"Fine, then." He stood up. "What will you do? Simply tell Snookums to
forget all this stuff?"
"Good Heavens no! It's too thoroughly integrated with every other bit of
data he has! You might be able to take one single bit of data out that
way, but to jerk out a whole body of knowledge like this would
completely randomize his circuits. You can pull out a tooth by yanking
with a pair of forceps, but if you try to take out a man's appendix that
way, you'll lose a patient."
"I catch," Mike said with a grin. "Okay. I'll get the other two books
and you can get to work copying them. Take care."
"Thanks, Mike."
As he walked down the companionway, he cursed himself for being a fool.
If he'd let things go on the way they were, Leda might have weaned
herself away from Snookums. Now she was interested again. But there
could have been no other way, of course.
19
The interstellar ship _Brainchild_ orbited around her destination,
waiting during the final checkup before she landed on the planet below.
It was not a nice planet. As far as its size went, it could be
classified as "Earth type," but size was almost the only resemblance to
Earth. It orbited in space some five hundred and fifty million miles
from its Sol-like parent--a little farther away from the primary than
Jupiter is from Sol itself. It was cold there--terribly cold. At high
noon on the equator, the temperature reached a sweltering 180 deg. absolute;
it became somewhat chillier toward the poles.
H_{2}O was, anywhere on the planet, a whitish, crystalline mineral
suitable for building material. The atmosphere was similar to that of
Jupiter, although the proportions of methane, ammonia, and hydrogen were
different because of the lower gravitational potential of the planet. It
had managed to retain a great deal more hydrogen in its atmosphere than
Earth had because of the fact that the average thermal velocity of the
molecules was much lower. Since oxygen-releasing life had never
developed on the frigid surface of the planet, there was no oxygen in
the atmosphere. It was all tied up in combination with the hydrogen of
the ice and the surface rocks of the planet.
The Space Service ship that had discovered the planet, fifteen years
before, had given it the name Eisberg, thus commemorating the name of a
spaceman second class who happened to have the luck to be (a) named
Robert Eisberg, (b) a member of the crew of the ship to discover the
planet, and (c) under the command of a fun-loving captain.
Eisberg had been picked as the planet to transfer the potentially
dangerous Snookums to for two reasons. In the first place, if Snookums
actually did solve the problem of the total-annihilation bomb, the worst
he could do was destroy a planet that wasn't much good, anyway. And, in
the second place, the same energy requirements applied on Eisberg as did
on Chilblains Base. It was easier to cool the helium bath of the brain
if it only had to be lowered 175 degrees or so.
It was a great place for cold-work labs, but not worth anything for
colonization.
* * * * *
Chief Powerman's Mate Multhaus looked gloomily at the figures on the
landing sheet.
Mike the Angel watched the expression on the chief's face and said:
"What's the matter, Multhaus? No like?"
Multhaus grimaced. "Well, sir, I don't like it, no. But I can't say I
_dis_like it, either."
He stared at the landing sheet, pursing his lips. He looked as though he
were valiantly restraining himself from asking questions about the other
night's escapade--which he was.