Speaker 1: Missing Link by Frank Herbert. The Romantics used to say
Speaker 1: that the eyes were the windows of the soul. A
Speaker 1: good alien xenologist might not put it quite so poetically,
Speaker 1: but it can if he's sharp, read a lot in
Speaker 1: the look of an eye. We ought a scrape this
Speaker 1: planet clean of every living thing on it, muttered Umbo Stetson,
Speaker 1: Section Chief of Investigation and Adjustment. Stetson paced lembed in
Speaker 1: control bridge of a Scout cruiser. His footsteps grated on
Speaker 1: a floor that was the rear wall of the bridge
Speaker 1: during flight, but now the ship rested on its tail fins,
Speaker 1: all four hundred glistening red and black meters of it.
Speaker 1: The open ports of the bridge looked out on the
Speaker 1: jungle roof of Vaina three, some one hundred fifty meters below.
Speaker 1: A buttery yellow sun hung above the horizon, perhaps an
Speaker 1: hour from setting. Clean as an egg, he barked. He
Speaker 1: paused in his round of the bridge, glared out the
Speaker 1: starboard port, spat into the fire blackened circle that the
Speaker 1: cruiser's jets had burned from the jungle. The IA Section
Speaker 1: chief was dark haired, gangling, with large head and big features.
Speaker 1: He stood in his customary slouch, a stance not improved
Speaker 1: by the sack like patched blue fatigues. Although on this
Speaker 1: present operation he rated the flag of a division admiral,
Speaker 1: his fatigues carried no insignia. There was a general unkempt,
Speaker 1: straggling look about him. Lewis Orne junior I, a field
Speaker 1: man with a maiden diploma, stood at the opposite port,
Speaker 1: studying the jungle horizon. Now and then he glanced at
Speaker 1: the bridge control console, the chronometer above it, the big
Speaker 1: trancelike map of their position tilted from the opposite bulkhead.
Speaker 1: A heavy planet native. He felt vaguely uneasy on this
Speaker 1: Vgiina three, with its gravity of only seven eighths n standard.
Speaker 1: The surgical scars on his neck where the micro communications
Speaker 1: equipment had been inserted, itched maddeningly. He scratched haw, said
Speaker 1: Stetson politicians. A thin black insect with shell like wings
Speaker 1: flew an Orn's port, settled in his close cropped red hair.
Speaker 1: Orn pulled the insect gently from his hair, released it again.
Speaker 1: It tried to land in his hair. He ducked. It
Speaker 1: flew across the bridge out the port. Beside Stetson. There's
Speaker 1: a thick muscle, no fat look to Orn, but something
Speaker 1: his blocky, off centered features suggested a clown. I'm getting
Speaker 1: tired of waiting, he said, you're tired. Ha. A breeze
Speaker 1: rippled the tops of the green ocean below them. Here
Speaker 1: and there, red and purple flowers jetted from the verdre,
Speaker 1: bending and nodding like an attentive audience. Just look at
Speaker 1: that blasted jungle, barked Stetson them and their stupid orders.
Speaker 1: A call bell tinkled on the bridge control console. The
Speaker 1: red light above the speaker grid began blinking. Stetson shot
Speaker 1: an angry glance at it. Yeah, how ok, stets orders
Speaker 1: just came through. We use planned C Tom Goo says
Speaker 1: to brief the field man and jet out of here.
Speaker 1: Did you ask them about using another field man? Orne
Speaker 1: looked up attentively. The speaker said yes. They said we
Speaker 1: have to use orn because the record's on the del
Speaker 1: fine us. Well, then will they give us more time
Speaker 1: to brief him? Negative? It's crash priority. COMO expects to
Speaker 1: blast the planet anyway. Stetson glared at the grid, those
Speaker 1: fat headed, lard bottom pig brained politicians. He took two
Speaker 1: deep breaths, subsided. Okay, tell them, we'll comply. One more
Speaker 1: thinks that what now I've got a confirmed contact. Instantly,
Speaker 1: Stetson was poised on the balls of his feet. Alert.
Speaker 1: Where about ten kilometers out section AaB six? How many
Speaker 1: a mob you want? I should count them? No? What
Speaker 1: are they doing making a bee line for us? You
Speaker 1: better get a move on. Okay, keep us posted right.
Speaker 1: Stetson looked across at his junior field man. Orn, if
Speaker 1: you decide you want out of this assignment, you just
Speaker 1: say the word I owe back you to the hilt.
Speaker 1: Why should I want out of my first field assignment?
Speaker 1: Listen and find out. Stetson crossed over to a tilt
Speaker 1: locker behind the big translant map, hauled out a white
Speaker 1: cover all uniform with gold insignia, tossed it to Orn
Speaker 1: get into these while I brief you on the map.
