Question: Who is Edmund Rice, and what occurs to him as he navigates a series of mishaps and an unexpected crisis in a futuristic setting?

Answer: Edmund is eager to propose to his girlfriend. He truly loves her and would like a long marriage, but he is willing to settle for a Non-P marriage since he knows she values her freedom and independence. After gathering the courage to propose, he makes a date with her one morning, but multiple minor calamities make him run late. Linda is a stickler for punctuality, so on this morning, it is especially important to be on time. When he makes it to the elevator with five minutes to spare, his proposal is thwarted because a spy is holding it up. When he tries to call Linda to let her know he is running late, he can’t get the call through because she has set her phone not to be disturbed. When he learns that a spy is holding up the elevator and might be in there until the Army can starve him out, he decides to brave the 208 stairs down to Linda’s apartment, only to run into the spy there. The spy forces Edmund back to his apartment, where he explains he is not really a spy and that the radiation levels outside are so low it is safe for everyone to leave the projects. Edmund is sure the man is a lunatic despite the logic of his argument. He realizes that his chance to marry Linda is gone; she will never forgive him for being late.

Answer: Edmund Rice is a gymnast and martial arts instructor living on the 153rd floor of one of the many Projects. He is in love with Linda, an ore-sled dispatcher who lives a few floors down from him, and wants to ask her to marry him. After eating his egg, he prepares himself to propose to Linda, reviewing his three speeches. He leaves with a few minutes to spare, but the elevator won’t work. He watches hopefully as time ticks by and finally accepts that he’s going to be late. He dashes back to his apartment to call Linda and warn her of his tardiness, but she has disconnected her landline. He goes back to the elevator, but still nothing. He storms home and calls the Transit Staff, yelling at the woman who picks up. After he shares his sob story, she reveals that the elevator isn’t working because there’s a spy in it who’s taken over the control system. Realizing just how late he is, Edmund runs back out, tries the elevator again, and then decides to take the stairs. On one of the landings, he notices a door with faint letters on it. This door connects to the elevator shaft. Suddenly, the spy bursts through the door and holds Edmund at gunpoint. Edmund hides him in his room and is forced to make the spy a cup of Chico coffee as he tells his tale. Edmund disguises his identity and pretends he’s an ore-sled dispatcher like Linda, so, if the time should come, he can take the so-called spy by surprise.

Answer: Edmund Rice is a gymnast instructor specializing in wrestling, judo, and karati. He lives on the 153rd floor of a Project high-rise building and is preparing to propose to his girlfriend, Linda. Although he loves Linda and wants more than a Non-Permanent, No Progeny arrangement, he realizes she values her independence and plans to respect that. He has found a suitable Non-P apartment for them to share. Edmund's day is not going right. The egg yolk breaks when he prepares breakfast, his zipper sticks, the window is stuck open at full transparency. All of these minor problems are enhanced because he knows if he is even a minute late to his appointment with Linda, she will possibly think he is dead. Edmund gives himself plenty of time to get to the elevator, even though he knows the local and express elevators have a thirty-second arrival time, and it takes less than two minutes to get down to Linda's floor in the same building. When the elevator fails to arrive, Edmund panics. He tries to call Linda, but she has set the phone to private in anticipation of his proposal. Then, he calls the Transit Staff who tells him that the elevator is occupied by a spy, who has barricaded himself inside and is using the elevator as a projectile against anyone who might try to get him out. When Edmund tries to take the stairs to get to Linda, the spy stops him and leads him back to his apartment. Edmund attempts to mislead the spy by pretending to be an ore-sled dispatcher, but this only leads to the spy launching into a long diatribe against the existence of the Projects as smokescreens for the Commission wanting to maintain profits.

Answer:
Edmund Rice is the narrating voice of the story, and so the events that occur to him in the story closely mirror the plot since it is all told from his perspective. Edmund is a gymnast instructor, skilled in wrestling, judo and karati. He lives on the 153rd floor of a self-sufficient vertical city building in which no one is supposed to enter or leave. There are many like it in the world, all called “Projects”. The world outside is said to be too dangerous to set foot in for humans because of the radiation from atomic bombs during the Ungentlemanly Gentleman's War.
He is deeply in love with an ore-sled dispatcher on the 144th floor, Linda, and wants to propose a Non-P marriage to her (Non-Permanent, No Progeny). Neither of them are genetically desirable enough to have children, and he knows that Linda likes her independence too much to have a permanent marriage, even though he would like to have one with her. He makes an appointment to meet with her at ten o’clock and propose. The time of the appointment is important because Linda is so critical of punctuality that Edmund thinks she will not marry him or even talk to him again if he is late. When he exits his apartment to take the elevator at five minutes before ten, the elevator is not working. He returns to his apartment to call Linda, but she does not answer. He assumes she shut off her phone because he would be there soon and she wanted to have no interruptions. Edmund calls the Transit Staff to file a complaint that they have ruined his life, and the woman at the Transit center says there is a spy in the elevator and it will be some time before it can be fixed because the Army thinks they may have to starve him out. Edmund is crestfallen, then realizes that there are also stairs. It is 10:15, but he rushes to the staircase to try to get to Linda. As he races down, he notices a door to the elevator shaft between the 150th and 149th floors. He pauses to contemplate it, and suddenly a man (the “spy”) bursts out. He threatens Edmund with a gun, forcing him to escort them both back to Edmund’s 153rd floor room without alerting anyone. He does this. Edmund is forced to make him a cup of coffee, taking one of his two coffee rations for the day. Edmund fears that the spy is a maniac, and does as he asks while they wait for the Army to lose the trail so the spy will leave. The spy reveals to Edmund that he is actually an atomic engineer testing his theory that it is now safe for humans to go outside the Projects by risking his life since the Commission would not let him run experiments on it. Edmund is stunned since this is contrary to what he has been conditioned to believe.


Question: What is the plot of the story that explores themes of communication and understanding between different species, focusing on a character who navigates his captivity and engages with an efficient alien race?

Answer: Korvin sits in a cell after crash-landing on the planet of the Tr'en, which is populated by an extremely logical and intelligent humanoid race. Due to the speed of their scientific and technological advancements, the Comity of Planets will soon extend them an invitation, but Korvin believes they will not accept their offer. As a representative of Earth Central, he has been sent to Tr'en in order to find a way to prevent its people from marauding and settling other planets. In the days since Korvin's crash, the prison guards provide him with food and teach him the local language through drug hypnosis. He describes the language as "stiff and slightly awkward" but acknowledges its logical, meticulous construction. After several days imprisoned, a Tr'en named Didyak visits Korvin and informs him that he will be brought to The Ruler. When Korvin meets The Ruler--a massive, formidable Tr'en--he answers his questions to the best of his ability with respect to the logical constructions of the language. Korvin describes the physical appearance of adult humans as well as children, and The Ruler appears confused by the variations in height. The Ruler keeps emphasizing the importance of speaking with exactitude when communicating with the Tr'en. When Korvin claims his purpose on the planet was to crash-land his ship, The Ruler scoffs and orders him connected to a lie-detector machine for the duration of the questioning. After adjusting the lie-detector machine to Korvin's physiology, The Ruler continues his interrogation of Korvin, attempting to determine the true purpose of his mission on Tr'en. Adopting the Tr'en mode of providing extremely logical answers, Korvin claims his mission is to "stay alive", which frustrates The Ruler; he claims Korvin is trying to confuse him, so he calls upon his experts to help determine if the machine is faulty and analyze Korvin's responses. As the Tr'en broach the subject of Earth, they start to ask questions about its name, location, and finally, governance. Because the Tr'en receive and obey orders from one Ruler, they are completely perplexed by the concept of democracy where conflicting interests may contribute to a system of self-governance. In fact, they are so stumped by Korvin's responses that they continue this line of questioning for three days and are unsatisfied by what they consider to be his illogical, but truthful answers. On the third day, Korvin takes advantage of their lack of mental insight to escape prison and sends a message back to Earth Central informing them that he has accomplished his mission because the Tr'en will never be able to solve the problem of democracy.

