Transporter is out-of-order.'
'It's not working, Matty?'
'It's working, but it isn't working properly,' said
Matriapoll. 'It's supposed to be depositing the stuff
here,' he pointed to an orange area above the star's
surface, 'but it isn't doing that.It's putting it down
here.' He pointed to another area of the screen; the third planet.
'That's bad?'
Matriapoll turned to look at the two Mates.They
sat on the back of his seat and looked back at him,
tilting their heads to one side.Twoey licked his
face.
'Don't you two phnysthens ever listen to the
briefings?'
'Yes, of course we do.'
'Then you ought to know that world's inhabited.'
'Oh it's that one. We thought it was the one with the pretty rings.'
'Good grief,' breathed Matriapoll, and took the
scout-ship towards the offending planet.
The fighter rose above the airfield without a
sound.The generals looked pleased.Cesare
pretended not to be impressed.The plane was
moving horizontally now, high enough for the
people in the revue stand to be able to see the flat
disk attached to its underside.It was that disk
which was providing all the power.The craft
swept away over the Nevada desert.
Somebody handed Cesare a pair of binoculars and
told him where to watch.All he could see was a
white blockhouse in the bright sun, shimmering,
miles away.
Then the plane appeared in one corner of his
magnified vision.A bolt of blinding light leapt from
it, crossed to the blockhouse in no appreciable
time, and demolished it in a cloud of dust.
'Hmm,' Cesare said.
'What do you think, sir?' said the local I.M.C.C.
head, a young man called Fosse.
'Depends.Can we produce those things?'
'We think we ought to be able to soon, sir.One of
the last machines we recovered seems to like
taking the others apart.We can start to find out
exactly how they're put together.Once we find that
out we're half-way there.'
'Okay, but where are these things coming from?'
'Frankly, sir, we don't know.' They turned and
looked back at the desert as the sound of the
exploding blockhouse rolled over the stand.The
aircraft was returning too, slowing for a vertical
landing.
'We're sure they aren't Commie?'
'Oh, quite sure, sir.If they could deliver things that
size into our air-space without our radar spotting
them they'd be sending H-bombs, not their latest
technology.'
'Yes, that makes sense,' Cesare said.The generals
were starting to file out of the stand.A fleet of
helicopters waited for the various dignitaries,
military and civilian.A handful of security men
kept generals and other I.M.C.C. underlings from
bothering Cesare as he chatted to Fosse.
'I understand the President has given us the full go-
ahead for joint development with the armed forces,
sir.'
'Who?Oh, yeah.The President.Good.Real good.Get
onto it then.I'm interested in this, Fosse.Think I'll
stay over in California for a while.Get some
rest.Keep an eye on all this.Pressure of work back
in the East, you know.'
'Of course, sir.'
'Oh, shucks,' Matriapoll said. 'They've found
them.Look at that.' He showed them the writeout of
all the objects the faulty Transporter had been
beaming to Earth instead of the sun.The two little
animals behind him went 'tut-tut' and shook their
heads. 'Look at that !' Matriapoll went on, 'A
translator for the Grenbrethg , an automatic sewer inspection kit, a kiddie's climber, a Bloorthana-ee
brothel hover-bed, a low-grade Repairer, a one-
person gas sub, a Striyian phallic symbol, a oh, no; a Schpleebop fly-swat!'
'Not so good, eh?' said Oney.
Matriapoll patted the hairy head of the little beast.
'Correct, little one.Not good at all.A positive
disaster; we could have a cargo-cult or anything
down there by now.Warm up the ethergraph, I've
got to get this back to the ship.'
' and however outlandish it may sound, it is my
opinion that just as our great country has, in the
past at least, seen fit to provide covert support for
democracies under internal foreign subversion
situations, so we ourselves are now being
provided with aid by an alien super-power.And
why is this?I'll tell you why.Because they
recognize that the West, these United States of
America, are the real representatives of humanity
and decency on this planet.They want to help us to
fend off the Communist threat.Now, whether we
really need their help or not is a debatable moot
point, it could be arguable but if they want to give
us this aid then I for one am not going to look a
gift-horse in the mouth.I say we take this by the
horns, and go for it.'
Cesare sat down to restrained applause.
I.M.C.C.'s West Coast Headquarters Conference
Room was packed with military and civilian
personnel.They had all listened intently to what the
scientists and generals had to say, and for many of