Charles nuetzel ed, p.19
Charles Nuetzel (ed), page 19
"Brian Kearns—Ellinor Wade—Langdon Forbes—"
The old man repeated the names, bowing courteously to Ellie, at which the girl could barely conceal her amazement. He inquired, smiling, "Can I be of assistance to you?"
Brian stood up. "The boy didn't tell you, sir, but we're from the first Centaurus expedition—the Starward."
"Oh?" A faint flicker of interest crossed Hard Frobish-er's face. "That was a good long time ago, I am told. Did the Barbarians have some means, then, of prolonging life beyond its appointed limits?"
Brian's patience had already gone a long way beyond its appointed limits, and now, abruptly, it deserted him.
"Look, sir. We're from the first expedition into interstellar space. The first. None of us left Earth on the Starward. We weren't born. Our hyperspeeds, if you know what they are—which I'm beginning to doubt— threw us into a time-lag. There's no need to call us Barbarians, either. The ship's drives were smashed when they landed, and we've been four generations, four generations, getting it in operable condition tQ come back to Earth. None of us has ever been on Earth before. We're strangers here, understand? We have to ask our way around. We asked a civil question. Now if we could kindly have a civil answer—"
Hard Frobisher raised a placating hand. "I am sorry," he said calmly. "I didn't understand. Just what do you want me to do about it?"
Brian made a visible attempt to keep bis temper. "Well, first, we want to get in touch with the authorities. Then I want to find a place where we can bring our spaceship down—"
Frobisher was frowning, and Brian fell silent. "Frankly," the old man said, "I don't know whom you'd contact about a thing like that. There is plenty of open
land to the south, nearer the city, where you might land your ship—"
"Now look—" Brian started, but Langdon touched his arm. So Brian only asked, "If you eould tell us how to get in touch with the Government . . . ?"
"Well," the old man said neutrally, "there are three governors in our village, but they only regulate the school hours, and make.rules about locking houses. I wouldn't want to bother them about something foolish like this. I don't think they'd have much to say about your ... oh yes, spaceship."
That silenced Brian and Langdon completely. Ellie, feeling as if they were being tangled into a giant spider-web, asked desperately, "Could we go to some other, perhaps some larger place?"
Frobisher looked at her, frankly puzzled.
"It's half a day's walk to Carney," he said, "and when you got there, they*w6uid tell you the same thing. You are perfectly welcome to put your spaceship down on our barrens, if you want to."
Brian stiffened belligerently. "Now let's get this straight. There's a city over there. There must be someone there in authority!"
"Oh, the City!" Frobisher's voice held dismissal, "Nobody's lived in any of the cities for years! Why would you want to go there?"
Langdon said, baffled, "Look, Mr. Frobisher. We've come all the way from Centaurus, to bring Earth the news about our expedition. We'd expected to be surprised at what we found—after all, it has been a long time since the Starward left. But are we supposed to understand from this run-afound you're giving us that there's nobody to listen^ftat the' first of the interstellar expeditions doesn't mean anything to anyone?"
"Should it?" asked Frobisher, and his face was even more baffled than Brian's. "I can understand your personal predicament somewhat—after all, you've come a long way, but why? Didn't you like it where you were? There is only one reason why people move from one place to another—and it seems to me that you have overdone it."
The room was silent. Hard Frobisher stood up, looking indecisively at his guests, and Brian half expected him to repeat Destry's move and walk away, uninterested; but he merely went to the fireplace and peered into the kettle.
"Food is prepared," he remarked. "Can I invite you to join us? Good food is ill-seasoned by dissension, and there is no wisdom in an empty belly."
Brian and Langdon just sat and looked dumbly at Frobisher. It was Elbe who said firmly, "Thank you, Mr. Frobisher," and dug an elbow into Brian's ribs, whispering savagely, "Behave yourself!"
The boy Destry came and helped his grandfather bring food from the fireplace and from an inner room; he conducted the strangers to seats around a sort of table. The food was unfamiliar and not altogether pleasant to the strangers, accustomed to the elaborate synthetics of the ship; Brian, altogether out of humor, made almost no effort to conceal his distaste, and Langdon ate listlessly; Hard and Destry ate with the unfeigned appetite of men who spend much time in the open air, and neither spoke much during the meal except to urge food upon their guests. Ellie, finding the curious liquids and semisolids fascinating, if strange, tasted them with an interested professional curiosity, wondering how they were prepared.
