn't come out to welcome you." - -Bordman blinked at the huge bird, perched on a three-inch-thick perch -set in the wall. - -"An eagle?" he demanded. "Kodiak bears--mutated ones, but still -bears--and now an eagle? You've a very nice fighting unit in the -bears--" - -"They're pack animals too," said Huyghens. "They can carry some -hundreds of pounds without losing too much combat efficiency. And -there's no problem of supply. They live off the jungle. Not sphexes, -though. Nothing will eat a sphex." - -He brought out glasses and a bottle and indicated a chair. Bordman put -down his traveling bag, took a glass, and sat down. - -"I'm curious," he observed. "Why Semper Tyrannis? I can understand -Sitka Pete and Sourdough Charley as fighters. But why Semper?" - -"He was bred for hawking," said Huyghens. "You sic a dog on something. -You sic Semper Tyrannis. He's too big to ride on a hawking-glove, so -the shoulders of my coats are padded to let him ride there. He's a -flying scout. I've trained him to notify us of sphexes, and in flight -he carries a tiny television camera. He's useful, but he hasn't the -brains of the bears." - -Bordman sat down and sipped at his glass. - -"Interesting, very interesting!--Didn't you say something about -shooting me?" - -"I'm trying to think of a way out," Huyghens said. "Add up all the -penalties for illegal colonization and I'd be in a very bad fix if you -got away and reported this set-up. Shooting you would be logical." - -"I see that," said Bordman reasonably. "But since the point has come -up--I have a blaster trained on you from my pocket." - -Huyghens shrugged. - -"It's rather likely that my human confederates will be back here before -your friends. You'd be in a very tight fix if my friends came back and -found you more or less sitting on my corpse." - -Bordman nodded. - -"That's true, too. Also it's probable that your fellow-terrestrials -wouldn't cooperate with me as they have with you. You seem to have the -whip hand, even with my blaster trained on you. On the other hand, you -could have killed me quite easily after the boat left, when I'd first -landed. I'd have been quite unsuspicious. Therefore you may not really -intend to murder me." - -Huyghens shrugged again. - -"So," said Bordman, "since the secret of getting along with people is -that of postponing quarrels, suppose we postpone the question of who -kills whom? Frankly, I'm going to send you to prison if I can. Unlawful -colonization is very bad business. But I suppose you feel that you have -to do something permanent about me. In your place I probably should, -too. Shall we declare a truce?" - -Huyghens indicated indifference. - -"Then I do," Bordman said. "I have to! So--" - -He pulled his hand out of his pocket and put a pocket blaster on the -table. He leaned back. - -"Keep it," said Huyghens. "Loren Two isn't a place where you live long -unarmed." He turned to a cupboard. "Hungry?" - -"I could eat," admitted Bordman. - -Huyghens pulled out two meal-packs from the cupboard and inserted them -in the readier below. He set out plates. - -"Now, what happened to the official, licensed, authorized colony here?" -asked Bordman briskly. "License issued eighteen months ago. There was -a landing of colonists with a drone-fleet of equipment and supplies. -There've been four ship-contacts since. There should be several -thousand robots being industrious under adequate human supervision. -There should be a hundred-mile-square clearing, planted with -food-plants for later human arrivals. There should be a landing-grid -at least half-finished. Obviously there should be a space-beacon to -guide ships to a landing. There isn't. There's no clearing visible from -space. That Crete Line ship has been in orbit for three days, trying -to find a place to drop me. Her skipper was fuming. Your beacon is the -only one on the planet, and we found it by accident. What happened?" - -Huyghens served the food. He said drily: - -"There could be a hundred colonies on this planet without any one -knowing of any other. I can only guess about your robots, but I suspect -they ran into sphexes." - -Bordman paused, with his fork in his hand. - -"I read up on this planet, since I was to report on its colony. A sphex -is part of the inimical animal life here. Cold-blooded belligerent -carnivore, not a lizard but a genus all its own. Hunts in packs. Seven -to eight hundred pounds, when adult. Lethally dangerous and simply too -numerous to fight. They're why no license was ever granted to human -colonists. Only robots could work here, because they're machines. What -animal attacks machines?" - -Huyghens said: - -"What machine attacks animals? The sphexes wouldn't bother robots, of -course, but would robots bother the sphexes?" - -Bordman chewed and swallowed. - -"Hold it! I'll agree that you can't make a hunting-robot. A machine can -discriminate, but it can't decide. That's why there's no danger of a -robot revolt. They can't decide to do something for which they have no -instructions. But this colony was planned with full knowledge of what -robots can and can't do. As ground was cleared, it was enclosed in an -electrified fence which no sphex could touch without frying." - -Huyghens thoughtfully cut his food. After a moment: - -"The landing was in the winter time," he observed. "It must have -been, because the colony survived a while. And at a guess, the last -ship-landing was before thaw. The years are eighteen months long here, -you know." - -"It was in winter that the landing was made," Bordman admitted. "And -the last ship-landing was before spring. The idea was to get mines in -operation for material, and to have ground cleared and enclosed in -sphex-proof fence before the sphexes came back from the tropics. They -winter there, I understand." - -"Did you ever see a sphex?" asked Huyghens. Then he said, "No, of -course not. But if you took a spitting cobra and crossed it with a -wild-cat, painted it tan-and-blue and then gave it hydrophobia and -homicidal mania at once, you might have one sphex. But not the race of -sphexes. They can climb trees, by the way. A fence wouldn't stop them." - -"An electrified fence," said Bordman. "Nothing could climb that!" - -"Not one animal," Huyghens told him. "But sphexes are a race. The smell -of one dead sphex brings others running with blood in their eyes. Leave -a dead sphex alone for six hours and you've got them around by dozens. -Two days and there are hundreds. Longer, and you've got thousands of -them! They gather to caterwaul over their dead pal and hunt for whoever -or whatever killed him." - -He returned to his meal. A moment later he said: - -"No need to wonder what happened to your colony. During the winter the -robots burned out a clearing and put up an electrified fence according -to the book. Come spring, the sphexes come back. They're curious, -among their other madnesses. A sphex would try to climb the fence just -to see what was behind it. He'd be electrocuted. His carcass would -bring others, raging because a sphex was dead. Some of them would try -to climb the fence, and die. And their corpses would bring others. -Presently the fence would break down from the bodies hanging on it, -or a bridge of dead beasts' carcasses would be built across it--and -from as far down-wind as the scent carried there'd be loping, raging, -scent-crazed sphexes racing to the spot. They'd pour into the clearing -through or over the fence, squalling and screeching for something to -kill, I think they'd find it." - -Bordman ceased to eat. He looked sick. - -"There were pictures of sphexes in the data I read. I suppose that -would account for--everything." - -He tried to lift his fork. He put it down again. - -"I can't eat," he said abruptly. - -Huyghens made no comment. He finished his own meal, scowling. He rose -and put the plates into the top of the cleaner. - -"Let me see those reports, eh?" he asked dourly. "I'd like to see what -sort of a set-up they had, those robots." - -Bordman hesitated and then opened his traveling bag. There was -a microviewer and reels of films. One entire reel was labeled -"Specifications for Construction, Colonial Survey," which would contain -detailed plans and all requirements of material and workmanship for -everything from desks, office, administrative personnel, for use of, to -landing-grids, heavy-gravity planets, lift-capacity 100,000 earth-tons. -But Huyghens found another. He inserted it and spun the control swiftly -here and there, pausing only briefly at index-frames until he came to -the section he wanted. He began to study the information with growing -impatience. - -"Robots, robots, robots!" he snapped. "Why don't they leave them where -they belong--in cities to do the dirty work, and on airless planets -where nothing unexpected ever happens! Robots don't belong in new -colonies. Your colonists depended on them for defense! Dammit, let a -man work with robots long enough and he thinks all nature is as limited -as they are! This is a plan to set up a controlled environment--on -Loren Two! Controlled environment--" He swore. "Complacent, idiotic, -desk-bound half-wits!" - -"Robots are all right," said Bordman. "We couldn't run civilization -without them." - -"But you can't tame a wilderness with 'em," snapped Huyghens. "You had -a dozen men landed, with fifty assembled robots to start with. There -were parts for fifteen hundred more, and I'll bet anything I've got the -ship-contacts landed more still!" - -"They did," admitted Bordman. - -"I despise 'em," growled Huyghens. "I feel about 'em the way the old -Greeks felt about slaves. They're for menial work--the sort of work a -man will perform for himself, but that he won't do for another man for -pay. Degrading work!" - -"Quite aristocratic!" said Bordman with a touch of irony. "I take it -that robots clean out the bear-quarters downstairs." - -"No!" snapped Huyghens. "I do. They're my friends. They fight for me. -No robot would do the job right!" - -He growled, again. The noises of the night went on outside. Organ-tones -and hiccoughings and the sound of tack-hammers and slamming doors. -Somewhere there was a singularly exact replica of the discordant -squeakings of a rusty pump. - -"I'm looking," said Huyghens at the microviewer, "for the record of -their mining operations. An open-pit operation would not mean a thing. -But if they had driven a tunnel, and somebody was there supervising the -robots when the colony was wiped out, there's an off-chance he survived -a while." - -Bordman regarded him with suddenly intent eyes. - -"And--" - -"Dammit," snapped Bordman, "if so I'll go see! He'd--they'd have no -chance at all, otherwise. Not that the chance is good in any case." - -Bordman raised his eyebrows. - -"I've told you I'll send you to prison if I can," he said. "You've -risked the lives of millions of people, maintaining non-quarantined -communication with an unlicensed planet. If you did rescue somebody -from the ruins of the robot-colony--does it occur to you that they'd be -witnesses to your unauthorized presence here?" - -Huyghens spun the viewer again. He stopped, switched back and forth, -and found what he wanted. He muttered in satisfaction: "They did run a -tunnel!" Aloud he said, "I'll worry about witnesses when I have to." - -He pushed aside another cupboard door. Inside it were the odds and -ends a man makes use of to repair the things about his house that he -never notices until they go wrong. There was an assortment of wires, -transistors, bolts, and similar stray items. - -"What now?" asked Bordman mildly. - -"I'm going to try to find out if there's anybody left alive over there. -I'd have checked before if I'd known the colony existed. I can't prove -they're all dead, but I may prove that somebody's still alive. It's -barely two weeks' journey away from here. Odd that two colonies picked -spots so near!" - -He picked over the oddments he'd selected: - -"Confound it!" Bordman said. "How can you check if somebody's alive -some hundreds of miles away?" - -Huyghens threw a switch and took down a wall-panel, exposing electronic -apparatus and circuits behind. He busied himself with it. - -"Ever think about hunting for a castaway?" he asked over his shoulder. -"Here's a planet with some tens of millions of square miles on it. -You know there's a ship down. You've no idea where. You assume the -survivors have power--no civilized man will be without power very long, -so long as he can smelt metals!--but making a space-beacon calls for -high-precision measurements and workmanship. It's not to be improvised. -So what will your shipwrecked civilized man do, to guide a rescue-ship -to the one or two square miles he occupies among some tens of millions -on the planet?" - -"What?" - -"He's had to go primitive, to begin with," Huyghens explained. "He -cooks his meat over a fire, and so on. He has to make a strictly -primitive signal. It's all he can do without gauges and micrometers -and special tools. But he can fill all the planet's atmosphere with a -signal that searchers for him can't miss. You see?" - -Bordman thought irritably. He shook his head. - -"He'll make," said Huyghens, "a spark transmitter. He'll fix its -output at the shortest frequency he can contrive, somewhere in the -five-to-fifty-metre wave-band, but it will tune very broad--and it will -be a plainly human signal. He'll start it broadcasting. Some of those -frequencies will go all around the planet under the ionosphere. Any -ship that comes in under the radio roof will pick up his signal, get -a fix on it, move and get another fix, and then go straight to where -the castaway is waiting placidly in a hand-braided hammock, sipping -whatever sort of drink he's improvised out of the local vegetation." - -Bordman said grudgingly: - -"Now that you mention it, of course...." - -"My space-phone picks up microwaves," said Huyghens. "I'm shifting a -few elements to make it listen for longer stuff. It won't be efficient, -but it will catch a distress-signal if one's in the air. I don't expect -it, though." - -He worked. Bordman sat still a long time, watching him. Down below, a -rhythmic sort of sound arose. It was Sourdough Charley, snoring. - -Sitka Pete grunted in his sleep. He was dreaming. In the general -room of the station Semper blinked his eyes rapidly and then tucked -his head under a gigantic wing and went to sleep. The noises of the -Loren-Two jungle came through the steel-shuttered windows. The nearer -moon--which had passed overhead not long before the ringing of the -arrival-bell--again came soaring over the eastern horizon. It sped -across the sky. - -Inside the station, Bordman said angrily: - -"See here, Huyghens! You've reason to kill me. Apparently you don't -intend to. You've excellent reason to leave that robot-colony strictly -alone. But you're preparing to help, if there's anybody alive to need -it. And yet you're a criminal, and I mean a criminal! There've been -some ghastly bacteria exported from planets like Loren Two. There've -been plenty of lives lost in consequence, and you're risking more. -Why the hell do you do it? Why do you do something that could produce -monstrous results to other human beings?" - -Huyghens grunted. - -"You're assuming there are no sanitary and quarantine precautions taken -by my partners. As a matter of fact, there are. They're taken, all -right! As for the rest, you wouldn't understand." - -"I don't understand," snapped Bordman, "but that's no proof I can't! -Why are you a criminal?" - -Huyghens painstakingly used a screwdriver inside the wall-panel. -He lifted out a small electronic assembly, and began to fit in a -spaghettied new assembly with larger units. - -"I'm cutting my amplification here to hell-and-gone," he observed, -"but I think it'll do.... I'm doing what I'm doing," he added calmly, -"because it seems to me it fits what I think I am. Everybody acts -according to his own real notion of himself. You're a conscientious -citizen, a loyal official, a well-adjusted personality. You act that -way. You consider yourself an intelligent rational animal. But you -don't act that way! You're reminding me of my need to shoot you or -something similar, which a merely rational animal would try to make me -forget. You happen, Bordman, to be a man. So am I. But I'm aware of it. -Therefore I deliberately do things a merely rational animal wouldn't, -because they're my notion of what a man who's more than a rational -animal should do." - -He tightened one small screw after another. - -Bordman said: - -"Oh. Religion." - -"Self-respect," corrected Huyghens. "I don't like robots. They're too -much like rational animals. A robot will do whatever it can that its -supervisor requires it to do. A merely rational animal will do whatever -circumstances require it to do. I wouldn't like a robot unless it had -some idea of what was fitting and would spit in my eye if I tried to -make it do something else. The bears downstairs, now.... They're no -robots! They are loyal and honorable beasts, but they'd turn and tear -me to bits if I tried to make them do something against their nature. -Faro Nell would fight me and all creation together, if we tried to harm -Nugget. It would be unintelligent and unreasonable and irrational. -She'd lose out and get killed. But I like her that way! And I'll fight -you and all creation when you make me try to do something against my -nature. I'll be stupid and unreasonable and irrational about it." Then -he grinned over his shoulder. "So will you. Only you don't realize it." - -He turned back to his task. After a moment he fitted a manual-control -knob over a shaft in his haywire assembly. - -"What did somebody try to make you do?" asked Bordman shrewdly. "What -was demanded of you that turned you into a criminal? What are you in -revolt against?" - -Huyghens threw a switch. He began to turn the knob which controlled the -knob of his makeshift receiver. - -"Why," he said, "when I was young the people around me tried to make me -into a conscientious citizen and a loyal employee and a well-adjusted -personality. They tried to make me into a highly intelligent rational -animal and nothing more. The difference between us, Bordman, is that I -found it out. Naturally, I rev--" - -He stopped short. Faint, crackling, frying sounds came from the speaker -of the space-phone now modified to receive what once were called short -waves. - -Huyghens listened. He cocked his head intently. He turned the knob -very, very slowly. Bordman made an arrested gesture, to call attention -to something in the sibilant sound. Huyghens nodded. He turned the knob -again, with infinitesimal increments. - -Out of the background noise came a patterned mutter. As Huyghens -shifted the tuning, it grew louder. It reached a volume where it was -unmistakable. It was a sequence of sounds like a discordant buzzing. -There were three half-second buzzings with half-second pauses between. -A two-second pause. Three full-second buzzings with half-second pauses -between. Another two-second pause and three half-second buzzings, -again. Then silence for five seconds. Then the pattern repeated. - -"The devil!" said Huyghens. "That's a human signal! Mechanically made, -too. In fact, it used to be a standard distress-call. It was termed an -SOS, though I've no idea what that meant. Anyhow, somebody must have -read old-fashioned novels some time, to know about it. And so someone -is still alive over at your licensed but now smashed-up robot-colony. -And they're asking for help. I'd say they're likely to need it." - -He looked at Bordman. - -"The intelligent thing to do is sit back and wait for a ship, either my -friends' or yours. A ship can help survivors or castaways much better -than we can. It could even find them more easily. But maybe time is -important to the poor devils. So I'm going to take the bears and see if -I can reach him. You can wait here, if you like. What say?" - -Bordman snapped angrily: - -"Don't be a fool! Of course I'm coming! What do you take me for? And -two of us should have four times the chance of one!" - -Huyghens grinned. - -"Not quite. You forget Sitka Pete and Sourdough Charley and Faro Nell. -There'll be five of us if you come, instead of four. And, of course, -Nugget has to come--and he'll be no help--but Semper may make up for -him. You won't quadruple our chances, Bordman, but I'll be glad to have -you if you want to be stupid and unreasonable and not at all rational, -and come with me." - - * * * * * - -There was a jagged spur of stone looming precipitously over a -river-valley. A thousand feet below, a broad stream ran westward to the -sea. Twenty miles to the east, a wall of mountains rose sheer against -the sky, its peaks seeming to blend to a remarkable evenness of height. -Rolling, tumbled ground lay between for as far as the eye could see. - -A speck in the sky came swiftly downward. Great pinions spread and -flapped, and icy eyes surveyed the rocky space. With more great -flappings, Semper the eagle came to ground. He folded his huge wings -and turned his head jerkily, his eyes unblinking. A tiny harness held a -miniature camera against his chest. He strutted over the bare stone to -the highest point and stood there, a lonely and arrogant figure in the -vastness. - -Crashings and rustlings, and snuffling sounds, and Sitka Pete came -lumbering out into the clear space. He wore a harness too, and a pack. -The harness was complex, because it had to hold a pack not only in -normal travel, but when he stood on his hind legs, and it must not -hamper the use of his forepaws in combat. - -He went cagily all over the open area. He peered over the edge of the -spur's farthest tip, and prowled to the other side and looked down. -Once he moved close to Semper and the eagle opened his great curved -beak and uttered an indignant noise. Sitka paid no attention. - -He relaxed, satisfied. He sat down untidily, his hind legs sprawling. -He wore an air approaching benevolence as he surveyed the landscape -about and below him. - -More snufflings and crashings. Sourdough Charley came into view with -Huyghens and Bordman behind him. Sourdough carried a pack, too. Then -there was a squealing and Nugget scurried up from the rear, impelled -by a whack from his mother. Faro Nell appeared, with the carcass of a -stag-like animal lashed to her harness. - -"I picked this place from a space-photo," said Huyghens, "to make a -directional fix from you. I'll get set up." - -He swung his pack from his shoulders to the ground, and extracted an -obviously self-constructed device which he set on the ground. It had -a whip aerial, which he extended. Then he plugged in a considerable -length of flexible wire and unfolded a tiny, improvised directional -aerial with an even tinier booster at its base. Bordman slipped his -pack from his shoulders and watched. Huyghens put a pair of head-phones -over his ears. He looked up and said sharply: - -"Watch the bears, Bordman. The wind's blowing up the way we came. -Anything that trails us will send its scent on before. The bears will -tell us." - -He busied himself with the instruments he'd brought. He heard the -hissing, frying, background-noise which could be anything at all except -a human signal. He reached out and swung the small aerial around. -Rasping, buzzing tones came in, faintly and then loudly. This receiver, -though, had been made for this particular wave-band. It was much more -efficient than the modified space-phone had been. It picked up three -short buzzes, three long ones, and three short ones again. Three dots, -three dashes, and three dots. Over and over again. SOS. SOS. SOS. - -Huyghens took a reading and moved the directional aerial a carefully -measured distance. He took another reading, shifted it yet again and -again, carefully marking and measuring each spot and taking notes of -the instrument readings. When he finished, he had checked the direction -of the signal not only by loudness but by phase, and had as accurate a -fix as could possibly be made with portable apparatus. - -Sourdough growled softly. Sitka Pete whiffed the air and arose from -his sitting position. Faro Nell whacked Nugget, sending him whimpering -to the farthest corner of the flat place. She stood bristling, facing -down-hill the way they'd come. - -"Damn!" said Huyghens. - -He got up and waved his arm at Semper, who had turned his head at the -stirrings. Semper squawked and dived off the spur, and was immediately -fighting the down-draught beyond it. As Huyghens readied his weapon, -the eagle came back overhead. He went magnificently past, a hundred -feet high, careening and flapping in the tricky currents. He screamed, -abruptly, and screamed again. Huyghens swung a tiny vision-plate from -its strap to where he could look into it. He saw, of course, what the -tiny camera on Semper's chest could see--reeling, swaying terrain as -Semper saw it, though of course without his breadth of field. There -were moving objects to be seen through the shifting trees. Their -coloring was unmistakable. - -"Sphexes," said Huyghens dourly. "Eight of them. Don't look for them to -follow our track, Bordman. They run parallel to a trail on either side. -That way they attack in breadth and all at once when they catch up. And -listen! The bears can handle anything they tangle with--it's our job to -pick off the loose ones. And aim for the body! The bullets explode." - -He threw off the safety of his weapon. Faro Nell, uttering thunderous -growls, went padding to a place between Sitka Pete and Sourdough. -Sitka glanced at her and made a whuffing noise, as if derisive of her -blood-curdling sounds. Sourdough grunted. He and Sitka moved farther -away from Nell to either side. They would cover a wider front. - -There was no other sign of life than the shrillings of the incredibly -tiny creatures which on this planet were birds, and Faro Nell's -deep-bass, raging growls, and then the click of Bordman's safety going -off as he got ready to use the weapon Huyghens had given him. - -Semper screamed again, flapping low above the tree-tops, following -parti-colored, monstrous shapes beneath. - -Eight blue-and-tan fiends came racing out of the underbrush. They had -spiny fringes, and horns, and glaring eyes, and they looked as if they -had come straight out of hell. On the instant of their appearance -they leaped, emitting squalling, spitting squeals that were like the -cries of fighting tom-cats ten thousand times magnified. Huyghens' -rifle cracked, and its sound was wiped out in the louder detonation -of its bullet in Sphexian flesh. A tan-and-blue monster tumbled over, -shrieking. Faro Nell charged, the very impersonation of white-hot -fury. Bordman fired, and his bullet exploded against a tree. Sitka -Pete brought his massive forepaws in a clapping, monstrous ear-boxing -motion. A sphex died. - -Then Bordman fired again. Sourdough Charley whuffed. He fell forward -upon a spitting bi-colored fiend, rolled him over, and raked with his -hind-claws. The belly-hide of the sphex was tenderer than the rest. -The creature rolled away, snapping at its own wounds. Another sphex -found itself shaken loose from the tumult about Sitka Pete. It whirled -to leap on him from behind, and Huyghens fired. Two plunged upon Faro -Nell, and Bordman blasted one and Faro Nell disposed of the other in -awesome fury. Then Sitka Pete heaved himself erect--seeming to drip -sphexes--and Sourdough waddled over and pulled one off and killed it -and went back for another.... Then both rifles cracked together and -there was suddenly nothing left to fight. - -The bears prowled from one to another of the corpses. Sitka Pete -rumbled and lifted up a limp head. Crash! Then another. He went -over the lot, whether or not they showed signs of life. When he had -finished, they were wholly still. - -Semper came flapping down out of the sky. He had screamed and fluttered -overhead as the fight went on. Now he landed with a rush. Huyghens -went soothingly from one bear to another, calming them with his voice. -It took longest to calm Faro Nell, licking Nugget with impassioned -solicitude and growling horribly as she licked. - -"Come along, now," said Huyghens, when Sitka showed signs of intending -to sit down again. "Heave these carcasses over a cliff. Come along! -Sitka! Sourdough! Hup!" - -He guided them as the two big males somewhat fastidiously lifted up -the nightmarish creatures and carried them to the edge of the spur of -stone. They let the beasts go bouncing and sliding down into the valley. - -"That," said Huyghens, "is so their little pals will gather round them -and caterwaul their woe where there's no trail of ours to give them -ideas. If we'd been near a river I'd have dumped them in to float -down-stream and gather mourners wherever they stranded. Around the -station I incinerate them. If I had to leave them, I'd make tracks -away. About fifty miles upwind would be a good idea." - -He opened the pack Sourdough carried and extracted giant-sized swabs -and some gallons of antiseptic. He tended the three Kodiaks in turn, -swabbing not only the cuts and scratches they'd received, but deeply -soaking their fur where there could be suspicion of spilled sphex-blood. - -"This antiseptic deodorizes, too," he told Bordman. "Or we'd be trailed -by any sphex who passed to leeward of us. When we start off, I'll swab -the bears' paws for the same reason." - -Bordman was very quiet. He'd missed his first shot, but, the last few -seconds of the fight he'd fired very deliberately and every bullet hit. -Now he said bitterly: - -"If you're instructing me so I can carry on should you be killed, I -doubt that it's worth while!" - -Huyghens felt in his pack and unfolded the enlargements he'd made of -the space-photos of this part of the planet. He carefully oriented the -map with distant landmarks, and drew a line across the photo. - -"The SOS signal comes from somewhere close to the robot-colony," he -reported. "I think a little to the south of it. Probably from a mine -they'd opened up, on the far side of the Sere Plateau. See how I've -marked this map? Two fixes, one from the station and one from here. I -came away off-course to get a fix here so we'd have two position-lines -to the transmitter. The signal could have come from the other side of -the planet. But it doesn't." - -"The odds would be astronomical against other castaways," protested -Bordman. - -"No," said Huyghens. "Ships have been coming here. To the robot-colony. -One could have crashed. And I have friends, too." - -He repacked his apparatus and gestured to the bears. He led them beyond -the scene of combat and carefully swabbed off their paws, so they could -not possibly leave a train of sphex-blood scent behind them. He waved -Semper, the eagle, aloft. - -"Let's go," he told the Kodiaks. "Yonder! Hup!" - -The party headed down-hill and into the jungle again. Now it was -Sourdough's turn to take the lead, and Sitka Pete prowled more widely -behind him. Faro Nell trailed the men, with Nugget. She kept a sharp -eye upon the cub. He was a baby, still; he only weighed six hundred -pounds. And of course she watched against danger from the rear. - -Overhead, Semper fluttered and flew in giant circles and spirals, never -going very far away. Huyghens referred constantly to the screen which -showed what the air-borne camera saw. The image tilted and circled -and banked and swayed. It was by no means the best air-reconnaissance -that could be imagined, but it was the best that would work. Presently -Huyghens said: - -"We swing to the right, here. The going's bad straight ahead, and it -looks like a pack of sphexes has killed and is feeding." - -Bordman said: - -"It's against reason for carnivores to be as thick as you say! There -has to be a certain amount of other animal life for every meat-eating -beast. Too many of them would eat all the game and starve." - -"They're gone all winter," explained Huyghens, "which around here -isn't as severe as you might think. And a good many animals seem to -breed just after the sphexes go south. Also, the sphexes aren't around -all the warm weather. There's a sort of peak, and then for a matter -of weeks you won't see one of them, and suddenly the jungle swarms -with them again. Then, presently, they head south. Apparently they're -migratory in some fashion, but nobody knows." He said drily: "There -haven't been many naturalists around on this planet. The animal life's -inimical." - -Bordman fretted. He was accustomed to arrival at a partly or -completely finished colonial set-up, and to pass upon the completion -or non-completion of the installation as designed. Now he was in an -intolerably hostile environment, depending upon an illegal colonist for -his life, engaged upon a demoralizingly indefinite enterprise--because -the mechanical spark-signal could be working long after its -constructors were dead--and his ideas about a number of matters were -shaken. He was alive, for example, because of three giant Kodiak bears -and a bald eagle. He and Huyghens could have been surrounded by ten -thousand robots, and they'd have been killed. Sphexes and robots would -have ignored each other, and sphexes would have made straight for the -men, who'd have had less than four seconds in which to discover for -themselves that they were attacked, prepare to defend themselves, and -kill the eight sphexes. - -Bordman's convictions as a civilized man were shaken. Robots were -marvelous contrivances for doing the expected, accomplishing the -planned, coping with the predicted. But they also had defects. Robots -could only follow instructions. If this thing happens, do this, if -that thing happens, do that. But before something else, neither this -or that, robots were helpless. So a robot civilization worked only in -an environment where nothing unanticipated ever turned up, and human -supervisors never demanded anything unexpected. Bordman was appalled. - -He found Nugget, the cub, ambling uneasily in his wake. The cub -flattened his ears miserably when Bordman glanced at him. It occurred -to the man that Nugget was receiving a lot of disciplinary thumpings -from Faro Nell. He was knocked about psychologically. His lack of -information and unfitness for independent survival in this environment -was being hammered into him. - -"Hi, Nugget," said Bordman ruefully. "I feel just about the way you do!" - -Nugget brightened visibly. He frisked. He tended to gambol. He looked -hopefully up into Bordman's face. - -The man reached out and patted Nugget's head. It was the first time in -all his life that he'd ever petted an animal. - -He heard a snuffling sound behind him. Skin crawled at the back of his -neck. He whirled. - -Faro Nell regarded him--eighteen hundred pounds of she-bear only ten -feet away and looking into his eyes. For one panicky instant Bordman -went cold all over. Then he realized that Faro Nell's eyes were not -burning. She was not snarling, nor did she emit those blood-curdling -sounds which the bare prospect of danger to Nugget had produced up on -the rocky spur. She looked at him blandly. In fact, after a moment -she swung off on some independent investigation of a matter that had -aroused her curiosity. - -The travelling-party went on, Nugget frisking beside Bordman and -tending to bump into him out of pure cub-clumsiness. Now and again he -looked adoringly at Bordman, in the instant and overwhelming affection -of the very young. - -Bordman trudged on. Presently he glanced behind again. Faro Nell was -now ranging more widely. She was well satisfied to have Nugget in the -immediate care of a man. From time to time he got on her nerves. - -A little while later, Bordman called ahead. - -"Huyghens! Look here! I've been appointed nursemaid to Nugget!" - -Huyghens looked back. - -"Oh, slap him a few times and he'll go back to his mother." - -"The devil I will!" said Bordman querulously. "I like it!" - -The travelling-party went on. - -When night fell, they camped. There could be no fire, of course, -because all the minute night-things about would come to dance in the -glow. But there could not be darkness, equally, because night-walkers -hunted in the dark. So Huyghens set out barrier-lamps which made a -wall of twilight about their halting-place, and the stag-like creature -Faro Nell had carried became their evening meal. Then they slept--at -least the men did--and the bears dozed and snorted and waked and dozed -again. Semper sat immobile with his head under his wing on a tree-limb. -Presently there was a glorious cool hush and all the world glowed in -morning-light diffused through the jungle by a newly risen sun. Then -they arose and pushed on. - -This day they stopped stock-still for two hours while sphexes puzzled -over the trail the bears had left. Huyghens discoursed on the need of -an anti-scent, to be used on the boots of men and the paws of bears, -which would make the following of their trails unpopular with sphexes. -Bordman seized upon the idea and suggested that a sphex-repellant odor -might be worked out, which would make a human revolting to a sphex. If -that were done, humans could go freely about, unmolested. - -"Like stink-bugs," said Huyghens, sardonically. "A very intelligent -idea! Very rational! You can feel proud!" - -And suddenly Bordman was not proud of the idea at all. - -They camped again. On the third night they were at the base of that -remarkable formation, the Sere Plateau, which from a distance looked -like a mountain range but was actually a desert table-land. It was -not reasonable for a desert to be raised high, while lowlands had -rain, but on the fourth morning they found out why. They saw, far, far -away, a truly monstrous mountain-mass at the end of the long expanse -of the plateau. It was like the prow of a ship. It lay, so Huyghens -observed, directly in line with the prevailing winds, and divided them -as a ship's prow divides the waters. The moisture-bearing air-currents -flowed beside the plateau, not over it, and its interior was desert in -the unscreened sunshine of the high altitudes. - -It took them a full day to get half-way up the slope. And here, twice, -as they climbed, Semper flew screaming over aggregations of sphexes -to one side of them or the other. These were much larger groups than -Huyghens had ever seen before, fifty to a hundred monstrosities -together, where a dozen was a large hunting-pack elsewhere. He looked -in the screen which showed him what Semper saw, four to five miles -away. The sphexes padded uphill toward the Sere Plateau in a long line. -Fifty--sixty--seventy tan-and-azure beasts out of hell. - -"I'd hate to have that bunch jump us," he said candidly to Bordman. "I -don't think we'd stand a chance." - -"Here's where a robot tank would be useful," Bordman observed. - -"Anything armored," conceded Huyghens. "One man in an armored station -like mine would be safe. But if he killed a sphex he'd be besieged. -He'd have to stay holed up, breathing the smell of dead sphex, until -the odor'd gone away. And he mustn't kill any others or he'd be -besieged until winter came." - -Bordman did not suggest the advantages of robots in other directions. -At that moment, for example, they were working their way up a slope -which averaged fifty degrees. The bears climbed without effort despite -their burdens. For the men it was infinite toil. Semper, the eagle, -manifested impatience with bears and men alike, who crawled so slowly -up an incline over which he soared. - -He went ahead up the mountainside and teetered in the air-currents at -the plateau's edge. Huyghens looked in the vision-plate by which he -reported. - -"How the devil," panted Bordman, panting--they had stopped for a -breather, and the bears waited patiently for them--"how do you train -bears like these? I can understand Semper." - -"I don't train them," said Huyghens, staring into the plate, "They're -mutations. In heredity the sex-linkage of physical characteristics -is standard stuff. There's also been some sound work done on the -gene-linkage of psychological factors. There was need, on my home -planet, for an animal who could fight like a fiend, live off the land, -carry a pack and get along with men at least as well as dogs do. In the -old days they'd have tried to breed the desired physical properties -in an animal who already had the personality they wanted. Something -like a giant dog, say. But back home they went at it the other way -about. They picked the wanted physical characteristics and bred for the -personality, the psychology. The job got done over a century ago. The -Kodiak bear named Kodius Champion was the first real success. He had -everything that was wanted. These bears are his descendants." - -"They look normal," commented Bordman. - -"They are!" said Huyghens warmly. "Just as normal as an honest dog! -They're not trained, like Semper. They train themselves!" He looked -back into the plate in his hands, which showed the ground six or seven -thousand feet higher. "Semper, now, is a trained bird without too much -brain. He's educated--a glorified hawk. But the bears want to get along -with men. They're emotionally dependent on us. Like dogs. Semper's a -servant, but they're companions and friends. He's trained, but they're -loyal. He's conditioned. They love us. He'd abandon me if he ever -realized he could; he thinks he can only eat what men feed him. But -the bears wouldn't want to. They like us. I admit I like them. Maybe -because they like me." - -Bordman said deliberately: - -"Aren't you a trifle loose-tongued, Huyghens? You've told me something -that will locate and convict the people who set you up here. It -shouldn't be hard to find where bears were bred for psychological -mutations, and where a bear named Kodius Champion left descendants. I -can find out where you came from now, Huyghens!" - -Huyghens looked up from the plate with its tiny swaying television -image. - -"No harm done," he said amiably. "I'm a criminal there, too. It's -officially on record that I kidnapped these bears and escaped with -them. Which, on my home planet, is about as heinous a crime as a man -can commit. It's worse than horse-theft back on Earth in the old days. -The kin and cousins of my bears are highly thought of. I'm quite a -criminal, back home." - -Bordman stared. - -"Did you steal them?" he demanded. - -"Confidentially," said Huyghens. "No. But prove it!" Then he said: -"Take a look in this plate. See what Semper can see up at the plateau's -edge." - -Bordman squinted aloft, where the eagle flew in great sweeps and -dashes. Somehow, by the experience of the past few days, Bordman knew -that Semper was screaming fiercely as he flew. He made a dart toward -the plateau's border. - -Bordman looked at the transmitted picture. It was only four inches -by six, but it was perfectly without grain and accurate in color. It -moved and turned as the camera-bearing eagle swooped and circled. For -an instant the screen showed the steeply sloping mountainside, and off -at one edge the party of men and bears could be seen as dots. Then it -swept away and showed the top of the plateau. - -There were sphexes. A pack of two hundred trotted toward the desert -interior. They moved at leisure, in the open. The viewing camera -reeled, and there were more. As Bordman watched and as the bird flew -higher, he could see still other sphexes moving up over the edge of the -plateau from a small erosion-defile here and another one there. The -Sere Plateau was alive with the hellish creatures. It was inconceivable -that there should be game enough for them to live on. They were visible -as herds of cattle would be visible on grazing planets. - -It was simply impossible. - -"Migrating," observed Huyghens. "I said they did. They're headed -somewhere. Do you know, I doubt that it would be healthy for us to try -to cross the Plateau through such a swarm of sphexes!" - -Bordman swore, in abrupt change of mood. - -"But the signal's still coming through. Somebody's alive over at the -robot-colony. Must we wait till the migration's over?" - -"We don't know," Huyghens pointed out, "that they'll stay alive. They -may need help badly. We have to get to them. But at the same time--" - -He glanced at Sourdough Charley and Sitka Pete, clinging patiently to -the mountainside while the men rested and talked. Sitka had managed to -find a place to sit down, one massive paw anchoring him in place. - -Huyghens waved his arm, pointing in a new direction. - -"Let's go!" he called briskly. "Let's go! Yonder! Hup!" - -They followed the slopes of the Sere Plateau, neither ascending to its -level top--where sphexes congregated--nor descending into the foothills -where sphexes assembled. They moved along hillsides and mountain-flanks -which sloped anywhere from thirty to sixty degrees, and they did not -cover much territory. They practically forgot what it was to walk on -level ground. - -At the end of the sixth day, they camped on the top of a massive -boulder which projected from a mountainous stony wall. There was -barely room on the boulder for all the party. Faro Nell fussily -insisted that Nugget should be in the safest part, which meant near -the mountain-flank. She would have crowded the men outward, but Nugget -whimpered for Bordman. Wherefore, when Bordman moved to comfort him, -Faro Nell drew back and snorted at Sitka and Sourdough and they made -room for her near the edge. - -It was a hungry camp. They had come upon tiny rills upon occasion, -flowing down the mountainside. Here the bears had drunk deeply and -the men had filled canteens. But this was the third night on the -mountainside, and there had been no game at all. Huyghens made no move -to bring out food for Bordman or himself. Bordman made no comment. He -was beginning to participate in the relationship between bears and -men, which was not the slavery of the bears but something more. It was -two-way. He felt it. - -"You'd think," he said, "that since the sphexes don't seem to hunt on -their way uphill, there should be some game. They ignore everything as -they file up." - -This was true enough. The normal fighting formation of sphexes was line -abreast, which automatically surrounded anything which offered to flee -and outflanked anything which offered fight. But here they ascended -the mountain in long files, one after the other, apparently following -long-established trails. The wind blew along the slopes and carried -scent sidewise. But the sphexes were not diverted from their chosen -paths. The long processions of hideous blue-and-tawny creatures--it was -hard to think of them as natural beasts, male and female and laying -eggs like reptiles on other planets--the long processions simply -climbed. - -"There've been other thousands of beasts before them," said Huyghens. -"They must have been crowding this way for days or even weeks. We've -seen tens of thousands in Semper's camera. They must be uncountable, -altogether. The first-comers ate all the game there was, and the -last-comers have something else on whatever they use for minds." - -Bordman protested: - -"But so many carnivores in one place is impossible! I know they are -here, but they can't be!" - -"They're cold-blooded," Huyghens pointed out. "They don't burn food -to sustain body-temperature. After all, lots of creatures go for -long periods without eating. Even bears hibernate. But this isn't -hibernation--or estivation, either." - -He was setting up the radiation-wave receiver in the darkness. There -was no point in attempting a fix here. The transmitter was on the other -side of the sphex-crowded Sere Plateau. The men and bears would commit -suicide by crossing here. - -Even so, Huyghens turned on the receiver. There came the whispering, -scratchy sound of background-noise, and then the signal. Three dots, -three dashes, three dots. Huyghens turned it off. Bordman said: - -"Shouldn't we have answered that signal before we left the station? To -encourage them?" - -"I doubt they have a receiver," said Huyghens. "They won't expect an -answer for months, anyhow. They'd hardly listen all the time, and if -they're living in a mine-tunnel and trying to sneak out for food to -stretch their supplies, they'll be too busy to try to make complicated -recorders or relays." - -Bordman was silent for a moment or two. - -"We've got to get food for the bears," he said presently. "Nugget's -weaned, and he's hungry." - -"We will," Huyghens promised. "I may be wrong, but it seems to me that -the number of sphexes climbing the mountain is less than yesterday -and the day before. We may have just about crossed the path of their -migration. They're thinning out. When we're past their trail, we'll -have to look out for night-walkers and the like again. But I think they -wiped out all animal life on their migration-route." - -He was not quite right. He was waked in darkness by the sound of -slappings and the grunting of bears. Feather-light puffs of breeze beat -upon his face. He struck his belt-lamp sharply and the world was hidden -by a whitish film which snatched itself away. Something flapped. Then -he saw the stars and the emptiness on the edge of which they camped. -Then big white things flapped toward him. - -Sitka Pete whuffed mightily and swatted. Faro Nell grunted and swung. -She caught something in her claws. - -"Watch this!" said Huyghens. - -More things strangely-shaped and pallid like human skin reeled and -flapped crazily toward him. - -A huge hairy paw reached up into the light-beam and snatched a flying -thing out of it. Another great paw. The three great Kodiaks were on -their hind legs, swatting at creatures which flittered insanely, unable -to resist the fascination of the glaring lamp. Because of their wild -gyrations it was impossible to see them in detail, but they were those -unpleasant night-creatures which looked like plucked flying monkeys but -were actually something quite different. - -The bears did not snarl or snap. They swatted, with a remarkable air -of business-like competence and purpose. Small mounds of broken things -built up about their feet. - -Suddenly there were no more. Huyghens snapped off the light. The bears -crunched and fed busily in the darkness. - -"Those things are carnivores _and_ blood-suckers, Bordman," -said Huyghens calmly. "They drain their victims of blood like -vampire-bats--they've some trick of not waking them--and when they're -dead the whole tribe eats. But bears have thick fur, and they wake -when they're touched. And they're omnivorous. They'll eat anything but -sphexes, and like it. You might say that those night-creatures came -to lunch. They _are_ it, for the bears, who are living off the -country as usual." - -Bordman uttered a sudden exclamation. He made a tiny light, and blood -flowed down his hand. Huyghens passed over his pocket kit of antiseptic -and bandages. Bordman stanched the bleeding and bound up his hand. Then -he realized that Nugget chewed on something. When he turned the light, -Nugget swallowed convulsively. It appeared that he had caught and -devoured the creature which had drawn blood from Bordman. But he'd lost -none to speak of, at that. - -In the morning they started along the sloping scarp of the plateau once -more. After marching silently for a while, Bordman said: - -"Robots wouldn't have handled those vampire-things, Huyghens." - -"Oh, they could be built to watch for them," said Huyghens, tolerantly. -"But you'd have to swat for yourself. I prefer the bears." - -He led the way on. Twice Huyghens halted to examine the ground about -the mountains' bases through binoculars. He looked encouraged as they -went on. The monstrous peak which was like the bow of a ship at the -end of the Sere Plateau was visibly nearer. Toward midday, indeed, it -loomed high above the horizon, no more than fifteen miles away. And at -midday Huyghens called a final halt. - -"No more congregations of sphexes down below," he said cheerfully, "and -we haven't seen a climbing line of them in miles." The crossing of a -sphex-trail had meant simply waiting until one party had passed, and -then crossing before another came in view. "I've a hunch we've left -their migration-route behind. Let's see what Semper tells us!" - -He waved the eagle aloft. Like all creatures other than men, the bird -normally functioned only for the satisfaction of his appetite, and then -tended to loaf or sleep. He had ridden the last few miles perched on -Sitka Pete's pack. Now he soared upward and Huyghens watched in the -small vision-plate. - -Semper went soaring. The image on the plate swayed and turned, and in -minutes was above the plateau's edge. Here there were some patches of -brush and the ground rolled a little. But as Semper towered higher -still, the inner desert appeared. Nearby, it was clear of beasts. -Only once, when the eagle banked sharply and the camera looked along -the long dimension of the plateau, did Huyghens see any sign of the -blue-and-tan beasts. There he saw what looked like masses amounting to -herds. Incredible, of course; carnivores do not gather in herds. - -"We go straight up," said Huyghens in satisfaction. "We cross the -Plateau here, and we can edge down-wind a bit, even. I think we'll -find something interesting on our way to your robot-colony." - -He waved to the bears to go ahead uphill. - -They reached the top hours later, barely before sunset. And they saw -game. Not much, but game at the grassy, brushy border of the desert. -Huyghens brought down a shaggy ruminant which surely would not live -on a desert. When night fell there was an abrupt chill in the air. It -was much colder than night temperatures on the slopes. The air was -thin. Bordman thought and presently guessed at the cause. In the lee of -the prow-mountain the air was calm. There were no clouds. The ground -radiated its heat to empty space. It could be bitterly cold in the -night-time, here. - -"And hot by day," Huyghens agreed when he mentioned it. "The sunshine's -terrifically hot where the air is thin, but on most mountains there's -wind. By day, here, the ground will tend to heat up like the surface -of a planet without atmosphere. It may be a hundred and forty or fifty -degrees on the sand at midday. But it should be cold at night." - -It was. Before midnight Huyghens built a fire. There could be no danger -of night-walkers where the temperature dropped to freezing. - -In the morning the men were stiff with cold, but the bears snorted and -moved about briskly. They seemed to revel in the morning chill. Sitka -and Sourdough Charley, in fact, became festive and engaged in a mock -fight, whacking each other with blows that were only feigned, but would -have crushed the skull of any man. Nugget sneezed with excitement as he -watched them. Faro Nell regarded them with female disapproval. - -They started on. Semper seemed sluggish. After a single brief flight he -descended and rode on Sitka's pack, as on the previous day. He perched -there, surveying the landscape as it changed from semi-arid to pure -desert in their progress. He would not fly. Soaring birds do not like -to fly when there are no winds to make currents of which they can take -advantage. - -Once Huyghens stopped and pointed out to Bordman exactly where they -were on the enlarged photograph taken from space, and the exact spot -from which the distress-signal seemed to come. - -"You're doing it in case something happens to you," said Bordman. "I -admit it's sense, but--what could I do to help those survivors even if -I got to them, without you?" - -"What you've learned about sphexes would help," said Huyghens. "The -bears would help. And we left a note back at my station. Whoever -grounds at the landing-field back there--and the beacon's working--will -find instructions to come to the place we're trying to reach." - -They started walking again. The narrow patch of non-desert border of -the Sere Plateau was behind them, now, and they marched across powdery -desert sand. - -"See here," said Bordman. "I want to know something. You tell me you're -listed as a bear-thief on your home planet. You tell me it's a lie, to -protect your friends from prosecution by the Colonial Survey. You're on -your own, risking your life every minute of every day. You took a risk -in not shooting me. Now you're risking more in going to help men who'd -have to be witnesses that you were a criminal. What are you doing it -for?" - -Huyghens grinned. - -"Because I don't like robots. I don't like the fact that they're -subduing men, making men subordinate to them." - -"Go on," insisted Bordman. "I don't see why disliking robots should -make you a criminal! Nor men subordinating themselves to robots, -either." - -"But they are," said Huyghens mildly. "I'm a crank, of course. But--I -live like a man on this planet. I go where I please and do what I -please. My helpers are my friends. If the robot-colony had been a -success, would the humans in it have lived like men? Hardly. They'd -have to live the way robots let them! They'd have to stay inside a -fence the robots built. They'd have to eat foods that robots could -raise, and no others. Why, a man couldn't move his bed near a window, -because if he did the house-tending robots couldn't work! Robots would -serve them--the way the robots determined--but all they'd get out of it -would be jobs servicing the robots!" - -Bordman shook his head. - -"As long as men want robot service, they have to take the service that -robots can give. If you don't want those services--" - -"I want to decide what I want," said Huyghens, again mildly, "instead -of being limited to choose what I'm offered. In my home planet we -half-way tamed it with dogs and guns. Then we developed the bears, -and we finished the job with them. Now there's population-pressure and -the room for bears and dogs--and men!--is dwindling. More and more -people are being deprived of the power of decision, and being allowed -only the power of choice among the things robots allow. The more we -depend on robots, the more limited those choices become. We don't want -our children to limit themselves to wanting what robots can provide! -We don't want them shriveling to where they abandon everything robots -can't give, or won't. We want them to be men and women. Not damned -automatons who live _by_ pushing robot-controls so they can -live _to_ push robot-controls. If that's not subordination to -robots--" - -"It's an emotional argument," protested Bordman. "Not everybody feels -that way." - -"But I feel that way," said Huyghens. "And so do a lot of others. This -is a damned big galaxy and it's apt to contain some surprises. The one -sure thing about a robot and a man who depends on them is that they -can't handle the unexpected. There's going to come a time when we need -men who can. So on my home planet, some of us asked for Loren Two, to -colonize. It was refused--too dangerous. But men can colonize anywhere -if they're men. So I came here to study the planet. Especially the -sphexes. Eventually, we expected to ask for a license again, with proof -that we could handle even those beasts. I'm already doing it in a mild -way. But the Survey licensed a robot-colony--and where is it?" - -Bordman made a sour face. - -"You took the wrong way to go about it Huyghens. It was illegal. It -is. It was the pioneer spirit, which is admirable enough, but wrongly -directed. After all, it was pioneers who left Earth for the stars. -But--" - -Sourdough raised up on his hind legs and sniffed the air. Huyghens -swung his rifle around to be handy. Bordman slipped off the -safety-catch of his own. Nothing happened. - -"In a way," said Bordman, "you're talking about liberty and freedom, -which most people think is politics. You say it can be more. In -principle, I'll concede it. But the way you put it, it sounds like a -freak religion." - -"It's self-respect," corrected Huyghens. - -"You may be--" - -Faro Nell growled. She bumped Nugget with her nose, to drive him -closer to Bordman. She snorted at him, and trotted swiftly to where -Sitka and Sourdough faced toward the broader, sphex-filled expanse of -the Sere Plateau. She took up her position between them. - -Huyghens gazed sharply beyond them and then all about. - -"This could be bad!" he said softly. "But luckily there's no wind. -Here's a sort of hill. Come along, Bordman!" - -He ran ahead, Bordman following and Nugget plumping heavily with -him. They reached the raised place, actually a mere hillock no more -than five or six feet above the surrounding sand, with a distorted -cactus-like growth protruding from the ground. Huyghens stared again. -He used his binoculars. - -"One sphex," he said curtly. "Just one! And it's out of all reason -for a sphex to be alone. But it's not rational for them to gather in -hundreds of thousands, either!" He whetted his finger and held it up. -"No wind at all." - -He used the binoculars again. - -"It doesn't know we're here," he added. "It's moving away. Not another -one in sight...." He hesitated, biting his lips. "Look here, Bordman! -I'd like to kill that one lone sphex and find out something. There's -a fifty per cent chance I could find out something really important. -But--I might have to run. If I'm right...." Then he said grimly, "It'll -have to be done quickly. I'm going to ride Faro Nell, for speed. I -doubt Sitka or Sourdough will stay behind. But Nugget can't run fast -enough. Will you stay here with him?" - -Bordman drew in his breath. Then he said calmly: - -"You know what you're doing, I hope." - -"Keep your eyes open. If you see anything, even at a distance, shoot -and we'll be back, fast! Don't wait until something's close enough to -hit. Shoot the instant you see anything, if you do!" - -Bordman nodded. He found it peculiarly difficult to speak again. -Huyghens went over to the embattled bears and climbed up on Faro Nell's -back, holding fast by her shaggy fur. - -"Let's go!" he snapped. "That way! Hup!" - -The three Kodiaks plunged away at a dead run, Huyghens lurching and -swaying on Faro Nell's back. The sudden rush dislodged Semper from his -perch. He flapped wildly and got aloft. Then he followed effortfully, -flying low. - -It happened very quickly. A Kodiak bear can travel as fast as a -race-horse on occasion. These three plunged arrow-straight for a spot -perhaps half a mile distant, where a blue-and-tawny shape whirled to -face them. There was the crash of Huyghens' weapon from where he rode -on Faro Nell's back; the explosion of the weapon and the bullet was one -sound. The monster leaped and died. - -Huyghens jumped down from Faro Nell. He became feverishly busy at -something on the ground. Semper banked and whirled and landed. He -watched, with his head on one side. - -Bordman stared. Huyghens was doing something to the dead sphex. The -two male bears prowled about, while Faro Nell regarded Huyghens with -intense curiosity. Back at the hillock, Nugget whimpered a little, and -Bordman patted him. Nugget whimpered more loudly. In the distance, -Huyghens straightened up and mounted Faro Nell's back. Sitka looked -back toward Bordman. He reared upward. He made a noise, apparently, -because Sourdough ambled to his side. The two great beasts began to -trot back. Semper flapped wildly and--lacking wind--lurched crazily -in the air. He landed on Huyghens' shoulder and clung there with his -talons. - -Then Nugget howled hysterically and tried to swarm up Bordman, as a -cub tries to swarm up the nearest tree in time of danger. Bordman -collapsed, and the cub upon him--and there was a flash of stinking -scaly hide, while the air was filled with the snarling, spitting -squeals of a sphex in full leap. The beast had over-jumped, aiming at -Bordman and the cub while both were upright and arriving when they had -fallen. It went tumbling. - -Bordman heard nothing but the fiendish squalling, but in the distance -Sitka and Sourdough were coming at rocket-ship speed. Faro Nell let out -a roar that fairly split the air. And then there was a furry streaking -toward her, bawling, while Bordman rolled to his feet and snatched up -his gun. He raged through pure instinct. The sphex crouched to pursue -the cub and Bordman swung his weapon as a club. He was literally -too close to shoot--and perhaps the sphex had only seen the fleeing -bear-cub. But he swung furiously-- - -And the sphex whirled. Bordman was toppled from his feet. An -eight-hundred-pound monstrosity straight out of hell--half wild-cat and -half spitting cobra with hydrophobia and homicidal mania added--such a -monstrosity is not to be withstood when in whirling its body strikes -one in the chest. - -That was when Sitka arrived, bellowing. He stood on his hind legs, -emitting roars like thunder, challenging the sphex to battle. He -waddled forward. Huyghens approached, but he could not shoot with -Bordman in the sphere of an explosive bullet's destructiveness. Faro -Nell raged and snarled, torn between the urge to be sure that Nugget -was unharmed, and the frenzied fury of a mother whose offspring has -been endangered. - -Mounted on Faro Nell, with Semper clinging idiotically to his shoulder, -Huyghens watched helplessly as the sphex spat and squaulled at Sitka, -having only to reach out one claw to let out Bordman's life. - - * * * * * - -They got away from there, though Sitka seemed to want to lift the -limp carcass of his victim in his teeth and dash it repeatedly to -the ground. He seemed doubly raging because a man--with whom all -Kodius Champion's descendants had an emotional relationship--had been -mishandled. But Bordman was not grievously hurt. He bounced and swore -as the bears raced for the horizon. Huyghens had flung him up on -Sourdough's pack and snapped for him to hold on. He shouted: - -"Damn it, Huyghens! This isn't right! Sitka got some deep scratches! -That horror's claws may be poisonous!" - -But Huyghens snapped "Hup! Hup!" to the bears, and they continued their -race against time. They went on for a good two miles, when Nugget -wailed despairingly of his exhaustion and Faro Nell halted firmly to -nuzzle him. - -"This may be good enough," said Huyghens. "Considering that there's no -wind and the big mass of beasts is down the plateau and there were only -those two around here. Maybe they're too busy to hold a wake, even. -Anyhow--" - -He slid to the ground and extracted the antiseptic and swabs. "Sitka -first," snapped Bordman. "I'm all right!" - -Huyghens swabbed the big bear's wounds. They were trivial, because -Sitka Pete was an experienced sphex-fighter. Then Bordman grudgingly -let the curiously-smelling stuff--it reeked of ozone--be applied to the -slashes on his chest. He held his breath as it stung. Then he said: - -"It was my fault, Huyghens. I watched you instead of the landscape. I -couldn't imagine what you were doing." - -"I was doing a quick dissection," Huyghens told him. "By luck, that -first sphex was a female, as I hoped. And she was about to lay her -eggs. Ugh! And now I know why the sphexes migrate, and where, and how -it is that they don't need game up here." - -He slapped a quick bandage on Bordman then led the way eastward, still -putting distance between the dead sphexes and his party. - -"I'd dissected them before," said Huyghens. "Not enough's been known -about them. Some things needed to be found out if men were ever to be -able to live here." - -"With bears?" asked Bordman ironically. - -"Oh, yes," said Huyghens. "But the point is that sphexes come to the -desert here to breed, to mate and lay their eggs for the sun to hatch. -It's a particular place. Seals return to a special place to mate--and -the males, at least, don't eat for weeks on end. Salmon return to their -native streams to spawn. They don't eat, and they die afterward. And -eels--I'm using Earth examples, Bordman--travel some thousands of miles -to the Sargasso to mate and die. Unfortunately, sphexes don't appear to -die, but it's clear that they have an ancestral breeding-place and that -they come to the Sere Plateau to deposit their eggs!" - -Bordman plodded onward. He was angry; angry with himself because he -hadn't taken elementary precautions; because he'd felt too safe, as a -man in a robot-served civilization forms the habit of doing; because -he hadn't used his brain when Nugget whimpered, with even a bear-cub's -awareness that danger was near. - -"And now," Huyghens added, "I need some equipment that the robot-colony -has. With it, I think we can make a start toward turning this into a -planet that man can live like men on!" - -Bordman blinked. - -"What's that?" - -"Equipment," said Huyghens impatiently. "It'll be at the robot-colony. -Robots were useless because they wouldn't pay attention to sphexes. -They'd still be. But take out the robot-controls and the machines will -do! They shouldn't be ruined by a few months' exposure to weather!" - -Bordman marched on and on. Presently he said: - -"I never thought you'd want anything that came from that colony, -Huyghens!" - -"Why not?" demanded Huyghens impatiently. "When men make machines do -what they want, that's all right. Even robots, when they're where -they belong. But men will have to handle flame-casters in the job I -want them for. There have to be some, because there was a hundred-mile -clearing to be burned off for the colony. And earth-sterilizers, -intended to kill the seeds of any plants that robots couldn't handle. -We'll come back up here, Bordman, and at the least we'll destroy -the spawn of these infernal beasts! If we can't do more than that, -just doing that every year will wipe out the race in time. There are -probably other hordes than this, with other breeding-places. But we'll -find them too. We'll make this planet into a place where men from my -world can come and still be men!" - -Bordman said sardonically: - -"It was sphexes that beat the robots. Are you sure you aren't planning -to make this world safe for robots?" - -Huyghens laughed. - -"You've only seen one night-walker," he said. "And how about those -things on the mountain-slope, which would have drained you of -blood? Would you care to wander about this planet with only a robot -body-guard, Bordman? Hardly! Men can't live on this planet with only -robots to help them. You'll see!" - - * * * * * - -They found the colony after only ten days' more travel and after many -sphexes and more than a few stag-like creatures and shaggy ruminants -had fallen to their weapons and the bears. And they found survivors. - -There were three of them, hard-bitten and bearded and deeply -embittered. When the electrified fence went down, two of them were away -at a mine-tunnel, installing a new control panel for the robots who -worked in it. The third was in charge of the mining operation. They -were alarmed by the stopping of communication with the colony and went -back in a tank-truck to find out what had happened, and only the fact -that they were unarmed