Murray Leinster

“ He was living matter, in a space-suit. The Earth-weapon had been trained upon him, after an elaborate shield had been made to keep it from destroying all life in a huge area on the far side of the planet.
Rickey, the mascot, had certainly exploded.
He had, unquestionably, exploded. Joe saw it. He grinned. And Ychan turned those milky-gray opaque eyes of his on Joe, and saw the expression which to him meant the ultimate of satisfied rage as regarded the animal which had killed four men. A ripple went over Ychan's glistening hide.
"Earthmen," said Ychan with finality, "would win war. You wait. ”

“ Joe said shortly that if the Martians tried to destroy the Winship that he, Ychan, would have personal experience of the method. But he would explain. The Earthmen had a weapon the Martians knew nothing about. It destroyed all living things. It killed them by turning them to vapor. Turned upon a space-ship, the Earth-weapon turned its crew to smoke and vapor, and left the space-ship unharmed. Turned upon a planet, the Earth-weapon would make all its vegetation explode, and all its people, and even the fish in its swamps. ”

“ The Martians have found a wave-form or frequency that acts like ultra-violet on drive-fuel. It synthesizes drive-fuel into energy. If they turn it on us, our fuel will blow."
"Either the Martians would use it and brush off their hands, or they'd never let us know."
"There's a Ganymedian at the trigger of the gadget. There's a Ganymedian listening to the space-radio. A Ganymedian has to give the fire-at-will signal, and a Ganymedian has to pull the trigger. But when that happens, we fly apart into little pieces. Ganymedians don't lie." ”

“ The bending spread out like a wave.
"Have to warn the crew again, Dick. Tell 'em to remember all over again that Ganymedians talk like paymasters figure. Specific. Exact. They don't understand exaggeration and they don't understand jokes. If you tell them something that isn't literally true, they think you're crazy."
"They're not human," said Dick gloomily. "They never lie and they make you mad. Huh! They send word by space-radio to a passing freighter that this chief Yloop wants a swamp-car. Then they wait for it. ”

“ A very literal-minded folk, these people of Ganymede.
"Oh—dog bad," said Joe curtly. "Kill four men. You talk."
He waited. Ychan stared as blankly as before.
"I talk," he said without expression. "You think you leave Ganymede. Martians say no. I say maybe."
Joe Peabody blinked. Then he stiffened.
"Sit," he said shortly.
A great curved plate in the ship's side opened. The crew of the Winship was opening the destroyer's store-hatch to roll out the swamp-car. Ychan squatted on the ground, where he looked like a wetly glistening anthill. Other Ganymedians moved to watch the swamp-car roll out. ”

“ Joe told him bitterly, "that we were mad because Rickey'd killed four men. And you do not use the space-radio unless you want to commit suicide!"
Dick Harkness stared. "What—"
"Ganymedians," said Joe bitterly, "don't lie. They don't understand lying. Ychan just told me we'll be blown to bits if we use our space-phone or try to leave Ganymede."
"What's that? Who's going to try to stop us?"
"Martians," said Joe with exquisite bitterness. "Did you ever hear that there is some slight friction between the Martian government and that of Earth? ”

“ Rickey moved up beside Dick and sat down. His tongue lolled out happily. The Winship's crew insisted that he'd had Venusian lockjaw once, and now always kept his mouth open to keep it from coming back.
"Sure I've heard that!" Dick Harkness said. "That's why there's so much research going on all the time—why we've still got three feet of lead plating around our tanks, too."
"The Martians," said Joe savagely, "also research. They have made a gadget. They think it might be decisive. They think it might win a war for them. But they're cagey. They want to try it out first. On us!" ”

“ That was Ganymede—gannygrass and swamp.
"Remember the recruiting posters we saw, last time on Earth?" growled Dick Harkness to Joe. "'Deep Space is calling you! Ride a Comet and see the Worlds!' There oughta be a law! Look below! Who wants to see this?"
Joe Peabody watched his instruments, scratching Rickey's head absently. He'd picked out a patch of gannygrass to land on, and the snakeye corrected course if the little ship swerved by a hairsbreadth. But he watched, anyway.
"Things could be worse," he said. "They've got to recruit spacemen somehow. If glamor-posters make 'em join up, why not?" ”

“ It hadn't been difficult to smuggle Rickey back on board, though. The Ganymedians drifted away. Joe suspected that they intended to go over and watch whatever happened to the Martians with the fuel-exploding device.
They would probably fight, and the Ganymedians would probably be very firm, because they would not want the Earth-weapon used against them. ”

“ At the moment she was still choked up inside with the three-foot lead-cadmium sheathing—put on in three-inch plates—applied to her fuel tanks when she was sent on a long and purposeless cruise to test the efficiency of pre-bombarded and therefore radioactive fuel. The fuel wasn't efficient at all. ”