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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..31eb51a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51102 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51102) diff --git a/old/51102-8.txt b/old/51102-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 4e1ad7b..0000000 --- a/old/51102-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2313 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sentimentalists, by Murray Leinster - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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/license - - -Title: The Sentimentalists - -Author: Murray Leinster - -Release Date: February 1, 2016 [EBook #51102] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SENTIMENTALISTS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - The Sentimentalists - - By MURRAY LEINSTER - - Illustrated by HUNTER - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Science Fiction April 1953. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - You do not always have to go looking for - a guardian angel. He may be looking for - you--but perhaps for somebody else's benefit! - - -Rhadampsicus and Nodalictha were on their honeymoon, and consequently -they were sentimental. To be sure, it would not have been easy for -humans to imagine sentiment as existing between them. Humans would -hardly associate tenderness with glances cast from sets of sixteen -eyes mounted on jointed eye stalks, nor link langorous thrills with -a coy mingling of positronic repulsion blasts--even when the emission -of positron blasts from beneath one's mantle was one's normal personal -mode of locomotion. And when two creatures like Rhadampsicus and -Nodalictha stood on what might be roughly described as their heads and -twined their eye stalks together, so that they gazed fondly at each -other with all sixteen eyes at once, humans would not have thought of -it as the equivalent of a loving kiss. Humans would have screamed and -run--if they were not paralyzed by the mere sight of such individuals. - -Nevertheless, they were a very happy pair and they were very -sentimental, and it was probably a good thing, considered from all -angles. They were still newlyweds on their wedding tour--they had been -married only seventy-five years before--when they passed by the sun -that humans call Cetis Gamma. - -Rhadampsicus noted its peculiarity. He was anxious, of course, for -their honeymoon to be memorable in every possible way. So he pointed it -out to Nodalictha and explained what was shortly to be expected. She -listened with a bride's rapt admiration of her new husband's wisdom. -Perceiving his scientific interest, she suggested shyly that they stop -and watch. - - * * * * * - -Rhadampsicus scanned the area. There were planets--inner ones, and -then a group of gas giants, and then a very cosy series of three outer -planets with surface temperatures ranging from three to seven degrees -Kelvin. - -They changed course and landed on the ninth planet out, where the -landscape was delightful. Rhadampsicus unlimbered his traveling kit and -prepared a bower. Nitrogen snow rose and swirled and consolidated as -he deftly shifted force-pencils. When the tumult subsided, there was a -snug if primitive cottage for the two of them to dwell in while they -waited for Cetis Gamma to accomplish its purpose. - -Nodalictha cried out softly when she entered the bower. She was -fascinated by its completeness. There was even running liquid hydrogen -from a little rill nearby. And over the doorway, as an artistic and -appropriate touch, Rhadampsicus had put his own and Nodalictha's -initials, pricked out in amber chlorine crystals and intertwined within -the symbol which to them meant a heart. Nodalictha embraced him fondly -for his thoughtfulness. Of course, no human would have recognized it as -an embrace, but that did not matter. - -Happily, then, they settled down to observe the phenomenon that Cetis -Gamma would presently display. They scanned the gas giant planets -together, and then the inner ones. - -On the second planet out from the sun, they perceived small biped -animals busily engaged in works of primitive civilization. Nodalictha -was charmed. She asked eager questions, and Rhadampsicus searched -his memory and told her that the creatures were not well known, but -had been observed before. Limited in every way by their physical -constitution, they had actually achieved a form of space travel by -means of crude vehicles. He believed, he said, that the name they -called themselves was "men." - - * * * * * - -The sun rose slowly in the east, and Lon Simpson swore patiently as -he tried for the eighteenth time to get the generator back again in a -fashion to make it work. His tractor waited in the nearby field. The -fields waited. Over in Cetopolis, the scales and storesheds waited, -and somewhere there was doubtless a cargo ship waiting for a spacegram -to summon it to Cetis Gamma Two for a load of _thanar_ leaves. And of -course people everywhere waited for _thanar_ leaves. - -A milligram a day kept old age away--which was not an advertising -slogan but sound, practical geriatric science. But _thanar_ leaves -would only grow on Cetis Gamma Two, and the law said that all habitable -planets had to be open for colonization and land could not be withheld -from market. - -There was too much population back on Earth, anyhow. Therefore the -Cetis Gamma Trading Company couldn't make a planetwide plantation and -keep _thanar_ as a monopoly, but could only run its own plantation for -research and instruction purposes for new colonists. Colonists had to -be admitted to the planet, and they had to be sold land. But there are -ways of getting around every law. - -Lon Simpson swore. The Diesel of his tractor ran a generator. The -generator ran the motors in the tractor's catawheels. But this was -the sixth time in a month that the generator had broken down, and -generators do not break down. - -Lon put it together for the eighteenth time this breakdown, and it -still wouldn't work. There was nothing detectably wrong with it, but he -couldn't make it work. - -Seething, he walked back to his neat, prefabricated house. He picked up -the beamphone. Even Cathy's voice at the exchange in Cetopolis could -not soothe him, he was so furious. - -"Cathy, give me Carson--and don't listen!" he said tensely. - -He heard clickings on the two-way beam. - -"My generator's gone," he said sourly when Carson answered. "I've -repaired it twice this week. It looks like it was built to stop -working! What is this all about, anyhow?" - -The representative of the Cetis Gamma Trading Company sounded bored. - -"You want a new generator sent out?" he asked without interest. "Your -crop credit's still all right--if the fields are in good shape." - -"I want machinery that works!" Lon Simpson snapped. "I want machinery -that doesn't have to be bought four times over a growing season! And I -want it at a decent price!" - -"Look, those generators come out from Earth. There's freight on them. -There's freight on everything that comes out from Earth. You people -come to a developed planet, you buy your land, your machinery, your -house, and you get instruction in agriculture. Do you want the company -to tuck you in bed at night besides? Do you want a new generator or -not?" - -"How much?" demanded Lon. When Carson told him, he hit the ceiling. -"It's robbery! What'll I have left for my crop if I buy that?" - - * * * * * - -Carson's voice was still bored. "If you buy it and your crop's up to -standard, you'll owe the crop plus three hundred credits. But we'll -stake you to next growing season." - -"And if I don't?" demanded Lon. "Suppose I don't give you all my work -for nothing and wind up in debt?" - -"By contract," Carson told him, "we've got the right to finish -cultivating your crop and charge you for the work because we've -advanced you credit on it. Then we attach your land and house for the -balance due. And you get no more credit at the Company stores. And -passage off this planet has to be paid for in cash." He yawned. "Don't -answer now," he said without interest. "Call me back after you calm -down. You'd only have to apologize." - -Lon Simpson heard the click as he began to describe, heatedly, what -was in his mind. He said it anyhow. Then Cathy's voice came from the -exchange. She sounded shocked but sympathetic. - -"Lon! Please!" - -He swallowed a particularly inventive description of the manners, -morals and ancestry of all the directors and employees of the Cetis -Gamma Trading Company. Then he said, still fuming, "I told you not to -listen!" - -His wrongs overcame him again. "It's robbery! It's peonage! They've got -every credit I had! They've got three-quarters of the value of my crop -charged up for replacements of the lousy machinery they sold me--and -now I'll end the growing season in debt! How am I going to ask you to -marry me?" - -"Not over a beamphone, I hope," said Cathy. - -He was abruptly sunk in gloom. - -"That was a slip," he admitted. "I was going to wait until I got paid -for my crop. It looked good. Now--" - -"Wait a minute, Lon," Cathy said. There was silence. She gave somebody -else a connection. - -The phone-beams from the colony farms all went to Cetopolis and -Cathy was one of the two operators there. If or when the colony got -prosperous enough, there would be a regular intercommunication system. -So it was said. Meanwhile, Lon had a suspicion that there might be -another reason for the antiquated central station. - -Cathy said brightly, "Yes, Lon?" - -"I'll come in to town tonight," he said darkly. "Date?" - -"Y-yes," stammered Cathy. "Oh, yes!" - -He hung up and went back out to the field and the tractor. He began to -think sourly of a large number of things all at once. There was a law -to encourage people to leave Earth for colonies on suitable planets. -There was even governmental help for people who didn't have funds -of their own. But if a man wanted to make something of himself, he -preferred to use his own money and pick his own planet and choose his -own way of life. - -Lon Simpson had bought four hectares of land on Cetis Gamma Two. He'd -paid his passage out. He'd given five hundred credits a month for an -instruction course on the Company's plantation, during which time he'd -labored faithfully to grow, harvest, and cure _thanar_ leaves for the -Company's profit. Then he'd bought farm machinery from the Company--and -a house--and very painstakingly had set out to be a colonist on his own. - - * * * * * - -Just about that time, Cathy had arrived on a Company ship and taken up -her duties as beamphone operator at Cetopolis. It was a new colony, -with not more than five thousand humans on the whole planet, all of -them concentrated near the one small town with its plank sidewalks and -prefabricated buildings. Lon Simpson met Cathy, and his labors on his -_thanar_ farm acquired new energy and purpose. - -But he was up against a shrewd organization. His inordinately expensive -farm machinery broke down. He repaired it. After a time it could not -be repaired any longer and he had to buy more. Before the _thanar_ -plants were half grown, he owed more than half his prospective crop for -machinery replacements. - -Now he could see the method perfectly. The Company imported all -machinery. It made that machinery in its own factories, machinery -that was designed to break down. So this year--even if nothing else -happened--Lon would wind up owing more for machinery replacements than -the crop would bring. - -It was not likely that nothing else would happen. Next season he -would start off in debt, instead of all clear, and if the same thing -happened he would owe all his crop and be six thousand credits behind. -By harvest after next, his farm and house could be foreclosed for debt -and he could either try to work for other colonists--who were in the -process of going through the same wringer themselves--or hire out as a -farmhand on the Company's plantation. He would never be able to save -space-fare away from the planet. He would be very much worse off than -the assisted emigrants to other planets, who had not invested all they -owned in land and machinery and agricultural instructions. - -And there was Cathy. She owed for her passage. It would be years before -she could pay that back, if ever. She couldn't live in the farmhand -barracks. They might as well give up thinking about each other. - -It was a system. Beautifully legal, absolutely airtight. Not a thing -wrong with it. The Company had a monopoly on _thanar_, despite the law. -It had all the cultivated land on Cetis Gamma Two under its control, -and its labor problem was solved. Its laborers first paid something -like sixteen thousand credits a head for the privilege of trying to -farm independently for a year or two, and then became farmhands for -the Company at a bare subsistence wage. - -Lon Simpson was in the grip of that system. He had taken the generator -apart and put it back together eighteen times. There was nothing -visibly wrong with it. It had been designed to break down with nothing -visibly wrong with it. If he couldn't repair it, though, he was out -fifteen hundred credits, his investment was wiped out, and all his -hopes were gone. - -He took the generator apart for the nineteenth time. He wondered grimly -how the Company's designers made generators so cleverly that they would -stop working so that even the trouble with them couldn't be figured -out. It was a very ingenious system. - - * * * * * - -Out on the ninth planet, Rhadampsicus explained the situation to his -bride as they waited for the interesting astronomical phenomenon. -They were quite cosy, waiting. Their bower was simple, of course. -Frozen nitrogen walls, and windows of the faint bluish tint of oxygen -ice. Rhadampsicus had grown some cyanogen flower-crystals to make the -place look homelike, and there was now a lovely reflection-pool in -which liquid hydrogen reflected the stars. Cetis Gamma, the local -sun, seemed hardly more than a very bright and very near star--it was -four light-hours away--and it glimmered over the landscape and made -everything quite charming. - -Nodalictha, naturally, would not enter the minds of the male bipeds -on the inner planet. Modesty forbade such a thing--as, of course, the -conscientiousness of a brand-new husband limited Rhadampsicus to the -thoughts of the males among the bipeds. But Nodalictha was distressed -when Rhadampsicus told her of what was occurring among the bipeds. He -guided her thoughts to Cathy, in the beamphone exchange at Cetopolis. - -"But it is terrible!" said Nodalictha in distress when she had absorbed -Cathy's maiden meditations. She did not actually speak in words and -soundwaves. There is no air worth mentioning at seven degrees Kelvin. -It's all frozen. A little helium hangs around, perhaps. Nothing else. -The word for communication is not exactly the word for speech, but it -will do. Nodalictha said, "They love each other! In a cute way, they -are like--like we were, Rhadampsicus!" - -Rhadampsicus played a positron-beam on her in feigned indignation. -If that beam had hit a human, the human would have curled up in a -scorched, smoking heap. But Nodalictha bridled. - -"Rhadampsicus!" she protested fondly. "Stop tickling me! But can't you -do something for them? They are so cute!" - -And Rhadampsicus gallantly sent his thoughts back to the second planet, -where a biped grimly labored over a primitive device. - - * * * * * - -Lon Simpson, staring at the disassembled generator, suddenly blinked. -The grimness went out of his expression. He stared. An idea had -occurred to him. He went over it in his mind. He blew out his breath in -a long whistle. Then, very painstakingly, he did four or five things -that completely ruined the generator for the extremely modest trade-in -allowance he could have gotten for it at the Company store. - -He worked absorbedly for perhaps twenty minutes, his eyes intent. At -the end of that time he had threads of unwound secondary wire stretched -back and forth across a forked stick of _dhil_ weed, and two small -pieces of sheet iron twisted together in an extremely improbable -manner. He connected the ends of the secondary wire to contacts in his -tractor. He climbed into the tractor seat. He threw over the drive -control. - -The tractor lurched into motion. The Diesel wasn't running. But the -tractor rolled comfortably as Lon drove it, the individual motors in -the separate catawheels drawing power from a mere maze of wires across -a forked stick--plus two pieces of sheet iron. There was plenty of -power. - -Lon drove the tractor the rest of the morning and all afternoon with a -very peculiar expression on his face. He understood what he had done. -Now that he had done it, it seemed the most obvious of expedients. He -felt inclined to be incredulous that nobody had ever happened to think -of this particular device before. But they very plainly hadn't. It -was a source of all the electric power anybody could possibly want. -The voltage would depend on the number of turns of copper wire around -a suitably forked stick. The amperage would be whatever that voltage -could put through whatever was hooked to it. - -He no longer needed a new generator for his tractor. He had one. - -He didn't even need a Diesel. - -With adequate power--he'd been having to nurse the Diesel along, -too, lately--Lon Simpson ran his tractor late into the twilight. He -cultivated all the ground that urgently needed cultivation, and at -least one field he hadn't hoped to get to before next week. But his -expression was amazed. It is a very peculiar sensation to discover -that one is a genius. - - * * * * * - -That night, in Cetopolis, he told Cathy all about it. It was a very -warm night--an unusually warm night. They walked along the plank -sidewalks of the little frontier town--as a new colony, Cetis Gamma Two -was a frontier--and Lon talked extravagantly. - -He had meant to explain painfully to Cathy that there was no use in -their being romantic about each other. He'd expected to have to tell -her bitterly that he was doomed to spend the rest of his life adding -to the profits of the Cetis Gamma Trading Company, with all the laws -of the human race holding him in peonage. He'd thought of some very -elegant descriptions of the sort of people who'd worked out the system -in force on Cetis Gamma Two. - -But he didn't. As they strolled under the shiver trees that lined the -small town's highways, and smelled the _chanel_ bushes beyond the -town's limits, and listened to the thin violinlike strains of what -should have been night birds--they weren't; the singers were furry -instead of feathered, and they slept in burrows during the day--as they -walked with linked fingers in the warm and starlit night, Lon told -Cathy about his invention. - -He explained in detail just why wires wound in just that fashion, and -combined with bits of sheet iron twisted in just those shapes, would -produce power for free and forever. He explained how it had to be so. -He marveled that nobody had ever thought of it before. He explained it -so that Cathy could almost understand it. - -"It's wonderful!" she said wistfully. "They'll run spaceships on your -invention, won't they, Lon? And cities? And everything! I guess you'll -be very rich for inventing it!" - -He stopped short and stared at her. He hadn't thought that far ahead. -Then he said blankly: - -"But I'll have to get back to Earth to patent it! And I haven't got the -money to pay one fare, let alone two!" - -"Two?" asked Cathy hopefully. "Why two?" - -"You're going to marry me, aren't you?" he demanded. "I sort of hope -that was all settled." - -Cathy stamped her foot. - -"Hadn't you heard," she asked indignantly, "that such things aren't -taken for granted? Especially when two people are walking in the -starlight and are supposed to be thrilled? It isn't settled--not until -after you've kissed me, anyhow!" - -He remedied his error. - - * * * * * - -Out on the ninth planet, very far away, Nodalictha blushed slightly. -As a bride, she was in that deliciously embarrassing state of -becoming accustomed to discussions which would previously have been -unconventional. - -"They are so quaint!" Then she hesitated and said awkwardly, "The idea -of putting their--their lips together as a sign of affection--" - -Rhadampsicus was amused, as a bridegroom may be by the delightful -innocences of a new wife. He evinced his amusement in a manner no human -being could conceivably have recognized as the tender laugh it was. - -"Little goose!" he said fondly. Of course, instead of a fowl, he -thought of a creature that had thirty-four legs and scales instead of -feathers and was otherwise thoroughly ungooselike. "Little goose, they -do that because they can't do this!" - -And he twined his eye stalks sentimentally about hers. - - * * * * * - -Days passed on Cetis Gamma Two. Lon Simpson cultivated his _thanar_ -fields. But he began to worry. His new power source was more than a -repair for a broken-down tractor. It was valuable. It was riches! He -had in it one of those basic, overwhelmingly important discoveries by -which human beings have climbed up from the status of intelligent -Earthbound creatures to galactic colonists--And a lot of good it had -done them! - -It was a basic principle for power supply that would relieve mankind -permanently of the burden of fuels. The number of planets available -for colonization would be multiplied. The cost of every object made by -human beings would be reduced by the previous cost of power. The price -of haulage from one planet to another would be reduced to a fraction. -Every member of the human race would become richer as a result of -the gadget now attached to Lon Simpson's tractor. He was entitled to -royalties on the wealth he was to distribute. But.... - -He was a _thanar_ farmer on Cetis Gamma Two. His crop was mortgaged. He -could not possibly hope to raise enough money to get back to Earth to -arrange for the marketing of his invention. Especially, he could not -conceivably raise money enough to take Cathy with him. He had riches, -but they weren't available. And something else might happen to ruin him -at any time. - -Something else did. The freezer element of his deep-freeze locker broke -down. He didn't notice it. He had a small kitchen locker in which food -for week-to-week use was stored. He didn't know anything about the -deep-freeze unit that held a whole growing season's supply of food. -The food in it--all imported from Earth and very expensive--thawed, -fermented, spoiled, developed evil smelling gases, and waited for an -appropriate moment to reveal itself as a catastrophe. - -There were other things to worry about at the time. A glacier up at -Cetis Gamma Two's polar region began to retreat, instead of growing -as was normal for the season. There was a remarkable solar prominence -of three days' duration swinging around the equator of the local sun. -There was a meeting of directors of the Cetis Gamma Trading Company, -at which one of the directors pointed out that the normal curve of -increase for profits was beginning to flatten out, and something had -to be done to improve the financial position of the company. Ugly -sun-spots appeared on the northern hemisphere of Cetis Gamma. If there -had been any astronomers on the job, there would have been as much -excitement as a four alarm fire. But there were no astronomers. - -The greatest agitation on the second planet of Cetis Gamma Two was felt -by Lon Simpson. Cathy had made friends with a married woman colonist -who would chaperon her on a visit to Lon's farm, and was