by Matt
"That is not the way to handle such ideas," said Lyt Ahn. "If indeed his plan is a good one, the Expedition will benefit and I should therefore support it in any case. If it is bad, then by pushing it harder and faster, I hurry it toward the moment when it will fall apart of its own innate flaws."
"That is a risky course to take, where beasts are concerned. Rather you should do as I suggested with the beasts—"
"One moment, my consort," Lyt Ahn interrupted her. "This, waiting for me right now, is Shane-beast, of whom you know."
Adtha Or Ain cast a startled glance at Shane.
"I had not recognized it. Send it outside."
"If you'll forgive me," said Lyt Ahn, "I am overdue to deal with a number of things right now. Let's leave discussion of the matter as it is and finish it off later, if you'll show me that courtesy."
Adtha Or Ain looked at him for a long moment.
"I see I've no choice in the matter. We'll talk later, then."
"We will, indeed. I promise," said Lyt Ahn.
He turned toward the door. Striding past Shane, he glanced at him for a cold, impersonal second.
"Come," he said. Shane followed him out.
Hurrying to keep up with the long strides of the First Captain as the two of them headed for Lyt Ahn's office, Shane found his mind suddenly filled with worry over what Adtha Or Ain could have been suggesting as a solution to the Aalaag problem of insufficient production. Whatever it was, it was not likely to be palatable to humans—and if further evidence of this was needed, there had been Adtha Or Ain's demand that he be sent out of the room, when Lyt Ahn had reminded her that Shane could understand what they were saying.
Unfortunately, he could not even guess. Frustratingly, he did not even know the areas in which the humans, by Aalaag standards, were falling short of required production levels; and he needed this information when the situation resulting was such as to threaten the internal structure of the Aalaag high command, including that of his own master and therefore himself.
But that information was locked up in the minds and records of at least several hundred thousand human accountants. The Aalaag had machines that would let them know what and where these shortfalls were. But, like the Aalaag weapons and certain other protected devices, these machines would not work for a human, even if Shane could find one and figure out how to operate it.
The trouble with Aalaag technology was that it was so far advanced over that of humanity that there was no tracing back from the point at which a device worked or did not work, until a gap was met which could be figured out. The gap that was encountered was the result of innumerable advances, all piled on each other and spread over all the Aalaag areas of technology, so that there was no visible connection between apparent cause and result—as there would have been no visible connection, to a Stone Age savage, between a video receiver and the sounds and pictures that were produced by it.
Perhaps he could somehow lead Lyt Ahn into mentioning what production lines had fallen in short supply. Or perhaps —as the Governor Unit proliferated with other centers around the globe—he could get information from each one about its own area, giving him a general image...
But they were already at the entrance to Lyt Ann's office and going in. Lyt Ahn went immediately to the chair behind his desk and sank into it, staring at the large screen on the opposite wall where Shane had once seen imaged Adtha Or Ain's conception of what might be happening to their son. But in this case as Lyt Ahn looked at it, the screen came alive with a landscape showing a bowl of rock, a valley in mountains. A lake formed the foreground of the picture and a thick finger of dark green jungle grew down one of the rocky slopes that were otherwise of bare, red stone.
Shane, having been given no orders otherwise, had checked himself, following his first two ritual steps inside the office door. He stood where he was, watching the First Captain, who was apparently completely absorbed by the image on the screen.
At first glance, except for that strip of jungle at what seemed to be altitudes too high and barren for such flora, the scene shown could have been someplace on Earth. But then certain wrongnesses intruded on the eye. The color of the sky was too light a blue and the still water of the lake had an oddly glowing, greenish cast to it. Finally, when the image was looked at more closely, it could be seen that the finger of jungle grew not only down to, but also some little distance out into, the lake.
The jungle itself was so thick as to be almost a solid mass of greenery, trunks and limbs. But as Shane watched, an upright, two-legged figure with its body and limbs wrapped in some white material like cloth, materialized from the green tangle, gazing across the lake, directly out of the screen. It was too far to identify the figure by its face, but it moved like an Aalaag. It lifted one arm and waved.
Behind the desk, Lyt Ahn half lifted one massive hand and forearm from the desk as if to answer the wave, then dropped it back on the desk's surface again. The picture vanished, leaving only a gray screen surface; and Shane suddenly realized that the First Captain had turned to his picture-viewing as a human might pour a stiff drink and down it after a trying moment was past. It was the first time he had been more than a momentary spectator of this commitment, or addiction, or whatever you wanted to call it, of viewing scenes from their lost home worlds by the Aalaag; and he shivered inside suddenly, thinking how many thousand years back in time had been the actual moment of the wave from the figure on the screen that Lyt Ahn had automatically begun to answer.
"Sit, Shane-beast," said Lyt Ahn's deep voice now; and Shane, starting into movement almost as automatically as the First Captain had begun his wave, walked over to the couch on which he ordinarily sat and seated himself there.
