Project Gutenberg's A Matter of Importance, by William Fitzgerald Jenkins

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Title: A Matter of Importance

Author: William Fitzgerald Jenkins

Release Date: November 26, 2007 [EBook #23636]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A MATTER OF IMPORTANCE

BY MURRAY LEINSTER

Illustrated by Bernklau

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science
Fiction September 1959. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence
that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

_The importance of a matter is almost entirely a matter of your
attitude. And whether you call something "a riot" or "a war" ...
well, there is a difference, but what is it?_

Nobody ever saw the message-torp. It wasn't to be expected. It came in
on a course that extended backward to somewhere near the Rift--where
there used to be Huks--and for a very, very long way it had traveled as
only message-torps do travel. It hopped half a light-year in overdrive,
and came back to normality long enough for its photocells to inspect the
star-filled universe all about. Then it hopped another half light-year,
and so on. For a long, long time it traveled in this jerky fashion.

Eventually, moving as it did in the straightest of straight lines, its
photocells reported that it neared a star which had achieved
first-magnitude brightness. It paused a little longer than usual while
its action-circuits shifted. Then it swung to aim for the bright star,
which was the sol-type sun Varenga. The torp sped toward it on a new
schedule. Its overdrive hops dropped to light-month length. Its pauses
in normality were longer. They lasted almost the fiftieth of a second.

When Varenga had reached a suitably greater brightness in the
message-torp's estimation, it paused long enough to blast out its
recorded message. It had been designed for this purpose and no other.
Its overdrive hops shorte