Дэймон Найт: Orbit 12

“Oh? How about diamonds?”

Gute looked apologetic again. “Flax has mountains of diamonds but you couldn’t get them through that measly ring. The smallest ones are bigger than houses.”

“We’ll break them.”

“Impossible.”

“We’ll make the ring larger.”

“Can’t be done.”

“Hmmm. What about rubies, sapphires, emeralds, jade, cameo, ivory?”

“Too big and hard.”

“Platinum, silver . . .” Tom snapped his fingers. “The Glofs. They’re silver dollars. I’ll take all you have.”

A pained expression grew on Gute’s long face. “The Glofs create illusions. If you say they were silver dollars it’s because you wanted to see silver dollars when you looked at them.”

“They were right there. I had them in my hand.”

“You thought you had. The Glofs have no three-dimensional form. They’re basically harmless and are as much a natural part of our atmosphere as oxygen or this ring which is nothing more than a bit of ruptured space, but they can do considerable damage to weak psyches. A lot of people panic when the Glofs come out to play. Flax panics. I don’t know what he saw but it looked as if he was about to scare himself to death. However, you came along and now you get your reward.”

Tom smiled without humor. “Do I? Why don’t you just come right out and admit that you have nothing of value?”

“Oh, but we have. There’s Delp.”

“What’s that?”

“The king’s daughter.”

“But I can get all the girls I want in my own world.”

“Not like Delp.”

“You’re wasting my time. I’ll think of something. How about radium or uranium or something like that?”

“We don’t have enough to fill a hollow tooth.”

“The fact is you haven’t a nickel’s worth of anything,” said Tom. “This isn’t a world, it’s a balloon.”

Showing no offense at the words, Gute shrugged and smiled. “It looks like you’re stuck with Delp.”

The crowd still milled about the king and Tom turned toward them. His indifferent glance slid over bare backs and chests, darted up and down bare legs, touched upon an impossible anatomy and moved onward only to swing back and become fixed.

What he stared at was a titan the likes of which made his lip curl in a sneer. Too much of anything was always undesirable, eh? She was more than six feet tall, this giantess with a face as fresh as new snow. Hair the color of a pear flowed down her satiny back and danced upon tremendous thighs. For once in his life Tom forgot money and found inspiration in fundamentals. Instinct told him there was nothing like this back home, that there was nothing like this anywhere.

“Who is that?” he said and pointed.

“That’s Delp.”

Slowly getting to his feet, Tom smiled. “Maybe we could make this a permanent arrangement. Maybe I could come back once in a while.”

The fat man shook his head. “The ring won’t stay where it is. It moves around.”

“You mean I might be stranded here?”

“It isn’t due to move for some time. When it does it’ll show up somewhere else and we’ll get some more visitors. I must say they aren’t always pleasant Some pretty weird things stick their heads through that hole.”

“Then let’s hurry and get on with it. Who’s going to tell the king? I suppose he’ll kick up a fuss.”

“Goodness, no, we all do this,” said Gute. He sounded surprised. “How else can folks discover the facts of lives? Wait here and I’ll tell him.”

Tom rocked on his heels and enjoyed the sun. After a while the object of his thoughts came gliding across the grass to him. She stepped up close and stared into his eyes and he was captured by a vision of a mountain, virgin and sleek, with the hot sun shining on it and the breezes blowing a whirlwind.

Without a word Delp turned and walked back to her father and Gute.

A minute later the fat man returned. “You wouldn’t want to reconsider?”

“Why?”

“Frankly, the girl isn’t too impressed with you.”

“She backed out?”

“Nothing of the sort. I only thought I ought to tell you that she’s reluctant.”

“You’ve told me.”

“In that case, shall we proceed?”

The crowd behind them, the two men followed a path through yellow weeds and pale-brown blossoms to a valley where a village sat glistening in the sun. In the center of the village was a white building and it was toward this that Gute led Tom. They left the crowd outside and went through a foyer into a large room.

With an expression of pride, Gute gestured toward the neat furnishings and immaculate walls. “This is our Recreation Center.”

Tom didn’t see what white slabs, test tubes and tables had to do with recreation.

The fat man took him by the arm and drew him to a cabinet that contained some small bottles.

“State your preference,” he said.

“What?”

Gute opened the cabinet, removed four bottles and placed them on a nearby table. “Which one do you prefer? I’m afraid there are only the four. We have several others but they’re for people with really wild anatomies.”

Frowning at the bottles, Tom said, “I don’t understand.”

The glance Gute gave him was one of surprise. “You don’t? I’ll run through them to refresh your memory. This first bottle is labeled Primate. That, if you remember your elementary biology, is man. Naturally this one doesn’t count in your situation but I always like to show off whenever I get a chance. The second one is Suidae. That’s . . . darn and confound . . . for some reason I can’t think of the beast’s name. I’m sure you’re familiar with it. It has unsanitary habits, rolls in mud and other revolting substances. Help me think of the name. This creature is fat, sloppy and filthy and people in your world eat it.”

Tom began to scowl.

“It makes a noise that sounds like ‘oink.’”

“Pig,” Tom said automatically.

“Of course, a pig. How could I have forgotten? Well, we have that one cleared out of the way. This third label is Canidae. That’s the dog species. And here we have the Arachnidae. That, I’m sure you recall, is the—”

“Spider, but just what—”

“I can understand if you’re going to say you don’t like the little demons. I don’t care for them myself. But hurry up and tell me which of these species you like best Time is scurrying away and we have a deadline to meet” Gute drummed his fingers on the tabletop and squinted through bright eyes.

Squinting back at him, Tom said, “Which do I like best? No gold, no jewels and a simple biological function is a complicated ritual.” His own fingers drummed on the table. “Okay. Personally I can’t stand pigs or spiders and since men don’t count I guess that just leaves dogs.”

Apparently satisfied, Gute nodded. “If you’ll step into that cage over there and take off your clothes I’ll go and fetch Delp. I think shell like your choice.”

As he started to walk away he looked back with a serious expression. “Just remember that this stuff is dynamite so don’t get any funny ideas.”

Tom felt his forehead. It was cool so he had no fever. He stuck out his tongue and though he could see only the tip it looked normal. He felt his pulse. It was rapid. He squared his shoulders and thumped his belly. Somewhere he had gotten off the right track. In a second or two he would get back on.

He stepped inside the cage in the corner. It didn’t look much like a cage but was more like a big box with snow-white walls and flooring. He began pulling off his clothes.

It was a relief when he heard the outside door open and more of a relief when he heard Gute and Delp talking. He bent over to take off his sock just as something stabbed him in the rump. He leaped off the floor with a bellow. Gute stood beside him with a pleased smile on his face and an enormous hypodermic in his hand.