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Question of Comfort · Astounding Sci-Fi Story Collection

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Speaker 1: Question of Comfort. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
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Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Tom
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Speaker 1: Waits Question of Comfort by Les Collins. The Gravity Gang
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Speaker 1: was a group of geniuses devoting its brilliance to creating
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Speaker 1: a realistic solar system for Disneyland. That was the story. Anyway,
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Speaker 1: no one would have believed all that stuff about cops
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Speaker 1: and robbers from outer space. My job finished now had
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Speaker 1: been getting them to Disneyland. The problem was bringing one,
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Speaker 1: in particular one I had to find. The timing was
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Speaker 1: uncomfortably close. I taken the last of the yellow pills yesterday,
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Speaker 1: tossing the bottle away with a sort of indifferent frustration.
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Speaker 1: I won or lost on the validity of my lodging
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Speaker 1: and whether I'd built a better mouse trap the pills
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Speaker 1: had given me twenty four hours before the fatal weakness
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Speaker 1: took hold. Nevertheless, I waited as long as I could.
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Speaker 1: That left me less than an hour now. Strangely, as
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Speaker 1: I walked in the eerie darkness of an early morning,
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Speaker 1: virtually deserted Disneyland, I felt calm, and yet my life
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Speaker 1: depended on the one I sought being inside the tour building.
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Speaker 1: I was seeking a monster of terrible potential, yet so
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Speaker 1: innocuous looking that he'd not stand out. I couldn't produce him,
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Speaker 1: couldn't say where in the world he was. Nevertheless, he
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Speaker 1: was the basis, the motivation second only to mine. I
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Speaker 1: took the long hard way three years making him come
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Speaker 1: to me. Two years were devoted to acclimatization, learning, and
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Speaker 1: then swinging this job just to put the idea across.
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Speaker 1: Assigned to Disneyland Public Relations in the offices at Burbank,
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Speaker 1: I'd begun with the usual low pay, low level jobs.
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Speaker 1: I didn't couldn't mind. At least I had a foot
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Speaker 1: in the right door. Within six months I reached the
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Speaker 1: point where I could present the idea. It had enough
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Speaker 1: merit My boss, thirty five years experience enabled him to
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Speaker 1: recognize a good idea, took it to his boss, who
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Speaker 1: took it to d boss. Tomorrowland is the orphaned division
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Speaker 1: of Disneyland, thrown in as s o p to those
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Speaker 1: interested more in the future than the past. My idea
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Speaker 1: was to sex up Tomorrowland tour the solar system. Not really,
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Speaker 1: but we'd bill it that way, the tour of the
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Speaker 1: solar system building was to be large. Its rooms would
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Speaker 1: reproduce in vironments of parts of the system as best
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Speaker 1: as we knew them. I'll never forget the first planning
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Speaker 1: session when we realists were underdogs yet swung the basic direction.
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Speaker 1: By then, the Hollywood mind had appeared. The Hollywood mind
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Speaker 1: is definitely a real thing, a vicious thing, a blank
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Speaker 1: thing that paternalistically insists it knows what the public wants.
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Speaker 1: There was general agreement on broad outlines. Trouble began over Venus.
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Speaker 1: Of course, said one of the minds. We'll easily create
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Speaker 1: a swampy environment. I burst out with quiet desperation. May
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Speaker 1: I comment? The realists were churning right there. Sides were
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Speaker 1: being chosen. I let all know my side immediately. Venus
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Speaker 1: is hot, but its desert heat, continuous dust storms with
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Speaker 1: fantastic winds. People that never go for that junk interrupted
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Speaker 1: to mind. Everyone knows Venus's swampy. Everyone whose reading tastes
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Speaker 1: matured no further than Edgar Rice burrows the mind with
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Speaker 1: a if you know so much, why ain't you rich? Looked, sneered,
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Speaker 1: how come you know all about it? Speechless? I spread
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Speaker 1: my hands. This joker was leading with his chin, forcing
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Speaker 1: the fight. I had to hit him again. If I lost,
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Speaker 1: I lost good. A person, I said, slowly and rhythmically,
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Speaker 1: with normal intelligence and a minute interest in the universe
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Speaker 1: will keep step with the major sciences, at least on
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Speaker 1: an elementary level. I must stress the qualification of normal intelligence.
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Speaker 1: The mind, face contorted, was determined to get me. I
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Speaker 1: was in a very vulnerable spot. More important, so was
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Speaker 1: the idea mine. Began an emotional tirade, and mentally I
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Speaker 1: d him. It couldn't have mattered to him what environment
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Speaker 1: we used, but he was politicking where he shouldn't. There
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Speaker 1: was a silence when he stopped. This was the crux
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Speaker 1: the boss would decide. I held my breath. He said,
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Speaker 1: we'll make it hot and dusty. The realists had won.
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Speaker 1: The rest climbed on the bandwagon, but quick, and the
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Speaker 1: temple was cleansed. It was natural, because at the moment
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Speaker 1: I was fair haired. For the project to become mine,
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Speaker 1: God knows I worked hard for it. I'd have to
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Speaker 1: watch the mind, though he would make things as difficult
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Speaker 1: as possible. However, he proved he was the one person
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Speaker 1: I wasn't seeking one down and two billion, four hundred
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Speaker 1: ninety nine million, nine hundred ninety nine thousand, nine hundred
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Speaker 1: and ninety nine to go. Within a few days, a
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Speaker 1: new opposition coalition formed, headed by the Mind. Fortunately they helped.
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Speaker 1: I'd hesitated on one last point, pushed, I gambled the
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Speaker 1: momentum of the initial enthusiasm would carry it. Originally the
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Speaker 1: plan was a series of rooms glassed off that people
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Speaker 1: could stare into. There was something much better engineering and
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Speaker 1: I spent thirty six hours straight figuring costs, juggling space
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Speaker 1: and equipment until the modification didn't look too expensive. Juggling
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Speaker 1: is always possible in technical proposals. For the results, the
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Speaker 1: cost was worth it. I hand carried the proposal in
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Speaker 1: why not take people through the rooms? We could even
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Speaker 1: design a simulated usable space shute. There'd be air locked
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Speaker 1: doors between the rooms for effectiveness, insulation economy. No children
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Speaker 1: under ten aloud, no adults over fifty. They go through
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Speaker 1: in groups of ten or eleven. Sure, I realized this
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Speaker 1: was the most elaborate, most ambitious concession ever planned, the
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Speaker 1: greatest ever attempted in its line. It would cost both
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Speaker 1: us and the public, but people will pay for value.
