by Moulton, CD
*We have it down to three worlds on my lists. Thing?*
[ I checked special food movements and other such necessities. The crystals of my findings are based on a triangulation from worlds that ordered things that aren't very suitable to their indigenous populations but are much desired by Jornians. Here are the seven worlds that are close to the junctions of those triangulations. I can also deduce their population on that world, calculated from the amounts of food, is on the order of twelve hundred. ]
It engaged the main holovid linkup with its personal computers and the worlds were glowing dots with their coordinates beside them.
*Still three. All of them are represented there. Z?*
"I assumed they made major plans to use the chromium/rhodium moder setup for power and they were going to depend on phase disruptor weapons because we can't detect them if they're not in direct use," Z lectured. "That would mean mining the rhodium and chromium so I looked for special equipment movements, then for the laboratory equipment used in refining, then for things that could be modified for focuses such as Mrfat Drills and so forth. I started with the same general type of triangulation technique as Thing did, working only with habitable worlds. Here's my results."
He overlaid his selections on Thing's. Only one of the worlds matched.
[ How wonderful! None of us found the world itself, but we each found a pattern that, when added together, told us we must go to Sharstedt and that we must go there prepared for disruptor weapons. We can shield them easily enough, but the backwash could be deadly to any exposed people there. Tell us about the planet, Maita. ]
*Inhabited by beings not unlike the Swaz so Tab will feel at home. They aren't developed enough to be of much use to the Jornians except as beasts of burden, I'm afraid. Let's meet outside the system and make our plans. We can see what they have and where it is and if it'll interfere with the natives – or if they already have.*
[ They selected a planet with people they can't use? ]
*Apparently.*
[ How odd! ]
Sharstedt
Sharstedt was a pleasant world, with much water in the form of ponds and lakes. The natives were amphibious and, as Maita had said, not unlike the Swaz, though they had larger gill areas and more webbing and something more of an armored skin on their backs and chests. They were the standard bipedal K-form, but obvious intelligence wasn't developed to a great extent. They were of a schooling society so were basically nonviolent. They were physically very powerful so there was a strong potential for damage should they be provoked.
Sharstedt was an "easy world" in that food was plentiful in the warmer three quarters of the planetary cycle and the natives hibernated through the cold part. They had developed partial body temperature control, but weren't harmed from being frozen solid. Under those conditions the beings enjoyed the temperatures in the very warm season. When the lakes and ponds were far too warm for comfort for mammalian Jornians it was most pleasant and stimulating for the natives.
*Waters that would scald Z are reasonably comfortable to them, though they aren't really uncomfortable even when they're freezing. The higher the temperature, the higher their levels of body energy. Even boiling water is only slightly damaging to them – and they never come into that in any case. They're not uncomfortable until eight or ten degrees less than boiling.*
"You mean they can stand being in water at more than ninety degrees centigrade!?" Z asked.
[ Yes. Probably a hundred five or six degrees centigrade before they even notice any extreme discomfort. The pressure's a bit higher than Earth. Water wouldn't boil until nearly a hundred fourteen. How are we going to handle this? ]
"I think we can locate the encampment the Jornians are using easily enough," Tab said. "Kit and I can be natives here – they have no spoken language so I guess we'll just call them natives instead of Sharstedtians, mostly because it's easier – and can infiltrate right into their camp. We can work sabotage in one way or another if we want."
"They're mostly in those low mountains in the north temperate zone," Kit said. "There aren't many mountains on the world and that's the only place where they have much chance of finding any rhodium.
"Can they find chromium on a world of this type, Maita?"
"They can with the equipment they brought," Z said. "We can find their mines from the material they dug out to get to those depths. They've got enough heavy digging equipment to go clear to the core if it's solid."
