"Offhand, I would say they aren't. But then I would have said the same
about our clothing."
Hafner made up his mind. "All right. You worry about the crops. Find
some way to keep them out of the fields. Meanwhile, everyone sleeps in
the ship until we can build dormitories."
Individual dwelling units would have been more appropriate in the
colony at this stage, thought Marin. But it wasn't for him to decide.
The executive was a man who regarded a schedule as something to be
exceeded.
"The omnivore--" began Marin.
Hafner nodded impatiently. "Work on it," he said, and walked away.
The biologist sighed. The omnivore really was a queer little
creature, but it was by no means the most important thing on Glade.
For instance, why were there so few species of land animals on the
planet? No reptiles, numerous birds, and only four kinds of mammals.
Every comparable planet teemed with a wild variety of life. Glade, in
spite of seemingly ideal conditions, hadn't developed. Why?
He had asked Biological Controls for this assignment because it had
seemed an interesting problem. Now, apparently, he was being pressed
into service as an exterminator.
He reached in the cage and picked up the omnivore. Mammals on Glade
were not unexpected. Parallel development took care of that. Given
roughly the same kind of environment, similar animals would usually
evolve.
In the Late Carboniferous forest on Earth, there had been creatures
like the omnivore, the primitive mammal from which all others had
evolved. On Glade, that kind of evolution just hadn't taken place.
What had kept nature from exploiting its evolutionary potentialities?
There was the real problem, not how to wipe them out.
Marin stuck a needle in the omnivore. It squealed and then relaxed. He
drew out the blood and set it back in the cage. He could learn a lot
about the animal from trying to kill it.
* * * * *
The quartermaster was shouting, though his normal voice carried quite
well.
"How do you know it's mice?" the biologist asked him.
"Look," said the quartermaster angrily.
Marin looked. The evidence did indicate mice.
Before he could speak, the quartermaster snapped, "Don't tell me
they're only mice-like creatures. I know that. The question is: how
can I get rid of them?"
"Have you tried poison?"
"Tell me what poison to use and I'll use it."
It wasn't the easiest question to answer. What was poisonous to an
animal he had never seen and knew nothing about? According to
Biological Survey, the animal didn't exist.
It was unexpectedly serious. The colony could live off the land, and
was expected to. But another group of colonists was due in three
years. The colony was supposed to accumulate a surplus of food to feed
the increased numbers. If they couldn't store the food they grew any
better than the concentrates, that surplus was going to be scanty.
Marin went over the warehouse thoroughly. It was the usual early
construction on a colonial world. Not esthetic, it was sturdy enough.
Fused dirt floor, reinforced foot-thick walls, a ceiling slab of the
same. The whole was bound together with a molecular cement that made
it practically airtight. It had no windows; there were two doors.
Certainly it should keep out rodents.
A closer examination revealed an unexpected flaw. The floor was as
hard as glass; no animal could gnaw through it, but, like glass, it
was also brittle. The crew that had built the warehouse had evidently
been in such a hurry to get back to Earth that they hadn't been as
careful as they should have been, for here and there the floor was
thin. Somewhere under the heavy equipment piled on it, the floor had
cracked. There a burrowing animal had means of entry.
Short of building another warehouse, it was too late to do anything
about that. Mice-like animals were inside and had to be controlled
where they were.
The biologist straightened up. "Catch me a few of them alive and I'll
see what I can do."
* * * * *
In the morning, a dozen live specimens were delivered to the lab. They
actually did resemble mice.
Their reactions were puzzling. No two of them were affected by the
same poison. A compound that stiffened one in a matter of minutes left
the others hale and hearty, and the poison he had developed to control
the omnivores was completely ineffective.
The depredations in the warehouse went on. Black mice, white ones,
gray and brown, short-tailed and long-eared, or the reverse, they
continued to eat the concentrates and spoil what they didn't eat.
Marin conferred with the executive, outlined the problem as he saw it
and his ideas on what could be done to combat the nuisance.
"But we can't build another warehouse," argued Hafner. "Not until the
atomic generator is set up, at any rate. And then we'll have other
uses for the power." The executive rested his head in his hands. "I
like the other solution better. Build one and see how it works."
"I was thinking of three," said the biologist.
"One," Hafner insisted. "We can't spare the equipment until we know
how it works."
At that he was probably right. They had equipment, as much as three
ships could bring. But the more they brought, the more was expected of
the colony. The net effect was that equipment was always in short
supply.
Marin took the authorization to the engineer. On the way, he privately
revised his specifications upward. If he couldn't get as many as he
wanted, he might as well get a better one.
In two days, the machine was ready.
It was delivered in a small crate to the warehouse. The crate was
opened and the machine leaped out and stood there, poised.
"A cat!" exclaimed the quartermaster, pleased. He stretched out his
hand toward the black fuzzy robot.
"If you've touched anything a mouse may have, get your hand away,"
warned the biologist. "It reacts to smell as well as sight and sound."
Hastily, the quartermaster withdrew his hand. The robot disappeared
silently into the maze of stored material.
In one week, though there were still some mice in the warehouse, they
were no longer a danger.
* * * * *
The executive called Marin into his office, a small sturdy building
located in the center of the settlement. The colony was growing,
assuming an aspect of permanency. Hafner sat in his chair and looked
out over that growth with satisfaction.
"A good job on the mouse plague," he said.
The biologist nodded. "Not bad, except there shouldn't be any mice
here. Biological Survey--"
"Forget it," said the exec. "Everybody makes mistakes, even B. S." He
leaned back and looked seriously at the biologist. "I have a job I
need done. Just now I'm short of men. If you have no objections...."
[Illustration]
The exec was always short of men, would be until the planet was
overcrowded, and he would try to find someone to do the work his own
men should have done. Dano Marin was not directly responsible to
Hafner; he was on loan to the expedition from Biological Controls.
Still, it was a good idea to cooperate with the executive. He sighed.
"It's not as bad as you think," said Hafner, interpreting the sound
correctly. He smiled. "We've got the digger together. I want you to
run it."
Since it tied right in with his investigations, Dano Marin looked
relieved and showed it.
"Except for food, we have to import most of our supplies," Hafner
explained. "It's a long haul, and we've got to make use of everything
on the planet we can. We need oil. There are going to be a lot of
wheels turning, and every one of them will have to have oil. In time
we'll set up a synthetic plant, but if we can locate a productive
field now, it's to our advantage."
"You're assuming the geology of Glade is similar to Earth?"