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This story was performed as a radio play on Dimension X on Septemand on X Minus One on October 6, 1955, condensed somewhat and with a different ending. He believes this because, as he tells the Captain, he and Buck spent a good deal of time swapping dirty jokes. Tommy is confident that the two races will get along. They agree to repeat the encounter at the same location some time in the future.
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Each keeps the other race's fiction library to gain insight into their thinking. Each stands to benefit from the new technology on the other's ship. Naturally, before leaving their own ship they are able to remove everything which might point back to their home world. The story ends with each crew taking over the other's ship. Their own people have just given the humans the same ultimatum, and the same plan. In fact this is their equivalent of laughter. Each will disable all the tracking equipment on their own ship before the exchange, and indeed they will have to be thorough to prevent the new crew from tracking them.Īt this point the aliens begin behaving very strangely, twitching or lying down and kicking the floor. Then they present an ultimatum: they will detonate the atomic power packs in their suits if the aliens refuse to go along with their plan, which is for each crew to take the other's ship back to their home planet. Tommy and the Captain go aboard the alien ship even as two aliens board the Llanvabon. He and his Captain arrange an exchange of personnel between the ships. Then Tommy realizes the way out of the impasse. Neither captain is ready to gamble by attacking the other ship. Neither ship dares to leave for fear that the other will be able to track it home. He sends Tommy a message, "You are a good guy. However, Buck is pessimistic about the eventual outcome.
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Although they are only able to communicate through an artificial code, they are able to establish a rapport. This is especially true of young Tommy Dort and his counterpart on the other ship, to whom he has assigned the name Buck. The crews discover they have much in common. Of course from their point of view, so do we." As one human points out, "From our point of view, they have telepathy. Also, instead of using sound to communicate among themselves they use microwaves emitted from an organ in their heads. The aliens are humanoid bipeds, but see in the infrared portion of the spectrum. Neither can leave without ensuring that the other cannot track them to their home planet. Even after the problem is resolved and the two crews, one human, one alien, establish communication, both realize they have a problem. The two ships' radars are, in fact, interfering with each other, so each sees a wildly distorted image of the other ship. The exploration ship Llanvabon is approaching the Crab Nebula when it suddenly detects another ship on its radar. Ships are equipped with "blasters", not necessarily for use as weapons, but for destroying space debris which would otherwise collide with the ship. Atomic power is used everywhere, even in a space suit propulsion unit. There are technologies such as "overdrive" which allows a ship to travel much faster than light in normal space, and apparently artificial gravity within a ship. Ships function very much like naval warships or research vessels. Space travel is routine between planets in the Solar System.