by John Brunner
But should she recommend to Theng that their precious future charges be expended on yet more automatic linkup systems, in the hope of making that "moon" habitable by more people than the schedule called for, or should priority be given to this new scheme to win time by crashing on the wild planetoid a load of rockeater spawn modified to digest it into dust? Now it was crossing the orbit of Stolidchurl, so even if all went perfectly the encounter could not occur earlier than when it reached the distance of Steadyman...
Life at Slah had grown hard over the past five years.
But there were others it had treated worse. She didn't look up at the visitor who entered her bower in the control-house. A familiar aroma preceded him, tinged with mingled rage and weariness. As soon as she could, she uttered a greeting, and was horrified to see, as he slumped into a crotch, how limp Karg's posture had become.
"I heard how you were received at Hulgrapuk," she said.
"No worse than last time," he sighed. "Same old story! 'There's no means of avoiding the impact of this greater-than-greatest meteorite, so...!' But I do have some good news. I bet you won't guess where it's from."
"Fregwil," she offered, intending a joke.
"Correct. Quelf's coming here."
Reflexively she rose to full height. "Incredible! Why?"
"Officially they're talking about a fact-finding mission. Our local informants say different. There's likely to be a revolution at Fregwil if the city officials don't start actively helping our project."
Albumarak slowly subsided. "There are some kinds of aid we'd be better off without," she muttered.
"Don't I know it!" Karg winced, flexing his regrown pad; it continued to give pain, especially when he was under stress. "As we came in to land, I had a fine view of the campfuls of 'volunteers' outside the city. I gather they're proving more of a nuisance than a blessing."
"Our propaganda has been too successful. They expect to be lofted into orbit right away. When they find out their role only involves making sure there are enough raw materials, enough food, enough of everything that has to be at a given place at a given time, they turn nasty on us."
"Figures. But they're leaving Hulgrapuk in droves, you know. And the exodus from Fregwil is scaring Quelf and the rest of her coterie. Their young people are simply moving out, flying here if they can, or taking passage on any old barq or junq that might carry them to Slah. I saw the port at Fregwil. I think a lot of them may get drowned."
After a pause Albumarak said, "I've been asked if I'd like to go to orbit one of these days."
"Grab the chance! I still dream of how wonderful it would have been if I—"
"But everything is still theory! We're investing this colossal effort, and we still haven't sent anybody into space, let alone proved that folk can survive up there!"
Rigid as a rock but for the flexing of his mantle as he spoke, Karg said, "I'd have proved it. I didn't insist on waiting until your huge new complex had been spun up to a rate that will mimic gravity. My chance was stolen from me!"
"Everybody knows that!"
"Everyone except you seems to have forgotten!"
And he erected and stormed out.
For a moment Albumarak thought of rushing after him, to offer consolation. She abandoned the idea. She had come to know him intimately since arriving at Slah, and when a mood like this overcame him there was small point in arguing. Besides, she had more urgent matters on her mind.
Calmly she activated the nervograp that connected her with Theng's bower, and dictated to a recordimal: "Data at claw indicate that we cannot modify rockeater spores in sufficient quantities to demolish the wild planetoid prior to estimated encounter time." She hesitated, then went on, "It is my opinion that far more effort should be directed towards ensuring that the conditions we are establishing for survival in orbit are actually survivable up to and including reproduction of the species! Because otherwise we're done for ... aren't we?"
But the prospect of making an alliance with Fregwil was too good to miss. If the resources of Prutaj were put at Slah's disposal, within a decade most of what the space-planners hoped for could be brought about. Fevered discussions ensued, in which Albumarak resolutely declined to take part, ostensibly on the grounds that she had been away from home too long, in fact because she still hated Quelf's pith.
Obviously, a special demonstration had to be laid on to coincide with Quelf's visit, and in a fit of the same kind of exasperation which had plagued her youth Albumarak suggested they might as well loft her into orbit. Both Theng and Yull vetoed that at once; they maintained she had too many useful skills to let her risk her life. Yet she garnered the impression that someone, at least, had taken her seriously.
She forced herself to continue her normal daily duties, wondering constantly whether she had been wrong to advise against the rockeater project, whether someone had miscalculated the wild planetoid's orbital velocity, whether...
Her mind remained incessantly in turmoil. Talking to Omber, talking to Karg now that he was back from the latest of his trips around the world to recruit support—nothing helped, until the dark when Karg said acutely, "You would flee into space, wouldn't you, if it meant escaping Quelf and the memory of shame you brought here?"
That made her laugh at herself, and she said as she embraced him fondly, "Had it not been for the wild planetoid, we would have paired by now. I'd like your bud!"
"I know!" A shadow fell across his words. "You were correct to say we don't know whether we can survive as well as our creatures do in space. I wouldn't curse a budling with deformity—yet evolution must compel it, no?"
"Our distant ancestors..."
"Exactly. They were very different from ourselves."
She pondered that.