Speaker 1: But this is an R and R U nut began
Speaker 1: orn get that uniform on your ugly frame, Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: Admiral Stetson, sir, right away, sir, But I thought I
Speaker 1: was through with the old rediscovering re education when you
Speaker 1: drafted me off the hand em into the IA. Sir.
Speaker 1: He began changing from the IA blue to the r
Speaker 1: and are white. Almost as an afterthought, he said, Sir.
Speaker 1: A wolfish grin cracked Stetson's big features. I'm so happy
Speaker 1: you have the proper attitude of subservience toward authority. Orn
Speaker 1: zipped up the coverall uniform. Oh yes, sir, sir okay Orn,
Speaker 1: pay attention. Stetson gestured at the map with its green
Speaker 1: superimposed grid squares. Here we are. Here's that city we
Speaker 1: flew over on our way down. You'll head for it
Speaker 1: as soon as we drop you. The place is big
Speaker 1: enough that if you hold a course roughly northeast you
Speaker 1: can't miss it. Where again, the call bell rang? What's
Speaker 1: it this time, hal Bart Stetson. They've changed to Plan
Speaker 1: H Statt new orders cut. Five days. That's all they
Speaker 1: can give us. Comgo says he can't keep the information
Speaker 1: out of High Commissioner bull One's hands any longer than that.
Speaker 1: It's five days for sure. Then is this the usual
Speaker 1: arn ar foul up? Asked Orn. Stetson nodded. Thanks to
Speaker 1: bull One in company, we're just one jump ahead of catastrophe.
Speaker 1: But they still pump the bourgeois into the raw raw boys.
Speaker 1: Back at dear old unigalactica. You're making light of my
Speaker 1: revered alma mater, said Orn. He struck a pose. Well,
Speaker 1: we must reunite the lost planets with our centers of
Speaker 1: culture and industry and take up the glorious onward march
Speaker 1: of mankind that was so brewtally can it snapped stetson.
Speaker 1: We both know we're going to rediscover and planet too
Speaker 1: many someday rim wore all over again. But this is
Speaker 1: a different breed of fish. It's not repeat, not a rediscovery,
Speaker 1: orange sobered alien. Yes, a l e n a never
Speaker 1: before contacted culture. That language you were force fed on
Speaker 1: the way over, that's an alien language. It's not complete.
Speaker 1: All we have off the minis, and we excluded data
Speaker 1: on the natives because we've been hoping to dump this project,
Speaker 1: and nobody the wiser. Holy Massoo twenty six days ago
Speaker 1: and I a search ship came through here, had routine
Speaker 1: minie sneaker look at the place. When he combed in
Speaker 1: his net of sneakers to check the tapes and films.
Speaker 1: Lo and behold he had a little stranger one of theirs. No,
Speaker 1: it was a mini off the Delphinus Rediscovery. The Delphinus
Speaker 1: has been unreported for eighteen standard months. Did it crack
Speaker 1: up here? We don't know if it did. We haven't
Speaker 1: been able to spot it. She was supposed to be
Speaker 1: way off in the ballandine system by now, but we've
Speaker 1: something else on our minds. It's the one item that
Speaker 1: makes me want to blot out this place and run
Speaker 1: home with my tail between my legs. Weav a again.
Speaker 1: The call bell chimed. Now what, roared Stetson into the speaker.
Speaker 1: I've got a many over that mob'stet they're talking about us.
Speaker 1: It's a definite rating party. What armament? Too gloomy in
Speaker 1: that jungle? To be sure? The infra beams out on
Speaker 1: this many looks like hard pellet rifles of some kind.
Speaker 1: Might even be off the Delphinus. Can you get closer?
Speaker 1: Wouldn't do any good. No light down there, and they're
Speaker 1: moving up fast. Keep an eye on them, but don't
Speaker 1: ignore the other sectors, said Stetson. You think I was
Speaker 1: born yesterday, barked the voice from the grid. The contact
Speaker 1: broke off with an angry sound. One thing I like
Speaker 1: about the IA, said Stetson. It collects such even tempered types.
Speaker 1: He looked at the white uniform on. Orn wiped a
Speaker 1: hand across his mouth, as though he tasted something dirty.
Speaker 1: Why am I wearing this thing? Asked Orne disguise, but
Speaker 1: there's no mustache. Stetson smiled without humor. That's one of
Speaker 1: IA's answers to those fat keystones politicians. We're setting up
Speaker 1: our own search system to find the planets before they do.
Speaker 1: We've managed to put spies and key places at R
Speaker 1: and R any touchy planets. Our spies report we divert
Speaker 1: the files. Then what then we look into them with
Speaker 1: bright boys like you, disguised as our and our field men,
Speaker 1: goody goody. And what happens if our in R stumbles
Speaker 1: on to me while I'm down there playing patty cake?
