The Porpoise-men Of Dasor

: Skylark Three

"How long do you figure it's going to take us to get there, Mart?"

Seaton asked from a corner, where he was bending over his

apparatus-table.



"About three days at this acceleration. I set it at what I thought the

safe maximum for the girls. Should we increase it?"



"Probably not--three days isn't bad. Anyway, to save even one day we'd

have to more than double the acceleration, and none of us ould do

anything, so we'd better let it ride. How're you making it, Peg?"



"I'm getting used to weighing a ton now. My knees buckled only once this

morning from my forgetting to watch them when I tried to walk. Don't let

me interfere, though! if I am slowing us down, I'll go to bed and stay

there!"



"It'd hardly pay," said Seaton. "We can use the time to good advantage.

Look here, Mart--I've been looking over this stuff I got out of their

ship and here's something I know you'll eat up. They refer to it as a

chart, but it's three-dimensional and almost incredible. I can't say

that I understand it, but I get an awful kick out of looking at it. I've

been studying it a couple of hours, and haven't started yet. I haven't

found our solar system, the green one, or their own. It's too heavy to

move around now, because of the acceleration we're using--come on over

here and give it a look."



The "chart" was a strip of some parchment-like material, or film,

apparently miles in length, wound upon reels at each end of the machine.

One section of the film was always under the viewing mechanism--an

optical system projecting an undistorted image into a visiplate plate

somewhat similar to their own--and at the touch of a lever, a small

atomic motor turned the reels and moved the film through the projector.



It was not an ordinary star-chart: it was three-dimensional,

ultra-stereoscopic. The eye did not perceive a flat surface, but beheld

an actual, extremely narrow wedge of space as seen from the center of

the galaxy. Each of the closer stars was seen in its true position in

space and in its true perspective, and each was clearly identified by

number. In the background were faint stars and nebulous masses of light,

too distant to be resolved into separate stars--a true representation of

the actual sky. As both men stared, fascinated, into the visiplate,

Seaton touched the lever and they apparently traveled directly along the

center line of that ever-widening wedge. As they proceeded, the nearer

stars grew brighter and larger, soon becoming suns, with their planets

and then the satellites of the planets plainly visible, and finally

passing out of the picture behind the observers. The fainter stars

became bright, grew into suns and solar systems, and were passed in

turn. The chart unrolled, and the nebulous masses of light were

approached, became composed of faint stars, which developed as had the

others, and were passed.



Finally, when the picture filled the entire visiplate, they arrived at

the outermost edge of the galaxy. No more stars were visible: they saw

empty space stretching for inconceivably vast distances before them. But

beyond that indescribable and incomprehensible vacuum they saw faint

lenticular bodies of light, which were also named, and which each man

knew to be other galaxies, charted and named by the almost unlimited

power of the Fenachrone astronomers, but not as yet explored. As the

magic scroll unrolled still farther, they found themselves back in the

center of the galaxy, starting outward in the wedge adjacent to the one

which they had just traversed. Seaton cut off the motor and wiped his

forehead.



"Wouldn't that break you off at the ankles, Mart? Did you ever conceive

the possibility of such a thing?



"It would, and I did not. There are literally miles and miles of film in

each of those reels, and I see that there is a magazine full of reels in

the cabinet. There must be an index or a master-chart."



"Yeah, there's a book in this slot here," said Seaton, "but we don't

know any of their names or numbers--wait a minute! How did he report our

Earth on that torpedo? Planet number three of sun six four something

Pilarone, wasn't it? I'll get the record.



"Six four seven three Pilarone, it was."



"Pilarone ... let's see...." Seaton studied the index volume. "Reel

twenty, scene fifty-one, I'd translate it."



They found the reel, and "scene fifty-one" did indeed show that section

of space in which our solar system is. Seaton stopped the chart when

star six four seven three was at its closest range, and there was our

sun; with its nine planets and their many satellites accurately shown

and correctly described.