coming out -to visit and see the place that was to be the scene of the ineffable, -unparalleled happiness she and Lon would know after they were married. - -She came, she saw, she was captivated. Lon blissfully opened the door -of the house she was to share. He had spent the better part of two days -cleaning up so it would be fit for her to look at. Cathy entered. There -was a dull, booming noise, a hissing, and a bubbling, and then a rank -stench swept through the house and strangled them. - - * * * * * - -The boom, of course, was the bursting open of the deep-freeze locker -from the pressure of accumulated gases within it. The smell was that -of the deep-freeze contents, ten days thawed out without Lon knowing -it. There are very few smells much worse than frozen fish gone very, -very bad in a hot climate. If there are worse smells, they come from -once-frozen eggs bursting from their shells when pressure outside -them is relieved. In this case, trimmings were added by fermenting -strawberries, moldy meat and badly decayed vegetables, all triumphantly -making themselves known at the same instant. - -Cathy gasped and choked. Lon got her out of doors, gasping himself. It -was not difficult to deduce what had happened. - -He opened the house windows from the outside, so the smell could go -away. But he knew despair. - -"I--can't show you the house, Cathy," he said numbly. "My locker went -bad and all the food followed suit." - -"Lon!" wailed Cathy. "It's terrible! How will you eat?" - -Lon began to realize that the matter was more serious than the loss -of an opportunity for a sentimental inspection of the house. He had -dreamed splendidly, of late. He didn't quite know how he was going -to manage it, but since his tractor was working magnificently he had -come to picture himself and Cathy in the rôle of successful colonists, -zestfully growing _thanar_ leaves for the increasing multitudes of -people who needed a milligram a day. - -He'd reverted to the pictured dreams in the Cetis Gamma Trading -Company's advertisements. He'd daydreamed of himself and Cathy as -growing with the colony, thriving as it throve, and ultimately becoming -moderately rich--in children and grandchildren, anyhow--with life -stretching out before them in a sort of rosy glow. He'd negligently -assumed that somehow they would also be rich from the royalties on his -invention. But now he came down to reality. - -His house was uninhabitable for the time being. He could continue -to cultivate his fields, but he wouldn't be able to eat. The local -plant-life was not suitable for human digestion. He had to live on food -imported from Earth. Now he had to buy a new stock from the Company, -and it would bankrupt him. - -With an invention worth more--probably--than the Cetis Gamma Company -itself, if he could realize on it, he still was broke. His crop was -mortgaged. If Carson learned about his substitute for a generator, the -Company would immediately clamp down to get it away from him. - -He took Cathy back to Cetopolis. He feverishly appealed to other -colonists. He couldn't tell them about his generator substitute. If -they knew about it, in time Carson would know. If they used it, Carson -would eventually get hold of a specimen, to send back to Earth for -pirating by the Cetis Gamma Trading Company. All Lon could do was try -desperately to arrange to borrow food to live on until his crop came -in, though even then he wouldn't be in any admirable situation. - -He couldn't borrow food in quantity. Other colonists had troubles, -too. They'd give him a meal, yes, but they couldn't refill his freezer -without emptying their own. Which would compel them to buy more. Which -would be charged against their crops. Which would simply hasten the day -when they would become day-laborers on the Company's _thanar_ farm. - -Lon had about two days' food in the kitchen locker. He determined to -stretch it to four. Then he'd have to buy more. With each meal, then, -his hopes of freedom and prosperity--and Cathy--grew less. - -Of course, he could starve.... - - * * * * * - -Rhadampsicus was enormously and pleasantly interested in what went on -in Cetis Gamma's photosphere. From the ninth planet, he scanned the -prominences with enthusiasm, making notes. Nodalictha tried to take -a proper wifely interest in her husband's hobby, but she could not -keep it up indefinitely. She busied herself with her housekeeping. -She fashioned a carpet of tufted methane fibres and put up curtains -at the windows. She enlarged the garden Rhadampsicus had made, adding -borders of crystallized ammonia and a sort of walkway with a hedge -of monoclinic sulphur which glittered beautifully in the starlight. -She knew that this was only a temporary dwelling, but she wanted -Rhadampsicus to realize that she could make any place a comfortable -home. - -He remained absorbed in the phenomena of the local sun. One great -prominence, after five days of spectacular existence, divided into two -which naturally moved apart and stationed themselves at opposite sides -of the sun's equator. They continued to rotate with the sun itself, -giving very much the effect of an incipient pinwheel. Two other minor -prominences came into being midway between them. Rhadampsicus watched -in fascination. - -Nodalictha came and reposed beside him on a gentle slope of volcanic -slag. She waited for him to notice her. She would not let herself be -sensitive about his interest in his hobby, of course, but she could not -really find it absorbing for herself. A trifle wistfully, she sent her -thoughts to the female biped on the second planet. - -After a while she said in distress, "Rhadampsicus! Oh, they are so -unhappy!" - -Rhadampsicus gallantly turned his attention from the happenings on the -sun. - -"What's that, darling?" - -"Look!" said Nodalictha plaintively. "They are so much in love, -Rhadampsicus! And they can't marry because he hasn't anything edible to -share with her!" - -Rhadampsicus scanned. He was an ardent and sentimental husband. If his -new little wife was distressed about anything at all, Rhadampsicus was -splendidly ready to do something about it. - - * * * * * - -Lon Simpson looked at his kitchen locker. The big deep-freezer was -repaired now. Once a season, a truck came out from Cetopolis and filled -it. The food was costly. A season's supply was kept in deep-freeze. -Once in one or two weeks, one refilled the kitchen locker. It was best -to leave the deep-freeze locker closed as much as possible. But now the -big deep-freeze was empty. He'd cleaned out the ghastly mess in it, and -he had it running again, but he had nothing to put in it. To have it -refilled would put him hopelessly at the Company's mercy, but there was -nothing else to do. - -Bitterly, he called the Trading Company office, and Carson answered. - -"This is Simpson," Lon told him. "How much--" - -"The price for a generator," said Carson, bored, "is the same as -before. Do you want it sent out?" - -"No! My food locker broke down. My food store spoiled. I need more." - -"I'll figure it," replied Carson over the beamphone. He didn't seem -interested. After a moment, he said indifferently, "Fifteen hundred -credits for standard rations to crop time. Then you'll need more." - -"It's robbery!" raged Lon. "I can't expect more than four thousand -credits for my crop! You've got three thousand charged against me now!" - -Carson yawned. "True. A new generator, fifteen hundred; new food -supplies fifteen hundred. If your crop turns out all right, you'll -start the new season with two thousand credits charged up as a loan -against your land." - -Lon Simpson strangled on his fury. "You'll take all my leaves and I'll -still owe you! Then credit for seed and food and--If I need to buy more -machinery, you'll own my farm _and_ crop next crop time! Even if my -crop is good! Your damned Company will own my farm!" - -"That's your lookout," Carson said without emotion. "Being a _thanar_ -farmer was your idea, not mine. Shall I send out the food?" - -Lon Simpson bellowed into the beamphone. He heard clicking, then -Cathy's voice. It was at once reproachful and sympathetic. - -"Lon! Please!" - - * * * * * - -But Lon couldn't talk to her. He panted at her, and hung up. It is -essential to a young man in love that he shine, somehow, in the eyes -of the girl he cares for. Lon was not shining. He was appearing as the -Galaxy's prize sap. He'd invested a sizable fortune in his farm. He was -a good farmer--hard-working and skilled. In the matter of repairing -generators, he'd proved to be a genius. But he was at the mercy of -the Cetis Gamma Company's representative. He was already in debt. If -he wanted to go on eating, he'd go deeper. If he were careful and -industrious and thrifty, the Trading Company would take his crop and -farm in six more months and then give him a job at day-labor wages. - -He went grimly to the kitchen of his home. He looked at the trivial -amount of food remaining. He was hungry. He could eat it all right now. - -If he did-- - -Then, staring at the food in the kitchen locker, he blinked. An idea -had occurred to him. He was blankly astonished at it. He went over and -over it in his mind. His expression became dubiously skeptical, and -then skeptically amazed. But his eyes remained intent as he thought. - -Presently, looking very skeptical indeed, he went out of the house -and unwound more copper wire from the remnant of the disassembled -generator. He came back to the kitchen. He took an emptied tin can -and cut it in a distinctly peculiar manner. The cuts he made were -asymmetrical. When he had finished, he looked at it doubtfully. - -A long time later he had made a new gadget. It consisted of two open -coils, one quite large and one quite small. Their resemblance to each -other was plain, but they did not at all resemble any other coils that -had been made for any other purpose whatsoever. If they looked like -anything, it was the "mobiles" that some sculptors once insisted were -art. - -Lon stared at his work with an air of helplessness. Then he went out -again. He returned with the forked stick that had proved to be a -generator. He connected the wires from that improbable contrivance to -the coils of the new and still more unlikely device. The eccentrically -cut tin can was in the middle, between them. - -There was a humming sound. Lon went out a third time and came back with -a mass of shrubbery. He packed it in the large coil. - -He muttered to himself, "I'm out of my head! I'm crazy!" - -But then he went to the kitchen locker. He put a small packet of frozen -green peas in the tin can between the two coils. - -The humming sound increased. After a moment there was another parcel -of green peas--not frozen--in the small coil. - -Lon took it out. The device hummed more loudly again. Immediately there -was another parcel of green peas in the small coil. He took them out. - -When he had six parcels of green peas instead of one, the mass of -foliage in the large coil collapsed abruptly. Lon disconnected the -wires and removed the debris. The native foliage looked shrunken, -somehow, dried-out. Lon tossed it through the window. - - * * * * * - -He put a parcel of unfrozen green peas on to cook and sat down and held -his head in his hands. He knew what had happened. He knew how. - -The local flora on Cetis Gamma Two naturally contained the same -chemical elements as the green peas imported from Earth. Those elements -were combined in chemical compounds similar, if not identical to, those -of the Earth vegetation. The new gadget simply converted the compounds -in the large coil to match those in the sample--in the tin can--and -assembled them in the small coil according to the physical structure of -the sample. In this case, as green peas. - -The device would take any approximate compound from the large coil and -reassemble it--suitably modified as per sample--in the small coil. -It would work not only for green peas, but for roots, barks, herbs, -berries, blossoms and flowers. - -It would even work for _thanar_ leaves. - -When that last fact occurred to him, Lon Simpson went quietly loony, -trying to figure out how he had come to think of such a thing. He was -definitely crocked, because he picked up the beamphone and told Cathy -all about it. And he was not loony because he told Cathy, but because -he forgot his earlier suspicions of why there was a central station -for beamphones in Cetopolis, instead of a modern direct-communication -system. - -In fact, he forgot the system in operation on Cetis Gamma Two--the -Company's system. It had been designed to put colonists through the -wringer and deposit them at its own farm to be day-laborers forever -with due regard to human law. But it was a very efficient system. - -It took care of strokes of genius, too. - -That night, Carson, listening boredly to the record of all the -conversations over the beamphone during the day, heard what Lon had -told Cathy. He didn't believe it, of course. - -But he made a memo to look into it. - -Rhadampsicus stretched himself. Out on the ninth planet, the weather -was slightly warmer--almost six degrees Kelvin, two hundred and -sixty-odd degrees centigrade below zero--and he was inclined to be -lazy. But he was very handsome, in Nodalictha's eyes. He was seventy -or more feet from his foremost eye stalk to the tip of his least -crimson appendage, and he fluoresced beautifully in the starlight. He -was a very gallant young bridegroom. - -When he saw Nodalictha looking at him admiringly, he said with his -customary tenderness: - -"It was fatiguing to make him go through it, darling, but since you -wished it, it is done. He now has food to share with the female." - -"And you're handsome, too, Rhadampsicus!" Nodalictha said irrelevantly. - -She felt as brides sometimes do on their honeymoons. She was quite -sure that she had not only the bravest and handsomest of husbands, but -the most thoughtful and considerate. - -Presently, with their eye stalks intertwined, he asked softly: - -"Are you weary of this place, darling? I would like to watch the rest -of this rather rare phenomenon, but if you're not interested, we can go -on. And truly I won't mind." - -"Of course we'll stay!" protested Nodalictha. "I want to do anything -you want to. I'm perfectly happy just being with you." - -And, unquestionably, she was. - - * * * * * - -Carson, though bored, was a bit upset by the recorded conversation he'd -listened to. Lon Simpson had been almost incoherent, but he obviously -meant Cathy to take him seriously. And there were some things to back -it up. - -He'd reported his generator hopelessly useless--and hadn't bought a new -one. He'd reported all his food spoiled--and hadn't bought more. Carson -thought it over carefully. The crop inspection helicopter reported -Simpson's fields in much better shape than average, so his tractor was -obviously working. - -Carson asked casual, deadpan questions of other colonists who came -into the Company store. Most of them were harried, sullen and bitter. -They were unanimously aware of the wringer they were being put -through. They knew what the Company was doing to them and they hated -Carson because he represented it. But they did answer Carson's casual -questions about Lon Simpson. - -Yes, he'd tried to borrow food from them. No, they couldn't lend it to -him. Yes, he was still eating. In fact he was offering to swap food. -He was short on fruit and long on frozen green peas. Then he was long -on fruit and frozen green peas and short on frozen sweet corn and -strawberries. No, he didn't want to trade on a big scale. One package -of frozen strawberries was all he wanted. He gave six packages of -frozen peas for it. He gave six packages of frozen strawberries for one -package of frozen sweet corn. He'd swapped a dozen parcels of sweet -corn for one of fillet of flounder, two dozen fillet of flounder for -cigarettes, and fifty cartons of cigarettes for a frozen roast of beef. - -It didn't make sense unless the conversation on the beamphone was -right. If what Lon had told Cathy was true, he'd have his frozen -food locker filled up again by now. He had some sort of device which -converted the indigestible local flora and fauna into digestible -Earth products. To suspect such a thing was preposterous, but Carson -suspected everyone and everything. - -As representative of the Company, Carson naturally did its dirty work. -New colonists bought farms from the central office on Earth and happily -took ship to Cetis Gamma Two. Then Carson put them through their -instruction course, outfitted them to try farming on their own, and -saw to it that they went bankrupt and either starved or took jobs as -farmhands for the Company, at wages assuring that they could never take -ship away again. - -It was a nasty job and Carson did it very well, because he loved it. - -While he still debated Lon's insane boasts to Cathy over the beamphone -system, he prepared to take over the farm of another colonist. That -man had been deeper in debt than Lon, and he'd been less skilled -at repairs, so it was time to gather him in. Carson called him to -Cetopolis to tell him that the Company regretfully could not extend -further credit, would have to take back his farm, house, and remaining -food stores, and finish the cultivation of his _thanar_ leaf crop to -repay itself for the trouble. - -The colonist, however, said briefly: "Go to hell." - - * * * * * - -He started to leave Carson's air-cooled office. Carson said mildly: - -"You're broke. You'll want a job when you haven't got a farm. You can't -afford to tell me to go to hell." - -"You can't take my farm unless my fields are neglected," the colonist -said comfortably. "They aren't. And my _thanar_ leaf crop is going to -be a bumper one. I'll pay off all I owe--and we colonists are planning -to start a trading company of our own, to bring in good machinery and -deal fairly." - -Carson smiled coldly. - -"You forget something," he said. "As representative of the Trading -Company, I can call on you to pay up all your debts at once, if I have -reason to think you intend to try to evade payment. I do think so. I -call on you for immediate payment in full. Pay up, please!" - -This was an especially neat paragraph in the fine print of the -colonists' contract with the Company. Any time a colonist got obstinate -he could be required to pay all he owed, on the dot. And if he had -enough to pay, he wouldn't owe. So the Trading Company could ruin -anybody. - -But this colonist merely grinned. - -"By law," he observed, "you have to accept _thanar_ leaves as legal -tender, at five credits a kilo. Send out a truck for your payment. I've -got six tons in my barn, all ready to turn in." - -He made a most indecorous gesture and walked out. A moment later, he -put his head back in. - -"I forgot," he commented politely. "You said I couldn't afford to -tell you to go to hell. With six tons of _thanar_ leaves on hand, I'm -telling you to--" - -He added several other things, compared to which telling Carson to go -to hell was the height of courtesy. He went away. - -Carson went a little pale. It occurred to him that this colonist was a -close neighbor of Lon Simpson. Maybe Lon had gotten tired of converting -_dhil_ weed and shiver leaves into green peas and asparagus, and had -gotten to work turning out _thanar_. - - * * * * * - -Carson went to Lon's farm. It was a very bad road, and any four-wheeled -vehicle would have shaken itself to pieces on the way. The gyrocar -merely jolted Carson severely. The jolting kept him from noticing how -hot the weather was. It was really extraordinarily hot, and Carson -suffered more because he spent most of his time in an air-conditioned -office. But for the same reason he did not suspect anything abnormal. - -When he reached Lon's farm, he noticed that the _thanar_ leaves were -growing admirably. For a moment, sweating as he was, he was reminded -of tobacco plants growing on Maryland hillsides. The heat and the -bluish-green color of the plants seemed very familiar. But then a -cateagle ran hastily up a tree, out on a branch, and launched its -crimson furry self into midair. That broke the spell of supposedly -familiar things. - -Carson turned his gyrocar in at Lon Simpson's house. There were half -a dozen other colonists around. Two of them drove up with farm trucks -loaded with mixed foliage. They had pulled up, cut off and dragged down -just about anything that grew, and loaded their truck with it. Two -other colonists were loading another cart with _thanar_ leaves, neatly -bundled and ready for the warehouse. - -They regarded Carson with pleased eyes. Carson spoke severely to Cathy. - -"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be on duty at the -beamphone exchange! You can be discharged--" - -Lon Simpson said negligently, "I'm paying her passage. By law, anybody -can pay the passage of any woman if she intends to marry him, and then -her contract with the company is ended. They had rules like that in -ancient days--only they used to pay in tobacco instead of _thanar_ -leaves." - -Carson gulped. "But how will you pay her fare?" He asked sternly. -"You're in debt to the Company yourself." - -Lon Simpson jerked his thumb toward his barn. Carson turned and looked. -It was a nice-looking barn. The aluminum siding set it off against a -backing of shiver trees, _dhil_ and giant _sketit_ growth. Carson's -eyes bugged out. Lon's barn was packed so tightly with _thanar_ leaves -that they bulged out the doors. - -"I need to turn some of that stuff in, anyhow," said Lon pleasantly. -"I haven't got storage space for it. By law you have to buy it at five -credits a kilo. I wish you'd send out and get some. I'd like to build -up some credit. Think I'll take a trip back to Earth." - -At this moment, there was a very peculiar wave of heat. It was not -violent, but the temperature went up about four degrees--suddenly, as -if somebody had turned on a room heater. - -But still nobody looked up at the sun. - - * * * * * - -Rattled, Carson demanded furiously if Lon had converted other local -foliage into _thanar_ leaves, as he'd made his green peas and the -other stuff he'd told Cathy about on the beamphone. Lon tensed, and -observed to the other colonists that evidently all beamphones played -into recorders. The atmosphere became unfriendly. Carson got more -rattled still. He began to wave his arms and sputter. - -Lon Simpson treated him gently. He took him into the house to watch the -converter at work. One of the colonists kept its large coil suitably -stuffed with assorted foliage. There was a "hand" of cured, early--best -quality--_thanar_ leaves in an erratically cut tin can. Duplicates of -that hand of best quality _thanar_ were appearing in the small coil as -fast as they were removed, and fresh foliage was being heaped into the -large coil. - -"We expect," said Lon happily, "to have a bumper crop of the best grade -of _thanar_ this year. It looks like every colonist on the planet will -be able to pay off his debt to the Company and have credit left over. -We'll be sending a committee back to Earth to collect our credits there -and organize an independent cooperative trading company that will bring -out decent machinery and be a competitive buying agency for _thanar_. -I'm sure the Company will be glad to see us all so prosperous." - -It was stifling hot by now, but nobody noticed. The colonists were -much too interested in seeing Carson go visibly to pieces before them. -He was one of those people who seem to have been developed by an -all-wise Providence expressly to be underlings for certain types of -large corporations. Their single purpose in life is to impress their -superiors in the corporation that hires