Speaker 1: The native soil by alan E Norse. Before the first
Speaker 1: ship from Earth made a landing on Venus, there was
Speaker 1: much speculation about what might be found beneath the cloud
Speaker 1: layers obscuring that planet's surface from the eyes of all observers.
Speaker 1: One school of thought maintained that the surface of Venus
Speaker 1: was a jungle rank with hot house moisture, crawling with
Speaker 1: writhing fauna and man eating flowers. Another group contended hotly
Speaker 1: that Venus was an arid desert of wind carved sandstone,
Speaker 1: dry and cruel, whipping dust into clouds that sunlight could
Speaker 1: never penetrate. Others prognosticated an ocean planet with little or
Speaker 1: no solid ground at all, populated by enormous serpents waiting
Speaker 1: to greet the first Earthlings with jaws agape. But nobody knew.
Speaker 1: Of course, Venus was the planet of mystery. When the
Speaker 1: first earth ship finally landed there, all they found was
Speaker 1: a great quantity of mud. There was enough mud on
Speaker 1: Venus to go all the way around twice, with some
Speaker 1: left over. It was warm, wet, soggy, mud clinging, and tenaceous.
Speaker 1: In some places it was gray, in other places it
Speaker 1: was black. Elsewhere it was found to be varying shades
Speaker 1: of brown, yellow, green, blue, and purple, but just the same,
Speaker 1: it was still mud. The sparse Venusian vegetation grew up
Speaker 1: out of it, the small Venusian natives lived down in it.
Speaker 1: The steam rose from it, and the rain fell on it.
Speaker 1: And that, it seemed, was that the planet of Mystery
Speaker 1: was no longer mysterious. It was just messy. People didn't
Speaker 1: talk about it anymore. But the technologists of Piper Pharmaceuticals Incorporated.
Speaker 1: R and D Squad found a certain charm in the
Speaker 1: Venusian mud. They began sending cautious and very secret reports
Speaker 1: back to the Home Office. When they discovered just what
Speaker 1: exactly was growing in that Venusian mud besides Venusian natives.
Speaker 1: The Home Office promptly bought up full exploratory and mining
Speaker 1: rights to the planet for a price that was a
Speaker 1: brazen steel, and then, in high excitement, began pouring millions
Speaker 1: of dollars into ships and machines bound for the muddy planet.
Speaker 1: The Board of Directors met hoots of derision with secret
Speaker 1: smiles as they rubbed their hands together softly. Special crews
Speaker 1: of psychologists were dispatched to Venus to contact the natives.
Speaker 1: They returned exuberant with test results that proved the natives
Speaker 1: were friendly, intelligent, co operative, and resourceful, and the board
Speaker 1: of Directors rubbed their hands more eagerly together and poured
Speaker 1: more money into the Piper Venusian installation. It took money
Speaker 1: to make money, they thought. Let the fools laugh. They
Speaker 1: wouldn't be laughing long after all. Piper Pharmaceuticals Incorporated could
Speaker 1: recognize a gold mine when they saw one, they thought.
Speaker 1: Robert Kyland, special investigator and troubleshooter for Piper Pharmaceuticals Incorporated,
Speaker 1: made an abrupt and intimate acquaintance with the fabulous Venusian
Speaker 1: Mud when the landing craft brought him down on that
Speaker 1: soggy planet. He had transferred from the great bubble shaped
Speaker 1: orbital transport ship to the sleek landing craft an hour
Speaker 1: before Bard and impatient with the whole proposition, he had
Speaker 1: no desire whatever to go to Venus. He didn't like Mud,
Speaker 1: and he didn't like frontier projects. There had been nothing
Speaker 1: in his contact with Piper demanding that he traveled to
Speaker 1: other planets in pursuit of his duties, and he had
Speaker 1: bulked at the assignment. He had even bulked at the
Speaker 1: staggering bonus check they offered him to help him get
Speaker 1: used to the idea. It was not until they had
Speaker 1: convinced him that only his own superior judgment, his razor
Speaker 1: sharp mind, and his extraordinarily shrewd powers of observation and
Speaker 1: insight could possibly pull Pharmaceuticals Incorporated out of the mudhole
Speaker 1: they'd gotten themselves into that he had reluctantly agreed to go.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't like a moment of it, but he'd go.
Speaker 1: Things weren't right on Venus, it seemed. The trouble was
Speaker 1: that millions were going in and nothing was coming out.
Speaker 1: The early promise of high production figures had faltered, sagged, dwindled,
Speaker 1: and vanished. Venus was getting to be an expensive project
Speaker 1: to have round, and nobody seemed to know just why. Now,
Speaker 1: the pilot dipped the landing craft in and out of
Speaker 1: the cloud blanket, breaking, the ship falling closer and closer
Speaker 1: to the surface. As Kyland watched gloomily from the afterport,
Speaker 1: the lurching billow of clouds made him queasy. He opened
Speaker 1: his piper sample case and popped a pill in his mouth.
Speaker 1: Then he gave his nose a squirt or two with
Speaker 1: his piper Rhinovac nebulizer, just for good measure. Finally, far
Speaker 1: below him, the featureless gray surface, skimmed by a sparse,
Speaker 1: scraggly forest of twisted gray foliage, sprang up at them.
Speaker 1: The pilot sighted the landing platform, checked with the control tower,
Speaker 1: and eased up for the final descent. He was a
Speaker 1: skillful pilot, with many landings on Venus to his credit.
Speaker 1: He bought the ship up on its tail and set
Speaker 1: it down on the landing platform before a perfect three pointer.
Speaker 1: As the jets rumbled, the silence. Then abruptly they sank,
Speaker 1: landing craft platform and all. The pilot buzzed control tower
Speaker 1: frantically as Kaylin fought down. Panic. Sorry, said the control tower.
