Collected tales, p.81
Collected Tales, page 81
He would have slugged her but somehow he was helpless before the contradiction of her warmth.
“There are other people like you,” she murmured. “They are on a planet.”
“Venus?” he snarled. “Mars? You can have them. They’re worse than here.”
“You hate generals,” she said gently.
He was astounded at this. But once she said it he knew it was true and he couldn’t remove the knowledge from his mind. He didn’t want to. “Yes, all of them. Go ahead, call me a traitor.”
“But I’m not calling you that.” She took his hand and put it against her. Her belly was soft and gently curved and the hollow of her navel was deep.
“What can I do now?” he said. “I can’t go on like this.”
“You can go to the planet. It’s not in this solar system, nor the nearest ten. Did you really think the animals in those pictures were cows? With eye stalks?”
“I thought they were horns.”
“And six legs?”
“It was peculiar, but how do I know what geneticists are doing?”
“They aren’t doing that much,” she said. “Let me help you. The planet I told you about has less than ten million inhabitants, and it’s bigger than earth and nicer than earth was in the beginning. We need strong people who are dissatisfied with their lives.”
“I don’t know what to believe,” he said.
“You can believe me,” she said. “I couldn’t tell you until you made up your mind.” She was on him, pressing close. He fumbled with the filmy garment and it tore. She ripped it off completely. “Let me help you. I want to help.”
He let her help him right there. She was expert and enthusiastic. After that they went to the bedroom and when he awakened in the night she was still pressed close to him. She caressed him and he put his arm over her. He thought he heard the door open and in a few minutes softly close. He tensed. “What was that?”
“Probably uncle. Don’t worry. He understands.”
“I’m sure he does,” he muttered.
She twined her arms and legs around his. “Go to sleep. Isn’t this nice? You’re the last one, so tomorrow the space ship leaves.”
“The last one? Were there others?”
“Of course. Many others.”
“Do they all get this treatment?”
“Would they?” she said archly.
“Half of them are women. But isn’t this nice?”
It was nice and in the morning there was the space ship which left soon after he boarded it. It was a good ship though crowded. Larry knew he could expect this. They’d come light years to get recruits for the planet whose name he couldn’t remember—he’d been told but it didn’t stick—so they couldn’t be fastidious about accomodations. Folding cots in a dorm for a hundred men, and one washroom. It was the same for the women on the other side of the ship. There was no prohibition against going to the women’s side but Larry didn’t. He didn’t think much of his fellow recruits and didn’t want to mingle more than he had to. They might be as rebellious as he but they seemed a sorry lot to him. Perhaps a few months on a good clean planet would straighten them out.
He didn’t see much of Julie and her uncle, though this was not his choice. He had a few words with Julie when they first got on the ship and then she disappeared into a cabin forward, near her uncle’s. Larry did see Hugh Taylor once or twice in the first few days they were out in space. Taylor had trimmed his mustache short and stopped combing gray into his hair and seemed much younger, perhaps Larry’s age.
They slipped away from earth before Larry knew it and were out of the solar system before he thought to look back to see what he was leaving. There was merely a bright star behind and not much more than that ahead. He could think he was traveling from nothing toward nothing—but he was leaving the generals behind.
One of the men Larry particularly avoided. This man was still fat but not so sloppy, with one sound eye and another that was a poor example of the glassmaker’s art. He had Larry to thank for the glass eye in that scuffle near the Kingans’ but this was not why Larry avoided him. He just didn’t want to talk to him. There was no reason the fellow couldn’t have had an eye transplant but probably Health considered him more of a liability than an asset and booted him out much in the same way Larry had been pitched out of Appliances. A moral turpitude clause no doubt, which saved them money. He might get a transplant on the new planet, which was most likely the reason he was on the ship.
Meanwhile, he didn’t recognize Larry. He no longer had binocular vision and this made some difference but the probable reason for his failure to recall who Larry was must be that he was still in a state of residual shock and had never really looked at Larry during his capture. He’d been toying to get away, not fix Larry’s face in his memory.