them. But now Carson saw his -usefulness ended. Through his failure, in some fashion, the Company's -monopoly on _thanar_ leaves and its beautiful system of recruiting -labor were ruined. He would be discharged and probably blacklisted. - -If he had looked up toward the western sky, squinted a little, and -gazed directly at the local sun, he would have seen that his private -troubles were of no importance at all. But he didn't. He went -staggering to his gyrocar and headed back for Cetopolis. - -It was a tiny town, with plank streets, a beamphone exchange, and its -warehouses over by the spaceport. It was merely a crude and rather ugly -little settlement on a newly colonized planet. But it had been the -center of an admirable system by which the Cetis Gamma Trading Company -got magnificently rich and dispensed _thanar_ leaf (a milligram a day -kept old age away) throughout all humanity at the very top price the -traffic would bear. And the system was shaky now and Carson would be -blamed for it. - -Behind him, the colonists rejoiced as hugely as Carson suffered. But -none of them got the proper perspective, because none of them looked at -the sun. - -About four o'clock in the afternoon, it got suddenly hotter again, -as abruptly as before. It stayed hotter. Something made Cathy look -up. There was a thin cloud overhead, just the right thickness to act -something like a piece of smoked glass. She could look directly at the -sun through it, examine the disk with her naked eye. - -But it wasn't a disk any longer. Cetis Gamma was a bulging, irregularly -shaped thing twice its normal size. As she looked, it grew larger still. - - * * * * * - -Out on the ninth planet, Rhadampsicus was absorbed in his contemplation -of Cetis Gamma. With nothing to interfere with his scanning, he could -follow the developments perfectly. There had been first one gigantic -prominence, then two, which separated to opposite sides of its equator. -Then two other prominences began to grow between them. - -For two full days, the new prominences grew, and then split, so that -the sun came to have the appearance of a ball of fire surrounded by a -ring of blue-white incandescence. - -Then came instability. Flame geysers spouting hundreds of thousands -of miles into emptiness ceased to keep their formation. They turned -north and south from the equatorial line. The outline of the sun became -irregular. It ceased to be round in profile, and even the appearance -of a ring around it vanished. It looked--though this would never have -occurred to Rhadampsicus--very much like a fiercely glowing gigantic -potato. Its evolution of heat went up incredibly. It much more than -doubled its rate of radiation. - -Rhadampsicus watched each detail of the flare-up with fascinated -attention. Nodalictha dutifully watched with him. But she could not -maintain her interest in so purely scientific a phenomenon. - -When a thin streamer of pure blue-white jetted upward from the sun's -pole, attaining a speed of six hundred and ninety-two miles per second, -Rhadampsicus turned to her with enthusiasm. - -"Exactly in the pattern of a flare-up according to Dhokis' theory!" he -exclaimed. "I have always thought he was more nearly right than the -modernists. Radiation pressure can build up in a closed system such -as the interior of a sun. It can equal the gravitational constant. And -obviously it would break loose at the pole." - -Then he saw that Nodalictha's manner was one of distress. He was -instantly concerned. - -"What's the matter, darling?" he asked anxiously. "I didn't mean to -neglect you, my precious one!" - -Nodalictha did something that would have scared a human being out of a -year's growth, but was actually the equivalent of an unhappy, stifled -sob. - -"I am a beast!" said Rhadampsicus penitently. "I've kept you here, in -boredom, while I enjoyed myself watching this sun do tricks. I'm truly -sorry, Nodalictha. We will go on at once. I shouldn't have asked you -to--" - -But Nodalictha said unhappily, "It isn't you, Rhadampsicus. It's me! -While you've been watching the star, I've amused myself watching those -quaint little creatures on the second planet. I've thought of them -as--well, as pets. I've grown fond of them. It was absurd of me--" - -"Oh, but it is wonderful of you," said Rhadampsicus tenderly. "I love -you all the more for it, my darling. But why are you unhappy about -them? I made sure they had food and energy." - -"They're going to be burned up!" wailed Nodalictha, "and they're so -cute!" - -Rhadampsicus blinked his eyes--all sixteen of them. Then he said -self-accusingly, "My dear, I should have thought of that. Of course -this is only a flare-up, darling...." Then he made an impatient -gesture. "I see! You would rather think of them as happy, in their -little way, than as burned to tiny crisps." - -He considered, scanning the second planet with the normal anxiety of a -bridegroom to do anything that would remove a cloud from his bride's -lovely sixteen eyes. - - * * * * * - -Night fell on Cetopolis, and with it came some slight alleviation of -the dreadfulness that had begun that afternoon. The air was furnacelike -in heat and dryness. There was the smell of smoke everywhere. The stars -were faint and red and ominous, seen through the smoke that overlay -everything. So far, to be sure, breathing was possible. It was even -possible to be comfortable in an air-conditioned room. But this was -only the beginning. - -Lon and Cathy sat together on the porch of his house, after sundown. -The other colonists had gone away to their own homes. When the crack -of doom has visibly begun, men do queer things. In Cetopolis some -undoubtedly got drunk, or tried to. But there were farmers who would -spend this last night looking at their drooping crops, trying to -persuade themselves that if Cetis Gamma only went back to normal before -sunrise, the crops might yet be saved. But none of them expected it. - -Off to the south there was an angry reddish glare in the sky. That was -vegetation on the desert there, burning. It grew thick as jungle in the -rainy season, and dried out to pure dessication in dry weather. It had -caught fire of itself from the sun's glare in late afternoon. Great -clouds of acrid smoke rose from it to the stars. - -Beyond the horizon to the west there was destruction. - -Lon and Cathy sat close together. She hadn't even asked to be taken -back to Cetopolis, as convention would have required. The sun -was growing hotter still while it sank below the horizon. It was -expanding in fits and starts as new writhing spouts of stuff from its -interior burst the bonds of gravity. Blazing magma flung upward in an -unthinkable eruption. The sun had been three times normal size when it -set. - -Lon was no astronomer, but plainly the end of life on the inner planets -of Cetis Gamma was at hand. - -Cetis Gamma might, he considered, be in the process of becoming a -nova. Certainly beyond the horizon there was even more terrible heat -than had struck the human colony before sundown. Even if the sun -did not explode, even if it was only as fiercely blazing as at its -setting, they would die within hours after sunrise. If it increased in -brightness, by daybreak its first rays would be death itself. When dawn -came, the very first direct beams would set the shiver trees alight on -the hilltops, and as it rose the fires would go down into the valleys. -This house would smoke and writhe and melt; the air would become flame, -and the planet's surface would glow red-hot as it turned into the -sunshine. - - * * * * * - -"It's going to be--all right, Lon," Cathy said unconvincedly. "It's -just something happening that'll be over in a little while. But--in -case it isn't--we might as well be together. Don't you think so?" - -Lon put his arm comfortingly around her. He felt a very strong impulse -to lie. He could pretend to vast wisdom and tell her the sun's behavior -was this or that, and never lasted more than a few hours, but she'd -know he lied. They could spend their last hours trying to deceive each -other out of pure affection. But they'd know it was deceit. - -"D-don't you think so?" insisted Cathy faintly. - -He said gently, "No, Cathy, and neither do you. This is the finish. It -would've been a lot nicer to go on living, the two of us. We'd have had -long, long years to be together. We'd have had kids, and they'd have -grown up, and we'd have had--a lot of things. But now I'm afraid we -won't." - -He tried to smile at her, but it hurt. He thought passionately that -he would gladly submit himself to be burned in the slowest and most -excruciating manner if only she could be saved from it. But he couldn't -do anything. - -Cathy gulped. "I-I'm afraid so, too, Lon," she said in a small voice. -"But it's nice we met each other, anyhow. Now we know we love each -other. I don't like the idea of dying, but I'm glad we knew we loved -each other before it happened." - -Lon's hands clenched fiercely. Then the rage went away. He said almost -humorously, "Carson--he's back in Cetopolis. I wonder how he feels. He -has no better chance than anybody else. Maybe he's sent off spacegrams, -but no ship could possibly get here in time." - -Cathy shivered a little. "Let's not think about him. Just about us. We -haven't much time." - -And just then, very strangely, an idea came to Lon Simpson. He tensed. - -After a moment, he said in a very queer voice, "This isn't a nova. It's -a flare-up. The sun isn't exploding. It's just too hot, too big for the -temperature inside it, and it's a closed system. So radiation pressure -has been building up. Now it's got to be released. So it will spout -geysers of its own substance. They'll go out over hundreds of thousands -of miles. But in a couple of weeks it will be back--nearly--to normal." - -He suddenly knew that. He knew why it was so. He could have explained -it completely and precisely. But he didn't know how he knew. The items -that added together were themselves so self evident that he didn't even -wonder how he knew them. They _had_ to be so! - - * * * * * - -Cathy said muffledly, her face against his shoulder, "But we won't be -alive in a couple of weeks, Lon. We can't live long past daybreak." - -He did not answer. There were more ideas coming into his mind. He -didn't know where they came from. But again they were such self -evident, unquestionable facts that he did not wonder about them. He -simply paid tense, desperately concentrated attention as they formed -themselves. - -"We--may live," he said shakily. "There's an ionosphere up at the -top of the atmosphere here, just like there is on Earth. It's made -by the sunlight ionizing the thin air. The--stronger sunlight will -multiply the ionization. There'll be an--actually conducting layer of -air.... Yes.... The air will become a conductor, up there." He wet his -lips. "If I make a--gadget to--short-circuit that conducting layer to -the ground here.... When radiation photons penetrate a transparent -conductor--but there aren't any transparent conductors--the photons -will--follow the three-finger rule.... - -"They'll move at right angles to their former course--" - -He swallowed. Then he got up very quietly. He put her aside. He went -to his tool shed. He climbed to the roof of the barn now filled with -_thanar_ leaves. He swung his axe. - -The barn was roofed with aluminum over malleable plastic. The useful -property of malleable plastic is that it does not yield to steady -pressure, but does yield to shock. It will stay in shape indefinitely -under a load, but one can tap it easily into any form one desires. - -Lon swung his axe, head down. Presently he asked Cathy to climb up a -ladder and hold a lantern for him. He didn't need light for the rough -work--the burning desert vegetation gave enough for that. But when one -wants to make a parabolic reflector by tapping with an axe, one needs -light for the finer part of the job. - - * * * * * - -In Cetopolis, Carson agitatedly put his records on tape and sent it all -off by spacegram. He'd previously reported on Lon Simpson, but now he -knew that he was going to die. And he followed his instinct to transmit -all his quite useless records, in order that his superiors might -realize he had been an admirable employee. It did not occur to him that -his superiors might be trying frantically to break his sending beam to -demand that he find out how Lon Simpson made his power gadget and how -he converted vegetation, before it was too late. They didn't succeed in -breaking his beam, because Carson kept it busy. - -He was true to type. - -Elsewhere, other men were true to type, too. The human population of -Cetis Gamma Two was very small. There were less than five thousand -people on the planet--all within a hundred miles of Cetopolis, and all -now on the night side. The rest of the planet's land masses scorched -and shriveled and burst into flame where the sun struck them. The few -small oceans heated and their surfaces even boiled. But nobody saw it. -The local fauna and flora died over the space of continents. - -But in the human settlement area, people acted according to -their individual natures. Some few ran amok and tried to destroy -everything--including themselves--before the blazing sun could return -to do it. More sat in stunned silence, waiting for doom. A few dug -desperately, trying to excavate caves or pits in which they or their -wives or children could be safe.... - -But Lon pounded at his barn roof. He made a roughly parabolic mirror -some three yards across. He stripped off aluminum siding and made a -connection with the ground. He poured water around that connection. He -built a crude multiply twisted device of copper wire and put it in the -focus of the parabolic mirror. - -He looked up at the sky. The stars seemed dimmer. He took the copper -thing away, and they brightened a little. He carefully adjusted it -until the stars were at their dimmest. - -He descended to the ground again. He felt an odd incredulity about what -he'd done. He didn't doubt that it would work. He was simply unable to -understand how he'd thought of it. - - * * * * * - -"There, darling! Your pets are quite safe!" Rhadampsicus said pleasedly. - -Nodalictha scanned the second planet. It was apparently coated with a -metallic covering. But it was not quite like metal. It was misty, like -an unsubstantial barrier to light--and to Nodalictha's penetrating -thoughts. - -"I had your male pet," Rhadampsicus explained tenderly, "set up a power -beam link to the ionosphere. With several times the usual degree of -ionization--because of the flaring sun--the grounded ionosphere became -a _Rhinthak_ screen about the planet. The more active the sun, the -more dense the screen. They'll have light to see by when their side of -the planet is toward the sun, but no harmful radiation can get down to -them. And the screen will fade away as the sun goes back to its normal -state." - -Nodalictha rejoiced. Then she was a little distressed. - -"But now I can't watch them!" she pouted. Rhadampsicus watched her -gravely. She said ruefully, "I see, Rhadampsicus. You've spoiled me! -But if I can't watch them for the time being, I won't have anything to -occupy me. Darling Rhadampsicus, you must talk to me sometimes!" - -He talked to her absorbedly. He seemed to think, however, that -discussion of the local solar phenomena was conversation. With -feminine guile, she pretended to be satisfied, but presently she went -back to her housekeeping. She began to dream of their life when they -had returned home, and of the residence they would inhabit there. -Presently she was planning the parties she would give as a young -matron, with canapés of krypton snow and zenon ice, with sprinklings of -lovely red nickel bromide crystals for a garnish-- - - * * * * * - -The sun rose again, and they lived. It was as if the sky were covered -with a thick cloud bank which absorbed the monstrous radiation of a sun -now four times its previous diameter and madly changing shape like a -monstrous ameba of flame. - -In time the sun set. It rose again. It set. And Cetis Gamma Two -remained a living planet instead of being a scorched cinder. - -When four days had gone by and nobody died, the colonists decided that -they might actually keep on living. They had at first no especially -logical foundation for their belief. - -But Cathy boasted. And she boasted in Cetopolis. Since they were going -to keep on living, the conventions required that she return to the -planet's one human settlement and her duties as a beamphone operator. -It wasn't proper for her to stay unchaperoned so long as she and Lon -weren't married yet. - -She had no difficulty with Carson. He didn't refer to her desertion. -Carson had his own troubles. Now that he had decided that he would -live, his problems multiplied. The colonists' barns were filled to -capacity with _thanar_ leaves which would pay off their debts to the -Company. He began to worry about that. - -Lost without the constant directives from the Company, he had his -technicians step up the power in the settlement transmitter. He -knew that the screen Lon had put up would stop ordinary spacegram -transmission. Even with a tight beam, he could broadcast and receive -only at night, when the screen was thinnest. Even so, he had to search -out holes in the screen. - -The system didn't work perfectly--it wasn't two-way at all, until the -Company stepped up the power in its own transmitter--but spacegrams -started to get through again. - -Carson smiled in relief. He began to regain some of his old arrogantly -bored manner. Now that the Company's guiding hand was once more with -him, nothing seemed as bad as it had been. He was able to report that -something had happened to save the colony from extinction, and that -Lon Simpson had probably done it. - -In return, he got a spacegram demanding full particulars, and precise -information on the devices he had reported Lon Simpson to have made. - -Humbly, Carson obeyed his corporation. - - * * * * * - -He pumped Cathy--which was not difficult, because she was bursting with -pride in Lon. She confirmed, in detail, the rumor that Lon was somehow -responsible for the protective screen that was keeping everybody alive. - -Carson sent the information by spacegram. He was informed that a -special Company ship was heading for Cetis Gamma Two at full speed. -Carson would take orders from its skipper when it arrived. Meanwhile, -he would buy _thanar_ leaf if absolutely necessary, but stall as long -as possible. The legal staff of the Trading Company was working on -the problem of adapting the system to get the new surplus supplies of -_thanar_ without letting anybody get anything in particular for it. He -would keep secret the coming of the special ship, which was actually -the space yacht of a member of the Board of Directors. And he would -display great friendliness toward Lon Simpson. - -The last was the difficult part, because Lon Simpson was becoming -difficult. With the sun writhing as if in agony overhead--seen dimly -through a permanent blessed mistiness--and changing shape from hour -to hour, Lon Simpson had discovered something new to get mad about. -Lon had felt definitely on top of the world. He had solved the problem -of clearing his debts and getting credit sufficient for two passages -back to Earth, with money there to take care of getting rich on his -inventions. There was no reason to delay marriage. He wanted to get -married. And through a deplorable oversight, there had been no method -devised by which a legal marriage ceremony could be performed on Cetis -Gamma Two. - -It was one of those accidental omissions which would presently be -rectified. But the legal minds who'd set up the system for the planet -had been thinking of money, not marriages. They hadn't envisioned -connubial bliss as a service the Company should provide. And Lon was -raising cain. His barn was literally bursting with _thanar_ leaves, -and he was filling up his attic, extra bedroom, living quarters and -kitchen with more. He was rich. He wanted to get married. And it wasn't -possible. - -Lon was in a position to raise much more cain than ordinary. He'd made -an amicable bargain with his fellow colonists. They brought truckloads -of miscellaneous foliage to be put into his vegetation converter, and -he converted it all into _thanar_ leaves. The product was split two -ways. Everybody was happy--except Carson--Because every colonist had -already acquired enough _thanar_ leaf to pay himself out of debt, and -was working on extra capital. - -If this kept up, the galactic market would be broken. - -Carson had nightmares about that. - - * * * * * - -So the sun went through convulsions in emptiness, and nobody on its -second planet paid any attention at all. After about a week, it -occasionally subsided. When that happened, the ionization of the -planet's upper atmosphere lessened, the radiation screen grew thinner, -and a larger proportion of light reached the surface. When the sun -flared higher, the shield automatically grew thicker. An astronomical -phenomenon which should have destroyed all life on the inner planets -came to be taken for granted. - -But events on the second planet were not without consequences -elsewhere. The Board of Directors of the Cetis Gamma Trading Company -simultaneously jittered and beamed with anticipation. If Lon could -convert one form of vegetable product into another, then the Company's -monopoly of _thanar_ would vanish as soon as he got loose with his -device. On the other hand, if the Company could get that device for its -very own.... - -_Thanar_ had a practically unlimited market. Every year a new age -group of the population needed a milligram a day to keep old age away. -But besides that, there was Martian _zuss_ fiber, which couldn't be -marketed because there wasn't enough of it, but would easily fetch a -thousand credits a kilo if Lon's gadget could produce it from samples. -There was that Arcturian _sicces_ dust--the pollen of an inordinately -rare plant on Arcturus Four--which could be sold at more than its -weight in diamonds, for perfume. And-- - -The directors of the Company shivered over what might happen; and -gloated over what could. So they kept their fingers crossed while the -space yacht of one of their number sped toward Cetis Gamma Two, manned -by very trustworthy men who would carry out their instructions with -care and vigor and no nonsense about it. - -Lon Simpson worked with his neighbors, converting all sorts of -vegetable debris--the fact that some of it was scorched did not -seem to matter--into _thanar_ leaf which was sound legal tender on -that particular planet. From time to time he went to Cetopolis. He -talked sentimentally and yearningly to Cathy. And then he went to -Carson's office and raised the very devil because there was as yet no -arrangement by which he and Cathy could enter into the state of holy -matrimony. - - * * * * * - -Rhadampsicus looked over his notes and was very well pleased. He -explained to Nodalictha that from now on the return of Cetis Gamma to -its normal condition would be a cut-and-dried affair. He would like to -stay and watch it, but the important phenomena were all over now. He -said solicitously that if she wanted to go on, completing their nuptial -journey.... She might be anxious to see her family and friends.... She -might be lonely.... - -Nodalictha smiled at him. The process would have been horrifying to a -human who watched, but Rhadampsicus smiled back. - -"Lonely?" asked Nodalictha coyly. "With you, Rhadampsicus?" - -He impulsively twined his eye stalks about hers. A little later he was -saying tenderly, "Then I'll just finish my observations, darling, and -we'll