It was not very long before Hard Frobisher nodded to Destry, and the boy rose and began taking dishes from the table. Frobisher pushed back his chair and turned to Brian. "We can now discuss your problem, if you wish," he said pleasantly. "Full stomachs make wise decisions." He glanced at Ellie, smiling. "I regret that there is no woman in my house to entertain you while we talk, young lady," he said regretfully, and Ellie dropped her eyes. On the Homeward—as on Terra Two—men and women were equals and neither deferred to the other. Hard's polite deference was new, and his bland assumption that she could have no part in their talk was a somewhat distasteful surprise. Langdon clenched his fists, while Brian seemed about to explode. Ellie summed up the situation at a glance, and swiftly intervened by rising and glancing shyly at Destry. "Can I help you?" she offered diffidently, the boy grinned.
"Sure, come ahead," he told her. "You cafry the dishes and I'll bring the kettle."
Frobisher settled back, taking a leather pouch from his pocket and meticulously stuffing a pipe of carved amber which swiftly revised Langdon's ideas of the present level of civilization. Smoking was a habit on Terra Two as well; only the smell of the tobacco was unfamiliar. Both young men stifled coughs and refused his offer of the sack, taking out their own grayish cigarettes and inhaling the sweetish-sour smoke avidly to shut out the rank stench of the pipe. Somewhere, behind closed doors, they heard a splashing of water and the uncertain falsetto of the boy's voice, mingled with Elbe's merry soprano laughter. Brian scowled and leaned forward, his arms on his knees.
"See here, Mr. Frobisher," he said truculendy. "I know you are trying to be hospitable, but if you don't mind, let's talk business. We have to bring the ship down, and" after that—?' He stopped and stared at the floor, wondering suddenly if he were on some kind of reservation for half-wits. No: the room was tastefully, if simply, furnished; everything was plain, but nothing crude. The wood of the furniture was beautifully stained and polished, and the hand-woven rug on the floor matched the thick draperies at the slatted windows. The house showed comfort, even a moderated luxury, and Frobisher's accents were those of a cultured man. Nor was he merely an eccentric, judging from what Brian had briefly seen of the other houses and the glimpsed people. Destry badnt seemed surprised at the plane— he'd "known wh#Sk-»was/ and yet it hadn't impressed him. No, it wasn't savagery. But it was radically different from what he had expected, and the change bewildered him. He looked up at one of the many pictures which hung about the room, and there, for the first time, sensed a note of eccentricity; they were mostly sketches of birds, very precisely drawn, but the colors were combined in a fashion which only a madman could endure. . . . Then Brian realized that it was this bright, unfamiliar light which made the colors bizarre to him, and simultaneously he became conscious that his eyes were stinging and watering, and that he had a violent headache. He rested his forehead on his clenched hands, closing his eyes.
"It isn't that you aren't welcome here," Frobisher said thoughtfully, pulling at his pipe. "We realize that there is only one reason why you would leave your home planet, and that would, of course, be because you were unhappy there. And so we understand—"
"Of all the stupid, unjustified assumptions—" Brian began furiously, then checked himself. What was happening to his caution? He and Langdon were effectively cut off from the rest of the crew; they couldn't afford to get into trouble. He rubbed his aching eyes.
"Sorry, Mr. Frobisher," he said tiredly. "I didn't mean to be offensive."
"No offense taken," Frobisher assured him. "And certainly none was intended by me. Am I mistaken—"
"We came here for one reason," Langdon informed him. "To advance man's knowledge of the world outside the solar system. In other words, to finish what the Firsts started."
"And, judging by appearances—" Brian's voice was bitter "—we've wasted our time!"
"Yes, I'm afraid you have." Something new in Fro-bisher's voice made both young men look up. "Whether you realize it or not, I am quite aware of your problems, Mr. Kearns. I have read a good deal about the Bar—excuse me, about the past." He tapped his pipe meditatively on a projecting comer of the fireplace. "I suppose it would be impossible for you to return to Centaurus in your lifetimes?"
