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He guessed the Chamco brothers usually had their canopy curtains closed, because even though the curtains were now open they had lights burning. He put on an air mask a pilot had handed him.
Jo
The Chamcos had stopped working and were sitting still, looking at him. They were not in any way hostile but they didn't greet him.
“I came to see what progress you were making in rebuilding the transshipment rig,” said Jo
They didn't say anything. Was the smaller Chamco brother looking a little wary?
"If you need any materials or anything,” said Jo
The bigger Chamco brother said, “The whole rig was burned out. The console. Everything. Destroyed.”
“Well, yes,” said Jo
“Very difficult,” said the smaller Chamco brother. Were his eyes a little strange or was it just a Psychlo being a Psychlo?
“We ought to rebuild it,” said Jo
“Takes a long time,” said the bigger Chamco. Were his eyes looking a little strange? But then the amber orbs of a Psychlo always had tiny flames in them.
“I have been trying to figure it out,” said Jo
The smaller Chamco sprang!
The bigger Chamco leaped up from his desk and charged.
They were roaring.
Jo
He saw an enormous paw blurring in the air, coming at him.
He knelt and did a left-handed draw. Talons raked the side of his face.
Jo
The recoil threw him back against the door and he tried to push into the atmosphere lock. It seemed jammed, frozen.
Flat on his back, a boot stamping down to crush his ribs, he fired up from the floor.
The boot blurred away.
A furry pair of paws were coming at his throat!
The roars were berserk.
Jo
Somehow he got to his knee. The two gigantic bodies were falling back, falling down. Jo
Both of them were flat on the floor.
The smaller Chamco brother was thoroughly stu
It was all happening too fast. Jo
The bigger Chamco had a small blast gun. But he wasn't trying to aim it at Jo
He was trying to commit suicide!
The howling maelstrom of action had passed. Jo
Damn, not having a right hand and arm! He couldn't at once recover his cane. He hopped sideways and leaned against the canopy wall.
Smoke was thick in the room, curling around the breathe-gas exhaust vents. He was half-deaf from all the roaring and snarling and the blasts of the gun in this confined space.
Whew! What was that all about? There they lay. But why the attack?
The atmosphere lock door revolved and Colonel Ivan and a sentry burst through.
“Don't fire those rifles!” warned Jo
“We couldn't find air masks!” howled the guard, hysterical. Then he tore out to find shackles.
Colonel Ivan adjusted his own air mask a hitch to better look at the two Psychlos sprawled on the floor. They looked like they were out, but Jo
He gestured at the breathe-masks of the Psychlos, which were hanging on a coat tree. Colonel Ivan grabbed them and put them on the unconscious Chamcos. Jo
Sentries finally could rush in, chains and shackles rattling and clanging, and get them onto the Chamcos.
Jo
He hobbled to Windsplitter and mounted.
The crowd was talking to one another. Guards were trying to work. “Why did he attack those Psychlos?" “They attacked him.” “Why did they fight?” “Look out, here comes a flatbed and forklift, please stand aside.” “I don't blame Jo
“Could we have some help here with these bodies?” “Why did they let him go in there?” “How come they attacked him?” “I have heard that these Psychlos..." “But I saw him; he was being very pleasant and they charged him. Why would they do that?”
Jo
“They were supposed to be tame Psychlos! Why did they attack him?” More crowd talk.
Jo
Well, there had been about fifteen picto-recorders using up discs ever since he had stepped off the plane. An Argyll rushed up waving one. “Can somebody copy that for me?” asked Jo
Oh, yes, sir, right away! And they had copies of it before he hoisted himself off Windsplitter and into the plane. He was going to study these.
“Wave,” said Robert the Fox.
Jo
Back at the base that night, just after di
There might have been more, but Jo
The Russians laughed about that, repeating it for days and days thereafter.
It had been a rather energetic first day out.
There was a repercussion. Three days later he received a confidential written message from the Council. He did not think much about it at the time, not being unduly sensitive.
Later he would look back on it as a turning point and criticize himself for not realizing how ominous it was.
The message was very correct, very polite, passed by a slim majority. It was brief:
By Council Resolution, in the interest of his personal safety and to curtail any embarrassment, realizing his value to the State, it is decreed that Jo
Duly passed on voice vote and certified as legal.
Oscar Khamerma
Jo