go on--since you don't mind waiting." - -"I'd like to see my pets again," said Nodalictha, nestling comfortably -against him. - -Together, they scanned the second planet, but their thoughts could -not penetrate its _Rhinthak_ screen. They saw the space yacht flash -up to it. Rhadampsicus inspected the minds of the bipeds inside it. -Nodalictha, of course, modestly refrained from entering the minds of -male creatures other than her husband. - -"Peculiar," commented Rhadampsicus. "Very peculiar. If I were a -sociologist, I might find it less baffling. But they must have a very -queer sort of social system. They actually intend to harm your pets, -Nodalictha, because the male now knows how to supply them all with food -and energy! Isn't that strange? I wish the _Rhinthak_ screen did not -block off scanning.... But it will fade, presently." - -"You will keep the others from harming my pets," said Nodalictha -confidently. "Do you know, darling, I think I must be quite the -luckiest person in the Galaxy, to be married to you." - - * * * * * - -The space yacht landed at the field outside Cetopolis. Inhabitants -of the tiny town flocked to the field to see new faces. They were -disappointed. One man came out and the airlock closed. No visitors. - -The skipper went into Carson's office. He closed the door firmly -behind him. He had very beady eyes and a very hard-boiled expression. -He looked at Carson with open contempt, and Carson felt that it was -because Carson did the Company's dirty work with figures and due -regard for law and order, instead of frankly and violently and without -shilly-shallying. - -"This Lon Simpson's got those gadgets, eh?" asked the skipper. - -"Why--yes," said Carson unhappily. "He's very popular at the moment. He -made something on his barn roof that kept the sun from burning us all -to death, you know--that still keeps us from burning to death, for that -matter." - -"So if we take it away or smash it," observed the skipper, "we don't -have to worry about anybody saying nasty things about us afterward. -Yeah?" - -Carson swallowed. - -"Everybody'd die if you smashed the gadget," he admitted, "but all the -_thanar_ plants in existence would be burned up, too. There'd be no -more _thanar_. The Company wouldn't like that." - -The skipper waved his hand. "How do I get this Simpson on my ship? Take -a bunch of my men and go grab him?" - -"Wh-what are you going to do with him?" - -"Don't you worry," said the skipper comfortingly. "We know how to -handle it. He knows how to make some things the bosses want to know how -to make. Once I get him on the ship, he'll tell. We got ways. Do I take -some men and grab him, or will you get him on board peaceable?" - -"There--ah--" Carson licked his lips. "He wants to get married. There's -no provision in the legal code for it, as yet. It was overlooked. But I -can tell him that as a ship captain, you--" - -The skipper nodded matter of factly. - -"Right. You get him and the girl on board. And I've got some orders for -you. Gather up plenty of _thanar_ seed. Get some starting trays with -young plants in them. I'll come back in a couple of days and take you -and them on board. The stuff this guy has got is too good, understand?" - -"N-no. I'm afraid I don't." - - * * * * * - -"I get this guy to tell us how to make his gadgets," the skipper -explained contemptuously. "We make sure he tells us right. To be extra -sure, we leave the gadgets he's got made and working back here, where -he can't get to 'em and spoil 'em. But when we know all he knows--and -what he only guesses, too, and my tame scientists have made the same -kinda gadgets, an' they work--why, we come back and pick you up, and -the _thanar_ seed and the young growing plants. Then we get the gadgets -this guy made here, and we head back for Earth." - -"But if you take the gadget that keeps us all from being burned up--" -Carson said agitatedly, "if you do, everybody here--" - -"Won't that be too bad!" the skipper said ironically. "But you won't be -here. You'll be on the yacht. Don't worry. Now go fix it for the girl -and him to walk into our parlor." - -Carson's hand shook as he reached for the beamphone. His voice was not -quite normal as he explained to Cathy in the exchange that the skipper -of the space yacht had the legal power to perform marriage ceremonies -in space. And Carson, as a gesture of friendship to one of the most -prominent colonists, had asked if the captain would oblige Cathy and -Lon. The captain had agreed. If they made haste, he would take them out -in space and marry them. - -The skipper of the space yacht regarded him with undisguised scorn when -he hung up the phone and mopped his face. - -"Pretty girl, eh?" he asked contemptuously, "and you didn't have the -nerve to grab her for yourself?" He did not wait for an answer. "I'll -look her over. You get your stuff ready for when I come back in a -couple of days." - -"But--when you release them," Carson said shakily, "They'll report--" - -The skipper looked at Carson without any expression at all. Then he -went out. - -Carson felt sick. But he was a very loyal employee of the Cetis Gamma -Trading Company. From the windows of his air-conditioned office, he -watched Lon Simpson greet Cathy on his arrival in Cetopolis. He saw -Cathy put a sprig of _chanel_ blossoms on the lapel of her very best -suit, in lieu of a bridal bouquet. And he watched them go with shining -faces toward the airport. He didn't try to stop them. - -Later he heard the space yacht take off. - - * * * * * - -Nodalictha prepared to share the thoughts and the happiness of the -female biped whose emotions were familiar, since Nodalictha was so -recently a bride herself. Rhadampsicus was making notes, but he -gallantly ceased when Nodalictha called to him. They sat, then, before -their crude but comfortable bower on the ninth planet, all set to share -the quaint rejoicing of the creatures of which Nodalictha had grown -fond. - -Nodalictha penetrated the thoughts of the female, in pleased -anticipation. Rhadampsicus scanned the mind of the male, and his -expression changed. He shifted his thought to another and another of -the bipeds in the ship's company. He spoke with some distaste. - -"The ones you consider your pets, Nodalictha, are amiable enough. But -the others--" He frowned. "Really, darling, if you went into their -minds, you'd be most displeased. They are quite repulsive. Let's forget -about them and start for home. If you really care for pets, we've much -more suitable creatures there." - -Nodalictha pouted. - -"Rhadampsicus, let's just watch their marriage ceremony. It is so -cute to think of little creatures like that loving each other--and -marrying--" - -Rhadampsicus withdrew his thought from the space yacht and looked -about the charming rural retreat he and Nodalictha had occupied. -Its nitrogen-snow walls glittered in the starlight. The garden of -cyanogen flowers and the border of ammonia crystals and the walkway -of monoclinic sulphur, and the reflection pool of liquid hydrogen -he'd installed in an odd half hour. These were simple, but they were -delightful. The crudity of the space yacht with its metal walls so -curiously covered over with a coating of lead oxide in hardened oil, -and the vegetable gum flooring.... Rhadampsicus did not like the -surroundings men made for themselves in space. - -"Very well, darling," he said resignedly. "We will watch, and then -we'll take off for home. I'm anxious to see what the modernists have -to say when I show them my notes on this flare-up.--And of course," he -added with grave humor, "you want to show your family that I haven't -ill-treated you." - -He was the barest trace impatient, but Nodalictha's thoughts were with -the female biped in the spaceship. Her expression was distressed. - -"Rhadampsicus!" she said angrily. "The other bipeds are being unkind to -my pets! Do something! I don't like them!" - - * * * * * - -A sailor in a soiled uniform led them into the space yacht's saloon. -The airlock clanked shut, and the yacht soared for the skies. The -sailor vanished. Nobody else came near. Then Lon stiffened. He got the -flavor of his surroundings. He had Cathy with him. On her account, his -flesh crawled suddenly. - -This was a space yacht, but of a very special kind. It was a pleasure -ship. The decorations were subtly disgusting. There were pictures on -the walls, and at first glance they were pretty enough, but on second -glance they were disquieting, and when carefully examined they were -elaborately and allusively monstrous. This was the yacht of someone -denying that anything could be more desirable than pleasure--and who -took his pleasure in a most unattractive fashion. - -Lon grasped this much, and it occurred to him that the crew of such a -yacht would be chosen for its willingness to coöperate in its owner's -enterprises. And Lon went somewhat pale, for Cathy was with him. - -The ship went up and up, with the dark shutters over the ports showing -that it was in sunshine fierce enough to be dangerous on unshielded -flesh. Presently there was the feel of maneuvering. After a time the -shutters flipped open and stars were visible. - -Lon went quickly to a port and looked out. The great black mass of the -night side of Cetis Gamma Two filled half the firmament. It blotted -out the sun. The space yacht might be two or three thousand miles up -and in the planet's umbra--its shadow--which was not necessary for a -space wedding, or for anything involving a reasonably brief stay in the -excessive heat Cetis Gamma gave off. - -There were clankings. A door opened. The skipper came in and Cathy -smiled at him because she didn't realize Lon's fierce apprehension. -Four other men followed, all in soiled and untidy space yacht uniforms, -then two other men in more ordinary clothing. Their expressions were -distinctly uneasy. - -The four sailors walked matter of factly over to Lon and grabbed at -him. They should have taken him completely by surprise, but he had been -warned just enough to explode into battle. It was a very pretty fight, -for a time. Lon kept three of them busy. One snarled with a wrenched -wrist, another spat blood and teeth and a third had a closed eye before -the fourth swung a chair. Then Lon hit something with his head. It was -the deck, but he didn't know it. - - * * * * * - -When he came to, he was hobbled. He was not bound so he couldn't move, -but his hands were handcuffed together, with six inches of chain -between for play. His ankles were similarly restricted. He could -move, but he could not fight. Blood was trickling down his temple and -somebody was holding his head up. - -The skipper said impatiently, "All right, stand back." - -Lon's head was released. The skipper jerked a thumb. Men went out. -Lon looked about desperately for Cathy. She was there--dead white and -terrified, but apparently unharmed. She stared at Lon in wordless -pleading. - -"You're a suspicious guy, aren't you?" asked the skipper sardonically. -"Somebody lays a finger on you and you start fighting. But you've got -the idea. I'll say it plain so we can get moving. You're Lon Simpson. -Carson, down on the planet, reported some nice news about you. You made -a gadget that converts any sort of leaf to _thanar_. Maybe it turns -stuff to other stuff, too." He paused. "We want to know how to make -gadgets like that. You're gonna draw plans an' explain the theory. I -got guys here to listen. We're gonna make one, from your plans an' -explanations, an' it'd better work. See?" - -"Carson sent for you to do this," Lon Simpson said thickly. - -"He did. The Company wants it. They'll use it to make _zuss_ fiber and -sicces dust, and stuff like that. Maybe dream dust, too, an' so on. The -point is you're gonna tell us how to make those gadgets. How about it?" - -Lon licked his lips. He said slowly, "I think there's more. Go on." - -"You made another gadget," said the skipper, with relish, "that turns -out power without fuel. The Company wants that, too. Spacelines will -pay for it. Cities will pay for it. It ought to be a pretty nice thing. -You're gonna make plans and explanations of how that works and we're -gonna make sure they're right. That clear?" - -"Will you let us go when I've told you?" Lon asked bitterly. - -"Not without one more gadget," the skipper added amiably. "You made -something that put a screen around the planet yonder, so it didn't -get burned up. It'd oughta be useful. The company'll put one around -Mercury. Convenient for minin' operations. One around that planet -that's too close to Sirius. Oh, there's plenty of places that'll be -useful. So you'll get set to draw up the plans for that, too--_and_ -explanations of how it works. Then we'll talk about lettin' you go." - - * * * * * - -Lon knew that he wouldn't be let go in any case. Not after he'd told -them what was wanted. Not by men who'd work on a pleasure craft like -this. Not with Cathy a prisoner with him. But he might as well get all -the cards down. - -"And if I won't tell you what you want to know?" he asked. - -The skipper shrugged his shoulders. "You were knocked out a while," he -said without heat. "While we were waitin' for you to come to, we told -her--" he jerked his thumb at Cathy--"what would happen to her if you -weren't obligin'. We told her plenty. She knows we mean it. We won't -hurt you until we've finished with her. So you'd better get set to -talk. I'll let her see if she can persuade you peaceable. I'll give her -ten minutes." - -He went out. The door clicked shut behind him and Lon knew that this -was the finish. He looked at Cathy's dazed, horror-filled eyes. He knew -this wasn't a bluff. He was up against the same system that had brought -colonists to Cetis Gamma Two. The brains that had planned that system -had planned this. They'd gotten completely qualified men to do their -dirty work in both cases. - -"Lon, darling! Please kill me!" Cathy said in a hoarse whisper. - -He looked at her in astonishment. - -"Please kill me!" repeated Cathy desperately. "They--they can't ever -dare let us go, Lon, after what they've told me! They've got to kill us -both. But--Lon, darling--please kill me first...." - -An idea came into Lon's mind. He surveyed it worriedly. He knew that he -would have to tell what he knew and then he would be killed. The Cetis -Gamma Trading Company wanted his inventions, and it would need him dead -after it had them. - -The idea was hopeless, but he had to try it. They knew he'd made -gadgets which did remarkable things. If he made something now and -persuaded them that it was a weapon.... - -His flesh crawled with horror. Not for himself, but for Cathy. He -fumbled in his pockets. A pocket knife. A key chain. String. His -face was completely gray. He ripped an upholstered seat. There were -coiled springs under the foamite. He pulled away a piece of decorative -molding. He knew it wouldn't work, but there wasn't anything else -to do. His hands moved awkwardly, with the handcuffs limiting their -movements. - -Time passed. He had something finished. It was a bit of wood with a -coil spring from the chair, with his key chain wrapped around it and -his pocket knife set in it so that the blade would seem to make a -contact. But it would achieve nothing whatever. - -Cathy stared at him. Her eyes were desperate, but she believed. She'd -seen three equally improbable devices perform wonders. While Lon made -something that looked like the nightmare of an ultimatist sculptor, she -watched in terrified hope. - - * * * * * - -He had it in his hand when the door opened again and the skipper came -back into the saloon. He said prosaically, "Shall I call in the -scientist guys to listen, or the persuader guys to work on her?" - -"Neither. I've made another gadget," Lon said from a dry throat. "It -will kill you. It'll kill everybody on the ship--from here. You're -going to put us back down on the planet below." - -The skipper did not look at the gadget, but at Lon's face. Then he -called. The four men of the crew and the two uneasy scientists came in. - -"We got to persuade," the skipper said sardonically. "He just told me -he's made a new gadget that'll kill us all." - -He moved unhurriedly toward Lon. Lon knew that his bluff was no good. -If the thing had actually been a weapon, he'd have been confident and -assured. He didn't feel that way, but he raised the thing menacingly as -the skipper approached. - -The skipper took it away, laughing. - -"We'll tie him in a chair an' get to work on her. When he's ready -to talk, we'll stop." He looked at the object in his hands. It was -ridiculous to look at. It was as absurd as the device that extracted -power from matter stresses, and the machine that converted one kind -of vegetation into another, and the apparatus--partly barn roof--that -had short-circuited the ionosphere of Cetis Gamma Two to the planet's -solid surface. It looked very foolish indeed. - -The skipper was amused. - -"Look out, you fellas," he said humorously. "It's gonna kill you!" - -He crooked his finger and the knifeblade made a contact. He swept it -in mock menace about the saloon. The four crew-members and the two -scientists went stiff. He gaped at them, then turned the device to -stare at it incredulously. He came within its range. - -He stiffened. Off-balance, he fell on the device, breaking its gimcrack -fastenings and the contact which transmitted nothing that Lon Simpson -could imagine coming out of it. The others fell, one by one, with -peculiarly solid impacts. - -Their flesh was incredibly hard. It was as solid, in fact, as so much -mahogany. - - * * * * * - -Nodalictha said warmly, "You're a darling, Rhadampsicus! It was -outrageous of those nasty creatures to intend to harm my pets! I'm glad -you attended to them!" - -"And I'm glad you're pleased, my dear," Rhadampsicus said pleasantly. -"Now shall we set out for home?" - -Nodalictha looked about the cosy landscape of the ninth planet of -Cetis Gamma. There were jagged peaks of frozen air, and mountain ranges -of water, solidified ten thousand aeons ago. There were frost-trees -of nitrogen, the elaborate crystal formations of argon, and here a -wide sweep of oxygen crystal sward, with tiny peeping wild crystals of -deep-blue cyanogen seeming to grow more thickly by the brook of liquid -hydrogen. And there was their bower; primitive, but the scene of a true -honeymoon idyll. - -"I almost hate to go home, Rhadampsicus," Nodalictha said. "We've been -so happy here. Will you remember it for always?" - -"Naturally," said Rhadampsicus. "I'm glad you've been happy." - -Nodalictha snuggled up to him and twined eye stalks with him. - -"Darling," she said softly, "you've been wonderful, and I've been -spoiled, and you've let me be. But I'm going to be a very dutiful wife -from now on, Rhadampsicus. Only it has been fun, having you be so nice -to me!" - -"It's been fun for me, too," replied Rhadampsicus gallantly. - -Nodalictha took a last glance around, and each of her sixteen eyes -glowed sentimentally. Then she scanned the far-distant spaceship in the -shadow of the second planet from the now subsiding sun. - -"My pets," she said tenderly. "But--Rhadampsicus, what are they doing?" - -"They've discovered that the crew of their vehicle--they call it a -space yacht--aren't dead, that they're only in suspended animation. And -they've decided in some uneasiness that they'd better take them back to -Earth to be revived." - -"How nice! I knew they were sweet little creatures!" - -Rhadampsicus hesitated a moment. - -"From the male's mind I gather something else. Since the crew of this -space yacht was incapacitated, and they were--ah--not employed on -it, he and your female will bring it safely to port, and, I gather -that they have a claim to great reward. Ah--it is something they -call 'salvage.' He plans to use it to secure other rewards he calls -'patents' and they expect to live happily ever after." - -"And," cried Nodalictha gleefully, "from the female's mind I know that -she is very proud of him, because she doesn't know that you designed -all the instruments he made, darling. She's speaking to him now, -telling him she loves him very dearly." - -Then Nodalictha blushed a little, because in a faraway space yacht -Cathy had kissed Lon Simpson. The process seemed highly indecorous to -Nodalictha, so recently a bride. - -"Yes," said Rhadampsicus, drily. "He is returning the compliment. It is -quaint to think of such small creatures--Ha! Nodalictha, you should be -pleased again. He is telling her that they will be married when they -reach Earth, and that she shall have a white dress and a veil and a -train. But I am afraid we cannot follow to witness the ceremony." - -Their tentacles linked and their positron blasts mingling, the two of -them soared up from the surface of the ninth planet of Cetis Gamma. -They swept away, headed for their home at the extreme outer tip of the -most far-flung arm of the spiral outposts of the Galaxy. - -"But still," said Nodalictha, as they swept through emptiness at a -speed unimaginable to humans, "they're wonderfully cute." - -"Yes, darling," Rhadampsicus agreed, unwilling to start an argument so -soon after the wedding. "But not as cute as you." - - * * * * * - -On the space yacht, Lon Simpson tried to use his genius to invent a way -to get his handcuffs and leg-irons off. He failed completely. - -Cathy had to get the keys out of the skipper's pocket and unlock them -for him. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sentimentalists, by Murray Leinster - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SENTIMENTALISTS *** - -***** This file should be named 51102-8.txt or 51102-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/1/0/51102/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions 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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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/license - - -Title: The Sentimentalists - -Author: Murray Leinster - -Release Date: February 1, 2016 [EBook #51102] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SENTIMENTALISTS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="357" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>The Sentimentalists</h1> - -<p>By MURRAY LEINSTER</p> - -<p>Illustrated by HUNTER</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Science Fiction April 1953.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3"><i>You do not always have to go looking for<br /> -a guardian angel. He may be looking for<br /> -you—but perhaps for somebody else's benefit!</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Rhadampsicus and Nodalictha were on their honeymoon, and consequently -they were sentimental. To be sure, it would not have been easy for -humans to imagine sentiment as existing between them. Humans would -hardly associate tenderness with glances cast from sets of sixteen -eyes mounted on jointed eye stalks, nor link langorous thrills with -a coy mingling of positronic repulsion blasts—even when the emission -of positron blasts from beneath one's mantle was one's normal personal -mode of locomotion. And when two creatures like Rhadampsicus and -Nodalictha stood on what might be roughly described as their heads and -twined their eye stalks together, so that they gazed fondly at each -other with all sixteen eyes at once, humans would not have thought of -it as the equivalent of a loving kiss. Humans would have screamed and -run—if they were not paralyzed by the mere sight of such individuals.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, they were a very happy pair and they were very -sentimental, and it was probably a good thing, considered from all -angles. They were still newlyweds on their wedding tour—they had been -married only seventy-five years before—when they passed by the sun -that humans call Cetis Gamma.