THE PIRATES OF ERSATZ
Sometimes it seems nobody loves a benefactor ... particularlynobody on a well-heeled, self-satisfied planet. Grandpa alwayssaid Pirates were really benefactors, though....
Illustrated by Freas
I
It was not mere impulsive action when Bron Hoddan started for the planetWalden by stowing away on a ship that had come to his native planet tohang all his relatives. He'd planned it long before. It was along-cherished and carefully worked out scheme. He didn't expect thehanging of his relatives, of course. He knew that they'd act grieved andinnocent, and give proof that they were simple people leading blamelesslives. They'd make their would-be executioners feel ashamed andapologetic for having thought evil of them, and as soon as the strangersleft they'd return to their normal way of life, which was piracy. Butwhile this was going on, Bron Hoddan stowed away on the menacing vessel.Presently he arrived at its home world. But his ambition was to reachWalden, so he set about getting there. It took a long time because hehad to earn ship-passage from one solar system to another, but he heldto his idea. Walden was the most civilized planet in that part of thegalaxy. On Walden, Hoddan intended, in order (a) to achieve splendidthings as an electronic engineer, (b) to grow satisfactorily rich, (c)to marry a delightful girl, and (d) end his life a great man. But he hadto spend two years trying to arrange even the first.
On the night before the police broke in the door of his room, though,accomplishment seemed imminent. He went to bed and slept soundly. He wascalmly sure that his ambitions were about to be realized. At practicallyany instant his brilliance would be discovered and he'd be well-to-do,his friend Derec would admire him, and even Nedda would probably decideto marry him right away. She was the delightful girl. Such prospectsmade for good sleeping.
And Walden was a fine world to be sleeping on. Outside the capital cityits spaceport received shipments of luxuries and raw materials fromhalfway across the galaxy. Its landing grid reared skyward and tappedthe planet's ionosphere for power with which to hoist ships to clearspace and pluck down others from emptiness. There was commerce andmanufacture and wealth and culture, and Walden modestly admitted thatits standard of living was the highest in the Nurmi Cluster. Itscitizens had no reason to worry about anything but a supply oftranquilizers to enable them to stand the boredom of their lives.
Even Hoddan was satisfied, as of the moment. On his native planet therewasn't even a landing grid. The few, battered, cobbled ships theinhabitants owned had to take off precariously on rockets. They cameback blackened and sometimes more battered still, and sometimes theywere accompanied by great hulls whose crews and passengers weremysteriously missing. These extra ships had to be landed on theiremergency rockets, and, of course, couldn't take off again, but theyalways vanished quickly just the same. And the people of Zan, on whichHoddan had been born, always affected innocent indignation whenembattled other spacecraft c