Free Star Ship on Saddle Mountain by Richard Ackley Page B

not." '
Dondee put out his hand, for a brief moment resting
it on Charlie's shoulder.
"That's all right, Dondee. I get the idea of how
you feel. Thanks a lot."
"You have had no food," Dondee said, suddenly happy
that he could change the subject. "Shall I bring you some,
    -is
or do you wish to go with me to the sixth tier,
where we can
eat?"

About to accept, Charlie turned and glanced at
Navajo.
"Oh, I'll be sure to have some of the grain sent to
him, from what we have aboard—we got it last night, when we got
your supplies on the shore, Charles. And he will have some of the
apples, too!"
"Okay, Dondee, swell. But tell them only one or two
apples at the most. More might make Nav sick, though he'd eat them
all if I let him."
With another glance back at Navajo, Charlie
followed Dondee through the panel opening, then into a tall,
glistening transparent cylinder, within the larger cylinder of the
deck.
"It is an airlift," Dondee's impulse informed
Charlie. Then he pushed a large, saucer-size plastic-looking
button, barely touching it—and the airlift started smoothly up on
its cushioned course. "We could have walked the spiral outside,"
and Dondee pointed to the circling stairway that spiraled about
them as they ascended.
"It's sure smooth!" 'Charlie said. "Hey—look at the
steps outside—they're moving around us! Like being on the inside of
a giant barber pole!"
"It seems like that, but we are the only things in
motion now," Dondee said. "I'm glad we took the airlift, for the
sixth tier is a long climb up, about like going up four or five
levels in the buildings of your world, Charles."
    Dondee let go a very high speed
thought concerning what Charlie meant by barber pole. Without realizing it,
Charlie
    reflected the impulse reply,
without opening his mouth to speak at all. He only thought his
answer.
"Charles! Do you realize what you just did? You
actually replied to my question—and without sending a single sound
wave! You didn't even open your mouth. I am sure, Charles, for I
was watching you when I sent the high speed thought."
Charlie smiled, feeling proud of the new
accomplishment in the Interplanetary language.
    "I guess you know now that maybe
our world here on Earth is not all made up of primitives! That's something you
better remember, Dondee!"
    Just then the airlift stopped at
the indicated tier, and the concave panel slid around
automatically. Charlie followed the alien boy out. Not empty like
the lower dome tier, the sixth deck of the Saturnian star ship was
a great lounge, and luxurious was the word that flashed through Charlie's mind
as he glanced over the sea of comfortable, low-built scarlet lounge
seats that were built into the deck. They were the most modernistic
form-fitting chairs Charlie had ever seen.
This deck of the biggest tier of all, being the
middle tier, was covered with something that felt like a soft
padding of moss. It was springy to walk on, and reminded Charlie a
little of the pine needles, up in the high country under the
evergreens. Only, the sixth tier of the star ship didn't have that
fine green smell of the pines. The big lounge smelled a little bit
like an airplane, Charlie thought. Just what a space ship should
smell like. It reminded him, too, of a new car showroom. The smell
of shiny paint and new motors. It was a good smell.
"This is the main rotunda of the discus," Dondee
told him. "Nearly all personnel of the ship come here, when they
either want food, or just to rest awhile."
"It sure is a big place," Charlie said. "I bet it
could hold at least a thousand people, all sitting around here at
once." I
"Oh no, Charles. It can only seat four hundred on
this I deck."
    "Only four hundred!" and Charlie whistled softly. "Dondee, you
should see some of the little jobs on my world. Even the biggest
can only hold somewhere between a hundred and a hundred and fifty,
and they'd have to sit pretty close together."
"Well, this is the largest tier, Charles—or deck,
as you call it. In your