The Lani People

by Jesse F. Bone

  CHAPTER XX

  Longliners, Kennon reflected, didn't make Beta a port of call, and theShortliner connections with other worlds were infrequent. Beta had donea good job separating from the rest of the Brotherhood. Too good. Thespaceline schedules showed only one departure in the next month, aShortliner for Earth, and from Earth the road to Kardon was long andtortuous, involving a series of short jumps from world to world and afinal medium-range hop from Halsey to Kardon. If everything went rightand he made every connection he would be in Kardon four months after heleft Beta. Kennon sighed as he left Travelers Aid. Morality was a heavyload to carry.

  He walked slowly down the road from the spaceport toward theCo-operative where he had been staying. He had left Huntersville andCopper a week ago, after he had seen his child. His child! The thoughtof being a father was oddly dismaying. It distorted his sense of values.But one thing was certain. He was returning to Kardon, and Copper wasnot coming with him. She had a duty to their son--and he had a duty tohis contract with Alexander, to the Lani on Flora, and to Copper--andnone of these could be satisfied by further running. He had to returnand settle the account.

  A tall man in a conservative yellow-and-black suit was waiting patientlyin front of his room. "My name is Richter," he said "--Art Richter. Areyou Dr. Jac Kennon?"

  "I could deny it, but I won't," Kennon said.

  "Thank you, Doctor. It was just a formality anyway. You see, I knowyou by sight." He sighed. "One has to observe the formalities in thisbusiness." He drew a long white envelope from his tunic and handed it toKennon. "Most of my subjects try to deny their identity," he said.

  "It's a refreshing change to find an honest man." He bowed formally."I really thought this would be harder, considering the charges againstyou." He bowed again and walked away.

  "Now--what was that?" Kennon muttered as he opened the envelope. Theman Richter was undoubtedly a process server--but who had hired him?He unfolded the sheet and scanned the charges--coercion, larceny,livestock theft, and breach of contract. He shrugged. This wasAlexander's work. What was the man thinking of? It was insanity tobring the Lani matter into open court. Hadn't Douglas told him what hadhappened? Couldn't Alexander guess that he had fled with Copper for agood reason--one that would stand up in court? Didn't he know about thespacer? Or had Douglas turned on his cousin? The pup had so many hatesthat it was possible. He was a natural troublemaker. Maybe Alexanderdidn't know. Maybe he was working in the dark. Kennon scanned the sheetquickly. Ah! here it was. Complaint--Mr. Alexander X. M. Alexander,Skyline Tower 1024, Beta City!

  Alexander! Here on Beta! Kennon opened the door of his room, wentstraight to the phone beside the bed. He lifted the handset from itscradle and dialed the operator. "Get me Huntersville THU 2-1408. I wantto speak to Dr. Brainard, Dr. Will Brainard. This is a prioritycall--my name is Kennon. Dr. Jac Kennon D.V.M. I'm in the registry--47M26429--yes--of course, and thank you." He waited a moment. "Hello--Dr.Brainard?--Kennon here. I've just had some news. Alexander's on Beta!Yes--he served me with a summons. Can you get a restraining order toprevent him from leaving? You can? Good! Here's his address." Kennonrattled off the location. "Yes--I'm taking the next airboat to BetaCity. This should simplify things considerably.--Of course it should. Hewas a fool to have come here. Yes--I suppose you should tell Copper.Oh! She is? I'm sorry to hear that, but there's no reason for her tobe angry. She should realize that I did this for her--not to make hermiserable. Hmm.--She--she has? You think she should come withme?--Yes, I realize she can be a problem when she wants to be. All rightthen--tell her to pack a toothbrush and a few spare diapers. And see ifyou can get me a couple of tickets on the next flight to Beta City. I'llbe over in a couple of hours and pick her up." He cradled the phone anddialed the operator again.

  "I want the phone number of Skyline Tower 1024, Beta City, Mr.Alexander. Yes. I'll wait. This number is HUV 2-1278 and my nameis Kennon, Dr. Jac Kennon 47M 26429. I called you before. No, I'm atransient. I can refer you to Dr. James Brainard, Huntersville MedicalCenter. Yes, I'll accept charges. Now will you give me that number? BCA7-8941--thank you."

  Kennon hung up, dialed the number, and waited.

  "Hello," he said. "Mr. Alexander? This is Dr. Kennon.--Yes--I supposeyou do, but I've been trying to get back to Kardon for the past month.You are? Well, that's your privilege, but I'd advise you to go easyuntil I see you. Naturally--I'm coming as soon as I can get there. We'llbe seeing you tomorrow morning at the latest. We?--I'm bringing Copper,of course. I just wanted you to know."

