Rynason spent the next two hours in town, moving through the windy
streets and thinking about what Manning had said. He was right, in a
way: this was no more than a foothold for the Earthmen, a touchdown
point. It wasn't even a community yet; buildings were still going up,
prices varied widely not only between landings of spacers but also
according to who did the selling. A lot of the men here were trying some
mining out on the west Flat; their findings had so far been small but
they brought the only real income the planet had so far yielded. The
rest of the town was rising on its own weight: bars, rooming houses,
laundries, and diners--establishments which thrived only because there
were men here to patronize them. Several weeks before a few of the men
had tried killing and eating the small animals who darted through the
alleys, but too many of those men had died and the practice had been
quickly abandoned. And they had noticed that when those animals foraged
in the refuse heaps outside the town, they died too.
A few of the big corporations had sent out field men to look around, but
it was too soon for any industry to have established itself here; all
the planet offered so far was room to expand. Despite the wide expansion
of the Earthmen through the stars, a planet where conditions were at all
favorable for living was not to be overlooked; the continuing population
explosion, despite tight regulations on the inner worlds, had kept up
with the colonization of these worlds, and new room was constantly
needed.
But the planetfall on Hirlaj was still new. A handful of Earthmen had
come, but they had not yet brought their civilization with them. They
stood precariously on the Flat, waiting for more settlers to come in and
build with them. If there should be trouble before more men arrived....
At 600 Rynason walked out on the dirt-packed street to Manning's
quarters. He met Marc Stoworth and Jules Lessingham coming out the door.
They looked worried.
"What's wrong?" he said.
They didn't stop as they went by. "Ask the old man," said Stoworth,
going past with an uncharacteristically hurried step.
Rynason went on in through the open door. Manning was in the front room,
amid several crates of stunner-units. He looked up quickly as Rynason
entered and waved brusquely to him.
"Help me get this stuff unloaded, Lee."
Rynason fished for his sheath-knife and started cutting open one of the
crates. "Why are you unloading the arsenal?"
"Because we may need it. Couple of the boys were just out at the
horse-pasture, and they say the friendly natives have disappeared."
"Jules and Stoworth? I met them on the way in."
"They were doing some follow-up work out there ... or at least they were
going to. There's not a single one of them there, not a trace of them."