The Project Gutenberg EBook of Naudsonce, by H. Beam Piper

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Naudsonce

Author: H. Beam Piper

Illustrator: Morey

Release Date: August 18, 2006 [EBook #19076]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NAUDSONCE ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, William Woods, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

NAUDSONCE

Bishop Berkeley's famous question
about the sound of a falling tree
may have no standing in Science.
But there is a highly interesting
question about "sound" that Science
needs to consider....

BY H. BEAM PIPER

ILLUSTRATED BY MOREY

* * * * *

[Illustration]

The sun warmed Mark Howell's back pleasantly. Underfoot, the
mosslike stuff was soft and yielding, and there was a fragrance
in the air unlike anything he had ever smelled. He was going to
like this planet; he knew it. The question was, how would it,
and its people, like him? He watched the little figures advancing
across the fields from the mound, with the village out of sight
on the other end of it and the combat-car circling lazily on
contragravity above.

Major Luis Gofredo, the Marine officer, spoke without lowering
his binoculars:

"They have a tubular thing about twelve feet long; six of them
are carrying it on poles, three to a side, and a couple more are
walking behind it. Mark, do you think it could be a cannon?"

So far, he didn't know enough to have an opinion, and said so,
adding:

"What I saw of the village in the screen from the car, it looked
pretty primitive. Of course, gunpowder's one of those things a
primitive people could discover by accident, if the ingredients
were available."

"We won't take any chances, then."

"You think they're hostile? I was hoping they were coming out to
parley with us."

That was Paul Meillard. He had a right to be anxious; his whole
future in the Colonial Office would be made or ruined by what was
going to happen here.

The joint Space Navy-Colonial Office expedition was looking for
new planets suitable for colonization;