Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

outward from the blue-white sun at full acceleration before the four ships

who had veered that way could even be told to turn back, and the reasons why

so promising a world had had to be abandoned took considerable explanation

to them and to the rest of the armada-and then the explanations had to be

made all over again, because those who had made them the first time had been

so low in heart that they had been too curt to be wholly understandable.

Besides, nobody on the other ships bad seen the lake creature.

And even another year thereafter, many of the captains of the other ships

remained openly critical of the decision; the more boldly so since there

was no way any more by which any displeasure Ertak might have felt at their

criticism could be vented upon them. Though perhaps no one but Ertak sensed

it at the

133

134 lames Blish

time, it was the beginning of the end of his power as Director of the IEP

and commander of the armada.

It was perhaps more important that this dissent was shared by a significant

number of the people aboard the favelin, particularly among the passengers,

although in Ertak’s own demesne the criticism was necessarfly less vocal.

After all, it had been a beautiful place, hadn’t it? And they had never

even gotten around to naming it, much less exploring and exploiting all its

visible promises. Supposing it had cost them some loss of life to

consolidate it? Did anyone expect anything less, on any planet they might

choose to try to settle? And when, after all, are we likely to see its like