saved them. They found sphexes prowling and -caterwauling about the fallen colony, in numbers they still did not -wholly believe. The sphexes smelled men inside the armored vehicle, but -couldn't break in. In turn, the men couldn't kill them, or they'd have -been trailed to the mine and besieged there for as long as they could -kill an occasional monster. - -The survivors stopped all mining, of course, and tried to use -remote-controlled robots for revenge and to get supplies for them. -Their mining-robots were not designed for either task. And they had -no weapons. They improvised miniature throwers of burning rocket-fuel, -and they sent occasional prowling sphexes away screaming with scorched -hides. But this was useful only because it did not kill the beasts. -And it cost fuel. In the end they barricaded themselves and used the -fuel only to keep a spark-signal going against the day when another -ship came to seek the colony. They stayed in the mine as in a prison, -on short rations, without real hope. For diversion they could only -contemplate the mining-robots they could not spare fuel to run and -which could not do anything but mine. - -When Huyghens and Bordman reached them, they wept. They hated robots -and all things robotic only a little less than they hated sphexes. -But Huyghens explained, and, armed with weapons from the packs of the -bears, they marched to the dead colony with the male Kodiaks as point -and advance-guard, and with Faro Nell bringing up the rear. They killed -sixteen sphexes on the way. In the now overgrown clearing there were -four more. In the shelters of the colony they found only foulness and -the fragments of what had been men. But there was some food--not much, -because the sphexes clawed at anything that smelled of men, and had -ruined the plastic packets of radiation-sterilized food. But there were -some supplies in metal containers which were not destroyed. - -And there was fuel, which men could use when they got to the -control-panels of the equipment. There were robots everywhere, bright -and shining and ready for operation, but immobile, with plants growing -up around and over them. - -They ignored those robots, and instead fueled tracked -flame-casters--after adapting them to human rather than robot -operation--and the giant soil-sterilizer which had been built to -destroy vegetation that robots could not be made to weed out or -cultivate. Then they headed back for the Sere Plateau. - -As time passed Nugget became a badly spoiled bear-cub, because the -freed men approved passionately of anything that would even grow up to -kill sphexes. They petted him to excess when they camped. - -Finally they reached the plateau by a sphex-trail to the top and -sphexes came squalling and spitting to destroy them. While Bordman and -Huyghens fired steadily, the great machines swept up with their special -weapons. The earth-sterilizer, it developed, was deadly against animal -life as well as seeds, when its diathermic beam was raised and aimed. - -Presently the bears were not needed, because the scorched corpses -of sphexes drew live ones from all parts of the plateau even in -the absence of noticeable breezes. The official business of the -sphexes was presumably finished, but they came to caterwaul and seek -vengeance--which they did not find. After a while the survivors of -the robot-colony drove the machines in great circles around the huge -heap of slaughtered fiends, destroying new arrivals as they came. It -was such a killing as men had never before made on any planet, and -there would be very few left of the sphex-horde which had bred in this -particular patch of desert. - - * * * * * - -Nor would more grow up, because the soil-sterilizer would go over the -dug-up sand where the sphex-spawn lay hidden for the sun to hatch. And -the sun would never hatch them. - -Huyghens and Bordman, by that time, were camped on the edge of the -plateau with the Kodiaks. Somehow it seemed more befitting for the men -of the robot-colony to conduct the slaughter. After all, it was those -men whose companions had been killed. - -There came an evening when Huyghens cuffed Nugget away from where he -sniffed too urgently at a stag-steak cooking on the campfire. Nugget -ambled dolefully behind the protecting form of Bordman and sniveled. - -"Huyghens," said Bordman, "we've got to come to a settlement of our -affairs. You're an illegal colonist, and it's my duty to arrest you." - -Huyghens regarded him with interest. - -"Will you offer me lenience if I tell on my confederates?" he asked, -"or may I plead that I can't be forced to testify against myself?" - -Bordman said: - -"It's irritating! I've been an honest man all my life, but--I don't -believe in robots as I did, except in their place. And their place -isn't here! Not as the robot-colony was planned, anyhow. The sphexes -are nearly wiped out, but they won't be extinct and robots can't handle -them. Bears and men will have to live here or else the people who do -will have to spend their lives behind sphex-proof fences, accepting -only what robots can give them. And there's much too much on this -planet for people to miss it! To live in a robot-managed environment on -a planet like Loren Two wouldn't--it wouldn't be self-respecting!" - -"You wouldn't be getting religious, would you?" asked Huyghens drily. -"That was your term for self-respect before." - -"You don't let me finish!" protested Bordman. "It's my job to pass -on the work that's done on a planet before any but the first-landed -colonists may come there to live. And of course to see that -specifications are followed. Now, the robot-colony I was sent to survey -was practically destroyed. As designed, it wouldn't work. It couldn't -survive." - -Huyghens grunted. Night was falling. He turned the meat over the fire. - -"In emergencies," said Bordman, "colonists have the right to call on -any passing ship for aid. Naturally! So my report will be that the -colony as designed was impractical, and that it was overwhelmed and -destroyed except for three survivors who holed up and signalled for -help. They did, you know!" - -"Go on," grunted Huyghens. - -"So," said Bordman, "it just happened--just happened, mind you--that -a ship with you and the bears and the eagle on board picked up the -distress-call. So you landed to help the colonists. That's the story. -Therefore it isn't illegal for you to be here. It was only illegal for -you to be here when you were needed. But we'll pretend you weren't." - -Huyghens glanced over his shoulder in the deepening night. He said: - -"I wouldn't believe that if I told it myself. Do you think the Survey -will?" - -"They're not fools," said Bordman tartly. "Of course they won't! But -when my report says that because of this unlikely series of events it -is practical to colonize the planet, whereas before it wasn't, and when -my report proves that a robot-colony alone is stark nonsense, but that -with bears and men from your world added, so many thousand colonists -can be received per year.... And when that much is true, anyhow...." - -Huyghens seemed to shake a little as a dark silhouette against the -flames. - -"My reports carry weight," insisted Bordman. "The deal will be offered, -anyhow! The robot-colony organizers will have to agree or they'll have -to fold up. And your people can hold them up for nearly what terms they -choose." - -Huyghens' shaking became understandable. It was laughter. - -"You're a lousy liar, Bordman," he said. "Isn't it unintelligent and -unreasonable to throw away a life-time of honesty just to get me out of -a jam? You're not acting like a rational animal, Bordman. But I thought -you wouldn't, when it came to the point." - -Bordman squirmed. - -"That's the only solution I can think of," he said. "But it'll work." - -"I accept it," said Huyghens, grinning. "With thanks. If only because -it means another few generations of men can live like men on a -planet that is going to take a lot of taming. And--if you want to -know--because it keeps Sourdough and Sitka and Nell and Nugget from -being killed because I brought them here illegally." - -Something pressed hard against Bordman. Nugget, the cub, pushed -urgently against him in his desire to get closer to the fragrantly -cooking meat. He edged forward. Bordman toppled from where he squatted -on the ground. He sprawled. Nugget sniffed luxuriously. - -"Slap him," said Huyghens. "He'll move back." - -"I won't!" said Bordman indignantly from where he lay. "I won't do it. -He's my friend!" - - * * * * * - -It was ironic that, after all, Bordman found that he couldn't afford to -retire. His pay, of course, had been used to educate his children and -maintain his home. And Lani III was an expensive world to live on. It -was now occupied by a thriving, bustling population with keen business -instincts, and the vapor-curtains about it were commonplaces, now, and -few people remembered a time when they hadn't existed,--when it was a -world below habitability for anybody. So Bordman wasn't a hero. As a -matter of history he had done such and such. As a matter of fact he was -simply a citizen who could be interviewed for visicasts on holidays, -but hadn't much that was new to say. - -But he lived on Lani III for three years, and he was restless. His -children were grown and married, now,--and they hadn't known him too -well, anyhow. He'd been away so much! He didn't fit into the world -whose green fields and oceans and rivers he was responsible for. But it -was infinitely good to be with Riki again. There was so much that each -remembered, to be shared with the other, that they had plenty to talk -about. - -Three years after his official retirement, he was asked to take on -another Survey job on which there was no other qualified man free to -work on. He talked to his wife. On retirement pay, life was not easy. -In retirement, it wasn't satisfactory. And Riki was free too, now. Her -children were safely on their own. Bordman would always need her. She -advised him for both their sakes. And he went back to Survey duty with -the stipulation that he should have quarters and facilities for his -wife as well as himself on all assignments. - -They had five wonderful years. Bordman was near the top of the ladder, -then. His children wrote faithfully. He was busy on Kelmin IV, and his -wife had a garden there, when he was summoned to Sector Headquarters -with first priority urgency. - - - - - THE SWAMP WAS UPSIDE DOWN - - -Bordman knew the Survey ship had turned end-for-end, because though -there was artificial gravity, it does not affect the semicircular -canals of the human ear. He knew he was turning head-over-heels, -even though his feet stayed firmly on the floor. It was not a normal -sensation, and he felt that queasy, instinctive tightening of the -muscles with which one reacts to the abnormal, whether in things seen -or felt. - -But the reason for turning the ship end-for-end was obvious. It had -arrived very near its destination, and was killing its Lawlor-drive -momentum. Just as Bordman was assured that the turning motion was -finished, young Barnes--the ship's lowest-ranking commissioned -officer--came into the wardroom and beamed at him. - -"The ship's not landing, sir," he said, like one explaining something -to somebody under ten years old. "Our orders are changed. You're to go -to ground by boat. This way, sir." - -Bordman shrugged. He was a Senior Officer of the Colonial Survey, grown -old in the Service, and this was a Survey ship that had been sent -especially to get him from his last and still unfinished job. It was a -top-urgency matter. This ship had had no other business for some months -except to go after him and bring him to Sector Headquarters, down on -Canna III, which must be somewhere near. But this young officer was -patronizing him! - -Bordman rather regretfully recognized that he didn't know how to be -impressive. He was not a good salesman of his own importance. He didn't -even get the respect due his rank. - -Now the young officer waited, brisk and alert. Bordman reflected -wrily that he could pin young Barnes' ears back easily enough. But he -remembered when he'd been a junior Survey ship's officer. Then he'd -felt a bland condescension toward all people of whatever rank who did -not spend their lives in the cramped, skimped quarters of a Survey -patrol-ship. If this young Lieutenant Barnes were fortunate, he'd -always feel that way. Bordman could not begrudge him the cockiness -which made the tedium and hardships of the Service seem to him a -privilege. - -So he obediently followed Barnes through the wardroom door. He ducked -his head under a ventilation-slot and sidled past a standpipe with -bristling air-valve handles. It almost closed the way. There was the -smell of oil and paint and ozone which all proper Survey ships maintain -in their working sections. - -"Here, sir," said Barnes. "This way." - -He offered his arm for Bordman to steady himself. Bordman ignored it. -He stepped over a complex of white-painted pipes, and arrived at an -almost clear way to a boat-blister. - -"And your luggage, sir," added the young man reassuringly, "will follow -you down immediately, sir. With the mail." - -Bordman nodded. He moved toward the blister door. He sidled past -constrictions due to new equipment. The Survey ship had been designed -a long time ago, and there were no funds for rebuilding when improved -devices came along. So any Survey ship was apt to be cluttered up with -afterthoughts in metal. - -A speaker from the wall said sharply: - -"_Hear this! Hold fast! Gravity going off!_" - -Bordman caught at a nearby pipe, and snatched his hand away again--it -was hot--and caught on to another and then put his other hand below. He -applied a trifle of pressure. The young officer said kindly: - -"Hold fast, sir. If I may suggest--" - -The gravity did go off. Bordman grimaced. There'd been a time when he -was used to such matters, but this time the sudden outward surge of his -breath caught him unprepared. His diaphragm contracted as the weight of -organs above it ceased to be. He choked for an instant. He said evenly: - -"I am not likely to go head-over-heels, Lieutenant. I served four years -as a junior swot on a ship exactly like this!" - -He did not float about. He held onto a pipe in two places, and he -applied expert pressure in a strictly professional manner, and his -feet remained firmly on the floor. He startled young Barnes by the -achievement, which only junior swots think only junior swots know about. - -Barnes said, abashed: - -"Yes, sir." He held himself in the same fashion. - -"I even know," said Bordman, "that the gravity had to be cut -off because we're approaching another ship on Lawlor drive. Our -gravity-coils would blow if we got into her field with our drive off, -or if her field pressed ours inboard." - -Young Barnes looked extremely uncomfortable. Bordman felt sorry for -him. To be chewed, however delicately, for patronizing a senior officer -could not be pleasant. So Bordman added: - -"And I also remember that, when I was a junior swot I once tried to -tell a Sector Chief how to top off his suit-tanks. So don't let it -bother you!" - -The young officer was embarrassed. A Sector Chief was so high in -the table of Survey organization that one of his idle thoughts was -popularly supposed to be able to crack a junior officer's skull. If -Bordman, as a young officer, had really tried to tell a Sector Chief -how to top his suit-tanks.... Why.... - -"Thank you, sir," said Barnes awkwardly. "I'll try not to be an ass -again, sir." - -"I suspect," said Bordman, "that you'll slip occasionally. I did! What -the devil's another ship doing out here and why aren't we landing?" - -"I wouldn't know, sir," said the young officer. His manner toward -Bordman was quite changed. "I do know the Skipper came in expecting to -land by the landing-grid, sir. He was told to stand off. He's as much -surprised as you are, sir." - -The wall-speaker said crisply: - -"_Hear this! Gravity returning! Gravity returning!_" - -And weight came back. Bordman was ready for it this time and took it -casually. He looked at the speaker and it said nothing more. He nodded -to the young man. - -"I suppose I'd better get in the boat. No change in that arrangement, -anyhow!" - -He crawled through the blister door and wormed his way into the landing -boat, one designed for a more modern ship, and excessively inconvenient -in such an outmoded launching-device. Barnes crawled in after him. - -He dogged the blister door from the inside, closed the boat port and -dogged it, and flapped a switch. - -"Excuse me, sir. I'm to take you down." - -"Ready for departure," he said into a microphone. - -A dial on the instrument-board flicked half-way to zero. It stopped -there. Seconds passed. A green light glowed. The young officer said: - -"All tight!" - -The needle darted a quarter-way further over, and then began to descend -slowly. The blister was being pumped empty of air. Presently another -light glowed. - -"Ready for launching," said the young officer briskly. - -The blister-seal broke with a clank, and, the two halves of the -boat-cover drew back. There were stars. To Bordman they were -unfamiliarly arranged, but he could have picked out Seton and the Donis -cluster in any case, and half a hundred more markers by taking thought -of the position of the planet Canna III, on which Colonial Survey -Sector Headquarters for this part of the galaxy were established. - -The boat moved out of its place, and the ship's gravity-field ended as -abruptly as such fields do. - -The Survey ship floated away, as seen from the vision-ports of the -boat. It apparently increased its drive, because the boat swirled and -swayed as changing eddy-currents moved it. The ship grew small and -vanished. The boat hung in emptiness, turning slowly. The sun Canna -came into view. It was very large for a Sol-type sun, and its rim was -almost devoid of the prominences and jet-streams of flaming gas that -older suns of the type display. But even out at the third orbit it -provided O-1 climate--optimum: equivalent to Earth--for the planet -below. - -That planet now came swinging into view as the ship's boat continued to -turn. It was blue. More than ninety per cent of its surface was water, -and much of the solid land was under the northern ice-cap. It had been -chosen as Sector Headquarters because of its unsuitability for a large -population, which might resent the considerable land-area needed for -Survey storage and reserve facilities. - -Bordman regarded it thoughtfully. The boat was, of course, roughly five -planetary diameters out, the conventional distance to which a ship -approached any planet on its own drive. Bordman could see the ice-cap -clearly, and blue sea beyond it, and the twilight-line. There was one -cyclonic storm just dissipating toward the night-side, and the edge of -a similar cloud-system down toward the equator. Bordman searched for -Headquarters. It was on an island at about forty-five degrees latitude, -which ought to be near the center of the planet's surface as seen from -where the ship's boat floated. But he could not make it out. There was -only the one island of any importance and it was not large. - -Nothing happened. The boat's rockets remained silent. The young officer -sat quietly, looking at the instruments before him. He seemed to be -waiting for something to happen. - -A needle kicked and stayed just off the pin. It was an external-field -indicator. Some field, somewhere, now included the space in which the -ship's boat floated. - -"Hm," said Bordman. "You're waiting for orders?" - -"Yes, sir," said the young man. "I'm ordered not to land except under -ground instructions, sir. I don't know why." - -Bordman observed: - -"One of the worst wiggings I ever got was in a boat like this. I was -waiting for orders and they didn't come. I acted very Service about -it: stiff upper lip and all that. But I was getting in serious trouble -when it occurred to me that it might be my fault I wasn't getting the -orders." - -The young officer glanced quickly at an instrument he had previously -ignored. Then he said relievedly: - -"Not this time, sir. The communicator's turned on all right." - -Bordman said: - -"Do you think they might be calling you without shifting from -ship-frequency? They were talking to the ship, you know." - -"I'll try, sir." - -The young man leaned forward and switched to ship-band adjustment of -the communicator. Different wave-bands, naturally, were used between a -ship and shore, and a ship and its own boats. A booming carrier wave -came in instantly. The young officer hastily turned down the volume and -words became distinguishable. - -"... _What the devil's the matter with you? Acknowledge!_" - -The young officer gulped. Bordman said mildly: - -"Since he ranks you, just say 'sorry, sir.'" - -"S-sorry, sir," said Barnes into the microphone. - -"_Sorry?_" snapped the voice from the ground. "_I've been -calling for five minutes! Your skipper will hear about this! I -shall--_" - -Bordman pulled the microphone before him. - -"My name is Bordman," he observed. "I am waiting for instructions to -land. My pilot has been listening on boat-frequency, as was proper. You -appear to be calling us on an improper channel. Really--" - -There was stricken silence. Then babbled apologies from the speaker. -Bordman smiled faintly at young Barnes. - -"It's quite all right. Let's forget it now. But will you give my pilot -his instructions?" - -The voice said with strained formality: - -"_You're to be brought down by landing-grid, sir. Rocket-landings -have been ruled non-permitted by the Sector Chief himself, sir. But -we are already landing one boat, sir. Senior Officer Werner is being -brought in now, sir. His boat is still two diameters out, sir, and it -will take us nearly an hour to get him down without extreme discomfort, -sir._" - -"Then we'll wait," said Bordman. "Hm. Call us again before you start -hunting us with the landing-beam. My pilot has a rather promising idea. -And will you call us on the proper frequency then, please?" - -The voice aground said unhappily: - -"_Yes, sir. Certainly, sir._" - -The carrier-wave hum stopped. Young Barnes said gratefully: - -"Thank you, sir! Hell hath no fury like a ranking officer caught in a -blunder! He'd have twisted my tail for his mistake, sir, and it could -have been bad!" Then he paused. He said uneasily, "But--beg pardon, -sir. I haven't any promising ideas. Not that I know of!" - -"You have an hour to develop one," Bordman told him. - -Internally, Bordman was startled. There were few occasions on which -even one Senior Officer was called in to Sector Headquarters. -Interstellar distances being what they were, and thirty light-speeds -being practically the best available, Senior Officers necessarily acted -pretty much as independent authorities. To call one man in meant all -his other work had to go by the board for a matter of months. But two! -And Werner? - -Werner was getting to ground first. If there was something serious -ashore, Werner would make a great point of arriving first, even if only -by hours. A keen sort of person in giving the right impression. He'd -risen in the Service faster than Bordman. That other Lawlor field would -have been his ship getting out of the way. - -The young officer at his elbow fidgeted. - -"Beg pardon, sir. What sort of idea should I develop, sir? I'm not sure -I understand--" - -"It's rather annoying to have to stay parked in free fall," said -Bordman patiently. "And it's always a good practice to review annoying -situations and see if they can be bettered." - -Barnes' forehead wrinkled. - -"We could land much quicker on rockets, sir. And even when the -landing-grid reaches out for us, they'll have to handle us very -cautiously or they'd break our necks, since we've no gravity-coils." - -Bordman nodded. Barnes was thinking straight enough, but it takes young -officers a long time to think of thinking straight. They have to obey -so many orders unquestioningly that they tend to stop doing anything -else. Yet at each rise in grade some slight trace of increased capacity -to think is required. In order to reach really high rank, an officer -has to be capable of thinking which simply isn't possible unless he's -kept in practice on the way up. - -Young Barnes looked up, startled. - -"Look here, sir!" he said, surprised. "If it takes them an hour to let -down Senior Officer Werner from two planetary diameters, it'll take -much longer to let us down from out here!" - -"True," said Bordman. - -"And you don't want to spend three hours descending, sir, after waiting -an hour for him!" - -"I don't," admitted Bordman. He could have given orders, of course. But -if a junior officer were spurred to the practice of thinking, it meant -that some day he'd be a better senior officer. And Bordman knew how -desperately few men were really adequate for high authority. Anything -that could be done to increase the number-- - -Young Barnes blinked. - -"But it doesn't matter to the landing-grid how far out we are!" he said -in an astonished voice. "They could lock on to us at ten diameters, or -at one! Once they lock the field-focus on us, when they move it they -move us." - -Bordman nodded again. - -"So by the time they've got that other boat landed--why--I can use -rockets and get down to one diameter myself, sir! And they can lock -onto us there and let us down a few thousand miles only. So we can get -to ground half an hour after the other boat's down instead of four -hours from now." - -"Just so," agreed Bordman. "At a cost of a little thought and a little -fuel. You do have a promising idea after all, Lieutenant. Suppose you -carry it out?" - -Young Barnes glanced at Bordman's safety-strap. He threw over the -fuel-ready lever and conscientiously waited the few seconds for the -first molecules of fuel to be catalyzed cold. Once firing started, -they'd be warmed to detonation-readiness in the last few millimetres of -the injection-gap. - -"Firing, sir," he said respectfully. - -There was the curious sound of a rocket blasting in emptiness, when -the sound is conveyed only by the rocket-tube's metal. There was the -smooth, pushing sensation of acceleration. The tiny ship's boat swung -and aimed down at the planet. Lieutenant Barnes leaned forward and -punched the ship's computer. - -"I hope you'll excuse me, sir," he said. "I should have thought that -out myself without prompting. But problems like this don't turn up very -often, sir. As a rule it's wisest to follow precedents as if they were -orders." - -Bordman said drily: - -"To be sure! But one reason for the existence of junior officers is the -fact that some day there will have to be new senior ones." - -Barnes considered. Then he said surprisedly: - -"I never thought of it that way, sir. Thank you." - -He continued to punch the computer keys, frowning. Bordman relaxed in -his seat, held there by the gentle acceleration and the belt. He'd had -nothing by which to judge the reason for his summoning to Headquarters. -He had very little now. But there was trouble of some sort down below. -Two senior officers dragged from their own work. Werner, now ... -Bordman preferred not to estimate Werner. He disliked the man, and -would be biased. But he was able, though definitely on the make. And -there was himself. They'd been called to a headquarters where no ship -was to be landed by landing-grid, nor any rocket to come to ground. A -landing-grid could pluck a ship out of space ten planet-diameters out, -and draw it with gentle violence shoreward, and land it lightly as a -feather. A landing-grid could take the heaviest, loaded freighter and -stop it in orbit and bring it down at eight gravities. But the one -below wouldn't land even a tiny Survey ship! And a landing-boat was -forbidden to come down on its rockets! - -Bordman arranged those items in his mind. He knew the planet below, -of course. When he got his Senior rating he'd spent six months at -Headquarters learning procedures and practices proper to his increased -authority. There was one inhabitable island, two hundred miles long -and possibly forty wide. There was no other usable ground outside -the Arctic. The one occupied island had gigantic sheer cliffs on its -windward side, where a great slab of bed-rock had split along some -submarine fault and tilted upward above the surface. Those cliffs were -four thousand feet high, and from them the island sloped very gently -and very gradually until its leeward shore slipped under the restless -sea. Sector Headquarters had been placed here because it seemed that -civilians would not want to colonize so limited a world. But there were -civilians, because there was Headquarters. And now every inch of ground -was cultivated, and there was irrigation and intensive farming and -some hydroponic establishments. However, Sector Headquarters included -a vast reserve-area on which a space-fleet might be marshalled in case -of need. The over-crowded civilians were bitter because of the great -uncultivated area the Survey needed for storage and possible emergency -use. Even when Bordman was here, years back, there was bitterness -because the Survey crowded the civil economy which had been based on it. - -Bordman considered all these items, and came to an uncomfortable -conclusion. Presently he looked up. The planet loomed larger. Much -larger. - -"I think you'd better lose all planetward velocity before we hook on," -he observed. "The landing-grid crew might have trouble focusing on us -so close if we're moving." - -"Yes, sir," said the young officer. - -"There's some sort of merry hell below," said Bordman. "It looks bad -that they won't let a ship come down by grid. It looks worse that they -won't let this one land on its rockets." He paused. "I doubt they'll -risk lifting us off again." - -Young Barnes finished his computations. He looked satisfied. He glanced -at the now-gigantic planet below, and deftly adjusted the course of the -tiny boat. Then he jerked his head around. - -"Excuse me, sir. Did you say we mightn't be able to lift off again?" - -"I could almost predict that we won't," said Bordman. - -"Would you--could you say why, sir?" - -"They don't want landings. The trouble is here. If they don't want -landings, they won't want launchings. Werner and I were sent for, so -presumably we're needed. But apparently there's uneasiness about even -our landing. They won't send us off again. I suspect--" - -The loud-speaker said tinnily: - -"_Calling boat from landing-grid! Calling boat from landing-grid!_" - -"Come in," said Barnes, looking uneasily at Bordman. - -"_Correct your course!_" commanded the voice. "_You are not to -land on rockets under any circumstances! This is an order from the -Sector Chief himself. Stand off! We will be ready to lock on and land -you gently in about fifteen minutes. But meanwhile stand off!_" - -"Yes, sir," said young Barnes. - -Bordman reached over and took the microphone. - -"Bordman speaking," he said. "I'd like information. What's the trouble -down there that we can't use our rockets?" - -"_Rockets are noisy, sir. Even boat-rockets. We have orders to -eliminate all physical vibration possible, sir. But I am ordered not to -give details on a transmitter, sir._" - -"I sign off," said Bordman, drily. - -He pushed the microphone away. He deplored his own lack of -aggressiveness. Werner, now, would have pulled his rank and insisted on -being informed. But Bordman couldn't help believing that there was a -reason for orders that overruled his own. - -The young officer swung the rocket end-for-end. The sensation of -pressure against the back of Bordman's seat increased. - -Minutes later the speaker said: - -"_Grid to boat. Prepare for lock-on._" - -"Ready, sir," said Barnes. - -The small boat shuddered and leaped crazily. It spun. It oscillated -violently through seconds-long arcs in emptiness. Very gradually the -oscillations died. There was a momentary sensation of the faint tugging -of planetary weight, which is somehow subtly different from the feel of -artificial gravity. Then the cosmos turned upside down as the boat was -drawn swiftly toward the watery planet below it. - -Some minutes later, young Barnes spoke: - -"Beg pardon, sir," he said apologetically. "I must be stupid, sir, but -I can't imagine any reason why vibrations or noises should make any -difference on a planet. How could it do harm?" - -"This is an ocean-planet," said Bordman. "It might make people drown." - -The young officer flushed and turned his head away. And Bordman -reflected that the young were always sensitive. But he did not speak -again. When they landed in the spidery, half-mile-high landing-grid, -Barnes would find out whether he was right or not. - -He did. And Bordman was right. The people on Canna III were anxious to -avoid vibrations because they were afraid of drowning. - -Their fears seemed to be rather well-founded. - - * * * * * - -Three hours after landing, Bordman moved gingerly over grayish muddy -rock, with a four-thousand-foot sheer drop some twenty yards away. The -ragged edge of a cliff fell straight down for the better part of a -mile. Far below, the sea rippled gently. Bordman saw a long, long line -of boats moving slowly out to sea. They towed something between them -which reached from boat to boat in exaggerated catenary curves. The -boats moved in line abreast straight out from the cliffs, towing this -floating, curved thing between them. - -Bordman regarded them for a moment and then inspected the grayish mud -underfoot. He lifted his eyes to the inland side of this peculiar -stretch of mountainside muddiness. There was a mast on the rock not far -away. It held up what looked like a vision-camera. - -Young Barnes said: - -"Excuse me, sir. What are those boats doing?" - -"They're towing an oil-slick out to sea," said Bordman absently, "by -towing a floating line of some sort between them. There isn't enough -oil to maintain the slick, and it's blown land-ward. So they tow it out -to sea again. It holds down the seas. Every time, of course, they lose -some of it." - -"But--" - -"There are trade winds," said Bordman, not looking to sea-ward at -all. "They always blow in the same direction, nearly. They blow -three-quarters of the way around the planet, and they build up seas as -they blow. Normally, the swells that pound against this cliff, here, -will be a hundred feet and more from trough to crest. They'll throw -spray ten times that high, of course, and once when I was here before, -spray came over the cliff-top. The impacts of the waves are--heavy. In -a storm, if you put your ear to the ground on the leeward shore, you -can hear the waves smash against these cliffs. It's vibration." - -Bares looked uneasily at the cliff's edge and the line of boats pushing -over an ocean whose waves seemed less than ripples from nearly a mile -above them. But the line of boats was incredibly long. It was twenty -miles in length at the least. - -"The slick holds down the waves," Barnes guessed. "It works best in -deep water, I believe. The ancients knew it. Oil on the waters." He -considered. "Working hard to prevent vibrations! Are they really so -dangerous, sir?" - -Bordman nodded inland. A quarter mile from the edge of the cliff there -was a peculiar, broken, riven rampart of soil. It might have been forty -feet high, once. Now it was shattered and cracked. It had the look -of having been pulled away from where it was withdrawn. There were -vertical breaks in its edges and broken-off masses left behind. At one -place, a clump of perhaps a quarter-acre had not followed the rest, -and trees leaned drunkenly from its top, and at the edge had fallen -outward. All along the top of the stone cliff as far as the eye could -see there was this singular retreat of soil and vegetation from the -cliff's edge. - -Bordman stooped and picked up a bit of the mud underfoot. He rubbed it -between his fingers. It yielded like modelling clay. He dipped a finger -into a gray, greasy-seeming puddle. He looked at the thick liquid on -his finger and then rubbed it against his other palm. Young Barnes -duplicated this last action. - -"It feels soapy, sir!" he said blankly. "Like wet soap!" - -"Yes," said Bordman. "That's the first problem here." - -He turned to a ground-service Survey private, and jerked his head along -the coast-line. - -"How much have other places slipped?" - -"Anywhere from this much, sir," said the private, "to two miles and -upward. There's one place where it's moving at a regular rate. Four -inches an hour, sir. It was three-and-a-half yesterday." - -Bordman nodded. - -"Hm. We'll go back to Headquarters. Nasty business!" - -He plodded over the messy footing toward the vehicle which had brought -him here. It was not an ordinary ground car. Instead of wires or -caterwheels, it rolled upon flaccid, partly-inflated five-foot rollers. -They would be completely unaffected by roughness or slipperiness of -terrain and if the vehicle fell overboard it would float. It was -thickly coated with the gray mud of this cliff-top. - -As he moved along, Bordman was able to see the pattern of the rock -underneath the mud. It was curiously contorted, like something that had -curdled rather than cooled. And, as a matter of fact, it was believed -to have solidified slowly under water at such monstrous pressure -that even molten rock could not make it burst into steam. But it was -above-water now. - -Bordman climbed into the vehicle, and Barnes followed him. The -bolster-truck turned and moved toward the broken barrier of earth. -Its five-foot flabby rollers seemed rather to flow over than to -surmount obstacles. Great lumps of drier dirt dented them and did not -disintegrate. There were no stones. - -Bordman frowned to himself. The bolster-truck more or less flowed up -the crumbling, inexplicably drawing-back mass of soil. Atop it, things -looked almost normal. Almost. There was a highway leading away from the -cliff. At first glance it seemed perfect. But it was cracked down the -middle for a hundred yards, and then the crack meandered off to the -side and was gone. There was a great tree, which leaned drunkenly. A -mile along the roadway its surface bucked as if something had pressed -irresistibly upward from below. The truck rolled over the break. - -It was notable that the motion of the truck was utterly smooth. It made -no vibration at all. But even so it slowed before it moved through a -place where buildings--houses and a shop or two--clustered closely -together on each side of the road. - -There were people in and about the house, but they were doing nothing -at all. Some of them stared at the Survey truck with hostility. Some -others deliberately turned their backs to it. There were vehicles out -of shelter and ready to be used, but none was moving. All were pointed -in the direction from which the bolster-truck had come. - -The truck went on. Presently the extraordinary flatness of the -landscape became apparent. It was possible to see a seemingly -illimitable distance. The ocean forty miles away showed as a thread -of blue beneath the horizon. The island was an almost perfectly plane -tilted surface. There was no hill visible anywhere, nor any valleys -save the extremely minor gullies worn by rain. Even they had been -filled in, dammed, and tied in to irrigation systems. - -There was a place where there was a row of trees along such a -water-course. Half the row was fallen, and a part of the rest was -tilted. The remainder stood upright and firm. All the vegetation was -perfectly familiar. Most colonies have some vegetation, at least, -directly descended from the mother-planet Earth. But this island on -Canna III had been above-water perhaps no more than three or four -thousand years. There had been no time for local vegetation to develop. -When the Survey took it over, there was nothing but tidal seaweed, only -one variety of which had been able to extend itself in weblike fashion -over the soil above water. Terrestrial plants had wiped it out, and -everything was green and human-introduced. - -But there was something wrong with the ground. At this place the top of -the soil bulged, and tall corn-plants grew extravagantly in different -directions. At another, there was a narrow, lipless gash in the -ground's surface. An irrigation-ditch poured water into it. It was not -filled. - -Barnes said: - -"Excuse me, sir, but how the devil did this happen?" - -"There's been irrigation," said Bordman patiently. "The soil here was -all ocean-bottom, once--it used to be what is called globigerinous -ooze. There's no sand, and no stones. There's only bed-rock and -formerly abyssal mud. And some of it underneath is no longer former. -It's globigerinous ooze again." - -He waved his hand at the landscape. It had been remarkably tidy, once. -Every square foot of ground had been cultivated. The highways were of -limited width, and the houses were neat and trim. It was, perhaps, the -most completely civilized landscape in the galaxy. Bordman added: - -"You said the stuff felt like soap. In a way it's acting like soap. It -lies on slightly slanting, effectively smooth rock, like a soap-cake on -a sheet of metal that's tilted a bit. And that's the trouble. So long -as a cake of soap is dry on the bottom it doesn't move. Even if you -pour water on top, like rain, the top will wet, and the water will flow -off, but the bottom won't wet until all the soap is dissolved away. -While that was the process here, everything was all right. But they've -been irrigating." - -They passed a row of neat cottages facing the road. One had collapsed -completely. The others looked absolutely normal. The bolster-truck went -on. - -Bordman said, frowning: - -"They wanted the water to go into the soil, so they arranged it. A -little of that did no harm. Plants growing dried it out again. One tree -evaporates thousands of gallons a day in a good trade-wind. There were -some landslides in the early days, especially when storm-swells pounded -the cliffs, but on the whole the ground was more firmly anchored when -first cultivated than it had been before the colonists came." - -"But irrigation? The sea's not fresh, is it?" - -"Water-freshening plants," said Bordman drily. "Ion-exchange systems. -They installed them and had all the fresh water they could wish for. -And they wished for a lot. They deep-ploughed, so the water would sink -in. They dammed the water-courses. What they did amounted to something -like boring holes in that cake of soap I used for an illustration just -now. Water went right down to the bottom. What would happen then?" - -Barnes said: - -"Why the bottom would get wet--and the soap would slide! As if it were -greased!" - -"Not greased," corrected Bordman. "Soaped. Soap is viscous. That's -different, and a lucky difference, too. But the least vibration would -encourage movement. And it does. So the population is now walking on -eggs. Worse, it's walking on the equivalent of a cake of soap which -is getting wetter and wetter on the bottom. It's already sliding as -a viscous substance does, reluctantly. But in spite of the oil-slick -they're trying to keep in place upwind there's still some battering -from the sea. There are still some vibrations in the bed-rock. And so -there's a slow, gentle, gradual sliding." - -"And they figure," said Barnes, "that locking onto a ship with the -landing-grid might be like an earthquake." He stopped. "An earthquake, -now--" - -"Not much vulcanism on this planet," Bordman told him. "But of course -there are tectonic quakes occasionally. They made this island." - -Barnes said uneasily: - -"I don't think, sir, that I'd sleep well if I lived here." - -"You are living here for the moment. But at your age I think you'll -sleep." - -The bolster-truck turned, following the highway. The road was very -even, and the motion of the truck along it was infinitely smooth. -Its lack of vibration explained why it was permitted to move when -all other vehicles were stopped. But Bordman reflected uneasily that -this did not account for the orders of the Sector Chief forbidding -the rocket-landing of a ship's boat. It was true enough that the -living-surface of the island rested upon slanting stone, and that if -the bottom were wet enough that it could slide off into the sea. It -already had moved. At least one place was moving at four inches per -hour. But that was viscous flow. It would be enhanced by vibration, -and assuredly the hammering of seas upon the windward cliff should be -lessened by any possible means. - -But it did not mean that the sound of a rocket-landing would be -disastrous, nor the straining of a landing-grid as it stopped a -space-ship in orbit and drew it to ground should produce a landslide. -There was something else, though the situation for the island's -civilian population was already serious enough. If any really massive -movement of the ground did begin, viscous or any other, if any -considerable part of the island's surface did begin to move, all of it -would go. And the population would go with it. If there were survivors, -they could be numbered in dozens. - -The tall tamped-earth wall of the Headquarters reserve-area loomed -ahead. Sector Headquarters had been established here when there were -no other inhabitants. Seeds had been broadcast and trees planted while -the Survey buildings were under construction. Headquarters, in fact, -had been built upon an uninhabited planet. But colonists followed in -the wake of Survey-personnel. Wives and children, and then storekeepers -and agriculturists, and presently civilian technicians and ultimately -even politicians arrived as the non-Service population grew. Now Sector -Headquarters was resented because it occupied one-fourth of the island. -It kept too much of the planet's useful surface out of civilian use. -And the island was desperately over-crowded. - -But it seemed also to be doomed. - -As the bolster-truck moved silently toward Headquarters, a hundred-yard -section of the wall collapsed. There was an up-surging of dust, and a -rumbling of falling, hardened dirt. The truck's driver turned white. -A civilian beside the road faced the wall and wrung his hands, and -stood waiting to feel the ground under his feet begin to sweep smoothly -toward the here-distant sea. A post held up a traffic signal some -twenty yards from the gate. It leaned slowly. At a forty-five-degree -tilt it checked and hung stationary. Fifty yards from the gate, a new -crack appeared across the road. - -But nothing more happened. Nothing. Yet one could not be sure that some -critical point had not been passed, so that from now on there would be -a gradual rise in the creeping of the soil toward the ocean. - -Barnes caught his breath. - -"That makes me feel--queer," he said unsteadily. "A shock like that -wall falling could start everything off!" - -Bordman said nothing at all. It had occurred to him that there was no -irrigation of the Survey area. He frowned thoughtfully, even worriedly, -as the truck went inside the Headquarters gate and rolled on over a -winding road through park-like surroundings. - -It stopped before the building which was the Sector Chief's own -headquarters in Headquarters. A large brown dog dozed peacefully on the -plastic-tiled landing at the top of half a dozen steps. When Bordman -got out of the truck the dog got up with a leisurely air. And when -Bordman ascended the steps, with Barnes following him, the dog came -forward with a sort a stately courtesy to do the honors. Bordman said: - -"Nice dog, that." - -He went inside. The dog followed. The interior of the building was -empty, and there was a sort of resonant silence until somewhere a -telewriter began to click. - -"Come along," said Bordman. "The Sector Chief's office is over this -way." - -Young Barnes followed. - -"It seems odd there's no one around," he said. "No secretaries, no -sentries, nobody at all." - -"Why should there be?" asked Bordman in surprise. "The guards at the -gate keep civilians out. And nobody in the Service will bother the -Chief without reason. At least, not more than once!" - -But across the glistening, empty floor there ran an ominous crack. - -They went down a corridor. Voices sounded, and Bordman tracked them, -with the paws of the dog clicking on the floor behind him. He led -the way into a spacious, comfortably non-descript room with high -windows--doors, really--that opened on green lawns outside. The Sector -Chief, Sandringham, leaned back in a chair, smoking. Werner, the other -summoned Senior Officer, sat bolt upright in a chair facing him. -Sandringham waved a hand to Bordman. - -"Back so soon? You're ahead of schedule on all counts! Here's Werner, -back from looking at the fuel-store situation." - -Bordman suddenly looked as if he'd been jolted. But he nodded, and -Werner tried to smile and failed. He was completely white. - -"My pilot from the ship, who's kept aground," said Bordman. "Lieutenant -Barnes. Very promising young officer. Cut my landing-time by hours. -Lieutenant, this is Sector Chief Sandringham and Mr. Werner." - -"Have a seat, Bordman," grunted the Chief. "You too, Lieutenant. How -does it look up on the cliff, Bordman?" - -"I suspect you know as well as I do," said Bordman. "I think I saw a -vision-camera planted up there." - -"True enough. But there's nothing like on-the-spot inspection. Now -you're back, how does it look to you?" - -"Inadequate," said Bordman. "Inadequate to explain some things I've -noticed. But it's a very bad situation. Its degree of badness depends -on the viscosity of the mud at bed-rock all over the island. The -left-behind mud's like pea soup. It looks really bad! But what's the -viscosity at bed-rock with soil pressing down, and I hope drier soil -than at the bottom?" - -Sandringham grunted. - -"Good question. I sent for you, Bordman, when it began to look bad, -before the ground really started sliding. When I thought it might begin -any time. The viscosity averages pretty closely at three times ten to -the sixth. Which still gives us some leeway. But not enough." - -"Not nearly enough!" said Bordman impatiently. "Irrigation should have -been stopped a long while back!" - -The Sector Chief grimaced. - -"I've no authority over civilians. They've their own planetary -government. And do you remember?" He quoted: "'Civilian establishments -and governments may be advised by Colonial Survey officials, and may -make requests of them, but in each case such advice or request is to be -considered on its own merits only, and in no case may it be the subject -of a _quid-pro-quo_ agreement.'" He added grimly: "That means you -can't threaten. It's been thrown at my head every time I've asked them -to cut down their irrigation in the past fifteen years! I advised them -not to irrigate at all, and they couldn't see it. It would increase the -food supply, and they needed more food. So they went ahead. They built -two new sea-water freshening plants only last year!" - -Werner licked his lips. He said in a voice that was higher-pitched than -Bordman remembered: - -"What's happening serves them right! It serves them right!" - -Bordman waited. - -"Now," said Sandringham, "they're demanding to be let into Sector -Headquarters for safety. They say we haven't irrigated, so the ground -we occupy isn't going to slide. They demand that we take them all in -here to sit on their rumps until the rest of the island slides into the -sea or doesn't. If it doesn't, they want to wait here until the soil -becomes stable again because they've quit irrigating." - -"It'd serve them right if we let them in!" cried Werner in shrill -anger. "It's their fault that they're in this fix!" - -Sandringham waved his hand. - -"Administering abstract justice isn't my job. I imagine it's handled in -more competent quarters. I have only to meet the objective situation. -Which is plenty! Bordman, you've handled swamp-planet situations. What -can be done to stop the sliding of the island's soil before it all goes -overboard?" - -"Not much, offhand," said Bordman. "Give me time and I'll manage -something. But a really bad storm, with high seas and plenty of rain, -might wipe out the whole civilian colony. That viscosity figure is -close to hopeless, if not quite." - -The Sector Chief looked impassive. - -"How much time does he have, Werner?" - -"None!" said Werner shrilly. "The only possible thing is to try to -move as many people as possible to the solid ground in the Arctic! -The boats can be crowded--the situation demands it! And if the two -space-craft in orbit are sent to collect a fleet, and as many people as -possible are moved at once, there may be some survivors!" - -Bordman spread out his hands. - -"I'm wondering," he observed, "what the really serious problem is. -There's more than sliding soil the matter! Else you would--I'm sure -Lieutenant Barnes has thought of this--else you would let the civilian -population into Headquarters to sit on its rump and wait for better -times." - -Sandringham glanced at young Barnes, who flushed hotly at being noticed. - -"I'm sure you have good reasons, sir," he said, embarrassed. - -"I have several," said the Sector Chief drily. "For one thing, so long -as we refuse to let them in, they're reassured. They can't imagine we'd -let them drown. But if we invited them in they'd panic and fight to get -in first. There'd be a full-scale slaughter right there! They'd be sure -disaster was only minutes off. Which it would be!" - -He paused and glanced from one to the other of the senior officers. - -"When I sent for you," he said, "I meant you, Bordman, to take -care of the possible sliding. I meant for Werner, here, to do the -public-relations job of scaring the civilians just enough to make them -let it be done. It's not so simple, now!" - -He drew a deep breath. - -"It's pure chance that this is a Sector Headquarters. Or else it's -Providence. We'll find that out later! But ten days ago it was -discovered that an instrument had gone wrong over in the ship-fuel -storage area. It didn't register when a tank leaked. And a tank did -leak. You know ship-fuel is harmless when it's refrigerated. You know -what it's like when it's not. Dissolved in soil-moisture, it's not only -catalyzed to explosive condition, but it's a hell of a corrosive, and -it's eaten holes in some other tanks--and can you imagine trying to do -anything about that?" - -Bordman felt a sensation of incredulous shock. Werner wrung his hands. - -"If I could only find the man who made that faulty tank!" he said -thickly. "He's killed all of us! Unless we get to solid ground in the -Arctic!" - -The Sector Chief said: - -"That's why I won't let them in, Bordman. Our storage tanks go down to -bed-rock. The leaked fuel--warmed up, now--is seeping along bed-rock -and eating at other tanks, besides being absorbed generally by the soil -and dissolving in the groundwater. We've pulled all personnel out of -all the area it could have seeped down to." - -Bordman felt slightly cold at the back of his neck. - -"I suspect," he said, "that they came out on tip-toe, holding their -breaths, and they were careful not to drop anything or scrape their -chairs when they got up to leave. I would have! Anything could set it -off. But it is bound to go anyhow! Of course! Now I see why we couldn't -make a rocket-landing!" - -The chilly feeling seemed to spread as he realized more fully. When -ship-fuel is refrigerated during its manufacture, it is about as safe -a substance as can be imagined, so long as it is kept refrigerated. -It is an energy-chemical compound, of atoms bound together with -forced-violence linkages. But enormous amounts of energy are required -to force valences upon reluctant atoms. When ship-fuel warms up, or is -catalyzed, it goes on one step beyond the process of its manufacture. -It goes on to the modification the refrigeration prevented. It -changes its molecular configuration. What was stable because it was -cold becomes something which is hysterically unstable because of its -structure. The touch of a feather can detonate it. A shout can set -it off. It is indeed, burned only molecule by molecule in a ship's -engines, being catalyzed to the unstable state while cold at the -very spot where it is to detonate. And since the energy yielded by -detonation is that of the forced bonds, the energy-content of ship-fuel -is much greater than a merely chemical compound can contain. Ship-fuel -contains a measurable fraction of the power of atomic explosive. But it -is much more practical for use on board ship. - -The point now was, of course, that--leaked into the ground and -warmed--practically any vibratory motion would detonate the fuel. -Even dissolved, it can detonate because it is not a chemical but an -energy-release action. - -"A good, drumming, heavy rain," said Sandringham, "which falls on this -end of the island, will undoubtedly set off some hundreds of tons of -leaked ship-fuel. And that ought to scatter and catalyze and detonate -the rest. The explosion should be equivalent to at least a megaton -fusion bomb." He paused, and added with irony. "Pretty situation, -isn't it? If the civilians hadn't irrigated, we could evacuate -Headquarters and let it blow, as it will anyhow. If the fuel hadn't -leaked, we could let in the civilians until the island's soil decides -what it's going to do. Either would be a nasty situation, but the -combination..." - -Werner said shrilly: - -"Evacuation to the Arctic is the only possible answer! Some people can -be saved! Some! I'll take a boat and equipment and go on ahead and get -some sort of refuge ready--" - -There was dead silence. The brown dog who had followed Bordman from -the outer terrace, now yawned loudly. Bordman reached over and -absent-mindedly scratched his ears. Young Barnes swallowed. - -"Beg pardon, sir," he said. "What's the weather forecast?" - -"Continued fair," said Sandringham pleasantly. "That's why I had -Bordman and Werner come down. Three heads are better than one. I've -gambled their lives on their brains." - -Bordman continued to scratch the brown dog's ears. Werner licked his -lips. Young Barnes looked from one to another of them. Then he looked -back at the Sector Chief. - -"Sir," he said. "I--I think the odds are pretty good. Mr. Bordman, -sir--he'll manage!" - -Then he flushed hotly at his own presumption in saying something -consoling to a Senior Chief. It was comparable to telling him how to -top off his vacuum-suit tanks. - -But the Sector Chief nodded in grave approval and turned to Bordman to -hear what he had to say. - - * * * * * - -The leeward side of the island sloped gently into the water. From -a boat offshore--say, a couple of miles out--the shoreline looked -low and flat and peaceful. There were houses in view, and boats -afloat. But they were much smaller than those that had been towing a -twenty-mile-long oil-slick out to sea. These boats did not ply back -and forth. Most of them seemed anchored. On some of them there was -activity. Men went overboard, without splashing, and brought things -up from the ocean bottom and dumped them inside the hulls. At long -intervals men emerged from underwater and sat on the sides of the boats -and smoked with an effect of leisure. - -The sun shone, and the land was green, and a seeming of -vast tranquility hung over the whole seascape. But the small -Survey-personnel recreation-boat moved in toward the shore, and the -look of things changed. At a mile, a mass of green that had seemed to -be trees growing down to the water's edge became a thicket of tumbled -trunks and overset branches where a tree-thicket had collapsed. At half -a mile the water was opaque. There were things floating in it: the -roof of a house, the leaves of an ornamental shrub, with nearby its -roots showing at the surface, washed clean. A child's toy bobbed past -the boat. It looked horribly pathetic. There were the exotic planes -and angles of three wooden steps, floating in the ripples of the great -ocean. - -"Ignoring the imminent explosion of the fuel-store," said Bordman, "we -need to find out something about what has to be done to the soil to -stop its creeping. I hope you remembered, Lieutenant, to ask a great -many useless questions." - -"Yes, sir," said Barnes. "I tried to. I asked everything I could think -of." - -"Those boats yonder?" - -Bordman indicated a boat from which something like a wire basket -splashed into the water as he gestured. - -"A garden-boat, sir," said Barnes. "On this side of the island the -sea-bottom slopes so gradually that there are sea-gardens on the -bottom. Shellfish from Earth do not thrive, sir, but there are edible -sea-plants. The gardeners cultivate them as on land." - -Bordman reached overside and carefully took his twentieth sample of the -sea-water. He squinted, and estimated the distance to shore. - -"I shall try to imagine someone wearing a diving-mask and using a hoe," -he said drily. "What's the depth here?" - -"We're half a mile out, sir," said Barnes. "It should be about sixty -feet. The bottom seems to have about a three per cent grade, sir. -That's the angle of repose of the mud. There's no sand to make a -steeper slope possible." - -"Three per cent's not bad!" - -Bordman looked pleased. He picked up one of his earlier samples and -tilted it, checking the angle at which the sediment came to rest. The -bottom mud, here, was essentially the same as the soil of the land. But -the soil of the land was definitely colloid. In sea-water, obviously, -it sank because of the salinity which made suspension difficult. - -"You see the point, eh?" he asked. When Barnes shook his head, -Bordman explained, "Probably for my sins I've had a good deal to do -with swamp-planets. The mud of a salt-swamp is quite different from -a fresh-water swamp. The essential trouble with the people ashore is -that by their irrigation they've contrived an island-wide swamp which -happens to be upside down, the swamp at the bottom. So the question is, -can it acquire the properties of a salt-swamp instead of a fresh-water -swamp without killing all the vegetation on the surface? That's why I'm -after these samples. As we go inshore the water should be fresher, on a -shallowing shore like this with drainage in this direction." - -He gestured to the Survey private at the stern of the boat. - -"Closer in, please." - -Barnes said: - -"Sir, motorboats are forbidden inshore. The vibrations." - -Bordman shrugged. - -"We will obey the rule. I've probably samples enough. How far out do -the mudflats run, at the surface?" - -"About two hundred yards at the surface, sir. The mud's about the -consistency of thick cream. You can see where the ripples stop, sir." - -Bordman stared. He turned his eyes away. - -"Er--sir," said Barnes unhappily. "May I ask--?" - -Bordman said drily: - -"You may. But the answer's pure theory. This information will do no -good at all unless all the rest of the problem we face is solved. -However, solving the rest of the problem will do no good if this part -remains unsolved. You see?" - -"Yes, sir. But the other parts seem more urgent." - -Bordman shrugged. - -There was a shout from a nearby boat. Men were pointing ashore. Bordman -jerked his eyes to the shoreline. - -A section of seemingly solid ground moved slowly toward the water. Its -forefront seemed to disintegrate, and a slow-moving swell moved out -over the rippleless border of the sea, where mudbanks like thick cream -reached the surface. - -The moving mass was a good half-mile in width. Its outer edge dissolved -in the sea, and the top tilted, and green vegetation leaned down-wind -and subsided into the water. It was remarkably like the way an ingot -of non-ferrous metal slides into the pool made by its own melting. - -But the aftermath was somehow horrifying. When the tumbled soil was -all dissolved and the grass undulated like a floating meadow on the -water, there remained a jagged shallow gap in the land-bank. There were -irregularities: vertical striations and unevennesses in the exposed, -broken soil. - -Bordman snatched up glasses and put them to his eyes. The shore seemed -to leap toward him. He saw the harsh outlines of the temporary cliff -go soft. The bottom ceased to look like soil. It glistened. It moved -outward in masses which grew rounder as they swelled. They flowed -after the now-vanished fallen stuff, into the water. The top-soil was -suddenly undercut. The wetter material under it flowed away, leaving -a ledge which bore carefully tended flowering shrubs--Bordman could -see specks of color which were their blossoms--and a brightly-colored, -small, trim house in which some family had lived. - -The flow-away of the deeper soil made a greater, more cavernous hollow -beneath the surface. It began to collapse. The house teetered, fell, -smashed. More soil dropped down, and more, and more. - -Presently there was a depression, a sort of valley leading inland away -from the sea, in what had been a rampart of green at the water's edge. -It was still green, but through the glasses Bordman could see that -trees had fallen, and a white-painted fence was splintered. And there -was still movement. - -The movement slowed and slowed, but it was not possible to say when -it stopped. In reality, it did not stop. The island's soil was still -flowing into the ocean. - -Barnes drew a deep breath. - -"I thought that was it, sir," he said shakily. "I mean--that the whole -island would start sliding." - -"The ground's a bit more water-soaked down here," Bordman said. "Inland -the bottom-soil's not nearly as fluid as here. But I'd hate to have a -really heavy rainfall right now!" - -Barnes' mind jerked back to the Sector Chief's office. - -"The drumming would set off the ship-fuel?" - -"Among other things," said Bordman. "Yes." Then he said abruptly: -"How good are you at precision measurements? I've messed around on -swamp-planets. I know a bit too much about what I ought to find, which -is not good for accuracy. Can you take these bottles and measure the -rate of sedimentation and plot it against salinity?" - -"Y-yes, sir. I'll try." - -"If we had soil-coagulants enough," said Bordman, "we could handle that -damned upside-down swamp the civilians have so carefully made here. But -we haven't got it! The freshened sea-water they've been irrigating with -is practically mineral-free! I want to know how much mineral content -in the water would keep the swamp-mud from acting like wet soap. It's -entirely possible that we'd have to make the soil too salty to grow -anything, in order to anchor it. But I want to know!" - -Barnes said uncomfortably: - -"Wouldn't you--wouldn't you have to put the minerals in -irrigation-water to get them down to the swamp?" - -Bordman grinned, surprisingly. - -"You've got promise, Barnes! Yes. I would. And it would increase the -rate of slide before it stopped it. Which could be another problem. But -it was good work to think of it! When we get back to Headquarters, you -commandeer a laboratory and make those measurements for me." - -"Yes, sir," said Barnes. - -"We'll start back now," said Bordman. - -The recreation-boat obediently turned. It went out to sea until the -water flowing past its hull was crystal-clear. And Bordman seemed to -relax. On the way they passed more small boats. Many of them were -gardeners' boats, from which men dived with diving-masks to tend or -harvest the cultivated garden-patches not too far down. But many were -pleasure-boats, from double-hulled sailing craft intended purely for -sport, to sturdy, though small, cabin cruisers which could venture -far out to sea, or even around to the windward of the island for -sport-fishing. All the pleasure-craft were crowded--there were usually -some children--and it was noticeable that on each one there were always -some faces turned toward the shore. - -"That," said Bordman, "makes for emotional thinking. These people -know their danger. So they've packed their children and their wives -into these little cockle-shells to try to save them. They're waiting -offshore here to find out if they're doomed regardless. I wouldn't -say--" he nodded toward a delicately designed twin-hull sailer -with more children than adults aboard--"I wouldn't call that a good -substitute for an Ark!" - -Young Barnes fidgeted. The boat turned again and went parallel to the -shore toward where Headquarters land came down to the sea. The ground -was firmer there. There had been no irrigation. Lateral seepage had -done some damage at the edge of the reserve, but the major part of -the shoreline was unbroken, unchanged solid ground, looming above -the beach. There was, of course, no sand at the edge of the water. -There had been no weathering of rock to produce it. When this island -was upraised, its coating of hardened ooze protected the stone, the -lee-side waves merely lapped upon bare, curdled rock. The wharf for -pleasure-boats went out on metal pilings into deep water. - -"Excuse me, sir," said young Barnes, "but--if the fuel blows, it'll be -pretty bad, won't it?" - -"That's the understatement of the century," Bordman commented. "Yes. It -will. Why?" - -"You've something in mind to try to save the rest of the island. Nobody -else seems to know what to do. If--if I may say so, sir, your safety is -pretty important. And you could do your work on the cliffs, and--if I -could stay at Headquarters and--" - -He stopped, appalled at his own presumption in suggesting that he could -substitute for a Senior Officer even as a message-boy, and even for his -convenience or safety. He began to stammer: - -"I m-mean, sir, n-not that I'm capable of it--" - -"Stop stammering," grunted Bordman. "There aren't two separate -problems. There's one which is the compound of the two. I'm staying -at Headquarters to try something on the ship-fuel side, and Werner -will specialize on the rest of the island since he hasn't come up -with anything but shifting people to the ice-pack. And the situation -isn't hopeless! If there's an earthquake or a storm, of course, we'll -be wiped out. But short of one of those calamities, we can save -part of the island. I don't know how much, but some. You make those -measurements. If you're doubtful, get a Headquarters man to duplicate -them. Then give me both sets." - -"Y-yes, sir," said young Barnes. - -"And," said Bordman, "never try to push your ranking officer into a -safe place, even if you're willing to take his risk! Would you like it -if a man under you tried to put you in a safe place while he took the -chance that was yours?" - -"N-no, sir!" admitted the very junior lieutenant. "But--" - -"Make those measurements!" snapped Bordman. - -The boat came into the dock. Bordman got out and went to Sandringham's -office. - -Sandringham was in the act of listening to somebody in