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Speaker 1: They'd go for a buck and a half or even two.
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Speaker 1: The lines of those filing past the windows at fifty
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Speaker 1: cents to crack would also bring in the dell. They
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Speaker 1: bought it not all. They mixed my idea of creating
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Speaker 1: exact environmental conditions, and I didn't insist Luck and Hollywood
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Speaker 1: being what they are From the first I established a
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Speaker 1: special group to work on one problem. They were dubbed
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Speaker 1: the Gravity Gang, and immediately after the GG I hired
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Speaker 1: them for the gravity of the situation, a standard gag
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Speaker 1: that once uttered, became as trite as the phrase the
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Speaker 1: tour's realism would be affected by normal weight sensations. The
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Speaker 1: team consisted of a female set designer who turn any
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Speaker 1: male head from the studio Fromchinnic with thirty years experience,
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Speaker 1: an electronics engineer, a science fiction writer, and their prettiest
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Speaker 1: competent secretary available. I found Hazel, discovering with delight that
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Speaker 1: she'd had three years of anthropology at UCLA. As soon
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Speaker 1: as they assembled, I explained their job find a way
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Speaker 1: to give the illusion of lessened gravity working conditions would
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Speaker 1: be the best possible. Why I wanted the women pretty
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Speaker 1: and their time was their own. I found. The GG
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Speaker 1: responded by working ten hours a day and thinking another fourteen.
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Speaker 1: They were that sort. I couldn't know the GG was
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Speaker 1: foredoomed to failure by its very collective nature. Nor could
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Speaker 1: I know by its nature the GG meant the difference
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Speaker 1: between my success and failure. The opposition put one over.
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Speaker 1: We'd started referring to the job as tour of the
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Speaker 1: system project. Next day it was going the rounds as
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Speaker 1: ts project words words and men will always fight with words.
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Speaker 1: Actually the initials were worthy of the name. The engineering
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Speaker 1: problems mounted like crazy words words, and one of them
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Speaker 1: got to the outside world. Or maybe it was the
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Speaker 1: additional construction crew we hired. One logical spot for the
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Speaker 1: building was next to the moonflight. The tour building now
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Speaker 1: would be bigger than first planned, so we extended it southeasterly.
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Speaker 1: This meant changing the roadbed of the Santa Fe and
9:39
Speaker 1: Disneyland railroad. It put me up to my ears in
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Speaker 1: plane surveying and gave me a nasty shock. I looked
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Speaker 1: up at someone's shout in time to see a ton
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Speaker 1: of cat rolling down the embankment at me. What we
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Speaker 1: were doing was easy, using a spiral to transition gradually
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Speaker 1: from tangent to circular curve, and from circular curve to tangent. Easy. Yeah, sure,
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Speaker 1: If this was my baby, i'd damn well better know
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Speaker 1: its personality traits. I was out with the surveyors, I
10:13
Speaker 1: was out with the construction gang. I was out at
10:16
Speaker 1: the wrong time. As the yellow beast, mindless servant the
10:21
Speaker 1: man thundered down. I'd dove for the rocks. Thank god
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Speaker 1: for the rocks. We'd had to import them. The soil
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Speaker 1: in Orange County is fine for oranges, but too soft
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Speaker 1: for train road beds. Choking on the dust, I rolled
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Speaker 1: over the cat, perched, grinning, drunkenly on the rocks. The
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Speaker 1: opposition or an accident. Surely the mind was in fact desperate,
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Speaker 1: but I was. I had to keep the idea alive
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Speaker 1: for myself as well as completion of the original mission.
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Speaker 1: Several million hands pulled me out, several million more padded
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Speaker 1: away the dust, motionless. I'd just seen the driver of
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Speaker 1: the cat, seen him, and was sorry. He stood tall,
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Speaker 1: but hunched over, gaunt, with pasty skin, vapid eyes, and
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Speaker 1: a kind of yellow, nondescript hair. It wasn't the physical
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Speaker 1: characteristics very similar to mine that bothered me once after
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Speaker 1: an incomplete pass, I'd been told by a young lady
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Speaker 1: that I was a thin, sallow letcher. I was swept
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Speaker 1: by waves of impending trouble, more frightened of him than
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Speaker 1: of the opposition in Toto. Then relieved, I realized the
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Speaker 1: man wasn't the one I was expecting. Back in my office,
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Speaker 1: I wasn't allowed the luxury of nervous reaction. Our spacesuit
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Speaker 1: man wanted an okay on design changes changes, What changes? Oh? Yes,
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Speaker 1: go ahead. A materials man wanted to know about weight.
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Speaker 1: I told him where to go for the information. A
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Speaker 1: written progress report from the GG briefly sardonically said, all
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Speaker 1: the talk about increased costs and lowered budget has decided
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Speaker 1: us to ask if any aircraft, missile or AEC groups
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Speaker 1: have come up with anti gravity. It'd be a lot
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Speaker 1: simpler that way. Love and kisses, I shrugged, wrote them
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Speaker 1: a memo to take a week off for fishing, wenching,
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Speaker 1: or reading van s on the Pleistocene stratigraphy of Java.
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Speaker 1: I didn't care as long as they returned with a
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Speaker 1: fresh point of view. Things were hectic already less than
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Speaker 1: four months after we'd started, and we hadn't much the
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Speaker 1: show except a shift in the road bed of the
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Speaker 1: SF and D R and R, the opposition growing stronger
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Speaker 1: each day, could sit back and rest the case with
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Speaker 1: nothing more than a smug needling. I told you so. Look.
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Speaker 1: The day finally came when we broke ground for the building.
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Speaker 1: It was quite an achievement, and I invited the g
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Speaker 1: G to dinner. I'd been drawn to the bunch of screwballs,
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Speaker 1: the only name possible more and more, maybe because they
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Speaker 1: were my brain child, or maybe because lately they were
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Speaker 1: the only human company in which I could relax. The
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Speaker 1: hotel is a half mile south of Disneyland. I arrived early,
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Speaker 1: hoping to grab a ginger ale. Our set designer, Frank,
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Speaker 1: christened Francis, caught me at the door. Wanted to buy
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Speaker 1: you a drink. This is the first time we've met socially.
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Speaker 1: That was true. It was equally true. Something bothered her.
