The Nitrogen Fix

by Hal Clement

  “Of course not. It got over into the main city, where we can’t look for it without getting the old fogies excited. Come on; we’re getting this one. Maev thinks that it’ll have used up all its ways of escape by now, and if it’s still there we might as well bring it in for other tests. Make sure your sandals are tight, and go slowly; there’s a lot of slime down that way, and travelling in the dark can put hard heads against harder rocks if you aren’t careful. We’d better link up — who has the rope?”Kahvi heard all this and drew the obvious conclusions. The two captives who had escaped must be Bones and Earrin, and the native had been recaptured. For some reason she was being held outside — some sort of testing, it appeared. This group was to bring her back into the city. Could Kahvi forestall them? Which way were they going? How was Bones being held? If the Hillers were going to rope together, the route must be dangerous; could she find it by that fact? Could she get there, over slime, ahead of the Hillers?

  Quick decision was standard. Kahvi got to her feet, drawing the child up with her and signaling for silence, and began to retreat carefully. She moved quietly, not because she feared being heard but so as to continue hearing what the others might be saying as she worked her way around the lock pool in search of a slippery area.

  “What if it has gotten away?”

  “Then good breathing to it, of course. Les will be able to tell what happened — unless it ate him.”

  “They don’t eat people, idiot.”

  “Why not, if they eat each other?” This question went unanswered, since there were no biochemists in the group. The one who had asked it went on after a pause. “I don’t like the idea of getting close to that thing. I think we’ve learned enough from it. If it’s still there I’m for putting more spears through it — ”

  “Why should a lot be any more use than one?”

  “Then cut the thing to pieces and make a fire with it — unless Maev wants to cut it up to see what’s inside.”

  “That may be next. It’s up to her, but we bring it in the way it is. Come on.”

  “No. Wait. Look, I’ll go down carefully; you come slowly behind me. If we do need weapons, at least I can give some warning so you can get off the rope in time.”

  “All right, but don’t be too slow or we’ll have the moon in our eyes.”

  Kahvi had heard enough; the last sentence told her which way to go — not precisely, perhaps, but nearly enough, since the distance couldn’t be very great. She headed east, with Danna hurrying behind.

  They would have to take their chances on glass and slime now; if these Hillers were planning to cut Bones up she would have to be gotten away or at the very least warned.

  The voices from behind grew louder; the main-body was gaining — what of the one who was coming ahead f them? How far ahead was Bones?

  Could Kahvi get there in time to do anything but watch? There was noise behind, nearer than the voices. There — a little to the right — was that a clearing?

  It was, and suddenly she could see Bones’ figure silhouetted against the slowly brightening eastern sky. It would have to be warning; she could not possibly get there long enough before the others to give physical help. She called out loudly to Bones, and almost instantly a human figure rose in her path.

  XIV

  History, Hazily

  Earrin turned his back on the woman and headed back toward the sunlit area. The pseudo-Bones followed. The woman, jolted by the Nomad’s choice of language and even more startled and shocked by his accusation, stared silently until the two were out of sight. For the moment her thinking processes, such as they were, were paralyzed. She did not, of course, believe the unthinkable charge; but it was almost equally hard to believe that a Nomad would lie, and she was even less equipped than Earrin in background information and basic attitude to imagine any third possibility.

  Her mind retreated to a more basic fact which she could handle. A Nomad and one of the Animals were wandering in the city breathing air that didn’t belong to them. They should be ejected, but she couldn’t possibly do this herself. The nearest people would be the children taking care of the air plants, who could hardly be useful either — but there might be a teacher or two there, and if not at least a child could go for real help. She headed after the intruders.

  There was no one in sight when Earrin and his friend emerged into the sunlight. The plant area was much larger than the one in Hemenway where the other Bones had been captured; it extended for hundreds of meters along a curving shelf on the southern face of Great Blue Hill. The plant trays which filled it were no larger or more closely spaced, of course; they had to be moved around, and people had to move around them.

  They were slightly different in design from those on the raft; while they had the usual bubble-top protection from infecting spores, seated in channels of water, these units produced oxygen more rapidly.

  The gas bubbled out around the edges; on the raft, the bubbles had to be opened frequently to let oxygen out and carbon dioxide in.

  Pseudo-Bones could see that these plants must be fed with solid carbonates, presumably brought from collectors scattered through the city; Earrin did not grasp their operation until the other had explained it. This took a little time, since the scientific vocabulary of the gesture language was somewhat limited.

  Most of the plants in sight, however, were food producers quite familiar to Earrin, who did not hesitate to remove one of the plastic tents and start eating. The Observer did the same, making a different selection and stowing away a much larger quantity in spite of its smaller size.

  The woman had been watching from the entrance to the tunnel and was wildly indignant, but resisted the impulse to rush out and tear the fruit and meat from the thieves. Even the little one was probably stronger than she. Where were the regular attendants?

  There was only one answer to that; the plant shelf extended well to the west. To keep out of sight of the intruders she would have to go back into the tunnels and take a roundabout way in that direction.

  Neither Earrin nor smaller-Bones had noticed her arrival, and they did not see her departure. They were wondering why so many of the plants in sight appeared to be poorly nourished, though none seemed actually infected.

