And from the insides of the thing a lever speared forward. A spoon
was welded to the fore end, and it carried a heaping load of mushy
something-or-other.
Walt blinked and tried to duck, but his bindings wouldn't permit too
much freedom of motion. The spoon hit him on the cheek, cutting him and
spilling the food on his chest. The spoon disappeared back into the
machine.
It re-appeared on the other side and sliced towards Christine, who
screamed in fright. The spoon entered her opened mouth, and the stuff
it hurled into her throat nearly strangled her. It came again at Walt,
who miscalculated slightly and received a cut lip and a mouth full of
heavy gruel.
"You have to get set just so," explained Kingman, "then you'll not be
cut."
"Damn you--glub!" snapped Walt.
Christine waited and caught the next spoonful neatly.
And then the thing accelerated. The velocity of repetition increased
by double--then decreased again--and then started on random intervals.
They could never be certain when the knifing spoon would come hurtling
out of the machine to plunge into the position where their mouths
should be. They were forced to swallow quickly and then sit there with
mouth wide open to keep from getting clipped. With the randomness of
interval there came another randomness. One spoonful would be mush;
the next ice-cream; followed by a cube of rare steak. The latter was
tough, which demanded jaw-aching rapid chewing to get set for the next
possible thrust.
"A balanced diet," chortled Kingman, rolling his eyes in laughter. He
held his stomach at the sight.
"You--glub!
"--devil--glub!" snarled Walt.
"It won't be long now," said Kingman. "Your cold room is down to almost
absolute zero row. You know what that means?"
"--glub--you--"
"When the metal reaches absolute zero, as it will with the thermal
beam, the spread of cooling will accelerate. The metal will become a
superconductor--which will superconduct heat as well as electricity.
The chill area is spreading rapidly now, and once this cold room
section reaches absolute zero, the chill will spread like wildfire and
the famous Venus Equilateral Relay Station will experience a killing
freeze."
Walt glared. There was nothing else he could do. He was being fed
at a rapid rate that left him no time for other occupations. It was
ignominious to be so treated, but Walt consoled himself with the
fact that he was being fed--even though gulps of scalding-hot coffee
drenched spoons of ice cream that came after mashed potatoes (with
lumps, and where did Kingman get _that_ duplicator recording?). The
final blow was a one-inch tube that nearly knocked their teeth out in
arriving. It poured a half pint of Benedictine and brandy down their
throats which made them cough--and which almost immediately left them
with their senses reeling.
Kingman enjoyed this immensely, roaring with laughter at his 'feeding
machine' as he called it.
Then he sobered as Walt's eyes refused to focus. He stepped to a place
behind Walt and unbound him quickly. Walt tried to stand, but reeled,
and Kingman pointed his heavy rifle at Walt from a very safe distance
and urged him to go and enter the small metal house. Walt did. Then
Kingman transferred Christine to the house in the same way.
He sealed the only door with the duplicator, and from a small opening
in the wall, he spoke to them.
"I'm leaving," he said. "You'll find everything in there to set up
light housekeeping but food and heat. There'll be no heat, for I've
removed the heating plant. You can see it through this hole, but the
hole will soon be closed by the feeding machine, which I'm fixing so
that you can eat when hungry. I'd prefer that you stay alive while
you slowly freeze. Eventually your batteries will give out, and
then--curtains.
"But I've got to leave because things are running my way and I've got
to be in a place to cash in on it.
"I'll be seeing you."
* * * * *
Keg Johnson greeted Don warmly. Then he said, "I knew you'd do it
sooner or later," with a grin.
Don blinked. "The last time you said that was in the courtroom
in Buffalo after we wrecked the economic system with the
matter-duplicator. What is it this time?"
"According to the guys I've had investigating your coupled-crystal
effect, it is quite simple. The effect will obtain with any crystalline
substance--so long as they are absolutely identical! It took the
duplicator to do it right to the atomic lattice structure. You'll get
any royalties, Channing, but I'm getting all my ships talking from ship
to ship direct, and from Canalopsis direct to any ship. You've just
invented Venus Equilateral out of business!"
"Good!" exclaimed Don.
"Good?"
Don nodded. "Venus Equilateral is fun--and always has been. But, darn
it, here we are out here in space lacking the free sky and the fresh
natural air. We'd never abandon it so long as Venus Equilateral had
a shred of necessity. But--now we can all go home to Man's Natural
Environment. A natural planet."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Furnish the Communications Stations at Northern Landing, at
Canalopsis, and on Terra with coupled-crystal equipments. Then we
abandon Venus Equilateral in one grand celebration."