User:DoctorWho42/Appointment on Prila

"Appointment on Prila" is a short story by Irish author Bob Shaw. It was first published in the August 1968 issue of Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact.

Plot
Candar remembers his first spaceship. He watches his parents tear up a village. The ship lifts them skyward. Candar's parents float into the sun. It turns into a double star. The ship drops Candar on a black rock planet. The black rock melts near the stars. The planet has no food. He will wait until there is. David Surgenor is on his last survey. The Sarafand sent out six modules. They map the planet starting from the south pole. The Sarafand lands on the north. When two hundred and fifty miles out, the modules race. The winner gets champagne and steak. The loser loses pay. Captain Aesop orders all to stop. Surgenor tells Voysey to stop. The Sarafand shoots an ultralaser. Voysey brakes Module Five. Six modules left the Sarafand. Aesop counts seven now. Gillespie of Module Three thinks it was here before. Aesop says there is no one in three hundred light-years. Surgenor asks if there is anything underground. While mapping is incomplete, Aesop doubts it. Gillepsie notes Module Seven doesn't communicate. Aesop will inspect them. Surgenor suspects a supermimic. Pollen thinks this is a logic problem. Surgenor tells Pollen there are six machines and an animal. The animal is a Gray Man. The Grey Men are shape-shifters. Everyone makes fun of him. Surgenor asks Aesop to calculate the probabilities of Gray Men and Module Seven. Candar listens to their thoughts. His race never needed machines. Machines would not survive on Prila. He considers how to attack the Sarafand. Surgenor tries to drink coffee but cannot move his hands. He and Voysey are paralysed. He listens to the radio. Pollen's solution involves calling out their numbers and moving back. Surgenor's solutions are shooting them with an ultralaser or deploying their inspection-and-repair robots. Surgenor sees one blink its lights in Morse. The Sarafand replies. He sees Voysey move Module Five forward. Surgenor tries to suppress his thoughts about the Gray Man. Candar is really hungry. He notices the food creature trying to suppress his thoughts. Candar moves closer. An ultralaser hits Candar. He suffers pain, fear, and dies. Surgenor celebrates. He sits smoking on the Sarafand. He doesn't retire. Pollen asks Surgenor about the Gray Man. Surgenor affirms it lived where machines could not function. He reads "A.E.S.O.P" on the computing installation's identification plate. They guess it means Automatic Electronic Spaceship Operating Planet but no one knows.

Reception
In 1969, Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact's P. Schuyler Miller called it "a logical puzzle yarn with a not too deeply concealed clue, much like John Campbell's classic "Who Goes There?" in its basic gimmick." In 1970, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction's Joanna Russ reviewed Best SF: 1968 "[i]t leans toward the obvious and toward stories which have one good, clear, conventional idea" counting "Appointment on Prila" among them.