Clash by Night

by Henry Kuttner

  “Bearded, dirty men with twisted minds, though.”

  “It happens to be a religion based on false premises. There are others, appealing to different types. But religion was too passive for me, in these days.”

  Ilene examined his harsh face. “You’d have preferred the church militant—the Knights of Malta, fighting Saracens.”

  “I suppose. I had no values. Anyhow, I’m a fighter.”

  “Just how important is it to you? The Free Companions?”

  Scott opened his eyes and grinned at the girl. He looked unexpectedly boyish.

  “Damn little, really. It has emotional appeal. Intellectually, I know that it’s a huge fake. Always has been. As absurd as the Men of the New Judgment. Fighting’s doomed. So we’ve no real purpose. I suppose most of us know there’s no future for the Free Companions. In a few hundred years—well!”

  “And still you go on. Why? It isn’t money.”

  “No. There is a . . . a drunkenness to it. The ancient Norsemen had their berserker madness. We have something similar. To a Dooneman, his group is father, mother, child, and God Almighty.

  He fights the other Free Companions when he’s paid to do so, but he doesn’t hate the others. They serve the same toppling idol. And it is toppling, Ilene. Each battle we win or lose brings us closer to the end. We fight to protect the culture that eventually will wipe us

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  out. The Keeps—when they finally unify, will they need a military arm? I can see the trend. If war was an essential part of civilization, each Keep would maintain its own military. But they shut us out—a necessary evil. If they would end war now!” Scott’s fist unconsciously clenched. “So many men would find happier places in Venus—undersea. But as long as the Free Companions exist, there’ll be new recruits.”

  Ilene sipped her cocktail, watching the gray chaos of clouds flow like a tide around them. In the dimly luminous light Scott’s face seemed like dark stone, flecks of brightness showing in his eyes.

  She touched his hand gently.

  “You’re a soldier, Brian. You wouldn’t change.”

  His laugh was intensely bitter. “Like hell I wouldn’t, Mistress Ilene Kane! Do you think fighting’s just pulling a trigger? I’m a military strategist. That took ten years. Harder cramming than I’d have had in a Keep Tech-Institute. I have to know everything about war from trajectories to mass psychology. This is the greatest science the System has ever known, and the most useless. Because war will die in a few centuries at most. Ilene—you’ve never seen a Free Company’s fort. It’s science, marvelous science, aimed at military ends only. We have our psychspecialists. We have our engineers, who plan everything from ordnance to the frictional quotient on flitterboats. We have the foundries and mills. Each fortress is a city made for war, as the Keeps are made for social progress.”

  “As complicated as that?”

  “Beautifully complicated and beautifully useless. There are so many of us who realize that. Oh, we fight—it’s a poison. We worship the Company—that is an emotional poison. But we live only during wartime. It’s an incomplete life. Men in the Keeps have full lives; they have their work, and their relaxations are geared to fit them.

  We don’t fit.”

  “Not all the undersea races,” Ilene said. “There’s always the fringe that doesn’t fit. At least you have a raison d’être. You’re a soldier. I can’t make a lifework out of pleasure. But there’s nothing else for me.”

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  Scott’s fingers tightened on hers. “You’re the product of a civilization, at least. I’m left out.”

  “With you, Brian, it might be better. For a while. I don’t think it would last for long.”

  “It might.”

  “You think so now. It’s quite a horrible thing, feeling yourself a shadow.”

  “I know.”

  “I want you, Brian,” Ilene said, turning to face him. “I want you to come to Montana Keep and stay here. Until our experiment fails. I think it’ll fail presently. But, perhaps, not for some time. I need your strength. I can show you how to get the most out of this sort of life—how to enter into it. True hedonism. You can give me—

  companionship perhaps. For me the companionship of hedonists who know nothing else isn’t enough.”

  Scott was silent. Ilene watched him for a while.

  “Is war so important?” she asked at last.

  “No,” he said, “it isn’t at all. It’s a balloon. And it’s empty, I know that. Honor of the regiment!” Scott laughed. “I’m not hesitating, really. I’ve been shut out for a long time. A social unit shouldn’t be founded on an obviously doomed fallacy. Men and women are important, nothing else, I suppose.”

