VI
The recorded voice ceased; for a moment the record player hummedvoicelessly. Loud in the silence, a photocell acted with a double click,opening one segment of the sun shielding and closing another at theopposite side of the dome. Space Commodore Alex Napier glanced up from hisdesk and out at the harshly angular landscape of Xerxes and the blacknessof airless space beyond the disquietingly close horizon. Then he picked uphis pipe and knocked the heel out into the ashtray. Nobody said anything.He began packing tobacco into the bowl.
"Well, gentlemen?" He invited comment.
"Pancho?" Captain Conrad Greibenfeld, the Exec., turned to LieutenantYbarra, the chief psychologist.
"How reliable is this stuff?" Ybarra asked.
"Well, I knew Jack Holloway thirty years ago, on Fenris, when I was justan ensign. He must be past seventy now," he parenthesized. "If he says hesaw anything, I'll believe it. And Bennett Rainsford's absolutelyreliable, of course."
"How about the agent?" Ybarra insisted.
He and Stephen Aelborg, the Intelligence officer, exchanged glances. Henodded, and Aelborg said:
"One of the best. One of our own, lieutenant j.g., Naval Reserve. Youdon't need to worry about credibility, Pancho."
"They sound sapient to me," Ybarra said. "You know, this is something I'vealways been half hoping and half afraid would happen."
"You mean an excuse to intervene in that mess down there?" Greibenfeldasked.
Ybarra looked blankly at him for a moment. "No. No, I meant a case ofborderline sapience; something our sacred talk-and-build-a-fire rule won'tcover. Just how did this come to our attention, Stephen?"
"Well, it was transmitted to us from Contact Center in Mallorysport lateFriday night. There seem to be a number of copies of this tape around; ouragent got hold of one of them and transmitted it to Contact Center, and itwas relayed on to us, with the agent's comments," Aelborg said. "ContactCenter ordered a routine surveillance inside Company House and, to playsafe, at the Residency. At the time, there seemed no reason to give thething any beat-to-quarters-and-man-guns treatment, but we got a report onSaturday afternoon--Mallorysport time, that is--that Leonard Kellogg hadplayed off the copy of the tape that Juan Jimenez had made for file, andhad alerted Victor Grego immediately.
"Of course, Grego saw the implications at once. He sent Kellogg and thechief Company psychologist, Ernst Mallin, out to Beta Continent withorders to brand Rainsford's and Holloway's claims as a deliberate hoax.Then the Company intends to encourage the trapping of Fuzzies for theirfur, in hopes that the whole species will be exterminated before anybodycan get out from Terra to check on Rainsford's story."
"I hadn't heard that last detail before."
"Well, we can prove it," Aelborg assured him.
It sounded like a Victor Grego idea. He lit his pipe slowly. Damnit, hedidn't want to have to intervene. No Space Navy C.O. did. Justifyingintervention on a Colonial planet was too much bother--always a board ofinquiry, often a courtmartial. And supersession of civil authority wascompletely against Service Doctrine. Of course, there were other and moreimportant tenets of Service Doctrine. The sovereignty of the TerranFederation for one, and the inviolability of the Federation Constitution.And the rights of extraterrestrials, too. Conrad Greibenfeld, too, seemedto have been thinking about that.
"If those Fuzzies are sapient beings, that whole setup down there isillegal. Company, Colonial administration and all," he said."Zarathustra's a Class-IV planet, and that's all you can make out of it."
"We won't intervene unless we're forced to. Pancho, I think the decisionwill be largely up to you."
Pancho Ybarra was horrified.
"Good God, Alex! You can't mean that. Who am I? A nobody. All I have is anordinary M.D., and a Psych.D. Why, the best psychological brains in theFederation--"
"Aren't on Zarathustra, Pancho. They're on Terra, five hundredlight-years, six months' ship voyage each way. Intervention, of course, ismy responsibility, but the sapience question is yours. I don't envy you,but I can't relieve you of it."
* * * * *
Gerd van Riebeek's suggestion that all three of the visitors sleep aboardthe airboat hadn't been treated seriously at all. Gerd himself wasaccommodated in the spare room of the living hut. Juan Jimenez went withBen Rainsford to his camp for the night. Ruth Ortheris had the cabin ofthe boat to herself. Rainsford was on the screen the next morning, whileJack and Gerd and Ruth and the Fuzzies were having breakfast; he andJimenez had decided to take his airjeep and work down from the head ofCold Creek in the belief that there must be more Fuzzies around in thewoods.
