Unwillingly to Earth (v1.0), page 7
I am much impressed by Cuzco and Machu Picchu which were built by hand of stones cut square with stone tools, also by Newgrange Stonehenge Lascaux Pompeii Rome Knossos Delphi, I am not sure at what point Impression first becomes tinged with Depression but as we go on to Petra, Baalbek, Nineveh, Gizeh it deepens and halfway round a temple called Kamak I realize I am finished, done; if I have to look at one more Sight Site Saite or whatever I shall just about pop a convolution.
What I need now is a Rest somewhere with no History at all.
Then I see the Moon rising over this very Historical river the Nile and realize that is just what I require. Oh sure Man first stepped there 800 years ago but all the Buildings are still in use, no Ruins, no monuments except a plaque saying Neil Armstrong Stepped Here also I have a friend there, Clarence Dalrymple, waiting for a new Heart and meanwhile has a job looking after Rats.
Why this is relevant; having read the marked sections in % of those books I still do not feel I have the hang of this Evil business. The books are full of words like Unnatural, Abominable, Monstrous for which the Authors seem to use a Dictionary I don’t know, but whenever they want a real concrete symbol of Evil, half the time what they use is a Rat.
It seems Rats are very Evil being Fundamentally Inimical to Man.
So okay, maybe it won’t help to look at one but it can’t hurt. I arrange to travel by the Lift the following day.
Landing on the Moon from Earth has not much formality, you stick your passport in a slot and walk up a dim tunnel using Lunar Locomotion as taught on the Lift (the last 6 hours of the journey are done under deceleration at 1/6 G so everybody has been able to practice) while various machines check you are not carrying concealed weapons or diseases and your face does not match any of the Million Most Unwanted, then you get your Passport back at the top and can catch a Slider to your Hotel.
Would you believe it the first thing I see as we emerge from the Space Gate is a parade of giant red letters saying HISTORY IS BEING MADE HERE!
Then they reform to read five planets conference and I relax. There was some talk about this on the Lift; it is just Cincinnatus Lamartine Discus Karel and Ved being Got Round A Table at last; no doubt the sorting out of quarrels been running ever since the planets were settled is History but not the sort to cause Monuments.
Plaques, maybe.
I had to cross 11 Time Zones to get the lift and had no sleep on board, so having checked in at my hotel the Royal Cynthia I go straight to my room stick my clothes in the Robolaundy and throw myself at the bed, such is the effect of Moon G that I am asleep before I hit.
When I wake up I have missed half the morning so after dialing breakfast and flicking the first outfit to hand out of its capsule I start out to get in touch with Clarence. The whole Pop. of the moon would not fill one small city back on Earth so there is only one Directory and when I key in Clarence’s name I get a number right away; but when I transfer that to the Communicator I see not Clarence but a woman with remarks embroidered on her tunic reading SUPERVISOR AMBULANT EFS.
She is Not very pleased to see me and wants to know Why I am attempting to communicate with Clarence, I explain and she softens somewhat and says Oh yes Dalrymple has mentioned me.
However he will be in Supportive Therapy all morning. I exclaim Good Lord has he got Worse then? but she says No, his condition is stable but it will be seven months before the new Heart being grown from his tissues is mature enough to graft, meanwhile the old one needs all the help it can get. Seeing me should not do Dalrymple any harm however if I obey the Rules, she will have him call me this afternoon.
I say I would just as soon come and see him in person then; she looks surprised and says Am I in Labsville already? I knew this was a town 200 km from Lunarburg but had not realized what this means in Moon terms, viz. going there is a Major Undertaking. There is a tunnel running between the two but the traffic is One Way, meaning One Way at a time. A single train goes from Lunarburg to Labsville taking 2 hours for it and then after a 20 minutes turnaround it runs Back again. If I want to visit with Clarence for more than 20 minutes I must be prepared to spend 8 hours on it.
