The Sentimentalists
By MURRAY LEINSTER
Illustrated by HUNTER
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Science Fiction April 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
You do not always have to go looking for
a guardian angel. He may be looking for
you—but perhaps for somebody else's benefit!
Rhadampsicus and Nodalictha were on their honeymoon, and consequentlythey were sentimental. To be sure, it would not have been easy forhumans to imagine sentiment as existing between them. Humans wouldhardly associate tenderness with glances cast from sets of sixteeneyes mounted on jointed eye stalks, nor link langorous thrills witha coy mingling of positronic repulsion blasts—even when the emissionof positron blasts from beneath one's mantle was one's normal personalmode of locomotion. And when two creatures like Rhadampsicus andNodalictha stood on what might be roughly described as their heads andtwined their eye stalks together, so that they gazed fondly at eachother with all sixteen eyes at once, humans would not have thought ofit as the equivalent of a loving kiss. Humans would have screamed andrun—if they were not paralyzed by the mere sight of such individuals.
Nevertheless, they were a very happy pair and they were verysentimental, and it was probably a good thing, considered from allangles. They were still newlyweds on their wedding tour—they had beenmarried only seventy-five years before—when they passed by the sunthat humans call Cetis Gamma.
Rhadampsicus noted its peculiarity. He was anxious, of course, fortheir honeymoon to be memorable in every possible way. So he pointed itout to Nodalictha and explained what was shortly to be expected. Shelistened with a bride's rapt admiration of her new husband's wisdom.Perceiving his scientific interest, she suggested shyly that they stopand watch.
Rhadampsicus scanned the area. There were planets—inner ones, andthen a group of gas giants, and then a very cosy series of three outerplanets with surface temperatures ranging from three to seven degreesKelvin.
They changed course and landed on the ninth planet out, where thelandscape was delightful. Rhadampsicus unlimbered his traveling kit andprepared a bower. Nitrogen snow rose and swirled and consolidated ashe deftly shifted force-pencils. When the tumult subsided, there was asnug if primitive cottage for the two of them to dwell in while theywaited for Cetis Gamma to accomplish its purpose.
Nodalictha cried out softly when she entered the bower. She wasfascinated by its completeness. There was even running liquid hydrogenfrom a little rill nearby. And over the doorway, as an artistic andappropriate touch, Rhadampsicus had put his own and Nodalictha'sinitials, pricked out in amber chlorine crystals and intertwined withinthe symbol which to them meant a heart. Nodalictha embraced him fondlyfor his thoughtfulness. Of course, no human would have recognized it asan embrace, but that did not matter.
Happily, then, they settled down to observe the phenomenon that CetisGamma would presently display. They scanned the gas giant planetstogether, and then the inner ones.
On the second planet out from the sun, they perceived small bipedanimals busily engaged in works of primitive civilization. Nodalicthawas charmed. She asked eager questions, and Rhadampsicus searchedhis memory and told her that the creatures were not well known, buthad been o