Answer: Korvin, a human, had been siting isolated in a jail cell for three days on the Tr'en planet when Didyak, a member of the Tr'en, entered his cell. The Tr'en are somewhat humanoid, greenish beings, and Didyak was tall. Korvin had learned some of the Tr'en language under drug hypnosis but was frustrated with how literally Didyak took everything, so it took some time to determine that The Ruler had summoned Korvin for a conversation. This was what he wanted, though: Korvin had been sent to eliminate the threat the the Tr'en posed to the Comity of Planets and the rest of the galaxy because of how quickly their technology was developing. When he got to the Room of the Ruler, Korvin met The Ruler who was over seven feet tall, which was tall even for the Tr'en. The Ruler started with questions about how typical of a human Korvin was, and Korvin found himself apologizing for his race's inclination towards approximation over precision. They don't believe Korvin when he says that his job required he be on this planet, and the Tr'en brought out a lie detector that they built. Korvin was worried about the calibration of the machine, because he knew one misstep would mean death. After the machine was calibrated, the questioning continued, and the Tr'en had to accept that Korvin crashed his ship on purpose. Korvin's truth was not the truth that the Tr'en wanted, which Korvin used against the logic-led race. Experts in logic were called into the room, and Korvin quickly learned that logical paradoxes would not trick the Tr'en. He gave them just enough information for them to logically conclude, incorrectly, that Korvin was there to get help invading Earth. They discussed their respective forms of government, and when The Ruler asked who is in charge on Earth, Korvin refused to give away that information. This causes frustration, and the seed of confusion had been planted. Korvin asked them about their government, which has one being ruling everyone else. Korvin tried to explain that there is no one governor, and that everyone governs, which made no sense to the Tr'en. They did not understand how there was not a single ruler to make decisions; democracy seemed impossible to them. One of the experts insisted that Korvin was lying and that something must be wrong with the machine; they took a three-day break from questioning to investigate the issue only to conclude that nothing was wrong. On this third day, Korvin escaped. He knew the Tr'en couldn't conclude that it was an impossible problem, so their subconsciouses would prepare Korvin for an escape so that their conscious selves wouldn't have to admit that they did not have the answer. The story ends with Korvin heading back to Earth, sending a report back that the Tr'en would have to change their social structure to get the insight to answer the questions he left them with, meaning they were no longer a threat.

Answer: Korvin, a visitor from Earth, is held captive on a planet run by a race called the Tr'en. The Tr'en rely on logic and exact measurements to design their systems of governance, but Korvin's homeworld does not do quite the same. When the ruler of this world begins to question Korvin, they doubt he is telling the truth when he talks about how he crashed his ship on their planet on purpose. They wheel out a lie detector in order to tell if Korvin is telling the truth. The lie detector affirms his answers, but when Korvin starts to speak about his home world's politics, it is too much for the Tr'en to stand and one of his guards sets him free because they cannot cope with what they perceive as logical fallacies in the governance of Korvin's homeworld.

Answer:
Korvin is a man from Earth who has landed on the planet of the Tr’en. At the beginning of the story, he has been imprisoned in a jail cell and isolated for three days, causing him great boredom. Every night, he is hypnotized so his guards can teach him the Tr’en language. Korvin has learned that the Tr’en are literalists. After three days, a Tr’en named Didyak comes to Korvin’s cell and tells him the Ruler wants to speak with him. Korvin follows the rituals of the Tr’en language and social norms, agreeing to see the Ruler. After all, Korvin’s purpose is to remove the Tr’en threat.
	The Ruler asks Korvin several questions about his race, name, and sex and if his appearance is typical for a human. When Korvin offers a wide range of heights for humans, including “approximately nine or ten inches,” referring to children, the Ruler snaps at him that they ask for precision because the Tr’en are scientific men.
	As the Ruler asks him questions, Korvin answers truthfully but in ways that will not translate literally, thus confusing the Ruler. He has his people bring in a truth detector machine and hook it up to Korvin, testing it with a set of questions to which Korvin answers truthfully and ordering him to answer one untruthfully. These responses lead the Ruler to accept that the machine is calibrated accurately. The Ruler then returns to questioning Korvin, asking if he intentionally crashed his ship on their planet and what else his job entails after landing. Korvin says his job also involves staying alive, and the Ruler retorts that that is not the truth they want.
	Korvin has discerned that the Tr’en are brilliant with math and physical science but know nothing about how the mind works. The Ruler calls in his experts for advice who explain to Korvin that they will not be confused by logical paradox. They tell Korvin his plan to confuse them is a failure, and Korvin says that is good. The experts conclude that Korvin must be a traitor to Earth and must want them to conquer it. When the Ruler asks Korvin an either/or question, Korvin answers, “Both,” remaining intentionally ambiguous. When the Ruler asks about the government on Earth, Korvin answers that he cannot give him the explanation, but when he is pressed, Korvin pretends to try to be helpful, all the while, following through with his plan to confuse the Tr’en by describing a democracy with everyone as the governor and no single ruler.
	After the experts decide their machine must be faulty, they put Korvin back in his cell but continue questioning him. He escapes after someone leaves a door unlocked and a weapon nearby. As he leaves the planet, he sends a message ahead that the Tr’en are worrying over the meaning of democracy and will not be a threat because they will be so focused on the conundrum that they can’t understand.


Question: Who is the Ruler in the context of the story about a character navigating a complex interaction with an alien race, and what is his role in that narrative?

Answer: The Ruler is the sole governor of the Tr'en race. Characterized by their humanoid appearance, Tr'en are tall, greenish, and have four fingers. The Ruler himself is taller than most at seven-feet tall and is quite broad. The Tr'en are very logical and speak in a language almost mathematical in its clarity and precision. The Ruler epitomizes Tr'en commitment to logical inquiry. At first, The Ruler grills Korvin on his name, his race, his sex, and whether or not his appearance is normal for humanity. When Korvin's response regarding the variations in height amongst human adults and children, The Ruler is confounded. He also disbelieves Korvin's response regarding his purpose on Tr'en. Because of this, The Ruler orders Korvin to be hooked up to a lie detector. After adjusting the detector to Korvin's physiology, Korvin launches into a line of questioning regarding planet Earth, specifically the governance of it. When the experts monitoring the lie detector's reactions to Korvin's answers become baffled by his truth-telling in the face of seemingly illogical answers, The Ruler seemingly throws in the towel and lets the experts investigate the idea that Korvin is either lying or the machine is broken. In reality, Korvin has exploited a flaw in their logic--although they are masters of science, they have not mastered mental science. Only a grasp of mental science would allow the Tr'en to fathom humankind's embrace of democracy.

Answer: The Ruler is the head of the Tr'en government, and is a greenish humanoid who stands over seven feet tall. He makes all of the decisions for the race, and was appointed by the prior Ruler, which he feels is an important aspect of the consistency of the Tr'en leadership. The Ruler is the one who leads the interrogation of Korvin three days after his initial capture, and calls in the logic experts and the lie detector machine when he finds he needs assistance to understand what information Korvin is giving them. He is important to Korvin's plan: his goal after being captured is to talk to The Ruler, to plant some confusion in his head along with the logic experts. Korvin thinks that describing democracy to a society that is so single-authority oriented will force them to restructure their government if they want to try to understand the truths that Korvin presents them about Earth and related governments.

Answer: The Ruler is the ruler of this planet. Anything the Ruler commands is done, without question. The Tr'en people rely on this type of governance as no other form of governance makes much sense to them. Someone must be in charge of shaping and then enforcing the rules. That is the Ruler's role, and in this story, he is taxed with questioning the prisoner Korvin in order to get to the bottom of his purpose for being on their planet.

Answer: The Ruler is the autocratic leader of the Tr’en. He is a large creature, more than seven feet tall and with a broad build. He has been trained by the previous Ruler, who was trained by the Ruler before him, and so on for past generations, ensuring that the society and its values do not change. The Ruler questions Korvin, trying to determine Korvin’s ulterior motive for crash-landing his ship on the planet. Captives in his presence are closely guarded. The Ruler demands precision and exactitude in answers from Korvin, and when Korvin’s responses are more figurative than literal, he sends for their truth-detector. As Korvin’s answers remain intriguingly vague, which the Ruler cannot understand, he accuses Korvin of not telling the truth that he wants. He calls his experts for their advice, and they also question Korvin. The Ruler and his experts cannot understand Korvin’s explanation of the government on Earth because his statements contradict their assumptions, especially about government. After a frustrating interrogation, the Ruler sends Korvin away but allows his experts to continue to question him in an attempt to understand what he says.


Question: What is the significance of translation in the story that explores the complexities of communication and understanding between vastly different civilizations?

Answer: After Korvin crash-lands on Tr’en, he is captured and imprisoned for several days before he wakes up. During that time, the prison guards teach him the Tr’en language via hypnopædic language instruction. He learns the language is closer to mathematical metalanguage and is centered in logic and clarity. As a result, Korvin has to adjust the way he speaks in order to make sure to convey what he really means in his conversations with Didyak and when he responds to The Ruler's line of questioning. Because the Tr'en language requires perfect logic, Korvin's answers to The Ruler's questions confuse The Ruler and his group of experts that examine the lie detector and confer to determine if Korvin is telling the truth or beating the system somehow. Translation ultimately saves Korvin since the Tr'en are unable to logically process the concept of democracy, and they will spend an endless amount of time trying to solve that problem instead of advancing to the point where they will maraud and settle others in the Comity of Planets.

Answer: Translation is at the core of the story because Korvin has to rely on the logical nature of the Tr'en language to try to throw the Tr'en people off. Because of the lived experiences of the Tr'en people, with their specific government style, and their literal approach to communication, Korvin is able to give them enough information about why he is there to be telling the truth without giving away his true motives. He hopes that this will spur them to try democracy in an attempt to understand the nature of the government on Earth, which will break their current habits and hopefully slow down their technological progress. It is the way that the groups of people must translate as they communicate that allows Korvin to confuse the masters of logic in the end.

