CROSSFIRE

by Nancy Kress

  Nan burst out, "Help us do what? They can't destroy anything, or they would have already destroyed the space-faring Furs' planet. They'll sit and talk about it all, talk is all they know how to do. And meanwhile, the dominant Furs will just wipe out these colonies on this planet, the way they did on Greentrees."

  Oh, Nan, Gail thought. Siding again with the underdogs. Even at the expense of her own kind. Aloud Gail said, "A key question here is whether we really believe the Furs will destroy Mira City if we don't cooperate. The threat to destroy Earth might be just bluff, but Mira City is accessible to them."

  George said somberly, "They'll destroy the city."

  Karim said, "I agree."

  Gail said, "Then our choice is clear." She didn't look at Nan. "We have to do what the Furs told us to do. Maybe we can figure out how to destroy the shield from within, maybe not. But if we don't at least try, five thousand of our fellow human beings will die. More if they can kill Larry's Cheyenne."

  George said, "As opposed to an entire planetful of beings on Vine!"

  "Who are not our people," Gail said steadily. She felt very clear on this. "Our loyalty is to human beings."

  Franz Mueller said, "Ja. I say this also," startling everybody. He seldom said anything.

  Ingrid, looking troubled, said, "I don't see any possible way we could destroy a shield we don't even begin to understand. So even if we got to Vine, we would still be ineffective, and the Furs would still destroy Mira City. If not Earth."

  Jake said, "But if we don't try to destroy the shield, we know they'll take out Mira City."

  Nan burst out, "But the chances are overwhelming that either way we can't stop the destruction of Mira City! But we can save these poor creatures here from either being murdered or experimented on any more! If we slip off into the wilderness and find them, over time they'd get used to us. We could teach them. Together we could survive!"

  Gail said, "No. Mira City comes first, even if the chance is slender. God, Jake and I and George and Dr. Shipley are all on the Board of Governors! Do you think we can just sell out our own people to maybe save our own lives?"

  Ingrid said, "We'd save our own lives if we went to Vine. Even if we don't bring down the shield, we'd be safe under it, since it works."

  Gail said, "Our loyalty to Mira City comes first."

  Nan said hotly, "Don't be such a species chauvinist, Gail! The experimental Furs are sentient, too! How is putting our kind above theirs different from all those times in history when one group of humans decided a different group was subhuman and felt free to experiment on them or kill them off?"

  Jake said, "Calm down, Nan. And everybody else. We need to discuss this rationally to make the best decision quickly."

  "It's not merely a rational issue!" Nan retorted. "Lives are involved!"

  "Yes," Ingrid said. "Ours."

  Gail said, "Isn't your husband back in Mira City, Ingrid?" and Ingrid clenched her fists and glared at her.

  Karim said, "The shield—" He was cut off by a clamor of voices.

  "Mira City—"

  "The Furs—"

  "—best chance for survival—"

  "The Vines—"

  "Loyalty—"

  "Stop!" Shipley cried, and tried to get to his feet. He staggered and fell. Lucy tried to catch him, and under her slight weight they both crashed to the ground. Shipley sat up, his blanket slipped off his shoulders, a fat old man trembling but determined to speak.

  "Stop. Please. Listen."

  "Go ahead," Jake said. And to everybody else, "Let him talk."

  Gail looked at Jake's face. He hated having to let Shipley speak. He still disliked and distrusted the New Quaker. But Jake was fair. Gail knew what it cost him, and she nodded. Shipley could speak.

  But she doubted it would change anything. They needed a practical plan, not a religious philosophy. She just hoped Jake gave Shipley no more than two minutes. If not, she would interrupt him herself.

  This was too important to leave to eccentrics.

  24

  Shipley took a precious moment to gather his thoughts. But then he found he didn't have to. The words flowed out of him, through him, with all the clarity and simplicity of truth. It was the Light in him speaking, and he merely needed to open himself to it and be grateful to be so used.

  "We've spoken of loyalty to humankind, to Mira City, to other sentient species more abused than humans, to our own lives. But there's another loyalty involved here, too. There's a loyalty to the truth. It's the truth that makes us free—free of deceit and arrogance and fear. Truth is the best that is in each of us. That's the definition of truth: the part of us that's naturally drawn toward the good. If we act from truth, then something wonderful can happen."

