Let me begin again. I like life on the resort worlds -- always have and, after the upcoming mindwipe, always will. Last year, I rented a small house on Vega IV, a sea world, all islands and reefs and archipelagos, turquoise waters and aquamarine skies, sunrises like symphonies and sunsets like stars gone supernova. There's only one city: called Nuevo Acapulco in La Enciclopedia del Empirio de la Humanidad, it's N'apulco to the locals. The N'apulcans are mostly emigrants from Polaris II; the only difference between them and their Carribbean ancestors is that the ancestors fleeced NorAm tourists. Now the N'apulcans profit from their Hispanic siblings. I don't mean to sound cynical. I suppose I wish to show that I'm still capable of a certain authorial distance, a semblance of dispassionate observation. The following events may indicate otherwise. In fine tourist tradition, most homes on Vega IV are named. Mine was The Sleeping Flamingo, and its outer walls were coral pink. Were they mood-sensitive, they would have changed as I first viewed them. The rental agent, an attractive N'apulcan named Tasha Cortez, was not mood-sensitive either. She said, "It's beautiful, isn't it, Senor Flynn?" My instinct was to gesture curtly with a cupped hand that she lift the wind boat and take me elsewhere. But she was young and attractive (as I have said and may say again) and eager and so happy to be assisting the infamous Bernardo Flynn that I merely raised an eyebrow in mild scepticism. And then, because a playwright cannot resist a promising line, I said, "Your Sleeping Flamingo should be put to sleep."

Who rented a small house on Vega IV?

Nathan read the package of words in silence, his only motions the steady progress of his eyes and occasional replacement of pages. Allan sat nervously across from him in a chair Nathan had probably upholstered himself, a patchwork design of fabric containing easily more stuffing than any other furniture item of the period. At long last, Nathan reached the end and set down his reading on the table between them. Allan leaned forward unconsciously. "It's the best story you've ever written." Allan exhaled and leaned back into the chair, his face relaxing in imitation of his thoughts. "So," he asked, "you don't think it's a waste of ink and paper, a futile expedition into morbidity or literary debauchery?" "Heavens, no," said Nathan, aghast. "This is one of the strongest works I've read in ages. It speaks to the deepest storyteller's instinct within us all, yet is entirely original. My dear friend, you have done it. Oh, they may rail against you at first; they may decry you as a heathen or a literary savage; but while those in power say such things, others will read your tales and see their true worth. Believe me when I say that you will be read a century from now." Allan, though dubious as to that possibility, felt some temptation from the compliment; mainly, it granted him the encouragement he still needed. Nathan promised to show the story to a printer he knew and Allan left it with him, then walked home under the spreading maples with a smile lingering on his face. He felt now that perhaps Nathan was right; although the man was somewhat peculiar, he had both an unimpeachable honesty and a certain propensity for insight. Certainly, it was undeniable that the stories had an originality to them. His mind's strangest fruit had ripened at last, and he found the taste less bitter than expected. These thoughts and others like them filled his head as he walked the long road home. It was evening, and the sky burned orange in the west when he neared home at last.

Why did Allan let Nathan take the story?

Alien Planet starts out with an interstellar spacecraft named Von Braun , leaving Earth's orbit . Traveling at 20 % the speed of light , it reaches Darwin IV in 42 years . Upon reaching orbit , it deploys the Darwin Reconnaissance Orbiter , Which looks for potential landing sites for the probes . The first probe , Balboa , explodes along with its lifting body transport during entry , because one of its wings failed to unfold . Two backup probes , Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton , successfully land on the planet , and learn much about its bizarre indigenous lifeforms , including an apparently sapient species . The robotic probes sent out to research on Darwin IV are called Horus Probes . Each Horus probe consists of an { { convert } } long inflatable , hydrogen-filled balloon , Which is covered with solar receptors , a computer ' brain ' , a ' head ' covered with sensors , and several smaller robots that can be sent to places too dangerous for the probes themselves . The probes have a limited degree of artificial intelligence , very similar to the ' processing power ' of a 4-year-old . All the real thinking is done by a supercomputer in the orbiting Von Braun . The probes are programmed with different personalities ; Ike is more cautious , while Leo is the risk-taker . The two probes are also equipped with a holographic message that will be projected to any sentient life found on Darwin . After the two probes inflate their gas-bags , they encounter a voracious Arrowtongue and watch it pursue a Gyrosprinter .
Where does the Von Braun spacecraft deploy upon reaching orbit?