“Your decision, Controller. What is it?” #101 | | |
“My decision?” Kenton blinked then remembered. “An inquiry will be held first thing in the morning.” #102 | | |
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Jelkson was rubbing it in. He was taking his revenge for the implied insult and Kenton knew it. The decision had been Jelkson’s all the time. #104 | | |
“Use your discretion,” snapped Kenton and passed from the building. #105 | | |
Outside he paused, looking up at the moon-bright sky, and felt a sudden overwhelming nostalgia. #106 | | |
Damn Jelkson! Damn Lubridgida! Damn everything all to hell! #107 | | |
He wanted to go home. #108 | | |
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Take a faster-than-light drive that converts a light year of distance into two days of travel and you have solved the problem of transportation. Take radio that still obeyed the electro-magnetic restriction of the speed of light and you have a problem in communication. Take planets that, while earth-like in most respects, were utterly alien when it came to the chemical structure of their vegetation and you have the biggest problem of all. #110 | | |
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Man could traverse the galaxy and find oxygen and water on a million worlds. He could find edible food only on one—his own. Trace elements did it. Feed an apple tree minute quantities of selenium and the tree will sicken and then recover as it assimilates the new mineral. Eat an apple from such a tree and you will die. Vegetation can adapt to poisonous elements in the soil but the fruits of such vegetation are lethal to human life. #112 | | |
And not one discovered planet other than Earth had just the right combination of soil elements that produced food acceptable to the human metabolism. Some had too-high quantities of selenium, others were loaded with arsenic, tungsten, copper; none of them were just right. #113 | | |
There was nothing strange about it and neither was it unique. Every race that ventured into space found the same problem and all had solved it in the same way. To carry food in bulk was too expensive, too wasteful of cargo space, and hopelessly impracticable in view of the rising populations and the long journeys. Se they grew their own food where it was needed. #114 | | |
Hydroponic farms grew edible food isolated from alien environments. Chemicals for the nutrient solutions were mined, refined and purified from local sources. Fresh seeds were imported from tested stock direct from Earth in exchange for the mineral wealth essential for a top-heavy civilisation. It worked beautifully—until something went wrong. #115 | | |
Kenton had the uneasy conviction that something had, at last, gone wrong. #116 | | |
The inquiry was held in the rec-room, now cleared of all uninterested personnel. Jelkson, together with Susan, sat at one side of the table. Perchon, red-headed, freckled, normally cheerful but now glum, sat together with King, the accountant, at the other. Doctor Thorpe, present because of his long association and because he was a neutral observer, occupied the foot, while Kenton, as befitted the Controller, sat at the head. #117 | | |
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“Last night the entire tobacco crop in number seven was found to be infected with a virus disease and will have to be destroyed. The purpose of this inquiry is to find out how and why the crop became infected.” He looked at Perchon. “We may as well begin with you. What have you to say for yourself?” #119 | | |
“Me?” Perchon blinked. “I had nothing to do with it.” #120 | | |
“You were in charge of number seven,” said Kenton coldly. “To be in charge of anything means to take responsibility for what happens to it.” #121 | | |
“Now, wait a minute,” protested Perchon. “Remember all this is new to me. I only came in a little while ago. Just what is supposed to have happened?” #122 | | |
“Susan made a spot check late yesterday afternoon,” said Jelkson. “She discovered traces and I checked. Unfortunately there can be no doubt as to what is wrong.” #123 | | |
“Did you inspect the crop before going into town?” Kenton leaned a little forward as he asked the question. #124 | | |
“That depends on what you mean by ‘inspect’,” said Perchon. “I checked the temperature and the solution. I took a walk around for general impression but the crop looked healthy enough to me. If I had spotted something I would have reported it.” #125 | | |
