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23 - Galactic Patrol by E. E. Smith · Galactic Patrol

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three of Galactic Patrol by E. E. Smith.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. While servicing
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  Speaker 1: and checking over the speedster required only a couple of hours,
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  Speaker 1: Kinnison did not leave Earth for almost two days. He
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  Speaker 1: had requisitioned much special equipment. The construction of one item,
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  Speaker 1: of which a suit of armor such as had never
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  Speaker 1: been seen upon Earth before, caused almost all of the delay.
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  Speaker 1: When it was ready, the greatly interested port Admiral accompanied
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  Speaker 1: the young lensman out to the steel lined, sand filled
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  Speaker 1: concrete dugout in which the suit had already been mounted
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  Speaker 1: upon a remote controlled dummy. Fifty feet from that dummy
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  Speaker 1: there was a heavy water cooled machine rifle with its
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  Speaker 1: armored crew standing by. As the two approached, the crew
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  Speaker 1: leaped to attention. As you were, Haines instructed, you check
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  Speaker 1: those cartridges against those I brought in form al debran
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  Speaker 1: I asked Kinnison of the officer in charge. As accompanied
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  Speaker 1: by the port Admiral, he crouched down behind the shields
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  Speaker 1: of the kotch panel. Yes, sir, these are twenty five
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  Speaker 1: percent over as you specified. QX commence firing. Then, as
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  Speaker 1: the weapon clambered out its stuttering, barking roar. Kinnison made
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  Speaker 1: the dummy stoop, turn, bend, twist, and dodge so as
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  Speaker 1: to bring its every plate, joint and member into the
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  Speaker 1: hail of steel. The uproar stopped. One thousand rounds, Sir,
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  Speaker 1: the officer reported, no holes, no dents, not a scratch
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  Speaker 1: or a scar, Kinnison reported. After a minute examination, and
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  Speaker 1: then he got into the thing. Now give me two
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  Speaker 1: thousand rounds unless I tell you to stop. Shoot again,
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  Speaker 1: the machine rifle burst into its ear shattering song of hate.
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  Speaker 1: And strong as Kinnison was and powerfully braced by the
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  Speaker 1: blast of his drivers, he could not stand against the
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  Speaker 1: awful force of those bullets. Over He went backward, and
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  Speaker 1: the firing ceased. Keep it up, he snapped. Think they're
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  Speaker 1: going to quit shooting at me because I down. But
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  Speaker 1: you had nineteen hundred, Sir, protested the officer. Keep on
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  Speaker 1: pecking until you run out of ammunition, or until I
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  Speaker 1: tell you to stop, ordered Kinnison. I've got to learn
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  Speaker 1: how to handle this thing under fire. The storm of
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  Speaker 1: metal again began to crash against the reverberating shell of steel.
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  Speaker 1: It hurled the lensmen down, rolled him over and over,
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  Speaker 1: slammed him against the back stop again and again. He
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  Speaker 1: struggled upright, only to be hurled again to ground as
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  Speaker 1: the riflemen really playing the game now swung their leaden
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  Speaker 1: hail from part to part of the armor and buried
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  Speaker 1: their attack from steady fire to short but savage bursts.
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  Speaker 1: But finally, in spite of everything the gun crew could do,
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  Speaker 1: Kinnison learned his controls. Then, drivers flaring, he faced that howling,
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  Speaker 1: chattering muzzle and strode straight into the stream of smoke
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  Speaker 1: and flame and shrouded steel. Now the air was literally
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  Speaker 1: full of metal bullets, and fragments of bullets whined and
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  Speaker 1: shrieked in mad abandoned as they ricocheted off that armor
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  Speaker 1: in all directions. Sand and bits of concrete flew hither
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  Speaker 1: and yon, filling the atmosphere of the dugout. The rifle
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  Speaker 1: yammered at maximum, with its sweating crew laboring mightily to
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  Speaker 1: keep its voracious maw full fed. But in spite of everything,
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  Speaker 1: Kennison held his line and advanced. He was a bare
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  Speaker 1: ten feet from that raving, steel vomiting muzzle when the
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  Speaker 1: firing again ceased. Twenty thousand, Sir, the officer reported crisply,
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  Speaker 1: we'll have to change barrels before we can give you
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  Speaker 1: any more. That's enough, snapped Haines. Come out of there,
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  Speaker 1: Kinnison out. Kinnison came. He removed heavy earplugs, swallowed four times, blinked,
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  Speaker 1: and grimaced. Finally he spoke, It works perfectly, sir, except
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  Speaker 1: for the noise. It's a good thing I've got a lens.
