Sprague de Camp's New Anthology

Genrih Tseven, third assistant astronomer, would have been surprised if anyone had called him by his right name. He broadened his perpetual smile, waved a pudgy hand toward the two, and introduced them: "This is Miss McGlomb. You know, the Miss McGlomb? She came up with her father last week, and I've been showing her the observatory. Take over, huh?"

Gaston and Priest went into action like a pair of terriers after a rat. McGlomb was the Authority's sixth vice-president. Besides, the female was good-looking.

"Say, Hank," Gaston put in as Tseven started to leave, "how's juice up your way?"

"The lights blink," replied the Mongol blandly. "As they have ever since Sella landed. And a couple of our 'phone lines went out a couple of hours ago. When the monkeys went over them, they found some of the contacts melted down into little puddles of copper. Nobody knows why. Be seeing you."

Priest was saying: "... and so the hydrogen ions are stored here, and pumped up to the port when a ship's about to take off. The fuel plant is out here so if it explodes ..."

"But I still don't understand what ions are," interrupted the girl.

"Well, I'll try to explain again. You know what an atom is?"

Gaston pulled at Priest and hissed: "Say, whose control-room is this?"

"Keep your shirt on," whispered the surveyor. "I seen her first." But Gaston took charge of explanations. "Last ship out was Sella's; been up on Maleyev's Ob—"

"Oh, I know Captain Sella," broke in Miss McGlomb. "He's what I call a real hero ... so handsome ..."

"Maleyev's Object," continued Gaston firmly. "Another moon, as you may know, which we didn't know we had until a few months ago. Not surprising, considering it's only half a K through, and three times as far from Earth as the real moon. Sella was looking for scanlonite; that's what they mine here, you know. But nothing but nickel-iron, so he's gone back to Earth."

"What's scanlonite?" asked the girl.

"A complex magnesium-lithium silicate, found only on low-gravity bodies. In a magnetic field it conducts like silver. Cut off the field, and it conducts like porcelain, which is to say hardly at all. They can make it on Earth for $2.74 a gram, and mine and ship it from here for $1.96 a gram. Hence the ninety-nine year mining lease that Lunar Mining and Metals has on the Moon and on anything lying around on its surface. Won't say anything about how they got the lease; you'll hear things if you keep your ears open."

"But," protested the girl, "isn't Mining and Metals the company you work for? I thought it was all one organisation."

Good lord, thought Gaston, and her old man an Authority exec! "No," he said, "we work for the Transport Authority, as your father does. That's a public corporation whose stock is owned by the principal governments on Earth. Mining and Metals just leases—"

"What's scanlonite used for?" asked the girl.

Gaston felt a slight wave of annoyance at these interruptions. But her eyes were still big and blue and beautiful. "Oh, electric switches and things."

"Oh! I thought it would be something exciting, like a gem."

Priest was smiling slightly at his friend's visible cooling. He asked: "Don't you think that's enough engineering for now? Let's try the radio." He twirled the dials of the set. The set burped, gave out a short phrase of music, and went dead with a pop.

Gaston swore under his breath as he hurried over. "All this damned juice works are going haywire!"

Priest told the girclass="underline" "Don't mind Vic; he gets riled up easy. Have you been up on top yet?"

"Oh, yes. Captain Sella took me for a two-hour hike. He's such a wonderful man—so brave—"She sighted Gaston's canary. Here was something she understood. "Oh, isn't he a darling! What's his name?"

"Alaric!"' said Priest. "Personally I like Great Danes better. But they don't let us keep big pets because of the oxygen they use."

Alaric gave a mournful twitter and relapsed into silence. A red-faced young man in pyjamas appeared through a door. He said: "Excuse me, blease," and vanished. Presently he was back in a bathrobe. Priest introduced him to the girl as Willem Kuyper, Gaston's partner.

"It must be thrilling ..." began the girl.

"Blease," said Kuyper firmly. "We have heard that before. Once a year something goes wrong, and we have a little excitement. Rest of the time we watch dials, and bush levers when a ship comes in, and blay bridge. The last ship was Sella's, and there won't be another for days."

"Do you know Captain Sella?" gushed the girl. "Isn't he a marvellous—"

"Ouch!" yelped Gaston. "The damn thing bit me! What's that?"

Something was oozing out of the receiving-set, like a soap-bubble out of a pipe. Like a soap-bubble it presently parted company with the set and floated up over the people's heads. It seemed to be a ball of light, varying in colour from magenta to deep purple, and a little bigger than an orange. It gave out a high buzz, like that of a small insect.

"Imbossible," murmured Kuyper. The ball moved toward Alaric's cage. There was a poof! and a burst of feathers. Then there was no ball, and a dead canary.

Priest started for the cage, but jumped back. The glowing ball was swelling out of a joint in the cage-wires. In a few seconds it was drifting around the room again.