After this I just kept on until the snow was covering the cars’ tracks. It would cover mine too—and probably the earlier tracks. But if they did follow and see them they would have false lead. Me, I was heading back to the city and safety.
They weren’t early risers on Kekkonshiki, I’ll say that much for them. A few were out, I saw other figures slipping by on skis, but I don’t think any of them saw me. Nor did there seem to be any alarm. I reached the edge of the buildings on the far side of the spaceport and there still didn’t seem to be anything busy happening. What next? I didn’t want to break back in until the chase had gone out the other side. There seemed to be no sign that this was happening as yet. A light in a window beckoned warmly and I slipped over and looked in. A kitchen. Stoves merrily aglow and the cook getting things ready. It looked too good to resist. It was even harder to resist when the round-bottomed and apparently epicene cook turned toward the window and proved to be a female of the species. I had not talked to a female Kekkonshiki yet and the opportunity was too good to resist. Angelina was always accusing me of going after other girls and I should at least give her some sound basis for her suspicions. Even though this visit would negate all of my efforts in false-trail laying and necessitate another effort at misdirection—I still could not resist the temptation. Thus has it been ever with man and maid down through the ages. I found the door, took off my skis, stood them in the snow next to it, and went in.
“Good morning,” I said. “Looks like another cold day, doesn’t it.”
She turned to look at me in silence. Young, wide-eyed and not too unattractive in an unpainted, pastoral sort of way. “You are the one they are looking for,” she said, with just a hint of emotion creeping into her voice. “I must go and give the alarm.”
“You will not give the alarm.” I leaned forward, ready to stop her.
“Yes, master,” she said, and turned back to her pots and pans.
Master! I mulled this a bit and realized that the Kekkonshiki must be the Male Chauvinist Pigs of all time. They treated each other with coldness, lack of emotion, conscious and unconscious cruelty. How must they treat the women! Like this. As chattels, slaves probably. If any of them had protested in the past they had probably been booted out into the snow. A race of docile servants is what the men must have wanted and, obviously, after centuries of breeding they had achieved this noble goal.
My mind was torn away from philosophical speculation by the rich smells from the pots on the stove. It had been far too long since I had eaten last and, after all the exercise, I realized that hunger was nibbling at my interior with sharp teeth. In the rush of events I had again forgotten about food. Now my stomach was making up for this neglect with warning rumbles and groaning sounds.
“What’s cooking, my fair flower of Kekkonshiki?”
She kept her eyes lowered and pointed out cooking utensils one by one, slowly and carefully. “In here is boiling water. In here is fish stew. In here are fish dumplings. In here is seaweed sauce. In here…”
“That’s fine. I’ve heard enough. I’ll have a portion of each, except for the boiling water that is.”
She ladled some metal bowls full and I tucked in with a curved bone spoon. It was pretty tasteless stuff but I was not complaining. I even managed to eat the entire amount a second time before slowing down. As I slurped and shoveled I watched her closely, but she made no attempt to escape or give a warning.
“My name is Jim,” I said, burping with appreciation. “What’s yours?”
“Kaeru.”
“Fine meal, Kaeru. A little bit light on the seasoning, but that’s not your fault—it’s the cuisine of the land. Are you happy in this job?”
“I do not know that word, ‘happy.’ “
“I’ll bet you don’t. What kind of hours do you work here?”
“I do not understand what you mean. I get up, I work, I go to bed. All days are like this.”
“No weekends or holidays either I am sure. This world dearly needs some changes and they are on the way.” Kaeru turned back to her work. “This culture won’t have to be busted. It will just fall apart. The historians will keep a record of it and then it will vanish and a touch of civilization will enter your lives. Look forward to a happy tomorrow, Kaeru.”
“Tomorrow I will work like today.”
“Not for too long, I hope.” With a delicate pinky nail I probed for a bit of seaweed stuck in the interstices of my teeth. “What time do you serve breakfast?”
She looked up at the clock. “In a few minutes when the bell rings.”
“Who eats it?’
“The men here. The soldiers.”
I was off the chair before the last syllable dropped from her lips, pulling on my gloves. “The food has been great, but I’m afraid I have to be pushing on. Heading south, you know. Got to make some time before the sun comes up. I suppose you wouldn’t complain too much if I tied you up?”
“Do with me what you will, master.” Her eyes were lowered when she said it. For the first time in my life I was ashamed of being a male chauvinist pig. “It will be better someday soon, Kaeru, I promise you that. And if I ever get out of this with a whole skin I’ll send you a relief parcel. Some dresses, lipstick, and a textbook on fem lib. Now—is there a storeroom here?”
She pointed it out and I kissed her on the forehead. She immediately started to take her clothes off and was surprised when I stopped her. I could readily imagine what romantic lovers the gray men were! One more crime to answer for. Kaeru made no protests at all when I ushered her into the storeroom and locked it from the outside. She would be discovered soon enough when breakfast was late. But all I needed was a few minutes’ headstart.
