The State of the Art(25)

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