Both Gerd and Ruth decided to spend the morning at the camp and getacquainted with the Fuzzies on hand. The family had had enough breakfastto leave them neutral on the subject of land-prawns, and they were givenanother of the new toys, a big colored ball. They rolled it around in thegrass for a while, decided to save it for their evening romp and took itinto the house. Then they began playing aimlessly among some junk in theshed outside the workshop. Once in a while one of them would drift away tolook for a prawn, more for sport than food.
Ruth and Gerd and Jack were sitting at the breakfast table on the grass,talking idly and trying to think of excuses for not washing the dishes.Mamma Fuzzy and Baby were poking about in the tall grass. Suddenly Mammagave a shrill cry and started back for the shed, chasing Baby ahead of herand slapping him on the bottom with the flat of her chopper-digger tohurry him along.
Jack started for the house at a run. Gerd grabbed his camera and jumped upon the table. It was Ruth who saw the cause of the disturbance.
"Jack! Look, over there!" She pointed to the edge of the clearing. "Twostrange Fuzzies!"
He kept on running, but instead of the rifle he had been going for, hecollected his movie camera, two of the spare chopper-diggers and someExtee Three. When he emerged again, the two Fuzzies had come into theclearing and stood side by side, looking around. Both were females, andthey both carried wooden prawn-killers.
"You have plenty of film?" he asked Gerd. "Here, Ruth; take this." Hehanded her his own camera. "Keep far enough away from me to get what I'mdoing and what they're doing. I'm going to try to trade with them."
He went forward, the steel weapons in his hip pocket and the Extee Threein his hand, talking softly and soothingly to the newcomers. When he wasas close to them as he could get without stampeding them, he stopped.
"Our gang's coming up behind you," Gerd told him. "Regular skirmish line;choppers at high port. Now they've stopped, about thirty feet behind you."
He broke off a piece of Extee Three, put it in his mouth and ate it. Thenhe broke off two more pieces and held them out. The two Fuzzies weretempted, but not to the point of rashness. He threw both pieces within afew feet of them. One darted forward, threw a piece to her companion andthen snatched the other piece and ran back with it. They stood together,nibbling and making soft delighted noises.
His own family seemed to disapprove strenuously of this lavishing ofdelicacies upon outsiders. However, the two strangers decided that itwould be safe to come closer, and soon he had them taking bits of fieldration from his hand. Then he took the two steel chopper-diggers out ofhis pocket, and managed to convey the idea that he wanted to trade. Thetwo strange Fuzzies were incredulously delighted. This was too much forhis own tribe; they came up yeeking angrily.
The two strange females retreated a few steps, their new weapon ready.Everybody seemed to expect a fight, and nobody wanted one. From what hecould remember of Old Terran history, this was a situation which coulddevelop into serious trouble. Then Ko-Ko advanced, dragging hischopper-digger in an obviously pacific manner, and approached the twofemales, yeeking softly and touching first one and then the other. Then helaid his weapon down and put his foot on it. The two females beganstroking and caressing him.
Immediately the crisis evaporated. The others of the family came forward,stuck their weapons in the ground and began fondling the strangers. Thenthey all sat
in a circle, swaying their bodies rhythmically and makingsoft noises. Finally Ko-Ko and the two females rose, picked up theirweapons and started for the woods.
"Jack, stop them," Ruth called out. "They're going away."
"If they want to go, I have no right to stop them."
When they were almost at the edge of the woods, Ko-Ko stopped, drove thepoint of his weapon into the ground and came running back to Pappy Jack,throwing his arms around the human knees and yeeking. Jack stooped andstroked him, but didn't try to pick him up. One of the two females pulledhis chopper-digger out, and they both came back slowly. At the same time,Little Fuzzy, Mamma Fuzzy, Mike and Mitzi came running back. For a while,all the Fuzzies embraced one another, yeeking happily. Then they alltrooped across the grass and went into the house.
"Get that all, Gerd?" he asked.
"On film, yes. That's the only way I did, though. What happened?"