The floater from Prutaj that brought in Quelf and her party was larger and clawsomer than any other at Slah's touchdown-ground. Albumarak had begged to be excused from the official welcome party, but she was unable to resist joining the crowd which gathered to witness this unprecedented visit. Polite applause greeted Quelf's appearance—from those who had somehow missed hearing about what she had done to Karg, she thought sourly. But when she recognized the second person who descended from the floater, she could control herself no longer.
"Presthin!" she shouted, and rushed towards her.
"That same," came the dry response. "I felt it was high time I said hello to Karg. We never met properly, remember?"
"I must introduce you at once! If he's here, that is. I haven't seen him, but then he has small reason to love Quelf." Albumarak glanced around, but was abruptly reminded that there were formalities to get through; Quelf was fixing her with the same withering glare she had learned to know so well when she was still a lowly student at Fregwil.
"Later!" she whispered as Yull and Theng led Quelf towards the waiting loudeners ... exactly at the moment when a chorus of execration thundered forth from half the crowd.
Of course! Who more likely to turn up today than those who had quit Fregwil in fury at its rulers' indolence?
Suddenly there was chaos. Albumarak clenched her claws as the speeches of welcome were drowned out. But Presthin only said, "Sometimes I wonder whether this species we belong to can be worth preserving..."
Eventually order was restored, and Yull and Theng were able to utter a few generalizations about the value of cooperation between Slah and Fregwil. Then Quelf launched into a carefully planned address, praising the astronomers who had located the wild planetoid and the efforts of those who for so long had been reaching out towards the stars.
"Hypocrite!" Albumarak muttered.
"Oh, no. She means precisely what she says," countered Presthin. "It's finally penetrated her pith that if there is another giant meteorite strike in a few years' time, she won't be more immune than anybody else. Just listen to the conclusion of her speech. She's been rehearsing it on the way here."
Albumarak composed herself. Quelf was saying, "—and if you prove you can actually keep the folk a
live in space, as you have for so long been promising, then you may rely on our supplying both materiel ... and personnel!"
"She's as bad as the volunteers in the camps!" Albumarak cried. "She expects us to send her into orbit!"
"It might be a good way of getting rid of her," said Presthin caustically.
The crowd erupted again, and this time individual shouts were discernible: "About time! What were you saying five years ago? Couldn't you have led instead of following? What were you made Jingfired for?"
Reeking with anger, Quelf bent towards Yull. Albumarak barely caught what she said; it sounded like, "This rowdy reception is no advertisement for your city!"
Turning ever so slightly, just enough for the loudeners to pick up her words, Yull countered, "Normally, at Slah, we don't waste time on this sort of ceremonial. We have urgent work to do. Apparently you've not acquired that habit."
Quelf towered, exuding combat-stink. But Yull's point had registered with the crowd and delighted everyone else within hearing, not just the Fregwil expatriates. A burst of hilarity allowed Theng to claim the loudeners.
"I'm sure you're all anxious," she stated with heavy irony, "to hear more of what our guest has to say. Regrettably"—a well-timed pause— "we've arranged a demonstration of precisely the kind she wishes to see, and it's overdue, so ... A scudder is waiting, Scholar Quelf. Do come this way!"
X
Albumarak was unable to avoid being caught up in the exodus towards the space-site, though she and Presthin did at least manage to mount the scudder behind Quelf's.
"Still no sign of Karg?" the goadster inquired.
"No, but ... Well, I haven't seen him around much lately, anyhow. Not since the news of Quelf's visit broke."
"Can't say I blame him," Presthin grunted. Surveying the scenery, she went on, "So this is the city you prefer to your own. What's life like here, that it attracts you so?"
"I used to wonder what attracted you to the highlands. I found my own equivalent at Slah. Life is much harder and we enjoy many fewer luxuries. But there's a sense of purpose in the air, a feeling that we're all working towards the best possible goal. Also our leaders aren't so ... I don't quite know how to define it. Maybe I should just say that nobody like Quelf could wield such influence at Slah."
"All by itself that explains why you like the place," Presthin said dryly. Craning for a better view, she added, "And that must be your space-launcher, right?"
In a dead straight line at the circle/23 angle, the giant tube sloped sunsetward up the mountain they were passing. At its base a cylinder was being readied for launch. Presthin gazed at it long and hard.
"I've seen images," she said at last, "but the reality is something else. How long is it now?"
"Ten padlonglaqs. We just extended it. But it's been launching cylinders successfully since it was only half that length."
"And you're going to dispatch another specially for us. What sort?"
"I don't know," Albumarak muttered.
"I thought you were among the top scientists here now!"
"Yes, but—well, frankly, Presthin, I didn't want anything to do with making Quelf welcome. I said as much, and they respected my wishes."
Their scudder checked and dropped off the branchway just behind the one carrying Quelf. Yull, compelling herself to be polite, ushered the Fregwil delegation towards the control-house. Contriving to fall back a little, Theng muttered to Albumarak, "No wonder you dislike your old teacher so much! She must be the vainest and most self-important person on the planet! Do you know what she was saying on the way here? Because it was her team that developed the loss-free circuit, we ought to have invited somebody from Fregwil to supervise the construction of the launcher and dictate what missions were flown with it!"