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  Speaker 1: Even though I was wearing plugs, I won't be able
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  Speaker 1: to hear a sound for three days. How about the
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  Speaker 1: springs and the shock absorbers? Are you bruised anywhere? You
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  Speaker 1: took some real bumps. Perfect not a cruise. Let's look
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  Speaker 1: her over. Every inch of that armour's surface was now
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  Speaker 1: marked by blurs where the metal of the bullets had
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  Speaker 1: rubbed on the shining alloy. But that surface was neither scratched, scored,
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  Speaker 1: nor dented. Qax boys thanks. Kinnison dismissed the riflemen. They
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  Speaker 1: probably wondered how any man could see through a helmet
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  Speaker 1: built up of inches thick laminated alloy, with neither window
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  Speaker 1: nor port through which to look, But if so, they
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  Speaker 1: made no mention of their curiosity. They too were patrolmen.
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  Speaker 1: Is that thing an armor or a personal tank, asked Haines.
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  Speaker 1: I aged ten years while that was going on, but
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  Speaker 1: at that I'm glad you insisted on testing it as
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  Speaker 1: you did. You can get away with anything now. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I've found that it's much better technique to learn things
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  Speaker 1: among friends here than among enemies, Kinnison laughed. It's heavy,
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  Speaker 1: of course, over three hundred kilos net. I won't be
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  Speaker 1: walking around in it much though, and even that little,
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  Speaker 1: I'll be flying it instead of walking it. Well, sir,
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  Speaker 1: since everything's all set, I think i'd better fly it
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  Speaker 1: over to the speedster and start flitting, don't you. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know exactly how much time I'm gonna need on
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  Speaker 1: Trenco might as well. The poort Admiral agreed as casually,
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  Speaker 1: and Kennison was gone. What a man. Haines stared after
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  Speaker 1: the monstrous figure until it had vanished in the distance,
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  Speaker 1: and then he strolled slowly toward his office, thinking as
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  Speaker 1: he went. Nurse McDougall had been highly irked and incensed
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  Speaker 1: at Kinnison's casual departure without idle conversation or formal leave takings,
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  Speaker 1: but not so Haines. That season campaigner knew that gray Lensman,
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  Speaker 1: particularly young gray Lensman, were prone to get that way.
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  Speaker 1: He knew in a way she never would and never
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  Speaker 1: could know, that Kinnison was no longer of Earth. He
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  Speaker 1: was now only of the galaxy, not of any one
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  Speaker 1: tiny dust grain of it. He was of the patrol.
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  Speaker 1: He was the patrol, and he was taking his new
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  Speaker 1: responsibilities very seriously. Indeed, in his fierce zeal to drive
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  Speaker 1: his campaign through to a successful end, he would use
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  Speaker 1: man or woman, singly, or in groups, ships, even prime
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  Speaker 1: Base itself, exactly as he had used them as pawns,
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  Speaker 1: as mere tools, as means to an end, And having
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  Speaker 1: used them, he would leave them as unconcernedly and as
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  Speaker 1: unceremoniously as he would drop pliers and spanner, and with
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  Speaker 1: no realization that he had violated any of the nicer
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  Speaker 1: amenities of life as it has lived. And as he
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  Speaker 1: strolled along and thought, the port Admiral smiled quietly to himself.