"They know their stuff, all right--you've got to hand it to 'em. I've

been straightening out that brain record--cutting out the hazy stretches

and getting his knowledge straightened out so we can use it, and there's

a lot of this kind of stuff in the record you can get. Suppose that you

can figure out exactly where he comes from with this dope and with his

brain record?"



"Certainly. I may be able to get more complete information upon the

green system than the Osnomians have, which will be very useful indeed.

You are right--I am intensely interested in this material, and if you do

not care particularly about studying it any more at this time, I believe

that I should begin to study it now."



"Hop to it. I'm going to study that record some more. No human brain can

take it all, I'm afraid, especially all at once, but I'm going to kinda

peck around the edges and get me some dope that I want pretty badly. We

got a lot of stuff from that wampus."



About sixty hours out, Dorothy, who had been observing the planet

through number six visiplate, called Seaton away from the Fenachrone

brain-record, upon which he was still concentrating.



"Come here a minute, Dickie! Haven't you got that knowledge all packed

away in your skull yet?"



"I'll say I haven't. That bird's brain would make a dozen of mine, and

it was loaded until the scuppers were awash. I'm just nibbling around

the edges yet."



"I've always heard that the capacity of even the human brain was almost

infinite. Isn't that true?" asked Margaret.



"Maybe it is, if the knowledge were built up gradually over generations.

I think maybe I can get most of this stuff into my peanut brain so I can

use it, but it's going to be an awful job."



"Is their brain really as far ahead of ours as I gathered from what I

saw of it?" asked Crane.



"It sure is," replied Seaton, "as far as knowledge and intelligence are

concerned, but they have nothing else in common with us. They don't

belong to the genus 'homo' at all, really. Instead of having a common

ancestor with the anthropoids, as they say we had, they evolved from a

genus which combined the worst traits of the cat tribe and the

carnivorous lizards--the most savage and bloodthirsty branches of the

animal kingdom--and instead of getting better as they went along, they

got worse, in that respect at least. But they sure do know something.

When you get a month or so to spare, you want to put on this harness and

grab his knowledge, being very careful to steer clear of his mental

traits and so on. Then, when we get back to the Earth, we'll simply tear

it apart and rebuild it. You'll know what I mean when you get this stuff

transplanted into your own skull. But to cut out the lecture, what's on

your mind, Dottie Dimple?"



"This planet Martin picked out is all wet, literally. The visibility is

fine--very few clouds--but this whole half of it is solid ocean. If

there are any islands, even, they're mighty small."



* * * * *



All four looked into the receiver. With the great magnification

employed, the planet almost filled the visiplate. There were a few

fleecy wisps of cloud, but the entire surface upon which they gazed was

one sheet of the now familiar deep and glorious blue peculiar to the

waters of that cuprous solar system, with no markings whatever.



"What d'you make of it, Mart? That's water all right--copper-sulphate

solution, just like the Osnomian and Urvanian oceans--and nothing else

visible. How big would an island have to be for us to see it from here?"



"So much depends upon the contour and nature of the island, that it is

hard to say. If it were low and heavily covered with their green-blue

vegetation, we might not be able to see even a rather large one, whereas

if it were hilly and bare, we could probably see one only a few miles in

diameter."



"Well, one good thing, anyway, we're approaching it from the central

sun, and almost in line with their own sun, so it's daylight all over

it. As it turns and as we get closer, we'll see what we can see. Better

take turns watching it, hadn't we?" asked Seaton.



It was decided, and while the Skylark was still some distance away,

several small islands became visible, and the period of rotation of the

planet was determined to be in the neighborhood of fifty hours.

Margaret, then at the controls, picked out the largest island visible

and directed the bar toward it. As they dropped down close to their

objective, they found that the air was of the same composition as that

of Osnome, but had a pressure of seventy-eight centimeters of mercury,

and that the surface gravity of the planet was ninety-five hundredths

that of the Earth.



