Operation: Outer Space

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  In the United States, some two-hundred-odd light-years away, it happenedto be Tuesday. On this Tuesday, the broadcast from the stars wassponsored by Harvey's, the national men's clothing chain. Harvey'sadvertising department preferred discussion-type shows, becausedifferences of opinion in the shows proper led so neatly into theirtag-line. "You can disagree about anything but the quality of a Harveysuit! That's Superb!"

  Therefore the broadcast after the landing of the ship on the volcanicplanet was partly commercial, and partly pictures and reports from theSpaceways expedition, and partly queries and comments by big-nameindividuals on Earth. Inevitably there was Dabney. And Dabney wasneurotic.

  He did his best to make a shambles of everything.

  The show started promptly enough at the beginning. There was atwo-minute film-strip of business-suited puppets marching row on row,indicating the enormous popularity of Harvey's suits. Then a fast minutehill-billy puppet-show about two feuding mountaineers who found theycouldn't possibly retain their enmity when they found themselves inagreement on the quality of Harvey suits. "That's Superb!" Thecommercial ended with a choral dance of madly enthusiastic miniaturefigures, dancing while they lustily sang the theme-song, "You candisagree, yes siree, you can disagree, About anything, indeedeverything, you and me, But you can't, no you can't disagree, About thestrictly super, extra super, Qualitee of a Har-ve-e-e-e suit! That'ssuperb!"

  And thereupon the television audience of several continents saw thefaded-in image of mankind's first starship, poised upon its landing-finsamong trees more splendid than even television shows had ever picturedbefore. The camera panned slowly, and showed such open spaces as veryfew humans had ever seen unencumbered by buildings, and mountains of agrandeur difficult for most people to believe in.

  The scene cut to the space-ship's control-room and Al the pilot actedbriskly as the leader of an exploration-party just returned--though heactually hadn't left the ship. He introduced Jamison, wearing improvisedleggings and other trappings appropriate to an explorer in wilderness.Jamison began to extrapolate from his observations out the control-roomport, adding film-clips for authority.

  Smoothly and hypnotically, he pictured the valley as the ship descendedthe last few thousand feet, and told of the human colony to be foundedin this vast and hospitable area just explored. Mountainside hotels forstar-tourists would look down upon a scene of tranquility and cozyspaciousness. This would be the first human outpost in the stars. In theother valleys of this magnificent world there would be pasture-lands,and humankind would again begin to regard meat as a normal andnot-extravagant part of its diet--on this planet, certainly! There wereminerals beyond doubt, and water-power. The estimate was that at leastthe equivalent of the Asian continent had been made available for humanoccupation. And this splendid addition to the resources of humanity ...

  The second commercial cut Jamison off. Naturally. The sponsor was payingfor time. So for Jamison was substituted the other fiction about thepoor young man who found himself envied by the board of directors of thefirm which employed him. His impeccable attire caused him to be promotedto vice-president without any question of whether or not he could fillthe job. Because, of course, he wore a Harvey suit.

  Alicia Keith showed herself on the screen and gave the woman's viewpointas written about by Bell. She talked pleasantly about how it felt tomove about on a planet never before trodden by human beings. She wasinterrupted by the pictured face of the lady editor of Joint Networks'feminine programs, who asked sweetly:

  "Tell me, Alicia, what do you think the attainment of the stars willmean to the Average American housewife in the immediate future? Rightnow?"

  Then Dabney came on. His appearance was fitted into the sequence fromLunar City, and his gestures were extravagant as anybody's gestures willbe where their hands and arms weigh so small a fraction ofEarth-normal.

  "I wish," said Dabney impressively, "to congratulate the men who have soswiftly adapted my discovery of faster-than-light travel to practicaluse. I am overwhelmed at having been able to achieve a scientifictriumph which in time will mean that mankind's future stretchesendlessly and splendidly into the future!"

  Here there was canned applause. Dabney held up his hand for attention.He thought. Visibly.

  "But," he said urgently, "I admit that I am disturbed by theprecipitancy of the action that has been taken. I feel as if I were likesome powerful djinni giving gifts which the recipients may use withoutthought."

  More canned applause, inserted because he had given instructions for itwhenever he paused. The communicator-operator at Luna City took pleasurein following instructions exactly. Dabney held up his hand again. Againhe performed feats of meditation in plain view.

