Pat's sigh was half a sob. He put his arm around her shoulders, wondering how much more defeat they would have to endure.
“Landreau's at the mess hall, Ken,” Pat said, halting as he guided her in the opposite direction, toward their cabin.
“So? If he wants me, he'll find me at home.”
“Ken, I can't tell him that,” Pat objected.
«Pat, honey, you're telling him nothing. You're going to cook my dinner. They can't take that away from me – yet.»
“Oh!”
He could feel her resisting him ever so slightly. He turned her toward him.
«Pat, I'm tired of deferring to this department and that manager. I'm tired of apologizing for my right to exist, for what I've seen, for what I know – for what I am. If Landreau has anything to say to me, he can find me. This morning was the last time I trotted obediently in answer to an official summons.»
He opened the cabin door, then saw Pat looking at him, scared and uncertain. Relenting, Ken took her by the shoulders and gave her a little shake.
“Don't you see, Patty? It isn't a question any more of culture, it's a question of courage. With that theft, Codep has lost the right to command our loyalty. Landreau lost it by refusing to believe us or Todd.” He sighed. “I'd give anything to believe Alreldep has one brain in its collective head, but the odds are sure against it.”
“Alreldep doesn't enter the picture, Reeve,” said Landreau who had quietly approached the house.
“Oh yes they do. The Hrrubans are not native to this planet.”
Landreau snorted contemptuously. “Don't try that on me, Reeve. I won't credit it. Your so-called native-aliens are gone again, all right, because they never were here! And I've got proof. I planted satellite guards all around this planet. Nothing could have got through. And according to those sentinels, nothing did. Except Codep's ship.”
“I'm not going to argue with you, Landreau.”
«You can't,» and Landreau's expression was openly scornful. «And I'll tell you another thing. I'm onto your little plot. Oh, I don't know how you managed those films – mighty clever, I'll say that.»
“What are you talking about?”
“No skin off my teeth, pal, if you Tee Effs can't take the life. Open space is too much for you. isn't it? You all want to go back to your nice comfortable closets on Earth. Go ahead. I'll help. Then we can open this planet up to some real men!”
Reeve reached out and grabbed Landreau by the collar, jerking the shorter man off his feet.
“I've had my bellyful of insults today, Landreau. You want to retract that statement?” and Ken poised his right fist right under Landreau's chin.
“Ken, don't!” Pat cried out, grabbing at his raised arm. “You can't fight with everyone. Not when we have to go back . . .”
When Ken saw Landreau's eyes flicker briefly with triumph, he thrust Pat back and purposefully tightened his hold on the spaceman's jacket.
“Give this planet a clear slate in your Department, remove Chaminade and his farting company and just see if you hear us pleading to leave Doona!”
“But we've got to leave, Ken. The Principle of . . .”
“Shut up, Pat. That damned principle's not even involved.”
“Make up your mind, Reeve,” Landreau sneered and wrenched himself free.
When Ken took a menacing step toward him, Pat threw her arms around her husband.
“Ken, stop it!”
“Where's your son, Mrs. Reeve?” Landreau demanded curtly. “This time you and that Moody woman won't stop me from probing that kid. I'll prove this is a phony scheme to get home.”
Pat cried out in alarm, but Ken threw back his head and laughed at Landreau's request.
“Find him, Landreau. You have to find him first!”
The spaceman marched angrily down the short corridor to the bedrooms, slamming open doors to peer into the empty rooms.
“All right where is he? He wasn't with the other kids in the mess hall. Where is he?”
“He was in the Hrruban village when the Codep ship arrived, Landreau, so wherever the Hrrubans are, Todd is.”
Landreau's sharp eyes bored into Ken's for one long minute as though he could penetrate this suspected evasion by sheer will power,
“I'll find him. Believe me, I'll find him. Then we'll get to the bottom of this!” And he stalked out.
«Oh, Ken, why are you doing this?» Pat sobbed. «You've antagonized Chaminade, and now Landreau and – what are we going to do when we get back to Earth? We'll be pariahs and . . .»
“Pat, don't you see why I had to stand up to them? For everyone's sake.” He held her a little from him so she had to look into his eyes. “They've been pushing us around to suit themselves, and as long as we let them, they'll push us further and further down.”
