“I think they do,” replied Aucoin quietly.

“How, in the name of all that’s sensible?” snapped Mersereau. “Here all along we’ve—” Easy held up her hand, and either the gesture or the expression on her face caused Boyd to fall silent.

“What other procedure which you could conscientiously recommend would stand any real chance of saving either the Kwembly herself, or her two helmsmen, or the rest of Dondragmer’s crew?” she asked.

Aucoin had the grace to flush deeply, but he answered steadily enough.

“I mentioned it earlier, as Boyd remembers,” he said. “Sending the Kalliff from the Settlement to pick them up.

The words were followed by some seconds of silence, while expressions of amusement flitted across the faces around the table. Eventually Ib Hoffman spoke.

“Do you suppose Barlennan will approve?” he asked innocently.

“It boils down to this,” Dondragmer said to Kabremm. “We can stay here and do nothing while Barlennan sends a rescue bruiser from the Settlement. I assume he can think of some reason for sending one which won’t sound too queer, after he failed to do it for the Esket.”

“That would be easy enough,” returned the Esket’s first officer. “One of the human beings was against sending it, and the commander simply let him win the argument. This time he could be firmer.”

“As though the first time wouldn’t have made some of the other humans suspicious enough. But never mind that. If we wait, we don’t know how long it will be, since we don’t even know whether there’s a possible ground route from the Settlement to here. You came from the mines by air, and we floated part of the way.

“If we decide not to wait, we can do either of two things. One is to move by stages toward the Kwembly, carrying the life equipment as far as the suits will let us and then setting it up again to recharge them. We’d get there some time, I suppose. The other is to move the same way toward the Settlement to meet the rescue cruiser if one comes or get there on foot if it doesn’t. I suppose we’d even get there, eventually. Even if we reach the Kwembly, there is no certainty that we can repair her; if the human beings have relayed Beetchermarlf’s feelings at all adequately, it seems rather doubtful. I don’t like either choice because of the wasted time they both involve. There are better things to do than crawl over the surface of this world on foot.

“A better idea, to my way of thinking, is to use your dirigible either to rescue my helmsmen if it is decided to give up on the Kwembly, or to start ferrying my crew and equipment over to where she is.”

“But that—”

“That, of course, sinks the raft as far as the Esket act is concerned. Even using Reffel’s helicopter would do that; we couldn’t explain what happened to the vision set he was carrying without their seeing through it, no matter what lie you think up. I’m simply not sure that the trick is worth the deliberate sacrifice of those lives, though I admit it’s worth the risk, of course; I wouldn’t have gone along with it otherwise.”

“So I heard,” returned Kabremm. “No one has been able to make you see the risk of being completely dependent on beings who can’t possibly regard us as real people.”

“Quite right. Remember that some of them are as different from each other, as they are from us. I made up my mind about the aliens the time one of them answered my question about a differential hoist clearly and in detail, and threw in my first lesson in the use of mathematics in science, gratis. I realize the humans differ among themselves as we do; certainly the one who talked Ban out of sending help to the Esket must be as different as possible from Mrs. Hoffman or Charles Lackland — but I don’t and never will distrust them as a species the way you seem to. I don’t think Barlennan really does, either; he’s changed the subject more than once rather than argue the point with me, and that’s not Barlennan when he’s sure he’s right. I still think it would be a good idea to lower the sails on this act and ask directly for human help with the Kwembly. or at least take a chance on their finding out by using all three dirigibles there.”

“There aren’t three, any more.” Kabremm knew the point was irrelevant, but was rather glad of a chance to change the subject. “Karfrengin and four men have been missing in the Elsh for two of this world’s days.”

“That news hadn’t reached me, of course,” said Dondragmer. “How did the commander react to it? I should think that even he would be feeling the temptation to ask for human help, if we’re starting to lose personnel all over the map.

“He hasn’t heard about it, either. We’ve had ground parties out searching, using trucks we salvaged from the Esket, and we didn’t want to make a report until it could be a complete one.”

“How much more complete could it be? Karfrengin and his men must be dead by now. The dirigibles don’t carry life-support gear for two days.”

Kabremm gave the rippling equivalent of a shrug. “Take it up with Destigmet. I have troubles enough.”

“Why wasn’t your flyer used for the search?”

“It was, until this evening. There are other troubles at the mine, though. A sort of ice river is coming, very slowly, but it will soon cover the whole second settlement if it doesn’t stop. It’s already reached the Esket and started to tip it over; that’s why we were able to salvage the trucks so easily. Destigmet sent me to follow back up the glacier and try to find out whether it is likely to keep coming indefinitely, or was just a brief event. I really shouldn’t have come this far, but I couldn’t make myself stop. It’s this same river for the whole distance, sometimes solid and sometimes liquid along the way; it’s the weirdest thing I’ve seen yet on this weird world. There isn’t a chance of the ice’s stopping, and the Esket settlement is as good as done for.”

“And of course Barlennan hasn’t heard about this either.”

“There’s been no way to tell him. We only discovered the ice was moving just before dark. It was just a cliff a few dozen cables from the mine up to then.”

“In other words, we’ve lost not only my first officer and a helicopter but a dirigible with five men, and as an afterthought the whole Esket project, with my Kwembly probably on the same list. And you still think we shouldn’t end this trickery, tell the human beings the whole story, and get their help?”

“More than ever. If they learn we’re having this much trouble, they’ll probably decide we’re no more use to them and abandon us here.”

“Nonsense. No one just abandons an investment like this project; but never mind arguing; it’s a futile point anyway I wish—”

“What you really wish is that you had an excuse for leaking the whole barrel to your oxygen-breathing friends.”

“You know I wouldn’t do that. I’m quite ready to use my own judgment in the field, but I know enough history to be afraid of making spot-changes in basic policy.”

“Thank goodness. It’s all right to like some humans, but they’re not all like the Hoffman one. You admitted that yourself.”

“What it boils down to,” Barlennan said to Bendivence, “is that we were much too hasty in sending Deeslenver to the Esket with orders to shutter its vision sets. The whole Esket question seems to have quieted down, and that will bring it to life again. We’re not ready for the main act yet, and won’t be for a year on more. I wasn’t sorry for the chance to start the human beings thinking along the lines of a native-menace idea, but Destigmet’s crew won’t be able to play the part until they have a lot more home-made mechanical and electrical equipment, things that the humans know we don’t have. Certainly, unless the native menace seems real, the human beings aren’t very likely to take the steps we want.