Despotism -- Fiction; Dissenters -- Fiction; Life on other planets -- Fiction; Science fiction
The Colony Organizer bewailed the fact that there would be no more
supplies from Ades. No more colonists. Technical information, urgently
needed, could not be had. Supplies were necessary for exploring
parties, and new building-machines were desperately in demand, and the
storage-reserves were depleted and could last only so long if no more
came through.
"But," said Kim blankly. "Why shouldn't they come through?"
"The matter-transmitter's stopped working!" The Colony Organizer wrung
his hands. "If they're still transmitting on Ades, think of the lives
and the precious material that's being lost!"
"They aren't transmitting," said Kim. "A transmitter and a receiver are
a unit. Both have to work for either one to operate--except in the very
special case of a transmitter-drive ship. But it's queer. I'll come
take a look."
He slipped into the conventional out-of-door garments. Dona had
listened. Now she said a word or two to Kim, her expression concerned.
Kim's expression darkened.
"That's what I'm afraid of," he told her. "A transmitter is too simple
to break down. They can get detuned, but we made the pairs for Ades and
Terranova especially. Their tuning elements are set in solid plastite.
They couldn't get out of tune!"
He picked up a small box. He tucked it under his arm.
"I'll be back," he told Dona heavily. "But I suspect you'd better pack."
He went out to the grounded flier. The Colony Organizer took it up and
across the green-clad hills of Terranova. The vegetation of Terranova
is extraordinarily flexible, and the green stuff below the flier swayed
elaborately in the wind. The top of the forests bowed and bent in
the form of billows and waves. The effect was that of an ocean which
complacently remained upraised in hillocks and had no normal surface.
It was not easy to get used to such things.
"I'm terribly worried," said the Organizer anxiously. "There is a
tremendous shortage of textiles, and the ores we usually send back to
balance our account are piling up."
"You're badly worried, eh?" said Kim grimly.
"Of course! How can we keep our economic system now?"
Kim made an angry noise.
"I'm a lot more worried than you are," he snapped. "Nothing should
have stopped this particular pair of transmitters from working but the
destruction of one or the other! This box in my pocket might tell me
the answer, but I'm afraid to find out. I assure you that temporary
surpluses and shortages of ores and textiles are the least of the
things we have to worry about."
The little flier sped on, with the great, waving billows of the forest
beneath it. On one hillock there was a clearing with a group of four
plastic houses shining in the sunlight. They looked horribly lonely in
the sea of green, but the population on Terranova was spread thin. Far
over at the horizon there was another clearing. Sunlight glinted on
water. A pleasure-pool. There was a sizable village about it. Half a
dozen soarers spun and whirled lazily above. Kim said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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