struggling to control his anger I said,"It's a wonder they haven't burned the place down. The forest must bedamp enough to sustain fire, or they certainly would have set one."
"It might have been better," Benson said, "if they had burned the wholedamned planet up! And you thought I was exaggerating! There you have it,a perfect set-up to make beachcombers out of the whole colony. Plenty offree food, liquor, beautiful native girls and a mild climate."
"And native boys," I added, remembering suddenly that I was harboringone of the "pets" under my own roof.
Benson clenched his fists. "From the first I knew what the answer mustcome to. I just didn't have the guts to face it."
I nodded. "I suppose we'll have to drive them off."
"Drive them off, _nothing_! They're nomads, and they'd be back sooner orlater. There will always be people in the colony willing to deal withthem secretly, and the natives are clever enough to circumvent anydiscipline I aim against them."
"What else can you do, short of--genocide?"
"Why rule out genocide? Sam, face it! Race extermination is the onlypermanent and satisfactory solution."
The thought was abhorrent to me, but he argued, "If we don't eliminatethem entirely they'll always be around to plague us. Just picture whatthis or any future colony would look like after a year or two ofuninhibited mingling and loafing and swilling down that tala. Is thatthe civilization that Earth sent us out here to establish?"
In every part of the universe where living conditions have been too kindand discipline too lax, men have been known to _go native_, and suddenlyI felt that Benson had been much more acute in his apprehensions than I,a graduate psychologist who was supposed to understand human nature.
Somewhat subdued I said, "How do you plan to accomplish a completeextermination? If we start hunting them down they'll just fade into thewoods. Besides, you'd have a devil of a time getting agreement among ourpeople to take on such a messy project."
"It has to be done, that's all. I want you to keep completely quietabout what we've learned until I can think about it. Bromley should havesome ideas. He's a biologist."
When Benson said, "biologist", the obvious solution popped into my head."If we could sterilize them--all the males, anyway--they have such ashort life-span--"
"Too slow. Besides, how are you going to coax all the males to lie downand--" His eyes opened wider, "Radiation!"
"Exactly. We take them for a tour of the ship, including the X-raybooth, and pour on the power."
"Might be done at that. But it would be so slow."
* * * * *
Slow or not, no better plan was conceived among six of us who metsecretly that night in Benson's new ship quarters. Donnegan brought hisfellow biologist, Terrence Frost, and I had contacted the two medics. Wereached swift agreement as to the necessity of taking steps, and decidedto work on my rough plan. It was also voted not to divulge ourintentions to the others, and then the meeting broke up.
When I returned to my hut, Jane was sitting cross-legged just outside mydoor visiting with Susan. I thought she would be curious about theconfidential nature of the meeting from which she was excluded, but shehad other things on her mind. She stood up and said, "I think yourpatient is recovered, and you've got a problem, mister." She stalked offinto the night.
I looked at Sue's pink face and half-guessed the answer before she toldme. It seemed that Joe had suddenly developed amorous inclinations. Suehad the habit of stroking his head like a pet dog, and this evening,without warning, Joe had begun returning the caresses in a manner socasual and gentle that Sue hadn't noticed the trend.
From a more objective viewpoint, however, Jane had observed the ratherunplatonic indications of Joe's attitude and mortified Sue by drawingher attention to it with an acid remark.
In my fury I fancied that Joe had tried to take advantage of my absence.His cleverness in avoiding such advances in my presence was nullified byhis error of assuming that Jane would pose no obstacle.
At present he sprawled in his corner beside an empty mango skin,breathing rapidly, innocently asleep. The incident served to drive homeDonnegan's story and steel me against the many twinges of conscience Iwas to suffer in our campaign to wipe out Joe's race.
It also served as an adequate excuse, in Sue's eyes, when I told Joe thenext morning that he was quite well enough to return to the forest. Thiswas a fact we both had known for over a week, but Joe in his indolentway, had been quite content to remain and talk with me endlessly. Untilnow, I had welcomed his presence as an inexhaustible source ofinformation.
He accepted the dismissal without rancor and promised to return andvisit us next spring.
"Next spring?" I said.
"We will leave soon," he said. "We go south in the autumn."
"Wait," I said. And I told him that as a gesture of friendship we haddecided to take all males of his race for a tour through the ship. Wouldhe take this word to his people?
He said he would, but his face became very thoughtful.
That afternoon they formed a short line at the ramp, and the "tours"began. The line was short because they refused to wait long foranything, but as the line shortened, others came from the woods to taketheir places. To produce a favorable "press" on our show and thus assureperfect attendance by _all_ the males, Benson rigged several mechanicaldisplays of flashing lights and whirling devices.
They were delighted, and when they got to the X-ray booth, to inducethem to stand still we set up a gas torch with a beautiful, vermilion,strontium flame. The only problem at this point was to get them to moveon after they got their painless dose of sterilizing radiation.
Every tenth "golden boy" was shunted into a small chamber filled with_orgon_, the instant anaesthetizing gas, and Dr. Sorenson, wearing anoxygen mask, would catch him as he fell, take his specimen, hand itthrough a slot to Dr. Bailey and then drag the unsuspecting victim intothe fresh air where the nurses took over with more wonders to distracthis attention.
This running spot-check on the collected semen samples assured us thatour radiation was effectively destroying the spermatozoa.
I sat at my old place at the base of the ramp, weeding out theoccasional females who tried to sneak in and also checking to see thatwe had no repeats.
Our method was simplicity itself. As each native finished our tour anattendant atomized a faint but very permanent stain of waterproof dye onthe hair of the right shoulder blade. It was hardly noticeable unlessyou were looking for it, and that was one of my jobs.
In two days we "toured" 481 males.
A week later the night rains began, and our unwelcomed neighborsvanished.
* * * * *
Benson had postponed his little lecture deliberately, and now he calledus all together for a fatherly talk which I helped him prepare. He beganabruptly.
"Since nature has been so bountiful in providing us with tala, I don'tintend to proclaim any silly prohibition regarding its consumption. Witha little reflection, however, I hope that all of you can understand thatwe must have some control. I am fully aware that many of you arrangedyour own private channels for obtaining this liquor, but with thedeparture of our tree-climbing friends the easy source has dried up.
"Now, to prevent some of you from breaking your fool necks trying toclimb the trees yourselves, I propose that we place tala in thecommissary as a normal ration to be issued equitably to all--when it isavailable. And working together, our clearing parties will, no doubt,fell enough mango trees to give us all a fair taste."
Benson's unexpected tolerance and remarkable proposal was received withmixed embarrassment, relief and enthusiasm. He went on, "We have enjoyedalmost two months of rather unrestrained partying, and I'm not going torail at you for some of the illicit behaviour that came to my attention.So far the intimacies which some of you took with the natives haveproduced no epidemics nor bastard offspring on either side. However,were I to accept your actions as typical of the future, I would consider
our colony doomed already and write off this planet as unfit for furtherinvestment by Earth civilization.
"Instead, I feel you will, during the winter months, regain yourperspective and apply yourself to the principles which brought us hereand must continue to bind us together if we are to survive as apermanent culture."
Benson's speech had the desired effect. Without the little people aroundto distract us, the colonists plunged into their work, and things gotdone. True, a rather disproportionate number of logs brought in by thefalling crews turned out to be mango-wood, but the tala-rationingprogram added incentive precisely where it was needed. The perimeter ofour clearing advanced rapidly, the cultivating and planting partiesfollowed closely behind, and the sawmill added
The Test Colony Page 6
