The Test Colony
Page 7
an industrious sound tothe whole operation.
As Benson had hoped, when the people buckled down they once again beganyearning for the conveniences they had left on earth. The chemistsfinally contrived suitable raw materials for the plasticizer and beganmanufacturing screens for our gaping windows, much-needed pipe for ourwater and sewage systems and even a few "frivolous" luxuries such ascups, saucers and fruit bowls. The commissary and other public buildingswere planked out roughly, and the hospital-clinic was completed beforethe first two babies arrived.
The history-making blessed event was an honor and an onus to CaptainSpooner and his young wife. To father the first human offspring onSirius XXII was the fond hope of many of us, but Spooner and the SecondOfficer had something over a light-year head-start on the rest of us.
Infant Spooner arrived just 5-1/2 months after our landing. The Mate'sbaby came two weeks later. Sue herself was satisfyingly pregnant. Byspring it was obvious that Earth's gynecologists had chosen the membersof our colony well, and there would be no dearth of young blood. Fully athird of the women were expecting, and Sue's date indicated she wouldhave won the derby if it hadn't been for the ship's officers' perfidy.
The colony as a whole was in good shape. As the most pressing work wasdisposed of, the men took turns at the pleasant hunting details, and webegan enjoying fresh meat from the small game of the forest.
On one such trip I brought back a live little animal that looked like across between a three-toed sloth and a teddy bear, except that he had along, woofly snout like an ant-eater. He seemed to be hibernating in thecrotch of a small tree, and when I shook him down he cuddled up andclung to my neck so lovingly that I decided he'd make a good pet forSue.
The little cub kept nipping affectionately at my neck on the hike back,and he clung so close he was a nuisance, but Sue was delighted. We hadto improvise a cage at night to keep him from mauling us and keeping usawake.
Sue named him, "Toots", and we were the envy of all the camp. When Joeand his people returned three weeks later, and we discovered the truthabout Toots, the others were happy they hadn't acquired a similar pet.
* * * * *
It was late spring, and the mango trees were rapidly refilling theirhigh branches with the tala-fruit. We now had a roofed central kitchenwhere the women prepared our meals. We ate at long tables in the open.
Shortly after the noon meal one day, Joe and his people returned. Hecaught up to Sue and me as we were strolling to our hut for our dailyfifteen-minute siesta. He appeared tired from the journey but quite gladto see us. I felt the pangs of conscience as I added my hypocriticalwelcome to Sue's warm greeting.
In his old room we sat on the rough furniture I had fashioned, and Joeeyed Sue's fruitful contours. "A baby soon, eh? We have many babiesamong us."
"You--have?" I said.
"Many were born on the return trip. They slowed up the females withtheir sucking. For eight days they are a burden on the mother."
Sue exclaimed, "Eight days? Then what happens?"
The subject did not greatly interest Joe. "Then they find their ownfood--if the _koodi_ does not find them first."
"What in the world is a _koodi_?" Sue asked with a shiver.
Joe was silent for a minute. He wrinkled his broad brow and looked atme. "Samrogers, you asked me many questions about how we die. I did notunderstand this death for a long time. Now I know. It is when the_koodi_ comes. He comes to the very young and to the old. The babies aretoo small to hold him off. The old drink much tala, then the _koodi_comes to them. This is my third year, and my thirst for tala is great.The _koodi_ will come."
His words painted a clear picture of a superstitious concept of death,personifying it even as humans refer to the "grim reaper". But Sue tooka different view. "What does the _koodi_ look like?" she persisted.
Joe looked puzzled. He raised a long, four-segmented finger and pointedto a corner of the room where Toots was curled up like a fur neck-piece."He looks like that. There is a _koodi_."
My first impulse was to reject the statement as ridiculous. Toots was asharmless as an over-sized kitten. Besides, the manual made no mentionof--
Sue made a small sound in her throat. Her face was colorless. "Sam! Gethim out of here!"
