Collected Tales (Jerry eBooks)

by Leslie F Stone

  “I do not know in what manner you breed or raise your young, so perhaps our methods will be surprising to you, but I believe you will gain a fair idea of it all in passing through these buildings. Of course all those here are of the Rak caste, and it is difficult to compare their methods to those of the Tel and Wei castes, which raise their young in separate incubators in the home, but from time immemorial the Raks have reared their young in common, tossing the eggs together into the vats without discrimination, and of course the practice has never been changed since it suits the purposes of the nation.

  “In growing into adults, we pass through several stages, the egg, larva, pupa, cocoon and full-grown adult. However, in the case of the Raks, many of them never grow into full adults, since after the pupa has shed its skin for the last time, an injection into its abdomen prevents it from spinning its cocoon and thus obtaining its adulthood. They are better workers thus. Only the strongest and healthiest males and females are allowed to attain full growth for the means of propagating the race.”

  The Abruians could not withhold the shudders that swept through them. “How cruel,” muttered Ubca, but the lively antenna of the butterfly man had caught the words.

  “Cruel?” he asked in some surprise. “But why? It is so fated; it is the Pattern!”

  Ubca shrugged his shoulders, and he would have said more, only now they were at the entrance of the building to which Sem Gu gave the name, “Nest.”

  THE building was long and low, though it still retained its mushroom shape, but it had several doorways in the sides instead of in the roof as was the Dadan custom. It was dim and shadowy inside as the sunlight could not penetrate more than a few feet about the doorways, but there was great activity within, with creatures moving back and forth continually in their rounds of duty. There were no partitioning walls in its whole length, but here and there great shapes of various receptacles squatted. Near at hand was what appeared to be a great circular vat, rising about four feet from the ground. Sem Gu invited his guests to peer inside. They did so and therein they perceived a mass of what looked to be hundreds of oval eggs, each from four to five inches in length, dirty white in color, soft and sticky looking. As they watched, a green-winged butterfly female came forward with a basket and dumped its contents into the vat, adding more eggs to the mass.

  “These,” explained their guide, “are newly laid eggs. They will be left here for twenty-four hours, then they will be sorted out, the smaller ones thrown away, the healthier ones taken to the hatching beds.”

  He led them on to another receptacle where half a dozen workers were busy. This vat was larger, and only rose a foot from the ground. Eggs were being brought from other containers and were dumped in while the six butterflies sorted the bad from the good, laying the latter in small baskets at their sides. The baskets were taken from them when they were full and others substituted. They worked swiftly and accurately in the dim light, and a glance in their baskets showed that each basket contained eggs of uniform size. The three followed a worker who had taken a filled basket from one of the sorters. He carried it across the wide room, to where, against the wall, warmed by the sun, were racks stretching from ceiling to floor, each filled with eggs. The basket was emptied into a half filled shelf.

  Sem Gu led them along the racks where thousands upon thousands of eggs lay, eggs that grew larger and larger as they progressed. Now they came upon a worker who was inspecting each shelf, now and then removing from them an egg that had caught his attention. These were eggs that had not grown in size, and were therefore either dead or useless for their purpose. At the end of the racks they saw that the eggs were hatching into what at first appeared to be soft white grubs, but Sem Gu led them on to another rack where they saw the fully hatched creatures. These were from ten to twelve inches long, worm-like, brilliant in color and with stiff wiry brushes projecting from the back. The head was an ugly, almost shapeless thing, with a small mouth and two long horns or antenna. They were busily feeding on leaves that some workers spent their time in providing for them. Now die three hurried along the racks for several yards and they saw more of the caterpillars, larger in size than the first.

  They stopped long enough beside one to see it pulling itself out of its skin as a larger and uglier body emerged. The sight made Ubca sick and he had to turn away. He was particularly glad when they came to the end of the rack where, on wider and longer shelves, large creatures attained the size of from four to five feet in length. Here were two workers busily inspecting each caterpillar. Occasionally the one butterfly pointed out a single creature that was instantly led away to another part of the building, but for the most part he was busily injecting an ugly green fluid into the abdomen of each helpless creature, through a long hollow reed. These poor creatures would be left in their nests for twelve hours while the injection took its effect, then they would be dispatched into the sunlit world outside to spend the remainder of their short life working endlessly in the fields, without ever knowing the joy of possessing wings with which to fly into the soft free air.

  Sem Gu led them to another portion of the building, and motioned for them to look upward. They lifted their heads to peer into the dusk. Here were long poles hanging from the roof to the floor, and on each pole was hanging what appeared to be great yellow bags of fiber. These were cocoons from which the ugly caterpillars would emerge into winged creatures, altogether dissimilar to the thing that had entered them. Sem Gu led them to where a young caterpillar was busily investing himself in his hand-made bed, bringing the threads from out his abdomen and industriously wrapping himself around and around until it was to be wondered if he were ever to succeed in enclosing that whole unwieldy body. At the opposite side of the portion where the poles hung, there was now some excitement and their guide led the Abruians toward it. There they found that a butterfly was breaking out of its cocoon, crawling laboriously through the hole it had eaten out for itself. Two green winged butterflies appeared to be aiding it, but when at last it emerged, it was a sorry looking creature, colorless and shapeless, but without much ado the workers picked it up and carried it outdoors into the sun.