Answer: The Tr'en language has words that have more exact meanings than words in the English language. As a result, the true intent of the speaker is better conveyed. Korvin learns the Tr'en language while he is their captive, and he picks up on the nuance so well that he can understand the exact meaning and intent of the Tr'en when they speak to them, and thus use this to his advantage. Korvin can mask his own intent since his own language, the language of Earth, is less literal and capable of more complexity.

Answer:
   The Tr’en society is based on straightforward communication and literal interpretation of every spoken word. This is presumably why they teach Korvin their language, enabling him to communicate with them directly without an interpreter. However, the Tr’ens’ exclusive focus on math and the physical sciences creates a significant weakness that Korvin exploits: they have no understanding of their own or others’ mental capacity and nuances of language and, therefore, no ability to interpret anything they consider illogical. When Didyak uses the word “talk” that means to “gain information from, by peaceful and vocal means,” Korvin realizes that he will be able to save himself and his mission by communicating with the Tr’ens in a way that literally answers their questions without giving away his true mission of stopping the Tr’en’s advancement into the galaxy.
     When the Ruler tries to find out Korvin’s purpose for intentionally crashing his ship and if he has other intentions, Korvin’s responses are forthright in a literal sense: yes, he crashed his ship on purpose, no his job isn’t ended, now his job is to stay alive.
     Completely flummoxed, the Ruler calls in his experts in logic to question Korvin further, and based on his answers, they logically conclude that he is a traitor to Earth and is there to help the Tr’ens overthrow Earth. Korvin also confuses the Tr’ens with his explanation of Earth’s democracy. Their frustration ends the hearing before the Ruler, but the experts continue to question Korvin in his cell.
     It becomes clear to the experts that their lie-detecting machine is not faulty, but they cannot understand Korvin’s explanations. So on the third day after being called to the Ruler, Korvin finds an unlocked door and a weapon, enabling him to escape and thus solving their insolvable problem. Korvin knows that the Tr’en will be obsessed with trying to understand the democratic ideas that he described and that they will never be able to understand them without changing themselves. They are incapable of translating his responses in the context of their very literal society.


Question: Who is Didyak and what is his significance in the narrative involving a character isolated in a foreign environment?

Answer: Didyak is a Tr'en from the planet Tr'en, and he is tall, slightly green, vaguely humanoid, and has cat-like pupils. Didyak is the first Tr'en that Korvin encounters after waking up in the days following his crash. Having been educated in the Tr'en language through hypnosis, Korvin is able to communicate with Didyak, and he does so, making sure to address with the utmost respect according to Tr'en customs. Didyak carries a small weapon that is translucent and looks like a pistol; he also carries a small knife attached to his belt. Didyak's speech is stiff and slightly awkward, much like the rest of the Tr'en, and he speaks with very careful attention paid to the construction of each sentence in order to express perfect logic. Like the other Tr'en, Didyak also has fifty-eight pointy teeth, at which Korvin tries not to stare. The Ruler has sent Didyak to bring Korvin for an audience with him so that he may learn more about Earth.

Answer: Didyak is the member of the Tr'en race who came to retrieve Korvin from his cell when The Ruler summoned Korvin for questioning. Didyak is the first Tr'en who Korvin had a conversation with after having learned the Tr'en language under drug hypnosis, which gave him practice in the customs of conversation and the logical, literal nature of the Tr'en discourse. Didyak is also the first experience the reader has with this language, and learns more about the knowledge Korvin comes into his mission with through this exchange.

Answer: Didyak is the Tr'en who arrives at Korvin's cell in order to take him to the Ruler. Didyak is the first being with which Korvin has had any interaction in a long time, so Korvin is happy to talk with Didyak and to work on using the correct Tr'en words to convey his exact meaning. Didyak answers Korvin's questions in a very literal sense, which is customary among the Tr'en people. Didyak explains that he must take Korvin to the Ruler and that the Ruler is going to question him in a way that is meant to gather information.

Answer: Didyak is a tall, green Tr’en who, like all Tr’en, looks somewhat humanoid. He comes to Korvin’s cell after Korvin has been held in solitary confinement for three days. His initial conversation with Korvin follows the Tr’en ritual in which Didyak says who Korvin is and Korvin says who Didyak is (“of the Tr’en”). Didyak seems to be a guard because he has access to Korvin and enters his cell; he also carries a small translucent pistol-like weapon along with a knife in a sheath. After introducing each other, Didyak waits for Korvin to speak, and when he does, he asks what Didyak wants with him; Didyak answers that he wants nothing with Korvin. This response reminds Korvin of what he has learned of the Tr’en; they are extremely literal, more inclined to mathematical and scientific thinking. And when Korvin asks what Didyak is doing there, he again answers literally, stating that he is leaning against the door. When Korvin finally asks a specific question that can only be answered literally, Didyak beams at him as if he is pleased that Korvin finally understands what he needs to say. Didyak tells him that he has been ordered to take Korvin to the Ruler, who wants to talk with him. Didyak escorts Korvin to the Ruler, but his interaction with Korvin has proven a stark reminder of how the Tr’ens think and that Korvin needs to be mindful of how he speaks to them. The interaction with Didyak also gives Korvin his plan for how he will thwart the Tr’ens’ anticipated expansion to other planets.


Question: Describe the setting of the story, which involves a character grappling with isolation and communication challenges while navigating the complexities of a highly efficient alien society.

Answer: Korvin works for Earth Central and flies to the planet Tr'en on its behalf. Tr'en is a planet populated by the Tr'en race, a tall humanoid people with greenish skin, fifty-eight pointy teeth, and a unique language centered on the idea of logic. They are an extremely advanced race in terms of science and technology and others in the Comity of Planets consider them a possible threat seeing as they are in the atomic era and are on the brink of developing space travel. After Korvin crash-lands on Tr'en he sits in a prison cell noted for its smelly air, and, more importantly, its efficiency of design. Besides the Tr'en, the only known living creature on Tr'en is the chulad, a small creature that looks like a large deathwatch beetle. The Room of the Ruler is large and square, and everything inside the room is brown including the walls, furniture, and drapes. In terms of furniture, Korvin observes a large chair where The Ruler sits, many kneeling benches, and a small table near the chair. When two technicians bring in a lie detector test for Korvin, he notices that it is large, squat, and metallic and has wheels, dials, blinking lights, tubes, wires, and a seat with armrests and straps. The technicians use these straps to tie Korvin into the machine.

Answer: This story takes place on a planet occupied by the Tr'en, a race of tall greenish humanoid-like aliens. This race is known for their extremely efficient technological development, which is attributed at least in part to their government structure. To humans, the air on the planet is a little bit smelly, and they don't expect the Tr'en to have large cultural institutions and interesting works of art because they are led by logic and mathematics alone--they even communicate very literally, talking their way through logic puzzles. There are two rooms that house most of the story: the lone jail cell that Korvin is kept in for six days in total, and the Room of the Ruler where the questioning happens. The jail cell was built very quickly once Korvin was captured, and there are no other prisoners in the jail, so it is a lonely and quiet place for Korvin to sit in, with nothing to occupy him but his own thoughts. There is one bed for him to lie on but nothing else of interest. His only interaction with others is the nightly lessons in the Tr'en language that are done under drug hypnosis. He is escorted out of this solitary confinement to meet The Ruler, whose chambers are a large room with brown and tan everywhere. The walls were dark brown, many of the furnishings were light brown, and the drapes on the windows were tan. Although the brown contrasted nicely with the green skin of the Tr'en, Korvin still found there to be far too much brown in the room. There was a great big chair in the middle for The Ruler to sit in, surrounded by benches for others to kneel at. Eventually, a lie detector chair is brought into the room as well. The story ends with Korvin making it back to his spaceship, but the author does not give us many details about this part of the setting.

Answer: The story takes place on a planet that is ruled by a people called the Tr'en. The planet is not as far along in its evolution as Korvin's planet, and Korvin makes a point of this several times in his observations about their lack of experience with other races and in their absence from the Comity of Planets, a governing body that oversees many different planets. The Tr'en are efficient, so all the structures built on the planet are built without flaw. There also isn't anything very exciting to do recreationally on the planet. The planet and its people are largely defined by the very logical and literal nature of the Tr'en.

Answer: The story takes place on the planet occupied by the Tr’en, an oxygen-breathing humanoid species whose members tend to be quite tall and various shades of green. The Tr’en are known to be an especially efficient lot who are mathematically and scientifically minded, and therefore literally minded as well. Word has reached Earth that the Tr’en are making progress in their atomic era and are almost capable of space travel, which means they will soon settle other planets and travel to nearby stars. It is also suspected they will soon be capable of traveling faster than light, which will earn them an invitation to join the Comity of Planets and which they are sure to reject. The Tr’en have a justice system in place; they have jail cells and the advanced technology that enabled them to build a truth detector device. The planet is ruled by an autocrat referred to as the Ruler; everyone obeys him because they know there are no second chances. This form of government ensures uniformity, enabling rapid, consistent responses from everyone. Everything is constant, as each successive Ruler is adopted by the current Ruler, guaranteeing the same wisdom and judgment exist under each leader.


