Six Blind Men & an Alien by Mike Resnick Read Free Book Online

so they had chosen the twenty most likely worlds. The requirements were simple enough: they had to circle a type G star at distances of forty to one hundred million miles, they had to have an oxygen content of between fifteen and thirty-five percent, they had to have at least a two-to-one ratio of water to land, they had to have a protective layer in the atmosphere to negate the effects of the star’s ultra-violet rays, and they had to be populated by life forms. Not necessarily sentient races, but by something which would act as proof that the worlds truly were habitable.
        Nibolante and his family were in the fourteenth group, which was to colonize the third planet of a yellow star, clearly a type G, that was well out on one of the spiral arms of the galaxy. They packed those goods they could not do without, and were ensconced on the huge ship when it took off on the appointed day.
        It would take just under four hundred days to reach the planet. During the voyage, there would be schooling not only for the children, but also for the colonists, teaching them a variety of survival methods until they could build and establish a thriving city. Enough neutrino activity had been observed that it was all but certain that the planet was populated by an industrialized civilization.
        They had entered the planet’s system, and Nibolante and Marbovi, his mate, were putting their two children through yet another exercise aboard a small landing craft when disaster struck. Something large collided with the ship, possibly a meteor, possibly a comet. Whatever it was, it blew a large hole in the hull, and air began rushing out. The ship lurched crazily, and an automated voice announced that the structure would disintegrate within thirty seconds.
        Nibolante knew no one could reach his landing craft in that time. In fact, most of them had already died from shock or asphyxiation. He rushed to the controls, cast off from the ship, and dared a look back just in time to see it vanish while still beyond the orbit of the outermost planet
        "That should have been us ," said Marbovi.
        "Just be glad that it wasnt," said Nibolante, trying to remember the lectures about how to pilot the craft in case of emergency, for which this surely qualified.
        "What are we to do?" she persisted. "There are only the four of us."
        "Our colony will be a little smaller than anticipated," answered Nibolante. "But we have no other option but to continue to our destination."
        "I didn’t bargain to be the mother of a new race," said Marbovi bitterly.
        "It might not be so bad," he said. "They’re sentient, and at least they haven’t damaged their planet the way we damaged ours."
        "Will there be anyone to play with?" asked Sallassine, his son.
        "Eventually," replied Nibolante. "I am certain that most sentient races are ultimately rational and friendly."
        "What does that mean?" asked Sallassine.
        "It means I think you will find playmates before long."
        "Me too?" asked his daughter hopefully.
        He smiled reassuringly at her. "You too."
        It took them three days to reach their destination, and they took up a high orbit, studying the world, trying to decide where to land. Nibolante and Marbovi were in the galley, eating, when Sallassine called out: "Come quickly!"
        Both parents, certain that one of the children was sick, raced to the control room. Cheenapo, their daughter, was playing with a favorite toy, and Sallassine was sitting before a viewscreen.
        "What is it?" demanded Nibolante.
        "Look," said Sallassine, pointing to the screen.
        Nibolante stared at the screen and frowned. The powerful camera showed a huge explosion on an island at the eastern end of the planet’s largest body of water.
        "An accident at some factory?" asked Marbovi, staring at the mushroom cloud.
        Nibolante adjusted the