The Golden String

In the air-traffic control tower two men attentively followed on their monitors the course of reloading in orbit. Everything was normal and they had nothing else to do but watch how the robots deftly unload the open storehouse platforms and accurately arrange the metal blocks in the holds of the gigantic cargo ship of the Rare Metals company.

The both men took glimpses at the runway, expecting the cargo ship shuttle to land.

"Damn it, these bastards are late! Something must have gone wrong!" The dispatcher muttered, without being particularly worried. He was used to working with robots and their frequent stupidities did not annoy him.

In the hazy distance above the airport, the shuttle appeared at long last, followed by the roar of its engines. The dispatcher was struck to notice that it was flying slower than normal and was reducing its speed quite smoothly, as if driven by a human and not by a robot.

"Ha!" He muttered and looked in surprise at the flight data shown on a monitor before him. Then he stood up and went to the window in order to watch the touch-down better. "Why is that one driving like a missy? Is he bringing us Easter eggs and is scared lest he might break them? We haven't ordered anything too fragile to make the pilot let down the shuttle so tenderly. Huh? Have we, Mike?"

His assistant transferred the list of goods on the shuttle to the main monitor and glanced at it.

"No, nothing of the kind! The goods that you know of are on the list. The cargo ship's captain confirmed them even when they were in orbit. Here, see for yourself!"

But the dispatcher was still watching the shuttle which was already dashing along the runway. Nooo, this wasn't the quick and hard landing of a robot crew. He watched with curiosity the shimmering air under the ship's white-hot frame, as if expecting the answer to his question to appear right there. He finally grinned and, attempting to cover his vague uneasiness, tried again to crack a joke:

"The captain must be scared that if he bumps harder on the runway, he will forget to convey the company's message to me!"

The cargo platforms and the loader approached the shuttle. The airport robots started unloading the goods. The dispatcher made to switch on the video-communication with the pilot-robot but right then he noticed the pilot go out of the cabin and descend on the tarmac. The pilot was carrying a rather big longish parcel but because of the great distance, the bright sun and the shimmering dirty air he did not realize what it was. The captain quickly walked to the tower and when he came nearer, the dispatcher was taken aback to see that the longish parcel was a man in a spacesuit.

"Blast it!" The dispatcher growled and pressed his forehead to the panoramic front-glass in order to convince himself that this was not a trick of his eye-sight. "Blast it! It can't be true!" He went back to the control panel and turned on the radio-communication with the pilot who was also the cargo ship's captain. "Hey, Robert, what the devil are you carrying?"

"Take a guess!" The speaker on the panel droned.

"Stop kidding me, Robert! Where did that man turn up from?"

"We found him in a rescue capsule. His ship had blown up but he had managed to escape in the capsule."

"Okay, but why didn't you call to tell me that you had a man on board?"

"Why didn't you ask me? Besides, what difference would it have made?"

"I don't know! I could hardly have done anything from here but at least I could have given you valuable advice how to take care of him! This isn't a holiday task, you know!"

"But even without your valuable advice I've brought him down safe and sound!"

"Sound?! If he were sound, he would have been walking on his own two feet, and you wouldn't be carrying him as if he were your first lover. What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing's wrong with him. He's hungry. He hasn't had a bite for a fortnight. There was no food in his capsule. Nor any water, for that matter."

The dispatcher turned to his assistant:

"Mike! Check-up what should be given to someone who hasn't eaten for two weeks, and tell the kitchen robot to prepare it!"