This diplomat had to be treated with kid
gloves; my orders were clear on that. Trouble
was my instructions from Earth didn't cover—
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
October 1957
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
I picked up sealed orders at the Routing Desk of Space Service. Theywere addressed to Captain Johnny Martin of the spaceship 13-XV-1, whichis my name and my ship.
They said:
Proceed to Aldebaran VII at once. You are to pick up an Aldebaranianambassador and transfer him to Earth for high-level diplomatic talks.
You are to treat him with utmost courtesy. Relations between Earth andAldebaran VII are in a very delicate state at this time.
The ambassador informs us he plans to bring a pet with him to Earth.
Pets, huh? I snorted a little and folded the orders away in my pocket.Well, I supposed it came in the line of duty. If they ordered me toferry Aldebaranian pets, I'd ferry Aldebaranian pets. All in a day'swork, I told myself.
I stopped off and had a couple of beers before returning to the ship.Meersal, my First Officer, was waiting for me.
"Well? Pick up the orders?"
I nodded. "Yep. Got 'em right here." I unfolded them and handed themover to him.
He ran his eyes over them quizzically. "Hokay," he said. "I guess we goto Aldebaran, huh?"
Our instructions came in detail a little while later. We were to hoverover Aldebaran VII and give a special signal; a transfer-tug would comeup to us from the surface and hand the Ambassador and his pet over tous. Under no conditions were we to land on Aldebaran VII itself; thenatives would regard it as a breach of the truce that currently existedbetween their world and ours.
Okay, I thought. I didn't care.
I gave the orders to the crew at nightfall and we left Earth a littlepast midnight. Meersal had already instructed the astrogator about ournext destination and he had whipped up the course.
We did some hundred thousand miles on ion-drive and then, safely clearof the Earth's grav-field, converted over and popped into warp.Aldebaran lay three weeks ahead of us through hyperspace.
Earth and Aldebaran had first contact about 10 years before. I didn'tknow anything particular about the planet or its people—there areenough worlds in the galaxy so you don't get to know each type ofalien there is. We had a special cabin ready aboard the ship for theAldebaranian ambassador and his pet. Instructions told us to prepare aspecial fluorine atmosphere, which meant the Aldebaranians couldn't bemuch like us.
But they had agreed to negotiate a treaty of friendship with Earth andwere sending an ambassador. That was good news, I thought.
We popped out of warp right on schedule and there was the giant hazyred sun that was Aldebaran, staring us right in the face. It seemed tofill the entire sky.
Our astrogator plotted a course rapidly for Aldebaran VII, which wasthen at perihelion and a good ways across the heavens from where wewere. The Aldebaran system is a huge one—31 planets spread out oversix or seven billion miles of space.
Most of them were dead worlds, though. It was only Aldebaran VII thathad any sort of intelligent life, or so our survey teams reported.
It took three days more to get within hailing distance of the seventhplanet. It spun beneath us, a pretty blue-green ball about the size ofEarth.
We came within about a million miles and set up an orbit as perinstructions. No sooner had we done t