VIII.
At the decade's end, once again the representatives of the Genoese teamwere first in the _Pedagogue's_ lounge. Mayer sat at the officer'stable, Martin Gunther at his right. Jerry Kennedy leaned against theship's bar, sipping appreciatively at a highball.
They could hear the impact of the space boat from Texcoco when it slidinto its bed.
"Poor piloting," Gunther mused. "Whoever's doing that flying doesn't getenough practice."
They could hear ports opening and then the sound of approaching feet.The footsteps had a strangely military ring.
Joe Chessman entered, followed immediately by Barry Watson, Dick Hawkinsand Natt Roberts. They were all dressed in heavy uniform, complete withdecorations. Behind them were four Texcocans, including Reif and histeen-age son Taller.
Mayer scowled at them in way of greeting. "Where's Plekhanov?"
"Leonid Plekhanov is no longer with us," Chessman said dourly. "Underpressure his mind evidently snapped and he made decisions that wouldhave meant the collapse of the expedition. He resisted when we reasonedwith him."
The four members of the Genoese team stared without speaking. JerryKennedy put down his glass at last. "You mean you had to restrict him?Why didn't you bring him back to the ship!"
Chessman took a chair at the table. The others assumed standingpositions behind him. "I'm afraid we'll have to reject your views onthe subject. Twenty years ago this expedition split into two groups. Myteam will accomplish its tasks, your opinions are not needed."
Amschel Mayer glared at the others in hostility. "You have certainlycome in force this time."
Chessman said flatly, "This is all of us, Mayer."
"All of you! Where are Stevens, Cogswell, MacBride?"
Barry Watson said, "Plekhanov's fault. Lost in the battle that broke theback of the rebels. At least Cogswell and MacBride were. Stevens madethe mistake of backing Plekhanov when the showdown came."
Joe Chessman looked sourly at his military chief. "I'll act as teamspokesman, Barry."
"Yes, sir," Watson said.
"Broke the back of the rebels," Jerry Kennedy mused. "That opens allsorts of avenues, doesn't it?"
Chessman growled. "I suppose that in the past twenty years your team hadno obstacles. Not a drop of blood shed. Come on, the truth. How many ofyour team has been lost?"
Mayer shifted in his chair. "Possibly your point is well taken. Dean andRosetti were burned by the formerly dominant religious group. Rykov waskilled in a fracas with bandits while he was transporting some gold." Headded, musingly, "We lost more than half a million Genoese pounds inthat robbery."
"Only three men lost, eh?"
Mayer stirred uncomfortably, then flushed in irritation at the other'stone. "Something has happened to Buchwald and MacDonald. They must beinsane. They've broken off contact with me, are amassing personalfortunes in the eastern hemisphere."
Hawkins laughed abruptly. "Free competition," he said.
Chessman growled, "Let's halt this bickering and get to business. Firstlet me introduce Reif, Texcocan State Army Chief of Staff and his sonTaller. And these other Texcocans are Wiss and Fokin, both of whom havegone far in the sciences."
The Tulans shook hands, Earth style, but then stepped to the rear againwhere they followed the conversation without comment.
Mayer said, "You think it wise to introduce natives to the _Pedagogue_?"
"Of course," Chessman said. "Following this conference, I'm going totake Fokin and Wiss into the library. What're we here for if not tobring these people up to our level as rapidly as possible?"
"Very well," Mayer conceded grudgingly. "And now I have a complaint.When the _Pedagogue_ first arrived we had only so many weapons aboard.You have appropriated more than half in the past two decades."
Chessman shrugged it off. "We'll return the greater part to the ship'sarsenal. At this stage we are producing our own."
"I'll bet," Kennedy said. "Look, any of you fellows want a realEarthside whisky? When we were crewing this expedition, why didn't webring someone with a knowledge of distilling, brewing and such?"
Mayer snapped at him, "Jerry, you drink too much."
