Orloff coughed and eyed the tips of his boots. In the three months since he had succeeded Gridley as colonial commissioner he had tabled unread everything relating to ‘those damned Jovian D. T.’s.’ That had been according to the established cabinet policy which had labeled the Jovian affair as ‘deadwood’ long before he had entered office.
But now that Ganymede was becoming nasty, he found himself sent out to Jovopolis with instructions to hold the ‘blasted provincials’ down. It was a nasty spot.
Bimam was speaking, ‘The Dominion government has reached the point where it needs the money so badly, in fact, that if they don’t get it, they’re going to publicize everything.’
Orloff’s phlegm broke completely, and he snatched at the monocle as it dropped, ‘My dear fellow!’
‘I know what it would mean. I’ve advised against it, but they’re justified. Once the inside of the Jovian affair is out; once the people know about it; the Empire government won’t stay in power a week. And when the Technocrats come in, they’ll give us whatever we ask. Public opinion will see to that.’
‘But you’ll also create a panic and hysteria – ‘
‘Surely! That is why we hesitate. But you might call this an ultimatum. We want secrecy, we need secrecy; but we need money more.’
‘I see.’ Orloff was thinking rapidly, and the conclusions he came to were not pleasant. ‘In that case, it would be advisable to investigate the case further. If you have the papers concerning the communications with the planet Jupiter – ‘
‘I have them,’ replied Bimam, dryly, ‘and so has the Empire government at Washington. That won’t do, commissioner. It’s the same cud that’s been chewed by Earth officials for the last year, and it’s gotten us nowhere. I want you to come to Ether Station with me.’
The Ganymedan had risen from his chair, and he glowered down upon Orloff from his six and a half feet of height.
Orloff flushed, ‘Are you ordering me?’
‘In a way, yes. I tell you there is no time. If you intend acting, you must act quickly or not at all.’ Bimam paused, then added, ‘You don’t mind walking, I hope. Power vehicles aren’t allowed to approach Ether Station, ordinarily, and I can use the walk to explain a few of the facts. It’s only two miles off.’
‘I’ll walk,’ was the brusque reply.
The trip upward to subground level was made in silence, which was broken by Orloff when they stepped into the dimly lit anteroom.
‘It’s chilly here.’
‘I know. It’s difficult to keep the temperature up to norm this near the surface. But it will be colder outside. Here!’
Birnam had kicked open a closet door and was indicating the garments suspended from the ceiling. ‘Put them on. You’ll need them.’
Orloff fingered them doubtfully, ‘Are they heavy enough?’
Bimam was pouring into his own costume as he spoke. ‘They’re electrically heated. You’ll find them plenty warm. That’s it! Tuck the trouser legs inside the boots and lace them tight.’
He turned then and, with a grunt, brought out a double compressed-gas cylinder from its rack in one corner of the closet. He glanced at the dial reading; and then turned the stopcock. There was a thin wheeze of escaping gas, at which Bimam sniffed with satisfaction.
‘Do you know how to work one of these?’ he asked, as he screwed onto the jet a flexible tube of metal mesh, at the other end of which was a curiously curved object of thick, clear glass.
‘What is it?’
‘Oxygen nosepiece! What there is of Ganymede’s atmosphere is argon and nitrogen, just about half and half. It isn’t particularly breathable.’ He heaved the double cylinder into position, and tightened it in its harness on Orloff ‘s back.
Orloff staggered, ‘It’s heavy. I can’t walk two miles with this.’
‘It won’t be heavy out there,’ Bimam nodded carelessly upward and lowered the glass nosepiece over Orloff’s head. ‘Just remember to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, and you won’t have any trouble. By the way, did you eat recently?’
‘I lunched before I came to your place.’
Bimam sniffed dubiously, ‘Well, that’s a little awkward.’ He drew a small metal container from one of his pockets and tossed it to the commissioner. ‘Put one of those pills in your mouth and keep sucking on it.’
Orloff worked clumsily with gloved fingers and finally managed to get a brown spheriod out of the tin and into his mouth. He followed Birnam up a gently sloped ramp. The blind-alley ending of the corridor slid aside smoothly when they reached it and there was a faint soughing as air slipped out into the thinner atmosphere of Ganymede.
Bimam caught the other’s elbow, and fairly dragged him out.
‘I’ve turned your air tank on full,’ he shouted. ‘Breathe deeply and keep sucking at that pill.’
Gravity had flicked to Ganymedan normality as they crossed the threshold and Orloff after one horrible moment of apparent levitation felt his stomach tum a somersault and explode.
He gagged, and fumbled the pill with his tongue in a desperate attempt at self-control. The oxygen-rich mixture from the air cylinders burned his throat, and gradually Ganymede steadied. His stomach shuddered back into place. He tried walking.
‘Take it easy, now,’ came Birnam’s soothing voice. ‘It gets you that way the first few times you change gravity fields quickly. Walk slowly and get the rhythm, or you’ll take a tumble. That’s right, you’re getting it.’
The ground seemed resilient. Orloff could feel the pressure of the other’s arm holding him down at each step to keep him from springing too high. Steps were longer now – and flatter, as he got the rhythm. Birnam continued speaking, a voice a little muffled from behind the leather flap drawn loosely across mouth and chin.
‘Each to his own world,’ he grinned. ‘I visited Earth a few years back, with my wife, and had a hell of a time. I couldn’t get myself to learn to walk on a planet’s surface without a nosepiece. I kept choking – I really did. The sunlight was too bright and the sky was too blue and the grass was too green. And the buildings were right out on the surface. I’ll never forget the time they tried to get me to sleep in a room twenty stories up in the air, with the window wide open and the moon shining in.
‘I went back on the first spaceship going my way and don’t ever intend returning. How are you feeling now?’
‘Fine! Splendid!’ Now that the first discomfort had gone, Orloff found the low gravity exhilarating. He looked about him. The broken, hilly ground, bathed ip. a drenching yellow light, was covered with ground-hugging broad-leaved shrubs that showed the orderly arrangement of careful cultivation.
Birnam answered the unspoken question, ‘There’s enough carbon dioxide in the air to keep the plants alive, and they all have the power to fix atmospheric nitrogen. That’s what makes agriculture Ganymede’s greatest industry. Those plants are worth their weight in gold as fertilizers back on Earth and worth double or triple that as sources for half a hundred alkaloids that can’t be gotten anywhere else in the System. And, of course, everyone knows that Ganymedan green-leaf has Terrestrial tobacco beat hollow.’
There was the drone of a strato-rocket overhead, shrill in the thin atmosphere, and Orloff looked up.
He stopped – stopped dead – and forgot to breathe!
