《The Thursday Toads》作者： - A.M. Lightner【EPUB】

zaq

THE THURSDAY TOADS To ANDRE NORTON … for help and encouragement, much thanks! Contents Many a Slip Getting There Is Half the Fun Today Ifs Thursday Home Is the Hero Summit Conference The only good Toad Microbe Miracle The Thursday Primitives Doctor, Heal My Son! The Child Is Father Rite of Passage Serendipity THE THURSDAY TOADS SUTTER COUNTY 750 FORBES AVENI YUBA CITY, CA. MANY A SLIP When I'm excited, I have always been inclined to fumble. Add to that an unusual measure of curiosity and you can see—well, there's the old adage about the cat's untimely end. In this case I was poking into every lab at the Gamow Institute. That's on Estrada, as you probably know, where I'd just planeted, armed with my new Ph.D. degree and unbounded optimism and expectations. After all, not many kids my age have an advanced degree in their pockets. I'd been told to look around while getting my bearings. That's one of the great things about the Institute. They never put pressure on the new recruits. They realize that it takes a little time to adjust to a new planet and they aren't looking for plodders. When they sign you up, they know that they're buying brains. So nobody tells you what to do at first. You're encouraged to look in on all the projects and choose what interests you. That's what I was doing my second day on Estrada —exploring. Since I'd been trained as an ecologist, I gravitated to the work that might come under that heading. Of course, X-Tee ecology (extra-terrestrial animals, to you) can be a far cry from what you've learned on Earth. But that was what I'd come for. New life forms. New mysteries. New challenges. My mind was running along these lines when I looked into that lab and saw the elderly scientist and his young assistant bending over an odd little box while they adjusted the controls and levers on a large machine. "Just hold it steady now, Luki," said the man. His voice started off as a commanding bass, but was inclined to go up the scale as he talked. In fact, if he talked long enough, it might squeak in the higher registers, as though his mind had gone on to something else and what he was saying was of no importance after all. "Let