"Fine business!" exulted Seaton. "Just about like home, but I don't see

much of any place to land without getting wet, do you? Those reflectors

are probably solar generators, and they cover the whole island except

for that lagoon right under us."



The island, perhaps ten miles long and half that in width, was entirely

covered with great parabolic reflectors, arranged so closely together

that little could be seen between them. Each reflector apparently

focussed upon an object in the center, a helix which seemed to writhe

luridly in that flaming focus, glowing with a nacreous, opalescent green

light.



"Well, nothing much to see there--let's go down," remarked Seaton as he

shot the Skylark over to the edge of the island and down to the

surface of the water. But here again nothing was to be seen of the land

itself. The wall was one vertical plate of seamless metal, supporting

huge metal guides, between which floated metal pontoons. From these

gigantic floats metal girders and trusses went through slots in the wall

into the darkness of the interior. Close scrutiny revealed that the

large floats were rising steadily, although very slowly; while smaller

floats bobbed up and down upon each passing wave.



"Solar generators, tide-motors, and wave-motors, all at once!"

ejaculated Seaton. "Some power-plant! Folks, I'm going to take a look

at that if I have to drill in with a ray!"




that....]



They circumnavigated the island without revealing any door or other

opening--the entire thirty miles was one stupendous battery of the

generators. Back at the starting point, the Skylark hopped over the

structure and down to the surface of the small central lagoon previously

noticed. Close to the water, it was seen that there was plenty of room

for the vessel to move about beneath the roof of reflectors, and that

the island was one solid stand of tide-motors. At one end of the lagoon

was an open metal structure, the only building visible, and Seaton

brought the space-cruiser up to it and through the huge opening--for

door there was none. The interior of the room was lighted by long,

tubular lights running around in front of the walls, which were

veritable switchboards. Row after row and tier upon tier stood the

instruments, plainly electrical meters of enormous capacity and equally

plainly in full operation, but no wiring or bus-bar could be seen.

Before each row of instruments there was a narrow walk, with steps

leading down into the water of the lagoon. Every part of the great room

was plainly visible, and not a living being was even watching that vast

instrument-board.



"What do you make of it, Dick?" asked Crane, slowly.



"No wiring--tight beam transmission. The Fenachrone do it with two

matched-frequency separable units. Millions and millions of kilowatts

there, if I'm any judge. Absolutely automatic too, or else----" Seaton's

voice died away.



"Or else what?" asked Dorothy.



"Just a hunch. I wouldn't wonder if----"



"Hold it, Dicky! Remember I had to put you to bed after that last hunch

you had!"



"Here it is, anyway. Mart, what would be the logical line of evolution

when the planet has become so old that all the land has been eroded to a

level below that of the ocean? You picked us out an old one, all

right--so old that there's no land left. Would a highly civilized people

revert to fish? That seems like a backward move to me, but what other

answer is possible?"





"Probably not to true fishes--although they might easily develop some

fish-like traits. I do not believe, however, that they would go back to

gills or to cold blood."



"What are you two saying?" interrupted Margaret. "Do you mean to say

that you think fish live here instead of people, and that fish did

all this?" as she waved her hand at the complicated machinery about

them.



"Not fish exactly, no." Crane paused in thought. "Merely a people who

have adjusted themselves to their environment through conscious or

natural selection. We had a talk about this very thing in our first

trip, shortly after I met you. Remember? I commented on the fact that

there must be life throughout the Universe, much of it that we could not

understand; and you replied that there would be no reason to suppose

them awful because incomprehensible. That may be the case here."



"Well, I'm going to find out," declared Seaton, as he appeared with a

box full of coils, tubes, and other apparatus.



"How?" asked Dorothy, curiously.



"Fix me up a detector and follow up one of those beams. Find its

frequency and direction, first, you know, then pick it up outside and

follow it to where it's going. It'll go through anything, of course, but

I can trap off enough of it to follow it, even if it's tight enough to

choke itself," said Seaton.



