“Herald,” said the port official, “tell the merchant to sign here and make his fingerprints.”
Alen studied the document; it was a simple identification form. Blackbeard signed with the reed pen provided and fingerprinted the documented. After two weeks in space he scarcely needed to ink his fingers first.
“Now tell him that we’ll release the gems on his written fingerprinted order to whatever Lyran citizens he sells to. And explain that this roundabout system is necessary to avoid metal smuggling. Please remove all metal from your clothes and stow it on your ship. Then we will seal that, too, and put it under guard until you are ready to take off. We regret that we will have to search you before we turn you loose, but we can’t afford to have our economy disrupted by irresponsible introduction of metals.” Alen had not realized it was that bad.
After the thorough search that extended to the confiscation
of forgotten watches and pins, the port officials changed a sheaf of the trader’s uranium-backed Vegan currency into Lyran legal tender based on man-hours. Blackbeard made a partial payment to the crew, told them to have a good liberty and check in at the port at sunset tomorrow for probable take-off.
Alen and the trader were driven to town in an unlikely vehicle whose power plant was a pottery turbine. The driver, when they were safely out on the open road, furtively asked whether they had any metal they wanted to discard.
The trader asked sharply in his broken Lyran: “What you do you get metal? Where*sell, how use?”
The driver, following a universal tendency, raised his voice and lapsed into broken Lyran himself to tell the strangers: “Black market science men pay much, much for little bit metal. Study, use build. Politicians make law no metal, what I care politicians? But you no tell, gentlemen?”
“We won’t tell, said Alen. “But we have no metal for you.”
The driver shrugged.
“Herald,” said the trader, “what do you make of it?”
“I didn’t know it was a political issue. We concern ourselves with the basic patterns of a people’s behavior, not the day-today expressions of the patterns. The planet’s got no heavy metals, which means there were no metals available to the primitive Lyrans. The lighter metals don’t occur in native form or in easily-split compounds. They proceeded along the ceramic line instead of the metallic line and appear to have done quite well for themselves up to a point. No electricity, of course, no aviation and no space flight.”
“And,” said the trader, “naturally the people who make these buggies and that blowtorch we saw are scared witless that metals will be imported and put them out of business. So naturally they have laws passed prohibiting it.”
“Naturally,” said the Herald, looking sharply at the trader. But blackboard was back in character a moment later. “An outrage,” he growled. “Trying to tell a man what he can and can’t import when he sees a decent chance to make a bit of profit.”
The driver dropped them at a boardinghouse. It was half-timbered construction, which appeared to be swankier than
the more common brick. The floors were plate glass, roughened for traction. Alen ;got them a double room with a view. “What’s that thing?” demanded the trader, inspecting the
view.
The thing was a structure looming above the slate and tile roofs of the town—a round brick tower for its first twenty-five meters and then wood for another fifteen. As they studied it, it pricked up a pair of ears at the top and began to flop them wildly.
“Semaphore,” said Alen.
A minute later blackbeard piteously demanded from the bathroom: “How do you make water come out of the tap? I touched it all over but nothing happened.”
“You have to turn it,” said Alen, demonstrating. “And that thing—you pull it sharply down, hold it and then release.”
“Barbarous,” muttered the trader. “Barbarous.” ~
An elderly maid came in to show them how to string their hammocks and ask if they happened to have a bit of metal to give her for a souvenir. They sent her away and, rather than face the public dining room, made a meal from their own stores and turned in for the night.