The Planet of the Blind

by Paul Corey

  “I’m pleased with your company. But isn’t it unnecessary? If I’m to be declared evidence in Ello’s trial I would think the authorities would want to protect me. After all, they wouldn’t want valuable evidence destroyed.”

  “You could be dead and still used as evidence.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “As far as either Zinzer or Doctor Rhoa are concerned, you might be safer evidence if you are dead. You see, basically, they are afraid that you are not as low-score as your performance the other day indicated.”

  Then a thought really hit me: suppose he had been lying and his real purpose here is to kill me.

  “How do I know you’re not on their side too?”

  “You’ve a right to doubt,” he said. “You’ve only my word. But you have this message from Ello. She asked me to tell you that she loved you and would always love you no matter what the outcome of the next few days. Also, she said to be careful but be assured that Cat would make it rough on anyone who tried to harm you. You must know the truth of the first part of her message. We will now test the second part.”

  He faced me and I felt the cord. Cat come to a crouch instantly, snarling. The restraint vanished and Cat relaxed. But he stayed alert, eyes slitted at Mun.

  “Proof enough? I couldn’t have held you and harmed you and defended myself from an attack from him.”

  “Yes.” It seemed a sound assumption. “Tell me, when is the trial supposed to start?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  “Justice moves fast on Grenda,” I said. “Where are the glasses?”

  “The authorities have them. They are item ‘B’.”

  “I suppose you have lawyers to defend Ello?”

  “Yes, Kelwate will defend her. He’s one of the best advocates in Lonwolt—probably all Grenda. But—”

  He covered his mouth with his hand suddenly.

  “But what. Doctor Mun,” I demanded.

  “I guess you might as well have it all and have it straight. Doctor Rhoa is providing the lawyer. And he will expect him to prove that you are capable of attacking Ello, and in fact, that is exactly what happened. That, in spite of anything Ello might say to the contrary.”

  “I find that hard to believe of Doctor Rhoa,” I said.

  “Reserve judgment until the trial confirms my words. It matters little at the moment But a jealous man will go a long way to get retribution. A jealous father, fearing the loss of his only daughter, will go the limit.”

  My head kept jerking uncontrollably. Who was I to dispute such an assertion?

  Doctor Mun continued, “And your problems are not all confined to Grenda. We have been picking up messages for you from Earth. They keep calling for a fix. But yesterday another message came. It said, ‘Doctor Stone, Karen has gone to the red planet’.”

  “Mother of the Milky Way!” I sprang up and paced the room again. I felt caged and damned.

  Then I spilled the whole story to him about Karen and Talcott Jones and myself. He listened. He nodded.

  “If Doctor Rhoa knew, wouldn’t he understand?” I asked.

  “Not a chance,” Mun said simply. “Would such a story have gotten through to you six months ago?”

  Six months ago? Only six months ago. Incredible. But I understand the situation now, I told myself.

  “Somehow,” I said, “we’ve got to win for Ello and Karen and Talcott Jones and for me.”

  “At your service,” said Mun. “I believe in Ello and in you. Doctor Stone. I will help you all I can.”

  Lal brought dinner for us.

  That evening Mun and I discussed the case some more, then we exchanged memories and reminiscences from our lives. He was an interesting chap. I felt pretty good by the time we went to bed. I felt that we had a friend and we certainly needed one.

  Tomorrow would come the trial.

  At breakfast we resumed our talk. I asked him about the geography of his planet. It was slightly smaller than Earth, with more water at the polar regions, more continents on the equator. It had no moon.

  A moon, I told myself, would be wasted on unsighted lovers, and this planet had no problem of tides.

  When we got on the subject of Grendan life I mentioned the party of sighted Grendans I had met in the hills.

  He said that the authorities knew about these small bandit groups. That’s what he called them, “bandits”. But little could be done about them without considerable expense. The unsighted Grendans didn’t need and didn’t use the wild lands so these groups were allowed to roam free. Also, to make an issue of these sighted Grendans might force an admission of a connection between all Grendans and animals.

  They bred and produced offspring, he said, most of whom were unsighted. These were left on doorsteps to be integrated with the unsighted Grendans. It was hoped by the authorities that these throwbacks would eventually die out.

  I asked where Cat fitted into the life here. Originally, it seems, the wild feline kept the—Mun struggled with the word and came up with, “woggles”, in balance. Woggles, it turned out were those rat-dog-like creatures that had attacked Cat and me.

  We moved on to ethnic and political groupings. There were seven land masses, Mun explained. Each had its own type of government. All had stable economies, and all had a high regard for law and justice. That brought us around to the approaching trial.

  “Can you brief me on procedure?” I asked.

  “A little. There will be statements and an examination of evidence before three judges. Then a decision will be handed down.”

  I liked the idea of three judges. They would be better than a jury of one’s peers. I knew from Earth experience that a jury of peers could mean a bunch of low-scorers who could be swayed easily by an emotional speech.

  “Will you be with me, Doctor Mun?”

  “I’m supposed to act as your interpreter.”

  “Good.”