«But we know the Hrrubans exist – and they've got Todd. Oh, Ken, if Landreau gets Todd, I'll know he'll do a probe and . . .»
“Landreau will get Todd over my dead body, Pat. But for the time being, he's safe with the Hrrubans. Bless 'em.”
He could not reassure Pat. She had suffered too many disrupting shocks in the past two weeks. And although his thoughts about the Hrrubans and the reasons for their disappearing act were beginning to crystallize, he didn't dare hold out such a vague hope to her. Not in her state of mind.
The sound of running feet penetrated Pat's soft crying and she clung to him tightly, breathlessly.
“It's only Bill Moody, Pat. Todd's light on his feet.”
But her body remained expectantly taut in his arms until Bill's reedy voice called out.
“Mr. Reeve, Mr. Chaminade wants to see you immediately.”
“Oh, Ken,” and Pat's voice held a world of entreaty.
“Thanks, Bill. Please give my compliments to Mr. Chaminade and tell him I'll receive him here.”
Pat gasped and Bill's eyes went round and wide as rocket tubes.
«Bububut – he wants to see you,» the boy repeated.
“Yes, so you said. Well, he can see me here.”
Bill stared at him a moment longer and then took to his heels as if a mda were after him.
“That boy's going to make a good runner, by God.”
“Kenneth Reeve,” his wife broke away from him in horror. “Can you imagine what will happen to that child when he repeats such an insolent message to an official like Chaminade?”
Ken dropped his hands to his side and returned Pat's accusing glare.
“Nothing will happen to the child. Let me point out that my message was more polite than Chaminade's. But I'm not going anywhere else today unless it's back to the bed I never should have left.”
Pat was instantly contrite. «I forgot all about your – wounds.»
“My galls,” he corrected her. “Well, I haven't,” but it was not the galls on his hide he was thinking about as he sank gratefully down onto the couch.
He had barely settled himself in as comfortable a position as the nature of his injuries allowed before he heard the subdued murmur of many people nearing the house. He sighed resignedly. Well, this ought to be short and sweet, he told himself; just like my frame of mind.
“It was so kind of you to come, Mr. Chaminade,” Pat began obsequiously as the Codep man, followed by his delegation, strode in. “My husband is in a good deal of . . .”
“That's enough, Pat,” Ken interrupted her sharply. His wife wasn't going to suck up to Chaminade either.
I received your message, Chaminade said acidly, brushing by Pat as if she didn't exist. His little eyes, narrowed in his fat face, glittered with a dangerous intensity. The others ranged themselves behind him, every one of them socially scrawny. Then Landreau entered, standing slightly to one side of the Codep contingent, his face expressionless save for his mocking eyes.
Hu Shih and Lawrence came in next, their faces set. They nodded to Pat as they took positions behind Ken's couch, facing the officials. Outside the cabin, quiet in the twilight, the rest of the adult colonists
stood about anxiously.
“Won't you sit?” Pat suggested in an inane attempt to restore social behavior.
“We shan't stay long,” Chaminade said. “We have already delayed our departure, waiting for the return of Mister Reeve. Where did you disappear to, Mister Reeve?”
“I went to the village,” Ken replied evenly.
''Village!" Chaminade contemptuously dismissed that with a flip of his pudgy hand.
“Yes, the village,” Ken repeated firmly. “My son, Todd, was visiting the Hrrubans today.”
“I have had enough of your son and your village . . .”
“And enough of our reptiles?” Ken interrupted coolly.
Chaminade exploded. “That's enough from you, young man . . .”
"And that's quite enough from you, old man," Ken retorted in a loud firm voice. He got to his feet, cursing the awkwardness of his sore body. "Now, you listen to me, Chaminade. Because we've been listening to you, listening until I'm nauseated by the sounds you make as you blame us for the Hrrubans, the reptiles, the whole smelly mess. But we're not at fault and all the official double talk you can dream up cannot put the blame on us.
"What in hell were we supposed to have done when we found Hrrubans? Ignore them because that Godalmighty report said they didn't exist? Ignore the reptiles too, until we get eaten by them? Or is that what you really want, Chaminade? Yes, there's your solution to the whole fiasco.