</p> - -<p>Rhadampsicus noted its peculiarity. He was anxious, of course, for -their honeymoon to be memorable in every possible way. So he pointed it -out to Nodalictha and explained what was shortly to be expected. She -listened with a bride's rapt admiration of her new husband's wisdom. -Perceiving his scientific interest, she suggested shyly that they stop -and watch.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Rhadampsicus scanned the area. There were planets—inner ones, and -then a group of gas giants, and then a very cosy series of three outer -planets with surface temperatures ranging from three to seven degrees -Kelvin.</p> - -<p>They changed course and landed on the ninth planet out, where the -landscape was delightful. Rhadampsicus unlimbered his traveling kit and -prepared a bower. Nitrogen snow rose and swirled and consolidated as -he deftly shifted force-pencils. When the tumult subsided, there was a -snug if primitive cottage for the two of them to dwell in while they -waited for Cetis Gamma to accomplish its purpose.</p> - -<p>Nodalictha cried out softly when she entered the bower. She was -fascinated by its completeness. There was even running liquid hydrogen -from a little rill nearby. And over the doorway, as an artistic and -appropriate touch, Rhadampsicus had put his own and Nodalictha's -initials, pricked out in amber chlorine crystals and intertwined within -the symbol which to them meant a heart. Nodalictha embraced him fondly -for his thoughtfulness. Of course, no human would have recognized it as -an embrace, but that did not matter.</p> - -<p>Happily, then, they settled down to observe the phenomenon that Cetis -Gamma would presently display. They scanned the gas giant planets -together, and then the inner ones.</p> - -<p>On the second planet out from the sun, they perceived small biped -animals busily engaged in works of primitive civilization. Nodalictha -was charmed. She asked eager questions, and Rhadampsicus searched -his memory and told her that the creatures were not well known, but -had been observed before. Limited in every way by their physical -constitution, they had actually achieved a form of space travel by -means of crude vehicles. He believed, he said, that the name they -called themselves was "men."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The sun rose slowly in the east, and Lon Simpson swore patiently as -he tried for the eighteenth time to get the generator back again in a -fashion to make it work. His tractor waited in the nearby field. The -fields waited. Over in Cetopolis, the scales and storesheds waited, -and somewhere there was doubtless a cargo ship waiting for a spacegram -to summon it to Cetis Gamma Two for a load of <i>thanar</i> leaves. And of -course people everywhere waited for <i>thanar</i> leaves.</p> - -<p>A milligram a day kept old age away—which was not an advertising -slogan but sound, practical geriatric science. But <i>thanar</i> leaves -would only grow on Cetis Gamma Two, and the law said that all habitable -planets had to be open for colonization and land could not be withheld -from market.</p> - -<p>There was too much population back on Earth, anyhow. Therefore the -Cetis Gamma Trading Company couldn't make a planetwide plantation and -keep <i>thanar</i> as a monopoly, but could only run its own plantation for -research and instruction purposes for new colonists. Colonists had to -be admitted to the planet, and they had to be sold land. But there are -ways of getting around every law.</p> - -<p>Lon Simpson swore. The Diesel of his tractor ran a generator. The -generator ran the motors in the tractor's catawheels. But this was -the sixth time in a month that the generator had broken down, and -generators do not break down.</p> - -<p>Lon put it together for the eighteenth time this breakdown, and it -still wouldn't work. There was nothing detectably wrong with it, but he -couldn't make it work.</p> - -<p>Seething, he walked back to his neat, prefabricated house. He picked up -the beamphone. Even Cathy's voice at the exchange in Cetopolis could -not soothe him, he was so furious.</p> - -<p>"Cathy, give me Carson—and don't listen!" he said tensely.</p> - -<p>He heard clickings on the two-way beam.</p> - -<p>"My generator's gone," he said sourly when Carson answered. "I've -repaired it twice this week. It looks like it was built to stop -working! What is this all about, anyhow?"</p> - -<p>The representative of the Cetis Gamma Trading Company sounded bored.</p> - -<p>"You want a new generator sent out?" he asked without interest. "Your -crop credit's still all right—if the fields are in good shape."</p> - -<p>"I want machinery that works!" Lon Simpson snapped. "I want machinery -that doesn't have to be bought four times over a growing season! And I -want it at a decent price!"</p> - -<p>"Look, those generators come out from Earth. There's freight on them. -There's freight on everything that comes out from Earth. You people -come to a developed planet, you buy your land, your machinery, your -house, and you get instruction in agriculture. Do you want the company -to tuck you in bed at night besides? Do you want a new generator or -not?"</p> - -<p>"How much?" demanded Lon. When Carson told him, he hit the ceiling. -"It's robbery! What'll I have left for my crop if I buy that?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Carson's voice was still bored. "If you buy it and your crop's up to -standard, you'll owe the crop plus three hundred credits. But we'll -stake you to next growing season."</p> - -<p>"And if I don't?" demanded Lon. "Suppose I don't give you all my work -for nothing and wind up in debt?"</p> - -<p>"By contract," Carson told him, "we've got the right to finish -cultivating your crop and charge you for the work because we've -advanced you credit on it. Then we attach your land and house for the -balance due. And you get no more credit at the Company stores. And -passage off this planet has to be paid for in cash." He yawned. "Don't -answer now," he said without interest. "Call me back after you calm -down. You'd only have to apologize."</p> - -<p>Lon Simpson heard the click as he began to describe, heatedly, what -was in his mind. He said it anyhow. Then Cathy's voice came from the -exchange. She sounded shocked but sympathetic.</p> - -<p>"Lon! Please!"</p> - -<p>He swallowed a particularly inventive description of the manners, -morals and ancestry of all the directors and employees of the Cetis -Gamma Trading Company. Then he said, still fuming, "I told you not to -listen!"</p> - -<p>His wrongs overcame him again. "It's robbery! It's peonage! They've got -every credit I had! They've got three-quarters of the value of my crop -charged up for replacements of the lousy machinery they sold me—and -now I'll end the growing season in debt! How am I going to ask you to -marry me?"</p> - -<p>"Not over a beamphone, I hope," said Cathy.</p> - -<p>He was abruptly sunk in gloom.</p> - -<p>"That was a slip," he admitted. "I was going to wait until I got paid -for my crop. It looked good. Now—"</p> - -<p>"Wait a minute, Lon," Cathy said. There was silence. She gave somebody -else a connection.</p> - -<p>The phone-beams from the colony farms all went to Cetopolis and -Cathy was one of the two operators there. If or when the colony got -prosperous enough, there would be a regular intercommunication system. -So it was said. Meanwhile, Lon had a suspicion that there might be -another reason for the antiquated central station.</p> - -<p>Cathy said brightly, "Yes, Lon?"</p> - -<p>"I'll come in to town tonight," he said darkly. "Date?"</p> - -<p>"Y-yes," stammered Cathy. "Oh, yes!"</p> - -<p>He hung up and went back out to the field and the tractor. He began to -think sourly of a large number of things all at once. There was a law -to encourage people to leave Earth for colonies on suitable planets. -There was even governmental help for people who didn't have funds -of their own. But if a man wanted to make something of himself, he -preferred to use his own money and pick his own planet and choose his -own way of life.</p> - -<p>Lon Simpson had bought four hectares of land on Cetis Gamma Two. He'd -paid his passage out. He'd given five hundred credits a month for an -instruction course on the Company's plantation, during which time he'd -labored faithfully to grow, harvest, and cure <i>thanar</i> leaves for the -Company's profit. Then he'd bought farm machinery from the Company—and -a house—and very painstakingly had set out to be a colonist on his own.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Just about that time, Cathy had arrived on a Company ship and taken up -her duties as beamphone operator at Cetopolis. It was a new colony, -with not more than five thousand humans on the whole planet, all of -them concentrated near the one small town with its plank sidewalks and -prefabricated buildings. Lon Simpson met Cathy, and his labors on his -<i>thanar</i> farm acquired new energy and purpose.</p> - -<p>But he was up against a shrewd organization. His inordinately expensive -farm machinery broke down. He repaired it. After a time it could not -be repaired any longer and he had to buy more. Before the <i>thanar</i> -plants were half grown, he owed more than half his prospective crop for -machinery replacements.</p> - -<p>Now he could see the method perfectly. The Company imported all -machinery. It made that machinery in its own factories, machinery -that was designed to break down. So this year—even if nothing else -happened—Lon would wind up owing more for machinery replacements than -the crop would bring.</p> - -<p>It was not likely that nothing else would happen. Next season he -would start off in debt, instead of all clear, and if the same thing -happened he would owe all his crop and be six thousand credits behind. -By harvest after next, his farm and house could be foreclosed for debt -and he could either try to work for other colonists—who were in the -process of going through the same wringer themselves—or hire out as a -farmhand on the Company's plantation. He would never be able to save -space-fare away from the planet. He would be very much worse off than -the assisted emigrants to other planets, who had not invested all they -owned in land and machinery and agricultural instructions.</p> - -<p>And there was Cathy. She owed for her passage. It would be years before -she could pay that back, if ever. She couldn't live in the farmhand -barracks. They might as well give up thinking about each other.</p> - -<p>It was a system. Beautifully legal, absolutely airtight. Not a thing -wrong with it. The Company had a monopoly on <i>thanar</i>, despite the law. -It had all the cultivated land on Cetis Gamma Two under its control, -and its labor problem was solved. Its laborers first paid something -like sixteen thousand credits a head for the privilege of trying to -farm independently for a year or two, and then became farmhands for -the Company at a bare subsistence wage.</p> - -<p>Lon Simpson was in the grip of that system. He had taken the generator -apart and put it back together eighteen times. There was nothing -visibly wrong with it. It had been designed to break down with nothing -visibly wrong with it. If he couldn't repair it, though, he was out -fifteen hundred credits, his investment was wiped out, and all his -hopes were gone.</p> - -<p>He took the generator apart for the nineteenth time. He wondered grimly -how the Company's designers made generators so cleverly that they would -stop working so that even the trouble with them couldn't be figured -out. It was a very ingenious system.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Out on the ninth planet, Rhadampsicus explained the situation to his -bride as they waited for the interesting astronomical phenomenon. -They were quite cosy, waiting. Their bower was simple, of course. -Frozen nitrogen walls, and windows of the faint bluish tint of oxygen -ice. Rhadampsicus had grown some cyanogen flower-crystals to make the -place look homelike, and there was now a lovely reflection-pool in -which liquid hydrogen reflected the stars. Cetis Gamma, the local -sun, seemed hardly more than a very bright and very near star—it was -four light-hours away—and it glimmered over the landscape and made -everything quite charming.</p> - -<p>Nodalictha, naturally, would not enter the minds of the male bipeds -on the inner planet. Modesty forbade such a thing—as, of course, the -conscientiousness of a brand-new husband limited Rhadampsicus to the -thoughts of the males among the bipeds. But Nodalictha was distressed -when Rhadampsicus told her of what was occurring among the bipeds. He -guided her thoughts to Cathy, in the beamphone exchange at Cetopolis.</p> - -<p>"But it is terrible!" said Nodalictha in distress when she had absorbed -Cathy's maiden meditations. She did not actually speak in words and -soundwaves. There is no air worth mentioning at seven degrees Kelvin. -It's all frozen. A little helium hangs around, perhaps. Nothing else. -The word for communication is not exactly the word for speech, but it -will do. Nodalictha said, "They love each other! In a cute way, they -are like—like we were, Rhadampsicus!"</p> - -<p>Rhadampsicus played a positron-beam on her in feigned indignation. -If that beam had hit a human, the human would have curled up in a -scorched, smoking heap. But Nodalictha bridled.</p> - -<p>"Rhadampsicus!" she protested fondly. "Stop tickling me! But can't you -do something for them? They are so cute!"</p> - -<p>And Rhadampsicus gallantly sent his thoughts back to the second planet, -where a biped grimly labored over a primitive device.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Lon Simpson, staring at the disassembled generator, suddenly blinked. -The grimness went out of his expression. He stared. An idea had -occurred to him. He went over it in his mind. He blew out his breath in -a long whistle. Then, very painstakingly, he did four or five things -that completely ruined the generator for the extremely modest trade-in -allowance he could have gotten for it at the Company store.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="600" height="317" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>He worked absorbedly for perhaps twenty minutes, his eyes intent. At -the end of that time he had threads of unwound secondary wire stretched -back and forth across a forked stick of <i>dhil</i> weed, and two small -pieces of sheet iron twisted together in an extremely improbable -manner. He connected the ends of the secondary wire to contacts in his -tractor. He climbed into the tractor seat. He threw over the drive -control.</p> - -<p>The tractor lurched into motion. The Diesel wasn't running. But the -tractor rolled comfortably as Lon drove it, the individual motors in -the separate catawheels drawing power from a mere maze of wires across -a forked stick—plus two pieces of sheet iron. There was plenty of -power.</p> - -<p>Lon drove the tractor the rest of the morning and all afternoon with a -very peculiar expression on his face. He understood what he had done. -Now that he had done it, it seemed the most obvious of expedients. He -felt inclined to be incredulous that nobody had ever happened to think -of this particular device before. But they very plainly hadn't. It -was a source of all the electric power anybody could possibly want. -The voltage would depend on the number of turns of copper wire around -a suitably forked stick. The amperage would be whatever that voltage -could put through whatever was hooked to it.</p> - -<p>He no longer needed a new generator for his tractor. He had one.</p> - -<p>He didn't even need a Diesel.</p> - -<p>With adequate power—he'd been having to nurse the Diesel along, -too, lately—Lon Simpson ran his tractor late into the twilight. He -cultivated all the ground that urgently needed cultivation, and at -least one field he hadn't hoped to get to before next week. But his -expression was amazed. It is a very peculiar sensation to discover -that one is a genius.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>That night, in Cetopolis, he told Cathy all about it. It was a very -warm night—an unusually warm night. They walked along the plank -sidewalks of the little frontier town—as a new colony, Cetis Gamma Two -was a frontier—and Lon talked extravagantly.</p> - -<p>He had meant to explain painfully to Cathy that there was no use in -their being romantic about each other. He'd expected to have to tell -her bitterly that he was doomed to spend the rest of his life adding -to the profits of the Cetis Gamma Trading Company, with all the laws -of the human race holding him in peonage. He'd thought of some very -elegant descriptions of the sort of people who'd worked out the system -in force on Cetis Gamma Two.</p> - -<p>But he didn't. As they strolled under the shiver trees that lined the -small town's highways, and smelled the <i>chanel</i> bushes beyond the -town's limits, and listened to the thin violinlike strains of what -should have been night birds—they weren't; the singers were furry -instead of feathered, and they slept in burrows during the day—as they -walked with linked fingers in the warm and starlit night, Lon told -Cathy about his invention.</p> - -<p>He explained in detail just why wires wound in just that fashion, and -combined with bits of sheet iron twisted in just those shapes, would -produce power for free and forever. He explained how it had to be so. -He marveled that nobody had ever thought of it before. He explained it -so that Cathy could almost understand it.</p> - -<p>"It's wonderful!" she said wistfully. "They'll run spaceships on your -invention, won't they, Lon? And cities? And everything! I guess you'll -be very rich for inventing it!"</p> - -<p>He stopped short and stared at her. He hadn't thought that far ahead. -Then he said blankly:</p> - -<p>"But I'll have to get back to Earth to patent it! And I haven't got the -money to pay one fare, let alone two!"</p> - -<p>"Two?" asked Cathy hopefully. "Why two?"</p> - -<p>"You're going to marry me, aren't you?" he demanded. "I sort of hope -that was all settled."</p> - -<p>Cathy stamped her foot.</p> - -<p>"Hadn't you heard," she asked indignantly, "that such things aren't -taken for granted? Especially when two people are walking in the -starlight and are supposed to be thrilled? It isn't settled—not until -after you've kissed me, anyhow!"</p> - -<p>He remedied his error.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Out on the ninth planet, very far away, Nodalictha blushed slightly. -As a bride, she was in that deliciously embarrassing state of -becoming accustomed to discussions which would previously have been -unconventional.</p> - -<p>"They are so quaint!" Then she hesitated and said awkwardly, "The idea -of putting their—their lips together as a sign of affection—"</p> - -<p>Rhadampsicus was amused, as a bridegroom may be by the delightful -innocences of a new wife. He evinced his amusement in a manner no human -being could conceivably have recognized as the tender laugh it was.</p> - -<p>"Little goose!" he said fondly. Of course, instead of a fowl, he -thought of a creature that had thirty-four legs and scales instead of -feathers and was otherwise thoroughly ungooselike. "Little goose, they -do that because they can't do this!"</p> - -<p>And he twined his eye stalks sentimentally about hers.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Days passed on Cetis Gamma Two. Lon Simpson cultivated his <i>thanar</i> -fields. But he began to worry. His new power source was more than a -repair for a broken-down tractor. It was valuable. It was riches! He -had in it one of those basic, overwhelmingly important discoveries by -which human beings have climbed up from the status of intelligent -Earthbound creatures to galactic colonists—And a lot of good it had -done them!</p> - -<p>It was a basic principle for power supply that would relieve mankind -permanently of the burden of fuels. The number of planets available -for colonization would be multiplied. The cost of every object made by -human beings would be reduced by the previous cost of power. The price -of haulage from one planet to another would be reduced to a fraction. -Every member of the human race would become richer as a result of -the gadget now attached to Lon Simpson's tractor. He was entitled to -royalties on the wealth he was to distribute. But....</p> - -<p>He was a <i>thanar</i> farmer on Cetis Gamma Two. His crop was mortgaged. He -could not possibly hope to raise enough money to get back to Earth to -arrange for the marketing of his invention. Especially, he could not -conceivably raise money enough to take Cathy with him. He had riches, -but they weren't available. And something else might happen to ruin him -at any time.</p> - -<p>Something else did. The freezer element of his deep-freeze locker broke -down. He didn't notice it. He had a small kitchen locker in which food -for week-to-week use was stored. He didn't know anything about the -deep-freeze unit that held a whole growing season's supply of food. -The food in it—all imported from Earth and very expensive—thawed, -fermented, spoiled, developed evil smelling gases, and waited for an -appropriate moment to reveal itself as a catastrophe.</p> - -<p>There were other things to worry about at the time. A glacier up at -Cetis Gamma Two's polar region began to retreat, instead of growing -as was normal for the season. There was a remarkable solar prominence -of three days' duration swinging around the equator of the local sun. -There was a meeting of directors of the Cetis Gamma Trading Company, -at which one of the directors pointed out that the normal curve of -increase for profits was beginning to flatten out, and something had -to be done to improve the financial position of the company. Ugly -sun-spots appeared on the northern hemisphere of Cetis Gamma. If there -had been any astronomers on the job, there would have been as much -excitement as a four alarm fire. But there were no astronomers.</p> - -<p>The greatest agitation on the second planet of Cetis Gamma Two was felt -by Lon Simpson. Cathy had made friends with a married woman colonist -who would chaperon her on a visit to Lon's farm, and was coming out -to visit and see the place that was to be the scene of the ineffable, -unparalleled happiness she and Lon would know after they were married.</p> - -<p>She came, she saw, she was captivated. Lon blissfully opened the door -of the house she was to share. He had spent the better part of two days -cleaning up so it would be fit for her to look at. Cathy entered. There -was a dull, booming noise, a hissing, and a bubbling, and then a rank -stench swept through the house and strangled them.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The boom, of course, was the bursting open of the deep-freeze locker -from the pressure of accumulated gases within it. The smell was that -of the deep-freeze contents, ten days thawed out without Lon knowing -it. There are very few smells much worse than frozen fish gone very, -very bad in a hot climate. If there are worse smells, they come from -once-frozen eggs bursting from their shells when pressure outside -them is relieved. In this case, trimmings were added by fermenting -strawberries, moldy meat and badly decayed vegetables, all triumphantly -making themselves known at the same instant.</p> - -<p>Cathy gasped and choked. Lon got her out of doors, gasping himself. It -was not difficult to deduce what had happened.