performs her daily contortions and, on Happiness, there has been another Extraordinary Convention of the Senate.
Chapter Seven
The very brevity of the Happiness Senate meeting gives some indication of its Members increasing anxiety.
The Meeting had been called by the Spokesman when the son of the Member for North Three, Halk Fint, had failed to return from XE2 within the anticipated five days. By the time the Senate convened, the three mandatory days later, Halk Fint had still not returned, nor had any other communication been received from XE2.
At the Senate Meeting the Members decided, soberly and logically, that whoever had removed their moon had also been responsible for preventing Halk Fint’s ship from reaching XE2. Because, had Halk Fint’s ship reached XE2, then it, or another ship, would by now have been dispatched to Happiness.
They had eight spaceworthy ships left on the planet. The Senate decided to keep three ships in reserve and, in an attempt to outwit and outmanoeuvre whatever malign forces had stolen their moon and had abducted one of their sons, to send the remaining five ships into space at exactly the same time.
So it was, on the morning following Tulla Yorke’s interview with Munred Danporr, although it was night on that hemisphere of Happiness, that sixteen year old Belid Keal was sitting in her ship watching the countdown of the orange numerals on the screen before her.
Belid Keal was the kind of girl most easily described as cute. She had crinkly black hair, large round brown eyes, an upturned nose; and she smiled sweetly, was prone to tears.
Neither of Belid Keal’s parents being a Senate Member, Belid Keal did not know why she was going to XE2 nor the reason for the urgency. Indeed, at that moment, Belid Keal was sure of only one thing — that she would rather have been riding one of her horses than piloting a ship. Because, unlike Halk Fint, Belid Keal had no desire to leave the planet.
Belid Keal had but recently returned to Happiness, her home. To Belid Keal Space meant only being away from her parents and from her pets. Whether it had been the thought of her parents or her pets which had most contributed to her schoolgirl homesickness is open to question. Of one thing we can be certain — Belid had to be coerced into returning once more Out There.
For farmers hers was an unusually demonstrative family, emotional verging on the melodramatic.
“All I’ve been told,” her father solemnly laid both his hands on her thin shoulders, looked long into her tear-brimmed eyes, “is that all our lives may depend on your going.”
The family ship had originally been bought for her travel-hungry elder brother. He had long since left for Space. Belid’s mother and father hadn’t been in Space for over twenty five years. Belid was the only one on the farm with recent experience of piloting a ship; and there had been neither time enough nor opportunity to find another pilot.
Belid glanced nervously over to the lighted farm buildings. Her parents were watching her from the balcony that ran around the house. Their blue shadows loomed large on the white walls. Those gigantic shadows made her parents seem pathetically small.
Behind the house were the corrals for her horses. Belid knew that her horses were safe in their stalls: she had put them there herself, had given them fresh fodder. Nevertheless she worried that she may have left a door unlatched, that they would be frightened by the noise of her take off.
Those animals were not in fact horses. Like the crops on every planet which have to be bred from indigenous varieties — in order not to interfere, by adding an alien factor, to the natural evolution of the planet’s life forms — so there also exists an embargo on the importing of alien animals. For their domestic requirements, for sport and for pets, the inhabitants of each planet have to adapt the
Chapter Seven
The very brevity of the Happiness Senate meeting gives some indication of its Members increasing anxiety.
The Meeting had been called by the Spokesman when the son of the Member for North Three, Halk Fint, had failed to return from XE2 within the anticipated five days. By the time the Senate convened, the three mandatory days later, Halk Fint had still not returned, nor had any other communication been received from XE2.
At the Senate Meeting the Members decided, soberly and logically, that whoever had removed their moon had also been responsible for preventing Halk Fint’s ship from reaching XE2. Because, had Halk Fint’s ship reached XE2, then it, or another ship, would by now have been dispatched to Happiness.
They had eight spaceworthy ships left on the planet. The Senate decided to keep three ships in reserve and, in an attempt to outwit and outmanoeuvre whatever malign forces had stolen their moon and had abducted one of their sons, to send the remaining five ships into space at exactly the same time.
So it was, on the morning following Tulla Yorke’s interview with Munred Danporr, although it was night on that hemisphere of Happiness, that sixteen year old Belid Keal was sitting in her ship watching the countdown of the orange numerals on the screen before her.
Belid Keal was the kind of girl most easily described as cute. She had crinkly black hair, large round brown eyes, an upturned nose; and she smiled sweetly, was prone to tears.
Neither of Belid Keal’s parents being a Senate Member, Belid Keal did not know why she was going to XE2 nor the reason for the urgency. Indeed, at that moment, Belid Keal was sure of only one thing — that she would rather have been riding one of her horses than piloting a ship. Because, unlike Halk Fint, Belid Keal had no desire to leave the planet.
Belid Keal had but recently returned to Happiness, her home. To Belid Keal Space meant only being away from her parents and from her pets. Whether it had been the thought of her parents or her pets which had most contributed to her schoolgirl homesickness is open to question. Of one thing we can be certain — Belid had to be coerced into returning once more Out There.
For farmers hers was an unusually demonstrative family, emotional verging on the melodramatic.
“All I’ve been told,” her father solemnly laid both his hands on her thin shoulders, looked long into her tear-brimmed eyes, “is that all our lives may depend on your going.”
The family ship had originally been bought for her travel-hungry elder brother. He had long since left for Space. Belid’s mother and father hadn’t been in Space for over twenty five years. Belid was the only one on the farm with recent experience of piloting a ship; and there had been neither time enough nor opportunity to find another pilot.
Belid glanced nervously over to the lighted farm buildings. Her parents were watching her from the balcony that ran around the house. Their blue shadows loomed large on the white walls. Those gigantic shadows made her parents seem pathetically small.
Behind the house were the corrals for her horses. Belid knew that her horses were safe in their stalls: she had put them there herself, had given them fresh fodder. Nevertheless she worried that she may have left a door unlatched, that they would be frightened by the noise of her take off.
Those animals were not in fact horses. Like the crops on every planet which have to be bred from indigenous varieties — in order not to interfere, by adding an alien factor, to the natural evolution of the planet’s life forms — so there also exists an embargo on the importing of alien animals. For their domestic requirements, for sport and for pets, the inhabitants of each planet have to adapt the
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