"You have just made the first film of intertribal social and matingcustoms, Zarathustran Fuzzy. This is the family's home; they don't wantany strange Fuzzies hanging around. They were going to run the girls off.Then Ko-Ko decided he liked their looks, and he decided he'd team up withthem. That made everything different; the family sat down with them totell them what a fine husband they were getting and to tell Ko-Kogood-bye. Then Ko-Ko remembered that he hadn't told me good-bye, and hecame back. The family decided that two more Fuzzies wouldn't be in excessof the carrying capacity of this habitat, seeing what a good providerPappy Jack is, so now I should imagine they're showing the girls thefamily treasures. You know, they married into a mighty well-to-do family."
The girls were named Goldilocks and Cinderella. When lunch was ready, theywere all in the living room, with the viewscreen on; after lunch, thewhole gang went into the bedroom for a nap on Pappy Jack's bed. He spentthe afternoon developing movie film, while Gerd and Ruth wrote up thenotes they had made the day before and collaborated on an account of theadoption. By late afternoon, when they were finished, the Fuzzies came outfor a frolic and prawn hunt.
They all heard the aircar before any of the human people did, and they allran over and climbed up on the bench beside the kitchen door. It was aconstabulary cruise car; it landed, and a couple of troopers got out,saying that they'd stopped to see the Fuzzies. They wanted to know wherethe extras had come from, and when Jack told them, they looked at oneanother.
"Next gang that comes along, call us and keep them entertained till we canget here," one of them said. "We want some at the post, for prawns ifnothing else."
"What's George's attitude?" he asked. "The other night, when he was here,he seemed half scared of them."
"Aah, he's got over that," one of the troopers said. "He called BenRainsford; Ben said they were perfectly safe. Hey, Ben says they're notanimals; they're people."
He started to tell them about some of the things the Fuzzies did. He wasstill talking when the Fuzzies heard another aircar and called attentionto it. This time, it was Ben Rainsford and Juan Jimenez. They piled out assoon as they were off contragravity, dragging cameras after them.
"Jack, there are Fuzzies all over the place up there," Rainsford began,while he was getting out. "All headed down this way; regular_Volkerwanderung_. We saw over fifty of them--four families, andindividuals and pairs. I'm sure we missed ten for every one we saw."
"We better get up there with a car tomorrow," one of the troopers said."Ben, just where were you?"
"I'll show you on the map." Then he saw Goldilocks and Cinderella. "Hey!Where'd you two girls come from? I never saw you around here before."
* * * * *
There was another clearing across the stream, with a log footbridge and apath to the camp. Jack guided the big airboat down onto it, and put hisairjeep alongside with the canopy up. There were two men on the forwarddeck of the boat, Kellogg and another man who would be Ernst Mallin. Athird man came out of the control cabin after the boat was offcontragravity. Jack didn't like Mallin. He had a tight, secretive face,with arrogance and bigotry showing underneath. The third man was younger.His face didn't show anything much, but his coat showed a bulge under theleft arm. After being introduced by Kellogg, Mallin introduced him as KurtBorch, his assistant.
Mallin had to introduce Borch again at the camp, not only to Ben Rainsfordbut also to van Riebeek, to Jimenez and even to Ruth Ortheris, whichseemed a little odd. Ruth seemed to think so, too, and Mallin hastened totell her that Borch was with Personnel, giving some kind of tests. Thatappeared to puzzle her even more. None of the three seemed happy about thepresence of the constabulary troopers, either; they were all relieved whenthe cruise car lifted out.
Kellogg became interested in the Fuzzies immediately, squatting to examinethem. He said something to Mallin, who compressed his lips and shook hishead, saying:
"We simply cannot assume sapience until we find something in theirbehavior which cannot be explained under any other hypothesis. We would bemuch safer to assume nonsapience and proceed to test that assumption."
That seemed to establish the keynote. Kellogg straightened, and he andMallin started one of those "of course I agree, doctor, but don't youfind, on the other hand, that you must agree" sort of arguments, about thedifference between scientific evidence and scientific proof. Jimenez gotinto it to the extent of agreeing with everything Kellogg said, anddiffering politely with everything Mallin said that he thought Kelloggwould differ with. Borch said nothing; he just stood and looked at theFuzzies with ill-concealed hostility. Gerd and Ruth decided to helpgetting dinner.