"That's one thing I got from that brain record."



* * * * *



He worked deftly and rapidly, and soon was rewarded by a flaring crimson

color in his detector when it was located in one certain position in

front of one of the meters. Noting the bearing on the great circles, he

then moved the Skylark along that exact line, over the reflectors, and

out beyond the island, where he allowed the vessel to settle directly

downwards.



"Now folks, if I've done this just right, we'll get a red flash

directly."



As he spoke the detector again burst into crimson light, and he set the

bar into the line and applied a little power, keeping the light at its

reddest while the other three looked on in fascinated interest.



"This beam is on something that's moving, Mart--can't take my eyes off

it for a second or I'll lose it entirely. See where we're going, will

you?"



"We are about to strike the water," replied Crane quietly.



"The water!" exclaimed Margaret.



"Fair enough--why not?"



"Oh, that's right--I forgot that the Skylark is as good a submarine as

she is an airship."



Crane pointed number six visiplate directly into the line of flight and

started into the dark water.



"Mow deep are we, Mart?" asked Seaton after a time.



"Only about a hundred feet, and we do not seem to be getting any

deeper."



"That's good. Afraid this beam might be going to a station on the other

side of the planet--through the ground. If so, we'd have had to go back

and trace another. We can follow it any distance under water, but not

through rock. Need a light?"



"Not unless we go deeper."



For two hours Seaton held the detector upon that tight beam of energy,

traveling at a hundred miles an hour, the highest speed he could use and

still hold the beam.



"I'd like to be up above watching us. I bet we're making the water boil

behind us," remarked Dorothy.



"Yeah, we're kicking up quite a wake, I guess. It sure takes power to

drive the old can through this wetness."



"Slow down!" commanded Crane. "I see a submarine ahead. I thought it

might be a whale at first, but it is a boat and it is what we are aiming

for. You are constantly swinging with it, keeping it exactly in the

line."



"O.K." Seaton reduced the power and swung the visiplate over in front of

him, whereupon the detector lamp went out. "It's a relief to follow

something I can see, instead of trying to guess which way that beam's

going to wiggle next. Lead on, Macduff--I'm right on your tail!"



The Skylark fell in behind the submersible craft, close enough to keep

it plainly visible in the telescopic visiplate. Finally the stranger

stopped and rose to the surface between two rows of submerged pontoons

which, row upon row, extended in every direction as far as the telescope

could reach.



"Well, Dot, we're where we're going, wherever that is."



"What do you suppose it is? It looks like a floating isleport, like what

it told about in that wild-story magazine you read so much."



"Maybe--but if so they can't be fish," answered Seaton. "Let's go--I

want to look it over," and water flew in all directions as the Skylark

burst out of the ocean and leaped into the air far above what was in

truth a floating city.



Rectangular in shape, it appeared to be about six miles long and four

wide. It was roofed with solar generators like those covering the island

just visited, but the machines were not spaced quite so closely

together, and there were numerous open lagoons. The water around the

entire city was covered with wave-motors. From their great height the

visitors could see an occasional submarine moving slowly under the city,

and frequently small surface craft dashed across the lagoons. As they

watched, a seaplane with short, thick wings curved like those of a gull,

rose from one of the lagoons and shot away over the water.



"Quite a place," remarked Seaton as he swung a visiplate upon one of the

lagoons. "Submarines, speedboats, and fast seaplanes. Fish or not,

they're not so slow. I'm going to grab off one of those folks and see

how much they know. Wonder if they're peaceable or warlike?"



"They look peaceable, but you know the proverb," Crane cautioned his

impetuous friend.



"Yes, and I'm going to be timid like a mice," Seaton returned as the

Skylark dropped rapidly toward a lagoon near the edge of the island.



