Unwillingly to Earth (v1.0), page 19
I say “Who are the Enemy?”
“Oh, there you are,” says Blazer Weigh, fiddling with some knobs.
“Lizzie, dear,” says the Cad, “prepare for a delightful surprise. The Enemy, as you ungratefully call them, are the subject of your Field Work Assignment, the Independent Firsters in person.”
“Listen,” says Blazer Weigh.
“You Terrans in the old ship,” blares the Recorder he has been adjusting. “You’re surrounded. Show sense and you won’t get hurt, not by us anyway. What’s on this planet belongs to the people of this planet, the ones who got here by their own efforts and been working all along to make a place for themselves and their children. You got a lot of stuff in there that we reckon is rightly ours. There’s been a damn sight too much taken out of Figueroa for the benefit of outsiders and we reckon something’s owed to us for that. You’re getting picked up tomorrow or day after, we don’t want to interfere with that, but we aim to see nothing else goes off planet and we’re staying here until you’ve gone to see that it don’t. We know there’s one of you out in a floater. When we take possession of it we’ll let him in to join the rest of you. Signing off, acknowledge please.”
“Plainly an optimist,” says the Astral Cad. “Though I think we might acknowledge reception now that we have Lizzie back among us.”
Before anyone can Do so another Speaker comes abruptly to life.
“That wasn’t so damn smart,” it says. The voice is a different one, gruffer, and not making any attempt to sound Reasonable. “If you banged up that Floater we just might decide to take it out of your hides, before we let you go.”
Before anyone can Intervene the Astral Cad has flipped the Switch of an Outside Speaker and retorted “And we just might decide to fix a few booby traps, or arrange to blow this installation, before we depart!”
There is a Yell of rage from the inside Speaker, cut off suddenly as though someone out there had thrown a switch. Blazer Weigh has already thrown the one inside, and he stands silently while Doug and I combine to tell the Astral Cad what we think of him.
I get tired of it sooner than Doug, who has been Putting up with the Cad 3 weeks longer than me. I switch on the radio, while Doug is pausing to think of another Insult, and speak.
“You Figueroans out there. What are you talking about?
We aren’t going to take any of this equipment with us. We don’t want to, and we couldn’t, anyway, it’s too heavy.”
There is a Pause, during which I hear someone saying “Damnit, that’s a girl!” and then the first Voice speaks again.
“Your friends at the Space Gate could, and they’re not going to. We need that monopile as much as they do, and it’s staying where it is.”
Blazer Weigh leans over and switches off our mike, and I hear Shouting start a moment before somebody outside switches theirs off too.
“How the Hell did they get to know about that?” he says.
When I have time I will get together and Kick myself for not realizing that the existence of Light and Automatic gadgets and so on in the Hulk have to mean that it has an Independent power supply. I have got too used to Large-scale Utilities, two years ago it would never have occurred to me that it worked by anything Else.
I will add an extra Kick for not thinking that any sort of Power supply could be tapped to recharge Msilikatse’s accumulators.
Doug says “What could have made them think we had any idea of transferring the pile to Msilikatse?”
“It’s a crazy idea,” says Blazer. “The pile’s over a century old, and if we tried to shift it the casing would probably crack. Let alone it weighs over three tonnes and we’ve no transport that would take it.”
Doug says thoughtfully, “You and Van Hatton went outside together this morning. What did you talk about?”
“There was nobody around,” says Blazer Weigh quickly. “We checked before we went out.”
Doug looks at the Cad, who shrugs.
“I forget the exact words. We discussed the Dagom-bans’ problems and Lizzie’s overreaction to them. I seem to remember saying that if it happened to occur to Lizzie that the Hulk had its own power supply she would infallibly decide that their need was greater than ours, and demand that we disconnect it and carry it along to the Space Gate and hand it over … Your eavesdropper, if any, didn’t know a joke when he heard one.”
‘‘I don’t imagine that the average Firster has much acquaintance with monopiles,” says Doug coldly. ‘‘Nor do I feel he has to be blamed to failing to recognize your humor as such. However, that seems to explain the present situation … Just let it go, Lizzie, discussing Van Hatton’s mental peculiarities won’t improve them and we’ve got other things to think about.”