  Earrin knew, of course, that the population of Great Blue Hill was below its planned figure, but could never have believed that the air units would have been allowed to get so badly out of balance with the demand.

  Two hundred meters to the west, the elderly woman emerged onto the shelf from another tunnel and found herself fairly close to a group of air attendants. To her delight, two of them were adults, and she rushed up to these blurting out her story. Both of them knew her and were able to make sense out of her rapid speech; some of the children had more difficulty.

  “Slow down, Genda,” one of the teachers said soothingly. “You’re saying that there’s a Nomad in the air center, and he has one of the outside animals with him? You needn’t be so excited. If it’s the Nomad I think it is, he’ll pay for his air if he hasn’t already, and the animals don’t breathe.”

  “That’s what he tried to tell me, but I don’t believe it. How can anything live without breathing? Try it yourself!”

  “Let’s not go into that,” the other teacher interjected. He knew the futility of trying to reason with Genda on any subject connected with air. “If the Nomad said it — ”

  “But this Nomad lies!” exclaimed the older woman. “He said he didn’t know there was an animal following him, and then a few minutes later I saw him talking to it!”

  “I don’t see what that proves — did you say talking? To one of the — ” the teacher, a tall woman of about twenty with hair short enough for outdoor work but no sign of acid stain on her skin, broke off her question and turned to her companion eagerly. “Mort, do you suppose — ”

  Genda cut in. “Yes, talking to it, like Doctor Doolittle. He said he didn’t know the thing, when he must have trained it!”

  Mort, rather to his own surp
rise, managed to silence her with a gesture. “Zham, do you suppose she’s right? That a man can actually talk to those things? I’ve heard stories, of course — we all have — of Nomads associating with those things and getting them to be helpful. Like Genda, I’ve always supposed it must be training if there were any truth in the stories at all; but — talking? This could be important.”

  “Talking.” Genda was positive, and indifferent as usual to the fact that the man’s remark had not been directed to her. Neither teacher responded.”It’s hard to believe, but we’ll have to find out,” Zhamia conceded. “Where are they, Gen?” The excited woman pointed. “All right, let’s go see.”

  “And get them out of here?” asked Genda eagerly.

  “Eventually. We’ll have to find out more, first. They might have something really important to tell us.”

  “We know all that’s important. Have you been listening to those Hemenway delinquents?”

  “Don’t be insulting. Of course not. But think, Gen — those youngsters are preaching that man and his way of life didn’t destroy the world’s air; they claim these creatures did. You know that.”

  “I pay no attention to the stupid children. They refuse to listen to — ”

  “But think, Gen. If someone can talk to these — these animals, we could find out the truth!”

  “We know the truth.”

  “All right, but if these creatures can tell us that they didn’t have anything to do with the change, and actually supply evidence that would make the Hemenway crowd see they were wrong and have to admit it, just think how it will quiet them down. Don’t worry — we’ll get payment from the Nomad for the air he’s using if he hasn’t paid already. Do you want to come and listen?”

  “Yes!” exclaimed half a dozen children’s voices at once.

  “I meant Gen,” Mort grinned, “but you young ones can certainly come, if your trays are all right.

  Keep your brains open — there are a lot more facts of life than air plants.”

  Earrin and his companion were not exactly surprised to see the group approaching them, but were very uncertain what to do about it. Their experience with the Hemenway group had seriously undermined their earlier beliefs about the non-violent nature of human beings in general and Hillers in particular, and the man’s belief that Bones had been subjected to some mysterious treatment to reduce his bulk by nearly ninety percent was disquieting. Such an action had to be scientific in nature in spite of the Hill religion, and while Earrin was not nearly as religious as a typical city-dweller he had a very low opinion of hypocrisy.

  For one thing, it implied unpredictability, one of the least acceptable of human qualities from the Nomad viewpoint. What would this Hiller crowd do?

  Its members didn’t look particularly menacing, especially the children. If facial expressions could be trusted, their chief motive was curiosity. Even the two new adults showed no sign of the indignation and resentment so clearly displayed by the other woman; they, too, seemed curious. Their first words were both friendly and courteous.

  “I’m Zhamia McDermott, this is Mort Dremm. You’ve met Genda, I understand, but she didn’t give us your name.”

  “She never asked for it,” Earrin replied. “I’m Earrin Fyn. I delivered some material you asked for a day or so ago, and am waiting for my pay and, I hope, more orders. This is Bones.”

  The Hillers were clearly excited.

  “He has a name? He’s really a person?” asked Mort. “We’ve heard stories, but never knew — we thought they were just — ”

  “Is Bones he or she?” asked Zhamia rather pointedly.

  “I’ve never known,” Earrin admitted. “My wife always refers to him as she. We’ve never been able to find out from him. He doesn’t answer questions about that; acts as though he didn’t understand them.”

  “But you can talk to — her?”

  “Yes. He can hear, but not very well, and can’t make sounds at all; doesn’t have a voice. We’ve worked out a pretty good signal system over the years; I think we understand each other pretty well most of the time.”