  Kennon wiped his forehead. Alexander sounded angry and dangerous. Tenyears hadn't served to cool him off. What had happened on Kardon afterhe had left? Kennon shook his head. There was something here he didn'tunderstand. The entrepreneur should have been covering his tracks, notthreatening jail and disaccreditation. It was obvious that a personalvisit was more necessary than he had thought.

  Alexander was waiting. His eyebrows rose at the sight of Copper informal Betan dress--and lifted a trifle more at the sight of the baby.

  "What is this, Kennon?" he asked.

  "Trouble," Kennon said. He took off his hat. "I came here to settlethings before you took this case to court. You obviously do notunderstand what has happened. I suppose Douglas has double-crossed you.It would be characteristic of him. But before we go any further I thinkwe should clear the air and let each other know where we stand. Idon't want to make trouble if it's not necessary. You'll notice I'm notwearing a thought screen, so you'll be able to check everything I say,and know I'm telling the truth."

  "It had better be good," Alexander said grimly. "I've been looking foryou for ten years. I intend to throw the book at you."

  "I don't know whether my reason is good or not. Technically I'm guiltyof breach of contract and larceny of corporation property, but there areextenuating circumstances."

  Alexander chuckled mirthlessly. "There are a few other charges. Andquite probably I can think of more if you beat these. I'm going to makean example of you, Kennon. I'm going to drag you down and stamp on you.You're going to be a horrible example to all smart operators who thinkthey can break contracts. It's taken a million credits and ten years'time to hunt you down, but it's going to be worth it."

  "Copper's child is a boy," Kennon said mildly. "My son."

  Alexander froze. "You can prove that?" he asked in a half-strangledvoice.

  Kennon nodded. "You see the extenuating circumstance?" he asked."Suppression of human slavery!"

  Alexander sat down. It was as though some unseen hand had pulled hislegs from under him. "You believe it," he said. "--No--you've provedit! Why--why didn't you tell me? What sort of a man do you think I am?"

  "I didn't know. I couldn't take the chance until Copper was protected.You see, sir, I love her."

  "That isn't hard to do with Lani," Alexander said. He sank back in hischair, his face clouded, his expression troubled. It was obvious thatthe realization shocked him.

  Kennon felt an odd sympathy for the entrepreneur. It wasn't a nicefeeling, he suspected, to have the beliefs of a lifetime ripped apartand sent to the disposal chute.

  "So the Lani are a human variant," Alexander said dully.

  "The proof is here," Kennon said, "and the supporting evidence isconclusive."

  "Which makes me--what? A murderer? A slaver? A tyrant?" Alexanderclutched his head with lean-fingered hands. "What am I?"

  "An innocent victim of circumstances," Kennon said. "You didn't know.None of us knew. And we still wouldn't know if the Lani weren't ofBetan extraction." He grimaced painfully. "I've done some soul-searchingmyself, and it hasn't been a pleasant task."

  "But it's nothing like mine," Alexander said in a low voice. "Isuspected they were human when I was younger, but I denied my suspicionsand accepted false facts instead of investigating."

  "You would have found nothing."

  "Unfortunately, that's not true. We discovered quite a bit from theexperimental station you left us when you disappeared ten years ago. Butwe stopped whe
n we found the age that was being indoctrinated with Lanitabus. We could have gone farther, but I didn't think it was necessary."

  "Didn't Douglas tell you?" Kennon asked curiously. "I told him when Iturned him loose."

  "Douglas didn't tell anything except that you had somehow gotten aspaceship. I assumed it was one of those that were involved in thatcommercial raid a few decades ago, but I see it wasn't. No--I knewnothing about this development. And Douglas, I guess, wanted to keepit hidden. He gave your co-ordinates and ordered Mullins to launch amissile. But he apparently forgot to turn on his IFF. At any ratethe missile lost you--but found Douglas. Douglas was still talking toAlexandria when it struck."

  "He might have informed you," Kennon said. "If he had more time."

  "I doubt it. He ordered the missile first. He was trying to destroy youbefore you could destroy Outworld Enterprises. His motives were selfishas usual." Alexander looked at Kennon with a haggard eye. "I owe you anapology," he said. "I've considered you responsible for Douglas's deathfor ten years. I've searched for you on a hundred worlds. My agents inevery branch office have had standing orders to report any unusualarrivals. I have hunted you personally. I wanted to break you--I wantedto kill you."

  "I couldn't help the delay," Kennon said. "The ship was old."

  "I know. You've told me more than you think. I'm a telepath, you know."

  "I've never forgotten it," Kennon said. "That was one of the principalreasons I came here. I wanted to see how you'd react when you learnedthe whole truth."