*There's vulcanism under the sea in one large band so they haven't had to go that deep. They can get certain of the things they need from condensation mining the fumaroles, but heavy stuff will have to be dug for the most part. I've located two operating generators and two small ships so I have to suppose the large cargo ship or ships aren't aground at the moment. The protector satellite has been tampered with in an ingenious manner, it seems. I have a floater checking it. There's a reflector built around it with a broadcast unit attached that feeds the sensors only normal information. They have a free hand to come and go as they please. They have detectors only very close to their landed locations and have hidden themselves inside caverns and tunnels in the mountains. Ah! They ARE mining fumaroles! Very good technology, but stupid in another obvious way! Tab and Kit can go in as Shar – we'll call them that – and can begin infiltration. Don't use internal coms and don't communicate with TR or T Six until you know for a certainty they don't have detectors. Remember, they DO have a high technology. Thing and Z and I will stay out here to try to work out some kind of plan. We have an advantage. No. We lost it. Too bad we showed ourselves on Grlaq, though we may still be able.... We have to plan. We'll have to develop the plan as we go. Just be careful. They have the power to cause a lot of damage if we force their hands too soon.*
Tab and Kit were delivered under water to as close to the mountains as possible. There was a very large, deep lake that went to within six kilometers of the settlement and deep streams feeding the lake from the mountains. The ships sat in a trench under the lake with a physical link to avoid detection. Tab and Kit could move at will through the water and weren't paid much attention to by the Shar, who were everywhere near the shoreline. They were accepted and Tab knew the feeling of closeness he learned among the Swaz on Feach. Maita, Thing and Z sat back in orbit around another planet in the system, a gas giant, to decide on a course of action.
"What did you mean they were stupid?" Z asked.
[ What? ]
"Maita said the Jornians had a great technology there, but that it was stupid," Z replied. "Why is it stupid?"
*There's a band of asteroids that can be mined with ease here. They can get far purer ores in greater quantity with less energy expenditure and in far less time. To mine undersea fumaroles seems rather stupid to me under those circumstances.*
"Couldn't you detect their presence in the asteroids pretty easily?" Z asked. "And from a long distance away?"
[ If they were mining, yes. That's probably what they were thinking of, but they're still stupid and wasteful in a way because there are plenty of asteroids in other systems quite close where it wouldn't matter if they were detected. I think they're like your own race in some ways, Z. They do it the hard way for the sheer delight of being able to produce and use that kind of advanced technology. ]
*Also like our Terrans, they seem to choose the most unacceptable places and ways when they do anything. There are plenty of open worlds without any native populations to harm where they could be doing this.*
"Ah! But I suspect they want to establish their own little empire so they use these restricted worlds simply because no one'll check on them," Z pointed out. "I think a hell of a lot of planning went into this. It's a really longterm project. They want to establish themselves in a protected place they can defend against the empire fleet if they have to, then they'll develop better weaponry than we have and we'll be at their mercy. We won't be able to move against them."
[ Ridiculous! ]
"It really is, but they're a
young race and believe they're invincible," Z replied. "They're just swaggering around convinced of their own importance. Earth's only recently learning how juvenile that is and is just lately being accepted in the empire. Frankly, I think we let the Jornians in too soon, but they did have the technology to leave their system.
"I'm glad I don't have to make those decisions!"
*They'll grow. I had the choice of letting them in or as much as quarantining them in their system. They have the potential to become a great race and quarantine would have destroyed them. I'll definitely have to keep a closer watch on them for a few centuries so this kind of thing won't happen again. The Shar are too underdeveloped for this to harm them so our problem isn't really so much interference as it is future disruption of the biosphere. From what we've seen so far we can deduce they would never be among the greatest races in the galaxy simply BECAUSE it's such an easy world. I've called TR to come out to meet us. Z, go to the medical boxes and become a Jornian. TR will put on another disguise. You can land and make up your own story. Tab and Kit know a sign to look for to identify you and you can tell them from the other Shar because of a purple star-shaped blotch on Tab's right shoulder and a yellow hexagon on Kit's center chest. Thing, I'm sorry, but you'll have to stay here. There isn't any way to disguise you where they wouldn't know you're the famous Mentan.*
[ To the contrary. I think perhaps I can do something around the fumaroles. I'd like to explore under those waters anyhow and that's the deepest area on the planet so it'll be exactly what I want. Remember, we'll want the ones in that dome down there out, too. ]
"Looks like you get stuck all alone out here, Maita," Z said. "Sorry!"