This was to the good, as was the food. That is, the food would have been fine but it was too good. Canned ham and aged steaks and frozen vegetables and fruits, some actually fresh. The real thing, because it was cheaper to bring it from the planet than to buy synthetics from earth. This was very rich and upset his stomach. At inconvenient times he had to rush to the washroom and heave. When it wasn’t this it was sometimes diarrhea. He knew he’d eventually become accustomed to the food but until he did it was discouraging. It bothered him almost as much as the attitudes of most of the recruits.
They didn’t have the spirit of pioneers bound for a sparsely settled planet. Most of them acted as though they were going from a job with a crummy General to a crummy job with another General. They’d have to change or he wasn’t going to get along with them, new planet or not.
At times he thought of Peggy, wasting his emotions. He couldn’t have talked her into coming with him and he wasn’t sure he wanted her. That business with Matrimony was sour. As for Sandra, he would have liked to bring her, but it was pointless to think of it. Even a planet light years away had to get along with earth, and they couldn’t risk kidnapping, which was what it would be called.
He isolated himself, wandering around the ship alone. He wanted to see Julie but she didn’t seek him out and he felt foolish going after her. She knew where he was, if she felt inclined, and besides, he was not sure which cabin was hers. He was standing in a corridor, thinking this and looking out a port at stars when the one eyed man came toward him, grinning purposefully.
Instantly Larry headed for the washroom. It was a good excuse to avoid the man. It was a standard joke on the ship that Larry was the only person upset by the food. Actually a number of others had digestive difficulties but pretended they didn’t and weren’t noticed. The ruse didn’t work this time; the fat man was in an exceptionally friendly mood and wouldn’t be put off. He came in after Larry.
“Too bad,” he said heavily as Larry hung his head and retched. “If you can stay with it G-P food will put you in the best shape of your life. Look at me.” He patted his paunch.
Larry grunted dismally.
“You gotta say this for G-P,” continued the man, “they give you the best of everything. Hell, even your assignments are all worked out before you get there and you don’t have to think of a thing.”
Larry wiped his lips and looked up. “G-P?”
“Sure. You know, General Planets.”
“You’re sure it’s General?”
“Of course. Didn’t you read the contract you signed?”
“I signed nothing.”
“Maybe they overlooked it for you. Or it could be they figured you were soft and they’d wait until you got to the end of the line and then you’d have to take what they gave you.”
Larry wiped his face on his sleeve and got up. The fat man blocked his way. “Sick or something? Can I help?”
“Everybody’s helping me,” said Larry. “Get out of my way or order yourself another glass eye.” He shoved the man aside and went forward. At the entrance to the bridge of the ship he was stopped by a steel door. It was closed and he couldn’t open it. He beat on it with his fists until a glass section slid back and a crewman peered out. “What do you want?”
“I want to speak to the captain.”
“The captain doesn’t speak to recruits. Go to your quarters.” The crewman closed the glass section and Larry pounded on the door again until a spark of electricity jolted him. It was rapidly building up a strong charge and he knew he’d better not touch it again. He whirled and went straight to Hugh Taylor’s cabin, the only person he knew that he was sure he’d be able to find. He didn’t knock. He put his shoulder against it and the door gave way.
He went in. Julie and Taylor both were there, startled and naked. Taylor was not in an avuncular position. Larry stared at them. It hardly mattered. “You’re not her uncle,” he said.
Taylor got up, grinning. “That’s a fair guess. No relation.” To Julie he said: “Go to your room. A scenes coming up. I know how to handle it.”
Julie strolled unconcernedly to the door that led to her room. She smiled back archly at Larry as she closed the door behind her. Taylor put on a robe that was lying near. “Now let’s get to it. Why did you break in?”
“General Planets,” said Larry. He was breathing hard.
“What about G-P?”
“No one told me. I thought I was going where there were no Generals.”
