CHAPTER VII
Incredible Treason
After receiving this report, and reassurances of support from the BigBosses of the neighboring Gangs, Hart determined to reestablish theWyoming Valley community.
A careful survey of the territory showed that it was only the northernsections and slopes that had been "beamed" by the first Han ship.
The synthetic-fabrics plant had been partially wiped out, though thelower levels underground had not been reached by the dis ray. The forestscreen above it, however, had been annihilated, and it was determined toabandon it, after removing all usable machinery and evidences of theprocesses that might be of interest to the Han scientists, should theyreturn to the valley in the future.
The ammunition plant, and the rocket-ship plant, which had just beenabout to start operation at the time of the raid, were intact, as werethe other important plants.
Hart brought the Camboss up from the Susquanna Works, and laid out newcamp locations, scattering them farther to the south, and avoidingground which had been seared by the Han beams and the immediatelocations of the Han wrecks.
During this period, a sharp check was kept upon Han messages, for thephone plant had been one of the first to be put in operation, and whenit became evident that the Hans did not intend any immediate reprisals,the entire membership of the community was summoned back, and normallife was resumed.
Wilma and I had been married the day after the destruction of the ships,and spent this intervening period in a delightful honeymoon, campinghigh in the mountains. On our return, we had a camp of our own, ofcourse. We were assigned to location 1017. And as might be expected, wehad a great deal of banter over which one of us was Camp Boss. The titlestood after my name on the Big Boss' records, and those of the BigCamboss, of course, but Wilma airily held that this meant nothing atall--and generally succeeded in making me admit it whenever she chose.
I found myself a full-fledged member of the Gang now, for I had electedto search no farther for a permanent alliance, much as I would haveliked to familiarize myself with this 25th Century life in othersections of the country. The Wyomings had a high morale, and hadprospered under the rule of Big Boss Hart for many years. But many ofthe gangs, I found, were badly organized, lacked strong hands inauthority, and were rife with intrigue. On the whole, I thought I wouldbe wise to stay with a group which had already proved its friendliness,and in which I seemed to have prospects of advancement. Under thesemodern social and economic conditions, the kind of individual freedom towhich I had been accustomed in the 20th Century was impossible. I wouldhave been as much of a nonentity in every phase of human relationship byattempting to avoid alliances, as any man of the 20th Century would havebeen politically, who aligned himself with no political party.
This entire modern life, it appeared to me, judging from my ancientviewpoint, was organized along what I called "political" lines. And inthis connection, it amused me to notice how universal had become the useof the word "boss." The leader, the person in charge or authority overanything, was a "boss." There was as little formality in his relationswith his followers as there was in the case of the 20th Centurypolitical boss, and the same high respect paid him by his followers aswell as the same high consideration by him of their interests. He wasjust as much of an autocrat, and just as much dependent upon the generalpopularity of his actions for the ability to maintain his autocracy.
The sub-boss who could not command the loyalty of his followers was asquickly deposed, either by them or by his superiors, as the ancient wardleader of the 20th Century who lost control of his votes.
As society was organized in the 20th Century, I do not believe thesystem could have worked in anything but politics. I tremble to thinkwhat would have happened, had the attempt been made to handle the A. E.F. this way during the First World War, instead of by that rigidmilitary discipline and complete assumption of the individual as a merestandardized cog in the machine.
But owing to the centuries of desperate suffering the people had enduredat the hands of the Hans, there developed a spirit of self-sacrifice andconsideration for the common good that made the scheme applicable andefficient in all forms of human co-operation.
I have a little heresy about all this, however. My associates regard thethought with as much horror as many worthy people of the 20th Centuryfelt in regard to any heretical suggestion that the original outline ofgovernment as laid down in the First Constitution did not apply as wellto 20th Century conditions as to those of the early 19th.
In later years, I felt that there was a certain softening of moral fiberamong the people, since the Hans had been finally destroyed with alltheir works; and Americans have developed a new luxury economy. I haveseen signs of the reawakening of greed, of selfishness. The eternalcycle seems to be at work. I fear that slowly, though surely, privatewealth is reappearing, codes of inflexibility are developing; they willbe followed by corruption, degradation; and in the end some cataclysmicevent will end this era and usher in a new one.
All this, however, is wandering afar from my story, which concerns ourearly battles against the Hans, and not our more modern problems ofself-control.
Our victory over the seven Han ships had set the country ablaze. Thesecret had been carefully communicated to the other gangs, and thecountry was agog from one end to the other. There was feverish activityin the ammunition plants, and the hunting of stray Han ships became anenthusiastic sport. The results were disastrous to our hereditaryenemies.
