Hal Clement: Natives of Space

Satisfied that he could find his ship when close enough, the alien began his climb.

Just before entering the dense woods above the quarries, he looked back at the town. Practically all the house lights were extinguished now; but the station was still illuminated and the street lamps glowed. The quarry pumps were still throbbing, as well; and, satisfied that he had created no serious disturbance by his presence, Thrykar resumed his climb.

It took his short legs a surprisingly long time to propel him from the foot of the valley to the hollow near the mountain top where the ship still lay. He had hoped and expected to complete the job of concealing the craft before the night was over; but long before he reached it he had given up the plan. After all, it was invisible until the searcher actually reached the edge of the hollow; and he was practically certain that no human beings would visit the spot — though the handbook had mentioned that they still hunted wild animals both for food and sport. He and Tes could alternate watches in any case, and if a hunter or hiker did approach — steps could be taken.

Twice during the climb he made use of the communicator, each time wondering why it was taking so long to get back. The third time, however, the plate glowed much more brightly, and he began to follow the indicated direction more carefully instead of merely climbing. It took him another half hour to find the vessel; but at last he reached the edge of the small declivity and saw the dim radiance escaping from behind the partly closed outer door of the air lock. He slipped and stumbled down the slope, scrambled up the cleated metal ramp that had been let down from the lock, and pushed his way into the chamber.

Tes met him at the inner door, anxiety gradually disappearing from her expression.

“What have you been doing?” she asked. “I got your return signal, and began broadcasting for your finder; but that was hours ago, and I was getting worried. You had no weapon, and we don’t know that all Earth animals would fear to attack us.”

“Every creature I met, fled,” replied her husband. “Of course, I don’t know whether any of them would have attacked an Earth being of my size. They may all have been herbivorous, or something; but in any case, you know we could get into awful trouble by carrying arms on a low-culture planet.

“However, I’ve found an excellent place for the ship, very close to the town. If I weren’t so tired, we could take it down there now; but I guess we can wait until tomorrow night. The whole business is going to take us several of this planet’s days, anyway.”

“Did you see any of the intelligent race?” asked Tes.

“Not exactly,” replied Thrykar. He told her of the encounter with the automobile, while she prepared food for him; and between mouthfuls he described the underwater hollow where he planned to conceal the ship and from which they could easily make the necessary sorties.

Tes was enthusiastic, though she was still not entirely clear as to the method Thrykar planned to employ in obtaining what he wanted from a human being without the latter’s becoming aware of the alien presence. Her husband smiled at her difficulty.

“As you said, it’s been done before,” he told her. “I’m going to sleep now; I haven’t been so tired for years. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.” He rose, tossed the eating utensils into the washer, and went back to the sleeping room. The tanks were already full; he slid into his without a splash, and was asleep almost before the water closed over him. Tes followed his example.

He had not exaggerated his fatigue; he slept long after his wife had risen and eaten. She was in the library when he finally appeared, reading once again the few chapters the handbook devoted to Earth and its inhabitants. One of her eyes rolled upward toward him as Thrykar entered.

“It seems that these men are primitive enough to have a marked tendency toward superstition — ascribing things they don’t understand to supernatural intervention. Are you going to try to pass off our present activities in that way?”

“I’m not making any effort in that specific direction,” he replied, “though the reaction you mention may well occur. They will realize that something out of the ordi-nary is happening; I don’t see how that can be avoided, unless we are extremely lucky and happen on an individ-ual whose way of life is such that he won’t be missed by his fellows for a day or so. I’m sure, however, that a judicious use of anaesthetics will prevent their acquiring enough data to reach undesirable conclusions. If you will let me have that book for a while, I’ll try to find out what is likely to affect their systems.”

“But I didn’t think we had much in the way of drugs, to say nothing of anaesthetics, aboard,” exclaimed Tes.

“We haven’t; but we have a fair supply of the com-moner chemicals and reagents. Remember your husband’s occupation, my dear!” He took the book, smiling, and settled into a sling. He read silently for about ten minutes, leafing rapidly back and forth in a way that suggested he knew what he was looking for, but which made it very difficult for his wife to read over his shoulder.

She kept on trying.

Eventually Thrykar spent several consecutive minutes on one page; then he looked up and said,

“It looks as though this stuff would do it. I’ll have to see whether we have the wherewithal to make it. Do you want to watch a chemist at work, my beloved musician?”

She followed him, of course, and watched with an absorption that almost equaled his own as he inventoried their small stock of chemicals, measured, mixed, heated and froze, distilled and collected; she had only the most general knowledge of any of the physical sciences, but in watching she could appreciate that her husband, in his own occupation, was as much of an artist as she herself. It was this understanding, shared by very few, of this side of his character that had led her to marry an individual who was considered by most of his acquaintances to be a rather stodgy and narrow-minded, if brilliant, scientist.

Thrykar connected the exhaust tube of his last distilla-tion to a small rotary pump, confining the resultant gas in a cylinder light enough to carry easily. Even Tes could appreciate the meaning of that.

“If it’s a gas, how do you plan to administer it?” she asked. “Judging from their pictures, these human beings are much more powerful than we. You can’t very well hold a mask over their faces, and even I know it’s not practical to shoot a jet of gas any distance. Why don’t you use a liquid or soluble solid that can be carried by a small dart, for example?”

”The less solid equipment we carry and risk losing, the better for all concerned,” replied Thrykar.

“If the air is fairly still and there is no rain, I can make them absorb a lungful of this stuff quite easily. It has been done before, and on this planet — you should pay more attention to what you read.” He rolled an eye back at his wife. “Did you ever blow a bubble?”

Tes stood motionless for a moment, thinking. Then she brightened. “Of course. I remember what you mean now. Passing to another phase of the problem, how and where do you find a human being alone?”

“We attack that matter after moving the ship. We’ll have to watch them for a day or two, to learn something about their habits in this neighborhood — the book is not very helpful. If a lone hunter or traveler gets near enough, the problem will solve itself; but we can’t count on that. I’ve done all I can here, my dear. We’ll have to wait till dark, now, to move the ship.”

“All right,” replied Tes. “I’m going outside for a while; our only daylight view of this planet was from high altitude. Even if we can’t get close to any small animals, there may be plants or rocks or just plain scenery that will be worth looking at. Won’t you come along?”