“Be sensible. You were against all Generals. We thought it best to keep it from you until you became accustomed to the idea. You’d been having difficulties and we didn’t want to tax your emotions.”
Larry swallowed. It might have been a bubble of pure nitrogen that stuck in his throat and seemed to seethe in his veins. “I thought I would be on my own,” he said. “You led me to believe it was free.”
Taylor went to a small desk and sat behind it. “Use your head. Settling planets is a big business. No one can do it except a general. Besides, G-P isn’t bad. You’ll find things much easier than they are on earth. There are so few people.”
“You should have told me. I might have come with you or I might have stayed on earth. But it would have been my choice.”
Taylor slid open a drawer. “Look at it from my viewpoint, and Julie’s,” he said. “A lot of people won’t go if they’re merely exchanging generals, even if what they’re leaving is rotten and what they’re going to is good. How do you think we’re going to get recruits unless w e tell them what they want to hear?”
“I want to hear that I don’t belong to any general,” Larry said.
“Of course. It’s the first impulse anyone has after he’s had it raw,” said Taylor. “I’m sure we can figure out a deal. You haven’t signed a contract so we’ll make it a good one. I’ve been thinking of getting out of this thing and we can arrange to have you take my place. You can work with Julie or if you don’t like her you can choose your own partner.”
Larry saw Taylor’s hand drop casually into a desk drawer and with the motion he turned and ran. He was out of the door before Taylor could fire. He was far down the corridor when he heard the gun cough and felt something strike his back and wriggle in. He stumbled but kept going and rounded the corner before Taylor could fire again. As soon as he was out of sight he reached behind him and touched a thin wire mesh just below his right shoulder. He got fingers beneath some of the wires and tugged, stopping at once. His back was on fire. A tracer had been planted in him and he wasn’t going to get it out short of major surgery.
There was never a place to hide in any ship and with a tracer in him he had no chance at all but he was hurt and it didn’t occur to him that he should wait and let them come. Taylor’s voice came to him faintly. It was from the tracer. In his haste Taylor had forgotten to tune him out. It didn’t make any difference. It didn’t help him at all to know what Taylor said.
“Guards, all out. The usual trouble but a little worse. We’ve got an anti-general nut on the loose. He’s got a tracer in him so you shouldn’t have any trouble locating him.” Taylor coughed. “Be careful and don’t make him a basket case. General Planets doesn’t pay for the baskets.”
Larry was heading toward the dorm but the guards cut him off, turning him toward the front of the ship. He saw the first one in time and doubled back, running into another as he rounded a corner. The guard was more surprised than Larry and he went down. Larry planted a foot on the guard’s face and the man stayed down. There wasn’t time to take his gun and anyway Larry didn’t think he’d need it. He wasn’t reasoning clearly but he knew that he couldn’t let himself be taken.
He kept on, narrowly eluding the guards. His back was burning and his legs were aflame and the tracer below his shoulder broadcast every move he made and still the guards couldn’t capture him. They were gradually restricting where he could go. This was the danger. If he could only get back to the dorm—but of course he couldn’t. He stumbled at last into a blind corridor. There was no exit except at the far end, the hatch through which he’d entered the ship weeks ago on earth. Now that he thought of it, it was in the true sense the one way out.
He ran to the hatch and looked back. The guards were advancing slowly now that they knew they had him, were almost sure that they did. “Don’t come near me,” he gasped, gripping the double safety handles of the hatch. This didn’t stop them though they approached more cautiously.
Still grasping the handles he faced them saying distinctly, so that he knew Taylor could hear, perhaps even see him if the tracer was rigged for a picture circuit: “Taylor, tell them to stay away. I’ve had my last general. They’ll find out if they try to rush me.”
They rushed him as he said it.