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  Speaker 1: He knew, as Kinnison would learn in time, that the
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  Speaker 1: universe was vast, that time was long, and that the
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  Speaker 1: scheme of things comprising the whole of eternity and the
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  Speaker 1: cosmic all was a something incomprehensibly immense, indeed with which
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  Speaker 1: Cryptic thought the space hardened veterans sat down at his
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  Speaker 1: desk and resumed his interrupted labors. But Kinnison had not
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  Speaker 1: yet at Haines's philosophic viewpoint any more than he had
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  Speaker 1: his age, and to him, the trip to Trenko seemed
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  Speaker 1: positively interminable. Eager as he was to put his plan
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  Speaker 1: of campaign to the test, he found that mental urgings
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  Speaker 1: or even audible invectives, would not make the speedster go
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  Speaker 1: any faster than the already incomprehensible top speed of her
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  Speaker 1: driver's maximum blast. Nor did pacing up and down the
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  Speaker 1: little control room seem to help very much. Physical exercise
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  Speaker 1: he had to perform, but it did not satisfy him.
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  Speaker 1: Mental exercise was impossible. He could think of nothing except
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  Speaker 1: Helmut space. Eventually, however, he approached Trenco and located without
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  Speaker 1: difficulty the patrol's spaceport. Fortunately it was then at about
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  Speaker 1: eleven o'clock, so that he did not have to wait
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  Speaker 1: long to land. He drove downward inert sending a thought
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  Speaker 1: ahead of him Lensman of Trenco Spaceport Tregon Sea or
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  Speaker 1: his relief lensman Kinnison of Soul three, asking permission to
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  Speaker 1: land it is. Tregon Cea came back the thought, welcome, Kinnison,
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  Speaker 1: you are on the correct line. You have then perfected
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  Speaker 1: an apparatus to see truly in this distorting medium. I
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  Speaker 1: didn't perfect it, it was given to me. The landing
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  Speaker 1: bars lashed out, seized the speedster and eased her down
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  Speaker 1: into the lock, and as soon as she'd been disinfected,
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  Speaker 1: Kinnison went into consultation with tregonc The Rigellian was a
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  Speaker 1: highly important factor in the Telurian scheme, and since he
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  Speaker 1: was also a lensman, he was to be trusted implicitly. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: Kinnison told him briefly what occurred and what he had
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  Speaker 1: it in mind to do, concluding, so you see, I
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  Speaker 1: need about fifty kilograms of thionite, not fifty milligrams or
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  Speaker 1: even grams, but fifty kilograms, and since there probably isn't
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  Speaker 1: that much of the stuff loose in the whole galaxy,
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  Speaker 1: I came over here to ask you to make it
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  Speaker 1: for me, just like that, calmly asking a lensman whose
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  Speaker 1: sworn duty it was to kill any being even attempting
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  Speaker 1: to gather a single Tranconian plant to make for him
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  Speaker 1: more of the prohibited drug than was ordinarily processed throughout
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  Speaker 1: the galaxy during a solarian month. It would be just
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  Speaker 1: such an errand were one to walk into the Treasury
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  Speaker 1: Department in Washington and inform the chief of the Narcotics Bureau,
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  Speaker 1: quite nonchalantly that he dropped in to pick up ten
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  Speaker 1: tons of heroin. But Tregoncia did not flinch or question.
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  Speaker 1: He was not even surprised. This was a gray lensman
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  Speaker 1: and his plan would work. That should not be too difficult,
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  Speaker 1: Tregoncy replied, after a moment's study, we have several finite
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  Speaker 1: processing units confiscated from Zwilnik ships not yet picked up
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  Speaker 1: by headquarters, and all of us are, of course quite
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  Speaker 1: familiar with the technique of extracting and purifying the drug.
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  Speaker 1: He issued orders, and shortly Trenco Spaceport presented the astounding
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  Speaker 1: spectacle of a full crew of the Galactic Patrol devoting
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  Speaker 1: its every energy to the wholehearted breaking of the one law.
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  Speaker 1: It was so post most rigidly and without fear or
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  Speaker 1: favor to enforce. It was a little after noon, the
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  Speaker 1: calmest hour of Trenco's day, the wind had died to nothing,
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  Speaker 1: which on that planet meant that a strong man could
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  Speaker 1: stand against it, could even if he were agile, as
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  Speaker 1: well as strong, walk about in it. Therefore, Kinnison donned
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  Speaker 1: his light armor and was soon busily harvesting the purple
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  Speaker 1: leaved plants, which he had been formed were the richest
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  Speaker 1: sources of thionite. He had been working for only a
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  Speaker 1: few minutes when one of the natives came crawling up
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  Speaker 1: to him, and, after ascertaining that his hard steel armor
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  Speaker 1: was not good to eat, drew off and observed him intently.
