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Updated: May 19, 2025
"Yes, but...." The girl looked troubled; M'zangwe had guessed right. "But what's all the excitement about the dog? What is it, the sacred totem-animal of the Ullr Company?" "It's just a big brown collie named Stalin. But somebody stole it, and Keeluk was keeping it. We want to know why. We don't like geek mysteries not when they lead to murderous attacks on Terrans, at least."
I'm sending Aldebaran to Kankad's, to pick up more reenforcements for you." Leaving the booth, he heard, above the clatter of communications-machines and the hubbub of voices, Jules Keaveney arguing contentiously. Evidently Colonel Cheng-Li's efforts to drag the Resident out of his despondency had been an excessive success. "But it's crazy! Not just here; everywhere on Ullr!" Keaveney was saying.
"Your politico-military education still needs a little filling in. At Grank, we have two ships. One is the Northern Lights, sister ships of the Northern Star. The other is the cruiser Procyon, the only real warship on Ullr, with a main battery of four 200-mm. guns.
By way of variety, it was the army of King Jonkvank that had mutinied; the Sixth North Ullr Native Infantry and the two companies of Zirk cavalry at Krink were still loyal, along with the Kragans. There was a pattern to all this.
"I'm aware of that policy. I'm also aware of the reason for it. We've been compelled, because of the lack of natural fuel on Ullr, to set up nuclear power reactors and furnish large quantities of plutonium to the geeks to fuel them. The Company doesn't want the natives here learning of the possibility of using nuclear energy for destructive purposes. Well, gentlemen, that's a dead issue.
"When we came to Ullr, we found a culture roughly like that of Europe during the Seventh Century Pre-Atomic. We initiated a technological and economic revolution here, and such revolutions have their casualties, too.
The Company ships and contragravity vehicles all were carrying topside lights, visible only from above, which flashed alternate red and blue to identify them. Time crawled slowly around the clock-face on the wall, the sixty-five-second minutes of Ullr dragging like hours.
Or the visit of Paula Quinton on Ullr as field-agent for the Extraterrestrials' Rights Association; now was no time to stir up trouble among the natives, unless his hunch was wrong. He shrugged it aside and climbed into the command-car, followed by M'zangwe and O'Leary.
There was less charcoal being burned now than formerly; the Ullr Company had been bringing in great quantities of synthetic thermoconcentrate-fuel, and had been setting up nuclear furnaces and nuclear-electric power-plants, wherever they gained a foothold on the planet. As planets went, Ullr was no bargain, he thought sourly.
"What's the score, captain?" he asked the panting captain. "Tenth North Ullr and the Fifth Cavalry have mutinied; so have these rag-tag Auxiliaries. That mob down there's part of them." He was puffing under the double effort of running and talking. "Whole thing blew up in seconds; no chance to communicate with anybody...."
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