He was weakening and the hatch opened with more difficulty than he thought but he did manage to start it swinging when the first guard hit him. lie kicked the guard aside and yanked harder and finally the air seal on the hatch broke open. Air whistled around him, carrying the nearest guard through the hatch and out of the ship. The other guards swarmed over him; the hatch automatically closed before anyone else was blown out. Someone jabbed a needle in him and then Larry didn’t hear, see, or think a thing until he was sitting in Taylor’s cabin.
“You all right?” said Taylor.
He had a gun again, in the desk drawer, but Larry knew he wouldn’t need it. He nodded numbly. “Except my back. Cut the tracer out now. I’ll hold still.”
“That’s what I mean,” said Taylor. “This general’s better than any you’ve ever worked for. Hell, he won’t allow us to use stick-always tracers. Here. Take this.”
Taylor poked a capsule into Larry’s mouth and followed it with a glass of water that he tilted so Larry had to swallow. “The pill will cause the tracer to drop off in a few days. You won’t hurt a bit. In fact you feel better already, don’t you?”
“Not bad,” said Larry. He was even more numb, euphoria spreading over him.
“You don’t feel desperate,” said Taylor. “You know that were really pulling for you.”
“I guess I know it,” said Larry. “I guess I flipped for a while. I’m over it now.”
Taylor looked at him closely. “I think you mean it. Okay, just sit there for a minute.”
Taylor went to a side port and opened a cover. Outside the port Larry could see a reddish gray balloon, and what had once been a profile, floating beside the ship. Taylor covered the port and knocked on the door to Julies cabin. “Julie, thought I’d better tell you. Don’t look out the port.”
“I have looked. Is that his lungs?”
“Sometimes you disgust me.”
“Sometimes you disgust me. This is going to look fine on our record.”
“Wake up woman. Watch what’s happening. That’s the guard.”
“Oh?” said Julie. “That makes me feel better. I like Larry.”
“He’s going to be all right,” said Taylor. “But we can’t send him back to the dorm. He’ll have to stay up here with us.”
“That will be cozy.”
“For you it will be cozy,” grunted Taylor. He came back to Larry.
“I’m sorry about the guard,” said Larry.
“Don’t be. You didn’t push him out,” said Taylor. “He knew about the out draft. At least he had plenty of occasion to learn. If he didn’t allow for it, that’s his fault.”
“I mean, I intended to open the hatch and go out there myself.”
“You’re not the first to think of that.”
“And then when I saw what happened to the guard—I didn’t want to any more.”
“Of course not. When you get down to it no one wants to die.”
“I did, but I don’t want to now.”
“Sure. We all make our peace, one way or another.”
“I’ve accepted what I have to,” said Larry. “And by the way—I don’t want to inconvenience you—about staying up here. I don’t see why I can’t go back to the dorm.”
“I do. You can’t keep something like this quiet. They’d question you and upset you again. We can’t have that happening.”
“But I don’t want to stand in your way.”
“With Julie?” Taylor grinned. “Have you been to the women’s dorm?”
“No.”
“If you had you’d see why it’s not an inconvenience. Some of them are frights, some are just all right, but some are real dolls. We’ll work it this way. You’ll be in Julie’s cabin most of die time. Just make sure you and Julie stay there when the door between die cabins is locked. Understand?”
“I think I do.”
“Good. I’ve got some business to get out of the way before we talk terms. Okay?”
“Certainly.”
Taylor went to the wash basin and dashed cold water on his face. Then he jangled up the captain and said he wanted sub-etheric radio to earth.
“General Mortuary,” shouted Taylor. “G-P ship New Life calling General Mortuary.”
Enormous power was required to push a voice over that distance; a picture was out of the question. Very little voice came through even with all the power behind the signal so Larry heard nothing at all of the reply.
“Lieutenant Director of General Mortuary?” said Taylor. “We’ve got a case. No, we never take them with us. He’s got to be buried on earth. He’s from there. Besides it’s more expensive if you come and get him. Yeah, I know, but you re in business to make money. We’ll put a beeper on him and deaccelerate him at once so he won’t follow the ship. Yes, the captain will give you our present position.”
