"Yessir," Judy said meekly. "We just want to set up a fueling and repair station here...."
"... and maybe look over the minerals," Jane McComb finished, "to see if there's anything which could be used in running the station and/or worth transporting to other systems."
"Er—yes." Captain Harnick was gratified to see that his lectures during the voyage had not fallen upon deaf ears; on the other hand, he was not exactly pleased to have words taken out of his mouth. "We would like to have the planet charted as thoroughly as possible, of course, but please do not try to go beyond the scope of your admittedly limited means."
"Yessir," Ned and Dan agreed.
"Now comes the part about the natives," Judy said to Jane in what might have been intended as a whisper. They nodded at each other.
Captain Harnick managed to keep his temper by reminding himself that he wasn't going to see the whole lot of them again for five years. "As far as we know from Commander Furbish's preliminary survey, there are no hostile life-forms on the planet. However, it might be as well to take precautions."
"I should think so, indeed!" Judy put in.
"The highest life-form present—in fact, the only life-form on the planet outside of vegetation—does appear to be humanoid in structure, but—again I cannot stress this fact too strongly—the creatures are far from being human. They are of a very low order of intelligence, probably even lower than the terrestrial great apes, since they not only have no group organization, but do not appear able to communicate with one another in any way. Fortunately, I might add, because this precludes the possibility of any accusation of the exploiting and enslaving of inferior races, with which the terrestrial government has so often been charged—unjustly, of course."
The four members of the survey team nodded solemnly, if a trifle uncomprehendingly.
"The creatures have shown no disposition to interfere with us, and your orders are to leave them alone. Do not, on the one hand, attempt to domesticate them, or, on the other to hunt them ... for food or any other purpose."