The days and weeks went on, and the charting team carried out its orders faithfully. Judy and Jane took care of the house and allied domestic problems, while Ned and Danny explored the planet in the helicopter. The whole habitable area of Furbish proved to be much the same as the part where they had landed. Further north and south, the men reported, there was ice and snow and no life—not even of a vegetable nature.
But still it wouldn't be safe for the girls to go exploring, their husbands pointed out, because the surface of the planet was still unscratched. The natives—of which there didn't seem to be more than a couple of hundred all told—lived in caves in the hills; what else might be lurking in more effective concealment they could not, as yet, tell.
"If you ask me," Judy said, as the women watched their men depart on another reconnaissance flight, "the planet is as safe as houses. The fellows are just making sure they don't have to do any of the dirty work."
"You may be right," Jane concurred. "In fact, I'm sure you are ... and I'm sick of housework." For most of the labor-saving devices that made domestic servitude a joy on Earth—according to the manufacturers, at least—were impracticable on this remote planet, where power came in cans and had to be conserved. The women had been told they were to serve as integral members of the team; this was hardly their idea of integration.
"Look, Jane!" Judy cried, inspired by an idea which, though it had been hatching in her brain for some time, she thought best to offer as a sudden flash of genius, "why couldn't we train one or two of the natives to help with the housework? After all, that doesn't take much mental ability."
"Judy!" Jane exclaimed, not as aghast as she pretended, for the same concept had been trying to wheedle its way out of her subconsciousness. "You know what the captain said!" It was only fear of authority that motivated her reluctance; there was no question in her mind but that any creatures who looked so much like brownies must be capable of whatever brownies could do, and everyone knew that brownies were marvellous for housework.
"The captain must be light years away by now! And we're not going to see him for another four years and eight months objective time anyhow." Judy's black eyes flashed. "Why shouldn't we try to make use of the natives and, at the same time, uplift them? We pay taxes, don't we?"
"But ... he said something about exploitation...."
"Naturally we're not going to make slaves of them. We'll pay them ... oh, something. Besides, the Terrestrial Government has been accused of slavery—Captain Harnick said so, didn't he? And where there's smoke there must be fire. So I don't see why we should be penalized because of someone else's mistake."
Jane was unable to follow this line of reasoning clearly, so she fell back on, "We might get into trouble."