Speaker 1: We disown you. But you said an I A ship
Speaker 1: found this joint? It did. And then one of our
Speaker 1: spies in our are intercepted a routine request for an
Speaker 1: agent instructor to be assigned here with full equipment requests
Speaker 1: signed by a first contact officer name a distant of
Speaker 1: the Dell fine us. But the doll yeah missing. The
Speaker 1: request was a forgery. Now you see why I'm mostly
Speaker 1: for rubbing out this place. Who dare forge such a
Speaker 1: thing unless he knew for sure that the original left
Speaker 1: C officer was missing or dead. What the jumped up
Speaker 1: mazou are we doing here, Stet asked Horn. Alien calls
Speaker 1: for full contact team with all that, it calls for
Speaker 1: one planet buster bomb buster in five days unless you
Speaker 1: give them a white bill. In the meantime, High Commissioner
Speaker 1: Bull one will have word of this planet by then.
Speaker 1: If Jina three still exists in five days, can't you
Speaker 1: imagine the fund the politicians, Ma, Ma, Mia, we want
Speaker 1: this planet cleared for contact or dead before then. I
Speaker 1: don't like this, Stet. You don't like it, look, said Orn,
Speaker 1: there must be another. Why when we teamed up with
Speaker 1: the Allaranoids we gained five hundred years in the physical
Speaker 1: sciences alone, Not to mention the the Aleroanoids didn't knock
Speaker 1: over one of our survey ships. First, what if the
Speaker 1: Delphinus just crashed here and the locals picked up the pieces.
Speaker 1: That's what you're going in to find out, Orn, But
Speaker 1: answer me this. If they do have the Delphinus, how
Speaker 1: long before a tool using race could be a threat
Speaker 1: to the galaxy. I saw that city they built, Stet.
Speaker 1: They could be dug in within six months and there'd
Speaker 1: be no Yeah. Orne shook his head. But think of it,
Speaker 1: two civilizations that matured along different lines. Think of all
Speaker 1: the different ways we'd approach the same problems. Believer that
Speaker 1: had give us for you sound like a unigalactical lecture.
Speaker 1: Are you through marching arm in arm into the misty future?
Speaker 1: Orn took a breath. Why is a freshman like me
Speaker 1: being tossed into this dish? You'd still be on the
Speaker 1: del finest masterless as an R and R field man.
Speaker 1: That's important if you're masquerading. Am I the only one
Speaker 1: I know? I'm a recent convert? But you want out?
Speaker 1: I didn't say that, I just want to know why
Speaker 1: I'm because the Big Domes fed a set of requirements
Speaker 1: into their iron monsters. Your card popped out. They were
Speaker 1: looking for somebody capable, dependable, and expendable. Hey, that's why
Speaker 1: I'm down here briefing you instead of sitting back on
Speaker 1: a flagship. I got you into the IA. Now you
Speaker 1: listen carefully. If you push the panic button on this
Speaker 1: one without cause, I will personally flay you alive. We
Speaker 1: both know the advantages of an alien contact. But if
Speaker 1: you get into a hotspot and call for help. I'll
Speaker 1: dive this cruiser into that city to get you out
Speaker 1: or swallowed. Thanks Stett. I'm We're going to take up
Speaker 1: a tight orbit. Out beyond us will be five transports
Speaker 1: full of IA marines and a Class nine monitor with
Speaker 1: one planetbuster. You're calling the shots. God help you. First,
Speaker 1: we want to know if they have the dough fine
Speaker 1: us and if so, where it is. Next, we want
Speaker 1: to know just how warlike these goons are. Can we
Speaker 1: control them? If they're bloodthirsty? What's their potential in five days?
Speaker 1: Not a second more? What do we know about them?
Speaker 1: Not much. They look something like an ancient Terran chimpanzee,
Speaker 1: only with blue fur faces, hairless, pink skinned Stetson snapped
Speaker 1: a switch. The translate map became a screen with a
Speaker 1: figure frozen on it like that. This is life size.
Speaker 1: Looks like the missing link they've always hunted for, said RN. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you've got a different kind of missing link, vertical
Speaker 1: slip pupils in their eyes, said Orn. He studied the figure.
Speaker 1: It had been caught from the front by a many
Speaker 1: sneaker camera. About five feet tall, the stance was slightly
Speaker 1: bent forward, long arms, two vertical nose slits, a flat,
Speaker 1: lipless mouth receding chin, four fingered hands. It wore a
Speaker 1: wide belt from which dangled neat pouches and what looked
Speaker 1: like tools, although their use was obscure. There appeared to
Speaker 1: be the tip of a tail protruding from behind one
Speaker 1: of the squat legs. Behind the creature towered the fairy
Speaker 1: spires of the city they'd observed from the air. Tails,
Speaker 1: asked Thorn, Yeah, there are boreal not a road on
Speaker 1: the whole planet we can find, but there are lots
Speaker 1: of vine lanes through the jungles. Stetson's face hardened. Match
Speaker 1: that with the city's advanced as that one slave culture? Probably?