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Speaker 1: Damn it trapped. I'd have to drink. We ordered, and
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Speaker 1: I molded over waited, but she said nothing. The drinks came.
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Speaker 1: I shook several little, bright yellow pills from the bottle,
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Speaker 1: swallowed them, then drank. Frank cocked her head inquisitively if
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Speaker 1: you must know they're for my ulcer. Didn't know you
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Speaker 1: had one, don't, but I'll probably get one any day,
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Speaker 1: she laughed, and I drank again. I should do my
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Speaker 1: drinking alone, because I get boiled incredibly fast. It happened now.
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Speaker 1: One second I was sober, the next drunk. Resting a
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Speaker 1: cheek on a wobbly palm and elbow, I said, has
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Speaker 1: anyone ever said you are the most beautiful? Yes, but
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Speaker 1: in your present state, it isn't a good idea for
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Speaker 1: you to add to that number. I shifted to the
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Speaker 1: other forearm, frank. Things might be different if I were
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Speaker 1: a thin, sollow letcher. What a nice compliment. Uh huh,
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Speaker 1: especially since I work for you nominally anyway, Uh huh.
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Speaker 1: Nominally bosses should not make passes at gal's who work
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Speaker 1: as lower classes. Ahah. Familiar, but you are and getting
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Speaker 1: more so daily, Aha, or what I asked in surprise,
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Speaker 1: then tired, the GG has decided you're working too hard
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Speaker 1: because I don't use vano, I grinned, having waited long
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Speaker 1: to put that one across. Be serious and listen, you listen.
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Speaker 1: If I'm working too hard as to finish, I must
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Speaker 1: and soon this compulsion. She paced her words will kill
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Speaker 1: you if you let it. That don't kill me if
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Speaker 1: I don't let it. Here comes Harry. It was time Blearily,
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Speaker 1: I fumbled with the pills, spilled the bottle. Frank helped
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Speaker 1: me gather them up. As Harry arrived, he said, a
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Speaker 1: look of worry on his gaunt gray features. The rest
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Speaker 1: of us are waiting, concerned. Frank asked, think you're able,
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Speaker 1: and anytime you say, I answered in a cold, stoper monotone.
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Speaker 1: She flushed, knowing I was sober, not knowing certainly if
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Speaker 1: I were serious. When we were seated, I said, enthusiastically,
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Speaker 1: Chateau Brion, Tonight, Gangsters. The GG did not react as expected. Dex,
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Speaker 1: the electronics engineer, said, quietly, if at staked when the
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Speaker 1: ground is broken, what'll it be when the thing is finished?
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Speaker 1: A feast for all the animals in the world, just
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Speaker 1: like Suleiman bin Daoud. This from the GG writer. Well,
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Speaker 1: their faces showed the same thing that bothered Frank. Harry said,
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Speaker 1: we have something to do. Well do it? I tried
16:51
Speaker 1: weak joviality. It can't be anything of earth shaking gravity. Hazel,
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Speaker 1: long since accepted as a GG member, replied, it's just
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Speaker 1: that we're resigned. What we've produced, nothing in months of
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Speaker 1: sustained effort. That's why we're resigning. Dex replied disgustedly. Frank
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Speaker 1: touched my arm, said softly, we've examined every angle. With
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Speaker 1: the money available, it's just impossible to give a sensation
17:26
Speaker 1: of changed weight. And we know they've been pressuring you
17:29
Speaker 1: about us being on the payroll. Wait desperately. If you
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Speaker 1: pull out, everything will go. The opposition needs only something
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Speaker 1: like this, besides the GG is the one bit of
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Speaker 1: insanity I can depend on in a practical world. The
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Speaker 1: prop for my judgment, Harry clouded judgment Mel expensive prop.
17:55
Speaker 1: Having grown used to their friendly insults, I sensed their
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Speaker 1: resolution weakening, felt the pendulum swinging back. The waitress interrupted
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Speaker 1: with news of an urgent phone call. It was the
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Speaker 1: worst possible time for me to leave, and the news
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Speaker 1: I got through me feeling the weight of the world.
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Speaker 1: I returned. Can't be in two places at once, I said, bitterly,
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Speaker 1: go ahead without me, I'm leaving. Wait a few minutes,
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Speaker 1: Mel said, between bite's of steak, we want to resign.
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Speaker 1: Sit down, damn it, I can't. I spoke to the boss.
18:28
Speaker 1: I've pulled the boo boo, but big what happened? Bonestell
18:33
Speaker 1: will do the backgrounds, but he has to know what
18:35
Speaker 1: rocks were putting in the room. What rocks are we?
18:39
Speaker 1: Anybody have an idea what the service of Mars looks like? God,
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Speaker 1: how can I have missed that? Sit down, Ghek said casually,
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Speaker 1: we want to resign. Hazel added, you can have your
18:52
Speaker 1: rocks in twenty four hours. We worked it out weeks ago.
18:56
Speaker 1: I did read van Ez and Harry has prospected and
18:59
Speaker 1: decks Snow's minerals. And Mel pushed his way through tyrrels,
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Speaker 1: principles of petrology, the science of rocks. Mel interrupted between
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Speaker 1: bites of state. We got interested. One day. Frank's pretty
19:12
Speaker 1: dark eyes danced. We want to resign, Dex repeated, casually,
19:17
Speaker 1: So sit down. I sat. They began throwing the ball
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Speaker 1: faster than I can catch. No atmosphere and mercury, then
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Speaker 1: no oxidation. I insist there'd be no straight metals, the asteroids,
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Speaker 1: ferromagnesium blocks of some kind. Any basalts around here for
19:39
Speaker 1: Venus grab a truck load of granodiorite, the spotted stuff
19:44
Speaker 1: from the Sierra Nevada's intended pink lateridic soils for Mars.
19:50
Speaker 1: You crazy must have water in a subtropical climate. It
19:54
Speaker 1: hit me a valid use for the GG, one that
19:57
Speaker 1: already saved money. Make them a team troubleshooters or problem
20:02
Speaker 1: solvers on questions that could not be solved. I said, fine,
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Speaker 1: go ahead about your resignations. Mel said something indistinguishable. I'd
20:13
Speaker 1: caught him on a bite of steak. Hazel, belligerent demanded,
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Speaker 1: are you asking us to resign? Apparently I wasn't, so
20:21
Speaker 1: they stuck and another crisis was met. Unfortunately, by then
20:26
Speaker 1: I'd forgotten the shock and warning I got from the CAT.