  The three followed and saw the creature change under the influence of the sun’s rays as slowly it opened its eyes.

  The life of these creatures was twenty kalan (years) ordinarily, but the injection prevented them from attaining adult life and shortened their span wings and came to life. It was no longer colorless. Its body had changed to a delicate clear shade of green, and moment by moment its wings took color into themselves until they were a blood red, without another blotch of color to relieve its intensity. The creature, at last, warm and lively, tried out its legs, stood upon them and waved its antenna at his keepers; its large eyes, flashing the colors of light, were gentle and questioning. A basket of leaf pulp was brought before it to be eaten in two or three gulps. When it was finished, the two green-winged creatures motioned for it to try its wings, and after one or two tries the youngster conquered the air. The three watched as it rose in company with its keepers, to fly several hundred feet into the air, then to drop down again to the earth not far away. Then it was led into a second building, toward which Sem Gu was already leading Moura and Ubca.

  This building was smaller than the first and had ground-level doors, as well as the one in the roof, and it was bright within. Here again was activity, but of a different sort. This was the breeding pen where the adult Raks gave their lives to the monstrous task of providing the first building with all its eggs. Such was the fate of the young butterfly they had watched come into being, and here they found her ready to take up her life’s work because the Pattern had decreed it so.

  The rest of the buildings of the group proved to be the dormitories, where, with the descent of night, the immature caterpillars came in from their day of toil to eat and to sleep. Here were long rows of racks into which they crept, and from which sometimes they did not awake when death called them from the everlasting grubbing.

  CLIMBI
NG into the flyer again, Sem Gu guided them onward to a great field that was being newly plowed. Here they saw hundreds of the caterpillars at work under the direction of the green-winged butterflies. Neither the plow nor the hoe were known to Dada. Each grub served the purpose of both, breaking the ground with its eight feet, breaking up the clods with its mandible, and digging the long mile length furrows without a single implement.

  Moura shook his head over their sad plight. “It is incredible to me that you have developed as a race as far as you appear to have developed, without the proper tools,” he told Sem Gu. “I would not have believed it possible!”

  Sem Gu was puzzled. “How then could it be done? Once we did live upon the bounty of nature, taking whatever we found as we found it, but even that great supply ran low with so many millions to feed, and so we learned to plow and to cultivate. Is your world so rich that you need not toil for your sustenance?”

  “We toil, but we use implements that aid us, so that one man can do the work of many,” and he tried to describe for Sem Gu the farming implements of Abrui.

  The butterfly priest shook his head, for he could not understand. “Why then should only one work? Then do the others dwell in idleness? If such a thing were good for our race, then the Pattern would have decreed it so!” Moura shook his head, realizing that he could not explain away the fellow’s ignorance.

  Moura now turned to Sem Gu. He wanted to know if they could see how the Dadans made their fibrous materials for house, rugs, and clothing, and the priestly being pointed out a new direction to take. Here were also a group of buildings filled with workers, but workers of a different sort than they had previously seen. Neither Moura nor Ubca could class the creatures in their proper category, but when Moura described their appearance to Elsie, she guessed them to be giant ants.

  All the crops that the Dadans raised were flowering plants, for it was from the the flowers that they obtained all their food, preparing them in various ways. By using the tough stalks, they made their cloths, the heavy, coarse matting with which they built and furnished their homes. This was done by first soaking the stalks in great vats of water, until they became soft enough for the fibers to be pulled out. Then the ants got to work and pounded and washed the fibers, dried them and wove them. They visited building after building that morning in which all manner of articles were manufactured for the use of the nation, all the hardest tasks being performed either by the red-winged butterflies or the hardy ants, which were raised in vast colonies, superintended in their work by the green-winged butterflies and sometimes by the gorgeous winged Weis, who kept them all under careful surveillance.

  Nothing at all was wasted in Dada. Even the discarded eggs of the Raks and the ants were put to use, made into glues and pastes, while those portions of the plant stalks from which the fibers had been removed were in turn pounded over again. By close packing and compression, they were made into rugs and coarser coverlets. All this was intensely interesting to the visitors, and on the way back to the city, Tel Moura was sunk in thought as he tried to devise a way whereby he could aid the enslaved creatures who made it all possible.

  Once more the flyer was parked beside Atun Wei’s house and servants came to bear the two men to the roof. Indoors they found Atun Wei impatiently and restlessly pacing the anteroom of his quarters, and he showed relief when they appeared. Men and women servants were fluttering about, excited by the new trend of events, and it was easy for the Abruians to gather that something was amiss. The High Priest said something sharply to Sem Gu, but they did not catch the words. Yet they could see that the priestling was hurt by his superior’s attitude. Atun Wei then gave an order for the chamber to be cleared and turned to his guests.