Speaker 1: How many cities have they? We found too, this one
Speaker 1: and another one on the other side of the planet.
Speaker 1: But the other one's a ruin? A ruin? Why you
Speaker 1: tell us? Lots of mysteries here? What's the planet like?
Speaker 1: Mostly jungle? There are polar oceans, lakes and rivers. One
Speaker 1: low mountain chain follows the equatorial belt about two thirds
Speaker 1: around the planet, But only two cities, Are you sure?
Speaker 1: Reasonably so? It'd be pretty hard to miss something the
Speaker 1: size of that thing? We flew over it must be
Speaker 1: fifty kilometers long and least ten wide. Swarming with these
Speaker 1: creatures too. We've got a zone count estimate the places
Speaker 1: of city's population at over thirty million. We you, those
Speaker 1: are tall buildings too. We don't know much about this place, worn,
Speaker 1: and unless you bring them into the fold, there'll be
Speaker 1: nothing but ashes for our archeologists to pick over. Seems
Speaker 1: a dirty shame, I agree, But the call bell jangled.
Speaker 1: Stetson's voice sounded tired. Yeah, how that mob's only about
Speaker 1: five kilometers out, Stet. We got Orne's gear outside on
Speaker 1: the disguised air sled. We'll be right down. Why a
Speaker 1: disguised sled, asked Horn. If they think it's a ground buggy,
Speaker 1: they might get careless when you most needn't advantage. We
Speaker 1: could always scoop you out of the air. You know
Speaker 1: what are my chances on this one's stet? Stetson shrugged.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid they're slim. These goons probably have the del finess,
Speaker 1: and they want you just long enough to get your
Speaker 1: equipment and everything. You know. Rough as that, eh, according
Speaker 1: to our best guess. If you're not out in five days,
Speaker 1: we blast Orn cleared his throat, want out? Asked Stetson.
Speaker 1: No use the back door rules sun. Always leave yourself
Speaker 1: away out. Now, let's check that equipment the surgeon's put
Speaker 1: in your net. Stetson put a hand to his throat.
Speaker 1: His mouth remained closed, but there was a surf hissing
Speaker 1: voice in Orn's ears. You read me sure, I can
Speaker 1: no hiss the voice, touch the mike contact, keep your
Speaker 1: mouth closed, just use your speaking muscles without speaking. Orn obeyed. Okay,
Speaker 1: said Stetson. You come in loud and clear. I ought to.
Speaker 1: I'm right on top of you. There'll be a relayship
Speaker 1: over you all the time, said Stetson. Now when you're
Speaker 1: not touching that might contact this rig, I'll feed us
Speaker 1: what you say and everything that goes on around you, too.
Speaker 1: We'll monitor everything. Got that, yes, Stetson held out his
Speaker 1: right hand. Good luck. I meant that about diving in
Speaker 1: for you. Just say the word. I know the word, too,
Speaker 1: said Orn. Hell hope, gray mud floor and gloomy aisles
Speaker 1: between monstrous, bluish tree trunks. That was the jungle, only
Speaker 1: the bareest week glimmering of sunlight penetrated to the mud.
Speaker 1: The disguise sled, its paragraph units turned off lurched and
Speaker 1: skidded around buttress roots. Its headlights swung in wild arcs
Speaker 1: across the trunks and down the mud. Aerial creepers, great
Speaker 1: looping vines of them, swung down from the towering forest ceiling.
Speaker 1: A steady drip of condensation spattered the windshield, forcing Orn
Speaker 1: to use the white in the bucket seat of the
Speaker 1: slug's cab. Orn fought the controls. He was plagued by
Speaker 1: the vague flow motion, floating sensation that a heavy planet
Speaker 1: native always feels in lighter gravity. It gave him an
Speaker 1: unhappy stomach. Things skipped through the air around the lurching vehicle,
Speaker 1: flitting and darting things. Insects came in twin cones siphoned
Speaker 1: toward the headlights. There was an endless chittering, whistling, talk talk,
Speaker 1: talking in the gloom beyond the lights. Stetson's voice hissed
Speaker 1: suddenly through the surgically implanted speaker. How's it look Alien?
Speaker 1: Any sign of that mob? Negative? Okay, We're taking off.
Speaker 1: Behind Orn, there came a deep rumbling roar that receded
Speaker 1: as a scout cruiser climbed its jets. All other sounds
Speaker 1: hung suspended, in the after silence then resumed the strongest first,
Speaker 1: and then the weakest. A heavy object suddenly arked through
Speaker 1: the headlights, swinging on a vine. It disappeared behind a tree.
