V.
Leonid Plekhanov returned to the _Pedagogue_ with a certain ceremony. Hewas accompanied by Joe Chessman, Natt Roberts and Barry Watson of hisoriginal group, but four young, hard-eyed, hard-faced and armed Tulanswere also in the party. Their space lighter swooped in, nestled to the_Pedagogue's_ hull in the original bed it had occupied on the trip fromTerra City, and her port opened to the corridors of the mother ship.
Plekhanov, flanked by Chessman and Watson, strode heavily toward theship's lounge. Natt Roberts and two of the Tulans remained with thesmall boat. Two of the other natives followed, their eyes darting here,there, in amazement, in spite of their efforts to appear grim anduntouched by it all.
Amschel Mayer was already seated at the officer's dining table. His facedisplayed his irritation at the other's method of presenting himself."Good Heavens, Plekhanov, what is this, an invasion?"
The other registered surprise.
Mayer indicated the Texcocans. "Do you think it necessary to bring armedmen aboard the _Pedagogue_? Frankly, I have not even revealed to asingle Genoese the existence of the ship."
Jerry Kennedy was seated to one side, the only member of Mayer's teamwho had accompanied him for this meeting. Kennedy winked at Watson andChessman. Watson grinned back but held his peace.
Plekhanov sank into a chair, rumbling, "We hold no secrets from theTexcocans. The sooner they advance to where they can use our librariesand laboratories, the better. And the fact these boys are armed has nosignificance. My Tulans are currently embarked on a campaign to unitethe planet. Arms are sometimes necessary, and Tula, my capital, issomewhat of an armed camp. All able-bodied men--"
Mayer broke in heatedly, "And is this the method you use to bringcivilization to Texcoco? Is this what you consider the purpose of theOffice of Galactic Colonization? An armed camp! How many persons haveyou slaughtered thus far?"
"Easy," Joe Chessman growled.
Amschel Mayer spun on him. "I need no instruction from you, Chessman.Please remember I'm senior in charge of this expedition and as such rankyou."
Plekhanov thudded a heavy hand on the table. "I'll call my assistants toorder, Mayer, if I feel it necessary. Admittedly, when this expeditionleft Terra City you were the ranking officer. Now, however, we'vedivided--at your suggestion, please remember. Now there are twoindependent groups and you no longer have jurisdiction over mine."
"Indeed!" Mayer barked. "And suppose I decide to withhold the use of the_Pedagogue's_ libraries and laboratories to you? I tell you,Plekhanov--"
Leonid Plekhanov interrupted him coldly. "I would not suggest youattempt any such step, Mayer."
Mayer glared but suddenly reversed himself. "Let's settle down andbecome more sensible. This is the first conference of the five we havescheduled. Ten years have elapsed. Actually, of course, we've had someidea of each other's progress since team members occasionally meet ontrips back here to the _Pedagogue_ to consult the library. I am afraid,my dear Leonid, that your theories on industrialization are rapidlybeing proven inaccurate."
"Nonsense!"
Mayer said smoothly, "In the decade past, my team's efforts have morethan tripled the Genoese industrial potential. Last week one of oursteamships crossed the second ocean. We've located petroleum and thefirst wells are going down. We've introduced a dozen crops that haddisappeared through misadventure to the original colonists. And, oh yes,our first railroad is scheduled to begin running between Bari and Rondanext spring. There are six new universities and in the next decade Iexpect fifty more."
"Very good, indeed," Plekhanov grumbled.
"Only a beginning. The breath of competition, of unharnessed enterpriseis sweeping Genoa. Feudalism crumbles. Customs, mores and traditionsthat have held up progress for a century or more are now on their wayout."
Joe Chessman growled, "Some of the boys tell me you've had a fewdifficulties with this crumbling feudalism thing. In fact, didn'tBuchwald barely escape with his life when the barons on your westerncontinent united to suppress all chartered cities?"
Mayer's thin face darkened. "Never fear, my dear Joseph, those baronsresponsible for shedding the blood of western hemisphere elements ofprogress will shortly pay for their crimes."
"You've got military problems too, then?" Barry Watson asked.