"We're just twenty-two adults, Chaminade, and a handful of quiet kids. You can write us off completely. Just leave us here. Forget about Doona. Write it off as inimical to human life. Then you can forget about Hrrubans that don't exist and reptiles that shouldn't be. You won't be embarrassed by the Doona predicament and the insolent, recalcitrant behavior of its indigenous personnel.
“Forget us. But don't patronize us. Don't call us liars. Don't rob us. Get off our backs and get off this planet.”
“Are you quite finished, Reeve?” Chaminade asked in a deadly cold voice, his emotions now sealed behind his small white mask of a face. He even managed to look a trifle bored.
“No, I haven't heard your ship take off. Oh, and as you go, return McKee's sapphire. We won't ask questions but the Poldep back on Earth certainly will.”
A flicker in the watchful eyes told Ken that the theft was news to Chaminade. But at this point Hu Shih stepped forward, gripping Reeve firmly by the elbow.
“If it were not for the Principle of Non-Cohabitation, Mr. Chaminade, I could in all conscience second Ken's solution.” Hu Shih's voice, firm and loud, was polite, without trace of apology or appeal. “However, in my capacity as leader of these people who are all conscientious citizens of Terra, I must deny us that dearest wish of remaining here. I demand that you provide us transportation away from Doona so that we do not abrogate the Principle which has dictated our actions from the beginning of this unfortunate situation. We have been treated disgracefully: our efforts discredited; our integrity torn as you turn us into official scapegoats; while our futures have been jeopardized by the dishonesty and covetousness of members of your delegation. I insist that you allow us what honor remains to us and arrange for transport off Doona.”
“You'll get your transport all right,” Landreau interjected, his sharp eyes never leaving Ken's face.
"See here, Landreau, Codep is quite able to take care of its own problems,'' Chaminade assured him crisply, the pose of the bored official abandoned.
“Yeah, you've sure proved that with this bunch of fake-outs!”
With an angry curse, Ken leaped toward Landreau and knocked him to the floor with a savage and well-placed blow.
“There's a place for social incorrigibles like you, Reeve,” Landreau snarled, wiping blood from his split lip as he got to his feet. “And that's where Spacedep is taking you. All of you!” He lurched out of the house, barging through the watching colonists.
“We'll see about that, Landreau,” Chaminade shouted after him. Chaminade spared the colonists one more fierce look before he beckoned his delegation to follow him into the night.
The colonists crowded into the Reeves's living room, speechless but anxious.
“What did Landreau mean?” someone asked in a tight voice. “Where would Spacedep take us?”
“To one of the mine planets, probably,” Lawrence replied, shrugging indifferently.
“I'm sorry, Shih, Lawrence, all of you,” Ken said, suddenly cognizant of the likely repercussions. “I was speaking for myself . . .”
“Hu Shih spoke for all of us, Ken,” Moody interrupted him and gestured around as tense, grave faces echoed the agreement. “None of us had the guts to say it not even when we knew one of those pompous farts had stolen Mace's sapphire.”
"Well, if I get the sapphire back, maybe it'll buy us all some extras in the mines,'' McKee remarked.
“Could they really send us to the mines?” Pat asked tremulously. “Could they? We've done nothing wrong”
There was no answer.
“Say, what did Landreau mean by calling us a bunch of fake outs?” Lawrence suddenly demanded.
Reeve let out a bark of laughter. “He thinks we faked evidence of natives because we're afraid to stay on Doona, it's too much for us. In short, we're cowards, agoraphobes, Terraphiles, social slobs who want to get back to safe lives on Earth.”
The colonists burst out with angry, indignant denials, releasing some of the terrible tension that had been, building up all day. Reeve let them rant for a while before he quieted them.
"You've all realized by now that the Hrrubans are not natives; not when they can disappear instantly without a trace.
"Hey, nothing passed Landreau's sentinels, Ken. I know the type he used, so they – they – " Gaynor hesitated, perplexed. "Well, how the hell did they disappear?"
“Matter transmitters,” Ken replied.
“Teleportation makes just as much sense,” Lawrence suggested slyly.
“Ah, come on, you guys!” Gaynor groaned.
