During the apportioning of arms, I remembered Kingsford's paper to be posted. I got it from my cabin and read it. It was a public statement in which Kingsford offered ten percent of his captain's share to the first man to spot the quarry. This reduced the potential benefits to the heirs of the Essex's crew by ten percent. I noted the fact, but gave it little thought. It was Kingsford's affair. I opened the general communications switch and read the statement to the crew. The response was electrifying. Shouts and cheers from every quarter of the ship. The general air of a group of sportsmen on a chase rapidly took over the whole feeling of the expedition, and, as executive officer charged with posting the watch, I was approached by most of the crew members with entreaties and even bribes by each, to be assigned to the outermost emplacements. Kingsford's methods certainly bore results. It kept everybody from thinking, but I do not believe that this was his intention.
I did not see Kingsford for almost two days. While I busied myself with the elaborate mechanisms of warning and defense, he and the small group of geologists and reaction engineers, who also insisted on drawing guard duty, went through the mechanics of erecting the loaders and converters, then the refining equipment for reducing the ore to its pure state, and the reactor that would further refine the prize to its absolute, the purpose for the whole expedition, a cargo of plutonium such as man had never seen.
During the two days of setting up the defense system, I grew to feel quite comfortable on Aldebaran IX. I roamed the hills and depressions, brought back certain fruits and vegetables and subjected them to tests and discovered that they were entirely palatable. Perhaps these pastoral musings were a premonition on my part or simple scientific curiosity. I have never dwelt too long on it.
The planet cycle of Aldebaran IX is relatively short, about seventeen hours as measured on Earth. We grew accustomed to relatively short, but intensive periods of work and the remainder of the time was spent in sheer luxuriance at the idea of being out of doors after so many months in space. No sign of Kingsford's quarry appeared, and the excitement of the hunt began to dwindle somewhat among the crew. I, myself, lost much of my feeling of apprehension, and began to relax in the foretaste of future wealth. The reactor was completed on the second day, and the production of the man-made element began. The second night, I dined with Kingsford.
As my tension had relaxed, quite the opposite, it seemed, had happened to him. He was more brooding than ever, more responsive to the slightest sound. He ate practically nothing and said little. Late in the evening, he began to speak, seemingly for the first time aware that he had a guest.
"You wonder about my monster, Mr. Rogers, don't you?"
"Yes. I do wonder a bit."
"So do I. Do you still think it would be less waste if we had returned without making landfall?"
"I'd imagine it was a bit soon to say."