Which is obviously True, but at the end of about ninety minutes’ loud and acrimonious Thinking we are left with the following Facts:
One. If the Firsters choose to keep us In we have no safe way to get Out. Two. Pedagogue is due any time after twelve hours from now. She will presumably drop a Lander. This will have to be some way off because of the Trees and we have to get out of the Hulk in order to make rendezvous.
What I think we ought to do is Call the Firsters again and try to convince them that (a) we have no plans to remove the Monopile or other equipment (b) the Cad’s remark about Boobytraps was spoken through the top of his head and got tangled in his Hair.
Doug gets to his feet.
“Look,” he says, “we don’t want to leave the Hulk until Pedagogue gets here. So far as I can see, there’s nothing we can usefully say to the Firsters before that, so forgodsake let’s have an end to all this talking and concentrate on getting all the data ready to take with us. Pack it so that it can be easily carried if we have to run for it. You two do it, Lizzie isn’t familiar with the material. I’m going to make out my final Report.”
* * *
However when the Precious Pair have departed he does not get out his styler but slumps down in his chair with his chin on his chest and his eyes shut.
I am damn certain he realized that our pile could have juiced up Msilikatse‘s accumulators and didn’t choose to say; What do my colleagues take me for? but I suppose there is no point in raising the matter; we can’t even tell them about the pile over the radio without touching off a War between them and the Firsters now.
I am sitting there Repressing some very good Remarks when Doug makes a sound possibly to be classified as a Laugh.
“Lizzie, do you remember what people said about Figueroa when it was first discovered? Bonanza planet. A new free self-sufficient life for millions. The biggest free gift ever handed to the human race. Damn it, it should have been all that. Yet you can see the final mess coming practically from the start.”
I say “If you study Cultural Engineering, you can. When Figueroa was discovered, nobody did. Our Department wasn’t founded until twelve years after colonization had begun. Next time—”
Doug makes the Laughing noise again.
“Lizzie, next time there’s a find rich enough to touch off the kind of greedy, headlong rush that ruined Figueroa, the same thing will happen again. Dammit, I bet it’ll happen again here.
“You know, the Firsters have got a right to be aggrieved. They’re the one group who set out to colonize this planet by their own hard work, and they’ve been swamped by people who expected to have everything handed to them on a plate and the others who expected to make a profit by doing the handing. I think they do have a right to take over anything they can use. But if they make a go of it and Figueroa is ever in running order again, there’ll be another rush of would-be colonists, half of them claiming that they’ve inherited property here or bought the rights to it from the previous occupants. The Corporation will sell their rights to some other damned group, probably the same people under another name, and they’ll descend on Figueroa with a regiment of lawyers and a battalion of goons, and the Firsters will be worse off than they are now.”
I say “It doesn’t have to be like that.”
“Maybe it doesn’t have to be, but it will. The Firsters won’t even know what rights they have, in that situation, and there won’t be anybody to tell them. They’ll be chased out; or they’ll stay and fight and be accused of piracy, which means the Three Planets will more or less have to intervene and the Firsters will be lucky if their home settlements aren’t bombed out.”
No Government in the Outer Planets can afford to overlook Piracy, because the Populations they govern are quite aware that it could be their turn next.
I say, “The Firsters may not know what’s likely to happen, but we do.”
“What good is that? We’re leaving.”
“We can leave a Warning behind. The Firsters aren’t fools. They feel they’ve been done down by outsiders; they won’t have any difficulty believing it could happen again.” “All right, you could trigger off planet-wide paranoia, but what good will that do?”
I say “Not Paranoia, just Awareness that certain Consequences will follow certain Acts. Specifically, that if they try to take over installations on this Continent there is a big risk of losing them again; so they shouldn’t invest more Effort and Materials than they can afford to abandon. Where is the Paranoia in that?”