20:31
Speaker 1: Things moved swiftly, more easily. The GG took over, becoming
20:36
Speaker 1: in effect my staff. They'd become more five different extensions
20:41
Speaker 1: of me, each capable of acting correctly. As a team.
20:45
Speaker 1: They meshed beautifully, too beautifully. At one point, Dex and
20:52
Speaker 1: Hazel were seeing eyed eye even in the dark, and
20:56
Speaker 1: I worried about the effect on the others, and might
20:59
Speaker 1: as well have worried about the effect of a light
21:01
Speaker 1: bulb on the sun. They married, or some such refuse.
21:05
Speaker 1: Time off and the GG function, if anything better. It
21:10
Speaker 1: was almost indecent. The way the five got along together,
21:14
Speaker 1: A new problem arose temperature. We weren't reproducing actual temperatures,
21:19
Speaker 1: but the rooms needed to mark change for reality's sake.
21:23
Speaker 1: I'd insisted on that, and, having won the point, was
21:26
Speaker 1: stuck with it. It was after two am. I was
21:30
Speaker 1: alone in the office. The sound of the outer door
21:34
Speaker 1: closing startled me. Footsteps approached. I hurried to clean my desks,
21:39
Speaker 1: sweeping the bottle into the drawer. You're up too late,
21:43
Speaker 1: go home, Frank had a non arguable look in her eye.
21:48
Speaker 1: You're supposed to be getting sleep. I am far more
21:52
Speaker 1: than before you guys began helping. But with all that
21:57
Speaker 1: extra sleep, you're looking worse. I don't need it any
22:00
Speaker 1: more sleep, I said angrily. Than tried diversion. Been on
22:04
Speaker 1: a date, yes, but I thought i'd better check on you.
22:08
Speaker 1: She moved close to the desk, and I remember the
22:11
Speaker 1: last time we'd been alone in the bar. Now I
22:14
Speaker 1: was glad I wasn't drunk. What the devil are you
22:18
Speaker 1: up to? She pawed through the desk drawers, finding what
22:21
Speaker 1: you tried to hide. Wait, Frank, I yelled, too late.
22:26
Speaker 1: She looked at the bottle, then me with a strange expression,
22:31
Speaker 1: a little pity, not patronizing, but mostly feminine understanding. So
22:36
Speaker 1: do Pop. Of course you don't like alcohol, do you? No? Gruffly,
22:43
Speaker 1: her eyes blinked rapidly, as though holding back tears. I
22:47
Speaker 1: know what's the matter with you? I really know there's
22:52
Speaker 1: nothing the matter with me that that beating this mess
22:55
Speaker 1: won't selve. We hadn't heard Melender. He leaned casually against
23:00
Speaker 1: the door. Terrific idea for a story, A shrugged seems
23:05
Speaker 1: to be homecoming night. Not quite. He glanced at his watch,
23:09
Speaker 1: but waited another few minutes. He was right. Harry, out
23:13
Speaker 1: of breath, was the last of the GG to arrive.
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Speaker 1: Now what I asked, Surely this meeting is in an accident,
23:21
Speaker 1: Dex said thoughtfully, No, not really, but it is in
23:25
Speaker 1: the sense you mean. We did agree to appear tonight.
23:29
Speaker 1: Yet logically it's time for the temperature problem. Well, I
23:33
Speaker 1: guess each of us came down to help. What could
23:37
Speaker 1: I do? That was the GG characteristically, so we talked temperatures.
23:43
Speaker 1: What I was thinking, Harry began slowly was a sort
23:47
Speaker 1: of super thermostat. Harry, as usual, came to the right
23:52
Speaker 1: starting point. Frank smiled, that's right, especially considering layout. Venus
23:59
Speaker 1: and mercury are hot, the other's cold. What about a
24:03
Speaker 1: control console that'll light when the rooms get outside normal
24:07
Speaker 1: temperature range? Then the operator? Hey why? An operator? Mel questioned,
24:12
Speaker 1: We ought to make this automatic. He grinned giant computer.
24:16
Speaker 1: Can you see it? Now? The brain comes alive, tries
24:19
Speaker 1: to destroy anyone turning it off. I asked, have you
24:23
Speaker 1: been reading this stuff? You write funny enough for three am.
24:28
Speaker 1: Dex said, calmly, we can work this. In fact, we
24:32
Speaker 1: can tie it in pink ribbons and forget it. An
24:35
Speaker 1: electronics outfit in Pasadena makes an automatic scanning and logging
24:40
Speaker 1: system works off paper punch tape will code the right
24:44
Speaker 1: poop and the system will compare it with the actual
24:46
Speaker 1: raw data. Feedback will be to a master control servo
24:50
Speaker 1: that'll activate the heater or cooler. Now we need the
24:53
Speaker 1: right pickup, I snapped my fingers. Variable resistor bridge couple
24:58
Speaker 1: of resistors equal at the right temperature. There'll be a
25:01
Speaker 1: frequency change with changing temperatures, better than a thermal couple.
25:05
Speaker 1: I think they looked at me as though I were
25:07
Speaker 1: butting in. You've been reading two? Dex accused, Okay, We'll
25:13
Speaker 1: use a temperature bulb. Trouble is with this system, we
25:16
Speaker 1: better let it run continuously. That'll drive costs up hazeless.
25:21
Speaker 1: Can't we use the heat maybe to drive a compressor.
25:23
Speaker 1: The sudden expansion of air could cool the rest, Harry.
25:27
Speaker 1: Harry hadn't had time to answer, what'll liss cost? I
25:31
Speaker 1: snapped roughly fifteen to eighteen thousand texts, replied, what with
25:38
Speaker 1: fine impartiality? They ignored me completely. Harry continued as though
25:43
Speaker 1: without interruption. Yes, I guess a compressor and coolant system
25:48
Speaker 1: could be arranged. We broke up at six am. I
25:54
Speaker 1: took one of my pills, frowning at the bottle, seemed
25:57
Speaker 1: to be empty and fast Leepally, I shook thought off
26:02
Speaker 1: and faced the new day, little knowing the opposition had
26:05
Speaker 1: managed to skizzle us again. The last displays were moons
26:09
Speaker 1: of Jupiter and Saturn. It was impossible to recreate tortured
26:13
Speaker 1: conditions of the planets themselves. Saturn's closest moon, Mimas, was
26:19
Speaker 1: picked our grand finale, landing on Mimas, with Saturn rising
26:25
Speaker 1: spectacularly out of the east. Mimas is in the plane
26:30
Speaker 1: of the rings, so they couldn't be obvious, which show enough, however,
26:34
Speaker 1: to make it damned impressive and explain it by libration
26:38
Speaker 1: of the satellite. The mechanics of realistically moving Saturn was
26:43
Speaker 1: rougher than a cob, and that's where the opposition fixed us.