After leaving I carried the skis until I came to an icy stretch where my prints did not show. Only then did I put them on and head off in the opposite direction, muddling my trail again when I crossed other ski tracks. There was a good deal more of this sort of thing before I found myself back at the spaceport and, once more, cutting my way through the fence. I could hear sounds of excitement, sirens going and engines starting up which seemed to indicate that my earlier visit had been discovered at last. And about time too; I had to stifle a yawn. And wasn’t the sky beginning to get a bit lighter? The hour had come to retire. I resealed the fence and slogged on.
With very little effort I reached the armory unseen. The man I had left in the doorway was gone, as well as everyone else from the vicinity. The lock yielded to my attentions and I breezed through and sealed it behind me. Well done, Jim, you tricky devil. With leaden feet I toured the interior, finally finding a locked room of fragmentation grenades that should be untouched for awhile. In and down behind them, hidden from the world, secure and gone to ground, I yielded at once to the lure of sleep.
It was wonderful. I felt that I could have slept forever. Except something was disturbing me. I swam back up to consciousness and saw that it was daylight. Was that what had woken me?
No, it was a key turning in the lock, the door creaking open.
I had only myself to blame. I had forgotten the plodding searchers in the school. These people could not be tricked by any kind of ruse. As soon as they knew I was still alive they simply started a search of every building in the city. The game was up.
Seventeen
I was refreshed by the long sleep, my bloodstream was filled with rich fish protein—and I was very angry at myself for not making a better attempt at hiding out. But, like the rest of us, I would rather be angry at someone else rather than admit the fault was mine, so I instantly transferred my temper to the hapless man who came through the door, waiting until he came close, then springing upon him like a jungle animal. Then tripping over the skis which I had forgotten about and falling in a tumble at his feet. Not that this made much difference to the outcome since these people had no idea at all about infighting. It was the old twist and crunch once again. After which I shouldered the skis, stepped over the unconscious body, and peeked out of the door.
More of them were searching the building, on all sides of me, as I plodded toward the exit. One of them glanced up and I actually did three paces more before he reacted.
“He is there, trying to escape,” he said in a dull monotone.
“Doing it too!” I shouted and rushed through the door, right over the man coming in. Then it was just a matter of stepping into the skis and zipping away.
Of course this did no good at all, other than put off the inevitable for a few more minutes. The fence had been repaired, the entrances were guarded—and my tool kit was back in the armory. As I rushed around, wondering what to do next, I heard the car engines starting up. Grab one of them? Rush the gate. Then what? One man against an entire world wasn’t going to do me much good on this planet. Maybe I could find another hiding place in the city.
Why? I couldn’t escape these people. Why put off the inevitable? I stopped to think about this, then remembered what they could do with the axion feed and I started up again. Maybe Hanasu was right and suicide was the only answer. But I rejected this out of hand; I’m just not the suicide type, as I keep telling myself.
All of this kept me occupied. Rushing about the spaceport with the pursuit hotting up behind me, having a good suffer over my approaching fate, racking my depressed mind for a way out. With my attention wandering like this I wasn’t aware of the sound of the rocket until it was right overhead. Like everyone else on the field I stopped and looked up and gaped.
Out of the low cloud it dropped, riding its flame to the ground, a small scout ship.
With the joined rings of the League upon its flank.
“It worked!” I shrieked and went straight up in the air. I landed on the move and made wow-wow sounds with my hand over my mouth as I streaked for the landing pad. The spacer was still bouncing on its landing shocks when I came rocketing up. Needless to say no one followed me since the locals were not as enthusiastic about this arrival as I was. When the hatch ground open I stood below it.
“Welcome to Kekkonshiki,” I said to the man who emerged, squinting in the reflected glare. “Claim this planet for the League, oh conqueror.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” he said. A young man with an awful lot of hair and beard, wearing a soiled and patched shipsuit. “I got a message to pick up one James Bolivar diGriz.”
“You are looking at him.”
“So are the locals. Only they are coming this way with a lot of guns. Get aboard.”
“Not until I make it plain to these types just what has happened.”
I was happy to see a familiar face in front of the pack. Kome, the commander and captain of the ship who had brought me here. “Drop the gun,” I told him. He raised it instead.
“You will come with me. Both of you.”
I saw red. These people were so dense it sickened me. What they had done, the untold number dead because of their infernal plans, sickened me even more.
“Don’t shoot, I beg of you!” I cried, hands in the air, stumbling toward him. Kicking up hard on his wrist so the gun went flying, I caught it, grabbed his arm, twisted him around and ground the gun into the side of his neck as hard as I could.
“Listen to me, you ice-cold idiots!” I shouted. “It’s all over, finished, through. You have lost. You will cause no more trouble in the galaxy. Your only strength was secrecy, so you could work away like roaches inside the wall. But that’s over now. Don’t you see the insignia on this ship? It’s a League ship. They know about you now. Know who you are and where you are. Justice has arrived in the shape of this handsome pilot who brings you his message of wrath and who announces that he has just conquered your planet.”
