Missing Link | Page 3

R&R intercepted a routine request
for an agent-instructor to be assigned here with full equipment. Request
signed by a First-Contact officer name of Diston ... of the Delphinus!"
"But the Del--"
"Yeah. Missing. The request was a forgery. Now you see why I'm
mostly for rubbing out this place. Who'd dare forge such a thing unless
he knew for sure that the original FC officer was missing ... or dead?"
"What the jumped up mazoo are we doing here, Stet?" asked Orne.
"Alien calls for a full contact team with all of the--"
"It calls for one planet-buster bomb ... buster--in five days. Unless you
give them a white bill in the meantime. High Commissioner Bullone
will have word of this planet by then. If Gienah III still exists in five
days, can't you imagine the fun the politicians'll have with it? Mama
mia! We want this planet cleared for contact or dead before then."
"I don't like this, Stet."
"YOU don't like it!"

"Look," said Orne. "There must be another way. Why ... when we
teamed up with the Alerinoids we gained five hundred years in the
physical sciences alone, not to mention the--"
"The Alerinoids didn't knock over one of our survey ships first."
"What if the Delphinus just crashed here ... and the locals picked up the
pieces?"
"That's what you're going in to find out, Orne. But answer me this: If
they do have the Delphinus, how long before a tool-using race could be
a threat to the galaxy?"
"I saw that city they built, Stet. They could be dug in within six months,
and there'd be no--"
"Yeah."
Orne shook his head. "But think of it: Two civilizations that matured
along different lines! Think of all the different ways we'd approach the
same problems ... the lever that'd give us for--"
"You sound like a Uni-Galacta lecture! Are you through marching arm
in arm into the misty future?"
Orne took a deep breath. "Why's a freshman like me being tossed into
this dish?"
"You'd still be on the Delphinus master lists as an R&R field man.
That's important if you're masquerading."
"Am I the only one? I know I'm a recent convert, but--"
"You want out?"
"I didn't say that. I just want to know why I'm--"
"Because the bigdomes fed a set of requirements into one of their iron
monsters. Your card popped out. They were looking for somebody

capable, dependable ... and ... expendable!"
"Hey!"
"That's why I'm down here briefing you instead of sitting back on a
flagship. I got you into the I-A. Now, you listen carefully: If you push
the panic button on this one without cause, I will personally flay you
alive. We both know the advantages of an alien contact. But if you get
into a hot spot, and call for help, I'll dive this cruiser into that city to get
you out!"
Orne swallowed. "Thanks, Stet. I'm--"
* * * * *
"We're going to take up a tight orbit. Out beyond us will be five
transports full of I-A marines and a Class IX Monitor with one
planet-buster. You're calling the shots, God help you! First, we want to
know if they have the Delphinus ... and if so, where it is. Next, we want
to know just how warlike these goons are. Can we control them if
they're bloodthirsty. What's their potential?"
"In five days?"
"Not a second more."
"What do we know about them?"
"Not much. They look something like an ancient Terran chimpanzee ...
only with blue fur. Face is hairless, pink-skinned." Stetson snapped a
switch. The translite map became a screen with a figure frozen on it.
"Like that. This is life size."
"Looks like the missing link they're always hunting for," said Orne.
"Yeah, but you've got a different kind of a missing link."
"Vertical-slit pupils in their eyes," said Orne. He studied the figure. It
had been caught from the front by a mini-sneaker camera. About five
feet tall. The stance was slightly bent forward, long arms. Two vertical

nose slits. A flat, lipless mouth. Receding chin. Four-fingered hands. It
wore a wide belt from which dangled neat pouches and what looked
like tools, although their use was obscure. There appeared to be the tip
of a tail protruding from behind one of the squat legs. Behind the
creature towered the faery spires of the city they'd observed from the
air.
"Tails?" asked Orne.
"Yeah. They're arboreal. Not a road on the whole planet that we can
find. But there are lots of vine lanes through the jungles." Stetson's face
hardened. "Match that with a city as advanced as that one."
"Slave culture?"
"Probably."
"How many cities have they?"
"We've found two. This one and another on the other side of the planet.