They ate outside on the picnic table, with the Fuzzies watching theminterestedly. Kellogg and Mallin carefully avoided discussing them. Itwasn't until after dusk, when the Fuzzies brought their ball inside andeverybody was in the living room, that Kellogg, adopting apresiding-officer manner, got the conversation onto the subject. For sometime, without giving anyone else an opportunity to say anything, he gushedabout what an important discovery the Fuzzies were. The Fuzzies themselvesignored him and began dismantling the stick-and-ball construction. For awhile Goldilocks and Cinderella watched interestedly, and then they beganassisting.
"Unfortunately," Kellogg continued, "so much of our data is in the form ofuncorroborated statements by Mr. Holloway. Now, please don't misunderstandme. I don't, myself, doubt for a moment anything Mr. Holloway said on thattape, but you must realize that professional scientists are most reluctantto accept the unsubstantiated reports of what, if you'll pardon me, theythink of as nonqualified observers."
"Oh, rubbish, Leonard!" Rainsford broke in impatiently. "I'm aprofessional scientist, of a good many more years' standing than you, andI accept Jack Holloway's statements. A frontiersman like Jack is a verycareful and exact observer. People who aren't don't live long on frontierplanets."
"Now, please don't misunderstand me," Kellogg reiterated. "I don't doubtMr. Holloway's statements. I was just thinking of how they would bereceived on Terra."
"I shouldn't worry about that, Leonard. The Institute accepts my reports,and I'm vouching for Jack's reliability. I can substantiate most of whathe told me from personal observation."
"Yes, and there's more than just verbal statements," Gerd van Riebeekchimed in. "A camera is not a nonqualified observer. We have quite a bitof film of the Fuzzies."
"Oh, yes; there was some mention of movies," Mallin said. "You don't haveany of them developed yet, do you?"
"Quite a lot. Everything except what was taken out in the woods thisafternoon. We can run them off right now."
He pulled down the screen in front of the gunrack, got the film and loadedhis projector. The Fuzzies, who had begun on a new stick-and-ballconstruction, were irritated when the lights went out, then wildly excitedwhen Little Fuzzy, digging a toilet pit with the wood chisel, appeared.Little Fuzzy in particular was excited about that; if he didn't recognizehimself, he recognized the chisel. Then there were pictures of LittleFuzzy killing and eating land-prawns, Little Fuzzy taking the nut off thebolt and putting it on
again, and pictures of the others, after they hadcome in, hunting and at play. Finally, there was the film of the adoptionof Goldilocks and Cinderella.
"What Juan and I got this afternoon, up in the woods, isn't so good, I'mafraid," Rainsford said when the show was over and the lights were onagain. "Mostly it's rear views disappearing into the brush. It was veryhard to get close to them in the jeep. Their hearing is remarkably acute.But I'm sure the pictures we took this afternoon will show the things theywere carrying--wooden prawn-killers like the two that were traded from thenew ones in that last film."
Mallin and Kellogg looked at one another in what seemed oddly likeconsternation.
"You didn't tell us there were more of them around," Mallin said, asthough it were an accusation of duplicity. He turned to Kellogg. "Thisalters the situation."
"Yes, indeed, Ernst," Kellogg burbled delightedly. "This is a wonderfulopportunity. Mr. Holloway, I understand that all this country up here isyour property, by landgrant purchase. That's right, isn't it? Well, wouldyou allow us to camp on that clearing across the run, where our boat isnow? We'll get prefab huts--Red Hill's the nearest town, isn't it?--andhave a Company construction gang set them up for us, and we won't be anybother at all to you. We had only intended staying tonight on our boat,and returning to Mallorysport in the morning, but with all these Fuzziesswarming around in the woods, we can't think of leaving now. You don'thave any objection, do you?"
He had lots of objections. The whole business was rapidly developing intoan acute pain in the neck for him. But if he didn't let Kellogg campacross the run, the three of them could move seventy or eighty miles inany direction and be off his land. He knew what they'd do then. They'dlive-trap or sleep-gas Fuzzies; they'd put them in cages, and torment themwith maze and electric-shock experiments, and kill a few for dissection,or maybe not bother killing them first. On his own land, if they didanything like that, he could do something about it.
"Not at all. I'll have to remind you again, though, that you're to treatthese little people with consideration."
"Oh, we won't do anything to your Fuzzies," Mallin said.
