The Planet of the Blind

by Paul Corey

  “Let’s go looking for trouble, then,” I said.

  I gathered up my stuff and Ello split the wall. My eyes had become just a little accustomed to the darkness enough so that I could follow her. We were out in the hallway when I remembered Cat.

  “Come on, Cat,” I said. Ello made a whirring sound and the three of us went out to her bubble.

  Although one room with transparent walls is much like another room with transparent walls, I was glad to be back in the Annex, Cat with me for company. Ello would be on campus not too far away. Yes, this could be pleasant.

  At the moment she was beside me on the bed. The air of confidence she showed at the refuge seemed to have slipped a little.

  “It’ll happen tomorrow,” she said. “They’ll just have to consider you as something more than an ordinary animal.”

  I almost insisted that I wasn’t an animal instead of my usual line that I wasn’t the kind of animal they considered animal. We were all animals, Grendans included, but they didn’t think so. This time I didn’t argue or explain, I changed the subject. “Incidentally, whatever happened to those glasses I rigged up for you?”

  “Glasses?”

  “Those lenses and frames that let you see.”

  “Oh, I’d forgotten them. I’ve been worrying about you for days. Somebody must have them. Maybe my father.”

  Not that it mattered. That gadget might be used either for or against me at a trial. Right now there was little indication there would ever be a trial. This breach of a rule might only get Ello a reprimand and me sent back to the farm. Probably the best I could expect would be that Ello would be permitted to keep me with her as a pet.

  That might not be so bad. In fact, that would be a wonderful solution until the whole business was whipped. I stroked her arm, fondling her hand. She leaned harder against me.

  “Stay the night with me, baby,” I said.

  She moaned a little. “I wish I could, darling. But I must go home and tell Father what I’ve done.”

  “Wouldn’t it be better just to let him find out?”

  “Oh no. I don’t keep secrets from my father.” She gave me a quick kiss. “Really, darling, I must go.” There was no mistaking the reluctance in her drawing away. “I’ll be with you tomorrow.”

  I still held her hand as she got up from the bed.

  “Come early, baby.”

  Her fingers slipped free and the night swallowed her.

  I leaned back. There was no doubt in my mind that I loved Ello. I felt impatient at the way we were going about getting me recognised as superior to what Grendans considered animals. Suppose we just got married. They would have to accept me in their society then. Maybe not right away. We’d go back to Earth first, then return here. We could make a beautiful life between these two planets.

  Cat came over to the bed, murrfed and got up beside me to sleep. I found my sun-torch, realised that it wasn’t repaired, and felt my way into the bathroom.

  I didn’t feel like going to sleep right away. Sleeping all afternoon made me wakeful. The idea of marrying Ello and escaping to Earth, fixed my thoughts on Earth. I got to worrying about Karen—about Karen and Talcott Jones. I should have been more understanding, I told myself.

  Morning on Grenda was grey with fog, just like on Earth. Cat was prowling when I awoke. I knew he had to go bad but I didn’t know what to do about it.

  “Go use the bathroom, Cat,” I said.

  He gave me a dirty look.

  I was pleased when Lal brought me breakfast and a plate of food for Cat. He was friendly again.

  “Glad to have you back, sir.”

  “Believe me, Lal, I’m glad to be back. I like your service better than what I got on the farm.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  I noticed that Cat wasn’t eating.

  “Lal, do me a favour, will you?”

  “What, sir?”

  “Take Cat out to some good soft dirt, will you?”

  He hesitated a moment—probably wondering what his union would say—but he was smiling. Then he made sounds at Cat. Cat looked at me and I said, “Go with him. Cat.”

  They went out. Through the walls I saw Cat head for a flower bed. Just like Earth, I thought, but a cat as big as Cat must be hell on flowers.

  I saw activity in the Science Building and the other rooms of the Annex. The Grendans were starting their day’s work.

