The swaying had come to a halt and it was dark. The Explorer was not
comfortable in the alien air. It felt as thick as soup and he had to
breathe shallowly. Even so--
He reached out in a sudden need for company. The Merchant was warm to
the touch. His breathing was rough, he moved in an occasional spasm, and
was obviously asleep. The Explorer hesitated and decided not to wake
him. It would serve no real purpose.
There would be no rescue, of course. That was the penalty paid for the
high profits which unrestrained competition could lead to. The Merchant
who opened a new planet could have a ten year monopoly of its trade,
which he might hug to himself or, more likely, rent out to all comers at
a stiff price. It followed that planets were searched for in secrecy
and, preferably, away from the usual trade routes. In a case such as
theirs, then, there was little or no chance that another ship would come
within range of their subetherics except for the most improbable of
coincidences. Even if they were in their ship, that is, rather than in
this--this--_cage_.
The Explorer grasped the thick bars. Even if they blasted those away, as
they could, they would be stuck too high in open air for leaping.
It was too bad. They had landed twice before in the scout-ship. They had
established contact with the natives who were grotesquely huge, but mild
and unaggressive. It was obvious that they had once owned a flourishing
technology, but hadn't faced up to the consequences of such a
technology. It would have been a wonderful market.
And it was a tremendous world. The Merchant, especially, had been taken
aback. He had known the figures that expressed the planet's diameter,
but from a distance of two light-seconds, he had stood at the visi-plate
and muttered, "Unbelievable!"
"Oh, there are larger worlds," the Explorer said. It wouldn't do for an
Explorer to be too easily impressed.
"Inhabited?"
"Well, no."
"Why, you could drop your planet into that large ocean and drown it."
The Explorer smiled. It was a gentle dig at his Arcturian homeland,
which was smaller than most planets. He said, "Not quite."
The Merchant followed along the line of his thoughts. "And the
inhabitants are large in proportion to their world?" He sounded as
though the news struck him less favorably now.
"Nearly ten times our height."
"Are you sure they are friendly?"
"That is hard to say. Friendship between alien intelligences is an
imponderable. They are not dangerous, I think. We've come across other
groups that could not maintain equilibrium after the atomic war stage
and you know the results. Introversion. Retreat. Gradual decadence and
increasing gentleness."
"Even if they are such monsters?"
"The principle remains."
It was about then that the Explorer felt the heavy throbbing of the
engines.