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CHAPTER 9
THE INCREDIBLE PEOPLE
Slowly and patiently they drew the story from the emissary from the
seventh planet of 31 Brucker.
The small, monkey-like creature was painfully shy; he required constant
reassurance that the doctors did not mind being called, that they wanted
to help, and that a contract was not necessary in an emergency. Even at
that the spokesman was reluctant to give details about the plague and
about his stricken people. Every bit of information had to be extracted
with patient questioning.
By tacit consent the doctors did not even mention the strange fact that
this very planet had been explored by a Confederation ship eight hundred
years before and no sign of intelligent life had been found. The little
creature before them seemed ready to turn and bolt at the first hint of
attack or accusation. But bit by bit, a picture of the current situation
on the planet developed.
Whoever they were and wherever they had been when the Confederation ship
had landed, there was unquestionably an intelligent race now inhabiting
this lonely planet in the outer reaches of the solar system of 31
Brucker. There was no doubt of their advancement; a few well-selected
questions revealed that they had control of atomic power, a working
understanding of the nature and properties of contra-terrene matter, and
a workable star drive operating on the same basic principle as Earth's
Koenig drive but which the Bruckians had never really used because of
their shyness and fear of contact with other races.
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