Speaker 1: Something must have gone wrong. They'd have them mount in
Speaker 1: a jiffy. Good Lord, No, don't blast out again. There
Speaker 1: were a thousand natives in the vicinity. Just be patient,
Speaker 1: Everything would be all right. They waited presently. There were
Speaker 1: thumps and bangs as grapplers clanged onto the surface of
Speaker 1: the craft. Mud gurgled around them as they were hauled
Speaker 1: up and out with the sound of a giant sipping soup.
Speaker 1: A mud encrusted hatchway flew open, and Kylin stepped down
Speaker 1: on a flimsy looking platform below. Four small rodent like
Speaker 1: creatures were attached to it by ropes. They heaved with
Speaker 1: a will and begin paddling through the soupy mud, dragging
Speaker 1: the platform and Kyeland toward a row of low buildings
Speaker 1: near some stunted trees. As the creatures paused to puff
Speaker 1: and pant, the back half of the platform kept sinking
Speaker 1: into the mud. When they finally reached comparatively solid ground,
Speaker 1: Kyland was mud up to the hips and mad enough
Speaker 1: to blast off without benefit of landing craft. He surveyed
Speaker 1: the Piper Venusian installation, hardly believing what he saw. He
Speaker 1: had heard glowing descriptions of the board of directors. He
Speaker 1: had seen the architect's projections of fine modern buildings resting
Speaker 1: on waterproof buoys, neat boating channels to the mine sites,
Speaker 1: fine orange painted drudge equipment, including the new piper axis
Speaker 1: traction dredges that had been developed especially for the operation.
Speaker 1: It had sounded, in short, just the way a Piper
Speaker 1: installation ought to sound, but there was nothing here that
Speaker 1: resembled that Kyland could see a group of little wooden
Speaker 1: shacks that looked as though they were ready at a
Speaker 1: moment's notice to sink with a gurgle into the mud.
Speaker 1: Off to the right, across a mud flat, one of
Speaker 1: the drudges apparently had done just that. A swarm of
Speaker 1: men and natives were hard at work dragging it up again.
Speaker 1: Control tower was to the left, balanced precariously at a
Speaker 1: slight tilt and a sea of mud. The piper Venusian
Speaker 1: installation didn't look too much like a going concern. It
Speaker 1: looked far more like a ghost town in the latter
Speaker 1: stages of decay. Inside the administration shack, Kyland found a
Speaker 1: weary looking man behind a desk, scribbling furiously at a
Speaker 1: pile of reports. Everything in the shack was splattered with mud.
Speaker 1: The crude desk and furniture was smeared, the papers had
Speaker 1: black speckles all over them. Even the man's face was splattered,
Speaker 1: his clothes encrusted with gobs of still damp mud. In
Speaker 1: a corner, a young man was industriously scrubbing down the
Speaker 1: wall with a large brush. The man wiped mud off
Speaker 1: Kyland and jumped up with a gleam of hope in
Speaker 1: his tired eyes. Ah, wonderful, he cried, great to see you,
Speaker 1: old man. You'll find all the papers and reports in order. Here,
Speaker 1: everything ready for you. He brushed the papers away from
Speaker 1: him with a gesture of finality. Louis, get the landing
Speaker 1: craft pilot and don't let him out of your sight.
Speaker 1: Tell him I'll be ready in twenty minutes. Hold it,
Speaker 1: said Kyland, aren't you Simpson? The man wiped mine off
Speaker 1: of his cheek and spat. He was tall and gray.
Speaker 1: That's right. Where do you think you're going? Aren't you
Speaker 1: relieving me? I am not. Oh my, the man crumbled
Speaker 1: behind the desk, as though his laves had just given away.
Speaker 1: I don't understand it, they told me. I don't care
Speaker 1: what they told you, said Kylin shortly. I'm the troubleshooter,
Speaker 1: not an administrator. When the production figures begin to drop,
Speaker 1: I find out why the production figures from this place
Speaker 1: have never gotten high enough to drop. This is supposed
Speaker 1: to be news to me, said Simpson. So you've got
Speaker 1: troubles friend, you're right about that. Well, we'll straighten them out,
Speaker 1: Kylon said smoothly. But first I went to see the foreman,
Speaker 1: who put that wretched landing platform together. Simpson's eyes became wary. Uh,
Speaker 1: you don't really want to see him, Yes, I think
Speaker 1: I do. When there's just such obvious and competence, the
Speaker 1: time to correct it is now. Well, maybe we can
Speaker 1: go outside and see him. We'll see him right here.
Speaker 1: Kylon sank down on a bench near the wall. A
Speaker 1: tiny headache was developing. He found a capsule in his
Speaker 1: sample case and popped it into his mouth. Simpson looked
Speaker 1: sad and nodded to the orderly, who had stopped scrubbing
Speaker 1: the wall. Louis, you heard the man, but Boss Simpson scowled.
Speaker 1: Louis went to the door and whistled. Presently, there was
Speaker 1: a splashing sound and a short gray creature patted in.
Speaker 1: His hind feet were four toed, webbed paddles. His legs
Speaker 1: were long and powerful, like a kangaroo's. He was covered
Speaker 1: in thick gray fur, which dripped with thick black mud.