  “Men and women—or the race?”

  “Not the race,” he said with abrupt violence. “Damn the race! It’s done nothing for me. I can fit myself into a new life. Not necessarily hedonism. I’m an expert in several lines; I have to be. I can find work in Montana Keep.”

  “If you like. I’ve never tried. I’m more of a fatalist, I suppose. But . . .

  what about it, Brian?”

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  Her eyes were almost luminous, like shining emerald, in the ghostly light.

  “Yes,” Scott said. “I’ll come back. To stay.”

  Ilene said, “Come back? Why not stay now?”

  “Because I’m a complete fool, I guess. I’m a key man, and Cinc Rhys needs me just now.”

  “Is it Rhys or the Company?”

  Scott smiled crookedly. “Not the Company. It’s just a job I have to do. When I think how many years I’ve been slaving, pretending absurdities were important, knowing that I was bowing to a straw dummy— No! I want your life—the sort of life I didn’t know could exist in the Keeps. I’ll be back, Ilene. It’s something more important than love. Separately we’re halves. Together we may be a complete whole.”

  She didn’t answer. Her eyes were steady on Scott’s. He kissed her.

  Before morning bell he was back in the apartment. Jeana had already packed the necessary light equipment. She was asleep, her dark hair cascading over the pillow, and Scott did not waken her.

  Quietly he shaved, showered, and dressed. A heavy, waiting silence seemed to fill the city like a cup brimmed with stillness.

  As he emerged from the bathroom, buttoning his tunic, he saw the table had been let down and two places set at it. Jeana came in, wearing a cool morning frock. She set cups down and poured coffee.

  “Morning, soldier,” she said. “You’ve time for this, haven’t you?”

  “Uh-huh.” Scott kissed her, a bit hesitantly. Up till this moment, the breaking with Jeana had seemed easy enough. She would raise no objections. That was the chief reason for free-marriage. However—

  She was sitting in the relaxer, sweeting the coffee, opening a fresh celo-pack of cigarettes. “Hung over?”

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  “No. I vitamized. Feel pretty good.” Most bars had a vitamizing chamber to nullify the effects of too much stimulant. Scott was, in fact, feeling fresh and keenly alert. He was wondering how to broach the subject of Ilene to Jeana.

  She saved him the trouble.

  “If it’s a girl, Brian, just take it easy. No use doing anything till this war’s over. How long will it take?”

  “Oh, not long. A week at most. One battle may settle it, you know.

  The girl—”

  “She’s not a Keep girl.”

  “Yes.”

  Jeana looked up, startled. “You’re crazy.”

  “I started to tell you,” Scott said impatiently. “It isn’t just—her. I’m sick of the Doones. I’m going to quit.”

  “Hm-m-m. Like that?”

  “Like that.”

  Jeana shook her head. “Keep women aren’t tough.”

  “They don’t need to be. Their men aren’t soldiers.”

  �
�Have it your own way. I’ll wait till you get back. Maybe I’ve got a hunch. You see, Brian, we’ve been together for five years. We fit.

  Not because of anything like philosophy or psychology—it’s a lot more personal. It’s just us. As man and woman, we get along comfortably. There’s love, too. Those close emotional feelings are more important, really, than the long view. You can get excited about futures, but you can’t live them.”

  Scott shrugged. “Could be I’m starting to forget about futures.

  Concentrating on Brian Scott.”

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  “More coffee . . . there. Well, for five years now I’ve gone with you from Keep to Keep, waiting every time you went off to war, wondering if you’d come back, knowing that I was just a part of your life, but—I sometimes thought—the most important part.

  Soldiering’s seventyfive percent. I’m the other quarter. I think you need that quarter—you need the whole thing, in that proportion, actually. You could find another woman, but she’d have to be willing to take twenty-five percent.”

  Scott didn’t answer. Jeana blew smoke through her nostrils.

  “O.K., Brian. I’ll wait.”

