In the United States, some two-hundred-odd light-years away, it to be Tuesday. On this Tuesday, the from the was by Harvey's, the national men's chain. Harvey's discussion-type shows, of opinion in the proper so into their tag-line. "You can about anything but the quality of a Harvey suit! That's Superb!"
Therefore the after the landing of the ship on the was commercial, and pictures and reports from the Spaceways expedition, and and by big-name on Earth. Inevitably there was Dabney. And Dabney was neurotic.
He did his best to make a of everything.
The started at the beginning. There was a two-minute film-strip of business-suited on row, the of Harvey's suits. Then a fast minute hill-billy puppet-show about two who they couldn't possibly their when they themselves in agreement on the quality of Harvey suits. "That's Superb!" The ended with a of figures, dancing while they sang the theme-song, "You can disagree, yes siree, you can disagree, About anything, everything, you and me, But you can't, no you can't disagree, About the super, super, Qualitee of a Har-ve-e-e-e suit! That's superb!"
And the television audience of saw the faded-in image of mankind's starship, upon its landing-fins among trees more than television had pictured before. The camera slowly, and such open spaces[Pg 99] as very had by buildings, and of a difficult for most people to in.
The cut to the space-ship's control-room and Al the pilot as the leader of an exploration-party just returned—though he actually hadn't left the ship. He Jamison, and other to an in wilderness. Jamison to from his out the control-room port, adding film-clips for authority.
Smoothly and hypnotically, he pictured the as the ship the last thousand feet, and told of the to be in this and area just explored. Mountainside for star-tourists would look upon a of and spaciousness. This would be the in the stars. In the other of this world there would be pasture-lands, and would again to meat as a normal and not-extravagant part of its diet—on this planet, certainly! There were doubt, and water-power. The was that at least the of the Asian had been available for occupation. And this to the of ...
The second cut Jamison off. Naturally. The was paying for time. So for Jamison was the other about the man who himself by the of of the which him. His him to be promoted to vice-president without any question of or not he the job. Because, of course, he a Harvey suit.
Alicia Keith herself on the screen and gave the woman's as about by Bell. She talked about how it to move about on a by beings. She was by the pictured of the lady of Joint Networks' programs, who asked sweetly:
"Tell me, Alicia, what do you think the of the will to the Average American in the future? Right now?"
Then Dabney came on. His was into the from Lunar City, and his were as anybody's will be where their hands and arms so small a of Earth-normal.[Pg 100]
"I wish," said Dabney impressively, "to the men who have so my of faster-than-light travel to practical use. I am at having been able to a scientific which in time will that mankind's and into the future!"
Here there was applause. Dabney up his hand for attention. He thought. Visibly.
"But," he said urgently, "I admit that I am by the of the action that has been taken. I as if I were like some powerful gifts which the may use without thought."
More applause, he had for it he paused. The communicator-operator at Luna City took in exactly. Dabney up his hand again. Again he performed of in plain view.
"At the moment," he said anxiously, "as the author of this achievement, I have to use the same which produced it, to the possibility of its ill-advised use. May not explorers—who took off without my having their plans and precautions—may not over-hasty of my gift to do harm? May they not the cannot resist? May they not and epidemics? Have they prepared themselves to use my only for the of mankind? Or have they been precipitous? I shall have to apply myself to the of methods by which my discovery—made so that Humanity might undreamed-of-heights—I shall have to means by which it will be a to mankind!"
Dabney, of course, had the limelight. All the world him the scientist of all time—except, of course, the people who something about science. But the in space had than himself. It was to Dabney to be restricted to taking on in which they starred. So he a star part for himself.
The who him was to have on the pictures and reports to him beforehand. But he not so promising a lead to how much he knew. So he on the of extra-terrestrial disease-producing being on Earth. He painted a picture, from the history of pre-sanitation epidemics.[Pg 101] He up with a of something like the Black Death of the middle as among the to humanity. He was a of the well-known authority-trauma which some people on television when they think millions of other people are to them. They from their to try to say something to all the attention they're getting.