  "At the moment," he said anxiously, "as the author of this trulymagnificent achievement, I have to use the same intellect which producedit, to examine the possibility of its ill-advised use. May notexplorers--who took off without my having examined their plans andprecautions--may not over-hasty users of my gift to humanity do harm?May they not find bacteria the human body cannot resist? May they notbring back plagues and epidemics? Have they prepared themselves to usemy discovery only for the benefit of mankind? Or have they beenprecipitous? I shall have to apply myself to the devising of methods bywhich my discovery--made so that Humanity might attain hithertoundreamed-of-heights--I shall have to devise means by which it will betruly a blessing to mankind!"

  Dabney, of course, had tasted the limelight. All the world consideredhim the greatest scientist of all time--except, of course, the peoplewho knew something about science. But the first actual voyagers in spacehad become immediately greater heroes than himself. It was intolerableto Dabney to be restricted to taking bows on programs in which theystarred. So he wrote a star part for himself.

  The bearded biologist who followed him was to have lectured on thepictures and reports forwarded to him beforehand. But he could notignore so promising a lead to show how much he knew. So he lecturedauthoritatively on the danger of extra-terrestrial disease-producingorganisms being introduced on Earth. He painted a lurid picture, quotingfrom the history of pre-sanitation epidemics. He wound up with aspecific prophecy of something like the Black Death of the middle agesas lurking among the stars to decimate humanity. He was a victim of thewell-known authority-trauma which affects some people on television whenthey think millions of other people are listening to them. They departmadly from their scripts to try to say something startling enough tojustify all the attention they're getting.

  The broadcast ended with a sentimental live commercial in which adazzlingly beautiful girl melted into the arms of the worthy young manshe had previously scorned. She found him irresistible when she noticedthat he was wearing a suit she instantly knew by its quality could onlycome from Harvey's.

  On the planet of glaciers and volcanoes, Holden fumed.

  "Dammit!" he protested. "They talk like we're lepers! Like if we evercome back we'll be carriers of some monstrous disease that will wipe outthe human race! As a matter of fact, we're no more likely to catch anextra-terrestrial disease than to catch wry-neck from sick chickens!"

  "That broadcast's nothing to worry about," said Cochrane.

  "But it is!" insisted Holden. "Dabney and that fool biologist presentedspace-travel as a reason for panic! They could have every human being onEarth scared to death we'll bring back germs and everybody'll die of thecroup!"

  Cochrane grinned.

  "Good publicity--if we needed it! Actually, they've boosted the show.From now on every presentation has a dramatic kick it didn't havebefore. Now everybody will feel suspense waiting for the next show. HasJamison got the Purple Death on the Planet of Smoky Hilltops? Willdarling Alicia Keith break out in green spots next time we watch her onthe air? Has Captain Al of the star-roving space-ship breathed in sporesof the Swelling Fungus? Are the space-travellers doomed? Tune in on ournext broadcast and see! My dear Bill, if we weren't signed up forsponsors' fees, I'd raise our prices after this
trick!"

  Holden looked unconvinced. Cochrane said kindly:

  "Don't worry! I could turn off the panic tomorrow--as much panic asthere is. Kursten, Kasten, Hopkins and Fallowe had a proposal they setgreat store by. They wanted to parcel out a big contest for a name formankind's second planet. They had regional sponsors lined up. It wouldhave been worldwide! Advertisers were drooling over the prospect ofpeople proposing names for this planet on box-tops! They were planningfive million prize-money--and who'd be afraid of us then? But I turnedit down because we haven't got a helicopter. We couldn't stage enoughdifferent shows from this planet to keep it going the minimum six weeksfor a contest like that. Instead, we're taking off in a couple of hours.Jones agrees. The astronomers back home have picked out another Sol-typestar that ought to have planets. We're going to run over and see whatpickings we can find. Not too far--only twenty-some light-years!"

  He regarded Holden quizzically to see how the last phases affected 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'mbeginning to get my self-respect back. I see now that aspace-exploration job is only as good as its public-relations man!"

  He went zestfully to find Babs to tell her to leave the communicator-setand let queries go unanswered as a matter of simple business policy.

  The sling which swung out of the airlock now became busy. They hadlanded on this planet, and they were going to leave it, and there hadbeen a minimum of actual contact with its soil. So Jamison took hisleggings--put on for the show--and he and Bell went down to the groundand foraged through the woods. Jamison carried one of Johnny Simms'guns, which he regarded with acute suspicion, and Bell carried cameras.They photographed trees and underbrush, first as atmosphere and thenwith fanatic attention to leaves and fruits or flowers. Bell gotpictures of one of the small, furry bipeds that Cochrane and Holden hadspied when Babs was with them. He got a picture of what he believed tobe a spider-web--it was thicker and heavier and huger than any web onEarth--and rather fearfully looked for the monster that could stringthirty-foot cables as thick as fishing-twine. Then he found that it wasnot a snare at all. It was a construction at whose center somethingundiscoverable had made a nest, with eggs in it. Some creature had madean unapproachable home for itself where its young would not be assailedby predators.