  Lal brought Cat back and he frisked around before going at his food. Shortly after Lal took away my empty breakfast tray, I saw activity down in the main lab. room.

  First Ello entered, then her father. In a short while others came and among them Doctors Mun and Zinzer. For a long time, maybe an hour, I could make out considerable commotion down there. Then the meeting broke up.

  A little after that, Ello came to my room. She was very pale. Her lips were drawn thin with anger.

  “It’s hopeless,” she said, clinging to me. “They won’t let me keep you. They absolutely refuse to give you a trial. They gave me hell for bringing you back. They insist that you must be returned to the refuge at once.”

  “Then we must escape. Get me to my spacerover.”

  “But I can’t set it free,” she said.

  This called for desperate action. “Marry me, baby. Let’s do whatever is done on Grenda to become man and wife.”

  There was a long silence. “Yes, marry an animal.”

  “Ello!” I yelled. “How many times do I have to tell you I’m no different from any male Grendan except for my eyes.”

  “Yes, I can feel that you’re no different than any Grendan male.” She clung to me there on the couch, her hands caressing me. “Oh, darling, it’s a terrible thing to be blind.” Then she said, “You are an animal to them. That’s what I meant. If we marry, that might do it. They will have to grant that the only difference between you and us is eyes.”

  “Oh, baby.” At last I felt that she believed me. She snuggled close, face pressed into the hollow of my neck. I stroked her back, feeling those soft, wonderful curves.

  Suddenly it came to me that it was daylight and we were in a room surrounded by transparent walls. I tried to assure myself that it didn’t matter. Here, only Cat had eyes, and he was on our side.

  But I turned a little, my cheek in Ello’s hair. There stood Zinzer just outside the room, wearing Ello’s glasses. He stared at us, his face growing a violent red.

  I sat up, pulling Ello with me.

  “What is it, darling?” she demanded, startled.

  “Zinzer sees us. He’s got those damned glasses.”

  THIRTY-TWO

  Seeing confused Zinzer as much as what he saw angered him. He tried to walk through the wall and banged into it hard. That gave us time to meet him standing when he split into the room buzzing like crazy.

  Ello buzzed back at him with equal violence. I felt the cord go through me, tearing my chest. I tried to struggle against it but the pain became unbearable. I yelled.

  Ello stepped in front of me and the pain of the cord vanished. I saw Zinzer clutch at his own chest and realised that she was fighting him. I could feel her whole body trembling against me and knew that he was attacking her in place of me now. Each was trying desperately to force the other into submission.

  Then Cat snarled just once and sprang at Zinzer. That ninety pounds of flying fury sprawled the Grendan on the floor. Instantly Ello had Zinzer under her control. Cat backed away growling in his throat.

  The fight was over and Ello leaned against me, shaking with dry sobs. I held her tight to quiet and reassure her.

  “It’s terrible,” she whispered. “He—he accused me of consorting with an animal. That’s a terrible crime here.”

  I said stupidly, “But I’m not that kind of animal.”

  She was silent a moment. Then she turned in my arms and kissed me. “There’s something I must do right now,” she said.

  “What?” I had a sudden fear that she was going to finish Zinzer off.

  She d
idn’t answer. Instead, she buzzed at the prostrate Grendan. He go up. He kept his back to her and I could see pain in his face. She was keeping her control tight. She picked up the glasses that had fallen in the struggle. There was a fine show of resolution in all her actions now.

  “I’m going to take him to my father,” she said.

  I started to say that we’d better knock him out and run for it, but I realised that was no good.

  “This affair is going to be resolved now,” she said. “I think you will get your trial.”

  They went out, Zinzer in front, his head hanging. He must have taken quite a beating between Ello and Cat. I watched them cross to the Science Building and go down to the lab where Doctor Rhoa sat working at a table.

