Hal Clement - Mission of Gravity

Barlennan had never seen a crossbow, of course, or any other missile weapon. He was suitably impressed when Ree-jaaren sent three quartz-tipped bolts in a row thudding for over half their six-inch length into the hard trunk of a plant some forty yards away. He also lost most of his surprise at the interpreter’s helpfulness; such a weapon would be so much dead weight before the Bree was a quarter of the way to her home latitudes. More as a test than anything else, Barlennan offered to buy one of the crossbows; the interpreter pressed it on him as a gift, together with a bundle of bolts. That was good enough for the captain; as a trader, he naturally enjoyed being taken for a fool. It was usually profitable.

He secured an incredible quantity of the wing fabric — Ree-jaaren either forgot to make sure it was in small bolts, or no longer considered it necessary — much of the elastic rope, and enough of the local artifacts to fill the Bree’s decks, except for the normal requirements of working space and the area devoted to a reasonable food reserve. He was rid of everything salable that he had brought to the island, with the possible exception of the flame throwers. Reejaaren had not mentioned these since he had been told they were damaged, though he had obviously recognized them as armament of some sort. Barlennan actually thought of giving him one, minus chlorine ammunition, but realized he would have to explain its operation and even demonstrate. This he had no intention of doing; if these people were not familiar with the weapons he did not want them to know the truth of their nature, and if they were he did not want to be caught in a lie. It was much nicer to have Reejaaren in a good humor.

With the selling completed, the crowd of local people gradually melted away; and at last there remained only the gliders and their crews, some of the latter down near the Slip and others on the hilltops by their machines. Barlennan found the interpreter among the former group, as usual; he had spent much time talking casually to the sailors. They had reported that he was, as expected, pumping them gently about the flying ability of their people. They had filled their part of the game with noncommittal replies that nevertheless „accidentally” revealed a considerable knowledge of aerodynamics. Naturally, they carefully gave no hint as to how recently the knowledge had been acquired — or its source. Barlennan at this point was reasonably sure that the islanders, or at least their official representative, believed his people capable of flight.

„That seems to be all I can give or take,” he said as he secured Reejaaren’s attention. „We have, I think, paid all necessary fees. Is there any objection to our departing?”

„Where do you plan to go now?”

„Southward, toward decent weight. We do not know this ocean at all, except by vague reports from some of our merchants who have ma(ie the overland journey. I should like to see more of it.” -

„Very well. You are free to go. Doubtless you will see some of us on your travels — I occasionally go south myself. Watch out for more storms.”

The interpreter, apparently the picture of cordiality, turned up the hill. „We may see you at the coast,” he added, looking back. „The fiord where you first landed has been suggested as possibly improvable to harbor status, and I want to inspect it.” He resumed his journey to the waiting gliders.

Barlennan turned back to the ship, and was about to give orders for immediate resumption of the downstream journey-the goods had been loaded as fast as they were purchased — when he realized that the stakes dropped by the gliders still barred the way. for an instant he thought of calling the islander back and requesting their removal; then he thought better of it. He was in no position to make a demand, and Reejaaren would undoubtedly grow supercilious again if he put it as a request. The Breeds crew would dig out of their own troubles.

On board, he issued an order to this effect, and the cutters were once more picked up; but Dondragmer interrupted.

„I’m glad to see that this work wasn’t wasted time,” he said.

„What?” asked the captain. „I knew you were at some stunt of your own for the last forty or fifty days, but was too busy to find out what it was. We were able to handle the trading without you. What have you been doing?”

„It was an idea that struck me just after we were first caught here; something you said to the Flyers about a machine to pull out the stakes gave it to me. I asked them later if there was such a machine that was not too complicated for us to understand, and after some thinking one of them said there was. He told me how to make it, and that’s what I’ve been doing. If we rig a tripod by one of the stakes, I’ll see how it works.”

„But what is the machine? I thought all the Flyer’s machines were made of metal, which we couldn’t fashion because the kinds that are hard enough need too much heat.”

„This.” The mate displayed two objects on which he had been working. One was supply a pulley of the most elementary design, quite broad, with a hook attached. The other was rather similar but double, with peglike teeth projecting from the circumference of both wheels. The wheels themselves were carved from a solid block of hardwood, and turned together. Like the first pulley, this was equipped with a hook; in addition there was a strap of leather threaded through the guards of both wheels, with holes punched in it to match the peg teeth, and the ends buckled together so that it formed a continuous double loop. The whole arrangement seemed pointless to the Mesklinites — including Don-dragmer, who did not yet understand why the device worked, or even whether it actually would. He took it over in front of one of the radios and spread it out on the deck.

„Is this now assembled correctly?” he asked.

„Yes, it should work if your strap is strong enough,” came the answer. „You must attach the hook of the single pulley to the stake you want to extract; I am sure you have methods of doing that with rope. The other pulley must be fastened to the top of the tripod. I’ve told you what to do from then on.”

„Yes, I know. It occurred to me that instead of taking much time to reverse the machine after it was wound up tightly, however, I could unfasten the buckle and rethread it.”

„That would work, provided you were not lifting a load that had to be supported in the meantime,” replied the Earthman. „Good for you, Don.”

The crew immediately headed for the original group of Stakes, but Barlennan called to them to wait.

„There aren’t so many blocking the canal we were digging. Don, did the Flyer say how long it would take to pull them Out with that contraption?”

„He wasn’t sure, since he didn’t know how deeply they were buried or how fast we could operate it; but he guessed at a day or so each — faster than we could cut through them.”

„But not so fast we wouldn’t gain time by having some of us finish that canal while you take however many men you need to pull the stakes in it. Incidentally, did he have any name for the thing?”

„He called it a differential hoist The second word is plain enough, but I don’t see how to translate the first — it’s just a noise to me.”

„Me too. Differential it is. Let’s get to work; your watch to the hoist, and mine to the canal.” The crew buckled down with a will.

The canal was finished first, since it quickly became evident that most of the crew would be free to dig; two sailors, taking turns on the hoist at intervals of a few minutes, proved enough to start the spear shafts sliding very slowly out of the hard ground. To Barlennan’s satisfaction the heads came with them, so that,he had eight very effective-looking spears when the operation was completed. His people did little work in stone, and the quartz heads were extremely valuable in his estimation.