Speaker 1: He squeaked at Simpson, wiggling his nose. Simpson squeaked back sharply. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: the creature began shaking his head in a slow rhythmic
Speaker 1: undulation with a cry. Simpson dropped behind the desk. The
Speaker 1: orderly fell flat on the floor, covering his face with
Speaker 1: his arms. Kylin's eyes widened. Then he was sitting in
Speaker 1: a deluge of mud. As the little Venusian shook himself
Speaker 1: until his fur stood straight out in all directions. Simpson
Speaker 1: stood up with a roar. I've told them a thousand times,
Speaker 1: if I've told them once. He shook his head helplessly
Speaker 1: as Kyland wiped mud out of his eyes. This is
Speaker 1: the one you wanted to see, Kylin spluttered. Can it
Speaker 1: talk to you? It doesn't talk. It's then ask it
Speaker 1: to explain why the platform it built didn't hold the
Speaker 1: landing craft. Simpson began whistling and squeaking at length to
Speaker 1: the little creature. Its shaggy tail creft between its legs,
Speaker 1: and it hung its head like a scolded puppy. He
Speaker 1: says he didn't know a landing craft was supposed to
Speaker 1: land on the platform, Simpson reported. Finally, He's sorry, he says,
Speaker 1: but he hasn't seen a landing craft before. Squeak squeak. Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: wasn't he told what the platform was being made for?
Speaker 1: Squeak squeak. Of course, then why didn't the platform stand up?
Speaker 1: Simpson sighed. Maybe he forgot what it was supposed to
Speaker 1: be used for in the course of building it. Maybe
Speaker 1: he never really did understand in the first place. I
Speaker 1: can't get questions like that across from him with this whistling.
Speaker 1: I doubt you'll ever find out which it was. Then
Speaker 1: fire him, said Kyland. We'll find some other. Oh no,
Speaker 1: I mean, let's let's not be hasty, said Simpson. I'd
Speaker 1: hate to have to fire this one for a while yet.
Speaker 1: At any rate, why because we've finally gotten across to him.
Speaker 1: At least I think we have just how to take
Speaker 1: down a drudge tube. Simpson's voice was almost tearful. It's
Speaker 1: taken us months to teach him. If we fire him,
Speaker 1: we'll just have to start all over again with another one.
Speaker 1: Kylon stared at the Venusian and then at Simpson. So
Speaker 1: he said, finally, I see. No, you don't, said Simpson
Speaker 1: with conviction. You don't even begin to see yet. You
Speaker 1: have to fight it for a few months before you
Speaker 1: really see. He waved for the Nusian out the door
Speaker 1: and turned to Kyland with the burden of ten months
Speaker 1: frustration in his voice. They're stupid, he said, slowly, they
Speaker 1: are so incredibly stupid I could go screaming into this
Speaker 1: swamp every time I see one of them coming. Their
Speaker 1: stupidity is positively abysmal. Then why use them, Kylin spluttered,
Speaker 1: Because if we ever hope to mind anything in this
Speaker 1: miserable mud hole, we've got to use them for it.
Speaker 1: There just isn't any other way. With Simpson leading, they
Speaker 1: donned waste high waiters with wide flat silicone coated pans
Speaker 1: strapped to their feet, and started out to inspect the installation.
Speaker 1: A crowd of a dozen or more Venusian natives swarmed
Speaker 1: happily around them, like a pack of hounds. They were
Speaker 1: in and out of this steaming mud, circling and splashing,
Speaker 1: squeaking and shaking. They seemed to be having a real
Speaker 1: field day. Of course, Simpson was saying, since number four
Speaker 1: dredge shank last week, there isn't a wail of a
Speaker 1: lot of installation left for you to inspect, But you
Speaker 1: can see what there is if you want. You mean,
Speaker 1: number four dredge is the only one you've got to use.
Speaker 1: Kayland asked peevishly, according to my record, you have five
Speaker 1: axis traction dredges, plus a dozen or more of the
Speaker 1: old kind, ah, said Simpson. Well, Number one had its
Speaker 1: vacuum chamber corroded out a week after we started using dredging,
Speaker 1: ran into a vein of stuff with fifteen percent acid content,
Speaker 1: and it got chewed up something fierce. Number two sank
Speaker 1: without a trace over there in the swamp some place.
Speaker 1: He pointed, across the black mud flats to a patch
Speaker 1: of sickly vegetation. The mud pubs know where it is,
Speaker 1: they think, And I suppose they could go drag it
Speaker 1: up for us if we dared to take the time,
Speaker 1: But it would lose us a month, and you know
Speaker 1: the production schedule we've been trying to meet. So what
Speaker 1: about numbers three and five? Oh, we still have them.
Speaker 1: They won't work without a major overhaul. Though overhaul they're
Speaker 1: brand new, they were the mud pups didn't understand how
Speaker 1: to sluice them down properly after operations. When this guck
Speaker 1: gets out into the air, it hardens like cement. You
Speaker 1: ever see a cement mixer that hasn't been cleaned out
Speaker 1: after use after a few dozen times. That's numbers three
Speaker 1: and five. What about the old style models? Half of
Speaker 1: them are out on commission and the other half are
Speaker 1: holding the islands still islands. Those chunks of semi solid ground.
Speaker 1: We have administration built on the chunk that keeps control
Speaker 1: tower in one place. Well, what were they going to do?
Speaker 1: Walk away? That's just about right. The first week we
Speaker 1: were in operation, we kept wondering why we had to
Speaker 1: travel farther every day to get the drudges. Then we
Speaker 1: realized solid ground on Venus isn't solid ground at all.
Speaker 1: It's just big chunks of denser stuff that floats on
Speaker 1: top of the mud, like dumplings in a stew. But
Speaker 1: that was nothing compared to these other things. They had
Speaker 1: reached the vicinity of the salvage operation on number five
Speaker 1: dredge to Kyland. It looked like a huge cylinder tight
Speaker 1: vacuum cleaner with a number of flexible hoses sprouting from
Speaker 1: the top. The whole machine was three quarters submerged and
Speaker 1: clinging mud. Off to the right a dereck floated hip
Speaker 1: deep in slime. Grapplers from it were clinging to the dredge,
Speaker 1: and the derreck was heaving and splashing like a trapped hippopotamus.