26:47
Speaker 1: They claimed there wasn't enough drama in the tour. Let
26:51
Speaker 1: it end with a flash of light, a roar, and
26:53
Speaker 1: a meteor striking nearby. The roar came from us. Mimas
26:58
Speaker 1: had no atmosphere. How could the meteor sound off or
27:02
Speaker 1: burn up? We finally compromised, permitting the meteor to hit.
27:08
Speaker 1: We decided early the customers couldn't walk through mel First,
27:13
Speaker 1: Harry then Decks together produced an electric powered open runabout.
27:18
Speaker 1: The cart ran on treads in contact with skillfully hidden
27:21
Speaker 1: tracks for the current channel, a futuristic touch that we'd
27:26
Speaker 1: say the cart ran on broadcast power. The power source
27:30
Speaker 1: provided cart head lights and made batteries unnecessary for the
27:34
Speaker 1: guide's walkie talking and the customer's helmet receivers. Mimas's last
27:40
Speaker 1: section of track was on a vibrating platform. The cart
27:44
Speaker 1: dripped the switch. When the meteor supposedly hit, the platform
27:48
Speaker 1: would drop and rise three inches, fast twisting while it
27:52
Speaker 1: did enough, Mel said grimly to shake the damn Kishkas
27:55
Speaker 1: out of him. We cracked that one just in time.
27:59
Speaker 1: For it began with Venus, as most of my problems had.
28:04
Speaker 1: We planned constant dust storms from Venus real quick, there'd
28:09
Speaker 1: be nothing left of the Bonus Stell's backgrounds but a
28:11
Speaker 1: blank wall from mechanical erosion. And how did we intend
28:17
Speaker 1: glass too easily? Scratch Lord? Another one? How will the
28:22
Speaker 1: half a buck customers be able to see inside glass
28:26
Speaker 1: in one of those silicon plastics better? But Harry beat
28:31
Speaker 1: it glass plastic and a boundary layer of cold air
28:36
Speaker 1: jetted down from the ceiling in front of the background
28:39
Speaker 1: painting and back of the look in window. I was
28:42
Speaker 1: glad for lately Harry had begun to age, thin and gray.
28:47
Speaker 1: He showed the strain, as did all of us. We
28:52
Speaker 1: were sitting in an administration office to the park. I
28:55
Speaker 1: now recognized the symptoms. When the GG had no real problem,
29:00
Speaker 1: its collective mind usually turned to my health. I wouldn't
29:04
Speaker 1: admit it, but I felt a little peaud little hell bone,
29:09
Speaker 1: tired dog, weary, pooped, seemed every motion was effort, but
29:14
Speaker 1: soon it would end. The phone rang with the message
29:19
Speaker 1: it was ended. Let's go grauskuteers. There was almost a
29:24
Speaker 1: pregnant pause. Six months conception of the idea to delivery
29:29
Speaker 1: of the finished product, six months working together, fighting men,
29:34
Speaker 1: nature and the perversity of inanimate objects. All of this
29:38
Speaker 1: now was done. No one moved. Frank verbalized it, I'm scared.
29:45
Speaker 1: She sounded scared better than being petrified, which I am,
29:50
Speaker 1: I answered, But we might as well face it. We
29:54
Speaker 1: dragged over to the ts building, an impressive structure. The
29:59
Speaker 1: guide played it straight, told us exactly how to suit up.
30:03
Speaker 1: Then in the cart we edged into the tunnel that
30:06
Speaker 1: was the first lock, and warned to set our fillers.
30:09
Speaker 1: Emerged onto the blinding surface of mercury. We felt the
30:13
Speaker 1: heat momentarily. Mercury and venus were kept at a constant
30:17
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty degrees F, the others at zero
30:20
Speaker 1: degrees F. But it was a deliberate thrill. Then cool
30:24
Speaker 1: air from the cart suit connections began circulating. Bonustelle was magnificent,
30:31
Speaker 1: as always, yellow landscape, spattered cones, glittering streaks that might
30:36
Speaker 1: be metal in the volcanic rock created by dusting ground
30:40
Speaker 1: mika on wet glue to catch the reflection of the sun.
30:44
Speaker 1: It was a masterpiece. The sun black sky holding a
30:48
Speaker 1: giant blazing ball to damn yellow but filtered carbon arcs
30:54
Speaker 1: with the best we could do down into the tunnel
30:57
Speaker 1: that was locked to this next one, Venus obvious opposition
31:02
Speaker 1: point of attack where we'd had the most troubled. Venus
31:05
Speaker 1: had to be right. It was a blast of wind
31:09
Speaker 1: struck us and dust swirling everywhere. We discovered there's no
31:14
Speaker 1: such thing as a sandstorm. It's really dust, so we'd
31:18
Speaker 1: taken pains making things look dry. Sand dunes were carefully
31:22
Speaker 1: cemented in place. Dust rippling over gave the proper illusion.
31:28
Speaker 1: Oddly shaped rocks, dimly seen strengthened the impression of wind
31:32
Speaker 1: abraided topography. Rocks were reddish, overlain by smears of bright yellow.
31:38
Speaker 1: A lot of trouble placing all that flowers of sulfur.
31:42
Speaker 1: But we postulated a liquid sulfur sulfur dioxide carbon dioxide
31:47
Speaker 1: cycle overhead a diffused intense yellow light the sun. We
31:53
Speaker 1: were on the daylight side. I sighed, relaxed, knowing this
31:59
Speaker 1: one had worked out. We gave the moon little time
32:04
Speaker 1: for those who had become homesick. Earth was hanging magnificently
32:08
Speaker 1: in the sky at a crater wall. We stopped, ostensibly
32:13
Speaker 1: to let souvenir hunters pick at small pieces of lunar
32:16
Speaker 1: rock without leaving the cart. We'd argued hours on what
32:21
Speaker 1: type to use till Mel dragged out his rock book.
32:25
Speaker 1: Most automatically had won basal. However, the Moon's density being low,
32:31
Speaker 1: heavier rocks are probably scarce, one good reason not to
32:35
Speaker 1: expect radioactive oars. There we finally settled for ryolight and obsidian.