"You won't hurt any Fuzzies. Not more than once, anyhow."
* * * * *
The next morning, during breakfast, Kellogg and Kurt Borch put in anappearance, Borch wearing old clothes and field boots and carrying hispistol on his belt. They had a list of things they thought they would needfor their camp. Neither of them seemed to have more than the foggiestnotion of camp requirements. Jack made some suggestions which theyaccepted. There was a lot of scientific equipment on the list, includingan X-ray machine. He promptly ran a pencil line through that.
"We don't know what these Fuzzies' level of radiation tolerance is. We'renot going to find out by overdosing one of my Fuzzies."
Somewhat to his surprise, neither of them gave him any argument. Gerd andRuth and Kellogg borrowed his airjeep and started north; he and Borch wentacross the run to make measurements after Rainsford and Jimenez arrivedand picked up Mallin. Borch took off soon after with the boat for RedHill. Left alone, he loafed around the camp, and developed the rest of themovie film, making three copies of everything. Toward noon, Borch broughtthe boat back, followed by a couple of scowlike farmboats. In a few hours,the Company construction men from Red Hill had the new camp set up. Amongother things, they brought two more air jeeps.
The two jeeps returned late in the afternoon, everybody excited. Betweenthem, the parties had seen almost a hundred Fuzzies, and had found threecamps, two among rocks and one in a hollow pool-ball tree. All three hadbeen spotted by belts of filled-in toilet pits around them; two had beenabandoned and the third was still occupied. Kellogg insisted on playinghost to Jack and Rainsford for dinner at the camp across the run. Themeal, because everything had been brought ready-cooked and only neededwarming, was excellent.
Returning to his own camp with Rainsford, Jack found the Fuzzies finishedwith their evening meal and in the living room, starting a newconstruction--he could think of no other name for it--with themolecule-model balls and sticks. Goldilocks left the others and came overto him with a couple of balls fastened together, holding them up with onehand while she pulled his trouser leg with the other.
"Yes, I see. It's very beautiful," he told her.
She tugged harder and pointed at the thing the others were making.Finally, he understood.
"She wants me to work on it, too," he said. "Ben, you know where thecoffee is; fix us a pot. I'm going to be busy here."
He sat down on the floor, and was putting sticks and balls together whenBen brought in the coffee. This was more fun than he'd had in a couple ofdays. He said so while Ben was distributing Extee Three to the Fuzzies.
"Yes, I ought to let you kick me all around the camp for getting thisstarted," Rainsford said, pouring the coffee. "I could make some excuses,but they'd all sound like 'I didn't know it was loaded.'"
"Hell, I didn't know it was loaded, either." He rose and took his coffeecup, blowing on it to cool it. "What do you think Kellogg's up to, anyhow?That whole act he's been putting on since he came here is phony as anine-sol bill."
"What I told you, evening before last," Rainsford said. "He doesn't wantnon-Company people making discoveries on Zarathustra. You notice how hardhe and Mallin are straining to talk me out of sending a report back toTerra before he can investigate the Fuzzies? He wants to get his ownreport in first. Well, the hell with him! You know what I'm going to do?I'm going home, and I'm going to sit up all night getting a report intoshape. Tomorrow morning I'm going to give it to George Lunt and let himsend it to Mallorysport in the constabulary mail pouch. It'll be on a shipfor Terra before any of this gang knows it's been sent. Do you have anycopies of those movies you can spare?"
"About a mile and a half. I made copies of everything, even the stuff theothers took."
"Good. We'll send that, too. Let Kellogg read about it in the papers ayear from now." He thought for a moment, then said: "Gerd and Ruth andJuan are bunking at the other camp now; suppose I move in here with youtomorrow. I assume you don't want to leave the Fuzzies alone while thatgang's here. I can help you keep an eye on them."
"But, Ben, you don't want to drop whatever else you're doing--"
"What I'm doing, now, is learning to be a Fuzzyologist, and this is theonly place I can do it. I'll see you tomorrow, after I stop at theconstabulary post."
* * * * *
The people across the run--Kellogg, Mallin and Borch, and van Riebeek,Jimenez and Ruth Ortheris--were still up when Rainsford went out to hisairjeep. After watching him lift out, Jack went back into the house,played with his family in the living room for a while and went to bed. Thenext morning he watched Kellogg, Ruth and Jimenez leave in one jeep and,shortly after, Mallin and van Riebeek in the other. Kellogg didn't seem tobe willing to let the three who had come to the camp first wander aroundunchaperoned. He wondered about that.
