A
TRANSMUTATION
OF MUDDLES
By H. B. FYFE
Illustrated by Van Dongen
he rugged little stellarscout ship flared downto the surface of KappaOrionis VII about amile from the aboriginalvillage. The pilot, LieutenantEric Haruhiku, scorched an openfield, but pointed out to Louis Maynethat he had been careful to disturbneither woodland nor shoreline.
"The Kappans are touchy aboutthose, Judge," he explained, "Theyfish a lot, as you'd guess from allthese shallow seas, and they pickfruit in the forests; but they don'tfarm much."
"No use provoking trouble," Mayneapproved. "It's a long way fromRigel."
"It's a longer way from Sol," saidthe pilot.
"Don't I know, boy! If it weren't,I'd be just another retired space captain,quietly struggling with my ranchon Rigel IX. As it is, to get the grant,I had to remain on call as an arbitrator."
"Somebody has to settle thesethings," said Haruhiku. "There's notmuch law way out here, except whatthe Space Force can apply. Well, ifyou'll excuse me, sir, I'll have themget out the helicopter and take usover to the village."
"Let me see that last messageagain, before you go," Mayne requested.
The pilot extracted a sheet fromhis clipboard and handed it to Mayneas he left. Mayne studied the textwith little pleasure.
Terran Space Force headquarterson Rigel IX wished to inform himthat the long awaited envoy fromTerra to Kappa Orionis VII not onlyhad arrived but had departed twodays behind Mayne.
It was hoped, the communicationcontinued, that nothing would interferewith the desired objective ofcoming to some friendly agreementwith the Kappans that would permitTerran use of the planet as a base forspaceships. The envoy, of course, wasprepared to offer trade inducementsand various other forms of help to thesemi-civilized natives. Mayne was requestedto lay whatever groundworkhe could.
In my spare time, no doubt, hereflected. I'm to settle this silly businessany way at all—as long as thenatives get their way. But has anybodytold the government about insurancecompanies? If it costs moneyor a lawsuit, will they back me up?
He felt himself to be in a ridiculousdilemma. The Kappans were reportedto have seized a Terran spaceshipas it landed to trade. Naturally,the captain had squawked for help.He claimed he had crashed; his insurancecompany thought otherwise;the Kappans seemed to have someentirely different idea in mind. Maynehad been summoned into action torender a decision, after the rough andready system of these settlements onthe surface of Terra's sphere of exploredspace.
Regretfully, he made his way nowto the cubbyhole allowed him on thecramped scout, where he changed toa more formal tunic of a bright bluehe hoped would look impressive tonative eyes. By the time he was ready,the helicopter was waiting. He andHaruhiku entered, and the crewmanat the controls took off for the sceneof the dispute.
Arriving over the village, they hovereda few minutes while Haruhikustudied the lay of the land. The lieutenanthad been to this world before,long enough to pick up some of thelanguage and customs, so Mayne wascontent to follow his advice aboutlanding a little way off from a spaceshipthat towered outside the village.
They came down about a hundredyards away, between a rutted s