Sense of Obligation

by Harry Harrison

  XVIII

  One of the technicians was running and screaming. The magter knocked himdown and beat him into silence. Seeing this the other two men returnedto work with shaking hands. Even if all life on the surface of theplanet were dead, this would have no effect on the magter. They would goahead as planned, without emotion or imagination enough to alter theirset course. As they worked the technicians' attitude changed fromshocked numbness to anger. Right and wrong were forgotten. They had beenkilled--the invisible death of radiation must already be penetratinginto the caves--but they also had the chance for vengeance. Swiftly theybrought their work to completion, with a speed and precision they hadconcealed before.

  "What are those offworlders doing?" Ulv asked.

  Brion stirred from his lethargy of defeat and looked across the cavernfloor. The men had a wheeled hand-truck and were rolling one of theatomic warheads onto it. They pushed it over to the latticework of thejump-field.

  "They are going to bomb Nyjord now, just as Nyjord bombed Dis. Thatmachine will hurl the bombs in a special way to the other planet."

  "Will you stop them?" Ulv asked. He had his deadly blowgun in his handand his face was an expressionless mask.

  Brion almost smiled at the irony of the situation. In spite ofeverything he had done to prevent it, Nyjord had dropped the bombs. Andthis act alone may have destroyed their own planet. Brion had it withinhis power now to stop the launching in the cavern. Should he? Should hesave the lives of his killers? Or should he practice the ancientblood-oath that had echoed and destroyed down through the ages--_An eyefor an eye, a tooth for a tooth._ It would be so simple. He literallyhad to do nothing. The score would be evened and his and the Disans'deaths avenged.

  Did Ulv have his blowgun ready to kill Brion if he should try to stopthe launchings? Or had he misread the Disan entirely?

  "Will _you_ stop them, Ulv?" he asked.

  How large was mankind's sense of obligation? The cave man first had thisfeeling for his mate, then for his family. It grew until men fought anddied for the abstract ideas of cities and nations, then for wholeplanets. Would the time ever come when men might realize that theobligation should be to the largest and most encompassing reality ofall? Mankind. And beyond that to life of all kinds.

  Brion saw this idea not in words, but as a reality. When he posed thequestion to himself in this way he found that it stated clearly itsinherent answer. He pulled his gun out, and as he did he wondered whatUlv's answer might be.

  "Nyjord is _medvirk_," Ulv said, raising his blowgun and sending a dartacross the cavern. It struck one of the technicians who gasped and fellto the floor.

  Brion's shots crashed into the control board, shorting and destroyingit, removing the menace to Nyjord for all time.

  _Medvirk_, Ulv had said. A life form that co-operates and aids otherlife forms. It may kill in self-defense, but is essentially not a killeror destroyer. Ulv had a lifetime of knowledge about the interdependencyof life. He grasped the essence of the idea and ignored all the verbalcomplications and confusions. He had killed the magter, who were his ownpeople, because they were _umedvirk_--against life. And saved hisenemies because they were _medvirk_.

  With this realization came the painful knowledge that the planet andthe people that had produced this understanding were dead.

  * * * * *

  In the cavern the magter saw the destruction of their plans, and thecave mouth from which the bullets had come. Silently they rushed to killtheir enemy. A concerted wave of emotionless fury.

  Brion and Ulv fought back. Even the knowledge that he was doomed nomatter what happened could not resign Brion to death at the hands of themagter. To Ulv, the decision was much easier. He was simply killing_umedvirk_. A believer in life, he destroyed the anti-life.

  They retreated into the darkness, still firing. The magter had lightsand ion-rifles, and were right behind them. Knowing the caverns betterthan the men they chased, pursuers circled. Brion saw lights ahead anddragged Ulv to a stop.

  "They know their way through these caves, and we don't," he said. "If wetry to run, they'll just shoot us down. Let's find a spot we can defendand settle into it."

  "Back here," Ulv gave a tug in the right direction, "there is a cavewith only one very narrow entrance."

  "Let's go!"

  Running as silently as they could in the darkness, they reached thedeadend cavern without being seen. What noise they made was lost inother footsteps that echoed and sounded through the connecting caves.Once inside they found cover behind a ridge and waited. The end wascertain.

  The magter ran swiftly into their cave, flashing his light into all theplaces of concealment. The beam passed over the two hidden men and atthe same instant Brion fired. The shot boomed loudly as the magter fell.Even if his loss was not known, the shot would surely have been heard.

  Before anyone else came into the cave, Brion ran over and grabbed thestill functioning light. Propping it on the rocks so it shone on theentrance, he hurried back to shelter beside Ulv. They waited for theattack.

  It was not long in coming. Two magter rushed in and died. There weremore outside, and Brion wondered how long it would be before theyremembered the grenades and rolled one into their shelter.

  An indistinct murmur sounded outside and some sharp explosions. In theirshelter, Brion and Ulv crouched low and wondered why the attack didn'tcome. Then one of the magter came in and Brion hesitated beforeshooting.

  The man had _backed_ in, firing behind him as he came.