  At that moment I noticed more guards coming. I thought perhaps they were to relieve the watch—a silly word to use about guards on this planet—on my room. But they split in and buzzed at Mun.

  He buzzed back. Then he said to me, “They have come for us. Doctor Stone.”

  “I’m ready,” I said.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  We went out to a four-place bubble. It floated us quickly across town to what I took to be the courthouse. On the way we passed quite close to the red dome that housed the energy converter. It was so bright that I had to shield my eyes.

  The sight of it reminded me of the storm that threatened yesterday, then went away. I glanced off to the west. Grey clouds lay above the mountains like a pile of dirty dust cloths.

  The trial building—that was the name Mun gave it—was very much like a Terran theatre, but transparent like all structures here. It swarmed with Grendans. The small isolated groups and sometimes single individuals, I concluded, indicated separate rooms or chambers. A large group appeared in rows and indicated the courtroom.

  The grounds around the building was packed with populace. When the bubble split open, we were met by a loud and continuous buzzing. It didn’t sound angry to me, curious perhaps, and a bit common.

  It occurred to me that if I—an animal to them—were thought to have attacked a Grendan girl, they would want to mob me. Of course, these were mostly students, a little more civilised than the usual run of citizenry. I use the word “civilised” advisedly. But they didn’t seem to want my skin. This made me conclude that feeling might be directed against Ello. That is, of course, if the crowd thought she was really guilty.

  Mun took my arm and the guards made a passage for us into the courtroom. It was packed, as I had seen coming down. I looked back through the walls at the mob outside. I thought, they certainly must expect this to be a juicy case.

  Perhaps the courtroom seemed larger than it really was because of the transparent walls. A barrier separated a section of seats already occupied by Grendans from the area for court action. Facing the barrier and the crowd was the be
nch for the three judges. I could just make out the transparent details. Between bench and barrier, tables and chairs were arranged for the prosecution and the defense.

  This was all very similar to Earth court arrangements. At the table on the right sat Zinzer, buzzing away with two other Grendans. The prosecution, I assumed.

  No one sat at the table opposite them, which I had no doubt was for Ello and her defense. Mun and the guard took me to a seat just outside the barrier facing the judges’ bench. Around us the Grendans buzzed. Their conversation, occasionally punctuated with laughter, sounded so very much like conversation on Earth.

  Without considering what august privacy I might be invading, I looked through the wall behind the bench. There, in chambers, the three judges were putting on their robes.

  “Why pink?” I asked Mun and realised at once what a foolish question. “The judges’ robes.”

  “In Earth language, a colour,” He gave a harsh laugh. “Doctor Stone, you would really be in for trouble if those judges knew you perceived what they were doing.”

  A handsome Grendan, striding down the aisle in the courtroom, caught my attention. He crossed to the table on defense side. As he stood fingering a little stack of what looked like plastic cards, presumably his notes, the crowd quieted as if aware—and I guess they must have been aware—of his poise. The perception of these unsighted people continually amazed me.

  Ello came in accompanied by a female officer. I started to get up.

  “Easy now,” Mun said.

  My guard flicked his restrainer into me and I sat down.

  The buzzing in the courtroom increased. Ello walked with her head up, erect, proud, and so beautiful. What a shame, I thought, that these people miss all that beauty. Just before she took her seat beside the handsome Grendan, she faced towards me and smiled.

  “Will they let me speak to her?” I asked Mun.

  “Better not try,” he said. “I'll take her a message.”

  “Tell her I love her very much,” I said. “Tell her that somehow we’re going to win.”

  He started to rise but I knew it was too late. I could see the judges queuing up at the wall behind the bench. A court official buzzed. Everyone stood up and the three pink-robed Grendans split into the courtroom and took their places.

  “Sorry,” said Mun as we sat down.

  “Please keep me informed on what goes on,” I said anxiously. “Will they let you do that?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  The middle one of the three judges rapped a transparent gavel on the transparent bench, and court was in session.

  Everything was like Earth court. Except for the buzzing and the eyeless faces, I could have been at the trial of Talcott Jones. I suppose that justice develops among humanoids in much the same way anywhere in space.

  According to Mun’s translation, the prosecution lawyer said he was going to prove that the defendant had consorted with an animal, an alien animal from another planet. There were no mitigating circumstances. The full penalty would be asked.

  One of the associate judges, a fat character, wiped his forehead with his hand. Then, through the transparent bench, I saw him hike up his pink robes, showing bare, pudgy legs.

  It did seem stuffy in there. The courtroom had grown visibly darker. Automatically, I glanced out at the pile of dirty clouds over the mountains. They hadn’t changed. Then I realised that the green tint of the roof had darkened and the feeling of stuffiness had begun to dissipate.

  Mun started interpreting the handsome defense lawyer’s statement and I listened. They were going to prove, he said, that the defendant had been attacked by this alien animal. Her career at the University was in the study of animals. She had considered the chance to study this strange animal from another planet a great opportunity. But this vicious alien beast had ruthlessly attacked her.

  Ello sprang up and gave a short, angry buzz.

  “She says that’s a lie,” Mun translated.

