Red Star

by Loren R. Graham

  When I had read this letter, Nella gave me an inquiring glance.

  “You were right,” I said, and kissed her hand.

  6. The Search

  This episode left me with a lingering feeling of profound humiliation. I became more morbidly sensitive than ever to the superiority of everyone around me, both at the factory and in all my other dealings with the Martians. I doubtless even exaggerated their superiority and my own weakness. In the gestures of goodwill and solicitude they showed me I began to detect a note of almost contemptuous condescension, and I interpreted their cautious reserve as a concealed aversion for an inferior being. The accuracy of my impressions and the fairness of my judgments were increasingly distorted by such attitudes.

  In all other respects my mind was clear, and I began concentrating particularly on filling in the blanks connected with Netti’s departure. I was more convinced than ever that her participation was dictated by considerations still unknown to me that were stronger and more important than those she had mentioned. The new proof I had of her love for me and the enormous importance which she attached to my mission of uniting our two worlds served further to confirm my suspicion that she would never have decided to leave me for long among the depths and shoals and hidden reefs of this alien life, especially since her lucid intelligence was better aware than mine of the dangers that lurked here. There was something I did not know, but I was convinced that it had a great deal to do with me, and I simply had to find it out at any price.

  I decided that systematic research was the best way to get at the truth. I recalled certain casual, unwitting remarks Netti had made and the uneasy expression that would linger on her face whenever anyone talked about the colonial expedition in my presence. I came to the conclusion that Netti’s decision to separate was made not when she told me about it, but long before, not later than the first days of our union. In other words, the reasons for it also had to be sought from around that time. But where?

  These motives could be connected either with Netti’s private life or with the origin, character, and significance of the expedition. After her letter, the first alternative seemed the less likely. Consequently, my probe would have to be in the other direction, and the first task was to get some information on the background of the expedition.

  It went without saying that the expedition was decided upon by the “Colonial Group,” which consisted of a team of scientists actively engaged in organizing interplanetary voyages and representatives from the Central Institute of Statistics and the industries involved in manufacturing etheronephs and other necessary equipment. I knew that the most recent congress of this Colonial Group had taken place when I was ill, and that Menni and Netti had attended it. Since I was already on the road to recovery and was bored when I could not be with Netti, I had also wanted to go to the meetings, but Netti had refused to allow it on the grounds that it might prove injurious to my health. But was this “danger” connected with something that I was not supposed to know? Obviously, what I had to do was to get hold of the minutes of the congress and read everything of possible relevance to my problem.

  Here, however, I encountered difficulties. All they would give me in the colonial library was the collected resolutions of the congress. These documents indicated very clearly, down to almost the smallest details, the entire organization of the grandiose Venus enterprise, but they contained nothing of immediate interest to me and were thus by no means exhaustive from my point of view. Despite their great detail, the resolutions were presented without any motivation and lacked any reference to the discussion which had preceded their adoption. When I told the librarian that I needed the minutes themselves he explained that the records had not been published; in fact, unlike the case with conferences treating technical and administrative questions, no detailed minutes of this congress had ever been taken.

  At first glance this seemed plausible, for as a rule the Martians publish only the resolutions of their technical conferences, and consider that all reasonable and useful opinions expressed there will either be reflected in the final document or will be presented in a more polished and detailed form as an article, brochure, or book should a delegate think his views have some special significance. The Martians are generally reluctant to add unnecessarily to the bulk of the already existing literature, and they have nothing corresponding to our “proceedings of the commission.” They prefer to condense everything and make it as brief as possible. But in this case I did not believe the librarian. The matters considered by the congress were too great and vital to be able to treat their discussion like an ordinary debate on some ordinary technical problem. I tried to conceal my skepticism, however, and to divert possible suspicion I humbly plunged into the materials they gave me. Either there really were no minutes, or my question had alerted the librarian and he was deliberately withholding them from me. There was one other possibility—the phonogram section of the library. The minutes might be kept there even if they had never been published. The Martians often use recordings instead of stenography, and their archives contain a large collection of phonograms from various public conferences.

  Leonid finds in the Martian library the stenogram of the debate about colonizing Earth

  I waited until the librarian in the book section was deeply engrossed in his work and slipped by him unnoticed into the phonogram department. I asked the comrade on duty there for the huge catalogue of their holdings. He gave it to me, and I quickly found the numbers of the phonograms from the congress. Under the pretense that I did not wish to inconvenience the librarian, I went to look for them myself, and he made no effort to prevent me. There were fifteen phonograms in all, one for each session of the congress. As is usual on Mars, each of them had a written title, and I quickly glanced through them. The first days of the conference were devoted entirely to papers on the expeditions that had taken place since the previous congress and on new improvements in etheroneph construction. The title of the sixth recording read: “Proposal of Central Institute of Statistics on Mass Colonization. Target Planet—Earth or Venus. Speeches and Proposals of Sterni, Netti, Menni, and Others. Tentative Resolution in Favor of Venus.” I sensed that this was exactly what I was looking for. I put the phonogram into the apparatus. What I heard has been etched forever into my soul and is presented below.