Well okay that is still what I came for; it is already too late to start out today so I say Tell Clarence I will come out tomorrow by the train leaves here at 09:00 gets in 11:00 unless I hear to the contrary; and she promises to do so.
So now I am free to work on my Project, dammit.
According to the Brochure this Hotel has a Commodious Reading Room so I set out in search of it. Evidently this is the oldest part of Lunarburg, tunneled before they learned how to make a Disruptor cut square; all the passages are tubular and the Reading Room has been cut by driving three tunnels parallel and overlapping and then scraping the Ridges off the floor. The ones on the ceiling are still there and the bulges at the side have been screened off except for three alcoves with Reading machines in them, two occupied one not.
However I do not observe this straightaway because the rest of the room is occupied by about a dozen people engaged in Competitive Conversation, and not a single one looks any younger than 70 years old; if the Lunar Handbook is right and living on the Moon takes 10 years off Apparent Age they must all be well over 80 and they are all looking at me as much as to say What is this twenty-genarian doing in Our hotel?
Before I can sink any distance into the floor I am rescued by a small fluffy lady in pink who flutters over with Remarks wafting ahead of her: “Oh, my dear, I really must apologize, you must be Miss Lee of course, I really meant to be there when you arrived but the General, so difficult to make up a four since poor Mrs Ogbanishah left us. I did peep into Reception but they told me you had already gone to bed. If there is anything I can do to help you at any time do please let me know. ’ ’
I say Nothing, thanks, I would just like to use that Reading Machine.
She says Oh but the Colonel will be here any minute now.
I say I am not looking for a Colonel, I just want to read.
She says Oh but really the Colonel will be here any minute.
Bysitters now take a hand and I finally grasp that The Colonel always reads the Lunar Times from 11:30 to 12:15 on this Machine.
Well When will one of the Machines be free? after a lot of discussion it is borne in on me that these Machines are booked to the Permanent Residents one after another right through the day, the reason one is Vacant right now is that the lady using it met an old friend in the obituary column and has gone to write a letter to the Relict.
I thank them for the information and Go.
I will just have to hire a portable Machine somewhere.
The Pink lady who is apparently the Manageress has fluttered out after me so I ask her Where and she lends me an Autoguide set for the nearest shop. I find the place all right but return in a state of Shock; they told me Living on the Moon was Expensive but this is ridiculous.
She is still in Reception and asks how I got on. I am still searching for words that will not be Unsuitable when she says Many Transients are surprised to see the effect of Freight charges on the prices here.
The hell with that. Freight costs a lot more to Excenus 23, but I am feeling Insulted; the man in the shop refused to hire me a Reading Machine although the sign in the window distinctly promised he would. I offered to Deposit the full price but he seemed determined all Transients were in a Conspiracy to cheat him, in the end I had to buy the damn thing.
It is secondhand and cost 3 times as much as the better one I left at the Lift Terminal on Earth. The Manageress puts on enough distress for politeness and says A nice girl like me would never believe the dirty tricks some Transients get up to, it is so easy to hand in a damaged gadget when the Hirer is too busy to check it, claim the Deposit and go on board before the owner finds out what is wrong. Once on board the Captain usually will not permit Passengers to be taken off, it upsets the Manifest, so it is very difficult to make them pay.
I say But according to the Lunar Handbook there is a new Law or Court or something that allows a man to be arrested by Bailiffs on a civil complaint, up to 10 minutes before Liftoff. She looks totally puzzled for a moment and then says “Oh! You mean the Piepowder Court! But, Miss Lee, that is only for Transients; it’s no use to ms.”
She insists that the Court with the funny name does not act on complaints from anybody with a Residence permit for more than 2 weeks; this seems more than odd as How many people find things to Sue about when they are only here for a day or two? surely not enough to make a special Court worth while.
