I

Even from a distance, Ceres looked fertile. In the black wastes of space it
hung like a rich yellow ball, bright and alive. It was easy to see why farmers
liked coming to such a planet – without much effort you could imagine crops
growing there, could picture the bountiful harvests a farming man might raise.
From the Observation Room on Solnas 3, such a farmer was looking at Ceres, a
faint smile spreading across his creased, weather-beaten face. In his mind, Sam
Harding was already there, feeling the rich dark soil underfoot and smelling the
rain on the abundant green foliage. Looking further ahead, he could see himself on
the porch of the farmhouse, the days work done, puffing contentedly on his pipe
and watching the first of the crops growing up towards the sun and swaying gently
in the breeze.
Sam’s reverie was interrupted as the door of the Observation Room slid open
and the Navigator came in. “Thought I’d find you here,” he said, smiling."’Fraid
you’ll have to tear yourself away from Ceres for the moment, Sam. We’ll be
entering her gravity field shortly and everybody’ll have to be locked into their
seats. D’you want to return to your cabin ?”
“Sure,” said Sam, returning the smile and moving towards the door. It slid
open and he turned for a final look at Ceres.
The Navigator waited for Sam and watched him gazing back at the planet.
“Don’t worry, Sam,” he said, “you’ll be there soon enough. Then it’ll be just you
and Ceres for the next few months. You’ll probably be so sick of the place by then
that you’ll be glad when we come back for you.”
Sam just nodded and smiled and they strolled along the short corridor to the
lift.
As they descended, Sam reflected on what the Navigator had said. ‘Sick of
Ceres,’ he thought to himself. ‘How could a farming man get sick of a planet like
Ceres ? How could a man ever get sick of planting and growing and harvesting ?’
Sam Harding came from a long line of farmers, a line that stretched back to
the times when farmers ploughed their fields with horses and sowed the seed by
hand. Farming was in his blood and now, after only two visits, so was Ceres.
The lift doors slid open and the two men stepped out. The Navigator made his
way back to the Bridge and Sam strolled along to his cabin.

II

From a small hill overlooking the Landing Bay, Sam watched Solnas 3 depart.
He raised his hand and waved but knew that everyone would be locked into their
seats and wouldn’t see the gesture. He was glad to see the ship go.
He turned and looked at Ceres and a smile of contentment spread over his
face. The trees, the grass, the soil all looked fertile and in the distance, he
could see the empty fields where he would plant the seeds from which the crops
would grow.
He knelt and scooped up a handful of soil. He raised it to his nose and
smelled it. It smelled good. Rich and earthy. “Earthy!” Sam said aloud and smiled
as the word brought back memories of home. He squeezed the soil through his
fingers and let it fall to the ground.
He picked up his small suitcase and started walking towards the farmhouse.
The day was almost through. The second of Ceres’ suns was already half-way through
its orbit. On Ceres there was no darkness. It was always light. It had been
arranged that way. For the crops.
‘Start work tomorrow,’ thought Sam as he walked along the path to the
farmhouse. ‘Yep, settle in the rest of today and start work tomorrow. Sounds fine
to me !’
He arrived at the farmhouse and climbed the stairs on to the veranda. He
turned and had a look at the empty field in front. It was broad and long and the
soil lay dark and waiting. It seemed to hold the promise of a good harvest to
come.
Sam turned and let himself into the farmhouse. Inside, it was fairly clean
considering it had been a month since the last man had left, although a faint
coating of dust clung to the furniture. ‘Shift that soon enough,’ thought Sam,
‘but first best check the Controls.’
In the middle of the Control Room, on a narrow table, the main computer and
monitor had been covered by a sheet to protect them from the dust. Sam removed the
sheet and tossed it into a corner. He turned on the computer and waited while the
monitor flickered to life. He pressed the Test button and several panels on the
screen in front of him lit up one after the other, showing that all was working
properly. Sam grunted his satisfaction and shut the computer down.
Happy with the controls, Sam strolled through to the kitchen and made
himself a sandwich then took it through to the living room. He loved the view from
there - two of the walls were glass and afforded an excellent view of the fields.
They looked good and Sam was tempted to start work right away but he felt tired
after the journey from Earth. Tomorrow he would start working them. As he ate his
sandwich, he thought of how he would till the soil, plant the seeds and then tend
the crops while they grew. Then the harvest. The fields would give him a good
harvest.
“Yes sir, a good harvest,” he said aloud. He stretched and yawned. Having
finished his sandwich, he went through to the kitchen and took a bottle of beer
from the fridge. Not bothering with a glass, he made his way upstairs to bed.

