alcohol in any quantities.'
'Oh.' Oscar thought about it. 'You're probably right. They are clever about things like that-that gunk they use to jell mud and those solvents they cleaned the Tart with. Kitchen chemists.'
'Maybe they aren't kitchen chemists. Maybe they are the real thing.'
'Huh?' said Tex. 'What do you mean, Matt?'
'Just what I said. We want 'go' juice for the Tart-maybe if we just had sense enough to ask the mother-of- many for it, we'd get it.'
Oscar shook his head. 'I wish you were right, Matt. Nobody has more respect for the Little People than I have, but there isn't a rocket fuel we can use that doesn't involve one or more liquefied gases. We might even make them understand what we needed but they wouldn't have the facilities for it.'
'Why are you so sure?'
'Well, shucks, Matt, liquid oxygen-even liquid air-calls for high pressures and plenty of power, and high-pressure containers for the intermediate stages. The Little People make little use of power, they hardly use metal.' |
'They don't use power, eh? How about those orange lights?' j
'Well, yes, but that can't involve much power.'
'Can you make one? Do you know how they work?' 'No, but-'
'What I'm trying to get at is that there may be more 1 ways of doing engineering than the big, muscley, noisy ways we've worked out. You've said yourself that we don't really ; know the natives, not even around the poles. Let’s’ at least ask!'
'I think he's got something there, Oz,' said Tex. 'Let's ask.'
Oscar was looking very thoughtful. 'I've realized for some time that our friends here were more civilized than the ones around the colonies, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.'
'What is civilization?'
'Never mind the philosophy-let's get going.' Oscar unlocked the ship's outer door and spoke to a figure, waiting in what was to her bright sunlight and busy looking at the j pictures in a 1971 Saturday Evening Post. 'Hey, girlie! Wouldst thou graciously conduct us to the home of thy mother?'
It was maple syrup. Both Tex and Oscar agreed. Th'wing explained quite readily that, when the supply ran low, they had made more, using the original terrestrial stuff as a sample.
Oscar went to see the city mother, taking with him a
bottle of grain alcohol salvaged from the medical supplies of the Gary. Matt and Tex had to sweat it out, for it had been agreed that Oscar did best with her nibs when not accompanied. He returned after more than two hours, looking stunned.
'What gives, Oz? What did you find out?' Matt demanded.
'It's bad news,' said Tex. 'I can tell from your face.'
'No, it's not bad news.'
'Then spill it, man, spill it-you mean they can do it?'
Oscar swore softly in Venerian. 'They can do anything!'
'Back off and try again,' advised Tex. 'They can't play a harmonica. I know; I let one try. Now tell us.'
'I started in by showing her the ethyl alcohol and tried to explain that we still had a problem and asked her if her people could make the stuff. She seemed to think it was a silly question-just sniffed it and said they could. Then I positively strained myself trying to act out liquid oxygen, first telling her that there were two different things in air, one inert and one active. The -best I could do was to use their words for living' and 'dead.' I told her I wanted the living part to be like water. She cut me off and sent for one of her people. They talked back and forth for several minutes and I swear I could understand only every second or third word and could not even get the gist of it. It was a part of their language totally new to me. Then the other old girl leaves the room.
'We waited. She asked me if we would be leaving soon if we got what we wanted. I said, yes if- then she asked me to do her the favor of taking Burke along; she was apologetic about it but firm. I said we would.'
'I'm glad of that,' said Matt. 'I despise Stinky's insides, but it sticks in my craw to leave him to die here. He ought to have a trial.'
'Keep quiet, Matt,' said Tex. 'Who cares about Stinky? Go on, Oscar.'
'After quite a wait, the other old girl came back, with a bladder-just an ordinary bladder by the appearance, but darker than a drinking bladder. Her nibs hands it to me
and asks me if this is what I wanted. I said sorry but I did not want water. She squeezed a few drops out on my hand.' Oscar held out his hand. 'See that? It burned me.'
'It actually was liquid oxygen?'
'That or liquid air. I didn't have any way to test, think it was oxygen. But get this-the bladder wasn't even cold. And it didn't fume until she squeezed out the drop. The other gal was carrying it around as casually as you carry a hot-water bottle.'
Oscar stared off into space a moment. 'It beats me,' 1 said. 'The only thing I can think of is catalyst chemist - they must have catalyst chemistry down to the poi where they can do things without fuss that we do with heat and pressure.'
'Why try to figure it out?' asked Tex. 'You'll probably get the wrong answer. Just let it go that they've forgotten more about chemistry than we'll ever learn. And we get the 'go’ juice.'
For two days a steady procession of little folk had formed a double line from the water's edge to the Astarte, bearing^ full bladders toward the ship and returning with empty ones. Thurlow was already abroad, still attended by his patient little nurses. Burke was brought to the ship under escort and turned loose. The cadets let him alone, which seemed to disconcert him. He looked the ship over-it was the first he had heard of it-and finally sought out Jensen.
'If you think I'm going to ride in that flying coffin you're greatly mistaken.'
'Suit yourself.'
'Well, what are you going to do about it?'
'Nothing. You can stay in the jungle, or try to persuade the city mother to take you back.'
Burke considered it. 'I think I'll stay with the frogs. If you get through, you can tell them where I am and have them come get me.' S
'I'll tell them where you are all right and all the rest of it, too.'
'You needn't think you can scare me.' Burke went away.
He returned shortly. 'I've changed my mind. I'm coming with you.'
'You mean they wouldn't have you.'
'Well-yes.'
'Very well,' answered Cadet Jensen, 'the local authorities having declined jurisdiction, I arrest you under the colonial code titled 'Relations with Aborigines,' charges and specifications to be made known to you at your arraignment and not necessarily limited to the code cited. You are warned that anything you say may be used in evidence against you.'
'You can't do this!'
'Matt! Tex! Take him in and strap him down.'
'With pleasure!' They strapped him to an acceleration rest mounted in the galley, where, they had agreed, he would be the least nuisance. Done, they reported it to Jensen,'
'See here, Oz,' Matt added, 'do you think you can make any charges stick against him?'
'I rather doubt it, unless they allow our hearsay under a 'best evidence' rule. Of course he ought to be strung up higher than the Milky Way, but the best I expect is to get his license revoked and his passport lifted. The Patrol will believe our story and that's enough for those items.'
Less than an hour later Thurlow's nurses left the ship and the cadets said good-by to the mother-of-many, a flowery, long-winded business in which Oscar let himself be trapped into promising to return some day. But at last he closed the outer door and Tex clamped' it. 'Are you sure they understand how to keep clear of our blast?' asked Matt.
'I paced off the safety line with her myself and heard her give the orders. Quit worrying and get to your station.'
'Aye aye, sir.'
Matt and Oscar went forward, Oscar with the ancient log tucked in his sling. Tex took station at the hand