"You ought to put that in a gag book, Dick," Dorothy chuckled. "You

forget all about being timid until an hour afterwards."



"Watch me, Red-top! If they even point a finger at us, I'm going to run

a million miles a minute."



No hostile demonstration was made as they dropped lower and lower,

however, and Seaton, with one hand upon the switch actuating the zone of

force, slowly lowered the vessel down past the reflectors and to the

surface of the water. Through the visiplate he saw the crowd of people

coming toward them--some swimming in the lagoon, some walking along

narrow runways. They seemed to be of all sizes, and unarmed.



"I believe they're perfectly peaceable, and just curious, Mart. I've

already got the repellers on close range--believe I'll cut them off

altogether."



"How about the ray-screens?"



"All three full out. They don't interfere with anything solid, though,

and won't hurt anything. They'll stop any ray attack and this arenak

hull will stop anything else we are apt to get there. Watch this board,

will you, and I'll see if I can't negotiate with them."



Seaton opened the door. As he did so, a number of the smaller beings

dived headlong into the water, and a submarine rose quietly to the

surface less than fifty feet away with a peculiar tubular weapon and a

huge ray-generator trained upon the Skylark. Seaton stood motionless,

his right hand raised in the universal sign of peace, his left holding

at his hip an automatic pistol charged with X-plosive shells--while

Crane, at the controls, had the Fenachrone super-generator in line, and

his hand lay upon the switch, whose closing would volatilize the

submarine and cut an incandescent path of destruction through the city

lengthwise.



* * * * *



After a moment of inaction, a hatch opened, a man stepped out upon the

deck of the submarine, and the two tried to converse, but with no

success. Seaton then brought out the mechanical educator, held it up for

the other's inspection, and waved an invitation to come aboard.

Instantly the other dived, and came to the surface immediately below

Seaton, who assisted him into the Skylark. Tall and heavy as Seaton

was, the stranger was half a head taller and almost twice as heavy. His

thick skin was of the characteristic Osnomian green and his eyes were

the usual black, but he had no hair whatever. His shoulders, though

broad and enormously strong, were very sloping, and his powerful arms

were little more than half as long as would have been expected had they

belonged to a human being of his size. The hands and feet were very

large and very broad, and the fingers and toes were heavily webbed. His

high domed forehead appeared even higher because of the total lack of

hair, otherwise his features were regular and well-proportioned. He

carried himself easily and gracefully, and yet with the dignity of one

accustomed to command as he stepped into the control room and saluted

gravely the three other Earth-beings. He glanced quickly around the

room, and showed unmistakable pleasure as he saw the power-plant of the

cruiser of space. Languages were soon exchanged and the stranger spoke,

in a bass voice vastly deeper than Seaton's own.



"In the name of our city and planet--I may say in the name of our solar

system, for you are very evidently from one other than our green

system--I greet you. I would offer you refreshment, as is our custom,

but I fear that your chemistry is but ill adapted to our customary fare.

If there be aught in which we can be of assistance to you, our resources

are at your disposal--but before you leave us, I shall wish to ask from

you a great gift."



"Sir, we thank you. We are in search of knowledge concerning forces

which we cannot as yet control. From the power systems you employ, and

from what I have learned of the composition of your suns and planets, I

assume you have none of the metal of power, and it is a quantity of that

element that is your greatest need?"



"Yes. Power is our only lack. We generate all we can with the materials

and knowledge at our disposal, but we never have enough. Our development

is hindered, our birth-rate must be held down to a minimum, many new

cities which we need cannot be built and many new projects cannot be

started, all for lack of power. For one gram of that metal I see plated

upon that copper cylinder, of whose very existence no scientist upon

Dasor has had even an inkling, we would do almost anything. In fact, if

all else failed, I would be tempted to attack you, did I not know that

our utmost power could not penetrate even your outer screen, and that

you could volatilize the entire planet if you so desired."