Question: What is the plot of the story about a space pilot who finds himself in a challenging situation on an unfamiliar planet inhabited by a group of women?

Answer:
Jonathan Fawkes dropped off the only member of his crew on Mars after he got space sickness, so he was alone on the journey to Jupiter. He had been charged with dropping off tobacco seed to see if they could cultivate it on the colonies in Jupiter. However, along the way, he got tired at the wheel of the ship, and, during his nap, crashed into an asteroid. When he awoke, a beautiful blonde woman named Ann was standing over him. They introduce themselves, and she explains that she’s one of the 27 female survivors of their crash over three years ago. Ann sees a horde of centaurs coming over the plains, so she and Jonathan crawl to the foothills, where they can’t be followed. She spears a creature along the way and hooks it on her belt. Jonathan attempts to escape, as he’s uncomfortable around women and wants a cigarette, but she takes him down. They run into nine more women who pin him to the ground. They start to carry him the four miles back to their base, but he asks to walk instead as he’s humiliated. They trudge through the foothills, only stopping once to throw stones at the pestering centaurs, before finally reaching home. They treat Jonathan like a king, pulling out a chair for him at the table, and endlessly complimenting him. They eat inside the dining room of their wrecked ship, and Jonathan watches the wild, Amazonian-like women in horror. Their leader, a big woman named Billy, halts all the flirting and tells Jonathan that he needs to rest in order to feel better. After his belly’s full, he quickly falls asleep, and they carry him upstairs to bed, attempting to take off his shoes which he refuses.
The next morning, he wakes up and walks outside with a cane, exaggerating his injuries so as to be treated better. He sits beneath a tree and is soon greeted by Ann. She grabs him and they make to embrace but are caught by the rest of the girls. Billy splits them up and says it’s time to figure out who gets him. The women fight and argue their cases, and Jonathan slips away, running back to his ship. Another cruiser is sat down next to his own, the Interstellar Cosmography Society scrawled on its side. He meets Dr. Boynton and another man who offer to rescue him. Jonathan refuses them, tells them there’s nothing to worry about, then grabs his tobacco seeds, cigarettes, and tools, and makes his way back to the women.

Answer:
Jonathan Fawkes, a Universal space pilot, flying from Mars to Jupiter, has seeds for the colonists there. He is flying alone, using autopilot at times to sleep. Something goes wrong, and his ship crashes onto an asteroid. He is discovered by a beautiful young woman checking to see if he is alive. She reveals that she, along with 26 other women, crashed their ship onto the asteroid three years ago when they were on their way to become wives for the colonists on Jupiter. This woman, Ann Clotilde, invites Jonathan back to their camp. Along the way, she spies a herd of centaurs and hides Jonathan from them. Ann is surprisingly strong and can kill a rabbit-like creature with her spear, reminding Jonathan of an amazon.
	When Jonathan craves a cigarette and realizes they are in his ship, he turns to go back for them, but Ann stops him with the tip of her spear. Other women appear to find out what is going on, and they are all astonished to discover a man among them. They shout with joy and throw themselves at him. To prevent him from trying to get away again, they tie his hands and feet and carry him, which utterly humiliates Jonathan. He had always considered himself a tough guy, but he had been bested by a group of women! He persuades them to let him walk the rest of the way, but later, when his feet slip on the narrow ridge of a trail, they have to rescue him and then tie a rope around his waist like a child to keep him safe.
	As they reach their camp, the women announce they’ve caught a man, and one of the women exclaims they are rescued. But another points out that having a man there is the next best thing, and the women talk openly about his attractiveness. At dinner, several women invite Jonathan to join them for private activities the next day. He eventually falls asleep at the dinner table and is carried away to bed.
	The next day, Ann, his finder, discovers him alone and engages with him. He is worried that others might see them, but she assures him they are alone. But something he says draws all of the women into the opening where they are, and they begin arguing over whose man he is, Ann’s, all of theirs to share….Jonathan exclaims he should have a say in it, but Billy, the leader, tells him he doesn’t. He then decides it’s a good time to get those cigarettes, and when he arrives, two men are there from the Instellar Cosmography Society and offer him a ride back to civilization. Jonathan tells them he has decided he likes it there and wants to stay, even though it will be another three years before the asteroid’s orbit is in the space lanes again where he can be picked up.

Answer: Jonathan Fawkes is a space pilot with a company called Universal. After dropping his co-pilot off on Mars due to illness, Jonathan has been flying solo, carrying a load of seed to be delivered to colonists on Jupiter. Somehow, he crash-lands on an asteroid, and when he wakes up, he sees a woman with bright yellow hair standing over him. Her name is Ann Clotilde, and she is one of the women that had been sent to Jupiter three years earlier by the Food-growers Association to become wives for the colonists. Ann informs Jonathan their ship had crash-landed and only twenty-seven women survived. She offers to bring Jonathan back to her camp, and Jonathan agrees despite his discomfort around women. They begin to move across the prairie. Along the way, a group of centaurs chases them, and they run toward the safety of a small ravine leading into the hills. After Ann uses her spear to snag a rabbit, Jonathan realizes the women must have developed Amazon-like skills during their time on the asteroid. He begins to crave a cigarette and decides to return to his ship to fetch the cartons of cigarettes he had left behind. Ann insists he leaves the cigarettes behind and accompanies her to the camp, whereupon he trips her and takes her spear. The commotion draws the attention of some of Ann's fellow survivors who come to her aid and apprehend Jonathan. Feeling shame, Jonathan joins the cohort on their march back to the camp as the women and the centaurs throw rocks and insults at each other. The women, particularly Olga and Ann, begin flirting with Jonathan since they haven't seen a man in many years. When they return to camp, all of the women are delighted to see a man, and he joins them for a great feast prepared by their cook, Billy. The women argue about who will get to spend alone time with Jonathan, but he is too tired to play along. Eventually, he falls asleep, and the women carry him to bed. When he awakens, he explores the encampment and runs into Ann. Emboldened by Ann's forwardness, Jonathan wraps his arm around her, and the other women suddenly appear, prepared to fight for Jonathan. As they argue amongst themselves, Jonathan makes a run for his ship, leaving the women behind. When he arrives, he sees a space cruiser next to his wrecked ship with the inscription "Interstellar Cosmography Society." Three men step out, and the eldest explains to Jonathan that they have been commissioned to examine the asteroid. They offer Jonathan a ride off the asteroid, but Jonathan turns down their off. He has decided to stay with the women after all. He grabs his cigarettes and makes his way back to camp.

Answer:
In 3372, Jonathan Fawkes, a space pilot with Universal, crash lands during a transport run from Mars to Jupiter to deliver seed for the colonists. He awakes to find a woman (Ann Clotilde) wearing a ragged blue frock and sandals that is surprised he isn’t dead. She doesn’t know where they are, but suspects they are on an asteroid. She and 26 other women survived a crash landing here three years ago while on their way to become wives to Jupiter’s colonists. A herd of Centaurs charge towards them and they flee down a ravine that opens into a large gorge. Ann spears a small furry creature and ties it to her belt. Jonathan craves cigarettes and wants to go back to his wrecked ship to retrieve some, but Ann insists they go to camp. Jonathan knocks her feet out and takes her spear, turning it on her. Just then, another woman approaches, shrieking at the presence of a man. Jonathan flees, and nine women chase him down, bind his arms and legs, and begin carrying him to their camp. Jonathan begs to walk and they let him down, knowing they can catch him again if he tries to run. He slips and nearly plummets down a canyon wall, but Ann grabs him and saves him, humiliating Jonathan to be helped by a woman. They stop briefly to throw rocks and yell at some Centaurs on the prairie below. At their camp, they feed Jonathan in the dining salon of their wrecked ship. Some women invite Jonathan to hunt and forage, fawning over him. One of them, Olga, makes strong sexual advances. Billy, the leader of the women, silences the chatter and declares that Jonathan must rest. He says his ship can’t be salvaged, and is so tired he falls asleep at the table. A dozen women carry him up to a stateroom for his rest.
Jonathan wakes with a limp and goes to the nearby stream. Ann makes a strong sexual advance on him, forcing him back into a seat when he tries to get up and assuring him that the other women won’t return until lunch. Billy interrupts them, and the rest of the women are lined up behind her. Ann bears her spear and claims that Jonathan is hers because she found him. Jonathan runs back to his shipwreck and finds a group of three men from the Interstellar Cosmography Society examining the asteroid. Doctor Boynton says Jonathan is lucky they saw his wreck, but Jonathan insists he does not want to be rescued. They think he has gone mad. Jonathan tells them to send a freighter back to the asteroid in three years when it crosses into the shipping lane again to pick up his load of tobacco. He grabs tools, tobacco seeds and cigarettes, and heads back to the women’s camp.


Question: Describe the setting of the story, which involves a character who finds himself stranded on a mysterious celestial body with a group of unusual companions.