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  Speaker 1: Here was another opportunity for practice, and in a flash
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  Speaker 1: the Lensmen had availed himself of it. Having practiced for
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  Speaker 1: hours upon the minds of various earthly animals, he entered
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  Speaker 1: this mind easily enough, finding that the Tranconian flat was
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  Speaker 1: considerably more intelligent than a dog, so much so, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: that the race had already developed a fairly comprehensive language. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: it did not take long for the lensman to learn
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  Speaker 1: to use his subject's peculiar limbs and other members, and
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  Speaker 1: soon the flat was working like a trojan. And since
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  Speaker 1: he was ideally adapted for this wildly raging Tranconian environment.
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  Speaker 1: He actually accomplished more than all the rest of the
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  Speaker 1: force combined. It's a dirty trick I'm playing on you, fella,
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  Speaker 1: Kinnison told his helper. After a while, come on into
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  Speaker 1: the receiving room and I'll see if I can square
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  Speaker 1: it with you. Since food was the only logical tender,
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  Speaker 1: Kinnison brought out from his speedster a small can of salmon,
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  Speaker 1: a package of cheese, a bar of chocolate, a few
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  Speaker 1: lumps of sugar, and a potato, offering them to the
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  Speaker 1: Tranconian in order. The salmon and the cheese were both
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  Speaker 1: highly acceptable fair. The morsel of chocolate was a delightfully
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  Speaker 1: surprising delicacy. The lump of sugar, however, was what really
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  Speaker 1: rang the bell. Kinnison's own mind felt the shock of
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  Speaker 1: pure ecstasy at that wonderful substance dissolving in the Tranco's mouth.
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  Speaker 1: He also ate the potato. Of course, any Tranconian animal
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  Speaker 1: will at any time eat anything containing carbon, even lime, rock, gasoline,
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  Speaker 1: or truck grease. But it was merely food, nothing to
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  Speaker 1: rave about. Knowing now what to do, Kinnison led his
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  Speaker 1: assistant out into the howling, shrieking gale and released him
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  Speaker 1: from control, throwing a lump of sugar upwind as he
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  Speaker 1: did so. The trenco seized it in the air, ate
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  Speaker 1: it and went into a very hysteria of joy. More More,
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  Speaker 1: he insisted, attempting to climb up the lensman's armored leg.
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  Speaker 1: You must work for more of it if you want it,
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  Speaker 1: Kinnison explained, Break off these plants here, carry them over
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  Speaker 1: into that empty thing over there, and you get more.
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  Speaker 1: This was an entirely new idea to the native. But
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  Speaker 1: after Kinnison had taken hold of his mind and shown
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  Speaker 1: him how to do consciously that which he had been
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  Speaker 1: doing unconsciously for an hour, he worked willingly enough, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: before it started to rain, thereby putting an end to
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  Speaker 1: the labor of the day. There were a dozen of
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  Speaker 1: them toiling at the harvest, and the crop was coming
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  Speaker 1: in as fast as the entire crew of rigellians could
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  Speaker 1: process it. And even after the spaceport was sealed, they
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  Speaker 1: crowded up, paying no attention to the rain, bringing in
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  Speaker 1: their small loads of leaves plaintively asking admittance. It took
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  Speaker 1: some little time for Kinnison to make them understand that
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  Speaker 1: the day's work was done, but that they were to
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  Speaker 1: come back tomorrow morning. Finally, however, he succeeded in getting
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  Speaker 1: the idea across, and the last disconsolate turtleman went reluctantly away.