32:42
Speaker 1: Stopping on the Moon had another purpose. We kept the
32:46
Speaker 1: room temperature at seventy degrees p for heating and cooling economy.
32:50
Speaker 1: The transition from Venus to Mars was much simpler if
32:53
Speaker 1: ambient temperature dropped from one forty to seventy and from
32:57
Speaker 1: seventy to zero rather than straight through the range. Next
33:03
Speaker 1: a Martian polar cap, and we looked down a long
33:06
Speaker 1: canal that disappeared on the horizon. Water appeared to run uphill.
33:10
Speaker 1: For that effect, the whole scene looked like an Arizona
33:14
Speaker 1: highway at dusk. What it should have to our right
33:19
Speaker 1: a suggestion of damn the opposition's eyes culture A large
33:25
Speaker 1: stone wats it it was a jarring note. We selected
33:30
Speaker 1: one of those nondescript asteroids with just enough diameter to
33:34
Speaker 1: show extreme curvature. Frank had done magnificently. I found myself
33:39
Speaker 1: hanging onto the cart, headlights deliberately dimmed on the rocky surface.
33:44
Speaker 1: That cart bumped wildly. The sky was black, broken only
33:48
Speaker 1: by little hard chunks of light, no horizon. The feeling
33:52
Speaker 1: of being ready to drop was intense, possibly too much
33:56
Speaker 1: sell Europa. Then in a valley of ice. We'd picked
34:01
Speaker 1: Jupiter's third moon because its frozen atmosphere permitted some eerie
34:05
Speaker 1: pseudo ice sculpturing. As we moved, Jupiter appeared between brakes
34:11
Speaker 1: and peaks in the sheer wall. Worked nicely, seeing the
34:15
Speaker 1: monstrous planet distended overhead like a gaily colored beach ball,
34:20
Speaker 1: moving with us as the Moon from a train window. Unfortunately,
34:24
Speaker 1: the ice forms detracted somewhat mimas pitch black. Then a
34:30
Speaker 1: glow stark landscape quickly becoming visible, steep cliffs, rocky plane,
34:36
Speaker 1: Saturn rising, the rings their shadow on the globe. The
34:40
Speaker 1: beauty of it made me sit stunned, though I knew
34:44
Speaker 1: what to expect. The guide warned us radars spotted an
34:48
Speaker 1: approaching object, probably a meteor. We ran the cart at
34:52
Speaker 1: maximum speed, not much really. It tore at you, wanting
34:57
Speaker 1: to stare at Saturn, wanting to hit the special section
35:02
Speaker 1: dropped and rose our three inches one hell of a distance,
35:06
Speaker 1: and the tour was over. I kept thinking insanely that
35:09
Speaker 1: the meteor was a perfect conflict touch. We unsued it silently. Finally,
35:16
Speaker 1: Hazel breathed, Hellelujah. It was the summation of success. There
35:22
Speaker 1: now remained but one thing, wait for the quarry to show.
35:27
Speaker 1: I estimated the necessary time at four days and nights
35:31
Speaker 1: after opening. It was hard to wait, hard not to
35:34
Speaker 1: fidget under the watchful The only word eyes of the GG.
35:39
Speaker 1: They were up to something, undoubtedly, but there was something
35:43
Speaker 1: far more important. I narrowed the two billion, four hundred
35:47
Speaker 1: and ninety nine million, nine hundred ninety nine thousand, nine
35:51
Speaker 1: hundred ninety nine down to five. The one I saw
35:56
Speaker 1: was a member of the GG. Opening night brought Harry
36:03
Speaker 1: and Frank to my office. They tried to be casual,
36:06
Speaker 1: engaged me in desultory nothings. Frank looked reproachful. I was
36:11
Speaker 1: there too late. The following night, Mel ambled in at midnight.
36:16
Speaker 1: He grinned, discussed the plot, suggested we go out for
36:20
Speaker 1: a beer, changed his mind. Left. The third night, I
36:25
Speaker 1: waited in the dark. Nor was I disappointed. Dex and
36:31
Speaker 1: Hazel showed, what do you want? It's two am. There
36:36
Speaker 1: was a long regrouping pause, then Hazel said, Dex has
36:41
Speaker 1: a fine idea. Well, I've been thinking about gravity about time.
36:48
Speaker 1: I said, sarcastically, disliking myself, but hoping it would get
36:52
Speaker 1: rid of them. We opened three days ago. He ignored
36:56
Speaker 1: my petulance and grinned, No, I'm anti gravity. I think
37:02
Speaker 1: it's possible if you had a superconductor in an inductance field.
37:09
Speaker 1: Why tell me thought you'd have some ideas. I shook
37:14
Speaker 1: my head. That's what I hired you for. My only
37:18
Speaker 1: idea right now is going to sleep. Bewildered, they left,
37:23
Speaker 1: and on the fourth night no one came. So I
37:27
Speaker 1: headed for the tour. Now, having risked everything on my logic,
37:32
Speaker 1: I was a dead pigeon if wrong. There were only
37:35
Speaker 1: minutes left. I eased through the back door, heard our
37:40
Speaker 1: automation equipment humming despite darkness. I shortcut it, nearly reaching
37:45
Speaker 1: the door to the service hallway in back of the
37:48
Speaker 1: planetary rooms. There was a distinct click, and a flashlight
37:53
Speaker 1: blinded me. I waited, stifling a cry, knowing if it
37:58
Speaker 1: were he, death was next. Death never spoke in such quiet,
38:04
Speaker 1: sweet tones. Frank asked, what are you doing here? Frank, Frank,
38:10
Speaker 1: not you? Surprise shocked me. The light, her voice, the
38:15
Speaker 1: sudden suspicion, still diversion and counterattack. Perhaps you've the explaining
38:22
Speaker 1: to do, I said, nastily, why are you here? Her
38:28
Speaker 1: wide eyed ingenuousness making me more suspicious. She answered, waiting
38:33
Speaker 1: to see it hu'd appear. Then she stopped being truthful.
