Garlock was the first to recover his poise. ‘Lola, do you check me that this planet is named Hodell, that it is populated by human beings exactly like us, that these creatures – Arpalones – are, in some way or other, Guardians of Humanity?’
‘Exactly, except they aren’t “creatures”. They’re humanoids, and very fine people.’
‘You’d think so, of course … correction accepted. Well, let’s take advantage of their extraordinarily hospitable invitation and go down. Cut the rope, Jim.’
The airport was very large, and was divided into several sections, each of which was equipped with runways and/or other landing facilities to suit one class of craft – propeller jobs, jets, or helicopters. There were even a few structures that looked like rocket pits.
‘Where are you doing to sit down, Jim? With the ‘copters or over by the blast-pits?’
‘With the ‘copters, I think. Since I can place her to within a couple of inches, I’ll put her squarely into that far corner, where she’ll be out of everybody’s way.’ ‘No concrete out there,’ Garlock said, ‘but the ground seems
19
good and solid.’
‘We’d better not land on concrete,’ James grinned. ‘Unless it’s terrific stuff we’d smash it. On bare ground, the worst we can do is sink in a foot or so, and that won’t hurt anything.’
James pulled out his scanner and stuck his face into it. The immense starship settled downward toward the selected corner. There was no noise, no blast, no flame, no smoke – no slightest visible or detectable sign of whatever force it was that was braking the thousands of tons of the vessel’s mass in its miles-long almost vertical plunge to ground.
When the Pleiades struck the ground the impact was scarcely to be felt. When she came to rest, after settling into the ground her allotted ‘foot or so’, there was no jar at all.
‘Atmosphere, temperature, and so on approximately Earth-normal,’ Garlock said. ‘Just as our friend said it would be.’
James scanned the city and the field. ‘Our visit is kicking up a lot of excitement. Shall we go out?’
‘Not yet!’ Belle exclaimed. ‘I want to see how the women are dressed, first.’
‘So do I,’ Lola added, ‘and some other things besides.’ Both women – Lola through her Operator’s scanner, Belle by manipulating the ship’s tremendous Operator Field by the sheer power of her Prime Operator’s mind – stared eagerly at the crowd of people now beginning to stream across the field.
‘As an anthropologist,” Lola announced, ‘I’m not only surprised, I am shocked, annoyed, and disgruntled. Why, they’re exactly like white Tellurian human beings!’
‘But look at their clothesl’ Belle insisted. They’re wearing anything and everything, from bikinis to coveralls!’
‘Yes, but notice.’ This was the anthropological scientist speaking now. ‘Breasts and loins, covered. Faces, uncovered. Heads and feet and hands, either bare or covered. Ditto for legs up to there, backs, arms, necks, and shoulders down to here, and torsos clear down to there. We won’t violate any conventions by going out as we are. Not even you, Belle. You first, Chief. Yours the high honor of setting first foot – the biggest foot we’ve got, too – on alien soil.’ To hell with that. We’ll go out together.’ ‘Wait a minute,’ Lola said. There’s a funny-looking auto-20
mobile just coming through the gate. The Press. Three men and two women. Two cameras, one walkie-talkie, and two microphones. The photog in the purple shirt is really a sharpie at lepping. Class Three, at least – possibly a Two.’
‘How about screens down enough to lep, boss?’ Belle suggested. ‘Faster. We may need it.’
‘Check. I’m too busy to record, anyway – 111 log this stuff up tonight.’
And thoughts flew.
‘Check me, Jim,’ Garlock flashed. Telepathy, very good. On Gunther, the guy was right – no signs at all of any First activity, and very few Seconds.’
‘Check,’ James agreed.
‘And Lola, those “Guardians” out there. I thought they were the same as the Arpalone we talked to. They aren’t. Not even telepathic. Same color scheme, that’s all.’
‘Right. Much more brutish. Much flatter cranium. Long, tearing canine teeth – carnivorous. I’ll call them just “guardians” until we find out what they really are.’
