The Raiders of Saturn's RingGallun, Raymond Z. (Raymond Zinke)
Science
The Raiders of Saturn's Ring
Gallun, Raymond Z. (Raymond Zinke)
Science fiction; Titan (Satellite) -- Fiction; War stories
"Then you guessed, too, what that cargo was, Anna," Ron burst out.
"Seeds of some kind--plants. They're growing elsewhere now. Out there
in the fields, and on the hillsides. But that's all so crazy! Where
can there be any danger in simple, everyday Earth-weeds? Poison
ivy is bad, of course; but even it couldn't kill off thousands of
Callistans--certainly not in a few minutes!"
"Yes, I guessed what the _Barbarian's_ cargo consisted of, Ron,"
Anna returned. "I was working in the fields all the time, seeing
those plants, which had never been on Titan before. Not even many
of the slaves remembered them, though, since we've all been a long
time away from home, and from some of the familiar things, there.
But I'm a school teacher, and I know a little about biology, and the
common afflictions of humankind. But I kept still, because secrecy
might be important. Well, those plants grew like wild-fire, under the
stimulating rays of the sun-towers. And I was praying that they'd hurry
up and blossom. Callisto's a flowerless world, Ron. Probably that's the
big point. With an equal start in their growing, the plants blossomed
all at once. And the winds blew, and the plague came. And now we
colonists are masters of Titan once more. The Acharians can never
threaten us again. Not even if they find a way to face the pestilence
with filter-masks and so forth. For we've got the major part of their
space fleet to protect us. Do you know what I'm talking about now, Ron?
Everybody?"
There was an awed quiet in the listening crowd. Then Bart Mallory
whooped suddenly. "I get it!" he shouted in triumph. "Of course!
Callistan lungs are huge and delicate and entirely unacclimated to one
Earthly condition! Naturally they'd react to it far more violently even
than we do! And now Terra is mistress of this section of space! My
sun-towers must have helped some, by increasing the normal virulence
of the plants. But most of the thanks go to Arne Reynaud, and to you,
Anna, and to you, Ron."
Mallory, the scientist, swept his arms out toward the fields. Waving
there in the bright artificial sunshine, was a tattery green host of
plants, that men of Earth had known and lived with, with considerable
discomfort but scant real harm for countless ages.
Was it just the wind that blew that host, making it sway and undulate
with a simple grandeur, while huge Saturn looked on? Or was the unseen
spirit of Arne Reynaud, the old horticulturist, the old fool, the
dreamer and the wizzard, stirring them, too?
Ron Leiccsen scowled, still lost and bogged down with the enigma, as
were most of the other listeners. "I guess you've got to draw me a
diagram, Anna," he grumbled, shaking his head ruefully. "I know a lot
about machinery and space ships and Saturn's Rings, but it looks as
though this biological problem goes beyond my depth."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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