  “Why Bones?” asked Mort. “Is it his real name that he told you, or one you gave him?”

  “How could she have told them, with no voice? asked Zhamia. Dremm blushed.

  “It was my wife’s idea,” Earrin admitted. “As far as we can tell, he doesn’t have any. Certainly not in the fins or tentacles, and we’ve seen the rest of his body squeeze into pretty strange shapes. It’s hard to believe there’s anything solid inside.”

  Neither of the teachers quite grasped this sort of humor, but both were too polite to ask for further explanation. Neither really had a chance, as Genda cut in angrily.

  He’s a liar. I told you how I know.” Mort explained the older woman’s reasoning as she had given itto the teachers. Earrin explained, keeping his own feelings under better control.

  “The last time I saw Bones, he was the best part of a meter taller than I am. When I first saw him today I thought it was someone else — another of his people I’d heard was being kept a prisoner here. I didn’t know it was really Bones until he recognized me and began talking to me in our own sign language.”

  “Couldn’t your real Bones have met this one earlier and taught him-her-the language?’ “And to recognize me on sight? I last saw the real one only a day or so ago, and he’d been with us all the time for months before that. If there’s been a smaller one around watching us and taking language lessons, neither Kahvi nor I saw it. No, this has to be the real Bones. He’s shrunk. I found him just a little while ago in this city. The Hillers who captured me admitted they were keeping another of Bones’ people for experiments, though they dodged that exact word. That’s certainly what they were doing. They claimed that Bones’ people came from another world, and had destroyed Earth’s air; they want to change the air back, and think they have to kill the natives first so they won’t interfere. They’re using the ones they capture to find out how they can kill them. I don’t know what they did to Bones, but it was certainly something which explains why people decided science was evil.”

  “Is evil!” snapped Genda. Earrin paid no attention.

  “I’m sorry if I insulted this Genda person by saying she was involved in science, but she called me a liar, and someone here in this city of yours certainly is. When I told Genda I’d never seen this native before, I believed it. I’m willing to admit she’s not the hypocrite, but don’t try to tell me there aren’t some around!”

  “It’s those Hemenway devils!” exclaimed Genda. “I might have known it! They’re not just talking evil — denying the truth and the law — they’re practising it as well. They re using science — they’re experimenting!” Even in her rage, she had trouble uttering the forbidden words, and flushed in embarrassment as she did so. “They’ll make the world even harder to live in unless they’re stopped — we won’t even have cities! I’m sorry I thought you were a liar, Earrin; I didn’t want to believe it. You can see how I’d make the mistake. It’s still hard to believe that — that those young ones — civilized people — even could — could — ” She couldn’t make herself use the words again.

  Fyn accepted the apology, though he was really unable to care very much what this woman thought.

  The information about the social changes going on in Great Blue Hill was more interesting, and quite disturbing; if one could no longer be sure what these people were going to do, and especially if one could no longer be sure of close connection between what they promised and what they would do, he and Kahvi would have to reconsider very carefully their own future relations with the city and its people. If one could not regard the people as a unit, the planning would have to be much more complex. This was as new a problem to Fyn as it was to Bones.

  It must have been the Hemenway group whose members had wanted the glass and copper, and he had no right to be using the air and food of the main city — or did that belong to all the inhabitants? And if some of them wanted the cargo
and others didn’t, who paid him from common property? It was too much for Earrin, and for the first time he became really worried about whether he and Kahvi would receive any return for their efforts. They could live without it of course; fundamentally they were completely independent of other people. But man is a social animal.

  He brought his attention back to the present; Zhamia was saying something.

  “When Genda told us you were talking to Bones, it occurred to us we might get information which would force the delinquents to change their preaching,” she said. “We might even get them to see their errors. No one knows how long the — pardon the term — animals have been around, but perhaps they have some idea of what really happened to the world’s air. Most of us, of course, believe that sinners experimenting with pseudolife made the change — they wanted nitrates to make food with, though I can’t see what way that would work, and produced an organism which could take nitrogen from the air and release nitrates into the ground. It needed oxygen from the air, too, and worked too well. The Hemenway youngsters insist that the animals, which they call Invaders, did the same thing to get rid of the so they could live here. I don’t know how they’re explaining to themselves why Bones doesn’t seem to be bothered by the oxygen here in city, but I’m sure they have an answer. I wonder if Bones knows whatreally happened, though; have you ever asked?”

  “No. Neither of us ever thought of it,” Earrin admitted.

  “Will you?”

  “Sure. I’ve never really believed there was enough oxygen loose in the air to make it breath able, but it would be nice to find out.” He ignored Genda’s gasp of outrage and turned to the Observer.

  The children listened and watched in fascination. Since the man’s gestures served mainly to supplement his words, helping Bones distinguish phonemes which Observer auditory and nervous systems could not distinguish, some of the more observant youngsters began to catch on to the system very quickly. The return signals, however, were another matter; they were made not only with the two main handling tentacles but with the dozen much finer tendrils which formed a fore-and-aft fringe across the top of the head on each side of the great mouth. Since the translation came at intervals rather than continuously, none of the children made any progress with this aspect of the system.