Speaker 1: All about this submerged machine were mud puffs working like
Speaker 1: strange little beavers as the man supervising the operation wiped
Speaker 1: mud from his face and carried on a running line
Speaker 1: of shouts, curses, whistles and squeaks. Suddenly, one of the
Speaker 1: mud pups saw the newcomers. He let out a squeal,
Speaker 1: dropped his line in the mud, and bounced up to
Speaker 1: the surface, dancing like a dervish on his broad webbed
Speaker 1: feet as he stared in unabashed curiosity. A dozen or
Speaker 1: more followed his lead, squirming up and staring, shaking gobs
Speaker 1: of mud from their fur. No. No, the man supervising
Speaker 1: the operation screamed, pull, you idiots, come back here. Watch out.
Speaker 1: The Derek wobbled and let out a whine as steel
Speaker 1: cable sizzled out. Confused, the mud pups tore themselves away
Speaker 1: from the newcomers and turned back to their lines. But
Speaker 1: it was too late. Number five Dredge trembled with a
Speaker 1: wet sucking sound and settled back into the mud. Blub
Speaker 1: blub blub. The supervisor crawled down from his platform and
Speaker 1: sloshed across to where Simpson and Kyland were standing. He
Speaker 1: looked like a man who had suffered the torment of
Speaker 1: the damned for twenty minutes too long, No more, he
Speaker 1: screamed in Simpson's face. That's all I'm through. I'll pick
Speaker 1: up my pay anytime you get it ready, and i'll
Speaker 1: finish off my contract at home. But I'm through here.
Speaker 1: One solid week I work to teach these idiots what
Speaker 1: I want them to do, and you have to come
Speaker 1: along at the one moment all week when I really
Speaker 1: need their concentration. He glared his face, purple concentration. I
Speaker 1: should hope for so much. You've got to have a
Speaker 1: brain to have concentration. Barton, this is Kyland. Here's here
Speaker 1: from home office to solve all our problems. You mean
Speaker 1: he bought us an evacuation ship. No, he's going to
Speaker 1: tell us how to make this installation pay, write Kyland.
Speaker 1: Simpson's grin was something to see. Kyland scowled. What are
Speaker 1: you going to do with the dredge? Just leave it there,
Speaker 1: he asked angrily. No, I'm going to dig it out again,
Speaker 1: said Barton, after we take another week off to drum
Speaker 1: into those quarter brained mud hens just what we want
Speaker 1: them to do again, and then persuade them to do
Speaker 1: it again, and then hope, against hope that nothing happens
Speaker 1: along to distract them again, any suggestions, Simpson shook his head.
Speaker 1: Take of rest, Barton, Things will brighter in the morning.
Speaker 1: Nothing ever looks brighter in the morning, said Barton, as
Speaker 1: he sloshed angrily off toward the administration island. You see,
Speaker 1: said Simpson, Or do you want to look around some more?
Speaker 1: Back in the administration shack Kylin sprayed his throat with
Speaker 1: piper fortified biostatic and took two tetrasyline capsules from his
Speaker 1: sample case as he stared gloomily down at the little
Speaker 1: blob of blue gray mud on the desk before him.
Speaker 1: The Venusian Bonanza, the sole object of the multi million
Speaker 1: dollar Piper Venusian installation, didn't look like much. It ran
Speaker 1: in veins deep beneath the surface. The R and D
Speaker 1: mint struck it quite by accident in the first place.
Speaker 1: Sampled it along with a dozen other kinds of Venusian mud,
Speaker 1: and found they had their hands on the richest mice
Speaker 1: and bearing bacterial growth since the days of New Jersey
Speaker 1: mud flats. The value of this stuff was incalculable. Twenty
Speaker 1: first century Earth had not realized the degree to which
Speaker 1: it depends on its effective antibiotic products for maintenance of
Speaker 1: its health until the mutating immune bacterial strains begin to
Speaker 1: outpace the development of new antibacterials. Early penicillin killed ninety
Speaker 1: six percent of all organisms in its spectrum at first,
Speaker 1: but time and natural selection undid its work in three generations.
Speaker 1: Even the broad spectrum drugs were losing their effectiveness to
Speaker 1: a dangerous degree within decades of their introduction, and the
Speaker 1: new drugs grown from Earth born bacteria or synthesized in
Speaker 1: the laboratories were too few and too weak to meet
Speaker 1: the burgeoning demands of humanity. Until Venus, the bacteria indigenous
Speaker 1: to that planet were alien to Earth. Every attempt to
Speaker 1: transplant them had failed, but they grew with abandon in
Speaker 1: the warm mud currents of Venus. Not all the mud
Speaker 1: was of value. Only the singular blue gray stuff that
Speaker 1: lay before Kyland on the desk could produce the micin
Speaker 1: like tetrasyline derivative that was more powerful than the best
Speaker 1: of Earth grown wide spectrum antibiotics, with few, if any
Speaker 1: of the unfortunate side effects of the Earth products. The
Speaker 1: problem seems simple. Find the mud in sufficient quantities for mining,
Speaker 1: dredge it up, and transport it back to earth to
Speaker 1: extract the drug. It was the first two steps of
Speaker 1: the operation that depended so heavily on the mud acclimated
Speaker 1: natives of Venus for success. They were as much at
Speaker 1: home in the mud as they were in the dank,
Speaker 1: humid air above. They could distinguish one type of mud
Speaker 1: from another deep beneath the surface, and could carry a
Speaker 1: dredge tube down to a load of the blue gray
Speaker 1: muck with unfailing accuracy of a homing pigeon. If only
Speaker 1: they could be made to understand just what they were
Speaker 1: expected to do. And that was where production ground down
Speaker 1: to a slow walk. The next few days were a
Speaker 1: nightmare of frustration for Kayland as he observed with mounting
Speaker 1: horror the standard operating procedure of the installation. Men and
Speaker 1: mud pups went to work once again to drag number
Speaker 1: five drudge out of the mud. It took five days
Speaker 1: of explaining, repeating, coaxing, and threatening to do it, but
Speaker 1: finally up it came, with mud kicked and hardened in
Speaker 1: its insides until it could never be used again. So
Speaker 1: they ferried number six down piecemeal from this special orbital
Speaker 1: transport ship that had brought it only three landing crafts
Speaker 1: sank during the process, and within two weeks Simpson and
Speaker 1: Barton set bravely off with their dull witted cohorts to
Speaker 1: tackle the swamp with a spanking new piece of equipment.