Brian bit his Up. "In our lifetimes—no, not impossible," he answered, "but in the lifetimes of anyone we had known, assuming that we could get back. Our fuel reserves are not great—" He looked questioning^ at Frobisher.
"Then I don't quite know what to do with you," the old man said, and there was a genuine personal concern in his voice. And that friendly concern was the last thing needed to bring Brian to critical mass. Ignoring the warning pressure of Langdon's hand on his knee, he stood up.
"Look, Frobisher," he said tensely^ "jusf'who in hell gave you the authority to make thi6 decision, anyhow?"
Frobisher's face did not change* by a fraction. "Why, you landed in our field and my grandson brought you here."
"So you're just taking responsibility for the whole matter? Do you rule Earth?"
The man's mouth dropped open. "Do I rule . . . Ha, ha, ha!" Frobisher leaned back in his chair, holding his sides and rocking suddenly with uncontrollable laughter. "Do 1 rule . . ." He collapsed into chuckles again, his mirth literally shaking the floor, arid the large expansive laughter was so infectious' tiiaj-Langdon finally glanced up with a faint, puzzled grin, arid even the worst of Brian's fury began to drain away a^ little. "I'm sorry," Frobisher said weakly at last, and there were tears in his eyes. "But that—that is the funniest thing I've heard since spring sowing! Dq. 1 ... ha, ha, ha, ha! Wait until I tell my son —I'm sorry, Mr. Kearns, I can't help it. Do I rule Earth!" he chuckled, again, "Heavens forbid! I have enough trouble ruling my grandson!" He laughed again, irrepress-ibly. Brian couldn't see what was so funny and said so.
With an effort, Frobisher controlled his laughter and his eyes sobered—but not much—as he looked at Brian. "You did come to me," he pointed out, "and that makes it my responsibility. I'm not a man to evade responsibility or refuse you hospitality, but frankly, I wish you had found somebody else!" A tiny snort of laughter escaped him again, "I can ^ee, you'll make trouble here! But if you don't listen to m^ ^ipu'lLpnly have to find somebody else, and I'm afraid tnti Whoever you found would tell you just about the same thing!" He smiled, and the anxious friendliness in his face took the edge from Brian's anger, although annoyed puzzlement remained.
Frobisher added quietly, "There is no reason that Norten village shouldn't have this problem, as well as any other." He stood up. "I expect the remainder of your ship's crew will be anxious about you. Do I assume correctly that you have a communication device?" At Langdon's exasperated nod, Frobisher twitched a loose coat I from a peg. "Then why not report to them? We can talk further on the way—you don't mind if I come, do you?" "No, not at all," Brian said weakly. "Not at all."
IV
Mindful of Caldwell's words about not getting separated, Brian insisted that Ellie should accompany them back to the pickup. Destry, apparently uninterested, at first refused his grandfather's invitation to join them, then changed his mind. He ran to fetch a warm jacket, but, surprisingly, instead of donning it, he laid it about Elbe's shoulders. "She's cold," he explained briefly to his grandfather, and without waiting for thanks, strode ahead of them, along the road.
The sun was dropping westward, and the light was almost unbearable; Brian's eyes were squinted tight, and Langdon's forehead furrowed in deep-plowed lines; Ellie held one hand across her forehead, and Brian put his arm around her.
"Headache, darling?" he asked tenderly.
She grimaced. "Will we get used to this light, do you think, or are we going to have to put up with this all along?"
Langdon said wryly, "I suppose the Firsts felt like this under Theta Centauri!"
Ellie smiled faintly. "No one spread out a welcome for them."
Frobisher walked ahead of them, with long, swinging steps, and Brian said in a savage undertone, "I still think this whole thing is an elaborate bluff of some sort. Or else we're on a primitive reservation. The whole world can't be like thisl"
"Oh, don't be silly," Ellie said wearily, rubbing her aching eyes. "How could anyone have known that we'd choose to land here?"