  In spite of the interference between, I could make out quite clearly that Ello was explaining the situation to her father. She appeared quite calm. Then Doctor Rhoa stood up and the scene turned to one of violent gestures and buzzing that I felt certain I could hear.

  Other Grendans ran into the lab. The crowd grew. Some rushed away. More came. There was much confusion. Then they all moved out and across campus to another building.

  We’re getting real action now, I thought. But how much? I saw guards coming from the Science Building to the Annex. I wondered if Cat and I should put up a fight.

  But they didn’t come in. They just took up positions outside my room. Then the excitement and activity in the immediate area quieted down. I sat back on my couch and waited.

  Cat came over and rubbed against me.

  “Thanks, Cat. I think you saved both Ello and me.”

  He placed his front feet on the edge of the bed and sniffed my face. I saw that gleam in his eyes again. Believe me, I didn’t sniff back.

  Lal brought lunch. He seemed very disturbed.

  “What’s happening out there, my friend?” I asked.

  “Miss Ello is in bad trouble, sir. You have caused her bad trouble.”

  “What is this bad trouble I’ve caused her?”

  “I have not been told, sir.”

  “You are not angry with me for this?”

  “No sir. Miss Ello says that I must take good care of you, sir. She says that you are not the animal others say you are.”

  “Thank you, Lal. And what do you think about me?”

  “I am willing to accept what Miss Ello says, sir.”

  He bowed and split out to be swallowed by the mist of transparent walls in the direction of the commissariat.

  For a while I just waited wondering what would happen next. Finally impatience got the better of me and I did some exercises on the bars. Cat thought it was a game and joined me. He wrestled me off the bars and on to the floor. He was gentle enough, but I called it quits. I wasn’t going to take a chance on his getting rough.

  To kill more time, I fixed my sun-torch.

  I took a shower and lay down. But in no time at all I got up and walked around. I wished someone would tell me just what sort of trouble Ello was in. For a moment I considered trying to induce Lal to bring me a cleaver or an axe the next time he showed up. Maybe Cat and I could chop our way out again.

  The sky had darkened and clouds covered the sun. Was another storm making up? When I turned back from a look at the clouds I saw Doctor Mun coming through the Science Building.

  He must have been on his way from the Administration Building or somewhere like that. There was no sign of anyone in the lab. All around Grendan students and University staff went about their usual tasks. He didn’t seem in a hurry. Between buildings he turned his face skyward a moment, then came on. He seemed thoughtful, revolving something in his mind.

  Outside my room, he stopped between the guards and knocked on the wall. That was the first time any Grendan had done that. Not even Ello knocked before entering. His action puzzled me.

  “The door’s open,” I said.

  He split the wall and came in. A grim expression around his mouth put me on guard. He said, “I think we’re in for another of those damned storms. I hate them.”

  So that was what bothered him. A storm might be to my advantage, but I was sure he hadn’t come to discuss the weather.

  “What can I do for you?”

  A shy little smile replaced the grimness.

  “Doctor Stone, I wish I could say that what you could do for me is to get aboard your ship and, as Terrans say, get the hell off our planet. But I can’t say that. You’re needed now.”

  “Good,” I said. “A person likes to be needed.”

  He didn’t reply to that. “I suppose you could say,” he continued, “that if we had had eyes this situation would never have developed. The truth is, if we had known of this thing between you and Ello before that stupid Zinzer got to prying into your privacy with those damned lenses of yours, we could simply have put you on your ship and sent you off home.” He sat down at my table, rested one elbow on it and his chin in his hand.

  “But what am I needed for? And what about Ello?”

  I still couldn’t grasp what he was leading up to with all this talk about sending me home. He seemed friendly, the most friendly of all Grendans except Ello and Lal.

  “I encouraged Ello to hunt trouble,” he said. “Believe me, Doctor Stone, she’s found it. Before, we could have packed you off and good riddance. Now we can’t let you go until after the trial. And maybe not then.”

