Astounding Science Fiction (British edition) — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

56 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION “Chess.” “What are you talking about, Balch!” “T’ll tell you later. You finish first.” “I’ve said about all. The only con- cepts I’m pretty sure I can both recognize and send are these: “What is near you?’; ‘I approve of what you said;’ ‘Chang Kwei-T’ao’ and ‘Brian’ (those are uncertain); ‘regular tetra- hedron’ and a few other geometrical terms (those are even vaguer).” a “That’s a lot!” Hilda insisted. ‘“‘What do you expect in three days, telepathy and a nerve map?” Chang laughed. Hilda feinted alarmingly with her fist in the direction of Chang’s head. “No,” Chang said stubbornly, “if we’ve really got the method, and if Brian isn’t a moron, we should have found more.” Tim Balch gave a sudden happy laugh; the two women turned toward him. “Three days!’’ he said. “I just realized. When I left you were still at the groping stage. Only three days! This is the way it’s been ever since we got here. Every day here is worth . is worth ten ordinary years! It’s such a terrific experience—”’ Chang interrupted, coldly. “I’m sure the things you’ve done have been fun. It’s been a developing experience for you.” Balch stood silent in amazement. Then he said, “‘It’s true, darn it. Why do you say that? It’s true. You like Four too, don’t you?” “FES... Hilda began earnestly, ““Tim Balch, there’s something wrong about your attitude toward—’ She _ stopped. Chang was looking at her with open- mouthed horror. “JT don’t understand,’ Balch. ad- mitted finally. Chang looked at him. “It’s time for lunch, let’s go down. I want to hear your news about the nib- blies.”” . “You don’t want to wait till you see our movies?” *“No, I want to hear now.”’ She took his hand as they went out into the corridor. She did it with more de- termination than affection, but Balch was relieved. There was one more digression be- fore Balch got around to telling his story: As the three of them were start- ing down to lunch, Hilda filled a silence with the offhand remark that the two new nibblies would probably be sending messages to Brian through the ship’s electrical system while they were away. She interrupted herself, clapping her hand to her forehead, “Say, that’s right! We really have something to offer them, don’t we? Metal wire—give them that and they’ve got telegraph.” This called for a discussion, and they were eagerly interrupting each other every third sentence all the way down. Chang brought up the problem of writing : How could they ever invent an alphabet for the nibblies’ strange language? The ship’s dining room was only an extra-size lab; it had doubled as recreation room during the trip from Procyon II, and was now serving as.a workshop between meals. Most of the crew—twenty-five or so—was already eating when the three got there. Balch told his story with their whole table as audience. ; He told it with the zest of the racon- teur, but not well enough to avoid interruptions. Sumer and he had stopped to watch two herds of nibblies feeding in a rela- tively open area. There was something about the herds’ actions which was unusual. They’d hovered overhead in their copter for some time before they’d spotted a reason: at least five wolves were in hiding, on all sides of connicloooks.c© inn