important.”
CHAPTER XI
H ORN FELT LIKE the hero of one of the fairy-tales he remembered from his childhood, who had come into possession of a charm that opened any door. He had foreseen all sorts of difficulties when he tried to cope on his own after reaching Newholme. Thanks to Talibrand’s certificate and Dize’s generosity, he found himself being helped at every turn and warned of problems he had never suspected might exist.
Studying the certificate, he noticed something he had previously overlooked, which meant that a long stay on Newholme would be a waste of time under any circumstances even if he had not already decided to move on to Creew ’n Dith as soon as possible. Newholme was unique—apart from Earth, of course—among the many worlds which Talibrand had visited: he had been to it only once. It followed logically that his regular business, whatever that was, had never brought him this way. His most frequent calls had been made on his home planet, on Vernier, Lygos and Arthworld.
What could he have been on the trail of? Well, perhaps the answer could be found on Creew ’n Dith.
According to a map of the occupied galaxy which he borrowed from Dize, that was the world just beyond the regular liner routes. If he had wanted to go to a nearer system, he could have done so on comparatively luxurious vessels; there were plenty of travelers to support scheduled passenger services, mainly sales representatives and import-export agents, plus a few exceptionally wealthy tourists and a trickle of diplomats and other officials.
But when Dize had finished his check at the spaceport, he returned home to report that the only ship going straight from here to Creew ’n Dith in the next month or more was a freighter carrying another consignment of robots, a good few of which were actually products of Horn & Horn. There was no other flight scheduled on that route at all.
“Hmmm!” Horn combed his new beard with his fingers, cogitating over the map. He had just been struck by the fact that there was a fringe of uncertainty fifty or sixty systems off, where the names of worlds were spelled phonetically and followed by a query, or entered in brackets against more than one star because it was not known exactly which they circled. That, more than anything else, brought it home to him that when human beings referred to “the galaxy” they were actually talking about a very small portion of it comparatively close to Earth.
“This freighter carrying robots to Creew ’n Dith, now,” he mused aloud. “Would it also be bringing androids in the opposite direction?”
“Very likely,” Dize shrugged. “You can fit three androids in the space you need for eight crated robots, which must about correspond to their relative costs, because that’s the way it’s been since before I entered the space service. Economically it’s a hell of a stable trade, and a good one for the people who work in it.”
Horn raised his eyes from contemplation of the map, and whistled. In that case Rowl, the
imported
android, must already have been one among many when he was bought by the Horn family. If Larrow’s ship alone was delivering nearly ten thousand annually over the last leg of their voyage to Earth, androids from the outworlds must be absolutely pouring in!
“Well, that suggests an explanation for Talibrand confidinghis precious certificate to an android, I guess,” he said at length. “If Dordy was imported, maybe he’d learned on his way to Earth how important a galactic citizen’s work was, whereas hardly anyone else on the planet would have heard of such people. Interesting! But never mind that.”
He leaned forward. “Now you said this ship bound for Creew ’n Dith was carrying some of our robots?”
“A fair slice of the cargo we ourselves brought out last trip,” Dize nodded. “Plus a bunch of others made here on Newholme.”
“Cheaper?”
“Sure, a lot cheaper.”
“And from what you’ve told me about
CHAPTER XI
H ORN FELT LIKE the hero of one of the fairy-tales he remembered from his childhood, who had come into possession of a charm that opened any door. He had foreseen all sorts of difficulties when he tried to cope on his own after reaching Newholme. Thanks to Talibrand’s certificate and Dize’s generosity, he found himself being helped at every turn and warned of problems he had never suspected might exist.
Studying the certificate, he noticed something he had previously overlooked, which meant that a long stay on Newholme would be a waste of time under any circumstances even if he had not already decided to move on to Creew ’n Dith as soon as possible. Newholme was unique—apart from Earth, of course—among the many worlds which Talibrand had visited: he had been to it only once. It followed logically that his regular business, whatever that was, had never brought him this way. His most frequent calls had been made on his home planet, on Vernier, Lygos and Arthworld.
What could he have been on the trail of? Well, perhaps the answer could be found on Creew ’n Dith.
According to a map of the occupied galaxy which he borrowed from Dize, that was the world just beyond the regular liner routes. If he had wanted to go to a nearer system, he could have done so on comparatively luxurious vessels; there were plenty of travelers to support scheduled passenger services, mainly sales representatives and import-export agents, plus a few exceptionally wealthy tourists and a trickle of diplomats and other officials.
But when Dize had finished his check at the spaceport, he returned home to report that the only ship going straight from here to Creew ’n Dith in the next month or more was a freighter carrying another consignment of robots, a good few of which were actually products of Horn & Horn. There was no other flight scheduled on that route at all.
“Hmmm!” Horn combed his new beard with his fingers, cogitating over the map. He had just been struck by the fact that there was a fringe of uncertainty fifty or sixty systems off, where the names of worlds were spelled phonetically and followed by a query, or entered in brackets against more than one star because it was not known exactly which they circled. That, more than anything else, brought it home to him that when human beings referred to “the galaxy” they were actually talking about a very small portion of it comparatively close to Earth.
“This freighter carrying robots to Creew ’n Dith, now,” he mused aloud. “Would it also be bringing androids in the opposite direction?”
“Very likely,” Dize shrugged. “You can fit three androids in the space you need for eight crated robots, which must about correspond to their relative costs, because that’s the way it’s been since before I entered the space service. Economically it’s a hell of a stable trade, and a good one for the people who work in it.”
Horn raised his eyes from contemplation of the map, and whistled. In that case Rowl, the
imported
android, must already have been one among many when he was bought by the Horn family. If Larrow’s ship alone was delivering nearly ten thousand annually over the last leg of their voyage to Earth, androids from the outworlds must be absolutely pouring in!
“Well, that suggests an explanation for Talibrand confidinghis precious certificate to an android, I guess,” he said at length. “If Dordy was imported, maybe he’d learned on his way to Earth how important a galactic citizen’s work was, whereas hardly anyone else on the planet would have heard of such people. Interesting! But never mind that.”
He leaned forward. “Now you said this ship bound for Creew ’n Dith was carrying some of our robots?”
“A fair slice of the cargo we ourselves brought out last trip,” Dize nodded. “Plus a bunch of others made here on Newholme.”
“Cheaper?”
“Sure, a lot cheaper.”
“And from what you’ve told me about
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