I-4
545 Words
COMMANDER EAGAN SAID, “You’d better find some new way of amusing yourself, Jones. Have you read General Order 17?”
Isobar said, “I seen it. But if you think—”
“It says,” stated Eagan deliberately, ”’In order that work or rest periods of the Dome’s staff may not be disturbed, it is hereby ordered that the playing or practicing of all or any musical instruments must be discontinued immediately. By order of the Dome Commander,’ That means you, Jones!”
“But, dingbust it!” keened Isobar, “it don’t disturb nobody for me to play my bagpipes! I know these lunks around here don’t appreciate good music, so I always go in my office and lock the door after me—”
“But the Dome,” pointed out Commander Eagan, “has an air-conditioning system which can’t be shut off. The ungodly moans of your—er—so-called musical instrument can be heard through the entire structure.”
He suddenly seemed to gain stature.
“No, Jones, this order is final! You cannot disrupt our entire organization for your own—er—amusement.”
“But—” said Isobar.
“No!”
Isobar wriggled desperately. Life on Luna was sorry enough already. If now they took from him the last remaining solace he had, the last amusement which lightened his moments of freedom—
“Look, Commander!” he pleaded, “I tell you what I’ll do. I won’t bother nobody. I’ll go Outside and play it—”
“Outside!” Eagan stared at him incredulously. “Are you mad? How about the Grannies?”
Isobar knew all about the Grannies. The only mobile form of life found by space-questing man on Earth’s satellite, their name was an abbreviation of the descriptive one applied to them by the first Lunar exployers: Granitebacks. This was no exaggeration; if anything, it was an understatement. For the Grannies, though possessed of certain low intelligence, had quickly proven themselves a deadly, unyielding and implacable foe.
Worse yet, they were an enemy almost indestructible! No man had ever yet brought to Earth laboratories the carcass of a Grannie; science was completely baffled in its endeavors to explain the composition of Graniteback physiology—but it was known, from bitter experience, that the carapace or exoskeleton of the Grannies was formed of something harder than steel, diamond, or battleplate! This flesh could be penetrated by no weapon known to man; neither by steel nor flame, by electronic nor ionic wave, nor by the lethal, newly discovered atomo-needle dispenser.
All this Isobar knew about the Grannies. Yet:
“They ain’t been any Grannies seen around the Dome,” he said, “for a ‘coon’s age. Anyhow, if I seen any comin’, I could run right back inside—”
“No!” said Commander Eagan flatly. “Absolutely, no! I have no time for such nonsense. You know the orders—obey them! And now, gentlemen, good afternoon!”
He left. Sparks turned to Isobar, grinning.
“Well,” he said, “one man’s fish—hey, Jonesy? Too bad you can’t play your doodlesack any more, but frankly, I’m just as glad. Of all the awful screeching wails—”
But Isobar Jones, generally mild and gentle, was now in a perfect fury. His pale eyes blazed, he stomped his foot on the floor, and from his lips poured a stream of such angry invective that Riley looked startled. Words that, to Isobar, were the utter dregs of violent profanity.
“Oh, dagnab it!” fumed Isobar Jones. “Oh, tarnation and dingbust! Oh—fiddlesticks!”
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