Earth has three billion inhabitants and one and three quarters billion are working for the government and they still can"t keep up with the administration of colonies and stations in s.p.a.ce."
"One billion," corrected Ole Doc.
"Well, one billion. And they still can"t get our work out.
So they just said that the matter had been referred through the proper channels. Then I sent them a couple urgents and they still said it was being referred to proper channels. Maybe they forgot to dig those channels. Well anyway, that isn"t what I"m getting at. By some means or another I may be able to devise ways of raising up these infants. I"ve got three thousand Achnoids and I can always take a hunting rifle and go grab a chief hostage until I get two or three thousand more. They train quick. I haven"t got any nurses and none in sight and I have no doctors and what I know about infants" maladies is zero. But six months ago I figured I could pull through."
"And now you don"t?" said Ole Doc.
"Now I don"t. Now this whole thing has got me. I may be indulging in ma.s.s murder or something. Will they hang me if any of these kids die or something?"
"Well, I expect that a small loss would be excusable,"
said Ole Doc.
"Yes, but you see I didn"t pay any attention to these Achnoids. And now I think there"s the devil to pay. You see, all the fluids used and the strengths used and all were for lions. And that has radically altered things. At least something has. I thought that just a couple had got here by mistake and I didn"t know how and I got them born all right. But three days ago when I sent that emerg two things had happened. I found this whole shed full of babies and I found that they were all set to be born. And they had gestated only three months!"
"Hm-m-m," said Ole Doc, getting faintly interested.
"Well, I see what you"re excited about. A three months*
gestation on lion fluid would be liable to upset anyone I suppose. So-"
"Wait!" said the wild-eyed O"Hara. "That isn"t the prob- lem. I haven"t showed you the problem yet!"
"Not yet!" Ole Doc blinked in astonishment.
O"Hara led them rapidly out of the shed and into a big concrete compound. There was a trapdoor in one concrete
wall at the far end. O"Hara closed the gate behind them and got them into an observer"s box.
"This is where I test the fighting qualities of lions," he said. "I go get a catbeast and turn him loose in here and I let a young lion in on him. It"s a control test on the batch.
I pick a lion at random by number and let him in.
Mookah! Hey there. Mookah! Let go one catbeast!"
An Achnoid pinwheeled into view, cast respectful eyes at the observer"s box and began to take the pins out of a door. There were eight pins and he removed them all at once, one hand to a pin.
"Monstrosity," sniffed Hippocrates.
The Achnoid went sailing to safety over the wall and the cage door crashed open with a bang. Out of it stalked a beast with a purple hide and enormous, sharp-ranged jaws. It bounded into the arena, reared up on its hind legs to stand ten feet tall, waltzed furiously as it looked around for enemies and then settled back with a vicious, tail- lashing snarl.
"Pleasant character," said Ole Doc.
"That"s a small one," said O"Hara. "We couldn"t capture any large ones if we tried. Lost about fifty Achnoids to them already, I guess. O.K., Mookah! Let her go!"
Mookah wasn"t going to be down on the ground for this one. He had a wire attached to the door release which led into a shed. He pulled the wire. And out sauntered a c.o.c.ky half-pint of a kid, about the height of Hippoc- rates but of the physiological structure of a ten-year-old.
He was clad in a piece of hide which was belted around his waist and he had a pair of furred buskins on his feet.
His hair was wild and long and his eyes were wild and intelligent. Pugnacity was stamped upon him but there was a jauntiness as well. In his hand he carried a sling and on his wrist, hung by a thong, a knife.
"Whoa!" said Ole Doc. "Wait a minute! You"re not sacrificing that kid just for my amus.e.m.e.nt." And he had a blaster up so fast that only a lunge by O"Hara deflected his aim at the catbeast.
The kid looked curiously at the plowed hole the blast had made and then glanced disdainfully at the box.
O"Hara, recovered from the lunge hastily pushed a b.u.t.ton and got a bullet-proof shield in place.
"All right, all right," said Ole Doc. "I"ll stand here and watch murder." But he held the blaster ready just in case.
The catbeast had scented the enemy. He got up now
and began his waltz, going rapidly forward, his teeth audi- bly gnashing, his tail kicking up a cloud of dust. On he came. The kid stood where he was, only shifting his sling and putting something into its pocket.
The catbeast was hungry. It began to rave and its sides puffed like bellows. The stench of decayed meat floated up from it as it exhaled its breath in a thundering aa-um.
Hippocrates was decidedly interested. He glanced ex- citedly at Ole Doc and then back at the kid. But that glance had cost Hippocrates the best part of the show.
The kid let the sling spin and go. There was a sickening crunch of pierced and battered bone and the top of the catbeast"s head vanished in a fountain of blood and leaping brains.
Down went the catbeast
The kid walked forward, kicked the still gnashing jaw, grabbed what was left of an ear and hacked it off. He put the ear in his pocket, booted the convulsing catbeast in his expiring guts and turned to face the observation platform.
Then, in a flash, he put a chunk of steel into his sling and whipped it at the gla.s.s. The bullet-proof shield crawled with cracks and a shower of chips went forward from it.
The kid gave his "pants" a hitch, turned on his heel and strode back into the shed. The door was dropped. Mookah dropped into the arena and began to call for help to get the catbeast en route to the cookshack.
"I knew he"d shoot at us," said O"Hara. "The shield was for him, not for you, sir."
Ole Doc let out his breath with the realization that he must have been holding it for some time. "Well!"
"Now that"s my problem," said O"Hara. "There are eighteen thousand of them and they are all males. Sir, what in the name of all that"s holy have I done wrong?"
"Took a job with the United States Department of Agriculture," said Ole Doc.
"First I was very loving," said O"Hara. "There were only two of them in the lion shed and I thought they"d been overlooked somehow by these condemned Achnoids.
I didn"t know what had happened. I was puzzled but not really upset. Strange things occur out here on these far stations. So I took them into the house as soon as they were "born" and had a female Achnoid feed them with good cow"s milk. And they laid and cooed and I figured out life was a fine thing. And then I was gone on a month"s trip to the next continent to see how my plant
culture was doing there-planted a million square miles in redwoods-and when I came back I couldn"t find the Achnoid nurse and the house was in shreds. So they been out here ever since, confound them. For a while I thought they"d eaten the nurse but she finally came whimpering back home after two weeks lying in the bayonet gra.s.s. So here they are. They evidently mature quick."
"Evidently," said Ole Doc.
"Maybe they won"t be full grown for several years,"
said O"Hara. "But every day they get worse. That concrete blockhouse you see down there is just in case."
Ole Doc glanced down to where a dozen Achnoids were slaving in the harsh daylight, building what seemed an impregnable fortress. "Prison?" said Ole Doc.
"Refuge!" said O"Hara. "In six months or less this planet won"t be safe for Achnoids, catbeasts, sc.u.msnakes, gargantelephants, pluseagles or me!"
Ole Doc looked amusedly back at the Achnoids who were carting away the catbeast"s body. "Well, you"ve got one consolation-"
An Achnoid had come up from another shed labelled "Horses" and was giving O"Hara an excited account of something. O"Hara looked pale and near a swoon.
"I said," said Ole Doc, "that you at least have the consolation that it"s one generation only. With no females-"
"That"s just it," said O"Hara, tottering toward the horse incubation shed.