Speaker 1: Another another ghostly shadows with mine pendulums on both sides.
Speaker 1: Something banged down heavily onto the root of the sledge.
Speaker 1: Orn braked to a creaking stop that shifted the load
Speaker 1: behind him. Found himself staring through the windshield at a
Speaker 1: native of Vgina three. This native crouched on the hood
Speaker 1: a Marked twenty exploding pellet rifle in his right hand
Speaker 1: directed at Orne's head. In the abrupt shock of meeting,
Speaker 1: Orn recognized the weapon, standard issue to the marine guards
Speaker 1: on all ron R survey ships. The native appeared the
Speaker 1: twin of the one Orne had seen on the translight screen.
Speaker 1: The four fingered hand looked extremely capable around the stock
Speaker 1: of the Mark twenty. Slowly, Orn put a hand to
Speaker 1: his throat, pressed the contact button. He moved his speaking
Speaker 1: muscles just made contact with the mob. One on the
Speaker 1: hood now has one of our marked twenty rifles aimed
Speaker 1: at my head. The surfacing of Stetson's voice came through
Speaker 1: the hidden speaker. Want us to come back negative stand by,
Speaker 1: he looks cautious rather than hostile. Orn held up his
Speaker 1: right hand palm out. He had a second thought, held
Speaker 1: up his left hand too, universal symbol of peaceful intentions,
Speaker 1: empty hands. The gun muzzle lowered slightly. Orn called into
Speaker 1: his mind the language that had been hypno forced into him.
Speaker 1: O cheero no. That meant the people ah, and he
Speaker 1: had the heavy fricative greeting sound for we gratzy, he said.
Speaker 1: The native shifted to the left, answered in pure, unaccented
Speaker 1: high galatys. Who are you? Orn fought down a sudden panic.
Speaker 1: The lipless mouth had looked so odd forming the familiar words.
Speaker 1: Stetson's voice hissed, is that the native speaking galactis Orne
Speaker 1: touched his throat. You heard him? He dropped his hand, said,
Speaker 1: I am Louis Orne of Rediscovery and re Education. I
Speaker 1: was sent here at the request of the first contact
Speaker 1: officer on the Delphiness Rediscovery. Where is your ship? Demanded
Speaker 1: vaginin it put me down and left why it was
Speaker 1: behind schedule for another appointment. Out of the corners of
Speaker 1: his eyes, Orn saw more shadows dropping to the mud
Speaker 1: around him. The sledge shifted as someone climbed onto the
Speaker 1: load behind the cab. The someone scuttled agilely for a moment.
Speaker 1: The native climbed down to the CAB's side step opened
Speaker 1: the door. The rifle was held it ready again. The
Speaker 1: lipless mouth formed Gallati's words, what do you carry in
Speaker 1: this vehicle? The equipment every R and R field man
Speaker 1: uses to help the people of a rediscovered planet improve themselves?
Speaker 1: Or nodded at the rifle. Would you mind pointing that
Speaker 1: weapon some other direction? It makes me nervous? The gun
Speaker 1: muzzle remained unwaveringly on Orn's middle. The native's mouth open,
Speaker 1: revealing long canines. Do we not look strange to you?
Speaker 1: I take it there's been a heavy mutational variation in
Speaker 1: the humanoid norm on this planet, said Orn. What is
Speaker 1: it hard radiation? No answer, It doesn't really make any difference,
Speaker 1: of course, said Oran. I'm here to help you. I
Speaker 1: am Tanube, high path, chief of the Gratzi, said the native.
Speaker 1: I decide who is to help Orn swallowed? Where do
Speaker 1: you go? Demanded Tanube. I was hoping to go to
Speaker 1: your city? Is it? Permitted? A long pause while the
Speaker 1: vertical slip pupils of Tanube's eyes expanded and contracted it
Speaker 1: is permitted. Stetson's voice came through the hidden speaker. All
Speaker 1: bets off, We're coming in after you. That mark twenty
Speaker 1: is a final straw. It means they have the Delphinas
Speaker 1: for sure. Orn touched his throat. No, give me a
Speaker 1: little more time. Why I have a hunch about these creatures.
Speaker 1: What is it? No time now? Trust me another long paws,
Speaker 1: in which Orn and to Nube continued to study each other. Presently,
Speaker 1: Stetson said, okay, go ahead as planned, but find out
Speaker 1: where the delphinus is. If we get that back, we
Speaker 1: pull their teeth. Why do you keep touching your throat?
