News From Elsewhere by Edmuind Cooper

what happens next?” Alsdorf was scathing.
    “Keep your shirt on. Leaving aside the ethics of the thing, I’m merely pointing out that we can’t afford to start anything unless we’re sure we can finish it. If Masumo is a telepath, we’d be fools to have him in the ship. It’s possible he would be able to report back on every move we made.”
    “Unfortunately,” said Chirico with a wry smile, “Mike happens to be right. We do not know how these—these primitive poltergeists operate. . . . But hell, we have to do  something,   don’t we?”
    “Why not get out of here and touch down somewhere else?” asked Duluth lazily. “Anything for a quiet life.”
    Alsdorf withered him with a glance. “And lose the finest platinum deposits we’re ever likely to see?”
    “Correct me if I’m wrong,” drawled Duluth, “but haven’t we already lost ’em?”
    Glancing quickly from face to face, Lukas could see that the expedition’s morale had reached a crucial phase. While he personally would have gladly accepted Duluth’s suggestion, for some reason that he could not yet fully understand, he realized that it was psychologically unsound. For the first time in history a space crew had come up against a quasi-human culture—one that was both beyond and below its terrestrial equivalent—and they could not, with self-respect, ignore its challenge. To do so would be to admit that their own sense of superiority was hollow. And Lukas was dimly aware that if human beings were to realize that they could be beaten by a different kind of creature, with a different concept of power, it would be as big a shock as the original discovery that Earth was not the fixed center of the universe.
    He looked at the faces of his companions and offered the compromise he had decided upon at the beginning.
    “Kurt would like to get tough with the hominids,” he said slowly, “but we agree that we’re not in a position to get tough. Joe suggests pulling up anchor and trying elsewhere. But that is no good, either. Sooner or later this kind of problem will occur again. We have to try and tackle it here. ... I suggest that, tomorrow, three of us— with defensive arms, if it makes you feel better—take the
    tractor and pay them a visit. The aim being to try to find a peaceful solution. One thing we do know: the hominids will understand what we are getting at—if they want to understand. If they don’t feel like cooperating over the platinum, well, we’ll have to think again. . . . But this is their territory, and we can’t afford to create a situation that might jeopardize the next space crew to get here.” Chirico made up his mind immediately. “That’s the best idea yet, Mike. If the hominids really are mindreaders, they’ll know we aren’t out for trouble, and they might be willing to meet us. . . . What do you say, Kurt?”
    The geophysicist shrugged. “I think they will laugh at us. But I’m willing to try diplomacy—once.”
    “It could be interesting,” remarked Duluth. “I’m for it—providing I’m not elected to stay behind and guard the ship. If they can knock off the platinum deposits, they might take it into their nuts to have a crack at vanishing the   Poincare .”
    “That’s my responsibility,” said Lukas. “You three had better get some sleep while I take the first watch.”
    It was late afternoon before the expedition started. Lukas had suggested the delay in case the hominids themselves chose to make a visit. But though a constant watch had been kept on the forest line, no movement had been observed; and it looked as if the hominids were content to rest on their achievements so far.
    Alsdorf’s defensive armament consisted of two machine pistols and a box of gas bombs. He stowed himself, the gas bombs, and one machine pistol in the tractor’s observation turret, while Duluth took the other machine pistol below and sat with Chirico, who was the driver.
    Lukas