38:37
Speaker 1: You forget we had a date. We didn't have any
38:41
Speaker 1: damn date, I said, flatly, hurting deep within. All right,
38:48
Speaker 1: I want to know why you're still driving yourself. It
38:51
Speaker 1: isn't work. That's finished. The way she talked made me
38:56
Speaker 1: hopeful maybe she wasn't the one, And then came fear. Frank,
39:02
Speaker 1: if he's here, you're in danger. The monster respects nothing
39:07
Speaker 1: we hold, dear law, property, dignity. Light. There was one
39:11
Speaker 1: way to find out, make her leave. I wrenched the
39:15
Speaker 1: flashlight from her, smashed it on the concrete floor. I
39:19
Speaker 1: mean this, Get the hell out of here and stay out,
39:24
Speaker 1: she said, distastefully. I've seen it happen, but never this fast.
39:29
Speaker 1: You've gone Hollywood. You're a genius. You're tremendous forgetting other
39:34
Speaker 1: people who helped go ahead with your mysterious deal. And
39:38
Speaker 1: I hope we never meet again. I struggled with ambivalence.
39:42
Speaker 1: This might be a trick if not. Frank now hated
39:46
Speaker 1: me irreparably. No time to worry about human emotions, not anymore.
39:54
Speaker 1: Nausea reminded me of the primary purpose. I continued down
39:58
Speaker 1: the dark hallway, listening for Frank thanks return, hoping she
40:01
Speaker 1: needn't die. Light was unnecessary. I knew the right door,
40:07
Speaker 1: because it started here, it would end here quickly. Silently,
40:13
Speaker 1: I slipped inside the venus room. With peculiar relief, I
40:18
Speaker 1: realized Frank, wasn't it My nose led me right to
40:23
Speaker 1: the monster in an ecstatic, semi stuporous state, smelling strongly
40:30
Speaker 1: of sulfur dioxide. He couldn't have been aware of me.
40:34
Speaker 1: Couldn't it took you long enough? He didn't bother to
40:38
Speaker 1: turn from the rock he was huddled against. I had
40:42
Speaker 1: to be sure I felt anything, but the calm carried
40:45
Speaker 1: in my voice, No wonder the Gigi got the right
40:48
Speaker 1: answers with you making initial starts? Say were you responsible
40:54
Speaker 1: for the cat that rolled at me? An accident? Obviously?
40:59
Speaker 1: I wanted this room built as much as you. Harry
41:03
Speaker 1: now undisguised, languorously turned. Your little trap didn't quite come
41:09
Speaker 1: off a danger in fighting a superior intellect, No trap.
41:14
Speaker 1: I had a job to do. It's done. Job. Job. Infuriated,
41:20
Speaker 1: Leaping to his feet, he shouted, speak the native tongue, filth?
41:25
Speaker 1: What's the use? Because of you? I'll never again have
41:28
Speaker 1: the chance, and you no longer have a native tongue?
41:33
Speaker 1: Who were those judges? He asked, bitterly, to declare me
41:36
Speaker 1: an outcast representatives of an outraged society. I almost lost
41:42
Speaker 1: my temper thinking of this devian's crimes. You were lucky
41:46
Speaker 1: to get banishment instead of death, he grinned. So were
41:49
Speaker 1: you true? I tried to find a proper place where
41:54
Speaker 1: you'd have some chance, he laughed openly. I fixed the
41:58
Speaker 1: ship nicely. You don't understand it all. I counted on
42:02
Speaker 1: your being a hero trying to save us, so I
42:05
Speaker 1: escaped for three years. Only What do you mean one
42:10
Speaker 1: of us won't leave here? Harry frowned, then tried cunning.
42:16
Speaker 1: Aren't you being silly? We are hopelessly maroon. Surely there
42:21
Speaker 1: are overriding considerations to your childish devotion to duty. I
42:27
Speaker 1: shook my head. This is too small a room for us.
42:31
Speaker 1: Even if I trusted you, I couldn't allow you at
42:35
Speaker 1: this naive young world. Voices suddenly approached the GG Harry questioned,
42:43
Speaker 1: didn't know they were coming. Desperately, I looked about, found
42:47
Speaker 1: an eroded mass. Hide there. I'll get rid of them.
42:50
Speaker 1: You'd better we have business. Possibly it was the only
42:55
Speaker 1: time I've agreed with him. Mail and Decks came in.
42:58
Speaker 1: I called over here. Deck snapped his fingers. Knew it
43:05
Speaker 1: was venus. Mel wrinkled his nose. Sulfur dioxide two like
43:10
Speaker 1: we figured soda pop. When I broke into that tender
43:14
Speaker 1: scene between you and Frank, that gave you necessary carbon dioxide? Right?
43:18
Speaker 1: Am I not? Yes? Why don't you guys leave me alone?
43:24
Speaker 1: Beginning to folder in the heat, they dripped perspiration. You
43:27
Speaker 1: could die in this chili climate, Deck said, listen for
43:31
Speaker 1: a second, we don't have to break up. Let's form
43:35
Speaker 1: a service organization problem ZINC or some equally stupid title.
43:40
Speaker 1: Very soon we could afford a private bedroom like this
43:44
Speaker 1: for you to stay in all the time. Need only
43:48
Speaker 1: two or three nights and ten. Harry was moving restlessly.
43:52
Speaker 1: He couldn't wait much longer. Combination of oxygen, carbon dioxide,
43:57
Speaker 1: and sulfur under relatively high temperature, how I eat pills
44:02
Speaker 1: can substitute or not for protracted curds. That's why I
44:05
Speaker 1: had to build this room. A couple of weeks and
44:08
Speaker 1: I'll be in the pink as pink as you anyway.
44:12
Speaker 1: Abruptly I lay down, ignoring them. I had to make
44:16
Speaker 1: my friends go. Harry could literally have shredded them footsteps
44:22
Speaker 1: the door closed. Relief and loneliness joined me, but only
44:27
Speaker 1: for a moment. His voice sliced the darkness. I'm a
44:31
Speaker 1: man of honor and must warn you. If we fight,
44:35
Speaker 1: you'll lose. I escaped with far more pills than you.
44:40
Speaker 1: You're weaker, I said, sardonically, with you stealing parts of
44:44
Speaker 1: my supply. That's probably the only truthful thing you've said.
44:49
Speaker 1: I've been in here three nights, adjusting my metabolism. He
44:54
Speaker 1: came at me, then, not breaking his flow of speech.
44:58
Speaker 1: At home, I'd have been surprised to dishonor Instead, I
45:02
Speaker 1: was expecting it. He ran into my bald fists. If
45:05
Speaker 1: we'd been home, if if, if, if, if, at full strength,
45:11
Speaker 1: I could have broken his neck with a blow. Now
45:13
Speaker 1: we simply rolled back and fell laughing. He attacked again.
