C j cherryh, p.7
C J Cherryh, page 7
He touched her shoulder as Jim had, and turned her over and picked her up, holding her tightly so she could not get at his throat. She could have made carrying her impossible; she did not. She tensed only while he rose, and then gave a little against him, still not quite relaxed, but not resisting either. He kept a tight grip on her arm, not letting her face toward him where he could help it.
“Are we taking her back to the house?” Jim asked incredulously. “Sam, they’ll just kill her.”
“No, they won’t,” he said.
It was impossible even to cross the bridge without attracting a crowd at the other end; by the time they had come as far as the courtyard of the main house, the news had preceded them, and there was a gathering of every man off duty and of all the household too.
Merritt found it impossible to force a way with all of them pressing in to see, every man of them at once curious and loathing their long-time enemies, the night-terror brought into plain daylight, restrained and helpless. He had to set the creature down finally, amid the courtyard halfway to the house... let her rest her weight on her bound feet and balance against him. All the faces crowded in on her were too much. She turned her face against his chest and rested there, trembling.
Frank Burns arrived, the crowd breaking to let him through, and he stared in disbelief at what gift he had brought them; Hannah came out too, drying her hands on her apron as she came.
“I didn’t believe it,” said Burns finally. “How did you catch her?” “She got into the blast area,” said Merritt, “and I need a place right now to put her.”
“Not in my house,” said Hannah Burns, who was the soul of hospitality to everyone; and when Merritt gave her a look of disappointment she gave a quick sigh and a distressed shake of her head. “Sam Merritt, you expect me to take that in? Look what she’s done to you. Look at you.” “We have the chance now to find out what these beings are and how they think. I need a place to put her where she can’t get loose, maybe one of the storehouses-“ “There’s a supply room upstairs,” said Burns.“Next the closet. You know it.” “Thanks,” said Merritt, and picked up his burden again, swung her sideways to take her through the curious bystanders, carried her up the steps and into the main house.
She screamed, fought, brought into that shadow. She gave a great heave that almost flung her out of his arms, and he would have dropped her, but that Jim quickly seized her feet. She continued to struggle until they had to throw her face down on one of the tables and hold her, but at last she seemed to realize it was hopeless. She lay quietly, breathing with the rapidity of hysteria, and Merritt relaxed his grip carefully, still keeping his hand on the small of her back lest she throw herself off the table and hurtherself . She did not move. When he looked up, he saw Meg watching him from the foot of the stairs; and without conscious decision he drew his hand from the creature’s warm skin. Meg crossed the room to look at the prisoner, stopped a few paces away and studied it, moving round to have view of its face, her own expression apprehensive: apprehension became alarm as the creature gave a sudden heave and almost came off the table. But for Jim’s intervention, it would have fallen, and it would not rest satisfied until it had worked into a position in Jim’s hands from which it could watch the both of them.
“It’s female,” Meg said with a frown of surprise, and stared at it uncomfortably where it half-lay against Jim. “I saw it from the window; I couldn’t believe you’d bring it into the house. What do you intend with it, Sam?”“To learn.” He took the strap about the creature’s ankles, worked it free: it had cut cruelly. The creature sat very still, only drawing her feet up when he had freed them.
“Meg,” he said, “is there some water hot? I’d like to clean her up. There’s dirt in those scrapes.”
Meg sniffed, and nodded.
The creature did not like being bathed, not in the least; and shivered and trembled all through the process of washing her injuries, shaking water all over Hannah Burns’ downstairs floor, and all the dining tables. She resisted the more when Meg tried to wrap her in a sheet, indignant and frightened at once. Merritt saw the reaction and took it off her.
“Don’t try,” he advised Meg. “She doesn’t understand what you’re doing.” Meg stared at him and at the prisoner, clearly distressed for the creature’s nakedness; and there had been a somewhat similar look among the men about the yard, a guilty look for their thoughts: Merritt recognized it finally.Hestians were not accustomed to such freedoms: in their cold climate, that was only natural. But this golden creature was provided by nature with a considerable body heat and a coating of down thatwas more apparent to the touch than to sight, save in sunlight. Quite probably it would find the room heatstifling, and the sheet more so.
“I wonder,” said Jim, “what she must be thinking. She can’t understand much of buildings and people.”
“She’s probably thinking,” said Meg, “that she’d like to kill us all and she’s going to be delighted to get the chance. I don’t think she’s afraid of punishment any more than a wild animal is. She just wants a chance at us.” Merritt ignored the warning, nodded to Jim. One on a side, they drew the creature up the stairs, holding tightly when she balked, letting her walk. He opened the storeroom and found it empty, a mere closet with a slit for a window: not even the creature’s slim body could pass that. And when it knew that they were going to force it into that dismal hole, it let out a moaning whimper and shrank back, pressed its face as far as it could against Merritt and shivered.
“Poor thing,” said Jim, “she’s not going to like this, not at all, but what else can we do with her?”
“Get her hands loose; I’ll hold her. She may take the room apart, but we can’t leave her tied up in there.”
