One Man's Poison

One Man's Poison

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One Man's Poison by Robert Sheckley

Published:

1953

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One Man's Poison

By

4.3333333333333
(3 Reviews)
They could eat a horse, only luckily there was none ... it might have eaten them first!

Book Excerpt

on its four corners. "Retractable wheels, probably, but I don't see--"

Hellman read on. "It says to give it three amphus of high-gain Integor fuel, then a van of Tonder lubrication, and not to run it over three thousand Ruls for the first fifty mungus."

"Let's find something to eat," Casker said.

"Don't you see how important this is?" Hellman asked. "This could solve our problem. If we could deduce the alien logic inherent in constructing this vehicle, we might know the Helgan thought pattern. This, in turn, would give us an insight into their nervous systems, which would imply their biochemical makeup."

Casker stood still, trying to decide whether he had enough strength left to strangle Hellman.

"For example," Hellman said, "what kind of vehicle would be used in a place like this? Not one with wheels, since everything is up and down. Anti-gravity? Perhaps, but what kind of anti-gravity? And why did the inhabitants devise a boxlike form instead--"

Casker dec

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(1953) Sci-fi (Survival on alien world) / Humor


From 'Galaxy Science Fiction' December 1953.


R: *****


Plot bullets

Two men land on an alien planet.
They are near starvation and connot get home in time.
They find an ancient abanded storage warehouse.
There may be food inside, but it would be alien food and marked with alien symbols.
The alien food my be their food: the alien's poison may be their food.
But, what if the alien's food is their poison?

Two starving spacemen land on an uncharted planet looking for food. They find a storage building and with the aid of a Helig/Aloombrigian dictionary set about finding something edible.

It's pretty funny, just don't expect anything world-shaking