
Part 1
Two weary spacefarers, Fannia and Donnaught, drift twenty light‑years from their destination with only a trickle of transformer fuel left. A battered Galactic Pilot guide points them to an uninhabited plain on the planet Cascella, where a cache of the precious fuel is supposedly hidden. Their mission is simple: land, refuel, and leave—no detours, no diplomacy.
When they touch down, however, they discover a bustling settlement encircling the cache, its residents armed with an astonishing array of blades. The locals, though outwardly fierce, are described in the survey as “friendly” and bound by a curious social order that defies the crew’s expectations. As the pair don their armor and attempt a cautious greeting, they must decide whether to trust the alien customs or prepare for a clash, all while the clock ticks down on their dwindling reserves.
Language
en
Duration
~23 minutes (23K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Release date
Jul 30, 2009
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1928–2005
Known for sharp, funny science fiction that could turn absurd in an instant, his stories mixed satire with big speculative ideas. He became one of the standout short-story writers to emerge from the magazine boom of the 1950s.
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