“Just because our scientists haven't been able to develop matter transmitters, it doesn't mean some other culture hasn't,” Ken told the skeptical engineer.
“I prefer matter transmitters to teleportation,” Hu Shih said solemnly. “Logically speaking, that psychic ability is coupled with telepathy of which we have had little evidence.”
“What kind of evidence do you need?” Lawrence asked, his eyes dancing.
"Well – " Shih floundered a moment.
“Let's stick to the point,” Gaynor suggested sarcastically. “Our futures are at stake. So they use matter transmitters, Reeve? Then why the hell do they live in forest villages, using the most rudimentary tools and no mechanical equipment at all? That doesn't jibe.”
“But it supports my theory of teleportation,” Lawrence chuckled.
“How can I know the why's or wherefore's?” Reeve said quickly, forestalling an angry rebuttal from Gaynor. “Let's assume, until we know better, that the Hrrubans are as alien to this planet as we are. Then neither Spacedep or Codep have any further authority over us. Alreldep does!”
“And that makes everything A-okay?” Lawrence demanded cynically.
"No, but the contacts we have already made with the Hrrubans and our grasp of their language gives us a bargaining point with Alreldep for better status,'' Reeve pointed out.
''Bu if the Hrrubans are aliens, then we have not offended the Principle of Non-Cohabitation!'' Hu Shih exclaimed, his face lighting with a joyous relief.
“Oh, for Christ's sake.” Gaynor threw up his hands in complete exasperation. “We're right back where we started!”
"If the Hrrubans are alien – " Hu Shih looked keenly at Ken. "Are you sure, Ken?"
“Hu Shih, I'm not sure of a damned thing. But if the Hrrubans are alien to Doona, it'll explain a helluva lot of inconsistencies,” and Ken ticked them off on his fingers; “Their intricate language with pitch inflections; their sophisticated attitudes, the whole bit about the bridge from their forcing the idea through o
ver our protests to its design and construction. The whole damned situation falls into focus if the Hrrubans are alien.”
“Except this nature-loving bit,” growled Gaynor in the thoughtful silence that followed.
“And what kind of a colony did we plan to start?” Ken asked.
“A very good point,” Lawrence agreed softly, “but it leads directly to another unsettling question. How much more advanced are they?”
Ken started to chuckle, he couldn't help himself. In the light of Lawrence's remark, the irony of the past weeks of association with the Hrrubans struck him as enormously funny.
“You know,” he said, suppressing his amusement as a more important consideration occurred to him, “it might just be possible that they are advanced enough, ethical enough, sophisticated enough not to feel the need to absorb, dominate or manipulate us.” Ken caught the dawning comprehension in Hu Shih's startled eyes. The metropologist seemed to expand as he grasped at the implication. “Wouldn't it be a relief to know that we,” and Ken included all the colonists jammed into his living room, “that we can also be big enough, intelligent enough, maybe even wise enough to accept them for what they are without trying to question or change or pose our values on them? Can't we have learned enough from the terrible tragedies of history, from the Siwannah incident, to cohabit the universe? Mutually at peace with each other?”
“And I'm supposed to be the socio-psychologist,” Lawrence remarked in quiet awe.
Hu Shih embraced Ken, his dark eyes brimming, unable to speak. His action released the others from their stunned reflections and everyone began jabbering at once.
“You believe that this is what the Hrrubans have in mind?” asked Ben Adjei, his deep voice cutting through the chaos. “They want peaceful coexistence with us?”
“I don't know what they have in mind, Ben,” Reeve answered honestly.
«Oh, but it is now obvious to me that they do,» Hu Shih interjected excitedly. «They have shown us no hostility, although our presence on Rrala was undoubtedly a shock to them. Immediately they began to help us; even against our better judgment, as witness the bridge. They insisted that we learn their language even as they willingly learned ours. Even when they offered to – excuse my bluntness, Ken – help with the care and protection of Todd And the fact that they would not abandon him, alone, and frightened, far from his own people in a dangerous forest simply adds further weight to this theory.» Hu paused for a split second and then rushed on. «In fact, I shouldn't be the least bit surprised if the Hrrubans have not been testing us in adroit ways to judge our cultural ethics and maturity. Truly, Ken, your hypothesis is valid.»
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