Speaker 1: At last, the delays were over. Of course, it took
Speaker 1: another week to get the actual dredging started. The mud
Speaker 1: pups who had been taught the excavation procedure previously had
Speaker 1: either disappeared into the swamp or forgotten everything they'd ever
Speaker 1: been taught. Simpson had expected it, but it was enough
Speaker 1: to keep Kildered sleepless for three nights and drive his
Speaker 1: blood pressure to suicidal levels. At length, the blue gray
Speaker 1: mud began billowing out of the dredge onto platforms built
Speaker 1: to receive it, and the transport ship was notified to
Speaker 1: stand by for loading. But by the time the ferry
Speaker 1: had landed, the platform with the load had somehow drifted
Speaker 1: free of the island and required a week long expedition
Speaker 1: into the hinterland to track it down. On the trip back,
Speaker 1: they met a rainstorm that dissolved the blue gray stuff
Speaker 1: into soup, which ran out between the slats of the
Speaker 1: platform and back into the mud again. They did get
Speaker 1: the platform back at any rate. Meanwhile, the drudge began
Speaker 1: sucking up green stuff that smelled of sewage instead of
Speaker 1: the blue gray clay they sought. So the natives dough
Speaker 1: mudward to explore the direction of the One of them
Speaker 1: got caught in this suction tube, causing a three day delay.
Speaker 1: While engineers dismantled the dredge to get him out. In reassembling,
Speaker 1: two of the dredge tubes got interlocked somehow, and the
Speaker 1: drudge burned out three generators trying to suck itself through,
Speaker 1: so to speak. That took another week to fix. Kyland
Speaker 1: buried himself in the administration shack, digging through records. When
Speaker 1: the reign of confusion outside became too much to bear,
Speaker 1: he sent for Tarnier, the installation physician, biologist, and Erstwhile
Speaker 1: Venusian psychologist, doctor Tarnier looked like the breathing soul of failure,
Speaker 1: Kyland had to steel himself to the wave of pity
Speaker 1: that swept through him. At this side of the man,
Speaker 1: you're the one who tested these imbeciles, originally, he demanded.
Speaker 1: Doctor Tarnier nodded, his face was seamed, his eyes lustrous.
Speaker 1: I tested them God helped me. I tested them how
Speaker 1: standard procedures, reaction time, mazes, conditioning, language, abstraction, numbers, association,
Speaker 1: the works standard for earthmen. I presume you mean, so
Speaker 1: what else? Piper didn't want to know if they were
Speaker 1: Einstein's or not. All they wanted was a passable level
Speaker 1: of intelligence. Give them natives with brains, and they might
Speaker 1: have to pay them something. They thought they were getting
Speaker 1: a bargain, some bargain. Yeah, only your tests say they're
Speaker 1: intelligence as intelligents, say, as a low normal human being,
Speaker 1: without the benefit of any schooling or education. Right, that's right,
Speaker 1: said the doctor wearily, as though he had been through
Speaker 1: this mill again and again. Schooling and education don't enter
Speaker 1: it at all. Of course, all we measured was but
Speaker 1: the results said they had it. Then how do you
Speaker 1: explain the mess we've got out there? The tests were wrong,
Speaker 1: or else they weren't applicable even on a basic level,
Speaker 1: or something. I don't know. I don't even care much anymore. Well,
Speaker 1: I care plenty. Do you realize how much those creatures
Speaker 1: are costing us? If we ever do get this finished
Speaker 1: product on the market, it'll cost too much for anyone
Speaker 1: to buy. Doctor Tarnier spread his hands. Don't blame me,
Speaker 1: blame them, and then this so called biological survey of yours.
Speaker 1: Kylin continued, warming to his subject. From a scientific man,
Speaker 1: it's a prize. Anatomical description limited because of absence of autopsy.
Speaker 1: Specimens apparently have endoskeleton, but organization of the internal organs
Speaker 1: remain obscure. Thought to be mammalianoid. There's a fin sitter
Speaker 1: for you, but you can't be certain of this because
Speaker 1: no young have been observed, nor any females in gestation.
Speaker 1: Extremely gregarious, curious, playful, irresponsible, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Habitat under natural conditions uncertain, diet uncertain, social organization uncertain.
Speaker 1: Kylind threw down the paper with a snort. In short,
Speaker 1: the only thing we're certain of is that they're there,
Speaker 1: very helpful, especially when every dime we have in this
Speaker 1: project depends on our teaching them how to count to
Speaker 1: three without help. Doctor Tarnier spread his hands again. Mister Kyland,
Speaker 1: I am a mere mortal. In order to measure something,
Speaker 1: it has to stay the same long enough to get measured.
Speaker 1: In order to describe something, it has to hold still
Speaker 1: long enough to be observed. In order to form a
Speaker 1: logical opinion of the creature's mental capability, it has to
Speaker 1: demonstrate some perceptible mental capacity to start with. You can't
Speaker 1: get very far studying a creature's habitat and social structure
Speaker 1: when most of its habitating goes on under twenty feet
Speaker 1: of mud. How about the language we get by with squeaks,
Speaker 1: whistles and sign language, a sort of pigeon Venusian. They
Speaker 1: use a very complex system among themselves, the doctor paused uncertainly. Anyways,
Speaker 1: it's hard to get too tough with the pups, he
Speaker 1: burst out. Finally, they really seem to try hard when
Speaker 1: they can manage to keep their minds to it. Just
Speaker 1: stupid and carefree, happy, go lucky kids, eh, Doctor Tarnier shrugged.