  He drew a quick breath, afraid to stop talking in case Jake cut him off, equally afraid that if he didn't breathe deeply, the constant drag of this planet on his old lungs and heart might keep him from talking at all.

  "If we act from truth, then the way is open to reach the truth that is in others. Only when we're truthful with others can any joint action call on the best that's in them, as well. The Vines are truthful people. We've seen that, in the way they answered all our questions without hesitation, and with answers that have all proved accurate. We know they're brave people, from the way Beta died. They're good people, not the aggressors in this war of theirs.

  "If we act from truth with the Vines, if we tell them the truth, then together we have two species' resources to decide what will best serve us all. If we don't tell them the truth, if we lie, we cut off that possibility. We lose all the advantages of truthful cooperation. And we also cut ourselves off from the best that's in ourselves.

  "Please, Jake, Gail—tell any Vines that come the whole story. Everything. Then the way will be clear for decisions based on reality, not lies. Trust those good people. Trust ourselves."

  He ran out of breath, out of words. His lungs ached, but he looked hopefully at their faces. The Light had come through him so strong, so clear ... surely they would be convinced!

  Then Naomi said flatly, "Sure the Vines are good people. Good people who experiment on other races in order to create biological weapons."

  Shipley felt his own face contort. His daughter.

  But the decision was not, after all, Naomi's. He gazed at Jake and Gail, hoping, pleading in his mind.

  "Does anyone agree with Dr. Shipley that we should tell the Vines everything? Agreements, just for the record?"

  Lucy raised her hand. Lucy, with the idealism he had seen on the Ariel, even through her temporary madness.

  After a moment, Karim also raised his hand. "They may have science we do not know about yet, that can help us out of this if we're honest with them."

  Naomi said harshly, "I vote to disappear into this planet."

  Jake said, "This isn't a democracy, Nan. I'm asking for opinions only to guide my decision. Do—"

  "This isn't your stinking corporation, Jake! You're not CEO out here!"

  "—the rest of you believe we should try to carry through the Furs' orders, as our best chance to save Mira City and maybe even, if they're not bluffing, Terra?"

  Ingrid nodded vigorously, followed by Franz Mueller, George, and Gail.

  "I think so, too," Jake said. "That's five. Nan, even if this were a democracy, we have a majority. We tell any Vines that show up that we've been dumped here by our own people as punishment for some crime. Aboard the Vine ship we try to find out every single thing we can about that shield. We keep in touch with the Furs by quee; Gail, you can do that. And once we're on Vine, we try to destroy the shield in order to save the humans on Greentrees.

  "To keep consistency, I'll be the only one who ever talks to any Vines about Greentrees or our supposed crimes or pretty much anything not completely innocuous. If Vines ask you about anything, refer them to me."

  Ingrid said, "How do we know the Vines that are supposed to come here haven't already been told all about us by quee?"

  Ka
rim said, "Because the Vines don't have quee. Beta told me."

  "Then how do we know the Vines that come here won't first have gone to Greentrees and found their Fur colonies destroyed, and then guess what the Furs' plan for us is?"

  Jake said, "It doesn't matter if they went there first, because I'm going to say that when we were dumped here by our own people from Mira City, we'd never seen any aliens except the degraded Furs on Greentrees. We're going to be enormously surprised that the space Furs even exist. And they won't guess what the Furs have told us to do. The Vines will believe that we're outcasts from our own kind."

  Ingrid demanded, "How do you know?"

  "Because," Jake said, "they're a truthful race."

  Shipley got up and went outside.

  He lumbered over the rough ground to a rock away from the lodge and sat on it, his back to the building. Now he wasn't aware of the cold, hardly aware of the pull on his muscles and pressure on his lungs. They were going to use the Vines' own goodness against them, building lies on the scaffold of the Vines' truthfulness.

  He bowed his head and closed his eyes. This was wrong; he could feel its wrongness in his very bones, a life-destroying cold. But they were going to do it. Lie now and, if they could, kill later. Kill an entire planetful of sentient creatures.