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  Speaker 1: But sure enough, next morning, even before the mud had dried,
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  Speaker 1: the same twelve were back on the job. The two
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  Speaker 1: lensmen wondered simultaneously how those trencoes could have found the spaceport,
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  Speaker 1: or had they stayed near it through the storm and
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  Speaker 1: flood of the night. I don't know, Kinnison answered the
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  Speaker 1: unasked question, but I can find out. Again, and more carefully,
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  Speaker 1: he examined the minds of two or three of them. No,
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  Speaker 1: they didn't follow us. They're not as dumb as I
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  Speaker 1: thought they were. They have a sense of perception about
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  Speaker 1: the same thing I judge is yours, trag on cea.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps even more so, I wonder why couldn't they be
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  Speaker 1: trained into mighty efficient police assistance on this planet the
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  Speaker 1: way you handle them. Yes, I can converse with them,
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  Speaker 1: a little, of course, but they have never before shown
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  Speaker 1: any willingness to cooperate with us. You never fed them
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  Speaker 1: sugar Kinnison laughed, you have sugar, of course, or do you?
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  Speaker 1: I was forgetting that many races do not use it
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  Speaker 1: at all. We Rigellians are one of those races. Starch
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  Speaker 1: is so much tastier and so much better adapted to
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  Speaker 1: our body chemistry than sugar. We can, however, obtain it
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  Speaker 1: easily enough. But there is something else. You can tell
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  Speaker 1: these trencoes what to do and make them really understand you.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot. I can fix that up with the simple
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  Speaker 1: mental treatment that I can give you in five minutes. Also,
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  Speaker 1: I can let you have enough sugar to carry on
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  Speaker 1: with till you get in a supply of your own.
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  Speaker 1: In a few minutes, during which the Lensmen had been
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  Speaker 1: discussing their potential allies, the mud had dried and the
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  Speaker 1: amazing coverage of dense succulent grass was springing visibly into being.
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  Speaker 1: So incredibly rapid was its growth that in ten minutes
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  Speaker 1: the plants were large enough to be gathered. The leaves
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  Speaker 1: were lush and rank in color, a vivid crimsonish purple.
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  Speaker 1: These early morning plants are the richest of any in Thionite,
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  Speaker 1: but the Zwilnicks can never get more than a handful
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  Speaker 1: of them because of the wind, remarked the Ragellian. Now,
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  Speaker 1: if you'll give me that treatment, I will see what
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  Speaker 1: I can do with the flats. Kinnisson did so, and
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  Speaker 1: the Trencos worked for tragon Sea as industriously as they
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  Speaker 1: had for Kinnison, and they ate the sugar just as rapturously.
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  Speaker 1: That is enough, decided the Rigellian. Presently, this will finish
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  Speaker 1: your fifty kilograms, and to spare. He then paid off
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  Speaker 1: his now enthusiastic helpers with instructions to return when the
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  Speaker 1: sun was directly overhead for more work and more sugar.
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  Speaker 1: And this time they did not complain, nor did they
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  Speaker 1: loiter around or bring in unwonted vegetation. They were learning fast.
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  Speaker 1: Well before noon, the last kilogram of impalpable purplish blue
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  Speaker 1: powder was put into its impermeable sack, The machinery was cleaned,
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  Speaker 1: the untouched leaves, the waist and the contaminated air were
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  Speaker 1: blown out of the spaceport, and the room and its
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  Speaker 1: occupants were sprayed with antithionite. Then and only then did
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  Speaker 1: the crew remove their masks and air filters. Trenco Spaceport
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  Speaker 1: was again a patrol post no longer is will Nick's paradise.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks Tragon S and all you fellas. Kinneson paused then,
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  Speaker 1: but then he went on dubiously. I don't suppose you'll
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  Speaker 1: need we will not declared Tragoncy. Our time is yours,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: as you know, without payment, and time is all that
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  Speaker 1: we gave you. Really sure that in about a thousand
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  Speaker 1: million credits worth a thionite, that of course does not count.
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  Speaker 1: As you also know, you have helped us, I think
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  Speaker 1: even more than we have helped you. Well, I hope
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  Speaker 1: I've been able to do some good anyway, I've got
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  Speaker 1: a flip though. Thanks again. I'll see you sometime again,
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  Speaker 1: maybe and again. The Tilurian Lensman was on his way
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  Speaker 1: end of chapter twenty three