Speaker 1: Demanded to Nube. I'm nervous, said Orn. Guns always make
Speaker 1: me nervous. The muzzle lowered slightly. Shall we continue on
Speaker 1: to your city, asked Orn. He wet his lips with
Speaker 1: his tongue. The cab light on to Nub's face was
Speaker 1: giving the jina an eerie, sinister look. We can go soon,
Speaker 1: said Tanube. Will you join me inside here? Asked Orn,
Speaker 1: There's a passenger seat right behind me. Toanube's eyes moved
Speaker 1: catlike right left. Yes, he turned, barked in order to
Speaker 1: the jungle gloom, then climbed in behind Orn. When do
Speaker 1: we go, asked Orn. The great sun will be down soon,
Speaker 1: said Tanube. We can continue as soon as Chirana Cheruso rises.
Speaker 1: Chirana cheruso our satellite, our moons, said Tanoub. It's a
Speaker 1: beautiful word, said Orn. Chirana cheruso in our tongue. It
Speaker 1: means the limb of victory, said Toanube. By its light,
Speaker 1: we will continue. Orn turned looked back at Tanube. Do
Speaker 1: you mean to tell me that you can see by
Speaker 1: what light gets down here through those trees? Can you
Speaker 1: not see? Asked Tanub. Not without the headlights, Our eyes differ,
Speaker 1: said Tanube. He bent toward Orn, peered the vertical slip
Speaker 1: pupils of his eyes expanded and contracted. You are the
Speaker 1: same as the others, oh on the delfinas pause. Yes.
Speaker 1: Presently a greater gloom came over the jungle, bringing a
Speaker 1: sudden stillness to the wild life. There was a chittering
Speaker 1: commotion from the natives in the trees around the sled
Speaker 1: Toanube shifted behind Orn. We may go now, he said, slowly,
Speaker 1: to stay behind my scouts right. Orn eases sled forward
Speaker 1: around an obstructing route silence. While they crawled ahead around them,
Speaker 1: shapes flung themselves from vine to vine. I admired your
Speaker 1: city from the air, said Orn. It is very beautiful, Yes,
Speaker 1: said Toanube. Why did you land so far from it?
Speaker 1: We didn't want to come down where we might destroy anything.
Speaker 1: There is nothing to destroy in the jungle, said Toenube,
Speaker 1: Why do you have such a big city, asked Orn silence.
Speaker 1: I said, why do you? You are ignorant of our ways,
Speaker 1: said Tonub. Therefore I forgive you. The city is for
Speaker 1: our race. We must bre and be born in the sunlight. Once,
Speaker 1: long ago we used crude platforms on the tops of trees.
Speaker 1: Now only the wild ones do this. Stetson's voice hissed
Speaker 1: in Orn's ears. Easy on the sex, lime boy, that's
Speaker 1: always touchy. These creatures are our viparous sex glands are
Speaker 1: apparently hidden in that long fur behind where their chins
Speaker 1: are to be. Who controls the breeding sites controls our world,
Speaker 1: said to Nube. Once there was another city, we destroyed it.
Speaker 1: Are there many wild ones, asked Orn, Fewer each year,
Speaker 1: said to Nube. That's how they get their slaves. His stutson,
Speaker 1: you speak excellent galictees, said Orn. The high path chief
Speaker 1: commanded the best teacher, said to Nube, do you too
Speaker 1: know many things? Orn? That is why I was sent here,
Speaker 1: said Orn. Are there many planets to teach? Asked Tonube,
Speaker 1: Very many, said Orn, your city, I saw very tall
Speaker 1: buildings of what do you build them? In your tongue?
Speaker 1: Glass said Toenube. The engineers of the delphiness said it
Speaker 1: was impossible, as you saw. They were wrong. A glass
Speaker 1: blowing culture, his Stutson. That'd explain a lot of things. Slowly,
Speaker 1: the disguised sleds crept through the jungle. Once a scout
Speaker 1: swooped down into the headlights and waved. Orn stopped on
Speaker 1: to Nube's order, and they waited almost ten minutes before proceeding.
Speaker 1: Wild ones Ascorn, perhaps said Toenub. A glowing of many
Speaker 1: lights grew visible through the giant tree trunks. It grew
Speaker 1: brighter as the sled crept through the last of the
Speaker 1: jungle emerged in cleared land at the edge of the city.
Speaker 1: Orn stared upward in awe. The city fluted and spiraled
Speaker 1: into the moonlit sky. It was a fragile appearing lacery
Speaker 1: of bridges, winking dots of light. The bridges wove back
Speaker 1: and forth from building to building, until the entire visible
Speaker 1: network appeared to be one gigantic dew glittering web. Ah
Speaker 1: that with glass, murmured Orn, what's happening? Hit Stetson. Warn
Speaker 1: touched his thirt contact. We're just into the city, clearing,
Speaker 1: proceeding toward the nearest building. This is far enough, said
Speaker 1: to Nube. Orn stopped the slight. In the moonlight, he
Speaker 1: could see armed vginans all around the buttress pedestal of
Speaker 1: one of the buildings loomed directly ahead. It looked taller
Speaker 1: than had the Scout Cruiser in its jungle landing circle.