Answer:
The Happy Castaway by Robert E. McDowell takes place during the year 3372 on an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid is mostly prairie and sprawling plains, but there are also foothills and steep mountains. In the mountains, there is also a mountain emitting white smoke. The centaurs, the Natives on the asteroid, live in the prairie and plains, as they are unable to successfully travel through the hills and mountains. The stranded women live beyond the mountains, where the centaurs can’t reach them, and have transformed the wreckage of their ship into a livable base. There is a grand table and weighted chairs to serve food at, a kitchen supposedly where they can cook the food they’ve hunted and foraged, as well as areas to sleep.
There are rivers that run through the asteroid teeming with fish. Ann caught a rabbit-like creature, so there are other creatures to be hunted.

Answer: The story takes place in 3372 on an asteroid where a flight of girls was stranded three years earlier after their ship went down. The ship's remains are still there, and the girls use it for living quarters. The asteroid is rich with flora and fauna and a variety of landforms. It has grassy meadows, foothills, chains of mountains, a volcano, and a brook. There are ravines and hills, canyons, and valleys. There are small furry animals, much like rabbits, that the girls catch to eat and large centaurs that the girls have developed a healthy fear of. Jonathan refers to the women on the planet as amazons because they are so strong, but then he also learns that the pull of gravity is 30 times less than that of Earth, so the women can lift and carry his easily. The women are eager to be rescued but equally eager for a man’s attention. They flirt with Jonathan shamelessly, each trying to gain his attention. They have established a bit of social order; it appears that Billy is their leader. She reigns in the girls when they become too competitive over Jonathan. The women wait on Jonathan hand and foot, each eager for time alone with him.

Answer: The story takes place in the year 3372 on an asteroid somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. Jonathan works as a pilot for a company called Universal delivering seeds to planets like Jupiter, which has a colony and a Food-growers Association. Jonathan crash-lands in a vast prairie, which stretches a mile past the crash site to a range of jagged foothills leading up to a chain of mountains. Within this chain, Jonathan sees a puff of smoke issuing from the top of a cone-shaped peak indicating the presence of a volcano. The asteroid is home to centaurs, which appear to be hostile towards humans. When Ann and Jonathan run away from the centaurs, they escape to a small ravine leading into the hills. As they make their way through the ravine, it deepens into a canyon then further into a gorge with walls towering on either side of them. On the floor of the canyon grow yellow, fern-like plants. After the women capture Jonathan, they march him back to camp by way of a narrow ledge climbing the canyon wall which comes to rest at a high ridge overlooking the prairie. Because the asteroid has less gravity than Earth, the women are thirty times as stronger than normal. Their encampment is at the head of a deep valley beyond the canyon's ridge where a tree-flanked stream flows next to their crashed space liner. Inside the space liner is a massive dining area with a long meturilium table at its center sitting atop a green fiberon carpet. It reminds Jonathan of the "fabulous barbarian past."

Answer:
In the year 3372, humans have colonized other planets in the solar system, and there is interplanetary transport to support the colonists. Asteroids can be dangerous in the shipping lanes, as the main character, Jonathan Fawkes, finds out when he crashes into one on his way to deliver seeds and other supplies to Jupiter.
The asteroid contains prairies, jagged foothills, a chain of mountains, a fuming volcano and deep valley gorges and streams. Dangerous Centaurs that are half man and half horse roam the prairie in herds. There is a ravine nearby to Jonathan’s crash site that opens into a wide gorge with high walls that tower on both sides. Yellow fern-like plants grow within the canyon. The 27 stranded women camp about four miles away from where Jonathan crash lands. They camp in their wrecked ship which has a stream close by to it. There is small game to eat like the furry creature that Ann spears and ties off to her belt. They still use the dining hall on the ship for their meals, and go out daily to hunt, fish, and forage for fruits and berries.
The asteroid will cross the interplanetary shipping lane every three years in its orbit, meaning that every three years there is a chance they may come into contact with transport ships again. This creates a sense of pioneering prosperity for Johnathan who decides he wants to live with the 27 women on the asteroid and use the fertile land to grow tobacco and then sell it every three years when a freight ship comes by.


Question: Who is Ann Clotilde, and what is her journey like in the story about a man who finds himself stranded on a strange planet with a group of women?

Answer: Ann Clotilde is one of the 27 women who crashed into the asteroid on their way to Jupiter and survived. She has blonde hair and a cute, button nose. She wears sandals and a frayed blue frock. She finds Jonathan Fawkes after he crashes during one of her hunting expeditions. She walked to him to see if he was dead or not but soon rescues him from the oncoming horde of centaurs. She quickly spears a rabbit-like creature and attaches it to her belt. She takes him down when he attempts to escape, proving her Amazonian strength. The other girls come when they see her and fawn over Jonathan as well. Together, they half-carry, half-drag him back to their ship, where they feed him. The next day, Ann meets him beneath a tree and essentially throws herself at him. He receives her gladly, but they soon stop when they are caught by the others. Jonathan runs off, leaving Ann behind.

Answer: Ann Clotilde is the woman who discovered Jonathan and his wrecked ship. At first, she worries that Jonathan is dead, but then he regains consciousness. She helps him up and then explains where he is to the best of her ability. The 27 women believe they are on an asteroid. They crash-landed there three years ago and have been waiting for a man to come to rescue them ever since. Ann saves Jonathan from the centaurs, telling him what they are and leading him away from them to save his life. She has excellent hunting skills, easily spearing a small rodent they pass on the trail. When Jonathan wants to go back to his ship for his cartons of cigarettes, she calls on some other girls to help her stop him, all of whom are thrilled to see a man. To prevent him from escaping, they bind his hands and feet and half-carry him to their camp. Ann believes that Jonathan should belong to her since she found him first. When she finds him alone and comes onto him, she assures Jonathan that they are completely alone. But after he groans from pain but claims he isn’t hurt too badly, Billy and all the other women come out of the woods, pleased that he is okay. Ann claims that Jonathan belongs to her while other women complain and argue they should all share him. When Jonathan states he should have a say in it, Billy tells him he doesn’t and has to do what they say. Jonathan turns and runs for his ship to retrieve his cigarettes.

Answer: Ann Clotilde is one of the twenty-seven survivors of a crashed space liner that had been enlisted by the Jupiter Food-growers Association to transport wives for the colonists on Jupiter. Ann and her fellow survivors have lived on the asteroid for three years, waiting for someone to come rescue them, but they have also adjusted quite well and spend their days hunting, gathering berries and fruit, and attending to various chores around the encampment. Thanks to the low gravity on the asteroid, the women have magnified their strength, enabling them to hold their own against the centaurs and capture Jonathan without any problems. Ann is out hunting when she stumbles upon Jonathan, and she believes he is dead. She has bright, yellow hair and wears a ragged blue frock and sandals. She is curious about Jonathan and invites him back to her encampment. Along the way, she helps him escape from a herd of hostile centaurs, but she threatens him with a spear when he wants to return to the ship to get his cigarettes. Later, Ann joins the rest of the women in flirting with Jonathan because it has been several years since any of them has seen a man, and they all find Jonathan to be attractive. In fact, Ann flirts the most forwardly, and Jonathan seems intrigued by her offer until they are stopped by the rest of the women who wish to fight for him.

Answer: Ann Clotilde is one of twenty-seven women who survived a shipwreck on an asteroid while on their way to Jupiter to become the wives of the colonists there. She has bright yellow hair, an attractive nose, and wears a blue frock and sandals. She discovers Jonathan and his wrecked ship while she is out hunting, and is surprised that he is alive. She forces him to come back to their camp with him, but he takes her spear and tries to escape. Ann cries for the women who find them to help her stop him, and they successfully capture him and tie him up. On their way back to camp, Ann has to rescue Jonathan from falling off the edge of a cliff by grabbing the scruff of his neck. Ann partakes in throwing rocks and yelling at Centaurs on the prairie below along their way. After Ann and the other women invite Jonathan to eat with them in the dining hall of their wrecked ship, they carry him to a stateroom to rest. The next morning, after Johnathan has been fed a slept in the women’s camp, Ann comes upon Jonathan in the stream and makes a forceful sexual advance on him. They are found by all the other women, and Ann tries to fend them off by wielding her spear and telling them that she found him and she gets to have him.


Question: What happened to the 27 women who were left stranded on an asteroid after a space accident?

Answer: The Jupiter Food-growers Association enlisted many women to travel out to the colonies to serve as wives and promote happiness as well as breed a new generation. However, on their way to Jupiter, their spaceship crashed into an asteroid, and only 27 of the women survived. In the three years since the crash, these women have learned to hunt, forage, and defend themselves against the native species there, Centaurs. They developed a society based on sharing and generosity, shown through their individual chores that all serve the greater good. However, the two things they wished for were a rescue mission or a man. When Jonathan Fawkes arrived, their second wish came true. After they all met him, they each complimented him incessantly and offered him more food, drinks, and other sweet amenities. Being the first man they’d seen in over three years, he was quite the rarity.