45:18
Speaker 1: We were weak as babes and fought like it clumsily.
45:21
Speaker 1: Slowly we went through the motions. He'd been right. He
45:25
Speaker 1: was a little stronger, and the relative difference began to tell.
45:29
Speaker 1: Soon I was falling from his blows. Hands on my neck.
45:33
Speaker 1: He kneed me hard in the stomach, violently, ill I
45:36
Speaker 1: felt a sulfur dioxide rush from my lungs. I remembered
45:40
Speaker 1: one trick they taught at school, and I used it.
45:43
Speaker 1: Unable to break his hold, I managed to get my
45:45
Speaker 1: hands around his throat. We locked each silence, silently until
45:51
Speaker 1: I felt my last reserves going, until the crooning of
45:55
Speaker 1: the song of Eternity began. This couldn't happen, not to
45:59
Speaker 1: this place. With all my strength, I gave one last squeeze,
46:05
Speaker 1: but it failed. From somewhere light years of light years away,
46:12
Speaker 1: I heard Frank realized I'd played the fool. She'd been
46:17
Speaker 1: working for the monster. A blinding flash inside my head,
46:22
Speaker 1: and the last darkness descended. The light hadn't been inside
46:28
Speaker 1: my head. It flooded the room dimly. I was aware
46:33
Speaker 1: of the injection and immediately felt better. Harry was gone.
46:39
Speaker 1: The GG minus one was gathered around. Mel said it
46:45
Speaker 1: was a dilute solution of surium nitrate. We figured the
46:50
Speaker 1: percentage on the basis of the pill. Frank swiped, hope
46:53
Speaker 1: you aren't poisoned. No, my voice was weak. Needed oxidizing
47:00
Speaker 1: agent for the sulfur. Harry's dead. Hazel frowned when we
47:07
Speaker 1: came in. You'd broken his neck for crooning to yourself.
47:12
Speaker 1: So I had been crooning the song of eternity. I
47:16
Speaker 1: felt silly, a cop on a mission. I waited until
47:21
Speaker 1: whichever of you it was settled down here that one
47:25
Speaker 1: had to be the criminal to be done away with
47:30
Speaker 1: dex and I got rid of the body. Mel said,
47:33
Speaker 1: no need to worry, unless, unless you've read my stories,
47:37
Speaker 1: perhaps you are the criminal. I'll be watching no proof,
47:42
Speaker 1: of course, do you believe I'm the criminal? Mel smiled no,
47:48
Speaker 1: but I'll watch anyway more closely than the night I hope.
47:53
Speaker 1: Hazel said acidly. If it hadn't been for her, I
47:58
Speaker 1: saw Frank and was a shit aim of my suspicions.
48:01
Speaker 1: She was silent, looking concerned. They all did, and I
48:06
Speaker 1: was warmed because despite discomfort, they worried about me an alien,
48:11
Speaker 1: a stranger. Better leave eats getting you. Dex asked, when
48:18
Speaker 1: are you going back? I shrugged. Never. The ship is
48:22
Speaker 1: in the Gulf of California. Harry did that. What about
48:27
Speaker 1: our company? We can research anti gravity. You might reach home. Yet,
48:32
Speaker 1: I shook my head, said I was a policeman. I
48:36
Speaker 1: don't know very much, perfectly normal, Nel said before Hazel shusten.
48:43
Speaker 1: Dex was insistent any cop knows at least something about
48:48
Speaker 1: his motorcycle. Was I right about the superconductor? Yes? Now
48:54
Speaker 1: get out of here, idiots before there's no one left
48:56
Speaker 1: to form the company. Hazel, perspiring freely, red hair shimmering,
49:02
Speaker 1: kissed me. We figured you out real early. We aren't
49:07
Speaker 1: ever wrong, and I'm glad we stayed with you. Mister Venus,
49:11
Speaker 1: she laughed joyously. First time I've ever kissed a Venusian.
49:16
Speaker 1: Frank head close to mine said softly, I'm terribly sorry
49:20
Speaker 1: I said those things, but you had to believe I
49:23
Speaker 1: was angry so I could call the others, and I
49:28
Speaker 1: did everything possible to get you out. We were silent.
49:33
Speaker 1: Then I said what I've been fighting not to for
49:35
Speaker 1: so long, Frank Francis. She understood and stared horrified at me.
49:44
Speaker 1: I'd lost bowed my head, feeling like the damn fool
49:48
Speaker 1: I was. She looked around the room. It's so strange
49:54
Speaker 1: and with ingrained racial conditioning, you couldn't respond to a thin,
49:59
Speaker 1: sallow alien. I don't know, she said, hesitantly. I do.
50:06
Speaker 1: Mel said, the old story in science fiction. It's true.
50:10
Speaker 1: I can't write it. Why not? No editor in right
50:15
Speaker 1: or wrong mind would buy the beautiful earth damsel after
50:19
Speaker 1: whom lusts the monster from Venus. Frank snapped, he isn't
50:24
Speaker 1: a monster, and his manners are better than many writers
50:27
Speaker 1: I could name. Her voice trailed off with awareness of
50:32
Speaker 1: Mel's tiny smile, a smile that widened. He pulled her
50:35
Speaker 1: towards the door. What a story will hold the wedding
50:39
Speaker 1: in a Turkish bath alone? I sighed, comfortable again. After
50:46
Speaker 1: three years. I was grateful to the GG and would
50:50
Speaker 1: do anything within limits for them. Yet my newly adopted
50:55
Speaker 1: planet needed protection. Babes in the woods they'd be torn
50:59
Speaker 1: to pieces out side. Fortunately, the GG didn't know my
51:05
Speaker 1: meaning of policemen, my home's highest order of intellect. I'd
51:10
Speaker 1: assure the group, finally getting anti gravity and use of
51:14
Speaker 1: planetary lines of force, but not the hyper space drive,
51:18
Speaker 1: not for a good long while. I certainly couldn't destroy
51:23
Speaker 1: the gg's confidence. I couldn't hurt them. They were so
51:28
Speaker 1: sure about me, so sure they were never wrong. How
51:33
Speaker 1: could I explain I'd been looking for a decent, habitable
51:37
Speaker 1: planet like Venus to discharge my captive, that I was
51:40
Speaker 1: from another galaxy, and of question of comfort by less commons.
51:49
Speaker 1: Recording by Tom Weiss