17
Jed looked quickly at Cal when he told him how the colonists hadspooked, bolted in panic. As if he expected disbelief.
"Maybe that seems funny to you," he commented. "After taking so muchwe'd spook like crazy animals and hightail for the woods over not makingfootprints."
"Pretty fundamental thing," Cal said with a shrug. "Animals are aware ofspoor long before they are aware of tools. It hit deep down intofundamental being, a thing like that."
Jed looked relieved. Hussein and Van Tassel exchanged glances, as ifconfirming their belief that an E would understand their problems. Calappreciated the confidence expressed in that glance, but did not feel itwas justified. It was now pretty obvious that this was some alienco-ordinate system, never before encountered by man. But how to get holdof it? How to reconcile with it? Coexist with it?
Never before encountered by man? What if the myths of early man be true?And too authentic the legends of his being a pawn to the will of thegods? Could there have been some factual basis for the gods? And not, aswas supposed, rationalizations dreamed up by man to account for thecontrol of phenomena at a level beyond his own power to control?
"It's been bad since then," Jed continued. "Seems like once they gotthe wind up, the whole thing hit them all over again. Like cattle in astampede, they didn't have a lick of sense. They didn't even staytogether. They scattered in all directions, hid out in the bushes fromeach other.
"You could hunt for 'em, call for 'em, yell your lungs out. You couldpass within ten feet of one of 'em, callin', pleadin', and they wouldn'tsay a word. Just stand there and watch you like a hunted animal, noteven breathin' lest you discover them.
"After a couple of days, some of us kind of pulled ourselvestogether--me and Martha, Ahmed and Dirk here. Maybe a dozen of us nowhave got together again. Funny thing though, even so, all we want is tohide. Can't get over hidin', somehow. That's why you didn't see us fromthe air. We was hidin' from you.
"Martha, couple other womenfolks, they practically had to push us out ofthe woods to come greet you, lead you to us. They wouldn't comethemselves, being naked and all. They told us, first thing was to getsome clothes for them from the ship.
"We was countin' on the arrival of your ship to bring the rest of thecolonists back to their senses. Some ain't been found yet, not since thefootprint thing. If they were watchin' you from hidin' places, if theyalso saw your ship disappear--well now, I just don't know."
"There'll be another ship from Earth," Cal said. "In a matter of fifteenor twenty hours at most. We were communicating at the time. They'll knowwe didn't cut out through choice."
"Yes," Tom Lynwood confirmed. "As I remember, I got cut off in themiddle of a sentence. They'll know something was wrong."
"There's another ship out there right now," Cal added. "Not an E.H.Q.ship, but one that would have seen what happened. We'll not count onanything from them, but an E.H.Q. ship will be here soon, probably withan E on board--McGinnis."
"Don't know what good it would do," Jed said despondently. "That shipmight disappear, too, soon as it landed. And the next, and the next."
"I don't plan to let it land," Cal told them. "You'll notice nothinghappened to us until we touched ground. I'll find a way to talk to theship, keep it from landing until we've got a line on whatever this is."
"You figger to solve this one?" Jed asked curiously, unbelieving.
"I'm going to try," Cal said with more confidence than he felt. "It'swhat I'm here for. Maybe I can't solve it, but I can try."
"I don't know how you're going to start," Dirk spoke up. "We're justlike animals here. We can't use tools."
"But animals do use tools," Cal answered after a moment. "Materials,anyway. Birds build nests using sticks, grass, clay. Monkeys and apesthrow sticks and stones. Even insects use materials. Basic differencebetween man and the rest is that man gives special shapes to tools,where mainly the rest use whatever falls to hand. But all higher,organized protoplasmic life uses tools in one form or another."
"We ain't allowed to," Jed said emphatically. "Not even what's at hand.Somebody, or somethin', is bound and determined we ain't goin' to."
At that moment Cal felt close to a solution, or at least anunderstanding of the nature of the problem, which is the first steptoward solution. But like the specter seen in twilight from the cornerof the eye, as soon as he tried to focus on the problem, the conceptdisappeared. Something about protoplasmic life using materials.Non-protoplasmic life? Could there be, and still meet the definitions ofwhat constitute life? As compared with our evolution, from its earliestbeginning finding some other approach to the manipulation of thephysical universe? A totally alien kind of science? Come to think of it,the use of material to affect other material was a cumbersome, indirect,awkward way of going about it, as compared with ...
Compared with what?
The concept would not yet allow him full focus upon it. He filed it awayfor future contemplation.
He saw Dawkins and the other colonists looking at him defiantly, as ifinterpreting his silence to be doubt of their veracity about the tabooon tools. Their eyes challenged him to disbelieve them, to find out forhimself.
"Other than the feeling of being watched," he said carefully, "have youhad any sign, any other evidence or indication of somebody, orsomething? I know about the feeling, because I feel it too. And verystrongly, right now. But any specific evidence?"
Jed Dawkins looked relieved at the confession.
"Everything's the evidence. Everything that's happened. What moreevidence would you want?" he said.
"One of the strongest arguments in favor of something, or some kind ofintelligence," Cal said slowly, "is that nobody's been hurt. All naturallaw hasn't been canceled. We still have light radiation, heat radiation,gravity, water still flows, the planet still turns. Trees still grow andfruit still ripens. We can talk and be understood, using our tongues andminds as tools. We can still eat and drink. We can still know.
"This is no chaotic co-ordinate system that defies all natural law. Thisis a deliberate manipulation of some natural laws to get a result. Manmanipulates natural laws by the use of tools and materials, but hedoesn't suspend them. Here, apparently without tools, at least tools wecan perceive, natural law is manipulated, but not suspended.
"When the village disappeared, no one was hurt. A lot of people werecaught in awkward positions and fell, some of them several feet. Thereshould have been at least a few broken bones, pulled ligaments. Thereweren't. Our ship landed safely. We were a long time in the atmosphereof Eden, and for a few minutes there on the ground we were still usingtools of a high order. It was only when danger of real harm to us waspast that the ship disappeared."
"I reckon it's comfortin' to know we ain't meant to be hurt," Jed said,and looked at his two companions. "I guess it is," he repeateddoubtfully. "Maybe it ain't something as nice and familiar as a cyclone,or a den of rattlesnakes, something you could understand, but you gotto admit we ain't been hurt yet." It was as if he were arguing the pointwith his companions.
"Something I've been noting, Jed," Ahmed spoke up. "A discrepancy of asort that has me puzzled. Sun reckoning, we've been able to keep ourminds on this subject for over two hours now. As if, whatever this ismanipulating natural laws can also manipulate the way our minds work."
"Yeah," Jed admitted slowly, his face thoughtful. He turned to Cal."Like I said at the start. Our minds have sort of wandered of late.Start to do something, and first thing y'know, we're doin' somethingelse. Can't keep our minds on one thing very long--like animals."
"That might be no more than the aftermath of deep shock," Cal said.
"It's for a purpose!"
Startled at the outburst, they all turned and looked at Louie.
"It's for a purpose," Louie repeated in a kind of rapture. "They want usto understand we are being watched over, cared for. That colonist youall laughed at was right. This is the first Garden of Eden, where manlived in complete innocence. Now man has been returned to
it, to liveagain in complete innocence. You do not think straight because there isno reason. You will be cared for. Woe unto him who seeks to despoil itagain by seeking vain knowledge!"
His eyes were wild, his face contorted with a mixture of exaltation andcondemnation.
"Shut up, Louie," Tom said in a low, firm voice.
"We understand," Jed said tolerantly. "Some of the colonists are talkin'the same way. He's got plenty of company."