Answer: The 27 women stuck on the asteroid have been stranded there for three years. They were on a ship bound for the Food-growers Association on Jupiter to become wives for the colonists but crash-landed on the asteroid. Some of the women did not survive, but those who did have learned to fend for themselves. Their only hope of leaving the asteroid is if a man comes and takes them away. When Ann discovers Jonathan, all the women are interested in him and want to “win” him for themselves. They flirt shamelessly and help him, treating him almost like a princess. The women have learned to fend for themselves, hunt their food, and become quite strong. Jonathan thinks of them as amazons. Of course, the gravity on the asteroid is about thirty times weaker than that of Earth, which helps the women carry Jonathan when they tie him up to prevent him from getting away. They are so excited and desperate to see a man, they will do anything to prevent him from leaving. Their main wish is to be rescued, but the next best thing to being rescued is to have a man among them.

Answer: Originally, the women were part of a larger group that had been enlisted by the Jupiter Food-growers Association to journey to the colonies on Jupiter to become wives for the colonists. Before they reached their destination, they crash-landed on the same asteroid that Jonathan would crash on three years later. During those three years, the twenty-seven survivors turned their crash site into a livable encampment. Lucky for them, they had crashed in a deep valley near a stream and plenty of trees. Because of the lush foliage, they are able to collect an ample supply of fruits and berries, and there is plenty of wildlife to hunt including rabbits. As a result of the low gravity, the women's strength has magnified thirty times, so they are able to easily defend against the centaurs and provide for themselves. Although they are hoping to be rescued, they seem generally content in the makeshift society they have built together. The only thing they mention missing is the presence of a man, so when Jonathan arrives, they all fight over his personal attention.

Answer:
Twenty-seven women survived a shipwreck on an asteroid while on their way to Jupiter to become the wives of the colonists there. They have been successfully living on the asteroid for three years, and hunt and gather the plentiful resources the land has to sustain themselves. They have to fight or evade dangerous Centaurs that are half man and half horse while they are out hunting, which they do by throwing rocks and yelling at them. They camp next to a stream in their wrecked ship, using the dining hall and staterooms for eating and living quarters. Jonathan finds them to be powerful and athletic, and frequently refers to them as Amazons. Many of them make forceful sexual advances on Jonathan, and they compete amongst themselves for his attention.
When the asteroid orbits through the interplanetary shipping lane every three years, they become more likely to be rescued. When Jonathan intercepts Doctor Boynton and his two colleagues from the Interstellar Cosmography Society who have been commissioned to examine the asteroid, he tells them emphatically that he does not wish to be rescued. He would only like for them to send a freighter back in another three years to pick up the load of tobacco that he plans to grow with the seeds in the cargo of his shipwreck. The implication of what Jonathan has decided is that the twenty seven women will also likely remain on the asteroid for at least three more years because Jonathan has turned away their chance at being rescued.


Question: What transformation does Jonathan Fawkes undergo throughout the story of a man stranded on a peculiar planet with a group of women?

Answer:
At first, Jonathan Fawkes claims that he is most uncomfortable around women. Despite being a galavanting spaceman known around the universe for his strength and bravery, he is in awe and possibly fearful only of women. When he first arrives on the asteroid and encounters Ann, he is immensely uncomfortable with her gaze on him, and that continues as he discovers that she can overpower him in his weakened state quite easily. As the rest of the stranded women arrive, they all ogle at him and tell him how incredibly handsome he is. This only makes him even more uncomfortable.
However, by the end of the story, he wraps his arms around Ann and would have embraced her had they not been caught by the others. The rest of the women vie for his attention, and he runs off back to his spaceship. At first, the reader might think it’s because he needs to get away from the girls or that he can’t handle the pressure. However, his encounter with the potential rescuers proves that he is now far more comfortable around the women. He ran back to his spaceship to grab his cigarettes and tobacco seeds. He always planned to return to the women and does not tell the rescuers about them.
Although at first, he was terrified of the girls, by the end he too is infatuated and loves the situation at hand.

Answer: Jonathan undergoes a complete role reversal with the women on the asteroid. At first, Jonathan is rather uncomfortable at all the attention the 27 women pay him. He isn’t accustomed to women openly flirting with him, being possessive of him, or being the center of their attention. He also isn’t accustomed to women having control over him. When he wants to go back to his ship for his cartons of cigarettes and Ann tries to stop him, he tries to thwart her physically. But when other women join them and Ann explains what is happening, the women gang up together, tackle him, tie him up, and carry him to prevent him from going. As a big, rangy, tough man, he feels completely humiliated for the women to have the upper hand over him. The humiliation continues when he starts to slide over the edge of the narrow ledge, and the women save him and tie a rope around his waist like he’s a baby on a leash. The women talk openly to him about his physical attractiveness and invite him to join them in private activities. The whole scene is much like what single women experience when they are in a group of men, and Jonathan doesn’t know what to make of it. As the object of their attention, he finds he has no say in what they plan to do with him when Ann claims he belongs to her since she found him and others say they should all share him. However, when the men from the Interstellar Cosmography Society find Jonathan’s ship and meet him, offering to take him with them, he tells them he has decided he likes it on the asteroid and will be staying there to raise tobacco. He doesn’t mention the 27 women because he has decided that he likes the center of their attention.

Answer: When Jonathan first meets Ann Clotilde, he feels a little embarrassed and uncomfortable because being around beautiful women makes him feel awkward and nervous. He follows Ann back to the encampment because he is injured and unfamiliar with the environment of the asteroid. Jonathan is a tall and large man, but the women easily apprehend him, which makes him sulk. His sulking leads to him nearly falling off the cliff, and the women have to save him. He feels even more uncomfortable when he arrives at the encampment and meets the rest of the twenty-seven survivors of the crash. They are all beautiful women--he calls them Amazons--and they flirt with him incessantly calling him handsome and attractive. Unsure of their true intentions with him, Jonathan walks around the encampment with an exaggerated limp, hoping to garner their sympathy. As he does this, Ann corners him, and suddenly he feels a desire to flirt with her back until all of the women arrive and want to fight for his attention. Jonathan escapes back to his ship to get his cigarettes and finds a cosmography society there to survey the asteroid. They offer him a ride home, but he decides he wants to stay. Before, Jonathan wanted to escape from the women, but now he realizes he is happy there and wants to return.

Answer:
Jonathan Fawkes is a space pilot with Universal, known in the interplanetary transport business as a man to leave alone. He thinks of himself as big and tough, and over the years he has picked up three broken noses and had a scar on his left cheek from a bar brawl. When the women capture him and tie him up to take him to their camp he says he has never been so humiliated in his life. He feels intimidated and scared by the sexual advances of the women, especially one named Olga, and wishes he could run away or retreat on several occasions.
A transformation occurs when he is approached by Ann in the stream the morning after he sleeps at the women’s camp. He switches from trying to escape to succumbing to her sexual advance. When the other women discover them together and Ann uses her spear to try to defend her claim over him, he runs back to his ship. However, he is only running back to his ship to gather supplies like tools, tobacco seeds from the cargo he was supposed to be delivering when he shipwrecked, and cigarettes. Even with the offer to go home from Doctor Boynton and his two colleagues from the Interstellar Cosmography Society who land on the asteroid and find his wreck, he decides that he will stay here with the women. They think he has lost his mind, but Jonathan sees an opportunity for himself now to live on the asteroid with the women and farm tobacco that he can sell to passing freighters in another three years when the orbit will cross the interplanetary shipping lane again.


Question: What is the plot of the story that involves a man who becomes embroiled in a complex situation involving art theft, time travel, and unexpected encounters with strange beings?

Answer: Dan Slane is in Clyde Snithian's office; he proposes that, in response to a recent slew of art thefts, he guard Snithian's art vault overnight in addition to the external security he has. Dan is suspicious about the thefts and has a theory that the crooks are entering from within the vaults, perhaps through time travel. Snithian refuses to hire Dan, but Kelly, head of security, hires him in secret. That night, Dan guards from within the vault, keeping himself occupied with sleep and food, when a strange, cage like contraption appears out of thin air. Two men emerge, named Manny and Fiorello, and Dan hesitantly confronts them. While Dan speaks to them, Kelly's voice suddenly booms from a hidden speaker in the room, under the impression that Dan had been in on the thefts. Dan wrestles Manny and Fiorello off and manages to take control of the carrier and escape. Not knowing how to control it, Dan finds himself passing through many rooms and settings, until the carrier finally settles in an office room of a skyscraper. There, Dan meets Blote, a strange, giant-like creature, who asks him what happened to Manny and Fiorello. Blote, the apparent head of the art schemes, requests that Dan join the team to replace them. Dan refuses, and asks about the carrier, referring to it as a time machine; Blote is perplexed, unaware of the concept of a time machine, and demands that Dan find one in exchange for a reward, and for avoiding trouble for trespassing. Dan, unsure of where to retrieve a time machine, bluffs and manages to take Blote back to Snithian's, where he abandons him. Suddenly, Dan hears a siren, and the carrier travels to a park. The carrier becomes frosted over as a man emerges to confront him. The man introduces himself as an agent of the Inter-Dimensional Monitor Service.

