The Venus Trap Read online

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  The Venus Trap

  By EVELYN E. SMITH

  Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS

  Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science FictionJune 1956. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.copyright on this publication was renewed.

  One thing Man never counted on to take along into space with him was the Eternal Triangle--especially a true-blue triangle like this!

  "What's the matter, darling?" James asked anxiously. "Don't you like theplanet?"

  "Oh, I love the planet," Phyllis said. "It's beautiful."

  It was. The blue--really blue--grass, blue-violet shrubbery and,loveliest of all, the great golden tree with sapphire leaves and palepink blossoms, instead of looking alien, resembled nothing so much as afairy-tale version of Earth.

  Even the fragrance that filled the atmosphere was completely delightfulto Terrestrial nostrils--which was unusual, for most other planets, nomatter how well adapted for colonization otherwise, tended, from thehuman viewpoint, anyway, to stink. Not that they were not colonizednevertheless, for the population of Earth was expanding at too great arate to permit merely olfactory considerations to rule out an otherwisesuitable planet. This particular group of settlers had been lucky,indeed, to have drawn a planet as pleasing to the nose as to theeye--and, moreover, free from hostile aborigines.

  As a matter of fact, the only apparent evidence of animate life were thesmall, bright-hued creatures winging back and forth through the clearair, and which resembled Terrestrial birds so closely that there hadseemed no point to giving them any other name. There were insects, too,although not immediately perceptible--but the ones like bees were devoidof stings and the butterflies never had to pass through the grub stagebut were born in the fullness of their beauty.

  However, fairest of all the creatures on the planet to James Haut--justthen, anyhow--was his wife, and the expression on her face was not alovely one.

  "You do feel all right, don't you?" he asked. "The light gravity getssome people at first."

  "Yes, I guess I'm all right. I'm still a little shaken, though, and youknow it's not the gravity."

  * * * * *

  He would have liked to take her in his arms and say somethingcomforting, reassuring, but the constraint between them had not yet beenworn off. Although he had sent her an ethergram nearly every day of thevoyage, the necessarily public nature of the messages had kept them fromachieving communication in the deeper sense of the word.

  "Well, I suppose you did have a bit of a shock," he said lamely."Somehow, I thought I had told you in my 'grams."

  "You told me plenty in the 'grams, but not quite enough, it seems."

  Her words didn't seem to make sense; the strain had evidently been alittle too much. "Maybe you ought to go inside and lie down for awhile."

  "I will, just as soon as I feel less wobbly." She brushed back the long,light brown hair which had got tumbled when she fainted. He remembered agolden rather than a reddish tinge in it, but that had been under theyellow sun of Earth; under the scarlet sun of this planet, it took on adifferent beauty.

  "How come the preliminary team didn't include--_it_ in their report?"she asked, avoiding his appreciative eye.

  "They didn't know. We didn't find out ourselves until we'd sent thatfirst message to Earth. I suppose by the time we did relay the news, youwere on your way."

  "Yes, that must have been it."

  The preliminary exploration team had established the fact that theplanet was more or less Earth-type, that its air was breathable, itstemperature agreeably springlike, its mineral composition very similarto Earth's, with only slight traces of unknown elements, that there wasplenty of drinkable water and no threatening life-forms. Human beingscould, therefore, live on it.

  It remained for the scout team to determine whether human beings would_want_ to live on it--whether, in fact, they themselves would want to,because, if so, they had the option of becoming the first settlers. Thatwas the way the system worked and, in the main, it worked well enough.

  After less than two weeks, this scout team had beamed back to Earth themessage that the planet was suitable for colonization, so suitable thatthey would like to give it the name of Elysium, if there was noobjection.

  There would be none, Earth had replied, so long as the pioneers bore inmind the fact that six other planets had previously been given thatname, and a human colony currently existed on only one of those. No needto worry about a conflict of nomenclature, however, because the name ofthat other planet Elysium had subsequently been changed by unanimousvote of settlers to Hades.

  * * * * *

  After this somewhat sinister piece of information, Earth had added themore cheerful news that the wives and families of the scouts would soonbe on their way, bringing with them the tools and implements necessaryto transform the wilderness of the frontier into another Earth. In themeantime, the men were to set up the packaged buildings with which allscout ships were equipped, so that when the women came, homes would beready for them.

  The men set to work and, before the month was out, they discovered thatElysium was neither a wilderness nor a frontier. It was populated by anintelligent race which had developed its culture to the limit of itsphysical abilities--actually well beyond the limit of what the astoundedTerrestrials could have conceived its physical abilities to be--then,owing to unavoidable disaster, had started to die out.

  The remaining natives were perspicacious enough to see in theTerrestrials' coming not a threat but a last hope of revivifying theirown moribund species. Accordingly, the Earthmen were encouraged to goahead building on the sites originally selected, the only ban being onthe type of construction materials used--and a perfectly reasonable oneunder the circumstances.

  James had built his cottage near the largest, handsomest tree in thearea allotted to him; since there were no hostile life-forms, there wasno need for a closely knit community. Everyone who had seen it agreedthat his house was the most attractive one of all, for, although it wasonly a standard prefab, he had used taste and ingenuity to make it alittle different from the other unimaginative homes.

  And now Phyllis, for whom he had performed all this labor of love, forwhom he had waited five long months--the tedium of which had been brokenonly by the intellectual pleasure of teaching English to a sympatheticnative neighbor--Phyllis seemed unappreciative. She had hardly looked atthe inside of the cottage, when he had shown her through, and now wasstaring at the outside in a blank sort of way.

  The indoctrination courses had not, he reflected, reconciled her to thefrontiersman's necessarily simple mode of living--which was ironic,considering that one of her original attractions for him had been herapparent suitability for the pioneer life. She was a big girl, radiantlyhealthy, even though a little green at the moment.

  * * * * *

  He just managed to keep his voice steady. "You don't like the house--isthat it?

  "But I _do_ like it. Honestly I do." She touched his arm diffidently."Everything would be perfect if only--"

  "If only what? Is it the curtains? I'm sorry if you don't like them. Ibrought them all the way from Earth in case the planet turned out to behabitable. I thought blue was your favorite color."

  "Oh, it is, it is! I'm mad about the curtains."

  Perhaps it wasn't the house that disappointed her; perhaps it was hehimself who hadn't lived up to dim memory and ardent expectation.

  "If you want to know what _is_ bothering me--" she glanced upapprehensively, lowering her voice as she did--"it's that tree. It'sstuck on you; I
just know it is."

  He laughed. "Now where did you get a preposterous idea like that, Phyl?You've been on the planet exactly twenty-four hours and--"

  "--and I have, in my luggage, one hundred and thirty-two ethergramstalking about practically nothing but Magnolia this, Magnolia that. Oh,I had my suspicions even before I landed, James. The only thing I didn'tsuspect was that she was a _tree_!"

  "What are you talking about, honey? Magnolia and I--we're just friends."

  "Purely a platonic relationship, I assure you," the tree herself agreed.It would have been silly for her to pretend not to have overheard, sincethe two were still standing almost directly underneath her. "Purelyplatonic."

  "She's more like a sister to me," James tried to explain.

  *