  Al, the pilot, went out of the lock and descended to the ground and wentas far as the edge of the ash-ring. But he did not go any farther. Hewandered about unhappily, pretending that he did not want to go into thewoods. He tried to appear quite content to view half-burnt trees for hisexperience of the first extra-terrestrial planet on which men hadlanded. He did kick up some pebbles--water-rounded--and one of them hadflecks of what looked like gold in it. Al regarded it excitedly, andthen thought of freight-rates. But he did scrabble for more. Presentlyhe had a pocket-full of small stones which would be regarded withrapture by his nieces and nephews because they had come from the stars.Actually, they were quite commonplace minerals. The flecks of whatlooked like gold were only iron pyrates.

  Jones did not leave the ship. He was puttering. Nor Alicia. Holden urgedher to take a walk, and she said quietly:

  "Johnny's out with a gun. He's hunting. I don't like to be with Johnnywhen he may be disappointed."

  She smiled, and Holden sourly went away. There had been no particularconsequences of Johnny Simms' inability to remember what was right andwhat was wrong. But Holden felt like a normal man about men whose wiveslook patient. Even psychiatrists feel that it is somehow disreputable toilltreat a woman who doesn't fight back. This attitude is instinctive.It is what is called the fine, deep-rooted impulse to chivalry which isone of the prides of modern culture.

  Holden settled dourly down at the communicator to get an outgoing callto Earth, when there were some hundreds of incoming calls backed up. Bysheer obstinacy and bad manners he made it. He got a connection to ahospital where he was known, and he talked to its bacteriologist. Thebacteriologist was competent, but not yet famous. With Holden givinghonest guesses at the color of the sunlight, and its probableultra-violet content, and with careful estimates of the exactness withwhich burning vegetation here smelled like Earth-plants, they arrived atimprecise but common sense conclusions. Of the hundreds of thousands ofpossible organic compounds, only so many actually took part in thelife-processes of creatures on Earth. Yet there were hundreds ofthousands of species prepared to make use of anything usable. If thesunlight and temperature of the two worlds were similar, it was somewhatmore than likely that the same chemical compounds would be used byliving things on both. So that there could be micro-organisms on thenew planet which could be harmful. But on the other hand, either theywould be familiar in the toxins they produced--and human bodies couldresist them--or else they would be new compounds to which humans wouldreact allergically. Basically, then, if anybody on the ship developedhives, they had reason to be frightened. But so long as nobody sneezedor broke out in welts, their lives were probably safe.

  This comforting conclusion took a long time to work out. Meanwhile Babsand Cochrane had swung down to the ground and went hiking. Cochrane wasarmed as before, though he had no experience as a marksman. Intelevision shows he had directed the firing of weapons shooting blankcharges--cut to a minimum so they wouldn't blast the mikes. He knew whatmotions to go through, but nothing else.

  They did not explore in the same direction as their first excursion. Theship was to take off presently, as soon as this planet had turned enoughfor the space-ship's nose to point nearly in the direction of their nexttarget. They had two hours for exploration.

  They came upon something which lay still across their path, like a greatserpent. Cochrane looked at it startledly. Then he saw that the round,glistening seeming snake was fastened to the ground by rootlets. It wasa plant which grew like a creeper, absorbing nourishment from a vastroot-area. Somewhere, no doubt, it would rear upward and spread outleaves to absorb the sun's light. It used, in a way, the principle ofthose lateral wells which in dry climates gather water too scarce tocollect in merely vertical holes.

  They went on and on, admiring and amazed. All about them werecuriosities of adaptation, freaks of ecological adjustment, marvels ofsymbiotic cooperation. A botanist would have swooned with joy at thematerial all about. A biologist would have babbled happily. Babs andCochrane admired without information. They walked interestedly butunawed among the unparalleled. Back on Earth they knew as much as mostpeople about nature--practically nothing at all. Babs had never seen anywild plants before. She was fascinated by what she saw, and exclaimed ateverything. But she did not realize a fraction of the marvels on whichher eyes rested. On the whole, she survived.