Mayer's eyes went to him in irritation. "Some of the free cities ofGenoa are planning measures to regain their property and rights on thewestern hemisphere. This has nothing to do with my team, except, ofcourse, in so far as they might sell them supplies or equipment."
The lanky Watson laughed lowly, "You mean like selling them a fewquick-firing breech-loaders and trench mortars?"
Plekhanov muttered, "That'll be enough, Barry."
But Mayer's eyes had widened. "How did you know?" He whirled onPlekhanov. "You're spying on my efforts, trying to negate my work!"
Plekhanov rumbled, "Don't be a fool, Mayer. My team has neither the timenor interest to spy on you."
"Then how did you know--"
Barry Watson said mildly, "I was doing some investigation in the ship'slibrary. I ran into evidence that you people had already used theblueprints for breech-loaders and mortars."
Jerry Kennedy came to his feet and rambled over to the messroom's bar."This seems to be all out spat, rather than a conference to compareprogress," he said. "Anybody for a drink? Frankly, that's the next thingI'm going to introduce to Genoa, some halfway decent likker. Do you knowwhat those benighted heathens drink now?"
Watson grinned. "Make mine whisky, Jerry. You've no complaints. Ourbenighted heathens have a national beverage fermented from a plantsimilar to cactus. Ought to be drummed out of the human race."
He spoke idly, forgetful of the Tulan guards stationed at the doorway.
* * * * *
Kennedy passed drinks around for everyone save Mayer, who shook his headin distaste. If only for a brief spell, some of the tenseness left theair while the men from Earth sipped their beverages.
Jerry Kennedy said, "Well, you've heard our report. How go things onTexcoco?"
"According to plan," Plekhanov rumbled.
Mayer snorted.
Plekhanov said ungraciously, "Our prime effort is now the uniting of thetotal population into one strong whole, a super-state capable ofaccomplishing the goals set us by the Co-ordinator."
Mayer sneered, "Undoubtedly, this goal of yours, this super-state, isbeing established by force."
"Not always," Joe Chessman said. "Quite a few of the tribes join up ontheir own. Why not? The State has a lot to offer."
"Such as what?" Kennedy said mildly.
Chessman looked at him in irritation. "Such as advanced medicine,security from famine, military protection from more powerful nations.The opportunity for youth to get an education and find advancement inthe State's government--if they've got it on the ball."
"And what happens if they don't _have it on the ball_?"
Chessman growled, "What happens to such under any society? They get thedirty-end-of-the-stick jobs." His eyes went from Kennedy to Mayer. "Areyou suggesting you offer anything better?"
Mayer said, "Already on most of Genoa it is a matter of freecompetition. The person with ability is able to profit from it."
Joe Chessman grunted sour amusement. "Of course, it doesn't help to bethe son of a wealthy merchant or a big politician."
Plekhanov took over. "In _any_ society the natural leaders come to thetop in much the same manner as the big ones come to the top in a bin ofpotatoes, they just work their way up."
Jerry Kennedy finished his drink and said easily, "At least, those atthe top can claim they're the biggest potatoes. Remember back in thetwentieth century when Hitler and his gang announced they were the bigpotatoes in Germany and men of Einstein's stature fled thecountry--being small potatoes, I suppose."
Amschel Mayer said, "We're getting away from the point. Pray go on, mydear Leonid. You say you are forcibly uniting all Texcoco."
"We are uniting all
Texcoco," Plekhanov corrected with a scowl. "Notalways by force. And that is by no means our only effort. We areferreting out the most intelligent of the assimilated peoples andeducating them as rapidly as possible. We've introduced iron ..."
"And use it chiefly for weapons," Kennedy murmured.
"... Antibiotics and other medicines, a field agriculture, are rapidlybuilding roads ..."
"Military roads," Kennedy mused.
"... To all sections of the State, have made a beginning in navalscience, and, of course, haven't ignored the arts."
"On the face of it," Mayer nodded, "hardly approaching Genoa."
Plekhanov rumbled indignantly, "We started two ethnic periods behindyou. Even the Tulans were still using bronze, but the Genoese had ironand even gunpowder. Our advance is a bit slow to get moving, Mayer, butwhen it begins to roll--"
Mayer gave his characteristic snort. "A free people need never worryabout being passed by a subjected one."