the -phone-screen, who apparently was on the thin edge of hysteria. The -brown dog was sprawled asleep on the rug. - -When the man in the vision-screen panted to a stop, Sandringham said -calmly: - -"I am assured that before the soil of the island is too far gone, -measures now in preparation will be applied to good effect. A Senior -Survey Officer is now preparing remedial measures. He is--ah--a -specialist in problems of exactly this nature." - -"But we can't wait!" panted the civilian fiercely. "I'll proclaim a -planetary emergency! We'll take over the reserve-area by force! We have -to--" - -"If you try," Sandringham told him grimly, "I'll mount paralysis-guns -to stop you!" He said with icy precision: "I urged the planetary -government to go easy on this irrigation! You yourself denounced me in -the Planetary Council for trying to interfere in civilian affairs. Now -you want to interfere in Survey affairs! I resent it as much as you -did, and with much better reason!" - -"Murderer!" panted the civilian. "Murderer!" - -Sandringham snapped off the phone-screen. He swung his chair and nodded -to Bordman. - -"That was the planetary president," he said. - -Bordman sat down. The brown dog blinked his eyes open and then got up -and shook himself. - -"I'm holding off those idiots," said the Sector Chief in suppressed -fury. "I daren't tell him it's more dangerous here than outside! If -or when that fuel blows--do you realize that the falling of a single -tree-limb might set off an explosion in the Reserve-area here that -would--But you do know." - -"Yes," admitted Bordman. - -He did know. Some hundreds of tons of ship-fuel going off would destroy -this entire end of the island. And almost certainly the concussion -would produce violent movement of the rest of the island's surface. -But he was uncomfortable about putting forward his own ideas. He was -not a good salesman. He suspected his own opinions until he had proved -them with painstaking care, for fear of having them adopted on his -past record rather than because they were sound. And then, too this -plan involved junior ranks being informed about the proposal. If they -accepted a dubious plan on high authority, and the plan miscarried, -it made them share in the mistake. Which hurt their self-confidence. -Young Barnes, now, would undoubtedly obey any order and accept any hint -blindly, and Bordman honestly did not know why. But as a matter of the -training of junior ranks-- - -"About the work to be done," said Bordman, "I imagine the sea-water -freshening plants have closed down?" - -"They have!" said Sandringham. "They insisted on piling them up over my -protests. Now if anybody proposed operating one, they'd scream to high -Heaven!" - -"What was done with the minerals taken out of the sea-water?" Bordman -asked. - -"You know how the fresheners work!" said Sandringham. "They pump -sea-water in at one end, and at the other one pipe yields fresh water, -and the other heavy brine. They dump the heavy brine back overboard -and the fresh water's pumped up and distributed through the irrigation -systems." - -"It's too bad some of the salts weren't stored," said Bordman. "Could a -freshener be started up again?" - -Sandringham stared. Then he said: - -"Oh, the civilians would love that! Now if any man started up a -water-freshener, the civilians would kill him and smash it!" - -"But I think we'll need one. We'll want to irrigate some of the Reserve -area." - -"My God! What for?" demanded Sandringham. He paused. "No! Don't tell -me! Let me try to work it out." - -There was silence. The brown dog blinked at Bordman. He held out his -hand. The dog came sedately to him and bent his head to be scratched. - -After a considerable time, the Sector Chief growled: - -"I give up. Do you want to tell me?" - -Bordman nodded. He said: - -"In a sense, the trouble here is that there's a swamp underground, made -by irrigation. It slides. It's really a swamp upside down. On Soris -II we had a very odd problem, only the swamp was right-side-up there. -We'd several hundred square miles of swamp that could be used if we -could drain it. We built a soil-dam around it. You know the trick. -You bore two rows of holes twenty feet apart and put soil-coagulant -in them. It's an old, old device. They used it a couple of hundred -years ago back on Earth. The coagulant seeps out in all directions and -coagulates the dirt. Makes it water-tight. It swells with water and -fills the space between the soil-particles. In a week or two there's a -water-tight barrier, made of soil, going down to bed-rock. You might -call it a coffer-dam. No water can seep through. On Soris II we knew -that if we could get the water out of the mud inside this coffer-dam, -we'd have cultivable ground." - -Sandringham said skeptically: - -"But it called for ten years' pumping, eh? When mud doesn't move, -pumping isn't easy!" - -"We wanted the soil," said Bordman. "And we didn't have ten years. The -Soris II colony was supposed to relieve population-pressure on another -planet. The pressure was terrific. We had to be ready to receive some -colonists in eight months. We had to get the water out quicker than it -could be pumped. And there was another problem mixed up with it. The -swamp vegetation was pretty deadly. It had to be gotten rid of, too. So -we made the dam and--well--took certain measures, and then we irrigated -it. With water from a nearby river. It was very ticklish. But we had -dry ground in four months, with the swamp-vegetation killed and turning -back to humus." - -"I ought to read your reports," said Sandringham dourly. "I'm too busy, -ordinarily. But I should read them. How'd you get rid of the water?" - -Bordman told him. The telling required eighteen words. - -"Of course," he added, "we picked a day when there was a strong wind -from the right quarter." - -Sandringham stared at him. Then he said: - -"But how does that apply here? It was sound enough, though I'd never -have thought of it. But what's it got to do with the situation here?" - -"This swamp, you might say," said Bordman, "is underground. But there's -forty feet, on an average, of soil on top." - -He explained what difference that made. It took him three sentences to -make the difference clear. - -Sandringham leaned back in his chair. Bordman scratched the dog, -somewhat embarrassed. Sandringham thought. - -"I do not see any possible chance," said Sandringham distastefully, "of -doing it any other way. I would never have thought of that! But I'm -taking part of the job out of your hands, Bordman." - -Bordman said nothing. He waited. - -"Because," said Sandringham, "you're not the man to put over to the -civilians what they must believe. You're not impressive. I know -you, and I know you're a good man in a pinch. But this pinch needs -a salesman. So I'm going to have Werner make the--er--pitch to the -planetary government. Results are more important than justice, so -Werner will front this affair." - -Bordman winced a little. But Sandringham was right. He didn't know how -to be impressive. He could not speak with pompous conviction, which -is so much more convincing than reason to most people. He wasn't the -man to get the cooperation of the non-Service population, because he -could only explain what he knew and believed, and was not practiced in -persuasion. But Werner was. He had the knack of making people believe -anything, not because it was reasonable but because it was oratory. - -"I suppose you're right," acknowledged Bordman. "We need civilian help -and a lot of it. I'm not the man to get it. He is." He did not say -anything about Werner being the man to get credit, whether he deserved -it or not. He patted the dog's head and stood up. "I wish I had a good -supply of soil-coagulant. I need to make a coffer-dam in the reserve -area here. But I think I'll manage." - -Sandringham regarded him soberly as he moved to the door. As he was -about to pass out of it, Sandringham said: - -"Bordman--" - -"What?" - -"Take good care of yourself. Will you?" - - * * * * * - -Therefore Senior Officer Werner, of the Colonial Survey, received his -instructions from Sandringham. Bordman never knew the details of the -instructions Werner got. They were possibly persuasive, or they may -have been menacing. But Werner ceased to argue for the movement of any -fraction of the island's population to the arctic ice-cap, and instead -made frequent eloquent addresses to the planetary population on the -scientific means by which their lives were to be saved. Between the -addresses, perhaps, he sweated cold sweat when a tree sedately tilted -in what had seemed solid soil, or a building settled perceptibly while -he looked at it, or when a section of the island's soil bulged upward. - -Instead, he headed citizens' committees, and grandly gave instructions, -and spoke in unintelligible and therefore extremely scientific terms -when desperately earnest men asked for explanations. But he was -perfectly clear in what he wanted them to do. - -He wanted drill-holes in the arable soil down to the depth at which the -holes began to close up of themselves. He wanted those holes not more -than a hundred feet apart in lines which slanted at a little less than -forty-five degrees to the gradient of the bed-rock. - -Sandringham checked his speeches, at the rate of four a day. Once -he had Bordman called away from where he supervised some improbable -operations. Bordman was smeared with the island's grayish mud when he -looked into the phone-plate to take the call. - -"Bordman," said Sandringham curtly, "Werner's saying those holes you -want are to be in lines exactly forty-five degrees to the gradient." - -"That--I'd like a little less," said Bordman. "If they slanted three -miles across the grade for every two down-hill, it would be better. I'd -like to put a lot more lines of holes. But there's the element of time." - -"I'll have him explain that he was misquoted," said Sandringham, -grimly. "Three across to two down. How close do you really want those -lines?" - -"As close as possible," said Bordman. "But I've got to have them -quickly. How does the barometer look?" - -"Down a tenth," said Sandringham. - -Bordman said: - -"Damn! Has he got plenty of labor?" - -"All the labor there is," said Sandringham. "And I'm having a road laid -along the cliffs for speed with the trucks. If I dared--and if I had -the pipe--I'd lay a pipe-line." - -"Later," said Bordman tiredly. "If he's got labor to spare, set them -to work turning the irrigation systems hind part before. Make them -drainage systems. Use pumps. So if rain does come it won't be spread -out on the land by all the pretty ditches. So it will be gathered -instead and either flung back over the cliffs or else drained down-hill -without getting a chance to sink into the ground. For the time being, -anyhow." - -Sandringham said: - -"Has it occurred to you what a good, pounding rain would do to -Headquarters, and consequently to public confidence on this island, and -therefore to the attempt of anybody to do anything but wring his hands -because he was doomed?" - -Bordman grimaced. - -"I'm irrigating, here. I've got a small-sized lake made, and an ice -coffer-dam, and the water-freshener is working around the clock. If -there is labor, tell 'em to fix the irrigation systems into drainage -layouts. That'd cheer them, anyhow." - -He was very weary. There is a certain exhausting quality in the need to -tell other men to do work which may cause them to be killed. The fact -that one would certainly be killed with them did not lessen the tension. - -He went back to his work. And it definitely seemed to be as purposeless -as any man's work could possibly be. Down-grade from the now thoroughly -deserted area in which ship-fuel tanks had leaked--quite far -down-grade--he had commandeered all the refrigeration equipment in the -warehouses. Since refrigeration was necessary for fuel-storage, there -was a great deal. He had planted iron pipes in the soil, and circulated -refrigerant in it. Presently there was a wall of solidly frozen soil -which was shaped like a shallow U. In the curved part of that U he'd -siphoned out a lake. A peristaltic pump ran sea-water from the island's -lee out upon the ground--where it instantly turned to mud--and another -peristaltic pump sucked the mud up again and delivered it down-grade -beyond the line of freezing-pipes. It was in fact a system of hydraulic -dredging such as is normally performed in rivers and harbors. But when -top-soil is merely former abyssal mud it is an excellent way to move -dirt. Also, it does not require anybody to strike blows into soil -which may be explosive when one has gotten down near bed-rock, and in -particular there are no clanking machines. - -But it was hair-raising. - -In one day, though, he had a sizeable lake pumped out. And he pumped -it out to emptiness, smelling the water as it went down to a greater -depth below the previous ground surface. At the end of the day he -shivered and ordered pumping ended for the time. - -Then he had a brine-pipe laid around a great circuit, to the -Headquarters ground which was up-grade from the now-deserted square -mile or so in which the fuel-tanks lay deep in the soil. And here, -also, he performed excavation without the sound of hammer, shovel, or -pick. He thrust pipes into the ground, and they had nozzles at the end -which threw part of the water backward. So that when sea-water poured -into them it thrust them deeper into the ground by the backward jet -action. Again the fact that the soil was abyssal mud made it possible. -The nozzles floated up much grayish mud, but they bored ahead down to -bed-rock, and there they lay flat and tunneled to one side and the -other, the tunnels they made being full of water at all times. - -From those tunnels, as they extended, an astonishing amount of -sea-water seeped out into the soil near bed-rock. But it was sea-water. -It was heavily mineralized. It is a peculiarity of sea-water that it -is an electrolyte, and it is a property of electrolytes that they -coagulate colloids, and discourage the suspension of small solid -particles which are on the border-line of being colloids. In fact, -the water of the ocean of Canna III turned the ground-soil into good, -honest mud which did not feel at all soapy, and through which it -percolated with a surprising readiness. - -Young Barnes supervised this part of the operation, once it was begun. -He shamed the Survey-personnel assigned to him into perhaps excessive -self-confidence. - -"He knows what he's doing," he said firmly. "Look here! I'll take that -canteen. It's fresh water. Here's some soap. Wet it in fresh water and -it lathers. See? It dissolves. Now try to dissolve it in sea-water! -Try it! See? They put salt in the boiled stuff to separate soap out, -when they make it!" He'd picked up that item from Bordman. "Sea-water -won't soften the ground. It can't! Come on, now, let's get another pipe -putting more salt water underground!" - -His workmen did not understand what he was doing, but they labored -willingly because it was for a purpose.... And down-hill, in the -hydraulic-dredged-out lake, water came seeping in, in the form of mud. -And another pipe came up from the sea-shore. It was a rather small -pipe, and the personnel who laid it were bewildered. Because there was -a water-freshening plant down there and all the fresh water was poured -back overboard, while the brine, saturated with salts from the ocean, -unable to dissolve a single grain of anything, was being used to fill -the small artificial lake. - -The second day Sandringham called Bordman again, and again Bordman -peered wearily into the phone-screen. - -"Yes," said Bordman. "The leaked fuel is turning up. In solution. I'm -trying to measure the concentration by matching specific gravities of -lake-water and brine, and then sticking electrodes in each. The fuel's -corrosive as the devil. It gives a different EMF. Higher than brine of -the same density. I think I've got it in hand." - -"Do you want to start shipping it?" demanded Sandringham. - -"You can begin pouring it down the holes," said Bordman. "How's the -barometer?" - -"Down three-tenths this morning. Steady now." - -"Damn!" said Bordman. "I'll set up moulds. Freeze it in plastic bags -the size of the bore-holes so it will go down. While it's frozen they -can even push it down deep." - -Sandringham said grimly: - -"There's been more damned technical work done with ship-fuel than any -other substance since time began. But remember that the stuff can still -be set off, even dissolved in water! Its sensitivity goes down, but -it's not gone!" - -"If it were," said Bordman drearily, "you could invite in the civilian -population to sit on its rump. I've got something like forty tons of -ship-fuel in brine solution in this lake I pumped out! But it's in -five thousand tons of brine. We don't speak above a whisper when we're -around it. We walk in carpet-slippers and you never saw people so -polite! We'll start freezing it." - -"How can you handle it?" demanded Sandringham apprehensively. - -"The brine freezes at minus thirty," said Bordman. "In one per cent -solution it's only five per cent sensitive at minus nineteen. We're -handling it at minus nineteen. I think I'll step up the brine and chill -it a little more." - -He waved a mud-smeared hand and went away. - -That day, bolster-trucks began to roll out of Survey Headquarters. They -rolled very smoothly, and they trailed a fog of chilled air behind -them. And presently there were men with heavy gloves on their hands -taking long things like sausages out of the bolster-trucks and untying -the ends and lowering them down into holes bored in the top-soil until -they reached places where wetness made the holes close up again. Then -the men from Survey pushed those frozen sausages underground still -further by long poles with carefully padded--and refrigerated--ends. -And then they went on to other holes. - -The first day there were five hundred such sausages thrust down into -holes in the ground, which holes to all intents and purposes closed up -behind them. The second day there were four thousand. The third day -there were eight. On the fourth the solution of ship-fuel in brine in -the lake was so thin that it did not give enough EMF in the little -battery-cell to show how much corrosive substance there was in the -brine. It was not mud any longer. Brine flowed at the top of bed-rock, -and it left the mud behind it, because salt water hindered the -suspension of former globigerinous ooze particles. It was practically -colloid. Salt water almost coagulated it. - -The brine flowing from the salt-water tunnels upwind showed no more -ship-fuel in it. Bordman called Sandringham and told him. - -"I can call in the civilians," said Sandringham. "You've mopped up the -leaked stuff! It couldn't have been done--" - -"Not anywhere but here with bed-rock handy just underneath and -slanting," admitted Bordman. "Tell them they can come if they want to. -They'll sort of drift in. I want to tap some more ship-fuel for the -rest of those bore-holes." - -Sandringham hesitated. - -"Twenty thousand holes," said Bordman tiredly. "Each one had a -six-hundred pound block of frozen saturated brine dumped in it with -roughly one pound of ship-fuel in solution. We've gone that far. Might -as well go the rest of the way. How's the barometer?" - -"Up a tenth," said Sandringham. "Still rising." - -Bordman blinked at him, because he had trouble keeping his eyes open. - -"Let's ride it, Sandringham!" - -Sandringham hesitated. Then he said: - -"Go ahead." - -Bordman waved his arms at his associates, whom he admired with great -fervor in his then-foggy mind, because they were always ready to work -when it was needed, and it had not stopped being needed for five days -running. He explained that there were only three more miles of holes to -be filled up, and therefore they would just draw so much of ship-fuel -and blend it carefully with an appropriate amount of chilled brine and -then freeze it in appropriate sausages.... - -Young Lieutenant Barnes said: - -"Yes, sir. I'll take care of it." - -Bordman said: - -"Barometer's up a tenth." His eyes did not quite focus. "All right, -Lieutenant. Go ahead. Promising young officer. Excellent. I'll sit down -here for jusht a moment." - -When Barnes came back, Bordman was asleep. And a last one hundred and -fifty frozen sausages of brine and ship-fuel went out of Headquarters -within a matter of hours. Then a vast quietude settled down everywhere. - -Young Barnes sat beside Bordman, menacing anybody who even thought of -disturbing him. When Sandringham called for him Barnes went to the -phone-plate. - -"Sir," he said with vast formality. "Mr. Bordman went five days without -sleep. His job's done. I won't wake him, sir!" - -Sandringham raised his eyebrows. - -"You won't?" - -"I won't, sir!" said young Barnes. - -Sandringham nodded. - -"Fortunately," he observed, "nobody's listening. You are quite right." - -He snapped the connection. And then young Barnes realized that he had -defied a Sector Chief, which is something distinctly more improper in -a junior officer than merely trying to instruct him in topping off his -vacuum-suit tanks. - -Twelve hours later, however, Sandringham called for him. - -"Barometer's dropping, Lieutenant. I'm concerned. I'm issuing a notice -of the impending storm. Not everybody will crowd in on us, but a great -many will. I'm explaining that the chemicals put into the bottom soil -may not quite have finished their work. If Bordman wakens, tell him." - -"Yes, sir," said Barnes. - -But he did not intend to wake Bordman. Bordman, however, woke of -himself at the end of twenty hours of sleep. He was stiff and sore -and his mouth tasted as if something had kittened in it. Fatigue can -produce a hangover, too. - -"How's the barometer?" he asked when his eyes came open. - -"Dropping, sir. Heavy winds. The Sector Chief has opened the Reserve -Area to the civilians if they wish to come." - -Bordman computed dizzily on his fingers. A more complex instrument was -actually needed, of course. One does not calculate on one's fingers -just how long a one per cent dilute solution of ship-fuel in frozen -brine has taken to melt, and how completely it has diffused through an -upside-down swamp with the pressure of forty feet of soil on top of it, -and therefore its effective concentration and dispersal underground. - -"I think," said Bordman, "it's all right. By the way, did they turn the -irrigation systems hind end to?" - -Young Barnes did not know what this was all about. He had to send for -information. Meanwhile he solicitously plied Bordman with coffee and -food. Bordman grew reflective. - -"Queer," he said. "You think of the damage leaked ship-fuel can do. -Setting off the rest of the store and all. Even by itself it rates -some thousands of tons of TNT. I wonder what TNT was, before it became -a ton-measure of energy? You think of it exploding in one place, and -it's appalling! But think of all that same amount of energy applied -to square miles of upside-down swamp. Hundreds or thousands of miles -of upside-down swamp. D'you know, Lieutenant, on Soris II we pumped a -ship-fuel solution onto a swamp we wanted to drain? Flooded it, and let -it soak until a day came with a nice, strong, steady wind." - -"Yes, sir," said Barnes respectfully. - -"Then we detonated it. We didn't have a one per cent solution. It was -more like a thousandth of one per cent solution. Nobody's ever measured -the speed of propagation of an explosion in ship-fuel, dry. But it's -been measured in dilute solution. It isn't the speed of sound. It's -lower. It's purely a temperature-phenomenon. In water, at any dilution, -ship-fuel goes off just barely below the boiling-point of water. It -doesn't detonate from shock when it's diluted enough to be ionized, but -that takes a hell of a lot of dilution. Have you got some more coffee?" - -"Yes, sir," said Barnes. "Coming up." - -"We floated ship-fuel solution over that swamp, Barnes, and let it -stand. It has a high diffusion-rate. It went down into the mud.... -And there came a day when the wind was right. I dumped a red-hot iron -bar into the swamp-water that had ship-fuel in solution. It was the -damndest sight you ever saw!" - -Barnes served him more coffee, Bordman sipped it, and it burned his -tongue. - -"It went up in steam," he said. "The swamp-water that had the ship-fuel -dissolved in it. It didn't explode, as a mass. They told me later that -it propagated at hundreds of feet per second only. They could see the -wall of steam go marching across the swamp. Not even high-pressure -steam. There was a woosh! and a cloud of steam half a mile high that -the wind carried away. And all the surface-water in the swamp was gone, -and all the poisonous swamp-vegetation parboiled and dead. So--" He -yawned suddenly--"we had a ten-mile by fifty-mile stretch of arable -ground ready for the coming colonists." - -He tried the coffee again. He added reflectively: - -"That trick, it didn't explode the ship-fuel, in a way. It burned it. -In water. It applied the energy of the fuel to the boiling-away of -water. Powerful stuff! We got rid of two feet of water on an average, -counting what came out of the mud. It cost--hm--a fraction of a gram -per square yard." - -He gulped the coffee down. There were men looking at him solicitously. -They seemed very glad to see him awake again. Outside a monstrous bank -of cloud-stuff was visible piling up in the sky. He suddenly blinked at -that. - -"Hello! How long did I sleep, Barnes?" - -Barnes told him. Bordman shook his head to clear it. - -"We'll go see Sandringham," said Bordman. "I'd like to postpone firing -as long as I can, short of having the stuff start draining into the sea -to leeward." - -Several mud-stained men were standing around the place where Bordman -had slept. When he went, still groggy, out to the bolster-truck young -Barnes had waiting, they regarded Bordman in a very respectful manner. -Somebody grunted, "Good to have worked with you, sir," which is about -as much of admiration as anybody would want to hear expressed. These -associates of Bordman in the mopping-up of leaked ship's fuel would be -able to brag of the job at all times and in all places hereafter. - -Then the truck went trundling away in search of Sandringham. - -It found him on the cliffs to the windward side of the island. The -sea was no longer a cerulean blue. It was slaty-color. There were -occasional flecks of white foam on the water four thousand feet below. -There were dark clouds, by then covering practically all the sky. Far -out to sea, there were small craft heading for the ends of the island, -to go around it and ride out the coming storm in its lee. - -Sandringham greeted Bordman with relief. Werner stood close by, opening -and closing his hands jerkily. - -"Bordman!" said the Sector Chief cordially. "We're having a -disagreement, Werner and I. He's confident that the turning of the -irrigation systems hind end to--making them surface-draining systems, -in effect--will take care of the whole situation. Adding the brine -underground, he thinks, will have done a good deal more. He says it'll -be bad, psychologically, for anything more to be done. He didn't speak -of it, and it would injure public confidence in the Survey." - -Bordman said curtly: - -"The only thing that will make a permanent difference on this island -is for the water-fresheners to be a little less efficient. Barnes has -the figures. He computed them from some measurements I had him make. If -the water-freshener plants don't take all the sea-minerals out; if they -don't make the irrigation-water so infernally soft and suitable for -hair-washing and the like; if they turn out hard water for irrigation, -this won't happen again. But there's too much water underground now. -We've got to get it out, because a little more's going underground from -this storm, surface-drainage systems or no surface-drainage systems." - -Sandringham pointed to leeward, where a black, thick procession of -human beings trooped toward the Survey area on foot and by every -possible type of vehicle. - -"I've ordered them turned into the ship-sheds and warehouses," said the -Sector Chief. "But of course we haven't shelter for all of them. At a -guess, when they feel safe they'll go back to their homes even through -the storm." - -The sky to windward grew blacker and blacker. There was no longer a -steady flow of wind coming over the cliff's edge. It came in gusts, -now, of extreme violence. They could make a man stagger on his feet. -There were more flecks of white on the ocean's surface. - -"The boats," added Sandringham, "were licked. There simply wasn't -enough oil to maintain the slick. The radio reports were getting -hysterical before I ordered them told that we had it beaten on shore. -They're running for shelter now. I think they'd have stayed out there -trying to hold the slick in place with their tow-line, if I hadn't said -we had matters in hand." - -Werner said, tight-lipped: - -"I hope we have!" - -Bordman shrugged. - -"The wind's good and strong, now," he observed. "Let's find out. You've -got the starting system all set?" - -Sandringham waved his hand toward a high-voltage battery. It was of a -type designed for blasting on airless planets, but that did not matter. -Its cables led snakily for a couple of hundred feet to a very small -pile of grayish soil which had been taken out of a bore-hole, and went -over that untidy heap and down into the ground. Bordman took hold of -the firing-handle. He paused. - -"How about the highways?" he asked. "There might be some steam out of -this hole." - -"All allowed for," said Sandringham. "Go ahead." - -There was a gust of wind strong enough to knock a man down, and a -humming sound in the air, as wind beat upon the four-thousand-foot -cliff and poured over its top. There were gradually rising waves, -below. The sky was gray, the sea slate-colored. Far, far to windward, -the white line of pouring rain upon the water came marching toward the -island. - -Bordman pumped the firing-handle. - -There was a pause, while wind-gusts tore at his garments and staggered -him where he stood. It was quite a long pause. - -Then a vapor came jetting out of the bore-hole. It was perfectly white. -It came out with a sudden burst which was not in any sense explosive, -but was merely a vast rushing of vaporized water. Then, a hundred yards -away, there was a mistiness on the grassy surface. Still farther, a -crack in the surface-soil let out a curtain of white vapor. - -Here and there, everywhere, gouts of steam poured into the air and -tumbled into the storm-wind. It was noticeable that the steam did not -come out as an invisible vapor and condense in mid-air. It poured -out of the ground in clouds, already condensed but thrust out by more -masses of vapor behind it. It was not super-heated steam that came out. -It was simply steam. Harmless steam, like the steam out of the spouts -of tea-kettles. It rose from individual places everywhere. It made a -massive coating of vapor which the storm-wind blew away. In seconds a -half-mile of soil was venting steam. In seconds more a mile. The thick -fleecy vapor swept across the landscape. The storm-wind could only -tumble it and sweep it away. - -In minutes there was no part of the island to be seen at all, save only -the thin line of the cliffs reaching away between dark water on the one -hand and snow-white clouds of vapor on the other. - -"It can't scald anybody, can it?" asked Barnes uneasily. - -"Not," said Bordman, "when it's had to come up through forty feet -of soil. It's been pretty well cooled off in taking up some extra -moisture. It spreads pretty well, doesn't it?" - -The Sector Chief's office had tall windows--doors, really--that looked -out upon green lawn and many trees. Now sheets of rain beat down -outside. Wind whipped at the trees. There was tumult and roaring and -the vibration of gusts of hurricane force. Even the building in which -the Sector Chief's office was vibrated slightly in the wind. - -The Sector Chief beamed. The brown dog came in, looked around the room, -and walked in leisurely fashion toward Bordman. He settled with a sigh -beside Bordman's chair. - -"What I want to know," said Werner, "is, won't this rain put back all -the water the ship-fuel boiled away?" - -Bordman said: - -"Two inches of rain would be a heavy fall, Sandringham tells me. It's -the lack of heavy rains that made the civilians start irrigating. When -you figure the energy-content of ship-fuel, Werner, an appreciable -fraction of the energy in atomic explosive, it's sort of deceptive. -Turn it into thermal units and it gets to be enlightening. We turned -loose, underground, enough heat to boil away two feet of soil-water -under the island's whole surface." - -Werner said sharply: - -"What'll happen when the heat passes up through the soil? It'll kill -the vegetation, won't it?" - -"No," said Bordman mildly. "Because there was two feet of water to -be turned to steam. The bottom layer of the soil was raised to the -temperature of steam at a few pounds pressure. No more. The heat's -already escaped. In the steam." - -The phone-plate lighted. Sandringham snapped it on. A voice made a -report in a highly official voice. - -"Right!" said Sandringham. The highly official voice spoke again. -"Right!" said Sandringham again. "You may tell the ships in orbit that -they can come down now, if they don't mind getting wet." He turned. -"Did you hear that, Bordman? They've bored new cores. There are a few -soggy spots, but the ground's as firm, all over the island, as it was -when the Survey first came here. A very good job, Bordman! A very good -job!" - -Bordman flushed. He reached down and patted the head of the brown dog. - -"Look!" said the Sector Chief. "My dog, there, has taken a liking to -you. Will you accept him as a present, Bordman?" - -Bordman grinned. - - * * * * * - -Young Barnes made ready to rejoin his ship. He was very strictly -Service, very stiffly at attention. Bordman shook hands with him. - -"Nice to have had you around, Lieutenant," he said warmly. "You're a -very promising young officer. Sandringham knows it and has made a note -of the fact. Which I suspect is going to put you to a lot of trouble. -There's a devilish shortage of promising young officers. He'll give you -hellish jobs to do, because he has an idea you'll do them." - -"I'll try, sir," said young Barnes formally. Then he said, "May I say -something, sir? I'm very proud to have worked with you. But dammit, -sir, it seems to me that something more than just saying thank you was -due you! The Service ought to--" - -Bordman regarded the young man approvingly. - -"When I was your age," he said, "I'd the very same attitude. But I had -the only reward the Service or anything else could give me. The job -got done. It's the only reward you can expect in the Service, Barnes. -You'll never get any other." - -Young Barnes looked rebellious. He shook hands again. - -"Besides," said Bordman, "there is no better." - -Young Barnes marched back toward his ship in the great metal -criss-cross of girders which was the landing-grid. - -Bordman absently patted his dog as he headed back toward Sandringham's -office for his orders to return to his own work. - - * * * * * - -So Bordman went back to his wife Riki and the job he'd been working on. -After that there was another job, and another. He received the high -honor of being given the most impossible of the tasks the Survey was -forced to do. Which was deeply satisfying. He regretted that he had to -become relatively inactive when he became Sector Chief. - -But his wife liked it very much. There was assurance, then, that they -would be together for always, and Bordman still had his work and she -could make--again--a home. When one of his daughters was widowed and -came to live with them with her children, Bordman was beautifully -contented. Then he had absolutely everything he wanted. As reward for -a life-time of work and separation, he had the satisfactions--in his -family--that other men enjoyed as a matter of course. - -But sometimes he was embarrassed when his juniors were too respectful. -He didn't think he rated it. - - * * * * * - - You Are There-- - -Centuries, eons from now the peculiar, fantastic, astounding MIND OF -MAN will conquer strange, new worlds, presently beyond the reaches of -imagination--and probe the meaning of the central core of Infinity with -instruments of incredible scientific precision! - -You Are There! in the far-off era when man will defy gravity, space, -time--to explore the UNIVERSE and make immensity HIS OWN! - -ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Murray Leinster is widely acknowledged by fans as the -"Dean of Science Fiction" and even as "Mr. Science Fiction." LIFE has -reported that he reads more technical literature than most research -scientists. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Planet explorer</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Murray Leinster</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: December 13, 2022 [eBook #69535]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANET EXPLORER ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> - <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""> -</div> - -<hr class="chap"> - -<div class="titlepage"> - - -<h1>PLANET EXPLORER</h1> - -<p>Original title: <i>Colonial Survey</i></p> - -<h2>Murray Leinster</h2> - -<p><i>Complete and Unabridged</i></p> - -<p>AVON PUBLICATIONS, INC.<br> -575 Madison Avenue—New York 22, N. Y.</p> - -<p><i>Planet Explorer</i> (<i>Colonial Survey</i>) is based upon material<br> -originally appearing in <i>Astounding Science Fiction</i>, copyright,<br> -1956, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.</p> - -<p>Copyright 1957, by Murray Leinster. Published by arrangement<br> -with Gnome Press, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A.</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any<br> -evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap"> - -<p class="ph1">To Austin Stanton, Esq.</p> - -<p class="ph1">Who believes that the things I write about should be accomplished right -away;</p> - -<p class="ph1">Who believes that all men are potential geniuses;</p> - -<p class="ph1">Who gives responsibility and opportunity to men while they are young;</p> - -<p class="ph1">And thereby does his bit to make actual the things I only write about.</p> - -<p class="ph1"><i>Murray Leinster</i></p> - -<hr class="chap"> - -<p class="ph1">WORLDS AND WORLDS</p> - -<p>Eons from now, MAN will hurtle through the void in gravity-defying -ships across light-years of distance to far-flung planets ... and more -staggering yet, he will COLONIZE these islands in the unimaginably vast -ocean of space. There will be worlds, and worlds, such as—</p> - -<p>LANI III—<i>a glacier-land warmed by man</i></p> - -<p>XOSA II—<i>a shining desert made green by man</i></p> - -<p>LOREN II—<i>an inferno of beasts, tamed by man</i></p> - -<p>THE FASCINATING, HEROIC STORY OF A TRAIL-BLAZER TO THE -UNKNOWN—outer-space service officer Bordman, who uses incredible -knowledge and skill to make the star-flung outposts of civilization -ready to receive new, vast surges of humanity!</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2>Contents</h2> -</div> - - -<table class="autotable"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#SOLAR_CONSTANT">SOLAR CONSTANT</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#SAND_DOOM">SAND DOOM</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#COMBAT_TEAM">COMBAT TEAM</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#THE_SWAMP_WAS_UPSIDE_DOWN">THE SWAMP WAS UPSIDE DOWN</a></td> -</tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="SOLAR_CONSTANT">SOLAR CONSTANT</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Bordman waked that morning when the partly-opened port of his -sleeping-cabin closed of itself and the room-warmer began to whir. He -found himself burrowed deep under his covering, and when he got his -head out of it the already-bright room was bitterly cold and his breath -made a fog about his head.</p> - -<p>He thought uneasily <i>it's colder than yesterday</i>! But a Senior -Colonial Survey Officer is not supposed to let himself seem disturbed, -in public, and the only way to follow that rule is to follow it in -private too. So Bordman composed his features, while gloom filled him. -When one has just received senior service rating and is on one's very -first independent survey of a new colonial installation, the unexpected -can be appalling. The unexpected was definitely here, on Lani III.</p> - -<p>He'd been a Survey Candidate on Khali II and Taret and Arepo I, all of -which were tropical, and a Junior Officer on Menes III and Thotmes—one -a semi-arid planet and the other temperate-volcanic—and he'd done an -assistant job on Saril's solitary world, which was nine-tenths water. -But this first independent survey on his own was another matter. -Everything was wholly unfamiliar. An ice-planet with a minus point one -habitability rating was upsetting in its peculiarities. He knew what -the books said about glacial-world conditions, but that was all.</p> - -<p>The denseness of the fog his breath made seemed to grow less as the -room-warmer whirred and whirred. When by the thinness of the mist he -guessed the temperature to be not much under freezing, he climbed out -of his bunk and went to the port to look out. His cabin, of course, -was in one of the drone-hulls that had brought the colony's equipment -to Lani III. The other emptied hulls were precisely ranged in order -outside. They were connected by tubular galleries, and painstakingly -leveled. They gave an impression of impassioned tidiness among the -upheaved, ice-coated mountains all about.</p> - -<p>He gazed down the long valley in which the colony lay. There were -monstrous slanting peaks on either side that partly framed the morning -sun. Their flanks were ice. The sky was pale, and the sun had four -sun-dogs geometrically about it. Normal post-midnight temperatures in -this valley ranged around ten below zero—and this was technically -summer. But it was colder than ten below zero now. At noon there were -normally tiny trickling rills of surface-thaw running down the sunlit -sides of the mountains, but they froze again at night. And this was a -sheltered valley, warmer than most of the planet's surface. The sun had -its sun-dogs every day, on rising. There were nights when the brighter -planets had star-pups, too.</p> - -<p>The phone-plate lighted and dimmed and lighted and dimmed. They did -themselves well on Lani III; the parent world was in this same solar -system, making supply easy. That was rare. Bordman stood before the -plate and it cleared. Herndon's face peered unhappily out of it. He was -even younger than Bordman, and inclined to lean on the supposedly vast -experience of a Senior Officer of the Colonial Survey.</p> - -<p>"Well?" said Bordman, feeling undignified in his sleeping garments.</p> - -<p>"We're picking up a beam from home," said Herndon anxiously. "But we -can't make it out."</p> - -<p>Because the third planet of the sun Lani was being colonized from -the second, inhabited world, communication with the colony's base -was possible. A tight beam could span a distance which was only -light-minutes across at conjunction, and not much over a light-hour -at opposition, as now. But the beam communication had been broken -for the past few weeks, and shouldn't be possible again for some -weeks more. The sun lay between. One wouldn't expect normal -sound-and-picture transmission until the parent planet had moved past -the scrambler-fields of Lani. But something had come through. It would -be reasonable for it to be pretty much hash when it arrived.</p> - -<p>"They aren't sending words or pictures," said Herndon. "The beam is -wobbly and we don't know what to make of it. It's a signal, all right, -and on the regular frequency. But there are all sorts of stray noises -and still in the midst of it there's some sort of signal we can't make -out. It's like a whine, only it stutters. It's a broken-up sound of one -pitch."</p> - -<p>Bordman rubbed his chin. He remembered a course in information theory -just before he'd graduated from the Service Academy. Signals were made -by pulses, pitch-changes, and frequency-variations. Information was -what couldn't be predicted without information. And he remembered with -gratitude a seminar on the history of communication, just before he'd -gone out on his first field job as a Survey Candidate.</p> - -<p>"Hm," he said with a trace of self-consciousness. "Those noises, the -stuttering ones. Would they be, on the whole, of no more than two -different durations? Like—hm.—Bzz bzz bzzzzzzz bzz?"</p> - -<p>He felt that he lost dignity by making such ribald sounds. But -Herndon's face brightened.</p> - -<p>"That's it!" he said relievedly. "That's it! Only they're high-pitched -like—" His voice went falsetto. "Bz bz bz bzzz bz bz."</p> - -<p>Bordman thought, <i>we sound like two idiots</i>. He said:</p> - -<p>"Record everything you get, and I'll try to decode it." He added, -"Before there was voice communication there were signals by light -and sound in groups of long and short units. They came in groups, to -stand for letters, and things were spelled out. Of course there were -larger groups which were words. Very crude system, but it worked when -there was a lot of interference, as in the early days. If there's -some emergency, your home world might try to get through the sun's -scrambled-field that way."</p> - -<p>"Undoubtedly!" said Herndon, with even greater relief. "No question, -that's it!"</p> - -<p>He regarded Bordman with respect as he clicked off. His image faded.</p> - -<p><i>He thinks I'm wonderful</i>, thought Bordman wrily. <i>Because I'm -Colonial Survey. But all I know is what's been taught me. It's bound to -show up sooner or later. Damn!</i></p> - -<p>He dressed. From time to time he looked out the port again. The -intolerable cold of Lani III had intensified, lately. There was some -idea that sunspots were the cause. He couldn't make out sunspots -with the naked eye, but the sun did look pale, with its accompanying -sun-dogs, the result of microscopic ice-crystals suspended in the air. -There was no dust on this planet, but there was plenty of ice! It was -in the air and on the ground and even under it. To be sure, the drills -for the foundation of the great landing-grid had brought up cores of -frozen humus along with frozen clay, so there must have been a time -when this world had known clouds and seas and vegetation. But it was -millions, maybe hundreds of millions of years ago. Right now, though, -it was only warm enough to have an atmosphere and very slight and -partial thawings in direct sunlight, in sheltered spots, at midday. It -couldn't support life, because life is always dependent on other life, -and there is a temperature below which a natural ecological system -can't maintain itself. And for the past few weeks, the climate had been -such that even human-supplied life looked dubious.</p> - -<p>Bordman slipped on his Colonial Survey uniform with its palm-tree -insignia. Nothing could be much more inappropriate than palm-tree -symbols on a planet with sixty feet of permafrost. Bordman reflected, -<i>The construction gang calls it a blast, instead of a tree, because -we blow up when they try to dodge specifications. But specifications -have to be met! You can't bet the lives of a colony or even a ship's -crew on half-built facilities!</i></p> - -<p>He marched down the corridor from his sleeping-room, with the dignity -he tried to maintain for the sake of the Colonial Survey. It was a -pretty lonely business, being dignified all the time. If Herndon didn't -look so respectful it would have been pleasant to be more friendly. But -Herndon revered him. Even his sister Riki....</p> - -<p>But Bordman put her firmly out of his mind. He was on Lani III, which -had very valuable mineral resources that made colonization worth while, -to check and approve the colony installations. There was the giant -landing-grid for space-ships, which took power from the ionosphere -to bring space vessels gently to the ground, and also to supply the -colony's power needs. It likewise lifted visiting space-craft the -necessary five planetary diameters out when they took off again. -There was power storage in the remote event of disaster to that giant -device. There was a food reserve and the necessary resources for its -indefinite stretching in case of need. That usually meant hydroponic -installations. All these things had had to be finished, operable, and -inspected by a duly qualified Colonial Survey officer before the colony -could be licensed for unlimited use.</p> - -<p>It was all very normal and official, but Bordman was the newest Senior -Survey Officer on the list, and this was the first of his independent -operations. He felt inadequate at times.</p> - -<p>He passed through the vestibule between this drone-hull and the next -and went directly to Herndon's office. Herndon, like himself, was -newly endowed with authority. He was actually a mining-and-minerals -man and a youthful prodigy in that field, but when the director of the -colony was taken ill while a supply-ship was aground, he went back -to the home planet and command devolved on Herndon. <i>I wonder</i>, -thought Bordman, <i>if he feels as shaky as I do.</i></p> - -<p>When he entered the office, Herndon sat listening to a literal hash -of noises coming out of a speaker on his desk. The cryptic signal -had been relayed to him, and a recorder stored it as it came. There -were cacklings and squeals and moaning sounds, sputters and rumbles -and growls. But behind the facade of confusion there was a tiny, -interrupted, high-pitched noise. It was a monotone whining not to be -confused with the random sounds accompanying it. Sometimes it faded -almost to inaudibility, and sometimes it was sharp and clear. But it -was a distinctive sound in itself, and it was made up of short whines -and longer ones of two durations only.</p> - -<p>"I've put Riki at making a transcription of what we've got," said -Herndon with relief as he saw Bordman. "She'll make short marks for -the short sounds, and long ones for the long. I've told her to try to -separate the groups. We've got a full half-hour of it, already."</p> - -<p>Bordman made an inspired guess.</p> - -<p>"I would expect it to be the same message repeated over and over," he -said. He added. "And I think it would be decoded by guessing at the -letters in two-letter and three-letter words, as clues to longer ones. -That's quicker than statistical analysis of frequency."</p> - -<p>Herndon instantly pressed buttons under his phone-plate. He relayed the -information to his sister, as if it were gospel. <i>But it wasn't</i>, -Bordman remembered. <i>It's simply a trick remembered from boyhood, -when I was interested in secret languages. My interest faded when I -realized I had no secrets to record or transmit.</i></p> - -<p>Herndon turned from the phone-plate.</p> - -<p>"Riki says she's already learned to recognize some groups," he -reported, "but thanks for the advice. Now what?"</p> - -<p>Bordman sat down. "It seems to me," he observed, "that the increased -cold out here might not be local. Sunspots—"</p> - -<p>Herndon wordlessly handed over a sheet of paper with observation -figures on top and a graph below them which related the observations -to each other. They were the daily, at-first-routine, measurements of -the solar constant from Lani III. The graph-line almost ran off the -paper at the bottom.</p> - -<p>"To look at this," he admitted, "you'd think the sun was going out. Of -course it can't be," he added hastily. "Not possibly. But there is an -extraordinary number of sunspots. Maybe they'll clear. But meanwhile -the amount of heat reaching us is dropping. As far as I know there's no -parallel for it. Night temperatures are thirty degrees lower than they -should be. Not only here, either, but at all the robot weather-stations -that have been spotted around the planet. They average forty below -zero minimum, instead of ten. And—there is that terrific lot of -sunspots...."</p> - -<p>Bordman frowned. Sunspots are things about which nothing can be done. -Yet the habitability of a border-line planet, anyhow, could very well -depend on them. An infinitesimal change in sun-heat can make a serious -change in any planet's temperature. In the books, the ancient mother -planet Earth was said to have entered glacial periods through a drop -of only three degrees in the planet-wide temperature, and to have been -tropic almost to its poles from a rise of only six. It had been guessed -that those changes on the planet where humanity began had been caused -by a coincidence of sunspot maxima.</p> - -<p>Lani III was already glacial to its equator. Sunspots could account -for worsening conditions here, perhaps. <i>That message from the inner -planet could be bad</i>, thought Bordman, <i>if the solar constant -drops and stays down awhile.</i> But aloud he said:</p> - -<p>"There couldn't be a really significant permanent change. Not quickly, -anyhow. Lani's a sol-type star, and they aren't variables, though of -course any dynamic system like a sun will have cyclic modifications of -one sort or another. But they usually cancel out."</p> - -<p>He sounded encouraging, even to himself.</p> - -<p>There was a stirring behind him; Riki Herndon had come silently into -her brother's office. She looked pale. She put some papers down on the -desk.</p> - -<p>"That's true," she said. "But while cycles sometimes cancel, sometimes -they enhance each other. They heterodyne. That's what's happening."</p> - -<p>Bordman scrambled to his feet, flushing. Herndon said sharply:</p> - -<p>"What? Where'd you get that stuff, Riki?"</p> - -<p>She nodded at the sheaf of papers she'd just laid down.</p> - -<p>"That's the news from home." She nodded again, to Bordman. "You were -right. It was the same message, repeated over and over. And I decoded -it like children decode each other's secret messages. I did that to Ken -once. He was twelve, and I decoded his diary, and I remember how angry -he was that I'd found out he didn't have any secrets."</p> - -<p>She tried to smile. But Herndon wasn't listening. He read swiftly. -Bordman saw that the under sheets were rows of dots and dashes, -painstakingly transcribed and then decoded. There were letters under -each group of marks.</p> - -<p>Herndon was very white when he'd finished. He handed the sheet to -Bordman. Riki's handwriting was precise and clear. Bordman read:</p> - -<p>"FOR YOUR INFORMATION THE SOLAR CONSTANT IS DROPPING RAPIDLY DUE TO -COINCIDENCE OF CYCLIC VARIATIONS IN SUNSPOT ACTIVITY WITH PREVIOUS -UNOBSERVED LONG CYCLES APPARENTLY INCREASING THE EFFECT MAXIMUM IS -NOT YET REACHED AND IT IS EXPECTED THAT THIS PLANET WILL BECOME -UNINHABITABLE FOR A TIME ALREADY KILLING FROSTS HAVE DESTROYED CROPS -IN SUMMER HEMISPHERE IT IS IMPROBABLE THAT MORE THAN A SMALL PART OF -THE POPULATION CAN BE SHELTERED AND WARMED THROUGH DEVELOPING GLACIAL -CONDITIONS WHICH WILL REACH TO EQUATOR IN TWO HUNDRED DAYS THE COLD -CONDITIONS ARE COMPUTED TO LAST TWO THOUSAND DAYS BEFORE NORMAL SOLAR -CONSTANT RECURS THIS INFORMATION IS SENT YOU TO ADVISE IMMEDIATE -DEVELOPMENT OF HYDROPONIC FOOD SUPPLY AND OTHER PRECAUTIONS MESSAGE -ENDS FOR YOUR INFORMATION THE SOLAR CONSTANT IS DROPPING RAPIDLY DUE TO -COINCIDENCE OF CYCLIC—"</p> - -<p>Bordman looked up. Herndon's face was ghastly, Bordman said:</p> - -<p>"Kent IV is the nearest world your planet could hope to get help from. -A mail liner will make it in two months. Kent IV might be able to send -three ships—to get here in two months more. That's no good!"</p> - -<p>He felt sick. Human-inhabited planets are far apart. There is on an -average between four and five light-years of distance between suns, -two months' space-ship journey apart. And not all stars are Sol-type -or have inhabited planets. Colonized worlds are like isolated islands -in an unimaginably vast ocean, and the ships that ply between them -at thirty light-speeds seem merely to creep. In ancient days on the -mother-planet Earth, men sailed for months between ports, in their -clumsy sailing-ships. There was no way to send messages faster than -they could travel. Nowadays there was little improvement. News of -the Lani disaster could not be transmitted. It had to be carried, as -between stars, and carriage was slow and response to news of disaster -was no faster.</p> - -<p>The inner planet, Lani II, had twenty million inhabitants, as against -the three hundred people in the colony on Lani III. The outer planet -was already frozen, but there would be glaciation on the inner world in -two hundred days. Glaciation and human life are practically exclusive. -Human beings can survive only so long as food and power hold out, -and shelter against really bitter cold cannot be quickly improvised -for twenty million people. And, of course, there could be no help on -any adequate scale. News of the need for it would travel too slowly. -It would take five Earth-years to get a thousand ships to Lani II, -and a thousand ships could not rescue more than one per cent of the -population. But in five years there would not be nearly so many people -left alive.</p> - -<p>"Our people," said Riki in a thin voice, "all of them.... Mother and -father and the others. All our friends. Home is going to be like that!"</p> - -<p>She jerked her head toward a port which let in the frigid -colony-world's white daylight.</p> - -<p>Bordman was aware of an extreme unhappiness on her account. For -himself, of course, the tragedy was less. He had no family, and very -few friends. But he could see something that had not occurred to them -as yet.</p> - -<p>"Of course," he said, "it's not only their trouble. If the solar -constant is really dropping like that, things out here will be pretty -bad, too. A lot worse than they are now. We'll have to get to work to -save ourselves!"</p> - -<p>Riki did not look at him. Bordman bit his lips. It was plain that their -own fate did not concern them immediately. When one's home world is -doomed, one's personal safety seems a trivial matter.</p> - -<p>There was silence save for the cackling, confused noises that came out -of the speaker on Herndon's desk.</p> - -<p>"We," said Bordman, "are right now in the conditions they'll face a -good long time from now."</p> - -<p>Herndon said dully:</p> - -<p>"We couldn't live here without supplies from home. Or even without -the equipment we brought. But they can't get supplies from anywhere, -and they can't make such equipment for everybody! They'll die!" He -swallowed. "They—they know it, too. So they warn us to try to save -ourselves because they can't help us any more."</p> - -<p>There are many reasons why a man can feel shame that he belongs to a -race which can do the things that some men do. But sometimes there are -reasons to be proud, as well. The home world of this colony was doomed, -but it sent a warning to the tiny colony so that they could try to save -themselves.</p> - -<p>"I wish we were there to—share what they have to face," said Riki. Her -voice sounded as if her throat hurt. "I don't want to keep on living if -everybody who ever cared about us is going to die!"</p> - -<p>Bordman felt lonely. He could understand that nobody would want to -live as the only human alive. Nobody would want to live as a member -of the only group of people left alive. And everybody thinks of his -home planet as all the world there is. <i>I don't think that way</i>, -thought Bordman. <i>But maybe it's the way I'd feel about living if -Riki were to die.</i> It would be natural to want to share any danger -or any disaster she faced.</p> - -<p>"L-look!" he said, stammering a little. "You don't see! It isn't a case -of your living while they die! If your home world becomes like this, -what will this be like? We're farther from the sun, colder to start -with. Do you think we'll live through anything they can't take? Food -supplies or no, equipment or no, do you think we've got a chance? Use -your brains!"</p> - -<p>Herndon and Riki stared at him. And then some of the strained look left -Riki's face and body. Herndon blinked, and said slowly:</p> - -<p>"Why, that's so! We were thought to be taking a terrific risk when we -came here. But it'll be as much worse here. Of course! We are in the -same fix they're in!"</p> - -<p>He straightened a little. Color actually came back into his face. Riki -managed to smile. And then Herndon said almost naturally:</p> - -<p>"That makes things look more sensible. We've got to fight for our lives -too! And we've very little chance of saving them. What do we do about -it, Bordman?"</p> - -<p>The sun was half-way toward mid-sky, still attended by its sun-dogs, -though they were fainter than at the horizon. The sky was darker. The -icy mountain peaks reached skyward, serene and utterly aloof from the -affairs of men. The city was a fleet of metal hulks, neatly arranged -on the valley floor, emptied of the material they had brought for the -building of the colony. Not far away, the landing-grid stood. It was a -gigantic skeleton of steel, rising from legs of unequal length bedded -in the hillsides and reaching two thousand feet toward the stars. -Human figures, muffled almost past recognition, moved about a catwalk -three-quarters of the way up. There was a tiny glittering below where -they moved. The men were using sonic ice-breakers to shatter the frost -which formed on the framework at night. Falling shards of crystal -made a liquid-like flashing. The landing-grid needed to be cleared -every ten days or so. Left uncleared, it would acquire an increasingly -thick coating of ice, and in time it could collapse. But long before -that time it would have ceased to operate, and without its operation -there could be no space-travel. Rockets for lifting space-ships were -impossibly heavy, for practical use. But the landing-grids could lift -them out to the unstressed space where Lawlor drives could work, and -draw them to ground with cargoes they couldn't possibly have carried if -they'd needed rockets.</p> - -<p>Bordman reached the base of the grid on foot. He was dwarfed by the -ground-level upright beams. He went through the cold-lock to the small -control house at the grid's base.</p> - -<p>He nodded to the man on standby as he got out of his muffling garments.</p> - -<p>"Everything all right?" he asked.</p> - -<p>The standby operator shrugged. Bordman was Colonial Survey. It was his -function to find fault, to expose inadequacies in the construction and -operation of colony facilities. <i>It's natural for me to be disliked -by men whose work I inspect</i>, thought Bordman. <i>If I approve it -doesn't mean anything, and if I protest, it's bad.</i></p> - -<p>"I think," he said, "that there ought to be a change in maximum -no-drain voltage. I'd like to check it."</p> - -<p>The operator shrugged again. He pressed buttons under a phone-plate.</p> - -<p>"Shift to reserve power," he commanded, when a face appeared in the -plate. "Gotta check no-drain juice."</p> - -<p>"What for?" demanded the face in the plate.</p> - -<p>"You-know-who's got ideas," said the grid operator scornfully. "Maybe -we've been skimping something. Maybe there's some new specification we -didn't know about. Maybe anything! But shift to reserve power."</p> - -<p>The face in the screen grumbled. Bordman swallowed. It was not a -Survey officer's privilege to maintain discipline. And anyhow, there -was no particular virtue in discipline here and now. He watched the -current-demand dial. It stood a little above normal day-drain, which -was understandable. The outside temperature was down. There was more -power needed to keep the dwellings warm, and there was always a lot of -power needed in the mine the colony had been formed to exploit. The -mine had to be warmed for the men who worked to develop it.</p> - -<p>The current-demand needle dropped abruptly, hung steady, and dropped -again and again as additional parts of the colony's power uses were -switched to reserve. The needle hit bottom. It stayed there.</p> - -<p>Bordman had to walk around the standby man to get at the voltmeter. -It was built around standard, old-fashioned vacuum-tubes, and tested -it. He pushed in the contact plugs, read the no-drain voltage, licked -his lips, and made a note. He reversed the leads, so it would read -backward. He took another reading. He drew in his breath very quietly.</p> - -<p>"Now I want the power turned on in sections," he told the operator. -"The mine first, maybe. It doesn't matter. But I want to get voltage -readings at different power take-offs."</p> - -<p>The operator looked pained. He spoke with unnecessary elaboration to -the face in the phone-plate, and grudgingly went through the process -by which Bordman measured the successive drops in voltage with power -drawn from the ionosphere. The current available from a layer of -ionized gas is, in effect, the current-flow through a conductor with -marked resistance. It is possible to infer a gas's ionization from the -current it yields.</p> - -<p>The cold-lock door opened. Riki Herndon came in, panting a little.</p> - -<p>"There's another message from home," she said sharply. Her voice -seemed strained. "They picked up our answering-beam and are giving the -information you asked for."</p> - -<p>"I'll be along," said Bordman. "I just got some information here."</p> - -<p>He got into his cold-garments again, and followed her out of the -control-hut.</p> - -<p>"The figures from home aren't good," said Riki, when mountains visibly -rose on every hand around them. "Ken says they're much worse than he -thought. The rate of decline in the solar constant's worse than we -figured or could believe."</p> - -<p>"I see," said Bordman, inadequately.</p> - -<p>"It's absurd!" said Riki angrily. "There've been sunspots and sunspot -cycles all along—I learned about them in school. I learned about a -four-year and a seven-year cycle, and that there were others. They -should have known, they should have calculated in advance! Now they -talk about sixty-year cycles coming in with a hundred-and-thirty-year -cycle to pile up with all the others.... What's the use of scientists -if they don't do their work right and twenty million people die of it?"</p> - -<p>Bordman did not consider himself a scientist, but he winced. Riki raged -as they moved over the slippery ice. Her breath was an intermittent -cloud about her shoulders, and there was white frost on the front of -her cold-garments. Even so quickly the moisture of her breath congealed.</p> - -<p>He held out his hand quickly as she slipped, once.</p> - -<p>"But they'll beat it!" said Riki in a sort of angry pride. "They're -starting to build more landing-grids, back home. Hundreds of them! -Not for ships to land by, but to draw power from the ionosphere! They -figure that one ship-size grid can keep nearly three square miles of -ground warm enough to live on. They'll roof over the streets of cities -and pile snow on top for insulation. Then they'll plant food-crops -in the streets and gardens, and do what hydroponic growing they can. -They're afraid they can't do it fast enough to save everybody, but -they'll try!"</p> - -<p>Bordman clenched his hands inside their bulky mittens.</p> - -<p>"Well?" demanded Riki, "Won't that do the trick?"</p> - -<p>"No."</p> - -<p>"Why not?"</p> - -<p>"I just took readings on the grid, here. The voltage and the -conductivity of the layer we draw power from, both depend on -ionization. When the intensity of sunlight drops, the voltage drops and -the conductivity drops too. It's harder for less power to flow to the -area the grid can tap—and the voltage pressure is lower to drive it."</p> - -<p>"Don't say any more!" cried Riki. "Not another word!"</p> - -<p>Bordman was silent. They went down the last small slope, and passed -the opening of the mine, a great drift which bored straight into -the mountain. Looking into it, they saw the twin rows of brilliant -roof-lights going toward the heart of the stony monster.</p> - -<p>They had almost reached the village when Riki said in a stifled voice:</p> - -<p>"How bad is it?"</p> - -<p>"Very," admitted Bordman. "We have here the conditions the home planet -will have in two hundred days. Originally we could draw less than a -fifth the power they count on from a grid on Lani II."</p> - -<p>Riki ground her teeth.</p> - -<p>"Go on!" she said.</p> - -<p>"Ionization here is down ten per cent," said Bordman. "That means the -voltage is down, somewhat more. A great deal more. And the resistance -of the layer is greater. Very much greater. When they need power most, -on the home planet, they won't draw more from a grid than we do now. It -won't be enough."</p> - -<p>They reached the village. There were steps to the cold-lock of -Herndon's office-hull. They were ice-free, because like the village -walk-ways they were warmed to keep frost from depositing on them. -Bordman made a mental note.</p> - -<p>In the cold-lock, the warm air pouring in was almost stifling. Riki -said defiantly:</p> - -<p>"You might as well tell me now!"</p> - -<p>"We usually can draw one-fifth as much power, here, as the same sized -grid would yield on your home world," he said. "We are drawing—call it -sixty per cent of normal. A shade over one-tenth of what they expect to -draw when the real cold hits them. Their estimates are nine times too -high. One grid won't warm three square miles of city. About a third of -one is closer. But—"</p> - -<p>"That won't be the worst," said Riki in a choked voice. "Is that right? -How much good will a grid do?"</p> - -<p>Bordman did not answer.</p> - -<p>The inner cold-lock door opened. Herndon sat at his desk, even paler -than before, listening to the hash of noises that came out of the -speaker. He tapped on the desk-top, quite unconscious of the action. He -looked almost desperately at Bordman.</p> - -<p>"Did she tell you?" he asked in a numb voice. "They hope to save maybe -half the population. All the children anyhow...."</p> - -<p>"They won't," said Riki bitterly.</p> - -<p>"Better go transcribe the new stuff that's come in," said her brother. -"We might as well know what it says."</p> - -<p>Riki went out of the office. Bordman shed his cold-garments. He said:</p> - -<p>"The rest of the colony doesn't know what's up yet. The operator at the -grid didn't certainly. But they have to know."</p> - -<p>"We'll post the messages on the bulletin board," said Herndon. "I wish -I could keep it from them. It's not fun to live with. I—might as well -not tell them just yet."