Speaker 1: Go await, said Kyland in disgust, and turned back to
Speaker 1: the reports with a sour taste in his mouth. Later
Speaker 1: he called the installation comptroller. What do you pay the
Speaker 1: mud pups for their work? He wanted to know, nothing,
Speaker 1: said the comptroller, nothing. We have nothing they can use.
Speaker 1: What would you give them? Nation coins? They just try it?
Speaker 1: Eat it? How about something they can eat? Then? Everything
Speaker 1: we feed them they throw right back up planetary incompatible.
Speaker 1: But there must be something you can use for wages,
Speaker 1: Kylon protested. Something they want, something they'll work hard for. Well,
Speaker 1: they like tobacco and pipes all right, but it interfered
Speaker 1: with their oxygen storage, so they couldn't dive that rolled
Speaker 1: out tobacco and pipes. They like Turkish towels too, but
Speaker 1: they spent all their time parading up and down in
Speaker 1: them and slaying the ladies, and wouldn't work at all
Speaker 1: that rolled out Turkish towels. They don't seem to care
Speaker 1: too much whether they're paid or not, though, as long
Speaker 1: as we're decent to them, they seem to like us
Speaker 1: in a stupid sort of way. Just loving, affectionate, happy,
Speaker 1: go lucky kids. I know, go away, Kylin growled and
Speaker 1: turned back to the reports, except that there weren't any
Speaker 1: more reports that he hadn't read a dozen times or more,
Speaker 1: nothing that made sense, and nothing that offered a lead.
Speaker 1: Millions of piper dollars sunk into this project, and every
Speaker 1: one of them sitting there blinking at him expectantly. For
Speaker 1: the first time, he wondered if there really was any
Speaker 1: solution to the problem. Stumbling blocks had been met and
Speaker 1: removed before. That was Kylin's job, and he knew how
Speaker 1: to do it. But stupidity could be a stumbling block
Speaker 1: that was all but insurmountable. Yet he couldn't throw off
Speaker 1: the nagging conviction that something more subtle than stupidity was involved.
Speaker 1: Then Simpson came in, cursing and sputtering and bellowing for Louis.
Speaker 1: Louis came and Simpson started dictating a message for relay
Speaker 1: to the transport ship special order rush repeat Rush Simon
Speaker 1: graded for immediate delivery pyper Venusian installation one piper axis
Speaker 1: traction dredge previous specifications applicable. Kylon stared at him again.
Speaker 1: Simpson gritted his teeth again. Sunk blub, said Simpson. Blob
Speaker 1: blob blob. Slowly, Kylon stood up, glaring first at Simpson,
Speaker 1: then at the little muddy creatures that were attempting to
Speaker 1: hide behind his waiters, looking so forlorn and chastise, and woebegone.
Speaker 1: All right, Kylin said, after a pregnant pause. That's all.
Speaker 1: You won't be needing to relay that order to this ship.
Speaker 1: Forget about number seven Dredge. Just get your files in
Speaker 1: order and get a landing craft down here for me.
Speaker 1: The sooner the better. Simpson's face lit up in pathetic eagerness.
Speaker 1: You mean we're going to leave, That is what I mean.
Speaker 1: The company's not going to like the company ought to
Speaker 1: welcome us back with open arms. Kylon snarled. They should
Speaker 1: shower us with kisses. They should do somersaults for joy that.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to let them sink another half billion
Speaker 1: into the mud out here. They took a gamble and
Speaker 1: got cleaned, that's all. They'd be as stupid as your
Speaker 1: pal's here if they kept coming back for more. He
Speaker 1: pulled on his waiters, brushing penitent mud pups aside as
Speaker 1: he started for the door. Send the natives back to
Speaker 1: their burrows or whatever they live in, and get ready
Speaker 1: to close down. I've got to figure some way to
Speaker 1: make a report to the board that won't get us
Speaker 1: all fired. He slammed the door and started to cross
Speaker 1: to his quarters, waiters going splat splat in the mud.
Speaker 1: Half a dozen mud pups were following him. They seemed
Speaker 1: extraordinarily exuberant as they went diving and splashing the mud.
Speaker 1: Kylon turned and roared at them, shaking his fist. They
Speaker 1: stopped short and then slunk off with their tails between
Speaker 1: their legs. But even at that their squeaking sounded strangely
Speaker 1: like laughter to Kyland. In his quarters, the light was
Speaker 1: so dim that he almost had his waiters off before
Speaker 1: he saw the upheaval. The little room was splattered from
Speaker 1: top to bottom with mud. His bunk was coated with slime.
Speaker 1: The walls dripped blue gray goo across the room. His
Speaker 1: wardrobe doors hung open as three muddy creatures rooted industriously
Speaker 1: in the leather case on the floor. Kyland let out
Speaker 1: a howl and threw himself across the room his sample's case.
Speaker 1: The mud puffs scattered, squealing. Their hands were filled with capsules,
Speaker 1: their muzzles were dripping with the white powder. Two went
Speaker 1: between Kayland's legs and through the door. The third dough
Speaker 1: for the window, with Kyland after him. The company man's
Speaker 1: hand closed on a slippery tail, and he fell headlong
Speaker 1: across the muddy bed as the culprit literally slipped through
Speaker 1: his fingers. He sat up, wiping mud from his hair
Speaker 1: and surveying the damage. Bottles and boxes of medicimans were
Speaker 1: scattered all over the floor of the wardrobe covered with
Speaker 1: mud but unopened. Only one large box had been torn apart,
Speaker 1: its contents ravaged. Kylon stared at it as things began
Speaker 1: clicking into place in his mind. He walked to the door,
Speaker 1: stared out across the steamy, glooming mud flats toward the
Speaker 1: lighted windows of the administration's shack. Sometimes, he mused, a
Speaker 1: man can get so close to something that he can't
Speaker 1: see the obvious. He stared at his sample's case again.