However I finally understand that the Complaints usually relate to events on the long voyages before arriving at the Moon, lots of business is done on the big Interstellar liners and some of it goes sour, also there are Conmen among the travelers. If a sucker is cautious enough to register his purchase of Waterfront lots on Martian canals, or whatever, soon after touchdown he may discover that he has been Had before the Haver’s ship leaves the Moon, in which case the Respondent can be taken off by Bailiffs even if the ship is just about to go. It still sounds odd but the Manageress gives me to understand it is mostly a Gimmick to make Transients feel the Moon really takes care of them, there is a drive on to encourage Tourists.
I retire to my room and get to work. In the afternoon Clarence calls and will be Pleased to see me tomorrow, he looks much fitter than when I saw him last, this thing about Low G taking the strain off a Bad Heart really does work. I finish the last of the books and go to bed early.
I spend the train journey next day planning my Essay.
When I started this Project my first impression was that the only connection between Absolute Evil and Social Conditions was that the Authors of these books had a living to make; I mean when they thought of a Plot which called for some Picturesquely wicked proceeding and there was no reason in the Universe why any sane person would Proceed in that particular way, then the Motive can be Absolute Evil.
Like when a Good Guy has been a nuisance to a Bad Guy and the Bad Guy gets hold of him, you would expect the Bad Guy just to Shoot the other one and that would be That. But an Absolutely Evil Guy will dream up a nasty form of Execution and even then he does not get on with it but keeps the Good Guy waiting in order to Gloat.
So of course that gives the Good Guy time to be Rescued or to get away. Gloating is very Evil; it is Inefficient, too.
One trouble is I do not know much about conditions in the Age of Impotence, in fact I never heard of it till this Essay. B Laydon lent me a Work called Pocket History of World Literature from the Earliest Times, it has so many spools I guess it nearly would fill a Pocket at that; this says the Age of Impotence is a name for the middle years of the Twentieth Century, so called because the great Message of so many writers was simply that they Could Not Cope (it was also a time when the sexual sort of Impotence was fashionably blamed for everything from Murder to Materialism but apparently that is not the Point).
This book says Guilt was a very popular emotion in Literature of the period and the books I have read confirm it, seems you were supposed to feel guilty about Injustice and Deprivation suffered by anybody anywhere whether you had anything to do with it or not. Never mind whether this attitude was Socially Useful; the Authors seem to have felt people including Bad Guys had a Human Right for Good Guys to feel guilty over clobbering them no matter what Wrongs they had done. However those who went in for Absolute Evil could be counted as inhuman. Sometimes this is just an excuse for them to be extinguished in a complicated and Sadistic manner but sometimes it is More than that; Evil could be dealt with decisively and heroically without any need to feel Guilty afterwards and I can see where Authors and Readers both might find that a Relief.
I begin to feel I have Got something and get busy finding suitable Quotations. Then the Reading Machine tugs gently at the straps behind my head after which it slides back and raps me between the eyes; the Train which has been standing for some time in the airlock just before Labsville has now made the final push into the Station and people start to get out all round.
I shove the machine hurriedly into its case and grab my pouch of book reels and step out onto the sidewalk just in time to see Clarence’s back walking slowly towards the other end of the train.
I remember not to yell in case it startles his Heart; then I take off after him fall over my feet stop to remember where I am and finally manage to get in front of Clarence just as he reaches the last door of the train.
What the Devil is wrong?
For a moment he does not seem to recognize me; then he says heavily “Oh. There you are, Liz.”
He reaches out, takes my Reading Machine and pouch and slings them over his shoulder, then turns and leads the way into a sort of Foyer.
Clarence does not look like a man with a bad Heart, he is big and broad with Muscles to match. He is wearing ordinary clothes, not Hospital ones, except that he has an armband with big black letters EF and little letters beside them which I cannot read because of the creases. The puffiness has gone from his face but it is set like Cement in a No Expression and if yesterday he was really glad to know I was on the Moon, this morning he is Not.