</p> - -<p>"To the contrary," insisted Bordman. "They've got to know right away! -You're going to issue orders and they'll need to understand how urgent -they are."</p> - -<p>Herndon looked hopeless.</p> - -<p>"What's the good of doing anything?" When Bordman frowned, he added: -"Seriously, is there any use? You're all right. A Survey Ship's due -to take you away. It's not coming because they know there's something -wrong, but because your job should be finished about now. But it can't -do any good! It would be insane for it to land at home. It couldn't -carry away more than a few dozen refugees, and there are twenty million -people who're going to die. It might offer to take some of us, but I -don't think many of us would go. I wouldn't. I don't think Riki would."</p> - -<p>"I don't see—"</p> - -<p>"What we've got right here," said Herndon, "is what they're going to -have back home. And worse. But there's no chance for us to keep alive -here! You are the one who pointed it out. I've been figuring, and the -way the solar-constant curve is going—I plotted it from the figures -they gave us—it couldn't possibly level out until the oxygen, anyhow, -is frozen out of the atmosphere here. We aren't equipped to stand -anything like that, and we can't get equipped. There isn't equipment -to let us stand it indefinitely! Anyhow, the maximum cold conditions -will last two thousand days back home—six Earth-years. And there'll be -storage of cold in frozen oceans and piled-up glaciers. It'll be twenty -years before home will be back to normal in temperature, and the same -here. Is there any point in trying to live—just barely to survive—for -twenty years before there'll be a habitable planet to go back to?"</p> - -<p>Bordman said irritably:</p> - -<p>"Don't be a fool! Doesn't it occur to you that this planet is a perfect -experiment station, two hundred days ahead of the home world, where -ways to beat the whole business can be tried? If we can beat it here, -they can beat it there!"</p> - -<p>Herndon said:</p> - -<p>"Can you name one thing to try here?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," snapped Bordman. "I want the walk-heaters and the step-heaters -outside turned off. They use power to keep walk-ways clear of frost and -door-steps not slippery. I want to save that heat!"</p> - -<p>Herndon said, "And when you've saved it, what will you do with it?"</p> - -<p>"Put it underground to be used as needed!" Bordman said. "Store it in -the mine! I want to put every heating-device we can contrive to work -in the mine, to heat the rock. I want to draw every watt the grid will -yield and warm up the inside of the mountain while we can draw power to -do it with. I want the deepest part of the mine too hot to enter! We'll -lose a lot of heat, of course. It's not like storing electric power. -But we can store heat now, and the more we store the more will be left -when we need it!"</p> - -<p>Herndon thought. Presently he stirred slightly.</p> - -<p>"Do you know, that is an idea...." He looked up. "Back home there was -a shale-oil deposit up near the ice-caps. It wasn't economical to mine -it. So they put heaters down in bore-holes and heated up the whole -shale deposit. Drill-holes let out the hot oil vapors to be condensed. -They got out every bit of oil without disturbing the shale. And then -the shale stayed warm for years! Farmers bulldozed soil over it and -raised crops with glaciers all around them. That could be done again. -They could be storing up heat back home!"</p> - -<p>Then he drooped.</p> - -<p>"But they can't spare power to warm up the ground under cities. They -need all the power they've got to build roofs.... And it takes time to -build grids."</p> - -<p>Bordman snapped:</p> - -<p>"Yes, if they're building regulation ones. By the time they were -finished they'd be useless. The ionization here is dropping already. -But they don't need to build grids that will be useless later. They -can weave cables together on the ground and hang them in the air by -helicopters. They wouldn't hold up a landing ship for an instant, but -they'll draw power right away. They'll even power the helis that hold -them up! Of course, they'll have defects; they'll have to come down in -high winds, for example. They won't be too dependable. But they can put -heat in the ground to come out under roofs, to grow food by, to save -lives by. What's the matter with them?"</p> - -<p>Herndon stirred again. His eyes ceased to be dull and lifeless.</p> - -<p>"I'll give the orders for turning off the sidewalks. And I'll send what -you just said back home. They should like it."</p> - -<p>He looked respectfully at Bordman.</p> - -<p>"I guess you know what I'm thinking right now," he said.</p> - -<p>Bordman flushed. He felt that Herndon was unduly impressed. Herndon -didn't see that the device wouldn't solve anything. It would merely -postpone the effects of a disaster. It could not possibly prevent them.</p> - -<p>"It ought to be done," he said. "There'll be other things to be done, -too."</p> - -<p>"Then when you tell them to me," said Herndon, "they'll get done! I'll -have Riki put this into that pulse-code you explained to us and she'll -get it off right away."</p> - -<p>He stood up.</p> - -<p>"I didn't explain the code to her!" insisted Bordman. "She was already -translating it when you gave her my suggestion!"</p> - -<p>"All right," said Herndon. "I'll get this sent back at once!"</p> - -<p>He hurried out of the office. <i>This</i>, thought Bordman irritably, -<i>is how reputations are made, I suppose. I'm getting one.</i> But -his own reaction was extremely inappropriate. If the people of Lani II -did suspend helicopter-supported grids of wire in the atmosphere, they -could warm masses of underground rock and stone and earth. They could -establish what were practically reservoirs of life-giving heat under -their cities. They could contrive that the warmth from below would -rise only as it was needed. <i>But</i>—</p> - -<p>Two hundred days to conditions corresponding to the colony-planet. -Then two thousand days of minimum-heat conditions. Then very, very -slow return to normal temperature, long after the sun was back to its -previous brilliance. They couldn't store enough heat for so long. It -couldn't be done. It was ironic that in the freezing of ice and the -making of glaciers the planet itself could store cold.</p> - -<p>Also, there would be monstrous storms and blizzards on Lani II as cold -conditions got worse. The wire-grids could be held aloft for shorter -and shorter periods, and each time they would pull down less power than -before. Their effectiveness would diminish even faster than the need -for effectiveness increased.</p> - -<p>Bordman felt even deeper depression as he worked out the facts. His -proposal was essentially futile. It would be encouraging, and to a -very slight degree and for a certain short time it would palliate the -situation on the inner planet. But in the long run its effect would be -zero.</p> - -<p>He was embarrassed, too, that Herndon was so admiring. Herndon would -tell Riki that he was marvelous. She might—though cagily—be inclined -to agree. But he wasn't marvelous. This trick of a flier-supported -grid was not new. It had been used on Saril to supply power for giant -peristaltic pumps emptying a polder that had been formed inside a ring -of indifferently upraised islands.</p> - -<p><i>All I know</i>, thought Bordman bitterly, <i>is what somebody's -showed me or I've read in books. And nobody's showed or written how -to handle a thing like this!</i></p> - -<p>He went to Herndon's desk. Herndon had made a new graph of the -solar-constant observations forwarded from home. It was a strictly -typical curve of the results of coinciding cyclic change. It was the -curve of a series of frequencies at the moment when they were all -precisely in phase. From this much one could extrapolate and compute.</p> - -<p>Bordman took a pencil, frowning. His fingers clumsily formed equations -and solved them. The result was just about as bad as it could be. The -change in brightness of the sun Lani would not be enough to be observed -on Kent IV, the nearest other inhabited world, when the light reached -there four years from now. Lani would never be classed as a variable -star, because the total change in light and heat would be relatively -minute. The formula for computing planetary temperatures is not simple. -Among its factors are squares and cubes of the variables. Worse, the -heat radiated from a sun's photosphere varies not as the square or -cube, but as the fourth power of its absolute temperature.</p> - -<p>Bordman's computations were not pure theory. The data came from Sol -itself, where alone in the galaxy there had been daily solar-constant -measurements for three hundred years. The rest of his deductions were -based ultimately on Earth observations, too. Most scientific data had -to refer back to Earth to get an adequate continuity. And there could -be no possible doubt about the sunspot data, because Sol and Lani were -of the same type and nearly equal size.</p> - -<p>Using the figures on the present situation, Bordman reluctantly arrived -at the fact that here, on this already-frozen world, the temperature -would drop gradually until CO<sub>2</sub> froze out of the atmosphere. When -that happened, the temperature would plummet until there was no really -significant difference between it and that of empty space. It is carbon -dioxide which is responsible for the greenhouse effect, by which a -planet is in thermal equilibrium only at a temperature above its -surroundings, as a greenhouse in sunlight is warmer than the outside -air.</p> - -<p>The greenhouse effect would vanish soon on the colony-world. When it -vanished on the mother planet....</p> - -<p>Bordman found himself thinking, <i>if Riki won't leave when the Survey -ship comes, I'll resign from the Service. I'll have to if I'm to stay. -And I won't go unless she does.</i></p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>"If you want to come, it's all right," said Bordman ungraciously.</p> - -<p>He waited while Riki slipped into the bulky cold-garments that were -needed out-of-doors in the daytime, and were doubly necessary at night. -There were heavy boots with inches-thick insulating soles, made in -one piece with the many-layered trousers. There was an air-puffed, -insulated over-tunic with its hood and mittens which were a part of the -sleeves.</p> - -<p>"Nobody goes outside at night," she said when they stood together in -the cold-lock.</p> - -<p>"I do," he told her. "I want to find out something."</p> - -<p>The outer door opened and he stepped out. He held his arm for her, -because the steps and walk-way were no longer heated. Now they were -covered with a filmy layer of something which was not frost, but a -faint bloom of powder—microscopic snow-crystals frozen out of the air -by the unbearable chill of night.</p> - -<p>There was no moon, of course, yet the ice-clad mountains glowed -faintly. The drone-hulls arranged in such an orderly fashion were dark -against the frosted ground. There was silence, stillness, the feeling -of ancient quietude. No wind stirred anywhere. Nothing moved, nothing -lived. The soundlessness was enough to crack the ear-drums.</p> - -<p>Bordman threw back his head and gazed at the sky for a very long time. -Nothing. He looked down at Riki.</p> - -<p>"Look at the sky," he commanded.</p> - -<p>She raised her eyes. She had been watching him. But as she gazed -upward she almost cried out. The sky was filled with stars in -innumerable variety. But the brighter ones were as stars had never -been seen before. Just as the sun in daylight had been accompanied -by its sun-dogs—pale phantoms of itself ranged about it—so the -brighter distant suns now shone from the center of rings of their own -images. They no longer had the look of random placing. Those which -were most distinct were patterns in themselves, and one's eyes strove -instinctively to grasp the greater pattern in which such seeming -artifacts must belong.</p> - -<p>"Oh—beautiful!" cried Riki softly.</p> - -<p>"Look!" he insisted. "Keep looking!"</p> - -<p>She continued to gaze, moving her eyes about hopefully. It was such a -sight as no one could have imagined. Every tint and every color, every -possible degree of brightness appeared. And there were groups of stars -of the same brilliance which almost made triangles, but not quite. -There were rose-tinted stars which almost formed an arc, but did not. -And there were arrays which were almost lines and nearly formed squares -and polygons, but never actually achieved them.</p> - -<p>"It's beautiful," said Riki. "But what must I look for?"</p> - -<p>"Look for what isn't there," he ordered.</p> - -<p>She looked, and the stars were unwinking, but that was not -extraordinary. They filled all the firmament, without the least space -in which some tiny sparkle of light was not to be found. But that was -not remarkable, either. Then there was a vague flickering grayish glow -somewhere, indefinite. It vanished. Then she realized.</p> - -<p>"There's no aurora!" she exclaimed.</p> - -<p>"That's it," said Bordman. "There've always been auroras here. But -no longer. We may be responsible. I wish I thought it wise to turn -everything back to reservoir power for a while. We could find out. But -we can't afford it."</p> - -<p>"I looked at it when we first landed," admitted Riki. "It was -unbelievable. But it was terribly cold, out of shelter. And it happened -every night, so I said to myself I'd look tomorrow, and then tomorrow -again. So it got so I never looked at all."</p> - -<p>Bordman kept his eyes where that faint gray flickering had been. And, -once one realized, it was astonishing that the former nightly play of -ghostly colors should be absent.</p> - -<p>"The aurora," he said, "happens in the very upper limits of the air, -fifty—seventy—ninety miles up, when God-knows-what emitted particles -from the sun come streaking in, drawn by the planet's magnetic field. -The aurora's a phenomenon of ions. We tap the ionosphere a long way -down from where it plays, but I'm wondering if we stopped it."</p> - -<p>"We?" said Riki, shocked. "We humans?"</p> - -<p>"We tap the ions of their charges," he said somberly, "that the -sunlight made by day. We're pulling in all the power we can. I wonder -if we've drained the aurora of its energy, too."</p> - -<p>Riki was silent. Bordman gazed, still searching. But he shook his head.</p> - -<p>"It could be," he said in a carefully detached voice. "We didn't draw -much power by comparison with the amount that came. But the ionization -is an ultra-violet effect. Atmospheric gases don't ionize too easily. -After all, if the solar constant dropped a very little, it might mean a -terrific drop in the ultra-violet part of the spectrum—and that's what -makes ions of oxygen and nitrogen and hydrogen and such. The ion-drop -could easily be fifty times as great as the drop in the solar constant. -And we're drawing power from the little that's left."</p> - -<p>Riki stood very still. The cold was horrible. Had there been a wind, it -could not have been endured for an instant. But the air was motionless. -Yet its coldness was so great that the inside of one's nostrils ached, -and the inside of one's chest was aware of chill. Even through the -cold-garments there was the feeling as of ice without.</p> - -<p>"I'm beginning," said Bordman, "to suspect that I'm a fool. Or maybe -I'm an optimist. It might be the same thing. I could have guessed that -the power we could draw would drop faster than our need for power -increased. If we've drained the aurora of its light, we're scraping -the bottom of the barrel. And it's a shallower barrel than one would -suspect."</p> - -<p>There was stillness again. Riki stood mousy-quiet. <i>When she realizes -what this means</i>, thought Bordman grimly, <i>she won't admire me so -much. Her brother's built me up. But I've been a fool, figuring out -excuses to hope. She'll see it.</i></p> - -<p>"I think," said Riki, "that you're telling me that after all we can't -store up heat to live on, down in the mine."</p> - -<p>"We can't," agreed Bordman. "Not much, nor long. Not enough to matter."</p> - -<p>"So we won't live as long as Ken expects?"</p> - -<p>"Not nearly as long," said Bordman. "He's hoping we can find out things -to be useful back on Lani II. But we'll lose the power we can get from -our grid long before even their new grids are useless. We'll have to -start using our reserve power a lot sooner. It'll be gone—and us with -it—before they're really in straits for living-heat."</p> - -<p>Riki's teeth began to chatter.</p> - -<p>"This sounds like I'm scared," she said angrily, "but I'm not! I'm just -freezing. If you want to know, I'd a lot rather have it the way you -say. I won't have to grieve over anybody, and they'll be too busy to -grieve for me.... Let's go inside while it's still warm."</p> - -<p>He helped her back into the cold-lock, and the outer door closed. She -was shivering uncontrollably when the warmth came pouring in.</p> - -<p>They went into Herndon's office. He came in as Riki was peeling off the -top part of her cold-garments. She still shivered. He glanced at her -and said to Bordman:</p> - -<p>"There's been a call from the grid-control shack. It looks like there's -something wrong, but they can't find anything. The grid is set for -maximum power-collection, but it's bringing in only fifty thousand -kilowatts!"</p> - -<p>"We're on our way back to savagery," said Bordman, with an attempt at -irony.</p> - -<p>It was true. A man can produce two hundred fifty watts from his muscles -for a reasonable length of time. When he has no more power, he is a -savage. When he gains a kilowatt of energy from the muscles of a horse, -he is a barbarian, but the new power cannot be directed wholly as he -wills. When he can apply it to a plow he has high barbarian culture, -and when he adds still more he begins to be civilized. Steam-power put -as much as four kilowatts to work for every human being in the first -industrialized countries, and in the mid-twentieth century there was -sixty kilowatts per person in the more advanced nations. Nowadays, of -course, a modern culture assumed five hundred as a minimum. But there -was less than half that in the colony on Lani II. And its environment -made its own demands.</p> - -<p>"There can't be any more," said Riki, trying to control her shivering. -"We're even using the aurora and there isn't any more power. It's -running out. We'll go even before the people at home, Ken."</p> - -<p>Herndon's features looked pinched.</p> - -<p>"But we can't! We mustn't!" He turned to Bordman. "We do them good, -back home! There was panic. Our report about cable-grids has put heart -in people. They're setting to work magnificently! So we're some use. -They know we're worse off than they are, and as long as we hold on -they'll be encouraged. We've got to keep going somehow!"</p> - -<p>Riki breathed deeply until her shivering stopped. Then she said:</p> - -<p>"Haven't you noticed, Ken, that Mr. Bordman has the view-point of his -profession? His business is finding things wrong. He was deposited in -our midst to detect defects in what we did and do. He has the habit of -looking for the worst. But I think he can turn the habit to good use. -He did turn up the idea of cable-grids."</p> - -<p>"Which," said Bordman, "turns out to be no good at all. They'd be some -good if they weren't needed, really. But the conditions that make them -necessary make them useless!"</p> - -<p>Riki shook her head.</p> - -<p>"They are useful!" she said. "They're keeping people at home from -despairing. Now, though, you've got to think of something else. If you -think of enough things, one will do good the way you want, more than -just making people feel better."</p> - -<p>"What does it matter how people feel?" he demanded bitterly. "What -difference do feelings make? One can't change facts!"</p> - -<p>Riki said firmly:</p> - -<p>"We humans are the only creatures in the universe who don't do anything -else. Every other creature accepts facts. It lives where it is born, -and it feeds on the food that is there for it, and it dies when the -facts of nature require it to. We humans don't. Especially we women! -We won't let men do it, either. When we don't like facts—mostly about -ourselves—we change them. But important facts we disapprove of—we ask -men to change them for us. And they do!"</p> - -<p>She faced Bordman. Rather incredibly, she grinned at him.</p> - -<p>"Will you please change the facts that look so annoying just now, -please? Please?" Then she elaborately pantomimed an over-feminine -girl's look of wide-eyed admiration. "You're so big and strong! I just -know you can do it—for me!"</p> - -<p>She abruptly dropped the pretense and moved toward the door. She -half-turned then, and said detachedly:</p> - -<p>"But about half of that is true."</p> - -<p>The door slid shut behind her. It suddenly occurred to Bordman that she -knew a Colonial Survey ship was due to stop by here to pick him up. She -believed he expected to be rescued, even though the rest of the colony -could not be, and most of it wouldn't consent to leave their kindred -when the death of mankind in this solar system took place. He said -awkwardly:</p> - -<p>"Fifty thousand kilowatts isn't enough to land a ship."</p> - -<p>Herndon frowned. Then he said:</p> - -<p>"Oh. You mean the Survey ship that's to pick you up can't land? But it -can go in orbit and put down a rocket landing-boat for you."</p> - -<p>"I wasn't thinking of that. I'd something more in mind. I—rather -like your sister. She's pretty wonderful. But there are some other -women here in the colony, too. About a dozen all told. As a matter of -self-respect I think we ought to get them away on the Survey ship. I -agree that they wouldn't consent to go. But if they had no choice—if -we could get them on board the grounded ship, and they suddenly -found themselves—well—kidnapped and outward-bound not by their own -fault.... They could be faced with the accomplished fact that they had -to go on living."</p> - -<p>Herndon said evenly:</p> - -<p>"That's been in the back of my mind for some time. Yes, I'm for that. -But if the Survey ship can't land—"</p> - -<p>"I believe I can land it regardless," said Bordman. "I can find out, -anyhow. I'll need to try things. I'll need help. But I want your -promise that if I can get the ship to ground you'll conspire with her -skipper and arrange for them to go on living."</p> - -<p>Herndon looked at him.</p> - -<p>"Some new stuff, in a way," said Bordman uncomfortably. "I'll have to -stay aground to work it. It's also part of the bargain that I shall. -And of course your sister can't know about it, or she can't be fooled -into living."</p> - -<p>Herndon's expression changed a little.</p> - -<p>"What'll you do? Of course it's a bargain."</p> - -<p>"I'll need some metals we haven't smelted so far," said Bordman. -"Potassium if I can get it, sodium if I can't, and at worst I'll settle -for zinc. Cesium would be best, but we've found no traces of it."</p> - -<p>Herndon said thoughtfully:</p> - -<p>"No-o-o. I think I can get you sodium and potassium, from rocks. I'm -afraid no zinc. How much?"</p> - -<p>"Grams," said Bordman. "Trivial quantities. And I'll need a miniature -landing-grid built. Very miniature."</p> - -<p>Herndon shrugged his shoulders.</p> - -<p>"It's over my head. But just to have work to do will be good for -everybody. We've been feeling more frustrated here than any other -humans in history. I'll go round up the men who'll do the work. You -talk to them."</p> - -<p>The door closed behind him. Bordman got out of his cold-clothing. He -thought, <i>She'll rage when she finds her brother and I have deceived -her.</i> Then he thought of the other women. <i>If any of them are -married, we'll have to see if there's room for their husbands. I'll -have to dress up the idea. Make it look like reason for hope, or the -women would find out. But not many can go....</i></p> - -<p>He knew roughly how many extra passengers could be carried on a Survey -ship, even in such an emergency as this. Living-quarters were not -luxurious, at best. Everything was cramped and skimped. Survey ships -were rugged, tiny vessels which performed their duties amid tedium and -discomfort and peril for all on board. But one of them could carry away -a very few unwilling refugees to Kent IV.</p> - -<p>He settled down at Herndon's desk to work out the thing to be done.</p> - -<p>It was not unreasonable. Tapping the ionosphere for power was -something like pumping water out of a pipe-well in sand. If the -water-table was high, there was pressure to force the water to the -pipe, and one could pump fast. If the water-table was low, water -couldn't flow fast enough. The pump would suck dry. In the ionosphere, -the level of ionization was at once like the pressure and the size of -the sand-grains. When the level was high, the flow was vast because -the sand-grains were large and the conductivity high. But as the level -lessened, so did the size of the sand-grains. There was less to draw, -and more resistance to its flow.</p> - -<p>However, there had been one tiny flicker of auroral light over by the -horizon. There was still power aloft. If Bordman could in a fashion -prime the pump, if he could increase the conductivity by increasing the -ions present around the place where their charges were drawn away, he -could increase the total flow. It would be like digging a brick well -where a pipe-well had been. A brick well draws water from all around -its circumference.</p> - -<p>So Bordman computed carefully. It was ironic that he had to go to such -trouble simply because he didn't have test-rockets like the Survey uses -to get a picture of a planet's weather-pattern. They rise vertically -for fifty miles or so, trailing a thread of sodium vapor behind them. -The trail is detectable for some time, and ground instruments record -each displacement by winds blowing in different directions at different -speeds, one over the other. Such a rocket with its loading slightly -changed would do all Bordman had in mind. But he didn't have one, so -something much more elaborate was called for.</p> - -<p>A landing-grid has to be not less than half a mile across and two -thousand feet high because its field has to reach out five planetary -diameters to handle ships that land and take off. To handle solid -objects it has to be accurate, though power can be drawn with an -improvisation. To thrust a sodium-vapor bomb anywhere from twenty to -fifty miles high, he'd need a grid only six feet wide and five high. -It could throw much higher, of course, and hold what it threw. But -doubling the size would make accuracy easier.</p> - -<p>He tripled the dimensions. There would be a grid eighteen feet across -and fifteen high. Tuned to the casing of a small bomb, it could hold it -steady at seven hundred fifty thousand feet, far beyond necessity. He -began to make the detail drawings.</p> - -<p>Herndon came back with half a dozen chosen colonists. They were young -men, technicians rather than scientists. Some of them were several -years younger than Bordman. There were grim and stunned expressions -on some faces, but one tried to pretend nonchalance, and two seemed -trying to suppress fury at the monstrous occurrence that would destroy -not only their own lives, but everything they remembered on the planet -which was their home. They looked almost challengingly at Bordman.</p> - -<p>He explained. He was going to put a cloud of metallic vapor up in the -ionosphere. Sodium if he had to, potassium if he could, zinc if he -must. Those metals were readily ionized by sunlight, much more readily -than atmospheric gases. In effect, he was going to supply a certain -area of the ionosphere with material to increase the efficiency of -sunshine in providing electric power. As a side-line, there would be -increased conductivity from the normal ionosphere.</p> - -<p>"Something like this was done centuries ago, back on Earth," he -explained. "They used rockets, and made sodium-vapor clouds as much -as twenty and thirty miles long. Even nowadays the Survey uses test -rockets with trails of sodium vapor. It will work to some degree. We'll -find out how much."</p> - -<p>He felt Herndon's eyes upon him. They were almost dazedly respectful. -But one of the technicians said:</p> - -<p>"How long will those clouds last?"</p> - -<p>"That high, three or four days," Bordman told him. "They won't help -much at night, but they should step up power-intake while the sun -shines on them."</p> - -<p>A man in the back said, "Hup!" The significance was, "Let's go!"</p> - -<p>Somebody else said feverishly, "What do we do? Got working drawings? -Who makes the bombs? Who does what? Let's get at this!"</p> - -<p>Then there was confusion, and Herndon vanished. Bordman suspected -he'd gone to have Riki put this theory into dot-and-dash code for -beam-transmission back to Lani II. But there was no time to stop him. -These men wanted precise information and it was half an hour before the -last of them had gone out with free-hand sketches, and had come back -for further explanation of a doubtful point, and other men had come in -to demand a share in the job.</p> - -<p>When he was alone again, Bordman thought, <i>Maybe it's worth doing -because it'll get Riki on the Survey ship. But they think it means -saving the people back home!</i></p> - -<p>Which it didn't. Taking energy out of sunlight is taking energy out -of sunlight, no matter how you do it. Take it out as electric power, -and there's less heat left. Warm one place with electric power, and -everywhere else is a little colder. There's an equation. On this -colony-world it wouldn't matter, but on the home world it would. -The more there was trickery to gather heat, the more heat would be -needed.... Again it might postpone the death of twenty million people, -but it would never, never prevent it....</p> - -<p>The door slid aside and Riki came in. She stammered a little.</p> - -<p>"I just coded what Ken told me to send back home. It will—it will do -everything! It's wonderful! I wanted to tell you!"</p> - -<p>"Consider," Bordman said, in a desperate attempt to take it lightly, -"that I've taken a bow."</p> - -<p>He tried to smile. It was not a success. And Riki suddenly drew a deep -breath and looked at him in a new fashion.</p> - -<p>"Ken's right," she said softly. "He says you can't get conceited. -You're not satisfied with yourself even now, are you?" She smiled. "But -what I like is that you aren't really smart. A woman can make you do -things. I have!"</p> - -<p>He looked at her uneasily. She grinned.</p> - -<p>"I, even I, can at least pretend to myself that I helped bring this -about! If I hadn't said please change the facts that are so annoying, -and if I hadn't said you were big and strong and clever.... I'm going -to tell myself for the rest of my life that I helped make you do it!"</p> - -<p>Bordman swallowed.</p> - -<p>"I'm afraid," he said, "that it won't work again."</p> - -<p>She cocked her head on one side.</p> - -<p>"No?"</p> - -<p>He stared at her apprehensively. And then with a bewildering change of -emotional reaction, he saw that her eyes were filled with tears. She -stamped her foot.</p> - -<p>"You're horrible!" she cried. "Here I came in, and—and if you think -you can get me kidnaped to safety without even telling me that -you 'rather like' me, as you told my brother, or that I'm 'pretty -wonderful—'"</p> - -<p>He was stunned, that she knew. She stamped her foot again.</p> - -<p>"For Heaven's sake!" she wailed. "Do I have to <i>ask</i> you to kiss -me?"</p> - -<p>During the last night of preparation, Bordman sat by a thermometer -registering the outside temperature. He hovered over it as one might -over a sick child. He watched it and sweated, though the inside -temperature of the drone-hull was lowered to save power. There was -nothing he could actually do. At midnight the thermometer said it was -seventy degrees below zero Fahrenheit. At half-way to dawn it was -eighty degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The hour before dawn it was -eighty-five degrees below zero. Then he sweated profusely. The meaning -of the slowed descent was that carbon dioxide was being frozen out of -the upper layers of the atmosphere. The frozen particles were drifting -slowly downward, and as they reached lower and faintly warmer levels -they returned to the state of gas. But there was a level, above the -CO<sub>2</sub>, where the temperature was plummeting.</p> - -<p>The height to which carbon dioxide existed was dropping. Slowly, but -inexorably. And above the carbon-dioxide level there was no bottom -limit to the temperature. The greenhouse effect was due to CO<sub>2</sub>. -Where it wasn't, the cold of space moved down. If at ground-level the -thermometer read ever-so-slightly less than one hundred nine below -zero, then everything was finished. Without the greenhouse effect, the -night-side of the planet would lose its remaining heat with a rush. -Even the day side, once cold enough, would lose heat to emptiness as -fast as it came from the sun. Minus one hundred nine point three was -the critical reading. If it went down to that it would plunge to a -hundred and fifty or two hundred degrees below zero, or more. And it -would never come up again.</p> - -<p>There would be rain at nightfall, a rain of oxygen frozen to a liquid -and splashing on the ground. Human life would be impossible, in any -shelter and under any conditions. Even space-suits would not protect -against an atmosphere sucking heat from it at that rate. A space-suit -can be heated against the loss of temperature due to radiation in a -vacuum. It could not be heated against nitrogen which would chill it -irresistibly by contact.</p> - -<p>But, as Bordman sweated over it, the thermometer steadied at minus -eighty-five degrees. When the dawn came, it rose to seventy. By -mid-morning, the temperature in bright sunshine was no lower than -sixty-five degrees below zero.</p> - -<p>But there was no bounce left in Bordman when Herndon came for him.</p> - -<p>"Your phone-plate's been flashing," said Herndon, "and you didn't -answer. Must have had your back to it. Riki's over in the mine, -watching them get things ready. She was worried that she couldn't call -you. Asked me to find out what was the trouble."</p> - -<p>"Has she got something to heat the air she breathes?" asked Bordman.</p> - -<p>"Naturally," said Herndon. He added curiously, "What's the matter?"</p> - -<p>"We almost took our licking," Bordman told him. "I'm afraid for -tonight, and tomorrow night too. If the CO<sub>2</sub> freezes—"</p> - -<p>"We'll have power!" Herndon insisted. "We'll build ice-tunnels and -ice-domes. We'll build a city under ice, if we have to. But we'll have -power!"</p> - -<p>"I doubt it very much," said Bordman. "I wish you hadn't told Riki of -the bargain to get her away from here when the Survey ship comes!"</p> - -<p>Herndon grinned.</p> - -<p>"Is the little grid ready?" asked Bordman.</p> - -<p>"Everything's set," said Herndon. "It's in the mine-tunnel with radiant -heaters playing on it. The bombs are ready. We made enough to last for -months, while we were at it. No use taking chances!"</p> - -<p>Bordman looked at him queerly. Then he said:</p> - -<p>"We might as well go out and try the thing, then."</p> - -<p>He put on the cold-garments as they were now modified for the increased -frigidity. Nobody could breathe air at minus sixty-five degrees without -getting his lungs frost-bitten. So there was now a plastic mask to -cover one's face, and the air one breathed outdoors was heated as it -came through a wire-gauze snout. But still it was not wise to stay out -of shelter for too long a time.</p> - -<p>Bordman and Herndon went out-of-doors. They stepped out of the -cold-lock and gazed about them. The sun seemed markedly paler and now -it had lost its sun-dogs again. Ice-crystals no longer floated in the -almost congealed air. The sky was dark. It was almost purple, and it -seemed to Bordman that he could detect faint flecks of light in it. -They would be stars, shining in the daytime.</p> - -<p>There seemed no one about at all, only the white coldness of the -mountains. But there was a movement at the mine-drift, and something -came out of it. Four men appeared, muffled up like Bordman himself. -They rolled the eighteen-foot grid out of the mine-mouth, moving it on -those inflated bags which are so much better than rollers for rough -terrain. They looked absurdly like bears with steaming noses in their -masks and clothing. They had some sort of powered pusher with them and -they got the metal cage to the very top of a rounded stone upcrop which -rose in the center of the valley.</p> - -<p>"We picked that spot," said Herndon's muffled voice through the chill, -"because by shifting the grid's position it can be aimed, and be on a -solid base. Right?"</p> - -<p>"Quite all right," said Bordman. "We'll go work it."</p> - -<p>The two men walked across the valley, in which nothing moved except -the padded figures of the four technicians. Their wire-gauze -breathing-masks seemed to emit smoke. They waved to Bordman in greeting.</p> - -<p><i>I'm popular again</i>, he thought drearily, <i>but it doesn't -matter. Getting the Survey ship to ground won't help now, since Riki's -forewarned. And this trick won't solve anything permanently on the home -planet. It'll just postpone things.</i></p> - -<p>Even when Riki, muffled like the rest, waved to him from the mouth of -the tunnel, his spirits did not lift. The thing he wanted was to look -forward to years and years of being with Riki. He wanted, in fact, to -look forward to forever. And there might not be a tomorrow.</p> - -<p>"I had the control-board rolled out here," she called through her mask. -"It's cold, but you can watch!"</p> - -<p>It wouldn't be much to watch. If everything went all right, some -dial-needles would kick over violently and their readings would go up -and up. But they wouldn't be readings of temperature. Presently the -big grid would report increased power from the sky. But tonight the -temperature would drop a little farther. Tomorrow night it would drop -further still. When it reached one hundred nine point three degrees -below zero at ground-level, that would be the finish.</p> - -<p>Another of the figures that looked like a bear now went out of -the mine-mouth, trudging toward the grid. It carried a muffled, -well-wrapped object in its arms. It stopped and crept between the -spokes of the grid, and put the object on the stone. Bordman traced -cables with his eyes, from the grid to the control-board, and from the -board back to the reserve-power storage cells, deep in the mountain.</p> - -<p>"The grid's tuned to the bomb," said Riki, close beside him. "I checked -that myself!"</p> - -<p>The bear-like figure out in the valley jerked at the bomb. There was a -small rising cloud of grayish vapor. It continued. The figure climbed -hastily out of the grid. When the man was clear, Bordman threw a switch.</p> - -<p>There was a thin whining sound, and the wrapped, smoking object leaped -upward. It seemed to fall toward the sky. There was no more of drama -than that. An object the size of a basketball fell upward, swiftly, -until it disappeared.</p> - -<p>Bordman sat quite still, watching the control-board dials. Presently he -corrected this, and shifted that. He did not want the bomb to have too -high an upward velocity. At a hundred thousand feet it would find very -little air to stop the rise of the vapor it was to release.</p> - -<p>The field-focus dial reached its indication of one hundred thousand -feet. Bordman reversed the lift-switch. He counted, and then switched -the power off. The small, thin whine ended.</p> - -<p>He threw the power-intake switch. The power-yield needle stirred. The -minute grid was drawing power like its vaster counterpart, but its -field was infinitesimal by comparison. It drew power as a soda-straw -might draw water from wet sand.</p> - -<p>Then the intake-needle kicked. It swung sharply, and wavered, and then -began a steady, even, climbing movement across the markings on the -dial-face. Riki was not watching that.</p> - -<p>"They see something!" she panted. "Look at them!"</p> - -<p>The four men who had trundled the smaller grid to its place, now stared -upward. They flung out their arms. One of them jumped up and down. They -leaped. They practically danced.</p> - -<p>"Let's go see," said Bordman.</p> - -<p>He went out of the tunnel with Riki. They gazed upward. And directly -overhead, where the sky was darkest blue and where it had seemed that -stars shone through the daylight, there was a minute cloud. But it -grew. Its edges were yellow, saffron-yellow. It expanded and spread. -Presently it began to thin. As it thinned, it began to shine. It was -luminous. And the luminosity had a strange, familiar quality.</p> - -<p>Somebody came panting down the tunnel, from inside the mountain.</p> - -<p>"The grid—" he panted. "The big grid! It's pumping power! Big power! -BIG power!"</p> - -<p>But Bordman was looking at the sky, as if he did not quite believe his -eyes. The cloud now expanded very slowly, but still it grew. And it -was not regular in shape. The bomb had not shattered quite evenly, and -the vapor had poured out more on one side than the other. There was a -narrow, arching arm of brightness....</p> - -<p>"It looks," said Riki breathlessly, "like a comet!"</p> - -<p>And then Bordman froze in every muscle. He stared at the cloud he had -made aloft, and his hands clenched in their mittens, and he swallowed -behind his cold-mask.</p> - -<p>"Th-that's it," he said in a hushed voice. "It's—<i>very</i> much like -a comet. I'm glad you said that! We can make something even more like a -comet. We can use all the bombs we've made, right away, to make it. And -we've got to hurry so it won't get any colder tonight!"</p> - -<p>Which, of course, sounded like insanity. Riki looked apprehensively at -him. But Bordman had just thought of something. And nobody had taught -it to him and he hadn't gotten it out of books. But he'd seen a comet.</p> - -<p>The new idea was so promising that he regarded it with anguished unease -for fear it would not hold up. It was an idea that really ought to -change the facts resulting naturally from a lowered solar constant in a -sol-type star.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>Half the colony set to work to make more bombs when the effect of -the first bomb showed up. The men were not very efficient, at first, -because they tended to want to stop work and dance from time to -time. But they worked with an impassioned enthusiasm. They made more -bomb-casings, and they prepared more sodium and potassium metal and -more fuses, and more insulation to wrap around the bombs to protect -them from the cold of airless space.</p> - -<p>Because these were to go out to airlessness. The miniature grid could -lift and hold a bomb steady in its field-focus at seven hundred and -fifty thousand feet. But if a bomb was accelerated all the way out to -that point, and the field was then snapped off.... Why, it wasn't held -anywhere! It kept on going with its attained velocity. And it burst -when its fuse decided that it should, whereupon immediately a mass of -sodium and potassium vapor, mixed with the fumes of high explosive, -flung itself madly in all directions, out between the stars. Absolute -vacuum tore the compressed gasified metals apart. The separate atoms, -white-hot from the explosion, went swirling through sunlit space. The -sunlight was dimmed a trifle, to be sure. But individual atoms of the -lighter alkaline-earth metals have marked photoelectric properties. In -sunshine these gas-molecules ionized, and therefore spread more widely, -and did not coalesce into even microscopic droplets.</p> - -<p>They formed, in fact, a cloud in space. An ionized cloud, in which no -particle was too large to be responsive to the pressure of light. The -cloud acted like the gases of a comet's tail. It was a comet's tail, -though there was no comet. And it was an extraordinary comet's tail -because it is said that you can put a comet's tail in your hat, at -normal atmospheric pressure. But this could not have been put in a hat. -Even before it turned to gas, it was the size of a basketball. And, in -space, it glowed.</p> - -<p>It glowed with the brightness of the sunshine on it, which was light -that would normally have gone away through the interstellar dark. And -it filled one corner of the sky. Within one hour it was a comet tail -ten thousand miles long, which visibly brightened the daytime heavens. -And it was only the first of such reflecting clouds.</p> - -<p>The next bomb set for space exploded in a different quarter, because -Bordman had had the miniature grid wrestled around the upcrop to point -in a new and somewhat more carefully chosen line. The next spattered -brilliance in a different section still. And the brilliance lasted.</p> - -<p>Bordman flung his first bombs recklessly, because there would be more, -and because he was desperately anxious to hang as many comet-tails as -possible around the colony-planet before nightfall. He didn't want it -to get any colder.</p> - -<p>And it didn't. In fact, there wasn't exactly any real nightfall on Lani -III that night.</p> - -<p>The planet turned on its axis, to be sure. But around it, quite close -by, there hung gigantic streamers of shining gas. At their beginning, -those streamers bore a certain resemblance to the furry wild-animal -tails that little boys like to have hanging down from hunting-caps. -Only they shone. And as they developed they merged, so that there was -an enormous shining curtain about Lani III, draperies of metal-mist to -capture sunlight that would otherwise have been wasted, and to diffuse -much of it on Lani II. At midnight there was only one spot in all the -night sky where there was really darkness. That was overhead, directly -outward from the planet, opposite from the sun. Gigantic shining -streamers formed a wall, a tube, of comet-tail material, yet many -times more dense and therefore more bright, which shielded the colony -world against the dark and cold, and threw upon it a shining, warming -brightness.</p> - -<p>Riki maintained stoutly that she could feel the warmth from the -sky, but that was improbable. However, heat certainly did come from -somewhere. The thermometer did not fall at all, that night. It rose. -It was up to fifty below zero at dawn. During the day—they sent out -twenty more bombs that second day—it was up to twenty degrees below -zero. By the day after, there were competent computations from the home -planet, and the concrete results of abstruse speculation, and the third -day's bombs were placed with optimum spacing for heating purposes.</p> - -<p>By dawn of the fourth day the air was a balmy five degrees below zero, -and the day after that there was a small running stream in the valley -at midday.</p> - -<p>There was talk of stocking the stream with fish, on the morning the -Survey ship came in. The great landing-grid gave out a deep-toned, -vibrant, humming note, like the deepest possible note of the biggest -organ that could be imagined. A speck appeared high up in a pale-blue -sky with trimmings of golden gas clouds. The Survey ship came down and -down and settled as a shining silver object in the very center of the -gigantic red-painted landing-grid.</p> - -<p>Her skipper came to find Bordman. He was in Herndon's office. The -skipper struggled to keep sheer blankness out of his expression.</p> - -<p>"What the hell?" he demanded. "This is the damnedest sight in the whole -Galaxy, and they tell me you're responsible! There've been ringed -planets before, and there've been comets and who knows what! But -shining gas-pipes aimed at the sun, half a million miles across! And -there are two of them—both the occupied planets!"</p> - -<p>Herndon explained why the curtains hung in space. There was a drop in -the solar constant....</p> - -<p>The skipper exploded. He wanted facts! Details! Something to report!</p> - -<p>Bordman was automatically on the defensive when the skipper swung his -questions at him. A Senior Colonial Survey officer is not revered by -the Survey ship-service officers. Men like Bordman can be a nuisance -to a hard-working ship's officer. They have to be carried to unlikely -places for their work of checking over colonial installations. They -have to be put down on hard-to-get-at colonies, and they have to be -called for, sometimes, at times and places which are inconvenient. So a -man in Bordman's position is likely to feel unpopular.</p> - -<p>"I'd just finished the survey here," he said defensively, "when a cycle -of sunspot cycles matured. All the sunspot periods got in phase, and -the solar constant dropped. So I naturally offered what help I could to -meet the situation."</p> - -<p>The skipper regarded him incredulously.</p> - -<p>"But it couldn't be done!" he said. "They told me how you did it, but -it couldn't be done! Do you realize that these vapor-curtains will make -fifty border-line worlds fit for use? Half a pound of sodium vapor -a week!" He gestured helplessly. "They tell me the amount of heat -reaching the surface here has been upped by fifteen per cent! D'you -realize what <i>that</i> means?"</p> - -<p>"I haven't been worrying about it," admitted Bordman. "There was a -local situation and something had to be done. I—er—remembered things, -and Riki suggested something I mightn't have thought of. So it's worked -out like this." Then he said abruptly: "I'm not leaving. I'll let you -take my resignation back. I think I'm going to settle here. It'll be a -long time before we get really temperate-climate conditions here, but -we can warm up a valley like this for cultivation, and it's going to -be a rather satisfying job. It's a brand new planet with a brand new -ecological system to be established."</p> - -<p>The skipper of the Survey ship sat down hard. Then the sliding door of -Herndon's office opened and Riki came in. The skipper stood up again. -Bordman awkwardly made the introduction. Riki smiled.</p> - -<p>"I'm telling him," said Bordman, "that I'm resigning from the Service -to settle down here."</p> - -<p>Riki nodded. She put her hand in proprietary fashion on Bordman's arm. -The Survey skipper cleared his throat.</p> - -<p>"I'm not going to carry your resignation," he said. "There've got to be -detailed reports on how this business works. Dammit, if vapor clouds in -space can be used to keep a planet warm, they can be used to shade a -planet, too! If you resign, somebody else will have to come out here to -make observations and work out the details of the trick. Nobody could -be gotten here in less than a year! You've got to stay here to build -up a report, and you ought to be available for consultation when this -thing's to be done somewhere else. I'll report that I insisted as a -Survey emergency—"</p> - -<p>Riki said confidently:</p> - -<p>"Oh, that's all right! He'll do that! Of course! Won't you?"</p> - -<p>Bordman nodded. He thought, <i>I've been lonely all my life. I've -never belonged anywhere. But nobody could possibly belong anywhere -as thoroughly as I'll belong here when it's warm and green and even -the grass on the ground is partly my doing. But Riki'll like for me -still to be in the Service. Women like to see their husbands wearing -uniforms.</i></p> - -<p>Aloud he said:</p> - -<p>"Of course. If it really needs to be done. Though you realize that -there's nothing really remarkable about it. Everything I've done has -been what I was taught, or read in books."</p> - -<p>"Hush!" said Riki. "You're wonderful!"</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>And so they were married, and Bordman was very, very happy. But people -who can serve their fellow-men are never left alone. We humans get into -so many predicaments!</p> - -<p>Bordman had lived contentedly on Lani III for only three years when -there was an emergency on Kalen IV and no other qualified Space Survey -officer could possibly be gotten to the spot in time to handle it. -A special ship raced to ask him to act,—just for this once. And, -reluctantly, he went to do what he could, with the assurance to Riki -that he would be back in three months. But he was gone two years, and -his youngest child did not remember him when he came back.</p> - -<p>He stayed home one year, and then there was an emergency on Seth IV. -That kept him only four months, but before he could get back to Lani -he was urgently required to check out a colony on Aleph I, whose -colonists could not enter into possession until a short-handed Survey -service licensed it. Then there was another call....</p> - -<p>In the first ten years of his marriage, Bordman spent less than five -with his family. But he didn't like it. When he'd been married fifteen -years he'd made it clear at Headquarters that he was only carrying on -until a new class graduated from Space Survey training. Then he was -going home to stay.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="SAND_DOOM">SAND DOOM</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Bordman knew there was something wrong when the throbbing, acutely -uncomfortable vibration of rocket-blasts shook the ship. Rockets were -strictly emergency devices, these days, so when they were used there -was obviously an emergency.</p> - -<p>He sat still. He had been reading in the passenger-lounge of the -<i>Warlock</i>—a very small lounge indeed—but as a Senior Colonial -Survey Officer with considerable experience he was well-traveled -enough to know when things did not go right. He looked up from the -book-screen, waiting. Nobody came to explain the eccentricity of a -space-ship using rockets. The explanation would have been immediate on -a regular liner, but the <i>Warlock</i> was practically a tramp. This -trip it carried just two passengers. Passenger service was not yet -authorized to the planet, and would not be until Bordman had made the -report he was on his way to compile. At the moment, though, the rockets -blasted, and stopped, and blasted again. There was something definitely -wrong.</p> - -<p>The <i>Warlock's</i> other passenger came out of her cabin. She looked -surprised. She was Aletha Redfeather, a very lovely Amerind. It was -extraordinary that a girl could be so self-sufficient on a tedious -space-voyage, and Bordman approved of her. She was making the journey -to Xosa II as a representative of the Amerind Historical Society, -but she'd brought her own book-reels and some elaborate fancy-work -which—woman-fashion—she used to occupy her hands. She hadn't been -at all a nuisance. Now she tilted her head on one side as she looked -inquiringly at Bordman.</p> - -<p>"I'm wondering too," he told her, just as an especially sustained and -violent shuddering of rocket-impulsion made his chair legs thutter on -the floor.</p> - -<p>There was a long period of stillness. Then another violent but much -shorter blast. A shorter one still. Presently there was a half-second -blast which must have been from a single rocket-tube because of the -mild shaking it produced. After that there was nothing at all.</p> - -<p>Bordman frowned to himself. He'd been anticipating ground-fall within -a matter of hours, certainly. He'd just gone through his spec-book -carefully and re-familiarized himself with the work he was to survey on -Xosa II. It was a perfectly common-place minerals-planet development, -and he'd expected to clear it FE—fully established—and probably TP -and NQ ratings as well, indicating that tourists were permitted and no -quarantine was necessary. Considering the aridity of the planet, no -bacteriological dangers could be expected to exist, and if tourists -wanted to view its monstrous deserts and inferno-like wind-sculptures, -they should be welcome.</p> - -<p>But the ship had used rocket-drive in the planet's near vicinity. -Emergency. Which was ridiculous. This was a perfectly routine sort of -voyage. Its purpose was the delivery of heavy equipment—specifically a -smelter—and a Senior Colonial Survey Officer to report the completion -of primary development.</p> - -<p>Aletha waited, as if for more rocket-blasts. Presently she smiled at -some thought that had occurred to her.</p> - -<p>"If this were an adventure tape," she said, "the loud-speaker would -now announce that the ship had established itself in an orbit around -the strange, uncharted planet first sighted three days ago, and that -volunteers were wanted for a boat landing."</p> - -<p>Bordman demanded impatiently:</p> - -<p>"Do you bother with adventure tapes? They're nonsense! A pure waste of -time!"</p> - -<p>Aletha smiled again.</p> - -<p>"My ancestors," she told him, "used to hold tribal dances and make -medicine and boast about how many scalps they'd taken and how they -did it. It was satisfying—and educational for the young. Adolescents -became familiar with the idea of what we nowadays call adventure. They -were partly ready for it when it came. I suspect your ancestors used to -tell each other stories about hunting mammoths and such. So I think it -would be fun to hear that we were in orbit and that a boat landing was -in order."</p> - -<p>Bordman grunted. There were no longer adventures. The universe was -settled, civilized. Of course there were still frontier planets—Xosa -II was one—but pioneers had only hardships. Not adventures.</p> - -<p>The ship-phone speaker clicked. It said curtly:</p> - -<p>"<i>Notice. We have arrived at Xosa II and have established an orbit -about it. A landing will be made by boat.</i>"</p> - -<p>Bordman's mouth dropped open.</p> - -<p>"What the devil's this?" he demanded.</p> - -<p>"Adventure, maybe," said Aletha. Her eyes crinkled very pleasantly when -she smiled. She wore the modern Amerind dress—a sign of pride in the -ancestry which now implied such diverse occupations as interstellar -steel construction and animal husbandry and llano-planet colonization. -"If it were adventure, as the only girl on this ship I'd have to be in -the landing party, lest the tedium of orbital waiting make the—" her -smile widened to a grin—"the pent-up restlessness of trouble-makers in -the crew—"</p> - -<p>The ship phone clicked again.</p> - -<p>"<i>Mr. Bordman. Miss Redfeather. According to advices from the ground, -the ship may have to stay in orbit for a considerable time. You will -accordingly be landed by boat. Will you make yourselves ready, please, -and report to the boat-blister?</i>" The voice paused and added, -"<i>Hand luggage only, please.</i>"</p> - -<p>Aletha's eyes brightened. Bordman felt the shocked incredulity of a man -accustomed to routine when routine is broken. Of course, survey ships -made boat landings from orbit, and colony ships let down robot hulls -by rocket when there was as yet no landing-grid for the handling of a -ship. But never before in his experience had an ordinary freighter, on -a routine voyage to a colony ready for a degree-of-completion survey, -ever landed anybody by boat.</p> - -<p>"This is ridiculous!" said Bordman, fuming.</p> - -<p>"Maybe it's adventure," said Aletha. "I'll pack."</p> - -<p>She disappeared into her cabin, Bordman hesitated. Then he went into -his own. The colony on Xosa II had been established two years since. -Minimum-comfort conditions had been realized within six months. A -temporary landing-grid for light supply ships was up within a year. It -had permitted stockpiling, and it had been taken down to be rebuilt -as a permanent grid with every possible contingency provided for. The -eight months since the last ship-landing was more than enough for the -rebuilding of the gigantic, spidery, half-mile-high structure which -would handle this planet's interstellar commerce. There was no excuse -for an emergency. A boat landing was nonsensical!</p> - -<p>He surveyed the contents of his cabin. Most of the cargo of the -<i>Warlock</i> was smelter equipment which was to complete the -outfitting of the colony. It was to be unloaded first. By the time the -ship's holds were wholly empty, the smelter would be operating. The -ship would wait for a full cargo of pig-metal. Bordman had expected to -live in this cabin while he worked on the survey he'd come to make and -to leave again with the ship.</p> - -<p>Now he was to go aground by boat. He fretted. The only emergency -equipment he could possibly need was a heat-suit. He doubted the -urgency of that. But he packed some clothing for indoors, and then -defiantly included his spec-book and the volumes of definitive data to -which specifications for structures and colonial establishments always -referred. He'd get to work on his report immediately he landed.</p> - -<p>He went out of the passenger's lounge to the boat-blister. An -engineer's legs projected from the boat port. The engineer withdrew, -with a strip of tape from the boat's computer. He compared it with a -similar strip from the ship's figure-box. Bordman consciously acted -according to the best traditions of passengers.</p> - -<p>"What's the trouble?" he asked.</p> - -<p>"We can't land," said the engineer shortly.</p> - -<p>He went away—according to the tradition by which ships' crews are -always scornful of passengers.</p> - -<p>Bordman scowled. Then Aletha came, carrying a not-too-heavy bag. -Bordman put it in the boat, disapproving of the crampedness of the -craft. But this wasn't a lifeboat. It was a landing-boat. A lifeboat -had Lawlor drive and could travel light-years, but in the place of -rockets and rocket-fuel it had air purifiers and water recovery units -and food stores. It couldn't land without a landing-grid aground, -but it could get to a civilized planet. This landing-boat could land -without a grid, but its air wouldn't last long.</p> - -<p>"Whatever's the matter," said Bordman darkly, "it's incompetence -somewhere!"</p> - -<p>But he couldn't figure it out. This was a cargo-ship. Cargo-ships -neither took off nor landed under their own power. It was too costly of -fuel they would have to carry. So landing-grids used local power—which -did not have to be lifted—to heave ships out into space, and again -used local power to draw them to ground again. Therefore ships carried -fuel only for actual space flight, which was economy. Yet landing-grids -had no moving parts, and while they did have to be monstrous structures -they actually drew power from planetary ionospheres. So with no -moving parts to break down and no possibility of the failure of a -power-source, landing-grids couldn't fail! So there couldn't be an -emergency to make a ship ride orbit around a planet which had a -landing-grid.</p> - -<p>The engineer came back. He carried a mail sack full of letter-reels. -He waved his hand. Aletha crawled into the landing-boat port. Bordman -followed. Four people, with considerable crowding, could have gotten -into the little ship. Three pretty well filled it. The engineer -followed them and sealed the port.</p> - -<p>"Sealed off," he said into the microphone before him.</p> - -<p>The exterior-pressure needle moved half-way across the dial. The -interior-pressure needle stayed steady.</p> - -<p>"All tight," said the engineer.</p> - -<p>The exterior-pressure needle flicked to zero. There were clanking -sounds. The long halves of the boat-blister stirred and opened, and -abruptly the landing-boat was in an elongated cup in the hull plating, -and above them there were many, many stars. The enormous disk of a -nearby planet floated into view around the hull. It was monstrous and -blindingly bright. It was of a tawny color, with great, irregular areas -of yellow and patches of bluishness. But most of it was the color of -sand. And all its colors varied in shade—some places lighter and some -darker—and over at one edge there was blinding whiteness which could -not be anything but an ice-cap. Bordman knew that there was no ocean or -sea or lake on all this whole planet, and the ice-cap was more nearly -hoar-frost than such mile-deep glaciation as would be found at the -poles of a maximum-comfort world.</p> - -<p>"Strap in," said the engineer over his shoulder. "No-gravity coming, -and then rocket-push. Settle your heads."</p> - -<p>Bordman irritably strapped himself in. He saw Aletha busy at the same -task, her eyes shining. Without warning, there came a sensation of -acute discomfort. It was the landing-boat detaching itself from the -ship and the diminishment of the ship's closely-confined artificial -gravity field. That field suddenly dropped to nothingness, and -Bordman had the momentary sickish dizziness that flicked-off gravity -always produces. At the same time his heart pounded unbearably in the -instinctive, racial-memory reaction to the feel of falling.</p> - -<p>Then roarings. He was thrust savagely back against his seat. His tongue -tried to slide back into his throat. There was an enormous oppression -on his chest and he found himself thinking panicky profanity.</p> - -<p>Simultaneously the vision-ports went black, because they were out of -the shadow of the ship. The landing-boat turned—but there was no -sensation of centrifugal force—and they were in a vast obscurity with -merely a dim phantom of the planetary surface to be seen. Behind them a -blue-white sun shone terribly. Its light was warm—hot—even though it -came through the polarized, shielding ports.</p> - -<p>"Did you say," panted Aletha happily—breathless because of the -acceleration—"that there weren't any adventures?"</p> - -<p>Bordman did not answer. But he did not count discomfort as an adventure.</p> - -<p>The engineer did not look out the ports at all. He watched the screen -before him. There was a vertical line across the side of the lighted -ship. A blip moved downward across it, showing their height in -thousands of miles. After a long time the blip reached the bottom, and -the vertical line became double and another blip began to descend. It -measured height in hundreds of miles. A bright spot—a square—appeared -at one side of the screen. A voice muttered metallically, and suddenly -seemed to shout, and then muttered again. Bordman looked out one of the -black ports and saw the planet as if through smoked glass. It was a -ghostly reddish thing which filled half the cosmos. It had mottlings, -and its edge was curved. That would be the horizon.</p> - -<p>The engineer moved controls and the white square moved. It went across -the screen. He moved more controls. It came back to the center. The -height-in-hundreds blip was at the bottom, now, and the vertical line -tripled and a tens-of-miles-height blip crawled downward.</p> - -<p>There were sudden, monstrous plungings of the landing-boat. It had hit -the outermost fringes of atmosphere. The engineer said words it was -not appropriate for Aletha to hear. The plungings became more violent. -Bordman held on, to keep from being shaken to pieces despite the -straps, and stared at the murky surface of the planet. It seemed to be -fleeing from them and they to be trying to overtake it. Gradually, very -gradually, its flight appeared to slow. They were down to twenty miles, -then.</p> - -<p>Quite abruptly the landing-boat steadied. The square spot bobbled about -in the center of the astrogation-screen. The engineer worked controls -to steady it.</p> - -<p>The ports cleared a little. Bordman could see the ground below more -distinctly. There were patches of every tint that mineral coloring -could produce, and vast stretches of tawny sand. A little while more, -and he could see the shadows of mountains. He made out mountain-flanks -which should have had valleys between them and other mountain-flanks -beyond, but they were joined by tawny flatnesses instead. These, he -knew, would be the sand-plateaus which had been observed on this planet -and which had only a still-disputed explanation. But he could see areas -of glistening yellow and dirty white, and splashes of pink and streaks -of ultramarine and gray and violet, and the incredible red of iron -oxide covering square miles—too much to be believed.</p> - -<p>The landing-boat's rockets cut off. It coasted. Presently the horizon -tilted and all the dazzling ground below turned sedately beneath -them. Then came staccato instructions from a voice-speaker, which the -engineer obeyed. The landing-boat swung low—below the tips of giant -mauve mountains with a sand-plateau beyond them—and its nose went up. -It stalled.</p> - -<p>Then the rockets roared again—and now, with air about them, they were -horribly loud—and the boat settled down and down upon its own tail of -fire.</p> - -<p>A blinding mass of dust and rocket-fumes cut off all sight of -everything else. Then a crunching crash, and the engineer swore -peevishly to himself. He cut the rockets again. Finally.</p> - -<p>Bordman found himself staring straight up, still strapped in his -chair. The boat had settled on its own tail-fins, and his feet were -higher than his head. He felt ridiculous. He saw the engineer at work -unstrapping himself, and duplicated the action, but it was absurdly -difficult to get out of the chair.</p> - -<p>Aletha managed more gracefully. She didn't need help.</p> - -<p>"Wait," said the engineer ungraciously, "till somebody comes."</p> - -<p>So they waited, using what had been chair-backs for seats.</p> - -<p>The engineer moved a control and the windows cleared further. They saw -the surface of Xosa II. There was no living thing in sight. The ground -itself was pebbles and small rocks and minor boulders—all apparently -tumbled from the starkly magnificent mountains to one side. There were -monstrous, many-colored cliffs and mesas, every one eaten at in the -unmistakable fashion of wind erosion. Through a notch in the mountain -wall before them a strange, fan-shaped, frozen formation appeared. If -such a thing had been credible, Bordman would have said that it was -a flow of sand simulating a waterfall. And everywhere was a blinding -brightness and the look and feel of blistering sunshine. But there was -not one single leaf or twig or blade of grass. This was pure desert. -This was Xosa II.</p> - -<p>Aletha regarded it with bright eyes.</p> - -<p>"Beautiful!" she said happily. "Isn't it?"</p> - -<p>"Personally," said Bordman, "I never saw a place that looked less -homelike or attractive."</p> - -<p>Aletha laughed.</p> - -<p>"My eyes see it differently."