</p> - -<p>He opened the house windows from the outside, so the smell could go -away. But he knew despair.</p> - -<p>"I—can't show you the house, Cathy," he said numbly. "My locker went -bad and all the food followed suit."</p> - -<p>"Lon!" wailed Cathy. "It's terrible! How will you eat?"</p> - -<p>Lon began to realize that the matter was more serious than the loss -of an opportunity for a sentimental inspection of the house. He had -dreamed splendidly, of late. He didn't quite know how he was going -to manage it, but since his tractor was working magnificently he had -come to picture himself and Cathy in the rôle of successful colonists, -zestfully growing <i>thanar</i> leaves for the increasing multitudes of -people who needed a milligram a day.</p> - -<p>He'd reverted to the pictured dreams in the Cetis Gamma Trading -Company's advertisements. He'd daydreamed of himself and Cathy as -growing with the colony, thriving as it throve, and ultimately becoming -moderately rich—in children and grandchildren, anyhow—with life -stretching out before them in a sort of rosy glow. He'd negligently -assumed that somehow they would also be rich from the royalties on his -invention. But now he came down to reality.</p> - -<p>His house was uninhabitable for the time being. He could continue -to cultivate his fields, but he wouldn't be able to eat. The local -plant-life was not suitable for human digestion. He had to live on food -imported from Earth. Now he had to buy a new stock from the Company, -and it would bankrupt him.</p> - -<p>With an invention worth more—probably—than the Cetis Gamma Company -itself, if he could realize on it, he still was broke. His crop was -mortgaged. If Carson learned about his substitute for a generator, the -Company would immediately clamp down to get it away from him.</p> - -<p>He took Cathy back to Cetopolis. He feverishly appealed to other -colonists. He couldn't tell them about his generator substitute. If -they knew about it, in time Carson would know. If they used it, Carson -would eventually get hold of a specimen, to send back to Earth for -pirating by the Cetis Gamma Trading Company. All Lon could do was try -desperately to arrange to borrow food to live on until his crop came -in, though even then he wouldn't be in any admirable situation.</p> - -<p>He couldn't borrow food in quantity. Other colonists had troubles, -too. They'd give him a meal, yes, but they couldn't refill his freezer -without emptying their own. Which would compel them to buy more. Which -would be charged against their crops. Which would simply hasten the day -when they would become day-laborers on the Company's <i>thanar</i> farm.</p> - -<p>Lon had about two days' food in the kitchen locker. He determined to -stretch it to four. Then he'd have to buy more. With each meal, then, -his hopes of freedom and prosperity—and Cathy—grew less.</p> - -<p>Of course, he could starve....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Rhadampsicus was enormously and pleasantly interested in what went on -in Cetis Gamma's photosphere. From the ninth planet, he scanned the -prominences with enthusiasm, making notes. Nodalictha tried to take -a proper wifely interest in her husband's hobby, but she could not -keep it up indefinitely. She busied herself with her housekeeping. -She fashioned a carpet of tufted methane fibres and put up curtains -at the windows. She enlarged the garden Rhadampsicus had made, adding -borders of crystallized ammonia and a sort of walkway with a hedge -of monoclinic sulphur which glittered beautifully in the starlight. -She knew that this was only a temporary dwelling, but she wanted -Rhadampsicus to realize that she could make any place a comfortable -home.</p> - -<p>He remained absorbed in the phenomena of the local sun. One great -prominence, after five days of spectacular existence, divided into two -which naturally moved apart and stationed themselves at opposite sides -of the sun's equator. They continued to rotate with the sun itself, -giving very much the effect of an incipient pinwheel. Two other minor -prominences came into being midway between them. Rhadampsicus watched -in fascination.</p> - -<p>Nodalictha came and reposed beside him on a gentle slope of volcanic -slag. She waited for him to notice her. She would not let herself be -sensitive about his interest in his hobby, of course, but she could not -really find it absorbing for herself. A trifle wistfully, she sent her -thoughts to the female biped on the second planet.</p> - -<p>After a while she said in distress, "Rhadampsicus! Oh, they are so -unhappy!"</p> - -<p>Rhadampsicus gallantly turned his attention from the happenings on the -sun.</p> - -<p>"What's that, darling?"</p> - -<p>"Look!" said Nodalictha plaintively. "They are so much in love, -Rhadampsicus! And they can't marry because he hasn't anything edible to -share with her!"</p> - -<p>Rhadampsicus scanned. He was an ardent and sentimental husband. If his -new little wife was distressed about anything at all, Rhadampsicus was -splendidly ready to do something about it.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Lon Simpson looked at his kitchen locker. The big deep-freezer was -repaired now. Once a season, a truck came out from Cetopolis and filled -it. The food was costly. A season's supply was kept in deep-freeze. -Once in one or two weeks, one refilled the kitchen locker. It was best -to leave the deep-freeze locker closed as much as possible. But now the -big deep-freeze was empty. He'd cleaned out the ghastly mess in it, and -he had it running again, but he had nothing to put in it. To have it -refilled would put him hopelessly at the Company's mercy, but there was -nothing else to do.</p> - -<p>Bitterly, he called the Trading Company office, and Carson answered.</p> - -<p>"This is Simpson," Lon told him. "How much—"</p> - -<p>"The price for a generator," said Carson, bored, "is the same as -before. Do you want it sent out?"</p> - -<p>"No! My food locker broke down. My food store spoiled. I need more."</p> - -<p>"I'll figure it," replied Carson over the beamphone. He didn't seem -interested. After a moment, he said indifferently, "Fifteen hundred -credits for standard rations to crop time. Then you'll need more."</p> - -<p>"It's robbery!" raged Lon. "I can't expect more than four thousand -credits for my crop! You've got three thousand charged against me now!"</p> - -<p>Carson yawned. "True. A new generator, fifteen hundred; new food -supplies fifteen hundred. If your crop turns out all right, you'll -start the new season with two thousand credits charged up as a loan -against your land."</p> - -<p>Lon Simpson strangled on his fury. "You'll take all my leaves and I'll -still owe you! Then credit for seed and food and—If I need to buy more -machinery, you'll own my farm <i>and</i> crop next crop time! Even if my -crop is good! Your damned Company will own my farm!"</p> - -<p>"That's your lookout," Carson said without emotion. "Being a <i>thanar</i> -farmer was your idea, not mine. Shall I send out the food?"</p> - -<p>Lon Simpson bellowed into the beamphone. He heard clicking, then -Cathy's voice. It was at once reproachful and sympathetic.</p> - -<p>"Lon! Please!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>But Lon couldn't talk to her. He panted at her, and hung up. It is -essential to a young man in love that he shine, somehow, in the eyes -of the girl he cares for. Lon was not shining. He was appearing as the -Galaxy's prize sap. He'd invested a sizable fortune in his farm. He was -a good farmer—hard-working and skilled. In the matter of repairing -generators, he'd proved to be a genius. But he was at the mercy of -the Cetis Gamma Company's representative. He was already in debt. If -he wanted to go on eating, he'd go deeper. If he were careful and -industrious and thrifty, the Trading Company would take his crop and -farm in six more months and then give him a job at day-labor wages.</p> - -<p>He went grimly to the kitchen of his home. He looked at the trivial -amount of food remaining. He was hungry. He could eat it all right now.</p> - -<p>If he did—</p> - -<p>Then, staring at the food in the kitchen locker, he blinked. An idea -had occurred to him. He was blankly astonished at it. He went over and -over it in his mind. His expression became dubiously skeptical, and -then skeptically amazed. But his eyes remained intent as he thought.</p> - -<p>Presently, looking very skeptical indeed, he went out of the house -and unwound more copper wire from the remnant of the disassembled -generator. He came back to the kitchen. He took an emptied tin can -and cut it in a distinctly peculiar manner. The cuts he made were -asymmetrical. When he had finished, he looked at it doubtfully.</p> - -<p>A long time later he had made a new gadget. It consisted of two open -coils, one quite large and one quite small. Their resemblance to each -other was plain, but they did not at all resemble any other coils that -had been made for any other purpose whatsoever. If they looked like -anything, it was the "mobiles" that some sculptors once insisted were -art.</p> - -<p>Lon stared at his work with an air of helplessness. Then he went out -again. He returned with the forked stick that had proved to be a -generator. He connected the wires from that improbable contrivance to -the coils of the new and still more unlikely device. The eccentrically -cut tin can was in the middle, between them.</p> - -<p>There was a humming sound. Lon went out a third time and came back with -a mass of shrubbery. He packed it in the large coil.</p> - -<p>He muttered to himself, "I'm out of my head! I'm crazy!"</p> - -<p>But then he went to the kitchen locker. He put a small packet of frozen -green peas in the tin can between the two coils.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="600" height="362" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>The humming sound increased. After a moment there was another parcel -of green peas—not frozen—in the small coil.</p> - -<p>Lon took it out. The device hummed more loudly again. Immediately there -was another parcel of green peas in the small coil. He took them out.</p> - -<p>When he had six parcels of green peas instead of one, the mass of -foliage in the large coil collapsed abruptly. Lon disconnected the -wires and removed the debris. The native foliage looked shrunken, -somehow, dried-out. Lon tossed it through the window.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He put a parcel of unfrozen green peas on to cook and sat down and held -his head in his hands. He knew what had happened. He knew how.</p> - -<p>The local flora on Cetis Gamma Two naturally contained the same -chemical elements as the green peas imported from Earth. Those elements -were combined in chemical compounds similar, if not identical to, those -of the Earth vegetation. The new gadget simply converted the compounds -in the large coil to match those in the sample—in the tin can—and -assembled them in the small coil according to the physical structure of -the sample. In this case, as green peas.</p> - -<p>The device would take any approximate compound from the large coil and -reassemble it—suitably modified as per sample—in the small coil. -It would work not only for green peas, but for roots, barks, herbs, -berries, blossoms and flowers.</p> - -<p>It would even work for <i>thanar</i> leaves.</p> - -<p>When that last fact occurred to him, Lon Simpson went quietly loony, -trying to figure out how he had come to think of such a thing. He was -definitely crocked, because he picked up the beamphone and told Cathy -all about it. And he was not loony because he told Cathy, but because -he forgot his earlier suspicions of why there was a central station -for beamphones in Cetopolis, instead of a modern direct-communication -system.</p> - -<p>In fact, he forgot the system in operation on Cetis Gamma Two—the -Company's system. It had been designed to put colonists through the -wringer and deposit them at its own farm to be day-laborers forever -with due regard to human law. But it was a very efficient system.</p> - -<p>It took care of strokes of genius, too.</p> - -<p>That night, Carson, listening boredly to the record of all the -conversations over the beamphone during the day, heard what Lon had -told Cathy. He didn't believe it, of course.</p> - -<p>But he made a memo to look into it.</p> - -<p>Rhadampsicus stretched himself. Out on the ninth planet, the weather -was slightly warmer—almost six degrees Kelvin, two hundred and -sixty-odd degrees centigrade below zero—and he was inclined to be -lazy. But he was very handsome, in Nodalictha's eyes. He was seventy -or more feet from his foremost eye stalk to the tip of his least -crimson appendage, and he fluoresced beautifully in the starlight. He -was a very gallant young bridegroom.</p> - -<p>When he saw Nodalictha looking at him admiringly, he said with his -customary tenderness:</p> - -<p>"It was fatiguing to make him go through it, darling, but since you -wished it, it is done. He now has food to share with the female."</p> - -<p>"And you're handsome, too, Rhadampsicus!" Nodalictha said irrelevantly.</p> - -<p>She felt as brides sometimes do on their honeymoons. She was quite -sure that she had not only the bravest and handsomest of husbands, but -the most thoughtful and considerate.</p> - -<p>Presently, with their eye stalks intertwined, he asked softly:</p> - -<p>"Are you weary of this place, darling? I would like to watch the rest -of this rather rare phenomenon, but if you're not interested, we can go -on. And truly I won't mind."</p> - -<p>"Of course we'll stay!" protested Nodalictha. "I want to do anything -you want to. I'm perfectly happy just being with you."</p> - -<p>And, unquestionably, she was.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Carson, though bored, was a bit upset by the recorded conversation he'd -listened to. Lon Simpson had been almost incoherent, but he obviously -meant Cathy to take him seriously. And there were some things to back -it up.</p> - -<p>He'd reported his generator hopelessly useless—and hadn't bought a new -one. He'd reported all his food spoiled—and hadn't bought more. Carson -thought it over carefully. The crop inspection helicopter reported -Simpson's fields in much better shape than average, so his tractor was -obviously working.</p> - -<p>Carson asked casual, deadpan questions of other colonists who came -into the Company store. Most of them were harried, sullen and bitter. -They were unanimously aware of the wringer they were being put -through. They knew what the Company was doing to them and they hated -Carson because he represented it. But they did answer Carson's casual -questions about Lon Simpson.</p> - -<p>Yes, he'd tried to borrow food from them. No, they couldn't lend it to -him. Yes, he was still eating. In fact he was offering to swap food. -He was short on fruit and long on frozen green peas. Then he was long -on fruit and frozen green peas and short on frozen sweet corn and -strawberries. No, he didn't want to trade on a big scale. One package -of frozen strawberries was all he wanted. He gave six packages of -frozen peas for it. He gave six packages of frozen strawberries for one -package of frozen sweet corn. He'd swapped a dozen parcels of sweet -corn for one of fillet of flounder, two dozen fillet of flounder for -cigarettes, and fifty cartons of cigarettes for a frozen roast of beef.</p> - -<p>It didn't make sense unless the conversation on the beamphone was -right. If what Lon had told Cathy was true, he'd have his frozen -food locker filled up again by now. He had some sort of device which -converted the indigestible local flora and fauna into digestible -Earth products. To suspect such a thing was preposterous, but Carson -suspected everyone and everything.</p> - -<p>As representative of the Company, Carson naturally did its dirty work. -New colonists bought farms from the central office on Earth and happily -took ship to Cetis Gamma Two. Then Carson put them through their -instruction course, outfitted them to try farming on their own, and -saw to it that they went bankrupt and either starved or took jobs as -farmhands for the Company, at wages assuring that they could never take -ship away again.</p> - -<p>It was a nasty job and Carson did it very well, because he loved it.</p> - -<p>While he still debated Lon's insane boasts to Cathy over the beamphone -system, he prepared to take over the farm of another colonist. That -man had been deeper in debt than Lon, and he'd been less skilled -at repairs, so it was time to gather him in. Carson called him to -Cetopolis to tell him that the Company regretfully could not extend -further credit, would have to take back his farm, house, and remaining -food stores, and finish the cultivation of his <i>thanar</i> leaf crop to -repay itself for the trouble.</p> - -<p>The colonist, however, said briefly: "Go to hell."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He started to leave Carson's air-cooled office. Carson said mildly:</p> - -<p>"You're broke. You'll want a job when you haven't got a farm. You can't -afford to tell me to go to hell."</p> - -<p>"You can't take my farm unless my fields are neglected," the colonist -said comfortably. "They aren't. And my <i>thanar</i> leaf crop is going to -be a bumper one. I'll pay off all I owe—and we colonists are planning -to start a trading company of our own, to bring in good machinery and -deal fairly."</p> - -<p>Carson smiled coldly.</p> - -<p>"You forget something," he said. "As representative of the Trading -Company, I can call on you to pay up all your debts at once, if I have -reason to think you intend to try to evade payment. I do think so. I -call on you for immediate payment in full. Pay up, please!"</p> - -<p>This was an especially neat paragraph in the fine print of the -colonists' contract with the Company. Any time a colonist got obstinate -he could be required to pay all he owed, on the dot. And if he had -enough to pay, he wouldn't owe. So the Trading Company could ruin -anybody.</p> - -<p>But this colonist merely grinned.</p> - -<p>"By law," he observed, "you have to accept <i>thanar</i> leaves as legal -tender, at five credits a kilo. Send out a truck for your payment. I've -got six tons in my barn, all ready to turn in."</p> - -<p>He made a most indecorous gesture and walked out. A moment later, he -put his head back in.</p> - -<p>"I forgot," he commented politely. "You said I couldn't afford to -tell you to go to hell. With six tons of <i>thanar</i> leaves on hand, I'm -telling you to—"</p> - -<p>He added several other things, compared to which telling Carson to go -to hell was the height of courtesy. He went away.</p> - -<p>Carson went a little pale. It occurred to him that this colonist was a -close neighbor of Lon Simpson. Maybe Lon had gotten tired of converting -<i>dhil</i> weed and shiver leaves into green peas and asparagus, and had -gotten to work turning out <i>thanar</i>.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Carson went to Lon's farm. It was a very bad road, and any four-wheeled -vehicle would have shaken itself to pieces on the way. The gyrocar -merely jolted Carson severely. The jolting kept him from noticing how -hot the weather was. It was really extraordinarily hot, and Carson -suffered more because he spent most of his time in an air-conditioned -office. But for the same reason he did not suspect anything abnormal.</p> - -<p>When he reached Lon's farm, he noticed that the <i>thanar</i> leaves were -growing admirably. For a moment, sweating as he was, he was reminded -of tobacco plants growing on Maryland hillsides. The heat and the -bluish-green color of the plants seemed very familiar. But then a -cateagle ran hastily up a tree, out on a branch, and launched its -crimson furry self into midair. That broke the spell of supposedly -familiar things.</p> - -<p>Carson turned his gyrocar in at Lon Simpson's house. There were half -a dozen other colonists around. Two of them drove up with farm trucks -loaded with mixed foliage. They had pulled up, cut off and dragged down -just about anything that grew, and loaded their truck with it. Two -other colonists were loading another cart with <i>thanar</i> leaves, neatly -bundled and ready for the warehouse.</p> - -<p>They regarded Carson with pleased eyes. Carson spoke severely to Cathy.</p> - -<p>"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be on duty at the -beamphone exchange! You can be discharged—"</p> - -<p>Lon Simpson said negligently, "I'm paying her passage. By law, anybody -can pay the passage of any woman if she intends to marry him, and then -her contract with the company is ended. They had rules like that in -ancient days—only they used to pay in tobacco instead of <i>thanar</i> -leaves."</p> - -<p>Carson gulped. "But how will you pay her fare?" He asked sternly. -"You're in debt to the Company yourself."</p> - -<p>Lon Simpson jerked his thumb toward his barn. Carson turned and looked. -It was a nice-looking barn. The aluminum siding set it off against a -backing of shiver trees, <i>dhil</i> and giant <i>sketit</i> growth. Carson's -eyes bugged out. Lon's barn was packed so tightly with <i>thanar</i> leaves -that they bulged out the doors.</p> - -<p>"I need to turn some of that stuff in, anyhow," said Lon pleasantly. -"I haven't got storage space for it. By law you have to buy it at five -credits a kilo. I wish you'd send out and get some. I'd like to build -up some credit. Think I'll take a trip back to Earth."</p> - -<p>At this moment, there was a very peculiar wave of heat. It was not -violent, but the temperature went up about four degrees—suddenly, as -if somebody had turned on a room heater.</p> - -<p>But still nobody looked up at the sun.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Rattled, Carson demanded furiously if Lon had converted other local -foliage into <i>thanar</i> leaves, as he'd made his green peas and the -other stuff he'd told Cathy about on the beamphone. Lon tensed, and -observed to the other colonists that evidently all beamphones played -into recorders. The atmosphere became unfriendly. Carson got more -rattled still. He began to wave his arms and sputter.</p> - -<p>Lon Simpson treated him gently. He took him into the house to watch the -converter at work. One of the colonists kept its large coil suitably -stuffed with assorted foliage. There was a "hand" of cured, early—best -quality—<i>thanar</i> leaves in an erratically cut tin can. Duplicates of -that hand of best quality <i>thanar</i> were appearing in the small coil as -fast as they were removed, and fresh foliage was being heaped into the -large coil.</p> - -<p>"We expect," said Lon happily, "to have a bumper crop of the best grade -of <i>thanar</i> this year. It looks like every colonist on the planet will -be able to pay off his debt to the Company and have credit left over. -We'll be sending a committee back to Earth to collect our credits there -and organize an independent cooperative trading company that will bring -out decent machinery and be a competitive buying agency for <i>thanar</i>. -I'm sure the Company will be glad to see us all so prosperous."</p> - -<p>It was stifling hot by now, but nobody noticed. The colonists were -much too interested in seeing Carson go visibly to pieces before them. -He was one of those people who seem to have been developed by an -all-wise Providence expressly to be underlings for certain types of -large corporations. Their single purpose in life is to impress their -superiors in the corporation that hires them. But now Carson saw his -usefulness ended. Through his failure, in some fashion, the Company's -monopoly on <i>thanar</i> leaves and its beautiful system of recruiting -labor were ruined. He would be discharged and probably blacklisted.