"Great Cat!" In his surprise Seaton lapsed from the formal language he

had been employing. "Have you figured us all out already, from a

standing start?"



"We know electricity, chemistry, physics, and mathematics fairly well.

You see, our race is many millions of years older than is yours."



"You're the man I've been looking for, I guess," said Seaton. "We have

enough of this metal with us so that we can spare you some as well as

not. But before you get it, I'll introduce you. Folks, this is Sacner

Carfon, Chief of the Council of the planet Dasor. They saw us all the

time, and when we headed for this, the Sixth City, he came over from the

capital, or First City, in the flagship of his police fleet, to welcome

us or to fight us, as we pleased. Carfon, this is Martin Crane--or say,

better than introductions, put on the headsets, everybody, and get

acquainted right."



Acquaintance made and the apparatus put away, Seaton went to one of the

store-rooms and brought out a lump of "X," weighing about a hundred

pounds.



"There's enough to build power-plants from now on. It would save time if

you were to dismiss your submarine. With you to pilot us, we can take

you back to the First City a lot faster than your vessel can travel."



Carfon took a miniature transmitter from a pouch under his arm and spoke

briefly, then gave Seaton the course. In a few minutes, the First City

was reached, and the Skylark descended rapidly to the surface of a

lagoon at one end of the city. Short as had been the time consumed by

their journey from the Sixth City, they found a curious and excited

crowd awaiting them. The central portion of the lagoon was almost

covered by the small surface craft, while the sides, separated from the

sidewalks by the curbs, were full of swimmers. The peculiar Dasorian

equivalents of whistles, bells, and gongs were making a deafening

uproar, and the crowd was yelling and cheering in much the same fashion

as do earthly crowds upon similar occasions. Seaton stopped the

Skylark and took his wife by the shoulder, swinging her around in

front of the visiplate.



"Look at that, Dot. Talk about rapid transit! They could give the New

York subway a flying start and beat them hands down!"



* * * * *



Dorothy looked into the visiplate and gasped. Six metal pipes, one above

the other, ran above and parallel to each sidewalk-lane of water. The

pipes were full of ocean water, water racing along at fully fifty miles

an hour and discharging, each stream a small waterfall, into the lagoon.

Each pipe was lighted in the interior, and each was full of people,

heads almost touching feet, unconcernedly being borne along, completely

immersed in that mad current. As the passenger saw daylight and felt the

stream begin to drop, he righted himself, apparently selecting an

objective point, and rode the current down into the ocean. A few quick

strokes, and he was either at the surface or upon one of the flights of

stairs leading up to the platform. Many of the travelers did not even

move as they left the orifice. If they happened to be on their backs,

they entered the ocean backward and did not bother about righting

themselves or about selecting a destination until they were many feet

below the surface.



"Good heavens, Dick! They'll kill themselves or drown!"



"Not these birds. Notice their skins? They've got a hide like a walrus,

and a terrific layer of subcutaneous fat. Even their heads are protected

that way--you could hardly hit one of them enough with a baseball bat to

hurt him. And as for drowning--they can out-swim a fish, and can stay

under water almost an hour without coming up for air. Even one of those

youngsters can swim the full length of the city without taking a

breath."



"How do you get that velocity of flow, Carfon?" asked Crane.



"By means of pumps. These channels run all over the city, and the amount

of water running in each tube and the number of tubes in use are

regulated automatically by the amount of traffic. When any section of

tube is empty of people, no water flows through it. This was necessary

in order to save power. At each intersection there are four stand pipes

and automatic swim-counters that regulate the volume of water and the

number of tubes in use. This is ordinarily a quiet pool, as it is in a

residence section, and this channel--our channels correspond to your

streets, you know--has only six tubes each way. If you will look on the

other side of the channel, you will see the intake end of the tubes

going down-town."



