50 in 50

They burst into sound on a number of bands simultaneously. Gulyas lowered the volume.

"This is the same kind of broadcast we had from the beacon," he said. "Very directional. All of the transmissions are coming from that golden planetoid, or whatever it is. It's big, but doesn't seem to have a planetary diameter."

"We're on our way," Hautamaki told him. "I'll take the controls, see if you can get any image on the video circuits."

"Just interference. But I'm sending out a signal, a view of this cabin. If they have the right equipment there they should be able to analyze our signal and match it… Look, the screen is changing! They're working fast.”

The viewscreen was rippling with color. Then a picture appeared, blurred, then steadied. Tjond focused and it snapped into clear life. The two men looked, stared. Behind them Tjond gasped.

"At least no snakes or insects, praise fortune for that!" The being on the screen was staring at them with the same intensity. There was no way to estimate its relative size, but it was surely humanoid. Three long fingers, heavily webbed, with an opposed thumb. Only the upper part of its figure was visible, and this was clothed so that no physical details could be seen. But the being's face stood out clearly on the screen, golden in color, hairless, with large, almost circular eyes. Its nose, had it been a human one, would be said to be broken, spread over its face, nostrils flaring. This, and the cleft upper lip, gave it a grim appearance to human eyes.

But this yardstick could not be applied. By alien standards it might be beautiful.

"S'bb'thik," the creature said. The radio beacons carried the matching audio now. The voice was high-pitched and squeaky.

"I greet you as well," Hautamaki said. "We both have spoken languages and we will learn to understand each other. But we come in peace."

"Maybe we do, but I can't say the same thing for these aliens," Gulyas interrupted. "Look at screen three."

This held an enlarged view taken from one of the forward pickups, locked onto the planetoid they were approaching. A group of dark buildings stood out from the golden surface, crowned with a forest of aerials and antennas. Ringed about the building were circular structures mounted with squat tubular devices that resembled heavy-bore weapons. The similarity was increased by the fact that the numerous emplacements had rotated. The open orifices were tracking the approaching ship.

"I'm killing our approach velocity," Hautamaki said, stabbing the control buttons in rapid sequence. "Set up a repeater plate here and switch on a magnified view of those weapons. We'll find out their intentions right now."

Once their motion relative to the golden planetoid had been stopped, Hautamaki turned and pointed to the repeater screen, slowly tapping the image of the weapons. Then he tapped himself on the chest and raised his hands before him, fingers spread wide, empty. The alien had watched this dumb show with glistening, golden eyes. It rocked its head from side to side and repeated Hautamaki's gesture, tapping itself on the chest with its long central finger, then pointed into the screen.

"He understood at once.” Gulyas said. "Those weapons — they're turning away, sinking out of sight."

"We'll continue our approach. Are you recording this?"

"Sight, sound, full readings from every instrument. We've been recording since we first saw the star, with the tapes being fed into the armored vault as you ordered. I wonder what the next step is?"

"They've already taken it — look."

The image of the alien reached off the screen and brought back what appeared to be a metal sphere that it held lightly in one hand. From the sphere projected a pipelike extension of metal with a lever halfway up its length. When the alien pressed the lever they heard a hissing.

"A tank of gas," Gulyas said. "I wonder what it is supposed to signify? No — it's not gas. It must be a vacuum. See, the pipe is sucking up those grains sprinkled on the table." The alien kept the lever depressed until the hissing stopped.

"Ingenious," Hautamaki said. "Now we know there is a sample of their atmosphere inside that tank."

There was no mechanical propulsion visible, but the sphere came swooping up towards their ship where it swung in orbit above the golden planetoid. The sphere stopped, just outside the ship and clearly visible from the viewports, bobbing in a small arc.

"Some sort of force beam.” Hautamaki said, "though nothing registers on the hull instruments. That's one thing I hope we find out how to do. I'm going to open the outer door on the main hatch."

As soon as the door opened the sphere swooped and vanished from sight and they saw, through the pickup inside the air lock, that it fell gently to the deck inside. Hautamaki closed the door and pointed to Gulyas.