</p> - -<p>Which was true. It was accepted, nowadays, that humankind might be one -species but was many races, and each saw the cosmos in its own fashion. -On Kalmet III there was a dense, predominantly Asiatic population -which terraced its mountain-sides for agriculture and deftly mingled -modern techniques with social customs not to be found on—say—Demeter -I, where there were many red-tiled stucco towns and very many olive -groves. In the llano planets of the Equis cluster, Amerinds—Aletha's -kin—rode over plains dotted with the descendants of buffalo and -antelope and cattle brought from ancient Earth. On the oases of Rustam -IV there were date palms and riding camels and much argument about -what should be substituted for the direction of Mecca at the times for -prayer, while wheat-fields spanned provinces on Canna I and highly -civilized emigrants from the continent of Africa on Earth stored -jungle-gums and lustrous gems in the warehouses of their space-port -city of Timbuk.</p> - -<p>So it was natural for Aletha to look at this wind-carved wilderness -otherwise than as Bordman did. Her racial kin were the pioneers of the -stars, these days. Their heritage made them less than appreciative -of urban life. Their inborn indifference to heights made them the -steel construction men of the cosmos, and more than two thirds of the -landing-beam grids in the whole galaxy had their coup-feather symbols -on the key posts. But the planet government on Algonka V was housed in -a three-thousand-foot stone tepee, and the best horses known to men -were raised by ranchers with bronze skins and high cheek-bones on the -llano planet Chagan.</p> - -<p>Now, here, in the <i>Warlock's</i> landing-boat, the engineer snorted. -A vehicle came around a cliff wall, clanking its way on those eccentric -caterwheels that new-founded colonies find so useful. The vehicle -glittered. It crawled over tumbled boulders, and flowed over fallen -scree. It came briskly toward them.</p> - -<p>"That's my cousin Ralph!" said Aletha in pleased surprise.</p> - -<p>Bordman blinked and looked again. He did not quite believe his eyes. -But they told the truth. The figure controlling the ground car was -Indian—Amerind—wearing a breechclout and thick-soled sandals and -three streamlined feathers in a band about his head. Moreover, he did -not ride in a seat. He sat astride a semi-cylindrical part of the -ground car, over which a gaily colored blanket had been thrown.</p> - -<p>The ship's engineer rumbled disgustedly. But then Bordman saw how sane -this method of riding was—here. The ground vehicle lurched and swayed -and rolled and pitched and tossed as it came over the uneven ground. To -sit in anything like a chair would have been foolish. A back rest would -throw one forward in a frontward lurch, and give no support in case of -a backward one. A sidewise tilt would tend to throw one out. Riding a -ground car as if in a saddle was sense!</p> - -<p>But Bordman was not so sure about the costume. The engineer opened the -port and spoke hostilely out of it:</p> - -<p>"D'you know there's a lady in this thing?"</p> - -<p>The young Indian grinned. He waved his hand to Aletha, who pressed -her nose against a viewport. And just then Bordman did understand the -costume or lack of it. Air came in the open exit-port. It was hot and -dessicated. It was furnace-like!</p> - -<p>"How, 'Letha," called the rider on the caterwheel steed. "Either dress -for the climate or put on a heat-suit before you come out of there!"</p> - -<p>Aletha chuckled. Bordman heard a stirring behind him. Then Aletha -climbed to the exit-port and swung out. Bordman heard a dour muttering -from the engineer. Then he saw her greeting her cousin. She had slipped -out of the conventionalized Amerind outfit to which Bordman was -accustomed. Now she was clad as Anglo-Saxon girls dressed for beaches -on the cool-temperature planets.</p> - -<p>For a moment Bordman thought of sunstroke, with his own eyes dazzled by -the still partly-filtered sunlight. But Aletha's Amerind coloring was -perfectly suited to sunshine even of this intensity. Wind blowing upon -her body would cool her skin. Her thick, straight black hair was at -least as good protection against sunstroke as a heat-helmet. She might -feel hot, but she would be perfectly safe. She wouldn't even sunburn. -But he, Bordman....</p> - -<p>He grimly stripped to underwear and put on the heat-suit from his -bag. He filled its canteens from the boat's water tank. He turned -on the tiny, battery-powered motors. The suit ballooned out. It was -intended for short periods of intolerable heat. The motors kept -it inflated—away from his skin—and cooled its interior by the -evaporation of sweat plus water from its canteen tanks. It was a -miniature air-conditioning system for one man, and it should enable him -to endure temperatures otherwise lethal to someone with his skin and -coloring. But it would use a lot of water.</p> - -<p>He climbed to the exit-port and went clumsily down the exterior -ladder to the tail fin. He adjusted his goggles. He went over to the -chattering young Indians, young man and girl, and held out his gloved -hand.</p> - -<p>"I'm Bordman," he said. "Here to make a degree-of-completion survey. -What's wrong that we had to land by boat?"</p> - -<p>Aletha's cousin shook hands cordially.</p> - -<p>"I'm Ralph Redfeather," he said. "Project engineer. About everything's -wrong. Our landing-grid's gone. We couldn't contact your ship in time -to warn it off. It was in our gravity-field before it answered, and -its Lawlor drive couldn't take it away—not working because of the -gravity stresses. Our power, of course, went with the landing-grid. The -ship you came in can't get back, and we can't send a distress message -anywhere, and our best estimate is that the colony will be wiped -out—thirst and starvation—in six months. I'm sorry you and Aletha -have to be included."</p> - -<p>Then he turned to Aletha and said amiably:</p> - -<p>"How's Mike Thundercloud and Sally Whitehorse and the gang in general, -'Letha?"</p> - -<p>The <i>Warlock</i> rolled on in her newly-established orbit about Xosa -II. The landing-boat was aground, having removed the two passengers. -It would come back. Nobody on the ship wanted to stay aground, because -they knew the conditions and the situation below—unbearable heat -and the complete absence of hope. But nobody had anything to do. The -ship had been maintained in standard operating condition during its -two month's voyage from Trent to here. No repairs or overhaulings -were needed. There was no maintenance work to speak of. There would -be only standby watches until something happened, and nothing to do -on those watches. There would be off-watch time for twenty-one out of -every twenty-four hours, and no purposeful activity to fill even half -an hour of it. In a matter of—probably—years, the <i>Warlock</i> -should receive aid. She might be towed out of her orbit to space—five -diameters out—in which the Lawlor drive could function, or the crew -might simply be taken off. But meanwhile, those on board were as -completely frustrated as the colony. They could not do anything at all -to help themselves.</p> - -<p>In one fashion the crewmen were worse off than the colonists. The -colonists had at least the colorful prospect of death before them. They -could prepare for it in their several ways. But the members of the -<i>Warlock's</i> crew had nothing ahead but tedium. The skipper faced -the future with extreme distaste.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>The ride to the colony was torment. Aletha rode behind her cousin on -the saddle blanket, and apparently suffered little if at all. But -Bordman could only ride in the ground car's cargo space, along with the -sack of mail from the ship. The ground was unbelievably rough and the -jolting intolerable. The heat was literally murderous. In the metal -cargo space, the temperature reached a hundred and sixty degrees in the -sunshine—and given enough time, food will cook in no more heat than -that. Of course a man has been known to enter an oven and stay there -while a roast was cooked, and to come out alive. But the oven wasn't -throwing him violently about or bringing sun heated—blue-white-sun -heated—metal to press his heat-suit about him. The suit did make -survival possible, but that was all. The contents of its canteens gave -out just before arrival, and for a short time Bordman had only sweat -for his suit to work with. It kept him alive by forced ventilation, -but he arrived in a state of collapse. He drank the iced salt water -they gave him and went to bed. He'd get back his strength with a proper -sodium level in his blood. But he slept for twelve hours straight.</p> - -<p>When he got up, he was physically normal again, but abysmally ashamed. -It did no good to remind himself that Xosa II was rated minimum-comfort -class D—a blue-white sun and a mean temperature of one hundred ten -degrees. Africans could do steel construction work in the open, -protected only by insulating shoes and gloves. But Bordman could not -venture out-of-doors except in a heat-suit. He could not stay long -then. It was not a weakness. It was a matter of genetics. But he was -ashamed.</p> - -<p>Aletha nodded to him when he found the Project Engineer's office. It -occupied one of the hulls in which colony-establishment materials had -been lowered by rocket power. There were forty of the hulls, and they -had been emptied and arranged for inter-communication, so that an -individual could change his quarters and ordinary associates from time -to time and colony-fever—frantic irritation with one's companions—was -minimized.</p> - -<p>Aletha sat at a desk, busily making notes from a loose-leaf volume -before her. The wall behind the desk was fairly lined with similar -volumes.</p> - -<p>"I made a spectacle of myself!" said Bordman.</p> - -<p>"Not at all!" Aletha assured him. "It could happen to anybody. I -wouldn't do too well on Timbuk."</p> - -<p>There was no answer to that. Timbuk was essentially a jungle planet, -barely emerging from the carboniferous stage. Its colonists thrived -because their ancestors had lived on the shores of the Gulf of Guinea, -on Earth. But Anglos did not find its climate healthful, nor would many -other races. Amerinds died there quicker than most.</p> - -<p>"Ralph's on the way here now," added Aletha. "He and Dr. Chuka were out -picking a place to leave the records. The sand-dunes here are terrible, -you know. When an explorer ship does come to find out what's happened -to us, these buildings could be covered up completely. Any place could -be. It isn't easy to pick a record cache that's quite sure to be found."</p> - -<p>"When," said Bordman, "there's nobody left alive to point it out. Is -that it?"</p> - -<p>"That's it," agreed Aletha. "It's pretty bad all around. I didn't plan -to die just yet."</p> - -<p>Her voice was perfectly normal. Bordman snorted. As a Senior Colonial -Survey Officer, he'd been around. But he'd never yet known a human -colony to be extinguished when it was properly equipped and after a -proper pre-settlement survey. He'd seen panic, but never real cause for -a matter-of-fact acceptance of doom.</p> - -<p>There was a clanking noise outside the hulk which was the Project -Engineer's headquarters. Bordman couldn't see clearly through the -filtered ports, so he reached over and opened a door. The brightness -outside struck his eyes like a blow. He blinked them shut instantly and -turned away. But he'd seen a glistening, caterwheel ground car stopping -not far from the doorway.</p> - -<p>He stood wiping tears from his light-dazzled eyes as footsteps -sounded outside. Aletha's cousin came in, followed by a huge man with -remarkably dark skin. The dark man wore eyeglasses with a curiously -thick, corklike nosepiece to insulate the necessary metal of the frame -from his skin. It would blister if it touched bare flesh.</p> - -<p>"This is Dr. Chuka," said Redfeather pleasantly, "Mr. Bordman. Dr. -Chuka's the director of mining and mineralogy here."</p> - -<p>Bordman shook hands with the ebony-skinned man. He grinned, showing -startlingly white teeth. Then he began to shiver.</p> - -<p>"It's like a freeze-box in here," he said in a deep voice. "I'll get a -robe and be with you."</p> - -<p>He vanished through a doorway, his teeth chattering audibly. Aletha's -cousin took half a dozen deliberate deep breaths and grimaced.</p> - -<p>"I could shiver myself," he admitted, "but Chuka's really acclimated to -Xosa. He was raised on Timbuk."</p> - -<p>Bordman said curtly:</p> - -<p>"I'm sorry I collapsed on landing. It won't happen again. I came -here to do a degree-of-completion survey that should open the colony -to normal commerce, let the colonist's families move in, tourists, -and so on. But I was landed by boat instead of normally, and I am -told the colony is doomed. I would like an official statement of the -degree-of-completion of the colony's facilities and an explanation of -the unusual points I have just mentioned."</p> - -<p>The Indian blinked at him. Then he smiled faintly. The dark man came -back, zipping up an indoor warmth-garment. Redfeather drily brought him -up to date by repeating what Bordman had just said. Chuka grinned and -sprawled comfortably in a chair.</p> - -<p>"I'd say," he remarked, in that astonishingly deep-toned voice of his, -"I'd say sand got in our hair. And our colony. And the landing-grid. -There's a lot of sand on Xosa. Wouldn't you say that was the trouble?"</p> - -<p>The Indian said with deliberate gravity:</p> - -<p>"Of course wind had something to do with it."</p> - -<p>Bordman fumed.</p> - -<p>"I think you know," he said, "that as a Senior Colonial Survey Officer, -I have authority to give any orders needed for my work. I give one now. -I want to see the landing-grid, if it is still standing. I take it that -it didn't fall down?"</p> - -<p>Redfeather flushed beneath the bronze pigment of his skin. It would be -hard to offend a steelman more than to suggest that his work did not -still stand up.</p> - -<p>"I assure you," he said politely, "that it did not fall down."</p> - -<p>"Your estimate of its degree-of-completion?"</p> - -<p>"Eighty per cent," said Redfeather.</p> - -<p>"You've stopped work on it?"</p> - -<p>"Work on it has been stopped," agreed the Indian.</p> - -<p>"Even though the colony can receive no more supplies until it is -completed?"</p> - -<p>"Just so," said Redfeather without expression.</p> - -<p>"Then I issue a formal order that I be taken to the landing-grid -site immediately!" said Bordman angrily. "I want to see what sort of -incompetence is responsible! Will you arrange it—at once?"</p> - -<p>Redfeather said in a completely emotionless voice:</p> - -<p>"You want to see the site of the landing-grid. Very good. Immediately."</p> - -<p>He turned and walked out into the incredible, blinding sunshine. -Bordman blinked at the momentary blast of light, and then began to pace -up and down the office. He fumed. He was still ashamed of his collapse -from the heat during the travel from the landed rocket-boat to the -colony. Therefore he was touchy and irritable. But the order he had -given was strictly justifiable.</p> - -<p>He heard a small noise and whirled. Dr. Chuka, huge and black and -spectacled, rocked back and forth in his seat, suppressing laughter.</p> - -<p>"Now, what the devil does that mean?" demanded Bordman suspiciously. -"It certainly isn't ridiculous to ask to see the structure on which the -life of the colony finally depends!"</p> - -<p>"Not ridiculous," said Doctor Chuka. "It's—hilarious!"</p> - -<p>He boomed laughter in the office with the rounded ceiling of a remade -robot hull. Aletha smiled with him, though her eyes were grave.</p> - -<p>"You'd better put on a heat-suit," she said to Bordman.</p> - -<p>He fumed again, tempted to defy all common sense because its dictates -were not the same for everybody. But he marched away, back to the -cubbyhole in which he had awakened. He donned the heat-suit that had -not protected him adequately before, but had certainly saved his life, -and filled the canteens topping full—he suspected he hadn't done so -the last time. He went back to the Project Engineer's office with a -feeling of being burdened and absurd.</p> - -<p>Out a filter-window, he saw that men with skins as dark as Dr. Chuka's -were at work on a ground car. They were equipping it with a sunshade -and curious shields like wings. Somebody pushed a sort of caterwheel -handtruck toward it. They put big, heavy tanks into its cargo space. -Dr. Chuka had disappeared, but Aletha was back at work making notes -from the loose-leaf volume on the desk.</p> - -<p>"May I ask," asked Bordman with some irony, "what your work happens to -be just now?"</p> - -<p>She looked up.</p> - -<p>"I thought you knew!" she said in surprise. "I'm here for the Amerind -Historical Society. I can certify coups. I'm taking coup-records for -the Society. They'll go in the record cache Ralph and Dr. Chuka are -arranging, so no matter what happens to the colony, the record of the -coups won't be lost."</p> - -<p>"Coups?" demanded Bordman. He knew that Amerinds painted feathers on -the key posts of steel structures they'd built, and he knew that the -posting of such "coup-marks" was a cherished privilege and undoubtedly -a survival or revival of some American Indian tradition back on Earth. -But he did not know what they meant.</p> - -<p>"Coups," repeated Aletha matter-of-factly. "Ralph wears three -eagle-feathers. You saw them. He has three coups. Pinions, too! He -built the landing-grids on Norlath and—Oh, you don't know!"</p> - -<p>"I don't," admitted Bordman, his temper not of the best because of what -seemed unnecessary condescensions on Xosa II.</p> - -<p>Aletha looked surprised.</p> - -<p>"In the old days," she explained, "back on Earth, if a man scalped -an enemy, he counted coup. The first to strike an enemy in a battle -counted coup, too—a lesser one. Nowadays a man counts coups for -different things, but Ralph's three eagle-feathers mean he's entitled -to as much respect as a warrior in the old days who, three separate -times, had killed and scalped an enemy warrior in the middle of his own -camp. And he is, too!"</p> - -<p>Bordman grunted.</p> - -<p>"Barbarous, I'd say!"</p> - -<p>"If you like," said Aletha. "But it's something to be proud of—and -one doesn't count coup for making a lot of money!" Then she paused and -said curtly: "The word 'snobbish' fits it better than 'barbarous.' We -are snobs! But when the head of a clan stands up in Council in the Big -Tepee on Algonka, representing his clan, and men have to carry the -ends of the feather head-dress with all the coups the members of his -clan have earned—why—one is proud to belong to that clan!" She added -defiantly, "Even watching it on a vision-screen!"</p> - -<p>Dr. Chuka opened the outer door. Blinding light poured in. He did not -enter, and his body glistened with sweat.</p> - -<p>"Ready for you, Mr. Bordman!"</p> - -<p>Bordman adjusted his goggles and turned on the motors of his heat-suit. -He went out the door.</p> - -<p>The heat and light outside was like a blow. He darkened the goggles -again and made his way heavily to the waiting, now-shaded ground car. -He noted that there were other changes beside the sunshade. The cover -deck of the cargo space was gone, and there were cylindrical riding -seats like saddles in the back. The odd lower shields reached out -sidewise from the body, barely above the caterwheels. He could not make -out their purpose and irritably failed to ask.</p> - -<p>"All ready," said Redfeather. "Dr. Chuka's coming with us. If you'll -get in here, please...."</p> - -<p>Bordman climbed awkwardly into the boxlike back of the car. He -bestrode one of the cylindrical arrangements. With a saddle on it, -it would undoubtedly have been a comfortable way to cover impossibly -bad terrain in a mechanical carrier. He waited. About him there were -the squatty hulls of the space barges which had been towed here by -a colony-ship, each one once equipped with rockets for landing. -Emptied of their cargos, they had been huddled together into the three -separate, adjoining communities. There were separate living-quarters -and mess-halls and recreation-rooms for each, and any colonist lived -in the community of his choice and shifted at pleasure, or visited, or -remained solitary. For mental health a man has to be assured of his -free will, and over-regimentation is deadly in any society. With men -psychologically suited to colonize, it is fatal.</p> - -<p>Above—but at a distance, now—was the monstrous scarp of mountains, -colored in glaring and unnatural tints. Immediately about there was -raw rock. But it was peculiarly smooth, as if sand-grains had rubbed -over it for uncountable aeons and carefully worn away every trace of -unevenness. Half a mile to the left, dunes began and went away to the -horizon. The nearer ones were small, but they gained in size with -distance from the mountains—which evidently affected the surface-winds -hereabouts—and the edge of seeing was visibly not a straight line. -The dunes yonder must be gigantic. But of course on a world the size -of ancient Earth, and which was waterless save for snow-patches at -its poles, the size to which sand-dunes could grow had no limit. The -surfaces of Xosa II was a sea of sand, on which islands and small -continents of wind-swept rock were merely minor features.</p> - -<p>Dr. Chuka adjusted a small metal object in his hand. It had a tube -dangling from it. He climbed into the cargo space and fastened it to -one of the two tanks previously loaded.</p> - -<p>"For you," he told Bordman. "Those tanks are full of compressed air at -rather high pressure—a couple of thousand pounds. Here's a reduction -valve with an adiabatic expansion feature, to supply extra air to your -heat-suit. It will be pretty cold, expanding from so high a pressure. -Bring down the temperature a little more."</p> - -<p>Bordman again felt humiliated. Chuka and Redfeather, because of their -races, were able to move about nine-tenths naked in the open air on -this planet, and they thrived. But he needed a special refrigerated -costume to endure the heat. More, they provided him with sunshades -and refrigerated air that they did not need for themselves. They were -thoughtful of him. He was as much out of his element where they fitted -perfectly, as he would have been making a degree-of-completion survey -on an underwater project. He had to wear what was practically a diving -suit and use a special air-supply to survive!</p> - -<p>He choked down the irritation his own inadequacy produced.</p> - -<p>"I suppose we can go now," he said as coldly as he could.</p> - -<p>Aletha's cousin mounted the control saddle—though it was no more than -a blanket—and Dr. Chuka mounted beside Bordman. The ground car got -under way. It headed for the mountains.</p> - -<p>The smoothness of the rock was deceptive. The caterwheel car lurched -and bumped and swayed and rocked. It rolled and dipped and wallowed. -Nobody could have remained in a normal seat on such terrain, but -Bordman felt hopelessly undignified riding what amounted to a -hobby-horse. Under the sunshade it was infuriatingly like a horse on -a carrousel. That there were three of them together made it look even -more foolish. He stared about him, trying to take his mind from his own -absurdity. His goggles made the light endurable, but he felt ashamed.</p> - -<p>"Those side-fins," said Chuka's deep voice pleasantly, "the bottom -ones, makes things better for you. The shade overhead cuts off direct -sunlight, and they cut off the reflected glare. It would blister your -skin even if the sun never touched you directly."</p> - -<p>Bordman did not answer. The caterwheel car went on. It came to a patch -of sand—tawny sand, heavily mineralized. There was a dune here. Not a -big one for Xosa II, no more than a hundred feet high. But they went -up its leeward, steeply slanting side. All the planet seemed to tilt -insanely as the caterwheels spun. They reached the dune's crest, where -it tended to curl over and break like a water-comber, and here the -wheels struggled with sand precariously ready to fall, and Bordman had -a sudden perception of the sands of Xosa II as the oceans that they -really were. The dunes were waves which moved with infinite slowness, -but the irresistible force of storm-seas. Nothing could resist them. -Nothing!</p> - -<p>They traveled over similar dunes for two miles. Then they began to -climb the approaches to the mountains. And Bordman saw for the second -time—the first had been through the ports of the landing-boat—where -there was a notch in the mountain wall and sand had flowed out of it -like a waterfall, making a beautifully symmetrical cone-shaped heap -against the lower cliffs. There were many such falls. In one place -there was a sand-cascade. Sand had poured over a series of rocky steps, -piling up on each in turn to its very edge, and then spilling again to -the next.</p> - -<p>They went up a crazily slanting spur of stone, whose sides were too -steep for sand to lodge on, and whose narrow crest had a bare thin -coating of powder.</p> - -<p>The landscape looked like a nightmare. As the car went on, wobbling and -lurching and dipping, the heights on either side made Bordman tend to -dizziness. The coloring was impossible. The aridness, the dessication, -the lifelessness of everything about was somehow shocking. Bordman -found himself straining his eyes for the merest, scrubbiest of bushes -and for however stunted and isolated a wisp of grass.</p> - -<p>The journey went on for an hour. Then there came a straining climb up -a now-windswept ridge of eroded rock, and then the attainment of its -highest point—and then the ground car went onward for a hundred yards -and stopped.</p> - -<p>They had reached the top of the mountain range, and there was -doubtlessly another range beyond. But they could not see it. Here, as -the place to which they had climbed so effortfully, there were no more -rocks. There was no valley. There was no descending slope. There was -sand. This was one of the sand-plateaus which were a unique feature of -Xosa II. And Bordman knew, now, that the disputed explanation was the -true one.</p> - -<p>Winds, blowing over the mountains, carried sand as on other worlds they -carried moisture and pollen and seeds and rain. Where two mountain -ranges ran across the course of long-blowing winds, the winds eddied -above the valley between. They dropped sand into it. The equivalent of -trade winds, Bordman considered, in time would fill a valley to the -mountain tops, just as trade winds provide moisture in equal quantity -on other worlds, and civilizations have been built upon them. But—</p> - -<p>"Well?" said Bordman challengingly.</p> - -<p>"This is the site of the landing-grid," said Redfeather.</p> - -<p>"Where?"</p> - -<p>"Here," said the Indian. "A few months ago there was a valley here. The -landing-grid had eighteen hundred feet of height built. There was to -be four hundred feet more—the lighter top construction justifies my -figure of eighty per cent completion. Then there was a storm."</p> - -<p>It was hot. Horribly, terribly hot, even here on a plateau at mountain -top height. Dr. Chuka looked at Bordman's face and bent down in the -vehicle. He turned a stopcock on one of the air tanks brought for -Bordman's needs. Immediately Bordman felt cooler. His skin was dry, of -course; the circulated air dried sweat as fast as it appeared. But he -had the dazed, feverish feeling of a man in an artificial fever box. -He'd been fighting it for some time. Now the coolness of the expanded -air was almost deliriously refreshing.</p> - -<p>Dr. Chuka produced a canteen. Bordman drank thirstily. The water was -slightly salted to replace salt lost in sweat.</p> - -<p>"A storm, eh?" asked Bordman, after a time of contemplation of his -inner sensations as well as the scene of disaster before him. There'd -be some hundreds of millions of tons of sand in even a section of -this plateau. It was unthinkable that it could be removed except by a -long-time sweep of changed trade winds along the length of the valley. -"But what has a storm to do—?"</p> - -<p>"It was a sandstorm," said Redfeather curtly. "Probably there was a -sunspot flareup. We don't know. But the pre-colonization survey spoke -of sandstorms. The survey-team even made estimates of sandfall in -various places as so many inches per year. Here all storms drop sand -instead of rain. But there must have been a sunspot flare because -this storm blew for—" his voice went flat and deliberate because -it was stating the unbelievable—"this storm blew for two months. We -did not see the sun in all that time. And we couldn't work, naturally. -So we waited it out. When it ended, there was this sand-plateau where -the survey had ordered the landing-grid to be built. The grid was -under it. It is still under it. The top of eighteen hundred feet -of steel is buried two hundred feet down in the sand you see. Our -unfabricated building-steel is piled ready for erection—under two -thousand feet of sand. Without anything but stored power it is hardly -practical"—Redfeather's tone was sardonic—"for us to try to dig it -out. There are hundreds of millions of tons of stuff to be moved. If we -could get the sand away, we could finish the grid. If we could finish -the grid, we'd have power enough to get the sand away—in a few years, -and if we could replace the machinery that wore out handling it. And -if there wasn't another sandstorm."</p> - -<p>He paused. Bordman took deep breaths of the cooler air. He could think -more clearly.</p> - -<p>"If you will accept photographs," said Redfeather, "you can check that -we actually did the work."</p> - -<p>Bordman saw the implications. The colony had been formed of Amerinds -for the steel work and Africans for the labor. The Amerinds were -congenitally averse to the handling of complex mining-machinery -underground and the control of modern high speed smelting operations. -Both races could endure this climate and work in it, provided that they -had cooled sleeping-quarters. But they had to have power. Power not -only to work with, but to live by. The air cooling machinery that made -sleep possible also condensed from the cool air that minute trace of -water-vapor it contained and that they needed for drink. But without -power they would thirst. Without the landing-grid and the power it took -from the ionosphere, they could not receive supplies from the rest of -the universe. So they would starve.</p> - -<p>Bordman said:</p> - -<p>"I'll accept the photographs. I even accept the statement that the -colony will die. I will prepare my report for the cache Aletha tells me -you're preparing. And I apologize for any affront I may have offered -you."</p> - -<p>Dr. Chuka nodded. He regarded Bordman with benign warmth. Ralph -Redfeather said cordially enough:</p> - -<p>"That's perfectly all right. No harm done."</p> - -<p>"And now," said Bordman, "since I have authority to give any orders -needed for my work, I want to survey the steps you've taken to carry -out those parts of your instructions dealing with emergencies. I want -to see right away what you've done to beat this state of things. I know -they can't be beaten, but I intend to leave a report on what you've -tried!"</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>A fist-fight broke out in the crew's quarters within two hours after -the <i>Warlock</i> had established its orbit—a first reaction to -their catastrophe. The skipper went through the ship and painstakingly -confiscated every weapon. He locked them up. He, himself, already felt -the nagging effect of jangling nerves. There was nothing to do. He -didn't know when there would ever be anything to do. It was a condition -to produce hysteria.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>It was night. Outside and above the colony there were uncountable -myriads of stars. They were not the stars of Earth, of course, -but Bordman had never been on Earth. He was used to unfamiliar -constellations. He stared out a port at the sky, and noted that there -were no moons. He remembered, when he thought, that Xosa II had no -moons. There was a rustling of paper behind him. Aletha Redfeather -turned a page in a loose-leaf volume and made a note. The wall -behind her held many more such books. From them could be extracted -the detailed history of every bit of work that had been done by the -colony-preparation crews. Separate, tersely-phrased items could be -assembled to make a record of individual men.</p> - -<p>There had been incredible hardships, at first, and heroic feats. There -had been an attempt to ferry water-supplies down from the pole by -aircraft. It was not practical, even to build up a reserve of fluid. -Winds carried sand particles here as on other worlds they carried -moisture. Aircraft were abraded as they flew. The last working flier -made a forced landing five hundred miles from the colony. A caterwheel -expedition went out and brought the crew in. The caterwheel trucks were -armored with silicone plastic, resistant to abrasion, but when they got -back they had to be scrapped. Men had been lost in sudden sand squalls, -and heroic searches made for them, and once or twice rescues. There had -been cave-ins in the mines, and other accidents.</p> - -<p>Bordman went to the door of the hull which was Ralph Redfeather's -office. He opened it, and stepped outside.</p> - -<p>It was like stepping into an oven. The sand was still hot from the -sunshine just ended. The air was so utterly dry that Bordman instantly -felt it sucking at the moisture of his nasal passages. In ten seconds -his feet—clad in indoor footwear—were uncomfortably hot. In twenty -the soles of his feet felt as if they were blistering. He would die -of the heat even at night, here! Perhaps he could endure the outside -near dawn, but he raged a little. Here Amerinds and Africans lived -and throve, but he could live unprotected for no more than an hour or -two—and that at one special time of the planet's rotation!</p> - -<p>He went back in, ashamed of the discomfort of his feet and angrily -letting them feel scorched rather than admit to it.</p> - -<p>Aletha turned another page.</p> - -<p>"Look here!" said Bordman. "No matter what you say, you're going to go -back on the <i>Warlock</i> before—"</p> - -<p>She raised her eyes.</p> - -<p>"We'll worry about that when the time comes. But I think not. I'd -rather stay here."</p> - -<p>"For the present, perhaps," snapped Bordman. "But before things get -too bad you go back to the ship! They've rocket-fuel enough for half a -dozen landings of the landing-boat. They can lift you out of here."</p> - -<p>Aletha shrugged.</p> - -<p>"Why leave here to board a derelict? The <i>Warlock's</i> practically -that. What's your honest estimate of the time before a ship equipped to -help us gets here?"</p> - -<p>Bordman would not answer. He'd done some figuring. It had been a -two-month journey from Trent, the nearest Survey base, to here. The -<i>Warlock</i> had been expected to remain aground until the smelter -it brought could load it with pig-metal. Which could be as little as -two weeks, but would surprise nobody if it was two months instead. So -the ship would not be considered due back on Trent for four months. -It would not be considered overdue for at least two more. It would be -six months before anybody seriously wondered why it wasn't back with -its cargo. There'd be a wait for lifeboats to come in, should there -have been a mishap in space. Eventually a report of non-communication -would be made to the Colonial Survey headquarters on Canna III. But it -would take three months for that report to be received, and six more -for a confirmation—even if ships made the voyages exactly at the most -favorable intervals—and then there should at least be a complaint from -the colony. There were lifeboats aground on Xosa II, for emergency -communication, and if a lifeboat didn't bring news of a planetary -crisis, no crisis would be considered to exist. Nobody could imagine a -landing-grid failing.</p> - -<p>Maybe in a year somebody would think that maybe somebody ought to ask -around about Xosa II. It would be much longer before somebody put a -note on somebody else's desk that would suggest that when or if a -suitable ship passed near Xosa II, or if one should be available for -the inquiry, it might be worth while to have the non-communication -from the planet looked into. Actually, to guess at three years before -another ship arrived would be the most optimistic of estimates.</p> - -<p>"You're a civilian," said Bordman. "When the food and water run low, -you go back to the ship. You'll at least be alive when somebody does -come to see what's the matter here!"</p> - -<p>Aletha said mildly:</p> - -<p>"Maybe I'd rather not be alive. Will you go back to the ship?"</p> - -<p>Bordman flushed. He wouldn't. But he said:</p> - -<p>"I can order you sent on board, and your cousin will carry out the -order."</p> - -<p>"I doubt it very much," said Aletha.</p> - -<p>She returned to her task.</p> - -<p>There were crunching footsteps outside the hulk. Bordman winced a -little. With insulated sandals, it was normal for these colonists -to move from one part of the colony to another in the open, even by -daylight. He, Bordman, couldn't take out-of-doors at night!</p> - -<p>Men came in. There were dark men with rippling muscles under glistening -skin, and bronze Amerinds with coarse straight hair. Ralph Redfeather -was with them. Dr. Chuka came in last of all.</p> - -<p>"Here we are," said Redfeather. "These are our foremen. Among us, I -think we can answer any questions you want to ask."</p> - -<p>He made introductions. Bordman didn't try to remember the names. -Abeokuta and Northwind and Sutata and Tallgrass and T'chka and -Spottedhorse and Lewanika.... They were names which in combination -would only be found in a very raw, new colony. But the men who crowded -into the office were wholly at ease, in their own minds as well as in -the presence of a Senior Colonial Survey Officer. They nodded as they -were named, and the nearest shook hands. Bordman knew that he'd have -liked their looks under other circumstances. But he was humiliated by -the conditions on this planet. They were not. They were apparently only -sentenced to death by them.</p> - -<p>"I have to leave a report," said Bordman—and he was somehow astonished -to know that he did expect to leave a report rather than make one: he -accepted the hopelessness of the colony's future—"I have to leave a -report on the degree-of-completion of the work here. But since there's -an emergency, I have also to leave a report on the measures taken to -meet it."</p> - -<p>The report would be futile, of course. As futile as the coup-records -Aletha was compiling, which would be read only after everybody on the -planet was dead. But Bordman knew he'd write it. It was unthinkable -that he shouldn't.</p> - -<p>"Redfeather tells me," he added, "that the power in storage can be used -to cool the colony buildings—and therefore condense drinking water -from the air—for just about six months. There is food for about six -months also. If one lets the buildings warm up a little, to stretch -the fuel, there won't be enough water to drink. Go on half rations to -stretch the food, and there won't be enough water to last and the power -will give out anyhow. No profit there!"</p> - -<p>There were nods. The matter had been thrashed out long before.</p> - -<p>"There's food in the <i>Warlock</i> overhead," Bordman went on, "but -they can't use the landing-boat more than a few times. It can't use -ship fuel. No refrigeration to hold it stable. They couldn't land more -than a ton of supplies all told. There are five hundred of us here. No -help there!"</p> - -<p>He looked from one to another.</p> - -<p>"So we live comfortably," he told them with irony, "until our food and -water and minimum night comfort run out together. Anything we do to try -to stretch anything is useless because of what happens to something -else. Redfeather tells me you accept the situation. What are you doing, -since you accept it?"</p> - -<p>Dr. Chuka said amiably:</p> - -<p>"We've picked a storage place for our records, and our miners are -blasting out space in which to put away the record of our actions -to the last possible moment. It will be sand-proof. Our mechanics -are building a broadcast unit we'll spare a tiny bit of fuel for. It -will run twenty-odd years, broadcasting directions so it can be found -regardless of how the terrain is changed by drifting sand."</p> - -<p>"And," said Bordman, "the fact that nobody will be here to give -directions."</p> - -<p>Chuka added benignly.</p> - -<p>"We're doing a great deal of singing, too. My people -are—ah—religious. When we are no longer here—there have been -boastings that there'll be a well-practiced choir ready to go to work -in the next world."</p> - -<p>White teeth showed in grins. Bordman was almost envious of men who -could grin at such a thought. But he went on:</p> - -<p>"And I understand that athletics have also been much practiced?"</p> - -<p>Redfeather said:</p> - -<p>"There's been time for it. Climbing teams have counted coup on all -the worst mountains within three hundred miles. There's been a new -record set for the javelin, adjusted for gravity constant, and Johnny -Cornstalk did a hundred yards in eight point four seconds. Aletha has -the records and has certified them."</p> - -<p>"Very useful!" said Bordman sardonically. Then he disliked himself for -saying it even before the bronze-skinned men's faces grew studiedly -impassive.</p> - -<p>Chuka waved his hand.</p> - -<p>"Wait, Ralph! Lewanika's nephew will beat that within a week!"</p> - -<p>Bordman was ashamed again because Chuka had spoken to cover up his own -bad temper.</p> - -<p>"I take it back," he said irritably. "What I said was uncalled for. I -shouldn't have said it. But I came here to do a completion survey and -what you've been giving me is material for an estimate of morale. It's -not my line! I'm a technician, first and foremost. We're faced with a -technical problem!"</p> - -<p>Aletha spoke suddenly from behind him.</p> - -<p>"But these are men, first and foremost, Mr. Bordman. And they're faced -with a very human problem—how to die well. They seem to be rather good -at it, so far."</p> - -<p>Bordman ground his teeth. He was again humiliated. In his own fashion -he was attempting the same thing. But just as he was genetically not -qualified to endure the climate of this planet, he was not prepared -for a fatalistic or pious acceptance of disaster. Amerind and African, -alike, these men instinctively held to their own ideas of what the -dignity of a man called upon him to do when he could not do anything -but die. But Bordman's idea of his human dignity required him to be -still fighting: still scratching at the eyes of fate or destiny when he -was slain. It was in his blood or genes or the result of training. He -simply could not, with self-respect, accept any physical situation as -hopeless even when his mind assured him that it was.</p> - -<p>"I agree," he said, "but I still have to think in technical -terms. You might say that we are going to die because we cannot -land the <i>Warlock</i> with food and equipment. We cannot land -the <i>Warlock</i> because we have no landing-grid. We have no -landing-grid because it and all the material to complete it is buried -under millions of tons of sand. We cannot make a new, light-supply-ship -type of landing-grid because we have no smelter to make beams, nor -power to run it if we had, yet if we had the beams we could get the -power to run the smelter we haven't got to make the beams. And we have -no smelter, hence no beams, no power, no prospect of food or help -because we can't land the <i>Warlock</i>. It is strictly a circular -problem. Break it at any point and all of it is solved."</p> - -<p>One of the dark men muttered something under his breath to those near -him. There were chuckles.</p> - -<p>"Like Mr. Woodchuck," explained the man, when Bordman's eyes fell on -him. "When I was a little boy there was a story like that."</p> - -<p>Bordman said icily:</p> - -<p>"The problem of coolness and water and food is the same sort of -problem. In six months we could raise food—if we had power to condense -moisture. We've chemicals for hydroponics—if we could keep the plants -from roasting as they grew. Refrigeration and water and food are -practically another circular problem."</p> - -<p>Aletha said tentatively:</p> - -<p>"Mr. Bordman—"</p> - -<p>He turned, annoyed. Aletha said almost apologetically:</p> - -<p>"On Chagan there was a—you might call it a woman's coup given to a -woman I know. Her husband raises horses. He's mad about them. And they -live in a sort of home on caterwheels out on the plains—the llanos. -Sometimes they're months away from a settlement. And she loves ice -cream and refrigeration isn't too simple. But she has a Doctorate in -Human History. So she had her husband make an insulated tray on the -roof of their prefabricated tepee, and she makes her ice cream there."</p> - -<p>Men looked at her. Her cousin said amusedly:</p> - -<p>"That should rate some sort of technical coup feather!"</p> - -<p>"The Council gave her a brass pot—official," said Aletha. "Domestic -science achievement." To Bordman she explained: "Her husband put a tray -on the roof of their house, insulated from the heat of the house below. -During the day there's an insulated cover on top of it, insulating it -from the heat of the sun. At night she takes off the top cover, pours -her custard, thin, in the tray. Then she goes to bed. She has to get up -before daybreak to scrape it up, but by then the ice cream is frozen. -Even on a warm night." She looked from one to another. "I don't know -why. She said it was done in a place called Babylonia on Earth, many -thousands of years ago."</p> - -<p>Bordman blinked. Then he said:</p> - -<p>"Damn! Who knows how much the ground temperature drops here before -dawn?"</p> - -<p>"I do," said Aletha's cousin. "The top sand temperature falls forty-odd -degrees. Warmer underneath, of course. But the air here is almost cool -when the sun rises. Why?"</p> - -<p>"Nights are cooler on all planets," said Bordman, "because every night -the dark side radiates heat to empty space. There'd be frost everywhere -every morning if the ground didn't store up heat during the day. If we -prevent daytime heat storage—cover a patch of ground before dawn and -leave it covered all day—and uncover it all night while shielding it -from warm winds—we've got refrigeration! The night sky is empty space -itself—two hundred eighty below zero!"</p> - -<p>There was a murmur, then argument. The foremen of the Xosa II colony -preparation crew were strictly practical men, but they had the habit -of knowing why some things were practical. One does not do modern -steel construction in contempt of theory, nor handle modern mining -tools without knowing why as well as how they work. This proposal -sounded like something that was based on reason—that should work to -some degree. But how well? Anybody could guess that it should cool -something at least twice as much as the normal night temperature drop. -But somebody produced a slipstick and began to juggle it. He announced -his results. Others questioned, and then verified it. Nobody paid much -attention to Bordman. But there was a hum of discussion, in which -Redfeather and Chuka were immediately included. By calculation, it -appeared that if the air on Xosa II was really as clear as the bright -stars and deep day sky color indicated, every second night a total drop -of one hundred eighty degrees temperature could be secured by radiation -to interstellar space—if there were no convection currents, and they -could be prevented by—</p> - -<p>It was the convection current problem which broke the assembly into -groups with different solutions. But it was Dr. Chuka who boomed at all -of them to try all three solutions and have them ready before daybreak, -so the assembly left the hulk, still disputing enthusiastically. -Somebody had recalled that there were dewponds in the one arid area on -Timbuk, and somebody else remembered that irrigation on Delmos III was -accomplished that same way. And they recalled how it was done....</p> - -<p>Voices went away in the oven-like night outside. Bordman grimaced, and -again said:</p> - -<p>"Darn! Why didn't I think of that myself?"</p> - -<p>"Because," said Aletha, smiling, "you aren't a Doctor of Human History -with a horse-raising husband and a fondness for ice cream. Even so, -a technician was needed to break down the problems here into really -simple terms." Then she said, "I think Bob Running Antelope might -approve of you, Mr. Bordman."</p> - -<p>Bordman fumed to himself.</p> - -<p>"Who's he?—Just what does that whole comment mean?"</p> - -<p>"I'll tell you," said Aletha, "when you've solved one or two more -problems."</p> - -<p>Her cousin came back into the room. He said with gratification:</p> - -<p>"Chuka can turn out silicone-wool insulation, he says. Plenty of -material, and he'll use a solar mirror to get the heat he needs. Plenty -of temperature to make silicones! How much area will we need to pull in -four thousand gallons of water a night?"</p> - -<p>"How do I know?" demanded Bordman. "What's the moisture-content of -the air here, anyhow?" Then he said, "Tell me! Are you using heat -exchangers to help cool the air you pump into the buildings, before you -use power to refrigerate it? It would save some power—"</p> - -<p>The Indian project engineer said:</p> - -<p>"Let's get to work on this! I'm a steel man myself, but—"</p> - -<p>They settled down. Aletha turned a page.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>The <i>Warlock</i> spun around the planet. The members of its crew -withdrew into themselves. In even two months of routine tedious -voyaging to this planet there had been the beginnings of irritation -with the mannerisms of other men. Now there would be years of it. -Within two days of its establishment in orbit, the <i>Warlock</i> was -manned by men already morbidly resentful of fate, with the psychology -of prisoners doomed to close confinement for an indeterminate but -ghastly period. On the third day there was a second fist-fight. A -bitter one.</p> - -<p>Fist-fights are not healthy symptoms in a space-ship which cannot hope -to make port for a matter of years.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>Most human problems are circular and fall apart when a single trivial -part of them is solved. There used to be enmity between races because -they were different, and they tended to be different because they -were enemies, so there was enmity.... The big problem of interstellar -flight was that nothing could travel faster than light, and nothing -could travel faster than light because mass increased with speed, and -mass increased with speed—obviously!—because ships remained in the -same time slot, and ships remained in the same time slot long after a -one-second shift was possible because nobody realized that it meant -traveling faster than light. And even before there was interstellar -travel, there was practically no interplanetary commerce because it -took so much fuel to take off and land. It took more fuel to carry -the fuel to take off and land, and more still to carry the fuel for -that, until somebody used power on the ground for heave-off instead of -take-off, and again on the ground for landing. And then interplanetary -ships carried cargos. On Xosa II there was an emergency because a -sandstorm had buried the almost-completed landing-grid under some -megatons of sand, and it couldn't be completed because there was only -storage power because it wasn't completed, because there was only -storage power because—</p> - -<p>It took three weeks for the problem to be seen as the ultimately simple -thing it really was. Bordman had called it a circular problem, but he -hadn't seen its true circularity. It was actually—like all circular -problems—inherently an unstable set of conditions. It began to fall -apart simply because he saw that mere refrigeration would break its -solidity.</p> - -<p>In one week there were ten acres of desert covered with silicone-wool -felt in great strips. By day a reflective surface was uppermost, and -at sundown caterwheel trucks hooked on to towlines and neatly pulled -it over on its back, to expose gridded black-body surfaces to the -starlight. The gridding was precisely designed so that winds blowing -across it did not make eddies in the grid squares. The chilled air in -those pockets remained undisturbed, and there was no conduction of -heat downward by eddy-currents, while there was admirable radiation of -heat out to space. This was in the manner of the night sides of all -planets, only somewhat more efficient.</p> - -<p>In two weeks there was a water yield of three thousand gallons per -night, and in three weeks more there were similar grids over the colony -houses and a vast roofed cooling shed for pre-chilling air to be -used by the refrigeration systems themselves. The fuel-store—stored -power—was thereupon stretched to three times its former calculated -usefulness. The situation was no longer a simple and neat equation of -despair.</p> - -<p>Then something else happened. One of Dr. Chuka's assistants was curious -about a certain mineral. He used the solar furnace that had made the -silicone wool to smelt it. And Dr. Chuka saw him. After one blank -moment he bellowed laughter and went to see Ralph Redfeather. Whereupon -Amerind steel-workers sawed apart a robot hull that was no longer a -fuel tank because its fuel was gone, and they built a demountable -solar mirror some sixty feet across—which African mechanics deftly -powered—and suddenly there was a spot of incandescence even brighter -than the sun of Xosa II, down on the planet's surface. It played upon -a mineral cliff, and monstrous smells developed and even the African -mining-technicians put on goggles because of the brightness. Presently -there were little rolls of molten metal and slag trickling—and -separating as they trickled—hesitantly down the cliffside. Dr. Chuka -beamed and slapped his sweating thighs, and Bordman went out in a -caterwheel truck, wearing a heat-suit, to watch it for all of twenty -minutes. When he got back to the Project Engineer's office he gulped -iced salt water and dug out the books he'd brought down from the -ship. There was the spec-book for Xosa II, and the other volumes of -definitions issued by the Colonial Survey. They were definitions of the -exact meanings of terms used in briefer specifications, for items of -equipment sometimes ordered by the Colony Office.</p> - -<p>When Chuka came into the office presently, he carried the first crude -pig of Xosa II iron in his gloved hand. He gloated. Bordman was then -absent, and Ralph Redfeather worked feverishly at his desk.</p> - -<p>"Where's Bordman?" demanded Chuka in that resonant bass voice of his. -"I'm ready to report for degree-of-completion credit that the mining -properties on Xosa II are prepared as of today to deliver pig iron, -cobalt, zirconium and beryllium in commercial quantities. We require -one day's notice to begin delivery of metal other than iron at the -moment, because we're short of equipment, but we can furnish chromium -and manganese on two days' notice—the deposits are farther away."</p> - -<p>He dumped the pig of metal on the second desk, where Aletha sat with -her perpetual loose-leaf volumes before her. The metal smoked and began -to char the desk-top. He picked it up again and tossed it from one -gloved hand to the other.</p> - -<p>"There y'are, Ralph!" he boasted. "You Indians go after your coups! -Match this coup for me! Without fuel and minus all equipment except of -our own making—I credit an assist on the mirror, but that's all—we're -set to load the first ship that comes in for cargo! Now what are you -going to do for the record? I think we've wiped your eye for you!"</p> - -<p>Ralph hardly looked up. His eyes were very bright. Bordman had -shown him and he was copying figures and formulae from a section of -the definition book of the Colonial Survey. The book started with -the specifications for antibiotic growth equipment for colonies -with problems in local bacteria. It ended with definitions of the -required strength of material and the designs stipulated for cages -in zoos for motile fauna, sub-divided into flying, marine, and solid -ground creatures: sub-sub-divided into carnivores, herbivores, and -omnivores, with the special specifications for enclosures to contain -abyssal creatures requiring extreme pressures, and the equipment for -maintaining a healthfully re-poisoned atmosphere for creatures from -methane planets.</p> - -<p>Redfeather had the third volume open at, "<i>Landing-Grids, Lightest -Emergency, Commerce Refuges, For Use Of.</i>" There were some dozens -of non-colonized planets along the most traveled spaceways on which -refuges for shipwrecked spacemen were maintained. Small forces of -Patrol personnel manned them. Space lifeboats serviced them. They -had the minimum installations which could draw on their planets' -ionospheres for power, and they were not expected to handle anything -bigger than a twenty ton lifeboat. But the specifications for the -equipment of such refuges was included in the reference volumes for -Bordman's use in making colonial surveys. They were compiled for -the information of contractors who wanted to bid on Colonial Survey -installations, and for the guidance of people like Bordman who checked -up on the work. So they contained all the data for the building of a -landing-grid, lightest emergency, commerce refuge type, for use of, in -case of need. Redfeather copied feverishly.</p> - -<p>Chuka ceased his boasting, but still he grinned.</p> - -<p>"I know we're stuck, Ralph," he said, "but it's nice stuff to go in the -records. Too bad we don't keep coup-records like you Indians."</p> - -<p>Aletha's cousin—Project Engineer—said crisply:</p> - -<p>"Go away! Who made your solar mirror? It was more than an assist! You -get set to cast beams for us. Girders! I'm going to get a lifeboat -aloft and away to Trent. Build a minimum size landing-grid! Build a -fire under somebody so they'll send us a colony-ship with supplies. If -there's no new sandstorm to bury the radiation refrigerators Bordman -brought to mind, we can keep alive with hydroponics until a ship can -arrive with something useful!"</p> - -<p>Chuka stared.</p> - -<p>"You don't mean we might actually live through this! Really?"</p> - -<p>Aletha regarded the two of them with impartial irony.</p> - -<p>"Dr. Chuka," she said, "you accomplished the impossible. Ralph, here, -is planning to attempt the preposterous. Does it occur to you that -Mr. Bordman is nagging himself to achieve the inconceivable?—It is -inconceivable, even to him, but he's trying to do it."</p> - -<p>"What's he trying to do?" demanded Chuka, wary but amused.</p> - -<p>"He's trying," said Aletha, "to prove to himself that he's the best man -on this planet. Because he's physically least capable of living here. -His vanity's hurt. Don't underestimate him!"</p> - -<p>"He the best man here?" demanded Chuka blankly. "In his way he's all -right. The refrigeration proves that. But he can't walk out-of-doors -without a heat-suit!"</p> - -<p>Ralph Redfeather, without ceasing his work, said:</p> - -<p>"Nonsense, Aletha. He has courage. I give him that. But he couldn't -walk a beam twelve hundred feet up. In his own way, yes. He's capable. -But the best man—"</p> - -<p>"I'm sure," agreed Aletha, "that he couldn't sing as well as the -worst of your singing crew, Dr. Chuka, and any Amerind could outrun -him. Even I could. But he's got something we haven't got, just as we -have qualities he hasn't. We're secure in our competences. We knew -what we can do, and that we can do it better than any—" her eyes -twinkled—"than any pale-face. But he doubts himself. All the time and -in every way. And that's why he may be the best man on this planet. -I'll bet he does prove it!"</p> - -<p>Redfeather said scornfully:</p> - -<p>"<i>You</i> suggested radiation refrigeration! What does it prove that -he applied it?"</p> - -<p>"That," said Aletha, "he couldn't face the disaster that was here -without trying to do something about it—even when it was impossible. -He couldn't face the deadly facts. He had to torment himself by seeing -that they wouldn't be deadly if only this or that or the other were -twisted a little. His vanity was hurt because nature had beaten men. -His dignity was offended. And a man with easily-hurt dignity won't ever -be happy, but he can be pretty good."</p> - -<p>Chuka raised his ebony bulk from the chair in which he still shifted -the iron pig from gloved hand to gloved hand.</p> - -<p>"You're kind," he said, chuckling. "Too kind! I don't want to hurt his -feelings. I wouldn't, for the world! But really—I've never heard a man -praised for his vanity before, or admired for being touchy about his -dignity! If you're right—why—it's been convenient. It might even mean -hope. But—hm ... would you want to marry a man like that?"</p> - -<p>"Great Manitou forbid!" said Aletha firmly. She grimaced at the bare -idea. "I'm an Amerind. I'll want my husband to be contented. I want -to be contented along with him. Mr. Bordman will never be either -happy or content. No pale-face husband for me! But I don't think he's -through here yet. Sending for help won't satisfy him. It's a further -hurt to his vanity. He'll be miserable if he doesn't prove himself—to -himself—a better man than that!"</p> - -<p>Chuka shrugged his massive shoulders. Redfeather tracked down the last -item he needed and fairly bounced to his feet.</p> - -<p>"What tonnage of iron can you get out, Chuka?" he demanded. "What can -you do in the way of castings? What's the elastic modulus—how much -carbon in this iron? And when can you start making castings? Big ones?"</p> - -<p>"Let's go talk to my foremen," said Chuka. "We'll see how fast -my—ah—mineral spring is trickling metal down the cliff face. If you -can really launch a lifeboat, we might get some help here in a year and -a half instead of five...."</p> - -<p>They went out-of-doors together. There was a small sound in the next -office. Aletha was suddenly very still. She sat motionless for a long -half minute. Then she turned her head.</p> - -<p>"I owe you an apology, Mr. Bordman," she said ruefully. "It won't take -back the discourtesy, but—I'm very sorry."</p> - -<p>Bordman came into the office from the next room. He was rather pale. He -said wrily:</p> - -<p>"Eavesdroppers never hear good of themselves, eh?—Actually I was on -the way in here when I heard—references to myself. It would embarrass -Chuka and your cousin to know I heard. So I stopped. Not to listen, but -to keep them from knowing I'd heard their private opinions of me. I'll -be obliged if you don't tell them. They're entitled to their opinions -of me. I've mine of them." He added, "Apparently I think more highly of -them than they do of me!"</p> - -<p>"It must have sounded horrible!" Aletha said. "But they—we—all of us -think better of you than you do of yourself!"</p> - -<p>Bordman shrugged.</p> - -<p>"You in particular. Would you marry someone like me? Great Manitou, no!"</p> - -<p>"For an excellent reason," said Aletha. "When I get back from -here—<i>if</i> I get back from here—I'm going to marry Bob Running -Antelope. He's nice. I like the idea of marrying him. But I look -forward not only to happiness but to contentment. To me that's -important. It isn't to you, or to the woman you ought to marry. And -I—well—I simply don't envy either of you a bit."</p> - -<p>"I see!" said Bordman with irony. He didn't. "I wish you all the -contentment you look for." Then he snapped: "But what's this business -about expecting more from me? What spectacular idea do you expect me to -pull out of somebody's hat now?—Because I'm frantically vain?"</p> - -<p>"I haven't the least idea," said Aletha. "But I think you'll come up -with something we couldn't possibly imagine. And I didn't say it was -because you were vain, but because you are discontented with yourself. -It's born in you. And there you are!"</p> - -<p>"If you mean neurotic," snapped Bordman, "you're all wrong. I'm not -neurotic. I'm hot, and I'm annoyed. I'll get hopelessly behind schedule -because of this mess. But that's all!"</p> - -<p>Aletha stood up and shrugged her shoulders ruefully.</p> - -<p>"I repeat my apology," she told him, "and leave you the office. But -I also repeat that I think you'll turn up something nobody else -expects—and I've no idea what it will be. But you'll do it now to -prove that I'm wrong about how your mind works."</p> - -<p>She went out. Bordman clamped his jaws tightly. He felt that especially -haunting discomfort which comes of suspecting that one has been told -something about oneself which may be true.</p> - -<p>"Idiotic!" he fumed, all alone. "Me neurotic? Me wanting to prove I'm -the best man here out of vanity?" He made a scornful noise. He sat -impatiently at the desk. "Absurd!" he muttered. "Why should I need to -prove to myself I'm capable? What would I do if I felt such a need, -anyhow?"</p> - -<p>Scowling, he stared at the wall. It was a nagging sort of question. -What would he do if she were right? If he did need constantly to prove -to himself—</p> - -<p>He stiffened, suddenly. A look of intense surprise came upon his face. -He'd thought of what a self-doubtful, discontented man would try to do, -here on Xosa II at this juncture.</p> - -<p>The surprise was because he had also thought of how it could be done.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>The <i>Warlock</i> came to life. Her skipper gloomily answered -the emergency call from Xosa II. In a minute he clicked off the -communicator and hastened to an exterior port, deeply darkened against -those times when the blue-white sun Xosa shone upon this side of the -hull. He moved the manual control to make it more transparent, and -stared down at the monstrous, tawny, mottled surface of the planet five -thousand miles away. He searched for the spot he knew was the colony's -site.</p> - -<p>He saw what he'd been told he'd see. It was an infinitely fine, -threadlike projection from the surface of the planet. It rose at a -slight angle—it leaned toward the planet's west—and it expanded and -widened and formed an extraordinary sort of mushroom-shaped object -that was completely impossible. It could not be. Humans do not create -visible objects twenty miles high, which at their tops expand like -toadstools on excessively slender stalks, and which drift westward, -fray, and grow thin, and are constantly renewed.</p> - -<p>But it was true. The skipper of the <i>Warlock</i> gazed until he was -completely sure. It was no atomic bomb, because it continued to exist. -It faded, but was constantly replenished. There was no such thing!</p> - -<p>He went through the ship, bellowing, and faced mutinous snarlings. But -when the <i>Warlock</i> was around on that side of the planet again, -the members of the crew saw the strange appearance, too. They examined -it with telescopes. They grew hysterical. They went frantically to work -to clear away the signs of a month and a half of mutiny and despair.</p> - -<p>It took them three days to get the ship to tidiness again, and during -all that time the peculiar tawny jet remained. On the sixth day the jet -was fainter. On the seventh it was larger than before. It continued -larger. And telescopes at highest magnification verified what the -emergency communication had said.</p> - -<p>Then the crew began to experience frantic impatience. It was worse, -waiting those last three or four days, than even all the hopeless time -before. But there was no reason to hate anybody now. The skipper was -very much relieved.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>Eighteen hundred feet of steel grid soared overhead. It made a -criss-cross, ring-shaped wall more than a quarter mile high and almost -to the top of the surrounding mountains. But the valley was not -exactly a normal one. It was a crater, now: a steeply sloping, conical -pit whose walls descended smoothly to the outer girders of the red -painted, glistening steel structure. More girders for the completion -of the grid projected from the sand just outside its circle. And in -the landing-grid there was now a smaller, elaborate, truss-braced -object. It rested on the rocky ground, unpainted and quite small. A -hundred feet high, perhaps, and no more than three hundred across. But -it was visibly a miniature of the great, newly-uncovered, repainted -landing-grid which was qualified to handle interstellar cargo-ships and -all the proper space-traffic of a minerals colony-planet.</p> - -<p>A caterwheel truck came lurching and rolling and rumbling down the side -of the pit. It had a sunshade and ground reflector wings, and Bordman -slouched on a hobby-horse saddle in its back cargo section. He wore a -heat-suit.</p> - -<p>The truck reached the pit's bottom and bumped up to a tool-shed and -stopped. Bordman got out, visibly cramped by the jolting, rocking, -exhausting ride.</p> - -<p>"Do you want to go in the shed and cool off?" asked Chuka.</p> - -<p>"I'm all right," said Bordman. "I'm quite comfortable, so long as you -feed me that expanded air." It was plain that he resented needing -even a special air-supply. "What's all this about? Bringing the -<i>Warlock</i> in? Why the insistence on my being here?"</p> - -<p>"Ralph has a problem," said Chuka blandly. "He's up there—See? He -needs you. There's a hoist. You've got to check degree-of-completion -anyhow. You might take a look around while you're up there. But he's -anxious for you to see something. There where you see the little knot -of people. The platform."</p> - -<p>Bordman grimaced. When one was well started on a survey, one got used -to heights and depths and all sorts of environments. But he hadn't been -up on steel work in a good many months. Not since a survey on Kalka IV -nearly a year ago. He would be dizzy at first.</p> - -<p>He accompanied Chuka to the spot where a steel cable dangled from an -almost invisibly thin beam high above. There was a strictly improvised -cage to ascend in—planks and a hand rail forming an insecure platform -that might hold four people. He got into it, and Dr. Chuka got in -beside him. Chuka waved his hand. The cage started up.</p> - -<p>Bordman winced as the ground dropped away below. It was ghastly to be -dangling in emptiness like this. He wanted to close his eyes. The cage -went up and up. It took many long minutes to reach the top.