The Wonderful Day by E C Tubb

Author:E C Tubb [Tubb, E C]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2020-02-16T22:00:00+00:00

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Take a faster-than-light drive that converts a light year of distance into two days of travel and you have solved the problem of transportation. Take radio that still obeyed the electro-magnetic restriction of the speed of light and you have a problem in communication. Take planets that, while earth-like in most respects, were utterly alien when it came to the chemical structure of their vegetation and you have the biggest problem of all.

Food.

Man could traverse the galaxy and find oxygen and water on a million worlds. He could find edible food only on one—his own. Trace elements did it. Feed an apple tree minute quantities of selenium and the tree will sicken and then recover as it assimilates the new mineral. Eat an apple from such a tree and you will die. Vegetation can adapt to poisonous elements in the soil but the fruits of such vegetation are lethal to human life.

And not one discovered planet other than Earth had just the right combination of soil elements that produced food acceptable to the human metabolism. Some had too-high quantities of selenium, others were loaded with arsenic, tungsten, copper; none of them were just right.

There was nothing strange about it and neither was it unique. Every race that ventured into space found the same problem and all had solved it in the same way. To carry food in bulk was too expensive, too wasteful of cargo space, and hopelessly impracticable in view of the rising populations and the long journeys. Se they grew their own food where it was needed.

Hydroponic farms grew edible food isolated from alien environments. Chemicals for the nutrient solutions were mined, refined and purified from local sources. Fresh seeds were imported from tested stock direct from Earth in exchange for the mineral wealth essential for a top-heavy civilisation. It worked beautifully—until something went wrong.

Kenton had the uneasy conviction that something had, at last, gone wring.

The inquiry was held in the rec-room, now cleared of all uninterested personnel. Jelkson, together with Susan, sat at one side of the table. Perchon, red-headed, freckled, normally cheerful but now glum, sat together with King, the accountant, at the other. Doctor Thorpe, present because of his long association and because he was a neutral observer, occupied the foot, while Kenton, as befitted the Controller, sat at the head.

He wasted no time.

“Last night the entire tobacco crop in number seven was found to be infected with a virus disease and will have to be destroyed. The purpose of this inquiry is to find out how and why the crop became infected.” He looked at Perchon. “We may as well begin with you. What have you to say for yourself?”

“Me?” Perchon blinked. “I had nothing to do with it.”

“You were in charge of number seven,” said Kenton coldly. “To be in charge of anything means to take responsibility for what happens to it.”

“Now, wait a minute,” protested Perchon. “Remember all this is new to me. I only came in a little while ago. Just

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