Some of the women on the porches called familiarly to Frobisher, and he waved gaily to them in return, but no one paid any attention to the strangers, except for one plump woman, her hair in curly sausages all over her head, who waddled from her steps and toward the road. "I see you have guests, Hard," she called. cheerfully. "If your house is too full, mine is empty!" >
Frobisher faced around, smiling. "Your hospitality may be required," he said. "There are others, and they have come a long way."
The woman looked at Ellie with a sharp female glance, noting her fair cropped hair, the smooth spun-synthetic coverall beneath the boy's jacket, the molded sandals and bare legs. Then she put out a fat warm hand. "Are you planning to settle in our village, my dear?" she asked.
"They haven't decided," Frobisher answered noncom-mittally, but Elbe said with a shy, impulsive friendliness, "I do hope so!" and.squeezed the offered hand.
"Well, I hope so toolbar. It isn't often we have young neighbors," the plump woman replied. "You and your husband" (Ellie blushed *atvthe forthright archaism) "be sure and call on us, now, if you need anything before you get settled.'*-She smiled and waddled back to her doorway.
Langdon said, low-voiced^ "It's like being on Terra Two, except that everything—everything—"
Brian said, "There must have been some inconceivable disaster! Culturally, they're a thousand years behind the world when the Starward left. Why, even Terra Two is more civilized than they seem to be! Cooking with fire— and these little villages—and the cities empty—"
"Oh, I don't know," Ellie murmured surprisingly. "How do you measure culture? Isn't it possible that they've progressed in ways we don't know anything about? The difference might be in viewpoint."
Brian shook his hetfd stubbornly.
"It's fegression,5*fte-protested, but Ellie had no time to answer, for they had come within sight of the pickup, and Frobisher dropped back to walk with them.
"There is your plane," he said. "Do you intend to communicate from here, or will you rejoin your spaceship?"
Brian and Langdon looked at one another. "We haven't thought about it," Langdon said at last, "but—Brian— without a spaceship or at least a radio beaming device, how are they going to land?"
Brian frowned. "I don't know much about rockets," he said at last; "the hyperdrives are my job. How much landing room do they need?"
Langdon said, troubled, "Paula and Caldwell, between them, could land the Homeward in great-grandfather Kearns's biochemistry lab, if they had to, without breaking a test tube. But they'd have to have a fix. If they land blind, they're apt to set down right on the village." He paused, and clarified, "That is, if they just aim at our general direction from what we transmit here."
"In that case," Brian suggested, "we'd better take up the pickup and rejoin the ship—and hunt up a good big desert to land blind."
"Rejoining the ship would be quite a problem in this light," Ellie said, troubled. "It's going to be dark in less than an hour, I'd say—and I have a feeling that we're going to find ourselves completely night-blind."
Frobisher had considerately withdrawn while they were talking, and Brian snapped, "What's the matter with your brain, Ellie? You can go around to sunward, and match velocities with the Homeward there!"
"But then we might not find this place again," Langdon said surprisingly, and Ellie added, "If we go hurtling all around the planet, who knows if we'd find this again?"
"For the love of—who cares!"
"I do," said Langdon firmly. "According to Frobisher, conditions are pretty much the same everywhere, and— I kind of like that old guy, Brian. I like it here. I'd like to land here. Maybe settle down here."
Brian stared. "Are you crazy?"
Langdon said, "Not at all. If we want to look around after the Homeward is down, fine—we have the pickup, we can do all the exploring we want to. We've plenty of fuel for the pickup. We're down, let's stay down."
Brian's face lost a litde of its self-confidence; it was the first time that any of the crew had ever questioned his judgment, although many had resented his methods. He shrugged in a sudden futile misery. "I'm outvoted! And anyhow I resigned command when the atomics went on! Settle it with Caldwell by radio!" He lurched away from them and around toward the other side of the pickup. He heard the staccato bark of the radio inside, but paid no
attention until he suddenly became conscious of Elbe,
close beside him. + -
She raised her face, with an affectionate smile. Brian, even distracted by a thousand irritated thoughts, found time to wonder at the new mystery/of her fair hair in the golden sun: the red was dimmed dut, here, and the short curls seemed a pure, delicate silver; she was very white and fragile in this new light, and Brian reached impulsively to pull her close. She responded eagerly, her arms going around him and her face lifted with a simplicity that he had not quite expected.