Answer: Dan Slane approaches Clyde Snithian to tell about a flaw in the guarding system for paintings. There are more than two hundred bodyguards across the house but none in the vault, which is dangerous, because recently art collections were disappearing from locked vaults all over the world. Clyde refuses to waste more money on security and walks away, while Kelly, who is responsible for security, agrees to hire Dan for cheap. Dan makes himself comfortable at the new workplace and waits for the thieves to find out how they break in, which is his real goal. After eight hours, a framework appears in the air with two figures from the future sitting within, who soon step out into the vault. The two men, Manny and Fiorello, open and admire the paintings from the shelves without noticing Dan. When they realize his presence, the men try to back off and pretend to confuse the rooms. When Dan starts proposing a deal, Kelly's voice proclaims Dan a crook. Dan wants to join the departing men, and as there is only room for two, he aims the pistol at Manny. A fight for place happens and Kelly enters, grabbing Manny. Fiorello rushes to help his friend, another cop moves towards Dan, who enters the time machine and pulls a lever at random. Dan's plan goes wrong but he has the machine for himself as he wanted and he needs to figure out the controls. He emerges into a kitchen and then moves through the house to avoid being seen, unable to travel in time. Dan nearly crashes into a building but suddenly finds himself in an office with a weird creature at the desk. The boss asks about his two employees and Dan's coming. The creature comes from Vorplisch and proposes to Dan to take the place of Manny and Fiorello. When Dan mentions the time-machine, it turns out that the framework is a simple carrier, but a time-machine intrigues the creature who believes the humans have developed one. The creature introduces himself as Blote and warns Dan against trying to leave. He also tasks Dan with securing a time-machine for Blote, otherwise, Dan will be dealt harshly with. Dan points at the first name in the phone book and Blote decides to accompany him to the office to buy a time-machine. Blote is surprised he missed this development. The two drive towards the pointed building and get into it in secret. Inside, someone catches Blote for the break-in and Dan leaves in the carrier. Some noise appears from the machine and Dan finds himself in a park, where another creature named Dzhackoon appears, he is from Inter-dimensional Monitor Service.

Answer: Clyde W. Snithian is meeting with Dan Slane. Dan has told Eddie Kelly that he to see Snithian regarding the safeguarding of his paintings. Although Snithian has stationed two hundred and twenty-five guards working at all times, nobody is in the vault with the paintings. Snithian thinks it is unnecessary, but Kelly finds that Dan has a point. Snithian thinks it is unnecessary, but he is hired secretly anyway because he is willing to work cheaply. His purpose of doing this job is to see whoever has been stealing art from collections without entering the usual way. Since the Snithian collection is the largest west of the Mississippi, he waits inside and sees how the thieves operate. Eight hours later, Dan wakes up from his light doze when an apparition in the shape of an open-work cage with two figures inside suddenly materializes. Two men rise out of the cage, and they are pleased that the collection is fully-stocked. The shorter man, named Manny, complains that there are no nood dames. The taller man, named Fiorello, remarks on the artistic techniques of the paintings. Dan suddenly interrupts their conversation, and the two try to come up with excuses. Suddenly, Mr. Kelly’s voice interrupts them as he assumes that Dan is working with the two. Dan points a pistol at Manny and tells him to stay because he will go with Fiorello; Kelly and three cops suddenly appear to confront them. As they struggle, Dan gets into the machine and tries to get a grip on the controls. He neutralizes the control lever to rest an inch above the floor, and a young girl appears at the end of the hallway. The girl gets ready to get into a tub, and as she whirls to see if there is anybody, the cage shoots with great acceleration. He scrambles out of the cage once he reaches his destination and sees a large man with too many hands behind a desk. The man is a Vorplischer, and he is confused when Dan calls the contraption a time machine. It is simply a carrier, and beachball says that his superiors will be delighted with any knowledge of a time machine. He introduces himself as Blote and tells Dan to bring back a small time machine. Dan pretends to bluff, and Blote says that he will go with him to the location he has picked. As Dan leads him through the building area in the cage, Manny and Fiorello come back for revenge. The carrier, with Dan in it, shoots away again; he begins to hear sirens as it goes to a new location. Although it does not catch the attention of anyone, Dan steps out to investigate as a dark-skinned, long-nosed, and  tall figure in a white uniform approaches him. The man, named Dzhackoon, introduces himself as a member of the Inter-dimensional Monitor Service and tells him that he is glad Dan stopped. Dan is confused and asks what Dzhackoon wants from him.

Answer:
The story begins with Dan Slane in Clyde W. Snithian’s office. Dan is trying to convince Clyde that he has a deficiency in his security details and he would be the perfect person to fix the issuer. He is dismissed by the man, but Kelly, Clyde’s head of security pulls him aside and informs him that he will hire him. Dan agrees to the conditions and is quickly put to work to monitor the vault by staying inside of it.

Dan’s plan is to catch the thieves that are entering vaults and successfully stealing artwork. He has a suspicion that there is time travel involved in the plan. He suddenly wakes up and notices two frames in the vault with him. They are discussing their mission and the paintings that they spot in the vault. One of them eventually notices Dan, and he tries to stammer out a reply. He tells the two men, Fiorella and Manny, that he wants to join them. Kelly, who is listening into the fault, overhears Dan betraying him and shouts as such over a speaker installed in the vault. Dan gets into the carrier and successfully steals it. He figures out how to operate it and eventually ends up at the office of Blote. Blote, a Fourth Class Trader employed by the Vegan Confederation, is the boss of Manny and Fiorello. He’s not mad at Dan and is willing to allow Dan to join his operations. During their discussions, Dan keeps insisting that a carrier is a time machine. Blote misunderstands Dan’s assertions and believes him to not be referring to the carrier as he has never heard of someone successfully inventing the time machine. Blote then insists that Dan immediately take him to a time machine. Dan agrees to do so, and Blote controls the carrier to take both of them there. However, it is a trap and they end up in the vault where Manny and Fiorello still are trapped. Manny, Fiorello, and Blote are all angry with Dan and try to take control of the carrier. Dan is able to get away and he quickly moves the carrier into a different location. When the carrier settles again, he is greeted by a strange-looking figure that speaks to him in French. After some slight discussion between the two, Dan is told that he is in a place called the Anglic colonial sector and that the man is with the Inter-dimensional Monitor Service. It is clear that Dan has ended up in another strange and unknown location and is confused by his predicament.


Question: Describe the setting of the story, which revolves around a man involved in a scheme related to valuable art, unexpected visitors from another time, and a mysterious machine.

Answer: The first part of the story takes place in Snithian's headquarters, where he speaks to Dan in his office. Later that night, Dan sleeps in the art vault, a small room with gray walls that support paintings wrapped in brown paper. The room contains a bunk, fridge, and bookshelf. Once Dan escapes through the carrier, he finds himself passing through different rooms, including a kitchen, hallway, and bedroom. The carrier then takes him to an office in a skyscraper, with posters, framed paintings, and a desk, where he finds Blote. After returning back to Snithian's, the carrier takes him to a large park.

Answer: The story starts on Snithian's property. Dan is hired to guard his art collection. The vault has gray walls, shelves stacked with wrapped paintings, a refrigerator with some snacks, a radio, an armchair bunk, a bookshelf and a small table. Soon a framework appears in the air with two people in armchairs. A mess takes place and Dan enters the framework alone. There are a lot of controls and levers, so Dan moves into some spacious kitchen with a cook. Then he travels through the house with a carpeted hall, a spiral staircase, a wide bedroom with flouncy curtains, a dressing table and a flowered canopy. Outside there is a clipped lawn an d a terrace, inside Dan appears in a plain room with a planter and a wide window. Suddenly, he heads towards some building wall and finds himself in a simple brown office with dim light, posters, paintings and a weird creature at the table, Blote. The two then travel in the framework to a corporation building. Trough a flat roof the carrier enters the dim office with some machines. When Blote is caught, Dan takes the carrier to the park, accompanied bosom siren-like noise. In the park he faces a tall man reminding Blote.

Answer: The story is initially set at Clyde W. Snithian’s home. There is a vault full of paintings that is unguarded until Dan offers to become a guard. In the vault, there are shelves stacked with wrapped paintings under a low ceiling. Two three-hundred-watt bulbs also light the place up. To prepare Dan, Kelly has also ordered a neat-white refrigerator, a bunk, an arm-chair, a bookshelf, and a small table. The table is set with paper plates, plastic utensils, and a radio. Inside the fridge, Dan finds salami, liverwurst, cheese, and beer. The carrier that arrives in is an open-work cage about the size and shape of an outhouse minus the sheathing. There are two contoured chairs too. When Dan grabs the lever, he finds himself in a room with walls that glow blue. There is also a second lever present too. There is a third lever that causes the carrier to rise. The levers themselves do not have any controls written by them, and they are all plain, unadorned black. They look like ordinary circuit-breaker type knife-switches, and even the entire carrier looks hastily thrown together. He reaches an area with a hallway and goes into a bedroom shortly after. It is a wide chamber with flouncy curtains, a four-poster bed with a flowered canopy, and a dressing table. The area he is in has a terrace. Then, he steers the machine to a plain room with a depression in the floor, a wide window, and a planter filled with glowing blue plants. In the room, there is also a ten-foot-square sunken tub. The office that Blote is in is painted a simple brown, dimly lit by sunlight filtered through elaborate Venetian blinds. There is also a potted plant by the door, a heap of framed paintings beside it, and a desk on the far side of the room. Posters also line the walls of the office. The Time office that they go to is a square, five-story structure with lettering. The location is two twenty-one Maple Street. There is a dimly seen office, a second floor, and a barely visible corridor. Finally, when he gets into the carrier again, it takes him to an area where there is a landscape of trees and houses. He stops at the corner of a wide park.