  He berated himself for not convincing them. There was so much more he could have said! He could have told them about the many Old Quakers who were moved by the Light to go among the American natives of five hundred years ago, for trade or friendliness. About the many times the natives, who were capturing and torturing other emissaries, had accepted the Quakers, offering them no violence because the Quakers brought no violence. About the power of a sincere peace testimony to change a situation. About John Woolman visiting violent Indians "that I might learn something from them." Of Dr. Lettsom and the highwayman, of Caydee Umbartu and the West African Rebellion...

  Shipley sat on the cold rock a long time. No one approached him, not even Lucy. He knew his mind was muddled now, the clarity and truth of the Light having departed. But in his confusion one thought stayed visible, sharp as a sword in his mind.

  Jake had said he would lie to the Vines. That's what he would do. But Jake had not asked, because it had not occurred to him as a possibility, what Shipley would do. Jake had not asked whether Shipley, acting out of his own conscience, would tell the Vines the truth anyway. But, then, it wouldn't have mattered if Jake had asked.

  Shipley didn't know the answer.

  An hour later, Naomi disappeared. It was Gail, of course, who noticed, as she noticed everything. "Dr. Shipley, have you seen Nan?"

  She would only have asked him as a last chance, he realized. Cold clutched his belly. "No. Isn't she ... isn't she with the group that went to get more firewood?" Gail was preparing for a long stay in the lodge, in case.

  "No. They're back. She returned with them but now she's gone."

  They stared at each other. Shipley got shakily to his feet. "She's gone to find those Furs. The primitive ones she displaced from this lodge."

  "God, she's a pain in the ass!" Gail exploded. "If it weren't for—" She didn't finish her sentence, instead stomping over to Jake, who was inexpertly tying together a garment out of blanket. "Jake—"

  Shipley's legs suddenly wouldn't support him. He sat down again, but only for a minute. Naomi...

  "A party's going to look for her," Gail reported. "Franz, Karim, and Lucy. Lucy thinks she'll retrace the steps the firewood group took because it's the most obvious path for the Furs to have taken, and then go on from there. Lucy will be the runner. If they're gone more than two hours, Lucy will come back here to find out if the shuttle's returned yet."

  "I'm going, too," Shipley said.

  "Doctor—"

  "As far as I can, anyway. What if she's hurt? Or someone else gets hurt?"

  "Lucy's used to wild paleontology sites, Franz is a trained soldier, and Karim keeps himself in terrific shape. You—"

  "Are a fat old man. I know. But she's my daughter. Gail, I'm going."

  Gail said nothing. Shipley joined the others, his blanket clutched around him. He knew how he must look. Franz Mueller said, "We go. Herr Doctor, if you cannot match our pace, we leave you."

  The pace, fortunately, wasn't too quick, since every time they reached a plausible place for Naomi to have left the path, Franz split up the party to check for signs of Naomi's having passed that way: broken twigs, disturbed ground. Each halt gave Shipley, trying not to puff audibly, a chance to catch up. The main path must have been worn smooth by the Furs from the lodge. It led downhill along a mountain stream that must have provided water, bordered by strange-looking trees, or tree-analogues, that looked as if they'd provide firewood. Squat things, with broad drooping leaves, they reminded Shipley of sullen dwarves. The lower the search party descended along the path, the stronger was the pungent smell of rot and decay.

  The path stopped when the stream joined a small river. By now they were perhaps a hundred feet below the plateau containing the lodge. Irregular reddish cliffs towered above them. On this side of the river was only a narrow strip of ground between cliff and river, but on the opposite bank the ground widened.

  Franz said, "Karim, you cross the river. Look if she go there. Lucy, you go along this side of the river. I go above, up the cliff."

  Shipley said, "Would Naomi have gone up there?"

  Franz didn't bother to answer. Shipley looked at the cliff with trepidation. But, yes, there were some hand and footholds, and Naomi, with her wiry body and the indifference to pain she'd had even as a small child, might have climbed it to better survey the terrain below.