  “Tel Tel demands that the strangers pay her a call immediately. Come,” he said tersely. It was easy then to recognize the cause of the creature’s anger, and the agitation of his household. Atun Wei, at best, was not a gentle creature, and it was evident that the Queen had heard of the arrival of the strangers during the night, and Atun Wei had felt the brunt of her anger for not having acquainted her with the momentous fact. The Queen, as they were to learn, had little authority left in Dada, but she was still the ruler in name and strong enough to make the High Priest quake when she willed it. Atun Wei led the two silver men to the Royal Palace.

  CHAPTER XVI

  Tel Tel

  IT was a short trip to the Palace, but since no man was permitted to walk in the circular court that divided the Temple and the Palace, it was necessary for the visitors to take to the air. Atun Wei directed four of his servants to bear the Abruians aloft, while he led the way with his gorgeous wings wide spread. The sun glinting upon them made them appear jeweled.

  They landed lightly upon the broad roof of the great building, which, like the other buildings of Dada, was built of heavy fabric, heavier than that of more modern buildings, and here and there a lighter patch showed where some repair had been made. The palace was evidently of great age, but the Dadans knew how to manufacture their plant fiber for long life.

  On the great roof there were three doorways, and over its whole area were painted hundreds of odd figures, that through the years had lost all their color, if ever they had been colored, and the outlines of the figures were much worn with time. Moura would have liked to stop to examine the work, but Atun Wei was intent upon getting this distasteful moment over, and led them directly to the first well, down which he dropped swiftly, expecting the men to hurry after him down the circular stairway that here was built of wood and showed evidence of one time ornament on its worn steps and banisters.

  They hurried down four flights of steps before their guide came to a halt, and they found themselves in a long, high-ceilinged, circular corridor with its only light coming through windows at odd intervals. Several circular doorways opened into this hall and it was into the first that the High Priest took them. They were surprised at the size of the chamber into which they had come. In the shadowy darkness they managed to make out the ceiling four floors above, its diameter being fully forty feet across. The room was circular.

  Peering through its gloom, for here there were no windows, they were just able to make out the shape of the high throne on its dais that was ten feet above the floor. The movement of something white on the throne told them that it was occupied, and they could feel rather than see that the chamber was highly decorated, that its walls were ornamented, and that its ceiling, distant and aloof, was hung with draperies that must be beautiful. But the chamber’s splendor was hidden from them now.

  As they put foot in the great room, Atun Wei did a peculiar thing. He dropped to the floor so that he was in a crawling position, his wings falling listlessly on either side. In this manner he began to cross the room with Moura and Ubca following on foot, and they knew how painful it must have been to the High Priest to find it necessary to approach his queen so, the creature he wanted for wife, as the most abject of her subjects, even as the black worms must do!

  Unused as he was to this mode of locomotion, Atun Wei’s progress was naturally slow. They had gained the center of the chamber when there was a swish of wings and suddenly, from above their heads, a bright light gleamed that brought their three figures into bold relief. They recognized the light to be that of one of the immense light-bugs that the Dadans cultivated, and they were glad for its light.

  On they continued toward the throne, the firefly keeping pace above, illuminating for the Queen her approaching visitors, while she herself still remained in darkness. Ten feet from the dais, Atun Wei came to a welcome halt and squatted there, breathing hard from his exertion. The dais, they saw, was circular, as everything Dadan seemed to be circular, with steps leading up its center, but standing as they were below it, they could still not see the form of the Dadan ruler, but the voice that came to them was low pitched and filled with majesty, the majesty of a dying race.

  “Tel Tel of Dada gives a belated greeting to those of another world,” came the voice. “Yet it is
neither her fault nor yours that her greeting comes tardily, sirs.”

  MOURA answered her. “It is indeed with great joy that we of Abrui receive your felicitations, Your Majesty. It is to our regret that our meeting has thus been delayed, but we trust that none of your loyal subjects are to suffer penalties because of this. It was, instead, our desire that we view the city and the country before being presented to you, so that when we faced you, we were not ignorant of your ways!”

  A laugh sounded in the antenna. “Well spoken, strangers. There exist diplomats on your world as well as upon ours. But no matter. The Queen of Dada is no longer one to inflict penalties upon her subjects; it is they who inflict penalties upon her! In your tour, you must already have learned that truth.”

  A short silence followed, and then she addressed herself to her high priest, the aspirant to her throne. “It is well that you depart now, priest,” she commanded imperiously. “You have performed your duty. Tel Tel shall summon you again when she has need for you. For the present the strangers will dwell here in the Palace. Begone!”

  Bowing his head so that it touched the floor, Atun Wei did as he was bidden, but his progress from the Throne Room was slower than his entrance, since perforce he had to walk backwards and without the firefly to guide him through the shadows. During the time it took him to make his painful exit, the Queen did not speak, and the Abruians guessed that her eyes followed him with gloating, delighting in this small means of humbling her enemy. When at last they saw his form disappear through the doorway, they again heard the laughter of Tel Tel.

  “If only he were always so humbled,” they heard her murmur, and Moura guessed that she had forgotten their presence as she spoke her own thoughts aloud. Now a sharp staccato sound broke through the room and immediately, in response, a brilliant light burst forth, so that it was startling in its sudden intensity.