A World Called Crimson
Page 5
like the idea--" Charlie began.
"That's silly. If we have to find them before there's trouble, we haveto find them. Well, don't we?"
Charlie gave her an uncertain nod. He had grown up with her and had seenher every day of his life, but every time he took a good look at her, atthe lovely face and the tawny, long-limbed form ill-concealed by thegold-mesh garments, it took his breath away. Although in a sense a wholeworld was his plaything, he had never seen anything so lovely. Finallyhe said, "I guess you're too logical for me. Take care of her, Tashtu."
"With my life, Lord," the Indian vowed as the group broke up. Robin ranto Charlie and hugged him, kissing his cheek half playfully, half inearnest.
"You be careful, too," she said, and went off with Tashtu and several ofthe braves.
* * * * *
Naturally she was excited. She knew more about spacemen than Charliedid. She had read the encyclopedia more carefully, hadn't she? Shewondered what the spacemen would be like. She couldn't help wondering itbecause the only man she had ever known, except for those they hadcreated, was Charlie. Of course, she hadn't told Charlie this in so manywords, but she felt, had always felt, vaguely and now felt clearly, thatbefore she could settle down contentedly with Charlie, she would have toknow something of the world beyond Crimson. And there was a vastworld--a multitude of worlds--beyond Crimson. She knew that. Theencyclopedia mentioned all of them but did not mention Crimson at all.
They walked for several minutes through green forest, and then abruptlycame to the edge of the Wild Country. Even the idea of the Wild Countrybrought an eagerness to Robin's limbs and made her walk more rapidly.The Wild Country was unknown, wasn't it? They had created it withoutknowing quite what they were creating, and had never explored it.
She went ahead with Tashtu over the rocks and crushed pumice. No windsblew in Wild Country. The air was neither hot nor cold. The landscapeseemed changeless and eternal, as if it had been that way since beforethe dawn of history, although actually Charlie and Robin had created itonly a few years before.
They forged on for two hours, Tashtu following the easily read spoor inthe pumice. They came at last to a low crater wall, where the spoordisappeared. At first Tashtu was confused, but then he pointed to thetop, several hundred feet above their heads. Robin caught a glimpse oftawny skin and feathers and buckskin in the sunlight.
"Haloo!" Tashtu called, and some of the braves above them whirled, allspeaking excitedly in the clumsy English which was the only tongue theyknew.
"Huragpha slay monster," they said. "Capture other monster. But thensee ..." the words drifted off into silence. Obviously, the Indians wereperplexed. "You come, see. Monster, him bleed like man."
At Tashtu's side, Robin rushed up the steep rocky slope. When theyreached the top, breathless and all but exhausted, Robin put her hand toher mouth with a little cry of horror.
* * * * *
There was a dead man stretched out on the rock there, two arrowstransfixing his chest through the fabric of his spacesuit. The spacesuithad probably frightened the Indians, but he was a man all right. Hadthey been closer, even the Indians would have known that. That poorman.... Why, he was hardly more than a boy.
Spacemen!
And there was another, surrounded now by several of the Indians. "Himprisoner," said the Indian called Huragpha a little uncertainly.
Robin walked over to the man in the spacesuit. He was a big man, evenbigger than Charlie. He looked very strong, but the spacesuit might havebeen deceptive. He looked frightened, but not terrified.
"Are you really a spaceman?" Robin asked.
Glaudot said: "Well, so one of you can speak more than a few grunts.That's something." He looked carefully at Robin. "Beautiful, too," hesaid. The way he said it was not a compliment. It was an objectivestatement of fact.
"I know it won't help to say I'm sorry about your friend. Words won'thelp, I guess. But--"
"Yeah," Glaudot said. "All right. He's dead. I can't bring him back andyou can't bring him back, sister."
"I'm not your sister," Robin said.
Glaudot told her it was a way of speaking. He couldn't quite believe hisears. She spoke English as well as he did, which was incredible enoughhere on a world halfway across the galaxy. But he got the impressionthat she was almost fantastically naive. Yet the Indians--and,incredibly, they were Indians--seemed to be subservient to her, almostseemed to worship her.
Glaudot sat down on his space helmet, which he had taken off someminutes before, and said: "Are you the boss lady around here?"
"Boss lady? I don't understand."
"Are you in charge? Do you run things?"
Robin smiled and said: "I created them."
"I'm sorry. Now _I_ don't get _you_."
"I said I created them. It's very simple. My friend and I decided a verylong time ago it would be nice or interesting or I forget what, it wasso long ago, if we had some Indians. So, we created Indians."
Glaudot threw his head back and laughed. "For a minute," he said, "youalmost had me believing you." The girl was dressed like a savage, hetold himself, like a beautiful savage, but at least she had a sense ofhumor. That was something.
"But what is so funny?" Robin asked.
"You just now said--"
"I know what I said. My friend and I created the Indians. Of course.Why? Can't you create anything you want? Just anything?"
"All right, sister," Glaudot said a little angrily. He did not likebeing made fun of, for he lacked the capacity to laugh at himself. "Justhow much of a fool do you think I am?"
"Why, I don't know," Robin replied. "How much of a fool are you?"
Glaudot glared at her. Purcell was going to be one mad captain when hewas told of Chandler's death, but men had died on expeditions before andit really wasn't Glaudot's fault. At any rate he had established contactwith somebody of obvious importance among the natives, and Purcell wouldappreciate that.
"Never mind," Glaudot said.
"Tell me about being a spaceman. Do you really fly among the stars?"
"Well, yes," Glaudot said, "although it isn't really flying."
"And do you create new stars as you go along?"
* * * * *
There she went again with her talk of creation, as if creating thingsout of nothing was the commonest occurrence in the world. Glaudot stoodup. "All right, sister. Show me."
"Why, show you what?"
"Create something."
"You mean," Robin said, disappointed, "you actually can't?"
"Just go ahead and create something."
Robin shrugged. "What would you like?"
Glaudot thought for a moment. "A piano!" he said suddenly. "How about apiano?" It was complicated enough, he thought. "And while you're at it,how about telling me how come everyone speaks English--or tries to speakEnglish around here?"
Robin frowned. "Is there some other way of speaking?"
Glaudot also frowned. That line of thought wouldn't get him anywhere."O.K.," he said. "One piano coming up?"
"All right," Robin said.
Glaudot blinked. The pretty girl hadn't moved. She hadn't even changedher facial expression. But a parlor grand piano stood on the rock beforethem.
"Well, I'll be damned," Glaudot said. "What else can you create?"
"We made all the natives here. We made the green and crimson. We madethis whole Wild Country. We made some of the animals too."
"Like--the piano? Out of nothing?"
"Is there another way?"
Glaudot said, "You better come back to the ship with me. Captain'll liketo see you."
Tashtu shook his head. "The Lady Robin awaits the Lord."
Glaudot looked at Robin. "Who's that?"
"Charlie. He's just my friend. I--I don't think I have to wait for him.I've always been more interested in reading about spacemen than he has.I'll go with you now if you want."
Tashtu looked unhappy. "Lord
Charlie, he say--"
"Well, you wait right here, Tashtu, and tell Charlie where I've gone.What could be simpler? I'll be all right, don't worry about me."
"Lord Charlie, he say watch you."
"And I say I'm going with the spaceman to his spaceship."
Tashtu bowed. "The Lady has spoken," he said, and watched Robin descendthe rocky rampart and walk back with Glaudot toward the far distantglint of metal which was this spaceship they were talking