Raymond F. Jones

“ If you had the experience with mechanisms that I have had you'd recognize at once that the form and function of a machine is invariably an expression of the attitude, illusions and ideals of the race creating it. You tipped your hand right off the bat by the irrational insistence on putting the control room of the ship against the keel plate. ”

“ The tips of sinew quivered as if Sleth Forander were fighting to restrain their power. George tried to ignore their closeness and went on. "There's a principle here," he said. "A very basic principle. Risk. You have to take a risk every time to take a step ahead. Risk to your vulnerable parts, whether it be in your physical body or your secret dreams.
"We learned that a long time ago. You have never learned it, because you demanded one hundred percent protection and no risk at all to your vulnerable spot. ”

“ My people—we fail. Ten thousand generations same.
"All worlds we see, all creatures visit us—we like Earthmen best. We most like be Earthmen. Why we buy Earth ships."
George took a deep breath and felt the slightly stale air of his tanks filling his lungs. This was it. This was the time to blast. And if he misfired, Wilkinson Spacecraft was a dead duck.
"You can't make yourselves like Earthmen just by buying Earth ships," he said.
"Know that—" Sleth Forander said, turning from the window. There seemed to be a sense of wistful apology in his voice. "So many things needful. We try. We fail. ”

“ The control room was surrounded by visio-plates on walls and ceiling so that the effect was one of standing on the naked prow of the ship with nothing but empty space above and all around.
"We can turn these off," George suggested, "if it makes you uncomfortable—"
"No—" Sleth Forander said instantly. But George could detect the quivering of his arm tips in the tight fitting sleeves as one evidence of his inner agitation. "Men's ship," Sleth Forander continued. "Foolish design, but that men's way. You build better way for Ragalian. I ride ship your way until then." ”

“ George protested.
"How do you know there wasn't?"
"Well—there just wasn't."
"For you. Not necessarily for Sleth Forander. Obviously, the stimulus was there, or he would not have reacted in this manner. You engineers are so forgetful sometimes that your normalcy can't always be imposed over another individual's quite different normalcy. It may be quite normal for a Ragalian to react with panic in such surroundings as you imposed. The stimulus may be quite adequate." ”

“ You can't just take the basic premise of a person's life and blast it to oblivion. The same goes for other-world creatures. Evidently Sleth Forander's whole existence evolves around protection of his brain, as you guessed. That's why merely going into the exposed control room on the ship produced such a neurotic-appearing reaction. ”

“ Ragalian go to stars. Head up. Like Earthmen!"
They let him go from the hospital. There was nothing to keep him there, since his physical reactions had vanished with the making of his decision.
George knew he hadn't told half of it. Going back home and trying to sell his people on the Earth-type ships would be no easy task. He felt a momentary guilt over what he had done. Had it been right, after all? He hadn't set out to altruistically set the Ragalians on the right track. His only interest had been in selling them a hundred cruisers.
But maybe what Sleth Forander had said was true. ”

“ Mark stirred again. "Then he'd better take his pretty little import license to some other galaxy! He's not going to do business here. What a chance it would have been to get on our feet and stand up to Monarch and Apex!"
"Now wait a minute—" George snapped each word with slow, brittle emphasis. "Everybody was so steamed up about this being our royal chance to get out of the hole and trying to convince me that it was so. All right, I got convinced. Just because we run into a little difficulty on modifications is no reason for junking the whole deal. ”

“ George asked.
"Rock always hit on head," Sleth Forander said.
"But we can absolutely prove that the forward end of the ship is no more vulnerable than any other portion—and that the effect of a meteor collision is just as dangerous at one end as the other."
"Rock hit forward end; men not killed if in bottom."
"They are if the motors are forward, and are knocked out by the collision," said George. "It may take a little longer, but you're still a dead duck."
"Live duck," insisted the Ragalian. ”

“ George approached the subject of the modification warily during their talks, trying to get at the purpose for putting the control room at the base of the ship, where only the engines rightfully belonged.
He sensed the contempt in the Ragalian's voice even through the suit and its attached translator. "Earth boy enormous fool," said Sleth Forander, "putting head on top; rock come along, head all gone."
"It doesn't make much difference out in space," said George, "whether you get your head or your bottom knocked off. ”

“ He hoped no one was looking as he stepped through the lock in his protective suit and greeted the Ragalian. Sleth Forander turned his ponderous body slowly on the bed and recognized George. A wave of tremor shook him.
"Sleth—" George said softly. "I'm going to be here just a minute and then I'm going. I came to say just one thing. You can get well as soon as you want to. You're sick because you haven't made a decision. Make one and get well, Sleth. ”

“ Only fourteen models had been built since the yard was organized by Hugh Wilkinson. Even he had begun to believe they might never make another one.
On the day of takeoff the ship rose smoothly from the port as the party settled themselves aboard. The vessel had an inertia control which was strictly a Wilkinson achievement. Even though forced patent sharing made it available to other companies there was a conviction in the trade that Wilkinson did a job of production that was not matched anywhere else.
The Ragalian was irritable and intractible, almost to the point of rudeness. ”