  "And I suppose you gloat--no--you're not doing that. But you are right.I could have checked it further. But I didn't. Outworld Enterprises isfar bigger than Flora--and I was busy. Galactic trade is a snake-pit.And, after all, there was Douglas's death--and the Family with theirnever-ending clamor for money and their threats when it didn't comepromptly. I like being an entrepreneur, but until I made Outworldindependent of Family control, I couldn't do anything except run thebusiness to their wishes. Actually the island was only a small part ofthe corporation. I tried to run it as humanely as possible under thecircumstances." He shuddered. "I don't think I was ever needlesslycruel."

  "No," Kennon said, "you were indifferent."

  "Which is just as bad," Alexander said.

  "Well--what are you going to do about it?" Copper interjected. "You canbeat yourself until you're blue, but that won't accomplish anything."

  "What are you going to do?" Alexander countered. "You have the upperhand."

  "Me?" Copper asked. "I have nothing. This is between you men." Shelapsed into silence.

  Alexander turned back to Kennon. "You have undoubtedly made somearrangements. You wouldn't come here--oh! I see. Congratulations.Handling the evidence that way was a wise course. You have myadmiration. But then I should have known that I was not dealing with afool." He smiled wryly. "Subconsciously I think I did know--but--"

  "That's one consolation," Kennon grinned. "To be thought a rascal is badenough, but to be considered a fool is intolerable."

  "But your decision not to use the evidence unless you were forcedto--that's poor business."

  "But good morals," Kennon said. "Neither the Brotherhood nor I couldsettle this affair. It is a matter only you can handle. There isno sense in killing Outworld or throwing Kardon into centuries oflitigation. The Lani never were numerous enough to lay claim to anentire world. I'll admit the club is there, but I'll never use it unlessit's necessary."

  "Why not?--it's sound business practice."

  "I'm a professional--not a businessman. And besides, I haven't the moralright to return evil for good. You have not been a bad boss."

  "Thanks," Alexander said glumly. "I've always considered myselfcivilized."

  "I wouldn't go so far as to say that," Kennon said. "Honorable,yes--civilized, no. But none of us are really civilized."

  "So?"

  "We haven't changed much, despite our development. Perhaps we've varieda little physically--and we've learned to use new tools, but our mindsare still the minds of barbarians--blood brothers against the enemy, andeverything not of us is enemy. Savages--hiding under a thin veneerof superficial culture. Savages with spaceships and the atom." Kennonlooked down at Copper. Apparently her thoughts were miles away in anintrospective world that was all her own. She had said her piece andhaving done that was content to let the two men develop it. Kennonlooked at her with odd respect. Alexander eyed her with a mildlystartled expression on his lean face. And both men smiled, but thesmiles were not amused.

  "Judging from Copper," Alexander said, "I don't think we'll have toworry about how the Lani will turn out." He looked at Kennon with mildsympathy. "You are going to have quite a time with her," he said.

  "I suppose so. I'll probably never know whether I'm guided or whetherI'm doing the guiding. I've changed a lot of my opinions about Coppersince the day I met her."

  Copper looked up and smiled at them. It was an odd smile, hinting atsecrets neither of them would ever know. Alexander chuckled. "It servesyou right." He crossed his legs and looked up at Kennon standing beforehim. By some uncanny legerdemain he had gotten control of himselfand the situation at the same time. Being telepathic was an unfairadvantage, Kennon thought.

  "You were equally unfair with your accusation," Alexander said."Sure--humanity makes mistakes, and like this one they're sometimesbrutal mistakes. But we are capable of atonement. Morally we have come along way from the brutality of the Interregnum. I shouldn't have to useexamples, but look at that"--he waved at the view wall at the panoramaof gleaming fairy towers and greenery that made Beta City one of themost beautiful in the Brotherhood. "Don't tell me that five thousandyears of peace and development haven't produced civilization. That's aconcrete example out there."

  "It isn't," Kennon said flatly. "Sure, it's pretty--clean--andbeautifully designed for art and utility--but it isn't civilization.You're confusing technology with culture. You look at this and say,'What a great civilization man has built,' when you really mean, 'Whata great technology mankind has developed.' There's all the difference inthe world. Technology is of the mind and hands. Civilization is of thespirit--and spiritually we are still in the Dark Ages.

  "We conquer, kill, loot, and enslave. We establish standards to keephumanity a closed corporation, a special club in which men can live butaliens can't. We've made the standards for admission so rigid thatwe even enslave our own kind and call them animals. That's notcivilization--that's savagery!