"Tell me of this Project of Laa Ehon," said Lyt Ahn.
"It is in place, staffed, and already beginning its work, immaculate sir," said Shane.
"And your opinion of those humans chosen to staff it?"
"I found them all very competent, immaculate sir," said Shane. "At the time you recalled me, their number had risen to thirty-four, all intelligent beasts with experience in the type of work they are required to do as part of the Project. They appear to work harmoniously together; and the principle of the Project appears to be in process of being carried out as envisioned in their hands."
"Would you say they are successful?"
"Successful?" Shane floundered. "This beast begs the forgiveness of the First Captain for its lack of ability and inefficiency, but I had not yet seen enough of the work to know whether it was at all successful or not."
Lyt Ahn nodded slowly. He got up from behind the desk and came around to the single large chair opposite the couch on which Shane was perched. But before he sat down he put his hand gently on the top of Shane's head.
"Your master occasionally makes mistakes, and this was one of them, little Shane-beast," he said. "Of course it was too soon for you to be able to answer such a question."
Shane held himself, as always, in tight self-control under the touch of that massive hand on his head. As always, it evoked a welter of emotions. Foremost of these was a searing hatred of Lyt Ahn for the unconscious condescension of the gesture. If Shane's mind had not been able to dominate his emotions, he would have risen from the couch and tried to kill the other with his bare hands. But at the same time, underneath the hatred and fury there was a strange understanding and sympathy. It was an understanding of something almost wistful regarding this leader of a race of conquerors, who had no one to unbend with, no one to unburden himself to, but a creature that in his own eyes was no more than a pet dog. He held his breath waiting for the moment when Lyt Ahn would take his hand away and sit down, but the hand stayed there.
"Shane-beast...," said Lyt Ahn in a musing voice, "if that small head of yours could only produce the answers I need "
At that, he did take his hand away and sit down opposite Shane.
"There are at present three true persons on the staff there," he said. "Is that correct? Laa Ehon him
self and three junior officers?"
"That is correct, immaculate sir."
"And those who act as officers of the top rank among the beasts, there are three?"
"Yes, immaculate sir."
"Tell me of them—these three beasts."
"First," said Shane, "is the beast with the rank of Governor. It is a male who has experience of being in authority, being before the landing of the true race here an individual acclaimed to a position of decision and power over its fellow beasts on that island."
"Ah?" said Lyt Ahn almost absently. "What was its occupation then?"
Shane hesitated.
"Immaculate sir," he said, "there is no word in the true tongue that describes what it was, because its occupation was one which does not exist among the true race. It is best described as one who seeks the confidence of its fellow beasts, more with words than acts, in order to be voted into a position of power over them. This beast apologizes that it cannot describe that occupation more exactly."
"Nevermind," said Lyt Ahn. "If any of my translator-beasts could do so, it would be you, Shane-beast; and since you can't do it, then I'm making an unreasonable request. What do you think of this beast?"
"I think well of it," said Shane. "Particularly, I was impressed with the fact that, as I mentioned to Laa Ehon when he asked me for my opinion, this Governor-beast is very interested in the Project, seeing it as a means by which we beasts may in the long run serve the true race better."
"Yes," said Lyt Ahn. "And the other two beasts?"
"The beast with the rank of Lieutenant Governor is very competent, having been trained and worked for some years in the keeping of records and the overseeing of the written signs in which these are normally recorded among us. The colonel of the Interior Guard appears to have acceptable officerlike qualities."
"I see," said Lyt Ahn. "Shane-beast, in all this, in all the qualities owned by the three you have just described and their subordinate beasts, as well as in the overall plan and program for the Project, do you feel any lack? Does anything seem to be missing, either in cattle or in structure, which you feel is necessary for the whole to work harmoniously?"
"Nothing that I so sense during the short time I had contact with the Unit, immaculate sir."
"Good," said Lyt Ahn. "Having had the assurance of Laa Ehon, therefore, that all is proceeding satisfactorily, I propose to begin immediately the setting up of like Units in other Districts, without waiting for this pilot Unit to fully prove itself. This is, of course, somewhat faster than Laa Ehon himself had anticipated and will require the assignment of more of my own translator-cattle to duties away from those of my own government; but it seems to me that considering the fall-short of supplies in certain areas, the less time wasted the better, as I am sure Laa Ehon himself will see when I inform him of this decision."
Shane, suddenly, saw more than that. In one lightning bolt of illumination he understood that Lyt Ahn was taking a bold and very risky gamble. In spite of what Shane had overheard him say to his consort, Lyt Ahn must have privately concluded either that the Governor system proposed by Laa Ehon would not work, or that it could be made not to work by rushing it. Laa Ehon could hardly object strongly to a desire of the First Captain to fall in with his wishes even more strongly than the Milanese Commander himself had proposed. Any weakness the plan had would be multiplied by its being put into action too swiftly. Lyt Ahn would share some of the blame—but only to the extent of trusting too strongly in a subordinate officer. Laa Ehon would carry the load of failure and perhaps even be crushed by it.
