Med Ship Man
Page 5
* * * * *
Calhoun looked at his sweep-second watch, timing the muscular spasmsthat Murgatroyd displayed. They coincided with irregularities inMurgatroyd's heartbeat, coming at approximately two-second intervals.The tautening of the muscles lasted just about half a second.
”But I don't feel it!” said Calhoun.
Murgatroyd whimpered again and said, ”_Chee-chee!_”
”What's going on?” demanded Allison with the impatience of a veryimportant man indeed. ”If the beast's sick, he's sick! I've got tofind--”
Calhoun opened his med kit and went carefully through it until he foundwhat he needed. He put a pill into Murgatroyd's mouth.
”Swallow it!” he commanded.
Murgatroyd resisted, but the pill went down. Calhoun watched himsharply. Murgatroyd's digestive system was delicate, but it wasdependable. Anything that might be poisonous, Murgatroyd's stomachrejected instantly and emphatically.
The pill stayed down.
”Look!” said Allison indignantly. ”I've got business to do! In thisattache case I have millions of interstellar credits, in cash, to paydown on purchases of land and factories. I ought to make some damnedgood deals! And I figure that that's as important as anything else youcan think of! It's a damned sight more important than a beast with abelly-ache!”
Calhoun looked at him coldly.
”Do you own land on Texia?” he asked.
Allison's mouth dropped open. Extreme suspicion and unease appearedon his face. As a sign of the unease, his hand went to the side coatpocket in which he'd put a blaster. He didn't pluck it out. Calhoun'sleft fist swung around and landed. He took Allison's elaborate pocketblaster and threw it away among the monotonous rows of olive-greenplants. He returned to absorbed observation of Murgatroyd.
In five minutes the muscular spasms diminished. In ten, Murgatroydfrisked. But he seemed to think that Calhoun had done somethingremarkable. In the warmest of tones he said:
”_Chee!_”
”Very good,” said Calhoun. ”We'll go ahead. I suspect you'll do as wellas we do--for a while.”
The car lifted the few inches the air columns sustained it above theground. It went on, still to the eastward. But Calhoun drove moreslowly now.
”Something was giving Murgatroyd rhythmic muscular spasms,” he saidcoldly. ”I gave him medication to stop them. He's more sensitive thanwe are, so he reacted to a stimulus we haven't noticed yet. But Ithink we'll notice it presently.”
Allison seemed to be dazed at the affront given him. It appeared to beunthinkable that anybody might lay hands on him.
”What the devil has that to do with me?” he demanded angrily. ”And whatdid you hit me for? You're going to pay for this!”
”Until I do,” Calhoun told him, ”you'll be quiet. And it does have thedevil to do with you. There was a Med Service gadget once--a trickylittle device to produce contraction of chosen muscles. It was usefulfor re-starting stopped hearts without the need of an operation.It regulated the beat of hearts that were too slow or dangerouslyirregular. But some businessman had a bright idea and got a tameresearcher to link that gadget to ground induction currents. I suspectyou know that businessman!”
”I don't know what you're talking about,” snapped Allison. But he wassingularly tense.
”I do,” said Calhoun unpleasantly. ”I made a public health inspectionon Texia a couple of years ago. The whole planet is a single, gigantic,cattle-raising enterprise. They don't use metal fences--the herds aretoo big to be stopped by such things. They don't use cowboys--they costmoney. On Texia they use ground-induction and the Med Service gadgetlinked together to serve as cattle fences. They act like fences, thoughthey're projected through the ground. Cattle become uncomfortable whenthey try to cross them. So they draw back. So men control them. Theymove them from place to place by changing the cattle fences, whichare currents induced in the ground. The cattle have to keep movingor be punished by the moving fence. They're even driven into theslaughterhouse chutes by ground-induction fields! That's the trickon Texia, where induction fields herd cattle. I think it's the trickon Maya, where people are herded like cattle and driven out of theircities so the value of their fields and factories will drop,--so a landbuyer can find bargains!”
”You're insane!” snapped Allison. ”I just landed on this planet! Yousaw me land! I don't know what happened before I got here! How could I?”
”You might have arranged it,” said Calhoun.
* * * * *
Allison assumed an air of offended and superior dignity. Calhoun drovethe car onward at very much less than the head-long pace he'd beenkeeping to. Presently he looked down at his hands on the steeringwheel. Now and then the tendons to his fingers seemed to twitch. Atrhythmic intervals, the skin crawled on the back of his hands. Heglanced at Allison. Allison's hands were tightly clenched.
”There's a ground-induction fence in action, all right,” said Calhouncalmly. ”You notice? It's a cattle fence and we're running into it. Ifwe were cattle, now, we'd turn around and move away.”
”I don't know what you're talking about!” said Allison.
But his hands stayed clenched. Calhoun slowed the car still more. Hebegan to feel, all over his body, that every muscle tended to twitch atthe same time. It was a horrible sensation. His heart muscles tendedto contract too, simultaneously with the rest, but one's heart has itsown beat rate. Sometimes the normal beat coincided with the twitch.Then his heart pounded violently--so violently that it was painful. Butequally often the imposed contraction of the heart muscles came justafter a normal contraction, and then it stayed tightly knotted for halfa second. It missed a beat, and the feeling was agony.
No animal would have pressed forward in the face of such sensations. Itwould have turned back long ago. No animal. Not even Man.
Calhoun stopped the car. He looked at Murgatroyd. Murgatroyd wascompletely himself. He looked inquiringly at Calhoun. Calhoun nodded tohim, but he spoke--with some difficulty--to Allison.
”We'll see--if this thing--builds up. You know that it's theTexia--trick. A ground-induction unit set up--here. It drovepeople--like cattle. Now we've--run into it.--It's holding people--likecattle.”
He panted. His chest muscles contracted with the rest, so that hisbreathing was interfered with. But Murgatroyd, who'd been made uneasyand uncomfortable before Calhoun noticed anything wrong, was nowbright and frisky. Medication had desensitized his muscles to outsidestimuli. He would be able to take a considerable electric shock withoutresponding to it.
But he could be killed by one that was strong enough.
A savage anger filled Calhoun. Everything fitted together. Allisonhad put his hand convenient to his blaster when Calhoun mentionedTexia. It meant that Calhoun suspected what Allison knew to be true.A cattle-fence unit had been set up on Maya, and it was holding--likecattle--the people it had previously driven--like cattle. Calhouncould deduce with some precision exactly what had been done. The firstexperience of Maya with the cattle fence would have been very mild.It would have been low-power, causing just enough uneasiness to benoticed. It would have moved from west to east, slowly, and it wouldhave reached a certain spot and there faded out. And it would have beena mystery and an uncomfortable thing, and nobody would understand iton Maya. In a week it would almost be forgotten. But then there'd comea stronger disturbance. And it would travel like the first one; downthe length of the peninsula on which the colony lay, but stopping atthe same spot as before, and then fading away to nothingness. And thisalso would have seemed mysterious. But nobody would suspect humans ofcausing it. There would be theorizing and much questioning, but itwould be considered an unfamiliar natural event.
Probably the third use of the cattle fence would be most disturbing.This time it would be acutely painful. But it would move into thecities and through them and past them, and it would go down thepeninsula to where it had stopped and faded on two previous occasions.
The people of Maya would
be disturbed and scared. But they consideredthat they knew it began to the westward of Maya City, and moved towardthe east at such-and-such a speed, and it went so far and no farther.And they would organize themselves to apply this carefully worked outinformation.
It would not occur to any of them that they had learned how to bedriven like cattle.