The ended with a live in which a girl melted into the arms of the man she had scorned. She him when she noticed that he was a she by its quality only come from Harvey's.
On the of and volcanoes, Holden fumed.
"Dammit!" he protested. "They talk like we're lepers! Like if we come we'll be of some that will out the race! As a of fact, we're no more likely to catch an extra-terrestrial than to catch wry-neck from chickens!"
"That broadcast's nothing to worry about," said Cochrane.
"But it is!" Holden. "Dabney and that presented space-travel as a for panic! They have every being on Earth to death we'll and everybody'll die of the croup!"
Cochrane grinned.
"Good publicity—if we needed it! Actually, they've the show. From now on every presentation has a it didn't have before. Now will waiting for the next show. Has Jamison got the Purple Death on the Planet of Smoky Hilltops? Will Alicia Keith out in green next time we watch her on the air? Has Captain Al of the star-roving space-ship in of the Swelling Fungus? Are the space-travellers doomed? Tune in on our next and see! My dear Bill, if we weren't up for sponsors' fees, I'd our prices after this trick!"
Holden looked unconvinced. Cochrane said kindly:
"Don't worry! I turn off the panic tomorrow—as much panic as there is. Kursten, Kasten, Hopkins and Fallowe had a they set great store by. They wanted to parcel out a big for a name for mankind's second planet. They had lined[Pg 102] up. It would have been worldwide! Advertisers were over the of people names for this on box-tops! They were five prize-money—and who'd be of us then? But I it we haven't got a helicopter. We couldn't stage different from this to keep it going the minimum six for a like that. Instead, we're taking off in a of hours. Jones agrees. The home have out another Sol-type star that ought to have planets. We're going to over and see what we can find. Not too far—only twenty-some light-years!"
He Holden to see how the last phases him. Holden didn't notice it.
"A contest—It doesn't make sense!"
"I know it isn't sense!" said Cochrane. "It's public-relations! I'm to my self-respect back. I see now that a space-exploration job is only as good as its public-relations man!"
He to Babs to tell her to the communicator-set and let go as a of policy.
The which out of the now busy. They had on this planet, and they were going to it, and there had been a minimum of with its soil. So Jamison took his leggings—put on for the show—and he and Bell to the ground and through the woods. Jamison one of Johnny Simms' guns, which he with suspicion, and Bell cameras. They trees and underbrush, as and then with attention to and fruits or flowers. Bell got pictures of one of the small, that Cochrane and Holden had when Babs was with them. He got a picture of what he to be a spider-web—it was and and than any on Earth—and looked for the that thirty-foot as thick as fishing-twine. Then he that it was not a at all. It was a at center something had a nest, with eggs in it. Some had an home for itself where its would not be by predators.
Al, the pilot, out of the lock and to the ground and as as the of the ash-ring. But[Pg 103] he did not go any farther. He about unhappily, that he did not want to go into the woods. He to appear to view half-burnt trees for his of the extra-terrestrial on which men had landed. He did up some pebbles—water-rounded—and one of them had of what looked like gold in it. Al it excitedly, and then of freight-rates. But he did for more. Presently he had a pocket-full of small which would be with by his and they had come from the stars. Actually, they were minerals. The of what looked like gold were only iron pyrates.
Jones did not the ship. He was puttering. Nor Alicia. Holden her to take a walk, and she said quietly:
"Johnny's out with a gun. He's hunting. I don't like to be with Johnny when he may be disappointed."
She smiled, and Holden away. There had been no particular of Johnny Simms' to what was right and what was wrong. But Holden like a normal man about men look patient. Even that it is somehow to a woman who doesn't back. This is instinctive. It is what is called the fine, deep-rooted to which is one of the of modern culture.