Speaker 1: To Nube, bleeding closer to Orange shoulder, we have not
Speaker 1: deceived you, have we Orn? Huh? What do you mean?
Speaker 1: You have recognized that we are not mutated members of
Speaker 1: your race? Orn swallowed into his ears. Came Stetson's voice.
Speaker 1: Better admit it, that's true, said Orn. I like you.
Speaker 1: Orn said to Nube, you shall be one of my slaves.
Speaker 1: You will teach me many things. How did you capture
Speaker 1: the Delphinas? Asked Orn. You know that too. You have
Speaker 1: one of the rifles, said Orn, Your race is no
Speaker 1: match for us Orn in cunning, in strength, and prowess
Speaker 1: of the mind. Your ship landed to repair its tubes,
Speaker 1: very inferior ceramics in those tubes. Orn turned looked at
Speaker 1: Tanube in the dim glow of the cablight. Have you
Speaker 1: heard about the I? A? Toanube? I A? What is that?
Speaker 1: There was a weary tenseness in the giant figure, his
Speaker 1: mouth open to reveal the long canines. You took the
Speaker 1: Delphinus by treachery, asked Orn. They were simple fools, said Toenube,
Speaker 1: we are smaller. Thus they thought us weaker. The mark
Speaker 1: twenties muzzle came round to center on Orne's stomach. You
Speaker 1: have not answered my question. What is the Ia? I
Speaker 1: am of the Ia? Said Orn? Where have you hidden
Speaker 1: the Delphinus in the place that suits us best? Said Tanube.
Speaker 1: In all our history there has never been a better place.
Speaker 1: What do you plan to do with it? Asked Gorn.
Speaker 1: Within a year we will have a copy with our
Speaker 1: own improvements. After that, you intend to start a war,
Speaker 1: ask Thorn. In the jungle, the strong slayh the weak
Speaker 1: until only the strong remain, said Tanube. And then the
Speaker 1: strong prey upon each other, Askcorn. That is a quibble
Speaker 1: for women, said Tanube. It's too bad you feel that way,
Speaker 1: said Orn. When two cultures meet like this, they tend
Speaker 1: to help each other. What have you done with the
Speaker 1: crew of the Delphinus. They are slaves, said Tanube. Those
Speaker 1: who still live. Some resisted, others objected to teaching us
Speaker 1: what we want to know. He waved his gun muzzle.
Speaker 1: You will not be that foolish, will you, Orn? No
Speaker 1: need to be, said Orn, I've another little lesson to
Speaker 1: teach you. I already know where you've hidden the Delphinus.
Speaker 1: Go boy, hiss, Stutson. Where is it impossible, bark Tenube.
Speaker 1: It's on your moon, said Orn. Dark side, It's on
Speaker 1: a mountain, on the dark side of your moon. Tanube's
Speaker 1: eyes dilated, contracted. You read mines. The Ia has no
Speaker 1: need to read mines, said Orn. We rely on superior
Speaker 1: mental prowess. The Marines are on their way, his stetson.
Speaker 1: We're coming in to get you. I'm going to want
Speaker 1: to know how you guess that one. You are a
Speaker 1: weak fool, like the others, gritted to Nube. It's too
Speaker 1: bad if you formed your opinion of us by observing
Speaker 1: only the low grades of the iron are, said Orn.
Speaker 1: Easy boy his stets and don't pick a fight with him. Now.
Speaker 1: Remember this race is arboreal. He probably strong as an ape.
Speaker 1: I could kill you where you sit, grated Tanube. You're
Speaker 1: right finish for your entire planet if you do, said Orn.
Speaker 1: I'm not alone. There are others listening to every word
Speaker 1: we say. There's a ship overhead that could split open
Speaker 1: your planet with one bomb, wash it with molten rock.
Speaker 1: It would run like the glass you used for your buildings.
Speaker 1: You are lying. We'll make you an offer, said Orn.
Speaker 1: We don't really want to exterminate you. We'll give you
Speaker 1: limited membership in the Galactic Federation until you prove your
Speaker 1: no menace to us. Keep talking, Stetson, keep him interested.
Speaker 1: You dare insult me, growled to Nube. You'd better believe me,
Speaker 1: said Oran. We Stetson's voice interrupted him. Got at Orn.
Speaker 1: They caught the Delphinus on the ground, right where you
Speaker 1: said it'd be. Blew the tubes off it. Marine's now
Speaker 1: mopping up. It's like this, said Orn. We already have
Speaker 1: recaptured the Delphinus. Tanube's eyes went instinctively skyward, except for
Speaker 1: the captured arm and as you still hold you obviously
Speaker 1: don't have the weapons to meet us, continued Dorn. Otherwise
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be carrying that rifle off the Delphinus. If
Speaker 1: you speak the truth, then we shall die, bravely, said Toanube.