  The sixth session was opened by Menni, who chaired the congress. The first report was delivered by a representative of the Central Institute of Statistics. He presented a host of figures showing that, given the present growth rate of the population, if the Martians restricted themselves to the exploitation of their own planet, a food shortage would begin to make itself felt within thirty years. The crisis could be averted if a technically feasible process could be discovered for synthesizing protein from inorganic matter, but there were no guarantees that this could be done in thirty years. For that reason it had become absolutely imperative for the Colonial Group to shift its attention from purely scientific interplanetary expeditions to the organization of mass resettlement. Two planets with enormous natural resources were at present accessible to the Martians, and it was necessary to decide immediately which of them was to become the initial center of colonization and then draw up a plan for the project.

  Menni asked whether there were any objections to either the facts or the arguments presented by the Central Institute of Statistics. There were none, whereupon he proposed to open the discussion on the planet to be chosen for mass colonization. Sterni took the floor.

  7. Sterni

  “The first question submitted to us by the representative from the Institute of Statistics,” Sterni began in his usual, mathematically precise tone of voice, “concerns the planet to be chosen for colonization. In my opinion, no decision is necessary, because the matter was decided long ago by reality itself. There is no choice. Of the two planets presently accessible to us, only one is at all suitable for mass colonization—Earth. There is a large body of literature on Venus, and of course you are all familiar w
ith it. Only one conclusion can be drawn from the data presented there, and that is that we are at present unable to conquer the planet. Her blazing sun would sap the strength of our colonists, her terrible thunderstorms and winds would demolish our buildings, sweep aside our aircraft, and dash them against her giant mountains. We could cope with her monsters, though we would have to pay a high price in human lives. The bacteria of the planet, however, are enormously rich and varied, and our knowledge of them extremely poor. How many new diseases are lurking there? Volcanic activity is still in a state of uneasy ferment; how many earthquakes, eruptions, tidal waves would be in store for us? Rational beings should not undertake the impossible. The casualties that would result from an attempt to colonize Venus would be not only countless but meaningless. They would not be necessary sacrifices for the sake of science and the common good, but victims of a mad dream. This, I think, is quite clear, and anyone who has read the report from the latest expedition to Venus will be forced to agree.

  “Thus if we are to organize mass resettlement, it must of course be done on Earth. There are no significant natural obstacles there, and the incalculable riches with which the planet is endowed exceed our own eightfold. The process of colonization itself has already been prepared by the civilization already existing on Earth, even if it is not a very developed human culture. The Central Institute of Statistics, of course, is also aware of all these considerations. If it has proposed that we choose a planet and if we think it necessary even to discuss the question, then that is only because there is one very serious obstacle on Earth, namely its humanity.

  “The peoples of the earth are masters of the planet, and they will under no circumstances relinquish any significant portion of its surface. Such reluctance derives from the very nature of their culture, which is based on ownership protected by organized violence. Although even the most civilized nations on Earth actually exploit only a small fraction of the natural resources available to them, they are possessed by an unrelenting aspiration to seize new territories. The systematic plundering of the lands and belongings of less developed peoples goes by the name of colonial policy and is considered a major area of their political life. You can imagine how they would react to a natural and reasonable suggestion on our part that they cede to us a part of their territory in return for our help to make incomparably better use of their part. As they see it, colonization is only a question of brute strength and violence, and whether we want it or not, they will force us to adopt the same attitude toward them.

  “If it were only a matter of demonstrating our superiority on a single occasion, the whole thing would be relatively simple and would not demand more victims than one of their ordinary, senseless, useless wars. They already have enormous herds of people trained to murder—they call them armies—which would provide most suitable material for such necessary violence. Any one of our etheronephs could simply use the lethal rays emanating from the accelerated decomposition of radium in its engine to annihilate two or three of these herds in a matter of minutes, and the loss would probably even benefit their culture more than it would damage it. Unfortunately, however, things are not that simple—such a battle would only be the beginning of the real problems.

  “In their never-ending internal bickering, the peoples of Earth have developed a psychological peculiarity which they call patriotism. This indefinite but strong and deep-seated emotion includes a spiteful distrust of all other peoples and races, a visceral attachment to a particular way of life—especially to the territory with which each people has fused, like a turtle with its shell—a certain collective self-conceit and often, evidently, a simple thirst for destruction, violence, and plunder. Patriotic fervor intensifies and becomes extremely acute after military defeats, especially when the victors seize a part of the losers’ territory. The patriotism of the vanquished then takes the form of an intense and prolonged hatred of the victors, and revenge becomes the ideal of not just the worst groups—the upper or ruling classes—but of the entire people, including the best elements among the toiling masses.