The press car arrived and the Tellurians disembarked – and, accidentally or not, it was Belle’s green slipper that first touched ground. There was a terrific Babel of thought – even worse than voices would have been, since thoughts came so much faster. The reporters, all of them, wanted to know everything at once. How, what, where, when, and why. Also who. And all about Tellus and the Tellurian solar system. How did the visitors like Hodell? And all about Belle’s green hair. And the photographers were prodigal of film, shooting everything from all possible angles.
‘Hold it!’ Garlock loosed a blast of thought that silenced almost the whole field. ‘We will have order, please. Lola Mon-tandon, our anthropologist, will take charge. Keep it orderly, Lola, if you have to throw half of them off the field. I’m going over to Administration and check in. One of you reporters can come with me, if you like.’
The man in the purple shirt got his bid in first. As the two men walked away together, Garlock noted that the man was in fact a Second – his flow of lucid, cogent thought did not interfere at all with the steady stream of speech going into his portable recorder. Garlock also noticed that in any group of
21
more than a dozen people there was always at least one guardian. They paid no attention whatever to the people, who in turn ignored them completely. Garlock wondered briefly. Guardians? The Arpolones, out in space, yes. But these creatures, naked and unarmed on the ground? The Arpolones were non-human people. These things were – what?
At the door of the Field Office the reporter, after turning Garlock over to a startlingly beautiful, leggy, breasty, blonde receptionist-usherette, hurried away.
He flecked a feeler at her mind and stiffened. How could a Two – a high Two, at that – be working as an usherette? And with her guard down clear to the floor? He probed – and saw.
‘Lola!’ He flashed a tight-beamed thought. ‘You aren’t putting out anything about our sexual customs, family life, and so on.’
‘Of course not. We must know their mores first.’ “Good girl. Keep your shield up.’
‘Oh, we’re so glad to see you, Captain Garlock!’ The blonde, who was dressed little more heavily than the cigarette girls in Venusberg’s Cartier Room, seized his left hand in both of hers and held it considerably longer than was necessary. Her dazzling smile, her laughing eyes, her flashing white teeth, the many exposed inches of her skin, and her completely unshielded mind all waved banners of welcome.
‘Captain Garlock, Governor Atterlin has been most anxious to see you ever since you were first detected. This way, please, sir.’ She turned, brushing her bare hip against his leg in the process, and led him by the hand along a hallway. Her thoughts flowed on. ‘I’ve been anxious to see you, too, and I’m simply delighted to see you close up, and I hope to see a lot more of you. You’re a wonderfully pleasant surprise, sir; I’ve never seen a man like you before. I don’t think Hodell ever saw a man like you before, sir. With such a really terrific mind and yet so big and strong and well-built and handsome and clean-looking and blackish. You’re wonderful – you’ll be here a long time, I hope? Here we are, sir.’
She opened a door, walked across the room, sat down in an overstaffed chair, and crossed her legs meticulously. Then, still smiling happily, she followed with eager eyes and mind Gar-22
lock’s every move.
Garlock had been reading Governor Atterlin, so he knew why it was the governor who was in that office instead of the port manager. He knew that Atterlin had been reading him -as much as he had allowed. They had already discussed many things, and were still discussing.
The room was much more like a library than an office. The governor, a middle-aged, red-headed man a trifle inclined to portliness, had been seated in a huge reclining chair facing a teevee screen, but got up to shake hands.
‘Welcome, friend Captain Garlock. Now, to continue. As to exchange. Many ships visiting us have nothing we need or can use. For such, all services are free – or rather, are paid by the city. Our currency is based upon platinum, but gold, silver, and copper are valuable. Certain jewels also…’
‘That’s far enough. We will pay our way – we have plenty of metal. What are your ratios of value for the four metals?’
Today’s quotations are…’ He glanced at a screen, and his fingers flashed over the keys of a computer beside his chair. ‘One weight of platinum is equal in value to seven point three four six …’