Ben Rainsford's airjeep came over the mountains from the south in the latemorning and settled onto the grass. Jack helped him inside with hisluggage, and then they sat down under the big featherleaf trees to smoketheir pipes and watch the Fuzzies playing in the grass. Occasionally theysaw Kurt Borch pottering around outside the other camp.
"I sent the report off," Rainsford said, then looked at his watch. "Itought to be on the mail boat for Mallorysport by now; this time tomorrowit'll be in hyperspace for Terra. We won't say anything about it; just sitback and watch Len Kellogg and Ernst Mallin working up a sweat trying totalk us out of sending it." He chuckled. "I made a definite claim ofsapience; by the time I got the report in shape to tape off, I couldn'tsee any other alternative."
"Damned if I can. You hear that, kids?" he asked Mike and Mitzi, who hadcome over in hope that there might be goodies for them. "Uncle Ben saysyou're sapient."
"Yeek?"
"They want to know if it's good to eat. What'll happen now?"
"Nothing, for about a year. Six months
from now, when the ship gets in,the Institute will release it to the press, and then they'll send aninvestigation team here. So will any of the other universities orscientific institutes that may be interested. I suppose the government'llsend somebody, too. After all, subcivilized natives on colonized planetsare wards of the Terran Federation."
He didn't know that he liked that. The less he had to do with thegovernment the better, and his Fuzzies were wards of Pappy Jack Holloway.He said as much.
Rainsford picked up Mitzi and stroked her. "Nice fur," he said. "Fur likethat would bring good prices. It will, if we don't get these peoplerecognized as sapient beings."
He looked across the run at the new camp and wondered. Maybe LeonardKellogg saw that, too, and saw profits for the Company in Fuzzy fur.
* * * * *
The airjeeps returned in the middle of the afternoon, first Mallin's, andthen Kellogg's. Everybody went inside. An hour later, a constabulary carlanded in front of the Kellogg camp. George Lunt and Ahmed Khadra got out.Kellogg came outside, spoke with them and then took them into the mainliving hut. Half an hour later, the lieutenant and the trooper emerged,lifted their car across the run and set it down on the lawn. The Fuzziesran to meet them, possibly expecting more whistles, and followed them intothe living room. Lunt and Khadra took off their berets, but made no moveto unbuckle their gun belts.
"We got your package off all right Ben," Lunt said. He sat down and tookGoldilocks on his lap; immediately Cinderella jumped up, also. "Jack, whatthe hell's that gang over there up to anyhow?"
"You got that, too?"
"You can smell it on them for a mile, against the wind. In the firstplace, that Borch. I wish I could get his prints; I'll bet we have them onfile. And the whole gang's trying to hide something, and what they'retrying to hide is something they're scared of, like a body in a closet.When we were over there, Kellogg did all the talking; anybody else whotried to say anything got shut up fast. Kellogg doesn't like you, Jack andhe doesn't like Ben, and he doesn't like the Fuzzies. Most of all hedoesn't like the Fuzzies."
"Well, I told you what I thought this morning," Rainsford said. "Theydon't want outsiders discovering things on this planet. It wouldn't makethem look good to the home office on Terra. Remember, it was somenon-Company people who discovered the first sunstones, back in'Forty-eight."
George Lunt looked thoughtful. On him, it was a scowl.
"I don't think that's it, Ben. When we were talking to him, he admittedvery freely that you and Jack discovered the Fuzzies. The way he talked,he didn't seem to think they were worth discovering at all. And he asked alot of funny questions about you, Jack. The kind of questions I'd ask if Iwas checking up on somebody's mental competence." The scowl became one ofanger now. "By God, I wish I had an excuse to question him--with averidicator!"
Kellogg didn't want the Fuzzies to be sapient beings. If they weren'tthey'd be ... fur-bearing animals. Jack thought of some overfed societydowager on Terra or Baldur, wearing the skins of Little Fuzzy and MammaFuzzy and Mike and Mitzi and Ko-Ko and Cinderella and Goldilocks wrappedaround her adipose carcass. It made him feel sick.