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The Native Soil
The Native Soil
This etext was produced from "Tiger by the Tail and Other Science Fiction Stories by Alan E. Nourse" and was first published in Fantastic Universe, July 1957.
Book Excerpt
l cable sizzled out. Confused, the Mud-pups tore themselves away from the newcomers and turned back to their lines, but it was too late. Number Five dredge trembled, with a wet sucking sound, and settled back into the mud, blub--blub--blub.
The supervisor crawled down from his platform and sloshed across to where Simpson and Kielland were standing. He looked like a man who had suffered the torment of the damned for twenty minutes too long. "No more!" he screamed in Simpson's face. "That's all. I'm through. I'll pick up my pay any time you get it ready, and I'll finish off my contract at home, but I'm through here. One solid week I work to teach these idiots what I want them to do, and you have to come along at the one moment all week when I really need their concentration." He glared, his face purple. "Concentration! I should hope for so much! You got to have a brain to have concentration--"
"Barton, this is Kielland. He's here from the Home Office, to solve all our problems."
"You mean h
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A drug company troubleshooter is sent to Venus to increase production from the antibiotic mining project. The world's entire surface is mud and the native semi-intelligent mudpups have a knack for doing the wrong thing at exactly the right time.
It's a funny story about a gooey mess.
It's a funny story about a gooey mess.
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