  “It isn’t the girl so much. She happens to fit into the pattern of what I want. You—”

  “I’d never be able to fit that pattern,” Jeana said softly. “The Free Companions need women who are willing to be soldiers’ wives.

  Free-wives, if you like. Chiefly it’s a matter of not being too demanding. But there are other things. No, Brian. Even if you wanted that, I couldn’t make myself over into one of the Keep people. It wouldn’t be me. I wouldn’t respect myself, living a life that’d be false to me; and you wouldn’t like me that way either. I couldn’t and wouldn’t change. I’ll have to stay as I am. A soldier’s wife. As long as you’re a Dooneman, you’ll need me. But if you change—” She didn’t finish.

  Scott lit a cigarette, scowling. “It’s hard to know, exactly.”

  “I may not understand you, but I don’t ask questions and I don’t try to change you. As long as you want that, you can have it from me.

  I’ve nothing else to offer you. It’s enough for a Free Companion. It’s not enough—or too much—for a Keep-dweller.”

  “I’ll miss you,” he said.

  “That’ll depend, too. I’ll miss you.” Under the table her fingers writhed together, but her face did not change. “It’s getting late.

  Here, let me check your chronometer.” Jeana leaned across the table, lifted Scott’s wrist, and compared his watch with the central-time clock on the wall. “O.K. On your way, soldier.”

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  Scott stood up, tightening his belt. He bent to kiss Jeana, and, though she began to turn her face away, after a moment she raised her lips to his.

  They didn’t speak. Scott went out quickly, and the girl sat motionless, the cigarette smoldering out unheeded between her fingers. Somehow it did not matter so much now that Brian was leaving her for another woman and another life. As always, the one thing of real importance was that he was going into danger.

  Guard him from harm, she thought, not knowing that she was praying. Guard him from harm!

  And now there would be silence, and waiting. That, at least, had not changed. Her eyes turned to the clock.

  Already the minutes were longer.

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  Chapter 3

  ’E’S THE KIND OF A GIDDY HARUMFRODITE

  — SOLDIER AN’ SAILOR TOOL!

  —KIPLING

  Commander Bienne was superintending the embarkation of the last Dooneman when Scott arrived at headquarters. He saluted the captain briskly, apparently untired by his night’s work of handling the transportation routine.

  “All checked, sir.”

  Scott nodded. “Good. Is Cinc Rhys here?”

  “He just arrived.” Bienne nodded toward a door-curtain. As Scott moved away, the other followed.

  “What’s up, commander?”

  Bienne pitched his voice low. “Bronson’s laid up with endemic fever.” He forgot to say “sir.” “He was to handle the left wing of the fleet. I’d appreciate that job.”

  “I’ll see if I can do it.”

  Bienne’s lips tightened, but he said nothing more. He turned back to his men, and Scott went on into the cinc’s office. Rhys was at the telaudio. He looked up, his eyes narrowed.

  “Morning, Captain. I’ve just heard from Mendez.”

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  “Yes, sir?”

  “He’s still holding out for a fifty-percent cut on the korium ransom from Virginia Keep. You’ll have to see him. Try and get the Mob for less than fifty if you can. Telaudio me from Mendez’s fort.”

  “Check, sir.”

  “Another thing. Bronson’s in sick bay.”

  “I heard that. If I may suggest Commander Bienne to take his place at left-wing command—”

  But Cinc Rhys raised his hand. “Not this time. We can’t afford individualism. The commander tried to play a lone hand in the last war. You know we can’t risk it till he’s back in line—thinking of the Doones instead of Fredric Bienne.”

  “He’s a good man, sir. A fine strategist.”

  “But not yet a good integrating factor. Perhaps next time. Put Commander Geer on the left wing. Keep Bienne with you. He needs discipline. And—take a flitterboat to Mendez.”

  “Not a plane?”

  “One of the technicians just finished a new tight-beam camouflager for communications. I’m having it installed immediately on all our planes and gliders. Use the boat; it isn’t far to the Mob’s fort—that long peninsula on the coast of Southern Hell.”