  Ulv had no compunctions about killing, only his darts couldn't penetratethe magter's thick clothing. As the magter turned Ulv's breath pulsedonce and death stung the back of the other man's hand. He collapsed intoa crumpled heap.

  "Don't shoot," a voice said from outside the cave, and a man steppedthrough the swirling dust and smoke to stand in the beam from the light.

  Brion clutched wildly at Ulv's arm, dragging the blowgun from theDisan's mouth.

  The man in the light wore a protective helmet, thick boots and apouch-hung uniform.

  He was a Nyjorder.

  This shock of reality was almost impossible to accept. Brion had heardthe bombs fall. Yet the Nyjord soldier was here. The two facts couldn'tbe accepted together.

  "Would you keep a hold on his arm, sir, just in case," the soldier said,glancing warily at Ulv's blowpipe. "I know what those darts can do." Hepulled a microphone from one of his pockets and spoke into it.

  More soldiers crowded into the cave and Professor-Commander Krafft camein behind them. He looked strangely out of place in the dusty combatuniform. The gun was even more grotesque in his blue-veined hand. Afterrelievedly giving the pistol to the nearest soldier, he stumbled quicklyover to Brion and took his hand.

  "It is a profound and sincere pleasure to meet you in person," he said."And your friend Ulv as well."

  "Would you kindly explain what is going on," Brion said thickly. He wasobsessed by the strange feeling that none of this could possibly behappening.

  "We will always remember you as the man who saved us from ourselves,"Krafft said, once again the professor instead of the commander.

  "What he wants are facts, Grandpa, not speeches," Hys said. The bentform of the leader of the rebel Nyjord army pushed through the crowd oftaller men until he stood next to Krafft. "Simply stated, Brion, yourplan succeeded. Krafft relayed your message to me--and as soon as Iheard it I turned back and met him on his ship. I'm sorry that Telt'sdead--but he found what we were looking for. I couldn't ignore hisreport of radioactive traces. Your girl friend arrived with the hackedup corpse at the same time I did, and we all took a long look at thegreen leech in its skull. Her explanation of what it is made significantsense. We were already carrying out landings when we had your call aboutsomething having been stored in the magter tower. After that it was justa matter of following tracks--and the transmitter you planted."

  "But the explosions at midnight," Brion broke in, "I heard them!"

  "You
were supposed to," Hys laughed. "Not only you, but the magter inthis cave. We figured they would be armed and the cave stronglydefended. So at midnight we dropped a few large chemical explosive bombsat the entrance. Enough to kill the guards without bringing the roofdown. We also hoped that the magter deeper in would leave their posts orretreat from the imagined radiation. They did. Worked like a charm. Wecame in quietly and took them by surprise. Made a clean sweep. Killedthe ones we couldn't capture."

  "One of the renegade jump-space technicians was still alive," Krafftsaid. "He told us about your stopping the bombs aimed at Nyjord, thetwo of you."

  * * * * *

  None of the Nyjorders there could add anything to his words, not eventhe cynical Hys. Yet Brion could empathize their feelings, the warmth oftheir intense relief and happiness. It was a sensation he would neverforget.

  "There is no more war," Brion translated for Ulv, realizing that theDisan had understood nothing of the explanation. As he said it, herealized that there was one glaring error in the story.

  "You couldn't have done it," Brion said, astonished. "You landed on thisplanet _before_ you had my message about the tower. That means you stillexpected the magter to be sending their bombs to Nyjord--and you madethe landings in spite of this knowledge."

  "Of course," Professor Krafft said, astonished at Brion's lack ofunderstanding. "What else could we do? The magter are sick!"

  Hys laughed aloud at Brion's baffled expression. "You have to understandNyjord psychology," he said. "When it was a matter of war and killing myplanet could never agree on an intelligent course. War is so alien toour philosophy that it couldn't even be considered correctly. That's thetrouble with being a vegetable eater in a galaxy of carnivores. You'reeasy prey for the first one that lands on your back. Any other planetwould have jumped on the magter with both feet and shaken the bombs outof them. We fumbled it so long it almost got both worlds killed. Yourmind-parasite drew us back from the brink."

  "I still don't understand," Brion said. "Why--"

  "Simple matter of definition. Before you came we had no way to deal withthe magter here on Dis. They really were alien to us. Nothing they didmade sense--and nothing we did seemed to have the slightest effect onthem. But you discovered that they were _sick_, and that's something weknow how to handle. We're united again, my rebel army was instantlyabsorbed into the rest of the Nyjord forces by mutual agreement. Doctorsand nurses are on the way here now. Plans were put under way to evacuatewhat part of the population we could until the bombs were found. Theplanet is united again and working hard."

  "Because the magter are sick, infected by a destructive life form?"Brion asked.

  "Exactly so," Professor Krafft said. "We are civilized, after all. Youcan't expect us to fight a war--and you surely can't expect us to ignorethe plight of sick neighbors?"

  "No ... you surely can't," Brion said, sitting down heavily. He lookedat Ulv, who knew nothing of the incomprehensible speech. Beyond him Hyswore his most cynical expression as he considered the frailties of hispeople.

  "Hys," Brion called out. "You translate all that into Disan and explainto Ulv. I wouldn't dare."