Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition, December 1955 — page 62: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

60 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION “What did they say?” ““They’re of the opinion that the Waitabits are active only under stimulus of sunlight. When the sun goes down they go down with it.’’ He scowled at his predicament, suggested hopefully, “But if you could run us a power line out there and lend us a couple of sunray lamps, we could rouse a few of them and get to work.”’ “Tt isn’t worth it,”’ said Leigh. “Why not?” “Chances are that we'll be ordered home before you can show any real progress.” “Look, sir,” pleaded Nolan, making a final effort. “Everyone else is raking in results. Measurements, meterings and so forth. They’ve got bugs, nuts, fruits, plants, barks, timber-sections, rocks, pebbles, soil-samples, photographs, everything but shrunken heads. The communicators are the only ones asked to accept defeat and that’s because we’ve not had a fair chance.”’ “All right,” Leigh said, taking up the challenge. “You fellows are best placed to make an accurate estimate. So tell me: how long would a fair chance be?” That had him tangled. He shuffled around, glowered at the wall, examined his fingers. ‘Five years?”’ prompted Leigh. No answer. “Ten maybe?” No reply. “Perhaps twenty?” Nolan growled. “You win,” and walked out. His face still hankered to create a Corpse. You win, thought Leigh. Like heck he did. The winners were the Waitabits. They had a formidable weapon in the simple, incontrovertible fact that life can be too short. Four days later Sector Nine relayed the message from Earth. 37.14 ex Terra. Defense H.Q. to C.O. battleship Thunderer. Return route D9 calling Sector Four H.Q. Leave ambassador if suitable candidate available. Position in perpetuity. Rathbone. Com. Op. Dep. D.H.Q. Terra. He called a conference in the longroom amidships. Considerable time was spent coordinating data ranging from Walterson’s findings on radio- active life to Mr. Fish’s remarks about creeping shrimps. In the end three conclusions stood out clearly. Eterna was very old as compared with Earth. Its people were equally old as compared with humankind, estimates of life-duration ranging from eight hundred to twelve hundred for the average Waitabit. Despite their chronic sluggishness the Waitabits were intelligent, progressive and had advanced to about the same stage as humankind had reached a century before the first jump into space. There was considerable argument about whether the Waitabits would over be capable of a short rocket-flight even with the aid of automatic, COMME OOOKS.COM