Seaton swung the visiplate around and they saw six rapidly-moving

stairways, each crowded with people, leading from the ocean level up to

the top of a tall metal tower. As the passengers reached the top of the

flight they were catapulted head-first into the chamber leading to the

tube below.



"Well, that is some system for handling people!" exclaimed Seaton.

"What's the capacity of the system?"



"When running full pressure, six tubes will handle five thousand people

a minute. It is only very rarely, on such occasions as this, that they

are ever loaded to capacity. Some of the channels in the middle of the

city have as many as twenty tubes, so that it is always possible to go

from one end of the city to the other in less than ten minutes."



"Don't they ever jam?" asked Dorothy curiously. "I've been lost more

than once in the New York subway, and been in some perfectly frightful

jams, too--and they weren't moving ten thousand people a minute either."



"No jams ever have occurred. The tubes are perfectly smooth and

well-lighted, and all turns and intersections are rounded. The

controlling machines allow only so many persons to enter any tube--if

more should try to enter than can be carried comfortably, the surplus

passengers are slid off down a chute to the swim-ways, or sidewalks, and

may either wait a while or swim to the next intersection."



"That looks like quite a jam down there now." Seaton pointed to the

receiving pool, which was now one solid mass except for the space kept

clear by the six mighty streams of humanity-laden water.



"If the newcomers can't find room to come to the surface they'll swim

over to some other pool." Carfon shrugged indifferently. "My residence

is the fifth cubicle on the right side of this channel. Our custom

demands that you accept the hospitality of my home, if only for a moment

and only for a beaker of distilled water. Any ordinary visitor could be

received in my office, but you must enter my home."



Seaton steered the Skylark carefully, surrounded as she was by a

tightly packed crowd of swimmers, to the indicated dwelling, and

anchored her so that one of the doors was close to a flight of steps

leading from the corner of the building down into the water. Carfon

stepped out, opened the door of his house, and preceded his guests

within. The room was large and square, and built of a synthetic,

non-corroding metal, as was the entire city. The walls were tastefully

decorated with striking geometrical designs in many-colored metal, and

upon the floor was a softly woven rug. Three doors leading into other

rooms could be seen, and strange pieces of furniture stood here and

there. In the center of the floor-space was a circular opening some four

feet in diameter, and there, only a few inches below the level of the

floor, was the surface of the ocean.



Carfon introduced his guests to his wife--a feminine replica of himself,

although she was not of quite such heroic proportions.



"I don't suppose that Seven is far away, is he?" Carfon asked of the

woman.



"Probably he is outside, near the flying ball. If he has not been

touching it ever since it came down, it is only because someone

stronger than he pushed him aside. You know how boys are," turning to

Dorothy with a smile as she spoke, "boy nature is probably universal."



"Pardon my curiosity, but why 'Seven'?" asked Dorothy, as she returned

the smile.



"He is the two thousand three hundred and forty-seventh Sacner Carfon in

direct male line of descent," she explained. "But perhaps Six has not

explained these things to you. Our population must not be allowed to

increase, therefore each couple can have only two children. It is

customary for the boy to be born first, and is given the name of his

father. The girl is younger, and is given her mother's name."



"That will now be changed," said Carfon feelingly. "These visitors have

given us the secret of power, and we shall be able to build new cities

and populate Dasor as she should he populated."



"Really?----" She checked herself, but a flame leaped to her eyes, and

her voice was none too steady as she addressed the visitors. "For that

we Dasorians thank you more than words can express. Perhaps you

strangers do not know what it means to want a dozen children with every

fiber of your being and to be allowed to have only two--we do, all too

well--I will call Seven."



She pressed a button, and up out of the opening in the middle of the

floor there shot a half-grown boy, swimming so rapidly that he scarcely

touched the coaming as he came to his feet. He glanced at the four

visitors, then ran up to Seaton and Crane.



"Please, sirs, may I ride, just a little short ride, in your vessel

before you go away?" This was said in their language.



"Seven!" boomed Carfon sternly, and the exuberant youth subsided.