  "It's a pity we haven't got a helicopter," Cochrane said regretfully."If we could fly around from place to place, and send back pictures ...We can't do it in the ship ... It would burn more fuel than we've got."

  Babs wrinkled her forehead.

  "Doctor Holden's badly worried because we can't make as alluring apicture as he'd like."

  Cochrane halted, to watch something which was flat like a disk ofgray-green flesh and which moved slowly out of their path withdisquieting writhing motions. It vanished, and he said:

  "Yes. Bill's an honest man, even if he is a psychiatrist. He wantsdesperately to do something for the poor devils back home who're sopitifully frustrated. There are tens of millions of men who can't hopefor anything better than to keep the food and shelter supply intact forthemselves and their families. They can't even pretend to hope for morethan that. There isn't more than so much to go around. But Bill wants togive them hope. He figures that without hope the world will turnmadhouse in another generation. It will."

  "You're trying to do something about that!" said Babs quickly. "Don'tyou think you're offering hope to everybody back on Earth?"

  "No!" snapped Cochrane. "I'm not trying anything so abstract asfurnishing hope to a frustrated humanity! Nobody can supply anabstrac
tion! Nobody can accomplish an abstraction! Everything that'sactually done is specific and real! Maybe you can find abstractqualities in it after it's done, but I'm a practical man! I'm not tryingto produce an improved psychological climate, suitable for debilitatedpsychos! I'm trying to get a job done!"

  "I've wondered," admitted Babs, "what the job is."

  Cochrane grimaced.

  "You wouldn't believe it, Babs."

  There was an odd quivering underfoot. Trees shook. There was no otherpeculiarity anywhere. Nothing fell. No rocks rolled. In a valley amongvolcanoes, where the smoke from no less than six cones could be seen atonce, temblors would not do damage. What damage mild shakings could dowould have been done centuries since.

  Babs said uneasily:

  "That feels--queer, doesn't it?"

  Cochrane nodded. But just as he and Babs had never been conditioned tobe afraid of animals, they had been conditioned by air-travel at homeand space-travel to here against alarm at movements of theirsurroundings. Temblors were evidently frequent at this place. Trees wereanchored against them as against prevailing winds in exposed situations.Landslides did not remain poised to fall. Really unstable slopes hadbeen shaken down long ago.

  "I wish we had a helicopter," Cochrane repeated. "The look of themountains as we came down, with glaciers between the smoking cones--thatwas good show-stuff! We could have held interest here until we workedthat naming contest. We could use the extra capital that would bring in!As it is, we've got to move on with practically nothing accomplished.The trouble is that I didn't think we would succeed as we have! Heavenknows I could have gotten helicopters!"

  He helped her up a small steep incline, where rock protruded from ahillside.

  The ground trembled again. Not alarmingly, but Babs' hold of his handtightened a little. They continued to climb. They came out atop a smallbare prominence which rose above the forest. Here they could see overthe treetops in a truly extensive view. The mountains all about wereclearly visible. Some were ten and some twenty miles away. Some, stillfarther, were barely visible in the thin haze of distance. But there wasa thick pall of smoke hovering about one of the farthest. It wasmushroom-shaped. At one time in human history, it would have seemedtypically a volcanic cloud. To Cochrane and Babs, it was typically thecloud of an atomic explosion.

  The ground shook sharply underfoot. Babs staggered.

  Flying things rose from the forests in swarms. They hovered and dartedand flapped above the tree-tops. Temblors did not alarm the creatures ofthe valley. But ground-shocks like this last were another matter.

  A great tree, rearing above its fellows, toppled slowly. With ripping,tearing noises, it bent sedately toward the smoking, far-away mountain.It crashed thunderously down upon smaller trees. There were otherrending noises. The flying things rose higher, seeming agitated. Echoessounded in the ears of the two atop the hill.

  There was another sharp shock. Babs gave a little, inarticulate cry. Shepointed.

  There was much smoke in the distance. Over the far-away cone, which wasindistinct in the smoke of its own making--over the edge of the distantmountains a glare appeared. It was a thin line of bright white light.With infinite deliberation it began to creep down the slanting,blessedly remote mountainside.

  The ground seemed to shift abruptly, and then shift back. Across anddown the valley, five miles away, a portion of the stony wall detacheditself and slid downward in seeming slow motion. Two more great treesmade ripping sounds. One crashed. There was an enormous darkness aboveone part of the sky. Its under side glowed from fires as of hell, in thecrater beneath it. There were sparkings above the mountaintop.