On the other hand, if the plan did not fall apart, if it succeeded in all its branches, Lyt Ahn would have effectively shown himself playing second fiddle to Laa Ehon in solving a problem vital to the Aalaag here on Earth, an action that would be sure to raise the question of his fitness to lead—and the mere fact that any such question existed would amount to an open, if silent, invitation to him to yield up that leadership to a fitter officer, who, in this case, would obviously be Laa Ehon. Shane remembered how he had learned, on the last occasion he had witnessed a conversation between the First Captain and his consort, that any such yielding up of leadership would require the equivalent of a ritual suicide by Lyt Ahn.
It was ironic, thought Shane, that the First Captain had an ally in Shane and did not know it. Must never know it—for the good reason that the very thought would be not only unbelievable, but insulting to an Aalaag. Nonetheless, it was true. Shane had his own reasons for wanting Laa Ehon's plan to appear to fail; though he, himself, privately believed that its failure was immaterial. One way or another, in the long run, the Aalaag would still get what they wanted from the human race, if they had to destroy it to do so. Still, Lyt Ann's gamble had given him an opening for his own purposes.
"If the First Captain will allow this beast to tell him something which may be of interest, in connection with this decision of his... ?" he said.
Lyt Ahn stared at him from the chair opposite with a steady look that was not one of approval. The First Captain had not exactly been interrupted, since he had paused after the words he had just said, and a simple beast could easily have assumed that he was through speaking. But in fact he had been about to lay out for Shane the connection between this decision just taken and Shane's own activities in the months to come, and a beast of Shane's experience should have realized this. Shane, however, had been engaged in a small gamble of his own; that the Aalaag would not admit to himself that what a beast did could disturb him.
"What?" said Lyt Ahn.
"If the immaculate sir will remember the Council meeting to which I was summoned, there was talk there among the immaculate sirs and dames present of the need for more translators; and a plan was advanced that those of the true race should take young of the cattle into their own homes so that they would learn to speak and understand the true tongue during their best years for doing so—"
"Well?" broke in Lyt Ahn.
"This beast implores the First Captain's forgiveness if it has been presumptuous; but while I was away from this House, this time, it occurred to me to investigate among those of my kind who had seemed to me to show signs of learning something of the true tongue on their own and without being taught—those with either the will or the aptitude to do so. As a result, I found one beast which, entirely by itself, had learned to understand and even to try to speak a word or two of the true tongue, as well as learning on its own some certain rudimentary actions of civilized behavior. I experimented with this beast and although I am only a beast myself and can only guess, I came to the conclusion that given time, even adult cattle could be taught to act as translators of the true tongue— provided they were properly coached in their learning."
Lyt Ahn sat absolutely motionless. Shane had dangled bait before him; bait tailored as best Shane knew to the way the Aalaag mind, and in particular the mind of Lyt Ahn, worked. It was impossible for the human translators not to know, as every Aalaag knew, that Lyt Ahn's virtual monopoly of the only effective humans who spoke and understood Aalaag gave him a tremendous advantage over his subordinate—but also innately equal—officers of the senior rank.
Neither Shane nor any other human he knew had found or overheard any hard evidence of the fact, but there was a strong suspicion among the servants to the aliens that the lifespan of the Aalaag was much longer than that of humans. If this was so, then the time required for a generation of human babes to be raised to maturity and usefulness as translators did not imply an event so far in the future of the present senior officers that dealing with such extra translators could be regarded as someone else's problem.
Laa Ehon's production plan, therefore, posed an immediate but lesser threat to Lyt Ann's possession of the position of First Captain. The prospect of translators for all Aalaag who could use them was a long-range threat, but a much more serious one. If, however, Lyt Ahn could produce more translators now from mature humans, by using those who already belonged to his Corps, he could undercut the ef
fectiveness of the waiting for a generation of humans to grow into usefulness. Even evidence that translators might be produced this other way could have a strong effect on a Council that had greeted the suggestion of young humans being raised almost like young Aalaag—who were normally kept if anything isolated from other races in their childhood—with strong distaste.
Shane held his breath. If Lyt Ahn took the bait, the question he would want to ask would be obvious.
"I assume," said Lyt Ahn, after a moment of silence, "that you consider yourself capable of such coaching. Am I correct?"
"In all humility, this beast believes so, immaculate sir."
"Who else among your Corps would also be capable of such teaching, do you think?"
"I have no way of knowing, immaculate sir," said Shane.
It was, of course, no less than the truth. He could only guess who among his fellow translators would make good teachers and who would not. But he was betting that Lyt Ahn would jump to another conclusion; and, sure enough, the First Captain did.
"Your modesty does credit to a creature who is only a beast," said Lyt Ahn. "But as you are the best of my translators and can only hope that you would be successful, it would be foolish to assume that others of your Corps could be so at all. Where is this beast you refer to?"