  “Now then, if we were to take a part of Earth’s surface by force, the entire population of the planet would doubtless find itself united by a common patriotism and merciless racist hatred and resentment toward our colonists. Extermination of the newcomers by any and all means, no matter how treacherous, would in the eyes of the Earthlings become a sacred and noble exploit, a sure path to immortal glory. The situation of our colonists would become unbearable. You know that the destruction of life is usually a very simple matter, even for an inferior civilization. We are immeasurably superior to the Earthlings in open combat, but by means of surprise attacks they could destroy us just as effectively as they usually annihilate one another. Moreover, it should be noted that the art of destruction on Earth is much more advanced than any other aspect of their peculiar culture.

  “Living among them and together with them, of course, would be quite impossible. They would be forever menacing us with intrigues and acts of terrorism, and our comrades would have to endure a constant sense of insecurity and would suffer innumerable casualties. We would be forced to evict the Earthlings from all the territories occupied by us, and I am talking about removing tens and perhaps hundreds of millions at a time. Given their political system, which does not recognize any principle of fraternal mutual assistance, given their social order, in which services and aid are paid for in money, and finally, given their clumsy and rigid system of production, which does not allow for any rapid increase of productivity or redistribution of fruits of labor, the overwhelming majority of these millions would be doomed to slow starvation. The survivors would organize themselves in cadres of embittered, fanatical agitators working to incite the rest of the population of Earth against us.

  “We would then be forced to continue the struggle anyway. Our entire territory would have to be transformed into a constantly guarded military camp. Deep racial hatred and fear that we would seize more territory would unite all the people of Earth in wars against us. If their weapons are already now more developed than their tools of labor, under such conditions their technology of destruction would advance even more swiftly. At the same time, they would be constantly on the lookout for a chance to start a sudden war, and if they succeeded they would doubtless cause us considerable uncompensated losses even if we were to win. In addition, we cannot rule out the possibility that they may discover the secret of our main weapon. They already know about radioactive matter, and they could find out how to accelerate its decay either through intelligence obtained from us or through the independent efforts of their scientists. You know that when one has such a weapon, one need be only a few minutes ahead of the enemy in order to attack and annihilate him. And in this case it is as easy to destroy the highest form of life as the most elementary one.

  “What would life be like for our comrades amid these dangers and eternal anxieties? Not only would all the joys of life be poisoned; the very form of life would soon be perverted and degraded. Little by little, life would be infiltrated by suspicion, mistrust, an egoistic thirst for self-preservation, and the cruelty which that instinct inevitably breeds. The colony would cease to be our colony and would become a militaristic republic in the midst of vanquished and invariably hostile peoples. Repeated attacks and the resultant casualties would not only generate feelings of revenge and hatred that would pervert the image of man so dear to us, but would also objectively force us to move from self-defense to a ruthless offensive. And ultimately, after much hesitation and a fruitless and agonizing loss of strength, we would inevitably be forced to reach the same conclusion which, as conscious beings able to anticipate the course of events, we know enough to be able to draw today: colonization of Earth requires the utter annihilation of its population.”

  (A murmur of horror rose from among the hundreds of listeners. Netti’s voice could be heard above it in a distinct exclamation of indignation. When quiet was restored, Sterni continued.)

  “We must und
erstand this necessity and look it squarely in the eye, however grim it might seem. We have only two alternatives: either we halt the development of our civilization, or we destroy the alien civilization on Earth. There is no third possibility.” (Netti’s voice: “Not true!”) “I know what Netti is thinking about, and I shall now consider the third alternative she is proposing.

  “She is thinking of the immediate socialist reeducation of the peoples of Earth. All of us have lately favored such a plan, but in my opinion we are now forced to reject it. We know enough about Earthlings to realize that the idea is quite infeasible. The culture of the most highly developed peoples of Earth is on approximately the same level as that of our forefathers during the epoch of the Great Canals. They are also under the sway of capital, and they have a proletariat struggling for socialism. One might be led to think that the upheaval will come very soon, eliminating the system of organized violence and creating the preconditions for the free and rapid development of human life. Capitalism on Earth, however, possesses certain important features which greatly alter the essence of the matter.

  “In the first place, Earth is terribly riven by political and national divisions. This means that instead of following a single and uniform path of development in a single broad society, the struggle for socialism is split into a variety of unique and autonomous processes in individual societies with distinct political systems, languages, and sometimes even races. Secondly, the methods of social struggle there are much cruder and more mechanical than was the case with us, and outright physical violence in the form of standing armies and armed uprisings plays an incomparably greater role there than it ever did on Mars. Due to all these factors, the question of social revolution becomes a very uncertain one. We must expect not one, but a multitude of revolutions taking place in different countries at different times. In many respects they will probably not even have the same basic character, but the main point is that their outcome is unpredictable and unstable. The ruling classes will rely on the army and sophisticated military technology, and in certain cases they may deal the rebelling proletariat such a stunning blow that the cause of socialism will be frustrated for decades in a number of important states. Such examples have already been recorded in the chronicles of Earth.