Holden settled at the to an call to Earth, when there were some hundreds of calls up. By and manners he it. He got a to a hospital where he was known, and he talked to its bacteriologist. The was competent, but not yet famous. With Holden at the color of the sunlight, and its ultra-violet content, and with of the with which here like Earth-plants, they at but common conclusions. Of the hundreds of thousands of possible compounds, only so many actually took part in the life-processes of on Earth. Yet there were hundreds of thousands of prepared to make use of anything usable. If the and temperature of the two worlds were similar, it was more than likely that the same chemical would be used by on both. So that there[Pg 104] be micro-organisms on the new which be harmful. But on the other hand, either they would be familiar in the they produced—and them—or else they would be new to which would allergically. Basically, then, if on the ship hives, they had to be frightened. But so long as nobody or out in welts, their were safe.
This took a long time to work out. Meanwhile Babs and Cochrane had to the ground and hiking. Cochrane was as before, though he had no as a marksman. In television he had the of blank charges—cut to a minimum so they wouldn't blast the mikes. He what to go through, but nothing else.
They did not in the same direction as their excursion. The ship was to take off presently, as soon as this had for the space-ship's nose to point nearly in the direction of their next target. They had two hours for exploration.
They came upon something which still across their path, like a great serpent. Cochrane looked at it startledly. Then he saw that the round, was to the ground by rootlets. It was a plant which like a creeper, from a root-area. Somewhere, no doubt, it would and spread out to the sun's light. It used, in a way, the of those which in water too to in holes.
They on and on, and amazed. All about them were of adaptation, of adjustment, of cooperation. A would have with at the material all about. A would have happily. Babs and Cochrane without information. They walked but among the unparalleled. Back on Earth they as much as most people about nature—practically nothing at all. Babs had any wild plants before. She was by what she saw, and at everything. But she did not a of the on which her rested. On the whole, she survived.
"It's a we haven't got a helicopter," Cochrane said[Pg 105] regretfully. "If we around from place to place, and send pictures ... We can't do it in the ship ... It would more fuel than we've got."
Babs her forehead.
"Doctor Holden's we can't make as a picture as he'd like."
Cochrane halted, to watch something which was like a of gray-green and which moved slowly out of their path with motions. It vanished, and he said:
"Yes. Bill's an man, if he is a psychiatrist. He wants to do something for the home who're so frustrated. There are of millions of men who can't for anything than to keep the food and supply for themselves and their families. They can't to for more than that. There isn't more than so much to go around. But Bill wants to give them hope. He that without the world will turn in another generation. It will."
"You're trying to do something about that!" said Babs quickly. "Don't you think you're to on Earth?"
"No!" Cochrane. "I'm not trying anything so as to a humanity! Nobody can supply an abstraction! Nobody can an abstraction! Everything that's actually done is and real! Maybe you can in it after it's done, but I'm a practical man! I'm not trying to produce an climate, for psychos! I'm trying to a job done!"
"I've wondered," Babs, "what the job is."
Cochrane grimaced.
"You wouldn't it, Babs."
There was an odd underfoot. Trees shook. There was no other anywhere. Nothing fell. No rolled. In a among volcanoes, where the from no less than six be at once, would not do damage. What mild do would have been done centuries since.
Babs said uneasily:
"That feels—queer, doesn't it?"
Cochrane nodded. But just as he and Babs had been to be of animals, they had been by air-travel at home and space-travel to here[Pg 106] against at movements of their surroundings. Temblors were at this place. Trees were against them as against in situations. Landslides did not to fall. Really had been long ago.
"I wish we had a helicopter," Cochrane repeated. "The look of the as we came down, with the cones—that was good show-stuff! We have here until we that contest. We use the that would in! As it is, we've got to move on with nothing accomplished. The trouble is that I didn't think we would succeed as we have! Heaven I have helicopters!"
He helped her up a small incline, where from a hillside.
The ground again. Not alarmingly, but Babs' of his hand a little. They to climb. They came out a small which rose above the forest. Here they see over the in a view. The all about were visible. Some were ten and some twenty miles away. Some, still farther, were visible in the thin of distance. But there was a thick of about one of the farthest. It was mushroom-shaped. At one time in history, it would have a cloud. To Cochrane and Babs, it was the cloud of an explosion.
The ground underfoot. Babs staggered.
Flying rose from the in swarms. They and and above the tree-tops. Temblors did not the of the valley. But ground-shocks like this last were another matter.