</p> - -<p>There was a newly-made platform there. The sunlight was blindingly -bright, the landscape an intolerable glare. Bordman adjusted his -goggles to maximum darkness and stepped gingerly from the swaying -cage to the hardly more solid-seeming area. Here he was in mid-air -on a platform barely ten feet square. It was rather more than -twice the height of a metropolitan skyscraper from the ground. The -mountain-crests were only half a mile away and not much higher. Bordman -was acutely uncomfortable. He would get used to it, but—</p> - -<p>"Well?" he asked. "Chuka said you needed me here. What's the matter?"</p> - -<p>Ralph Redfeather nodded formally. Aletha was here, too, and two of -Chuka's foremen—one did not look happy—and four of the Amerind -steel-workers. They grinned at Bordman.</p> - -<p>"I wanted you to see," said Aletha's cousin, "before we threw on the -current. It doesn't look like that little grid could handle the sand it -took care of. But Lewanika wants to report."</p> - -<p>A dark man who worked under Chuka—and looked as if he belonged on -solid ground—said:</p> - -<p>"We cast the beams for the small landing-grid, Mr. Bordman. We melted -the metal out of the cliffs and ran it into moulds as it flowed down."</p> - -<p>He stopped. One of the Indians said:</p> - -<p>"We made the girders into the small landing-grid. It bothered us -because we built it on the sand that had buried the big grid. We didn't -understand why you ordered it there. But we built it."</p> - -<p>The second dark man said with a trace of swagger:</p> - -<p>"We made the coils, Mr. Bordman. We made the small grid so it would -work the same as the big one when it was finished. And then we made the -big grid work, finished or not!"</p> - -<p>Bordman said impatiently:</p> - -<p>"All right. Very good. But what is this? A ceremony?"</p> - -<p>"Just so," said Aletha, smiling. "Be patient, Mr. Bordman!"</p> - -<p>Her cousin said:</p> - -<p>"We built the small grid on the top of the sand. And it tapped the -ionosphere for power. No lack of power then! And we'd set it to heave -up sand instead of ships. Not to heave it out into space, but to give -it up to a mile a second vertical velocity. Then we turned it on."</p> - -<p>"And we rode it down, that little grid," said one of the remaining -Indians, grinning. "What a party! Manitou!"</p> - -<p>Redfeather frowned at him and took up the narrative.</p> - -<p>"It hurled the sand up from its center, as you said it would. The sand -swept air with it. It made a whirlwind, bringing more sand from outside -the grid into its field. It was a whirlwind with fifteen megakilowatts -of power to drive it. Some of the sand went twenty miles high. Then it -made a mushroom head and the winds up yonder blew it to the west. It -came down a long way off, Mr. Bordman. We've made a new dune area ten -miles down-wind. And the little grid sank as the sand went away from -around it. We had to stop it three times, because it leaned. We had to -dig under parts of it to get it straight up again. But it went down -into the valley."</p> - -<p>Bordman turned up the power to his heat-suit motors. He felt -uncomfortably warm.</p> - -<p>"In six days," said Ralph, almost ceremonially, "it had uncovered half -the original grid we'd built. Then we were able to modify that to -heave sand and to let it tap the ionosphere. We were able to use a good -many times the power the little grid could apply to sand lifting. In -two days more the landing-grid was clear. The valley bottom was clean. -We shifted some hundreds of millions of tons of sand by landing-grid, -and now it is possible to land the <i>Warlock</i>, and receive her -supplies. The solar-power furnace is already turning out pigs for her -loading. We wanted you to see what we have done. The colony is no -longer in danger, and we shall have the grid completely finished for -your inspection before the ship is ready to return."</p> - -<p>Bordman said uncomfortably:</p> - -<p>"That's very good. It's excellent. I'll put it in my survey report."</p> - -<p>"But," said Ralph, more ceremonially still, "we have the right to count -coup for the members of our tribe and clan. Now—"</p> - -<p>Then there was confusion. Aletha's cousin was saying syllables that did -not mean anything at all. The other Indians joined in at intervals, -speaking gibberish. Aletha's eyes were shining and she looked pleased -and satisfied.</p> - -<p>"What—what's this?" demanded Bordman when they stopped.</p> - -<p>Aletha spoke proudly.</p> - -<p>"Ralph just formally adopted you into the tribe, Mr. Bordman—and into -his clan and mine! He gave you a name I'll have to write down for you, -but it means, 'Man-who-believes-not-his-own-wisdom.' And now—"</p> - -<p>Ralph Redfeather, licensed interstellar engineer, graduate of the -stiffest technical university in this quarter of the galaxy, wearer of -three eagle-pinion feathers and clad in a pair of insulated sandals -and a breechclout—Ralph Redfeather whipped out a small paint-pot and -a brush from somewhere and began carefully to paint on a section of -girder ready for the next tier of steel. He painted a feather on the -metal.</p> - -<p>"It's a coup," he told Bordman over his shoulder. "Your coup. Placed -where it was earned—up here. Aletha is authorized to certify it. And -the head of the clan will add an eagle feather to the head-dress he -wears in Council in the Big Tepee on Algonka, and—your clan-brothers -will be proud."</p> - -<p>Then he straightened up and held out his hand.</p> - -<p>Chuka said benignly:</p> - -<p>"Being civilized men, Mr. Bordman, we Africans do not go in for -uncivilized feathers. But we—ah—rather approve of you too. And we -plan a corroboree at the colony after the <i>Warlock</i> is down, when -there will be some excellently practiced singing. There is—ah—a song, -a sort of choral calypso, about this adventure you have brought to so -satisfying a conclusion. It is quite a good calypso. It's likely to be -popular on a good many planets."</p> - -<p>Bordman swallowed. He felt that he ought to say something, and he did -not know what.</p> - -<p>But just then there was a deep-toned humming in the air. It -was a vibrant tone, instinct with limitless power. It was the -eighteen-hundred-foot landing-grid, giving off that profoundly bass and -vibrant note it uttered while operating. Bordman looked up.</p> - -<p>The <i>Warlock</i> was coming down.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>After Bordman made his report he found that the newest graduates -of Space Survey training had been swallowed up by the needs of the -service, and he was apparently needed as badly as before. But he -protested vigorously, and went back to Lani III and enjoyed the society -of Riki and his children for a full year and a half.</p> - -<p>Then three Senior Officers died within one year, and the Survey's -facilities were stretched to the breaking-point. Population-pressure -required the opening of colonies. The safety of thousands and millions -of human lives depended on the Survey's work. Worlds which had been -biologically surveyed had also to be checked to make sure they were -equipped to sustain the populations waiting impatiently to swarm upon -them.</p> - -<p>Reluctantly, to meet the emergency, Bordman agreed to return to the -Service for one year only.</p> - -<p>But he'd served seven, with only two brief visits to his children and -his wife, when he was promised that after the checking of a single -robot-colony on Loren Two, his resignation would be accepted.</p> - -<p>So he boarded a Crete Line Ship for his last active assignment in the -Colonial Survey....</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="COMBAT_TEAM">COMBAT TEAM</h2> -</div> - - -<p>The nearer moon went by overhead. It was jagged and irregular in shape, -probably a captured asteroid. Huyghens had seen it often enough, so -he did not go out of his quarters to watch it hurtle across the sky -with seemingly the speed of an atmosphere-flier, occulting the stars -as it went. Instead, he sweated over paper-work, which should have -been odd because he was technically a felon and all his labors on -Loren Two felonious. It was odd, too, for a man to do paper-work in a -room with steel shutters and a huge bald eagle—untethered—dozing on -a three-inch perch set in the wall. But paper-work was not Huyghens' -real task. His only assistant had tangled with a night-walker, and the -furtive Kodius Company ships had taken him away to where Kodius Company -ships came from. Huyghens had to do two men's work in loneliness. To -his knowledge, he was the only man in this solar system.</p> - -<p>Below him, there were snufflings. Sitka Pete got up heavily and padded -to his water-pan. He lapped the refrigerated water and sneezed. -Sourdough Charley waked and complained in a rumbling growl. There -were diverse other rumblings and mutterings below. Huyghens called -reassuringly, "Easy there!" and went on with his work. He finished a -climate report, and fed figures to a computer. While it hummed over -them he entered the inventory totals in the station log, showing what -supplies remained. Then he began to write up the log proper.</p> - -<p>"<i>Sitka Pete</i>," he wrote, "<i>has apparently solved the problem of -killing individual sphexes. He has learned that it doesn't do to hug -them and that his claws can't penetrate their hide, not the top-hide, -anyhow. Today Semper notified us that a pack of sphexes had found the -scent-trail to the station. Sitka hid down-wind until they arrived. -Then he charged from the rear and brought his paws together on both -sides of a sphex's head in a terrific pair of slaps. It must have been -like two twelve-inch shells arriving from opposite directions at the -same time. It must have scrambled the sphex's brains as if they were -eggs. It dropped dead. He killed two more with such mighty pairs of -wallops. Sourdough Charley watched, grunting, and when the sphexes -turned on Sitka, he charged in his turn. I, of course, couldn't shoot -too close to him, so he might have fared badly except that Faro Nell -came pouring out of the bear-quarters to help. The diversion enabled -Sitka Pete to resume the use of his new technique, towering on his hind -legs and swinging his paws in the new and grizly fashion. The fight -ended promptly. Semper flew and screamed above the scrap, but as usual -did not join in. Note: Nugget, the cub, tried to mix in but his mother -cuffed him out of the way. Sourdough and Sitka ignored him as usual. -Kodius Champion's genes are sound!</i>"</p> - -<p>The noises of the night went on outside. There were notes like -organ-tones—song-lizards. There were the tittering, giggling cries of -night-walkers. There were sounds like tack-hammers, and doors closing, -and from every direction came noises like hiccoughs in various keys. -These were made by the improbable small creatures which on Loren Two -took the place of insects.</p> - -<p>Huyghens wrote out:</p> - -<p>"<i>Sitka seemed ruffled when the fight was over. He used his trick -on the head of every dead or wounded sphex, except those he'd killed -with it, lifting up their heads for his pile-driver-like blows from -two directions at once, as if to show Sourdough how it was done. There -was much grunting as they hauled the carcasses to the incinerator. It -almost seemed—</i>"</p> - -<p>The arrival-bell clanged, and Huyghens jerked up his head to stare at -it. Semper, the eagle, opened icy eyes. He blinked.</p> - -<p>Noises. There was a long, deep, contented snore from below. Something -shrieked, out in the jungle. Hiccoughs, clatterings, and organ-notes....</p> - -<p>The bell clanged again. It was a notice that an unscheduled ship aloft -somewhere had picked up the beacon-beam—which only Kodius Company -ships should know about—and was communicating for a landing. But -there shouldn't be any ships in this solar system just now! The Kodius -Company's colony was completely illegal, and there were few graver -crimes than unauthorized occupation of a new planet.</p> - -<p>The bell clanged a third time. Huyghens swore. His hand went out to cut -off the beacon, and then stopped. That would be useless. Radar would -have fixed it and tied it in with physical features like the nearby -sea and the Sere Plateau. The ship could find the place, anyhow, and -descend by daylight.</p> - -<p>"The devil!" said Huyghens. But he waited yet again for the bell to -ring. A Kodius Company ship would double-ring to reassure him. But -there shouldn't be a Kodius Company ship for months.</p> - -<p>The bell clanged singly. The space-phone dial flickered and a voice -came out of it, tinny from stratospheric distortion:</p> - -<p>"<i>Calling ground. Calling ground. Crete Line ship</i> Odysseus -<i>calling ground on Loren Two. Landing one passenger by boat. Put on -your field lights.</i>"</p> - -<p>Huyghens' mouth dropped open. A Kodius Company ship would be welcome. -A Colonial Survey ship would be extremely unwelcome, because it -would destroy the colony and Sitka and Sourdough and Faro Nell and -Nugget—and Semper—and carry Huyghens off to be tried for unauthorized -colonization and all that it implied.</p> - -<p>But a commercial ship, landing one passenger by boat.... There were -simply no circumstances under which that could happen. Not to an -unknown, illegal colony. Not to a furtive station!</p> - -<p>Huyghens flicked on the landing-field lights. He saw the glare over -the field half a mile away. Then he stood up and prepared to take the -measures required by discovery. He packed the paper-work he'd been -doing into the disposal-safe. He gathered up all personal documents -and tossed them in. Every record, every bit of evidence that the -Kodius Company maintained this station went into the safe. He slammed -the door. He moved his finger toward the disposal-button, which would -destroy the contents and melt down even the ashes past their possible -use for evidence in court.</p> - -<p>Then he hesitated. If it were a Survey ship, the button had to -be pressed and he must resign himself to a long term in prison. -But a Crete Line ship—if the space-phone told the truth—was not -threatening. It was simply unbelievable.</p> - -<p>He shook his head. He got into travel garb, armed himself, and went -down into the bear-quarters, turning on lights as he went. There -were startled snufflings, and Sitka Pete reared himself to a sitting -position to blink at him. Sourdough Charley lay on his back with his -legs in the air. He'd found it cooler, sleeping that way. He rolled -over with a thump, and made snorting sounds which somehow sounded -cordial. Faro Nell padded to the door of her separate apartment, -assigned her so that Nugget would not be underfoot to irritate the big -males.</p> - -<p>Huyghens, as the human population of Loren Two, faced the work-force, -fighting-force, and—with Nugget—four-fifths of the terrestrial -non-human population of the planet. They were mutated Kodiak bears, -descendants of that Kodius Champion for whom the Kodius Company was -named. Sitka Pete was a good twenty-two hundred pounds of lumbering, -intelligent carnivore, Sourdough Charley would weigh within a hundred -pounds of that figure. Faro Nell was eighteen hundred pounds of female -charm and ferocity. Then Nugget poked his muzzle around his mother's -furry rump to see what was toward, and he was six-hundred pounds of -ursine infancy. The animals looked at Huyghens expectantly. If he'd had -Semper riding on his shoulder they'd have known what was expected of -them.</p> - -<p>"Let's go," said Huyghens. "It's dark outside, but somebody's coming. -And it may be bad!"</p> - -<p>He unfastened the outer door of the bear-quarters. Sitka Pete went -charging clumsily through it. A forthright charge was the best -way to develop any situation—if one was an oversize male Kodiak -bear. Sourdough went lumbering after him. There was nothing hostile -immediately outside. Sitka stood up on his hind legs—he reared up -a solid twelve feet—and sniffed the air. Sourdough methodically -lumbered to one side and then the other, sniffing in his turn. Nell -came out, nine-tenths of a ton of daintiness, and rumbled admonitorily -at Nugget, who trailed her closely. Huyghens stood in the doorway, his -night-sighted gun ready. He felt uncomfortable at sending the bears -ahead into a Loren Two jungle at night, but they were qualified to -scent danger, and he was not.</p> - -<p>The illumination of the jungle in a wide path toward the landing-field -made for weirdness in the look of things. There were arching giant -ferns and columnar trees which grew above them, and the extraordinary -lanceolate underbrush of the jungle. The flood-lamps, set level with -the ground, lighted everything from below. The foliage, then, was -brightly lit against the black night-sky, brightly enough lit to dim -the stars.</p> - -<p>"On ahead!" commanded Huyghens, waving. "Hup!"</p> - -<p>He swung the bear-quarters door shut, and moved toward the -landing-field through the lane of lighted forest. The two giant male -Kodiaks lumbered ahead. Sitka Pete dropped to all fours and prowled. -Sourdough Charley followed closely, swinging from side to side. -Huyghens came behind the two of them, and Faro Nell brought up the rear -with Nugget nudging her.</p> - -<p>It was an excellent military formation for progress through dangerous -jungle. Sourdough and Sitka were advance-guard and point, respectively, -while Faro Nell guarded the rear. With Nugget to look after, she was -especially alert against attack from behind. Huyghens was, of course, -the striking force. His gun fired explosive bullets which would -discourage even sphexes, and his night-sight—a cone of light which -went on when he took up the trigger-slack—told exactly where they -would strike. It was not a sportsmanlike weapon, but the creatures -of Loren Two were not sportsmanlike antagonists. The night-walkers, -for example. But night-walkers feared light. They attacked only in a -species of hysteria if it were too bright.</p> - -<p>Huyghens moved toward the glare at the landing-field. His mental state -was savage. The Kodius Company on Loren Two was completely illegal. -It happened to be necessary, from one point of view, but it was still -illegal. The tinny voice on the space-phone was not convincing, in -ignoring that illegality. But if a ship landed, Huyghens could get back -to the station before men could follow, and he'd have the disposal-safe -turned on in time to protect those who'd sent him here.</p> - -<p>Then he heard the far-away and high harsh roar of a landing-boat -rocket—not a ship's bellowing tubes—as he made his way through the -unreal-seeming brush. The roar grew louder as he pushed on, the three -big Kodiaks padding here and there, sniffing for danger.</p> - -<p>He reached the edge of the landing-field, and it was blindingly -bright, with the customary divergent beams slanting skyward so a ship -could check its instrument-landing by sight. Landing fields like this -had been standard, once upon a time. Nowadays all developed planets -had landing-grids—monstrous structures which drew upon ionospheres -for power and lifted and drew down star-ships with remarkable -gentleness and unlimited force. This sort of landing-field would now -be found only where a survey-team was at work, or where some strictly -temporary investigation of ecology or bacteriology was under way, or -where a newly authorized colony had not yet been able to build its -landing-grid. Of course, it was unthinkable that anybody would attempt -a settlement in defiance of the law!</p> - -<p>Already, as Huyghens reached the edge of the scorched open space, -the night-creatures had rushed to the light, like moths on Earth. -The air was misty with crazily gyrating, tiny flying things. They -were innumerable and of every possible form and size, from the white -midges of the night and multi-winged flying worms to those revoltingly -naked-looking larger creatures which might have passed for plucked -flying monkeys if they had not been carnivorous and worse. The flying -things soared and whirred and danced and spun insanely in the glare, -making peculiarly plaintive humming noises. They almost formed a -lamp-lit ceiling over the cleared space, and actually did hide the -stars. Staring upward, Huyghens could just barely make out the -blue-white flame of the space-boat's rockets through the fog of wings -and bodies.</p> - -<p>The rocket-flame grew steadily in size. Once it tilted to adjust -the boat's descending course. It went back to normal. A speck of -incandescence at first, it grew until it was like a great star, -then a more-than-brilliant moon, and then it was a pitiless glaring -eye. Huyghens averted his gaze from it. Sitka Pete sat lumpily and -blinked at the dark jungle away from the light. Sourdough ignored the -deepening, increasing rocket-roar. He sniffed the air. Faro Nell held -Nugget firmly under one huge paw and licked his head as if tidying him -up to be seen by company. Nugget wriggled.</p> - -<p>The roar became that of ten thousand thunders. A warm breeze blew -outward from the landing-field. The rocket-boat hurtled downward, and -as its flame touched the mist of flying things, they shriveled and -burned. Then there were churning clouds of dust everywhere, and the -center of the field blazed terribly—and something slid down a shaft -of fire, squeezed it flat, and sat on it—and the flame went out. The -rocket-boat sat there, resting on its tail-fins, pointing toward the -stars from which it came.</p> - -<p>There was a terrible silence after the tumult. Then, very faintly, -the noises of the night came again. There were sounds like those of -organ-pipes, and very faint and apologetic noises like hiccoughs. -All these sounds increased, and suddenly Huyghens could hear quite -normally. As he watched, a side-port opened with a clattering, -something unfolded from where it had been inset into the hull of the -space-boat, and there was a metal passageway across the flame-heated -space on which the boat stood.</p> - -<p>A man came out of the port. He reached back in and shook hands. Then -he climbed down the ladder-rungs to the walk-way, and marched above -the steaming baked area, carrying a traveling bag. At the end of the -walk he stepped to the ground, and moved hastily to the edge of the -clearing. He waved to the space-boat. The walk-way folded briskly -back up to the hull and vanished in it, and almost at once a flame -exploded into being under the tail-fins. There were fresh clouds of -monstrous, choking dust, a brightness like that of a sun, and noise -past the possibility of endurance. Then the light rose swiftly through -the dust-cloud, sprang higher, and climbed more swiftly still. When -Huyghens' ears again permitted him to hear anything, there was only a -diminishing mutter in the heavens and a faint bright speck of light -ascending to the sky, swinging eastward as it rose to intercept the -ship from which it had descended.</p> - -<p>The night-noises of the jungle went on, even though there was a spot -of incandescence in the day-bright clearing, and steam rolled up in -clouds at the edge of the hottest area. Beyond that edge, a man with a -traveling bag in his hand looked about him.</p> - -<p>Huyghens advanced toward him as the incandescence dimmed. Sourdough and -Sitka preceded him. Faro Nell trailed faithfully, keeping a maternal -eye on her offspring. The man in the clearing stared at the parade -they made. It would be upsetting, even after preparation, to land at -night on a strange planet, to have the ship's boat and all links with -the rest of the cosmos depart, and then to find oneself approached—it -might seem stalked—by two colossal male Kodiak bears, with a third -bear and a cub behind them. A single human figure in such company might -seem irrelevant.</p> - -<p>The new arrival gazed blankly. He moved back a few steps. Then Huyghens -called:</p> - -<p>"Hello, there! Don't worry about the bears! They're friends!"</p> - -<p>Sitka reached the newcomer. He went warily down-wind from him and -sniffed. The smell was satisfactory. Man-smell. Sitka sat down with the -solid impact of more than a ton of bear-meat landing on packed dirt, -and regarded the man. Sourdough said "<i>Whoosh</i>!" and went on to -sample the air beyond the clearing. Huyghens approached. The newcomer -wore the uniform of the Colonial Survey. That was bad. It bore the -insignia of a senior officer. Worse.</p> - -<p>"Hah!" said the just-landed man. "Where are the robots? What in all the -nineteen hells are these creatures? Why did you shift your station? I'm -Bordman, here to make a progress-report on your colony."</p> - -<p>Huyghens said:</p> - -<p>"What colony?"</p> - -<p>"Loren Two Robot Installation—" Then Bordman said indignantly, -"Don't tell me that that idiot skipper can have dropped me at the wrong -place! This is Loren Two, isn't it? And this is the landing-field. But -where are your robots? You should have the beginning of a grid up! What -the devil's happened here and what are these beasts?"</p> - -<p>Huyghens grimaced.</p> - -<p>"This," he said, "is an illegal, unlicensed settlement. I'm a criminal. -These beasts are my confederates. If you don't want to associate with -criminals you needn't, of course, but I doubt if you'll live till -morning unless you accept my hospitality while I think over what to do -about your landing. In reason, I ought to shoot you."</p> - -<p>Faro Nell came to a halt behind Huyghens, which was her proper post in -all out-door movement. Nugget, however, saw a new human. Nugget was a -cub, and therefore friendly. He ambled forward. He wriggled bashfully -as he approached Bordman. He sneezed, because he was embarrassed.</p> - -<p>His mother overtook him and cuffed him to one side. He wailed. The wail -of a six-hundred-pound Kodiak bear-cub is a remarkable sound. Bordman -gave ground a pace.</p> - -<p>"I think," he said carefully, "that we'd better talk things over. -But if this is an illegal colony, of course you're under arrest and -anything you say will be used against you."</p> - -<p>Huyghens grimaced again.</p> - -<p>"Right," he said. "But now if you'll walk close to me, we'll head back -to the station. I'd have Sourdough carry your bag—he likes to carry -things—but he may need his teeth. We've half a mile to travel." He -turned to the animals. "Let's go!" he said commandingly. "Back to the -station! Hup!"</p> - -<p>Grunting, Sitka Pete arose and took up his duties as advanced point -of a combat-team. Sourdough trailed, swinging widely to one side and -another. Huyghens and Bordman moved together. Faro Nell and Nugget -brought up the rear.</p> - -<p>There was only one incident on the way back. It was a night-walker, -made hysterical by the lane of light. It poured through the underbrush, -uttering cries like maniacal laughter.</p> - -<p>Sourdough brought it down, a good ten yards from Huyghens.</p> - -<p>When it was all over, Nugget bristled up to the dead creature, uttering -cub-growls. He feigned to attack it.</p> - -<p>His mother whacked him soundly.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>There were comfortable, settling-down noises below, as the bears -grunted and rumbled, and ultimately were still. The glare from the -landing-field was gone. The lighted lane through the jungle was dark -again. Huyghens ushered the man from the space-boat up into his living -quarters. There was a rustling stir, and Semper took his head from -under his wing. He stared coldly at the two humans, spread monstrous, -seven-foot wings, and fluttered them. He opened his beak and closed it -with a snap.</p> - -<p>"That's Semper," said Huyghens. "Semper Tyrannis. He's the rest of the -terrestrial population here. Not being a fly-by-night sort of creature, -he didn't come out to welcome you."</p> - -<p>Bordman blinked at the huge bird, perched on a three-inch-thick perch -set in the wall.</p> - -<p>"An eagle?" he demanded. "Kodiak bears—mutated ones, but still -bears—and now an eagle? You've a very nice fighting unit in the -bears—"</p> - -<p>"They're pack animals too," said Huyghens. "They can carry some -hundreds of pounds without losing too much combat efficiency. And -there's no problem of supply. They live off the jungle. Not sphexes, -though. Nothing will eat a sphex."</p> - -<p>He brought out glasses and a bottle and indicated a chair. Bordman put -down his traveling bag, took a glass, and sat down.</p> - -<p>"I'm curious," he observed. "Why Semper Tyrannis? I can understand -Sitka Pete and Sourdough Charley as fighters. But why Semper?"</p> - -<p>"He was bred for hawking," said Huyghens. "You sic a dog on something. -You sic Semper Tyrannis. He's too big to ride on a hawking-glove, so -the shoulders of my coats are padded to let him ride there. He's a -flying scout. I've trained him to notify us of sphexes, and in flight -he carries a tiny television camera. He's useful, but he hasn't the -brains of the bears."</p> - -<p>Bordman sat down and sipped at his glass.</p> - -<p>"Interesting, very interesting!—Didn't you say something about -shooting me?"</p> - -<p>"I'm trying to think of a way out," Huyghens said. "Add up all the -penalties for illegal colonization and I'd be in a very bad fix if you -got away and reported this set-up. Shooting you would be logical."</p> - -<p>"I see that," said Bordman reasonably. "But since the point has come -up—I have a blaster trained on you from my pocket."</p> - -<p>Huyghens shrugged.</p> - -<p>"It's rather likely that my human confederates will be back here before -your friends. You'd be in a very tight fix if my friends came back and -found you more or less sitting on my corpse."</p> - -<p>Bordman nodded.</p> - -<p>"That's true, too. Also it's probable that your fellow-terrestrials -wouldn't cooperate with me as they have with you. You seem to have the -whip hand, even with my blaster trained on you. On the other hand, you -could have killed me quite easily after the boat left, when I'd first -landed. I'd have been quite unsuspicious. Therefore you may not really -intend to murder me."</p> - -<p>Huyghens shrugged again.</p> - -<p>"So," said Bordman, "since the secret of getting along with people is -that of postponing quarrels, suppose we postpone the question of who -kills whom? Frankly, I'm going to send you to prison if I can. Unlawful -colonization is very bad business. But I suppose you feel that you have -to do something permanent about me. In your place I probably should, -too. Shall we declare a truce?"</p> - -<p>Huyghens indicated indifference.</p> - -<p>"Then I do," Bordman said. "I have to! So—"</p> - -<p>He pulled his hand out of his pocket and put a pocket blaster on the -table. He leaned back.</p> - -<p>"Keep it," said Huyghens. "Loren Two isn't a place where you live long -unarmed." He turned to a cupboard. "Hungry?"</p> - -<p>"I could eat," admitted Bordman.</p> - -<p>Huyghens pulled out two meal-packs from the cupboard and inserted them -in the readier below. He set out plates.</p> - -<p>"Now, what happened to the official, licensed, authorized colony here?" -asked Bordman briskly. "License issued eighteen months ago. There was -a landing of colonists with a drone-fleet of equipment and supplies. -There've been four ship-contacts since. There should be several -thousand robots being industrious under adequate human supervision. -There should be a hundred-mile-square clearing, planted with -food-plants for later human arrivals. There should be a landing-grid -at least half-finished. Obviously there should be a space-beacon to -guide ships to a landing. There isn't. There's no clearing visible from -space. That Crete Line ship has been in orbit for three days, trying -to find a place to drop me. Her skipper was fuming. Your beacon is the -only one on the planet, and we found it by accident. What happened?"</p> - -<p>Huyghens served the food. He said drily:</p> - -<p>"There could be a hundred colonies on this planet without any one -knowing of any other. I can only guess about your robots, but I suspect -they ran into sphexes."</p> - -<p>Bordman paused, with his fork in his hand.</p> - -<p>"I read up on this planet, since I was to report on its colony. A sphex -is part of the inimical animal life here. Cold-blooded belligerent -carnivore, not a lizard but a genus all its own. Hunts in packs. Seven -to eight hundred pounds, when adult. Lethally dangerous and simply too -numerous to fight. They're why no license was ever granted to human -colonists. Only robots could work here, because they're machines. What -animal attacks machines?"</p> - -<p>Huyghens said:</p> - -<p>"What machine attacks animals? The sphexes wouldn't bother robots, of -course, but would robots bother the sphexes?"</p> - -<p>Bordman chewed and swallowed.</p> - -<p>"Hold it! I'll agree that you can't make a hunting-robot. A machine can -discriminate, but it can't decide. That's why there's no danger of a -robot revolt. They can't decide to do something for which they have no -instructions. But this colony was planned with full knowledge of what -robots can and can't do. As ground was cleared, it was enclosed in an -electrified fence which no sphex could touch without frying."</p> - -<p>Huyghens thoughtfully cut his food. After a moment:</p> - -<p>"The landing was in the winter time," he observed. "It must have -been, because the colony survived a while. And at a guess, the last -ship-landing was before thaw. The years are eighteen months long here, -you know."</p> - -<p>"It was in winter that the landing was made," Bordman admitted. "And -the last ship-landing was before spring. The idea was to get mines in -operation for material, and to have ground cleared and enclosed in -sphex-proof fence before the sphexes came back from the tropics. They -winter there, I understand."</p> - -<p>"Did you ever see a sphex?" asked Huyghens. Then he said, "No, of -course not. But if you took a spitting cobra and crossed it with a -wild-cat, painted it tan-and-blue and then gave it hydrophobia and -homicidal mania at once, you might have one sphex. But not the race of -sphexes. They can climb trees, by the way. A fence wouldn't stop them."</p> - -<p>"An electrified fence," said Bordman. "Nothing could climb that!"</p> - -<p>"Not one animal," Huyghens told him. "But sphexes are a race. The smell -of one dead sphex brings others running with blood in their eyes. Leave -a dead sphex alone for six hours and you've got them around by dozens. -Two days and there are hundreds. Longer, and you've got thousands of -them! They gather to caterwaul over their dead pal and hunt for whoever -or whatever killed him."</p> - -<p>He returned to his meal. A moment later he said:</p> - -<p>"No need to wonder what happened to your colony. During the winter the -robots burned out a clearing and put up an electrified fence according -to the book. Come spring, the sphexes come back. They're curious, -among their other madnesses. A sphex would try to climb the fence just -to see what was behind it. He'd be electrocuted. His carcass would -bring others, raging because a sphex was dead. Some of them would try -to climb the fence, and die. And their corpses would bring others. -Presently the fence would break down from the bodies hanging on it, -or a bridge of dead beasts' carcasses would be built across it—and -from as far down-wind as the scent carried there'd be loping, raging, -scent-crazed sphexes racing to the spot. They'd pour into the clearing -through or over the fence, squalling and screeching for something to -kill, I think they'd find it."</p> - -<p>Bordman ceased to eat. He looked sick.</p> - -<p>"There were pictures of sphexes in the data I read. I suppose that -would account for—everything."</p> - -<p>He tried to lift his fork. He put it down again.</p> - -<p>"I can't eat," he said abruptly.</p> - -<p>Huyghens made no comment. He finished his own meal, scowling. He rose -and put the plates into the top of the cleaner.</p> - -<p>"Let me see those reports, eh?" he asked dourly. "I'd like to see what -sort of a set-up they had, those robots."</p> - -<p>Bordman hesitated and then opened his traveling bag. There was -a microviewer and reels of films. One entire reel was labeled -"Specifications for Construction, Colonial Survey," which would contain -detailed plans and all requirements of material and workmanship for -everything from desks, office, administrative personnel, for use of, to -landing-grids, heavy-gravity planets, lift-capacity 100,000 earth-tons. -But Huyghens found another. He inserted it and spun the control swiftly -here and there, pausing only briefly at index-frames until he came to -the section he wanted. He began to study the information with growing -impatience.</p> - -<p>"Robots, robots, robots!" he snapped. "Why don't they leave them where -they belong—in cities to do the dirty work, and on airless planets -where nothing unexpected ever happens! Robots don't belong in new -colonies. Your colonists depended on them for defense! Dammit, let a -man work with robots long enough and he thinks all nature is as limited -as they are! This is a plan to set up a controlled environment—on -Loren Two! Controlled environment—" He swore. "Complacent, idiotic, -desk-bound half-wits!"</p> - -<p>"Robots are all right," said Bordman. "We couldn't run civilization -without them."</p> - -<p>"But you can't tame a wilderness with 'em," snapped Huyghens. "You had -a dozen men landed, with fifty assembled robots to start with. There -were parts for fifteen hundred more, and I'll bet anything I've got the -ship-contacts landed more still!"</p> - -<p>"They did," admitted Bordman.</p> - -<p>"I despise 'em," growled Huyghens. "I feel about 'em the way the old -Greeks felt about slaves. They're for menial work—the sort of work a -man will perform for himself, but that he won't do for another man for -pay. Degrading work!"</p> - -<p>"Quite aristocratic!" said Bordman with a touch of irony. "I take it -that robots clean out the bear-quarters downstairs."</p> - -<p>"No!" snapped Huyghens. "I do. They're my friends. They fight for me. -No robot would do the job right!"</p> - -<p>He growled, again. The noises of the night went on outside. Organ-tones -and hiccoughings and the sound of tack-hammers and slamming doors. -Somewhere there was a singularly exact replica of the discordant -squeakings of a rusty pump.</p> - -<p>"I'm looking," said Huyghens at the microviewer, "for the record of -their mining operations. An open-pit operation would not mean a thing. -But if they had driven a tunnel, and somebody was there supervising the -robots when the colony was wiped out, there's an off-chance he survived -a while."</p> - -<p>Bordman regarded him with suddenly intent eyes.</p> - -<p>"And—"</p> - -<p>"Dammit," snapped Bordman, "if so I'll go see! He'd—they'd have no -chance at all, otherwise. Not that the chance is good in any case."</p> - -<p>Bordman raised his eyebrows.</p> - -<p>"I've told you I'll send you to prison if I can," he said. "You've -risked the lives of millions of people, maintaining non-quarantined -communication with an unlicensed planet. If you did rescue somebody -from the ruins of the robot-colony—does it occur to you that they'd be -witnesses to your unauthorized presence here?"</p> - -<p>Huyghens spun the viewer again. He stopped, switched back and forth, -and found what he wanted. He muttered in satisfaction: "They did run a -tunnel!" Aloud he said, "I'll worry about witnesses when I have to."</p> - -<p>He pushed aside another cupboard door. Inside it were the odds and -ends a man makes use of to repair the things about his house that he -never notices until they go wrong. There was an assortment of wires, -transistors, bolts, and similar stray items.</p> - -<p>"What now?" asked Bordman mildly.</p> - -<p>"I'm going to try to find out if there's anybody left alive over there. -I'd have checked before if I'd known the colony existed. I can't prove -they're all dead, but I may prove that somebody's still alive. It's -barely two weeks' journey away from here. Odd that two colonies picked -spots so near!"</p> - -<p>He picked over the oddments he'd selected:</p> - -<p>"Confound it!" Bordman said. "How can you check if somebody's alive -some hundreds of miles away?"</p> - -<p>Huyghens threw a switch and took down a wall-panel, exposing electronic -apparatus and circuits behind. He busied himself with it.</p> - -<p>"Ever think about hunting for a castaway?" he asked over his shoulder. -"Here's a planet with some tens of millions of square miles on it. -You know there's a ship down. You've no idea where. You assume the -survivors have power—no civilized man will be without power very long, -so long as he can smelt metals!—but making a space-beacon calls for -high-precision measurements and workmanship. It's not to be improvised. -So what will your shipwrecked civilized man do, to guide a rescue-ship -to the one or two square miles he occupies among some tens of millions -on the planet?"</p> - -<p>"What?"</p> - -<p>"He's had to go primitive, to begin with," Huyghens explained. "He -cooks his meat over a fire, and so on. He has to make a strictly -primitive signal. It's all he can do without gauges and micrometers -and special tools. But he can fill all the planet's atmosphere with a -signal that searchers for him can't miss. You see?"</p> - -<p>Bordman thought irritably. He shook his head.</p> - -<p>"He'll make," said Huyghens, "a spark transmitter. He'll fix its -output at the shortest frequency he can contrive, somewhere in the -five-to-fifty-metre wave-band, but it will tune very broad—and it will -be a plainly human signal. He'll start it broadcasting. Some of those -frequencies will go all around the planet under the ionosphere. Any -ship that comes in under the radio roof will pick up his signal, get -a fix on it, move and get another fix, and then go straight to where -the castaway is waiting placidly in a hand-braided hammock, sipping -whatever sort of drink he's improvised out of the local vegetation."</p> - -<p>Bordman said grudgingly:</p> - -<p>"Now that you mention it, of course...."</p> - -<p>"My space-phone picks up microwaves," said Huyghens. "I'm shifting a -few elements to make it listen for longer stuff. It won't be efficient, -but it will catch a distress-signal if one's in the air. I don't expect -it, though."</p> - -<p>He worked. Bordman sat still a long time, watching him. Down below, a -rhythmic sort of sound arose. It was Sourdough Charley, snoring.</p> - -<p>Sitka Pete grunted in his sleep. He was dreaming. In the general -room of the station Semper blinked his eyes rapidly and then tucked -his head under a gigantic wing and went to sleep. The noises of the -Loren-Two jungle came through the steel-shuttered windows. The nearer -moon—which had passed overhead not long before the ringing of the -arrival-bell—again came soaring over the eastern horizon. It sped -across the sky.</p> - -<p>Inside the station, Bordman said angrily:</p> - -<p>"See here, Huyghens! You've reason to kill me. Apparently you don't -intend to. You've excellent reason to leave that robot-colony strictly -alone. But you're preparing to help, if there's anybody alive to need -it. And yet you're a criminal, and I mean a criminal! There've been -some ghastly bacteria exported from planets like Loren Two. There've -been plenty of lives lost in consequence, and you're risking more. -Why the hell do you do it? Why do you do something that could produce -monstrous results to other human beings?"</p> - -<p>Huyghens grunted.</p> - -<p>"You're assuming there are no sanitary and quarantine precautions taken -by my partners. As a matter of fact, there are. They're taken, all -right! As for the rest, you wouldn't understand."</p> - -<p>"I don't understand," snapped Bordman, "but that's no proof I can't! -Why are you a criminal?"</p> - -<p>Huyghens painstakingly used a screwdriver inside the wall-panel. -He lifted out a small electronic assembly, and began to fit in a -spaghettied new assembly with larger units.</p> - -<p>"I'm cutting my amplification here to hell-and-gone," he observed, -"but I think it'll do.... I'm doing what I'm doing," he added calmly, -"because it seems to me it fits what I think I am. Everybody acts -according to his own real notion of himself. You're a conscientious -citizen, a loyal official, a well-adjusted personality. You act that -way. You consider yourself an intelligent rational animal. But you -don't act that way! You're reminding me of my need to shoot you or -something similar, which a merely rational animal would try to make me -forget. You happen, Bordman, to be a man. So am I. But I'm aware of it. -Therefore I deliberately do things a merely rational animal wouldn't, -because they're my notion of what a man who's more than a rational -animal should do."</p> - -<p>He tightened one small screw after another.</p> - -<p>Bordman said:</p> - -<p>"Oh. Religion."</p> - -<p>"Self-respect," corrected Huyghens. "I don't like robots. They're too -much like rational animals. A robot will do whatever it can that its -supervisor requires it to do. A merely rational animal will do whatever -circumstances require it to do. I wouldn't like a robot unless it had -some idea of what was fitting and would spit in my eye if I tried to -make it do something else. The bears downstairs, now.... They're no -robots! They are loyal and honorable beasts, but they'd turn and tear -me to bits if I tried to make them do something against their nature. -Faro Nell would fight me and all creation together, if we tried to harm -Nugget. It would be unintelligent and unreasonable and irrational. -She'd lose out and get killed. But I like her that way! And I'll fight -you and all creation when you make me try to do something against my -nature. I'll be stupid and unreasonable and irrational about it." Then -he grinned over his shoulder. "So will you. Only you don't realize it."</p> - -<p>He turned back to his task. After a moment he fitted a manual-control -knob over a shaft in his haywire assembly.</p> - -<p>"What did somebody try to make you do?" asked Bordman shrewdly. "What -was demanded of you that turned you into a criminal? What are you in -revolt against?"</p> - -<p>Huyghens threw a switch. He began to turn the knob which controlled the -knob of his makeshift receiver.</p> - -<p>"Why," he said, "when I was young the people around me tried to make me -into a conscientious citizen and a loyal employee and a well-adjusted -personality. They tried to make me into a highly intelligent rational -animal and nothing more. The difference between us, Bordman, is that I -found it out. Naturally, I rev—"</p> - -<p>He stopped short. Faint, crackling, frying sounds came from the speaker -of the space-phone now modified to receive what once were called short -waves.</p> - -<p>Huyghens listened. He cocked his head intently. He turned the knob -very, very slowly. Bordman made an arrested gesture, to call attention -to something in the sibilant sound. Huyghens nodded. He turned the knob -again, with infinitesimal increments.</p> - -<p>Out of the background noise came a patterned mutter. As Huyghens -shifted the tuning, it grew louder. It reached a volume where it was -unmistakable. It was a sequence of sounds like a discordant buzzing. -There were three half-second buzzings with half-second pauses between. -A two-second pause. Three full-second buzzings with half-second pauses -between. Another two-second pause and three half-second buzzings, -again. Then silence for five seconds. Then the pattern repeated.</p> - -<p>"The devil!" said Huyghens. "That's a human signal! Mechanically made, -too. In fact, it used to be a standard distress-call. It was termed an -SOS, though I've no idea what that meant. Anyhow, somebody must have -read old-fashioned novels some time, to know about it. And so someone -is still alive over at your licensed but now smashed-up robot-colony. -And they're asking for help. I'd say they're likely to need it."</p> - -<p>He looked at Bordman.</p> - -<p>"The intelligent thing to do is sit back and wait for a ship, either my -friends' or yours. A ship can help survivors or castaways much better -than we can. It could even find them more easily. But maybe time is -important to the poor devils. So I'm going to take the bears and see if -I can reach him. You can wait here, if you like. What say?"</p> - -<p>Bordman snapped angrily:</p> - -<p>"Don't be a fool! Of course I'm coming! What do you take me for? And -two of us should have four times the chance of one!"</p> - -<p>Huyghens grinned.</p> - -<p>"Not quite. You forget Sitka Pete and Sourdough Charley and Faro Nell. -There'll be five of us if you come, instead of four. And, of course, -Nugget has to come—and he'll be no help—but Semper may make up for -him. You won't quadruple our chances, Bordman, but I'll be glad to have -you if you want to be stupid and unreasonable and not at all rational, -and come with me."</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>There was a jagged spur of stone looming precipitously over a -river-valley. A thousand feet below, a broad stream ran westward to the -sea. Twenty miles to the east, a wall of mountains rose sheer against -the sky, its peaks seeming to blend to a remarkable evenness of height. -Rolling, tumbled ground lay between for as far as the eye could see.</p> - -<p>A speck in the sky came swiftly downward. Great pinions spread and -flapped, and icy eyes surveyed the rocky space. With more great -flappings, Semper the eagle came to ground. He folded his huge wings -and turned his head jerkily, his eyes unblinking. A tiny harness held a -miniature camera against his chest. He strutted over the bare stone to -the highest point and stood there, a lonely and arrogant figure in the -vastness.</p> - -<p>Crashings and rustlings, and snuffling sounds, and Sitka Pete came -lumbering out into the clear space. He wore a harness too, and a pack. -The harness was complex, because it had to hold a pack not only in -normal travel, but when he stood on his hind legs, and it must not -hamper the use of his forepaws in combat.</p> - -<p>He went cagily all over the open area. He peered over the edge of the -spur's farthest tip, and prowled to the other side and looked down. -Once he moved close to Semper and the eagle opened his great curved -beak and uttered an indignant noise. Sitka paid no attention.</p> - -<p>He relaxed, satisfied. He sat down untidily, his hind legs sprawling. -He wore an air approaching benevolence as he surveyed the landscape -about and below him.</p> - -<p>More snufflings and crashings. Sourdough Charley came into view with -Huyghens and Bordman behind him. Sourdough carried a pack, too. Then -there was a squealing and Nugget scurried up from the rear, impelled -by a whack from his mother. Faro Nell appeared, with the carcass of a -stag-like animal lashed to her harness.</p> - -<p>"I picked this place from a space-photo," said Huyghens, "to make a -directional fix from you. I'll get set up."</p> - -<p>He swung his pack from his shoulders to the ground, and extracted an -obviously self-constructed device which he set on the ground. It had -a whip aerial, which he extended. Then he plugged in a considerable -length of flexible wire and unfolded a tiny, improvised directional -aerial with an even tinier booster at its base. Bordman slipped his -pack from his shoulders and watched. Huyghens put a pair of head-phones -over his ears. He looked up and said sharply:</p> - -<p>"Watch the bears, Bordman. The wind's blowing up the way we came. -Anything that trails us will send its scent on before. The bears will -tell us."</p> - -<p>He busied himself with the instruments he'd brought. He heard the -hissing, frying, background-noise which could be anything at all except -a human signal. He reached out and swung the small aerial around. -Rasping, buzzing tones came in, faintly and then loudly. This receiver, -though, had been made for this particular wave-band. It was much more -efficient than the modified space-phone had been. It picked up three -short buzzes, three long ones, and three short ones again. Three dots, -three dashes, and three dots. Over and over again. SOS. SOS. SOS.</p> - -<p>Huyghens took a reading and moved the directional aerial a carefully -measured distance. He took another reading, shifted it yet again and -again, carefully marking and measuring each spot and taking notes of -the instrument readings. When he finished, he had checked the direction -of the signal not only by loudness but by phase, and had as accurate a -fix as could possibly be made with portable apparatus.</p> - -<p>Sourdough growled softly. Sitka Pete whiffed the air and arose from -his sitting position. Faro Nell whacked Nugget, sending him whimpering -to the farthest corner of the flat place. She stood bristling, facing -down-hill the way they'd come.</p> - -<p>"Damn!" said Huyghens.</p> - -<p>He got up and waved his arm at Semper, who had turned his head at the -stirrings. Semper squawked and dived off the spur, and was immediately -fighting the down-draught beyond it. As Huyghens readied his weapon, -the eagle came back overhead. He went magnificently past, a hundred -feet high, careening and flapping in the tricky currents. He screamed, -abruptly, and screamed again. Huyghens swung a tiny vision-plate from -its strap to where he could look into it. He saw, of course, what the -tiny camera on Semper's chest could see—reeling, swaying terrain as -Semper saw it, though of course without his breadth of field. There -were moving objects to be seen through the shifting trees. Their -coloring was unmistakable.</p> - -<p>"Sphexes," said Huyghens dourly. "Eight of them. Don't look for them to -follow our track, Bordman. They run parallel to a trail on either side. -That way they attack in breadth and all at once when they catch up. And -listen! The bears can handle anything they tangle with—it's our job to -pick off the loose ones. And aim for the body! The bullets explode."</p> - -<p>He threw off the safety of his weapon. Faro Nell, uttering thunderous -growls, went padding to a place between Sitka Pete and Sourdough. -Sitka glanced at her and made a whuffing noise, as if derisive of her -blood-curdling sounds. Sourdough grunted. He and Sitka moved farther -away from Nell to either side. They would cover a wider front.</p> - -<p>There was no other sign of life than the shrillings of the incredibly -tiny creatures which on this planet were birds, and Faro Nell's -deep-bass, raging growls, and then the click of Bordman's safety going -off as he got ready to use the weapon Huyghens had given him.</p> - -<p>Semper screamed again, flapping low above the tree-tops, following -parti-colored, monstrous shapes beneath.</p> - -<p>Eight blue-and-tan fiends came racing out of the underbrush. They had -spiny fringes, and horns, and glaring eyes, and they looked as if they -had come straight out of hell. On the instant of their appearance -they leaped, emitting squalling, spitting squeals that were like the -cries of fighting tom-cats ten thousand times magnified. Huyghens' -rifle cracked, and its sound was wiped out in the louder detonation -of its bullet in Sphexian flesh. A tan-and-blue monster tumbled over, -shrieking. Faro Nell charged, the very impersonation of white-hot -fury. Bordman fired, and his bullet exploded against a tree. Sitka -Pete brought his massive forepaws in a clapping, monstrous ear-boxing -motion. A sphex died.</p> - -<p>Then Bordman fired again. Sourdough Charley whuffed. He fell forward -upon a spitting bi-colored fiend, rolled him over, and raked with his -hind-claws. The belly-hide of the sphex was tenderer than the rest. -The creature rolled away, snapping at its own wounds. Another sphex -found itself shaken loose from the tumult about Sitka Pete. It whirled -to leap on him from behind, and Huyghens fired. Two plunged upon Faro -Nell, and Bordman blasted one and Faro Nell disposed of the other in -awesome fury. Then Sitka Pete heaved himself erect—seeming to drip -sphexes—and Sourdough waddled over and pulled one off and killed it -and went back for another.... Then both rifles cracked together and -there was suddenly nothing left to fight.</p> - -<p>The bears prowled from one to another of the corpses. Sitka Pete -rumbled and lifted up a limp head. Crash! Then another. He went -over the lot, whether or not they showed signs of life. When he had -finished, they were wholly still.</p> - -<p>Semper came flapping down out of the sky. He had screamed and fluttered -overhead as the fight went on. Now he landed with a rush. Huyghens -went soothingly from one bear to another, calming them with his voice. -It took longest to calm Faro Nell, licking Nugget with impassioned -solicitude and growling horribly as she licked.</p> - -<p>"Come along, now," said Huyghens, when Sitka showed signs of intending -to sit down again. "Heave these carcasses over a cliff. Come along! -Sitka! Sourdough! Hup!"</p> - -<p>He guided them as the two big males somewhat fastidiously lifted up -the nightmarish creatures and carried them to the edge of the spur of -stone. They let the beasts go bouncing and sliding down into the valley.</p> - -<p>"That," said Huyghens, "is so their little pals will gather round them -and caterwaul their woe where there's no trail of ours to give them -ideas. If we'd been near a river I'd have dumped them in to float -down-stream and gather mourners wherever they stranded. Around the -station I incinerate them. If I had to leave them, I'd make tracks -away. About fifty miles upwind would be a good idea."</p> - -<p>He opened the pack Sourdough carried and extracted giant-sized swabs -and some gallons of antiseptic. He tended the three Kodiaks in turn, -swabbing not only the cuts and scratches they'd received, but deeply -soaking their fur where there could be suspicion of spilled sphex-blood.</p> - -<p>"This antiseptic deodorizes, too," he told Bordman. "Or we'd be trailed -by any sphex who passed to leeward of us. When we start off, I'll swab -the bears' paws for the same reason."</p> - -<p>Bordman was very quiet. He'd missed his first shot, but, the last few -seconds of the fight he'd fired very deliberately and every bullet hit. -Now he said bitterly:</p> - -<p>"If you're instructing me so I can carry on should you be killed, I -doubt that it's worth while!"</p> - -<p>Huyghens felt in his pack and unfolded the enlargements he'd made of -the space-photos of this part of the planet. He carefully oriented the -map with distant landmarks, and drew a line across the photo.</p> - -<p>"The SOS signal comes from somewhere close to the robot-colony," he -reported. "I think a little to the south of it. Probably from a mine -they'd opened up, on the far side of the Sere Plateau. See how I've -marked this map? Two fixes, one from the station and one from here. I -came away off-course to get a fix here so we'd have two position-lines -to the transmitter. The signal could have come from the other side of -the planet. But it doesn't."</p> - -<p>"The odds would be astronomical against other castaways," protested -Bordman.</p> - -<p>"No," said Huyghens. "Ships have been coming here. To the robot-colony. -One could have crashed. And I have friends, too."</p> - -<p>He repacked his apparatus and gestured to the bears. He led them beyond -the scene of combat and carefully swabbed off their paws, so they could -not possibly leave a train of sphex-blood scent behind them. He waved -Semper, the eagle, aloft.</p> - -<p>"Let's go," he told the Kodiaks. "Yonder! Hup!"</p> - -<p>The party headed down-hill and into the jungle again. Now it was -Sourdough's turn to take the lead, and Sitka Pete prowled more widely -behind him. Faro Nell trailed the men, with Nugget. She kept a sharp -eye upon the cub. He was a baby, still; he only weighed six hundred -pounds. And of course she watched against danger from the rear.</p> - -<p>Overhead, Semper fluttered and flew in giant circles and spirals, never -going very far away. Huyghens referred constantly to the screen which -showed what the air-borne camera saw. The image tilted and circled -and banked and swayed. It was by no means the best air-reconnaissance -that could be imagined, but it was the best that would work. Presently -Huyghens said:</p> - -<p>"We swing to the right, here. The going's bad straight ahead, and it -looks like a pack of sphexes has killed and is feeding."</p> - -<p>Bordman said:</p> - -<p>"It's against reason for carnivores to be as thick as you say! There -has to be a certain amount of other animal life for every meat-eating -beast. Too many of them would eat all the game and starve."</p> - -<p>"They're gone all winter," explained Huyghens, "which around here -isn't as severe as you might think. And a good many animals seem to -breed just after the sphexes go south. Also, the sphexes aren't around -all the warm weather. There's a sort of peak, and then for a matter -of weeks you won't see one of them, and suddenly the jungle swarms -with them again. Then, presently, they head south. Apparently they're -migratory in some fashion, but nobody knows." He said drily: "There -haven't been many naturalists around on this planet. The animal life's -inimical."</p> - -<p>Bordman fretted. He was accustomed to arrival at a partly or -completely finished colonial set-up, and to pass upon the completion -or non-completion of the installation as designed. Now he was in an -intolerably hostile environment, depending upon an illegal colonist for -his life, engaged upon a demoralizingly indefinite enterprise—because -the mechanical spark-signal could be working long after its -constructors were dead—and his ideas about a number of matters were -shaken. He was alive, for example, because of three giant Kodiak bears -and a bald eagle. He and Huyghens could have been surrounded by ten -thousand robots, and they'd have been killed. Sphexes and robots would -have ignored each other, and sphexes would have made straight for the -men, who'd have had less than four seconds in which to discover for -themselves that they were attacked, prepare to defend themselves, and -kill the eight sphexes.</p> - -<p>Bordman's convictions as a civilized man were shaken. Robots were -marvelous contrivances for doing the expected, accomplishing the -planned, coping with the predicted. But they also had defects. Robots -could only follow instructions. If this thing happens, do this, if -that thing happens, do that. But before something else, neither this -or that, robots were helpless. So a robot civilization worked only in -an environment where nothing unanticipated ever turned up, and human -supervisors never demanded anything unexpected. Bordman was appalled.</p> - -<p>He found Nugget, the cub, ambling uneasily in his wake. The cub -flattened his ears miserably when Bordman glanced at him. It occurred -to the man that Nugget was receiving a lot of disciplinary thumpings -from Faro Nell. He was knocked about psychologically. His lack of -information and unfitness for independent survival in this environment -was being hammered into him.</p> - -<p>"Hi, Nugget," said Bordman ruefully. "I feel just about the way you do!"</p> - -<p>Nugget brightened visibly. He frisked. He tended to gambol. He looked -hopefully up into Bordman's face.</p> - -<p>The man reached out and patted Nugget's head. It was the first time in -all his life that he'd ever petted an animal.</p> - -<p>He heard a snuffling sound behind him. Skin crawled at the back of his -neck. He whirled.</p> - -<p>Faro Nell regarded him—eighteen hundred pounds of she-bear only ten -feet away and looking into his eyes. For one panicky instant Bordman -went cold all over. Then he realized that Faro Nell's eyes were not -burning. She was not snarling, nor did she emit those blood-curdling -sounds which the bare prospect of danger to Nugget had produced up on -the rocky spur. She looked at him blandly. In fact, after a moment -she swung off on some independent investigation of a matter that had -aroused her curiosity.</p> - -<p>The travelling-party went on, Nugget frisking beside Bordman and -tending to bump into him out of pure cub-clumsiness. Now and again he -looked adoringly at Bordman, in the instant and overwhelming affection -of the very young.</p> - -<p>Bordman trudged on. Presently he glanced behind again. Faro Nell was -now ranging more widely. She was well satisfied to have Nugget in the -immediate care of a man. From time to time he got on her nerves.</p> - -<p>A little while later, Bordman called ahead.</p> - -<p>"Huyghens! Look here! I've been appointed nursemaid to Nugget!"</p> - -<p>Huyghens looked back.</p> - -<p>"Oh, slap him a few times and he'll go back to his mother."</p> - -<p>"The devil I will!" said Bordman querulously. "I like it!"</p> - -<p>The travelling-party went on.</p> - -<p>When night fell, they camped. There could be no fire, of course, -because all the minute night-things about would come to dance in the -glow. But there could not be darkness, equally, because night-walkers -hunted in the dark. So Huyghens set out barrier-lamps which made a -wall of twilight about their halting-place, and the stag-like creature -Faro Nell had carried became their evening meal. Then they slept—at -least the men did—and the bears dozed and snorted and waked and dozed -again. Semper sat immobile with his head under his wing on a tree-limb. -Presently there was a glorious cool hush and all the world glowed in -morning-light diffused through the jungle by a newly risen sun. Then -they arose and pushed on.</p> - -<p>This day they stopped stock-still for two hours while sphexes puzzled -over the trail the bears had left. Huyghens discoursed on the need of -an anti-scent, to be used on the boots of men and the paws of bears, -which would make the following of their trails unpopular with sphexes. -Bordman seized upon the idea and suggested that a sphex-repellant odor -might be worked out, which would make a human revolting to a sphex. If -that were done, humans could go freely about, unmolested.</p> - -<p>"Like stink-bugs," said Huyghens, sardonically. "A very intelligent -idea! Very rational! You can feel proud!"</p> - -<p>And suddenly Bordman was not proud of the idea at all.</p> - -<p>They camped again. On the third night they were at the base of that -remarkable formation, the Sere Plateau, which from a distance looked -like a mountain range but was actually a desert table-land. It was -not reasonable for a desert to be raised high, while lowlands had -rain, but on the fourth morning they found out why. They saw, far, far -away, a truly monstrous mountain-mass at the end of the long expanse -of the plateau. It was like the prow of a ship. It lay, so Huyghens -observed, directly in line with the prevailing winds, and divided them -as a ship's prow divides the waters. The moisture-bearing air-currents -flowed beside the plateau, not over it, and its interior was desert in -the unscreened sunshine of the high altitudes.</p> - -<p>It took them a full day to get half-way up the slope. And here, twice, -as they climbed, Semper flew screaming over aggregations of sphexes -to one side of them or the other. These were much larger groups than -Huyghens had ever seen before, fifty to a hundred monstrosities -together, where a dozen was a large hunting-pack elsewhere. He looked -in the screen which showed him what Semper saw, four to five miles -away. The sphexes padded uphill toward the Sere Plateau in a long line. -Fifty—sixty—seventy tan-and-azure beasts out of hell.</p> - -<p>"I'd hate to have that bunch jump us," he said candidly to Bordman. "I -don't think we'd stand a chance."</p> - -<p>"Here's where a robot tank would be useful," Bordman observed.</p> - -<p>"Anything armored," conceded Huyghens. "One man in an armored station -like mine would be safe. But if he killed a sphex he'd be besieged. -He'd have to stay holed up, breathing the smell of dead sphex, until -the odor'd gone away. And he mustn't kill any others or he'd be -besieged until winter came."</p> - -<p>Bordman did not suggest the advantages of robots in other directions. -At that moment, for example, they were working their way up a slope -which averaged fifty degrees. The bears climbed without effort despite -their burdens. For the men it was infinite toil. Semper, the eagle, -manifested impatience with bears and men alike, who crawled so slowly -up an incline over which he soared.</p> - -<p>He went ahead up the mountainside and teetered in the air-currents at -the plateau's edge. Huyghens looked in the vision-plate by which he -reported.</p> - -<p>"How the devil," panted Bordman, panting—they had stopped for a -breather, and the bears waited patiently for them—"how do you train -bears like these? I can understand Semper."</p> - -<p>"I don't train them," said Huyghens, staring into the plate, "They're -mutations. In heredity the sex-linkage of physical characteristics -is standard stuff. There's also been some sound work done on the -gene-linkage of psychological factors. There was need, on my home -planet, for an animal who could fight like a fiend, live off the land, -carry a pack and get along with men at least as well as dogs do. In the -old days they'd have tried to breed the desired physical properties -in an animal who already had the personality they wanted. Something -like a giant dog, say. But back home they went at it the other way -about. They picked the wanted physical characteristics and bred for the -personality, the psychology. The job got done over a century ago. The -Kodiak bear named Kodius Champion was the first real success. He had -everything that was wanted. These bears are his descendants."</p> - -<p>"They look normal," commented Bordman.</p> - -<p>"They are!" said Huyghens warmly. "Just as normal as an honest dog! -They're not trained, like Semper. They train themselves!" He looked -back into the plate in his hands, which showed the ground six or seven -thousand feet higher. "Semper, now, is a trained bird without too much -brain. He's educated—a glorified hawk. But the bears want to get along -with men. They're emotionally dependent on us. Like dogs. Semper's a -servant, but they're companions and friends. He's trained, but they're -loyal. He's conditioned. They love us. He'd abandon me if he ever -realized he could; he thinks he can only eat what men feed him. But -the bears wouldn't want to. They like us. I admit I like them. Maybe -because they like me."</p> - -<p>Bordman said deliberately:</p> - -<p>"Aren't you a trifle loose-tongued, Huyghens? You've told me something -that will locate and convict the people who set you up here. It -shouldn't be hard to find where bears were bred for psychological -mutations, and where a bear named Kodius Champion left descendants. I -can find out where you came from now, Huyghens!"</p> - -<p>Huyghens looked up from the plate with its tiny swaying television -image.