  ‘Trial? Is there to be a trial?” I sprang up and walked excitedly around the room. “So Ello has finally forced them to give me a fair trial.”

  “No, Doctor Stone.” I watched him slowly shake his head. “The trial is for Ello. She looked for trouble and she found it. The worst. She is accused by Zinzer of consorting with an animal. On Grenda there is possibly no more heinous crime. The death penalty is mandatory.”

  I stopped walking. I stood very still. Mother of the Milky Way, this is a mess, I thought.

  There came a rumble of distant thunder and I saw Mun cringe.

  “Damn these storms,” he said.

  THIRTY-THREE

  Storm? I looked up at the sky but there was really not much evidence, not like the build-up the other day. It didn’t look to me like anything big enough was coming that would knock out the converter.

  “What about this trial?” I said. “What about Ello?”

  “Her defense is that you are not an animal per se. She argues that you are like any Grendan plus eyes. She says she is in love with you and you with her and that you wish to marry.”

  “Then they will have to try me anyhow,” I said.

  “No, Doctor Stone. You will merely be an item in evidence—probably item ‘A’. No more. Of course final decision will rest upon whether or not the court decides what you are, animal or non-animal.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “They’re really trying me. If I am cleared of this stupid charge, that will clear Ello.”

  “I suppose so.” Doctor Mun’s head was tilted a little as if he were listening for another clap of thunder.

  “Thanks for telling me this,” I said. “I presume you think I’m an animal.”

  “On the contrary, Doctor Stone. That’s basically why I am here. I’m on Ello’s side. She had persuaded the authorities to let me stay with you. My personal belief is that you are the same as any Grendan except that you have eyes like the animals or what we call animals on our planet. As I said before, my idea was simply to put you on your ship and let you go. I have been arguing that position for several days. The difficulty now is that Ello doesn’t want to let you go. She’s a mighty stubborn girl.”

  “I love Ello,” I said. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to her.”

  “It’s her father who complicates matters now. When he learned how things stood, he was furious. He demanded that you be put to death immediately. We had to restrain him to keep him from coming here and killing you.”

  The violence in these Grendans appalled me. But most of all I found it hard to believe this of Doctor Rhoa.

  “I thought he too
k the same stand that Ello and you take.”

  “Quite right. He does. But it’s Ello’s idea of marrying you that set him off. To be quite honest with you, Doctor Stone, he’s jealous. He just doesn’t want to give up his daughter, a perfect secretary, a devoted child, a quasi substitute for his unfaithful wife.”

  Great Galaxy! I groaned inwardly. It used to be history that repeated itself, now it’s space.

  Mun continued, “His stand is that you attacked his daughter. It is a case of an animal trying to rape a Grendan. It makes no difference that he may not consider you an animal. If that is proven, you will be put to death of course. For Ello, it will mean that she is shamed for life and he will never lose her.”

  What an irascible, tyrannical old coot! It was unbelievable. I realised now how bad the situation was. I couldn’t leave the planet even if an escape could be arranged. There was nothing else for me to do but help defend Ello.

  “What about Zinzer’s case? Does he have one?”

  “Zinzer is vindictive,” Mun said. “He has wanted to marry Ello. She turned him down. When he invaded your privacy with those glasses and saw her embracing you, he could think of nothing but revenge upon her. Even he knows that you are not the animal you are held up to being, but by ignoring that fact he can destroy Ello. If she is found guilty of consorting with an ‘animal’, she’ll be garroted. That’s how we execute people on Grenda.”

  “And he’s willing to do that to her?”

  “Yes. After all, he has been rejected for an animal. That’s what he lets himself believe now, and it’s enough to justify any sort of reprisal.”

  “What a mess,” I said.

  “Yes indeed.” He sat for a while thinking. Once he tilted his head listening for the storm.

  At last he said, “I hope you won’t mind that Ello has persuaded the authorities to let me stay with you. She’s afraid that some harm will come to you.”