Mary Elizabeth Counselman

“ Throwing an arm around Cantrell's shoulders, he locked step with him as they walked up the gangplank. "Easy enough. If it's a vitamin deficiency, like Jim says, why—it'll be a cinch for us to help these poor joes! We can ship chemicals from Terra, every return-trip. Teach 'em to grow food by hydro-vat methods. We could make a new world for them!"
The pilot nodded eagerly, his pleasant, alert face full of plans for those pitifully stunted creatures, now melting back into the pale jungle in obedience to the crewmen shooing them from the vicinity of dangerous—and valuable—machinery. ”

“ No one, not even these strong healthy newcomers, could eat a stone.
"Rob! Yah-hoo!..." Harris, first astrogator, was yelling at his long-time buddy, the pilot and captain of the space-freighter Eroica. "Look at this stuff! Just look at it! Solaranium vein a foot thick ... damn planet's loaded with it! We did it! We finally did it...."
"Well, don't burn out your jet!" Rob Cantrell chuckled, calm and laconic in the face of this near miracle. He squinted at one mica-bright stone, tossing it up and catching it with a grin of quiet triumph. "Yep ... journey's end. ”

“ Cantrell turned, to see beyond the handful of workers in the valley a small army of S'zetnurs advancing on them from the jungle-edge. Backs to the cliff wall, Harris and Cantrell snatched out their blasters. The captain yelled, warning the unarmed workers to make a dash for the camp:
"General alert! Prepare for attack!"
Then the dwarfs were upon them, armed rather pathetically with clubs strapped to their fingerless hands. Advancing in a rough semi-circle upon Cantrell and Harris, and completely ignoring the half-dozen workers who dashed past them, the little S'zetnurs closed in. ”

“ Then all threw themselves down before the men from Terra, groveling in the grass at their feet as though begging for mercy....
"Lord, we're stupid!" Cantrell sighed. "Of course they can't take our rich food! Probably been living on herbs and stuff for Lord knows how long...." He moved pityingly toward one groaning dwarf, writhing on the sward and hugging his stomach. ”

“ Cantrell and Harris stopped in the center of the clearing, to view the ordered shambles with sick eyes. They glanced at each other, and shrugged.
"All right!" the captain's clear voice rang out. "Prepare to take off! Repeating: Prepare to take off! Abandon all equipment not vital to crew. Repeating...."
The men from Terra were efficient men, quick, intelligent, and well-organized under the pilot and astrogator who commanded their expedition. In exactly 8-3 kilos, shiptime, men and machinery were loaded aboard the big silver rocket. Fire belched from her twin jets. ”

“ It was a strange thing, a magic thing! Cocking their hideous little heads this way and that, and holding the shells to their ears, they began to sway in cadence, mesmerized with delight; for not even their Elders could remember singing. ”

“ When he sees our men mining the stuff—"
"Sound idea," Cantrell grunted. "Come on!"
Supporting the stumbling dwarf between them, the two Earthmen strode across the camp and down the long hill toward the distant sound of the pick-and-shovel crew. Two small a. g. barges sailed past them on their way down, loaded with ore and manned by a single sweat-streaked miner, headed for the nearest refinery.
As they neared the valley, where last night the Geiger crew had located a rich streak of solaranium, the pilot and the astrogator noticed that their small captive was growing very nervous. ”

“ Calling in the Geiger crews, and the diggers, and the ethnologists. Natives hostile, natives hostile! the signal was screaming—
Cantrell turned his head briefly—and stiffened as he saw the small S'zetnur decked in flowers. He was still alive, crouched just inside the cave, clutching the mud doll and whimpering softly. The captain glared at him, hard-eyed.
"Ambassador, huh?" He smiled without mirth. "To keep us from being suspicious of this juju-attack, until it was too late!" He jerked his head at Harris. "Blast him! He's a spy, isn't he? Been all over the camp. ”

“ Say!" He sat up abruptly, snapping his fingers on sudden thought. "If we could hire a couple of those little S'zetnurs to locate sola veins for us, we could cut down the time ... put the Geiger crew on one of the spare refiners! Hire me one tomorrow, will you? A couple, I mean—two of the older ones, with rudimentary fingers and toes. They should know their way around better.... Cripes! You can see how their race has deteriorated, each generation a little bit worse than the one before ... the poor devils!"
"Yeah." Harris plucked Cantrell's cigarette-glow from the darkness to take a drag. ”

“ Cantrell nodded bitterly. "And we could have done so much for them in return. A new world, I think you said!..." He emitted a short laugh, edged with cynicism. "Well ... Terra-Government can't afford to ship from a hostile planet. Too damn expensive. We'll just have to equip another expedition and start looking again...."
Harris nodded absently, his eyes thoughtful. "Uh-huh.... But if we could only have understood those little monkeys! Maybe they didn't mind our taking the sola. Maybe it was something else.... Rob," he blurted, "one of the junior ethnologists has a theory ”

“ He...."
"Junior ethnologists have always got a theory!" the captain snorted. "Lack of experience!"
"Yeah, but ..." Harris pursued. "This kid says he thinks those little S'zetnurs were a cult of beauty-worshippers. You know? Like they used to have on Venus? Eugenic mating—killing off the imperfect ones. He says they just don't understand about nutrition; that's why it's so tragic that they're all deformed and diseased now. None of them are beauties any more, and they don't know why. But when they saw us...."
"Nuts!" said Cantrell rudely.
"Yeah, but.... The doll. ”