《The Iron Standard》作者： - Henry Kuttner【EPUB】

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THE IRON STANDARD Alien races didn't have to be either friendly or unfriendly; they could be stubbornly indifferent-with serious effect. "So the ghost won't walk for a year-Venusian time," Thirkell said, spooning up cold beans with a disgusted air. Rufus Munn, the captain, looked up briefly from his task of decockroaching the soup. "Dunno why we had to import these. A year plus four weeks, Steve. There'll be a month at space before we hit Earth again." Thirkell's round, pudgy face grew solemn. "What happens in the meantime? Do we starve on cold beans?" Munn sighed, glancing through the open, screened port of the spaceship Goodwill to where dim figures moved in the mists outside. But he didn't answer. Barton Underhill, supercargo and handy man, who had wangled his passage by virtue of his father's wealth, grinned tightly and said, "What d'you expect? We don't dare use fuel. There's just enough to get us home. So it's cold beans or nothing." "Soon it will be nothing," Thirkell said solemnly. 'We have been spendthrifts. Wasting our substance in riotous living." "Riotous living!" Munn growled. 'We gave most of our grub to the Venusians." 'Well," Underhill murmured, "they fed us-for a month." "Not now. There's an embargo. What do they have against us, anyhow?" Munn thrust back his stool with sudden decision. "That's something we'll have to figure out. Things can't go on like this. We simply haven't enough food to last us a year. And we can't live off the land-" He stopped as someone unzipped the valve screen and entered, a squat man with high cheekbones and a beak of a nose in a red-bronze face. "Find anything, Redskin?" Underhill asked. Mike Soaring Eagle tossed a plastisac on the table. "Six mushrooms. No wonder the Venusians use hydroponics. They have to. Only fungi will grow in this sponge of a world, and most of that's poisonous. No use, skipper." Munn's mouth tightened. "Yeah. Where's Bronson