Speaker 1: No need for you to die, said Orn. Better to
Speaker 1: die than be slaves, said Toenube, we don't need the Dorn.
Speaker 1: We I cannot take the chance that you are lying,
Speaker 1: said Tanube. I must kill you now. Orn's foot rested
Speaker 1: on the air sled control pedal. He he pressed it instantly.
Speaker 1: The sledge shot skyward, heavy geas, pressing them down into
Speaker 1: the seats. The gun into Nube's hand was slammed into
Speaker 1: his lap. He struggled to raise it to Orn. The
Speaker 1: weight was still only about twice that of his home
Speaker 1: planet of charge On. He reached over, took the rifle,
Speaker 1: found the safety belts bound to Nube with him. Then
Speaker 1: he eased off the acceleration. We don't need slaves, said Orn.
Speaker 1: We have machines to do our work. We'll send experts
Speaker 1: in here, teach you people how to exploit your planet,
Speaker 1: how to build good transportation facilities, how show you how
Speaker 1: to mine your minerals. How to and what do we do?
Speaker 1: In return, whispered to Nube. You could start by teaching
Speaker 1: us how you make superior glass, said Orn. I certainly
Speaker 1: hope you see things our way. We really don't want
Speaker 1: to have to come down here and clean you out.
Speaker 1: It'd be ashamed to have to blast that city in
Speaker 1: the little pieces to nubewolted presently, he said, send me back.
Speaker 1: I will discuss this with our council. He stared at Orn,
Speaker 1: you I as are too strong. We did not know.
Speaker 1: In the wardroom of Stetson's Scout cruiser, the lights were low,
Speaker 1: the leather chairs comfortable, the green beige table set with
Speaker 1: a decanter of Hokar brandy and two glasses. Orn lifted
Speaker 1: his glass, sipped the liquor, smacked his lips For a
Speaker 1: while there, I thought I'd never be tasting anything like
Speaker 1: this again. Stetson took his own glass, calmgo heard the
Speaker 1: whole thing over the general monitor net He said, do
Speaker 1: you know you've been breveted to the senior field man. Ah,
Speaker 1: they've already recognized my sterling worth, said Orn. The woolfish
Speaker 1: grin took over Stetson's big features. Senior field men last
Speaker 1: about half as long as Junior's. He said, mortality's terrific.
Speaker 1: I might have known, said Orn. Another sip of the
Speaker 1: brandy stetson flicked on the switch of the recorder beside him. Okay,
Speaker 1: you can go ahead anytime. Where do you want me
Speaker 1: to start first? How'd you spot right away where they'd
Speaker 1: hidden the delphinus? Easy? Tanube's word for his people was gratzi.
Speaker 1: Most races call themselves something, meaning the people, but in
Speaker 1: his tongue that's o' cheerol. Gratzi was on the tran
Speaker 1: wasn't on the translated list. I started working on it.
Speaker 1: The most likely answer was that it had been adopted
Speaker 1: from another language and meant enemy, And that told you
Speaker 1: where the Delphinus was. No, but it fitted my hunch
Speaker 1: about this, these Vginins. I'd kind of felt from the
Speaker 1: first minute of meeting them that they had a culture
Speaker 1: like the Indians of ancient Terra. Why they came in
Speaker 1: like a primitive raiding party. The leader dropped right onto
Speaker 1: the hood of my sled and acted braver, no less
Speaker 1: counting coup you see, I guess so then he said
Speaker 1: he was high path chief. That wasn't on the language
Speaker 1: list either, but it was easy. Raider chief. There's a
Speaker 1: word in almost every language in history that means raider
Speaker 1: and drives from word for road, path or highway highwayman,
Speaker 1: said Stetson rate itself said orne, an ancient Terran language,
Speaker 1: corruption of road. Yeah, yeah, but where's all this translation,
Speaker 1: griff put, don't be impatient. Glass blowing culture meant they
Speaker 1: were just out of the primitive stage that we could control. Next,
Speaker 1: he said, their moon was tirana truso, translated as a
Speaker 1: limb of victory. After that, it just fell into place.
Speaker 1: How the vertical slipped pupils of their eyes. Doesn't that
Speaker 1: mean anything to you? Maybe? What's it mean to you?
Speaker 1: Night hunting predator accustomed to dropping upon its victims from above.
Speaker 1: No other type of creature ever has had the vertical
Speaker 1: slit and tenubs and himself that the delphiness was hidden
Speaker 1: in the best place in all their history history. That'd
Speaker 1: be a high place dark. Likewise, ergo a high place
Speaker 1: on the dark side of their moon. I'm a pie
Speaker 1: eyed gripus, whispered Stetson. Arngrind said you probably are, sir.
Speaker 1: The end