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Authors: Lester del Rey
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refused. Ee, the other planet, seemed difficult.
It surprised him, because it didn’t fit with Pat’s theories of engineers at all. He scowled at the phone, then whistled again. “Your zeal is commendable. Now put an engineer on!”
The answering whistle carried a fumbling uncertainty of obvious surprise. “I—how did you know? I gave all the right answers.”
“Sure. Right off the Engineer Rule Sheet posted over the transmitter. No real engineer worries that much about them; he has more things to think of. Put the engineer on.”
The answer was still obstinate. “My father’s asleep. He’s tired. Call later.”
The connection went dead at once. Vic called Ecthinbal while clambering into the big pressure suit. He threw the delay switch and climbed into the right capsule. A moment later, an Ecthindar was moving the capsule on a delicate-looking machine to another transmitter. Something that looked like a small tyrannosaurus with about twenty tentacles instead of forelegs was staring in at him a second later, and he knew he was on Ee.
“Take me to the engineer!” he ordered. “At once!”
The great ridges of horn over the eyes came down in a surprisingly human scowl, but the stubbornness was less certain in person. The creature turned and led Vic out to a huge shack outside. In answer to a whooping cry, a head the size of a medium-sized freight car came out of the door, to be followed by a titanic body. The full-grown adult was covered with a thick coat of copy hair.
“Where from?” the Ee engineer whistled. “Wait—I saw a picture once. Earth. Come in. I hear you have quite a problem there.”
Vic nodded. It came as a shock to him that the creature could probably handle the whole station by itself, as it obviously did, and quite efficiently, with that size and all those tentacles. He stated his problem quickly.
The Looech, as it called itself, scratched its stomach with a row of tentacles and pondered. “I’d like to help you. Oh, the empress would have fits, but I could call it an accident. We engineers aren’t really responsible to governments, after all, are we? But it’s the busy season. I’m already behind, since my other engineer got in a duel. That’s why the pup was tending while I slept. You say the field spreads out on continuous transmit?”
“It does, but it wouldn’t much more if there isn’t too long a period.”
“Strange. I’ve thought of continuous transmittal, of course, but I didn’t suspect that. Why, I wonder?”
V ic started to give Ptheela’s explanation of unbalanced resonance between the vacuum of the center and the edges in contact with matter, but dropped it quickly. “I’ll probably know better when I can read the results from the instruments.”
The Looech grumbled to itself. “You suppose you could send me the readings? We’re about on a Galactic level, so it wouldn’t strain the law too much.”
Vic shook his head. “If I can’t complete the chain, there won’t be any readings. I imagine you could install remote cut-offs fairly easily.”
“No trouble, though nobody ever seemed to think they might be needed. I suppose it would be covered under our emergency powers, If we stretch them a little. Oh, blast you, now I won’t sleep for worrying about why the field spreads. When will you begin?”
Vic grinned tightly as they arranged the approximate time and let the Looech carry him back to the capsule. He flashed through Ecthinbal, and climbed out of the Chicago transmitter to find Pat looking worriedly at the capsule, summoned by the untended call announcer.
“You’re right, Pat,” he told her. “Engineers run pretty much to form. Tell Flavin we’ve got Ee.”
But there were a lot of steps to be taken still. He ran into a stumbling block at Norag, and had to wait for a change of shift, before a sympathetic engineer cut the red tape to clear him. And negative decisions here and there kept Flavin jumping to find new routes.
They almost made
It surprised him, because it didn’t fit with Pat’s theories of engineers at all. He scowled at the phone, then whistled again. “Your zeal is commendable. Now put an engineer on!”
The answering whistle carried a fumbling uncertainty of obvious surprise. “I—how did you know? I gave all the right answers.”
“Sure. Right off the Engineer Rule Sheet posted over the transmitter. No real engineer worries that much about them; he has more things to think of. Put the engineer on.”
The answer was still obstinate. “My father’s asleep. He’s tired. Call later.”
The connection went dead at once. Vic called Ecthinbal while clambering into the big pressure suit. He threw the delay switch and climbed into the right capsule. A moment later, an Ecthindar was moving the capsule on a delicate-looking machine to another transmitter. Something that looked like a small tyrannosaurus with about twenty tentacles instead of forelegs was staring in at him a second later, and he knew he was on Ee.
“Take me to the engineer!” he ordered. “At once!”
The great ridges of horn over the eyes came down in a surprisingly human scowl, but the stubbornness was less certain in person. The creature turned and led Vic out to a huge shack outside. In answer to a whooping cry, a head the size of a medium-sized freight car came out of the door, to be followed by a titanic body. The full-grown adult was covered with a thick coat of copy hair.
“Where from?” the Ee engineer whistled. “Wait—I saw a picture once. Earth. Come in. I hear you have quite a problem there.”
Vic nodded. It came as a shock to him that the creature could probably handle the whole station by itself, as it obviously did, and quite efficiently, with that size and all those tentacles. He stated his problem quickly.
The Looech, as it called itself, scratched its stomach with a row of tentacles and pondered. “I’d like to help you. Oh, the empress would have fits, but I could call it an accident. We engineers aren’t really responsible to governments, after all, are we? But it’s the busy season. I’m already behind, since my other engineer got in a duel. That’s why the pup was tending while I slept. You say the field spreads out on continuous transmit?”
“It does, but it wouldn’t much more if there isn’t too long a period.”
“Strange. I’ve thought of continuous transmittal, of course, but I didn’t suspect that. Why, I wonder?”
V ic started to give Ptheela’s explanation of unbalanced resonance between the vacuum of the center and the edges in contact with matter, but dropped it quickly. “I’ll probably know better when I can read the results from the instruments.”
The Looech grumbled to itself. “You suppose you could send me the readings? We’re about on a Galactic level, so it wouldn’t strain the law too much.”
Vic shook his head. “If I can’t complete the chain, there won’t be any readings. I imagine you could install remote cut-offs fairly easily.”
“No trouble, though nobody ever seemed to think they might be needed. I suppose it would be covered under our emergency powers, If we stretch them a little. Oh, blast you, now I won’t sleep for worrying about why the field spreads. When will you begin?”
Vic grinned tightly as they arranged the approximate time and let the Looech carry him back to the capsule. He flashed through Ecthinbal, and climbed out of the Chicago transmitter to find Pat looking worriedly at the capsule, summoned by the untended call announcer.
“You’re right, Pat,” he told her. “Engineers run pretty much to form. Tell Flavin we’ve got Ee.”
But there were a lot of steps to be taken still. He ran into a stumbling block at Norag, and had to wait for a change of shift, before a sympathetic engineer cut the red tape to clear him. And negative decisions here and there kept Flavin jumping to find new routes.
They almost made
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