  The judges buzzed together. Mun couldn’t hear what they said so that he could tell me. But I could tell from the expression on their faces that they were puzzled by Ello’s outburst. The presiding judge ordered the trial to proceed.

  As a first witness, the prosecution called Zinzer. He told the court how he had surprised Ello and me.

  Then as Mun had predicted, I was presented as item “A.” The prosecution felt me over and buzzed the information to the judges. When his exploring fingers reached my eyes, his buzzing grew louder.

  I couldn’t make out what was being said. Mun had not been allowed to stand with me. I tried to protest this but was sharply restrained. The moment that happened, both Ello and Mun came up buzzing loudly.

  But I still wasn’t allowed to know what went on. The defense lawyer checked me out. He nodded and buzzed. I figured that he was accepting the fact that I was an animal.

  The judges sat nodding their eyeless heads. The fat one had pulled down his robes.

  As the guard led me back to my seat, I saw Doctor Rhoa in the crowd behind the defense table. He just sat there, his eyeless face like a lump of pink quartz.

  Next, the prosecution asked permission of the court to demonstrate how the witness had perceived the defendant and this animal without being in the room with them. The lawyer said he wished to introduce in evidence, as item “B”, the device that made this invasion of privacy possible.

  I touched Mun. “My glasses,” I said. “They’ll have to explain that I made them. Won’t that prove that I must be a very exceptional animal?”

  “Neither side will stress that angle,” Mun whispered. “Neither side wants it to appear that there is anything exceptional about you. To the prosecution you are an animal which Ello succumbed to consorting with. To the defense, you are a violent, brutal beast.”

  I felt a helpless anger squirming in my guts.

  The prosecution went on buzzing without producing the glasses. Mun explained that they were pointing out that the case had moved into the lunch hour. They hoped, because of the importance of this piece of evidence and the part it played in the case, that the judges would permit a recess. This piece of evidence was so amazing, they argued, that it should be allowed uninterrupted examination.

  Again the judges conferred and Mun couldn’t hear what they buzzed. But I gathered from their gestures and the expression on their faces that they were eager to have a go at this bit of evidence. However, they apparently realised that careful consideration of it would extend the session past the lunch hour. Good sense prevailed over their curiosity and a recess was declared.

  I wanted to go to Ello. Mun held me back. It would very likely prejudice the case, he told me.

  With the guard on one side of me and he on the other we went out to the bubble and floated back across town to the Annex. I felt pretty dejected that trip. The bank of clouds over the mountains might have been higher. I didn’t consciously look at them. Everything looked too black for me to care.

  THIRTY-FIVE

  Lal brought our lunch. We ate and reviewed the case. Or rather, Mun reviewed it, pointing out that the pattern had been just as he predicted.

  I didn’t pay too much attention to him. I was thinking that after court convened the glasses would be introduced. The judges would examine them. They would want to try them out to prove their ability to give Grendans the power to invade privacy. But most likely, they would want a look at me, item “A”, the alien animal.

  My anger cooled to cunning and an idea took shape.

  We finished eating and Lal cleared away.

  “I ought to shave before we return to court,” I said.

  “You shaved this morning,” Mun said. “You Terrans don’t need to shave any oftener than Grendans.”

  “I know. But the judges are going to use those glasses on me. For Ello’s sake, I should make a good impression. If neither the prosecution nor the defense is going to make me out an exceptional animal, then perhaps I should try to appear as un-animal in Grendan estimate, as possible
.

  “Besides, you Grendan chaps don’t need mirrors to shave by. Without one I can’t be sure I do a good job. The point is, if you would help me—”

  “How?”

  I thought he sounded suspicious. He had probably heard of my tricks at the farm. To allay his possible fears, I explained carefully what a mirror was and how I wanted him to hold my kit bag on the opposite side of the bathroom wall to give me a reflection so that I could observe my shaving process. He agreed and held the kit in position.

  But instead of taking out my roll-off razor, I took out my first-aid pack. I knew that among the bandages were two large, two inch by six inch, plastic strips with medicated filament on them.

  The plastic was cloudy transparent. I ripped off the filament from one and, watching carefully in the improvised mirror, stuck the band across my eyes. I found I could see through the plastic reasonably well, if darkly.

  “You’re taking a damned long time,” Mun grumbled. “I hope I used the word ‘damn’ properly.”

  “You did,” I said. “But I must look my best. Only a minute now. I want something more from my kit.”

  I rummaged out my paint set. Again checking with the reflection, I carefully touched up the edges of the bandage to blend in with my skin tone.

  The guard split in at that moment and buzzed.

  “We have to go,” said Mun.

  “Ready,” I said.

  We went out to the bubble and floated away to court. The world seemed much darker this trip, but I assumed the plastic bandage had reduced the light.

  The case of Grenda vs. Rhoa resumed. Without any buildup the glasses were introduced. The judges inspected them. I was asked to step forward. The presiding judge put on the glasses with Zinzer’s help. He faced me, looked surprised as he grasped what seeing meant, then buzzed.

  Mun translated, “He’s asked Zinzer if he is sure that he is seeing the alien animal. Zinzer says yes.”