*I'm used to it. I'll deploy floaters to handle several little projects in the system and fastcom to get reports for the emperor bit. Searcher's active right now so I'm in communication with it, too. I may later go into the trench where those fumaroles are myself. Let's get started on all this!*
Z went to room two to get into a medical box for modification while Thing went to the cargo hold to set its floater up for the mission. TR soon arrived and began modifying its outlines.
*
Tab and Kit swam along offshore toward the river outlet into the lake. They knew where they would go so were taking time to get as much information about the place and the Shar as they could. The water was quite warm and would get warmer. They were about halfway through the spring warming season and the Shar were very active. They would come upon large groups of them and would be checked over thoroughly. They WERE strangers. Tab knew the touching of these kinds of beings because the Swaz, which was his general form, were of the same basic evolution. He enjoyed the inspections and the feeling of several of the Shar hanging onto him. He stayed in character, as he must, and returned the behavior, moving to the beach at times to lay in the sunlight among others. Kit was using his actions as a model and was fitting in well.
It took them two Sharstedtian days to reach the small stream branching to the right that would lead to the encampment about two kilometers away.
The Shar were in the little streams to only a slight extent because the waters were much cooler and were swift, though they delighted in pitting themselves against the force of falls and rapids so often did move into the streams to play.
The Shar liked to play. They would wrestle, males and females both in the swift waters, but were careful to stay out of any real danger. Life among them was a constant touching. When they slept in the water they were generally in the mud on the bottom in rows, but when sleeping on land they were entangled in large groups. Everything was shared. That was a trait of easy worlds.
When Kit and Tab turned into the stream several of the Shar followed them and they played for more than an hour on the rapids a short distance upstream before the followers finally turned and retraced the upstream journey, diving and rolling in the swift current. Soon Kit and Tab were alone. They didn't use their internal coms, but would speak aloud when the time would allow, which was seldom.
"I have the strangest feeling," Kit admitted. "It's almost what must be meant by a longing. I want to dive into that stream and chase after our playmates and spend the rest of time playing and laying in the sun! At this moment I'm very close to telling the empire to stick it in a black hole and going native!"
"Yeah. I feel about the same," Tab agreed. "Too bad our programming won't permit it.
"It's because these are innocent, trusting people who simply accept us for what we represent ourselves as being and share the very fabric of their being with us. If those Jornians have done anything to harm these people my programming's going to break down to the extent that Maita isn't going to have a damned thing to do here because there isn't going to be anything left of them!"
"I'm with you!" Kit replied. "It's about half a kilometer more around that cleft up there. No one's bothered us in any way and there was no fear of coming into this stream among the Shar so I think the Jornians aren't doing anything to hurt anyone. Maybe they're not interested in anything under the water or on the lakeshores so the Shar don't have any reason to interact with them."
"Not now, but what they've already done could worse than hurt them in the future. T Six and TR are checking for contamination of the biosphere. The Jornians' systems can handle quite a bit of the life here meaning their microorganisms can infiltrate and cause havoc later."
"Let's hope there's nothing we can't reverse," Kit answered. "Shall we proceed?"
They moved on up the stream and came around the bend at the breach cleft where the stream poured from about two meters above over the rocks. The water cascaded and roared as the two climbed, all the while being knocked around by the force of the falling water, making the barking growl that was laughter among the Shar. There was a deep pool at the base that the water fell into so Kit arrived at the top, waited until Tab was up and standing in the current, then tackled him, throwing them both off the top and into the pool below. They forgot they were robots for awhile, playing as the Shar would in the little fall, losing themselves in the delight of the game, tumbling and falling and rolling in the torrent, plunging into the deep bowl under the fall.