It is right on the tip of my tongue to ask What Gives, but I am doing my best to Keep it there and not let it off; once on the ship from Excenus M’Clare told me “Never bother a sick man with silly questions and remember any question is silly unless you know what to do with the answer.” If I ask Clarence whether this visit is Mistimed he will either not hear me or say “What an Idea!” and start Exerting himself. If he wants me to know what is on his Mind he will tell me. So the only question is Should I stay here or get Tactfully back on the train and go away?
Only it would not be Tactful if he suddenly remembers and finds me missing, that could start a Moonwide womanhunt; besides he is carrying my Reading Machine … At this point I learn what is written on his Armband, there is a poster on the wall with the same black letters but now I can read the little ones which say “xertion orbidden”. Under them it says in red
MEANS
EXERTION FORBIDDEN
Then in black:
Do not on any account ask wearers of this arm-band for physical assistance. They must not under any circumstances be hurried or harassed. If any wearer of this armband seems to be ill or in difficulties go to the nearest Incom box and ring 1111.
(Illegible Squiggle)
DIRECTOR
HUMAN HEART FOUNDATION
Presently the Elevator arrives. According to the Indicator there are VII Levels and the Station is on Level IV: we go right up to I and I follow Clarence off. He leads me a little way down the corridor—Labsville architecture is cut Boxy rather than Drainpipe—and into a little space with doors on three sides, and Switches himself on.
I mean suddenly he seems his normal self. He looks me in the eye and begins to speak.
This is a mild shock because always before he spoke Standard which is a sort of colorless flavorless Essence of Communication with no Racial Social or Planetary overtones, most people use it on Excenus 23 because we have people from 50+ planets each with its own unintelligible Localese; what Clarence speaks now is Something Else.
“Liz m’dear, according to the Supervisor you want the Grand Tour and let’s face it, I’d be a washout. I don’t get the sense of a quarter of what goes on round here. But so happens a bunch from this Five Planets jamboree are swanning over here today and three of the junior Eggheads have been laid on to show ’em around. I had a word with the Great Panjandrum and he’ll be happy for you to tag along. Then I’ll meet you for lunch and we can go on to have a squint at the Rats; they aren’t on the Five Planets itinerary; not enough class. Okay?”
Okay! the only problem being Not to show how relieved I am.
The Five Planets party are on the far side of one of the doors, in a large space which comes the nearest to plushy of anywhere I have yet been on the Moon; it has a carpet instead of plastic coating and there are Murals on the wall, depicting mythical Moon fauna I think. Several people in lab coveralls are handing round coffee and cookies but I am not thirsty and don’t know anyone so I pass the time studying the pictures. Presently I decide to look at those on the other side.
Halfway across I run into some Legs.
There is a Body on top, also long and knobby and so are the arms, but it is the Legs make themelves conspicuous; I try to sidestep and we have a bit of this-way-that-way, every time I try to Dodge in a particular direction so does he. I do not know whether this is accidental or a Joke but presently I give up and go back the way I came.
There is a sound behind me which might be a Voice but at that moment the Eggheads we are all waiting for come in and ask us to divide into 3 groups and each go out by a different door.
I do not want to put myself forward so I wait to tag along behind whichever group turns out to be the smallest. Something makes me turn round and I see Lanky with the Legs talking to one of the men who handed coffee and they are both Looking at me. This reminds me uncomfortably that whenever I went to see a Sight on Earth I had some sort of Permit and here I have none. I wait to see which party Lanky will join but he just goes on glaring at me as though wondering by What Right—? in the end I glare back and he turns suddenly and dives after the tail end of one group, and I tag after another.
The Tour is fine if you like Laboratories; I should say most of this group can take them or leave them alone. There are polite Ohs and Ahs when some Technological Marvel does its stuff, otherwise they are mostly enjoying a good gossip. I wonder why they are here instead of Conferring in Lunarburg but presently conclude that the Top People are having a quiet day together for Horsetrading Hornswoggling and other Political Pursuits and have pushed the Second Strings and Encumbrances off here out of the way.
