If there is any way in which the legends of Leland Hale do not exaggerate, it is in the descriptions of his physical size. Here, there is no need to exaggerate; Hale stood six feet six in his bare feet and had an absolute mass of some one hundred thirty-eight kilograms—very little of it fat. His hair was black and his skin was deeply tanned; his face was hard, blocky, and handsome. Mentally, he was brilliant; morally, he had one philosophy—"Leland Hale deserves to own the galaxy." He knew the goal was unobtainable, but he worked steadily at it.
What he wanted, he took, and if it wasn't available, he took the next best thing—all of which brings us around to the peculiar incident on the planet Apfahl.
A century ago, Apfahl was just one of those little backwater planets that cluttered the fringes of the main streams of galactic trade. During the early colonization of the planet, the great southern continent was the only section of the new world that seemed worth colonizing. By the end of the first three centuries, it was fairly well covered with people, and those people had divided themselves into two groups.
The southernmost part of the continent, being closer to the pole, and higher in altitude, was occupied by semi-nomadic herdsmen who kept animals that could graze on the almost untillable tundra. The northern peoples, on the other hand, became farmers.
As a result, the Apfahlians quarrelled over the rightful seat of the colony government, and, after much strife, two capitals were set up, and the country of Sudapfahl and the country of Nordapfahl glared at each other across the boundary that separated them.
Just where the name Apfahl came from, no one is quite sure. Since it was originally colonized by people from Vega IV, which in turn was colonized directly from Earth by people of Old Germanic stock, an attempt has been made to trace the name through that language. The attempt has resulted in two schools of thought.
One school contends that the word comes from the Old Earth German word Apfel, which means "apple"; the other school, with an equally sound basis, insists that the name is derived from Abfall, meaning "garbage." Which school of thought one follows seems to be entirely dependent on whether one is an inhabitant of the planet or has merely visited there.
Leland Hale was, perhaps, an exception to that rule; the first time he saw it, hanging in the blackness a couple of hundred thousand miles out of the forward plate of his expensive private ship, the planet looked very much like an apple—ripe and ready for plucking. Naturally.