"Pardon me, sirs, but I was so excited----"



"All right, son, no harm done at all. You bet you'll have a ride in the

Skylark if your parents will let you." He turned to Carfon. "I'm not

so far beyond that stage myself that I'm not in sympathy with him.

Neither are you, unless I'm badly mistaken."



"I am very glad that you feel as you do. He would be delighted to

accompany us down to the office, and it will be something to remember

all the rest of his life."



"You have a little girl, too?" Dorothy asked the woman.



"Yes--would you like to see her? She is asleep now," and without waiting

for an answer, the proud Dasorian mother led the way into a bedroom--a

bedroom without beds, for Dasorians sleep floating in thermostatically

controlled tanks, buoyed up in water of the temperature they like best,

in a fashion that no Earthly springs and mattresses can approach. In a

small tank in a corner reposed a baby, apparently about a year old, over

whom Dorothy and Margaret made the usual feminine ceremony of delight

and approbation.



* * * * *



Back in the living room, after an animated conversation in which much

information was exchanged concerning the two planets and their races of

peoples, Carfon drew six metal goblets of distilled water and passed

them around. Standing in a circle, the six touched goblets and drank.



They then embarked, and while Crane steered the Skylark slowly along

the channel toward the offices of the Council, and while Dorothy and

Margaret showed the eager Seven all over the vessel, Seaton explained to

Carfon the danger that threatened the Universe, what he had done, and

what he was attempting to do.



"Doctor Seaton, I wish to apologize to you," the Dasorian said when

Seaton had done. "Since you are evidently still land animals, I had

supposed you of inferior intelligence. It is true that your younger

civilization is deficient in certain respects, but you have shown a

depth of vision, a sheer power of imagination and grasp, that no member

of our older civilization could approach. I believe that you are right

in your conclusions. We have no such rays nor forces upon this planet,

and never have had; but the sixth planet of our own sun has. Less than

fifty of your years ago, when I was but a small boy, such a projection

visited my father. It offered to 'rescue' us from our watery planet, and

to show us how to build rocket-ships to move us to Three, which is half

land, inhabited by lower animals."



"And he didn't accept?"



"Certainly not. Then as now our sole lack was power, and the strangers

did not show us how to increase our supply. Perhaps they had more power

than we, perhaps, because of the difficulty of communication, our want

was not made clear to them. But, of course, we did not want to move to

Three, and we had already had rocket-ships for hundreds of generations.

We have never been able to reach Six with them, but we visited Three

long ago; and every one who went there came back as soon as he could. We

detest land. It is hard, barren, unfriendly. We have everything, here

upon Dasor. Food is plentiful, synthetic or natural, as we prefer. Our

watery planet supplies our every need and wish, with one exception; and

now that we are assured of power, even that one exception vanishes, and

Dasor becomes a very Paradise. We can now lead our natural lives, work

and play to our fullest capacity--we would not trade our world for all

the rest of the Universe."



"I never thought of it in that way, but you're right, at that," Seaton

conceded. "You are ideally suited to your environment. But how do I get

to planet Six? Its distance is terrific, even as cosmic distances go.

You won't have any night until Dasor swings outside the orbit of your

sun, and until then Six will be invisible, even to our most powerful

telescope."



"I do not know, myself," answered Carfon, "but I will send out a call

for the chief astronomer. He will meet us, and give you a chart and the

exact course."



At the office, the earthly visitors were welcomed formally by the

Council--the nine men in control of the entire planet. The ceremony over

and their course carefully plotted, Carfon stood at the door of the

Skylark a moment before it closed.



"We thank you with all force, Earthmen, for what you have done for us

this day. Please remember, and believe that this is no idle word--if we

can assist you in any way in this conflict which is to come, the

resources of this planet are at your disposal. We join Osnome and the

other planets of this system in declaring you, Doctor Seaton, our

Overlord."