From the Pacific Coast came the report of a great transpacific liner of75,000 tons "lift" being brought to earth from a position ofinvisibility above the clouds. A dozen Sacramentos had caught the hazyoutlines of its rep rays approaching them, head-on, in the twilight,like ghostly pillars reaching into the sky. They had fired rockets intoit with ease, whereas they would have had difficulty in hitting it if ithad been moving at right angles to their position. They got one rep ray.The other was not strong enough to hold it up. It floated to earth, nosedown, and since it was unarmed and unarmored, they had no difficulty inshooting it to pieces and massacring its crew and passengers. It seemedbarbarous to me. But then I did not have centuries of bitter persecutionin my blood.
From the Jersey Beaches we received news of the destruction of aNu-yok-A-lan-a liner. The Sand-snipers, practically invisible in theirsand-colored clothing, and half buried along the beaches, lay in waitfor days, risking the play of dis beams along the route, and finallyregistering four hits within a week. The Hans discontinued their servicealong this route, and as evidence that they were badly shaken by oursuccess, sent no raiders down the Beaches.
It was a few weeks later that Big Boss Hart sent for me.
"Tony," he said, "There are two things I want to talk to you about. Oneof them will become public property in a few days, I think. We aren'tgoing to get any more Han ships by shooting up their repellor raysunless we use much larger rockets. They are wise to us now. They'reputting armor of great thickness in the hulls of their ships below therep-ray machines. Near Bah-flo this morning a party of Eries shot onewithout success. The explosions staggered her, but did not penetrate. Asnear as we can gather from their reports, their laboratories havedeveloped a new alloy of great tensile strength and elasticity whichnevertheless lets the rep rays through like a sieve. Our reportsindicate that the Eries' rockets bounced off harmlessly. Most of theparty was wiped out as the dis rays went into action on them.
"This is going to mean real business for all of the gangs before long.The Big Bosses have just held a national ultrophone council. It wasdecided that America must organize on a national basis. The first moveis to develop sectional organization by Zones. I have been madeSuperboss of the Mid-Atlantic Zone.
"We're in for it now. The Hans are sure to launch reprisal expeditions.If we're to save the race we must keep them away from our camps andplants. I'm thinking of developing a permanent field force, along thelines of the regular armies of the 20th Century you told me about. Itsbusiness will be twofold: to carry t
he warfare as much as possible tothe Hans, and to serve as a decoy, to beep their attention from ourplants. I'm going to need your help in this.
"The other thing I wanted to talk to you about is this: Amazing andimpossible as it seems, there is a group, or perhaps an entire gang,somewhere among us, that is betraying us to the Hans. It may be the BadBloods, or it may be one of those gangs who live near one of the Hancities. You know, a hundred and fifteen or twenty years ago there werecertain of these people's ancestors who actually degraded themselves bymating with the Hans, sometimes even serving them as slaves, in the daysbefore they brought all their service machinery to perfection.
"There is such a gang, called the Nagras, up near Bah-flo, and anotherin Mid-Jersey that men call the Pineys. But I hardly suspect the Pineys.There is little intelligence among them. They wouldn't have theinformation to give the Hans, nor would they be capable of imparting it.They're absolute savages."
"Just what evidence is there that anybody has been clearing informationto the Hans?" I asked.
"Well," he replied, "first of all there was that raid upon us. Thatfirst Han ship knew the location of our plants exactly. You remember itfloated directly into position above the valley and began a systematicbeaming. Then, the Hans quite obviously have learned that we are pickingup their electrophone waves, for they've gone back to their old, butextremely accurate, system of directional control. But we've beengetting them for the past week by installing automatic re-broadcastunits along the scar paths. This is what the Americans called thosestrips of country directly under the regular ship routes of the Hans,who as a matter of precaution frequently blasted them with their disbeams to prevent the growth of foliage which might give shelter to theAmericans. But they've been beaming those paths so hard, it looks asthough they even had information of this strategy. And in addition,they've been using code. Finally, we've picked up three of theirmessages in which they discuss, with some nervousness, the existence ofour 'mysterious' ultrophone."
"But they still have no knowledge of the nature and control of ultronicactivity?" I asked.
"No," said the Big Boss thoughtfully, "they don't seem to have a bit ofinformation about it."
"Then it's quite clear," I ventured, "that whoever is 'clearing' us tothem is doing it piecemeal. It sounds like a bit of occasional barter,rather than an out-and-out alliance. They're holding back as muchinformation as possible for future bartering, perhaps."
"Yes," Hart said, "and it isn't information the Hans are giving inreturn, but some form of goods, or privilege. The trick would be tolocate the goods. I guess I'll have to make a personal trip around amongthe Big Bosses."