  Very oddly indeed, the sky overhead was peacefully blue. But at thehorizon a sheet of fire rolled down mile-long slopes. It seemed to movewith infinite deliberation, but to move visibly at such a distance itmust have been traveling like an express-train. It must have beenunthinkably hot, glaring-white molten stone, thin as water, pouringdownward in a flood of fire.

  There was no longer a sensation of the ground trembling underfoot. Nowthe noticeable sensation was when the ground was still. Temblors werepractically continuous. There were distinct sharp impacts, as of violentblows nearby.

  Babs stared, fascinated. She glanced up at Cochrane. His skin was white.There were beads of sweat 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 falling trees whilethis is going on! There's another tree down! I'm worrying about theship! If it topples--."

  She looked at the nose of the space-ship, gleaming silver metal, risingfrom the trees about the landing-spot it had burned clear. A third ofits length was visible.

  "If it topples," said Cochrane, "we'll never be able to take off. It hasto point up to lift."

  Babs looked from the ship to him, and back again. Then her eyes wentfearfully to the remote mountain. Rumblings came from it now. They werenot loud. They were hardly more than dull growlings, at the lower limitof audible pitch. They were like faint and distant thunder. There wereflashings like lightning in the cloud which now enveloped the mountain'stop.

  Cochrane made an indescribable small sound. He stared at the ship. Asexplosion-waves passed over the ground, a faint, unanimous movement ofthe treetops became visible. It seemed to Cochrane that the space-shipwavered as if about to fall from its upright position.

  It was not designed to stand such violence as a fall would imply. Itshull would be dented or rent. It was at least possible that itsfuel-store would detonate. But even if its fall were checked bystill-standing trees about it, it could never take off again. The eighthumans of its company could never juggle it back to a vertical position.Rocket-thrust would merely push it in the direction its nose pointed.Toppled, its rocket-thrust would merely shove it blindly over stones andtrees and to destruction.

  The ship swayed again. Visibly. Ground-waves made its weight have theeffect of blows. Part of its foundation rested on almost-visible stone,only feet below the ground-level. But one of the landing-fins rested onhumus. As the shocks passed, that fin-foot sank into the soft soil. Thespace-ship leaned perceptibly.

  Flying creatures darted back and forth above the tree-tops. Miles away,insensate violence reigned. Clouds of dust and smoke shot miles into theair, and half a mountainside glowed white-hot, and there was the soundof long-continued thunder, and the ground shook and quivered....

  There were movements nearby. A creature with yellow fur and the shape ofa bear with huge ears came padding out of the forest. It swarmed up thebare stone of the hill on which Babs and Cochrane stood.

  It ignored them. Halfway up the unwooded part of the hill, it stoppedand made plaintive, high-pitched noises. Other creatures came. Many hadcome while the man and girl were too absorbed to notice. Now two more ofthe large animals came out into the open and climbed 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 lips tensed.

  The space-ship's rockets bellowed and a storm of hurtling smoke flashedup around it. It lifted, staggering as its steering-jets triedfrantically to swing its lower parts underneath its mass. It lurchedviolently, and the rockets flamed terribly. It lifted again. Its tailwas higher than the trees, but it did not point straight up. It surgedhorribly across the top of the forest, leaving a vast flash of flamingvegetation behind it. Then it steadied, and aimed skyward andclimbed....

  Then it was not. Obviously the Dabney field booster had been flashed onto get the ship out to space. The ship had vanished into emptiness.

  The Dabney field had flicked it some hundred and seventy-odd light-yearsfrom Earth's moon in the flicker of a heart-beat. It might have gonethat far again. Whoever was in it had had no choice but to take off, andno way to take off without suicidal use of fuel in any other way.

  Cochrane looked at where the ship had vanished. Seconds passed. Therecame the thunderclap of air c
losing the vacuum the ship's disappearancehad left.

  There were squealings behind the pair on the hilltop. Eight of the hugeyellow beasts were out in the open, now. Tiny, furry biped animalswaddled desperately to get out of their way. Smaller creatures scuttledhere and there. A sinuous creature with fur but no apparent legs writhedits way upward. But all the creatures were frightened. They observed anabsolute truce, under the overmastering greater fear of nature.

  Far away, the volcano on the skyline boomed and flashed and emittedmonstrous clouds of smoke. The shining, incandescent lava on its flanksglared across the glaciers.

  Babs gasped suddenly. She realized the situation in which she andCochrane had been left.

  Shivering, she pressed close to him as the distant black smoke-cloudspread toward the center of the sky.