Speaker 1: Sometimes stupidity works both ways, and sometimes what looks like
Speaker 1: stupidity can really be something far more deadly. He licked
Speaker 1: his lips and flipped the telephone talker switch. After a
Speaker 1: misconnection or two, he got control tower. Control tower said, yes,
Speaker 1: they had a small exploratory scooter on hand. Yes, it
Speaker 1: could be controlled on a beam and fitted with cameras,
Speaker 1: but of course it was special equipment, emergency use only.
Speaker 1: He cut them off and buzzed Simpson excitedly. Cancel all
Speaker 1: I said about leaving. I mean change of plans, something's
Speaker 1: come up. No, don't order anything, but get one of
Speaker 1: those natives that can understand your whistling and give him
Speaker 1: the word. Simpson bellowed over the wire. What word, What
Speaker 1: do you think you're doing? I may just be saving
Speaker 1: our skins. We won't know for a while, but however
Speaker 1: you manage it. Tell them we're definitely not leaving venus.
Speaker 1: Tell them they're all fired. We don't want them around anymore.
Speaker 1: The installation is off limits from here on in. And
Speaker 1: tell them we've devised a way to mine the load
Speaker 1: without them. Got that. Tell them the equipment will be
Speaker 1: arriving as soon as we can bring it down from
Speaker 1: the transport. Oh now, look, you want me to repeat that,
Speaker 1: Simpson sighed, All right, fine, I'll tell them then. What then,
Speaker 1: Just just don't bother me for a while. I'm going
Speaker 1: to be busy watching TV. An hour later, carolnd was
Speaker 1: in control tower, watching the pale screen as the little
Speaker 1: remote control Explorer circled around installation. Three TV cameras were
Speaker 1: in operation. As he settled down behind the screen, he
Speaker 1: told Sparks what he wanted to do, and the ship
Speaker 1: whizzed off in the direction the mud Puffs raiders had taken.
Speaker 1: At first, there was nothing but dreary mud flats sliding
Speaker 1: past the camera's watchful eyes. Then he picked up a
Speaker 1: flicker of movement and the ship circled in lower for
Speaker 1: a better view. It was a group of natives, a
Speaker 1: large group. There must have been fifty of them, working
Speaker 1: busily in the mud, five miles away from the piper installation.
Speaker 1: They didn't look so cure free and happy go lucky now.
Speaker 1: They looked very much like desperately busy mud puffs with
Speaker 1: a job on their hands. And they were so absorbed
Speaker 1: that they didn't even see the small craft circling above them.
Speaker 1: They worked in teams. Some were diving with small containers,
Speaker 1: some were handling mines attached to the containers. Still others
Speaker 1: were carrying and dumping. They came up full, went down empty,
Speaker 1: came up full. The produce was heaped in a growing
Speaker 1: pile on a small, semi solid island with a few
Speaker 1: scraggly trees on it. As they worked, the pile grew
Speaker 1: and grew. It only took a moment for Kylind to
Speaker 1: tell what they were doing. The color of the stuff
Speaker 1: was unmistakable. They were mining piles of blue gray mud
Speaker 1: just as fast as they could mine it. With a
Speaker 1: gleam of satisfaction in his eye, Kylin snapped off the
Speaker 1: screen and nodded at Sparks to bring the cameras back. Then,
Speaker 1: Hugh rang Simpson again. Did you tell them? Simpson's voice
Speaker 1: was uneasy. Yeah, yeah, I told them. They left in
Speaker 1: quite a hurry. Yes, I imagine they did. Where are
Speaker 1: your men now out working on number six trying to
Speaker 1: get it up? Better? Get them together and pack them
Speaker 1: over to Control Tower fast, said Kyland, I mean everybody,
Speaker 1: every man in the installation. We may have this thing
Speaker 1: just about tied up if we can get out here
Speaker 1: soon enough. Kailn's chair gave a sudden lurch and sailed
Speaker 1: across the room, smashing into the wall. With a yelp.
Speaker 1: He struggled up the sloping floor. It reared and heaved
Speaker 1: over the other way, throwing Kyland and Sparks to the
Speaker 1: other wall amid a heap of instruments. Through the window,
Speaker 1: they could see the gray mud flats careening wildly below them.
Speaker 1: It only took an instant to realize what was happening.
Speaker 1: Kylin shouted, let's get out of here, and headed down
Speaker 1: the stairs, clinging to the railing for dear life. Control
Speaker 1: Tower was sinking in the mud. They had moved faster
Speaker 1: than he had anticipated. Kyland thought and snarled at himself
Speaker 1: all the way down to the landing platform below. He
Speaker 1: had hoped at least to have time to parley, to
Speaker 1: stop and discuss the wise and wherefores of the situation
Speaker 1: with the natives. Now it was abundantly clear that any
Speaker 1: wise and wherefours that were likely to be discussed would
Speaker 1: be discussed later, and very possibly under twenty feet of mud.
Speaker 1: A stream of men were floundering out of administration, shack
Speaker 1: plowing through the mud with waiters only half strapped on
Speaker 1: as the line of low buildings began shaking and sinking
Speaker 1: into the morass. From the direction of number six dredge.