Doug sighs heavily. “Lizzie, people aren’t reasonable. They don’t pay attention to warnings, either. The Russett Research Unit has been firing off dire warnings as regularly as a traffic beacon for three years, and nobody took a blind bit of notice.”
I say “And look what happened. If we leave them a few of those old Reports the Firsters can see we know what we’re talking about, because the warnings have come true.
“It doesn’t have to be all Warnings, either. You said the Firsters wouldn’t know what rights they have. We can tell them. There are quite definite Rules about property abandoned on planets still in course of colonization; the Hulk computer’s bound to have it all. We can leave the Firsters printouts, with a summary to explain what it’s got to do with them.”
Doug says “How much use is a printout of the Law when you’re dealing with a goon squad?”
I say “It can help to deter people from sending goon squads. But mostly it can warn people which things lead to trouble, and how to avoid them—”
Somebody says, “Stars and Nebulae, has Lizzie found some new Cause to hold forth about?”
The Astral Cad, of course. He and Blazer have just returned with four smallish compact heavy-looking packs.
“We’ve checked everything,” says Blazer. “Shall we stick the extra copies in the destructor?”
Doug says thoughtfully. “No … We might have a use for them.”
“Don’t tell me,” says the Cad. “We’re going to make little paper kites with them and fly messages to Msilikatse, to let them know—”
“No,” says Doug in a tone of abrupt Decision, “we’re going to run an exercise in Cultural Engineering.”
At first the Point is only to fill in the time until Pedagogue arrives, which cannot be in less than 12 hours and might not be for a couple of days; but before long it has turned into a real Project. Blazer takes charge of Finding and printing out relevant Articles of Interplanetary Agreement, Doug drafts Explanations of why they are relevant and Astral Cad and I Criticize, surprisingly often in Agreement with one another. The stack of Documents gets thick and the Time approaches midnight. There are empty cups on every ledge and discarded food containers on the floor, Dad’s housekeeper Buffalo Cole would be Shocked and horrified but I am not going to drop out of the Argument to tidy them away.
By now we have got on to Government; it is generally agreed that the Firsters are going to need one, for Outside Relations only. The Cad and I are arguing about What title or description is least likely to convince the Firsters that they are handing somebody a Mandate to interfere with Personal Affairs when there is a sudden buzz from the Control Room alarm, followed by a shout from Blazer Weigh.
“It’s Pedagogue! She’s come!”
Pedagogue is transmitting Print not Voice; by the time we get to the control room Blazer has acknowledged the first call, and the second installment is just coming through on the screen;
PEDAGOGUE TO GROUND PARTY. WILL PICK YOU UP IN TWO HOURS SAME PLACE ACKNOWLEDGE.
Comment is immediately Drowned by a blare from the speakers.
“You in the old ship! Tell your friends with the funny name you’re not leaving until we check you haven’t set any booby traps. Open the main hatch, or we’ll open it for you.”
By way of Illustration there comes a Thump! that shakes the whole Hulk.
I had not exactly Forgotten that we were Besieged, but I certainly had not been thinking about it. We had been discussing the Firsters for twelve hours as though we were all on the same Side, and the Reminder that this is Not how they see things comes as a distinct Shock.
“They’ve rigged a battering ram,” says Doug grimly. “Now what do we do?”
Pedagogue’s Com officer is feeling Neglected and a message appears on the screen saying Do we copy, Acknowledge please.
Blazer glances at Don for Instructions, gets none, shrugs, and taps out GROUND PARTY TO PEDAGOGUE SNAGS HERE DEFER DESCENT.
Thump!
The Cad says irritably, “Haven’t we anything to Discourage that?”
“They’ll discourage themselves in time,” says Doug briefly.
“Hull’s armor-plate, not standard,” Blazer explains.
Pedagogue comes through with a request for details on the Snags and sets off an argument: the Cad wants to send
SURROUNDED BY HOSTILES, SEND HEAVY SQUAD, in the hope this will Frighten the Firsters off.
Doug says there is No sense in such an obvious bluff and dictates a brief statement of the Facts; Blazer wants to put it in Code, but Doug says the Firsters know the Facts already and Code will simply increase Mistrust of which we have already more than enough.