“You left the plant about three,” said Kenton. “Susan checked about seven. It doesn’t seem likely to me that the disease would have manifested itself during those four hours.” #126 | | |
“Why not?” said Jelkson. “If the disease is a mutated virus, as I think possible, then anything can happen. Four hours, in our accelerated growth-cycle, would be ample time for the external symptoms to become apparent. Don’t forget that Susan was deliberately looking for trouble. Personally I consider that we were lucky in having caught it so early.” #127 | | |
“Lucky?” Kenton felt the muscle twitch high on his cheek. He looked at Perchon. “You are in charge of number seven. How is it that the crop became infected?” #128 | | |
“That isn’t a fair question,” snapped Jelkson, then fell silent at Kenton’s gesture. #129 | | |
“I was talking to Perchon, not you. Well? What are your excuses?” #130 | | |
“Do I need any?” Perchon’s voice reflected his anger. “If you knew anything about botany you’d know that things like this can happen all the time. Perhaps the seeds were irradiated during transit, or perhaps they weren’t taken from original stock, how do I know what caused it?” #131 | | |
“He’s right, Kenton,” said Jelkson. #132 | | |
“Is he?” Kenton lit a cigarette and glowered at the botanist. “Those seeds were government sealed Earth stock,” he gritted. “The building was, and is supposed to be, sterile. Now the crop has become infected and must be destroyed and yet you have the temerity to tell me how ‘lucky’ we are. Luck has nothing to do with it. The infection of the crop was due to sheer, incompetent negligence.” #133 | | |
“You realise what you are saying?” Jelkson glanced at the flushed face of Perchon then back at Kenton. “You are accusing Perchon of criminal negligence and sabotage. He is guilty of neither. I think that you should offer your apologies and, if you are a gentleman, you would think so yourself." #134 | | |
He was right. For a moment Kenton hesitated then, because Jelkson had made the suggestion, he ignored it. #135 | | |
“Apologies can wait,” he said grimly. “The fact remains that the crop is infected and it didn’t happen all by itself. Someone or something caused it. I’m afraid that I just can’t shrug off what happened as an act of God. Maybe you can but I can’t.” #136 | | |
“Perhaps that is because you do not believe in God,” said Jelkson quietly. “Frankly, I fail to see why you are so disturbed. We have lost crops before and probably will again. All we have to do is to sterilise and replant.” #137 | | |
“Simple,” agreed Kenton. “What with?” #138 | | |
“Fresh seed, of course.” Jelkson stared at the Controller. “We have fresh seed, I suppose?” #139 | | |
“Then you suppose wrong,” said King. He was a big, fat, jovial man and, as the accountant, he kept his fingers firmly on the pulse of finance. He looked at Kenton. “Seems that we’ll have to spill the beans, Dan. Want me to tell it?” #140 | | |
Kenton nodded. He settled back in his chair, the cigarette burning between his fingers, and watched the faces of those around the table. He was annoyed with himself to find that one face in particular was very hard to ignore. #141 | | |
Susan, as he had long ago decided, was very beautiful. #142 | | |
“None of you know this,” King said, “but we had a little trouble a while ago. Someone, we don’t know who, was careless and boxed up a few spores with the processed seed. I don’t have to tell you what happened.” #143 | | |
He didn’t. Lubridgida had a fecund vegetable life of its own consisting mainly of spore-bearing plants. The survival factor of the spores was so high that they would germinate on contact with any vegetable matter. #144 | | |
“Dan found out about it when he had the chance to do a trade for some alien seeds for the test vats. The swap was for tobacco. He called me to witness the deal and I was with him when the storeroom was opened. The trader, naturally, wanted to check. When we opened the box we found out what had happened.” #145 | | |
“Spores in the seed boxes?” Jelkson raised his eyebrows. “How did they get there?” #146 | | |
“That’s what we’d like to know,” said King grimly. “Incidentally, only the tobacco was ruined. Nothing else was touched. In view of that the recent crop failure needs investigation. We were relying on it to replenish our seed stock.” #147 | | |
“Incredible!” Jelkson shook his head as though he found it impossible to believe. “Coincidence, of course, but incredible just the same.” #148 | | |
“Coincidence?” King shrugged. “What makes you say that, Jelkson?” #149 | | |
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