  Even on the charts that continent was named Hell—for obvious reasons. Heat was only one of them. And, even with the best equipment, a party exploring the jungle there would soon find itself suffering the tortures of the damned. On the land of Venus, flora and fauna combined diabolically to make the place uninhabitable to Earthmen. Many of the plants even exhaled poisonous gases. Only the protected coastal forts of the Free Companies could exist—and that was because they were forts.

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  Cinc Rhys frowned at Scott. “We’ll use H-plan 7 if we can get the Mob. Otherwise we’ll have to fall back on another outfit, and I don’t want to do that. The Helldivers have too many subs, and we haven’t enough detectors. So do your damnedest.”

  Scott saluted. “I’ll do that, sir.” Rhys waved him away, and he went out into the next room, finding Commander Bienne alone. The officer turned an inquiring look toward him.

  “Sorry,” Scott said. “Geer gets the left-wing command this time.”

  Bienne’s sour face turned dark red. “I’m sorry I didn’t take a crack at you before mobilization,” he said. “You hate competition, don’t you?”

  Scott’s nostrils flared. “If it had been up to me, you’d have got that command, Bienne.”

  “Sure. I’ll bet. All right, Captain. Where’s my bunk? A flitterboat?”

  “You’ll be on right wing, with me. Control ship Flintlock.”

  “With you. Under you, you mean,” Bienne said tightly. His eyes were blazing. “Yeah.”

  Scott’s dark cheeks were flushed too. “Orders, commander,” he snapped. “Get me a flitterboat pilot. I’m going topside.”

  Without a word Bienne turned to the telaudio. Scott, a tight, furious knot in his stomach, stamped out of headquarters, trying to fight down his anger. Bienne was a jackass. A lot he cared about the Doones—

  Scott caught himself and grinned sheepishly. Well, he cared little about the Doones himself. But while he was in the Company, discipline was important—integration with the smoothly running fighting machine. No place for individualism. One thing he and Bienne had in common; neither had any sentiment about the Company.

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  He took a lift to t
he ceiling of the Dome. Beneath him Montana Keep dropped away, shrinking to doll size. Somewhere down there, he thought, was Ilene. He’d be back. Perhaps this war would be a short one—not that they were ever much longer than a week, except in unusual cases where a Company developed new strategies.

  He was conducted through an air lock into a bubble, a tough, transparent sphere with a central vertical core through which the cable ran. Except for Scott, the bubble was empty. After a moment it started up with a slight jar. Gradually the water outside the curving walls changed from black to deep green, and thence to translucent chartreuse. Sea creatures were visible, but they were nothing new to Scott; he scarcely saw them.

  The bubble broke surface. Since air pressure had been constant, there was no possibility of the bends, and Scott opened the panel and stepped out on one of the buoyant floats that dotted the water above Montana Keep. A few sightseers crowded into the chamber he had left, and presently it was drawn down, out of sight.

  In the distance Free Companions were embarking from a larger float to an air ferry. Scott glanced up with a weather eye. No storm, he saw, though the low ceiling was, as usual, torn and twisted into boiling currents by the winds. He remembered, suddenly, that the battle would probably take place over Venus Deep. That would make it somewhat harder for the gliders—there would be few of the thermals found, for instance, above the Sea of Shallows here.

  A flitterboat, low, fast, and beautifully maneuverable, shot in toward the quay. The pilot flipped back the overhead shell and saluted Scott. It was Norman Kane, looking shipshape in his tight-fitting gray uniform, and apparently ready to grin at the slightest provocation.

  Scott jumped lightly down into the craft and seated himself beside the pilot. Kane drew the transparent shell back over them. He looked at Scott.

  “Orders, Captain?”

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  “Know where the Mob’s fort is? Good. Head there. Fast.”

  Kane shot the flitterboat out from the float with a curtain of V-shaped spray rising form the bow. Drawing little water, maneuverable, incredibly fast, these tiny craft were invaluable in naval battle. It was difficult to hit one, they moved so fast. They had no armor to slow them down. They carried high-explosive bullets fired from small-caliber guns, and were, as a rule, two-man craft.