Speaker 1: Another crew was heading for the tower, but the tower
Speaker 1: was rapidly growing shorter as the buoys that sustained it
Speaker 1: broke loose with ear shattering crashes. Kyland caught sparks by
Speaker 1: the shoulder, shouting to be heard above the racket the transport,
Speaker 1: Did you get it? I I think so. They're Sydney
Speaker 1: GUSA ferry. It should be on its way. Simon sloshed up,
Speaker 1: his face heavy with dismay. The dredges they've cut loose,
Speaker 1: the dredges, bother the dredges. Get yourman collected and into
Speaker 1: the shelters. We'll have a ship here any minute. But
Speaker 1: what's happening. We are leaving if we can make it
Speaker 1: before these carefree, happy go lucky kids here sink us
Speaker 1: in the mud, drudges control tower and all out of
Speaker 1: the gloom above. There was a roar and a streak
Speaker 1: of murky yellow as the landing craft eased down through
Speaker 1: the haze. Only the top of the control tower was
Speaker 1: out of the mud. Now. The administration shack gave a lurch,
Speaker 1: sagging as a dozen indistinct gray forms pulled and tugged
Speaker 1: at the supporting structure beneath it. Already a circle of
Speaker 1: natives was converging on the earthmen as they gathered near
Speaker 1: the landing platform shelters. They're cutting loose the flame hunting platform.
Speaker 1: Somebody wailed. One of the lines broke loose with a
Speaker 1: resounding snap, and the platform lurched. Then a dozen men
Speaker 1: dived through the mud to pull away the slippering, writhing
Speaker 1: natives as they worked to cut through the remaining guys.
Speaker 1: Moments later, the landing craft was directly overhead, and men
Speaker 1: and natives alike scattered as she sank down The platform
Speaker 1: splintered and jolted under her weight, began skidding, then held
Speaker 1: firm to the two guy ropes remaining. A horde of
Speaker 1: gray creatures hurled themselves on those lines. As a hatchway
Speaker 1: opened above and a ladder dropped down. The men scurried
Speaker 1: up the ropes, just as the plastic dome of the
Speaker 1: controlled tower sank with a gurgle. Kyland and Simpson paused
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the ladder, blinking at the scene
Speaker 1: of devastation around them. Stupid, you say, said Kylind heavily.
Speaker 1: Better get up there, or we'll go where the control
Speaker 1: tower went. But everything gone wrong again, everything saved. Kyland
Speaker 1: urged the administrator up the ladder and sighed with relief.
Speaker 1: As the hatch clanged shut. The jets bloomed and sprayed
Speaker 1: boiling mud far and wide. As the landing craft lifted
Speaker 1: soggily out of the mire and roared for the clouds above,
Speaker 1: Kyland wiped sweat from his forehead and sank back on
Speaker 1: his cot with a shudder. We should be so stupid,
Speaker 1: he said, I must admit, he said later to a
Speaker 1: weary and mystified Simpson, that I didn't expect them to
Speaker 1: move so fast. But when you've decided in your mind
Speaker 1: that somebody's really pretty stupid, it's hard to adjust that
Speaker 1: idea that maybe he isn't. All of a sudden, we
Speaker 1: should have been much more suspicious of doctor Tarnier's test.
Speaker 1: It's true they weren't designed for Venusians, but they were
Speaker 1: designed to assess intelligence. And intelligence isn't quality that's influenced
Speaker 1: by environment or species. It's either there or it isn't.
Speaker 1: And the good doctor told us unequivocally that it was there.
Speaker 1: But their behavior even that should have tipped us off.
Speaker 1: There is a very fine line dividing incredible stupidity and
Speaker 1: incredible stubbornness. It's often a tough different shial to make.
Speaker 1: I didn't spot it until I found them wolfing down
Speaker 1: the tetrascyline capsules in my samples case. Then I began
Speaker 1: to see the implications. Those mud puffs were stubbornly and
Speaker 1: tenaciously determined to drive the Peter Vessutian installation off Venus permanently,
Speaker 1: by fair means or foul. They didn't care how. They
Speaker 1: just wanted it off. But why we weren't hurting them?
Speaker 1: There's plenty of mud on venus Ah, but not so
Speaker 1: much of the blue gray stuff we were after. Perhaps
Speaker 1: suppose a spaceship settled down in a wheatfield in Kansas
Speaker 1: along about harvesting time and started loading wheat into the hold.
Speaker 1: I suppose the farmer wouldn't mind too much. After all,
Speaker 1: there's plenty of vegetation on earth. They're growing the stuff
Speaker 1: for all they're worth, said Kyland. Lord knows what sort
Speaker 1: of metabolism uses tetches siline for food, but they are
Speaker 1: growing mud that yields an incredibly rich concentration of antibiotic
Speaker 1: their native food. They grow it, harvest it, live on it.
Speaker 1: Even the way they shake whenever they come out of
Speaker 1: the mud is a giveaway. What better way to seed
Speaker 1: their crop? Far and wide? We were mining away the
Speaker 1: staff of life, my friends, You can't really blame them
Speaker 1: for objecting. Well, if they think they can drive us
Speaker 1: off that way, they're going to have to get that
Speaker 1: brilliant intelligence of theirs into action, Simpson said ominously. We'll
Speaker 1: bring enough equipment down there to mind them out of
Speaker 1: house and home. Why, said Kyland, After all, they're mining
Speaker 1: it themselves a lot more efficiently than we ever could
Speaker 1: do it, and with piper warehouses back on Earth, full
Speaker 1: of old, useless antibiotics they can't sell for peanuts. No,
Speaker 1: I don't think we'll mind anything when a simple trade
Speaker 1: arrangement will do just as well. He sank back in
Speaker 1: his cap, staring dreamily through the port as the huge
Speaker 1: orbital transport loomed large ahead of them. He found his
Speaker 1: throat spray and dosed himself liberally in preparation for his
Speaker 1: return to civilization. Of course, the natives are going to
Speaker 1: be wondering what kind of idiots they're dealing with to
Speaker 1: seldom pure refined extract of the Suvian beefsteak in return
Speaker 1: for raw chunks of unrefined native soil. But I think
Speaker 1: we can afford to just let them wonder for a while.
Speaker 1: End of the Native Soil by Alan Edward Norris