He fell silent, throwing the blocks around. Suddenly I heard a bell. It consisted of four mellow tones struck at regular intervals.
"What's that?"
"Ideal sound," he said. "You'll have to get used to that too. It's another concept that we don't have back on earth."
"What's ideal about ringing a dinner bell?"
Radwick shrugged. "It's just a discontinuity to us. The Stardust people write off our fashions in clothing as a discontinuity in reasoning that they don't understand. We must write off theirs." He smiled briefly. "You'll come to write off a great many things, young man."
I didn't tell him I thought the bells were far from ideal. They didn't have any place to come from, and for the first time I felt a fear of the unknown. Radwick sat there unperturbed trying to fashion some concept, probably of the bells, with his blocks. The earthmen finished servicing and came in to make arrangements for a rendezvous with us some months from then.
"First time out?" the Captain asked me.
"Yessir," I said, trying to look fearless.
He sighed. "Watch out for the Ideals," he said. "The first time's the hardest." His crew stood behind him looking at me like they would look at a condemned man about to take his place in the electric chair.
"Well, all happiness," he said, giving a distasteful glance at the absorbed Radwick.