A great tree, above its fellows, slowly. With ripping, noises, it toward the smoking, far-away mountain. It upon smaller trees. There were other noises. The rose higher, agitated. Echoes in the ears of the two the hill.
There was another shock. Babs gave a little, cry. She pointed.
There was much in the distance. Over the far-away cone, which was in the of its own making—over the of the a appeared. It was a thin line of white light. With[Pg 107] it to the slanting, mountainside.
The ground to shift abruptly, and then shift back. Across and the valley, five miles away, a of the itself and in slow motion. Two more great trees sounds. One crashed. There was an above one part of the sky. Its under from as of hell, in the it. There were above the mountaintop.
Very indeed, the sky overhead was peacefully blue. But at the a of fire rolled mile-long slopes. It to move with deliberation, but to move visibly at such a it must have been traveling like an express-train. It must have been hot, glaring-white stone, thin as water, in a of fire.
There was no longer a of the ground underfoot. Now the was when the ground was still. Temblors were continuous. There were impacts, as of nearby.
Babs stared, fascinated. She up at Cochrane. His skin was white. There were of on his forehead.
"We're safe here, aren't we?" she asked, scared.
"I think so. But I'm not going to take you through trees while this is going on! There's another tree down! I'm about the ship! If it topples—."
She looked at the nose of the space-ship, metal, from the trees about the landing-spot it had clear. A third of its length was visible.
"If it topples," said Cochrane, "we'll be able to take off. It has to point up to lift."
Babs looked from the ship to him, and again. Then her to the mountain. Rumblings came from it now. They were not loud. They were more than growlings, at the limit of pitch. They were like and thunder. There were like in the cloud which now the mountain's top.
Cochrane an small sound. He at the ship. As explosion-waves passed over the ground, a faint, movement of the visible.[Pg 108] It to Cochrane that the space-ship as if about to from its position.
It was not designed to such as a would imply. Its would be or rent. It was at least possible that its fuel-store would detonate. But if its were by still-standing trees about it, it take off again. The eight of its company it to a position. Rocket-thrust would push it in the direction its nose pointed. Toppled, its rocket-thrust would it over and trees and to destruction.
The ship again. Visibly. Ground-waves its weight have the of blows. Part of its rested on almost-visible stone, only the ground-level. But one of the landing-fins rested on humus. As the passed, that fin-foot into the soft soil. The space-ship perceptibly.
Flying and above the tree-tops. Miles away, reigned. Clouds of and miles into the air, and a white-hot, and there was the of long-continued thunder, and the ground and quivered....
There were movements nearby. A with yellow and the shape of a with ears came out of the forest. It up the of the hill on which Babs and Cochrane stood.
It them. Halfway up the part of the hill, it stopped and plaintive, high-pitched noises. Other came. Many had come while the man and girl were too to notice. Now two more of the large animals came out into the open and the hill.
Babs said shakily:
"Do you—think they'll—do you think—"
There was a nearer roaring. The space-ship leaned, and leaned.... Cochrane's tensed.
The space-ship's and a of up around it. It lifted, as its steering-jets to its parts its mass. It violently, and the terribly. It again. Its was higher than the trees, but it did not point up. It across the top of the forest, a of it. Then it steadied, and and climbed....
Then it was not. Obviously the Dabney booster[Pg 109] had been on to the ship out to space. The ship had into emptiness.
The Dabney had it some hundred and seventy-odd light-years from Earth's moon in the of a heart-beat. It might have gone that again. Whoever was in it had had no choice but to take off, and no way to take off without use of fuel in any other way.
Cochrane looked at where the ship had vanished. Seconds passed. There came the of air the the ship's had left.
There were the pair on the hilltop. Eight of the yellow were out in the open, now. Tiny, animals to out of their way. Smaller here and there. A with but no its way upward. But all the were frightened. They an truce, under the of nature.
Far away, the on the and and clouds of smoke. The shining, on its across the glaciers.
Babs suddenly. She the in which she and Cochrane had been left.
Shivering, she pressed close to him as the black smoke-cloud spread toward the center of the sky.
[Pg 110]
