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Foxx Travis was commenting on the ship, now:

“I never saw that ship before; didn’t know there was anything like that on the planet. Why, you could lift a whole regiment, with supplies and equipment–“

“She’s been laid up for the last five years, since the heat and the native troubles stopped the tourist business here. She’s the old Hesperus. Excursion craft. This sun-chasing trip we’re going to make used to be a must for tourists here.”

“I thought she was something like that, with all the glassed observation deck forward. Who’s the owner?”

“Kwannon Air Transport, Ltd. I told them what I needed her for, and they made her available and furnished officers and crew and provisions for the trip. They were working to put her in commission while we were fitting up the fourth and fifth floors, downstairs.”

“You just asked for that ship, and they just let you have it?” Edith Shaw was incredulous and shocked. They wouldn’t have done that for the Government.

“They want to see these native troubles stopped, too. Bad for business. You know; selfish profit-move. That’s another social force it’s a good idea to work with instead of against.”

The shoonoon were getting aboard, now, shepherded by the K.N.I. officer and a couple of his men and some of the ship’s crew. A couple of sepoys were lugging the big globe that had been brought up from below after them. Everybody assembled on the forward top observation deck, and Miles called for attention and, finally, got it. He pointed out the three viewscreens mounted below the bridge, amidships. One on the left, was tuned to a pickup on the top of the Air Terminal tower, where the Terran city, the military reservation and the spaceport met. It showed the view to the west, with Alpha on the horizon. The one on the right, from the same point, gave a view in the opposite direction, to the east. The middle screen presented a magnified view of the navigational globe on the bridge.

Viewscreens were no novelty to the shoonoon. They were a very familiar type of oomphel. He didn’t even need to do more than tell them that the little spot of light on the globe would show the position of the ship. When he was sure that they understood that they could see what was happening in Bluelake while they were away, he called the bridge and ordered Up Ship, telling the officer on duty to hold her at five thousand feet.

The ship rose slowly, turning toward the setting M-giant. Somebody called attention that the views in the screens weren’t changing. Somebody else said:

“Of course not. What we see for real changes because the ship is moving. What we see in the screens is what the oomphel on the big building sees, and it does not move. That is for real as the oomphel sees it.”

“Nice going,” Edith said. “Your class has just discovered relativity.” Travis was looking at the eastward viewscreen. He stepped over beside Miles and lowered his voice.

“Trouble over there to the east of town. Big swarm of combat contragravity working on something on the ground. And something’s on fire, too.”

“I see it.”

“That’s where those evacuees are camped. Why in blazes they had to bring them here to Bluelake–“

That had been EETA, too. When the solar tides had gotten high enough to flood the coastal area, the natives who had been evacuated from the district had been brought here because the Native Education people wanted them exposed to urban influences. About half of the shoonoon who had been rounded up locally had come in from the tide-inundated area.

“Parked right in the middle of the Terran-type food production area,” Travis was continuing.

That was worrying him. Maybe he wasn’t used to planets where the biochemistry wasn’t Terra-type and a Terran would be poisoned or, at best, starve to death, on the local food; maybe, as a soldier he knew how fragile even the best logistics system can be. It was something to worry about. Travis excused himself and went off in the direction of the bridge. Going to call HQ and find out what was happening.