  Shipley sat on the ground beside a pool where the river deepened. What had she done? If they didn't find her, and the Vine shuttle landed, Jake would leave her here. And he'd be right to do it. Even if they did find her, how would he persuade her to go?

  She'd never listened to him. Why hadn't Gail come? Because the mission to the Vines was more important, even to Gail, than one willful arrogant girl.

  Shipley put his head in his hands. He didn't see the animal until it was almost upon him.

  Something made a noise, somewhere between a growl and a croak. Shipley looked up. It was crawling out of the river, some sort of alien beast, brown and long and smooth-bodied, with curved brown teeth. It was coming toward him.

  Shipley made himself freeze. Some Terran animals wouldn't attack unless you moved. But this wasn't Terran, and it kept on crawling.

  Maybe he could outrun it. But not back up the mountain path; it was too steep. He'd have to run along this side of the river, on the narrow rocky strip of ground between water and cliff. Or maybe it would be better to back away slowly, hadn't he read once that had been the right way to escape from a bear? When Earth still had bears.

  Slowly Shipley began to back away. He could hear his own breathing, loud and labored. The stones pained his bare feet. The animal crawled faster toward him.

  He broke and ran. Within four steps he tripped, crashing onto the stones, crying out loudly. The animal seized his forearm and he felt its teeth sink into his flesh. He thrashed and rolled, trying to shake it loose. The pain was sheer agony.

  "Fucking ass!" someone screamed and then somehow Naomi was there, hitting at the animal with a stick, trying to grab its jaws and force them off his arm. It wouldn't let go, and the blows of her stick had no effect whatsoever.

  Pain blurred his vision. But there was something above him, something jumping off the cliff...

  Franz Mueller. The soldier leaped off the ridge. In the air he did a three-quarter revolution, a not-quite-full somersault, that landed him in the center of a thick clump of bushes with his back facing down, body folded into a vee. Within seconds he was up off the bushes. He seized a stick and jabbed rather than struck at the animal. It released Shipley.

  He tried to roll away, couldn't. Naomi yanked on his unhurt arm. She was amazingly strong; he felt himself being pulled upward and tried to help by
stumbling to his feet. She dragged him away, even as he tried to look for Franz and the animal.

  He was still jabbing at it, precisely and quickly, dancing out of reach of its jaws. Shipley saw the final jab go into a hole in its head. Franz had blinded it.

  Silently the creature slithered back into the water.

  Naomi gasped, "He's hurt. Get his other side..."

  "Nein. I guard the rear against another animal. Here come Karim. Go up the path. Where is Lucy?"

  "Here," Shipley barely heard. The world was wobbling. He was losing blood from his arm, must make a tourniquet. Pathogens... many animals carried a huge number of pathogens in their mouths ... He couldn't tell them any of this. Arms were pulling him back up the mountain path, stumbling and lurching, and he couldn't speak. His vision blurred.

  "Another animal comes. Go faster," Franz said, and then he saw or heard nothing.

  He woke on the floor of the lodge. Gail, Jake, and Naomi sat beside him. One of them said, "He's back."

  "Dr. Shipley?" Gail, leaning over him, her face concerned. "Can you hear me?"

  "Y-yes."

  "Good. You're going to be all right." He could see honesty compel her to add, "We think."

  "Tourniquet?" His voice came out a whisper.

  "Franz made it. He knows what he's doing."

  So Franz had survived. Shipley said a grateful prayer. "He j-jumped."

  "Ass-right he did," Naomi said, her voice full of admiration. "And fought off those things as well."

  "Lucy?"

  "Fine," Gail said briskly. "No one was hurt except you. I think that if we're here much longer, Franz had better start giving us all survival lessons."

  Jake said, "If we're here much longer, a lot of things will have to change."

  Shipley heard the anger in Jake's voice. Naomi ... he meant Naomi's running off that way. She'd endangered three other people. And now Naomi would angrily counterattack, and the whole painful ritual, familiar to him since her childhood, would start over again. She'd find the something hurtful, and then while you were bleeding from that and trying to hold on to patience and charity, she'd find something even more hurtful, more targeted to the vulnerable soft areas everyone possessed...