The Test Colony

by Winston K. Marks

towithin 100 yards of the ship at all times. Men will go armed and willplease inform themselves of their position on the security watch listwhich will be posted tonight." He squinted in the bright sunlight. "Forthe moment, you men with sidearms, post yourselves around the ship.Sound off loud if you sight anything larger than a rabbit."

  The men named got slowly to their feet, fingering their light huntingpistols self-consciously. Benson continued, "You may appreciate theseprecautions when I tell you that Sam Rogers and I just encountered tworemarkably humanoid animals on the beach less than half a mile fromhere."

  Tension replaced levity, as Benson described our meeting with thenatives. I thought he gave it a needlessly grim emphasis with such termsas, "_quicker than cats_", and "_devilishly intelligent_", but I held mypeace.

  He summarized, "I do not want to alarm anyone unduly, but we must faceup to the fact that we are totally unprepared for such a contingency.The exploration group failed us badly in overlooking these creatures.They may not be inimical to our culture, but until this is establishedwe must consider them prime threats. That is all," he concluded.

  No one grumbled aloud, but their faces showed keen disappointment at theresumption of quartering in the ship. Reluctantly, the women beganrolling up the still-deflated air-mattresses that were scattered aboutthe soft, deep grass. Sue complained, "Sam, if these people don't get alittle privacy pretty soon we'll turn into an ant colony. There'll belovin' in the streets."

  "It's not my idea," I said. "I'll be nailed to a table at the foot ofthe ramp all day making check marks. Phil is taking this entirely toobig. The little people are really charming. He neglected to mention thatthey are beautifully formed and quite gentle in their--their actions."

  "Actions?" she said. "What happened, really?"

  I described the conditions under which we first saw the natives, and shelaughed a little strainedly. "I can just imagine the look on PhilBenson's face."

  I knew what she meant. In trying to enforce the shipboard rule ofsegregation of the sexes, our leader had developed an oversensitiveattitude toward certain aspects of modesty. In the unutterable boredomof space, the pledge we had all taken to complete continence for thevoyage was a severe test to all forty couples.

  Had propriety and space considerations been the only reasons for theinfamous "no-romance" regulation, it would never have held up. But allconcerned realized the problem of childbirth in space under thejam-packed living conditions, tight water and food rationing and thefetid, recirculated air.

  Now the second honeymoons were over before they started. It was back tothe ship and the night-life of monks and nuns.

  That night, Sue and I joined the four ship's officers, their wives,Phillip Benson and Jane in the navigation cupola atop our doomed shipthat had become a "fortress". The small control room was the onlysemi-private room in the ship, and even Benson was admitted byinvitation only. The meeting was a council of war, so to speak, and theofficers were pressed into service to organize and operate the securityguard.

  When the guard watch was worked out for a week in advance, I spoke up."I think we're getting off on the wrong foot, Phil. We can't stay pennedup like animals at night and expect to function as humans."

  Benson argued: "We are a carefully balanced group, Sam. We can't affordcasualties. Look at our medical corps, two doctors and four nurses.Suppose we were attacked and lost them?"

  Captain Spooner, whose authority had lapsed when we touched down, backedup Benson. "I see no great hardship in the precautions. Inconvenience,yes, but nothing that the danger doesn't fully justify."

  He was a cocky, virile, bald-headed little terrier of 35 years. His veryyoung wife and the wives of the other three officers seemed only lightlyperturbed at the prospects of continuing celibacy, which confirmed mysuspicions.

  I said, "That's gritty of you, Captain, but remember, the rest of ushaven't had the relative privacy of the bridge. If this restrictioncontinues long I predict violations of the discipline, and probably someserious behaviour problems."

  My position as colony psychologist had become somewhat obscured underthe snowstorm of paperwork that my secondary job as official scribe hadbrought. Benson seemed now to recall that mental health _was_ myconcern. He said, "I thought you reported high morale upon arrival."

