along the ridge, speaking inlow tones and gazing down toward the valley. There was a casual exchangeof salutes as they approached the girl and the analyst. The officerswore police armbands, and they asked for Meikl's fraternization permit,using the spacer's tongue.
"Deserter troubles?" he asked, as they returned his papers.
"Nineteen last week," said one of the officers. "We've lost about threehundred men since we landed."
"Found any of them?"
"Justice Section got sixty-three. The rest are probably hopeless."
Another exchange of salutes. The officers left.
"What did they want, Meikl?" she asked.
"Just idle conversation. It's nearly time for the meeting with theelders. Let's go."
They began walking along the ridge together in the late sunlight. Themeeting was to attempt to explain to the elders of the Geoark that themen of the fleet were not free to depart from the occupied zone. Theattempt would be fruitless, but ven Klaeden had ordered it.
From the viewpoint of the high command, three hundred desertions out ofnineteen thousand men over a period of six months was not an importantloss of personnel. What _was_ important: the slow decay of disciplineunder the "no force" interdict. A policy of "no arrest" had beenestablished for the ausland. If a man escaped from the occupied zone,Justice Section could send a detail to demand his return, but if herefused, no force would be used, because of the horrified reaction ofthe natives. If he were located, a killer was dispatched, armed with atiny phial, a hollow needle, and a CO_{2} gun that could be concealed inthe palm of the hand. The killer stalked the deserter until he caughthim alone, fired from cover, and stole quietly away while the deserterplucked the needle out of his hide to stare at it in horror. He had aweek in which to get back to the occupied zone to beg for immunization;if he did not, the spot would become alive with fungus, and the funguswould spread, and within months, he would die rather grimly.
The real danger, Meikl knew, was not to the fleet but to the natives.The spacers were cultural poison, and each deserter was a source ofinfection moving into the native society, a focal point of restimulationfor any recessive kult'laenger lines that still existed in a peacefulpeople after twenty thousand years.
"I think Evon will be here," the girl said too casually as they enteredthe forest and turned into a path that led to the glade where the eldershad assembled.
He took her arm suddenly, and stopped in the pathway.
"Letha--you have worked for me many months."
"Yes--"
"I love you, Letha."
She smiled very slowly, and lifted her hands to his face. He kissed herquietly, hating himself.
"You'll take me with you," she said.
"No." It was impossible.
"Then you'll stay."
"It is ... _forbidden_ ... _verboten_...." There was no word in thetongue.
"I can't understand.... If you love...."
He swallowed hard. For the girl, "love" automatically settledeverything, and consummation must follow. How could he explain.
"Letha--in your culture, 'life' is the highest value."
"How could it be otherwise? Love me, Meikl."
He took a deep breath and straightened. "You understand 'drama', Letha.I have watched your people. Their lives are continuous consciousplay-acting. Your lives are a dance, but you know you are dancing, andyou dance as you will. Have you watched our people?"
She nodded slowly. "You dance a different dance--act a different play."
"It's not a play, Letha. We act an _unconscious_ drama, and thus thedrama becomes more important than living. And death takes precedenceover life."
She shuddered slightly and stared into his eyes, unbelieving.
"I don't know what you mean."
"Can you understand?--that I love you, and yet my ... my...." He gropedfor a word for "duty". "My death-allegiance to the ship-people takesprecedence? I can neither take you nor remain with you."
Something went dead in her eyes. "Let us go to the glade," she said in amonotone. "It's growing late."
"_And what will ye leave to your ain mither dear, Edward, Edward? And what will ye leave to your ain mither dear, My dear son, now tell me, O?" "The curse of hell frae me sall ye bear, Mither, mither; The curse of hell frae me sall ye bear; Sic counsels ye gave to me, O!_"
--ANONYMOUS
* * * * *
The trouble had begun on the eighteenth day of the ninth month. A partyof unidentified men had stolen into the occupied zone during the night.Without warning, they killed three guards, seized control of thedispensary, raided the pharmacy, taking the entire supply of fungusimmunization serum, together with a supply of the deadly phials andneedles. They stole a flyer and departed to the south, skimming low overthe forest to avoid fire from the grounded fleet. The following day, aleaflet appeared, circulating among the fleet personnel.
