"Yes or no," I said.
"Yes, we can assimilate most of it," he said angrily. "There were six samples. Two were gelatinous substances, non-nutritive. Three were vegetable-like, bulky and fibrous, one with a high iodine content; the other was a very normal meaty specimen."
"Which should we take?" I said. "Remember your teeth when you answer."
"The high protein, the meaty one," he said. "Marked 'Six'."
I keyed for Mannion. "Tell them that in return for one thousand KWH we require three thousand kilos of sample six," I said.
Mannion reported back. "They agreed in a hurry, Captain. They seem to feel pretty good about the deal. They want to chat, now that they've got a bargain. I'm still taping a long tirade."
"Good," I said. "Better get ready to send about six men with an auxiliary pusher to bring home the bacon. You can start feeding them the juice again."
I turned to Kramer. He was staring at the screen. "Report yourself back to arrest in quarters, Kramer," I said. "I'll take your services today into account at your court-martial."
Kramer looked up, with a nasty grin. "I don't know what kind of talking oysters you're trafficking with, but I'd laugh like hell if they vaporized your precious tub as soon as they're through with you." He walked out.
Mannion called in again from communications. "Here's their last, Captain," he said. "They say we're lucky they had a good supply of this protein aboard. It's one of their most amusing foods. It's a creature they discovered in the wild state and it's very rare. The wild ones have died out, and only their domesticated herds exist."
"OK, we're lucky," I said. "It better be good or we'll step up the amperage and burn their batteries for them."
"Here's more," Mannion said. "They say it will take a few hours to prepare the cargo. They want us to be amused."
I didn't like the delay, but it would take us about ten hours to deliver the juice to them at the trickle rate they wanted. Since the sample was OK, I was assuming the rest would be too. We settled down to wait.
I left Clay in charge on the Bridge and made a tour of the ship. The meeting with the alien had apparently driven the mood of mutiny into the background. The men were quiet and busy. I went to my cabin and slept for a few hours.
I was awakened by a call from Clay telling me that the alien had released his cargo for us. Mannion's crew was out making the pick-up. Before they had maneuvered the bulky cylinder to the cargo hatch, the alien released our power lead.
I called Kramer and told him to meet the incoming crew and open and inspect the cargo. If it was the same as the sample, I thought, we had made a terrific trade. Discipline would recover if the men felt we still had our luck.
Then Mannion called again. "Captain," he said excitedly, "I think there may be trouble coming. Will you come down, sir?"
"I'll go to the Bridge, Mannion," I said. "Keep talking."
I turned my talker down low and listened to Mannion as I ran for the lift.
"They're transmitting again, Captain," he told me. "They tell us to watch for a display of Mancji power. They ran out some kind of antenna. I'm getting a loud static at the top of my short wave receptivity."
I ran the lift up and as I stepped onto the Bridge I said, "Clay, stand by to fire."
As soon as the pick-up crew was reported in, I keyed the course corrections to curve us off sharply from the alien. I didn't know what he had, but I liked the idea of putting space between us. My P-missiles were still armed and locked.
Mannion called, "Captain, they say our fright is amusing, and quite justified."
I watched the starboard screens for the first sign of an attack. Suddenly the entire screen array went white, then blanked. Miller, who had been at the scanner searching over the alien ship at close range, reeled out of his seat, clutching at his eyes. "My God, I'm blinded," he shouted.
Mannion called, "Captain, my receivers blew. I think every tube in the shack exploded!"
I jumped to the direct viewer. The alien hung there, turning away from us in a leisurely curve. There was no sign of whatever had blown us off the air. I held my key, but didn't press it. I told Clay to take Miller down to sick bay. He was moaning and in severe pain.
Kramer reported in from the cargo deck. The canister was inside now, coating up with frost. I told him to wait, then sent Chilcote, my demolition man, in to open it. Maybe it was booby-trapped. I stood by at the DVP and waited for other signs of Mancji power to hit us.
Apparently they were satisfied with one blast of whatever it was; they were dwindling away with no further signs of life.
After half an hour of tense alertness, I ordered the missiles disarmed.
I keyed for General. "Men, this is the captain," I said. "It looks as though our first contact with an alien race has been successfully completed. He is now at a distance of three hundred and moving off fast. Our screens are blown, but there's no real damage. And we have a supply of fresh food aboard; now let's get back to business. The colony can't be far off."
That may have been rushing it some, but if the food supply we'd gotten was a dud, we were finished anyway.
We watched the direct-view screen till the ship was lost, then followed on radar.
"It's moving right along, Captain," Ryan said, "accelerating at about two gees."
"Good riddance," Clay said. "I don't like dealing with armed maniacs."
"They were screwballs, all right," I said, "but they couldn't have happened along at a better time. I only wish we had been in a position to squeeze a few answers out of them."
"Yes, sir," Clay said. "Now that the whole thing's over, I'm beginning to think of a lot of questions myself."
The talker hummed. I heard what sounded like hoarse breathing. I glanced at the indicator light. It was cargo deck.
I keyed. "If you have a report, Chilcote, go ahead," I said.
Suddenly someone was shouting into the talker, incoherently. I caught words, cursing. Then Chilcote's voice. "Captain," he said. "Captain, please come quick." There was a loud clatter, more noise, then only the hum of the talker.
"Take over, Clay," I said, and started back to the cargo deck at a dead run.
Men crowded the corridor, asking questions. I forced my way through, found Kramer surrounded by men, shouting.
"Break this up," I shouted. "Kramer, what's your report?"
Chilcote walked past me, pale as chalk.
"Get hold of yourself, and make your report, Kramer," I said. "What started this riot?"
Kramer stopped shouting, and stood looking at me, panting. The crowded men fell silent.
"I gave you a job to do, Major," I said, "opening a cargo can. Now you take it from there."
"Yeah, Captain," he said. "We got it open. No wires, no traps. We hauled the load out of the can onto the floor. It was one big frozen mass, wrapped up in some kind of netting. Then we pulled the covering off."
"All right, go ahead," I said.
"That load of fresh meat your star-born pals gave us consists of about six families of human beings; men, women, and children." Kramer was talking for the crowd now, shouting. "Those last should be pretty tender when you ration out our ounce a week, Captain."
The men were yelling, wide-eyed, open-mouthed, as I thrust through to the cargo lock. The door stood ajar and wisps of white vapor curled out into the passage.
I stepped through the door. It was bitter cold in the lock. Near the outer hatch the bulky canister, rimed with white frost, lay in a pool of melting ice. Before it lay the half-shrouded bulk that it had contained. I walked closer.