She stood still for that, so far as it went, but predictably she tried to bolt. Merritt had a strong grip on her this time, and her strength, near exhausted, was quickly spent. She quit fighting and stared at them, dark-eyed with hate or fright, or both. A tear traced its way down her cheek. Once inside, she gave a sudden wrench and freed herself by surprise, drawing back into the niche formed by the empty shelves and the corner. Merritt stood back, not threatening her or offering to restrict her movement, and after a moment she relaxed and peered toward the window. Then her eyes darted back to him as if she expected a surprise attack.
“It’s all right,” he said gently.
She shivered, backed all the way to the corner and sank down in a little knot. The long-fingered hands covered her eyes, her shoulders giving once or twice as if to sobs, but there was no sound.
“You should have shot it,” said Porter, in the conference that had gathered unbidden in the main hall. Merritt glared at him. “I haveleave to do what I want and ask what I want so long as it contributes to the work here,” Merritt said, “and in my opinion, what we could learn from one of her kind is of value.”
“And what she’ll draw here is trouble,” said Porter, to which no few of the others muttered agreement.
“The trouble is already here,” said Merritt. “Better to understand it. She’ll bother none of you where she is. Let be.”
“I say we get rid of her now,” said one of the Porter cousins. “Send her back like we got the dog back.”
“I said no,”said Merritt, “and that’s the end of it.”
“You don’t understand,” said Porter. “You don’t know them. We do.” “No argument. Porter. So long as I’m doing my job and hurting none of you, I won’t be argued with. I don’t think I’m unreasonable.” There was an outcry at that, and Frank Bums put his considerable bulk at Merrill’s side.
“Look here,” Burns said, “I don’t like sheltering one of them, but I don’t think Sam Merrill’s that much wrong. After a hundred years here, we still don’t know what these creatures are; and if it’s his craziness, it’s not hurting any of us here so far. He’s done a good job up to now and worked himself double-shifts often as not, and I don’t see any reason to come to blows over this. We got too far to go to find us another engineer; and there’s nothing wrong with the one we got. So you let him be while you’re on my land; and think it over: you owe him better than this.”
“You’re right you do,” said Amos Selby, from another side of the room. “I don’t like the People none either, but Sam’s asked blessed little of ustil now. You’re right he’s an outsider and he don’t understand much how we feel in some things, but he’s not prone to try to push us into things. I figure he’s due the same patience, even when he’s wrong, like some of us have been when he’s been right. What harm’s that one little creature doing us locked away up there?” “And what if she gets loose and kills one of us in our sleep?” “I’ll see she doesn’t,” said Merritt. “I’ll take the responsibility for keeping her secure; no one else has to worry for that.” “We can manage,” said Burns; and still complaining, but more softly, the men filtered out of the room, Porter with them. Merritt gave Amos Selby and theBurnses a grateful and inclusive look.
“It’s all right for now,” said Burns, “but I hope you know what’s going to happen if something does go wrong, or if she gets loose and hurts somebody.” “It’s certain,” said Meg from her mother’s side, “you can’t keep her shut up in that little closet-just for practical reasons, which I’m sure you can think of, Sam. You’d do a lot better just to turn her out.” Merritt frowned, unhappy that Meg did not stand with him. “No. Maybe we can’t manage without some rearranging of things up there, but-“ “We’re not set up to play jailers,” said Burns. “We haven’t the facilities at all. You see what kind of problem this is.”
“It’s certain she’ll slip any restraint,” said Meg. “Iron... she can’t get free of,” Merritt said. “I don’t like to do that, but if it’s that or shoot her-“ “She’ll tear herself to pieces against a chain,” said Amos. “It’d be kinder to shoot her, Sam.”
The argument was over. The creature’s staccato screams suddenly hushed as Merritt snapped the leather-cushioned iron about her ankle and finished the permanent closing. Jim was holding her, arms tight about her from behind, but she was no longer fighting. When Jim let her go she sat down in the floor and jerked and clawed at the metal ring, then seized the chain in her hands and tried to pull it out of Merrill’s grip, rising as she did so. The great brown eyes were brown only around the rims now, the nostrils of her flat nose flared wide; and there was a sudden shift in her look, from panic to the wildness before attack. Merritt saw it coming, jerked hard on the chain and spilled her to the floor.
It needed both of them holding her even so to carry her down the hall and into her new quarters, a dilapidated guest-room with a wider window; and her shrieks of rage filled the house and must be audible all the way out in the yard. Only when she realized that she was in a wider, lighter room she calmed a little, and they let her go.
She walked about the floor and up to the window, while Merritt secured the other end of the chain permanently with bolts-took up on it so that she could not quite reach the window to touch it. And every time she stopped and the chain would drag she gave a littleshake of her foot, and at last sat down disconsolately and pulled at it.
“I’m sorry,” said Merritt gently, and pocketed his tools, stood up. From the plate on the table he offered her an apple: it was said the People liked that human import and stole fruit from orchards.