“ Who cares? Maybe the Ragalians like us better. They said they'd seen our Model H-62 and it was exactly what they wanted—with customary modifications, of course."
"There's a reason," said George slowly. "If this actually is on the level, there has to be a reason. An independent like Wilkinson Spacecraft just doesn't take orders that size out from under the noses of the government-subsidized heavies. Not unless there's a reason!"
"Are you going to quibble over that?" Mack said, half-angrily. "Maybe Monarch and Apex are too busy to handle it." ”

“ The whole picture is as plain as your desire to build ships with control rooms where the engines belong. Look: mankind has the same problem, too. Not as bad as yours. I'll admit, but bad enough. We've got soft, easily damaged bodies that have to be handled with care to keep them from getting squashed in a world where squashing is easy. ”

“ Of course I'm only an engineer," he added apologetically, "and my only purpose is in selling spaceships, but I'd stake my reputation on this analysis."
"You're asking a lot more than that," said Hugh dryly. "You're asking me to stake Wilkinson Spacecraft."
George shook his head. "No—I'm not asking. I'm merely pointing out what could be done. If I owned the yard I doubt I'd have guts enough to make the gamble. But I don't own it."
"Suppose we agree it is neurosis? Where do we go from there?"
"While we're building the standard models, we cure the neurosis in Sleth Forander. ”

“ He'd written off all hope of coming to terms with the Ragalians and their ridiculous specifications. 'The time could be better spent hunting new business. Hugh was pretty much of the same opinion, but he agreed to see through any salvage effort George wanted to make.
"We know why Monarch and Apex gave the job up," the Chief Engineer pointed out. "So we're not in the dark on that score. Now, if we can find a way either to make a suitable modification, or get Sleth Forander to back down on his specifications, we're in the chips! We've got nothing to lose by trying!" ”

“ Your case is just a little worse. Mother Nature on your world really really played a dirty trick, putting your brains right out in the open with only a thin membrane between them and a brutal, destructive environment. ”

“ Perhaps we can find out just what the nature of the reaction is, and its stimulus."
"No." George rolled up the charts and started for the door. "I think I can handle this myself. It's strictly a problem in engineering, and I think I've got all data I need. I'll let you know if I need help."
It was neurotic anyway you looked at it, he told himself as he went toward the main offices again. There was no element of rationality in the Ragalian's reaction. Of course, Nat had a point. Exactly who could define rationality for a given species or even an individual? ”

“ I doubt that Ragalians will ever learn how to turn about and face the stars, or whatever it is that beckons them. You don't have the courage, or you'd have long ago discovered you can't back your way along an upward trail. ”

“ When they were through and ready to go back to his chamber he paused a moment and glanced upward. "Engines up there; perfect ship then. Men belong down here."
Mark Wilde came up behind George as the engineer took the charts out of the recorder and unrolled them on the long table in the work room. ”

“ That wipes out Wilkinson Spacecraft, doesn't it?"
Hugh nodded. "It was a good gamble. I knew what I was doing. There's only one thing left—" He looked meaningly at George Mahoney.
"We're not through," said George quietly. "You don't give up an engineering problem just because your computer jams. You feed it new data until it unjams. ”

“ Hugh and Mark were waiting when he reached Hugh's office. He slapped the reports on the desk and sat down. "Removal of the control room to the keel plate and moving the engines and quarters to the nose would cost us an eighty-nine percent re-design of the thrust skeleton," he said. "That means approximately the same percentage of new dies and jigs. It means design of an entirely new thrust channel and sufficient research to find a lining material that will permit living quarters on the other side of it. ”

“ George Mahoney looked up from his idle sketching and leaned on the drawing board with his elbows while the somewhat portly Mack regained his breath.
"What's the matter?" he asked. "The phone company take out all our lines and the office boys get laid off?" ”

“ Simply because for a good many thousands of generations your entire culture had been built on the principle of protecting the head. This is so strong you demand that it be carried out even in your machines—and you didn't know why! ”

“ Why did Sleth Forander want everything in the ship turned absolutely backwards?
Next to a funeral parlor, an idle assembly line is probably the most depressing sight in the world. At least to a production man. Ordinarily, Mack Wilde, Factory Manager of Wilkinson Spacecraft, avoided a route that would take him past the lines that hadn't budged in over three months. ”

“ Or you can admit whatever truth you found in the things I said—and make the necessary changes. That'll make you sick for quite a while maybe, but you'll get over it eventually. An individual's way of life is a manifestation of his physical structure. ”

“ They weren't long enough to project around the bulk of the torso, so that the creatures had the habit of turning from side to side almost constantly to see or hear or smell what was going on in front of them. ”