“Have I?” the pilot gasped.
“Shut up, you dumbhead, and do your job.”
“My job was to get you.”
“You’ve been promoted. Take their guns.”
There was a little edge of desperation in my voice because they were raising their guns. Knowing their attitudes I knew they would calmly shoot Kome in order to get me. I gave his arm an extra twist and pressed the muzzle of the gun deeper into his flesh.
“Come on, Kome, tell them to put their weapons away and surrender. If one shot is fired I’ll see that you are all tortured to death with hot pokers.”
Kome thought and thought in his plodding Kekkonshiki way. Then made his mind up.
“The presence of this ship might be an accident.”
“No accident,” the pilot said. “I’ll show you the message I received. It went out with a general alarm ordering all ships in the area to this planet. We’ve been looking for you people for some time. I’ll get the message.”
“There is no need for the message. Kill them both,” Kome ordered loudly. “If they lie it will be the end of them. If they do not lie it will make no difference for we are as dead.”
“Move aside, Kome,” the nearest man said, sighting his gun. “Or I must shoot you.”
“Shoot me,” was the toneless answer.
“Stop it!” I ordered, shooting the man in the arm so his gun went flying. “It’s no use.”
They thought otherwise. The guns were swinging about when the pilot delivered the message he had been talking about. Not the one they had been expecting. He wasn’t too stupid; scout pilots rarely are.
The nose turret whipped about swiftly and explosive shells rained down on all sides. I wasted no time, rapping Kome on the skull with the gun so he would come along quietly, then adding a few shots of my own at the others to keep their heads down. Into the airlock and finger on closing button. Kome wasn’t quite unconscious but a kick in the side of the head fixed that. Normally I am not vicious, but this time I enjoyed the sadistic pleasure.
“Get flat, this will be a 5G takeoff,” the pilot said.
It was too, and I clunked the last centimeters to the deck and got a good slam on the back of my head. By the time I stopped seeing unusual colors the pressure eased and I floated up.
“Thanks,” I said with all sincerity.
“A pleasure. Those were some nasty-looking friends you had down there.”
“Those were the loonies who started this whole war. And, dare I ask, how is it going?”
“We’re still losing it,” he said with black gloom. “There is just nothing we can do.”
“Don’t say that, it’s bad luck! And head for the nearest station with a psiman because I have some urgent business to transact. You wouldn’t happen to know if a load of prisoners escaped from the aliens?”
“The admirals, you mean? They’re back, and a sorry lot they are too. I mean, normally you don’t care what happens to senior officers, like they’re different life forms or something. But this was a not-too-nice thing.”
“They’ll be cured. Excuse me smiling but my wife and sons were responsible for that escape so it means they are safe.”
“You got some family.”
“You can say that again!”
“You got some family.”
“Don’t take me too literally, though I enjoy hearing it. Now will you please pour the juice to this thing and get us to the psiman. There is much to be done.”
By the time we rocketed into the satellite station I had my messages all written. Something big with a lot of guns and a full complement of troopers would be spared from the war to bring civilization to the Kekkonshiki natives. There were exact instructions on how they were to find Hanasu and put him in charge of the pacification. Justice, revenge and everything else could come later. Right now it was important just to neutralize the gray men to guard our flank. The war still had to be won. I read all the reports in the ship and by the time I had reached the Special Corps Main Base I had a number of plans made. All of them were driven from my mind by the sight of the svelte figure of the woman I loved.
“Air…” I gasped after a number of minutes of close and passionate embrace. “It’s nice to be home.”
“There’s more in store, but I assume you want to look after the war a bit first.”
&nb
sp; “If you don’t mind, precious mine. Did you have any trouble admiral-saving?”
“None. You had everything in a lovely turmoil. The boys learn fast and are very good at this sort of job. They are also off now in the navy, doing important things. I worried about you.”
“You had very good reason to—but it’s all over now. You didn’t, by chance, happen to pick up any souvenirs when you were passing through that alien treasury?”
“I left that to the twins, who take after their father. I’m sure they pinched a good bit for themselves, but what they passed on will make us independently wealthy for life. If we live.”
“The war, of course.” My elation turned to depression at the thought. “What is happening?”
“Nothing good. As you observed the aliens on their own are a little on the stupid side. Once the gray men were out of the picture leadership must have been divided. But there still must have been a few commanders left who were bright enough to come in out of the rain because they launched an all-out attack. Left their base completely. Just took everything they had and came after us. So we ran, and are still running. Just picking away at their fringes to let them think we will stand and fight. But we can’t afford to. They outnumber us and outgun us at least a thousand to one.”
“How long can this last?”
“Not much longer, I’m afraid. We’re almost past all of our inhabited planets and will be coming out soon in intergalactic space. After that we can retreat no more. Or if we do the uglies will see what we are doing and even they are smart enough to figure this one out. All they have to do then is leave a small force to keep us at bay, then they can turn and start attacking our planetary bases.”
“You don’t make it sound too good.”
The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You ssr-4 Page 13