Barry Watson made himself another drink and while doing so looked overhis shoulder at Amschel Mayer. "It's interesting the way you throw aboutthat term _free_. Just what type of government do you sponsor?"
Mayer snapped, "Our team does not interfere in governmental forms,Watson. The various nations are free to adapt to whatever localconditions obtain. They range from some under feudalistic domination tocountries with varying degrees of republican democracy. Our base ofoperations in the southern hemisphere is probably the most advanced ofall the chartered cities, Barry. It amounts to a city-state somewhatsimilar to Florence during the Renaissance."
"And your team finds itself in the position of the Medici, I imagine."
"You might use that analogy. The Medici might have been, well, tyrantsof Florence, dominating her finances and trade as well as her politicalgovernment, but they were benevolent tyrants."
"Yeah," Watson grinned. "The thing about a benevolent tyranny, though,is that it's up to the tyrants to decide what's benevolent. I'm not sosure there's a great basic difference between your governing of Genoaand ours of Texcoco."
"Don't be an ass," Mayer snapped. "We are granting the Genoese politicalfreedoms as fast as they can assimilate them."
Joe Chessman growled, "But I imagine it's surprising to find just howslowly they can assimilate. A moment ago you said they were free to formany government they wished. Now you say you feed them what you callfreedom, only so fast as they can assimilate it."
"Obviously we encourage them along whatever path we think will mostquickly develop their economies," Mayer argued. "That's what we've beensent here to do. We stimulate competition, encourage all progress,political as well as economic."
Plekhanov lumbered to his feet. "Amschel, obviously nothing new has beenadded to our respective positions by this conference. I propose weadjourn to meet again at the end of the second decade."
Mayer said, "I suppose it would be futile to suggest you give up thisimpossible totalitarian scheme of yours and reunite the expedition."
Plekhanov merely grunted his disgust.
Jerry Kennedy said, "One thing. What stand have you taken on giving yourplanet immortality?"
"Immortality?" Watson said. "We haven't it to give."
"You know what I mean. It wouldn't take long to extend the life spandouble or triple the present."
Amschel Mayer said, "At this stage progress is faster with thegenerations closer together. A man is pressed when he knows he has onlytwenty or thirty years of peak efficiency. We on Earth are inclined tosettle back and take life as it comes; you younger men are all past thecentury mark, but none have bothered to get married as yet."
"Plenty of time for that," Watson grinned.
"That's what I mean. But a Texcocan or Genoese feels pressed to wed inhis twenties, or earlier, to get his family under way."
"There's another element," Plekhanov muttered. "The more the nativesprogress the more nearly they'll equal our abilities. I wouldn't wantanything to happen to our overall plans. As it is now, their abilitiestaper off at sixty and they reach senility at seventy or eighty. I thinkuntil the end we should keep it this way."
"A cold-blooded view," Kennedy said. "If we extended their lifeexpectancy, their best men would live to be of additional use to planetdevelopment."
"But they would not have our dream," Plekhanov rumbled. "Such men mighttry to subvert us, and, just possibly, might succeed."
"I think Leonid is right," Mayer admitted with reluctance.
* * * * *
Later, in the space lighter heading back for Genoa, Mayer saidspeculatively, "Did you notice anything about Leonid Plekhanov?"
Kennedy was piloting. "He seems the same irascible old curmudgeon he'salways been."
"It seems to me he's become a touch power mad. Could the pressures he'sunder cause his mind to slip? Obviously, all isn't peaches and cream inthat attempt of his to achieve world government on Texcoco."
"Well," Kennedy muttered, "all isn't peaches and cream with us, either.The barons are far from licked, especially in the west." He changed thesubject. "By the way, that banking deal went through in Pola. I was ableto get control."
"Fine," Mayer chuckled. "You must be quite the richest man in the city.There is a certain stimulation in this financial game, Jerry, isn'tthere?"
"Uh huh," Jerry told him. "Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a markeddeck."
"Marked deck?" the other frowned.
"It's handy that gold is the medium of exchange on Genoa," Jerry Kennedysaid. "Especially in view of the fact that we have a machine on the shipcapable of transmuting metals."