</p> - -<p>"No harm done," he said amiably. "I'm a criminal there, too. It's -officially on record that I kidnapped these bears and escaped with -them. Which, on my home planet, is about as heinous a crime as a man -can commit. It's worse than horse-theft back on Earth in the old days. -The kin and cousins of my bears are highly thought of. I'm quite a -criminal, back home."</p> - -<p>Bordman stared.</p> - -<p>"Did you steal them?" he demanded.</p> - -<p>"Confidentially," said Huyghens. "No. But prove it!" Then he said: -"Take a look in this plate. See what Semper can see up at the plateau's -edge."</p> - -<p>Bordman squinted aloft, where the eagle flew in great sweeps and -dashes. Somehow, by the experience of the past few days, Bordman knew -that Semper was screaming fiercely as he flew. He made a dart toward -the plateau's border.</p> - -<p>Bordman looked at the transmitted picture. It was only four inches -by six, but it was perfectly without grain and accurate in color. It -moved and turned as the camera-bearing eagle swooped and circled. For -an instant the screen showed the steeply sloping mountainside, and off -at one edge the party of men and bears could be seen as dots. Then it -swept away and showed the top of the plateau.</p> - -<p>There were sphexes. A pack of two hundred trotted toward the desert -interior. They moved at leisure, in the open. The viewing camera -reeled, and there were more. As Bordman watched and as the bird flew -higher, he could see still other sphexes moving up over the edge of the -plateau from a small erosion-defile here and another one there. The -Sere Plateau was alive with the hellish creatures. It was inconceivable -that there should be game enough for them to live on. They were visible -as herds of cattle would be visible on grazing planets.</p> - -<p>It was simply impossible.</p> - -<p>"Migrating," observed Huyghens. "I said they did. They're headed -somewhere. Do you know, I doubt that it would be healthy for us to try -to cross the Plateau through such a swarm of sphexes!"</p> - -<p>Bordman swore, in abrupt change of mood.</p> - -<p>"But the signal's still coming through. Somebody's alive over at the -robot-colony. Must we wait till the migration's over?"</p> - -<p>"We don't know," Huyghens pointed out, "that they'll stay alive. They -may need help badly. We have to get to them. But at the same time—"</p> - -<p>He glanced at Sourdough Charley and Sitka Pete, clinging patiently to -the mountainside while the men rested and talked. Sitka had managed to -find a place to sit down, one massive paw anchoring him in place.</p> - -<p>Huyghens waved his arm, pointing in a new direction.</p> - -<p>"Let's go!" he called briskly. "Let's go! Yonder! Hup!"</p> - -<p>They followed the slopes of the Sere Plateau, neither ascending to its -level top—where sphexes congregated—nor descending into the foothills -where sphexes assembled. They moved along hillsides and mountain-flanks -which sloped anywhere from thirty to sixty degrees, and they did not -cover much territory. They practically forgot what it was to walk on -level ground.</p> - -<p>At the end of the sixth day, they camped on the top of a massive -boulder which projected from a mountainous stony wall. There was -barely room on the boulder for all the party. Faro Nell fussily -insisted that Nugget should be in the safest part, which meant near -the mountain-flank. She would have crowded the men outward, but Nugget -whimpered for Bordman. Wherefore, when Bordman moved to comfort him, -Faro Nell drew back and snorted at Sitka and Sourdough and they made -room for her near the edge.</p> - -<p>It was a hungry camp. They had come upon tiny rills upon occasion, -flowing down the mountainside. Here the bears had drunk deeply and -the men had filled canteens. But this was the third night on the -mountainside, and there had been no game at all. Huyghens made no move -to bring out food for Bordman or himself. Bordman made no comment. He -was beginning to participate in the relationship between bears and -men, which was not the slavery of the bears but something more. It was -two-way. He felt it.</p> - -<p>"You'd think," he said, "that since the sphexes don't seem to hunt on -their way uphill, there should be some game. They ignore everything as -they file up."</p> - -<p>This was true enough. The normal fighting formation of sphexes was line -abreast, which automatically surrounded anything which offered to flee -and outflanked anything which offered fight. But here they ascended -the mountain in long files, one after the other, apparently following -long-established trails. The wind blew along the slopes and carried -scent sidewise. But the sphexes were not diverted from their chosen -paths. The long processions of hideous blue-and-tawny creatures—it was -hard to think of them as natural beasts, male and female and laying -eggs like reptiles on other planets—the long processions simply -climbed.</p> - -<p>"There've been other thousands of beasts before them," said Huyghens. -"They must have been crowding this way for days or even weeks. We've -seen tens of thousands in Semper's camera. They must be uncountable, -altogether. The first-comers ate all the game there was, and the -last-comers have something else on whatever they use for minds."</p> - -<p>Bordman protested:</p> - -<p>"But so many carnivores in one place is impossible! I know they are -here, but they can't be!"</p> - -<p>"They're cold-blooded," Huyghens pointed out. "They don't burn food -to sustain body-temperature. After all, lots of creatures go for -long periods without eating. Even bears hibernate. But this isn't -hibernation—or estivation, either."</p> - -<p>He was setting up the radiation-wave receiver in the darkness. There -was no point in attempting a fix here. The transmitter was on the other -side of the sphex-crowded Sere Plateau. The men and bears would commit -suicide by crossing here.</p> - -<p>Even so, Huyghens turned on the receiver. There came the whispering, -scratchy sound of background-noise, and then the signal. Three dots, -three dashes, three dots. Huyghens turned it off. Bordman said:</p> - -<p>"Shouldn't we have answered that signal before we left the station? To -encourage them?"</p> - -<p>"I doubt they have a receiver," said Huyghens. "They won't expect an -answer for months, anyhow. They'd hardly listen all the time, and if -they're living in a mine-tunnel and trying to sneak out for food to -stretch their supplies, they'll be too busy to try to make complicated -recorders or relays."</p> - -<p>Bordman was silent for a moment or two.</p> - -<p>"We've got to get food for the bears," he said presently. "Nugget's -weaned, and he's hungry."</p> - -<p>"We will," Huyghens promised. "I may be wrong, but it seems to me that -the number of sphexes climbing the mountain is less than yesterday -and the day before. We may have just about crossed the path of their -migration. They're thinning out. When we're past their trail, we'll -have to look out for night-walkers and the like again. But I think they -wiped out all animal life on their migration-route."</p> - -<p>He was not quite right. He was waked in darkness by the sound of -slappings and the grunting of bears. Feather-light puffs of breeze beat -upon his face. He struck his belt-lamp sharply and the world was hidden -by a whitish film which snatched itself away. Something flapped. Then -he saw the stars and the emptiness on the edge of which they camped. -Then big white things flapped toward him.</p> - -<p>Sitka Pete whuffed mightily and swatted. Faro Nell grunted and swung. -She caught something in her claws.</p> - -<p>"Watch this!" said Huyghens.</p> - -<p>More things strangely-shaped and pallid like human skin reeled and -flapped crazily toward him.</p> - -<p>A huge hairy paw reached up into the light-beam and snatched a flying -thing out of it. Another great paw. The three great Kodiaks were on -their hind legs, swatting at creatures which flittered insanely, unable -to resist the fascination of the glaring lamp. Because of their wild -gyrations it was impossible to see them in detail, but they were those -unpleasant night-creatures which looked like plucked flying monkeys but -were actually something quite different.</p> - -<p>The bears did not snarl or snap. They swatted, with a remarkable air -of business-like competence and purpose. Small mounds of broken things -built up about their feet.</p> - -<p>Suddenly there were no more. Huyghens snapped off the light. The bears -crunched and fed busily in the darkness.</p> - -<p>"Those things are carnivores <i>and</i> blood-suckers, Bordman," -said Huyghens calmly. "They drain their victims of blood like -vampire-bats—they've some trick of not waking them—and when they're -dead the whole tribe eats. But bears have thick fur, and they wake -when they're touched. And they're omnivorous. They'll eat anything but -sphexes, and like it. You might say that those night-creatures came -to lunch. They <i>are</i> it, for the bears, who are living off the -country as usual."</p> - -<p>Bordman uttered a sudden exclamation. He made a tiny light, and blood -flowed down his hand. Huyghens passed over his pocket kit of antiseptic -and bandages. Bordman stanched the bleeding and bound up his hand. Then -he realized that Nugget chewed on something. When he turned the light, -Nugget swallowed convulsively. It appeared that he had caught and -devoured the creature which had drawn blood from Bordman. But he'd lost -none to speak of, at that.</p> - -<p>In the morning they started along the sloping scarp of the plateau once -more. After marching silently for a while, Bordman said:</p> - -<p>"Robots wouldn't have handled those vampire-things, Huyghens."</p> - -<p>"Oh, they could be built to watch for them," said Huyghens, tolerantly. -"But you'd have to swat for yourself. I prefer the bears."</p> - -<p>He led the way on. Twice Huyghens halted to examine the ground about -the mountains' bases through binoculars. He looked encouraged as they -went on. The monstrous peak which was like the bow of a ship at the -end of the Sere Plateau was visibly nearer. Toward midday, indeed, it -loomed high above the horizon, no more than fifteen miles away. And at -midday Huyghens called a final halt.</p> - -<p>"No more congregations of sphexes down below," he said cheerfully, "and -we haven't seen a climbing line of them in miles." The crossing of a -sphex-trail had meant simply waiting until one party had passed, and -then crossing before another came in view. "I've a hunch we've left -their migration-route behind. Let's see what Semper tells us!"</p> - -<p>He waved the eagle aloft. Like all creatures other than men, the bird -normally functioned only for the satisfaction of his appetite, and then -tended to loaf or sleep. He had ridden the last few miles perched on -Sitka Pete's pack. Now he soared upward and Huyghens watched in the -small vision-plate.</p> - -<p>Semper went soaring. The image on the plate swayed and turned, and in -minutes was above the plateau's edge. Here there were some patches of -brush and the ground rolled a little. But as Semper towered higher -still, the inner desert appeared. Nearby, it was clear of beasts. -Only once, when the eagle banked sharply and the camera looked along -the long dimension of the plateau, did Huyghens see any sign of the -blue-and-tan beasts. There he saw what looked like masses amounting to -herds. Incredible, of course; carnivores do not gather in herds.</p> - -<p>"We go straight up," said Huyghens in satisfaction. "We cross the -Plateau here, and we can edge down-wind a bit, even. I think we'll -find something interesting on our way to your robot-colony."</p> - -<p>He waved to the bears to go ahead uphill.</p> - -<p>They reached the top hours later, barely before sunset. And they saw -game. Not much, but game at the grassy, brushy border of the desert. -Huyghens brought down a shaggy ruminant which surely would not live -on a desert. When night fell there was an abrupt chill in the air. It -was much colder than night temperatures on the slopes. The air was -thin. Bordman thought and presently guessed at the cause. In the lee of -the prow-mountain the air was calm. There were no clouds. The ground -radiated its heat to empty space. It could be bitterly cold in the -night-time, here.</p> - -<p>"And hot by day," Huyghens agreed when he mentioned it. "The sunshine's -terrifically hot where the air is thin, but on most mountains there's -wind. By day, here, the ground will tend to heat up like the surface -of a planet without atmosphere. It may be a hundred and forty or fifty -degrees on the sand at midday. But it should be cold at night."</p> - -<p>It was. Before midnight Huyghens built a fire. There could be no danger -of night-walkers where the temperature dropped to freezing.</p> - -<p>In the morning the men were stiff with cold, but the bears snorted and -moved about briskly. They seemed to revel in the morning chill. Sitka -and Sourdough Charley, in fact, became festive and engaged in a mock -fight, whacking each other with blows that were only feigned, but would -have crushed the skull of any man. Nugget sneezed with excitement as he -watched them. Faro Nell regarded them with female disapproval.</p> - -<p>They started on. Semper seemed sluggish. After a single brief flight he -descended and rode on Sitka's pack, as on the previous day. He perched -there, surveying the landscape as it changed from semi-arid to pure -desert in their progress. He would not fly. Soaring birds do not like -to fly when there are no winds to make currents of which they can take -advantage.</p> - -<p>Once Huyghens stopped and pointed out to Bordman exactly where they -were on the enlarged photograph taken from space, and the exact spot -from which the distress-signal seemed to come.</p> - -<p>"You're doing it in case something happens to you," said Bordman. "I -admit it's sense, but—what could I do to help those survivors even if -I got to them, without you?"</p> - -<p>"What you've learned about sphexes would help," said Huyghens. "The -bears would help. And we left a note back at my station. Whoever -grounds at the landing-field back there—and the beacon's working—will -find instructions to come to the place we're trying to reach."</p> - -<p>They started walking again. The narrow patch of non-desert border of -the Sere Plateau was behind them, now, and they marched across powdery -desert sand.</p> - -<p>"See here," said Bordman. "I want to know something. You tell me you're -listed as a bear-thief on your home planet. You tell me it's a lie, to -protect your friends from prosecution by the Colonial Survey. You're on -your own, risking your life every minute of every day. You took a risk -in not shooting me. Now you're risking more in going to help men who'd -have to be witnesses that you were a criminal. What are you doing it -for?"</p> - -<p>Huyghens grinned.</p> - -<p>"Because I don't like robots. I don't like the fact that they're -subduing men, making men subordinate to them."</p> - -<p>"Go on," insisted Bordman. "I don't see why disliking robots should -make you a criminal! Nor men subordinating themselves to robots, -either."</p> - -<p>"But they are," said Huyghens mildly. "I'm a crank, of course. But—I -live like a man on this planet. I go where I please and do what I -please. My helpers are my friends. If the robot-colony had been a -success, would the humans in it have lived like men? Hardly. They'd -have to live the way robots let them! They'd have to stay inside a -fence the robots built. They'd have to eat foods that robots could -raise, and no others. Why, a man couldn't move his bed near a window, -because if he did the house-tending robots couldn't work! Robots would -serve them—the way the robots determined—but all they'd get out of it -would be jobs servicing the robots!"</p> - -<p>Bordman shook his head.</p> - -<p>"As long as men want robot service, they have to take the service that -robots can give. If you don't want those services—"</p> - -<p>"I want to decide what I want," said Huyghens, again mildly, "instead -of being limited to choose what I'm offered. In my home planet we -half-way tamed it with dogs and guns. Then we developed the bears, -and we finished the job with them. Now there's population-pressure and -the room for bears and dogs—and men!—is dwindling. More and more -people are being deprived of the power of decision, and being allowed -only the power of choice among the things robots allow. The more we -depend on robots, the more limited those choices become. We don't want -our children to limit themselves to wanting what robots can provide! -We don't want them shriveling to where they abandon everything robots -can't give, or won't. We want them to be men and women. Not damned -automatons who live <i>by</i> pushing robot-controls so they can -live <i>to</i> push robot-controls. If that's not subordination to -robots—"</p> - -<p>"It's an emotional argument," protested Bordman. "Not everybody feels -that way."</p> - -<p>"But I feel that way," said Huyghens. "And so do a lot of others. This -is a damned big galaxy and it's apt to contain some surprises. The one -sure thing about a robot and a man who depends on them is that they -can't handle the unexpected. There's going to come a time when we need -men who can. So on my home planet, some of us asked for Loren Two, to -colonize. It was refused—too dangerous. But men can colonize anywhere -if they're men. So I came here to study the planet. Especially the -sphexes. Eventually, we expected to ask for a license again, with proof -that we could handle even those beasts. I'm already doing it in a mild -way. But the Survey licensed a robot-colony—and where is it?"</p> - -<p>Bordman made a sour face.</p> - -<p>"You took the wrong way to go about it Huyghens. It was illegal. It -is. It was the pioneer spirit, which is admirable enough, but wrongly -directed. After all, it was pioneers who left Earth for the stars. -But—"</p> - -<p>Sourdough raised up on his hind legs and sniffed the air. Huyghens -swung his rifle around to be handy. Bordman slipped off the -safety-catch of his own. Nothing happened.</p> - -<p>"In a way," said Bordman, "you're talking about liberty and freedom, -which most people think is politics. You say it can be more. In -principle, I'll concede it. But the way you put it, it sounds like a -freak religion."</p> - -<p>"It's self-respect," corrected Huyghens.</p> - -<p>"You may be—"</p> - -<p>Faro Nell growled. She bumped Nugget with her nose, to drive him -closer to Bordman. She snorted at him, and trotted swiftly to where -Sitka and Sourdough faced toward the broader, sphex-filled expanse of -the Sere Plateau. She took up her position between them.</p> - -<p>Huyghens gazed sharply beyond them and then all about.</p> - -<p>"This could be bad!" he said softly. "But luckily there's no wind. -Here's a sort of hill. Come along, Bordman!"</p> - -<p>He ran ahead, Bordman following and Nugget plumping heavily with -him. They reached the raised place, actually a mere hillock no more -than five or six feet above the surrounding sand, with a distorted -cactus-like growth protruding from the ground. Huyghens stared again. -He used his binoculars.</p> - -<p>"One sphex," he said curtly. "Just one! And it's out of all reason -for a sphex to be alone. But it's not rational for them to gather in -hundreds of thousands, either!" He whetted his finger and held it up. -"No wind at all."</p> - -<p>He used the binoculars again.</p> - -<p>"It doesn't know we're here," he added. "It's moving away. Not another -one in sight...." He hesitated, biting his lips. "Look here, Bordman! -I'd like to kill that one lone sphex and find out something. There's -a fifty per cent chance I could find out something really important. -But—I might have to run. If I'm right...." Then he said grimly, "It'll -have to be done quickly. I'm going to ride Faro Nell, for speed. I -doubt Sitka or Sourdough will stay behind. But Nugget can't run fast -enough. Will you stay here with him?"</p> - -<p>Bordman drew in his breath. Then he said calmly:</p> - -<p>"You know what you're doing, I hope."</p> - -<p>"Keep your eyes open. If you see anything, even at a distance, shoot -and we'll be back, fast! Don't wait until something's close enough to -hit. Shoot the instant you see anything, if you do!"</p> - -<p>Bordman nodded. He found it peculiarly difficult to speak again. -Huyghens went over to the embattled bears and climbed up on Faro Nell's -back, holding fast by her shaggy fur.</p> - -<p>"Let's go!" he snapped. "That way! Hup!"</p> - -<p>The three Kodiaks plunged away at a dead run, Huyghens lurching and -swaying on Faro Nell's back. The sudden rush dislodged Semper from his -perch. He flapped wildly and got aloft. Then he followed effortfully, -flying low.</p> - -<p>It happened very quickly. A Kodiak bear can travel as fast as a -race-horse on occasion. These three plunged arrow-straight for a spot -perhaps half a mile distant, where a blue-and-tawny shape whirled to -face them. There was the crash of Huyghens' weapon from where he rode -on Faro Nell's back; the explosion of the weapon and the bullet was one -sound. The monster leaped and died.</p> - -<p>Huyghens jumped down from Faro Nell. He became feverishly busy at -something on the ground. Semper banked and whirled and landed. He -watched, with his head on one side.</p> - -<p>Bordman stared. Huyghens was doing something to the dead sphex. The -two male bears prowled about, while Faro Nell regarded Huyghens with -intense curiosity. Back at the hillock, Nugget whimpered a little, and -Bordman patted him. Nugget whimpered more loudly. In the distance, -Huyghens straightened up and mounted Faro Nell's back. Sitka looked -back toward Bordman. He reared upward. He made a noise, apparently, -because Sourdough ambled to his side. The two great beasts began to -trot back. Semper flapped wildly and—lacking wind—lurched crazily -in the air. He landed on Huyghens' shoulder and clung there with his -talons.</p> - -<p>Then Nugget howled hysterically and tried to swarm up Bordman, as a -cub tries to swarm up the nearest tree in time of danger. Bordman -collapsed, and the cub upon him—and there was a flash of stinking -scaly hide, while the air was filled with the snarling, spitting -squeals of a sphex in full leap. The beast had over-jumped, aiming at -Bordman and the cub while both were upright and arriving when they had -fallen. It went tumbling.</p> - -<p>Bordman heard nothing but the fiendish squalling, but in the distance -Sitka and Sourdough were coming at rocket-ship speed. Faro Nell let out -a roar that fairly split the air. And then there was a furry streaking -toward her, bawling, while Bordman rolled to his feet and snatched up -his gun. He raged through pure instinct. The sphex crouched to pursue -the cub and Bordman swung his weapon as a club. He was literally -too close to shoot—and perhaps the sphex had only seen the fleeing -bear-cub. But he swung furiously—</p> - -<p>And the sphex whirled. Bordman was toppled from his feet. An -eight-hundred-pound monstrosity straight out of hell—half wild-cat and -half spitting cobra with hydrophobia and homicidal mania added—such a -monstrosity is not to be withstood when in whirling its body strikes -one in the chest.</p> - -<p>That was when Sitka arrived, bellowing. He stood on his hind legs, -emitting roars like thunder, challenging the sphex to battle. He -waddled forward. Huyghens approached, but he could not shoot with -Bordman in the sphere of an explosive bullet's destructiveness. Faro -Nell raged and snarled, torn between the urge to be sure that Nugget -was unharmed, and the frenzied fury of a mother whose offspring has -been endangered.</p> - -<p>Mounted on Faro Nell, with Semper clinging idiotically to his shoulder, -Huyghens watched helplessly as the sphex spat and squaulled at Sitka, -having only to reach out one claw to let out Bordman's life.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>They got away from there, though Sitka seemed to want to lift the -limp carcass of his victim in his teeth and dash it repeatedly to -the ground. He seemed doubly raging because a man—with whom all -Kodius Champion's descendants had an emotional relationship—had been -mishandled. But Bordman was not grievously hurt. He bounced and swore -as the bears raced for the horizon. Huyghens had flung him up on -Sourdough's pack and snapped for him to hold on. He shouted:</p> - -<p>"Damn it, Huyghens! This isn't right! Sitka got some deep scratches! -That horror's claws may be poisonous!"</p> - -<p>But Huyghens snapped "Hup! Hup!" to the bears, and they continued their -race against time. They went on for a good two miles, when Nugget -wailed despairingly of his exhaustion and Faro Nell halted firmly to -nuzzle him.</p> - -<p>"This may be good enough," said Huyghens. "Considering that there's no -wind and the big mass of beasts is down the plateau and there were only -those two around here. Maybe they're too busy to hold a wake, even. -Anyhow—"</p> - -<p>He slid to the ground and extracted the antiseptic and swabs. "Sitka -first," snapped Bordman. "I'm all right!"</p> - -<p>Huyghens swabbed the big bear's wounds. They were trivial, because -Sitka Pete was an experienced sphex-fighter. Then Bordman grudgingly -let the curiously-smelling stuff—it reeked of ozone—be applied to the -slashes on his chest. He held his breath as it stung. Then he said:</p> - -<p>"It was my fault, Huyghens. I watched you instead of the landscape. I -couldn't imagine what you were doing."</p> - -<p>"I was doing a quick dissection," Huyghens told him. "By luck, that -first sphex was a female, as I hoped. And she was about to lay her -eggs. Ugh! And now I know why the sphexes migrate, and where, and how -it is that they don't need game up here."</p> - -<p>He slapped a quick bandage on Bordman then led the way eastward, still -putting distance between the dead sphexes and his party.</p> - -<p>"I'd dissected them before," said Huyghens. "Not enough's been known -about them. Some things needed to be found out if men were ever to be -able to live here."</p> - -<p>"With bears?" asked Bordman ironically.</p> - -<p>"Oh, yes," said Huyghens. "But the point is that sphexes come to the -desert here to breed, to mate and lay their eggs for the sun to hatch. -It's a particular place. Seals return to a special place to mate—and -the males, at least, don't eat for weeks on end. Salmon return to their -native streams to spawn. They don't eat, and they die afterward. And -eels—I'm using Earth examples, Bordman—travel some thousands of miles -to the Sargasso to mate and die. Unfortunately, sphexes don't appear to -die, but it's clear that they have an ancestral breeding-place and that -they come to the Sere Plateau to deposit their eggs!"</p> - -<p>Bordman plodded onward. He was angry; angry with himself because he -hadn't taken elementary precautions; because he'd felt too safe, as a -man in a robot-served civilization forms the habit of doing; because -he hadn't used his brain when Nugget whimpered, with even a bear-cub's -awareness that danger was near.</p> - -<p>"And now," Huyghens added, "I need some equipment that the robot-colony -has. With it, I think we can make a start toward turning this into a -planet that man can live like men on!"</p> - -<p>Bordman blinked.</p> - -<p>"What's that?"</p> - -<p>"Equipment," said Huyghens impatiently. "It'll be at the robot-colony. -Robots were useless because they wouldn't pay attention to sphexes. -They'd still be. But take out the robot-controls and the machines will -do! They shouldn't be ruined by a few months' exposure to weather!"</p> - -<p>Bordman marched on and on. Presently he said:</p> - -<p>"I never thought you'd want anything that came from that colony, -Huyghens!"</p> - -<p>"Why not?" demanded Huyghens impatiently. "When men make machines do -what they want, that's all right. Even robots, when they're where -they belong. But men will have to handle flame-casters in the job I -want them for. There have to be some, because there was a hundred-mile -clearing to be burned off for the colony. And earth-sterilizers, -intended to kill the seeds of any plants that robots couldn't handle. -We'll come back up here, Bordman, and at the least we'll destroy -the spawn of these infernal beasts! If we can't do more than that, -just doing that every year will wipe out the race in time. There are -probably other hordes than this, with other breeding-places. But we'll -find them too. We'll make this planet into a place where men from my -world can come and still be men!"</p> - -<p>Bordman said sardonically:</p> - -<p>"It was sphexes that beat the robots. Are you sure you aren't planning -to make this world safe for robots?"</p> - -<p>Huyghens laughed.</p> - -<p>"You've only seen one night-walker," he said. "And how about those -things on the mountain-slope, which would have drained you of -blood? Would you care to wander about this planet with only a robot -body-guard, Bordman? Hardly! Men can't live on this planet with only -robots to help them. You'll see!"</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>They found the colony after only ten days' more travel and after many -sphexes and more than a few stag-like creatures and shaggy ruminants -had fallen to their weapons and the bears. And they found survivors.</p> - -<p>There were three of them, hard-bitten and bearded and deeply -embittered. When the electrified fence went down, two of them were away -at a mine-tunnel, installing a new control panel for the robots who -worked in it. The third was in charge of the mining operation. They -were alarmed by the stopping of communication with the colony and went -back in a tank-truck to find out what had happened, and only the fact -that they were unarmed saved them. They found sphexes prowling and -caterwauling about the fallen colony, in numbers they still did not -wholly believe. The sphexes smelled men inside the armored vehicle, but -couldn't break in. In turn, the men couldn't kill them, or they'd have -been trailed to the mine and besieged there for as long as they could -kill an occasional monster.</p> - -<p>The survivors stopped all mining, of course, and tried to use -remote-controlled robots for revenge and to get supplies for them. -Their mining-robots were not designed for either task. And they had -no weapons. They improvised miniature throwers of burning rocket-fuel, -and they sent occasional prowling sphexes away screaming with scorched -hides. But this was useful only because it did not kill the beasts. -And it cost fuel. In the end they barricaded themselves and used the -fuel only to keep a spark-signal going against the day when another -ship came to seek the colony. They stayed in the mine as in a prison, -on short rations, without real hope. For diversion they could only -contemplate the mining-robots they could not spare fuel to run and -which could not do anything but mine.</p> - -<p>When Huyghens and Bordman reached them, they wept. They hated robots -and all things robotic only a little less than they hated sphexes. -But Huyghens explained, and, armed with weapons from the packs of the -bears, they marched to the dead colony with the male Kodiaks as point -and advance-guard, and with Faro Nell bringing up the rear. They killed -sixteen sphexes on the way. In the now overgrown clearing there were -four more. In the shelters of the colony they found only foulness and -the fragments of what had been men. But there was some food—not much, -because the sphexes clawed at anything that smelled of men, and had -ruined the plastic packets of radiation-sterilized food. But there were -some supplies in metal containers which were not destroyed.</p> - -<p>And there was fuel, which men could use when they got to the -control-panels of the equipment. There were robots everywhere, bright -and shining and ready for operation, but immobile, with plants growing -up around and over them.</p> - -<p>They ignored those robots, and instead fueled tracked -flame-casters—after adapting them to human rather than robot -operation—and the giant soil-sterilizer which had been built to -destroy vegetation that robots could not be made to weed out or -cultivate. Then they headed back for the Sere Plateau.</p> - -<p>As time passed Nugget became a badly spoiled bear-cub, because the -freed men approved passionately of anything that would even grow up to -kill sphexes. They petted him to excess when they camped.</p> - -<p>Finally they reached the plateau by a sphex-trail to the top and -sphexes came squalling and spitting to destroy them. While Bordman and -Huyghens fired steadily, the great machines swept up with their special -weapons. The earth-sterilizer, it developed, was deadly against animal -life as well as seeds, when its diathermic beam was raised and aimed.</p> - -<p>Presently the bears were not needed, because the scorched corpses -of sphexes drew live ones from all parts of the plateau even in -the absence of noticeable breezes. The official business of the -sphexes was presumably finished, but they came to caterwaul and seek -vengeance—which they did not find. After a while the survivors of -the robot-colony drove the machines in great circles around the huge -heap of slaughtered fiends, destroying new arrivals as they came. It -was such a killing as men had never before made on any planet, and -there would be very few left of the sphex-horde which had bred in this -particular patch of desert.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>Nor would more grow up, because the soil-sterilizer would go over the -dug-up sand where the sphex-spawn lay hidden for the sun to hatch. And -the sun would never hatch them.</p> - -<p>Huyghens and Bordman, by that time, were camped on the edge of the -plateau with the Kodiaks. Somehow it seemed more befitting for the men -of the robot-colony to conduct the slaughter. After all, it was those -men whose companions had been killed.</p> - -<p>There came an evening when Huyghens cuffed Nugget away from where he -sniffed too urgently at a stag-steak cooking on the campfire. Nugget -ambled dolefully behind the protecting form of Bordman and sniveled.</p> - -<p>"Huyghens," said Bordman, "we've got to come to a settlement of our -affairs. You're an illegal colonist, and it's my duty to arrest you."</p> - -<p>Huyghens regarded him with interest.</p> - -<p>"Will you offer me lenience if I tell on my confederates?" he asked, -"or may I plead that I can't be forced to testify against myself?"</p> - -<p>Bordman said:</p> - -<p>"It's irritating! I've been an honest man all my life, but—I don't -believe in robots as I did, except in their place. And their place -isn't here! Not as the robot-colony was planned, anyhow. The sphexes -are nearly wiped out, but they won't be extinct and robots can't handle -them. Bears and men will have to live here or else the people who do -will have to spend their lives behind sphex-proof fences, accepting -only what robots can give them. And there's much too much on this -planet for people to miss it! To live in a robot-managed environment on -a planet like Loren Two wouldn't—it wouldn't be self-respecting!"</p> - -<p>"You wouldn't be getting religious, would you?" asked Huyghens drily. -"That was your term for self-respect before."</p> - -<p>"You don't let me finish!" protested Bordman. "It's my job to pass -on the work that's done on a planet before any but the first-landed -colonists may come there to live. And of course to see that -specifications are followed. Now, the robot-colony I was sent to survey -was practically destroyed. As designed, it wouldn't work. It couldn't -survive."</p> - -<p>Huyghens grunted. Night was falling. He turned the meat over the fire.</p> - -<p>"In emergencies," said Bordman, "colonists have the right to call on -any passing ship for aid. Naturally! So my report will be that the -colony as designed was impractical, and that it was overwhelmed and -destroyed except for three survivors who holed up and signalled for -help. They did, you know!"</p> - -<p>"Go on," grunted Huyghens.</p> - -<p>"So," said Bordman, "it just happened—just happened, mind you—that -a ship with you and the bears and the eagle on board picked up the -distress-call. So you landed to help the colonists. That's the story. -Therefore it isn't illegal for you to be here. It was only illegal for -you to be here when you were needed. But we'll pretend you weren't."</p> - -<p>Huyghens glanced over his shoulder in the deepening night. He said:</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't believe that if I told it myself. Do you think the Survey -will?"</p> - -<p>"They're not fools," said Bordman tartly. "Of course they won't! But -when my report says that because of this unlikely series of events it -is practical to colonize the planet, whereas before it wasn't, and when -my report proves that a robot-colony alone is stark nonsense, but that -with bears and men from your world added, so many thousand colonists -can be received per year.... And when that much is true, anyhow...."</p> - -<p>Huyghens seemed to shake a little as a dark silhouette against the -flames.</p> - -<p>"My reports carry weight," insisted Bordman. "The deal will be offered, -anyhow! The robot-colony organizers will have to agree or they'll have -to fold up. And your people can hold them up for nearly what terms they -choose."</p> - -<p>Huyghens' shaking became understandable. It was laughter.</p> - -<p>"You're a lousy liar, Bordman," he said. "Isn't it unintelligent and -unreasonable to throw away a life-time of honesty just to get me out of -a jam? You're not acting like a rational animal, Bordman. But I thought -you wouldn't, when it came to the point."</p> - -<p>Bordman squirmed.</p> - -<p>"That's the only solution I can think of," he said. "But it'll work."</p> - -<p>"I accept it," said Huyghens, grinning. "With thanks. If only because -it means another few generations of men can live like men on a -planet that is going to take a lot of taming. And—if you want to -know—because it keeps Sourdough and Sitka and Nell and Nugget from -being killed because I brought them here illegally."</p> - -<p>Something pressed hard against Bordman. Nugget, the cub, pushed -urgently against him in his desire to get closer to the fragrantly -cooking meat. He edged forward. Bordman toppled from where he squatted -on the ground. He sprawled. Nugget sniffed luxuriously.</p> - -<p>"Slap him," said Huyghens. "He'll move back."</p> - -<p>"I won't!" said Bordman indignantly from where he lay. "I won't do it. -He's my friend!"</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>It was ironic that, after all, Bordman found that he couldn't afford to -retire. His pay, of course, had been used to educate his children and -maintain his home. And Lani III was an expensive world to live on. It -was now occupied by a thriving, bustling population with keen business -instincts, and the vapor-curtains about it were commonplaces, now, and -few people remembered a time when they hadn't existed,—when it was a -world below habitability for anybody. So Bordman wasn't a hero. As a -matter of history he had done such and such. As a matter of fact he was -simply a citizen who could be interviewed for visicasts on holidays, -but hadn't much that was new to say.</p> - -<p>But he lived on Lani III for three years, and he was restless. His -children were grown and married, now,—and they hadn't known him too -well, anyhow. He'd been away so much! He didn't fit into the world -whose green fields and oceans and rivers he was responsible for. But it -was infinitely good to be with Riki again. There was so much that each -remembered, to be shared with the other, that they had plenty to talk -about.</p> - -<p>Three years after his official retirement, he was asked to take on -another Survey job on which there was no other qualified man free to -work on. He talked to his wife. On retirement pay, life was not easy. -In retirement, it wasn't satisfactory. And Riki was free too, now. Her -children were safely on their own. Bordman would always need her. She -advised him for both their sakes. And he went back to Survey duty with -the stipulation that he should have quarters and facilities for his -wife as well as himself on all assignments.</p> - -<p>They had five wonderful years. Bordman was near the top of the ladder, -then. His children wrote faithfully. He was busy on Kelmin IV, and his -wife had a garden there, when he was summoned to Sector Headquarters -with first priority urgency.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SWAMP_WAS_UPSIDE_DOWN">THE SWAMP WAS UPSIDE DOWN</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Bordman knew the Survey ship had turned end-for-end, because though -there was artificial gravity, it does not affect the semicircular -canals of the human ear. He knew he was turning head-over-heels, -even though his feet stayed firmly on the floor. It was not a normal -sensation, and he felt that queasy, instinctive tightening of the -muscles with which one reacts to the abnormal, whether in things seen -or felt.</p> - -<p>But the reason for turning the ship end-for-end was obvious. It had -arrived very near its destination, and was killing its Lawlor-drive -momentum. Just as Bordman was assured that the turning motion was -finished, young Barnes—the ship's lowest-ranking commissioned -officer—came into the wardroom and beamed at him.</p> - -<p>"The ship's not landing, sir," he said, like one explaining something -to somebody under ten years old. "Our orders are changed. You're to go -to ground by boat. This way, sir."</p> - -<p>Bordman shrugged. He was a Senior Officer of the Colonial Survey, grown -old in the Service, and this was a Survey ship that had been sent -especially to get him from his last and still unfinished job. It was a -top-urgency matter. This ship had had no other business for some months -except to go after him and bring him to Sector Headquarters, down on -Canna III, which must be somewhere near. But this young officer was -patronizing him!</p> - -<p>Bordman rather regretfully recognized that he didn't know how to be -impressive. He was not a good salesman of his own importance. He didn't -even get the respect due his rank.</p> - -<p>Now the young officer waited, brisk and alert. Bordman reflected -wrily that he could pin young Barnes' ears back easily enough. But he -remembered when he'd been a junior Survey ship's officer. Then he'd -felt a bland condescension toward all people of whatever rank who did -not spend their lives in the cramped, skimped quarters of a Survey -patrol-ship. If this young Lieutenant Barnes were fortunate, he'd -always feel that way. Bordman could not begrudge him the cockiness -which made the tedium and hardships of the Service seem to him a -privilege.</p> - -<p>So he obediently followed Barnes through the wardroom door. He ducked -his head under a ventilation-slot and sidled past a standpipe with -bristling air-valve handles. It almost closed the way. There was the -smell of oil and paint and ozone which all proper Survey ships maintain -in their working sections.</p> - -<p>"Here, sir," said Barnes. "This way."</p> - -<p>He offered his arm for Bordman to steady himself. Bordman ignored it. -He stepped over a complex of white-painted pipes, and arrived at an -almost clear way to a boat-blister.</p> - -<p>"And your luggage, sir," added the young man reassuringly, "will follow -you down immediately, sir. With the mail."</p> - -<p>Bordman nodded. He moved toward the blister door. He sidled past -constrictions due to new equipment. The Survey ship had been designed -a long time ago, and there were no funds for rebuilding when improved -devices came along. So any Survey ship was apt to be cluttered up with -afterthoughts in metal.</p> - -<p>A speaker from the wall said sharply:</p> - -<p>"<i>Hear this! Hold fast! Gravity going off!</i>"</p> - -<p>Bordman caught at a nearby pipe, and snatched his hand away again—it -was hot—and caught on to another and then put his other hand below. He -applied a trifle of pressure. The young officer said kindly:</p> - -<p>"Hold fast, sir. If I may suggest—"</p> - -<p>The gravity did go off. Bordman grimaced. There'd been a time when he -was used to such matters, but this time the sudden outward surge of his -breath caught him unprepared. His diaphragm contracted as the weight of -organs above it ceased to be. He choked for an instant. He said evenly:</p> - -<p>"I am not likely to go head-over-heels, Lieutenant. I served four years -as a junior swot on a ship exactly like this!"</p> - -<p>He did not float about. He held onto a pipe in two places, and he -applied expert pressure in a strictly professional manner, and his -feet remained firmly on the floor. He startled young Barnes by the -achievement, which only junior swots think only junior swots know about.</p> - -<p>Barnes said, abashed:</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir." He held himself in the same fashion.</p> - -<p>"I even know," said Bordman, "that the gravity had to be cut -off because we're approaching another ship on Lawlor drive. Our -gravity-coils would blow if we got into her field with our drive off, -or if her field pressed ours inboard."</p> - -<p>Young Barnes looked extremely uncomfortable. Bordman felt sorry for -him. To be chewed, however delicately, for patronizing a senior officer -could not be pleasant. So Bordman added:</p> - -<p>"And I also remember that, when I was a junior swot I once tried to -tell a Sector Chief how to top off his suit-tanks. So don't let it -bother you!"</p> - -<p>The young officer was embarrassed. A Sector Chief was so high in -the table of Survey organization that one of his idle thoughts was -popularly supposed to be able to crack a junior officer's skull. If -Bordman, as a young officer, had really tried to tell a Sector Chief -how to top his suit-tanks.... Why....</p> - -<p>"Thank you, sir," said Barnes awkwardly. "I'll try not to be an ass -again, sir."</p> - -<p>"I suspect," said Bordman, "that you'll slip occasionally. I did! What -the devil's another ship doing out here and why aren't we landing?"</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't know, sir," said the young officer. His manner toward -Bordman was quite changed. "I do know the Skipper came in expecting to -land by the landing-grid, sir. He was told to stand off. He's as much -surprised as you are, sir."</p> - -<p>The wall-speaker said crisply:</p> - -<p>"<i>Hear this! Gravity returning! Gravity returning!</i>"</p> - -<p>And weight came back. Bordman was ready for it this time and took it -casually. He looked at the speaker and it said nothing more. He nodded -to the young man.</p> - -<p>"I suppose I'd better get in the boat. No change in that arrangement, -anyhow!"</p> - -<p>He crawled through the blister door and wormed his way into the landing -boat, one designed for a more modern ship, and excessively inconvenient -in such an outmoded launching-device. Barnes crawled in after him.</p> - -<p>He dogged the blister door from the inside, closed the boat port and -dogged it, and flapped a switch.</p> - -<p>"Excuse me, sir. I'm to take you down."</p> - -<p>"Ready for departure," he said into a microphone.</p> - -<p>A dial on the instrument-board flicked half-way to zero. It stopped -there. Seconds passed. A green light glowed. The young officer said:</p> - -<p>"All tight!"</p> - -<p>The needle darted a quarter-way further over, and then began to descend -slowly. The blister was being pumped empty of air. Presently another -light glowed.</p> - -<p>"Ready for launching," said the young officer briskly.</p> - -<p>The blister-seal broke with a clank, and, the two halves of the -boat-cover drew back. There were stars. To Bordman they were -unfamiliarly arranged, but he could have picked out Seton and the Donis -cluster in any case, and half a hundred more markers by taking thought -of the position of the planet Canna III, on which Colonial Survey -Sector Headquarters for this part of the galaxy were established.</p> - -<p>The boat moved out of its place, and the ship's gravity-field ended as -abruptly as such fields do.</p> - -<p>The Survey ship floated away, as seen from the vision-ports of the -boat. It apparently increased its drive, because the boat swirled and -swayed as changing eddy-currents moved it. The ship grew small and -vanished. The boat hung in emptiness, turning slowly. The sun Canna -came into view. It was very large for a Sol-type sun, and its rim was -almost devoid of the prominences and jet-streams of flaming gas that -older suns of the type display. But even out at the third orbit it -provided O-1 climate—optimum: equivalent to Earth—for the planet -below.</p> - -<p>That planet now came swinging into view as the ship's boat continued to -turn. It was blue. More than ninety per cent of its surface was water, -and much of the solid land was under the northern ice-cap. It had been -chosen as Sector Headquarters because of its unsuitability for a large -population, which might resent the considerable land-area needed for -Survey storage and reserve facilities.</p> - -<p>Bordman regarded it thoughtfully. The boat was, of course, roughly five -planetary diameters out, the conventional distance to which a ship -approached any planet on its own drive. Bordman could see the ice-cap -clearly, and blue sea beyond it, and the twilight-line. There was one -cyclonic storm just dissipating toward the night-side, and the edge of -a similar cloud-system down toward the equator. Bordman searched for -Headquarters. It was on an island at about forty-five degrees latitude, -which ought to be near the center of the planet's surface as seen from -where the ship's boat floated. But he could not make it out. There was -only the one island of any importance and it was not large.</p> - -<p>Nothing happened. The boat's rockets remained silent. The young officer -sat quietly, looking at the instruments before him. He seemed to be -waiting for something to happen.</p> - -<p>A needle kicked and stayed just off the pin. It was an external-field -indicator. Some field, somewhere, now included the space in which the -ship's boat floated.</p> - -<p>"Hm," said Bordman. "You're waiting for orders?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir," said the young man. "I'm ordered not to land except under -ground instructions, sir. I don't know why."</p> - -<p>Bordman observed:</p> - -<p>"One of the worst wiggings I ever got was in a boat like this. I was -waiting for orders and they didn't come. I acted very Service about -it: stiff upper lip and all that. But I was getting in serious trouble -when it occurred to me that it might be my fault I wasn't getting the -orders."</p> - -<p>The young officer glanced quickly at an instrument he had previously -ignored. Then he said relievedly:</p> - -<p>"Not this time, sir. The communicator's turned on all right."</p> - -<p>Bordman said:</p> - -<p>"Do you think they might be calling you without shifting from -ship-frequency? They were talking to the ship, you know."</p> - -<p>"I'll try, sir."</p> - -<p>The young man leaned forward and switched to ship-band adjustment of -the communicator. Different wave-bands, naturally, were used between a -ship and shore, and a ship and its own boats. A booming carrier wave -came in instantly. The young officer hastily turned down the volume and -words became distinguishable.</p> - -<p>"... <i>What the devil's the matter with you? Acknowledge!</i>"</p> - -<p>The young officer gulped. Bordman said mildly:</p> - -<p>"Since he ranks you, just say 'sorry, sir.'"</p> - -<p>"S-sorry, sir," said Barnes into the microphone.</p> - -<p>"<i>Sorry?</i>" snapped the voice from the ground. "<i>I've been -calling for five minutes! Your skipper will hear about this! I -shall—</i>"</p> - -<p>Bordman pulled the microphone before him.</p> - -<p>"My name is Bordman," he observed. "I am waiting for instructions to -land. My pilot has been listening on boat-frequency, as was proper. You -appear to be calling us on an improper channel. Really—"</p> - -<p>There was stricken silence. Then babbled apologies from the speaker. -Bordman smiled faintly at young Barnes.</p> - -<p>"It's quite all right. Let's forget it now. But will you give my pilot -his instructions?"</p> - -<p>The voice said with strained formality:</p> - -<p>"<i>You're to be brought down by landing-grid, sir. Rocket-landings -have been ruled non-permitted by the Sector Chief himself, sir. But -we are already landing one boat, sir. Senior Officer Werner is being -brought in now, sir. His boat is still two diameters out, sir, and it -will take us nearly an hour to get him down without extreme discomfort, -sir.</i>"</p> - -<p>"Then we'll wait," said Bordman. "Hm. Call us again before you start -hunting us with the landing-beam. My pilot has a rather promising idea. -And will you call us on the proper frequency then, please?"</p> - -<p>The voice aground said unhappily:</p> - -<p>"<i>Yes, sir. Certainly, sir.</i>"</p> - -<p>The carrier-wave hum stopped. Young Barnes said gratefully:</p> - -<p>"Thank you, sir! Hell hath no fury like a ranking officer caught in a -blunder! He'd have twisted my tail for his mistake, sir, and it could -have been bad!" Then he paused. He said uneasily, "But—beg pardon, -sir. I haven't any promising ideas. Not that I know of!"</p> - -<p>"You have an hour to develop one," Bordman told him.</p> - -<p>Internally, Bordman was startled. There were few occasions on which -even one Senior Officer was called in to Sector Headquarters. -Interstellar distances being what they were, and thirty light-speeds -being practically the best available, Senior Officers necessarily acted -pretty much as independent authorities. To call one man in meant all -his other work had to go by the board for a matter of months. But two! -And Werner?</p> - -<p>Werner was getting to ground first. If there was something serious -ashore, Werner would make a great point of arriving first, even if only -by hours. A keen sort of person in giving the right impression. He'd -risen in the Service faster than Bordman. That other Lawlor field would -have been his ship getting out of the way.</p> - -<p>The young officer at his elbow fidgeted.</p> - -<p>"Beg pardon, sir. What sort of idea should I develop, sir? I'm not sure -I understand—"</p> - -<p>"It's rather annoying to have to stay parked in free fall," said -Bordman patiently. "And it's always a good practice to review annoying -situations and see if they can be bettered."</p> - -<p>Barnes' forehead wrinkled.</p> - -<p>"We could land much quicker on rockets, sir. And even when the -landing-grid reaches out for us, they'll have to handle us very -cautiously or they'd break our necks, since we've no gravity-coils."</p> - -<p>Bordman nodded. Barnes was thinking straight enough, but it takes young -officers a long time to think of thinking straight. They have to obey -so many orders unquestioningly that they tend to stop doing anything -else. Yet at each rise in grade some slight trace of increased capacity -to think is required. In order to reach really high rank, an officer -has to be capable of thinking which simply isn't possible unless he's -kept in practice on the way up.</p> - -<p>Young Barnes looked up, startled.</p> - -<p>"Look here, sir!" he said, surprised. "If it takes them an hour to let -down Senior Officer Werner from two planetary diameters, it'll take -much longer to let us down from out here!"</p> - -<p>"True," said Bordman.</p> - -<p>"And you don't want to spend three hours descending, sir, after waiting -an hour for him!"</p> - -<p>"I don't," admitted Bordman. He could have given orders, of course. But -if a junior officer were spurred to the practice of thinking, it meant -that some day he'd be a better senior officer. And Bordman knew how -desperately few men were really adequate for high authority. Anything -that could be done to increase the number—</p> - -<p>Young Barnes blinked.</p> - -<p>"But it doesn't matter to the landing-grid how far out we are!" he said -in an astonished voice. "They could lock on to us at ten diameters, or -at one! Once they lock the field-focus on us, when they move it they -move us."</p> - -<p>Bordman nodded again.</p> - -<p>"So by the time they've got that other boat landed—why—I can use -rockets and get down to one diameter myself, sir! And they can lock -onto us there and let us down a few thousand miles only. So we can get -to ground half an hour after the other boat's down instead of four -hours from now."</p> - -<p>"Just so," agreed Bordman. "At a cost of a little thought and a little -fuel. You do have a promising idea after all, Lieutenant. Suppose you -carry it out?"</p> - -<p>Young Barnes glanced at Bordman's safety-strap. He threw over the -fuel-ready lever and conscientiously waited the few seconds for the -first molecules of fuel to be catalyzed cold. Once firing started, -they'd be warmed to detonation-readiness in the last few millimetres of -the injection-gap.</p> - -<p>"Firing, sir," he said respectfully.</p> - -<p>There was the curious sound of a rocket blasting in emptiness, when -the sound is conveyed only by the rocket-tube's metal. There was the -smooth, pushing sensation of acceleration. The tiny ship's boat swung -and aimed down at the planet. Lieutenant Barnes leaned forward and -punched the ship's computer.</p> - -<p>"I hope you'll excuse me, sir," he said. "I should have thought that -out myself without prompting. But problems like this don't turn up very -often, sir. As a rule it's wisest to follow precedents as if they were -orders."</p> - -<p>Bordman said drily:</p> - -<p>"To be sure! But one reason for the existence of junior officers is the -fact that some day there will have to be new senior ones."</p> - -<p>Barnes considered. Then he said surprisedly:</p> - -<p>"I never thought of it that way, sir. Thank you."</p> - -<p>He continued to punch the computer keys, frowning. Bordman relaxed in -his seat, held there by the gentle acceleration and the belt. He'd had -nothing by which to judge the reason for his summoning to Headquarters. -He had very little now. But there was trouble of some sort down below. -Two senior officers dragged from their own work. Werner, now ... -Bordman preferred not to estimate Werner. He disliked the man, and -would be biased. But he was able, though definitely on the make. And -there was himself. They'd been called to a headquarters where no ship -was to be landed by landing-grid, nor any rocket to come to ground. A -landing-grid could pluck a ship out of space ten planet-diameters out, -and draw it with gentle violence shoreward, and land it lightly as a -feather. A landing-grid could take the heaviest, loaded freighter and -stop it in orbit and bring it down at eight gravities. But the one -below wouldn't land even a tiny Survey ship! And a landing-boat was -forbidden to come down on its rockets!</p> - -<p>Bordman arranged those items in his mind. He knew the planet below, -of course. When he got his Senior rating he'd spent six months at -Headquarters learning procedures and practices proper to his increased -authority. There was one inhabitable island, two hundred miles long -and possibly forty wide. There was no other usable ground outside -the Arctic. The one occupied island had gigantic sheer cliffs on its -windward side, where a great slab of bed-rock had split along some -submarine fault and tilted upward above the surface. Those cliffs were -four thousand feet high, and from them the island sloped very gently -and very gradually until its leeward shore slipped under the restless -sea. Sector Headquarters had been placed here because it seemed that -civilians would not want to colonize so limited a world. But there were -civilians, because there was Headquarters. And now every inch of ground -was cultivated, and there was irrigation and intensive farming and -some hydroponic establishments. However, Sector Headquarters included -a vast reserve-area on which a space-fleet might be marshalled in case -of need. The over-crowded civilians were bitter because of the great -uncultivated area the Survey needed for storage and possible emergency -use. Even when Bordman was here, years back, there was bitterness -because the Survey crowded the civil economy which had been based on it.</p> - -<p>Bordman considered all these items, and came to an uncomfortable -conclusion. Presently he looked up. The planet loomed larger. Much -larger.</p> - -<p>"I think you'd better lose all planetward velocity before we hook on," -he observed. "The landing-grid crew might have trouble focusing on us -so close if we're moving."</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir," said the young officer.</p> - -<p>"There's some sort of merry hell below," said Bordman. "It looks bad -that they won't let a ship come down by grid. It looks worse that they -won't let this one land on its rockets." He paused. "I doubt they'll -risk lifting us off again."</p> - -<p>Young Barnes finished his computations. He looked satisfied. He glanced -at the now-gigantic planet below, and deftly adjusted the course of the -tiny boat. Then he jerked his head around.</p> - -<p>"Excuse me, sir. Did you say we mightn't be able to lift off again?"</p> - -<p>"I could almost predict that we won't," said Bordman.</p> - -<p>"Would you—could you say why, sir?"</p> - -<p>"They don't want landings. The trouble is here. If they don't want -landings, they won't want launchings. Werner and I were sent for, so -presumably we're needed. But apparently there's uneasiness about even -our landing. They won't send us off again. I suspect—"</p> - -<p>The loud-speaker said tinnily:</p> - -<p>"<i>Calling boat from landing-grid! Calling boat from landing-grid!</i>"</p> - -<p>"Come in," said Barnes, looking uneasily at Bordman.</p> - -<p>"<i>Correct your course!</i>" commanded the voice. "<i>You are not to -land on rockets under any circumstances! This is an order from the -Sector Chief himself. Stand off! We will be ready to lock on and land -you gently in about fifteen minutes. But meanwhile stand off!</i>"</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir," said young Barnes.</p> - -<p>Bordman reached over and took the microphone.</p> - -<p>"Bordman speaking," he said. "I'd like information. What's the trouble -down there that we can't use our rockets?"</p> - -<p>"<i>Rockets are noisy, sir. Even boat-rockets. We have orders to -eliminate all physical vibration possible, sir. But I am ordered not to -give details on a transmitter, sir.</i>"</p> - -<p>"I sign off," said Bordman, drily.</p> - -<p>He pushed the microphone away. He deplored his own lack of -aggressiveness. Werner, now, would have pulled his rank and insisted on -being informed. But Bordman couldn't help believing that there was a -reason for orders that overruled his own.</p> - -<p>The young officer swung the rocket end-for-end. The sensation of -pressure against the back of Bordman's seat increased.</p> - -<p>Minutes later the speaker said:</p> - -<p>"<i>Grid to boat. Prepare for lock-on.</i>"</p> - -<p>"Ready, sir," said Barnes.</p> - -<p>The small boat shuddered and leaped crazily. It spun. It oscillated -violently through seconds-long arcs in emptiness. Very gradually the -oscillations died. There was a momentary sensation of the faint tugging -of planetary weight, which is somehow subtly different from the feel of -artificial gravity. Then the cosmos turned upside down as the boat was -drawn swiftly toward the watery planet below it.</p> - -<p>Some minutes later, young Barnes spoke:</p> - -<p>"Beg pardon, sir," he said apologetically. "I must be stupid, sir, but -I can't imagine any reason why vibrations or noises should make any -difference on a planet. How could it do harm?"</p> - -<p>"This is an ocean-planet," said Bordman. "It might make people drown."</p> - -<p>The young officer flushed and turned his head away. And Bordman -reflected that the young were always sensitive. But he did not speak -again. When they landed in the spidery, half-mile-high landing-grid, -Barnes would find out whether he was right or not.</p> - -<p>He did. And Bordman was right. The people on Canna III were anxious to -avoid vibrations because they were afraid of drowning.</p> - -<p>Their fears seemed to be rather well-founded.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>Three hours after landing, Bordman moved gingerly over grayish muddy -rock, with a four-thousand-foot sheer drop some twenty yards away. The -ragged edge of a cliff fell straight down for the better part of a -mile. Far below, the sea rippled gently. Bordman saw a long, long line -of boats moving slowly out to sea. They towed something between them -which reached from boat to boat in exaggerated catenary curves. The -boats moved in line abreast straight out from the cliffs, towing this -floating, curved thing between them.</p> - -<p>Bordman regarded them for a moment and then inspected the grayish mud -underfoot. He lifted his eyes to the inland side of this peculiar -stretch of mountainside muddiness. There was a mast on the rock not far -away. It held up what looked like a vision-camera.</p> - -<p>Young Barnes said:</p> - -<p>"Excuse me, sir. What are those boats doing?"</p> - -<p>"They're towing an oil-slick out to sea," said Bordman absently, "by -towing a floating line of some sort between them. There isn't enough -oil to maintain the slick, and it's blown land-ward. So they tow it out -to sea again. It holds down the seas. Every time, of course, they lose -some of it."</p> - -<p>"But—"</p> - -<p>"There are trade winds," said Bordman, not looking to sea-ward at -all. "They always blow in the same direction, nearly. They blow -three-quarters of the way around the planet, and they build up seas as -they blow. Normally, the swells that pound against this cliff, here, -will be a hundred feet and more from trough to crest. They'll throw -spray ten times that high, of course, and once when I was here before, -spray came over the cliff-top. The impacts of the waves are—heavy. In -a storm, if you put your ear to the ground on the leeward shore, you -can hear the waves smash against these cliffs. It's vibration."</p> - -<p>Bares looked uneasily at the cliff's edge and the line of boats pushing -over an ocean whose waves seemed less than ripples from nearly a mile -above them. But the line of boats was incredibly long. It was twenty -miles in length at the least.</p> - -<p>"The slick holds down the waves," Barnes guessed. "It works best in -deep water, I believe. The ancients knew it. Oil on the waters." He -considered. "Working hard to prevent vibrations! Are they really so -dangerous, sir?"</p> - -<p>Bordman nodded inland. A quarter mile from the edge of the cliff there -was a peculiar, broken, riven rampart of soil. It might have been forty -feet high, once. Now it was shattered and cracked. It had the look -of having been pulled away from where it was withdrawn. There were -vertical breaks in its edges and broken-off masses left behind. At one -place, a clump of perhaps a quarter-acre had not followed the rest, -and trees leaned drunkenly from its top, and at the edge had fallen -outward. All along the top of the stone cliff as far as the eye could -see there was this singular retreat of soil and vegetation from the -cliff's edge.</p> - -<p>Bordman stooped and picked up a bit of the mud underfoot. He rubbed it -between his fingers. It yielded like modelling clay. He dipped a finger -into a gray, greasy-seeming puddle. He looked at the thick liquid on -his finger and then rubbed it against his other palm. Young Barnes -duplicated this last action.</p> - -<p>"It feels soapy, sir!" he said blankly. "Like wet soap!"</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Bordman. "That's the first problem here."</p> - -<p>He turned to a ground-service Survey private, and jerked his head along -the coast-line.</p> - -<p>"How much have other places slipped?"</p> - -<p>"Anywhere from this much, sir," said the private, "to two miles and -upward. There's one place where it's moving at a regular rate. Four -inches an hour, sir. It was three-and-a-half yesterday."</p> - -<p>Bordman nodded.</p> - -<p>"Hm. We'll go back to Headquarters. Nasty business!"</p> - -<p>He plodded over the messy footing toward the vehicle which had brought -him here. It was not an ordinary ground car. Instead of wires or -caterwheels, it rolled upon flaccid, partly-inflated five-foot rollers. -They would be completely unaffected by roughness or slipperiness of -terrain and if the vehicle fell overboard it would float. It was -thickly coated with the gray mud of this cliff-top.</p> - -<p>As he moved along, Bordman was able to see the pattern of the rock -underneath the mud. It was curiously contorted, like something that had -curdled rather than cooled. And, as a matter of fact, it was believed -to have solidified slowly under water at such monstrous pressure -that even molten rock could not make it burst into steam. But it was -above-water now.</p> - -<p>Bordman climbed into the vehicle, and Barnes followed him. The -bolster-truck turned and moved toward the broken barrier of earth. -Its five-foot flabby rollers seemed rather to flow over than to -surmount obstacles. Great lumps of drier dirt dented them and did not -disintegrate. There were no stones.</p> - -<p>Bordman frowned to himself. The bolster-truck more or less flowed up -the crumbling, inexplicably drawing-back mass of soil. Atop it, things -looked almost normal. Almost. There was a highway leading away from the -cliff. At first glance it seemed perfect. But it was cracked down the -middle for a hundred yards, and then the crack meandered off to the -side and was gone. There was a great tree, which leaned drunkenly. A -mile along the roadway its surface bucked as if something had pressed -irresistibly upward from below. The truck rolled over the break.</p> - -<p>It was notable that the motion of the truck was utterly smooth. It made -no vibration at all. But even so it slowed before it moved through a -place where buildings—houses and a shop or two—clustered closely -together on each side of the road.</p> - -<p>There were people in and about the house, but they were doing nothing -at all. Some of them stared at the Survey truck with hostility. Some -others deliberately turned their backs to it. There were vehicles out -of shelter and ready to be used, but none was moving. All were pointed -in the direction from which the bolster-truck had come.</p> - -<p>The truck went on. Presently the extraordinary flatness of the -landscape became apparent. It was possible to see a seemingly -illimitable distance. The ocean forty miles away showed as a thread -of blue beneath the horizon. The island was an almost perfectly plane -tilted surface. There was no hill visible anywhere, nor any valleys -save the extremely minor gullies worn by rain. Even they had been -filled in, dammed, and tied in to irrigation systems.