"Gordon R. Dickson - 8 Short Stories and Novellas" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

starved for raw materials. All this because to venture out on the
Lugh-owned seas was sheer suicide. Their civilization was still in the
candlelit, domestic-beast-powered stage, although they were further
advanced in theory.
The Lugh, on the other hand, with the overwhelming resources of the
oceans at their disposal, had by their watery environment been prohibited
from developing a chemistry. The sea-girt islands and the uninhabited land
masses were open to there; but, being already on the favorable end of the
current status quo, they had had no great need or urge to develop further.
What science they had come up with had been mainly for the purpose of
keeping the Tomah in their place.
The human sociologists had given their opinion that the conflicts between
the two races were no longer based on valid needs. They were, in fact,
hangovers from competition in more primitive times when both peoples
sought to control the seashores and marginal lands. To the Tomah in those
days (and still), access to the seas had meant a chance to tap a badly
needed source of food; and to the Lugh (no longer), access to the shore
had meant possession of necessary breeding grounds. In the past the
Tomah had attempted to clear the Lugh from their path by exterminating
their helpless land-based young. And the Lugh had tried to starve the
Tomah out, by way of retaliation.
The problem was to bury these ancient hatreds and prove cooperation
was both practical and profitable. The latest step in this direction was to
invite representatives of both races to a conference at the human Base on
the uninhabited southern continent of this particular hemisphere. The
humans would act as mediator, since both sides were friendly toward them.
Which was what caused Chuck to be at the controls now, with his two
markedly dissimilar passengers in the bins behind him.
Unfortunately, the sudden appearance of Member Thomas Wagnall
meant they were getting impatient back home. In fact, he could not have
come at a worse time. Human prestige with the two races was all humanity
had to work with; and it was a delicate thing. And now had arisen this
suddenly new question in Chuck's mind as to whether Binichi had regarded
his promise to start no trouble with the Tomah as an ironclad guaranty, or a
mere casual agreement contingent upon a number of unknown factors.
The question acquired its full importance a couple of hours later, and
forty thousand feet above nothing but ocean, when the main burners
abruptly cut out.
 Illustration by RICK BRYANT


II

Chuck wiped blood from his nose and shook his head to clear it.
Underneath him, the life raft was rocking in soothing fashion upon the wide
swell of the empty ocean; but, in spite of the fact that he knew better, he
was having trouble accepting the reality of his present position.
Everything had happened a little too fast. His training for emergency
situations of this sort had been semi-hypnotic. He remembered now a blur
of action in which he had jabbed the distress button to send out an