"We're not all like Quelf," Presthin countered.
"Ah ... No, of course." Theng exuded embarrassment. "I spoke out of turn. I'm sorry. Well, we'd better go inside, or we shall miss the launch-gap."
"Is Karg around? Presthin would like to say hello."
Theng's expression changed to one of utter surprise. She started to say something, but it was drowned out by the racket of a klaxonplant, warning everybody on the site to prepare for launch. The acceleration imparted to a space-cylinder was relatively gentle now, and created less overpressure than a driver test, but there was still a sonic boom to brace oneself against.
"Inside!" Theng directed, and they hastened to obey.
By now so many launches had occurred, they were reduced to a matter of routine, but this one was made different by Quelf and her companions, who were wandering around demanding the function of this, that and the other device, and on being told declaring that they would have organized things otherwise. Yull withstood the temptation as long as possible, but at last erupted in ill-disguised annoyance.
"Permit me to remind our distinguished visitors that from this site we have achieved four-score successful orbital missions employing gas-globes, and twice that number using the sparkforce launcher! I submit this as evidence for the correctness of our approach!"
Albumarak could guess the nature of Quelf's retort before it was uttered. She was right.
"And you still haven't proved that the folk can survive in space. Have you?"
Her tone was harsh, yet unmistakably her exudations contradicted it. She wanted to be told there was an escape from this endangered planet; she simply didn't want anybody but herself to be the one who gained the credit for making it possible.
Her posture eloquent of disdain, Yull snapped her claw against a far-speaker hanging from a nearby branch. At once a voice rang out.
"On-hauq status is go! I've been ready for ages—how much longer do you plan to keep me waiting?"
Karg!
Albumarak padded half a step towards Yull, but Theng caught her by the mantle's edge.
"Did you really not know?" she demanded.
"I haven't seen him for nearly a moonlong!"
But there was no time to say anything else. Yull was turning to the visitors again.
"I am about to give the launch command. You will oblige us by remaining still and saying nothing as from—now!"
First the long straight tube began to hum. Apart from its size, in appearance this launcher was not so different from the ranks of rings which once had served to guide under test the primitive drivers known to Chybee, three generations ago. But it operated on a very different principle. Both the amount of sparkforce it could withstand and the subtlety of its controls bore witness to the unstinting effort of its creators, who had condensed five-score years' worth of development into less than five.
After the humming came the glow. No matter how perfect the insulation of the circuits, there was always a trace of energy that leaked out as light, because matter was matter and would be so until the universe's end. Ideally it should have been enclosed by vacuum, but the best that could be done was to create a low-pressure zone within the tube. The necessary pumping made a low and grumbling noise.
The cylinder, at this point, began to stir. The charge upon it was enough to counteract its weight.
Inevitably, all communication ceased.
"Why did you let him?" Albumarak whispered to Yull.
"It was a promise," she replied elliptically.
"But he's a cripple!"
"Yes..." Yull was scanning the remotes; they were as normal as for any launch. "You never paired, did you?"
"We've always wanted to, but after hearing about the wild planetoid we both agreed it was too risky to start budding. But what does that have to do with—? Oh! No!"
"I think you worked it out. He'd never have told you, or anyone, but of course he couldn't keep it from the doctors who treated him after his return. He thinks the reason he can't pair anymore wasn't due to frostbite, but to something done to him at Fregwil, maybe under Quelf's instructions. Those who regard other folk as their inferiors—No time for more! Slack down! You visitors, copy us! There's going to be a very loud noise!"
A lesson that she clearly well deserved.
The air was full of a familiar grinding noise, like the sound of pebbles on a headland fidgeting under the impact of the tide. This was always the most fearful moment. The launcher, if it failed, would do so now, when the charge on both the cylinder and the tube was at its peak.
No one was watching. No one could watch. All must be reported through sensors and monitors, at which Albumarak stared achingly. All normal—all normal—GO!
She struggled to remember that Karg had lived underwater, that he had survived frostbite, that he had resisted conditioning, that he had retained enough self-control not to become embittered at losing his chance of pairing, and indeed had lived half his life in the hope of just this opportunity. But then the sonic boom made the control-house rock, and he was gone.
When the echoes died away there was another noise: Quelf moaning. It was, as Albumarak had half expected, beneath her dignity to slump on the ground like everybody else. She had no doubt ruptured some unimportant tubule, which would heal. The rest of the company seemed to have reached the same conclusion, for no one was paying attention to her.
"How long do we have to wait before we hear from him?" Presthin asked.
"Oh, quite a while." Yull curled her mantle in a cryptic grin. "But then it won't just be us; it will be everyone who hears from him. Let's go outside. There's very little cloud. We should be able to see his drivers fire."
Leaving Quelf to worry about herself, they quit the control-house. A number of portable telescopes had been provided; Presthin appropriated one at once.
She said what she had said before: "On Prutaj, you know, we aren't all as bad as Quelf!"