  "For nearly five hundred years your family has run a slave pen. Yourfortune is based upon it. And you have perpetuated this traffic in fleshon the specious reasoning that a court judgment of half a millennium agois as good today as when it was handed down. Never once did anyone havethe moral courage to re-examine that old decision. Never once did anyhuman question the rightness of that decision. None of us are immune.We all based our conduct upon an antiquated law and searched no further.Everyone was happy with the status quo--or at least not so unhappy thatthey wanted to change it. Even I would have been content had it not beenfor Copper."

  "Yet I do not feel that it was bad that I hired you," Alexander said."Even though you have shown me that I am a slaver, and made me seefaults I never knew I had." His face was drawn--harsh lines reached fromnose to lips, from eyes to chin. Suddenly he looked old. "I can acceptcensure if censure is just. And this is just. No--I'm not sorry I hiredyou even though the thought of what I have helped do to the Lani makesme sick to my stomach."

  "Well--" Kennon said. "What are you going to do about it?"

  "I don't know," Alexander said. "At the first smell of trouble, theFamily will turn tail and run. You can break the company, and I won'tstand in your way. It's only just. You're the one who's carrying theball. Now run with it."

  "That damned blind spot," Kennon said. "You realize, of course, thatyou're not legally liable. It was a mistake. All you have to do is admitthe error and start from there. Naturally--no reasonable intelligencewould expect that you change the older Lani. They're too old
for eitheragerone or change. It would be both cruel and inhuman to turn themloose. It's with the youngsters that you can work--those who arephysically and physiologically young enough to derive benefit fromagerone and education.

  "As I remember, you bought a planet called Phoebe. Now why don't you--"

  "Phase out! Of course! But that means that you can't press charges."

  "Why should I? I'm not one of these starry-eyed reformers who expectto change things overnight. It's the future of the Lani race that'simportant, And Brainard agrees with me. A phase-out is the propersolution. Change the education, let males be born--teach the young tothink instead of to obey. Give them Phoebe for a home--they never ownedall of Kardon anyway. And within a century or two we will have a newgroup of the human race--and then we can tell the Brotherhood."

  Kennon looked inquiringly at Copper. She smiled and nodded. "It wouldcause less trouble that way," she said. "It would be more sure--andthere are never too many old ones."

  Kennon shuddered, thinking of the euthanasia chambers on Otpen One."There will be more from now on," he said.

  "Outworld can afford it. It'll bend us a little but we won't break--andbesides, the Lani will need our help for some time to come." Alexanderlooked at Kennon. "Can we make an agreement that all parties willrespect?" he asked.

  "I think so--providing there are no sleeper clauses in it," Kennon said.

  "There won't be," Alexander said.

  And there weren't.

  * * *

  It was a private ceremony. The Family, sulky and unwilling, faced witha choice of drastically reduced income or outright confiscation andpreferring a portion of a loaf to none. Alexander--grim but oddlypeaceful of expression. Brainard--pink-cheeked and emotionless. Kennonand Copper--happily conscious that it was at last finished. It was anoddly assorted group of conspirators who planned to restore a segment ofhumanity to the human race.

  Kennon signed last, and as he did, Alexander looked at him with a slygrin distorting the smooth pallor of his face.

  "You forgot something," he said.

  "What?" Kennon said--aware suddenly that something was wrong.

  "What do you plan to do, now that this is over?"

  "Join the Medical Center here and practice veterinary medicine."

  "You wouldn't care to work for me--to help rebuild the wreckage you'vehelped create? I'll need a manager on Kardon to phase out the islandwhile we phase in Phoebe."

  "No, thank you. I've had enough of that."

  "You just think you have," Alexander said gleefully. "That's what youhave forgotten. You've gotten your agreement--now you will satisfy me.As I see it you have breached your contract by leaving Flora withoutauthorization."

  "That is right," Kennon said. A small lump of lead began to grow rapidlylarger in his stomach. Brainard was grinning and Copper's eyes wereshining. "You've been jobbed!" his mind told him. He sighed. He knewwhat was coming next.

  "The punitive clause for breach of contract," Alexander went oninexorably, "is very broad. Discretion is vested in the entrepreneur. Ican obtain judgment against you in any court on any planet."

  "I know," Kennon said glumly.

  "But I am going to be civilized," Alexander said. "I am going to bemerciful. I am going to extend your contract until phase-out has beencompleted. You are going to have control of the entire Kardon phase ofthe operation. It's poetic justice--you made the mess--now you can cleanit up."

  "That's inhuman!"

  "Humanity has nothing to do with it. It's justice," Alexander said. Hesmiled at Copper's radiant face. The thought of going home was good toher. "Good luck on your new job, Dr. Kennon," he said. "And welcome tothe brotherhood of the ulcer."