He came too close, bending down again. The long-fingered hand slapped at his so fast it stung and the apple rolled from his fingers to the floor. But then she only stared at him, hurt, warning him with her eyes to come no farther. “All right,” he said gently.“All right.”
He rose again and backed away to the door where Jim stood. She stared at them,darkeyed -furtively her hand reached for the apple and long fingers curved about it as she gathered it back to her stomach.
“Ithn,” she said plaintively; it was voiced, not a whine or a snarl.“Qu’üoi.” “Is that talking?” Jim wondered, and Merritt came forward again and knelt down in front of her, offered his hand, though at a safe distance. “Come here,” he said. “Come here.”
“K’irr ,” the high-pitched voice echoed. Merritt turned his hand palm up, offered it more plainly. She edged back, then leaned forward nervously and set the apple on the floor within his reach-retreated again with arms clasped roundherself .
“I don’t want it back,” he said, and rolled it toward her. She took it and polished the dust off it, kept it in both her hands, bewilderment in her large eyes.
“Hey,” said Jim, also bending down to put himself on her level. “Hey there-you do understand a little, don’t you?”
“Eh,” she said, short and sharp. “Eh.”
“You,” Merritt said, and she echoed that sound too, but with a slightly different tone, “I think she’s trying to say things back,”said Jim, “but I don’t think she can make it.”
Merritt tapped his chest several times, the age-old gesture. “Sam,” he said. “Ssam,” she answered; and then if there had been any doubt of her understanding, touched herself.“Sazhje.”
“Sazhje,” he echoed, pointing at her.“Sazhje?” She tapped herself affirmatively.“Sazhje.” And then she spread her hands and reached out, jerked at the chain, spread her hands again. That did not need translation. Merritt shook his head sadly, but that was a human gesture and she did not appear to understand. She jerked at the chain more violently, uttering short piercing cries, and fought it with a concentration that made Merritt doubt her intelligence anew. He saw she was hurting herself and instinctively reached out his hand to stop her.
She bit him hard, not letting go; and in desperation he cuffed her on the side of the head so that she turned loose. In the look she returned him there was not a bit of civilization or penitence. His hand was bleeding anew, new bites beside the old. He wiped it on his leg and stood up, backing away; andSazhje , still watching him with feral satisfaction, put the apple to her lips and bit.
Chapter 7
The site was much changed now that the line across the canyon floor had begun to grow upward, the rock face on the far side beginning to diminish considerably, so that more blasting was going to be required a little farther from the rim this time, the rock transported down a winding trail on the far side by labor of men and oxcarts and sledges: maddeningly slow progress, this primitive chipping away at the rock, while the winter’s lessened flow poured from its bed to the timber flume and cascaded back to its original channel. “We’re going to need more men on these crews in a few days,” Merritt said to Porter as they watched the first of the men head out toward the suspension bridge for the day’s work. “We have to lengthen shifts if we can’t. We’re not making progress as fast as we have to.”
“I’m glad to see that bothers you.”
Merrill’s glance was instant and sharp; he found Porter’s expression what he had thought.
“I mean it,” said Porter. “Since you have other things on your mind-“ Hegestured down at Merrill’s hand, that was bearing another bandage this morning. “She give you trouble again, eh?”
Merritt only stared at him, and that was not the reaction Porter had evidently wanted. The big man perceptibly revised his line of assault. “What I mean to say,” said Porter, “is that I hope you aren’t coming to consider that creature’s welfare ahead of ours.”
“How should I?”
“I don’t know what reasons you may have found.” “Maybe you’d better put what you’re thinking in plain words so we both know what you’re talking about.”
“All right, it’s this: we know you never liked this site. And, Mr. Merritt, it’s a source of wonder to me why you keep on with this creature-sitting in that room late at night, keeping company with it, talking about communication with it. I wonder just what you have to communicate,hey? Or what the whole human race has to say to them, for that matter.” He waved his hand toward the east, where the valley showed dark with forest. “That dam’s going to make one big lake up there, and it’s a case of her kind or ours. I don’t think we have anything to communicate about, if they had the brain to do it, which they don’t I hope you aren’t having second thoughts about the project. That’s what I mean. That’s what a lot of folks are wondering.”
“No, Mr. Porter, I know well enough what we have at stake. I understand there’s no choice.”
“So why do you keep on with her?”
“Because I’m curious.Isn’t that my business, Mr. Porter?”
“And the fact that it’s female has nothing to do with it, of course.”
“You want to state that a little clearer too, Mr. Porter?”
“If it was male, would you kill it? Or is it misguided sentiment?” “No, its being female has nothing to do with it, nothing. The fact is it can-she can-think and feel the same as you, the same as a human.” “No, sir, not the same as a human, and that’s where you make your mistake. Like trying to turn a cat into a dog, it is: four feet, tail, all the right parts, but all the wrong signals. She’ll go for your throat one day you get too friendly, and we’ll be less one engineer. I call that an unjustifiable risk.” “So if we turn her loose?”
