Carl Jacobi

“ They are what their name implies: devourers of life, with the peculiar, apparently meaningless power of transforming themselves into a physical facsimile of their victims.
One of them is out there now, swirling lazily like a miasmic cloud of saffron dust....
Cap handed the book to Raine who read it and handed it back without comment. And at that moment Cap saw the kid in his true light: a cold-blooded extrovert who was interested in the ship only for what he could get out of her.
Next day, without asking permission, Raine began the task of dismantling the Perseus. ”

“ If Tri-Planet wanted to train its green personnel by sending them on a wild goose chase, that was all right with Cap.
But the old man had one thing that interested young Raine: his telescope mounted in a domed observatory on the top floor. Every night, Raine spent hours staring through that scope, sighting stars, marking them on the charts. Cap tried to tell him that those charts were as perfect as human intellect could make them. Raine had an answer for that too.
"Those charts are three years old," he said. "In three years a whole universe could be created or destroyed. ”

“ All of which mildly amused Cap Barlow.
The kid was amused too. From the Pilot Book he had learned that Cap was the sole inhabitant of Straba, and he regarded him—and rightly so—as just another hermit nut who preferred the spacial frontiers to the regular walks of civilization.
The old man packed and lit a meerschaum pipe.
"Yes sir," he said, "efficiency ... regulation ... order ... that's what's spoiling all life these days. Those addle-headed scientists aren't satisfied unless they can dovetail everything."
Raine smiled and in the pause that followed cast his eyes about the room. ”

“ Clearly audible now was that distant thud ... thud ... thud ... like the beating of a great heart.
Saturday Raine announced he was ready to "shoot down" the Andromeda. Unfortunately Cap figured he wouldn't be there to see the show. He had had a signal from one of his weather-robots on the dark side of the planet that morning, reporting that a cold front was moving down and the migration of the Artoks was about to begin. The Artoks could be mighty troublesome when they came en masse. If Cap didn't want his golf course eaten to the roots he'd have to stop them before they started. ”

“ It was the Andromeda—the sister ship of the Perseus!
The kid didn't hurry himself, bringing in the Andromeda. For two nights he did nothing but watch the sister ship through the scope. Then he carefully removed the preservative covering from the Dofield defender, cleaned and oiled the barrel and made the gun ready for a charge.
"If I can put a shot abaft her midsection," he said, "it might spin her out of polar draw long enough to fall into Straba's linear attraction...."
"Why don't you take your ship up and tow her in?" Cap said.
Raine shook his head. "Too dangerous. ”

“ He also let it be known that the passenger lists would be composed of couples who were in love with each other without scientific screening or examination."
"Well, what happened?" demanded Raine with an air of acute boredom.
Cap bit off a piece of plug tobacco. "The rumor spread, and berths on the two ships sold for fabulous prices. Of course, the Constabulary investigated, but that's where Stewart was clever. The couples were to be split up: all females in one ship, all men in the other. ”

“ Raine shook his head.
"As an individual he's pretty well forgotten today," Cap said. "I suppose you might call him a promoter. At any rate he figured a way to make himself a few thousand extra credits. He got hold of two condemned passenger freighters and with a flair for classical mythology named them Perseus and Andromeda."
Raine, listening, lit a cigarette and blew a shaft of smoke ceiling-ward.
"The Perseus was moored in North Venus," continued Cap. "The Andromeda, in the South. ”

“ But the couples wouldn't listen, and the two ships took off. People of three worlds made a big fuss over them. The theme invaded the teletheater and the popular tape novels of the day. Newscasters went wild in their extravagant reports. ”