Equation of Doom

Excerpt

“Your name ith Jathon Ramthey?” the Port Security Officer lisped politely.

Jason Ramsey, who wore the uniform of Interstellar Transfer Service and was the only Earthman in the Service here on Irwadi, smiled and said: “Take three guesses. You know darn well I’m Ramsey.” He was a big man even by Earth standards, which meant he towered over the Irwadian’s green, scaly head. He was fair of skin and had hair the color of copper. It was rumored on Irwadi and elsewhere that he couldn’t return to Earth because of some crime he had committed.

“Alwayth the chip on the shoulder,” the Port Security Officer said. “Won’t you Earthmen ever learn?” The splay-tongued reptile-humanoids of Irwadi always spoke Interstellar Coine with a pronounced lisp which Ramsey found annoying, especially since it went so well with the officious and underhanded behavior for which the Irwadians were famous the galaxy over.

“Get to the point,” Ramsey said harshly. “I have a ship to take through hyper-space.”

“No. You have no ship.”

“No? Then what’s this?” His irritation mounting, Ramsey pulled out the Interstellar Transfer Service authorization form and showed it to the Security Officer. “A tip-sheet for the weightless races at Fomalhaut VI?”

The Security Officer said: “Ha, ha, ha.” He could not laugh; he merely uttered the phonetic equivalent of [p 9] laughter. On harsh Irwadi, laughter would have been a cultural anomaly. “You make joketh. Well, nevertheleth, you have no ship.” He expanded his scaly green barrel chest and declaimed: “At 0400 hours thith morning, the government of Irwadi hath planetarithed the Irwadi Tranthfer Thervith.”

“Planetarized the Transfer Service!” gasped Ramsey in surprise. He knew the Irwadians had been contemplating the move in theory for many years, but he also knew that transferring a starship from normal space through hyper-space back to normal space again was a tremendously difficult and technical task. He doubted if half a dozen Irwadians had mastered it, yet the Irwadi branch of Interstellar Transfer Service was made up of seventy-five hyper-space pilots of divers planetalities.

“Ecthactly,” said the Security Officer, as amused as an Irwadian could be by the amazement in Ramsey’s frank green eyes. “Tho if you will kindly thurrender your permit?”

“Let’s see it in writing, huh?”

The Security Officer complied. Ramsey read the official document, scowled, and handed over his Irwadi pilot license. “What about the ?” he wanted to know. The was a Centaurian ship he’d been scheduled to take through hyper-space on the run from Irwadi to Centauri III.

“Temporarily grounded, captain. Or should I thay, ecth-captain?”

“Temporarily my foot,” said Ramsey. “It’ll be months before you Irwadians can get even a fraction of the ships into hyper. You must be out of your minds.”

“Our problem, captain. Not yourth.”

That was true enough. Ramsey shrugged.

“Your problem,” the Security Officer went on blandly, “will be to find a meanth of thelf-thupport until you and all other ecthra-planetarieth can be removed from Irwadi....