</p> - -<p>If he had looked up toward the western sky, squinted a little, and -gazed directly at the local sun, he would have seen that his private -troubles were of no importance at all. But he didn't. He went -staggering to his gyrocar and headed back for Cetopolis.</p> - -<p>It was a tiny town, with plank streets, a beamphone exchange, and its -warehouses over by the spaceport. It was merely a crude and rather ugly -little settlement on a newly colonized planet. But it had been the -center of an admirable system by which the Cetis Gamma Trading Company -got magnificently rich and dispensed <i>thanar</i> leaf (a milligram a day -kept old age away) throughout all humanity at the very top price the -traffic would bear. And the system was shaky now and Carson would be -blamed for it.</p> - -<p>Behind him, the colonists rejoiced as hugely as Carson suffered. But -none of them got the proper perspective, because none of them looked at -the sun.</p> - -<p>About four o'clock in the afternoon, it got suddenly hotter again, -as abruptly as before. It stayed hotter. Something made Cathy look -up. There was a thin cloud overhead, just the right thickness to act -something like a piece of smoked glass. She could look directly at the -sun through it, examine the disk with her naked eye.</p> - -<p>But it wasn't a disk any longer. Cetis Gamma was a bulging, irregularly -shaped thing twice its normal size. As she looked, it grew larger still.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Out on the ninth planet, Rhadampsicus was absorbed in his contemplation -of Cetis Gamma. With nothing to interfere with his scanning, he could -follow the developments perfectly. There had been first one gigantic -prominence, then two, which separated to opposite sides of its equator. -Then two other prominences began to grow between them.</p> - -<p>For two full days, the new prominences grew, and then split, so that -the sun came to have the appearance of a ball of fire surrounded by a -ring of blue-white incandescence.</p> - -<p>Then came instability. Flame geysers spouting hundreds of thousands -of miles into emptiness ceased to keep their formation. They turned -north and south from the equatorial line. The outline of the sun became -irregular. It ceased to be round in profile, and even the appearance -of a ring around it vanished. It looked—though this would never have -occurred to Rhadampsicus—very much like a fiercely glowing gigantic -potato. Its evolution of heat went up incredibly. It much more than -doubled its rate of radiation.</p> - -<p>Rhadampsicus watched each detail of the flare-up with fascinated -attention. Nodalictha dutifully watched with him. But she could not -maintain her interest in so purely scientific a phenomenon.</p> - -<p>When a thin streamer of pure blue-white jetted upward from the sun's -pole, attaining a speed of six hundred and ninety-two miles per second, -Rhadampsicus turned to her with enthusiasm.</p> - -<p>"Exactly in the pattern of a flare-up according to Dhokis' theory!" he -exclaimed. "I have always thought he was more nearly right than the -modernists. Radiation pressure can build up in a closed system such -as the interior of a sun. It can equal the gravitational constant. And -obviously it would break loose at the pole."</p> - -<p>Then he saw that Nodalictha's manner was one of distress. He was -instantly concerned.</p> - -<p>"What's the matter, darling?" he asked anxiously. "I didn't mean to -neglect you, my precious one!"</p> - -<p>Nodalictha did something that would have scared a human being out of a -year's growth, but was actually the equivalent of an unhappy, stifled -sob.</p> - -<p>"I am a beast!" said Rhadampsicus penitently. "I've kept you here, in -boredom, while I enjoyed myself watching this sun do tricks. I'm truly -sorry, Nodalictha. We will go on at once. I shouldn't have asked you -to—"</p> - -<p>But Nodalictha said unhappily, "It isn't you, Rhadampsicus. It's me! -While you've been watching the star, I've amused myself watching those -quaint little creatures on the second planet. I've thought of them -as—well, as pets. I've grown fond of them. It was absurd of me—"</p> - -<p>"Oh, but it is wonderful of you," said Rhadampsicus tenderly. "I love -you all the more for it, my darling. But why are you unhappy about -them? I made sure they had food and energy."</p> - -<p>"They're going to be burned up!" wailed Nodalictha, "and they're so -cute!"</p> - -<p>Rhadampsicus blinked his eyes—all sixteen of them. Then he said -self-accusingly, "My dear, I should have thought of that. Of course -this is only a flare-up, darling...." Then he made an impatient -gesture. "I see! You would rather think of them as happy, in their -little way, than as burned to tiny crisps."</p> - -<p>He considered, scanning the second planet with the normal anxiety of a -bridegroom to do anything that would remove a cloud from his bride's -lovely sixteen eyes.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Night fell on Cetopolis, and with it came some slight alleviation of -the dreadfulness that had begun that afternoon. The air was furnacelike -in heat and dryness. There was the smell of smoke everywhere. The stars -were faint and red and ominous, seen through the smoke that overlay -everything. So far, to be sure, breathing was possible. It was even -possible to be comfortable in an air-conditioned room. But this was -only the beginning.</p> - -<p>Lon and Cathy sat together on the porch of his house, after sundown. -The other colonists had gone away to their own homes. When the crack -of doom has visibly begun, men do queer things. In Cetopolis some -undoubtedly got drunk, or tried to. But there were farmers who would -spend this last night looking at their drooping crops, trying to -persuade themselves that if Cetis Gamma only went back to normal before -sunrise, the crops might yet be saved. But none of them expected it.</p> - -<p>Off to the south there was an angry reddish glare in the sky. That was -vegetation on the desert there, burning. It grew thick as jungle in the -rainy season, and dried out to pure dessication in dry weather. It had -caught fire of itself from the sun's glare in late afternoon. Great -clouds of acrid smoke rose from it to the stars.</p> - -<p>Beyond the horizon to the west there was destruction.</p> - -<p>Lon and Cathy sat close together. She hadn't even asked to be taken -back to Cetopolis, as convention would have required. The sun -was growing hotter still while it sank below the horizon. It was -expanding in fits and starts as new writhing spouts of stuff from its -interior burst the bonds of gravity. Blazing magma flung upward in an -unthinkable eruption. The sun had been three times normal size when it -set.</p> - -<p>Lon was no astronomer, but plainly the end of life on the inner planets -of Cetis Gamma was at hand.</p> - -<p>Cetis Gamma might, he considered, be in the process of becoming a -nova. Certainly beyond the horizon there was even more terrible heat -than had struck the human colony before sundown. Even if the sun -did not explode, even if it was only as fiercely blazing as at its -setting, they would die within hours after sunrise. If it increased in -brightness, by daybreak its first rays would be death itself. When dawn -came, the very first direct beams would set the shiver trees alight on -the hilltops, and as it rose the fires would go down into the valleys. -This house would smoke and writhe and melt; the air would become flame, -and the planet's surface would glow red-hot as it turned into the -sunshine.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"It's going to be—all right, Lon," Cathy said unconvincedly. "It's -just something happening that'll be over in a little while. But—in -case it isn't—we might as well be together. Don't you think so?"</p> - -<p>Lon put his arm comfortingly around her. He felt a very strong impulse -to lie. He could pretend to vast wisdom and tell her the sun's behavior -was this or that, and never lasted more than a few hours, but she'd -know he lied. They could spend their last hours trying to deceive each -other out of pure affection. But they'd know it was deceit.</p> - -<p>"D-don't you think so?" insisted Cathy faintly.</p> - -<p>He said gently, "No, Cathy, and neither do you. This is the finish. It -would've been a lot nicer to go on living, the two of us. We'd have had -long, long years to be together. We'd have had kids, and they'd have -grown up, and we'd have had—a lot of things. But now I'm afraid we -won't."</p> - -<p>He tried to smile at her, but it hurt. He thought passionately that -he would gladly submit himself to be burned in the slowest and most -excruciating manner if only she could be saved from it. But he couldn't -do anything.</p> - -<p>Cathy gulped. "I-I'm afraid so, too, Lon," she said in a small voice. -"But it's nice we met each other, anyhow. Now we know we love each -other. I don't like the idea of dying, but I'm glad we knew we loved -each other before it happened."</p> - -<p>Lon's hands clenched fiercely. Then the rage went away. He said almost -humorously, "Carson—he's back in Cetopolis. I wonder how he feels. He -has no better chance than anybody else. Maybe he's sent off spacegrams, -but no ship could possibly get here in time."</p> - -<p>Cathy shivered a little. "Let's not think about him. Just about us. We -haven't much time."</p> - -<p>And just then, very strangely, an idea came to Lon Simpson. He tensed.</p> - -<p>After a moment, he said in a very queer voice, "This isn't a nova. It's -a flare-up. The sun isn't exploding. It's just too hot, too big for the -temperature inside it, and it's a closed system. So radiation pressure -has been building up. Now it's got to be released. So it will spout -geysers of its own substance. They'll go out over hundreds of thousands -of miles. But in a couple of weeks it will be back—nearly—to normal."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="364" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>He suddenly knew that. He knew why it was so. He could have explained -it completely and precisely. But he didn't know how he knew. The items -that added together were themselves so self evident that he didn't even -wonder how he knew them. They <i>had</i> to be so!</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Cathy said muffledly, her face against his shoulder, "But we won't be -alive in a couple of weeks, Lon. We can't live long past daybreak."</p> - -<p>He did not answer. There were more ideas coming into his mind. He -didn't know where they came from. But again they were such self -evident, unquestionable facts that he did not wonder about them. He -simply paid tense, desperately concentrated attention as they formed -themselves.</p> - -<p>"We—may live," he said shakily. "There's an ionosphere up at the -top of the atmosphere here, just like there is on Earth. It's made -by the sunlight ionizing the thin air. The—stronger sunlight will -multiply the ionization. There'll be an—actually conducting layer of -air.... Yes.... The air will become a conductor, up there." He wet his -lips. "If I make a—gadget to—short-circuit that conducting layer to -the ground here.... When radiation photons penetrate a transparent -conductor—but there aren't any transparent conductors—the photons -will—follow the three-finger rule....</p> - -<p>"They'll move at right angles to their former course—"</p> - -<p>He swallowed. Then he got up very quietly. He put her aside. He went -to his tool shed. He climbed to the roof of the barn now filled with -<i>thanar</i> leaves. He swung his axe.</p> - -<p>The barn was roofed with aluminum over malleable plastic. The useful -property of malleable plastic is that it does not yield to steady -pressure, but does yield to shock. It will stay in shape indefinitely -under a load, but one can tap it easily into any form one desires.</p> - -<p>Lon swung his axe, head down. Presently he asked Cathy to climb up a -ladder and hold a lantern for him. He didn't need light for the rough -work—the burning desert vegetation gave enough for that. But when one -wants to make a parabolic reflector by tapping with an axe, one needs -light for the finer part of the job.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>In Cetopolis, Carson agitatedly put his records on tape and sent it all -off by spacegram. He'd previously reported on Lon Simpson, but now he -knew that he was going to die. And he followed his instinct to transmit -all his quite useless records, in order that his superiors might -realize he had been an admirable employee. It did not occur to him that -his superiors might be trying frantically to break his sending beam to -demand that he find out how Lon Simpson made his power gadget and how -he converted vegetation, before it was too late. They didn't succeed in -breaking his beam, because Carson kept it busy.</p> - -<p>He was true to type.</p> - -<p>Elsewhere, other men were true to type, too. The human population of -Cetis Gamma Two was very small. There were less than five thousand -people on the planet—all within a hundred miles of Cetopolis, and all -now on the night side. The rest of the planet's land masses scorched -and shriveled and burst into flame where the sun struck them. The few -small oceans heated and their surfaces even boiled. But nobody saw it. -The local fauna and flora died over the space of continents.</p> - -<p>But in the human settlement area, people acted according to -their individual natures. Some few ran amok and tried to destroy -everything—including themselves—before the blazing sun could return -to do it. More sat in stunned silence, waiting for doom. A few dug -desperately, trying to excavate caves or pits in which they or their -wives or children could be safe....</p> - -<p>But Lon pounded at his barn roof. He made a roughly parabolic mirror -some three yards across. He stripped off aluminum siding and made a -connection with the ground. He poured water around that connection. He -built a crude multiply twisted device of copper wire and put it in the -focus of the parabolic mirror.</p> - -<p>He looked up at the sky. The stars seemed dimmer. He took the copper -thing away, and they brightened a little. He carefully adjusted it -until the stars were at their dimmest.</p> - -<p>He descended to the ground again. He felt an odd incredulity about what -he'd done. He didn't doubt that it would work. He was simply unable to -understand how he'd thought of it.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"There, darling! Your pets are quite safe!" Rhadampsicus said pleasedly.</p> - -<p>Nodalictha scanned the second planet. It was apparently coated with a -metallic covering. But it was not quite like metal. It was misty, like -an unsubstantial barrier to light—and to Nodalictha's penetrating -thoughts.</p> - -<p>"I had your male pet," Rhadampsicus explained tenderly, "set up a power -beam link to the ionosphere. With several times the usual degree of -ionization—because of the flaring sun—the grounded ionosphere became -a <i>Rhinthak</i> screen about the planet. The more active the sun, the -more dense the screen. They'll have light to see by when their side of -the planet is toward the sun, but no harmful radiation can get down to -them. And the screen will fade away as the sun goes back to its normal -state."</p> - -<p>Nodalictha rejoiced. Then she was a little distressed.</p> - -<p>"But now I can't watch them!" she pouted. Rhadampsicus watched her -gravely. She said ruefully, "I see, Rhadampsicus. You've spoiled me! -But if I can't watch them for the time being, I won't have anything to -occupy me. Darling Rhadampsicus, you must talk to me sometimes!"</p> - -<p>He talked to her absorbedly. He seemed to think, however, that -discussion of the local solar phenomena was conversation. With -feminine guile, she pretended to be satisfied, but presently she went -back to her housekeeping. She began to dream of their life when they -had returned home, and of the residence they would inhabit there. -Presently she was planning the parties she would give as a young -matron, with canapés of krypton snow and zenon ice, with sprinklings of -lovely red nickel bromide crystals for a garnish—</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The sun rose again, and they lived. It was as if the sky were covered -with a thick cloud bank which absorbed the monstrous radiation of a sun -now four times its previous diameter and madly changing shape like a -monstrous ameba of flame.</p> - -<p>In time the sun set. It rose again. It set. And Cetis Gamma Two -remained a living planet instead of being a scorched cinder.</p> - -<p>When four days had gone by and nobody died, the colonists decided that -they might actually keep on living. They had at first no especially -logical foundation for their belief.</p> - -<p>But Cathy boasted. And she boasted in Cetopolis. Since they were going -to keep on living, the conventions required that she return to the -planet's one human settlement and her duties as a beamphone operator. -It wasn't proper for her to stay unchaperoned so long as she and Lon -weren't married yet.</p> - -<p>She had no difficulty with Carson. He didn't refer to her desertion. -Carson had his own troubles. Now that he had decided that he would -live, his problems multiplied. The colonists' barns were filled to -capacity with <i>thanar</i> leaves which would pay off their debts to the -Company. He began to worry about that.</p> - -<p>Lost without the constant directives from the Company, he had his -technicians step up the power in the settlement transmitter. He -knew that the screen Lon had put up would stop ordinary spacegram -transmission. Even with a tight beam, he could broadcast and receive -only at night, when the screen was thinnest. Even so, he had to search -out holes in the screen.</p> - -<p>The system didn't work perfectly—it wasn't two-way at all, until the -Company stepped up the power in its own transmitter—but spacegrams -started to get through again.</p> - -<p>Carson smiled in relief. He began to regain some of his old arrogantly -bored manner. Now that the Company's guiding hand was once more with -him, nothing seemed as bad as it had been. He was able to report that -something had happened to save the colony from extinction, and that -Lon Simpson had probably done it.</p> - -<p>In return, he got a spacegram demanding full particulars, and precise -information on the devices he had reported Lon Simpson to have made.</p> - -<p>Humbly, Carson obeyed his corporation.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He pumped Cathy—which was not difficult, because she was bursting with -pride in Lon. She confirmed, in detail, the rumor that Lon was somehow -responsible for the protective screen that was keeping everybody alive.</p> - -<p>Carson sent the information by spacegram. He was informed that a -special Company ship was heading for Cetis Gamma Two at full speed. -Carson would take orders from its skipper when it arrived. Meanwhile, -he would buy <i>thanar</i> leaf if absolutely necessary, but stall as long -as possible. The legal staff of the Trading Company was working on -the problem of adapting the system to get the new surplus supplies of -<i>thanar</i> without letting anybody get anything in particular for it. He -would keep secret the coming of the special ship, which was actually -the space yacht of a member of the Board of Directors. And he would -display great friendliness toward Lon Simpson.</p> - -<p>The last was the difficult part, because Lon Simpson was becoming -difficult. With the sun writhing as if in agony overhead—seen dimly -through a permanent blessed mistiness—and changing shape from hour -to hour, Lon Simpson had discovered something new to get mad about. -Lon had felt definitely on top of the world. He had solved the problem -of clearing his debts and getting credit sufficient for two passages -back to Earth, with money there to take care of getting rich on his -inventions. There was no reason to delay marriage. He wanted to get -married. And through a deplorable oversight, there had been no method -devised by which a legal marriage ceremony could be performed on Cetis -Gamma Two.</p> - -<p>It was one of those accidental omissions which would presently be -rectified. But the legal minds who'd set up the system for the planet -had been thinking of money, not marriages. They hadn't envisioned -connubial bliss as a service the Company should provide. And Lon was -raising cain. His barn was literally bursting with <i>thanar</i> leaves, -and he was filling up his attic, extra bedroom, living quarters and -kitchen with more. He was rich. He wanted to get married. And it wasn't -possible.</p> - -<p>Lon was in a position to raise much more cain than ordinary. He'd made -an amicable bargain with his fellow colonists. They brought truckloads -of miscellaneous foliage to be put into his vegetation converter, and -he converted it all into <i>thanar</i> leaves. The product was split two -ways. Everybody was happy—except Carson—Because every colonist had -already acquired enough <i>thanar</i> leaf to pay himself out of debt, and -was working on extra capital.</p> - -<p>If this kept up, the galactic market would be broken.</p> - -<p>Carson had nightmares about that.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>So the sun went through convulsions in emptiness, and nobody on its -second planet paid any attention at all. After about a week, it -occasionally subsided. When that happened, the ionization of the -planet's upper atmosphere lessened, the radiation screen grew thinner, -and a larger proportion of light reached the surface. When the sun -flared higher, the shield automatically grew thicker. An astronomical -phenomenon which should have destroyed all life on the inner planets -came to be taken for granted.</p> - -<p>But events on the second planet were not without consequences -elsewhere. The Board of Directors of the Cetis Gamma Trading Company -simultaneously jittered and beamed with anticipation. If Lon could -convert one form of vegetable product into another, then the Company's -monopoly of <i>thanar</i> would vanish as soon as he got loose with his -device. On the other hand, if the Company could get that device for its -very own....</p> - -<p><i>Thanar</i> had a practically unlimited market. Every year a new age -group of the population needed a milligram a day to keep old age away. -But besides that, there was Martian <i>zuss</i> fiber, which couldn't be -marketed because there wasn't enough of it, but would easily fetch a -thousand credits a kilo if Lon's gadget could produce it from samples. -There was that Arcturian <i>sicces</i> dust—the pollen of an inordinately -rare plant on Arcturus Four—which could be sold at more than its -weight in diamonds, for perfume. And—</p> - -<p>The directors of the Company shivered over what might happen; and -gloated over what could. So they kept their fingers crossed while the -space yacht of one of their number sped toward Cetis Gamma Two, manned -by very trustworthy men who would carry out their instructions with -care and vigor and no nonsense about it.</p> - -<p>Lon Simpson worked with his neighbors, converting all sorts of -vegetable debris—the fact that some of it was scorched did not -seem to matter—into <i>thanar</i> leaf which was sound legal tender on -that particular planet. From time to time he went to Cetopolis. He -talked sentimentally and yearningly to Cathy. And then he went to -Carson's office and raised the very devil because there was as yet no -arrangement by which he and Cathy could enter into the state of holy -matrimony.