Dare - rtf

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Dare - rtf Page 19

by Farmer, Phillip Jose


  The captain guided them on a tour of inspection of the vessel. Jack and R'li and the bishop made no ef­fort to hide their astonishment and awe. Chuckswilly gave forth with a few ah's, but most of the time his face was stony.

  After the tour, Swanson told them that dinner was to be served. Would they like to wash before eating? His manner made it clear that he would be both surprised and offended if they did not. The bishop went into one washroom; Chuckswilly, into the other. Jack and R'li waited their turn. Chuckswilly had hesitated for several seconds before leaving, and Jack knew that he did not want to leave him alone with the Earthmen. But protocol demanded that Chuckswilly, as Jack's superior, use the washroom first.

  It was then that Jack made up his mind. It was now or never, for he doubted that he would again be left alone with Swanson. Moreover, in thirty minutes, the ship would land at Greathopes.

  He said, "Captain, I have something to tell you."

  Several minutes later, the bishop and the general came out of the washrooms. Jack entered the one previously used by his superior, and he took his time cleaning up. When he came out, reluctantly, he found a pale and silent group. R'li, however, smiled at him.

  Chuckswilly glared and said, "Traitor!"

  Jack was trembling with a guilt that he had told himself he had no reason to feel. But he succeeded in making his voice firm.

  "I decided to tell Swanson for exactly the same reasons that I decided to join the Socinians. You were the one who convinced me in both cases."

  "We may as well go eat -- if anybody has any ap­petite left," Swanson said.

  Chuckswilly swallowed hard. "I bow to the inevitable course of destiny. It is more important, I suppose, that mankind survive as a united species than as separate and warring nationalities. But it's hard to give up dreams.''

  "Those who've opposed you in the past and lost must have found it just as difficult to give up their dreams," Swanson said.

  Twenty minutes later the city of Greathopes ap­peared. It sprawled out in a valley surrounded by towering sharp-peaked mountains. The United flew straight for the landing field prepared for it. However, it halted several thousand feet above and to one side of the field. Five minutes passed. Sud­denly the ground below was hidden. Smoke billowed up to form a giant mushroom-shaped cloud.

  Swanson said to Chuckswilly, "If I wished, I could order the entire city to be scanned by our explosive-activating beams. Every bit of gunpowder in the area would be set off. If I were so inclined, I could do the same with every foot of land on this continent.''

  The ship settled down toward the edge of the broad deep hole that had been a smooth meadow.

  Three days later the treaty was concluded. In a week the Earthmen's base was built in almost magical speed and with incredible means. And the United left Dare.

  Jack and R'li stayed the winter in the Earthmen's base. Both were teachers of their respective languages. The linguists who recorded them ex­plained that they were not interested so much in being able to speak them as they were in preserving them for scientific study. They expected that Socinian, the pidgin fusion of English and horstel, would absorb both speeches.

  Chuckswilly, hearing this, had snorted and said, "What they're not about to say is that they also ex­pect Terrestrial English to kill off Socinian. But that's at some distant date."

  Chuckswilly had given an official promise to Swanson that no reprisals would be taken against Cage for having disclosed the attempt to seize the United. Jack and R'li were not sure that he could be trusted to keep his word. But the only alternative was to go on the ship to Earth, and they did not want that. Better to take their chances in a world they knew, although changing, than in an absolutely new, complex, bewildering, and alien society.

  Spring came. One sunny morning, Jack and R'li were transported in one of the flying machines that the United had left behind to the site of the Cage farm. The Earthmen deposited several tents, food, weapons, and tools. They wished the two good luck and took off.

  Jack watched the needle of the boat until it was merged with the blue of the sky. R'li, big with child, stood by him. Afterward, he forced himself to look at the desolation revealed by the thawing snow. It would take several years before he could build a house and barn large and strong enough to satisfy him. There, where the ruins of his father's house lay, he would build a small cabin out of logs. Later, when a few crops had come in, and more babies were born, he would add more rooms.

  Plowing would have been a great task, for he had no unicorns and not much prospect of getting any. But the Terrestrials had promised to bring him a steamer plow later. He hoped they would not forget. Although he knew they were now thankful because he had saved their lives, he also knew that gratitude could be short-lived.

  R'li kissed him on his cheek. "Don't worry."

  "At least, I'll be doing what I know and love. I was getting tired of being cooped up in the base building and teaching a language doomed to die. But everything now is so uncertain and dangerous. My own people are going to be hostile. And it'll be some time before the Socinian occupation forces will be able to stamp out underground rebels and the moun­tain raiders. Moreover, Chuckswilly may be waiting for a chance to get revenge. He could have us killed and blame it on Dyonisan rebels."

  She took his hand, and she said, "You're in no more peril than when all this started. Life is always uncertain; death is around every corner. Let us build our houses, till our soil, and raise children. We will hate no one and hope that no one hates us, knowing full well that there is as much hate as love in this world.

  "Whatever happens then, we will be doing our best for ourselves, our children, and our neighbors. That is the least we can do, not the most. It won't be easy. The only easy thing is to give up."

  Scan Notes, v3.0: Proofed carefully against the DT, italics intact. There are no chapter numbers or seperations in the DT, and very few "double-returns" -- it was not a proofing error that these are lacking.

 

 

 


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