"The hell I do," the other said cheerfully. "Not near enough."
Barry Watson said easily, "A drink wouldn't hurt. Why're we so stiff?This is the first get-together for ten years. Jerry, you're putting onweight."
Kennedy looked down at his admittedly rounded stomach. "Don't get enoughexercise," he said, then reversed the attack. "You look older. Are yourtaking your rejuvenation treatments?"
Barry Watson grimaced. "Sure, but I'm working under pressure. It's beenone long campaign."
Kennedy passed around the drinks.
Dick Hawkins laughed. "It's been one long campaign, all right. Barry hasa house as big as a castle and six or eight women in his harem."
Watson flushed, but obviously without displeasure.
Martin Gunther, of the Genoese team, cocked his head. "Harem?"
Joe Chessman said impatiently, "Man adapts to circumstances, Gunther.The wars have lost us a lot of men. Women are consequently in a surplus.If the population curve is to continue upward, it's necessary that a manserve more than one woman. Polygamy is the obvious answer."
Gunther cleared his throat smoothly, "So a man in Barry's position willhave as many as eight wives, eh? You must have lost a _good many_ men."
Watson grinned modestly. "Everybody doesn't have that many. It'saccording to your ability to support them, and, also, rank has itsprivileges. Besides, we figure it's a good idea to spread the best seedaround. By mixing our blood with the Texcocan we improve the breed."
Behind him, Taller, the Tulan boy, stirred, without notice.
* * * * *
Kennedy finished off his highball and began to build anotherimmediately. "Here we go again. The big potatoes coming to the top."
Watson flushed. "What do you mean by that, Kennedy?"
"Oh, come off it, Barry," Kennedy laughed. "Just because you're in aposition to push these people around doesn't make you the prize stud onTexcoco."
Watson elbowed Dick Hawkins to one side in his attempt to get around thetable at the other.
Chessman rapped, "Watson! That's enough. Knock it off or I'll have youunder arrest." The Texcocan team head turned abruptly to Mayer andKennedy. "Let's stop this nonsense. We've come to compare progress.Let's begin."
The three members of the Genoese team glared back in antagonism, butthen Gunther said grudgingly, "He's right. There is no longer amiabilitybetween us, so let's forget about it. Perhaps when the fifty years isup, things will be different. Now let's merely be businesslike."
"Well," Mayer said, "our report is that progress accelerates. Ourindustrial potential expands at a rate that surprises even us. In thenear future we'll introduce the internal combustion engine. Ouruniversities still multiply and are turning out technicians, engineers,scientists at an ever-quickening speed. In several nations illiteracy ispractically unknown and per capita production increases almosteverywhere." Mayer paused in satisfaction, as though awaiting the othersto attempt to top his report.
Joe Chessman said sourly, "Ah, almost everywhere per capita productionincreases. Why _almost_?"
Mayer snapped, "Obviously, in a system of free competition, all cannotprogress at once. Some go under."
"Whole nations?"
"Temporarily whole nations can receive setbacks as a result of defeat inwar, or perhaps due to lack of natural resources. Some nations progressfaster than others."
Chessman said, "The whole Texcocan State is one great unit. Everywherethe gross product increases. Within the foreseeable future the standardof living will be excellent."
Jerry Kennedy, an alcoholic lisp in his voice now, said, "You meanyou've accomplished a planet-wide government?"
"Well, no. Not as yet," Chessman's sullen voice had an element ofchagrin in it. "However, there are no strong elements left that opposeus. We are now pacifying the more remo
te areas."
"Sounds like a rather bloody program--especially if Barry Watson, here,winds up with eight women," Martin Gunther said.
Watson started to say something but Chessman held up a restraining hand."The Texcocan State is too strong to be resisted, Gunther. It is mostlya matter of getting around to the more remote peoples. As soon as webring in a new tribe, we convert it into a commune."
"Commune!" Kennedy blurted.
