At first Paul wished fervently for the return of
the Doric. But now ... now that he was getting to know
and understand this strange, blue-tressed vision????
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories September 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
A few long bones in the fallen leaves with the shadows of the treedancing, a glint of gold where the jawbone sat beneath the namelesstree—
"Look at the char marks on that rib!" the young man exclaimed. "So theyhad heat guns back then."
"That wasn't so long ago." The old man peered up at Paul's face. "Theystole 'em from a government arsenal. That's how they was able tomassacre so many colonies. That wasn't so long ago. I watched that mandrive his uniharvester out of the ship. I even remember that gold toothshining in his mouth."
"But this is an Earth tree, a peach maybe; they planted it; look howtremendous it's grown." He liked to tease the old man. "It took a long,long time."
It seemed to be the only Earth-life that remained. But a mouse rustledthrough the leaves and confounded Paul. And he did not see the old manstaring beyond the tree, jaw open.
And the old man was hesitant to tell Paul what he had seen.
As they climbed the opposite hill that hid the ship Paul kickedquestioningly at the drums that had contained nitrogen-fixing bacteria.He raised the rusty hood of the tractor. He stopped and went into theshed again, a lot of freeze boxes in there. The way the mines on theouter planets were booming, no fresh vegetables for them, these peoplewould have been rich by now.
As he ran past the old man, his voice rang loud in that silent world:"I could fix that generator."
Its power pile had given his chest geiger a friendly buzz. If hisbrother Harry was alive—
Over the hill the spaceship poised like a monument.
To every man who ever died away from home, Paul thought as he ran overthe leaves. Harry brother, there she stands, boy.
She was going. Already tiny figures were dismantling the well rig.They had refilled the tanks with water, the fist for the mighty armthat was the power pile. The heat exchanger was the wrist. The steam,disassociated into H and O by the manmade sun, would provide themass to push back, pushing them forward to a rock in the sky wherethere might be heavy metals and there might not. While more efficientexpansion compounds were used by the military, water was most practicalfor poor men who went shares.
"What would it take to own this land, Cap?" Paul gasped while his armswept in endless rolling hills and many-shadowed valleys. One sunwas nuzzling the horizon so the air was red with afternoon. The sunsarranged it so there was no night.
"A fool," retorted the elected captain and he slammed the crowbaragainst the oxidation on the fin.
Above this continuing racket, Paul shouted: "A smart guy could getricher here than on one of those damned rocks."
The old man's voice came between blows. "You won't get rich anywhere."He said something Paul couldn't hear. "—not the type." He smiled asthough it were a compliment. "But if you're thinking of watchingpeaches ripen—" The hammering drowned him out. "—and the drooling lipbecause that's what men get all alone on alien planets."
"Not me. Hey Cap, lay off for a minute. My folks homesteaded SyrtisMajor. Before they shipped Harry and me off to school, I had theproverbial green thumb," he grinned. "Sure, get rich here and spend itfor psycho treatments," the captain laughed. He was not familiar withwhat is called in small chil