NOTICE OF SANCTUARY TO: ALL PERSONNEL FROM: AUSLAND COMMITTEE SUBJECT: FREEDOM
1. ANY OFFICER OR MAN WHO WISHES TO RESIGN FROM THE SERVICES OF THE IMPERIAL FORCES OF THE SECESSION MAY DO SO OF THIS DATE.
2. THE PROCEDURE FOR RESIGNATION INVOLVES NO FORMAL STATEMENT. A MAN MAY TERMINATE HIS PERIOD OF SERVICE BY DEPARTING FROM THE OCCUPIED ZONE.
3. ANY OFFICER OR MAN WHO ATTEMPTS TO INTERFERE WITH THE RESIGNATION OF ANOTHER SHALL BE TRIED IN ABSENTIA BY THIS COMMITTEE, AND IF FOUND GUILTY, SHALL INCUR THE DEATH PENALTY.
AUSLAND COMMITTEE
"An outrageous and preposterous bit of deviltry!" ven Klaeden hadhissed. "Get them. Make an example of them."
In reversal of previous policy, a police party was sent to search forthe self-styled ausland committee, with orders to capture or kill onsight. The police party hunted down and killed six deserters, draggedeleven more back to the occupied zone, under the very eyes of the nativepopulation. But the immunizing serum was not recovered.
A few days later, three staff officers and a dozen officers in JusticeSection awoke with yelps in the night to pluck stinging needles fromtheir skins and scream for the guard to pursue the silent shadows thathad invaded their quarters.
Five men were captured. Three of them were natives. Interrogation failedto disclose the location of the immunizing serum.
Muttering natives began to desert the project. The five culprits werebrought before the baron.
"Execute them in public, with full dress military ceremony. Then closethe border of the occupied zone. No native may leave, if he has signed awork contract."
On the day of the execution, the natives attempted to leave en masse.The police activity along the border approached the proportions of amassacre.
"We were nearly finished," raged the baron, pacing like an angrypredator in the glade. "Another two weeks, and the first ore would comeout of the crushers. They can't stop us now. They can't quit."
Three elders of the Geoark sat like frozen statues on a mossy boulder,tight-lipped, not understanding the colonel's tongue, disdaining tospeak in the intermediate language.
"Explain it to them, Meikl. Make it clear."
Pale, trembling with suppressed disapproval, the analyst bowed curtlyand turned to the girl. "Tell them," he said in the Intermedia, "thatdeath will come to any native who deserts, and that ten auslanders willdie for every man murdered by the renegade committee. Tell them that theGeoark is...." He paused. There was no word for "hostage."
He was explaining the hostage-concept lengthily, while the girl's facedrained of color. Suddenly she turned away to retch. Meikl stoodstricken for a moment, turned helplessly toward the baron.
"_They_ understood you, damn them!" ven Klaeden snapped. "They know theIntermedia."
The elders continued to sit stonily on the boulder without acknowledgingthat they had heard. One of them sighed deeply and spoke a few words tothe others. They nodded sadly, answered with polite monosyllables.
"_No!_" Letha yelped, suddenly whirling,
looking at the elders.
One of them smiled and murmured a few words to her. Then the three ofthem slid down from the boulder. The guard who stood at port arms a fewfeet away stirred restlessly.
The elders walked casually toward a path leading away from the glade.The guard looked questioningly at the officers.
"Where are they going?" ven Klaeden demanded.
"Well, Letha?" Meikl muttered.
"I--I don't know--"
"You're lying, girl," the baron grunted, then to the guards: "Tell themto halt."
"Party, _halt_!" snapped the guard.
The three elderly gentlemen continued toward the path, loose robesgathered up from spindley