I say “Look. In fact we have not booby-trapped anything so why not let them come in and See?”
This sets off another Argument, in the middle of which the next message from Pedagogue arrives. I wonder why they have not used Code, despite the Mistrust factor, because it runs;
PEDAGOGUE TO GROUND. INFRARED SHOWS ABOUT FIFTY UNITS IN YOUR VICINITY. CAN BESIEGERS BE TRUSTED NOT TO HIJACK LANDER, IF SO ADVISE PERMIT SEARCH.
I suppose John Li Chu in Pedagogue knows really that he has set us an Insoluble question because the next message comes a few minutes later:
PEDAGOGUE TO GROUND. IF NO GUARANTEE LANDER SAFE MUST SEEK MILITARY ASSISTANCE.
Now I see why they are sending in Clear; it is intended as a Deterrent to the Firsters. I just hope it does not work the wrong way.
Blazer Weigh is thinking of another Consequence and makes it known in a shout of horror: “Military Assistance? That means we’d be Stuck here for another week!”
This leads to Uproar and a series of plans for driving off the Firsters long enough for us to reach the Landing ground. I am trying to decide whether in fact we could Trust the Firsters, supposing they promised to let us go to the Lander without trying to Capture it; I think we probably could, but Probably is not apt to be good enough for John Li Chu …
I become gradually aware that the Floor has started to Vibrate; and just as this Registers clearly the Vibration rises up the scale and turns into Sound. It is the most Enormous, Earth-shaking, Ear-boggling Rumpus that ever invaded my Consciousness, and while it is going on I cannot Think or do anything else; then after about thirty eternal seconds it suddenly Stops.
There is one second of echoing silence, and then a voice from the radio; Landing Alert. Msilikatse landing alongside row of houses at Coordinates (a string of numbers which Blazer feverishly starts to check). Clear the area. Warning. Clear the area Coordinates (Numbers again) Msilikatse landing in ten minutes. Clear below.
Not even Blazer notices for some moments that Pedagogue’s Com officer has come through again.
PEDAGOGUE TO GROUND. VERY LARGE OBJECT YOUR VICINITY, TWO KILOMETERS UP AN DESCENDING. HOT SPOTS DISPERSING. SUGGEST YOU EVACUATE.
The question is, Do we trust Msilikatse’s Navigator or not… In the end it more or less goes by Default, before we have Settled anything there is that appalling Noise again for a few seconds, then a great Wallowing tremor in the ground underneath; then the radio again.
Msilikatse landed safely.
Then a minutes later: Msilikatse to Terran Friends. The wicked ones have run. Tell your Lander to come quickly before they return.
When the Lander eventually comes down it is on Msilikatse’s two acres of upper deck, which is a much bigger open space than the one where they landed Blazer Weigh and the Astral Cad. However that is not for several hours. Meanwhile there has been an Emotional meeting in Msilikatse, which turns into a Celebration when the Chief Engineer has grasped that the Hulk has a Proton Monopile capable of recharging his Accumulators in four hours flat.
The Dagombans learned of our Situation by way of the radio traffic with Pedagogue, in which the Monopile was not mentioned; the Firster’s messages were too roiled by Interference to be understood.
Another Item has been added to my list of Things I Never Thought Of, namely Space Ships Fly. But it did not occur even to Blazer that a ship the size of Msilikatse could take off to fly 14 kilometers and then land again. (Of course in any properly Settled planet a ship putting down anywhere except on the designated Space Field would be landing in very hot water indeed.)
And it certainly would not have occurred to any of us that Msilikatse might Take off and Land just to make our Besiegers run away, simply because we had once tried to help them and therefore they considered us friends.
It is not till we return to the Hulk to show the Chief Engineer and his staff the kind of connections he will need to make to the Monopile that we discover a string of plaintive Messages from Pedagogue, wanting to know What goes on; and John Li Chu is not Happy when informed that we shall not be ready to take off for several hours. However we point out he would lose a lot More time if he had to go to Rosemary in search of Military Assistance and that we are finishing a Professional Job.