"But the manual--"
"The manual didn't mention Joe's people, either," she saidhalf-hysterically. "_Get Toots out of here._"
Still unbelieving I walked over and hauled the little fuzzy animal upinto my arms. Instantly, he cuddled close and rammed his pointed snoutunder my open collar and began nibbling at my neck. I took him outside,and out of perverse curiosity I let him have his way with my neck. Atfirst it tickled, as always, but instead of batting his head away I lethim nibble with his soft, pointed lips.
Sue called out, "Sam what are you doing? Kill him, Sam!"
His lips spread into a little circle on my flesh and began suckinggently. There was no pain, just the throb of my jugular under his mouth.Now his long, soft, hairy arms became firmer around my neck. I jerkedback and they gripped hard. A chill of panic stabbed me, and I couldfeel the taut flesh of my neck drawn more deeply into his puckered lips.
I tugged at him silently, not wishing to frighten Sue. He wouldn't comeloose. In broad, noon-daylight I had a Sirian vampire in my arms,threatening to rupture my jugular vein and kill me within speakingdistance of half a hundred people. I tried to level my voice. "Joe,would you come out here, please?"
He came at once, stared with a blank expression and said, "You have beendrinking much tala?"
"Help me, dammit!" I said, holding my voice down. "I can't shake himloose. He's trying to--" The long, tight arm squeezed off my breath. Inturn I tried to strangle him, but under the thick fur was a bonyprotection where there should have been soft neck.
"It does no good to kill the _koodi_," Joe said. "There is alwaysanother. Once they hold you tightly it is too late."
Sue thought differently. She came through the door like a hell-cat.Catching up her garden hoe she swung a blow that, had it missed Toots,would have crushed my skull. But Sue didn't miss. I fell on my back, andToots let go, dead of a broken spine.
* * * * *
The "liquor control board" was Benson's best idea. Not only did it puttala on a legitimate basis, but it controlled our dealings with thenatives. Bromley, the chemist, who was the original offender, wascharged with manufacturing the wooden matches, and the medium ofexchange was concentrated in the hands of the commissary "purchasingagent".
The reason that Benson sanctioned the controlled tala trade with thenatives stemmed from our apparent failure to sterilize the males. Therewas, indeed, a huge crop of native babies, tiny little dolls that lookedlike spider monkeys and dropped from their mothers' breasts after littlemore than a week.
The brisk tala trade was part of our program to keep the natives inclose association while we devised ways and means to discover the causeof our failure. All quarantine rules had long since been dropped, andSorenson and Bailey began inventing ruses to lure the males into the gaschamber again.
Weeks passed while we worked our way through the whole male populationagain, testing for fertility and X-raying it wherever we found it.Through Joe we advertised new wonders to be seen in the ship, and as thesight-seers left we tagged each with an atomized spot on the othershoulder, indicating that he was still sterile or had just become so.
This time we tallied 496 males which, according to Joe, was certainlythe whole masculine population. The mystery of our failure at genocideforced an unpleasant decision on Benson. The biologists and medicsinsisted that we must win the natives' confidence even further to gaintheir cooperation. As the heat of summer bore down and the mercury rose,we eased off on the work schedule and deliberately planned socialfunctions to which we had Joe invite a group of natives. There werepicnics and beach parties where our guests brought their own tala, andours was carefully rationed. Group singing entranced the little goldenpeople, and they took remarkabl
e delight in the discovery of their own,sweetly pitched voices. Enterprising Joe, with his remarkable memory,soon became unofficial song leader, and all day long we would hear thenatives practicing.
Sue's baby came, a sturdy little boy whom we named Richard Joseph--Sueinsisted on the second name, and I couldn't argue her out of it withoutrevealing my reasons. Within two weeks the clinic's nursery was full ofbabies, and it was at this point that the natives' interest becamedeeply stirred.
The language barriers were breaking down rapidly. Many of our regularvisitors were females, and with Joe's help as an interpreter they weresoon able to ask questions. Their greatest curiosity hinged on thefabulous care we gave our infants.
Although I wouldn't permit Sue to do it, several of our women beganusing