  "I did, but the tensions are there, and it's foolish to draw them tootightly. We have a well-picked, highly adaptable group of people. Let'skeep them that way. The quicker we hit a more normal existence the lessrisk we run of emotional disturbances."

  "They'll take it," Benson said positively, and Spooner nodded inarrogant agreement.

  * * * * *

  My 20-hour wristwatch, geared to the shorter rotation of Sirius XXII,said nine o'clock, one hour before noon, when the women beganundressing.

  There had been an air of conspiracy among them all morning, a studiedcasualness as they wandered around near the ship, forming smallconversational eddies, dispersing and reforming elsewhere. I had justfinished checking in the 11-man fruit-gathering detail. I looked up frommy roster in time to see the first motions of the "great disrobing".Zippers unzipped, snaps popped open, slacks, skirts, blouses and jumpersfell to the grass, and a dazzling spectacle of space-bleached feminineepidermis burst into view.

  The ladies were very calm about it, but a chorus of yips sounded andswelled into a circus of cheers from the male working parties.

  Before I could fathom it Benson came charging down the ramp followed byhis fruit-stowing detail. He stopped at the foot of the ramp, mouth openand eyes pinched with annoyance.

  He spotted Jane and Sue. "What is going on out here?" he demandedloudly.

  Our two wives waved at us and strolled over, doing a splendid job ofacting unconcerned. "Just a little sun-bathing," Jane said, shooing asmall insect from a pale shoulder.

  Susan refused to meet my eye. She was watching two birds soar overhead."It's fantastic," she said. "If you don't look at things too closely,you'd never know we weren't at a summer camp up in Wisconsin--except forthe fruits. They remind me more of Tahiti. It's marvelous! Themosquitoes don't even bite."

  "They will," I said, "as soon as they get a good taste of human blood.And baby, you're sure making it easy for them."

  Benson was distracted from the conversation by the converging malecolonists, who were whooping and yelling like a horde of school boys. Hebacked up the ramp and ordered, "Let's get on with the work. You've seenyour wives in the altogether before."

  The men quieted a little, but one yelled, "Yeah, but not lately!"

  Another added, "And not _all together_."

  In spite of the fact that nude sun-bathing was a commonplace,twenty-second-century custom on Earth, by tacit consent clothes had beenworn at all times aboard ship. The women had gone along with Benson fortwo years on such matters, so this was clearly a feminine protestagainst the spirit of the yellow alert.

  Young doctors Sorenson and Bailey came trotting up, grinningappreciatively but wagging their fingers. Without consulting Benson,Bailey mounted the ramp and shouted, "Blondes and redheads, ten minutesexposure. Brunettes, fifteen."

  A great booing issued from the men, but Bailey held up his hand forsilence. "The medical staff will make no effort to enforce theseexposure maximums, but be advised that the radiation here is about thesame as Miami Beach in June, so don't let the air-conditioning foolyou."

  Benson was spared further decisions on the issue, because at that momentone of the sentries remembered to take a quick look at the vector offorest he was supposed to be guarding. Unable to make his voice heardover the hub-hub, the guard fired his pistol in the air.

  We all jumped up and stared, and Benson muttered, "Dear God!"

  * * * * *

  Our people were scattered over an acre around the ramp, and encompassingthem was a semi-circle of at least a hundred "savages", frozen likebronze statues at the sound of the gun-shot. They curved in an arc lessthan a hundred yards from the ship.
/>   Their hands were empty of weapons, and their motionless attitudes werein no way threatening. To the contrary, they seemed small and quiteinoffensive except for their numbers.

  Acting in my capacity as psychologist, I ran up the ramp and called outas calmly as a shout would permit, "Everybody take it easy! Don't makeany quick moves. Above all, don't anyone fire off a weapon again unlessthere is an obvious attack."

  Benson clutched my arm. "Are you mad? We've got to get the womeninside."

  "That's what I'm thinking," I said. "But if we invite attack by runningthey won't all make it."

  "They