</p> - -<p>There was a place where there was a row of trees along such a -water-course. Half the row was fallen, and a part of the rest was -tilted. The remainder stood upright and firm. All the vegetation was -perfectly familiar. Most colonies have some vegetation, at least, -directly descended from the mother-planet Earth. But this island on -Canna III had been above-water perhaps no more than three or four -thousand years. There had been no time for local vegetation to develop. -When the Survey took it over, there was nothing but tidal seaweed, only -one variety of which had been able to extend itself in weblike fashion -over the soil above water. Terrestrial plants had wiped it out, and -everything was green and human-introduced.</p> - -<p>But there was something wrong with the ground. At this place the top of -the soil bulged, and tall corn-plants grew extravagantly in different -directions. At another, there was a narrow, lipless gash in the -ground's surface. An irrigation-ditch poured water into it. It was not -filled.</p> - -<p>Barnes said:</p> - -<p>"Excuse me, sir, but how the devil did this happen?"</p> - -<p>"There's been irrigation," said Bordman patiently. "The soil here was -all ocean-bottom, once—it used to be what is called globigerinous -ooze. There's no sand, and no stones. There's only bed-rock and -formerly abyssal mud. And some of it underneath is no longer former. -It's globigerinous ooze again."</p> - -<p>He waved his hand at the landscape. It had been remarkably tidy, once. -Every square foot of ground had been cultivated. The highways were of -limited width, and the houses were neat and trim. It was, perhaps, the -most completely civilized landscape in the galaxy. Bordman added:</p> - -<p>"You said the stuff felt like soap. In a way it's acting like soap. It -lies on slightly slanting, effectively smooth rock, like a soap-cake on -a sheet of metal that's tilted a bit. And that's the trouble. So long -as a cake of soap is dry on the bottom it doesn't move. Even if you -pour water on top, like rain, the top will wet, and the water will flow -off, but the bottom won't wet until all the soap is dissolved away. -While that was the process here, everything was all right. But they've -been irrigating."</p> - -<p>They passed a row of neat cottages facing the road. One had collapsed -completely. The others looked absolutely normal. The bolster-truck went -on.</p> - -<p>Bordman said, frowning:</p> - -<p>"They wanted the water to go into the soil, so they arranged it. A -little of that did no harm. Plants growing dried it out again. One tree -evaporates thousands of gallons a day in a good trade-wind. There were -some landslides in the early days, especially when storm-swells pounded -the cliffs, but on the whole the ground was more firmly anchored when -first cultivated than it had been before the colonists came."</p> - -<p>"But irrigation? The sea's not fresh, is it?"</p> - -<p>"Water-freshening plants," said Bordman drily. "Ion-exchange systems. -They installed them and had all the fresh water they could wish for. -And they wished for a lot. They deep-ploughed, so the water would sink -in. They dammed the water-courses. What they did amounted to something -like boring holes in that cake of soap I used for an illustration just -now. Water went right down to the bottom. What would happen then?"</p> - -<p>Barnes said:</p> - -<p>"Why the bottom would get wet—and the soap would slide! As if it were -greased!"</p> - -<p>"Not greased," corrected Bordman. "Soaped. Soap is viscous. That's -different, and a lucky difference, too. But the least vibration would -encourage movement. And it does. So the population is now walking on -eggs. Worse, it's walking on the equivalent of a cake of soap which -is getting wetter and wetter on the bottom. It's already sliding as -a viscous substance does, reluctantly. But in spite of the oil-slick -they're trying to keep in place upwind there's still some battering -from the sea. There are still some vibrations in the bed-rock. And so -there's a slow, gentle, gradual sliding."</p> - -<p>"And they figure," said Barnes, "that locking onto a ship with the -landing-grid might be like an earthquake." He stopped. "An earthquake, -now—"</p> - -<p>"Not much vulcanism on this planet," Bordman told him. "But of course -there are tectonic quakes occasionally. They made this island."</p> - -<p>Barnes said uneasily:</p> - -<p>"I don't think, sir, that I'd sleep well if I lived here."</p> - -<p>"You are living here for the moment. But at your age I think you'll -sleep."</p> - -<p>The bolster-truck turned, following the highway. The road was very -even, and the motion of the truck along it was infinitely smooth. -Its lack of vibration explained why it was permitted to move when -all other vehicles were stopped. But Bordman reflected uneasily that -this did not account for the orders of the Sector Chief forbidding -the rocket-landing of a ship's boat. It was true enough that the -living-surface of the island rested upon slanting stone, and that if -the bottom were wet enough that it could slide off into the sea. It -already had moved. At least one place was moving at four inches per -hour. But that was viscous flow. It would be enhanced by vibration, -and assuredly the hammering of seas upon the windward cliff should be -lessened by any possible means.</p> - -<p>But it did not mean that the sound of a rocket-landing would be -disastrous, nor the straining of a landing-grid as it stopped a -space-ship in orbit and drew it to ground should produce a landslide. -There was something else, though the situation for the island's -civilian population was already serious enough. If any really massive -movement of the ground did begin, viscous or any other, if any -considerable part of the island's surface did begin to move, all of it -would go. And the population would go with it. If there were survivors, -they could be numbered in dozens.</p> - -<p>The tall tamped-earth wall of the Headquarters reserve-area loomed -ahead. Sector Headquarters had been established here when there were -no other inhabitants. Seeds had been broadcast and trees planted while -the Survey buildings were under construction. Headquarters, in fact, -had been built upon an uninhabited planet. But colonists followed in -the wake of Survey-personnel. Wives and children, and then storekeepers -and agriculturists, and presently civilian technicians and ultimately -even politicians arrived as the non-Service population grew. Now Sector -Headquarters was resented because it occupied one-fourth of the island. -It kept too much of the planet's useful surface out of civilian use. -And the island was desperately over-crowded.</p> - -<p>But it seemed also to be doomed.</p> - -<p>As the bolster-truck moved silently toward Headquarters, a hundred-yard -section of the wall collapsed. There was an up-surging of dust, and a -rumbling of falling, hardened dirt. The truck's driver turned white. -A civilian beside the road faced the wall and wrung his hands, and -stood waiting to feel the ground under his feet begin to sweep smoothly -toward the here-distant sea. A post held up a traffic signal some -twenty yards from the gate. It leaned slowly. At a forty-five-degree -tilt it checked and hung stationary. Fifty yards from the gate, a new -crack appeared across the road.</p> - -<p>But nothing more happened. Nothing. Yet one could not be sure that some -critical point had not been passed, so that from now on there would be -a gradual rise in the creeping of the soil toward the ocean.</p> - -<p>Barnes caught his breath.</p> - -<p>"That makes me feel—queer," he said unsteadily. "A shock like that -wall falling could start everything off!"</p> - -<p>Bordman said nothing at all. It had occurred to him that there was no -irrigation of the Survey area. He frowned thoughtfully, even worriedly, -as the truck went inside the Headquarters gate and rolled on over a -winding road through park-like surroundings.</p> - -<p>It stopped before the building which was the Sector Chief's own -headquarters in Headquarters. A large brown dog dozed peacefully on the -plastic-tiled landing at the top of half a dozen steps. When Bordman -got out of the truck the dog got up with a leisurely air. And when -Bordman ascended the steps, with Barnes following him, the dog came -forward with a sort a stately courtesy to do the honors. Bordman said:</p> - -<p>"Nice dog, that."</p> - -<p>He went inside. The dog followed. The interior of the building was -empty, and there was a sort of resonant silence until somewhere a -telewriter began to click.</p> - -<p>"Come along," said Bordman. "The Sector Chief's office is over this -way."</p> - -<p>Young Barnes followed.</p> - -<p>"It seems odd there's no one around," he said. "No secretaries, no -sentries, nobody at all."</p> - -<p>"Why should there be?" asked Bordman in surprise. "The guards at the -gate keep civilians out. And nobody in the Service will bother the -Chief without reason. At least, not more than once!"</p> - -<p>But across the glistening, empty floor there ran an ominous crack.</p> - -<p>They went down a corridor. Voices sounded, and Bordman tracked them, -with the paws of the dog clicking on the floor behind him. He led -the way into a spacious, comfortably non-descript room with high -windows—doors, really—that opened on green lawns outside. The Sector -Chief, Sandringham, leaned back in a chair, smoking. Werner, the other -summoned Senior Officer, sat bolt upright in a chair facing him. -Sandringham waved a hand to Bordman.</p> - -<p>"Back so soon? You're ahead of schedule on all counts! Here's Werner, -back from looking at the fuel-store situation."</p> - -<p>Bordman suddenly looked as if he'd been jolted. But he nodded, and -Werner tried to smile and failed. He was completely white.</p> - -<p>"My pilot from the ship, who's kept aground," said Bordman. "Lieutenant -Barnes. Very promising young officer. Cut my landing-time by hours. -Lieutenant, this is Sector Chief Sandringham and Mr. Werner."</p> - -<p>"Have a seat, Bordman," grunted the Chief. "You too, Lieutenant. How -does it look up on the cliff, Bordman?"</p> - -<p>"I suspect you know as well as I do," said Bordman. "I think I saw a -vision-camera planted up there."</p> - -<p>"True enough. But there's nothing like on-the-spot inspection. Now -you're back, how does it look to you?"</p> - -<p>"Inadequate," said Bordman. "Inadequate to explain some things I've -noticed. But it's a very bad situation. Its degree of badness depends -on the viscosity of the mud at bed-rock all over the island. The -left-behind mud's like pea soup. It looks really bad! But what's the -viscosity at bed-rock with soil pressing down, and I hope drier soil -than at the bottom?"</p> - -<p>Sandringham grunted.</p> - -<p>"Good question. I sent for you, Bordman, when it began to look bad, -before the ground really started sliding. When I thought it might begin -any time. The viscosity averages pretty closely at three times ten to -the sixth. Which still gives us some leeway. But not enough."</p> - -<p>"Not nearly enough!" said Bordman impatiently. "Irrigation should have -been stopped a long while back!"</p> - -<p>The Sector Chief grimaced.</p> - -<p>"I've no authority over civilians. They've their own planetary -government. And do you remember?" He quoted: "'Civilian establishments -and governments may be advised by Colonial Survey officials, and may -make requests of them, but in each case such advice or request is to be -considered on its own merits only, and in no case may it be the subject -of a <i>quid-pro-quo</i> agreement.'" He added grimly: "That means you -can't threaten. It's been thrown at my head every time I've asked them -to cut down their irrigation in the past fifteen years! I advised them -not to irrigate at all, and they couldn't see it. It would increase the -food supply, and they needed more food. So they went ahead. They built -two new sea-water freshening plants only last year!"</p> - -<p>Werner licked his lips. He said in a voice that was higher-pitched than -Bordman remembered:</p> - -<p>"What's happening serves them right! It serves them right!"</p> - -<p>Bordman waited.</p> - -<p>"Now," said Sandringham, "they're demanding to be let into Sector -Headquarters for safety. They say we haven't irrigated, so the ground -we occupy isn't going to slide. They demand that we take them all in -here to sit on their rumps until the rest of the island slides into the -sea or doesn't. If it doesn't, they want to wait here until the soil -becomes stable again because they've quit irrigating."</p> - -<p>"It'd serve them right if we let them in!" cried Werner in shrill -anger. "It's their fault that they're in this fix!"</p> - -<p>Sandringham waved his hand.</p> - -<p>"Administering abstract justice isn't my job. I imagine it's handled in -more competent quarters. I have only to meet the objective situation. -Which is plenty! Bordman, you've handled swamp-planet situations. What -can be done to stop the sliding of the island's soil before it all goes -overboard?"</p> - -<p>"Not much, offhand," said Bordman. "Give me time and I'll manage -something. But a really bad storm, with high seas and plenty of rain, -might wipe out the whole civilian colony. That viscosity figure is -close to hopeless, if not quite."</p> - -<p>The Sector Chief looked impassive.</p> - -<p>"How much time does he have, Werner?"</p> - -<p>"None!" said Werner shrilly. "The only possible thing is to try to -move as many people as possible to the solid ground in the Arctic! -The boats can be crowded—the situation demands it! And if the two -space-craft in orbit are sent to collect a fleet, and as many people as -possible are moved at once, there may be some survivors!"</p> - -<p>Bordman spread out his hands.</p> - -<p>"I'm wondering," he observed, "what the really serious problem is. -There's more than sliding soil the matter! Else you would—I'm sure -Lieutenant Barnes has thought of this—else you would let the civilian -population into Headquarters to sit on its rump and wait for better -times."</p> - -<p>Sandringham glanced at young Barnes, who flushed hotly at being noticed.</p> - -<p>"I'm sure you have good reasons, sir," he said, embarrassed.</p> - -<p>"I have several," said the Sector Chief drily. "For one thing, so long -as we refuse to let them in, they're reassured. They can't imagine we'd -let them drown. But if we invited them in they'd panic and fight to get -in first. There'd be a full-scale slaughter right there! They'd be sure -disaster was only minutes off. Which it would be!"</p> - -<p>He paused and glanced from one to the other of the senior officers.</p> - -<p>"When I sent for you," he said, "I meant you, Bordman, to take -care of the possible sliding. I meant for Werner, here, to do the -public-relations job of scaring the civilians just enough to make them -let it be done. It's not so simple, now!"</p> - -<p>He drew a deep breath.</p> - -<p>"It's pure chance that this is a Sector Headquarters. Or else it's -Providence. We'll find that out later! But ten days ago it was -discovered that an instrument had gone wrong over in the ship-fuel -storage area. It didn't register when a tank leaked. And a tank did -leak. You know ship-fuel is harmless when it's refrigerated. You know -what it's like when it's not. Dissolved in soil-moisture, it's not only -catalyzed to explosive condition, but it's a hell of a corrosive, and -it's eaten holes in some other tanks—and can you imagine trying to do -anything about that?"</p> - -<p>Bordman felt a sensation of incredulous shock. Werner wrung his hands.</p> - -<p>"If I could only find the man who made that faulty tank!" he said -thickly. "He's killed all of us! Unless we get to solid ground in the -Arctic!"</p> - -<p>The Sector Chief said:</p> - -<p>"That's why I won't let them in, Bordman. Our storage tanks go down to -bed-rock. The leaked fuel—warmed up, now—is seeping along bed-rock -and eating at other tanks, besides being absorbed generally by the soil -and dissolving in the groundwater. We've pulled all personnel out of -all the area it could have seeped down to."</p> - -<p>Bordman felt slightly cold at the back of his neck.</p> - -<p>"I suspect," he said, "that they came out on tip-toe, holding their -breaths, and they were careful not to drop anything or scrape their -chairs when they got up to leave. I would have! Anything could set it -off. But it is bound to go anyhow! Of course! Now I see why we couldn't -make a rocket-landing!"</p> - -<p>The chilly feeling seemed to spread as he realized more fully. When -ship-fuel is refrigerated during its manufacture, it is about as safe -a substance as can be imagined, so long as it is kept refrigerated. -It is an energy-chemical compound, of atoms bound together with -forced-violence linkages. But enormous amounts of energy are required -to force valences upon reluctant atoms. When ship-fuel warms up, or is -catalyzed, it goes on one step beyond the process of its manufacture. -It goes on to the modification the refrigeration prevented. It -changes its molecular configuration. What was stable because it was -cold becomes something which is hysterically unstable because of its -structure. The touch of a feather can detonate it. A shout can set -it off. It is indeed, burned only molecule by molecule in a ship's -engines, being catalyzed to the unstable state while cold at the -very spot where it is to detonate. And since the energy yielded by -detonation is that of the forced bonds, the energy-content of ship-fuel -is much greater than a merely chemical compound can contain. Ship-fuel -contains a measurable fraction of the power of atomic explosive. But it -is much more practical for use on board ship.</p> - -<p>The point now was, of course, that—leaked into the ground and -warmed—practically any vibratory motion would detonate the fuel. -Even dissolved, it can detonate because it is not a chemical but an -energy-release action.</p> - -<p>"A good, drumming, heavy rain," said Sandringham, "which falls on this -end of the island, will undoubtedly set off some hundreds of tons of -leaked ship-fuel. And that ought to scatter and catalyze and detonate -the rest. The explosion should be equivalent to at least a megaton -fusion bomb." He paused, and added with irony. "Pretty situation, -isn't it? If the civilians hadn't irrigated, we could evacuate -Headquarters and let it blow, as it will anyhow. If the fuel hadn't -leaked, we could let in the civilians until the island's soil decides -what it's going to do. Either would be a nasty situation, but the -combination..."</p> - -<p>Werner said shrilly:</p> - -<p>"Evacuation to the Arctic is the only possible answer! Some people can -be saved! Some! I'll take a boat and equipment and go on ahead and get -some sort of refuge ready—"</p> - -<p>There was dead silence. The brown dog who had followed Bordman from -the outer terrace, now yawned loudly. Bordman reached over and -absent-mindedly scratched his ears. Young Barnes swallowed.</p> - -<p>"Beg pardon, sir," he said. "What's the weather forecast?"</p> - -<p>"Continued fair," said Sandringham pleasantly. "That's why I had -Bordman and Werner come down. Three heads are better than one. I've -gambled their lives on their brains."</p> - -<p>Bordman continued to scratch the brown dog's ears. Werner licked his -lips. Young Barnes looked from one to another of them. Then he looked -back at the Sector Chief.</p> - -<p>"Sir," he said. "I—I think the odds are pretty good. Mr. Bordman, -sir—he'll manage!"</p> - -<p>Then he flushed hotly at his own presumption in saying something -consoling to a Senior Chief. It was comparable to telling him how to -top off his vacuum-suit tanks.</p> - -<p>But the Sector Chief nodded in grave approval and turned to Bordman to -hear what he had to say.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>The leeward side of the island sloped gently into the water. From -a boat offshore—say, a couple of miles out—the shoreline looked -low and flat and peaceful. There were houses in view, and boats -afloat. But they were much smaller than those that had been towing a -twenty-mile-long oil-slick out to sea. These boats did not ply back -and forth. Most of them seemed anchored. On some of them there was -activity. Men went overboard, without splashing, and brought things -up from the ocean bottom and dumped them inside the hulls. At long -intervals men emerged from underwater and sat on the sides of the boats -and smoked with an effect of leisure.</p> - -<p>The sun shone, and the land was green, and a seeming of -vast tranquility hung over the whole seascape. But the small -Survey-personnel recreation-boat moved in toward the shore, and the -look of things changed. At a mile, a mass of green that had seemed to -be trees growing down to the water's edge became a thicket of tumbled -trunks and overset branches where a tree-thicket had collapsed. At half -a mile the water was opaque. There were things floating in it: the -roof of a house, the leaves of an ornamental shrub, with nearby its -roots showing at the surface, washed clean. A child's toy bobbed past -the boat. It looked horribly pathetic. There were the exotic planes -and angles of three wooden steps, floating in the ripples of the great -ocean.</p> - -<p>"Ignoring the imminent explosion of the fuel-store," said Bordman, "we -need to find out something about what has to be done to the soil to -stop its creeping. I hope you remembered, Lieutenant, to ask a great -many useless questions."</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir," said Barnes. "I tried to. I asked everything I could think -of."</p> - -<p>"Those boats yonder?"</p> - -<p>Bordman indicated a boat from which something like a wire basket -splashed into the water as he gestured.</p> - -<p>"A garden-boat, sir," said Barnes. "On this side of the island the -sea-bottom slopes so gradually that there are sea-gardens on the -bottom. Shellfish from Earth do not thrive, sir, but there are edible -sea-plants. The gardeners cultivate them as on land."</p> - -<p>Bordman reached overside and carefully took his twentieth sample of the -sea-water. He squinted, and estimated the distance to shore.</p> - -<p>"I shall try to imagine someone wearing a diving-mask and using a hoe," -he said drily. "What's the depth here?"</p> - -<p>"We're half a mile out, sir," said Barnes. "It should be about sixty -feet. The bottom seems to have about a three per cent grade, sir. -That's the angle of repose of the mud. There's no sand to make a -steeper slope possible."</p> - -<p>"Three per cent's not bad!"</p> - -<p>Bordman looked pleased. He picked up one of his earlier samples and -tilted it, checking the angle at which the sediment came to rest. The -bottom mud, here, was essentially the same as the soil of the land. But -the soil of the land was definitely colloid. In sea-water, obviously, -it sank because of the salinity which made suspension difficult.</p> - -<p>"You see the point, eh?" he asked. When Barnes shook his head, -Bordman explained, "Probably for my sins I've had a good deal to do -with swamp-planets. The mud of a salt-swamp is quite different from -a fresh-water swamp. The essential trouble with the people ashore is -that by their irrigation they've contrived an island-wide swamp which -happens to be upside down, the swamp at the bottom. So the question is, -can it acquire the properties of a salt-swamp instead of a fresh-water -swamp without killing all the vegetation on the surface? That's why I'm -after these samples. As we go inshore the water should be fresher, on a -shallowing shore like this with drainage in this direction."</p> - -<p>He gestured to the Survey private at the stern of the boat.</p> - -<p>"Closer in, please."</p> - -<p>Barnes said:</p> - -<p>"Sir, motorboats are forbidden inshore. The vibrations."</p> - -<p>Bordman shrugged.</p> - -<p>"We will obey the rule. I've probably samples enough. How far out do -the mudflats run, at the surface?"</p> - -<p>"About two hundred yards at the surface, sir. The mud's about the -consistency of thick cream. You can see where the ripples stop, sir."</p> - -<p>Bordman stared. He turned his eyes away.</p> - -<p>"Er—sir," said Barnes unhappily. "May I ask—?"</p> - -<p>Bordman said drily:</p> - -<p>"You may. But the answer's pure theory. This information will do no -good at all unless all the rest of the problem we face is solved. -However, solving the rest of the problem will do no good if this part -remains unsolved. You see?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir. But the other parts seem more urgent."</p> - -<p>Bordman shrugged.</p> - -<p>There was a shout from a nearby boat. Men were pointing ashore. Bordman -jerked his eyes to the shoreline.</p> - -<p>A section of seemingly solid ground moved slowly toward the water. Its -forefront seemed to disintegrate, and a slow-moving swell moved out -over the rippleless border of the sea, where mudbanks like thick cream -reached the surface.</p> - -<p>The moving mass was a good half-mile in width. Its outer edge dissolved -in the sea, and the top tilted, and green vegetation leaned down-wind -and subsided into the water. It was remarkably like the way an ingot -of non-ferrous metal slides into the pool made by its own melting.</p> - -<p>But the aftermath was somehow horrifying. When the tumbled soil was -all dissolved and the grass undulated like a floating meadow on the -water, there remained a jagged shallow gap in the land-bank. There were -irregularities: vertical striations and unevennesses in the exposed, -broken soil.</p> - -<p>Bordman snatched up glasses and put them to his eyes. The shore seemed -to leap toward him. He saw the harsh outlines of the temporary cliff -go soft. The bottom ceased to look like soil. It glistened. It moved -outward in masses which grew rounder as they swelled. They flowed -after the now-vanished fallen stuff, into the water. The top-soil was -suddenly undercut. The wetter material under it flowed away, leaving -a ledge which bore carefully tended flowering shrubs—Bordman could -see specks of color which were their blossoms—and a brightly-colored, -small, trim house in which some family had lived.</p> - -<p>The flow-away of the deeper soil made a greater, more cavernous hollow -beneath the surface. It began to collapse. The house teetered, fell, -smashed. More soil dropped down, and more, and more.</p> - -<p>Presently there was a depression, a sort of valley leading inland away -from the sea, in what had been a rampart of green at the water's edge. -It was still green, but through the glasses Bordman could see that -trees had fallen, and a white-painted fence was splintered. And there -was still movement.</p> - -<p>The movement slowed and slowed, but it was not possible to say when -it stopped. In reality, it did not stop. The island's soil was still -flowing into the ocean.</p> - -<p>Barnes drew a deep breath.</p> - -<p>"I thought that was it, sir," he said shakily. "I mean—that the whole -island would start sliding."</p> - -<p>"The ground's a bit more water-soaked down here," Bordman said. "Inland -the bottom-soil's not nearly as fluid as here. But I'd hate to have a -really heavy rainfall right now!"</p> - -<p>Barnes' mind jerked back to the Sector Chief's office.</p> - -<p>"The drumming would set off the ship-fuel?"</p> - -<p>"Among other things," said Bordman. "Yes." Then he said abruptly: -"How good are you at precision measurements? I've messed around on -swamp-planets. I know a bit too much about what I ought to find, which -is not good for accuracy. Can you take these bottles and measure the -rate of sedimentation and plot it against salinity?"</p> - -<p>"Y-yes, sir. I'll try."</p> - -<p>"If we had soil-coagulants enough," said Bordman, "we could handle that -damned upside-down swamp the civilians have so carefully made here. But -we haven't got it! The freshened sea-water they've been irrigating with -is practically mineral-free! I want to know how much mineral content -in the water would keep the swamp-mud from acting like wet soap. It's -entirely possible that we'd have to make the soil too salty to grow -anything, in order to anchor it. But I want to know!"</p> - -<p>Barnes said uncomfortably:</p> - -<p>"Wouldn't you—wouldn't you have to put the minerals in -irrigation-water to get them down to the swamp?"</p> - -<p>Bordman grinned, surprisingly.</p> - -<p>"You've got promise, Barnes! Yes. I would. And it would increase the -rate of slide before it stopped it. Which could be another problem. But -it was good work to think of it! When we get back to Headquarters, you -commandeer a laboratory and make those measurements for me."</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir," said Barnes.</p> - -<p>"We'll start back now," said Bordman.</p> - -<p>The recreation-boat obediently turned. It went out to sea until the -water flowing past its hull was crystal-clear. And Bordman seemed to -relax. On the way they passed more small boats. Many of them were -gardeners' boats, from which men dived with diving-masks to tend or -harvest the cultivated garden-patches not too far down. But many were -pleasure-boats, from double-hulled sailing craft intended purely for -sport, to sturdy, though small, cabin cruisers which could venture -far out to sea, or even around to the windward of the island for -sport-fishing. All the pleasure-craft were crowded—there were usually -some children—and it was noticeable that on each one there were always -some faces turned toward the shore.</p> - -<p>"That," said Bordman, "makes for emotional thinking. These people -know their danger. So they've packed their children and their wives -into these little cockle-shells to try to save them. They're waiting -offshore here to find out if they're doomed regardless. I wouldn't -say—" he nodded toward a delicately designed twin-hull sailer -with more children than adults aboard—"I wouldn't call that a good -substitute for an Ark!"</p> - -<p>Young Barnes fidgeted. The boat turned again and went parallel to the -shore toward where Headquarters land came down to the sea. The ground -was firmer there. There had been no irrigation. Lateral seepage had -done some damage at the edge of the reserve, but the major part of -the shoreline was unbroken, unchanged solid ground, looming above -the beach. There was, of course, no sand at the edge of the water. -There had been no weathering of rock to produce it. When this island -was upraised, its coating of hardened ooze protected the stone, the -lee-side waves merely lapped upon bare, curdled rock. The wharf for -pleasure-boats went out on metal pilings into deep water.</p> - -<p>"Excuse me, sir," said young Barnes, "but—if the fuel blows, it'll be -pretty bad, won't it?"</p> - -<p>"That's the understatement of the century," Bordman commented. "Yes. It -will. Why?"</p> - -<p>"You've something in mind to try to save the rest of the island. Nobody -else seems to know what to do. If—if I may say so, sir, your safety is -pretty important. And you could do your work on the cliffs, and—if I -could stay at Headquarters and—"</p> - -<p>He stopped, appalled at his own presumption in suggesting that he could -substitute for a Senior Officer even as a message-boy, and even for his -convenience or safety. He began to stammer:</p> - -<p>"I m-mean, sir, n-not that I'm capable of it—"</p> - -<p>"Stop stammering," grunted Bordman. "There aren't two separate -problems. There's one which is the compound of the two. I'm staying -at Headquarters to try something on the ship-fuel side, and Werner -will specialize on the rest of the island since he hasn't come up -with anything but shifting people to the ice-pack. And the situation -isn't hopeless! If there's an earthquake or a storm, of course, we'll -be wiped out. But short of one of those calamities, we can save -part of the island. I don't know how much, but some. You make those -measurements. If you're doubtful, get a Headquarters man to duplicate -them. Then give me both sets."</p> - -<p>"Y-yes, sir," said young Barnes.</p> - -<p>"And," said Bordman, "never try to push your ranking officer into a -safe place, even if you're willing to take his risk! Would you like it -if a man under you tried to put you in a safe place while he took the -chance that was yours?"</p> - -<p>"N-no, sir!" admitted the very junior lieutenant. "But—"</p> - -<p>"Make those measurements!" snapped Bordman.</p> - -<p>The boat came into the dock. Bordman got out and went to Sandringham's -office.</p> - -<p>Sandringham was in the act of listening to somebody in the -phone-screen, who apparently was on the thin edge of hysteria. The -brown dog was sprawled asleep on the rug.</p> - -<p>When the man in the vision-screen panted to a stop, Sandringham said -calmly:</p> - -<p>"I am assured that before the soil of the island is too far gone, -measures now in preparation will be applied to good effect. A Senior -Survey Officer is now preparing remedial measures. He is—ah—a -specialist in problems of exactly this nature."</p> - -<p>"But we can't wait!" panted the civilian fiercely. "I'll proclaim a -planetary emergency! We'll take over the reserve-area by force! We have -to—"</p> - -<p>"If you try," Sandringham told him grimly, "I'll mount paralysis-guns -to stop you!" He said with icy precision: "I urged the planetary -government to go easy on this irrigation! You yourself denounced me in -the Planetary Council for trying to interfere in civilian affairs. Now -you want to interfere in Survey affairs! I resent it as much as you -did, and with much better reason!"</p> - -<p>"Murderer!" panted the civilian. "Murderer!"</p> - -<p>Sandringham snapped off the phone-screen. He swung his chair and nodded -to Bordman.</p> - -<p>"That was the planetary president," he said.</p> - -<p>Bordman sat down. The brown dog blinked his eyes open and then got up -and shook himself.</p> - -<p>"I'm holding off those idiots," said the Sector Chief in suppressed -fury. "I daren't tell him it's more dangerous here than outside! If -or when that fuel blows—do you realize that the falling of a single -tree-limb might set off an explosion in the Reserve-area here that -would—But you do know."</p> - -<p>"Yes," admitted Bordman.</p> - -<p>He did know. Some hundreds of tons of ship-fuel going off would destroy -this entire end of the island. And almost certainly the concussion -would produce violent movement of the rest of the island's surface. -But he was uncomfortable about putting forward his own ideas. He was -not a good salesman. He suspected his own opinions until he had proved -them with painstaking care, for fear of having them adopted on his -past record rather than because they were sound. And then, too this -plan involved junior ranks being informed about the proposal. If they -accepted a dubious plan on high authority, and the plan miscarried, -it made them share in the mistake. Which hurt their self-confidence. -Young Barnes, now, would undoubtedly obey any order and accept any hint -blindly, and Bordman honestly did not know why. But as a matter of the -training of junior ranks—</p> - -<p>"About the work to be done," said Bordman, "I imagine the sea-water -freshening plants have closed down?"</p> - -<p>"They have!" said Sandringham. "They insisted on piling them up over my -protests. Now if anybody proposed operating one, they'd scream to high -Heaven!"</p> - -<p>"What was done with the minerals taken out of the sea-water?" Bordman -asked.</p> - -<p>"You know how the fresheners work!" said Sandringham. "They pump -sea-water in at one end, and at the other one pipe yields fresh water, -and the other heavy brine. They dump the heavy brine back overboard -and the fresh water's pumped up and distributed through the irrigation -systems."</p> - -<p>"It's too bad some of the salts weren't stored," said Bordman. "Could a -freshener be started up again?"</p> - -<p>Sandringham stared. Then he said:</p> - -<p>"Oh, the civilians would love that! Now if any man started up a -water-freshener, the civilians would kill him and smash it!"</p> - -<p>"But I think we'll need one. We'll want to irrigate some of the Reserve -area."</p> - -<p>"My God! What for?" demanded Sandringham. He paused. "No! Don't tell -me! Let me try to work it out."</p> - -<p>There was silence. The brown dog blinked at Bordman. He held out his -hand. The dog came sedately to him and bent his head to be scratched.</p> - -<p>After a considerable time, the Sector Chief growled:</p> - -<p>"I give up. Do you want to tell me?"</p> - -<p>Bordman nodded. He said:</p> - -<p>"In a sense, the trouble here is that there's a swamp underground, made -by irrigation. It slides. It's really a swamp upside down. On Soris -II we had a very odd problem, only the swamp was right-side-up there. -We'd several hundred square miles of swamp that could be used if we -could drain it. We built a soil-dam around it. You know the trick. -You bore two rows of holes twenty feet apart and put soil-coagulant -in them. It's an old, old device. They used it a couple of hundred -years ago back on Earth. The coagulant seeps out in all directions and -coagulates the dirt. Makes it water-tight. It swells with water and -fills the space between the soil-particles. In a week or two there's a -water-tight barrier, made of soil, going down to bed-rock. You might -call it a coffer-dam. No water can seep through. On Soris II we knew -that if we could get the water out of the mud inside this coffer-dam, -we'd have cultivable ground."</p> - -<p>Sandringham said skeptically:</p> - -<p>"But it called for ten years' pumping, eh? When mud doesn't move, -pumping isn't easy!"</p> - -<p>"We wanted the soil," said Bordman. "And we didn't have ten years. The -Soris II colony was supposed to relieve population-pressure on another -planet. The pressure was terrific. We had to be ready to receive some -colonists in eight months. We had to get the water out quicker than it -could be pumped. And there was another problem mixed up with it. The -swamp vegetation was pretty deadly. It had to be gotten rid of, too. So -we made the dam and—well—took certain measures, and then we irrigated -it. With water from a nearby river. It was very ticklish. But we had -dry ground in four months, with the swamp-vegetation killed and turning -back to humus."</p> - -<p>"I ought to read your reports," said Sandringham dourly. "I'm too busy, -ordinarily. But I should read them. How'd you get rid of the water?"</p> - -<p>Bordman told him. The telling required eighteen words.</p> - -<p>"Of course," he added, "we picked a day when there was a strong wind -from the right quarter."</p> - -<p>Sandringham stared at him. Then he said:</p> - -<p>"But how does that apply here? It was sound enough, though I'd never -have thought of it. But what's it got to do with the situation here?"</p> - -<p>"This swamp, you might say," said Bordman, "is underground. But there's -forty feet, on an average, of soil on top."</p> - -<p>He explained what difference that made. It took him three sentences to -make the difference clear.</p> - -<p>Sandringham leaned back in his chair. Bordman scratched the dog, -somewhat embarrassed. Sandringham thought.</p> - -<p>"I do not see any possible chance," said Sandringham distastefully, "of -doing it any other way. I would never have thought of that! But I'm -taking part of the job out of your hands, Bordman."</p> - -<p>Bordman said nothing. He waited.</p> - -<p>"Because," said Sandringham, "you're not the man to put over to the -civilians what they must believe. You're not impressive. I know -you, and I know you're a good man in a pinch. But this pinch needs -a salesman. So I'm going to have Werner make the—er—pitch to the -planetary government. Results are more important than justice, so -Werner will front this affair."</p> - -<p>Bordman winced a little. But Sandringham was right. He didn't know how -to be impressive. He could not speak with pompous conviction, which -is so much more convincing than reason to most people. He wasn't the -man to get the cooperation of the non-Service population, because he -could only explain what he knew and believed, and was not practiced in -persuasion. But Werner was. He had the knack of making people believe -anything, not because it was reasonable but because it was oratory.</p> - -<p>"I suppose you're right," acknowledged Bordman. "We need civilian help -and a lot of it. I'm not the man to get it. He is." He did not say -anything about Werner being the man to get credit, whether he deserved -it or not. He patted the dog's head and stood up. "I wish I had a good -supply of soil-coagulant. I need to make a coffer-dam in the reserve -area here. But I think I'll manage."</p> - -<p>Sandringham regarded him soberly as he moved to the door. As he was -about to pass out of it, Sandringham said:</p> - -<p>"Bordman—"</p> - -<p>"What?"</p> - -<p>"Take good care of yourself. Will you?"</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>Therefore Senior Officer Werner, of the Colonial Survey, received his -instructions from Sandringham. Bordman never knew the details of the -instructions Werner got. They were possibly persuasive, or they may -have been menacing. But Werner ceased to argue for the movement of any -fraction of the island's population to the arctic ice-cap, and instead -made frequent eloquent addresses to the planetary population on the -scientific means by which their lives were to be saved. Between the -addresses, perhaps, he sweated cold sweat when a tree sedately tilted -in what had seemed solid soil, or a building settled perceptibly while -he looked at it, or when a section of the island's soil bulged upward.</p> - -<p>Instead, he headed citizens' committees, and grandly gave instructions, -and spoke in unintelligible and therefore extremely scientific terms -when desperately earnest men asked for explanations. But he was -perfectly clear in what he wanted them to do.</p> - -<p>He wanted drill-holes in the arable soil down to the depth at which the -holes began to close up of themselves. He wanted those holes not more -than a hundred feet apart in lines which slanted at a little less than -forty-five degrees to the gradient of the bed-rock.</p> - -<p>Sandringham checked his speeches, at the rate of four a day. Once -he had Bordman called away from where he supervised some improbable -operations. Bordman was smeared with the island's grayish mud when he -looked into the phone-plate to take the call.</p> - -<p>"Bordman," said Sandringham curtly, "Werner's saying those holes you -want are to be in lines exactly forty-five degrees to the gradient."</p> - -<p>"That—I'd like a little less," said Bordman. "If they slanted three -miles across the grade for every two down-hill, it would be better. I'd -like to put a lot more lines of holes. But there's the element of time."</p> - -<p>"I'll have him explain that he was misquoted," said Sandringham, -grimly. "Three across to two down. How close do you really want those -lines?"</p> - -<p>"As close as possible," said Bordman. "But I've got to have them -quickly. How does the barometer look?"</p> - -<p>"Down a tenth," said Sandringham.</p> - -<p>Bordman said:</p> - -<p>"Damn! Has he got plenty of labor?"</p> - -<p>"All the labor there is," said Sandringham. "And I'm having a road laid -along the cliffs for speed with the trucks. If I dared—and if I had -the pipe—I'd lay a pipe-line."</p> - -<p>"Later," said Bordman tiredly. "If he's got labor to spare, set them -to work turning the irrigation systems hind part before. Make them -drainage systems. Use pumps. So if rain does come it won't be spread -out on the land by all the pretty ditches. So it will be gathered -instead and either flung back over the cliffs or else drained down-hill -without getting a chance to sink into the ground. For the time being, -anyhow."</p> - -<p>Sandringham said:</p> - -<p>"Has it occurred to you what a good, pounding rain would do to -Headquarters, and consequently to public confidence on this island, and -therefore to the attempt of anybody to do anything but wring his hands -because he was doomed?"</p> - -<p>Bordman grimaced.</p> - -<p>"I'm irrigating, here. I've got a small-sized lake made, and an ice -coffer-dam, and the water-freshener is working around the clock. If -there is labor, tell 'em to fix the irrigation systems into drainage -layouts. That'd cheer them, anyhow."</p> - -<p>He was very weary. There is a certain exhausting quality in the need to -tell other men to do work which may cause them to be killed. The fact -that one would certainly be killed with them did not lessen the tension.</p> - -<p>He went back to his work. And it definitely seemed to be as purposeless -as any man's work could possibly be. Down-grade from the now thoroughly -deserted area in which ship-fuel tanks had leaked—quite far -down-grade—he had commandeered all the refrigeration equipment in the -warehouses. Since refrigeration was necessary for fuel-storage, there -was a great deal. He had planted iron pipes in the soil, and circulated -refrigerant in it. Presently there was a wall of solidly frozen soil -which was shaped like a shallow U. In the curved part of that U he'd -siphoned out a lake. A peristaltic pump ran sea-water from the island's -lee out upon the ground—where it instantly turned to mud—and another -peristaltic pump sucked the mud up again and delivered it down-grade -beyond the line of freezing-pipes. It was in fact a system of hydraulic -dredging such as is normally performed in rivers and harbors. But when -top-soil is merely former abyssal mud it is an excellent way to move -dirt. Also, it does not require anybody to strike blows into soil -which may be explosive when one has gotten down near bed-rock, and in -particular there are no clanking machines.</p> - -<p>But it was hair-raising.</p> - -<p>In one day, though, he had a sizeable lake pumped out. And he pumped -it out to emptiness, smelling the water as it went down to a greater -depth below the previous ground surface. At the end of the day he -shivered and ordered pumping ended for the time.</p> - -<p>Then he had a brine-pipe laid around a great circuit, to the -Headquarters ground which was up-grade from the now-deserted square -mile or so in which the fuel-tanks lay deep in the soil. And here, -also, he performed excavation without the sound of hammer, shovel, or -pick. He thrust pipes into the ground, and they had nozzles at the end -which threw part of the water backward. So that when sea-water poured -into them it thrust them deeper into the ground by the backward jet -action. Again the fact that the soil was abyssal mud made it possible. -The nozzles floated up much grayish mud, but they bored ahead down to -bed-rock, and there they lay flat and tunneled to one side and the -other, the tunnels they made being full of water at all times.</p> - -<p>From those tunnels, as they extended, an astonishing amount of -sea-water seeped out into the soil near bed-rock. But it was sea-water. -It was heavily mineralized. It is a peculiarity of sea-water that it -is an electrolyte, and it is a property of electrolytes that they -coagulate colloids, and discourage the suspension of small solid -particles which are on the border-line of being colloids. In fact, -the water of the ocean of Canna III turned the ground-soil into good, -honest mud which did not feel at all soapy, and through which it -percolated with a surprising readiness.</p> - -<p>Young Barnes supervised this part of the operation, once it was begun. -He shamed the Survey-personnel assigned to him into perhaps excessive -self-confidence.</p> - -<p>"He knows what he's doing," he said firmly. "Look here! I'll take that -canteen. It's fresh water. Here's some soap. Wet it in fresh water and -it lathers. See? It dissolves. Now try to dissolve it in sea-water! -Try it! See? They put salt in the boiled stuff to separate soap out, -when they make it!" He'd picked up that item from Bordman. "Sea-water -won't soften the ground. It can't! Come on, now, let's get another pipe -putting more salt water underground!"</p> - -<p>His workmen did not understand what he was doing, but they labored -willingly because it was for a purpose.... And down-hill, in the -hydraulic-dredged-out lake, water came seeping in, in the form of mud. -And another pipe came up from the sea-shore. It was a rather small -pipe, and the personnel who laid it were bewildered. Because there was -a water-freshening plant down there and all the fresh water was poured -back overboard, while the brine, saturated with salts from the ocean, -unable to dissolve a single grain of anything, was being used to fill -the small artificial lake.</p> - -<p>The second day Sandringham called Bordman again, and again Bordman -peered wearily into the phone-screen.</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Bordman. "The leaked fuel is turning up. In solution. I'm -trying to measure the concentration by matching specific gravities of -lake-water and brine, and then sticking electrodes in each. The fuel's -corrosive as the devil. It gives a different EMF. Higher than brine of -the same density. I think I've got it in hand."</p> - -<p>"Do you want to start shipping it?" demanded Sandringham.</p> - -<p>"You can begin pouring it down the holes," said Bordman. "How's the -barometer?"</p> - -<p>"Down three-tenths this morning. Steady now."</p> - -<p>"Damn!" said Bordman. "I'll set up moulds. Freeze it in plastic bags -the size of the bore-holes so it will go down. While it's frozen they -can even push it down deep."</p> - -<p>Sandringham said grimly:</p> - -<p>"There's been more damned technical work done with ship-fuel than any -other substance since time began. But remember that the stuff can still -be set off, even dissolved in water! Its sensitivity goes down, but -it's not gone!"</p> - -<p>"If it were," said Bordman drearily, "you could invite in the civilian -population to sit on its rump. I've got something like forty tons of -ship-fuel in brine solution in this lake I pumped out! But it's in -five thousand tons of brine. We don't speak above a whisper when we're -around it. We walk in carpet-slippers and you never saw people so -polite! We'll start freezing it."</p> - -<p>"How can you handle it?" demanded Sandringham apprehensively.</p> - -<p>"The brine freezes at minus thirty," said Bordman. "In one per cent -solution it's only five per cent sensitive at minus nineteen. We're -handling it at minus nineteen. I think I'll step up the brine and chill -it a little more."</p> - -<p>He waved a mud-smeared hand and went away.</p> - -<p>That day, bolster-trucks began to roll out of Survey Headquarters. They -rolled very smoothly, and they trailed a fog of chilled air behind -them. And presently there were men with heavy gloves on their hands -taking long things like sausages out of the bolster-trucks and untying -the ends and lowering them down into holes bored in the top-soil until -they reached places where wetness made the holes close up again. Then -the men from Survey pushed those frozen sausages underground still -further by long poles with carefully padded—and refrigerated—ends. -And then they went on to other holes.</p> - -<p>The first day there were five hundred such sausages thrust down into -holes in the ground, which holes to all intents and purposes closed up -behind them. The second day there were four thousand. The third day -there were eight. On the fourth the solution of ship-fuel in brine in -the lake was so thin that it did not give enough EMF in the little -battery-cell to show how much corrosive substance there was in the -brine. It was not mud any longer. Brine flowed at the top of bed-rock, -and it left the mud behind it, because salt water hindered the -suspension of former globigerinous ooze particles. It was practically -colloid. Salt water almost coagulated it.</p> - -<p>The brine flowing from the salt-water tunnels upwind showed no more -ship-fuel in it. Bordman called Sandringham and told him.</p> - -<p>"I can call in the civilians," said Sandringham. "You've mopped up the -leaked stuff! It couldn't have been done—"</p> - -<p>"Not anywhere but here with bed-rock handy just underneath and -slanting," admitted Bordman. "Tell them they can come if they want to. -They'll sort of drift in. I want to tap some more ship-fuel for the -rest of those bore-holes."</p> - -<p>Sandringham hesitated.</p> - -<p>"Twenty thousand holes," said Bordman tiredly. "Each one had a -six-hundred pound block of frozen saturated brine dumped in it with -roughly one pound of ship-fuel in solution. We've gone that far. Might -as well go the rest of the way. How's the barometer?"</p> - -<p>"Up a tenth," said Sandringham. "Still rising."</p> - -<p>Bordman blinked at him, because he had trouble keeping his eyes open.</p> - -<p>"Let's ride it, Sandringham!"</p> - -<p>Sandringham hesitated. Then he said:</p> - -<p>"Go ahead."</p> - -<p>Bordman waved his arms at his associates, whom he admired with great -fervor in his then-foggy mind, because they were always ready to work -when it was needed, and it had not stopped being needed for five days -running. He explained that there were only three more miles of holes to -be filled up, and therefore they would just draw so much of ship-fuel -and blend it carefully with an appropriate amount of chilled brine and -then freeze it in appropriate sausages....</p> - -<p>Young Lieutenant Barnes said:</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir. I'll take care of it."</p> - -<p>Bordman said:</p> - -<p>"Barometer's up a tenth." His eyes did not quite focus. "All right, -Lieutenant. Go ahead. Promising young officer. Excellent. I'll sit down -here for jusht a moment."</p> - -<p>When Barnes came back, Bordman was asleep. And a last one hundred and -fifty frozen sausages of brine and ship-fuel went out of Headquarters -within a matter of hours. Then a vast quietude settled down everywhere.</p> - -<p>Young Barnes sat beside Bordman, menacing anybody who even thought of -disturbing him. When Sandringham called for him Barnes went to the -phone-plate.</p> - -<p>"Sir," he said with vast formality. "Mr. Bordman went five days without -sleep. His job's done. I won't wake him, sir!"</p> - -<p>Sandringham raised his eyebrows.</p> - -<p>"You won't?"</p> - -<p>"I won't, sir!" said young Barnes.</p> - -<p>Sandringham nodded.</p> - -<p>"Fortunately," he observed, "nobody's listening. You are quite right."</p> - -<p>He snapped the connection. And then young Barnes realized that he had -defied a Sector Chief, which is something distinctly more improper in -a junior officer than merely trying to instruct him in topping off his -vacuum-suit tanks.</p> - -<p>Twelve hours later, however, Sandringham called for him.</p> - -<p>"Barometer's dropping, Lieutenant. I'm concerned. I'm issuing a notice -of the impending storm. Not everybody will crowd in on us, but a great -many will. I'm explaining that the chemicals put into the bottom soil -may not quite have finished their work. If Bordman wakens, tell him."</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir," said Barnes.</p> - -<p>But he did not intend to wake Bordman. Bordman, however, woke of -himself at the end of twenty hours of sleep. He was stiff and sore -and his mouth tasted as if something had kittened in it. Fatigue can -produce a hangover, too.</p> - -<p>"How's the barometer?" he asked when his eyes came open.</p> - -<p>"Dropping, sir. Heavy winds. The Sector Chief has opened the Reserve -Area to the civilians if they wish to come."</p> - -<p>Bordman computed dizzily on his fingers. A more complex instrument was -actually needed, of course. One does not calculate on one's fingers -just how long a one per cent dilute solution of ship-fuel in frozen -brine has taken to melt, and how completely it has diffused through an -upside-down swamp with the pressure of forty feet of soil on top of it, -and therefore its effective concentration and dispersal underground.</p> - -<p>"I think," said Bordman, "it's all right. By the way, did they turn the -irrigation systems hind end to?"</p> - -<p>Young Barnes did not know what this was all about. He had to send for -information. Meanwhile he solicitously plied Bordman with coffee and -food. Bordman grew reflective.</p> - -<p>"Queer," he said. "You think of the damage leaked ship-fuel can do. -Setting off the rest of the store and all. Even by itself it rates -some thousands of tons of TNT. I wonder what TNT was, before it became -a ton-measure of energy? You think of it exploding in one place, and -it's appalling! But think of all that same amount of energy applied -to square miles of upside-down swamp. Hundreds or thousands of miles -of upside-down swamp. D'you know, Lieutenant, on Soris II we pumped a -ship-fuel solution onto a swamp we wanted to drain? Flooded it, and let -it soak until a day came with a nice, strong, steady wind."</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir," said Barnes respectfully.</p> - -<p>"Then we detonated it. We didn't have a one per cent solution. It was -more like a thousandth of one per cent solution. Nobody's ever measured -the speed of propagation of an explosion in ship-fuel, dry. But it's -been measured in dilute solution. It isn't the speed of sound. It's -lower. It's purely a temperature-phenomenon. In water, at any dilution, -ship-fuel goes off just barely below the boiling-point of water. It -doesn't detonate from shock when it's diluted enough to be ionized, but -that takes a hell of a lot of dilution. Have you got some more coffee?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, sir," said Barnes. "Coming up."</p> - -<p>"We floated ship-fuel solution over that swamp, Barnes, and let it -stand. It has a high diffusion-rate. It went down into the mud.... -And there came a day when the wind was right. I dumped a red-hot iron -bar into the swamp-water that had ship-fuel in solution. It was the -damndest sight you ever saw!"</p> - -<p>Barnes served him more coffee, Bordman sipped it, and it burned his -tongue.</p> - -<p>"It went up in steam," he said. "The swamp-water that had the ship-fuel -dissolved in it. It didn't explode, as a mass. They told me later that -it propagated at hundreds of feet per second only. They could see the -wall of steam go marching across the swamp. Not even high-pressure -steam. There was a woosh! and a cloud of steam half a mile high that -the wind carried away. And all the surface-water in the swamp was gone, -and all the poisonous swamp-vegetation parboiled and dead. So—" He -yawned suddenly—"we had a ten-mile by fifty-mile stretch of arable -ground ready for the coming colonists."</p> - -<p>He tried the coffee again. He added reflectively:</p> - -<p>"That trick, it didn't explode the ship-fuel, in a way. It burned it. -In water. It applied the energy of the fuel to the boiling-away of -water. Powerful stuff! We got rid of two feet of water on an average, -counting what came out of the mud. It cost—hm—a fraction of a gram -per square yard."</p> - -<p>He gulped the coffee down. There were men looking at him solicitously. -They seemed very glad to see him awake again. Outside a monstrous bank -of cloud-stuff was visible piling up in the sky. He suddenly blinked at -that.</p> - -<p>"Hello! How long did I sleep, Barnes?"</p> - -<p>Barnes told him. Bordman shook his head to clear it.</p> - -<p>"We'll go see Sandringham," said Bordman. "I'd like to postpone firing -as long as I can, short of having the stuff start draining into the sea -to leeward."</p> - -<p>Several mud-stained men were standing around the place where Bordman -had slept. When he went, still groggy, out to the bolster-truck young -Barnes had waiting, they regarded Bordman in a very respectful manner. -Somebody grunted, "Good to have worked with you, sir," which is about -as much of admiration as anybody would want to hear expressed. These -associates of Bordman in the mopping-up of leaked ship's fuel would be -able to brag of the job at all times and in all places hereafter.</p> - -<p>Then the truck went trundling away in search of Sandringham.</p> - -<p>It found him on the cliffs to the windward side of the island. The -sea was no longer a cerulean blue. It was slaty-color. There were -occasional flecks of white foam on the water four thousand feet below. -There were dark clouds, by then covering practically all the sky. Far -out to sea, there were small craft heading for the ends of the island, -to go around it and ride out the coming storm in its lee.</p> - -<p>Sandringham greeted Bordman with relief. Werner stood close by, opening -and closing his hands jerkily.</p> - -<p>"Bordman!" said the Sector Chief cordially. "We're having a -disagreement, Werner and I. He's confident that the turning of the -irrigation systems hind end to—making them surface-draining systems, -in effect—will take care of the whole situation. Adding the brine -underground, he thinks, will have done a good deal more. He says it'll -be bad, psychologically, for anything more to be done. He didn't speak -of it, and it would injure public confidence in the Survey."</p> - -<p>Bordman said curtly:</p> - -<p>"The only thing that will make a permanent difference on this island -is for the water-fresheners to be a little less efficient. Barnes has -the figures. He computed them from some measurements I had him make. If -the water-freshener plants don't take all the sea-minerals out; if they -don't make the irrigation-water so infernally soft and suitable for -hair-washing and the like; if they turn out hard water for irrigation, -this won't happen again. But there's too much water underground now. -We've got to get it out, because a little more's going underground from -this storm, surface-drainage systems or no surface-drainage systems."</p> - -<p>Sandringham pointed to leeward, where a black, thick procession of -human beings trooped toward the Survey area on foot and by every -possible type of vehicle.</p> - -<p>"I've ordered them turned into the ship-sheds and warehouses," said the -Sector Chief. "But of course we haven't shelter for all of them. At a -guess, when they feel safe they'll go back to their homes even through -the storm."</p> - -<p>The sky to windward grew blacker and blacker. There was no longer a -steady flow of wind coming over the cliff's edge. It came in gusts, -now, of extreme violence. They could make a man stagger on his feet. -There were more flecks of white on the ocean's surface.</p> - -<p>"The boats," added Sandringham, "were licked. There simply wasn't -enough oil to maintain the slick. The radio reports were getting -hysterical before I ordered them told that we had it beaten on shore. -They're running for shelter now. I think they'd have stayed out there -trying to hold the slick in place with their tow-line, if I hadn't said -we had matters in hand."</p> - -<p>Werner said, tight-lipped:</p> - -<p>"I hope we have!"</p> - -<p>Bordman shrugged.</p> - -<p>"The wind's good and strong, now," he observed. "Let's find out. You've -got the starting system all set?"</p> - -<p>Sandringham waved his hand toward a high-voltage battery. It was of a -type designed for blasting on airless planets, but that did not matter. -Its cables led snakily for a couple of hundred feet to a very small -pile of grayish soil which had been taken out of a bore-hole, and went -over that untidy heap and down into the ground. Bordman took hold of -the firing-handle. He paused.</p> - -<p>"How about the highways?" he asked. "There might be some steam out of -this hole."</p> - -<p>"All allowed for," said Sandringham. "Go ahead."</p> - -<p>There was a gust of wind strong enough to knock a man down, and a -humming sound in the air, as wind beat upon the four-thousand-foot -cliff and poured over its top. There were gradually rising waves, -below. The sky was gray, the sea slate-colored. Far, far to windward, -the white line of pouring rain upon the water came marching toward the -island.</p> - -<p>Bordman pumped the firing-handle.</p> - -<p>There was a pause, while wind-gusts tore at his garments and staggered -him where he stood. It was quite a long pause.</p> - -<p>Then a vapor came jetting out of the bore-hole. It was perfectly white. -It came out with a sudden burst which was not in any sense explosive, -but was merely a vast rushing of vaporized water. Then, a hundred yards -away, there was a mistiness on the grassy surface. Still farther, a -crack in the surface-soil let out a curtain of white vapor.</p> - -<p>Here and there, everywhere, gouts of steam poured into the air and -tumbled into the storm-wind. It was noticeable that the steam did not -come out as an invisible vapor and condense in mid-air. It poured -out of the ground in clouds, already condensed but thrust out by more -masses of vapor behind it. It was not super-heated steam that came out. -It was simply steam. Harmless steam, like the steam out of the spouts -of tea-kettles. It rose from individual places everywhere. It made a -massive coating of vapor which the storm-wind blew away. In seconds a -half-mile of soil was venting steam. In seconds more a mile. The thick -fleecy vapor swept across the landscape. The storm-wind could only -tumble it and sweep it away.</p> - -<p>In minutes there was no part of the island to be seen at all, save only -the thin line of the cliffs reaching away between dark water on the one -hand and snow-white clouds of vapor on the other.</p> - -<p>"It can't scald anybody, can it?" asked Barnes uneasily.</p> - -<p>"Not," said Bordman, "when it's had to come up through forty feet -of soil. It's been pretty well cooled off in taking up some extra -moisture. It spreads pretty well, doesn't it?"</p> - -<p>The Sector Chief's office had tall windows—doors, really—that looked -out upon green lawn and many trees. Now sheets of rain beat down -outside. Wind whipped at the trees. There was tumult and roaring and -the vibration of gusts of hurricane force. Even the building in which -the Sector Chief's office was vibrated slightly in the wind.</p> - -<p>The Sector Chief beamed. The brown dog came in, looked around the room, -and walked in leisurely fashion toward Bordman. He settled with a sigh -beside Bordman's chair.</p> - -<p>"What I want to know," said Werner, "is, won't this rain put back all -the water the ship-fuel boiled away?"</p> - -<p>Bordman said:</p> - -<p>"Two inches of rain would be a heavy fall, Sandringham tells me. It's -the lack of heavy rains that made the civilians start irrigating. When -you figure the energy-content of ship-fuel, Werner, an appreciable -fraction of the energy in atomic explosive, it's sort of deceptive. -Turn it into thermal units and it gets to be enlightening. We turned -loose, underground, enough heat to boil away two feet of soil-water -under the island's whole surface."</p> - -<p>Werner said sharply:</p> - -<p>"What'll happen when the heat passes up through the soil? It'll kill -the vegetation, won't it?"</p> - -<p>"No," said Bordman mildly. "Because there was two feet of water to -be turned to steam. The bottom layer of the soil was raised to the -temperature of steam at a few pounds pressure. No more. The heat's -already escaped. In the steam."</p> - -<p>The phone-plate lighted. Sandringham snapped it on. A voice made a -report in a highly official voice.</p> - -<p>"Right!" said Sandringham. The highly official voice spoke again. -"Right!" said Sandringham again. "You may tell the ships in orbit that -they can come down now, if they don't mind getting wet." He turned. -"Did you hear that, Bordman? They've bored new cores. There are a few -soggy spots, but the ground's as firm, all over the island, as it was -when the Survey first came here. A very good job, Bordman! A very good -job!"</p> - -<p>Bordman flushed. He reached down and patted the head of the brown dog.</p> - -<p>"Look!" said the Sector Chief. "My dog, there, has taken a liking to -you. Will you accept him as a present, Bordman?"</p> - -<p>Bordman grinned.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>Young Barnes made ready to rejoin his ship. He was very strictly -Service, very stiffly at attention. Bordman shook hands with him.</p> - -<p>"Nice to have had you around, Lieutenant," he said warmly. "You're a -very promising young officer. Sandringham knows it and has made a note -of the fact. Which I suspect is going to put you to a lot of trouble. -There's a devilish shortage of promising young officers. He'll give you -hellish jobs to do, because he has an idea you'll do them."</p> - -<p>"I'll try, sir," said young Barnes formally. Then he said, "May I say -something, sir? I'm very proud to have worked with you. But dammit, -sir, it seems to me that something more than just saying thank you was -due you! The Service ought to—"</p> - -<p>Bordman regarded the young man approvingly.</p> - -<p>"When I was your age," he said, "I'd the very same attitude. But I had -the only reward the Service or anything else could give me. The job -got done. It's the only reward you can expect in the Service, Barnes. -You'll never get any other."</p> - -<p>Young Barnes looked rebellious. He shook hands again.</p> - -<p>"Besides," said Bordman, "there is no better."</p> - -<p>Young Barnes marched back toward his ship in the great metal -criss-cross of girders which was the landing-grid.</p> - -<p>Bordman absently patted his dog as he headed back toward Sandringham's -office for his orders to return to his own work.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>So Bordman went back to his wife Riki and the job he'd been working on. -After that there was another job, and another. He received the high -honor of being given the most impossible of the tasks the Survey was -forced to do. Which was deeply satisfying. He regretted that he had to -become relatively inactive when he became Sector Chief.</p> - -<p>But his wife liked it very much. There was assurance, then, that they -would be together for always, and Bordman still had his work and she -could make—again—a home. When one of his daughters was widowed and -came to live with them with her children, Bordman was beautifully -contented. Then he had absolutely everything he wanted. As reward for -a life-time of work and separation, he had the satisfactions—in his -family—that other men enjoyed as a matter of course.</p> - -<p>But sometimes he was embarrassed when his juniors were too respectful. -He didn't think he rated it.</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/bcover.jpg" alt=""> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANET EXPLORER ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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