Joe Chessman raised his thick eyebrows at the other. "The mostefficient socio-economic unit at this stage of development. Tribalsociety is perfectly adapted to fit into such a plan. The principaldifference between a tribe and a commune is that under the commune youhave the advantage of a State above in a position to give you thebenefit of mass industries, schools, medical assistance. In return, ofcourse, for a certain amount of taxes, military levies and so forth."
Martin Gunther said softly, "I recall reading of the commune system as astudent, but I fail to remember the supposed advantages."
Chessman growled, "They're obvious. You have a unit of tens of thousandsof persons. Instead of living in individual houses, each with a manworking while the woman cooks and takes care of the home, all live incommunity houses and take their meals in messhalls. The children arecared for by trained nurses. During the season all physically capableadults go out en masse to work the fields. When the harvest has beentaken in, the farmer does not hole up for the winter but is occupied inlocal industrial projects, or in road or dam building. The commune'slabor is never idle."
Kennedy shuddered involuntarily.
Chessman looked at him coldly. "It means quick progress. Meanwhile, wego through each commune and from earliest youth, locate those memberswho are suited to higher studies. We bring them into State schools wherethey get as much education as they can assimilate--more than isavailable in commune schools. These are the Texcocans we are training inthe sciences."
"The march to the anthill," Amschel Mayer muttered.
Chessman eyed him scornfully. "You amuse me, old man. You with your talkof building an economy with a system of free competition. Our Texcocansare sacrificing today but their children will live in abundance. Eventoday, no one starves, no one goes without shelter nor medical care."Chessman twisted his mouth wryly. "We have found that hungry, cold orsick people cannot work efficiently."
He stared challengingly at the Genoese leader. "Can you honestly saythat there are no starving people in Genoa? No inadequately housed, nosick without hope of adequate medicine? Do you have economic setbacks inwhich poorly planned production goes amuck and depressions follow withmass unemployment?"
"Nevertheless," Mayer said with unwonted calm, "our society is still farahead of yours. A mere handful of your bureaucracy and military chiefsenjoy the good things of life. There are tens of thousands on Genoa whohave them. Free competition has its weaknesses, perhaps, but it providesa greater good for a greater number of persons."
Joe Chessman came to his feet. "We'll see," he said stolidly. "In tenyears, Mayer, we'll consider the position of both planets once again."
"Ten years it is," Mayer snapped back at him.
Jerry Kennedy saluted with his glass. "Cheers," he said.
* * * * *
On the return to Genoa Amschel Mayer said to Kennedy, "Are you soberenough to assimilate something serious?"
"Sure, chief, of course."
"Hm-m-m. Well then, begin taking the steps necessary for us to place afew men on Texcoco in the way of, ah, intelligence agents."
"You mean some of our team?" Kennedy said, startled.
"No, of course not. We can't spare them, and, besides, there'd be toobig a chance of recognition and exposure. Some of our more trustedGenoese. Make the monetary reward enough to attract their services." Helooked at his lieutenants significantly. "I think you'll agree that itmight not be a bad idea to keep our eyes on the developments onTexcoco."
* * * * *
On the way back to Texcoco, Barry Watson said to his chief, "What do youthink of putting some security men on Genoa, just to keep tabs?"
"Why?"
Watson looked at his fingers, nibbled at a hangnail. "It just seems tome it wouldn't hurt any."
Chessman snorted.
Dick Hawkins said, "I think Barry's right. They can bear watching.Besides in another decade or so they'll realize we're going to beatthem. Mayer's ego isn't going to take that. He'd go to just about anyextreme to keep from losing face back on Earth."
Natt Roberts said worriedly, "I think they're right, Joe. Certainly itwouldn't hurt to have a few Security men over there. My department couldtrain them and we'd ferry them over in this space boat."
"I'll make the decisions," Chessman growled at them. "I'll think aboutthis. It's just possible that you're right though."
Behind them, Reif looked thoughtfully at his teen-age son.