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for you to come aboard, and then send you deliberately sliding down into the guts of
an animal you didn't know anything about, in the hope of having a miracle happen to
you. Maybe they thought a loop of intestine or some gland of internal secretion
would come over to you and say, "I'm not working right. Fix me, and everything will
be fine."
Another of the tadpole-like creatures was swimming over toward him,
approaching slowly, the forepart twitching like the nose of a curious dog. Then, like
the others, the creature turned and darted away. "Maybe that's the cause," he thought.
"Maybe that's the parasite that's causing the trouble."
Only it might just as well be a creature necessary to the larger creature's health.
Again and again you were faced with the same problem. Down here you were in a
world you knew nothing about. And when everything was so strange to you what
was normal, and what wasn't?
When in doubt, he decided, move on. He moved.
The blue pool was shallow, and once more he came up on what he decided to call
dry ground. Once more the walls grew narrow again. After a time he could reach out
and touch the walls on either side of him at the same time.
He flashed his light into the narrow passage, and saw that a dozen yards ahead of
him it seemed to come to an end. "Blind alley," he thought. "Time to turn back."
The Captain's voice came to him again, "Doctor, is everything all right?"
"Beautiful. I've had a most interesting tour. By the way, did you get the creature's
mouth open yet?"
"We're still working on it."
"I wish you luck. Maybe when those reports from Earth come in "
"
They've come. None of the curators knows anything about space-cows. For
some reason, the electric shock method doesn't work any more, and we're trying all
sorts of other stimuli."
"I take it that nothing is effective."
"Not yet. One of the photo service men suggested we use a powerful mechanical
clamp to pull the jaws open. We're having one flown over."
"
Use anything," he said fervently. "But for God's sake, get that mouth open!"
Dr. Meltzer cursed the photo service people, to whom he meant nothing more
than a series of colored lines in space. Then he added an unkind word or two for the
Captain, who had got him into this mess, and started back.
The tadpole creatures seemed to be interested in his progress. They came
swarming around him, and now he could see that there were almost a dozen of them.
They moved with quick flips of their tails, like the minnows he had once seen back
on Earth, where he had attended med-ical school. Between each pair of flips there
was a mo-mentary pause, and when they came close he was able to get a reasonably
good look at them. He was surprised to see that they had two rows of eyes each.
Were the eyes functional or vestigial? In the former case, they must spend some
part of their life cycle outside the host creature, in places where they had need of the
sense of sight. In the latter case, they were at least des-cended from outside
creatures. Maybe I'll try to catch one of them, he thought. Once I get it outside I can
give it a real examination.
Once I get it outside, he repeated. Provided I get outside myself.
He waded through the pond again. As he reached the shallow part of the blue
liquid, a voice came to him this time his wife's voice. "Larry, are you all right?"
"Doing fine. How are the kids?"
"They're with me. They woke up during the excitement, and I brought them along."
"You didn't tell me that before!"
"I didn't want to upset you."
"Oh, it doesn't upset me in the least. Nothing like a nice family picnic. But how do
you expect them to go to school in the morning?"
"Oh, Larry, what difference does it make if they miss school for once? A chance
to be in on something like this happens once in a lifetime."
"
That's a little too often to suit me. Well, now that I know they're here, let me talk
to them."
Evidently they had been waiting for the chance, for Jerry's voice came at once.
"Hiya, Dad."
"
Hiya, Jerry. Having a good time?"
"
Swell. You oughtta be out here, Dad. There are a lot of people. They're treatin' us
swell."
Martia cut in. "Mom, he isn't letting me talk. I want to talk to Daddy too."
"Let her talk, Jerry. Go ahead, Martia. Say something to Daddy."
A sudden blast almost knocked out his eardrum. "Dad, can you hear me?" Martia
screamed. "Can you hear me, Dad?"
"I can hear you, and so can these animals. Not so loud, sweetheart."
"Gee, Dad, you oughtta see all the people. They took pictures of me and Mom.
Oh, we're so thrilled!"
"
They took pictures of me too, Dad," said Jerry.
"
They're sending the pictures all over. To Earth and Venus, and everywhere. We're
gonna be on television too, Dad. Isn't it exciting?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]