The fourth or fifth trip up the fall they found there were several Jornians watching them from the rocks above. They seemed to be enjoying the play. They continued the game and soon moved upstream even farther, studying the Jornians with great curiosity, but no animosity when they were close. The Jornians in turn were studying them and showed no fear so they knew there was some contact of some kind between the races. There was a lot of familiarity shown by the Jornians that could only have come from past contacts with the Shar. Late in the afternoon, after locating the generators in the stream and the water supply to the encampment, they went to lay on some large flat dark rocks in the sunlight. They continued to tease at each other with affection as they absorbed the warmth. Several of the Jornians came close, one explaining about the Shar to another who had apparently recently arrived in the encampment and who knew nothing about the Shar.
"They're completely without fear and are as completely nonaggressive, Grot," the speaker was saying. "We had planned to use them as hard laborers, but they're useless. They play all the time and react to pain only by going to aid one another. They don't understand it, but will damned well move as a group against anyone who causes any of them pain deliberately. We learned that the hard way!
"Because they don't go after us and will even trust us doesn't mean they'll tolerate our rule. They killed four people right at first before anyone could do anything. We thought we could use the shocker wands to train them, but the things hurt the ones they were used on – you know what those things are – and their whole clan or whatever they call them simply ripped anyone apart who was seen to have a wand. I guess the first lesson taught here was TO us, not BY us!
"You get so you really like them after awhile. They're like little children. They don't usually come up this far much until really hot weather. When they do come you have to get used
to being felt up, and I mean thoroughly! They'll undress you in a minute! You learn to feel them the same way and they accept you. If you're inhibited the smartest thing you can do is stay away from anywhere they are – which is almost everywhere. It's not like I thought at first, any sexual thing. It's just their way. They know every inch of everybody else's body. An identification thing of some sort.
"They'll climb right in bed with you and get you in a hug you couldn't get out of with trmthm explosives! They like your body heat. They absorb it like drypads absorb water. That may sound weird, but when you see how hot it gets here you'll get so you like it. We have a little air cooling, but it doesn't always work and you're going to know what hot is in a few months! They always feel cool to us."
"I see. Won't they be in the way later?" Grot asked.
"Oh, sure!" the Jornian speaker said. "That's not for a lot of years yet so we'll let our great grandkids worry about cutting their numbers back and fencing them off somewhere. They're just dumb animals. Clarf says they're quality protein, so maybe we can use them for cattle. As wet as this world is we can't use standard pasture animals. We can freeze them and the meat'll keep almost forever. Clarf says you could freeze them for centuries then thaw 'em out and they'd go right on as they were!
"We'll never want for fresh meat! We can breed females, then freeze 'em, then thaw 'em out whenever we need to increase the herds. It's a pity, really. I like 'em, but if it's a choice between us and them I won't hesitate a second. Like I say, it's not our problem.
"Let me show you how we're getting along with the reactor."
Tab looked up toward this Grot person. He was wearing a translator crystal in his earlobes.
So! It was Z!
*
Thing met with Z, then had TR drop it and its floater off as they came in over the ocean to the south. It rode with the atmosphere shield up until it was a few meters above the water, then came to relative rest for a moment to look around. There was no evidence there was anything within a hundred kilometers in any direction except for a floating antenna buoy above the dome four kilometers below the surface of the sea. It turned on some of the floater's devices and turned others off, then went below the surface. It breathed through membranes that were well-suited for under water and actually enjoyed the pressure. It's home planet had an atmospheric pressure that would have crushed most beings instantly. It could adapt to the four and a half kilometers of water pressure where the lower fumaroles were located fairly quickly, its skin was an excellent insulant against either heat or cold and the floater could shield out the water, heat, or anything else if it became necessary. It would also provide the light Thing needed. No sunlight would penetrate to that depth though the fumaroles might supply enough infra-red. Thing saw into both ultra-violet and infra-red.