Answer: The story begins in Clyde W. Snithian’s office. After being hired by the head of security, Kelly, Dan settles into living within the vault. The vault is described as having grey walls with a low ceiling. Shelves are stacked against the walls and wrapped paintings are adorned upon them. There is a refrigerator, a bed, an armchair, a table, and a bookshelf along with other useful supplies for Dan to live in the vault. After taking the travel apparatus from the two art thieves, Fiorello and Manny, Dan ends up at the office of Blote. Under false pretences, Dan and Blote both end up traveling back to the vault where Manny and Fiorello still are trapped. Dan successfully is able to maneuver the three away from the carrier and he navigates it to a different location away from the vault. When Dan steps out of the carrier, he meets a strange-looking man. Through small talk, the man informs Dan that he is in the Anglic colonial sector speaking to a Field Agent of Class five with the Inter-dimensional Monitor Service.


Question: What is the relationship between Dan and Blote in a story involving art theft and time travel?

Answer: Dan first meets Blote when he finally stops the carrier. Blote is a giant, strange man with a beachball-like head and many fingers, with a mouth above his eyes. Dan is immediately intimidated and fascinated by Blote, and Blote, aware of his superiority, requests that Dan replace Manny and Fiorello in the art stealing scheme. When Dan refuses, Blote orders that he find him a time machine and threatens to punish him for trespassing. Dan manages to fool Blote, but the two have an imbalanced power relationship, where Blote is much more powerful than Dan.

Answer: Dan is mistaken and he believes the carrier to be a time-machine, so he doesn't expect to meet Blote, especially considering the fact that the least is an alien. Dan basically spoils Blote's mission by preventing his two employees' escape. This mistake makes Blote to be seeking for the new employees and as Dan has seen him and knows about his crimes, he offers the job to the man. Dan is afraid and has no means to escape. Blote believes humans to develop a time-machine due to Dan's mistake and now he wants Dan to get it. So, their relationship is based on confusion and dangerous fo Dan. For that reason, the least leaves Blote behind and escapes, stealing the carrier.

Answer: Blote is very interested after seeing Dan arrive from the carrier. He asks who Dan is and what he did to the other two men. He also supposes that Dan did not bring any paintings back after finding out how he got on the carrier. When Blote catches Dan looking at him, he says that he hopes Dan does not harbor any racial prejudices against him. He offers Dan something to drink after revealing what species he is from. Although Manny and Fiorello are gone, Blote is interested in hiring Dan as one of the staff. When Dan asks him about the time machine, however, he assumes that Dan is talking about how he knows where to get one. Dan is confused since he thinks that a carrier is a time machine. However, he becomes shocked once he realizes what Blote wants him to do for him to pay back for taking the carrier. To escape, he bluffs Blote into taking him to the fake Time location. Although Blote trusts him, Dan betrays this trust once Manny and Fiorello appear, leaving the three of them behind.

Answer: Dan and Blote meet after Dan takes the apparatus from Fiorello and Manny after their tussle in the vault. Blote is the boss of Fiorello and Manny. Blote does not appear to be mad at Dan and even tries to recruit Dan to join his operations. He speaks very matter of fact to Dan and appears to try to answer his questions even though he does become confused at some of them. He trusts Dan to show him where to find a time machine and they both get on the carrier to go to the supposed location. However, Dan eventually betrays this trust and leads him into a trap. Then Dan ultimately takes the carrier again and goes to another unknown location.


Question: What happens to Dan throughout the story, which involves his unexpected encounters and interactions in a setting filled with art, intrigue, and time travel?

Answer: Dan first proposes to Snithian that he take on the job of guarding his art vault at night in order to catch the mysterious,  serial art thieves. Snithian declines, but Kelly, head of security, accepts, and that night Dan is settled into the vault. After a few hours, Dan is shocked to see a machine appear out of thin air, where two men appear to steal the art. Dan believes this is a time machine, but Kelly suddenly arrives and threatens to arrest Dan, believing he is part of an inside job. Dan attempts to escape with the carrier, and after a few detours, he ends up in the office of a large man named Blote. He asks Blote about the carrier, implying that it is a time machine, but Blote demands that Dan supply him with a time machine, as his people have never seen one. Dan leads Blote back to the Snithian office, where Manny and Fiorello see him, but he manages to escape once again. Then, Dan hears a siren as the carrier hurdles through the air, and he is met by a man who says he is from the Inter-dimensional Monitor Service.

Answer: Dan has heard about painting being stolen from locked vaults and he has some guesses, which he wants to confirm. So he gets a job as a vault guard for cheap at Snithian's vault, where the collection is read and must attract the thieves. He faces two men exiting from a framework and believes them to come in a time-machine from the future. He asks to join them and as they don't have space for him, he attacks them and leaves alone. The plan goes wrong when Dan can't figure out how to control the machine and finds himself in a house full of people, He moves from one room to another trying not to be seen. Eventually, the carrier takes him to Blote's office who is a weirdly looking creature and who makes Dan scared. Dan is in danger and has to bluff, as Blote wants him to get a time-machine. So, the two enter an office where Dan leaves Blote behind and escapes the guard. On the way, he hears loud siren-like noise and stepson a park, where he meets another creature reminding Blote.

Answer: Throughout the story, Dan goes to a variety of places via the carrier. He is initially hired as a guard, but he eventually escapes with the carrier. He is able to outsmart Manny and Fiorello, taking the carrier and going to a variety of rooms nearby. After, the carrier takes him to Blote, who then demands him to go retrieve a small time machine for further analysis. Not trusting that Dan won’t escape on his own, Blote decides to go with him to see the time machines himself. Dan is once again traveling on the carrier by himself when he leaves Blote behind with the other two men who have come back for revenge. Then, he has an encounter with Dzhackoon, who sounds the alarm that causes him to land the carrier once again.

Answer: The story begins with Dan trying to convince a wealthy man to hire him onto the security detail for his valuable art collection. Dan has heard that valuable art has been stolen and he has his suspicions as to how. He does get hired by the head of security, Kelly, to live in the vault to guard it against potential thieves. Dan’s predictions are somewhat accurate as two men do suddenly appear in the vault to steal the art. He then proceeds to try to convince them to take him with them as he believes that it is a time machine they are using to complete their heists. Kelly overhears this through the microphones he had installed in the vault and tells Dan that when he gets inside he will be punished. Dan becomes frantic and in a tussle with the two art thieves, Manny and Fiorello, he steals their apparatus and activates it to the best of his abilities. The following sequence of events has Dan transported to different locations that cause more confusion. The owner of the apparatus, or the carrier, does not confirm Dan’s suspicion that it is a time machine and even seems confused by the question. Dan continues to travel to unknown locations without a clear way of returning to his proper location.


Question: What equipment is used in a story involving a man's encounter with unusual visitors and a plan to safeguard valuable items?

Answer: The main piece of equipment used in the story is the carrier that Manny and Fiorello arrive in. The carrier contains lots of different levers and controls that make it difficult to navigate. It is able to appear out of thin air, a cage-like structure that has a blue luminous glow to it. Despite the futuristic abilities of the carrier, it is made up of common parts and is not the sturdiest. The carrier is able to appear in random places, but it is also used by Blote to travel to Maple Street.

Answer: The vault is locked and guarded by armed people, Dan himself is supplied with a pistol. The two men appear in a glowing framework in the air, which Dan believes to be a time machine. Indeed, it's an inter-dimensional carrier which can travel rapidly through walls but not through time. It's equipped with multiple levers and controls, which are hard to figure. Siren-like sound is used by inter-dimensional Monitor Service to make the carriers stop.

Answer: The carrier is the main piece of equipment used throughout the story. It is capable of taking its passengers to a variety of different places by using specific controls and can pass through walls undetected. It is how the art thieves were capable of stealing many pieces of art, despite the vaults often being heavily guarded or sealed. Another piece of equipment is the pistol that Dan points at Manny. It is supplied by Kelly, and Dan does not fire it but uses it to threaten the other man into staying so he can go aboard the carrier. Another piece of equipment used is the siren that Dzhackoon sounds. It sounds like a typical police siren, but nobody else hears it except for Dan.

Answer: The main equipment that is used in the story is a travel apparatus that is used by Manny and Fiorello to get into the vault to steal valuable artwork. Dan believes it to be a time machine. He takes the apparatus from the two thieves and uses it to go to a different location where he meets Blote, the two thieves’ boss. While on his journey, he figures out how to use the different levels on the machine to control the direction of travel. When he implies to Blote that it is a time machine, Blote is confused and shows that he does not know of the existence of a time machine. Blote calls the travel apparatus a carrier.