Sprague de Camp's New Anthology

When the meeting adjourned, the members swarmed around the newstand. By that time the newspapers bore not only the Reuters dispatch that Kalish had read, but a confirmatory Associated Press dispatch giving further information.

Richard Nugent, it seemed, had radioed that he had reached the space-ship and met the aliens, who had brought an elaborate equipage of linguistic apparatus, picture-books and the like, to enable them to get into communication with the Terrans. Further information was promised soon.

Mateo Marco Lope Aguirre Malaria glanced up from his newspaper with a smile of quiet triumph. It seemed to him that the other delegates were looking at each other with a new seriousness. When he had brought up the Space Clause, some had thought it ridiculous because there were no intelligent extra-terrestrials; others preferred to leave all non-essential controversies to the future, counting on amending the Constitution when and if civilised e.-t.'s were discovered. Now that the delegates were faced with extra-terrestrial reality, the petty national disputes that had stirred up such high words and hard feelings seemed small.

Next morning the papers carried still more information. By working furiously Nugent had gotten into communication with the aliens. He announced that they were from a planet of the small star Ross 154. There was a blurry radiophotograph which Nugent had transmitted with his portable set to Darjeeling and which had been re-transmitted around the world. It showed a bald man standing between two tall things that might have been a backward child's attempt to model a man in plasticene. The Indian party had already flown to Darjeeling and would take off the following day for the space ship in a helicopter with a television camera.

At that afternoon's session, Aguirre braced himself for argument. But none came. In fact one of his bitterest critics, Jacob Atta of Nigeria, rose to say that:

"While I have been opposed to this clause in the past, the events of the last twenty-four hours have changed my mind. Even if the space-ship should turn out to be a hoax, I now think it advisable to have this clause in the Constitution, just in case."

After a minor bicker over the meaning of the word "intercourse," the Convention adopted the Space Clause and went on to the rest of its business. There was little debate; everybody's mind was far away, in the rhinocerous-haunted wilds of Neping. In fact the President (Bretkun of Lithuania) managed to get compromise proposals on tariffs and immigration adopted that afternoon, leaving nothing to do but make laudatory speeches until the Drafting Committee finished polishing and homogenizing the final draft. The Sheikh of Aden made a speech in Arabic, followed by speeches from delegates of Afghanistan, Albania, and Algeria, and then the meeting adjourned.

Aguirre was relaxing in the bar when his glorious chief stalked in and strode up to him.

"Aguirre," said la Torre, "we leave tomorrow. Art thou ready?"

"Carajo! Why, chief?"

"I have received word that my enemies conspire against me, so I must get back to Andea at once."

"But you will miss the final ratification!"

"No; I have arranged it with Kalish and Carstairs-Brown. The Drafting Committee shall work all night and present the Constitution tomorrow morning to a special session. Then I will make my speech—Andea comes alphabetically after Algeria—and we shall rush to the airport as soon as I have finished. Get packed."

"Yes, yes, chief, of course."

And so it was done.