III

He was in the fields early next day. The automatic plougher was already
half-way across the first field, leaving neat lines of furrowed soil behind it.
Sam was sitting on the grass under a large oak tree, smoking his pipe and
watching as the plougher traversed the field in the pattern he had set it for that
morning. Another hour or so and it would be finished then, unaided, it would move
into the second field where it would continue its process of furrowing. After
that, it would move on to the third and fourth fields.
Sam was a happy man. He settled himself against the oak tree and watched the
plougher rhythmically moving back and forth. He glanced up at Ceres’ first sun and
felt the rays warming his face. A slight breeze wafted away his pipe smoke.
‘Should be through ploughing here by the time the sun’s overhead,’ he
thought. Then he could start sowing. A smile spread across his face. Sowing was
the part he liked best. He leaned his head back against the oak tree and dozed.
Sam woke to the sound of the plougher moving over to the second field. He
stood up and stretched then picked up the bag of seed which had been lying by his
side. He slipped the strap over his head and tied the two cords behind his back so
the bag rested against his waist.
He strolled along the side of the field until he came to the start of the
furrowed rows. The rows were interrupted occasionally by a narrow grass path. Sam
stepped on to the first path and put his hand into the bag and withdrew a handful
of seed. Moving his arm in a wide arc, he scattered the seed over the ploughed
soil. He strolled along at an even pace, scattering seed to left and right with
both hands.
This was the part Sam liked best – sowing the seed, the way he had read
farmers sowed their crops thousands of years ago and although it was wasteful, all
his harvests were successful so the Commissioners back on Earth didn’t complain.
Sam chuckled to himself as he strolled along, scattering – if they could see him
now, walking along like this, seed being wasted, while the expensive automatic
seed-implanter lay unused in the hanger! Still, they were millions of miles away
and he was here. They’d never know. He was still chuckling, lost in his rhythm,
when he reached the end of the path. He moved along the field until he came to the
next path. His measured scattering resumed.
The second sun was rising as Sam finished sowing. He felt tired and hungry.
He had sown the first two fields.
“Dinner time,” he said to himself. “Then a nap, then finish the last two
fields. Should be through before the second sun goes down.” Laying his bag on the
grass, he made his way back to the farmhouse.

IV

Sam was in the Control Room. He had finished the sowing and the plougher was
back in the hanger. Although it was still light outside, the day was almost
through and Sam was tired. All that remained of today’s work was to set up the
controlled climate cycle. Sam had already decided on a cyclewhich would allow him
to harvest in two weeks :
2 days of light rain showers to vitalise the soil,
4 days of uninterrupted sunshine to encourage growth,
4 days of vitamin showers to feed the growing crops,
3 more days of sunshine then harvest at the end of the second week.
Sam turned on the main computer and yawned as he waited for the monitor
flickering to life. He sat down in front of the keyboard and fed in the programme.
He could hear the light rain starting to fall as he climbed the stairs to
bed.

It was the beginning of the second week of the cycle. The crops were about
half-way towards maturity. Sam stood at the edge of the field, watching them
swaying to and fro in the afternoon breeze.
He strolled along until he came to one of the narrow grass paths between the
swaying rows, one of the paths where a week earlier he’d scattered the seed. He
strolled along the path, stopping here and there to to check the crops. He was
satisfied – they were coming on fine.
He knelt and examined one of the growths. A strong green stalk grew from the
ground and supported the main body of the crop. Sam ran his hand over the stalk
and marvelled at it’s thickness – it was through this that all nourishment passed
to the small dwarf-like human, which was growing on the stalk, attached at the
navel. Sam reached out and touched one of the dwarf’s tiny hands with his finger –
it’s fingers slowly curled round his.
Sam grinned. ‘Almost alive,’ he thought. He examined the torso, the legs
and the arms. All were perfect. The small, finely shaped head moved slowly in the
breeze. Sam gently touched the eyes but there was no movement there yet – they
would open in a few more days, as he had planned it, in time for harvesting. Sam
stood up and brushed the soil from his trousers.
‘Perfect,’ he thought, looking down at the dwarf. He looked over the field
with its sea of dwarves, swaying backwards and forwards on their stalks in the
gentle breeze. ‘Whole field looks perfect,’ he thought.
Sam was pleased with his work. He would inspect the other fields before his
afternoon nap.

VI

The day’s work done, Sam was sitting on the rocking chair on the porch,
slowly rocking himself back and forth. He was content. He puffed on his pipe,
releasing small wisps of smoke, which were borne away on the soft breeze.
‘Should be a good harvest,’ he thought. ‘One hundred of the dwarves to a
field…four fields…that’ll be four hundred of them. Say five harvests before the
Transporters arrive…that’ll be two thousand of the dwarves !’
From Ceres, they would be transported to Earth. From Earth, they would be
sold to other planets as workers and as there was a big demand for the Dwarves of
Ceres, the price would be high.
‘Yup, a good harvest,’ thought Sam. They would be pleased with him back on
Earth. Might even let him come here more often. Might even let him stay for good
one day.
“Wouldn’t mind that at all !” Sam said aloud, grinning and rocking back and
forth. “Nope, wouldn’t mind that one little bit !”