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Rhadampsicus looked over his notes and was very well pleased. He -explained to Nodalictha that from now on the return of Cetis Gamma to -its normal condition would be a cut-and-dried affair. He would like to -stay and watch it, but the important phenomena were all over now. He -said solicitously that if she wanted to go on, completing their nuptial -journey.... She might be anxious to see her family and friends.... She -might be lonely....</p> - -<p>Nodalictha smiled at him. The process would have been horrifying to a -human who watched, but Rhadampsicus smiled back.</p> - -<p>"Lonely?" asked Nodalictha coyly. "With you, Rhadampsicus?"</p> - -<p>He impulsively twined his eye stalks about hers. A little later he was -saying tenderly, "Then I'll just finish my observations, darling, and -we'll go on—since you don't mind waiting."</p> - -<p>"I'd like to see my pets again," said Nodalictha, nestling comfortably -against him.</p> - -<p>Together, they scanned the second planet, but their thoughts could -not penetrate its <i>Rhinthak</i> screen. They saw the space yacht flash -up to it. Rhadampsicus inspected the minds of the bipeds inside it. -Nodalictha, of course, modestly refrained from entering the minds of -male creatures other than her husband.</p> - -<p>"Peculiar," commented Rhadampsicus. "Very peculiar. If I were a -sociologist, I might find it less baffling. But they must have a very -queer sort of social system. They actually intend to harm your pets, -Nodalictha, because the male now knows how to supply them all with food -and energy! Isn't that strange? I wish the <i>Rhinthak</i> screen did not -block off scanning.... But it will fade, presently."</p> - -<p>"You will keep the others from harming my pets," said Nodalictha -confidently. "Do you know, darling, I think I must be quite the -luckiest person in the Galaxy, to be married to you."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The space yacht landed at the field outside Cetopolis. Inhabitants -of the tiny town flocked to the field to see new faces. They were -disappointed. One man came out and the airlock closed. No visitors.</p> - -<p>The skipper went into Carson's office. He closed the door firmly -behind him. He had very beady eyes and a very hard-boiled expression. -He looked at Carson with open contempt, and Carson felt that it was -because Carson did the Company's dirty work with figures and due -regard for law and order, instead of frankly and violently and without -shilly-shallying.</p> - -<p>"This Lon Simpson's got those gadgets, eh?" asked the skipper.</p> - -<p>"Why—yes," said Carson unhappily. "He's very popular at the moment. He -made something on his barn roof that kept the sun from burning us all -to death, you know—that still keeps us from burning to death, for that -matter."</p> - -<p>"So if we take it away or smash it," observed the skipper, "we don't -have to worry about anybody saying nasty things about us afterward. -Yeah?"</p> - -<p>Carson swallowed.</p> - -<p>"Everybody'd die if you smashed the gadget," he admitted, "but all the -<i>thanar</i> plants in existence would be burned up, too. There'd be no -more <i>thanar</i>. The Company wouldn't like that."</p> - -<p>The skipper waved his hand. "How do I get this Simpson on my ship? Take -a bunch of my men and go grab him?"</p> - -<p>"Wh-what are you going to do with him?"</p> - -<p>"Don't you worry," said the skipper comfortingly. "We know how to -handle it. He knows how to make some things the bosses want to know how -to make. Once I get him on the ship, he'll tell. We got ways. Do I take -some men and grab him, or will you get him on board peaceable?"</p> - -<p>"There—ah—" Carson licked his lips. "He wants to get married. There's -no provision in the legal code for it, as yet. It was overlooked. But I -can tell him that as a ship captain, you—"</p> - -<p>The skipper nodded matter of factly.</p> - -<p>"Right. You get him and the girl on board. And I've got some orders for -you. Gather up plenty of <i>thanar</i> seed. Get some starting trays with -young plants in them. I'll come back in a couple of days and take you -and them on board. The stuff this guy has got is too good, understand?"</p> - -<p>"N-no. I'm afraid I don't."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"I get this guy to tell us how to make his gadgets," the skipper -explained contemptuously. "We make sure he tells us right. To be extra -sure, we leave the gadgets he's got made and working back here, where -he can't get to 'em and spoil 'em. But when we know all he knows—and -what he only guesses, too, and my tame scientists have made the same -kinda gadgets, an' they work—why, we come back and pick you up, and -the <i>thanar</i> seed and the young growing plants. Then we get the gadgets -this guy made here, and we head back for Earth."</p> - -<p>"But if you take the gadget that keeps us all from being burned up—" -Carson said agitatedly, "if you do, everybody here—"</p> - -<p>"Won't that be too bad!" the skipper said ironically. "But you won't be -here. You'll be on the yacht. Don't worry. Now go fix it for the girl -and him to walk into our parlor."</p> - -<p>Carson's hand shook as he reached for the beamphone. His voice was not -quite normal as he explained to Cathy in the exchange that the skipper -of the space yacht had the legal power to perform marriage ceremonies -in space. And Carson, as a gesture of friendship to one of the most -prominent colonists, had asked if the captain would oblige Cathy and -Lon. The captain had agreed. If they made haste, he would take them out -in space and marry them.</p> - -<p>The skipper of the space yacht regarded him with undisguised scorn when -he hung up the phone and mopped his face.</p> - -<p>"Pretty girl, eh?" he asked contemptuously, "and you didn't have the -nerve to grab her for yourself?" He did not wait for an answer. "I'll -look her over. You get your stuff ready for when I come back in a -couple of days."</p> - -<p>"But—when you release them," Carson said shakily, "They'll report—"</p> - -<p>The skipper looked at Carson without any expression at all. Then he -went out.</p> - -<p>Carson felt sick. But he was a very loyal employee of the Cetis Gamma -Trading Company. From the windows of his air-conditioned office, he -watched Lon Simpson greet Cathy on his arrival in Cetopolis. He saw -Cathy put a sprig of <i>chanel</i> blossoms on the lapel of her very best -suit, in lieu of a bridal bouquet. And he watched them go with shining -faces toward the airport. He didn't try to stop them.</p> - -<p>Later he heard the space yacht take off.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Nodalictha prepared to share the thoughts and the happiness of the -female biped whose emotions were familiar, since Nodalictha was so -recently a bride herself. Rhadampsicus was making notes, but he -gallantly ceased when Nodalictha called to him. They sat, then, before -their crude but comfortable bower on the ninth planet, all set to share -the quaint rejoicing of the creatures of which Nodalictha had grown -fond.</p> - -<p>Nodalictha penetrated the thoughts of the female, in pleased -anticipation. Rhadampsicus scanned the mind of the male, and his -expression changed. He shifted his thought to another and another of -the bipeds in the ship's company. He spoke with some distaste.</p> - -<p>"The ones you consider your pets, Nodalictha, are amiable enough. But -the others—" He frowned. "Really, darling, if you went into their -minds, you'd be most displeased. They are quite repulsive. Let's forget -about them and start for home. If you really care for pets, we've much -more suitable creatures there."</p> - -<p>Nodalictha pouted.</p> - -<p>"Rhadampsicus, let's just watch their marriage ceremony. It is so -cute to think of little creatures like that loving each other—and -marrying—"</p> - -<p>Rhadampsicus withdrew his thought from the space yacht and looked -about the charming rural retreat he and Nodalictha had occupied. -Its nitrogen-snow walls glittered in the starlight. The garden of -cyanogen flowers and the border of ammonia crystals and the walkway -of monoclinic sulphur, and the reflection pool of liquid hydrogen -he'd installed in an odd half hour. These were simple, but they were -delightful. The crudity of the space yacht with its metal walls so -curiously covered over with a coating of lead oxide in hardened oil, -and the vegetable gum flooring.... Rhadampsicus did not like the -surroundings men made for themselves in space.</p> - -<p>"Very well, darling," he said resignedly. "We will watch, and then -we'll take off for home. I'm anxious to see what the modernists have -to say when I show them my notes on this flare-up.—And of course," he -added with grave humor, "you want to show your family that I haven't -ill-treated you."</p> - -<p>He was the barest trace impatient, but Nodalictha's thoughts were with -the female biped in the spaceship. Her expression was distressed.</p> - -<p>"Rhadampsicus!" she said angrily. "The other bipeds are being unkind to -my pets! Do something! I don't like them!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A sailor in a soiled uniform led them into the space yacht's saloon. -The airlock clanked shut, and the yacht soared for the skies. The -sailor vanished. Nobody else came near. Then Lon stiffened. He got the -flavor of his surroundings. He had Cathy with him. On her account, his -flesh crawled suddenly.</p> - -<p>This was a space yacht, but of a very special kind. It was a pleasure -ship. The decorations were subtly disgusting. There were pictures on -the walls, and at first glance they were pretty enough, but on second -glance they were disquieting, and when carefully examined they were -elaborately and allusively monstrous. This was the yacht of someone -denying that anything could be more desirable than pleasure—and who -took his pleasure in a most unattractive fashion.</p> - -<p>Lon grasped this much, and it occurred to him that the crew of such a -yacht would be chosen for its willingness to coöperate in its owner's -enterprises. And Lon went somewhat pale, for Cathy was with him.</p> - -<p>The ship went up and up, with the dark shutters over the ports showing -that it was in sunshine fierce enough to be dangerous on unshielded -flesh. Presently there was the feel of maneuvering. After a time the -shutters flipped open and stars were visible.</p> - -<p>Lon went quickly to a port and looked out. The great black mass of the -night side of Cetis Gamma Two filled half the firmament. It blotted -out the sun. The space yacht might be two or three thousand miles up -and in the planet's umbra—its shadow—which was not necessary for a -space wedding, or for anything involving a reasonably brief stay in the -excessive heat Cetis Gamma gave off.</p> - -<p>There were clankings. A door opened. The skipper came in and Cathy -smiled at him because she didn't realize Lon's fierce apprehension. -Four other men followed, all in soiled and untidy space yacht uniforms, -then two other men in more ordinary clothing. Their expressions were -distinctly uneasy.</p> - -<p>The four sailors walked matter of factly over to Lon and grabbed at -him. They should have taken him completely by surprise, but he had been -warned just enough to explode into battle. It was a very pretty fight, -for a time. Lon kept three of them busy. One snarled with a wrenched -wrist, another spat blood and teeth and a third had a closed eye before -the fourth swung a chair. Then Lon hit something with his head. It was -the deck, but he didn't know it.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>When he came to, he was hobbled. He was not bound so he couldn't move, -but his hands were handcuffed together, with six inches of chain -between for play. His ankles were similarly restricted. He could -move, but he could not fight. Blood was trickling down his temple and -somebody was holding his head up.</p> - -<p>The skipper said impatiently, "All right, stand back."</p> - -<p>Lon's head was released. The skipper jerked a thumb. Men went out. -Lon looked about desperately for Cathy. She was there—dead white and -terrified, but apparently unharmed. She stared at Lon in wordless -pleading.</p> - -<p>"You're a suspicious guy, aren't you?" asked the skipper sardonically. -"Somebody lays a finger on you and you start fighting. But you've got -the idea. I'll say it plain so we can get moving. You're Lon Simpson. -Carson, down on the planet, reported some nice news about you. You made -a gadget that converts any sort of leaf to <i>thanar</i>. Maybe it turns -stuff to other stuff, too." He paused. "We want to know how to make -gadgets like that. You're gonna draw plans an' explain the theory. I -got guys here to listen. We're gonna make one, from your plans an' -explanations, an' it'd better work. See?"</p> - -<p>"Carson sent for you to do this," Lon Simpson said thickly.</p> - -<p>"He did. The Company wants it. They'll use it to make <i>zuss</i> fiber and -sicces dust, and stuff like that. Maybe dream dust, too, an' so on. The -point is you're gonna tell us how to make those gadgets. How about it?"</p> - -<p>Lon licked his lips. He said slowly, "I think there's more. Go on."</p> - -<p>"You made another gadget," said the skipper, with relish, "that turns -out power without fuel. The Company wants that, too. Spacelines will -pay for it. Cities will pay for it. It ought to be a pretty nice thing. -You're gonna make plans and explanations of how that works and we're -gonna make sure they're right. That clear?"</p> - -<p>"Will you let us go when I've told you?" Lon asked bitterly.</p> - -<p>"Not without one more gadget," the skipper added amiably. "You made -something that put a screen around the planet yonder, so it didn't -get burned up. It'd oughta be useful. The company'll put one around -Mercury. Convenient for minin' operations. One around that planet -that's too close to Sirius. Oh, there's plenty of places that'll be -useful. So you'll get set to draw up the plans for that, too—<i>and</i> -explanations of how it works. Then we'll talk about lettin' you go."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Lon knew that he wouldn't be let go in any case. Not after he'd told -them what was wanted. Not by men who'd work on a pleasure craft like -this. Not with Cathy a prisoner with him. But he might as well get all -the cards down.</p> - -<p>"And if I won't tell you what you want to know?" he asked.</p> - -<p>The skipper shrugged his shoulders. "You were knocked out a while," he -said without heat. "While we were waitin' for you to come to, we told -her—" he jerked his thumb at Cathy—"what would happen to her if you -weren't obligin'. We told her plenty. She knows we mean it. We won't -hurt you until we've finished with her. So you'd better get set to -talk. I'll let her see if she can persuade you peaceable. I'll give her -ten minutes."</p> - -<p>He went out. The door clicked shut behind him and Lon knew that this -was the finish. He looked at Cathy's dazed, horror-filled eyes. He knew -this wasn't a bluff. He was up against the same system that had brought -colonists to Cetis Gamma Two. The brains that had planned that system -had planned this. They'd gotten completely qualified men to do their -dirty work in both cases.</p> - -<p>"Lon, darling! Please kill me!" Cathy said in a hoarse whisper.</p> - -<p>He looked at her in astonishment.</p> - -<p>"Please kill me!" repeated Cathy desperately. "They—they can't ever -dare let us go, Lon, after what they've told me! They've got to kill us -both. But—Lon, darling—please kill me first...."</p> - -<p>An idea came into Lon's mind. He surveyed it worriedly. He knew that he -would have to tell what he knew and then he would be killed. The Cetis -Gamma Trading Company wanted his inventions, and it would need him dead -after it had them.</p> - -<p>The idea was hopeless, but he had to try it. They knew he'd made -gadgets which did remarkable things. If he made something now and -persuaded them that it was a weapon....</p> - -<p>His flesh crawled with horror. Not for himself, but for Cathy. He -fumbled in his pockets. A pocket knife. A key chain. String. His -face was completely gray. He ripped an upholstered seat. There were -coiled springs under the foamite. He pulled away a piece of decorative -molding. He knew it wouldn't work, but there wasn't anything else -to do. His hands moved awkwardly, with the handcuffs limiting their -movements.</p> - -<p>Time passed. He had something finished. It was a bit of wood with a -coil spring from the chair, with his key chain wrapped around it and -his pocket knife set in it so that the blade would seem to make a -contact. But it would achieve nothing whatever.</p> - -<p>Cathy stared at him. Her eyes were desperate, but she believed. She'd -seen three equally improbable devices perform wonders. While Lon made -something that looked like the nightmare of an ultimatist sculptor, she -watched in terrified hope.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He had it in his hand when the door opened again and the skipper came -back into the saloon. He said prosaically, "Shall I call in the -scientist guys to listen, or the persuader guys to work on her?"</p> - -<p>"Neither. I've made another gadget," Lon said from a dry throat. "It -will kill you. It'll kill everybody on the ship—from here. You're -going to put us back down on the planet below."</p> - -<p>The skipper did not look at the gadget, but at Lon's face. Then he -called. The four men of the crew and the two uneasy scientists came in.</p> - -<p>"We got to persuade," the skipper said sardonically. "He just told me -he's made a new gadget that'll kill us all."</p> - -<p>He moved unhurriedly toward Lon. Lon knew that his bluff was no good. -If the thing had actually been a weapon, he'd have been confident and -assured. He didn't feel that way, but he raised the thing menacingly as -the skipper approached.</p> - -<p>The skipper took it away, laughing.</p> - -<p>"We'll tie him in a chair an' get to work on her. When he's ready -to talk, we'll stop." He looked at the object in his hands. It was -ridiculous to look at. It was as absurd as the device that extracted -power from matter stresses, and the machine that converted one kind -of vegetation into another, and the apparatus—partly barn roof—that -had short-circuited the ionosphere of Cetis Gamma Two to the planet's -solid surface. It looked very foolish indeed.</p> - -<p>The skipper was amused.</p> - -<p>"Look out, you fellas," he said humorously. "It's gonna kill you!"</p> - -<p>He crooked his finger and the knifeblade made a contact. He swept it -in mock menace about the saloon. The four crew-members and the two -scientists went stiff. He gaped at them, then turned the device to -stare at it incredulously. He came within its range.</p> - -<p>He stiffened. Off-balance, he fell on the device, breaking its gimcrack -fastenings and the contact which transmitted nothing that Lon Simpson -could imagine coming out of it. The others fell, one by one, with -peculiarly solid impacts.</p> - -<p>Their flesh was incredibly hard. It was as solid, in fact, as so much -mahogany.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Nodalictha said warmly, "You're a darling, Rhadampsicus! It was -outrageous of those nasty creatures to intend to harm my pets! I'm glad -you attended to them!"</p> - -<p>"And I'm glad you're pleased, my dear," Rhadampsicus said pleasantly. -"Now shall we set out for home?"</p> - -<p>Nodalictha looked about the cosy landscape of the ninth planet of -Cetis Gamma. There were jagged peaks of frozen air, and mountain ranges -of water, solidified ten thousand aeons ago. There were frost-trees -of nitrogen, the elaborate crystal formations of argon, and here a -wide sweep of oxygen crystal sward, with tiny peeping wild crystals of -deep-blue cyanogen seeming to grow more thickly by the brook of liquid -hydrogen. And there was their bower; primitive, but the scene of a true -honeymoon idyll.</p> - -<p>"I almost hate to go home, Rhadampsicus," Nodalictha said. "We've been -so happy here. Will you remember it for always?"</p> - -<p>"Naturally," said Rhadampsicus. "I'm glad you've been happy."</p> - -<p>Nodalictha snuggled up to him and twined eye stalks with him.</p> - -<p>"Darling," she said softly, "you've been wonderful, and I've been -spoiled, and you've let me be. But I'm going to be a very dutiful wife -from now on, Rhadampsicus. Only it has been fun, having you be so nice -to me!"</p> - -<p>"It's been fun for me, too," replied Rhadampsicus gallantly.</p> - -<p>Nodalictha took a last glance around, and each of her sixteen eyes -glowed sentimentally. Then she scanned the far-distant spaceship in the -shadow of the second planet from the now subsiding sun.</p> - -<p>"My pets," she said tenderly. "But—Rhadampsicus, what are they doing?"</p> - -<p>"They've discovered that the crew of their vehicle—they call it a -space yacht—aren't dead, that they're only in suspended animation. And -they've decided in some uneasiness that they'd better take them back to -Earth to be revived."</p> - -<p>"How nice! I knew they were sweet little creatures!"</p> - -<p>Rhadampsicus hesitated a moment.</p> - -<p>"From the male's mind I gather something else. Since the crew of this -space yacht was incapacitated, and they were—ah—not employed on -it, he and your female will bring it safely to port, and, I gather -that they have a claim to great reward. Ah—it is something they -call 'salvage.' He plans to use it to secure other rewards he calls -'patents' and they expect to live happily ever after."</p> - -<p>"And," cried Nodalictha gleefully, "from the female's mind I know that -she is very proud of him, because she doesn't know that you designed -all the instruments he made, darling. She's speaking to him now, -telling him she loves him very dearly."</p> - -<p>Then Nodalictha blushed a little, because in a faraway space yacht -Cathy had kissed Lon Simpson. The process seemed highly indecorous to -Nodalictha, so recently a bride.</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Rhadampsicus, drily. "He is returning the compliment. It is -quaint to think of such small creatures—Ha! Nodalictha, you should be -pleased again. He is telling her that they will be married when they -reach Earth, and that she shall have a white dress and a veil and a -train. But I am afraid we cannot follow to witness the ceremony."</p> - -<p>Their tentacles linked and their positron blasts mingling, the two of -them soared up from the surface of the ninth planet of Cetis Gamma. -They swept away, headed for their home at the extreme outer tip of the -most far-flung arm of the spiral outposts of the Galaxy.</p> - -<p>"But still," said Nodalictha, as they swept through emptiness at a -speed unimaginable to humans, "they're wonderfully cute."</p> - -<p>"Yes, darling," Rhadampsicus agreed, unwilling to start an argument so -soon after the wedding. "But not as cute as you."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>On the space yacht, Lon Simpson tried to use his genius to invent a way -to get his handcuffs and leg-irons off. He failed completely.</p> - -<p>Cathy had to get the keys out of the skipper's pocket and unlock them -for him.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sentimentalists, by Murray Leinster - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SENTIMENTALISTS *** - -***** This file should be named 51102-h.htm or 51102-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/1/0/51102/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions 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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