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Updated: May 20, 2025
"We're not dying because you were a fool," Kramer yelled. "I've taken over; I've relieved you as unfit for command. Now open up this ship or I'll slice you to ribbons." He held the scalpel under my nose in a fist trembling with fury. The chrome plated blade had a thin film of pink on it. I got my voice going again. "I'm going to destroy the Mancji ship," I said.
And on the screen the face of the left hand disk of the Mancji ship was lit momentarily by a brilliant spark of yellow, then another. A discoloration showed dimly against the dark metallic surface. It spread, and a faint vapor formed over it. Now tiny specs could be seen moving away from the ship. The disk elongated, with infinite leisure, widening. "What's happenin'? Cap'n?" Thomas asked.
It never occurred to them that we might be anything but Terrans; Terrans who didn't know the Mancji. And they were canny enough to use an old form of Interlingua; somewhere they'd met men before. "Then we needed food. They knew what we ate, and that was where they went too far.
"What the devil does that mean?" I said. "Tell them to loosen up and explain themselves." Mannion wrote out a straight query, and sent it. Again we waited for a reply. It came, in a long windy paragraph stating that the Mancji found electro-static baths amusing, and that "crystallization" had drained their tanks. They wanted a flow of electrons from us to replenish their supply.
"This is the Captain," I said. I tried to keep my voice as steady as possible. "We are now at a distance of twenty-one miles from the enemy. Stand by for missile launching and possible evasive action. Damage control crews on the alert." I paused for breath. "Now we're going to take out the Mancji ship, men," I said. "All two miles of it." I dropped the mike and groped for the firing key.
"Bourdon, arm all batteries and lock onto that Mancji ship," I ordered. "On the triple." I turned to Clay. "I'll take over, Clay," I said. "Alter course to intercept our late companion at two and one-half gee's." Clay looked startled, but said only, "Aye, sir." I keyed for a general announcement. "This is the Captain," I said. "Action station, all hands in loose acceleration harness.
"They tell us to watch for a little 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 course corrections to curve us off sharply from the alien.
Their big display of Mancji power was just a blast of radiation right across the communication spectrum; it burned tubes and blew fuses; nothing else. We were back in operation an hour after our attack. "The evidence was there to see, but there's something about giant size that gets people rattled. Size alone doesn't mean a thing.
Can you tell me, Admiral, just how it was that you rejected what seemed to be prima facie proof of the story the Mancji told; that they were the lords of creation out there, and that humanity was nothing but a tame food animal to them?" The Admiral sighed. "I guess it's a good question," he said. "But there was nothing supernatural about my figuring that one.
"Why do you want to antagonize them, Captain?" Joyce asked. "That ship is over a thousand times the size of this can." "Joyce, I suggest you let me forget you're around," I said. The Mancji whine was added to my message, and it went out. Moments later this came back: MANCJI HONOR DICTATES YOUR SAFE-CONDUCT; TALK IS WEARYING; WE FIND IT CONVENIENT TO SOLICIT A TRANSFER OF ELECTROSTATIC FORCE.
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