Fox B. Holden

“ Men sweated under the mild sun with a silent hurry, with a disciplined excitement.
Southard was fast and efficient.
Dobermann was silent, watching, analyzing.
Carruthers had the hungry look in his eyes that Joel did not understand.
And Joel was impatient. It was a tableau of men and machines that he had watched before, and always, at the end of it, there was something big for him to handle—frustrating if not dangerous, a mind and bone-wearying struggle if not an outright battle. They never came smooth, never. ”

“ She laughed. "Are we all not one under the sun?"
"But they were of your own kind, from elsewhere on your own planet—"
"A visitor is a visitor," she said, as though suddenly puzzled. "What can it matter where he is from?"
Joel started to reply, but checked himself. Of course these people had no way of knowing. Of course they were still under the impression that intelligent life, wherever it might exist, would necessarily be in their own form. The fact that it might not be had never occurred to them! Then that was why they had not feared the White Whale and her crew. ”

“ Joel said, and poured his flagon half full. He felt a little better, but it would take more than a half-bottle of Martian Colony Bond and Sam's wise answers to change things. "Go right straight to hell!" He sniffed at the Bond. "So the long arm of Superior Civilization has reached out its clanking claws again to make the Universe a Better Place to Live in, has it? God help 'em if they believed all the hog-wash you fed 'em, Sam." ”

“ Joel grunted, still occupied with his own thoughts.
"Well, you're partly right. But more than that, we haven't stopped to look at them! It's sort of a half-courtesy, half-pride they have. They won't slow a stranger down if he doesn't slow them down, figuring that if he wanted to, he would; the prerogative is his. And, if he's not that interested, then neither are they!"
"You're sure some expedition didn't get here before we did?" Joel asked. "I mean—hell, they could be from Earth—"
"Ever hear of an Earthman with two hearts, Skipper? But physically that's about the only difference I could find. ”

“ Intelligent, strong, peaceful, quiet people, who might have been natives of Earth's Pacific islands of three centuries ago, save that their flesh was lighter in tone; their sun was not as young as Sol.
Farmers, mostly, Carruthers had reported. Some merchants, some travelers and explorers, even some men of a very young science, but, mostly, farmers ... it was the way they lived. A good way, Joel thought. A good way, in a good place.
He looked through the fore-waist bridge windows, and what he saw was beautiful.
But he filled the flagon again. ”

“ A breeze ruffled her tawny mass of shoulder-length hair, and Nicholas Joel just stood there.
"You are forgiven, the dhennah was not a costly one. I know how difficult it must be for you to guide those machines of yours at such terrible speeds ... but of course the speeds are necessary to you in your work. Thank you for helping me."
Joel reassured himself that if only the conversation were in his mother tongue, he would of course not feel so ridiculously at a loss for words. After all, this young female was only an—an alien being. ”

“ You hate to fly, yet you are the best cadet pilot ever to enter the Academy. You dislike technical and scientific study, yet your grades in this field are the highest on record. You despise the regimen of the military necessary to survival in Space, yet, unaccountably, your cadet commands have been the most efficient and best handled of any in our knowledge. ”

“ They trust us to leave enough to insure their own well-being."
"That's crazy," Joel shot back at his first officer. "How in God's name can they know about mneurium-4 and how to use it when we've only known about it and have been scratching the universe for it for less than thirty years? That's goddam nonsense—" He refilled the flagon, spilled a little of the potent liquor on his beard as he downed it.
"No, Nicholas," Sam said. "You're the bug on history around here. Think a minute."
Joel drew a sleeve across his mouth, and pages flipped in his head again. Yes, Sam was right. ”

“ I shall drive slowly so that the kaelli can follow, and you can see for yourself what it is like to ride in one of our machines!"
"But—they go like the wind!"
"Indeed they do!" Joel laughed, unaccountably pleased with her excitement. "Yes, ma'm, just like the wind!"
Quite unexpectedly, she reached for his hand, and Joel clasped hers with a quickness he had not intended. But then he was leading her to the jeep, helping her into it. ”

“ Somebody back where they came from needed that mneurium-4 real bad. Somebody had guts and sweat and brains enough to get ships into space looking for it. And in their own way, somebody had faith enough to think they'd get it if it was to be found. ”

“ Cold-bloodedly murdered, and it isn't going to happen to us."
"I see." The ship's surgeon eyed the tips of his fingernails, then slowly looked up into Joel's red, swollen face. "Naturally, there wouldn't be any bodies around to prove your theory, would there, Skipper? And no signs of struggle. We didn't see any. Of course, their guns were racked up pretty neatly—But it's all there in the report—" he waved a slender hand toward a roll of tape on the desk. ”

“ And then Sam said, "Well, Nicholas, there it is. The psychology of the thing is obvious enough, isn't it?" Carruthers gave him a meaningful look, and Joel's nerves rebelled at it.
"All right, I get your point!" A big fist slammed down on the desktop. "So somebody didn't get their mneurium-4! Somebody probably ornery enough to keep on living anyway. What do you want to bet they're still going strong, who or wherever they are out in that black hell up there? What do you want to bet, Sam?" ”

“ Dobermann wouldn't say anything when he came in. But there'd be a thorough-going, successful, mission-accomplished look on his handsome face. Dobermann never missed.
And Southard.... Still a kid, still wet behind the ears, but a hell of a promising astrophysicist, backed up with plenty of biochemistry and geophysics. It was still a big, romantic adventure to Southard, and he wore the single red, gleaming stripe of ship's second officer on his broad young shoulders as though it was the thick gold circle of a full captaincy.
Joel filled the flagon and emptied it a second time. ”

“ Back as far as the twentieth century, there had been isolated tribes in South America which had been found free of the diseases that had plagued their more civilized neighbors of the north, and it had taken the medical experts years to find out exactly why. ”

“ Sent a T-M to Southard—says he's found a space ship two hundred feet under the desert. Sometimes I think that kid works too hard. All right, got the 'copter ready?"
"Warming up on the waist ramp now," Dobermann said.
Joel stood up, reached for his guns and belt and strapped them around his thick middle. He gave Carruthers a quick look. The thin face was taut, almost expressionless, but there was an excitement smouldering in the dark eyes; the old excitement Joel had seen in them so many times before.
"No objections to the artillery this time, I take it, Sam?" ”

“ They actually practice what they preach, from the individual status right on up through the framework of their government. Open, honest, sincere—they have to be, because of the high degree of uniformity of IQ, and because—now get this—they want to be. ”

“ Joel snapped.
Southard stepped forward. "Constellation Boötis, Arcturus, planet IV. Preliminary analysis of ore-samples indicate rich lodes of mneurium-4, relatively close to the surface, and in unprecedentedly great number. Purity is unbelievably high, with—"
"All right, Southard, good report. Dobermann." ”

“ Metal encountered; processed. Object depth-screened; fabricated. Extends from minus two zero zero to minus five two seven. Diameter three zero feet. Further investigation withheld pending arrival of task mission. Over for Command."
Over for Command, the young voice said. So many, many times....
He was not exactly the same Nicholas Joel, now. He was Command....
"All right, boy, sit easy and try to relax. What the hell is it you've got holed up out there?"
"It's a—a space ship, sir."
"What class?"
"I don't know, sir. It isn't Terrestrial." ”